Knicks Are Champs! What Now for the Spurs? Plus the Biggest Offseason Dominoes With Brian Windhorst

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We are packed for you a Sunday taping Brian Winhorse over an hour on his thoughts on the NBA Finals. I have my thoughts on the NBA Finals with him. I do about 15 minutes solo on just what do we do now with both the nicks and the spurs, but a ton of off-season preview stuff, including Yannis, the Lakers, OKC, the draft, and life advice. This summer, the cup is taking over the US and only draft Kings has you covered every step of the way. The Draft King Sports App is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are from Florida to Texas to California. You're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. 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Then I think down eight in the fourth quarter, New York's down eight and I'm like, eh, New York's going to win this, like Spurs are going to do the exact same thing. And Jalen Brunson happened again, he had 45 points at a closeout game for an NBA title, rarified company for this one. And he had 45 points of the Knicks 94. This isn't like a 121, 10 game where he had 45 points. He's basically scoring every other basket for an entire game for the Knicks to close this one out. In the fourth quarter of the NBA finals, Brunson averaged 11 points per game in just the fourth quarter on 51 and 43% shooting splits. He had 29 in the second half of last night's game and 15 points in the fourth quarter. And if you look at this Knicks finals run. And what he was tasked with throughout this series, like, yeah, you had the cat game too. It was about it. You had OG, incredible in game three and game four defense scoring the tip in in game four. You've got the bridges game two 20 points. But they give you're going through how many other guys stepped up consistently every single night. Again, OG was terrific. I'm going to give them all the praise and a little bit here. But it wasn't like there was two guys every night that he could count on offensively. These are the kinds of guys that I think once you get past whoever you've picked, wherever you're from. And sure, I can understand plenty of you just being annoyed by New York City. But and this isn't like some arrogant, ridiculous fan base that wins every year and becomes insufferable. Sure, like we could get into all that. Well, Knicks fans do this. I don't want to do that. What I want to do is admit that yes. And you can probably figure out if you've been listening to this show long enough is that there are certain guys and they get a little bit closer depending on how I felt about their career. I'm like, I'd rather this player win a championship than say this other player. I don't think that list is all that long of guys that I would be like, you know what? I just don't want proof of concept for this player in the way that they play. Brunson is somebody that should win a championship. He's someone I think that neutral parties can root for and feel good about. Yes, I'm annoyed being wrong about picking the spurs of the NBA finals. But once I started to see it happen again in the fourth quarter where I'm like, I don't care what the lead is. They're going to blow this one too. It's because of this guy. And you know, there was a moment when he's up there unanimously winning the finals MVP. Thank you to the voters for not trying to be cute or clever or do something different because there is no doubt that he's the only option to vote for finals MVP. So I felt good for him. I felt good for him up there celebrating. I felt good for him saying the right things. And you know, look, this is somebody that none of us would ever think that he would be this. If you don't believe me, you can listen to his father or him. Jalen Brunson on the post games like, I didn't think I'd be this good. His dad sit next to him going like, I didn't, I didn't think this. And even though it feels like a rule after a team wins a title and they're carried by one player like this, it's like, Hey, where does he rank? Is he? Did he move ahead of? Yannis? Did he move ahead of Yoke? And you're like, you know what? This is like the worst possible time to do any of this stuff. And it's kind of irrelevant because it feels like you're being negative about somebody who owns the NBA right now. And whatever it is, it is, it's beyond what the stats are. It's beyond like, who would you trade for? Who's the most valuable? It's that despite what the other four people around him are doing or not doing, you can count on him in all of these huge spots. And yeah, I mean, whether it's him being small and being drafted late and not having a great playoff run with Dallas, one of those years. And then the contract that he signs of the next, you're like, man, I don't know. And Dallas is like, all right, look, that's a lot of money. Like we have to be flexible moving forward. And then he's sitting there on top of the mountain top with this next team that wasn't like it was a 67 win team in the regular season where we're starting off in October saying it's their league. And it's going to be a massive disappointment if they don't want to championship. So a lot of these storylines all fit together because this is somebody that clearly would always be overlooked in the way we look at basketball. I don't know that it puts the bed forever that you, well, you shouldn't have absolutes and say you can never win with a small guard because we've had small guards win. As I mentioned last week, it's not necessarily anyone's preference. But this guy did it. And I do think he's he's a likable number one. When you think of him in comparison to some of the other players. So I think I would have to think that a lot of basketball fans, despite how you felt about the series or who you're rooting for and all that kind of stuff. Like you're not watching Brunson up there feeling any resentment. Honestly, I don't know. That would, if Spurs fans, I totally get it because that's what you're supposed to do. But neutral fans. I don't know. All right. Another thing that I love to is that as Brunson, the first few games in like the shooting numbers weren't very good. There was also the net number where it was what three games in. And it looked like the nicks based on the net rating of all the players that Brunson was negative nine points in the net rating. I looked at the numbers again this morning. He was plus two for the series, his net rating. That was the seventh best on the nicks. 12 points worse than cats plus 14 rating. Which I like these numbers more than I dislike them. But the way we can be married to box score plus minus and the net rating, the on, I'll be like, Hey, well, if this guy's on the court in this and then this means this, that means you have to play all this shit. And it's like cats, advanced stuff is going to be looked back at historically going. He had an amazing series. His box scores nuts, the winch shares for all of those numbers are off the charts. And what you realize is like Brunson's the one out there taking all the hits when cats and foul trouble again. And then Brunson brings them back in fourth quarter. And because they've been sitting cat the entire time, he's rested. He's going to get a million rebounds. And his net rating looks like it's it's so much better. Like he was somehow more impactful. And as we all know, that is not what happened in this series at all. The nicks are really interesting roster builds because Leon rose in this group. You know, people have tried this before where it's like, let's bring in the agent who has all these relationships that will help us recruit free agents. You you pair that with New York City and MSG like this is going to be ridiculous. I mean, think about all the errors and speculation that we've made in the past about, well, this guy's running this like we used to think Jay Z was going to get a bunch of people to the nets. People used to argue that Michael Jordan was going to have an unfair advantage in free agency with the bobcats. The problem is that Jordan was one of the worst owners sports is ever known, but because he's MJ, he'll forever get a pass. And they weren't even gonna spend any money on anybody anyway. So, that stuff normally doesn't work. People have tried the agent route before. Ownerships gives the keys. Hey, I'm gonna do something different. CA is as powerful as it gets. Leon Rose comes in and we start thinking like, man, they're gonna get this guy. They're gonna get this. They're gonna get all the Kentucky guys. They're gonna get all these things locked in. That's not really what happened. I mean, eventually they got a Kentucky guy in there, but they paid a lot to Brunson, where I think that was met with, and I made the mistake at the time where I'm like, all right, he's good, but damn, I think that was a consensus thing. Unless you were a nix fan and you were just lying to yourself. The bridges trade, all those picks. People didn't even like that trade three months ago. We had people going Minnesota absolutely won the cat trade, which, I mean, enough. I was like, did they re-wint it again after the finals? And then you have the OG trade, where it was smart because they didn't want to have to pay quickly and they didn't want to have to pay RJ Barrett, and even though RJ I think is a more polished offensive player, I always joke about adjusted ceilings for some of these players. Like OG and Anobi now is an adjusted ceiling guy for me now. He will, I will always look at him differently because of what he's done the last two months. However, when you traded for him, because you were kind of going two for one and feeling like you were getting the better player, which you were, OG was somebody that didn't play in a lot of games. Over four season stretch, these are his game totals. 43, 48, 67, and 50 games in the season that you were straight. And then the knock on OG was like, you know what, when he just feels a little tweak, you guys just not gonna play, you know. So that's why he misses a ton of games. And instead it's like, thank God for OG and Anobi, because without him, without his production, I don't think the next one of the finals. Cat, I think it's fitting he had two points in the close-up game. That he was in constant foul trouble in the finals and the second round against the sixers. And that he didn't shoot it enough, which was just sort of strange. There were some times where Cat wasn't shooting enough where I thought that he was being ignored too. So it wasn't entirely on him, but it felt like they got him more involved in the offense as we all kind of like bought into this. They've unlocked point guard Cat. Honestly, Brunson just went crazy in the fourth quarter. So I don't know that it was like, yes, I'm aware of game two, but it wasn't like this was every single game. He was not the defensive liability that we'd all come to accept that can you get to an NBA finals? Can you win an NBA finals with Brunson at the top of the defense and Cat is your backline defender? And I guess it works now, which may say more about San Antonio's plan of attack than all of a sudden these guys stepping up and becoming huge defenders. And I know once you get into the rule of rings, we're just supposed to round up on everything Cat, but I think this series, it just, I end it with, I'm not going to do that. And I do not know what to do with Carl Anthony Towns. He's a champ, he's a winner, he did it. I'm still confused. San Antonio, when been Yama? Welcome to the roommate theory. The more you get to know someone, human nature is the more likely you are to dislike that person. And for Wembee, it's so early, it's so early, right? But you could see people starting to get a little sick of them. Like, what's up with this French guy? The things that we thought were cool about his workout, regiment, hanging out with the monks. It goes from like well-rounded culture leaders. That guy's just weird. And you get more access to them. And here's the thing. When you lose and we get more access to you, that tide starts to turn. And you have people questioning him as the next big thing, which, you know, again, I don't know how much of that is true, but I think he's in a spot very similar to Keel O'Neal, who also in his third season made it to the NBA finals, getting swept in 1995 against the team in Houston Rockets. And it's kind of like, well, if this guy's this good, but again, they were ahead of schedule 30 years ago. San Antonio was ahead of schedule. I wonder if Mitch Johnson was someone that was supposed to develop as coach with a roster that was supposed to be developing. We can get to their bench, but can we really get on the front-office's case for not having a bench built to win an NBA title when they didn't even make the playoffs last year like I get. You're supposed to do everything you can to maximize the roster, but they're still trying to figure out like if any of these guys were good. And a lot of them are going to be really special, whether it's Castle, whether it's Harper, or even Carter Bryant. You know, I thought that he showed some signs. I don't really feel like talking about the Aaron Fox right now. It's all been said. So I think for women Yama to be in the crosshairs, this early is just a product of being in the NBA finals and more people that had no opinion on them whatsoever because they just never spent any time with them. They're going like, huh? And again, that's just the cost of losing. So I don't know that it's like nasty, but it's definitely a shift, a shift for a guy where it was either praise or no opinion whatsoever. Two things on women Yama specifically, he's obviously going to get stronger. That man strength that kicks into your mid to late 20s, holding position, getting to your position a little bit better. He's just going to be older and that's what's going to happen. So it's not about getting into the weight room and all that kind of stuff. Like sometimes your body is just not ready unless you're just one of these freak high school running bags, five star got it to your junior, like who's dad is that? And he's like, no, he's a junior. But he needs to figure out what his face up game is going to be. It was a really full circle moment for me and that as much as we all just looked at him as a draft prospect and went, my God. Like what is even, like what limitations do you put on this? But then it's like, okay, if he 7, 4, 7, 5, he wants to go to the Durant route and try to shake guys with a dribble, like Durant's really the only guy at that size that can get past that two dribble into his shot. Like can keep the dribble going and get to where he needs to go at that size that I've really ever seen. 