No, no, come home, Come home, Come home.
On this episode of The Heat Check, I did it again. I did it like Britney Spears before she got commandeered by her father. Oopsie, my golly. I mushed another team, Yes, I did. It's the Memphis Grizzlies. Yeah. Uh, poor Jahn Morant caught astray. I had a whole thing about them, and then all of a sudden, as much as I related them for going nine and one, yet metaphorically speaking,
they then went on an immediate down downhill spiral. And then later on the show we also get into another reason that the Lakers are unfixable, Like it's just one after another now, but now there's new injury news of Anthony Day, So it's just more time to dissect what the fuck is happening in Lakerland. So do me a
favorite brock and dropped that beat. So we talked last week about the Memphis Grizzlies, how good they've been, all these role players stepping up, Desmond Banded, Anthony Melton, all these people that the casual fan has no idea who they are. You know, Dylan Brooks is doing things. They won nine of ten. They were like it was not an exaggeration to say that they were the hottest team in basketball at the time that that segment came out.
And if you've been following the Heat Checker this league at all, you'll know and could guess exactly what followed after that, a mush, an immediate in immediate downwards viral of the Memphis Grizzlies. Oh yes, I didn't just mush them, though, I mushed them twice, which is even worse. Right, first and foremost, they lost one oh five to.
One hundred to the Portland Trailblazers.
At home, at home the day after the episode dropped, like the day I mean the mush. There's no delay. There's no mush delay here is as soon as we push published, as soon as there's one stream, even if just one stream put it out on the TikTok, put a little promo out submit, then it's just the ether conspires against me. It's just everything goes the opposite way, because why can I be right on a micro level?
I cannot be.
I might remind people that Portland at that point at that point had only run won one road game at that period, the one road game, and their second road game was that one against the hottest team of basketball, Memphis Grizzlies. I'm sorry, I'm sorry Memphis. And worse yet, the next game they played the Oklahoma City Thunder that they had just beaten by seventy plus points without jaw and they get jaw back, and everyone's oh, how much are you gonna steamroll them? By that time, I know
SGA came back, but jaws back. Look Out MVP, lookout NBA, jaws coming. The Ninja emoji has emerged Spanish no more taking the court storming back, and Oklahoma City beat them one O two ninety nine in about as ugly as a game as the Grizzlies have played all year. Jesus, Jesus, Lord help me. Lord helped the Grizzlies because they might not win another game. So to recap, in the past year, I have mushed the Orlando Magic after a hot quick start.
I must remind you after that episode dropped, Mark hel Foltz tore his acl Utah Jazz Incredible against this bread winning streak. Soon as that episode came out, that against the spread winning streak ceased to exist. Dallas Mavericks after their winning streak and the end of the season when the Golden State Warriors last year were playing really well. I said, hey, hold on hold the phone. They could actually go to the finals. Didn't make the playoffs at all.
There's just a few that come to mind. I mean, it's one after another after another after another. Oh, Bucks, the good one. Bucks will never win the championship ever in their current construction. They won that following year after you know, everyone thought that they were toast. So yeah, since the episode relating the Grizzlies metaphorically came out, they are zero and two with one loss, including John Morant on the floor against two of the worst teams in
the league. Uh yeah, any team who has an unexpected segment written about all. I'm not talking about like Golden State right now, where it's like there's nothing I can do, Like nine and one. Golden State will not go one nine and one, and they did. That was another one. I mean, if I say you're a world beater, or if I say you're not gonna be good, like the Chicago Bolt, it just goes the opposite. It just goes
the opposite. And it's funny and it's just it's just the surest fire away to send a team into a tailspinners for them to catch my attention and for me to spend time researching how good they could be and are. So John Morant is now taking a hiatus from social media at large because he was booed off the court in his first game back. Yep, that happened. So I can say that that might be part two of the mush because I was like, oh, Jow's come in NBA.
