LeBron Injury Update and Giannis Fit! Big Questions With Steve Nash!

Coming up on the Zack Lowe show live from Spotify's offices in New York, we got Steve Nash. Yeah, that's Steve Nash. He's joining us to talk about a whole lot of stuff that's happened in the Eastern conference in the last week, Jalen Durin's deal, Kat not getting an extension and talking about it. Yannis is debut with the heat. And LeBron James has right as soon as foot what's going on. And then I put Steve Nash through the paces, some of the big questions of the NBA season. Who does he think is going to come out of the East? Who does he think as a puncture's chance in the West other than Spurs Thunder? What team in the bottom of the West might have a chance to move up? Who's his MVP pick? What are his final picks? Amazon Prime Steve Nash in the House. And then Sean Fantasy in person in New York City, home of the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, it's Met's corner. We talk about playoffs. We talk about diarrhea. Yeah, that comes up. We talk about the present and future of the New York Met's Carson Benj, that my struggles trying to buy a Carson Benj jersey and a green Francisco Alvarez. A lot of baseball talk to playoffs have been fun, sorry, San Diego Padres fans. You've had a couple of gut punches. All of that coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show and look who it is. My sometimes Amazon Prime teammate, former head coach of the Brooklyn, that's two time NBA MVP, Canadian All-Around Sports Legend Steve Nash. How are you? Very well. All-Around Sports Legend. I love that. Sounds great. Well, people say you're so good at tennis that it's borderline obnoxious given how recently you picked it up. These are just sources that have spoken to me. Name sources. Name sources, one of them is German, by the way, two time MVP, where are your MVP trophies? Where do you keep them? Can we say in my parents' closet somewhere in like a storage space and then I actually have loaned one indefinitely to the sun, so it'll be in there at the front office at the sun's headquarters. The sun's in Mercury headquarters here in Phoenix, so you don't get to see them on a regular basis and admire them and think about all you've accomplished. I, that's not really my, uh, my M.O. I kind of like to live forward, so, uh, but uh, it's, you know, it's nice to you, uh, brought it up, maybe feel good for a moment. Well, you know why I'm going to break some news right here, Steve, this is very important to me. Uh, I, I, I can now I think consider myself your peer because I have been named by the MVP, by the NBA as an MVP of, um, I don't have the trophy in front of me, but they presented me a trophy. I go to a meeting every year with their art and court design and Jersey people because I love that stuff so much and they show me everything that's coming for the year. They presented me like a gigantic trophy with like a guy taking a jump shot. It weighs like 20 pounds and it's most valuable writer of art and, uh, design culture. So I think, I think, yes, you know, I think the Hall of Fame is next to me, but I'm not home right now at our Spotify studio, I will put it, I will display it my MVP trophy, um, on the next podcast I do from home. Uh, all right. I prepped you with a lot of questions because, um, you're going to be in America's living room all the time and the world's living room on Amazon Prime, uh, NBA nightcap, all that. And it's time to get you on record for some big picture NBA stuff. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. First of all, we're going to, the first big question is going to be about the Eastern Conference, a question that I've asked a million people, but since I started asking people this question, four major things have happened in the Eastern Conference that I want your quick take on number one, according to Dave McMahon and LeBron James, you know, I'm as a, uh, your podcast partner on mind the game is dealing with chronic arthritis in his left foot. I do, I do enjoy how every LeBron injury is reminding me at age 49 of the injuries that you're befalling my peer group in suburban Luzardom, Connecticut. Um, did you know about this? Like how much of LeBron's life do you know about that you just keep secret and don't tell anybody? No, I, uh, I did not know about this. Um, that was, that was, uh, interesting, you know, you, you sent me over the link. Um, I, this may have been something he's been dealing with for a few years. You know, arthritis can, you know, obviously is a long term thing. So this may be sound, you know, highlight worthy for you and I right now. I did not know. But this might be something he's already been dealing with, like the sciatica, it's set in the same article. So he clearly had his age, the amount of miles he's put on his body, uh, this will be the challenge for Nick Nurse is how do we get through a regular season, reach our stride in the best health possible while also jelling, finding a way to play at both ends and what our off-speed pitches are, et cetera, et cetera, when, you know, Joe has a injury history in LeBron has one billion miles on his body. So I think that's the major, major challenge for Nick and for that team is how do they find chemistry? How do they gel? How do they find a style of play? Because, you know, often, and LeBron and I talked about this on the podcast, you know, often you go into a situation and think, this is the way I think it'd be best for us to play. And by Christmas, you go, we can't possibly play this way and you change. You throw it all out. That timeline is pretty short when it's the first time together and the spring gets here before you know it. You've never been in those moments before it collectively. So it puts a lot of pressure on the pipe, so to speak. And I think that that'll be his biggest challenge and their team's biggest challenge is managing the injuries and the history, the miles on LeBron and Joe while also finding a style of play because I'm going to need them all to compete in the East. We will circle back to the Sixers East item number two. And I said to Kumpo, made his debut for the Miami Heat in a preseason game. It's the first preseason game in a while. I've had circled on my proverbial calendar and it was at Toronto or it was no, it was in Montreal rather against the Raptor, you know what, just I'm not even going to be welcome to in Canada. I'm not sure because such a cultural podcast, I want to make sure we got the beats right. You know what? I'm glad you called me out on it. I've actually never been to Quebec City. I've been to Montreal a few times, but not Quebec City. I've heard it's gorgeous. Sorry to everyone in Quebec City. I was eagerly anticipating this game. The heat started the Clay Thompson version of their starting five, which is the one I anticipated. They played that starting five two stints of about six minutes each and then went with the whole bench mob. Obviously, they'll stagger. I think Yannis and Bam a lot in the regular season. But I wanted to see how that tandem looked, who had the ball the most, how they could space the floor, how they could work together, how much of the heats offense from last year when they ran that like no pick and roll, all dribble drive, no, the Roach offense would carry over into this iteration. I know you caught glimpses of that game. It's only preseason. Did you see anything interesting? But Yannis is a very tough cover still, apparently. He looks like a one man wrecking ball. The athleticism, length, strength, ability, skills, looks, in mid season form on the clips that I saw, Spool will do a great job, staggering, keeping one of them on the floor at all times and finding a way of play, a style of play that they can play in crunch time most importantly. So that I think is the difficulty of having a player who is so dominant with the ball is you know, it draws so much attention as Yannis is how do you play when he's off the floor and finding as much of that chemistry and a new style of play theoretically when he's off the floor because you can't just lean on him to create advantages every time down. And then of course, you know, BAM as terrific as he is is not Yannis offensive, he's going to have to shoot more threes. That'll be something to me to determine. He's showed he's capable. But can he consistently get in that position where they leave him but they don't leave him and it creates more space for Yannis or vice versa. And then like you said, surrounding and reshooting seeing how some of those bench players come through with this kind of new look heat. So number one, what a great tool for sport, for sport of play with Yannis drawing doubles and triple teams and opening it up for the rest of the team. I think they'll be good defensively, but I still think although Quebec City look great, there will be challenges offensively for them to see where their depth and rotations come from. Yeah, they lit up the raptors on offense. I agree with you. I don't need to read too much into those results. I was struck by a couple of things. Number one, just how central, not this is going to sound stupid, but Yannis had the ball a lot and was the fulcrum of everything they did. It was not like an equal split with him and BAM running D.A. Joe's and stuff like this is going to be Yannis's offense and BAM is going to have to kind of find a way to co-exist with him, let's just let you mention. They ran some two-man game together, which I think will be something they try to go to just put your best players in an action. Teams are going to try to switch it, but, you know, some centers, some centers, slower centers have a hard time staying with Yannis and the raptors wanted Yaka Pertal on BAM and not Yannis, and a lot of teams will match that. Wiggins, they apparently went to Wiggins and just like, I want you to shoot 15-3s a game because that dude was just like letting it fly with hands in his face the whole game. And they clearly are going to carry over some of what they did last year offensively. And they ran some of that same Noel and Loro dribble stuff. It wasn't all pick and roll, Yannis was a screener a lot, so interesting TBD didn't really change by view of the heat. I think they're good, but we'll see how great they can be. OK, the next two big of the big four things that happened in the east are both contract-related. We will start. Today, Carl Anthony Towns basically came out and told the media, I'll read the quote. Simply put, I want to do something to keep the team together and can work with the Knicks and also values me. None of these things are close to happening. AKA, he basically said, we're not close to an extension. Doesn't sound optimistic about getting an extension. I think they're pretty far apart from what I've heard. Obviously they met, they let Mitchell Robinson go already after James Dolan falling up an NBA championship by immediately being like, yeah, we can't keep the steam together. Second apron kid do it. I just, you were a player who cared a lot about the feel of your locker room and everybody being engaged and everybody feeling happy and everybody touching the ball. If this kind of thing with Kat, and I think less so with Josh Hart lingers into the season, personally, I think like Kat's a pro, he was in trade rumors last year about Yanis obviously didn't affect their team. I don't think there's gonna be any like, there's no overt, malcontent here or anything like that. I'm gonna get back to Dolan in a second. But can this stuff affect the way the team plays on the floor? Is this anything that would worry you as a nicks fan? - I mean, it definitely can affect things. However, you know, they thought through things like this before. You know, you'll remember the quotes Kat had early in the background era where he wasn't sure what his place was on offense. It sounded ominous. Then they go out, they win the midseason tournament and then they find a kind of a style of play. A more, you know, egalitarian style, that I think made them more difficult to guard, less predictable, put Kat in different position, used him as a hub, got the ball moving a little more, made it more difficult to load up on Jalen. So they've worked through some things before. Now money is money and I never want someone to have to turn down money if that is their prerogative. However, I think there's a common ground here where these guys are all gonna make so much money in their career that they can find that middle ground by not getting so deep into a second apron, peril, and at the same time he'll be rewarded for his role and a championship team and the team going forward. So I have hopes that they will figure out a balance that both can live with. But that's the reality at the way these, you know, the salary cap is built. It's very hard to be happy. You know, you are gonna be up against the apron if you build a good team. And we're seeing that around the league and you have a decision like Boston or maybe OKC made this year to go in a direction that kind of gives them relief from the second apron and flexibility going forward. Or you have the nicks who are hot off a championship and that would be a bold move. I mean, to change it all up right now. The