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LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

Released Friday, 2nd February 2024
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LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

Friday, 2nd February 2024
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0:01

Who cares about your team winning the

0:03

Super Bowl when your team could win

0:06

the offseason? My name is Danny Heifetz

0:08

and I host the Ringer NFL Draft

0:10

Show with Danny Kelly, Ben Solak and

0:12

Craig Horlbeck. We cover trades, free agency,

0:14

the draft, obviously. We cover quarterbacks and

0:16

there are a lot of good quarterbacks

0:18

this year. And the teams at the

0:21

top of the draft, Washington, New England,

0:23

Chicago, big teams with big histories. Listen

0:25

to the Ringer NFL Draft Show on

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Spotify. It's

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the mismatch presented by FanDuel. We're midway

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through the NBA season, so don't forget

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Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit theringer.com/RG. Today's

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details. Welcome

2:16

to the Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon

2:19

and joining me today every Friday

2:21

from theringer.com is Kevin O'Connor aka

2:23

Kevin Obamar, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Clymer,

2:25

Kevin O'Camera, Kevin O'Candylink, Kevin O'Blazerian,

2:27

Kevin O'Sphere. Kevin! How

2:32

are you doing on this beautiful morning?

2:34

I'm great. We typically record on Thursday

2:36

nights. We're recording on this Friday morning.

2:39

I was at a basketball game last

2:41

night, a game that had mercifully for

2:43

NBA fans got it gotten flexed off

2:46

of national television. The

2:48

Memphis Grizzlies versus the red-hot

2:51

Cleveland Cavaliers. So I'll tell you what

2:54

I thought about the Cavs here in

2:56

a little bit, but one

2:58

of the big things that took place

3:00

last night was the announcement of the

3:02

All-Star. So we will start with that

3:04

because everybody always cares about who makes

3:06

the All-Star team and that

3:09

was going on while right

3:12

right before the game that

3:14

I was at last night. The

3:17

All-Stars, of course the starters, had

3:19

already been announced. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel

3:21

Embiid, Jason Tatum, Tyrese Halliburton, and

3:24

Damian Lillard in the East. And

3:26

then the reserves.

3:28

We could kind of take these one

3:30

by one, the guys that were

3:33

named All-Stars. Jaylin Brunson for

3:35

the red-hot Knicks. Him getting

3:38

teary-eyed, you know, in

3:40

the interview last night was just such

3:43

an incredibly special moment. He is such

3:45

a great story

3:48

to hear. Tibbs talking about him, who has

3:50

obviously known him since he was a child,

3:53

and that

3:55

he has been this, you

3:57

know, every day there's a new article. Like

4:00

the, the unsuspected superstar

4:03

or second rounder to

4:05

NBA All-Star or now the new,

4:08

you know, the new thing in

4:10

the big Apple is Jayla Bronson. And

4:12

not only has he been absolutely awesome

4:14

and a leader for that team. It

4:16

was super cool to see that. And

4:18

that's when people can, it

4:21

can become trite, but you

4:23

see something so special like that and

4:25

a goal accomplished and a guy getting

4:27

recognized. And I think everybody knew most

4:29

people thought he should have been a

4:32

starter. So he was going to get

4:34

named, but it still was like

4:36

really a moment, like an

4:39

achievement and was

4:41

clearly very special to Bronson,

4:43

Nick's, Nick's fans that he

4:45

got that acknowledgement. So the

4:47

first one right off the bat, I think everybody was

4:50

thrilled about. I mean, it was

4:52

also just like a special day drops 40

4:54

points, big game for him. And crowd, Shannon

4:56

MVP. Yeah, it's just,

4:58

it's pretty cool. I mean, all

5:00

of it's a good story. It's

5:02

the best. It's definitely from what

5:04

I understand that the number one

5:07

all time case of tampering, like

5:09

that sure works out. Huh? Second

5:11

round pick. So yeah, second round

5:13

pick. That's well worth it. Um,

5:16

you know, I've been thinking about this a lot because I know

5:18

there's a lot of rightful dunking

5:20

on Dallas for the success

5:23

of Jayla Bronson, but I

5:25

will say this, we always,

5:28

sometimes we could do a lot of revisionist

5:30

history on this stuff. Now, Jayla

5:33

Bronson is one that the mismatch can

5:36

gleefully say that we

5:38

talked about a lot leading into that

5:40

draft, because it had always been

5:42

one of my things when we kept on

5:44

every year. We talk about who's that guy

5:46

that the ageist

5:49

thing is going to get him. Right.

5:51

We, he is, he is awesome. He

5:54

has proven he's awesome. And yet

5:57

he's going to drop it for whatever reason

5:59

he's not in these. first round mocks, he

6:01

very well may go in the second round. And

6:03

of course he did right

6:05

into the second round and that

6:10

we have one of these

6:12

happen virtually every year and

6:14

we try to spot it beforehand. And

6:17

so we had talked about Bronson and

6:19

then his career

6:21

with Dallas ends

6:23

with him being better than we

6:25

ever would have expected him being.

6:28

And when Luca went out, he

6:31

took over completely. He

6:34

was absolutely unbelievable. He's

6:36

got the ball, he's running

6:38

pick and roll, he's dominating.

6:41

And then if you remember,

6:43

they're playing against Phoenix, Luca

6:45

comes back and his numbers

6:47

like craters, all of

6:49

that stuff that he had just been

6:51

mowing people down with because now it's

6:54

a Luca dominant team. And so all I'm

6:56

saying is, of course

6:58

you should have kept him. Of course they

7:01

should have paid him. All I'm saying

7:03

is I ran through my

7:05

mind thinking about this

7:07

because one of the other starters in this Easter

7:11

conference is Tyrese Halliburton. I

7:15

don't think we ever see this Jaylen

7:17

Bronson if he's playing

7:19

with Luca. He's a guy that

7:23

needs the ball. And I know

7:25

you never see this Tyrese Halliburton

7:28

if he's still playing with the Aaron Fox. And

7:30

the reason this was all going through my mind

7:32

last night is because I'm watching Donovan Mitchell dominate

7:35

the ball last night. And

7:37

I'm going, you're never going to get the

7:39

Darius Garland if this is

7:41

the case. Like Darius Garland is going to,

7:44

one of them is going to end

7:46

up on another team at some point

7:48

and they're both absolutely awesome. But sometimes,

7:50

and you've talked about this a lot

7:52

Kevin, with the overlap. It's

7:55

like, and the best thing to do with

7:57

this guy is to run pick and roll. Well, the best thing

7:59

for the- other guy on your team is to

8:01

dominate the ball as well. And so

8:03

maybe we, we never get to see that Halliburton

8:06

if he's still with Fox. Maybe we never

8:08

get to see that Garland, if he's still

8:10

with Mitchell. And I would just say that,

8:12

yes, it was a mistake, but I

8:14

don't think we ever get to see this full

8:17

view of Brunson. If

8:20

he did get retained by Dallas, not

8:22

to piss off mass fans again, but how

8:26

much of that is Lucas falls for

8:28

being inflexible at the time. And I

8:31

mean, he, he's accommodated Kyrie more granted

8:33

Kyrie misses every game. But

8:35

with Brunson and Luca shouldn't have

8:38

theoretically worked even

8:41

better than it did because they

8:43

did have success together, but like,

8:45

couldn't, they couldn't have Brunson have

8:47

still blossomed in that environment,

8:49

not to this extent. Obviously this is a

8:51

totally different environment. He runs that offense. Like

8:53

you said, he is the orchestrator. He is

8:55

the engine. He is in New York, right?

