What is Kraka lacking Hardwood Knocks listeners. I am Dank Valley coming at you
with my certified fantabulous Thermo nuclear af since I didn't just say that at the
intro for some reason, co host Grant Hughes. Before we get started with
a bunch of ground to cover on this one podcast or two podcasts wherever it
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Twitter and TikTok, and we were at Hardwood Underscore Knocks on Instagram. All
that out of the way, though, we asked the question, everyone's dying
and oh, Grant, how many full body pull ups did you do today?
Well, Dan, they were ring muscle ups, soups all, how
dare you h? And I'd never done one before and I did three today,
So you know, it just sounds like four too many. Everyone take
the day off work tomorrow in the celebration, and it'll be like a national
holiday by like next year. Probably that is the that's not that's the necessary
amount of information. I did a TMI segment where I talked about my return
to eating the other day when you weren't on. Oh you did tell us
so the people know about your ridiculous binging. But yes, because we had
I got dms from people like I guess actually watch us on YouTube or shout
out to them. But it wasn't a bunch. It was like a half
dozen or so people for the past couple months asking if I's sick because like
there's like you look like some of them said you look terrible then like they've
lost a lot of weight, and so I was like, I felt obligated
to give an explanation, but I was also just I was hopped up on
cheesecake when I recorded, so I was gonna, I was gonna overshare.
I'm disappointed. It wouldn't be fun funny if if the next set of those
were like, dann, are you okay? It looks like you ate fourteen
family sized cheesecakes, and you could then say, first, I mean it
was twelve, So yeah, that's you. Don't look like you ate a
whole bunch of cheesecakes. You look it look like a normal person. I
don't know. I don't know. We'll see what, we'll see what the
people say. It's possible I've seen because I saw myself every day. I
didn't notice it, and then when I looked at progress photos, I was
like, that's what made me say something. I was like, oh,
holy fuck. Because people came up to meet the gym asking if I's sick
too, and my family members were like, do you have cancer? Like
and I'm not. I don't mean to make light of cancer, but I'm
like no, So that made me. But like you see me once a
week, like maybe you didn't notice it, but like when I've looked side
to side, but I feel like I I three straight days of eating cheesecake
and I'm like forty eight hours removed from it and back on the diet rind,
I still feel like I'm hopped up on cheesecake. Yeah. I mean,
if anyone asks you if you're sick, you can, you gotta turn
it around on him and say, like, the only thing sick about me
is the pump I just got, or you know, you gotta. There's
gotta be better ways to say that in the in you know, the gym
community. But you gotta flip it around. I will pro tip the one
day binge pump and the two day cheesecake binge pump our next level. That
third day there's gonna be no pump this cheesecake pump. That's that's it.
Cracked it. This is a basketball podcast rumor, hasn't it? So,
but let's get some basketball. And so when loeu of a traditional mail bag,
I didn't throw out a solicitation because we had straggler questions. We didn't
get to end because there was a segment proposed by real Seerrup twenty two nineteen
in discord. They gave us twelve topics to start with. So if if
listeners like this and we make it sort of a semi regular occurrence, let
us know what you think, but the segment is called that's something or that
stupid. Now, I purposely didn't look at any of these things in depth,
like I saw them when they came in, but I wanted to react
to them in real time. I just figure it could be interesting. Is
that something or is that something stupid? So I guess this is the inaugural
debut of that something or that stupid and hat tipped to Real Syrup twenty two
nineteen for it, and also again thank you to Real Syrup for the for
the idea. But like, sorry that we're going to say half your ideas
are stupid, and but that's one of the parameters you gave us no offense.
That's just how it's going to be. I don't know what percentage the
breakdown will be, but some of these are gonna be stupid, and we're
gonna have to say so, so you know, sorry for you, but
also thank you. Yes, we're very appreciative. And now we're about to
probably dump all over a couple of these, so let's get started. I'll
go with the first one. That's something or That's stupid. The NBA should
look at rule changes to cut down on the reliance of the three balls,
so it's less of a make or miss league. So I'm gonna say that's
stupid because it feels a little bit like a criticism that was a rising,
you know what, four or five years ago. I feel like it was
very much tied to the Rockets and just all they do is shoot threes,
and then all everybody does is shoot threes now, and so I guess if
and the lack of offensive diversity was a downside, but that was kind of
kind of put the lie to that. You know, there's enough diversity in
offense and all that stuff. But the crazy thing about the maker miss league
thing, which is real. I don't know if you saw this. Fred
Katz, the Knicks writer for the Athletic and seth part. Now, they
dug through the numbers and twenty six percent of teams that have had double digit
leads have lost that game this year. I don't know how that compares historically,
but like, so it's only three out of four times you're up double
digits in the game, do you win? That feels crazy, That feels
like high variants, And I also say that's kind of exciting. So so
that's why I'm going stupid I think I think that the three is not going
anywhere because it makes the game a higher variance game, and I think the
NBA likes that. I would agree, and I was going to go with
the higher variance thing. And I also think there's an overstated amount of people
who think, like every offense is homogeneous. It's the way that you're taking.