Look out Eddie peekin it did. John did not have a bad game in his return, but it wasn't also a great game, but that shouldn't matter. He was coming back from injury, his first game back off of something that could have been devastating, after something that people thought might be a Derek Roe situation, and we all got to see him ball out again in like a eight weeks time, So I mean it should be a celebration. Pitches,
it should be a celebration. Of course, he's rusty, but apparently Grizzlies fans have very high hopes, high expectations for how a star is gonna come back off out of an mc house brain. They got used to winning ninety percent of their games. Fuck it, So if he's not gonna contribute to winning ninety five ninety seven percent of the games. Then get this motherfucker off the court right now, because like, listen, we just beat the team by seventy jaw,
what have you done for me lately? We just lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder with you on the floor. We just beat him by seventy So obviously you are trash. Obviously you are the problem. Jaw.
Pretty bad coincidence.
I'd say fan base has now become I would say maybe a worse, more entitled version of the Golden State Warriors. Just just gross hate them, and like, truthfully, this team's probably gonna be moved, So fuck him anyway. Really, Like, when this franchise is up for sale, I promise you there won't be a covenant where it has to stay in Memphis, promise you. Uh, And so fuck him because
they heckled Jaw Morant. They heckled him. They heckled their all star player, number two player taken off the board, the future of the franchise.
They heckled him.
He was sixteen, eight and six on a six twelve shooting night. In just twenty eight minutes, he was plus two for the game that was decided by one. Yeah, it is a good game decided by one possession. I mean, Dane, I would take that coming off an injury. I'll tell you what. Fans were not happy to see their team lose to a team that they blew out, and Jaw they let him know it, and Jaw got sad. Jaw, this is a segment really about just Jaw being sad.
So you're talking about a guy. So, but what's crazy is like Jaw doesn't get sad like the It's so remark arkable. Jaw has literally gone on the record and said, my dad, my father, my father, my biological father, is my greatest hater. Like he has been calling me trash for as long as I can remember. And I take his hate and him in the driveway saying I'll never
be shit. I take that as fuel, and I turn that into leading the league in points in the paint and dunking on people's faces and putting my nuts right in their nose, you know what I mean, Like, not even metaphorically, like just actually that's truthfully. He loves criticism, he says, he turns hate and he makes it productive. So for a guy like Jaw who can allow his own father to trash talk, him for him to get sad.
Imagine all of the lengths a fan base would have to go in order to get there, right, Like, that's nuts.
After a near devastating injury.
That provides perspective, hopefully for himself and for the fan base of what they could have lost and what was right there to enjoy the moment of having John Morant back. He comes back and then they do that, folks, Imagine what it must take to rattle that man. This is what he said after the loss. Even during the game, I was running down the court and heard some of my fans court side, court side, not even in the cheap seats, court side fans telling me I need to
sit back out. So I don't understand what they were trying to get out of that. I think it makes it worse. Like, you don't think Jaw knew, Hey this, we just beat this team by seventy and now we're barely in the game. You don't think he had the presence of mind to get that parallel on his own. You don't think Jaw's smart enough to see how that may not be great optically. Come on, come on now, sheesh, He wasn't done. He kept going this is what he said.
It's a lot, man. I'm excited to be back. I'm thankful for my teammates because they've tried to keep my spirits up and tell me not to worry about what people say. But it's hard not to see that stuff and hear that stuff. It's easy when I see it, but when I'm running down the court mid game and I hear it from the same people who were chanting MVP a while ago.
It's frustrating.
There was more. This is also what he said. I'm just frustrated. Normally y'all have seen it, when anything somebody says negatively about me, it fuels me. But tonight, tonight, the remarks from the fans actually hurt my feelings.
I'm going to do what I normally do.
I'm gonna bounce back. I'm very excited about this next game. Pause, folks, take the pr for Jamaran next game, because I'm sure he's going to blow it out of the water. Whatever the point number is, whatever the three point number, just.
Take it all.
Take all the Ja Morant props because he's fuel. He got so sad, though his teammates had to chime in and defend him to the fan base. This is what Desmond Bain said. It's nonsense. People just want something to talk about at the end of the day.
They want something to talk about.
And Jaw's an easy target because he's the best player on our team, in an All Star in his third year. He will be in Memphis as long as he wants to be. It's his franchise. I mean, what are we even talking about here. Jaw was still brooding after the press conference, and that is when he took to social media to say goodbye to folks on social media, which he later deleted because he was so in his feelings. After the fact, he realized, God damn, I was in
my feelings. It's what he said off social media for a while. Peace emoji, anybody who need me got my number. Love is love black heart emoji. Then followed up by saying, appreciate the real ones black heart emoji. The Memphis fan base, the trash at Memphis fan base that doesn't even have good barbecue.
