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Cuervo. This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugatz Podcast.
All right. We're back for game three.
There we go. A little change to the starting lineup.
Our man Hawk is gone for the day. He might be back later in the week.
Benched. He wasn't benched.
He was benched. It's a DMP.
Well, the voice that you hear is the replacement for Hawk. They called in the left-hander.
They called in the lefty. Not even lefty.
That's the crazy part. It is Mr.
Elhassan, the dream himself. You've been walking around with a lot of confidence around here.
You know that nickname? No, I mean, it's always a nickname. It rhymes.
That's the right nickname to go. That was my nickname when I worked for the Suns, man.
Right, yeah. Amin the Dream, right? Yeah.
I mean, that's it. Or Dreamer.
There we go. Dreamer sometimes.
So we got Dreamer in here. No Mike Ryan today.
Billy's back. Chris Cody who's been the rock.
Big Red the rock is here. The return of Smetty Wap.
We also got my man Charlie who at some point, so a couple of things we're going to get in today. Charlie and I went on a gallivant last night with some friends.
One of our friends was kidnapped. I heard a story about a lunatic strength coach.
That happened last night. What else happened last night, Charlie? That was crazy.
We don't have to get into the story specifically, but we can tease them for later. I feel like you think less of me now.
Damn. No, no.
I just got to know you more. Multitudes.
Everybody has these stories. Did Charlie have a Sam Rockwell and White Lotus type of night? No.
I heard that yesterday's show was a lot of sports talk, and I heard that the series is even right now. But yesterday's show was a run-the-ball day, sort of like ground and pound, like let's tie it up the ugly way.
And today is going to be like a, we're feeling good, we're going to kind of play our style ball now. Is that what I heard? I mean, we got to see what the defense gives us.
We're not desperate enough for a flea flicker. Save that for maybe Thursday or Friday.
You start the game off, let them know. We got John Fantas coming on later in the show to talk to us about the tournament, so that's a run-the-ball situation.
We got David Sampson, which is always fun. I love David Sampson.
He makes me seem so smart. He's the best.
But I think at some point we're going to get to Steph Curry hitting a ridiculous amount of threes. But I think we got to start with what Jokic did last night in double overtime, a 61-point triple-double.
He's insane. All the shots in the paint look like they're mistakes, but they always somehow go in.
He's incredible. The passing, and I was watching the highlights of that game this morning because it was on way too late for me, but Charlie was still up.
He couldn't sleep because he's a Jokic head. Yeah, I mean, got home and it was double overtime against the Timberwolves.
Jokic was unconscious, but I don't know. I mean, I wonder what you think about this, too.
Is the lead for you Jokic or Russell Westbrook, who we've talked about all year? He's tempered his rust. He's deferred to Jokic in seemingly every big moment to the point where he's almost overpassing.
And then with 17 seconds left, the Wolves turn it over. Russell Westbrook smokes the layup rather than dribbling the ball out to get fouled.
Up by one. But he doesn't give up.
Russ always has motor. And he fouls to kill Alexander Walker with .1 seconds left after complaining for a call.
I don't know if you guys saw the reverse angle. After he smokes the layup, he just stands there and sits in it for a little bit.
As action is going, they're playing. And he's just like, yeah, I might have just blown that game.
And then he gets the idea, like, I'm going to make up for this. And he runs.
And the craziest part is watching the TNT broadcast when the foul happens. They're like, oh my god, there's a foul on the buzzer.
And they just centered in on Peyton Watson going like this. And I was like, oh, Peyton, man.
Like, come on, buddy. You've got to earn your spot.
You can't make mistakes like that in the clutch. And then I showed the replay.
I was like, that wasn't him. Why you guys focused on him? Because he looked shocked.
I'm sure everybody looked shocked on the team. Why you focused on him? It was a cagey vet, the guy who's been there, been in all the moments, the guy who is accustomed to being blamed for teams coming short of their championship expectations.
Well, obviously last night wasn't a championship moment. It felt like a playoff level game.
It was one of the better games of the season so far with the Nuggets taking on the Wolves. I don't know if you know this, the playoffs have already started.
In the NBA, the playoffs have already started. All of these games have stakes.
Every single game has stakes. And so there's no, well, let me just get them next week or whatever.
Like, everyone needs to win. Denver's chasing Houston for the two-seed and the right to not play whoever's six, which is probably going to be the Warriors.
And so this was an incredibly important game for them. At the same time for the Timberwolves, they're trying to move up, and they're now tied with Memphis for 6-7.
They lose a tiebreaker, but everybody was playing for something, and that's what made that game so incredible and so compelling, both of those games, really. Those games are particularly interesting, and those guys are playing for something.
There are some teams in the league that are playing to lose also. But I'm not going to get negative into tanking.
At some point, I think I've got to solve for tanking. We're going to get to that later.
But I do appreciate the fact that we're at a point in the season where all the games matter and we're locked in. They're playing hard.
You go double overtime. Steph is doing Steph things.
And in that particular game, the thing that stood out to me was I was shocked at how many big shots Aaron Gordon hit, big threes. And I was like, let me look up, because that was always the thing on Aaron Gordon was like, he couldn't be a number one in part because of his ability.
Well, I mean, you looked at me like I was stupid. They pushed him as a number one in Orlando.
Don't act like they didn't try. You can't be a number two in a playoff team.
Don't act like they didn't try to trick us into Aaron Gordon being a number one. They wasn't tricking us.
They were doing the thing that you do. And you invite people over and all you have is is this futon from Ikea.
Yeah, I just got this new cushion right here, these new seat cushions just to spruce it up a little bit. And you're like, oh, yeah, that's really nice, man.
It really brings color out. But we all know, like, damn, bro, you broke.
You broke. That was what was happening.
I was setting this up to be a compliment to Eric Gore. That's not what I meant.
I set it up improperly. What kind of furniture is Jokic? Oh, man.
That's a sectional with the USB plugs in them. Ooh.
Right? And the cup holders? And the cup holders. And that little, like, that pocket thing where I can put my remote control in it.
It's honestly doing too much, that couch. What? Huh? It's not doing enough.
I don't need it all. I don't need an outlet.
What? Oh, man. You know how many times I have to reach over? I gotta charge my phone.
Hold on. You guys aren't on the portable charger game? I'm in the portable charger.
I don't want to plug my couch in. I don't do the thing from the couch anymore.
Those things are bad. A month in, they're not even working anymore.
Oh, for real? I don't have one. I have my couch.
I had a what this is. I had like a charger thing plugged in and like I was into it.

