Speaker 1: Dan McMahon. Van McMahon added old Land.
Speaker 2: Texas flood as tickets, mud He's and main Ban McMahon.
Speaker 1: Van McMahon, the man you DoD.
Speaker 3: Jaz are off tonight welcomed in the Sacramento Kings last
Speaker 3: night they lost for Walker was really good Minnesota. Rigobert
Speaker 3: old Buddy back in town tomorrow night, speaking of our
Speaker 3: old buddy signed out for NBA Daily Assist. Thursday afternoon,
Speaker 3: I got Van McMahon, Tim McMahon, Tim happy Thursday, Sir, How.
Speaker 1: Are you pretty, partner? How you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm well.
Speaker 3: I have to say, uh, I thought about you today
Speaker 3: when news broke that Ian Rappaport and Jordan Schultz had
Speaker 3: a heated exchange.
Speaker 2: At a Starbucks. I've got it.
Speaker 3: I've got to note, Tim, at some point you got
Speaker 3: a little fire in you. Dan McMahon, have you ever
Speaker 3: had a intense back and forth with a fellow reporter
Speaker 3: throughout your career?
Speaker 1: Oh, I've had. I've had a handful, to say the
Speaker 1: least I had. There's one, and i'll protect I won't
Speaker 1: say the name to protecting not so innocent. But there's
Speaker 1: one particular gentleman who we got into a confrontation that
Speaker 1: termed mildly physical, but just mildly and uh, things blew
Speaker 1: over until he got a rough performance review, and he
Speaker 1: brought it up in his performance review and his boss
Speaker 1: called my boss, and so that won't get a little
Speaker 1: bit sticky. But it's been a while. I like to
Speaker 1: think I've grown in matured.
Speaker 2: You have calmed.
Speaker 3: You're even kind of nice to me. Not entirely nice
Speaker 3: to me, but kind of nice to me. Wait, this
Speaker 3: actually got a little like are we talking pushing, pushing
Speaker 3: and shoving?
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, a little pin against the wall type
Speaker 1: of thing against the type of thing you know, No, no,
Speaker 1: no harm, no foul, Probably a foul, but I think
Speaker 1: it was not the flavor one.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, fair enough, So Tim, you know, the
Speaker 3: jazz stuff has been tough all year, as we talked about,
Speaker 3: but when cool things happened, let's talked about cool things.
Speaker 3: And you know, Walker last night was he was special.
Speaker 3: It was historic. I mean, two players in the history
Speaker 3: of pro basketball put up the stat line have put
Speaker 3: up the stat line Walker put up last night, and
Speaker 3: it was against a really good big and Demos the bonus,
Speaker 3: who's just eaten the jazz launch over the past few years.
Speaker 3: Walker ten of ten from the floor, twenty five points,
Speaker 3: fourteen boards, five assists, two steals. Only Nikola Jokic and
Speaker 3: Wilt Chamberlain have done that in an NBA game. So
Speaker 3: again they lost, we know the deal, but a really
Speaker 3: cool night as it pertains to Walker Kessler.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and honestly, I think Walker Kesso has been the
Speaker 1: best thing about the Jazz season this year. You know,
Speaker 1: you can say it's damningum with fame praise, but you know,
Speaker 1: great rookie year. Last year I think, you know, he
Speaker 1: was even qualified as disappointing, and then you know, this
Speaker 1: year has been able to re establish himself as he's
Speaker 1: a quality starting dig and know, you for a team
Speaker 1: that is searching for long term foundation pieces, long term
Speaker 1: core pieces, I think he's the one guy from the
Speaker 1: last three drafts that you can say, hey, he absolutely
Speaker 1: fits that bill. There's no question that Walker Tesler can
Speaker 1: be a quality started big man in the NBA for
Speaker 1: you know, a decade or so to come. So this
Speaker 1: was a highlight of what's really been a very good
Speaker 1: season for him individually. You know, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: obviously overall is a team they have not won much
Speaker 1: and are not trying to win that much.
Speaker 3: And I don't know Tim that they're going to try
Speaker 3: to win even next year. So your guy John Than Gavoni,
Speaker 3: Jeremy Woo as well. Piece today really good in depth,
Speaker 3: Well it wasn't today, but a couple of days ago,
Speaker 3: really an in depth piece about the class next year.
