NBA All-Star Weekend & Trade Deadline Recap + Daytona 500

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back, guys. This is sources from the Sofa Sports podcast. It feels like we haven't done a pod in a long time. It was a long week. We kind of took a little break with the long NFL college football season. That was a lot of fun. And since we're going into the NBA All Star Weekend either, you know, we figured it was like a natural, you know, time to take a pause. But we are back. We kind of recapped the whole All Star Weekend. It was here in San Francisco, where I live. We kind of talk about all the festivities, talk about the 3P and the slum deck and the slam dunk competition. And we even give our two cents of how we can actually make it better so it actually makes more sense. You kind of bring in some of that competitive spirit. From the sounds of it, a lot of people love to slam dunk. The three point was a three point, so it's solid. You know, the skills competition. Wemby and Chris Paul created some controversy, so that was good. But didn't really hear much about Sunday's games besides all the long pauses and the long TNT eulogies, which a lot of players and fans did not like altogether. The only positive I've heard were fans that don't really watch the NBA, just fans of the sport in general. They caught it with their kids or their significant others and they watched and they thought it was great production. They don't watch a lot of basketball, that's for sure. We kind of go back and do a full recap, full review of all the trades that happened for the NBA when it, when the first trade started for this year and then when the, when the trades really started kicking around. The NBA a week or two before the trade deadline and we also give grades after that. We talk a little Daytona 500. It's the quote unquote Super bowl of NASCAR. Although it's not the first race of the year, but I guess it kind of kicks off the mean potatoes of the year. So Jason gives us a 411 and we kind of reminisce on the older drivers and we'll, we'll, we'll swing in some racing somehow and some wrestling from here on out. Still trying to figure out how, but we'll get it in. So fun Pod. NBA, NBA. Tread down lines. A little Daytona. Some smart talking. Don't go anywhere. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Foreign. [00:02:18] Speaker A: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the pod. It feels like a long time since we've recorded anything because it's been like what, a week? It's been a Long week, Just a week. It feels longer than that and I don't know, kind of feel like we lost our flow or our footing. But listening to other people's pods seems like everyone's just kind of recovering. If you cover a lot of football, everyone's just kind of taking a, a few weeks break and then trying to get back in the swing of things for the NBA. College basketball, it's tightening up. I watched a lot of games this weekend and highlights when I could. Hockey is getting pretty exciting. Yeah. The Daytona this week missed it with all the delays. But NBA All Star weekend was up here in San Francisco. So I guess I can share some of my experiences. For those that don't know, I'm a sommelier in my other career working in fine dining and three Mission Star restaurants. So I was, I was taking care of a lot of high profile guests, especially from the NBA offices. A lot of agencies as well, player reps, etc. Etc. A lot of people, I did not think that would be working for a sports team or a sports agency. They just didn't hit, you know, fit the profile. That was kind of shocking. NFL, the MLB exec, I wrote his name down. He was pretty high up there. He was really nice. I don't think that was his wife though. I guess I won't say his name. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:03:50] Speaker A: He says really well. [00:03:51] Speaker B: But that's the premium. That's the premium. Sources from the sofa information to get that name. [00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I, I could definitely. I started choking here. Know how to work my way around those sticky situations. NBA wives and their kids and a lot of NBA fans from all, from all over the world. I do want to talk about, just to recap all the trades that happened because we haven't really got a chance to do that either in the NBA. But I don't know, should I just share some of my experience with what was going on here in San Francisco? [00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, we can start there and move into the NBA trades and then everything else that happened on the sports weekend. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. So it's busy. People started coming in on Tuesday. That's when I started seeing the NBA credit cards and taking care of the gas and they were just setting up, you know, a lot of the facilities managers. And then I believe Thursday is when the fans started getting in. They're wearing their all star hats, jerseys wearing. I was seeing a lot of jerseys from Dallas. A lot of Dallas fans on Thursday as well as a few Toronto fans Friday morning. When I finally got to talk ball, some people are like, oh, you know you actually know the guys on the, on. On the Raptors. Some of these fans are delusional, man. They are delusion about their team and I think that's what makes sports so great, right? The team could be trash, but like they are so pumped up with. Oh, man. Who's the guy that they just got? [00:05:36] Speaker B: Ingram. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Ingram. They got a lot of activity done at the chat trailing, but they are really super ecstatic about Ingram and building around Barnes and think that they could be a contender in the very near future. So that's this kind of stuff that I was dealing with on a conversation wise before. I can just like, all right, I gotta go. Can I sell you a bottle of champagne here? Dallas fans, they are miserable. [00:05:59] Speaker B: Not only that Rome, they did sign them to that extension, I believe. Three years, 120 million. So they got a lot to be. They got a lot to be happy about. [00:06:05] Speaker A: I guess that's actually a steal. 40 million for three years. That. That's. That's great, man. That's actually a pretty good move from majority or majority. Is that his name? His name. It doesn't really matter right now. The GM for the Raptors, Dallas fans. Once I heard like, oh, you're from Dallas or you're from Texas? Like by chance, are you guys spurs fans or Mads fans? And right when I said Mavs and they like. And they put their head down, I knew it. I knew it. It was great. I was like. And they're like, why, what are you a fan of? Like, are. Is this the Golden State warriors, your team? I'm like, no, I'm actually from la. The Lakes on my team. Thank God. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, gm. Thank you. Nico Harris. It was great. I kind of maybe shoved it in their face a little too much. That was good. You know, good banter back and forth. I couldn't stop smiling. [00:06:58] Speaker C: Just trying to enjoy a nice dinner, you know, get away from the house. And here's the guy at the restaurant just kicking me while I'm down. While my team just giving up on life. [00:07:07] Speaker B: And you know, I don't think we were recording at the time, but you know, Jason, this explains why he wasn't getting tips. [00:07:12] Speaker C: Yeah, 100 basically. [00:07:14] Speaker B: He's basically just, you know, trashing the people there while providing service. And that explains a lot now, now that the story keeps evolving. [00:07:24] Speaker C: Poor MASH fans, man. They just, they. They want the do over on this trade like already. Like, how many minutes did Anthony Davis get in post trade? [00:07:32] Speaker B: It was a dominating what, 24, 25 minutes. But yeah. Hey, for Mavs fans, Max Christie has looked pretty good. He sees he's done. He's done pretty good in those five games since he's come over. So there is some light, maybe the end of the tunnel there. [00:07:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Max Christie. Besides that, though, the city was vibing. It was a lot going on. There was a Chinese New Year, which for some reason it ended last week. But they decided to schedule the big parade this weekend. It's like no one who scheduled the parade knew that All Star weekend was happening the same weekend. It was. It was a big mess. It took me 45 minutes to get to work on Friday, and I live 25 minutes away, walking. It's a five minute drive. So I took an Uber because I don't want to be, you know, walking to work in. In the city. I think it was raining as well. And then, you know, the parade's cutting through. Everyone's late for their reservations. Coming from the game. I didn't know that they were using Oracle arena at the same time as Chase. I guess they're having events at Oracle in Oakland. So everyone that was in Oakland and they came into the restaurant, they were able to get there faster than the people inside the city at Chase with all the blockages. It was a crazy mess. But lots of good vibes. Everyone's NBA fans are. Are good NBA fans. And like, going back and looking at the stats, you know, merchandise is up, you know, engagement on social platforms is up. A lot of things are up in the NBA. It's just the TV ratings are really low. So, you know, they're gonna have to figure that out. But the vibes are good for the. The NBA. A lot, a lot of chatter around Luca, a lot of chat, chatter around the new format for the games this year with Team Chalk against Ch, Shaq and Candace and the Rising. I heard after the Saturday night events that it was crazy. The slam dunk contest, the three point shooter I did take care of, it was like an ex NBA player's wife now with like an ex husband. I don't know, it was really confusing. She looked like an NBA player's wife though, right? And they had a kid, big tier to Tyler. Hero fan. Even looked like him, you know, super white with like a little bit of black kid swag, you know, but he was really ecstatic. Had a hero jersey on. Was really pumped up, but exhausted. And apparently, yeah, Saturday was the night to go. That was the most excitement since we've heard from everywhere else. That Sunday was kind of like a little bit of A drag with all the stoppages and the TNT eulogy and whatnot. [00:10:11] Speaker C: So interesting perspective. Well, it's interesting perspective. I was gonna say Rome because as I was following social media on Saturday night, I was tuned in on the alternate broadcast on ABC that had the USA versus Canada hockey game on and Twitter was burying the NBA. That this hockey game was just dominating the Saturday night viewing because we had three fights in the first like nine minutes of throwing down and just, just great hockey to start off. The first period was really electric atmosphere they had up in Canada for that game. So yeah, if you went off social media when I was going off on Twitter, like the, the NHL just owned Saturday night. Really took away from, you know, what the NBA was doing for the, for the other skill stuff they do on the Saturday night. So good that it was alive in person for what you're saying. But yeah, that was. I think there was different perceptions that people were taken away from this because I think a lot of, A lot of commentary probably the last 10 years, but I think it was really on the forefront recently when you're looking at all of these All Star games, like the Pro bowl has turned into like a flag football joke game no one cares about. People have been complaining about the NBA All Star weekend for like a while now where no one's playing defense. No one really cares about the game at all. The NHL really switched it up this year with this four nations challenge. That was really cool. It was cool. And you know, and where you put in like NFL players really don't care. NBA players don't care. Baseball, they're kind of getting whatever. But you got guys in exhibition games throwing down, just having fights at the start of the game. Big hits like they were trying. Like there was a couple of hits on Connor McDavid. Like these dudes are trying to take each other out in a game that, you know is just for country pride and just dudes going against dudes. And so I. It was, it's really putting like what you could say from an All Star Weekend something on display that the NHL is trying something new and something different that try to get some excitement. I think just the arena was popping and I, I know there was a lot of NBA chatter. I think Gianna said something about like them doing like a USA versus the world type thing and them doing it like overseas already. I don't know. They probably did. They. They feel like they changed the NBA. [00:12:27] Speaker A: Format had like us stars against international stars for a few All Star game formats. [00:12:33] Speaker C: The NHL has done that. In the past they did, they did. North America versus the world before and NHL, All Star Games, NBA. I'm not sure, but I don't know. It was, it's cool to mix these things up. It's just different now. I mean if you think of All Star Games in like our parents age or even we were growing up in the 90s, like they were special because these guys were never in the same places. You didn't always see them. There wasn't the total overexposure of the Internet and social media and you know, the schedules are a little more imbalanced where you didn't have some of the best players in the world always playing each other. But now, you know, in baseball, AL plays nl, you pretty much get all these guys in the same ballpark. You know, the basketball, you know, you pretty much get, you get, you get. The best teams are usually in the playoffs and the best players are kind of there. And so there's just, just less emphasis on this, the exposure to these teams is there. The All Star Game used to feel special because it was like, oh, you don't, you don't see all these local stars, all the. But now everything's national. You can see any game anytime, any player, anywhere. So this game doesn't mean as much. But from a TV perspective, you know, we can complain about it, the Internet can play it all they want, but they