On this episode of the Heat Check, let's do something different.
Everybody's thinking about March Madness, everybody's thinking about college basketball.
But I want to talk about.
Some dogs, hungry dogs in the NBA, undrafted guys who played their way into the league. I just think it makes sense considering that, like, there are gonna be guys who play well in this tournaments and they will not go drafted, and then they will end up being on your favorite team or the irritant against your favorite team. We'll also cover some news from around the league, and we also have an interview with Robin Lumberg of Sports Illustrated. Yes,
that folks got a cash infusion. He's here to fill us in on what's popping. Anthony, come on, let's drop that motherfucker beat the Shirihana.
Hey that an episode without talking about the Lakers or the Warriors. Good for us.
It feels like every single episode starts with like how they're doing, and like what is going on with the roster or with the coaching staff or something like some news peace pops, some sort of reporting pops. Yeah, I mean they're fighting for their fucking life. You know who else is fuck fighting for their fucking life. These hungry dogs are fighting for their life. What do I mean? So anyway, I did a social clip recently yesterday on Keon Ellis of the Sacramento Kings. Check it out on Instagram.
He had five blocks off the bench the other night. He has been bawling for the Kings the past ten games. I like a ton about Ellis Island aka Killer key On aka in a falsettle because he's got that good D.
You know what I'm saying, good D? Pause? But what do I like about Keon?
He was an undrafted player who is known for his defensive intensity at Alabama and he made the All Defensive team as a senior. There is a trend here and I've seen it with others, and so we got into the lab and dissected whether you could find those hungry dogs and how well they're doing in the NBA Right now.
Not enough people are talking about these types of players, the guys that may not get everyone's attention because they can't score, but what they bring to the table translates to the next level.
So what is this hungry dog type of a player? What are these dogs the NBA?
They're undrafted players, mostly defensive minded pests who has a trip on their shoulder and they have earned everything along the way, they have been given nothing, and that will not leave their shoulder the chip.
I was thinking about it today.
I watched a clip I will not share with you, but I was like, oh, I am a hungry dog.
These other dogs, these.
Are Kennel AKC Kennel certified show dogs and me, I'm not related to anybody. I don't know anybody that's been in the business or played any sport of any kind. I have to literally take a piece of scrap off the kennel and fight other dogs for it, and they do too.
So I love these guys.
We're talking about guys who hassle opponents, full court press, ninety four feet, feisty in the paint, causing chaos on the court, probably yelling at their coaches, probably yelling at their gms, probably yelling at their teammates. Pat Beverly is
the archetype of this player. People forget that Patrick Beverly washed out at Arkansas, did not get drafted, had to play four years overseas, four years before getting a shot with the Rockets, and using his defensive intensity and his strap like defense and annoying behavior to make a career that still is alive and well. Today, the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Pat Beverly simply because they had no dogs on that squad. And this is a team that's a
championship contender. So let's look at the past ten drafts, this year being excluded, as it takes sometimes for puppies to emerge into full junkyard dogs, and I think that they become more easy to spot than you think. All right, undrafted rookies who hustle all game long, who harass and hassle other players into making dumb mistakes, who love to get into the mud and get their hands dirty. If Keon Ellis is the hungry dog of the twenty twenty two draft, then the twenty twenty one drafts has two
of them, Jose Alvarado and Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves h so much that he makes Larry Bird look lazy. He may not be like the best defender, but he hustles, he tries. Jose Alvarado, he is on another level. Jose Alvarado is like a miniature pincher. He'll beat the shit, he will bite the shit out of you. Here's what Pell's coach Willie Green said. The band they call Grand Theft Alverado GTA. He said this, he's extremely unique. I
say this jokingly, but it's kind of true. I don't know anyone in the NBA who is six feet and under this nice. All those guys are kind of like Chihuaha was. They bite you, they bark, They're ready to fight at anytime. That way makes That's what makes Jose unique. He's that way.
To make it to this level, you kind of sort of have to have that.
What did I tell you, hungry small bark in chihuah was out there fucking shit up, waiting to pick your pocket, waiting to make you look, waiting to get their shines that they get paid.