8:57

That's why I thought he should have been

9:00

a starter. Uh, that's why he

9:02

could be an all NBA guy. Brunson is

9:04

special, but Clinton

9:07

had worked even better in

9:09

Dallas. If Luca were willing

9:11

to sacrifice a bit more

9:13

and it's under the law.

9:15

He doesn't, you know, but this has

9:17

always been the LeBron thing, right? Which

9:20

is you, you, you've got the sacrifice.

9:23

You're, you're, you're just, and maybe

9:25

sometimes not getting the

9:27

best of a guy. What

9:29

he would totally be possible of

9:31

for sure. It's the

9:34

best thing, right? It's the, it's the

9:36

don't fit out, fit

9:38

in thing. Right. LeBron has always

9:40

said about, you know, he said of years

9:42

ago about Kevin Love, like if you're playing

9:44

with a player of that magnitude, Jason Kidd

9:47

just said Luca is on a Michael Jordan

9:49

trajectory. He's in that, you know, class of

9:51

talents. If you're playing with

9:53

a guy like that, it's on you to

9:56

figure out how to fit. And I brought some

9:58

guys scoring 40. Lucas, the

10:00

guy scored 70. Right. I

10:03

mean, I get it. I'm just,

10:05

you know, it's just interesting to think about

10:08

like in a different world where

10:10

Luca were willing to

10:13

move more without the ball, to cut more, be

10:15

a screener more. Like

10:18

what would that have looked like with Bronson with those

10:20

two together? It's just... Well, then

10:22

we're seeing it with Kyrie now and

10:24

to his credit, it's working much better

10:26

with Kyrie than we would have expected

10:29

it to work. It's like lessons learned

10:31

and plus this is like just in

10:33

terms of the name, value of a

10:35

player and the proven, successful player. This

10:37

is Kyrie Irving. That was Jaylen

10:39

Bronson who had him proven he could do

10:42

this at this scale at

10:45

the time, except for when Luca was out. The

10:47

next of the reserves was Donovan Mitchell, a guy

10:49

I got to see in person last night. I

10:53

think it's some ways Mitchell

10:55

has... He has

10:57

delved into the underrated. You know, when we

10:59

get to the playoffs, everybody always is like

11:01

Donovan Mitchell because he got one of the

11:03

best playoff points per game in the history

11:06

of the league and has

11:08

always been a big time performer when

11:10

it comes to that stage. But just

11:12

getting to see him and it's, you

11:14

know, Jared Allen, unfortunately, twisted

11:17

his ankle last night after 20

11:19

minutes. And so he was

11:21

out of the game and Mobley wasn't

11:23

playing. They're trying to work Garland back

11:25

into the mix. I mean, they

11:29

clearly are

11:32

going to try to work

11:34

this stuff back together after they had

11:36

had such an amazing groove. But

11:38

credit to them, the groove continues. And

11:41

every time I see him in person, I remind...

11:44

I'm reminded of what a... Just

11:46

a massive star he truly is

11:48

and how he can be your

11:50

best player. And he's

11:53

not playing with the who's who last

11:56

night. You look around there and it's like, man,

11:58

this is... I get it. Jared

12:00

Allen's been amazing. He's got the, he should

12:02

have had his 17th consecutive double double. They

12:04

took a rebound away, I believe. So

12:06

he ended up with nine, but he would have had 17 consecutive

12:09

double doubles. So Jared Allen has been

12:11

great and anchoring what has been the

12:13

number one defense for some time now,

12:16

uh, but Mitchell is great,

12:18

well-deserving. And I think they have

12:21

certainly massively

12:23

overachieved compared

12:25

to what we thought would happen after

12:28

they lost their guys. That turned from,

12:30

that turned

12:33

from, mom, do

12:35

you now have to think about trading guys

12:37

and maybe Mitchell, especially to this has

12:39

been the best team in the league for over a

12:41

month, record wise. It's kind of

12:44

crazy the way it's played out, but Mitchell

12:46

gets Mitchell and Allen as a, as

12:48

a duo get all the credit for that. And I'm

12:50

glad that, you know, Mitchell, I don't

12:52

think there was any surprise with that, but I'm glad

12:54

that he got recognized. And you

12:56

guys made a trade yesterday. Ola Depot

12:58

requiring him for Adams and two, I've

13:00

already got my Ola Depot jersey, Kevin.

13:03

Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't,

13:05

I wonder if he'll ever step foot in Memphis. I

13:07

don't even know if there's anything you have to do

13:09

with the transaction for him to step foot, but the

13:11

Steven Adams thing, uh, Fab

13:14

to see him go. I am. I

13:16

am. You know, I am more sad

13:18

that it didn't work out with

13:21

him being able to play these two years

13:23

because you know, he got hurt last January

13:26

and banged his knee. And then you've

13:28

got a mess of an injury. Uh,

13:31

I think he probably did not want to get

13:33

cut on and you know, it's one

13:35

of those that you hopefully

13:37

can, uh, revive

13:40

that knee and you, you, you can

13:44

manage it without hopefully

13:46

having to get it cut on. But

13:48

then it obviously after playing two preseason

13:50

games, uh, which he was great in, and

13:52

so that was even more depressing

13:54

and he didn't get hurt in them. It

13:56

was like, okay, this has got to get cut on. And

13:58

so we missed a whole. another season

14:01

and he's got a lot of miles on him. Um,

14:04

he immediately turns your team

14:06

into the best or one of the best

14:09

offensive rebounding teams in the NBA. There

14:11

is not a team that Steven Adams has been

14:13

on in his career. And

14:16

that is for good reason. I mean, he

14:18

is the common bond, no matter where he's

14:20

played, you're going to immediately

14:22

become a great offensive rebounding team. He's

14:24

a great teammate. He is an

14:27

awesome role-playing center, a better passer than

14:29

I gave him credit for. Uh,

14:31

but I understand his contract

14:34

goes out. You want to stay out of

14:36

the second apron. You want to get assets.

14:38

So there's usually a move that means another

14:40

move might be on the horizon. And

14:43

you know, since they've had John Moran, they've

14:45

had Jonas Valentinus and Steven Adam. Those are

14:48

not ideal fits. What you would

14:50

love to have is somebody that can really rebound to put

14:52

next to Jana Jackson and it's a above

14:54

the rim finisher. Somebody that you can

14:57

run pick and rolls with like the Jared Allen

14:59

type thing, the, the pick and

15:01

roll finisher when you're playing with such a

15:03

dynamic point guard and also, you know, Bain

15:05

who can now create off the dribble as

15:08

well. So I think that, you

15:10

know, long-term you probably want a great

15:12

fit and you know, these are

15:14

the kinds of money transactions that take place. I mean, they're

15:17

not going anywhere this year anyway. So you're planning everything out

15:19

for next season. If he comes

15:21

back and it's good, that'll be great for Houston. Great.

