Offseason Loves and Loathes

I'm pro-football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of, major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit mddallies.com to watch my story. Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins is not prescribed Caplyta Lumateperone. I needed more from my antidepressant, so my doctor added Caplyta Lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common. Patients have increased risk of death or stroke. Caplyta is not approved for dementia-related psychosis. Call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. Antidepressants may increase these risks. Report fever, confusion, stiff muscles, which may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar, which may be fatal. Monitoring is recommended. Common side effects are sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, feeling tired, and diarrhea. These aren't all the side effects. Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at Caplyta.com or call 888-788-7888. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphya, proper training is required. Tramphya is a prescription medicine used to treat with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphya Radio, www.tramphya.com. Welcome to the Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every week from TheRinger.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby! Hey! Verno, I'm looking at the rundown. We have a lot. of items to get through. Somehow, in the middle of September, we've got like 40 things on the rundown. So let's, let's get going. Okay. 20 second timeout to start the show. Two things very quickly. The first of which is I'm wearing a John Conchar jersey in honor of you. I can't imagine that there's many of these that exist in the world. But I have one because locally, he had a seven-year-old rebound game against the Minnesota Timberwolves and in homage to John Conchar, I went over to the team store and had a Conchar jersey made so that we could honor him the next day. And no one wears 46 in the NBA and I will forever love John Conchar. And the fact that he is now going to be on your favorite team is, I was so thrilled. It is beyond. You should not be allowed. The CBA should say you can't have Alvarado and Conchar on the same team. It's a guaranteed championship. New York, you're going to love this guy. He's one of my all-time favorites. Also, one of these guys that was like a long-tendered player for a team that you wouldn't expect to be a long-tendered player for a team. So he's got like a high. And just a quick little John Conchar story. I think my son was turning 12, I think, was turning 12. Loved John Conchar, of course, right? The white guy that hardly ever gets to play, but then does get to play. And then when he does play, he gets 17 rebounds. And it's like, so anyways, I run into Conchar one day and he knows that my son loves him. And I said, you know what? I'm going to go get him. It just so happened that day, I was like, it was his birthday. And I was like, bro, send him a DM and he will be the king of the school. And he's like, you got it. So he sends him a happy birthday message. Hey, hey, listen, and starts following him. He was, oh, I mean, you want to talk about the best birthday ever. So I will forever have a warm spot in my heart for John Conchar. And the fact that you get to root for him now is the best thing ever. The other, other quick little thing, take everybody behind the curtain. We're starting a little bit late. You were getting ready for the show, getting everything together. I am hustling around the house because it is Hawaiian day at school. And for every parent out there, you don't find out it's a theme day for a school until it's 20 minutes until they're about to hit the door. And I promise you, this is going to have a basketball tie yet. So I am out walking the dog and my wife says, Haley needs a Hawaiian shirt. I'm like, of course she does. So I'm going back inside and we're done with the dog. We got to find, I have one Hawaiian shirt. I have one. And do you know what it is, Jacoby? Oh, the season hasn't even started. We're going to go ahead. Rip off the bandaid. We're going to open the wound because the one Hawaiian shirt that is in the house was a giveaway at a Grizzlies game. The Joe Hawaiian shirt. It is literally a Hawaiian shirt. It's the only, and I was like, all right, so what do we do here? And she's like, I'm working it. And I'm like, you got to do it. She's wearing a Joe. Why? Sure. I mean, it's brilliant marketing. Whoever thought of that is brilliant. Somebody in the conference room was just like, what if we do a Joe Hawaiian night and everyone else at the table is just like, yeah. Yeah. You want to talk about ripping off the bandaid? We're not even getting into the season. So my daughter is at school today, walking around in a Joe Hawaiian shirt, just John Morant all over her shirt. What else was I going to do? We didn't have any other Hawaiian shirt. Well, you texted about this. I was like, you either have a Hawaiian shirt or you don't, you can't fake it. It's not like coming up with a Halloween costume last minute. We just like throw something together. Like it's a Hawaiian shirt or it's not. It's binary. No, we have a Joe Hawaiian shirt. All right. Maybe the, oh, the Raptors this year, Kawhi and Kawhi and night guaranteed to happen. A Kawhi and shirt there. You just gave him a night. You're welcome. He won't play. Uh, all right. Jalen, Jalen Duren, the saga that never ends, sign the deal, the saga that never ends now reporting that. And I don't know why, why is Trajan Langdon upping his offer? He's just like, all right, like, all right, fine. Five years, 200 million. And so at some point, the math doesn't math here for Jalen Duren. Like you were saying, just sign the deal. You get a, you get a play on your qualifying offer and then sign basically the same deal elsewhere going forward. Like no chance of playing the qualifying. This is just, just such a mess. Just such a mess. And now by the time this comes out, it should be signed. And we are a week away from less than a week away from all of these teams having their media days. And so the last thing on earth you want is this hovering over your franchise. And so timeline's getting short now. And I think that's why probably the offer changed a little bit, but at some point it's like, dude, it's $200 million. And now I get the sense that Pistons fans are now getting mad. Like, all right, seriously. Nobody looks good except for the mismatch podcast, because I was on NBA Reddit and there was this big post about who his agent is and how he all represents football players. And that was, um, much like Pablo Torre. Um, that was journalism and baseball. And I was like, oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't investigation that we did on the last episode that involved about four seconds of googling and um and and unconfirmed sources uh is so i expect to get a philipser peabody which one both both both of them and a grammy i think you deserve both um yes keontae george got a big contract as did sir thompson sir thompson five years 155 keontae george five years 157 and so we do have a a slew of signings it's still going down the thompson brothers have both signed within the last week and then chianti george um who is an interesting proposition you know much like we talked about with walker kessler when he was uh what we thought possibly overpaid to end up with the uh los angeles lakers it is always hard to gauge guys that are putting up you know really good stats and having really good nights and look very promising when a team is functionally tanking for their entire careers like they have you know when the when the goal is for the individual player hey get minds have the best night i can have because despite my team losing every single night at least i can still get my numbers like how does that translate into the form and the other thing is how the most important thing here is how does george fit and i know there's going to be some people be like well he's going to fit perfectly like you know you just but the thing that matters is how does he fit with peterson i think that is the bet that's that's what they're saying they're saying we have this is the the backcourt of our future yeah um you know i looked at george's numbers just a little bit because i take this podcast very seriously and i prep and that's why we started late um it's they're trending in the right direction over the three years of his career you know what i mean and and it is is a good stats bad team that you might look at like points