Giannis Trade Rumors, What's Next For Chris Paul & Wild Jamal Murray Stats

Summary

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No Dunks Podcast Summary

Episode: Giannis Trade Rumors, What's Next For Chris Paul & Wild Jamal Murray Stats
Date: December 4, 2025
Hosts: Jay Skeets, Tas Melas, Trey Kirby, JD
Main Topics: Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors, Chris Paul's Clippers exit, Jamal Murray’s historic scoring night, NBA games recap, and listener questions.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the escalating trade rumors surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo and implications for the Milwaukee Bucks, the fallout between Chris Paul and the Clippers, and a breakdown of Jamal Murray's explosive 52-point game. The hosts dissect the latest NBA news, offer insider analysis of potential trades, explore injuries, and answer lively mailbag questions.

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1. Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Rumors

Theme:
The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis are reportedly reconsidering their future together just two months from the trade deadline. The hosts discuss whether this is the "soft launch" of a trade request or a power play to pressure Milwaukee’s front office.

Key Discussion Points:

• Rumor Genesis: Both Shams and Windhorst report Giannis and his agent are exploring options; a decision is expected soon, before the February 5th trade deadline.
  “A winter full of Giannis trade rumors is upon us.” — Skeets (02:01)
• Giannis’s Leverage & Motivation:
  • Trey: “This is a soft launch trade request…he’s changing his mind. The team was really bad when Giannis was out… It does feel like Giannis may have played his last game for the Bucks.” (03:26)
  • Skeets: “To me, this reminds me of the end of the LeBron James run in Cleveland, where he forced the front office—trade every pick, go get help.” (04:45)
• Injury Impact:
  • Skeets: "The injury happens, which could be entirely different, because this literally could be a long term injury we can get into." (05:37)
  • Tas: “It’s basically not an Achilles injury…so it doesn’t seem like it’s a long one.” (05:52)
• Front Office Dilemma:
  • Tas: “The Bucks, they’ve already done that. They traded for Lillard, they traded Middleton for Kuzma, and now got Myles Turner.” (05:23)
• Soft Deadline: December 15th, when many players become trade-eligible, is highlighted as a pivot point.

Trade Destinations Debated:

• New York Knicks:
  • Tas: “...when you look at what the Knicks could offer, it's not the best deal because they basically have no draft capital. They could offer Karl-Anthony Towns, maybe OG Anunoby, a bunch of swaps, but is that good enough?” (12:57)
  • Trey: “If you trade Giannis, the Milwaukee pick’s going to be the worst of the two with New York. The smarter move is to go after Trae Young and the Hawks and get their pick back.” (14:33)
• Atlanta Hawks:
  • Discussion about demanding Jalen Johnson in any deal; Hawks would prefer to trade Trae Young.
• San Antonio Spurs & Others: Spurs could offer Dylan Harper/Stephon Castle and a bounty of picks. Warriors and Lakers rumored, but seen as unlikely unless Austin Reeves included (24:20+).
• Loyalty vs. Smart Team-Building:
  • Skeets floats that Milwaukee may stick by Giannis out of loyalty, Dirk-style, “It’d be odd to trade him, period.” (16:59)

Notable Quotes:

• "Endings are bad because they're endings. If it was all good, it wouldn't end." — Trey (30:48)
• “If you told Bucks fans when they drafted Giannis that the ending would get messy…100% of them would be psyched about it still.” — Tas (29:55)
• “Giannis is saying trade a draft pick and get me something or else I’m gone. It is literally LeBron going to David Griffin and saying, do something." — Skeets (10:39)

Timestamps of Key Segments:

• Rumor breakdown: 02:01–13:00
• Knicks/Hawks trade packages: 13:48–19:36
• Trade negotiation philosophy (loyalty vs. asset maximization): 16:59–18:56
• Other teams & contract discussion: 22:50–29:35

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2. Chris Paul and the Clippers' Split

Theme:
Chris Paul is released after a breakdown in his relationship with Clippers coach Ty Lue and the team’s poor performance.

Key Points:

• Chris Paul and Ty Lue stopped talking for weeks.
• Trey: "They signed Chris Paul and got mad that he started acting like Chris Paul." (42:27)
• Team’s frustrations mounted as Paul’s role shrank and the Clippers’ losses piled up.
• Ty Lue, a veteran coach, reportedly refused to meet with Paul, a reflection of their frosty dynamic.
  “It is strange to me that Ty Lue doesn't want to meet with him... Like, he is ducking him. That is weird.” — Tas (43:39)
• Speculation on Paul’s next move:
  • Possible landing spots: Lakers (most likely), Timberwolves, Wizards, or a coaching role.
  • Skeets: “I find it difficult to think that he would end his career like this. I think somebody will bring him around.” (45:51)

Memorable Moment:

• Discussion on whether Paul's value is now primarily as a veteran mentor for young teams rather than on-court contributions.