15:25

Yeah. It's a great player to have on your

15:27

team. Yeah. With the rockets, like there was rumors

15:29

about them going after Robert Williams from the Blazers,

15:31

even though he's out injured right now and

15:33

Adams kind of fits

15:35

the same mindset there as Time

15:38

Lord, uh, except obviously way older, uh,

15:41

even, I don't, I don't even

15:43

know if it's fair to say he's more

15:45

injury prone at this point. Rob Williams is

15:47

very injury prone, injury prone, but, um,

15:49

it makes sense for Houston. And also like, because he

15:52

is the one year left on his contract, it doesn't

15:54

mean that they can't trade him again.

15:57

Like Houston could always flip them. So.

16:00

That's just something to monitor there. And for Memphis,

16:02

obviously, this is, you know, you get the expiring

16:04

and, um, changes

16:06

your finance type of all else. Uh,

16:09

in other Eastern Conference all-stars, Jalen Brown,

16:11

we agree. Totally deserve best

16:13

team in the Eastern Conference. Of course, they've

16:15

got multiple all-stars. Bam out of

16:17

bio for the Heat. Um,

16:20

it was interesting to me that he was recognized

16:23

as an All-Star. I have, I don't have a

16:25

problem with it. Uh, but the

16:28

Heat have just been on the struggle

16:30

bus in the biggest way recently. Now

16:32

this obviously takes place, you know, the voting

16:34

and everything probably takes place before this

16:36

has gotten to this point, but man,

16:38

oh man. Uh, I don't really

16:40

have a problem with it. Randall, Maxi, and

16:42

then Paulo Bencaro. So you got three new

16:44

ones in Maxi Bencaro and Jalen Brunson. Those

16:46

are the ones to truly focus on. Um,

16:50

all very deserving. And I was

16:52

very happy that Bencaro made it, especially

16:55

after in our last episode.

16:58

I raved about Bencaro and what

17:00

I had just seen and how

17:02

much I loved him and his future prospects. It was nice

17:04

to see him make his first All-Star game. Yeah,

17:07

dude. Exactly. Yeah. It was, but we talked about it

17:09

a ton on our episode earlier this week. So I

17:11

don't want to repeat, I put out a clip about

17:14

Bencaro as well. Um, how

17:17

about Maxi? Let's talk about that. Cause he

17:19

had 51 last night after being

17:21

named to his first All-Star team. And

17:25

it is, it is really cool.

17:27

And I mean, I don't know

17:29

how many 50s he's going to have to have to,

17:31

uh, to have them

17:33

winning games on a regular basis,

17:36

because unfortunately, one of

17:38

the huge stories that has happened since we

17:41

last spoke is the Embiid

17:43

entry. And man, oh

17:45

man, what a, what a wild

17:47

week. It has been via social

17:51

media because the first thing

17:53

was getting

17:55

killed for not

17:58

for the conversation. changing

18:00

surrounding Joel and

18:03

Bede 70 and then Lucas

18:05

73 because

18:08

I suppose most people don't

18:10

understand why after four guys

18:13

score 60 and two guys

18:15

score 70 the conversation would

18:18

change from when it was

18:21

truly the historic statistical anomaly

18:23

but neither here nor there.

18:26

And how much I praised and beed

18:29

over Luca and

18:32

then by this

18:34

episode it's about how

18:36

much I can't stand them being because

18:39

we ripped up for not playing against Denver

18:41

and look I understand that we're in a

18:43

day and age where you just got to

18:45

find somebody to be mad at but

18:48

being mad at the media ain't it? Okay

18:50

look I didn't say Joel and Bede

18:53

wasn't hurt, his team

18:55

said he wasn't hurt. He

18:57

said he wasn't hurt. So

19:00

you the observance fan can look and you go all you

19:02

have to do is watch him and you can tell he's

19:04

hurt. I don't have to, that's not on me. I

19:07

don't have to, what no I get to

19:09

trust his team and him. He

19:12

told Tim Bontemps I'm playing, I'm

19:15

playing, I'm playing in Denver. His

19:18

team the day of the

19:20

game said he's

19:22

not hurt. That's what an

19:24

injury report is. So

19:28

to blame us for

19:30

him then playing in the next game

19:32

like we have anything to do with

19:34

it. Anything. The

19:37

media has nothing and if you want to

19:39

talk about oh well the pressure of people

19:41

saying that he ducked and beat is the

19:44

reason he played the next one. Oh and

19:46

then what did I go and did I

19:48

push over stupid comminga so

19:50

that he'd fall on his leg too? I

19:54

was out there, I yanked him down so

19:56

he'd fall on his leg. He shouldn't have been

19:58

out there in the first place and the media's

20:00

the Come on, give it a rest. Look

20:03

this it the team is

20:05

responsible. The player is responsible I don't know

20:07

how far down the list some media member

20:09

you're mad at the guy having this you

20:12

know Freak injury is

20:14

but the guy got landed on

20:17

it sucks. Should he have not been out

20:19

there? Okay, I

20:21

will accept he was injured. He shouldn't

20:23

have been out there. Did you know what should happen? His

20:26

team should say he's injured. You know

20:28

what should happen. He should say he's injured That's

20:31

not Chris Vernon to Kevin

20:33

O'Connor's job. That's not any other media

20:36

members job. I Don't

20:38

know All

20:40

I can say is if you tell me

20:42

you're not injured and then you don't play

20:45

and then you duck out 15 minutes before the Game,

20:47

what am I to believe? On

20:50

the note of coming a falling on a

20:52

beads leg the other by the way It's

20:54

not the leg that we knew at that

20:56

time was giving him issues. This is the

20:58

other leg That

21:00

he ended up Potentially tearing the

21:02

meniscus in I was watching dr. Brian

21:05

suitors video on this injury and like

21:07

I think you're familiar with Not

21:10

a suitor. He thinks YouTube videos analyzing sports

21:12

injuries and he does a tremendous job He

21:15

speculates But that

21:18

fall on a bead leg

21:20

isn't actually What

21:22

caused the injury because of the way

21:24

the knee flexes in that situation, but

21:26

it could be what? Agitate

21:28

bit and made symptoms

21:31

appear And I

21:33

obviously don't want to get into science and then

21:35

the cancer, but I was very intrigued Brian Speculates

21:38

that in bead had already had the

21:40

torn meniscus for who knows how long

21:43

and it may or may not have been displaying

21:45

Symptoms because that's often the case with slight

21:48

tears in the meniscus and because the

21:50

fixers aren't Rushing straight to

21:52

say he needs surgery. He

21:54

needs to have this repaired It could

21:56

be a very very minor tear in

21:58

the meniscus something very minor,

22:01

which is, which would not

22:03

require surgery and therefore mean that he

22:05

can come back at some point during

22:07

the season. I've heard personally earlier

22:09

in the week, you and I both know we heard that

22:11

it was a tormentous because that turned out to be true.

22:14

I also heard that he could, he's going to

22:16

be out through the all-star week, right? All-star weekend,

22:19

he's going to be out through then. But

22:22

so far, I'm not hearing any speculation

22:24

of surgery. There was no reporting last

22:26

night from Woj or Shams or anybody

22:28

who put it out there indicated surgery.

22:30

So hopefully that at least means Embiid

22:33

can come back at some point

22:35

during the season, whether or not he'll be, he'll

22:37

be 100% healthy flying around the floor.

