Clippers Get Hammered, Ben Simmons Is Back, and Five Questions Ahead of Next Season

Welcome to the Ms. Vash, I'm Chris Varnin and joining me is he does every week from TheRinger.com is Dave Chikovic, Chikovic! Varnin, there's so much NBA to discuss but I can't wait to discuss TheRV, that'll be at the end of the show. Oh, we went down Route 66 for the 100 year anniversary with the family. I can't wait to hear about this either. Alright, we've got to start because we were not on last week as the Clippers penalties dropped. And everyone has now done podcast about this. We'll give our quick thoughts on this. Number one, they got absolutely hammered. I think everybody, when the first tweet came down of the penalties, there was a collective, whoa, because I think the longer it dragged on, the more we kind of thought, hey, they're going to take a plea deal here. You know, there's already that reporting on the ESPN side that was saying that they had talked to each other and that the, I guess the lawyers had been in communication. So that gave us the impression at least a few weeks prior that, okay, they're going to take a plea deal on this thing. They're going to say, hey, look, we didn't know, but we kind of knew and we understand the way this looks for the league or whatever. Instead, as it turned out, it appeared to have been just absolute defiance. And so we have five quick thoughts on this. I want to get your reactions to it. The first thing is regarding the absolute defiance, almost every podcast I've read or article I read about this, it was funny. Reporters in many cases became the man characters and talking about this that many of them have relationships with Clippers brass or people within the Clippers. And it was like one after another, people saying their relationships got burned, they were talked down to, they were condescended upon. And I was like, damn man, like, and it was like all the people saying in privately, they were defying it to the people covering the story, right? That the Clippers, like, it wasn't just like to the league, it was like, if you were a reporter and you asked the people from the Clippers about this, it was never like a ho hum or a, I don't want to talk about that, you know, it was a no, we did not do this. And there was like a shadow campaign going along to the reporters. And so shout out to all the reporters with mega hurt feelings because it seems as if they had good relationships with the Clippers, with the Clippers, like burned every bridge like along the way of this. They got no friends anymore. It doesn't seem like because it seems like reporters feel like burned for the fact that they even tried to talk about this. But let's get into big ones. I want to get your thoughts on this. All right. Is this just another example in the long lines of examples, whether it is crimes or it is sports or it is anything that the best chance you have is to just say you're sorry when you've already been caught? I think it sort of goes to the first thing that you were saying too, if you lie, deny until you die, you have to pick a side. You know what I mean? It's right. If you're going to lie, deny until you die because, you know, and that's sort of what their sort of philosophy felt like it was because there was no true smoking, smoking gun. If you read the report, you know, you read all the report. And there's no sort of like truly damning, damning piece of information. I mean, the Lord is Frank's memo. The Lord's Frank's memo is pretty, I don't know how you talk your way around though. Well, Jillian Zuckert didn't do herself very many favors. I did not know who she was before this report. And I certainly know who she is now. And she's going to be difficult to hire moving forward. Well, and also it seems like Kauai got the plea deal, right? Like of all these people, he's the one that like, all right, you get $700 grand. I made like $50 million all this thing. All right. And the NBA and Kauai Leonard, they're fine with this. It reminded me like, this is now 15 years ago. I remember covering this story of Bruce Pearl was the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Okay. And they, they got caught recruiting. They had like, uh, this is so funny now. It's almost like I'm talking about the 1920s. So at that time, you couldn't have, they had what was in the illegal barbecue at his house hosting recruits. Okay. Hosting recruits. So there was a great point guard that ended up playing at Ohio State. His name was Aaron Kraft. And Aaron Kraft, these other guys over at Bruce Pearl's house, they're having a cookout, right? And so then there's a report that they had a cookout. So the NCAA investigators come in and they say, Hey, you had all these recruits over at your house, including Aaron Kraft over at a cookout. That is against the rules. And he said, I didn't have a cookout. What are you talking about? No, that didn't happen. And then he has three different assistants, right? They all got to go talk in. And the story is we're sticking with it. We're going to say there was no cookout, right? And so then the three assistants go in there and they say, cook out. I cook out. We ain't ever cook out, right? Hey, the invest, then look, I knew some of the guys involved in this. The NCAA investigators then say, Oh, after they all deny it, they go, you sure? And they're like, yeah, we don't know what you're talking about. They're like, Well, what's this? And on the Bible, they hold up a picture of Aaron Kraft like eating a cheeseburger. In Bruce Pearl's kitchen and they're all there. And so they destroyed them. They gave Bruce Pearl a three year show cause and all of the assistants, a one year show cause, which makes you absolutely positively unemployable, right? Like once they give you this show cause and it was over. Not that this was like minor. They had a cheeseburger, a point guard recruit in the guy's house. But because they lied about it, they got absolutely torched. And so I always think about it through the prism of that where it's like, Oh, if you just say, look, okay, I know we did this. We're sorry. How do we make this right? But instead, like you're saying, it does seem like they're going to do the lie till we die thing. And that just made the NBA be like, okay, dude. All right, if this is the way you want to play it, then this is the way we want to play it. And so it gets pretty gnarly on a quick side, though. Do you think that their level of non-success because of this changed the penalties and or the public reaction? Yes. You do. Had Kauai and Paul George worked out as a duo the way that we expected them to when they first signed with the Clippers. I think this would have been a different story because they were so sort of seemingly just like cursed in a way. And then they happened as a franchise forever. It sort of makes you feel like you go a little bit later on them because I am curious what it would look like if they want to championship. And then this came out. And then fans would care about salary cap circumvention in a way that they probably don't. Yes. And we'd have a position where it's sort of like, do we have to renounce championships? So if that were found true of the nicks, then people would say, well, I don't know, wait, wait, wait, what? We have a trouble connecting on the Zoom here. That's some difficulty. I think that check your Wi-Fi connection. Burn off. Okay. Here's the next question on the Clippers thing. Will