The Mess in Atlanta. The Mess in Brooklyn.

the way back against the Wolves. This series just might go seven and some other news from the playoffs, plus little t Draymond Green goes after Bill Simmson says, who the fuck does this guy think he is? You know, I love the T brock, So go ahead and drop that motherfucking beat Sunny, perfect good name, ray Like, quick bit of news, quick bit of breaking news, breaking news, breaking breaking news. Devin Booker. That's all I need to say, folks.

According to ninety eight point seven the Sun's broadcast, but the guys in Jersey don't know how that works. Assuming nothing changes, we are getting Devin Booker back for game six in Nola. Quick side off the side they call the Smoothie King Center the blender, and I cannot express to you how fucking dope that is. Like what it

was never the blender. It was like at one point until this postseason, the Smoothie King Center was more like the Bros blender that like was in the corner of his kitchen and never got plugged in and it's just there for appearances, like it was that kind of blender. Now this is like the vitamins turned on full blades. Don't want to put your finger inside there, You'll get chewed the fuck up. So now that is the Smoothie King. I love that. Another side, Jose Alvarado, the guy I

love and I talked about him on Monday. His nickname, didn't know, this is Grand theft.

Chicago Bulls and possibly the Denver Nuggets as well. Both those teams derailed significantly due to injuries, but we don't care. Bye bye, fitting. Let the Bulls go down to the Bucks without Caruso and Levine, who has now been in COVID protocol for the fifteenth time. Not a scientist, don't know how it's possible, but it is true. Postseason run, Bye bye to COVID. Or maybe he's just on a

plane to Cancun. We don't even know about it. Before we get into the Nets offseason and what comes next and some of the developing chatter around Simmons, we must talk about last night's game, which was probably the best game of the playoffs so far. Memphis Grizzlies versus the

Minnesota Timberwolves. Timberwolves continuing to collapse late, Timberwolves continuing to choke on their own meats, continuing to talk and talk and talk when they're up big and then getting smacked down and going home with a big l on their forehead. Jesus Christ Ja Morant last second bucket and they asked him, Jaw, what were you thinking on that last play? And he goes get a bucket, Jaw, get a bucket. Jaw who

key came into the game hobbled, He looked bad. He missed the first million shots and I do mean there were a million of them. At one point he had more turnovers than points. Wait, no, that was Trey Young, excuse me, a different game all night. Jaw was bothered, not himself. I think he missed the first six or seven shots, like I said, missing open jumpers, just generally not being Jaw. And then you get Pat Bev saying too small to Jaw with a whopping nine points, Pat

Bev saying too small. You have Karl Anthony Towns trying to pull the tray Young going shh, shut your ass up, Karl Anthony Towns. And then when the Grizzlies needed their superstar, no matter if he has a hip issue or a knee issue or whatever it is that he's dealing with, which there is a few things I'm sure that is ailing Jaw when you go up as often as he does, You're bound to take contact everywhere on your body in jaw is a little guy, so he showed up. He had a huge three to put him up. One he

bammed on. I don't even know who's he died. The guy that he dunked on, he's dead. So and then the winning finger roll, which looked like it could be a jumper. And then somehow he maneuvered forward in the air, defying gravity file with time running out. Amazing. It even amazed Eric Spolstra. They told him, Hey, by the way, you were watching the Timberwolves game the other game. They're

like yeah, and he was like yeah. And he's going on for his postgame presser to just say bye bye to the Tree Young and the Hawks and they're like, yeah, yeah, job hit that layup with five seconds to go. They won that game. And he's like, what, how come the TV's not on in here? Uh? Yeah. Another quick tidbit that changed thing was changed things was that Jaron Jackson continues to be unusable. He fouled out. Uh And when he fouled out, Taylor Jenkins did the inexplicable. He put

in a point guard for his power forward. So it was Tys Jones and John Morant mixed with Desmond Bane, Dylan Brooks and Brandon Clark, which they're calling the the ECTENC lineup and aka the a live lineup, the opposite of the death lineup or the smaller death lineup. I don't know. And you got to give props to Brandon Clark had fifteen boards. He had a monster fourth quarter twenty one points, fifteen boards. But also a new term. I don't know that there's a term for this, so