They felt the need because it's all vinegar base.
That felt the needs to come after Ja Morant and they ran them.
Off of Twitter.
Think about that. In one game, these motherfuckers in the expensive seats on the court, ran Jamarant off the Twitter. Are you kidding me? Three days ago? Jamrant was on Twitter speaking in Spanish with the Ninja emoji three days ago, like Jaw loves Twitter. I love Jaw on Twitter. And now he's gone, and now we don't get that anymore.
This is a guy who was MVP candidate, comes back one mediocre game, limited minutes, and they're like, grab the bench, Jaw, sit your ass down, Jaw, we don't need you anymore. We're gonna roll out with the Anthony Melton and Desmond Bane the fuck out of here. Are you serious? I'm starting to think the fan base of Memphis doesn't deserve Jahn Morant. If they don't shut the fuck up, Ja.
Morant might never see social media again.
He might shave his head like Britney Spears and go into his own little hovel and probably force his way out of Memphis where he's at it, where he's not gonna be heckled for coming back early in what could have been like Houn's traffic injury. He rushed himself back. He was literally counting down the days like Dank Dunk dick talk, two more days before I come back with my sort emoji like, what so, I mean, it's probably only a couple more days before we see like is
Memphis better without Jahn Morant? Next up on Undisputed? And as for me, I'm taking all the Jamran moments I could get because life's too short to watch just Desmond Bane ball out for the CRUs.
Hey, yeah, I'm making a change today. The litt have been taking a pain away. I heard you was giving your chain away. It's kind of like giving your fame away.
It was wrong with you.
I sit in a box with our own. This dual boss is a road that I've grown into. I let you to death, but I told you the truth.
I can't just be what you will. If you pulled one hundred NBA fans start the season and you said, after thirty games, I'm gonna give you two choices, Cleveland Cavaliers or the LA Lakers, which team is going to be better after thirty games? People would say, is this a trick question?
Are you serious?
One hundred out of one hundred, no chance anyone even imagines a moment that the Cleveland Cavaliers after thirty games would be better than the Lakers, let alone that they would be better off for the future. No chance, like absolutely, like maybe a little fluky moment, everybody dies in La Lakerland and then somehow Cleveland played no one and everybody that they play has COVID and it's all gle like maybe, but like, okay, Jay scrub is like logging many minutes.
You know, nobody, like everyone high levels of confidence chooses Lakers. But here we are thirty games in and look at the standings. The Calves are the better team right now. The Calves are not just a better team right now, they are in better shape for the future, for the long term and the intermediate term than the Lakers. I bet you that the Calves end up with a better record than the Lakers this season. And I know that.
I said last season in the off season when they signed Russell Westbrook and they had problems and Dennis Shrewder didn't sign and then that thing fell apart, and then you had Montress Harrell wanting out, and you had you know, couldn't sign even Twight Howard, and there was just many issues of things going wrong. And I said, this is rock bottom. And now I know that wasn't rock bottom.
This I might think is rock bottom because it's a real world scenario now where you're comparing the Lakers to the Calves, Lebron James's former franchise, and it doesn't look good. The Lakers do not look good in comparison to the Calves. And you've got folks in real world, in the real world. I have to point this out. People like Kendrick Perkins are not imagining scenarios, but they are creating real scenarios where Lebron James is forcing him his way from Los Angeles,
California to Cleveland, Ohio. Let me let that sink in for a second. There are people like Jimmy Patzos who are saying Lebron should ask his way back to Cleveland. Like Jimmy Patzos, he's a serious person. There are serious people putting that out into the world, and not just people like their trolls like me. You know, like these are real human beings with serious thoughts in their head. You know, they're not just like what would be funny. You know, maybe Kendrick would like this is nuts. That's
where we're at. Let me find the Kendrick Perkins tweet, cause that's nuts. He said. I wonder if Lebron James would consider demanding a trade back to Cleveland. The Calves have a nice squad.
Don't remind me though, and carry on.
Outside of Trey Young stud Garius Garland is the second best point guard in the Eastern Conference and should be an All Star this year. Carry on, This is my man, patsost what he had to say last night on bet MGM tonight.