Speaker 3: Nate Emmett, Cameron Boozer, AJ, Deban Sa, Darren Peterson. AJ
Speaker 3: is going to be playing his college ball here, But
Speaker 3: after reading what cavoni had to write about, like he
Speaker 3: thinks Peterson's the number one prospect in AJ's two, then
Speaker 3: it's the Boozer board Camp will be three, and then
Speaker 3: Nate amm at four. But based off of what Caavoni's
Speaker 3: saying about these top four players, I don't know if
Speaker 3: this fan base will see a serious approach next year.
Speaker 3: And who knows what will you know the off season
Speaker 3: will bring. But it feels to me, Tim that we're
Speaker 3: in for another year of what we just experienced.
Speaker 2: Is that kind of what your gut's telling you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the best way to put it
Speaker 1: is the Jazz are early and rebuild, and that's typically
Speaker 1: not like a you know, picky type of process. We'll
Speaker 1: see what kind of lottery luck they have, you know,
Speaker 1: We'll see if they are able to get a guy
Speaker 1: like you know, let's say they win water, they get
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag. You know, does Coop of Flag come in
Speaker 1: and drive winning immediately. I think the fasking an awful
Speaker 1: lot of a guy who, you know, if he didn't
Speaker 1: skip a great, if he didn't reclassify, would be a
Speaker 1: senior in high school right now. So I think it's
Speaker 1: just kind of part of the natural process. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I if I'm a Jazz Dan, I'm not expecting like
Speaker 1: some jump and wins next year for sure.
Speaker 3: All Right, so let's move let's move off it, and
Speaker 3: let's talk about the things that are a little bit
Speaker 3: more exciting and a little more pertinent to the world
Speaker 3: of pro basketball. First of all, from a macro standpoint, Tim,
Speaker 3: don't look now, but the past week I've watched NBA
Speaker 3: games and I'm seeing NBA players playing really, really hard.
Speaker 3: And maybe that's just this time of year. It is
Speaker 3: a reminder of how great this game is when the
Speaker 3: best players take it seriously. I think the narrative of
Speaker 3: you know, lackadaisical play is starting to go away here
Speaker 3: with some pretty intense high level basketball.
Speaker 2: It's the All Star Break.
Speaker 1: Yet well yeah, then look those teams like you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about whether the Detroit Pistons are playing hard.
Speaker 1: You know that that's a franchise and a bunch of guys,
Speaker 1: young guys on the roster who have a bunch to
Speaker 1: prove and you know, it's a pretty cool story. The
Speaker 1: Detroit Testons have one more game so far the season
Speaker 1: than they did the last two years combined. The Detroit
Speaker 1: Pistons woke up a year ago today with eight wins
Speaker 1: on the season. They are on an eight game winning
Speaker 1: streak right now. So and look, you know, if you're
Speaker 1: again you're in Salt Lake City, it's a it's a rebuild.
Speaker 1: You know, there's obviously pain that comes along with that.
Speaker 1: This is a team that's been through the pain and
Speaker 1: has been able to make that jump this season. You've
Speaker 1: got to find the guy to build around, and they've
Speaker 1: got that with Cad Cunningham, and then it's about surrounding
Speaker 1: him with the right pieces. So, you know, they got
Speaker 1: to a point where they had a guy they wanted
Speaker 1: to build around. They brought in some vets to fit
Speaker 1: and gave him just some room to breathe, and you know,
Speaker 1: the piss is like, I don't know if they're gonna
Speaker 1: win a playoff series this year, but the fact that
Speaker 1: they're going to be in one and that they're going
Speaker 1: to be a tough matchup for somebody is pretty amazing
Speaker 1: progress considering they won fourteen games last year and set
Speaker 1: it in being record for the longest losing.
Speaker 3: Street former Jazz GM Dennis Lindsay helping out over there,
Speaker 3: which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Happy for him.
