Clippers Cut CP3, Breakout Players, OKC's Motivation w/ Pierre Andresen

Summary

No Dunks – December 3, 2025

Episode: “Clippers Cut CP3, Breakout Players, OKC's Motivation w/ Pierre Andreessen”

Main Theme / Purpose

This episode brings Pierre “Peewee the Plug” Andreessen (from Numbers on the Board/Teed Up Podcast) into the No Dunks circle for a wide-ranging NBA discussion. The crew dissects the shock Chris Paul/Clippers separation, identifies breakout NBA players a quarter into the season, explores the ever-more impressive Oklahoma City Thunder, discusses the future of teams like the Hawks, and celebrates their guest’s rise in the sports media world. Listener interactions, friendly roasting, and some deep NBA nerdery (including Pierre’s unmatched collegiate hoops trivia knowledge) make this an engaging primetime basketball pod.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Chris Paul’s Abrupt Clippers Exit

[03:00–10:00]

• Breaking News: Clippers cut Chris Paul (CP3) in the middle of his “farewell tour,” announced via a 3am social media post from Chris himself, with the official team statement trailing afterward.
• Reaction: Panelists are collectively baffled and disappointed, unsure whether CP3 wanted out or if he was scapegoated for a disastrous start (5–16) despite being a third-string guard.
• Insight from Pierre Andreessen:

  “I’ve been baffled with the Clippers the whole season…but the Chris Paul move was very weird…I’m still fiening for more info before I start to speculate, which I have no problem doing by the way.” (03:37–03:57)

• Transparency Critique: Pierre and Skeets agree the lack of specifics in the team’s statement is disrespectful to both CP3 and the fans.
• What’s Next for CP3?
  • Pierre sympathizes with fans hoping to see CP3’s farewell and speculates:

    “I wouldn’t mind if Chris Paul was petty and went to the Lakers…He should be able to go out on a better behalf than a three o’clock in the morning release.” (09:21–09:58)

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2. NBA Breakout Players, Team Surprises, and Awards Race

[10:48–18:56]

• Breakout Player Picks:
  • Jalen Johnson (Hawks): Pierre’s first choice for “breakout” and potential first-time All-Star. Jalen Duren (Pistons) is a runner-up.

    “To see him kind of emerge in a time where the Hawks were struggling…he’s looking like a first time all star, potentially all NBA...” (10:48–11:55)

  • Jalen Duren: Praised for his growth; both are “borderline locks” for All-Star consideration as per Pierre.
• Most Improved Player Race:
  • Nikhil Alexander-Walker (Hawks): Surging into MIP contention, with a scoring leap and efficiency increase.

    “The scoring numbers for Nikhil Alexander-Walker have like doubled…got more efficient. That’s probably…one of the tighter award races here through the quarter mark of the season.” (17:19–17:36)

  • Other Mentions: Deni Avdija (Wiz), Jalen Duren.
• Atlanta Hawks Dilemma:
  • Without Trae Young, Atlanta aren’t worse, and the panel discusses the plausible trade scenarios and whether he can re-integrate or needs to be moved in the off-season.

    “This is like almost a death sentence for stars for the team to thrive without them…” (12:52–13:49)

• Other Pierre “Victory Lap” Calls:
  • Jalen Johnson again, Spurs being set for a rise (before Wemby’s injury), Celtics continued strength, the Knicks (“looking real good”), and the Raptors showing unexpected fight.

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3. The Surging Oklahoma City Thunder: Motivation & Historic Start

[45:30–54:44]

• Headline: Thunder improve to 21–1 with a win over the Warriors, still flying slightly under the national media radar.
• SGA’s Leadership:

  “He scored 38 points and took over down the stretch… Even in these close games, you’ve got the MVP, one of the best clutch shooters in the game.” (47:18–52:17)

• OKC Depth & Motivation:
  • SGA, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams all shine in crunch time.
  • Panel discusses if OKC can challenge for 70+ or even 74 wins, echoing the 2015–16 Warriors.
  • Thunder’s championship motivation is underscored as SGA “takes it personally” and the team is even-keeled (“They just, they're so even-keel and they'll get there to the end…” – Tas, 54:25).
• OKC’s X-Factor:
  • Depth means they could withstand injuries better than most juggernauts, but SGA’s singular brilliance in close games is still irreplaceable.

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4. Pierre’s Personal NBADom: Knicks Fandom, NBC/Peacock Move & Media Life

[23:01–38:29]

• Origin Story: Pierre, a Chicago native, explains his Knicks passion:

  “I grew up thinking I was going to the NBA…The next best thing was the Knicks. I would create myself in NBA 2K…It wasn’t jumping on a bandwagon, they sucked! …And then they got good and had some of my favorite players.” (23:13–24:19)

• NBC/Peacock Move:
  • Pierre gushes about the increased work, energy, and “surreal” moments (including visits from Chicago Sun-Times, seeing Michael Jordan at work, and parent approval!).

  • “Just being on NBC is surreal... The NBC move is like the thing that got my parents. They were like, oh, oh, this is real.” (29:02–30:16)

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5. High-level Nerdery: Pierre’s NCAA to NBA College Quiz

[36:33–41:11]

• Game Segment: The crew quizzes Pierre on obscure and new NBA players’ colleges. He flexes deep NCAA knowledge, rattling off schools for Daniss Jenkins, Naquan Tomlin, Mo Gueye, etc., missing only the deepest cuts.

  “You got me. You got me. University of California, Riverside. Never even heard of it.” (39:07–39:12)

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6. More NBA Musings & Roundup

[57:36–66:24]

• Other Standouts:
  • Celtics hold off Knicks, led by Jaylen Brown’s scoring explosion (42 points). Debate on the “Jalen” All-Stars.

    “He actually started like garbage…That to me is like, oh, yeah, that’s a guy, that is a superstar. Proving his point.” (58:06–63:25)

  • Raptors outlast Blazers, with Scotty Barnes starring.
  • Harrison Barnes the “unsung” MVP for the Spurs.
  • Tyrese Maxey’s huge second half for the 76ers.

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7. Injury News & Real Talk: Zion Williamson’s Future

[74:11–78:56]

• Update: Zion has a grade 2 hip adductor strain, out at least three weeks.
• Panel’s Take:
  • “Time to move on.” – Kenny.
  • Pierre bluntly notes his value “has never been lower.”
• Front Office Realism:
  • Skeets questions if Zion might become a trade fallback for New Orleans, but the panel laments his likely declining value.
  • General consensus: It’s over; the Pels need to usher in a new era.

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8. Gallinari Retires & Tallest Volume Shooters Ever

[80:19–86:34]

• Gallinari (“the rooster”) retires after 14 NBA seasons.
• Classic moments (Melo trade, Denver years, sneaky athleticism), plus a trivia question: Which 6’10”+ players have hit more NBA threes? (Dirk, Durant, Kevin Love, Rashard Lewis, Peja).

• “He was more athletic than you might think…He looks like Robert De Niro, I think that’s important.” – Kenny (81:46–81:48)

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9. Memorable Quotes & Moments

Key Quotes (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• Pierre on the Clippers’ CP3 move:

  “...We can no longer have things like this happening and be so vague, in my opinion. And I think fan bases deserve more as well…Making these random in the middle of the night moves with such vague statements is kind of frustrating.” (03:55–05:10)

• Kenny on Chris Paul’s Clippers legacy:

  “Maybe Chris Paul's the second best, first best Clipper ever. Him and Blake Griffin and both of their tenures with LA have ended really poorly…This was supposed to be a celebration…and now it’s just a weird, weird ending.” (06:08–06:41)

• Pierre on player development and future stars:

  “The Spurs were really set to do something special...I hate seeing tall players with the injuries. Like, it scares me. And so anytime I see anything with Vick, I think further than just the season.” (18:58–20:05)

• Trey Kirby (Kenny) on Zion:

  “Time to move on. Yeah, trade him for anything, literally…How Many different versions of a team have there been built around Zion Williamson. How many different administrations?…If he gets healthy, like, you might look like fools…but I wouldn’t bet on it at this point.” (74:17–75:29)

• Tas on the Thunder’s greatness:

  “They literally could [set the wins record]…now, their depth showing up…How many guys have to be injured for that team to really expect them to lose?” (49:26–50:56)

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10. Fun, Games, and Banter

• Who’s the Best Hooper?

  Pierre: “It’s me. In my mind, ’cause I know all of them, it’s not even a question...These other three guys haven't even played varsity basketball. To me–there's not even a conversation." (32:16–33:25)

• Raising the Roof & NBA’s Playful Side: The guys reminisce about classic celebrations and inject humor throughout (like the OKC “cup win doesn’t count for regular season” scenario).
• Pierre’s Media Pinch Me Moment:

  “Just being on NBC is surreal. Oh, yeah…That was a—we've been with so many companies…The NBC move is like the thing that got my parents. They were like, oh, oh, this is real.” (29:02–30:16)

• Quote on Basketball Style:

  “I play more of that way, getting guys involved. But I do secretly love like a guy that just doesn’t care about being double-teamed…” (35:44–36:04, Pierre)

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• Clippers Cut Chris Paul: 03:10–10:00
• Breakout Players & MIP Race: 10:48–18:56
• Knicks Fandom/NBC Transition: 23:01–30:14
• Pierre College Trivia Segment: 36:33–41:11
• Thunder/Historic Start/Motivation: 45:30–54:44
• NBA Roundup/Celtics-Knicks, Raptors, Spurs: 57:36–66:24
• Zion Injury Reacts: 74:11–78:56
• Gallinari Retirement/Trivia: 80:19–86:34

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Conclusions/Summary

This No Dunks episode, bolstered by Pierre Andreessen’s infectious energy and hoops knowledge, delivered:

• An authentic, impassioned critique of NBA front office opacity (especially around aging legends);
• Sharp, original analysis on the Thunder’s historic start and team-wide motivation;
• Spotlights on a new generation of breakout stars in Atlanta and Detroit;
• Media industry tidbits and comedic asides that bond the basketball community;
• A healthy dose of basketball nerdery and trivia, keeping both hardcore and casual fans fed.

The tone is tight-knit and irreverent, but ready to break down the on-court action or dig into NBA organizational drama at a moment’s notice. Pierre “Peewee the Plug” Andreessen shines as a peer and a student of the game, building camaraderie with the No Dunks crew and audience alike.

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For Listeners Who Missed It:

• You’ll catch up on the latest NBA drama (CP3, Zion, OKC’s rise).
• Be entertained by deep player/award debates, spontaneous games, and all-time NBA/college trivia.
• Take away a bundle of memorable moments, inside jokes, and sincere takes on basketball culture and media.

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No Dunks continues to set the daily NBA podcast standard for insight, chemistry, and fun—especially with guests like Pierre who “embody basketball and friendship.”

Transcript

[Pierre Andreessen]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Tas Melas]

Guaranteed Human.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Holiday Doorbuster deals are on at Lowe's today only. Get select 1 quart poinsettias and select translucent plant saucers for $1 each. That means for a limited time you.

[Kenny]

Can decorate to get in the Christmas spirit for less.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Shop in store to make sure you don't miss out on big savings all day. But hurry, these offers won't last long. Loaves we help you save.

[Kenny]

Valid 1128 in store only.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Limit 16 per person. Selection varies by location while supplies last.

[Tas Melas]

This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. Football is back.

[Je Skeets]

That means it's tailgate time. And this season the only meat I'm going to grill is Dietz and Watson. I'm loving the Black Angus Dietz dogs. They're flavor packed and you can tell they are made with the highest quality ingredients. Sundays just got a whole lot better. Visit dietandwatson.com the right way to learn.

[Tas Melas]

More about the deets difference.

And Doug, here we have the Limu.

[Je Skeets]

Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating.

[Tas Melas]

It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Kenny]

Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Je Skeets]

Cut the camera.

[Tas Melas]

They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Je Skeets]

Liberty Savings. Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Affiliates excludes Massachusetts.

Good morning, sweet world. And welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Wednesday, December 3, 2025. I'm Je Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me as always, Tas.

[Tas Melas]

Melas, basketball drama lovers. This one's for you.

[Je Skeets]

Next to him, it's my top shot, hot boy Trey Kirby.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Ayo.

[Je Skeets]

Ayo over yonder, making the magic happen. Super producer jd. Hello. There he is. And the boys are running fives today. Cause our special guest is co host of the Numbers on the Board podcast airing on NBC. And Peacock, he's the host host of his own spinoff podcast Teed Up. First time here on no Dunks. It's Pierre Peewee the Plug Andreessen. What's up, Pierre?

[Pierre Andreessen]

How y' all feeling, man? First of all, thank y' all for having me. We've been watching you guys and I say we as a podcast. We've been watching you guys from afar for a long time. I remember when we first started our podcast. Kenny put put all of us on to you guys. So to be here is kind of surreal moment. So I appreciate you guys having me on today.

