The Two Top Guards in the NBA Are Obvious

full report on deck, so much fun. I also am breaking down two the best guards in the league right now, starting with Donovan Mitchell, and only one guard really that's playing better than Donovan, So we'll get into who that is. And of course we have to get into the drama surrounding who else? Who else? Could it be? Kyrie Irving? Lots popin Nick to do me a favor, drop that beat all right, before we get into the news, let's talk about damn. Detroit is a great sports city. I

tell you what, it was absolutely electric. I went and saw Detroit Pistons play the Golden State Warriors at Little Caesars Arena, and let me tell you I've got some thoughts. Things started out first and foremost, bet MGM shout out to BEDMGM. They wind us, they dined us, they took us to the Michigan Michigan State game on Saturday night.

They took us to the Detroit Lions playing the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon, and then I got up in there watched the Pistons game as a credential media member on Sunday night. It was action packed. The only other people out there that did the same thing as me

were Jalen and Jacoby, which was fucking awesome. And I tell you what, the Pistons playing the Golden State Warriors, coming off of an embarrassing loss to the Hornets, You're thinking to yourself, the Warriors should bounce back, right, The Warriors should get together and say, listen, we can't let these scrub teams on a road trip fucking beat us. Let's get our shit together, let's lock in, and let's

tell the Detroit Pistons what's up. And you know what, I even took the Golden State Warriors minus nine and a half to beat the Pistons on an alternate line. That's how confident I was that the Golden State Warriors were gonna come in there and put the whooping on these boys. And you know what, No, this team event early on. The Warriors came out on a rule Steph put out thirty seven. They put up as a team thirty seven. Excuse me. In the first quarter, it felt

like it was gonna be a blowout. We know what it does, we know the script. We've seen it a zillion times. And then all of a sudden, you look up and the Pistons are up twenty and you're like, hmm, that's odd outscoring them by sixteen to take an eight point lead at half. And here's what I saw at this point. It was a team that was despite being young,

they are very committed to their starters. Right, You've got Bogdanovich, You've got as they call them, they call them a they call them beef Stewie, Beef Stewie, Isaiah Stewart, they call them something crazy. In Detroit, Cade Cunningham, Sadiq, Bay and Jade and Ivy all played thirty one minutes or more. Four of them ended with twenty one or more points. These guys are balling as the Warriors, we know are the greatest third quarter team probably in history. And that's

what started to happen. The leads started to shrink. You look up, the Warriors are only down seven or something. The crowd starts to lose their feeling of excitement. They're like, oh no, what's gonna happen. E forty's in there getting exc You got roys to five nine legend they're playing eminem It was just starting to get tents in there. Jalen's on the sideline screaming, standing up, Come on, don't let the Warriors beat you. Pool had an insane third quarter.

I think get eighteen points in the third quarter alone. Pistons did not flinch, folks. It was bucket after bucket, tough lay by Jaden Ivy and one making things uncomfortable for the Warriors, bodying them up, making Draymond make the tough pass. All of a sudden, they're shooting forty three percent from three against one of the best perimeter defenses in the entire league, Golden State Warriors. The Pistons came

to play, and they they slayed the dragon. They slayed the dragon despite all of the third quarter antics, they still figured out a way to do it. And they didn't play afraid. And they were in games last year they lost a ton late, and I expect them to start winning some of those games this year. Another thing that was interesting really quick as an aside, is that the Warriors played all their starters all the way until like a minute and twenty seconds left in the game,

and they were down big. They thought that they could still come back no matter what. They were pushing the pace, Steph Curry's coming off off ball, shooting threes. They're trying to figure it out, and I'm like, dude, give it up. You're down sixteen with ninety seconds left to play, but they don't care. That's how fast they score. What's different this year a veteran, a veteran Bogdanovich. And I wondered, why'd you guys get him? Why'd you trade for Bogdanovic?

