On this episode that heat check. Feeling a little better, feeling a little more energy. But we've got a real you know who's got energy? This budding rivalry, this real deal holy field rivalry between two rookies that was on full display and needs your attention. We also talk about if Luca the sought this superstar in the league right now, because I think he might be the Bucks. Do it, folks, they actually pull the trigger and higher doc dirty mac rivers.
We also get in this news from around the league, another firing, another one bites the dust after the firing of Adrian Griffin after a brutal cold spell. It feels like spring around here, so's get right into an enemy. Let's drop that motherfucker mus that.
Should be here.
I am fired up to talk about this rivalry. I was this is something that you only see like once every twenty five years. Last time I think we saw it is probably what magic and Bird like. This level of two highly sought after, high reputation. Could they be transcendent in the league. Yeah, one guy wasn't in college, came overseas. The other guy was in college and hurt his foot. But like this is the stuff of the front cover of two k right like face off. You
know this is gonna fuel the league. I think for the next twenty years. I'm talking about Wemby versus Chet. Things. Things with them have gotten to a level where everyone on Twitter has seen it, has known it, has pointed it out. There is there, there is beef, there's something something spicy's going on between them. We watched them play against one another once before and it was the same,
and now I get additional confirmation. Wednesday, the Thunder and the Spurs squared off for the second time, even though it was a blowout. Maybe because it was a blowout, I don't know, but I tuned in. I tuned in the fourth quarter and that's when the shit got real. The difference between the Thunder and the Spurs is like a golf. The Spurs are probably one of the worst teams in the league and the Thunder, or maybe a Western Conference finals game, the level of talent between the
team is a golf. It is possible. I think that the Thunder bench could beat the first team of the Spurs. Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe oh Kenrick Williams, Mesich, Jylen Williams, just off ir At Alexi Pokoschewski. I think they beat the starters of the Spurs more than half the time. But really, what we're talking about are the best two rookies just did Fuck the wards, fuck the press. It's mono imano. Let's see who can do our seventh foot plus thing and take the other one off the
dribble and embarrass them and stare them down. So I'm I'm like, I bet, it's something that I wanted to check in on. I needed some blocks from Wemby and Chet. I needed some rebounds. We were close to coming home. But I admit when I saw the score, I was a little worried. Okay, so he's up a million and it's the start of the fourth quarter. I thought I lost the bet. I tuned in and guess who's out there? Everyone?
Everyone chets out there. Vic's out there. And I thought I tuned in to the Western Conference Finals seventh game because they was when the intensity ratcheted up. Victor every time Chet went to this, every time Chet checked in, Victor goes to the scorer's table, and in a game that was largely over, couldn't tell it to those guys. They were back and forth and back and forth. I think the fourth quarter turned him up. It was ISO ball possession after io ball possession. Both teams were like,
let's just let him go to work. Let's just let these guys cook. The game is in hand. Who cares, really, Like, let's just turn this into an exhibition. We'll call it one on one with the other four on both teams just out on the perimeter. So Wemby gets the ball at the top of the key, drives, puts the shoulder into Chet's chest, hammers home a dunk, and then smiles, laughs and stares the man down for like two full seconds. Soon after, Chet gets so frustrated he sets an aggressive
screen on Wemby and gets called for the offense. It's a foul. The next possession, Chet's like, well, I don't care, Ah, fuck this, this guy up too bodies. Wenby again gets in the way, grabs the steel, goes coast to coast, sweet little up and underlayup just one after the the next back in the forth, drives in the paint, ball fakes, middies, threes, step backs, little one foot floaters. These guys did everything.
It made. It made the blowout must see TV. I honestly was looking around, like, is anybody else talking about this online? Because I feel this is something that something is going on here. The end result is we all knew and I guess became aware if you didn't know, that this is a real rivalry. This is not a O cute two seven footers. We have to force them to not liking each other. I think that they actually don't.
I think that they believe, each one of them that they are the best big men new big men in the league right now. It is personal. Final stat line Chet seven seventeen nine and four, a steal in three blocks Wemby twenty four, twelve and five. With the steal in four blocks, one player had to wor stat line, but his team blew the other one the fuck out.