The twenty twenty draft.
Gave us Naji Marshall, who is a dog down of New Orleans, playing hard nosed defense, still getting seven four and two and nineteen minutes alongside Herb Jones, a second round picker. He'd be on the Hungry.
Dog list as well.
Alvarado in New Orleans man our man Griff has a type.
He likes those junk yard dogs.
They come cheap from the beginning, too good good type of assets when you're building a roster full of dudes that you have to pay a lot of money to, like Brandon Ingram, CJ.
Mccollin, and Zion Williamson. The twenty nineteen draft is a huge draft for hungry dogs. We get lou Dort. There no one wants to play lou Dort.
I saw lou Dort and a T shirt once. I mean, he's like, he's like if ray Rice, how about this? No, He's like if ray Lewis decided to play basketball. He's like if ray Lewis decided he was going to shooting guard and then learn how to shoot a jumper from three. He's like if Miles Garrett decided he was gonna play basketball. Twenty nineteen also gives us Caleb Martin. He's made a career down in Miami as a dog off the bench. There's nas Reed, who's a nightmare off the bench. Just
signed a huge contract with the Wolves. And guess what these dogs are getting paid. Twenty eighteen gave us Heywood, Heismith and gave Vincent both heat guys.
Do you sense a trend here? Do you sense a trend here?
Miami is a breeding ground for the Dogs, Duop Reid out in Portland who's quietly becoming a monster.
Lsu All Defense.
Twenty seventeen produced Chris Bouchet, who barked.
All his way to a title in Toronto.
But twenty sixteen, Folks is the biggest year for the Hungry Dogs, with a quartet of dudes who define what a hungry dog is. Alex Caruso the Goat aka the Janitor might be the best armball defender in the NBA. Derek Jones Junior, who has athleticism oozing out of his.
Pores, found a home in Dallas.
Gary Payton the second, Gary Peyton, the third, Gary Payton the second Gary Payton the second, who went healthy as a top five defender in the league, really bounced around for almost forever, kept that tenacity just like a junkyard dog will have. You can't hold them down. It's just a matter of time before they escape your kennel. And then the King of hungry Dogs, Fred van Fleet, who parlayed his Chihuahua status to the tune in three years and one hundred and twenty eight million dollars and.
He's not even fully healthy. He's a hungry dog with this way back.
Twenty fifteen gives this TJ McConnell, who's set an NBA record. By the way, he does have back problem, so it's like a total positive.
I guess a real comparison anyway. Twenty fifteen gives a TJ.
Connell who set an NBA record with nine steals in one half. Twenty fourteen as Maxi Klaiba, who went undrafted and parlayed that into a fifty million dollar career so far. Twenty thirteen had Roco and Matthew della Vedofa. Roco is the only HPCU alumnus in the league in Deli. I mean, come on, this guy was a hungry dog in Europe and parlayed that to the league into Cleveland to.
Get a championship.
Then he hooked on with Lebron who absolutely loves hungry dogs and gets them paid hungry dogs everywhere. No akc papers like these purebred dookies and Jayhawks.
Ugh, we don't like those. We don't like those blue blood purebread dogs.
Eugh.
You push them around a little bit and they squeal. Don't like that. We like ones that growl at you a little bit.
These guys have earned everything that they've got, and Lord helps the person that tries to take it away from him, just like when my dog finds a t bone bone underneath some sort of Porterhouse bone underneath the eleven Howard bench, and.
All of a sudden you feel like you might not get your fingers back. So good for those dogs. Find them? Who are they in this draft? That will be part two. We got a lot of news from around the league to get to.
So let's begin of Minnesota, where the final acquisition of the Timberwolves has concluded and Mark Lorie and a Rod are now officially the owners of one of the best teams in the NBA.
What a steel for a Rod. My goodness.
They take over controlling ownership of the Wolves from Glenn Taylor. I tell you what, Glenn Taylor's gotta be punching air right now. Has to give up the team right as that they're at the peak of their powers. I tell you some Minnesota, Minnesota fans who are absolutely celebrating to get rid of Glenn Taylor. He was one of the cheapest owners in the league. He was very unpopular in Minnesota.
