You're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick. On this episode of a Heat Check, we are now at the halfway point of the regular NBA season.
Can you believe it?
Time is going best, folks. It is time for me, Professor Crick, to give out some grades some guys. Some teams are getting the ruler, folks, Smack smack. This episode, we're gonna break down the Eastern Conference. We're gonna grade every team from Atlanta down to the Washington Wizards. So let's get right to it, Nick, we don't have much time drop that generic gass beat. All right, So we've
reached halfway throughout the season. Actually, last Thursday, I could have done it, but I didn't feel like it was too much work. It's a lot you gotta go into all these ratingsts. I don't mean to make it sound like my job's like super complicated.
It's not.
I do this for the love of the game. So I wanted to do it. I want to do it right. And now it's just like college. It's like the midterm exams and we're giving out mid semester grades. Some teams I think will be very happy with their scores. Kids that came into the classroom. They had a backpack with no books in it, and you said to yourself, oh boy, this is gonna be a doozy, And all of a sudden they became one of the best students in the
whole damn classroom. And then others will probably be very sad.
But them's the breaks.
I am just the instructor, and I call it like I see it.
So let's start out East. Let's break it down.
Next episode will break down the West, because, like I said, these stats are hard to come by. So let's start in the Atlantic Division. The Atlantic Division is a wagon by the way you look at it. I think it's the best division in the entire NBA. What you may not think about it because who does who is in the Atlantic Division. It's the Nets, It's the Sixers, it's the Celtics, it's the Knicks.
That's a good ass, good ass division.
And listen, like, most of these teams have had various degrees of dysfunction throughout this offseason and into the season itself. So I mean these teams were seen as toxic full rebuild situations like the Brooklyn Nets. Four of these teams right now, though four of these teams are top six in the East. So it's a wagon that's unreal. So let's start with the Brooklyn Nets. I mean, that's the kid that came in with the backpack that was empty, and you were like, this kid's going to fail, Like,
this kid's probably gonna withdraw the class. In the first month of the season, they look like they were headed for a full teardown, didn't They kd wanted out. Kyrie was a mess. He gets suspended, he wants a max deal, they say no. In the offseason, there's just cascating thing after cascading thing, the whole yahweh issue. Oh my god, Joe sigh. They wanted to fire Sean Marks. Oh yeah. By the way, they fired their coach in the middle of the season. Try to hire em Udoka. That didn't
work because the league shut that down. They brought in Jacques Vaughn, who was the interim head coach the last time they fired their coach. So it was a world class distraction. You were like, okay, this is we had the ghost of Nick Claxton.
What's he gonna be? Like, what's TJ.
Warren gonna be? Ben Simmons, Is he gonna be himself? He had been in his own mind, just very broken, and so you're thinking to yourself at this point, this team steering at a full rebuild, especially when Kevin Durant wanted out and you look up after they fired Steve and their second in the East. You gotta give the Brooklyn Nets an a plus. You have to. They are the second best defensive team in the last fifteen games.
They went eighteen and two after they brought on Jacque Vaughn KD until his injury became probably at the peak of his powers. Nick Claxton, by the way, who no one is talking about as a real defensive Player of the Year. He's like plus fourteen hundred right now, which is worth a little sprinkle if you want to put a little money on it for that award. He's got twelve double doubles so far. He's dominating in six of the seven interior categories in the league. He leads the
league in blocks. Ben Simmons has been a game changer. And it's not just the defense either. They've been very good in terms of their bench. Edmund Sumner, TJ. Warren, My Guy, John Utah, Wattnabe, Joe Harris coming back from injury, p Mills, cam Thomas, Royce O'Neil, all of whom have stepped up now that Kevin Durant is out after you know,
for another month. Oh yeah. By the way, Kyrie Irving is taking accountability for not playing well in fourth quarters, tweeting out, I me, Kyrie Irving have to be better. When have we seen that? Hey, I gotta be a better leader. Did someone take over this man's account? You can't get I ed gray than the Brooklyn Nets. Boy, I swear I thought that was a shit show. And they have vastly overperformed expectations. This team could win at all? What Boston Celtics less excited about them? Why they went
to the finals? They went to the finals. Yes, they had their share of dysfunction as well. They fired he may Udoka. Let's be real to firing He's never coming back to this team. They bring on a guy with his own set of scandals, a bunch of skeletons in his closet, a religious sellate that he is who I'm not completely sold on.