bigger question I think you're gonna get to is what happened to the spending New York nicks of earlier iterations, you know, especially in this Dolan era. So that, that to me is more curious. But I guess if that is, and who knows, is that a bargaining chip to say that or is that, you know, are you laying down some sort of precursor to all these negotiations? Or is that something they'll come off of? I'm not sure. I'm glad you brought that up 'cause I have a few takes I would like to get off on this subject. Just let's set the lay of the land first. Cat has a $61 million player option for next season. His max, if he opts out of that and signs a max in free agency, is almost $70 million a year, average annual value. I have said before that I think something like 50 to 55 a year per year. Not starting and raising for that per year. Seems like the kind of compromise that should be able to get things done, given cats age, his occasional limitations on defense and all that stuff and what he's accomplished in his career. I don't think anyone's close to that and I still think that is like a happy outcome for all sides that we'll get done. It can keep the nicks under the second apron or close to it for the next couple of seasons. Okay, thing number two, I think I can already tell by the Twitter reactions that fans, and maybe this is your point about Dolan, that there's a segment of nicks fans who are mad at cat for not sacrificing for the team, the way Brunson famously did two years ago when he took an extension. I think there's a misunderstanding about that Brunson extension. He signed the absolute max that he could sign at that time in the summer of 2024. He did not, quote, take less in terms of what he could have signed at that moment. He took less than he could have gotten if he had waited a year, become a free agent and signed a five year max deal, which he chose not to do. He chose to lock up the money, help the team's financial flexibility, and I think he'll probably get the 35% max the next time his deal has come. But I don't think it's fair to throw at cat. Hey, Brunson, Brunson took less. You should take less too. He did not really take less in the sort of literal sense. Number three, I've had a bunch of people tell me this in the last two or three weeks. And I kind of tossed it away as like, maybe I'm half brainwashed by the second apron. Maybe ever, I just know that there are agents talking to me and nobody really likes James Dolan. I just, I like, this is the team that should spend over the second apron. You just won the championship. You have a championship team. You don't just print money. You like live on top of a pile of money from the rangers, from the garden, from the nicks, from tax breaks. This is the whole reason you should be doing this, is to have this kind of team. And I've had a lot of people say to me, like you should be hitting James Dolan harder for not spending more to keep this team together. I'm like, kind of a second apron respect. I think those people are right. And I'm not saying catch, just get the max. But I'm saying this is like a, you have the city's goodwill for the first time in a long time. You have a team that is objectively a championship team. You've already let it sluff away one valuable piece that went to your rival, Boston. I just, you know, like, this is the whole point of having a team. I don't, I don't, I don't. I think James Dolan's getting off a little easy and I don't like the anger at Kat that's burbling up. I'll say that. Big thing in the East number four that's gonna lead us to our first big question. Jalen Durin agreed finally after much drama to a five year, $200 million contract extension with the pistons, no options, no outs, no nothing. And it has led to, I think a broader question that I wanted your expertise on of, okay, so now the pistons have a Sar Thompson locked up and Jalen Durin locked up. And both of them are non shooters, right? And they have an all time lead guard in Kate Cunningham who needs spacing to maximize what he can do. And we saw in the playoffs that that combination the floor is kind of tight. And I just, you know, there's this sort of blanket idea that well, you just can't win a championship with two non shooters on the floor. A couple of things. Number one, Kade plus Durin plus a Sar take up only, only 70% of the salary cap. This is not a case where like Boston had two guys taking up, you know, 80% of the salary cap almost. It's not a case of Oklahoma City who's gonna have three guys taking up 110% of the salary cap. It's three guys 70%. Yes, they missed out on Austin Reads with their like last bite at the cap space apple this summer, but they still have like flexibility flexibility. But I'm interested like them, the pistons and then the rockets with Shenguin and Amin Thompson, two non shooters. Both I think have ambitions of competing at the absolute highest levels soon, if not this season. What do you think of the idea that two non shooters is like a borderline disqualifier for a would be championship team now? Well, I would say it is a disqualifier, to be honest. But that is not just my Mike Dantonie hat on and understanding spacing and the way the games played, officiated and analytics of, you know, impacted our game. That is also because we're talking about competing with not just the New York Knicks, but OKC and San Antonio Spurs to beat teams in that quality. I think that is puts it even under a tougher microscope to have two non shooters. Now, if I'm the pistons, I'm thrilled that I was able to sign those two young very talented players. Yes, during underperforming the playoffs, but at 40 mil, I think was reported. That is a pretty good buy for a 21 22 year old center with his ability as regular season performances and his, you know, relationship with K, that he can continue to develop into a, you know, an all-star-ish center at Thor, you know, especially in the regular season, as far as I'm sorry, you know, this is just the guy you need on the basketball court, right? Yes, it hurts to have two non shooters. I think that to be creative. I think they tried with some of the cutting. I was a little surprised. They didn't put him in more short action under the basket or he's coming, for example, pick and roll. Cade's coming to his right. Durin's rolling hard. Assar is coming from head under the rim to the strong side block showing. There is gravity is immense. If you don't take that pass away, he's too athletic. He catches these fouls or he's finishing there. And it allows the roller than to have one tag on the backside. You may say, well, that clogs it up for Cade to get downhill. I think in our league, at that ability, at Cade's size and skill level, it doesn't matter if someone's standing flat-footed down there at the pain. You can still attack the rim. He's got his mid-range, he's got his three, and he's got his draw and kick game or hitting the roller. So I'd like to see him mix it up in more ways than that. You can put him in the strong corner. That's sorry, I'm walking us through all the firmamentations. No, I want you to. Yeah, you can put him in the strong corner. They'll probably muck off in there. He could still cut behind what I think is in play about more tricky. I think for them, it's about variety, and it's about development. So I think Derni's to develop a little bit more of some mid-range shootings. Some, can he be more dominant in the middle of the pain on post-ops and switches when they try to switch defenses on Cade? Can they-- can their cutting packages be better for a SAR? Can they turn people over to make up for the spacing issues to get out of transition? You should be able to with defenders like the three we're talking about in their big three how can can they stack the deck, play the possession game, give them an opportunity to overcome some of the half court issues that they're going to have to play around. But at the end of the day, you have to sign to your own players like that. And any, at any point, you can make a move if you feel like that's not the case similar in Houston. I think, you know, for me, the benefit, and maybe as Sargo's in this category, Cory is his brother, how much can maybe the roller and the poor, the point guard playmaker in those situations. So can Sar go into it? We've seen a men grow into it, being able to ballhandle, make plays, getting attacking the pain, where his gravity obviously is immense. Can he be the screener and look at they both be the screener and roller and different packages? And then Shen Goon, like for me, he's got to be a better 3 point shooter. He has the ability. He's shown it. Can he now develop into being a high 30s, 40% 3 point shooter so that he has the optionality to be the roller, to be the shooter, to let a men be the roller, you know, then now you have a lot of things, whether you're having small shepherd or, or friendly screening for a man, and then getting downhill, those guys popping Shen Goon playing on the baseline, whatever it may be, how can you find variety and different ways to make up for what is a perceived lack of shooting and spacing for your primary guys? And also, like, how can you be good at other stuff? Like you have to be a very good defensive team. Can you like the Rockets be an elite rebounding team? Can you be an elite free throw differential team? Like chip away at all of these edges. So I went through to help myself answer this question. I went through every team who's made the finals since LeBron went to Miami to see like, actually, let's look back and see how realistic it is for teams with two non shooters to make the finals. You know, famously like Oklahoma City did not get here until they kind of offloaded Josh Gidey as like, we just can't have you on our team. Toronto had to trade you on his balance units for Mark Assault to open up more spacing. Like you have these like famous Perk and Oklahoma City. They kind of ran its course with the two bigs there. Miami transitions to Bosch at center more than two big guys together. So all that said, here are the combinations I found that we can say these are like legit non shooting duos that shared the floor a lot for teams that made the finals. And I understand that some of them are not applicable to the current Thompson twins respect of situations. 2024 Mavs Derek Jones Jr. And all of their centers lively Gafford were like Jones. That was like their most used lineups had Derek Jones Jr. Who call him an on shooter. Not he's guarded like one playing with rim running centers. I've been real quick there. Yes. Derek Jones Jr. PJ Washington shot the ball like Larry bird and Dirk Noisky to make the finals. And then it sort of went away. So maybe there's an anomaly in there as well. We will get to this butler and bam twice for Miami. Now this gets back to your point that a these are two of the, you know, butlers a top 10 player at that point. Bam is a top 20 player. And they can both handle the ball. So they're not off to the side. In like a saw is more sort of like trying to find a spot off to the side. I think would need to handle the ball more. I'm just disqualifying every dream on green plus. It's out. Like he's the greatest playmaking power for it of all time. He's surrounded by the two best shooters of all time or with apologies to the person on the other end of this podcast. Two of the best shooters of all time. Janis and PJ Tucker. I'm not even counting that because Janis is an all world ball handling player and PJ Tucker could make corner threes or at least stand in the corner. So it's not quite equivalent. And then you go back to like the bubble lakers started Anthony Davis and either Javille McGee or Dwight Howard from almost all of that playoff run until they had to go Anthony Davis at center when they were really stressed out. They started Marquee Morris and then Alex Caruso. And then way back when the Spurs wanted in 2014, Duncan Splitter was there starting front court, two finals runs in a row, but like the further they got, the less Splitter played, the more your old buddy Boris D L played. So it I think the lesson of this is is not like, oh yeah, of course you can win a title with two non shooters. I think you can, but it's really, really hard. And one of them has to be your best ball handler or among your best ball handlers or you, you have to have like LeBron or Luca or Cade, hopefully on your team to simplify everything and make it work. It's actually, it's doable, but it's hard. But I'm like you like I'm rooting for the pistons to succeed because I like an NBA where there's a lot of different ways to win. And I think a Sartonson could take more of a ball handling role as or you've or dribble handoff role, like just something to put him on the ball and out off the ball. Jalen during 22 years old, he's going to get better and better and better. They should be a great defensive team. They should be a great rebounding team. I just I'll say this over and over again, you don't get to go super star shopping at the super star grocery store. This is what the pistons had. If they dump Jalen during yesterday or in two months, they're going to have to get assets to then use to get another big man who's as good as Jalen during as Jalen