He has been very unpopular for very very long.
So it's great news for the Wolf and all that remains is approval from the league and the Glenn Taylor era is officially could put timon.
Couldn't have been better?
Right, everyone's talking about the Aunt Edwards Show, one of the best shows on hardwood. Even Michael Jordan came out and said, yeah, I see myself in AUNT. I mean, you can't get a better endorsement than MJ himself, who hates everyone. By the way, MJ tells everyone that he's Kobe's not even like me.
No, this guy Lebron absolutely not Aunt Edwards.
Sure, so Wolves fans have a lot to look forward to now with one of the most explosive players in the world, the number one defense in the league. Now finally owners who aren't trying to squeeze five pennies out of.
A nickel out of every turn.
So congratulations Wolves fans, you got yourself a legit organization with a legit star. All right, Moving on, I was doing my weekly hit in Sacramento with Damian Barling and Kenny Carraway on their Del and Casey show when the subject of Malik Monk came up.
Let's go to the tape. What think you gets? Tell them over market? I know I've posted this on Twitter.
People got very mad because they want everybody to be very moum on Malik.
But just between me and the lamp post, you know, what.
Did what did? What did you?
What were they saying? What were they saying to you? I saw the tweet, but you know, I didn't go through the comments. What were other you know, fan bases saying about Malik like what he might get?
It was mostly it was mostly Sacramento fans like, please don't bring this up right wrong.
I'll tell you we'll be jumping people.
Man, it just as our own and we just be jumping.
People like what are you doing? D Loo Casey let her know.
We're not supposed to talk about Malik right now, like nobody should know about him.
The first role of Malik Monk free Agency is to not discuss Malik Monk free agency. It's hard to imagine him not getting an offer in the vicinity of twenty million dollars from someone like I feel like if he got you know, four offers outside of a Sacramento or three offers outside of Sacramento, I feel like they're all ranging between nineteen and twenty one million dollars.
I think that's the.
Right right as someone who is certainly not a Sacramento King's cap expert.
How much do we have to pay him?
Well, it's not the cap that's the problem.
It's the fact that he signed a two year contract right when we signed him a couple of years ago, and so there's a max that he can be offered because of that structure, and we I always I think it's like seventeen and a half is where it starts, and then you you know, you can have the increments raised after that. But I don't think Sacramento can start above seventeen and a half. Well, and that's why King's fans are terrifying. That's why King's fans are terrified.
Didn't want you to shut up, man, I am. I'm really hoping things will work out for the Kings in the league.
Fortunately, so does Malik himself. He said this to Anthony Slater the other day. I love to be here, man. I got comfortable here, made a lot of new friends here, met a lot of great people here.
The city loves me.
I loved the city, so yeah, I'd love to come back. The problem is that the Kings did not structure his deal in a way that allows them to be at the head of the negotiating table.
Here is what is under the King's control.
The most the Kings can offer because they gave Malik a two year deal, is a four year, seventy eight point four million dollar contract based on having early bird rights, which means the Kings can offer him one hundred and seventy five percent of this year's salary, with raises.
Eight percent each year. That is rough.
They would keep him comfortably under the salary cap at that point, especially since they don't have a twenty twenty four first rounder to sign. But there are now estimates coming out that there are some young and scrappy upcoming teams that want Malik and could sign him for anywhere between twenty and twenty two million dollars per year for teams looking for somebody who maybe the sixth man of the year and maybe offering him a starting spots.
Will he stay for.
I don't know, twenty thirty million dollars less overall than what he could get on the open market. The Aaron Fox, send that man some flowers or a hooker.
I don't know. He's only twenty five, he's at the prime of his career.
If he takes a shorter deal in order to get to his bird rights, that might work for both sides, but why would he really Like he tears an acl and he's done done. I hope he stays in Sacramento with Fox, but it's not a done deal, and that makes Kings fans and myself and the Aaron Fox and Mike Brown extremely extremely nervous. All right, moving on, I think it's time for us to revisit and start talking about Jalen Green. We've been quite critical of Jalen Green.