And then two months later, it just stopped working.

So this is what this is.

This is really just you railing against the furniture salesman who bent you over a barrel and showed you 50 seats.

But I do like the portable charger.

My wife has like 50 of these things.

So now like I rarely even use the wall chargers anymore.

I just I'm walking around with my portable charger.

And then when I leave the house, I plug the portable charger.

You know what I don't like about the portable charger?

I got to charge it. Yeah.
I'm guessing Chris's wife does that. Yeah.
You want a solar portable charger? Yeah. I mean, just something like maybe like dynamic or something like kinetic energy.
You could run. You could run down to see, shake it up.
Speaking of running, Taylor, he might get embarrassed today because I walked in this morning, and that fool Taylor was eye-mean. I you know about this.
I mean, but yesterday, yeah, yesterday Taylor was out here popping a little a little talking a little cash to me like he could beat me in a race. And I was like, I'm not trying to race because I don't want to get injured like my guy at the Hawks game.
Yeah, I don't I don't want to get injured like my guy at the Hawks game.

But anyway, I walk in here and Taylor looking at me

like I'm a kid.

Like, yeah.

Lynch?

Relax, Kelvin Sampson.

You can't run with me.

Chill out, young Tay-Tay.

And then, so he's sizing me up.

So I'm sizing him up.

And I have even more confidence

after I sized him up.

Because I didn't check out, like we

saw his shoulders and arms, but today

he was looking at me like he wanted to race me.

So I had to check out the engine.

Taylor ain't got no donk. He can't run.

He ain't got no engine. He ain't got no cakes.

You can't fly if you ain't got no cakes.

I'm sorry this is uncomfortable. I don't mean to objectify

you, Taylor, but I know this

from when I was being scouted.

