Kings Without a Crowd

On this episode of This League, we talk about the most disappointing team of twenty twenty one, the Dallas Mavericks. No matter how hot the Utah Jazz get, why they still have a shitload to prove, the sneaky reason that no one's playing defense this year, and we answer a bunch more listener dms so without further ado, Oh wow, what a great fade out, Such a solid fade out. Before we get started today, let me just say this for everyone who watched the game last night, I'm talking

Do you know what I'm tired of hearing?

Oh, that Giannis is a top five MVP candidate, that the Bucks are favorite to win the East, maybe that they have an eighty three percent chance to win the NBA time.

I mean that.

Percentage was crazy.

When the when ESPN put that out horrible, I was like, I mean they're I mean, they're not gonna win the first round.

Well yeah, I mean just eighty three percent a wild number.

I mean it's a bubble year there was.

That was just an insane But yes, I am tired of hearing that, obviously, But that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is Luca and the MAVs. How many times? How many goddamn times am I gonna have to hear Luca drops thirty, he balls out these crazy stats.

And the MAVs lose. In a MAVs loss, Luca goes off the ship is gross. It is.

He's top five in the MVP race, he's averaging almost a triple double. He's averaging thirty nine and nine, and they're thirteenth in the Western Conference. And it's concerning. It's not like they're just losing in a in the last minute fashion. Sometimes they go down twenty and five minutes. Sometimes they blow a twenty point lead. The only thing that's a constant with these MAVs games is that Luca goes off and he's gassed.

And can't finish.

He can't be Superman for the entire thirty six forty minutes. The only team that they've beaten, of note is that one fifty point game against the Clippers, and Lord knows Luca was.

Fresh in that game.

Yeah, no Kawhi either.

No Kawhi and the game was over before it even started. The Dallas Mavericks are eight and twelve. They've lost eight of their last ten. I mean, come on, big question, how did they get here? Bigger question? Why were their expectations so high coming in?

What?

How did they become a team that everyone thought was gonna lead the West?

I had listeners.

Hitting me up like Trista, how much better did the MAVs get with all this three and D that they've added?

And I believe my answer in the preseason was like, did they get three and D?

Help?

I don't remember them doing that. I don't remember adding those pieces.

Josh richards Are they thinking of Josh Richardson? I was prepping for this segment and I was like, I don't think so. I saw a news story from a month ago, and the news story said this, Dallas Mavericks, why they crushed the off season Dallas Mavericks are in a position to contend.

Sits.

Okay, so here's what this Big Jay had to say about the MAVs. The acquisition of Josh Richardson is going to do wonders for this team. No, Richardson gives the MAVs a gritty and raunchy edge that simply wasn't there a season ago. While losing Seth Curry hurts, the Mavericks still have all kinds of scoring throughout their rotation. And while he's unproven, did add Tyrell Terry in the draft to replace some of that dead eye marksmanship from the three point line.

Tyrel Terry m dead eye marksman. He's averaging one point. That writer also said this that Josh Richardson could d up Kawhi. Imagine thinking in any universe that Josh Richardson could put clamps on Kawhi Leonard. Imagine thinking you could compete against the Clippers. The reason that you got Josh Richardson was so that you could beat the.

Clippers in the first round.

You're you're not even gonna get one game off the Clippers now that they have Sir Jabaka yeah and Nick two.

Let's be real, Let's just call it what it is. Spade is spade.

This roster, this MAV's roster is not good. Look at that roster from start to finish. Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson is your third option. Tim Hardaway Junior is your fourth option.

Stunning.

It's not even like they were great last year and then they just lost pieces. The only guy they lost was Seth Curry. And I'm not trying to slander Seth Curry, but he's not.

He's not the reason that you're underperforming.

Now.

Yeah, he's not a team killer.

No, No, it's not like, oh, I'm building around Seth Curry.

No one ever has said that. No one.

They might have mispronounced Steth Curry, but not about Seth Curry. Luca has covered up how bad this team has been. Let's spit facts for a second. They were three and five in the bubble last year in the regular season, they were two and four in the playoffs, and everyone was sucking their dick coming into this season and they didn't get better because of Josh Richardson. Josh Richardson's the reason you're gonna be a contender.

Luca made that cool three in the bubble be serious.