I have said he's not a winning player. He has not made winning decisions. Maybe Eme Udoko would make him a winning player like he did.
The Boston Celtics.
In his game on Tuesday night, though Jalen Green went off for forty two and ten rebounds. The forty two, by the way, was a career high. It was capped by this Jordanesque dipsy do up and under change reverse hands in the middle of a contest that lit up social media like a firefly and a dark bathroom. It was pretty pretty as him, and more importantly, it led to the six consecutive win for a streaking Rockets team. So We've seen highlight plays from Jalen Green, but we
have not seen those coincide with wins. In his last ten games, Jailing Green has been clutch twenty seven, six and three, forty eight, forty and eighty shooting splits better yet though. He's a plus eleven net rating in those ten games. And like I said, they are streaking, they are winning, meaning he's hugely.
Impacting the Rockets during this win streak.
His game against the Lossington Lizards as we call them aka Washington Wizards to you, but they don't get many dubs, so we give him the Lizards title saw him put a forty two eleven from thirteen, eleven for thirteen from the line, and seven for thirteen from three, ten rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steel in thirty six minutes in a game that the Houston Rockets won by twenty three.
What was his net rating in that.
One checks notes A plus twenty six. Oh my goodness, dude, just impacting winning on both sides of the ball. If only Jalen Green could have gotten Draia Dreya pregnant earlier. He's on his grown man status, no more fuck boy like stat sheets. We're only trying to get plus numbers in terms of impact. And the best part, he's got his eyes on the prize for the first time in his NBA career. He said, I've got a goal now I'm a dad.
He didn't say that, and that's to get to the playoffs.
That's just to win, stack as many w's as we can before the end of the season and pray that we can get into the play in tournament.
That's the focus. Does anybody remember.
Jalen Green saying anything about stacking wins to get to the playoffs?
Folks remember Steven Silas God he was bad anyway. He said, everyone's playing hard.
We're chasing something right now, we've all got the same goal. We've got shit, we've all got the same goal, Anthony, and everyone's on board with it.
Please help me out with this edit. There's a reason that they're eight.
And one in March, and that reason has a name, Jalen Green and Ema Udoka. Like I said, it's been a huge month. Jalen became a father to be for the first time with Drea a uh what we call Drea.
I mean, I think you know if you know who she is, is she.
I need I don't know, man, I she's not around the way girl. She's more like a every other city, week ago, every other video.
I don't know.
She's eighteen years older than him. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Does that mean like she's instilling maturity in him?
Does that mean that she's pulling some predatory behavior on him? I don't know. She's pregnant with Jalen Green's baby. At least we could put some of those.
Rumors to bed that surfaced on social media last year when he old dorm room videos surfaced. If you know what I'm saying, his rockets.
Are two and a half games out of the plan with a shot at the playoffs.
Dude is killing it. Great to see for a guy that a lot of people started to write off earlier this year. People started to say that the G League Night wasn't any good just because of him. He was also named NBA Player of a Week. That was the first such award of his career.
Good for Jalen Green. I clown around a lot, but Jalen Green was considered.
To be one of the most highly touted, highly hyped players in his draft class. So it's good to see a guy that people were excited to see finally.
Start to produce at that level. It's easy to forget that.
Things don't always come together so easily or come on the expected timeframe. Zion, for example, It's been many years since Zion was supposed to produce, and now many years into his career, he's finally doing it.
As emy Udoka said, this has been building for a long time.
The assist numbers, the shooting numbers, the defensive competitiveness, all those areas have really improved. It's not just gonna happen overnight. It's a little slower for some people, but it's really been clicking for Jalen even before the All Star break, you could see signs the double doubles in a row, the five game stretch that he had to put it
all together. Now it's even more needed with some guys going down to injury like alprin Shangoon, and to think, like I said before the nets turned down Jalen Green for four firsts Jalen Green, and four first for mckil bridges.
The nets are gonna nets, so they're not.
