Trysta was Right about the Cavs / The Bucks Keep Getting Worse

Check for anyone at the time. You know that I love being right. It's one of the things I love being and doing most, and fortunately for me, it happens a lot. First of all, the Calves are now eleven and oh, I told you. I saw him play the Wizards and I just knew something was up with this team. My god, Darius Garland could be first team All NBA

if he keeps playing like this. And I know it's early eleven games, but boy, oh boy, And remember that last year they went eighteen and two in like February. They've got the goods and now they've got a real coach. Kenny Atkinson's motion offense uses cutters to create space for the three point shooters. We'll save that for another day. I watched this team down seven with like two minutes left to go, come back roaring back against the Brooklyn Nets.

Eleventh straight win to start the season. Eleven and ozh. Also, by the way, I alerted you about these Jordy Fernandez Nets. They are spicy, they are frisky and pesky. They are so good they may be too good to tank and they're already talking about a fire sale. Toriyan Finney Smith, you gots to go. You're too good. Dennis Shooter, who the fuck is Dennis Shuoter think he is? He's gotta go. You're too good, Cam Thomas, maybe we'll keep you, Cam Johnson,

you got to go. I've also been pulling the fire alarm on the Bucks and Sixers since Week one, and guess what. They have the two worst records in the NBA right now. Bucks are two and eight, Sixers are one and seven. The Bucks lost one thirteen, one oh seven to the Celtics on Sunday, despite getting forty three from Yannis. They also lost to the Knicks. Disgusting. You

know what that means. It means that Doc Rivers is now nineteen and twenty seven as the bucks head coach, which is the second worst in Milwaukee history for a coach that wasn't one of done. And with the Knicks now of four and five spinning their wheels, I am three for three on the alarm bells this season. Not here to reactual news when I'm right, but I am adding in ap their team to the burning dumpster, and

to their name we go the New Orleans Pelicans. The only thing worse than their name is how they're playing. The Pelicans have the second worst record out West at three and seven. The season's about to go more upside down than a pineapple and a Florida retirement community, or more upside down than an STD test in the villages. You know, you know, Zion Williamson was diagnosed with the

left hampst hamstring strain. No timetable for his return. Zion cannot stay healthy, and I don't even think it has to do with the amount of ben yes that he's eating anymore. And we're not that shaming Zion. Remember we've ended that years ago, so don't get on me about that. Every year there's talk about him coming into the season in the best shape of his life, and nearly every season he gets injured. Last season was the lone exception. He played seventy games, but guess what still got injured

at the end of the season. They haven't listed whether it's a Grade two grade three strain, so I don't know. We can assume that he will have be gone weeks, if not longer. And for guys that are explosive like Zion, who have like literally eat, breathed, sleep on their explosiveness very tough, the fear is that he's going to reinjury injure the hammy if it's not properly rehabbed. The one thing that we know about the Pell's front office, they

are very cautious when it comes to Zion's rehab. Add this to the list of injuries that this team has already suffered. Trey Murphy, the third, hasn't played a game. His return is imminent, though Jordan Hawkins out two weeks with a lower back injury. Herb Jones is out a month with a to rotator cuff. CJ McCollum. Haven't even seen CJ McCollum yet, right ad doctor strain he could miss a month. Uh. De Jonte Murray out indefinitely. Jose Alvarado has been dealing with an ankle sprain. Jesus Christ.

Then that's a lot of injuries right there, So I'm ready to talk about it. I brought this up the other day on TikTok and Instagram, let's just call it Instagram. We have the New Orleans Pelicans. Are they the worst executed rebuild in the history of the NBA? Transport yourself back to the year, the Lord's Year of twenty nineteen.

The Pelicans traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers for brandon Ingram, promising Lonzo Ball, promising Josh Hart, the fourth pick in the twenty nineteen draft and the twenty twenty two and the twenty twenty five Lakers unprotected first round picks. They also had had Drew Holliday, who they then flipped for

three more first round picks and two first round pick swaps. So, in other words, they got a borderline All Star and Bi a six Man of the Year candidate, and Josh Hart a solid if I been injured point guard in Lonzo Ball in an absolute shit ton of first rounders. Okay, so what did they turn that into? Also, by the way, they had number one pick overall Zions, what did they turn that into? Twenty nineteen, twenty thirty and forty two missed the playoffs. Twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, thirty one

and forty one missed the playoffs. Twenty one, twenty two, thirty six, and forty six first round loss four to two to the Suns. By the way, that was like the worst start in NBA history, one of them. They had to claw back into the play in just to get to the first I mean, the fact that they even made the playoffs at all was a fucking shock.

