What is krack alackin Harvarnox listeners, I am Damn Valley coming at you once
more without my fantabulous co host Adam frommel our team look Ahead Train rolls on.
We are onto the Brooklyn Nets. They have nothing going on at the
moment. Christian Winfield of the New York Daily News and co host of Uninterrupted
Certified Buckets podcast joins me to talk all things Nets, including the latest on
Kyrie Irving. So hopefully by the time you're listening to this the information is
not too dated given how many twists and turns the entire issue saga, just
situation has been thrown for whatever you want to call it. Be sure to
follow Christian on Twitter at Chris Plash. That's at kr I sp l A
s h e Ed does a great job covering this team and the league at
large for the Daily News, and like I said, he co hosts the
uninterrupted podcast Certified Buckets. Before we get started, just a reminder to continue
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Underscore Knox. Without any further delay, though, let's get to everything NETS
with the daily newses and uninterrupted Christian Winfield. Christian, thank you so much
for coming back on the hard NAS podcast. We are here to talk about
the Brooklyn Nets, who might be the most boring uneventful team. Yeah right,
I don't keep you busy at all, not at all, man.
Before we dive into the pure anarchy that is the Brooklyn Nets news cycle and
the upcoming season. I think the most important question is how are you doing.
I'm good, man. You know, I had a long summer.
It felt like, you know, a lot of downtime. And honestly,
it's just been a long, just period of time where there hasn't really been
much basketball going on, you know, like before Summer League. In preseason,
I was just really just like sitting on my ass chilling. You're not.
I put on some pandemic pounds, so it's happy to burn those things
off, man, And I'm ready to go. Man, I'm ready for
the season to go, and I'm ready for my ass to go to the
gym and get right. I will say, as someone who considers themselves a
fitness nut, putting on the pandemic pounds was a lot easier than working off
the pandemic pounds. It's funny, yeah, oh yeah, you know,
I wish I wish it was the inverse, you know, I wish,
I wish, I wish it was easy to burn these things off. But
life is so sweet. The Nets are baptizing you by fire. Though after
your off season, it does seem like we have to start with the this
is I mean it has on court invocation. We have to start with the
Kyrie Irving stuff. And you actually we're recording this on a Thursday. You
published a good piece of the Daily News, which if people haven't read it
here check it out. I think I retweeted it. If I didn't,
I'll go back and do it. I thought you did a nice job of
juggling the multiple truths that people struggle to grasp. Is that Kyrie Irving can
still have done great things for the community. He can have been right about
what he said about certain things with the media in the past, and he
could be absolutely fucking over the Brooklyn Nets right now. Those those things can
all be true at once. And so what is is what is your expectation
of this situation? And I think the main question for me is if Kyrie
Irving remains steadfast in his stance to not want to get vaccinated, do you
see the brooklyn Nets accommodating that, or is this this situation that is going
to deteriorate even further beyond those New York City limitation that have been put in
place. I feel like at this point, man, the only expectation I
have is myself and the concussion protocol. Every week. It's a different headache
every day. Bro, It's ridiculous. But I mean, you gotta look
at it from all angles, right on one end, you know, Yes,
Kyrie is I mean, I don't know about you. To me,
he's one of the most electrifying basketball players I've ever been able to watch.
You know what I'm saying, Just what he's able to do with the ball,
how he's listen. Yeah, and he didn't even play them any games,
but he's still he still was. He was remarkable, you know.
So, so there's that one part of everybody that understands say, this team
is a different level when you have a healthy Kyrie irving out there on the
floor. Right. But now, it's not even about health. It's about
a guy just like being on well, I guess it is tangential to health,
right, It's not an injury, it's it's a it's a decision not
to get a life saving vaccine, right, And it's just it's mind boggling
to the point where sometimes I struggle to find the words because I do in
one in one hand, I under stand, you know, some guys,
one of you know what I'm saying, or go to the vaccine. They
don't underst they don't know what the far reaching implications of it all. You
know, whatever people's reasons are, you know, I tip my hat to
Andrew Wiggins. I tip my hat to Bradley Beal. I tipped my hat
even to Jonathan Isaac, because at least they sat there and answered the questions.
Right. Their logic may be flawed on on a number of points,
and that's that's one thing we could discuss that. But actually standing there and
saying, hey, I'm not taking the vaccine for these reasons, I can
kind of respect that. For Kyrie to come out and say, hey,
respect my privacy. I've got a plan, you know, and then there's
been no movement so far, at least not right now. He could come
out tomorrow, you know what I'm saying, and have some type of plan
that that right, it could be it could all be a hoax, right,
this could all be just like a social experiment. I don't think that's
the case, you know. And for him to also just pull the respect
my privacy card on top of that, it's just it's just a lot because
now instead of asking Kyrie the questions. We're asking his teammates the question,
right. Kevin Durant said at practice today, Hey, you know, I'm
envisioning Kyrie as part of this team, but maybe that's just me being naive.
If you've got Kevin Durant saying maybe that's me being naive, then you've
got your starting to have a problem in Brooklyn. And this is this is
the Kyrie Irving formula. It happens every year. Remember last year he basically
told media he didn't want to talk to us. He said, Hey,
I'm gonna give you a letter. He wrote us a letter and saying he's
gonna let his play do the talking for him. And in his defense,
it did right, best season I've seen him play. And then obviously in
the middle of the season he takes two weeks off because of what happened at
the Nation's Capitol, right, And I get that that was heavy for everybody,
but it's just becoming something every single season. And it's just like,
at some point the nets have to say, Okay, what is the line?
What are we going to put up with? And I think that line
falls at part time, right, You're not a part time thirty five million
dollar player. Right, that's not what we're gonna do. And on top
of that, you're a hometown hero and now your hometown fans can't watch you
play, right. That that is really where it starts to get get tricky.
So I can't see it getting as part time player. I think that
the longerest thing drags out, the more likely we are to see a Kyrie
Irving tree. I go back and forth on whether it's a good thing that
he hasn't expanded upon his stands publicly or not, because I agree with you
that it look I everyone who listened to this podcast knows how I feel on
this subject. To me and it's not to me. Issues of public health
and safety are not personal matters. However, Andrew Wiggins, Bradley Beale,
like you mentioned, they answered questions about it, they didn't defer. And
while I'm not very I don't know that I'm interested in hearing Kyrie Irving's logic
because I don't think it's going to be one that convinces me this is fine.
The fact that now the questions are falling to his teammates and that they're
hearing it, and we saw this, you know you mentioned last season.