And the team was in need of a prayer and they found one.
They went obviously, and they had a bunch of key pieces that they still had two of the best wings in the league with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. Rob Williams, though missed twenty nine games start of the season, and the fact that they're still number one in the East feels very impressive to me. They pick up Malcolm Brogden probably would have been a shoe in to win six Man of the Year if Russell Westbrook didn't become whatever we're seeing. If he gets traded, Malcolm Brogden will win
six Man of the Year. But the only thing that I can't give him an A plus or an A solid a their name minus for me. They lost to the Magic twice. They got stomped by the Dubs. They got stomped by the Clippers. They lost to the Thunder, the OKC Thunder, who is largely considered to be one of the biggest egregious tankers in the league. They lost to them by almost fifty points, fifty of them half
of one hundred. So I don't really know what else to say other than the motivation of this team can sometimes be called into question, and that, my friends, is a coaching problem and something that.
Even Joe Mizula is making fun of.
That he doesn't take timeouts and maybe he should, and that the momentum shifts.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Boston Celtics are gonna be fine. But I can't give him an A plus or an A minus because largely.
The pieces are the same.
Let's move on to the New York Knicks. New York Knicks gotta give them B minus B minus, which is pretty damn good, right, pretty damn good for the New York Knicks. Halfway point, specifically, Jalen Brunson has been a monster. He has worked out. He is averaging thirty two points in the month of January, what, fifty percent from three point range, almost six rebounds, almost six assists per game. They've got one of the best road records in the NBA,
fourteen and eight. Do you know what the Golden State Warriors would do to be fourteen and eight on the road. Julius Randall right now is playing out of his mind for the most part. And the young guys they're developing into contributors as well, right, Like, Yeah, we may not see ob topping much, but he's been injured. RJ Barrett on the other end, hasn't been great despite his stats, saying that he has been okay, he just hasn't really been there.
He's gotten injured.
I would imagine the one downside that the Knick sea is Wow, Donovan Mitchell really is him. We probably should have traded Quinton, Like I can't believe that Quinton Grimes held this fucking trade up Quinton Grimes. Do we see what Donovan Mitchell is doing? He has seventy one points. If you would have said to Leon Rose, this man's gonna score seventy one in the garden, are you willing to trade Quinton Grimes and RJ Beart, I think that
they regret that decision. Fucking her extending RJ. Barrett trying to play little games with our man, Danny Ainge. You can't play games with Ange. Uh. They've blown On the other side, that's also bad. They've blown seven double digit leads and lost those games. Remember the game that Luca had like one of his.
Best performances ever.
They scored like they were down nine with thirty seconds or nineteen seconds to.
Go, and the MAVs won that game. Yeah, that was against the Knicks.
That was against them, And when it comes down to crunch time, the offense goes stagnant.
They miss a bunch of free throws.
I think they were like eleven for forty one a couple of games ago. Certainly a fun team, definitely overperformed, but some flaws, some bad decisions where I feel like, man, would they be good with Donovan Mitchell moving forward in the Atlantic Division. Philadelphia seventy six Ers, who to me, they are a B plus. They are very interesting. I think this is the same sort of team as they were last year, where I don't know if they're good or not.
I don't know.
I'm not sure they could go to the Eastern Conference Finals.
They could flame out in the first round.
All of that depends on the two key pieces, which is James Harden and Joe l emb Are they healthy, are they in shape, do they have a connection?
Can they be stopped? How is the defense doing well? They brought on PJ.
Tucker, the guy who was considered it would be one of the best point of attack defenders in the league.
He has stunk.
