What is up, fellow thermonuclear a evers. I am Dampa Valley coming at
you with my fans, abuistic co host Grant Hughes. This is not an
emergency pod, but the timing is kind of perfect because we had scheduled to
record at this moment and Steve Nash was fired by the nets and Grant,
because he is dedicated, if you were watching on YouTube, is wearing his
number eleven Santa Clara jersey that he apparently had to go and dig out just
minutes before we hopped on the air here. And so I have a bunch
of questions to ask you, and we have NBA hot or not to get
to. And I would like to remind anyone watching or listening just fucking subscribe
already. Please. We love you all. Hit that sub button. Download
everything like comment on videos on YouTube. Help the community grow. But we
need to dig into everything that's happening. But we have to ask the most
important question first, Grant, how the hell are you doing the jersey fitting?
Okay, jersey fits great? Uh? And how dare you even though
I told you I just dug this out. I think it's better for the
legend if I just say that I sleep in it every night. I won't,
but I'm doing well because I'm happy that Steve Nash is free from the
ship show, to which he was confined for quite some time. Mutual parting
of the ways, I think is the messaging right now. A couple of
people on Twitter. I think Steve Jones was one where really this was kind
of more of a look man conversation. We don't know what it is,
right, Let's let's move on from this. I didn't. That feels like
to me it was a voluntary resignation with the threat of being fired. It
seems like the most realistic. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad he's out
of there. It sucks that he had to go through that as his first
NBA job. But you know, I was looking before we started for a
for a tweet that I'm sure someone will maybe find this if anyone cares enough.
I'm pretty sure. My first thought was like, this will end badly
when when he got hired, because it just seemed like a whole situation and
here it is. It was unwinnable. So rest in peace. Steve Nash's
first stint as an NBA coach and maybe last. I don't know, I
will go. I don't necessarily feel bad that it ended this way for him,
just because like he I don't want to say, skipped the line,
but like skipped a bunch of steps because he was in with KD and like
he was a brilliant basketball mind. So maybe he deserved that crack over everybody.
But he got the opportunity and he agreed to it. No one was
forcing him to do it, and he was put in a better position than
a lot of other people who had to. He was in the NBA,
he's a Hall of Fame, Like, I get it, But he skipped
steps there. So I don't necessarily feel bad, but I am happy that
he was able to escape the ship show just because we knew this is where.
This is one of the many directions in which this is like this is
a pit stop on the way to the Nets, just completely imploding because this
is not gonna end, okay. Kevin rant want At requested to trade over
the offseason. Kyra even tried to find assigned and trade over the off season
and couldn't. The Nets didn't give him a new contract and he came back
anyway, And we were supposed to believe like, oh, none of these
things were resolved, but everything's okay, and Kevin Durant wanted marks and Nash
fired apparently, but no, we're good now. No, it doesn't it
doesn't work like that. And just the fact that the nets also suck doesn't
really help matters. And I don't know how much of that is on Steve
Nash, like he did go to Ben Simmons without a big more before Ben
Simmons started missing. He's gonna miss the next he missed one game, He's
gonna miss the next game. I think with bright kneehornis or whatever it is.
So if you want to put it on Nash, like he hasn't even
had Seth Curry available yet, I don't want to make excuses. I think
the team is just not really necessarily built to defend. And you are,
you know, you're dealing with the issues of Okay, Ben Simmons hasn't played
in a year and a half, coming off this major back injury and a
mental health struggle that it was real and it was very poorly covered, and
I have no idea how that's impact him. I'm rooting for him as a
person on the court, though he's been an issue with his lack of aggression.
His drives per thirty six minutes are basically had from what they were for
his career. His field goal attempts for thirty six minutes are basically halved from
what they were before this season. The lack of aggression from him is a
killer, and then when you stash him off the ball. I think they
could have been more creative with him, tried him out more as a greener,
especially in lineups where one he was without a big and then two like
I don't know how many KD Ben Simmons pick and rolls were run, but
it wasn't enough, is what I would wager. So there were things that
could have been done. If you want to ascribe that to Nash. This
team was doomed from the beginning because there's too much extracurricular things happening here.
Kyrie Irving sucks. Like as a basketball player, he's still go, but
he just sucks, and like any team that has him, their culture is
just gonna submarine. Kevin Durant, he's responsible for this mess as well.