[Je Skeets]

Well, this is a lot of fun. I know. The chat, the live stream, the stream team, as we call them, they're pumped for this collab.

[Pierre Andreessen]

We.

[Je Skeets]

We've had Kenny on now we got you. We'll make our way to D. Mills and Mike in the future here. But I know you just basically rolled out of bed and you said before you fell asleep you did see the Chris Paul news. So you've got some takes on this because this is wild. I'll set it up for everyone. Stunning overnight move. The Clippers announced that Chris Paul is no longer with the team. Like, what?

[Kenny]

See ya.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. So CP3 signified at about 2:40am Eastern time that the Clippers were letting him go. Posting on his Instagram stor. Just found out I'm being sent home with a piece emoji. And then reports say it wasn't Chris Paul's decision. And then we heard from Lawrence Frank. He had a big statement on them parting ways. So, Pierre, like, were you as baffled as the rest of us here with what went down last night and Chris Paul being sent home?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, I was extremely bad. First of all, I've been baffled with the Los Angeles Clippers the entire season, but the Chris Paul move was very, very weird. I'm still like, feinging for more information before I, like, start to speculate, which I have no problem doing, by the way.

But 5 and 16 start. I'm a guy that I will admit I thought this team was a legitimate playoff team. And when I say legitimate, I mean, like, no play in, like, one of the top six seeds in the conference. So to see this start with so much veteran presence, you know, and. And to watch how they're losing and why they're losing and a lack of communication, just a lack of overall effort from a, again, an older group was disappointing. And to see them make a move like this is almost a little bit more disappointing because Chris Paul really joined the team to kind of ease into retirement. He hasn't been really much of a factor. He doesn't play that much. So for them to kind of single him out. And then the Lawrence Frank statement was like, oh, this is not saying that Chris Paul is a reason for our disappointment. It's just confusing. And I think the NBA at this point, with so much technology, with all of us in the media now speaking on it, we can no longer have things like this happening and be so vague, in my opinion. And I think fan bases deserve more as well. When you have a 5 and 16 start and you're just making these random in the middle of the night moves with such vague statements is kind of frustrating as well. So we'll see what happens. I'm sure in the next five hours we'll get some more information, but definitely head scratching before. Before I lay my eyes down and go to bed.

[Kenny]

Yeah, I'm totally with you. Like the story's gonna come out. Whatever happened. Who knows? I mean, Chris Paul can be a prickly personality for sure, and he's probably one of the guys who's most upset with the way the Clippers season has gone. But the Lawrence Frank thing was weird about it because I personally hadn't even considered that Chris Paul not playing well this season had anything to do with the Clippers performance. They probably weren't expecting a lot out of him. No, but once he said it, I was like, wait a second, are you blaming Chris Paul for this? There's no way it's his fault. He's like gonna be your third string point guard. A lot of other things have gone poorly, but it is disappointing just to see. You know what? Maybe Chris Paul's the second best, first best Clipper ever. Him and Blake Griffin and both of their tenures with LA have ended really poorly on bad terms. And it doesn't seem like they will have fond feelings about their time there. This was supposed to be a celebration for Chris Paul. You know, he was gonna sort of ring chase where he really made his name, and now it's just a weird, weird ending.

[Je Skeets]

It's very weird. There's got to be more to this story. There has to be tests.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, but it's so puzzling. I can't decide if Chris Paul wanted out and demanded him to be released.

[Je Skeets]

The report says that's not the case.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, there's definitely a story to back why the Clippers would want him out. Or maybe they came to a mutual agreement because I can see it from Chris Paul's side. We're not winning. This is my last season. I want to go somewhere I can win. I'm not playing a lot. I'm not playing in fourth quarters. I'm having lots of disagreements with many things, many players, many coaches. As we've seen before in Chris Paul's career, a center, perhaps a James Harden, perhaps a Ty Lube, perhaps. Or was it the front office saying, hey, we don't need any of this friction. We need some reason to get better right here, right now, so you're out of here. That being said, it's so weird.

In the morning. Yeah, that's. That's why that's why I got the feeling that it could have been Chris Paul, because he was the first one to say it on social media before that release came out 20 minutes later, which was horrendous sort of text at 3am they couldn't wait till the morning for a PR person to put together a real email. That is, that is strange. And as Pete was saying at the beginning, with everything we got in basketball, we expect more than that. That was a very, was on the left of, of the release. Like, did you see it wasn't even centered. I mean, like the actual text was so strange.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, it's Lawrence Frank panicking, I assume at like, I gotta get this out three in the morning. Do you want to see Pierre like Chris Paul, I don't know, make his way to another team here? Because again, this is a guy that was riding the pine for a very bad team, like you said. But it was his farewell tour. Like people in Atlanta here may have been going down to the fortress tonight, potentially to see Chris Paul play his final game in Atlanta. I mean, I know they go to Memphis soon and maybe obviously we'll have some more games there. And that's not happening now.

[Tas Melas]

And we're a few hours away from Charlotte, from his home. That's what I mean.

[Je Skeets]

That's what I mean. So that's cut off. Do you think he goes to another team though, here in his final year?

[Pierre Andreessen]

That's such a great question. I hope so, because again, like you mentioned, this was supposed to be kind of like the ring chase and he wanted to play the season out and this was a big commitment for him. He talked a lot about in the off season, whether he was going to go through with it. He wanted to be around his family. It was a hard decision, you know, to see the kids get older and not necessarily be there.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

And this was supposed to reunite with the Clippers. So I don't, I, I honestly don't know. I would love to see him maybe go somewhere, but at the same time he's not playing. And again, I just me speculating. I believe Chris Paul was probably in the locker room or in practice, is trying to hold guys accountable. But it's also Chris Paul who is not playing. And some of the guys are probably like, who is he to say anything when you don't even play? And this probably was an ego thing. So I don't know if you can go through that and want to go to another team. Because if we're being honest, there's no team where Chris Paul is magically playing 30 minutes a night.

[Je Skeets]

No. No.

[Pierre Andreessen]

And so because of that, does Chris Paul want to go through this again? I. I wouldn't mind if Chris Paul was like, petty and went to the Lakers. You know what I mean? Like, okay, I'll go right across the street. So I want to see him kind of finish out what he started. I know, like you talked about people going to these last games for him.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I believe Kenny was thinking about, like, going to a Bulls Clippers game.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

For Chris. So, like, yeah, this is something that fans deserve. Chris Paul is an hall of Famer. He's given a lot to the game. He should be able to go out on a better, better behalf than like a three o' clock in the morning release.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, for sure. We'll. We'll learn more, I assume, like you said, Pierre, in the next couple hours. I would hope we would. From either the Clipper side of things, from Chris Paul and his team. I guess parting ways. Being sent home means one of three things, too. Waiving his $3.6 million guaranteed contract, just eating the salary, working on some sort of trade. You could be sent home and then work on a trade come December 15 or a buyout of some sort. So we'll leave that right now as it is. Chris Paul being sent home on a road trip during his farewell tour by the Clippers. Wild stuff. Okay, let's get into some other things. Pierre, we're a quarter of the way through the NBA season. Let's start with this one for you. Who do you think's been the biggest breakout player for you through the first, you know, 20, 22 games?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Okay, so I'm biased, by the way. I would not lie. I'm extremely biased. I love people who love me and show me love. So my answer is gonna be Jalen Johnson of y' all Atlanta Hawks. That's my guy. And I've been a Jalen Johnson fan for a long time. And to see him kind of emerge in a time where the Hawks were struggling to. The Trey Young injury was at a very bad time for them because they were trying to figure things out. And then for them to collectively make this huge jump and for him to be the driving force, he's looking like a first time all star, potentially all NBA, if he can keep this level of play up. And I just think it sets the Atlanta Hawks up in a different trajectory than we projected. And that's with or without Trey Young. And for them to also own the Pelicans pick, this Atlanta Hawks team becomes a lot more Interesting to, you know, than what they look like at the beginning of the year. So Jalen Johnson and I also got to give a love to another Jalen. Jalen Duran with the Pistons. He's been a monster and what they've done to start the year has been super impressive, especially considering how they look two years ago. So those will be my two guys, but definitely biased towards my guy, Jalen Johnson out there in Atlanta.

[Je Skeets]

Are those those two guys that you would have on an all star team here? I know you just did a video on that picking your squad. We obviously have this weird international Americans thing. So that would be two Jalens that are American on your team. They're there for you.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, two. Two. Jalen's two first time all stars. And I at this point, I actually think those guys are borderline locks, if I'm being honest. Like they are playing that good.

[Kenny]

What do you think the Hawks should do with the Trey Young situation? Because at the very least they're not worse with Trey missing.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Right?

[Kenny]

They're at least as good. And the way Jalen is playing, he looks like the featured star on this team. They've got this Pelicans pick in the future. They got other contracts that could be included in a trade, like Porzingis, who's been in and out of the lineup, hasn't been a huge part of this little stretch that they've been playing with. What do you think is the move for Atlanta here, dealing with Trey Young going forward?

[Pierre Andreessen]

I think number one, they kind of have it in a perfect position where because you're thriving without him, this is like almost a death sentence for stars for the team to thrive without them. Especially when the last time we saw the start with the team, they didn't look this good. So you have a situation where you can try to bring him back and see if he's going to commit to the way that you guys want to play or whatever you guys want him to do defensively compete. This is a time for him to kind of join and get on a core with whatever the team wants. If you can bring him back and implement him with this new sort of setup with Jalen Johnson being featured, then you know you continue to thrive and you're. You're better. With Trey Young committed to the brand of basketball you wanted to play. If he can't get on board or he doesn't want to, then you now, like you said, have a situation where you can make Trey Young available and you'll. You'll get back something in return. That Allows you to, you know, get better, at least marginally.

I don't know. I like Trey Young. I'm not ready to. To write him extremely off. I know he has some. Some guys that aren't the biggest fans, and he also has some die hards. I'm always for trying to figure it out before trading, especially when you think about the point guard position. Trey Young is not a player. Trey Young, Job, Moran, Lamello, all of these guys aren't guys that I can quickly think of, teams that would be wanting to, you know, bring them in and especially in the middle of a season. So you might not even have that big of a market during the season, so you might have to wait till the off season in that case, you kind of got to ride this thing out. But I think, again, they're set up in so many different ways to win. And I feel good and happy for Atlanta because they're kind of playing with House's money. To be able to have that Pelicans pick sets them up so differently. Like, I'm excited for Atlanta's future.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Not only to have that pick, but like you said, for Jalen Johnson to look like a cornerstone, for Nikhil Alexander Walker to be balling out for them right now. Reese Sachet, in theory, only getting better with his age. So, yeah, there's some pieces there, whether Trey's a part of that or not. And they're set up a lot better than maybe they were those couple years where there was like just the treadmill of mediocrity. And they're right there, sort of unfortunately, like your Chicago Bulls. Always in a. In a playing situation.

[Kenny]

What do the Bulls have to do with any.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, I know.

[Je Skeets]

I don't know why I did that. You know, we're talking to Pierre, thinking of Kenny and this Bulls love all that stuff. What do you got?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it was such a weird off season for the Atlanta Hawks because all of a sudden they got a front office. Just boost them up. We didn't see that happening the last time we were sitting in.

I guess it was like row six. We were close to Travis Schlenk, who was leading the Hawks front office then, and he gets let go. Onsehle starts this new trend. As you mentioned, Nikhil Alexander Walker's contract is really, really interesting because they signed him to a very, very inexpensive deal. I don't know how you feel about him peeping being what could be the starting guard for this team for several years if they decide we'll move on from Trey. He was a Backup guard, obviously, in Minnesota last year. That's how it worked. He started his career with New Orleans. Oh, he's going to be this guy with Zion Williamson. He's going to be awesome. He was not in that particular role, but now he's balling. I know Jaylen Johnson gets a lot of the love. It's a highlight league, apparently. That's what Adam Silver says. That man is making highlights. But Nikhil Eisen Walker, he's. The guy is averaging 20 points on great percentages. Do you think he could be the starting guard for Atlanta or am I being biased here in Atlanta?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Well, I mean, the results that he can be. Funny thing, I'm. I'm super high on Nikila Nikhil Alexander Walker and I'm always going to be tied to him. Early in our show when Shea was younger, I think Shay may have gotten to the league a year before Nikhil. There's an infamous moment on our podcast where I'm telling the guys about this Niel guy and that he's the better Alexander.

Fast forward now. All of our fans remind me of how ridiculous that looks in 2025. So I'm happy to see Nikhil thrive. I asked the guys yesterday on our show and I'll ask you guys, has he leapfrog and become like the face of mip? Is he the front runner for that award or.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, I still would go with the guy you already mentioned in Jalen Duran, who I think when I watch him play compared to last year, I'm like, holy, he is really leveled up. But there's a lot of guys. Avdi has got to be in the mix.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

With where he is. Nikhil, like you said, because the scoring numbers for Nikhil Alexander Walker have like doubled. More than doubled, somehow.