per game but like efficiency numbers are trending in the right direction over the three years of his career and and i think uh no one knows um his ability or the potential fit with peterson better than the jazz and i think that they they you know put their money where their mouth is they showed us their actions are so loud that the words don't matter it's like they they clearly are committing to him and peterson and i think it's really cool like i just like the vibes around the jazz like they went to finland you know to hang out with marketing right and then at this press conference announcing this deal like a bunch of them were there you know i'm just getting like uh i'm getting good vibes around the jazz i'm getting good vibes around the jazz as as the the seasons start to change super likable guy always smiling and everything seems like good vibes and the other thing is this is a incredibly reasonable contract for a player again i mean from the raw stats numbers yeah the only thing that's gonna matter is can he and peterson simultaneously be great like be the best versions of themselves and that is something that we will see going forward right do they both need the ball in order to be the best versions of themselves but even if it doesn't work that's why we were talking about the the palatability as it were of the contract that's not a contract that you know somebody else somebody else wouldn't want anyways because he it certainly stands to reason that he could very easily uh even exceed being a 30 million dollar player we have to be careful about that because if he doesn't work that's not going to work that's not a contract that he's going to have to recalibrate what these contracts are now and what guys are getting paid because 30 million used to be like you know you would have to you would have to be an all-star all-nba player to validate that that's just not true anymore no it's a percentage of the cap thing and this is this is a good deal and um on paper i mean peterson hasn't dribbled the ball on an nba floor in the game yet on paper they should be complementary players just the styles another contract that was signed one of the prospectors guys jayden bradley from arizona got a four-year deal with the toronto raptors they locked him up now the reason this is interesting to me beyond the fact that he was a prospector guy you know the prospector likes to find these guys that are mega accomplished in college might be veterans so it's hold held against them right they might have played four or five years of college um but this guy was like conference player of the year conference tournament player of the year the whole thing and i will only say that the reason this is fascinating to me is because this is one of the great market inefficiencies now that could be taken advantage of is if you do find one like this which is a second round guy that you can lock up to a four-year contract who can wildly outperform that contract like if you have a conviction in that player there is just there's no other there's no other value like that especially with the salaries going up so high on the high end that if you find somebody that you are not paying um a fortune to on an extended deal and he does become uh like a real contributor for you that is just i mean it is it's the market inefficiency of all and i'm not telling you jayden bradley is going to become that i'm saying no these these are the good flyers to take because boy if it hits it's as valuable as you can get in the nba landscape now is to find somebody on a cheap contract for four years yeah it's getting i mean four years 9.3 million dollars is something that you can stomach if he doesn't play a second that's right i mean you can and if he does end up being a contributor probably he's not going to start you know what i mean but if he ends up eating minutes and being a contributor that's that's the value that you want and i i uh i didn't tell you this but i was driving the rv um in colorado and in a in costa uh mesa verde it's called you know these hairpin turns driving up this mountain and it was nighttime and i'm not gonna lie i was a little scared and i saw just a fire uh to my left and i stopped the rv because i thought someone might be in trouble and it was the prospector with a with the ham radio yeah listening to fiba fiba games um by the fire um and he was a rotisserie a squirrel he had his damn he had his pickaxe yes yeah yeah yeah yeah and he's just living a nomadic lifestyle i didn't want to bother him so i just moved on but i didn't say that i just wanted to catch up on more doc rivers is going to be a broadcaster for nbc so all right i guess this is good on two fronts a it's doc rivers didn't take our job we were worried about that right right given his relationship with simmons and his appearances on bill's podcast there was always a possibility that we could just look up before the season it's like actually doc rivers is going to be doing your show so thank you to doc rivers for not taking our job um it will be i think doc rivers a really fascinating broadcaster i find them to be a lot of fun i think they're going to be a lot of fun likeable and i'm glad he's going to be on the broadcast i am i think it'd be good you know i think he's going to be good distinct voice good analysis coach coach in the league so recently that he's got all of the information in intelligence that you want about all the players on the floor also um you know great story for nbc to be able to put out there that doc rivers is joining because kind of flew under the radar but doesn't sound like michael jordan's coming back for your favorite segment i mean we're not right i'm right for now what are you gonna like i sniffed that out so early people listen to the mismatch know that hating victor wiminyama and then spotting michael jordan is a fraud on nbc it just we started the movement here at the mismatch i think the story went that it just it was just it just took too much time out of his schedule it was just too much of a lift really hard yeah you know what i mean jordan said he wanted to focus on his family too much time away all the travel and the preparation that it takes to have someone sit down in your house for 45 minutes and have a conversation it's just too much for him to handle you know especially with with this up his focus on his philanthropic work and nascar big nascar guy big nascar guy yeah yeah um a couple other news and notes henry v saw who could have been useful like like could have been useful for the uh atlanta hawks uh big time team unbelievably useful if you move him down to the g league he would just destroy the g league he said unbelievably useful if you move him down to the g league he would be amazing i mean nobody he think i would have like 30s and 20s on a regular basis in the g league because there's not big guys like him but he could have been useful for the hawks and was an interesting pick because that was the kid that just like was crater his draft stock just cratered uh for draft night they were able to get him late um but a torn acl and already gonna lose his rookie season that's just brutal brutal you hate to see this before we even before we even get the training games are the worst offseason injuries are the absolute worst the worst you know like we talked about mark williams in the last show it's just like this stuff just because these you know these guys are just working out trying to get better trying to get ready to perform right and they end up uh being unable to perform and he was kind of interesting at summer league i gotta say so i was uh i was fascinated to see kind of how he would fit with the quinn snyder thing but we're not gonna get to see him for his rookie year so tough break for that kid uh the brunson snl is coming up this weekend never do i go out of my way to make sure i'm good i will i will go that's what i want to say yes i used to watch snl as like when i was a kid like in the 90s like the dana carvey era like i was like i would stay up until one every saturday watching that thing and i just don't anymore i mean snl just like isn't on my radar anymore at all i watched it It was on like a repeat or whatever recently. And I watched the opening credits when they do like, they take seven minutes giving you everybody's name and showing a picture of them. Way too long, by the way. But I didn't recognize anybody. I didn't even know who any of these people were at all. I will go out of my way to check out the Bronson one. And I think he's actually going to be very good. He's going to be great. Have you never been to