39 Burst results for "Giannis"
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from The Clippers Are Dumb, Plus the NFL Trade Deadline, Sleeper Teams, and 'The Godfather' With Michael Lombardi
"Coming up, the Clippers trade for Harden. Lots of football talk and some Italian movies. Oh yeah, next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the best time of the year with football in full swing and basketball returning soon. FanDuel, the best place to bet on the action. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. And when you win, you get paid instantly. Get exclusive offers every day. Jump into the action at any time during the game with quick bets and take home a fast W. Plus, check out the Explore page for the simplest way to start betting. Download the app today. Bet with America's number one sportsbook. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Visit TheRinger .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit TheRinger .com slash RG. We are supported by McDonald's. This month, McDonald's is upping its game by introducing two beloved sauces to its lineup. Mambo sauce and sweet and spicy jam. Hmm, why do I love these? Well, they both pack a spicy punch. They let you switch up the flavors in your usual order. I like having more choices. You know what, if you're gonna give me eight choices, why not give me 10? The sweet and spicy jam sounds delicious. These two sauces are only available for a limited time at participating McDonald's, so make sure to try them. While you can, tap the banner to learn more. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did the Omen. We did the OG Omen. We did the 1976 one. One of the creepiest movies ever made with some of the scariest scenes that have ever been in any of these movies. Me and Chris Ryan broke all of it down for you. What else happened in The Ringer universe? Oh, The Ringerverse crew. Everybody got together for the first time and they did a live show in LA on Monday night and even dressed up for Halloween, a couple of them. It was great, great to see everybody all together. Check out the, all of our basketball stuff on Ringer NBA, Mismatch, Brazilos Pod, Ringer Gambling. Austin Rivers has his new podcast, Off Guard. And then obviously our football stuff, all our culture stuff as well. And we're gonna have a big announcement on this podcast on Thursday about an upcoming show you might not be expecting. Coming up in this pod, I'm gonna talk about the Clippers trading for James Harden at the top and why I thought it was a huge mistake. And then our old friend Mike Lombardi, we're gonna talk about the trade deadline in the NFL as well as what team that seemingly looks like their season's almost over might actually jump in the second half of the year. And then last but not least, we're gonna talk Italian movies and Italian TV shows because why not? This is a fun podcast. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. ["PURL JAM"] All right, I'm taping this on Tuesday before the Clippers game on Tuesday night. The Clippers traded for James Harden late night. They tried to do this as late as possible at night when the most possible people were asleep because they were embarrassed by this trade. And they should be because they're the Clippers. They haven't made the finals ever in the history of the franchise, dating back to Buffalo in 1970, talking five and a half decades of bad luck, terrible injuries, mismanagement. We had the Donald Sterling piece of it. We had load management. And in the last couple of years, they've had some of the worst playoff losses of the 21st century. And now they're trading for a guy who's quit on his last three teams. So they decided, you know what, we'll do this in the middle of the night on the East Coast at least. So we'll take the least amount of slack. They were bidding against nobody. There's 30 teams in the league. One of them had James Harden. 28 other teams were like, we're good. And the Clippers said, you know what, we need this guy. We'll still be not nearly as good as Denver, but if we do this, maybe we could lose in either round two or round three, maybe? I just feel like they don't have any draft picks left for the rest of the decade. So they basically traded three picks for James Harden. The worst one was a 2028 unprotected first. Why do this now? Why do this for a team with no other offers? Why bid against yourself? And why not just wait? If you know you're trading basically two and a half picks plus all these expirings they had, why not wait? The league, I don't know if you've watched it the first week, the league is more talented and more loaded than it's ever been, probably in 30 years. And there's a really, really, really good chance that a couple teams that thought they were gonna be good are not gonna be good. Like for instance, Memphis is 0 -4. Or is Memphis gonna go 25 and 57? Probably not. But there's gonna be a couple teams that are just way worse than they expected. And guess what happens after Thanksgiving and in December and in January? Those teams panic. Guys become available. Like what if Toronto is bad? What if they're like, you know what, Pascal Siakam, this just isn't working for us. What if Chicago, who's already had two team meetings, I think, in three games, what if they decide to put Zach Levine on the table? Like you just don't know. What you do know now is that there was only one team bidding for James Harden and the Clippers ended up with him anyway. The other thing, if you're giving up this much for one guy, I better know that I have a chance to actually win the title. And I just don't feel like they do. I went to the game Sunday night. Kawhi, he looks fine. He looks fine. Does he look like the Kawhi from the mid -2010s? No. Does he look like the guy from 2019 Toronto? He does not. He looks like an older playing himself back in the shape version of Kawhi. And if that's your best player, that's just not gonna be enough this year. The Celtics are too good. Denver is too good. Milwaukee has Giannis and Dame. Phoenix has a ton of scoring. Golden State's gonna be really good. They're still not in the mix. So that was my first issue. The second one, who are you getting? Who are you getting in this trade? Where you're getting I .S. Quinn on three teams. You're getting the most disappointing playoff star this century, literally this century. And there's no other person you can put in there. There's nobody who has even half of the qualifications from a playoff disappointment standpoint that this guy does. Zach Lowe came on the Book of Basketball podcast, I think in 2019, we did a James Harden podcast. And in that podcast, which was four years ago, called him the Karl Malone of guards. And I was immediately the most jealous I've ever been of a comparison. Since then, he had the 2020 bubble flame out. Then they had in 2022, the Miami series, which he sucked in. And then in 2023, the Celtic series, this guy, it's an all time resume. And the Clippers who are just playoff futility through and through for the entire franchise history were like, that's the guy. That's the guy that can take the lovable loser Clippers over the top, James Harden. He slows you down. He needs the ball all the time. The Clippers now have Paul George, who succeeds the most when he has the ball. Koulai Leonard, who has perennially succeeded the most when he has the ball. Russell Westbrook, who loves to either have the ball or crash the boards. And now Harden, who needs the ball. See four guys who need the ball. Then Norm Powell comes in, he needs the ball. Bones Holland comes in, he needs the ball. Are we playing with three balls now? No, we're gonna still play with one. James Harden can't guard anybody. That seems relevant. He hasn't played defense in four years.
Evening News with Art Sanders
Fresh update on "giannis" discussed on Evening News with Art Sanders
"Executives said it was a one -time mistake made with an AI company they had already broken off their relationship with. The report from Futurism .com also found that the magazine had repeatedly published articles whose authors could not be found online or outside the Sports Illustrated website and it alleged even profile the photos were generated by AI. Several stories and writers profiles have disappeared from the Sports Illustrated site. For more tech news, visit allthetoptech .tech. I'm Chuck Palm. Nine till now on America in the Morning, Robert Workman has a check of midweek sports. The NBA wrapped group up the stage of its first in -season tournament last night. The Bucks got 33 points from Giannis Adetokounmpo and 32 from Damian Lillard to turn down the Heat and finish group play unbeaten in the East. Knicks nailed the Hornets to secure the East wildcard. Their quarterfinal game will be at Milwaukee. Celtics blasted the Bulls to advance to the quarters. They'll be at the Pacers. Jaylen Brown 30. had I mean, to be honest, it was a little weird, but the ultimate goal is to come out and get a win tonight. And that's what we did. Boston wins a tiebreaker over Orlando and Brooklyn. The Nets ripped the Raptors but also missed a wildcard on point differential. Out West, the idle Lakers had already clinched the top seed. They'll host the wildcard Suns. The Pelicans their won division when Dallas down Houston Luca Doncic had 41 in the Mavericks victory. So the last spot came down to the Group C winner where the Kings rallied from down 24 to trip the Warriors and finish 4 -0 in group play. Malik Monk a hit three ball and a bank shot in the final 40 seconds to pull it out. Sacramento will host New Orleans. Also last night the Timberwolves and Cavaliers won. The next to last college football playoff poll is out. Georgia remains on top. Fellow unbeatens Michigan, Washington and Florida State each move up a notch after the Wolverines knocked off former number two Ohio State. The Buckeyes fall to sixth behind Oregon but still ahead of Texas and Alabama. All four of them with one loss. Ten conference championship games coming up The this weekend. final poll comes out on Sunday. College basketball wins for number one Purdue, number three Marquette and number five Kansas. ACC But the SEC Challenge saw three upsets including eighth ranked Miami falling at number 12 Kentucky. That's Wednesday Sports. There's Robert Workman with your check of sports. It's 7 till when we return on America in the Morning. Hey waiter what's this doing in my bowl? After these messages. I want a little sugar in my
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from A 72-Hour NBA Binge With Rob Mahoney, Searching for an NFL Alpha Dog With Peter Schrager, Plus Million-Dollar Picks
"Coming up, basketball, football, million dollar picks. Oh yeah, it's Thursday. Next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the best time of the year with football in full swing and basketball returning soon. FanDuel, the best place to bet on the action. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. And when you win, you get paid instantly. Get exclusive offers every day. Jump into the action at any time during the game with quick bets and take home a fast W. Plus check out the explore page for the simplest way to start betting. Download the app today. Bet with America's number one sports book. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Visit theringer .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit theringer .com slash RG. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Listen, you work hard. You probably have a job at a house that you have to keep clean and maybe kids and parents you're taking care of. You go to the gym, you play pickup. You still have to mow the lawn. You deserve some time to crack a Michelob Ultra, sit on the couch, and watch some hoops. Hoops is coming back, end of October. You know, come back, long day. Maybe get a little exercise in. Walk around the block a few times. Maybe go to the gym, come back, watch some hoops. Maybe just pop open a nice, nice ice cold Michelob Ultra. Because what tastes better than a beer? Around 9 .30, 10 o 'clock, right when you're starting to get a little sleepy. It's only worth it if you enjoy it. To find out where to order Ultra near you, tap the banner or visit MichelobUltra .com and click Find Product, LDA 21 and up. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. Did In the Line of Fire. Have a horror movie coming on Monday for rewatchables. So stay tuned for that. Coming up, we're gonna have Rob Mahoney talking after the two Thursday night TNT NBA games. We're gonna react to basically everything we've seen for the last three days. Just things that have jumped out to us. And then Peter Schrager is gonna come on and talk about the NFL. Do we have a best team? What are we noticing through seven weeks? What can we expect in week eight that will lead to million dollar picks? And that is today's podcast. Let's bring in our friends from Pearl Jam. Here we go. All right, we're taping this. It's almost 10 o 'clock on Thursday night, Pacific time. Rob Mahoney is here from The Ringer NBA and showing TheRinger .com. We stayed up late because these were two good games. We've had three straight days of very entertaining basketball and we gotta start with the biggest story. Kelly Oubre in the Sixers. What a signing that was, he looks great. No, we just watched LeBron versus the Suns. LeBron's 29 minute limit I think is out the window. He played the whole fourth quarter. And then made the two big head down just going to the basket plays at the end. But biggest thing that's jumped out to you in the last three days is what? Lakers wise or just in general? In general. I think a lot of these teams that we expect to be really good clearly have some assembly required. And the Lakers are one of those teams. I think we saw that from the Bucks and the Sixers tonight too. We're seeing it certainly with the first days of the Victor Webinama experience. Everyone is getting up to speed into their rhythms, trying to understand how all these new pieces fit together. Not revelatory for the opening days of the season to feel that way, but I think even some of the stuff that personally I thought was going to be seamless, like the Giannis, Dame pick and roll, there's some kinks in it that they're going to have to figure out over time. Lakers I thought were the one that surprised me on that one because I thought they were one of the teams that were going to have the advantage coming in. You think about last year's team compared to this year's team. It doesn't seem like Reeves is involved enough either game that, I don't want to say he's an afterthought, but it just felt like he was more in the mix in the playoffs last year. And I liked what Schroeder did for them last year and he was good on Toronto last night and really fit in with what they did. So they're going to have to figure out that Vincent D 'Lo thing. Wood was playing crunch time, which I was really surprised. Did you think we'd be getting this much Christian Wood? I thought that was like a flyer for them. Guarding Kevin Durant on some possessions, wild stuff. But if nothing else, we can trust that when Christian Wood is out there, he will be Christian Wood. In these uncertain times, we can always fall back on that. He certainly had his fair share of like black hole kind of possessions in this game, but he also does play into the Lakers advantages in terms of their length, right? Their size against a team like Phoenix, they're just going to be able to out muscle, get to rebounds, get to balls that they can't get to. So that part of it paid off, I thought in terms of just like having another big out there and certainly the Anthony Davis experiment continues as far as like, do you want more size with him? Do you want to play small with him? There's always that internal question because he seems a little reluctant to do it on a full -time basis, but I'm sure Christian Wood's going to get his shots. I mean, clearly Jackson Hayes is going to get some shots in the rotation to be a meaningful part of the Lakers, the mix there for the Lakers. So I don't know. I think Darvin Ham has a lot of questions to figure out, including the one you listed with Austin Reeves, which is like, who has the ball? Who's initiating for us? Who is involved on a possession to possession basis? Because this game, this was a lot of D 'Angelo Russell, and it was a lot of a better version of D 'Angelo Russell than maybe we saw the other night, but it still feels like a lot. 33 minutes for him tonight. Yeah, Reeves, seven shots, one assist. And I thought all of his usage stuff was going to go up, but it seems like it drifted Russell's way. The other thing I was surprised, I thought Rui was going to be a bigger part of this team. I only played 12 minutes, but I haven't changed my thought on them. They're just such a big, problematic team. And if you're the Suns and you're feeling good after that Warriors game, right? And the Warriors, no Draymond, they were able to overpower them a little on the boards. The two centers had 22. And then tonight you see the flip side of the use of Nurkic experience, where it's like, you're getting zero room protection and you're getting somebody who's just going to be confused anytime somebody is coming off a pick. Basically Lebron at the end of the game just said, I'm going to go attack that guy. Yeah, I'm going to go attack that guy right there. Durant was better tonight, at least for the first three quarters that he looked on Tuesday night. It was really cool just seeing those guys on a basketball court after all these years. As I get older, I'm older than you, but just think like, man, this goes way back now. We're talking mid 2000s was the first time these two guys played basketball against each other and it's still going on. So that was in a cool way kind of lingering over this game. I was enjoying that one. How do you think Durant looks in terms of being a 35 year old guy who they gave up three first rounders and two swaps and Mikhail Bridges and Cam Johnson for? It feels like a slightly loaded question. Yeah. He's looked good. And certainly as you said, the first three quarters of this game looked more than good enough. I think the problem was just like this version of the Suns like felt very James Harden is hurt and Kyrie Irving won't get the shot. Nets, you know, just like Kevin Durant and a bunch of like - I blocked that net out of my mind. I think a lot of us have tried to, but you know, him with a lot of like serviceable workaday role players can get you so far. But as you saw on this one, against a really good defensive team like the Lakers in the fourth quarter, they can just shut the water off. And this is where, you know, I'm nervous about the Suns for a variety of reasons. I think if it was just the defense or just the depth or just the injury risk of their core guys, I would feel better. But it's all of the above all the time. And that's going to put Durant in some games like this one. It's going to put Yusef Nurkic in positions like this one where all of a sudden he's triggering your offense because you don't really have a default point guard out there. And sometimes the value of having a point guard in your rotation, I don't think it's really going to matter when Beal and Booker and Durant are playing together. Those guys can all handle and play make and do everything they need to do. But in a game like this, where two of those guys are out, sometimes it helps to just be able to run some offense that doesn't have to involve Kevin Durant pounding the rock through pick and roll. Yeah, 28 shots for him today. 13 including, and then 13 free throws. He played 39 minutes and was also playing the five in stretches. And this is game two. They had to basically try to unlock 2007 Texas Longhorns Durant. That's the last guy I want to be throwing miles on, maybe in the entire league other than LeBron. Cause he's, you know. That's going to be true for Booker and Beal too, right? Like when any of these guys are out, those three, whoever's left is going to have to play huge minutes or else you get into Grayson Allen and Drew Eubanks are playing like a massive role in your rotation. And I like those guys. I like Drew Eubanks. Maybe not like tamper and lose a second round pick like Drew Eubanks, like some teams do, but. I'd lose 50K for him. Maybe not a second round pick. It's a little steep. Yeah. The other game, Milwaukee Philly. So no Harden. I wish there was a way to just mute the entire Harden story of all coverage for it. Anything online, anything on Twitter, all conversations. I just don't want to hear it anymore. And I don't think he has any interest in playing. And I just think, just tell us when he gets traded. Their best chance now, now that the, especially the Clippers last night looked great.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Fresh update on "giannis" discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Embiid's the other great big. And Embiid doesn't even have to play four quarters. He exits after three quarters. He gets a triple double. So this guy's supposed to be like, I picked him to be the defense player here at the beginning of the season. Anthony Davis, yet he allows Jokic, he allows Embiid both to record triple doubles and severely outplay him. It's massively disappointing. And the other way you look at it is like LeBron like basically handpicked him to be his guy, right? Can you imagine if he handpicked Embiid, if he handpicked Jokic to be his guy? He'd have multiple championships out there in Los Angeles. And that should tell you the difference between like Jokic and Anthony Davis and Embiid and Anthony Davis and Giannis and Anthony Davis. A couple of years ago, I think Rich Paul said, well, if Anthony Davis played on the 2019 Bucks, they would have won the NBA championship. Anthony Davis not capable of being the best player on the team. The guy gets to be the sidekick of arguably the greatest player of all time. And he's still like frustrates you immensely. Imagine if he had to be the guy or imagine he was the sidekick to like somebody that wasn't LeBron, it would be even worse. So, yeah, I think that ship is kind of so what do you think? I think it's sailed. Yeah, it sailed for me a while ago. And there's always a lot of a lot of hype that comes with this is going to be the year or this is his moment. It just feels like we're doing this year after year after year. The durability thing, he hasn't really gotten hurt this year. I remember the pivotal in the finals. It seemed like he was having his moment against my against Miami in the bubble, and he had that huge game. I can't remember it was game three or game four. And there was a couple of days off or a day off or whatever it was. And it was all the Anthony Davis stuff. And I remember doing it on my podcast. I was like, it's happened. He's here. This is it. This is our next great big guy. He's having his moment. He's putting his he's putting his stamp down. And this is where we are headed going forward. It's the Anthony Davis era. And then the next game, he sucked. Do you remember that? I think it was game five. Yeah. And it was like we just spent two days being like, this is it. This is happening. And then he just kind of no showed the next game. They ended up winning anyway. I think the game after. But I remember thinking, that's not a good sign. You know, where is it? Like compared to Giannis heading into game six of the twenty one finals. It's like, oh, Giannis, can you can can you do it? Can you get in place the greatest game of his life? It just feels like every time there's been a chance for Davis to have that moment, right, to have his Oscar movie, to have his great season, something's always gotten in the way. And at some point, you are who you are. It's going to be 31 later in the season. And I just I don't know if he has the competitive intensity that the great, great, great guys have. I even think Embiid has it way more than Davis does. Like once that hard and trade got settled, Embiid is the most locked in. He's more locked in than he was last season. I love the way he's playing, you know. Yeah, this is the best he's looked right entire career, like he's playing, like he's playing like Jokic, like the style. Right. Yeah. You see, like he had what? Eleven assists through three quarters yesterday. He's averaging over six a game. Like I think it's a combination of, hey, I don't have to play with Ben Simmons who needed the ball. We need to play with James Harden. We're now running the no more soap operas, no more moodiness. Exactly. And a little bit of the Nick Nurse system as well. Like so all that coming into play at the same time and like Maxie emerging. It's led to him being the best of his career. But like on the Anthony Davis thing, you have to be consistent. And I wouldn't like get on his case if he didn't have the talent and we wouldn't get on his case if they weren't hyping him up. Like LeBron earlier this year, Bill said, well, he's one of the great Laker bigs. Well, if you're one of the great Laker bigs. Exactly. No, he's not, because if you are, that means you're in Shaq's category, you're in Wilt's category, you're in Kareem's, you're in Mikan's. And he clearly doesn't belong in that conversation. And then like you got Darvin Hamil after a game, I think he calls him Wilt Davis every now and again. So like you're the reason we're getting on his case, because you're comparing him to Wilt, you're comparing the Mike and you're comparing them to, you know, Shaq. And if you're going to compare him to those guys and you're there, then I from the outside, you from the outside can go like, well, you're not living up to what everybody is saying you are. And I don't want to play center. Even the stuff he was saying this year about, well, we got Christian Wood. Now I don't have to spend as much time getting switched on the guards. And it's like, hey, but nobody else complains like this about being a seven foot guy in a league that's like that's the biggest advantage if you're athletic that possibly anybody has. But yeah, it's it's frustrating because I thought the Lakers are going to be really good and I'm not ready to write them off by any means. I still think they're going to get there. They'll figure it out. You know, they're going to make a big trade. They have a lot of different pieces. They can you know, they have a couple of rookies that I think people like. They still have a pick. They have some contracts they can put together. Whether it's a Zach LaVine type of trade. I think that would be a major mistake, like just to go get somebody else who has we have no idea if the guy can come through in a playoff series. But there's like, could they be the Caruso team? It's going to be them or Philly. I would say it would be probably the two biggest candidates who have stuff to trade. I think the ship has sailed for me to answer my own question. Oh, my next sports writer argument. Would you trade for Zach LaVine? Well, I hope the Lakers do. As somebody that's not rooting for a LeBron. Somebody who's not like. Yeah, exactly. Same thing with like Philadelphia. If you're rooting against Philadelphia, I want them to trade for him because like think about Philadelphia, the way the ball is moving, the offensive hierarchy where, you know, Embiid your number one guy. That is clear. You know that Tyrese Maxie is your number two guy. That is clear. You know, Tobias Harris is your number three guy. That is clear. And it kind of all, you know, trickles down from there. You bring in Zach LaVine. Do you think Zach LaVine is going to think that? No, he's not going to think he's Embiid. But do you think Zach LaVine is going to say, I need to take a backseat to Tyrese Maxie? I don't think like he would necessarily. They're not going to do that. I don't see them doing it. Exactly. So I don't see them doing that. And I don't think that they should do that. And by the way, what is the Zach LaVine team? I was going through all the rosters. Yeah, well, what do you think about Orlando, for example, where they're going to do it? Orlando's Orlando's made their bones on defense. And we haven't seen that guy play defense to me. It's a team. It's like a Charlotte, right? Where they have the Hayward expiring. And maybe you wouldn't have to give up that much. Maybe it's like a Bradley Beal type trade where the other team just wants to get out of the contract and you can kind of throw them with LaMelo and see what it looks like. But you go through all the rosters and it's, you know, could Utah be a potential team? I don't know where that gets them. You know, it's just so funny when like Zach LaVine trade, where is it going to be? And I always anytime I hear somebody say that, I'm like, have you gone through all the rosters? Because somebody's got to have the 40 million or so to give back. They have to have the pick. It's got to make sense for them. It's got to be a team that's willing to take a chance on a guy who's never been in a winning situation ever, who doesn't seem like he wants to play defense, who seems so unhappy tonight. That Bulls team was the most unhappy. I had a couple of friends in that game. They were like, oh, my God, this Bulls team was like miserable. So you're trading for somebody who's in a miserable situation. Why? You're the best player on the team. Why is your team miserable? I would. That's a stay away from me. No, I agree. Like DeRozan, LaVine and Caruso, he's the guy that's going to be the hardest to move. You'll get the least probably four because of the contract, because of the knees, because of the defense. And, you know, he's got that that tunnel vision, right? Where he doesn't make anybody better. We're talking about Jokic is the best player in the sport. Why? Well, not only because he can get his own, he makes everybody better. Why is Curry, you know, one of the great players of all time? Not only because he can get his own, he makes everybody better. You know, Zach LaVine doesn't make anybody better. Now, in fairness, like if he was in Miami, if he was in, you know, Boston, if he was in Golden State, would he have been developed differently? Would he play differently? Would he be viewed differently? Yeah, probably to some extent he probably could win there. But, you know, he doesn't make anybody better. That to me is not a winning player, especially at that money. Plus the no defense. So I wouldn't take a shot on Zach LaVine, no. Heat culture? They're being interested in testing the heat culture. They could turn him around, you guarantee. But again, they're going to ask for him for free because you're not allowed to. They don't have to give anything up. Right. Hey, we'll take Damian Lillard. You have to give him to us, but we're not going to give you anything in return as long as you understand that. Well, remember that Jovic was a big prize for them in the Dave Lowert sweepstakes. By the way, he hasn't been seen since. You can watch him in the G-League. He was one of their big prizes. All right. Last one. Will Hal Burton become the best pacer ever? I'm putting this on a platter for you because I treated that out a couple. Like you look at like so, you know, Mel Daniels, if you want to go back to like the ABA days, right. He's got a couple of these kind of championships. So if you want to include that, like you can certainly make the argument for Mel Daniels. I don't know how you view the the ABA stuff and whether that should count. Like, so you want to count him. Maybe you can make the argument. No, I think it's not the most like it's not like he's playing for the Lakers, not like he's playing for the Celtics, not like he's playing for like the Heat of the