We've talked about that and he's sort of when it comes to addressing it.
He sucks too. This team. This team is fucked. I don't know
they're talking about what was mentioned Jacques Faughn's taking over in the intern, but
expect them to target email Udoka, who's currently on suspension from the Celtics for
the year because he had an inappropriate we're placed relationship with a subordinate who also
alleged that he harassed her at one point. So that's great, that's exactly
what this team needs. And he also mentioned Quinn Snyder, who I can't
imagine. I know he's not working right now. I would argue that's by
choice. He's probably gonna stay the fuck away from this ENTIREFI with him,
the entire situation. So Rhodes did mention those names, and it seems to
be like, oh, the Nets are gonna try and make a splash there.
If if I'm a head coaching candidate with options, I'm staying the fuck
away from the Brooklyn Nets. Like I'm sure as we get some distance from
it. And when this does eventually really just blow up, you know,
maybe that takes till the offseason when Kyrie's gone, or maybe it'll happen sooner.
But it just all the things you said. It feels like from the
start, this was a situation where like, yeah, we can go over
what maybe Nash could have done differently, but this just wasn't a team.
This wasn't a team set up to be coached like by anybody, let alone
have a coach. They don't, Yeah, they have a what did Kyrie
say of collective collaboration whatever, it's like a collective it's like a coop essentially.
It's like what he was trying to get across, Like it just I
don't think there was any scenario where with the power dynamics being what they were
starting back with, Like the reason Kenny Atkinson doesn't have a job is because
the star players on the team didn't want him there, right, So if
you're starting from that point, that's that's like the structure of your operation.
Like the guy that comes in with no head coaching experience, great a player
as he was, even if he's theoretically like the preferred choice or like an
okay, you know, got the sign off from those star players, like
he just never had any agency. It doesn't seem like so like Kyrie's not
really like a coachable player or like teachable person quite obviously. I think you're
ant like it's a real like, it's a real stain on him that like
he you know, him and Kyrie were package deal. We were just be
laboring all this stuff. But I don't think Nash ever had a chance to
succeed. It doesn't seem like like they're just the circumstances were never going to
be conducive to success for him. I don't know that you could have put
any other head coach in this situation and the outcome would have been any different.
And that's you know, we're talking about Steve Nash. I've argue was
at least a choice of Kevin Durant, like that was something that had to
be okayed, if not outright endorsed or pushed for by him specifically, And
the fact that it's still ended up here is indicative of well, this was
never gonna work out for anyone. And just to be clear about Kevin Durant,
I don't want to put him on the same level of you know,
Kyrie Irving and his immrat like his failure to have any sort of moral compass
whatsoever. But like I mentioned this in the previous pod, when he's asked
about this stuff, if you want to know comment that it's fine, like
you're shouldn't be responsible for what this other idiot is saying, but like,
oh, they didn't impact us at all, Like it doesn't it would only
matter to you guys like that. That kind of sucks and he can do
a much better job with that. I'm not saying he hasn't gotten somewhat of
an unfair rap from the media at points. But it's also just like I
don't I don't want to be labor that point, Like I won't even go
into the other point I was gonna make, But it does seem like there
is no coach where this could have even worked out for in any sort of
way. And I'm curious to you now is like I ask you, this
is there, like what is the what is the pathway for the next Now?
Do you expect them to blow this up this season? Do you expect
them to sort of ride it out? Is there any hope with the current
roster? Is that even the best you know at this point what is blowing
up is blowing it up even the best course of action where it's like,
well, we still have these top two really good guys on the court,
and Ben Simmons I've seen flashes from him on defense this year, like if
he comes back and he's healthy, there's still a pathway to them not sucking
clearly, what is just your like what is your either I guess guestimate of
what comes next, but also too, what would you do in this situation
if you're you know, we don't even know how much agency shown marks as
at this point, right, No, I think those are great questions.
