All right, let's get into some shorter, quick little news bites just to kind of like keep you updated on what's happening around the league. We talked last episode about how good Zion looks. Christian Clark of The Times, pickiyun maybe my favorite newspaper in America, just because you get to say pickiun might have given us an extra reason of why Zion seems extra motivated in being skinny. One hundred and thirty nine million dollars one hundred and ninety
three million dollars deal right with massive incentives? So what are these incentives? We finally know if he wins any of these accolades MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, or is a full first team All Star this year, first team All NBA, excuse me, he is due to receive thirty eight million dollars more, thirty eight million dollars, thirty eight million reasons to be in shape and to ball
out and to be completely healthy. I would definitely hire a nutritionist if thirty million dollars thirty eight million dollars was on the line. What does that mean? I think that means Zion is going to be an absolute wrecking ball and they are going to be the team, the team in the West to watch this year. Speaking of extensions, Tyler Hero, we talked about that last episode, but we
now know what his extension looks like. Tyler Hero four years, one hundred and twenty million dollars, ten million dollars in incentives, right around thirty two and a half million dollars per year. Remember he said last week there are players across the league who have got and paid who I know I am better than, So it's gotta be the right number. Well, he's making more than Jayleen Brunson right now, he's making
more than Anfretty Simons right now. Apparently the right number for him, thirty two and a half million dollars seems like the right number. Also less than he would hope, also a lot more than I thought he was worth. I thought he was like twenty eight, twenty nine, and what's three and a half million dollars in the cap is as big as it is. But still at least he's no longer going to be a part of these
trade rumors. Wonder what that means now though for Michigan player Duncan Robinson, who's just sitting there on the bench making I think sixteen million dollars per year. That was a bad signing. That was a really bad signing. So, speaking of trade rumors, nobody has been in more trade
rumors outside of Myles Turner than Harrison Barnes. Harrison Barnes and Sacramento rumor to be traded to ten teams eleven teams maybe over the last two years, which is why when he was asked what it's like to be constantly looking over his shoulder, he gave a refreshingly honest answer. Barnes said, you know, the NBA, I check Woji checked Shawm's. They've still got me here. So as far as I'm concerned, this is where I'm supposed to be and I'm going
to give it my best effort. It's pretty incredible to hear that these NBA players literally don't hear news any earlier than us, Like we get the news the very first moment we can have it. That's why you have to have them on notifications. But it's nice to know that Harrison Barnes is checking for the WOJ bomb to see his name. And also, on a very separate side note, could you imagine if you had been fired and it happened on Twitter, like you find out on Twitter, Hey,
come into my office. Nope, you don't get that. You get It's been reported that Trista Crik has been removed from the heat Check starting now. It's so wild. It's been ordered the tryst that has been traded to iHeartRadio like okay, where where am I going? Also quickly Yannis Yannis is a dark dude, as like a sonny of a disposition that he has, and as funny as he is and all these dad jokes. He likes dark movies. Disney Plus movie Rise was made about his upbringing. His
criticism it wasn't dark enough. What I immediately said to myself, well, I need to know how dark was it, Like what was the darkest moment? I need to go to Milwaukee and ask what was the darkest moment of your upbringing? Because obviously you wanted it out there. You didn't want the whitewashed, wonderbred version out there. You wanted to put all of the grit and all of the grime. But I also went down a rabbit hole recently about why trauma is something that people keep writing about and putting
out in films. It's very weird. Every book I tried to buy from the bookstore the other day, all centered around a dark past comes bubbling up that they must confront. It's like, no anyway. His biggest hurdle. Mama Anta Zakoumpo also didn't think that the movie was dark enough or true enough to reality. She was mad it wasn't more realistic.