during, but maybe can shoot easier said than done. But that was an interesting walk down walk down history because it's possible, but it's it's sub animal. You make a great point. Like I'm looking at history. You're looking at the future. Like here are the teams you got to beat at the top of the West. Like you got to be perfect to beat those teams. If it was flatter at the top, maybe you could find a way or an easier way, a more seamless way to win those margins you talked about. I think that's the key here is how can they find those margins? You know, obviously Houston's done it on the offensive glass with Steven Adam Adams at all, you know, Detroit defense. He's been great. And they like you said, turn people over and they get to the when the foul discrepancy. It's possession game stuff that suits your team. That that stuff matters. I would say the other component here and that's where OK, see one because I think when OK, see one and they really didn't shoot the ball that well, the entire run. Now guys and I don't know if the numbers are front of you, but it didn't feel that way. But they're still threat and people still guard them and people still have to make tough decisions and their style of play. But to me, they won because they turn people over because of Shay's brilliance because of the different thing, you know, Jaylen Williams showing up for 40 in a finals game like they won because of all the other things, not so much that they didn't shoot the ball. Well, so there's that. There's the winning the possession game. There's other ways to stack the deck in your favor that can kind of overcome some of your spacing issues or finding a style of playing that really suits and committing to it, which is really difficult. So I'll use the warriors for an example. I mean, I think it's a great one brilliant yes, two of the best shooters of all time, but having loony out there playing on the weak side as another sub. You have to be up to touch a non shooter because it's career clay on the weak side firing off. So you can't just muck in the paint if cave on sending 20 feet from the basket because if that ball gets skipped to him and there's clay coming out of the corner, you have to be up to the level. So that's committing to a whole new way of playing that is very, very difficult. I think from a coaching perspective, that's so and and when you have a player like Cade, it's even more difficult to someone who's so dominant, so good with the ball to commit to the ball going to the other side and our men's catching it and going straight, you know, D H O out of the corner with Isaiah Joe. Brilliant. Great. But, you know, now we've got to start from training camp saying that let's get the ball out of K 10s, which is a completely different kind of cycle for a team and it's evolution. So I think that commitment, the Warriors made year after year made it possible for them to play that way along with the obvious gifts, but you would say nowadays, Dreymont Green, it came on Looney on the court together, it doesn't work. But obviously the way they play it, it did work. By the way, before we move on to the big questions, one of the things that I'm just I'm just watching in my it's in my back pocket night tonight, once the season starts and I've used to do your take on it. It was it was notable to me as we talk about spacing and optimal line, optimal lineups that the tougher the opposition got, the more the thunder just completely went away from playing Chet Holmgren as the only big man on the floor. I went from thinking, this is what they're closing five is going to be is like, Shay Mitchell. Yeah. Karuso and then Chet is the only big and they basically just never did that when they go and got tough. Is that what do you make of that? Is that still? I assume that's still a look they want to get to, but it was interesting to me that they backslid away from it. So I don't think that that has to be thrown out. I think they have gone away from it for sure. I don't need to be thrown out. That's something though that Chet has to develop into. I mean, if he comes becomes more of an ass kicker, both ends of the floor, we know his impact offensively, we know his talent offensively. If he can become that guy that is shooting in a slightly higher clip offensively is driving that gravity he's created by shooting better and is using his length to get in the paint, make plays, fouls, you know, draw a crowd and make plays for others. I think they can go to that lineup more. I think as he's been a little up and down offensively, they've probably sent back to our margins conversation. Hey, let's be bigger. Let's beat people up. We've got Chet can space, Chet can rebound offense rebound. He can make some plays, but we have Heart and Stein to be that short ruler to connect the dots. And now we've got two seven footers who can give us, you know, a real opportunity to control the glass at both ends. And if we control the glass at both ends and we turn people over, we have Shay who can close games and take us home. So that would be why I believe they've probably gone away from giving him the keys to that death lineup. Having said that, I still think Chet's going to continue to get better and develop. And if he took this playoff, let's call it a failure. It's in the way I think I think that's fair. I think we can call it a failure. Yeah, I mean, you know, that he didn't play it as best. Then I think that that will spur him on, no pun intended to raise his game. to become a more, you know, reliable shooter, a more reliable closeout player, a more reliable, kind of, you know, player that plays up to his capabilities and isn't, I'm happy to be the third or fourth fiddle because he's his talent as immense, his work ethic is there. I think he's got the toughness and the will. So I think his development is still all out there and that could give them an opportunity to play that lineup on different occasions if he continues to get better. All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll do rapid fire. Big questions with Steve Nash. This episode is brought to you by Mikalo Boltra, the official beer sponsor of the NBA. As this season tips off, boy would I love to be close to the action of Mikalo Boltra in hand at Thunder Spurs, at Nick's Ringdite, any Nick's Sixers game. How about Jalen Brown when he returns to Boston court side with the Mikalo Boltra for any of those. The NBA has got a ton of great rivalries plus great news for fans. Mikalo Boltra is not only getting you close to the game with court side tickets, but also bringing the court side to you through experiences and behind the scenes moments we rarely get to see. Enter now at Mikalo Boltra dot com slash court side. Mikalo Boltra court side 26 is 27. No purchase necessary. Open US residents 21 plus begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at Mikalo Boltra dot com slash court side for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details. All right, big questions with Steve Nash. These are questions I've already asked myself and others, but my mind keeps changing. I keep thinking about them all the time. Question number one, if you have to pick a team to make the finals from the east and I because it's my show and my rules and barring you from making the safe prediction and picking the nicks, whether you want to or not, who would you pick to make the finals out of the eastern conference? My, my, what's the word? I said, my nostalgia, my sentimentality says the Pacers. I would love to see the Pacers. However, having said that, they, they, they're capable of, but they did catch lightning in the bottle in a lot of ways. You know, what are the factors that they need to overcome? First, Halley needs to be flying by the playoffs, which I think is totally a play for him. They have to figure out Zeus relationship with the team, which I think is totally a play for him. I think he's an excellent player. I will help them. I'm not worried about his, his spacing issues. Allah, although he does a lot of other things. Allah, the cave on Looney, weak side screener, DHL hobbed like this, this, I think his gravity will be fine. TJ McConnell needs to get back to his best. And then, you know, getting some of these other guys to kind of find their roles. And as they did that, that bench mob was fantastic. How they were able to speed the game up, force turnovers, get in transition. Who would that be for them going forward? But in my heart, I would love to see the Indiana Pacers get back to that place because it's, I mean, there's no more nothing more tragic than an underdog story. Well, I think honestly, I think one of the greatest stories in professional sports, like he, but we don't really talk about it anymore because they lost. They lost in game seven where their best player, but they tore his Achilles and made, I think three out of four, three is to start the game and some from another area code. So a very, very, very tragic end for them and to see them have the opportunity to get back there. I'd like to, I would like to say that maybe that's sentimental, but that's my goal. Okay, that's, I was going to say, it sounds like you have a heart and a head pick, but you just have a heart pick in that, that's it. It's the Pacers. Yeah, hopefully my, my head is, uh, is in there as well. But yeah, they've got some, some things to prove, I think. I can't, so I don't know if you listen to the episode I did with Goldsbury where I did this. I have trust issues with all these other teams, just, I have massive things that I don't trust about them. And in the end, I couldn't believe I did it. I said, you know what, if I don't trust anybody, I'm going to take the moonshot and I'm going to pick the Sixers as my non-Nix team. And we all know the issues. We talked about the word arthritis has already been said multiple times on this podcast in regard to your podcast partner and the Sixers, but that was, that was, my pick. Okay, big question number two, um, Western Conference. Oh, first of all, I think we just need to talk for 90 seconds. You texted me out of the blue. I hadn't seen you yet. The Yokech backhand across the baseline pass in a preseason game. I like, the game was not even worthy of that pass. Like I say that for prime time on Amazon Friday night, you know, 8 30 PM. But I don't know that I've ever seen a pass quite like that. And you are one of the greatest pastors in the history of basketball. When you see something like that, when you saw that, did it remind you of anything? What was your reaction to it other than texting people like, dude, did you see what this dude just did? Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's, so I think a lot of players, and especially a lot of great pastors, they see that getting it there is a completely other thing. I mean, he was pushed out almost to the corner and now he's got to go on a rope to the other corner. One like just doing that in an empty gym is not easy. Uh, so I think a lot of great pastors could see like, hmm, that guy's, he's, he's a little high. My, his defender's a little high. I could get it there. But by the time I turn and throw it, he's not high anymore. He's stealing that pass. So it can only be one way and that's disguising it and quickly throwing it behind the back, where no one's eyes are expecting it. And it disguises the ball from say his belly button to when the defender can actually see it. He probably won't see it until it's, you know, in the middle of the paint, which is too late. So seeing it is great. I mean, great vision, great awareness. Tricking the defender by going behind the back takes it to another level and then getting it there on the money. I mean, it's just ridiculous. I don't know that there's anyone else in the history of the game that could make that pass in disguise the way he did as quick as he did and on a rope and on the hands as he did. And that is just what makes Nicola Yolkich so unique. So an unbelievable pass. It's right on the money. It's not even an inch this way or an inch that way. And it's funny. You mentioned the empty gym. My first reaction was holy shit. My second reaction was I wonder how long it how many tries it would take me with it's just me and a shooter. Forget like no defender anywhere like totally empty gym. That exact location, that exact distance, that pass one handed around the back. I don't, I think I might need 500 tries and even that might not be enough. Like I might just not be able to do it because it's so long. Yeah. And I, I think, you know, no offense that I could do it. I could get it there in the first few few tries. But my point is for me, I'm like, I prefer to say with no offense, no offense for the two-time MVP. But my point is is that for me to get it there, the inertia I would have had to create the torque to get it there would have given the game away. And the, you know, people would have read that seen my body torquing and twisting and turning. Wait, but he's so big, strong that he just flung it with the arm and that disguised it long enough that no one was the wiser and balls on the money and it's in the hole. So that's what makes him special is his, if the height, strength, the vision, all combined together, not to