And the Rockets started this year blisteringly hot, faded and now got hot again after their best player went down. If the Rockets make the playoffs after getting emay Udoka, Dylan Brooks and the junkyard dog Fred van Fleet, emay Udoka should win Coach of the Year and Jalen Green should be most improved player. I know it's not gonna happen, but if there's any justice in this world.
It will.
We end this show with a special interview with Robin Lundberg of SI Sports Illustrated. Robin has been an MBA insider for years. Join my other show, but MGM Tonight, which airs Monday through Friday live from seven to eleven Eastern.
I was joined by my co host Ryan Horvaught.
Rob gotten to a ton of interesting NBA news and his thoughts on these teams going down to the stretch as we get into play in tournament, in the playoffs.
So let's get right into it.
What do you think right now about the Milwaukee Bucks because they're paying technically three head coaches right now. Mike Budenholzer, we saw what happen with Adrian Griffin and now Doc Rivers takes over. They were playing a little bit better, especially on the defensive end. No Giannis tonight. Just your overall thoughts right now on the Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
Well number one, I think Doc Rivers is actually slightly underrated at this point in.
Time because I feel like he's gotten so much.
Blowback for being a choker and a failure that people forget to realize. You know, his career record is well over five hundred. He is an NBA championship coach. He has been to another Finals that they happen to lose in a Game seven. I don't think the Lob City Clippers were some sort of juggernaut that were supposed to run rough shot over the league during that entire timeframe.
No.
I understand the blown three one leads, and I understand some of the critique, but it's not like the Sixers were bad under his tenure either. I think this is a flawed Bucks roster in a sense where you give up a guy like Drew Holliay, let's go back to the Olympics. People forget this, but Damian Lillard was the point guard for the Olympic team. Now, he was dealing with an injury at a time, to be fair, but that team got much better when Drew Holliday came in and took over for Dame Lillard.
It was really Katie, Holliday.
And Tatum that were the top three guys for that team because of what Holliday was able to do defensively. And you look at this Bucks squad. You know, Lillard brings that clutch time offense. He brings that logo shooting that we've all come to expect. But beyond him and Giannis, the end between is a little lacking. The perimeter defense is a little lacking, and that's what would concern me about them in the postseason when things get hairy.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I mean, Chris Middleton, we haven't seen him in quite some time with an ankle injury.
A team on the.
West in a very dangerous spot right now is the Lakers robin. They're seven and six and their last thirteen one and two in their last three. There's a lot of smoke here in terms of, like, if they don't make the play in what's going to happen with Darvin Ham. It just came out yesterday that Rob Polinka overruled the scouting department, took Jalen Hood Shaffino over Haimi Hawkes and Cam Whitmore. But what do you think is the is
the future this season for the Lakers. Obviously they're very dangerous if they do get into the playoffs, but there's a couple of teams that are hot on their tails.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, look, Lebron's basketball IQ will do a lot for them. He can diagram the plays with JJ Reddick as they get closer to make sure that they don't fall out of the postseason. Contention, the Lakers are a flawed team. I mean, you pointed it out. It's a flawed roster. You know, they've got some good players,
but they've lacked that real outside shooting for a minute now. Obviously, you know, if you look at the way that the organization has been run, if Lebron didn't go there, we'd be talking about the Lakers as some sort of epic historic failure considering what they once were versus what they were toward the end of Kobe's time and after Kobe's time there before Lebron got there.
Now, the benefit for them is the.
Play in tournament, which makes it so much harder to fall out of the playoffs.
And I think.
Anytime you get into a constricted situation where you're playing you know, fewer number of games and you can rely more on the top of your lineup. It benefits them obviously because of who they employ in Lebron James and to a lesser degree, Anthony Davis. So I still think they're dangerous if they can get into a playoff scenario. We saw a similar thing last year, and the most important thing for them, to be honest, is gonna be health.
You know, if those guys are healthy when they get there, it gives them the proverbial puncher's chance.
I would say, if Anthony Davis had fifty straight double doubles, would that be covered differently than Demonas Sabonis, who now has surpassed that.