Timestamps:

• Clippers/Paul saga begin: 39:15
• Fallout details and Ty Lue relationship: 40:11–46:45

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3. Jamal Murray’s Historic 52-Point Game

Theme:
Jamal Murray posts one of the most efficient 50-point games in NBA history, reminding everyone of his elite potential.

Stats, Analysis, and Records:

• Performance: 52 points on 19–25 FG, 10–11 3PT (96% true shooting).
• Historical context:
  • “Jamal Murray now owns two of the six most efficient 50+ point games in NBA history.” — Tas (52:39)
  • Most 50-point games by a player never named All-Star; now ahead of Jamal Crawford.
  • Only three teams in NBA history have had three different 50-point scorers in one season.
• “He got that front roll on that one three...That was the heat check." — Skeets (54:05)

Game Flow Commentary:

• Jokic facilitated; Murray locked in physically despite recent injury.
• “When he starts rolling, he's a great heat check guy.” — Trey (53:31)
• Murray signed an autograph mid-game, underscoring his swagger (58:16).

Timestamps:

• Murray performance breakdown: 52:08–55:55
• Historical stats & trivia: 54:51–57:09

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4. Other Key Games & Player Performances

• Bucks (without Giannis) Game Recap:

  • Jericho Sims, Ryan Rollins, and Kevin Porter Jr. all contributed big in Giannis's absence.
  • Doc Rivers deployed a critical zone defense.
  • "Jericho Sims, 15 points, 14 rebounds...I was more impressed with guys like Adrian Green stepping up." — Skeets (37:44)

• Clippers Snap Losing Streak:

  • Team chemistry seemed to improve instantly post-Paul.
  • “They looked like the Clippers were supposed to look this year. Zubots was dominant inside.” — Trey (45:04)

• Spurs Surging Without Wembanyama:

  • Luke Kornet’s heroics; 7–2 since he entered starting lineup.
  • “Spurs are scary—just watch Dylan Harper’s pace of play.” — Skeets (60:46)

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5. Listener Questions and Mailbag

Topics Covered:

• Stubborn NBA convictions vindicated over time:

  • Trey’s Jimmy Butler-over-Paul George take
  • Tas’s faith in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s rise

• Famous coaches on bad highlights:

  • Rudy Tomjanovich’s infamous punch, IME Udoka’s sideline altercations
  • Discussion on rare plays featuring now-coaches as poster victims

• Wedgie Stats:

  • A fan found a 1992 Michael Jordan playoff wedgie: "That's the best player we've ever seen have a wedgie." — Skeets (76:16)

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6. Notable Quotes

• “If it was all good, it wouldn’t end.” — Trey (30:51)
• “The Bucks should have done it in the summer when they maybe could have gotten Jalen Johnson before he took a step forward.” — Trey (20:27)
• “He’s only turning 31 and somehow the injuries catch up to him in the postseason.” — Skeets (29:35)
• “That’s the optimistic part [on Bucks]. And Doc, go on zone. Always helps.” — Skeets (38:46)

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7. Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro and Theme Setup: 01:46–02:01
• Giannis Trade Rumor Deep Dive: 02:01–32:29
• Chris Paul News: 39:15–46:39
• Jamal Murray Historic Night: 52:08–57:09
• Spurs description, recent wins: 58:29–61:24
• Mailbag (NBA beliefs & notable coaches): 65:16–74:59
• Classic wedgie discovery: 75:00–77:05

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8. Language & Tone

Playful, conversational, punctuated with sharp analogies (“LeBron to David Griffin” and “soft launch” for trade requests), and self-aware banter. Hosts maintain a knowledgeable but relaxed approach, reflecting their chemistry and deep familiarity with NBA lore.

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9. Most Memorable Moment

• The group drawing direct, detailed analogies between Giannis’s situation and the LeBron Cavaliers era, and dissecting whether the Bucks will (or should) prioritize loyalty or asset maximization.

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10. Conclusion

The episode is a quintessential No Dunks show—dense with trade hypotheticals, fresh injury analysis, statistical deep-dives, and trademark humor. It delivers insight for diehards and casual fans alike with accessible, passionate NBA talk.

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Transcript

[Jay Skeets]

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[Tas Melas]

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Good morning sweet world, and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the Thursday, December 4, 2025. I'm Jay Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me as always, Tas Melas.