[Tas Melas]

Got more efficient and more efficient.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Playing great.

[Je Skeets]

That's probably that right now is like probably one of the tighter, like, award races here through the quartermark of season. Because I think you can make a case for four or five guys.

[Kenny]

Who would you have tk well, unfortunately not Matas Bouzelis. That was one of my preseason picks. But I would probably go with Durin just because he's become the number two guy for the Pistons and you can see the improvements with him. Like, he can handle the ball when he scores or when he gets the ball in the restricted area. It's a bucket. It feels like he can get points anytime and knows how he's going to be getting points. He feels like an anchor piece for the Pistons right now. But you can't discredit the way Nikhil Alexander Walker, a little bit later into his career has really seized opportunity and looks like a clutch scorer as well. I mean, maybe Converse could be a most improved brand.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, wow.

[Kenny]

He signed a deal with Converse. Shay, obviously is the defending mvp. I know Jamal Crawford was dunking on his shoes last night, but at least they've got the Cousinship to try and lift Converse from the depths of the Kirk Heinrich era.

[Je Skeets]

That's the Cousinship.

Look, you already talked, Pierre, about how you were dead wrong when it came to the Clippers. Right. And you're not alone in that. There are a lot of people were convinced, like, hey, look at all the vets in here. Look what they added. Looks like it could be a good team. So look, that one you're wrong about. A lot of us are wrong about. What about a player or team that you were right about. Like, take a little victory lap right now in the preseason. You called your shot on said player or said team.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Well, again, I'm going to go with my guy, Jalen Johnson. Okay. I did like a video or an episode on Teed up where I talked about, like, guys I'm buying stock in. Jalen Johnson was one of them. Maybe Nikhil was. Was one of those guys as well. I was a big fan of the Spurs. I felt like the spurs were really set to do something special. Now, obviously, it's hard to kind of tell because Wemby has kind of been out.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. But they're winning literally six and two without that guy.

[Pierre Andreessen]

But with them, they felt like. Like, with him, I felt they could be a player out west. And so, you know, I mean, it's nothing wrong with thriving without him. But I can't lie if I'm just being, like, extremely honest with you guys. I. I hate seeing tall players with the injuries. Like, it scares me. And so anytime I see anything with Vick, I think further than just the season. So I'm. I'm hoping that he's going to be okay. And we don't, you know, have to have another guy that is missing too much time. Because now I just saw yesterday on away from work, Zion is going to be out for another three weeks.

[Kenny]

No way.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Right. You know, but yeah, the Boston Celtics, I also predicted, would not have that big of a fall off like the Pacers, and they've been kind of thriving. They beat my Knicks last night. So, yeah, like, some of those picks, I, I guess are good. It's so much basketball left, though, that I'm, I'm, I'm holding on to some of my other ones before I victory our victory lap too soon. And it's, it's, you know that, that's, that's a bit of an issue because I was the modest Musel is hype trainer y' all saw with the MVP potential. I would jumped off the ledge with another guy that. I'm biased too, right? That's my, my little guy. So I, I kind of went overboard. But yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna preserve some of the victory lap. But the Knicks, the Knicks, the Knicks and Knicks. The Knicks have been looking real good. Could be looking better, but we're looking good without, without OG oh, the Raptors. I was big on the Raptors.

[Je Skeets]

There we go. Well, we're going to have a huge NBA cup game with the Knicks coming up to Toronto next week to see who can advance to Vegas.

[Pierre Andreessen]

We got the Knicks, no worries.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, you should be worrying, my friend. The Raptors team is good.

[Tas Melas]

OG Might be back.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, could be.

[Tas Melas]

And Doug, here we have the Limu.

[Je Skeets]

Emu in its natural habitat, helping people custom insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating.

[Tas Melas]

It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Kenny]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Je Skeets]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[Tas Melas]

Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty.

[Je Skeets]

Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry Unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts.

[Tas Melas]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem?

[Je Skeets]

Business software is expensive. And when you buy software from lots.

[Tas Melas]

Of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing.

[Kenny]

Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software.

[Tas Melas]

Is connected on a single affordable platform.

[Kenny]

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[Tas Melas]

Odoo has no hidden costs and no.

[Kenny]

Limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for.

[Tas Melas]

Any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge.

[Kenny]

Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting.

[Tas Melas]

All linked and talking to each other.

[Je Skeets]

Check out [e-mail] that's o d o o.com want to sell your car your way? Who wouldn't? That's why CarMax offers a car selling experience designed just for you with online.

[Kenny]

And in store options. Want to know what your car is worth quickly? Get an online offer in under two minutes. Want to think it over?

[Je Skeets]

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[Kenny]

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[Je Skeets]

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[Kenny]

Want to drive CarMax pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply.

[Je Skeets]

See carmax.com for details.

Let's talk a little bit about your Knicks. I guess the first question is, why are you a Knicks fan living in Chicago? How did that come about?

[Pierre Andreessen]

So, like most people, I grew up thinking I was going to the NBA. And I kind of premeditated my career where I wasn't going to play in Chicago, because I grew up in Chicago and I understand how important Jordan is here.

[Je Skeets]

Right.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Kobe Bryant is my favorite player of all time, along with Penny Hardaway. So I knew I couldn't play for the Lakers. So the next best thing was the Knicks. And that just started my fandom. I just got obsessed with the Knicks. I would create myself on college hoops 2K, and I would, like, transfer them over to the NBA 2K, and I would always get drafted to the Knicks and like, take them to the promised land. And just as I did that for years and years and years, it kind of grew into loving the Knicks and. And loving watching them on, like, WGN against the Bulls and just like seeing Madison Square Garden and. Yeah, and then they also sucked, so it wasn't like jumping on a bandwagon, you know what I mean? So I was like, oh, you know, I just inherited the Knicks. And then they got good and they had, like, some of my favorite players growing up, which was Carmelo Junior Smith, Tyson Chandler, and so then it just became super easy to just stay with the Knicks.

[Je Skeets]

That is the greatest answer to why do you cheer for this team? It's because I envisioned myself leading them to a championship. That is why we love you, man. That's an incredible answer.

[Kenny]

Okay. I don't know.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I'm.

[Kenny]

I'm a little disappointed to hear it. I feel like the Bulls have had a hard time getting free agents since MJ retired because nobody wants to carry the mantle for him. And now that I'm hearing even Pierre doesn't want to carry the MJ mantle. But understandable, it might have worked out for you. Even though neither team has been good for 25 years, the Knicks are far ahead of where the Bulls are right now.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, that's no doubt.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Thankfully. Thankfully.

[Je Skeets]

Do you see the Knicks having to make any moves around this deadline to help their chances in a wide open East? Like, look, it's there for the taking.

[Pierre Andreessen]

This season for sure.

Around a deadline. I mean, I guess there's always an opportunity, like you said, to get somewhat better. If I'm being honest, I'm watching Milwaukee, who impressed me to start the year, but now they've lost a bunch and now they're 9 and 13. And, you know, the whole Yanis social media thing yesterday was a big storyline. I'm kind of, with just kind of like riding this thing out. Hopefully we can do something special and trying to get 34 from Milwaukee. He wants, he wants to win. And, you know, being a guy with such a big fan base and a big market, playing on a small market team, who wouldn't want to come to New York? You know, this guy's Huggies commercial, I just saw the other day with his daughter. So, you know, if you want to win and you want to be in a big market, he's a, you know, a Nike athlete. Come to New York. There's nothing going on in LA. Luca already has that with LeBron. And now the next best thing is, is New York. So, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm kind of with seeing what we have with this team. You know, we haven't had OG in the last eight or so games, so he's a big piece and, you know, assessing what we have. And then if this isn't enough, I think you gotta, you gotta go for Giannis, man. So let's stay away from the, the, the, the deadline. Unless it's something like, I don't know, get Luke Canard, which the Hawks wouldn't do, but like a sharpshooter or something like that. Low, low cost and sharpshooter, but nothing major because we, we gotta, we gotta keep everything for Giannis.

[Tas Melas]

Yanis has hinted at playing in bigger markets. There's no doubt, but it would take till the offseason, I think. I'm, I know the man's a loyal man and he said he's not doing it until the off season. There, then and there, it could be different, but it could be, it could be 34 going to New York. That would be.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I'm with you on off season stuff, by the way. I think with all of the cap and, you know, the aprons.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Guys like Giannis, it's just going to be impossible to trade them mid season. So I'm with you with the off season.

[Je Skeets]

Let's pivot to the big move you guys made this offseason and that is joining NBC, joining Peacock. What's that experience been like for you and the guys with all of the shows you're doing for them?

[Pierre Andreessen]

It's honestly been great. I'm loving it. I'm having such, such a fun time, you know, working so Much. We used to do two days a week, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Now with the move, it's a Monday through Friday thing. Now we have so many different shows that all, all of the episodes aren't numbers on a board related. So you have like Small Ball, which is Kenny on Monday. You have our show Tuesday, you have my show today. And then we round out the week with numbers on the board Thursday and Friday and then we get to keep our original YouTube show for our loyal dedicated fan base. On Tuesdays and Saturdays they get extended versions of us. And so you know, to just be able to be in the office more, being on TV on a consistent basis, it just kind of immerses you into the league a little bit more. You have to stay kind of on your on your toes a bit on an everyday basis versus just preparing for Tuesday and Saturday shows. So I love the, the looking at every night as a Super bowl. Like it was so easy to get lost in the NBA season and you have these dead marks where it's just so easy to not care. But now with the added bonus days of the schedule, I just take every night for what it is and try to make the most of it. So like the Chris Paul news is, is going to be a topic tomorrow and you know, you gotta, you gotta care. Like I don't know if last year because it's on a Tuesday night that's like three days in between an episode for us. I don't know if I would've cared as much. So I'm loving the move. They've been extremely great to work with so far and I don't know, the energy is just, is just different. You turn on the, you know, the Peacock games and you're seeing all of the faces and you know last night Michael Jordan was, was, he was back, was back and you know, I guess we can call him a co worker, you know. So.

You know, it's been smooth, man. It's been smooth. I'm enjoying it.

[Kenny]

Have you had any surreal like pinch me moments with somebody reaching out saying hey I saw you guys were great on TV or something like that.

[Pierre Andreessen]

As far as NBC, not yet. The one surreal moment I will say actually. Yeah, the like who was it? I don't want to say the wrong because we're in Chicago. The Sun Times for the Tribune came in, okay. And took, they like took pictures of us and was like, you know, that was, that was kind of. Because I get the, I get the, the Sun Times.

Delivered to my doorstep every morning. So it's like to See them come in and want to, like, take pictures of us and talk with us was. It was a bit. Was a bit surreal. And then Kenny. Kenny, he's. He did like a commercial thing when he went out there, and it had, like, Carmelo and TMac, just all of these guys we grew up on. That was. That was surreal. But I'm sure those moments will. Will come probably around All Star, whatever, rubbing some shoulders with some of those guys. But just being on NBC is surreal. Oh, yeah. Like, my parents. That was a. We've been with so many companies. We work with so many people. The NBC move is like the thing that got my parents.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, right.

[Pierre Andreessen]

They were like, oh, oh, this is real.

[Je Skeets]

You actually get paid to do this. Okay. Very cool. Very cool.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, that's.

[Je Skeets]

That's incredible.

[Kenny]

Look, I'm impressed.

[Tas Melas]

You're.

[Kenny]

You're a new media superstar, but you still subscribe. Subscribe to a physical newspaper. That's old school.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yes. I love, like, that's me. I'm like, you see the books behind me. I need, like, old school stuff. I get the newspaper. That's how I keep up with the Bears, because I'm, you know, not the biggest football guy. Keep up with the white stocks that way. It's just something about having a newspaper. I don't know. But, yeah, I'm definitely old school in that way.

[Kenny]

Hey, man, big Bears game this weekend. Huge Bears game this weekend. They're looking good so far. Are we getting a W up in Lambo?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yes. Yes. That's why I need to have you in Lambo. I think it's going to be an easy W. We just rolling right now. And I know I'm. I'm getting crazy. And I was the one on our show telling my guys, let's calm down. Let's just. Let's.

[Kenny]

Let's.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Let's see where the ride takes us. But now I'm getting excited. Now I'm getting eager. One thing about the Bears, though, the interceptions, the takeaways. I grew up on a stingy Bears gritty defense. I don't know if this defense is necessarily the Bears defense I grew up on, but I just love a Bears defense that is able to cause turnover. So I'm hoping that we can do that and replicate some of that energy this weekend. But, yes, the Bears are thriving. The city loves it, and hopefully they can surprise some people in the playoffs.

