Bucks in 6 and Playoff Races with Josiah Johnson

for playoff spots. The reality has said it. We're gonna check in on the races in each conference discuss some of the new faces in new places with the goat of this NBA social media thing, writer, producer, host, king Josiah Johnson. On today's episode, I'm Jack O'Brien and I'm Jabari Davidson for Miles, and this is Miles and Jack jab boostes Josiah Johnson, what's happening? Thank you so much for joining us. Where's Miles at I are? What's happening? Yeah,

he's on the IR. Yeah, Yeah, what's up? Everybody appreciate you happing? Thank You'll be reevaluated in three. Yeah. That's on that Lebrono super Bowl and getting getting light warm ups in Yeah. All Gregory broke the record and saying all right, I'm done with y'all. That's right, broke the record for most podcast laughs in a single day. The

guy did it. We held a big ceremony, but unfortunately they made us cut it out of the episode Josiah Gil's Arena, which debuts February twenty first, tell us about the show new project with me and Gil. Everybody who still loves No Chill, We'll still be doing that with Fubo, but we signed on with Underdog Fantasy to do a new live show be three days a week, two day through Thursday, kicking off February twenty first, Tuesday after the

All Star Game. Really, me and Gil kind of a new light, exploring everything topical going on to pop culture, giving you quick reacts to ending in everything with that same unfiltered banter that you've come to expect from both of us. So super excited to get that thing going. Appreciate you the Underdog Fantasy for coming through with a lovely bag. And if you don't have my promo, and if you don't have the Underdog Fantasy app, you can

go ahead and download it. You can either use code King, which is my code I can get some bread off of it or code Gil's arena. They'll match your first deposit up to one hundred bucks. But appreciate you getting into it. Really, I don't do any of that that stuff normally, but they came through with the app. It's very easy to use a lot of higher lowers. Guys

have been letting me down, I'll just say that. But guys been helping me flourish, So I appreciate you to them Underdog fantasy, so like that, I tend to go for the not underdogs when I'm doing fantasy. I tend to go for the guys who win a lot personally, but I'm an underdog guy. Now you know what I'm saying. You find the value? All right, we have to talk about I mean, we recorded last week's episode a couple of days before the biggest event of the season, the

biggest trade in a decade. Babe, I guess right, Kadie got traded to the Suns, blew up the league. What are you guys thinking? How do you feel about this? It's a little disappointing him, to be honest, you know, as a lifelong lebron fan, and as the result of that, a Lakers fan, they made some great moves, didn't have to come up off of both first round picks, got Ruey a couple of weeks ago, came through with the

Agelo Malik Russell and Jared Vanderbilt. So we were feeling good about ourselves and that that feel good lasted all of about forty five seconds because next thing, you know, Katie on the way to the Phoenix Suns. Very disappointing that don't think the trade should have happened. I was really hoping that that Katie and Kyprie and Josie could have figured it out kept them in the Eastern Conference.

But it seemed like that was, you know, one of the main destinations you wanted to go to this offseason. So for me, it's like, what's the point, you know, we sit here and wasted all this time. The Nets basically got him on loan to the trade deadline, and now Katy and Kyrie are both gone, which is a wild thing to think. You know, they were on like what a crazy run after they fired Steve Nash and brought Jacqueline and winning games, looking like they were gonna

compete and contend in the Eastern Conference. Had the Bucks in the Celtics a little nervous and now, and I think a lot of people are down on that next squad. Now I'm not as down because Cam Thomas has come

in and really done its duck dizzel. Yeah, but for the West's happening with Cam talent, like the it's really I think I heard somebody compared to Lyn sanity, which is the last time I can remember somebody just all of the sudden being unstoppable mid season for the first time in their career, Like just game to game is a walking bucket, all of a sudden. Hopefully that's something to smile about now, not even dropping those forty pieces, but right, Yeah, But do we think the Suns are

now the favorite at West? I don't know. Look, I think after what happened to them last season with Luca coming in Game seven and just completely embarrassing them, I think with if Katie stays healthy, d Book stays healthy, CP three stays healthy, Aidan stays healthy, they're gonna be a hard team to beat. But I would not be shocked if somebody's able to do it. Yeah. Yeah, I gotta be honest with you, Jack, you know, to answer you directly, you guys know that clip of Skip Bayless

where he's like, it's my turn, It's my turn. That's how I felt when this trick, when that trade went down, you know, to Josiah's point, all of it, you know, we're all feeling good about the Lakers refused. They finally they made a move, finally they did something, Finally they were ready to go, and then all of a sudden, the sun just came in and stole everybody's thunder just stole it. And like you, Josiah, I'm still skeptical, but I want that rematch. I want Dallas and I want Phoenix.