[Jay Skeets]

NBA lovers, this one's for you.

[Tas Melas]

Next to him, it's my top shot hot boy Trey Kirby. Ayo. Ayo. And over yonder making the magic happen, super producer jd Hello. There he is. Here we are. Yeah. Hello to everybody on YouTube. Hit the like button. Subscribe podcast listeners. Five star ratings and reviews. We got a lot to get to today. We're going to touch on a few of last night's games. Big Jamal Murray game going for 50 plus again. We'll also hit the beach to answer a few of your NBA questions. But first, bundle up boys. A winter full of Giannis trade rumors is upon us. That's right. Giannis is reopening the conversation about his future with the Bucks. Per espn, he and his agent are discussing whether his best fit is to stay in Milwaukee or or a move elsewhere. A resolution to these talks is expected in the coming weeks here, which will result in shaping whether Giannis is available, I guess, ahead of the February 5th trade deadline. So here we go. We can get to Giannis and his injury last night in a pretty shocking sort of Bucks win without Giannis. But let's start with the juicy part of this, and this is this report from Shams and Windhoar saying it as well. Like, look, here we go again, TK with the possibility, possibility of Giannis and his agent asking for a trade possibility.

[Trey Kirby]

I think this is a soft launch trade request. Let the conversation begin. During the summer, he's like, I am locked in for the Bucks, but I might change my mind. And it feels like he's changing his mind. The team was really bad when Giannis was out, came back, had a loss to the Wizards, which would send anybody over the edge. So at this point, it does feel like Giannis may have played his last game for the Bucks. There's a long time between now and the trade deadline. We still got two months, but a lot of players become eligible on December 15th. We saw the injury to Giannis last night. Calf injuries can take a little bit of time to come back from, depending on what it turns out to be. So it wouldn't be surprising to me if Giannis stays on the shelf until he moves to another place. But it feels a lot like the end of the Damian Lillard tenure in Portland to me when it's like, we know you want to leave, man. You can make a trade request. And I don't think anybody would be upset with Giannis at this point. He won a title for the Bucks, their first one in 50 years. He's given them a lot of chances to build teams around him, including not saying anything over the summer when the biggest move they could pull was bringing in Miles Turner. So to me, yeah, maybe they're discussing the future, but all that means is Giannis figuring out which team is next for him.

[Jay Skeets]

To me, this is all about Giannis using all the power to get a trade to help him in Milwaukee. Right here and right now, that's what it is. It's going to Milwaukee front office and saying, we've got a draft pick we can trade in. 31 or 32. Go get me some help. Did you see what happened against the Washington Wizards? We gave up those offensive rebounds after offensive rebound in the fourth quarter and giving up those points. I need help right here, right now. To me, it reminds me of the end of the LeBron James run in Cleveland, where he forced David Griffin, the front office. Trade every pick, man. Trade every. Go get George Hill, go get Rodney Hood. They went and got Dwyane Wade to help him at the end of his career. That's what it reminds me of.

[Tas Melas]

But the Bucks have already done that, though, too. Oh, they got more years, obviously, trading Middleton for the Kuzma experiment, getting Lillard and then now waving him, getting Myles Turner. So they have tried things.

[Jay Skeets]

They've tried. They could try more.

[Tas Melas]

But you think Giannis is saying try more?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what this one is. Him and his agent going to the front office and saying that right now. Then the injury happens, which could be entirely different because this literally could be a long term injury we can get into. It doesn't look like Mrs. Is coming today.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. They're saying basically it's not an Achilles injury.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, there wasn't the look back. He didn't look back at his calf forward. Yeah, he almost looked forward. So look different. So it didn't look extremely long. They didn't examine it on the bench. So it doesn't seem like it's a long one. So to me, this is. We got to give this one more shot. I said it before the season. I'm going to be here for the entire season. And then when it comes to the off season, there's a place I want to go. There's lots of rumors. Hey, it's. Maybe it's Atlanta. They could trade back Milwaukee's picks. Those are all rumors to me. To me, it is that he wants to be in New York if this doesn't work out. So it could very well work out like the end of LeBron in Cleveland in 2018, where he just says, I'm out, I'm done. But I think he's sticking around for these next couple months. Like you said, December 15th, I'm putting this down here. Make a pick, make a trade here in 11 days. It's also my birthday on December 6th. Make me a happy man. So he's. I think. I think Alex Aratzis and Giannis are saying, be a happy man. Like there's.

