April 4, 2025 • 16 mins
Trysta Crick is BACK with another episode of the Heat Check. she gets into the Grizzlies firing their coach with 9 games left, the return of Ja Morant's Gun antics, the Bad Boy Pistons rerun and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're you're listening to the Hottest, the Hottest podcast out here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I said what I said, it's the Heat Check, Heat
Check Check on this episode of the Heat Check. Two
weeks left in the NBA season, Baby.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We've got a surprise firing just nine games left in
the regular seasons. Taylor Jenkins gets the acts in Memphis immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The gun fingers returned in his absence.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Jalen Brown is hurt and it might impact everything. Ad
has returned to Dallas. Don't know how Dallas feels about that.
It's a nice story, but it won't impact anything at all.
And Bad Boys Too has hit Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That Pistons team is coming out swinging all the way
to the playoffs. So much to talk about. Drop that
motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna. Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So we gotta talk about something that's pretty rare, pretty
under the radar, Definitely something that most national media didn't
see coming. A lot of people in Memphis did see coming.
Memphis Grizzlies have fired longtime coach Taylor Jenkins with nine
games left in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
A lot of people were shocked.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Not the least of which because it occurred so late.
What a crazy time to be deciding to swap out coaches,
especially this team will be in the playoffs. If you
read the tea leaves, though, you knew that something at
some point was going to happen like this because in
the offseason nearly all of Taylor Jenkins had assistant coaches
(01:41):
excuse me, were fired over the summer, and Taylor Jenkins
wasn't the one to fire them. This was in order
from above from Zach Clemen. Any coach who loses their
entire coaching staff at the behest of not them probably
doesn't have a very long lace from the front office,
and that turned out to be the case for Taylor Jenkins.
(02:02):
The new coaching staff installed a new offense. Taylor Jenkins
was essentially a lame duck, and for some reason, nine
games left in the season, they decided to give.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Him the acts right then.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's not surprising that he got fired, but it is
surprising that he got fired when he did. I would
have been much more understanding if this happened at the.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
All Star break. So there's like a lot of strange days.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Going on beneath the surface in Memphis that I think
need to be explained.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Take Noel la Roche. Noel L.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Roche was hired over the summer to replace one of
jenkins fired assistants, specifically to change and revamp the Memphis offense,
moving away from the pick and rolls that John Morant,
their star player loves so much, to a motion offense,
and it's largely worked. The motion offense that Laroche implemented
had the Grizzlies with the sixth most potent offense in
(02:54):
the entire NBA, so that was working, and then he
was fired at the same time Jenkins was fired. So
Zach Kleman didn't like Taylor jenkins offense, hired somebody to
fix the offense, and then fired both those guys with
nine games left with the Grizzlies in fourth place, So
what is happening?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
What's going on in Memphis?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Just from a schedule standpoint, the Grizzlies are a disappointment
by all intents and purposes. They have not beaten a
five hundred team since defeating the Bucks on February second,
which is insane. That's almost two months. That's over two months.
That is a damning stat. The team has been plagued
again with injuries. John Moran has missed thirty games. Gigi
(03:36):
Jackson and Vince Williams have been out a bunch of games,
Brandon Clark is not done for the season, and Jenkins
has done a pretty good job juggling lineups in order
to make this team competitive. At the time of this
they fall into eighth place, just a game out of fifth.
So that's how tight things are in the Western Conference.
Not exactly the time to be.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Letting your coach go.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Assistant coach tuamas ia Zolo, whom the Grizzlies hired before
the season, he was the one making major bread. I
think he got paid in the millions of dollars per
year as an assistant coach, so we knew what time
it was. Most likely, if somebody gets clipped, he's the
one to take that guy's place. There will be no
(04:17):
white horse and no White Knight riding in to save
this team the final stretches of the season. Ia Solo
is a finish offensive savant. He brought in to help
reconfigure Memphis offense as well. Now he's been given the reins.
