January 15, 2025 • 43 mins
Jack and Producer Jabari were pleased to be joined by SB Nation’s Harrison Faigen for today’s episode. The trio discussed the state of affairs with the Lakers and whether they should still be active ahead of the trade deadline. They also looked around the league and speculated on which teams may take a swing at Jimmy, Zach LaVine and others.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, well, well, welcome back to the NBA's only podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Don't fact check us on that one.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Uh, Calves and Thunder still leading their respective conferences, but
several teams are kind of making some moves behind them.
We'll touch on the latest from around the league, discuss
what teams need to make moves ahead of the February
sixth deadline. We'll get into all of that with SB
Nations Harrison Fagan on today's episode. I'm Jack O'Brien and
(00:31):
I'm producer JABORI in for months.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And this is Miles jacksontime.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Dot chitch.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Sorry guy, it looka donch hitch ta.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
NB driving Spinny Fatter number eighteen that's been secured the
Suffolks or NBA Champions over the couplet.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wow, that was like spoken word you were giving me.
William Shatner Jabari on that one.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Paris and Fagan, what's going on? Man? Welcome back, returning champion.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Always happy to be here, guys up top.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I do just want to give a shout out to
all the people who are being affected by the fire
and acknowledge that Miles and his family did lose their
home in the fire last week. Uh So we will
be linking off to their GoFundMe in the show notes
of this episode and some fundraiser from one of the
(01:46):
Zeke Daily Zeke's listeners, so that you can go contribute
there and or if you have.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Something to give.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
If not, you know, just let him know you're thinking
about him.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But the NBA has pressed on.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
The Lakers took took a week and are back to
being fairly mediocre, got the ranks beat off them by
the San Antonio Spurs. But well we'll get into that,
but first we do want to check in with the
two teams that I don't think. I guess people knew
okay See was going to be one of the best
(02:19):
teams in the league, but I don't know that the
Calves were necessarily there.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Harrison.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Before we get into any of this, I do just
I like to ask all of our smart people who
know stuff about basketball, how are you feeling. Is this
the Calves Eastern Conference to lose? Or is are we
all just waiting to see if the Celtics decide to
give it to them?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Is it the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Calves in no disrespect to the Calves, who have obviously
been incredible this year. They're just like a buzz saw
every single night. They just it Like, I don't I
have not looked this up, but I feel like they
have to have the highest point differential in the league
and if it's not, I guess if it's not them,
it's maybe okay. See, but it just feels like they
blow everyone out just with their consistency. But for me,
it's still the Celtics just because of what we saw
(03:06):
them do last year and we know that teams are
it's sort of prone to these title hangovers. It's hard
to keep up that level of intensity that you have
when going after your first ring for that whole next
year when it's like, okay, wait, we got to do
the whole eighty two games again before we get to
the playoffs and defend the title. So I do think
that there's some natural like we've seen that throughout NBA history,
and I think now that the league is as deep
(03:28):
as it is that you just feel that more on
a night to night basis because there are more talented
teams that you know, if you're only bring your BEEP
minus game, like, they can beat you. And the Celtics.
They have a target on their back because of the
defending championship thing and because they sort of ran through
the playoffs last year. So I still think they're really good,
and as much as it pains me to say, like,
(03:49):
but I do think that they should still be considered
the favorites to come out of the East, despite how
good Cleveland has been.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I guess part of me is like in those times
in the past when it's like we're just waiting for
Shack to play himself into shape and then like the
Lakers are gonna do it, or you know, teams. I
think the second year that the Rockets won the title,
they were like not good during the regular season and
then turned it on they were like, yeah they were,
(04:16):
they were sick, so I think they were six. But
those were years when I think people were looking around
being like yeah, but like they's not a team. There's
not a team that's like stormed in and been like, Okay,
this is actually our league. Whereas the Calves are like
on pace to win seventy one games. Whether that happens,
I don't know, but like they definitely seem capable of it.
Like there's nothing about what they're doing to this point
(04:38):
that seems fluky. So it is intriguing. Like I'm as
somebody who's like a pessimistic Celtic hater, I'm always loath
to like have any hope that they're not going to
win the title, but like, this is more hopeful than
I was at this.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Stage last year.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I'll say, as somebody who just roots for the field
against the Celtics.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
As as your partner in crime in that regard, No, like, seriously,
the deeper we get, I think.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It's all three of us. I think it's no one.
There's no podcast in the NBA sphere that wants the
Celtics to be bad more than this these three.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, this is we're all pulling in the same direction here.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
But but I genuinely do believe in these caves, like
the deeper we get the first ten games, I said, Okay,
you know what, that's cute, that's cool. You know, then
we you know, we get to twenty games, and you
get to thirty games, you get to forty games. End
of the year, it's like, no, unless something catastrophic takes place,
this is going to be the one of the Okay,
maybe not the team, but one of the teams to
be in a very difficult out and when it comes,
(05:35):
you know, from the Boston side of things, just to
kind of you know, uh, touching on what you know,
what you reference, it's a lot more you know, it's
that old boxing addage. It's a lot more difficult to
get up and run those miles when you're getting up
in silk pajamas, you know what I mean, Like every
everybody's got the grind that first time before.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Oh no, but it's Muhammad Ali said it. Uh uh.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
The late marvelous Marvin Hagler, one of my favorite boxes
in the eighties, showing my age, he used to say
it as well. But yeah, you said, basically, the initial grind.
Everybody has that within them. But once you know, once
you reach the top, it's like all of a sudden,
you know, you went to bend and silk pajamas or
do you really feel like getting up at three am?
You know, to run those minds? And I'm not saying
that Boston is taking it easy, but you know, kind
(06:16):
of to your point, Jack, everyone is going after them
because now you know, now you're the tight, now you're
the you know, the defending champs. And you're not going
to get a night off in this league.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Donovan Mitchell wakes up every morning in a hair suit
and exactly Isonna's grind right away, Yeah, all right, I do.
I'm just checking in. We're not going to make everything
about the Caves versus the Celtics. Uh, and we do. So.
The Calves did beat okay see in their head to
have matchup ok see, then promptly beat the Brakes off
(06:45):
the Knicks and our game of the week one twenty
six to one oh one. Shay put up thirty nine
on twenty one shots. Jalen Williams was solid. The story
of the game was Isaiah Joe going eight for eleven
from three off the bench on the way to I
think he had thirty one. He's apparently the best player
in the league based on what I saw in this game.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I was gonna say, is that the story of the
game or just the story of like your sadness because
the Sixers cut him in training camp? Yeah two years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
No, it's it's not great. And thank you Harrison for
bringing that up, because.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Did you even remember that?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, I remember drafting him and.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
This is this is like core sixers trauma over the
couple years.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's just guys who come off
the bench in the league are better at basketball then
I can even possibly imagine, Like so many of them
are just waiting for their opportunity to be like I
have superpowers too. And yeah, he was just so good
(07:50):
in this in this game, just a lot of back
cuts and then just knocking down every.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Open three that he got. Did you guys watch this game?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What were your thoughts on h on this one?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I did?
Speaker 6 (08:01):
I mean, like, and it's kind of where I think
you're going to go with Shaye, Like I look at
Shae and you know, we mentioned it in the you know,
ahead of the show, like he's got like the perfect
old man's game, but like not slow. I'm not saying,
you know, but he's just everything is deliberate everything, you know,
there's no wasted energy. It just looks so easy out there.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, it's like what if the old man was also
the fastest guy in the gym. You know, he has
all his trickery, but he's still in his complete athletic
prime and able to stop on a dime and has
all these turkey jerky moves and it is just like that,
you know, start stop, sort of like it's a little
bit like hardened during those MVP years where he just
was like he wasn't the fastest guy in the league,
(08:41):
but he was the quickest at hitting the brakes, and
very few guys Luca does this as well, and like
Shaye has mastered sort of the dark arts of that
mid range, you know, the sort of area where he
is able to get in there and he's able to
go back forth, back forth, back forth, and then before
you know, eventually his defenders was running off in the
other direction and he's getting a shot off and yeah,
it's just yeah, he's He's incredible, And it's the remarkable
(09:04):
thing about Okay, see is at least with the Calves
are like, Okay, they've had their whole team for the
most part droughoup most of the year, and so of
course you know they're they're playing firing on all cylinders.
The thunder are missing a guy or two like almost
every single night, and they're still managing this. It's just
incredible how deep they are.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, Shay makes buckets look easier than anyone. He's as
good at getting buckets and makes them look easier than anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It is really like.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Something to behold. I can't think of somebody who ever
like made it look that easy in my time where
it's just like it really like it if you're trying.
You know, people like to like cross someone up and
have them like fall over as they hit a three
on them. But like making it look this easy as
you score on someone has to be also like a
new kind of dispiriting where you're just like maybe.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
From a guard. But I would say that there have
been I would say there have been big men who
make it look like if you watch them for the
first time, you would just set like Anthony Davis, you know,
like uh yeah in Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembin Yama, like
these guys. Like sometimes if you were to just show
someone who had never watched basketball before, just like Anthony
Davis getting thirty points, they'd be like, Okay, that guy's
(10:10):
getting lucky, right, that's falling all over the plate, like
throwing stuff up, like it doesn't look like he's played before.
And it's like, now, that's just sort of what his
game looks like at his height, and you know, that's
what a tall person with that level of coordination looks
like they still look not that coordinated, and so you
know it's but yeah, among guards that he's truly unique
with how effortless he can make it look. I guess
(10:31):
Steph during his prime it was different, but you know,
he would just sort of come off of a screen
and just like like toss up a prayer and it
was just going in every time.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That one shot from right before the break where he
was like running to the left and like did a
spin move and then threw it up like and just
kept running was one of the coolest things.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
There's got to be nobody more demoralizing the guard in
NBA history. It's just like, yeah, he's just like taking
the shots you want him to take and they're going in.
