January 2, 2025 • 50 mins
Trysta welcomes Law Murray (The Athletic) onto the show to discuss Lakers-Cavaliers, the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard's impending return, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
On this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Is time to check in on the LA Clippers, one
of the surprise teams in the NBA this season. We
are joined by friend of shoe Lamarie of the Athletic,
who also covers the NBA at large, so he's gonna
give us all the tea on the clips, Kawhi, there
are season to date and some other storylines from other
teams that he's.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Been covering along the way. Great way to start the year, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
One of the last times you're gonna be producing my show,
my man, because you're going off doing bigger and better things.
Drop that motherfucking beat. That should be Rihanna happy to
(00:56):
everybody who listens to the Heat Check. I am super
excited for all the cool days they were going to
do in the twenty twenty five year. When I can
share them with you, I will. But I cannot personally
think of a way to start the year better off
than having one of my dear friends that covers the league.
Law murray On. He is a Philly guy by birth.
(01:17):
Before doing the whole academic thing at cal and then
in Pennsylvania and at USC, he was a researcher for
NFL Media an NBA editor at ESPN for many years.
He was a Clippers blogger before signing on with The Athletic,
where he now covers the Clippers in the NBA at Large. So, Law,
you're at the game, at the game cover and for
(01:39):
the great almost called why not almost call it? Yovan
Buja in the Lake Great, he's the sick and grade
the sick grade.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yovon Bouja. You're at Lakers calves and you hadn't seen
the caves yet, like you said just a bit ago.
What's stuck out in that game? That's not obviously your
beat normally to cover Lakers.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, and might beat the cover. You know. It was
just my third Lakers game in like two weeks, which
is kind of wild. I hadn't seen the Clippers and
Lakers haven't seen each other, so I've gotten a good
look at how the Lakers have been. But I can
tell you I was I don't want to say I
(02:22):
was surprised, but I was interested to see how the
Cavs energy was after beating Golden State the night before
and the Lakers were off for two days. I was
at the game Saturday night where the Lakers beat the
Kings and that was Doug Christie's debut as a head coach,
and Lebron didn't play that. I mean, it was a
lot of points in that one too, though, So like,
(02:45):
you know, the Lebron had five days off, he just
turned forty, and we all had you know, the whole
Lebron hasn't played thing. You know, I was at the
Grizzlies game where what twenty four hours before, JJ Redick
was like, I don't know where is I don't know
if he'll be back. And then it's like, of course
he's going to show up and play like Lebron with
rest is obviously different than Lebron at on E and so.
(03:10):
And the Lakers went to Cleveland in October, and that's
when I think people first started to realize, oh, this
Cavaliers team is not messing around, like they smacked the
Lakers at night, even though the Lakers made twenty three
more free throws and the Cavs did right. So for me,
it's like, okay, you have that kind of game circled.
(03:31):
Cleveland's playing incredibly well. It's a statement game just on principle,
a huge rest disadvantage. And yet Trisa, these Cavaliers players
were still running up and down the floor because that
is what they are ingrain to do. They are pushing
the pace under Kenny Atkinson, they are getting good shots.
(03:53):
I feel like when I watched the Cavaliers and the
Donovan Mitchell Cavaliers under JB. Bickerstaff, I got used to
them draining the shot clock in half court possessions and
they would get good shots like they were a good team.
But that was their offense. They weren't, you know, they
were not a team in a rush to get a
shot up. Not that this team is in a rush
(04:14):
to get bad shots up. I'm pretty sure that if
they're not leading the league and field goal percentage, they're
damn close to it. But they they're not waiting for
you make or miss. They're getting the ball up the floor.
There are I played basketball. You played basketball. Even though
I need proof of yours, you know, I was an
off guard, and the shooting guard position to me means
(04:37):
when that ball goes through the net or it's a
rebound or a change possession, you are up the wing.
You are up and out right. Point guards are like,
get me the ball, were starting this, but shooting guards
are You're going up yeah, and the cas just all
their you know, whoever is off the ball, you know,
(04:59):
whether it's one of DG or Donovan, but especially guys
like Max Thrus, Carriselvert, they are up the floor waiting
and they get good shots just off of that, and
that was the game. Pretty much like the Lakers. They
want to run, but Manning is good at running as
the killer the cap layers. And that was with the
(05:22):
Cavs on a West coast back back. I thought that
was incredibly impressive. And you know what helps to have
that kind of energy when you beat the hell out
of the Warriors on that front end. None of those
dudes had to play thirty minutes in Golden State, so
it was like that was the one thing I was like, Okay,
these guys are outside of Isaaca Carrow fully healthy and
(05:43):
they did the best job possible taking care of themselves
on the front end, and that was that made a
huge difference in the Tuesday night game against the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, you mentioned JB bigger staff. I don't like it
felt like the Calves last year were very predictable and
that a lot of ISO, a lot of dribble handoff,
and it just kind of felt like if the fans
know what's going on, you know, it's it's Donovan Mitchell,
it's Darius Garland. Like they're just there wasn't much creativity
(06:14):
and now and you never really know what's going to happen.
I don't know. It feels like they didn't really love
the way JB. Bickerstaff coached either. Detroit's playing pretty well.
But sometimes certain coaches are good for like teams in
certain parts of their life cycle, right, and like maybe
Kenny is a better coach for this part of the
(06:35):
life cycle of his team.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, we see that a lot. I thought JB did
an outstanding job building up that team because when JV
took that job, I think he was what the fourth
head coach in two three years something like that. Yeah,
you know, they let torond Lu go early in the
twenty eighteen nineteen season, Larry Drew had to take on
the rest of that year. He didn't even want the
(06:59):
job up front, and yeah, and slug life, you know,
and JV kind of had to like stabilize a team
that was incredibly lost, and he did that, like they
got to the play in tournament and then they got
(07:19):
to the first round, and then last year they got
to the second round. Trista, you I was thinking about
this last night, like you need three things because again
I just told you. I just saw Doug Christy, you know,
coach his first game as the Sacramento King's head coach
after Mike Brown got let go. And we know that
(07:41):
franchise in Sacramento. I mean, Cleveland is not that far
behind us sar as habitual chronic instability and dysfunction. You
need as a head coach to have two of the
three relationships in this list ownership, front office, and your stars.
(08:01):
And the extensions are the stars will dictate whether you're
winning or losing a lot of these games. Okay, Like
if you don't have a star, that's probably going to
be a real issue for you. The front office, the
thing that the front office is beholden to the most
is the players that maybe won't play depending on who
(08:22):
the coach is, right, So you got to have the
relationship with that management. But you also like the vets,
the free agent who just steign the young guys that
haven't or are showing that they could play, but they
need some rope. That is a front office consint And
then the ownership extension is the fans and the media,
(08:43):
all the chatter, because that stuff just is a perception thing.
When you're a head coach, you are basically the face
of a whole lot of bs. You got to answer
for stuff from media day until the you know night
you're eliminated. And so, you know, I thought JV just
lost too many of the key relationships there. Obviously him
(09:06):
in the front office had their had their challenges, and
a lot of those challenges had to do with the
touch point between what's gonna happen with Donovan Mitchell. Well,
they decided that JAB was at the end of the line,
like you mentioned. And the great thing about Kenny Atkinson
is Kenny's been a head coach and an assistant coach
(09:28):
with so many different situations, rebuilds, revitalizations and everything in between.
You know, I'm a big fan of Kenny accent. I
got to cover him when he was with the Clippers
to Ron Lou's first year, and we didn't see each
other in person that whole year. The whole year is
on zoom, so it's been cool seeing him in person,
(09:51):
you know, the last couple of years with the Warriors,
and now last night I got to catch up with him,
and you mentioned predictability. So JV is a guy who defensively,
he knows what he wants to do. I actually think JB.
The coolest thing with what JB did the you know,
get the calves kind of to break through, was they
lined up differently. They had Larry markin in at the three,
(10:14):
Evan Mobley at the four of his rookie year right,
and Jared at the five. It's like teams weren't lining
up like that, right, And there is some predictability with
Kenny Atkinson's Calves. You know that they're going to run
a whole bunch of pick and roll. You know that
if they get threes up, you're in trouble. They don't
take the same volume of threes as some of these
(10:36):
teams in the league do, but their accuracy is what
kills you. And that is what I think is the
conversation here. I think you do need some predictability, Trista.
Predictability is an advantage to the teams that have it.
Like if you're you know, if you're you know what
(10:56):
Boston's going to do, and so it's very predicted what
Boston's gonna do. That doesn't mean you're gonna stop it,
you know what I mean, you're still praying as a
certain point that it came that they missshots, But you
know what shots are coming from. You know who's gonna
have the ball in their hands. And that's the thing
with Cleveland Kenny. What he's done is he knows his
(11:17):
personnel and he's maximizing it creatively but predictably in a
way that JB probably did not show he was going to,
especially once those relationships got strained with some of the
key guys on that team.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Heading over to the Lakers really fast. Because I was
reading your article this morning, and uh, like, it feels
like this sentence you could say this year, you could
say it, last year, you could say it the year
before that. The Lakers insist they're in a good place.
(11:54):
What what are we making of that? Because you look
at the Lakers and I feel like they're the only
ones that don't really want to admit that the house
has a bit on fire. I don't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So here's my thing. I don't think the house is
on fire with them. They've been way worse this season
than they are now. Where they are now to your point, though,
is seventh in the Western Conference.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
That's that's the love. That's the house on fire. That's
that's what we're when is the goal.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Here's my thing with the Lakers. If the Brooklyn Nets
hired JJ Reddick and the Brooklyn that's not the New
York Knicks because again, the Knicks are loud, right, any
little progress the New York Knicks make, then you're going
to just act like you know, you're gonna have fifty
cameras in that. Like, but I want to use the
(12:56):
Nets as an example. I would even use Charlotte. So
let's say Charlotte. If the Charlotte Hornets hired JJ Reddick
and then't they hire they interviewed them. I think they
did in the past. Let's say the Charlotte Hornets hire
JIK and the Charlotte Hornets had Lebron James back in
the Southeastern Division, right, and you're saying they need to contend,
(13:21):
it would hit different.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You'd be like a forty year old Lebron James and
Charlotte yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, Like what do you mean content? And so what?
