Clippers Cap Allegations & More All-Star Format Rumors

On this episode of The Drive & Dish NBA Podcast, hosted by Kevin Rafuse (@rafusetolose) and Justin Cousart (@JustinContheAir), the guys start with Justin's return! What the guys have been up to this summer and why jumping back into a gym routine isn't quite the same in your 30's. In Warm Up Jumpers, more rumors regarding the All-Star format which involve two U.S. teams playing the world. What the guys think the rosters for each squad would look like and they debate who will come out on top. Next, the Clippers are accused of circumventing the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard. The duo takes a look at the early details and what could potentially happen if the NBA finds any wrongdoing. In Who's Ballin Who's Fallin, new deals for Cam Thomas and PJ Washington and Gilbert Arenas's take on the Clippers. Finally, the guys get back to some Immaculate Grid. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts and watch the show on YouTube.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because this is the Drive and Dish.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Podcast, the Drive.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to You moment to start it off, it's and
just let's.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Go officially back in the saddle. Got to uh, I
gotta sorry. I just saw it. I just saw an
NBA headline that's definitely gonna come up in my fallen now.
But uh, but we'll get to that a little bit later.
That's like a way down the line. T is without
giving you anything at the beginning, but excited to shake

(00:35):
off the rust and get back and talk a little
bit of basketball. And I'll tell you what, man, I'm
already sore, so uh, we're gonna we're gonna have to
take this one easy, take it light today because holy hell,
I'm hurting.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
So we're not playing twenty one, We're playing to eleven.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Then yeah, yeah, maybe not even maybe we'll just play
the five. Because a whole another not in regards to
NBA or anything in general. I decided to finally not
be a you know what and get my butt back
in the gym. And instead of being like, oh, let's
take it easy, I was like, nah, man, I'm not

(01:12):
I'm not old. I can just jump right into something.
So I joined anybody that doesn't know what I'm talking about.
I joined at forty five.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Oh jay, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I joined at forty five, and then they said, hey,
just so you know, Thursdays are our hardest cardio days.
I was like, cool, let's start on that one.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
At forty five or anyone who doesn't know is like
high intensity training for like that's literally what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, yeah, they do. Uh if I understand again, I've
only been to like three classes now, but uh, they do.
They do. It's at six stations, two workouts at each station,
thirty seconds on, five seconds off, thirty seconds again, then
you do twenty, then you do ten, and then you
move and then you do a second round of all
of them. So like, yeah, man, I'm hurt, like surprisingly,

(02:02):
like the muscles on the outside of my rib cage
on the sides are so cooked right now.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
One of my favorite I'm sore all I can do
is laugh at myself right now stories was and the
super throwback shout out to Tim. This was with Tim
and Jacksonville. We worked out at the gym he was
working out at Riverside at the time. We would do
this on Thursdays, right, we'd work out every Thursday we'd
go to car Mines low key, I miss it, Tim,

(02:30):
if you hear this, like great times, Bud. Tim was
really like he was a good venice partner in the
sense of like, but we were doing this like ab
core circuit and so I'm talking. Tim's got me like
backwards like at an angle where like I'm doing the
sit up and I'm catching the medicine ball and throwing
it back to him and like great workout, dude. We
got after it. I was so sore the next day,

(02:53):
like I mean, I couldn't like sit down, I couldn't
like lift myself up, like it's maybe the worst I've
ever beat the muscles up. And then on top of it,
to make things worse a day like later, I just
come down with like an upper respiratory infection. I'm coughing.
I'm killed over. You actually went to Universal. We went

(03:13):
to Universal that weekend. That's when we went down and
made that trip. I remember if you remember me going
like on rides, like I'd start up in coughing, but
and I'd go to keel over. But I couldn't kill
over all the way. My abs heart so bad that
it was just that, Yeah, what a time that was.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
There was a whole nother backstory thing where I put
something out on social media by mistake and got called
out by the company and thought I was getting fired
for it. I can't. I don't want to bring it
up on a recorded situation. But oh my god, it
was so bad.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Wow, we got to talk about this, Oh, I you
know what, I might remember this, I think, but we'll
we'll chat off like about it. I'm going to be
vague with the listeners.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I can't. I just can't pick it up.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
See it was funny though, and full housekeeping. Like not
to totally switch gears, but if we're talking about older
things that we used to do on the podcast, is
you know, if somebody was gone for an extended period
of time, like we would always make up where they
were on vacation, right, and so like I recorded back,
you know, shout out to our guys Carlton k B
and Ryan Mayer who held down the last two episodes,
like I recorded with both of them, and full disclosure,

(04:13):
when Justin and I are recording this episode, like we
had one day to do it and I didn't know
if we'd get it in before I went overseas for
a few weeks, which I kind of talked about at
the end of last episode. But in the process of
me saying I was going overseas before I sease this episode,
I also said that you were in Switzerland, so I
need to ask, like how your Swiss trip was, because yeah,
you were really trying to perfect and it sounds a

(04:33):
little more like I think disgusting that I meant it
to sound at the time. But I said, you were
searching to find, you know, the way to make the
perfect hole in the Swiss cheese. So I don't know
if you had any success with that, but uh, welcome
back as the short version of this. But you missed you.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
No, I didn't have any Uh yeah, no, it didn't
have any any of that. But I was I was
trying to get to the bottom of why Swedish fish
are called Swedish fish. I figured I'd go out there
and figure it out.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Swedish fish I and we'll get to the NBA eventually,
I promise. But I have never had a more heartbreaking
food experience in my life than when I hid the
nutritional facts dude, because like I'm talking like that's a
that's a goats here, like s tire. It may be
my favorite candy ever if it's a non especially if

(05:21):
we're talking non chocolate. If we're talking non chocolate, Swedish
fish top of the top. For me, I could crush
a whole bag and not even think twice. Like they're
just wonderful. I'm talking the og just I like the
flavors too, and I'm talking the og red fish. But man,
they are so bad for you. You eat like six Swedish fish,
it's like three hundred calories and like you're like entire

(05:41):
day's worth of sugar.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Being a parent sucks in the fact.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
That you just clip it there, don't say anything else,
just clip it there.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
In the fact that you have to be a parent.
And I mean that because Quinn loves the Welch's fruit snacks,
those gummy Oh my god, they're bangers, dude. Like I
I'll sit at night once quinns to sleep and eat
seven of them myself. But yeah, man, when you have
to be the parent, be like no more. And then

(06:11):
you're like, well, I two. But if I, she's gonna
want another one and we have to be good now,
so uh, I at least compromise about the one that
says it has fifty percent less sugar. They don't tell
you where the sugar starts from, and I'm too scared
to look at the nutritional value, so we're just gonna
assume it's better than what it could be. So uh
But yeah, man, I had forgotten about the Welch's Fruit

(06:34):
sex until we went on vacation and my mom had
them for her and then she fell in love and
I was like, oh my god, these things are amazing.
And there's like six in a pack, and You're like,
how is there only six in this thing? This is crazy?
But but to Quinn, you know, they're the size of
her hand pretty much, so she's like, these are massive,
And I'm like, oh, I could I could pull the

(06:54):
entire bag and be done in one bite.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh buddy, if you give a bot like there's like
six of the packs box, I think, are you kidding me?
Like I could we could take those that a box
down each in like two minutes. If that like you,
If you really want to get weird with it, you
probably put them on your mouth the one time too,
and just go for the super bike. But I mean
that's a little while I want to you might choke
or something. I will encourage that.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
I genuinely was googling how to make fruit snacks the
other day because I was like, there's got to be
a better way to do this. Can I just blend
up some strawberries and put them in like a in
some gelatin or something call it a day. But uh,
but either way, let's let's actually talk basketball now that
now that we've not done that for a little bit here,
one of the things we did want to start off

(07:38):
with is the rumors around the All Star Game and
the All Star Game format, the round robin that they're
looking at for a international twist in the twenty twenty
six All Star Game, which also, by the way, is
at the Clippers. You know, it's just where we'll go later. Uh,
big topic of the day, kind of ironic and fun,

(07:59):
but also you know, again, this goes back to the
international games we saw from hockey, Like there is there
was and is zero doubt in my mind that that
was what was coming because of how popular that was
for for the hockey fans and I think general fans
or fans in general of sports. So it doesn't surprise

(08:21):
me that we're working in some sort of international twist
but I guess they're also taking a little bit of
like a Ryder Cup uh sort of idea in terms
of elimination. So I'm cool with that too. And and honestly,
like like I we talked about the All Star Game
all the time, I'm cool with them trying something new
because what they're doing doesn't work anyway, so might as

(08:43):
well try something new each year.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
They're trying to tee up the pride too. By split
in the USA team up, that world team is going
to be stacked. Like that's the thing is, like I
that's one of the biggest reasons we want to do
this right. Like, I'm with you, this is one hundred
percent right decision format wise.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
But hear me out, you do international team, and what
if you did West Coast and East Coast, get West
Coast and East Coast against each other, divide up the
country too?