Maybe your shot profile looks a little bit similar, but the method by
which you get to those shots, I do feel like is not uniform,
and like not even close to uniform, where there's not a bunch of the
twenty eighteen nineteen Houston Rockets run around out there, like the closest you come
is probably whatever the Mavericks are doing right now. Yeah, right, So
I'll take the second one. We which, by which is meant to say
fans, media, basically everyone who doesn't work in a front office should talk
more about how fun and unique teams and players are and less about how good,
how dominant and championship contendery they are. Something are stupid, that's something,
because there's more to an NBA season than is this team a contender or
not, especially when they're not built to be one. And so like,
why are we evaluating the like why why is Oklahoma City? We shouldn't have
been a punchline to start season? Why are they a punchline? Because they're
going through a thorough rebuild with the angle of trying to contend for something bigger
than whatever the hell the you know, the Knicks and the Hornets aspire to
be. But I will say I'm I don't want to tell people how to
fan either, and so like, if you're okay with I'm gonna use the
Knicks as an example, because I'm a Knicks fan. I'm not okay with
what they're doing. I think they've been very entertaining this year. Julius Randall
and John Brunson both might be All Stars, but like, I don't see
the path for them to get to that next level. I just I don't
see it, and I would rather see them strip it down and start over.
Don't tell me I'm wrong. That's how I want. I'm not saying
that that's what they need to do. That's what I would do as I
was in charge. And if you're someone who enjoys that, I'm not going
to tell you that you're wrong. But if you want to look at this
through the lens of well, is this team building towards contender status? You
don't have to we don't have to fucking masturbate over everything good that happens just
because a team won thirty seven games instead of twenty nine. And so if
you're not, if you're an analyst or you're a fan, and you want
to criticize a team that feels like it really is headed towards the middle,
and you're gonna come up with valid points, I think we need to be
more accepting of that too. Yeah, I think that's definitely something I agree
with you. I think also i'd add that, like it's it's just easier
to talk in terms of like who's great, who's contending, who's not,
if you're talking about the entire league than it is to know, well,
when this guy gets downhill going right and he has this one move that he
does, like, that's cool and fun. You know that if you watch
eighty two games of a team and you can appreciate that, and you can
anticipate it and be exct like just little niche things, that's where the fun
tends to be, unless you're just talking about broad strokes, like this team
plays a fun style they run a lot like that's that's a way to do
it, and you just can't do that if you're trying to talk about the
team or the league as a whole, or like how teams are organized.
And it's just a question of like I'm speaking from more of the media perspective
because as a fan, I kind of I'm half with you and half not,
Like I like appreciating the esthetics and the fun, but I also like
want my team to be acting intelligently in pursuit of a championship. But it's
just like the media is the media side of it. It really just depends
on who your audience is. Like if you're say employed by the team and
you're doing the postgame show for the Knicks, for example, like you have
a specific slant and you might say someone's that want to be all start just
to get resly dated, month old information. Like your audience is real different
and they want different things, Like they want their team pumped up, they
want the positivity I think most people. Some people want people just honesty,
I think in analysis of their team. But I do agree that it's more
It can be a lot more interesting if you're just approaching it from like,
hey, you know what's cool about this x y Z because that's just that's
more, that's more fun, that's more positive. It's different than what's this
team's net rating versus this team's you know, that's so that can be really
dry sometimes. As an aggrieved national blog person, I would like to say,
I wish we were more accepting of the national slants now where it's hey,
congratulations that if you're a Pistons fan that you've watched more Killy and Haze
than us, Like that's kind of your job. And it's very hard to
cover these thirty teams, and as long as we're not coming from what is
clearly disingenuous territory. I just like the conversation we had about the Nuggets defense.
I went off and I won't do it any more on YouTube, But
people claiming that our takes were surface level, and I was like, Grant
was on here talking about fucking pick and roll coverages. If that surface level
to you, then that's great, then go find your content elsewhere, like
you don't have to consume it. And I know negative reactions are gonna always
engender more of a response than the positive ones, and I enjoy the compliments.