That don't make no sense. But every as I forget his name, what's his name, Henry hank Royce, my lift driver today was like, every young team needs a veteran presence, and he's right, and that's what Bogdanovich is. And all he is is a three point shooting bucket. And you know what, the Detroit Pistons also believe even Bogdanovich, because this weekend he signed a two year, thirty nine million dollar extension twenty million dollars a year for Bogdanovich. Can

you believe who? He's averaging twenty three points per game? Bogdanovich? How good has he been from three? My man is shooting fifty two percent from three right now. He is a prop king. His three point point prop right now has been automatic. Kate Cunningham, I've said some mean things about him in his bus face, but man, was he so good. It started out slow, but he had twenty three ten to nine, one assist short of a triple

double against the Warriors, against the real defense. KD was given it to him, giving him buckets after buckets, getting rebound after rebound. So yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a Detroit Pistons fan. Now, I'm kind of like Detroit now. Also met these amazing chefs in the elevator sus chef executive chef in the media elevator. I'm like, what are you guys cooking up? And they're like, just the best food in Little Caesars Arena, And I'm like, really, what's

up with it? And they're like, come by, And I did come by, and you know what, they got me a nice little flatbread. They got me a nice beat salad. And then when I asked for the bill, they laughed. They laughed at me. There was no bill, there was no check. They told me, thank you for coming in and gracing them with my presence, like I was somebody so Detroit. Thank you very much for being as hospitable and the weather held up. It could not have been better.

I think we have a new face to replace Lebron James on the billboard of Cleveland. Folks. I think we have it. I think we know who it is. I know it's early, but boy, oh boy, legit. Right now, Cleveland fans are cheering this man's name every time he touches the ball, and they're screaming, MVP, MVP. We are talking Donovan Mitchell because damn, if he keeps playing like this, everyone's gonna be talking about Donovan Mitchell for MVP. Just

remember on this podcast we said it first. And you know what I think, if Cleveland keeps winning, I think if they sit atop the east, I think Donald Mitchell does win MVP. I don't know what the odds are right now, but I tell you what it might be worth a sprinkle. It might be worth a little Pepperoni money, as they say, think about that Rookie of the Year stolen from him from Ben Simmons to MVP. I did not see that coming. I did not see that coming because and I think this is probably one of the

worst things about donnal. I mean, there's a lot of bad things about Donovan Mitchell going to Utah, Like for him, there's a lot of bad things. The fan base is terrible, like they're very yet they're low he ist in every way, you know what I mean, not a lot to do. They don't even allow coffee shops and most of that place. He went from New York to Louisville, Kentucky to Utah. Could there be more of a juxtaposition? I digress. But on top of playing for Utah, he's also got to

play with Rudy Gobert. And Rudy Gobert, we don't know. We don't know how these two are meshing together. Is Donovan Mitchell worse or is Donald Mitchell better with Rudy Gobert, I don't know. He's a dynamic two guard, and we now see that dynamic two guards like Anthony Edwards are saying very shady things about what it's like to play with Rudy Gobert already six games in the season, saying, Hey, I actually like smaller lineups. It's better for me when

this motherfucker's not here. As an aside to the aside. Turns out Tim Connelly, new GM of the Minnesota Timberwolves, told absolutely no one consulted, absolutely no one within the organization the player's side about bringing in Rudy Gobert did not ask for any gold stars, did not ask for any approval or hey, do you have any thoughts on this matter? Aunt Edwards Dicey his numbers are down, but we couldn't tell Donovan Mitchell for years what he was.

Would he be better or would he be worse without Rudy. You have a team now full of players at that point, actually at that point they didn't make sense together, right, And Donovan Mitchell's averaging twenty six four and five, and you're saying, is he going to excel or is he going to decline? He goes to the Cavs and you're like, man, there's a lot of young guys that need the ball on that team. You've got Darius Garland, he's gonna have the rock. You've got Jared Allen, he's gonna need the rock.

Evan Mobley, Caris Levert's a bucket. All these guys are gonna demand the ball. What is Donovan Mitchell gonna do. It's not like he's been this assist monster, but you know what, shockingly, surprisingly happily, I'm very happy because I like Donod Mitchell as a person. He's he's really fucking good, like much better than we even knew he's. He was

held back in Utah. Let me just say that very clearly, Donovan Mitchell was held back on the Jazz, not just from a scoring perspective, but in every facet of the game as well. We know that Donovan Mitchell is really good. He's been really good for a long time, been an All Star for a long time. But now he's on a whole other level. He's on another planet right now, and he could probably, just like Jaw last year, be in the conversation for most improved Player. But that's kind

of shady. I think when you're a star, winning most improved player is shady. He's improved in every area though career highs in everything from points to steals to rebounds to assists. Let's look what's happening his scoring, specifically from deep range, has jumped like crazy from thirty five to forty five percent from last year to this year. He's already hit in six games twenty five threes. What the fuck is that? Including eight in one game? What is that?

