And now The Lowe Post. Welcome to The Lowe Post podcast we have arrived at the all-star break of the NBA season. And one of the big stories in the league right now is that two of the league's old lions left for dead, dynastic and or marquee franchises have reinvented themselves in this beautiful sort of slow, organic process of self-discovery. The Los Angeles Lakers are eight and three in their last 11 games. The Golden State Warriors are eight and four
in their last 12 games and you can hear the headhatchos at ESPN and ABC. Are they going to be contenders? Can they be contenders? Can we have long playoff runs? But before we get to that conversation, the headhatchos at ESPN and ABC did back flips and cartwheels because Adrian Wajnarowski and our other guests today Ramona Momo Shelburne dropped
a neutron bomb on the NBA world this week by reporting that the Golden State Warriors cloak and dagger under the cover of knife fall tried to trade for LeBron freaking James at the trade deadline in a deal that would have been partly brokered by Dremon Green
who has an incredible talent for being at the center of literally everything that happens in the NBA at least by his own telling of it that would have paired Stefan Curry and LeBron James two of the defining stars if not the two defining stars in the last 25 years. It did not happen. I have a million questions and luckily I have Ramona Shelburne here. How are you? I'm good. We got to use the word clandestine in the lead. Do you
like that? I say clandestine. Is that okay? Is that wrong? I think you can go either way. I think it's clandestine or clandestine. Well, we have said the low post land speed record for most quick quickest turn into grammatical minutia in the history of this podcast which is a hard record to set. So okay, I'm just want to start with the basics. So this story we're recording this on Thursday afternoon this story published Wednesday morning. Yes,
Wednesday morning. Yeah. When did you hear about this? How did you hear about this without naming names or divulging? I know you got to be careful. You want a little scene setting? Wait, just when and how? Okay. And what is the reaction of some of the main higher ups involved when you and Wode begin to alert them that this is a thing that is in the works? Um, I was, it was, okay, so it was last Thursday night. Last Thursday was the trade deadline.
And you and I were on that show. We did the, it was like a few trades. There was 39 players that moved. So, you know, a fair amount of player movement, but no huge names, no, no James Harden trade at the deadline or Kevin Grant. Um, and then it was the Kobe Bryant statue unveiling here in Los Angeles. And then the Lakers were hosting the nuggets. So this was a very long Thursday.
I got to about half time of the Lakers nuggets game. And I had to go back to the office across the street to go get my stuff because at the Kobe statue unveiling, we were not allowed to bring our, our bags or our purse, anything like that. You could just bring like your cell phone in a wallet. So I was like, let me go get my stuff from the office now so that I can just leave after the game. I'll go at half time. Not two steps out of the arena. I get a call from Wode.
And he's like, are you alone? That's a great way to start a phone call, by the way. Are you alone? In any context. In any context. Yeah. Like in other words, can anyone hear you? Because what I'm about to say is going to floor you. And they had, you know, when you go to crypto.com arena and there is the, the scaffolding. They're around the horn. You just lost five points for calling it crypto.com arena.
I know it's a central center minus five agreed. Um, there's like scaffolding all around when they have big events and you have to take like the longest route possible to get back across the office. Like there's no good way to go there. And Wode starts telling me that he heard about this and he goes, we got to try to report this. And I got so lost because I could, my jaw was on the ground. And I'm also very nervous that anyone is hearing me talking as I'm walking around outside of,
outside of staple center. And the scaffolding is up. I can't get through to figure out. I had to go all the way back around through the park and grass. I'm like completely disoriented because this trade is making my mind explode. You're starting to sound like the California's. I had to take the one 10 to 10 to the, but you know what I'm talking about, right? Like have you ever been here when there's events like they're scaffolding everywhere and you have to walk all the way
through that parking garage and it's all on. Anyway, I was so disoriented and the, my head's going to explode and then we're like, this was real. Like this was not just one phone call where Daryl Mori calls Rob Lincoln. He goes, we would you guys think about trading LeBron? And then Polinka says, well, would you trade and beat? It wasn't like that due diligence kind of phone call. This was a, which to be clear to listeners who may not have read your story is a real conversation
that happened between Darryl Mori and Rob Polinka. And I would really have loved to have heard the conversation. If I were Rob Polinka, I would have strung them along. I wouldn't have gone right for this sarcastic and being retort. I would have been like, well, let's see. What do you got? Can I have De Anthony Melton or first from anyway? Go ahead. You know, of course, Darryl Mori also called Phoenix for Kevin Durant. Like because, because why not? Right? You make 99
phone calls. Maybe somebody says, yes. You never know. Like love. Yeah. A few, a few beers in, a few beers in Madish, Mia. I feel like that must. Yeah. You know what? We're not that good. We're 31 and 22. Maybe it's not working. What do you got? Maybe I'm being. No. Okay. So most of those phone call, like, like, I, you know, these, these calls happen in the NBA, right? People call to check on star players. They're sort of laughed out of the room or they're quickly rebuffed. It happens
all the time. When the bucks traded for Damien Lillard, they told me a nice story about how John Hors used to call Portland and say, like, hey, we would really love to talk about about Damien if you're ever interested. And they called for years. And then finally one day, they were interested. So like, there's a reason to call. This was not that. This was more. And when we first heard about this, it sounded like very a little more serious than it probably was, right? Like, I think a lot of
because of the names and the stage and the names involved, right? This is LeBron James and Steph Curry and two kids from Akron, if you want to go in that direction, right? The defining players of their era, potentially on the same team, like, oh, my goodness. And the fact that it was even more than a quick phone call and dismiss, dismissive thing between GMs is a story. So, what would you, what would you start working on it last Thursday night after the trade deadline?
Everyone we called to check on it. I think their first reaction was, how the hell did you hear about this? How the hell did you even get wind of it? Because like, we use the word clandestine in the story, but it was another person said top secret. Like, this was never, ever supposed to get out. I think this was sort of like, you know, I don't, I don't know how low, low, genose things,
like I think he has. Yeah, so in true, in true me fashion, I had the next day, I was like, well, now I'm going to call these people and like, follow up with like, what's going on? So I'm a day behind. Just curious, more curious, anything else. And everyone I got on the phone had this air of like, oh, God, you're calling about that. We didn't want that to get out. Oh, geez. And you know, we had some like debate about like, how like, okay, it didn't go anywhere.
There were never names exchanged, right? Never got to that level where they said, okay, coming good for first or never got to anything like that. But it's the warriors calling the Lakers about LeBron. And it was more than just Polink of real quickly rebuffing the other GM. This got to be owner to owner conversations. And all right. So let me let me let me be clear the chain of events so that people so I just make sure I understand it correctly. And then you can
explain why it's explaining of that himself with Stephen A Smith yesterday. We'll get to that. I listened to that in the card today. From from I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. Here's how the conversation seems to have unfolded according to you in the watch. Joe Laker, the governor of the warriors, hashtag light years, calls Jeannie bus, the governor of the Lakers is like, Hey, LeBron made his semi annual unhappy emoji thing. Like, is there something
that could happen because we'd like to get in on that. What do we have to trade? Let's set that aside. Go up until later. Again, if I'm reading your story correctly, Jeannie bus tells Joe Laker, well, hey, you got to talk to Rich Paul and LeBron's people to gauge their level of interest. Like, that's that's a LeBron thing. Like, we want our stars on this team to be happy. You you
check it out. And so right there, if I'm reading you correctly, there was one more part. Oh, yeah, I'll interrupt that my my understanding of how that these first conversations started. There was a little more prologue to it. It's not like Joe just picks up just call out the blue. Yeah, I think this was a discussion amongst the warriors. I think Drey Mongreen was in on these
early discussions. I've heard other Silicon Valley billionaires in on these discussions who were seasoned ticket holders, often seen at warriors games know all the players involved. So that's that's that's tremendous. I was not moved in. I didn't even loop me in on any of the conversations. This was a sort of everyone has been watching LeBron's behavior over the past week and a half, two weeks leading into the trade
deadline. And wondering what that really means. And so Drey Mongreen, close personal friend of LeBron James is in on these early like, Hey, let's do this. Let's make a run on LeBron. Okay. I think there was a lot of there was there was a concerted effort. I would call it a multi tiered effort here from the warriors. This wasn't just like, Hey, Mike, make a call to Rob. So if they want to do anything, this was a player level GM level ownership level. And the Lakers took the calls
and you know, Rob Polink basically said, no, we're not interested in creating him. And Genie bus said, what we want him to be a Laker, we're not interested in trading him. But if the question is, does LeBron want to be a war? Would LeBron want to be a war? Would he be interested? Only LeBron can answer that, right? And the Lakers are, I don't know if there's any franchise or ownership group that is better at taking care of superstars than Lakers. They're it's literally
their brand. I mean, there's an entire plaza of statues out in front of superstars that have played well enough for the Los Angeles Lakers that they have statues out front and jerseys retired and they celebrate their here. Maybe the Celtics, maybe the Celtics have that that that level of of superstardom with their franchise. But like, this is what the Lakers do. They want them to be
happy. And so I think that even though they had no interest in trading LeBron, the question is, well, I mean, if you want to know if LeBron would be interested in the war, you've got to ask LeBron's agent. And that's an opening door. I mean, it's not a hard no, right? That's what I wanted to clarify because I honestly, I read the story so furiously the first time I read it. Like, not furiously like, you think we got hacked by the way when you first saw the tweet? No, no,
no, I just read it in a frenzy. And then I reread it and I and I landed on the story. In the end, the answer was returned resoundingly on the eve of the trade deadline. Hall, Rich Paul, told Lakeab and Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy, Jr. That James had no interest in a trade and wanted to remain a Lakersource to set. Hall, told Lakeab. That means LeBron's agent, the CEO of clutch sports, Rich Paul had a conversation with the owner of the Warriors and the
general manager of the Warriors about LeBron James. That by itself is a highly unusual thing that suggests that unofficially or officially, likely unofficially, I think, up our meeting between the lines. The Lakers said, yeah, you can talk to you can talk to our guy, basically, which is like a thing that doesn't happen at this level. And there's a lot of this is the clarity that that we had to get in reporting this, okay? The concept of permission, right? Do you have
permission? Well, permission to negotiate with another player's agent or whatever it is. That is usually an email from one GM to another, right? Do you have permission? It's something a little more official. This was much more, well, I don't know if he wants to be a warrior, you have to ask Rich, right? Like, that's a sort of how owners talk and how people do business. I don't think that was officially granting permission to negotiate a trade, but it's sort of like,
you could take his temperature. Now, it should also be pointed out here that Rich Paul represents two players on the Warriors, Moses, Moody, and Dreymongreen. So there's plenty of reason for Rich Paul to be talking to the Warriors anyway. And I think the reason why I found this story very interesting is that all of this took time. This wasn't immediate answers. Some of it is getting an answer from LeBron. Some of it is rich in LeBron, have to talk. Some of it is rich,
has to talk to everybody else, but this took place over about a 24-hour period. This is all day one day. It starts like kind of Tuesday nightish, I think, where the Warriors formulated a plan to start doing this. Then Wednesday is mostly when this is when this is out in the air. So you taught trading Simone Fontechio to Detroit was not the biggest NBA thing occurring on the Wednesday of
trade deadline week. No. And like in the me at the same time, the Warriors are also trying to get Kelly O'Linnick and they're trying to get Alex Caruso and they're making their fielding calls on Andrew Wiggins and ultimately deciding to keep him because they've been playing well of late. And so there's a lot of other things that are happening in the foreground. And then there's this super secret titanic thing that is happening in the background that only a few people know about.