it? Oh, hell yeah, I've been to it. I was at the, yes. I've been a couple of times and I will say this is the show ends at one and they have an after party. And that's usually at like a bar or a restaurant. And you just kind of have to know, like the word kind of gets around and then you go there and the bar restaurant closes at four. And then there's a second secret venue. And at the after party, the word gets around to the after after party. And the next thing you know, it's like seven in the morning and you're just like, what am I doing with my life? I have to go to work on Monday. It's like Sunday morning at that point. Like I've got a couple of times. I was at the one where it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It was, I think it was Andy Samberg doing an impression of Mark. Well, Mark. Oh yeah. Talk to the animals. Farm animals. Yes. Oh my God. I was in the building for that. Say hello to your mother. I don't. It was one of those times when you're laughing so hard that your body, you can't control it. Your body. Like you're laughing with your arms and your legs, not just your face. I was rolling during that because you're also watching it during the commercials. Yes. Right. And it's some, these like production dudes come out with like a chicken and like put the chicken on a pedestal and like a goat. And you're just like, what the fuck are they about to do? You know what I mean? Is it hard to get tickets to it? Yeah. I mean, obviously I got them. I got them from our Knicks correspondent. You had a connection. Our Knicks correspondent. The official mismatched Knicks correspondent. Anna Hathaway's got a new movie out. I saw. Every two weeks. How is she in a thousand movies? How is every movie this summer got Anna Hathaway in it? Dropping five movies. Did she just record these at all different times and they all just happened to drop at the same time? Yeah. Yeah. So crazy. That's exactly how it works. Yeah. I understand. But how long? I mean, what is the delay in these? I went to the, I watched the end of Oak street. The one with the dinosaurs. Okay. Rocked. It rocked. It's good. It rocked. Yeah. It was just like, it's exactly what you think it is. It's a, it's an every block in America gets all of a sudden just dinosaurs to send on like your street in like anywhere. America. It's awesome. I watched resident rocked as well. Resident evil as well. Okay. This episode is brought to you by the home Depot. The home Depot is everything you need to launch your holiday season in style. Upgrade your yard with this year's hottest holiday decor, including the show stopping towering Santa. Oh, I like that one. And his impressive reindeer, both 8.5 feet and both designed with incredible detail that stands out day or night. When you want decor that delivers impact, the home Depot has it. Make your home Santa's favorite stop with the holiday decor. You want all waiting for you at the home Depot. We've got all the media days starting for teams, uh, really a week from yesterday, which will be the 28th of September. And then everybody's going to start their training camps. Uh, except for this week, there are actually weirdly two media days. I think the rockets are going today. And then the Mavs are going to be later this week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're going to see some news, because those teams are going to like China. I think it is early to do like a set. And so they're doing theirs. So they're doing the plane. Yeah. Yeah. They're doing theirs this week and then they are headed out. So there might be some news from those teams, but generally all the news is going to start next week when everybody is doing their media days, uh, on the 28th. With that being said, we have our off season loves and lows. This is really, for all intents and purposes, the last off season edition of the mismatch that we will do, because by next week, these teams are all going to be in training camps. And then they're going to be playing preseason games, like right around the corner. We've got, you know, I think by the weekend we will have had, uh, by next weekend, we'll have preseason games that have already taken place. I know it's crazy. We're going back to twice a week. I need more Verno in my life. Once a week isn't enough. Right, right before the season. All right, good. Right before the season. All right. We've got our loves and lows from the off season. All right, I'll start. My first love is how much stronger the Eastern conference got. Um, you know, when you just look at it, and obviously we're going to be doing all of our season previews in, uh, right around the corner, uh, before the season, the bucks, the bulls and the nets, I think are fair. It's fair to say are the only teams, the only teams that you would be shocked if they ended up in the playoffs, the bucks, the bulls in the net, every other team in the Eastern conference, the amount, some of them got way better and some of them got a little better, but fill it out. Would you be shocked if the bulls were the 10 seed and one, two playing games and end up getting swept by the, you know, the Knicks or whatever? Yes. You'd be shocked. Yes. The one person that thinks the balls are good. Honestly, the one you should have mentioned, the, the Charlotte Charlotte might be the one that I threw in there that I shouldn't have. But again, we don't know if they're going to be better or not. I mean, they're doing this bulls and nets. I'm saying I included them in a team that I would not be stunned if they made the post season, but Philadelphia better Toronto, better Cleveland, better Indiana, way better Atlanta, better Miami, better Washington, better Detroit. It's a wait and see if they got better, you know, they're doing no, no Tobias Harris. They, and who knows if the John Collins thing. Yeah. And, and, and John Collins and Isaiah Joe, we'll see right there. They're kind of shuffling chairs around, but we'll see if they're better. Knicks, Conchar, Knicks, Conchar, Boston. It's going to be hard to be better in terms of regular, regular season wins from last year. And, and then Orlando's got the new coach. We will see how, what level of impact that has. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Health. Yes. And they're still young. So the internal growth is something that could absolutely take place. And then Charlotte is rearranging some things and we're going to see it without Lamello, but just the fact that, I mean, you go through all of those teams that we will juxtapose it with the other conference, but look how many teams I just listed that unequivocally got better than they were. When we talked about these teams five months ago, it's crazy. And I don't know if all of those teams are better objectively, but they're all different and trying to be better. I think they're all better. I mean, they get better. No, no, no. I, I, we, I look, the ones that I know, I'm sure the Pistons are better. I put those down at a, I put those with Orlando. I named seven. I put those down at a, all right. Okay. Poke a hole in any of these seven Philly, Toronto, Cleveland, Indiana, Atlanta, Miami, Washington. That's seven. Yeah. It would be the only one that maybe didn't get better, but like those are all better. Yes, I agree. And then you've got, and then you've got Detroit, Boston and Orlando as question mark. Yeah. And Charlotte and Charlotte as a question mark. But I mean, that is conferences loaded. Just loaded. But it is so, it's so hard to figure out who the eight teams are that are going to be in the playoffs because you've got to leave a couple out that you're going to be surprised you're leaving out. I like the Western conference. It does feel like there's a top tier, two or three teams. And then there's just like 12 teams in that second tier that you can just, that I could see any, any sequence of them finishing the regular season, you know, in the Western conference, like three through 10, no idea. None. I'll get to that. Your first love. I've always loved the mellow ball. I always have. I just, I just fascinated by, I think he plays with so much joy and pizzazz and just like, he's just a goofball. And the idea that him and Anthony Edwards are going to be on the same team is just, if that is my number one league pass team, I will watch. If I will watch that over a Knicks game, I'll watch that over anything. I can't wait to watch the Timberwolves play, the basketball. I mean, they're just so thin in the front court. I'm just fascinated by it too. Like, what are they going to do? I am also fascinated to see the relationship with him and Chris Finch. That