He had that step back, and everyone's like, oh my god. And like those two wins that the Clippers, that the MAVs got over the Clippers, those weren't like astounding wins. Those were last second wins. Yeah, so I don't understand it whatsoever.

Josh Richardson.

The only reason that Josh Richardson is who he is and everybody thinks he's so good is because he played for the Miami Heat, and Miami Heat is the reason that he was playing. Well, you saw what he did when he was on the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Not much, or they wouldn't have gotten rid of him. They should have tried to go get Tobias Harris, even Lucas, like

They're all his.

He's like, my teammates are normally on the beaches of the Adriatic Sea, and at least they cared whether we won. Here's what Luca had to say after their last loss by.

Way y'all's play and effort tonight terrible.

Can you elaborate?

There's really not much to say. I never felt like this, and we're gonna do something because this is not looking good, and you know, we gotta step up and you know, just talk to each other and play way better than this.

It's mostly after yikes, I've never felt like this. It's not looking good. It's mostly effort. And later on in the next part of the interview, he says, it looks like we don't even care if we should win or not.

I mean, it doesn't get any worse than that.

I don't think you're paid, don't play games to win them, and you just don't care whatsoever. A twenty one year old is like, yo, what's up? Are you guys wanting to compete? Like? Yo, compete? Compete? Play basketball? This is not a winning culture. And then Christat said something.

What did he say? Postgames?

Yeah? Here, I've got it. He said, we don't have that chemistry yet that we're looking for. We don't have our roles clear, we're just kind of out there playing. We're a talented group. But until we have everybody playing together and having also some time off the court, I think we won't have that chemistry.

Excuse me, who who is we? Who Christas is acting like it's not him? Until we have everyone playing together, we won't have that chemistry. Hey, Zinger, you are the one that's not healthy. You are the one that tore your ACL and had to miss multiple seasons to recover. You are the one that sticks out, sits out back to back games for maintenance reasons.

You cannot build chemistry from the bench.

No, you cannot, And no one's gonna want to hang out with you if you don't play games with them. So off, Oh, when we play off, when we're off the court, Like we're gonna build chemistry off the court too, Like you're always off the court, right.

You have to play together and not half the time.

You have to play all the time. You have to develop a rhythm in those big moments in order to feel good when those big moments come again.

Yeah, and Chris Steps has played in about half of their games this year.

And what's wild about that is that they are three and six with him in the lineup.

This thirteen team in the Western.

Conference is statistically better when he's not around. And this is a roster that he's the second best guy on that's fucking crazy.

Yeah, yeah, no, he's actually uh, he's actually playing in less percentage of games in Dallas than he did when he was on the Knicks, like seventy five for the next seventy three percent for Dallas.

I mean it's brutal.

I don't think that's what the Dallas Mavericks were anticipating when they when they got Christabs Porzingis. So let me let me fill you in Mark Cuban on a little secret.

Porzingis isn't good anymore. He's not good. He's brittle.

He's never gonna be good anymore because he's never going to be healthy anymore.

That's just facts.

His prior injuries make him completely immobile, and then on top of that, he still needs to miss time just to maintain where he's at.

That's crazy.

Yeah, that's crazy. Have you watched him out there playing defense?

Oh yeah, no, he's stood as board.

Dude, It's like his feet are stuck to the court. He just gets cooked, absolutely cooked, because he can't move. Yeah, you're seven feet tall with ligament issues and you're underweight, and the facts are you are maxed out at like forty games a year, and it's not like you're.

A cheap player.

The mass traded two first rounders and some table scraps to the Knicks for Porzingis, and then they had to sign him with the super Max for one hundred and sixty million dollars.

Yeah, and they also took on Tim Hardaway's crazy deal that they're still paying. I think he's making like seventeen million this year.

I mean, how do you lose the trade? James Dolan?

Yikes, This gets worse and worse the more I think about it. That's like getting spotted two strokes a hole the Charles Barkley in a match, straight up and still losing to this dude.

It's impossible. It's impossible.

How long is it gonna be before Luca either breaks down because he's the number one, number two and number three option and you know he's a hard rock.

You know he's gonna do everything that.

He can to keep them in games, and then now he's got injuries.

That's tough.