Speaker 3: And you know, when we always try to draw parallels
Speaker 3: between teams that are further along in advanced rebuilds, I
Speaker 3: try to bring it topically as far as what the
Speaker 3: Jazz are doing here, But you referenced it right, like
Speaker 3: they have Kate and Orlando has Ben Kara, Like it
Speaker 3: is just the one thing that somehow, some way the
Speaker 3: Jazz need to find. As good as Lowry is, I
Speaker 3: just don't know that he is the guy to build
Speaker 3: around when it comes to eventually being back into contention.
Speaker 3: It is the one outlier that all of these advanced
Speaker 3: rebuilt team seem to have that the Jazz just right
Speaker 3: now have not been able to find.
Speaker 1: And that's why you tank to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: because where picked right, where it was Kid Cunningham picked right.
Speaker 1: The easiest way to get that level of talent is
Speaker 1: to pick very very early in the draft. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to do. It's hard to trade for those
Speaker 1: kind of guys as a rebuilding team, especially, And let's
Speaker 1: just be blunt, like in a market like Salt Lake
Speaker 1: City where you're in a rebuild, it's impossible to sign
Speaker 1: that kind of guy in free agency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the bottom line. All right.
Speaker 3: We were all gathered around our television sets on Tuesday night,
Speaker 3: and obviously is the guy that wrote the book on Luca,
Speaker 3: You're the guy to talk about this, and uh, I
Speaker 3: feel like, at least through the television tim it felt
Speaker 3: like there was a lot of buzs in that arena.
Speaker 3: Of course, with Luca taking on the mass for the
Speaker 3: first time, I wasn't sure if Nico was going to
Speaker 3: show up.
Speaker 1: You did. Uh.
Speaker 3: The over under I said on the show for Luca
Speaker 3: points was forty.
Speaker 2: He didn't touch that. He did get a triple double.
Speaker 3: I'm really curious is to see what it looks like
Speaker 3: when they go down to Dallas. But what was it
Speaker 3: like to be in the building, And what was your
Speaker 3: takeaway as we saw Luca play his former team for
Speaker 3: the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I thought Luca played well, with
Speaker 1: the exception of shooting the ball. I thought he played
Speaker 1: a very kind of poised and focused game. The Mavericks
Speaker 1: were determined not to let him go off. You know,
Speaker 1: they're they're obviously trapping and doubling him a lot to
Speaker 1: you know, to make sure he didn't had that forty
Speaker 1: point type of performance. And he doesn't have his legs
Speaker 1: right now, and he had He's had one good offensive performance,
Speaker 1: one good scoring performance, I should say for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You know, since the trade. You know he doesn't have
Speaker 1: his legs. You can tell when when you know, when
Speaker 1: he's not making threes. The thing that I think surprised
Speaker 1: me was I thought this would be a full Luca
Speaker 1: Rage type of performance, and he saw a little glimpse
Speaker 1: of that. Like mid through the fourth quarter, he knocksent
Speaker 1: that three of the time out. He looks at the
Speaker 1: mass bench, he's glaring, he's yelling all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But there wasn't a whole lot of back and forth.
Speaker 1: You know, he made a point like he pretended, Oh
Speaker 1: I didn't know, I didn't see me go okay, Like
Speaker 1: he made a point not to have any level of
Speaker 1: interaction with Niko Harrison or with Jason Kidd, which tells
Speaker 1: you that, you know, Luca did him quite by because
Speaker 1: j Kid wasn't aware of anything until they loved dour stuff,
Speaker 1: and that would put myself in that same boat. But
Speaker 1: the prevailing emotion from Luca in terms of the Matticks,
Speaker 1: I don't think his anger right now. I think it's
Speaker 1: more sadness. And you know, he's I think he will
Speaker 1: find joy with the Lakers. I think he's he's he's
Speaker 1: searching for it right now. And it's not like, look,
Speaker 1: they're gonna win games. He's got a good relationship with
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick, you know, looked up to Lebron his entire childhood,
Speaker 1: loves join Finney Smith and timmdy had Dallas. Like I
Speaker 1: think Luke is going to be just fine, is gonna
Speaker 1: you know, have a great run here with the Lakers. Well,
Speaker 1: he's still getting over basically getting dumped publicly and shamed
Speaker 1: out his way up the door.
Speaker 3: You referenced the Jason Kidd element here, the Jason kidds
Speaker 3: side of this, and look, you know, far more about
Speaker 3: this situation than probably any medium member, let alone me.