They need Anthony Davis to play. And then they had a couple of guys that're waiting to see if they get healthy actually like coming out off the bench but with a d out. Why can't Lebron say I'm going back to Cleveland one more time? They would take him if because he went to Cleveland, they become the favorites right now in the East. The West is too good. You got the two best teams in the West. The West is so go the East go to East for
six of us? You know, three months? Why not? And he's allowed to go to Cleveland because that's his place.
Coach, How is that deal gonna get done? Like that trade has to make sense? You think the Lakers are.
You think the Lakers trade for Kevin They trade their like they trade Kevin Love and Colin Sexton and like seven first round draft picks for Lebron.
Jake co turn me out Kobe White for Lebron instead, tell me how this works mathematically, and like, how is this going to make sense from a Lakers.
No, I mean you just salary wise, you have to throw Love in there. And then Sexton wants money, so he's looking for a place that has cap room. No. In a year, you figure out the rest. You have to throw a couple. I don't know if you'd want Cleveland picks because they're gonna now you could throw a Choro in there. It was a really good young guy at six y seven, because you can find it because Lebron's gonna play solo. Choro. Sexton loved the salary cap
and your first rounder. And hey, if Lebron says I'm doing, he rottens the league basically, And I got no problem with that.
This man said Kevin Love would match the salaries. And that's how I knew. He was coming off of a plane and they had free drinks. That's how I knew this man was not thinking streets like and then and then people in Los Angeles and Rich Paul had to dignify it with the response and said, I spoke to Lebron.
This is what Sham said.
I spoke to Lebron's agent, Rich Paul, and he's this talk is totally ridiculous. Lebron James is not leaving the Lakers.
You you spoke with him and.
He said it was ridiculous. The fact that we even are talking about this, this team he's going. This team doesn't look like it has the young legs that they need to have. And that's why the Lakers have been.
Active in the trade market.
When you look at a guy like Ben Simmons, they love to get a guy like him or Jeremy Grant. What are we even talking about right now? This?
How do you think you're getting these teams, these players? How?
Like this is not a bad Lakers team, not just a bad Lakers team. This is an unfixable, untenable situation. This is a marriage that is just too costly to split. Like you know that guy, I'm sure you know him. I know you know of some some man or woman that's in a relationship and they're married, and it would just be a complete financial disaster if they split this thing up. So they just go along peacefully in their own realms. But everybody knows. They're not really happy. They're
not gonna be together long term. And that is Russell Westbrook right now in the Los Angeles Lakers, because there's no one.
Who wants him, no one.
And now Anthony Davis, the cornerstone of their franchise where they traded multiple first round picks to get him. Anthony Davis is hurt again again. He is twenty seven years old, and he still has a degenerative issue in his tenonosis of the achilles that's still happening. Yep, not tendonitis, but tenonosis, which I always let people know is degenerative condition. And now he has a springed MCO four to six weeks out at best. At best, Anthony Davis says mentally, I'm fine.
I'm in good spirits just being around the team. Obviously avoided a major injury, which has my spirits back up because I just didn't know. He said.
I heard it, pop, folks.
And now the team is five hundred now just lost their best player, and face it, they have twenty games at the very.
Least without him.
Do you know what that means? I mean, that means things. You just hate to see another year where the Lakers stars are hurt. The supporting cast cannot carry the load, and they are waiting for their star to come and dig them out of a hole where it's just too deep. In order for them to dig them out of, they've played sixteen different starting lineups in thirty one games. They've struggled mightily to mix and match their way out of
this mediocrity. Frank Vogels in the lab trying to cook up ways to make and I said this pre a preseason. I was like, listen, maybe there's a way that this can work. Maybe I doubt it, but if there is a way, Like when you go to that show Chopped and you get there and there's a box of ingredients and they don't make no sense together and you have to make a Michelin star meal out of them. It's like, we're gonna give you foa graw and Cheetos and a light bulb.
Make something that's like but it's like if they give that to if they give that to Wolfgang Puck, right, You're like, I'm excited to find out what this is gonna be.
Right, if they give that to me, I'm like, fam deuces, right, Like, you cannot give this mix and match box of ingredients to Frank Vogel and expect a culinary masterpiece to come out.
And that's what he's been doing.