It's just yeah, but he looked.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's like he I always bring back Like during that
one game against Okay, see that was like I think
kind of his big call. It was a regular season game,
but he was just going off and then he hit
the game winner from half court and somebody tweeted, Steph's
got a demon.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's all there is to it.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Steph's just got a and like that's always he he
seems like he has some manner of like uh yeah,
yeah yeah, it's just like yeah yeah, whereas uh Sha
just looks like he's moving a different like speed or
(11:38):
it's like it it kind of boggles the mind, like
how he's doing that real quick. Going back to the
Isaiah Joe thing, because I'm just curious if you guys
have ever had an experience with us where you played
against or witnessed a guy who like came off the
bench in the league in person, and like I once,
(11:59):
I went to the Kentucky Basketball camp a lot as
a kid. My dad was an assistant coach there, and
you know this is probably like as good as I got.
Was like my sophomore year and Tony Delk was there,
and you know he knew me from my dad, and
he was like handed me the ball was like let
me see, Like what what have you been working on?
(12:19):
Let me see you like dribble it. And the ease
with which to so Tony Delk, for people who don't know,
like not a consistent starter ever in the league. He
did have one game where he put up fifty great
three point shooter in college, won the championship in college,
but the ease with which he took the ball every time,
(12:40):
like like I was in slow motion or let like
it was almost like having the magician do the like
pull a coin from behind your ear where you're just
like wait, how did that get How did the ball
get in his hand? Like every single time was just
like I was like, Oh, we're playing like different games.
This person who is going to be like scoffed at
(13:00):
by an NBA fans. Yeah, he's so incredibly good at basketball.
It's like again like it, yeah, it's like watching a
magic show.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's like I can't wrap my mind around that.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
I mean it for me, it really boils down to
the worst player in the league, the guy that everybody
will say like, oh that guy sninks.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Will dog you.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It doesn't.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
It does not matter who you are.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Brian Scalabrini actually did that. He hosted like a tournament
for guys to come and play against him who had
like trash talked him on Twitter and just like destroyed them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah. The Scalabrini anecdote is a is a really good
one for anybody. I think you can still find that.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. Yeah, I'd never I
was not a good basketball player, so I was not
in like high level games against future NBA players, But
I played like pick up a couple times with like
guys that had played overseas in Europe or something, and
we're still in the area and like that kind and
it's just like even those level guys like they're not
they weren't anywhere near the NBA, and they're just like
it's just like a different level of human being. You know,
(13:56):
it's not it's not fair.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, this guy I played against an eighth grade who
would like put it between his legs with one hand,
like he would do right hand in and out, dribble
through his legs and then like dunk on you. I
was like, well, clearly this guy is going to be
the best player of all time. And he ended up
like playing mid mid division one.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's just yeah, yeah, you have to be an alien
to make it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It's truly unbelievable. Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break.
We'll come back. We'll talk about our two teams. You know,
both struggling. But I think we're in the same boat here, guys,
And I know that makes you feel good, feeling like
you're in the same boat as the seventy six Ers
this season.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Let's take a break, we'll.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Be right back, and we're back. So the Lakers took
a week off following the start of the Southern California Fires,
return to action on Monday versus the Spurs, and it
didn't go so well. I was pulling for them. I mean,
(15:03):
I was pulled for the Lakers when it's not the Sixers.
But yeah, the addition of Shake DFS, it's not it's
not quite what we needed at least thus far.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, how are you guys, as unrealistic Lakers fans feeling
right now?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah? I first of all, I love that you led
with shake there instead off. That was to a former
Sixers fan, that's trade.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah. Yeah, as a fan of cool names, that's the
ship it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It is incredible, just basketball player name, Like it's I
wish he was better because it would be really exciting,
it would be really fun, you know. Yeah. Yeah, No,
from what I've been told from the people who followed
his career, like he's gonna have some games in March
where you're going to be like, this guy is ready
to go playoff rotation. You know, he just dropped thirty
(15:55):
because just like two, there's two starters out, you know,
Shake Milton is ready to go cook. Yeah again, speaking
of like how deep the league is, is like he's
a guy that can go out and you know, get
some buckets and is probably not really going to be
a consistent rotation player for the Lakers. But yeah, I
think the team is the biggest issue to me and Jabaria,
I don't know, you can weigh in here as well.
(16:15):
Has been that I think that how much they want
to switch ever since it was pointed out to me
by Darius Soriano, longtime form Blue and Gold, longtime silver
screen role as well. Yeah, one of the best like
Lakers pundits, Like he pointed out like the ease with
which they're giving up switching, And once you have that
in your head, you can't unsee it. It's just like
(16:35):
it is effortless switching. You know, they are not you know,
they'll just sort of hand you Austin Reeves on a
platter to go and hunt. It's like, I'm not saying
Austin Reeves, you know, I expect him to do really
well on defense and stuff, but you should so if
that's true, you should be trying harder to not give
up that matchup. You should have plans in place to
help Austin, you know, but they're just letting teams sort
(16:57):
of pick on him. And you know, again, I'm not
saying that he's like some defensive stopper that I think,
you know, I think he's got to step it up whatever.
It's like, no, if you're the Lakers, used to come
help him, Like you can't just allow for this to
be happening, you know, and just like there's like a
simple brush screen and you're just sort of like, okay,
well all right, I guess you get often now, and
(17:17):
that it sort of plays into I think some of
the lazier tendencies of this team, where they're very much
you know, there are a lot of vets on this team,
most primarily Lebron and ad Are. They're sort of like
veteran core, and they're two guys who are happy to
sort of, you know, coast through a night on the
regular season, like they want to see if they can
put the foot down for one quarter and sort of
eliminate it. And I think that all the switching that
(17:39):
the Lakers do sort of plays into some of those
tendencies like ah, you know, Austin's got it. We'll let
really make that back line rotation.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
It's fine, Yeah, Darius is exactly right. But the one
thing that I'll say, it's just straight out Offensively, they
have looked better at times. Defensively, they still look every
bit as lost as what Ad described in the you know,
like a down the stretch of the season last year
when they were laying for him. I'm no longer the
type person he just goes like, okay, get him out
of here. Look you can't. You can't keep going getting
(18:05):
rid of coaches. You know what you shout out to Frank.
Still I still feel strd for you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Look, man, I think we've all seen now that the
Sons got rid of Frank and solved all their problems.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Everything's better now.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I think, Yeah, clearly the guy you want clearly the problem.
Same with the Lakers. When you guys got rid of him,
you went from winning a.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Title, uh, to.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Forget Oh yeah yeah the plan, that's right.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
But yeah, no, I think of the playoffs. So the
year he got fired, but that was the fault.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Nah, I think it was.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I think we got that uh the vocal effect.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
But what it feels like to me is, look, we
know what Lebron is at this stage. He can still
you know, wrapped it up offensively in a lot of games. Defensively,
it's hit or miss, and it's going to be hit
or miss even you know, like from one, you know,
from one time down to the Knicks. That's fine, you're
forty something years old, Like I get it. You know,
a d when he's properly utilized, you know he can.
He still looks great. Reeves has been good for them,
(19:07):
but beyond that, look, they got a few style of
players left, but it's not enough, like you know, and
I'm sorry, I'm gonna do shameless Kendrick drops no matter what,
even if it fits into the conversation or not. But
I feel like, you know, the debate about like whether
this team can turn it on or you'll figure it out,
like we need to stop having net and it's either
go ahead and sell out for the field, you know,
sell out your future, or stop lying and just acknowledge, Okay,
(19:30):
we're just gonna play this, you know, play this out.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Where do you think they're gonna go with?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
You know, I've been saying sort of a similar thing
and that like you know, if you're just trying to
sell tickets around Lebron and ad and you know that
that's that's sort of the goal for this team, and
you don't want to mortgage anymore of the future, Like
that's fine, but you also well, actually, no, it's not fine,
Like you should be trading off pieces and trying to
rebuild for the future, like no, no half measures. You know,
it's the breaking badism, like you should either be going
(19:54):
all in and use some of these picks to go
get better at the trade deadline or you or you're
just continuing to waste every one's time. And so I
also think that you know not to commit like the
I'm not saying the Lakers are better without Lebron, but
I will say that there were moments when he was
out emissively where it looked like they were not lazily
(20:17):
switching as often and they were a little bit more intact.
And I still think, you know, obviously, this team is
not going to be able to reach like its highest
heights without Lebron on the roster, Like there's just a
level of like athletic dynamism and playmaking that he gives
them that no one else on the roster has, Like
this team would be bad if Lebron just sat out
the rest of the season. This is not what I'm
(20:38):
trying to say, but I think that someone needs to
let him know that it's like, you know, even if
you have to take ten percent of your offense, you know,
a ratchet down your offensive effort a little bit, like
you've got to give a little bit more on defense
than you're giving. Because we've seen this year after year,
roster after roster, that it trickles down to the rest
of the guys. When you know, when he is sort
of yelling at you for getting that cut, well he
(20:59):
was just standing there.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
It's like that is going to sap morale a little bit,
and it's good. You're not gonna see guys sell out
as hard to you know, stop their own man. And
you can't just have like someone just sort of getting
you know, just allowing players to you know, get loose
on the weak side. And so I do think that
there's a little bit of he's going to lock in
more once they get closer to the playoffs, like that's
(21:21):
what we've seen him do. And so I think that
to some degree, they just got to get through this
right now, and I expect that like that effort will
ratchet up once it gets closer to you know, the
Promised Land. But yeah, it's kind of rough right now,
and it's it's not helping, you know, the rest of
the guys sort of find their footing.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I don't think I think we just solve each other's problems.