mention his ability to handle the ball, put it on the floor, played bully ball if he needs to shoot at stretch yet, get him spaces that he shouldn't be able to get into with his foot speed. So the whole package is just what makes him special and that signed off for me. Okay. Big question number one related to this Western conference. If we, if in this event we arrived at April at Playoff time and there was a third team in the West, Spurs are healthy, Thunder's healthy. There's a third team in the West that we arrive in April and say, Oh, wow, they actually could like compete with these teams like more than a Hail Mary, more than a Puncher's chance to actually beat one of those two teams in a Playoff series or at least it's like two, two going into game five. What team would you pick? Well, going through it in reverse order, I would say, and just to start a conversation, I would say we're talking LA and then Houston and then somewhere between Denver and Minnesota, depending on how these things unfold. And so for me, I think if Aaron Gordon's healthy, I think Denver is my, is my call. And but I also am very intrigued. I think Minnesota's floor could be lower than last year and they're sealing higher. So they're the wild card for me. But if I had to pick, you know, on the spot, I would say, Denver with a healthy Aaron Gordon. I pick Houston and I feel even better about my Houston pick the longer the preseason goes. First of all, the real pick is no one like if those two teams are healthy, I'm just not sure there's anyone. But I think people are sleeping on the Rockets with Van Vliet back. I think they're going to try to be more judicious with Stephen Adams and just to try to get him through the 82. Obviously, there's pressure on him and they would go on his staff after the offense looked for most of the last season. Your whole offense can't just be rebounding your own misses. You have to have a little more than that. But I think Van Vliet is a sea change for them and I just think all the young guys will get better. I like that team. Look, as long as Yokech is upright and if they're healthy, they're probably the best answer. I just don't. It's hard for me to have faith that Aaron Gordon is going to be healthy. I completely understand. I just think Aaron Gordon is such an incredible player and such an incredible favorite Nicole Yokech. We just all want to see it. We want to see these tough tights, conference semifinals with them flying. But I think the Houston big is, is a great one for the reason I touched. a little bit earlier is you have three young players there that can develop a lot and they may take a leap. When you talk about Alper and San Gune, you talk about Amen Thompson, you talk about Raid Shepard. Yes, Fred Benfield will have a huge impact on their team, not not even as much he will on the floor, but more so, I think just as a personality, as a leader, as a calming influence, he would be incredible for that team. But those three young guys still have a lot of upside. And if they all improve a little bit, let alone if one of them takes a bigger jump. You know, I think that's a team that could really, like you said, be slapped on so far this season. Plus, Tarieson and Jabari's in junior can show that I'm into the very young players as well. Sorry, I didn't mention it. And also like, I think Marcus Smart is legitimately helpful for them. That kind of slid under the radar. He was good for the Lakers last year. I'm not sure what you can rely on for him shooting wise, but he was good. And there's like, I assumed that Bogdan Bogdanova, she signed there for the minimum, was just kind of at the end of his MBA career and I assumed he wouldn't do much. I've heard he's actually playing pretty well in camp. It's like the more, the more little triggers you can show in playoffs, the better. So we'll see. I agree. Big question number three, also from the West, the sort of reverse of this. And maybe the answer is no one, but I'm making you answer it anyway. If you mentioned Lakers, Rockets, Wolves, Nuggets as the four teams underneath San Antonio, Oklahoma City, sort of the top six, the non-play and real playoff teams from last year. I think the odds are they are the same six non-play and real playoff teams this year. But if we got to the end of the season, maybe one of them takes an injury, maybe the little model thing doesn't work, whatever what team below them could you see having a semi-plausible path to unseeding them for the sixth seed or the fifth seed or whatever, or is there no team? No, I think it's possible. You know, I won't go any further than my Phoenix sons. They I think that they're a the Luxinics as a terrific coach. They have a very stable leader and Devin Booker and they have a bunch of combative, competitive guys that want to play together and play the right way. I think for them, they're going to have to have some leaps from some of their young guys. Come on, Malawa, also Agadarra, you know, Rushier Fleming, Ryan Dunn, some of these guys are going to have to continue to improve and and I think that is their upside going to this and they could but because they are such a competitive greedy group that is well coached and coachable, they could suppress in people. And then, you know, you look at Portland's I don't know what to make of Portland, you know, they they prove they can really defend this year and then then we imagine they're going to put out lineups to start the year that aren't defensive lineups. So it's very interesting to see how they can balance the two, how they can find a way of playing that spreads lineups and makes them potent offensively but also doesn't completely lose their identity. They formed last year with kind of size, length, speeding people up, turning them over because I thought that identity was great. A little more shooting, they would have a chance to be a really tough out the West. Have you tried to help also Agadarra with his free throw shooting? Are you allowed to do that? Have you done this? I am allowed. I haven't so far yet. There's a lot of great coaches over there. I don't want to you know get in there but I'm definitely happy and have my thoughts but he this these guys I will say about also he works his tail off. Everybody loves that kid. Yeah, he works his tail off as do the rest of those guys I just mentioned a few minutes ago and that's why they were able to win games with no one had them winning any last year. Speaking of the suns before we get back to West stuff, how was it seeing Mike Dantoni and Amari Stodemire inducted into the Hall of Fame this year? I assume you were there. I was not there. I was in Europe but particularly Dantoni who, you know, you just never know when these coaches who don't win the championship are ever going to get their due. It took Rick Rick Adelman forever. I thought he should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time before that. I was I've just been super happy for both of them but obviously they both changed your career and you changed their careers. What was that weekend like? What are your favorite memories from it? Like what's what's going to stick out to you? It was a blast. I mean it was first of all the main thing is just being incredibly proud and excited to see them both be recognized for for their greatness. Mike has changed the game in so many ways and you know whether it's what he did with us, you know at Phoenix or what he did with with the Rockets. I mean, you know, he's I saved to say he didn't get it didn't get a ton of bounces in some of those series but he had his team in the hunt and I think changed the way people look at the game. So just an incredible impact, super bright, basketball mind, but also just a world class human being. And Amore Amore is one of the most unique players we've ever seen. The combination of incredible feet, explosiveness, size, strength, hands, you know, very, very rare combination. How nimble he could be at his size. What a pick and roll partner he was for me to see him overcome so much in his life. You know, he went to so many high schools, you know, whatever he overcome from his childhood through high school, to the NBA, to getting to where he got with it with let's not forget like my micro fracture, the eye, you know, different things he had to overcome physically as well as the things he overcame in his life. I mean, just a tremendous, you know, result for him to be very belonged in the hall of fame. And so to be there to celebrate them for them to go in together was really a special weekend for all of us. Phoenix sons. Have you really still have you still never read second seven seconds or less? I have it. I didn't interview with you. Ten years ago, we sat down for an interview in the Empire State Building. Not only knows what you were promoting, I think it was soccer related. And I asked you and I was like flabbergasted that you had not read seven seconds or less by Jack McCollum about an inside account of the 2005 six Phoenix son. And 10 years later, you still have it, right? It's time, Steve. It's time. Yeah, maybe it is. I mean, I love Jack. And obviously spent a lot of time with him. That season and beyond. You know, a guy, a guy from my hometown wrote a book about me, you know, kind of from high school through college. I never wrote that either. You know, I think it's more about me not feeling comfortable reading about myself than it is about the authors of the material. But maybe it's time to one of these days to pick it up and give it a read. I don't think you could write that book today because it is a very honest portrayal of your team. And one of the reasons it was on my mind is not only because you're coming on the show today, but because of the stuff I talked about before with Kat and Josh Hart and sort of these like issues hovering over, you probably remember this better than anyone. But in that book, which is about the O506 Sons, I would say Amari does not come off super well. Like there's a lot of questions about how hard he's attacking his rehab. He has a knee injury that year and there's like this push pull of should we want him back? Is he attacking it hard enough? And Marion, who's one of my all-time fairer players from the outs of looking at? I love Sean Marion. He is like throughout the book, kind of jealous of you and Amari. And like he'd count the jerseys that the dance team was wearing. And he's like, well, there's five Amari and five National, like two Marion, like that's not fair. Do you remember, again, as someone who's like very much in touch with chemistry and the vibe of the team? Do you remember those kinds of things and trying to just wrap, wrap everyone and sort of a hug of like, look, can we put all this aside and just play? Like do you remember Sean being that way? Do you remember Amari? Those questions about Amari and just trying to bring it all together? Yeah, you know, yes, but at the same time none of us are perfect. And I don't I don't want to misattribute this quote, but there is I think a long-time NBA assistant slash head coach that said when someone was complaining about their team sitting there on the bench said, hey, never underestimate how fucked up they are, too. So, you know, nobody's perfect. No team is without its issues. It's about overcoming. Sometimes those issues and overcoming them can be what breaks a team from mediocre to good or good to great. So yeah, we were perfect. All of us had our flaws as do every team in the league. And those guys were incredible teammates to play with. And you know, that's just a part of playing in the NBA. It is not just a game anymore. And as business, it's family legacies. It's all sorts of other things that you have to manage and try to put in the right perspective. And you know, I think generally we did a really good job of managing all that stuff. And everyone kind of got over and played and got down to business just like the next day last year. And I think they will this year. A couple of highlights from that book that I wanted to share with you. First of all, Amara is coming back from injury. And as he's coming back, one of the ways they test him out was they haven't played one-on-one against Boris DL in practice. And Eddie House, who's your teammate that year, observes this game and his summation of it. I don't know if anyone has told you about this about this quote, his summation of it. Boris kicked his ass and his summation was Boris brought the French pastry on his ass, which I always thought was a great, a great line. And if you had to guess, what is the number one basketball complaint that coaches lodge about Steve Nash in that book? What do you think it is? Basketball, that personality. Thankfully, your personality is as it gets off Scott free, but a basketball complaint. Either my defensive liabilities, or I don't shoot enough. It's the first one, but it's a specific defensive, it's a specific, I wouldn't even call it a liability, I would call it a decision-making process. Defensive decision-making. process. This could be a long, this could be a podcast, but I, I mean, I can go in, I can go in different directions, you know, it could be, uh, don't get hurt, um, no, it could, uh, it could be the tricky thing for me was I had a lot of coaches throughout my career. Don't get in valve trouble. Don't, so I wasn't aggressive enough defensively. Uh, now you have to tell me you're asked to be here. Stop helping all over the court and just stay home. You helped too much. Okay, that's good to, I can see that. I, it's been a while, but I can see it valid. Yeah. Uh, big question number four, if, who is your preseason MVP pick? And yes, I will make my own pick. I'm not going to be unfair like that, but I'm making you make a pick. Um, given eight plays enough games, I'm gonna say Wembee. Me too. He is, me is my official Zach Lo Show preseason MVP pick. It's a, it's a, it's obviously a games played question. Fair or not, I think voter fatigue slash foul grifting narrative will, uh, will work against Shay. Lucas seems to never play enough games, but obviously it's all set up for him. Yoke, it's just still there. Yana's games played issue. He's getting a little older. I think Wembee is the safe bet. Um, by the way, speaking of the pushoff issue, you and I got to see mining McCutcheon give us his presentation about the, they're going to now legislate this or try to legislate it out of the game. What did you think of, of that in this general move? The four Fs. Remember the four Fs? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Force firm, firming up force, feeling and forceful. Essentially they're trying to, you know, define kind of the gray area, uh, in my mind. Is it great? You know, great. I still think we're going to get some of these wrong. Like it's not black and white. It's, you know, how much force, how in front is the defender, you know, how much like you said, feel and firming and all these things and hopefully the fans get an understanding of that, you and I are probably still developing. Um, but it, that, that is a play that I think. Yeah. I mean, we can clean that up, we can define it, we can make that gray area or get down to 55, 45, maybe where there's that little 10% where we're going to get them. And you, you think it's one, I think it's the other, but I think it's good to move in that direction. You know, I didn't, I didn't want to sidetrack the Monte's presentation, but I had more kind of thoughts and questions on how physical we can be outside this three point area on ball handlers, but then not inside versus, and I brought it up, but I didn't want to follow up as how we can really running back, full back a guy into the stanchion now. And it feels like unless that guy goes down, there's no more dislodge. Um, so we now are looking at the chicken, the, the arm extended the chicken wing, but if you put your shoulder into a guy, it feels like unless that guy reads it and flops and goes down for a charge, like you can just put a guy in the stanchion. And so there's a few areas that like, I don't have a problem with them. I just want them to be called what they are right now. It's like we've gone into this new era of, of what's acceptable, just like the step through, we used to allow that in women's basketball. Now all of a sudden we allow that step through extra step in men's, but we never said, hey, we're allowing them now. We just started. So I always kind of wondering like, well, how did we get here? And if you explain how we got here, and why I think, you know, it would make more sense contextually as to where we're going with the game, but sometimes it feels like we evolve into these places of calling the game that I don't know how we got here and why that's now legal. I have no problem with some of these things being legal, but I'm not sure how and why we got here and they are all of a sudden legal. So sometimes I'd love that clarity, but it just, it's so much, there's so much to the game with the coaches, the players trying to always find an advantage. And the referees are off in one step behind trying to catch up to what players are trying to do it to whether you call it rifting or adapting, you know, the game evolves, players evolve, coaches evolve, and they're going to always try to get an advantage. I think it's going to be a little bit of a mess because frankly, I didn't see the difference between some of the plays that Monty deemed legal and others that he deemed illegal. And there's going to be a lot of flopping as a result. They're obviously going to try to penalize flopping, but you know, we'll see. By the way, just I can't remember what WGAME I was watching recently. The rule that I'm actually ready for and I realize it's a fairly radical solution that could lead you down some radical places. I'm ready for like an ultra harsh penalty on fouling up three. I just think it ruins the end of some of these games. I hate it. If you take it to its logical extreme, it becomes the e-limending and let's just legislate the fouling out of the game completely at the end of games, I think I hate the fouling up three. And I can't remember which game I was watching that it kind of marred the finish of, but I get the strategy behind it. I would want my coach to do it. In a lot of cases, if I were just like, win it all costs, I think it sucks. I'm ready for like, you get like five free throws of somewhat value up three. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with taking that out because I would say right now, as a coach, I would imagine almost every single coach of the league is going to foul up three. So if you want to change it, I think you got to change it. And that kind of proves the point. If everyone really is going to foul up three more or less, then maybe we probably need to look at the rule and penalize it. Yeah, I, roughing is hard, you know, like it is, it is, it is difficult. But some of these rules change, like for example, how about this? We talked in that meeting about shortening the length of games. So how about one free throw to make two? I disagree with that. Hate it. Hate it. That's silly and changes. Everything. It's making mouths to me. However, what about, you know, and Monty would say, well, you have 10 seconds to shoot. No, you don't. You know, we, we, we, and I love Monty. It's great. But we, you know, Yana has gone over 10 seconds, you know, so Tucker, what about when the ref hands the player of the ball, however, this ref hands the player the ball, you have 20 seconds to shoot two. And if anyone gets in the way, if anyone gets in the way of it, it's to lay again. What about my high five? So I got a high five people between the free throws. Go ahead, but you have 20 seconds to shoot the ball. You have 20 seconds to make two to shoot two free throw. So you can fight all you want. Wait a second. You were the coach of the nets. Wasn't it the nets who did the count, the Yana's countdown on the scoreboard? And you guys got slapped on the wrist for it and told not to do it anymore? We, I believe we did. No, that wasn't a part of, that was a game obstacle thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I liked the idea that you went. You and Sean Marks got together in like a nefarious layer somewhere in a, in a boardroom. And we're like, how can we mess with the honest? I couldn't believe that the league told you not to do it. Because my reaction was, how about the referees tell him to shoot the goddamn free throw within 10 seconds? That was a weird one, you know, it was, it was a rule. We are based, I guess, you know, the nets in fairness were just augmenting the rule. We're forcing the rule. And it was outside. So anyways, I just think if you want to sleep, speed the game up, we don't need, you know, a minute to take free throws. Give them a ball. You got 20 seconds. And if you want to high five, you can if not, you know, but like you can use that 20 seconds how you want it will speed the game up, I think. And that's my crazy idea the day. So when I watch games, I often watch them on from behind or on replay. So I'm fast forwarding through free throws when a normal, when most players get fouled 30 seconds is what I will fast forward. Three, 10 second hits gets me to the second free throw going in with the honest, I hit them one minute forward button immediately. And sometimes it's a little too long. And sometimes it's like he still hasn't shot the second free throw. I'm like, what's happening here? All right. Do you want to make a final prediction or not? I haven't made mine officially yet. I'm not going to today. But you're here. I don't know if you've already made one. If Amazon's made you make one, I saw you guys have a little U and UD and Dirk and Blake had a little meeting. I don't know if you all of you were there where they wanted you to make predictions and Blake flat out refuse to make any. I don't know if you're ready to unveil to the world. I don't know that I'm ready. You know, obviously, I'm thrilled that we have these two incredible teams in the West. I mean, this hopefully is go even obviously. I hope there's a third and fourth team. And hopefully it's this year because you name team, you'll kitchen, whoever, you know, really push those two teams. But I mean, I think it's fascinating that we have these two young, incredible teams with great balance, you know, physical defensive teams. I can also score the ball. Like this is fantastic. So I haven't really put myself in a position to make that claim with any education yet. And I think it's also going to see how this season starts to play out. What does check do this year? How does, you know, the changes that OTC made to the rest of their roster affect them, you know, just some of their guys take a leap as Jalen Williams healthy. And you go to the same thing with the scores, you know, what leaps to their young cards slash one be make will house to bias Harris affect their team all those types of things. So I'm not going to make a prediction of thrill. We have those two teams. I hope we have a seven game series again. And I hope some teams can push them on the way there. And then on the east, you know, I still still give it to the mix. I think like you said, as far as trust and reliability, they've proven that they won the in season tournament, they won the NCS and CA they won the NBA finals when there's something put in front of them, they have a way to go and get it. And so I trust them. But as you know, especially in this modern era, health is everything. So whoever gets to the finish line healthy is going to have the best chance to win. I am I am also sticking Nick's coming out of the east. I don't think the extension stuff is going to affect how they play on the court. And I don't trust anybody else. My West pick remains TBD. I lose sleep over every night. I'm lean. I have a lean, but I'm not ready to reveal the lean. Steve Nash, you're the best. Look for you on Amazon Prime all season long holding it down with the crew. I'll see you out there some two. I thanks for your time. But thank you, talk to you soon, Zach. Look who it is. - No. - In person. - Metz corner. - Yes. - In New York City. - Yes. - Sean Fennessy is here. How are you? - I'm good, how are you? - I'm good, man. You're here for some movie stuff now. - Yes, the Metz are not playing anymore. - Nope. - Historically, when I come to New York for the New York Film Festival, it's usually very well timed to the postseason. In 2024, we had magical times, and I was able to experience some of that magic in New York City this year, not so much. - That's when I got back into it. You could have arrived early for David Stern's end of season press conference, which is just one gem after another. We and I created a potential for an uncapped downside scenario. I've already made all the jokes. He is ruined. I mean, look, he's probably a very nice man who has accomplished more than I will ever accomplish. And I kind of, like I like to, we're all, like head over heels about Jefferson Rojas and the prospects of Mitch Void, get Marcus Simeon the hell out of here, like the whole thing, like he's very good at his job. I do regret to say between his voice, his business school, Lingo. I have a lot of quarter zips, I like them. I don't think I can wear them anymore. I almost wore a light blue one today as a joke, and I think he's ruined the quarter zip for me. I don't think I can go back anymore. - He's in a really tough spot, because he can't pivot the persona now. Like he can't try to change and be more of like a rugged outdoorsy type at this point. Like he is an analytically-minded NBA-minded baseball general manager, president of baseball operations like that. And that's an archetype that has been very successful in baseball over the last 20 years. We came in with a great track record of building small market teams. And now he is too many fans, enemy number one. It's a tough spot. - I think it's a little unfair. I didn't enjoy the firestone's chant. You have a hot take. You think Pete Alonzo has gone too far with the t-shirt. - Just like Simmerdown. - With the t-shirt that says 300 home runs, you're still fiddling with your formulas. You're like, "Okay, we've caught good. We're good." You got your curtain call at city field. Even that, I thought was a little much. We're good. We had one year of angst over the Pete situation. I participated in that angst. Let's go to the next phase. That's how I feel about it. - Does the next phase involve