How long until Lukes like, uh, I don't really wanna be here anymore. Dallas is fine, but like Milwaukee's not that cold in the winter. I like Walt Disney World just fine, Like Orlando seems good to me anywhere else, but here you're not getting me any help. This dude that's supposed to be my big man one can't guard anyone and he's barely even around. I do not think

He's not gonna wait eighteen years to get a ring.

No way, prediction. Don't ratio me for this. I know that that's what Twitter and TikTok even wants to do. Now, this MAVs team might just fuck around and miss the playoffs all together.

There's a little known fact.

I am a world class musher, meaning every time I get excited about a bet or a team, they stumble. I'm not a bad gambler per se. But the games that I consider the lock of the Century aka Utah Jazz minus two and a half against the Denver Nuggets, that is when I take an ol that could be said about segments two. As soon as I create a segment like, oh my god, this team is sick. They do what they did if they have the game before I record bet everything on the other team that they're playing.

I was like, huh, yeah, they're eleven and one against the spread in their last twelve. They're just like killing people. I didn't bet them on yesterday, just some days. I've just tried to get away from basketball betting because I do too much during the week. But yeah, I gave when they played the Hawks, I gave that out as a lock and they won.

So yeah.

So I unfortunately bet the first half and the full game, and both times I got fucked. So of course, in Trista Mush fashion, the Jazz went out and gave up seventy nine points in the first half to the Nuggets nine forty three in the first quarter.

Just so bad, just so so bad. How does that even happen? I didn't.

That was not what I anticipated when I called them. They messed my entire parlay up them and the Wizards tough number one in the West, and then pow clunk.

Just terrible. Anyway, a bad game is a bad game.

And this is of course not an Exceus and O's podcast that was more stats and numbers than probably go ever here. But just know that I'm aware of this atrocity. I still want to say things. We've had the Daughtava Mitchell talk the world has, but nothing really is going to change my mind about the long term chances. Even when I was writing this, in my mind like okay, what am I going to say about the Jazz, I thought, you know what.

Maybe they're still built to contend. This is just a one game thing. I admit it.

I was on the Great Jazz gravy train. When a team's hot, they're hot. I like winning money. I get excited, and you know how recency bias goes. We've talked about this before. When a team's hot, you're like, damn, they could beat anyone. But nothing can change my heart. And that Coldwater game was perfect because I remember what I know to be true, which is when this team goes cold, it spreads like the black plague. Everyone everyone is cold at once. Spider three for twelve, it's not great. Conley

This is what I've told you multiple times about the Jazz.

It's not marginalization, Kira. When this team goes cold, they go ice.

Cold, ice cold.

They are about as outgorithm as you would imagine someone from Utah to beat, just offbeat, clapping off the off the snare just unaware of how dancing works, like a team that you would expect to be called the Jazz from Utah, just like totally not in sync with music.

I mean, it's not usually one game.

I'm probably gonna take the other side of these bets for the next two or three. Yeah, and guess what that is a bad recipe for success in the playoffs.

Let's say they finished third in the West.

That's not a stretch. We know it's probably gonna be Lakers', probably gonna be Clippers. Right, So say they finished third and they've got to face the sixth seed. Who could that be? Oh uh, oh, Phoenix Suns. Your team just could be hate that matchup. Oh yeah, Tahker, Ayton, Chris Paul, Michel Bridges, Jesus Christ.

That's a bad matchup, isn't it?

Oh? Yeah, horrible?

I mean, these dudes are gonna cook them.

DeAndre Ayton is as sending. People may not be aware of it, but he's His last ten games have been special.

I cannot wait for the Aight and go Bear matchup.

Me too?

Huh yikes. Portland Trail Blazers could be another team sneaky game time bye bye, bye bye. I don't care. If you have go Beart, let him have fifty. I don't care. Nirk will be back by then, and it's Canner's sneaky even.

Though least likely scenario is the Golden State Warrior. Now, let's not act like that's a walk in the park. These dudes are certified. They've played in big games before. You don't think Steph Curry can and Draymond can give a little raw ross speech.

To get these boys up. Yeah?

I know that's probably not what's gonna be the case, right, But do I think that they would be? Just? No?

But can they? Yeah?

Who's more likely to go ice cold than your mind? Steph Curry or Conley and Donovan Mitchell.

Yeah, that's pretty easy.