The coaches and the scouts... Check your ass yeah they check they start i remember my dad turn around boy my dad wasn't a very um good athlete but he um obviously was very involved in me getting recruited and i went to like my first combine when i was in a sophomore in high school and the coaches were standing next And my dad, like, man, yeah.
I mean, he's going to be a good player. He's explosive.
And he got real nice hips. And I remember my dad was like, you know what school you're not going to? That one.
He talking about how you got nice hips. I'm like, no, dad.
It means I turned well or whatever. He was very confused.
No, no. Your dad was right.
Anyone compliments my child's hips? Yeah, we're ending that conversation right then and there. I mean, that's a football thing.
You'll hear, if you listen to draft stuff, you'll hear a hip. I'm sure you'll hear it even worse.
Here's the thing. What's the worst thing? You know, here's the thing.
98% of the time, you're probably right. It was just a football remark.
But then there's that 2%, right? Do you really want to risk that 2%? And then everyone will be like, well, the man did tell you he was complimenting the hips. And you were like, yeah, thanks.
Instead of doing something about it. No, you can't take that.
You cannot. It reminds me, I watched that docuseries about all the things that were happening at Nickelodeon behind the scenes to those poor children or whatever.
And one of the kids, his dad was really kind of involved. And he was like, no, always picking him up, always on top of things.
Then he ended up having a divorce. And the mom was getting custody.
and and it was like no like always picking them up always on top of things then he ended up having a divorce and the mom was getting custody the mom was like fully into the Hollywood mom life and just dropping the kid off and leaving them be and so years later the scandal comes out man these kids got you know messed with or whatever and the dad is watching the news with his son and he's like man see I'm glad i kept you away from all of them turned out his son was one of them yeah so like you don't want to be that dad thinking like oh yeah i did everything right and then yeah my dad stood in the way and i did not go down to school not because of that but i think that it's part of it is that you you're probably right but I've been around football so much that some of the lingo in football

is comfortable to me.

I wonder what the basketball – because y'all ain't better than us.

Wait, was that Penn State or is it what that workout was?

No, it was not.

That's a Sandusky joke, folks.

That's right.

That's how we're doing it.

Flea flicker.

We started this game with a flea flicker.

Oh, man. The basketball equivalent.
Yeah, is there a basketball equivalent terminology? Because that was definitely, we talked about high hips, loose hips, nice hips. There's butt conversations.
It's always butt conversation in football because that's where your power is from. And speed, there's like, yeah, he's got a good butt.
You can hear coaches say that. Same in baseball.
Like all the power from hitting, right here, baby. Right here.
There's no basketball equivalent. You guys are too evolved for that.
You are the most progressive sport, they say. Yeah, well, you know, we don't objectify our players.
We say, got a nice personality, that kid. That's what we say.
A hardworking fella. Also, got nice open hips.
Open hips. Okay, so open isn't objectifying.
Do you believe, so watching Steph in the Warriors, well, in the Warriors is the right way to phrase it after last night. Steph went for 52-10, 8-5 with 12 threes versus Memphis.
I've been hesitant to accept the fact that Jimmy Butler has taken this team to being a legitimate title contender, but I have the dream here, a real NBA expert to let me know, should I be serious? Because I know they're better. I know they're not, they're going to be a tough out, but I have a hard time convincing myself that they haven't, they actually have a chance to win another title this year.
Should I be, should I, should I change my opinion on that? They have a chance, change your opinion if they have a chance to win another title this year. Should I change my opinion on that? They have a chance? Change your opinion on if they have a chance? I mean, they obviously have a chance.
I mean, I'm not talking about like a mathematical chance in the same way the Timberwolves have a chance of winning a championship. They have a legitimate chance, yes.
Are there obstacles? Hell yes, there are obstacles in that way. And chief among them is they don't have a lot of size, right?

Like they're playing Quentin Post, who before this season,

no one even had heard that name before.

Trace Jackson Davis has fallen out of the rotation to some extent.

Kevon Looney is 700 years old, and yet somehow not 30, I don't believe.

He's got 700-year-old knees, it would appear.

He's old and young at the same time.

Doesn't have open hips.