this trigger scorched earth by somebody where they say, fine, you're doing it this? Well, what we're going to do? I'm the richest man in the world. How about this? Oh, you want to do this to us? Everybody else does this too. And now it's going to be their mission to rat out others. I don't think that's the case. No, I mean, to what end would you sort of like use those resources? Oh, well, I got caught doing something. Well, guess what other people do it too? Now they're going to get caught and we're going to get them in trouble. How does that help your position? That always happens though. But how does that have the Clippers? How does it help Steve bomber to be? Oh, guess what? These other teams are doing it too. And here's some examples and I'm going to investigate and provide evidence as to why. How does that help? Like to what end? I mean, no, it's because the owners turned on him. Because the owners were all like backing Steve Balmer at the beginning. That's the reporting. Brian Winor said this, right? Like it seemed like he had like kind of support of the group, right? Where it's like, and you know, Mark Cuban was out and out and I know he's a former owner, but I mean, he was like taking on Pablo publicly and you wonder how many of those guys felt the same way, right? Where it's like billionaires backing billionaires and trying to protect their own. But now it seems like since a report came out, he ain't got any friends in this anymore. That's where I'm saying. It's like, oh, all you guys have turned your back on me now, huh? Like you're not there. You're not supporting me now. Even though you're seeing the report, well, this could be you too. I just wonder. I don't think it will happen because if they spent a year investigating this and came up with what they came up with, which was, I think justified the punishment, but at the same time, I don't feel like they really had substantial, absolute smoking gun caught red handed evidence in the report. Do you think they get hammered more if they stayed defying it? Because they even said in the document, they said in the document like this ain't over. I was like, oh my god. Well, I mean, they literally said in their statement, they said, we vehemently reject the NBA's findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly and they have not held themselves close to the standard commissioner's oversight at the start of this investigation to ensure fairness and accuracy. I mean, probably not over. All right. Probably not over. Next one. Will there be an uncle Dennis doc? I always try to find the guy who is the most likely to take a deal from a streamer and do the sit down and it's the guy who got like, you know, spurned the worse. And so Anne probably doesn't have like an NBA in the whole thing. That would be the best doc ever. I mean, I can't, I can't tell you how fast. I would be in front of my TV if Netflix said the uncle Dennis doc drops next week. Oh, yeah. He like sat down and you see him sitting down in the chair and he's like, let's go. I'm like, oh, let's go, let's go. If you, one thing I find interesting about this whole thing is uncle Dennis is like persona and reputation. I don't know what he looks like. I've never heard him talk. I've heard about uncle Dennis for a decade now, but he's never done an interview. He's never at the games. Like I just don't, they never cut to him during a broadcast. Like think about representatives, agents, managers, like you sort of their, they're sort of public people. Uncle Dennis is not. And they're like, Uncle Dennis cannot operate as a representation for an NBA athlete for five years. I think Uncle Dennis is like, I'm fine. I've made millions of dollars. I'll be okay. Okay. There's where I'm standing on this is why I'm asking you this. Let's just say what we know about Uncle Dennis, right? So now is that the mix very little, we know that he's the guy that goes and asks everybody for money. What I'm saying is whether it's and stakes in teams and everything else allegedly. The name, let's just say with that name, I may believe, Uncle Dennis, name a single may believe. Okay. With that guy, if somebody comes and said, Hey man, we'll give you $3 million, sit down and tell your story. Like is there any chance in the world he's saying no? Like we know he knows, I mean, I can't imagine how many times his phone has rang over the course of the last week, week and a half. It's got to be off the hook. This story is like, I want to hear it all. I want to hear and he may have to wait until Kauai is done. Right? I don't know. Does he have to wait? I mean, I would assume that him and Kauai have a good relationship. The fact that we all call him Uncle Dennis is hilarious to me too. It's great. No one calls him Dennis Roberts. It's just like Uncle Dennis. That's just what we call it. What everybody calls him is Uncle Dennis. I imagine that him and Kauai are pretty tight and I imagine that he wouldn't want to jeopardize any future earnings for Kauai Leonard. The question is like, honestly, like who sits down? Maybe it's the, maybe it's the female you were talking about earlier. What was her name? Julian Zucker. Julian Zucker. Maybe she sits, like who is sitting, who's sitting down for the documentary? That's what we need to know. It's the biggest penalty in NBA history and it's an unbelievable story. It's a great story. It's really all because aspiration couldn't operate as a bank. I know. That's really what it is. It's like from that. It's just like aspiration was this like huge successful company that completely fell apart due to poor leadership and then had and left in its wake angry investors and employees. And now. And then they decided to whistle blow. That's basically what happened. And now blingo and dectronics and electronics. Dectronics. Oh my god. We got the worst luck ever. I don't know. Nobody would have ever known about any of them. Yeah, that's we would have been fine instead these friggin idiots went over scamming everybody. Like honestly, yes, if that if that doesn't go and that doesn't all become public record and then somebody doesn't whistle blow on that, like, hey man, we had a deal with Kawaii Leonard. Like none of this ever happens. It all just, it all just, I mean, it happened behind the scenes and no big deal. I have a theory and, you know, friends of Pablo have not spoken to him with him about this. That it's all sort of Harvard ties because these were like Harvard kids started the aspiration thing. And Pablo went to Harvard and I think there was probably some disgruntled like disgruntled ex aspiration employee that like Pablo had beers with on like in Harvard Square in like the early 2000s. And that's how I think this all came to light. It's a Harvard thing. And then we're going to find out that there's a bunch of Yale grads in the Clippers, and that they played lacrosse against each other or they, no, they, they lost in a, in a math league competition. No, it was a crew. We was a crew. They were crew. Yeah. Crew was really big at Harvard. Yeah. Yeah. Charles River there. Yeah. It was debate. They lost. Pablo is a debate guy. I know. I know. It's like a known as a debater. Oh yeah. You guys beat us in the debate team competition. Just wait. I'll have my day. All right. Last one. Is this retroactively the worst deal ever? I think if you, if you throw in the Paul George part of it, I don't think it's, I don't think it's even debate. It's not even debatable. It's