'Cause it's just hard. It's just physics to be that big and to be keeping a handle that tight through traffic and playoff traffic, playoff intensity. There's going to be all sorts of amazing when begins we already saw them, okay? We've seen them in the playoffs. But for the intensity and what he needs his face up game to be, it's just not there yet. I would also add everyone around him needs to figure out a way to not fucking ignore him for seven to eight minutes stretches in these games. There's a play and I have no criticism for Harper whatsoever. It's very late in the game. Harper has all the attention. He's driving left, he's into the paint. Wembee slips where it would have been off sides and soccer super locked into the World Cup right now. Wembee's behind everybody. All it is is a simple lob up. Harper's head is down and Harper actually scores. So you can sit there and say, you shouldn't be critical about it. But it's very clear there's too many of these possessions where they forget who their teammate is. And it's obviously a problem because I'd be looking at every ATO and a lot of these timeouts, the priority was Wembee in a better position and people being told, make sure you're looking for him on this play. And I think when San Antonio and the staff think back on this series, that's going to be the thing they regret the most. When we write back after a quick word from our sponsors. - Stel blue coffees, new can lattes are here. Crafted with a 100% Colombian coffee. Each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors. A espresso cafe mocha and espresso sweet cream. And whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup, Stel blue cans are for those always on the go. And for those who care. Stel blue is more than just great coffee. It's about giving back. I named the brand after my rescue dog Stella who inspired our mission to help more dogs find their forever homes. Every purchase supports animal rescue organizations. So when you drink Stel blue, you're not just fueling your day, you're saving a dog's life. Try the new cans today, taste the difference and make a difference. All new Stel blue coffee cans lattes now available at stelbluecoffee.com or subscribe on Amazon for 10% off. - One of the best in the business joints is again during this NBA season. Now that the finals are over and the next have won the title. He was in the building in San Antonio for game five from ESPN and the host of the hoop collective, Brian Winnhorst. How will you remember this finals? - Good question. Great games, lopsided result. We deserved more than five. But we've had numerous seven game series that we didn't get as many good games as we got here. And I kind of feel like, there's actually in my head even now, I can't even remember like, what happened in game one versus game two versus game four versus game five because they all kind of were the same. They all look, the next wins kind of look the same. They fell behind, they walked them down. And you know, and you know, Brunson was not as strong in game one and two, but I kind of feel like if they played best of nine, we would have just seen game six turn into what we've seen in the other games. I think it was like an established routine. That said, they was highly entertaining. And it was, it was, you know, it was terrific to, I know that it was, I know that it was probably, probably a bummer for Nick's fans that the Nick's won it on the road but it's always a little easier when you cover a team that wins on the road because the players aren't running out of there, you know, it's easier to get conversations with players and people when they're not running out into the streets like Aaron Gordon, you know, I mean, and so I had a great opportunity to talk some of the Nick's folks after and some of the Nick's family. And I will just remember some of the, I mean, I was with the Nick's Ryan in Abu Dhabi to start the season and I did not think I was around a team that was going to be there at the end, not because I thought they sucked or something but, you know, they were, they were dealing with the transition to Mike Brown at the time and he was trying to do some really different things and, you know, they had a good team but I wasn't sure it was a great team, they thought it was a great team, they were right. And to, you know, think about the practice that I first went to see them in an Abu Dhabi and I always think of all NBA seasons or journeys and the season is so long and to think about, you know, being with them in that practice in Abu Dhabi and then being with them when they were all, you know, posing with the trophy. You know, it was just, I mean, that's what I'll kind of remember, but I know that that won't be the the average fans memory, but Janet Brunson had one of the all-time great closeout games, especially on the road. It's a top five road closeout game now because it was only game five and that like it wasn't like do or die. It may not hold up to some of the other ones, but it's an all-time great closeout game. That's what the stats say, don't you agree? Yeah, absolutely. And I would say some of the other closeout games with big time numbers, there may have been one other person that you could count on offensively, and I know OG was like from a box score standpoint and look, I love OG, so this isn't negative about him whatsoever, but you're still asking Brunson to basically do this all on his own and continue to do it. So even though there were some shooting numbers, there were some numbers that weren't great for Brunson, he hit huge shots to close it out in game one. Game two, he hits the one that ties it up, he did miss the one that couldn't put him ahead, it just it's asking a lot of somebody. Regardless of his size, it's asking a lot of somebody like, can you save us every single fourth quarter? Right. And that's from like the positive sides of the story, that's what I'll remember because that's that's the epitome of like the great basketball players in the history of this game when it's all up to you, can you solve it? And he did. Well, in the first two games of the series, he shot 34% and I remember talking to my producers at the various shows at ESPN, and I was like, okay, put SGA's numbers up there, put and Edwards numbers up there. And I know Anne had the knee injury, but I was like, put Denny obvious numbers up there. Let's show the trail of tears from the star players against spurs. And you know, his scoring was up there because he had 30 in the first game on 31 shots, but he was having that, you know, the area 51 was having the same effect. And they were up to, well, like, you know, but they were up to, well, when they won by, you know, and Victor missed the 18 footer, whatever it was in game two. Well, the last three games he shot almost 50% from the field, and I think he was like 10 of 22 from three, or maybe even, maybe even like 10 of 19, anyway, anyway, he, the last three games, he quote unquote figured it out. He was able to find ways to get to get to take advantage of it. And you know, I so enjoyed spending time in the playoffs with Iman Schumpert. I think Iman Schumpert has a chance to have a big time career, you know, as a, as a broadcaster. Number one, he's very entertaining. Number two, he's very, very good at describing players and he's very emotive. And he was talking about how when you're a guard and you're a ball handler. And your goal is to get the, is to get the angle or to get the drop on the defender, you know, you want to, you want to get the angle so that you can, you know, force a, force a foul or something like that. Or, you know, just get past your defender. And he's like, Brunson scores when he doesn't have angles, he scores when he gets even with guys. He was describing that, I mean, that's something as a non-player, I would never think about. He was just fascinated by it because Schump was a defender, you know, that was the majority of his career. And he was like, you know, I always felt like if I had the guy even, you know, I had the edge. And what, you know, you know, I'm talking about like where he's. Yeah, some of it's the wrong foot stuff. Some of it's like that left side like he gets that layup up off of the glass where it looks like he has no angle against the defender. And it goes, it feels like it goes in every time. Yeah, he's a master of angles, just in general. And so another thing is he turned his ankle over on the, on the Wemba Nyama play. Like, you know, sometimes you see guys that are sort of hunting for flagrant reviews, they lay on the ground until the referees go over there. That initially, and you know, he's been dealing, he's dealt with ankle problems, you know, for years, you know, when I saw the replay, he rolled that ankle over pretty good. And so I assume that he was dealing with some level of discomfort on his way to 45. So, you know, I don't want to be the ankle Zag guy here, but there are times when you can turn it scares the shit out of you. And you're like, oh my God, I'm okay. And I thought on that one, he stayed down to sell it. And I have no sympathy for the light kick out guys. And I know everyone disagrees with me. It's just one of these in his space. But he stayed down in the fetal position, selling it. And then, once he yelled at Tyler Ford, they called the time out, I thought he was fine after. So maybe there was discomfort I was looking for it specifically. That's fine. That's fine. You were on the ground. Well, your position is what? Your position is that he moved into Wemba Nyama space there because he did a little bit. I know what the rule is, but the correction on the Zaza Kawaii thing has done more harm than good. And people continuously stick out that leg, but then on the broadcast, anybody that's underneath the landing, even if the shooter's legs are pitched forward, because here's what happens on these uncontested things. The guys don't go nearly as forward on these shots as they do when they're trying to figure out a way to get free throws. And probably the only thing that I would say I was annoyed about last night was that Brunson was getting rewarded on a lot of stuff. They're late, but he also had 45 points and the layups in the three. So that's not what happened. And one thing that I love from San Antonio's defenders is they finally figured out to stay down on like when Brunson drives and comes back the other way, you just have to stay down. You have to stay down and then Castle can't help himself Harper has a bad one. They're late, but specific to the Wemba Nyama thing. I know everyone disagrees the entire broadcast disagrees with me. I don't think you should be rewarding guys. Brunson is trying to get that foot contact there on top of everything else. And then he makes the shot. So yeah, but so what do you think they would have done? Oh, with the flagrant. I thought Wembi's third flagrant was kind of ridiculous, but at that point, you know, it's not like you're going to go back and rescind it. It's so funny. The third flagrant, the non-called third flagrant was bad. The called third flagrant, you know, it's funny that you're saying that, but yeah. The non-called one, honestly, I'll just admit being too online. I got to say it was like, yeah, big guy shoved a small guy. And that's what happened. Wembi's getting shoved on every single one of these lobs and no one cares about any of it. And so I don't, I mean, that's it's because I was we're all thinking about it. Because I don't think Ford and everyone is processing it fast enough to go, don't give Wembi the flake, don't call it on the floor. So then we have to review it. That's an absurd ask to think to the refs or that calculated going, if we call it and then have to review it, then he's going to be suspended for games six because that'll be his fourth point. Right. So, okay, so let me pull the curtain back. So at finals games, the media seating is usually very poor. So I don't go out into the bowl. And I will sit in the back with our team at ESPN. And that team, a lot of times includes our stats people. And, you know, that's really, really valuable to have them, like a lot of, you know, because sometimes you have to walk right out and you haven't even heard the press conference and you have to, you know, immediately have analysis and, you know, having those guys with me is very valuable. The long story short, I'm sitting with Tim Bontem's Tim Bontem's for the last three years is the pool reporter during the final. So whenever there is some sort of a pool reporter is designated before the game, whenever there's some sort of drama that happens where the referee has to give an interview, one designated reporter goes does the interview with the referees and then his back and forth is disseminated