He's been sweating when the lights and the cameras are on with the sate pants and they're like, Frank, what are you making up here? And he's like, ah, I just wa fa gra got some fa grah got some. And it's like you're just saying the ingredients that you have yet we got Russ, we got ad, we got Lebron. We're just figuring some things out, and it's like you're not. I don't know that this mix ever makes sense. I'm not sure that this will ever taste good. I'm certain
this will never be a championship contender. But I think actually this is a recipe that's gonna put folks in the hospital if they eat it. Like I think you might have glass in your lungs at the end of this thing.
I mean, he's cooking up these lineups and.
They don't make no sense. Bron told reporters after the recent loss. We currently have no idea what this Lakers team it's capable of. Due to the whole entire season of us not all being together. It's hard to assess how good we can be. Yes, that's true, injuries impact a team, but guess what when you ad Russ and DeAndre and Jordan and Mellow were all playing, you were still five hundred. Russell Westbrook says he's also extremely very optimistic heading into the fifty games left in the season.
I mean, come on, I know he's not. Remember it was Russ who poo pooed the preseason saying that nobody cared about games that didn't count. And then it was Russ after the shaky start who was like, well, you can't judge a team in the first couple of weeks. Thirty one games in, He's like, well, can't judge a team till April. And it's like it's like, wait, we can't judge you until you're literally like packing up your locker.
Is that what you're saying that there's no time period prior to you going home.
Where we can say, hey, this isn't working.
It's like, well, Russ, you're just lost. I know. And how you should know that the Lakers are truly in trouble, like actually things are a big issue is that Austin Reeves, an undrafted player, same level as Jace grub a man that you've never heard of his name before this year is statistically their best player on the team. Who who exactly I call him diet Alex Carusoe, the assistant janitor, if you will, the assistant to the janitor, baby goat, which is the kid so Austin, the kid Reeves. That's
the new nickname for him. Undrafted number two two guard out of Oklahoma by the way of Wichita State. And when he is on the court, their defensive rating is at ninety eight point three. When he's off the court one oh eight point seven. That is a crazy net rating. His on court net rating is nine point eight. That's the highest on the team by far, I mean, out
of guys that actually play. I mean, we knew this team would struggle to get open bucks gets when they had Russell Westbrook, you know, fucking with the spacing.
You know, we knew that.
Everybody knew that. But you didn't think that they would be twenty sixth in the league in offense while Lebron James was on the court, thirtieth below thirtieth on offense when Lebron James is not on the court, So basically just to be mediocre, Lebron James needs to log like forty eight minutes a game, Like what time is the circle? Every team with Lebron with every team with Russell Westbrook
struggles offensively. He limits every superstar that he's near. That's just the case, Like, that's just what I hate to say, is the case. It's not an easy fac I don't know, Like, what is the recipe for success? And we've said it
a million times for Lebron James. You surround Lebron James with shooters that can space the floor, provide lots of open lanes for passing, open lanes for driving, and kicking, Like all of those three things make for a successful offense move without the ball, drive, kick, open up things with you know, dribble drives, open up things with pick and roll, pinned downs, et cetera. Right when you have Russell Westbrook, none of those options exist, Like they're all gone.
It was like, and then you give him instead a bunch of old guys that either can't shoot or that do shoot but can't play defense, like Carmelo Anthony. And so it's a net negative regardless whether it's on the floor, whether or not on the floor. It's not a great scenario because when Carmelo is not on the floor, they can't fucking play offense. When he's on the floor, they can't play fucking defense. That's what the numbers on NBA
dot Com slash Advance tell you. You know what I mean, It's not any and it's not even a hard fix. It's not even like a supremely difficult fix. I think it's completely impossible to fix. And now with ad is hurt, this team is now giving big minutes to my man DJ my man DeAndre Jordan, who won in a recent game, was a negative twenty six in fifteen minutes of time. That's the largest in the NBA. He is the second lowest plus minus while playing fifteen minutes or fewer by
a Laker since two thousand. Since two thousand, he's nine minus ninety two for the season. That's the second lowest player by any player in the entire NBA who's played three hundred and fifty minutes or fewer.
And shams and woves. They keep.