Like the Lakers because they want a championship in the
post pandemic reality of our of our existence, like people
still look at them as a team that should theoretically
be just able to win a championship because they made
(13:51):
that fake one.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Or get out of a plane at least.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, Like they made the Western Conference finals in twenty
twenty three, and they ran back that team, thinking that
they were running back a conference finalist. They ran back
a seventh seed Tristan. That is and that and that's
the thing. Like the Lakers are fine, They're in a
(14:17):
good They're in an okay place. If okay is the
status quo where they've been at. You know, there are
some teams that will be thrilled to be the seventh
in their conference this year. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Okay, we can't do that. We can't.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We realized that the Lakers and Lebron's twilight is not
that place.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Just like it's that same way with Golden State though too,
like it's Steph Curry's.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Like the Golden State Warriors are hell amid And finally
Stephen Curry said it himself, like that's since Kevin Durant
left that franchise. They the Warriors have had, including this season,
they've had one year where they can feel like they
were proud of it, and they won the championship. And
(15:05):
the thing is, because of the success they did have
when they were making the finals five years in a row,
people attached that twenty two team to everything else that
they've done over the last decade. And there's and and
I feel like that's wrong, and that's just NBA fans
have gotten to the point where it's like the Warriors
(15:25):
our name brand. Look, we grew up when the Warriors
were ashy s L and made the playoffs once in
seventeen years, right, And it's like that's no offense to
the war The Warriors have an awesome rooted fan base,
you know, shout out to the arena in Oakland days.
You know. What I'm saying like that is that's their
fan base. But nationally and how they're covered, you know,
(15:49):
as far as the whole scope of the league, everyone
looks at the Warriors as a team that should be contender.
Run it.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
What you're saying is, really we should. They're getting covered
like their contenders, but really they're closer to like if
it was Charlotte or a non name brand or a
team that hasn't done as much, then it would be
really not Nobody would be talking about it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Nah, we'd be like, oh my god, why is stuff here?
Why is Lebron with the Lakers. No, Instead, it's make
the Warriors great again, make the Lakers great again. You
know every time, you know, you got to put every
Warriors Lakers game on national TV, because one, you know,
it's easy money. It's shooting fish in a barrow. You know,
two of them are going to do some stuff to
(16:36):
act like you know, they're cool, and they are cool now,
but like we know that that's not how this started.
And like they're both in their twilights, they're both showing
real signs of the climb. It's not to say they're
not good players now, it's not to say that they
aren't great or aren't you know, deserving of all of
our excitement when they do any of the stuff that
(16:57):
reminds us of their of their peaks. But those players
are not peaking right now. Kevin Durant and Phoenix is
not peaking right now. But notice that we ain't talking
about the Suns and trying to make them great again
like the Warriors and the Lakers, because the Sons ain't
never done anything like they made the finals. That saying
(17:18):
it's like you can't even make the finals and be
says that you gotta win a championship or whatever. The
Suns haven't done that, so they don't get the same
level of Hey, can y'all move heaven and Earth to
save the end of this guy's you know whatever you
want to call this stage of guys like Katie or
bron or steps career. You know, it's a branding thing.
(17:42):
Like the Lakers, they're supposed to be. They're supposed to
be where they are right now. Now, if you look
at it from that perspective, yeah, they can be satisfied
going into the first week of January. But if you're
thinking that they're a contender, no, the only people who
think their contenders are the people who are in that
building with the Lakers and obviously have a reason to
(18:04):
not be real with themselves, and the people who want
you to watch the Lakers. And there's a lot of
people who no matter again, no matter what is going
on with that team, they want you to focus on
the Lakers more than a team like the Cavaliers. I
wrote a damn story last night, and if I wasn't,
you know, on the.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Beat, if you weren't on the Lakers, you wouldn't have
been writing about that.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, Like if my assignment wasn't was open ended, I
would have been like, hey, like, look at this Cavaliers team.
I'm hoping there would be better chances to do that.
The Cavaliers have much bigger games than last night. Like
last night was a big game for the Lakers. For
the Cavaliers, it was let's just get through this back
to back on the West Coast, the Cavaliers and Thunder
(18:48):
are gonna be on national TV twice this month. Those
two teams are absolutely running the league in their respective
conferences and overall. Because you know how many games the
Cavs have lost against Western Conference teams this year, just.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
One zero, which wonder because I thought zero.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Loss, they're more fine than the Western John Morant was.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I know, I know they are very fine in the way.
What about the Clippers we talked about in the summer.
I was skeptical. I was even more skeptical by Norm
powace comments about addition by subtraction. They are currently in
the sixth place, only three and a half games back
of second in the West. You sort of predicted this
(19:45):
being okay, But I don't know if you predicted it
being this okay outside of the Spurs loss, which was
built to ask just the other night.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, and the big part of that was not to
make excuses her. The Clippers, I mean, they've been awful
in the second night of back to backs for several weeks,
but logistics were terrible there. If that game was a
normal game, it would have started an hour later, coming
from you know where they played the night before. This
(20:18):
is why you don't mess around in New Orleans. You know,
you don't fall behind fourteen and you don't have to
run Norman Palace minutes to forty and Visus Zubots, who's
a big, big person, you know, having to play the
minutes that he had to play James Harden at the
stage of his career. But the great thing about the
Clippers is, you know, when it's not a second night
(20:38):
of back to back, you know what you're getting out
of them. They're gonna play hard, and they have the
players to play hard and the play without agendas. Last year,
the Clippers were great for a significant portion of the season.
I need great. They were, like we were talking thirty
three and eight from you know, I believe the end
(21:00):
of the losing streak in November where at by the
end of it they had to sit Russell Westbrook or
not sit him but make him a second unit player.
You know, from that point until the end of the
Grammy shirt thirty three and eights for the damn good right, Trista,
that team didn't believe. That team didn't believe that they
were going to do anything. There was just too many agendas,
(21:21):
too many guys split and when kawhi'snee gave out, that
was it.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
And people agendas like getting paid, agendas.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Getting paid, playing time, touches rolls, you know, guys like
when you have a guy like PJ. Tucker on your
team who is traded as a part of the James
Harden deal, and the front office has an idea of
how they want to use him, but the coaching staff
is like, he's not helping, and he wasn't like you know,
(21:51):
they tried him. He was getting cooked. And he obviously
doesn't do anything offensively, like nothing at all. He doesn't
even and shoot the corner three like he used to.
And that's okay. PJ. Tucker is pushing forty, you know
what I mean, Like he's at the stage of his
career where it's you know, a credit to him that
he got the contract that he got, but he's not
(22:13):
helping the team. And last year I saw like when
you gotta keep PJ. Tucker Bone Thiland from your last
game before the All Star break because they didn't get
traded to a team that was playing as well as
the Clippers were. The Clippers were in first place in
the West for about twenty four hours right before the
trade dead nine. That's a red flag obviously. It's like
(22:33):
what is going on where guys this team could do
something special and guys who are on that team are
acting like this just because they're not playing. So not
to say that that's completely gone away. Like PJ. Tucker's
still in the roster. The difference is he's not traveling
and around the team this year. Bone Island's still in
the roster. It's just that Bones has never been in
(22:56):
the rotation this year and the few chances that he's
gotten he had and you know, the coaches have not
been convinced that he should stay in the rotation, so
he doesn't play. So you still have, you know, a
lot going on. Kawhi isn't playing right now. That said,
have they re ranted their team. They didn't sign Paul George,
(23:18):
which we have an old way of thinking. Pay a
guy as much as possible to keep him or at
least train him and get something for him. People killed
the Clippers over the summer because they have not made
the transition from the way the CBA is now compared
to the way the CBA was when the Clippers stole
Norman Powell from the Portland Trailblazers. We are in different
(23:41):
phases of team management and roster building, and the Clippers
understood that even before last year. They're like, hey, Kawhi
and Paul are partners, their extension eligible. We'll see what happens.
Kawhi saw the reading on the wall and sign his
thing before anything could happen, including his own body breaking
down out and Paul knew that he could probably get
(24:03):
the more money than what the Clippers are offering him
and shout out to Paul. He got his bag. Can
you imagine if the Clippers were playing Paul George anywhere
close to what Paul wanted on this year's team, with
Kawhi not playing, and with you know, just the fact that, yeah,
the Clippers would be the team that everyone thought the
Clippers would be when the Vegas odds came out for
(24:26):
the preseason, which the Clippers players were very cognizant about.
It's not that they hate Paul, It's that they felt
like they were good players and that people were missing
that because they were so used to Paul George being
a part of the La Clippers, and they were so
used to Kawhi Leonard. If Kawhi is not going to
(24:47):
play and Paul's not there, what do you have? That's
how you know a lot of these people don't pay
attention to who like the Clippers. When you look at
roster Trista, you see a bunch of players who were
pretty good at playing basketball. You see a coaching staff
who at the very least was going to get players
not only prepared to play, but like they're going to
adjust and they're going to put them in position to
(25:09):
stay motivated to play hard. Jeff and Gundy being an
addition to coaching staff, he's never satisfied. I've never seen
Jeff like actually chill, you know, and I've been around
him for months now. It's like they play with an
edge and it's hard to maintain that edge. And that's
what January is about now you've seen some success. Now
(25:30):
Norman Powell, you know, is putting addition by subtraction hoodies
out under the Understand the Ground brand, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So I mean anytime merch comes out, law I start
to get worried, you know what I mean, Like things
that's a big It's one thing to say in the media,
it's another thing to put that on wax and the screenprint.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But he's been he's been good, but he's been about
He's been about his business though. And that's the thing
with the Clippers, where it's like they are confident in themselves.