still, it's a draw, it's still a network put on, people still tune in, sponsors still want to show up. You know, Rome, you can talk about how it's popping up there. That's probably a huge like money revenue generator for the city of San Francisco and stuff like that. So cities want that stuff so you can complain about all they want. They're still going to put these things on. They're just going to find different ways to tweak it and tune it to make sure like people are still going to have some sort of interest, whether it's good or bad. [00:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah, from what I've seen like the pop up events, Hennessy, all the alcohol brands, Google Pixel had a pop up, they had meet and greets, three point shooting contest. You can actually ball against a few NBA players. Clay Thompson was at Treasure Island. A lot of cool stuff. It sucks that I missed going to any of them events, but I was just busy pouring wines, doing wine pairings for a lot of, a lot of important people in the NBA, MLB and apparently a lot of agencies. So crazy stuff. Something with the All Star Game though. Let's just talk about that really quick and then we can kind of go to the trade stuff. I heard Saturday is popping. I'm really happy for hockey first of all, because hockey hardly upstages the NBA. So that's awesome because the game kicked ass. You're right. When I was on X, when I was trying to like just browse around like what was happening, it was all hockey updates. I didn't really see much on the NBA until like you know, you know, all the, all the All Star fans started coming in. So really happy for hockey for that, for them to have that. But the All Star game though, it's, it's supposed to be important, man. This is like when you're supposed to get like the best stars around the world to do cool. You know, your whole, your, your one job is just to do cool. Do like off the backboard alley oops to each other, you know, do some cool one on one games in the middle of the game. And they just kind of took the fun out of it. I didn't get a chance to watch too much of this new format, so I'm gonna lean on you guys a little bit. Apparently there's too many stoppages. It was, you know, guys were itching to kind of get it going and it just wasn't enough playing time. And then on top of that, LeBron is taking lots of Ls on, on the socials for skipping out an hour before the games, which I, I totally get it, man. That, that's kind of chicken because there's some other players deserving to be in the All Star game and they could have definitely taken a spot. And I'm guessing he probably knew that he wasn't gonna be playing well before an hour. So not sure what that is about. But Aaron, why don't you tell us about the dunk contest? Since your boy McDuffin or whatever his name is. Three. Three. Three peted. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Three Pete, man. Three Pete representing for the white guys out there that can dunk, man. Gotta like that. I mean the slam dunk contest really has just become. It's a show. I mean it's all entertainment. I mean, how can you come up with creative dunks? Not necessarily the best dunkers win, but it's all about entertainment and creativity. You know, he had a, you know, a car come out there, guy come out, take the ball right off his head. Slam dunk. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw that. [00:16:45] Speaker B: You know, another guy, another seven footer jumping over him, slam dunking it. But the dunks themselves were creative because they just weren't like regular dunks, you had like, you know where he got it, touched the rim, pulled it back and then slammed it. Dunked. Pretty, pretty nice little dunk. Actually a lot of creative dunks. I thought one of the better dunk contests before, between the final two and Castle and that, that was good. Castle's a better dunker. But again it comes down to creativity and entertainment and he just wasn't creative and as entertaining. And that's where, where he lost. I mean that's where the slam dunk contest is at. You know, like I said, it's not necessarily the best slam dunker. Like the three point contest, you have to make more threes than the next the other opponents. It's not like, hey, I swished more than you, so I deserve to win. [00:17:38] Speaker A: I wish they did three rounds of the three point contest. [00:17:41] Speaker B: I. I wish they did. [00:17:44] Speaker A: They used to. Or no. Or am I tripping? [00:17:48] Speaker B: It's hard to say, man. It's hard for me to remember. And then the skills competition, I thought the big headline from that was the Spurs Wy and. And Chris Paul getting DQ'd there. [00:18:01] Speaker C: Wambi were they just chucking the ball like everywhere? Like it wasn't. They weren't even close to the targets or something like that. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah, because I guess because basically you get three shots, but they were asking around to the shots have to be like legitimate shots or can you just throw the ball like you mentioned, instead of waiting time, you just throw the ball three times and go to the next course. And there's no penalty for like doing that or missing all three shots. Which is something that should probably look into. Like if you make the first shot, you should get like five seconds off. You make the second shot maybe three seconds. And then if you miss them all, you don't. But then I guess the NBA wimy was going around asking according to dream on like six, seven different people and they didn't have an answer. And then the NBA afterwards said, oh, you have to actually take like legal shots and has like hit the rim for it to count. [00:18:49] Speaker A: So yeah, at least a legitimate attempt. That's a thing about the, the skills contest. It didn't make any sense after they were talking about the rules. Like you don't get any special points because at the end of the day it's all timed. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's all who can do it quick. So like, like we were saying, I mean it should be a reward successful. Yeah, there should be a reward for being better. Like making the first of three shots versus if you miss all three. Maybe a two second penalty add on or something. But DB's got a lot to look at. The All Star Game room, like you mentioned, you know, team Chuck, Kenny, Shaq, Candace. I think it was squads of seven or eight guys per team. [00:19:30] Speaker A: Eight teams? Yeah, eight guys. [00:19:33] Speaker B: And then you had the Rising Stars game Saturday, which. The Rising Stars. What was word? Because he had three Rising Star teams and then a G League team. [00:19:40] Speaker A: Oh, how the G League team do. [00:19:42] Speaker B: They won the first game. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:19:44] Speaker B: So they made it to the final and then they were up in the final. [00:19:48] Speaker A: You know what's really funny? Bronnie's not even good enough to be on the G League team for the All Star game. [00:19:55] Speaker B: No one really knows how good Bronnie is. He just. He's been sitting on the pine all this year. [00:19:58] Speaker C: I mean, I think he only played like 3G league games or something like that. Right. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Not spent more than that. [00:20:04] Speaker B: But I mean, the highlight of Bronnie's season is the last game the Lakers has played where he scored nine points in the fourth quarter in a blowout game. Then he lost to a bad Utah team that he just beat the night before by like 30. [00:20:15] Speaker A: I'm not talking about that game. [00:20:16] Speaker B: That game was, you know, we'll talk regular season basketball. But yeah, so those teams, it was weird because they had coaches, too. I think you had Mullen, Chris Mullen, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond. All old school warriors. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker B: And then Jeremy Lynn was a Warrior, I believe, at one time too, right? [00:20:34] Speaker A: Very shortly. Yeah. [00:20:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So he coached. He coached the G Team. The G League team. Like I said, they won the first game, then they lost, and then the winner of the Rising Stars contest advanced to Sunday to play against Team Shaq. They actually playing. That was actually the best game of Sunday's All Star Game was the Rising Stars versus Team Shaq because the Rising Stars were actually, like, trying to win. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:57] Speaker B: So it made a little more competitive and entertaining. [00:20:59] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:21:00] Speaker B: But as you mentioned, Rome, I mean, just the breaks in between. I mean, they call Kevin Hart, you know, saying some comedy, saying some jokes that were kind of like. Like T. TNT is probably like Adam Silver's like, ah, this. This isn't, you know, the Hollywood club where you get away with some of this stuff. So. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Oh, is that bad? I kind of want to watch it now. I kind of want to go back. [00:21:21] Speaker B: He made it. Yeah, he made. He made a comment like, you know, hey, Shaq, why are you dressed like a 70s porn director? Like, and because he had, like, A turtleneck on. He's like, hey, take that neck brace off, man. Take that neck brace off. And like Ernie was laughing, but I could like see Ernie like trying to like, come on, come on, let's get through this. Like, let's keep going. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:39] Speaker B: So, but I mean it was cool. But I mean like you said, I mean, 20 minute break for after the first commercial in the final game. So I mean, no rhythm, really, no flow. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Jason, I got the Shaq and Chuck game on in the background right now replaying on NBA tv. [00:21:59] Speaker B: That game sucked. The first two games before that were pretty, were decent. Yeah, that was the worst one of all of them because I think team Shaq, like they just dominated them. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:11] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean going back to what Jason said about the hockey, like the NBA may be looking into a four man of going, you know, the world versus the NBA stars. I believe that's probably going to pick up some steam. [00:22:22] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure that he did that. [00:22:24] Speaker B: I, I don't believe so because none of the players had mentioned it. But that, that is something I think as the NBA tries to get more competitive and more just, you know, not just jacking up threes. Harlem Globetrotters that you mentioned Rome comes down to basically. I think people want to see entertainment which you can get from the slam dunk and all that in the music and all that, but they want to see a competitive game, stars play stars. You know, like Jason was saying, like in our era, in the early 90s, late 2000s, like there was no social media. These guys weren't buddy, buddy. Taxing, exchanging jerseys. It was like Magic versus Jordan, like Kobe, Jordan. Like this was a big deal. Like each one wanted to go at each other and ball and show who the best player in the world was. Now it's just like, hey buddy, buddy, you get 40, I'll get 35 and let's get out of here and collect. [00:23:15] Speaker A: I think a big part of it though, because social media is so big and you know, all these guys growing up with it, it's like no one, no one wants to be on the bad replay. No one's get showed out and be the guy that loses. That's why I don't think they'll ever be like a one on one tournament. So you know, something like that. [00:23:32] Speaker C: No, you can't even get any of the stars in the slam dunk contest. And they all talking, they're all tweeting and talking on social media afterwards of like, oh, if you do it, I'll do it. And this and that. But I mean, when was Blake Griffin the last like big All Star that's like done the slam dunk conscious. I mean, maybe I'm missing something, but. [00:23:48] Speaker A: I mean, Eric Gordon but. Or not. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Well, Eric Gordon wasn't a star. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah, but yeah, Griffin Gordon was jumping over the Kia. I mean, but then, I mean, you think about Vince Carter, you think of Jordan, you think of Dominique and like all those type of things. Like the all NBA All Star weekend. Hey, was the all Stars participate in this? We don't just bring in, you know, special guys. I mean, what. Who, who won the slam dunk contest? [00:24:10] Speaker B: Matt. [00:24:11] Speaker C: What, what's his name? [00:24:12] Speaker B: Was it Mac McClung? [00:24:13] Speaker C: Yeah. What team does he play for? Anyone even knows he's. [00:24:16] Speaker B: He's part of the Orlando Magic. But he's a G league player. [00:24:20] Speaker C: But he's a G league player. [00:24:21] Speaker A: So he's not even in some games. But not too much. He's like a brawny. [00:24:24] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. [00:24:25] Speaker A: He can't ball though. But yeah, I'm sure. [00:24:28] Speaker C: I mean, it's not like these guys aren't talented, but like when you think of like star power, what the all Star weekend's about, like, you know, what's the investment in. I mean, it was kind of cool for this because it was a 3P but it's like a guy who's in the fringe side of the NBA. It's just. It's just not what it was and it probably will never be because. Yeah, I think you're right, Rome. Like no one wants to get showed up now. LeBron's never done the slam dunk contest. None of these guys want to do that. They don't want to be embarrassed, whatever. [00:24:51] Speaker A: It is, I think. All right, so let's kind of get on if you want to recap the three point shooting contest or the rest of the skills. Cavs looked really nice. They won. Three point was fun. I. I always love that one. They kind of hero beat, by the way. [00:25:06] Speaker B: I didn't see it because I think Dame Lillard was going for three peat on that too. Right guy? [00:25:10] Speaker A: He got kicked down the first round and it was. Buddy healed that okay. [00:25:15] Speaker B: Warriors okay? [00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Almost came back from behind and won, but yeah, they have this weird starry ball now it's three points. They used to just be 30 points total, but now you can like max out a lot higher. [00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you get. That's. You get one ball per rack and then one special rack right where they're all worth three points or whatever. [00:25:34] Speaker A: That shot is they also have two. [00:25:36] Speaker B: The two four point shots, right? Or are they 4.3 shots? [00:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:41] Speaker B: Okay. [00:25:42] Speaker A: They had two of those in between. Yeah, the corner of the keys, which was. All right, what, whatever. I really don't care about that one. But if you could change the All Star game to make it more exciting, to bring it back to life, what would you do? [00:26:01] Speaker B: The All Star Game or like slam dunk contest or kind of everything for the week? [00:26:05] Speaker A: Everything. Yeah, it could be the Duck, I. [00:26:08] Speaker B: Think for the slam dunk. Like Jason said, we've been talking, they need to bring stars back. So what I would do is I'd be a. I'd do a G League versus NBA players kind of slam dunk. Or not even just G league, just like regular like street baller type players that can dunk like crazy because there's there a whole bunch of them on the Internet that are supposedly great dunkers. Bring them in this thing and let's like get the eight best dunkers right now maybe in the world or four of them against the four best NBA because I mean Vince Carter back in the day, Jordan, Dominique T. Mac was a monster dunker. Blake Griffin was nasty with some of his dunks. I think that could spice that up for sure. In the All Star Game itself, it's hard to say because nobody's really playing hard. No one's playing defense. I mean a world versus USA would be great with maybe. I think the winning teams from the All Star week took home 100,000. Maybe the winning team, each player takes home a million or half a million. Another half a million goes to their charity, make some big money to get these guys really interested in playing it. But there's. It's hard to say. I mean the 40 point format they did, you can watch it. Rome, I mean they had competitiveness, but it just never was any rhythm or flow. 20, 30 minute breaks in between games and commercials. Makes it kind of hard to watch. [00:27:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I just don't think there's anything that's going to fix it if the players aren't going to be into it and it's going to turn into something if they, if they're not having the incentive. Like Aaron mentioned, money, maybe that could be it. I don't know how much these guys are gonna do it. I mean you could for the NBA. You can barely get a lot of these guys to play the regular season games, let alone trying to do an exit too big. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Huh? [00:27:46] Speaker C: Huh? [00:27:47] Speaker B: I mean look at LeBron, man. Look at LeBron. [00:27:51] Speaker C: I mean they're Safe. They are saving up for the playoffs. That's what it is. So they, you know, in the back of their minds. And everyone's going to talk about legacy at the end of the day with these guys because it's, it's. What's everything summed up to is just winning championships. So cool. Like, why do I need to do any of these other accolades? No one remembers any of this stuff. It's only going to remember how many rings I had. And so they, it doesn't matter. I get my money and then I rest up for the playoffs. And then what happens there is what happens and like nothing else kind of really matters. So, I mean, I, I don't know if there's a way in the NBA you can fix it. Right now. Football's already basically pushed it to the side. No one even cares. It'll never be the same again for that one. Baseball's kind of clinging to it to a degree. I mean, it's, it's kind of okay for baseball, I think. Hockey, you know, they found something. This was new this year though. Like, how much, how much can they keep that going? There's a lot of things kind of in their favor with the kind of the nation stuff. I don't know if the NBA can garner that type of excitement. But I mean, something different, I think you just, you do something different, that'll be, that'll draw up an interest for a year, but it's probably not going to stay the same. You do USA versus the world. Maybe it's cool for the first couple years and probably that'll get stale too. [00:28:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think another alternate option would be, I think you mentioned it, Rome would be like a three on three, kind of three on three tournaments where you have two teams, three on three on each side of the court playing. And maybe you get three, six, maybe four teams of three on three or eight teams, whatever you want to call it, and just kind of do a little three on three tournament and see how that goes. But yeah, it's going to be difficult to get these guys to compete and do all that stuff right now because, you know, obviously they got their money. And another option would be East West Conference winner gets home court, NBA Finals. You, you know, I'm not a big fan of it, but maybe it juices it up. [00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think LeBron broke the slam dunk contest when he didn't do it. And that, and that started the no big stars, really. At least less stars. Right. Since Blake did it afterwards. And you know, a few Other people, but I think they should require anyone who's on a rookie contract. If you're considered, if you, if, if you're in the, if you're in the running for, you know, rookie of the year or whatever it is, you're considered like a potential future mvp. You have to do it at least once within your first four years. Yeah, slam dunk. I think that would be a easy requirement. It's, you know, that would be my suggestion. The three point contest. I'm cool with that. It would just be better if it was just more consistent three point shooters. You know, just invite anyone from the top 10 and then maybe like an outsider. Maybe even incorporate what they did last year. I don't know why they didn't repeat it. You know, bring over some of the WNBA players. They can shoot threes. I know Caitlin Clark didn't want to do it, but they own the wnba. Just make them do it. Grab a couple of them. They're pretty good shooters. Skills challenge, have points, you know, add a point value. And then for the All Star game, I would like to see east and west again. Go back to that and then rep your own jersey. You know, maybe have like a special patch or like a special like logo or like a. Maybe it could all be like the same color, but at least it's yours, you know, your team jersey. I think you're right about making a bigger purse, Aaron. You know, making a million dollars for like each person on the winning team. But maybe. [00:31:22] Speaker C: I hate this idea, but if you went east and west, would you do decides home court advantage in the NBA finals? [00:31:31] Speaker A: Here's the thing. Maybe they should have just teams that are in the playoffs or that are in contention for a top four seed to be in that game. [00:31:50] Speaker B: So there's the top four seats from the east and west. Only those playoff teams. Players get into an all Star game to determine what winner gets home court. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:00] Speaker C: Shrink kind of your all star field a little bit. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Have to play with it. But that's a thought. [00:32:07] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah, it's a thought. I like it. I mean the other thought, which would never happen because the players wouldn't agree. We talk about paying out money, more money to win, but having the losing team having to pay out of their own pocket for losing. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Dude, yes. Yeah. [00:32:24] Speaker B: It will never happen. But I mean, I mean not. I'm not talking 100 grand. I'm talking at least half a mil. At least half a mil. You'd have to pay each player. That player would get 250k for winning. And another 250 to charity of his choice or however they want to work it. But that would really put an incentive on like that. [00:32:42] Speaker C: That's an automatic. That's an automatic sponsorship by MGM or DraftKings or FanDuel or one of those ones like that. Yeah, I. It'll never happen, but it's a good idea. [00:32:51] Speaker A: If there's one thing these guys don't like doing is losing their money when they get suspended. Dude, that's actually a really good idea. We have to find a way to play with that. [00:33:00] Speaker B: That's the thing. It would if it happened. If these guys are already scared, like you guys have been saying about entering the slam dunk, like, everyone's gonna be like, ah, you know what? I've kind of got a bum bag. I got a bummed ankle. Like, I don't want to go. [00:33:13] Speaker A: That's fine. Yeah, so there's that. [00:33:16] Speaker C: The tough part of that is ideas. I mean, I don't. I don't even know the rookie wage scale stuff, but if you get these guys on rookie deals. If you're a rookie in the All Star Game, though, and you got to put up like, I don't know how much a percentage of your. Of your check, that could be a little. That could be a little bit of a hurtful one compared to like these max players. [00:33:32] Speaker B: Yeah. The other idea too, outside of that is Rome. You mentioned players in their first, second 30 or whatever. Slam document. Just have all those young All Stars play against the OGs because that was the best game of the All Star weekend. I do, like, the young guys are actually going to try, I think, to win that game. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:50] Speaker B: So it makes that a little more entertaining. But yeah, it's hard to fix it as the. Given the current format because it is just a, you know, a meaningless game for the most part. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not a big fan of the 4A team setup. Not good. Okay. Any other ideas? [00:34:12] Speaker C: I think Aaron ended it with that one. [00:34:14] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that was a good idea. I really liked it. What was your favorite event? Aaron? Sound like you're pretty pumped up about the slam dunk. And I haven't heard you pumped up about the slam dunk in a long time. [00:34:26] Speaker B: The slam dunk wasn't bad. I mean, like I said, Castle and McGlung were pretty good. The other two guys just couldn't make dunks. But Castle, I mean, he gave him a nice run for his money. He had like a behind the back, like 180 slam dunk with the left hand. It was pretty nice, pretty sweet. So I would say the slam dunk. I didn't see the three point shootout. You know, I didn't see really any of the skills. I saw Draymond and them go at it, and then I heard about the DQ from the spurs squad. But I would say slam dunk off. Based off what I saw, skills could. [00:34:56] Speaker A: Use a little revamp, but it's a fun event, you know, just. [00:34:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with you. They need a scoring format, point format, like rewards, you know, making shots, better passes and all that. [00:35:07] Speaker A: Because time could be one aspect. But if that's it, though, like, Wemby and Chris Paul definitely found a loophole, and then they were not happy about it. I think Adam Silver, he's. [00:35:20] Speaker B: You think he's still going to be the commission going forward? Because I was asked this earlier. [00:35:23] Speaker A: I. I think he's a nice guy. I think the problem is he might be too nice of a guy to make hard decisions for the NBA. He wants to be everyone's fan. He's been pretty readily available on, like, a lot of podcasts and shows stuff that I did not like Stern at all. I think I like he was pretty shady as well. But, you know, some of these hard decisions, I think you need someone like us, like closer to a Stern to kind of straighten some of these out. Because, like, all, like the MVP trophies, all the names, all this stuff, it's just a little too much. [00:36:02] Speaker B: So I don't know. Did we talk about it? The 10 minute quarter idea that he floated. Did we talk about that? I don't remember. [00:36:08] Speaker A: We didn't. He floated that on the Dan Patrick show. And I was listening to that live in the morning when he was doing that. I was thinking like, dude, this is gonna blow up. And even Dan's like, you know, people are gonna pick this up, right? He's like, well, it's just an idea. He's like, dude, people are going to be blowing this up as soon as you hang up the phone. And he wouldn't shut up about it. But I'm not a big fan of it. [00:36:29] Speaker C: I mean, you're kind of taken from the baseball a little bit. [00:36:33] Speaker A: Because I like the baseball. [00:36:35] Speaker C: I mean, I like the baseball because it got baseball back to where the games used to be. Like, it. We. We took the game. Yes. Like, look back at some of the old baseball games. They did not take forever because of all the. What we did with commercials and the way the players with just every pitch, you know, turned into game seven of the World Series. Like, you Know, we, the games became longer. I, I don't know if it's changing that. I don't. And Aaron, you know, the basketball rules better than me. To me, the, the chief complaint from a casual basketball fan is that the last two minutes of a game lasts like 45 minutes. And so how does, how does that stuff, like, tighten up a little more and it doesn't, doesn't come down to that. I, so I think there's different ways they can barely, you know, maneuver and adjust the game. Basketball to me, doesn't have like, hallowed records of like, scoring and like, whatever. Like, it's not like baseball. Like, no one gives a crap about records or whatever anymore. So like, like LeBron passed Kareem and I was like, yeah, cool. All