If he needed to take the few weeks off because of what happened after the
people storming the nation's capital. I get it, but like there was a
lack of informational flow because his teammates in the organization still have the answer for
his absence. Then two, and I'm just you know, you mentioned this
in your article and I didn't even think about the timing where it was reported.
I think it was stephen A said yeah and Nick and Nick right would
retire if he was traded to if he was traded for Brooklyn. Everyone wrote
it off as just a joke, but now the timing behind this is like,
Okay, well that league seems like it might have been super strategic at
this point. I don't know what to expect from this, but it sounds
like for me that you don't think if the status quo doesn't change, that
the Nets aren't going to be like, hey, we're fine with Kyrie playing
in thirty five games or whatever it is at this point. No, And
you know, I think my big guess is that I think Kyrie was trying
to work the religious exemption angle right, because that that angle, to me,
makes the most sense for him. And I thought to myself you know,
Andrew Wiggins obviously got rejected. But everything that we've seen from the NBA
is that it's a city by city you know, the league is deferring to
the cities and to the States zone. This's like, Hey, if we
need our players to be vaccinated, you tell us here in New York.
There is no religious exemption, Mandy. There's no religious exemption, right If
you can't opt out of the vaccine for religious causes in New York City,
you have to get it no matter what. If you're falling under that that
mandate. So there's no religious exemption for Kyrie. There's no you know what
I'm saying, in my at least in my estimation, there's no part time
player. You know what I'm saying. I don't think that's gonna fly,
you know, And he's running out of options. That's exactly what Andrew Wiggins
say. He said, Hey, time was running out for him for me,
so I had to do something even if I didn't want to do it.
Kyrie doesn't strike me as the type of person who's going to do something
that he doesn't want to do. And I guess we're gonna see whether I'm
right or wrong. Because he's already been ruled out for Friday's game or whatever
whatever this goes live. When tomorrow Friday's game, I'll just say Friday's game,
and I don't know, I feel like that's just going to be the
beginning of a lot of miss games from It's it's it's sad. You know,
guys want to see him play. He is, he's right easily one
of the most spectacular players out there. All of his teammates want him to
be out there with all the fans wanted to be out there, even probably
even the opponents want them to be out there too. So it's it's tough.
But at the same time, it's got to be a line that people
draw, and I think this is that line right here. And there are
implications to this because I do think that the nets at full strength are the
closest the NBA comes to a championship formality right now, where if you just
told me all three of those guys are available, I don't know who I'm
picking to beat them four times in seven tries. This isn't last season where
you know they're all injured or something along those lines. Now, Kevin Durant
and James harn't had a training camp together, and so like, there are
real implications here. I think the first one is and maybe it's not.
It's really not this going from this what we just talked about to this question
is just so stupid. But like, who takes Kyrie Irving's place in the
starting lineup if he's just not with this team, that is tough man probably
the Nets. Probably then we'll either have to that's tough because you probably moved
Joe Harris down to the two because right now he's your three. Because in
my mind the lineup would be James Harn's the one, Kyrie the two,
Joe Harris, think KD. Then whoever your five is where that's Blake Griffin
or the Marcus Soldiers or Paul Mills set whichever way you want to go.
But if you remove Kyrie from that lineup, now you're either starting Patty Mills,
which I don't think makes sense. You have to bring him off the
bench. So what makes more sense is moving Joe Harris down to the two,
probably moving KD down to the three, or starting Bruce Brown at that
three and then putting Katie at the four, or you go big and you
have LaMarcus Alters and Blake Griffin starting at the five and the four, and
then you got Katie at the three, Joe Harris at the two, and
James Harden at the one. It's tough, you know. It takes you
from definite championship consender to okay. Now the Lakers have more superstars than you
do. And on top of that, you're not a lot to beat the
Bucks anymore, right because if if you're going to seven game series against the
defendant champions, you don't have Kyrie. Look at how important Kyrie was last
time. Kyrie got hurt in that series basically shifted the Bucks way right after
that. I don't know that I would bet against the Bucks in the same
series off Kyrie is out. You know, actually I might bet with them
because they've seen this before, you know. And it's just tough. I
man that It's just it's so crazy how fast we go from okay, this
team is completely unbeatable to hold on. Now. Now, if you've got
some other pieces, Now you look at the team like the Bulls. If
the Bulls catch their straw and you've got the rosen, you've got lavine,
you've got ball, and you've got Voussovich, who's been killing the nets since
he was in Orlando. That's a tough team they're gonna have to deal Look
at the Heat, you know what I'm saying. The Heat are going to
be a tough team to deal with, even the sensors, and Land is
going to be a tough team to deal with. That third star makes a
lot of the difference. And if you don't got him, good luck.
Is there like a sense is I know the organization has to be frustrated with
the situation, but do you get the sense that, like his teammates,
and specifically you mentioned Kevin Durant making a naive comment, but like a Hardener
or Durant, are they getting to the point where this this has to be
frustrating to them? Correct? You know, they're gonna play it off as
if it's not frustrating to them. And that's kind of what has been the
entire time. You know, day one media day, Kyrie is not there.
All of us were asking, literally every other player, hey, are
you guys concerned at all that Kyrie is not vaccinated that his availability might be
impacted And everybody's saying the same thing, No, of course not. We're
not concerned he's gonna come around. Of course they're concerned because now here we
are the preseason home opener and Kyrie is not going to be there, and
we're only a couple, we're weakened some change away from the actual home opener,
and it's not looking like Kyrie is going to be there either. And
now you know, you're gonna have more questions for other guys who now are
going to be forced to talk about things they don't want to talk about being
Kyrie, And it just gets crazy. I mean, one thing that it
does do is it elevates Cam Thomas's role, right, and if you don't
have Kyrie, you need that extra scoring punch. You've got somebody. But
that's not ideal. Right, This is a rookie. Yes he can score,
but that's not who you want to bump up in the lineup. So
it's tough. I don't think the players are necessarily being as honest about how
they feel about Kyrie Stays, because you don't want to come out and start
talking crazy about your teammate, let alone a teammate that's of that stature.
But at the same time, it's just like it's got to be frustrating.
Now everybody's nobody wants to answer questions about Kyrie, right, nobody does.
Kyrie doesn't even want to answer questions about Kyrie. Then now it's teammates have
to do exactly so it's it's it's it's a circus at this point. Man.