They've won games, They've gotten the ass kicked in a
lot of games too. You know. They's a healthy balance
of confidence, achievement and at the same time understanding that
(26:16):
there's so much more work to be done, especially in
this conference. They're going to have to acclimate with Kawhi.
I think Kawhi is going to be fine, but bringing
Kawhi back is a disruption, right and then you're going
to be disrupted again because right when Kawhi is going
to get in the rhythm, the trade deadline is going
to hit. And Lawrence Frank always makes a move and
that team has at least two guys who you got
(26:40):
to really take a long look at seeing if you
can remix your roster and enhance it. They have holes
on their roster. They have guys who are playing that
probably need to be in reduced roles. They have like
a gaping sore at a couple of spots. They need
to play better basketball. And part of that is getting
(27:02):
Kawhi back, but part of it is seeing how Kawhi
makes everyone else look and seeing if there's a way
to enhance the roster. So we're we are in the
middle of of the of of things. Just it's it's
very exciting.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Nothing is ever solid with the Clippers. Nothing is ever
like in a state of like continuity. You mentioned Ki returns,
like we've been saying imminent for a while now, I
think you said and when you're recent recent articles. The
target day is the fifth, right, So that's imminent.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
The fifth is my birthday. They will not be playing
on the fifth. They're playing on the fourth. Yeah, And
I gotta say target date because and I even you know,
I hesitate even with that because the Clippers, and I
wrote in my story, the Clippers are not trying to
(27:58):
talk about target dates.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
You know, No, they're not trying to talk about anything.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, like the Clippers are are trying to like you
can't even Let's just say things are very much under
wraps when it comes to what their timeline is with Kawhi.
And it's completely understandable they've rushed Kawhi back before, or
at least to say Kawhi has come back and clearly
(28:22):
has had setbacks multiple times and over multiple seasons. If
it's up to Kawhi completely, Kawhi arguably would have been
back by now or already. They the Clippers are exercising
patients in a way that they haven't before. They want
Kawhi to not just come back, but stay back. We
(28:46):
saw in the playoffs how excited were people when he
got to finally play a home playoff game in front
of a capacity crowd for the first time as a Clipper.
And by the end of the weekend he was cooked.
Like we saw he went to the Olympics and he
had to sleeve on and he was trying to mouth
breathe his way to Paris, and you know what, he
(29:11):
probably could have made it, you know, like he probably
could have been on that team, participated got a gold
medal just for playing ten minutes a game at most.
But that Olympic team was like, we already got injured guys.
You saw how Joel Embiid looked. Kevin Durant didn't play
until the end of July. They couldn't afford to have
Kawhi on the roster when Derek White fresh body and
(29:33):
everything was chilling and waiting to go. So they're like,
we're letting you go, Kawhi, and then Kawhi, you know,
couldn't be ready for training camp.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
So how do you think him coming back impacts how
the Clippers play.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
It's going to have a complete domino effect, but in
a good way, I think when you see the Clippers play.
So I put a stat out after the New Orleans
game Monday night about how Aviitsa Zuba, James Harden, Norman
Pale they each hit twenty, norm hit thirty five. They
each hit twenty for the sixth time this season. That
(30:08):
is crazy. That's as many times as Paul George, Kawhi
and James hit twenty in the same game all of
last season. Wow, you're talking about again, James at this
stage of his career. Norm a guy who's over thirty
and has you know a guy that people have just
gotten comfortable thinking he's a bench player. And if it's
(30:30):
zubot's a guy that you know, uh, people who again
don't watch or only play two k and it's like, man,
this is zoo. Don't shoot threes and don't make anything happen.
You know, they're not aware of the fact that he's
one of the most effective post players over the last
several seasons. That's a balance. Though you have a post player,
you have a on off ball player in norm a
(30:53):
guy who is excelling in the handoffs or coming off
a screens or curls. And then James who is your
primary playmaker. He's running your picking roles and he's in ISO,
but he's also focused on getting the ball to others.
Kawhi is a better ISO player than almost any player
in the league. And Kawhi loves the mid range, which
(31:15):
is something the Clippers completely lack. Right now, Kevin Porter
Junior leads the team in mid range filgal clips right now,
I don't think I need to say anything more than that,
Like it's about and we should look at this or
every basketball team, like in football, we always discuss where
guys are running routes you never see or you ideally
don't see two guys in the same area in a
(31:38):
football game or football play. It's the same thing with basketball.
You need to space the floor. You have the guy
who has the ball. There's only one ball last time
I checked in basketball, right, and then you have to
find ways to create space and exploit space. And you
don't want guys stepping on each other's toes. And over
(31:59):
the course of forty eight minutes, you have to fill
those minutes with lineups that can continue to generate good offense.
Kawhi is not just a ceiling raizer. He's a floor raizer.
And that last part is important because he's not gonna
come debuting and dropping thirty. That's not what Kawhi is
gonna do because he's missed too much time. That's why
(32:20):
it's taking him a lot of time now to get
ready to play, because they want him to, you know,
knock that rust off and be able to participate fully
with the team. They're gonna have the actions for Kawhi.
But being a floor raizer means he's gonna take good shots.
He's gonna make open shots and he's gonna take care
of basketball, and that is key because you can let
(32:44):
James continue to run pick and rolls, Norman Powell can again.
He's such a good catch and shoot player, a good
movement shooter that you're not worried about him being in
the way. You know he's gonna enhance players because he's
so good that even if he doesn't touch the ball, well,
he's creating offense for your team. And then if it's
a zoobots, he's going to be in the paint. He's
(33:04):
in the middle of the floor, he's setting screens, or
he's posting up, or he's in the dunker spot cutting.
He has gotten really good at understanding where he's going
to get the ball and where he can make an impact.
And also Zue is up there in the league leaders
in offensive rebounds, so when you do misshots, he's a
presence there. So it's a complimentary team. That's how they
(33:25):
built this team, and it will be great to see
how he affects the Stars. But we really got to
see who winds up losing the most playing time. That's
going to be the real key.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Just a small coffee, a mere coffee.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, he's not going to a mir playing too well
a mirror. Amir's only missed one game since last December.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
You know that that's wild? Yeah, no, I did not
know that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You're shooting the hell out of the basketball. He runs
the floor, he plays is hard. I mean, he's not
the most physically imposing wing, but he's been their most
consistent bench player, I would say, especially from a statistical
production standpoint, all season, so I think his role should
(34:17):
be considered safe.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
He's been incredible. He has been incredible. Let's go into
some real general NBA stuff before I get to rapid
fire with you. I have so many questions, but we
have like almost no time left. Looking around the NBA
as a whole, What team with the winning record do
you think is going to struggle the most in twenty
twenty five? And what team with the losing record do
(34:39):
you think catches fire?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
The team with a winning record that I would not
trust right now, I would probably have to go with
the Miami Heat, just because things are just so flighty
with with Jimmy and I don't want to doubt Spoe.
(35:04):
But again, kind of like what we're talking about with
the Lakers, the Heat have a brand of doing being
a scary team because of what they've done in the playoffs,
specifically to the Milwaukee Bucks over the Jimmy Butler era,
but the Celtics, the Celtics too. I mean, but I
(35:25):
gotta I gotta say, like, if Jimmy is not a
part of that, what do you have if you trade
Jimmy and that we are we're headed for some kind
of collision course, what does that look like? And they're
already you know, barely over five hundred now, So I
don't doubt Spoe or that organization, but that is a
big change to make if they make it. And but
(35:49):
it's also the same to me.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
They can be though one of those teams like the
Clippers that allows the start to go for free.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah, I I complete, like that's the thing. Myami hasn't
missed back to back playoffs over the last twenty years
for a reason, Like they are good, and so I'm
copping out basically because I don't I think the teams
that have winning records right now are they've earned those
records in there, and I think they're gonna be solid,
(36:16):
you know, for for quite a bit. Like I don't
want to say a team like San Antonio for instance,
like you know, yeah, I'm not going to try to
San Antonio, you know, falls off a bit, you know.
I mean, Chris Paul is having an incredible season considering
how old he is. He's turning forty in twenty twenty
five is and he's I don't think he I don't
(36:37):
know how many games he's missed. I don't know if
he's missed a game, you know whatnot. And he's been
instrumental to what they're doing if they were to lose
him or or Wimby or somebody to, you know, for
an extening period of time. The Spurs are the healthiest
team in basketball. And yes they are only one game
over five hundred. But I think the teams that are
good right now, they're probably going to be good now
(37:02):
that the teams.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
With the losing record that's going to catch fire.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Uh, I mean, shoot, you you gotta go at Philly,
you have to. And they're already catching some fire. They
won ten of thirteen now. So much of it has
to do with the There are some teams, the Clippers
being one of them. Right if they're not fully healthy,
can they still punch above their weight class? Can they
still get wins? Clearly people didn't think the Clippers could
(37:28):
do that, and they've done that. The Sixers has shown
that they absolutely are not that team. Like, if one
of those dudes, Joel Maxy PG. One of those dudes
is not playing, they are not a good basketball team.