No. Them hips close early.
His hips close early. They're not 24 hours.
And then you got Draymond and Jimmy Butler playing undersized pretty much, which they're all tough and they bring some to the table, but at some point you run into someone who's just big. And when you look at the western conference that's it whether it's yokich or uh you know chet holmgren and and uh isaiah hartnstein or even someone like shangun right like you're gonna have problems you're gonna have to see one of those guys on the ascent maybe even multiple and are are they you're saying okay my guys are tough enough and smart enough and experienced enough because a lot a lot of people don't realize guys like Moses Moody and Kaminga like they won a championship too they've been around I just I don't know I'm not I don't know enough to say oh no no you're nuts but also not like yeah man put it the Warriors.
This is so, one of the things about the NBA that people complain about is how the style of play has become a bit homogenous. But I can say when you look at the Western Conference, it does feel like there's some, like, eclectic roster constructions that is kind of interesting to see those things clash, like from what the Timberwolves have to the Warriors.
Like, is there a chance that the warriors could small ball their way past some of these teams because like that is always the the hang-up for the warriors or excuse me not for the warriors for the timberwolves or for a go bear center team is like is he gonna get taken off the floor the thunder i guess like chet can run well enough and they're so damn there the thunder is the perfect team it's's like you're talking about your right. There are a bunch of – like, every team I look at in the West is like, yeah, what about this? What about that? Look at the Thunder.
I'm like, nah, y'all got it, man. Like, I have no notes.
I mean, the criticism, I guess, that I've heard about the Thunder, and you could let me know if this is accurate or not, is very reliant on one specific player who is also very reliant on the referees blowing the whistle in certain situations. Well, I wouldn't say he's reliant.
I think he plays a way that makes it very hard to guard him. Right.
And either you're going to give up a shot that you don't feel comfortable giving up, or you're going to foul. Right? so well it's not but it's it always drives me insane when people

are like to give up a shot that you don't feel comfortable giving up, or you're going to foul, right?

So, it always drives me insane when people are like,

oh, the refs.

No, he's getting fouled.

He's getting fouled because he plays at a pace,

and if you think about all the guys that are great at drawing fouls,

that are not like Giannis, that are just because. Talking about SDA, Shea Gillespie Alexander.

Shea Gillespie Alexander, James Harden, Luka Doncic,

Jalen Brunson.

What do all those guys

have in common?

They're not,

like one would think,

oh, the guy that's

blazingly quick

and jumping over everybody,

that's the guy

that everyone fouls.

No, it's the guy

that makes you play down

at their pace.

They know how to

slow it down

and stop

and speed up

in small windows

and that's what gets unruly defenders off balance and makes them foul. But, like, to me, it's not like watch me fool the refs one more time.
No, he's getting fouled. And he's getting fouled because you have no recourse.
Yeah. I mean, and I guess my point, you're right.
I don't mean to say that he's like a foul grifter. Like the fouls are genuine.
But it is a part of his game. And the reason why I've heard that that should give me some concern is like the refs don't call every game consistently.
And then in the clutch, when you need those plays, the refs tend to swallow their whistles in those situations. Or their wishers.
Or their wishers. And they don't have, like, a true secondary, like, playmaker in a way that you would expect them.
Well, isn't that the bigger question? More than, like, Shea at this point. We expect him to be awesome in the playoffs.
But the question is more Jalen Williams and Chet and if they're going to play really well consistently as a second and third option. My guy, JDub, man.
I can't believe you sitting here doubting doubting J-Dub, man. Look, you're right.
The game plan the game plan, which is always my favorite thing about the NBA. It's the difference between the NBA and the NFL.
In the NFL, you guys have a game plan. It's a secret.
Don't let anyone know what the game plan is. It's a game plan.
Oh my God, what are they doing? Our heads are exploding. The NBA is like, hey man, you want our game plan? Here it is.
The opponent, here, take it. Take a look at it.
Now stop it. Try and stop it.
The game plan is we're going to get the ball out of Shea's hand. We're going to throw two at him.
We're going to make someone else beat us. We're going to see how much if we can go to the well to J-Dub again and again and again and him and Chet, how much they can continue to convert before it dissipates on them, right? The reality is Shea Gilsey's Alexander leads the league in scoring like 33 points a game.
Eight of those points come from the free throw line. So he's still scoring 25 a game not getting to the free throw line.
Again, it's so easy to say,

just take Shea out the board, and then what are you going to do?