[Tas Melas]

I don't think there's many people that are thinking the way you are with this. I think a lot more are saying Giannis came into this season, hey, I will assess where we are after 20 games or so, and that's where we are now. And the assessment is we maybe suck. Right. And so we don't. At least we do not show signs of competing for an Eastern Conference title here. Right now, they're 10 and 13. They've lost 8 of 10. You know, they get this win last night, again, that was huge. That's. They need those type of wins. But that. That more people think it's this meeting, this talk with John Horse in the Bucs front office is all right. I said what I said in the summer we came in, we got to a hot start, things look good for a second, but maybe we're not all that good. And maybe now explore the possibility of moving me either to my preferred destination, whether it is still the Knicks in New York City or another team. So I. I mean, I think you're very. Not many people are thinking the way you are with this one, tas, I gotta say.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And from. I'm sure other people are thinking this is the best time to get the most for Giannis De Gumpo right here, right now, because then you have two playoff runs essentially under this contract, so it makes sense to trade him now at his youngest. So you get more back. I understand that.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

But you look at the Bucs roster, how much better did you. Did. Did Giannis, who said, I'm sticking here for the season, expect them to be.

Look at that. Look each one. He expected more from Ryan Rollins. He got it. Ryan Rollins is the most improved candidate. He's a plus 500 on FanDuel. Odds to win Most improved player. Miles Turner also playing well. I think those are the two guys who are untradeable with the Milwaukee Bucks if they're going to go get somebody else. And then there are some players that they probably don't want to trade. A.J. green, probably don't want to trade him. Kevin Porter Jr. Who's only played four games this season. He's just come back for the last three, starting to play a lot better. I assume they don't want to trade him. Kuzma is playing well, but I think he is tradable. Bobby Portis, Jericho Sims, those guys are fine. I don't know how much better they expected them to be. In all honesty, they're around.

[Tas Melas]

I think he thought they'd be better than 10 and 13.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, he missed a bunch of those games, and that's a big part of it.

[Tas Melas]

Four games and they went 04.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And KPJ missed a lot of games, too, so.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Yeah, I. I mean, yeah. But I think, again, the point is we're doing this again, this soft launch. I mean, this is like soft launch 2.0 for being honest, if you believe all the reports. Well, yeah, maybe more. But it's reported in October that the Knicks were Giannis's preferred Destination that's reported by reputable, obviously, reporters in the game. And then we know that the two teams, the Knicks and the Bucks, they talked in August. Now, those trade talks fell apart, but they explored the idea, what would it take? What would we do it? Okay, we're going to wait all that. And I just think now we've come to the point with Giannis specifically, like, I'm getting up there, I'm now incurring these, like, cast strains and stuff like that. The guy's not dumb. He knows there's not that many years at peak Giannis level here where it's like the 30, 30, 12 and 8, whatever that he has left to win a try to try and win another title. And I'm thinking he doesn't see it in Milwaukee any longer. And I don't think he's won one.

[Trey Kirby]

Playoff series since the championship.

[Tas Melas]

Right, right.

[Trey Kirby]

Once the Damian Lillard experiment didn't work out and then Lillard went down with an injury, it was like, they don't really have a lot of moves to pull. They do have these couple of picks. They could trade one of them in the future, but what's one pick going to really get you when you have to include some sort of money to get any sort of player back? So for me, it's over. And it's just a matter of Giannis basically deciding where he wants to go, because that's what Wind Horse is reporting. It'll be Giannis instructing the Bucks where he wants to be traded, and the Bucks trying to make the best possible deal with that team. So, I don't know. I mean, is it literally just going to be Giannis calling his shot? Kind of is what it feels like, right?

[Jay Skeets]

I think he is saying right here, right now, trade a draft pick and get me something or else I'm gone. It is literally LeBron going to David Griffin and saying, do something. I'm LeBron James, I'm here in Cleveland. And I think he's playing the same card, which makes sense because they need.

[Trey Kirby]

Help, but they definitely need help.

[Tas Melas]

That's like also malpractice to some extent for the Bucks organization to do that. If he's saying that, hey, trade another future first round pick, get something to help me. Right now we're sitting here going, what the hell would they get that's really gonna vault them up the Eastern Conference standings into the title conversation. Also, there's a team that's lost one goddamn game this year. Like, good luck trying to beat them if you even get there. So I'm just saying, like, what is. Like, what is it?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

At a certain point, you gotta be like, ah, we don't want to do that, man. Maybe we look to explore trade.

[Trey Kirby]

Cass didn't trade that pick.

[Tas Melas]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

That was the Colin Sexton pick.