I've made it up. We know what the hockey assist is in basketball, so it's like pass and then that person passes for the assist. He had a hockey rebound many hockey rebounds where he's literally he tips the ball purposefully to Jaw for them to get the rebound, purposely to Dez to get the rebound. He did that like six or seven times in the fourth quarter, So I'm calling that the hockey rebound. Brandon Clark was just tremendous. I think he's going to continue to come up big

in this series for them to win. So just to recap for folks who want an encapsulation of how the Wolves lost, Wolves outshot the Grizzlies from the arc, but they had eleven fewer shots, got out rebounded fifty three to forty two. They gave up eighteen offensive boards, set Memphis to the line thirty nine times to their own twenty four, and committed twenty three turnovers. They should talk the entire way through that. That is how that went down. If the Wolves end up losing the series, they've got

to be sick. They should have sent the Grizzlies home last night based on them being up twenty five points in Game three and taking the elk. Things you just hate to see. Just we in Minnesota. Now, now we go back to Minnesota and maybe they'll just stay in Minnesota. Oh boy, Well, well, well the brooms came out. People thought it wouldn't happen, and here we are. It's like,

I don't even know really how to describe it. It's like you no one anticipates something and then it happens and you just kind of look around and you're like, well that was underwhelming. I thought this would come with more fanfare and and it didn't. I tell you what. Nets are headed to Cancun. So many pieces coming out about the Nets. One particularly had my attention. One was inside the Ben Simmons drama of him opting out to

play Game four due to new backs horness. Sean Sharanya is now reporting that there are, in addition to physical hurdles ailing mister Simmons, there are now mental hurdles that he is contending with that are now triggering his backs horness. They are in the process, They are in the process of they are in the process of developing a plan for him to mentally and physically become ready to play.

All of these issues, these mental issues that are triggering his back, my neck, my back, my neck, and my back. These all stem back to his last game, Game seven against the Atlanta Hawks, the game where he passed up a layup open and afterwards joelmb and Doc Rivers threw him under the bus, buried him through the shovel, and the dirt on his grave on national television. So clutch with a K also now trending on Twitter. Clutch is Ben simmons agency, the same one that Lebron James' best

friend owns. Just to keep you up to speed, So let's go through this one quote. I wanted to just I set a little bit apparently leave these events. Ben Simmons telling the world he felt it was reasonable to assume, he told us to us on national television, reasonable for us to assume that he would be back in the fourth game of the playoffs. And then he decided he woke up, No, I'm feeling a little tight, didn't even put his uniform on to just see. Maybe I'll be ready.

Who knows, maybe it'll work, Maybe I'll put a little icy hot on it. We'll see. No. Apparently those events quote triggered frustration and disheartenment throughout the organization. You don't say, you don't say really quick to recap this thing nets good spot trade for James Harden, sent four draft pick picks and multiple very usable assets out the door, left with the cupboard empty but a James Harden that seemed engaged. Then James Harden became less engaged. Uh decided to force

his way out of another place. And then they got another. As I guess you could call Ben Simmons a potential asset back in return, you get too new soon to be first rounders back. But you're just wondering how did we fucking get here? Like how are we in the Ben Simmons business at this point? Like why you knew, folks, you knew. In hindsight, probably the Nets should have just said fuck you to Daryl Moury, like we'll let we'll

let Harden walk. We'll just see and if he walks and goes to you, you're gonna have to trade everyone like Tobias Harris and Seth Curry and all the things. Maybe Maxy, So just fucking deal with it then, and will force James Harden to play with us in the postseason. We'll see. Maybe he'll get invigorated when Kyrie Irving gets allowed to play full time, which he ended up playing. Speaking of Kai, the media asked him some questions about

his status after he was swept. He took a little accountability. He said, you know, I was a part of us not jelling. I mean, you were the only part of you not jelling. But they want to know what he didn't do with your contract. In the middle of him promising his devotion to Katie and Brooklyn, he said something that you know, when you just have a conversation with someone and they say something that you're like, oh, oh, that's fucking crazy. That that's a big red flag here.