not even close. So they spent $350 million over seven years on Kawaii Leonard. They won a total of three playoff series. He didn't play in a postseason game past the second round. He missed one of the years after tearing his ACL. He played 37 games in another one. And then he lasted two games in that next postseason after the torn ACL. And then if you take into George into consideration, ten first round picks, two time MVP and finals MVP, SGA, two and a half years of collective executive suspension, $30 million in fine. And then, and it was for $600 million in combined salary for George and Leonard for seven years that they didn't make a conference finals. I mean, ten picks, including the two time MVP and 700, I mean, this is just, I mean, I think Niko kind of has to celebrate a little bit. Oh, yeah. It's easily, I mean, because I got Anthony Davis for 14 games or whatever. It moves down a little bit, right? Like when they're talking about, like whenever they're doing the totality of it all, like if you look at like the micaparsis trade, it's like, oh, well, actually, maybe it might work on Dallas's favorite. I know your Dallas guy. But like the totality of the Clippers signing Kauai and PG and what they gave up and what those picks eventually turned into. If you, it just doesn't balance anywhere near, it's, it, this is the worst trade in sports history. The Babe Ruth, maybe, yeah, Babe Ruth, maybe, the fact that you're going back to Babe Ruth. That's what, that's like, yeah, the curse of the, the curse of the claw, we could do the curse of the claw. I mean, it's like the Clippers had a bunch of champs just before the clock out there. That's the thing is like this franchise is just, yeah, oh, and I mean, and look, I know that some people have said, like, well, it's not nearly that bad because if they get the two first round picks back from Toronto for Kauai and what am I, bro, it's five, 20, 30 and 20, 33, like what? Yeah, they also, it's like five first round picks and they don't have like a bunch of awesome players. And like, I did like the email that Simmons got where the guy that proposed the he called the Mary the Nanny, like where you just go all in where you just go all in after you've been. And so you take the full leap and he was like, what if he married the Nanny? And just like, I guess the biggest penalties are like, you know, hamstringing yourself, losing draft picks and the financial penalties. What if Steve Balmer just said, fine, I don't care. I'll go into, you're gonna have to create a fourth apron for me. I'm gonna spend it so far above everything that good luck, good luck harnessing me. This is ash tray money. That would be hilarious though. If I just said, I'm going to spend, I will outspend everything. I don't care about any of your penalties. And I spent, I spent like 30 minutes by myself trying to figure out what Dremon was saying. He's like 30 million spends the same for Steve Balmer as it does for everyone else. And I was just trying to do the mental gymnastics. I was like, no, I don't think so, Dremon. I really tried. I really tried. I think I think 30 million means a lot more to me than it does to Steve Balmer. I just think so. I understand. I think I understand what you're trying to say. But I think that 30 million to someone who has a hundred billion or 10 billion, how much does he have? Steve Balmer. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There's an infinite. He has, he has, you know, he has infinity money. Yeah. I think 30 million means less to him than it means to other people. I don't understand it. Mr. Green, please explain to me. He's never running out. Okay. We've got a couple other news items that have happened since we last talked before we get to our three big questions. I'm at Thompson. Got his contract and his contract extension done with the Houston Rockets, not the full on full on Max, but certainly a very healthy contract. And it's going to be interesting to see. I mean, I am a huge, I'm in Thompson fan. I would pay him, you know, I mean, there's some of these guys when it comes up and you're like, I don't know. Do you hamstring yourself by paying the I'm in Thompson level player? You know, that guy, I just think, you know, what you could get on both ends. Obviously, people are always going to focus on what he can't do, but shoot. I focus more on what he can do, right? And I'd pay him. Would you? I mean, I like that. I got no problem. I mean, I think that's a kind of guy that you sew up and keep happy. Yeah, it's interesting. I think if you are the Rockets, you do this. So I think it was smart of them to do so on a micro perspective. From a macro perspective, they've got a lot of money tied up in Shenguin and Thompson. Two players that on the right night look like all NBA performers and on the wrong night look like a, a, a glaring hole in their game can lose you a playoff series. And you drafted him. He performed well. You pay him. I understand the deal. But there is a part of me that's kind of like, all right, like you're in the Thompson Shenguin business now. And how far is that going to take you in our, can you be a title contender with this percentage of your salary caps tied up in those two totally fair players? That's totally fair. And I would say on the Thompson thing, it just goes back to I value that ability to like so many of these games come down to if we get a stop, we win the game. And you know, it's going to be their best player. And I've got a guy that I feel like I can put on their best guy and get me a stop to win the game. And to me, that is a great, as, as great a value as the guy that I trust to make that shot. And so, you know, I just think if you've got one of these guys that like I feel like, bro, he could shut down or certainly make life very difficult and inefficient for the other team's best player, there's a value to that that is, I think, undervalued by the angry consensus, right? And it's also it's the guy at the top of the whiteboard, whether he's Victor Wimman, Yama's height or Jalen Brunson's height Thompson's going to cover. Yes. And there's some, there's something to be said, you know, I mean, like, it's not just like he's a good on ball defender. It's like, no, no, he'll cover a big, he'll, he'll switch on to anybody, like he is sort of like a, like a, like a, like a Rudy Go Bayer level defender where it's just like, we have a good defense because we have this one player. And that is the difference between him and say Shengu, right? Because Shengu is a minus on the defensive end. And I don't know if I can just reliably throw him the ball and say, go win me the game, right? Like, I do know that Thompson has this one, not just special, like, otherworldly skill, which is go shut down this guy. He doesn't shoot well, but he was miscast is sort of like a ball handling point guard last season. And he does really finish well around the rim and in transition. Yes. Like, it's not like he's a zero on offense. Like, he just can't hit open shots or jump shots or contested shots. But in transition, and when he gets downhill and drives, he is a very effective offensive player. And, you know, I think the shooting could come in time, but he's so valuable defensively that you do this deal. But I think, again, tying up so much of your cap in Shengu in Thompson, I don't think it's a long-term recipe for success. And I would be surprised if Shengu in was moved this year next year. How