Were they using cyber dust to communicate? Should have been. Hashtag the dust. Is cyber dust still exist? Oh yeah, that's how you have to talk to Mark Cuban. All right, if you want to talk to Cuban, you have to use cyber dust, right? I think it's you know, in the realm of trades that didn't happen in the NBA, very rarely you hear about trade that could have happened or would have happened. Like what's the most infamous one that like
the Lakers were going to trade James Worthy for Mark Aguayr. One way. Well, there's a lot. There's a lot of these things. Woods, a couple of them involved Scotty Pippin. You know, there's there's there's there are a lot of sliding doors like, okay, we got to the
goal line on this one and maybe didn't happen. And I don't think this was ever to the point where it's like a goal line where there's somebody just had to say yes or anything like there was never names involved because there's no there's no reason to put names in until you know if LeBron is
amenable to this idea. But what I think is most fascinating is like he had an out like there's her out if he wanted if he was really unhappy with the Lakers and he wanted to go someplace else and you know if the hourglass meant time up right we we had a radio producer who did a deep dive on the hourglass emoji. And apparently on the iPhone predictive text when you do hourglass there's one emoji where the sand is in the top of the hourglass and there's another emoji where the sand is
in the bottom. I mean this my my producer Greg is going to love that I pointed this out because he was very proud of himself for looking this up and then when LeBron uses where the the sand is at the bottom of the hourglass. Okay, so not time's running out times up. So I'm I'm just out on the whole like this annual hey what did I do I didn't do anything just just a tweet I don't want to answer any questions about it I'm out I'm out on the whole thing I'm out on the like I'm going to
pout for a month in Cleveland until you trade the whole thing just come out and say what orange you I don't know I'm just I just I don't like it it's it's not um but you're you're about to out the out was there you're correct so that's this is what's interesting to me is that so everything I've
heard for five years because that's how long it's been since LeBron has been on the Lakers now everything after and there's been member when all star was in Cleveland there was this all of this like with LeBron ever go back to Cleveland stuff and then there was this whole like well with the
cabs even want LeBron know I'm like yes they would yeah for five years all I've heard is LeBron wants to finish his career as a Laker not just in Los Angeles as a Laker if he has his brothers he would finish his career as a Laker there's the broni James variable I don't know enough about
that world to really get into it but that's all if you heard this and rich rich yeah I've heard the same rich as this publicly yeah rich is a firm the same that that um that does not mean that there isn't some breaking point at which the Lakers fall so far out of the universe of
contention that he does not I don't know that that's absolute in other words like if Anthony Davis breaks his leg or get gross discontented and asks for a trade or everything goes sideways and the team is like 15 and 30 and just so far away then I you know would he look or I have no idea
like I don't know that that thing is absolute but in the last four seasons they want a title and gotten to the conference finals they're starting to play better right now and it was fascinating to me to hear rich Paul say publicly to Steven A Smith stuff that I've heard from
people in the LeBron orbit privately in the last year two years like it people should listen to the rich Paul interview with Steven A Smith who is very illuminating he knows LeBron better than anyone and he said like we use we to talk about clutch in LeBron LeBron is I'm paraphrasing I
want people to listen to it but you and please rain me in if you think I'm misinterpreting it's kind of like we're not chasing ring number five and ring number six like everyone thinks LeBron is chasing ring number five and ring number six like he's won everything there is to win he wants
to be happy and enjoy the process and enjoy the locker room and he even talked about like say we switch teams like say we go to Golden State LeBron goes to Golden State and he doesn't like he said the phrase he uses like what's the win what's the win there if if we if the lake if that team falls
short all the scrutiny is going to be on LeBron for switching teams and falling short again he rich talked in that interview publicly like anyone who thinks LeBron is sitting there chasing that ghost every night ruminating on Colby's got five Michaels got six I've got four that's not
apparently LeBron's mindset that's what I've heard privately for for a long time now that and I and this is what I said earlier this week I think that 2020 title changed everything is different if they don't have that 2020 title he came to LA he won a title he won a title with a third franchise he stamped his place in Lakers history for whatever you think of it and if they lose in the conference finals that year or lose in the finals I do think this feels differently but I tell me what you've
heard in relation to all of this and what your reaction to Rich's appearance on the Stephen A. Smith YouTube show was so I will I will say I understand your reading of or your interpretation of what Rich said I heard it a little differently I heard it as more of his advice to LeBron rather than
the rich is not LeBron they're separate people yeah but I think he was saying my advice to him is like this is how you should think about things you can't win every year like you have to be enjoy everything soak it up and he said LeBron still has that fire I think I remember him saying
that in the Stephen A interview yesterday um he still loves basketball I still wants to do this but like DeGu and I have covered all-time grates towards the end of their careers and everyone approaches them differently right there was Dirk Navitsky who was just gonna write out to the Sunset with the
Mavs he was just Mavericks or there was never a question about that Kobe I think there was some discussion at some point of whether or not he wanted to endure the the youth movement that they had clearly gone in I remember very distinctly getting calls from Rob Polinka who was then his
agent at the time saying like the Lakers need to go get Dwayne Wade they need to get Kobe another star he his last years should not be like this like he was advocating for them to go get more players right soft soft to Charmin remember soft to Charmin soft to Charmin right
poor Jeremy Lynn why do we have to bring it was a Jeremy Lynn right when he was on the I don't remember exactly who but the you know the the Kobe's last years in Los Angeles were on terrible teams I mean those teams were lottery teams every single year and like even that last
season that Kobe we all remember the 60 point game because it was so iconic and so amazing but the rest of that you're sucked that's why I'm saying I think in my gut there is a breaking point where the Lakers fall below level X this becomes a different discussion championship in 2020 conference
finals last year TBD this season we'll talk about it they're over that threshold and this summer you know they're gonna have three first round picks yeah they're gonna try to go for a game-changing perimeter talent we don't need to name all the names and stay over that threshold but I think
they will I think that's the point you're making is yeah it I don't know what the right word is but it's it's there is a point at which to lose it the losing would eat at him and does eat at him yeah it eats at him it also like you have every time I see LeBron I am staggered by how good he
still is at age 39 and how much work goes into being that good at age 39 like we've seen like Kobe in his last couple years was not the Kobe that we all knew like he was not him so he was not as good of a player he lost a step like same thing with Dirk like they were they were out there for
whatever they could do but like it was clear to them and to everyone else like their best days were behind LeBron still freaking good like he's still really good he should be an all NBA player if he plays enough games and I think you know he's he's the captain of the all-star team and he gets
the leading vote it's not this is not a popularity contest he still puts in the work to be as physically dominant as he is and so where is that motivation coming from is that like I don't I mean I work hard at my job you work hard at your job but like to I don't know how I don't know how
it feels to get up at five in the morning every single day to train and it gets harder and harder to be at the level he is right there's a certain thing with our job where it's not about the physical preparation anymore for you like we have to just watch the games and make our calls and
stay in touch and whatever I don't know how the guy does it speak for yourself I'm in that cold tub every night Ramona I'm getting up I'm hitting away I'm hitting the way I'm going to cry out these days that I'm going to get some B12 shots every once in a while you know you're right we're
in our 40s right over here just off camera I hop in every night after the late games after the late games you're ready to watch again but like the that motivation is not just to keep playing to work that hard it's not to collect a paycheck it's not because he's bored and doesn't want to
retire it's because he still wants to win there's no way you work that hard and don't have that fire and the reason why he he even hinted at retirement last year when he lost to Denver is it because it hurt that bad to lose and so I think that I don't think the Lakers are that are going to
fall off a cliff I think they're pretty well positioned actually going forward with AD locked up on that extension LeBron has a player option but I expect he will be back with the Lakers and I do think they go pursue a third star at the summer because of the picks you mentioned in the contracts
they have but he is not a forever Laker like these other Lakers we are talking about I think they will retire his number eventually if you'll allow that you you you mean in the sense that he did not start his correct yeah okay I for a second I perked up like he's not a forever Laker oh like you'll
leave yeah um look he's not like hearts and minds and you know on the Mount Rushmore of Lakers like when you think of LeBron and you think of his career I won't think of him as a Laker I will think of him as a cat right I will think of him from Cleveland or Miami Los Angeles was like the third
stop and and I don't know if that's the defining stop it's just where he he kind of went after he won a championship in Cleveland and so you know he doesn't have that same 20 years with one franchise that Kobe and dark did he doesn't have that Derek G. you know and you know and you know
and look looks like they're gonna end up with that step curry and maybe Dre Mangeen and Clay Thompson you're right this is why I've always said I want these three to ride off in the sunset together forever until the wheels completely fall off and now they have a couple of young guys in
Pajemski and Kaminga who can at least be the bridge to a decent to very good late stage curry team and this is the question you have like the Lakers are 30 and 26 they're eight and three in their last 11 games they're plus 38 in just 184 minutes with the four so might have been begging
Darvin Hampton play more all season Reeves Hachemura LeBron and AD I think they finally have landed on the right starting lineup and the right rotation I think Dinwitty will really help their team in low is playing well in very specific ways yeah and that's like you can fantasize about this
trade like LeBron joins Curry certain people from the warriors would have to be traded to the Lakers just to make the math work let alone the draft picks and whatever else that the Lakers would surely demand is either team in that scenario left in a position where they are actually better than their
current versions of themselves both of which are having these little resurgence 50 games into the season let's start with the Lakers and look like here's where they also find themselves the Lakers are ninth three games out of eighth the warriors are tenth also three games in the lost column out
