On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got a special Monday episode featuring my guy, Keith Smith is foke track. Keith's like one of the best in the business by the way. He breaks down the latest on the NBA, from what's popping with the Celtics to where a Malik Monk might actually fit best in free agency?
Isn't the Kings? Is it the Kings say?
It's not the Magic A nice way to start your week. Also, we get into.
A little news from around the league. So Anthony, do me a favor of my guy. I know you're just coming back from Vegas, but we gotta we.
Gotta do it like the Omnia drop that motherfucking beat that should be Rihanna.
Okay, So we've got all eyes on March mad next. For the past four days, not a lot popping in the NBA.
We're gonna break, except for the fact that the Warriors might miss the playoffs all together. But that's popping Draymond Green's hand. That they're quiet, they don't have any good habits. Steph saying I'll play fifty fucking minutes if I have to, Steve Kerr saying no, you fucking want, won't everything's going to disarray for our dubs anyway. Not else is happening
other than that. So we're gonna break down on the NBA prospects played out inn Attorney in a week or so, but we can touch on a little news before we get into this interview with Keith Smith from Spoke Track. So Adam Silver and the League front office apparently come to what we already knew. The G League Ignite is not is not working. It's not working. It's not putting
out pros. I know that there's been a few. It's not much of a shocker since the entire reason that it started was to give eighteen year olds a path to the NBA that did not involve d one vow of poverty. Now that's kind of folks, because last time I checked, we got Homie with the with the Val Kilmer top gun haircut doing Buffalo Wild Wings commercials straight off of a ten to three performance in the lobby of his hotel room, immediately getting paid wax on.
Wax on wax.
We've got random kids from Yale doing commercials. Oh I think Creighton doing commercials for super Cuts. Okay, that's happening, So you don't need the G League Knight anymore. I don't even know what the G League Knite guys are getting paid right now, give me a give me a second, Anthony, I gotta know how much they're getting paid. Five hundred thousand dollars? Oh my god, are you fucking joking me? Caitlin Clark makes that in about one semester.
Okay, this is not yet. It like G League Knight are two and thirty this season, two and thirty.
Even if they project to put Ron Holland and Matas Boozellis into the lottery of this season, it is disgusting.
Just didn't work.
One alumnus who had nothing but good things to say is Scoot Henderson, my guy last year's number three picking the draft. He said, I really thank the people at ack Night, the little people that you don't see. They don't get enough credit for how much they have to pour into us. The coaches, they don't get enough credit for having to get guys from high school to get them up to speed in a few weeks to play some grown men that have children to feed.
You don't see that. You see them getting beat a.
Lot and having a horrible record. You don't see the things that they go through day to day. From my viewpoint, they helped me in a huge way to be where I am right now. I can't thank them enough. How about maybe instead of these guys struggling, clawing, scraping their own eyes out to get children to play against grown men that have children, maybe just roll them out in the college game. I don't know, you can't put him
out against hungry grown men. Imagine that a guy who should be in high school right now trying to keep Isaiah Thomas MVP from eating his lunch. How about Kenny Lofton Junior's cases two lunch who had fifty the.
Other day in the G League? Good luck? Good luck that to that?
So anyway, rip G League, ignite good idea in theory, and then all of a sudden, NCAA came around and made you completely irrelevant. Scoot Jalen Green, Jonathan Kaminga, Jayden Hardy. I don't know why I said his name like that. Dyson Daniels, Isaiah Todd is alumni.
The legacy is mixed reviews, not gonna lie. It's mixed. We'll see how it all ends up working out.
Jonathan Kaminga, Jalen Green, and Scoot Henderson are probably the best ones, but rip.
We now move on to the college game.
Moving on Saturday night, the Portland Trailblazers did something that hasn't happened since nineteen. They started five count the five rookies too, Monti Kamara, Chris Murray, dwarp Wreath, Scoot Henderson and Ryan Rupeer.
What a squad, What a little rookie squad.
And you know what? They started against the NBA champs, the Denver Nuggets, albeit without Jokic, so you know it is what it is.
Still we're ten and a half point favorites and the team were rookies.
Would you know it?
They held their own? They did.
They lost by three. The game was close the entire time. Pretty amazing for the rooks. Scoot had twenty two ten and six, Dwap had twenty four eight and two with two with three stocks.
My goodness.
If you're looking for things to be encouraged by in terms of the Blazers for the next I don't know, three to five years, you should feel good about these little moral victories. Finally, a couple of a couple of somewhat disturbing injury updates for the two best teams in basketball out West. Jamal Murray second nasty ankle sprain in this season in the closing minutes of the game against the Knicks. He missed the Blazers game. So the Blazers
kept it close against Jamal Murray. Against the Jamal Murray lists and a yogic list Nuggets, they said, fuck the Blazers. We don't care about what they're talking about anyway. According to coach Michael Malone, please say the Michael, the injury will cause a short term.