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, I mean I don't dislike that. Actually, I mean
I feel bad for the Eastern Conference team because I
feel like they're gonna get absolutely blown out of the water.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
But I'm not But I'm not even saying Eastern Conference.
I'm talking about where you were born. If you were
born on the East Coast, you were on the East
Coast team, if you were born on the West coast,
you were on the.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
West coast, born in like I don't know St.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Louis.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Where does he.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Got to draw line somewhere? Dif I didn't have we
split across the Mississippi River?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Is that how we're doing this? Yeah? Man, dude, I
think I because you would start to get a little
East Coast West Coast rivaly thing going, and then.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Like great historically, but like it would be kind of.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Cool to have that. And then like you know, if
if uh a player is on the Lakers but was
born in Philly, you know, like you could you that
would be kind of cool to be like, oh cool,
I finally can root for him, now, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, I mean I got to look at where all
of these guys lives, honestly, like they truly just don't
know off the top, to see how like how it
would stack up them. I'm kind of curious about that.
I mean, I'm trying to think, like, I mean the
East already, like KD is from DC, Step is from
North Carolina. That's East drawn from Akron, that's pretty that's East.

(10:22):
In the grand scheme of things. If we're splitting it
in the middle. Yeah, yeah, I don't know that that feels.
I mean, good start for the East so far, especially
when you chop out the international players, like it.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Does change some things. But I think I think it
could be kind of fun. And even if you wanted
to take a step forward the fighting in the grids,
you know, like a like a literally like a plus sign,
and then you do four teams in the corners of
every you know, I don't know, you'd have to make
it work, and you'd have to make sure you have
enough players obviously all stars in this case, that uh,
that would fit the mold. But you know, I could

(10:54):
see people getting into that part of it a little
bit more.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Do you agree with my feeling that if if it's
split into the way it is, where it's eight and
you know, eight USA, eight USA and then eight world
players at the world is the favorite here, then.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
I'd have to look at it.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I just think, right off top, I look at the
world roster and go, okay, you've got Nicola Jokic, You've
got Giannis, you've got Luca So there's what three of
the four best players in the NBA, if not the
top three right there, And I mean, if we're fully
doing it, I mean SGA reigning MVP place for the world.
I mean, I again, i'd have to see the whole

(11:32):
roster in front of it. I like, that's a great
top four right off the rip.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know. And I'm kind of surprised that nobody, at
least all the blogs that I'm looking at right now. Again,
I've only been looking for like five minutes, so forgive
me if there is one out there. And maybe it's
more of a Reddit thing at this point, but I'm
surprised someone hasn't like crunched down and like looked into
what those three rosters could potentially look like, you know,

(11:59):
more in depth, right you know, like assuming injuries aren't
a thing, and assuming players reach the levels we think
they're gonna get to or whatnot, Like, what would those
three teams look like?

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Well, I pulled up International right now, and I think,
if we're going like the no brainers here are Yannis
Luka Jokic, where does MB play? I think that's a
big question mark. He played for the US and the Olympics,
so my initial thought is he would go there. But
I mean he's from Cameroon, so they would lean that way.

(12:31):
Sga is a lot to be on that team, like
we talked about, and then it comes down to like,
I mean, I think Wemby's a lot too. I think
Wenby for sure makes that squad. But you got a
bunch of guys. You got a bunch of ballers after that,
Like you still got you know, guys like Jamal Murray,
guys like Demonte Sebonis, guys like Pascal Siakam who all
are in contention for that. Like you've got Gober, You've
got Franz Wagner if he breaks out this year, shanng

(12:53):
Goon on the rockets, Like this is a good eight,
but even more important. But the more important part, though
is it's like, look, I just look at that top four.
You could s Luca and Yannis. So I really like
my chances against anybody in the USA is thrown at
me off those four alone.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
So okay. So and for Jimmy, I haven't vetted this out,
so I'm not positive it's right yet, but I just
put in, and you're gonna hate me. I just put
this into chat GPT, so forgive me on that.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Brother, everybody's use a chat GVT it's.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
All good, So I said, okay, I said, we're my
co host and I are talking about the NBA All
Star Game, which will feature two USA teams and one
World team. Please make two eight person USA rosters and
one world NBA roster based off the best players in
the NBA. Please. It gave me world team, which is
similar to what you were just talking about. Luca, s Ga,

(13:48):
Jannie Jokic. It put in bead there, Jamal Murray, Lori,
Markinen and Sbonis.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, okay, great, it.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Says deep front court. Oh wait, it's given me a
whole deep front court, crazy size and skills, elite guards.
With Luca, it'll be hard to beat Team USA. Team one,
Curry Booker, James Tatum, Davis, Donovan, Mitchell, Paul George, Bam.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah okay, I mean as you got Steph, you got Lebron,
you got Tatum.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Boker, Booker, two guards. Stephan Booker are the guards. Tatum
and James Lebron are forwards. Anthony Davis on there as
center in that case, Donovan, Mitchell, Paul George and Bam.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, and then so what's who else is the others?
You gotta have them trying to think of, you need
to name there, So like Donovan Mitchell's got to be
over there, Brunton's got to be over there.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
That's what I'm saying. Some of those some of those
guys aren't aren't on here, which is where we would
have to kind of make our adjustments from chat GPT.
Team USA two is Kevin Durant, Kawhi, Leonard Edwards, John Morant,
Dame Butler, Zion and Hallie. I.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
I mean, I don't think that's honestly that off from
what it would be realistically. I mean, the beefs are
like do you ar hu Harden gets in there?

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Right?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
I mean, and for what it's worth, Also, if you
guys are gonna be injured here, so like Tatum's not
gonna play, Hollie's not gonna play obviously, So that's where
like does Kate Cunningham get in does to one of
the thunder guys getting like whether Jalen Williams, whether it's
check like that to me is the question there. But
like either way, it.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Says Team USA team one with Curry, Booker and DEM's
got more two way defenders is more balanced than Team
USA two. Team USA two has a lot of perimeter
firepower would be more explosive and potentially better to see
on TV. Very stacked roster.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, I mean they're both good. I think I'm with you.
I like that Curry roster a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
And it predicted it, ohndictous. So it says game one
Team USA one versus Team USA two.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Mm hm.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Uh. The winner of that would then play Team World,
which they said Team USA one would be the winner
of that, and then game three would be World. Very
oh and then it says, okay, interesting, so wait to
put World on there twice regardless, so World would win
and then World plays as the loser. Again. I don't

(16:18):
think get that part. That part's looks a little off
to me.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Either way.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
It tried to predict it, so good for them.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
The big takeaway here is that I think, at least
from GPT, is that the World is probably the favorite there.
I mean, I really disagree with a lot of those,
like the names on those USA rosters. Like you said,
I think that's pretty you know, a few minor tweaks
here and there, like you know, does Evan Mobley make it?
For example, And I mean he's like one of the guys,
say you can fill in potentially either way, though, uh.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I just had to simulate to explain more. Team You say,
probably a game one team USA verus Team USA probably
attract me. USA one is more balanced, USA two has
raw firepower. I'd give the edge to USA one based
off Lebron's playmating, plate making, Curry and Tatum's fource basing
and bam and eighties defense. Game two, you wou say