[Tas Melas]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

In 2018. No, I can't remember.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, they went and got a bunch of players, as I said, even the year before that, in 2017, same thing. LeBron did the same thing over and over as well.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, I'm agreeing. But my point is, we have gotten in the trajectory there. We're at the end, sort of, because that's what the Bucks have done and tried to keep him happy, as you should, with a superstar of his caliber. They've made these moves, some work better than others, but it ultimately hasn't resulted in, obviously, them winning even playoff series at this point now, let alone competing for a title.

[Jay Skeets]

And there was injuries, of course, because of that, Dames and Janice's. So I do wonder what the Bucks are thinking. It is possible that they say maybe we gotta sell. If they're that type of front office to say we have to sell to make our future better, I totally get that, if that's their thinking. But I do think there's a loyalty factor here on both sides, both from Giannis, who I think does want to stick around Milwaukee and the front office who says, this is our guy. He brought us our first championship in 50 seasons. It could be Dirk, like to have him just stay around till the end when they were just a team that lost. They didn't win a playoff series after the mavericks championship in 2011 until the end of Dirk's career. So it could be very similar to that. Again, going back to. There's guys that are playing well, like Ryan Rollins again and Miles Turner. Those are the only guys, I think, that they don't trade. But the other guys, there's some that they want to keep around, but I think that's where they are right here, right now, off season. Different.

[Tas Melas]

To me, it's just I'm fascinated to find out whether Giannis and his agent are going into these meetings saying, I want to go to New York City, because you brought it up there. TK this idea of, like, they would try and facilitate that the Bucks would. Because of the relationship with Giannis and how much he's meant to them as an organization. Yeah, we would maybe explore it, because to me, when you look at what the Knicks could offer, it's not the best deal because they basically have no draft capital. I Mean, there's a lot of swaps they could do. There's a lot of second round picks that you throw in. There's a big player like Karl Anthony Towns that you probably maybe would have to include for contract regions. But other teams, if they want to get in the honest business like the spurs, the Hawks, there are juicier, juicier trade packages with young players and picks. But will any of it matter if Giannis is like, don't do that. I want to go to nyc.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. And that's like, like I said, that's what Wendy is saying is I want to go there, figure out the best possible deal you can and probably not going to get a player back that's going to be better than Karl Anthony Towns. Then you could play it out the rest of the season with him and look to move him or keep him around. You know, Towns is good. I guess OG Anunoby probably is in that trade as well. Just to make the money work. They would ask for all the swaps they can possibly get. Why not? Yeah, but you know, if you trade Giannis, probably the Milwaukee pick is going to be the worst one of the two. With New York, the smartest move for the Bucks would be to go after Trey Young and the Hawks and get their pick back so they get a chance at two top five picks. That's the best like team building move. If they decide that Giannis leaves but he has such status and such stature with the Milwaukee that they'll probably try and do right by him and send him where he actually wants to go. I would have thought that was the case with Damian Lillard at the end of Portland as well. But he ended up where he didn't want to be. Quite Leonard ended up someplace he didn't want to be. You know, it happens. It'll just be a matter of if John Horst decides to be a good guy and open up the and say, yeah, we'll do what you want to do. Or if he says we're going to open it up to everybody to try and get the best package, that's the smarter thing to do. But it doesn't always play out that way.

[Jay Skeets]

It doesn't always play out that way. It doesn't play out well for a team to go and trade with the team that the player wants to go to. Like Carmelo Anthony going from Denver to New York didn't work out so well. The Atlanta pick makes the most sense, I do think for the control of their own draft pick, getting that back and so we can be Bad. We have our pick, let's do it. And then there are players for the Hawks to include in that. No doubt. I don't know if it's Jalen Johnson.

[Tas Melas]

Well, that's what I would ask you because I think when you start looking at these potential trade packages from teams like the Hawks, from teams like the Lakers, if they want to get in here, like the spurs, like I said, maybe even the Rockets, although I think it's a little more far fetched. Where do they draw the line? Like are the Lakers, are they trading Austin Reeves for Giannis? If they could, yeah. Are the Hawks trading Jalen Johnson for Giannis? Are the spurs trading Dylan Harper for Giannis? Are the Rockets trading Alperin Shen Goon for Giannis? I just that I mean I think a lot of those are nos, which is crazy. I mean you said yes to the Austin Reeves. I didn't hear yeses to the other ones. Jalen Johnson, Dylan Harper.