He has stunk so bad that people within the blogosphere of Philadelphia seventy six Ers media are calling for him to be sitting his ass on the bench. So all that considered for the Sixers to still be fourth in the league in defensive rating with PJ. Tucker largely being not very effective, is pretty good because of the Anthony Mountain that the Anthony Mountain trade that they made with
the Memphis Grizzlies is unreal. The Anthony Mountain is one of the top leaders and steals per game and deflections. If you look at Embiid and Harden, their connection has been elite. They've also had their fair share of injuries, though, so you can't give them an eight right because all those things that we worry about have already reared their ugly head. Embiid has missed time. He's missed nine games,
Harden has missed fourteen games in a row. He's back and somehow a player that they did not account to lose. Tyrese Maxey missed nineteen games, but all of that considered, the Sixer still managed to go thirteen and six without him and they're healthy now. So with Maxi and Embiid and Harden, the Anthony Mountain all in the court, gelling and meshing, this team could be really, really dangerous. Tobias Harris, he doesn't even have to do much now that Tyrese
Maxey is good he's a very solid fourth option. Considering that his stats have declined and plummeted off of a cliff. It's okay because you don't need him to score a bucket. When Embiid is out sitting on the bench, it's like, that's fine. Just spot up, shoot threes, catch and shoot, maybe do a little dribble drive pass back to James and let the offense flow. So this team could be dangerous or like I said, they could be a first
or second round exit Toronto Raptors. What's stopping me from giving you an F Hope, good roster, good GM, good coach.
They're a D minus.
This is a team that you could say is one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA. I thought they would be like a top four, top five seed. When you have current players like CJ. McCollum commenting about the Toronto Raptors generally speaking in like nobody speaks about them, right, But when.
You have them talking about the Toronto Raptors on.
An ESPN hit with i Isy Gutierrez and speaking of them in negative terms, not in the fact that they're the gold standard, which is what they have been for recruiting and scouting and developing talent and making talent gel and mesh, finding guys that came from the G League.
All that is what Toronto is known for. Right now, they are known.
For their dysfunction and now that means it is bubbled up to be mainstream news quickly. As an aside, does anyone find it weird that CJ. McCollum, who's not just a player, he is the president of the NBA Players Union, is commenting on this on ESPN, like, I don't know, like just feeding chum to the aggregators, the bloggers for drama purposes and driving ESPN's ratings at the detriment of other NBA teams as a whole. Like I feel like Kevin Durant would not like that. I don't feel like.
The pure Hoopers would want to do that.
That's kind of the icky thing where it feels like these players are start towing the line between player and like media personality, Like you can't on one hand be CJ. The New Orleans Pelican Hooper mid range master and on the other hand hot take men stephen A.
Smith wannaby, I don't like that. I don't like that.
But here's what he had to say when he was spilling the team.
I think in terms of what they need or what they're lacking, something's gonna happen. I don't know what. There's rumblings about certain players on the team not being happy and due to tampering. I can't speak to that, but I think they're gonna move someone.
So let's break this down.
The Raptors came to the season and we all thought that they were on the rise. Scotty Barnes wins Rookie of the Year. He looks to emerge as a real superstar playmaker, can do multiple things on the court. Siakam We knew he was gonna take a step up, and he did take a step up. He's been insane this year, absolutely incredible. Og Nnobi was supposed to break out. He's actually leading the league in deflections right now, so defensively, he's been amazing. And they got out from under Kyle
Lowry's contract. They had Fred van Fleet, who.
Is an All Star.
Like, all of this gave us vibes of improvement. Right, you've got to bring in another heavy hitter. Okay, okay, it's all good, but no, halfway through the season, despite a team of six to seven to six to nine guys, with the with the best steal rate in the league, allowing the fifth least points in the paint, the fourth lowest second chance points in the league. The Raptors are only fifteenth in the league in defensive rating. So why folks,
They're five games under five hundred. They are out of the play in tournament, and I am not sure that they will sneak into the play in tournament. And now you've got rumblings about various players wanting out. Fred van Fleet wanted to get paid, them not wanting to pay him because he is undersized and has somewhat of a ball dominant attitude. Pascal Siakam is one of the only guys that is untradeable, but does he want to be traded. I've heard that Ogannobi is unhappy with his role and
how he's being used on this team. Who is not unhappy? Scottie Barnes doesn't look happy. You've got Nick Nurse throwing Gary Trent under the bus and saying, listen, if he can't play defense, he's of no use to us. He's yelling at players on the coach, I mean, on the bench. There's just so much going on with this team, safe to say this is not the way anybody thought it would go, not the way that anybody would want it to go, which is why they get a failing grade.