What is that? He's a shooting guard, as we know, But now that Darius Garland has been out, he's been playing part point guarden with ease at an elite level. His career numbers for assists like four or five. What is the averaging now? Checks note seven and a half, seven and a half. And they're not just like swing swing, drive kick to a corner shooter. These are legit fucking dimes. These are bounced passes through a passing lane between defenders,

threading the needle lay. And on top of that, because I've killed him on this, diam Midche's playing some defense. Now, all of a sudden, he leaves you. He's playing some defense. He has ten steals in six games, ten count them, ten steals. He had two blocks against the Knicks, two blocks, Oh my god, god in Utah. His defensive rating was one twelve, which is abysmal this year one oh five.

Drew Holiday is probably the best on ball defender for a guard, his is one oh one, so like not that far off, truthfully, very big difference between one twelve and one oh five. His points per game, like I said, is up despite being on a better team. I don't understand it. He's averaging almost thirty three points per game, which is the fourth best in the NBA, and his career numbers are at twenty four. The dude is just out of his mind right now. One hundred and ninety

three points total in six games. How does that happen? How is it possible? Then you add in he has forty four assist during that time, He's recorded ten steals, hit twenty five three pointers, and most importantly, the calves are five and one. That's kingshit right there. That's MVP. Put my face and my body on a billboard next to the queue and add some chalk in the air

dust like Lebron James kind of shit. And if he keeps us up, people are gonna be replacing Lebron jerseys with Donovan Mitchell once because he's only twenty six years old and his ceiling apparently can get much much higher. We gotta move on because the only other guard right now this is crazy. You look at the numbers, is crazy. The only other guard right now that's on and Jaw's great. I love Jaw. Jaw's playing great, so I'm not gonna

shade Jaw. And he's up there in stats as well, so don't get in my mentions and be like you didn't mention Jaw. But the only other surprising jump besides Donovan Mitchell is Luka Doncic. I knew he was playing well. I've watched the games. Obviously, you see him putting up numbers. You see him giving people the business. But then you look at the stats and you're like, that's not It

can't be right. That cannot be right. If he does this continuously for the rest of the year, and we'll get into what will happen to the maps if he does, because it's not good. But if he does this for the rest of the year and keeps this up, he will have the best numbers in history we've ever seen from a guard. And that is including Michael James Jordan, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Jeffrey Jordan is Jeffrey. It's not close either, Luca. You might not even realize it is averaging thirty seven,

thirty seven, ten and nine. That would be the best statistical season in the history of guard play. James Harden at one point, averaged thirty six, seven and eight in twenty nineteen. In Jordan's career, he never averaged ten rebounds a game. Never Like this is Michael Jordan level and above type. Shit, Who the fuck? What the fuck is Luca? What's going on? What is he doing? His worst statistical game this year was thirty one, sixteen and ten. Let

me just say that again. Luca's worst statistical game this year is thirty one, sixteen and ten against Oklahoma City. He has scored over thirty one in every single game with a higher forty four points. He had thirty points in the first half against Magic the other night. Oh yeah, and he's doing it shooting twenty one percent from three. When he shoots thirty five percent for his career from three, he could legit be scoring forty points per game by now.

That is so insane. That's like only as shocking this year as Yiannis from like a total player perspective, and then only as shocking from a guard perspectives. Donovan Mitchell, I don't understand it. I don't understand it, and as good as Luca has been, the problem is really just that other teams don't care. Other teams don't actually mind. Other teams would prefer that Luca goes crazy, because as long as other Mavericks don't do anything, this Mavericks team

is gonna lose a lot of games. This makes for a very simple defense when it's just like, let Luca go off and we'll just guard everybody else. And the issue is it's quite simply JaVale McGee. Unfortunately, hate say it. JaVale McGee is getting starting minutes and Javal McGee is not very good right now. He's the starting center on a team with two other centers that are much much better. I want to say that Javal McGee has a negative thirty five so far this year when he's on the

floor in every single game. Combined Christian Wood, Javal McGee, Dwight Powell, all three centers right the team has the highest plus minus with Power, second highest with Wood, and behind them the team is committed to a negative plus minus. Guy JaVale McGee, he stinks. He stinks right now. I hate to say it. I love juve Al McGhee. Good player, really fun guy, nice guy. He stinks right now, He's terrible.