of eight they got a bunch of games to make up right now we have all these conversations every day like are they contenders can they win the title right now unless one of those teams makes up three games they're playing each other in the losers bracket of the play internament meaning one of them is not even making the playoffs and is out before the play internament is even over and the other has to win another game just to get into the playoffs that's where we are but I do think both
these teams are playing pretty well in ways that are sustainable than some fluky three point shooting for the Lakers of late I like the way they both look and I feel like they have found their correct identities and it just took a lot of time and in golden states case it took a suspension a
recovery from suspension a semi public airing of grievances from Jonathan Caminga against Steve Kurt not even semi public public airing of grievances and a very public reckoning for Clay Thompson of what he was and what he is yeah which is not going on I mean I think you know the game against
the clippers on Wednesday night Clay is not in his closing lineup and then Steve Kerr kind of throws him in at the end of the game because they need shooting he commits a pretty bad foul and towards the end of the game and let him boy I mean like the body language after that I am not
the body language doctor that's Mr Simmons's job yeah but Steve Kerr out onto 10 feet out onto the court with his hands on his head crouched in agony and I believe he said Clay I think you could read his lips saying Clay Pajemski the camera zooms in on Pajemski who's making like
face yeah and then Steph goes to console Clay and like low five of him and Clay kind of walks away from that if I'm Clay look that was a bad mistake yeah if if I'm Clay I'm like man my coach didn't have to run out 15 feet on a floor like that I know I know I screwed up did he say I didn't
see the poke you see Kerr basically said yeah that's a clear play defense no foul situation which is which is true true I mean but he said it like you know it's not like Sean McVay out there oh that I'll I'll take that one that's on me I didn't prepare the players like no he was like yep
you should know better my my point is both these teams are good both these teams are trending the right way both of these teams are absolutely going to be dangerous if if they get into the playoffs right now one of them will not be in the playoffs if if the standings remain as they are both
these teams could absolutely win a series against almost anybody my my analysis of their contention standards would be that Clippers lost last night the one you're talking about is revealing in this sense like Clippers and F. Kauai warriors are rolling Clippers rallying when the game and what
both these two teams have in common is their ceilings are really high they have shown those real high ceilings for two games here a game here a game there to win four games in one series against Oklahoma City the Clippers Phoenix Minnesota the defending champion Denver Nuggets whoever it is
is an entirely different animal to do that and then win four more games against another one of those teams and then four more games against another one of those teams requires a level of consistent unrelenting greatness that neither of these teams is demonstrated yet so I cannot quite take them
seriously as like contender contenders but they win a series yet I like I have enough respect for them like absolutely there they both landed on something interesting even amid these crazy trade talks that you and will report it on I know and I think it's you know people yesterday when
we first wrote the story I'll say Wednesdays people listen to this at different times but when we first wrote the story I think some of their reaction was like oh this shows the desperation of the warriors that they don't they they don't think they have enough no way it shows the boldness aggression
it shows that it shows that we are all in on keeping a good team alive as long as Curry is here yeah and playing like this which is by the way going like nine of eighteen from three every single game um and they have they owe a twenty twenty four pick that will extinguish this year and then
a twenty thirty pick they'll be aggressive this summer too I think I think you know by the way is that like yeah speaking of warriors warriors trades that didn't happen or that could have happened or things they were discussed remember when Kevin Durant asked for a trade from the Brooklyn net
I do I do recall that happening I do right have right on the eve of free agency yeah yeah the Brooklyn the Brooklyn that's I remember being um they all spent fifteen points last night in Boston last night by the way the uh I was out on maternity leave I just had the my second son on June 8th and I think Kevin's trade request was June 30th so like I'm totally sleep deprived newborn sage right and I see this and I like oh my god like I almost came right back to work like I almost was like this
seismic that he asked for a trade um and over that summer you know the there was the sort of meetings with James Hardin in Europe and there was the back you for there was all these all these conversations with him he ultimately reconciles because he had four years on his deal the very
this was after it was reported that he asked for Sean Marx and Steve Nash to be fired correct from from their jobs yeah very directly one of whom has since been fired from his job right um so then Durant and then and then they have this meeting and then remember they put the joint press release
out it's a great all-time great press release I'll never forget that one what is this logo why is it here the boardroom oh oh everything's great they'll never trade them now I completely believe that he's gonna play the next four years for the nets and everything's gonna be amazing okay so he goes
and he has a very good first half and then they have this sort of exclusive negotiating window with the new owner and Phoenix with Mattish we end said like okay listen he wants to play for Phoenix we're only gonna negotiate with you and if we don't get it done then we'll open it up to other
people like it was a pocket listing as a real estate agent would call it the warriors did not have the trade assets at that point to go make a run at KD but if the sons don't don't get this done the warriors had a ton of assets last summer so if this doesn't get done they're going after Kevin
Durant last summer like that that's they were plotting and planning of like how can they go get Durant they're already they're they're always thinking of stars that they can go get this is whatever you want to say Joe Lightyear's Lake of or whatever like the to me the defining
feature of that dynasty beside the Steph Curry and shooting the splash brothers and all that is their boldness like they just go and do things like that they they went out and got Kevin Durant the first time why not do it again oh he left well this is also the luxury like it's it's
boldness it I mean it doesn't take like a great deal of vision to think they're getting Kevin Durant under team would be like a good thing to do but it's also the it's the luxury of deep deep pockets and it's the luxury of having Steph Curry who can play with anybody any kind of player can accommodate any style of player and will accommodate any style of player as long as it helps the team win by the way he's the most important reason Dremon Green is still on the Warriors because he understands
how integral Dremon Green is to their winning and it's not a coincidence that their defense has locked up since Dremon Green came back from suspension and started at center and also their defense and their offense like you you I forget the numbers on the on the Wagens Kominga pairing
when Dremons not on the court but it's not good like it's historically bad when those two are on the court and there's no but when Dremons out there it's great when Dremon from it went from chicken you know what to the most delicious chicken salad with mustard and the right the right
amount of tarragon and the right amount of celery and onions that you've ever had do does it have like to cut up the grapes and put it in there I don't like grapes I don't like I don't like grapes in general and I don't want grapes in my salad or my food grapes you know what I like red grapes in
the skin there's something about the skin that I don't like it's it's it's it's a very controversial topic in my house I don't like cherries I don't like cherries and no one can understand why I don't like there's something about the skin I don't like yeah I guess I get that gets stuck in your teeth
and it feels like should we be eating the skin you want my take on the most underrated fruit yeah I do is by the way we're pitching a segment on the low post podcast it's called Malika Andrews worst takes because she has she has horrible takes she really does on food and pop culture in general
and I recruited Malika this is going to happen one of them will be her fruit and vegetable takes pear is the most underrated fruit and peas I agree I agree I the most underrated vegetables I really you know what I really love a good pair especially if it's been it's cold in the fridge
you don't hear people talk about pairs I love people forget pairs are a bucket ears are so under you're right that like and I don't even doesn't need to be a pretty looking pair if it's it can be lumpy and we're looking I love a pair but it's got to be cold in
the fridge and I cut up do you have any closing thoughts on this dalliance between the lakers or the warriors and the warriors or any just thoughts on the state of either team by the way the best thing that's happened to these two teams other than playing well is Utah trading three tense of
its playing rotation and going down the standings which by the way I understand why they did it they got a good second round pick yeah they got an okay first round pick for olympic abaji and ponteco respectively I just think man it stinks they could have made the play in
term and I want to go I want to do any any any parting thoughts my parting thought is um one I love the theater of of the what if on this one um and also that it just because it didn't happen doesn't mean that they can't revisit this again like this is this is still like you can
still make all of the math work again in and things change in the NBA very quickly depending on how teams play depending on how seasons finish what if the warriors draft brony what what what you know like let's see what happens this summer get like I I know we I hate this thing that we do where we
don't finish one season before we start talking about the next season right like let's let's let brony finish his height his his freshman year at USC before we start talking about him in the draft or or let's let's see who wins this year before we start talking about free agency next year um
because I really love basketball and I hate that we always get ahead of the season but this is so the the possibilities here are so delicious you can't you can't unsee them now that you've seen the possibility right like that wasn't that hard to Photoshop the the warrior jersey on the
bron uh he has a jet there's an airport in Van Ayes it's it's really easy to fly back and forth Drainman Green lives in LA they can they can go together he lives in Bretwood with near LeBron like that could I don't think it will I think the Lakers go star hunting this summer and try to fortify
the relationship around the the team around LeBron by far the most likely path is we go our separate ways and we up the Lakers upgrade here the words upgrade there but it you are giving us an interesting coda here and and I think what's fun about is that everyone involved does exactly
what you think they would do like LeBron with the passive aggressive stuff the warriors with the audacity the Lakers with the we just want them to be happy you know Jeannie Busch with the we just want to take care of our star and make sure they're happy here um the the the Drainman recruiting
and and like everyone plays the plumber jumping in be like can we get can we get LeBron and Durant for D.M.L. and and for first round picks yeah yeah what do you what do you guys think of Beavol Paul you know like the football all right Ramona showburn just indispensable work by the way you're about
to be it's a good thing you came on because you're about to be too famous to come on this podcast ever again once the sterling affair comes comes to the airwaves so it's been nice knowing you and being able to talk basketball with you because you are about to be a Hollywood starlet celebrity
and uh i'll miss you when that happens I have a 22nd cameo with no speaking lines in that in the yeah and do you have do you also have an EP credit I do okay so so look when you're on the red carpet and your former colleague it I walked the red carpet with your former colleague at Grandland