I want those two going against one another, and I want Luca just sitting there waiting to play spoiler. It is funny. We we've talked before about how Kad was like one of the first people on the Devin Booker like trail, like when Devin Booker was a rookie, and you know, not like a he wasn't top ten pick or anything. Kad was a Devin Booker appreciate tour. It makes sense that he wanted to be there. It'll be

interesting to watch them play together. I think Katie's coming back after the All Star break out East's Celtics most likely team to get out of there. How's everybody feeling. I'm a Bucks pander, obviously, Pops work for the Bucks. They've been great to me anytime I pull up Milwaukee. Surprising to get more love in Milwaukee than I do in LA, which is a little unfortunate. The Lakers are are hopefully gonna do their best to try to rectify that and just improve that situation. But I think you

can't count out that Buck squad. You know, if Middleton to stay is healthy, Yannis is absolute beasts. I was at that Lakers Bucks game right after Lebron broke the record, so it was little disappointed thought I was gonna get to see him do it, or at least set the new record. Lebron sat out, obviously, but after eighty I think game like forty. In the first game, Jannis was on a tear and really doing a bunch of crazy work.

So I wouldn't discount that Buck squad. I think the Celtics obviously are the favorite to come out of the East right now, but I would not be surprised. You know, we look at the playoffs last season without Middleton, Bucks still put up a fight. So I think if Middleton and Yanni's bringing Drew Holiday obviously gonna do what he does. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bucks go ahead and go back to the finals. Yeah, as of this recording, they still haven't lost, right they got Look, Jack, I'll

do it for you. I have to bring up the team who we haven't mentioned yet. If we're being honest out east, I think Cleveland. Cleveland does look good. No, no, I'm talking about I'm talking about Joel NBA and Jim Harden playing the best basketball I've seen him play in a couple of years. You know, Ti Maxie, you know,

healthy playing well all of a sudden. The Sixers, in my estimation, year after year after year, it was always like, yeah, they'll get they'll make it in, but you know, second round out, that's what it's been for the first time in a long time. It doesn't feel that way for me at least. Am I crazy or you know, is this a you know, we don't believe you need more people situation? Philly, Philly got to get that streak going.

They lost lost in the final every major sport round. Yeah. Yeah, that's the one thing that's making me believe this year is different, but I don't seem like destiny. After they lost to the Heat last year in the second round, I was like, this just seems to be their level. This is where they want to be, They want to be in the second round, getting everybody excited heading into the second round, and then flaming out in the second round.

I have been a fan of the Sixers for enough years now to just be like, this is It seems like it's what it is unless there's some massive change, unless Harden comes in in like amazing shape and he has come in much better shape and he looks better. But I don't know. I don't. I'm also completely It's the one team that I can't be objective about. It feels to me like they are a first or second

round out personally, but well, we'll see, man. It really it really does feel like the Bucks, though to me, having watched them play, having won Jannie, feels like there's been a lot of dominant performances this season. Watching Jannis these past couple of weeks feels like the most dominance I've seen on a basketball court this year. He was scoring at will on the Lakers and it was literally like whenever he felt like going in funny store for you guys quick one. So my dad works with the Bucks.

They were out in Atlanta not too long ago. He's on the elevator with Jannis, and you know, he tried to strike up a little convo and he's like, man, it's great to have all these guys coming back, so you don't have to score fifty every night. He's like, yannest a sis there, doesn't say anything. Then as they're walking out of the elevator, Yannis turns to him and just says, I like scoring fifty, but he looks like

he likes scoring fifty. Just the moral of that story, and he's with it, you know, and obviously do the show with Gil. Gil had some some some interesting opinions. I think people a lot of people took the wrong way. But I think the main gist in point of it is, if your honest had become that three level score, he

may be the most unstoppable player that we've ever seen. Look, he may never have to get to that third level, you know, the three ball may not never have to really be his thing, but if he can get to that point, there's literally no way you can stop this man. I mean, the amount of improvement on every part of his game like from when he started is pretty wild.

Like I would not be surprised if he just comes to them one year and he's like shooting forty three from And that's the thing when you look at him, he's only been playing since he's like fourteen or fifteen years old. So this is the thing people have to remember.

Now he's only in his like twelfth year of actual basketball. Yea, And for those of us that have hooped a long time, like, you know how valuable it is as a I got them coaching my five year old now and even seeing that, but adding the skill set and where he's where he's growing over the past couple of months, So you know, you create that to Jannis, and he still has time in his game. He's got another good, what seven to ten years, right, He's still he's still kind of just

barely stretched the surface of his prime. So it's not like this dude's not gonna put in the work and adding new layers every single year, which he's already done. We've already seen. So if like I said, if he can get that, and even I compare him to he

looks like a bigger Lebron than me. Obviously not not as much bag and handling skill set, but the way Lebron's jumper was a little shaky early on in his career, right, it was you know, during those heat years he was pulling threes and it was definitely like these are not going in. Where now he's at that he's added that a solid three ball to his game, So it's not to say that it's unheard of. And he's done that from like year thirty four on, so it's not to