That's what discord is formed when people are nice, Like I really appreciate
it. It keeps us going and I don't expect that to be all the
interactions, but like it's okay to not watch every game of every team twice
and still be able to form an opinion on what's happening. Recognize that we're
giving you the zoomed out view of teams for the most part. When we
do our deep dives into certain things, like yeah, that's when we're trying
to be more thorough than like we're not trying to cover every single team in
the league during this podcast like we do for certain segments. So like that's
the stuff that I still just get. I know, localized coverage is so
good. I appreciate it, and I try to make it. If you
want to know about your team, follow the beat writers, follow you know,
and sprinklings. You can't stuff too and you mentioned if you want positive
coverage, honest coverage, or even like sort of the massochist coverage, it's
all out there and separating these podcasts and so you can get all those different
slens. That's what makes it does drive me to be better, more and
more thorough in my opinion, but like you're still just it's not going to
be at the level of like I'm never gonna understand the Suns like the Timeline
podcast or the Thunder like the Uncontested podcast, or the Timberwolves like the Day
More NBA show, Like I'm just never I'm not watching them enough, and
like I find those shows enjoyable too, like because you get a lot of
insight into those teams there. So it's, yes, it's our responsibility to
at least do our best to like get a pulse on the league and what's
happening with each team. Like also kind of recognize, like this isn't the
easiest thing to do. I'm I marvel at how some of our many so
many of our Discord members know so much about each team and they're just like,
oh, this isn't your full time job, right, So like there's
a there's a little bit of the woe is me, Like I need to
shut the fuck up people, because I get paid to do this is like
full time for a living, and I still feel overwhelmed. And there are
people do it just a sort of a hobby, So like that impresses me,
but like it's also not easy to have what I would say is an
accurate pulse, not like a hundred percent unequivocally correct take on every single aspect
of every single team. But it's tough to get like a pulse worthwhile pulse
on thirty different fucking organizations. That's my that's my mini rant. Woe is
Me is all I heard from that, So we can move on to the
next one. The next one is the NBA should abolish the coaches Challenge.
That's something or that's stupid. I think it's something only because I don't want
it totally just thrown out, but I would like a tweak and I think
I think probably what's going to happen eventually is we'll get some equivalent to VR
and soccer where it's just like there's someone up there in the booth that's reviewing.
It's trickier because in soccer there can be stoppages and you're adding extra time
for all this, you know, in between the ball going out of bounds
and all this other stuff. But I would like there to just be like
a neutral not neutral but employed by the league, third party, sort of
have that with the replay center, but someone that's maybe in the arena that
is just right there looking at you know, a block charge call that looked
bang bang. I don't know how you determine what's getting looked at and what's
not, but you know, just making just so we don't have to deal
with, you know, every questionable call in the first quarter, whoever committed
the fouls going like this over, I'm spinning my hand in the air to
the coach and the coaches are all looking at him like, are you fucking
serious? We're not going to review this first, you know, team foul
four minutes into the game. I just want it sort of smoother, more
impartial less sort of let's confer with you know, the video review teams on
each bench and figure it out. I like it. I like the idea,
but the goal has just always been to get it right. So however
you can do that is great. I think the current system is okay,
but it's like definitely could be better. So I'd say it's something I was
about to lean towards that stupid because I think coaches need to keep their challenge
if they get it right. But what you just outlined where and I have
thought this too, there's a way to accelerate this while prioritizing accuracy in more
situations. I know there's not as many stoppages in the NBA, but like
we don't need to have the reviews last long. So I'm gonna say that's
something there's an alternative way to do it to where maybe you don't even need
the coaches challenge, Like, if your priority is accuracy, you could just
do this from the NBA's home base ins the Caucus in New Jersey, and
I'm sure they have all these angles that even if it has a stoppage,
it's gonna be a shorter stoppage than what we're dealing now with so many of
these coaches challenges. Yeah, it's just the trick is really deciding when to
like put the machine in motion as far as we're reviewing a call, because
that's the best part about the league is the up and down action and there's
not a lot of rest. You know, things happen quickly, there's fluidity.
If you're not careful, you can disrupt that. And I think like
that would have a zero percent approval rating if we had more stoppages than longer
stoppages, because everyone agrees that those suck. We hate those. The next
one is players should not be allowed to talk to the refs during the game.
Coaches can lobby on behalf of their team. We have advocates now instead
of player Ooh, that's stupid. They're like, there's and this is I'm
I'm going to remove the drama that is incited from some of these interactions,
which makes their great content and talking points. You just can't like we're gonna
deal with so many more technicals and injections if they're actively not allowed to talk
to refs. Nobody's listening to that, and so like even trying to enforce
that uniformity I think would be bad for basketball. I do think there's something
to like you came up with the rule change of where the ref can challenge
you and if you're wrong, I'm like that argument, like you get a
technical or whatever, a flake grant ye two fouls and so like let's do
that, Like, let's do that. So I don't think you can prevent
players from talking refs. I do think there's probably rush will tell you that
they've had productive conversations with player and there's like real rational discourse happening. It's
the heated moments that go viral. I'm like, look, that's also kind
of part of the game, is like I enjoy like the ref's animatedly throwing
someone out sometimes And no, I don't ever want it to impact the outcome
of a game, but sometimes where the outcome is already done, like we
see like you know, Draymond might be most likely to get tossed when the
Warriors are down like twelve or thirty seconds left, like he might be the
player most likely to do that. If there's a way, though, to
just get guys to stop complaining so frequently, to where sometimes I actively wonder
for someone like a Luca don chich or even at points in his career Lebron
James, where it's like, are you just trying to figure out a way
to not get back on defense and hide the fact that you're not trying to
run up and down the floor right now? That shit bothers me. But
I don't think we can get to one of the ref should be allowed to
talk to players. Yeah, there's I think it's stupid. There is just
something kind of icky about, like weirdly paternalistic about you're not allowed to speak
to the authority figure at all, right, Like that's that's kind of I
don't know how if I like the look of that, but I just I
don't know. I feel like the amount of like aggrieved outbursts is at an
all time high, and it's almost like everyone is taking the Chris Paul thing
to the furthest extreme, where if you just complain or talk to the ref
about every single call, you sort of and Draymond does this too, where
like you just automatically get more rope and you and like your high points of
being aggrieved, like you just get away with more. It's almost like you
know there's holding on every play in the NFL, or like how the Pistons
years ago would just foul on every play because they can't call them all.