Absence, but it could be longer. The team definitely needs a healthy Jamal Murray.
We know that without Jamal Murray, this team is almost as bad as this team without Jokic. If it wants to defend their championship, they need to get him back on the court asap. Rocky of equal gravity, though, the Celtics have some horrible news about Drew Holliday, who has been absolutely awesome for them this season, one of the reasons that they have the best record in the NBA. I think he's actually.
Shooting like forty one percent from three right now.
Drew has now missed three state straight games, and now we have clarity on why let me tell you this. When I tell you why, you're gonna be like, don't like the sound of that dead arm? No, no, say it ain't so all I know is dead. Any insert bodied part after that is fucking I'm out.
Okay, dead ankle, dead leg, dead torso what the fuck? None of it is good.
He had a sprained right shoulder that leaves him with dead arm, which sounds like you probably can't lift it if it's dead.
Uh.
We have to wait for Drew Holliday's arm to rise from the crypt in order for him to get back on the court. Like Jamal MraY, there is no timetable for his return, no idea of when he returns he'll be back to one hundred percent. This is also his shooting arm, which I said forty two from three. If it doesn't heal quickly, we might be in for a Mark Helfolt situation, and we don't want that. We'll definitely be keeping our eye on these developing stories.
As we move forward. But in the meantime, we have one of my.
Favorite guests, Keith Smith of spot Track, who's here to give us the latest update on the NBA with a touch of March madness.
Talk thrown in as well.
Keith is joined on my other show at MGM and tonight where I'm joined by my co host, Ryan Horvat because my other co host had the flu. Because Ryan had the flu two weeks ago, BETAMGM tonight airs seven to eleven Eastern.
Maybe I'll get the flu this week in.
Most major radio markets, I live on YouTube and Twitch fun Interview, So let's jump.
In to talk to the NBA. We're going to do with the best right now, Keith Smith, Like you said, contributor over at spow Track Front Office Show as well. Keith, how you been Mann and how are you enjoying March Madness so far? Did you fill out a bracket?
Yeah? I did. I filled out a bracket for sure. We did a little contest with the Front Office show listeners and we let whoever wins within reason and appropriateness come on and give a little rant or question or thought or whatever want to do. So yeah, I have a lot of fun with it. I mean, I watch mostly for the NBA prospects, but don't get me wrong, if an underdog, if a fourteen or fifteen seed is putting up a fight, you better believe I'll be all in on that underdog.
That's what I wanted to ask you, man, Like, who's the guy that you have your eyeballs on. You know, maybe if it's somebody that everybody's talking about or not talking about, but like as an NBA prospect, is there anybody that you have some interest in in this tournament this week?
Yeah? There is. I mean, Kentucky's getting ready to tip off here. They're guys. You know, they've got a ton of guys. They've got nine legitimate NBA prospects on that ross. So there's a whole bunch. Start with Dillingham and Shephard, the two guards who actually both come off the bench for this team because they're just that deep in guys. Those are guys that might be top five picks. And then the other guy I'm really interested to see if he can bounce back. Did not play well in the
first four game. It's coming off an injuries to Colorado. Yeah, he needs to have a better game than this next one out against Florida tomorrow. You're gonna have some teams I think we're gonna start to question, all right, what we see doesn't match up to where we want him to be as a prospect.
Yeah, Keith, because he was ozerver four from the field last night and I was pumping Colorado's tires pretty much the entire week about how far Colorado can go and he's a big reason why, and then just didn't really deliver. Wasn't in the game during crunch time. How much of that, though, is the fact that he's trying to push back from injury sooner to.
Help his team make a run. I mean, obviously he hurt his face as well.
He's got an ankle injury that he's nursing. He probably wouldn't have to come back if he was really caring about his draft stock, but he's trying to figure out a way to cut it out.
Yeah, and that's a tough thing right now. He'll definitely get credit from a lot of people for pushing through and trying to play, because a lot of guys would have said, hey, I'm a likely top ten pick. I don't need to push through an injury here, and you risk messing up anything for me with the draft and anything like that. But he's gotta be better than he was in that game. He just he was never really
like overly engaged in that game. He was just kind of out there, So I expect he'll bounce back against Florida, but a lot of it's gonna come down to really is he healthy and ready to go. That's gonna be the big question mark with him tomorrow when they play the Gators.