[Trey Kirby]

Well, I think they have. The thing with both the Hawks and the spurs is they have other guys that they would want to put into the trade and absolutely same. It's like I think the Rockets probably would trade a man Thompson, but not Alpern Schengen. I think the Hawks would trade Trey Young but not Jalen Johnson. You know, that kind of thing. So there are matches out there. Like the Bucks can get a good player back, they can get a good young guy and a good collection of picks. Giannis is a premium player in the NBA and there are teams that are good that have gigantic war chests that they can throw into it from a picks and a talent standpoint. So I mean, at this point it feels to me like the smart thing for everybody involved is for Giannis to be traded for the Bucks included because it doesn't feel like they can get back to championship status right now.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's one side or the other for the Milwaukee Bucks. Be loyal to our guy. This is a good year to try it in the Eastern Conference because of the standings because we don't know exactly who's the top of the top. Obviously OKC is the top of the top in the west, but in the east, why can't we do it? Why not? This could be our year. But on the other side, my man is turning 31 in two days. He hasn't been able to stay healthy for a lot of these playoffs. And, and so yes, I understand the opposite direction. And if you're going to pull the trigger and try and get somebody like a Jalen Johnson, you know, really, really good young player. The sooner the better. It sure does make sense that way. But this is, it's a loyal play. Here he is Milwaukee. It'd be odd to trade him, period.

[Tas Melas]

So the Knicks deal hypothetically, Carl Anthony Towns, let's say Miles McBride, Daddy A. And then like I said, a bunch of pick swaps. You could get up to four, I believe, a bunch of second round picks. There's going to be some of that capital in there. There is that Wizards top eight protected 26 pick.

How does that sound to you? If you're the Bucks and remove the idea of like Giannis is like, I want to go there, I have to go there.

[Trey Kirby]

I would demand OG Anunoby.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

I wouldn't want the bench guys that you're talking about. I mean they're fine players, but OG Anunoby is a guy you could flip for a guaranteed first round pick if you wanted to.

[Tas Melas]

He want two night starters, basically.

[Trey Kirby]

Okay, I would rather do that than Towns and a bunch of other stuff. I mean they're fine. They're like, I, I like colic, I like McBride. I haven't seen it much from pumpkin pie, but.

[Jay Skeets]

Pumpkin.

[Tas Melas]

I hear you.

[Trey Kirby]

But like Towns is a good player to get back and I think he still has value around the league. Like I said, OG definitely has value around the league. Throw in all the swaps just as sweeteners. But you have to get OG in that deal.

[Tas Melas]

The Hawks and usually in a lot of these deals that I've seen, Giannis and his brother are coming, which I like. Thanasis is also coming along with Giannis in these hypotheticals.

[Trey Kirby]

Of course he is.

[Jay Skeets]

But what about an Alex?

[Tas Melas]

He's around the Bucks would get if they were dealing with Atlanta here. Let's say Trey Young, Zachary rhys sachet, the 26 first round pick by way of the Pels or the bucks and a 28 first round pick and a 2030 first round pick. So like more draft capital, especially their own or the chance to have that really juicy Pelicans pick there. What do you think about that? Trey Young, Risa Shea and pretty good draft capital. That's not that bad if you're moving off this.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, well, the draft capital, you could literally get your own pick back in the 26 and 27 drafts. Yeah, they have them both. So Milwaukee Bucks are looking at both of those. And if where we said Trey and Reese Sachet basically as the main two parts. Yeah, I, I'd want more because you're.

[Tas Melas]

Going to want Jalen Johnson and the Hawks are going to say no to Jalen Johnson. How about a recess?

I think that's how this would go.

[Jay Skeets]

I. I assume, yeah, the Bucks would want more, probably.

[Tas Melas]

I don't.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, if. Who's better, Giannis or Jalen Johnson? It's Giannis for sure. I mean, I don't think the Hawks obviously would not want to trade Jalen Johnson.

[Tas Melas]

No, nor should they, honestly.

[Trey Kirby]

No. But I mean, a Trey Young and Giannis fit is better than a Jalen Johnson and Giannis fit as well, I would say.

[Tas Melas]

I guess. But we also saw that already in Damian Lillard and Giannis.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I mean, it would. So the Hawks, it would require a lot of buy in from everybody. That's why the Bucks should have done it in the summer when they maybe could have gotten Jalen Johnson before he took a step forward. But this is clearly the smartest move that Milwaukee could make, getting their picks back for this season and for next season. Because if they trade Giannis, even if it's from Trae Young, the pick is still going to possibly be a lottery pick. Right. And you get two shots at maybe getting a top five, or this year, another top five, or next year, your rebuild is on instantly. You're on the upward swing from bottoming out immediately. I think that would be the best move that they could possibly make because the other stuff just is more exciting for the team that's getting Giannis.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. And the Hawks position is interesting because one player in Giannis might not necessarily give them a chance at the title. And their front office is literally buying into younger players right here, right now and draft picks. And so do they even do it? Even though Trey is a likable guy here in Atlanta, Looks like they're going to just buy in on Jaylen Johnson more so in the near future.