I think the job is his. I think the job
has been his. All of this begs the question, though,
how does Jean Moran feel about this. All the reports
(04:40):
are that he had zero impact in Jenkins's firing. Indeed,
he was completely in the dark, was riding ten toes
down with Taylor Jenkins since that was the coach he
had since the beginning of his career in the NBA,
and that remained the case to the day that Taylor
Jenkins was fired. And now jaw enters a mega extension
where there's a ton of questions about whether he wants
(05:02):
to be there or whether even Memphis wants him to
be there in the long run.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Memphis went on record earlier this season.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Remember where they said, hey, keep dreaming, we're not trading
this man. But that's a lot of money to pay
a guy who's not playing even close to the eighty
two games in the season. Issues that seem to have
been put to bed, like, for example, the whole Jahn
Morant and gunsting have re emerged in the firing when
(05:29):
John Morant simulated gun figures at Steph Curry and Buddy
Held in the Golden State bench. And not only were
John Buddy Healed warned by the league to stop with
this nonsense, yet again John Morant the very next game
did it again. Desmond ban came after Santi Aldaman the
Hundle last week, pushing him down and telling him.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
To play fucking harder.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So let's just say the roster has had some turmoil.
A reporter for The Athletic wrote this about Jaw. Someday
Joh looks like he's ready to play, and some days
he looks like he doesn't want to be there because
he hates the offense. So if this new guy wants
an offense that the star player hates, how is that
(06:12):
gonna go? Despite GM Zach Kleman saying that the rumors
that the Grizzlies might shop Jaws Jow is a fantasy,
the Grizzlies fired the only coach the Jamur ever had.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
They fired his favorite.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Assistant coach last summer, a guy who spent two years
working with him during a rehab, and the controversy following
the rehab.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It does not sound like the franchise.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Is doing everything that they can in their power to
keep their superstar happy. Kind of wild keeping your star
in the dark while you fire a coach probably also
not great fascinating storyline. As for Taylor Jenkins, I think
he's gonna be a hot commodity. I think a bunch
of teams are gonna want him. He's the kind of
coach of the team like Portland might want, a team
like Sacramento might want. So much of this now depends
(06:58):
in Memphis on how they do the playoffs. Most people
thought the Memphis were gonna lose, probably in the first round.
They were dead ducks, sitting ducks. And that's if they
make the playoffs at all. The truth of the matter is,
even if they do make the playoffs, are they gonna
be favored against anyone? I don't think so. If they
make the play in probably gonna be a rock fight.
An early exit in the playoffs is just gonna cause
(07:21):
more speculation about what the outcome for Taylor Jenkins and
Memphis will be. And a whole lot of that is
thinking about whether you can win a title with John Morant.
All Right, moving on, seems weird to speak in any way,
shape or form negatively about the Boston Celtics, But there's
(07:42):
just a tiny hiccup in the back to back title
possibility that threatens to blossom into a full blown issue,
and that is that Jalen Brown is hurt. Jalen Brown
has what is called a right knee posterior impingement, an
injury that has caused him a bunch of discomfort on
the court, has time limited his playing time in a
(08:05):
bunch of games, and even though he's still putting up
numbers he had twenty four four nine and this lost
the Miami Heat the other night, he basically acknowledged that
he's just gonna be playing through pain. Yeah, he said
he's committed to playing and playing aggressively even though he's
not gonna be feeling good.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
There are a couple of ways to look at this.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
First of all, Jalen Brown says he's working with the
medical staff to undergo treatments to get his knee ready.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
For the playoffs, which is still at this point a
couple of weeks wait.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
And on top of that, when they play the seventh seed,
they're probably not gonna be playing anyone they really care
that much about. Seems like enough time to get right.
But here's what he had to say at the presser.
