No team. Is that a bigger crossroads right now?
Well? Maybe I don't know if that's actually true, but the Chicago Bulls are at an impassed The Bulls currently nineteen and twenty one.
They're currently ninth in the East. But here's the little wrinkle that.
Kind of makes it more interesting. They've also won seven of ten, so they're the second hottest team in the Eastern Conference behind Brooklyn.
So what do you do? What do you do if they're the Chicago Bulls?
Do you try to salvage the rest of the season in hopes of maybe trying to make a play in tournament like seven or eight seed?
Do you cut bait? Do you rebuild?
Do you hope that a Lonzo comes back fully healthy next year? I don't even know if the Bulls know what they want to do, honestly, I don't. They keep making these statements, keep doing one thing, saying another. But everyone seems to be on the trade Balark right now, derozen Levin, Crusoe, Vooch all rumored to be on the move.
That's a lot of players that are superstars or stars.
So Caruso I would consider to be a very high valuable piece Derozen was leading in clutch field goal percentage for most of last year, had MVP buzz. Levine is obviously a certified bucket. Vouch is a guy who can get you ten rebounds, doesn't play a lot of defense, but he can score his ass off, and all are rumored to be gone.
What might seal the deal though?
On this are the rumors courtesy of the Chicago Sun Times, is that there might be big trouble with team chemistry. You say it ain't so, say it ain't so. A
growing rift between Zach Levine and Billy Donovan. Could not have seen that coming whatsoever, According to the Sun's Times reporter Joe Cally, who Levin Billy Donovan player relationship player coach relationship remained somewhat strained in the wake of a November eighteenth late game benching in which Donovan chose to ride out the final minutes minutes against Orlando with Leavin out of the game. I remember this like it was day, Like it was just yesterday. Why is Levin not playing
in the fourth quarter? It became kind of a thing. Leavin expressed his displeasure. That's one way of putting it right. He was pissed with Donovan's decision immediately after the game, stating, Yeah, that's Billy's decision. He's gotta lay with it. They lost that game, He's gotta lay with it. Do I agree with it?
No?
I think I can go out there and still be me even if I miss some shots. That's his decision and he's gotta stand on it.
Woo woo whoo. November eighteenth, guys checks notes. It's coming up on two months ago that I happened.
He's still upset about this, Yeah, apparently so. The trouble, though, of course, is that both of them just signed long term deals like just last fall, Donovan in secret in like September. Levine sign a max contract in June or July that pays him through the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven season. He will where he will make a shocking forty nine million dollars per year.
This is like a very side road.
I don't think secret extensions should be a thing. That does not make sense. Why are we signing Billy Donovan to an extension in secret because they know nobody is for it, you know, and you know you're gonna get heat for that. Do not try to sneak this in on a slow news day, do not anyway, Levigne obviously ballin. He's a bucket, but he's battling injuries. He's averaging twenty three game his knee I think is gonna give some
team's pause. I do good enough probably for someone to take a chance, because he's just that good at scoring if the Bulls actually choose to shop them. But that's the big question. The trade deadline is a month away. If the Bulls fade or go through a slump, he actually could be on the move. If they play well, he'll probably stay. They might actually be buyers at the deadline. And now you've got Kadie out for a month. At least, you got the Celtics in disarray. Other teams are struggling
at various times. He obviously have been okay recently, but not really good period, and I.
Think it's probably gonna take a big time falling out for the Bulls to give up on the season.
So you're looking at all these other teams that are struggling and you're saying.
This is our opportunity. I mean, until then, the Bulls are a team to watch closely.
And people will say like, which one do you choose if there is a big time rift like Nate McMillan and Trey Young, do you choose Billy Donovan or do you choose Zach Lavine?
For me, it's very simple. It's actually like should have been done only to neither neither.