22:40

That remains to be seen, but I

22:44

think there's a chance based off the

22:46

reporting, that the rumblings and

22:48

the analysis from, you know, people who

22:50

understand these injuries. I'd

22:53

be a little bit surprised if it were surgery at this

22:55

point and hopefully it's not. Unfortunately,

22:57

I had to learn a lot about this

22:59

back in the day when it was the

23:01

Jaren Jackson one, which is, and I think

23:03

it comes down to typically if you're going

23:05

to get cut on, it's like repaired or

23:08

removed. Repaired is what you would do with

23:10

the young player. A lot of guys get removed and then it's

23:12

always a problem. Like, you know, you can

23:14

still play, right? But down the road, it's,

23:17

you know, you could get the bone on bone and

23:19

whatever. And for us, he did

23:21

have a meniscus injury on this many years ago.

23:24

Right. And so it'd be

23:26

interesting to see the way they play it out. He very well may

23:28

be able to come back. I hope he does. He was

23:34

having an unbelievable season, unbelievable

23:36

season. And he

23:39

has had his battles with injuries over

23:41

the years. And so here's hoping that

23:44

he could come back and give

23:46

them their chance because they certainly have a

23:48

chance at the title. It's fascinating

23:51

to think about how

23:53

this alters how they think about the next week.

23:55

Do you think it alters it at all? What

23:58

way? What do you mean? trade deadlines

24:00

next Thursday for the protesters. Yeah.

24:03

Um, I don't know. I mean,

24:06

I don't I don't think so. I think

24:08

they're gonna continue with the same mindset that

24:10

they've had, and that they'll take a deal

24:12

if it makes sense to do more than

24:14

going for cap space this summer. I

24:17

don't think that changes. You don't know.

24:20

I don't. I think you would have really gone

24:22

for it. They I

24:25

think they're serious about the cap space.

24:27

And they also

24:29

feel there's a old but they

24:31

feel this roster is great still as is

24:33

you see it with Maxi last night with

24:35

what he's capable of. They feel that this

24:37

roster has a high probability of

24:39

making a deep run. I mean, there's that

24:41

old quote of Daryl Morey, which is going

24:43

to get rehashed. If you got

24:46

a 5% chance to win in the championship, you owe it to

24:48

yourself to go for it. Yeah. So we

24:50

know that that's how he typically operates.

24:53

But now we feel but I

24:55

get like way better than 5% chance. But it's like

24:58

we talked about a couple months ago. What

25:01

is out there? That that's the

25:03

question. What's out there that's more

25:05

worth it than sticking

25:07

with what you have and then also having

25:10

your cap space for the summer to also

25:12

bolster your chances next year? That that's the

25:14

question. Well, the other thing is,

25:17

you need another guy that makes it

25:19

so that if you can bring him

25:21

back, that it's not all on

25:23

him. Yeah, but if it

25:25

can be not healthy, then it's over anyway.

25:27

Like you need to be healthy no matter

25:29

what. Even if you go get another guy,

25:31

you go get the Rosen and

25:33

Caruso. You don't need him 100 then. Yeah, you

25:35

probably never get him 100

25:39

this year. You still need at least 90

25:41

plus. I

25:44

don't know. And everybody's playing with something

25:46

at that point in the season too. So I mean,

25:49

equalizes but I don't know. I

25:52

don't think it changes anything personally. Awful

25:55

to have it play out the way that

25:57

it changes something if it need surgery, obviously.

26:00

But if there's, if they feel he can come

26:02

back and perform at a high level still, if

26:04

this is something that he, as

26:07

Suterur speculates, could be something

26:09

that he was already playing with, well,

26:12

you know, that that then that's something that

26:14

makes you feel better about his chances of

26:16

reaching the same form later in the year.

26:18

Well, to that point, that

26:21

makes a lot of sense to me, because

26:23

you remember- Speculation,

26:25

you mean? No, no, no. I'm telling

26:28

you about the Suter, the Suter stuff we were saying

26:30

that he, it doesn't make sense

26:33

that that necessarily caused it. But what

26:35

happens is something might have, and then

26:38

you go and look at it and

26:40

you go, oh,

26:43

this, you got a little tear in here,

26:45

right? Yes. And the reason I'm saying

26:47

this is because everybody knows

26:49

that one of the best players in the

26:51

NBA is Jomarant,

26:53

and he lost his season completely to

26:56

the shoulder thing. So

26:58

if you remember, they beat the Lakers

27:00

on like a Friday night, and

27:03

he's sitting on the scorers table getting interviewed after the

27:05

game and made

27:07

some threes in the fourth quarter of that game,

27:10

shooting. And then Saturday, they

27:12

say he hurt himself at a

27:14

training session. And

27:17

now he's got this, you know, bone

27:19

shoulder that's going to require surgery, and he's

27:21

out for the year. And everybody's like, what

27:23

the hell? What

27:27

I was told was he

27:29

didn't hurt the shoulder

27:32

necessarily on Saturday, but

27:35

his shoulder was already hurt, and he was just playing

27:37

through it. And of course, he felt guilty for the

27:39

25 games, but it's been a thing,

27:41

right? But

27:43

it's not something that would keep him from playing. But

27:45

then maybe you're lifting weights or whatever you're

27:47

doing, maybe you're playing in practice. And then

27:49

you're like, damn, man. They're like, hey, we need

27:52

to take a look at that. They

27:54

take a look at it. They go, hey, man, you can't be

27:56

playing with this. Same thing with

27:59

them beats. That's exactly what

28:01

Brian said. He's like, because this

28:03

happened on the court, it forces

28:06

the team to then take a look at it. And his

28:08

point was, you can look at the meniscus of a

28:11

ton of athletes who actually have

28:13

micro tears and that should

28:15

require them to take time to rest

28:18

and heal it naturally or

28:20

even get surgery. But they don't even, some

28:22

players don't even feel it or if it

28:24

just feels like normal soreness to them. And

28:26

that's right. Like it's not anything that requires

28:29

doctors to take a look, but obviously it

28:31

does make you wonder like, you know what

28:33

I mean? If you just took all these

28:35

guys and you put them in an X-ray,

28:37

they have the only good surgery probably. That's

28:39

what professional athletics is.

28:44

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29:56

right. On the Western conference, we knew the

29:58

starters were LeBron, Durant, Yocha, Stocher. and

30:00

SGA. The reserves were announced last

30:02

night. Anthony Edwards, the leading scorer

30:05

on the team that's been

30:07

number one for the majority of the season of

30:09

the Western Conference, no issues. Steph Curry, one of

30:11

the biggest stars in the entire NBA. I'm

30:13

gonna actually see him tonight in person,

30:16

maybe the least I've looked

30:18

forward to watching a Grizzlies

30:20

Warriors game ever. Kawhi Leonard,

30:22

I mean he's

30:27

having an unbelievable season. He has missed a

30:29

minimal amount of games which is the most

30:31

shocking part but he has

30:33

been absolutely awesome for a team

30:35

that has been great

30:39

post the first five games after the

30:41

Harden deal. Anthony Davis,

30:43

he's having a great statistical season

30:45

on a mediocre team. Devin

30:49

Booker, I thought that maybe

30:51

he had missed, you know, the

30:53

missing the games that he did

30:55

would hurt him but he's

30:57

in there. Paul

30:59

George, again very good team, having

31:01

a good year and then Karl Town. Seems

31:03

like the one that everybody, you know,

31:06

bickering with is the

31:08

Kings not having anybody, neither

31:10

Fox nor Sabonis and the

31:13

Sabonis one feels especially

31:15

egregious considering he's having

31:17

this freakish season

31:21

and if you're having a freakish statistical

31:23

season and you're

31:25

not on a bad team like you

31:27

remember a couple years ago when he had the discussion

31:29

about Brad Beal not making it and he was averaging

31:31

like 30 points a game but his team wasn't good

31:34

and he got left out in

31:36

favor of some guys that were on good teams.