So Oregon my team eighty seven seventy three over South Carolina. I thought that there were a couple of players for Oregon that really showed out first and foremost. You had Kuznard who had forty former South Carolina game Cock and Nefali Dante. Are any of those two players like legit NBA guys in your mind?
Yeah, I don't know about Qsnard. It seems like he's not a guy we've heard a lot of, but sometimes the guy has or run like that. Not only did he have the forty points, but he also had six assists, which is a good number in an NCAA game, especially when you're putting up forty. So we'll see with him. Sometimes those type of performances can put you on the radar. But Dante and Evans, those are the two guys who are more I think on the radar for NBA guys.
Dante he's somebody I think a lot of teams liked coming into the year, and then Oregon didn't have as strong a year I think as some people thought they might have. They really went on that great run in the final Pac twelve tournament which really kind of lifted them. So I think he's a kid who can play, and I think there's a chance. You know, it's as much as we love to talk about positionless basketball and wings and perimeter players, there's still the old axiom holds true of you can't.
Draft size Keith the Western Conference? What am I missing right now? I know Karl Anthony Towns is injured, but the Timberwolves are fourteen to one to win the West, the same price as the Mavericks, and I think that's crazy.
I think they're for real.
What do you think about Minnesota in the West.
Yeah, I think it's been impressive without Karl Anthony Towns and even without Rudy Gobert this week, that they're still hanging in there and still doing what they're doing. I thought that Denver game, even though they lost, it was really kind of instructive for all right, the team can can can do some stuff even without their main guys, and we all hope you know go bearably back. We
know that, but we all hope Towns can get back. Ideally, you want to see him get back for a week or so to go in the season and give him a couple of games to you know, get his timing right, to get his rhythm back, and then you go into the playoffs. I think the NBA, maybe more so than any other league, we have this thought of you have to prove it to me, right, And they went in last year. They were an unexpected playoff team. They played okay against Denver, really gave Denver a couple issues, but
they lo Austin. There's no shame in that the Nuggets are the champs. But now I think this year it is all right, Well, now they've proven it could be a really good regular season team, but he's gonna come through when it really matters, because that's what we want to know. So I think a lot of it's gonna intend who do they get in their first round matchup or the n spot where they can really do some stuff. But I'm a believer within eason, I think they can
advance around maybe even two rounds. I just don't see them getting out of the West agad of the finals because I have a hard time seeing anybody beating den Bark.
You mentioned the play in tournament a little bit in terms of like who the Timberwolves could potentially play. I actually think them being in the three seed is probably the best case scenario if the Kings kind of hold that spot. Teams like the Lakers, Sons, even Mavericks kind
of a tougher matchup for the for the Wolves. But in terms of the Mavericks, last year, we saw them in the play in mix and they decided to punt on the season, risking pissing lukeoff, but making sure that they got their first round pick that was top ten protected that they would owe to the Knicks if they stick around in that play in mix. Again, what do you think the MAVs do this year?
Yeah, I think they've got a good chance to advance out of it. The thing is, if you look at it right now, Dad Holds, You're gonna have Phoenix and all their guys. You're gonna have the MAVs, You're gonna have the Warriors, You're gonna have the Lakers. It's like, you know, incredibly you know, star power packed playing tournament and and for all as much as I'd like to think, you know, the NBA and their TV partners are like, man, this is gonna make for a great play in tournament.
Then they're gonna wake up the next morning and be like, wait a minute, A couple of these teams are gone, Like I don't know that that's what we really wanted. So I think that's a tricky thing. But I think Dallas is one of those teams with Luca and with Kyrie, they're gonna go into any matchup no matter who they're playing, except for maybe Denver feeling like, hey, we might have the best and second best player on this team. You know, why why not us? You know, why can't we beat
you know, beat these other teams? Why can we not win you know, this series? And that that's a huge thing to have because those guys are that good.
What do you think about Orlando right now?
Man?
I mean, like, if you're better the best team against the spread, they're forty one and twenty eight, but they're only getting better. They're eight and two in their last ten, they've won four straight. I don't obviously, I don't think they could like make a run to the conference finals, But how far off is Orlando this season or you know, like in the future, do you think, Yeah, he were.
Only probably a couple of years away from them making a real serious run deep into the playoffs because they're set up to add this offseason to the team that they have and then we've got it one more year before they're going to start to get expensive when extensions will start kicking in and guys like Paula Bankero is taking a major leap, and we all kind of knew this was gonna come because he was acted as a rookie. But he's been really efficient this year. He's eliminated a lot of the bad shots.
Now.