[Tas Melas]

I love the positivity. You actually got me a little depressed because the ajc, the newspaper here, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, stopped printing newspapers. Maybe that's why Chris Paul said, I'm leaving. He was depressed yesterday. Maybe in his hotel room. He didn't get a newspaper. Newspaper delivery. I'm pissed. I'm out of here.

[Je Skeets]

Before we get to a. A fun little game here with you, Pierre, we get asked this question all the time. So I want to ask you, because you got your squad there with the numbers on the board crew, who's the best Hooper of the four of you?

[Pierre Andreessen]

I'm going to be honest, I hate this question.

[Tas Melas]

Why? Because.

[Pierre Andreessen]

It'S me.

And like, in my mind, because I know all of them is not even a question. But obviously to you guys and the rest of the world, you guys have no idea. But yeah, like, this has been a thing in our community for years. We've done countless videos. I've. I've spanked a lot of them in almost 98% of the videos. And yet every year there's a new group of viewership that hasn't seen it or doesn't know. And I'm like, these other three guys haven't even played varsity basketball. Like, to me, it can't even. There's not even a conversation. And then we, most recently, like last season, Kenny had the nerve to say, hey, I think D. Mills would be the best if we locked in. And I'm like, if we locked in, I would be the. I would be backing up K. Cunningham on a pistol.

Hey, what are we talking about? But yeah, it's by far myself. And I don't, I don't like to say it in a way where, because like, everybody would pick themselves, but they know I know.

I'm a Knicks fan because I thought I was going to be the Knicks starting guard.

[Je Skeets]

That's true. I guess the better way to ask it is who's the second best player.

[Pierre Andreessen]

On number six player is definitely Mike.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Definitely Mike. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely Mike. Micah. Mike can shoot the ball. It should be D. Mills. D. Mills has motor issues, you know?

Yes, he has motor issues. So the. Mills is a guy that he's going to. He's going to throw fits and spurts. Yeah, right.

[Je Skeets]

50 second spurt, right.

[Pierre Andreessen]

The first 50 seconds of a game. He's going to be Shaquille O', Neal, right, with the Los Angeles Lakers. And then the, the rest of the game, you're going to get Celtics Shaq. So, you know, you got to work on that. But Mike has him and then Kenny is. Is this the shoulder thing that's limited him for the last few years, but he's. He was Our defensive specialist. Together we make a really good team.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. I was gonna say, are you still hooping? Like, do you play in a run, like a weekly run or a pickup run?

[Pierre Andreessen]

No, we don't. We don't play nearly as much as we used to. As much as we want to. We talked about it the, the other day, actually about a week or so ago, and Kenny and Derek, we're talking about injuries. Like they don't want to play cause they're scared that they would get hurt. And I, Me and Mike were kind of baffled with that. But I guess they're retired, which was a surprise to me. They are retired, but we still hoop. Like the Bulls had us come and hoop on their court. We'll do like a shoot for the YouTube channel. We're not. But nothing crazy. Not like we used to. We used to hoop. Like after episodes, we would all get in the car, go to the gym and play random people. But those days are kind of gone.

[Kenny]

Well, if you guys ever want to come to Atlanta, we'll smack you for sure.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Hey, one thing about basketball, it's like riding a bike. I'll never.

And yeah, it's, it's. My game is ready. You know, I'm like, you're gonna have.

[Je Skeets]

To carry your team.

[Pierre Andreessen]

It sounds like I'm like, shay, it's no problem.

My mid range game is crazy. I'm. I'm not doing anything beyond the arc because my legs ain't ready to handle that responsibility. But you give me the ball on the elbows and we're gonna do some damage.

[Je Skeets]

Those are like your favorite type of players, right? Growing up. Like, like you already said the Kobe's, I guess Melo in the mid range. Just the bucket getters.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, I love bucket getters because I'm, I, I didn't play that way.

My first player that I really love was Penny Hardaway. Kobe and Penny Hardaway. So I love tall point guards, K. Cunninghams of the world. So I play more of that way, getting guys involved. But I do secretly love like a guy that just doesn't care about being double team because I, I could never play that way.

[Je Skeets]

Right.

[Pierre Andreessen]

It's just not in me to like just shoot over three guys. And so when I watch Kobe do it or Melo do it, I'm like, man, I wish I had that type of ignorance to just like not care about my teammates. But, you know, I've been a little too unselfish. The guys used to tell me in my heyday. So, yeah, I do have a love for ignorant Scores.

[Kenny]

That's why we're all talking about basketball instead of playing NBA basketball.

[Je Skeets]

Yes, exactly.

[Kenny]

There's definitely levels to it.

[Je Skeets]

Next best thing.

[Kenny]

Another thing that's like riding a bike for up is naming colleges that NBA players played at. We're pretty bad at this. We only know the NBA guys, and then we, like, look at their basketball reference pages once they get into the NBA. Not the case for you. You're a college guy as well.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah. But I will say this, though. Every time somebody says this, my heart drops because the pressure to live up to it is. And then a lot of times the fans will, like, run up to me and ask me, like, summer league, and it'll be the most randomest player. And I'm like, brother, I have no idea where. I can't even think of a guy. But, like, it'd just be somebody from 1967. I have no idea what college this guy went to. So hopefully these are some gettable names. And I don't make a fool.

[Je Skeets]

These are all current players. Current players?

No.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Okay.

[Kenny]

The Pierre Andreessen of the NBA, currently backing up Kate Cunningham for the Detroit Pistons. Danis Jenkins. You know where you went to school?

[Je Skeets]

That's so tough, man.

[Kenny]

It's impossible. I mean, he went to three different places. We'll accept any of them.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, iona, then to St. John's with. With Patino.

[Je Skeets]

You got two of the three. I guess he was at the University of the Pacific, but then you nailed it.

[Kenny]

Wow.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Kenny]

I would have accepted just any one of the three. That's pretty impressive. It took you all of 3 seconds to come up with. How about Naquan Tomlinson?

[Pierre Andreessen]

He went to.

Kansas State and Memphis. I don't know the third one.

[Kenny]

Come on.

[Je Skeets]

This is good. This is impressive.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I don't know the third one.

[Je Skeets]

I thought there was no way you were getting these, man.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, well, he had four, right? That's a weird thing.

[Je Skeets]

But you got Monroe Community College, Chippewa College. Where the hell is that? Who knows? And then Kansas State and Memphis. That's all that matters. You got the big ones. All right.

[Kenny]

I think he's got a crazy story, right? Naquan Tomlin, like he didn't play high school basketball or something like that. Got discovered at Rucker Park, I think.

[Je Skeets]

What? Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Wow.

[Kenny]

That sounds like a story from 1967. Made it to the NBA like that.

[Tas Melas]

That could be a numbers on the board guy. Never didn't play high school, didn't play varsity, but.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Oh, yeah, yeah, maybe they made it.

[Kenny]

How about Mo Gay Atlanta Hawks.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Mogay. Oh. Washington State.

[Je Skeets]

Cold. Man, this is. This is ridiculous to me.

[Kenny]

Guys like this might be hard for me. Hasn't missed one yet. Too many. Kamara.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Dayton.

[Kenny]

All right, all right. I just saw him play his first minutes for the Chicago Bulls, like, a week ago. Lachlan Ulbricht, their rookie.

[Je Skeets]

No way.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I don't got it.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, good. He's human. He's human. We did it.

[Pierre Andreessen]

You got me. You got me.

[Kenny]

University of California, Riverside. Never even heard of it.

[Pierre Andreessen]

It's a big state, though.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Oh, wow.

[Je Skeets]

I guess that's the. That. Would that be the closest college to Australia? American college. He just got on a plane and went to the.

[Kenny]

Probably.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

It's like that and Saint Mary's. Like, 95 of the guys that played in Australia go to Saint Mary somehow.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, that is very true. How did. How did he play with the Bulls? You said he's got his first minutes.

[Kenny]

Well, I mean, they lost to the Pacers and the Pelicans.

[Je Skeets]

He looks hilarious, by the way.

[Kenny]

Doesn't look like an NBA player.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, he sort of looks like. Like a giant toddler's been let out there on the floor to me with his hair. But he has a mustache. I know. That's weird. Anyway, he's got a look.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Bull's got a lot of flow on their team this year.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

How about last two? Last two guys that have been around a little longer. Haywood Highsmith. That's a tough one, I think.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah. Hayward Highsmith.

This is one that I was asked last year on Teed Up. My producer Christian asked me this.

[Je Skeets]

I forgot it's in West Virginia, if that helps at all. I've never heard of this university.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I suck geographic. That made it harder.

[Tas Melas]

A car. Yeah, it's a part of a car.

[Je Skeets]

Part of a car.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Part of a car.

[Je Skeets]

Very important. Probably the most important part of a car. Well, arguably, I don't know, part of a vehicle.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I'm guess to me, the most important part is an engine.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. Yeah. See, after I said it, I was.

[Tas Melas]

Like, I got part of an electric vehicle, too.

[Je Skeets]

University or. Sorry. Wheeling. University.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Wheeling.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

That was a great hint, actually.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, I forgot.

[Tas Melas]

I would have think tires, though. Maybe it wasn't a great.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Hey, shout out to Hayward Hassmith. He got to be the only player out of Wheeling. God.

[Je Skeets]

Gotta be. Yeah.

[Kenny]

Last one. Amir Coffee. I think he's a buck right now.

[Tas Melas]

Right?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah. Yes. This is easy. This is a Big Ten guy. Amir Coffee. Went to Minnesota.

[Je Skeets]

Hey, that's right.

[Pierre Andreessen]

That's right.

[Je Skeets]

What are they? The gophers? That what they are?

[Kenny]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

There it is.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

That was awesome, man.

[Je Skeets]

You crushed that, man. Holy. All right, well, keep coming up to Pierre if you see him on the street with a random NBA player. And test. Yeah.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Because I missed. I missed two. I'm mad at myself. I'm mad at myself. I missed two.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, you missed Heywood Highsmith.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

But you get.

[Kenny]

I think it cancels out because Dennis Jenkins and Naquan Tomium, you gave us two answers for both of them, so a lot of correct.

[Tas Melas]

Did you see the. The NBC intros yesterday where guys were. You know, they state. Where they're. What school they went to. A.J. mitchell said he went to.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, what was it? Cheesecake University?

[Tas Melas]

Belgian Waffle University. That was awesome. That was. So we asked for it last week on no Ducks. They got to be funnier in their intros.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

This guy says Belgian Waffle university.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Victory lapping A.J. mitchell.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, that's a good one.

[Pierre Andreessen]

That's one. That's a good one.

[Je Skeets]

He was definitely in, you know, early conversation for Most Improved. I mean, he's a younger guy, so I never love giving it to.

[Pierre Andreessen]

He was supposed to be on my show. We couldn't get schedules to align, but he was supposed to be on my show and that I was going to tell him how high I was on him, and then he just took off. So maybe I may never get him on my show.

[Je Skeets]

Well, look, man, Pierre, it was so fun to have you on here a long time coming. Congrats on all the success with the shows that you guys are doing. And now at NBC, Peacock, let the people know the best way to follow you, get in touch with you and to see these shows.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah, you guys can follow me on any platform at peewee to plug. I should be the only guy that pops up with that name. And then Monday through Friday, NBC Sports, now we have the noon slot. So you'll see my face four days out of the week there and then Saturday. And we still are the numbers on the board. Regular YouTube show there. And thank you guys for having me again. You guys, when we first got into this space, were the ones that set the. The example for us that we followed. I still remember the day Kenny was like, you know, I don't want to say the old name, but, you know, look out for these guys. And, you know, to see you guys still. Still killing it. I think you guys are the embodiment of basketball and friendship, which is the path we follow. So thank you guys for setting that example in Blueprint and for having me on and I'm wishing you guys much more success and hopefully modest can turn into to that, that MVP guy.

[Tas Melas]

Let's go.

[Je Skeets]

Appreciate the kind words and appreciate you coming on the show here early this morning there in Chicago. We'll talk to you hopefully soon.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Peace, guys.

[Je Skeets]

Take care. Pierre from numbers on the board teed up NBC, Peacock, all of their shows. Man, I can't believe how well he did on that.

[Kenny]

That was awesome.

[Je Skeets]

I did not think I'm reading these going there's no chance he's gonna know half of these.

[Kenny]

Yeah, I mean some of them he had to think for like at least five seconds.

[Je Skeets]

He's naming the two schools in a row that they go to. That's, that's. I mean we're sickos. We know a lot about the NBA, but yeah, that college angle we do not. All right, we're gonna get into some of last night's games and some other news in the association, but a quick break to hear from sponsor.