It is when I say I'm here with keV. I think that really, I think that it really entails us managing this franchise together alongside owner Josi and GM Sean Marx and our family members that we have in the locker room and in our organization. Kyrie, what the fuck are you talking about? You don't even play in the games? Bruh, You're you're our asset, Like, you're not the decision maker here. Maybe keV is, and maybe you're Kev's right or die, but you are not who we are listening to. You're

burning stage out inside of arenas. We don't trust you. You said the world was flat. You're not building a roster. Also, also, are you even on our roster? Like mostly you're not even here. Also guess who he forgot to mention? Didn't hear any mention of Steve Nash in that comment? Still the Kyrie irving Steve Nash. I don't know if it's cold war. I don't know if it's a like a

warm friendemy situation. But I'll just say this, I don't know how much they respect one another in terms of, you know, Steve Nash's ability to have power on this team. This is and if you think Kyrie should be in charge of roster building, and Kevin Durant should be in charge of roster building. Let's just face it, the roster has only gotten worse every single year since Katie and

Kyrie got there. I know that sounds crazy because you have Katie and Kyrie on the team and for me to say, oh, this team was better before they got there. It was the How do I know it? Because the people in Brooklyn loved this team. The people showed up for this team. The buzz in the city was there. Jared Allen, Karris, Lavert, Spencer, Dinwoodie D'Angelo, Russell, Ice in the Veins, TLC all good pieces. Six seed? What were the nets again? Didn't they have to play the play

in twice? Hmmm? Rough. I don't know what they decide to do moving forward. I know that they're in cap hell. You've got Joe Harris to deal with. You've got like nine players that are going into free agency. I don't know how you pay them. What do you do? Do you just say tell you, just tell Joe Sie, We're just gonna go deep, deep, deep into the luxury tax to what like be a sixth seed and get bounced

in the first round, like maybe get swept again. No, gonna be very interesting to see what happens this offseason. More to come onto the Celtics, the team that beat the Nets. They play the Box next. Bucks will not have Chris Middleton. The early lines are out. The Celtics are minus two hundred favorites to beat the Bucks in that series. I think the Celtics are really good man, but to be that favored again, he's the hold on

the defending champs with Giannis Onto Takoumpo. If you think that you can clamp Yiannis like you can clamp kd like you can build a little shell of a barrier around Kevin Durant, he'll pass out like y honest, will just drive right through you like he is. He is a truck. And I don't know what you think you're gonna do. So prisoner of the moment for that. Can't wait to see that series go down there really quickly.

Want to break down the last game between the Miami Heat and the Hawks without Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry. Not a series that was very memorable. I like everybody was kind of waiting for it to just be done. The one thing I would say that was positive that came out of it was I would say DeAndre Hunter's thirty five point performance last night, especially when I had taken his over fifteen and a half points, didn't feel

like much of a sweat. He was, also, by the way, hurt the entire season three separate injuries, one of which of those injuries was a back issue. So word to those out there with back issues keeping them on the bench. Probably the best performance in his career. I saw way more offensive tools in his bag than we thought. Unfortunately, though, for Trey Young, the athletics said it broke his spirits.

That felt like to me, sus journalism. I don't know how you can define that, Like there's no way to true. I sat back in my couch and I was like, how can you say that? Can you say that? Like? How can you determine? Is there something that clicks when you look into someone's eyes and you're like, yep, their soul got snatched, their spirit is broken. He did hit off the side of the backboard like a Paul George moment. I feel like that could be the moment where we

all collectively say this person's broken, this person's broken. Russell West, first of all Russell Westbrook, Okay, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. I'm with you, athletic. It first started with Paul George, then it came out later he was literally in the fetal position on the side of his bed in the hotel room, in the bubble. Shout out to Paul George. Do not want to diminish any mental health. That's choose, but we did. These are facts. Secondarily, Russell