That's pretty easy. This is not a Spider Haterrade podcast. But eleven games in a row in the regular season is not gonna make me change my mind, folks, it's just not. I'm happy for Mike Conley. He's got resurrecting his career. Nice guy, having an MVP like season, even even averaging seventeen It's like, yo, Mike Conley is the reason that the Utah Jazz are winning.

Yeah, he's been awesome.

Until this team proves to me that they're not gonna choke away a three to one lead. I don't care how how many games in a row they win. I am still super skip thank God for those cold water games, or I might have lost my damn mind and says some shit I might regret. So the song coming into this segment is all about being in your feelings. You know what I love about basketball in general how close the crowd is to the players. That is that does

Sometimes they're like on you. They fall on you when.

You're ten fifteen feet away from some random fan court side, and you get embarrassed by your opponent. Imagine this, I thought he thought, sitting there with their low cut top on body con dress, oily tan legs, looking at you like she wants to give you the business boy.

And you're like, yes, I'm gonna get her number after the game. Mm.

She's ignoring her man and then right next to her you get posterized. What do you think that cocktail does to the male ego? Does something right? Yeah, there's nothing more embarrassing than getting embarrassed in front of someone that you want to have sex with.

Facts.

That's I mean, just nothing.

Yeah, you are one of the people that she came to watch perform, and then you got someone's nuts on your face. You couldn't perform. It was like you needed viagra to do your job. Someone's gotta be the one with the nuts on their face and that was you. And you think you're gonna be able to smash after that, you better do something to reply and put that in her mind.

With the recency bias, something happens. You know what it does?

It makes you want to compete effort, It makes you want to compete, to ball out, to play hard, to not get embarrassed in front of people that you visually see who paid money to see you. You to avoid them getting up right in front of you and walking out the door.

Because you suck the.

Booze, the screams, the disappointment, the judgment that plays into how you play basketball. I swear on my life that's how it is. That's how different it is than the NFL. They're right there. And earlier this season in the NFL season, I sat down with soon to be Pro bowler Jesse Bates, the third who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals safety, and I asked them what it was like to play with no crowds in the season, and this is what he said, To see the crowd noise has impacted.

It for you, yeah, a little bit. I think without the fans, it kind of feels like a scrimmage. Honestly, I still get that that hype, that feeling. I never take that for granted, but uh yeah, I like. I like when the fans are screaming and stuff like that. On a big play, it's kind of hard to celebrate. That's that's probably the hardest thing is you know, you make a play. I'm looking up at the stands and I see cutouts and I'm like, yeah, go to the cutout.

So it was cool.

It was cool to have some fans at home last week against the Jaguars.

That's pretty cool.

What about with hard counts and stuff that you can hear, is it does that make Does that.

Make it difficult for me?

I mean I'm not really down there in the box as much, so I'm not really hearing the staff count or what they're saying up there. But yeah, I'm sure for the linebackers it's a lot easier. I mean even for quarterbacks, it's a lot easier for them to hear what we're saying as well. So yeah, that's gonna play a huge factor for sure.

Who do you think the lack of crowd noise benefits most, Like which side of the ball or what position?

I would say the offensive alignment? You think about, you know, when you're on the road, you have to use the silent count because it's so loud, and now instead they can actually hear the quarterbacks and the dns. That usually how they get their you know, their get off. It's a lot better because the old linement has to look at the ball. Now they can just really look at them and set and really hear the snap count. So

So even the NFL is affected by the lack of crowds and they're wearing helmets, they're two hundred and fifty feet away at.

Minimum from human beings that judge them.

The human beings that are judging them don't even know what they look like most of the time.

They can see them grocery store.

Imagine you know, you're gonna see that person at the grocery store, no.

Mask on, and they're gonna be like, ugh.

Imagine Imagine how the lack of crowds affects the NBA A lot, a lot, a lot. That's the human element of the crowd. The human element of the crowd is what makes basketball. So that to me is why this season is different than any other season. That to me is why you see guys like the MAVs doing nothing. This is different than any year, including last year. Their entire regular season is now like aau that fucking sucks.

Doesn't it?

Or a scrimmage between opposing teams, just light touch, just walking the ball up the court, walking around screens.

That's you, Milwaukee Bucks.

This is why the Nets Wizards can hit the over with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, no matter what the number was. The over under on last night's game was two forty two. They almost hit three hundred last night Marty to ninety five ye two ninety five.