They can't get enough because I love Missiu Jerry, and I think he's too smart to let this shit happen. Still time for things to turn around. But when you only have two guys on this roster who are untouchable, that's a rut row. That is a massive, massive rut row. Let's move to the Central Division. We'll start with the
Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee Bucks get a solid C, not a C plus, not a C minus, but a C. They have the third best record in the East, but I think probably the most disappointing team in the division.
If the Pistons did not exist.
They have almost the entire year, with the exception of seven games, been lacking Chris Middleton. When they did have Chris Middleton for those seven games, he looked like Doo doo.
He looked horrible. It's never a good sign.
May they asked Chris Middleton about his time that he has been missing, and what I found to be very strange is uh that some people close to Chris Middleton have said that Chris Middleton's knee injuries will continue to persist and continue to be a problem, and they've always been a problem. Who are those people close to Chris Middleton? Chris Middleton, this is what he said. I've always had
knee issues since college. When I tour my meniscus. That was one of the reasons why my stock in the draft drop lower because I was coming off of a meniscus injury that a lot of people didn't trust it. It's been great for me so far. What I'm going through now normally happens during the offseason when nobody hears that my knee is swollen. I still work out. Rest doesn't do it any good. It's just building it back slowly.
What so Chris Middleton, you would imagine telling on himself probably not the best strategy unless he's like, I don't know, locked down for.
The next five years.
It's like, oh, I'm under team control, guaranteed contracts, bitch, I'm just gonna tell you that my knees swollen. Twenty four to seven. Wait, let me look and see when his contract ends. What next year? Twenty twenty four, he's a free agent and he had missed having knee pain and knee swelling. Since college, He's had only played seven games and largely been unproductive. I would say for the Milwaukee Bucks, that is a big red flag. That's about as big red flag for a wing as you can get.
The rest of the box not giving me much hope either. Giannis all of a sudden missing games, not just load management games. This is his fourth straight game that he's missed as of today. He hyper extended his left knee in the Eastern Conference Finals two years back, and now it's the same knee that's giving him problems that he played through when they won the title. I don't know about that. This team feels like a hospital wing to me. Drew Holliday has missed time. Grayson Allen has missed time.
Chris Middleton has missed time. Two years ago, Brook Lopez had back surgery. So that gives me a little bit of pause. My man, Serge Ibaka isn't playing basketball that I had to look him up because he's been so irrelevant. The only thing that I know of Serjebaka doing is YouTube videos eating bow penises. He used to be one of the best room protectors in the League, and now he just makes other NBA players admit things while eating weird foods.
So yeah, I give him a very low grade in my mind.
Of all always said that the Milwaukee Bucks were healthy, they were unbeatable. But the question is is that actually true anymore? Has the window closed? Like? Should we be worrying when Giannis and Chris Middleton both aren't healthy, Andrew Holliday hasn't been healthy, the core three not fully healthy?
I can't tell.
Without a rescue line at the trade deadline, the window very much might be closing soon. Indiana Pacers.
A minus.
This is maybe the biggest surprise in the Eastern Conference, maybe the biggest surprise in the entire NBA. I saw the Sacramento Kings coming. What I did not see coming was the Pacers, and they are fun. Everybody thought that the Pacers were gonna be a lottery team. Even the Pacers thought they were gonna be a lottery team. The Pacers told the world at Summer League, we're in the sweepstakes for Victor Wamba Yama. Let me tell you this, they are not. They are not even close to getting
Victor Wamba Yama. They are in eighth place right now twenty three and twenty one, and they've had injuries too. They're doing all this with guys out of the lineup, like Miles Turner, like Tyrese Halliburton. Dworte has missed twenty two games, but Tyrese Halliburton is now becoming one of the best playmakers in the league, making that Sabonis trade look beneficial for very much both sides. He's consistently getting
double digitusists per game. He's scoring twenty four forty just massive numbers on a night tonight basis, And oh did I mention Ben Maturin akaa, Ben Matthern is averaging over seventeen a game as a rookie coming off the fucking bench.
Can they keep this up? I don't know.
I think so.
But they're probably gonna have to pay Miles Turner now.
They're probably gonna have to pay Buddy Heel now, or they're gonna trade him for a boatload of assets to some aspiring team like the Milwaukee Bucks that want to win a title and get a lot in return. He Smith that spow Track wrote a piece about a month ago about how the Pacers are looking to lock Miles Turner up for an extension and he said no, So who knows. But they have been largely excellent all year. This is a very fun team. Not something I thought I would be saying. Chicago Bulls.