He said, I've got some stuff lined up with the
medical staff in order to feel better come playoffs. But
for now, you know, it's just mentally working through not
(08:57):
feeling great but finding ways to be effective on the
other hand, if Jalen Brown continues to be gimpy, his
ongoing knee issue probably means he's not gonna be nearly
as effective in the postseason and his amount of minutes,
his amount of usage is going to be limited, meaning
that the two headed Snake might just end up being
(09:19):
Tatum and some other player that needs to step up
on any given night, and the Celtics then have to
rely more on their depth, like our man Peyton Pritchard,
like our man Christas Porzingis, and who, by the way,
is also facing some lingering health concerns heading into the
playoffs as well. Listen, I'm not one to make anything
(09:41):
out of a couple of games. The Heat had one
of the better games of the year. They broke back
Boston's nine game winning streak. But this team is just
not nearly as good without a completely healthy JB. And
if he's not there one hundred percent, that means that
the Celtics are beatable. And there are a lot of
teams out there looking at take the crown from the
Celtics aka the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they're coming, baby, they
(10:05):
are coming.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, moving on, woo. Anthony Davis is back.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
So the Dallas Mavericks probably one of the weirder, most
goofiest teams in the NBA this season. They are clinging
onto the ninth spot in the West, and I don't
know necessarily if they even want that, But the man
at the center of the most controversial trade in modern
NBA history is back. The guy that our man, Nico Harrison,
(10:33):
is taking his entire future on, finally came back from
injury after playing just one half of basketball for the
team that just traded for him. And holy shit, did
he ever make a re entrance. Remember in his MAVs debut,
Ad had a game for the Ages. He had twenty six,
sixteen and seven in basically the first half of a game.
(10:54):
The MAVs beat a tough Rockets team won sixteen one
oh five. The problem was that he heard his missed.
The next eighteen games, MAVs were falling fast in the standings.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Of course, Kyrie Irving also towards ACL.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Then on March twenty fourth, he made his return, and
ever since he's been back in the LA lineup. The
MAVs are now four and one. His last game thirty four,
fifteen and two with five blocks and a game winning
bucket in the final seconds against Atlanta, a team that's
trying to get into the plan as well. The wild
(11:27):
part is that our man took an elbow to the face,
he left the game, got four stitches, and still managed
to come back and hit the game winner.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Ad is a star.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
He is an All Star, one of the best players
in the NBA by all accounts, a good dude. He's
also been historically very fragile, so it kind of sucks
that he's been seen by some people as the bad
guy in the Luca trade, even though according to Jenie Buss,
he was unhappy, he did want to leave LA and
probably was looking for a way out, but he's just
(11:58):
never going to get over with MAVs fans the way
that Luca did. Luca was endeared, he was loved, and
that's not just because Anthony Davis can't win he won
a chip in LA, but because Luca is a young
generational player, transcendent player who didn't look like a generational
player at the time where they got used to guys
(12:19):
like Dirk Novitzky, and Luca kind of fell walking into
his footsteps. The other only other player in the league
right now that's like that is probably Nicole Jokic. So
what does his return mean for the MAVs. They're currently
thirty eight and thirty nine. They sit ninth in the West.
The recent return of Ad couple with the anticipated comebacks
(12:40):
of players like Derek Lively Daniel Gafford makes them a
huge question mark, but Vegas is not buying it. The
MAVs playoff odds right now are plus six hundred, which
is less than a fifteen percent chance to make the postseason,
and that turns to zero without Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm happy Anthony Davis is back on the court.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It's probably the only thing that MAVs fans can even
cheer for. But listen, this is one of the more
stacked drafts in recent memory.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So maybe just maybe.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Missing the playoffs all together is a good thing for Dallas.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, moving on, you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Remember the Malice in the Palace, boy I do. I
was a freshman year, a freshman in college. We watched
it into my sports marketing class. It was fucking wild,
no franchise and it has a longer history of brutality
and force and fighting in the NBA than the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
They were the reason. There was a reason that they
were called the bad boys. They were swinging on.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Everybody call these guys the JB. Bickerstaff Pistons bad boys too,
because if it's not Isaiah Stewart clawbering Thomas Bryant, it's
Ron Holland coming for Jordan Clarkson. Every night the Pistons
are in some sort of squabble and they are down
with it. The latest is a full blown bench clearing
(14:03):
brawl between Ron Holland.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Holland fouled nas Reed, Dante DiVincenzo is Saya. Stewart of
course started a jaw and then everything went to hell
and a hand biscuit basket, Both benches emptied, the entire
scrum fell in the stands under the basket of one
of the uglier moments of the season, and in the
end seven people got ejected. Seven Pistons head coach JB. Bickerstaff,
(14:29):
assistant coach Pablo Prigioni, Wow and players Ron Holland, Stuart Sasser,
along with Timberwolves De Vincenzo and nas Reed. Following the review,
the NBA suspended Stu for two games due to his
prior history of unsportsman like contact. Remember he got into
it with Lebron James, while Ron Holland Marcus Sasser, nas
Reed Dante DiVincenzo each received one game suspensions. I'm just
(14:53):
gonna say this, I like the Pistons. I like this feistiness.