Nick has not gotten that team to play well shorthanded
at all. That being said, they are a powerful team
(37:52):
if those three players are playing. Joel is playing at
the level that he was a year ago. That is Honestly,
I'm a little unpleasantly pleased to see that, just I
just didn't think that would happen with how much he
was struggling with that leg. So it's great to see
a player like Joelle get healthy. Keep that in mind
(38:15):
for Kawhi. It's gonna take a while for these guys
to get back, but if they get back, they're elite
for a reason. These guys that are getting paid by
these teams, they see them day in and day out.
They know what they're dealing with. I think we got
to give these medical staffs, these training stats more credit
than what some of these people give. Paul is not
(38:36):
putting good numbers up. But the thing with Paul that
he doesn't get credit for is he's gonna find a
way to make some kind of impact positively on the games. Now,
you didn't pay for that, but at the same time
you kind of did, like you had to realize that
Paul was probably, you know, hanging onto his star statisfy
a thread in some regards, but right now he is
(39:01):
he is. And that's the thing though, I think that
Paul is a higher floor player than Tobiases. Whereas you
would hoped that Paul would be more of a ceiling raizer,
Paul is probably not a ceiling razor. Right now he's
going to say that he can get to that level.
I think people should be skeptical because even the last
couple of years, his paint touches, his drives, his ability
(39:24):
to his ability definish his fine, but his ability to
actually create advantages is not good. He just doesn't have
the bursts or the lift or the explosion. And that's fine.
He's a year fifteen player at and we've seen all
he's been through physically. You know, the dude broke his
leg on National TV ten summers ago. You know, Phillip
(39:47):
overpaid for him. He's a high floor player, and a
high floor player helps when you have the ceiling raizers
in Joel and if Tyrese is going to recover from
the bad start that he had. Tyrese was having a
tar terrible start the year having to carry the load
without Joel and Paul. Again, he's not that guy if
he's got to play that way. Like we saw it
(40:08):
last year, Tary's put up numbers when Joel was out,
but the Sixers were not good Like Nick's just not
the kind of coach who's going to do his best
work with shorthanded rosters. But he is going to if
he has those stars, they're going to win a lot
of games. And you see where they are and I
think they are one game behind in the lost column
(40:30):
behind the Pacers, Bulls and Pistons. They all have eighteen losses.
The Sixers are seventeen. The Pacers are in eighth. So yeah,
they're they're not the They're not the five. What did
they start like five and fifteen? Right, Yeah, they're obviously.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
They're not that. Yeah, so we know Boston, we know Cleveland,
we know Okay, see those are the contender contenders. It
feels like that are like solidly there that we can
all bonho, who do you think can get to contention
level if they make the right move in the deadline.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Oh, they're tying this to the deadline. I really want
to see what Houston does. I'm not kidding. Houston is
in an interesting spot because they can't put the ball
in the basket for anything. But they know this, so
they do everything in their power to get more shots
(41:29):
than you. This is the Houston is the is the
most anti maker miss League team in the NBA because
they can't make shots. But here they are, you know,
ten games over five hundred, and they're thin. They're thin
for a number of reasons. You know they're healthy.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
But well, Em doesn't like that his bench obviously, Like
he doesn't clearly doesn't like Cam whit More much like
there's guys that we thought would be contributed just are
not contributing.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Right. Reed Shepherd was the first guard drafted, the first
American draft.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
He may swore to me he was gonna get minutes,
told me to my face in the win, He's gonna
get minutes.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, I wouldn't believe he made with that, Like I'm not. Yeah,
Like I think he may looks at Reed Shepherd like
he looked at Peyton Pritchard. You know, you see the
Peyton Pritchard that you see in Mazzola. He wasn't that
player in Boston, right, And that's the thing. It's like
e May's wants to defend at a high level now.
(42:33):
Reed Shepherd is the kind of player where if this
team was, you know, in a different phase of their development,
Reed would be playing through whatever challenges that he has.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Known the biggest Are they the biggest team to start
to cut you off? Are then the biggest team to
try and go get dearon Fox?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
I don't think dearon Fox helps that team that much.
To be honest with you, what are you doing with
if if you trade Fred van Vliet for instance, like
you're trading van Vliet, You're probably gonna have to put
some depth on it. You're not that team needs more
good players, I think you know, And if you're going
to trade for a star, I think Jimmy is the
(43:14):
guy you get because Jimmy is a is a is
a wing, a small forward, a guy who can you know,
be a culture guy. You know, a guy who can
be again a ceiling razor and a floor razer. The
issue with Jimmy is his availability and his approach, like
Jimmy is going to coast and get himself to the
(43:35):
playoffs so that he can max out in the playoffs.
That's a dangerous line in the Western Conference. Like Jimmy is,
Jimmy is absolutely a sixteen game player, but he's not
necessarily an eighty two game player. We've seen that for years.
Jimmy is so much older than people think he is.
Jimmy's got a young character to him. When you just
look at if you're not the type that looks up
(43:55):
birth certificates and birthdays and whatnot, and you just you know,
Jimmy came to consciousness late. And Jimmy, it's not like
Jimmy was a star in high school or scar in college.
He was a late literally the last first round pick
of his draft. You know, Jimmy has gotten it out
the mud. But Jimmy is thirty five, and Jimmy's knees
(44:15):
are in a state where you know you can't run
him out there. You know, a whole lot. But I
think they need another bucket. They need a guy who
can confidently score like Jalen Green is getting an incredible
amount of rope for how inefficient he can be. Next
to Fred van Bleet, but I don't think a small
(44:37):
guard like they have enough small guards. They're not playing
Aaron Hollidays on his team. Reacheverer's on the team Fred
van Bleep. For all the good of Fred van Vliet,
the worst thing about Fred van Bleet is that he
is thoroughly inefficient as a shot maker. You know. The
good thing about van Bleet is he's gonna defend, He's
gonna give you an edge, he's gonna take care of basketball,
(44:59):
and he has deep three point range, so at least
you have a semblance of spacing out there. I don't
think the Aaron's the kind of player that's going to
help them because the Arran strengths are his strengths. But
they don't make Houston a remarkably different team than they
already are now. So I'm keeping an eye on if
(45:21):
they choose to stand pat or if they choose to,
you know, try and turn their some of those assets
into an upgrade from a scoring perspective. They're too easy
to stop if you're locked into rebounding and if you can,
you know, win the possession.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Battle, especially considering I think the west outside of Oklahoma
City is pretty open, pretty wide open, wide open. I'm
gonna put you on the shot clock. We've got a
series of questions. You are going to answer them as
quickly as possible, only your snap decisions, no thinking. Are
you ready?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yep? I'm ready.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Best point guard in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Shake gilgo, Alexander.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
How many rounds does Tyler Hero survive against Aman Thompson
in a twelve round boxing match?
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I'm gonna give him two?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Two?
Speaker 3 (46:19):
All right, Aliens have landed. They love basketball. What current
player do you pick to hit a contestant shot to
save our humanity law?
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Who's a tough shot maker? You know it's Aliens. I'm
gonna go with Wemby, just in casey missus, damn it.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
That's so popular. Favorite player as.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
A kid, Allen Iverson?
Speaker 3 (46:46):
Oh me too? Favorite player to watch right now?
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Oh, favorite player to watch right now? That's tough. I'm
gonna just say, Shay.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Is Tyrese Halliburton in a slump? Has he reverted to
the mean? Or is he still injured.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
A thing? He's reverted to the mean?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Who will be the highest paid player in twenty thirty?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Victor with Miyama?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
What would you rather have? Fifty percent? Of Brownie James's
jersey sales from this point on, or the entirety of
Zion's next contract.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
Give me the jersey sales.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Best player to build a new team around, SGA or Luca.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
A new team? SGA?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Who wins the championship sooner? The Lakers are the Clippers?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
The Clippers person in.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
The NBA media, you'd want to have a podcast that
doesn't currently have a podcast?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
That doesn't currently have a podcast? Shoot me, I don't
have a podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Who's the rookie of the year this season for you?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Ooh, the rookie of the year for me?
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Snap?
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Lost? Snap? I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
That's the whole point is snap?
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (48:12):
Zach d d player with the best name in the NBA,
not nickname, the.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Best the best name. Uh, this is you're killing me?
Shake Yell is out centor that.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Can't be it your The answer can't be Shay every time.
I love a mirror coffee. What would you rather have
Lebron's next contract or Cooper Flag's rookie.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Deal Lebron's next contract?
Speaker 3 (48:42):
What would you rather win? Ten NBA Cups or one
NBA title from the bubble?
Speaker 1 (48:48):
One NBA title from the bubble.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
And finally, pick the one NBA player past or present
you would want to have dinner with. And why.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Uh huh keem Olajuwan. I feel like he is He's fascinating,
and yeah, I want to I want to know what
he thinks about the evolution of the game and and
where and and his position especially, So.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Would you ask him a lot of questions about current
rocket centers, how they've evolved or won.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
That could be a part of it, but I don't
want that to be a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
All right, that's all. That's all. Yeah, you I think
I gave you like a maybe, like a B minus.
There was a couple in there, not snap decisions.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh yeah, I'm cool with that. I was up till
three o'clock in the morning, so I think that. Well,
I'll be way better next time. I hope there's the
next time, Tristan.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
There's the next time. We're gonna check in around the
trade deadline. How's that?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
That sounds good? All right? Talk so brother, Thank you, Tristan.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
That's all the time that we have for the episode
of Heat Check check back in on Monday and check
out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which
drop unexpectedly like the new Year. Do not forget to
follow the heat Check all season. That means download and subscribe,
That means tell your friends, all of them. Make your
New Year's resolution to tell your friends about the heat Check.