excited are you for the Will Ben Simmons game? Encourage you to flip on a King's game on league pass. No. No, you won't even check it out. You don't even want to see. Would you rather watch Ben Simmons fish or play basketball? I'm going with fish. Oh, come on. I would rather it. I like those fishing shows. Come on, you're, you're a Memphis guy. You have the best pro shops. You know, it's a pyramid down the block. Bro, you have no idea how many fishing shows I've watched in my life. My father. No, my dad. I see like a fishing show guy. I know what my dad is. My dad was like a big time fit. And so my dad, my dad, look at this. The same way, like when I was a little kid, my mom took me to stand in line for like two hours at a schnook's grocery store to meet bread hole. Okay, in St. Louis. And he was like my hero, bread hole. And I used to do this all the time. I'd go to card shows and stand in line to meet Bob Gibson and all these people right. And I would always go to like get autographs or to stand in line to meet these like icons. My dad, like he never took me because he knew I didn't care. My dad would like go to like some like bass pro or like one of these places to meet like Mike Icanelli or Bill dance or like any of those guys were like those were the at like to my dad. My dad's a sports band, he loved those fishing shows. He watched them. He taped them. He taped the shows. And then would watch like Mike Icanelli fish or Bill Dan or to like on VHS. Yes. Yes. We were on the tape and it's like watch them. So like I had this awareness of all these fishing guys forever. I've never, so I mean, no, but I've never watched Ben Simmons fish. And I wouldn't watch him fish. But I think I'm more likely to turn on the Kings because they have been Simmons. I just want to see what it looks. That's a, that's a different question. Am I more likely to watch the Kings now they have been Simmons than previously? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Is he, do you think him becoming an all star again would be the most unlikely of the, and we're not talking old guys. No, it's 30. No, no, no, so I'm not saying like the Deandre Jordans or the Drummins or the Conlys. I'm talking about like if somebody were to reclaim their all NBA status, that would be the craziest one, right? Like that would be Ben Simmons. Probably not the craziest. He wasn't even, he wasn't even, he was fishing. He wasn't even like bad. Maybe well, who wrote the letter last week? All the depot, like wrote the letter to the GM. So all the GMs. Yeah, maybe I go, but all the depots like 34. I think was also like, I guess Ben Simmons, you could attribute it to injury, but it was also, it felt a little more like mental. No, he was just gone. He wasn't even, it was just gone. We just, we thought his career was over. And now he's like back for the King. It would be so, it would be hilarious if he was amazing. It really would. It really would. But it does feel like if he was going to be a successful contributor to an NBA team, the Kings were probably a good spot as any. Honestly, to put up numbers. Yeah, you're just, well, you're going to have an opportunity, you know what I mean? Like, you're not going to be like the 10th man in the rotation, you know what I mean? Just like, you know, never getting out of your warm-ups and clapping on the bench. Like, he's going to get an opportunity to play. All right, last last news item is the Jalen Durin. He's like the one hanging out there. We've already got it. We got the Kaminga thing done. We got whatever. What's all the reporting last week? And it said, basically, they're digging their heels in on the 40. They want 40 million. The pistons off for 35. And so that made me feel like, all right, in the end, this is just going to get done. But it does seem like a lot of hurt a lot of hurt feelings and pissed off. You know, just everybody gets pissed off over, you know, what I figured when the reporting came out that they would be farther apart than they are. But it is interesting because I don't see a scenario which a deal does not get done, right? But the question is, is how much will the sort of the back and forth and the feeling undervalued in the emotionality of it all, how will that reflect on to the basketball floor between the lines? You could convince me that it is 0% or you could convince me that it will completely tank the team. Yeah, because a lot of times this stuff happens and you just don't hear anything about it, right? Like the Ahmed Thompson thing, you never heard anything about like Ahmed Thompson is really angry and might request a trade and is trying to like, bro, I mean, I'm a Jalen third fan, covered him at Memphis, take your 35 million and move on. Bro, it's a lot of money. Can you move on as the question? If you take your 35 million, right? I mean, it's got to be an amazing thing to sign a piece of paper that guarantees you over $200 million, right? Like, it's got to feel good. So you have to celebrate. But like, is there a part of you every time you see someone from the front office or every time you see your head coach that you feel a certain way? I mean, look, and this is the deal and we talked about this in the playoffs. This guy had an all NBA season, the team won 60 games. I got it. He was amazing. But we were saying like this, this postseason is going to, it's going to change the, and he did, he does not want to accept that that postseason performance changed the change to do, right? That this was just like this was a no, if he performed in the postseason, like he had in the regular season, this is a no brainer max contract. It's done. It's already done. It's done. It's done. It's done two days after the season. It just feels like he doesn't want to accept that that cost of money. And it did. It did. I mean, if you are a pissant fan or you were just in a neutral basketball lover, like I was, B ball Paul performed better in the playoffs. He did. Well, and here's the deal to Kobe, much like you were just talking about the Thompson Shengoon thing. It's like, you got to be confident that Kate and Durin are the, we could build out around that. That's what I think that you felt that way when they were the number one seed after the regular season. And you don't feel that way after the playoffs. And if you are Jalen Dern's representation and you're at cross the negotiating table, and you've got all these stats and facts about the regular season, if I'm on the other side of the table, I'm just like, cool. When it mattered, he was terrible. He cost us. Yes. Yes. With the bedroom. For Paul Reed, the problem is he couldn't even get the rebound. Fine, you're not making shots. You know, they're selling out and they're saying, you know, what we're not going to let this K Durin pick and roll thing like that's the way the playoffs go. Hey, what do you like to do the most? Okay, we're taking that away. All right. Well, now you got to be able to do something else. And it was like even though he couldn't do something else, he wouldn't even, all right, fine. Bro, they're taking you away. Go get me 14 rebounds. And that wasn't happening. Or just go get me as ready rebounds as you work during the regular season. I also feel like if I'm, if I'm Jalen Dern's representation, there's a part of me that's also like you did not put a functional playoff basketball roster around Cade and Dern. That's right. This isn't a Dern problem. There wasn't enough shooting