A reporter asked Wemby after the game about what he likes playing against Chet, and he's and they're like, do you like do you like that one on one type environment? And he goes, yeah, I don't really ever play one on one. It's usually one on two. And truthfully, you look at that Twitter, they've got screen grabs where it's
one on three. There are three thunder Shady Wemby. They've created a wall around him, and then he said this in response to another question about whether he's pissed that he didn't win Western Conference Rookie of the Month and that he's only seventh in All Star voting, he goes, yeah, of course, I'm mad. At the end of the day, I'm gonna get what I deserve. Though, every game is a statement game from now on. Okay, okay, Wemby, you give us those statement games. Yeah, how come every game
wasn't a statement game before. Chet, for his part, played the role of the mature elder statesman. He said, yeah, obviously, that's the headline that you guys have. That's what ESPN promotes, that's what the NBA is promoting, and rightfully so. Vic's a great player. I think I have a long way to go in this league, but I plan to be a great player and play a long time. But that doesn't take away from what the focus is. The focuses Thunder versus the Spurs. Could have fooled me, could have
fooled me. I didn't realize that. I felt it was Chet versus Wemby. I like Chet very mature. He's a killer, Let's be honest. That's not true like he he absolutely loves going against Wemby a lot of people thought the Rookie of the Year award was Chet's. A lot of people thought it was on the line last night, two nights ago. If that's true, Victor got the best of Chet. He's now back in front at minus one fifty. Chet has moved back from minus numbers to plus one twenty.
If you like Chet, which is not what I do, I think you might well put some of the money on the line for Chet to win Rookie of the Year. One hundred dollars gets you one hundred and twenty dollars back. The X factor, though, obviously, is the OKAC is good and the Spurs are not good. The Spurs are a lottery team. Okay See is second in the West thunder fifth rank defense starting players who are aged twenty one, twenty one, two, twenty four, and twenty five. The Spurs
have a defensive rating of one nineteen point two. One nineteen point two is is right around Trey Young, Like that's just that's what that is so not good, Like somewhere between Trey Young and Dame Lillard is not good. It's kind of hard to compare the two teams really like Wemby on the Thunder would be very good too. I promise you one is playing on an elite basketball team and the other is facing triple teams every night because he doesn't have shake Gilges Alexander. He has Devin Vassel,
which very good player, not Shay Gilges Alexander. The good news if you didn't check in and watch the game, they play two more times against each other. I have already looked at flights on April tenth. Okay, see never been to Oklahoma City. The Thunder play the Spurs again if the Rookie of the Year is still in doubt, and there's no reason to think that it's not gonna be close, folks, April tenth is gonna be a game, all right? Moving on, What is it about these two teams?
Fucking weirdos. They're just a weird rivalry, aren't they. I don't know where the origin is, but every time these two teams play, it's weird. It's spicy, it's got drama, it's got strange interactions with the media after, it's got strange interactions with the fans during We're talking about the Suns and Mavericks and They're always up to no good. It's always something with these two. They don't I don't think they like each other. Not gonna lie. Devin Booker
went off for forty six last night. You think he's still mad about that Luca meme where Luca was up I think fifty in the first half and just just staring at Devin Booker's face when he's trying to play defense. But he beat him forty six points to the tune of that in a blowout win, one hundred and thirty two to one on nine. So then there was a skirmish. The skirmish originated by Grant Williams, the all time instigator,
the all time irritant. He was supposed to be the offseason signing and he is pretty much sucked last month. So he's been trying throughout the court tire course of the game to bait Nurkic, but mostly baiting Nurkic through fucking with other players on the team, like Kevin Durant. So he pushes Kevin Durant down on the ground. He's trying to stomp towards kd. Nurkic has to push him away. They get tax It's a whole thing. He gets, he
gets fouled out. He's a jack did. Afterwards, they asked Booker about it, Hey, like, do you think this guy has an agenda that has nothing to do with winning the game. By the way, this isn't even the main storyline. This is just the apertif he said, yeah he did, Hell, yeah he did. It's not necessary. I don't even think Grant Williams wanted to play basketball tonight. He wants to do the antics. Man, we're out there trying to hoop,
so big props to Nerk for holding that down. If I would have seen that, I would have done the same thing. That's how we get down. By the way, I love Devin Booker's outfit choices. He went full out trollo, had the one one button and everything else was open. Anyway, he says, we're not with that nonsense. It was nonsense too. Grant Williams is the epitome of nonsense. The Mans were up by sixteen at one point, but after Grant got tossed, it was just pretty much downhill for the rest of
the night. But this is not even the story, folks. The real story is the fireworks between Luca and a media reporter like after the game and Tim McMahon of the Hoop Collective podcast. His nickname is Banned McMahon because he gets banned from arenas, so he's a little spicy. Luca was having a rough night, we'll call it a frustrated night. He had thirty four, which you know, it's light work for Luca, but he was eleven for twenty four.