This is so much better than winning fourteen games and
doing an goddamn thing. They don't back down to anyone.
I can't wait to see them in the playoffs. Isaiah
Stewart loves to fight. We knew that from back in
the day. He couldn't wait to fight Lebron James and
throw elbows. Come on, he fights for the love of
(15:13):
the game. In fact, he reportedly asked Dante DiVincenzo if
he wanted to meet him outside after the game. Yo,
you're trying to meet me outside? And I know Dante's
like says he's a scrapper, but he's not a scrapper.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
No chance.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And I don't think there's many people who want to
wait for beef Stu after the game. Beef Stu will
come for you. The Pistons team is dangerous. Are they
good enough to win it all?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Of course not?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Are they good enough to make the Eastern Conference Finals
out of the five spot. Probably not, but they are
good enough to make life hell for whoever they play
in the playoffs. What a great story and what a
great team for Detroit and the city to get behind
because they represent their city as well as any team
in recent memory. Fun, gritty, and hard as a coffin nail,
(16:05):
just like the city of Detroit. Quick note, I feel
like a broken record, but we're finally moving over to
a new platform and we'll be back to a regular
schedule next week.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Love Detroit.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Playoffs are coming, new platform is coming, and that's all
the time that we have for this episode of heat Check.
Come back next week for an all new episode and
check out many episodes which drop unexpectedly, like Zach Lowe
joining the Rinninger, and do not forget to follow the
heat Check all season long. That means download, subscribe, tell
your friends, even the ones you haven't talked to, and
follow us on TikTok and at this heat Check and
at Trister Cook on Twitter, Instagram and threads. Met his
(16:39):
new social media platform where I post every day
You're you're listening to the Hottest, the Hottest podcast out here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I said what I said, it's the Heat Check, Heat
Check Check on this episode of the Heat Check. Two
weeks left in the NBA season, Baby.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We've got a surprise firing just nine games left in
the regular seasons. Taylor Jenkins gets the acts in Memphis immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The gun fingers returned in his absence.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Jalen Brown is hurt and it might impact everything. Ad
has returned to Dallas. Don't know how Dallas feels about that.
It's a nice story, but it won't impact anything at all.
And Bad Boys Too has hit Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That Pistons team is coming out swinging all the way
to the playoffs. So much to talk about. Drop that
motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna. Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So we gotta talk about something that's pretty rare, pretty
under the radar, Definitely something that most national media didn't
see coming. A lot of people in Memphis did see coming.
Memphis Grizzlies have fired longtime coach Taylor Jenkins with nine
games left in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
A lot of people were shocked.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Not the least of which because it occurred so late.
What a crazy time to be deciding to swap out coaches,
especially this team will be in the playoffs. If you
read the tea leaves, though, you knew that something at
some point was going to happen like this because in
the offseason nearly all of Taylor Jenkins had assistant coaches
(01:41):
excuse me, were fired over the summer, and Taylor Jenkins
wasn't the one to fire them. This was in order
from above from Zach Clemen. Any coach who loses their
entire coaching staff at the behest of not them probably
doesn't have a very long lace from the front office,
and that turned out to be the case for Taylor Jenkins.