say that Jannis can't do that now in his mid twenties. Like, it's very possible. He's ahead of where I he's ahead of schedule where I had him at this point point. You know, I thought he'd have uh, you know, no, I'm just joking. Yeah, he's he's incredible, all right. There are a lot of like underrated, Like it seemed like a lot of people, a lot of teams were just like, I don't know, let's let's try something here. There's just

everybody got traded. There are so many trades that I feel like we're still realizing people are on a different team. So just I'm gonna go through some of the ones that weren't Kevin Durant and you guys stop me when you know you have something to say. But so, Josh hard is now a nick uh Luke Kennard now plays

for the Grizzlies, Josh Richardson is on the Pelicans. Um Jay Crowder Bucks, Mike Mascala to the Celtics, Like, that's interesting, Yeah, I mean yeah, to have a to have a five that can shoot coming off the bench, it's definitely interesting. That's great pickup for them. Bones Highland, Eric Gordon, and Mason Plumley to the Clippers. I'm a big Bones fan, man.

I love Bones his demeanor, I love his pettiness. Obviously the interview recently, they asked him about, you know, playing with two stars of the Nuggets verse, playing with two stars on the Clippers, and he completely did not acknowledge Jamal Murray at all, and that so that almost that that's troublesome to me, just from the standpoint when you have guys like that. I've interviewed Bones a few times.

If those those older VET guys, you know, they're not taking in the younger guys, kind of showing them the ropes. But Bones has been killing. He was bawling out in January shooting Gray from three and I think you know he's coming in now trying to show he's a point guard. I don't know how much we're gonna see that, but just them having him now as an option, and I know they're kind of Reggie Jackson and fell out of favor over there, So seeing Bones with that, Clippers, Scott

Mason Plumbley is gonna be a great addition too. And even Eric Gordon where you know, now guys have something to play for, you know, you know, playing with the Houston Rockets, you know they're in the rebuilding phase. They got a bunch of young guys obviously not as concerned about winning as they are about stacking these these draft picks. But hopefully Eric Gordon even not get revitalized, come out to LA you know, playing the same area, but it's not the same field I've seen when the Lakers and

Clippers playing. Gotta be honest, I was I was kind of shocked that Bones was available, Like I you know, I think his timeline is different, uh than you know, the championship aspirations or I guess you know, Yokich and Jamal Murray. But part of me, you know, still feels a little bit weird about that. Yeah. Look, and maybe I'm hating from the outside of the club because the Clippers of the but yeah, I was a little bit surprised that he became available. Good on the Clippers for

making a hip. Yeah you said that with your whole body. You seem to really mean it. Good on the even the Nuggas getting Thomas Bryant though, which you know he was falling out for the Lakers, you know, a little salty for me. It was like, all right, man, Like you know, Ad doesn't really like playing the five. This was a great option on the defensive side, obviously not as great, but offensively he was really locking in and doing something that he had like a thirty point game

a few weeks ago while Adi was out. Was really helping, you know, keep that squad in the hunt for the playoffs. So for the Nuggas to be able to pick him up, that's a little a little concerned. Obviously not gonna pay too much with Joker, but if the off chance, which obviously don't hope for, but if Joker ends up being hurt anything like that, now he's gonna be able to at least come in and help out a little bit to fill that void. All right, we've held off long enough.

The Lakers also made a couple of trades that Lakers fans are very optimistic about. I'm sitting back in reserving judgment, but how do you guys, feeld Low obviously coming home, Jared Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, and then losing Thomas Bryant, Like, where do you feel like the Lakers are in the mix? I think, look, if that squad can get it together and Darvenham can lock in. But even the Ruey pick up for Kendrick Nunn, you know, none was pretty much chilling.

He was just back finessing, which I never knock command for finesting his bag, but you know, didn't didn't play at all last year, kind of you know, just posted chilling, wearing nice fifths on the bench. Did a little bit this year when he was called upon. But to get Ruey in there now to ask him deed, to ask

him shooting. He's kind of still figuring it out. And he seems like a guy that the problem when you when you come to Lakers that you gotta be able to adjust the playing in the bright lights, right, Like, you know, every arena ain't the same. So you come in a stable center, which some may call crypto. We're not really running with crypto right now, so it'd always be the staple Center to me. But the bright lights, the stars, everybody just courtside, all the stuff going on

doesn't seem too phase by it. I like Dil Dilo coming back home. You know, I never understood even the Gobaron cat situation with Minnesota, but for him to now be able to come back now now the Timberwolves are really really locking in when aunt and basically let him know at the guard position, that's his squad. But I think del is gonna be a great pickup. I'm excited to see how this plays out. And I'm an U