I think the fact that Nash was the first to go right, and that
Durant and Irving both how made it through still on the roster after the trade
demand and the trade attempts and all that stuff, suggests to me that the
feeling is, well, this is this will be the fix, right from
ownership or whoever's making decisions, like this is what we're going to try,
and then everything else will remain intact. It seems like that's what the messaging
seems like to me, because if if the move is not too maybe it's
still gonna Maybe it's on the way, like send Kyrie home, suspend him,
like do something, you have to go away for a while, Like
that wasn't the move. You can't trade Durant, I don't think, because
not enough has changed from the summer when there just wasn't a satisfactory return package
out there. I don't think circumstances are different enough to where we're suddenly going
to fire back up, you know, the trade machine for Durant. So
I think the hope probably is that, well, this is the move we
had to make. This was the easiest move we had we could make.
Whether it's going to be the most effective or not, I have my doubts,
but so we're just gonna try it. We're gonna see if if Steve
was the problem, which seems highly unlikely to me, maybe they'll get a
little bump after, you know, you get a new voice in there,
even though Jacquevon is not exactly a new voice, right, But I think
there's a chance that it'll look a little better in the short term. I'd
be surprised if as anything more than that. And then yeah, I think
I think there's probably a like a several more shoes to drop before this whole
story's over, this whole saga's over. But I think for now it's gonna
be we change the coach. This is what you know, KD Kyrie,
this is what you wanted. So now show us that that was the problem,
and I don't think any other big moves are probably coming like in short
order. But because I'm not confident that that's gonna change anything in a meaningful
way, then eventually maybe we get back to like Trey talks and you know,
figuring out other stuff. But yeah, I don't I don't think this
is step one in a process they've got mapped out, like to really tear
it all down. Not not yet. That's a good point about since the
head coach was the first to go, it leads you to believe that they
are going to still try and make the dynamic work. I like, I
don't know what the reading like it came after a win. I know it
was just the pacers, and they had already lost the pacers, but it
came after a win. It's just weird. Yeah, yeah, usually usually
you get it. Well, you know, you could have done it after
any of the number of disappointing losses they've already had. Maybe that's just an
optics thing, so it doesn't look quite so reactionary. But I mean we're
not stupid. Obviously, it was reactionary to a lot of things. So
yeah, if you're asking you asked me what I would do. I mean,
I'd rewind the clock and just not start this whole mess with Kyrie and
Katie to begin with. But I would have gotten rid of Kyrie a long
time ago also, But going forward, like I think I send Kyrie home
and and if that alienates Durant, like he's already asked for a trade anyway,
Like I don't know that he could be any less, you know,
please with the situation regardless. So I mean, I just think as an
organization, you sort of have to I don't know, like you you like
you said, like you know, now is not the time to grow a
backbone. You said over the summer a few times, it's like I think
now it would be a good time to grow a backbone. Like, let's
as as a NETS organization, I think you have to start trying to operate
like a functional you know, functional or organization because that's just not happening so
far, right and too you know, we place a lot of them blame
rightfully, torn Kevin Durant probably end it up. But like over the past
few years, I've seen more spine and jellyfish than the NETS front office.
And that's something that needs to be be remedied here because I would I agree
with everything you said. I would just I would cut my losses here.
I just don't even know what to make of the and I don't already mentioned
this, but like, why do you think I don't care about how good
of a head coach Emai Udoka is? Why is that guy already on your
list where you have all this other extracurricular bullshit going on, knowing what he
was just suspending for, Like the Celtics are willing to let him leave like
this was a very much like we've only suspended you for a year because we
want to fire you. But doesn't seem like they're sure that they can.
I mean, I think it's the symptom of an organization that is willing to
continue to employ Kyrie Irving like that obviously, like the optics are are you're
not concerned with or you're not you're not like attuned to right, because that's
just like such a bad look and it's such just like why of all names
is his name on there? I just I don't know, it seems like
it's it speaks to the sort of disconnect between uh, you know what a
rational like sturdy organization would do, and what the Nets do. Emayodoka is
officially the front runner to the land the Brooklyn Nets job right now. Just
absolutely that's coming from Sham's over at the Athletic Just despicable decision making here by
the franchise. Just like you, I you want to talk about redemption.
I understand that this is not this is not the moment. We are not
far enough away from the Emayodoka stuff to maybe even say like, oh,
has he redeemed himself already? And and two what the oh my god?