You take mb, we take Lebron and be for Lebron.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Who says that straight up?
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Teams say no to that, say both both teams cuss
each other out and then yeah, screaming it one another.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Like maybe that would have been anyway. I do just
want to raise is it too late to just all
out tank for both franchises because Cooper Flag put up
forty two points in a game.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm gonna say yes because the Sixers, isn't the Sixers
pick only top six protected?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, Yet I don't know that they're going to out
tank some of the other teams that are down there
at this point. It's good enough odds and the Lakers
straight up don't have their pick, so there's no benefit
for them in louzed like unless they unless they just
really want to do Atlanta favor and just send Cooper
Flag to Atlanta and help out Tray Young then yeah,
there's no incentive for them to tank this year.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, we need to be bottom six to get there.
I mean, Embiid has been hurt. Now, Maxi's hurt. And
we were just talking about the Paul George draft before
you got on Harrison. Paul George, the other people in
that draft are long gone from the league.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Like he was fourteen, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
No, Paul Dredge is twenty ten, twenty ten. Yeah, John Walla,
DeMarcus Cousins, Gordon Hayward is like the most recent person
who was like still playing excuse me, Jack.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's education reform, as we.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Will always know.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, Like I didn't think Paul Paul George is like
one of the elder states man. I was like, yeah,
he's on the older side of his career. He is
all like he is up there, man.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I mean we should have guessed when he tried to
sort of like come for our jobs as a podcaster.
You know. Yeah, he is like like he's preparing for
that to be his primary source of income after the
Sixers contract.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
You know, so next Lakers coach after JJ, is that
what you're saying?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Look, the podcaster to a Lakers coach pipeline is it's
it's it bore stronger results earlier in the year, I
would say, but I think JJ solid. So yeah, maybe
Paul George was that. That's that's what's next for him.
He's gonna he's gonna be the next great podcaster turn coach.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
So you're gonna let JJ stay. You're gonna trade Lebron.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
One team should have to hire a podcaster every offseason, every.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And then they keep their show going though.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's like the NFL has the has the show that
goes around a training camp that rotates around the league.
It's like, okay, we spun the wheel, and like this
year it's okay, see sorry, you got to hire a podcaster.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Coach Bill Simmons taking over the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
He wouldn't be like he know, like he'd actually be
an okay, maybe GM. He does like tend to have
a good sense of when the Celtics are good.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That's what.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Compared to other like basketball talking heads. As much as
we like to make fun of him, he does seem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
To like have a pretty good eye for the NBA.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, I think there would be worst podcasters to hire
as a head coach.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, yeah, not me. Though I'm number one.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I think I would lose the locker rip like I
would make Adrian Griffin look like he was like in
the running for Coach of the Year early on with
the Bucks last year. Well, he kind of was, really,
he kind of was.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
He was twenty twenty plus games over five up dred and.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
They said, then, what's it like if they've been matched
that pool?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Once again? It was another team that changed the coach
and fixed all their problems, you know, as he solved
it as he has in all of his uh, all
the places he's gone.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I'd come in and inspire them with a tale of
Tony Delk picking my pocket repeatedly, and they'd be like,
this guy, here's what believe.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Me that I was meant to be a coach.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Right there you go.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Elsewhere around the league, the Pacers ended the Cavs winning
streak at twelve, find themselves up in the fifth seed
in the Eastern Conference. If everybody stays kind of where
they're at right now, that four or five six with
the you know, Pacers Orlando Milwaukee fighting it out, UH,
could be could be interesting. What are you feeling about?
(25:47):
Just is the East basically Boston and Cleveland. Is there
anybody else there who has got your eye a glimmering?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
I mean, I would say the Knicks their result against
the Thunder notwithstanding, you know, I know that they've they've
had sort of like a rougher you know, last couple
of weeks. I know they haven't been as good. But
I do still believe largely in that core. And I
also think that again, like that's a team that if
they can get to the playoffs healthy, which has been
a big if for Tibbs teams, you know, but he
is a guy that has them ready to go all
(26:14):
out for those playoff level minutes over the course of
a playoff series because he's already playing the playoff level
minutes the entire regular season. And so you know, guys
like Josh Hart, Guy's like whoever, Like they're in shape
for that. They're ready. They're not getting winded, you know
at the beginning at the start of playoff games. They're
ready for that intensity. So I do I like the Knicks.
And also, you know, like their top six is just
(26:35):
like incredible. So the Knicks in the East, I think
that's probably the only one other than the Cavs or self,
that like I don't know that I could see any
teams coming out of the East to the other than
those three.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Not Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're not believe I'm not in on Yeah, I don't.
I mean they're okay, you know, respect to the NBA
Cup winners, but yeah, I don't. I don't see it.
Winning three rounds to get to the finals is a
tough It's just tough to see with that roster.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Or Land is intriguing to me because they have like
such an incredible weapon and their defense, but you have
to make so many shots to make it to like
win the title like that, the ball has to go
in so many times.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
The Rtlantos is a team that theoretically could get better
at the deadline because not only have they been like
really like really really banged up for the first half
of this year, but they have basically all of their
own draft picks, if not all of their own draft picks,
And so if there was a team that was like, hey,
poised to be a buyer and had a real reason
to because they have a really solid cores already and
they're like, hey, we're one super ball handling point guard
(27:35):
away from you know, being able to really compete here,
then you know, the magic could justify making an all
in push.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
All right, here's here's my one crazy thing that I
say in each episode.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Jabari is one crazy thing, one crazy thing by some medication.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, let's say something that you can you just drop
a sponsor name just for the what about Jimmy to
world and just go all in on being the guttiest
just filthiest team that like like like an inn a series.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
You watch them play, you go, I feel sick to
my stomach watching that team play. I don't know, I
like it. It would just be I actually don't like.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
It, to be honest, So you can be real, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I feel like every time we're like yeah, what if
they just like steer into their identity. What if they're like, yeah,
we'll get even bigger and everyone's.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
A big guy. I feel like it like doesn't always
work out that well.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You know what if we had another guy who wants
the ball and can't shoot, you know, yeah, and then
it's gonna yell at all of our good vibes players
if things are going well yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So yeah, meh, what if the vibes were bad?
Speaker 4 (28:53):
We're really bad on this team that has really good vibes.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
If the Kings were not streaking right now, I would say,
like the you know, Vespiana. We wrote a story for
Espionation about how dearon Fox would be a great target
for them, and you know, obviously it seems unlikely that
that's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Now.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It seems like the Kings have sort of righted the
ship and probably.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Want to be like I have won seven in a row,
since they're not going to blow it up at the
deadline anymore.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But you know, someone like that, if they could get
like a quick point guard or someone at some shooting,
you know, I think that would help them a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Doug Christie Also, this is the Jacks Don't Look Now
segment of the Week. We're adding a bunch of sponsored
segments right now just because, yeah, just because, well why not.
Jacks Don't Look Now of the Week brought to you
by Super There. It is so easy to drive, you
don't even have to look while you're driving.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Don't look now.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
The Pistons are now above five hundred at twenty one
and nineteen after going eight and two over the last
ten games.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
That's incredible for them.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Like I'm sad to say, I'm incredibly jealous of the Pistons,
And I don't know, do we think they should be
buyers or do we think they should just be like
this is so fun, let's just like see where we
take it.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
If I were them, I would stick with what they
have because I don't think that you're gonna I don't
think that whatever you add at this deadline is going
to be enough to sort of like push you towards
any meaningful playoff run this year. Like I would continue
to evaluate. I would actually see, you know, if not
necessarily be sellers, but see if you can you know,
because they they're one of the teams that they're They're
(30:34):
part of the reason why the trade deadline probably is
not going to be like that crazy active is because
they were originally a team with cap space that you
would have pinpointed is like, Okay, they're that third team
that's gonna help facilitate some of these deals between contenders.