Sixers. His competition's Reggie Miller. So you tell me, can Tyrese Haliburton be Reggie Miller? What, four or five All-Star games? Reggie Miller never made a second team All-NBA. Haliburton could make a second team All-NBA this year. So like if you think he can be Reggie Miller, which I think he can be, then I think he's got a chance to be the greatest pacer of all time. If he if he sticks around. What do you think? I did a book, a basketball pot on Reggie, and I pulled out some of the stuff I did. Yeah. Third team All-NBA three times in the middle 90s, which was probably one of the weaker talent stretches in the league. Twenty five thousand points, five All-Star games. His three year peak was twenty two points, three rebounds, three assists a game. Now, slower pace, all that stuff. Two year playoff peak was twenty four points. He was a fifty forty ninety guy twice. Statistically, it looks pretty good for the era. And he was way ahead of his time with the threes. But the fact that he never made even a second team All-NBA. Is pretty alarming if you're talking big picture stuff, and that was why I always had Ray Allen ahead of him, because I always felt like Ray Allen's best season was just better than Reggie Miller's best season. Like if you go to the 05 Sonics or the 01 Bucks, he just had a higher ceiling. And then he was able to reinvent himself the second part of his career. To me, I'm like Ray Allen over Reggie in that I think Reggie's still top 75 to me. I don't think it's going to take much for Halbert. And if he if he stays there 10 years, he stays healthy. He could make first team All-NBA this year. He's another guy whose hat's in the ring. And I think he's a guy bringing it back to the end season that he could. That could be a really special week for him. You know, like if they beat the Celtics on Tuesday, you're in the semifinals. There's a lot of people, you know, we all watch we watch all these games, but the normal sports fans have not watched a lot of Pacers this year. They have one nationally televised game. So it should be more and that'll give them that like they're already going to have another one because they're going to be in this midseason tournament. They're going to play a nationally televised game and they get to go to Las Vegas. They'll play more of them. And like on the on the Reggie thing, like you always get the comparison, not just to Ray Allen, but the clay. I think Reggie's, you know, the third guy on that on that ladder behind clay and behind behind Ray Allen. I think he's third. And then you also talk about like, well, I'll tell you the thing with Reggie. This is what we talked about in the book, a basketball pot, his and why he's why I would defend Reggie, even though I didn't seem like I was just now. His superpower was he carried himself like he was as good as whoever the best guy was in the other team. And he carried himself like that, whether it was Jordan, whether it was Kobe. Pick a guy if Reggie was on the other side, Reggie is like, I'm as good as that guy. And he really believed it. And that's how he played. And that's how he carried himself. And it was effective. And you look at some of those Pacers teams, they kind of overachieved. You know, they had big wins, big upset wins. And part of it was how he carried himself, especially at the end of the games. And that's something that doesn't if you're looking at basketball reference, it's just not going to come up there. You know, you kind of had to watch it and see it. And I that's a really special quality. So that so I would defend him on that. But I just think like if you're never a top 10 guy in the league, that's a tough one. Yeah. Well, speaking of like basketball reference, that's what I was going to say, too. It's like I like the idea like you had to be there because it's the same thing with like Russell and Wilt. If you just look at basketball reference, you're going to go, oh, well, Wilt over Russell. And you did a pretty good job in your book as to explaining why. And then you get the guys like Bob Ryan who were around to see it. And they can go more in depth with that. But like someday we're going to look at basketball reference. We're going to see like, oh, well, Russell only made like what? For first team, all NBA's, I believe. And the reason for that is because they could only have one center. I don't like the idea that they're changing this thing up. And that has to do with Halliburton as well. Like so Halliburton now, you know, he could make first team or second team. But does that necessarily mean he's like the, you know, the third best guard? It doesn't necessarily mean that. So it's we had that with a member of the forwards in the 2000s. We had this issue where there was KG and Dirk and Duncan. Yeah. You just look at the guards right now and then we'll end on this. But. Curry, is Luca a guard? I always forget. Is he a guard or a forward? I guess he counts as a guard in the NBA, right? Yeah, he's dribbling the ball nonstop. So he's a guard. So Curry, Luca, SGA, Booker. Anthony Edwards and and Halliburton are are all in the mix. Exactly. So like you could like so they're going to be a higher seed, maybe, or a higher like vote on the all NBA just because there's no guards or, you know, it's just we're going to we're not going to have like any centers and we're not going to have any forwards like it just it messes it all up. I like the idea of Fox. That's the other one. So Fox deserves to be in that conversation. I just like to be able to say like, you know what? Bob Cusi was the best guard or one of the two best guards 10 times in his career. Chris Paul only did it four or five times. You can't do that anymore moving forward. So I guess we started build the podcast with me saying I like this new initiative. By the NBA, right with the mid-season tournament. But then I'll go back into curmudgeon for him and say, I hate that change that the NBA made with the way we're going to vote on all NBA teams. Well, our guy Shangun really loses because he's behind Jokic and Embiid and maybe even Bam Adebayo. He might not even get all NBA and he's the best part in the league. Well, I don't know how that happens. Yeah, we could put all centers in the top five, you know, first team, all centers. Did you see the stat that Joe Mazzola is one of the only two coaches ever after 100 games to have a 70 percent winning percentage? Somebody sent that. Somebody sent that to me and I had to call a time out because it shocked me so much. So I called a little time out. Joe Mazz, 71 and 29, lifetime.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"giannis" Discussed on The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"All right, so the season does officially start today, Tuesday, but there's still a lot of unknowns. And one of the big unknowns is James Harden. And if it feels like we talk about James Harden every week, we do talk about James Harden every week. And we're not alone. You turn on NBA Today and they're talking about James Harden. You pull up any other podcast and they're talking about James Harden. So unfortunately, we can't just ignore this topic because it still is a major topic. Philadelphia is one of the top three or four teams in the Eastern Conference and James Harden is one of the top players on that team, one of the top players over the last five years in the NBA. So we do have to talk about it. That's just kind of my preamble to all that. But I don't know what to talk about right now because I don't know what James Harden is thinking at the moment. And I'm not sure Philadelphia really knows exactly what he's thinking. James Harden has been away from the 76ers for over a week now. And at this point, the Sixers aren't saying if or when they expect to get him back. They open the season on Thursday against Milwaukee and it seems very pie in the sky to expect him to be there to be playing for that team. We've heard some reporting that Harden is not in game shape at the moment. He wasn't in game shape when he was in practice with Philadelphia. So it seems unlikely he'd play in the Sixers opener one way or the other. And who knows if he came back when he'd be ready to play after that. This is a mess, Rowan. It really is. And what this is going to come down to, again, really is Daryl Morey's appetite for dysfunction. And just how long he's willing to allow James Harden to muddy the waters around this team. What kind of stomach he has for a lot of people have compared this to the Ben Simmons situation. It's different because Simmons had multiple years left on his contract and that gave the Sixers kind of a measure of leverage in those situations. But what do you think of where we are with the 76ers and James Harden? So it's funny because when we talked about it this summer, I kept thinking Harden's going to make it bad. And I think you'd kind of convinced me there's no way he's going to do what he did in Houston and Brooklyn because he's at the stage of his career where he can't afford it. This is such a bold strategy from James Harden at this stage in his career with his playoff resume, with the last time we saw him play basketball, which was not good, his last two games. To just pull this kind of stunt, to be honest. And now I want to be careful because there's some kind of online conjecture that maybe he's dealing with a personal matter in Houston and that's contributing to this. I don't know. This is just such a mess. And Nick Nurse is asked about this pretty much every day in practice. And he looks like he's been on this job for like eight years. He looks like a second term president in terms of exasperation already. And the season hasn't even started yet. I mean, what are his options? He's just going to play Harden? Or he's going to play Maxie and Embiid 45 minutes a night? I guess Harden's living up to his word in terms of what he said over the summer. I'll never play for Daryl Morey again. And I think you were the first person who pointed this out and maybe the only person. The threat of Harden not being able to enter free agency next year is not a good one because the Sixers do not want him on the books next summer. Their whole thing is, we're going to be a cap space team again. We're going to try to make that work. At this point, I don't know. You're right to say Morey, I think, has a higher appetite for dysfunction than most GMs around the league. I think that he has shown over the years that he's a little bit less worried about personality fit than on paper fit than most GMs. The issue I just keep coming back to is, at what point does Embiid say enough is enough? Like, I'm not dealing with another player's insubordination. And while Morey may have the appetite for dysfunction, if Embiid starts saying, you know, complaining like he did over the summer, I think you may have to just... I don't know why Terrence Mann has become such a deal breaker on either side, frankly. He's a good young player, but he's also 27. I mean, it's getting over the top. I've said this a couple times now. If Maxey is the kind of player the Sixers think he is, which is maybe a budding All-Star, then I don't think that they need to replace Harden's kind of shot creation and playmaking to the degree that they think they do. Like, I just think about it. Again, it seemed like the Denver Nuggets. I think we saw that Jokic is better than Embiid. But, like, no one was looking at Jamal Murray before this year as an All-NBA guy, etc. He might not even be top five at his position, frankly. So, I think you could get away with making a trade for really, really good role players. It just depends who's really on the table. I mean, if I could get Norm Powell back at this point, I don't know if the Clippers would even do that. No, I think it's more Robert Covington that would be in the mix. Marcus Morris would be in the mix. It would be kind of funny if it was Robert Covington and it just came full circle back to what maybe trades they never should have made in the first place. You know, the Embiid variable in all this is a significant one. You saw Keith Pompeii from the Philadelphia Inquirer report today that the Knicks, who have been sitting on Joel Embiid for some time now, are willing to do a deal that involves Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, and multiple first round picks. Now, I don't think that is a huge revelation because I think it would probably take even more in terms of draft capital to get Joel Embiid out of Philadelphia. But that puts New York and Embiid and his part in all this into the water supply again. It gets us talking about Joel Embiid and his future in Philadelphia. The Sixers have to closely monitor that. They cannot afford for Joel Embiid to say, you know what, I don't want to be here long term. I want out. You got to trade me because then you're starting from scratch. You're putting this team, you're ripping this team down to the studs and starting over effectively. So you've got to watch that pretty closely. All that being said, my opinion has not changed. The 76ers need to stand strong here. The 76ers cannot get frustrated and just move James Harden for the spare parts that you're talking about. Because if we've learned nothing else from the Damian Lillard situation is that you never know what can happen in the weeks and months ahead. You never know when another team could decide to put more on the table. Let's use the Clippers as an example. They just recently named Terrence Mann as the fifth starter. Great. He can play alongside Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Avika Zubak. He can get that opportunity that he's been looking for. And maybe he thrives in it. Maybe it turns out Terrence Mann is as good as Lawrence Frank in that front office believe that he is. But what if he's not? What if he struggles early on and the Clippers take that starting spot away from him and give it to Marcus Morris or Norman Powell or Robert Covington or any of the other guys they have on that bench? Does Terrence Mann become available all of a sudden? Do the Clippers decide three weeks into the season that Terrence Mann is expendable? I think if you're Philadelphia, you have to at least see if that happens. Right now Terrence Mann is not available. You can't get him from the Clippers in a James Harden deal. Right now you can get a first round draft pick. You can get a pick swap and you can get some salary filler. That's really all you can get from the Clippers for James Harden. You've seen all the reporting that's out there about how there's a wide gap between what the Sixers want and what the Clippers are willing to give. That's all true. So if you're the Sixers, you've got to at least wait. You've also got to wait to see if a version of the Milwaukee Bucks materialized. Remember Milwaukee was not in the Damian Lillard sweepstakes in early July. When that thing got white hot, the Bucks were not part of it. It was only after things changed, specifically with Giannis asking for this team to do more when the Bucks got interested. What team out there could be that version of the Milwaukee Bucks? I look at Miami and I wonder what's going to happen down there. We'll talk about them in a couple of minutes, but what if the Heat get off to a really bad start? What if Kyle Lowry looks a little bit older? What if Jimmy Butler looks a little bit older? What if Tyler, a hero, after an offseason where his name was in trade rumors, doesn't play up to the level the Heat need him to? What if Miami says, you know what? We've got to do something. Jimmy Butler is 34 years old. Bam Adebayo is in his prime. Why don't we take a flyer on James Harden? Why don't we see if Harden can be a missing piece to this group? I think you've got to at least wait. Maybe it doesn't happen with LA. Maybe it doesn't happen with Miami. But what is the worst that can happen? You suffer through a few weeks of James Harden sitting out. Is that really that bad? Is that really worth not waiting to see if something better materializes? Daryl Morey, he's got the stomach for this. He's got to show it. He's got to take his time and he has to be patient with James Harden because dealing him right now for 25 cents on the dollar would be a big mistake. Alright, not to go like full De Niro and Heat right here, but there's another side to that coin, which is, and I'm not saying this is likely, but there's also a world in which the Clippers get off to a really hot start. Kawhi and Paul George are healthy. Terrence Mann is playing really well. They have depth and they're like, why would we break this up? Less likely, but possible. Miami, Eric Swelter find some combinations that work. They get good contributions from the young guys and they're doing better than what most people expect. And in that same world, there's a chance that Philly gets off to a rough start. Nick Nurse is fed up. And like we talked about, Embiid starts getting frustrated earlier and earlier. I think that's what they have to protect against. Now, which one of those scenarios is more likely? A lot has to go right for some other teams in that other scenario for Philly to get really nervous. I do think that maybe they err on the side of let's let it play out for a little bit. See if someone struggles. Maybe a team that we haven't really talked about that I wonder if they could get involved. The Pelicans, maybe they struggle early. They're always being talked about in some of these moves. So there are definitely teams on the board that I think could get involved. But if I give Daryl Morey credit for this, his appetite for kind of the dysfunction, the drama is so much higher than what mine would be when I'm just I'm so nervous about Joel Embiid every single day. There's a message you could deliver to Joel Embiid during all this. It's that look, the worst case scenario is here is we have to deal with James Harden, sit him out, fine him, suspend him, all that stuff. And then next summer, we'll let that $35.6 million come off the books. We'll add it to Tobias Harris's like $40 million. And then we'll go into the off season with 70 some odd million dollars in cap space and you and Tyrese Maxey under contract. That's a pretty good case that you can make because there are going to be some free agents out there restricted and otherwise. Clay Thompson is going to hit the open market. I think that's an intriguing name when you're talking about Philadelphia. I just think there are that you can make a reasonable case of Joel Embiid that look, this sucks. There's no two ways about it. We wish James Harden was happier, but we think we can be pretty good without him. If Tyrese Maxey stays healthy, let's put the ball in his hands more. He might rise to an all star level. I've said this a million times. I want this to be remembered. Tobias Harris is going to have the best year he's had in a long time because Tobias Harris is in a contract year. Everybody in a contract year plays well, or at least 95% of them. So I think Tobias Harris is going to have the best year of his Philadelphia 76ers career. That's a team that is still a cut below Milwaukee and a cut below Boston. But that's still a team that can contend for the three spot in Eastern Conference, and that's not bad if you're talking about this being kind of a gap year for Joel Embiid. To me, that's a reasonable case that Daryl Morey can make to Embiid. I don't disagree. I don't disagree, but man, tough to stomach the idea of a gap year when Embiid is just, you never know with the knees and the playoff stuff and etc.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Fresh update on "giannis" discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"So that their their team isn't really set yet. And the Suns are now they had this little Durant run at the start of the year. Now Booker's been awesome for two weeks. That leads me to my first sports radio argument, which you had with Eddie, which is Tatum or Booker. So I'm doing my ringer top hundred. You know, and I got to the six spot, which is where I had Tatum. And I started thinking, like, is Devin Booker better than Tatum? Like, but then I thought about the playoff exits and Tatum. The fact what a great rebounder he's been. I mean, he's an unbelievable rebounder for his position, right? I think he's like third in the league for rebounding out of all non-centers. And I do think he's gotten better every year and he's added stuff. And I like where he is. But the Booker thing, it's an argument. So I'm sure Eddie was on the Booker side. Where were you on Tatum versus Booker? I was on I was on the Tatum side. Now, speaking of elimination games, I got the numbers right here because Eddie and I just had the argument. Booker at eliminations games, he's played in three of them. He's averaging 14 points on 31 percent from the floor. Tatum, I think, was somewhere up around 26 points per game included. Like so he's had a 51 point game. Booker's played, you know, against last year against Philadelphia in Game seven. Right. Then he had the 46 point game against Philadelphia or Milwaukee on the road the year they went to the finals. Booker's never even scored 46 points in all three of his elimination games combined. So that was one argument I used against Eddie. That's Tatum's been, you know, better in a bigger spot. And then clearly you got the rebounding. You've got the defense, heavy advantage to Tatum in both those categories, even though Booker has improved dramatically defensively. I want to give him credit for that. Booker is a better playmaker, I think, at this point as well. But like and ultimately, like Eddie's big argument was efficiency. And I do view Booker as the better scorer. I don't know how you view that. I do view Booker as the better scorer. But if you look at like effective field goal percentage, which accumulates everything across the board, Tatum actually has the advantage there. So I do lean Tatum. But if you like, you're making a list of the the 10 best players in the sport. In all likelihood, you got them back to back with Tatum, maybe one spot ahead of book. Yeah, I had the list I handed in and we're running our we've combined all the rankings of different voters. But I had Jokic, Giannis. Curry, they didn't beat four over Luca. Luca had five, Tatum six, Booker seven, SGA eight, Durant nine. And then I had Jimmy Butler as as as my 10th. You have LeBron as your 10th, right? You still have LeBron as a top 10. I had LeBron 12th. The defense with him, I I just care about defense. Like it called me nuts, but it's I just factor it in. And that's why I like even Tatum over Booker. I like the fact that Tatum, when he really dials it up, he's an excellent defender, but he can play different positions. He can help you on the boards. And that's like just enough for a slight edge. But, you know, LeBron in that Philly game last night, the whole team wasn't playing defense, but his guy over and over again was shooting wide open threes. And I don't I do feel like LeBron slips into DH mode a lot. So, you know, is it the difference between being a top 10 guy and a top 12 guy? Everybody is so afraid to criticize LeBron and they should be because he's played more minutes than anyone in the history of the league. I'm just measuring him right now against all these other dudes. Game after game after game. If it's a playoff game, he probably moves up. But if you're just talking about regular season, top hundred. I can't have him in top 10, but you had him. I got him at 10. He's an abysmal defender, OK? He doesn't care about it at all. And you care about defense. I care about defense as well. But one other thing I care about is I care about build the regular season. And Jimmy Butler doesn't care about the regular season. He sat out today. You know, he sat out tonight in a mid-season tournament game, OK? And he's yet to play, by the way, the rule. I want to give the NBA a lot of credit. Even both Clippers, Paul George and Kawhi have played in every single game so far. OK, so Joe Dumars is push. Hey, get everybody out there. It's an 82 game season. It's worked for a lot of guys. Jimmy Butler's had three back to backs. He's yet to play in one of the back to backs. One of them was rest at the beginning of the season. That was a personal issue. Then it was this ankle issue that he had. So I care about the regular season. And like you watched it growing up, right? Bird kicked your ass for 82 games in the regular season. Then he kicked your ass again for what? 20 playoff games. Magic Jordan kicked your ass. 82 games, not 70 games, not 50. Eighty two games. They kicked your ass for 20. You're so old school. Look at this. Jimmy Butler doesn't do that. So I can't put him up there on the list. That's my reason against Jimmy Butler. Bird did it. And then he was wearing a back brace during games by 1991. I I had Butler 10th because I wanted to keep some connective tissue to what happened last year. And the fact that he dragged that Miami team to the finals last year and beat Boston and ran through Milwaukee. I just I'm just not going to let that go. You have to be a top 10 guy after that. So I just couldn't. Yeah, I couldn't knock him out. Anyway, Tatum versus Booker. They're around the same age. Koc and Verno did a great thing on their pod today about the MVP ads that you know, I heard, you know, yeah, Jokic is the obvious bet. And Jokic is going to win if he plays 70 games, I think, because he's just so overpowering. But Booker was 26 to one when they did the pod. And it's a good if you're talking about long shot bats, I'm not allowed to bet on the award. Neither are you. But if you just talk about long shot guys that could rise up as the season goes, I do think he's a good candidate for that. No doubt about it. I mean, because what do they want? Seven straight games since he's come back. So like they're winning when he's out there on the floor. I think he's already missed eight or nine games. So that means he's carrying the team by himself and games like that. He's hitting all the checkmarks. Like I remember on Austin Rivers, who also does a podcast for you guys, said that Booker was the better player than KD. And he said it was without question heading into the season. I feel the same way now. KD has been awesome. He looked like he was maybe cooked in that first game of the season. And I remember even you talked about it. I talked about it as well in that first game where it was Phoenix and Golden State. He's been awesome since then. Certainly deserves to be in like the conversation on the periphery of the MVP. But to me, Booker's the better of the two players. But you're right with Jokic, like you're doing your list. And to me, it's like you could you know, you could say Steph's better than Janusz. You could say, you know, Embiid's better than Steph, whatever you can have. You know, I got Tatum ahead of Luka because I don't like the heliocentric way that he plays. I don't think you can win that way. But the gap between Jokic and everybody else, there's no argument like that. Gap is huge. I heard Scalabrini, who does a show in the morning with Isola on our station. So just hopefully not too much of it. But anyway, coffee hasn't kicked in yet. So it's you know, it's a little incoherent, but I think it's not. So, yeah, if you don't have coffee, it's fine to listen to. But once you get your day started, you got to move on. Either way, he said like the gap between Jokic and the rest of the the league bill is as big as I happen to agree with this, as big as it was when LeBron was in Miami and the rest of the league then. Like he said that, I think last year at some point. That's a great point. So 2012, 13, LeBron compared to Carmelo as the number two MVP candidate in 2013. Yeah, that's I think that's fair, because I think what makes Jokic. Man, I can't believe we're talking about Jokic. And it's only the 30 minute mark. People would have thought this sooner. I think what makes him I mean, there's a million things that make him special. He's so fucking consistent. And that's what like magic and Jordan had, especially in like as we got into the the late 80s and early 90s. Like it's just game after game. It's the same. It never wavers. He's always, always, always the best guy on the floor doing the most things, keeping his team around. And sometimes he scores more. Sometimes he passes more. But you'll watch you pick a guy and you might catch them on the wrong night and they're just not that good. Like you might catch an Embiid night or it's like Embiid doesn't have it tonight. You just don't see it with Jokic. It's just he's almost like a hockey player. He just skates around and fucking gets his shots on goal. And that's it. Yeah. You almost had a throwaway line a couple of weeks ago where I think you were coming in in or out of break. And you said like he might be the greatest offensive player I've ever seen. I don't know if you remember saying that, but I think he is. Yeah. I mean, I agree with you. And people, while you overreact, I protect the legends. Like I went at JJ Redick with the whole like Bob Cousy thing a couple of years ago, like I protect the legends. I love the history of the sport. That's one of the reasons I was initially hesitant, like on the on the in-season tournament. But Jokic in regards to like being able to get his own and make people better. And that's what I don't look at. Like when Daryl Morey sang all the greatest offensive player ever is James Harden. I don't look at it as offense is scoring. I look at it as number one is making everybody better. And that guy makes everybody better to the same level that Magic did it to the same level that Bird did it. He's on he's on the upper tier of doing that. Well, so I thought it was interesting when he's not in the game like yesterday, he doesn't play in the Quipper game. And the team still kind of takes his identity and they're still unselfish and they're still doing the same stuff. That's what Bird and Magic had that more than anything. All right. Yeah. Next sports radio argument. Has the ship permanently sailed on Anthony Davis being like a top seven, eight guy? It probably should. And I think like the distinction probably came like maybe yesterday, Bill, because like thinking we're talking about some of the former greats, right? Like the Magic Bird, Jordan, you can throw Kobe into the list. If like somebody of if the backup like to guard says about Kobe Bryant, all the guy does is flop. What is he going to go out there and do? He's probably going to put up a pretty big ticket personally, or he's going to have like at the very least, even if Paul Reed doesn't say that or somebody say it about Kobe, like those guys are going to say, you know what? I'm going up against the MVP from last year. I'm going to be super focused on this game. I'm going to have it circled. Right. And even if I fail, I'm going to take more than 14 shots. I'm going to be aggressive. So Anthony Davis talks crap about Jokic and the Denver Nuggets leading into the first game of the season. And Jokic hands him a triple double, hands him a loss. Then he's got an opportunity to go up against Embiid here.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"giannis" Discussed on The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"Upgrade your listening with Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Breakthrough Bose immersive audio makes everything sound more natural than ever. World-class noise cancellation gets quieter than any Bose headphone yet, and the high-fidelity audio is tailored to your ears only. So highs hit harder, bass drops deeper, and you fill every note of the track. This is Leveled Up Listening. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Dive in deeper at Bose.com forward slash iHeart. Kick off the football action with BetMGM, the king of sportsbooks. Simply download the app today to make every game and every play mean more than ever. When you wager at BetMGM, you can also earn BetMGM rewards points that can be redeemed for online bonus credits like bonus bets and bet insurance tokens. Planning a trip to Vegas? You can also convert your BetMGM points into MGM rewards points that you can use towards dining, shows, and hotel rooms at over 20 MGM Resorts properties located on the Las Vegas Strip and nationwide. Play, earn, and enjoy with BetMGM rewards. Please gamble responsibly. BetMGM.com for T's and C's. 21 plus to wager, DC only. New and existing customer offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire seven days from issuance. And again, please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Oh, come on now. You know you deserve it. A steak patty on any McDonald's breakfast sandwich. I mean any breakfast sandwich. Biscuit, McMuffin, bagel, McGriddles. A juicy steak patty on any breakfast sandwich. And when you order through the app, buy one and get one free. Now go get them. Valid for product of equal or lesser value. Limited time only at participating McDonald's. Valid one time per day. Excludes $1 to $3 menu. It's the crossover. Sports Illustrated's NBA show. Breaking down the latest news, rumors, and everything in between. Here's your host, Chris Mannix and Rohan Nadkarni. This is the Crossover NBA Podcast. I'm Chris Mannix joined this week by my colleague at Sports Illustrated, Rohan Nadkarni. And Rohan, it's always good when we have some breaking news on the podcast. We are recording this on the day the NBA returns. Tuesday night, double header, Warriors Suns, Lakers Nuggets. That's going to be a lot of fun to watch on Tuesday. But the big story over the weekend was Giannis Atentecumpo once again saying, Milwaukee, you are my home. Giannis agreeing to a three-year, $186 million contract extension. We'll get into kind of the nuances of why this extension makes sense financially right now. And why he would do it now. And what kind of contracts he can sign in the future. But this was something I think that Bucs fans and the Bucs front office was optimistic about in the aftermath of Milwaukee acquiring Damian Lillard. But now, here we are with Damian Lillard under contract for the next four seasons. Giannis Atentecumpo under contract for, I believe, three of the next four seasons. I'll get the numbers right. But the last year's a player option of that deal. But he's under contract at least until his early 30s, putting him through his prime years in Milwaukee. Your reaction to this deal getting done at the 11th hour before the start of the season? Pretty surprised only because Giannis himself kind of mentioned early this summer why financially it wouldn't make the most sense for him to do it now. As you alluded to, there is some kind of not quite complicated math, but a series of steps that Giannis can undergo to kind of maximize the financial impact of taking this deal now. So he's still coming out ahead money-wise. I mean, I wrote when the Damian Lillard trade went down, I should say, that this was a huge win and it only becomes a bigger win for Milwaukee if Giannis signs. And that's what happened. And I think, listen, this team, the expectations still win a title, all those things. But for the city of Milwaukee, for the franchise, even if they don't win a title now, if you get another three or four years of Giannis at Centecumpo, you get his entire prime in Milwaukee. You put off the conversation, at least for a couple years, about whether he's leaving, etc. That's a huge win. It makes the Lillard trade a win already. It's really incredible work by their franchise. I mean, we sat here, Chris, I'd say at the beginning of the summer, kind of wondering aloud what moves are on the table for the Bucks because they looked a little bit boxed in at the start of the summer in terms of what they could do to improve the roster around Giannis. To go around and get Damian Lillard and then sign Giannis to an extension the same summer, when no one was expecting either of those moves, it's an unequivocal, unqualified, total home run for the Bucks. No, I tweeted this in the immediate aftermath. This was an executive of the year stretch for John Horst. Not only does he get Damian Lillard into the fold, which makes the Bucks better in the short term, he ensures long-term viability by getting Giannis' name on a contract. Just to clear up the math here and sort of explain what kind of deal Giannis has signed. He is under contract now for the next four years. This year's age 28 season, he's going to make $45.6 million. Next year, he'll make $45.8 million. The new deal kicks in in the 25-26 season, which will put Giannis at $57.6 million that year, $62.2 million in 26-27. He has a player option for 22-28, which would be year five of this new deal that he's operating under, which is worth $66.8 million. The reason that he signs this contract right now, and I want to give credit to Bobby Marks, the ESPN front office insider, because he's been able to explain this in a way even idiots like you and me can't understand. It's mutually beneficial for the two sides to do a deal like this right now. Because of that over 38 rule that exists, Giannis could sign a short-term extension again with Milwaukee in 2026, and then a four-year extension with the Bucks in 2028. What this deal is effectively doing, or the message it's sending, is that Giannis is a buck for life. He's going to be alongside Damian Lillard for the next four seasons. That's a guy we've talked about a lot. He likes Damian Lillard, and he wants to play with Damian Lillard. Not only is Giannis getting himself financially set up for the short term by signing this three-year extension, he is putting the dominoes in place to make the max possible amount of money over the next 10 years of his playing career. Anyone that might have been wondering if Giannis is going to be a buck over the long term, it sure looks right now that Giannis is going to be playing in Milwaukee for the entirety of his NBA career. I think we're looking, Rohan, at another Dirk Nowitzki. I think this is kind of a Dirk-like situation where the Bucks have shown Giannis enough. They've shown Giannis enough that he is willing to commit to this team long term. Absolutely. And I'll just leave a little bit of room. Our old friend Howard Beck wrote about it today for The Ringer that everything is great right now. Up until things change, if this flames out, whatever, we've seen stars request trades, etc. I'll leave a little room for that, but I'm with you. And I think it's great for the NBA. I really do. I want to see Jokic in Denver for his entire career. I want to see Giannis in Milwaukee for his entire career. We've kind of lost that the last few years with guys moving around teams so much. There's been this conversation this week, should Kevin Durant have his jersey retired in Golden State? I think it'll happen and I think it's fine, but it's just not the same. It's not the same as a guy like Giannis staying in one place for his entire career. It's refreshing to see. I think it's just so good for the league. I'm excited, man. I'm excited to see him battle with the Celtics this year. I miss the days when it felt like you could think these two teams are going to have to get through each other for the next few years. We're setting up for that with Giannis and Tatum for the next few years. As a basketball fan, I'm just really excited. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think he's going to be kind of remembered as this generation's Dirk for just how synonymous he is with Milwaukee. The fact that Giannis said the things he said earlier this summer, he said he wants to play for a winner, and backed it up, I just think says a lot about the kind of person he is. That was not just posturing or whatever. Milwaukee made some good faith moves, and he signed a good faith extension in return. To contrast this with Lillard's situation in Portland, Lillard committed to the Blazers, but he didn't demand action out of them before he committed to them. Giannis came out this offseason in multiple interviews and said, I'm paraphrasing, of course. You've got to make sure that you have a championship roster around me. He put a lot of pressure on the Bucs to get something done. To the Bucs credit, for the second time in three years, they pulled off a deal that made Giannis happy. Drew Holiday, his acquisition a few years ago, that made Giannis happy. Now, Damian Lillard bringing him in, that makes Giannis happy. He was able to use his status with the team to push them to go all in for a championship. Once they did, he committed. He was true to his word, and said he would commit to the Milwaukee Bucs. I do think that's commendable for Giannis as well. I think, short term, if you're looking for questions about the Bucs, there are a couple of them. Chris Middleton is the most glaring. I have no idea what to expect from Chris Middleton this year. He missed half the season last year. Then there's that weird, vague pre-season talk for me. Well, I'm going to get to that. I'm going to get to that. I like the coaching stuff. Chris Middleton, his status is a big variable here. I think with a healthy Chris Middleton, the Bucs are the number one team in the East. It's still close, because I think Boston is really good, obviously. But with Middleton, I think they're number one. Without him, I think they're number two. I'm anxious to see how healthy he is at the start of the season, and how healthy he can be throughout the season. The other part of it is coaching. This Terry Stotts story has kind of gone away over the last couple of days. Frankly, who really cares about an assistant coaching change on an NBA team? This is a real thing. Terry Stotts was given a hands-on role to effectively be the architect of this Bucs offense. We know this, because Damian Lillard came out last week and said, Look, this is the same offense I ran in Portland. The guys that are veterans on the Milwaukee team were coming to him and saying, Well, what about this? What about that? What's the right way to run this particular play? Terry Stotts was not just a sage voice on Adrian Griffin's bench. He was someone that was intimately involved and integrally involved in what this team does offensively. We've seen the reporting that there was some kind of public blow up at a shoot around or a practice between Terry Stotts and Adrian Griffin. I had not heard about that. I had heard in the hours after Stotts decided to leave the team that he just wasn't comfortable being Adrian Griffin's assistant coach. That's kind of what it came down to. Terry Stotts has been head coach in the NBA for a long time. He has had some levels of success as a head coach. Adrian Griffin came in and Adrian Griffin, people have told me he rides his assistants out there. He makes them work pretty hard. Adrian Griffin worked under Scott Skiles for a while, worked under a number of different coaches in different situations. Adrian Griffin had high expectations and demanded a lot from his assistant coaches. The way I was explained to me was Terry Stotts just wasn't comfortable with the dynamic, didn't like the dynamic with Adrian Griffin. Maybe that dust up in practice was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it felt like the people I talked to that it was coming. I don't think this is inconsequential. I really don't because now everybody else on that Bucs staff gets bumped up a seat. Now you don't necessarily have the guy on the bench with that kind of gravitas is the right word, but certainly experience that Terry Stotts brought to the table. I don't think we can dismiss his exit as nothing because I do think it's something. Yeah, not to mention his relationship with Damian Lillard, right? I mean, that's something that I think was probably providing Dame some level of comfort. He obviously posted a photo of them together on Instagram after. Take that for what it's worth. I mean Terry Stotts and Damian Lillard will always have a great relationship. Terry Stotts empowered Damian Lillard over nine years. Like took him on as a rookie and helped develop him into the player he became. So I can understand the loyalty between Lillard and Stotts. The one interesting thing about the Bucs and Celtics, I'd say, is the questions around their coaching staffs. You know, Missoula had to deal with it a lot last year, especially during the playoffs. Now listen, at the end of the day, he came within a game seven and Jason Tatum maybe not turned his ankle of making it to the finals. So maybe that stuff was overblown. But, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the assistance the Celtics added this summer and the reasons they needed to do that. Bringing in a guy like Jeff Van Gundy, for example, to consult with them. And the importance of that experience that it's a lot of pressure on Adrian Griffin in his first year to deliver a team with title expectations. And now he's losing his most experienced assistant coach. It's going to be very interesting. I think that's a serious variable for the Bucs. We've seen it cut both ways. I mean, we've seen Nick Nurse have a lot of success. We've seen Emei Yudoka have a lot of success. Other times it doesn't go as well. So I think it's going to be very interesting keeping an eye on just how the coaching staff in both Milwaukee and Boston ultimately affects what those teams do. I think one of the undercurrents of the Celtics summer, for example, was maybe moving on from some of the guys that didn't fully buy in with Missoula. Guys who necessarily didn't have the best relationship with him. So I don't know that it's going to make a huge impact because they're just so much more talented than the rest of the conference. But I'm interested to see how that plays out. Yeah, it certainly adds a wrinkle to what Milwaukee's trying to do this season. I think with such a slim margin between the Celtics and the Bucs, anything can make a difference. So that's worth keeping an eye on this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Fresh update on "giannis" discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"All right, coming back. So our eight games are really good, by the way, for this in-season tournament. Knicks, Bucks, Celtics at Pacers, Suns at Lakers and Pelicans at Kings. So I guess that if you're talking about, oh, it'll be so much fun if there's like not one of the actual contenders into it. That's basically the Pacers. The Pelicans are a fun young team. Oh, my God, look at them. It's New Orleans. But you also have major stars, right? You have Giannis and Dame. You have all the Celtics guys. You have Durant and Booker. You have LeBron and the artist formerly known as KD. You have Zion, Fox, like there's stars everywhere. So this is perfect for them. And then next week they'll have the quarterfinals, which will be even more fun than it was tonight. Then we'll go to Vegas for that. I know you're going to Vegas, right? I'm sure for the for the semis. I'm not going for the semis. I'm going for your podcast, though, on Wednesday night. Yeah. And then I'm going to leave. No, I'll stick around. I'll stick around for the game. Well, the semis are going to be awesome. And that's, you know, the only thing I could compare it to is I went to the Olympics in 2012 and there was a quarterfinals where it was just four games in a row of, you know, do or die Olympics games with basically all the good players in all the countries. And it was awesome. And then semifinals, same thing. It was, you know, two games to get to the gold medal games in a row. And it was fucking awesome. And I'm hoping if the if the players are going to play as hard as they did tonight, the I think this Vegas thing will be a home run. Plus, like, you know, the all star game, the all star game kind of sucks. We have to go. There's a lot of corporate stuff. The players are just kind of moving around. You're setting up a booth there. And it's not really about basketball. It's about the circus around basketball. This is going to be about basketball. But then it'll have the same vibe of all these people who love basketball, who work in the industry. They'll all be there. I think it's going to be really, really cool. Yeah, I'd leave before the all star game, so I don't even go to the game. I go to all star weekend, but I'm not into the game for obvious reasons. It's horrible. And I'm going to go to all these. Like, I can't wait to get there. It'll be interesting, though, because you go out to Vegas for summer league and it's a heavy Lakers crowd. They still got to win one more game over Phoenix in order to get out there. But I'm interested to see what the environment is going to be out like there. And and if L.A. does get there, it's going to be a heavy like home crowd for the Lakers, just because clearly L.A. is just right, right down the road. Well, that's a nice match up for the Suns because, you know, this Lakers team, they're just missing too many glue guys, right? Having to have Vanderbilt all season, they lose Gabe Vincent pretty fast. It just seems like they're mixing and matching. They have a lot of trouble defending other teams wings. LeBron can't play wing anymore. I mean, he's basically a power forward at this point.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
A highlight from Bucks Extend Giannis & Pre Season Storylines
"Upgrade your listening with Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Breakthrough Bose immersive audio makes everything sound more natural than ever. World -class noise cancellation gets quieter than any Bose headphone yet, and the high -fidelity audio is tailored to your ears only. So highs hit harder, bass drops deeper, and you fill every note of the track. This is Leveled Up Listening. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Dive in deeper at Bose .com forward slash iHeart. Kick off the football action with BetMGM, the king of sportsbooks. Simply download the app today to make every game and every play mean more than ever. When you wager at BetMGM, you can also earn BetMGM rewards points that can be redeemed for online bonus credits like bonus bets and bet insurance tokens. Planning a trip to Vegas? You can also convert your BetMGM points into MGM rewards points that you can use towards dining, shows, and hotel rooms at over 20 MGM Resorts properties located on the Las Vegas Strip and nationwide. Play, earn, and enjoy with BetMGM rewards. Please gamble responsibly. BetMGM .com for T's and C's. 21 plus to wager, DC only. New and existing customer offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non -withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire seven days from issuance. And again, please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? Call 1 -800 -GAMBLER. Oh, come on now. You know you deserve it. A steak patty on any McDonald's breakfast sandwich. I mean any breakfast sandwich. Biscuit, McMuffin, bagel, McGriddles. A juicy steak patty on any breakfast sandwich. And when you order through the app, buy one and get one free. Now go get them. Valid for product of equal or lesser value. Limited time only at participating McDonald's. Valid one time per day. Excludes $1 to $3 menu. It's the crossover. Sports Illustrated's NBA show. Breaking down the latest news, rumors, and everything in between. Here's your host, Chris Mannix and Rohan Nadkarni. This is the Crossover NBA Podcast. I'm Chris Mannix joined this week by my colleague at Sports Illustrated, Rohan Nadkarni. And Rohan, it's always good when we have some breaking news on the podcast. We are recording this on the day the NBA returns. Tuesday night, double header, Warriors Suns, Lakers Nuggets. That's going to be a lot of fun to watch on Tuesday. But the big story over the weekend was Giannis Atentecumpo once again saying, Milwaukee, you are my home. Giannis agreeing to a three -year, $186 million contract extension. We'll get into kind of the nuances of why this extension makes sense financially right now. And why he would do it now. And what kind of contracts he can sign in the future. But this was something I think that Bucs fans and the Bucs front office was optimistic about in the aftermath of Milwaukee acquiring Damian Lillard. But now, here we are with Damian Lillard under contract for the next four seasons. Giannis Atentecumpo under contract for, I believe, three of the next four seasons. I'll get the numbers right. But the last year's a player option of that deal. But he's under contract at least until his early 30s, putting him through his prime years in Milwaukee. Your reaction to this deal getting done at the 11th hour before the start of the season? Pretty surprised only because Giannis himself kind of mentioned early this summer why financially it wouldn't make the most sense for him to do it now. As you alluded to, there is some kind of not quite complicated math, but a series of steps that Giannis can undergo to kind of maximize the financial impact of taking this deal now. So he's still coming out ahead money -wise. I mean, I wrote when the Damian Lillard trade went down, I should say, that this was a huge win and it only becomes a bigger win for Milwaukee if Giannis signs. And that's what happened. And I think, listen, this team, the expectations still win a title, all those things. But for the city of Milwaukee, for the franchise, even if they don't win a title now, if you get another three or four years of Giannis at Centecumpo, you get his entire prime in Milwaukee. You put off the conversation, at least for a couple years, about whether he's leaving, etc. That's a huge win. It makes the Lillard trade a win already. It's really incredible work by their franchise. I mean, we sat here, Chris, I'd say at the beginning of the summer, kind of wondering aloud what moves are on the table for the Bucks because they looked a little bit boxed in at the start of the summer in terms of what they could do to improve the roster around Giannis. To go around and get Damian Lillard and then sign Giannis to an extension the same summer, when no one was expecting either of those moves, it's an unequivocal, unqualified, total home run for the Bucks. No, I tweeted this in the immediate aftermath. This was an executive of the year stretch for John Horst. Not only does he get Damian Lillard into the fold, which makes the Bucks better in the short term, he ensures long -term viability by getting Giannis' name on a contract. Just to clear up the math here and sort of explain what kind of deal Giannis has signed. He is under contract now for the next four years. This year's age 28 season, he's going to make $45 .6 million. Next year, he'll make $45 .8 million. The new deal kicks in in the 25 -26 season, which will put Giannis at $57 .6 million that year, $62 .2 million in 26 -27. He has a player option for 22 -28, which would be year five of this new deal that he's operating under, which is worth $66 .8 million. The reason that he signs this contract right now, and I want to give credit to Bobby Marks, the ESPN front office insider, because he's been able to explain this in a way even idiots like you and me can't understand. It's mutually beneficial for the two sides to do a deal like this right now. Because of that over 38 rule that exists, Giannis could sign a short -term extension again with Milwaukee in 2026, and then a four -year extension with the Bucks in 2028. What this deal is effectively doing, or the message it's sending, is that Giannis is a buck for life. He's going to be alongside Damian Lillard for the next four seasons. That's a guy we've talked about a lot. He likes Damian Lillard, and he wants to play with Damian Lillard. Not only is Giannis getting himself financially set up for the short term by signing this three -year extension, he is putting the dominoes in place to make the max possible amount of money over the next 10 years of his playing career. Anyone that might have been wondering if Giannis is going to be a buck over the long term, it sure looks right now that Giannis is going to be playing in Milwaukee for the entirety of his NBA career. I think we're looking, Rohan, at another Dirk Nowitzki. I think this is kind of a Dirk -like situation where the Bucks have shown Giannis enough. They've shown Giannis enough that he is willing to commit to this team long term. Absolutely. And I'll just leave a little bit of room. Our old friend Howard Beck wrote about it today for The Ringer that everything is great right now. Up until things change, if this flames out, whatever, we've seen stars request trades, etc. I'll leave a little room for that, but I'm with you. And I think it's great for the NBA. I really do. I want to see Jokic in Denver for his entire career. I want to see Giannis in Milwaukee for his entire career. We've kind of lost that the last few years with guys moving around teams so much. There's been this conversation this week, should Kevin Durant have his jersey retired in Golden State? I think it'll happen and I think it's fine, but it's just not the same. It's not the same as a guy like Giannis staying in one place for his entire career. It's refreshing to see. I think it's just so good for the league. I'm excited, man. I'm excited to see him battle with the Celtics this year. I miss the days when it felt like you could think these two teams are going to have to get through each other for the next few years. We're setting up for that with Giannis and Tatum for the next few years. As a basketball fan, I'm just really excited. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think he's going to be kind of remembered as this generation's Dirk for just how synonymous he is with Milwaukee. The fact that Giannis said the things he said earlier this summer, he said he wants to play for a winner, and backed it up, I just think says a lot about the kind of person he is. That was not just posturing or whatever. Milwaukee made some good faith moves, and he signed a good faith extension in return. To contrast this with Lillard's situation in Portland, Lillard committed to the Blazers, but he didn't demand action out of them before he committed to them. Giannis came out this offseason in multiple interviews and said, I'm paraphrasing, of course. You've got to make sure that you have a championship roster around me. He put a lot of pressure on the Bucs to get something done. To the Bucs credit, for the second time in three years, they pulled off a deal that made Giannis happy. Drew Holiday, his acquisition a few years ago, that made Giannis happy. Now, Damian Lillard bringing him in, that makes Giannis happy. He was able to use his status with the team to push them to go all in for a championship. Once they did, he committed. He was true to his word, and said he would commit to the Milwaukee Bucs. I do think that's commendable for Giannis as well. I think, short term, if you're looking for questions about the Bucs, there are a couple of them. Chris Middleton is the most glaring. I have no idea what to expect from Chris Middleton this year. He missed half the season last year. Then there's that weird, vague pre -season talk for me. Well, I'm going to get to that. I'm going to get to that. I like the coaching stuff. Chris Middleton, his status is a big variable here. I think with a healthy Chris Middleton, the Bucs are the number one team in the East. It's still close, because I think Boston is really good, obviously. But with Middleton, I think they're number one. Without him, I think they're number two. I'm anxious to see how healthy he is at the start of the season, and how healthy he can be throughout the season. The other part of it is coaching. This Terry Stotts story has kind of gone away over the last couple of days. Frankly, who really cares about an assistant coaching change on an NBA team? This is a real thing. Terry Stotts was given a hands -on role to effectively be the architect of this Bucs offense. We know this, because Damian Lillard came out last week and said, Look, this is the same offense I ran in Portland. The guys that are veterans on the Milwaukee team were coming to him and saying, Well, what about this? What about that? What's the right way to run this particular play? Terry Stotts was not just a sage voice on Adrian Griffin's bench. He was someone that was intimately involved and integrally involved in what this team does offensively. We've seen the reporting that there was some kind of public blow up at a shoot around or a practice between Terry Stotts and Adrian Griffin. I had not heard about that. I had heard in the hours after Stotts decided to leave the team that he just wasn't comfortable being Adrian Griffin's assistant coach. That's kind of what it came down to. Terry Stotts has been head coach in the NBA for a long time. He has had some levels of success as a head coach. Adrian Griffin came in and Adrian Griffin, people have told me he rides his assistants out there. He makes them work pretty hard. Adrian Griffin worked under Scott Skiles for a while, worked under a number of different coaches in different situations. Adrian Griffin had high expectations and demanded a lot from his assistant coaches. The way I was explained to me was Terry Stotts just wasn't comfortable with the dynamic, didn't like the dynamic with Adrian Griffin. Maybe that dust up in practice was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it felt like the people I talked to that it was coming. I don't think this is inconsequential. I really don't because now everybody else on that Bucs staff gets bumped up a seat. Now you don't necessarily have the guy on the bench with that kind of gravitas is the right word, but certainly experience that Terry Stotts brought to the table. I don't think we can dismiss his exit as nothing because I do think it's something. Yeah, not to mention his relationship with Damian Lillard, right? I mean, that's something that I think was probably providing Dame some level of comfort. He obviously posted a photo of them together on Instagram after. Take that for what it's worth. I mean Terry Stotts and Damian Lillard will always have a great relationship. Terry Stotts empowered Damian Lillard over nine years. Like took him on as a rookie and helped develop him into the player he became. So I can understand the loyalty between Lillard and Stotts. The one interesting thing about the Bucs and Celtics, I'd say, is the questions around their coaching staffs. You know, Missoula had to deal with it a lot last year, especially during the playoffs. Now listen, at the end of the day, he came within a game seven and Jason Tatum maybe not turned his ankle of making it to the finals. So maybe that stuff was overblown. But, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the assistance the Celtics added this summer and the reasons they needed to do that. Bringing in a guy like Jeff Van Gundy, for example, to consult with them. And the importance of that experience that it's a lot of pressure on Adrian Griffin in his first year to deliver a team with title expectations. And now he's losing his most experienced assistant coach. It's going to be very interesting. I think that's a serious variable for the Bucs. We've seen it cut both ways. I mean, we've seen Nick Nurse have a lot of success. We've seen Emei Yudoka have a lot of success. Other times it doesn't go as well. So I think it's going to be very interesting keeping an eye on just how the coaching staff in both Milwaukee and Boston ultimately affects what those teams do. I think one of the undercurrents of the Celtics summer, for example, was maybe moving on from some of the guys that didn't fully buy in with Missoula. Guys who necessarily didn't have the best relationship with him. So I don't know that it's going to make a huge impact because they're just so much more talented than the rest of the conference. But I'm interested to see how that plays out. Yeah, it certainly adds a wrinkle to what Milwaukee's trying to do this season. I think with such a slim margin between the Celtics and the Bucs, anything can make a difference. So that's worth keeping an eye on this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from NBA Over/Unders, Part 2: The Pacific and Central Divisions With Ryen Russillo and Joe House | Starring Booker, Curry, LeBron, and Giannis