Like this is that you said this, and I'm inclined to I can't tweet
because you said it. You should tweet it. This is the end result,
Like this is a this is franchise line of thinking that has empowered Kevin
Durant and Kyrier in to this point. I don't care that Emaodoka was already
part of the Nets coaching staff at one point, Like that's not you know,
no, like this is just this organization is so and look to be
fair at this point, Like now, it's I think that the front office,
Shawn Marks and even Joe Si for overseeing all this deserved a ton of
blame to begin with, Like, now they got to start sharing a lie
in share of the culpability because you're just empowering what's already fucking not working and
proved to be just destructive and ineffective, Like what are we if you know?
What are we doing here? If you go and you blow this up
anyway? Okay, fine, that's independent, but you're not the team.
You are not the insofar as any team can or should hire Emayudoka right now,
when we're barely months removed from that press conference that they had in Boston
and those allegations. It's not the nets, it's and I'm not I'm not
trying to make content here. I hate talking about this is content. It's
just legitimately blood boiling. And I understand that I'm not. I'm not.
I don't want to be an arbit of morality. I don't want to accidentally
virtue signal here. I'm honestly just venting, is where at this point?
So this probably says more about me than like the actual topic we're discussing.
But like my first reaction when you said that was like, there has to
be a lot of stuff that I just don't know about about all this right,
because if what I think I know is true, which is just all
that's been reported, you know about Udoka, about what the Celtics did to
address the situation, Like, then how is this happening? Like it makes
me so I understand, like you get upset about it. I'm just more
like confused because it makes me think that there has to be some element that
I just am not privy to that like, because I want the world to
make sense, Like I need more something that can't be this fucking awful it's
basically right, Like, well, I just want to rational. I want
to like I wanted to make sense in my brain, which I like to
think is operates rationally, because it doesn't. Nothing is squaring up right now,
it doesn't. I don't. I don't get it. I want to
know more. I want I want this explained to me because it doesn't for
all the reasons you said, it just doesn't seem like possible that this is
the decision that they're making right now, with the circumstances being what they've all
been reported to be, Like I don't, I fundamentally don't understand, Like
I want someone to make it make sense for me. Yeah, I'm with
you. So we have another Nets update. They are basically hiring Emay Rudoka.
They're not expected to have to give the Celtics any compensation. Sean Mark
said, this is pert Christian Woodfield of the New York Daily News there's been
too much focus on distractions off the court and that the Nets want to get
back to the culture that got them here. And then they went and they
hired Emay Rudoca, who's again been suspended by the Boston Celtic for a year
and it's being let go without compensation after bringing the Celtics in the NBA Finals
and being considered an integral part of how good that team became. Again he
suspended one year. We've said it at the podcast a bunch of times for
an inappropriate workplace relationship with a female staffer who was his subordinate and said that
he harassed her at one point. Grant like, I just I don't know
what else to put a ball on this topic, but this is just like
the worst kind of surreal where like, could this franchise actually be that like
that tone death? Like are they just not interested in winning any press conference
whatsoever? I've seen it framed as Oh, it's very clear that Kevin Durrett
came in here and said this is what he wanted. If that happened.
You mentioned this already. This team needs to grow fucking spine at this point.
This is this is a disaster. This is just a disaster. I
it doesn't Again, it doesn't make sense to me, like I just assume.
So here's here's the what's like of the fifty seven thousand things that are
confusing to me about this, Like do we have a resolution in the whole
Celtic side of this, right? Like do we know what the fallout,
what the punishments are, what the legal civil ramifications are, do we know
that we don't know the details? We don't know. I have to believe
the Nets have that information, right, Which is like the most charitable like
slant you could put on this from Brooklyn's perspective is that, wow, Jesus
wasn't as bad as anyone thought. And but then here the Celtics are with
like no interest in bringing the guy back. So I don't understand how one
can be, how one team and how two teams can be so far apart,
Unlike, how big a deal this is, right, how big of
a deal. Theodoka situation is it's just yeah, I don't have any way
to frame this in a favorable light for the nets. They're like, I
just don't understand how the conclusion from a franchise that just cannot, you know,
avoid controversy and distraction is that we should hire this guy, Like,
I don't you know, it's it's the best thing you here to hear.
It is dam The best thing you can say is this is a this is
a huge buy low flex This is this is buying at the absolute lowest point
on a coach that might be good and might not be a good dude.