They'll take on some draft picks, take on some money,
you know, sort of make the financial stuff work. But
I don't know, like they could still do something like that,
but they may not be as inclined to just like
(30:55):
sort of take dead salary and so that might mess
up the trade deadline for know a number of other teams,
which you know isn't the Pistons prerogative, but you know
it sort of does sort of throw a wrench in
some of these scenarios because of the new Apron rules
around like first second Apron and you know how much
teams can take back in the trade. You a lot
of times need that third facilitating partner, and you know,
(31:16):
they can run it back or I guess continue to
run it with this roster. Yeah, because it's not running
it back. They're still in this season, but they can
continue to sort of run with this roster and then
potentially they're going to be like good players available, you know,
this off season in sort of salary dumps because teams
are going to be dealing with these like honorous tax
penalties and onerous honorous So I think that they should
(31:39):
I would say the course if I was them, I
think that you know, you're in the middle of a
fun season. You're you're in the most fun type of
NBA season, arguably like a team that wasn't expected to
be that good and it's now like really fun for
their fans if they can like chase a play in
birth playoff birth, Like, I think that's enough, and then
you continue to build on that strong young core.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
So say they do this, Say they go that route
and shout out to j B Biggest for the job
that he's done there.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, say say they go.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
That route and you know, they get a play in
you know situation where they lose, and you know, but
they was it was a good experience. What type of
player would you like to pair with Kate?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's a good question, you know. I think you probably
need like like another guard that can handle a little
bit and can also like relieve some of the pressure
on him by being able to shoot. You know. I
think that's probably what they need the money, because he's
like he's a point guard but sort of you know,
like he's a guy that could probably he's a little
bit combo GUARDI and I don't mean that it's like
(32:34):
the insult that a lot of people mean it as
when they're like basically saying you're a bench guard a
combo guard. That just means you're a bench guard. You know,
you're not good enough to start at shooting guard or
point guard. No, like he's clearly above that level. He's
a playmaker. But I think that they could use like,
probably you know, a point guard that can, you know it,
take a little bit more gravity off of him and
pull some of those defenders away, like Jade and Ivy's good,
(32:56):
but he's just not that level of shooter yet, and
so I think the like adding like a point guard
with a little bit more shooting ability would probably be
the ideal backcourt partner for him.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
I can see it.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Listen up, just gonna try and trade him to every
team everyone, even though they're good.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
A trade between our two don't look now teams. And finally,
don't look now. Zion's finally back. And he did a
sick windmill three sixty that I don't know, seemed like
he was inadvertently revealing that he has superpowers. Like it's
just incredible. It's just like, oh, yeah, I was I
was hurt in quotes, but watch me do this. But anyways,
(33:34):
very excited about that. I think he was suspended like
a game, but uh from missing a team flight. But
all right, let's take a quick break and we'll be
right back. And we're back, and it is the rapid
(33:56):
fire out of questioning, Harrison, you're gonna want to give
us first answer that comes to mind. We're gonna be
firing shots at you and you just gotta come back
bounce them back right at us.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
As longtime listeners know, I always do really great at
the segment to giving you a break.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
One of the best, one of the best world. All right, Jabari,
you want to start?
Speaker 6 (34:16):
Yeah, because I did throw that silly one in there,
and I will probably proudly.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Ask Brian start the clock.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Yeah, Brian, start the clock? All right?
Speaker 6 (34:25):
This or that scenario, which would be the more dominant player?
Speaker 4 (34:29):
You got fun?
Speaker 6 (34:30):
You got three of them coming out, Shack with free
throw touch or Kobe with Curry's shot.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh, Pat, I'm going Shock with free throw touch. Yeah,
I'll do respect to Kobe. You see, Shack with free
throw touch is an unstoppable player that wins like eight
titles in a row.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yes, what are we talking? Free throw percenter is like
we're talking MBID.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Seventy five to eighty, you know, not like ninety, but
you know a good I thought we were giving him
like Steve Nash level free throws, you know, I mean,
you can get likenight perc.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Let's say eighty, let's say.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Eight Eightyes, MB, that would be nice.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, Embi, it is still going.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
It's so nice having somebody who's that big and can
get to the line in his area.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Definitely going shot in today's era. I think you can
make an argument for Kobe with Curry's shot, just because
shooting is so valuable now and just being able to
get up that number threes is huge. But I also
don't know if that like takes away from what made
Kobe great, which is like sort of a lot of
the mid range footwork stuff, you know whatever, Like are
you taking him out of some of the positions that
(35:30):
sort of made him special.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well, the thing with that is that you would need
Kobe to like actually take those shots, and like I
don't know that he'd want to get you know, always
take the shots if he had that kind of stroke.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Oh actually told Kobe, They're like, you have the green light,
launch as soon as you cross half court.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Twenty a game, twenty a game, twenty three is a
game he would be.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Shooting twenty a game.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Do you think it would average like thirty shots a game?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, Oh, probably would be unprecedent. It would be will Emberlain,
like it would be just like nobody touches this thing.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
He actually he finally would crack the one hundred, you
know he would he would get you know, just on
shooting variants one night.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Like cracked it with not a great three point shot
close Like imagine.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Magic with Jordan's athleticism or Wimby with Shack strength while
maintaining his flexibility.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I gotta got I'm shack pilled. I guess is what
we're finding out. I gotta go Wemby with Shack. I'm
sorry that that that is an unstoppable player to me.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I mean is checked strength. But does he have Shack's body.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Like that's current body.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Wemby's current body, but somehow like he would just be
like exploding off of his body.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
How does he hit so hard?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
He's like, yeah, man, Magic with Jordan's athleticism would be
pretty interesting. I mean it's not like Magic was a
bad athlete or anything, but.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh no, he wasn't great by NBA standards. Posted Yeah,
like if you.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Were taking off from the free throw line and it's
like this is a different conversation.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yeah, and he's right, yeah, and still has the same
playmaking vision and whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So not probably, he's probably like Lebron, right, just Lebron.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
It's funny you mentioned that Lebron. Yeah, because the.
Speaker 6 (37:16):
Last one I got here for you is Kareem with
AIS handle or Lebron.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's seven foot.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
I can't believe that we're debating whether or not a
I would enhance Kareem at this point. Is there's nothing
that this that it's not that, it's not going to touch.
There's no industry a slap Lebron aka Jokic.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Come on, man, that's not Joic. What are you talking about.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I mean, look, it's Lebron. He stills Lebron's speed and yeah, no,
it's got to be Lebron. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh so Lebron's speed like Jokic got it?
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Just like it exactly. Yeah, the guy that was beating
my guy, Anthony Davis down the court.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Sometimes when I'm watching Lebron highlights and Yokic highlights, I
get the mixed up. Yeah, it's just I got I'm like,
hold on rewinding.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
Was that that was light skin Lebron? That was light skin.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Labrun And finally you have to help us pick the
game of the week. Our last guest did a bad job.
I'm just gonna say it. They they picked Thunder at
the Knicks and it was a snoozefest.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
The Thunder destroyed them.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Uh, you can't let that happen, Harrison. Are our fans,
our listeners are counting on you. The NBA is counting
on you. All right, here are your candidates coming up
Thursday tonight. For many of the people listening to this,
you got the Calves of the Thunder.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
That's gonna be a tough one to compete with.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
That. What I was gonna pick very quickly Friday Magic
at Celtics on ESPN or Grizzlies at Spurs also on ESPN.
Calves at Wolves on Saturday or Sunday, And this one's
gonna be not that hard to compete with Lakers at
Clippers or Nuggets at Magic, both local games.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Gets the magic? All right?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Which one are you picking?
Speaker 3 (39:06):
I Calves Thunder I think is the obvious case.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
You know that way, let's not get let's just do
the right one.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, we'll say that. Second up, though, I think pretty
clearly is Spurs Grizzlies, because that is one of those
games where it's like you have an opportunity to see
two of like the sort of one of one athletes
in today's game, like that that that game I'm willing
to predict will be maybe Calf's Thunder will be a
better game, but that game will probably produce the most
TikTok highlights.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, you know, fun God, just still so fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
It's like John Wemby trying to just like out TikTok
each other, you know, just like with the like we're
we're not playing for the winner of the game. We're
playing for who is going to be the Sports Center
Top ten play tonight?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's two people who appear to be Marvel
characters in most highlights. Like it doesn't make sense, all right,
Harrison Fagan, you have u successfully completed the gauntlet. You've
made it through the rabbit fire round of questions, you
got all the answers correct somehow. Congratulations. Where can people
(40:11):
find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
So you can find me on Twitter at hm Fagan
h M F A I G E n on Blue
Sky at fake News f A I g N E
w f at that. I wish I had been clever
enough to grab when I started my Twitter account, but
only thought of like later on in college, so I
use it for other platforms, but unfortunately it was already
(40:35):
claimed on Twitter, so that's messed up. I use it.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Should we follow them anyways? No?
Speaker 3 (40:41):
No, it was like it was. I'm pretty sure it
was somebody who was a listener of our old podcast
who did it as a rank and then forgot they
made the account. It's just like they're and dead now. Yeah.
You know, good bit though, and uh yeah, you can
check me out on spnation dot com. You know, I
oversee all of our men's and women's basketball coverage we've
(41:02):
been doing. Yeah, we're gonna be having some fun stuff
on unrivaled coming up, you know, the women new women's
three on three off season league. And then in addition
to of course, like all the NBA trade deadline coverage
that you'd expect from SB Nation and our wide range
of nerds across the team site universe.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
One big prediction, who do you think gets moved? If
you had to think like, okay, there is going to
be I'm telling you now, there's gonna be a trade
that everybody's gonna be like wow about uh what what
is it?
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I mean? Okay, if I was gonna produce joke.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
When I said, you made it through the rapid fire
around a questioning you still have one.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Like apparently we did it earlier this seventh it's Jimmy
Butler to the Magic, you know, Yeah, Jimmy Butler, Sam
Bacon with all those picks, you know. Yeah, that's the
Jimmy Butler sixth Man of the Year campaign with Okay, see, do.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
We ever get your ans are on Jimmy Butler, Zach
Levine or KD? Which would you pull for the Lakers?
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Who's b for you? In eriting?
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Oh, it's KD, KD?
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, okay, that's that's the right answer, although Jimmy might
be interesting. Yeah, Katy, Katy's Jimmy is like it's it's.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
It's just doubling down on the type of player of
the Lakers already happened, just like that can't shoot that well.
Oh you know, it's like KD. At least it's like
would all of a sudden, you know, instead of like
Cam Reddish spacing the four for Lebron It's KD.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Okay, okay, you know what you sold me?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yeah, that's always like by the way, Jabari was saying,
it was Zach Levine said final answer before we start.
Before Zach Levine's final answer. All right, Harris and Pagan,
thank you so much for joining us. Jabari, where can
people find you?