Perhaps here's the thing with AD. The thing with AD is.
He's never going to be what we cast him to be. You know, the biggest anomaly out of the bubble was Anthony Davis's shooting where he looked like the second coming of KD. And since then, the real problem there is he's a terrific defensive player, very versatile player. When he's got the energy going, he scores because he's cutting, diving, grabbing rebounds, putting them back up all that stuff, but he doesn't have that much of a bag.
He doesn't have that much of a jump shot.
And we thought at that time, Okay, Lebron's gonna hand the reins over to Anthony Davis. It's gonna be Anthony Davis's team and Lebron's gonna take a step back. That is never going to happen. And the thing is, Sabonis and Anthony Davis are on a similar tier. I mean, I know Sabonis owns him head to head. We've all seen that, but that is closer than people realize, I think,
And therein lies the the rub. But you know, of course eighty plays for the Lakers and plays next to Lebron James, while Sabonis plays in Sacramento, which is covered a little bit differently.
All Right, So I wanted to ask you about Wemby.
He's going to be Rookie of the Year.
Although we really like Chet, we like Jimi Hawkins as well, but like I'm looking at Defensive Player of the Year, he's down to plus three point fifty. Rudy Gobert's minus five hundred the last fifteen games. I know it's a season long award, but I was looking at this in the Spurs, like the last fifteen games of the defensive rating with Wemby on the floor one oh seven point three, which is actually better than Minnesota's a top spot with him off the floor one nineteen point three, which would
be twenty ninth overall. Do you think he has a shot to actually win this award or no, it's Rudy Gobert's.
Well, I mean you look at the odds and I think those are the odds that would give him a shot. I mean I would certainly it'd be worth a as Trista likes to stay a sprinkle and then if you get it wrong, you could just blame your interpreter, you know, and you'll be good. But fs Wenby goes from it is an ability standpoint. I think it's the problem is it takes a minute to catch up, and that's the problem.
I mean, I think he said it himself like this is Rudy Gobert's last year and then it's my territory. But when you watch when you watch him, I watched the Nets game he ate Nick Claxton alive on a couple of possessions back to back or the same possession back to back plays, Claxton tries to go up, blocks him. Claxton tries to go up again, blocks him. And the talent is just freakish, which is why he was pegged the way he was pegged coming in. Is he the
most impactful defensive player in the league. I would say yes. If I had a vote, I would vote for him. As far as him actually winning it, you know, there's only looking at that board, there's only two players who have a chance. One has a better chance than the other. But it's it's more than a complete total long.
Shot, Robin.
We were doing the lord's work.
You know, sometimes people get mad when you shame players into doing their job. But somehow, some way, multiple years have gone past, and now all of a sudden, I look up and Zion has lost twenty five pounds since the nd season tournament. You watch him on the court and you're like, oh my god, he's shredded. He has the elevation and he's got that vertical back. My goodness, what will it take do you think for us to flip the narrative on Zion?
And what do you think the Pelicans can become?
Because it's starting to get out that the Pelicans could be a dangerous team in the West.
Well, I think it's happening now.
I mean the fact that you're asking that question, and obviously what we've seen from Zion.
I've never been the biggest brandon Ingram fan.
My concern for Zion is more like from a basketball standpoint, is more on the defensive end, because unlike Webbin Yama, he's not incredibly long, and then he's so big and strong, he's not incredibly deaf moving laterally, So I think he can be put in some tough spots in mismatches and crossmatch and.
A little bit.
But he is, I mean, he is a monster. And it's funny we talk about you guys. I think you guys were talking about March Madness at the top of the segment before I came on. He feels like the last college basketball star on the men's side in many ways.
You know, we haven't really seen that since then. But the reason he was so hype we're starting to see now, and what was address was his conditioning and and him actually just being healthy and out on the floor, because the one thing he can provide is just like monstrous deficient. He never misses around the basket. He's incredibly adept at finishing. Nobody can really stop him. If they can get the perimeter play to match that, they're going to be a
very dangerous team. I'm just not so sure I trust that they have that cohort to go with him, uh to get to the the NBA Finals or make a deep run in the NBA playoffs.