like someone playing first base for the match next year? Do we have a plan for first base? First of all, Polanco, I want to shoot him into the stratosphere. Jared Young, God bless him. Had a really nice season. There's a place for him on the team next year. Not quite in an everyday first base, but pretty damn good. Had that super scary fall concussion at the end of the season. My daughter and I were watching together. And that was the first time I've seen her like, "This is a little scary, daddy." Like what happened? - It was really scary. - And it sounds like he's doing better. So shout out Jared Young. Like enjoyed the hell out of the experience. I'm happy to have him on the team. We do need another first baseman. It cannot be Mark Vieto's and I don't know who it's going to be. - I would love for them to identify on the trade market in everyday first baseman. It's a little hard watching a handful of guys. Gosh, you know, Ty France for the Padres this year had a really good year and he was on the market. And you might have said that would have been an interesting by-law candidate. - Did he do to hit the ceiling? - He is. When it's Haka Maracami, obviously. - That was a tough one. He has had a really good season in Chicago, not hitting for a lot of average, but he hit 35 home runs. So like there's a couple things that seemed like stern Z moves and he made the Polanco move and then the Polanco move led to Jared Young becoming a more significant part of our lives. If we go into the year next year with Jared Young and another platoon player, it has to be really uninspiring. - I think though for like a disastrous season, I feel like I ended up feeling like I'm ready for next season and baseball don't mess this up. You're gonna ruin my family life. Like just, I need a hundred games. A hundred games minimum, just representative season. But between the guys tearing up the minor leagues between Benj, Benj is a superstar. Benj is a superstar in the making 2020, like a highlight in the outfield every night. AJ Ewing writing the ship for the last 20 games hit for some power and like Amic and Petri and Void, like I don't know much about much Void, but I'm excited about his stats. Jefferson Rojas, like did we, look, we're not gonna get Peter Armstrong, but did we like reverse? Do we like, can we make our version of it with the Cubs and even steal Clay Holmes back? This is all, like I feel pretty good for a team that has shit here. - Well, that's the thing is if you're one of those people who comes out and says, I hate David Sterns and I want him to be fired, then you are removing the person who, his primary skill and the thing that he is focused on most organizationally is player development and youthful acquisition. And like that is where he built his reputation with other teams, like the Guardians, like the Brewers. So, you know, the players that we developed this year, Nolan McLean, Carson Bench, Ewing, you can put Zach Thornton in the mix there if you want to. - Sure. - You can put Nate Lavender in the mix. - Yeah, what's the status of my boy, Purple Rain, Nate Lavender, my guy. - I mean, he should be in the bullpen next year, shouldn't he? - He looked amazing. - I gotta look at his contract situation, but out of nowhere, it was just an automatic out every time. I mean, you can make the case that he should be the seventh inning guy no matter what, going in the next season. So, I think Sterns is doing the thing that I suggested to you might be happening on this podcast last December, which is we had a conversation when Edwin Diaz and Peter Lonzo left them 24 hours of each other. And I was like, this is a soft rebuild to bridge happening. This is a bridge, a Jorge Polanco two year deal, swapping out Brandon Nimo from Marcus Semyon. All of these moves are like deck clearing long term moves because you've got two massive contracts on the books. And otherwise, what you want to do is be able to developmentally bring in young players, his mentality as a team builder is athletic, young bats, guys who are very positionally flexible. And, you know, whether, I don't think he intended to have a 75 win season. I think the hope was to win 87 games and get into the playoffs. And things went disastrously wrong. And we've talked about them a lot over the last six months. But I do think weirdly, you could make the case that for 2028, they're right on track. The problem is, we still have 2027 to play. And I have serious doubts about whatever we can be in 2027. I don't know how you feel about that. Well, because we have pieces, but we don't have clarity in a couple of places. And so Marcus Semyon still has two years on this deal. Jorge Polanco still has another year on his deal. Coda Senga has another year on his deal. Jorge Polanco has another year on his deal. First of all, Coda Senga, I have to stop you if we're saying, this has been bugging me for a long time. You don't get an entrance song. Coda Senga is the closer because you can't do any other job competently enough. This is the one that's left to you. So he chose beat it as his entrance song. Nope, we're not going to do it. What's your entrance song when you're closing for the meds? I mean, enter Sam-Man is untouchable. Like, I don't even feel like an answer to that question is I can't even, no one will ever top that. I don't even want, how about nothing? How about just nothing? Silence. Wow. Silence. And they put like a tombstone on the jump on a triner. We're not just the undertaker bell. You know, the God hell, it's close to hell's bells. That's right. That's true. Don't even get me started on Ryan Hellsley stealing hell's bells from Trevor Hoffman. Yeah. But Coda, no, you don't get an entrance song. And he's like, you know what else I'm sick of? I'm sick of him. And his, who's interpreter just constantly putting a little bread crumbs like, I want to be a starter. I want to be a starter. I'm not like, he's not super psyched with the quick. You know, you know, I would love you to be a starter. Get some outs. Then you can be a starter again. I don't, I don't think he'll be a starter next year. Well, then stop talking about it. And get your no entrance song and move on. I know. I appreciate it that he went into the bullpen and, you know, he had some ups and downs. He was fine. And he was pretty good, right? He was pretty good in the bullpen at the end of the season. I just don't think, I think this leads to the talk schoolable conversation. Well, yeah, this is like the, I believe in Christian Scott, who my daughter loves Christian Scott. I don't know what it is about him, but she's all in. I believe in Thornton, but I believe in them is like, fourth and fifth starters who eats to mennings and are like, pretty solid. And it's got could be a three if he continues to develop. And if we get to the end of the season and they have like a three nine year A and they've done okay, fine. I don't know if I believe in it more than that. And obviously we all believe in McLean. We do not believe in Maniah at this point. The six inning and on thing was like a disaster. It was. So yeah, that's, they've got to rebuild the bullpen, but most importantly, they need to have a guy or two in the starting rotation where I feel confident. You know who would be great? The Freddie Peralta who's been pitching for the Tampa Bay race for the last month and a half. Yeah. Well, okay, I'm the twist in between on that, right? Obviously it's upsetting to watch him completely turn it around. He'll be starting tonight for the go raise, baby. He is a go raise Yankees. We'll see how he does. He has still mostly been pitching five and six things, because I'm cheering for Tampa Bay because I would cheer for anyone against Yankee. He's going to shit the bed tonight. I'm going to call it right now. It's 1220 PM. He's shit the bed for the meds. It's going to be one one. It's Schlippler, right? That's who he's facing off against, you know, and he's an animal. That guy is just he's a beast. He's the best picture in baseball. He's so good. Yeah, and he just looks like he can hold up for every big. He's strong. Yeah, I know it's hard to be not having that right now. McLean's an animal. We'll be all right. But the Freddie thing, even if that had worked out, let's play it out. Let's say he pitched to a three ERA this year and he was good, but he was still doing the thing he does, five ending Freddie. Would you want to extend him for eight years and 250 million dollars? No, no. Like, I wouldn't want to do that. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Who'd they get for him? Do we get anyone good for him? Uh, yes, we did. I think we got might have gotten two players. Was it a million P-tree? - I think he might be in that, Julian Petri was. the piece who came over. They have this weird thing now where the meds have three to four second base prospects. And they're going to have to figure out who is going to go where between Rojas and Petri and and Void who they drafted themselves. So yeah, it's uh, Freddie. Well, we got Gary Gilhill in that trade too. That's right. People are high. People are high on him. Yes. And he has a great name that you love to say. GGH, Gary Gilhill, Gary Gilhill on takes the hill. But I mean, do you want to you want to give Tarks Google $800 million? That's the question. Well, that's what they're and that is what it like, Sterns was nudged about that in that press conference that you say ambivalent ambivalent response. Knows we need pitching, knows we need a front line pitching pitcher. I think he would prefer plural and maybe less good than Tarks Google, but like very good two or three guys. Sure. Great. Anytime you can get less good, you got to get less good. Let's go through. First of all, how are we liking the baseball playoff so far? We're watching in the low household. We've got it on in the background. I've, I've extended bedtime a couple of times. It's been a controversial decision. Yeah, I mean, I've been on the road. So I haven't been able to engage as much as I normally would, but at the baseball playoffs rock now. I think they're too long, and a lot of teams get in. They probably shouldn't get in. But when you look at the last couple of Brewers, Padres games. Oh my god. I mean, that's just it's been electrifying. My freshman year roommate in college is from San Diego. Shout out, John. Huge Padres fan. And we are old enough so that in our one room double in school, I would be on my computer and he would be on his computer. Refreshing net scape windows of he had the Padres game. I had the Met's game of like, but we didn't have access to like watch the games. It was just a pitch by pitch. Yeah. And I'm just gutted like gutted when they made the World Series in 1998. It was one of the happy moments of his life. Then the umpires conspired to give Tino Martinez infinite amount of strikes and the whole thing went to shit. And I mean, like you can't lose two more painful games than that for a team that's never won the World Series. They're kind of Met's West, right? I mean, that's where they've never won a World Series. They've been they've had some really, really, really frustrating games go against them over the years. Game one of that series with the tie France ball off the roof is couldn't tell what was going to happen. It like gone foul off the bat. If you froze it, if you froze it, like when it when it's just off the bat, like the initial you're looking at him at like the batter cam, I would have guessed it would have gone foul. Yeah. But it had a really weird trajectory. It's just like went up and maybe not foul. I don't know. It's hard to know what would have happened, but not knowing is almost more painful. So that sucked. And then, you know, Mason Miller is the best closer in the universe and went up against Jackson Churrio, who's one of the two or three most exciting young hitters in the game. And yeah, he lost speaking of great closer walkouts. He has the best right now to the corn song. Mason Miller. Oh, but that was that was demystified a bit last night. I mean, he really, he did blow that game. We should also mention that among all the met's people that traded away are left. Pete's gotten a lot of publicity. Peralta's gotten a lot of publicity back and forth. Clay Holmes was okay. Took very good for Chicago, depending on the night. Huge mistake for them to not start him. And that's in the previous series. Strange. Edwin Diaz has now had three or four straight scoreless appearances, including one of the playoffs. But, you know, like, I don't know if it's a feather in Cernes's cap, but that three years, 60 million dollar contract would look pretty crappy. It would. But that is so dodgers, though, for a huge contract player to have a disastrous regular season and sit out half the season and then come back in the playoffs and be wildly effective. I mean, that has happened for them with a handful of these big, you know, Blake Snell, Tyler Glass now, like a bunch of these guys who get injured or have to be shut down and then they come back in the playoffs and they look like the aces that they are. It might happen with Kyle Tucker, too. That's how you home run the other day. By the way, speaking of Mason Miller, I just picked up his playoffs