Did anybody tell him they could have done this with like HBO Max, Like it didn't need to be Disney Plus, Like I'm promise you HBO Max would have done that deal. It would have been like, all right, we're putting out House of Dragons, and then a season before that, we're putting out It's not called Rise, it's called like stay Down. I don't know. He's happy that the kids are responding
to his life story, but he cannot wait. He says, for a movie about his life that will be more dark, because he said it will be more accurate that way. I need to know what happened. I need to know what happened. I know she was selling, his mom was selling like DVDs in Greece. I need to know. Moving on, reports hit the wires that Shack is currently interested in becoming a part of the new ownership group of the Phoenix Suns. Shack wants to buy the Sons. Wasn't he
there for like a season? He was the big Cactus, Big Cacti, and then he was something else. He went somewhere else pretty quickly after that when he went to the Heat. I mean, he has no real connection to Phoenix, especially considering that he shares a set with someone who is mister Phoenix Sons and Charles Barkley. So to me, it feels very petty. It feels like he wants to own it and have that to lure over Charles Barkley on TNT, really just to so he can make fun
of him on TNT. Apparently he wants to get into business with Jeff Bezos, who is now rumored to be kicking the tires on the Suns. I don't want Jeff Bezos owning an NBA team. I don't he owns too many things. He just does. I don't want him owning every facet of my life. I went to a grocery store today. It was an Amazon grocery store. This is the scariest thing I've ever seen. You just scan a code, you put groceries in the bag and you leave. They
don't even check you out. How do they know? They've got cameras, they've got weight markers, they correspond the weights to the foods. How do they know? How do they know? How do they get it all right? What if they overcharge me? What if they accused me of stealing when I didn't? All these things? Scary? Amazon? Jeff Bezos is a scary dude. What's he gonna do inside of an arena? Who knows? Really interesting? But the league does need Shack as an owner. I would like that. So here's a question.
What NBA player can guard positions one through five? I think the list is pretty short, right, You've got like bam Adebayo, You've got Well, let's actually ask bam Adebayo who he thinks UH can do that. He has his own ideas. This is what bam said. He says, it's me, Draymond, and Jannie, three guys who can literally guard one through five and be effective. So he leaves off Ben Simmons, who played one and now is gonna play five. So you would imagine he could probably guard two, three and
four Lebron James. He just leaves Lebron James off. I think he can guard one through five. I think he's pretty effective at that h Who am I missing? Kevin Durant? Can Kevin Durant guard one through five? Be can guard maybe two? One and a half through five? A big point guard? Who am I missing? Are there any players with the length and the agility? Jason Tatum? Could he play? Could he guard one through five? I'm just throwing these
names out here now. Length, agility to defend all positions, and strength to be able to take a bruising down low in the post. I'd like to know. Let me know what you guys think, either in the comments section, hit me up on Twitter? Am I missing anyone? Latest trade rumor? Buddy Healed and Miles Turner to the Lakers for both of their first round picks. This has been going on for forever. I'm done. I'm done with this Indiana Pacers Lakers trade like either do it or don't
do it. I don't want to hear any more about Buddy Hill being in purple and gold, which will be an absolute nightmare of a scenario if it happens. I don't want to hear any more about Miles Turner being traded Like no more rumors. These are just this is the biggest tease. It's been going on for like four years, even when Buddy Hill was in Sacramento. We've been hearing
about all these guys being traded. I'm done, Zach Lowe rep My best intel right now is if the Lakers called Indiana right now and said both picks unprotected, the Pacers would do that deal. I mean, yeah, two first round picks for guys that you don't like, like they
don't like either one of them. Yes, of course that deal is gonna happen if you offer him your twenty five and twenty seven first round picks, which Lebron James will be as old as dust by Ben and so this team will be nowhere and Anthony Davis will probably be retired by twenty twenty seven. So of course, of course they're gonna do it. Well, the Lakers do it, that's the question, all right? Uh, Steve, someone asked Steve Nash about Ben simmons free throw woes, and he said,
I believe in Ben as a free throw shooter. That's really nice to hear, Steve. I'm glad you believe in him. Was he supposed to say? What Doc Rivers said, I mean, then they've got to deal with like Ben never coming back to the team. He can't levy one bit of criticism on Ben Simmons if you're the coach publicly without him deciding he needs another back surgery. Like that's just facts. The last time we saw Ben Simmons, he shot thirty four percent from the line in the playoffs over twelve games.
That was a point guard at that point shooting thirty four percent from the free throw line. I mean, what is he supposed to say? I guess, like I don't believe in Ben. I pray he never gets fouled. That's why we don't want the ball in his hands, like he's gonna pass every time he has the ball. Like that's why I said he doesn't. I don't want him shooting jump shots because God forbid, I have to have him shoot three free throws. Like what is he gonna say?
I plan on benching him in the fourth quarter. Don't worry, like everything's fine. Like if if Steve nash knew how to manage his rotations, that's what he would do. Ben Simmons out there, quarters one two and three, quarters one and three, when the pressure is the let the least. Of course, you guys say that it's just like Steve Nash is maybe the worst, may be the worst coach in the NBA right now. And that's saying a lot.