"Coming up, part two of the annual NBA Over -Unders Extravaganza with Rossello and House. Let's do it. Next. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the best time of the year with football in full swing and basketball returning soon. FanDuel, the best place to bet on the action. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. And when you win, you get paid instantly. Get exclusive offers every day. Jump into the action at any time during the game with quick bets and take home a fast W. Plus check out the Explore page for the simplest way to start betting. Download the app today. Bet with America's number one sportsbook. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Visit TheRinger .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit TheRinger .com slash RG. Support for this podcast comes from Royal Caribbean. Introduce their newest ship, Icon of the Seas. It's the ultimate six slide, eight neighborhood, zero compromise vacation. The ultimate never done that, can't wait to do a vacation. The ultimate chilling by a different pool every day of the week vacation. This is the Icon of Vacations, Icon of the Seas, arriving 2024. Book today. Visit RoyalCaribbean .com. Come seek the Royal Caribbean. Ship's registry, Bahamas. Tap the banner to learn more. If you missed part one of the big over and under podcast with Brazil on House, it is already up. This is part two. We're doing the Pacific in the Western Conference and the Central in the Eastern Conference. Here we go. Pearl Jam, one more time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from Money Grabs, Eli Manning 2.0, NBA Rookie Watch, NFL Nerding, and an MCU Deep Dive With Craig Horlbeck, Danny Heifetz, Austin Gayle, J. Kyle Mann, and Joanna Robinson
"Coming up, NBA, NFL, million dollar picks, a little MCU, some big picture sports stuff next. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the best time of the year with football in full swing and basketball returning soon. FanDuel, the best place to bet on the action. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use, and when you win, you get paid instantly. Get exclusive offers every day. Jump into the action at any time during the game with quick bets and take home a fast W. Plus, check out the Explore page for the simplest way to start betting. Download the app today. Bet with America's number one sportsbook. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Visit TheRinger .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit TheRinger .com slash RG. This episode is brought to you by our friends at State Farm. There's no playbook when it comes to life or any of the other stressful tasks that adulthood throws your way. So many of us lay awake at night going through a list of what ifs. What if something happens to our home? What if I get into an accident? If life gives you a bad bounce, State Farm has a play for every what if. You can reach them 24 -7, you can file a claim on the State Farm mobile app, or you can simply call your agent with questions about your home or auto coverage. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Call or go to State Farm .com for a quote today. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday. We did They Live. I have another movie coming this Monday, Here Are Your Hints, 1993, lost more money than it made. There you go. That's all you need to know. Maybe you'll figure it out. I have on this podcast a lot going on. A little something at the top that I wanted to talk about that ties into what's going on in this Phillies Atlanta series, which is now over because Atlanta became the latest team to dominate the regular season and then lose immediately in the playoffs. So I want to talk about that. I have some thoughts. Million dollar picks. Craig Horlebeck and Danny Heifetz coming on to talk about NFL then and now comparisons for players. And then Austin Gale is going to nerd it up with us about the NFL. Oh wait, there's more basketball. Kyle Mann talking about all the rookies that we have coming into the NBA season in less than two weeks. And last but not least, our friend Joanna Robinson talking to MCU because she has a new book coming out. So this is really, really a loaded podcast. You should be paying for this. You really should. You're lucky this is free. Free content, my friends. Let's bring in Pearl Jam. All right, I'm going to do million dollar picks in one second, taping this on a Thursday morning. I was thinking about my friend James' baby doll Dixon today, whenever there was a Hollywood deal that we always would laugh at and be like, oh my God, I can't believe they did that or can't believe they took that job. And he would always say, money grab, baby. I'm talking about him like he's dead. He's still alive. What a money grab. And we just money grab has been a running joke with baby and Sal and Jimmy and my circles for a long time. Who's doing a money grab? All of the professional sports leagues right now are in one of the all time money grabs we've ever seen. Now, I was thinking about it last night with the Dodgers because on the one hand, the Dodgers get bounced in three games, right? They play this whole regular season. They get this great record and then they get bounced and they're done. And their fans are just irate. They're apoplectic. They can't believe this happened again. Oh my God, we lost momentum. Now, there's some rational Dodger fans that are also like, you know, we did start playing Kershaw in game one of a playoff series and he didn't make it out of the first inning. They lost Urias during the season, who was their best starting pitcher. And it was a pretty flawed Dodger team. Actually, I wasn't surprised that they lost. I didn't think it was gonna be the Diamondbacks. But in general, the Dodger fans are like, I just spent six months watching this team and this season ended in 90 hours. We saw this happen in the NBA with the Bucks and the Heat last April. The Heat was an eight seed. The Heat farted around during the whole regular season and turned it on for a couple games and all of a sudden the Bucks were gone, which was great. It was really fun. Hockey has had this forever. I had hockey season tickets for a couple of years with the Kings and the regular season was so meaningless and so stupid for a team that knew they were gonna make the playoffs that you almost wondered, what was the point? Why am I paying for this other than to see Connor McDavid or a couple other people? The NFL has expanded to 17 games, which all of us love football, but 17 seems way too many, especially with the injury potential. And they're probably gonna go to 18. They'll just keep the gravy train going. And it's all about the money. And I'm not breaking any new ground by saying that, but at what point do we stop carrying? At what point, because I'm there with baseball. Baseball is fun. You put it on every once in a while. But for the most part, if you have a good baseball team, and I've had a few, the 2018 Red Sox were probably the best start to finish baseball team I've ever rooted for, but ultimately they also could have lost and not won or it would have been over. It's all about the playoffs now. And it feels way more random than it ever did. And I don't know if it's a good thing. I think it's a bad thing for baseball because people talk about how fun these wildcard games are and the pitch clock, and I'm with you. I've watched a ton of baseball, but I also didn't really watch any baseball during the regular season. And I'm somebody who grew up loving baseball. I watched baseball my whole life. I wrote a Red Sox book up until probably the late 2000s. I love baseball equally with every other sport. And now I just don't care as much. And there's a million reasons for that. But the biggest reason is the regular season just doesn't matter at all. You could win 120 games and it doesn't matter. The other team could just get hot. Like, well, look at the Phillies right now. The Phillies, who everyone was like, they're built for the playoffs, they're built for the playoffs. That seems like the type of team you should just build. Build a team. Who cares about the regular season? Build it for the playoffs. I think Miami has entered this mode in the NBA just year after year. They don't care. They're going to be like a five seed, six seed, seven seed, eight seed. Doesn't matter. And they'll just see if they can get hot. It's more fun if you have no attention span at all. And maybe it makes more sense in the TikTok generation. But for what I grew up with and what we used to care about was the totality of everything. The regular season meant this. It really meant something to win 100 games of baseball. It was amazing if your basketball team won 60 games. There were just these little markers that you had in your head. And all this stuff ties in. The load management piece, which the NBA is allegedly trying to fix. I'll believe it when I see it. Football adding more games so that the sport is more random than ever before. There's more chance for injury than there's ever been. And there's more chance for just wacky results, which I think is maybe what they want. I'm not sure I want it. I don't like where we are. Like even in baseball, and I think hockey is another one, and I think basketball is another one. The home team should get some sort of advantage for being good during the regular season in baseball. This five game series the Dodgers had against the D -backs. Why wouldn't the Dodgers get all five games at home? The only advantage they get is that if there's a game five where they've just not played for a week and then you get game five at home and that's the advantage. Well, I've watched baseball for the last 25 years. The home field advantage, except for maybe the Phillies, doesn't seem to matter at all. The Red Sox won the majority of their biggest games on the road during the 2000s and 2010s. Can count them up. I always felt like the 0 -14, the 0 -7, I felt like those teams could win anywhere. The 18 team had that crazy extra extra extra innings game against the Dodgers where it seemed like the season was over. Guess what? They won the next game. Home field doesn't matter as much. So if it doesn't matter as much, at least make it so that in round one a team is rewarded for winning a hundred plus games and all their games are at home. And if you want to go in their house and beat them, that seems fair. But to just make it like it's worth one game, I felt the same way with Milwaukee and Miami. I think it should have been Milwaukee gets the first two, Miami gets the next two, Milwaukee gets the next three. They earned it. They got the one seed. So we're heading toward this world where regular seasons will continue to be devalued. They'll try to cover it up with fantasy and gambling, but for the most part, there's going to just going to be more randomness with the results. And I don't think I like that. I don't know if Miami was a better team than Milwaukee last year. I think Giannis got hurt and Jimmy Butler left his body and then they beat Milwaukee in a series and it was fun, but did that mean they were a better team? What's the point of these seasons? Are we just turning everything into March Madness? Feels like where we're heading. I'll tell you this though. It's a fucking money grab. All right. Million Dollar Picks coming up.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
A highlight from Preseason Begins & The Annual GM Survey
"This is the crossover NBA podcast Chris Mannix joined as I always am by Chris Herring and Rohan Nadkarni. Quick housekeeping note fellas the NBA preview issue is out I guess the basketball preview issue because there is a lot of college stuff in there as well but the cover is NBA Jimmy Butler guest editor for this NBA preview issue Rohan you spent some time with Jimmy Butler in parts unknown I assume South Florida did a a story with him it's excellent check that out I've got a piece on the Phoenix Suns spent some time talking to Matt Ishbia James Jones Frank Vogel key pieces of that organization trying to recreate exactly what happened after the season ended how they got this point where they have one of the most expensive teams in NBA history a lot of good stuff there scouting reports different elements as well make sure you pick up the magazine on stands right now. So fellas we've got the NBA GM survey that's out and I want to dive into some of the elements of that but before we start recording this podcast I was just going through social media looking up some clips and all that stuff and I came across one from the Pat Bev pod the Patrick Beverly pod he does with Barstool Sports I just want to play this clip for you because Pat Bev was joined by Michael Rubin the former owner of the Philadelphia 76ers now this still the CEO with fanatics someone who has a strong relationship with a lot of players including James Harden who they discussed in this clip here as a past NBA owner obviously you're close to the Sixers the situation that's going on with James Harden how would you handle it it wouldn't have happened you know first of all James is family to me and like I'm not going to hide about that I love James this thing is breaking my heart this thing was just not handled well he was playing with us in practice and boy he was cooking he was oh I'm talking about the pot was out and he was stirring that bitch up there's nobody who wants to win a championship more than James Harden I know this guy like my brother people give James a hard time because you know he likes to have fun it's bullshit like the guy the guy's work ethic for basketball is insane and his attitude has been great he's been leading he's been giving advice so you might hear all the bad shit you know TV from reporters that's not there but actually being a teammate that's there he's he's been phenomenal I block out the noises really same because I think a lot of people just don't know like the real James Harden how badly he wants to win I think he's in great not good shape he's in great shape yeah he's in great shape right that's right body looks great yeah every time I'm in the weight room he's in the weight room he's gonna ball out this year so herring I know my blood shouldn't boil when I hear stuff like this and I know it you know the podcast is doing its job if it gets me kind of drawn in and talking about it but to hear Michael Rubin say that James Harden wants to win a championship more than anyone at the same time that James Harden is trying to force his way off a championship contender that is a Rubik's Cube of nonsense that I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around your thoughts on the propaganda emerging from the Pat Bev pod about James Harden I'm just trying to think of a stranger mashup than the one you just explained I mean the the whole universe of Michael Rubin and all the there's so many things lately that just on social media that I've wanted to mute and I don't think I know enough about how to do it I haven't taken the time to do it but if I had a way of muting like Michael that Rubin parties James Harden and any other number of athletes are at or like all these white parties and everything else it's like I would do that but that makes this element of this story this this framing odd because it's like okay well he presumably is friendly with James Harden or James Harden is friendly with him but also the fundamental standpoint now at this point that maybe there are people in the organization that instead of kind of just gloves off which it seemed like it would be based on what James Harden said about Daryl Morey earlier this summer that there's also the very real possibility that maybe he's not traded and so they need him to feel wanted and they need him to feel like they want him to perform well which is what you would want if you're a team that at least there's a you said in one of the last pockets we did it's not out of the realm of possibility that they could be a winner a contender a champion if everything fell right you know the right way so I think that's all this is is just positive reinforcement but I mean it's also silly from the standpoint that you're saying that clearly people that are making trade demands whether it's behind the scenes whether it's publicly whether it's saying my general manager my president is a liar it's hard to hold those two thoughts in the same time in your head that you know on the one hand he can say those things but also nobody wants it more than he does come on like I did I know it's just you know the first thing probably that popped into Ruben's mind but it's just silly Rowan I know you're you're a regular at these white parties but do you have a issue let me just first of all echo my esteemed colleague Chris herrings fatigue with Michael Rubin just this guy's everywhere all the time fanatics sucks I'll say it fanatics is not good wow let's start there I mean like kudos to Michael Rubin you know what he did getting involved with meat mill etc but like we could have left it at that listen I if I were James Harden I might be living my life a similar way I let me put it that way but there is now a what is it a preponderance of evidence that winning a championship is not necessarily number one on this guy's priority list just not only in terms of how he's carried himself this offseason but how he likes to carry himself during the season when he's staying in Miami or Vegas for an extra night I'm away from steam mates are flying separately etc that all that stuff's been reported I'm just I'm sick of the the Sixers offseason I'm sick of the Embiid hard in partnership I respect you Mannix for still holding out hope having faith you've always been kind of an optimist a wanderer a dream I died that's why I don't describe you but I'm just so over this it just well like you said I mean respect to that podcast we're here talking about it I love Pat Bev he's a good personality but like what are we doing here Michael Rubin who are you who are you fooling okay we are familiar with James Harden's game okay you're not fooling us game off the court specifically right like you you can't say James Harden is misunderstood or gets a bad rap when right he he forced his way out of Houston by throwing a multi -week temper tantrum he effectively quit on the Nets which forced them to make a when deal they probably didn't want to and now here he is trying to get out of Philadelphia after holding you know one of the worst holdouts in holdout history to stay away from the team it just the the I mean just trying to get us to believe that is just wild so you know we had to talk about it you know James Harden still officially member of the 76ers we'll see what happens as these preseason games go on and what they do with them but right now James Harden kind of between a rock and a hard place might have to play for Philadelphia this season so I want to talk in this episode about the GM survey which always provides good preseason material whenever it comes out and there were some interesting elements in this year's GM survey guys and I want to start with the championship prediction from the NBA GMs which turned into a two -way tie between the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets Milwaukee coming into third place 23 % Phoenix 7 % they came in fourth in the LA Clippers finishing at 3 % last year the Bucks were the leader at 43 % Denver doesn't surprise me Denver has the core of that team back we've talked about this before I think they can expect some organic growth from Christian Brown I think Peyton Watson might be able to play they've some other guys on that roster that can take steps up by the way while we're speaking of the Nuggets condolences to Mike Malone's family for the passing of Brendan Malone his father that was revealed by the organization this week but when it comes to Denver on the floor I can see why they'd be a championship contender the Celtics I might be one of the few pessimists I don't know if I'm pessimistic about the South I have more questions about the Celtics than many people do my good friend Scalabrini was on TV recently and he said every GM would want this roster and I tend to agree with that sort of because if you could bubble wrap this roster and guarantee that it plays 65 to 70 games together and will be healthy going into the playoffs I think you're absolutely right I think the backcourt is really strong especially defensively Drew Holliday elite defender Derek White big time defender we know what Jalen Brown Jason Tatum can do you know that that that speaks for itself the front court is good right Chris has Porzingis good player Al Horford good player but Porzingis chronically injured right like he played what 60 -65 games last year but that was a contract year and I have less confidence he's going to be able to repeat that he was already injured this off season with whatever happened with his foot over in the World Cup Al Horford's 37 by design he's probably only going to play like 50 games this year because they want to keep him healthy for the playoffs so we don't know what's what Al Horford is going to look like at the end of this season after that what is there they signed Wennion Gabriel Wennion Gabriel last year played 68 games for the Lakers in the playoffs he played 10 he averaged 3 .7 minutes per game in the playoffs with the Lakers last year that is the definition of playable in the regular season and unplayable in the playoffs like it just is what it is Luke Cornette is still there he was unplayable for Boston in the playoffs last year you know this is a team that was already thin when Grant Williams was there now Grant Williams is gone and I don't know what they do if one of these two guys goes down for any length of time so that's a long way of saying like yeah I can buy the argument that the Celtics are the team to beat Eastern Conference I can buy the argument that they are a championship contender but Rohan I just I have a lot of concerns about what happens if anything goes south in that front court I agree I mean that's why I thought the holiday trade was so fascinating and why I wasn't sure how seriously to take Boston as a contender for holiday even though his name was obviously their name was obviously coming up that entire weekend before he was traded a huge reason why they've been been special the last few years is kind of the alchemy of their front court mix -in matching Horford, Rob Williams, and Grant Williams that's gone entirely I see people saying now Porzingis and Horford might start together this talks about does Derek White come off the bench there's a right that's another thing I don't understand I mean you don't you don't have a backup really for either guy right now why aren't they backing up each other that already is starting to not make a ton of sense for me the way I look at it Mannix is I do think we're starting to see some trickle -down effect of the second apron because you look at the top teams right now whether it's Milwaukee, Boston, Phoenix, Denver to an extent it's not that the championship teams of yesteryear were flawless but we're looking at teams that are especially top heavy these days and Boston doesn't have a lot of avenues to improve the roster same for Milwaukee I mean I think Milwaukee has a great five and uh Holliday, Conaton, Middleton, Giannis, and Lopez but then they have Bobby Portis and they have a bunch of question marks after that they don't have a lot of playoff rotation guys uh Phoenix is in a similar boat Denver I think you and I are probably high on Denver's bench than most people we like what we think Peyton Watkins can do Peyton Watson can do Zeke Najee Swarther had a nice pre -season debut but those are a bunch of question marks for them right now so on one hand I echo your skepticism about Boston only in terms of Horford's coming off the worst postseason of his career um I think on both ends of the floor and he's only getting older Porzingis he's played 10 playoff games in his life but when you match them up against kind of the other contenders unless you think like a team like the Lakers or Warriors who have a little bit more depth maybe not quite as much top and talent uh can make a push I understand why you'd put Boston there only because I think a lot of the contenders are really top heavy right now well I mean but the the front court like to get out of the Eastern Conference you gotta get through Milwaukee and Milwaukee's front court is still really strong they still have all the pieces that were in place they still got Giannis still got Brook Lopez still got Bobby Portis they've still got all the guys that have the potential to give Boston a lot of problems and I go back a couple of years and the Celtics back when they had Rob Williams and they had Grant Williams they were in the mix for Yaka Purdle when San Antonio was trying to deal him they wanted to get Purdle they didn't want to get two first -round draft picks back then but they knew back then when they had you know three you know strong front court guys that they needed one more to get through Milwaukee that was when they made the deal for Mike Mascala and he turned out to be unplayable in the playoffs as well so I have concerns about Boston's front court anything about the predictions hearing concern you or you know stand out to you whether it's the Celtics or somebody else I mean I can admit to the same thing you guys are saying that I was surprised that Boston was tied for first for just you know the team that GM's thought was the most likely to win the whole thing it's really hard for me to look at this roster without wincing just a little bit we all can acknowledge that there's a lot of top and talent in this team there was before the moves they made this summer there is now the Porzingis fit is interesting I think everybody can look at that and say wow that if this works out they can win a title obviously no one's denying that it's just to have him and Horford as your two centers and then Wendy and Gabriel who I really like but I don't think of as necessarily my second or third string center or you know if he's even a center he's like six nine or whatever he is so that's all it's just you know and look I've been critical of the Celtics from the standpoint of you're trading away a lot to get Porzingis if only you're talking about Marcus Smart from the standpoint of you know a backbone a heart and soul obviously a very versatile important defender within that cog that they have defensively so they go get Drew Holliday and I think it does kind of answer a lot of those questions a lot of those criticisms but I just I still wonder a little bit of if now you're doing that and in doing that you give away Robert Williams if it makes you thinner at the spot that I was most concerned about now you know it's center even when they had those three it was kind of a weird hodgepodge of guys that you're not for any reason you're not gonna feel comfortable about whether they can hold up and be healthy the whole year also stylistically if you're missing one of guys it changes the way your offense looks because two of them are guys that can shoot from three one is a guy that's kind of more around the rim and setting screens and stuff like that so anyway I was just a little bit surprised that as we're all acknowledging the potential thinness of this group that they would be a co -favorite here I think the Nuggets still deserve to be the favorite and I personally would probably take the Bucks over the Celtics as a favorite but but all that said you know I don't think there's a runaway team here after the Nuggets I would probably leave them at number one because there was a lot of other stuff that happened between the depth of the Lakers the top end stuff of the Celtics the top end stuff of the Bucks to me when I see that much stuff happening I'm just going to defer to the team that won last year that granted they did lose some things but they have the potential to get better with more continuity of the top end guys that they have that haven't been healthy up until last year so I would you know I was a little bit surprised to see that Boston pulled into a tie with Denver among the GMs well we as we know the Boston media mafia is working over time in these kinds of situations I'm kidding I know it was the GM survey one thing I want to throw out there is in a in kind of a funny twist like the Celtics have had the best Joel Embiid defender over the years in Al Horford and Horford was giving Embiid problems in the semis last year to the point where Tucker had to get in his face and be like bro you need to take this matchup but what does Boston do now in that matchup because if you're playing Horford against Embiid does that mean you're playing Porzingis and Horford together and which of your guards are you keeping off the floor does that mean you keep Derek White off the floor it's kind of an interesting problem they've created for themselves unless they're willing to live with Porzingis on Embiid but that kind of takes away one of the biggest strengths they've had in that matchup over the years yeah is it going to be a challenge for them because Horford has been excellent I mean Embiid he gives him so many problems he clearly has the timing down on Embiid like he does he knows yeah it's fat it's fantastic to watch he pushes him off his spots he's he's just got a lot of you know and maybe some of it's mental too like Embiid's seen him so many times over the years that it's like all right well Al Horford again and you know he's asked about every single postseason he's had great games against Horford don't get me wrong he's played really well at times but it is I have a little surprise guys that the team nobody's really in on the Suns yet seven percent seem a little low for me you know man look I understand maybe Herring you got to give this team time to figure itself out and see if these guys can play together and see if this mix of players can work but you know if that team gets the playoffs fully healthy hard to stop very hard to stop in the postseason no no question I mean you know I watched clips I watched bits of the the game that they played against the Pistons and granted it's the Pistons you know one of the youngest teams in the league but to watch the Suns who you know have just started playing together that you know have 80 points between the first and the third quarter of a road game road opener for preseason there's obviously a lot of potential there offensively I would say that as we talk the things we like and dislike about teams the thinness the depth of these rosters I'm a little bit surprised that the Suns haven't done a little bit more to go out and get a a bonafide point guard I think it's a big granted you have a lot of ball handling on that roster it's not to say you don't and top level guys that can do it but it's a big change to go from having