Clicking and clicking on their Twitter machines saying that the Lakers are active on the trade market, and I'm like houseway, how what you gonna get, how are you going to take It'd be like, okay, you got that box of the light bulb and the Fois Gras and the chocolate and the popcorn, and you're like, hey, I'll trade you this light bulb for your stake. And you're like, no, I'll trade you my Russell Westbrook light bulb that fits nowhere in this box. And I want you to give
me Ben Simmons. No, I'm sorry. Even even someone who's about to lose his job like Darryl Mory's not gonna do that trade. And that's assuming that they can actually trade for anyone like Jeremy Grant isn't gonna help this team win a title.
And I don't even think you can get Jeremy Grant.
Like the best trade piece that the Lakers have is Austin Reeves, Like, and he makes no money. He makes no money, So your most valuable piece, you can't even trade for anyone of value for him back, Like that's your best player, Austin Reeves, you can't trade him, Like you would be better off actually truthfully trading Lebron James and Austin Reeves. Right now, that's a t that's a troll thing to say.
That's a troll.
See that's but it's not untrue statistically.
So what does this mean going forward?
You've got a thirty seven year old player, Lebron James, who must play thirty five minutes or more just to keep them at five hundred in mediocrity perpetually. And then when they ask an interim coach David Fizdale, mister take that for data, because currently Frank Vocal has COVID like everyone. They asked him, hey, why don't you try to slow Lebron James from playing so many minutes? And he's like, Lebron doesn't give us a choice.
What are you talking about?
Like, what do you mean?
He's out there?
He literally just he just puts his body on the floor and then we have to find someone to pull off the floor. Lebron always wants to be out there. He's in such good shape. He's not worrying about it. I mean, you know who's gotta worry about Lebron James
getting reinjured? Everyone, every single person who profits off of the NBA must worry, must shake in their boots, must stay up late at night wondering thinking about the amount of minutes that Lebron James is logging for this dog shit team, like he would probably bring in just as much money on the East Coast when we can watch him at a reasonable hour, Cause I don't want to watch him at eleven PM play with DeAndre Jordan and Austin fucking Reefs. I would love to see Lebron James
with Evan Mobley. Oh, I kind of love that. I would love Lebron James and Darius Garland and Laurie Markinen and Evan Mobley on at seven pm Eastern time in Purple and Gold. I would love them to just not be in Cleveland. I would just love them to be another team instead. But you can't have everything you want. And then if you're wondering, okay, well maybe they'll just wait for the Russell Westbrook contract to fall off the books and him to be a They just lose him
for nothing, something, buy him out whatever. No, by that time, James will be forty. That's I mean by next not this summer, but the following summer, Lebron James will be thirty nine and change. And that's not great. Honestly, I just cannot think of a single scenario for the Lakers to get out of this one. Somehow you took five valuable pieces that you could trade and brought back one light.
Bulb like.
I can just and then they're like, oh, you know, it's just Russell Westbrook. He just plays a little too fast for trying to slow him down. And it's like this light bulb, all it knows how to do is give you a light like that's all it is, on or off, that's all it is.
You can't slow this man down. We've tried.
He's a Tasmanian devil. Ask folks in Washington whether Russell Westbrook can play at sixty five percent pace in the speed that every other elite athlete plays at, because he's legitimately way too fast to be on the court with other elite athletes. I mean, I the only way it works is if Lebron James somehow becomes twenty three years old.
Again, I don't think that's gonna work.
Or you could potentially trade the only real piece you could besides Austin Reeves is Anthony Davis. If he traded Anthony Davis for like Donovan Mitchell or Paul George, I don't see any scenario short of that where this team can actually do what it needs to do, which is to win a title, the let alone even contend for a title like this is not a team in the top six and the fact that they're five hundred right now is a testament to how great Lebron James has been.
He has been fucking amazing, Like we can't say enough how good he is at this age. And it still doesn't matter because without him, this team is twelfth, thirteenth in the West with a lovely, sweet, very athletic light bulb who gets paid forty six million dollars and is an anchor bringing your entire fucking franchise down to the basement in the West. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We will be back Monday evening with a new episode from all of us here
at Odissey. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy whatever holiday that you enjoy. If you just passed with the winter solstice, Happy Solstice to you have a joyous holiday folks. Please do not forget to subscribe, download and tell all your friends about the pod. Follow us off social at the Tea Check and at Tristan Creek on TikTok. We will see you Monday. Lady, to my intended tempt