to everybody. So that's Bontem's role. He's never actually had to do it in three years. So now we know, in fact, Bontem's officially asked the NBA. He's like, hey, this was the first half, you know, like, okay, we're going to, we are going to want a pool report to talk to Scott Foster about this play, the NBA granted it. So the plan was there to be a poor report. So I spent some time with Bontem's crafting the question that he was going to ask. Scott Foster. And depending on how Scott Foster played the answer, we were crafting the second question because you typically will give the question to, you know, in advance, the referee can be prepared for it, but you certainly can ask a follow up. And so with like spent all this time and like, you know, we're debating like, what do you think that they're going to say? What do you think they're going to do? And like, there were some other calls in the game that were not going the next way. And I was thinking, oh my god, like the next two days, you know, if the spurs win, like the next two days are going to be just dominated by what's going to happen. And like, you know, the ruling is going to come down. Once they're going to come down, they're going to have a come down on Sunday, where they wait till Monday morning, you know, like, so it was potentially a major, major, major storyline that is now again lost to history. We didn't do the poor part because the game was over. And it's not relevant. The championship is over. The trophy has been awarded. But it would have been fascinating. And I will just tell you this. Yes, that play is reviewable. Yes, there can be a flagrant upgrade. That is within the rules. Absolutely. There is very, very, very little history of the NBA awarding flagrant fouls to players on flagrant fouls, where they're where there were a foul not called. It has happened as every warrior's fan is screaming, what about Drainman? Yes, that is an example of when it happened. It actually happened to LeBron once during the conference finals. I think back in '07 or '08, where he threw an elbow and hit Chris Weber and they upgraded it to a flagrant after the game. I'm like, nobody even knew about it because it was not, it was a play that was the game wasn't close and it wasn't doing that. But it is a scant history of them doing it. It has really happened a very few number of times over the last 20 years. So I probably would have thought that regardless of whether you felt like they were screwing the nicks or whether they were favoring Wemba Nyamo or whatever, I think I would have probably leaned to the fact that they would not have upgraded that regardless of what you or what anybody saw. I don't think they would have. Yeah. And if you want to lose, I mean, I don't believe a lot of conspiracies, but I have to think if it's like a tie. Right. They go. They really want to suspend this game. I'll call a favor in an elimination game. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't mean to go on a rant about that, but I mean, it was fascinating that what could have been with that. And Jalen Brunson took care of all of it with some brilliant play down the stretch of the game. There are teams when they win. It's like this defiant, no one believed in us. And like they were underdogs in the series. I picked them in every series prior to this, but I just started despising every team in the East more and more as the East played out. That was part of the calculus and getting the finals pick wrong. But there there seem to be a bit more joy from this group. I don't know if that's a personality thing. I don't know if it's if it's they avoided kind of being the target and feeling disappointing, even though they'd made it the Eastern Conference finals last year. I don't think the loss of the Pacers necessarily like some terrible thing, even though, you know, in the way that those early games played out, you probably a lot of regret on their side. Maybe they're just a more likeable group, Brian. You would have a great perspective on this and comparing them to others, but they felt just like a bunch of guys that like each other that appreciated the moment as opposed to like calling out vendetta's that seem to be the norm on these nights. That's also because Brunson sets the standard. Brunson would never do that. Who knows what Brunson does when he's with his buddies are on his text chains, but he Brunson would not do that. And in Brunson sets the standard for the team. And the thing about this team that is so special is that the the they they very clearly love each other, obviously rooted in the Villanova connection. And the the the the crowd has had long to go fall in love with them. That's the thing is that New York fans are known for sort of being cynical and being brutal and being tough on their players. That was not the way they were with this team. I mean, you know, like obviously, you know, when when bridges can't hit a shot for two weeks, you know, they're going to they're going to be on them a little bit. But for the most part, the games that I went to I've gone to at the garden the last couple of years, they just hugged this team. They love this team. They adored them. And I think that came out in this run. And I will just say, you know, I made the mistake last year of underestimating them against the Celtics. When they law, when they won those two games, they made those big comebacks. I felt that they were, you know, freaks, you know, you know, that, you know, that was I thought the Celtics were going to still win the series. Very clearly, I was incorrect. And after they won that series convincingly, I was done down in them. And so like when, you know, the calves were saying what they were saying or even people who doubted them against the hawks, not me. No, no, I learned my lesson. And even even yesterday's game, I was I was, I'm not saying when they were down 16, I was prepared to slap a hundred dollar bill down and say, you know, bet. But I was I never thought they're out of the game. I thought the whole first half as ugly as that half was, they stayed connected like professionals. They never panic. They knew exactly what they were doing. And I was like, we, you know, they got it down to like six five or six there in the second half. And I was like, well, the only question left was whether the nicks are going to win by 10, seven or five, you know, like I, I just was very clear to me that the nicks were going to win that game because it's who they are. And if they had played best of nine, best of 11, best of 13, I think the nicks keep winning games like that because that's that's the way that that they're built. And so 16 and three, nine to 16 and three in the playoffs, they win their last nine road games. I mean, you may say, well, they're not beaten, you know, the 86 Celtics or the 17 warriors or the 96 bulls, like you may want to say that. All right, fine. I'm not trying to start a fight. 16 and three is 16 and three. Nine straight road winds, nine straight road winds. You think the other teams weren't good that they play, you know, they may not have been the greatest playoff stretch ever. But I thought they had a hard, I thought they had a hard draw. I thought they had the hardest draw in the Eastern Conference. Now, Tatum got hurt and so they didn't end up getting the Celts in the second round. I thought they had a hard draw. I thought Atlanta was a tough matchup for them. Um, I, I think Detroit would have been tougher than Cleveland based on the regular season stuff that I saw. But Detroit's offensive limitations were going to be exposed most likely. Totally. But at the start of the playoffs, I felt they had the hardest draw in the East. I thought they had the hardest draw and the most pressure. Even without research, I'm playing. Naturally. Yeah. Yeah. One more next thing in support. Yeah. Brunson turning down the extra 113 million. Yeah. It was like the first thing I thought I was like his Rick Bunch isn't going to be announced that there's a $30 million year assistant coach. Like is this going to be a pop lottery episode? Like what the fuck? What is happening here? And he said he can make up some of it. I mean, the last you, he can opt out and make up some of it. But yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. It's an all-time moment. Sorry. Well, I'm with you. I don't really know what to say other than I can't believe somebody did it and the way he talks about it, I actually become less skeptical. Because he's like, I knew I needed help. I knew I needed help. And does it make it easier if it's like we're going to have room here for bridges that we can bring this guy back. I mean, this is after Heart and Stein left. So I mean, if he takes the full boat, they're down one of these guys clearly. It's just like sometimes it's like man, is anyone ever got because I push back on like the best free agent signing an MBA history. I think that's where the rounding up after a title was won that drives me crazy. It's such a nuanced thing. It's impossible to say in a sentence. It's not LeBron to Miami. End of story. You're saying it's you're saying that this signing is not as impactful as that? What you're saying. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I look at I'm not in a position really to say anything negative about Jalen Bronson right now. I would just say that when you say the best free agent signing or the worst agent signing, you can make your case, but it's a very hard. It's a hard case to win. That's fine. And I'm with you. I don't want to turn this into like all right. Now let's hear some cracks in the mix. And I don't know if this shamed thing. You know, so I'm I'm with you, but it's just to get that lucky for him to develop and then be like, I'm going to be the guy and I'm good. I don't need every last dollar. Well, I just what I've been saying is it's the epitome of being the captain. You know, they made a really big deal. What, you know, could you even go down the MBA teams and tell me who their captains are? They made a really big deal when he was named captain because they were they were they were like looking for ways to highlight the monetary thing that he did was so incredible that the nicks. I feel like had I don't know this to be true. Don't aggregate me on this. Okay. But they made such a they put out a press release. He was named captain. I'm not saying that's never happened before, but it's very unusual. And I think they were like, we've got to find a way way to celebrate this guy, any opportunity we can to celebrate right this guy, we gotta do it. But talk about the epitome of being a captain. So obviously he sets the entire emotional agenda for the organization, that's very clear. He sets the standard for how they play on the court. And talk about a captain, you know, what does captain come from? Captain comes from when you're a kid, you're the captain, you're the captain, you pick your team. He picked his team. He picked his team. And he said, "I'm gonna pick my team and I'm gonna incentivize you to do that for me by take." Like it's one thing, like I went back and looked. So, you know, the standard for like taking a pay cut to help your team, like is really kind of dark, right? You know, like Dirk probably still had a few years left of his prime, and he went from like 22 million, down to 8 million. Duncan did it too. Okay, let me ask you look up Duncan. You know, Garnett did it too when he was in his prime. You know, this is way down the rabbit hole, but we're on a podcast, that's what this is for. When the lockout happened in '97, that was one of the, no, 99. - 99. - One of the big fights was putting in the max contract, right? Because before you could just get whatever you could negotiate. And there was like two or three players that were godfathered or grandfathered in, where they could still get bigs' counterattacks. Shack was one of them. Garnett was one of them, maybe Kobe was, but there was a couple more. And so at one point Garnett was making above the max. And in theory, he could have continued to make above the max for a long time. And he knew that the wolves needed help. And so he took a pay cut from 28 million, down to 16 million. Took a 12 million dollar pay cut, like in 2003 or four, when he's in his prime. It might have even been after he won the MVP award. And so we've seen, let me look up with Duncan, dude. So we have seen, it's not an unheard of take a pay cut, but here's the thing. - Yeah, but Garnett did it 'cause he had, it was like the entire financial world was reset. - Right, the team was screwed, but I want to acknowledge that the man took like a 40% pay cut, but my point is, I'm gonna look up Duncan right now. My point is, that was one year, or they partially gave back some of their salary. That was not $111 million or $113 million. Yeah, so Duncan in 2012, so this would have been when he already had four titles, he went from 21 million down to 9.6. That was a pretty big cut. It was a 50% pay reduction. But he's 14 years into his career at that point. And all these guys had made their money. Garnett had made his money. Dirk has made his money. They had millions, they had hundreds of millions of dollars that they had gotten. Brunson, yes, I'm not saying he was, you know, keeping an eye on his balance to see if he covers mortgage, but he had not made a full max contract yet. Anyway, I could go on and on about this. That act, it wasn't just like, oh my gosh, what a great guy. It was a revolutionary maneuver that has now led to a championship. Directly a cornerstone reason why they got this championship. On the spurs side, I'm sure I was listening to you with all the guys and I know him on Shumpert's on the latest episode of Recap and the Wind here. But