All right, go ahead.

There you go.

Here you go.

Here's my game plan.

Now take him out the board.

Yeah, it's impossible to eliminate him,

similar to the way that it's impossible to eliminate Jokic.

You just try to get him in situations where you're more comfortable

or where you think he is not as comfortable.

It's why in the NBA, a much more successful tactic when you see these amazing offensive

players is the opposite.

Let him get whatever he wants.

But nobody else breathes.

That's way more common because, again, 60 points last night aside, the idea is that

nobody can continue to do that over the course of 48 minutes and also still be in the game and also still be able to defend and all those things. Folks, listen up.
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Amino Hassan. Stugatz.
Amino Hassan. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stuttgart.
That's why those players are so valuable, which is why there's another story of the NBA that's kind of been percolating. We know how valuable those star players are, which is why the NBA is the league of tankers.
If there's such a thing, there's no other league where I feel like it makes more sense to, to tank than an NBA because the value of a player like that is so huge. And so there were a couple of articles yesterday, one of which on ESPN about the league's initiatives to try to address tanking.
The big one by Mike Vorkanoff on the athletic, where where he started a four-part series about ways to address tanking. Because it's not even saying that the process Sixers are happening.
It's just that earlier in the season, 15, 20 games less, we're seeing teams like the Sixers play a Delaware 87ers roster. Can I run down the Sixers roster? So Quentin Grimes is balling.
He's the player, the name that you know. Then they got Lonnie Walker IV, Aden Bona, Justin Edwards, Ricky Council.
Also the fourth. To the fourth.
Clyde mentioned that on the broadcast, but isn't Lonnie Walker, his siblings are named Lonnie? First of all, I was like, why would you be listening? Oh, yeah, that's right.

It's terrible.

I don't want to talk about it.

I do love Clyde.

That was his 80th birthday on Sunday.

Let me tell you something.

That's how I did well on the SAT Verbal.

Hannah Gott, listening to Walt Clyde Frazier because he would say things, serendipitous bounce on the left side.

Like, what does serendipitous mean?

Oh, the Knicks are in their Shangri-La and their Xanadu.