and there wasn't enough secondary creation. Outside of like Tobias Harris, you know, right? Right. You know, yep. All right, let's get to our three questions. Try to burn through these. All right. I'll start as it stands on September 8th. How many teams can go into camp in a few weeks with realistic championship hopes? All right, Bruno. I did some research for this. You know, I don't like to prep for the show. We actually started our recording a half an hour later than I thought it was. I had extra time to prep today. Where's my fault? That's my fault. I'll take it. I'll take the L. No, no. My wife tells me last night, I'm subbing tomorrow. I need you to take the daughter to school. And I was like, Oh, no. Yeah. It's one thing. People think New York is a bad place to raise kids. It's great because public transit. Mike, I don't take my kids to school. They just walk out the door. Bye. All right. When I at first got this question, right? How many teams can go into camp in a few weeks? Realistic championship hopes, right? I have four title contenders. And you know what they are. Who they are? Just name them. Go ahead. I'm going to say you say New York, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Philly. Yep. Right there. That's to me. You're like the title contenders. You don't know Cleveland in that. No. Okay. Can you go into camp with realistic championship hopes if you're the Cavs? Yes. I think you can. And I have to remind myself how I felt about the Pacers two years ago and the Nix last year. Two years ago, you were not thinking about the Pacers as a championship contender. Two years ago. I don't know. Even the Nix last year, I didn't even feel like we're a championship contender. In February of that season. Oh, yeah. We did not think of the Pacers as a championship. I was watching that starting five show. I forgot about this point in the season two years ago. Tell you how important was going to like shut himself down not for physical injury just because he sucked. He was like a break. It's like I need to stop playing basketball. That's how bad I am. And then he becomes the best player in the plane. It takes his team to the games seven of the finals. But I went to our friends at Fandole and I looked at the championship odds which I found really fascinating, right? Because I'm a I can't bet on futures. Like I need immediate gambling satisfactory satisfaction. Like I bet on games. I bet on quarters. I bet on the half. I bet on possessions and football. Like I can't bet like will the the Jets be the fourth place team in the AFC East? I died. I can't wait around that long. I can't wait around. I can't tell you how much I relate to this. This is we are brothers in ADD. This is yes. I can't play poker at a casino. I can't they're in fold for an hour and just like watch my blinds go away because I don't have like an ace king. I can't do it. I want blackjack. I want immediate satisfaction. So I don't really look at the futures that much. But the Thunderer plus 230 favorites. Spurs plus 280. Second, right? This is where it gets interesting. The next two teams that the sixers and the nicks are plus 1000. Interesting, right? I wouldn't I wouldn't guess that the nicks who just beat the spurs in a seven game series. Pretty handily if you ask me. Yeah. Are plus 1000 and the spurs are plus 28. It really think they're going to miss Mitchell Robinson. I guess so. I guess those nine minutes of Mitchell Robinson are important. And then after the nicks, this is fascinating to me. Guess what team? I don't like to like put my co-host on the spot. We'll do it just for fun. Guess what team has the fifth and sixth best odds to win the championship? Fifth and sixth. Okay. Eastern conference and you won't get it. You said Thunder Spurs sixers nicks sixers and nicks are tied in third. So the fifth best odds. How about Miami? And they get Miami is not even in the top 10. Oh, I just thought that would be a honest thing, right? Like, you got to know you've got a top five player by this. It's the Celtics. Oh, come on. At plus 1500 and then the raptors at plus 2200, which is a few jobs. So, you know, so Vegas really believes in Mitchell Robinson and Paul George. I guess. Oh, wow. Mitchell Robin talking to me. Hey, no, no, this is the corollary though. You're like, why are the nicks odds like that? Why are the Celtic odds like that? Uh, Mitchell Robinson. He's swinging the odds, Jacobi. I guess he is. He's changing the game. That's great. She got one big rebound in the finals. It was, it was, it was a great rebound. It was great rebound. Over when, I've watched it 15 times since it happened. It pops up in my feet. Any nicks finals, I mean, I'm stuck. If in my algorithm, if the nicks, if there's a nicks finals highlight, I am watching it. A missed free throw. I mean, a missed free throw rebound to like seal it is over when. And that's immediately kick it out and immediately kick it out so he wouldn't get fouled. Brilliant. Brilliant. He swung the odds. I guess he did. I guess he did. It's Robinson. But here's interesting. It's Celtics, Raptors, Pistons, then Caves, then Nuggets, then Rockets, then Heat. Wow. I'm fascinated. I just, and you know what, maybe the symbols are nowhere in here. Maybe the Brunson thing did flip this, a lot of like ideas that we used to have, which is since the beginning of time, you've generally had to have a top five player on your team. The Pistons, you know, O4 Pistons, not with standing, but almost everybody has had what you consider to be a top five player. Now you can argue, hey, the art, like, well, the real take on that should be that Brunson's the top five player. And if you wanted to have that discussion, you can, but you know that if people are asked for the top five players, they're going to say, when be SGA, Luca, Yo, Gitch, Yannis. Yeah. That's what they're going to say, right? Yeah. Sure. And then you get to the Tatum, Ant, Brunson, K, like that, that kind of class. And maybe that may, and so maybe because of the way the salary cap stuff is now and because of the way the league has changed, that you're not going to have to have one of the three to five best players. Or maybe everything will just switch back and you actually do. And it'll end up being over, you know, let's not forget the great battle scars to beat of 2000, 2024, eight, but that, you're claiming victory now. That course corrected. The spurs didn't have them. It's no battle scars. Now they have battle scars. Tell me it didn't show up when they were up. It showed up. It showed up. Oh, it showed it. It showed up when Wim and Yama threw it off castles back in game one. It was like, what are you doing? You got to learn to win. You called me. Yeah. The way you learn to win is to lose. Yes. They were up. What do they, they remember? They said like basically we won the series. The game was 46 minutes, so we would have swept them. Okay. It's not. It's not. I mean, that was a big win for battle scars. I was a big win for battle scars. There's really was. And the mix had them too. First question. Are the Lakers going to be better than they were last year? No. Are you sure? Yeah. You want to move on up? Did I have a fifth starter? Have Luca Reeves, Grimes, and Kessler? Who do you want? Who do you want to put in there? They are there. Like unless they make a deal, they are debate the debate amongst the Laker fans is who is the fifth starter? And the argument is like, Mammoth, Mammoth, Loravia, Zaire