(17:06):
One versus World, this is a heavyweight battle. Yok Giannis
Luca say, versus is just unfair, especially with embid as
a backup weapon. So we got to remember embiads over there. Curry, Lebron,
and Dame eighty would keep it close, but World would
win with sheer size Luca and Sga controlling the pace.
USA two versus World kd Kawhi Dame Edwards is nasty,

(17:27):
but World would still overcome. World wins again.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I knew love of It is just like making it
up entirely, like just completely making it up right.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
So let's save this for when we are at the
All Star game. What is it February? Hold on and
I had the date February fifteenth. We got to pull
this audio and see how close we.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Were yeah, we'll see. I mean, especially with the roster's
too interesting. But like either way, I as we've said
before many times, whenever All Stars come up like it's
it's become a stale event. I think this is the
right move to format wise, So the bare minimum, I
think we're headed in the right direction. Hopefully we get
a little more competition because if this doesn't work, I
think we're kind of out of ideas with the All
Star Game, and I don't really know what it looks

(18:07):
like at that point. But either because yeah, like I said,
it can't really get much worse than it's been the
last few years. Here, welcome everybody the Driving Dish NBA podcast.
My name is Kevin Rayfuse, joining me as always my
co host Justin Kuo's art.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I was gonna pool, I didn't do it, so I'm
just gonna give up on it because I'm not gonna
get it up in time. I was going to try
to pull Alfred Peyton's best game of his career and
give you the stats. But here we are, so mean.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Just the assist total has got to be pretty good.
I mean, we're gonna we're gonna play mamaculate Grid later
we'ven done that in a few weeks, so we'll see
if we have our Alfred Peyton connection there. Of course,
that's Justin's boy.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
If you feel like you're one of our boys or girls,
leave us a review on iTunes, good or bad, or
read them on the podcast. If you're not an Apple user,
Google Play Store, Speaker, Spotify, tune in, Amazon Music Player,
f M, and where you can find a podcast, you
can find.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Us and hit us up. On YouTube. You've got a
video version up there. You can check it out, watch
the video parts which are usually towards the end, which
are more of them acculate game grid game, I should say,
And you can subscribe there. You'll get notifications when the
new episodes are coming out.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Now word more sponsors. So, boy oh.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Boy, we have a bit of a scandal on our hands.
They are rumors. Let's put that out there right now.
Everything is a rumor as of right now. Nothing is legit.
I guess we'll quote that what is currently alleged is
essentially an endorsement deal with a company that Bomber Steve,

(19:38):
Bomber Clipper's owner is tied to, and the endorsement deal
is for Kawhi Leonard, and so the thought process behind
it is Kawhi was able to pull some money around
seven million per year without having to deal with the
salary cap for the NBA. The official endorsement deal was

(19:59):
a twenty eight million dollar or no show endorsement deal
with the company's name escaping me at the moment. Aspiration.
That's it, which, by the way, you want to dive
into aspiration, there's a whole nother thing. They filed for
bankruptcy in March. The co founder agreed to or agreed
to plead guilty to defrauding investors and lenders, resulting in

(20:21):
over like two hundred and forty eight million dollars in losses.
So we can go into that whole conversation if we
really wanted to, but we don't have to. The reason
that this is a problem is the owner of the Clipper,
Steve Ballmer, helped this company funded this company with fifty
million around the same time that this deal may have happened.

(20:44):
So it kind of looks like a way to potentially
funnel money to Leonard without having to deal with the NBA,
which is where we are now. The Clippers have come
out and denied any of that, and obviously no surprise there,
and then no surprise as well. The NBA has launched
an investigation into this to check it out because this

(21:05):
could be a real problem. The in case anybody's wondering
if there are penalties from this, there's gould be a
lot of fines, loss of draft picks, voided contracts, suspensions,
like it's gonna be big again. It all is in
quotation marks. If this is real, if this is actually

(21:27):
something that happened.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, I mean you mentioned a lot of the bankruptcy stuff,
and I do think it's important here, like it's all
because it is all kind of related, because that's essentially
what Steve Bamer is defending, Like Steve Baumber is saying, hey,
we all got defrauded here. This company went bankrupt. We
signed this deal on the side, and like this all
just was kind of done without my knowledge. We weren't

(21:48):
doing this to circumvent the cap. And that's the report
that the Clippers, or the statement I should say the
Clippers are put out basically saying like, hey, this was
we thought it was a legit deal. We got misled
by other people who have been punished court of law
and this is where we're at now, like we're gonna
you know, we're all victims here, essentially, is what they're saying. Look,

(22:09):
it's certainly and it shouts poplo Tory obviously broke the story,
did a really great job of breaking this down. The
memes are already electric, as you would mostly me. Is
this about a tree planting company? So it's like, wait,
Kawhi was busted for fake planting trees like that Essentially
what this is, it's just a wild headline when you
read it that way. I mean, the only precedent we

(22:30):
have for this, if you will, was the Minnesota Timberwolves
with Joe Smith and they took Joe Smith number one
overall and they were, you know, trying to circumvent the
cap and they got busted and the NBA like the
hammer on, like they lost the contract, got voided, like
they lost first round picks because it was three oh five. Wow,
I thought it was three five is a lot. Now
here's the problem with this. Of course, you trying to

(22:51):
punch the clippers clips don't have any first round picks
and set them on.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Okay, see that's why they So that's why they've been getting.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Rid of all of them now seriously, like what are
you can I mean, you can't really take okay cse
picks away here. Yeah, so look, I don't know. I
mean if this is real and they were circumenting the
cap that way, then yeah, I think the league has
got to come down hard here because they're like that's
a core principle of what the league founds themselves on.
And like, you can't, Steve Bamer, we already know, like

(23:17):
if we're talking, all these owners are rich. Steve Balmer
is extra rich, like the guy found it, the guy
co found in Microsoft, Like this is one of the
wealthiest people on the planet. So I'm not surprised that
like they're trying this, but like, yeah, this is uh
you ever hope that's not real.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
The thing that's worth mentioning though, is that the difference
between Kawhi and the Clippers case and the Timberwolves and
Joe Smith stuff is Joe Smith was all like in
come in team, like it was more wink wink kind
of handshake deals, whereas this is literally a third party
brought in connect it to the owner, no written contract,

(23:56):
you know, all of the I don't know how you
I am interested to see how the NBA investigates this,
and like, are we just going to go off the
timeline of things were agreed on and from there we
have to assume. I don't know, but yeah, man, not
a great look. But but I do get the frustration
as probably an owner who has significantly more money than
everybody else is like, well, why cannot use my money?

(24:18):
I'm the owner, which we'll talk about a little later Tooba.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Then like, listen, justin, I'm with you actually, like I
would wish to end be I listen, I'm fine getting
rid of the salary cap because as far as I'm concerned,
if you're a billionaire the way the MLB does, like
I think you should be rewarded for spending your money.
Now we Ryan and I talked a lot on the
last episode about though. The downside to that then is
you probably get less parody, like the NBA, especially recently,

(24:45):
has become a league of parody where it hasn't in
the past, Like the second apron has made it significantly
harder to keep teams together. So I understand trying to
find advantages. It's just like, look, a lot of this
on it's face just doesn't look good, like there's a
clause in here that says Kawhi Leonard is only going
to get paid if he remained a member of the Clippers. Hmm,
that doesn't seem like a ballid endorsement deal, Like not great. Yeah,

(25:08):
he just like, yeah, the NBA had completed an investigation
about the one person and with Dennis Robertson, who's tied
to this, and they found that there wasn't any you know,
benefits while they were pursuing Kawhi and free agency. I
don't know, we'll see, like I said, I want the
investigation to do its job, like we said. The Clippers
responded on Wednesday night to when this all came out,

(25:30):
like their their longer statement saying that it wasn't a
funnel Kawhi Leonard money, but like yeah, on its face,
and Pablo Tory did a good job, like this is
all well sourced. It's all They're all plenty of legal
documents there where he got this frump. I did immediately
laugh that. He's like, I want to investigate Jalen Brunson's
contract too, Like it's just funny because you know, I'd

(25:51):
be right because they get found with this, Like I
think everybody who takes those sweetheart deals. It's gonna be like,
what's really going on here?