sae it. Like guys, so I love Russell Westbrook. It was a tough you know, two seasons for Russ, you know, season and a half whatever it was. But just see the way that the fans, you know, knowing how much Russ loves La would it means to him. Kobe's his favorite player, and to see he had a toughier last year. I won't say it was all bad, but the problem is, especially in a city like this, you know, the negatives

are gonna always outweigh the positive. So you know, it's a guy who had a negative reputation wise with the Lakers, which is unfortunate, but for for us to now be able to move on hopefully getting a situation and man, if he goes to the Clippers or the Bulls or wherever he ends up, I think he's gonna be a vital, vital asset. And you're getting a great guy, great locker room guy. And that's the other stuff too. You heard, you know, conflicting reports about he's this, he's that in

the locker room. But I've talked to several of his former teammates and they do nothing but seeing his praise. And he's a guy that works hard, is always available, always trying to help the team win. And you know, it just didn't work out in LA And I wasn't the biggest fan of that trade when it happened. Had to pretend like it for social obviously to get these jokes and these memes off, but just just didn't see how him and Lebron were really gonna be able to

be effective. So now bringing Delo in, have another another option to get some buckets, take some of the pressure off of Lebron and a d It's it's you know, I don't think this squad and this is a crazy thing about the West Man when you look at the West top the bottom, there were like four or five games out from like a fourth or fifth seed like this. This back end of the season after the All Star break is going to be wild And wouldn't be surprised.

I mean, I think they'll at least make the play but wouldn't be surprised if they're actually in the playoffs, don't have to play one of these playing games, they can finish six, they're better. But if they can lock in, you know, Lebron knows he's getting old father time. You know, it's creeping, creeping around the corner. Even even despite all the numbers and all that other stuff. You know it, there's a lot of pressure put on Lebron early in

the season, especially when Ad went down. And for me, like Lebron should only really have to be played sixty to sixty five games the regular season. Looks like he'll be a little bit above that. But you know, if the team can got a great win on the Warriors with them Brown was out got smacked by the Blazers.

Obviously them out. But if the team team could do something and a d can kind of finally step into that role as the feature player, at least in the regular season, Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see them fIF six seed. Wow, five six seed, Like you said, I mean, it's wild how close things are, but they are five games out from the four seed. So yeah, allow me to be the pessimistier. I like the moves they made, the pieces finally fit on the situation. I

thought it was time for both sides. I think it was. I thought it was a great idea for both sides to move on. I hated seeing you know, like you, Josi, I had to bite my tongue because I simply didn't want to just crap all over a guy that I've been a fan of for you for such a long time. But you know from the very start that was not going to be a situation that worked out. I will say, I recognize that the Clippers have been thrown out there.

I recognized that, you know, Chicago has been thrown out there. I'm still holding out hope for him to go to Miami because I think that he can make a you know, make a fun run, you know, you know with that Miami squad. But in terms of the Lakers, the reason why I'm I'm going to play the pessimist is I know that they're still within range. But look, we're at twenty five games man, at a certain point, you're just

gonna you're just going to run out of time. So if you had to put your money on it, not the ifs and the ifs and all of that, you're putting your money on it. What's more likely they make it in and make some noise or build towards next year. I'll say it like that, Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well it was the same thing last year when I was like, all right, they still got hope, all right, they still got hope, And then it was a high can coon

on three end of the day. That's what it was. Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll talk MVP uh and a couple other things, and we're back, And when it comes to the MVP race, it feels like yo, Kitch is going to get it. Is that something you can do on the fantasy sites? You you put a little act on MVP, I mean higher or lower. So will he end the season with point five MVPs higher or lower? Uh? Yeah, yeah, Like I'm I think you know what you're seeing from Joker.

And again, the knock from Joker last season was like, oh, this is like a sixth seed and he's not getting it done, and he's kind of doing this stuff because all the guys are out now just this is team is a you know, the best in the West. He's still doing what he's doing. But I'm a Yannist guy man, and and I know knock to I love his game, but I've also seen Joker get just just just you know, mentally clamped up by Dwight Howard in the bubble, like

there's just players that can get to him. And offensively, probably one of the greatest offensive big, if not the best offensive big. It's tough to say that with Will Chamberlain, but that I've seen with my own eyes best offensive big I think in the history of post Will Chamberlain era. But yeah, we'll see how it pans out. And I think, you know, you've got to kind of have to give it to him. But the problem is that if you've

you've had a lot of voter. You know, they talk about the voter fatigue with guys like Michael Jordan Kobe only getting one I think in his career when obviously he deserved several more. Lebron situation where there is periods where people were just tired of voting for him. Curious to see if it plays out the same way with Joker. Got a feeling that since he's a lighter shade of skin, did it may not, It may not gravitate that way. They may they may roll with giving him the three