Gross.

No defense, no urgency to play defense, No crowds to hold them accountable for.

Not playing said defense. No one chanting.

Boom, you suck, you're trash.

My son hates you. Yikes right, No one be like defence de fence to remind you yo d up.

Yeah, there's no way it feels like playing in an actual NBA game. There's no way, Absolutely not.

I don't care how many little screens someone's zooming in they see you clap, That does not matter. You can't really see them, they can't really interact with you. I saw a stat. This is gonna be an insane stat. You're not even believe this. The Clippers have shot right around seven hundred threes this year, and six hundred of those threes were uncontested.

That doesn't even sound real. Way there, six hundred.

Hundred of the seven hundred of the Clippers threes were uncontested. Either that means we don't think you can shoot, or we don't want to guard shooters. That doesn't seem real, But neither did the Clippers losing by fifty, which actually I think adds to the point, which is that when teams go down big, they just lay down. They're like, yeah, fuck it. They don't even try to come back most of the time. God blessed the Wizards for coming back. In last night's game, God bless them and Bradley Beal.

He was fed up. He was throwing the ball. It was bad. He looked like he was Him and Katie were gonna catch hands.

Oh why why do.

You see teams lay down? Because they are not embarrassed.

No one is in the gym to look at them with disgust like uugh ugh. I have to me a brilliant idea for a solution. It's a little unorthodox and you may not like it.

What is it?

I think you'd give all the olds who have the vaccines in their blood free court side tickets to the game. Okay, those salty elderly men and women would love nothing more than to boo and hiss Kyrie Irving for all of his antics, all of his dribbling. They're like, boo, where's Bob coozyoz? Old people, they have no patience for this bullshit, No way. They're already in a bad mood when they wake up. They're in pain. They don't like to go anywhere.

The thirty thoughts. Put them on the court.

Licking their collegen filled lips like oh yeah, they're low cat tops, or jiggling giving them the fuck you eyes. That might encourage these players that I don't know, Compete, do your job, play some defense, and then, maybe, just maybe, because sex is the ultimate motivator, we might finally see some real basketball.

All right, let's get into some list ms.

Okay, number one we've got. Is it worth it for the Nets to give up anything for JJ Reddick? They have so many.

Shooters, Marty, come on, let's come on, man, come on, come on, tough question to ask. I mean, they did follow it up with they have so many shooters, so they kind of already.

Know what the answer is, don't they. Yeah, let's talk about it.

The Nets just put up one hundred and forty six points in a regular season game and they lost. I think it's I think it's safe to say they don't.

Need any more offense.

If if the Nets get JJ Reddick when they already have Joe Harris, maybe they're thinking about trading Joe Harris. I don't know, but if you have those two guys on the same team, they're like the same guy, only JJ can come around the screen and hit a shot, and Joe Harris is more like that corner three guy.

Both pretty boys.

I don't know what it is about people just wanting to hang out in Brooklyn because their family lived there.

But I'm telling you.

This, JJ Reddick, that's cheating. Go play for the Knicks, fam, if you want to stay in Brooklyn, just go play for the Knicks. This doesn't make any sense. We already have a pretty boy with a podcast. KD has his podcast during the season. Their defensive rating right now is the worst in NBA history right the second and guess what, JJ Reddick is not going to help that whatsoever. No, so, no,

I mean, who's a hailable shoot?

It's gotta be someone on the wing. You know, this is a crazy thing to say. No, that's a way to stop your office.

A guy who thinks he's a shooter who is not a shooter. I mean, you need a three and D guide what Josh Richardson?

No, come on, now, come on now, I think you needn't. I don't know if this is even a real trade, and I would I mean, I gross myself out to even say.

Ben Simmons for Kyrie Irving.

Straight up, I don't hate it.

I don't hate it either.

That improves your I mean, if you could get Ben Simmons matist.

Thibel, Oh yeah, Bibel's great. I mean, as little he as he can do on offense, he's all team, first team, all defense.

I mean, if you could get those two boys for Kyrie Irving and then maybe trade Joe Harris for them, and then maybe you get JJ Reddick to replace. Oh yeah, we're playing GM right now. Oh yeah, we're playing GM right now. I think that could work.

Yeah, I don't hate that.

I think Philly would like that. Actually I don't know.