(02:02):
The new coaching staff installed a new offense. Taylor Jenkins
was essentially a lame duck, and for some reason, nine
games left in the season, they decided to give.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Him the acts right then.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's not surprising that he got fired, but it is
surprising that he got fired when he did. I would
have been much more understanding if this happened at the.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
All Star break. So there's like a lot of strange days.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Going on beneath the surface in Memphis that I think
need to be explained.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Take Noel la Roche. Noel L.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Roche was hired over the summer to replace one of
jenkins fired assistants, specifically to change and revamp the Memphis offense,
moving away from the pick and rolls that John Morant,
their star player loves so much, to a motion offense,
and it's largely worked. The motion offense that Laroche implemented
had the Grizzlies with the sixth most potent offense in
(02:54):
the entire NBA, so that was working, and then he
was fired at the same time Jenkins was fired. So
Zach Kleman didn't like Taylor jenkins offense, hired somebody to
fix the offense, and then fired both those guys with
nine games left with the Grizzlies in fourth place, So
what is happening?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
What's going on in Memphis?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Just from a schedule standpoint, the Grizzlies are a disappointment
by all intents and purposes. They have not beaten a
five hundred team since defeating the Bucks on February second,
which is insane. That's almost two months. That's over two months.
That is a damning stat. The team has been plagued
again with injuries. John Moran has missed thirty games. Gigi
(03:36):
Jackson and Vince Williams have been out a bunch of games,
Brandon Clark is not done for the season, and Jenkins
has done a pretty good job juggling lineups in order
to make this team competitive. At the time of this
they fall into eighth place, just a game out of fifth.
So that's how tight things are in the Western Conference.
Not exactly the time to be.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Letting your coach go.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Assistant coach tuamas ia Zolo, whom the Grizzlies hired before
the season, he was the one making major bread. I
think he got paid in the millions of dollars per
year as an assistant coach, so we knew what time
it was. Most likely, if somebody gets clipped, he's the
one to take that guy's place. There will be no
(04:17):
white horse and no White Knight riding in to save
this team the final stretches of the season. Ia Solo
is a finish offensive savant. He brought in to help
reconfigure Memphis offense as well. Now he's been given the reins.
I think the job is his. I think the job
has been his. All of this begs the question, though,
how does Jean Moran feel about this. All the reports
(04:40):
are that he had zero impact in Jenkins's firing. Indeed,
he was completely in the dark, was riding ten toes
down with Taylor Jenkins since that was the coach he
had since the beginning of his career in the NBA,
and that remained the case to the day that Taylor
Jenkins was fired. And now jaw enters a mega extension
where there's a ton of questions about whether he wants
(05:02):
to be there or whether even Memphis wants him to
be there in the long run.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Memphis went on record earlier this season.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Remember where they said, hey, keep dreaming, we're not trading
this man. But that's a lot of money to pay
a guy who's not playing even close to the eighty
two games in the season. Issues that seem to have
been put to bed, like, for example, the whole Jahn
Morant and gunsting have re emerged in the firing when
(05:29):
John Morant simulated gun figures at Steph Curry and Buddy
Held in the Golden State bench. And not only were
John Buddy Healed warned by the league to stop with
this nonsense, yet again John Morant the very next game
did it again. Desmond ban came after Santi Aldaman the
Hundle last week, pushing him down and telling him.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
To play fucking harder.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So let's just say the roster has had some turmoil.
A reporter for The Athletic wrote this about Jaw. Someday
Joh looks like he's ready to play, and some days
he looks like he doesn't want to be there because
he hates the offense. So if this new guy wants
an offense that the star player hates, how is that
(06:12):
gonna go? Despite GM Zach Kleman saying that the rumors
that the Grizzlies might shop Jaws Jow is a fantasy,
the Grizzlies fired the only coach the Jamur ever had.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
They fired his favorite.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Assistant coach last summer, a guy who spent two years
working with him during a rehab, and the controversy following
the rehab.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It does not sound like the franchise.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Is doing everything that they can in their power to
keep their superstar happy. Kind of wild keeping your star
in the dark while you fire a coach probably also
not great fascinating storyline. As for Taylor Jenkins, I think
he's gonna be a hot commodity. I think a bunch
of teams are gonna want him. He's the kind of
coach of the team like Portland might want, a team
like Sacramento might want. So much of this now depends
(06:58):
in Memphis on how they do the playoffs. Most people
thought the Memphis were gonna lose, probably in the first round.