They're obviously losing the game. He had five turnovers, so things weren't going great for Luca in the first half. You know, you might imagine that Dallas fans probably not super stoked with their own team in their own arena getting blown out by their rival. So he starts getting heckled by this guy actually in a Devin Booker jersey. So okay. With three minutes or so left in the game, fourth quarter, it was clear, Mavericks, they're losing this game.
They're getting their asses beat. It was all over. But the shouting. Luca had had enough of this fan right then. Not first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, No, No, he had had enough. He was jogging back on defense to get this guy the fuck out of here, get him out. He even gave him a little like uugh little wave
like get him out? What did the fans say? We all want to know what could have been so inflammatory, so egregious, so disparaging that Luca needed right then, not to let it go because there's only a few minutes left, but to say, get discloy out of here, get him out, get him out right now. Well, the fan uh called Luca fat basically uh in not in those words, but
what he said. We have multiple people around the league because they were that fan was right near the media, was Luca, you're tired, get your ass on the treadmill. Is Luca, you're fat. You need to get in shape. You are getting beat because you're not in condition, And just like that, get discloyo coetme out. Fan was probably ready to leave anyway the game was over. He probably wanted to beat the crowds, grab an uber, get some dinner.
Who knows, but it gets even more hilarious. So Tim McMahon, who he's got an interesting sense of humor, he tweeted something out about Luca and what the fan said, and then he asked Luca about it after the game, and Luca got chippy with Tim McMahon pretty fast.
I know, I saw you when you said about the fan. You know that was not a true all that was not the only thing he said. But I knew you would be the first one to point out something like that, because I'm not going to say what he said, but I knew you were going to be the first one to put out something like that.
So I just saw that. Man, It's just funny.
He always seemed to be the first one to put some bad stuff about me.
First of all, ninety nine percent of stuff i've written that he's been good.
I don't know.
I was sitting two rows behind us, all.
Right, So it was the only thing. It was that time he said something.
The only thing was what you reacted to.
Yeah, I was hearing the whole first half, right, Oh, you didn't hear anything.
It was definitely all okay, there we go acting.
You put out something that was just the only thing.
But what was the finale.
It's not the issue.
I'm just seeing you seems to be the first one to always put something bad about me.
It's fine, it's.
All Why did you ask for the fan to be ejected?
Because he was cursing me the whole first have.
To Why don't you ask for the ejected in the first half.
Then, because son never would ejected fan. They pay for tickets, but I had enough. You know, it's a little bit of frustration, Pauls.
A little bit of frustration. There we get to the heart of the matter, because if what he said didn't matter, and he was also chirping you the whole first half, the whole thing doesn't make any damn sense. Luca, you're not making any damn sense. But here, here's where we get to the heart of what Luca is his issue with.
You turned your head and looked over at him after he said that. That's I mean, that's what we saw.
The guy, the bad guy in the media.
Right, Sorry, you're fairly portrayed of the media.
No, do you think you're fairly portrayed in the media, Luca? No, Luca the bad guy? Okay, Luca, you're the bad Luca the bad guy? You mean, the guy who is essentially James Harden but gets treated like he's Michael Jordan. Are we serious? Luca might be one of the most protected NBA players in the last twenty years. We give Luca a pass on everything. He is our Slovenian brother. The media fucking loves Luca. One guy doesn't slurp up on everything that Luca does. And he's like, ah, you just
hate me, You just hate me so much. Oh I knew you were gonna be the one. Ah, I knew, Oh, Luca the bad guy. Y'all just paint me out to be the bad guy. This is fucking insane. Luca used to play in Europe. Europe. Let me if you are not aware of what basketball is like in Eastern Europe. They carry weapons to the game. People have been stabbed, hooligan culture in the EPO. You think that's bad, No, no, sir, there's like fireworks going off in an indoor arena. Google
this shit. Luca played in that when he was sixteen years old. Are we like? One little fan chirps him about getting on a treadmillon He's like, good, Gloria out of there, get him out. This man's gotten soft. Luca has been become soft really in this country. Some the creature comforts of Dallas, Texas have gotten to him. He's a generational talent, no doubt, But villain villain India, I'll be the bad guy. You are just soft all around.