Williams, by the way, I've covered both Loravia and Zaire Williams. So I do have some. They didn't start on the Chris Lee's. No. No. Yeah. They were disappointed. Or, I guess, Thibal, or, and then your other guys are like, Colin Sexton, who I love. Yeah. Looney Vando, like, I just don't. They won 53 games and were the four seed last year. Are they going to be better? I think a lot of people talk about like what they are going to miss without LeBron, but I think Rui was very important to that team. Takoby. All right. I just want to give you a heads up on this. Oh, OK. So you remember last year, they went to the playoffs and they got them pretty awesome. First round series, win without Luka. Remember that? Yeah. And get without Luka Emery's. All right. And the last one was LeBron Smart, Cunard, Rui, and Aiton. And another one on the team. Oh, my God. I didn't consider that. That's insane. What? First of all, I love that you started to write me like, Chikobi. Let me give you a heads up on something and it stated a fact from a year ago. They, they're starting five. I did not consider that not even one, not single guy that started not even Cunard. I mean, we know they love white guys. I know. I know. I know. Oh, Cunard's living his best life and feelings. Oh, God. Do you remember how good Smart was? And that's it. LeBron Smart, Cunard, Rui, Aiton, that's the whole five. Is there there's a part of me that thinks Smart's really going to work out and use to? I do too. Especially with e-mail. With e-mail? That's what I'm saying. It's just like, they're just like meant for each other. Yes. Also, also, also a Texas kid. Oh, yeah. He's a Texas kid. I mean, this is like. Texas is a big state. It's kind of California. It's like, you know, yeah, it's a big state. You ever driven through Texas? It never ends. You're just like, am I still a Texas? But no. I mean, certainly in the role that he'll be in, yeah, he'll be, I bet he's good for them. And so, no, I mean, Luke Aries, Luke Aries, Kessler Grimes. The fact that you, I can't tell you who the fifth starter is. And you know, because there was like, there was like the Kaminga stuff floated out there. The PJ Washington stuff thrown it out there. And that would have been, that would have made things different. Like, that at least gives me a solid fifth starter. Or one of the Pelicans' wings. Yeah. So, no, they are not going to be better. 53 games and a four seed. It's just a real like, how, how much can Luca carry a team? This is a real test of that, like how, like how much can, does Luca single-handedly bring to the table of the course of 82 games? Right. Because the team that he went to the finals with had a bunch of good players on. Yeah. How you're serving and lively was also like, yeah, lively was amazing that year. I still believe in lively. I really do. Like, do you remember his like short role, distribution from the nail? Like he was so good at just kicking into the corner, kicking, doing wing, looking at one guy kicking to somebody else like, I loved lively and gathered that year. And obviously the wings. Yeah. I mean, yeah. All right. Did Janice get a new lease on life that people will want for yokich, or will it be a cautionary tale of leaving a place where you're beloved? I can't lie. I did have some extra prep time for this show today. I had to read this question like 17 times. Just say it again. It's just, no, I'm not, I'm not criticizing it. It was just, it was confusing somewhat to me. I was like, okay, did Janice get a new lease on life? Yes, people will want for yokich, will want for yokich, that people, that people will want for yokich. Right? Start top five star player in on a team that was once champions that seems to be dwindling in your contention rankings over time, right? Correct. That's what we're saying. Yes. And then you know what that's going to turn to. yokich should do what Janice did, look at this new lease on life. That's how I meant that. No, no, no. I'm not saying it was that confusing. I'm just saying I'm an idiot, but I, it does start to smell like the nuggets are going to do something like a game trade. Because you remember the championship team is, you know, it's Janice, Middleton, holiday, tortoise, Connington Lopez, you know what I mean, like that. And then like, it just felt like over time, it started to erode. And when they brought in Dame Lillard, it did not work. But when they brought in Dame Lillard, I felt like it would work. I felt like there were two complimentary stars that a Dame Janice picking role would be unstoppable. And it just didn't work that way, but it does feel like we are at the beginning of the end of Yokech and the nuggets. Okay. Here's, how about this? Is there a flip, well, again, doesn't it depend on what I, how about this, I got this, I got this question for you. Over under the date Bill Simmons on the Bill Simmons podcast starts coming up with fake Yokech trades. Oh, that's already happened. I mean, do Zach Lowe did a podcast about this? Yokech trades? Yeah. I don't want to miss someone. How about this? How about a, how about the devil's advocate, which is, hey, Yokech is the one guy who like wants to be at a play is no interest in being anywhere else. He doesn't want to move. He doesn't want to play for somebody else. And so the answer is not, hey, we trade Yokech. It's, we move off of the Murray Gordon experience and we build out a different way around Yokech. That seems a lot more realistic to me. Why does everybody turn to move Yokech, it's like, okay, then I still got Murray and Gordon who were built to play with Yokech, like Christian Brown, yeah, like what are we doing? No, keep the guy that seemingly, like unless he wants out, unless he's had enough, like they got it. it obviously had enough. Like he's driven to I do not want to be okay. I do not want to be a mediocre basketball team where I'm going out there playing my ass off in every single night to win 42 games. And you know, Kitch, he might be fine with it. Yeah, I mean, I don't think Denver's better than they were last year, but they could be healthier than they were last year. And I think if you could, if you could say Christian Brown wasn't healthy last year, Gordon wasn't healthy last year, I see a world in which Murray Brown, Johnson Gordon-Yokitch is a great starting five. Like I don't know. I'm not, I'm not ready to put dirt on this grave quite yet. It does change, though, if if Yannis's team is okay, doesn't it? Perfective, I mean. What do you mean? All right, because you just went from okay to okay. And you're a disappointment, whereas the other place would have like, you know, bathed you in in compliments till the end of time. Like it would have been everybody else's fault. And you're the beloved. Oh, Yannis isn't a much better basketball position, much better basketball position now. It's not even close. I thought that the, you know, when they, when they waved and stretched Dame was kind of like, okay, guys, like, what are we doing? Kyle Kuzma is not going to take a leap and become first time all NBA first team. Fair enough. Next one. All right. This, so I ask you questions, I don't really know the answer to myself. All right. Where do you rank the pistons in the Eastern Conference? Okay. So they were the number one seed. They went 60 games last year. Yep. I went and looked this up. And their over under is 49 and a half. I mean, that's, you know, for a team that won 60 games