[Tas Melas]

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[Je Skeets]

All right, everybody on YouTube right now, hit the like button for Pierre. Make sure you subscribe, share the show, podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. We would really appreciate it. We'll get into some of last night's games against some other news. But we did have a wedgie and it was a beauty and it was very rare. It was Shay Gildas Alexander at the free throw line getting a crazy bounce.

And then wedges in there at the line end of the first half. Wedgie tracker. You know, we got the database. It's only our sixth ever wedgie from the free throw line.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Wow.

[Tas Melas]

Since we started tracking 12 years ago, it's really five because we sort of force one in. Marcus Smart playoff. Free throw. It was missed. And then somebody Hammered in because it was the 50th wedgie of our year.

[Je Skeets]

So we called it a free throw. Oh, yeah.

[Tas Melas]

There's a video out there of Grant Williams, Nick Collison, TJ Leaf, and Kimball Walker hitting them. But this one, clearly the best player ever to have a free throw wedgie in our history anyways, that I remember, you know, 12 years.

[Je Skeets]

Sure.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Unless. Unless some random, you know, unless MJ had a free throw wedgie. I don't know.

[Je Skeets]

Maybe. Great pick from this wedgie that was going around last night. SGA looking up to the heavens.

[Pierre Andreessen]

He.

[Je Skeets]

He can't believe it. I. I like to think he's going, my God, I'm going to be on no dunks tomorrow.

[Kenny]

That would be awesome if, like, guys start taking it personally. Like during when Sha Na fool was at the heyday, I was like, oh.

[Je Skeets]

Man, I'm going to be on Sha. Right, right, right.

[Kenny]

But this is kind of an honor.

[Je Skeets]

This is an honor.

[Kenny]

They really let that thing breathe.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, yeah. Just. I mean, near the end of the half, it was. I would say they should have just let it stay the entire. We'll just pick it up with the.

[Kenny]

Ball here at the second half.

[Je Skeets]

First one to come out of the locker room and tip it out gets the ball. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Draymond jumped for it, didn't go get it. I was surprised. I thought he'd be like, come on, man, let's go.

[Je Skeets]

So 18 wedgies now is where we're at on the season. Pretty good pace. And let's talk about that game a little bit, because not only did he stick a beautiful wedgie at the free throw line, he scored 38 points. And he took over down the stretch when the Thunder were up. Huge. And then the warriors got back into the game, and they needed SGA to flip the game on its head and win it for them. They win their 13th straight. They beat the Warriors 124, 112. What's the record now? 21 and 1.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Correct.

[Kenny]

That's good.

[Je Skeets]

Pretty good. Still so weird. We're sort of not talking about it, really. I mean, we as in, like, sort of the NBA media. It's like. It's there. It's amazing. But we're not, like, going overboard, though. Maybe you're starting to see, like, more people going, wow, are they gonna do 70 plus wins? Are they gonna do 74 wins?

[Tas Melas]

Because they're the only. Only the fourth team in NBA history to start a season 21 and one. That's. That's pretty good. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And they're the defending champs already?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. And then those three teams, two of them won a championship in the Warriors. You know, they lost in seven games in the final, so here we go.

[Je Skeets]

But it did take again, SGA over the final couple minutes to put the warriors to bed. But your takeaways.

[Kenny]

I'm just happy to see the Thunder look a little fallible.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Right.

[Kenny]

You know, like, hey, even they can take their foot off the gas a little bit. Even they can have a team get really, really hot. I think that's a lot of what happened in this game. The warriors just started getting three pointers from everybody. Draymond hit three in the second half. Gary Payton hit two in the second half. Neither of those guys are big time shooters. Kaminga made one. Pat Spencer was unconscious, 7 for 11 from the field. This is a team, the Thunder, that have been rampaging through the league to start the season. We're talking about their record. They've also got this crazy margin of victory. They've got a great net rating. They've been blowing teams out since basically the second week of the season. But in the past week and a half, they've actually played some close games. And this one was a game that they had to go out and win. And of course, they went out and did it. SGA was the leader. I thought, like you said, seven points in the fourth, one, three or four from the field. But Chet had nine in the fourth, three or four from the field. J Dub had eight points, three or four from the field in the fourth quarter. It's like anytime they needed a basket, one of those three guys was able to just go out and get a basket. I also thought best game so far for J Dub. In his return, went 22 points, 9 of 16 from the field. And it was mostly just all on drives. I don't think he made a three pointer last night, but went 8 of 10 in the lane. Took another four free throws. Just cool to see them win a game without having to be a blowout. And, you know, at least a little bit of doubt in a game when the Thunder are playing, I think is exciting.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. And I would say from the Golden State side, I call this a moral victory. You don't have Steph. Jimmy Butler doesn't play in the second half because he got injured. There's no Al Horford. And all of a sudden these guys show up. You're Pat Spencer. I thought Brandon Pajemski looked good. Seth Curry is now a member of the Golden State warriors, hitting shots. I think this is a bit of A victory for them. Just in terms of the depth. That guys can show up and take a lead on the Thunder, who. Yeah, we all see that they're 21 1, but not enough people are talking about. I think you mentioned chet Holger going 3 for 4 in that fourth quarter. He wasn't there at the beginning of last season because he hit. He fell down and got. And hurt his hip. So for a majority of the season, he wasn't there. But for him to come back, I think he looks. He looks better. And then you add in Jalen Williams. Yeah, his best game. I think they could easily win 75 games because even Draymond Green was asked about it after the game and said, you know, you guys. You guys did it. You guys won 73 games. Can that other team do it? And he started saying, it's really hard. A lot of things have to work out. But he always. He just stopped himself. He almost stopped himself and had to basically think, man, that team is freaking good. They could do it. They literally could. With the way they do it now, their depth showing up. We just talked about A.J. mitchell with Pete. Anybody can come in and do it. How many guys have to be injured for that team to really expect them to lose? Now? The playoffs against Denver is a different guys right now. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Hartenstein and Lou Dort, Caruso and Caruso. The three guys.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Three of their best defenders winners.

[Tas Melas]

So they could do it. They could easily do it.

[Kenny]

My favorite dual odds are down to minus 106 for 70 or more wins. Pretty soon it's going to be plus odds.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, 70. I mean, I. I've come around to like 70 seems very doable. It's the. It's the 74. It's actually eclipsing the 73 and nine warriors. That to me is still like, I can't go there. It's just like. Seems insane because it is one of these things, like one bad week, two losses over the stretch of like a week, and it's like almost like out of reach. But, man, I. What I loved about SGA last night, I felt like he was taking it personally that they were putting Buddy healed on him. And I know the warriors didn't have a ton of options, like, you know, especially when Jimmy Butler went out. But like, he. He took offense to that. He would like when he hit that step back three over Buddy, he was. For a guy that barely shows emotion, he was like screaming and motive at his own bench. Right? Like, he's like. I felt. He felt like disrespected like, come on, I'm the MVP man. Buddy healer. Because then he scored on another two times. So that's pretty cool to see. They're awesome, 21 1. And maybe people aren't talking about them because, like, what do you say at this point? Doesn't matter who plays, doesn't matter who's in the lineup. They either just like, kick the snot out of teams or even these close games, you've got the mvp. And that's the crazy part. That's like, they have this luxury of, like, even in a close game, we'll go to one of the best clutch shooters in the game. He's going to make the right decision.

[Kenny]

Yeah. And he's going to make a shot. He's going to get called out by Jamal Crawford. The moves he's doing. Jamal Crawford's like, oh, step back left coming, and it's a step back left. There's just unstoppable Shay and he can get into what he wants to get to basically anytime he wants to. It's just. It's impossible to even look at their schedule and think of when they're going to lose. It's going to be a shock. It's like, they'll be a weird one, right? Like, they don't play it until Friday, so they should probably handle the Mavericks. You would think maybe at the second night of a back to back. They don't have a back to back until December 23rd, so maybe playing at the Spurs December 23rd, that would be game 29. Otherwise it'd be a shocker. Maybe a Cup shocker against the Suns, who played them pretty well the last time they played.

[Je Skeets]

I just, I just realized what's going to happen here. So the, the. The Thunder are going to win. Okay, how do I put this? They're going to win the cup, right? So they're going to win that final game. That will not count to their regular season schedule.

[Kenny]

Interesting.

[Je Skeets]

And that will end up being, let's say, the 73rd to tie the warriors or the 74th win in the totality of a season. But then people are going to be like, yeah, but it doesn't count. They're like, yeah, but they won that game in the, in the season.

[Tas Melas]

So if they don't win 73 games, you're saying, well, either.

[Je Skeets]

Or like I'm saying, well, if they.

[Tas Melas]

Win 75, then they're all good, or 74, then they're all good.

[Je Skeets]

Well, yeah, I'm just saying it's going to be important. Either. Coming up short or tying or passing. But then people aren't going to be able to count it. Isn't that what's going to happen?

[Kenny]

That'll be hilarious actually. I hope that happens.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

And they lost it last year. So that is some sort of motivation going into the NBA cup to do something. And you mentioned Shay getting mad at people, getting disgusted. That's another thing for Shay to help improve his focus. Because we all talk, but we all know the legend, like an mj found somebody in the front row or like Luca something to motivate him. But Shea is so even keeled, he never gets like that. Maybe that's something that can turn up his game because they are an even keel team and that's why they look like the San Antonio spurs of the old. They just, they're so even keeled and they'll get there to the end when they will probably be around the mid-70s. It wouldn't be surprising.

[Je Skeets]

Shay's talked about motivation being. I didn't like how we partied when we won the title. I think it was like almost disappointed we didn't know how to open bottles of champagne. Caruso had to teach us. He didn't say those exact words, but I'm saying he wasn't like, you know, maybe it was weird how they handled their victory. So he has talked about that, he's.

[Kenny]

Talked about that and he also mentioned he didn't think that they played all that great in the playoffs. Right. So that to me is like I guess two seven game series. And you know, I think probably the Pacers was a little more shocking that they took the Thunder to seven games. The Nuggets had Jokic and they have, you know, at least a number one who can go head to head with sga. But hearing him say that and seeing the way they've come out to start the season, it feels like they're chasing greatness. Right. And that's clearly what the warriors were doing back in the 1516 season. And you need to have that mindset if you're going to challenge for 70 wins. So at this point, I'm with you, Skeets. I think they will get 70 or more. And it's just a question of at the end of the season, how much do they want to preserve, right. Their stars to get ready for the playoffs.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, but even if they preserve their stars, they can win.

[Kenny]

Yeah, sure. I would have to look at the schedule to know who they are going against and maybe those games matter a lot more for, you know, maybe they're playing the Trailblazers and they're trying to get into the play in tournament or something like that. In that case, I am taking Abdi over. Usman Jang.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. And also. And like, we say that because of their depth and it's true. You're right. I agree with you. And I've said it too. Like, wow, they are just a deep team. They've got any, any guys they roll out. They're. They're going to compete. But I think that does diminish. And last night's game is a perfect example, like, of what SGA does and means for the team in close games. Like, they don't have a 211 record if SGA is not playing in, you know, 10, 11 of these games. They don't. You've watched the games.

[Kenny]

He's had a lot of big shots.

[Je Skeets]

Huge shots, moments, completely takes over and they wouldn't have that unbelievable record. Like, this is, I'm not saying anything like crazy, but I don't want to diminish like what he's done because everyone's also like, yeah, Jokic, he's the mvp. No, he's not. No, he's not. Not when your team's 21 and 1. I'm sorry.

But I mean, he leads in every statistical category. Yeah, but the point is to win. And he's literally only lost once and that took. And that was a close game.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. And he's leading a motivated locker room. Jokic, his team has lost four straight games at home to sub 500 teams, if I'm doing the standings correctly. That's the thing that, that keeps OKC at the top of the top is that they're ready every single game. And that's what Draymond Green was being asked about post game. Can this team do what you guys did, be motivated to be the all time greatest NBA regular season team like you guys were? And he said it's hard. So many things have to go right. That took several years off my life is what he said. He made it about him saying about you, man, it's about okc.

But they could do it because they are motivated and they're so fricking even keeled. But yeah, she has to play 80 of the 82 games or whatever. He has to play a lot of them.

[Je Skeets]

Celtics hold off the late Knicks charge to win123,117 in a rematch of an east semifinal. Thought this was a very entertaining game. Had wild swings in this one, too. Celtics were down huge. They could not hit a shot to save their life. Suddenly, they're back in control in the second quarter. And Jaylen Brown led the way. 42 points, 16 to 24 shooting, four assists, four boards. He will be one of the four Jalens on the American All Star team.

[Pierre Andreessen]

All right.

[Tas Melas]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

You can bet. Lock that in at this point.