You complain to the refs every second you can. Your coaches pissed, your second coaches pissed, your gm is pit. Everybody knows you are a whiny bitch. I love Luca, but in that realm whiner whiner. You do not take your conditioning seriously. You do not take your diet seriously. And if if you're gonna get chirped about the thing that you don't do, then what are we even talking about? Let me just go side road on you. Kevin Love used to look like a house. He did. Kevin Love
used to have chipmunk cheeks and tricep fat. And you know what he did. What happened to him when he came into Macarrena. We call him fat, We call them baby fat, We call them all kinds of mean things. It was so bad that we as a student body, gotten email about it said do not say this about opposing players. We do not want you. They gave out pieces of paper to the pit crew about all of the mean things we were gonna chant about Kevin Love. Why one, It was very easy, ammo. He was fat too.
He spurned us by not going to Oregon and going to UCLA as an Oregon boy. It was so bad. We were punished. The pit crew was put to rest for like two weeks. Luca candle that in the NBA making millions of dollars, if you can't take your conditioning seriously and you can't take the heckling, maybe winning isn't the most important thing to you. Maybe you are closer to James Harden than we even thought. Back to him and Tim McMahon, what a tremendous exchange. I need more
of it. I love it. It's not Tim McMahon's job to carry water for the Dallas Mavericks or for Luka Doncic. And it's not hard to write stories about Luca, not hard at all. It is hard to ask him. Hey, Luca, to his face, gotta be just a real grizzly veteran move. Hey, what did that fans say to you again? They got you to kick him out of the game. Luca, by the way, did not answer. He never answered, He never confirmed. It was about my weight that set me off. It
was that was the final straw. I don't know one hundred percent not what is bothering Luca. Some of those guys don't want criticism, and when they do, they remember that criticism sounds like he's remembered Tim McMahon a lot. Maybe that's the sign of being great, like Lebron remembers every single bad thing that anybody's ever said about him.
Or Steph is going to the locker room at halftime and hearing this annoying girl say that the Warriors won't go nine and one, and so he comes back and draws fifty on the Atlanta Hawks to go nine to one. But maybe, just maybe it's not that. Maybe it's a sign that you are just all right. Lots popping around the league, So let's get into it. So the Wizard said, well, if the Bucks can fire a guy who went thirty and thirteen, how many wins they have seven seven wins,
we can definitely fire west Unsale Junior. But like, they didn't really fire him because they're the Wizards, you know, they don't just do the right thing. They do the like weird soft thing. They reassigned them to a front office role. So he's fired. It's kind of like what happened to Travis Schlenk when he was reassigned when they were really firing him for the Atlanta Hawks. They don't want to buy them out, so they're just putting them to work in some random office in some strange role.
My mom had a friend who worked for the Forest Service and he was trying to unionize, and so they put him on another floor by himself, on the union floor. It was just him, and they gave him busy work. And then one day he opened some random closet and all of the busy work that they had him to do was in there. No one signed off on it, no one stamped it. So what did he do. He ended up finding a couch from some other floor and putting it in his office and he just slept there.
That's what I That's what I imagine west UNSELLD Junior is doing right now somewhere in the Wizard's facility. They've given him a role that has no meaning. No one's looking at his work. They just they want to make his life miserable because they can't really afford because they're cheap. They can't just pay him out. Let him do something else, let him play golf. They're like, no, you're coming into work every fucking day. Okay, we're gonna breathe down your
neck on things that are meaningless. Anyway, they are desperately hanging onto the title of being the second worst team in the NBA, behind the Detroit Pistons, who are, by the way, breathing down their necks with a two and three stretch in their last five, which sounds bad, but it's pretty good for the Detroit Pistons. Not gonna lie and now it's out of nowhere, Brian Keith, if his lead assistant is going to take over for the remainder of the year and in the offseason, they're gonna conduct
a comprehensive search for their next head coach. Didn't they just hire this guy? I swear to god, he's been there only two years, hasn't he didn't Scott Brooks just come to my team two years ago when they hired Chauncey Billups. I think I think that's what happened. I'd love to say that this shocks me, but I'd be lying.