The final question on him that I actually did not anticipate asking until you
mentioned something. Do you think that there's an actual percentage chance, however slim
that you know this isn't Andrew Williams like there would be a team even with
the threat of Kyrie retiring I leave, which I don't know how many people
is true, they would trade for him. What would be the percentage chance
that things actually get that? Nuclear non zero, that's for sure. There's
definitely a non zero chance that things get that. But there's things you have
to consider. Number One, this is the second and last year of his
contract. I believe he has a player option next year that he can opt
out of if he wants to. So a team that's trading for him is
essentially renting him, and I doubt that. Yeah, I doubt that a
team that is able to actually give what the Nets would want for him would
do that without any assurances of him committing long term. And then on top
of that, you've just seen how how fickle he can be. He told
he told Boston he wanted to stay if they would have him, and then
he left and came to us. Right, what's what's the difference? What
makes you think he's not going to do that again and again and again.
So you know, I do think there's still value for him, especially in
a market. And this is another thing to consider, right. LA just
tightened their COVID vaccination mandate. Right, so now everybody there has to be
vaccinated. You can't have players that are un vaccinated. Before it was just
San Francisco and now it's LA. So both the Clippers and they don't have
a problem because the Clippers and the Lakers are one hundred percent vaccinated. But
there are the cities are running out for Kyrie to go play, right Like
he could go to Philly. You could trade him for Ben Simmons tomorrow,
and then Philly says, hey, okay, well everybody on the team has
to be vaccinated otherwise you can't play. And now the Sixers are in the
same scenario that the Nets are in. So it's tough right now. And
then on top of that, there is the threat of him retiring, which
he put out strategically and then said, you had nothing to do it.
It's it's actually man, I need to check into a shrink. Man.
It gets it's it's too much. Sometimes I wish you as much sanity as
possible. I'll cover it this particular topic, put the team in general for
the rest of the season. I do have some actual basketball questions for you,
but there you go. Now my mind is clear, I can I
could talk basketball. What so we? I thought that four starting spots were
locked up, but the assumption is that it's still if Kyrie's healthy, it's
still for and if it's not him, you already mentioned some alternatives. What
do you think is happening with Who would you view as the player who starts
the most games at center for this team this year? Blake Griffin, that
would be my guest. I still think that he was this team's best option
at the five last year. And yes, their options have improved. You
add LaMarcus back, you bring in Paul Millsap, You've even got a guy
like Claxton who Steve nassaid is going to play a prominent role, even if
the numbers of minutes don't add up. Blake Griffin is what this team understands
as their small, versatile bruiser type of guy on that roster. I like
LaMarcus and what he brings, but in terms of defensive defensive versatility, not
a guy that can switch on screens, which is what they want to do
basically every possession. Paul millsapp is a guy who can switch on screens,
but what is he approaching thirty seven years old now or something like that.
Blake Griffin is the guy I think is going to be the starter at the
center. And then on top of that, I mean give credit to show
Marks. He created a team where they can play small and big, right
they can. They can have Blake Griffin at the five, or they can
play him at the four with with LaMarcus at the five. They could play
LaMarcus at the five with Paul mills At at the four. They can play
Claxton at the five with Kevin Durant at the four if they want. You
know, there's so many different iterations of this team, particularly in the front
court, that I think are really interesting. But I do think we see
Blake Griffin as your opening day starting center. I think who plays the most
minutes at that five spot. In the preseason, they've dabbled with a LaMarcus
Aldridge, Paul Millsap front court with the second unit. Is that something you
see becoming a staple for this team. I guess we'll see, you know.
I asked Steve Nash that exact question, what did he think of that
lineup? And he said, Hey, you know, we're kind of experiment
right now. We want to see everything that we have. I would like
it, especially if you're if you're dealing with a team like the Lakers.
If the Lakers are playing uh, Anthony Davis at the four and DeAndre Jordan
of all people at the five, then you've got to match that size somehow,
right, and that gives them that ability. And Paul Millsap, I
loved what what I saw from him in the last game. You know,
he's able to do so many things, especially particularly crashing the offensive class.
He tried to go for a couple of putback dunks that I didn't think he
had in him, which is pretty cool, and that's kind of any where.
The next struggle with a lot on that offensive glass, they got killed
by teams like Milwaukee, by teams like who killed them on the glass?
Andre Drummond came to Barclays and dogged them on the glass. Jared Allen,
after he got traded to the Cavs, came or the Nets went to Cleveland,
he killed them on the glass. They routinely get dominated on the inside,
and I think that lineup right there if LaMarcus and Paul Millsap will help
them show up that rebounding. So I think that's something we'll definitely see in
the regular season for sure. I know that his youth or inexperience kind of
came to head later on in the season last year, I still view Nick
Laxton as this team's best center. What do all these veterans being there,
Millsap, Aldridge, Blake Griffin mean for his role? Like what type of
crack is he gonna get at at being able to have a regular rotation role
this year? That's gonna be tough. You know. If there's anything I've
learned about this team since covering them in the Superstar is that it's it's politics
as usual. Remember DeAndre Jordan was not your starting caliber center, but politics
got Jared Allen benched when that guy when DeAndre really, I mean we see
it. We saw it all of the season. In the season wore he's
not the same player he used to be, you know. And I think
it's talented as Nick Laxon is. He's gonna have to to pay some dues.
And those dudes are gonna come in coming off the bench, behind the
guy like Blake, behind the guy like LaMarcus who can score at will,
still behind the guy like Millsap who's still you know, it's all about i
Q as well. And on top of that, Nix's conditioning isn't as high
as we would need it to be. I think we saw in some preseason
games he catch he has to catch his wind a lot just by you know,
I'm saying three or four minutes up and down the floor. He he's
huffing and puffing for air, you know. So I think he's got a
ways to go and conditioning. But to your point, I mean, tremendous
athlete easily. I've seen him lock up some shooting guards on switches and point
guards, you know, shut them down on the on the perimeter. I
think that's a great look for them. But I do think he has to
put on some more size and strength. He can get bullied down lower time,
so I think that's what he has to make up some ground as well.
I still think about sometimes there was a string of crunch time possessions where
he just he forced the ball out of Damian Lillard's hands and I don't have
the matchup they did in front of me. But he was statistically one of
the most switchable players guarded point guards the most among players six ten or taller
like over the past five years. That was per b ball and decks like.
I think Ben Simmons was the only player his sizes were larger who spent
more time guarding point guards on a percentage of defensive possessions. Is it like
you know he had this was going back now, but he was there any
injuries that he was dealing with. Could his conditioning just still be off from
I believe he had COVID last year. He had he's, he's he's he's
been through it. He had COVID. He had a shoulder, I believe,
and he had a knee. He had neat tend to night as.
