Quick updates on the Timberwolves courtesy of I think he's like now the head of PR for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think he's now got that job. He's playing basketball and the head of PR, head of communications, Austin Rivers, he's not really last episode, Austin we talked about it, came out and gave his thoughts on why the team sucked, who's responsible? Everyone is at fault, but of course it's Rudy Gobert's fault. Of course.
As an aside, did you guys see this Minnesota?
Is anybody worse at social media than the Minnesota Timberwolves because they've tried to create like this buzz around Rudy Gobert and they've given him a new nickname.
What do you think his nickname is? What do you think it is?
I immediately said something French, right, like the like the croissant or something. It will probably be better than this. Gob Zilla g o b Zilla as in Godzilla with a b gob like like ghak, like what what are we doing here? Gob Gobzilla like Gobert?
I get it. Shouldn't it be Gobzilla? Then? Gobzilla probably the worst nickname of all time. Let's be honest, I am.
I am here for anything that makes Rudy Gobert look worse. So Rudy Gobzilla. Well they gonna say you got gobsmacked by Gobzilla.
What are we?
That's so dehumanizing too to call him Godzilla?
Godzilla?
Like, listen, I know we don't like Rudy, but if you have to think about calling him something and you're using Godzilla as his nickname, that'd be like Colin Carl Anthony Towns cat squatch.
That's probably their next one instead a sad squash cat squatch.
I think it's probably someone like twenty two years old, probably making like four fifty an hour.
They're like just trying.
To fire off hot tweets. Back to Austin Rivers, that was a total aside. This is what he had to say. Aunt Edwards is currently six years away from his prime and he's already this good. He's a franchise player. He's the guy here, no doubt about it.
Pause.
Hold up, Austin Rivers, you just started something. You just started some shit. I don't know if you know this, Austin, but your job is to calm things down, not to fire things up. Not Carl Anthony Towns. He's not the guy, not Gobzilla, Rudy Gobert. He's not the guy, not Diloo and followed the entire Wolves organization on Instagram because he's not getting extended aunt Edwards.
I agree, by the way, aunt.
Edwards is the man in Minnesota according to Austin Rivers, and you know what, he's not wrong and as the star, probably the only star that you can count on a night to night basis. Did you see what Aunt Edwards did to everyone the last three games?
He has been insane.
They need I think he played against Portland and was ridiculous.
They need to build around him and no one else.
Only only this is the way for Minnesota to break out of its history of underperforming. Only this is the way. He is our Joe Burrow. If you like Minnesota. He is needing to be protected and surrounded by players that bring out the best in him. And everyone else is just a distraction and is just a complication and is just on.
Their way out. Really.
But what's amazing about all of this is that Austin Rivers is actually speaking about the Wolves future six years from now, not five, not seven.
Six years from now.
Is Austin Rivers lobbying to be the head coach or assistant coach of the wool of six years from now, where he can give Aunt Edwards the keys, because that would be a very political, very doc rivers Sun kind of thing to do. I cannot hear what else he's gonna say. He's gonna be talking all year because he's two way, he's not fully guaranteed, and he's got the gift of gab.
Yeah.
I think he's turning into our Olivia Pope from Scandal, like the crisis manager pr for Austin Rivers.
It's about that time again. Happens every year. Is it time to time to bust a rhyme? No? Is it time to make fun of Rudy Gobert? Always?
But no, it's NBA Fan All Star voting time. So the beginning of my annual rants on how much.
I absolutely hate fan voting. I hate it. I think it's fucking trash. I think it needs to go.
Today Shams dropped the first standings in the NBA fan voting and it was as dumb as I've ever seen. It was dumber than last year. If it's even possible. Let's look at what it currently looks like now. Depth wise, Western Conference. You've got Lebron James in the front court, Jokic front court, A d Zion Wiggins, which isn't as crazy as it was last year, honestly, Paul George, Laurie, Markinen Fine, Draymond Kawhi, Kevon Looney, the Guards in the West, Steph Curry, Luca jaw Shay Clay.
Russell Westbrook, Russell Westbrook.
Damian Lillard, Devon Booker, eighth, Austin Reeves nine. These are all by votes, by the way, this is a ranking system. Jordan Pool ten. We've got Russell Westbrook over Damian Lillard. We've got Russell Westbrook over Devon Booker. Listen, I'm not a big fan of Jordan Poole's as you can see, but Austin Reeves over Jordan Poole, Austin Reeves for Austar. There's one hundred and forty four thousand people that voted.
For Austin Reeves. All of them live in LA.
All of them are own, all of them are probably a bus family member.
Let's go to the east.