[Kenny]

I think so.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

It's Jalen Johnson. Like Pierre said, it's probably Jalen Duran. I think that's a lock with the Pistons record or very close. And then it's Jalen Brown and Jalen Brunson. Those are four. Too bad. J Dub obviously will not make.

[Kenny]

Not going to make it, probably.

[Je Skeets]

No, I don't think.

[Kenny]

I mean, by the time we get.

[Je Skeets]

To the All Star game, played like.

[Kenny]

Yeah, I guess chess probably their second.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

You need 16Americans, man. You're not gonna make it. I got. That's the problem.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. I keep forgetting.

[Kenny]

Yeah, but you can overdose, right? You can go over. They can. They could have 20Americans and then they'll just add extra international injury replacements team.

[Je Skeets]

Jalen's man. Do it.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. I was wrong about Jalen coming into the season. I thought his knee would be a problem, but he. It ain't. He was awesome in the second quarter. What he Dr. He dropped 18, then he dropped 15 in the third quarter. And then I like what the Knicks did. They blitzed and they got the ball out of his hands a little bit. They forced other guys to do it. And Jordan Walsh was awesome. He was great. Yeah, he was the. The sort of outlet that Jalen Brown would have to pass to and he would. And he's not a scorer, so he would make the pass to a shooter. Shooter would miss. He got an offensive rebound, put back. Offensive rebound, put back, offensive rebound on three straight possessions. And he had a steal in there. So the Celtics, I can't believe how good well they're playing. When you mentioned Jordan Walsh, I thought Hugo Gonzalez was good in the second quarter for this team. So Joe Missoula, he's going to get some coach of the year votes if they continue to play like this. That's why the Eastern Conference is kind of fun. There's a bunch of teams that could win this fricking thing.

[Kenny]

Yeah, Hugo was good. Walsh was good. And the other unsung heroes I thought were Josh Minot hitting a couple of threes and Anthony Simons, like, gave the Celtics a little flicker of hope, I thought, right at the end of the first quarter, going into the second quarter, making some shots to kind of get.

[Je Skeets]

Finally hit a three rolling.

[Kenny]

Exactly. That's A guy that we haven't talked about at all since coming over. And it's just a weird. A weird Celtic season. Like we've mentioned before, they've been such a major player in the NBA for the past, what, seven years. And basically to have them just be a middle of the pack team is unusual. But Jaylen Brown was great. You could tell the Knicks were missing OG they were switching everything up until the fourth quarter and Jalen Brown was just killing anybody on switches. It was get Brunson or Deuce McBride on him, get into the lane, finish, create for somebody, or just shoot a jumper over the top. I think a game of runs is the best game to watch. Like one team gets out to a huge start like the Knicks did last night, then the Celtics come back, and then the Knicks come back. Like the tilts to it are just very, very fun.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Knicks, though, kind of lost their cool. I thought they went away from what was working in the first half. It was drive and kick, get some wide open three pointers. And then when things started to turn sour, Celtics started playing well. I was like, let me try and fix this. Towns to me, yeah, really poor defensive game. He was really getting lost in the sauce with all the referees stuff. Even when he was scoring, thinking he was supposed to be getting and ones a lot of confused Carl faces.

[Je Skeets]

Where's the call?

[Kenny]

Where's the call? And then the defense, like I said, was pretty bad. They just got really physical with them. The Celtics did. And it was very frustrating for Towns. And once he went goes over the edge sometimes he can't necessarily get it back.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah, they went small on him, defending him. It helped get under his skin for sure. And Jalen Brown was just going after him at possession after possession. But it was fun to see the Knicks go after Jalen Brown after those monstrous second and third quarters. And Jalen, he didn't have a bucket until five seconds left when the game was over in the fourth quarter. He didn't have one until right at the end when it was garbage time. Like they just threw up ahead and he needed a bucket. So that was great to see the Knicks go ahead of them. The Knicks, I think defensively they miss OG A little bit. They got to he's coming back probably on December 7, which is bad news for Toronto Raptors fans because he'll probably be back for that quarterfinal game in the NBA Cup. It sure feels that way. There's some talk that Wemby might be back too, for the quarterfinal of the NBA cup game. Game. Potentially so I'm just pumping the NBA cup hype. Why not pumping the cup, man?

[Je Skeets]

We haven't talked a lot about the Celtics, but we're going to be forced to as they keep getting these, like, quality wins. Right. Because they beat Cleveland on Sunday and then they take down another really good team in the Knicks there last night on the cock. I will say, Jill and Brown. We went over how great a game he played. What I really loved is he actually started like garbage. It was a bad start. He stepped out of bounds on the first play, then he lost the ball like a minute later. Josh Hart was all over him. He was missing all of his shots. So he checked out in the first quarter. He had like three turnovers, two fouls. And I was like, oh, this is going to be a long night for Celtics fans. But that to me is like, oh, yeah, that's a guy, that is a superstar. Proving his point. Comes back in, had that huge second quarter, huge third quarter. He's deserving of like end of the MVP ballot, like type votes right now, you know, like a little thistle place vote there to me. Which means nothing. I know, but still, he's. He's played that well. Somebody Tatum. Yeah, but I also wrote my notes. The game ball had to have been cut up into two. Use like a. I don't know, a chainsaw or something to cut it in half and give half of it to Hugo Gonzalez, who was awesome in the second quarter. Played the entire quarter, great hustle. And then Jordan Walsh at the end, he just kept grabbing offensive rebounds.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Like giving them another chance. He did it so many times. He had four offensive rebounds. Four. Four from the floor. How to steal, how to block. So those two guys bringing the energy.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

For this.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. When the Knicks took a lead in that fourth quarter, it was all Jordan Walsh. Three straight offensive possessions, offensive rebounds on possessions. You wouldn't think it'd come from Jordan Walsh, that's for sure.

[Je Skeets]

Other games last night, Harrison Barnes, another 31 point night for him. Spurs beat the Grizzlies. The other Barnes, Scotty Barnes, in the East, 28 points. He did everything. Once again, I watched the majority of this one. Raptors beat the Blazers in a close one. Anthony Edwards had a very easy late layup to force overtime. It was like, here you go, sir. Have this layup get us into extra time. The Wolves edged the Pelicans 149, 142 in the overtime period. And then Tyrese Maxey scored 20 of his 35 in the third quarter, 76ers beat the Wizards. Any of those games you want to address.

[Tas Melas]

Frickin Harrison Barnes.

[Kenny]

Spurs are undefeated when Harrison Barnes scores 15 or more points. Points.

[Je Skeets]

Wow. There's a stat.

[Kenny]

He's maybe the MVP. Maybe give him a place end of the ballot.

[Je Skeets]

MVP votes for Harrison Barnes. Mr. 100.

[Kenny]

Mr. 100.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Sean Elliott was saying it after every basket he made, and I only saw the highlights of this one. So then I went and looked at the box score and Harrison Barnes went 10 for 20 from the field.

[Je Skeets]

Yes.

[Kenny]

Sounds like Mr. 50%.

[Je Skeets]

It's a little tongue in cheek from Sean Elliott, I think. Yeah, but it's pretty.

[Kenny]

He was going. It was going crazy.

[Je Skeets]

He said it. So.

[Kenny]

Agreed with the kabooms every time. Mr. 100. Mr. 100. Tune into our YouTube channel later. I'm gonna pull all these clips together. Dylan Harper's back for the Spurs. He's been on a little bit of a roll since returning. Had 15 points, six assists, and zero turnovers last night. He's played four games since returning from injury. Zero turnovers in any of them. Shooting 50% coming off the bench for the spurs right now. Fox made a lot of shots late for them, but. But Dylan Harper, ma', am, had a great start to the season. Went down with the injury, but since coming back, like, hasn't missed a step.

[Je Skeets]

No.

[Kenny]

Just looks so savvy. Looks like he's 28 years old. Not necessarily in the face. He's got a young enough face, but like, he plays like a man. He knows how to get his baskets the way he wants to. Super impressive from them. And for the spurs to not fall apart with Wemby going down, like you.

[Je Skeets]

Said, 6 and 2.

[Tas Melas]

Is that the record in games without Victor Wembanyama? And you got a young player playing well and you an old player who's not that old. And Harrison Barnes, but you got a deer. And Fox, it feels like they got so much depth. So it is a little scary for the rest of the league if this guy comes back, who's supposed to be back very soon, along with Stefan Castle.

They got so many freaking parts. Yeah, they are. They're super scary.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. That really is the biggest takeaway from the rookie class is how much these guys just look like they've been playing in the NBA for seven or eight years. Harper, Knipple, Cooper, Flag. Obviously at moments, coward. Like, there's just like so many guys are like, what?

[Kenny]

Yeah, they were ready.

[Je Skeets]

20 games in the NBA. It's like they don't look like it.

[Kenny]

Yeah, that's exactly Right. They all look savvy. There's a lot of savvy out there. I mean, I guess you would say with regards to the Pelicans, I think there are some youth moments for Fears and Queen. Like those guys look a little bit like they're rookies to me, but they play really well. They play really well off each other. But then they make some silly plays late in the fourth quarter, which is why the Pelicans have blown some of these games, including last night. Ant was just awesome in the second half. 34 points of his 44 came in the second half. Played all 27 minutes of the second half and overtime. And Chris Finch was eventually just like, let's just not even do a screen, just go play one on one. And he was unstoppable.

[Tas Melas]

It was hilarious. Yeah, the fact that New Orleans had 35 buckets in the paint, that's a lot of friggin points. A lot of 70 points in the paint. They just weren't playing hard defensively. And that's what Minnesota does when they need to. Here comes Anthony Edwards. Although, yeah, him playing the 29 minutes that he needed to play, that's a bad sign for that team. Yeah, I had to correct.

[Kenny]

24 plus 5 is.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I had to get it, get it in there.

[Kenny]

I'm updating my notes even though I'm not going to say it again.

[Tas Melas]

No, you won't say that.

[Je Skeets]

All right.

[Tas Melas]

But I'm gonna look back. Weird. That's weird though.

[Je Skeets]

You were saying the warriors, that's sort of like one of those qualities. Any losses, because they were shorthanded against a really good team, but this sounds like, yeah, not a great win from Minnesota. Having to go to extra time against Pelicans.

[Tas Melas]

I mean, that's who they are. That is who they've been the last couple years. They get it done. When it comes to March, they turn it on. And then April, boom, here we are, we're going to the conference finals. So there's that. But as I've said, they kind of need an asshole in the room. Maybe Chris Paul joins the club to be that extra guy. Who knows? There's that. Speaking of a backup guard who likes to drive his team, Jamal Shed needs to be spoken of with the Toronto Raptors because he came in, he had a half. The first half interview and he said, listen, we just weren't playing hard defensively. We were sticking too much to the scouting report and we were allowing open threes, which is exactly what happened. They're doubling Denny and they weren't getting out to guys like Tomani Camara, who splashed four threes in that first quarter. Not an incredible three point shooter, but he's good enough when he's wide open. So they scored 39 points on the Raptors, but then as he said, the bench picked it up and that's exactly what they did. And then, yeah, Scotty Barnes, the Eastern Conference defensive player of the month, forget.

[Je Skeets]

They had that out.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, this is deserving though.

[Je Skeets]

Very deserving.

[Tas Melas]

This is the second year, right. Or the third year. They haven't done it forever. But yeah, well, he's. He blocked. Was it Avdia with six seconds left to. To ice the game to like. That's beautiful. Cause he had another block on Denny Avdio, which was awesome. Blocking him from the perimeter. He, he shut him down all the way into the lane and then, and then blocked him. So he, he, it's great that Ingram is there to take off a lot of pressure offensively so he can just play in the post. And that drive when he needs to, that drive and dunk with the left hand, my God, 28, 7 and 7 for him. So. Oh, I, I and I gotta include this stat, Trey, because he likes screen assists.

[Kenny]

I love them.

[Tas Melas]

Yaka Pearl, 4.4 screen assists per game, second in the NBA. Man, he just opens things up for that team. Quickly cooking. They should have won by more, but they got it.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, that was a fun game too. I mean, I watched a lot of that one too. Obviously, being the raps, it came down to the wire. But Scotty Barnes, this guy, you have to watch Raptors games to really understand how good he is this year. Because sometimes it shows up in the box score and sometimes it doesn't. Like I think last night was one where it did, obviously. 28 points and what, seven boards, six assists. He unfortunately had a lot of turnovers. But then he has the defensive stats, but he is just, he has command on both ends of the floor right now. And the three point shot he takes with confidence. He feels good about it. Got the little flips in there, little dinkers and dumpers around the rim, the jumper. And this was a game where Brandon Ingram was not cooking and it was all the other guys. It was nice to see Grady Dick have a good performance off the bench. You said shed. I mean he doesn't really do anything here in the box score for the most part, but made the biggest plays at the end. That pass to Ingram cutting, lost in the corner and then he cut to the net. That was a gorgeous pass because he waited Just a beat longer. As the shot clock was ticking down. He knew obviously, time and score. Gorgeous dime, I thought inside from him. So he's played well.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

It was getting a little scary with the reps. It seemed like every single one of their possessions was literally 20, 21 seconds. What are we doing here? And then all of a sudden, oh, yeah. This guy who's just hanging out on the perimeter. Bang. Find him. So that was a beautiful pass from Jamal Shed. Also great to see Charles Oakley and Antonio Davis in the crowd.