Speaker 6 (42:47):
I'm easy on Twitter at Jabari A Davis and on
Blue Sky where I spend most of my time JABORI Davis, NBA.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
All right, I'm at Jack Underscore O'Brien on Twitter, Jack
ob one on Blue Sky the number one, and you can.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Follow Miles that Miles of Gray. Again. We will link
off to the gofund me.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
In the show notes and until then we will be
back next week.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Until then, bye bye, enjoy the idea. Stay safe out there,
Well, well, well, welcome back to the NBA's only podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Don't fact check us on that one.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Uh, Calves and Thunder still leading their respective conferences, but
several teams are kind of making some moves behind them.
We'll touch on the latest from around the league, discuss
what teams need to make moves ahead of the February
sixth deadline. We'll get into all of that with SB
Nations Harrison Fagan on today's episode. I'm Jack O'Brien and
(00:31):
I'm producer JABORI in for months.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And this is Miles jacksontime.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Dot chitch.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Sorry guy, it looka donch hitch ta.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
NB driving Spinny Fatter number eighteen that's been secured the
Suffolks or NBA Champions over the couplet.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wow, that was like spoken word you were giving me.
William Shatner Jabari on that one.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Paris and Fagan, what's going on? Man? Welcome back, returning champion.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Always happy to be here, guys up top.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I do just want to give a shout out to
all the people who are being affected by the fire
and acknowledge that Miles and his family did lose their
home in the fire last week. Uh So we will
be linking off to their GoFundMe in the show notes
of this episode and some fundraiser from one of the
(01:46):
Zeke Daily Zeke's listeners, so that you can go contribute
there and or if you have.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Something to give.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
If not, you know, just let him know you're thinking
about him.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But the NBA has pressed on.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
The Lakers took took a week and are back to
being fairly mediocre, got the ranks beat off them by
the San Antonio Spurs. But well we'll get into that,
but first we do want to check in with the
two teams that I don't think. I guess people knew
okay See was going to be one of the best
(02:19):
teams in the league, but I don't know that the
Calves were necessarily there.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Harrison.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Before we get into any of this, I do just
I like to ask all of our smart people who
know stuff about basketball, how are you feeling. Is this
the Calves Eastern Conference to lose? Or is are we
all just waiting to see if the Celtics decide to
give it to them?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Is it the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Calves in no disrespect to the Calves, who have obviously
been incredible this year. They're just like a buzz saw
every single night. They just it Like, I don't I
have not looked this up, but I feel like they
have to have the highest point differential in the league
and if it's not, I guess if it's not them,
it's maybe okay. See, but it just feels like they
blow everyone out just with their consistency. But for me,
it's still the Celtics just because of what we saw
(03:06):
them do last year and we know that teams are
it's sort of prone to these title hangovers. It's hard
to keep up that level of intensity that you have
when going after your first ring for that whole next
year when it's like, okay, wait, we got to do
the whole eighty two games again before we get to
the playoffs and defend the title. So I do think
that there's some natural like we've seen that throughout NBA history,
and I think now that the league is as deep
(03:28):
as it is that you just feel that more on
a night to night basis because there are more talented
teams that you know, if you're only bring your BEEP
minus game, like, they can beat you. And the Celtics.
They have a target on their back because of the
defending championship thing and because they sort of ran through
the playoffs last year. So I still think they're really good,
and as much as it pains me to say, like,
(03:49):
but I do think that they should still be considered
the favorites to come out of the East, despite how
good Cleveland has been.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I guess part of me is like in those times
in the past when it's like we're just waiting for
Shack to play himself into shape and then like the
Lakers are gonna do it, or you know, teams. I
think the second year that the Rockets won the title,
they were like not good during the regular season and
then turned it on they were like, yeah they were,
(04:16):
they were sick, so I think they were six. But
those were years when I think people were looking around
being like yeah, but like they's not a team. There's
not a team that's like stormed in and been like, Okay,
this is actually our league. Whereas the Calves are like
on pace to win seventy one games. Whether that happens,
I don't know, but like they definitely seem capable of it.
Like there's nothing about what they're doing to this point
(04:38):
that seems fluky. So it is intriguing. Like I'm as
somebody who's like a pessimistic Celtic hater, I'm always loath
to like have any hope that they're not going to
win the title, but like, this is more hopeful than
I was at this.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Stage last year.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I'll say, as somebody who just roots for the field
against the Celtics.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
As as your partner in crime in that regard, No, like, seriously,
the deeper we get, I think.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It's all three of us. I think it's no one.
There's no podcast in the NBA sphere that wants the
Celtics to be bad more than this these three.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, this is we're all pulling in the same direction here.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
But but I genuinely do believe in these caves, like
the deeper we get the first ten games, I said, Okay,
you know what, that's cute, that's cool. You know, then
we you know, we get to twenty games, and you
get to thirty games, you get to forty games. End
of the year, it's like, no, unless something catastrophic takes place,
this is going to be the one of the Okay,
maybe not the team, but one of the teams to
be in a very difficult out and when it comes,
(05:35):
you know, from the Boston side of things, just to
kind of you know, uh, touching on what you know,
what you reference, it's a lot more you know, it's
that old boxing addage. It's a lot more difficult to
get up and run those miles when you're getting up
in silk pajamas, you know what I mean, Like every
everybody's got the grind that first time before.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Oh no, but it's Muhammad Ali said it. Uh uh.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
The late marvelous Marvin Hagler, one of my favorite boxes
in the eighties, showing my age, he used to say
it as well. But yeah, you said, basically, the initial grind.
Everybody has that within them. But once you know, once
you reach the top, it's like all of a sudden,
you know, you went to bend and silk pajamas or
do you really feel like getting up at three am?
You know, to run those minds? And I'm not saying
that Boston is taking it easy, but you know, kind
(06:16):
of to your point, Jack, everyone is going after them
because now you know, now you're the tight, now you're
the you know, the defending champs. And you're not going
to get a night off in this league.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Donovan Mitchell wakes up every morning in a hair suit
and exactly Isonna's grind right away, Yeah, all right, I do.
I'm just checking in. We're not going to make everything
about the Caves versus the Celtics. Uh, and we do. So.
The Calves did beat okay see in their head to
have matchup ok see, then promptly beat the Brakes off
(06:45):
the Knicks and our game of the week one twenty
six to one oh one. Shay put up thirty nine
on twenty one shots. Jalen Williams was solid. The story
of the game was Isaiah Joe going eight for eleven
from three off the bench on the way to I
think he had thirty one. He's apparently the best player
in the league based on what I saw in this game.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I was gonna say, is that the story of the
game or just the story of like your sadness because
the Sixers cut him in training camp? Yeah two years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
No, it's it's not great. And thank you Harrison for
bringing that up, because.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Did you even remember that?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, I remember drafting him and.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
This is this is like core sixers trauma over the
couple years.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's just guys who come off
the bench in the league are better at basketball then
I can even possibly imagine, Like so many of them
are just waiting for their opportunity to be like I
have superpowers too. And yeah, he was just so good
(07:50):
in this in this game, just a lot of back
cuts and then just knocking down every.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Open three that he got. Did you guys watch this game?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What were your thoughts on h on this one?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I did?
Speaker 6 (08:01):
I mean, like, and it's kind of where I think
you're going to go with Shaye, Like I look at
Shae and you know, we mentioned it in the you know,
ahead of the show, like he's got like the perfect
old man's game, but like not slow. I'm not saying,
you know, but he's just everything is deliberate everything, you know,
there's no wasted energy. It just looks so easy out there.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, it's like what if the old man was also
the fastest guy in the gym. You know, he has
all his trickery, but he's still in his complete athletic
prime and able to stop on a dime and has
all these turkey jerky moves and it is just like that,
you know, start stop, sort of like it's a little
bit like hardened during those MVP years where he just
was like he wasn't the fastest guy in the league,
(08:41):
but he was the quickest at hitting the brakes, and
very few guys Luca does this as well, and like
Shaye has mastered sort of the dark arts of that
mid range, you know, the sort of area where he
is able to get in there and he's able to
go back forth, back forth, back forth, and then before
you know, eventually his defenders was running off in the
other direction and he's getting a shot off and yeah,
it's just yeah, he's He's incredible, And it's the remarkable
(09:04):
thing about Okay, see is at least with the Calves
are like, Okay, they've had their whole team for the
most part droughoup most of the year, and so of
course you know they're they're playing firing on all cylinders.
The thunder are missing a guy or two like almost
every single night, and they're still managing this. It's just
incredible how deep they are.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, Shay makes buckets look easier than anyone. He's as
good at getting buckets and makes them look easier than anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It is really like.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Something to behold. I can't think of somebody who ever
like made it look that easy in my time where
it's just like it really like it if you're trying.
You know, people like to like cross someone up and
have them like fall over as they hit a three
on them. But like making it look this easy as
you score on someone has to be also like a
new kind of dispiriting where you're just like maybe.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
From a guard. But I would say that there have
been I would say there have been big men who
make it look like if you watch them for the
first time, you would just set like Anthony Davis, you know,
like uh yeah in Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembin Yama, like
these guys. Like sometimes if you were to just show
someone who had never watched basketball before, just like Anthony
Davis getting thirty points, they'd be like, Okay, that guy's
(10:10):
getting lucky, right, that's falling all over the plate, like
throwing stuff up, like it doesn't look like he's played before.
And it's like, now, that's just sort of what his
game looks like at his height, and you know, that's
what a tall person with that level of coordination looks
like they still look not that coordinated, and so you
know it's but yeah, among guards that he's truly unique
with how effortless he can make it look. I guess
(10:31):
Steph during his prime it was different, but you know,
he would just sort of come off of a screen
and just like like toss up a prayer and it
was just going in every time.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That one shot from right before the break where he
was like running to the left and like did a
spin move and then threw it up like and just
kept running was one of the coolest things.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
There's got to be nobody more demoralizing the guard in
NBA history. It's just like, yeah, he's just like taking
the shots you want him to take and they're going in.