I'm like, what's a Xanadu? How do you even spell it? All those words came up in my SAT verbal. Shout out to Walt Clyde Frazier.
Okay, it's not Lonnie Walker. I think it might be Ricky Council.
Oh. I'll get on this.
There you go. He's the fourth because he has other brothers? So it's not like...
It was described as a George Foreman situation on the broadcast. And together they form Pretty Ricky.
Yes, Council's two older brothers are also named after his father, Ricky Council. Both Ricky Council 2 and Ricky Council 3 also played college basketball.
Wow. Together they form Pretty Ricky.
Grind with me. Our first show, we learned about, or we discussed a little bit about naming conventions in families.
Man, hold on. Leroy and G-Roy.
Hold on, man. G-Roy's a great Maryland receiver.
Let me just say right now, there is nobody I want to see on the playground after I done called someone, and then here come Leroy and G-Roy. What you say about my mama? Like, that's those are bullies, right? That's the name of twin bullies that come out.
It's Leroy and G-Roy. They definitely seem like the characters from a 90s cartoon that were always causing havoc that the gang had to get away from.
And then they always refer to each other by their name. Ain't that right, Leroy? Hell yeah, G-Roy.
Leroy and G-Roy. Are there, so, we talked about this on my show a little bit yesterday, and I kind of fumbled into what I thought was a reasonable tanking solution.
So I want to hear, I'll throw this to you. I think when we are talking about creating incentives, that's the problem, is the teams are incentivizedized.
Like the 76ers need to lose enough games so that they are in the bottom six so they retain their draft pick. This is not just tanking for a draft pick.
When you have these protected pick trades, which I think with OKC, the 76ers have a trade, they need to lose enough games just to keep their draft pick. And so you want to create some sort of structure that eliminates the incentive to lose.
But why that's not a full solve for tanking is because you also need to create some incentive to win. And because you could just be like, all right, we're out of this.
All right, being the worst doesn't get us a better chance. But why would I put my good players out there if we're not going to make the playoffs? We have no chance.
They could get hurt. Okay, so you hit on exactly the point.
The point isn't that the incentive to lose is too great. It's that it's not greater than the incentive to win, right? And so I've heard things where like, yo, we should have a tournament of all the teams that don't make the playoffs, and then that's the team that gets the number one pick.
I said, okay, so you basically just incentivize whoever's in the bottom of the playoff picture and be like, do I really want my head beaten in by the Cavs or the Thunder, or do I want to go get Cooper Flat? So, like, if that were the rule right now, that's what I would accuse the Miami Heat of doing, of tanking so that they miss the playoffs so they can then go run roughshod on Washington and Charlotte and all those teams. I like this idea.
Let's do this. So the problem is, as you said, it's the incentive does not match, right? I think Philadelphia is a bad example because they are specifically in a weird spot where they wanted to win.
They entered the season wanting to win games, wanting to win a championship. And even as late as maybe January, they were like, it could still happen, right, if we just get healthy at the right time.
And then injuries just pretty much cut them off at the knees. On top of that, they owe a pick to Oklahoma City.
Do you know why they owe that pick, by the way? No, Trey? Well, yes. Good one, Dominique.
About five years ago, maybe a little bit more, the Sixers had Al Horford on their roster. They paid him a bunch of money and like, it didn't work.
This is a bad move. We gotta get rid of him.
Who could take this salary out of our hands? And Oklahoma City was like, I'll take it for a couple of picks. And that's what it is.
And by the way, then OKC flipped him to Boston for some more picks. And he's still being productive.
Playing too many minutes for somebody his age right now, but he's still being productive. Guarding Luka on the perimeter in big moments.
So where we're at here is, to me, I think we solved the problem.

Five years ago, this shit was out of control.

Like, all-star break?

Nah, I'm tanking.

All these teams were going heavy.

Now, because of the play-in, you've extended the window of teams saying,

I could do it.

I could put something together.

And you know what Miami did two years ago has now given the play-in a different meaning. It's like, hey, it's not just the right to get your head bashed in.
Maybe it could be you, right? So, they have solved that for all but the four or five teams that are awful every year, which I think is kind of part of the process. Everyone needs bad teams.
I'm fine. They're going to be bad teams.
What I don't appreciate is when I look at the 76ers and they're giving DMPs to Kelly Oubre and it's like, play your best players. Try to have your best.
And even if it's just four teams, I feel like at least, and I'm normally not one who, I'm going to defend the players most of the times, but I have found myself becoming a little bit more sympathetic and a lot more sympathetic to fans where it's like, look, we got a whole

damn season.

This is my team.

Y'all not even trying?

No, I'm serious.

I like the idea of you, like, for years, Dominique was like, if them fans, man, just pay me my

check.

And then, like, a couple of years removed from retiring, like, is this what you guys

have been witnessing?

This is preposterous.

I don't know. man just pay me my check and then like a couple years removed from retiring like is this what you guys have been witnessing this whole this is preposterous it's not because that's not what we do in football so like i haven't had there's and you can't create the same situation in football because 82 games means money we're never going to go down to fewer games because i think that would help uh in a situation it's none of that stuff right it in football it's a very simple system that creates that.
It's not the scarcity of games. It's the scarcity of guaranteed dollars, right? So everybody is kind of clawing at this pot of money.
Right. I would disagree with that because I think the scarcity of guaranteed dollars may motivate the players, but that's not what motivates the teams.
What motivates the teams is a couple different things. I think it's the complexity

of the game of football. Football

is not a game where you can get one player

in the same way that basketball. You get one

player, it's worth it because that

will turn your team around. I think football, we've

never really seen that happen.