31:38

Sabonis is averaging 20 points

31:40

13 rebounds and 8

31:43

assists. The only player

31:45

to ever have a season where he averaged that was

31:47

Wilt Chamberlain. Not

31:50

Jokic, not Embiid, not Bill Russell, not

31:52

LeBron, like nobody.

31:54

Like these those are gaudy, gaudy

31:57

numbers that he is putting up and

31:59

the Kings are good. So that

32:02

one, that one is goofy

32:04

to me. Sabonis. And I know

32:06

you're the biggest Sabonis fan of the world. So

32:08

I can imagine that you think it's

32:10

a crime against humanity. I mean, I'm

32:12

a realist when it comes to him. We know, we

32:14

know he's a tremendous regular season player

32:17

and he should be an All-Star. He

32:19

should be. I mean, I think

32:21

you could make an easier argument for Sabonis over

32:23

Paul George. You can make it over Kat. Other

32:26

than that, I mean, maybe you can make

32:28

it over Ants, but I don't think

32:30

I'd do that. I wouldn't go that far, but

32:32

I think you could over George. You could over

32:34

Kat. I think you could also argue for

32:37

Rudy Gobert over his own teammate Carl

32:39

Anthony Towns. I think you could make

32:41

arguments for Lowry marketing, but not over

32:43

Dematres Sabonis. It seems

32:45

like most of the snubs, I know Trae Young

32:48

in the East is a snub in some regards,

32:50

but I think most of the snubs seem to

32:52

be in the Western Conference. Yeah, he did. Like

32:54

the one with real arguments, right? Well, and I

32:56

feel like it was crazy is you see the

32:58

Anthony Edwards thing where he's like, they're asking about wanting to

33:00

be an All-Star. He's like, I don't really care about being

33:03

an All-Star. I just hope Rudy makes it. Yeah.

33:05

And then Townes gets it. I'm like, your

33:07

own guy wanted the other guy to make

33:10

it. Your own teammate. I'm

33:12

a little surprised by the coaches

33:15

deciding that. Are you? I don't know. I'm

33:17

just, I'm kind of shocked by that to

33:19

be honest. I think O'Bare has been, he's

33:22

been sensational defensively for

33:24

them this season. He's, I

33:27

don't know. I guess defense ultimately,

33:29

it just, I

33:31

don't know. It feels like the coaches

33:33

decided that we're going to reward the

33:35

perimeter guys, the scorers, like Sabonis is

33:37

like, he's a scorer, but not a

33:39

perimeter type of scorer guy that they

33:42

rewarded. Like the Paul Georges, the Carl

33:44

Anthony Townes is those perimeter guys more

33:46

so than anything else. Fox not making

33:48

it as a surprise. Crazy.

33:50

And I, and I feel terrible for those

33:52

guys because it does matter to them greatly.

33:55

In the end, when it's all said

33:57

and done, we do go back and look at how many All-Star

34:00

games you made. We were just having a discussion the

34:02

other day on my show where we were like, I

34:04

think we went and looked it up and there's like maybe two, I

34:06

think? I think there were like two

34:08

guys that had made seven or eight All Star teams that

34:11

are not like Hall of Famers. Yeah. It was

34:13

Joe Johnson. Joe Johnson was one of them. Because

34:15

we were talking about Lowry after he had gotten

34:17

traded. That's what it was. It was like, Lowry's

34:19

made, I think, six. But that's the kind of

34:21

stuff we do. It's like after your career is

34:23

all said, don't we go back and look and

34:25

we go, yeah, you know, God

34:28

did make six All Star games. God made

34:30

seven All Star games. So I mean, it

34:32

does matter. It is a marker as to

34:34

where you were within the

34:37

league and especially for the years that you and

34:39

I were not aware of. When

34:41

we go

34:44

back and we look at like the

34:46

80s, if we want a historical reference

34:48

point for who the best players were,

34:50

we're going to go, who were the All

34:52

Stars? Well, Chris, this is why I was

34:55

anti moving back to East

34:57

West because Fox, Sabonis, Go

35:00

Bear, these guys should be All

35:02

Stars over Ben Caro, Julius Randall,

35:05

Jaylen Brown. Like, let's

35:07

just be honest there. The issue was

35:09

going back to East West. So if

35:11

for Kings fans or whoever it might

35:13

be have gripes, I think

35:15

the real argument for these guys is over

35:18

some of the Eastern Conference players who were

35:21

given spots because it was turned

35:23

back into conferences while determining

35:25

these teams. And I think you

35:27

and I both feel like the

35:29

easy fit, which

35:31

many have been proponents of. So

35:34

we can't claim this, but many have been proponents of for

35:36

many, many years. I know David Aldridge has been on this

35:38

for 20 years. Going

35:41

conferenceless? No, just expanding it to 15. I

35:44

don't know. It's unnecessary. Why not? What's wrong with keeping

35:46

an exclusive at 24 total I

35:49

mean, I'm against 12 and each. I'd rather

35:51

they move to conferenceless. I

35:53

think there's three that you could

35:56

absolutely say every year are All

35:59

Stars. level players. How many

36:01

guys are gonna play out there for two

36:03

minutes? I don't know. Most guys don't play

36:05

anyway. We don't need more spots. I think

36:08

there's enough spots. Just keep it inclusive. Alright,

36:11

we'll abandon the all NBA teams too from 15-20. Okay,

36:14

well then look, I'm fine with Rudy Gobert not

36:16

making it. You're not. No,

36:18

I'm just saying that I think it should

36:20

be. You could have gotten your guy in

36:22

the game. They made a change this year

36:25

to make the teams East and West.

36:28

But in the recent years with the

36:30

determination of the spots, it's still been

36:33

12 East, 12 West. I think it

36:35

should just be the best 24 across

36:38

the league. It could be 10

36:40

guys in the East and 14 guys in

36:42

the West. I don't see the

36:44

issue with that. I

36:46

like the conferences mattering. I

36:48

wish conferences and divisions would matter more, not

36:51

less. I could be

36:53

open to that as well from a

36:55

standing standpoint. For All-Star, for All-Star, what

36:57

does it matter? It's an exhibition game.

36:59

Well, look, I will say this. I

37:02

wish those guys would have gotten their awards.

37:04

Sabonis and Gobert are horrible All-Star players. Nobody

37:08

wants to watch that in the All-Star game. It's

37:13

like coaches said, yeah, we'll pick the more

37:15

entertaining All-Star players instead of the

37:17

better performers. Yeah, but then that

37:19

doesn't really apply

37:22

to Fox. Fox is like, he is

37:24

made for an All-Star game. Fox

37:26

is probably the biggest snub from both those

37:28

perspectives. Yeah. In terms of performance,

37:30

he improved a lot this year. The

37:33

way he extended his range from mid

37:35

to three, it's impressive. He did a great

37:37

job with that. All right.