It's just yeah, but he looked.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's like he I always bring back Like during that
one game against Okay, see that was like I think
kind of his big call. It was a regular season game,
but he was just going off and then he hit
the game winner from half court and somebody tweeted, Steph's
got a demon.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's all there is to it.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Steph's just got a and like that's always he he
seems like he has some manner of like uh yeah,
yeah yeah, it's just like yeah yeah, whereas uh Sha
just looks like he's moving a different like speed or
(11:38):
it's like it it kind of boggles the mind, like
how he's doing that real quick. Going back to the
Isaiah Joe thing, because I'm just curious if you guys
have ever had an experience with us where you played
against or witnessed a guy who like came off the
bench in the league in person, and like I once,
(11:59):
I went to the Kentucky Basketball camp a lot as
a kid. My dad was an assistant coach there, and
you know this is probably like as good as I got.
Was like my sophomore year and Tony Delk was there,
and you know he knew me from my dad, and
he was like handed me the ball was like let
me see, Like what what have you been working on?
(12:19):
Let me see you like dribble it. And the ease
with which to so Tony Delk, for people who don't know,
like not a consistent starter ever in the league. He
did have one game where he put up fifty great
three point shooter in college, won the championship in college,
but the ease with which he took the ball every time,
(12:40):
like like I was in slow motion or let like
it was almost like having the magician do the like
pull a coin from behind your ear where you're just
like wait, how did that get How did the ball
get in his hand? Like every single time was just
like I was like, Oh, we're playing like different games.
This person who is going to be like scoffed at
(13:00):
by an NBA fans. Yeah, he's so incredibly good at basketball.
It's like again like it, yeah, it's like watching a
magic show.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's like I can't wrap my mind around that.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
I mean it for me, it really boils down to
the worst player in the league, the guy that everybody
will say like, oh that guy sninks.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Will dog you.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It doesn't.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
It does not matter who you are.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Brian Scalabrini actually did that. He hosted like a tournament
for guys to come and play against him who had
like trash talked him on Twitter and just like destroyed them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah. The Scalabrini anecdote is a is a really good
one for anybody. I think you can still find that.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. Yeah, I'd never I
was not a good basketball player, so I was not
in like high level games against future NBA players, But
I played like pick up a couple times with like
guys that had played overseas in Europe or something, and
we're still in the area and like that kind and
it's just like even those level guys like they're not
they weren't anywhere near the NBA, and they're just like
it's just like a different level of human being. You know,
(13:56):
it's not it's not fair.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, this guy I played against an eighth grade who
would like put it between his legs with one hand,
like he would do right hand in and out, dribble
through his legs and then like dunk on you. I
was like, well, clearly this guy is going to be
the best player of all time. And he ended up
like playing mid mid division one.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's just yeah, yeah, you have to be an alien
to make it.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It's truly unbelievable. Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break.
We'll come back. We'll talk about our two teams. You know,
both struggling. But I think we're in the same boat here, guys,
And I know that makes you feel good, feeling like
you're in the same boat as the seventy six Ers
this season.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Let's take a break, we'll.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Be right back, and we're back. So the Lakers took
a week off following the start of the Southern California Fires,
return to action on Monday versus the Spurs, and it
didn't go so well. I was pulling for them. I mean,
(15:03):
I was pulled for the Lakers when it's not the Sixers.
But yeah, the addition of Shake DFS, it's not it's
not quite what we needed at least thus far.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, how are you guys, as unrealistic Lakers fans feeling
right now?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah? I first of all, I love that you led
with shake there instead off. That was to a former
Sixers fan, that's trade.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah. Yeah, as a fan of cool names, that's the
ship it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It is incredible, just basketball player name, Like it's I
wish he was better because it would be really exciting,
it would be really fun, you know. Yeah. Yeah, No,
from what I've been told from the people who followed
his career, like he's gonna have some games in March
where you're going to be like, this guy is ready
to go playoff rotation. You know, he just dropped thirty
(15:55):
because just like two, there's two starters out, you know,
Shake Milton is ready to go cook. Yeah again, speaking
of like how deep the league is, is like he's
a guy that can go out and you know, get
some buckets and is probably not really going to be
a consistent rotation player for the Lakers. But yeah, I
think the team is the biggest issue to me and Jabaria,
I don't know, you can weigh in here as well.
(16:15):
Has been that I think that how much they want
to switch ever since it was pointed out to me
by Darius Soriano, longtime form Blue and Gold, longtime silver
screen role as well. Yeah, one of the best like
Lakers pundits, Like he pointed out like the ease with
which they're giving up switching, And once you have that
in your head, you can't unsee it. It's just like
(16:35):
it is effortless switching. You know, they are not you know,
they'll just sort of hand you Austin Reeves on a
platter to go and hunt. It's like, I'm not saying
Austin Reeves, you know, I expect him to do really
well on defense and stuff, but you should so if
that's true, you should be trying harder to not give
up that matchup. You should have plans in place to
help Austin, you know, but they're just letting teams sort
(16:57):
of pick on him. And you know, again, I'm not
saying that he's like some defensive stopper that I think,
you know, I think he's got to step it up whatever.
It's like, no, if you're the Lakers, used to come
help him, Like you can't just allow for this to
be happening, you know, and just like there's like a
simple brush screen and you're just sort of like, okay,
well all right, I guess you get often now, and
(17:17):
that it sort of plays into I think some of
the lazier tendencies of this team, where they're very much
you know, there are a lot of vets on this team,
most primarily Lebron and ad Are. They're sort of like
veteran core, and they're two guys who are happy to
sort of, you know, coast through a night on the
regular season, like they want to see if they can
put the foot down for one quarter and sort of
eliminate it. And I think that all the switching that
(17:39):
the Lakers do sort of plays into some of those
tendencies like ah, you know, Austin's got it. We'll let
really make that back line rotation.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
It's fine, Yeah, Darius is exactly right. But the one
thing that I'll say, it's just straight out Offensively, they
have looked better at times. Defensively, they still look every
bit as lost as what Ad described in the you know,
like a down the stretch of the season last year
when they were laying for him. I'm no longer the
type person he just goes like, okay, get him out
of here. Look you can't. You can't keep going getting
(18:05):
rid of coaches. You know what you shout out to Frank.
Still I still feel strd for you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Look, man, I think we've all seen now that the
Sons got rid of Frank and solved all their problems.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Everything's better now.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I think, Yeah, clearly the guy you want clearly the problem.
Same with the Lakers. When you guys got rid of him,
you went from winning a.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Title, uh, to.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Forget Oh yeah yeah the plan, that's right.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
But yeah, no, I think of the playoffs. So the
year he got fired, but that was the fault.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Nah, I think it was.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I think we got that uh the vocal effect.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
But what it feels like to me is, look, we
know what Lebron is at this stage. He can still
you know, wrapped it up offensively in a lot of games. Defensively,
it's hit or miss, and it's going to be hit
or miss even you know, like from one, you know,
from one time down to the Knicks. That's fine, you're
forty something years old, Like I get it. You know,
a d when he's properly utilized, you know he can.
He still looks great. Reeves has been good for them,
(19:07):
but beyond that, look, they got a few style of
players left, but it's not enough, like you know, and
I'm sorry, I'm gonna do shameless Kendrick drops no matter what,
even if it fits into the conversation or not. But
I feel like, you know, the debate about like whether
this team can turn it on or you'll figure it out,
like we need to stop having net and it's either
go ahead and sell out for the field, you know,
sell out your future, or stop lying and just acknowledge, Okay,
(19:30):
we're just gonna play this, you know, play this out.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Where do you think they're gonna go with?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
You know, I've been saying sort of a similar thing
and that like you know, if you're just trying to
sell tickets around Lebron and ad and you know that
that's that's sort of the goal for this team, and
you don't want to mortgage anymore of the future, Like
that's fine, but you also well, actually, no, it's not fine,
Like you should be trading off pieces and trying to
rebuild for the future, like no, no half measures. You know,
it's the breaking badism, like you should either be going
(19:54):
all in and use some of these picks to go
get better at the trade deadline or you or you're
just continuing to waste every one's time. And so I
also think that you know not to commit like the
I'm not saying the Lakers are better without Lebron, but
I will say that there were moments when he was
out emissively where it looked like they were not lazily
(20:17):
switching as often and they were a little bit more intact.
And I still think, you know, obviously, this team is
not going to be able to reach like its highest
heights without Lebron on the roster, Like there's just a
level of like athletic dynamism and playmaking that he gives
them that no one else on the roster has, Like
this team would be bad if Lebron just sat out
the rest of the season. This is not what I'm
(20:38):
trying to say, but I think that someone needs to
let him know that it's like, you know, even if
you have to take ten percent of your offense, you know,
a ratchet down your offensive effort a little bit, like
you've got to give a little bit more on defense
than you're giving. Because we've seen this year after year,
roster after roster, that it trickles down to the rest
of the guys. When you know, when he is sort
of yelling at you for getting that cut, well he
(20:59):
was just standing there.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
It's like that is going to sap morale a little bit,
and it's good. You're not gonna see guys sell out
as hard to you know, stop their own man. And
you can't just have like someone just sort of getting
you know, just allowing players to you know, get loose
on the weak side. And so I do think that
there's a little bit of he's going to lock in
more once they get closer to the playoffs, like that's
(21:21):
what we've seen him do. And so I think that
to some degree, they just got to get through this
right now, and I expect that like that effort will
ratchet up once it gets closer to you know, the
Promised Land. But yeah, it's kind of rough right now,
and it's it's not helping, you know, the rest of
the guys sort of find their footing.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I don't think I think we just solve each other's problems.