That's that's where we are. That's as good of a spin as I can
put on it. I just I the Celtic clearly don't think that he's going
to be cleared of any wrongdoing of just like when the when when everything comes
out. Otherwise they wouldn't just let him go if suspended him for the year.
And he doesn't sound like he has put up a fight. We haven't
heard anything about an appeal, and like with the with the Coaches Association,
you had Matt Barnes saying he'd be shocked if he may have Dooka got another
job in the NBA, and then just a couple of months later, here
he is getting another job in the NBA. I am just I am.
This is not he may have. Dooka is clearly a great coach. This
is just like I this is so unbelievably tone death and you don't get to
say, well, this is all it's just about basketball. No, like
a basketball team suspended him for a year after he guided them to the finals.
This is just like again, I do believe that there are such a
thing as redemptive arcs. I'm not saying at some point Emilodoka won't. He
seemed sorry in his statement. I'm not gonna say that he can't redeem himself.
I'm not gonna say that he's not actually sorry. But what has he
done in two months to a tone for these allegations. Honestly, what has
he done in the past two months to a tone for these allegations? This
is just so And it's like I said in the other part, and I
think you're like, you're on the same front. I hate talking about it
for content. I'm honestly, this is just like me venting incoherently like extream
of conscious because it's just it's so frustrating. The other thing is this has
an element of because because Ludoka was an assistant under Nash, so so this
this also feels a little bit like what happens when it's it's like the substitute
teacher gets promoted full time, Like everybody likes the sub because they don't really
have any authority and they're like, you know, play special assistance and assistant
coaches always have better reporters or very often have better rapport with players, seem
like the good cop most of the time. You know that the head coach
takes on a very different role and that there's an element of that here too,
which is just like, yeah, I'm sure Duran and Irving and everybody
else liked Udoka better because he wasn't the one theoretically that was saying, hey,
we gotta like try hard and play defense and do all the stuff that
guys that are superstars don't want to do. And Udoka I think could be
the good cop in that situation. There's just like it's bad for that reason.
This would be a mistake, I think potentially for that reason, like
leaving aside all the all the optics, all the like morality stuff that we
won't get into, all the all all of those things, Like I just
it's wild, man. I can't wait for some press conference. I really
hope that. I don't even want to. I don't want to hear him
or see him. I'm I want to hear him. I want to hear
I want Nick Fodell in there, like holding this feet to the fire.
Are they're gonna give us that, They're gonna give us the trust us we
did our due diligence. Spiel is what's gonna happen. And it's like you
do not deserve the benefit of the doubt, and just I want to make
it clear, I don't care if Kad asked for this, I mean if
Kyrie asked for this, Like I don't like they should have him on mute
like somehow, but like Joe Si Sean Mark, you can't let this happen.
And this is not me saying that I need the MBA or its teams
to be these beacons of morality. They are not my moral compass. We're
talking about just baseline fundamental human decency and logic, and the NETS can't fucking
embrace follow it. Espouse it however you want to phrase it. This is
just a The NBA should quite frankly be a shame at how all this is
played out too, Like, this is not just an I don't even know
me saying they should step in and stop this. I don't even know how
that works. But just like, this is just a this is a ship
show. It's it's like a special kind of disastrous like circus, and it
sucks if the nets suck. Uh. And this is top down at this
point, I don't Joe Joe si people giving him credit for coming out talking
about Kyrie Irving and his Twitter post he followed that up by the way to
threaten that said this is bigger than basketball. And then it's like, well
all right, but the Ebodoka allegations are not bigger Like those are? Those
are? Those are smaller than basketball. I'm at a loss for words.
Is but this is it. I just wanted to make sense. Somebody,
somebody explained it to me in a way that that the dots connect, because
I just I don't. I don't understand it. It's it's too wild,
it's too wild. I don't get it. So I'm probably just gonna cut
your outro and put it there and repost it twice is what I'll do.
Uh my god, let me have the recording now. So that's all we
have, I think, unless you'd like to add I guess I'll take us
so much that I'm probably gonna put this into like two different Oh yeah,
we went along. That's okay, that's what we do. So guys,
thank you for listening. That's gonna do it. I hope you will all
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with all of our great takes. And you know, I want to say
one last thing, actually two last things today. Sorry, Jared Allen,
I was wrong about you and godspeed Steve. Nash also shout out Frank Nielkina
who just remains perfect and every single away