Twenty two, twenty three, forty two and forty playing lost one two any three to one eighteen to OKC, twenty three, twenty four, forty nine and thirty three first round loss weep to the thunder again. So, in other words, since the Pelicans took Zion number one in the draft, they've never won a playoff series. They have, in fact, have missed the playoffs three of those five years. And the question you might ask is, so, what did they do

with those picks that they got for Anthony Davis. Here's what they had to show for the ad trade Jackson Hayes and Nikail Alexander Walker that they got trading the number four pick to the Atlanta Hawks. They got two first round picks in that same year, which they turned into them. They got Dede Lozata. Excuse me what, Herb Jones great, Dyson Daniels not even there anymore. Only Herb Jones is still on this team. The Pelicans traded Drew for Eric Bledsoe, George Hill and two first rounders. What

was their draft haul for Drew? Sam Merril? Sam Merril the other first rounder sends Zion Kyra Lewis, Trey Murphy and Daniels who's now with the Hawks. So, in other words, since Zion went number one to the Pelicans, they turned five first round picks and three pickswaps the draft assets from trading two all stars as well as their own first round picks into Herb Drones and Trey Murphy and technically de Jon Tay Murray. David Griffin is not getting

enough flag. People are not talking about how bad he's been. This is gone so sideways. This is a team. And also, let's be honest, why so the owner of the Pelicans also owns the Saints, and let's be real, she's kind of got her hands full with the Saints right now. The New Orleans City they do not give a fuck about the Pelicans. They care about who Day Nation. Also, remember when the Pelicans were going to the playoffs. I want to say, you could get court side tickets for

like twenty two dollars. It's like for the price of a smoothie you can get court side tickets to the Smoothie King Arena. Listen, I'm not even lying to you, Tristan. You can't control who gets hurt. But guess what you how many years do you suffer through a decimated roster before you say we cannot count on Zion. You've got a husband who doesn't take out the trash. Stop waiting for him to take out the trash. It's not gonna happen. They had a chance to trade him to the Knicks

two years ago. They decided, Nah, We're just gonna see whether he can stay healthy. This may be a boat anchor around this franchise's neck, because I don't see Zion ever being healthy enough to make a championship run or even to be a tradable asset. Thank God, the Blazers did not trade for Zion to keep Damian Lowerd. That would be a fucking nightmare. If he is gonna be a insistent winner, he's gonna have to take care of

his body better. He's gonna have to take his care of his body more carefully than a crystal vase than a Faberge egg. And that means kid gloves, load management, no wings, no weed, and no Mariah whatever the fuck her name is. And for the Pelicans, they're three and seven start an injury stacking like Djenga blocks. Doesn't look like this year is gonna be any different than the past.

Best case scenario first round exit. Considering the state of the West, which is getting tougher and tougher, even a playoff spot right now seems highly unlikely. Moving on, Brian Windhorse made some news alert alert. Where did he make news on Finasis Antitacumpo's podcast? Yep, the NASAs. I think it's called Fanalytics or something. I mean, he got Brian Windhors.

He got Brian Windhors to do his podcast and give up his time as a reporter to join literally a fringe NBA players podcast for ninety minutes, not a fifteen minute hit. If I try to get Brian Windhorst on my podcast for fifteen minutes, I would be swipe left so fucking fast. And I'm a pretty girl. He's the Nassas. Do you understand he went on fanalytics, probably because the

NASAs is Gianni's brother. Very interesting interview, though the salient part came about forty five minutes into it when he said the following.

use viral clips, I get demonetized. But like Jah Morant had a pair of twisting three sixty layups that generated a record one hundred and sixty one million impressions across the NBA social media channels. And while that's awesome and Adam Silver is brilliant because featuring these little sound bite moments, these highlight moments, is a key component of the growth,

but it has overshadowed the games themselves. Often you will rarely hear on social media about a one hundred and ninety eight game between the Clippers and the Jazz if there was no highlight moment attached with it. So the NBA has gone from a star driven league to a highlight driven league, and that's because the the become a problem because a segment of new fans are now only interested in watching highlights and not the game themselves, which

is not the only issue facing the league. And part of the problem is also that the mainstream NBA media has prioritized transactions hot takes over the players and on the on court basketball. One of the things I love doing is the random Reports. This is what we're calling

the Random Report because it really does highlight players. It really does highlight what makes the league special, and the storylines and the nuance and the history and kind of the things that I like about the league, which are underdogs. I do like tea, and I like the tea as much as anyone. That's what we call the cotton candy. But I also like the vegetables. I also like the

Brussels Sprouts. I also like watching the Cleveland Cavaliers cut a million times and create space and a full game of back and forth between them and the Brooklyn Nets. On a Saturday night, even when my team, the Oregon Ducks, are playing, I'm turning on the calves and the nets because I like hoop That's what I like. This podcast is about basketball. Ninety percent of that discussion has been about what is going on the court, not off the court.

I talk about teams. We talk about how they're playing, how injuries unpacked their seasons, how we look at what we're seeing on the court and equate that as a prediction. I like takes, they don't need to be unnecessarily hop and while that rarely goes viral, I think it's a critical part about how we should be talking about the NBA, something that you don't see a lot on mainstream media, which is the same mainstream media the ditch Zach Low

for Kendrick Perkins. And I know Zachlow is kind of a dueb, but I fucking love Zach Low, and everybody else loves Zachlow too. He's not boisterous, he's not like everything you talk about Steven A. He's not doing that back and forth right Like, I can't even imagine Zachlow doing that. But I don't know why there's not room for both. Why isn't there room for both? Because not enough people are watching the games to support the thing that supports watching the games. It just is a lowest

common denominator. As less and less people watch the games, the less and less room there is for people who talk about the games, but only one category in their eyes is marketable, the one that goes viral and the one that talks about transactions, the ones that gets clicks, not the one that necessarily grows. The game attracts long life fans, brings people from not watching games to watching games.