Tell ten people and follow us on TikTok and at
(50:20):
this heat Check and at Tristan underscore Criek on Twitter,
Instagram and threads. Met his new social media platform where
I post actually every day and at some point soon
YouTube
On this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Is time to check in on the LA Clippers, one
of the surprise teams in the NBA this season. We
are joined by friend of shoe Lamarie of the Athletic,
who also covers the NBA at large, so he's gonna
give us all the tea on the clips, Kawhi, there
are season to date and some other storylines from other
teams that he's.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Been covering along the way. Great way to start the year, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
One of the last times you're gonna be producing my show,
my man, because you're going off doing bigger and better things.
Drop that motherfucking beat. That should be Rihanna happy to
(00:56):
everybody who listens to the Heat Check. I am super
excited for all the cool days they were going to
do in the twenty twenty five year. When I can
share them with you, I will. But I cannot personally
think of a way to start the year better off
than having one of my dear friends that covers the league.
Law murray On. He is a Philly guy by birth.
(01:17):
Before doing the whole academic thing at cal and then
in Pennsylvania and at USC, he was a researcher for
NFL Media an NBA editor at ESPN for many years.
He was a Clippers blogger before signing on with The Athletic,
where he now covers the Clippers in the NBA at Large. So, Law,
you're at the game, at the game cover and for
(01:39):
the great almost called why not almost call it? Yovan
Buja in the Lake Great, he's the sick and grade
the sick grade.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yovon Bouja. You're at Lakers calves and you hadn't seen
the caves yet, like you said just a bit ago.
What's stuck out in that game? That's not obviously your
beat normally to cover Lakers.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, and might beat the cover. You know. It was
just my third Lakers game in like two weeks, which
is kind of wild. I hadn't seen the Clippers and
Lakers haven't seen each other, so I've gotten a good
look at how the Lakers have been. But I can
tell you I was I don't want to say I
(02:22):
was surprised, but I was interested to see how the
Cavs energy was after beating Golden State the night before
and the Lakers were off for two days. I was
at the game Saturday night where the Lakers beat the
Kings and that was Doug Christie's debut as a head coach,
and Lebron didn't play that. I mean, it was a
lot of points in that one too, though, So like,
(02:45):
you know, the Lebron had five days off, he just
turned forty, and we all had you know, the whole
Lebron hasn't played thing. You know, I was at the
Grizzlies game where what twenty four hours before, JJ Redick
was like, I don't know where is I don't know
if he'll be back. And then it's like, of course
he's going to show up and play like Lebron with
rest is obviously different than Lebron at on E and so.
(03:10):
And the Lakers went to Cleveland in October, and that's
when I think people first started to realize, oh, this
Cavaliers team is not messing around, like they smacked the
Lakers at night, even though the Lakers made twenty three
more free throws and the Cavs did right. So for me,
it's like, okay, you have that kind of game circled.
(03:31):
Cleveland's playing incredibly well. It's a statement game just on principle,
a huge rest disadvantage. And yet Trisa, these Cavaliers players
were still running up and down the floor because that
is what they are ingrain to do. They are pushing
the pace under Kenny Atkinson, they are getting good shots.
(03:53):
I feel like when I watched the Cavaliers and the
Donovan Mitchell Cavaliers under JB. Bickerstaff, I got used to
them draining the shot clock in half court possessions and
they would get good shots like they were a good team.
But that was their offense. They weren't, you know, they
were not a team in a rush to get a
shot up. Not that this team is in a rush
(04:14):
to get bad shots up. I'm pretty sure that if
they're not leading the league and field goal percentage, they're
damn close to it. But they they're not waiting for
you make or miss. They're getting the ball up the floor.
There are I played basketball. You played basketball. Even though
I need proof of yours, you know, I was an
off guard, and the shooting guard position to me means
(04:37):
when that ball goes through the net or it's a
rebound or a change possession, you are up the wing.
You are up and out right. Point guards are like,
get me the ball, were starting this, but shooting guards
are You're going up yeah, and the cas just all
their you know, whoever is off the ball, you know,
(04:59):
whether it's one of DG or Donovan, but especially guys
like Max Thrus, Carriselvert, they are up the floor waiting
and they get good shots just off of that, and
that was the game. Pretty much like the Lakers. They
want to run, but Manning is good at running as
the killer the cap layers. And that was with the
(05:22):
Cavs on a West coast back back. I thought that
was incredibly impressive. And you know what helps to have
that kind of energy when you beat the hell out
of the Warriors on that front end. None of those
dudes had to play thirty minutes in Golden State, so
it was like that was the one thing I was like, Okay,
these guys are outside of Isaaca Carrow fully healthy and
(05:43):
they did the best job possible taking care of themselves
on the front end, and that was that made a
huge difference in the Tuesday night game against the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, you mentioned JB bigger staff. I don't like it
felt like the Calves last year were very predictable and
that a lot of ISO, a lot of dribble handoff,
and it just kind of felt like if the fans
know what's going on, you know, it's it's Donovan Mitchell,
it's Darius Garland. Like they're just there wasn't much creativity
(06:14):
and now and you never really know what's going to happen.
I don't know. It feels like they didn't really love
the way JB. Bickerstaff coached either. Detroit's playing pretty well.
But sometimes certain coaches are good for like teams in
certain parts of their life cycle, right, and like maybe
Kenny is a better coach for this part of the
(06:35):
life cycle of his team.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, we see that a lot. I thought JB did
an outstanding job building up that team because when JV
took that job, I think he was what the fourth
head coach in two three years something like that. Yeah,
you know, they let torond Lu go early in the
twenty eighteen nineteen season, Larry Drew had to take on
the rest of that year. He didn't even want the
(06:59):
job up front, and yeah, and slug life, you know,
and JV kind of had to like stabilize a team
that was incredibly lost, and he did that, like they
got to the play in tournament and then they got
(07:19):
to the first round, and then last year they got
to the second round. Trista, you I was thinking about
this last night, like you need three things because again
I just told you. I just saw Doug Christy, you know,
coach his first game as the Sacramento King's head coach
after Mike Brown got let go. And we know that
(07:41):
franchise in Sacramento. I mean, Cleveland is not that far
behind us sar as habitual chronic instability and dysfunction. You
need as a head coach to have two of the
three relationships in this list ownership, front office, and your stars.
(08:01):
And the extensions are the stars will dictate whether you're
winning or losing a lot of these games. Okay, Like
if you don't have a star, that's probably going to
be a real issue for you. The front office, the
thing that the front office is beholden to the most
is the players that maybe won't play depending on who
(08:22):
the coach is, right, So you got to have the
relationship with that management. But you also like the vets,
the free agent who just steign the young guys that
haven't or are showing that they could play, but they
need some rope. That is a front office consint And
then the ownership extension is the fans and the media,
(08:43):
all the chatter, because that stuff just is a perception thing.
When you're a head coach, you are basically the face
of a whole lot of bs. You got to answer
for stuff from media day until the you know night
you're eliminated. And so, you know, I thought JV just
lost too many of the key relationships there. Obviously him
(09:06):
in the front office had their had their challenges, and
a lot of those challenges had to do with the
touch point between what's gonna happen with Donovan Mitchell. Well,
they decided that JAB was at the end of the line,
like you mentioned. And the great thing about Kenny Atkinson
is Kenny's been a head coach and an assistant coach
(09:28):
with so many different situations, rebuilds, revitalizations and everything in between.
You know, I'm a big fan of Kenny accent. I
got to cover him when he was with the Clippers
to Ron Lou's first year, and we didn't see each
other in person that whole year. The whole year is
on zoom, so it's been cool seeing him in person,
(09:51):
you know, the last couple of years with the Warriors,
and now last night I got to catch up with him,
and you mentioned predictability. So JV is a guy who defensively,
he knows what he wants to do. I actually think JB.
The coolest thing with what JB did the you know,
get the calves kind of to break through, was they
lined up differently. They had Larry markin in at the three,
(10:14):
Evan Mobley at the four of his rookie year right,
and Jared at the five. It's like teams weren't lining
up like that, right, And there is some predictability with
Kenny Atkinson's Calves. You know that they're going to run
a whole bunch of pick and roll. You know that
if they get threes up, you're in trouble. They don't
take the same volume of threes as some of these
(10:36):
teams in the league do, but their accuracy is what
kills you. And that is what I think is the
conversation here. I think you do need some predictability, Trista.
Predictability is an advantage to the teams that have it.
Like if you're you know, if you're you know what
(10:56):
Boston's going to do, and so it's very predicted what
Boston's gonna do. That doesn't mean you're gonna stop it,
you know what I mean, you're still praying as a
certain point that it came that they missshots, But you
know what shots are coming from. You know who's gonna
have the ball in their hands. And that's the thing
with Cleveland Kenny. What he's done is he knows his
(11:17):
personnel and he's maximizing it creatively but predictably in a
way that JB probably did not show he was going to,
especially once those relationships got strained with some of the
key guys on that team.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Heading over to the Lakers really fast. Because I was
reading your article this morning, and uh, like, it feels
like this sentence you could say this year, you could
say it, last year, you could say it the year
before that. The Lakers insist they're in a good place.
(11:54):
What what are we making of that? Because you look
at the Lakers and I feel like they're the only
ones that don't really want to admit that the house
has a bit on fire. I don't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So here's my thing. I don't think the house is
on fire with them. They've been way worse this season
than they are now. Where they are now to your point, though,
is seventh in the Western Conference.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
That's that's the love. That's the house on fire. That's
that's what we're when is the goal.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Here's my thing with the Lakers. If the Brooklyn Nets
hired JJ Reddick and the Brooklyn that's not the New
York Knicks because again, the Knicks are loud, right, any
little progress the New York Knicks make, then you're going
to just act like you know, you're gonna have fifty
cameras in that. Like, but I want to use the
(12:56):
Nets as an example. I would even use Charlotte. So
let's say Charlotte. If the Charlotte Hornets hired JJ Reddick
and then't they hire they interviewed them. I think they
did in the past. Let's say the Charlotte Hornets hire
JIK and the Charlotte Hornets had Lebron James back in
the Southeastern Division, right, and you're saying they need to contend,
(13:21):
it would hit different.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You'd be like a forty year old Lebron James and
Charlotte yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, Like what do you mean content? And so what?