Rember Brown who is a producer on the show as well well who was where Rember was wearing some fabulous leather pants you were a full leather pant leather jacket outfit to the tca the other day look I'm just saying when you when you're walking the red carpet and you hear a voice it's like Ramona
Ramona just a quick just a quick question for you Ramona and you and you look and it's me just remember and give just give me the one question that's all I'm saying just give me the one question I'll always give you the one question make it up hairs Ramona Shelburn everybody thank you
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only exclusions apply all right it's Friday morning I am taping this with the one and only john hollinger one of my inspirations forgetting into this business to begin with which is weird because I might be older than him I'm not sure we are taping this about 15 hours after a
monoshelberton I had a conversation about just the whole warriors lakers nexus of greatness slash drama slash trade talks slash play and hopes and dreams and many resurgence in the season and this podcast with john hollinger was ostensibly supposed to be and will be a check in on some of
the rookies around the league that's a good way to talk about a bunch of teams and in the interim a couple of warriors related things happen that are fortunately for us also rookie related clay Thompson who Ramona and I talked at length of out yesterday was relegated in what must be a tough
wrenching decision for everybody involved to the bench and wouldn't you know it like the steely bad ass tough dude that he is a guy that the spurs chip england who's now with the thunder once told me when the spurs bought clay Thompson in for a secret second workout ahead of that draft in which I
believe they took a while in there that might be all the same draft I can't remember um clay something about him reminded chip of monu genoble and when he when he said that to himself and to the brass he remembers the arms on his the hairs on his arms standing up because just to
utter the name of genobley was that sacrosanct in san Antonio obviously this is a difference in san Antonio this is a guy at the end of his career coming off the bench 35 points for clay Thompson in a win that shoves the Utah jazz four games out of the play and we can probably say goodbye to the
jazz but as for rookies mr. holinger clay Thompson was replaced in the starting line up by a rookie Brandon Pajemski who's just good and one of the more polarizing rookies in the league a guy that I've liked ever since I've seen him but the shooting stats are what they are jathe george had a monster
game so let's start let's start there um you dig into the draft and it much more than I do um are you surprised how good pajemski has been um and after you get through that we'll talk about the warriors uh
I am I am not surprised by his output in terms of points rebounds where I am a little surprise is how well he's held up defensively because that looked like a real question mark on the tape coming out of Santa Clara his statistical indicators like blew up all the analytics models so he was one of my
favorite sleepers uh in the draft because of that but I definitely had him in the sleeper group as opposed to like hey there's a top 10 guy just because the the defense like you just didn't know like you say even against west coast conference competition you'd see some like really iffy clips he
held up surprisingly well on that and he's developed a knack knack for taking charges which I think has really helped him and to me this whole move for golden state is them trying to get to next year's team now it's that's what it feels like to me like that kamega's in place now pods is in place now
I suspect trace jackson davis is going to be in there somewhere and it seems like moody is maybe the the odd man out for some reason even though like I think he can play but uh he's kind of a lesser can you know he's been playing ahead of him which is okay um but uh little surprising yeah
yeah so that he may be the piece that ends up in whatever trade they make to get another guy especially probably another front court guy and so that that that's what it felt like to me just acknowledging the reality of like okay we're 52 games into this we're 26 and 26 which is what they
were before going into Utah last night um you know they'll probably finish up on the good side of 500 just because of the way the league is this year with you know you got six or seven teams are just automatic wins right now and at the same time it's they're going to be going through the play in
if they make it out of that that first round so whatever first round series they have I mean it's not not looking great right so so let's so my whole thing with both the warriors and the lakers the lakers are eight and three and their less love in games the warriors are nine and four in their last 13 games I talked a lot about both teams with thermo and a sweet one you to dive into sort of what's going on um is I would never slam the door shut on these guys making a medium-sized playoff
run to slash a deep playoff run I just have too much respect for the cores and what they've accomplished however neither team has demonstrated anything close to the level of consistency and greatness day to day that is necessary to win four playoff games against one great team four against another great team four against another great team maybe this is the beginning of that process that these runs that they're on time will tell but as you said right now they're ninth and tenth so one will
eliminate the other if unless the standings change and the standings might change there three games behind Dallas and Sacramento who are seven and eight and Sacramento is not playing very well um although they they finished with the win over Denver before the all star break Denver
hmm that's that's just be my whole Denver analysis is just that noise not worried yet not worried yet I'm I'm I'm I'm on the way to being maybe a little slightly worried I would still pick Denver to make the finals but I you know Phoenix Bradley Beale got hurt again
they have 22 losses the Pelicans have 22 losses those are five and six I have no idea what the New Orleans Pelicans are and I'm starting to think none of us ever will be they'll just be a mystery forever and ever um so maybe what maybe they move up one of these teams moves up in the standings um
we'll see it sounds like you're pessimistic uh I could see I could see them moving out I mean they have ground to make up and there's not a lot of time left in the season is one of the things that are working against both these teams but can they at least get to eight seven where you just have
to win one play in game I mean that's what the that was what the Lakers did last year right they got to they got to seven held on in the play in game against Minnesota and then you know one two rounds in the playoffs we had LA Golden State each we each win as low seeds in the first round now I will
say it's a tougher west this year I mean those top four teams in the west are all tough and so where whereas last year you had Memphis and they were the two they were already a little injured they you know they'd lost Adams already um and you had Sacramento as as the three
who was definitely you know they had a great year especially given their history but if definitely a beatable three you're not getting that in the first right you're playing the Clippers you're playing the wolves you're playing okay see you're playing Denver like those are almost
certainly your top four and just that unless unless there's an injury somewhere along the line again like I those are not going to be very friendly first round series let's talk about the other rookie who exploded last night can't did George 33 points nine threes which I believe either ties
or broke the record for the most threes any rookie has ever made in a game he is now averaging 12 points and four assists 39% shooting he's up to 35% on threes 45% on twos um he's starting now they've they've along with this sort of we're going to trade 30% of our rotation they have flipped
Chris done out of the starting five and said okay sinkers one time for key out did George went poorly in the first 15 games then he was coming off the bench settled himself um look most rookie guards are inefficient there's just something about his vision he's he's just a good he's a
good passer he sees the floor he can make the cross court corner pass with either hand um and he's got just a nice little bit of craft to his game like last night on on one pick and roll he rejected the screen going to his right froze the drop back big with a hesitation dribble hit him with a
right handed in and out dribble and finish with the layup I was like damn that's a lot of it's a lot of craft I just he's six four with like a six five six six wingspan so if he's your lead guard if he's your if you're essentially your point guard or your smallest guy on the floor he's got
good enough size for that position if you shift them to the wing it gets a little dicey but the jazz are said all along he's a quote lead guard calling whatever you want we want him to be our lead guard and the more I watch him the more I'm like yeah I'm kind of in for this guy is like the
Utah jazz lead guard of the future is going to be some bumps in the road but I think they've got a legit starting lead guard in key out there George what do you think quite quite possibly uh let like you said me rookie guards get their butts kicked and so when when you see one who can at least
you know handle a decent size usage role with a modicum of efficiency it's like okay there's a there's a one way here to get a lot better uh it's interesting to me that he's been able to play to play the point and look like a real point guard because at you know watching him at Baylor
it's see now they play with three guards it was a little different he was definitely heavier at Baylor which I think slowed him down and he he just looked to like a lot more like an undersized too and and so for him to be a one in his size now that changes everything kind and especially if he
can shoot consistently from the perimeter which has been a little up and down obviously he made a bunch uh last last night and then Kenny Kenny add to that like he's not a crazy athlete so he does have to rely on craft a lot for finishing and I think that's why you know he's only shooting 39
percent or whatever on the season but that's another thing that guys really can develop over time and he kind of he kind of he has the skill now to to create stuff and now it's just a question of being more efficient out of what he creates and I I do think it's you know you talk clearly
he's trying to moonwalk back into that 10th pick I think but at the same time I know why they're doing it I you just said why they're doing it yeah bigger picture just like we're we're still a young team on the rise let's not forget that I just thought they were pretty solid as they were
and I wanted to see them like there's always a feisty team who's like wait they just beat out the warriors for a play in birth like I kind of wanted you to have to go for it yeah yeah because they were they were on a nice little role too they had because because they started the year so badly
and then they they got on a really nice role really the last the last few weeks Consecsons played massively better they kind of worked out what they were doing in the back court with done done starting because they they just didn't have enough ball movement otherwise they figured out how to
get in the front courts find a role for John Collins bring Kessler off them like everything they were doing just kind of worked and now we're we're back to like very free form experimentation and you know let's see what this looks like next year and basically they're on they're another team
they're on next year right now what was Kati George's defense like in college what did he project as a defender if if you weren't able to guard the smallest guy on the floor if you were not over over tax size wise it was it was middle of the pack I mean there was nothing remarkable
either way to kind of at least in my estimation what if you thought of him on the NBA level in that in that regard I again I yeah could he could he be yeah yeah could he be a little zippy or on the perimeter maybe could it be a little more you know you want your you're you're you're one your point
guard to be maybe a little more hands you create a little more you know turnovers what not I don't know if that's ever going to be like his main thing but you know he's also he also has size working for him which which a lot of big guards don't so the switches are easier and everything so