the spurs topic is complicated. If you're going to be fair, it's complicated. I was disgusted by their play. Absolutely losing my mind on some of their offensive decisions. I would offer up that there were different NBA people, you know, as I'm sure you do far more than I do, but you get in text from guys where, you know, I'm like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Because you don't want to be wrong and people just going like, I can't believe some of the stuff that they do. And then I think on the fair side is like, this is the most ahead of schedule thing that we've probably seen in the NBA in my time watching it. I don't think that that's, I probably whatsoever. I was thinking like, when's the last time you ever saw a team that jumped from haven't made the playoffs to favorite in the NBA finals with so many of their core guys being three years or less in the league. So Mitch wasn't supposed to be here. The roster wasn't supposed to be here. The bench wasn't supposed to be here, but then you're favored in it. And you also play a way where now I wonder like, there's so many guys I love on this team, but there needs to be like a very conscious decision to do some things different here offensively to be able to close out one of these series, no matter how impressive they're going to be in the regular season because of course they're probably going to win 60 plus games again. Right, so you know, you have a couple of different ways you can look at it. They won 62 games and beat the thunder. So this was not some like boy, didn't they fall into this? Like they earned the right to be there. And they absolutely could have won the championship. It wasn't like somebody blew out their knee and they ended up like falling into the conference finals or something. Like they won their way in. They were absolutely good enough to win it. But there's a couple of different ways to look at it. Like on one hand, you look at Dylan Harper and you see the way he played in these finals and you say, my God, this guy is an absolute stud and he and Wemba Nyama and Castle are going to be rock stars for the next decade, you know, assuming health. And you say, boy, like this was so nourishing for Dylan Harper and to show the spurs how Dylan, you know, how they need to play. And you know, he was a proof of concept because the rookies always got to prove himself. Even the number two overall pick has got to prove himself to be trusted by his coach and his teammates. On the other hand, you can say, you know, where were some of their decisions? You know, you know, it's very hard for me to understand how Wemba Nyama played 44 minutes in game four. It's it's mystifying. There's eight or nine coaches over there. Sean Sweeney is, you know, one of the best assistant coaches is not the highest regarded assistant coach in the league. He's, you know, he's the magic coach today. How did they let that happen? You know, how do they keep? How do they have Deer and Fox in the position that he was in when he was obviously, because it's one thing, it's one thing, you know, because people were saying, well, boy, if you, if you bench Fox right now, like you'll lose him forever, he was injured, he was injured. Like, you know, I do think that there was some choking going on, but he was injured. He was not himself. And even if, even if even if he wasn't that, like even if he was better by the end, you have the injury as the excuse, you know? So, but I just go back to Eric's bolstera in, in 2011. It was his second year, I believe it was head coach. It's Mitch Johnson's second year. And he coached that team and made the finals. They won, if they didn't win 60 games, they won close to it. They pretty much didn't have that much trouble getting through the east. And then he got absolutely, I mean, among the things that happened in that series was, was, Rick Carlisle coaching circles around him. You know, they've got JJ Berea guarding LeBron. Yeah, you can say that LeBron was not prepared. Just like you can say, Victor was not prepared for certain things of this series. And you can, you can criticize him. LeBron was 22, Victor was 22. Their neither games weren't developed yet. But Eric's bolstera is over there allowing them to, you know, play zone and like have no idea what to do about it. And I remember a bolstera like was devastated after that series. And he like, like couldn't sleep for weeks and like became obsessive about studying how he screwed up. And, you know, and he got the benefit of getting the lockout. And that other that leather lockout was in, when I was in 11. And he like emerged with a completely different philosophy on coaching. That was when he said, we got to run and we got to play small and Bosch are going to play center. And we're going to have four shooters on the court with LeBron in weight or three shooters. I guess you don't count ways of shooter and all that stuff. And I think the pump is primed for Mitch Johnson to do the same type of thing. But bolstera had to admit, I mean, I remember him saying, you know, later, like a year or so later, like, you know, and I'm paraphrasing. He may not have said his exact words, but he's basically said, like I, I lost this that series. I was terrible. I can't believe the law fly wasn't house. I was like, I was like, Spowe, like LeBron scored eight points in game. This guy scored the digit points in, you know, 1,500 consecutive games. So he had eight points in game five. He makes one or two plays in the fourth quarter of that game. You're up three two going home and set it down three two, like don't beat yourself up. He couldn't be, he was inconsolable on that. He was convinced that he had not put the team in position to win. And by the way, LeBron too, LeBron had to go through his own stuff. And Pat Riley and Andy Ellsberg had to fix the roster blah, blah, blah. All of them had had that. And I, I feel the exact same way about this first. I think when Wemba Nyama goes back and studies this and when Fox goes back and study this and when Mitch Johnson back and when Brian Wright, their GM, goes back, they'll all flap their heads and go, "Why did we do this? How could we have allowed this to slip through our fingers?" And I think it's a normal course of business for a team, and they absolutely are open. And I think there'll even be self-critical. Anything anybody could say. I know you have a big piece coming up on ESPN.com, bigger storylines. I think we're day I don't know how big it is, but it'll be a story that runs on Tuesday on ESPN.com. You could make up some shit. I'm going to read that, Brian. The yada stuff heated up at least in the fake stuff this weekend, and maybe some hints at real stuff. I think this has to be maybe the first storyline that you start with. Expectations. Yeah, the league expects that yada is going to get traded. Here's where I say, I'll believe it's traded when he's traded. Because he could still say, I want to, I want to resign, and I'll resign in October. That could still happen. But I'm just going to say to you that, the honest absolutely wants to go to the heat. Like that is something he wants. I don't know what I'm saying. It's the only place he would go. But he absolutely wants to go to the heat. The heat want yada. And they've been making offers for months. The two sides can get on the witness stand and debate about what an offer is an offer. But we know they've been talking for months and they still haven't done the deal. Even if they do the deal tomorrow, even if they do the deal tonight, after this podcast is recorded, just because they do the deal doesn't mean Milwaukee's in love with it. Milwaukee, if they loved what Miami was offering, they would have done it already because it's been there for so long. Okay. And you can do a trade during the finals. It's a break into quorum. But it's not illegal. The rant was traded during the finals last year. So they don't love the Miami deal. And that's not source is said. That's obvious. They love the Miami deal. They would have done the Miami deal. My aim is we're trying to get them for months. So they may end up doing that. So that's one thing. And then you have some other teams in there. And certainly Boston is in there. And you know, Boston has to, you know, this is not how Boston normally operates. Ryan, you know, this Boston doesn't operate negotiating with a player, not negotiating, but like, you know, dealing with a player and also dealing with the team. They don't do Boston. First off, Boston doesn't let anything leak. Probably what? Seven or last eight major moves came out of the blue. Um, you know, maybe, maybe there was like some rumbling. Okay, Drew Holiday is probably going to get traded. They got to dump some money. I don't, we didn't know he was going to Portland. You know, like, we didn't know Brad Stevens was getting hired. We didn't know Brad Stevens was getting promoted to, to president, all that stuff. You came out of the blue. The hiring, when Brad Stevens was announced, it was like, what? I can still, I can still remember. So smart. Right. Go ahead. I can still remember the, the, the press release hitting my inbox and it just said Celtics, higher Stevens. And I was like, Lamar Stevens, who? I didn't know what they're talking about. I opened up. I was like, Oh my God, they hired Brad Stevens. The press release broke it. And, um, and also when they, when they did the Tatum, when they did the draft night deal, I don't know, maybe my memory is flawed. That came out of nowhere, didn't it? So whatever Boston's doing, they excel in keeping it quiet. And they also don't typically, you know, do a deal with an agent and then bring the team in later, which is how some, you know, Yannis is tried to have a seat at the table. So, um, this is outside Boston's conference zone. Not only the fact that if they traded for Yannis, it would signal not just potentially the breakup of, you know, the J's who have, who have demonstrated that they are a championship duo and are in their primes and under contract. Um, but it would indicate a complete change in the philosophy of the organization. I mean, the philosophy of the way the team plays. It would, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, maybe Joe Mozilla has a, would have a plan. And I'm sure all these conversations have been had. But if you trade for Yannis in a cupo, you are completely changing your style of play. And Joe Mozilla is up there dogmatically preaching his style of play. So there's some enormous, just say, and by the way, obviously the Celtics would have had all these conversations over the last month. But I'm just saying, there's some enormous stumbling blocks and hurdles that you will have to get over as an organization to do this type of deal. It's not as simple as going to the trade machine, making a trade that, that satisfies it and saying, you know, whatever. Like, so all of that is in the ether as you think about this potential seismic maneuver. I think Miami is dealing from like a stale position. And there's also a part of me that can't ignore the irony of Tyler Hero wasn't enough to get the Dame deal done that is enough to get great. It's different teams, different times, different negotiations. And there's more to it. It's where it's a pick. Maybe, you know, it's, it's one of the guys that have had prior that that still has some value. But as I compare it to the Boston package, like I could see Boston go, you know, we already know this works. Whatever I thought Mozilla had a horrible series in that series against Philadelphia. Okay. But we, but we know the core of this works. We know that these guys are the most part of the Tata missing this time. These guys play all the time. The honest is ended the season hurt. How many times and it comes with a 275 million dollar tab that we have to pay. And if we don't have a stretch five, like a brook Lopez, the reason why that Milwaukee spent all of that money and made all those maneuvers just for miles turn or where there should be something the room going is miles turner going to cost us $250 million or $2 or $30 million like maybe we don't do that just because he's a stretch five. Oh my god. Oh my god. That is really one of the wildest maneuvers. It wasn't just the maneuver itself, but everything that they did, there was so many different points. But they were been like, we sure we want to do this. And like they, you know, there had to be like the room. Everybody should we still do this? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh my god. I, and then he's out there and I like miles a lot. I like him. I got to know him when he was when he was he played TM USA for a summer. I got to know his family and I'd like him a lot. I'm not saying anything bad about him. But then he comes out on this podcast and, you know, lays bare just how bad it was internally. And they're like, you know, they moved heaven and earth. You know, they they mortgage their mortgage to get him. And, you know, oh my god, I'm sorry, Ryan. Go ahead. No, you lost your, I didn't realize how much this, how, how you felt about I'm glad I know now. But there's, there's just different, like different teams are in different positions. So they want a title two years ago. It's not the worst idea to maybe run this back and fix it around these two guys where it's like, hey, these athletic wings that we have. They come in the East this year if TM got didn't get hurt. I mean, I'm not saying they would have beat the next, but it wasn't like he was out of the normal possibility. It would have been a hell of a series, right? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's tough now to say that you want to pick anybody against the next, but in that series, I know what would happen. I would have picked Boston and been like, hey, they'll be motivated by last year, even though Boston and then the next would be up like two, oh, and you'd be like, Oh, wait a minute. You know, I would have given up on Boston by then. I would have given up because I just thought they were so they go through these long stretches. I think Angel would have done it if there were no title in 24. I think he's a big game hunter. He would have done this deal, maybe ownership prior to this ownership group is going like, we still need to do whatever we can. The next banner, the next banner. This is the standard that we're held to here. The last one was almost 20 years ago. We have to do this because it reminded me a little bit of the Ray Allen thing, although Ray Allen was a little less expensive than what Yannis is going to cost. But at that time, when they made that Ray Allen deal before they made the Garnett deal, Allen had the ankle injuries. He was still owed like 40 million, which back then was like, I think it was two years. It was big money. I don't remember the number off the top of my head, but I remember it being like a lot for somebody who wasn't playing, but that's not they might not need to do it. It's just sometimes I wonder if Milwaukee or Yannis prefer the Boston thing the most out of the three parties involved. Well, the heat fans think that it's the Tyler is a great asset. This has been made clear. Tyler has played seven years, I think, in the NBA. His numbers are remarkably steady. His numbers are almost exactly the same every year. He scores 20 points. He shoots 38% on three. He shoots 45% from the field. And he will have nights where you're like, my God, what an amazing talent. And you will be a planting. He is he is and he had been a planting every year. And like, I'm not saying he's not a player that you don't want, but he's not a player who you're like, all right, we got him now we can go forward hit hit hit. And not only that, he's in a position where he wants a contact extension because he's like, look, I average 20 points a game. I bet I was 20 points again for the last 400 games. This guy over there, I was 20 points a game and he makes 57 million or whatever, like, I'll take that. Thank you. So not only do you get a player who is very defined in his upside, but is prepared now to get his giant, his big giant contract. It's not like I don't like say, oh my god, like he's, I mean, I admit he's a, a high quality player, but he's not a guy. I'm like, okay, going forward. I, you know, three guys and he's gonna be one of them. You know, I just, I just don't feel that way. I don't mean to be mean. I like it more than I've ever liked him, and it's still hard to announce him at the press conference when you've traded one of the best players in history that still has got some time left. That's the other thing. Like, um, the, uh, the trade that, um, the cream trade. Um, you know, Wayne Embray is a Hall of Fame, um, Hall of Fame executive and, uh, you know, I know him. He is one of the most respected men and the NBAs have read his book. I mean, it's incredible career, but he's had to walk around his whole career with having made that cream trade and like people, you know, was junior Bridgeman, like Brian Winters. You know, the epitome of the original feed ups. Yeah. The epitome of, um, what, I don't know if Bill Simmons came up with this, but you know, he popularized it to me, you know, four quarters don't make a dollar, right? You trade, you know, by the way, they didn't make the, you know, they traded, um, they, you know, the bucks traded the cream and they didn't make the finals for 50 years 50 five zero, okay, and Wayne Embray is walking around, you know, like people remember, I mean, maybe not anymore because, you know, it's been 50 something years, but if you're the bucks, whoever you trade, Yannis for, now I'm not saying Yannis is gonna go on to win a bunch of titles wherever he goes, like the way Kareem did. But Yannis is a guy who brought Milwaukee a championship like Kareem did and like whatever trade you make doesn't just have to set the agenda for the next three to five years, if not longer, but it's going to be on your resume potentially if you think if Yannis goes to, let's say Boston, and they win a championship next year. You don't think that's, you know, people are like, well, what's taking so long? What's taking so long is the fear of in for me. That's what's taking so long. So 50 years Ryan ain't going to the finals for 50 years. This is their player that they got to bring them back. And now it's like, yeah, you, you may just obsess a little bit about the trade that you're going to send them out on. You have had two years to plan for it, but all right, let's do. We spent a lot of time on that. I don't want to keep you here all night. So let's try to get through every. No, no, no, I'm going to lay out here a little bit more than. The next time when I write, come on, I dominate it. I feel I feel bad. You know what though I deserve it. Cause when I go on other people's pods, I don't shut up. So in your information is usually better than the information that I'm sharing with anyone else. I don't know about that. But um, Lakers, Lakers. So, um, here's an uncomfortable truth. The Lakers, um, have cap space and don't have cap space. Uh, because the, to get the cap space, they have to let go of productive players. So, you know, LeBron and Rui Hachemura combined average like 20 to their 33 points 12 or 13 rebounds and like 8 assists. Although, I think it was 7 assists for LeBron 1 for really, that's a pretty good amount of production. Um, but to get to your salary cap space where you're going to add a player, you got to, you got to replace that right. So if you, if you say okay, uh, we've got 50 million salary cap space as the Lakers and now we're going to go remake our roster. Um, but how do you improve the team if those two guys who were your whole, you're starting forwards. How do you replace them? How do you get better? And, um, so this is a thing like it's kind of, it's kind of phantom cap space because, um, they don't, what they need to do is bring LeBron and Rui back at less money and then use the savings to go sign a player. But then when you start adding up the money, there's not, you know, unless LeBron comes way down, there's not going to really be enough there to like sort of win a bidding war. And so you're like, well, I don't know, are we better off like just bringing the team back and hoping that Lucas healthy. Um, and look, they may, I mean, they're going to do something at the center position. If they don't do it in free agency, they're going to make a trade. They're going to have an upgraded center, just how big the upgrade is. We'll wait and see. I'm sure they have plan A, B, C, D, E, um, but the, the, here's kind of their core, one of their core problems. They don't have anybody in their rotation, who they drafted, you can move in and be cheap. Bronnie. I mean, I know you're making one of your dry humor jokes there. Like, you know, yeah, I mean, Bronnie actually is demonstrating he could be a fringe rotation player, but I'm talking about who's going to be your starting forward. They didn't right. Like the Dalton connect moment at the beginning of his career to now we don't want to play him. All right. So this is a great trivia question. I give it occasionally. Who was the last player that the Lakers drafted in the first round that they gave a contract extension to. And let me just say that obviously there's guys they have drafted like Lonzo Ball, um, that they and Kyle Kuhn who they traded. I'm not saying they never drafted a guy that was any good. What I'm saying is is that the way you sustain a team is you draft somebody develop them and you take advantage of him graduating on and he's cheaper. I asked who again, who was the last pick that the Lakers drafted and they also extended first round. First one. It's good. It's not Jordan Hood, Shapino. I know that. We did not see that was Andrew Bina. Wow. Now there's been some said because I could fill the lake or higher. Taylor and Horton Tucker and Jordan Clarks and their son. You know, they found some diamonds in the rough, you know, Alex Caruso Austin Reeves. It's not like they've never developed a player. I'm just saying, ideally what you would have here, regardless of whether it's LeBron or somebody else's, you would have young players that you could graduate on and then you could, you know, graduate up the Lakers don't have that. So they are left with this conundrum, which is how do we improve our team without hurting our team. And I do think that the best case scenario for LeBron is to resound the Lakers and I think LeBron will be open to taking a sizable pay cut if he's taking a sizable pay cut for a player who he is excited about. Don't say to him, LeBron, take a 30 million dollar pay cut and we'll use that 30 million on somebody say we have Walker Kessler Ray to sign an offer sheet. Oh, okay, that's great. That sounds great. Like we're going to get Walker Kessler. That sounds great. I think that will be worth it. And by the way, Walker Kessler is restricted like the jazz could just match it like, you know, so that's their that's their problem. Their problem is to improve the team. They got to improve the team. I can't wait for the Walker Kessler contract just to have like a defensive lineman from the chiefs go, I can't believe these contracts because that's one where he hasn't been playing a time, but when he plays incredible, but he's a big part of what the future is for that team. Because I still think there's some moves for them if they wanted to get even more creative with all this kind of stuff. So that that then pivots into the number one pick. You know, I've been watching, I've been going back and forth, Peterson, DeBonza, I've been a Peterson camp guy now for a little while because I'm kind of giving him a pass on some of the stuff, but it is so hard to watch DeBonza when he's cooking. And then to see his size and there's like no concern with him with the way there is for Peterson, when it is the number one pick, I'm kind of the point now where I'd be shocked as the wizards don't take the bots of one. And AJ really, really wants to go number one, you know, I think there's this belief that, um, that you know, because he played at BYU and he's got some kind of, and by the way, I think he liked living in provo. Right, but people are acted like he was born there and it's it's a very strange thing that we do sometimes. He can both really have enjoyed being at BYU and also want to be the number one pick. Both those things can be true. He wants to be the number one pick. Now I think a couple of things here. The war, the wizards knew was possible that they would get a top two or three pick in this draft for months. That was their goal for months and they still traded for trade on. So I'm just going to make that statement. The second thing is, um, if you look at, and by the way, I wish I could say, I've got sources inside the wizards. I know they're a draft board and they are going with so and so. I don't have that intelligence. I'm sorry that I don't have, but I wish I did. I don't. saying recently that there isn't a consensus, that's what you're supposed to say. Oh, there's no way he's ever showing his cards for no, I've known Michael Winger for 20 years, zero percent chance he's showing his cards ever. But if you look at Michael, you know, Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, the two guys running the wizards were raised in the Oklahoma city system. So I can't believe Winger came on our show. And what did he say? He was really good because I basically was like, look, I like a lot of your players. You also played a million, but there's like some fringe guys that I think you've done a really good job with closing out the season, okay, but you also traded for a tray young in Anthony Davis. And so I worry that you have some of these developmental guys, whether it's Tsar, whether it's Tray, Keishan, who I liked a lot. I mean, Kool-A-Bolly and Bubb kind of feel like if you could just make them one player, it'd be unbelievable. Right. They haven't they haven't had the benefit of drafting super high other than Tsar, which, you know, was the Pipp was pass. But if it's, if it's Tray Young playing the way he did in Atlanta, which is the whole reason why his value was C. Jim McCollum at 34 in Cory Kisper, which I think Hawks fans need to be reminded of all the years that they sit there and scream to yell that all the meat national guys didn't like their favorite fucking player. If that sounds a little salty, that is years of salt build up. But I, I asked Wing and I was kind of like, all right, like, is Tray now going to be helping you develop all this youth that you've been stockpiling? Or are they all going to be watching him? Because as much as I've loved what I've, I've kind of like on this debaunted thing again, because I've rewatched all the big 12 games and then even in the loss to Texas, he was unfreaking believable. Like, is he going to be watching the Tray Young? One of the best mid-range shooters come out of college in many years, right? Like his mid-range game, would you say that? It's what you want it to look like. Yeah. What you want is like a big, huge frame, wing, quickness. I'm not saying he's like Westbrook, but that just hard bounce up and the way that shot looks is the exact, he hits a three in transition. I forget it might have been against Iowa State where I was like, my God, that is, that is it. That's what you want all of these guys to look like. And I hope in Winger didn't know he had the, well, he knew he had the number one figure when he was saying anything. So