does not seem like the most natural fit between those two. The guy that cares deeply about defense and not making mistakes with the mellow ball. We'll see. We'll see. It's just such a, weird team. I'm looking at it. I'm like, Oh, I know it's just and Kaminga now Desumu I mean I wish Jimmy Chenzo was healthy but like you know maybe Terrence Sharon Jr they could they could have lineups where they have like where LaMelo is the tallest person out there seriously it's just the backcourt becomes so fun it does so fun and getting Anthony Edwards like off the ball you know what I mean it's two players that draw you to watching them anyway and they just now happen to be on the same team like you would watch Charlotte games because you like watching LaMelo and you would watch Minnesota games because you like watching Edwards and now they're together and they're both goofballs yes I love it so much no idea how that thing is going to play out you could see it you could see it either going unbelievably well and they are just offensively devastating or you could see it being like they're both so annoyed with Rudy Gobert and like it is you know but it's the number one draw of course I want to see LeBron and Jalen Brown and Joel Embiid but like I kind of know what that's going to look like you know what I mean I can see it already and I haven't seen it I have no idea what the Timberwolves are going to look like they're my number one like my number one league pass team is easily for the first month the Timberwolves alright so my first load of the offseason is a complete opportunity of what I said about the Eastern Conference and how much stronger it got it is the weakness of the Western Conference okay so just hear me out here when I look at the Eastern Conference and I throw out all those teams and it's like you know could you foresee a circumstance where Toronto's in an East Finals sure or Indiana's in an East Finals sure or maybe even Miami because they have Giannis is like you know there at the end sure right okay so you knew that there are two behemoths at the top of the Western Conference okay that's fine who is better equipped to knock those teams off than they were last year and I would argue nobody I disagree I have one coming later who the Rockies because they have Van Vliet now yeah I mean this is one of my loves later okay I'm just saying I'm just answering the question you asked the question I'm just answering it the Rockets are better just simply Fred Van Vliet going to the Rockets and performing as a point guard will make them I mean this is yeah this is my my love for later but I'll just just do it now I just don't is they got their problem was point guard play and they're like let's Van Vliet will be back we got Marcus Smart and whatever we can get from Bogdan Bogdanovich like we have three point guards now veteran point guards that was at the table all right so you think they are so I'm just answering your question no no no I mean yeah yeah I mean yes I think that the Rockets got the Rockets are in a better position the Timberwolves who knows but I would say that the Lakers and Nuggets and yeah I mean I mean the Jazz are in a better position but I don't see them in the Western Conference finals I'm just saying is there anybody okay so you would throw the Rockets in there as a team that could compete with the top two I would just you said you know which team got better and I would say the Rockets yeah I'm saying the better I'm saying better equipped to deal with those two teams is there any is there any of these teams that made it so it's not a foregone conclusion that we will see a outside of injury that there will be a collision yeah in the finals that we saw last time and not only that is they're going to end up on other sides of the bracket because I expect them to be one and two in regular season wins too yeah so it's like it feels inevitable like do you remember those years that we've both been covering this league forever like when it was just like it's going to be Cavs Warriors in the finals like what are we even doing you know what I mean it's like it feels like one of those years in the Western Conference where it's like it's going to be Spurs Thunder again and we'll see what happens with J.W. yeah and then once you get past and then there's just a I mean you're going to see a bunch of teams kind of as you mentioned from three to ten on a level where they're beating up on each other every night but they're not particularly better equipped to deal with either San Antonio and I just think the difference between you know because what you wanted and this is the this is the rub is like hey maybe the Warriors will do something to give a last hurrah for Steph Curry and we look at them and they're a real problem or maybe there is a bolstering that goes on with Denver because you know they've got to build something around Jokic that has a chance to compete at the highest level with these guys and maybe just having healthy Aaron Gordon maybe we you know maybe they maybe they can't have another another life doing that so I guess just when I was looking at the Eastern Conference it seems like there's all types of teams that can compete at the highest level and on the Western Conference the more you look at it the more you go all right it's a collision course of the top two at the end is there anybody I guess we'll play out the season and we'll see maybe somebody will convince us that they can compete with those two but one conference in my opinion got way way stronger and the other one is two teams and then everybody else just kind of fighting amongst themselves I would say it's I feel like I know who the top six teams are going to be in the Western Conference outside of the Spurs and Thunder the Lakers, Rockets, Nuggets and Timberwolves will be three through six I don't see the Jazz the Suns the Warriors Blazers anybody else Grizzlies sorry entering that top six it's hard to foresee a circumstance where they do that is for sure you threw out you didn't say you didn't say the Mavs I just want to say it is kind of BS that your first love is that the Eastern Conference got better and then your first load is that the Western Conference got worse I just feel like that is I just want to say for the record that that is lazy it's lazy no okay I thought it was perfect I thought it was a perfect job by me agree to disagree okay your first what are you what are you doing now since you you bounced around go ahead loathe it's the it's the end of the summer football started you know Monday Night Football last night I'm wearing a sweater right now you know I'm thinking about getting the the putting the shorts in storage getting the the long pants and thick sweaters and winter jackets out of storage and it just feels like the summer of Nick's elation is just starting to starting to see the sun go down on the party you know what I mean the lights are turning on in the bar the DJ's playing slow jams it just feels like I knew it was going to happen but with Mitchell Robinson is going to be take a photo in a Celtics jersey it just feels like the Knicks are champions and we had the parade but it's not going to last forever did this coincide with finding out that if you want to go see him play the Charlotte Hornets it's going to be five grand a ticket did you see what happened with that they they had to like they had to freeze ticket sales because they're like we messed up and overpriced the tickets like you think it's like three thousand dollars it's like literally stand on like a catwalk like at the top of the garden yes I think bars are going to start charging a hundred dollars just to watch the game with sound they call them they call those the sting seats you remember when sting used to come down from the rafters you got the sting seats I was thinking a kiss from a rose or that seal no no that seal seal yeah I'm talking about the wrestler sting he came with the rafters the sting seats yeah but it does speak to it feels like a new year man the Knicks won the Knicks are champions they're going to have ring night it's going to be great but like you know everything comes to an end and I'm lazy wow also you putting getting to getting to wear your you know what getting to wear your sweatshirt my daughter's soccer game got moved for heat yesterday it was it was a hundred a hundred a hundred he got moved for heat and you're like wearing a sweatshirt I couldn't be more jealous oh please I couldn't be more jealous I'm wearing I want a Juwain shirt I want a Juwain shirt I'll send you this Conchar jersey and you can wear it in the sting