You take mb, we take Lebron and be for Lebron.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Who says that straight up?
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Teams say no to that, say both both teams cuss
each other out and then yeah, screaming it one another.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Like maybe that would have been anyway. I do just
want to raise is it too late to just all
out tank for both franchises because Cooper Flag put up
forty two points in a game.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm gonna say yes because the Sixers, isn't the Sixers
pick only top six protected?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, Yet I don't know that they're going to out
tank some of the other teams that are down there
at this point. It's good enough odds and the Lakers
straight up don't have their pick, so there's no benefit
for them in louzed like unless they unless they just
really want to do Atlanta favor and just send Cooper
Flag to Atlanta and help out Tray Young then yeah,
there's no incentive for them to tank this year.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, we need to be bottom six to get there.
I mean, Embiid has been hurt. Now, Maxi's hurt. And
we were just talking about the Paul George draft before
you got on Harrison. Paul George, the other people in
that draft are long gone from the league.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Like he was fourteen, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
No, Paul Dredge is twenty ten, twenty ten. Yeah, John Walla,
DeMarcus Cousins, Gordon Hayward is like the most recent person
who was like still playing excuse me, Jack.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's education reform, as we.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Will always know.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, Like I didn't think Paul Paul George is like
one of the elder states man. I was like, yeah,
he's on the older side of his career. He is
all like he is up there, man.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I mean we should have guessed when he tried to
sort of like come for our jobs as a podcaster.
You know. Yeah, he is like like he's preparing for
that to be his primary source of income after the
Sixers contract.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
You know, so next Lakers coach after JJ, is that
what you're saying?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Look, the podcaster to a Lakers coach pipeline is it's
it's it bore stronger results earlier in the year, I
would say, but I think JJ solid. So yeah, maybe
Paul George was that. That's that's what's next for him.
He's gonna he's gonna be the next great podcaster turn coach.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
So you're gonna let JJ stay. You're gonna trade Lebron.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
One team should have to hire a podcaster every offseason, every.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And then they keep their show going though.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's like the NFL has the has the show that
goes around a training camp that rotates around the league.
It's like, okay, we spun the wheel, and like this
year it's okay, see sorry, you got to hire a podcaster.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Coach Bill Simmons taking over the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
He wouldn't be like he know, like he'd actually be
an okay, maybe GM. He does like tend to have
a good sense of when the Celtics are good.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That's what.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Compared to other like basketball talking heads. As much as
we like to make fun of him, he does seem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
To like have a pretty good eye for the NBA.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, I think there would be worst podcasters to hire
as a head coach.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, yeah, not me. Though I'm number one.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I think I would lose the locker rip like I
would make Adrian Griffin look like he was like in
the running for Coach of the Year early on with
the Bucks last year. Well, he kind of was, really,
he kind of was.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
He was twenty twenty plus games over five up dred and.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
They said, then, what's it like if they've been matched
that pool?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Once again? It was another team that changed the coach
and fixed all their problems, you know, as he solved
it as he has in all of his uh, all
the places he's gone.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I'd come in and inspire them with a tale of
Tony Delk picking my pocket repeatedly, and they'd be like,
this guy, here's what believe.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Me that I was meant to be a coach.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Right there you go.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Elsewhere around the league, the Pacers ended the Cavs winning
streak at twelve, find themselves up in the fifth seed
in the Eastern Conference. If everybody stays kind of where
they're at right now, that four or five six with
the you know, Pacers Orlando Milwaukee fighting it out, UH,
could be could be interesting. What are you feeling about?
(25:47):
Just is the East basically Boston and Cleveland. Is there
anybody else there who has got your eye a glimmering?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
I mean, I would say the Knicks their result against
the Thunder notwithstanding, you know, I know that they've they've
had sort of like a rougher you know, last couple
of weeks. I know they haven't been as good. But
I do still believe largely in that core. And I
also think that again, like that's a team that if
they can get to the playoffs healthy, which has been
a big if for Tibbs teams, you know, but he
is a guy that has them ready to go all
(26:14):
out for those playoff level minutes over the course of
a playoff series because he's already playing the playoff level
minutes the entire regular season. And so you know, guys
like Josh Hart, Guy's like whoever, Like they're in shape
for that. They're ready. They're not getting winded, you know
at the beginning at the start of playoff games. They're
ready for that intensity. So I do I like the Knicks.
And also, you know, like their top six is just
(26:35):
like incredible. So the Knicks in the East, I think
that's probably the only one other than the Cavs or self,
that like I don't know that I could see any
teams coming out of the East to the other than
those three.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Not Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're not believe I'm not in on Yeah, I don't.
I mean they're okay, you know, respect to the NBA
Cup winners, but yeah, I don't. I don't see it.
Winning three rounds to get to the finals is a
tough It's just tough to see with that roster.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Or Land is intriguing to me because they have like
such an incredible weapon and their defense, but you have
to make so many shots to make it to like
win the title like that, the ball has to go
in so many times.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
The Rtlantos is a team that theoretically could get better
at the deadline because not only have they been like
really like really really banged up for the first half
of this year, but they have basically all of their
own draft picks, if not all of their own draft picks,
And so if there was a team that was like, hey,
poised to be a buyer and had a real reason
to because they have a really solid cores already and
they're like, hey, we're one super ball handling point guard
(27:35):
away from you know, being able to really compete here,
then you know, the magic could justify making an all
in push.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
All right, here's here's my one crazy thing that I
say in each episode.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Jabari is one crazy thing, one crazy thing by some medication.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, let's say something that you can you just drop
a sponsor name just for the what about Jimmy to
world and just go all in on being the guttiest
just filthiest team that like like like an inn a series.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
You watch them play, you go, I feel sick to
my stomach watching that team play. I don't know, I
like it. It would just be I actually don't like.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
It, to be honest, So you can be real, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I feel like every time we're like yeah, what if
they just like steer into their identity. What if they're like, yeah,
we'll get even bigger and everyone's.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
A big guy. I feel like it like doesn't always
work out that well.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You know what if we had another guy who wants
the ball and can't shoot, you know, yeah, and then
it's gonna yell at all of our good vibes players
if things are going well yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So yeah, meh, what if the vibes were bad?
Speaker 4 (28:53):
We're really bad on this team that has really good vibes.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
If the Kings were not streaking right now, I would say,
like the you know, Vespiana. We wrote a story for
Espionation about how dearon Fox would be a great target
for them, and you know, obviously it seems unlikely that
that's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Now.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It seems like the Kings have sort of righted the
ship and probably.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Want to be like I have won seven in a row,
since they're not going to blow it up at the
deadline anymore.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But you know, someone like that, if they could get
like a quick point guard or someone at some shooting,
you know, I think that would help them a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Doug Christie Also, this is the Jacks Don't Look Now
segment of the Week. We're adding a bunch of sponsored
segments right now just because, yeah, just because, well why not.
Jacks Don't Look Now of the Week brought to you
by Super There. It is so easy to drive, you
don't even have to look while you're driving.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Don't look now.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
The Pistons are now above five hundred at twenty one
and nineteen after going eight and two over the last
ten games.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
That's incredible for them.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Like I'm sad to say, I'm incredibly jealous of the Pistons,
And I don't know, do we think they should be
buyers or do we think they should just be like
this is so fun, let's just like see where we
take it.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
If I were them, I would stick with what they
have because I don't think that you're gonna I don't
think that whatever you add at this deadline is going
to be enough to sort of like push you towards
any meaningful playoff run this year. Like I would continue
to evaluate. I would actually see, you know, if not
necessarily be sellers, but see if you can you know,
because they they're one of the teams that they're They're
(30:34):
part of the reason why the trade deadline probably is
not going to be like that crazy active is because
they were originally a team with cap space that you
would have pinpointed is like, Okay, they're that third team
that's gonna help facilitate some of these deals between contenders.
They'll take on some draft picks, take on some money,
you know, sort of make the financial stuff work. But
I don't know, like they could still do something like that,
but they may not be as inclined to just like
(30:55):
sort of take dead salary and so that might mess
up the trade deadline for know a number of other teams,
which you know isn't the Pistons prerogative, but you know
it sort of does sort of throw a wrench in
some of these scenarios because of the new Apron rules
around like first second Apron and you know how much
teams can take back in the trade. You a lot
of times need that third facilitating partner, and you know,
(31:16):
they can run it back or I guess continue to
run it with this roster. Yeah, because it's not running
it back. They're still in this season, but they can
continue to sort of run with this roster and then
potentially they're going to be like good players available, you know,
this off season in sort of salary dumps because teams
are going to be dealing with these like honorous tax
penalties and onerous honorous So I think that they should
(31:39):
I would say the course if I was them, I
think that you know, you're in the middle of a
fun season. You're you're in the most fun type of
NBA season, arguably like a team that wasn't expected to
be that good and it's now like really fun for
their fans if they can like chase a play in
birth playoff birth, Like, I think that's enough, and then
you continue to build on that strong young core.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
So say they do this, Say they go that route
and shout out to j B Biggest for the job
that he's done there.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, say say they go.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
That route and you know, they get a play in
you know situation where they lose, and you know, but
they was it was a good experience. What type of
player would you like to pair with Kate?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's a good question, you know. I think you probably
need like like another guard that can handle a little
bit and can also like relieve some of the pressure
on him by being able to shoot. You know. I
think that's probably what they need the money, because he's
like he's a point guard but sort of you know,
like he's a guy that could probably he's a little
bit combo GUARDI and I don't mean that it's like
(32:34):
the insult that a lot of people mean it as
when they're like basically saying you're a bench guard a
combo guard. That just means you're a bench guard. You know,
you're not good enough to start at shooting guard or
point guard. No, like he's clearly above that level. He's
a playmaker. But I think that they could use like,
probably you know, a point guard that can, you know it,
take a little bit more gravity off of him and
pull some of those defenders away, like Jade and Ivy's good,
(32:56):
but he's just not that level of shooter yet, and
so I think the like adding like a point guard
with a little bit more shooting ability would probably be
the ideal backcourt partner for him.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
I can see it.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Listen up, just gonna try and trade him to every
team everyone, even though they're good.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
A trade between our two don't look now teams. And finally,
don't look now. Zion's finally back. And he did a
sick windmill three sixty that I don't know, seemed like
he was inadvertently revealing that he has superpowers. Like it's
just incredible. It's just like, oh, yeah, I was I
was hurt in quotes, but watch me do this. But anyways,
(33:34):
very excited about that. I think he was suspended like
a game, but uh from missing a team flight. But
all right, let's take a quick break and we'll be
right back. And we're back, and it is the rapid
(33:56):
fire out of questioning, Harrison, you're gonna want to give
us first answer that comes to mind. We're gonna be
firing shots at you and you just gotta come back
bounce them back right at us.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
As longtime listeners know, I always do really great at
the segment to giving you a break.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
One of the best, one of the best world. All right, Jabari,
you want to start?