we couldn't talk about debaunted specifically, but I would say in general, I'm going to hope these guys aren't just watching Tray Young dribble a ball for 82 games. Well, the thing about Tray Young is we're not going to really be able to give judgment on that trade until we see what contract he has signed because he very clearly has a, he really clearly, when he got traded, knew what contract he was getting. And the reason I know he knew what contract he was getting is because if he didn't know what he was going to get paid, he would not have agreed to shut himself down for the season, which is what happened. You know, when you're potentially going to be a free agent, you don't shut yourself down with an injury. Even if it's a real injury, you don't like, oh, you were out for six months with us with a knee. Like, that doesn't sound great. So before you pass judgment, and by the way, like, there's been whispers about what that, what that number is for months, you know, and I'm not saying they actually, I want to be clear. I don't want to be aggregated to saying they may not have actually agreed like shake it hands and said, okay, here's our, deal. I'm sure they didn't because this agent is very, very shrewd. It's how he got traded in the first place. But there's no way Trey Young went on that deal and agreed to be shut down without having a very good idea of what he's getting paid. And until that contract is knowledge to the whole NBA, you can't really judge it because if they get him on a contract that is very, very favorable to the team, it's going to have a completely different view of that trade. If they get him on a contract that is like equal to the contract he was just on in Atlanta, which Atlanta couldn't trade for two years, and they've heard his value by shutting him down for a year, for half a season or whatever, then you're going to look at it a lot differently. So I'm just going to say when it comes to Trey Young thing, wait. But when it comes to Will Dawkins and Michael Winger, they came from Oklahoma city. I know that Winger worked in, worked in Cleveland and he worked in Atlanta or I mean in LA, trust me, I know, I've known him for 20 years. They were raised by Oklahoma City. And if you look at what Oklahoma City is drafted, what if they drafted straight down the line for a decade plus now? Length, positional size, like they want the longest, biggest guys at every position. And they have not taken very many risks in terms of, you know, I don't want to say they've been a little bit risk inverse. Okay. That doesn't mean they've had an every pick. They have they have whiffed on picks. You think you think they thought Uzman Zhang would be a guy that they would, you know, Alaskan Postgres. No minutes for him. Well Poku is the last like risky one, maybe. Right. But Zhang, like, you know, Zhang was a lottery pick. Like that wasn't, you know, he meant to have an NBA career. But my point is look at everybody who they drafted. Length, positional size, relative low risk. Okay. That says to Bansa. But I don't have the, I don't have the Intel. So I wish I could tell you the thing I'm going to tell you about is that the more the wizards are well known for being very strategic in the draft, you know, trying to get guy, given guys promises and trying to get them to shut down workouts, which by the way is another thunder thing. And they didn't invent it. I understand that other teams do it. It's been around for a long time. You know, smoke screens and misdirections. And they have the number one pick. So they don't, they should hold their cards close to their best. But the league doesn't know who they're taken. The players don't know who they're taken. And that's a good place to be. Because when you don't know that, that's how you get a call and get an offer that makes you think and blows you away to move around in the draft. So I don't think that we're going to know for a long time between now and draft night. Do you have a player to a pick that you feel like if I had to pick one, if I had to get this one right, I'll go first if you want me to give you time. Okay, go ahead. A cuff Kingston and Wogler all being in this guard group, which I think you could argue on some of these shooting numbers for buries. You know, they were just so loaded at Arizona that he wasn't going to be asked, certainly no one was asked to do what A cuff was. That if you look at the clippers, I think the Garland trade makes it very clear. They have to take Wogler. If the first four chalk, if Caleb Wilson goes four, the boozer's obviously gone at three. If it's Peterson 2, who knows? Maybe it's boozer 2, and then it's Peterson 3 because I mean, there's a there's a floor here for Peterson where it gets a little ridiculous. And sometimes I think I'm going to regret. I'm still not sure, you know, if I had to do it, what I would do. Well, there's Peterson has a lot going for him. I want to be clear. The way we've talked the last seven, eight minutes, Aaron Peterson has a lot going for him. He's a product of Akron, Ohio where I am from I have enjoyed talking to him and joy talking to his father. I am rooting for Darren Peterson. I just want to be clear. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. But I the only one that I feel comfortable is that I just don't know that you could take a cuff or Kingston and put it next to Garland. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I meant Kingston Fleming's in San Antonio last week. And I told him that anybody who ever plays for Kelvin Samson, instantaneously has respect in the NBA certainly with me. And he smiled because he probably probably decided some memories. But he is not he is not his frame is not huge for an NBA guard. No, he's crushing interviews from what I've heard. He's a very impressive, very impressive guy, very impressive guy, not just the normal like specifics that you're told. And you go, what the hell? Like good things, really good things. So that was that was mine. Just like I may like walk better into the other guards too, which is kind of where I'm leaning anyway. But I don't know, do you have one? Well, I mean, I am not a draft Nick. I am not going to try to tell you that I have studied this to a certain extent that I can, you know, compare to Jeremy Wu or Kristen Peek or you know, the other Fino Kevin O'Connor, the other people that are specialized in this. I'm not a specialist in this, but if he's on the board, I would be stunned if if Cameron Booser gets past the Grizzlies. Because, you know, dookies love dookies and Zach Kleinman is a very proud product of Duke. And the thing, the thing on Booser, and I mean, I am not trying to say anything here that is insightful. I am not a draft expert. And I don't trust my own eye. I don't spend, I haven't spent 10,000 hours evaluating high school kids. I am not saying I can only say what scouts who I trust tell me. And they rave about Booser and they rave about him as a winner and stuff like that. And they rave about his leadership qualities and everything. And after how South it's gone with John Morant, that just sings to what I think is music to the Grizzlies ears. So, again, I don't have intelligence on their draft board. I don't have somebody leaking to me that they've got, you know, Caleb Wilson higher because, you know, I got guys raving to me about Caleb Wilson. I had a chance to probably briefly meet him and his father in San Antonio as well. There's a gentleman with great size. By the way, Caleb Wilson got great size. But yeah, I think if Booster is on the board, I would be surprised if Memphis doesn't take him. Last one for us here. What do you think it's more creative this offseason, Minnesota or OKC? I think OKC believes that they were healthy. They might be holding the gold right now. Now, not mean to insult the Nix. I think Oklahoma City was like, damn, like we just, we just didn't have what we needed to have. And, you know, I think that they need to get a better system to protect their, you know, to protect Shay a little bit more. But they've got $53 million in team options. So that's Isaiah Hardenstein, Lou Dort, and Kendra Williams. And Kendra Williams, like, you know, $7 million, a relatively valuable player. And unlike the Lakers I mentioned earlier, they do have ascending young players who can replace these guys for cheap, much cheaper. So I would suspect that, yeah, what's the over under on those three guys come? How many of them, how many of them are coming back? 1.5 over under? I would say I would take the under because I think Dort, you can argue the replacement's already been drafted and they get creative around that. I think Hardenstein's too valuable for what they want to do. And that's not a post-jet disappointment spurs series. I think they love the idea of the optionality of the two bigs. So maybe it's the 20 million. There was a transaction that really unlocked their championship team. I mean, that and Caruso. But look, if you've listened to me and ever, you know I'm a big actions over words guy. And in the middle of the season, Lou Dort hired Rich Paul to be his agent. At the risk of parodying myself. Why would he do that? Why? Right. Why would Lou Dort go higher Rich Paul in the middle of a season? Why is wearing a championship ring? If it was just going to be as simple as we're going to pick up the team option. He knows that that's going to potentially get dicey either. He's going to I would be surprised if he became a free agent. I think they. If they want to move on from him, they don't. I think they probably try to trade him. The other thing is like they only have they only have one. They only have one roster spot right now that obviously can change in a blink of an eye. But then they have one roster spot. And they're going to be deep into the second apron. So every million is going to cost them a lot. And not only that, but. One thing when you talk about second aprons, it's not even so much. That about the money like because Sam Presty has gone on the record pretty much yelled. We have been preparing to spend money for years. We are not broke. But with each million you add to the second apron. That's another million you have to sacrifice to get out of it. Because every team that is in the second apron is thinking about how do we get out of it if we have to. And so when I'm building towards here is I would be pretty surprised if they make both first trumpets. Or at least if they make both first trumpets of guys they intend to sign. And I don't really think that there's many drafts and stash guys that are going to be available in this draft for where they're drafting. So obviously they're trying to move up. Of course, it's a no brainer, but you know, they're highly incentivized to. You know, only to not even add another three or four million dollars to a guy who's not going to play and kick that can down the road if they can't improve their their draft picks. So I think it's likely that the thunder makes several moves, not only in the summer, but in the coming days. And, you know, I don't think any of them are to be to trade for y'all. So I think they believe in this roster and I don't blame them. You're the best. Get some rest. I know you can't really because we still have 45 central wake up call for get up tomorrow. So what are you guys doing blame you to little blame pie? I don't even know. Good question. We're after this. I'm going to start prepping for it. Well, let me know if you need any help. I watch a lot of games. Yeah, I know you do. I'll rely on well, I'll just give you the zoom link and you can just come right in and you can just. You think that go over well. I don't even think like I'm good there. They like me. I like them. Everybody's happy again. You know, ESPN radio background you and greenie like our, you know, yeah, but I'm talking like higher level stuff. Like I don't if I popped on randomly on your zoom link was like, how's it going guys? I don't even know if anyone would get mad about it. They might be a little worried because you're like, you never know with Brazil, but yeah, maybe we don't do that tomorrow. Yeah, maybe maybe right after Greenberg, you know, gets his next winning a championship. Maybe maybe you should give him a little space. Yeah, for that one. Yeah, but you know, like there's dog days of the summer, you know, July 11. Maybe psyched. Yeah, they're going to be blocking me in right now and you do the fourth. Some of the greatest most amazing television and ESPN every year comes on July 4th, especially this year Ryan where it's on a weekend. We are prime for some special shows on July 4th this year. I was going to leave it at that. I can't wait. Brian Winhorse, who've collective with Tim Bontemps and of course the other guy. Pandemic man. I know. Tim McMan and they had a Mount Shupperong with them. Yeah, we saw. You know, we, we're sorry to say goodbye to Shump because Shump really only does it for the playoffs with us. Because Shump doesn't like talking about where is Janus going to go. Shump would rather talk about like watch how Brunson uses his offhand to manipulate the defense. But we lost Shump to the streets after game four after the 29 point. Yeah, he was he was he was dressed in his junior uniform and he was on the court and he was kind of like rocking. And he goes how long is this going to be I go Shump go fly go he's like go to 7th Avenue just go. I released him from his his his podcast duty and he like turned around and sprinted for the exit at the garden. He couldn't wait to get out there. So it was it was fun. But yeah, we're we had this we had to send him back to Atlanta for the offseason. You're the best. Thank you for this. We'll check it again soon. Thanks, Ryan. Have a great week. Thank you. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the south fork. I have every tour you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Today's live advice is brought to you by Microsoft 365 co pilot. What if you could add an AI assistant to your work without leaving a workflow built on a Microsoft Word Excel and outlook co pilot works where you work helping you do more in the apps you are to use. Inward co pilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft in Excel. It generates insights from your data and an outlook. It cuts through the noise to get you up to speed faster. The apps you know go further with co pilot learn more at m3 65 co pilot dot com slash work. A lot to get to with the gang here. I don't know. I don't even know where we start. Are we doing this revolve thing or we already did it. We already did it. How the magic is made you guys get to see. I guess we are it wasn't that hilarious when we did that thing on the callback. Yeah. Yeah. How about our guy Kyle little cheddar Bob roll for you this weekend. I love I love when I get around. It's just such a different group of friends. I love those Dominican guys. What crew is this? You know you the only white guy in it. I was the only white guy that answered the bell for this one but that we have a wedding on Thursday where we're going to a couple of the white guys are going to get in the mix. But yeah, I was certainly the only white guy that you know answer the bad signal this this weekend. But yeah, it's such a fun time deep was this crew. I saw some footage. There was probably like six of us seven. And then some dudes like came for a little bit broke off. Yeah, we're up to like four in the morning that day. It's just you know forget how I forget how it was. That's just like how it wasn't college and like. I don't know. It's cool that now they're just like, you know, they're a train right away. Get off the Harlem 125th and go. What night was that Friday. Yeah, Friday. Yeah, great. I skidaddle that out of there because that was that would have been crazy if I was there yesterday. Even I didn't want that spoke. This was World Cup USA night then right? Yeah, Paraguay. Yeah, we started with Paraguay. Yeah, just great vibes all around. Were you with a couple guys from Paraguay? No, no, they're all Dominicans. I think something might be like a little bit Puerto Rican, but I mean definitely Dominicans. Can you say that? Oh, you can. There's crossover. That's a joke from 30 pro. Sorry. Damn it. You guys did a chin-up contest on the scaffolding, right there, and what was that time square? No, we wouldn't have been around there, but I don't know, dude. I just kind of let them leave me. I never really bothered to learn where I was in New York City, and I'm in and out. I don't, I never stay more than one night. So, it was just like perfect little dose of medicine for me. Yeah. I loved it. I enjoyed all the kind. It was very limited content, but I I need to sort of like a different kind of passcode on my phone for these nights. I don't know why I get there. It's just like throw some shit up there after a long time because it's literally just so out of nowhere. It's just like, oh Kyle's just he's doing his thing tonight. Let's see. I know. It's almost like, do I have to set up notifications now? It's sort of like easy only when I have notifications for you to wear a crease here. Yeah. Oh my God. I mean, it is kind of few and far between usually, but yeah, I don't know, sort of like with chapters. Some guys have, you know, shoms, no, no. Kyle. Yeah. It's sort of like with DJs too. Cause there was a DJ at the first place that we were at and they weren't playing game audio. We did call it Audible, but I told my friend I was like, I hate love DJs, but really from there for like 90 minutes, I just, the urge to tell them you should definitely play some tea paint. It's like, nobody wants me to say it to them, but it's like, I'm getting closer to doing it every minute. It's like same thing with like Twitter, it's a stay off the phone anyway, nothing, nothing disastrous. That's good. No, there's nothing bad about anything. Of course, it's hanging out with a bunch of friends and I, I was looking at the demographic of the whole breakdown. I was like, Oh, Kyle switched it up on us. Yeah. Is it coming everywhere? I do. Yeah. Uh, I did dip my toes into Paraguay Twitter, soccer Twitter. That was. Talk like that. Um, yeah, that game was not received well by that nation. Nope. Now it wasn't fun, but it's great for us to tell you that right now. What's up? Are we back? Maybe. How's the soccer pod going? It's great. Listen, we went live after that game and that was the easiest show we've ever done. It was just like what just we just yell a lot about how excited we are because everything basically went well. So, you know, we know the Aussies. What's that? I was just saying I was looking before that game started. America was like plus 100. I mean, Paraguay was like plus 400. But like, America wasn't like, you know, my, you know, wasn't, uh, we weren't like getting a bunch of points there. So now it's a game. They should have won though. And my thing was I actually had the listen for Aguilar. We're going to talk about it. I had, I had USA minus one and a half. I was like, I think they either win this game by both the goals where they drop points. And, you know, obviously it did win. So what's up? Did you give some betting advice out there? Yeah. No, but we got the Aussies coming up. Nah. And I'm next Friday. It's going to be. They just won. They had team. It's going to be a tough one. Can you keep them momentum going? But are we going to run into the scots at all? I've been really into the fans. I hope not. God damn it. They took over the park today. Are they guys so awesome? So awesome. Those guys. So awesome. Well, how about the German dude who's like just basically making his way through the south? Have you guys seen him? Freddie? Yeah. I'm just, I'm hoping it's real. I don't want to find out. I don't. I just always think it's always fake. The Japanese guy. Is everybody just like lose their minds. Oh, yeah. Japanese guy. Yeah. Well, the Koreans and the Mexicans just just chugging to Kiela was definitely real. Like that was a thing. So this is, this is what the best part about this happening, obviously the World Cup in America is like this is dude, you're just getting after it. We don't care. And but no, I think that for anything is real. I mean, listen, I, of course, the chance it could not be. But I think he got like hooked up by JJ Watt in Houston because that's what the game was. So I don't, can you fake your way through JJ Watt? I don't know. Maybe. But it seems like he runs a tight ship. Because yeah, my other concern is always like somebody's like, hey, I'm doing this, but I'm actually doing this for something else. It's like somebody in Africa playing a guitar in front of a tree. And then it's like, oh, the people just send a $10 million because they're, she's missing a guitar string. And it's like, actually, she, she goes to like Connecticut college, you know, like what's what happened here? Well, there, there's way more ways on, I don't think this is it, but I've noticed there's a lot more like creative ways just to get somebody to click, expand your post on Twitter. And then it's just like, this was actually garbage. But now there's 10 million fucking impressions on it because people are clicking to see what this is all about. And then they found out it's garbage. So I'm like, I'm like, becoming hip to, there's more ways that people are tricking like the masses into clicking on this weird tweet. I don't think that's what this German guy is, but it's definitely in the back of my head. Yeah. I get it because every now and then, if I do something, then it'll be like, hey, this just seems to be doing, okay, do you want to boost this? I've never done it. I might do it on Instagram once just to see what that feels ridiculous, like it's been $1,500 to be like, everybody's going to get flooded with this now. Man, what a great one. Yeah. Put a great return on this investment. I don't care much about PEDs, I don't like PEDs on social media. Leave it organic. Come on. We shouldn't be boosting anything. Yeah. And then some of these guys that are in cover bands where they don't even know how to play the instrument with their content. And you just go, you know, speaking of notifications on, they're always telling you to put the notifications on. I hope these guys are real. I hope they're having a great time. It's a lot like a guy that went to Trinity or is like, Brennan's Connecticut, next thing you know, he's in Bat Rouge. But it's like, it's, it's that, but this is on PEDs if we want to go that way, because it's a whole, another level of like, hey, I just was just a choke. I didn't, I didn't know. I don't know. I think I said like this. Freddie was, the guy was like, he went, he said Jordan Hare, right? Auburn. And he was like, freaking out because the eagle was going, he went to a bucky's late night. I think he sent out a thing. He's like, hey, everyone's home. He's playing the hit at something happens here. The one thing is that he's playing the hits. It's like, dudes who love buggies are going to be like, fuck yeah, like, or even guys who know a buck. He's like, of course, a foreigner would like that. It's almost like it's too perfect. But you know what? Let's just pretend. Let's say it's real. I didn't see another guy that went to like Golden Corral. How is my guy? I'm just blown. Yes. I get a golden Corral. What? Well, I'll tell you, I'm after the, the pause that I've done, all they have to do is get a dose of salad dressing and a fucking couple ice cubes. Maybe all this reaction makes sense. Think about that. That's one of those views. They gave us lettuce with other vegetables and it tasted like something and my drink was cold. No, one of these guys won. All right. Late Ben and correct. Yeah. Yeah. Now, let's get to a couple of emails here. Pro-siruti emails after seruti being called out for not having my back with the burrito incident. A lot of pro-siruti stuff, a nice little pivot over the weekend. Our boy had no problem getting fired up and chirpy at the email and loved the pod. That was one, another one that said, read more critical seruti emails so that we can see the Italian seruti pop out from time to time. It really does work. It gets me going. Like, I don't know. I'm just better when, you know, like, you know, it's like, what was it, be your fast? I'm better when I'm drunk. I'm better when I'm mad. I don't know. If I get pissed, I got to get punched in the face first, but I will say I did have a punch people reach out because like, you know, you read all social media stuff and read it. It's like, everybody hates everything. All the time. It's great. And then like the real people reach out and like, hey, man, keep doing your thing. Appreciate those guys. There's a lot of this weekend. Thank you. So, but yeah, maybe I need, I don't know. I need to be provoked. So. All right. We'll remember that. Kyle, maybe that'll be your role this summer. Yeah. I'll do it. I'll do it right before we hit record, no, I don't even know why he's like this. Okay. All right. Let's, let's get one for Kyle here. 61230. Pick up. Pick up comp. Brad Miller. Bigger body. Can step out. Hit the J smoke some bud. Was Brad Miller? Yeah. I don't remember. I don't. It wasn't. Yeah. Like, big time. It just seems like that would be accurate. But I'm not sure. I don't know. I see. I feel like he'd like, like, school more than he'd like some Northern lights. It's a fun, yet effective teammate directed to Kyle, the pool guy. I figured since his latest viral pool selfie, he's got some knowledge on the subject. I recently moved into a house with a kick ass in-ground pool. They're called in-ground. Ryan. Yeah. I don't know what I, the below ground, but it just tells you I grew up without pool money. Except they think I'm realizing very quickly, pools are a lot like a kid. They're way cooler when you can just stop over somewhere and hang out, then go home and not have fun. Or above it. Or above. Yeah. It feels like pool boat is better than pool other human, totally, but I'm not the human. Pools are a lot of work, man. I was just outside checking my free and combined chlorine levels at 12 o' 5 a.m. with my iPhone light while being a little banged up from the local Italian street festival, sitting back and realizing, what the hell? I have an infant who'll be able to enjoy it the friend someday, along with a large extended family for the kids. But am I being too negative about this? Is this a common theme with pool ownership? Should I just tail Kyle and jump in and light up a square? I live in Indy, so I get to enjoy it for maybe four and a half months a year of suitable weather. I've always wanted to be fortunate enough to own a nice in-ground pool, but now that I'm here, shit. Well, I'd say, A, if you're not using it, don't heat it. You know, that's for, that's for damn sure. I mean, unless you don't care about money, but I almost everyone I know that has a pool. We'll mention what the electric bill has been up to recently. It's just something I've noticed, but like, does the word out? Does everyone know you have a pool? Because that's a cool shit when you're like, every once in a while, you're like, what am I going to do today? And somebody just calls you up and they're like, see, we can hop in the pool. I'll bring some shit over. You want to fire up the grill. That's next thing you know, you've got like a little like half of a party going. And, you know, if the word's not out and you want to make more use of it, I'd just, I'd make sure people know that, you know, heaters