I believe he had. Yeah, I believe he had a shoulder. His
rookie year, and then he caught COVID right after that, so he's still
catching up. Yes, And to your point on the switching, I mean
he talks shit about that too, Like he's he's over there challenging opposing guards.
You're saying, hey, man, if you think you can try to
take me, try and take me, and I'm gonna shut it down.
He welcomes those challenges, So I think that's something that the Nets need.
I think he's gonna learn a lot from a guy like Paul Millsapp. That's
kind of what Paul Missopp has been able to do his entire career, just
that versatile guy. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he's able to do.
But in the back of my mind, there's only forty eight minutes that
could be played at the center position, and Nick is not a four,
you know. I don't think he's got that three point stroke down or just
the other skills needed in terms of playmaking to be that four. So if
you've got guys like LaMarcus, you've got a blake. If you've got a
Millsap who you're probably anticipating plays in that hybrid four or five role. You
know, just how many minutes can Nick get at that center position. I'm
not sure, but to your point, I think he is going to be
this best team's option, just like Jared Allen was the team's best team's option
last year and they hit it and go to him and the other The other
name that I didn't mention as we talk about there's only forty five minutes to
go around, is there were just the lineups where it was Bruce Brown is
their de facto big with YEA with KD and so is that still going to
be an ingredient to this team's makeup? Yeah, for sure. I think.
You know what's funny is we're seeing you know, rarely do we see
the the off season hype video of someone shooting threes and then it actually translate
into the floor like we could. We'll see We've seen videos of Dwight Howard
and Andre Drummond getting up threes in the offseason and they attempt one or two
of them in the regular season and it's like, Okay, why are you
shooting? But Bruce Brown was knocking down some threes in the preseason game at
top of the key three two. We're not talking about talking about one yeah.
Yeah, And if he's hitting those, then that that changes the complexity
because he's a guy who's screening roll. Now if he thinks that roll and
pops out and get hit a three, now he's changing the whole game.
So that's definitely someone that I still think will Blue will play an integral part
in the offense because he's a guy who can catch that ball off the roll
off the short role and then make a play. He can hit that guy
in the corner, or he can throw the lob up top. He's kind
of like a baby Draymond in that type of way. And I know that
sounds like a crazy comparison to make, but that's kind of the role that
he was playing last year. So I think there's still going to be room
for that for sure. And I think, especially with Kyrie out, that's
somebody else you're gonna have to put in at those at to fill in those
minutes, because man, it's tough. They're also they have Kevin Durant and
Joe Harris, So this is a weird thing to say, but like they
don't have a bunch of wings exactly. Yeah, what happens there is Bruce
now just sort of expected to be a wing more this season? Do they
actually rely on DeAndre Benbury a little bit? How does that? You know?
It's it's just the secondary rotation because you have Joe Harris, you have
KD and then whatever you want to consider. James Harden point guard wing,
He's he could play one through four basically. When you so, like,
how does that sort of shake out the I guess the secondary two, three
rotation because we can kind of see the outlines of how four or five is
gonna work. Yeah, it's that's I think that's one of the areas where
Sean Marks is gonna have to do something this season. He's hinted towards the
rest of not being done. He's hinted towards the trade deadline and the buyout
market. I think he's going to look and see who becomes a free agent
at that buyout market. You know. JJ Reddick said he's retired earlier this
season. I think that's a guy that comes out of retirement maybe the next
try to pick him up before they make a championship run. That's what they
need. They need somebody who can really come in off the bench, play
play some defense, hit some threes, run up and down, and that's
an area. You know, they did a great job filling out the front
court. You bring in a guy like Patty Mills and that's just instant depth
at that point guard. Spot Thomas is going to play a role. But
when you look at that three and D player that you need, you know,
DeAndre Bembry isn't really the three right he doesn't really hit threes. Few
James Johnson doesn't really hit threes. Feed two. You drafted a guy in
Kessler Edwards who maybe could hit some threes and he can definitely play defense,
but his three point shot isn't there yet. So I think that's like,
you know, priority number one for this team right now is after Joe Harris,
you don't really have very many wings who are just like spot up shooters
and defenders. And if Joe Harris isn't hitting shots in the playoffs like he
didn't last year, then you've really got a problem because after him, you
don't have anybody else I can space that floor. Yeah, look, if
you're gonna sign JJ Reddick with a hope of him playing defense, you have
issues. I do. Sorry. You have James Ennis and Wesley Matthews,
both both remained unsigned and West was bad last year, but James Ennis was
good and this just yea, they would fit a lot of places. But
when you look at the nuts depth chart, it's like, why isn't James
Ennis on this team? To me right now or someone like they just need
that type of the idea of that player on the roster. Yeah, you
know, I think they said that, and by they I mean management said
that, you know, paying the luxury tax wouldn't be that big of an
issue. But I think that's one thing to say, and then to actually
do it is another. Because when you look at the cost cutting measures that
they took, like they traded away DeAndre Jordan and didn't bring back anybody else.
They had an opportunity to go get to trade Spencer Dinwoody and get a
guy like KCP, or get a guy like Contavia, like like like Kyle
Kuzma, or even get a guy like Mantres Harold, and they didn't get
anything from that. Right they could have addressed one of those needs right there.
They chose not to because hey, why not just signing trade Spencer and
not bring any caps, but not bring any payroll hit so that we don't
have to pay that luxury tax. Then you see it again. They trade
away DeAndre Jordan, the twenty years left on his contract, they bring back,
say Ko Dambuya. They trade away, say Ko Dambuya. Don't get
anything back for him? Why because they don't want the cap hit. The
rockets waved him, not them, So they wanted to say, hey,
we don't really care, We'll spend in the luxury tax. But it's no,
we'll spend in the luxury tax up until a certain point. I think
they've hit that point, you know, and I think they're they're unwillingness to
spend a little bit further. If a guy like James Ennis is out there
right now, why don't you just go get them right, that's a perfect
fit. They didn't do that. Maybe maybe they maybe they spend the block
later in the in the year, who knows. But right now I'm starting
to think that maybe they're they're pinching pennies a little bit more than they should
be, which is crazy because the team is owned by one of the richest
people in the world. Like, let that check fly, bro, Yeah,
and I'll never tape for the suits. Maybe they're just thinking that they
still have to pay luxury tax on a player's salary who might not be with
the team. Since they're not giving teams luxury tax lead for players who miss
games with so they aren't they might save some of his salary. They're just
not going to save the luxury tax they need to pay on top of it.