37:39

So we got to get to the story

37:41

that you wrote earlier this week about the

37:43

Lakers and the crossroads

37:46

and about your first

37:48

Sports Illustrated cover that you remember with

37:50

Michael Jordan and the Wizards on it.

37:53

Then we had this report. I was

37:55

looking back at the timing of those

37:57

SI covers coming out in the story

37:59

I mentioned. how we got a, my

38:01

dad got a subscription of Sports Illustrated for kids

38:03

like sometime in like December 2001. And

38:07

then the first cover that I can remember is

38:09

the Michael Jordan one, which was January

38:12

2002. And

38:14

I was looking back at the covers, but

38:16

the swimsuit cover came out in December. My

38:19

dad must have kept that one to himself. You never,

38:21

it was the first time you saw it. I don't

38:23

remember that one. Oh,

38:26

I was the first to get those out

38:28

of the mailbox. I

38:30

don't remember seeing them. I

38:34

don't remember. I don't remember. I

38:36

didn't know that. I told you,

38:38

I told you, my dad didn't

38:40

get home from work until like,

38:43

you know, typically he would get on about five

38:45

to 5.30. He

38:47

would go, he would pour this like

38:50

huge Diet Coke. And then he would

38:52

go and he would sit down. And

38:54

at 5.30, it was the Tom Brokaw

38:57

was on the NBC nightly news and

38:59

he would watch the nightly news of

39:01

Tom Brokaw, right? So I had really

39:03

until six to do anything. So I

39:05

was, and my mom

39:07

was teaching college. So like, I would get dropped

39:09

off at home. So like, I

39:11

was the first to the mailbox, like for

39:14

the majority of my life. Oh

39:18

my God. It was like a communal event in my neighborhood. Because

39:25

there's a bunch of like little boys

39:27

who'd be like, I

39:29

remember Elmer Pearson, Kathy Ireland.

39:32

Like I remember like the big ones that

39:34

came out. It was like, when you're a

39:36

13, 14 year old boy, you're

39:39

like, Oh my God. Cause we didn't

39:41

have the internet. Yeah, I guess I

39:43

had the internet. We can't look important.

39:45

And there would always be something right.

39:47

Yeah, right. There were always. That's why

39:49

my dad kept them. I didn't even

39:51

know they existed. No, that's how we

39:54

saw boobs. Unless there was like some

39:56

weird kid who's like stepped in and

39:58

had playboys around the house. I Play

40:08

it out of the coffee table. Yeah, it was

40:10

never it was always a stepdad the

40:12

stepdad was always the one like Without

40:15

fail all of my buddies. It was

40:17

if they're like dad had

40:19

like salacious materials It was always

40:21

their stepdad the stepdad didn't care,

40:24

but he uh But yeah

40:26

when those swimsuit issues have come out big

40:29

moments Big moments communal experience you

40:31

called it communal experience everybody because we're all like

40:34

look at this We didn't know I mean we

40:36

didn't see stuff like that. I'm old man. You

40:38

got to remember. I'm old mm-hmm Where

40:41

would you see it and it wasn't on TV

40:43

like it was now it is now Yeah, that's

40:45

true like it was a thing so

40:47

yeah those like Kathy Ireland Elma Pearson

40:49

Those are all like legends to anybody

40:51

in my age group legends

40:55

Today's Episode

40:58

is brought to you by prime video uncontrollable

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subscription see amazon.com/Amazon Prime for details

41:47

So you write this article I will

41:50

say as we update this morning Rich Paul

41:52

has said we don't want to

41:54

get traded and LeBron's not getting traded and

41:56

and the reason why this happened is because a

41:59

local LA reporter this

42:02

week who has been on top

42:04

of a lot over

42:06

the years with the bronze status.

42:09

Somebody told me last night he's the guy

42:11

that tipped everybody

42:15

off to the Kawhi stuff

42:17

with the Clippers. David Pingelor,

42:19

maybe mispronouncing his last

42:21

name from KTLA, he's been a sports

42:23

anchor and reporter for many years. He

42:26

was on top of the Kawhi stuff. Back in

42:28

like 2012, he said in two

42:31

years, LeBron's angling to get back to Cleveland. A

42:33

lot of stuff. He's been on top of a

42:35

lot of stuff and he said that the Lakers,

42:38

you know, top priority is moving

42:40

LeBron and they're looking for a home for

42:42

him. So then Rich Paul comes out today

42:44

and says that we're not asking

42:47

for a trade, LeBron's not gonna get traded. So

42:49

that's all out there. But within my

42:52

article, what you're alluding

42:54

to is earlier in the week on Tuesday, we

42:56

published my LeBron thing. I kind of just go

42:58

through the entire Lakers situation. Who were their trade

43:00

assets? Who were the guys that they could trade

43:02

for? Who were the guys, what are the guys

43:05

that I would trade for? How

43:07

would I approach this situation? And then I

43:09

throw out the question, well, if it's

43:12

inevitable that LeBron's gonna leave this summer

43:14

for any reason to play with

43:16

his son, to look for a better team or

43:19

contender, is

43:21

it possible that the best time for a

43:23

divorce is right now? Because then LeBron could

43:25

make the most of his age 39 season.

43:27

He could join a contender. The Lakers could

43:29

get more back than they would this summer

43:32

if he were to walk into cap space

43:34

or ask for a sign and

43:36

trade. Let's just throw in the question

43:39

out there. Is it for the best now?