seats at Madison Square Garden I can't afford the sting seats or the Conchar jersey all right next thing I love about the offseason the rookie class played out exactly like we did we wanted it to we talked so much about the top four guys in this draft and then the Bonsa looked awesome Peterson looked awesome Boozer looked awesome and Caleb Wilson looked awesome so we went four for four in terms of we all the hype everybody's excited now watch all these guys and then we will see as it goes down Wagler etc I love Burry's the kid from the Bucs But we're pretty, we're perfect. pretty clean on the top 10 once you get past 10 it's it's going to be like a we'll see but certainly when we had booked this thing as hey man there you could make an argument for any of these four guys as possibly going number one and then they all showed out like the fact that we're going to get to go out of our way on league pass to seek out these rookies and know they're already going like these guys are going to be good immediately and some of the performances we talk about are going to be crazy and so that was an unbelievable revelation of the offseason was you know a lot of times we build up all these guys and then you see me be like i don't really know you know i mean like you started it's only 19 you started telling yourself like he'll develop it doesn't always work especially for bigs early yeah and these guys are all going to have the ball in their hands all of them they're all going to have the ball in their hands what trey young is like i don't know trey young is like okay they're all gonna have it's saved to bond stuff i don't know this is to the podcast he just stopped the car i was like wait a second what now i'll tell you this the first night the first night that young and davis miss a game that kid's putting 30 up here we go i know i don't watch every summer league game you know what i mean it's the summer i've got like kids and stuff i'm doing stuff but man i watch with because you always talk about caleb wilson it's like i was an athlete you watch the tape and he's like he's dunking and stuff do we hit those threes i was like what the hell is this oh no i was just shocked the first game the first game which was boozer wilson was the most entertaining summer league game i've ever been to i was just in absolute shock and awe watching that game i was like oh my god both these guys both these guys oh yeah and he came out not he made more threes in that it was he couldn't miss no then he did the entire north carolina season it was like clay thompson or something it was just like he was just hitting it was like what is happening oh it's so good so good and the fact that those four were so great in summer league now just leads me to be so excited about like tuning them in the second the season starts all of them next love my next love and you know i did start this by being like we have a million things on the rundown uh we have to pick up the pace and then i started talking about mark walberg and farm animals so i will keep this we're good brief you'll keep this brief um paid watson to the calves you know like i'm an easter conference guy and like i just feel like he's a perfect fit the more i look at it and everyone's gonna be so focused on the knicks and the celtics and the sixers and it's but the calves are like we've seen this core four well i don't think that's fair because you gotta get hardened or whatever but like we've seen mitchell and mobley and alan like for a long time now and it gets a little boring because they do just sort of flame out in the playoffs year after year but this team went to the easter conference finals i think peyton watson's gonna be an absolute perfect fit for them just a perfect fit there's no there's no we know that rim protection is there regardless of who's on the floor they have rim protection and peyton watson is is an excellent point of attack defender and i just think that he's going to fit really really well one of the things about the calves they don't really get out in transition peyton watson you know i looked at some of the numbers he's a but he scored 1.32 points per possession in transition he's the 89th percentile three and a half transition points a game like i think he's i think he's gonna be exactly what they need no it has been forced to and has learned how to play without the ball yeah you know me to be yeah elite and i keep going back to and we will see how it plays out but we said there's always any time there is a team that is highly successful and especially wins a championship players that fit the archetype of their players benefit from it and you will recall that this was this was long before we knew that the nuggets were not going to be retaining peyton watson even though that was always a question there was an article that came out that i read about right after the season that i brought up to you and it was it was about finding who is the next og and anobi and the answer that the author came to was peyton watson and we brought it up and it's like because og because of what he did throughout that next playoff run and championship that people are inevitably going to look and go who's the next guy like that that i get that's kind of a really good on offense really good on defense perfect three man you know and they and again it's it's high praise but it's a ridiculous thing it's like i worked in sports like you know development forever like sports media development at espn everyone's like it's how many times people said it's the daily show but for sports it's like right yeah yeah it's like sure but the daily show is really really good and you have to be really really good like it's like who's the next og and anobi like oh great defender can knock down threes can create his own offense great teammate like consistent like i mean of course you want the next og and anobi but there's one og and anobi but the peyton watson thing is fair i mean if you are looking for like who could we look up and become because og was not that version of og so you're you're betting on the comp right like i mean you're sitting there going okay like peyton watson's gonna fill out even more and maybe you look up and he's even better better than you even thought he was peyton watson is like you know he gets these highlight blocks and stuff like he's a weird like yeah wing that protects the rim and help defender he's just awesome are you looking for support in your weight management journey zep bound terzepatide may be able to help zep bound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off zep bound is approved as a 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 or 15 milligram injection zep bound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide containing products or any glp-1 receptor agonist medicines it is not known if zep bound is safe and effective for use in children don't share needles or pens or reuse needles don't take if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck stop zep bound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia if you're nursing pregnant plan to be or taking birth control pills taking zep bound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar side effects include nausea diarrhea and vomiting which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems talk to your doctor call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com this episode is brought to you by boar's head you know what i love about football season it's the football but also the football watching food and nothing hits like a boar's head sandwich when i'm watching a game really any game day sandwich better with boar's head philly cheesesteak layer up buttery slider rolls with boar's head london broil roast beef american white cheese and boar's head is the best way to get rid of constipation and get rid of constipation and picante provolone delicious then add roasted onions peppers and boar's head pub style horse radish sauce i love horse radish and you've got the ultimate game day cheesesteak you've also got a whole lineup of premium meats cheeses hummus and dips condiments and more to serve up on game day head to your local boar's head deli counter to shop now for game day sandwich inspiration and more visit boar's head.com boar's head committed to craft since 1905 he's awesome all right my next one my next load teams losing long-term players so there's some that are headliners which are you know guys like lou dort who had been longest tenured player for the oklahoma city thunder mitchell robinson i believe was the last draft pick with his team from the 18 draft that