Westbrook comes to LA. I mean there's a montage of off the side of the backboard. We can all say. Dejected is probably a word one could use about his experience there emotionally. Trey Young one shot though off the side of the backboard, clamped. I think he had. Would they say, twenty two baskets in five games? Trey Young again, twenty two baskets in five games combined, thirty two turnovers, ten more turnovers than baskets. One shot off the side

of the backboard. People are wondering whether Trey's reputation took a hit. Somebody says what they don't know needs to be an investigation on whether he's a dog, and that card needs to be taken away. The article was about as damning as you can find on the athletic not related to the Lakers. Obviously that those are the most damning tray. Apparently in this article they say was so checked out in Game five that he didn't even participate. So there was a last minute hurdle, last minute huddle,

five point six seconds left on the clock. Hawks are down three, so they needed three to tie save their fucking season. They're calling a play for Trey Young. Apparently Treyung not involved and said huddle he's being obstructed by I want to say, Danilo Gallinari and some other random maybe a kungu, I forget. Anyway, he's not involved in the in the huddle, even aware of what's being drawn up on the little whiteboard. Then the play you gotta go and google it and see it was a shit

show to not get it shot off. Bizarre for Trey Young not to even go for the ball whatsoever. Another is a spirit broken moment, I guess. I mean the play is just wild, not even because Danilo Gallinari ended up getting the ball there like trapped in the corner, in the like corner of hell, where he was being just collapsed on by he like not even Danilo Gallinari's father runs that play for Danilo Gallinari like no shot

and I don't know who it was. Four. Trey Young was zero for five from the three point line that night, So presumably Nate McMillan when he says he was running it for Trey Young might have been not telling the truth. Just on real. Had to just kind of highlight that really fast because it was over a long time before they clawed back. Many people didn't watch that game, but it was It's worth noting. An article also highlights what

an awful year Trey has had just optically. He told folks in the beginning of the year that the regular season was boring. Uh, and then he had to issue a statement like he's the wee work chick, like, hey, we're gonna need you. Uh. That was that was seen as anti competitive. A lot of people in the Atlanta area might not want to show up to games if you're bored. Uh could you? Could you say you didn't mean that? Now people are questioning Trey people are questioning

the entire franchise. Mind you, this is the team that was like seconds away from going to the finals last year. If Trey Young doesn't sprain his ankle on a referee, Like who knows what ends up happening. I mean, the honest was out multiple gay is with the hyper extended me like this is how the cookie crumbles, folks. Like now you've got questions about John Collins, whether he wants to be here. He was hurt most of the year. That didn't help. Rumors of him being unhelped happy all

year and the year prior don't help. Cam Reddish was a fucking disaster. He asked for trade and then never got one until the deadline. And Nate McMillan's still playing him because he thinks there's like that helps the chemistry even though they're losing games with Cam redsh in the lineup. Oh my god. And folks, we are now getting we are now getting what is called the scapegoat, which is Nate McMillan is now being blamed. Yes he is, Yes

he is. Sports Illustrated reported the Hawks were walking around like Jordan at NBA Media Day in late September, then came out so flat. Capella admitted that they were apathetic and they say that falls on Nate. After losing six of seven to start the new year, GM Travis Schlank went ballistic and said, there is no sense of urgency on this team to make a stop. There's no sense of accountability. I mean, you see when there's words, let me just peek behind the curtain. For folks who don't

understand media speak. When you hear words from a GM like leadership, accountability, lack of urgency, these are words directed I swear to God, directed for words for the coach. Listen here, motherfucker, you better straighten up or you're out. Like that is a pr move. Travis Shchlank genius guy. By the way he says, it's just not there. It doesn't bother them. I hope it's a switch that we

can flip, but I don't know at this point. Earlier in the season, Travis Schlank Little Side wrote said I thought we should bring back all the players on the roster to make a a run like we did last year. That was probably the wrong move. Yeah, Travis must be an oracle, because that was exactly how they looked in the Heat series. Just no urgency, can't make a stop, no defensive presence, Trey Young, ice tray turns into ice cold, and in some ways, the Hawk's probably the most disappointing

team of the season this year. A lot of high expectations, La la lola, I mean, and that's what the Nets like we're talking about coming on. Just talked about the Nets getting swept by the Boston Celtics. So you have to go lower than that, and that's the Hawks. That's the chaos, just absolute chaos. Remember I said in the preseason Hawks could be a top four team in the East. Boy, boy, was I wrong. That's probably the coldest take of the season. Will Nate be back? I hope, So, I hope. So

he was just extended multi year extension. This is why you don't extend these interim head coaches until you know because when they come back, and they come and they take over in the middle of chaos and they overperform very different situation than starting from scratch because players are ignited in the middle of a season. It's a change. You can't change coaches made through the season every single year, but there is a like a jump, a little like jolt.