C minus.
Yeah, they are in crisis mode, aren't they. We talked about it recently, We've talked about them all year, and not in good terms.
Right, They are just not very fun.
Everybody on the bull seems to be ready for a blow up, right, Like Lonzo Ball just gave an interview today where he said whether he would even play the rest of the season. You got the Bulls taking out insurance policies in case Ball doesn't play basketball ever again, covering eighty million dollars left on his contract. You got Zach Lavine, who hates everybody on his team. He's taking mid range twos with four seconds left to go down three, very much trying to lose that game. Billy Donovan hated
by everybody. DeMar DeRozan the only bright spot on this team, but he's had injury issues as well. Is there anything to like about this team? Is there anything fun? Well?
I guess Alex Caruso is fun, but that's it. They could be.
Beating anyone on any given night, and they could be beaten by anyone on any given night. I don't know what to make of them. I don't know if they're going to be sellers. I don't know if they're going to be buyers. Every time they tank and everybody thinks, okay, it's a blow it up scenario, they win five, and then it's like, I don't know. Now the delusional Chicago fan base is getting excited again. They are a c student. They barely show up the class. When they show up
the class, they fall asleep. And then all of a sudden, on a random Tuesday, they have intelligent questions and they have thoughts and notes and poignant pieces of knowledge to share that maybe nobody in the class has ever thought about before.
But that happens like literally, when.
The blue moon is out, Cleveland Cavaliers as you have to start talking about the Cavs through the Mitchell lens. He's incredible. He's the most dramatically different player from last year to this year that I've seen from a superstar. Just changing teams, He's increased how many threes he takes per game. He's taking sometimes ten threes a game. He would take three, four five threes a game in Utah. The way that they play is really beneficial to him.
He's bouncier, he's faster, he's quicker, he's just got it.
He's just so fun.
And this trade looks amazing for the Cavaliers. They just do He's playing defense now, clearly something that he did on purpose to Utah to say, you know what, fuck ERU to Gobert, I'm not gonna play defense because why because you guys have a two time defensive Player of the Year.
He can handle it, you know what. Let him do it.
And the one thing that's strange I think that's holding the Cavs season back is Evan Mobley. Evan Mobley has regressed. He's not the player that he was when everyone thought he would be the rookie of the Year. And I think that's something that's gonna take time for him to figure out his role, because I think he can be an all NBA kind of a guy. I think he's got all the tools. I think he's got a great attitude.
But they're fifth place, standing a half game out of third, pretty much expecting where I would think they would finish right right in the slot, maybe fourth, maybe fifth, maybe third.
Somewhere in there.
You add in Garland, who has missed time with his own eye injury. You now get Ricky Rubio back though to counteract that, and then you know you've got Mobile and Jared on the front line. And all they need really is a wing, a good solid wing to get rid of a coro's ass and find somebody competent that can play three if that is the case, If they do that at the deadline, what they really need is LORI marking them back. They could be very, very dangerous Detroit Pistons.
They get a D plus. That stinks. I like them so much, I wanted to give him a C minus.
I just couldn't. They What are they right now? Record wise? It's not great. They're twelve and thirty five. You can't give somebody a C plus when they're twelve and thirty five. But they're fun right like. They're a team that you enjoy watching on a night to night basis. They compete and lose, same kind of thing as they did last year, same kind of thing as they did two years ago. This year, Cad Cunningham gets hurt, he goes out for the rest of the year. That's a big setback. They
weren't gangbusters when he was playing. But I tell you what, You're not gonna win many games when the number one overall pick is down for the year with a strange injury, right, And now you don't get to develop chemistry with Ja Nivy, the rookie, you know, Jalen Duran, he's not finding time with cad. So it's just another wasted year of a rebuild. And you wonder, does Sadik bay now get moved? What
do we do with Bogdanovich? Did they really want Bogdanovich to begin with or is he just an asset if they locked up long term to be a valuable trade piece in the future. So this team's probably headed for another high lottery pick. They will consistently be athletic, they will consistently be fun, they will play hard for Dwayne Casey, and they will be extremely watchable, but they.