Right, So we've not mentioned Cam Thomas a couple of times, who
for some reason, I kept wanting to call Cameron Stewart. I've referred to
him on radios and podcasts. I don't I don't know what's where does the
Stewart come from? I have Christian I have no fucking idea. That's the
problem. Like I don't know what the word slip is about. I did
fall in love with him a little bit leading up to the draft, and
then fell in love with him even more during summer league. Sure is there
a chance that he works his way into regular minutes with this team, and
I'm sure it's easier with Kyrie out, But even the idea of playing a
rookie whose first instinct is to score on a team that has Kevin Durant,
James Harden and is going to have title aspirations no matter what, there's I
don't want to say it's iffy. It's not something you see happen a lot
though. Sure, you know, and obviously with Kyrie out, it's a
lot easier to be like, oh yeah, Cam Thomas can fit that role,
confider role here, confider role there. But if we're talking about the
nets being at full strength, you know, it's tough to see him breaking
into a rotation where either Kyrie Irving or keV or James Harden is going to
be at the one for most of those minutes. And in the minutes that
they're not at the one, you got Patty Mills, right, And the
minutes that Patty Mills is at the one, you've probably got one of James
or Kyrie or Joe or Bruce at the two. Right. So there's a
lot of minutes there between the guys that they have already you know, written
into the rotation that we're there last year or Pat Mills coming in. But
I mean, it's hard to write a guy off when he's if he's gonna
just keep hitting the shots that he's been able to hit. I mean,
I watched that guy hit a one legged running three point shot for the win
and studded death right, Like, it doesn't make any sense. And if
that's the type of player that they've got just sitting in the rotation, hell
yeah, why not throw him in. And it's a lot easier to do
that now if Kyrie's not gonna play. But if he is gonna play,
and maybe Kyrie is cold, and maybe he's two for eighteen or two for
twelve or two for thirteen, whatever the night is, and Steve's like,
hey, we're just gonna give you a break. Yeah, this is gonna
start being we want Cam Thomas chance. The Barclay Center is gonna start asking
forms those are happening no matter what. Yeah, exactly. So I think
at some point, you know, Steve Nash is gonna oblige, But in
a in a loaded team, like if we're in the playoffs, for example,
and if Cam Thomas hasn't played a lot in the regular season, I
don't see him getting his breakout game in the playoffs unless somebody gets hurt.
Right, It's one of those situations. If if a spot opens up for
him to slide in, then yes, but if we're talking about a full
loaded team, it's tough for me to see him, Like actually, sneaking
his way into the rotation at all. Last year they seem to have a
clear way of staggering their three stars, or at least James Harden was being
pulled and then getting reps. Yeah, the second unit, heavier lineups.
How does that change if at all? With Kyrie not there? Cool,
that puts a lot more burden on James Harden, right, because that's your
guy that you want to orchestrate the offense. And sometimes, you know,
they'd have Kyrie at the one and rest James and then bring James Harden back
in either at the end of the first at the beginning of the second,
you know, And that's probably what's gonna happen. And I think Patty Mills
saw some of those issues right, because you can put James Harden on the
bench, bring Patty Mills in and play him with the Kevin Durant. You
can play Patty Mills with four other guys on that team, and Patty's the
guy who could generate offense on his own, right. You can run a
lineup out there of I'll just throw names out there. You can run Patty,
LaMarcus, Blake, Joe, and Bruce, and I think that would
be a at least neutral lineup right. I think they'd be negative. I
think they'd find a way to stay afloat until you brought one of the two
stars back in. But it's just crazy how much changes when you take one
guy out of the lineup right, and once Kyrie comes out, it's like,
Okay, now we've got to kind of figure out what the hell we
are right now and how we're gonna do this right, because I think that
that changes on everybody's role a little bit, right, because you've got Kyrie
who I mean, and I've said this before, Yes, Kevin Duran is
the best player on the team in the world. James Harden is the team's
point guard right best pass it. But Kyrie is the head of that snake.
He's the guy who's on attack mode all the time. Like if the
nets one looks him, if they're not drawing up a play for Joe on
possession number one, they're probably getting the ball to Kyrie and everybody else is
getting out of the way because he's gonna make it. He's gonna get a
shout off if you don't have him. And now that either becomes were getting
the ball to kad early or we're gonna run that offense through James early.
And I think honestly, having Kyrie on the floor out there takes a lot
of the pressure off of James to score. We saw that all last season.
He was just able to focus on setting guys up all the time and
he would pick his shots whenever he wanted to. Now it's not that easy.
Now we're looking more like that second round series against the Bucks where the
Bucks were able to the Buck's basically double team James Harden the full length of
the floor, even though he's playing on one hamstring, which which threw him
off. And then they're sending a double at Kevin Durant every time he touches
the ball, and he and I don't know how he's still able to make
these shots. But now you've got the rest of the guys on the floor
scramble and trying to figure out where they fit in. Any competent defense is
going to be able to slow them down. The three headed monster is what
really throws teams off, right, because every team, or most teams have
two guys that you got a game plan for, right, two guys that
you can say, okay, well, he's going to hit a shot,
and that's tough. If you got three, that's where it gets tricky.
And you know, I asked this question to Steve Clifford. I was like,
hey, how do you how do you stop these guys? And he
goes, Hey, it's not even about stopping those guys, because once those
guys get going, everybody else around them starts getting it going to and then
it becomes impossible to stop the other guys. Well, once Kyrie is out
there, they become a little bit more predictable, you know, And that's
where I think they're gonna struggle. Is that what are you gonna do?
Now? Well, now we kind of have an idea. The thing that
I feel like it's not being talked about enough either, is Patty Mills wasn't
great was the year last season? He's a little bit older, and so
if he's not able to just generate his own offense or shots at the same
level he was, you know, even at the beginning of last year or
whatever it may be, Now, who who do you rely on? More
like, do we get to a point where they might need to run things
like through the Marcus or Blake Griffin just to sort of you know, figure
out like I just have a pecking order beyond James, Harden and k Yeah.
You know, even though he wasn't that great in the regular season,
he was spectacular in the Olympics, and I do give him that. He
he definitely had a great Olympic showcase and Australia won bronze. I think that's
the first time in there in their country's history of winning a bronze medal in
men's basketball. So, you know, I don't think I'm worried about Patty.