test because I'm not familiar with Mason Miller's career or work other than I know he's awesome in the meds like sniffed around, maybe trading for him. It just goes back to my, I don't even, I'm not educated enough to make this take, but in my peak baseball fandom years, I thought this single most valuable player in the world was Mariano Rivera because he was just an automatic win, save in the playoffs until 2004. And all these other closers who would also be awesome in the regular season, like Trevor Hoffman gets in the world series blows a save like forget Armando Benitez who would like you just like I couldn't trust that guy to save his life. Mason Miller, this is his second postseason, uh, postseason ever. I think he has four total appearances. Like, you got to win that game. Like, their season is now over. They're not going to win three games in a row. Yeah, I mean, they asked them to get to the, they asked him to pitch two innings. I mean, that's really the thing. That's Mariano Rivera would do that all the time. I know we're just in a different era where that's more uncommon and in a high leverage spot like that. He just couldn't do it. I've never been more scared of an athlete than Mariano Rivera because it infected your experience of the entire game. If you were, if you were behind three to two in the third inning, you already started thinking about like we got to get the lead. We got to tie this game because this guy's like a looming in the back. There's any closer in the sport right now that has that reputation. And I'm not sure it's mostly because closures are not managed in that same way. And there's sometimes that, you know, one of the best things I thought that that buck showalter would do with Edwin Diaz was he would frequently pitch him in the six or seven days. But this is what got madingly all the bad pub and Philadelphia when he brought Durin and or whatever his name is in the seventh to face the best hitters on who were they playing the Braves? Braves. Yeah. That I thought that all the analytics like when Rob Neier was writing columns 25 years ago, he still is was like, that's how you should use your, I thought that was how the smart teams should use the same concedus. You should hit your best fitter best. You should put your best hitter first in the lineup because you want to have the most of bats. Every time I watch a team that I don't know very well, like I'm doing now in the playoffs and they lead off with a guy who has like 35 home runs. And I'm like, man, baseball has really changed a lot. Like it's it can't and I feel it more because I was out for so long. So this probably happened gradually. But when we were kids, that guy hit cleanup. Like there was no third or fourth that was like where you hit. And now it's a bad gem on her to hit first. You're like a power hitter. Like all I wanted from my lead off guys get on base would be fast. Yeah, you're it's so funny because you listen to people who talk about the bets and they're already citing what the what the 1 2 3 4 will be next year. And it's like very clearly Lindor, Soto, Bichette and Benj. Benj would have been the lead off hitter for this team easily. I mean, maybe AJ Ewing might have been long term, but he would have easily been in 1997. And now he's considered their best option of cleanup hitter. Should we go through some players? And do you want them on the team next year? Yeah, that's a good game. Simian. No. I don't even care. It doesn't matter. Let me just get it out right now. Okay. I understand. I understand the brand and demotry it. I would not have wanted brand and demo on the team for five more years. I understand making room for outfielders because we had two really exciting prospects. And I understand getting off that contract long term intellectually. But what I don't understand is why Marcus Simian had 600 of that's why Ronnie Mauricio was not on the major league. Oh, we didn't talk about this. How Keith Hernandez actually lost it in the last game of the season when he was like, we have mismanaged. Yes. Mauricio. Whatever it was, misuse. That was like, that was, I mean, the Metz broadcasters are the gold standard. They like all broadcasters wanted to see the happy picture. But like, that was a big, big shot for Keith to make. Keith is friendly. And they're like, I don't give a fuck mode of his career as he should be. And it makes him a great broadcaster. And he was right. Literally Marcus Simian was one of the five or six worst position players in the sport all year. And in the first half of the year, his defense wasn't very good. So the whole idea for plugging him in there, I don't know. That just seemed in a lost season in a year where it was very clear. You were not even going to cross 80 wins to keep giving him at bats. I don't, I can't make sense of it. And are we out of options with Mauricio and we already, they basically both have to make the team next year. Yeah. And to me, Beatty is. Beatty, Beatty redeemed him. So both to Beatty, Beatty, I mean, I'm back in on Beatty. It's like a like a, I don't, I don't, I just have to temper my expectations. He's a utility player. He's a guy who plays three or four different positions on the field. He doesn't play every day. But he's in a jam in a long season. He's a very useful player. If you're thinking of him as the second baseman or third baseman of the future, you shouldn't because he's not that guy. I, I will say my daughter was. I think outrage when he played shorts up because she viewed it as an imminent threat to Francesco. And I was like, I don't think you have to worry about reparating playing like a lot of short stuff. But you do have to start getting your mind wrapped around like Francesco and doors getting older and his career and positionality is going to change a little bit. Like she was very proud of his 300th home run on the last day of the season. And the very short list of players who have done that at short stuff, which of course includes a rod who has like twice as many home runs at other positions. And she's very, she wants Lindor to be number one on that list. Is he, was he the, is he the only guy with 300 home runs in 200 stone bases? Yes. Carlos Beltran has that as well. But obviously not a short slip. Yeah. Well, here's a complicated thing. Lindor's events was bad this year. There's no two ways about it. And it was bad in the weirdest ways. Mental mistakes, things that he never did before. He was an elite defensive shortstop when he came to the team. He's probably a second basement. Fine. Great. But we are all of our best prospects for second basement. Well, we just got to figure it out. Well, I thought Rojas can play a little of everything. I'm hoping he's going to be a third basement because he's got power. He's got pop. I don't know what his arm is like. I think he should come back. Mauricio, I would love for him to come back, but there's not really a place for him. Yeah, I don't know. But when he, I mean, that last week, you don't want to read too much into it. But he just comes up and starts mashing home runs every game. I want both the catchers back on the team next year. I just can't quit Francis Glover as frustrating as is just waving at everything within five feet of the strike zone. And also a couple of the worst ABS challenges, like I've ever seen, like I'm talking, this is like a foot out of the strike zone. What are you doing, man? And he's like, bam, I'm ready. And like, okay, that's it. We lost our challenge. I'm hopeful that the coaching staff will be able to get through to him in the off season about a couple of those things because it was ugly at the end of the season for Alvarez. He had to find last three or four games, but there was a 10 or 12 game stretch there where he was lost at the plate, making a lot of mistakes or wild pitches that should have been called past balls. Like he was sure he was all over the place. And that was sad. On the other hand, former number one overall prospect, who's 23 24 years old. A catcher with a pop. Like look, long term, this is going to be tricky. Terence is really good. He's maybe the best defensive catcher in baseball. Alvarez is not a good enough hitter to DH. I just we don't need to make this decision now. I know there's this weird thing that was accurate. You keep like settling and accepting flawed players in your lineup. And we can do this with more names on this list. And then you wake up one day and you're like, so I feel kind of iffy about seven of our nine hitters every day. And like we might be going into that next year. Who else do you feel iffy about as a hitter? I don't know what Boba Shed is. I'm optimistic about that. I just I believe the track record. I I think he like was a little overrated and clearly overpaid. I just like I'm a sucker for the type. Like I in a in a in a analytics world of on base guys and power guys. I like that he's just going to now he needs to make better contact and get more doubles and all that. But I like that he's just a like a hit just he's going to get hits. He's going to be a huge bounce back candidate and have a 190 hit season. That's totally possible. It's also possible. He's just in a different phase of his career. And if he is that sucks for us. So don't I'm not worried about lindore. I think we should be mindful of offensive progression. I think he's going to be a 33 year old shortstop. He's so streaky. Like even when he we the last time we we did this time about he's all the way back. He said 299 home runs and then he just goes into these two week periods where he just cannot get a hit and he strikes out a lot. Like I know he walked a lot which helped sort of have the floor pretty high but he's yeah he had a weird area. I think he was much worse this year from the left side of the plate than he was the right side and then but a few years ago he'd been much worse from the right side of the plate than the left side. So he's even streaky in that respect where there's no consistency in his switch hitting. Can we talk about how you are digesting the Braves Dodger series? Do you can you root I like to have a team that I root for in every series. So it's I'm rooting for the Brewers. Real God zilla versus Geeter as a true rooting for the Guardians just because they haven't one and forever. Obviously I'm rooting for Tampa Bay. This one's tough. Do you have a rooting interest? I hope they all contract a terrible illness. You know like I really just you know I just I don't want this is the joke in our house. So when Argentina played England in the semi finals of the World Cup. Croatia England have played a lot include there was a recent seven nothing game which we were not going to talk about and Argentina was like everybody was like sick of Argentina's index. Yes. And so when they played Mata was like my daughter was like who are you rooting for and I was like and this is how it this is exactly how would I have repeated about Dodger's Braves. So I think I'm rooting for everyone to get diarrhea on the field and for them to have to cancel the game and just promote somebody else into the next round. So in this case everybody on the Braves and the Dodgers gets diarrhea that lasts for like 10 days. They can't play the series. And so what happens in this case is Milwaukee and San Diego play out their series. Uh-huh. And the winner gets home field advantage is they have a rematch for the National League Championship series because the Braves and the Dodgers are disqualified due to diarrhea. And the winner of that series gets either five or six games at home. That's their reward and the rematch. So that it's funny that you said contractionals because that's exactly how I feel like and I think that would be ideal. You know I don't really want to either of them to win. I'm rooting for the Brewers. I think it'd be nice if the Padres won that series but it seems very unlikely at this point. And so um the Brewers are an easy team to root for and uh you know the Braves are my mortal enemy forever and the Dodgers. I mean look if the Dodgers win if they win the World Series this year it I think it makes the likelihood of a longer term lockout baseball stoppage more likely and that's I don't want that. So I have enjoyed teaching my daughter a little bit about met history and baseball history so she obviously not familiar with the Braves rivalry and is vaguely familiar. There's like a philly thing the teams don't like each other and so Dodgers braves to hers like a no-brainer. She knows the Dodgers are bad. We should not share for the Dodgers or whatever. And I'm like honey like we're gonna have to sit down and have this discussion about the Braves and Tom Glaven and Greg Maddox and John Rocker and like all the Chipper Jones name I told her about Chipper Jones naming his son Shea because he was so successful in Shea State and which is like I almost respect. It's a great bit. It's a great it's a good bit. I like like great bit um and I think I told you this when we went to the peak game we got there early and we were walking around city field and they have those plaques memorializing like critical moments in met history and I don't think she was going to be interested in like 1969 in 1986 we stopped it every single one and