Like the Lakers because they want a championship in the
post pandemic reality of our of our existence, like people
still look at them as a team that should theoretically
be just able to win a championship because they made
(13:51):
that fake one.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Or get out of a plane at least.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, Like they made the Western Conference finals in twenty
twenty three, and they ran back that team, thinking that
they were running back a conference finalist. They ran back
a seventh seed Tristan. That is and that and that's
the thing. Like the Lakers are fine, They're in a
(14:17):
good They're in an okay place. If okay is the
status quo where they've been at. You know, there are
some teams that will be thrilled to be the seventh
in their conference this year. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Okay, we can't do that. We can't.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We realized that the Lakers and Lebron's twilight is not
that place.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Just like it's that same way with Golden State though too,
like it's Steph Curry's.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Like the Golden State Warriors are hell amid And finally
Stephen Curry said it himself, like that's since Kevin Durant
left that franchise. They the Warriors have had, including this season,
they've had one year where they can feel like they
were proud of it, and they won the championship. And
(15:05):
the thing is, because of the success they did have
when they were making the finals five years in a row,
people attached that twenty two team to everything else that
they've done over the last decade. And there's and and
I feel like that's wrong, and that's just NBA fans
have gotten to the point where it's like the Warriors
(15:25):
our name brand. Look, we grew up when the Warriors
were ashy s L and made the playoffs once in
seventeen years, right, And it's like that's no offense to
the war The Warriors have an awesome rooted fan base,
you know, shout out to the arena in Oakland days.
You know. What I'm saying like that is that's their
fan base. But nationally and how they're covered, you know,
(15:49):
as far as the whole scope of the league, everyone
looks at the Warriors as a team that should be contender.
Run it.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
What you're saying is, really we should. They're getting covered
like their contenders, but really they're closer to like if
it was Charlotte or a non name brand or a
team that hasn't done as much, then it would be
really not Nobody would be talking about it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Nah, we'd be like, oh my god, why is stuff here?
Why is Lebron with the Lakers. No, Instead, it's make
the Warriors great again, make the Lakers great again. You
know every time, you know, you got to put every
Warriors Lakers game on national TV, because one, you know,
it's easy money. It's shooting fish in a barrow. You know,
two of them are going to do some stuff to
(16:36):
act like you know, they're cool, and they are cool now,
but like we know that that's not how this started.
And like they're both in their twilights, they're both showing
real signs of the climb. It's not to say they're
not good players now, it's not to say that they
aren't great or aren't you know, deserving of all of
our excitement when they do any of the stuff that
(16:57):
reminds us of their of their peaks. But those players
are not peaking right now. Kevin Durant and Phoenix is
not peaking right now. But notice that we ain't talking
about the Suns and trying to make them great again
like the Warriors and the Lakers, because the Sons ain't
never done anything like they made the finals. That saying
(17:18):
it's like you can't even make the finals and be
says that you gotta win a championship or whatever. The
Suns haven't done that, so they don't get the same
level of Hey, can y'all move heaven and Earth to
save the end of this guy's you know whatever you
want to call this stage of guys like Katie or
bron or steps career. You know, it's a branding thing.
(17:42):
Like the Lakers, they're supposed to be. They're supposed to
be where they are right now. Now, if you look
at it from that perspective, yeah, they can be satisfied
going into the first week of January. But if you're
thinking that they're a contender, no, the only people who
think their contenders are the people who are in that
building with the Lakers and obviously have a reason to
(18:04):
not be real with themselves, and the people who want
you to watch the Lakers. And there's a lot of
people who no matter again, no matter what is going
on with that team, they want you to focus on
the Lakers more than a team like the Cavaliers. I
wrote a damn story last night, and if I wasn't,
you know, on the.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Beat, if you weren't on the Lakers, you wouldn't have
been writing about that.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, Like if my assignment wasn't was open ended, I
would have been like, hey, like, look at this Cavaliers team.
I'm hoping there would be better chances to do that.
The Cavaliers have much bigger games than last night. Like
last night was a big game for the Lakers. For
the Cavaliers, it was let's just get through this back
to back on the West Coast, the Cavaliers and Thunder
(18:48):
are gonna be on national TV twice this month. Those
two teams are absolutely running the league in their respective
conferences and overall. Because you know how many games the
Cavs have lost against Western Conference teams this year, just.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
One zero, which wonder because I thought zero.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Loss, they're more fine than the Western John Morant was.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I know, I know they are very fine in the way.
What about the Clippers we talked about in the summer.
I was skeptical. I was even more skeptical by Norm
powace comments about addition by subtraction. They are currently in
the sixth place, only three and a half games back
of second in the West. You sort of predicted this
(19:45):
being okay, But I don't know if you predicted it
being this okay outside of the Spurs loss, which was
built to ask just the other night.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, and the big part of that was not to
make excuses her. The Clippers, I mean, they've been awful
in the second night of back to backs for several weeks,
but logistics were terrible there. If that game was a
normal game, it would have started an hour later, coming
from you know where they played the night before. This
(20:18):
is why you don't mess around in New Orleans. You know,
you don't fall behind fourteen and you don't have to
run Norman Palace minutes to forty and Visus Zubots, who's
a big, big person, you know, having to play the
minutes that he had to play James Harden at the
stage of his career. But the great thing about the
Clippers is, you know, when it's not a second night
(20:38):
of back to back, you know what you're getting out
of them. They're gonna play hard, and they have the
players to play hard and the play without agendas. Last year,
the Clippers were great for a significant portion of the season.
I need great. They were, like we were talking thirty
three and eight from you know, I believe the end
(21:00):
of the losing streak in November where at by the
end of it they had to sit Russell Westbrook or
not sit him but make him a second unit player.
You know, from that point until the end of the
Grammy shirt thirty three and eights for the damn good right, Trista,
that team didn't believe. That team didn't believe that they
were going to do anything. There was just too many agendas,
(21:21):
too many guys split and when kawhi'snee gave out, that
was it.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
And people agendas like getting paid, agendas.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Getting paid, playing time, touches rolls, you know, guys like
when you have a guy like PJ. Tucker on your
team who is traded as a part of the James
Harden deal, and the front office has an idea of
how they want to use him, but the coaching staff
is like, he's not helping, and he wasn't like you know,
(21:51):
they tried him. He was getting cooked. And he obviously
doesn't do anything offensively, like nothing at all. He doesn't
even and shoot the corner three like he used to.
And that's okay. PJ. Tucker is pushing forty, you know
what I mean, Like he's at the stage of his
career where it's you know, a credit to him that
he got the contract that he got, but he's not
(22:13):
helping the team. And last year I saw like when
you gotta keep PJ. Tucker Bone Thiland from your last
game before the All Star break because they didn't get
traded to a team that was playing as well as
the Clippers were. The Clippers were in first place in
the West for about twenty four hours right before the
trade dead nine. That's a red flag obviously. It's like
(22:33):
what is going on where guys this team could do
something special and guys who are on that team are
acting like this just because they're not playing. So not
to say that that's completely gone away. Like PJ. Tucker's
still in the roster. The difference is he's not traveling
and around the team this year. Bone Island's still in
the roster. It's just that Bones has never been in
(22:56):
the rotation this year and the few chances that he's
gotten he had and you know, the coaches have not
been convinced that he should stay in the rotation, so
he doesn't play. So you still have, you know, a
lot going on. Kawhi isn't playing right now. That said,
have they re ranted their team. They didn't sign Paul George,
(23:18):
which we have an old way of thinking. Pay a
guy as much as possible to keep him or at
least train him and get something for him. People killed
the Clippers over the summer because they have not made
the transition from the way the CBA is now compared
to the way the CBA was when the Clippers stole
Norman Powell from the Portland Trailblazers. We are in different
(23:41):
phases of team management and roster building, and the Clippers
understood that even before last year. They're like, hey, Kawhi
and Paul are partners, their extension eligible. We'll see what happens.
Kawhi saw the reading on the wall and sign his
thing before anything could happen, including his own body breaking
down out and Paul knew that he could probably get
(24:03):
the more money than what the Clippers are offering him
and shout out to Paul. He got his bag. Can
you imagine if the Clippers were playing Paul George anywhere
close to what Paul wanted on this year's team, with
Kawhi not playing, and with you know, just the fact that, yeah,
the Clippers would be the team that everyone thought the
Clippers would be when the Vegas odds came out for
(24:26):
the preseason, which the Clippers players were very cognizant about.
It's not that they hate Paul, It's that they felt
like they were good players and that people were missing
that because they were so used to Paul George being
a part of the La Clippers, and they were so
used to Kawhi Leonard. If Kawhi is not going to
(24:47):
play and Paul's not there, what do you have? That's
how you know a lot of these people don't pay
attention to who like the Clippers. When you look at
roster Trista, you see a bunch of players who were
pretty good at playing basketball. You see a coaching staff
who at the very least was going to get players
not only prepared to play, but like they're going to
adjust and they're going to put them in position to
(25:09):
stay motivated to play hard. Jeff and Gundy being an
addition to coaching staff, he's never satisfied. I've never seen
Jeff like actually chill, you know, and I've been around
him for months now. It's like they play with an
edge and it's hard to maintain that edge. And that's
what January is about now you've seen some success. Now
(25:30):
Norman Powell, you know, is putting addition by subtraction hoodies
out under the Understand the Ground brand, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So I mean anytime merch comes out, law I start
to get worried, you know what I mean, Like things
that's a big It's one thing to say in the media,
it's another thing to put that on wax and the screenprint.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But he's been he's been good, but he's been about
He's been about his business though. And that's the thing
with the Clippers, where it's like they are confident in themselves.