A lot of that has come from he's not having to run the offense as a rookie in the league because every single guard on the team is hurt like it was for about a third of last season. So he's really good. From Slagner's good, They've got pretty good depth. They've got a whole bunch of guys who can really play. So I think they're they're close. And the big thing that they do what they can't lose sight of moving forward is for me, one of them is the way
they defect. You have to continue to give that effort and get after it that way repeatedly. Then the other part is I think they're in a spot where they cannot. We all want to rush to bring in the next great player to kind of lift a young team, and sometimes when you do that, you take away from the guys you already have, And Orlando has to be very carefully you don't bring somebody in who takes the ball out of Benkara On Wagner's hands too much, because those
guys are such special players. You want them to continue to have the ball to kind of key and lead your offense.
Yeah, that's such a great point too, because the thing that sometimes Orlando struggles with is scoring. Obviously, such a great defensive team. And I was going to ask you about Malik Monk because he's been linked to the Orlando Magic. Do you think that's a fit Because one, Orlando has so many guards already, like almost a plethora of too many guards. They have Gary Harris at the shooting guard position, so he could certainly step in, But like, do you
think that makes sense for them? Do you think that that kind of like maximizes what they want to do, or do you think it takes the ball out of Franz Wagner and Palo's hands too much.
Yeah, that's a great, great thought with Milik Bunk because I think he's the kind of guy who could really fit in well with this team because he is somebody who is he's good with the ball in his hands, He's good when he comes off the bench, which could ultimately still be his role in Orlando. We just talked about him on Front Off the show today and it seems like there's still sometimes this stigma attached to well,
you're a bench player. Well, the reality is guys like Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams had basically twenty year careers of great years coming off the bench, and there's no reason a guy like Malik Monk couldn't do that. And I think for a team like Orlando, because Monk is in a spot where he knows how to play off of other guys. He does a great job playing off of Darren Fox and especially in two man games with a bigger compass like some bonus, he'd fit in perfectly
with Ben Caro and Wagner. So yeah, I think he's the kind of guy who could fit in and yes, the Magic could do have a lot of guards, but there's some transition that's gonna come with that position. Gary Harris is a free agent, Markel Foltz is gonna be a free agent. We're gonna see what happens at that position. I think Cole Anthony is you know, he's here to stay because he's signed, and then Jalen Suggs as somebody
who's taking major steps forward this year. But the rest of that guard's position is a little bit in flux.
I love Jason Tatum man. I do think there's something like when it is in the clutch. Every time I need him at least to hit a clutch through, he never does it for me.
But where we.
Are taking a charge in his entire career.
Where are we at right now with Boston And who scares us the most right now? In the East?
I hit the East, it's probably still Milwaukee. You know they're gonna be tough, right It's uh, you know, Giannis will be there when it matters. You're gonna have Damian Lillard doing his saying that that's still gonna be a
tough matchup, you know for the Celtics kit through. I always say, you know, the Miami Heat are like the classic Corer movie Villain, like until you separate the head from the body and bury the ashes and the deepest part of two different oceans, like they I'm not gonna count them out, Like they'll come back and and you know, make things, you know, more nervous than they should be. But I think this is the best I felt about
this Celtics team in a few years now. I think they just they've kind of got everything that they need. And when you watch them play, I think the the worry that people have over you know, they're going to close out games and all this stuff, I think it's a little overblown. I think they do close out a lot of these games. They did it against Milwaukee, and it's funny because they did it and everybody's like, I need to see the team close out a good team
in a close game. They did it, and then it turned into, oh, well they should have blown them out, you know, so that's a problem. It's just, you know, I think Jason Tatum hit the nail on the head. They've win so much that people have to find reasons to complain about them because they just isn't a lot of opportunity to do it.
What team before we let you run. We got about a minute.
What team in the top four in either conference do you think is most vulnerable for a first round exit?
Oklahoma City? And I love what the thunder have done and what they've built, but history tells us the NBA playoffs are not kind. Two teams on their first run through, and the only guy who's had any kind of playoff experience there, Shay gilgis Alexander and he's he's a great, great player. But there's a lot of stuff that they've got to sort through and kind of figure out there in Oklahoma City. They're gonna have to do it on
the fly in the postseason. So I'm not saying they're gonna lose in the first round, but I just don't know that I see them making this Western Conference Finals run because it generally takes at least one trip through the playoffs before a team's really ready to win.
There.
Get great stuff, man, take care.
Enjoyed the tournament, Enjoyed the rest of the NBA season. We'll talk again, Sue.
Thanks Keith, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Enjoyed the turning.
That's all the time that we have this episode of the heat Checked. Many thanks to Keith.
And my whole gang at host squalor at BETMG on the night. Come back tomorrow for an on new episode. Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly. Like underdogs in the NCAA tournament, Chalk City folks, guess who's winning us, Guess who's not?
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