They were dead ducks, sitting ducks. And that's if they
make the playoffs at all. The truth of the matter is,
even if they do make the playoffs, are they gonna
be favored against anyone? I don't think so. If they
make the play in probably gonna be a rock fight.
An early exit in the playoffs is just gonna cause
(07:21):
more speculation about what the outcome for Taylor Jenkins and
Memphis will be. And a whole lot of that is
thinking about whether you can win a title with John Morant.
All Right, moving on, seems weird to speak in any way,
shape or form negatively about the Boston Celtics, But there's
(07:42):
just a tiny hiccup in the back to back title
possibility that threatens to blossom into a full blown issue,
and that is that Jalen Brown is hurt. Jalen Brown
has what is called a right knee posterior impingement, an
injury that has caused him a bunch of discomfort on
the court, has time limited his playing time in a
(08:05):
bunch of games, and even though he's still putting up
numbers he had twenty four four nine and this lost
the Miami Heat the other night, he basically acknowledged that
he's just gonna be playing through pain. Yeah, he said
he's committed to playing and playing aggressively even though he's
not gonna be feeling good.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
There are a couple of ways to look at this.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
First of all, Jalen Brown says he's working with the
medical staff to undergo treatments to get his knee ready.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
For the playoffs, which is still at this point a
couple of weeks wait.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
And on top of that, when they play the seventh seed,
they're probably not gonna be playing anyone they really care
that much about. Seems like enough time to get right.
But here's what he had to say at the presser.
He said, I've got some stuff lined up with the
medical staff in order to feel better come playoffs. But
for now, you know, it's just mentally working through not
(08:57):
feeling great but finding ways to be effective on the
other hand, if Jalen Brown continues to be gimpy, his
ongoing knee issue probably means he's not gonna be nearly
as effective in the postseason and his amount of minutes,
his amount of usage is going to be limited, meaning
that the two headed Snake might just end up being
(09:19):
Tatum and some other player that needs to step up
on any given night, and the Celtics then have to
rely more on their depth, like our man Peyton Pritchard,
like our man Christas Porzingis, and who, by the way,
is also facing some lingering health concerns heading into the
playoffs as well. Listen, I'm not one to make anything
(09:41):
out of a couple of games. The Heat had one
of the better games of the year. They broke back
Boston's nine game winning streak. But this team is just
not nearly as good without a completely healthy JB. And
if he's not there one hundred percent, that means that
the Celtics are beatable. And there are a lot of
teams out there looking at take the crown from the
Celtics aka the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they're coming, baby, they
(10:05):
are coming.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, moving on, woo. Anthony Davis is back.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
So the Dallas Mavericks probably one of the weirder, most
goofiest teams in the NBA this season. They are clinging
onto the ninth spot in the West, and I don't
know necessarily if they even want that, But the man
at the center of the most controversial trade in modern
NBA history is back. The guy that our man, Nico Harrison,
(10:33):
is taking his entire future on, finally came back from
injury after playing just one half of basketball for the
team that just traded for him. And holy shit, did
he ever make a re entrance. Remember in his MAVs debut,
Ad had a game for the Ages. He had twenty six,
sixteen and seven in basically the first half of a game.
(10:54):
The MAVs beat a tough Rockets team won sixteen one
oh five. The problem was that he heard his missed.
The next eighteen games, MAVs were falling fast in the standings.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Of course, Kyrie Irving also towards ACL.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Then on March twenty fourth, he made his return, and
ever since he's been back in the LA lineup. The
MAVs are now four and one. His last game thirty four,
fifteen and two with five blocks and a game winning
bucket in the final seconds against Atlanta, a team that's
trying to get into the plan as well. The wild
(11:27):
part is that our man took an elbow to the face,
he left the game, got four stitches, and still managed
to come back and hit the game winner.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Ad is a star.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
He is an All Star, one of the best players
in the NBA by all accounts, a good dude. He's
also been historically very fragile, so it kind of sucks
that he's been seen by some people as the bad
guy in the Luca trade, even though according to Jenie Buss,
he was unhappy, he did want to leave LA and
probably was looking for a way out, but he's just
(11:58):
never going to get over with MAVs fans the way
that Luca did. Luca was endeared, he was loved, and
that's not just because Anthony Davis can't win he won
a chip in LA, but because Luca is a young
generational player, transcendent player who didn't look like a generational
player at the time where they got used to guys
(12:19):
like Dirk Novitzky, and Luca kind of fell walking into
his footsteps. The other only other player in the league
right now that's like that is probably Nicole Jokic. So
what does his return mean for the MAVs. They're currently
thirty eight and thirty nine. They sit ninth in the West.