You know, obviously they should get there.
How far do you think they could go?
I think they could win around possibly depending on the matchup, But I think that's about it. I Mean, look, these teams that we're talking about, we talk about for a reason, right I mean, the Denver Nuggets, clearly, the Timberwolves look
like they're they're for real. Obviously, the Clippers, if they're healthy, are legitimate, you know, and you have just up and down the West, even though all those playing teams feel who would you pick the Pelicans or the Lakers in a playoff series if it came down, I would still pick the Lakers in a playoff series, probably because of the guy who wears number twenty three, right like, so you know, same with the Warriors, because we saw we literally saw it last year where those two teams felt
like they were and then they wind up in a great playoff series. So I think until I see them do it, I'm skeptical that they're going to it advance even past one.
Yeah, we hit on the Pelicans, Clippers, Wolves, and Nuggets, but not the one seed right now, that'd be the Thunder. Do you think the Thunder are good enough to win a playoff series? A couple playoff series?
Like?
What do you think they're ceiling is this year?
For Okay?
See, I mean I think their ceiling is the NBA Finals. I don't think that's gonna happen, but I do feel like that's a realistic ceiling, and I think this core could eventually get there.
I mean because they have they can check all the.
Boxes with Williams, with Homegrin, obviously with SGA. You know, so they have a real complete team and you know it is the prob. I know, sixers with the process, but it was the process realized. But again, I would be skeptical until we actually see them do that, because we've seen a lot of teams have really good regular seasons and then when they run into the playoffs, it's that experience. It's that you know, been there, done that When you're in that seven game series and the other
team knows your tendencies? How do you how do you react? How do you react to those pressure situations? And and I would still lean with the teams that we've at least seen get their toes into the water.
I remissed, and I have you on and ask you about the Knicks. Mitchell Robinson is now looking more and more likely to see the court very soon. We know og and Obi is dealing with some elbow inflammation. But I'm not really too worried about that. I've dug into the lab talk to some people.
It's just a precautionary thing before the playoffs.
No word on Julius Randall yet, but obviously Jalen Brunson is the key to making this whole thing go. Now that most of the pieces are starting to congeal back together healthy, where are we at on the Knicks.
I think the Knicks are a dangerous team if they're healthy. I do.
I mean, look just last year the Knicks. We're right there with Miami, who wound up in the finals. You look at the way that these numbers bear out, I mean, all those teams are punched up. That's telling you all those teams are a similar quality. The Knicks beat the Cavaliers just last season. I think it's those three guys. Mitchell Robinson would be good for them, but I don't
think that's really what matters. I think it's Jalen Brunson, og Nnobi, Julius Randall, those three guys healthy and available in the playoffs because they provide different elements for them too. You know, anonob was exactly what they needed between Brunson and Randall. Randall I still have concerns even if he's on the floor about how he handles pressure situations because
he hasn't done that well in the past. But he can really score, and Brunson has proven himself as somebody who can get his shot anytime he wants.
Thanks so much, man, Robin Lumberg right there. Follow him on Twitter, Robin Lumberg.
That's all the time that we have to this episode of The Heat Check. Many thanks to Robin Lumberg and the whole gang at bet MGM the Night. Come back Monday for an all new episode. Check out the feed for past episodes, many episodes which drop unexpectedly, like a three pointer from the corner from Miss Cinderella and the Big Dance like ha. Do not forget the follow the heat check as we had down the stretch. That means dollo, that means subscribe, That means tell your friends, all of them.
Even at Fox that lives in the bamboo grove behind your house and is actually out there banging on our garbage can and banging on on his wife, Mama Fox having babies.
In your backyard.
Teat say hey, leave my garbage alone. But if you have some downtime, listen to the heat check.
It's awesome even for foxes. And you do not forget to follow us on that diz check.
That's ridiculous, And at this Eja and interesting Creek on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram.
And once again we're back on YouTube. When the video is gonna happen, I don't know, but follow us. We'll see you next time.