Spark is the right word. Spark is the right word, and that spark did not continue to persist throughout this season. When Trey Young's calling the regular season boring. I would say, no spark. Somebody called Nate McMillan. They said, Nate McMillan's unimaginative. This is an unnamed source, obviously, and when things aren't going to plan, it's hard for him to make an adjustment.

Could you imagine if Trey Young said that to some reporters, He like, this motherfucker has no ability to get me opened. I'm in prison. He was called the general in Portland. He was pretty bad. He's gotten better. He got them to the Eastern Conference finals. Now now I must mind, I must remind you that the Philadelphia sixty sixers did sixer. You know, they did doc rivers themselves out of the playoffs, and they might just fuck around to do it again.

Wouldn't that be something? But uh, if the Hawks struggle anymore moving forward, if they don't come out with a what's that called the little stick with the flare, if they don't come out like there's a flare stick in their asshole like Nate McMillan might be fired like fast. And that's not because he deserves it. That's because that's

how this business works. So he better take them to Hawaii or Cancun go on a little team building trip like Jerry busted to Palm Springs, get them whatever they need to get themselves focused and back on track, because the NBA business is cold down ever, and I love it about him, even got in my own little verbal quarrel with him on National TV. My man Draymond Green does not back down. He is tremendous. We've got some developing.

I don't want to call it beef. I think. I think Draymond himself would say I don't want to call it beef because I didn't touch him and he didn't touch me. But there's something, there's a there's some friction, there's some energy, there's some something some negative feelings between Draymond Green and Bill Simmons. Because Bill Simmons is out there just sullying people's names with a vote with an all rookie vote, which affects contracts, et cetera. So let's

get into it, he said. Jalen Green, Houston Rockets rookie who's actually top three rookie of the top five rookie of the year standings, So he didn't deserve a spot on his all rookie team. He says, I put herb Jones first Team All Rookie I put him over Jalen Green. Fuck Jalen Green. I don't care you're scoring forty points and your team's nineteen and sixty. Congratulations. Sorry, I like winning players. Draymond to say he took offense would be

slight understatement. Draymond Green posted to Ig Simmons's clip that exact audio with the following comment, how is it this guy has a voice in deciding if Jalen Green will qualify for a super Max deal? Because when you vote for All Rookie Team, you also vote for All NBA. And if you're you have certain benchmarks as an NBA player that gets used to be qualified for a super Max. If Bill Simmons cans vote for that award, he can

vote for that same other award All NBA. And he says, he clearly says, f him, fuck Jalen Green, which sounds very personal, by the way, But he has a say in what someone earns. What work has Bill Simmons done in this life that qualifies him to have a say

in an NBA player's salary. Well, I have a feeling it's gonna be a bad week for Bill Simmons because anytime you say fuck that play and I have said fuck that player, just never that in that way, Like you can't do it in regards to like giving out awards, they have to do something like force them, force themselves out a team, or you know, not play in a playoff game due to like some random back sore ones or like sister, their sister goes after you on Twitter

like I don't even know. I don't even know if I've directly said fuck them. I think it's more like, who the fuck do you think you are acting like this? Anyway, it's gonna be bad. A lot of people are now questioning whether Bill Simmons should even be allowed to have

a vote. That's cancel culture for you or whatever. Accountabil culture things greatly, like I said, impact salaries, And now others are pointing out that Simmons might be creating a narrative about Jalen Green that will negatively impact his ability to get paid, which is probably true. That's fair narrative

shape things. We see people say things about Jokic, he's soft, or he's not the real MVP, he's in one dimensional player, and then you look at his box score and you look at his stats and you're like this guy at thirty five against the Warriors, their triple team in him.