Because Steve Clifford's back, folks. Also Rachel Nichols, She's back, folks. She uh. The coast is clear for Rachel Nichols given the fact that the world has turned their attention on spewing venom at Malika Andrews. So now Rachel Nichols comes from the clouds and announces she's now with Showtime Sports. She gave her first interview with the All the Smoke guys. She went through her entire point of view over why she was ousted or pushed out from ESPN. Listen, I
like people getting a second chance. But if I am if I am, Matt Barnes and Jack, we're not putting out that promo right now. We have the entire world going after Malika and questioning her blackness. We can't have and we were connected in the Rachel Nichols saga as the only people of color that she would put on her show were us. We can't. We can't promote her coming back right now. We gotta push this announcement dog a week maybe nine days. This can't be. We can't
be connected to this. We gotta we gotta reshoot this. This is like the day after Malika's Andrew's got destroyed by Twitter, people being like bringing Rachel Nichols back, and all of a sudden, it's like I beck like, no, we can't have that. We can't have that. That just shows you the one day you're on the spit, next you're part of the fire. She turned in just really lands on her feet. Rachel Nichols shocking, shocking. Rachel Nichols
is uh is resilient. I'll just say that, moving forward forward. Chet Holmgren, Poor, poor chet Holmgren. On the day the preseason began, he tweeted this, it was like one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen all caps. I want a hoop, Damn, damn. I want to see you hoop too. Chet Holmgren. Reports say that he's reached out to Joel Embiid for advice on what it's like to
miss his entire rookie year. He said, I briefly spoke to Joel on what his experience was like and talked to one of his trainers a little bit and got some kind words of advice. Awesome, awesome stuff. Also, how come he didn't contact Ben Simmons. He missed his whole rookie year too. It's weird really quick aside, did you guys see that Instagram photo? And it was Kyrie, Kevin Durant and Ben and Ben was just like on the left side of the photo and he's like looking at bit.
He's like looking at Kai and Katie and there like looking at only each other, like just icing them out of the photo, like just turning their entire shoulder, like who invited this guy? Who invited this guy? Who is this guy? He's like the pr guy off to the side, like the agent, not involved in the conversation in any way, just eating pizza. Anyway, Back to Chet Holmgren, I can't
wait to see him. Can't wait to see him back. Finally, in my tweet of the week, we get to see James Wiseman not only ball out to the tune of twenty points nine rebounds, which is also I actually don't know which is more surprising. Ben Simmons James Wiseman excuse me being fully healthy and dominant or James Wiseman to decide in Japan to go in full Samurai gear and use a Samurai sword to drop a bamboo target in half.
James Wiseman in a Samurai suit with a Samurai sword in Japan, it's like Tom Cruise, the last Samurai's James Wiseman. I think if there's one guy though, because he's had so many injuries. If there's one guy, if I'm the Golden State Warriors, I don't want to be wielding one of the most sharp swords on Earth. It's like, oh, yeah, we're giving you Valerian steel, a Valerian Steel sword, and a dragon. There you go. James Wiseman play play Game
of Thrones. It's like, no, I don't want James Wiseman like cause playing anything that could lead him to get injured again, even a flesh wound, because you know, like James Wiseman will get a flesh wound and then it would ultimately get infected and then he would probably end up losing a limb because like that's how bad of luck that he has. It'd be like you remember when James Wiseman lost from his elbow to his hand because he accidentally cut himself with a Samurai sword on a
pr trip during training camp to Japan. That shit was crazy. What could have been if James Wiseman wasn't messing around trying to play samurai. Do you guys remember when Jaguars kicker Chris Hansen ended his season by hitting himself in the leg with an axe trying to chop wood in the locker room, Like, that's what I imagine happening to
James Wiseman. Like, just James Wiseman out for the year, Dodo, and then you have to go to like NBA dot com Slash Injuries and it's like James Wiseman out designation Samurai sword flesh wound. That's what it is. What a piece of memorabilia that was. We can only hope there will not be a Samurai sword sitting inside of one of Lacub's offices or one of James Wiseman's locker in the future. Don't want to see that short episode. Not
a lot of stuff happening in the NBA. But that is all the time that we have for the heat check. We would be back Thursday and Friday. We'll be at Friday with the new episode. Please check out the feed for past episodes of the off season as we get you ready for the twenty twenty two twenty twenty three season. Do not forget to download. Please subscribe, Please tell your friends and follow us on social at at this heat check and at Tristan Creek on Today