[Je Skeets]

Gave him a nice applause.

[Tas Melas]

Big applause, big applause.

[Je Skeets]

I thought they gave a nice one to Davis and then even louder one. One. Yeah. To. To Oak. And I think that's right. Even though Davis wasn't an all star when he played for the Raps one year. But Charles Oakley is just beloved.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And even the clips they're showing, I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot. He was basically like sort of Rodman diving into the crowd, obviously, Jocelyn, and fighting with everybody.

[Kenny]

They can steal him. They could steal Charles Oakley. You know, he was cast aside by James Dolan, the Knicks. So he's a free agent. Legends wise. You know, he shows up at like Cavs games as well because he was there for a while. Not a ton of Bulls, no ties.

[Je Skeets]

I don't. Raptors fans love them.

[Kenny]

Yeah. So I think.

[Tas Melas]

They could take him. Yeah. And like you said, he got a bigger applause than Antonio Davis, who was there way longer. Oakley only played, I think just over 200 games. For them. It was. He didn't play a ton, but he is reminded. Why were they there? I don't know.

[Je Skeets]

I. That part I wasn't sure.

[Tas Melas]

I wanted somebody to ask him about sitting there courtside.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Salute.

[Kenny]

Sixers have been terrible in third quarters. I think that the second worst third quarter team in the league behind only the Pelicans. So you're almost the worst. But a good way to solve that is just have Tyrese maxey go nuts. 20 of his 35, like you said, got a dunk. Raise the roof. I love raising the roof.

[Je Skeets]

You do?

[Kenny]

You don't see it enough these days. Good to see a young guy raising the roof.

[Tas Melas]

Keep it going.

[Je Skeets]

I thought it came up last season. Yeah. Doing it last season. And we talked about it for a second because we were all like, yeah, that's great. I can't remember who it was.

[Kenny]

Let me go deep into my notes. I'll find it because if it happened, I made note of it.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, good.

[Kenny]

Because it doesn't happen enough.

[Je Skeets]

I remember you bringing it Up. I swear, over the last year or two, it came back into the zeitgeist of somebody raising the roof.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, you got to what's better, raising the roof or the Milwaukee Bucks doing the deer antlers? That's just weird. This is weird.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, I know. Giannis did it a long, long time ago when he did the antlers. And then we've seen it recently. Miles Turner, I think, pulled it out.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, raising the roof is. Is better.

[Kenny]

Chad Holmgren on March 20, 2024, had five dunks in a 35 point game against the Jazz. And he raised the roof on a big dunk.

[Je Skeets]

I bet we talked about it.

[Kenny]

No doubt. Absolutely.

[Tas Melas]

He did.

[Je Skeets]

All right.

[Tas Melas]

Nice. Nice note.

[Kenny]

Love it. I love it. See, that's why I had to update that Anthony Edwards note. What if I ever need to go back and look how much minutes he played in the second half of a game against the Pelicans.

[Tas Melas]

You're right. I love the Google search. No doubt. That's a Google Drive search. It's important.

[Je Skeets]

We're running a little long here, so just. We'll touch on this news briefly. But Pelican star Zion Williamson has a grade 2 right hip adductor strain. The team announced this yesterday. Zion, he's already missed 11 games earlier this season. He's going to be reevaluated in three weeks. The adductor muscles, for those that don't know I. Trey, help me out here. But I think they're like the muscles located in the inner thigh providing stability for the pelvis, important for activities like running and jumping. Very important. So he's going to be reevaluated in three weeks? Like, I don't even. What. What's there to say at this point?

[Kenny]

Here's what to say. Time to move on. Yeah, trade him for anything, literally. If you can get one pick back, maybe a team would still roll the dice on Zion Williamson. Still a talented guy, and if you can get him on the court, he's going to be there for you. But guess what? Even if he can't, his contract is non guaranteed. Guaranteed. So the Pelicans, if they wanted, they could just wave them. Maybe that's a smart move to do as well. Why do you keep building your team around this guy when you can't be sure he'll ever play five straight games? They've given him six and a half years at this point, if he goes to another team and he's awesome. Sorry. I mean, that sucks for you, but it's like we did the best we could. How Many different versions of a team have there been built around Zion Williamson. How many different administrations have been in charge of building those teams? At this point, it's just like not worth the hassle. Even if he gets healthy, like, you might look like fools down the line if he finally is able to play for a full season. I wouldn't bet on it at this point because I did think he was going to play this season.

[Je Skeets]

So came in shape, looked great. Yep, we went through all of that.

[Kenny]

The nice goatee. That's the reason task has a goatee came in.

[Je Skeets]

It's all Z.

[Tas Melas]

Thanks, Z.

[Kenny]

But at this point it's like, shop him. See if anybody is willing to bite on him. And if not, see you later.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, y. Yeah, I agree. We had this discussion last year because his salary is not guaranteed each year. It all depends on if he number one plays and he meets his body fat percentage requirement. But I bought into this year because he said, and I've learned how to be in the best possible condition I can be. And it wasn't just an off season thing. He said, it was from his personal trainer during last year's season. And so he was in and out last year. But I thought listening to him, part of it was just his trainer saying, like, at this point, we're done. I mean, our season is done. The Pelicans stunk, so it was smart not to just play him every single game. So I was buying in with a new administration, with a new Joe Dumars, who he just kept on plugging. He loves him. He says, I love Joe. Joe was definitely pushing him, but you could see with the way they got spanked so early in this season that the locker room wasn't right. He wasn't leading the locker room in those 20 point losses that they were suffering. So, yeah, what I'm. What we're at here now he's playing 10 games. If he gets over half, that's a huge accomplishment. If he plays over half an NBA season, that's a huge accomplishment.

[Je Skeets]

He has played in 45% of the Pelicans games since he came in the league. Yeah, 50%. You'll take that?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

[Je Skeets]

That'd be a good year. I mean, it's bad at 224 out of a possible nearly 500 games.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, they're right there. Yeah. So I went into the. The doctors and see if there was some connection between the left hamstring or the adductor, but really it's just. It's just gonna be there. Forever. And I'm just trying to remember now, as you asked. What? What? The adductor is inside of the thigh while the abductor is on the outside of the hip. What's the great mnemonic device to remember? Because I always gotta think, oh, God. What's the adductor? What's the abductor?

[Kenny]

The way I learned it was like an abduction is taking something away. So the abductors on the outside are taking things away from the midline of your body.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, that's good. That works. That's right.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. That's why taking it away.

[Je Skeets]

Got great grades. That's why you're a doctor.

[Kenny]

Nope.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, no, no, no.

[Kenny]

That's one of the few things I remember.

[Je Skeets]

It's the only thing you remembered.

[Kenny]

That and the anatomical snot snuffbox. You're gonna want to zoom in.

[Tas Melas]

Right? Wow. Wow.

[Je Skeets]

You see that right here on your thumb?

[Kenny]

Everybody's got it. Yeah, it's called the anatomical snuff box. Right there, where the tendons of your thumb, two tendons. Put some stuff right in there.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. There you go.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Wow.

[Tas Melas]

So good.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. Maybe get some Zion.

[Tas Melas]

Good mnemonic device.

[Je Skeets]

I did final thought on this. I. I did wonder if Joe Dumars and the Pelicans front office thought that potentially trading Zion would be some sort of backup plan to justify trading the unprotected pick for Dairy Queen. And like, you know, like, if that, like, worst case scenario, we'll just then trade Zion and get a pick back is what I'm getting at here. But then the problem with that now is Zion's value has never been lower.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

So it's like.

It just sucks at this point. We have to talk about Zion when he actually plays, not when there's another headline that he misses three weeks. That's where we're at.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And we've been there.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it's lower than last season, but there are good games. And it is only three weeks if I'm going to be positive about the Pelicans front office. He is going to come back and you could see him play because he does play awesome when he plays. Even this year in his TED games, he played pretty good.

[Je Skeets]

So wait, you're hoping he comes back? He comes back and then you trade him before the deadline?

[Tas Melas]

Because it's dire. It's dire. New Orleans even watching the games there. I think the cameras are zooming in close on everything because they don't want to show you the empty seats. They don't want to show you what's going on out there because it's bad.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

It's just.

[Je Skeets]

How can you blame them?

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

But I mean they, they also have a little energy I think around fears and at least they have that. So that to me is kind of. It's similar to like firing Nico Harrison. Right. Like you don't want this hanging over Cooper flag. You don't want Zion hanging over what's going to be the next era of New Orleans. So even though they don't have their pick, like they blew it. Sorry, you. That's, that's long gone at this point. It's time to just focus on the new guys who have your team actually excited.

[Je Skeets]

I went on KFC earlier this week. He proposed a trade. You know KOC loves a trade machine. He proposed the Lakers making a move for Herb Jones and it would take like Gabe Vincent Dalton connect. There may have been a little bit more for to make the contracts work. And a first round pick, like a future first round pick. I didn't think it was that crazy. Like I think the Pelicans should do that.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Probably.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. And this is a guy that can't really stay healthy as it is. But the idea is he might slot in there. Well with the Lakers in a limited role, just of a defensive minded guy, I think it makes some sense. Anyway. Just want to throw that in.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Other news here before we get to Woah boy and Pickham. Veteran NBA forward Danilo Gallinari, the rooster announced his retirement from basketball on Tuesday. He was drafted sixth overall. That shocked me. I don't remember him being drafted that high in.08 by the Knicks after four professional years in Italy. And then Gallinari spent 16 years in the NBA, played 14 seasons because he unfortunately lost two full seasons due to an ACL tear in 13 14, I guess it was. And then 22, 23 later on at the end of his career. Any thoughts on a very good player? He will go into the. I don't know, a very good, good hall of Fame. I'm not sure what tier you're putting him. He was a solid player though.

[Tas Melas]

He was solid. And that's why the Boston Celtics said come on by, maybe we can win with you to try and win a championship with him. It didn't align for Danilo Gallinari, but he won a championship this past year in Puerto Rico. So he's kind of retiring. Finals mvp, he was the guy. So a very good career for him.

[Je Skeets]

Any thoughts on Gallinari?

[Kenny]

A few. He threw some crazy Passes that I saw going around behind the backers that had incredible velocity on him. Once his retirement was announced, people are pulling out the best clips. That was cool.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, sorry. Numbers on the board, guys. They had a clip going around. Like, Gallinari was sneaky, athletic. And the clips, you're like, he sort of. What? Look, you put the compilation together.

[Kenny]

Sneaky, athletic.

[Je Skeets]

He was more athletic than you might think.

[Kenny]

Okay. I'll also remember he's the NBA player who most looks like Robert De Niro. I think that's important. And when he was here in Atlanta, was a surprisingly important player in their run to the conference finals in 2021 as a.

A rare guy on the roster who could go get his own shot, even if it was taken a long time to get into his like post up fadeaways. But the main thing I'm always going to remember about Danilo Gallinari is that he is the player that taught me that NBA coaches lie. Because Mike D' Antoni went from coaching Steve Nash during his two MVP seasons when he was 50, 40, 90 every season. And Mike D' Antoni after coaching Danilo Gallinari said, he's the best shooter I've ever seen. And that's why I was like, oh, so we just tell lies. And then it turns out Mike d' Antoni and Danilo Gallinari's dad were roommates when they played together back in Italy. So I think that was an important lesson to learn.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, it's a great point. The other thing everybody brings up when you talk Gallinari is that he was a part of the Mellow trade, right? Getting mellow from Denver to New York. He goes back to Denver. That's where Gallinari played the most in his career. He played for Denver, I think five and a half seasons, if I remember correctly. I do. You know, we obviously had the show because we're old and we've been doing this forever. I remember when he destroyed his left knee. That first ACL tear versus the Mavericks. It was at the end of the season because that was a good Nuggets team. That was like a 55 plus win. Nuggets team.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And he blew by Dirk and he just like took two dribbles and then just like his, you know, the knee just went and it was like, oh, that does not look good. He looked in like so much pain. Like, remember, like screaming and. Yeah. There was like five or six games left in the regular season. So then they go into the playoffs and they would lose to Steph Curry and the warriors, like, that's young baby Steph, really, in a first round matchup. And Gallinar, I bring that up because he was an important piece. Like he 15, 16 points per game. Obviously played a lot of minutes. I think Ty Lawson was sort of injured that year, too. He came back at the end of the year, but. But, yeah, they got bounced in the first round. I bring that up to say, you know, who knows? Would they have won the title? Probably not. But would they have gone a little deeper with a healthy Gallinari in a healthy squad?