43:41

And then everything happened. LeBron would be with

43:43

the emoji, the time's up emoji. You

43:46

know, there's just a lot happens throughout the week with

43:49

the Lakers losing games. Obviously, then they beat the Celtics

43:51

last night without LeBron and AB. But

43:53

it's all very interesting to me. No,

44:00

well time article on LeBron, huh? This week

44:03

really well tired I had most that written

44:05

like 10 days ago But

44:08

we decided to wait for a better

44:10

moment the whole sand in the hourglass

44:12

emoji that was something else Well,

44:16

you know what you're doing. I know

44:18

exactly he knows what he's doing times

44:20

up That's what the emoji was the sand is at the

44:22

bottom of the hourglass right

44:26

and it's like I Think

44:29

it is a very reasonable

44:34

Discussion to have considering

44:38

Let's say this doesn't improve

44:40

greatly Let's say there's just a 500

44:43

team and let's say they lose in the

44:45

play yet Yeah, they run

44:47

into somebody they lose in the play and season's over

44:51

So anybody think he's going back that he's

44:53

just gonna run it back. Maybe maybe really

44:55

but maybe no maybe go back

44:57

But not run it back the

45:00

Lakers this offseason They'll have the

45:02

ability to trade three first-round draft

45:04

picks plus swaps So LA

45:07

right now can't make like a massive move

45:09

like they can't go out and get tray

45:11

young today Look if you're but

45:13

this but this summer you could go get tray

45:15

young But I will say this your

45:17

best chance at winning a title is

45:19

having LeBron James, of course Yeah,

45:22

so you do what you can

45:25

You do what you can I I do think if

45:27

I'm if I'm Darvin ham I Would

45:30

I would immediately walk in that locker room

45:32

last night be like see this is how it's

45:34

supposed to look All movement

45:36

it ain't that hard shooting 50% from

45:38

three Russell does it suck Reeves does

45:40

it suck? He's got those suck like

45:43

why did I suck? Everybody's

45:46

been on their ass. It's everybody else like

45:49

you saw did they look like they suck

45:51

last night? No, of course not I

45:54

mean It's it's interesting

45:56

to think like are you how

45:58

do you get the most out? of

46:00

them simultaneously and this harkens back to

46:02

the very first conversation we had with

46:04

the Brunson. Can you get the best

46:06

of while playing with

46:10

and I think for the

46:12

better part of 20 years LeBron James was

46:15

so good that you could throw him

46:17

at anybody but now

46:20

they still play like he's the

46:23

guy that's just gonna get you home every night and

46:26

that's not where he is in his career you're

46:30

not gonna get to the fourth quarter of a close game and it's like all right

46:33

now we got this guy and

46:35

he's just gonna get me home right like

46:37

that's not that's not where he is he's

46:40

still awesome but he's not in

46:42

that part of his career where

46:44

it's all right like

46:46

for the better part of 20 years if you

46:48

were in a tie game with three minutes left to go you

46:51

were like all right they've got LeBron

46:53

we don't and

46:55

that's not that's not so anymore

46:59

and so how does

47:01

everything transition into that

47:06

and I'm sure that he probably

47:08

doesn't feel that way right

47:10

now and I

47:13

think you do have to wonder like can can

47:17

the 39 year old guy who

47:19

is the second best player to

47:21

ever play in the league can

47:23

he be the best player on a title team

47:26

what do you think and this is

47:28

why on the Lakers

47:30

side of things still your best chance

47:34

I know but if this is why on the Lakers side

47:36

of things you're planning to go after

47:38

Luca in a couple years when he's

47:40

closer to free agency or when he hits free

47:42

agency how much do you

47:44

want to invest in 39 year old

47:47

LeBron James and and ad

47:49

who's a great player but until

47:52

the last calendar year or

47:54

so was injury-prone how much do

47:56

you want to go all-in on this when the flip

47:59

side is Well, you could build a

48:01

useful team. You could get something

48:03

back. You could set yourself up for that next

48:06

wave of stars, either via trade

48:08

or via free agency, like you do need

48:10

to think long-term as well, which is why

48:12

they're not like I wrote in the article.

48:15

David Griffin with the Cavs, you know, gave up

48:17

first round picks for Channing Fry and

48:19

Kyle Korver who were new and they were near

48:21

the end of their careers. Not even in their

48:23

primes as role players. That's why the Lakers traded

48:25

all of their youth and all of their picks

48:27

to go to Anthony Davis because LeBron was different

48:29

at that time when he was with Cleveland, when

48:31

he was with Miami. And then when he first

48:33

joined the Lakers, then he is now he's 39.

48:36

Now he can become a free

48:38

agent this summer. He said he wants

48:40

to play with his son. So,

48:43

you know, like there's so much at some point you run

48:45

out of asset. There's

48:49

only so, but there's also so many times that you

48:51

can blame the coach to blame their reported cast. Yeah.

48:55

We do it every year. For sure. Ham

48:57

also has not been great this year. He hasn't

49:00

one of the bottom five coaches in the league

49:02

deceased. That's true. They look

49:04

pretty damn good last night. They did look good last time.

49:06

They also shot 50% from three and

49:08

the cell make zero adjustments in the game

49:11

to attack, to attack mismatches. I told you

49:13

a thousand times, bro. You

49:16

can have whatever coach you want over there. You're

49:19

playing the way LeBron wants to play. That's

49:23

it. Yeah, but rotations and lineups still

49:25

matter. I gotcha. I gotcha.

49:27

And that's part of what plays into some

49:29

of the inconsistencies and like you've talked so

49:31

much about this over the years, Chris, where

49:34

it's like guys knowing their roles, knowing what

49:36

the responsibilities are, but on the lineup changes

49:38

every night and guys don't know. That's where

49:40

he gets failed. That's where he fails. That's

49:42

a pretty big way to fail. Yeah.

49:45

It's a pretty big way. And

49:47

like he did the fact that that lineup

49:49

that helped fuel them to make the post-season

49:51

last year, 80 Vanderbilt,

49:54

LeBron, Dilo, Reeves, the fact

49:56

that it played only

49:58

like at this point 20. 37 minutes

50:00

on the season, 30 minutes on the entire

50:03

season. That's crazy.

50:05

It played more minutes last

50:07

Saturday against the Warriors in one

50:09

game than it did the entire

50:11

season prior. That's nuts.

50:14

Well, they, they sucked at the

50:16

beginning and then it becomes this whole

50:19

thing again. They're

50:21

bad at the beginning. And so he just bailed on

50:23

it. It's like, all right, now we're

50:25

going to change it. Can't balance it in nine minutes. Huh?

50:29

Bad in nine minutes though. No,

50:32

no, no. I'm saying at the beginning of the season, that's

50:34

why he started changing things around. And then of

50:36

course, everybody got injured. I mean,

50:39

they probably got through a flow start and all

50:41

that. Of course. So now we got to make

50:43

some changes because we don't have time to do

50:45

any, everybody's impatient about all of it. So

50:48

now it's not the right thing to

50:50

do. We should have just stuck to his guns and said,

50:52

look, we just got to the, we just

50:54

played against Denver. Who

50:57

won the title. That's what we lost too. And

51:00

this is our, this is our best lineup chance.

51:03

But sometimes whenever you, anytime

51:06

these guys have more choices to make, they

51:09

can end up screwing that up. Sometimes

51:12

you want the choices to be just made for you

51:14

and it's even better to only have, you

51:17

know, nine healthy available or something

51:19

like that. Well, this is, this

51:21

is quite a hot take, but I'll just say it. I

51:24

don't think the Lakers should trade the Bron James. G-Cav.

51:32

I think what they should do is make

51:35

some moves around the edges. Go

51:37

after like a Kelly Olenek from

51:39

Utah. Maybe you can try

51:41

to get the Jante Murray in an Austin Reeves

51:43

deal where you don't have to give up two

51:45

first round draft picks, something

51:47

like that, that improves your chances,

51:50

improves your backup center spot, improves

51:52

your perimeter defense. And

51:54

then you go forward the season and see how

51:57

far it takes you, but then you still have

51:59

the powder. for a bigger move this

52:01

summer. A big move this summer that allows

52:03

you to further bolster the team around LeBron

52:05

or an AD or you go

52:07

the other way and those guys, they decide they want

52:09

to leave and you have a young roster. If

52:11

you get to John T. Murray, he's got

52:13

a new contract. Maybe he blossoms where

52:16

he's away from Trey Young. Maybe he act,

52:18

maybe this new three point shooting that he's

52:20

experiencing is for real. Maybe he taps back

52:22

into his level of defense and he becomes

52:24

an even more valuable player overall. That's possible.

52:27

You can't rule that out. If

52:30

we saw that how many times,

52:32

like the Kings split up Halliburton

52:34

and Fox and Fox blossoms, Halliburton

52:36

blossoms. Maybe Murray is actually about

52:39

to explode. It's just he's playing with

52:41

Trey and those guys have to share the ball

52:43

together and Trey's the guy there. So

52:46

I think with Murray, I have my questions

52:48

about him, but I'm just playing devil's advocate

52:50

with myself when it comes to my assessment

52:52

there. All right.

52:54

Last thing before we get out of here, tell

52:57

me about Apple Vision Pro. I saw

52:59

you get angry.