Any team where Marvin Bagley is your marquee player and he's averaging eighteen points per game for the Wizards after getting traded from the worst team in the league that was five for thirty nine, five and thirty nine, who is getting dnps? You're in serious trouble if that's your guy. What does it mean. They don't want to be the worst team in the league. The problem is their roster probably is the worst in the league. They only have a two game lead over the Pistons in the NBA's
Slugo Award. I am betting that the Wizards do finish with the worst record overall. I think they win ten games again. Moving on, uh more coaching news. So the Bucks we talked about this last episode. They fired Adrian Griffin. It did happen what we suspected might happen what was being rumored. They have tendered an offer too, guys, Glenn Dirty mac Rivers aka the doctor with no MD, no MD, folks, he gets another ridiculous shot at mediocrity to the tune
of forty million dollars. How can I get that job? How can we as people believe in the system when we all know Doc Rivers fucking sucks and he gets three and a half years for forty million dollars. That is what in the Monty Williams is going on over here. I will have the rest of the season to bash this move, but it's it's gross. Not just because they hired a guy who has booted four three one leads in the playoffs. I think that's the most in history.
As you can imagine that. The online response from Bucks fans not stoked. I echo those comments because not just that he's bad, but like, why why'd you do it? Why'd you pay him long term? Why not let your interim head coach, Joe Prunty, who's already been an interim head coach before, why not let him take this thing? See how it goes until the offseason when you can figure out a way to try to entice Kenny Atkinson
or someone else, someone better. Unless the ownership group is okay having four coaches under contract at the same time, this thing could be a disaster. A disaster. I think the reason why is fear right, it doesn't make sense. I think it's Yannis, really. I think Yannis all of his comments in the media about really Lebron asked, we need a champion, we need a championship. I think it's that that made them make this move. They're afraid. And by the way, there are numerous think pieces about how
Griffin got shitcanned midway through the season. They are all eye opening, they are all you know, illuminating. Chief amongst his crimes was the fact that defensively, he put it together a scheme where he took brook Lopez from being a rim protector where he almost won Defensive Player of the Year at that to blitzing ball handlers when I think he's had multiple back surgeries so he's not that mobile. Guys like you can't have him blitz the ball handler
and the pick and roll situations. ESPN reported it was baffling to those inside the locker room who had been accustomed to top ten defenses under Budenholzer. Yeah, not to mention, you got Dame Lillard there, so the defense is already gonna take a step back no matter what you do. Tons of people, including myself, are calling Doc a snake, snake snake, or a dirty back. He was hired. If you don't know the story, here's what it is.
He was.
Doc was hired midway through the season, early December as a private consultant for the Bucks. Hey just help this young rookie coach. Come along, teach him your ways, help develop him. I didn't even know that until Adrian Griffin was already fired at the behest of the Bucks. And
then what does he do. He goes behind Adrian Griffin's back uses his position with ESPN as a media member, goes on the ringer, goes on all these other places and just bust tosses Adriene Griffin along the way, tries to be slick sneak, dissing him, and behind the scenes lobbying for Adrienne Griffin's job. Get them fired. Already had secured his own gig. His best advice for Griffin hire an Australian assistant with no head coaching experience as his
quote veteran presence on the bench. Folks, this has real dirty mac vibes, like things aren't going well with your girl. Let me smooth things over for y'all. I'll figure it out. Oh yeah, that guy, he's just not gonna be the one for you. You need somebody with more championship caliber experience. That's the only way you manage these egos Jannis and Dame and Brook Lopez, and list goes on and on. You need somebody who understands Guys like Kevin Garnett, Ray
Allen Paul. Do you anybody like that? Give you a referral? I could give you a referral to somebody. The optics are obviously hilarious and awful. He's he is the all time bad guy. This has been quite illuminating and did a lot. I'm sure to put the nail in the coffin to his reputation. He's sixty two years old. This might be his last crack at a head coaching job. He's the little finger. And when this inevitably does not work, we are going to hear all about how it went down.
The question is how long it goes down? How long until it happens? The Bucks are now storyline number one to watch for the rest of the year. Another question that I have though, and we'll answer this more in detail maybe next week, is like, why why do these head coaches we know aren't good? Why do they continue to get like very expensive jobs? Why why do we want these retriits when we know they're not good. At least we know us Rivers is probably gonna come back
to the league. At least we know that. In other news, newest Miami Heat culture spokesperson aka Terry Rozier, made his debut on Wednesday night, finished nine to four and five. Not a great step line. Not gonna lie on three for eleven from the field as the Heat dropped. They're fourth straight to the Memphis Grizzlies. They have been held under one hundred points for the sixth time in their last ten games. What's happening with Miami A couple of things.