Maybe they wouldn't. Philly's playing great. They're probably staying pat is tough. I am looking forward though, to the point in the season. It's alright, the chatters are already starting. Steve Nash, your boy is going to be fired.

Marty.

It's a matter. He's not even anywhere to be found.

I don't even think he's calling plays anymore unless he's doing these rotations, which we know are garbage.

He's getting fired. Count on it.

So disrespect.

Next question, Next question, please.

Okay, who is the NBA Ricky of the Year. At this point, I have an answer. I'm curious what yours is.

Who's your answer? It's gotta be yellow, right, he is better number two overall?

Pick better? No. Three over three?

Was he?

No, it was it was.

Your boy aunt Edwards, and then it was James Wiseman. His court vision is sick.

Oh yeah, he's awesome.

I've never I mean I have I think I haven't seen someone love to pass the way mellow loves to pass, except for Jason Williams. Yeah, it's been since White Chocolate, by the way, can't name someone white Chocolate, by the way, they're already doing that.

I think it's Peyton Pritcher's new name.

You can't replace that.

So it's dope to see someone, I mean in Gordon Hayward's thriving with LaMelo.

Yeah, just setting them up. But the player that must be talked about is Emmanuel Quickly.

Definitely.

Yeah, he is on not only a surprise team, but he's probably one of the reasons that they are a surprise team. He's allowing RJ. Barrett to turn into who RJ. Barrett is supposed to be. RJ.

Barrett's having an all time efficient game or season.

Just Paul George recently, just last yesterday, called Quickly crazy fearless, and Qui said, sky's the limit for Quickly just another example of Hey, gms, it's not that hard. If there's a Kentucky player available, you take that Kentucky player that's available.

It doesn't matter.

If you have the need or if you don't have the need. Most often they turn out. Yeah, I mean Tyler hero, Nobody was talking about him. Don't overthink it. It doesn't matter. If I had a child right now, I would put him in a Kentucky onesie. Yeah, like immediately, if I had a boy, a little boy.

I'm not having any kids.

So for folks who think I'm breaking news here, but if I did have a son, Coach Cal would be his greatest hero. He would be watching YouTube clips of Coach Cal. He's averaging twelve. Quickly's averaging not my son. Quickly is averaging twelve points in twenty minutes. A game that's crazy like that is nuts. And it's almost like the Knicks finally.

Made a good decision on Tibbs.

Tibbs and Quickly.

Yeah, I think both of them together. Tibbs is the ultimate like get players ready. He's almost like a Kenny Atkinson.

He's good for rookies because yeah, yeah, you're not worried about like running them out of the.

Gy like he's great for young teams, like that was what Kenny Atkinson did. Yeah on that Brooklyn Nets team too, just random ran them down. Not great at managing egos obviously, but really really great with young guys that.

He can mold.

Yeah, okay, next one, we've got what does the Raptors franchise need to do to get some respect?

I mean, not be tenth in the East, probably, not being country probably. I like the Raptors, They're like my pet team. I love Nick Nurse. He's a friend, friend of the pod. But let's just say this about Nick Nurse for a second. Me and Nick Nurse were supposed to do an interview and Nick Nurse was like, hey, let's chat when I get down to Tampa. And then after he got down to Tampa, it was like me

Yeah.

Seventy two Road games.

You can't get into a rhythm, you can't find your coffee shop that you love.

The people that are around that you want to see can't see them.

It's tough. You can't do that. You can't lose gasol and eatbaka and not be impacted.

We talked about this.

Before, right, I mean, maybe he's just a big strip club guy, Nick Nurse.

No way, no way, that would be tough.

I think Nick, there's the top three NBA head coach. I think it's just a tough season for them. I think the Raptors will be back, but Tampa Bay is everyone's worst nightmare.

Except for Tom Brady, I guess, right.

And until then, Yeah, I mean, you just gotta move.

You can't be in Toronto and you can't be tenth in the East. You gotta contend.

Yeah, they need to reload it a little bit. I think they're gonna be good.

Yeah, so too.

Okay, who is your most hated NFL team?

So I could say the Washington Football team right rival cowboy fan? I could say the Eagles.

Wow, by the way, those that Eagle the Eagles team, their new head coach is just he's like Adam Gase.

It was like an Adam Gase viral moment.

It didn't start out great.

I mean yuck.