Chris Paul be your point guard and even to have campaign be your backup point guard to then going and just saying we're you know we're going to kind of take the Clippers route to have our forwards handle the ball to have Devin Booker handle the ball again all guys that can do it but these are also guys that you like to just kind of throw in iso situations you don't want to wear them down the whole season of having them handle the ball so I they've added depth and I think they need that they obviously needed it last offseason or I'm sorry last postseason and so they've done well to add to that but I think that they still it would do them well to have even if it's you know I look at something like what the Bulls did they went and got Javon Carter someone that played for the Suns at one point the sort of guy that could really be helpful to this team I also wonder just a little bit just a little and I think I saw some of this in their first preseason game as well Yusuf Nurkic is an interesting fit I think he can do good things for them he's good you know as a playmaker here and there defensively I worry just a little bit about him of how big it seemed like he took in Portland and you know for all the problems Ayton has at times I wonder if he's more nimble defensively and would work better defensively with that team but we'll see we'll see what happens I think that the Suns absolutely could win it they absolutely have the talent and skill to do it I think they have you know a coach that I really like one of my favorites in league and Vogel but I definitely have some questions about them which is why again would still take Denver head and shoulders above everybody else for now I actually am a little bit surprised the Lakers didn't get more picks here as well in this in the survey I maybe would have liked the Suns more before the Nurkic trade I'm just I'm replaying that Denver series in my head and while Landry Shammet was getting a ton of open threes and theoretically that could be Bradley now I mean I look at them as even worse or you know more poorly equipped to slow down the Nuggets than they were last year and while we're on the subject of health I mean Durant you know he missed some time obviously he came back right before the start of the playoffs and looked great at times and I think bookers only continue to improve but I mean there's a health there's a health question mark hanging over them you know as long as Durant is there and I I need to see it I mean there's definitely some exciting moments just watching kind of Beale Booker and Durant take their turns in that preseason game and it's like oh man like they have three guys who can go just iso and get a score seemingly anytime they want but and I'm I'm warming to the Nurkic move more than when it first happened but I really need to see that defense in action for a little while before I can take them seriously as a title contender yeah I think you guys just articulated why they only got seven percent of the vote there's a lot of question marks out there about them until we see them actually come together and play all right we had Nicole Jokic picked up first place in two different categories and I want to talk about both of them first was the player most likely to win the 2023 -24 MVP he got 43 percent of the vote in that category Yanis at number two at 20 percent and then if you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player who would it be he got 33 percent of the vote in in that category Victor Webayama coming in second with 23 percent on the subject of MVP guys let's start there 43 percent of the vote I'm actually shocked it wasn't higher like I thought it would be like 70 percent because not look first he's 28 years old he's in his prime he's durable he's just won a championship he was you know the best player on the best team in the NBA there's no reason to believe he's not going to come in next year and put up comparable or this year put up comparable numbers and I do think that the people that were divided on Nicole Jokic last year are not going to be divided this year the people that were skeptics about his ability to win and use that against him when it came to MVP voting and use that as a reason to vote for Joel Embiid those people aren't going to exist or that feeling isn't going to exist if Nicole Jokic puts up MVP numbers on the guy on the team that is at or near the top of the western conference there is no doubt in my mind he is going to win MVP he is going to get deservedly I think every benefit of the doubt this year when it comes to MVP votes so whether it's you know Embiid, Giannis, Jason Tatum, Luka Doncic I think Jokic is going to get the benefit of the doubt there Herring I think he's going to be by far and away he is by far and away the front runner to win the MVP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from Part 2: Zach Wilsons Alive, Belichicks in Trouble, Buffalos Cruising, and Week 5 Lines With Cousin Sal
"All right. So we're taping part one here. It is a little past 4 o 'clock Pacific time. Just watch the Pats completely shit the bed. We're not going to talk about that. That'll be part two. Part one. Ryan Russilla was here. We're talking Drew Holiday. The big trade. How is the NBA different for you right now, and are we done? Do we finally have the 30 rosters? Is this what we're looking at? Do we know who's going to be on everybody's team, or are we somehow not done? I never think we're done anymore in the NBA, and I know you're being a gracious host here, but you and I talked for five minutes today. I think you have the headline take on this, okay? I think you have the headline take on what the top of the league looks like. Are you ready to share it this early? I think Boston has the best top six. I did not feel that way 24 hours ago. I did not feel like there was a clear best. I trust this team in crunch time, and if Porzingis stays healthy, which is a huge if, I think they have the best six, and they can fill around, and they have the most ways that they can play whoever in the series. So from that vantage point, you had to do the trade. And they gave up a center who has been hurt every single year, and I don't fully trust that he's ever going to be out there when it matters. Brogdon, who was hurt, who was mad at the team, and two picks. And you get Drew Holliday, who was a 2021 Finals hero, who's one of the best defensive guards in the league, who's still really good, and just raises their ceiling. Now you can go white Holliday, Tatum Brown, and a center at crunch time, and you're good. You can switch on almost everything, especially if you get anything from Horford. So were you similarly enthused? Yeah, I love Drew. There's some stuff with his shooting in the playoffs where it's been pretty bad, or you're like, is that just because you can't make shots at the playoffs, or is it just what happened statistically? I mean, it does happen. I mean, if I'm getting the negative parts out of the way, like, yeah, sure, he's a little bit older. The big situation is a huge question mark. I can't believe what they got from Horford last year. So I don't know if you can just pencil that in, because he was way beyond expectations, at least for me, or for what I had for him. But when you can add Drew for those pieces, and I'm with you, when Rob Williams is right, it's really, really nice. But you can even tell when he's out there, you're like, is something wrong with him again? The number of times that I've watched Rob Williams in Celtics games, I'm like, I know he's out there, but wait, something. And every time, I thought Marcus Smart was trying to end his career with some of those Valley U passes, depending on how he lands, like, wait, is this going to be the last one we ever see from him? So to me, it makes a lot of sense. By the way, on that Rob point, my dad texted me after the trade, he's like, oh, I hate giving up Rob. I'm like, you complained about Rob more than anybody I know in my life. You would text me from the games going, oh, Rob's just off in the, Rob just walked in the tunnel again. I don't know what happened. I like just Brian Barrett had a tweet, 32 games, 29 games, 52 games, 61 games, 35 games. Those are Rob Williams' last five years. It just wasn't reliable enough for a team that's trying to win a title. I interrupted you. No, you didn't, because it's a it's a really good point, because what's going to happen? I mean, you know, it's just there's there's definitely like if Prozingis is hurt, it feels like the whole thing is screwed up and there's a really good chance that that could happen. But if you're talking about like the allocation of minutes and the talent that's getting those minutes, well, the talent that's getting those minutes just went up with Drew Holiday. And that's, I think, the simplest way to look at it. So they they turn Marcus Smart and Grant Williams and Brogdon and Rob Williams into Drew Holiday and Prozingis, more Derek White minutes, more Peyton Pritchard minutes. And then there's a little bit of an X factor with who's going to be like that ninth man, tenth man, kind of big four slash five person, maybe, or somebody you trade like that. I feel like that's the easiest position to pick up in January and February. The big thing for me is I think White was ready for a bigger role. I think White and Holiday together is magnificent as a as a backcourt. And I read some stuff today. They think White's going to come off the bench. I don't know if I see that. I think I would come out of the gates with White and Holiday and Tatum and Brown in the center and maybe bring to your Horford point, like maybe bring Horford off the bench and try to really try to rest his minutes during the season and be careful with him and make him a bench player. And then the playoffs reassess. But I think that having those four guys all together, they complement each other so well. You can play basically any kind of defense against any perimeter guy in the league. Those four guys and they're just better. I mean, there's there's just no way around it. They're better. He's a much better player than Marcus Smart was last year. And you know, you made that point about the shooting. He'd have those games. He'd go 5 for 22 in a playoff game. You know, he'd eat. But I do feel like he was asked to do a little bit more than maybe what he's supposed to be doing. I don't feel like he's a pure point guard. Right. Now you have White who can handle most of the ball handling. He could play off the ball and they're going to get the best version of him. Awesome locker room guy, too, by all accounts. I mean, really like a beloved teammate wherever he went. And I think they wanted to change the chemistry a little bit. I think this was an unhappier team than maybe they led on to the outside world last year. Yeah. Look, I definitely like him more than Smart. And you know, to be totally fair, when I'm looking at like the Lillard side of this trade last week before we knew the second piece of Drew and upgrading from Drew to Lillard, I'm going, OK, well, now you're top two in Milwaukee's like in the argument for the best two in the NBA. OK, that's that's really what this league has been about now post the teens decade where it was the arms race for your top three. It's you look around the league, you go, OK, who's got the two best? Like, let's come up with the five teams who have the two best. And with Lillard and Giannis, that's like a whole nother level. So when I was looking at it, it's like Lillard compared to Drew, you know, Drew is not somebody you're expecting to break down a defense off the dribble. Right. Oh, we're stuck into the shot clock, like make something happen where Lillard can literally do anything right in the final second of the shot clock and still you feel like it's still a decent look. So that part of it's a huge upgrade. But he's number three to four as far as an offensive option. He also and I don't know, this is just me talking out loud as I thought about the trade. It's pretty clear that when Boston's offense gets into trouble in the playoffs, like Tatum and Brown haven't figured out a way to kind of unlock it other than just like I can already picture my head like I know what the Tatum move is going to be. I already know what the Jaylen Brown move is going to be. And I don't know if Smart was able to make their life easier with the playmaking. And then sometimes I even think Smart would go like, well, if you guys are going to screw around, like I might just I might just be green light on this possession. I don't think Drew necessarily plays that way. So, you know, it's probably silly for me to think that like Drew is going to be the Steve Nash type who comes in and sets up all these great late playoff possessions. But there may be something in lessening the burden of those guys feeling that they have to do or defaulting to just forcing the issue as much as they do in the playoffs. I like how much ball handling they have, to your point, because they were talking about experimenting a little bit more with Tatum as a point forward this year, which makes me nervous a little bit just because, you know, he's six foot nine. I'm not sure that's the best use of him, but they seem pretty adamant. Like we feel like he could be a little bit more of a creator. And then you think White can do that. To me, White is the key to this season now, because if, you know, other than the Porzingis health thing, which I almost I'm going to knock on wood, but part of the reason they made all this movement and they got rid of Brogdon and Smart was I think they really wanted to push White to be the lead ball handler for them and a creator. And there's some unbelievable pick and roll stats with him. And just if certain people set him a pick in the way, even in the Miami series, he was one of the only guys who could create offense. So I think they have that plus they have Drew. And the reality is for Drew, this is this might be the deepest offensive team he's been on. Right. When you think back to like it was on some pretty weird Philly teams and some pretty weird New Orleans teams, and even when Milwaukee was at its best, it was really just Giannis, Middleton and Drew. And that was it. This is there's more shooting and playmaking around him than I think we've seen. Maybe it'll be a slight upgrade on the flip side. He doesn't have Giannis, who was the second best player of the century, probably, but I like the spot for him. It seemed like he really wanted to go to a contending team and I don't really know who they were competing against because for reading through some of the reports, it just seemed like Philly. I don't even know what the trade was for them. Portland wanted at least one piece back, probably two that they could do their keeper package. They wanted picks back. Golden State wasn't even in it. And it didn't seem like OKC ever threw their hat in the ring, which I was shocked by because I felt like OKC was the sleeping giant of this whole thing with Dort and some picks and just say, fuck it, let's let's see if we can be really good this year. So it seemed like it was down to Boston. The Clippers, they just had more assets. I don't know if Portland keeps Rob. He's on a good contract. They already have Ayton. My guess is that they're probably spinning him. Does it make sense that both of those guys? My sense is they're going to try it out, you know, but, you know, the thing with Rob is like, if you think he's an awesome defensive player that's just out there, like he's awesome when he's used a certain way. And once Boston unlocked that two years ago, where they stuck him on a non shooting big and then you could see other teams adapt to it, it's like, well, let's stop giving them an out where Rob can just roam off of this dude that's not a shooting threat, because I think that, you know, this is just going to turn into like now that he's not here. But I mean, have you listened to us talk about Rob Williams at all last couple of years? He you know, I don't I don't think he's I know what the defensive metrics are. I know the on off stuff. It's a big reason why I think the analytics models always love Boston. Like sometimes you look at him and be like, hey, I think this team's good, but like these numbers are overwhelming. This is like, yeah, it's it's so far like as if there's this huge gap between Boston and everybody else, which I never really felt going back these last two years. But you're if Chauncey Billups and you think like, OK, Rob Williams is going to go out there and like wreak havoc, it's like, well, he has to be used a certain way. So maybe they feel like that's in defensive support to Aiten. And with Aiten, you know, I have I'm not quite sure what to expect. Well, this is the one thing he's probably going to put up huge numbers because he's not going to have older dudes that have a higher status in the league that go, I'm sick of passing it to you. So he's probably going to get more touches. We'll probably see like early Aiten numbers and like twenty to ten for the first six weeks of the season. Yeah, I'm with you. Yeah. Like he'll he'll he'll put up some big numbers there. But, you know, defensively, it's really about his competitiveness because there were times I think going back two years ago when we were thinking about him with that run of the Suns, the finals, you're like, look at this guy. Like he can switch out on the smaller players. You can rotate. But it's all about the way he's wired. And I think long term, unfortunately, like we already kind of know the answer there. Like I don't think all of a sudden now you start playing with some fierceness after being in the league this long. So he was the fifth option on that team and there seemed to be real resentment toward him in that whole Phoenix culture of like, why doesn't he just realize we don't need his offense? We need him to basically rebound and block shots and crash the offensive boards. I think his attitude was probably twenty five years old. I want to be the best player I can be. I already went to a finals. I don't that's not I think I could do more than that. So I don't I don't think anyone was necessarily wrong. As I said, on my Thursday pot, I just hated the trade for Phoenix. I just thought they got the poopoo platter back. You know, they got some some some spare ribs back and a couple of egg rolls and and that's it. But they did not get an entree back. And I think he's an entree on the right team, whether he's a guy that made sense for them. I don't know. But I know that they didn't get a good haul for him. I think Rob, for his contract, for what his talents are, is a really intriguing piece for them or for another team, because you could trade for him. And it's not like a daunting salary. Right. I think he's in what is what is it, like 15 a year or something like that? No, it's a really good. Yeah. I mean, it was a really low cost extension and he's still a pretty young guy. Yes, so.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from A Dame Trade Deep Dive With Ben Thompson, Plus Seth Meyers and Million-Dollar Picks
"Coming up, Dame gets traded. Million dollar pick Seth Meyers, it's all next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Get in on the football action right from the opening kickoff with America's number one sports book. The app is safe, secure, easy to use. FanDuel always has exclusive offers. When you win, you'll get paid instantly. FanDuel has lots of ways to play, like the spread, money line, over -unders, team totals, player props, so much more. Jump into the action at any time during the game with live betting. Combine multiple bets from the same game in a same game parlay. Download the FanDuel sports book app today. Make every moment more of this football season. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit TheRinger .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of this episode for additional details. You must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit TheRinger .com slash RG. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. I just use this. Here's something every football fan should know. You can get everything you need for game day delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything because you can't get the dream flex for your fantasy team delivered with Uber Eats. But Tex -Mex, yeah, great pass protection, can't get it. Great pizza selection, oh yeah. While they can't help on the field, you can get pretty much everything else you need to watch the game delivered with Uber Eats. So this season, get anything, almost, almost anything for game day by ordering on the Uber Eats app. Uber Eats, official on -demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. I'll call in select markets and 21 plus to order. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did the big chill. It was very, very exciting. I have Kyle Brandt coming on Monday's podcast. I'm just gonna tell you the movie now because it is gonna be the best moment of your weekend if you spent two hours watching this classic. We're doing Toy Soldiers. It really brings everything possible to the table. So if you wanna watch it ahead of time, there it is. That podcast is going up Monday night. If you wanna hear stuff about the debate, we have Tara Paul and Mary's podcast, Somebody's Gotta Win. That reacted to it as well as the press box with Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker. So there you go. Our debate coverage has been on point. Also, higher learning. Van and Rachel had Larry Elder on this weekend. It made a lot of noise, man. That podcast is great. I hope you check that out as well. Hope you're checking out theringer .com. And on this podcast, gonna talk about the dame trade at the top. We're gonna bring in Ben Thompson from the Techery newsletter, which he's been on this podcast I think four weeks ago. And he's a huge Bucks fan. He's gonna give the Bucks fan side of things. We're gonna do million dollar picks. And then old friend Seth Meyers talking about a whole bunch of stuff. So really good podcast. It's all next. First, our friends from Pro Jam. What's up? All right, I'm taping this on Thursday afternoon. Normally when there's a big MBA trade, I always do the emergency trade reaction right after the podcast. But we just put up a podcast on Tuesday. So I decided to play it a little differently this time. I wanted a little distance, I wanted to listen to stuff, read stuff, and try to form some big picture opinions coming out of this. So I have four smaller ones, then one big one. First one, I thought Portland did an incredible job with this trade. I really liked this trade, especially everyone was trying to bully them in June and July about, oh, you got to take Miami's offer. You just got to. It's where he wants to go. It's the only offer you're going to get. And guess what? They waited. They played it perfectly. They stared Miami down, and they got a much better deal. First of all, they get the Drew Holiday piece that they can flip into a bunch out of their stuff, which we'll talk about in one second. I love the DeAndre Ayton gamble. As you know, on this podcast, I am a big DeAndre Ayton guy. Not in the sense of I'm the biggest fan of his in the world, but I'm a fan of the asset. I just think I love the valued assets, no matter what it is. Whatever market we're talking about, DeAndre Ayton, 18 and 10 for his career, 60 % field goals percentage, 25 years old. He's played in 45 playoff games. He played four rounds in the 2021 finals. Last year, he got his ass kicked by Jokic. Oh, sorry. Like, that never happens. And Phoenix just sold on him, which I can't wait to talk about. But just from a Portland standpoint, they not only get Ayton in whatever they get for holiday, they get the 29 first, they get the two swaps, and they dump Nurkic. Nurkic hasn't had a healthy start to finish all the way through the playoffs here since 2018, which I'm positive was a long time ago. He's basically 12 and 8. He's, you know, a 50 % shooter. I made a list of the top 30 centers. I encourage you to do this at home, because what's more fun than making lists of NBA centers? I can't imagine anything. I made a list of who I thought were the best assets of the center position for talent, contract, everything. He was 29th on my list. The only person I had ahead of him who's technically a starter, unless you start talking about the Detroit or Charlotte guys, was Zubats on the Clippers. I thought he was the 29th best center asset in the league. And Phoenix, you know, just quickly to go to them, they're trying to win this year. They got worse. They turned Ayton's money into Nurkic and Grayson Allen and Nasir Little. Grayson Allen, we already know with him, he can't play in playoff series. We saw him 22. We saw it last year. I heard and read in some places like that, I got two rotation players. Did they? Is Nurkic a playoff rotation player? Is Grayson Allen a playoff rotation player? Because I'm positive he's not. So for the same money that they were spending on Ayton, they got three guys that I don't think are going to help them. In 25, the money comes down a little bit to 23 million just for Nurkic and Little, which is 7 million less than Ayton. And then in 26, that money goes up to 25 .5. But I don't understand what Phoenix was doing. Why not wait to see if Ayton clicks with Vogel? Vogel has such a good history with centers. He rejuvenated Dwight Howard on the 2020 Lakers. He basically created Roy Hibbert's career in 2013 with the defense verticality thing. I thought he was going to do a good job with Ayton. I'm stunned that they gave up on him. I'm almost waiting for one of those, now they tell us stories when, you know, that's where Brian Curtis calls them, where like a week after something happens, there's this kind of notebook dump where it's like, here's seven terrible DeAndre Ayton stories. So maybe that'll happen. But for Phoenix just to be like, cool, we locked this down, man. We got Nurkic. You're trying to win the title. You have KD and Booker and Beal. And like, what are you guys doing? Anyway, from Portland's standpoint, I love the Ayton thing. I love that they didn't get bullied. And I know they're going to turn Drew Holliday into something. So this to me was at least an A minus for them, for where they were two months ago, where Dave's like, I want to go to Miami. That's it. And if you don't trade me there, that's kind of fucked up. And they made this work as it got reported that, uh, I think in the athletic, that he expanded his list to Brooklyn and to Milwaukee in the last two weeks. And that's what Portland was waiting on. You know, they were banking on the fact that he's a competitive dude. He's one of the best 75 pairs ever. He wanted a situation settled. So, you know, you wait, you wait, you wait, they expand the list and then you go. Uh, there's a Drew Holliday piece to this. That's awesome. He becomes a contender prize. I wouldn't call this a Drew Holliday sweepstakes. I reserved sweepstakes for the superstars, but it's a mini sweepstakes. This is somebody that could have a huge impact on the playoff race. You know, not only the usual suspects, everybody's talking about Boston, ironically, Miami is a really good fit for him. And in some ways, um, I'm a little more scared of them with Miami than Dame in some ways, especially at a much cheaper contract with giving up less and keeping some of their assets. Philly, if they could pull it off, they have to be in there in Golden State, Minnesota. I think I have to mention Sacramento, I think is a team that if they could figure out how to get Drew without giving up their core, which is basically Keegan Murray and Sabonis and Fox, like that's, you know, could Davion Mitchell be in that trade with some, with a salary and some picks, who knows. The team that I love for Drew Holliday is OKC. I have OKC, you know, I started doing my MBA research for the over -under spot and I haven't landed on a number for them yet, but to me, they feel like a high forties team with Chet and with the growth of their young guys. And if you just like, let's say they traded Lou Dort and a bunch of their picks, maybe two firsts and two of their lesser picks or three firsts and a second, whatever it is. And they just say, fuck it. And they get Drew and you put him with Giddy and SGA and Jalen fucking awesome Williams and Chet Holmgren and all these other dudes they have, that might be a top three team in the West. I mean, that, that's starting to give me some early 2010s OKC vibes. So where he goes is going to be important. I just feel like there was so much Drew Holliday slander the last couple of days. You know, he's one of my favorite players. Even Haralabob, who was the chairman of the board of the Drew Holliday fan club for years and would have the benefit dinners there and, you know, just did a lot of yeoman's work on that front. And even he was like, yeah, yeah, Dame's better than Drew. That trade makes sense for Milwaukee. I was hurt, Haralabob. I was 100 % hurt by that. But you know, Drew got his ass kicked by Jimmy Butler in the playoffs last year. I get it. It happens. Jimmy was unbelievable. I feel like he would have kicked anybody's ass. By the way, why is Drew Holliday guarding Jimmy Butler? That speaks more to some of the issues with Milwaukee. He was never supposed to be a point guard and a creator. I think he was always better as an off -the -ball guy. We saw that with Rondo and New Orleans and just in general. I want to see him with a point guard. I want to see him just being unleashed, not having the ball a lot, just worrying about hitting threes, being an occasional, you know, make -shit -happen guy and being like the third or fourth best guy on a team without having the offensive responsibility to have. All their half court issues got blamed on him for the last couple of years. And I get it. They weren't like an awesome half -court team, even the other one in the finals, but I really value that dude. I had him, even I did the trade value list in August and I had him 37th and I had Dame 23rd. I think he's one of the best 30 players in the league still. He's 33 years old, which, you know, I'm going to talk in a second about when guards hit their mid -30s, but just in general, I think he's a real asset. If he goes to a team like the Celtics and they can keep Derek White and Tatum and Brown in the center, it's like, look out, man. So little mini sweepstakes, rarely do we get the trade, but then we still get another asset to talk about. Thank you for everyone involved in the trade. And then the fourth small point is just that, you know, not rocket science, Milwaukee bought some Giannis time here. They have one of the best 20 players of all time. They were staring down the barrel of a situation that was not good. I was talking about it on this podcast in late June and early July. I thought he was going to put them on the clock. I thought Mark Lasry selling his stake was a really bad sign for all of this because that dude is smart. As I laid out in June, that guy is really smart. And if he's feeling like, you know what, it's time for me to sell my buck stock, that makes me nervous. And then all the stuff that Giannis said and did, which I thought he did really fairly and really smartly. And I think that dude's about titles and that's it. And I know we say that about players, but I think in his case, I don't think he cares about, you know, what's my legacy, how do I compare against Dirk DeWhisky, any of that stuff. I just think he wants more rings. I mean, think about the guys who have won two rings out of the best 35 guys on my list of my pyramid. Those are all