on, dude. I'm running the little fucking robot cleaner in there. in case days like this happen. Yeah. As someone with kids and a pool. I, the pool is easier than the kids, so that's fun for one, I would say. I mean, there's, you know, it's like, hey, a couple of things could go wrong here, there, but you don't have to fix them pretty easily. It's not going to pick up the points in one hour, right? Right, right. Yeah, they're not, you know, asking you for snacks and not eating them and complaining about their hunger a couple of hours later. The pool thing, when we bought this house, we bought this house. I had a bunch of people with that are like, oh, man, pool's soft, you're going to, it's you're going to be miserable. Yeah, yeah, and I had never grown up. My grandparents had a pool, but I was like, young, I never really maintained it. We had a buddy with a pool and we went to his house. And the whole time hit. Yeah, there you go. And yeah, I saw some photos when I was at my grandparents. I'm like, what is it? I was like, you guys were rich. I'm like, yep, what the hell? What happened? What happened? Yeah, 1929. Try to have, we're trying to have Ross working on the book, right? Right. Right. The speculation back then. Ask his cell out for him. Come on the pot. But dude, it's awesome. Yesterday it was 9,000 degrees in the Northeast. What the heck are you going to do? I said to my wife, I was like, I would just sit inside. Because I'm not a guy who goes outside unless I'm near water when it's hot. I don't like being hot. I'm sweating a ton. And so I'm just at one with nature and with the outdoors a little bit more. I'm getting more sun. I'm looking less vampire-ish. It's just good for me overall. And I don't know. I feel like the maintenance isn't that hard. I will say I got some bubbles coming through some of the vents and that is annoying me a little bit right now. I don't really know what to do about that. And it's in the back of my head a lot. So that does f you up just a little bit. But overall, man, and again, I got two kids. You want the people coming over to your house to have fun, right? You want the kids. You want your kids to have their friends over and be like, hey, we're going to the sorority house or whatever. We're going to fight the pool all day. And if there's kids involved, you know what they're doing. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Who knows? It's super fun watching your friends' kids learn to swim in your pool too. That should is cool. And especially if you're like long-term friends, like now the kid is 11. It's like, I mean, when you were three and we were like throwing you in there with your little bubble and you're like, now look at you. You can swim. Sick. So the parents who I'm closest with with my friends were probably mostly parents of pools, man. Like that's just how like in that and like, they're great. Yeah. You know? You just get to know that right away. So yeah. Is it cost a little bit extra? Is it a little bit annoying? On certain days? Sure. Did I like vacuuming the pool in parts of spring? Absolutely not. But, you know, that's what you, that's what you lift them weights for, right? That's what you put in. Sometimes hours and food. Sometimes if you got nothing, do you just go out there popping your headphones? Maybe not even. Just skimmed the top for a little bit. Just do a couple of laps in that. Right. But, you know, just clear your head, go back to whatever you were doing before. You know, it also is awesome. It's like super hot at night time. You just jump in the pool at night when it's hot. And like the pool is still kind of like cool. It's like, it's odd. It's one of the best feelings there is. You know what I'm saying there for long? A couple of minutes. Just get in and get out. Yeah. What about your wives? Like, we hit a rut. Sexually. You can that. No. Definitely not never to terrible. No, I don't mean that. It's just like pool lighting. You wouldn't think it would be terrible, but it really maybe get it started going after a couple of pianos. Have, have, have that issue yet. But I will listen. Right. Report back. Yeah. I'll do you guys as the married guys like in the pool. I look, I just had to throw it out there because I don't have a pool or a wife over time. All right. What's next? All right. Next email. Crazy. Double my age. Hot co-worker is interested. Well, great tease, my man. I'm in. Six to 180. Best comp. Trevor Risa. Solid Shooter. Says a bunch of screens and actions along with some boards. I'm 19 and just finished my freshman year at university. We'll leave it out. Currently, home for the summer, working two jobs to make money for the school year, and my side job, which is with a, oh god, man, I don't want to get in any kind of trouble here. It's a job that I used to have. Let's just leave it at that. There's a 35-year-old who I've been told is crazy, but man, is she attractive and sentenced. Apparently, she's been flirting with me for weeks, but I haven't picked up on anything. My other co-workers have all noticed it and even my mom, who I work with, is commented on it and how she's crazy and to stay away. I've had my eye on her since she started in April because of how attractive this woman is. I also have a jealous ex who I'm trying to reconcile with as friends. So easy. So easy. Along it. It's going to be awesome. This is going to be awesome. I can't wait to tell you, you're fucking sophomore buddies. This is going to be great. Yeah. Guess what I did this summer. You're going to be sick. Guys, you're going to be asking you to show up to their dorm room. Well, you're really George Washington after winning the Revolutionary War, and you're like, all right, it's George's time to speak. Along with my main friend group, we all work at the same place. Everyone is against her. But if this situation took place in a vacuum, I'd be all over. It's not a sure thing. So approaching her is up in the air and any lines would be much appreciated if I should use one. Any guidance is much appreciated and I love the pot. Well, it sounds like you want to keep this a secret, buddy. And my guess would she would also want to keep this a secret and I think I think it's a, you know, a lot of those college summers are about experiences, whether being in the Basque region or other things, so I'm, yeah, yeah, I certainly wouldn't give you lines because being 19 myself, if you don't need any lines, if you look back at whatever it's going to be, you're going to sound absolutely stupid, to a 35 year old woman. So like, if this is, if it's meant to be, it will be and you'll be like this cute little fool she took home. And that's fine. It's all good. Like, don't, don't worry about how to like pull it off if it, if it's meant to be pulled off, it will be pulled off. Yeah. I guess I'll wear more button downs, too. I have to look. Do I have to look older now? No. No new vocab words, man. Just, just be you. Somehow you should come up on the topic of secrets. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm great at keeping secrets are you think about that I'll secret society, actually, I get out of sometimes I grad school lie about my age. I don't even have my real address where they're sending the checks for the job. It's kind of six, two, he's 19. Think you're good. I would listen to no one. Yeah. Exactly. Right. Work thing and it became no one's, everybody's going to be on your side, yeah, maybe like eyes. 19. The expectations were so low. He's a temp worker. Yeah. Yeah. We'd be gone in September. You're not named CFO in this place, buddy. Yeah. So. Good luck. Enjoy. All right. Keep it moving. Let's see here. All right. I'm reaching out within an emerging quandary. I'm going home to San Antonio for game five of the finals and plan to see my high school friends. This might be too late. Well, let's just keep it moving. One of them is an avowed communist in hothead. He's been triggered by banner in our group chat, which has been revived by the spurs run to the finals. He's lashed out at all of us at varying points, calling us racist or Nazis or both, especially after losses. Yeah. There's a question. Do we ghost him for dinner on Friday? Well, it's not my first choice. We risk a public outburst that will put a damper on the night, say the least. Further, I am not someone who backs down on the face of such behavior. If the temp turns up, I'm more more than likely to agamon my concern is they'll say something to range about my family. This is a topic I've already warned him is off limits. It would be hazardous to his health. We can get a height and weight check in from this guy. I might be catastrophizing, but would love input from the group. We're nearing our 40s. Oh, Jesus. I thought you guys were like, yeah, all right. You guys can behave at dinner. I think. Yeah. So one would think this should no longer be a concern. Yeah. This red like a 20 something email, which probably makes it a little more frustrating because just as an aside, I would say this like one of the things that I think is great is some of the social consciousness of this younger generation asking questions, demanding certain things that would never even be a topic for like eight straight years with my friend group from say 18 until 26 27, the things that you talk about far more awareness. I'd also say the downside to it. And this isn't a political thing about like Jackson Dart supporting Trump and like I like Trump. So I'm taking Jackson Dart side because that's just not the truth of it is. But you have these younger guys growing up feeling like, well, all I've done is ever like read all of this stuff and seen all of this reaction to things. So I need to take it upon myself to have a conversation of pull somebody aside because of who they may or may not support politically. I'm just telling younger people, it's a massive waste of your fucking time. Don't do it. But they kind of feel bad in a way because they think like this is normal and it's exactly what you're supposed to do. Call out the bros. Call out the bros. Yeah. That's the past time. Yeah. That ran totally over now. All right. That was that was inside here. Yeah, I mean, I've been on a Communist bender lately between Reagan's reading up by everybody. Yeah. Chernobyl. And then I started watching the Americans, dude, and I'm just, I look, I'll tell you after those four different new developments, I'm not going to be a communist anytime soon. So. No. Yeah. Can I say what I think is going on here? He's going to Santa, he's going back to San Antonio. He said, right? Yeah. No, but like, yeah. Are these guys in text, like, is all this stuff happening over 10? ex messages where it's like way easier to fly off the handle and maybe, you know, say a quick jab to your buddy where I was like, you think it's going to ruin a dinner? Like as more of the communication over as you get older, I think the more times you spend together are probably on group chats than actually like get together if you're in your 40s. So maybe you're just like all wound up in your head and people will actually realize that being friends is more important than, you know, throwing jobs in group chats. I know what you're saying, Kyle, but I think I think the way he described it being like one, he said basically if the guy brings up his family like his health will be a problem. Like that, that means that clearly something has happened or this line has been played with at some point. And so I think it's probably goes further than that. I also think like if you're the communist of the group, you need to adjust to the rest of the group. Okay. Yeah. Like you need to lay out. You have your beliefs. You have things that you wish were in place. No one agrees with you. Do you know that communist that like to keep for themselves and not talking about awesome communism as though? I just feel like you could poke a lot of holes in a communist day-to-day life if they're really just, you know, whatever communist like sour communist, you're right, Kyle, living in Manhattan Beach and then somebody else got a boat and I'd be like, are you going to let everyone use it? You know, like I don't, I would know. I would just go back and still have more golf clubs in your garage actually. What's going on with those? Yeah, right, right. So he needs to adjust to you. But sort of makes a pretty good point. I don't know. I mean, there was a time there. It was like, it was almost cool. It's like, oh, yeah, like this guy. But I don't know. I mean, do you think you've actually had one guy in your life who was like, I have like one. Yeah. No, I mean, my mom was with socialists or they don't even know what they're supposed to be saying they are for what they actually believe. You know, my modern Russia teacher ninth grade high school shot at Bob Brown. He was the straight up communist. Like, and I love that guy. I didn't agree with him. But he was a great teacher. Enjoyed a company. We had great times. I don't know. I don't know if communism has sort of changed through like the vibrant communism for people who support communism. Yeah. Just need somebody to do it. Right. Really? Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's really on chance. Has it really had a fair shot, you know? I've never worked for them. But I couldn't work for us. Yeah. If the people in power this time, we will also sacrifice. Wait, what are we doing? I thought, all right, that'll do it for the show today. Oh, strong ending. Thanks to sorority, thanks to Kyle, thanks to Tom and thanks to you for sticking with the show as we'll still be doing three episodes a week. Do not worry. All the way through MBA free agency. So we're not taking any time off, anytime. Simp. The Rhymer's a show, our support. Do.