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Where are you you doing something on this side? Do
you know what would you think is because you know,
you talk about this one and if you want to
call it a scandal, I don't think it's anything official
yet because we've got to wait to see what happens.
But you look back at other scandals, what do you
think is like the most famous scandal in sports? Because

(26:17):
the first one that came to my mind would be
the Saints with bounty Gate, Like I do remember that
being a huge deal.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
But I mean, if we're talking strictly scandals like you're
I mean, bounty Gate was up there for sure. I
mean if we're talking about like the integrity of the
game type.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Deal, well, yeah, you get the betting stuff, yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
I mean the og if if we really want to
get back in our bag, I mean for the World
Series in nineteen nineteen, that whole Black Sox scandal with
Joe Jackson, like they lost the world they were heavily
White Socks were heavily favored to win the World Series
that year against the Reds. The Reds beat them in
the World Series and then a bunch of guys were
betting on it on the White Sox where it was
like they did. I mean that almost killed baseball. Now

(26:57):
that was a long time ago. I mean obviously recently,
the big or in the NBA is with gambling has
been the John T. Porter thing. I think the big
girl one is probably the Tim Donna hate thing. I mean,
if you want to talk about NBA scandals, like that's
the biggest one. That was steroids for sure, I feel
like has to be up there.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
There was a clip that I'm trying to find it now.
Uh oh, that's very cool. No, there was a clip
I saw of an NBA player I want to say
it was Michael Porter Junior, but don't quote me on that,
talking about you know, sports betting and stuff like that,

(27:35):
and pretty much was like if I can go tell
my buddies to go bet the under on me, like
a lot of a lot of guys came from no money,
Like that is a very tempting thing that you would
think of.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Michael Porter Junior, right, he was talking about his brother
and then he was Michael Porter Junior has been on
a podcast run recently and I don't know if any
of that's a good Like there's a lot of stuff
on there where I was like, this needs to like
he's doing a little too much talking right now, Like
maybe Michael Porter Junior doesn't need a podcast actually, like
because then he starts he started talking about with his brother.
He's like, well that was his addiction. My addiction is women,

(28:10):
and then started going down that hole and it's.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Like did you see what?

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Did you see?

Speaker 2 (28:13):
What got traded? Make sure you wear a condom out there.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
That's like, bro, what are we doing? Oh man? I
mean we had the like I mean I don't want
to bring that. I don't want to do Porter Junior again.
Ryan and I not to keep going back to last episode,
we had a discussion and about Michael Porter. It's not

(28:41):
even about his podcasting. It's more about the fact that,
like one of the bigger reasons I was HIPing what
Denver did this offseason why I'm bullish on them going
forward is like I think Denver kind of got out
of the fact that like Michael Porter Junior might stink,
and so like they paid him max money and like
good to them for moving on, Like I think that
might have been wise decision, Like yeah, you never you

(29:02):
never look back in anger because you got you know,
you won this thal together. Like it's all good. But yeah,
I think there was Like Mike, poor Junior is getting
paid a lot of money to score five points in
a playoff game. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
That's fair. That's fair, and.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
That's a feeling as the sixth fan I know all
too well.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Unfortunately, I was gonna say, there's a lot of guys
out there that are are making a lot of money
off of doing little stats on the stat sheet, one
of which will be part of my balling and falling.
So we'll get to that in a little bit. But yeah,
do you have any last thoughts on you know, where
this could go. I mean, it doesn't look great right now.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
We'll see, like we'll let it play out. The NBA
has launched an investigation already, so like they're on top
of it as well. I mean, here's.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Like box thing. It's like a Pandora's box, like you
were joking about, like are we about to open something
and be like, oh, this is something everyone does. They
just did this one badly and now we're going caught it.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I mean, we'll see if it's that deep bottle. It's
quite that. I mean, we'll see. I don't know if
I'm there yet, but it's just like here's the thing too,
and shout out to Tom Habistrover pointing this out. If the
NBA voids why Leonard's contract, like nobody can even give
him that max money, then like why is gonna lose
a ton of money? Like there's no there is no
team that can offer fifty million dollars of cap space

(30:24):
similar to the contract that he's on right now. So like, yeah,
I mean there's there's a lot going on, and like
I said, this the Pablo stuff, the Pablo Tory stuff,
it's all well sourced. It's not Yeah either way, what
a just what a wild career for Kawhi Leonard it's
turned out to be. Like that's also my big takeaway

(30:45):
with this is like what a bizarre career this guy
has had and he's one of the best players in
NBA history when healthy. But like there are so many
like weird things that we're going to talk about one day,
be like how did that all happen to one guy?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, I mean very like, but it started like right
off the rip, even with the Spurs, right with the
injury and not wanting to come back and be like
so wildly odd and so yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Mean he was the only guy that left that team,
likewhi Leonard, Like that was earth shattering for the Spurs organization,
like they were the pinnacle of excellence all through the
two thousands and the early twenty tens, and like Kawhi
was the first time. And again not like he didn't
have success there obviously, like he won a title there,
but just yeah, wild wild say the scenario just like
an all time one year on Toronto, a fake pleach

(31:32):
tree planting deal that like you know, he almost was
a Laker, but then he got Paul George to go
with and just like wow, what just wild man wild
on top of the nine zillion injuries but then also
bursts of just brilliance in between, like truly one of
the best defensive players of our era. But yeah, no
doubt about it. Well, we will certainly be giving an
eye on this one because I mean, when hey, you know,

(31:53):
off season story time, you know, there's certainly not the
ideal time for this to drop either, But yeah, I
want to see with the league does here, because if
he hasn't been real but David Starr would drop the hammer,
so like I want to see Adam Silver drops the hammer.
We shall find out, all right, who's born? Who's falling?
Our NBA version of the stock market. We always like
start with the good for the bad. Uh, So justin

(32:16):
I'll start with you this week because you know, little
spoiler alert, I know it's kind of related. So who's
bad for you this week?

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, so I want to pivot, but I will go
with the one you teed up because I found something
funny that I really want to dive into in a
second here. But yes, Gilbert Renus was caught on a
podcast back in January of twenty twenty five and and
his quote essentially they were talking about salary cap and

(32:43):
his quote is, if I'm Steve Bohmer, I don't give
a bleep what the salary cap is. I don't care
what it says. I'm cheating.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I have more money than everybody. I mean, that's very right.
Now here we are, well, I mean, do we want
to talk about gil to read it this last few months?
Like I don't know that feels on brand with everything
he's got going on right now these days. So yeah,
I mean, well, and here do we really want to
step out on the ledge? Man? The billionaires cheating is

(33:13):
circumvent the NBA salary cap. What do you think the
billionaires are cheating on every single day when they get
out here people?

Speaker 2 (33:20):
And with that, I zip my mouth.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Welcome to my Welcome to my manifesto. Justin's just realized
what he got back in, so welcome along for the ride.
But know what else are we gonna say for Ballin?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Though?

Speaker 1 (33:32):
What else is gonna be?

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Other bullet is this Reddit thread that just went in
on Clay Thompson who was asked about his favorite meal
and he said his favorite meal is Megan the Stallion's
catfish and spaghetti.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Bro He's been all all about. Have you seen that
on Instagram? First off, shout out to our guy. First off,
you want to talk about the off season is of
the century? Shout out to our guy, Klay Thompson. My
man is out here having a great off The reveal
of those two dating with Meg posting you know, typical
like I'm hot girl Meg picture and then Clay chilling
in the background is one of the funniest things I've
ever seen. Uh, they seem super happy together. That's great.