again probably like middle it's it's it is neither going to vault his career ahead nor hold him back I don't think I mean his offense is going to be what determines whether he sinks or swims sure I'm a little more optimistic about his defense than you are okay he's he's he's
glimpses like all rookies he's showing me kind of a toughness like getting around he did really well guarding staff last night getting around screens fighting around screens he has a nose for steals off the ball but not the kind of seals where he's like being reckless and gambling all over
the place I've got my on him we should mention we should mention his fellow rookie Taylor Hendrix is now going to play for the Utah Jazz how much is unclear but to your point about how the Jazz had landed on a functional good rotation part of the reason they did that was as you mentioned separating
John Collins and Walker Kessler who have to do more or less the same thing on offense I looked up their number and now of course they're starting together because the Jazz are just out of choices I looked up their numbers for the season in 268 minutes with John Collins and Walker Kessler
on the floor together the Jazz are minus 103 minus 19 points for 100 possessions it's that's like you're getting to the point where it's hard to be that bad when you play two good NBA players of any ilk and size together and Hendrix is is I they're going to try and use him as a way to sort of
break up the market and Kessler Collins combination so he comes in for one of the rim runners and it's marketing Hendrix and either Collins or Kessler Jazz fans have been clamoring for Taylor Hendrix to play all season I get it he he is a very interesting prospect on both ends of the floor
has made plays already defensively he looks to put it kindly frenetic on offense right now to the point that he committed two traveling violations last night within 90 seconds of entering the game almost and they were the same he just caught the ball and went into a dribble move and the reps were like the thing you just did with your feet you're not allowed to do that in basketball what was the Hendrix projection for you and what have you seen I mean limited minutes but he's
interesting and he's important to their team top 10. Yeah so definitely he was a guy who stood out for his potential at the defensive end the ability to switch on the guards but still provide a rim protector and then had a pretty good looking outside shot at leans a little bit of leading tower
piece action like leans to his left when he shoots so I straightened that out a little would probably help him on the ball as a shot creator was definitely the biggest question mark where you know where is he going to fit in with that he doesn't quite he's more of a glider I would say than a
guy who like pops off the floor where you're going to be throwing throwing him all the oops as a rim runner not that he can't do that but he's not he's not like a John Collins level doing that and then is he he doesn't really have a wide frame so he's not really guy is going to score on
the block either so getting to his offense like even even at UCF last year you know the guards had the ball most of the time and he was kind of the secondary guy and so he's his offensive role is probably the biggest question I do think he could do the stretch part at least adequately
it's what else is going to give you beyond that because I the way the game is going like you you can't just be that guy out there who's an okay three point shooter and have it be enough yeah he's 15 of 46 on three so far which is I think encouraging for a rookie tweener forward slash
big who has not played much 8 assists 15 turnovers is a little problematic but um you know did this is this is all beginning stages for him let's go to a rookie and a game that is a little closer to your heart and soul john Hollinger uh victor when banyama leads all rookies in points
per in points per I think points overall and points per 36 minutes which I have up is a big column right now 26 points for 36 minutes cam Whitmore is second 25 points per 36 minutes and that dude is going to shoot like there there are some certainties in life and one of them and I
like I like certainties I like I like bedrock things that I can rely on yeah cam Whitmore is going to come in the game and shoot the god damn ball and you know what I'm happy about that he's good at it he is a tank going to the rim he can shoot three is pretty well I'm intrigued by the cam Whitmore
experience and want more of it number three in points per 36 minutes among rookies the recently suspended for one game gg jackson junior who lit up the milwaki bucks last night the milwaki bucks alleged title contenders boasting an MVP candidate who frankly has not got enough attention in the
MVP race yonnesotentek koopo who I think missed like three shots last night total team two okay I don't way was not very many 15 of 17 and they lost and they lost and Damien Lillard as well as on their team chrismidletons out with an ankle injury whatever they went into the Memphis went
into whatever what is it the FedEx forum still next forum yes facing a grizzlies team that you can name every player on I can name every player on almost no one in the arena could name every player on that team and the bucks lost the damien lillard had a heat at the end of the game they
are now three and seven under doc rivers their offense is 24th in that span their defense is 10th so if you're if you're a glass half full guy you would say doc came in to repair the defense that process has started at the expense of their offense but they don't their offense
rebounding has disappeared guess what their transition defense is much better those two things are linked their free throws have gone in the toilet their shots at the rim have gone way down but if you're a glass half full guy you would say job one was fixing the defense if that is a
temporary setback on the offensive and fine but boy oh boy three and seven and how about that gg Jackson junior man holy smokes he's shooting 41% on threes he's six nine so he's just shooting over people he's shooting from 30 feet out he pulled up for like a 35 footer in transition last
night that he missed and and god love him he missed it with like 20 on the shot clock and the the ball the rebound bucks got it and gg did the he did the padded his chest like my bad my bad yeah he we know it was your bad man like I'm glad you're acknowledging it no it was clearly nobody
else is bad it was a bad shot but at least he admitted it was a bad shot this guy went 45th in the draft and he can do a little bit of everything on offense he's a great screen and dive guy he's making good passes out of it um defensively it's a little hit or miss but he's got size and when he
when he's engaged I think he's okay what what is this dude do they have they they have something here like what they might they yeah they might have something so a little bit bird of bird of a feather with wit more like this guy is definitely shooting um but the the other thing is that three point
number I mean that's that's the whole key here he has no track record of shooting this well he was a low 30 sky at South Carolina low 30 sky in sub-relief low 30 sky in the g league for half a season with more attempts than he's had in the NBA the same my bubble they're bursting my bubble
with this however analysis however he does not need to shoot 40% to have an impact because as you point out he is big he provides secondary shop blocking I think he's actually maybe grown a little since South Carolina even um he he can do other things as a as a shock creator like he can
put it on the floor a little he's threatening going to the basket again because of his size uh and Memphis has really been looking for this like this search for a big wing I mean they through countless draft picks out there's trying to find one and basically failed and now this guy that
that they got in the second round uh pick pick 45 you said that's been uh I think so yeah that's been a very uh very good pick for the Grizzlies in recent years none of this look the shooting you have to sustain it right like you have to sustain it somewhere between the numbers you cited
and what's going on now it doesn't have to he doesn't have to be a crazy high volume 40% 3 point should it be nice um nothing about this seems fake or like oh this is empty calorie stuff on a bad team that is just someone's got to score the points this you always worry about that a little
in in this kind of situation so I'm glad you brought that up because he definitely has the freedom right now to take whatever shot and it's fine and that's going to go away next year when the when the cavalry comes back but when the cavalry is back and by the way you know our our brains are
short-term long-term memories are not as good as they need to be like this team before everything was rising to a point where you were like yeah you know they disappointed in the playoffs last year this is going to be an elite team for a long long time and like in Jama Rance absence
does been being leveled up in the absence of everybody Jaren Jackson Jr. has gotten to stretch himself on offense probably too far but if you look at his passing numbers from the past two months you know I wrote about him a couple weeks ago and in my 10 things column at that point I think the stat I had was he had like seven games of five or more assists ever in his career and like five of them had come in the prior two weeks which is like good and healthy development this dude you won't
have the same freedom if you take a 35 footer in semi-transition with Jama Rant on one side in Desmond Bayon on the other and you miss that's not going to go over great but his basic bedrock skill set is kind of plug and play with this team like I think this is a real ish and
you know I'd have to dig in more how this guy slipped to 45 because he's he didn't well the shooting maybe as part of it and he was a top 10 guy coming out of high school and he had a horrible year at South Carolina the team sucked they I'm not sure how well coach they were the offense was basically
just given the ball and let him do whatever and he did whatever and so his numbers ended up being pretty bad but again if you looked at the kind of the baseline skill set and I think one of the things that we may be overreact to and I see people doing it with Ron Holland this year is that when you take somebody that young and and just plop them into a very high usage role especially with not a crazy amount of town around them like they're they're gonna struggle I especially out of the shoot
like it's just it's the game isn't that easy for them not to we saw it with Lamello Ball on Australia we saw it with Scoot even last last year at Ignite and the beginning of this year in Portland so I just think that's a thing that people overreact to sometimes um let's let's just veer briefly into like the bucks are three and seven under doc rivers and it it like doesn't it doesn't it's just something is off like even when their offense was number two it's now down to number five overall
it's sometimes just a little off here you know last night I think I read Doc made a joke about how you know some guys are already on the way to Cabo during the game so you don't want to read too much into like the all-star farewell game but like are you like if you're a serious team you kind of win
that game where are you on the bucks how how worried are you uh I think they're a little short on talent is is what I think they're um they they miss Chris Middleton right now definitely and part of the reason is because they don't they just don't have the players who can step up into the
void uh Bobby Portis and Pat Connitton both kind of taking a step back this year which I think is really hurt them I think that's why you heard those guys those two names so much going into the trade deadline uh for them to try to get different pieces um you know the campaign for Pat Beverly I
think is like in terms of the problems they're facing I think it's potato patato I mean it's nice that they have somebody you can heat up the ball now like Memphis is playing Vince Williams Jr. at point guard and the bucks like don't even pressure him because they just don't have anybody
who can do it uh so that that that's that part certainly stood out to me last night uh they they're just very very thin and then Dame has not been Dame I think is the is the other piece of it if you look at a shoot and 34% from three and even if that part comes back like the