and it's not, it's not like they lost Kate Cunningham, right? They lost to my hair, right? They added Isaiah Joe. They added John Collins, lost beef stew, which could hurt, you know, more so, more so locker room and like, you know, like vibes than even on the court. But even though he did a lot on the court, on the court, he's on the court. He's great. Blocking shots, remember, texting and hitting three. He's like, he was big. I think that's about right. I think I would put them in the, they're in that class with, that yeah, it's hard to figure out Toronto Atlanta, Boston Miami. Like, I think my guess would be today, if you made me guess, that they will be a playoff team that does not a home court advantage, that there is. So they're, so you have to put cab sixers and nicks around the time. Because they eat, because the East got a lot stronger. My guess right now would be that they are a playoff team that's not a home court team. That's what I said. It does feel like cab sixers nicks are your top theories to conference team. And then you have Atlanta Miami, Toronto, Detroit, Toronto, Orlando. Yeah. In a, in a, in a bunch there. Yeah. So I would say pro, but my guess would be like five, six, they're not probably playing their way into the thing. More than likely. So I guess I put them, yeah, I probably put them like five six. The five or six seed. Yeah. That's fair. I think that's fair. And that might be disrespectful, baby. Look, everybody disrespected them all last year. So I think that if they are around five or six at the trade deadline, they're going to do something big. Oh, so everybody, everybody's last year, there's a number one seat. There's a number one seat last year. So they're like, listen, why would we, why are we going to dramatically change our roster when we have the best record in the Eastern Conference. But I think if they are around five or six as, you know, post new years, you're going to start, you're going to start hearing some rumors about some players going there. All right. When you, when we were last on the air, you told the story about you having to get in a, your wife had planned this trip where you were going to drive an RV down Route 66 for the 100 year anniversary of Route 66. And you were, I don't want to say a panic. That would be overstating it. But you were certainly not looking forward to it in a way that a family vacation is typically something you look forward to. Yeah. I think that's fair assessment. So I need to hear the day before does the company recommend driving down Route 66 at an RV? First of all, a couple of things. We didn't touch Route 66. Okay. Didn't touch it. Did you play the day before? Yeah. So Claude, my wife's best friend is the, is her AI person who came up with the itinerary of how we get from place to place. The day before we rent the RV, she looks at me and she goes, yeah, um, it looks like some of these drives might be longer than I thought. I was, huh? She was, yeah, from LA to Flagstaff, I said it was five or six hours, looking more like eight to 10 hours. Oh, this is a big difference. Day one. 10, 10, 10, 22. We go to road surfer. That's where you rent the RV, right? Okay. This thing is, it's big. And I'm pulling out of the lot and I, it's like, it's not even like driving a car. It's like, it's a truck. And I'm in LA traffic, like taking right turns and switching lanes and like being on the right lane and realizing I have a left have to take and trying to get over like three lanes in the RV. And the thing has this suspension that if you hit a bump, it shakes like a boat. Like you're going back and forth like a boat in this thing. And I'm telling you, I'm, this is a nightmare to me. It was an absolute nightmare. I could not drive it. And then you're in LA traffic in an RV. And in RV. And then I'm on like the I 10 and just like four lanes, trucks speeding past me. I have to switch lanes. I have no idea how to drive this thing. It's my first time ever getting by on the wheel. We get, we get in the car at 10, 22. We go to what's it called? It's sort of the B Bakers field or something. We go to in and out burger, get lunch. And I'm filling it with gas. And you're kind of parking RV at in and out. Bro, everything's impossible miss everything. Everything's impossible. We I'm filling up the gas seven o'clock the first day. And I see the sun start to go behind the desert mountains. It's seven p.m. And I'm like, how much longer do I have to drive this thing? I look on, look on my phone. How much does it cost to fill the thing up? Bro, half a tank, $200. All right. The tank is like a 50 gallons. Seriously. It burns through. It's so fast. I'm looking over the the the sun's going down. I don't like driving like long drives number one. I've already driven for like seven hours and I don't like driving at night. And the sun's starting to go down and this was the low point, one of the low points of the trip. The sun's going down. I'm driving the car and I told no one to talk to me. No one sits, no one should sit shotgun. No one even come up and talk to me. I'm pissed. So mad. The bus driver. And I'm going I mean, we're passing so many campgrounds. I'm just like, why aren't we at these campgrounds? Why am I going to that campground? And then I drive past the sun. We're going to Flagstaff, Arizona. It's as Flagstaff 221 miles. Oh, no. And then I look at the speedometer and it says 60. And I'm like, all right, I can do that math. I did the math so many times in my head. I was like, there's no way I still have three hours and 40 minutes to go on this thing. And it's pitch black. And now it's just me in an RV in the right lane and 18 wheelers. And it's pitch black at night. 18 wheelers come humming past me. And the RVs are not designed for aerodynamic. So they're basically like a box. So when the RV goes past you, it hits you with this gust of wind. And then you start shaking in the thing. I'm so mad. I've not been home for 11 hours. And we get to the to the campground. And there's no one there, right? There's not a person working there. It's so late. They just have an envelope of my name on it and directions to the parking spot. And we park there. You connect. What you do is you connect the electricity and you connect the hose for water. And I just told my family, I'm going to, I can't talk. I can't see any of you people. I'm walking away for five, 10 minutes. Just walked away. Just walked into the woods in the middle of the woods. Just into the woods. And he never saw him. No, I did. I will say this. The drives to get shorter, you know, but it was like 12 hours the first day. And then like eight and then nine and then nine. But we saw some really cool stuff, man. Like their earth is so beautiful. Like this is really beautiful, beautiful things. We went to this alien beef jerky place. So what I didn't realize is that my wife and my son colluded to like go to scenic route like we did not take the most direct route my wife and son were like let's go to the alien beef jerky place. I'm like had I known that would cost me an extra hour and a half drive to get alien beef jerky. I've never heard what is what is alien beef jerky. It's just a beef jer it's a it's a bodega with an alien theme. That's what it is. Wait. Yes. Have you seen the movie Nope? It's that place. I don't know. I haven't seen it. Anyway, but then we go to the alien beef jerky place and the directions tell me to go straight when the when the major interstate