(34:09):
We love that for both of them. Clay has been
loving it though it's documented he's been trying to get
it every single night.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
But I know the the comment section is what I
really wanted to dive into here because the first comment
on this NI goes about to trade fat.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Clay hey man, at least he's supposed to he after
they're in the gym together something like that.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Then he goes Clay the Stallion and the next comment is,
I mean he is a maverick. And then the next
comment in.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
A literal African and Stallion is crazy.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
He goes he's a maverick as catch it shooting splash.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Oh my god, dude.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
The internet is undefeated.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Season for Clay Topson though seriously, I mean, I'd be
good for him. Shout shout out to them. I hope
they're happy together. Sincerely, Like, I know we're getting these
jokes off, but that really, like truly like that. That
is a heartwarming NBA player and I love that. It
was like NBA Twitter that lit up, like not all
Meg's passionate fan base to follow everything she does. It
was NBA Twitter who was like, I know that's not

(35:17):
who I think it is, No way hold on and
of course it's Clay. It's not gonna be anybody else.
It's gonna be Clay the most, just like the guy
who seemingly does so many random things, like of course
he's the one dating Meg in the Stallion, just completely
out of left field. It feels like, but no, we
love that. Shout out to Clay one time. Actually, let's
stick in Dallas for balling from me. PJ. Washington signed

(35:40):
a four year, ninety million dollar extension to stay with
the MAVs. He had one season left on his current deal.
Now he's locked in there through twenty thirty. He's been
there since February twenty twenty four. Obviously, was a part
of the team that went to the Finals last season.
Fourteen point seven points, seven point eight rebounds, two point
three assists of thirty eight point one percent from beyond

(36:03):
the arc. I mean, he played big minutes for them
post Charlotte on that finals run. He's continued to be
one of their main offensive pieces. Like this makes again
a lot of sense with a MAVs team that's still
going for it now with Cooper flag Anthony Davis, like PJ.
Washington kind of fits that, you know, continue to win. Now,
it's sill pretty young. I mean the grand scheme of
things too. He's just twenty seven years old. So yeah,

(36:24):
people uh shout out to PJ getting paid.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, you know, happy for him and want them to
get paid. But you know it, the Mavericks are going
to be a very weird team. And I know we've
already kind of talked about this, like you were just
referencing is like they're they're gonna have a legit chance
to make a run at it, which feels weird with
how much the fanmates hate them right now.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well, the NBA bailed them out, so that's kind of
what it all comes to. I mean, look, they were
healthy and they're still being missing Kyrie for a large
portion of the time, like the majority of the season.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
He's about to be a farmer.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
That feels right. But honestly, I'm not even knocking that truly.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Like, yeah, he was on he was on the rap
House or something like that. I saw the hold on.
I have that quote somewhere. Yeah, Uh, Kyrie, I'm building
towards becoming one of the biggest farmers ever. Like I'm
going to put put it out there, one of the
biggest farmers ever, I want to be able to supply
food and groceries to the world in the best way
I can and create small, holistic wellness villages where people

(37:20):
can retire.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
All right, So I don't know about the last part
about of creating the villages. That usually gets a little
weird there sometimes, but like you know, you start you
start to see that and it always ends up like
going left to where it's like, what's going on there
in that little bit?

Speaker 2 (37:31):
What are we doing over there?

Speaker 1 (37:33):
That said? You got me the first half? Like please, like, listen,
I will never farmers. You want to talk about the
backbone of society, like we never ever talked bad about
the farmers. It's hard work, I just hope. Again, if
you're going to farm, like, I just don't even know
what you're getting into there, Kyrie, like Farman is one
of the harder jobs you can do.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, But back to the PJ stuff, you know, like
you said, e leap two way player fits the fits
the kind of roster, the roomations, and it's going to
be good. I know. It gets him a little closer
towards the second apron. But again, if you're a team
that thinks you actually legitimately can make a move depending
on when Kyrie makes his return, like you were talking about,

(38:11):
you know, good to go and his and his contract's
attractive for trade scenarios. If you really got to go
that way and it's not working.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
You've got Cooper two stole on the rookie deal. So like, yeah,
you're right, Like the cap is a little more flexible
to go around. There's no doubt about it. Certainly an
interesting team, like you said in terms of right, like
you're now like sort of accidentally contending again almost I think,
But yeah, yeah, I'm interested to see. I mean, big
question is gonna be what can Cooper do is a rookie,
Like I think he's going to be an impact guy obviously,

(38:39):
Like there's a reason we're so bush on this on
him at number one overall, but it's a low to
Western conference.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
He does create an interesting situation now there now that
I'm thinking about with Anthony Davis, Derek Lively and like
you said, Cooper flag, like there's a weird you can
go big and small lineups, so you can really throw
whatever you want at him, and enough of a veteran
presence on the team, I know when you have a
young guy who's like the star you worry about high
pressure playoff stuff, but like, for real, like I think

(39:08):
that could really work in their favor this time around,
because you do have you know, a lot of vets
and guys that have essentially been there.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
No one, no disagreement there. But all right, who is
falling for you this week?

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Fallen for me is going to Ben Simmons, who is
currently unsigned and is deciding on his career and what
he will be doing, but apparently considering retirement, which is
a crazy thing to be saying about Ben Simmons, who
was like one of the biggest names coming into the league,

(39:42):
especially back in the sixer days when we were real
excited for him. Apparently the Knicks are interested, but that
would be a minimum contract or around three million, And
that's essentially what my falling is is Brian Windhorst talking
about his market value and saying there's an interest. It's

(40:03):
luke warm. The reality is he's looking at a minimum contract.
You might even be forced to take the contract where
it's not guaranteed at the end of the day. Ben's
stock has been falling dramatically for years, which we all
already knew.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, like he hasn't played himself out of the league necessarily,
like being on the Clippers last year, this series with
the Nets, like I think there's a chance, but you're right,
it's gonna be a minimum contract if it pops up.
You know, well, one day when Ben Simmons retires to
real you and I will go back one last time
and give the full Ben's I mean, you talk about

(40:35):
Kawhi having a weird career like Ben Simmons, just what else.
I mean, it all goes back to one flashpoint, like
it goes back to the passing up on the dunk, and.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It clearly you could take it to one moment like
that's so wild. I would be interested to dive into
a list of players that came into the league and played,
so that will eliminate some guys that were drafted but
never really kind of did it and played amazingly in
their first year and just never really took off after that.

(41:09):
And and part of me kind of wants to say
Michael Carter Williams in that room as well, because of
how like great that rookie run was, but not to
the extent of the expectations that came with Ben Simmons.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
My bad. I don't know, if you just heard that
massive crack of lightning that just came and though just
happened outside the window, I was like, oh my god,
it's like a tornado and went out everywhere. No the yeah, no,
you're right though. The one, if we're talking one year
run guy recently, the one that kind of comes to
mind is Tyreek Evans. Tyreek Evans, you know, Rookie of

(41:43):
the Year in two thousand and nine, you know, twenty
points with the Kings, five point eight assists per game,
and then I mean he ended up sticking around. He
played until twenty nineteen, but he just never was like
that impact guy that he was supposed to be. Like
it really did kind of peek there. I'm sort of
with m is another great example as well. You mentioned him,
like obviously winning Rookie of the Year in twenty thirteen,

(42:05):
you know, the same kind of deal bounced around for
a few different rosters, but right he was more became
more of a bench guy, never really kind of played
meaningful like you know, high stakes basketball like that. Again,
I mean, I'm sure there are other examples, but I know,
at least recently for sure, Like those are those are
two bigger guys to come to mind because they had accolades.
Like and that's what it is with Ben too, is

(42:25):
it's like, look, people will always go back and look
at Ben and go, hey, he never could have shoot
the basketball, like this was all predictable. He just never Like,
but that all takes away from the fact that, like
he was really good at everything else, Like he was
arguably the best perimeter defender in the NBA at one point,
he actively made all his teammates better with his passing.