Like the narratives shape how we all feel about players, and then that shapes how what we would call the lemmings, the gms and the owners think about players because they read Bleacher Report or whatever too, like listen to Bill Simmons. They're probably in those text message chains and then they're like, I don't know about Jalen Green. It might be not a winning player. And then that's how that happened. Pretty

unwarranted personal attack Jalen Green. Here's the thing with people are missing because two rookies both Jalen Jalen Suggs Jalen Green. Nobody would ever call Jalen Suggs from Gonzaga all like, I think he played multiple sports in high school, obviously played on a national championship caliber team at Gonzaga, game winning shot his fucking team he just went to sucks too, and his stats are worse than Jalen Green. So if he's not like a losing player, then how do we

call Jalen Green a losing player? He wasn't even around when the Rockets imploded in order for them to suck That's the whole reason he's there is because they sucked before he got there, or they wouldn't have that pick in that spot, right, He had zero choice where he ended up in the situation that he was in. He has a first time head coach coaching, Steven Silas. I don't know what kind of coach Stephen Silas is. All

I know is that Jalen Green is a bucket. All I know is how many times he got thirty at the end of the season. From March first until the end of the season, he averaged sixteen to four and three. He continued to get better as the season progressed. He averaged twenty eight four and two in the last ten games of the season, including thirty or more in the last six of the final seven games. He would hit like seven threes in a game. What I guess, why would you slander a man who did that? Like I said,

nobody's calling out Jalen Suggs. No one would allow Bill Simmons to call Jalen Suggs not a winning player. But because it is Jalen Green, not his clean cut, where's the grill, big hair, sort of like wild clothes, Bell Bottoms has his Jimmy Hendricks vibe on tattoos on his finger, puts up wild shots, like the way that people act off the court impacts how we feel about them off the court, and I think that's fucked up. Just things

that make you go why why. Simmons passed off his original comments as a joke and said he's leaning towards a rookie like Herb Jones who was meaningfully contributing to a decent team, over someone putting up stats on a bag team. I think Herb Jones should make all rookie. But don't say fuck Jalen Green. You don't. You don't have to vote for Jalen Green. I'm sure you have your own reasons and you can put that a little bit better, and you could just highlight what Herb Jones

does instead of what Jalen Green does not. I'm glad I don't get a vote. I'm glad. All I could think is like, I'm glad I never want to vote, because the level of scrutiny that a vote comes with is agents calling you, yo, what the fuck? Why didn't you vote Jalen Green on My guy's not gonna get paid? Now? Tell me why? Why? Why? Why it's like, yeah, no, I'm good. I'll just sit here in my little studio by myself and just just chirp from the rafters. Like I don't know. I don't know what you would have

Jayleen Green do to get this team to win. It's a team sport, not shoot, not try and score. I don't know yet. Kevin Porter Junr who threw soup at someone, is like your co star and no shade Ken Porter Junior. I like Kevin Porter, like, I don't even know what this team is right now. You got Elprah and Shanghun another rookie, Uzman Garuba, I think another like like John Wall is just sitting there somewhere. I don't even know where he is. They don't even want to play him.

They don't even want to win. So what are we talking about? The establishment doesn't want the Houston Rockets to win? So why are we blaming Jalen Green for not putting the roster in a situation where they could have made a trade or play I don't know, just play drun Wall, just play him. I don't know. Not everybody wins the right way. I guess. Jordan finish seventh place six games, under five hundred his rookie year, not a winning player. Bron was twelve games under five hundred his first year,

not a winning player. I guess Garnett thirty games under five hundred when he first played. Dirk Novisky debuted on a team with a three to eighty winning percentage Philadelphia twenty two to sixty when AI won Rookie of the Year. Ben Bill Simmons, please, please, just you know all this. You're a historian, you know all that. I just think he has something against him. I think you know the answer to whether their stats were meaningless on those teams.

I think you know. To be fair, I would imagine that Bill Simmons would argue AI was not a winning player for the same reason that he argues the Jalalen Green's not a winning player. So here's the thing. Everybody's free their own opinion. Like I said, I love herb Jones. I don't disagree with him being on the first team. All rooky dude's bucket and he can block. He impacts

a team a lot. But like you can do that again without slandering Jalen Green, unless, of course, Draymond is right, and it is personal for Bill Simmons and he has some vendetta against Jalen Green. I get the feeling though this does not go away anytime soon. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. Follow the Heat Check

to help you prepare and enjoy the playoffs. Do not forget to download, subscribe, Please tell your friends and follow us on social at this heat Check and Trista Creek on TikTok and Twitter. Now he didn't say anything about John okay, Johnny is my Bobe okay, Jeffrey and Ken