Speaker 3: I just thought, as a head coach, it would be
Speaker 3: really hard to see a player like that traded away
Speaker 3: because if you have Luca, you got a shot, and
Speaker 3: these guys are wired to win. And Jason Kidd, once
Speaker 3: upon a time was as fierce a competitor as a
Speaker 3: player as anybody as you know. So now that a
Speaker 3: few weeks have passed, have you been able to kind
Speaker 3: of uncover exactly what he knew when he knew it
Speaker 3: in the hand he played in this decision, if any
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you what he knew in terms of
Speaker 1: like the trade discussions and all that. I can just
Speaker 1: tell you he was absolutely as frustrated with Luca as
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison was in terms of the diet, the conditioning that,
Speaker 1: you know, all the stuff that I've talked about out report.
Speaker 1: It has been recorded by other people. Nico was not
Speaker 1: on an island with that. Jay Kidd was right there
Speaker 1: with him on that. And I can also tell you
Speaker 1: that Jason Kidd was right there with Nico in terms
Speaker 1: of his fondness for Anthony Davis. Nico obviously had a
Speaker 1: you know, decade long relationship with a D. You know,
Speaker 1: from Nico's time at Nike, aside from Kobe Bryant, he
Speaker 1: was probably closer to a D than any other player
Speaker 1: that he worked with there. But Jason Kidd also has
Speaker 1: a really good relationship with Ad. Remember j Kidd, It's
Speaker 1: been a couple of years as an assistant coach in
Speaker 1: LA before getting hired as the head coach in Dallas.
Speaker 1: And one of those years they won a championship in
Speaker 1: the Bubble. You know, Ad was his guy. So again,
Speaker 1: I don't I'll put it like this. I don't think
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd was disappointed by this trade. I'm very confident
Speaker 1: in saying that.
Speaker 3: So you know, I always hesitate to, you know, bring
Speaker 3: things on the Internet into real life because I don't
Speaker 3: know how real it is. It just seems like there
Speaker 3: is a bit of a smear campaign going on from
Speaker 3: the Mavericks because every time I fire up NBA Twitter,
Speaker 3: it's smoking a hookah and drinking beers, and then there's
Speaker 3: pictures of Luca and you know a lot of people
Speaker 3: are It's a different era in a lot of different ways,
Speaker 3: not just in basketball, but society. Like you know, we
Speaker 3: could talk about back in the day, the party habits
Speaker 3: of a Michael Jordan, the party and habits of a
Speaker 3: lot of players back then. Certainly I saw it, you know,
Speaker 3: I was around a lot of it. And the younger
Speaker 3: generation just doesn't seem to They seem to have a
Speaker 3: different relationship and the fundamental understanding of the dangers of
Speaker 3: maybe alcohol and drug use and such. So maybe it's
Speaker 3: a different mindset just overall. But is this Dallas behind
Speaker 3: the scenes trying to because I don't look, I'm just
Speaker 3: of the opinion you can't spin this.
Speaker 2: It's a bad trade. You don't make no matter what.
Speaker 3: But is this Dallas behind the scenes trying to spin
Speaker 3: it to help people understand that maybe this is something
Speaker 3: they needed to do.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if it's so. Mu's even
Speaker 1: trying to spin it, but just like what that? What
Speaker 1: were you thinking? Well, this is why they made the trade.
Speaker 1: And look, it is not breaking news that Luka Doncics
Speaker 1: likes to have a Bruce ki or two scheme, right, Like,
Speaker 1: did you know that before he was traded?
Speaker 2: I was aware, of.
Speaker 1: Course, you knew that before he is traded. It is
Speaker 1: not breaking news that the man's got a voracious appetite
Speaker 1: and sometimes can get pretty pudgy. Like you knew that.
Speaker 1: You've watched him throughout his career. You know you've seen
Speaker 1: him like I reported going back to Jay Kids first year,
Speaker 1: Rick Carlisle's last year, Luca was tipping the scales over
Speaker 1: two sixty back then, and in both of those seasons.
Speaker 1: This has been something that's been, you know, a constant issue.
Speaker 1: It's just for all those concerns, you say, well, okay,
Speaker 1: he also made five straight first team All NBA squads.