guys in my top 35 that won multiple wings. You go to the one -ring side, Jerry West, Oscar, Moses, Dirk, Jokic, Giannis, Pettit, Garnett, Kawhi, Rick Barry. That's the list he's on now. I certainly don't think he's looking at that list going, I got to get away from these guys, but it's a slightly different list. I think when you win multiple rings in multiple situations, it elevates you in a certain way. I think he fundamentally understands that at least a little bit. I want to be the best player since LeBron James. I think that's a thing that he wants. How am I going to do that? I need more rings. I need more finals trips. He knew from last year and maybe even the Boston series that they just weren't good enough. Whether this trade is going to be the thing that propels them, we'll find out, but he's been in the league 10 years, two MVPs, five first teams, two second teams, and now we have this little two -year window. Kawhi and the Raptors was a one -year window. This is a two -year window, I feel like. With Giannis, he's got two years left in his deals. So does Lopez. Middleton has two in a player option. Dame's got two, and then this crazy $120 million player option extension thingy that he has that just keeps going and going. It's probably two years. There's a world where this could go terribly this season, at least for what the expectations are, and then maybe it becomes Kawhi, Raptors. Maybe Giannis is like, you know what? That didn't work. Trade me. And the Bucks, who have no picks left and no future, they look at it next summer, and they go, all right. We tried it. Giannis, what can we get for you? Dame, what can we get? And they just do a reboot, rehaul. Remember, they won in 2021, which just takes so much pressure out of this. It's so much different than the Clippers situation, where they went all in on Kawhi and Paul George. They give up all those picks and SGA, and they've gotten nothing out of it. They haven't even made the finals. So it's got to happen. I think they at least probably have to make the finals. If they get bounced in round two, do I think Giannis is going to stay because they made this Dame -Mower trade? Probably not. So that leads to the big question, is how good of a trade was this? So there's a big picture angle on Dame, and it's going to sound negative, but I really don't want it to sound negative because I think Dame, I voted for him for NBA Top 75. I think he's been one of the best guards in the last 15 years. I think there's a ton of great things you can say, and there's a chance that he goes to Milwaukee, and this thing is fucking awesome. I know any Celtic fan I've talked to, including Isaiah, who's helping produce this podcast today, the Giannis -Dame pick and roll is just terrifying. Other than Jokic and Murray, it's going to be the single most unstoppable offensive play in the league. It is. We are conceding that point. The spot Dame is in right now, big picture -wise, it's weird. He's a superstar, but he's not, and we've seen guys like this before. I judge superstars by, do you have the resume statistically, and is your team succeeding consistently at a certain level? You can't totally say that about Dame. He's never been on a 55 -win team. He's missed the playoffs completely four times in 11 years. He said three first -round exits. He made the Final Four once in 2019, which was really lucky because Golden State and Houston were the two best teams, and then they got smoked. He's never been on a true contender ever. Instinctively, you go, well, that's not his fault. Who's he played with? Well, he played with LaMarcus Aldridge and CJ McCollum and a couple other guys, but not really anybody. The reason I'm putting this up is there's a success element that he has not had yet that for somebody with his resume is actually kind of unusual. I went and I looked up how many guards in the history of the league averaged 22 points a game for their career and played at least 700 games. I thought the list would be like 20. I didn't know. I didn't know what I was walking into. Only I think 75 guys have averaged 22 a game. So I went and I looked up the list, and it was 10 guys, 700 games, 22 a game for their career. There were some guys who came close like David Thompson, who I think is one of the best guards I've seen in the last 45 years, but had a short career and had some drug issues. He didn't make it. He didn't play enough games. Pete Maravich, 24 .2 points a game, but he didn't play enough games. Kyrie hasn't played enough games yet. Bradley Beale is five games away. I'm actually kind of glad the cutoff's at 700 so we don't have to talk about him. And then Mitchell and Trey Young aren't there yet. There's only 10 guys that made it, and the 10 guys are all fucking awesome. And again, I mentioned this in the context of Dame, who we think he is versus the success he's had. So the 10 guys, Michael Jordan, 30 .1, Jerry West, 27 .1, Allen Averson, 26 .7, George Gervin, 26 .2, Oscar Robertson, 25 .7, Kobe, 25 .0, Harden, 24 .7, Curry, 24 .6, Wade, 22, barely made it, and Russ, 22 .4, and then Dame is at 25 again. All right, what does he not have that those other guys have? Well, MJ, don't need to talk about him. Don't need to talk about Jerry West, who's the freaking logo. Allen Averson, pretty good comparison, right? Big stats, really memorable player, but not a ton of success. Here's the difference. Averson made the finals once. He won an MVP. Dame has done neither of those things. George Gervin was the best scoring guard of the 70s. He made two final fours. He had some bad luck. He really, in 79, really should have came close. And some of it's on him, right? He could have come through. Bobby Dandridge is the one that ended up coming through for the Bullets. They lose. But two final fours, he had four top five MVP finishes, five first teams, four second teams. He was just unassailably the best guard in the league until MJ. Oscar Robertson, don't need to go through him, but he won a ring and an MVP. Kobe, five rings and an MVP. Eleven first teams for Kobe, by the way. James Harden, three final fours, an MVP, six top five MVP finishes, six first team MBAs. And even though Harden has never made the finals as the best guy, he made it with OKC as the sixth man, you could build a contender around Harden. We saw it. We haven't really seen it with Dame. I think that's a fair thing to bring up. Curry, four rings, two MVPs, you know, the Curry thing. Dwayne Wade, three rings, two top five MVPs, two first teams, three second teams. He's more in the Dame waters a little bit, but he had the 2006 finals and he was the second best guy with LeBron on those heat teams. And then Westbrook, who you would say, well, Dame had a better career than Westbrook. Did he? Westbrook made the finals in 2012. He was second best guy on that team. Almost made the finals in 2016. He won an MVP. He had two first teams and five second teams. It's at least like a real argument. And I think when you look at Dame, he only had that one 2019 round three, got bounced. He's only had one top five MVP finish. He's only had one first team MBA and four second team MBAs. Really, really good top 75 career. But the piece that's missing is, have you been on a really good team? Have you made a real run at it? Which is why, you know, I think this Milwaukee trade is so much fun. This is his real chance. I get nervous about a couple things with this trade. One is that, you know, if you look at the 33 and older guards who average 22 points a game in a season. Jordan did it twice. Curry did it twice. Still going. Kobe did it three times. Jerry West twice. Sam Jones once. Hal Greer once. That's the entire list. Now the NBA is different. We have more three -pointers now. It's easier to score. Scoring is the easiest it's ever been. Guys can play at a longer age. So I'm not ruling out Dane being good for the next three years. But just pointing out, history is saying, be a little nervous. In general with guards, like Chris Paul, we saw from age 35 to 36 to 37, like it just dropped. But that's two years older than Dane. Maybe it's fine. I just worry about guards. We have not a lot of instances with guards in their mid -30s of them either peaking as players or being able to sustain whatever success they had during their prime. It always starts to go down with really no exceptions, except for Steph Curry. He's the only non -exception. So if your case is Dane's as good as Steph Curry, or Dane can be as potent as Steph Curry on a winning team, like, you know, Steph Curry is better than Dane, but I'm not going to argue that he couldn't do a lot of the stuff that Curry did in Golden State. The bigger issue for me, the age I'm definitely worried about. Dane has not been healthy the last couple of years, and we have not seen him play nine straight months at playoff basketball with a big bullseye on his back. Everybody coming after you, you're the best team. We haven't seen him do that ever, much less than the last couple of seasons. So can he stay up? Can he stay healthy? That's one thing. The defense with Dane just got kind of swept under the rug the last couple days, and I don't really understand it because there's five categories of defensive player I feel like. There's excellent, there's good, there's average, there's not so good, and then there's bad. And I think Dane's a bad defender. I think the stats back it up. Like, his defensive rating last year was 245 out of the guards. He's the 245th guard for defensive rating. You know, 117 .4 individual defensive rating is 483 overall. Portland's team's always defensively, it was the Achilles heel for them. Partly because of Dane, because he couldn't guard anybody. He's too small. And, you know, think about what we saw from the playoffs the last couple years. I think about the 2020 bubble Celtics playoffs, not infrequently, because I think that team had a chance to potentially win a title. What happened? Everyone hunted Kemba Walker. It was hunting season. It's like, where is he? Got to get a switch. Got to get Kemba Walker guarding somebody who's bigger, or got to beat him off the dribble, and it just became a hunt session with him. And basically, he got played out of the league. He's not in the league anymore. You know, we had this with Isaiah Thomas, too, in the mid -2010s. I think it's been an issue with Kyrie Irving. The Celtics certainly went at him in the playoff series with Brooklyn a couple years ago. Curry, you saw, who I think is a better defender than people give him credit for, but the And he's a much better defender than Dame is. Jordan Poole is somebody that got hunted in playoff series recently. Chris Paul, obviously, is a big one. Jalen Brunson, remember what the Heat did to him? Mitchell, when he was on Utah, this was a huge issue. And then Trae Young, obviously. My fear with Dame is he's a DH, and I think in Portland, part of the reasons he was able to put up the stats he did was because he wasn't playing defense, right? It was just, how many points can I score? My team isn't very good, and I'm just going to do my thing. He's an incredible offensive player. But how much of a trade -off is the defense, right? Well, you think, all right, well, Milwaukee, they're really good defensively. They'll be able to protect him. Here's the team. Giannis, Dame, Lopez, Portis, Middleton, Conaton, Beauchamp, Crowder. Who's guarding Trae Young on this team? Who's guarding Jason Tatum? Here's a partial list of guys that I don't think this team will be able to guard this season. Devin Booker, Tatum, Butler, Trae Young, Kyrie, Curry. Who's going to be chasing Curry around the screens? Dame lowered? Good luck. SGA, Luca, Mitchell, Murray, Edwards, Brunson, Ja, Garland, Fox, Halburn. Are they going to be able to cover Derek White? I don't know. The way this team is constructed, they are not going to have the ability to guard other guards at all, which means they're just going to have to be in a shooting match with them, right? It's going to be not much different than what's going to happen with Phoenix, where they're just literally going to have to outscore the other team. I've just watched too much playoff basketball over the last couple years, where it's like, if you have that weak link on defense, and you're playing a team that's smart enough, they're going to go after that weak link. Like, think about them against the Lakers, right? The Lakers figure their crunch time. Let's say they make the finals. It's Milwaukee and the Lakers, and Lakers crunch time. They're going to have LeBron and Davis and Austin Reeves and, I don't know, a shooter and a point guard, whatever. All they're going to be doing is trying to find where Dame is on the court and going after him. What about when they play Boston? Boston puts out White and Brogdon and Tatum and Brown and a center, and all they're going to be doing is trying to make sure Dame is covering somebody who has the ball who's now torturing him. I think it's a real problem for them. And what's funny is they gave up Drew's defense and, you know, they, what they gave up on defense, which is significant, and they gained an offense, it might end up just being a wash and they might just be a different version of the same team where they still have a huge flaw. It's just on the other end of the court. I'm just shocked that nobody brought up the defense. I agree he's an amazing offensive player and what's cool about this trade and what I'm excited about as a basketball fan is, can he go up a level? Right? A lot of these stats he put up, especially the last couple years. They didn't mean anything. They were, he was on bad teams. Like, who cares? Ultimately, Bradley Beal scored 30 points a game on the Wizards. Who cares? I think most really good offensive players, if they're on a bad team, can get between 25 and 30 a night. Can you do it nine months in a row? Can you do it when you're getting hunted on defense all over the place? How much can Milwaukee protect him? And what does he have in the tank at age 33 with 900 plus games on the O 'Dominor already? I'm still afraid of the Bucks, but people have, like, FanDuel had them as best odds in basketball and I think most people feel like they're the favorite now. I don't feel like there's a favorite. I think you can go through every team. Boston, I could, I'm scared of Porzingis. What's going to happen with Jalen Brown out there? He has contracts. Can Peyton Pritchard, all these different things. Philly, God only knows. Miami, they're unquestionably worse. Yeah, Milwaukee is going to be really good, but depending where Holiday lands and how this all plays out, I just think it's still wide open. And the other piece, so if you're just talking Boston, Miami, Tatum kills Milwaukee. I have no idea why. Boston is kind of built to at least stay with Dame and, you know, Derek White is about as good of a person you're going to have to try to keep Dame in check, at least. And Boston's done a really good job of guarding Giannis over the years. They don't have Grant Williams this year, but I just don't think, I think there's as many ways this goes wrong as it goes right, I guess would be my final thought on this because for what they gave up, especially with that 29 unprotected and the two swaps and, you know, they are all in on this team. And you know my theory, when you go all in on a team, you better think you can win. Not positive, but it's an awesome trade. It really is. It makes the league so much more fun. Dame and Giannis together. I'm going to enjoy watching Portland. I still have my eating stock. Watching Phoenix fans slowly realize that Derkiszna isn't the answer is going to be fun and then we'll see where Drew Holliday goes. So really fun trade. We're going to talk about it a little bit more with Die Hard Bucks fan, Ben Thompson in one second. Let's take a break.
AP News Radio
Butler scores 56, Heat stun Bucks 119-114 for 3-1 lead
"Butler's 56 points surpassed LeBron James total of 49 and 2014 as the most in a playoff game in heat history. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 26 points 13 assists and ten rebounds for the bucks, Miami took a three one lead over top seeded Milwaukee in their Eastern Conference first round series.
AP News Radio
Sixers sweep Nets, NHL overtime action
"AP sports, I'm Bruce Morton, Philadelphia, without big man Joel embiid, went into Brooklyn and completed a sweep of the nets with a 96 88 victory. Phoenix took a three games to one lead on the clippers by winning in Los Angeles one 12 100, with Giannis ate to compo out due to injury, the bucks fell at Miami one 21 to 99. The heat lead that series two games to one, and the Lakers led all the way, topping Memphis one 11 one O one. The grizzlies trail, two games to one. Baseball, the rays got by the White Sox four three, good for a fourth straight win. In the national league Pittsburgh moved out to a 15 and 7 start with a two one decision over the reds. Hockey, Vegas went to double overtime before winning at Winnipeg 5 four. The Maple Leafs only needed one over time to defeat Tampa Bay four three. Ditto for the Devils who won in the extra session over the rival rangers two one, and in regulation time, Colorado won at Seattle 6 four. Bruce Morton, AP sports
AP News Radio
Antetokounmpo's status for Game 3 remains uncertain
"Giannis intended kupo status for game three of the bucks heat series remains up in the air. The Milwaukee forward sat out Thursday's game after bruising his lower back in the opener. Head coach Mike budenholzer says intent to Koopa did some individual work during Friday's practice, but didn't participate with the rest of the team. Buddha holes are also ruled out Wesley Matthews for Saturday's game and didn't say whether the veteran guard might return later in the series, which is now tied at a game a piece. I'm Dave ferry.
AP News Radio
Projected top pick declares for NBA draft
"Projected top pick Victor wembanyama of France has declared for the 2023 NBA draft. The 7 foot two 229 pound big man has already attracted the attention of NBA stars, including Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Anna de kumpo. He's incredible, man. I believe in 2045. Everybody is going to look like Victor. The 19 year old said on ESPN Friday that he's submitted his official paperwork to the league offices. I'm get cool ball.
AP News Radio
The latest in sports
"AP sports some Josh Valtteri, a busy night of playoff action Wednesday as we start on the hardwood where Memphis tied it serious with LA one O three 93 in a game two win. The grizz played without star John morant, who has a hand injury, but Xavier Tillman scored 22 in the win. Also out west Denver took a two O series lead topping Minnesota one 22 one 13. Jamal Murray scored 40. In the east, the box tied their series with Miami one 38 one 22 Milwaukee played without Giannis Anton Takuma, who missed with a back injury, but pat Connaughton had 22 points off the bench. On the ice, the Panthers dropped Boston 6 three to even their series at a game apiece. Carolina grabbed the four three win and a two zero series lead thanks to an OT goal by yes perforce. Out west, the stars tied their series at a game of peace, dropping the wild 7 three, the oilers edged LA four two to tie that series. And on the diamond, the mets topped the Dodgers 5 three behind 5 hits from Brandon nimmo. Max Scherzer though tossed from the game after three innings following multiple umpire investigations into a foreign substance on Scherzer's pitching hand. I'm Josh rowntree, AP sports.
AP News Radio
Bucks make 25 3s, beat Heat 138-122 without Antetokounmpo
"Playing without their big man, the bucks took it outside and crushed the heat one 38 one 22 to even the first round series at a game of peace. Milwaukee tide a record for three pointers in a playoff game, going 25 of 49. Pat Connaughton furnished a playoff career high 22 points while shooting 6 for ten from beyond the arc. Brook Lopez finished with 25 points and drew holiday added 24 for the bucks who led by 32 in the first half despite playing without Giannis at tenta kumpo. Jimmy Butler scored 25 points for the heat, who host game three on Saturday. I'm Dave ferry.
AP News Radio
Bucks wrap up top seed in NBA with 105-92 victory over Bulls
"The bucks one O 5 92 win over the bulls gives Milwaukee the top seat in the NBA playoffs. Bobby portis brook Lopez and drew holiday each had at least 20 points as the bucks won without Giannis and tenta kupo, who was ruled out with a knee injury. Port has finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Now I shoot the ball, so a couple guys out, I know it's a lot more shots out there so I get to be a little bit more aggressive. Lopez had 26 points and holiday added 20 points, 15 assists and 8 rebounds. The bulls led by ten in the third quarter before falling. I'm Dave ferry.
AP News Radio
The latest in sports
"AP's sports on Tom maryam. Now that the college basketball season has ended, all hoops attention is focused on the NBA, as the pros wind down their regular season. A big final week Eastern Conference match up in Philadelphia as the 76ers kept alive their chance of edging the Celtics for the number two seed with a one O three one O one victory thanks to 52 points by Joel embiid, the third time he's hit the half century mark this season for Doc Rivers team. The man just scored half our points in the NBA game. And I'm biased, but the MVP race is over. The Bucs now have a magic number of ones that clinch the top spot in the east, as Giannis had a triple double and a one 41 28 victory over the wizards for coach Mike budenholzer. We just kind of go about our business. There's, you know, rarely is there a special message or anything. The heat hawks and raptors all one key games while the nets lost as those teams battle to avoid the playing games in the east next week. Out west the warriors and Lakers also had important victories as they look to avoid the west play in games. Baseball, the defending national league champion Phillies became the last team to win a game this season, topping the Yankees four to one, as Kyle schwarber built in the 200th home run of his career. Cool thing, definitely definitely definitely a cool thing, but happy about the win. One day after routing them at ten zero, the brewers nearly duplicated the feat, settling for 9 zero triumph, as Milwaukee belted 5 home runs, three off Max Scherzer, the braves behind rookie Dylan Dodd down the Cardinals four to one. Other NL winners, the pirates, cubs, Diamondback Dodgers, and Marlins, who handed the twins their first loss. The raised hour remain undefeated, knocking off the nationals ten 6. NHL, the Panthers jumped ahead of Pittsburgh and the islanders in the east wild card race, edging buffalo two to one on Matthew coach's third period goal. It just shows the buy in and the commitment we have to make in the playoffs. The devil's damage the penguins hope of a 17 straight playoff appearance with a 5 one victory keyed by Dawson Mercer's hat trick. Tom Arian AP sports.
AP News Radio
The latest in sports
"AP sports and Mike Reeves, there was a ten game slate in the NBA that northwest to visually the nuggets were in Washington to meet the wizards, Craig heist, has the story. Nikola Jokić scored 31 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as the nuggets beat the wizards one 18 to one O four, the nuggets outscored the wizard's 39 to 16 in the third quarter while hitting 15 three pointers on the night. Denver finished up a three and two road trip after surviving a four game losing streak. Jokic thinks they've turned the corner. Have a team, I think. Bedroom, let's say like that. And hopefully it's done for us. And we survived. The warriors win just their 9th road game of the season knocking off Dallas one 27 one 25. Jonathan kamino scores 22 points. John morant returned from his suspension to score 17 points off the bench in the grizzlies one 31 25 win over the rockets while Milwaukee improves on their league best record with a one 30 94 win over San Antonio, Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way with 31 points other winners or the heat pacers 76ers Timberwolves trailblazers and Lakers, Paul George is expected to miss two to three weeks for the clippers with a right knee sprain. Just two games in the NHL, but one had playoff implications for both teams, correspondent Bruce Morton. The penguin snapped a four game losing streak with a resounding 5 to two win at Colorado. Jeff Carter led the way with two goals. That's a big game for us. And standing defending cup champions and team that's been rolling pretty good. So this is a good confidence boost for us and keep going. Carter referenced a 6 game Colorado win streak, which also came to an end. The oilers Connor McDavid nets his 60th goal of the season in overtime to defeat the coyotes in NFL to use the jet signed wide receiver Nicole Hardman to a one year deal according to a person with knowledge of the contract. They also trade wide receiver Elijah Moore to Cleveland for the 42nd pick in this year's draft. I'm Mike Reeves AP sports.
AP News Radio
Bucks clinch playoff spot, top Suns 116-104 for 50th win
"Giannis scientist led the way with 36 points, Brooke, Lopez, added 21, the NBA leading bucks defeated the sons one 16 to one O four. Yanis added 11 rebounds and 8 assists, the bucks became the first team to win 50 games and clinch a spot in the playoffs. I think the last three games just played play off atmosphere. It's really good for us. It's really good for us to be up, lose a game. To be downtown, come back to the game, be up ten. They came back, they would keep our proposal win the game by ten. It's good. Devin Booker had 30 points to lead the sons who have now lost three straight games following the injury to Kevin Durant. George Canada, Phoenix
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"giannis" Discussed on The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"Here, you know? And then, you know, I feel inspired and motivated to do all these things. So that's basically it. Giannis, how well do you think they captured your family dynamic? Obviously, you were an executive producer, some of your family members are consultants. So I'm sure you guys got a chance to kind of guide this a little bit along the way, but how true to life are the viewers seeing of your family dynamics the way you guys interact with each other? And the cast that played us, they did. We just had a brilliant to meet them and we found out that the people that played me the Nashville actually brothers. And you know, the chemistry in real life, it's like Nash, which is kind of like scary. But what we wanted from the start is we want this movie to be authentic. As I felt surprised because that's who we are as people to show them that no matter what we face and the challenges we face, you know, very well increased. We never give up. We never lost faith. We were always together. We always come together as a family and try to figure out the way to find a solution, you know. I've said this in the past that in our case, our tool was basketball. We were good in basketball, but so many other people around the world that might have a different tool that might be good at something else. So whatever they're good at, they're always give everything they have to have to be the best version of themselves. We were back in the day, but you know, having the opportunity to watch the movie and kind of see that in the screen, which you have a lot of different emotions, you're excited. You know your emotional, but at the end of the day, I think they did a great job with captioning the effort this to our family. You know, and obviously you can not put 27 years in for my month. I can not say how many years. But in two hour movie, you know, you've got to kind of choose the parts that you want in and I think we did a great job just delivering the message that we wanted to get across to the viewers. This idea is partnership with us. Take the credit to the avenue. I'm curious about the message. There's many messages in here. And it is a heartwarming story, just about the way your family pulled together stayed together, rooting for each other along the way. Alex, maybe I'll ask you to chime in on this. When you see this, what messages are you seeing about your family or what are the things that you thought, you know what? I'm really glad that the world can learn from these aspects of our family dynamic. What's the message that you want to see people take away? I was time and time again. The most important aspect for me to be able to take away is definitely together that's our brotherhood. You know, us always being together. And you all type of all type of struggle and all time hardship, you know, just sticking, sticking with each other. And just picking each other, I want each other is down. And I also think that just never give up. Being humble, being disciplined, and just being able to show up to show up every day and give it your all. And I feel as if you could, from that movie, you can take those things, and it could translate into your life. I feel like I just want to take a step further. What was the most emotional moment for you, Alex? I'm curious about it for everybody. Just, you know, which scenes kind of really tug at you. So Alex, what was that for you? The most emotional, I think that when I watched the movie personally, just of the first scenes I don't want to give any spoilers in the scenes I had to do with my own with my parents. I definitely had to pause sometimes come back to it and when he got a bit too much for me, I had to step away and step back like to watch the movie, but I just I felt so good after I watched it, you know and I just hope that if the way I felt if the people watching the movie feel have as much emotion, I felt like we were going to be in a very good spot. I agree. What about for you? What was the most emotional moment? I probably said the same was Alex, you know, it was some sense in the beginning. With my mom and my dad, which are like, before we even born, moments of that night before we were born. So it's kind of hard to see your parents go through that hardship. So it's kind of tough for me to see that, but like he said, at the end of the day, like when you watch the end of it, you are still going story just warms you excited just feels so good that. Happily ever after type thing, you know? It's a great story. So yeah. Okay, most of this film is about the family and the family dynamic and your journey. But there is some basketball in here. The NASA is how well do they do on the basketball? They don't quite accurate. I think the actors are people who play us. They actually got some move to them too. And then I heard, you know, we were talking about this and I was actually practicing Janice's move Euro step and how we play when we were younger, we both played the point to the three. We used to play. That was younger. But I mean, and this season, I don't want to give away spoilers, but they were on point. Yeah. Did you guys give them some pointers along the way, were you on set at all when they were filming? Yanis than us is did you guys do anything with them? Because they actually filmed like 6 months in Greece. We were playing. They were in Greece. Like the stuff you see, it's not like they were 6 months in Greece shooting all this stuff like the views and this in the gym. Like the Genie you see and we're working out is actually the gym we play. You know, even the scene that you see after the my dad was working out like this that's where exactly like we lived, like this is exactly and this house, the house with filming and we're all there. It's next door. To the house and I live there..