MVPs Larry Bird exactly. So, yeah, people don't get tired voting for them. Weird. Yeah, it's weird. It's a weird that you're but uh, wouldn't be surprised, wouldn't wouldn't nock it if it happened. I mean, I think you've seen a lot of guys. I think Nb's gonna make a big push towards the end. He's another guy who's you know, elevated his game. It looks phenomenon there. I mean, it would just be good to see and beat and your

kids like play against each other. I feel like once we see them play against each other, we'll have a better Oh wait they did Oh how did it go when they played against each other? Who who did better when? And I'm not mistaken and be destroyed them? So oh right,

we're right, we're right, right, right right? Um, yeah, man, I don't know, Like so three and three in a row is like we we haven't seen it since, like I said, Larry Bird, and you're still having to overlook the like he's not a defensive zero, but he's not like all the people that are overlooking. We're also like that that they got tired of voting for, like Jordan and Lebron, and you know, they were also among the most dominant defenders in the league when they did that,

and that's not the case. And then you look at his competition. Jannis and Embiid are both top five like defenders in the league, like both in terms of analytics and like if you just like ask people who watch basketball like they are like, yeah, those are among the most dominant defenders who like change the offense when they're in there. So I don't know, he's he's ranked thirtieth defensive analytics, but like, I don't know, it did just doesn't it doesn't feel It feels like that we need

to we need to move on this year. That's my argument. Let me ask Josie of this when who's who's an next American born player that's gonna win it? It's tough maybe Lebron honestly the way you keep playing like he's playing, which is you know Ad was playing at a high level or in the season before you got hurt. But you know, definitely, you know kind of that foot booted

him from that that competition. But yeah, you know, maybe maybe step Surgeons, Tatum, those guys all it doesn't feel like, you know, those guys are still they haven't They're superstars, aren't gonna be wrong, but they haven't cracked that now that MVP level that that the best of the best. But would not be surprised when I was looking at the defensive analytics to make my argument, because I knew

I had to do something I can't. I can't just let Jabari sit here and say Yokich is the best player he's ever seen, like you were saying yesterday when we were prepping, saying that, like he definitely deserves the third MVP in a row, like he was saying yesterday when we were prepping. Um, No, I'm just playing, but I was looking at the analytics. I also just have to call out top defenders. This year, five of the

top eleven are Cleveland Cavaliers. That's crazy, that's like the top defensive players, like according to the analytics in terms of wind chair the reason why they're thirty eight and twenty two. Yeah, and have the best point differential other than the Celtics. KND just say something about analytics real quick, like I support them, but I feel like it was a lot of dudes who never got a bucket at any level of basketball now come up with these calculations

and formulations and all that other good stuff. I'll just say that again. I support it, no knock to it. I think it definitely helps in a lot of regards. I love numbers. I'm heavy on analytics myself, my own

personal life. But it just feels like, now we've got a lot of dudes, and I think Charles Barker somebody made this point, but you know a lot of dudes who could never hoop that are now trying to, you know, with all but I crushed the numbers and did these calculations, suggests whatever, And for me, there's so much more that goes into the analytics that that's deeper in kind of

terms of just how you evaluate and analyze things. And you know, the eye test is the eye tests, and believe me, I don't I don't stand and live by that as well. But I think some mix of both, like you know, darn Haam Dartingham and the post game I think press Ra after they got smacked by the Blazers was, oh, the analytics said that these threes weren't weren't bad shots. When I'm thinking, like, analytics, dude might need to go on hiatus brought because y'all was getting cooked.

We saw you, we saw the team man, we I saw what took place, you know, the numbers at the bottom of his net. I feel like the analytics are most helpful for me on defense, just because that's like when I'm watching the game, I just don't naturally watch defense, you know, so like it's just harder for me to track. So like that's probably where they need to improve the most. But that is the most that I rely on analytics.

But it's it's tough when it's a team game. You got five guys out there, so you know, analytics if it's a misshot doesn't mean that it was a you know, a bad shot, good shot. There's a lot of stuff that goes into that. So it's just if the analytics haven't told you, don't let a guy just go for thirty in the first half. Maybe Glitzo maybe do some things. You'll do some things different, all right. This is a

reference to the Blazers game. I played Pat Badford that though, and he's not a Laker anymore, but he got them fired up the last time they played. To leave that man alone. Oh right, I'm not joking with you. As soon as I saw him come out the way, I thought the exact same thing. I was like, Pat bad you got him fired up the last time y'all played them, And now you're not even here to take this and you got to see this man again. I'm just never

a fan of you know. Then you can do the boasting like like the Chiefs after they beat the Eagles. You know, if you want to beat Juju and do all that, because you're the ring is sewed up, can't change the game. Now we got the parade coming. But it's a little you know, it's a little different. Now I got to play this dude, again. But that's just my two cents. Yea. The men are ground, they get paid much more than me. They're gonna do what they want,