53:01

There's like a hat tip Kevin O'Connor and

53:03

I was like, what? I

53:05

didn't tweet on the clip. So

53:08

what was this? What was this old deal? And

53:10

do you have one of these? No, I don't.

53:12

Or were you just like, oh, this looks cool.

53:15

I just, it just looks cool to me.

53:17

The Apple Vision Pro, Brian

53:20

Tong, he posted a full

53:23

54 minute review on

53:25

YouTube, an overview of the Apple Vision Pro

53:27

and like a clip was, you know, tweeted

53:29

out of him showing NBA

53:31

league pass on the Apple

53:33

Vision Pro in the way like within the, if you

53:35

don't know what Apple Vision Pro is, it's like a

53:37

VR headset where like there's a

53:39

pass-through feature where you can kind of,

53:42

it's like a, you're looking at a

53:44

screen 4k recording of your room. It's

53:46

weird. It looks like a, like a

53:48

ski goggles. Yeah. It looks like ski

53:50

goggles, but basically within the clip, Brian,

53:54

um, he like league passes in the Apple Vision

53:56

Pro. He has like five screens on at once.

53:58

It's like you have like a multimodal, monitor

54:00

set up, except it's huge within your vision.

54:02

It's like you're watching on a big screen

54:04

TV, but you have monitors next to it.

54:07

It's like the way Bill Simmons describes his

54:09

like watching TV with his wife and the

54:11

Larry D. podcast. Watching

54:15

a TV show on the big screen, but

54:18

then he's good. Basketball on the sides. That's

54:20

what it's like. It's like you have Bill

54:22

Simmons living room within your own living

54:24

room. Do you know what's crazy when he was telling

54:26

that story? I harken

54:28

back to when I was in college, my

54:30

best friend, he lived in Chattanooga. We,

54:32

uh, we went to his house and

54:35

went to the, and we were like,

54:38

uh, we, at one point one

54:40

night we went down to the living room and

54:42

his parents. Would sit there on

54:44

the couch and they would like cuddle, but

54:46

there were two TVs, there's one up and

54:48

one, Hey, one up and one below. And

54:51

they both had headphones on. So

54:54

they were both watching their

54:56

own thing on the TVs,

54:58

but they were sitting with each other next

55:01

to each other in the room. And I was like, that's,

55:04

and they've been married over 50 years.

55:07

And I was like, Hey, it worked

55:09

out right. Like they were always,

55:11

they, uh, they were

55:13

always together. They spent this time

55:15

together, but they had these headphones on and were

55:17

watching different things. And I'm like, Timmy, what the

55:20

hell is going on here? He's like, they watch

55:22

like my dad wants to watch the braids and

55:24

my mom's watching her shows. It's kind of cute.

55:26

I know. That's very

55:28

sweet. I know. Right. I

55:32

never even considered it. Yeah. That's nice.

55:34

I like that. Yeah. I felt

55:36

the same way about the bill bill story. It's

55:39

like, oh, yeah, it's kind of cooler together watching

55:41

TV, but there's sometimes bills glancing over at the

55:43

game. Well, I probably just give Simmons an

55:45

idea. Cause this, you start the volume issue,

55:47

right? Yes,

55:49

exactly. That's true. But it's

55:52

like, we're in the beginning stages

55:54

of, you know, uh, their

55:57

apples products, like obviously VR heads.

56:00

that's having existed for some time. We're still

56:02

in the first decade or so, but I'm

56:04

very intrigued by where the technology is going to

56:07

go and some of the uses for it. I

56:09

look forward to the day that there's augmented reality

56:11

glasses. That's where it's going to be. No, I

56:13

don't want to put anything, I don't have to

56:16

put anything on my face or do any of

56:18

that kind of stuff. Or regular glasses. If

56:20

you could have like data, no, you don't want

56:23

that at all? I'm just

56:25

waiting until Elon Musk throws his

56:27

chip in my brain. And

56:30

then he just knows that

56:33

I want the channel to change

56:35

to the buck-selfish game. Oh, so

56:37

you're ready for a Neuralink in your

56:39

brain in 30 years when the technology

56:41

is good. That's what you're ready for,

56:43

where you can like telepathically change the

56:45

channel, telepathically send a text message. That's

56:48

what it really is. Like you would

56:50

have, you can't telepathically,

56:52

that's what it would be. But

56:54

yeah, they did their first human trial

56:56

for that. Would you be, if Elon

56:58

called you? No. Because you guys are

57:00

best buddies. No way. You wouldn't be

57:02

a human trial for that? No. No.

57:05

They're doing trials on people who like can't watch

57:08

or can't see. Ah, come

57:10

on. You ain't got that much to give society anyway.

57:12

Come on. Yeah, no, I didn't talk basketball. What's

57:16

the difference, Gamezall? Heard about that earlier this week. What?

57:21

Somebody told you all you did is talk basketball? In

57:25

a sense. Oh, man.

57:28

But with the Apple Vision Pro. What

57:31

was her name? I'm going to tell her that was

57:33

messed up. I'm

57:38

going to tell her. Well, with the Apple

57:40

Vision Pro, they're scheduling demos. I didn't purchase,

57:42

but I won't purchase. I'm fucking with too

57:45

much money. But how much is it? For

57:49

that thing you put on your face? Yeah, 3,500 bucks. That's

57:53

before taxes and potential add-ons. But on

57:55

Monday, I'm going for a demo. I'm

57:57

getting a 20, 30 minute demo. on

58:00

Monday morning for the Apple

58:02

Vision Pro because you can schedule that out or

58:05

you demo it and you get to experience it

58:07

within the Apple Store so I'm very very excited

58:09

for that to experience on Monday morning. Tell

58:11

them we'll be influencers and try to get us a couple

58:13

for free. I'll try to

58:16

swing it you know and try to work it out for me

58:18

and you. I'm sure your friend would have fun with it. I've

58:22

got one of those Oculus things. Oh yeah I got

58:24

one of those too. I'll be honest with you I

58:26

don't I don't think the quality of those is enough

58:28

for me to want to throw that on. It's

58:30

a little too pixelated but this

58:32

one the people like Ben Thompson. It freaked me

58:35

out when I put it on. But you know

58:37

like Ben Thompson from Shratekari like

58:39

his incredible tech blog he

58:42

wrote about it and talked about it on

58:44

one of his podcasts. I think it might

58:46

have been Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp who

58:49

people might know NBA with yeah yep so

58:51

um they talked about it and Ben

58:53

made the point of like it's like 4k like

58:55

the way the quality of this screen is

58:58

is just on another level from any prior

59:00

VR headset. That's always been my hang up

59:03

with the prior VR headsets. I just

59:05

don't think the quality is at a level that

59:07

I think is worth it but this it seems

59:09

like is is

59:11

at that level. From

59:14

what I understand it seems heavy. We'll talk about

59:16

it more next week. Monday morning so we'll do

59:18

a Monday night review of my 20-30 minute demo

59:20

of the day Apple Vision Pro but I'm very

59:22

excited to try it out. I can't wait for

59:24

the Monday night review. Alright that's gonna do it

59:27

for this episode of the Mists Match. Thank you

59:29

to our executive producer Jesse Lopez as always and

59:31

Kevin I'll talk to you next week. Have a

59:33

great weekend everybody. Must

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