Will not win games.
And unfortunately the off season has been a bit.
Of a wash.
Let's move to the Southeast Division, which is probably the worst division in these So the Hawks are a D plus. There's a lot more drama to unfold for them to get an F and I think it will happen. I can't give them an F right now because the season is not over.
Right.
You can't really give an F at the halfway point because what if things turn around?
Make no bones about it. Though this team's in trouble.
The GM got fired along with everybody else that he hired in the front office.
The owner turned.
The team over to his twenty seven year old son, who has no management experience. He probably didn't even manage a McDonald's, let alone a fucking team, so he's running things now. Came out of nowhere from the clouds. Had anybody heard of him before this year? No, I don't understand why people aren't more angry about this right Like, nobody's talking about it.
I don't see it on NBA today. I don't see it on first take.
You know why, because Atlanta is largely irrelevant as a team. If the dumpster fire just keeps on burning, and like a bad neighborhood, you just walk past it like it's fucking normal. But you know what, it's not normal, and I'm not going to normalize it. The coach wants to resign, the star players don't like each other, the I mean all of it.
Trey Young probably wants to be moved.
Trey Young wants Nake McMillan to be fired after they fired another coach like two years back.
And you know what they stink.
They stink on the court.
They are not a watchable product.
They're twenty one and twenty two and they play ugly ass basketball. Just a bunch of trible handoff you know, screen situations, thirty feet jumpers four seconds into the shot clock, give a lob only because the floater isn't working at the moment. Trey Young with the bad attitude. Is his shoulder working? Is it not working? Is he coming to the game? Is he coming to practice? Nobody knows, people ask he gets an attitude. All of it's weird. Nobody
wants to acknowledge it's weird. And the only thing that is good about them right now is Kyle Korver And Kyle Korver hasn't played for the Hawks in like fifteen years. Is Kyle Korver any good in terms of being him being a new assistant GM.
Which people probably don't even know. I don't know.
I just give him the benefit of the doubt because he has a nice smile and he seems like a nice guy. The whole front office are playing yes men to a guy five years out of college? Five years? Does this kid know anything about hoops? Did he play college hoops? Did he play in the NBA? Did he play high school hoops? Can he fucking make a layup with his off hand? What can he do? Does he have a mind for basketball? Or he's just a kid with a silver spoon in his mouth. I mean, this
is everything that's wrong with America. The Atlanta Hawks are everything that's wrong with America. A guy coming out of the clouds, just taking something that he's just like part of the Lucky Sperm club, and all of a sudden he has real power over a club where there's only thirty clubs.
Fuck the Atlanta Hawks.
They are deep plus staring right at a F. Charlotte Hornets.
I lied, I lied. They get an F.
They do.
I wasn't gonna give out midtermfs, but I mean, here we are.
Why Why do the Charlotte Hornets getting f Because they wanted to bring back a guy who beat the shit out of his girlfriend and his kid, allegedly, and they just pretended that they were never going to do that. They were never gonna bring him back and try to extend him because I don't know, they thought that they could gaslight us and that we would agree or believe them. Michael Jordan wants to bring Miles Bridges back because they're in shambles basketball wise, and it's like, oh, yeah, no,
we were never gonna do that. That was just something that we floated out to woo Janowski just to check the temp. And it's like, the temp is cold, the temp is ice cold. Okay, this is a trash division. There's a trash ass franchise. The only bright spot in this division right now is the Orlando Magic.
Think about that.
Think about that, the Orlando Magic that's been in the dumps for like thirty years, maybe not that long, since Dwight Howard was there and Jamiir Nelson. That's the team that I'm most excited about. In the Southeast might have to break out the dreadeddef for.
A bunch of teams in this division.
Moving forward to the Miami Heat, they get a C minus maybe fringe D plus as well. They're old, they're frustrated, they're looking for a change. No team has their fingers and more trade opportunities and scenarios than Miami.
They need to make a move. Who's gonna go. I don't know. It's not gonna be there goes My Tyler. Hero.
We know that because he's like the son of pat Riley. Outside of him, I think everyone's on the table. Sposter is a great coach, pat Riley's.
A great gym.