They've won games, They've gotten the ass kicked in a
lot of games too. You know. They's a healthy balance
of confidence, achievement and at the same time understanding that
(26:16):
there's so much more work to be done, especially in
this conference. They're going to have to acclimate with Kawhi.
I think Kawhi is going to be fine, but bringing
Kawhi back is a disruption, right and then you're going
to be disrupted again because right when Kawhi is going
to get in the rhythm, the trade deadline is going
to hit. And Lawrence Frank always makes a move and
that team has at least two guys who you got
(26:40):
to really take a long look at seeing if you
can remix your roster and enhance it. They have holes
on their roster. They have guys who are playing that
probably need to be in reduced roles. They have like
a gaping sore at a couple of spots. They need
to play better basketball. And part of that is getting
(27:02):
Kawhi back, but part of it is seeing how Kawhi
makes everyone else look and seeing if there's a way
to enhance the roster. So we're we are in the
middle of of the of of things. Just it's it's
very exciting.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Nothing is ever solid with the Clippers. Nothing is ever
like in a state of like continuity. You mentioned Ki returns,
like we've been saying imminent for a while now, I
think you said and when you're recent recent articles. The
target day is the fifth, right, So that's imminent.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
The fifth is my birthday. They will not be playing
on the fifth. They're playing on the fourth. Yeah, And
I gotta say target date because and I even you know,
I hesitate even with that because the Clippers, and I
wrote in my story, the Clippers are not trying to
(27:58):
talk about target dates.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
You know, No, they're not trying to talk about anything.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, like the Clippers are are trying to like you
can't even Let's just say things are very much under
wraps when it comes to what their timeline is with Kawhi.
And it's completely understandable they've rushed Kawhi back before, or
at least to say Kawhi has come back and clearly
(28:22):
has had setbacks multiple times and over multiple seasons. If
it's up to Kawhi completely, Kawhi arguably would have been
back by now or already. They the Clippers are exercising
patients in a way that they haven't before. They want
Kawhi to not just come back, but stay back. We
(28:46):
saw in the playoffs how excited were people when he
got to finally play a home playoff game in front
of a capacity crowd for the first time as a Clipper.
And by the end of the weekend he was cooked.
Like we saw he went to the Olympics and he
had to sleeve on and he was trying to mouth
breathe his way to Paris, and you know what, he
(29:11):
probably could have made it, you know, like he probably
could have been on that team, participated got a gold
medal just for playing ten minutes a game at most.
But that Olympic team was like, we already got injured guys.
You saw how Joel Embiid looked. Kevin Durant didn't play
until the end of July. They couldn't afford to have
Kawhi on the roster when Derek White fresh body and
(29:33):
everything was chilling and waiting to go. So they're like,
we're letting you go, Kawhi, and then Kawhi, you know,
couldn't be ready for training camp.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
So how do you think him coming back impacts how
the Clippers play.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
It's going to have a complete domino effect, but in
a good way, I think when you see the Clippers play.
So I put a stat out after the New Orleans
game Monday night about how Aviitsa Zuba, James Harden, Norman
Pale they each hit twenty, norm hit thirty five. They
each hit twenty for the sixth time this season. That
(30:08):
is crazy. That's as many times as Paul George, Kawhi
and James hit twenty in the same game all of
last season. Wow, you're talking about again, James at this
stage of his career. Norm a guy who's over thirty
and has you know a guy that people have just
gotten comfortable thinking he's a bench player. And if it's
(30:30):
zubot's a guy that you know, uh, people who again
don't watch or only play two k and it's like, man,
this is zoo. Don't shoot threes and don't make anything happen.
You know, they're not aware of the fact that he's
one of the most effective post players over the last
several seasons. That's a balance. Though you have a post player,
you have a on off ball player in norm a
(30:53):
guy who is excelling in the handoffs or coming off
a screens or curls. And then James who is your
primary playmaker. He's running your picking roles and he's in ISO,
but he's also focused on getting the ball to others.
Kawhi is a better ISO player than almost any player
in the league. And Kawhi loves the mid range, which
(31:15):
is something the Clippers completely lack. Right now, Kevin Porter
Junior leads the team in mid range filgal clips right now,
I don't think I need to say anything more than that,
Like it's about and we should look at this or
every basketball team, like in football, we always discuss where
guys are running routes you never see or you ideally
don't see two guys in the same area in a
(31:38):
football game or football play. It's the same thing with basketball.
You need to space the floor. You have the guy
who has the ball. There's only one ball last time
I checked in basketball, right, and then you have to
find ways to create space and exploit space. And you
don't want guys stepping on each other's toes. And over
(31:59):
the course of forty eight minutes, you have to fill
those minutes with lineups that can continue to generate good offense.
Kawhi is not just a ceiling raizer. He's a floor raizer.
And that last part is important because he's not gonna
come debuting and dropping thirty. That's not what Kawhi is
gonna do because he's missed too much time. That's why
(32:20):
it's taking him a lot of time now to get
ready to play, because they want him to, you know,
knock that rust off and be able to participate fully
with the team. They're gonna have the actions for Kawhi.
But being a floor raizer means he's gonna take good shots.
He's gonna make open shots and he's gonna take care
of basketball, and that is key because you can let
(32:44):
James continue to run pick and rolls, Norman Powell can again.
He's such a good catch and shoot player, a good
movement shooter that you're not worried about him being in
the way. You know he's gonna enhance players because he's
so good that even if he doesn't touch the ball, well,
he's creating offense for your team. And then if it's
a zoobots, he's going to be in the paint. He's
(33:04):
in the middle of the floor, he's setting screens, or
he's posting up, or he's in the dunker spot cutting.
He has gotten really good at understanding where he's going
to get the ball and where he can make an impact.
And also Zue is up there in the league leaders
in offensive rebounds, so when you do misshots, he's a
presence there. So it's a complimentary team. That's how they
(33:25):
built this team, and it will be great to see
how he affects the Stars. But we really got to
see who winds up losing the most playing time. That's
going to be the real key.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Just a small coffee, a mere coffee.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, he's not going to a mir playing too well
a mirror. Amir's only missed one game since last December.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
You know that that's wild? Yeah, no, I did not
know that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You're shooting the hell out of the basketball. He runs
the floor, he plays is hard. I mean, he's not
the most physically imposing wing, but he's been their most
consistent bench player, I would say, especially from a statistical
production standpoint, all season, so I think his role should
(34:17):
be considered safe.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
He's been incredible. He has been incredible. Let's go into
some real general NBA stuff before I get to rapid
fire with you. I have so many questions, but we
have like almost no time left. Looking around the NBA
as a whole, What team with the winning record do
you think is going to struggle the most in twenty
twenty five? And what team with the losing record do
(34:39):
you think catches fire?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
The team with a winning record that I would not
trust right now, I would probably have to go with
the Miami Heat, just because things are just so flighty
with with Jimmy and I don't want to doubt Spoe.
(35:04):
But again, kind of like what we're talking about with
the Lakers, the Heat have a brand of doing being
a scary team because of what they've done in the playoffs,
specifically to the Milwaukee Bucks over the Jimmy Butler era,
but the Celtics, the Celtics too. I mean, but I
(35:25):
gotta I gotta say, like, if Jimmy is not a
part of that, what do you have if you trade
Jimmy and that we are we're headed for some kind
of collision course, what does that look like? And they're
already you know, barely over five hundred now, So I
don't doubt Spoe or that organization, but that is a
big change to make if they make it. And but
(35:49):
it's also the same to me.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
They can be though one of those teams like the
Clippers that allows the start to go for free.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah, I I complete, like that's the thing. Myami hasn't
missed back to back playoffs over the last twenty years
for a reason, Like they are good, and so I'm
copping out basically because I don't I think the teams
that have winning records right now are they've earned those
records in there, and I think they're gonna be solid,
(36:16):
you know, for for quite a bit. Like I don't
want to say a team like San Antonio for instance,
like you know, yeah, I'm not going to try to
San Antonio, you know, falls off a bit, you know.
I mean, Chris Paul is having an incredible season considering
how old he is. He's turning forty in twenty twenty
five is and he's I don't think he I don't
(36:37):
know how many games he's missed. I don't know if
he's missed a game, you know whatnot. And he's been
instrumental to what they're doing if they were to lose
him or or Wimby or somebody to, you know, for
an extening period of time. The Spurs are the healthiest
team in basketball. And yes they are only one game
over five hundred. But I think the teams that are
good right now, they're probably going to be good now
(37:02):
that the teams.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
With the losing record that's going to catch fire.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Uh, I mean, shoot, you you gotta go at Philly,
you have to. And they're already catching some fire. They
won ten of thirteen now. So much of it has
to do with the There are some teams, the Clippers
being one of them. Right if they're not fully healthy,
can they still punch above their weight class? Can they
still get wins? Clearly people didn't think the Clippers could
(37:28):
do that, and they've done that. The Sixers has shown
that they absolutely are not that team. Like, if one
of those dudes, Joel Maxy PG. One of those dudes
is not playing, they are not a good basketball team.