all right. Just a couple performances we wanted to highlight one of them, you know, Jalen Brunson with forty, Josh Hart with twenty seven off the bench and a blowout over the over the nets. So this is a new duo who we're seeing interesting things from immediately. Um, but how are we feeling about the Knicks? Everyone? I'm not down on the Knicks. The Knicks are are back to being the premier team in New York after the KD and Kyrie trade. Solid squad. I think they're starting to

figure it out. Jaylen Brunson for me, big pickup. I know when he first came everybody thought, well, maybe we're overpaying him with that four year, one hundred million dollars deal. I think he's earned all of that bread and really got this squad, you know, looking looking side, I think that Josh Harp pickup's gonna be great for them. And this is a team again, they're not you know, I don't think they can win a chip, but they could definitely make some noise. In the Eastern Conference and maybe

upset somebody too in the process. Just fire stretch and nothing too. When you got college guys that you know, you rock with and you row with, and now you're playing in the league together, it does a little something for you because you're going through those things together. Yeah. Absolutely, Uh. And then we wanted to look at this defense from the Wolves. Perimeter defense at the end of the game. Class of twenty twenty. Yeah, no, they're a class of

twenty twenty draft. Yeah, forty three years old combined, which is, you know, a couple of years younger than Lebron I combined. All right, And then we wanted to look at this d from the Wolves. Just locking down down the stretch of a game was pretty darg gone good a challenge there, just good defense. I wonder this about And let me ask Josiah this Luke and Kyrie. I think they're gonna

be incredibly exciting. But in particular in a series. Uh, you know, when the opposing team has, you know, has a lot of guys to throw at them, I wonder if they have enough or if anybody else is going to be able to step up. Well. Look, I think at the end of the day, you know, at least one of those two guys are gonna be locked in and be able to get buckets and hopefully in the postseason both of them. Well, the thing is gonna be interesting to see, is you know Kyrie is a supreme

level bucket get or sells Luca. The MAVs are Lucas team. How much Kyrie is gonna be willing to sacrifice come that time? You know, Kyrie has a little bit more playoff experience than Luca, has actually won a championship and done it at the highest level. Dotting steps eyeball with the three you know, to give that twenty sixteen cap squad the chip? Yeah where where? That's kind of gonna be the knock on Luca until you can at least

get to that finals type of level. So will it be a situation we saw with like Lebron and d Wade back with Bron's I think first year with the heat when it's like, all right, I've done this before, let me, let me, let me take the show. And how's Lucas gonna step upor how's he gonna react in that situation? I think Kyrie, you know, it's kind of coming in with the understanding like this is Luca squad.

I think he's going to defer if necessary. But at the end of the day, if Luca's not delivering or bringing it, you have a guy in Kyrie that can step up. It's gonna be interesting to see how the rest of the team kind of rallies around him. But that was the knock for Luca previously, right, Like he's one superstar, you know he needs another one to be

able to get to that next level. I think you'll see, especially the way this league is now with these high scoring games, it benefits both of them to have two guys that can get buckets at will whenever they feel like it. And you like to think that if the rest of the team could just be proficient enough and knock down shots where they can. But now here's two guys. It makes it really hard to double because you're leaving

at least one of them open. But now if you do have to lock in on both of them, there should be at least one more guy who'll be able to step up and knock down some shots. Wouldn't need it. Yeah, the most relevant thing for the postseason is just that

both of them. You know, when when things break down when they figure out your offense and all the scheming that you know your coach was to put in that you still have two people who who are just walking buckets, like you know, no matter what, Like that's the one thing that you can't game plan for. So, like, I don't know, I feel like they're kind of more intriguing in the postseason then I did before the Kyrie trade. For sure, Yeah, for sure. No, you guys are exactly right.

And look, I'm not trying to come across as a hater and I'm not wishing anything bad upon it. I'd like to see them make a deep run together. All I'm saying is I've seen two man teams before the past where it was just okay, your turn, Miter and your turn Michur. Now, hey, look, it's fantastic when those are the two guys doing it. All I'm saying is against a team that has multiple big wings that can at least make life difficult for those two, or a

team like say Sacramento. Say they get matched up with Sacramento, where yeah, of course you know you're going to You're going to score some points against him. But it makes me concerned that you know that those other guys aren't going to have you. But you know, I guess we'll let We'll let it play out, see how it goes. Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll do the fastest segment in podcasting. We'll be right back. And we're back, and it is time for the fastest

segment in podcasting. This is the rapid Fire segment of Miles and Jack got Mad Boosties with Jabari Davis. Uh oh no, who got the most boosties of the crew? Fore we get to this rapper fire And what is that cumulative boosty? Is it over forty and combined? Combined? Maybe? Okay, what do we got? I could get net the last time I tried, which was like ten years ago. So I add my fifteen to it. I'm gonna have my fifteen. There we got We'll get us over the home. I

think I can still get the back. Wow. Okay, it's sad. My sixty seven year old dad is gonna gonna do his birthday dunk next week. Um and uh he could jump higher than me. So wow, y'all shouldn't feel bad. Hey, you know, pop still got it though, I actually look forward to those birthday dunk posts each year, so every year it's the same thing. Around this time, it's like, oh man, this year. I talked him a couple weeks. They're like, look, you're gonna do it. My hips are junkie.