(42:46):
You know, he rebounded well, he got out and ran
the floor and transitioned like he was elite at getting
into the paint. He just like despite his non shooting,
Like it speaks to the fact that he was making
all NBA teams. Yeah, despite that, like major flaw in
today's NBA. But even that, Like that's what's crazy. Is
all that fell off too, Like that's where it's war

(43:07):
Like holy crap, Like it is a little jarring to
go from you know, getting literal MVP votes to being
potentially out of the league here in a few years later.
I don't think anyone will be surprised at this point.
Like that's why it's it's hard for me to even like,
you know, when Philly fans try to like make up
the fake anger anymore, is it's like I can't even
be angry about it. I'm just like, I'm so like

(43:27):
just disappointed, Like I can't believe you ended up being
everything that your hater said you would be.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, you let it, you let it happen. Another one, Uh, interesting,
another one that I saw some people commenting on. I
just found a blog that was kind of talking about it.
Some people were trying to say Oj Mayo was a
similar career decline. Came in averaged eighteen point five points
per game as a rookie and then kind of declined,
but obviously some of that has to do with suspensions

(43:54):
and drug violations and so like different in that asspec.
I guess. Someone also said Andrew Wiggins, and I don't
agree with that. I mean, he's still been pretty uh
I wouldn't say elite, but but has been a player,
a good player on good teams since the fourteen to

(44:14):
fifteen draft. So I just wouldn't agree with that one
as much. Another one says a Mecca Oka four maybe.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
I'm like to oak for it a little bit of
injuries as well, so it's harder for me to like
factor that one in there. I mean, I guess you
can say that with Ben, but like, yeah, beiz the
client started before the backstuff.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah, they have Tyreek Evans in here too, but interesting. Yeah,
I don't know, man, it's a that's a good list
that we could dive into. For sure.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
The fall is real, There's no doubt about that, all right.
Fallen for me this week is Cam Thomas. Cam Thomas
picked up the qualifying offer six million dollars with the
Brooklyn Nets, of course team that drafted him. He's going
to be a free agent now in twenty twenty six.
So like that is good news for him. The bad
news for my wife. It's in the fallen is it's
just like Cam Thomas was one of these restricted free

(45:00):
agents who has kind of been this like in between
ground and bet on themselves to make a lot of
money here in this offseason as a restricted free agent
and just kind of happen the way the cap has gone,
like and we've seen this, like we talked about this
category of guys. It's him, It's Quinn Grimes with the Sixers,
it's Comingo with the Warriors, it's Josh Giddy, Like, these
guys have all kind of been in this like limbo

(45:21):
where it's like you're looking for that payday, but there
may not be the team out there to get it
for you, and so you almost have to bet on
yourself again. And so that's what Cam's gonna do here.
He's the first one to you know, really you know,
take that bet or to these restricted free agents to sign.
I should say, like he was kind of holding out
there as long as a lot of these guys are.

(45:41):
ESPN says about ten teams are gonna have the cap
space potentially next summer. But yeah, I mean, for some perspective,
like this is pretty rare. There aren't many. Thomas is
only the fifth former first round pick to sign the
qualifying offer since twenty seventeen, so like this is a
little uncommon, but perhaps we see with the other three

(46:01):
these deals coming soon.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Well, I wonder if it is like you were saying,
the ten players, the ten teams having some space to
pay guys. I wonder if it is teams being a
little hesitant to uh, you know, to tie up that
cap space if they're scared of it a little bit,
and and you know that can be leveraged really against
if the teams are all kind of not saying they're
colluding or working together, but that can be kind of

(46:23):
leveraged against. You know, in this case, camp it's.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Just a risky bet too, Like that's what it comes
down to, is like, and you even saw it a
little bit in the frustration when comments came out like
cam Thomas is like, I get double teamed all the time.
What are you talking about? And it's kind of like
but and he's not wrong because and especially in the
role on Brooklyn like these past few years when they've
been more like trying to play for lottery picks than winning,
like somebody has to put up the stats. And so
to that point, like cam Thomas is that guy a

(46:48):
little bit, like he is there great, But there also
is the part too with cam Thomas where they're like, well, yeah, guys,
double team you because you don't really pass the ball,
like you're kind of a gunner, you're a black hole
a little bit. And so you know, I'm not saying
those guys don't have a role in the NBA. He like,
you occasionally need that off the bench once in a while,
or you need a guy who could just go get
a bucket. But you know, how much money are you
paying that guy who can go get a bucket but

(47:09):
maybe necessarily doesn't make his teammates better. Like, I think
that's the Cam Thomas dilemma right now. Yeah, he's also
twenty three years old still, so I think there's still
plenty of upside there, and you know, who knows, maybe
he goes out and has the season of his life
with Brooklyn and gets that big contract. That's the bet
he has to make now, is that, Hey, I am
a little better than what my tape is shown so far.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Yeah, I think I see a stat here saying that,
as of today's only the fifth former first round pick
to take this path twenty seventeen, you know, locking in
and not locking in for more guaranteed money, taking the
one year qualifying offer and betting on himself like you said,
and hopefully going to pull in some more money. So yeah, man,

(47:50):
they're definitely stressful. And if you want to take the
bet with him, obviously draft him in fantasy basketball because
he's definitely going to be trying out there, trying to
be out there scoring and doing his thing. So yes,
could be the scenes.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Yeah, I mean That's the thing. Fantasy basketball a little
different like sometimes those county stats like those guys really
do help you out a lot of the time as well,
So a little different than you know, what it actually
comes down to with with real hoops sometimes. But all right,
let's switch gears here a little bit. We want to
fire up a macular grid. First time playing here in
a few weeks. I gotta be honest too, I have
fallen off a little bit as well, so I'm a

(48:25):
little like I'm excited you back to it. I've been
quite been playing every day. I know they rolled a
bunch of new stats out here, so'm pretty excited about that.
For the driver or for the listeners, uht of the
podcast is what I'm trying to say. Good Lord, watch
the grid on YouTube. Just start driving ish NBA podcast.
You'll find all them there. But for said podcast listeners,

(48:47):
our columns this week, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat,
and all NBA are rows from top to bottom. The
Brooklyn Nets, the Houston Rockets, and the Orlando Magic. Just no,
I'll start with you this week. Anybody that comes to mind.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Here, mmmm, Damarry Carroll, Okay, Nets, Nets, Heat, that's he
I think he was on the.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
He definitely played for the Nets. Did he play for
the Uh?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Oh, Jeremy Lynn would also work Rockets, he Jeremy.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Did Jeremy play for the Heat?

Speaker 2 (49:24):
No, he's just Rockets. You're right, you're right. Was he
all n b A with Rockets by chance?

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Jeremy Lynn? No, there's no.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
You don't think with insanity going on?

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Well, that would be. That would have been insanity. Would
have moved the Knicks if he was winning NBA with
the Knicks. But like, no, there's no world Jeremy Lynn
was winning all NBA. He's not even close. Uh.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
He would work Rockets nets for sure. But but but
that's not a path for us.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Demary Carroll, I think he he played for the Rockets
and the Yeah, kind of the Rockets nets, like what
you're talking about as well. Like I think he played
both of their.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Those two, but not the Heat.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
I don't think he played for the Heat, Like I
don't know one hundred percent, but like I don't.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Did Drogic ever end up on the Nets?

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Oh god he might, Oh god, did he I'm trying
to think if he did with I think he did
too with the Katie and Kyrie teams. I feel up
on the nets for a second. Yeah, that that feels right.
I would drags would obviously then work for UH for
nets and heat. Drags also sneaky if you really want

(50:34):
to get old school with it, drags would work for
heat and rockets as well. Dravis started his career and
came overseas with with the rockets, and I think he
might be a little lower there, okay if we want
to try, because he was right all right, all right?
So for I mean, the obvious one for UH nets

(50:58):
and bucks is brook Lopez. Brook Lopez just recently on
the box, obviously on the nets.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Robin didn't Robin end up with the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
First, definitely, Robin Lobez definitely ended up with a box.
I don't remember if he played for the Nets. Yeah,
I don't think he was.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
He on Orlando though, he.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Was definitely on Orlando. Yeah he would, he would absolutely
Orlando for sure. Other guys would work down there, just
before we fill it in some cool with that until
our our guy Tobias would work down there.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Bias Tobias does he work for nets? Rocket? No? No, no,
no no. He never ended up none of the who
else who else went to the nets from the sixers.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Seth, Yeah, Seth was definitely there for a little bit.
I mean nets and sixers. I mean our guy Fad
Young overlaps, he was on the nets for a little bit.
He really want to go old nets and sixers. Keith
van Horn, Keith fan Horn was there, won both for
a little bit. No, I'm good with Robin Lopez being

(52:06):
in that bottom corner though. I like that there. Yeah,
I think it'd be pretty low. I wonder, you know,
maybe let's not expected. Damn all right, So for for
heat magic, I feel like there's an obvious one that
I'm really blanking on right now. It's triving me crazy.
Thank you. That's definitely one of them.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Where did uh where did did Mario Herzonia ever end
up in Miami?