ain't that long ago jacoby from the 18 draft and so he's now and then of course we had yannis and of course we had jaylen brown but i found a list from last year of like longest tenured players with their teams and we've talked a lot about how maybe one of the goals going forward whenever they do a new cba is allow teams especially with their homegrown players to be able to get some cap relief by signing those guys these were the longest tenured players i'm going to run through these very fast these were the longest tenured players in the spring on their franchises and wait till you wait till you notice how many of those are now not going to be on the same team so joe lmb 12 seasons with philly right he's shade and sharp whoa okay with the blazers yannis with the bucks gone kobe white with the bulls gone dean wade and darius garland for the calves both gone both gone jaylen brown with the celtics gone ivaca zubats with the clippers gone jaron jackson jr with the grizzlies gone aneka okongwu for atlanta he's still there abam out of bio for the heat miles bridges for the hornets gone walker kessler for the jazz gone demonta sabonis for the kings not not there for a long right it's not gonna be that long and that's only been four years uh mitchell robinson for the knicks gone lebron james lakers gone jonathan isaac magic gone dwight powell mads mike he just signed a training camp deal i think yeah he just showed up yeah he showed up at some like team event or something yeah it's the craziest thing it's an all-time man not gone not yet nick i've always liked dwight powell all right listen to this nick claxton net good nikoliokic still there at at the nuggets tj mcconnell pacer still there zion pelicans still there isaiah stewart pistons gone raptor scotty barnes still there jason tate i think he's still there i think yeah i don't know if he's a free agent or if he's still there or not oh look it up jason tate is he still a rocket he was the longest tenured in the spring of last year i think he's still a rocket does he still play for the rockets yes he does it's like you know people also ask when you google something the rocket is still there i think he's still there the first question is does jason tate still play for the rockets not a good sign but it sounds like he signed a one-year deal this this summer so yeah okay uh kelden johnson spurs still there booker son still there lou dort gone naz reed gone steph curry still there and then here is the bar bet of all bar bets i don't know if this individual is still on his team or not but you want to talk about and i host an nba podcast for god's sakes jacoby which one what one this one oh and i watch nba games all the time the longest tenured wizard oh wow at six years and i don't know if he's still there i'm gonna look it up this is the hardest question ever i have no idea what name you're about let me think when i tell you this person couldn't walk into our my studio right now and i wouldn't know the longest tenured wizard i have no idea what you're about to say i'm looking up their roster somebody cheated what do you got anthony gill not even listed here what not even listed he's gone i think so oh man yeah he saw it all the way through and then as soon as they got some good players as soon as they got some good players oh he re-signed to a one-year deal he did i think so the longest tenured wizard he just re-signed six days ago unbelievable yeah but yeah i retire the number right when's anthony gill night gonna be unbelievable this will be year seven for me anthony gill anyways look the reason i put this on my load i mean i just named off and literally two-thirds of the league's longest tenured players are not on their teams anymore by the time we get to this year and it's a function it's a function of the cba too it's just like i know at a certain point it's it's because if once you're done with if you're in your second contract i know you better be playing 30 minutes a night you know what i mean yep and i hope that i hope what happens is going forward that you do catch a little bit of a break relief yes cap relief for re-signing your own players that's yeah i mean what's a imagine you're a wizards fan what do you do if you can't retain anthony gill what do you do what do you do like why even go to the arena doesn't feel right it doesn't where's anthony gill i honestly i i would have never gotten that in a million years me me either i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna lie to you me neither a million years also anthony gill's been on the wizards for seven years six years unbelievable oh he's got eight eight starts he started eight times last season longest tenured wizard is just an impossible question shout out to him uh here's my next loathe and i'm just gonna make this one real quick the pelicans off season like i'm looking i'm researching for the show i'm looking stuff up it says key it's just like pelicans off season key additions none just what are we doing my god like who who's who's who's like at the meeting in the in you know in the pelicans front office it's like what should we do this off season nothing love what i saw last season don't change a thing perfect this plays it actually to my next love so i'll just go ahead and do it which is the coaching changes i always love coaching changes just to see what level of impact it can have we talked about jordan ott last week mike brown who was the champion who's will hardy uh yeah will hardy but this year we got six tiago splitter with the bulls dusty may with the mavs who's coming from college taylor jenkins with the bucks there was an off-season move for the pelicans and that was jamal mosley all we need to add micah nori with portland and then sean sweeney with orlando the only one it's in there like the only one that's getting to coach a good team that we think could have a profound impact like is sweeney right like if he has a profound impact they move into a where we thought they were going to be a year ago and that team was atrocious to watch offensively atrocious but they were a team that was outstanding uh defensively uh two years ago um but last year they were just total blah and it seemed like they had tuned out mostly and so we'll see if sweeney can inject some life into a team that's got good players i mean they they still got paulo franz it doesn't doesn't bank as a as a core there yeah i mean can you can you see a world in which they're healthy and like sugs and and and paulo and franz are all playing together and they're winning a bunch of games and jamal mosley's like at a bar with his friend being like if these guys were healthy i could have done that too you know what i mean like can't you see that that world and the other one is you do wonder if there is this year if one of these guys we look at all of these rosters and say they should not be able to compete on like a playoff no no no on a playoff level and we go okay splitter dusty may taylor jenkins mosley micah nori can any of those pull off the crazy which is we didn't we thought the sons were going to be terrible last year yeah the blazers are on that i think the blazers have that potential like a man like a dame resurgence and like you know maybe denny and everybody's always like micah nori so i'm just saying it's hilarious it's going to be interesting to see if there's any of these coaches that come in and do the profound impact thing and like the team is way better than we thought they were going to be sweeney's got the best opportunity to because they are not in the western well because nobody's going to have orlando in the top five in the top five i could see it i could see him at five i'm saying nobody's going to pick that would i pick that uh you're not picking them over the knicks philly toronto or cleveland and you're not picking them over indiana there and you're not picking them you're not picking them over detroit yeah yeah i probably don't have you're down here down the lip it sounded good at first yeah let's start putting the butts in the seats you're like yeah they're not in the top five i mean are you putting them above a miami going into the season no oh would i personally right now david jacoby no right i mean the honest and bambers like how do you score you know i'm just going on now i'm just saying you know and coaching like you know what's faux is yeah yeah yeah yeah i see what you're saying they're not top five you're right it sounded cool when i said it and then you start you start you know like filling in the spots it's like no they're not there that's why this each recovered just crazy all