But Yanis may not be coming to anywhere but New York.

[Tas Melas]

I mean, those. Well, that's right. These trades, sorry, these teams, like the Atlanta, the San Antonios of the world, like, if they have an awesome package and the Bucks like, yeah, we like that. It's like, it's almost a rental potentially for Giannis at that point. Like, you don't have a lot of years. If he wants to eventually go somewhere else, they'd have to convince him, no, this is a place that you can compete for a title. All right, talk about the spurs here quickly. They could do a couple things, right, because they have a lot of young guys, they have a lot of draft picks. So they could go by way of The Dylan Harper of it. All. Right, that's the juicy, super talented guard that the Bucks could build around. Devin Masell, Keldon Johnson could be in there. And then future first round picks. There's a 27 one by way of the Hawks. There's, you know, there's a lot that they could pick from 29, 32 and all that stuff. Or you go Castle as the main guy in this potential trade. Spurs keep Harper, they keep Fox, they keep Wemby, and then they have Giannis there. That's four really good guys. And Castle and then Barnes and Kelly Olenek and a bunch of draft capital would go back to the Bucks. You have, I guess you have a preference. Would you want Dylan Harper if you're Milwaukee more than Stefan Castle? Yeah, that's a, that's a juicier deal. But are the spurs doing that?

[Trey Kirby]

Maybe. I don't know. It's interesting to think about Giannis and Wemby is scary. Imagine as a front court, I will say both guys got hurt this season and last season kind of freak injuries for Wemby, but it accelerates their timeline. It becomes win now when the spurs are in. Like it would be nice to win now, but we're trying to win in two years at this moment. The thing that's nice for San Antonio though, is that they do have picks that they can trade that aren't their picks. Like they've got a King's pick. That's going to be nice in what, 20, 31, something like that? I do believe so they can trade away some of their future stuff and still keep their stuff. I mean, it's likely to be picks in the back 10 of the first round, but at least you still have a first rounder to acquire somebody to go around these two guys. But if I'm Milwaukee, I would have to get Dylan Harper back in the trade. That would be like my Shakel just Alexander piece coming from the Clippers to the Thunder. Castle's nice, but Harper seems more like a number one guy and I think that that's something they should be targeting if they're trying to get a young guy.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, Dylan Arper is the guy. If Milwaukee's making this deal, it is interesting what the spurs are thinking. Are they just going to say, hey, we're, we're trying to stay young and see what we got as much as possible. But they do have good picks. It is the King's pick and 31. And from the Bucks perspective, you don't want spurs picks the next five years because you assume they're going to be good. You know, ideally, you want other picks.

[Tas Melas]

The warriors, they always come up in any sort of big game hunting here. Now, for them to make a move for Giannis and their brother, his brother Draymond Green's contract likely would have to be moved. So Green, Kaminga, buddy, healed, and they do have first round picks.

[Jay Skeets]

It ain't happening.

[Tas Melas]

Ain't happening.

[Jay Skeets]

They don't have enough talent wise.

[Tas Melas]

Okay. I mean, yeah, you're like, at that point, you're going, wow, Kaminga's the guy to lead us to the next promised land. And then these future, like, the only good thing about the warriors picks would be those picks in the future might actually be good picks because Curry would be done. Who knows where Giannis is at that point. Like, they're old, so maybe they'd be very bad during that era. That would be the only thing. But I'm with you. I think it's very unlikely, but I had to bring them up because I've seen them Photoshopped into a Warrior.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, yeah, you have. The warriors have been chasing Giannis basically since he signed his last contract with the Bucks. They thought he could be the guy. They couldn't wait that long, so they had to do the Jimmy Butler deal, which hurt some of their trade packages going forward. I think it's unlikely Golden State would trade Draymond Green, and I think it's unlikely that Milwaukee would want him as the centerpiece. If they really want Kaminga, trade one of those picks from 2031. You can get him, I think, for a pick like that.

[Tas Melas]

Right. And then the Lakers, they always come up too. But I mean, I guess unless Austin Reeves was in a deal, because then that's a little interesting. But like, what else do they have to really trade? Rui Vanderbilt, your guy, Gabe Vincent, Kleba Dalton, like, they would have to just put a bunch of guys together. They have a bunch of pick swaps, they have a 2031 first round pick, but not a lot of draft capital. I think very unlikely, too. Unless Austin Reeves is a part of this, which I don't know if the Lakers right now with where they are, would they say, I think they would. I do, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Why not?