There's like a volume approach to it, and I hate that. I don't
like the especially when it's just so obvious that you know the player is wrong.
But I don't know how you, especially in the heated competition, how
you make it so guys just don't talk. It's like it just seems almost
impossible. Yeah, i'd be to onely with you there. Let's get to
this next one. This is interesting. Player. Sorry, if you fall
down, you aren't eligible to draw a foul unless it's unless it's a flagrant
that's something, or that's stupid, that's stupid because I don't understand, like
what so a charge like can you not can it not be a drawn foul
if you get unless you fall over on a charge, And then what if
like you're off balance and you get knocked down by a common foul, that's
not a foul unless someone is excessively and unnecessarily to use the rulebook, like
hitting you in the face or that's that's I'm not sure what we're going for.
So so I'll let you know if that's stupid. I think we're going
forward trying to figure out a way to like enforced monitor just completely abolished flopping.
Yeah, it would be my guest here, And so I'm gonna say
that's stupid, and I think that there should just be harsher penalties and more
consistency with which it's enforced for flopping. And like I like the no call
when there's a flop rather than like stopping action and calling a foul for flop.
Let the play unfold and then give free throws to the team or maybe
give them double possession or just something wild. Because flopping is so like it
sometimes yeah it's funny, Like I still I won't go back and watch,
but like that mark is smart Dolphin Mash. Have you ever seen it?
It's just great, one of just the best treasures on the internet. So
I think that's stupid. If you want to figure out a way to stop
flopping, like, let's just make the penalties for it harsher and actively enforced
on a more consistent basis. So again to invoke soccer, because I just
I'm convinced that because soccer is so much older and has worked through all these
problems, like a hundred years before basketball has, that a lot of the
solutions are there. If there's a like a foul in soccer, a lot
of times the referees will just let the team that possesses the ball play on
and just if they have an advantage, they get to exploit that advantage somehow,
and then you know, you'll have a stoppage later where there'll be a
free kick or whatever. I don't know how you do that in basketball,
but it's the same thing you're talking about. It's the no call, like
if if the team, you know, if the offensive players fouled and or
just it's hard to incorporate it with ops, but basically, if you have
an advantage, you should be allowed to sort of exploit that until the sort
of chance is over and then you can just call the foul or whatever.
This is another foul based one. All intentional fouls should be considered take fouls
stupid or something that's stupid, I think, because like I know people don't
like to watch it, but there is something to extending the game and maybe
trying to spur a comeback and strategy when you're getting into crunch time and especially
when you're trailing. Would you want to see something like this if it's the
team that's in the lead and they're still just trying to like mess with the
possession battle or knowing that the player X is just such a bad for like
Ben Simmons for example, Like if there's a way to put him at the
fouling, you just know that that offensive possession is going to be submarine for
the team. Like maybe you could look at it that way, but I
do think there's a place for deliberate fouling, especially later in games. Yeah,
I don't know, I think it's stupid for that exact reason. You
got to give the team that's behind like something it can do. You know,
It's just it's the only tool you have at your disposal. If there's
not enough time on the clock and you're down to possessions, you just have
to create more possessions by fouling. The other thing is like the league has
sort of done some of this with into like hacka players type stuff, because
now you know you can only get away with that up to a certain point
in the clock. Now I can't remember what that what the cutoff is,
And that seems fine, but like you're just taking away a tool for the
team. You take the drama out of the game. If the team that's
behind is doubly penalized for fouling intentionally, so I can't get with that one.
Would you be in favor of them allowing away from the ball fouls later
in games because would it have to increase the amount of thought that goes behind
who you're putting on the court in crunch time or is that just is that
stupid? Well No, I kind of like the idea of if you're Dwight
Howard or whatever, and you're valuable to your team, but there's this one
thing you can't do, you know, It's not like the guy like the
five to eleven point guard gets some special rule that you know negates his height
disadvantage, like Howard you know, and whoever, whoever Steven Adams can't shoot
free throws, like that's part of your makeup. If a team is not
trying to strategically exploit that, like, that's on them. I think I
think there is. It's almost like sporting. It's like the right way to
operate. If a player can't do a thing that you should be allowed to
capitalize on that. This one, this one is, Oh would you say?