[Tas Melas]

Maybe, yeah. That was the conversation when they got into the playoffs. They got a bunch of really good players like your Gallinari, your Lawson. They don't have a superstar, but they're doing it by committee. Here's Wilson Chandler. He's good. He can do it. Right, right, right. Yeah, I remember that team.

[Je Skeets]

A little trivia with Gallinari before we go to the other thing. He hit 1,456 three pointers. That is the sixth most by an NBA player in NBA history who's 610 or taller. Can you guys tell me the five guys 610 or taller to hit more threes than Gallinari at that height? Dirk. Correct. He's second. I think I have these in order, but he's on the list. Dirk.

[Tas Melas]

Whoa.

[Kenny]

A thousand Porzingis. Probably too.

[Je Skeets]

Too few.

[Kenny]

Ryan Anderson.

[Je Skeets]

No.

[Tas Melas]

Towns. I guess.

[Je Skeets]

No.

[Kenny]

That's actually kind of surprising.

[Je Skeets]

I'm trusting this stat here. So. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot. That's 1400 plus three pointers.

[Pierre Andreessen]

A lot.

[Je Skeets]

It's a lot.

[Tas Melas]

Six ten.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, you got.

[Kenny]

Think of the Durant.

[Je Skeets]

There you go. I was gonna say, forgetting this guy. That is tall.

[Kenny]

Yes, he is tall.

[Je Skeets]

You can get these other three guys, none of them play in the league anymore, but. Oh, that's not true. One guy, he's on a team. He still plays.

[Kenny]

He's on. So he doesn't play very much.

[Je Skeets]

No, not very much. But he's out there. We mentioned him. I mentioned, man, he is really bad defensively, but he could still throw a great pass.

[Kenny]

Joe Ingles. No, he's too short.

[Je Skeets]

No, he's too short. Too short.

[Kenny]

LeBron is too short. Still throw a great pass. Al Horford.

[Je Skeets]

No, it's not Al Horford. He must be close.

[Kenny]

He's not six' ten.

[Pierre Andreessen]

I don't know.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, yeah, this guy is six ten. See, I don't think of this guy at six' ten.

[Tas Melas]

Not Brook Lopez.

[Je Skeets]

No, I definitely think of him.

[Kenny]

It took A while to get to shooting threes.

[Je Skeets]

This guy's known as rebounding. Championship outlet passes.

[Kenny]

Kevin Love.

[Je Skeets]

Kevin Love, 610. Okay.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

I wouldn't think of him as 6:10.

[Je Skeets]

I know. @ least he is on Basketball Reference. And then two more guys. Come on. Okay. The other guy I never thought is 610 because I thought he was like 6, 7. Because he was a pure three point shooter. International.

[Kenny]

Guy. He do no better. Hedo.

[Je Skeets]

Peja.

[Tas Melas]

Peja. That's a lot of threes. Big.

[Je Skeets]

Boy. And then final one teams he played for. You'll get it right away. Seattle and.

[Tas Melas]

Orlando. Rashard.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Lewis.

[Je Skeets]

Nice. There you.

[Tas Melas]

Go.

[Je Skeets]

Good. Durant, Dirk. Rashard Lewis, Peja, Kevin Love. And then Golenari right.

[Tas Melas]

There. Yeah. You don't think of Rashad Lewis being six' ten.

[Je Skeets]

Either. See, I think of him being taller than Pajan. Kevin Love on oddly. I don't know if that makes any.

[Kenny]

Sense. He was a lot.

[Tas Melas]

Skinnier. Yeah.

[Kenny]

Yeah. He read his.

[Je Skeets]

Taller. Yeah, yeah. Kevin Love, you think is smaller because he was like squat, like a big boy when he. When he first got in the.

[Tas Melas]

League. I think he's kind of listed a little.

[Je Skeets]

High. Blows my mind that he was 6.

[Tas Melas]

10. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Because he moved really good. Like, he was pretty quick.

Up the night. Unsullied by sponsorship. I can't even talk anymore. Unsullied by sponsorship. Sponsorship since November.

True. You want to sponsor? Well, boy, get at me. Nominees. A lot of big games. Jalen Brown, sga, Anthony Edwards. Those are three all stars. But nah, let's give it to Knicks forward Mikhail Bridges because he hit a bunch of threes and he sort of got the Knicks back in the game at the end. This guy was on fire. Heat checks galore, but 35 points for Bridges in the loss. Eight three pointers made on 12 attempts at six boards. He had three assists, two steals. Zero turnovers, too, in 34 minutes for Bridges as he screams.

[Kenny]

There.

Yeah, he was feeling it all night. As soon as he touched the ball, it was going.

[Je Skeets]

Up. Nice pick him tonight, Tas. I was gonna say, I just saw the game here, man. I was gonna go down, see Chris Paul, say my goodbyes to Chris Paul. Now I.

[Tas Melas]

Can'T. Nah, he's probably not.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Here.

[Je Skeets]

Here. Oh, he should do like. That would be a wrestling move to show up in the.

[Tas Melas]

Stands.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Let me buy a ticket. Just sit.

[Kenny]

Courtside. Do is a outcast giveaway.

[Tas Melas]

Tonight. Saw.

[Kenny]

That. I don't know if I like. I can't tell if they're dolls or like, A.

[Je Skeets]

Figurine. Yeah. They look cool, man. Nothing. The Atlanta sports team loves to do more than give away an.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Outcast.

[Kenny]

Giveaway. Oh.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. How many times have the Braves already done it? Every season. Yeah. And people line up. They'll be lined up tonight at the fortress for.

[Tas Melas]

This. Yeah, it's a little stuffed animal.

[Je Skeets]

Thingy. Sort of like.

[Tas Melas]

It. Cuz the Bayhawks. Exactly. They do their little stuffy thing. Here are the kids. They liked.

[Je Skeets]

It. I think the adults like it.

[Tas Melas]

Too. The weird part to me, I had to go with that game, Atlanta hosting the.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Clippers.

[Tas Melas]

Right. When they let go of Chris Paul. I had to. I kept checking that fanduel line. Is it moving because of this Clippers friction? It has. It's dropped to two and a half even though we got it at three and a.

[Je Skeets]

Half. You gotta get that point to play.

[Tas Melas]

With. Yeah, I'm gonna be, you know, I'm being a wild man and I'm taking the Clippers. It feels like the Clippers are playing for their season almost how dire things are. They just got spanked by the Miami Heat. But James Harden only played 20 minutes in that game, so he's gonna be super fresh for this one. Hopefully he didn't go out and.

[Je Skeets]

Party. Oh, no, I thought hopefully they. He did go out and party. I thought we determined when he goes to the strip clubs, that's his like power. That's his spinach. I got worried because I was like, oh, they've been here. They probably went to Magic City last.

[Tas Melas]

Night. They were.

[Je Skeets]

Here. Oh, he's going to cook.

[Kenny]

Tonight. I mean a Miami, Atlanta, two consecutive games. That's a Harden's.

[Tas Melas]

Master.

[Kenny]

Yeah. Career, high.

[Je Skeets]

Income. How much money did James Harden just drop in the last, last, you know, three.

[Kenny]

Nights? Yeah, he's having like his best week ever. He's like, party all week. Get Chris Paul out of here. Chris Paul was probably at the.

[Je Skeets]

Strip club with him at 2:40 in the.

[Kenny]

Morning. Said don't come. Yeah, that was the tension. Chris Paul said, I don't think you should go tonight. He said, I'm going tonight. Check the.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Stats.

[Kenny]

Wow. Get him out of.

[Tas Melas]

That. Feels right. That's where the friction is that caused him to. Magic.

[Je Skeets]

Suit. Need.

[Tas Melas]

Friction. Anyway, I'm the only one taking the Clippers getting those three little points. Yeah, it's a crazy, it's a crazy move. It is a crazy move. They could literally lose by 20 against this Atlanta Hawks team. That's balling. But you guys both have the Atlanta Hawks to win by four or more. And that's why the song ended now at a perfect.

[Je Skeets]

Time. Okay.

[Tas Melas]

Go. Because we talked a long about James Harden being in an adult entertainment.

[Je Skeets]

Establishment.

Okay.

That'S one of the games on tonight. Spurs Magic is another pretty good one I guess. NBA TV has Heat, Mavericks tonight. A lot of early games tonight. Yeah, a lot of starts at 7 Eastern and the latest one 8:30 that NBA TV game. So that's interesting. All right, we'll call there longer show for us. But that's because we had Pierre on from numbers on the board from Teed up a great guest again. Hit the like button. Subscribe do it for Pierre. Appreciate him jumping on. Thank you for joining us. We will see you tomorrow, 10am Eastern. Till then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here.

[Pierre Andreessen]

First. Have a great time. Turn.

[Je Skeets]

Up. Love you.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Guys.

[Tas Melas]

Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, I'm trying to figure out why there's so many early games in the NBA because quite often they take into account all the other sports going.

[Je Skeets]

On. Nope, there's no games on ESPN tonight too. Just.

[Kenny]

Odd. Is it somehow cup.

[Je Skeets]

Related? There is a weird schedule here the next little bit because of how they had to wait to see who makes it, who's playing. Yeah, yeah, there is. It's almost like teams like get an odd little break here. People were saying Hollinger was writing about this. In fact, people were like saying like there's too many games early on in the season. Maybe that's part of the injuries because of all the cup scheduling. But then this is like the first. Like everybody can take a breath here in like the coming weeks here before the Christmas.

[Kenny]

Break. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Like the farthest west games are Houston and Dallas, which I assume are Central.

[Je Skeets]

Time. Very strange. Very strange. Anyway, we'll be here to talk.

[Kenny]

About the schedule guys over.

[Tas Melas]

Here. Yeah, it's not the Washington Capital San Jose Sharks game. It's a late one, but it's not that one. It's not Atalanta. That's that soccer team with the. Or that's Atalanta, that weird soccer team. You know that weird soccer.

[Kenny]

Team. There's an extra A in.

[Je Skeets]

There.

[Tas Melas]

Why? I'm just looking at the late.

Hey man, they're in. They're 12th in Syria right now. No, they're not that.

[Je Skeets]

Good. The MLS cup finals coming up. It's right around the corner. I don't know when it.

[Kenny]

Is.

[Je Skeets]

Atlanta? No, it's Messi for sure. I think it's Vancouver. I think it's White Caps.

[Kenny]

Miami. Yeah, you can't say a team.

[Je Skeets]

Name.

I call them the best. The Messi.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Baby. The.

[Je Skeets]

Messies. The Pink Team. All right. Nice, Tracy. Embrace the day, people.

Ah, greetings from my bath festive friends. The holidays are overwhelming, but I'm.

[Kenny]

Tackling this season with PayPal and making.

[Je Skeets]

The most of my money getting 5% cash back when I pay in.

[Pierre Andreessen]

4. No fees, no.

[Je Skeets]

Interest. I used it to get this portable spot with just jets. Now the bubbles can cling to my sculpted but pruny body. Make the most of your money this holiday with PayPal. Save the offer in the app ends 1231. See paypal.com promoter points can be redeemed for cash and more. Paying for subject to terms and.

[Tas Melas]

Approval. PayPal Inc. And MLS 910457 what.

[Kenny]

A matchup we got.

[Je Skeets]

Y'.

[Kenny]

All. This is that classic HBCU.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Vibe. Non stop.

[Kenny]

Action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chance echo drum beat, everybody. Showing that school.

[Tas Melas]

Pride. Game like.

[Kenny]

This. Yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Refreshing. That's a game changer right.

[Kenny]

There.

Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Cola. That's a winning combo no matter.

[Kenny]

The sport, no matter the.

[Pierre Andreessen]

Yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty.

[Kenny]

Work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride.

[Je Skeets]

Going. Sometimes you just need to be comfortable, you.

[Tas Melas]

Know? But that doesn't mean you don't.

[Je Skeets]

Want to look good.

[Tas Melas]

Too. Well, Old Navy, the kings of.

[Je Skeets]

Cozy have done it again with Bounce Fleece. It's soft, stylish, and comes in.

[Tas Melas]

Elevated colors and look good anywhere. Basically, it's fleece reimagined for real.

[Je Skeets]

Life, made for moments when you want.

[Tas Melas]

To be cozy but still need to look good. Call it airport chic, call it errand.

[Je Skeets]

Elegance. Either way, Bounce Fleece nails.

[Tas Melas]

It. Find Bounce Fleece and other holiday goodies.

[Pierre Andreessen]

[e-mail]. this is an iHeart.

[Tas Melas]

Podcast. Guaranteed Human.