One of the things that I actually love. One of the best moments of my career in the NBA is somebody DM me and told me that they stopped watching the NBA altogether, they weren't a fan, and then they started listening to the podcast and now they work for the fucking NBA. That's so sick. But it is like,

in general, the whole thing is a little sad. If you were invested in the long term health in the end, you would invest in the things that promote the game itself, promote the players, and not just the highlights and the hot takes. And I like hot takes and I like highlights. I saw a tweet today that said inside the NBA going away is not a bad thing because Chuck Shack, Kenny and Ernie have such a pre eminent voice in the sport, and it's no longer as nuanced and fun

as it once was. I don't know. I kind of agree they do make a living in terms of like broad stroking the game, at least at least Shack and Chuck do. Kenny really does try to break down the game, and Ernie tries to keep it on the rails. But like it has gotten a little bit too clown around Arrow when we don't when these former players don't even know who's playing on the teams, they literally have a segment called who he played for? I think that kind

of tells you what's going on. Windhorse's other point about storytelling is something I believe in. I'm like, I think I am at evidence that you can do stories and be viable on social media's like I told you, like I do the Rando Report. Anyway, we'll have more to say about this in the future. I'm gonna start asking this question of guests on the Heat Check in the future because I think it's an important debate. But we

got to move on. It is Monday, so it is time for the injury report, and I hate to say that the injury bug is back. It is raging, raging Cajun and I'm not talking about Aaron Gordon. I'm not talking about Tyrese Maxey. We have to lead off with the horrible news. Sunday Nights game Chat. Holmgren went up to defend the rim, got hit in the chest, falls awkwardly on his side, then rolls around in serious pain. I think it's not that serious, but I hope it's

not that serious. He had to be carried off the court. There's no update now, but he couldn't put weight on his right leg. All we know is that he was ruled out with a right hip injury. He did post to his IG story while in the locker room. Go get this one, boy, so maybe it's not as bad as a Kevin Durant is now injured as well. He threatens to derail the promising start that the Suns have. He has a hammy that's gonna keep him out at least two weeks. Man. Kevin Durant's been playing out of

his mind right now too. Like the Sons look really freaking dangerous now that they have a point guard. They look really really good. Indy, the Pacers have a bunch of injuries Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nemhart both mistaken for each other by the way, they're both missing time. Nie Smith out until December, Nemhart out about two weeks. All of this comes back on the back of rumors the tyres and Aliburton's injury woes. Scoring woes have to do with his injury, which is the same thing that caused

him issues in the playoffs last year. So John Morant is injured as well. They're calling that a posterior hip subligation without dislocation to go with a Grade one pelvic muscle strain. This is fucked right, Like what are we doing? Best case scenario for jaw is ten days. Worst case scenario is a month. We can't get less, like I don't want games without jaw. Also, by the way, Desmond Bain still isn't playing. There's like too much injuries for Memphis. Also,

Charlotte Brandon Miller is now banged up. Myles Bridges will be out two weeks with the bone bruise. By the way, Bone Bruce no joke. In San Antonio, Jeremy Sohan is now out indefinitely. He fractured his thumb and that requires surgery. Ugh, And it's not just players out for extended time either. You've got players like banged up in general, Jimmy Butler ankle sprain, Luca left groin injury. Is that surprising? Eighty planther fasciitis? Is that surprising? Steph Curry ankle issues? Is

that surprising? All these dudes have had these injuries, like seventeen times all four have missed a game or three. Even Greg Popovich is out indefinitely, though the Spurs are saying nothing about what's ailing him. Fucking injury. Fuck the injury bugs. I hope everybody gets healthy soon. We're like ten games into the season for some teams even less, and I think it seems to be getting worse every

single year. That's all the time that we after the episode of a heat Check, come back tomorrow for an all new episode, and check out the feed for past episodes and mini episodes which drop unexpectedly, like Dak Prescott, who's now probably having season ending injuries. SI surgery sign our Cowboys, see you next year. Do not forget to follow the heat Check throughout the season. That means download,

that means subscribe, that means tell your friends. Even that manager at the Hilton who could not explain how they have six hundred rooms and not one of them is available before two pm, even though you've got black, Platinum, Platinum, Extra Platinum status. Dude, how is it possible that your cleaners came out at nine am and not one room it's free before too? What in the Shenanigans is happening?

Throwing the heat check into your EarPods. Go help that maid staff clean those rooms so I don't have to sit in the lobby for two hours. Do not forget the fall. Me on threads metas new social media app NBA people are on there also people who have questions about really important things. I'll be posting there a lot. It's trist to underscore. Crick the same handle you can find me on on Instagram and also at this he check it on TikTok can I too,