I don't want either of these guys. Zach Lavini one of the most ball dominant dudes in the NBA with one knee. He's had multiple arthroscopic surgeries. Like this guy is getting paid fifty million dollars. He can't play defense. He's going to eventually slow down in terms of getting separation to the rim, getting buckets on his own. They both make way too much damn money because they are not affecting winning in any way, considering that this team
is hoping to be a playing team. Billy Donovan's a classic college coach like Yukon's head coach Dan Hurley, where it's like he's yelling at players. He's a control freak. He's just absolutely benching dudes for no reason. Both of these are trash. Both these are trash decisions for the Bulls, And lately we saw it, We saw it happened today Arizona Cardinals gave up on Cliff Kingsbury less than a year after extending him. He gets fired to day, so
neither should have been extended. If the Bulls want to rebuild, they blow it all up. They get rid and they get rid of de Rosa, they get rid of Donovan, they get rid of I guess you get rid of Caruso because you're gonna get a lot for him, get rid of Bouch. Literally, just rebuild it all up. You gotta ditch both bad contracts for sure. Send Levine off, probably can get two first round picks for him, Send Billy back to some college team like maybe like some other version of Iona.
And you know, take those picks and rebuild that team from the bottom up.
So there was some news recently that someone in the NBA wanted to beat the shit as Skip Bayless. Yeah, that doesn't shock me. There's no sports media comment earth that has had a worse week than Skip Bayless. There's plenty of people who have had worse weeks than Skip Bayless outside of that. In the week wait though, of the Monday night game between the Bills and the Bengals, Skip obviously tweeted a bunch of dumb bullshit about how the game needs to be played.
It was not really well worded.
He took a bunch of heat for from the Fox execs. Shannon his co host, didn't show up. As you can imagine, everyone was mad at Skip Bayless. Shannon short Sharp was mad. They got into an argument. As it turns out, according to Matt Barnes on All the Smoke, he had to hold back an NBA player from losing his shits on Skip Bayless.
This is what Matt said. I have personally had.
To diffuse two situations, one with a coach and one with an NBA player. They wanted to fuck Skip up. One was this year, one was last year. Luckily cooler heads prevailed. But it's just gone too far. In my opinion, Does this shock anyone?
I don't think so. Skip is the king of saying shit.
He does not mean that degrades and dehumanizes people in sports. These personal biting attacks. Remember the Richard Sherman back and forth that happened in Richard Sherman's like second or third year, somebody's gonna end up hurting Skip. I think now, I don't wish pain and suffering on anyone, but if your Skip Bayless, you probably want to ratchet down those takes you do when you're doing things like questioning why teams would pay someone when you have that big of a microphone.
This is probably not gonna end.
Well.
The question that I have is like who is the player? Who was it?
I need to know. I don't know who it was. I need the tea, I need Matt Barnes to tell me. Let me know who you think it is. I need to know is it. I could see it being like.
A Pat Beverly. I could see it being.
Like like a Boogiey Cousins. Man.
Boogie Cousins would smash Skip Bayless. All right, quick update.
Remember our episode before Christmas about the Dallas Mavericks. I went on record saying that of all the moves that the mass could make, signing Kemba Walker, probably the most inexplicable move made no sense. According to people on social media, I should just get into the kitchen, let the big boys talk. But the who was I really the question? Mark Cuban, the MAVs for an office, et cetera, et cetera.
Guess what.
Guess what, folks, I have an update for you. The MAVs just waved Kemba Walker after three dismal weeks for two way guard McKinley Wrights, just days before Kemba Walker's salary was guaranteed.
Are you guys kidding me? You see what I was saying? They waved him three weeks is all. It took three weeks. Color me stunned. Stunned folks.
I could not have possibly seen how that was gonna go sideways. I could not have possibly seen how that was going to be an impossibility for them to be good in any way with someone who does not play defense, with bad knees, who's undersized on a team that needs buckets and defense.
Listen, I am.
Really floored that Facundo Composo and Kemba Walker weren't the answers for the mass.
I just thought it couldn't see it, couldn't see it.
Jalen brunts and leaves and yeah, that's a hole that Fakundo Composo and Kemba Walker can fill.
This is wild. He's a legend. I love Kemba Walker, but he's broken. He's broken. And for people to say, oh, you don't know what you're saying, our eyes tell us everything we need to know.
Just know that our eyes see everything, and the and the key to life is to not allow other people with bad eyes to tell you your eyes don't work.
That's the key, because they will gaslight you.
And sometimes people with perfectly good eyes try to tell you your eyes don't work when they see I'm talking to you, famous LOKs. Talking to you got into my comments section of Jordan Poole being an absolute disaster. There are people who try to gaslight you that see exactly what you see, and they will tell you in a quiet moment that they see that. But on the Internet they tell you you don't know what you're talking about, you don't know basketball, and you're seeing something that no
one else sees. Yeah, don't let them do that. Never let them do that. As an addendum, Jason Tatum is lobbying to bring Kemba Walker back to Boston, as if the Celtics have any more reason to add drama to their plate. Kemba Walker in Boston made Brad Stevens never coach again.