You know, I think playing with guys like James and Kady are going
to make his life a whole lot easier. And then on top of that,
it's a perfect role. He's the sixth man. He wants to command
that second unit and get guys set up. And then, you know,
I don't think I'm necessarily worried about him. But to your point, you
know, I think that pecking order somehow goes you know, it goes Kady,
then James, and then probably you're still looking at Joe Harris is the
best three point shooter in the league. You know, forget about the playoff
series, if you can, forget about the playoff series, because it was
horrendous, you know, league leading three point shooter. I believe two years
in a row. In terms of efficiency, the man is a bucket,
and I think they continue to draw plays up for him. And then on
top of that, you've got LaMarcus who can get a mid range jump shot
over anybody. Blake can still create offense, Cam Thomas can create offense,
as we saw Patty Mills. So they have a whole lot of options outside
of that. Harden and Durant combo, and we're talking combo now because Trio
is is questionable. At this point. We don't know if there's going to
be a trio, which is crazy, but I do think they I still
don't think offense is going to be their issue, and surprisingly I think they
did improve on defense too. So I think we're still going to see a
good NETS team, a great NETS team. But it just boils down to
you can be great, but then make it to the playoffs and you get
a team that's a bad matchup for you, right. I think without Kyrie,
the Bucks are going to be a bad matchup the Bowls. If they
don't self destruct, they're going to be a bad matchup. And the Heat
are also going to be a bad matchup for them as well. You might
be the person who is highest on the Bulls that I've spoken to all off
season. Listen. So there's two ways I see this this season going.
They're either going to finish ten and seventy two and be absolutely shit, or
they're gonna finish like fifty and thirty two and be just like the best Bulls
team that we've seen Derrick Rose Rose Era. I think that it's a great
roster, right. I think that what we saw with with Lavine and Vouch
last year was just like you know, they threw that duel together at the
end of the season, tried to figure it out, try to make a
playoff push. It didn't work. But now it's just yeah, exactly exactly.
But if the roster just makes sense. Now a lonzo can push that
pace and he can defend the one very well. And on top of that,
you've got two guys who are high flyers that are gonna be running in
transition with them in Derosen and Lavine, and then you got a little post
presence and then I think they've got Pat Williams at the four. I like
that roster. It's just a matter of can they just like get that dark
cloud that's been hovering over Chicago, Chicago basketball over them, because that's all
this left. If they can, if they can, you know what I'm
saying, get rid of that. I think they'll be okay this year does
and everything's loaded and seems more likely with Kyrie out. I've thought, I've
wondered if Javon Carter now is the opportunity to play a larger role because I
feel like we're I'm overthinking, I'm asking all these offensive questions. They will
buy in large, be fine, But I think the goal should be when
you're going from Kyrie to whatever you have is let's at least streamline life for
Katie and Harden as much as possible. And if you're gonna start Blake with
them, let's preserve all the shot creation that's left on the bench as much
as possible. To rework some of the lineups. And so you leave Patty
Mills with the second unit, Cameron Stewart on the bench, you have LaMarcus
Alters there, Cam Thomas, you say cam Stewart again, I told you
I'm not lying. That's funny, But like, could Javon Carter be like
make sense to start next to James Harness is someone who would defend his butt
off and yeah, all in his hands. And one thing that I didn't
know about Javon Carter, he'll get those shots off too. Especially in preseason
he was being pretty aggressive. I didn't know that was his game. But
he's got following so much last year, but they got them off. Yeah,
he'll he'll shoot him, you know, And that's kind of what you
need. A guy is gonna defend but also not you know, be a
liability on offense. Right It's not like it's it's I hate to bring up
Ben Simmons right now, but if you have Ben Simmons on offense versus Javon
Carter both at great defenders but offensively, if you need somebody to be that
secondary not assay playmaker, but if you if you've got James Harden coming off
the screen and you've got Javon Carter in the corner, or you've got Ben
Simmons in the corner, you want Javon Carter hitting that shot. And I'm
not no waste or for him saying that Javon Carter is a better basketball player
than Ben Simmons right now, I don't want you to clip that part and
social that it's crazy they'd be start attacking to be there. But no,
I do like Javon Carter's fit, and I didn't think about that until you
mentioned that. You know, that does kind of make sense because you've already
got offense out there with a guy like James, with Joe, with with
k D, with LaMarcus out there, right, if you can have someone
that can shut down the opposing teams won and not have hardened guard that guy,
I think that makes a lot of sense. Or you put Bruce out
there, right, and if Bruce's hid in the three the way he was,
the way he's been hitting in preseason at least, then that that works
too with hardened Katie. Katie plays in fewer than half the team's games last
year. Harden has the hamstring injury popping up. And I know he's mostly
been an iron man, but that almost worries me because of all highest uses
has been since he left. Okayc Yeah, even does does not have any
Kyrie. It's a lot easier to do this if you have Kyrie. Like,
are they gonna do anything to monitor what these how much these guys are
shouldering in terms of appearances during the regular season or now without Kyrie, or
we just you know, all hands on deck here because there are. It's
a lot harder to win games with one star as opposed to two or three.
Yeah, I think it would be a little bit of both. Number
one, I think even still without Kyrie, you've got a team that's capable
of blowing guys out right, like you've got their bet. Their most explosive
offensive line up in my book is Patty James, Harden, Joe Harris,
Kevin Durant and pick your choice up the five, either La Marcus or Blake.
And I think it's just gonna be tough to slow down that lineup.
Ever, right, if you put in Kyrie, it's overkilled. If you
don't, then it's like, okay, well that's still a tough lineup to
stop. But at the same time, last year injuries destroyed this NETS team,
and not just in the playoffs, We're talking all season, you know,
So I think they learned their lesson. I think they're gonna gonna load
manage you guys. You're gonna see guys not play in the second game of
back to back, So you're gonna see them strategically sit because of maybe longer
road trips or longer stints with you know, they might have a four games
and five nights coming up, so they might rest guys in two of those
games. That's the type of team this is. You know, they're definitely
going to rest their guys, and they've got a lot of older guys on
the roster, but they've got some young guys that that can play. Right,
I think you can go a game. I think you can go a
game against say the Sacramento Kings, and rest Kevin Durant and James Harden and
still say, hey, I like my chances because we've still got some guys
out that they can play. So I think I think they're built to last.
It just then boils down to when you get into that second half of
the season and these games start to matter. You can't start punting games.