right. [00:37:36] Speaker B: Give him a handshake at center. [00:37:38] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks. All right, cool. We'll, we'll, we'll give, I mean, just no one cares about that individual stuff anymore. It's championships or not everything else. Okay. It's accumulation over the career. Good on. [00:37:49] Speaker A: You think they just didn't like LeBron breaking it? [00:37:52] Speaker C: No, but it's just, I mean, think about, I mean, there's some, there's some insane stats since, like, since the bubble and some of the rule changes, like the, the top scoring games. We've had like 48 of the 50 top scoring games, like, of all time or something. So we're already like changing the rulebook versus what it was in the games we watch in the 80s and 90s, man. Like, you know, we're not watching bulls, Knicks on NBC, you know, in May, where it's like 76 to 78 in the fourth quarter. You know, that's the halftime score at this point right now in some of these games. So, you know, I, I, that's not the most crazy idea that's out there. I mean, you talk about Adam Silver's job security. He works for the owners. They just got billions upon billions of dollars in TV contracts that secured themselves on two major networks across the biggest, you know, the biggest company in the world or one of the biggest companies is at Amazon. Like, they got, they, they got the bag. So I don't know, like, just things about the game and the, the ratings. At the end of the day, we could talk about ratings and I can, I could be the proponent of saying, hey, the NBA is not as popular, but they got the money and the ratings. It's only the networks care about now. That only matters with the next TV deal. But until TV rights start to go down. But live TV Is just pays right now. And that's what's going to put the. That's what's going to line the owner's pockets. And Silver will be safe for that point. [00:39:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was talking to, you know, our basketball insider Nick, that we have to get on the show here. But yeah, we're talking about Silver. Like, is he going to get re upped up? And that's the point I brought up with. Jason just said like he just landed the biggest TV contract ever for the NBA three times the size of the one right now. Like, he's gonna be around for the next CBA in whatever extension he gets. So that's definitely gonna happen. As far as, you know, time reducing the quarters. I don't think as a casual basketball fan watching or in person, to me, the game's not long. I think the idea of what Silver's trying to do is create more intensity and more passion in the game. Which possessions are less, which means they're more valuable. You're taking eight minutes off a game. Off the top of my head, that's what close to almost 20%. So that means possessions become more. You know, points are gonna. The scores are gonna go down less. And now. But the. The doing that, you're really taken away from having teams that have a deep bench or bench players because your starters in this league already play 32, 34 minutes. Yeah, you're gonna have like four. Yeah, you're gonna have three or four guys off the bench averaging less than 10 minutes. Elite game. Yeah, that's something to look at going forward. Like, how's that going to affect the guy that comes off the bench and plays 15, 20. Now he's playing 8 to 12. How's that going to affect his salary going forward? So that's hard to pass. But I get less possessions, creator intensity, lower scoring and builds a little more competition. I think that's where he was going for here. I'm not. I'm a fan of that. I think they can get it back. Romy voice been a proponent of it. I have too. Like, just allow a little more physical play. We get done in the playoffs. But in the playoffs, every game means a lot more. I mean, you do get blowouts in the playoffs, but for the most part, after the first round, second conference finals, NBA finals, like four, five, six games, no matter what. I mean, the Lakers have lost what, 12 of 13 against. Against the Nuggets in the playoffs. But every one of those games has been a nail biter. It's been great. [00:41:19] Speaker A: So they're great games, even though I've been on the losing end. But no, yeah, yeah. I, I'm not a big fan of the 10 minute quarters. We do get great games in the middle. Draymond actually had a pretty good quote. Now I'm not a big Draymond guy, but he quoted Kobe Bryant when Kobe was given his two cents just right after he retired. How you know the game was gonna become was entering like a dangerous zone where, you know, there's like a cheat code and now guys are just put, pushing the ball so fast forward dishing and dumping, like back out to a three and like that's what we got. But when you have like two really great minds, coaches and players, like when you see like the Lakers and, and warriors, even, you know, Bucks and Cavs, you know, there's a lot of chess going on and that's when the games are really fun to watch. So there's less of that and it's, it's unfortunate. I, I don't know who you put the blame on and on. Who started the, this whole phase. Just I, I, I've been thinking about this all day. [00:42:22] Speaker B: But you know who started it? Mike D'Antoni and Phoenix Sun. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:42:26] Speaker B: They had an eight with the eight second rule. Get a shot up before 16 seconds because as analytics show, the more possessions you have, the better opportunity ever points. But they also had the worst defense in the league too. [00:42:40] Speaker A: Well, and that's what the league become. You know, there's a lot of bad stuff. So let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk a little NBA trade. Deadline wrap up. So we're going to continue our, I think our first dedicated NBA pod of the year. So that's kind of cool. I'm kind of excited to get that going every Monday from here on out. Is this our second dedicated? It is our second dedicated. I guess our third, technically, if you count east and west for the preseason stuff. I have not got into that, by the way, guys. I have not pulled that up. We can do that another day. Yeah. And see how we're doing. [00:43:23] Speaker B: I think we're doing, I think we're doing pretty good. I don't remember anything from it, but yeah, Bull sucks. So I know we're right on that one. [00:43:32] Speaker C: They're, you know what, hanging on, hanging onto the 10th seat. I'm pretty sure that's what we said playing game. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Just pencil them in. [00:43:39] Speaker A: When you guys are talking about the Bulls. Last time I think I heard somebody else, it might have Been on the Bill Simmons show. They were talking about the Kings and we talked about this in our pod too. How they were like kind of like the Bulls of the west and they said the same thing, but they have Sabonis and he's like rock solid, you know, can't get rid of a guy like that. So they're. [00:43:57] Speaker B: He's kind of Longley. He's not no Luke Longley. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Dude, I love Luke Longley. He was great. He was awesome. But pretty funny. Let's do a little trade deadline recap. We're two weeks away where we passed happened two weeks ago and NBA All Star Weekend's done. So this is a nice time to kind of regroup a little bit. What happened? Probably one of the craziest trade deadlines in NBA history in recent memory, at least what I can recall. It all got started December 15th is when the first trade happened, when the Pacers got Thomas Bryant from the Heat and they swapped some second round picks and then Schroeder ends up on the warriors that same day. That was kind of a surprise because it was coming from the Nets and the Nets just picked up a whole bunch of picks. They are. They are stockbrokers, man. They are. Pile them up. They have some. A lot of young talent too. Nets have done a lot of moves since then, but I thought Schroeder was going to stick around with the warriors and that not ended up being the case because they used him as a piece to get Butler, which was. I think we've had so many big names swirling around with potential trades. You had Butler? Yeah. Kevin Durant again. He was kind of caught off guard when he found out that he was part of the trade rumors between the Suns and the Warriors. Obviously no one knew about the Anthony Davis thing or the Luca, so that kind of surprises all as well. [00:45:37] Speaker B: And. [00:45:38] Speaker A: A bunch of other stuff. So Schroeder, now he is with the Pistons, I believe. Right? He got traded like six times on that final day. Poor son of a pitch. You know what? He probably should have signed that contract. The Lakers dude. [00:45:56] Speaker B: 72 million he turned down, man. [00:45:58] Speaker A: Was that what it was? [00:45:59] Speaker B: Three years? Eight. Three years, 18 million a year? 72, man. Is. I think, or four years. That's 80. No, man. [00:46:07] Speaker A: Bonehead move of the century, man. Whereas you look at. Who's the guy that used to start with. With the Wizards. [00:46:20] Speaker B: Pool? [00:46:21] Speaker A: No, no, Wall. John Wall. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah. [00:46:26] Speaker A: He's making 40, 50 million still. [00:46:28] Speaker B: Is he still being paid? Yeah, Been on the league for like two years. It feels like still in the league. He's still in the league. [00:46:36] Speaker A: Still collecting money. [00:46:43] Speaker B: I haven't seen the guy in forever. I know he went to like the Clippers for a minute. [00:46:47] Speaker A: I loved him by the way as a player. [00:46:50] Speaker B: The Clippers or he last played for the Clippers. Okay, let me see. Last played. I remember he went there these inactive. [00:46:56] Speaker C: He hasn't played since. [00:46:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we know he hasn't played. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Because he has a trade team right now. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Because he was in trade conversations last year for the Rockets. I believe. [00:47:09] Speaker B: He was. He's been with the Rockets too. He's been with a lot of teams while, man. Yeah, he was a good player while. When he was healthy, dude. [00:47:15] Speaker A: It's good. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah, he was like Rose, man. [00:47:17] Speaker C: The big contract was I think a four year extension in 2019. That was the four year like 171 fleeced everybody. Yeah. And then the last two years he was kicking around. It was a, it was a mid level exception. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Him and Ben Simmons. [00:47:33] Speaker B: People are still wanting to buy out. Ben Simmons still got like six teams, man. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Well, he's with the Clippers now and he looked great in his first game with them. Like supposedly Lou might be like the Ben Simmons whisper, unlocking all that talent. If, if, if he, if he does that dude, like I don't know, I'll be really impressed. We'll see. He has great off season Instagram videos though. Ben Simmons. [00:48:01] Speaker B: Ben Simmons is like the greatest player that was never great. I mean like the stories about him supposed to be like the next big thing disappoint. I'm so disappointed. [00:48:12] Speaker A: LeBron. This guy's gonna take over. [00:48:15] Speaker C: Wasn't it while like he didn't even make the, the tournament at lsu. Right. Like they didn't even make the NCAA tournament. [00:48:21] Speaker B: I think they went on probation. That's why they did like a self imposed probation if I remember correctly. [00:48:27] Speaker A: What? [00:48:29] Speaker B: I don't. I. Their coach was involved with something. Might have been like nil deals before nil was around. [00:48:36] Speaker A: That's hilarious. [00:48:37] Speaker B: I just don't remember. But yeah, I think they, I, I think they self imposed not going to the tournament. I think they went to the nit. Even went to the NIT final or it's, it's hard for me to remember that far back but something like that happened. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Well, we digressed a lot. Bad move from Schroeder. That's gotta be the boneheaded move. And then congrats to Simmons and Hall for picking up those contracts. Two sides of the NBA world. Anyways, when all this thing started Schroeder's down with the Pistons, but he's been passed around like some poor rag doll. Lakers even did a trade, possibly set something up back in December when they trade away D'Angelo Russell. He was playing pretty good this year, pretty solid. Worries though, like, you know, he was a no show in the playoffs. They did get a big guy back. Dorian, Finney, Smith. It was an awesome pickup. I really loved it. And he's been playing pretty well. Might be a pretty big piece moving forward. We got some like little trades going around. When does. When do things kick off? Things quiet down until just a week or two out, I think. [00:49:46] Speaker B: Clippers, Rome. What's this? Sun's land. Three first rounders from Jazz. [00:49:53] Speaker C: That was the trade, I was gonna say where the Jazz got like a first round unprotected pick and then the sun's got all these like random first round picks Bash from the Jazz that were like least favorable first round picks or whatever. Like, I don't know, I felt like something was brewing for the Suns to fly. Flip stuff. I don't know if that was a precursor to. For the Jimmy Butler trade. Potentially they were trying to do or something. I don't know. [00:50:14] Speaker A: They're trying to do the Jimmy Butler. [00:50:16] Speaker B: But Jimmy ain't going to Utah, man. Okay. [00:50:22] Speaker C: The Suns are trying to accumulate some assets. [00:50:24] Speaker A: It probably would have happened then, but Bill just squashed everybody. He's like, I don't give a. I'm staying here. Because he did wave his no trade clause to end up in Phoenix. He's like, he wasn't going to do it again. He was not feeling it. You're right. That's pretty crazy. [00:50:40] Speaker B: Should, should be. Should going forward. We not have the ability to block trades. Not put that in the contract. No trade clause. Like if you're on a team, you can get traded no matter what. Should that be part of the new CBA agreement? [00:50:54] Speaker A: I think it should just be for like super elite. [00:50:59] Speaker C: The problem is that, you know, is it those max contracts or whatever that they put in there and then once you're a max, that does that turn it into. Because isn't that what BL got? [00:51:07] Speaker A: I think if you're listed first team, all NBA, then you get the option to add that in your contract. But it has to be within. [00:51:15] Speaker C: That's. That's the guys that are gonna demand this stuff though, you know. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. [00:51:20] Speaker B: I mean it's hard because let's just say you are the first team all NBA, then you get hurt. I Mean, Bill was really good till he got hurt. [00:51:27] Speaker A: Wasn't that good though, to get a no trade clause. [00:51:30] Speaker B: I agree with that. [00:51:31] Speaker A: It's because hall got hurt and they're like, oh, well, we got Bill on, on the sidelines. You know, he kind of took over. Didn't win a lot of games, but he was pretty exciting. [00:51:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, Bradley. Bill was good playing on a decent Washington team at the time of wall. And then what, Westbrook came over, so they made the playoffs. [00:51:49] Speaker A: They were, they were really good with West. [00:51:50] Speaker B: They were exciting, dude. [00:51:52] Speaker A: I love them. It was fun. [00:51:53] Speaker B: And then Bill, like basically got whatever kind of like a max contract or whatever, and he's, he's the bad since. [00:52:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'll showing the beds. All right, so trade season definitely kicks off when the clippers trade Tucker. P.J. tucker, which he's a mainstay in Clipperland. A lot of people love him. They shipped him off to the Jazz. Bye bye, dude. Ammo bamba. Bye bye, homie. Some cash they got back. [00:52:22] Speaker B: Sounds like a CD or something back in the day, man. [00:52:27] Speaker C: That's La Bamba. [00:52:29] Speaker A: La Bamba. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Just a quick question, Rome. I, I didn't look this up, but who got, who got traded more in the last three weeks? Was it PJ Tucker or Dennis Schroeder? Because both these guys have been on the moves a lot. [00:52:43] Speaker A: You know what, we have our stat. Jason's been like our unofficial stats guru here, looking up stuff behind the scenes, if you want to find that out. Yeah, I feel bad for pj, man, because, you know, he's a solid veteran, good guy, had a great presence with, with the Clippers, and they just, they just pass him around as well. [00:53:06] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure they were traded the same amount of, ah, I don't know, maybe PJ Tucker was one more. [00:53:12] Speaker B: He was moved a lot, man. He was moved a lot. [00:53:15] Speaker C: I think PJ Tucker might have been one more time. [00:53:18] Speaker A: It was the last day, right? He switched three teams. Three or four teams the last day. [00:53:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think P.J. tucker got that. Got got. [00:53:27] Speaker A: I can't be like a, an ego boost, you know, I don't know. [00:53:32] Speaker C: I always laughed. I think it was Josh McCown. His daughter had like all of her friends at one point. They all wore like all of his different jerseys to school. He had like 10 or 12 different teams. Did she play quarterback for or whatever? And they each had like a different, different jersey. Yeah, it was, There was a picture on the Internet. Like it was, it was funny. [00:53:55] Speaker A: That's kind of cute. [00:53:59] Speaker C: Backup quarterback. Best, best job, best job in sports, man. [00:54:02] Speaker A: It really is. I think everyone, every dad would be happy if their son was just a backup quarterback. Stay out of harm's way, but make a lot of money. So Clippers really kick off the trade momentum. And then next day Lakers land Luca for the Mavs in a three team deal. We talked about it. Jazz didn't know about it. It was a separate deal. They didn't want Jalen, allegedly Jalen Hutch Ofino to jump back on the Laker plane while the trade was going down. So they asked him to push it up while they're finishing the game with the Knicks. Danny's like, no worries, I got you guys. And then Rob Pullinga's like, thank you. Now let me do this other trade. That's what I got. Luca still shocked. Marquis Morris really big. Maxi Cleaver late Lakers got a lot out of that. Actually. I did like Max Christie. I, I do. I loved Anthony Davis. I, I think we, we talked about that. Plenty we can talk about. Anthony Davis's a premier game which he balled out, man, looking like a top five NBA player, MVP caliber candidate, defensive player of the year candidate. Bulls and then, you know, and then the spurs kind of spurs and Kings, they kind of surprises. De'Aaron Fox got his wish going to the spurs to team up with Wemby King, Scott, Zach Levine and I don't know, man, I really don't want to go through all these trades. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Well, I think we're almost done. [00:55:37] Speaker A: Kings picked up a really big piece. I do like Ballot and Tunis as well from the Wizards. See, Wizards had so many trades going down, they pretty much traded remade a lot of their roster. Some key pickups here, market smart and a first round pick. [00:55:58] Speaker C: They're just getting draft picked and expiring contracts, right. [00:56:01] Speaker A: It looks like they got three first round picks and a couple second rounders. But they picked up Reggie Jackson, City Sissoko, Chris Middleton, which feel kind of bad for Middleton, you know, he's been a cornerstone for the Bucks. And then Marcus Spart. So they got some veteran presence there. Grizzlies picked up Mavin Bagley, the third big pickup. Raptors, they're probably big signing. That's where P.J. tucker ended up, right? With the Raptors. So they got him and Brandon Ingram and a couple second round picks. James Wiseman as well. So Charlotte kind of gave up on him right away. [00:56:44] Speaker B: Remember, it was the warriors took Wiseman over who was the guard in that class. [00:56:50] Speaker A: It was a big deal, man. And they didn't want to trade him for the longest time. He signed as a free agent, right. This past off season. [00:57:04] Speaker B: Well, he was. No, he was traded. [00:57:06] Speaker A: Why? [00:57:06] Speaker B: He's with Indiana. Did he sign? Because he's out for the season and Achilles Terror right now. [00:57:12] Speaker A: He is, yeah. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Yeah. But the warriors took Wiseman over Lamello. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Okay, I guess, I guess you're just screwed on that draft. [00:57:23] Speaker C: Yeah, it was Lamello. Then the Bulls took Patrick Williams after that, which. [00:57:31] Speaker B: Who went first was Wiseman first. Edwards. Okay. [00:57:36] Speaker C: Anthony Edwards. [00:57:36] Speaker B: All right. [00:57:38] Speaker A: He's still the first in my book. Warriors pick up Jimmy Butler. I think a really big pickup. Andrew Wiggins going to the Heat, I think that's really big pickup for them. And a first round pick. I thought they could have got more out of that trade. It kind of probably slipped the ball in that one. [00:57:55] Speaker B: But you have to read this trade carefully because it says, you know, for a second, like Davion Mitchell, but you know, I'll think of Donovan Mitchell there for a second. But yeah, I was like, wait, I don't know. [00:58:08] Speaker C: I mean, you say they get a lot. I mean, Butler's an expiring contract. I mean, you pick up the fact they got kind of anything for him at this point. You know, Wiggins, I mean, he's, he's not a franchise player, but I mean, it's not, it's a pretty good piece. [00:58:24] Speaker A: They don't want that. [00:58:25] Speaker B: Butler did sign that extension though, right? So they got him for at least two years. And then I think a player option, the third. [00:58:31] Speaker A: Now I think it's. Yeah, right. [00:58:33] Speaker C: The warriors got him, but he wasn't going to resign with the Heat or whatever. [00:58:36] Speaker A: So he basically made all that drama just for. To get another 20, 30 million. It's pretty, it's pretty impressive. I'm done talking about Jimmy Butler, man. I liked him a lot and it's just a little too much drama for me. Pelicans picked up Bruce Brown. Kelly Onick thought some pretty solid pieces coming back for them Kings. We talked about it. Oh, no, we were talking about the Raptors. I think that's all the teams and, and then the Lakers. Let's talk about that recent trade because that was pretty big deal. It's still a big deal on. On the Twitter universe. Two days after everything was finalized, the Lakers failed. Williams. Mark Williams on the physical hardly ever happens, especially since a lot of injured players got traded. This trade, you know, this, this deadline. So Dalton Connect, who I love, comes back, Cam Reddish comes back. Lakers, they gave up a little too Much anyways for this trade. So Rob's just playing with, like, dumb house money, Vegas money. This. This guy walks into a cut because, you know, he's probably like hitting blackjack every other hand, you know, it's kind of stupid. Dumb. [00:59:47] Speaker B: Getting comp. He's getting comped for sure. [00:59:49] Speaker A: He's getting caught right now. Yeah. That's a pretty big deal, though. And Lakers did pick up someone off the waiver. Wyer, I think. Lynn, right. [00:59:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:59] Speaker A: We'll see how he does. He looked pretty sluggish. I'm not going to judge him off of one game against the garbage man. [01:00:04] Speaker B: Lynn's garbage. Even. Even the Bulls don't want him. [01:00:15] Speaker A: I think that's all the. Does anyone get an A in this tread trade deadline fiasco besides the Lakers? Or should we rewind a little bit and talk about Anthony Davis's first game back? [01:00:43] Speaker C: I mean, I think we highlighted already. He got hurt. [01:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it got hurt, dude. Bad move. All their bigs. All their bigs that they were expecting back. They got hurt even more. So they're gonna be missing a month, possibly more, and it's all gonna be on Kyrie Irving and Splash brother number two to be holding the ship for a while if they can stay in the place. [01:01:03] Speaker B: Gafford's out six weeks. [01:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:08] Speaker B: Davis is out, what, four to six weeks. [01:01:10] Speaker A: And their other big is out. [01:01:12] Speaker B: And Lively's out with the stress fracture in the foot. So, yeah, a team that literally had defense and size all wrapped up like all. All went to within a week after that trade went down. But AD did look good, man. He did look good. [01:01:33] Speaker A: Look great, man. He looks really good. [01:01:35] Speaker B: He gave us a little teaser. We'll see what he looks like. Come. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Hopefully April, he said, I'm here. And so are all the injuries. They're there in Dallas. So I think Lakers did a great job even rescinding that trade. I don't know what the deal is. Aaron, you kind of looked more into that. Something about the foot or ankle with Williams. [01:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Rome, we talked. I mean, he's missed a large percentage of games throughout. He's missed more games than he's played. Right. [01:02:11] Speaker A: I think Jason, 70 of his games. Yeah. [01:02:13] Speaker B: Highlighted that before. You know, he's got back problems, too. But from what I've heard, that wasn't the reason why the trade was rescinded. It has to do with like, feet, knees, legs. From what I've heard from sources, people, the doctors are saying maybe he's got two, three years left before. Like, it just kind of shatters and goes. And that's why the Lakers were like, hey, like n. We're not giving up Dalton connect in the first round for two, maybe three years. Yeah, they play interestingly. Wednesday night, these two teams match up. It'll be interesting to see if Mark Williams is on the court because Rome, I think you said he didn't want to go back to the Hornets. [01:02:54] Speaker A: Didn't want to go back. [01:02:56] Speaker B: Looks like he's happy to be back with the Lakers or at least professional. [01:03:01] Speaker A: I saw some clips too. Like he's walking around la. People are giving the love. Like, hey man, we all love you. All right, So I think he gets it. It's a tough lesson in your first year, but he got drafted there. Hopefully he's six round now with the Hornets. [01:03:14] Speaker B: Messed up. But I know I. We talked about this, I think last week when we went off on a little tangent. At least I did. They should have brought in VTP Victor Brick Jacobs. He would have healed the guy's foot. He would have gave him a blasting. He would have gave him the A. Okay. And said, you're all healed. Godspeed. He's good to go. And the Lakers would have accepted that trade. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a deep. [01:03:36] Speaker C: That's a deep cut. Rome probably cut our. Our local AMLA radio rant we did on that podcast. [01:03:43] Speaker A: But yeah, I think I left it in there. It's. It's in there. That's great. I was going to talk. Jeff Teague had a clip going around the socials where they knew about Williams's health condition and they were just hoping that the Lakers are not gonna find out. So they're just trying to save face, saying that the Lakers just pulled a fast one, but seems like everyone, everyone around the league's like, no, Lakers have pretty good doctors, dude. You guys, you know, they, they tried selling. What's a good analogy here? It's a 2020 BMW X7M series. It looks really pretty, but the alignment's all messed up. The transmission. No one changed the fluid. It's about to bust any minute now. It feels selling being sold off the lot. It's gonna be a lemon, so probably avoiding a good one. Lakers did really great on this trade deadline. I'll go ahead. [01:04:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say, I. I think it just. Because from a transaction standpoint, we always jump the gun waiting for Woj or Shams or whatever insider to drop this stuff. All these things are always pending physicals when they go through. So I think it's just. It just happens so rarely that this is gonna. Gonna hold up a trade the way it did in so fast, fierce. It's. It was hilarious kind of that this thing was still kind of in. I don't know if it's an arbitration or whatever. They're kind of still going through it where it's going to be like almost like a mock trial or something, kind of continue go through. I don't think there's any way that this thing still gets pushed through at this point. But they'll go to court, they'll be. [01:05:25] Speaker A: The lawyers against the late Lakers lawyers. And the NBA gets to play judge and jury. [01:05:29] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, Rome touching back like you said, from what I've heard from executives, the Hornets knew he was damaged goods. Remember, they reached out to the Lakers first about this trade. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Well, he's young too. [01:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, he's 23. [01:05:44] Speaker A: Another young, logical. A lot of teams don't get rid of guys like that. [01:05:47] Speaker B: No, the Hornets reached out to the Lakers. They called Rob Lenka and you know, he was like, man, two good deals in one in one week. I can't say no. They brought him in, tried to fleece him on the physical like you guys mentioned. And the Lakers rescinded the trade, said he failed the physical. Rome, we were talking Friday, you don't have to give a reason for why you failed the physical. You can, you can come in and say, as we mentioned, I don't like this. You know, the way his foot looks, he's got, you know, hang now. Failed physical. You don't have to give a reason. There's no penalty for it. I believe we kind of touched base on, you know, would there be some kind of fine or would you lose a draft pick for saying a guy's damaged goods if he's not? All indications are that Mark Williams is damaged goods. But there is, like I said, like, you can make a trade. I think we even hypothetically said, like you make the Luca trade, all of a sudden you get backlash from the fans and then you fail Anthony Davis's physical that trades rescinded. No matter if he's good to clear a physical or not. You can go back on any trade and fail the physical for any reason you want and do not have to with the CBA's currently stands state why you failed the guy. [01:07:00] Speaker A: I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to talk about that next. I don't know if you guys heard, but there was rumblings how the Mavs were trying to, you know, put the Lakers on the shelf for trading Damaged goods. And Anthony Davis. The Mavs didn't give Anthony Davis a physical at all. Didn't even look over his records. They rushed him back too early without even checking on anybody, and he gets hurt. [01:07:30] Speaker C: Yeah, I know he played a lot of games last year. [01:07:34] Speaker A: Playing a lot of games this year too. [01:07:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. But the track record for him was that not good. He misses games. There's lingering things here and there. It happens. I mean, these guys are, you know, the physical body that the NBA players are, is not just. They're. It's almost not human to a certain thing. So these guys with their feet and their, you know, the joints and everything with these guys, like it's. It can wear and tear any of this stuff at any moment. So it's just, you know, you look at Wemby, man, like, that frame is just so unique and like it looks. It. I mean, he looks almost frail out there sometimes when you're kind of walking him too. And I mean. And so like. Yeah, like. So where does that. Where does his kind of frame go? I mean, just like you're. We're just the evolution of the species right now as a human, as we're kind of going through right now. Like, you don't. It's not. It's not predictable of what it's going to be. It's not. It's just not going last. And then, you know, I mean, you look at the nutrition and stuff we play these guys, we're also extending a ton of these guys careers and stuff. You know, thinking back in the day, like these guys, a decade or less, you know, for some of these guys in their prime, where LeBron has been playing, you know, our entire adult lives at this point. And a lot of these guys had like, you know, 15 plus year careers too. So, you know, there's an extension on where these guys are finding their prime. But at the same time, like the. You're gonna get. You're gonna get that stuff. I don't think there's any way you're gonna rescind that trade at a certain point. It already went through. They were already announcing that stuff. This one's a fire under the radar. I think it's just a little bit of a different stuff. [01:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, touching on seven footers and injuries throughout league history, it's been a problem. You know, how long is Wimby going to sit down the long and not get hurt? [01:09:16] Speaker A: Really been a player like him, though. [01:09:19] Speaker B: I'm sure there hasn't. But I mean, if you look at Big guys. Tisha, history of the NBA. I mean, the Bulls, they got Jordan over what, Sam Bowie going to the Trailblazers. That was a huge, huge deal. You know, Portland could have had Durant. They took Greg Odin, they took the big guy who looked like he was 35 at 17 years old. Trade and broke and broke down like two years later. So. Dude, you know, I don't think you. [01:09:46] Speaker A: Played that first year. [01:09:48] Speaker B: I. I don't think he did. I. Yeah, because he won rookie of. [01:09:50] Speaker A: The year the next year, right? [01:09:51] Speaker B: Chet Holmgren, really talented, good player, but, you know, fragile, thin. Gumby like, like you said, he's been hurt a lot now too. Major injuries. He's talented. You need size, but, you know, these skinny, long guys, their bodies just haven't held up. Is like, you know, LeBron's six, eight, six seven, built like a tank. But again, he's not pushing seven foot even. Durant's had a lot of injuries throughout his career, and He's a true seven footer. I don't care what he says. He might be 7:1. That dude's tall as hell. [01:10:22] Speaker A: That's come out like a lot of sports pockets. Like, this guy's putting his height at 6, 10, but this guy's actually 7:1. He's taller than most centers. [01:10:30] Speaker B: Every guy 7 foot, he's taller than. [01:10:33] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, I'll just go through it. Wizards. Do you like the trades that they made? They picked up Smart, Middleton, AJ Johnson, Reggie Jackson, a whole bunch of first and second round picks. How do you think they did on. On the at. At the trade deadline? What grade would you give them? [01:10:59] Speaker B: I mean, Lynn's already gone get a first round pick. I think Smart most about an expiring contract. Like Jason said. I mean, the Wizards are looking to just basically get draft picks and expiring contracts to load up players. Yeah, I mean, they got rid of Kuzma. It's hard to say. I mean, based off what they got right now, they get a failing grade. But let's see what players they can get going forward. [01:11:22] Speaker A: All right, Grizzlies picking up Mavin Bagley. They didn't really do too much. [01:11:29] Speaker B: No, I mean, Johnny Davis, Marvin Bagley iii. [01:11:34] Speaker A: I said crazy. This guy says no, you get no grade. [01:11:38] Speaker B: I mean, two second round picks. I mean, what are we getting? Bronnie James Jr. Here? I mean, to me, this was just a pump and dumb trade here. I mean, lands with the Lakers. So. [01:11:52] Speaker A: Okay, so we'll give him. I'll give him a C. That is not bad. Kings Picked up a couple good pieces. They got rid of Darren Fox who wasn't happy. A little more of that story came out where, you know, if they got rid of their coach, Coach Mike, he was not gonna be happy. The media was spinning around that it was actually Darren Fox was the cows behind that firing. Apparently that's not true. He was a big Mike Brown guy. So he kind of turned up the notches not being happy. Told him he wasn't going to sign. But they did get some good players. The Chicago Bulls of the west, but actually a pretty fun team to watch. They have some pretty talented guys and they got Sabonus who should be an all star. So Kings, how did they do? They also picked up your boy from Chicago. [01:12:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. To pair them with. They are the. Literally the Bulls. They had the Rose and, and Levine. I mean the Bulls. [01:12:49] Speaker A: That's really funny actually. [01:12:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I don't know. It's like a B minus C or something at that point. I mean, I think, I think you're losing a really good player. You know, Levine's a good player too, but I, I don't think this team's better than it was before. [01:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I mean, are the Kings gonna be in the playing game? Maybe they're right there on the fringe right now. [01:13:16] Speaker A: Let's pull up the stats too while we do this. [01:13:19] Speaker B: And they, and they even got rid of what Kiosco or whatever his name is here. They moved him. I mean Darren Fox going to the Spurs. I'm going to give them a solid B plus right now. [01:13:30] Speaker A: Spurs. [01:13:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:13:32] Speaker B: They didn't have to get rid of Castle or none of their main stars. I mean Castle's gonna be really, really good. [01:13:36] Speaker A: How the Kings make that trade without asking for a Castle and another first round pick it. Especially when the other first round pick I think comes from Atlanta. That's gonna be a really good pick. We're talking about like maybe 6 to 10. Maybe. Dumb. [01:13:49] Speaker B: Any. Any trade involving non Castle would be a no go for me. I'd hang up right away and say call me back when you're ready to talk. [01:13:56] Speaker A: Kings are notorious for doing trades like this. A bunch of idiots in that front office. [01:14:01] Speaker B: You know what? They haven't been the same since this ref screwed a man of a couple titles back in the early 2000s. But that's, that's why they ain't been the same, man. The Maloofs and all those guys aren't the same. The moves are still in a on a binger right now, dude. [01:14:16] Speaker A: Like they're not the casinos. They sold business. [01:14:19] Speaker B: You haven't heard of one Arena. Yeah, the good old days, man. They ain't been the same. [01:14:26] Speaker A: I would definitely like if there was a time machine, I would definitely go back and try to catch a Laker Kings game at Arco Arena. That must have been wild. [01:14:37] Speaker B: Jason have his pages Deakovich jersey on? [01:14:39] Speaker A: Do you have a Soyako jersey? I'd have. [01:14:41] Speaker B: I'd have a Kobe stopper. Doug Christie. [01:14:44] Speaker A: Get out of here, man. [01:14:45] Speaker B: And you have your Kobe jersey, man. That'd be classic, dude. I would go back in time for that. [01:14:50] Speaker A: You know what sucked? Like, I actually liked the Kings until they played the Lakers in the playoffs and I was like, oh, this. You know, I. I was a big Weber fan. I was a big page off fan. [01:15:00] Speaker B: Not, not gonna lie. That was probably my lifetime. Personally. The best seven game series I ever watched. [01:15:07] Speaker A: It was great. That was a really good Kings team. That's. It's got to be up there. [01:15:12] Speaker B: Like, I mean that Game 7 went to overtime, didn't it? [01:15:15] Speaker A: One of the best teams did not win a championship and but like definite championships in everyone's buck. It was a good. [01:15:20] Speaker C: And that was the thing. If there was Twitter then they would. The Lakers would have been getting the chief stuff about how the calls went their way and everything during that series. [01:15:27] Speaker A: Any Laker talk. We're not dealing with it today. Okay. [01:15:30] Speaker C: I'm just saying. I'm just saying, man. I'm just saying if Twitter was around, there would have been stuff about the refs and the Lakers getting calls during that. [01:15:37] Speaker A: I remember it was all over in the paper. It was. It was. [01:15:39] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Even, even. Even like the paper down here. Press enterprise, LA Times like Abram Hodge hush back then. [01:15:49] Speaker A: Raptors, how they do picked up Ingram, Tucker, I guess with what's left around him. Wiseman could be a potential still good project moving forward. They're building around nothing here. I'm gonna pull up real quick. So I'm just Scotty Barnes building around Scotty Barnes, which they're fans. They love Scotty Barnes. They got Barnes, they got Dick, they got Barrett quickly. I am naming players last names. Guys. [01:16:22] Speaker B: Got you on that one. We're grading what. We're grading what the Raptors. [01:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah, how they do. [01:16:30] Speaker B: I mean, I like Ingram. I'll give him a B. [01:16:34] Speaker A: Great team. Friendly contract too. Three more years for 400 million each. That's great. That's a great signing. Pelicans, they're out. [01:16:44] Speaker B: Did you. Did you touch on the DeAndre Hunter trade to Cleveland. I don't know if we touched base on that one. [01:16:50] Speaker A: You know what? Great for the Cavs, not good for the Hawks. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I like Lavert, I do like him, but they got what, five second round picks we didn't talk about? No, Dude, I love DeAndre Hunter going to Cleveland. I do like that a lot for them. [01:17:11] Speaker A: He's a rising star. Like that was not a good move. I, it only benefits the Cavs. [01:17:15] Speaker B: Yes. [01:17:18] Speaker A: Two pick swaps three second round picks. Like they could have got a first rounder out of this one. Don't know what the Hawks were thinking. It does nothing. Hawks get an F. Cavs. I, I think that's a B plus right here. [01:17:34] Speaker B: I'll go B plus on calves. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go D right now for the Hawks. [01:17:41] Speaker A: That's fair. Pistons, fun team. Probably one of my fun favorite teams to catch on. NBA pass. [01:17:52] Speaker B: You got NBA pass. [01:17:55] Speaker A: I know a guy that knows a guy. I'm not paying the extra 40 bucks. I'm broke. Pistons, C, Lakers. [01:18:08] Speaker B: That's fine. [01:18:09] Speaker A: Anonymous. A unanimous A. Yes. A plus. [01:18:14] Speaker B: I got a B plus. [01:18:15] Speaker A: What? [01:18:17] Speaker B: I mean, no, you know what? [01:18:19] Speaker A: Talking to you, dude, I, I, I can hear the hate about the Laker stuff. No, I mean there's layers to it. [01:18:26] Speaker B: No, there's not. I mean, I, I look at. I don't have a problem with Dallas trading Luca. I think. [01:18:30] Speaker A: No, I know. Wait. Which is shocking. [01:18:32] Speaker B: I don't have a problem with it. I'm not as high on Luca as everybody else is. [01:18:37] Speaker A: Yeah, when you said he wasn't even in your top 10. I know you're smoking something. [01:18:42] Speaker B: I can't put a guy that's bottom bottom 20 in the league and defense and the top 10 players in the NBA. You're irrelevant to me in that department. [01:18:49] Speaker A: That bestos you working with roofs something, dude. Some something you're sniffing. It's not right. [01:18:55] Speaker B: I think, I think it's that music you had going. Can we get a little pump up again going here or something or can we play? No, I mean, look, I have no problem with Mavericks moving off Luca. I'd move off him too. Especially since I've heard the owner didn't want to pay the money. But they should have gotten more from him at least. Dalton connect and are in the first round. Pick another edition or shopped them out. I mean, I think they got fleeced by the Lakers. And the fact that Rob Polinka somehow told them that, you know, they didn't want to throw another first Round pick because they're worried Luca wouldn't sign. I'd say shut the up, Rob. You know, he's not going anywhere. Get the deal. [01:19:27] Speaker A: I can't wait to watch a documentary on this trade. 10 years to be great Bucks. They get Kyle Kuzma. Jericho Sims brought some youth into the organization. [01:19:45] Speaker C: Some youth. I don't know if they're any better, though. I mean, I know Middleton hasn't been out there has been the conversation about that for just from an injury standpoint. But I mean, Middleton was really the guy during their championship that covered for Giannis in. In some of those, like key moments. I don't know that's. I even get a lot of grades here, but I think that's like a B minus ish type thing. I don't know if you're really getting any better. [01:20:11] Speaker A: I'm okay with that. [01:20:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they got you. I mean, Middleton's just been hurt. I mean, he doesn't. He doesn't play defense like he used to. He was like, you know, a 20 point guy. He could play defense. [01:20:24] Speaker A: Pretty decent on defense. Got a lot better last few years. [01:20:28] Speaker B: Kuzma very kind of similar players offensively. I mean, I'm not sure where he's at defensively. I mean, I haven't watched Wizards games here in like the last three years. Pretty good. Romy saying he's gotten better. [01:20:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:39] Speaker B: So I'll tune in here. I mean, with the Lakers, that was kind of, you know, LeBron's beef of him, that's why they shipped him out, was he wasn't the defender and LeBron obviously couldn't move his legs like he used to. [01:20:49] Speaker A: So Brian has beef with everybody, man. [01:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so I. I'll agree with Jason. I think B minus is sufficient for the box there, Nicks. [01:20:59] Speaker A: I don't think we need to give him a trade. They just picked up one guy and some cash Spurs. We already kind of talked about them Hawks again. I totally forgot Bogdanovich with the Clippers. Clippers? What. What'd they get? [01:21:17] Speaker B: Clippers got Bogdanovich. [01:21:19] Speaker A: Yeah. No, but like what Hawks got terrorist band. [01:21:24] Speaker B: Terrence, man. I like Terrence, man. [01:21:25] Speaker A: A couple seconds. Yeah, he's pretty decent. Yeah. [01:21:27] Speaker B: Bones Highland I don't care for. I don't know why they get all these second round picks. Maybe you can shoot three second round picks for a late unprotected first round like some of these teams are doing. [01:21:36] Speaker A: So all together. Does this raise the Hawks grade from the D or. Now it's a D plus. [01:21:43] Speaker B: They're still going to be Ryan, so. [01:21:45] Speaker C: What does it matter? [01:21:47] Speaker A: Clippers. [01:21:48] Speaker B: These trades actually might have. The Bulls beat them in the playoff game in that 9:10. So I'm all for it, I guess. Wait, who. [01:21:55] Speaker A: The Bulls. Get back. Did we cover that? [01:22:00] Speaker C: Bulls got back like nothing. [01:22:02] Speaker B: Zach Collins junk. [01:22:06] Speaker A: What the are the Bulls doing? [01:22:08] Speaker B: I don't know. They need to call me and Jason. Get us in the front office there. We're available. [01:22:13] Speaker C: They're just trying to be in the 910. I don't know if you could fix the Bulls. The Bulls. It's a Reinsdorf team, man. They're just. They're the White Sox. It's just going to be. The Bulls are taking a shellacking locally in Chicago because of their local TV deal and how no one can even watch the Bulls games because of the new local sports network they have out there for the Bulls, the Blackhawks and the White Sox. [01:22:36] Speaker A: And that happened here with the Lakers and Dodgers too. It's. Some of these things are really stupid. Just don't get it. [01:22:41] Speaker C: Yeah. So like they've had a massive drop in viewership and interest and everything across the city. [01:22:47] Speaker A: So Mavs, what score do they get? They got Chris Martin. [01:22:54] Speaker B: Davis. [01:22:55] Speaker A: Well, yeah, well, they also got Kayla Martin from the Sixers. [01:22:58] Speaker B: I give them B. [01:23:00] Speaker A: B. You gave him a higher grade than the Lakers. [01:23:06] Speaker B: I said Lakers would be plus. [01:23:08] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. [01:23:12] Speaker B: But I do like. I do like Max Christie. I mean, I'm not in the five game sample. He's given us pretty good. He's been. He's playing better than Luca is with the Lakers right now. [01:23:22] Speaker A: Well, Lucas hasn't played again three months. [01:23:24] Speaker B: I'm not saying. I'm saying. I'm not saying he's gonna be better. But Max Christie's. He's a nice little player. He's a good pickup. But they should have gotten at least another first round picker. Dalton connect thrown in that deal. [01:23:34] Speaker A: I'm glad, dude. Yeah, we have a pretty good white team. Aaron, you could be rooting for the Lakers, man. All the white guys are on the Lakers. [01:23:41] Speaker B: Yeah, man, that's great, dude, but it's not. It's not going to win you title. I know how that goes. Dude. [01:23:46] Speaker A: Austin is really good. He's stepped it up this year, man. He's a legit. [01:23:53] Speaker B: I like Reeves, man, but he doesn't do good against the elite guards. When he sees Murray or. [01:23:57] Speaker A: Here's the thing. [01:23:58] Speaker B: He's in trouble now. [01:23:59] Speaker A: He doesn't have to. [01:24:02] Speaker B: He's got to. He's got to play defense on those guys. That's what I mean. [01:24:05] Speaker A: They can switch him down to somebody else. And now, because now they got Luca lebron and now him. They can't guard three guys that are. It's gonna be hard. [01:24:14] Speaker B: I'm not talking about defending the Lakers. I'm talking about the Lakers playing defense. Rome. [01:24:19] Speaker A: Well, we'll. We'll let J.J. redick figure that out, man. Yeah, I like what he's doing. [01:24:24] Speaker B: I. I don't have any faith in the Lakers going far. [01:24:28] Speaker C: Okay. [01:24:32] Speaker A: Clippers. Did we get the Clippers a grade? Did it pick up Patty Mills? [01:24:36] Speaker B: Patty Mills? He's still around. [01:24:38] Speaker A: Well, what's left, man? [01:24:41] Speaker B: The man from down under. [01:24:46] Speaker A: They gotta pick up Ben Simmons off the waiver. Looked great and one game back. Does the Ty Louis. Is he going to unlock that? All that potential that's been dormant for six years, however long it's been. That's a nice pickup, dude. I don't know. I. I still have hope for Ben Simmons. It's all mental. He's talented as hell. He still looks good. Good passer, good defender. It's a mental game. Who's that other guard that just had, like a mental block and now he's out of the league or. I think he's coming back. [01:25:18] Speaker B: He was. Somebody just picked him up. [01:25:20] Speaker A: You know who I'm talking about? [01:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah, the guy that went first, right? [01:25:24] Speaker A: He was the Sixers. [01:25:25] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, but somebody just picked him up. Somebody traded for him or picked him up. [01:25:37] Speaker A: Jason's already tapped out. [01:25:40] Speaker C: I'm looking it up. [01:25:45] Speaker A: Great. On the warriors while we're looking at. [01:25:47] Speaker B: Up with Butler, two second round picks. Casket. I'm gonna give him. I'm gonna give him a B. [01:25:58] Speaker C: Talk about Marel Fultz. [01:26:00] Speaker B: Yes. [01:26:01] Speaker A: There you go. [01:26:02] Speaker B: Yes. [01:26:02] Speaker A: Winner. Winner. [01:26:03] Speaker B: Who picked him up? What team just picked them up? [01:26:08] Speaker C: The Kings. [01:26:11] Speaker B: They really are the Bulls of the east or West. Jeez. [01:26:18] Speaker C: Okay. [01:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw somebody picked him up. [01:26:20] Speaker C: Yeah. You've been in the magic the last five years. [01:26:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember him. He looked good for a little bit and then he just disappeared again. Like Jesus. [01:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Remember he had the. What we call the yips, right? He couldn't even shoot, pass or do anything. [01:26:35] Speaker A: He just lost his shooting touch. This is the weirdest I've ever seen in my life. [01:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. [01:26:41] Speaker C: That happens. You remember, remember, like Chuck Knobloch back in the day when he was at the Yankees? Couldn't make the throw from second to first. [01:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:49] Speaker B: He would just, like, always hesitate. Like you want to Run it over there, I guess. [01:26:54] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:26:55] Speaker A: Believe it. [01:26:56] Speaker C: Like major league team. [01:26:58] Speaker B: Rick. Rick Ankiel couldn't. Couldn't pitch anymore. It happens. [01:27:03] Speaker A: It's crazy how that happens. [01:27:07] Speaker B: Ready to talk some Daytona 500 or. [01:27:10] Speaker A: What are we talking? Daytona? [01:27:15] Speaker C: We don't have to, but I mean, you know. [01:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah, we got, we got the man here. [01:27:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:20] Speaker A: You ready to go? [01:27:22] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, that's the start of the thing. We could have started with the Daytona 500. It was. [01:27:26] Speaker A: Probably should have. [01:27:27] Speaker C: It was the super bowl of motor racing this weekend. You know, we had the President there. You had Captain America there. [01:27:34] Speaker B: Seven hour rain delay too, right? [01:27:36] Speaker C: Seven hour rain delay. [01:27:39] Speaker A: Let's take a quick break, then you can download us on the Daytona. I tried watching it and then I had to go to work. All those delays, man. We'll be back. The Daytona 500. Kicking off the race season, right? [01:28:02] Speaker C: Kicking off the race season. The super bowl of motor racing. [01:28:05] Speaker A: How can the super bowl of motor racing be in the beginning of the season? Like, why do we, why do we call it that? [01:28:12] Speaker C: Well, racing like golf and stuff like that, it's about, you know, certain events are just a little more prestige, you know, like the massers and stuff like that. So Daytona's just been the kickoff. It's where it's at. It's. It's the big one that you want to win. There's a few tracks like that, but Daytona's NASCAR's biggest one for IndyCar. It's the Indy 500. You know, other racing circuits, there's different stuff. Formula One, Monaco's long scene is that one that's kind of like the prestigious one. [01:28:40] Speaker A: It's like a, like a major, like what are like the top four NASCAR events besides Daytona? [01:28:47] Speaker C: Top four? I mean, it depends who you ask. Like Darlington is always seen as one. Bristol is an interesting track because it's a short. Is a short track. Talladega is another super speedway, like, like Daytona. So it depends. Martinsville's, you know, the thing small is a short track, like a paperclip. Like there's just a lot of different stuff. NASCAR's gotten a little bit different recently with some road courses and street courses. They've been kind of mixing in their schedule too. But Daytona is just that, that one out there that's just like the one, the one to have, the one to get. So it's, it's, it's the super speedway. It's a different type of racing. It's about drafting. It's not necessarily the fastest car that win. There's A lot of luck involved. If you tune into the race, you're always waiting for the big one. And the big one is some massive crash because you got basically the entire, you know, 30 to 40 cars. Who's ever left there. Someone makes a