Literally, he gave up the game. He was like, you know what, this isn't for me, This isn't for me.
Xies and O's leader of men, kemb is leading a revolution in the locker room. There's a coup happening, don't I mean, don't sleep. Kemba was leading a revolution in Boston. Joe Missoula is gonna need a new.
Set of prayer beads. What are those called? The rosary beads.
He's gonna need a new, brand, new, spanking set of rosary beads to try to handle Kemba Walker, Brogden and Mark Smart in the same Walker room. If that shit were to go down, that's absolutely bonkers. That's just something that needed to be said that there's really no news there other than hey, the MAVs wave Kemba Walker.
But that's this podcast. Finally, let's move on. We've covered Kyrie.
A lot, because, let's face it, he's just a walking soap opera and that's just lovely. His entire tenure with every team, not just the Nuts, the Celtics, the Calves, all that, since though, what was it anti semitism gait, Kyrie has been absolutely insane, quietly balling the fuck out.
The question, though, is why Kyrie was asked the recently and told Brian Lewis, a reporter for The New York Post, is what he said, well, if basketball is a very simple art for him, so if I don't bring all my extra distractions or anything that I'm going through mentally into the game, that's something that I've taken responsibility for on my own end, just to be positively reinforcing what we can do to win games no matter what's going on. Dare I say Kyrie Irving is Ben Matrind say it ain't.
So he continued just.
Being mentally prepared, using a lot of sessions in the summer, challenging myself to be ready for these moments where I don't have to be swayed emotionally. I'm in control of my emotions, in control of my thoughts. Listen, He's always said he's a mental warrior on the court, and I think this is very in step with that philosophy. But it's really not always worked. People can say that they control what they can control, but let's be honest, the
mind is a dangerous place to let play out. And right now he's doing what he says he's gonna do. Since his suspension at Kyrie Irving is averaging twenty six, five and five and the Nets have just won every single game. It feels like eighteen of twenty there's nothing you can do to stop them. Fourth quarter scoring Banana's just like first quarter. His poise is elite, His calm demeanor is even making Kevin Durant absolutely.
Gush over him.
And yet yet the big Kyrie news this week is that he wore a pair of shoes that said free all oppressed people. It's probably an old pair of shoes that he just forgot had.
That on it Sunday in his game versus the Heat.
You know, they won, same game where Kevin Durant went down with an MCL's brain. Of course it made news. But again, like I said, are this old pair of shoes? I've had these for a while. You know, I'm not trying to make any new statements. I've had these sins, you know. October of twenty twenty one. Who is he speaking of? Who is he speaking of these oppressed people? Is he talking about, you know, just the collective, just everyone, like the wigurs in China? Is he talking about the
Native Americans indigenous people who lost their land? Is this a continuation of this hotep message about the original black Israelites.
I have no idea. I don't know.
I'd like to know he probably won't say because he's maturing. But the fact is, the two days previous, Kevin Durant wore a pair of shoes that read free all of My people in a game against the Pelicans, and no one said anything. The reason is because Kyrie Irving says a lot of dumb shit and everyone's waiting for him to say something dumb again. That is maybe the right thing,
maybe the wrong thing. I don't know, but in these quiet moments when shit is not hitting the fan, you have to say the Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie are one of the greatest shows on the court and I love watching him play basketball. I need more of it, please and thank you. Because we know what's gonna happen. There's gonna be another cairierving controversy, and his play is gonna diminish.
He's probably gonna step away temporarily, and before you know it, you just kind of have to enjoy the sunshine before the next bomb cyclone comes and drops another tree on a house. So that's all. That's all the time that we have for the heat check. We will be back Friday.
Within all new episodes.
Check the feed for past episodes. Many episodes would drop every single day. Follow the heat Check in twenty twenty three, Please follow us on social to grow the social account so again we can continue making this beautiful product. Me and my amazing producer, Nick Berlanski aka Burlow. Follow us on this heat check, follow us at tri just to Creek on TikTok. Burlow's on the heat Check on TikTok now too. Find him Nick Berlanski. He's not posting any clips, but he's awesome.
That's all the time that we have. We'll see you guys next Friday.
M HM