Speaker 1: He also led the league in scoring last year, almost
Speaker 1: averaged a triple double, and you know, took your team
Speaker 1: to the finals. So I don't necessarily think I don't
Speaker 1: think it's like a whole lot of hey, here's new stuff,
Speaker 1: here's new stuff, because dude, the hookah stuff. The hookah.
Speaker 1: At first, I honestly, the hookah thing I don't think
Speaker 1: was a big concern, like did he have hook on vacation, Sure, okay, whatever.
Speaker 1: The beer drinking and all that stuff, that's much more
Speaker 1: of a concern simply because it gets to the weight
Speaker 1: and it gets to you know, all those all those uh,
Speaker 1: the concerns about his body breaking down. But it's not
Speaker 1: like people just realize that that Luca likes to drink
Speaker 1: a beer.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like it's weird? Because I guess there's
Speaker 3: no way of fully knowing. I mean, I can tell
Speaker 3: you that I saw firsthand myself the past iteration of
Speaker 3: the jazz with Donovan and some of those guys. They
Speaker 3: like to have a good time in certain areas here
Speaker 3: in Salt Lake City and certain places where Donovan lived,
Speaker 3: there were a lot of parties that were being thrown.
Speaker 3: But is there a different approach with the younger generation
Speaker 3: juxtapost kind of the old guard. Look, I know, nobody's
Speaker 3: smoking heaters at halftime like lott I was, But is
Speaker 3: there right, is there like a different like cultural approach
Speaker 3: in pro basketball to taking care of their bodies in
Speaker 3: a way that maybe it wasn't a thing back in
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's obviously a lot more science involved in it,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think it's a much higher priority
Speaker 1: for teams, so it becomes a higher priority for players.
Speaker 1: But like, if you think Luke is the only guy
Speaker 1: in the lead that enjoys having a drinker six, then
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you, you know, And like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's this big wine culture in the NBA. Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just again, I get like
Speaker 1: the fact that he gained weight during the season last
Speaker 1: year while leading the league and usage rate and playing
Speaker 1: thirty eight minutes per game, is you know, with a
Speaker 1: full time quote unquote body team. Like, I get it.
Speaker 1: That's pretty alarming. But I just, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think the guy's like waking up and pouring
Speaker 1: beard his cheerios or anything. Okay, Like, I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I understand the concerns with the beer drinking
Speaker 1: because it's it becomes a conditioning thing. I I would
Speaker 1: be cautious on portraying this guy as having like a
Speaker 1: serious alcohol problem. I just I just think that Luca's
Speaker 1: postgame routine is very similar to.
Speaker 3: Mine, right, And I've experienced that routine. It's a fun routine, yeah, you.
Speaker 1: Know, and and unfortunately a lot of times I think
Speaker 1: it's all season routinea simber to mind too, certainly the
Speaker 1: all Star break routine at times.
Speaker 2: For sure. And there's nothing wrong with it. You know,
Speaker 2: you work hard, you should enjoy life.
Speaker 3: You know. I'm not a live to work guy. I'm
Speaker 3: a work to live guy. And I think people should
Speaker 3: approach you that way. Nothing wrong with it at all,
Speaker 3: especially when he went to the finals a year ago,
Speaker 3: Like it couldn't be that big of a deal. So
Speaker 3: Dallas obviously tim right now with her grip of injury
Speaker 3: issues with their bigs. You know what's interesting, Kyrie is
Speaker 3: kind of coming out on the other side of this
Speaker 3: is like this hero right for Dallas fans. And this
Speaker 3: is a guy that was a lightning rod for criticism
Speaker 3: not that long ago. A lot of people didn't even
Speaker 3: want to touch him, someone as far as to say
Speaker 3: he shouldn't play pro basketball anymore.
Speaker 2: But what do you make of like the Kyrie side
Speaker 2: of this? And whenever he locks.
Speaker 3: In the way he did against the Lakers, I'm reminded
Speaker 3: that once upon a time I did enjoy watching him,
Speaker 3: maybe as much, if not more than any player in
Speaker 3: the league. But you cover the team, what do you
Speaker 3: make of like the Kyrie kind of coming out looking
Speaker 3: like maybe a hero for Dallas and this whole thing.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think that is something that's a sudden development.