Nick has not gotten that team to play well shorthanded
at all. That being said, they are a powerful team
(37:52):
if those three players are playing. Joel is playing at
the level that he was a year ago. That is Honestly,
I'm a little unpleasantly pleased to see that, just I
just didn't think that would happen with how much he
was struggling with that leg. So it's great to see
a player like Joelle get healthy. Keep that in mind
(38:15):
for Kawhi. It's gonna take a while for these guys
to get back, but if they get back, they're elite
for a reason. These guys that are getting paid by
these teams, they see them day in and day out.
They know what they're dealing with. I think we got
to give these medical staffs, these training stats more credit
than what some of these people give. Paul is not
(38:36):
putting good numbers up. But the thing with Paul that
he doesn't get credit for is he's gonna find a
way to make some kind of impact positively on the games. Now,
you didn't pay for that, but at the same time
you kind of did, like you had to realize that
Paul was probably, you know, hanging onto his star statisfy
a thread in some regards, but right now he is
(39:01):
he is. And that's the thing though, I think that
Paul is a higher floor player than Tobiases. Whereas you
would hoped that Paul would be more of a ceiling raizer,
Paul is probably not a ceiling razor. Right now he's
going to say that he can get to that level.
I think people should be skeptical because even the last
couple of years, his paint touches, his drives, his ability
(39:24):
to his ability definish his fine, but his ability to
actually create advantages is not good. He just doesn't have
the bursts or the lift or the explosion. And that's fine.
He's a year fifteen player at and we've seen all
he's been through physically. You know, the dude broke his
leg on National TV ten summers ago. You know, Phillip
(39:47):
overpaid for him. He's a high floor player, and a
high floor player helps when you have the ceiling raizers
in Joel and if Tyrese is going to recover from
the bad start that he had. Tyrese was having a
tar terrible start the year having to carry the load
without Joel and Paul. Again, he's not that guy if
he's got to play that way. Like we saw it
(40:08):
last year, Tary's put up numbers when Joel was out,
but the Sixers were not good Like Nick's just not
the kind of coach who's going to do his best
work with shorthanded rosters. But he is going to if
he has those stars, they're going to win a lot
of games. And you see where they are and I
think they are one game behind in the lost column
(40:30):
behind the Pacers, Bulls and Pistons. They all have eighteen losses.
The Sixers are seventeen. The Pacers are in eighth. So yeah,
they're they're not the They're not the five. What did
they start like five and fifteen? Right, Yeah, they're obviously.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
They're not that. Yeah, so we know Boston, we know Cleveland,
we know Okay, see those are the contender contenders. It
feels like that are like solidly there that we can
all bonho, who do you think can get to contention
level if they make the right move in the deadline.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Oh, they're tying this to the deadline. I really want
to see what Houston does. I'm not kidding. Houston is
in an interesting spot because they can't put the ball
in the basket for anything. But they know this, so
they do everything in their power to get more shots
(41:29):
than you. This is the Houston is the is the
most anti maker miss League team in the NBA because
they can't make shots. But here they are, you know,
ten games over five hundred, and they're thin. They're thin
for a number of reasons. You know they're healthy.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
But well, Em doesn't like that his bench obviously, Like
he doesn't clearly doesn't like Cam whit More much like
there's guys that we thought would be contributed just are
not contributing.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Right. Reed Shepherd was the first guard drafted, the first
American draft.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
He may swore to me he was gonna get minutes,
told me to my face in the win, He's gonna
get minutes.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, I wouldn't believe he made with that, Like I'm not. Yeah,
Like I think he may looks at Reed Shepherd like
he looked at Peyton Pritchard. You know, you see the
Peyton Pritchard that you see in Mazzola. He wasn't that
player in Boston, right, And that's the thing. It's like
e May's wants to defend at a high level now.
(42:33):
Reed Shepherd is the kind of player where if this
team was, you know, in a different phase of their development,
Reed would be playing through whatever challenges that he has.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Known the biggest Are they the biggest team to start
to cut you off? Are then the biggest team to
try and go get dearon Fox?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
I don't think dearon Fox helps that team that much.
To be honest with you, what are you doing with
if if you trade Fred van Vliet for instance, like
you're trading van Vliet, You're probably gonna have to put
some depth on it. You're not that team needs more
good players, I think you know, And if you're going
to trade for a star, I think Jimmy is the
(43:14):
guy you get because Jimmy is a is a is
a wing, a small forward, a guy who can you know,
be a culture guy. You know, a guy who can
be again a ceiling razor and a floor razer. The
issue with Jimmy is his availability and his approach, like
Jimmy is going to coast and get himself to the
(43:35):
playoffs so that he can max out in the playoffs.
That's a dangerous line in the Western Conference. Like Jimmy is,
Jimmy is absolutely a sixteen game player, but he's not
necessarily an eighty two game player. We've seen that for years.
Jimmy is so much older than people think he is.
Jimmy's got a young character to him. When you just
look at if you're not the type that looks up
(43:55):
birth certificates and birthdays and whatnot, and you just you know,
Jimmy came to consciousness late. And Jimmy, it's not like
Jimmy was a star in high school or scar in college.
He was a late literally the last first round pick
of his draft. You know, Jimmy has gotten it out
the mud. But Jimmy is thirty five, and Jimmy's knees
(44:15):
are in a state where you know you can't run
him out there. You know, a whole lot. But I
think they need another bucket. They need a guy who
can confidently score like Jalen Green is getting an incredible
amount of rope for how inefficient he can be. Next
to Fred van Bleet, but I don't think a small
(44:37):
guard like they have enough small guards. They're not playing
Aaron Hollidays on his team. Reacheverer's on the team Fred
van Bleep. For all the good of Fred van Vliet,
the worst thing about Fred van Bleet is that he
is thoroughly inefficient as a shot maker. You know. The
good thing about van Bleet is he's gonna defend, He's
gonna give you an edge, he's gonna take care of basketball,
(44:59):
and he has deep three point range, so at least
you have a semblance of spacing out there. I don't
think the Aaron's the kind of player that's going to
help them because the Arran strengths are his strengths. But
they don't make Houston a remarkably different team than they
already are now. So I'm keeping an eye on if
(45:21):
they choose to stand pat or if they choose to,
you know, try and turn their some of those assets
into an upgrade from a scoring perspective. They're too easy
to stop if you're locked into rebounding and if you can,
you know, win the possession.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Battle, especially considering I think the west outside of Oklahoma
City is pretty open, pretty wide open, wide open. I'm
gonna put you on the shot clock. We've got a
series of questions. You are going to answer them as
quickly as possible, only your snap decisions, no thinking. Are
you ready?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yep? I'm ready.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Best point guard in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Shake gilgo, Alexander.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
How many rounds does Tyler Hero survive against Aman Thompson
in a twelve round boxing match?
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I'm gonna give him two?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Two?
Speaker 3 (46:19):
All right, Aliens have landed. They love basketball. What current
player do you pick to hit a contestant shot to
save our humanity law?
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Who's a tough shot maker? You know it's Aliens. I'm
gonna go with Wemby, just in casey missus, damn it.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
That's so popular. Favorite player as.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
A kid, Allen Iverson?
Speaker 3 (46:46):
Oh me too? Favorite player to watch right now?
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Oh, favorite player to watch right now? That's tough. I'm
gonna just say, Shay.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Is Tyrese Halliburton in a slump? Has he reverted to
the mean? Or is he still injured.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
A thing? He's reverted to the mean?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Who will be the highest paid player in twenty thirty?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Victor with Miyama?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
What would you rather have? Fifty percent? Of Brownie James's
jersey sales from this point on, or the entirety of
Zion's next contract.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
Give me the jersey sales.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Best player to build a new team around, SGA or Luca.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
A new team? SGA?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Who wins the championship sooner? The Lakers are the Clippers?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
The Clippers person in.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
The NBA media, you'd want to have a podcast that
doesn't currently have a podcast?
Speaker 1 (47:52):
That doesn't currently have a podcast? Shoot me, I don't
have a podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Who's the rookie of the year this season for you?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Ooh, the rookie of the year for me?
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Snap?
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Lost? Snap? I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
That's the whole point is snap?
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (48:12):
Zach d d player with the best name in the NBA,
not nickname, the.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Best the best name. Uh, this is you're killing me?
Shake Yell is out centor that.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Can't be it your The answer can't be Shay every time.
I love a mirror coffee. What would you rather have
Lebron's next contract or Cooper Flag's rookie.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Deal Lebron's next contract?
Speaker 3 (48:42):
What would you rather win? Ten NBA Cups or one
NBA title from the bubble?
Speaker 1 (48:48):
One NBA title from the bubble.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
And finally, pick the one NBA player past or present
you would want to have dinner with. And why.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Uh huh keem Olajuwan. I feel like he is He's fascinating,
and yeah, I want to I want to know what
he thinks about the evolution of the game and and
where and and his position especially, So.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Would you ask him a lot of questions about current
rocket centers, how they've evolved or won.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
That could be a part of it, but I don't
want that to be a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
All right, that's all. That's all. Yeah, you I think
I gave you like a maybe, like a B minus.
There was a couple in there, not snap decisions.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh yeah, I'm cool with that. I was up till
three o'clock in the morning, so I think that. Well,
I'll be way better next time. I hope there's the
next time, Tristan.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
There's the next time. We're gonna check in around the
trade deadline. How's that?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
That sounds good? All right? Talk so brother, Thank you, Tristan.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
That's all the time that we have for the episode
of Heat Check check back in on Monday and check
out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which
drop unexpectedly like the new Year. Do not forget to
follow the heat Check all season. That means download and subscribe,
That means tell your friends, all of them. Make your
New Year's resolution to tell your friends about the heat Check.
Tell ten people and follow us on TikTok and at
(50:20):
this heat Check and at Tristan underscore Criek on Twitter,
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I post actually every day and at some point soon
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