rest of his game just hasn't been at the level even from a year ago in Portland it's been a difficult him and Yannis together has been a much more difficult adjustment I think the people thought it's been strange and I've harped in many others have about how how relatively rarely rarely they
use this two-man game that everyone thought was going to be yeah it plug in plug in and it's like number two in the whole D behind Murray and Yokech but even beyond just how rarely they use it in comparison to some of the other weapons they have it just hasn't it just hasn't looked easy it
hasn't looked right and there are games like last night in Memphis is a great example where Dame just looks like a quarter step out of rhythm like he gets into the lane and he's missing shots at the rim that he normally would make or like the the read is the passing read is like a half
second slower or doesn't have it just something is just outer rhythm and you know look middle tin will help and then he shoves Crowder to the bench which fortifies their bench but like it's not like Crowder's been okay it's not like he's like Crowder Phoenix Crowder where you can be like
oh this guy might put up 18 for us tonight is doesn't appear to be coming around the corner the bunch of 35 and 21 there are four games behind Cleveland now and and the underlying numbers aren't any better is is the part that sticks out to me and they're 11th and net rating and I
mean they've we say they miss middle tin but like they basically been healthy this year right it's not like oh we just been you know we've just been you know putting together patchwork lineups and stuff is like I mean beyond the fact that their regular lineup is a little bit patchwork
right like they they haven't been hit that way and they're just like I'm just to the point where I just don't know how good they actually are you know we were talking I was talking to a couple people you know who would you pick in a bucks nicks bucks calves series I mean shove the sixers
to the side we'll see whatever he looks like you know and you're and you're you just those two names are such above the marquee names that you want to just say well in the playoffs like the best guys they usually win but I don't know I don't know if I would pick the bucks over either
of those teams right now my Cleveland's got a lot to prove in the playoffs after last year yeah but the bucks have a lot to prove as like a team and they signed Denilo Gallinari who you know I mean I'm is there are there minutes for dinner like Denilo Gallinari is a center now he is like
totally mummified he could not move at all he can shoot but he can't move I don't know are they're like great is there are there minutes for him like you I don't know where they come from you'd have to play Portus at the four with the second unit I guess that or or a C you know
you're signed him as a depth guy fine like you know if we have another big injured then we have this guy we can put in if that's all it is and that's fine but yeah for him to for him to come in and play right away I just I just don't see how he's making an impact on a high level team that
already has an offense guy playing back up five you know look again they're offensive creator and under doctor defenses surged maybe there's a 15 game stretch coming where you get the best of both worlds but at some point you got to get the best of both worlds and when a team doesn't
give you the best of both worlds for 50 60 70 games it usually just means they're not going to um but as long as they have you honest it's sort of like TBD like it could come at any time because that dude is an absolute monster and nobody wants any part of face and act guy in a
in a playoff series but their play has been a worrisome and you can throw that loss last night away as a Cabo one two three can kuhn loss whatever that's an important three point variance to well yeah good day that went like nine of 40 something in the grisks were box were 11 of 44 grisks
were 13 of 26 so when when the opponent doubles your three point percentage you usually lose still kind of embarrassing honestly I agree yeah you're you're right um you're right uh okay let's talk about some other rookies rapid fire that I want to talk about that are not the rookies of
your guys who we will talk about later um is there anything interesting to say about Brandon Miller who I say that because if you've been paying attention and not that many people do pay attention to the Charlotte Hornets you do and I do this guy looks like a star like 16 and a half points of
game is now neck and neck with chat uh four rebounds two assists 44% shooting 39% on three has a good mid range game including a knack for like weird awkward like half hooks and little mini jumpers over shorter guys can beat switch they're running like Brandon Miller tray man inverted pick and rolls
right now after the trade is kind of like the point guard of the team almost at times are like co-point guard which will obviously not be the case when they get anything close to hole defensively he's solid like he provides a little rim protection he's switchy these chase down blocks are happening regularly I mean I say is there anything interesting to say because I think it's pretty clear already they nailed this pick and this guy's gonna be a really really good player and probably
like he looks like a future all started me I don't know what you I mean obviously his efficiency stats his advanced numbers all that stuff are are not great and are lacking compared to chat in wimby but that's all typical rookie stuff like I love what I see yeah he so defensively I think right from
the word go he was pretty good and it was hard to it was hard to distill that I think in the first half of the season when the rest of Charlotte's defense was such a mess but now that they kind of post-trade deadline at least the last few games have had their act together a little more you
you can you can see it yeah and he like he has size but he can play on the perimeter at six nine still not like a great finisher around the basket still doesn't have great burst off the dribble and I think that could put maybe a cap on what is upside is but it's nice to see him shooting the
ball well from the perimeter because he struggled with that a little early in the year his shot can come out a little flat and just getting enough air under it for the NBA three-point line I think was a little bit of an adjustment but now he's up to 38% from three and I the brand-in for
scute debate I think is going to keep going to continue at least for a little while but at some point as a team I think the thing you do need to think about is what the opportunity is going to be like for that player too and I think it was just going to be hard to do scute and
lamello like if scute hits you're definitely getting to a situation where you're trading one of them right and you might not be taking back full value on that and so I I have to think that weight on them at least a little bit in in making this selection that Miller had this opportunity to be
what he was going to be without any kind of interference from the rest of the from how the roster was set up and so we'll see how this works out still for sharp but right now I mean right now Miller is playing better than scute clearly so you would say advantage sharp that now Miller is also
what a year year and a half older too so they're you know that plays into it looks like just a full year yeah and he but like he's had games where he's the number one option on the team and he puts up 30 something on efficient shooting and the opposing defense halfway through the game is like
oh we got it we got to like scheme to take the ball out of this guy's hands like this is a legit for at least this game number one option that we're kind of scared of and like that's yeah when defense starts treating you like that that's a that's a little badge of honor but as you said
these draft pick debates are rarely settled after a year or two years what is the fron's Wagner John I think Caminga pendulum swing kept all my Caminga stock for years it's finally going to pay off for me but but I think we've already reached a point where I would have a hard time
envisioning any scenario where Charlotte like regrets this pick like looks back at this pick with deep deep regret and that's a good place to start let's move on to scoot scoot was next on my list because scoot Anderson got moved into the starting lineup for the Blazers last night and they were
down 41 to 13 after you blinked to the Minnesota Timberwolves um scoot as had a a strange look it was always going to be for a rookie point guard on a bad team with a bad jump shot the track record suggested this was going to be ugly yeah then he has an ankle injury that sidelines him for the
early part of the season he comes back and it's like well Malcolm Brock is over here sometimes and for any Simon's is over here sometimes like am I the point guard am I an off guard am I starting I'm not starting um it's just and like the whole front line is just constantly half available and
when Grant and Aiton are not available it's like these are I mean deep deep cut NBA guys although I do like job wreath because that dude will shoot and he will shoot a lot of threes another rookie another rookie look he's he's like 43 but still he's he's something I don't know what but he's
something and and scoot is averaging 13 points a game almost five assists 37% shooting 31% on threes which honestly like I'm almost encouraged by 31% on threes what's problematic is 41% on twos 46% at the rim which is like a little disturbing yeah and you because of the context
of the blazers being bad young injury riddled different lineups every single night you just haven't seen a lot of like the oh my god takes to the basket where his athleticism and speed really sing um but his pick and roll numbers are actually not that bad on second spectrum
and he has like some kind of craft and vision to his game that is interesting I do find it a little surprising that teams like including Minnesota last night but more teams I should say don't just like go 10 feet under every screen and dare him like if you go over a screen on him you're doing
him a favor oh absolutely yeah I honest it's it's too early I don't know why what to make of scoot it's been a strange season but there's like eight pick and rolls a game where I'm like oh that didn't look like a 20 year old or whatever with note with no NBA experience like that was
that was interesting and it's not because of the speed and explosive distance it's because he'll stop slow down pinnacle on his hip read the floor make a nice pass or hit a hit you know zigzag throw layup it I'm interested to see how the next 20 games go for him let's put it that way but where
are you on on scoot because it has been just it's been weird yeah I've been encouraged by the last few weeks because his his numbers as of like Christmas were tragic right and uh since since then I think he's really come around he the decision making as a as a point guard in terms of getting
getting the ball to other people he has that uh so he'll he could he could make the passes it's can he be threatening enough as an offensive player to create enough room for those passes and you're you see you know teams are going to go under against him obviously he's try he he likes that
pull up a lot from the mid range it's still not a great shot for him right now and then the other thing you see with him is like he's pretty athletic but he's not like the John Morant John wall level athletic where even though the guy goes under he's still fast enough to beat him to the other side
like he's not quite doing that and I think that's why he relies on that pull up a lot and you see like when he a lot of his finishes at the rim there um they're below the rim there I mean he has some dunks this year but a lot of them are you know contested below the rim and he still he still doesn't
quite have that craft as a finisher of going up against somebody six inches taller than him and figuring out how to get the ball around the guy and in the cup yet a euro step finish around towns last night on the picket roller I was like oh that was that was snazzy I just it I'm just
it's just so early and the context has been so strange uh he's shooting 36% on long twos which is not it's not terrible it's it's actually close to terrible um it's not it's not great but it's not as bad as I would have thought the other thing I'll say with scoot is that like the background on
him coming into the draft about his work ethic and kind of what he's about was all crazy a plus like a plus and so I think you worry less about you still worry about it but about somebody who comes in as a non shooter if you know they're going to put in a ridiculous amount of hours