I said go ahead? I couldn't remember who was up. Oh yeah,
I think it's me, So let's go. This one is, this
is I'm glad that you have to take this one's first free throw should not
be shot in the moment. They should be tallied up and then shot all
at once at the end of each quarter to add pressure. I did not
wear shout out Real Seer of twenty two nineteen. So what's let's so,
what do you accomplish with this? You? You won? You speed the
game up in the actual like non free throw bananza portion of each quarter.
I guess because you're not stopping. But what happens when like you'd like to
play it stopped because of the you know what I mean, Like you're just
a ye, fould you just inbounded? I guess right away. But then
the other thing is there's levelops. The possession still dies, is what you're
saying, and then you just you move on to the next like do you
so the other team still gets possession after committing the foul? That maybe I'm
just like getting too old and can't envision that dramatic of a change. Well,
that's not even the main reason for me that this is stupid. That
there's a couple other ones. One is like guys need to rest during free
throws, Like that's that's a huge factor. Is like you know, all
these stoppages are what allow the best players in the league to play thirty five
forty minutes, And if you don't have these stoppages for free throws, you're
just gonna have the best players probably off the floor a lot more. So
that's bad for the product. The other thing is like if it's if it's
televised, so then do you tune in at the end of each quarter to
watch like twenty five free throws being shot. That's not interesting. And then
it's not the same player who's shooting them either, and so like you have
to cycle through like, oh, that's so boring. If you're in the
arena, you have to watch this. And the main thing is like you
turn the end of the fourth the end of the game into a free throw
contest. That's like what it becomes, you know, and you you lose
the drama of oh my god, this guy got fouled with his team down
one and there's three tenths of the second left. He can tie or win
the game at the line. You lose that. Yeah, I don't know
that. I love I love the ambition of this suggestion, but it is
stupid. I'll put by the way, is it like the anti elim ending
whatever it is, Well, if the elimending is designed to always end on
a game winner, this is the opposite. Yeah, free throws, because
then you'd have a team get mathematically eliminated, like if they were down by
seven points but they only had five free throws left to shoot, we just
stopped. How do you you couldn't, well, you couldn't implement both obviously,
like that. I couldn't. No, no, no, you could
if they're like antithetical, you couldn't have both, all right, Moving on
to non free throw based questions, the NBA should adopt the international rules allowing
players to touch the ball as soon as it hits the rim, so offensive
boltending is allowed. That is absolutely positively fucking something. Inject this into my
veins. I don't even have it. Just that would make the game more
entertaining and make blocks more fun and just like you know what, DeAndre,
and like maybe you don't take the little jump hook in transition, like maybe
you go up and try and finish with force around the rim. The other
thing that's good is like it does put like bigs are devalued, right like
conventional like big strong centers or devalued. Like suddenly if you're just the tallest
guy out there and you can carve out space and you're allowed to just tip
in everything in the cylinder, like that guy is more valuable so you have
just a more diverse then suddenly everybody, every team's not looking for the same
type of player, Like there's value in a different kind of player that is
currently like centers. Just it's this the oldest song in the world right now,
just there's no there's no value unless you're an elite s facer or a
switch defender. Now I don't know, Hassan Whiteside's back in the league all
of a sudden because he's just tall and huge and has long arms and can
offensively goaltend. I mean that's something. This next one is in arena music
and sound effects should not be allowed during play. That's something or that's stupid.
Is this like like the town in foot Loose where there's no dancing alostic's
illegal? Uh, this feels this feels Puritans. This isn't hill that I
think the athletics Dave before has noted on where I believe I don't want to
miss speak on his behalf that he does not like he doesn't like having an
in arena music. He likes hearing just the that they tried that, like
they've tried it before, Like you rather hear the sounds of the game.
So this is kind of something. And I think, like, if you're
watching the game on TV, it's fine because you have commentary, you have
ad reads happening, you have all this other stuff that's ancillary to the game.
That's like a value add So I don't need I don't need you know,
seventeen different like five ten seconds songs being played or you know, artificial
pumped in noise chance like that type of thing. I could do without that.
But if you're in the arena, I don't know, man, like
it's supposed to be like this big loud experience all these teams like sell the
you know, it's a great time to come down here. And there's also
basketball being played if you want to watch that cool Like otherwise, here's the
halftime show and all the T shirt cannon and all that stuff. It's halfway
to something because I get it, like it is obnoxious, you know,
like tight game down the stretch of like this stupid like you know, charge
chant or whatever starts to happen. I don't need that. I would also
say that I know it might be cool and you could probably pick it up
on television of course, or you're sitting closer to hear players and coaches talking,
but you're not gonna get that same experience if you're up in the upper
decks or even just like further away. And so the thing that you could
look at is like there's gotta be the like we we know there's the tech.