But when I think of a visceral reaction, a team that just makes me kind of want to vomit in my mouth a little bit, A team that I never.

Will root to succeed. I think about the New England Patriots.

I know that's tough to say, working at a company that's success has been correlated to the success of the New England Patriots.

But I think we're okay. Now we're valued at like a billion dollars. I think we're all right. I think we're gonna be all right.

But I don't want the New England Patriots to ever succeed ever again. Ever, I don't think I can root for any player that even plays on that team, besides maybe Julian Edelman. I mean, at least I can root for Chase Young and the Alex Smith comeback story. It least I can root for. I don't know that I can root for anyone on the Eagles actually.

Hm hmm, Yeah, that's tough.

Nope, I can't.

But still, there's no people I don't root for the No, No, it's the Patriots.

I can't stand them.

Okay, back to basketball. Do the Sixers have what it takes to win the East? And what does Doc add to their success?

Doc's big time addition. Doc and Darryl Morey big time Doc Rivers. Let's just talk about Doc Rivers for a second, because it's what the DM wants.

Doc Rivers chose Seth. So the Sixers were trying to pursue Austin Rivers.

Doc gets the job and he's like, Nah, that's.

Crazy, that's crazy.

He's like, don't, don't, let's not get Austin. I've already coached Austin and he's not that good. Facts you got a manual quickly playing more minutes or playing bigger minutes in Austin Rivers.

I like Austin Rivers.

But Doc was like, no, never forget that. That's funny to me. That's like we're gonna win games over the nepotism. And that's been a knock on Doc because he got Austin that huge contract.

He's good now.

Ye Joe l Embiid playing his best basketball under Doc.

He's no longer forced to stay in the paint. He's like, roll them around, hang around the three point line. We'll use you like Yokic. He's killing right now. He's looking like an MVP unlocked. Brett Brown was trash.

It's like that.

I knew this for years. They just kept keeping his ass around for god knows why.

This is the culture. It's gonna work eventually, trust the process.

No like make changes. So he also all knows no one's talking about Tobias Harris. Tobias Harris played his best basketball under Doc, and now Tobias Harris is free, free to do what he does best. Like they had Tobias Harris running Iso set slash.

And it was gross. It was bad.

Yeah, So Doc gets Harris and now he's hitting quick threes, making swing passes, doing these calculated drives at the rim he hit. He hit a game winner the other night. And now you have a rookie in Maxie who's making big strides just like shy Gilgas Alexander did under Doc. So the one thing though, that I could say about So I like the Sixers and I like Doc. The one thing that I will say about Doc that he should be doing that he is not doing is holding

He's shooting more and shooting worse.

He is just like kind of covering up for him in media availability too.

Just doesn't make any sense to me. Problem.

So the seventy six ers, yes, can come out of the East as long as Miami is still broken.

That's a funny way of looking at it. Okay, how can the Orlando Magic become relevant contenders in four years?

So I was looking at the Orlando Magic earlier and I looked at their roster. I was like, Wow, this roster is actually like pretty good. This roster is better than the MAVs roster. That's crazy. You could go down the list. Let's just go down the list for a second Magic roster. Cole Anthony like him, Aaron Gordon like him, Nicolo Ucavich, I can't pronounce that.

Markl Foltz Vujovic is the most underrated player in the dred.

Percent Agree four is okay?

Baba's don't don't google it, don't google it.

Bamba's okay, Jonathan Eisen's okay. Yeah, there's some players.

Terrence Ross, this is a much better team than the roster. If you go down the roster of the magic and can be like, ah, yikes, yeah yea Alfa Rukmino, former Blazer, sneaky, James Enna sneaky.

Yeah.

I mean, what do they need to do to be relevant contenders in four years? They need a big time free agent. That's that's what they need. They need someone that they can give the rock to in crunch time, which is not cool, Anthony.

Let's just be serious. Not yet, you think maybe at some game.

I'm just I mean, I'd like to be optimistic for young players. Players have surprised me before.

Who is the biggest surprise that you weren't sure about that has come out and is now like a legit player.

Honestly, I was pissed when we drafted Devin Booker. I thought, yeah, wow, what did you want at that point? I think I wanted Trey Lyles, who like got drafted right before.

That is a good time to say, that's all the time, Jesus Christ, that's all the time that we have.

For this league.

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