wrong move left and right, everyone's tight two by two or three wide going into a turn, make a slight error here and there, one car goes sideways, takes out, you know, 10, 15 cars at a time, it's pretty much over because you're going 186, 188 miles an hour in the draft on this stuff. You got anything wrong with your car, you're just not as effective and you need other cars to kind of work it. So, you know, there was several quote unquote big ones and crashes, including on the last lap that really propelled the eventual winner was William Byron. [01:30:18] Speaker A: I heard about that 20, the 24. [01:30:20] Speaker C: Car, formerly my guy Jeff Gordon's car. But William Byron's been in that seat since Jeff retired, you know, seven, eight years ago. Jeff Corden and he won the. Yeah. And so Williams now won back to back Daytona five hundreds, won it last year. I think he's the fifth driver to win back to back. First since Denny Hamlin did it, I think in 2020. So, you know, big, big win for them. For Hendrick Motorsports. I'm wearing the Jeff Gordon Dupont Motorsports hat right now for the 24, but yeah, you looked at the cars to beat. When you talk about manufacturers, you got Ford with the Mustang, you know, Toyota and then you know, Chevy, Chevy ends up winning it. But they weren't much talked about the Ford and the Mustang. And team Penske pretty much had the most powerful car the weekend. Joey Logano, the defending NASCAR series champion was seen as had the best car of the weekend. He got involved to into an accident towards the latter half of the race, kind of make it trying to make a move maybe a little too early. Was kind of the epicenter of a big one of the big crashes. And then you looked at like 10 laps to go and you saw, I don't know, six of the top 10 were all Toyotas. And you had one Ford in the OR, one or two Fords in the front. The main one was the lone T Penske car with Austin Cindrick. He was leading the 500 on the back stretch when big crash in the last lap took out basically, I don't know, the front like five or six cars. And that present, you know, propelled William Byron, who's right up the high side to take the lead and get the win. So Daytona is an interesting race, man. A lot of luck, a lot of speed, One of the best races of the year, but really kicks off an interesting NASCAR season that'll be, you know, super wide open. [01:32:07] Speaker A: I was kind of going back like, man, this is like some, the Jeff Gordon thing like threw me back when I used to watch NASCAR. [01:32:16] Speaker B: Jordan's only been retired for seven years. I felt like he's been gone for like 10 or 12. [01:32:20] Speaker C: But yeah, like seven or eight years maybe, maybe it could be 10. I can't remember. It was like 2015 or 16 is last year. Might have been 2015 is last year in there. So. But yeah, a little while. I mean, Jeff Gordon's basically running Hendrick Motorsports right now. Rick Hendrick's still in charge, but Jeff Sake on much of a leadership position. I forget what is one. So he's, he's there still kind of running, running the teams for the 24, the 48, Chase Elliott's nine, and Kyle Larson, former series champion, the number five. So like a lot of different names probably. I was talking, I was with some family over the weekend talking some nascar and we were just there just bringing up some old names for the early 2000s. We were talking about, you know, Rusty Wallace and Carl Edwards and Mark Martin and Ricky Rudd and some different stuff from nascar, but new generation of guys. Everyone's, you know, super young. Obviously this kind of change over a lot of, a lot of second, third generation guys in this field. I talked about Chase Elliott, former series champion. He's part of Hendrick Motorsports. His dad, Bill Elliott was a former champion. You got John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Blaney, another one. So there's just a ton of different guys that are kind of just second generations, but a lot, just young, a lot of young guns in this sport right now. [01:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like looking through, I'm like toy. Didn't realize Castro Neves was still in it. [01:33:47] Speaker C: Castro Nevis is actually. He was a provisional inception. So Helo Castro Nev. Is four time Indy 500 winner. So he's more of an open reel racer. Yeah, he was the 41st car basically on the grid was a special provision. Basically it's a provision through NASCAR of Lacy, like a alternative like motorsports, like prestige kind of provision to get into the field. So he was in it. He raced some of the minor league, the ARCA races and stuff throughout the weekend too. So just a pure racer, man. He was out there. He was involved in one of the big accidents toward the latter half of the race too. [01:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking all the do not finishes Lagano. I remember show Junior Bush. [01:34:29] Speaker C: Yeah. The big one was Kyle Busch. This was his 20th Daytona 500, has never won and this has been his 20th Daytona 500. So he was looking to repeat what Dale Earnhardt did. Dale Earnhardt won his 20th when he. When it was long on his back that he had never won the Daytona 500. But Kyle Busch involved in that Joey Logano crash. He was not too happy with Joey Logano there in the post. Post medical interview that they did on him. [01:34:56] Speaker A: Bubba Wallace. All these names are new though. [01:35:03] Speaker B: Hamlin's been around a little bit. [01:35:08] Speaker C: Hamilton's been around. Hamlin actually former series champ. He's co owner with Michael Jordan for the. For the. That. That team. [01:35:18] Speaker B: Shout out to Michael Jordan, man. Happy birthday, brother. [01:35:21] Speaker C: Ah, the goat. The goat's birthday today. [01:35:23] Speaker A: Is that. Is that today? [01:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:35:25] Speaker C: Yep. [01:35:30] Speaker A: Who was that guy that won so much that. That's when they kind of changed NASCAR's current format. You know, they added the playoffs and all stars of it. Was the guy that had the Smirnoff sponsor? Yeah, that was his main sponsor. He won like he railed off like six or seven in a row. [01:35:49] Speaker C: Are you talking about Jimmy Johnson? He was. He was sponsored by Lowe's, not Smirnoff. But Jimmy Johnson tied dale Earnhardt for seven championships. He is the most. He actually finished third in the Daytona 500 running one of his two kind of spot races throughout the year. So he was kind of one of the. One of the guys that picked up a ton of positions on that last rate crash. But yeah, he used to drive the Lowe's 48 car. [01:36:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember he did a lot of smeared off commercials. That's when they really blew up. Started seeing that a lot of parties and like. What is this stuff? It's Alcoholic Sprite. [01:36:23] Speaker C: Yeah, he was actually won a bunch when they started the playoff series. Yeah, like he was one of the main guys that. That benefited from the early editions of the playoff chase. [01:36:33] Speaker A: Briscoe. Is that. Is it the husband of the wifey on. On. On espn? [01:36:41] Speaker C: I do not believe so. I think. I think there's a different Briscoe. [01:36:45] Speaker A: Okay. [01:36:48] Speaker C: I think he's an Indy car driver. Former IndyCar driver. [01:36:53] Speaker A: One thing I learned this weekend, just randomly trying to catch up, highlights that Frankie Mun, that former Malcolm the Middle driving in the Truck Series driver series. And he got 10th place. I. [01:37:06] Speaker C: 10Th place in the Truck Series? Yeah, yeah. Starting. Starting from the bottom. You know the Truck Series kind of Two divisions, not where you start, but it's from a NASCAR perspective that's kind of like the first nascar, like, minor league circuit. That's kind of a. More of a. A Travelers ones. The Truck Series. Then if he goes up from there, it'll be. And I think it's a Nationwide Series or whatever it's called. It's kind of like the A. So he's like two below. He's kind of in double A right now. If you're trying to get a baseball comparison. [01:37:36] Speaker A: That's kind of cool, actually. Cool, man. So do you have, like, any. Any favorites, any predictions for, like, the rest of the NASCAR season? [01:37:49] Speaker C: Yeah, really tough. Like I said, wide open field. It really gets different when you talk about down to the playoff aspect of thing. The Fords look really good from an engine perspective, so that really favors team Penske. So defending champion Joey Logano, Austin Cindrick, who was leading in the last lap, and Ryan Blaney. You know those guys, really powerful cars. But, you know, Daytona 500 winner William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, the Hendrick guys obviously got a lot on there, too. So it'll be. It'll be interesting. I think those are probably the two of the favorites. The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is obviously throw. Throw it in the mix is there. But, yeah, kind of kind of a wide open space for NASCAR when you throw that playoff into there. It's. It's. It is really kind of what the end of the season kind of lines up to. [01:38:36] Speaker A: Joe Gibbs. Why am I pitching the Redskins every time I hear Joe. [01:38:39] Speaker B: That's who it is, bro. [01:38:40] Speaker C: Because that's who it is. [01:38:42] Speaker A: I was like, what? Just like a flashback right now. [01:38:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Joe Gibbs, he's been in racing for a while now. [01:38:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:48] Speaker B: Ever since he really got out of. [01:38:49] Speaker C: Football the first time. [01:38:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:52] Speaker C: Yeah. The first time. Yeah. He's owned since the 90s. His grandsons are like, racing now. Ty Gibbs, he could think he. He was in the Daytona 500 this weekend. [01:39:02] Speaker A: So. Awesome, man. That was a great recap. Thank you so much. [01:39:08] Speaker C: No problem. Just to kick off a racing season, we got IndyCar, if you're watching Daytona. Yeah. The IndyCar promos will be kicking off in Florida here in a little while, and I think we're four weeks away from Formula one kicking off in Australia. [01:39:21] Speaker B: Yep. [01:39:22] Speaker A: We'll start gearing up for Formula one marches. [01:39:26] Speaker B: March is gonna be a big month, man. Yeah, March Madness. [01:39:30] Speaker A: And one thing I'd like to do, though, we have to get on the video game. We're gonna have to Do a tournament, all three of us. Who wins for what? [01:39:40] Speaker C: We'll give it what? [01:39:41] Speaker A: Video game formula. [01:39:43] Speaker C: A dog crush. You? [01:39:44] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. I mean, I just want to play. [01:39:47] Speaker A: I just want to play Crushing. [01:39:49] Speaker B: Jason's just sitting there, just like cruise control. He's got a cocktail and one handed cigar in his mouth. Dude, he's just freaking like cruising right there, man. [01:39:57] Speaker A: Like, feels real. [01:39:58] Speaker B: Get out of here. [01:39:59] Speaker A: Like, let's do it. But it's kind of dangerous. No, it'll be fun. We could record it and put it up on the. On the net. On the worldwide net. [01:40:09] Speaker C: You're gonna go out. You want to buy a little station like I got, man, you get the steering wheel and everything, you know, or you just, you know, doing the controller. [01:40:17] Speaker A: I don't know. I think it'd be better if I got like the setup, though. [01:40:23] Speaker C: And it's got to get the setup. [01:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll have to get that going. All right, cool. [01:40:27] Speaker C: That's the thing about living on the west coast, man. If we had a basement, you know, like the good old Midwest basement, you get the full simulator thing, you know, there's just no space in the, in the, in the houses out here. [01:40:36] Speaker A: The old one. Yeah. [01:40:39] Speaker B: You got to buy land and excavate down now. That's the new thing, man. [01:40:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy. Sounds like a lot of work. Oh, here's the spurs replay. And then just tossing the ball. They just slapped the NBA's face with that stuff. That's great. [01:40:53] Speaker B: Of course, it's Chris Paul too. [01:40:55] Speaker A: Like, oh, NBA ratings are down because they. The product's better than. They just put up that it's great. You couldn't write anything better than that. All right, thanks for jumping on the. On this. On this NBA recap, guys. We'll do NBA every Monday night from here on out. Big section, try to get some guests in and then. Am I missing something? [01:41:24] Speaker C: I think you severely under talked about hockey, but we talked about a little. But I will say we can, we can save it if you want. If we're gonna record later in the week. We got the big final this Thursday in Boston, USA. Canada, Part 2. It's probably gonna go down. [01:41:42] Speaker A: No, I've been watching a lot of hockey actually, so I'm excited. Yeah, let's definitely talk about hockey too. On the second half of the. Of the season. [01:41:49] Speaker B: What time's that game Thursday night? Let me look it up here. [01:41:52] Speaker A: At 5:00. [01:41:53] Speaker C: I think it is at 5:00. Roman's right. 5:00 on ESPN. [01:41:59] Speaker B: Coop I'll have to tune in. Maybe. [01:42:03] Speaker A: Let's see if I can not work. [01:42:06] Speaker C: That even money line. [01:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I think slight favorites to USA, right? It was like minus 105. I think Canada was minus 115. [01:42:16] Speaker C: ESPN's got a minus 110. Minus 110. [01:42:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Even up now. Nice. Yeah, we'll cover that. [01:42:23] Speaker B: What's the over, under goals? Five and a half, I'm guessing or what? [01:42:26] Speaker C: Yep, five and a half. [01:42:31] Speaker A: I like the over. [01:42:36] Speaker C: I don't know. It could be physical game. We'll find out. Thursday could be. [01:42:40] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll do it.