First of all, let's stop deep throating Heimiakus. Could we just maybe cut that out. He's very good, But here's the problem. He and Jimmy Butler do all a lot of the same things, and as far as I know, this is still Jimmy Butler's team, and since he's a rookie, he's probably gonna have to defer to Jimmy, which means on offense, he's usually in the corner of the three and not a high volume three point shooter, so he's gonna get a lot of opportunities to come. We'll call
it organically. You know, you don't really know when going to be used, how you're going to be used, because most of his valuable skills are being minimized because unless he comes off the bench when Jimmy sits second, Jimmy is a problem. Let's be real. He's come back from injury and has maybe because of injuries, most likely not been playing his normal game, mostly low post block shooting
four to six footers. Pretty inefficient stats. Probably not exactly where you want your guy to be shooting little middies. He's shot chart from the last ten games he's played versus the playoffs wildly different. He's got almost no offense from the right side of the court. Not sure why, but that's something to monitor. The heater tumbling down the standings fast. They are a game out of ninth. They have to fix things. Losing to the Memphis Grizzlies is
just unacceptable. Bill Simmons, on the other hand, has taken the heat at thirteen to one to win the East, so that tells you everything you need to know. Finally,
we end with some more bullshit from the refs. Not going to get into how the Portland Trailblazers were screwed out of a win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which might have been our best win of the year by not acknowledging a timeout by Chauncey Billips in the last seconds of a tie game and then teeing him up when he pointed it out by saying that he physically assaulted a rep. But I won't get into any of that.
We're gonna talk about the Wolves versus the Charlotte Hornets, the game where Karl Anthony Towns had mostly the most embarrassing performance that he's ever had, and he put up sixty two. He cost the Wolves the game. Well, not just him, the refs apparently did some heavy lifting as well. In the latest NBA Last two Minute Report, the NBA acknowledged that there were some miscalls. How many miscalls were there? Ten? Ten? Ten incorrect calls in the last two minutes and seven
seconds of this game. Seven of those calls missed ones benefited the Hornets. That included two bad note calls on the same play which would have resulted into two Karl Anthony Towns free throws with five point four and four point seconds left in the game, and in an incorrect offensive foul called on Rudy got Gobert with one point four seconds left in the game. Three wrong calls in the final five seconds of the game, all that negatively
impacted the Wolves. Sounds about Minnesota. What the fuck? Though? Seriously, did they get any calls right? If you get ten calls wrong in a month, let alone the last two minutes of the game, that is absolutely hysterical. How can you be this job. If I did ten wrong things at my job in two minutes, either be a talking to. I'd probably have to sign some things. I'd have to
vow some things. It wouldn't be good. I have no idea how this is getting out of hand, and I'm gonna tell you, Adam Silver, you gotta get this shit under control because the refs are in danger of torpedoing a golden season, not just for the Wolves, but for the entire league. All right, Up next, we have a special guest interview with NBA TVs Chris Miles. Chris joined me and my co host Nick Ashow and Ryan Horvat on my other show at MGM Tonight, which airs seven
to eleven Eastern Monday through Friday. Fascinating conversation with Chris. We get into all the news around the NBA. He is super insightful, funny and entertaining. So take a listen.
Trista said this earlier and it was just music to my ears, and I'm sure it'd be music to your ears too. She looks at me, she just goes, this Knicks team's just really good. It's been a long time since we got to hear that and actually feel confident in what the future is for this organization.
You know, it's all coming together because this time last night I was interview with Bill Bradley's Senator Bill Bradley, you know, of those championship Nicks, and it just feels like something special in the air. I mean, Carmelo Anthony is now one of us in broadcasting essentially doing all these podcasts.
I'm like, yeah, it's all coming together. Now is the time for Nicks tape?
Baby, looks like we're gonna be what eleven and two since the o Giannaobi trade.
Yeah, that og Nanobi trade was huge. And you're lucky that Indiana didn't want to give up Ben Mathrin because they could have ended up with Pascal Siakam and ogn Andobe. Oh how much do you think that this Pascal trade helps them?
Well, it's really interesting because the day of the trade, I was like, all right, let me look inside the numbers in nerd Alert, and I was like, hold on, the Toronto Raptors, who don't have a great offense, had more fast break points per game than the Indiana Pacers, who we know got up and down the court and played zero defense. And it was because of Pascal Siakam, He and Scottie Barnes were just running up and down
the floor. The thing is, that's the only way the Raptors were able to score, right, So it's like they'd have fast break points and then putrid outside of that. So I can't wait to see him and Tyrese Hallibird on the floor for an extended period of time and see how they play together. I think Pascal Siakam's passing skills and ability to score quickly and not hold on to the ball is going to be fascinating.
With the Pacers, were.