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Man? I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I don't really.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Remember him anywhere other than Orlando when he.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Definitely bounced around. I thought he was on the rockets
at one point.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
He might have been. I mean he got drafted by Orlando.
I know he went to the Knicks. I gotta be honest.
I think I lost track after that.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
And Elfred Peyton doesn't work here. I should just point
that out, which Alford is not.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Alfred sadly does not work anywhere. The obvious one for
Bucks and Rockets that we've been talked about either is
PJ Tucker. PJ Tucker works there for sure?

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Which one? Bucks? Rockets? Oh yeah, yeah, PJ.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Early and was in Houston, uh yeah, and then Milwaukee
pretty prominently where he won the title three Lord, I'm
telling you, dude, people love people love PJ. Tucker. He's
also been on a lot of teams. Yeah, people know, Yeah,
I get it.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Did Matt Barnes. I don't think he's gonna work anywhere.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I don't think he played for Miami.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
He played for Well and that's why. And I thought
he was on the Nets at one point, but maybe
I have that wrong.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Oh No, who I think works for uh, for Milwaukee
and the Nets.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Actually, I don't know if he was on the Nets.
I don't think he would. Turg would have worked for Orlan.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Orlando, the Bucks maybe, Yeah. I was gonna say Jeff
to but I don't think Jeff Tlay.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
You know who I'm you know who I'm thinking of.
I don't know if he's still in the Bucks. But
he went to the Bucks from the Sixers Iliasova. Did
he ever play for the Nets?

Speaker 1 (54:18):
I think he did, actually, yeah, but I'm pretty sure
that'd be a good one if he did.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
I can't remember if he played for that. I know
I know he's on the Bucks because he went from
the Sixers to the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
God, he played in so many places. He would have
worked for Bucks Magic for sure. I know he played
for Orlando.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I'm pretty sure he was on Orlando.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
So what there's a there's an obvious oh, the obvious
one that we're missing for Miami and Orlando is shacked. Dude, Yeah,
that's the that's the gimme.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Uh Orlando Miami? Who else are we missing? Did any
of the point guards end up in Orlando after Miami?
The the the lebron point guards, U I don't.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Think of like not like Norris didn't, or Cole Chalmers. Yeah,
Norris Cole, I'm pretty sure only played for two teams.
Like I think Norris Cole played for Miami and then
he played for the Pelicans, and I'm pretty sure he
washed out of the league after that. And it's like
playing overseas somewhere. I mean, who knows.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Yeah, geez, what about any of the uh, Mike Miller.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
No, Mike Miller. No, Mike Miller works. Mike Miller works
for Orlando in Miami?

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Does he Okay? I can remember.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
I mean he's gonna be high, but I don't think
it'll be higher than Shack.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
So we could also go ol the Depot, but I
think that's going to be high too.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I think Oladipo will be lower than Shack and Mike Miller,
to be honest, I really do. Yeah, Mike Miller was popular.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Okay? Who was on the Who else was in the Mario?
Who else did we see at Summer League with Mario Frizonia?
It was Alfred Payton? It was Mario. I'm trying to
remember if there's anybody else on there, because we saw
like Luke Canard there, But that's not gonna work. I
don't I don't think he's gonna work here.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
No, I don't think he works anywhere.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Malik Monk was there, remember that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Was with Charlotte?

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yeah, with Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
I mean I'm trying to think of like whose late
to know who who was?

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Who was? Who was the heat guy? Justice? No? Uh? Yes,
oh my gosh, I forgot about Justice Winslow. I don't
think he ever ended up with the Nets, though.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
I don't think he did either. I'm not a hundred.
I mean again, he's one of these guys who bounced
around him just about it. I mean the other Magic
first rounders like from around that time, were like, there
are a lot of guys that have been there for us,
like Jonathan Isaac obviously he's been there team the whole time.
Mo Bamba hasn't been there.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Bobo Bobo never ended up on the Heat at all.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
I think so like Oke hasn't to Okike, everybody else
since then would still be on the roster.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Yeah, all right, let's go Ola depot then I'm down
with that.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Yeah, we will start knocking a few of these out.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Victor Oladipo seven is way lower. That's wild.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
It's because of Miami. Tenure wasn't like super memorable.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Lance Stevenson did he ended up He never played on
either those two Bucks or Heat. But he wasn't he
on the nets at one point?

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (57:35):
I know he was on the Lakers, but but.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
I don't know. Nets, hornets, pelicans and pacers is like
all that comes to mind with Land. There's probably more,
but like I not enough for me to have confidence.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
All right?

Speaker 1 (57:51):
So who do we have for each here right now?
Besides Brook? Brook is the obvious one.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Uh, Brook is obvious. Do we have any centers four
heat nets that would work? Uh not? Like a generic
Dwight Howard wouldn't work. Terry, Jason Terry, No, maybe no, No,

(58:18):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Jason Terry did play with the Nets. Yeah, you know, no,
you know now I think about hold on, I'm running
through Jays Terry. Jason Terry played for the Bucks too.
I think he may work in the corner.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Jason Terry for the Bucks. I don't remember that at all.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
I think it was late. I feel like it was
like towards the end of his career because he played
for the Mavericks obviously for the large majority of his career,
but then he kind of floated for a few years late,
and I feel like I remember him on the Bucks.
Don't ask me why? Oh yes, tomorrow, my bad? All right?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Cool?

Speaker 3 (59:00):
Three percent already? Yeah, yeah, all right, next heat we worked?

Speaker 1 (59:05):
It was a super like low one. Gregman Roe, I
think gregman Roe played for I mean, I know he
played for Milwaukee. I think he played for the Nets too.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Did Berdman ever end up with the Nets. I know
he's got Denver, he's got the Heat.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
You know that kindness sounds right, But I'm not nearly
enough to like bet on it Denver Heat.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
I'm trying to remember the the NBA two K probably
fourteen with Darren Williams. Who else was on that net Nets?
I know?

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Yeah, well it was I mean Joe Joe Johnson works. Actually,
you know what j Johnson works. Joe Johnson one works.
The Heat ended his career in the Heat.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Wow, Okay, I didn't do not remember that at all.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Yeah, Joe Johnson works for sure. Iso Joel was of
his career. So ye, man, hey, sometimes I got to
talk through it. Justice Winslow did not play for either
Brooklyn or Milwaukee. By the way, I feel safe looking
that up. Now that all NBA is on the table,
I don't think we're gonna get there, so I feel

(01:00:15):
all right about it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Oh yeah, you're good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
All right, let's knock these out all NBA Brooklyn, Houston,
and Orlando. I'm trying to think, like recently, I mean,
we know the heavy hitters are for each team. Most
popular for Houston's probably gonna be a Lajawan. Most popular
for Brooklyn. There's a few options with Brooklyn. I mean recently,
it's like KD. Pyrie.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Do you think Harden made it for Rockets?

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
God, oh yeah, for Rockets one hundred percent. Yeah, oh yeah,
hard on one MVP, oh yeah yeah, if anything, if anything,
the question is did hard to do it with Brooklyn?
Brooklyn I'm less sure about, just because he was there
for such a short tenure and one of the years
he was only there for like half the sea in he.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Was putting up numbers, wasn't he he was?