right next level where am i uh next love oh i mentioned this earlier i'll do this quick rock rockets rockets addressing the problem like the point guard play they didn't address it they just got the guy they addressed it they got a guy helped and they got smart bogdanovich oh that's fair You know what I mean? They've got, they're like, we have zero point guards. We have a men Thompson playing. point guard now it's you know or reed shepherd now it's like we have three point guards with a combined 750 years of nba experience somebody that can handle the ball so that we don't have to run it all through durant and shengoon yes or like you know a man thompson like trying to be the point guard you know bambly smart bogdanovich you got two of those people healthy they're not going to do much for you on defense but they're going to get you into your sets and houston's a fascinating one that you brought up is like if there is a couldn't you see it that you don't want to play against that they become the one that could actually challenge those top i'm telling you man because you always and they didn't they lost stephen adams by the time it got like adams was a profound impact and kevin durant they lost kevin durant and they had that complete collapse like you when you think about the nba you're always sort of like left with the not but the last impression of the rockets was so bad that you had this gross taste in your mouth but from a roster perspective and kevin durant like i could see it i could see it next low russell westbrook gone and and i guess chris paul on a on another level but it just like made me lament when i was going through it all and like you're thinking about the off season of what took place and these guys just both going off into the sunset and they're like oh my god i'm not going to very polarizing guys certainly westbrook much more and i do wonder like who who takes that mantle are we done with that that now all these front offices are run by analytic guys and there's the answer oh you think there is a you think there's a answer okay perfect the natural who takes the mantle of the we all admit he's awesome but they're he's a constant argument john moran you think i mean it's right there in front of you it's right there i mean that i mean this is my next my next loathe is john moran in portland so let's just naturally transition into it it's like i didn't this is not something that i prepared before you asked the question but when you did i was just thinking like scoring guard that's got efficiency question marks and locker room question marks that is john moran like that this is the this is the like which side of the john moran fence are you on season in portland he's just in such a horrible spot he really is that's why my loathe my next loathe is john in portland it's i mean they got four they got four point guards four like seven also like dame he's also like and i just saw that video of damien lillard hitting 1200 out of 1300 threes or something look fine to me and it's like you don't get to he's the guy like he's there moran right like he's the favorite son he's the one with the ball and dame and john john's gonna be announced second in the starting five and also john dame together is not a fit like that's no it's not a fit and and then drew holidays there who's probably a better fit with either dame or jaw but not dame and jaw right right it's just it's a very awkward fit so we're gonna come out of the off the bench like you're one of those players gonna be like a six man i don't know if he's gonna have enough success but i mean i feel like we went through this polarizing though can't you see the westbrook comp though like we i just feel like these best guys wamby brunson sga sga i guess gets beat up over the the foul stuff and whatever else um but i feel like we went through that span where it was like harden was mega polarizing and like arguments about harden arguments about west arguments about trey young arguments about lamello yes there's arguments about these guys like all the time that we went through and you can see both sides like you could you could you could put numbers in front of me and make trey young look like the most valuable basketball player in the league right but nobody's really arguing about luca and yannis and yokich and wendy you know i'm saying that's where i'm saying who's gonna be the next guy no he's not gonna be mvp level though i'm saying like where you're westbrook i guess yeah and harden yeah i see what you're saying i'm saying that that make like real impassioned cases against the people jalen brown jalen brown oh that's a good one that's a good one yeah there you go he's like once you put the mvp clause in the question i had to sort of like go to a different file folder in my brain and jalen brown is is the one there well he certainly fit the bill of the analytics versus the eye yes yes it's like i got shireman here and we're second in the east and i'm the problem well and it's also me paid richard baylor shireman and like it's the no this is good because it did break people where the whole we were better without him nobody accepts that nobody accepts that but they will even say that like we're better without it but nobody believes but how do you watch us i know last year and be like that guy's the problem the guy scoring all the baskets i know holding the basketball the entire possession yeah he's the problem oh also on defense and rebounds he did break the analytics where it's like everybody like we know what the numbers say we don't believe it my my twin girls that don't even watch basketball if i took him to a Celtics game like they gotta get rid of that guy they'd be like what are you talking about they're better without him you mean the guy who scores all the time right all right last uh last love uh i mean it's it's what the sixers built like when we're thinking about this upcoming season they will be the big bad wolf they are the one they built it up they got lebron they got jaylen brown to go along with maxi and mb and edge comb by the way everybody forgets they still have also their bench is loaded not only did they draft every simons dean wade i like i love dean wade yeah you got huck you got huck 40 kcp and dem bony like they got guys that can play for them just think here's what i think about a bunch of role players that can mix and mad just think about their first national game right on one of the big networks or streams or whatever the hell we watch now and they're going to show the starting five introductions and just think about their starting five too it's like yes it's gonna go maxi maxi edge comb brown james and b what are we doing believable it's like an all-star what are we what are we doing like no and then we get the whole like this is exactly but you do get the whole like it becomes where people are going to revel in them losing in we have not really had that what are they losing to i'm saying we haven't really had that since the warriors thing was thrown together where every time like bro you threw that together and you still can't win like you know what i mean like where it's like people will be tuned in to the to watch them you know get beat and like those losses are just going to be so magnified and it just makes it so much more fun it really does i like when there's a big bad wolf team there's there's a big bad wolf in the east there is you know and then nicks win the won the championship and then every it does feel a little bit like the warriors loading up with katie look at their starting five edge comb is so good so good and he's the fifth and he's standing in the corner he's gonna be standing in the corner i know just playing this whole yeah he's standing in the corner on offense dean wade will never take a contested shot oh no and he can play d2 i i uh god no that you know what i had i didn't read all of yours i had this is my first love i was like this is i'm on the same page like this is exactly what we needed yeah you want to see things like this happen it just makes everything more exciting everything because it would have been paid watson okay cool guess what they got lebron james and jaylen brown it is kind of george it is crazy when you sit back and you're like bro jaylen brown what are the chances that we could have ever guessed at the end of last season that jaylen brown and lebron james are playing for the same team like how how are they how are they playing for the same team there's no way it's uh i think i told the story to you on the show but i was talking to max kellerman before one of the game overs and before lebron