The recent return of Ad couple with the anticipated comebacks
(12:40):
of players like Derek Lively Daniel Gafford makes them a
huge question mark, but Vegas is not buying it. The
MAVs playoff odds right now are plus six hundred, which
is less than a fifteen percent chance to make the postseason,
and that turns to zero without Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm happy Anthony Davis is back on the court.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It's probably the only thing that MAVs fans can even
cheer for. But listen, this is one of the more
stacked drafts in recent memory.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So maybe just maybe.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Missing the playoffs all together is a good thing for Dallas.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, moving on, you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Remember the Malice in the Palace, boy I do. I
was a freshman year, a freshman in college. We watched
it into my sports marketing class. It was fucking wild,
no franchise and it has a longer history of brutality
and force and fighting in the NBA than the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
They were the reason. There was a reason that they
were called the bad boys. They were swinging on.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Everybody call these guys the JB. Bickerstaff Pistons bad boys too,
because if it's not Isaiah Stewart clawbering Thomas Bryant, it's
Ron Holland coming for Jordan Clarkson. Every night the Pistons
are in some sort of squabble and they are down
with it. The latest is a full blown bench clearing
(14:03):
brawl between Ron Holland.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Holland fouled nas Reed, Dante DiVincenzo is Saya. Stewart of
course started a jaw and then everything went to hell
and a hand biscuit basket, Both benches emptied, the entire
scrum fell in the stands under the basket of one
of the uglier moments of the season, and in the
end seven people got ejected. Seven Pistons head coach JB. Bickerstaff,
(14:29):
assistant coach Pablo Prigioni, Wow and players Ron Holland, Stuart Sasser,
along with Timberwolves De Vincenzo and nas Reed. Following the review,
the NBA suspended Stu for two games due to his
prior history of unsportsman like contact. Remember he got into
it with Lebron James, while Ron Holland Marcus Sasser, nas
Reed Dante DiVincenzo each received one game suspensions. I'm just
(14:53):
gonna say this, I like the Pistons. I like this feistiness.
This is so much better than winning fourteen games and
doing an goddamn thing. They don't back down to anyone.
I can't wait to see them in the playoffs. Isaiah
Stewart loves to fight. We knew that from back in
the day. He couldn't wait to fight Lebron James and
throw elbows. Come on, he fights for the love of
(15:13):
the game. In fact, he reportedly asked Dante DiVincenzo if
he wanted to meet him outside after the game. Yo,
you're trying to meet me outside? And I know Dante's
like says he's a scrapper, but he's not a scrapper.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
No chance.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And I don't think there's many people who want to
wait for beef Stu after the game. Beef Stu will
come for you. The Pistons team is dangerous. Are they
good enough to win it all?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Of course not?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Are they good enough to make the Eastern Conference Finals
out of the five spot. Probably not, but they are
good enough to make life hell for whoever they play
in the playoffs. What a great story and what a
great team for Detroit and the city to get behind
because they represent their city as well as any team
in recent memory. Fun, gritty, and hard as a coffin nail,
(16:05):
just like the city of Detroit. Quick note, I feel
like a broken record, but we're finally moving over to
a new platform and we'll be back to a regular
schedule next week.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Love Detroit.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Playoffs are coming, new platform is coming, and that's all
the time that we have for this episode of heat Check.
Come back next week for an all new episode and
check out many episodes which drop unexpectedly, like Zach Lowe
joining the Rinninger, and do not forget to follow the
heat Check all season long. That means download, subscribe, tell
your friends, even the ones you haven't talked to, and
follow us on TikTok and at this heat Check and
at Trister Cook on Twitter, Instagram and threads. Met his
(16:39):
new social media platform where I post every day
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