KD number one, three million votes, Jannis number two, Joe l embiid three, Tatum four, Jimmy Butler interesting, very interesting, Pascal Siakam six, Come on, come on, Kyle Kuzma.
I didn't even see this one. Kyle Kuzma.
Number seven, Paolo ben Carroll finally an honest vote.
Nick Claxton, Nick Claxton, he's.
Been good, but he's he is he an All Star? And Jared Allen number one. This is where it gets funny. Kyrie Irving number one guard in the East.
Kyrie Irving, the one that was suspended miss time.
I know he's going crazy. I know that nets are winning games. Two million votes for Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell two fair, James Harden three, Jalen Brown four, Tray Young, Tray Young, Trey Young's five. Listen, let's just go down the list. We've got LaMelo at seven. Tyrese Haliburton. LaMelo hasn't even played any games. Tyrese Halliburton should be.
Five on this list. He should be five. He should be five.
Absolutely, Derek Rose, that's how you know this shit is fucked up. You know, I don't want to cuss that much because I got old people and babies.
Listen to pot. That's fucked Derek Rose.
Over Darius Garland, didn't I just tell you Darius Garland put up forty five forty seven twice like Darius Garland tenth. The disrespect to put Trey Young, who is largely the most inefficient player in the league right now, is absolutely insane.
Braun.
Of course running away with this is that utterly predictable. That's what he does because he's a global superstar. He's a bigger superstar than's Laton. Don't let his Laton fans hear that because they get mad. But putting Lebron James over Jokic, what.
Are we talking about? What are we saying? I like Lebron. He's had nice, a nice last ten games. He's been injured too, Yoga just played every fucking game.
He's having the most efficient season of his career. He's improved his defense at an all NBA level. Five thirty eight says he should win the Defensive Player of the Year. We got Anthony day to day. Davis is third.
What are we doing? What are we doing? Why?
He's missed weeks of time? No one knows when he's coming back. Five of the ten forwards in the West have missed significant time. Laurie Markinen has not missed time, he has balled out. He's seventh. The question, though, that I have, is where the fuck is Demontis Sabonis?
Where is he? What has he been doing? You mightn't think because you're not a Kings fan. What is demonis Sabonis doing this season?
Okay, he's averaging nineteen thirteen and seven, nineteen thirteen and seven, he's playing with a broken thumb and not missed a game. Anthony Davis would never, never, guard wise, why is Austin Reeves on this list? Like I said, Aunt Edwards didn't even make the list.
Oh my god, this list is trash. Fans are terrible. You can just see it.
Bat Little market teams like Sacramento, Minnesota, no shine, big markets like Atlanta, like LA. I don't know why. I don't even know the explanation for Kyle Kuzma.
Former Lakers get to just make this list now too.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure Kyle Kuzma. He's had a fine year, but let's be honest, he's on a trash team.
Wizards. Bradley Beale has been out pretty much indefinitely. He just made had a hint, i'mstring strain.
What are we doing Kyle Kuzma over Powello. No, no, just no.
Trey Young over Tyrese Halliburton.
Trey Young is shooting forty one percent from the field this year period.
Not from three, He's shooting thirty one percent from.
Three and that's up since in the last month he was at twenty nine percent. That's bottom five for high volume shooting in the entire NBA. Derek Rose over Darius Garland. Take this fan vote away. Take it away. They don't deserve it. They don't know how to use this power. We got randoms coming up playing the All Star Game, and it affects their checks, it affects their confidence, it affects how people around the league see them. This is enough,
This is fucked up. This is terrible. You're not qualified to have a vote. If you're putting Austin Reeves on there.
You don't get a vote.
You don't get one. Derek Rose, you don't get a vote. Two hundred and twenty thousand people vote for Dereck Rose.
Are you serious? And I know it's like MX points.
They're like today, you in five votes if you vote for someone for the All Star Game, which is also crazy. One fan one vote. You don't get extra votes. It's not like today's a special day. If you buy gas you get triple the points. You buy a plane ticket on American Airlines with AMX, you get five x the points. No, you vote for Derrick Rose, you get one vote. I bet all of his votes came on like triple points day. This is insane.
Believe me.
I will talk about this every year going forward. I get more enraged year by year. I'm like trying to chill out, but these things they do not make it easy to chill out. Speaking of which, we got to chill out. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Monday afternoon with an all new episode, which means Tuesday morning for you.
Check out the feed.
We've got other episodes, we got interviews, little mini episodes that come out follow the Heat Check as well. On social, I'm getting absolutely cooked regarding my Jordan's pool take. People are telling me to get back to the kitchen, get into the comment section, protect me.
Fans don't forget to.
Download, subscribe, Please tell your friends and follow us. Like I said on Social, I add this heat Check and trist to crick on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, all that see you next time.