It's so rare. And even all the great quarterbacks

that we talk about,

I guess... But Aaron Rodgers, he turned the Jets around.
Exactly. Full 360.
Case in point. And I think it's because of the complexity.
That's for the math nerds. Case of the complexity of football is the reason why.
So many times we're like, we know this team's going to be good. We know that.
And you can't do it. You have to build up.
The teams that are consistently good are teams that build up that type of culture and are good continuously. I don't think that if you remove guaranteed contracts from basketball that you would get a better product because the teams would still be incentivized to create DMPs or to tell some guy who's never really been that good to go out there and get his numbers and they lose.
You have to remove that incentive. So there's a couple of things, right? Number one is the players, like the teams, when they play these guys, so let's use Philadelphia as an example, right? I don't know of any fan who's like, I bought tickets to Sixers-Knicks and then I found out Kelly Oubre was a DNP! How dare they? Like, the number of guys who actually, that move the needle on that, of like, I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth, is rather limited.
I think that's the backwards way of looking at that, though. Because it's not about Kelly Oubre.
It's the fact that if you're a Sixers fan and you get to see Jokic once a year when he comes to Philly, or Giannis, and it's when those guys are playing a dog-water Philly team that's playing their G League players. You know what, Giannis, we're going to give you the night off.
Yeah, I mean, again, I don't think that, for instance, the Bucs have that luxury or any of those teams. Giannis might not have been the best example.
No, but I'm just saying, look up and down all the standings. I don't think that matters.
It's really easy. Like Cleveland, oh, they don't have to play that.
Yes, they do because they're tracing the number one overall seed. They want a home court advantage in the finals.
Denver, they're chasing two in Houston. Houston trying to keep Denver off their backs.
Lakers trying to move up to two or three. Warriors trying to stay out of seven, eight.
Every single team every night at this point has a reason to play their guys other than if it's a back-to-back. It becomes a mitigated risk, right? So from that standpoint.
From the other standpoint, if I'm the Sixers, part of it, sure, it fits in with like, yeah, we want to lose these games. But the other part of it is, why am I going to play Kelly Oubre, who I know who he is? I know what he's about.
How do I figure out if Ricky Council is really good or not, right? The number of guys, so Miami did this for years with Kendrick Nunn, with Duncan Robinson, with Haywood Heisman. These are all guys who actually got called up the year before, right, at the end of the year, and they're like, all right, let's see what we got here.
Let's see what we got here. And then they come back and the next year, like this guy's in a rotation.
I never heard of him. Yeah, he's been here.
But like you, you didn't realize it. So I think the, we, I don't think we need to argue whether it's a problem or not.
The perception is out there in whether you're playing. That's the problem.
No, no, no, no, no. That's if you want to talk about what the NBA's problem is, is that we allow perception.
But it's league. That's trying to pretend as if it's only perception.
It is. It's also fact.
Teams are tanking. Let's not.
Come on, I mean. Teams aren't tanking.
It's not a problem, though. It is a problem.
Why is it a problem? Because the game that we got last night, the games where we get where people are trying, are a better product. The idea that it's okay to have some distributors of of your product say you know what we are going to continuously purposely put out a trash version of the product stinks that's not a good precedent to set and as the precedent has been set that's not a good culture to to indulge chris you ever been a mcdonald's and they told you the mcflurry machine wasn't working hate that every time you go to make i still i'm not sure what that was so what some McDonald's and they told you the McFlurry machine wasn't working? Hate that.
Every time you go to McDonald's. I still eat McDonald's.
I'm not sure what that was. Some McDonald's don't have a working McFlurry machine.
Do we boycott the McDonald's? No, we still eat. We still eat, man.
We still go. Okay, give me a two cheeseburger meal and some nuggets on the side.
Maybe that $5 meal that comes with all this stuff in there. I really like McDonald's.
That's such backwards thinking to me. No, it's not backwards thinking.
It is backwards. So hold on.
Everyone's thinking backwards. Can I ask you a question? Would you like the NBA better if no one tanked? If everyone tried their hardest? I don't think it would make a difference.
Okay. Like, I don't think it would make a difference.
It absolutely would make a difference. I don't think.
Washington is playing all its guys. Do you care? No, I think that people, teams construct their, or organizations construct teams based on the fact that they are incentivized to be terrible.