is left and right and when I went straight we went on this we went through the Mojave Desert which I didn't even know was a thing. It was there's no cars on the road. There's no gas station. There's no houses. There's nothing. There's just nothing but desert road for miles and miles and miles and it was so beautiful and scary and awesome. We drove through a Navajo reservation after the Grand Canyon. We saw the Grand Canyon and then night two. What you have to do is you have to empty out the poop from the toilet. I thought it was like don't poop in the toilet. So you get this hose that comes in the bumper literally in the bumper. You take it out of that bumper and it's a hose for sewage and you connect it to your RV and you connect it to the ground right so it goes into the ground and then you pull this lever which releases all of the waste. Okay. No problems. Did it right? Good. Night three. Gonna do it again. Connect the hose. My son wants to release the valve. Release the valve. Guess what David Jacobi connected the front of the hose but couldn't see the back of the hose. Oh no. What you think happened happened. My son released the valve. Feeces urine everywhere. Splattering exploding. The smell. We've all smelled you in Feeces. It's so much worse when it's been sitting in liquid in the heat and you release it and my son freaks out so he doesn't close the valve. So my clothes it close it. He's losing his mind because his feet are covered in Feeces and stinks. The neighboring RVs are just like coming out from there. What is going on over there? Shit everywhere for no. You can smell the individual poops in the difference between them. This is a catastrophe. It's a it's I wasn't the same for a day. Wash it down with like a hose. I just spread it around. I put some dish soap on top of it. I didn't have like stuff to clean it with. You got to drive away bro. You got to just drive away. I was up and out of that place. It's six in the morning. You got to drive away from there. I was out of there. Oh, that was a low point. Those are two low points. You know what I'm saying? And he's got these Jordan ones that he refuses to wear now because of the poop shoes. I was like, why are you wearing my shoes? Damn, I'm not wearing the poop shoes. I'm hopeful that the sun being covered in PCs was the low point. That was the low point. There were some great times that were had though, like real family bonding. Like we're all sleeping in a car together. You don't even need to get night. Right. We have a baby. And the baby can't go to sleep because we're all talking and laughing and stuff. And the baby's like, I'm not sleeping right now. So we all sort of like slept at the same time. We'll go up at the same time. It was very, very like bonding. And we saw some beautiful, beautiful landscape. And I would do it again. But if you are renting an RV, make sure that you cut down the drive times between stops. Make sure that you connect the sewage hose appropriately before you release the sewage. It's two, two things that would be very dramatically different. Had we planned this and executed it a little. It's absolutely perfect because I think now that we're both adults with families, like you go through this all the time where it's like, I think about sometimes I'll like go back and like look at pictures of like, you know, say it'll be like, it'll pop up on my memories. Like my daughter at Disney World in front of the fireworks and the magic kingdom, whatever. And what goes through my mind was not like, God, I was miserable that day. It was like, Oh, wow. That was fun. You know, it wasn't. It wasn't in the moment. It wasn't. But I'm so glad like the memories are always we work. We set out to make memories that we made memories. Like we went to a wonderful resort in the Bahamas a couple years ago and had a great time. There's a water park on the place. There's a casino. The beach is great. Drinks, whatever. But it will not be nearly as memorable as this RV trip. I mean, so just a for instance, that picture that that picture I was just talking about with the fireworks behind her. That was taken when we were in a two-hour wait to get into the restaurant. We were trying to get to, right? But I'm like, oh, man, remember how fun that was when we went to Disney? It wasn't. It probably wasn't. And I think that's probably like you made a million memories. But like, you will also remember all of like the the trop course. And we're a family of six. We're all big personalities. We get in fights and arguments all time. And my son was like, Dad, he was like later on after everything cooled down. He was like, Dad, the difference here is I can't there's no place for me to go to have me time when I'm angry. I can't close the door behind me. We're in a car. You're getting a fight with your sibling. You're just staring at him. You can't go anywhere to close the door. You can't even go to the bathroom to close the door. You're in a car. What was the best thing you saw on the trip besides the alien journey so much? Oh, yeah, the alien trick. There's a place called Mesa, Verde in I think it's Colorado. And it's, you know, like a Mesa, like a big plateau. You're way up high in the mountains. And just it's so beautiful. And these the Pueblo people in like the year, like 1300 around then, they built like into caves, like shelters in like a cliffside. They built like, like cities and like homes. And like, like where they could live. And they they farmed on the Mesa. They ate the wildlife in this like canyon area. And they built like they had like natural shelters where they built like homes using like sandstone. It was awesome. It was just so beautiful. And they still like you could still go look at the like. Oh, yeah, I was standing in it. I was right there. It was 700 years ago. Wow. Yeah, that's Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde in Colorado. In Colorado. I mean, I really recommend that people do this with their families. I just recommend that they spend more time outside of the RV doing things than just driving it all day every day. That's what we basically drove all day every day. And it was you. Did you ever did she ever drive? In her defense, she offered time and time again. But the learning curve was such just because after the 12-hour day to one, I had me and the RV were like one. And I didn't want it heard. I wouldn't be comfortable. It was more selfish. I would not be comfortable being a passenger with her driving. Not because of her because of the RV. No. The RV. Yeah. She's an excellent driver. She's from LA. But like, I know myself. I don't feel comfortable with someone else's at the wheel. Like I want to be at the wheel of the car. That's right. You would do it again. I would do it very differently. I would make sure that we secure the sewage hose to the outlet of sewage before we released the sewage. That's one thing that's what I cannot. However, however sure you are, it's appropriately connected. Double check again. You guys will be, look, every single person in your family will be telling that story until the day they die. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you remember when our sun was covered in GCC? I did not describe the smell. Oh, my God. That sounds like a nightmare. Like a true nightmare. We're ending on this. Jacobi, it is always a pleasure. Thank you. There are producers, Jeff Steppen, Jeff, as always. And Jacobi, I'll talk to you next time.