You have Christian Wood right there, Christian Wood out one point, had sixteen points in a row, and Jason Kid put him on a bench. I do not know what's going on. I am not sure. Wood is bawling his per thirty six Christian Wood twenty three, eleven and one. But he's getting twenty five minutes per game with the second unit. He's not out there in the fourth quarter either. He's not closing games. I don't care if you don't start, but you're closing games. You're kind of a starter, you

know what I mean? They are now. The MAVs are now one of only a handful of teams right now to blow a sixteen point or greater lead with under four minutes to go against Okac and in game Wood Game one, when Christian Wood, like I said, had sixteen straight points against the Suns in the second half, Kid just took him out and never played again. Why? Well, house way? How? And then they asked Jason Kidd, how committed to you? How committed are you to continuing to

start JaVale McGee? How strong is your commitment to him? And he said extremely strong, and I said, you're gonna lose a lot of games like that, so you can all love and I'm gonna love watching Luca ball out. He can put up video game numbers this year. But if he does, Mavericks fans need to be very scared. That's so bad. He had thirty in the first half against Orlando and the game was tied at halftime. So if he has to score forty every night, folks, Dallas

just might be a play and team. And that is a scary, scary thought. It only took a couple of weeks in the league for Kyrie Irving to show me why he's a fucking buffoon again. I don't know, he's showing his ass again, folks. He's wilding out. It is time for him to support a very offensive anti Semitic documentary. That's what he's done this time, called Hebrews to Negroes, Wake Up Black America. As you can tell, that's probably not a great film to endorse, probably not an ideal one.

He retweeted it to his four million followers. The film apparently is supposed to quote unquote uncover the true identity of the children of Israel. Oh Boy, which apparently Quote espouses ideas in line with more extreme factions of the Black Hebrew Israelites, which have a long history of all the isms misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia and especially anti Semitism, according to the Manchester Guardian, So when he was called out for it, do you think he deleted the tweet

right away? Do you think apologized right away? Hey, I didn't know what I was saying. I just watched the movie. I was high. I was just I was just looking my name up on the internets and stumbled across this film. I didn't know what I was doing. Guys, I'm sorry. That was dumb of me. No, of course not. He dug in his heels. He tried his damnedest to defend being an asshole. He told Nick Fredell, you can't control me. I'm not your puppet. Well shot, We'll play the clip

in a bit. Joe Si condemned the post, The Brooklyn Nets followed suit, the actual league disavout it, and eventually, after this very awkward presser today, he deleted his post. But he was very defensive about the whole thing. Here is what he had to say when he asked about some of the support of these bullshit conspiracy theories like Alex Jones and really just Nick Fridell and his exchange together something you have to listen to.

lives that were lost during that tragic event. My post was a post from Alex Jones that he did in the early nineties or late nineties about secret societies in America of occults, and it's true.

I don't have to understand anything from you. It's not me, nothing, no people that you're making bro move on.

hasn't even read the book it's based off of. However, because he's Kyrie, and now that Cy and others have criticized him for promoting this nonsense, he's going to dig in. Yes, I agree, no chance he read this book. Kyrie legit said, I'm not going to stand down on anything that I believe in, and then he deleted the post digress. But yeah, we know you pedal this anti vaccine stuff. You're still peddling it now. And that's the problem right now, and

I don't even actually care. When I was talking to Vince Goodwill last night about this, and I said, I'm conflicted on Kyrie because Kyrie, I think, really doesn't know that he is this damaging, that he doesn't actually know how bad this is and how detrimental and dangerous his rhetoric can be in spreading hate for certain groups of people. And he and Vince said something that shook me, and it's true. He said, actually that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

What matters is that Kyrie is dangerous and that's the fact. So whether he knows it or not is really immateial Kyrie's being dangerous and he needs to get somehow reprimanded or stopped in some sort of way. He's on one hand in denial about all this influence that he has, while in the same breath talking about his platform and how he's in this unique position to have a level of influence on his community. Do you have an influence or do you not have an influence? You can't have

it both ways. No one has worse takes than Kyrie. We've been going on with this since the flat earth stuff. He's a free spirit. He gets high. He's like trying to think too hard about what the conspiracy theories that the illuminati of the world, but he doesn't even know what research to do. It's not even based in any historical fact. What we don't need is any more division.