I think we will be looking at a different NBA. I think we all accept that the NBA is more talented than it's ever been.
But we know that some teams are like, you know what? We need to be really bad right now. We construct a roster that way.
We bench players and we have games that are non-competitive that no one cares about. I guess I wanted to get into some of the solves for tanking, but I somehow found the one man in America who thinks that tank is not an issue.
Even the league, even Adam Silver wants them to stop tanking, but you're like, no, it's cool. We don't need McFlurries.
We're doing 2019 sports talk right now. It's not an issue.
And the only reason why people are talking about it this year, because I don't remember anybody opening their mouth even halfway to talk about this. The only reason why it's this year is because there's a guy who's coming out that everyone is tantalizing over.
And when you got a guy like that, everyone is going to look at every single action as, see, they're tanking for flag again. Like, no, it's just sometimes this shit is cyclical and bad teams are just bad.
And whether they play a player who wouldn't start on 30 NBA teams or not, does not change the product, right? The other thing you're assuming, Mr. I love the players, is you're saying that, like, who the hell are these guys? Man, there might be another guy coming in.
One of these guys is playing, getting that time. Agreed.
There might be a guy in there. That doesn't mean that you should intentionally break the McFlurry machine.
What are we talking about? Everybody loves McFlurries. You're like, who cares? I don't need a McFlurry.
No, my point is this, is the McFlurry machine is not working in some McDonald's. That doesn't make you stop going to the McDonald's.
But if you are the McDonald's with a bad McFlurry machine, you're better. You think their sales go down? You want to go mix it? If you want a McFlurry, you'd go to McFlurry.
You might discover another item, though. There could be other items there.
This is horse poop. Speaking of the NBA and people who are not performing that well, there's a guy in Atlanta.
We were talking yesterday a bit about how I was not going to race Taylor because I didn't want to get injured. So I was talking trash to Taylor, but then I saw this video pop up on my socials and now I'm no longer sure that I want to embarrass Taylor in a race today.
This is the partner. Was this guy tanking is the real question.
Hit, tack, go! Oh! That's a blown-out hit, right? Oh, no! Hold on! Let's make sure my guy is good. That's the announcer.
Yeah. Oh, man.
Other guy just continuing to perform. It's Bagman.
It's not really a fair game at this point. Was that bad sportsmanship to keep playing? Hell no.
You don't think they would have just... What was the prize on this? Ragman.
For the audio audience, there's two people competing. They're doing the thing where they have to go make a layup, and then they can come back and play tic-tac-toe.
And one guy tears his ACL and is just laying down. And the other guy continues playing.
We're not sure that he tears his ACL, are we? Allegedly. But here's the thing.
He goes to check on him and she turns and looks at the camera and goes, yikes, like she's working on the office or something. What are you doing? Like, you gotta vamp.
You gotta got a vamp that whole time. You got to be like, hey, man, hope you're doing all right.
We're going to get you to take care of it. How is this her fault? I mean, did I say it's your fault? You're finding fault in her being like, oh, no, I don't know what to do.
This has never happened before. You got a microphone.
Oh, you got to keep talking. cop keep feeling you can't just look at the camera go like oh defender of tanking hater of women i mean the dream i mean do we know he's actually hurt or is that like i'm embarrassed so let me lay down and pretend i have a serious face this is wild another reason why you keep vamping you make Go ahead.
Stand up. She goes, let's make sure my guy is good.
What could she possibly have done wrong here? The part where she's just silent and the guy goes to go check on the other guy. And she's like, oops.
Dang is also not vamping, by the way. Dang.
Dang. I mean, it's an in-game thing.
It's not on television. 60 seconds.
They got to go. There's 20,000, hold on, it's in Atlanta.
There's 12,000 people in that building. That guy's fine.
I guess maybe you should have some protocol. It's like, it's not a crazy thing.
It's not like the building got hit by a meteor. Like, we got old people trying to do sporting events.
In her mind, she could be like, maybe, possibly, what do I do? And somebody blows out a knee, and then it happens. Do you remember The Dark Knight Rises? Remember that scene where Hines Ward is running and the whole field blows up? I remember.
There you go. Now, what you haven't seen is the director's cut in which the in-arena announcer keeps going, keeps going.
That isn't thrown up. A mean was right, and that in-stadium announcer was a man.
That's it. Yeah, I just was happy that it wasn't a mean embarrassing himself playing basketball.
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