trying to become a shooter yeah I'm not I'm just curious it's just been in in the fact that he started we'll see it we'll see if that lasts Simon's by the way not a great season went healthy and certainly not the step up in volume and efficiency you were you at least an even in volume
you would hope to have seen given his given you know that he's now the guy on offense in Portland but again weird team but I I haven't loved the Ampherny Simon's play this year yeah and you wonder what that means for Portland just from where they're going with all this
and trade value and whatnot like Simon's to me his best thing on a good team would be as a six man and I just don't know that that's where his head is right now and and that the like the blazers even afford to have as a six man they have to what they're going to start somebody who's like five
times worse just just so he can be in his eventual role when they're theoretically good someday so I it's it's it's just tough there all around and they've had to be fair they've had some injuries that have made things tougher but there's just there's just not enough real NBA players to go
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Speaking of six men and things of that nature there is a jail in green almond Thompson thing going on in Houston right now where almond Thompson has burst out of a bench roll into a starting wall of Fred Bambleet injured in the rockets have kind of fallen way out now of the play and
race without bamboo eat but Thompson has been productive jail in green has been wildly up and down with some horrible games and that it resulted in him getting bench laid in games and I saw some talk on rockets Twitter yesterday about like is a lineup change coming when Fred Bambleet returns
from it I don't know I don't know the answer that I haven't talked to their coaches about it but tell me what you've seen I'm a big a Sartonson fan I was from day one in Detroit he's playing more and playing better now just please god let the jump shot come you could say the same thing
I guess for almond Thompson but tell me what you've seen from him in some recent games yeah I mean just watching him against New York where he had five steals uh and like he just appears out of nowhere and help defense and like just his hands away I think it's almost quite like the way he
was doing it just like just just the jail bronzer is working 101 that also hands in there and it's taking the ball away and to do that at at his size I mean he has such such a high ceiling at the at the defensive end offensively as you say he's still figuring it out he was able to do some
cool stuff as a cutter uh and as an offensive rebounder plays almost as a four or five at the offensive end especially and with shen goon operating a little bit away from the basket and with his ability to see those cuts and and hit him at the right times I think that weaponizes that a little bit
it's going to be interesting again with just the the non shooting piece both brothers are shooting 15% from three which is actually looked up the numbers unbelievable I looked up the numbers for almond Thompson just now and I thought when I saw 15% from three that I had looked up the wrong
Thompson swing no he's six of 38 of threes now he's shooting 59% on twos which is quite encouraging at 86 assists 53 turnovers for rookies pretty encouraging too yeah and I mean at overtime elite I'm in play as a point guard like he can he can he can be that guy except he except everyone's
just playing so far off him that it doesn't open anything else up in the offense it's almost like a like a Ben Simmons type thing if you can remember when Ben Simmons was good like that now that Ben Simmons Philadelphia now he is six seven and fast and to your point about how Morant and John wall
and Russ in his prime could beat that go under everything scheme with just sheer speed speed plus length plus he's shooting 63% at the line which is in great but I don't think he's afraid to get fouled and you know you mentioned the deterioration of Ben Simmons like that's that's what it is Ben
Simmons is afraid to get fouled he did like as soon as he gets the ball over half court he's looking to get off of it and he plays sideline to sideline only he's not going any further into the pain with the boy is six free throws the entire season so I but I I I like
what I've seen for a lot of times he's explosive he plays hard and they envisioned him as a lead playmaker potentially like with the rocket strapped very openly for star potential star star star and I think their view on almond Thompson was if he hits which I think translates to like if the
jumper becomes manageable this guy could be a legit lead ball handler yeah absolutely at at at number I think he was five in this draft I think that was I think that was the the right cause the one guy I had rated ahead of him was Whitmore actually because of injury concerns yeah
well and together you know before band lead got hurt they were coming off the benches like a tandem and it was like that was Joe Colamann that was that was a cry I want to see I want to see them get back to that because that that was such a ride it was like a wrestling tag team coming
in together and just messing things up it was great um let's talk about a couple rookies rapid fire that I don't we haven't talked much about you know we've all talked about hawk is and lively and all these guys um Brady Dick is starting to show some signs of life in Toronto after a first
40 games where it's like is he on the team is is this is this is this going to be like a Johnny Davis situation where it's like wait where did he go um he's got some confidence to him he moves without the ball really well he's got a quick release and he's shooting him he's getting him up he tries on
defense like he he's he's a pretty heavy defensive player he's going to get picked on a lot um and and that will ultimately be the sort of sink or swim thing for him but after being invisible for 40 games he's now a big part of their team and he's like playing pretty well and you when he's on
the floor you feel like oh my god they've been starving for a shooter like this this is why they picked him yeah um how how optimistic are you about his long-term trajectory I'm relatively optimistic on him I mean I had a lottery grade on him coming in because of the the shooting
piece and then at his size I think it mitigates a little bit some of the defensive questions and he wasn't he wasn't like a tragic defensive player at Kansas said he was he was he was he was okay and I think he has the ability to be okay enough at the defensive end that you leave him on the
floor for his shooting and you don't worry about it the thing I saw from him in summer league that I didn't really see from him at Kansas was the ability to shoot a little bit more his jumper off different platforms because his like just standing still catching shoot right it is butter and but
it's the motions a little bit hard to get into I think coming coming off a dribble or catching on the move and that's where I think he's improved a lot is being able to get into that quickly when he when he's when he's taken a bounce or when he's not completely set
and so I'm excited to see more of that and he's definitely made a lot of progress as the year goes on I mean you mentioned he wasn't playing he was playing in the G league and he sucked okay so like he's he's come up a long way from where he was in November that's interesting I didn't I didn't
look up his g league numbers I knew he had spent a considerable amount of time with the 905 are they still called the 905 the Raptors 905 yes mississauga's own 905 I love the T dot I haven't been there in a while I miss it but I he looks confident right now and like in he looks almost
like sometimes cocky as a shooter which I which I like like he's like no I'm a long here I'm going to make some shots what do you think of Kula Bali in Washington so he does one or two quote unquote interesting things every game where you go whoa like he's he right now he is not a good player so
but on the other hand you see the pathway pretty easily right because he the mistakes he's making are the types of kind of young player mistakes that are pretty easy to edit out he'll shoot the ball better than he has this year but the shot is not broken
uh so you don't you look fun he's actually 36% from from three as as I look at it I I'm pretty bullish on him long term and from where he was coming from I mean he was playing in the not even in the main French League the Espoir's League which is like the you know almost like a U19
League um it in France up until the middle of the last season and then he was Webman Yamas teammate and they kind of brought him up to the varsity and he almost immediately made an impact there again with just crazy energy athleticism and sort of just enough shot making around it
and I think that's the formula for him again in Washington where you're probably going to see it from him on the defensive end before you see it from him on the offensive end but I I'm still bullish on him being something and we'll see exactly what that what that something is but
I think by next year he could be like right now he's playing in the rotation because he you know the it's the wizards and their quote unquote tanking or whatever and they kind of have to I think I think you can remove the quote marks on that one yeah yeah but but I think
I yeah you know I want to do the old you know every team's like oh come on we're out here to compete and we're at you know whatever um but I think by next year at this time we're talking I'd be surprised if he wasn't like legitimately belonging in the rotation
I like him I totally agree defensively he's ready now to guard almost every position on the floor and they throw him and they do tough yeah tough assignments and he holds his own he's got long arms he's tough he has a good nose for the ball um you know he offensively like you said
the jumper it's it's gonna be one of those things where like the jumper looks fine it's going into the decent rate and teams are just letting him shoot still some teams you can put their centers on him as you see more and more teams do this with alleged non-shooting wings and yeah maybe they
have to figure out a way around that strategy but I I'm I think I love him as a role player going forward and by the way we should just mention he's not a rookie something's going on with Denny Abdia who has just exploded in the last four games I was going to mention him and I didn't know if
that was like too niche for an national podcast this is not niche uh it's Denny Abdia is averaging 27 a game in his last four games on 40 of 65 from the floor like what that's like Shaq which shoot 40 of 65 and Shaq didn't take threes and look the wizards are mostly losing he he gets to
do whatever he wants which is but he's always been a smart secondary playmaker a tough defender who takes pride in his defense a decent to very good passer but mostly as a secondary ball handler what's been missing are two things that have come into form for him in the last two weeks month
it's actually been longer than he's that he's shown some of this he has gone through phases of his career where he's been unwilling to shoot enough threes where he loses confidence and you can you see him hatch and not shoot his way out of freeze yeah he's letting it fly now and the second
thing is when he gets a smaller defender on him and this is most visible in transition he has reached a point of confidence and physicality where he's like I'm just plowing through this dude and getting to the rim and that's the kind of thing where you see develop over time you're like
all right he's figured something out about how and when to do this I've always loved his feel for the game his unselfishness in his defense if if this is like semi-real this dude is like a plus starter in the NBA at multiple positions yes and so the thing you look at and say okay maybe
that's a fluke maybe he's not really a 40% three-point shooter okay and that's fine but he's shooting 57% on twos to your point I mean he just he gets guys in the lane and just overpowers him time time after time and even in you know Atlanta had this game against Washington at home where they got
blown out by the wizards and one of the things the coaches were talking about was we like we just couldn't handle Danny of the like once you got in the lane got a shoulder on us we were just we were just helpless and and you want to say but like come on you can't lose to the wizards but