I'm not saying mic up every player, but use directional mics or something,
and then you can cut up sounds of the game to play them in
the arena and maybe go back like during sort of those game breaks instead of
watching like the T Shirt toss. If you're looking for sort of a different
feel or more of a technical like experience, I would rather that than just
get rid of like the ambiance altogether. It's not because I love the music,
but like it's cool hearing fans chant and like you're not or is there
just gonna be a defense chant without like that music playing, or the directive
on the or is it gonna be a silent directive on like the jump Botron.
It would just be too too awkward for me, And so I it's
kind of something I get, like trying to change up the experience, but
it's also I think it's like stupid. I'm sure I'm stealing this idea,
but I can't remember who it comes from, so sorry, but I think
and the NBA would just like fold before it ever agreed to do this.
But there should be an option, just say like on leak paths where it's
like there's this tier of subscription level where you can pay ten thousand dollars,
are like some insane number one hundred thousand dollars and you get what you're talking
about, like full micd up everything. I don't know how you do it
with like giving away strategic secrets, but I would love to know, like
what I don't know. John Morant is saying to just to like to Alex
Caruso as he's dribbling the ball up, just like I'm gonna fucking wreck you,
Just like just to hear the real trash talk, like the conversations,
like all that stuff. I think they're like, I don't know what the
cost of that would be, like if if it were even semi realistic,
which is not, but can you imagine how entertaining it would be if you
could just hear the strategy talk, the shit talking, the like just all
of the all of the on court stuff would be just the best. But
the league would someone would say a horrible thing in like the first quarter of
the first game, and the league would just not ever be allowed to do.
That's a good point too. Let's see, uh, bank shots are
cooler than swishes? Discuss h I think that's like something it's like deliberate bang
shots. It feels like there's more of a a scrap and skill to like
with Tim Duncan could do for sure, So I'm gonna say that's something.
But the fact that I guess they can both be accidental, but like accidental
swishes are cooler than like the the you know straight away above the break three
point bang shot, and so I just I don't know, there's more like
who calls how how often does someone call swish like the middle like someone might
call bank is more like gonna called bank in the middle of the game.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna agree with that. I think there's more of a
there's there's more of a craft to it, and like, look if you
could bank in a shot from the corner, even if it's actually that's obviously
accidental, but that that's like that's cooler receive than just like, oh,
another switch from the corner. Yeah, I think it's something with qualifiers.
Tim Duncan for sure, Scottie Pippen used to bank them in from really far,
And I do also really like when they slow it down and they'll show
you like on a like a I don't know, a small guard making a
layup where the he banks it in, but it's like all the way up
at the top of the board, you'd had to like hook it over somebody,
and it's a really like difficult intentional close range bank. I like those
those are good. Who's the best bank shot shooter in the league right now?
You know the answer to every Who's the best x x x x shooter
in the league right now is Steph, So it's probably stuff fair enough.
Uh, the NBA should reinstitute the hand check. That's something or that's stupid,
that's stupid offensive edom and like talented scorers running around unobstructed is like the
reason that the product right now is a thousand times more entertaining and skill based
than it was. And like even three zero four when just teams were scoring
eighty five points a game in playoff games. Yeah, I think this,
Like I get it. You want like defense to matter more, I guess
or something. But like the NBA is still a product that needs to be
sold. Like it's so easy to forget that, and this is a more
marketable product when guys can run around and drive to the basket and shoot,
and like that's just that's just better to look at. So I'm going stupid
on that one. I'm going stupid as well, basically for all the reasons
that you just said. Yeah, nobody's ever like romanticized. God do you
remember when you know, Tracy McGrady and the Magic outdueled somebody and he had
thirty two points in the Orlandos scored seventy nine in the game and one by
four, Like, that's just that sucks, nobody likes. And I do
wonder if, just like the way that offenses are run now, with the
reliance or the embrace, all of three point shooting would even just I think
hand checking would still matter. But like, what is the consequence of reinstituting
hand checking right now? Is it? You know, more players just pulling
up from just inside the timeline? Yeah? Do we want that? Well?
I kind of want that. But who's the best defender in which defensive
player benefits most off hand checking is legal? And why is it? PJA
Tucker? Oh you think it's PJ Tucker? Really? I don't know if
he can just hold you and you can't go around him. I mean,
he sort of does that already, but I guess that'd be a good pick,
but like, I don't know, I don't I don't have an answer
to that one. I don't know who think who just I mean Drew Holiday
would probably be even would basically make the really good defenders even better because they
already sort of part of being a great perimeter defender is like getting away with
some of it still. So if you just could do it today and we
had a hand checking and flopping from Marcus Smart, like, I don't know
that I'd ever be able to watch the Celtics again. He'd foulow every team
out in like the second quarter. You touch him, you touch him,
he just like like he's, you know, been catapulted. This is our
last one. Every team having new jerseys every year will have negative effects on
the league in the long run. Yeah, I think, because I think
we're already sort of seeing the negative effects because they're so uninventive for the most
part that we literally slobber when they bring these retro jerseys back, like go
to the throwbacks and like they are. There's an appreciation for that nostalgia.