But you also don't want to put your guys at risk. So I mean,
it's gonna be something we're monitoring for sure, but I do think they'll
be okay. Then again, I could say that and then James Harran tweaks
his HAMPSTI in Game one, and now we've got worst case times too.
If something like that happens and Kyrie is still not with the team, man,
alright, PD your psyche. I don't want to have to be on
the nets beeed. At that point, this team was twenty first in points
a lout per possession last year on defense. You see them being better or
worse than that this season when you look at the makeup of their roster right
now, I think worse. I think losing Email Doka is a huge blow.
I think the Celtics are going to be impressive on defense, that the
Nets are going to take a step down. And I think that even though
on paper they got better. Right Like, you added James Johnson, you
added the DeAndre Bembry, you added a Paul Millsat There's only but so many
minutes to go around, right, So you're gonna have James Harden out there,
who I mean, say his credit, he's he's a better defender than
I thought, but he's not a lockdown defender. You're gonna have Joe Harris
out there, who knocked down Shooter, can be a turnstyle defensively. Kevin
durant Is is great defensively, but you're gonna be asking a lot for him
on offense. If you've got LaMarcus out there, he can protect the rim,
but he's not a guy that's a versatile He's not gonna be able to
switch, you know, and that's really your lineup. I'man sure you can
have a guy like Bruce out there, but I just think it's gonna be
tough. You know, I'm not sure, you know, I guess.
I guess That's where I'm at right now. I don't know what we're getting
from the nets. On the defensive standpoint, I would expect there to be
some drop off because I know how much email Dooka meant to that defense and
what he was doing. But at the same time, you know, guys
might just be fed up of being called a bad defensive team, you know,
and they might be like, hey, you know, let's actually do
it this year. So never know. If I was a betting man,
I bet them being somewhere in near the same where they were. We've reached
the quick hitter ports of the podcast before I get you, okay, when
you've a quick hitter, when you look at this roster and things can change
so much during the season, but as of right now, who do you've
used the player most likely to be traded before the deadline? Are we talking
about not Kyrie? It could be if you really think that it's most likely
that might that might get aggregated. Yeah. I mean it's tough, man,
because I'm looking at this roster and what are you getting for other guys?
You know, like, are you trading a guy like Clackson, Because
I don't think you're trading him number one even if there's not enough minutes,
because you want to build a future with him, right, you know,
maybe a guy like Davron Sharp gets traded because there's not enough minutes for him,
and another team might actually be willing to pay the price of a of
a veteran wing, right whatever they can get a veteran wing in exchange for,
and at this point that's probably one of some of their prospects. So
maybe a guy like Kesler Edwards that maybe a guy like Dayron Sharpe get packaged
if they can get that veteran wing to back up Joe Harris. But those
are all, you know, I don't think that those are more likely than
a situation where Kyrie doesn't want to get the vaccine and the Nets don't want
them to be a part time player, you know, like and from that
point, there's that's an impast right, There's no way that the Nets can
come down from wanting him to get vaccinated. That's not possible. And there's
no other way for him to get onto the court unless he plays for a
team that doesn't have that vaccine mandate in that city. So it's tough,
you know, I'm thinking about the rest of the roster. They're not built
for a trade. Like, do you have their three biggest stars, then
there's Joe Harris who has like that mid end salary, but you shouldn't be
moving Joe Harris, especially with the Kyrie stuff going on, and then they
just have a bunch of all these smaller salaries, and so yeah, I
just look at it as Javon Carter because I'm not sure what type of role
actually have with the team. Maybe they want to cut their tax bill,
maybe they're able to get a cheaper wing, you know, for him.
So but they don't look like they're built for a trade, And the answer
might actually be Kyrie Irving at this point, which is just wild that we're
here. It is, And you know, if you would have asked me
last season. I would have said Joe Harris just because of how poorly he
performed in the playoffs. But we know that Joe Harris is not going to
be judged on the regular season, right, so if he gets traded,
it will be next offseason because he had a poor playoffs. Again, I
don't see them trading him between now and the trade unless he just comes out
and shoots thirty two percent from downtown between now in February, which I don't
see happening. What is this? What should be this team's go to crunch
time lineup? And if you want, you know, there's the Kyrie should
be in there, but I think we kind of have to, you know,
there's to me, the crunch time lineup is like the starting line up.
We should have four locks with Kyrie, Joe Harris, Kevin Durant and
James Harden. I'm curious as to enclosing situations. Do you think the fifth
should be Nicholas Claxton, Should it still be Blake at the five? Maybe
more Paul Millsap. That's an interesting question, and part of me wants to
kind of see how this team plays through like five or ten games, just
to get a sense of who's actually in that rotation and what different you know
what I'm saying lineups look like, but just kind of going into a blind
I like what they ran last year, you know. I like Blake Griffin
at the five, Kevin Durant the floor, Joe and then and then Kyrie
and then and then James. You know, that was a lineup that could
have won them a championship if they would have stayed healthy. They didn't,
so here they are again. But I think that lineup Orterason, Blake wood
Nick Is is cool. You know what I'm saying, you could do that,
But I like what Blake brings. He's tough. He's a guy who's
going to dive on the floor for every single loose ball. And on top
of that, he's still trying to dunk on people and let them know that
he can still dunk at that, you know, so it's hilarious. I
think that's the line of them. And then if Kyrie's not there, man,
that changes a whole lot. I think. You I think, then
you go Patty Mills next to James Harden, next to Joe Harris, next
to k D next to next to Blake, that line playing zero defense,
Yeah, or or you or you swap out Kyrie for Bruce Brown. I
think that that also makes sense, especially if Bruce Brown's hitting three. Is
that don't make sense because then Bruce can guard the one. You're Steve Nash
or Kevin Durant, who's ever calling the shots in game? You can roll
out any lineup you want. Weird offbeat just to see what happens. What
WI five man combination or are you going with? Oh, I'm going all
offense. We're going Cam Thomas, We're going James Harden, We're going Kyrie,
We're going KD. I think we're gonna Kadi at the five, and
we're gonna put Joe Harris out there as well. We're completely spacing out the
floor. I don't think we see enough Kadi at the five. You know,
I love that. I love what he's able to. He's just like
so versatile. He's gonna space you out, he could post you up,
he can dunk on you, he can do whatever. He'll defend too.
I mentioned the previous sign up will play no defense, but him and Joe
Harris will compete on the defensive end for sure, maybe not so much.
Joe Harris will try, but it'll still hit burn. He tries though there's
like a there, there's there, there is effort there, and he probably
guards players that he shouldn't have to guard at this point. That too.