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"giannis" Discussed on The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"In season? It was probably just chopping it up. Saying, we're going to link up with the seasons over, you know, it was just, it was a lot of it was a lot going on. So, you know, I didn't want to bug him. He didn't want to buck me type of vibe, so it was just we had mutual respect for each other. And just we knew it was going to link up when we get back home. So was that your first finals game, game 6? Yes. First fire was gay and that atmosphere was crazy. It felt like I was trying to check in. You were ready. She was ready though. I was ready. I had my shorts on. What's it like being at the finals for the first time? And not just like, I remember like, all right, I'm at the finals for the first time as a reporter a thousand years ago. And just a vibe is intense and it's different and you feel it, and there's a nervous energy, even for me, just like I know, I've got to write and I want to write my best of the finals just like players want to play with us, right? But you are sitting there as an 18 year old who is a year away from the draft with obviously those kind of goals in mind and you're in that environment for the first time. So how does it hit you and what does it what do you leave there feeling? Yeah, it hit me hit me once I walked in the building honestly. I see those people checking their bags. This small stuff like that just gets me amped up honestly. Just ready for the game. And like I said, it just made me want to play, maybe we want to go out there, you know, I want to say help, but it may want to go out there and play in that game, specifically just because it was game 6 when it was a great atmosphere. But after just leaving, it made me go harder, honestly, that was my mindset after that game, because see those guys and see how skilled they were. Like Steph Curry just Marcus smart, all those guys, Jason. Obviously, JB, you know, seeing how skilled they were. I got work to do for sure. So it just made me go harder, ten times harder. Did you stay for the ceremony, the championship trophy? No. You're out of there. I had to. It was hectic. It was going to get hectic, so it does get hectic. Luckily, it wasn't too crazy, but people were, you know, they were intoxicated, you know? Mad. No, I didn't want to get in between that. Never. Not in Boston. Exactly. I will say, a fair number of Boston fans still in their Celtics jerseys actually hung out for the trophy ceremony and were like paying their respect. So that was cool. So I feel like it was a respecting that game because it wasn't so crazy. I don't know how Boston fair Jack that was my first time being in Boston, but for the Celsius game, but yeah. You know, I've heard plenty of stories, but I feel like they kind of respected it because I don't think you can't respect that, obviously, you know. Fourth ring, curry was going crazy. Drake ball, you know, they played great, so. Yeah. Games three and four, I think, were maybe a little bit more, I don't know, bombastic. In the stands, then 6. I think 6, they kind of just saw this thing slipping away and said, right, right. Okay, just got to give it up at that point. Yeah. Cool cool. Well, this has been great, man. I'm glad we got a chance to reconnect congrats on everything so far. I guess last thing, what's the goals for season two? I mean, it's going to be, you got a few months here to spend the summer training. I don't know if your head back to Atlanta go back to the family gym and hang out for a bit recuperate, but what do you think about going into season two of the ignite? I feel like right now I'm just like I'm overly confident right now and I'm overly just ready to dominate next season. And that's all the court and off the court, you know, just meet who I wanted all the people that I want to invest my time into and people that want to invest their time into me and then just dominate whoever's in front of me. I feel like that's the goal for next season. Sounds great. I look forward to seeing that. I gotta catch a G league ignite game in person next season. I was remiss this past season, but I gotta get out there. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it, scoop. American corn farmers, a proud and chosen profession inspired through generations. Tested, resilient, and committed to giving back as much as they're growing, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with every bushel. While replenishing every increasingly precious resource, like the reduction of soil loss by 40% with every acre grown in a world where sustainability matters more than ever, we need all the help we can get, and there's no greater resource than the capable hands of American corn farmers. As cryptocurrency rises in popularity, it makes headline news. You might be wondering if you should invest in it. The answer is maybe. But it should pass the same bars that you set for any other investment. I'm chase Henderson, host of the wise investor show every week we discussed the latest financial trends and what investors need to know about them. To learn more about how to approach cryptocurrency and to become a better informed wise investor, listen to the wise investor show at the wise investor group dot com or find us on your favorite podcast app. You wanted to see me miss swinton? Have you been hearing about the new government modernization efforts? AI, RPA's data science, things are changing at this agency, and people will need new skills. I'd like you to get some training. Look at this management concept catalog. Wow. Over 275 courses. That's right. In local classrooms or instructor led online classes. We still have budget in this fiscal year, so sign up online. Advance your career with courses for management concepts, get a catalog at management concepts dot com or call 8 three three 5 7 8 84 66. And I'm now pleased to be joined by the out of the kumbo family. Alex Costas thanassis Giannis and Veronica, I feel like I'm the host of family feud. I find American game show. I want to start with Veronica. By the way, I watched the film. It is wonderful, just very moving. And I want to start with you Veronica because on every level, you made this all possible. This is, of course, an inspiring story of your family, not just Yanis journey, but all of you, but it's obviously a very difficult one too. And a lot of very personal moments. So how did you feel about telling this story and seeing it brought to life in this way? We feel so proud of telling our story. Our story being a few of our journey, coming all the way from Nigeria to Greece struggling with that losing hope that that's given up. With home goodness with love, continuing, then we are happy where we are now today. I imagine this was also very emotional for all of you seeing it for the first time. Thanos maybe I'll start with you on that. What was it like for you just emotionally seeing your life retold this way? It was definitely emotional. But I just remember how much I love how much I love my family, you know? And how much my mom and dad did for us will possibly be able.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"giannis" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Fallon, the top of the key. He's crouched, almost like a catcher in baseball. And there's Giannis, who's dribbling, and he's like, I'm going to kind of go straight. I'm going to bounce off you. I'm going to kind of commit a charge, but not quite enough that they're going to be able to call it, I'm so strong, and you're going to go backwards. And it's going to eventually end up with my Freddy Krueger arms. I'm going to duck under you and do a scoop layup, or I'm going to go the other way. I'm going to dunk over you. I'm going to pull up. There's no way to know how to stop it. And you just kind of have to hope you misses. And that's why LeBron and Giannis to me since MJ are the two guys where you're just completely helpless. Shaq had some of that too, and we're going to get to that in a second. But with LeBron and Giannis, 2018 LeBron, 2020 to be honest. Your best chances, I hope that misses. Or I hope we follow him and he misses some of the free throws. I don't really know what else to do. He's going to the Celtics and bucks could play a hundred games. And if there were real stakes for any of those games, he's getting between 35 and 45 points. That's just what's going to happen. And you're going to have to tilt your whole defense toward him. Hope you're not going to get in foul trouble. You're going to have to either give up threes or just let Giannis score 50. There's no way to know what to do. So you have that. Defensively, he's dominant. And this is the thing where he's a way better defensive player than LeBron was. I thought LeBron was a good in big moments. He very good to even borderline great defensive player in the 2018 range 2012 13 LeBron was like up there with pippin.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Chicago. He gets hot. Bobby port is something can happen. Boston has another game where they're just off, which I know that that was the hope in some ways before, is that, you know, some of these guys just didn't get the shots. They wanted or there were so many open shots that were missed or the likelihood of jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum ever struggling with this extent again. What are the odds? It could be 5, but I picked 7. I picked Boston in 7. I just felt like it would be too big a hill to climb for Milwaukee without Middleton here because this feels like a series where Middleton is even more helpful than usual. And I think that's being bore out, but I do think that maybe Milwaukee gets one more game. Yeah, I could see that happening. I think I'm pretty confident in Boston just being the better team with Middleton out. The three point shooting is an interesting variable as it always tends to be, especially when you're taking as many as Boston has been forced to take. But at the same time, generating 17 corner threes as the Celtics did in game two, typically that's good. That typically that's what you want to do as an offense. I don't know if you're going to make 8 or 9 as Boston did in game two. But the looks that they get, they're clean they're open and it's just tough. I don't know. That's why you have to feel good about them because if that's your floor of like, damn, we didn't score here, but all we got out of it was a corner three. That's not a bad outcome. You just have to knock those shots down. And even as I was thinking about like, I remember just watching game one, my thought was, man, the Celtics were too reliant on Al Horford, and he didn't get the job done. And then you go back and you look at the numbers and he was like four of 9 from three. So I think there's something to be said about how much of the game is in Al Horford's hands. I remember going back and counting it out. I think he took 5 of their first ten shots in that game. And I don't know that you ever want so much of it to be in his hands. But I mean, it's not like the guy went one for 9. He went four for 9 from three. He wasn't George Yang in this thing. He was shooting well enough to wear like that is hurting you on some level if you're Milwaukee. You might determine that that's better than letting Giannis run wild for 45. Not pointing fingers at any teams that play in San Francisco. But my point is that, you know, so you might determine that you would rather be beaten by one guy than another. And if you're comfortable with saying, we'll let Al Horford beat us if he has to. If he's willing to try, you can try that, but it still may bite you in some other ways. And to some extent, it's kind of what happened with grant Williams too. Is that you put the game in other people's hands and they've got a really good guys on their bench and rotation players. And if they get going, then you're going to start paying more attention to them. And guess who else gets going at that time? Jason Tatum and jaylen Brown. So it's a deeper team and even if the teams were of equal depth when you take Middleton out of that rotation, it's a much different ball game. And I just kind of think that's what we're seeing. And the strategy is built for Boston to have more opportunities to score cleanly than Milwaukee. And I think that's the problem. American corn farmers. A proud and chosen profession inspired through generations. Tested, resilient, and committed to giving back as much as they're growing, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with every bushel. While replenishing every increasingly precious resource, like the reduction of soil loss by 40% with every acre grown in a world where sustainability matters more than ever, we need all the help we can get, and there's no greater resource than the capable hands of American corn farmers. Hey guys, open floor here. We want to share with you another podcast. We think you'll like. On the against the rules podcast, bestselling author Michael Lewis, yes, that's the Michael Lewis, who wrote Moneyball and the blind side, takes a hard look at what's happened to fairness in American life. He is explored referees and coaches, and now he's taking on a new group, experts. When people think of experts, they think of in your face know it alls. But finding an expert can be like searching for a needle in a haystack because while experts are getting better and better, we are getting less willing to hear what they have to say. Michael ventures to the depths of the sea, meeting an oceanographer who has saved countless lives, but the survivors don't even know his name. He looks at our healthcare system and learns how a medical biller saved hospitals millions of dollars, once someone bothered to notice her, and he sits down with baseball statistician, Bill James, and here's how his analysis transformed not only our understanding of baseball, but of the world, against the rules will leave you thinking differently about the experts in our society. Listen to against the rules wherever you get podcasts. I heard radio music festival. Coming back to area 15 in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 24th, just added to the lineup. Girl in red. Take your tickets now at AXS dot com to see Avril Lavigne 5 seconds of summer. Big time rush. Loud, Chloe, willow. Chase rice. Lotto. Carly Pearce. Scale. Foreign Spencer Smith and more live in area 15 on Saturday, September 24th. Tickets are on sale now at AXS dot com. Let's take a leap on over to San Francisco. Shall we? Sure. Game three, Saturday night, excuse me, between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors. This series is an interesting one, two very entertaining games. I will say that. Okay, let's just start it with I want to do what we did with the first series here. Just tell me something, Chris, that you've got your eye on that you're thinking about questions you have, matchups that are intriguing. Does Dylan Brooks not playing matter? Does GP two actually, who's absence matters more GPU or Dylan Brooks? What are you thinking right now?.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"The year that me and several other people kind of pulled out the cute statistic of how well Fred van vliet had guarded Steph Curry during the season. And I remember watching the film saying like, he looks like he's holding his own against Steph, but even with the numbers, even with the film feeling like that has to be floofy. Like there has to be something that's just probably a random stat. And then watching the series and watching him do really well against death. So Fred van vliet could very well be an all defensive team player. All defense player this year. I know I put him on my team on my second team. So that was a great defense that he played against that had a good scheme against him that locked the bucks down for four games in a row that locked him up in transition. So I'm not sure Boston's the best defense. I would put them right there with that, but I just wonder like, we didn't recognize it at the time, but that was a damn good defense that the bucks were playing against. And that's why I don't feel over because, you know, Middleton was playing on that series. I don't feel great about the idea that this is just something that Giannis just kind of overcomes. Because I don't think it's really a hymn issue. I think the defense is really good with a lot of bodies that are capable of absorbing a possession or two off the guy. Which is easier for them to do it that way than it is for us to go through them every play, which he still manages to do every now and then, but it's hard. Yeah, you nailed it. The 2019 raptors are the team that I think there are a lot of parallels between the 2019 raptors and this Celtics team in terms of, I guess, just stylistically you look at the trade deadline move where they bring in a veteran who kind of brings everything together with Gasol, the Celtics, bringing Derek white, who's struggled. Obviously different positions struggled a little bit in the playoffs as well. But just to connective tissue that kind of makes everything easier for everyone when he's on the floor. Superstar offensive player, just a lot of really smart, great defensive talent. Serge Ibaka, did you even mention it? He was on that team too. Just like a ridiculous roster. Of defenders. So that's probably, I'd say one a one B, not sure, but the bottom line is that Giannis can't do this by himself. I would not bank on Yanis being able to quote unquote figure this out. Do you want Giannis just taking elbow pull ups over Al Horford? Is that your best offense? Is your best offensive plowing through and trying to, I mean, he can't even, he's not finishing at the rim, let alone, obviously he leaves you at risk for offensive vowels and rob Williams as a help defender is just like the Celtics aren't going to switch ball screens when we honestly there has the ball or is the screener. They're very disciplined like that. A few times that they have switched, Giannis has taken advantage because he's a great player. So. The reason why I picked the Celtics in 5 was I knew that their offense was going to struggle to a significant degree, regardless of how great Giannis is. I thought that drew would have to be brilliant. He was very good in game one. He struggled a little bit in game two. And. The Chris Middleton is perfect for this matchup. He is the guy who, okay, you're switching everything. All right, well, Chris Middleton's perfectly comfortable going one on one efficient isolation score. Find in the mid range. This is like where he gets his money is serious like this. So to not have him is just such a blow. For Giannis or the bucks. And frankly, I don't know how they solve it. Because if you do go small, the Celtics have just offensive pieces that will punish you. And we saw what jaylen Brown did to grace and Allen in that one on one matchup. So I don't know what you do honestly if you're the books and I don't know if going small is necessarily the answer. I don't think that it'll make Giannis life easier to the point where that overshadows your defensive concerns because brick Lopez isn't on the court. And you're also having Giannis do a lot of stuff on defense. And he's a human being. He's going to get tired. That's just what it is. So I don't know, I don't know what you do. So going to be a fun. I mean, my biggest thought, because I've been banging my head against the wall trying to think about it. And you're right. This is why we're not coaches and it's not why, but I mean, I would not want this responsibility to figure out a game plan here. Transition is huge. Obviously, it's hard to come by. It's easier said than done. Particularly when you consider that a lot of the transition that you would normally want with this team is Giannis running the break and just getting back before everybody else does. Them trying to wall him off and Giannis finding a hole. Like he often does or Euro stepping around someone, I think in this series you will probably want to run regardless of whether Giannis is really the focal point of the running just to get open shots just to get open looks, particularly if they're going to just man Giannis up and other guys aren't getting those shots. Like this is a team that it's not really clear how they survive on if they can defend Giannis straight up well enough to where they don't have to come off the other guys around the perimeter. You've got to find a way to get threes up. I mean, I've never seen a team basically get out scored 60 to 9 or whatever it was by threes. I've never seen that. And particularly a team like the bucks that normally, if you were to say that absent the context of like they're playing against the Celtics, that the bucks were involved in a game where one of the teams got outscored 60 to 9 from three, I would not guess that the bucks were the team that got outscored that way. So you've got to find a way just to get more three pointers up, which means more open shots for everybody and more comfortable shots for everybody. And if that's through transition and it means that maybe honest doesn't think I'm running the break, you have to try something and obviously you got to find ways to get in transition in the first place and see, like I said, it's easier said than done. You have to get some stops defensively. You've got to try to run off some breaks. And you might have to take some shots that feel out of rhythm or out of context just to try to get open ones. Similar to the way that the Celtics you may said, after game one, that it's not a problem for us to get open shots. We've got to be judicious about which ones we're getting. We can force those because we know they're going to give us those. To some extent. And then we can rotate the ball enough to get those. It's a really, really big gap when you look at that. Versus the idea of what we're talking about with the box with Middleton out, it's just that it's not clear how they get good, comfortable shots. Other than being in transition. So it's a difficult spot. It's a very difficult spot. What did you pick? What was your prediction for this series? And how do you feel about it right now? It was Celtics in 7, which I remember, I think talking to you about the idea of thinking mostly that Giannis just thinking that it's Giannis to be bold enough to think that Giannis will only get one game or less than that. I can't quite get there. To me it was a perfectly reasonable 5. I mean, obviously with the way that the last game looked and the questions that we've got knowing Middleton won't be back, it's reasonable. I think 5 or 6 looks realistic. I think that the bucks might look up and hit some shots or somebody gets hot drew gets really hot, grace and.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"You're bud, what do you do, Chris? Because bud said after game two, I think that Yanis just figures things out. That's what he does. He's a great player. American corn farmers. A proud and chosen profession inspired through generations. Tested, resilient, and committed to giving back as much as they're growing, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with every bushel. While replenishing every increasingly precious resource, like the reduction of soil loss by 40% with every acre grown in a world where sustainability matters more than ever, we need all the help we can get, and there's no greater resource than the capable hands of American corn farmers. Hey guys, open floor here. We want to share with you another podcast we think you'll like. On the against the rules podcast, bestselling author Michael Lewis, yes, that's the Michael Lewis, who wrote Moneyball and the blind side, takes a hard look at what's happened to fairness in American life. He is explored referees and coaches and now he's taking on a new group, experts. When people think of experts, they think of in your face know it all. But finding an expert can be like searching for a needle in a haystack because while experts are getting better and better, we are getting less willing to hear what they have to say. Michael ventures to the depths of the sea, meeting an oceanographer who has saved countless lives, but the survivors don't even know his name. He looks at our healthcare system and learns how a medical biller saved hospitals millions of dollars, once someone bothered to notice her, and he sits down with baseball statistician, Bill James, and here's how his analysis transformed not only our understanding of baseball, but of the world, against the rules will leave you thinking differently about the experts in our society. Listen to against the rules wherever you get podcasts. Radio music festival. Coming back to area 15 in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 24th just added to the lineup. Girl in red. Take your tickets now at AXS dot com to see Avril Lavigne 5 seconds of summer. Big time rush. Chloe willow. Chase rice. Lotto. Carly Pearce. Scale. Foreign Spencer Smith and more live in area 15 on Saturday, September 24th. Tickets are on sale now at AXS dot com. Are you of the mind that we're using data from two games, small sample size, Giannis won't shoot 38.5% for the rest of the series despite one of the I asked you to answer this question is this the greatest defense has ever gone up against I meant to limit that filter that to the playoffs because I didn't want you to do too much research. Is Giannis and I think this is a whole different conversation, but the way we talk about superstars just being able to single handedly overcome great defenses, I don't think that that's really a realistic way to view stars right now and when you have a team that has Al Horford that has rob Williams that has grant Williams that has Tatum you can throw on Yanis so Marcus smart will switch on to him and then there will be help. And you can't put the ball on the ground like there's just so many options so much length is Giannis just able to figure this out or if your butt are you like we need to switch something up here. Like we can't subsist with the lineups that we're playing. I'll answer. I think you've asked three questions here and I'll answer all of them. At least no, no, no, it's fine because some of it was in our outline so I knew to be prepared for it. First of all, I mean, you know that since NBA rank and everything that we did, our SI rank at the beginning of the year. I've had Giannis as my number one player the whole time in the world. And even feeling that strongly about it, I don't think that you can just like expect him to break through this. I feel better about, for instance, the warriors and looking at how poorly they shot in game two saying that I think at least one of those three guys pool curry or clay will shoot better because there's more how would you put it? I think there might be more game to game fluctuation when you're talking about guys that are shooting 25 foot shots than when you're talking about guys that are shooting from inside the paint that are that are at the rammer around the rim already and the reason they're not making those shots has nothing to do with fluctuation. It has to do with really, really, really good physical defenders and their face. So there's that part of it. So I don't think that it's just a simple saying he always figures out not to be unfair to be honest or not to like parse bud too much here. He hasn't always figured it out. Like we've seen the bucks have a series lead before. Further along in the playoffs than this. With Chris Middleton available. Right. Chris Middleton has bailed him out. Look, Chris Middleton's important and really good. And he's hit some shots. Very good. We'll just say, and he would be really important for a matchup like this as we talk about Giannis being a screener. We're watching a team that, like you said, more or less, you can't take too much from the fourth quarter. I think the bucks are obviously going to test that and try to utilize it in game three because it was working. But you have much better odds of something working out of Chris Middleton and Giannis or screening for each other than you do for Giannis and anybody else. I mean, even drew, yeah, drew is a good offensive player, but Chris Middleton is 6, 8, 6, 9, however, tall is 6 7, whatever he is. He's a big dude and he's a legitimate, you know, maybe not quite top flight score, but he's close. And he has the capability of playing that and pulling that out of his bag in a playoff setting which we watched him do before. So that's a huge hindrance to not have a guy like that that you're saying that the team is just going to give Giannis, you know, they're not going to leave Yana so that it gives someone like Connaughton a little bit of an open lane to the basket or grace and Allen. Okay, if they get that, what the hell is Chris Middleton going to get? If you have to make a decision between whether to guard him or Giannis and they're both going to the basket at the same time. So that's a huge thing. The last thing I'll say about whether this is the toughest defense, I'm inclined to say yes, but also as we talk about a time where Giannis did not always figure it out. I don't think at the time we recognized it, but the 2019 raptors probably were right there as far as how good a defense they were now at statistically did they stack up that well? No, but we were also watching a season where Kawhi Leonard was being monitored pretty carefully as he was coming off of his injury. So he was not playing every game. We also watched Kauai. I won't say shut down, yannis. It was a lot like this where he's not as efficient as we're used to seeing him be. I remember watching that series going back and looking at the box scores just kind of remembering some of this. He was one for 5 in the fourth quarter of the closeout game. Against Kauai, not even just against quiet and that game in the fourth quarter. He was two for 6 in the game three and that fourth quarter. He was limited to one shot in the fourth quarter of game four, and he was limited to three shots in game 5 in the fourth quarter. So that was a defensive research. I am impressed. So that was a series that had Kauai at his best, which I remember pulling out like that was the first time I ever referred to him as terminator. And I don't know if I was the first one to do it. I thought I was. But just like Kawhi did not look human because I don't even think Kawhi was completely physically right in that series either. And there were questions about whether he was healthy at the early part of the series, but just completely took Yanis out of his position where he wanted to shoot in fourth quarters, but it was also a defense that had Lowry, siakam, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Danny Green, and oh, by the way, I remember.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"You know, when yaz was going one on one, basically the Celtics were happy to let him do that. So that it meant that the bucks wouldn't get threes all over the place. That was the big change. The buck shot basically fewer threes than not even just them, but just the league that we've really seen in years, the fewest threes made that we've seen in years, certainly on that stage. And that is Milwaukee's lifeblood. And so is Boston going to keep guarding the same way. I imagine that they would since it shut down Giannis to some extent. Certainly in that first half. But if you're the bucks, do you start using him as a screener more? And do you start going to other things to try to throw Boston's defense off since they're looking for Giannis to try to go one on one? If he's not going to do that, what is their defense look like? And does it maybe give you advantages in other spots? So that's what I'm looking for is to see how much of that momentum and Reggie Miller fashion does carry over and how much they can actually take from that game plan wise to try to throw off a defense that really had their number at least in the first half first three quarters of game two. Yeah, great point. I think what's really fascinating and I'll echo it is how can Milwaukee generate efficient offense. Their offense in the first two games has been absolutely terrible. Giannis is shooting 38.5% from the floor in this series. And it speaks to his greatness that he can average was 27 11 and 9 and a half assists or something like that in two games and you look at it. Look at those numbers and you're like, wow, he's dominating. And then when you watch the games, it's like this dude is really struggling. And you got to tip your cap to Al Horford. You got to tip your cap to grant Williams, who was the star of the good news in a lot of ways. And yeah, they switched up their coverage on him a little bit less help, fewer double teams, more single coverage, all of that. But what really is fascinating to me is those empty corner screen and rolls were Giannis is the screener for grace and Allen or pat Connaughton or drew holiday. And he rolls and there's no help from the strong side corner and whoever has the ball is going middle and the Celtics just basically let them waltz in for a layup because whoever's guarding Giannis is sticking to Giannis. What's fascinating to me about that, which happened a lot of that success happened when the bucks were down by so you can't take too much away. But what's really fascinating to me is who else is on the floor and most notably brook Lopez is not on the floor. And how do how does bud adjust to what is once again? They won the title last year with brook Lopez playing a significant role, but they escaped the Brooklyn Nets series with brook Lopez just getting absolutely torched. And I do wonder right now with Chris Middleton out, which completely changes the equation for them offensively. How do you get Giannis going? And to me, it's like, you look at the numbers with and I have them right in front of me here with Giannis on the floor with brook Lopez. Milwaukee's offensive rating is 75.9. When Giannis is not on the floor, or when Yanis is on the floor without brook Lopez, it's one 17.1. And Milwaukee's starting 5, which is Bobby portis, brook Lopez, Giannis, west Matthews and drew holiday. They played 19 minutes. And their offensive rating is 69.0. So I just wonder is bud going to cut brick Lopez's minutes because the offense has just been so atrocious with him on the court. Defensively though, he is everything for them. He is so integral to how they want to play. And they've had a lot of success limiting Boston's attempts at the rim. Boston's shooting shot 93 threes in two games. Milwaukee shot 52 threes like that math is just hilarious to me. In 2022. But limiting the rim is what they want to do on defense. And if you take Brooke off the floor, how does that impact that? Do you see Jalen attacking the rim more? Do you see Giannis getting into foul trouble? Because Tatum is attacking the rim more. Are you able to get lobster rob Williams? That's sort of thing. So I think it's just a huge conundrum right now with Chris Middleton out. Do you downsize and just get more spacing or do you just trust and believe that your defense can carry you for the rest of the series? I don't know what the answer is, but that's what I'm looking for in game three. It's not, it's not a great thing and I think it gives you not to jump too far ahead. I think it gives you more appreciation for a team like Phoenix or not even not even a team, but like ayton, which if you're 8 and you've got to feel really good. Number one, you're about to make a lot of money, like a lot of money. Aside from that, which I guess being in the NBA always affords you that possibility. For all the crap you've had to hear. And I think I was guilty of it even early on is that basically, you know, I think the kings obviously are the team that looks absolute worst from that drafts, but ayton, certainly. Bagley, but then there was Trey for a while, got that criticism as well. I think a little bit. And Luca, and on how can you pass on a couple guys that could be generational as far as how many times they're all stars or the titles they're going to win or whatever else. Is the guy, you know, even Luca within that series we're watching him kind of get torched because there's no good matchup for him to be had out there. You're targeting him. I mean, the great thing about Phoenix and the great thing about 8 and to some extent is that they're kind of game plan proof as far as like it's really hard to play that dude off the floor. Now when Frank Kaminsky is having to play, you know, and not to knock him too much 'cause I know he's obviously been out this year, but obviously in the finals last year. Stuff can get rough when somebody gets hurt when somebody's out or when there's just one really bad matchup and it involves someone that you really need on one side of the ball. And it's crazy to think that Brooke would be kind of at the root of maybe some of the offensive problems because in theory that makes sense when you're talking about someone that can't shoot, it's interesting when it's Brooke Lopez and it's someone that, if anything, that's maybe become the strongest part of this offensive game and gone away against the grain from what he was as a back to the basket guy. I really slow plotting sort of guy. He's very skilled, but that there's still reasons that you kind of need more space just for where he would be if it's going to be the corner. Or if a team feels like that they can get away with ignoring him. So Adam the corner. They'll give him the corner. They're going to give you that. And especially if it means that they can have extra hands and arms in there against yeah, so it's crazy to think like how intricate all this stuff is. I think I even used this in one of my recent stories where you think about watches and all the pieces they have. And how much I think about the jobs I would never want to have as a person, like a hobby, nothing I would ever want to do. I would never want to have to be somebody that has to fix watches because there's like 8 trillion parts that are all smaller than your fingernail. In the back of one. But that's how many parts and things are going into a series at any given moment. And the idea that matchups matter in the playoffs. We know that, but it's crazy to think that someone that is literally half of the reason sometimes maybe the entire reason that Boston might struggle to score in a good game plan based around Brooke largely around him and.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Defense is one of the 5 best in the league. And when he's off the floor, they're transition defense is bottom 5 in the league. And when you watch them play, it's just one of the small things he does, but the way he organizes everybody when it's a live ball and everyone's trying to get back and he's pointing and he's directing traffic. There's like no stat for that except for the stat I just gave, I guess. But he's yeah, he's just absolutely incredible defensive presence. Top ten in deflections, top ten, and loose balls recovered. All the hustle stats can switch on to anybody. Can guard in the post draws fouls fighting over screens. As well as any player I've ever seen and some of this is like a career achievement for me where I'm like, I really want him to win the award because he's been doing this for so long. And some of it is I truly think he's the best defender. He's had the best offensive season in the league this season. So I don't think you can go wrong. I don't think you can go wrong with a couple of these guys, really. And even frankly, I think a guy or two outside of it, like I don't think Gobert is going to get it this year, but. As long as you're not just saying, well, let's just give it to him by default because he's won so many of them already. Like I think you can make your case for him. I do think on some level it would be a little bit strange not that it should be held against him, but it would be a little bit strange to see the team's defense exposed in the postseason and then see some of those same problems cropping up now and still give them the award. Again, not that that should be held against him from a statistical standpoint, but it would be a little bit strange to it would be the equivalent I think of giving someone MVP to me it seemed like people maybe weren't saying this, but like with Giannis, okay, this guy's gonna put up the same numbers every year he's won back to back MVPs, but like at a certain point you gotta win a title before we can give you the next one..