but it that that point was actually true I mean we seem to do a time and time again to all these opponents now over especially as you say over the last month or two all right let's get to the headliner and then we'll get you out of here rookie of the year can't remember a rookie of the
early quite like this between two guys whose teams are going to be separated by this much in the standings and a victor win by nyama wins it will I'm willing to bet it would be the biggest win gap between number one and number two the biggest negative win gap between number one and number
two and rookie the year voting maybe ever because the spurs have a very bad record um but victor women yama has has all the advantages in the counting stats I think he's a slight level above well I shouldn't say both are pretty goddamn good defensively and his shooting
efficiency is ticking up now that he plays center um and obviously the 10 block game the 10 block triple double against the raptors was just like a big flash bulb like headliner moment for him who would you I was I was chat chat chat all for the first 30 games pretty solidly because
you know look I understand chess playing with maybe the favorite for MVP right now and a whole bunch of other good good to great players jalen Williams is a freaking star right now he's a star and he looks like he's gonna be a superstar um and boy what a wonder wonderful context to play
like case and walless comes in he's really good like they just are loaded with talent victors playing on a kind of a mishmash team it's it's it's beyond apples to oranges I think victor has closed the efficiency gap and done enough defensively in terms of his versatility that I think right now
it actually lean when banyama despite the fact that I I do value like do your games actually matter or not like are there stakes to your games because there are games with stakes that feel different then games with no stakes and there are stakes every night for the thunder who competing for
the number one seed in the championship let's face it but man when b is when b is doing some stuff who would you vote for right now if you had a vote so I was I was favoring chat up until about January and now I think like when you look back to the 2024 season like it's about when
be right like I'm sorry it is and like that that's that's the guy from this year uh and I think what's impressive with when banyama is that he's put up these numbers in spite of the fact that the spur spent half the season playing lineups that were seemingly designed to sabotage his output
right like in terms of playing so hand at at point guard like hey we're gonna let Zach Collins cook from the high post while you're on the court with him and you know we're not gonna have any spacing around you at all and and he still was able to kind of function in that and even though he
was a pretty low efficiency of player in that environment and that we've seen him take off as the as the Spurs have gotten more realistic about what actually works and played him at the five and played trade Jones at point guard and gotten so how and off the ball and we've seen him just erupt
since then and then subjectively I think there is a level of terrifying around the rim that we see with when banyama that we don't see uh with chat even though chat gets some of these shoplet you see guys like go into his body and finish you to like you don't see that with when banyama now guys have
been going at when banyama recently and taking I think some pride in doing it Zion went at him in room one Adam I can't remember who I was watching him play recently was like these guys were making a point to go at him and some people body him and finish over him but I agreed the terror
factor is just different with his length and and chat is chat is probably a sort of more stable all-m reliable rim protector in a traditional sense but when banyama is just everywhere all at once offensively like he's everything 21 points a game on 47% shooting 32% from three
which is obviously Chets at 54% overall 39% from three but he's I think when he's a better passer than Chet now and actually that's been one of the one of the happy sort of semi surprises of how quickly he's become a really good passer sometimes is like is he the best passer on the floor
for the spurs yeah some of the some of those looks he makes you right and the processing that had to happen for those looks it's like whoa like whatever what what was that run that by me he's throwing passes from the post when he has his back to the basket from from out of the pick and roll
when help is coming he's throwing passes that are ahead of the rotations that suggests that he has the floor mapped in his head and knows who's going to be where and when and he throws ahead of the rotations and now the spurs is with trade zones and Blake Leslie's been playing pretty well
for them they have more competent passing around him and more guys who have realized like all we got to do is throw the ball up to this dude like and he's going to get there was a play how were they playing recently that was Dallas they got smoked by Dallas who looks pretty good
where I don't remember who had the ball there was just like a scrum of guys around the rim after a pick and roll with one banana and and someone threw the lob to him late and it was not a great lob and there was like seven guys around the back I'm exaggerating but there's a lot of guys around
the basket and all of a sudden and the lob was so weirdly timed that defenders and offense players had jumped and were coming down on their jumps and you're like who's going to catch the slab and all of a sudden just like an arm emerged and just tipped the ball in the back it wasn't it just
tipped it right in the basket there was another one where Blake was it was a Blake Wesley when Banyama pick and roll where Wesley Steve nashed it like he went under the basket and around the other side and the maps were kind of like in between switching and recovering between
Wesley's guy and when Banyama's guy and Wesley without a second thought was like I'll just throw what it happens if I just throw the ball at the rim and when Banyama caught it and dunked it was like oh they're starting to figure things out underrated thing about him 81% at the line
like that as we've seen with MBEed like a big man who's a big man who's going to get fouled a lot and shoot free throws like that that's a big deal yep and he does draw a lot of fouls and draws a fair number of this happened a lot in France we've seen it some in San Antonio too he draws
a lot of landing zone fouls like a guy's just like they try to get you know to contest his shot at all you you have to be so on top of him that you're going to end up fouling him on the contest sometimes and and he gets fouled in other ways obviously just because he creates so many advantages
the and the thing that stands out is like it's not just chucking to put up numbers anymore like 60% true shooting since the beginning of January onto a still massive usage rate I think it's over 35 and in that span so and the per game averages almost don't do it justice because they've actually
cut back on his minutes a little bit he has to problem solve a lot too like you see teams will throw their centers on sohan and dare him to shoot and put kind of quick power forwards on women yama like the mad said this with PJ Washington and say to him well we're going to put a speed
an equal in terms of speed on you so you're not going to be able to go around guys like you can go around centers yeah let's see if you can score with your back to the basket let's see if you can shoot over this guy and more and more he looks comfortable kind of working his way to like a jump
hook in the post or he is face up game is so creative that he can beat some of those guys off the dribble honestly like to me he looks everybody watches these games and you're just like holy holy what is this like you know to me the the biggest what is this moment where it just jumps out how
gigantic he is is just when he's bringing the ball up the floor because you're like that the guy dribbling is that tall and like the ball has to go that far up and yeah it's and it's moving right because you'll bring it up and then like he'll go back that between his legs and
you're like wait wait sorry run that back now none of this is to say that I have like decided who I would vote for or that a vote for chat is crazy because if you value winning and the guys efficiency is off the charts his defense is off the charts for a rookie he's been outstanding like
I have no his his off the dribble game I actually think when Benyama at the start of the season I thought sets off the dribble pump and go game was a little tighter than when but Yamas when but Yamas handle was a little high risk I think when the as close that gap in terms of dribble
reliability but set is super advanced in that regard by the way I like the beyondbo signing for them I think I think that like everyone wanted them to get a big a big rebounder guy and they didn't do it via trade I actually think that's a nice flyer for the thunder they definitely needed
another big I think they're their second unit was really starting to show cracks especially in the front court and if anything happens to chat I think they're in a pretty dire situation there so I do think the front court needed addressing probably needs more addressing after the season but
yeah at a bare minimum like the oboe gave the Grizzlies good minutes when he was there he's not going to catch anything but that's like they don't really need him to do that they kind of need functional defense somebody anybody who can get a rebound you know there is a positive so I
I agree with you I think that was a really good like in terms of the scrap heap options that were available that was definitely the guy for them to get I do think and I've said this before that all the clamoring for they got to get a big a traditional big to play a decent amount
alongside home grid like you know people mentioned Capella as sort of an archetype potentially available guy they could get I think I think a lot of those people suggesting that and it's not a bad suggestion by any means I do think they underestimate how big of a deal it is for Shay
especially that they play with this five out spacing yeah all the time like the whole reason everyone's like in love with Dagnolts guard guard picking rules like how did he figure this out what a hack to have like Shay Isaiah Joe picking rules or whoever any combination of any of them
they all work because there's nobody in the lane because Chet Hongren is a shooting five I think that would have been a very difficult adjustment two thirds of the way through the season so I like how they kind of went half in both directions by getting a player in Hayward who if if and when he's
healthy fits exactly what they need on the perimeter and can close some games for them and say okay who's available like we're facing a team where we just need someone to hit people and get rebounds without overexpending assets oh beyond but let's get him I kind of like how they split the baby
that way yeah I think longer term the bigger need for them is somebody in that like 6869 size area you know like the Morris twins from five years ago like somebody who can who is big enough to maybe cross match with Chet and take a five but plays plays not as a five if you get my
drift and so they keep they keep that five out but be a little bigger a little more solid on the boards and Brandon Miller to be clear is third is he just no he's no brainer third on rookie of the year ballots at this point right now it was Hawkeyes for a while and then I think
Hawkeyes is injury and this time I think Miller has been injured and he's fallen off a little so yeah I would I would say Miller is number three right now all right John Hollinger every week you have a huge column at the athletic one of the features of it is rookie of the week and it's one
of my favorites because you'll dive deep into someone who really like no one is dove that deep into and it's always illuminating got prospect of the week in there and anytime there's big news you're gonna write on it you are on the Hollinger Dunkin Dunkin podcast with our buddy Nate Dunkin every
Friday I feel like that comes out Fridays my it's very variable you we usually record on Wednesday so usually pops in Wednesday night or Thursday morning okay my podcast cadence is all I just see them when I see them I see them when I get my lazy fat ass onto the Peloton I'm like all right what am I gonna listen to today but just I always say the best to ever do it I enjoy all star break thank you hopefully I run into you at a game soon John Hollinger everybody thanks for your time