That too, I think I think if Kyrie's out, then that then that
also goes out because Kyrie is hiding on defense a lot of time. You
you actually picked my five man unit. I believe I had Kyrie, James
Harden, Cam Thomas not Stewart, Joe Harrison, and Kevin Durant without Kyrie
there, I keep those four same guys and then just throwing Javon Carter.
Uh just I love he's like a bulldog and yeah, you could go Patty
Mills in that case to really yeah, I go Patty. I definitely go
Patty. It's something about Patty that I just love. I can't wait to
actually see him play in some some significant mants. I think he's gonna be
huge for this team this year. The I also thought of a like sort
of a fuck you line up where they go super big, where you have
Paul millsapp, James Johnson, and Blake Griffin with Kevin Durant and James Harden.
That lineup is just super huge, and I know Millsapp becomes your day
facto three there, but you have all these like four or five types run
out a bunch of them at the same time. I need to see I
don't need to see that. I think, okay, because then who's shooting
threes? Well, I guess James Harmens will shooting some threes, and I
guess Kdal shoots the threes. But then you got three non shooters out there,
and it gets tough. I still consider Millsap a non shooter. I
don't think he's gonna be a volume guy. I don't know if he's gonna.
I mean, he could be a shooter this year when you're playing with
k D and James hard and everybody, everybody's open. Johnson, Griffin,
and mills App will all shoot threes. But you're right that I don't think
any of them are high volume enough to be like, oh this is this
is out. But they just have so many of those like Paul Millsapp,
James Johnson type players on this roster. Right now, go five biggs.
I know, four bigs with KD. I don't care. I have KD
play the one. Yeah, look he might have to. When you look
at the Tyree's not there, Like, who's the best passer is James Harden?
Their second best passer is like last year? Yes, that's pretty good
to me. Obviously, I saw him make some crazy passes that had me
question if I was evaluating kd as the right type of player, because I've
looked at him as a scorer first his entire life, and then I'm seeing
him hit some cross court passes no look, understanding where his teammates are and
throwing it to them ahead of time. I'm like, whoa, this man
is acting totally different. But nah, that's that's who he is. He
can he can make plays too. I wasn't hit, but I him now
Kadi at the one. It's very it's coming. It's really so. I'm
surprised this hasn't moved down. I'm surprised it's even available. But as we
record this, their win total over under a set at fifty six point five.
What are you are you taking the over under for this team and just
knowing everything that's going on, are they still going to finish number one or
number two in the Eastern Conference? Oh? Man, that's so tough.
If Kyrie comes back. Man, at this point, there's no real path
for him to come back unless he goes get it, goes and gets the
shot like tomorrow. Right, because from my understanding, NBA players only need
one shot to be to be eligible, which is crazy because media and everybody
else needs to be fourteen days after their second shot before they can be around
anybody, which is mind boggling. But either way, if Kyrie is healthy,
yes, I think I take the over every time. If Kyrie is
not healthy, I want to say they win at least fifty games, right,
Yeah, No, I probably take the under. Yeah, if there's
no Kyrie, I probably take the under. And if I have to bet
today, not knowing whether Kyrie is going to be there or not, I
probably take the under, probably get them fifty five. So I think I
think without Kyrie they're still a title contender, but they're noticeably weaker or more
vulnerable regular season team. Sure, yeah, no, one hundred percent,
because you can catch one of those. It's very rare where you where you
would catch Kyrie and and k D and James on and off night. Right,
if one of those guys are having a cold night, the other two
are probably either okay or they're great. Right now, if one of those
guys is having a cold night and you don't have Kyrie, then you're putting
a whole lot of pressure on one of the guy and on the other role
players who I mean, they let you down in the playoffs unfortunately, So
can you really rely on them in high pressure situations in the in the regular
season? I don't think so. Right. So, being built on that
star power, it made these guys bulletproof. And now with one of those
stars down, it's like, hold, don't wait. I think we kind
of have an opening. I think every team hasn't opening now because the next
biggest flaw last year was that they didn't They just didn't play hard enough.
Being hire season. If they would have played hard enough the entire season,
they might be champion champions right now because they could have finished the one seed
and then duck Milwaukee in the in the second round. They could have had
a completely different outcome. So it's gonna be tough, man. This is
not how I envisioned this season going. I did not envision having this type
of the headache, didn't envision this type of drama. But here we are,
man, and I gotta cover it. Is there anything I did not
ask you about this team or anyone I didn't ask you about that you think
should be discussed. Anyone that you didn't ask me about that I think should
be discussed. I guess if you have like really strong Kessler Edwards or Dayron
sharpcakes, we talked a lot about camp. You know, I'm still looking
for that guy on the roster. He'll pop up there somewhere. You know.
Damron Sharp is a guy that I think has a chance in the league.
You know, late late first round pick. But he's a guy that's
going to be a high volume rebounder for a long time. And he's trying
to get that jump shot off too, so so I look forward to being
able to cover him late. Griffin was actually joking around a little. He
said they were playing pick up in practice, and he said that he gets
day Ron didn't realize that, and pick up, you don't really crash the
offensive glass as crazy as you're supposed to. So you caught a couple of
elbows from him while he was like crashing from the three point line. It
was crazy, but that's the type of player he is. He's going to
try to crash the glass from wherever he is on the floor and if you're
in his way, you're gonna pay. If he's getting minutes outside the GLA
for this team, something has gone terribly wrong. Sure, yeah, one
hundred percent, because if Nick Claxton can't find minutes, how the hell did
day Ron sharp Christian? Are you able to tell our listeners where they can
follow you on Twitter and find all your great work? Hell yeah, you
can find me on Twitter at Chris Splash that's k r R s P l
A s h e D. You can also find me as a co host
of the Certified Buckets podcast on Uninterrupted. Shout out to my co host,
Lethal Shooter and ask Nicole Mos it's really dope. And you can find my
work in the New York Daily News. If you're in New York, go
pick up a paper, flip to the back page and look for a handsome
man and you'll find some work by me. Otherwise, you just go go
to New York Daily News dot com, sports slash basketball, slash nets.
I think that's where it is, and that's basically my land right there,
so check me out. Well, congrats again on the Certified Buckets gig with
Uninterrupted. You deserve it. You do great work to the Daily News,
happy we were able to do this. You are the most elusive man in
sports, but you do not care. I will be it, text you
to no end and you never care. I appreciate that, and thank you
so much for coming on. Oh my god, thank you for having me
browing its own