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"So I don't think that that was for rating purposes. But anyway, neither here nor there. But I do love April fools. Sadly, I feel like I'm aging out of making the type of pranks that I grew up making and my wife basically warned me that she'll leave me if I play another April Fool's day. So I don't know where I'm at with that. It was basically just going to be me saying I'm picking RJ Barrett for my all NBA team and then that was before we get into this. So now we've officially broached basketball, but before we get all the way into this podcast, you've already stepped in at so now you've got to explain. I'm sure you're joking on some level. I hope you are. The wife threatened to leave you if you do one more of these. Can you walk me through one that you've played on her that either was really funny or didn't go over so well because it was too funny? They're so inappropriate looking back that I actually don't want to say them publicly. You don't want to get left for that reason either. Okay. Exactly. They're really bad looking back on them. They were really good ideas. Heading in and now that I with hindsight, probably should not have done them. So I'm going to just, I'm going to back away from this entire conversation. Right now. Okay. I regret bringing it up in the first place. Okay, so Chris, on today's episode, we will be filling out part of our awards ballots and opening up the mailbag to answer a few questions. But first, a quick reminder to our wonderful listeners to please keep your emails coming to open floor mail at Gmail dot com that's open floor mail at Gmail dot com. I expect a ton of wonderful emails with the playoffs right around the corner with end of season awards coming up next week. It's big time, big times in the NBA season on the NBA calendar. So please, I know all of our wonderful listeners in the open floor globe are up to it and my expectations are through the roof. All right, so Chris, I want to open up today's show with a quick Yanis unte kumpo related question for you. Last night in Brooklyn, the two time MVP finished with 44 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists. He hit a game tying step back three over Andre Drummond with 18 seconds left in regulation. Then right after Katie made three free throws to put Brooklyn up one with 8 seconds left and overtime, Giannis just decided to rumble coast to coast draw a foul at the rim, make both free throws and win the game very casual, very typical of him. Is Giannis just going to win MVP? What are your thoughts here?.
Game Theory Podcast
"giannis" Discussed on Game Theory Podcast
"Honestly, I think there is a lot of dissonance there. It just in terms of him being like an overweight white dude who just like dominates the league. I think there's always impeccable condition right now. I mean, he might be, he's one of the handful of most in shape guys in the league. I mean, especially when you consider how big he is, you watch terms of not getting fatigued. Yes, but he doesn't want endurance athlete. Yeah. Right. And he's a better athlete than what people give credit for. Like I've written before, like he talks to people at P three, like one thing that really stood out to them is his ability to get off the floor quickly. Not his necessarily ability to leap off the floor and get as high as like Andre Drummond for someone like this second jump on tipping his timing is excellent. We can sit here and extol the virtues of Nikola Jokić forever and it'll never change the mind of some people. Yeah, until they win a title. Exactly. And Giannis will become modern day Larry Bird at that point. And Giannis went in the title, totally changes the script about Yanis. Yeah. What nucleo jokic is doing right now and what he did last year is better than anything dark his ever done in his career. He's at a higher level right now than Dirk ever was. And Derek is a top 20 player of all time. I mean, Nikola Jokić is a top 20 player of all time by the time it's all said and done. I think there are 6 of those guys in the league right now. That's a conversation for a later date. That could be a hot take, but I think that the level of talent in the league right now is just so unbelievable. Unparalleled. So unbelievable. My favorite thing to say is that there are no bums anymore. There's not a single bump. No. Period. It's too competitive. No, there's not. Yeah, we're getting point man. The difference between your middle of the road guys and your stars, that gap is shortening. The middle of the road guys are so much better than they were ten years ago. And 20 years ago, good grief. Those guys wouldn't even make the league now. And we're lucky to have this sort of upward trajectory of talent in the league. And that's something I talk about with the draft as well, like the level to which you have to be able to enter the league to be able to play minutes now. Yeah. And that speaks to how good this rookie class is that a lot of guys have really been able to step in. But I think that the talent level of the guys that are 375th in the NBA to 450th in the NBA in terms of roster spots is higher than it's ever been by a substantial substantial degree. But this original bold prediction was Yanis winning MVP, even though we just extolled the virtues of nuclear yoga for a long time. The reason for me..
Game Theory Podcast
"giannis" Discussed on Game Theory Podcast
"And I think that what it comes down to for me personally is, I mean, Giannis right now is having, I think, probably his best season. Like, what he's doing right now is just insane to me. It's completely bonkers. He is second in points behind Joel embiid, who's averaging 29.6. Giannis every 29.4. Giannis is undeniably one of the 5 best defensive players in the NBA. And you can say the same about Joel embiid. Like right now, if the vote was happening right now, I would vote for Joel embiid. But I think that there's going to be a bit of friction as James Harden is integrated to that scheme. And I think at the end of the season, we're going to look up Yanis is leading the league in points per game. He's averaging God knows how many rebounds what like freaking 12 a game, 13 a game, whatever he's up to right now. I'm pulling up the number as we speak. He's averaging. I think 12 right now. And averaging 6 assists per game and being one of the 5 best defensive players in the league, and I think that that is going to be an exceptionally difficult combination of factors to push past and on top of that. I think we're about to see the bucks just fly out of the gates here. Like I think we're about to see Milwaukee take the top of the Eastern Conference and end up as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. To end the season. So Giannis had a kumpo MVP. I wrote about this as my favorite bet whenever I did MVP a while ago when he was 9 to one to an MVP. I still think that if I was betting, I would bet on Giannis one MVP. it. He's been incredible. Defense player of the year candidate might be the leading defense player of the year candidate..
NBA Front Office w/ Keith Smith & Trevor Lane
"giannis" Discussed on NBA Front Office w/ Keith Smith & Trevor Lane
"Were doing things and you're right, Jordan or like we've talked all about how amazing it is that the nets were able to get camp Thomas and what a difference maker. He can be just talent wise, even if they don't need his skill set, and then Jordan or is like, yeah, I can do stuff too. And came in and made a major impact. That was great to see you as well. Look, I mean, they lost drew holiday and didn't miss a beat. Not many teams in the NBA can do that. In holiday, it was really good before he went out he was playing great defense, which is that's really what they need him to do, but he also had 12 points. A couple of other things that jumped out just team wise with the box because they had 13 offensive rebounds and they only turned it over 7 times. They took 21 more shots than the nets did. In this game, they took a 105 shots, which it's always been kind of a thing. If you can get up over a hundred shots, that's means you're crashing the board. You're not turning it over, and you're probably pushing pace a little bit. So when you out shoot your team in terms of attempts by 21 shots, that it's hard to make up that difference. So that was a big part of it. Absolutely. And that's what I was going to get to next was the 7 turnover 7 turnovers on opening night. That tells you that, look, one of the things you're going to see in early in the season is you're going to be able to tell the teams that mostly brought back all of their players from last season compared to the teams who did not and had a lot of major changes. The teams who brought back most of their players, they're going to have an advantage in the early going the season because they're already going to have some of that chemistry kind of built in. And that was certainly the case with the Milwaukee Bucks. But still, again, that's not to say, oh, it's just because they brought back so many players, the nets brought back a lot of their guys to the bucks were just flat out better. Tonight. And I think Keith that means the nets burn it to the ground, just rebuild start over hundred. It's over and yeah, the nets obviously clearly frauds. They've been exposed. They're not winning a championship this year. Yeah, they that's why James Harden didn't sign this attention. This is a good point to mix in. We are still going to do the front office show regular show version where we talk news and transaction stuff. We're not going to do a lot of that. On this feed because this week we want to focus on game will not feed. It's still the same feed, but there's version of the show subset of the show, whatever we want to call it, but to be named, show it to be named later. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that. But all right, so we'll flip it over to the work one side. Katie was really good at least offensively. Defensively, he didn't look overly engaged. None of it. No. They cared all that much defensively. They just didn't have a good answer for a lot of the stuff Milwaukee was doing. Thought it was an interesting lineup choice by Steve Nash. He went big with Nick clackson and Blake Griffin. KD played almost solely at the three very little at the four in this game and I thought that him as a floor is unguardable as a three, but he's really unguardable as a four for any other big. And that kind of allowed Giannis to kind of float around a little bit 'cause he wasn't overly concerned regarding Blake Griffin. Claxton was okay. He had 12 points and 7 rebounds. Finished off a couple logs from James Harden, but it's just, I don't know, that was an odd lineup choice I thought from Steve Nash. I didn't love that one because the other thing it left him with, you have a good answer to guard Chris Middleton. And then Bruce Brown only played under four minutes and got them all in garbage time at the end of the game or when the nets kind of wave the white flag. So I didn't really get that and understand where they were going with the lineup decisions. From that end, harden shot it horribly. Yeah, 28, 8, so kind of a James Harden line, if he had shot it a little bit better. There, Joe Harris, a little off. I think one of the things that the nets do really are excuse me, the box do really well is they run Harris off the three point line. But then they have size to contest him and what ends up happening is his shot he doesn't want to take is that mid ranger. He just, it's not comfortable for him, and that's what he was missing in this game was he could run off the ark. He was missing those mid rangers because you've got Lopez and Giannis back there, kind of cluttering things up in the paint. Patty mills was really real stand up guy. I thought for them. Yeah, 7 for 7 from three off the bench, 21 points in 29 minutes. He looks really good. He's going to be a huge part of what somehow I don't know if they hypnotized him or what they did, but somehow they got it so that patty mills when he looked down, he saw not a net Jersey but an Australian Jersey because that's what you've got out of patty mills. You've got a team Australia version of patty mills, and that was that was an impressive performance from him. As far as the lineup goes, I think that the thought was just build a wall at the rim to deal with Giannis and then you want as much length as you can get. And it just didn't work out for the nights, but I do expect that they'll it's just not those guys. Yeah. Yeah, his odd get into him in a minute here in the next game. You're better off with Deandre Jordan doing that than maybe you would be with some of these other guys that they played. Lamarcus Aldridge didn't look very good, Paul Millsap didn't look very good in brief minutes, James Johnson get out there. They kind of I think that was just a searching for stuff. I'm not throwing him on Bill Giannis for a little bit. And it just, it didn't work out. Now it's opening night, nothing here is worth going crazy over. It's clearly not against one of the other best teams in the league, one of the title favorites. So when we see the nets next, I don't know who they have next, but when we see them play in their next game, they're probably going to roll over whoever it is and we'll be like, oh, next up is the 76ers. Okay, well, maybe they won't. It's you have some of the same problems there with Joel embiid. They're in a struggle against size. If you have size I can score, do some self, especially if it's a guy who's kind of a good size and can handle the ball a little bit. You're gonna struggle. Then that's gonna struggle to stop those guys. They just don't have a good defender to put on place. I'm expecting. Okay, I know we're in the COVID era and all that. But before the nets of the 76ers play each other, I want Sean marks and Daryl morey to like meet each other, you know, maybe shake hands, maybe give a hug just kind of give each other that knowing nod of I understand what you're going through right now with Kyrie and Ben Simmons and just say, it's okay, buddy. We'll get through this. I feel like we need to connect these two guys somehow. That'd be pretty funny. You know what would happen though. It would instantly someone would snag a picture and be like, they're talking to Simmons. Oh, they have to be. You know, even though they're more commiserating. You want to move on. I know you probably don't. No, no, I do. I do want to move on to this one. And I do want to mention to our viewers too. The reason why we're going as in depth as we are today under these games is because there's only two of them in the future it will be much more rapid fire. Yeah, it'll probably be one or two observations at most games. Yeah, so warriors Lakers one 21 warriors one 14 Lakers. This one was a kind of a weird game. It felt like for large portions, the Lakers had control to me felt like they were really, there was a point in the third quarter where it was teetering on this might end up being a blowout and they might run away with this. And then the warriors, it's funny because what I'm seeing getting play kind of online this morning is they're offense, but I thought the warriors defense is what changed the game. And I thought they picked it way way up defensively. I thought Steve Kerr after trying some different stuff. Finally found a group that could fit defensively. And then I thought that was what really amped him to them up because LeBron and AD there.
The Cedric Maxwell Podcast
"giannis" Discussed on The Cedric Maxwell Podcast
"Hello. Hello, somebody, but somebody else got it. I just laugh about that. I think that that was an amazing play for him to go out and to do that for Giannis to come back to take the criticism. I mean, even with that, think about the free throws, the pressure on the freedom fails. What did he do? His head off, one, two, three, four, five, six. I'm talking about the fact that he turned it around so he was it 15 / 17 or that going off. How does that happen bags? How do you go from being a fifty, 50% or 55% shooter from the free throw line and all of a sudden you're shooting Damien 90% in the series in playoffs. It's all about it's all about what's in here and it's all about what's in the middle of your waist. At that point you got the big ones, that's what you got. And and if that's if and you think about birth, Who have crumbled, who have I've seen guys, who have been superstars, who have crumbled in that situation. So, for Ian has to step up like that off. That was huge. IMAX well, let me, let me set you up here. You were in his own, right? Yeah. Team on my back. There's a Promised Land. You know, all that good stuff. What's that like? Was that what was that song? Is it a space where you just everything's clicking. Take a little bit of luck. Or is it just just so focused that? Nothing else matters and your, it's a feeling that very few people off your life and If you could say, if you could buy it and say, I want to go there. If you were selling that, you don't know how you would need to have a price tag, you can put on it because God, it is, you are connected, not only spiritually, mentally physically, everything is just quite, you know, where the ball is going before them. You know, what's going to happen? I mean I it was it was just scary to be there. And to me there for me to either minute, you know, off several times in my career. Let me is one of those things I look back on and it's almost like an out-of-body experience. When you think about, you know, you save the world championship is going to be 1 and NBA history is going to be on your shoulders tonight. You will be part of your going to be partly NBA history tonight and the same thing. You look at Yiannis is going to be part of like a history through holiday is going to be part of NBA history with a particular play and even even if you I know you don't want to admit this is going to be part of it too. You see them things right here and and, and Chris Paul's face, you're going to go, you don't think part of it, too. I'm sorry..
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"giannis" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"From middleton holiday for me to think that if you're honest was put in a situation where he has to do it by himself again the way that he did in games to win three to some extent That that might be enough to get you over the hump if you can get chris bottle of enough like itself to me. The anomaly this series. So far has been chris paul turning the ball over Booker had been hot. You know previously in the last select to some extent. He was due to cool down. He had his performance where he went off. Last game Hell he might be due for another game not quite like that but another good games milton. You could argue is due for another good game to based on how poorly he was playing. Holiday certainly is. But i think at this point if you get one or a dual one teams duo looking bad again. I feel like the next team to really struggle with their duo or one of their two key. Scores is going to be the team that loses a series. So if the sun's come out. And chris paul still doesn't look right and again we don't know if that's anything to do with hand or if it's just the holidays hounding him if the pressure is getting known if i don't think it's age but if it's that whatever it is if it's that and also look at the box score and look at eight hundred numbers because that's been something that's been kind of you know. I wanna say look because people talked about it. I think fairly talked about him today. Yeah i mean we really pretty well. He did but again. When you've got an eight-man rotation charge. Kim play at aden finishes with six points. You know he. He rebounded his ass off. It wasn't that he wasn't doing anything He was impactful. I mean look. Druze was awful around the rim yesterday. You credit some of that to the sun's just being a deterrent Aiden it's going to be tough like eight dozen score. If he finishes in single figures at that point you're by definition pudding probably too much on booker shoulders. It pause not going either so at some point like i think if we have an unsafe what else. Real quick about that is left. Aden scoring is dependent on the playmaking of booker and paul and the attention that they get when they go off. So it's like. I'm not gonna you know there are some plays here and there will. They'll they'll switch the bucks'll switch and then you know eight and we'll duck in and some could criticize him for not getting better position and being a little bit more aggressive and calling for the ball against a smaller a defender. But that's really not like necessarily no not even that. But i mean just whether it's him basing up whether it's shot whether it's that you're trying to just get him something in the post if you don't have your pick and roll going because chris paul is looking over his shoulder. The whole game. You gotta get something that makes it a little bit easier for somebody else and you know. I know that post up in back to the basket. Look even base. Up is not the easiest look. Aiden has not traditionally been a guy that you call upon to do that. It's normally born out of this ball snaking through in the pick and roll like at night right booker. I get that but if you're going to get this little and you're going to be turning it over this much from paul. If you're going to be asking that much a booker. None of those guys are gonna carry. That wealth for three games may be together..
Bob Ryan & Jeff Goodman NBA Podcast
"giannis" Discussed on Bob Ryan & Jeff Goodman NBA Podcast
"Let's get let's get to Milwaukee now cuz I think it's similar to some extent with the honest. I still think Milwaukee can come back and win the series and when the whole thing I do, I still not counting them out because if Kyrie is not playing what, she's not dead, and hardened still not hardened which is not going to be, it's going to take another ridiculous out-of-this-world performance from KD. I don't know if he can, he can duplicate it, but 5:49 is 49 Bob. And you know, I'm not sure. He makes you know that three at the end of the shot clock, you know. I don't know how many times he makes it, you know, make that three out of ten. I know your KD dead. But you're not making that consistently. That was an amazing shot from an amazing player. He's the best player on the planet. Today, today Bob, he's better than LeBron James's and it should start. Any other thing is, she will guard you to write and that that's important. So we're talking about this whole, you know, best of the time. He know, I think, I think I totally agree with that wage. I transcended performance, one of the great players performances that I've ever seen. And, and, and, and the context, you know, wasn't just a game one. It was a vital game and a, and a vital circumstance. With, with Kyrie Allenwood Arden, you know, just bought a decoy more or less to say the least and, and, and he did what he did. No, no, I totally salute him. But, but this guy, he's going to have to have something at least eighty percent of that effort I think to get done, right? That's my that's my thing is Milwaukee. They just You know, again, I worry about yanis. I do, I worry about him mental it, a lot. You could see it in his, you know, with his mannerisms. And, you know, when Middletown past them, the ball at the end there and that was awful. Oh, you can't fumble the phone or what it was, you know you know what the problem was. You want to help correct? He was rushing cuz he didn't want to get fouled. She was trying to catch the ball and go up quickly and go up strong and make sure he ducked it. Cuz he did not want to go to the.