Speaker 6 (34:16):
Yeah, because I did throw that silly one in there,
and I will probably proudly.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Ask Brian start the clock.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Yeah, Brian, start the clock? All right?
Speaker 6 (34:25):
This or that scenario, which would be the more dominant player?
Speaker 4 (34:29):
You got fun?
Speaker 6 (34:30):
You got three of them coming out, Shack with free
throw touch or Kobe with Curry's shot.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh, Pat, I'm going Shock with free throw touch. Yeah,
I'll do respect to Kobe. You see, Shack with free
throw touch is an unstoppable player that wins like eight
titles in a row.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yes, what are we talking? Free throw percenter is like
we're talking MBID.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Seventy five to eighty, you know, not like ninety, but
you know a good I thought we were giving him
like Steve Nash level free throws, you know, I mean,
you can get likenight perc.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Let's say eighty, let's say.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Eight Eightyes, MB, that would be nice.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, Embi, it is still going.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
It's so nice having somebody who's that big and can
get to the line in his area.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Definitely going shot in today's era. I think you can
make an argument for Kobe with Curry's shot, just because
shooting is so valuable now and just being able to
get up that number threes is huge. But I also
don't know if that like takes away from what made
Kobe great, which is like sort of a lot of
the mid range footwork stuff, you know whatever, Like are
you taking him out of some of the positions that
(35:30):
sort of made him special.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well, the thing with that is that you would need
Kobe to like actually take those shots, and like I
don't know that he'd want to get you know, always
take the shots if he had that kind of stroke.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Oh actually told Kobe, They're like, you have the green light,
launch as soon as you cross half court.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Twenty a game, twenty a game, twenty three is a
game he would be.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Shooting twenty a game.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Do you think it would average like thirty shots a game?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, Oh, probably would be unprecedent. It would be will Emberlain,
like it would be just like nobody touches this thing.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
He actually he finally would crack the one hundred, you
know he would he would get you know, just on
shooting variants one night.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Like cracked it with not a great three point shot
close Like imagine.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Magic with Jordan's athleticism or Wimby with Shack strength while
maintaining his flexibility.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I gotta got I'm shack pilled. I guess is what
we're finding out. I gotta go Wemby with Shack. I'm
sorry that that that is an unstoppable player to me.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I mean is checked strength. But does he have Shack's body.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Like that's current body.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Wemby's current body, but somehow like he would just be
like exploding off of his body.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
How does he hit so hard?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
He's like, yeah, man, Magic with Jordan's athleticism would be
pretty interesting. I mean it's not like Magic was a
bad athlete or anything, but.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh no, he wasn't great by NBA standards. Posted Yeah,
like if you.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Were taking off from the free throw line and it's
like this is a different conversation.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yeah, and he's right, yeah, and still has the same
playmaking vision and whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So not probably, he's probably like Lebron, right, just Lebron.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
It's funny you mentioned that Lebron. Yeah, because the.
Speaker 6 (37:16):
Last one I got here for you is Kareem with
AIS handle or Lebron.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's seven foot.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
I can't believe that we're debating whether or not a
I would enhance Kareem at this point. Is there's nothing
that this that it's not that, it's not going to touch.
There's no industry a slap Lebron aka Jokic.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Come on, man, that's not Joic. What are you talking about.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I mean, look, it's Lebron. He stills Lebron's speed and yeah, no,
it's got to be Lebron. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh so Lebron's speed like Jokic got it?
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Just like it exactly. Yeah, the guy that was beating
my guy, Anthony Davis down the court.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Sometimes when I'm watching Lebron highlights and Yokic highlights, I
get the mixed up. Yeah, it's just I got I'm like,
hold on rewinding.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
Was that that was light skin Lebron? That was light skin.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Labrun And finally you have to help us pick the
game of the week. Our last guest did a bad job.
I'm just gonna say it. They they picked Thunder at
the Knicks and it was a snoozefest.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
The Thunder destroyed them.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Uh, you can't let that happen, Harrison. Are our fans,
our listeners are counting on you. The NBA is counting
on you. All right, here are your candidates coming up
Thursday tonight. For many of the people listening to this,
you got the Calves of the Thunder.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
That's gonna be a tough one to compete with.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
That. What I was gonna pick very quickly Friday Magic
at Celtics on ESPN or Grizzlies at Spurs also on ESPN.
Calves at Wolves on Saturday or Sunday, And this one's
gonna be not that hard to compete with Lakers at
Clippers or Nuggets at Magic, both local games.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Gets the magic? All right?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Which one are you picking?
Speaker 3 (39:06):
I Calves Thunder I think is the obvious case.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
You know that way, let's not get let's just do
the right one.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, we'll say that. Second up, though, I think pretty
clearly is Spurs Grizzlies, because that is one of those
games where it's like you have an opportunity to see
two of like the sort of one of one athletes
in today's game, like that that that game I'm willing
to predict will be maybe Calf's Thunder will be a
better game, but that game will probably produce the most
TikTok highlights.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, you know, fun God, just still so fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
It's like John Wemby trying to just like out TikTok
each other, you know, just like with the like we're
we're not playing for the winner of the game. We're
playing for who is going to be the Sports Center
Top ten play tonight?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's two people who appear to be Marvel
characters in most highlights. Like it doesn't make sense, all right,
Harrison Fagan, you have u successfully completed the gauntlet. You've
made it through the rabbit fire round of questions, you
got all the answers correct somehow. Congratulations. Where can people
(40:11):
find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
So you can find me on Twitter at hm Fagan
h M F A I G E n on Blue
Sky at fake News f A I g N E
w f at that. I wish I had been clever
enough to grab when I started my Twitter account, but
only thought of like later on in college, so I
use it for other platforms, but unfortunately it was already
(40:35):
claimed on Twitter, so that's messed up. I use it.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Should we follow them anyways? No?
Speaker 3 (40:41):
No, it was like it was. I'm pretty sure it
was somebody who was a listener of our old podcast
who did it as a rank and then forgot they
made the account. It's just like they're and dead now. Yeah.
You know, good bit though, and uh yeah, you can
check me out on spnation dot com. You know, I
oversee all of our men's and women's basketball coverage we've
(41:02):
been doing. Yeah, we're gonna be having some fun stuff
on unrivaled coming up, you know, the women new women's
three on three off season league. And then in addition
to of course, like all the NBA trade deadline coverage
that you'd expect from SB Nation and our wide range
of nerds across the team site universe.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
One big prediction, who do you think gets moved? If
you had to think like, okay, there is going to
be I'm telling you now, there's gonna be a trade
that everybody's gonna be like wow about uh what what
is it?
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I mean? Okay, if I was gonna produce joke.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
When I said, you made it through the rapid fire
around a questioning you still have one.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Like apparently we did it earlier this seventh it's Jimmy
Butler to the Magic, you know, Yeah, Jimmy Butler, Sam
Bacon with all those picks, you know. Yeah, that's the
Jimmy Butler sixth Man of the Year campaign with Okay, see, do.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
We ever get your ans are on Jimmy Butler, Zach
Levine or KD? Which would you pull for the Lakers?
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Who's b for you? In eriting?
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Oh, it's KD, KD?
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, okay, that's that's the right answer, although Jimmy might
be interesting. Yeah, Katy, Katy's Jimmy is like it's it's.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
It's just doubling down on the type of player of
the Lakers already happened, just like that can't shoot that well.
Oh you know, it's like KD. At least it's like
would all of a sudden, you know, instead of like
Cam Reddish spacing the four for Lebron It's KD.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Okay, okay, you know what you sold me?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yeah, that's always like by the way, Jabari was saying,
it was Zach Levine said final answer before we start.
Before Zach Levine's final answer. All right, Harris and Pagan,
thank you so much for joining us. Jabari, where can
people find you?
Speaker 6 (42:47):
I'm easy on Twitter at Jabari A Davis and on
Blue Sky where I spend most of my time JABORI Davis, NBA.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
All right, I'm at Jack Underscore O'Brien on Twitter, Jack
ob one on Blue Sky the number one, and you can.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Follow Miles that Miles of Gray. Again. We will link
off to the gofund me.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
In the show notes and until then we will be
back next week.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Until then, bye bye, enjoy the idea. Stay safe out there,
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