I don't I can't do it. I've been I've been working with the buckstaff though, the medical team to try and get them right. And then I saw him on his birthday last week. It's like, yeah, we're doing the dunk. Like I'm ready, I'm locked in. I'm like, we're gonna see like, you know, be humble, all right, just be humble, get it in. I do have to admit that the net that I could reach was extremely long. It was. It was one of the longest nets. Basket. Yeah, but

you know I made sure of it. I'm banging out on the eighth foot though. I don't even Yeah, my kid at my kids school, they have a little a low basket that I just go there. I'm goaltending dunking on kids. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, all right, Josiah, you've been here before. It's the fastest moment in podcast thing. Uh no thought whatsoever given to these, just your instinct. We're going off instinct here. You're trying to get me packed up, but I'm ready you let's go. What do you mean?

It's like, dude, okay, I didn't have time to think about all that. Let's just get it all right, Jabari, you start off all yeah, Josiah, if you wait, are you sure you want me to go first? Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah, I desperately want you to go first. Joe, who would you like to go for? I? We just have to make sure you know you got it? Jabari,

go ahead, Oh all right, let's do it. Let's do Josia, if you could bet on any fan base to make the in Arena challenge shots, you know, the lay up, the free throw, the three pointer, and a half court which fan base or fan bases would you bet on. I'm gonna go with the Lakers because I've seen it happen several times now. You know why is that? Yeah?

They're so good. Every time you can see Jeanie's face and it's like, oh, we don't have this bag to give y'all, Like he's like, oh damn, Matt Ryan gonna get booted, or every time you know, somebody somebody on the like no, you know, he's smiling, but he's like, damn, all right, there's my walking papers. But I think the Lakers fan base I probably seen the most hit the

half quarters. And I forget what team it was, but they had the Jankie one where like they hit a half quarter and won like five hundred those of the Indiana Pacers. That's what made us come up with this question. That was that was our question, is like, is it so commonplace? Is everybody just so pure born with a basketball in their hand in Indiana that like it's they're just like, yeah, we'll give you five hundred bucks whatever, that's fair state. It is, um all right, dream scripted

basketball movie took him. You know, we just found out about Air, the movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck somehow about the invention of the Air Jordan shoe. Uh, that they didn't even cast anyone as Michael Jordan. He's just like a presence, a gravitational black hole in the middle of a yeah, like the back of the head, at least the back of the head. Yeah, Like there's a shot in the trailer of the back of the

head with him walking into the Nike offices. And then I so I was like who'd they get to play Jordan? Because you that that seems impossible, right, He's just like so iconic, you can't get anybody. You can't cast anybody to play him. And they said they specifically didn't cast anyone. He's just this presence. But they should have gotten Never start to play Larry Jordan. It's gonna be flex Alexander. Hey, the Michael Jordan Lifetime movie was one of the greatest things.

No names on the joy. I mean, come on, how do you how do you not appreciate that beautifulness? Do you have a dream scripted basketball movie you want? You want to pitch? I would love to see a movie on h He's my favorite basketball player in the league right now, representing the South Sudan, a man who has gone through trying to tribulations walking in the shadow of his father. Was another great baller, none of them than

bowl Ball. I love to see a bowl ball movie. Yo, this is a great yeah, or the I mean the minut Ball store, like you could use the perspective like stuff that they use for Lord of the Rings, so you know that that would be very cinematic, very amazing flashbacks the bow ball like that latest screen movie, but obviously done in a tasteful way. Right a right, good Europe. All right, keeping it going, we're gonna play, getting in or heading home? In mid April, the Brooklyn Nets, the

team is still nine games over five hundred. They hold a seven game leading the lost column over the current ten seed with under twenty five games left. Are they getting in or they going home? Yeah, they're they're getting in. Yeah, they're getting in fair enough. All right, here's one the Pelicans because many of us, you know, we anticipated a big year from New Orleans. Some were a little bit

higher on them than the others. But the team finds itself currently just a game and a half up on the eleven seed out West, and reports are that Zion can miss a good chunk in the remaining schedule due to reaggravating this hamstring. Are they getting in or they going home? Oh? They might be at the crib. But you know, I love Zion, loved by I love that crew, love seeds at McCollum and uh, you know even what they did last year trying to you know, sneaking into