You at with Philadelphia seventy six ers? They're twenty nine and thirteen? I think obviously like Nick Nurse doing a pretty solid job. Embiid, the MVP favorite, just dropped seventy the other night. Yeah, Milwaukee and Boston in front of them in the East, But you know, I like Boston. Milwaukee doesn't play a whole lot of defense. They probably figure that thing out. But then again, they have Doc
Rivers as their head coach. Now, where are you at with the Philly this stage of the season right now?
I mean I look at Philly as are you gonna get out of the second round? Like do I have to pay attention to you until Joel Embiid plays three full months without needing a week off. Yeah right, because people have been begging in bead drum for four years and I'm like, yeah, I know what he can do on Wednesday night in January. But then you get to the playoffs and it's like the Raptors didn't have a center and forced them into you know, elimination, push them
to the brink. Then they get, you know, so close to the conference finals, and Jason Tatum said, no, no, no, no, no, I'm him, You're not. I just don't trust in. Beid's body is really the thing.
Max.
He's amazing. We had him in studio about two weeks ago. Love his energy, love love how much he loves basketball. I just don't believe Joel and b can can you know, finish the postseason healthy? This team can't win at all unless he's you know, able to play at that level come June when.
We look at the Sixers.
Now we've got a guy in Joel Embiid that just continues to get better. Man, And I like, right, we know the second round, we know the MVP is a regular season award. I was looking at bet MGM. They've got the MVP market down right now. But I mean, the dude just put.
Up seventy the other night.
The big man in the NBA, how like comparing it to what we had, like, let's say in the nineties, right these big men we have today, could you ever in your wildest dreams have imagined we'd see one guy with a dad bod be a multiple time MVP two other guys that looked like they were supposed to be six five stretched out to you know, seven foot four in Chet and Wemby, and like, it's just incredible to me the evolution that we've had of the big man
from before to now, and we're winning v they're winning MVPs again. It really feels like the big man in the NBA. Chris is fully back.
You're like going justin Timberlake. Oh, but it's so different.
Now.
Here's the thing.
They sent a little boy to do a man's job with victim woman y'ama trying to guard Joel Embiid. I'm like, this is this is the problem with the league right now. We've had a lot of talented bigs right not get the uh time and attention, and you know, opportunity to develop, Like James Wiseman can play basketball, but teams are like, oh, he can't defend the pick and roll, and they I'm like, have you I've seen James Wiseman is a ginormous human
being that can get up and down the floor. And you know what, the Spurs could have just used him for ten minutes to defend Jewel Embiid just.
To slow him down.
I mean like when I look at winning bead did I thought it was impressive. But it's also like when we do the all Time Greats, I doc Wilt Chamberlain because.
I'm like, that's what it like.
When wil Chamberlain was doing it, it was like, this dude is too little to be on him. It is too easy as opposed to like you're pointing out, man Shack was dominating guys of his elk. So I think I take nothing away from Joelmbiid and how amazing he looks, and he's doing exactly what he needs to do.
But teams need to wake up.
Man.
They're bigs out here that can defend that are, you know, working on their games throughout the years, but they're going with like the super slim or you know, stretch four, stretch five, instead of guys who can even try to defend jol of.
Me, Chris, when you look at the West, you got Oklahoma City and Minnesota both thirty one and thirteen, the top two seeds in the West. Who do you trust more down the stretch when we get to the postseason, you know who do you think what they're doing is more sustainable for the Thunder of.
The Wolves, Man, that's a great question, and I'm starting to.
Lean towards the Timberwolves for this reason.
What they're going through right now, right like the Thunder to me are doing everything right.
They're kind of hitting their ceiling.
This is who they are, and in two years, three years from now, they're going to take another leap with Chet when he gets a little bit better with the Timberwolves.
Chris Finch.
The other night they lost against the Hornets because Kat was searching for shots after he had sixty two, was just trying to get to seventy to catch em bead. The coach was like, Hey, this is not good. And then they came out beat the Wizards the next time out,
and you were like, okay, ant Man was aggressive. They were back into their Roles, and I just think they're at a stage where they've been disappointed for two years and they're ready right where it's like, okay, see, it's like how's money, Let's go out here and have fun and do our thing. I think there's a little bit more growth left within them, even though the thunder Man, like you said, sitting here on top of the West with the advantage over the Timberwolves and had to a matchups.
I just think when it comes postseason, Tom, it's been two years of the Wolves kind of being let down.