Speaker 1: I think that was the case last year too. Now
Speaker 1: for sure, you know, he's he's like it's kind of
Speaker 1: his team now, right, And He's the guy who's probably
Speaker 1: handled this the best in terms of like empathetic towards Luca,
Speaker 1: and you know, like, you know, they still have a relationship,
Speaker 1: they still got a brotherhood. But and hey, like you
Speaker 1: can whine in private, Luke's not coming back. Kyrie's got
Speaker 1: a team to lead, he's got games to try to win,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's been handling his business as far
Speaker 1: as that goes. But you know, I don't think there's
Speaker 1: been a sudden shift in the Kyrie storyline. I think
Speaker 1: he kind of earned his way into the hearts of
Speaker 1: the Mavericks fans, certainly last year and especially during the
Speaker 1: playoff run, but even before that. And you know, the
Speaker 1: simple fact is Kyrie has been the leader of this team.
Speaker 1: He wasn't their best player last year, but he was
Speaker 1: absolutely the leader. He was the primary voice in the
Speaker 1: locker room. And you know, despite his track record of
Speaker 1: chaos and his previous stops, he has been a constant
Speaker 1: source of like home for the Mavericks and that's something
Speaker 1: they obviously really really needed after the NBA much sus
Speaker 1: the franchise was was rocked by this shocking trade.
Speaker 2: Well, my take remains, do not make that trade.
Speaker 3: There actually is a lot to like about the Mavericks
Speaker 3: roster if they can get right Lively, Gaffer and obviously
Speaker 3: a D.
Speaker 2: So where we at with those three?
Speaker 3: Do you think they can get back in time to
Speaker 3: be in shape for the playoffs? And if so, what's
Speaker 3: the ceiling for this Mavericks team this year?
Speaker 1: You know, talking to my people with the Mavericks, the
Speaker 1: hope is that they're going to get two or three
Speaker 1: weeks of Ad and Lively together at the end of
Speaker 1: the regular season. You know, how much rhythm and rapport
Speaker 1: and you know, kind of chemistry can you establish. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to be eight games,
Speaker 1: ten games, whatever it may be, I don't know, but
Speaker 1: that's the reality of the situation. That's what they're going
Speaker 1: to have. There's not as much optimism the gaff is
Speaker 1: going to be able to get back and be a
Speaker 1: significant part of this. He you know, Grade three sprain
Speaker 1: of the MTL basically means he towards MCL, So he
Speaker 1: definitely has the toughest injury of the three to deal with.
Speaker 1: So Gafford and I'm sorry Lively there and Ad is
Speaker 1: supposed to be reevaluated next week They're not returning next week,
Speaker 1: but they will if things continue progressing as they are,
Speaker 1: get back at some point in March.
Speaker 3: Are you buying the optimism in Golden State? I think
Speaker 3: they're seven and one with Jimmy Butler and a lot
Speaker 3: of people. And look, Jimmy has shown us that he
Speaker 3: come playoff time. He's one of those dudes you just
Speaker 3: have to admit that he is. So I'll ask you
Speaker 3: the same question, are you buying that optimism? And what's
Speaker 3: best case scenario for Golden State this year?
Speaker 1: Splash and crash splashes, Steph crashes Jimmy, you like that?
Speaker 2: I like that's really good, really good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're definitely better than they were before the trade.
Speaker 1: And obviously it looks Steph on. I mean, they've got
Speaker 1: some guys who are big time champions that you have
Speaker 1: to respect. Jimmy Butler's you know, really had two overachieving
Speaker 1: heat teams make the finals in large part because he
Speaker 1: he is one of those dudes who can just absolutely
Speaker 1: dominate playoff series. Yeah, I don't think they were gonna
Speaker 1: win the West, Like is it with the realm of possibility? Sure,
Speaker 1: but I don't think they have like even a double
Speaker 1: figure percentage chance of putting the Western Conference.
Speaker 3: Who keeps Mark dagnalld up at night? Is it Denver
Speaker 3: more than anyone else?
Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah, I think I think Denver, And honestly, yes,
Speaker 1: Denver is the one who's the who's the biggest challenge.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any question about that. But you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's like just super excited about seeing
Speaker 1: a Luca Lebron tandemly in a playoff series. Uh, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have a hole in the roster. I mean, clearly
Speaker 1: they thought they needed a starting rim running center, and
Speaker 1: you know, they flunk Mark Williams on a physical so
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. But the Lakers, they've been playing. They've
Speaker 1: been playing good basketball even before the Luca trade, you know,
Speaker 1: even with out a D and Luca's not himself quite yet,
Speaker 1: but we've seen what.
Speaker 2: That guy can do in the playoffs for sure.
Speaker 3: A reminder of how fleeting this stuff is. Since you
Speaker 3: and I last spoke, Victor wemen Yama shutdown for the year.
Speaker 3: In Greg Popovich will not coach the Spurs this season.
Speaker 3: I'm anticipating them losing the re rest of their games
Speaker 3: and drafting Cooper flag to play an extra Victor wemen Yama.
Speaker 3: But what are your thoughts to him on the latest
Speaker 3: happenings in San Antonio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was there and often the day the
Speaker 1: Wimby stuff came out, so you know, I was able
Speaker 1: to talk to people with the Spurs. They are very
Speaker 1: optimistic that he's going to be fine long term, that
Speaker 1: he's going to be able to be back to the
Speaker 1: start of next season. It's not going to be an
Speaker 1: issue throughout the course of his career. So that obviously
Speaker 1: is you know, it sucks that he's not playing the
Speaker 1: re Us this season, but you know it's good news
Speaker 1: that they don't think this is something that's going to
Speaker 1: be a lingering issue or you know Chris Bosh type
Speaker 1: of saying, where it ruins a guy's career, in some
Speaker 1: guy's career.
Speaker 2: I thought the news.
Speaker 1: Today with Pop and that he's not going to go
Speaker 1: for US the season. We knew that it's that he
Speaker 1: plans to coach next season, you know, and we'll see
Speaker 1: how his recovery goes and how things progress. So you know,
Speaker 1: the short statement that he that he left or that
Speaker 1: he sent out, you know, it ended with, you know,
Speaker 1: the hope to return to coaching, and you know, that's
Speaker 1: making it very clear that Pop is not is not
Speaker 1: limping off in the sunset all right.
Speaker 3: Before I said, you lose some very inspirational news that
Speaker 3: Paul George is putting his podcast on pause to focus
Speaker 3: on the rest of the season for Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: What what do they do?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: Like, how do you get out of this? What what
Speaker 3: happens next in Philadelphia?
Speaker 1: The Philadelphia top sixers? You know, can they keep that
Speaker 1: top six protected tick? That's the big quest, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: and be it's about to get shut down. We know that,
Speaker 1: So that that's the first big question. The second big
Speaker 1: question is, you know, does embiid try to get out
Speaker 1: of there? And then if he does, what kind of
Speaker 1: market is there for him? With almost yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: after this year it'll be like with almost two hundred
Speaker 1: fifty million O to him over the next four years.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know the answers those, but clearly
Speaker 1: a team that thought they won the summer. You know,
Speaker 1: they had a little free agency parade, but it's a
Speaker 1: complete mess up there in Philadelphia. And the other big
Speaker 1: question is who's gonna who's gonna lose their jobs? Who
Speaker 1: is going to pay for this mess by losing their jobs.
Speaker 1: Is Darryl Moore going to get a chance to clean
Speaker 1: this up? You know? Is Nick Nurse a proven championship coach?
Speaker 1: Is he going to be the fall guy? Uh, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be a celebratory summer in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: The media member that you got physical with was a mcmannimhon,
Speaker 3: that's my best guess.
Speaker 1: No it wasn't. It wasn't. Dave al though. Listen, I
Speaker 1: am here in La right now. We're about to go
Speaker 1: over on a little while here to the arena for
Speaker 1: the Little Wolves Lakers, and uh, you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens tonight. I'm not gonna rule it out, that's
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: Get after him. I want to beat between McMahon and McManamon.
Speaker 3: Did our one of our two of our favorites on
Speaker 3: the show. All right, Tim enjoyed the game, man, Thanks
Speaker 3: for the time, all right, all right, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Bro,