Again, this is like one of those scenarios like the Toronto Raptors, where you're like, okay, I kind of gotta give him the benefit of the doubt. They went to the Eastern Conference Finals. They were a three point shot away from Jimmy Butler from going to the finals. They went to the finals two years back in the bubble. But man, does it look bad right now when you gotta get meaningful minutes from Victor Oladipot and Gabe Vincent. No shade to gave Vincent like you need big minutes
for Omar. You're seven and Max Struce has to put up fifteen threes a game. It's brutal. Jimmy Butler's not it in terms of what you need from a player to carry a franchise, and I like Jimmy Butler. Bam is also rumored to be unhappy Lowry is Lowry but a worse version of himself and probably gonna get traded. I mean a player literally threw a massage gun in the middle of the court just the other day, So what are we doing? Can they get better? Probably because
it's pat Riley. They have an injured Duncan Robinson as an asset. They've got obviously bam Adebayo who could possibly go, Kyle Lowry who could possibly go.
Maybe Max Struce.
But I don't think they're gonna find any value from the undrafted free agent pool like they do so often. So Nikola Jovich isn't gonna save you. Some random guy is not gonna save you. They're gonna need to make a move to be anything positive. Orlando Magic. I just I'm just so intrigued B plus for the Orlando Magic. I was not expecting this. They they may even be a friend J minus. The Orlando Magic are the most fun team to watch in this division. They are breaking
all expectations. They have one of the greatest rookies in recent memory, Paolo Bencaro, who they knocked out of the park. He looks like he could be the next Lebron James type if he could get his handle up. He's big, he strong, he's a willing passer. He can shoot, he can rebound. He's getting twenty two points a game as a rookie, which is absolutely bananas. Franz Wagner is a beast. He's a wing who can handle the rock like a point guard who's six'. Ten Bowl bowl is what you.
Know we Want Victor wambanyama to be in terms of his. Floor they've had multiple injuries and somehow continue to win. Games they're not like a great team record, wise but they have beaten really good teams like The Boston celtics. Twice Markel folts is. Emerging Cole anthony's, Okay you've got a ton of assets that you can. Trade we haven't seen a peet From Jonathan isaac. Yet mobamba still needs to get better and. Develop they have A Wendel carter has been really. Good they have a lot of, dudes
a lot of. Dudes even though they're sixteen and twenty, eight they're only four games out of the play. In NOBODY i tell you if they were to sneak into the ten, seat nobody wants to See Wendell carter bul.
Bull Paolo Franz wagner And folts in a one and done, situation nobody, Nobody so for, me it's A b. Plus AND i think this team can get even better at the, deadline especially considering they have multiple guys who get limited minutes who would be really good on other teams that can succeed and try to.
Win Now.
Washington, wizards oh, god they get A d they. Do as a resident of THE, dmv.
They are. GROSS i have to say it as an unbiased. Fan they're no. Fun they're no fun to.
Watch eighteen and twenty five staring at the outside looking. In probably gonna fire THEIR Gm Tommy, shepherd which considering the Rumors i've heard About Tommy, shepherd WHICH i will not, name probably is a year too. Late Brad beal is locked down till the end of oblivion with a no trade, clause making fifty million dollars a, year and haven't played much games this. Year when he does, play he's chucking and missing and fourth quarters that you are out. Of
what's gonna happen With Kyle. Kuzma we already know he probably wants to. Leave you're gonna have to trade him or give him considerable amounts of money.
That is way over what he is valued.
At poor zingis is, okay you've Got Monty morris as your Prime murray ball.
Handler that's.
Bad the guy that you Took Johnny, davis he's not developing the one bright. Spot it's Probably Denny. Abdel he had twenty rebounds the other, night, twenty so maybe he's like your wing of the. Future tough team to root, for tough team to. Watch they play ugly ass. Basketball they lose all the, time but you know what they are covering. Machines so if you're AN nba better and they're at, home that is where stars come to load, Manage so keep that in. Mind that's all the time
that we have for The Heat. Check we'll be Back friday with an all new. Episode check out the feed for past. Episodes we'll do The Western conference midterm grades on, then as well as some social clips in terms of what's popping around THE. Nba we'll make sure to get you caught up to speed on. That do you not forget to, Download please, Subscribe please tell your, friends follow us on social at this heat check And Trista crik on TikTok and we'll see you next. Time