Talking to Chris Miles, BEDMGM tonight, what teams do you think will be the most active at the deadline, whether it's buying or selling.
I mean, I think we've kind of seen it already, right with the Indiana Pacers. But man, I'm gonna tell you something that struck me earlier today Ben Simmons, Like I'm looking at him, like hold on, they're trying to get this man back on the court, to move him one more time. But teams I had an eye out on, man, the Pacers and the Heat kind of already made their moves. I thought maybe another one, a team that might be flying under the radar, that I think needs to make a move.
The Dallas Mavericks.
I think that was evident in that loss to the Phoenix Suns, Like they came out Kyrie wasn't on the floor. They got to get some defensive identity and some toughness back that they lost when they traded for Kyrie.
And they look good this year.
But whether it's Bruce Brown, who's gonna be available, right, Daniel Gafford and DC, like they need a guy like that, not necessarily like a game changer, Oh he's no O Giannanobi, but another big or wing that can defend someone whose main job is to do the dirty work.
What about the Lakers. I know that they're in the mix, and there's a lot of trade rumors about maybe them going after de Jontay Murray. I don't know how that works. Like from a basketball perspective, how do you think that fit is?
I think there are a lot better fits for Dejonte.
I mean, first of all, living here in Atlanta, you know, being around him. He's close with Jamal Crawford, who you know, obviously I work with and that sort of thing. And I'm like, this, dude, if you want to see Dejontay Murray. You go to high school basketball game on his off nights and that's where he is, so like, you're not going to catch him in the club, You're not gonna catch him at a bar and then do all that stuff.
He's a basketball guy, and I think he needs a different opportunity, right like I think he's shown that in Atlanta, having some class and some dignity.
But again I.
Said the team a little bit earlier, but the Brooklyn Nets, I really like that fit for the Jonte Murray. They're kind of in need of a franchise guy, and I think he could be that in Brooklyn, and I think he'd be loved if he was it all.
I still got a couple of minutes, Chris. When we look at the Sons now they've won seven straight. We know the talent that's certainly there. It's a big three. We barely saw even Durant and Booker play together last year. Now you're adding Bradley Beild to the mix and he misses the beginning of the year. They have talent, but we also know really all three of those guys are an injury risk, especially Beale. We saw that plenty when
he was in Washington. Is this a matter now of just everybody staying healthy and the Sons team can continue to climb in the West.
What's crazy is and if you're being objective and you watch the Phoenix Suns.
Is the third person Bradley Beal or is it Grayson Allen?
Yeah?
Like it sounds silly, but this new shoot like fifty from three point range?
Right?
He was he was a killed with the Bucks and he's given you thirty three minutes a game everybody in and out the lineup, and this dude is like the glue. I keep going, man, why haven't the sun's faltered? When when books out? When Beal's And I'm like, this guy has been incredible. So I know everyone likes to go with the three all Stars. I'm not calling them a
big three. I'm calling them a big two, right and in a in an all star caliber play, that's not a that's a different thing that we should reserve for guys on that level, you know, like all NBA perennial guys.
Right.
So, and that's no disrespect to Bradley Beal. I just don't put him in that same category.
But I think if Beal is gonna do what he's what he's done the past three weeks. Now, then yeah, they can contend for a title. They're another team though. Now I just feel like you said too top heavy, right, They got like three guys they give me the embide concern, Like, is Devin Booker's Hammy gonna give out? Is Katie too old when it comes to the playoffs and this britt Beal gonna just like, oh, I haven't played this much in years, and just like give in two.
I don't know. It's like I keep thinking one of those guys won't be you know, good for the conference.
I know the Beal thing. Especially, we're like again, years and years and years we saw like, oh, Beal's gonna miss another month and it's just like, okay, here you go. So I would love to see this team actually just play together for an entire season, just to see what it would look like. But you're right, Grayson Allen over on threes and points, man, those props have been fantastic this year. Chris Miles, NBA TV. Great to see again, buddy, Thanks Chris.
Thanks Hollywood hate chick. He's gonna do?
Why him on the show. God, you're the worst. Get him off the camera. Dylan cut him off right now.
We got like forty more seconds.
D do it.
It's like he hasn't done anything yet. There's a bitcoming at some point, and.
There he goes.
That's all the time that we have for this episode of the Heat Check Special. Thanks to Chris and the whole game at ben MGM tonight, come back Monday for a episode and check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly like a beat in a Scrillex song. Don't even know why that was the end. Don't forget to follow the heat Check, as that means
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