the plan. But I might I think I might be at that the crib because the Lakers are getting in. Someone's gotta go, Someone's gotta you know, look around it, Look to your left, look to your right. One of one of them can't be there, maybe both of them. So they gotta they gotta leaf frog, the Thunder, the Blazers, the Jazz, which I think the Jazz are probably on their way out, the Warriors, the Wolves New Orleans. I mean, who who's gone? I can't figure it out, Like it

is gonna be tough. Um, I hate speaking of the Wolves. Anthony Edwards recently acknowledged a three bag per day habit of hot cheetos fries. What was your wildest eating habit when you were a young athlete like myself? So I think about this often and uh and just what we were able to accomplish back in those days. But a bag of chili cheese fritos. And this is a regional thing. They do it like in the South. They do it, but they turn the bag the wrong way. We like

the bag straight up. But you can you do with the ritos too, but take the free dogs. You actually put some cheddar cheese from Chiliy in there if it's a nice snack. Check those some onions in there too. But you could you could eat one of those in a tiki punch and have enough energy to play like

four or five games. You were doing that for four tournaments. Yeah, the amount of basketball I played with just hot dogs in my sis just nothing, but like you know those concession stand hot dogs, like the no water anal jankie. You know you get like one hundred bucks of hot dogs. Yeah, five bucks, like yeah, no water drinking all day? Yeah, chips.

What was the wildest thing you witnessed diet wise? Did you ever like play with someone who was just like, you know, an amazing athlete despite the fact that they were surviving off of gummy candies. So my college teammate TJ Cummings, uh sonit Terry Commings. But TJ could eat like a whole BJ's pizza, And I'm talking about like the bigger like you know, big whole pizza, like two two big puzukis, you know what I mean, within like the puzuki with but like the big you know. We

used to face Jason Westwood back in the day. It was my birthday to day, like you know, my birthday sixty five times every time You're going to be ja because they had to give you a free pazuki. Then he would put a p zuki on top of that, but he could take that down and still you know, go out and drop twenty like like it was not Wow, amazing. I'm impressed by that of that alone, two pazukis beyond before the even without the pizza, the two pazukis would

have me done. Yeah, like you know, I've never seen him and being able to eat like that. Like if I ate those two pazukis, you know what I mean, If if I looked at those two pazukis, I was gaining five pounds. So all right, Josiah, we ask everybody. I think I believe you've been here for one of these questions in the past. But Jack or Jabari went one on one. You gotta pick. It's it's up to your interpretation. Jack got the NBA lined Jabari, so I'm

gonna be wow. Yes, yes, a feather. He's getting you, okay. Uh. He was reading he was reading the Almanacs back in the day, recalling colleges, looking at play. She's making corrections. But if you slide him over here, like you know what I mean, it'd be your own. But I forgot I forgot. I forgot I went by through typing this thing. Oh wow, I gotta give it to you. I'm sorry, I can't, you know, I gotta. I gotta be able to keep the car. You already know. But March first.

You asked me again March first, and the answer may be different. There we go, all right, We'll have to have you, guys. I appreciate the reparations. Also, I was as a kid, I skipped Doctor Jay's last game playing against my grandfather Jack Ramsey. I skipped his last game because Jaws two was on TV. So you had me wrong, by the way, that was stolen valor when I was like six or seven years old. That's that's what I

was about. I was just, uh, I was not. I was not a basketball head one Jaws Jaws too on cable game. But back in the day though, we didn't really have access like that. We didn't have you, meaning all that. We had to get it when we could get it, and I mean they electrocute the dang shark. It's pretty cool, just high, such a pleasure having you on the show. Where can people find you? Follow you? Hear you all that good stuff? I said, I feel like I have enough people that can find me, so

I don't really want them too. But if you feel so inclined, go on Twitter, Instagram, King Josie fifty four. Also be on the lookout for Gil's Arena, premiering Tuesday, February twenty First, I appreciate you to the crew Underdog Fantasy. We got a whole new studio. They built this magnificence set in Gil's career. We're gonna have a bunch of great guests the first week and beyond. And this is

real unfiltered all right. You have your your square media, right, the square media, they do their square things and they try to do the cool things where they have to do it with the square lens, the square tone where the anti square show unfiltered raw takes you already know Gil Gil. Gil does not care about much and he will speak his mind. It does not care about getting

packed up or if you disagree. And I got to admire that because you know, if I gave Kobe sixty, if I gave Steve Nash fifty four, if I you know, three times all NBA and all that other good stuff he has in his resume, I'd probably be saying the same things in addition to the stacks on stacks on stacks of bread that he has. You know, I wouldn't care about anything either, So make sure y'all lock in with us. Get it in if follow gills Arena on Twitter and gils Arena zero on Instagram too, so I

can keep my job saying for the Valley Legend. All right, Well, thank you so much, Josiah. That is gonna, that is gonna do it for us for this episode. Back next week with more mad boost Ease. Give us a follow on Twitter at mad Boosts. All right, we will talk to y'all next week. Bye,