But like, if you're gonna have so many new new jerseys, it dilutes
just what the jerseys actually mean. How many you could remember, how many
become staples? And then also when the designs, I think when all these
jerseys are released, there's like more than half of them are just overwhelmingly blah
and I'm talking to you, Nick, but just so just like I'd like
to see fewer alternates themed jerseys and like let's focus more on being like creative
with them or something that's different in something that you're actually going to remember maybe
want to make a staple. And then they also kind of just like disappear.
Like we've seen different iterations of the Miami Vice jerseys, Like there's like,
is anything ever gonna beat? Like what was the best they've They've had
a few good ones, so like that's probably a bad example, but it's
like, let's bring back the was that the baby blue Miami Vice jersey was
like what was the one? I was just oh yeah, like the pink
there's a pink black and like powder blue? Those are sweet? And have
they worn those in the last like year or two? I don't I can't
remember. I don't think so, but like a letter this year. First
of all, I actually I like that just because I thought that was it
looked like a Ransom note, like we literally just underscored and maybe we're idiots.
We just underscored the entire one. We're like, well, have they
worn that one in the last two years? What season was that? And
so I get having alternates, like do you have to change them up every
year? Can you have like can we get it to where it's okay,
you have your home, your away, there's the staple alternate and then you
can either have like you try out a different alternate or there's a throwback and
then that's just it. Yeah, it's like a it's a it's a constant.
It's a symptom of like the more is more thing where it used to
be. Remember how big a deal it used to be when a team changed
its jerseys or like I can I know where I was and the first person
I talked to when the Warriors went to the god awful like burnt orange and
you know, Thunder themed jerseys and everybody was like, these are terrible,
and then like eight years later they changed them finally. But it used to
be a big deal, and it feels like they're just try and stuff now
and some of them are cool, Like I saw the Blazers last night,
they had the black and green jerseys and it doesn't look anything like the Blazers,
and it was kind of like jarring, but like, will we see
those? I'm like, I don't remember seeing those before. I'm sure they
wore them a couple of times. It's just like it'd be cool if when
a team did bust out an alternate it was it was like a big deal
and instead of just every team is just you know, has seventeen different iterations
to wear this year, and like they can sometimes look like, uh,
like from different franchises where it's like okay, Celtics, like great, you
look like the SuperSonics right, or the colors are totally backwards, and it's
it's like when did the Grizzlies become like the Pittsburgh Steelers or like what it
just like it doesn't make any sense sometimes. And it's also where it feels
like other teams they actually won't change them up that much. They like try
to find different excuses to roll out the same iteration of their their alternates.
Where it's like, so to use the Knicks as an example, like we're
always just know like, oh, these city edition jerseys, they're gonna say
like, oh, here's what the meaning is behind this. But they're always
just gonna be all black, and like, doctor, what we're gonna do
for that? So you so you get creative in ways to like sort of
spin it, but like the actual design is not all that creative. I
was just gonna say, I do kind of like the Warriors new ones that
they've been wearing. They wore them last night, but it's like those are
just all black too. It's just like that's always the movement. It's not
that cool. Oh, I have one more I would like to add this,
since this is gonna end up being its own episode. This was fun.
I enjoyed it. That's something or that's stupid. The NBA should move
free agency ahead of the draft, Okay, so what happens then, because
then so then I have to talk it out. So then you're drafting more
you have a better idea of what you need type of thing, or you
have a better idea. I think I think that's something just because then you
know what your team is going into the draft, and you might be more
apt to make draft night trades and that would be more exciting. So I
could see the value add there. I don't know what else do you get
out of that. I guess I'm going something, what do you think?
I think it's stupid because I kind of like the idea of you're making.
I don't want to see teams sort of inform their draft picks based on what
they've done in free agency, and I think we'd see more of that from
teams that don't know how to run their francisse. I don't think it would
be at the scale of Oh, the fucking Magic wouldn't have taken Pablo ban
Caro because they were able to resign Bull Bull this summer, Like, they
wouldn't be on that that type of the scale. But I like the idea
of having that, Like, Oh, teams are sort of maneuvering inside the
old league calendar in anticipation of free agency, and there's that unknowness to what
should make free agency more eventful. But given the way that free agency is
gone, it's sort of just like that might even make free agency less entertaining
if it's happening before the draft now so, and there could just be changes
the free agency in general and the new collective bargaining agreement. But I get
it from a team building perspective of Oh, you have a better idea if
you're looking at taking flyers, and if you guarantee me that draft night trades
then would be more just I guess, like more frequent. I suppose that
supports that, But then we get all the dumb ass, like awkward pictures
of more of those, like the players wearing like the hat of the team
that drafted them, and it's so I guess you reset then though the league
calendar at that point, and so it's like, would would they actually trade
be official immediately? Then it's like, how would that work? It seems
like right now the way it's set up seems to sort of make sense.