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
But again, it was such a short amount of time
that like, I don't know if it'll count.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Yeah, did Bridges get All NBA when he was with
the Nets?

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
You know, he might have justin he really might have
been like all thirteen that year. I am not nearly
one hundred percent enough to bet on it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
But it feels like it could be an easy or
it could be a sneaky play.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
For us just so hard to get though. Yeah, Like
that's the thing is, it's like for everybody that we
think had a good season, they really had to have
had the best season to be.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
On All NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Like I do think of heavier hitters with these guys.
So like Orlando, I'm thinking, like Shack, did Paulo get
it last year?

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
I'm trying. I don't know he did. I'm assuming he.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Did, But dude, he got hurt though. That's the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Oh that's true. A lot of guys like like, was
it like Luca could wasn't eligible because he didn't meet
the threshold or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Yeah, there's a bunch like that. Yeah, I mean Orlando,
I'm thinking like Shack, I'm thinking Tracy McGrady. I'm thinking Howard,
Howard White. Yeah, Dwight, Well, Dwight. Honestly, Dwight probably works
for both, like for Houston too. I get work he
ever played for Brooklyn, but he probably got it for those.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
Did Yoo get all n B A?

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
You know, he might have. Honestly, I don't think Yo
would be the worst he had to have gotten all
NBA like he was getting borderline m v P. Yeah,
I feel like at one point, so like I'm down with.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yew there, Yeah, go yow there. Maybe Howard.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Do you see the pick of do you see the
pic of of Yoo ming and uh Anthony Edwards in China? There?
Oh my god, dude, it's just a reminder like Jack
and yowlenge Jack yow and Shaq is the one where
you like really where you're like, oh my god, this
guy is huge. But it's like, yeah, was taking a
picture with Anthony Edwards and Anthony Edwards is like at
his stomach and like Anthony Edwards is six', Four like

(01:02:58):
that guy is not?

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Dude is dude is pretty?

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Tall?

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Yeah, okay all, Right, Magic, Shack, Penny, dwight T.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Mac, yeah could be a good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
ONE i don't think or any of those guys ever made.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
It oh my, Gosh, yeah, Alright i'm down to Go
shack Or.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Dwight you Want, Shacker dwight or T.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Mac. Yeah MAINLY i feel like when you put those three,
TOGETHER i feel Like howard's like the more the newer,
one but the lesser of a household, name if that makes.
Sense AND i feel like that's really, INTERESTING i, know
but like It's shack of T.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
MAC i Think Dwight maybe that's a good. Question, ACTUALLY
i want Gonna i'm gonna pose this some. People i'm,
curious like we we go With? DWHITE i have no.
Problem won't go With, white by the, way Pick.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Dwight but if you post those three guys next, week
other to say who's who's the more? FAMOUS i don't.
Know for The, MAGIC i don't know if famous is
the way to word, it because because that Is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
DWIGHT i Think TEAM mac has a lot of. Impact
AND i Think dwight's ending career probably like brings him
down in casuals. Eyes but, LIKE i Think dwight is
by far the more Successful magic player than is The.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
I'm not thinking. Successful i'm thinking from a casual. Fan
if you're giving those, three who are you or you
just say give me an ALL nba player on The
Orlando magic like like immaculate grid. Is i'm curious to,
know out of those, three what are the three most.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
POPULAR i still THINK i Think dwight Has TEAM act.
Beat i'm, Fine I'm i'm fine being wrong. HERE i
may very well be wrong. Here we'll find. Out let's
see What hitty hit me, with What dwhite's. Got i'm
curious Because shaq could be low too if he's on
The Miami.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Yeah, yeah because, yeah well and it could yeah because
they Could miami And.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Orlando is the question With shack there obviously all right on ALL.
Nba LIKE i, Said. Durant kyrie the other one that
comes to mind just because of how good he was
With Jason. KIDD i mean.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Maybe, bridges but we're not.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Sure oh, HONESTLY i, mean, Dude Joe, johnson well we
use them. Already Joe johnson probably would have, worked, Honestly.
DUDE a guy that you brought up earlier WHO i
think probably works, Here Darren. Williams Darren, Williams I'M i
would be thinking his first year with with do you
think do you think they weren't?

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Good But Paul?

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Pierce so that's my thing With pierce And garnet is
LIKE i don't think they, Were it's just not easily.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Were in their.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Prime like if there's gonna be, ONE i would feel
better with Kg Over Paul, pierce like, truly but like
they were at the tail end of their career, There
like were they still making ALL nba teams at that?
Point do you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Think and do you Think Brook lopez ever got it?

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
ENOUGH i, SEE i would weirdly think if If i'm
betting on somebody In, BROOKLYN i would bet With Brooke.
OVER i don't think he got ALL nba for the,
record BUT i think brook would have a better chance
of getting it in In brooklyn THAN kg And Paul pierce.
HAVE i, think, like if realistically being, SAFE i think

(01:06:15):
the answer is Either Jason kidd Or Kevin durant Or.
Kyrie like those are the ones Where i'm, LIKE i
feel very good about all of those, Answers, like, YEAH
i Mean Kevin durant was like best player in THE
nba status here he was In. Brooklyn, Yeah kyrie Is? Kyrie, like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
All, right who do you want to roll? With then dealer's.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
CHOICE i Think kyrie will be the lowest of those
three Because Jason kid's a legend, There like he's a
Franchise he's already the best playing in franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
History, yeah all, right, yeah nine.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Percent all, Right i'll take. That let's roll down to the.
Bottom let's see what we got for the most popular.
ANSWER i was the.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Most popular for.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Well then sh Jj.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Reddick we never even said.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Yeah we did. It, WOW i forget about him being
on The. Bucks you're, right all, right most popular answers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Brook lowry being the most popular for rockets heat is,
weird kind.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Of, wild definitely. WEIRD i Mean lowry started his career,
there but you're, right he wasn't very good, There like
he didn't break out obviously Till toronto and then HE
i mean he was On miami pretty. Recently BUT i
guess thirty five is low, though when you think about, it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
When you have like so their most POPULAR i guess
they said top players Is Kyle, Glenn, Rice Shane, Battier
Kevin Willis batty is a good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
One, wow we Mentioned. Battia that is a good, one all.
Right most popular answers overall this week On Great Brook
lopez we mentioned for bucks and, Nets Alonzo mourning for
nets and, heat which is a good. ONE i didn't
even think of. That Kevin durant for nets and ALL. NBA.
Pj tucker for bucks and. Rockets that's kind Of lowry
for rockets and, Heat James harden for rockets ALL, NBA

(01:07:53):
Jj reddick for bucks And, Magic shack for magic and,
Heat Dwight howard for magic and ALL. Nba our grid this,
week if we want to look at it one last,
time we Have Jason terry for bucks and, Nets Joe
johnson for nets and, Heat Kyrie irving nets ALL, NBA.
Pj tucker for bucks and, Rockets Goring dragic For rockets And,

(01:08:16):
Heat Yao ming For Rockets ALL. Nba Dwight Howard Magic ALL,
Nba Victor oladipo For magic And heat And Bucks, Magic Robin.
Lopez thank you everybody for listening to this episode Of
DRIVING nba. Podcast appreciate you guys as always leave bring
on iTunes good or, bad we will read them on the.
Show if you are a Non apple, user anywhere you

(01:08:36):
get your podcast you can find. Us also again a friendly,
REMINDER i will not be here next. Episode justin will
be holding it down for. You and then finally after
that and we've been together AT bo your Regular saturday.
Drops shout out to all our guests for holding it.
Down we appreciate you, guys but this will be a
little something to play kate all until. Then we're glad
to be back for this. One.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Yeah, man happy to be. Here and if you don't
want to be listening on a podcasting, platform you can
always check us out on. YouTube there's a video version
of the podcast there you can watch along if so.
Interested just Find Driving DISH nba on. YouTube subscribe you'll
get notifications when new episodes are coming. OUT i think
we've done enough dances, Today so why don't we Dance?

(01:09:19):
Wednesday see a star?

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Side okay

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
We ARE i think they can