she was like tell me more about this I want to know more about this like this guy Jesse Arasco's like posters about the club and the one that she was most fascinated about and she's been telling her friends about is like the black cat game she just couldn't get over the black cat game and just the cubs and it jinxed them and worded this cat come from it's it's been delightful so the Braves I've been teaching her about the Braves and why I hate the Braves by the way she should can't can't believe the Tomahawk chop is like I just made this comment on a pod get literally I'm just talking about this on a big picture episode where I'm just like we're still doing this in 2026 come on uh Andy Greenback we're happy about that uh I I am I I I like to seem to be fine I don't know I don't know what a manager really does other than put people in the lineup and make pitching changes can you give me like a minute to talk about football that it's related to baseball yeah absolutely no idea what's going on football so something happened um it with the jets this year that is very similar to what happened with the Metz where I think there was a really strong case to move on from Carlos Mendoza after the 2025 season given the way that that season ended and what they did is they fired his whole staff but they brought him back with a new staff and he got off to a really bad start and then they let him hang around through the summer yeah and other teams that fired their managers earlier in the year eventually turned it around like the Boston Red Sox the Philadelphia Phillies and they went to the playoffs I don't know if the Metz we're going to go to the playoffs if they had fired uh Carlos Mendoza after this 12 game losing streak but you can make the case for it the exact same thing has happened with jets where Aaron Glenn after his first season went four and 13 and he was it's very clear he's not an NFL head coach he's been really bad they've in the after that four and 13 season they fired all of his coaches he brought in an entirely new staff and they brought him back the jets are more talented but they're one in three and Aaron Glenn looks way in over his head and they're probably going to let him manage or coach the team through most of the season and it's one of those really frustrating situations where every single fan knows a person is not the guy and it's like Carlos Mendoza seemed like a very nice guy and he did have that amazing run in 2024 and he gets a lot of credit for it but in every post game press conference a lot of the same tired like we got to take a look at it we got to be better to borrow we got to keep our heads up the same sort of like false inspirational language and as soon as Andy Green came in he just felt like he was talking more honestly more directly more coherently about what was going on you love to hear him challenging young pitching and love to hear him thinking more dynamically about how the team should be playing and they played a little better I think it's a little overrated how much better they played yeah they were like three games over five they were like a borderline 500 which is like awesome but we would that's fine I would have taken that obviously for the whole season and they were more fun to watch that final month than or so was just much more fun to watch than the first three months of the season so but I do like him or at least I like the way that he communicates with the press in the public which is a big part of being a manager in New York and I think the young guys really like him and the truth is is that the future of the team is in the young guys it's bench and it's viewing and hopefully it's Rojas and hopefully it's Petri and you know I don't know if Billy Amix is going to be here in Nick Moore veto or any of those guys but those guys a lot of those guys in the system they know him and so I am generally happy that they extend to yeah by game nine of the completely inexplicable 12 game losing streak I wanted the manager to be acknowledging that this is a crisis yes speaking of bench I have two stories and then we'll wrap I have made my decision that Carson Benj is going to be my next and first new med jersey purchase and I want to road gray jersey Sean you could not get a road gray Carson Benj jersey I went to fanatics official shop I went to MLB I don't want to order it from like some knockoff web say where I don't even know what it's like the meds directly I did I did indeed I was like hey am I being stupid because I went to every official outlet and all I can see is home pinstripes bench I want road gray I have every other jersey that I want I want road gray you're like no you're not being stupid it's not available the only places it's available are you can go to city field and they will customize any jersey for you okay I city field open right now I don't good question like I don't even know if I can go to go right now sure or if you go to there and they directed me to this if you go to like the official meds merchandise website the very very bottom where you would see like contact us about us just shit you'll never click on There's a little link that says like request a product that brings you to a form where you put your name Your address and they promise like on the form like we're not this is like not a guarantee thing We're gonna fulfill this order for you. I assume this is where people can go to like do crazy stuff Okay, so I just like wrote great Carson Benj that's it. I haven't heard back. It's been about a week I don't know I don't know if this form you're making a public here I told David Sims our friend yeah, and and he's his and I told you and his text which I really made me laugh It was like this feels like something that needs to be elevated to the commissioners office And I was like it kind it kind of does David has a benchers. Yeah, I think he has white pins right yeah Yeah, you know why that's the only one you can get. Yeah, yeah, if you want a gray road mark Vento's jersey available I'm good. I second second thing the power of sports and baseball I want to tell you to hold on hold on before we do that really quickly We have not learned who the rookie of the year is oh my god. Well Carson Benj should be I'm passionate about it So, you know, this is like this is the ultimate Zacklow conversation. When does it come out? I think it's going to be is it at the conclusion of the championship series So it's him and his first baseman from Cincinnati Sal Stewart and weather hole and JJ weather hole in the carnels who was injured in the final month And Nolan McLean who I don't get why he's just like not a can't do pictures just not get this award They have before I think it's really strange that he's not in the top three right now You know by many metrics either weather hole or bench should be the winner based on war based on a few other things Based on the fact that their games are more well-rounded than south steward south steward has big round numbers 30 home runs 100 RBI and South steward is I think right now that the significant betting favorite but there it seems to be amongst a certain quartile of the thinking baseball fan community It should obviously be bench especially because of the way that he closed the season versus the way the south steward closes season which was quite bad. He had a very bad last month Dizzy, I didn't know that so like I look at their advanced numbers and their regular numbers and I'm like Wait, it's like and I know that benches war is like two and a half times twice His war which I assume takes defense and base running somehow into account us like man. I can't believe Like a guy 32 homers 11 RBI 787 OPS which was probably eight mid eights or low eights before this month This is hellish month when it when he was at 840 you the case seemed pretty understandable And then I think he only hit one home run in the last month of the season and added like a sub 700 OPS that month and I'm like that that Carson benches just like By some advanced metrics. Just like way better than that player I must not really understand the underpinnings of the advanced base running and fielding just matters a lot This but and also the at first base If you're a poor defensive player at first base and that or those are your power numbers You're a little bit closer to the to the median then someone like bench with his numbers and right field and relative to you know I mean, I don't even know how many outfield putouts he had for the year, but it was I think it was like 10 Yeah, it was double digits and he was like third in baseball. Yeah. Yeah, so you've got these like pretty significant game changing that dramatically I love contributes to war. He's amazing. I'm all in he does everything well He plays super hard right up until the end. This is what one you over to you text me is he's gone super hard all the way to yeah Boston and I'll never ground out and it would be really just a nice little feather in the cap Just give us a little something. Well, and the other thing that you get you can extra draping a draft pick these goofy rules I love so like give us an extra draping. I'll take a nice give our scouts an extra pick we'd like to have that right now Wouldn't we we would all right? That's what we need meds corner. We'll be back at some point. Wait. What's your story? Oh, I forgot about that So I just like this was a little hardwarming dad story, please Month or two ago um we'd be belong to this little swim club in in Connecticut. It's not fancy. There is no golfers. Oh tennis. There's just pools and whatever And my daughter's a million of friends there and we're all hanging out there and then a birthday party happens now My daughter's not friends with the birthday girl, but the other friends are and she's the only one at the club not invited to the birthday party And so like she's like that. Yeah, I know I'm not friends with so and so but you know then she's like a you're always a little sad kids get left out and they're sad Yeah, there's nothing for her to do at the pool. She's bored and cranky And we go home. I was like you want to just leave. We'll go home. We'll do something we'll play Mario Kart We'll do this like we'll pass the time she had something else after you but I can you know being left out is tough Even though she was aware like I would not invite this person to my birthday party like we're just not friends No nothing bad. Just not friends and it turns out the meds are on so like all right. Let's watch the meds and they're playing Either Milwaukee or Tampa Bay. You'll remember the game. I can't remember And it's an exciting game. It's 2-1. She's into it. Her move is improving. It's late in late in the game. It looks like the meds are going to lose I think it was the bottom of it was the bottom of the eighth And she's starting to like we're running out of outs. I'm saying I have another meds loss Lindor gets on. I think is on second. They intentionally walked so to get to Peshat and I tell her I'm like This is a really interesting moment in baseball because it's kind of a shot at Peshat It's the other team saying like we'd much rather face you Than this other guy which obviously you would And Peshat cranks the through on home at the left center field and the look of glee on her face. She looked over to me like That's that's what they get daddy That's what they get for doing that to blow up a shed and then she was like daddy I love how baseball like things can change really fast That's right like we were about to lose and now we're probably about to win and her whole day Turned around because of boba shed hitting a three run homerun after getting intentionally walked It was I just like to glee in her face the only other time I've ever seen it quite like that Was when she won her first ever swim race the first race. She ever got first place in and she found us in the crowd And was just like so proud and stared out at us and the other time was when Croatia scored an equalizer against Portugal that two minutes later was wiped out because of a bogus offsides call So I was just thank you baseball and boba shed. That's all that's beautiful. Metz corner. We'll be back Something will happen things will happen. Hopefully we don't mess things up Sean fantasy big picture You're recording and like 10 minutes. You gotta go. I gotta go. Thank you. Thanks, Zach. Good seeing you in person All right, that's it for the Zac Lowe show we'll be back probably Thursday this week for our second episode of the week Thank you to the great Steve Nash. Thank you to the great Sean fantasy Thank you as always to Mike Billy and Jonathan on production And thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zac Lowe show we'll be back in a few days 21 or over in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas starkisino or 18 and over and president in DC or Wyoming Gamble and problem call one in 100 gambler or one 800 my reset call one 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or is it md gambling help.org in Maryland hope is here visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800 327 5050 for 24 seven support and Massachusetts or call 1 877 8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 1 877 770 7867