What we don't need is any more things that promote or add to the stereotypes of certain people that have been I don't know, killed for their religious beliefs and their race. As someone said, when you look around and your supporters are bad guys, you are also a bad guy too. I think everybody's had enough Ofri's bullshit. I like him as a player. I kind of feel for all these people who have been saying this about Kyrie,

and I have some advice. If you want a conspira, if you want to continue to spread your conspiracy bullshit, create a burner like your fucking teammate. And when Kanye West supports you, who has been dropped from every single brand and every single label that he's been around, it's time to check yourself. Josh Primo has been released from the San Antonio Spurs. They picked up his team option a couple of weeks ago, eight million dollars left on the books. He was one of the players that they

were really excited about. We talked about him being under the radar, top ten player to watch, just a very young, fun player that even Jerry West loved. And let's give a brief recap and update for people who haven't been following this on TikTok or Twitter. Number twelve pick in the draft, Spurs reached for him, eighteen years old, youngest player in the draft, went to Alabama. Was an absolute bucket, was a really key piece of that Alabama team. Dude

had all the skills to be a star. I think a lot of people have thought that he had a little bit of Kawhi in him, a little bit of DeRozan in him, and they were a big part of the Spurs future. He was a big part of the Spurs future. Plants right they picked up his fourth year option two weeks ago to the tune of four million, and on Friday, out of nowhere, on Friday Night, the Spurs straight released him. All of a sudden, you get a Sham's bomb, a woj bomb, and it's like the

Spurs have released him. They've waived Josh Primo. They didn't tell anybody why. They scrubbed him from their Instagram, they scrubbed his jersey from their team page, they scrubbed his jersey from the NBA team store, and no one knew what was happening. Turns out, not a single good thing was happening at all. Apparently, Allegedly, Josh Primo has been exposing himself to multiple women as Spurs employees. There are rumors that there are multiple women in different capacities. Some

people within host tells not good. Looks like we've got a very like Deshaun Watson esque situation going on. Everyone deserves their dan in court, Josh Primo says that he's working through some trauma right now, He's gonna take some time away from the game. But I tell you what, when the Spurs and Greg Popovich cut ties with you,

that's not good. It does not look good. This is a legendary franchise that works with players when they're going through something, and when they don't stand by you and they cut ties and they don't figure out a way to get you your help that you need and take take a time, take time, step away from the team. There is a reason for that. Today Josh Primos has cleared waivers and it was officially a free agent. I don't know if we're ever gonna see in the NBA again.

There's no clear answer for that. We don't know if any teams are gonna pick him up. I think more is gonna come out about this, but I have to let everyone know because this is a big piece of news. He's very low key, niche player. Maybe casual fans don't know, but if you've been following him, this shit is shocking. Quickly some breaking news from the league front office. The Philadelphia seventy six ers were stripped of their twenty twenty three twenty twenty four second so two second round picks

for tampering, not over James Harden if you can believe it. No, the Sixers got hammered with communicating with Daniel House and PJ. Tucker. You lost two second round picks for those guys. Apparently Philly violated team rules over the timing of free agency and now must pay the play the price. And since second round picks have this huge value now from you know, Jokic to Io de Summu to Herb Jones, pretty big loss for the Sixers, who seem to be in disarray.

Also hot seat time, Doc Rivers on the hot seat. Things are looking bad. We'll do more maybe later on this week on what's going on with the Sixers. But now they have only two trade second round picks over the next seven years for a team that's struggling and maybe very as desperate to add another piece at the trade deadline. Very sad news for the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Hate to see it happen to a team as upstanding

as them in a city as great as theirs. And oh, by the way, the Knicks tampering and investigation over Jalen Brunson is still ongoing. The league put something out that was very ominous about that as well, so more news coming down on that front very soon. All I can say about that is rot Row. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Thursday with an all new episode. Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop almost every day.

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