And then what you're also kind of doing is how does that work with because
trades are happening after the draft, I guess that stays the same where it's
they're trading that. No, you're still gonna have the players being in the
wrong team's hats because you're gonna want to trade that player as an actual salary
still so that you can maybe also trade the upcoming first round pick. I
kind of like the mysterity of oh, we're going through the draft first.
Does this impact free agency at all? Does not impact free agency at all,
so I guess like it could make it easier for you to pick for
other teams and facilitate trades that way if you went through free agency first.
But I also think like for certain teams that are on the fringes, like
seeing who falls to you might actually they be and who you pick up,
like that might actually be more valuable to how you go about your off season,
including the free agency process. Yeah, I'm changing my answer. I
was trying to be positive and call it something. I feel like you tricked
me. It's stupid. And the other reason is so you're doing because the
draft, like the finals end and then the draft is like bang, it's
right there, So then you're doing free agent negotiations while like, however,
many teams are still in the conference you know semis and the conference finals in
the finals, like you got to end it and then have there's there's really
no realistic way to have free agent negotiations when some large percentage of the league
is like still actually playing. And then and then also, what are we
going to do in July if there's a free agencies over before the draft,
like we got nothing to do? This is a job security question. I
think you would probably push back the draft would be my guess. No,
this in my hypothetical, it stays exactly where it is, and that's why
it's a bad Well, the other thing, it's just like, well,
how far would you even push it back? Because like free agency can have
like this, we all know like ninety percent of the move seems like they're
reported before freeingcy even starts. So I guess free agency has been truncated a
little bit. But it's like there is a trickle effective things, and like
if teams are like so, I like, would that make it so free
ency also has to be done now by let's say July bye bye July first,
like it's like like it's just over. And then you're right, like
even if you're pushing back the draft, it's like, oh, we lost
like two weeks of interesting shit, right, And then also, how does
that impact summer league because like you need those teams to be like are you
pushing back summer league? Are we just rushing the process for these guys who
are already probably being like shell shocked by like the you know, the freneticness
of of an NBA schedule. So it's all of a sudden, like you're
shuttling them off to summer league even even more quickly or we yo, so
that that would be another thing to consider it. Yeah, and if I'm
a rookie too, like this matters less than me for free agents, but
if I'm a rookie, I want as much time to like get to where
I'm gonna be and get acclimated as I can. So I want the draft
first, just so I can. I mean, like that's such a crazy,
like you know, chaotic time I imagine for especially the top handful of
picks, like just pushing that back farther. So the lag time between you
got picked by a team and you're playing Opening Night like shrinks. I feel
like that's probably a negative too. And also you if people are worried about
how broadcasts missed the plot of games, you think if teams go through free
agency first, like ESPN's not only gonna be talking about like, oh,
you know, the Charlotte Hornet's just overpaid for Gordon Hayward again, and like
that's gonna be the talking more for them instead of focusing on the draft pick
and the impact that that they're gonna have. Like you talk about missing the
plot, it's gonna be like, oh, is lebron just signed with this
team to play with Bronnie? Is he gonna want them to keep who they
just selected at number twelve or whatever it is? So you want to,
like, you want the broadcast, the league, the partners, the analysts
to focus on what's actually happening. Yeah, we're not talking as much now
about oh, like this team. Yeah they might mention the cap space they
have going this summer, but it's not you know, this year, we're
not going to talk about like who's gonna be signing? Uh yeah, Gary
Trent Junior. If like that's not gonna be like that because he opted for
Fred van Fleet because he opted out of his contract. Or is this team
a suitor for Kyrie Irving even though they just drafted X. It would be
more along the lines of, like, well, how does he fit with
Kyrie Irving? Let's have a five minute discussion on Kyrie Irving? So I
think it's stupid. Yeah, we agree. I came around. Are you
ready to That's it? Unless you have anything else you want to get off
your chest here. This was a very This isn't gonna all be put out
in the sub hour thirty minute like we did like eighty five minutes. It
felt like very frenetic or hectic in a refreshing way. I agree. I
think that worked. Well. We'll have to do it again. Less preparation
is better. It turns out all right, Well, I'm gonna take us
out. You're ready for me to take us out? I think we've done
all the damage we can do. Yeah, we're I'm ready to. I'm
ready to buy you taking us out. I wouldn't sell you. I'm ready
to. I'm ready to sell me. Remembering all the things I usually say.
But anyway, thank you everybody for listening. Uh please, as Dan
said at the top, remember to rate, review, subscribe, get all
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time. I would like to give a shout out on Dan's behalf and also
sort of mind to the one and only Frank Millikina, and also apologize to
Jared Allen, who got no mentions at all in this whole pot