made the decision it's like and we were just talking this is none this is like inside information and he was like he's like yeah he really lebron like really wants to win i was like well if he wants to win he would go to the sixers it's the first thing i said i was like if he really just wanted to win he would go to the sixers right and next you know well and now every you have a huge amount of fans that are going to be resentful that want them to fall on their knees and they're going to be resentful and they're going to fall on their face oh you know what and that's what makes it fun it makes it fun for people to be able to actively root against some of that. Bro, you threw that all in. What do you need? Ten All-Stars? What's enough? Verno, just hurt my feelings. Why? You said you have a huge amount of fans, and I thought there was going to be a period, but you just meant you have a huge amount of fans. You're going to be rooting for them. My bad. My bad. You also have a huge amount of fans. I have a huge amount of fans. I believe there's 17 people following me on TikTok talking about Sue. Next one is a piece of sound from our Lord and Savior, Jose Alvarado's daughters about what they should refer to their younger brother as. Please play it. Did you just call your brother? A G-N-N-M. That's not his name. It's his. No, it's not. It's his. That's not fair. Why can we not just call him a G-N-N-O because of this thing? They named their little brother O-G-N-N-O-B. I mean. Oh, that's amazing. They're like, why can't we call him O-G-N-N-O-B? It's just perfect. I wonder what his name is. I don't know, but now it's O-G-N-N-O-B. It's not as cool as that. It's not as good as O-G-N-N-O-B. He's like, that's not his name. And his sister's like, I don't care. That's O-G-N-N-O-B over there. Calling your little brother O-G-N-N-O-B. I know. At worst, everybody needs to just start, you know, they just need to stick with the O-G and just say, fine, we won't do N-N-O-B. He's O-G Alvarado. O-G Alvarado is unbelievable. O-G Alvarado is just. It's pretty good. It is unbelievable. That sounds like a character in the new, like, Grand Theft Auto. O-G Alvarado is the gang leader, the boss, the big boss at the end. O-G Alvarado. I think the kids are onto something. I don't know what that kid's name is, but it would be way cooler if it was O-G Alvarado. I think I'm on the daughter's side. Yeah, I'm definitely on the daughter's side. I know adults are supposed to stick together, but I'm on the daughter's side on this. Alright, last load. Just this Portland owner and the fact that this is going to be, like, hanging out there. Like, they're going to be announcing they're going to do NBA Europe and they're going to do expansion, whatever. All the while, there's going to be these, like, Harvard stories coming out of Portland all year about this Tom Dundon. And most importantly, about him, like, like, we're on the horizon. They've been shooting up the flares since he did his opening press conference. Like, all the writers there. Like, bro, this dude's going to try to, this guy's going to try to move this team. And that thing is going to get so messy. And I just, you see it coming. You see it coming. They sold the team to this guy, and they're already blaming Jody Allen for selling it to him because it's like, you had to, you know, I mean, if you cared about the community, you wouldn't sell to a guy that you knew was going to come in here, try to force a hand about a stadium. Then he'll do what he's doing, and he's going to try to move this thing elsewhere. And it's like, bro, there's nothing worse than that hanging over a franchise. We have not had that happening in a long, long time. It's been a long time since we have had, like, the fear, like, the legitimate fear of a team, getting relocated. And there's just nothing more depressing to watch unfold, honestly. For someone who loves a team and is a sports fan, and especially in a smaller market, and watching that stuff unfold and watching what's taking place in the offseason is just mega depressing. And so that was for sure a load at the offseason. Imagine you're an assistant coach of the Trailblazers, and the head coach is in a gambling scandal, so he's no longer available. You get bumped up to head coach, something you were not expecting, a salary that you were not compensated for. And then you end up leading the team to the playoffs, and developing this sort of, like, feel good story throughout the course of the year. With a star! A new star! Yeah, with Denny Advia, yeah. I mean, they just. And then you go to the negotiation table, and they don't want to pay you. So, obviously, a assistant coach that just one day woke up and was the head coach, and was an objective success. No one can really say that this was not a successful season for the Trailblazers, and he was not compensated with a long-term deal. That's insane. Also, people don't understand, they cleaned out, like, their business side. The broadcast booth. I loved Kevin Calabro. Love him. And Kevin Calabro was so insulted by their offer that he's like, I don't have to do this. That is so depressing to me. Like, all those moments, like, the Damian Lillard shots and everything, like, that is Calabro, and it's like, dude, what? The long-time voice of the team, who, you know, and by the way, Calabro was originally Sonics. Catch a break! He's Northwestern. He was a Sonics guy, and then he became a Blazers guy. So, the spreadsheet. Spreadsheet looks better. So, the Excel spreadsheet looks better. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And, you know what? And, by the way, also, credit to us, made it through all of my loads, as did you. Not one mention of the story that took over. I haven't finished. I haven't finished mine. Our whole off-season was taken over by Kawhi, though. Oh, I don't care. I'm so over Kawhi Leonard. I know. We're done with it. We're done with it. Here's my last load, which is Kawhi-related, somewhat. Kyle Lowry is, like, the. I don't think they actually retired his number. I think I said it in the last episode, but they're going to. But they gave him the key to the city in Toronto. The mayor showed up. They were celebrating him. And then they unveiled a statue in his honor outside of the stadium in Jurassic Park. And my last load is the statue is a fucking dinosaur. And if I'm Kyle Lowry, I'd be like, I'm not a dinosaur. I'm a human being. So, why the dinosaur's wearing my jersey and that's supposed to be a statue to celebrate me? A dinosaur? And the dinosaur's kind of short, too. It's, like, in, like, stocky. It's just, like, is that. How does this have anything to do with me? That's a dinosaur playing basketball with my number on its chest. And they unveiled it, like, new statue honoring Kyle Lowry, and it's literally a dinosaur playing basketball. I mean, unless it's his choice, it is intensely bizarre. Who would choose that? I mean. Look, if you saw the Todd Helton statue over the weekend, if you saw the Dwayne Wade one, the Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo, yeah, I mean, of course. Yeah, maybe he was, like, instead of making a bad version of me, just make it the stupid dinosaur. Just make it a raptor. Just make it an all-time raptor. Yeah, I know you could do that. And I won't be insulted. Yeah. Maybe. But certainly, yeah, theoretically, you would want it to be a statue of yourself rather than an animal. Yes, than a prehistoric being that hasn't existed for millions of years. But who knows? Except for in Anne Hathaway's neighborhood. It's a good movie. Good movie. I'm telling you, you will not be upset if you go and put down $10 to watch that thing, man. Same with Resident Evil. Good ride. I just want to apologize. I want to apologize to Sean Fantasy because all the movie people are all going to migrate to the Mismatch podcast now. So I just want to preemptively apologize to the big picture. And rewatch this. That's probably a smart thing to do. You don't want to offend him. Thank you to Jeff, Steph, and Jesse, as always. And Jacoby, I'll talk to you next week. At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters so you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones, member SIPC. A quarter pound of a cheese is made with 100% fresh beef, cooked when you order it. Then come the melted cheese, the slivered onions, the pickles, the ketchup, and the mustard. Add hot crispy fries and an iced cold Coke, all for $8. And if things go well, one loose fry at the bottom of the bag. The quarter pound of a cheese meal, now $8. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.