[Tas Melas]

I think it'd be like, yeah, Luka and Giannis, yeah, we're the Lakers, we'll make it work. But outside of that, there's not a lot.

[Jay Skeets]

No, Austin Reeves would have to be required. I do think from the Milwaukee Bucks perspective and looking at Giannis and what he said when Luca was Dealt. He did say, I want Luca to the Lakers, I want Jokic to the Knicks. I want all the Europeans to go to the big markets. So it sounds like. It sounds like Janice wouldn't be mad. Although that's a long trip from LA to Greece.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Not to get all personal, I was thinking about that.

[Tas Melas]

You got to add those four or five hours if you go west.

[Jay Skeets]

That's many hours.

[Tas Melas]

It's already a long flight, though, so it doesn't matter.

[Jay Skeets]

But what do the Bucks give to Giannis in terms of what he wants? As Trey brought up earlier, what kind of connection do they have? Is it you can go to the market you want to go to? I don't think it's just because it's direct from Greece. Isn't that what the Kevin o' Connor research was direct? There's direct flights from the New York area to Greece. He's got to do it. Yeah, it's. It's not about that. For Giannis, it's about loyalty and basketball first. And I think that's why this early in the season, he's asking the front office, I gave you a championship. Make another trade. Do it one more time. And I know it was literally a couple months ago they traded or released Dame and were able to go get Miles Turner, but one more time, just one more time, man. One more time.

[Tas Melas]

I don't think it's about loyalty. Number one with a bullet. Anyone more for Giannis? It's about, I want to win another title. He's made that very clear. Yeah, very clear. He's literally said, I want a second championship.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. I mean, it's not going to happen here. It's. I mean, from both perspectives, even from the Bucks perspective, this guy gave everything to us. There might be a better trade in Atlanta.

[Tas Melas]

Sure. Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Trade him to Atlanta. Trade him to the Danforth and the Raptors. We didn't even get into a Raptors possibility. There could be more and better picks, especially the hawks. The Hawks one is the one, but maybe they're loyal to him.

[Tas Melas]

In a loaded 26 draft class, you could. It could happen where you hit, like, two of those amazing guys, and then you're like, okay, we're off and running, restarting our franchise. So. Yeah, but. But.

[Trey Kirby]

And having, like, the Dame stretched contract. It doesn't matter then, because two of your top players would be on rookie deals. Like, it's fun to be a fan of a team that has young players that are good as well. Like, that's a good way to move into a new Era is to instantly have guys that are excited to watch. I think the Lakers got to be a contender here though. Like they would trade Austin Reaves for sure. Are you telling me they could turn LeBron and AD into Luka and Giannis within a year? Come on. Yeah, LeBron's almost done. And this would be Giannis stepping into the veteran role. They would be contenders right away. It would make their defense better right away. And people who move to LA tend to like staying in LA.

[Jay Skeets]

That's a good point.

[Tas Melas]

So on October 1, 2026, Giannis will be eligible for a four year, $275 million maxed max contract extension. And he'll be able to sign that same deal with another team. Six months, I think it is after the trade, if he is moved, point is he's going to be signing, in theory another max 275 type deal here probably. Maybe. I was going to say his last one of his career, like supermax, who knows? But said he's only turning 31. Seems older. It's been around forever.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he's only turned 31 and somehow the injuries catch up to him in the, in the postseason. But he does play a lot of games in the regular season. He just sits on last year 67, the year before, 73. Year before 63, 67, 61, 63, 72, 75, 80. So they are dropping down, but he is. He's still worthy of a max. Of course it's Giannis.

[Tas Melas]

A comment I read last night stuck with me. It goes, quote, if you told Bucks fans back when they drafted Giannis that this guy would make the Bucks relevant for a decade on the national scene, title contenders for a number of years and bring a championship to Milwaukee. But the ending could get messy and nasty, maybe a little contentious, and he would be traded. 100% of them would be psyched about it still. Oh yeah, you take it, right? I mean, like so, like, I think a lot of people, like, they feel bad for Bucks fans here maybe today, over the last couple weeks or wherever this goes. And I get that, like he's your franchise. He won you a title, though. And it's like this happens more times than not where it doesn't end like Kobe with the Lakers or it doesn't end like Dirk with the Mavs, where you just get that entire career. It's just like it's. It doesn't happen a lot. I mean, I think Steph is going to at Golden State. Who knows still? But the point is they won a championship. It worked.

[Trey Kirby]

It Worked. Endings are bad because they're endings.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

If it was all good, it wouldn't end.

[Tas Melas]

That's right.

[Trey Kirby]

Michael Jordan played for the Wizards. If Michael Jordan can leave the Chicago Bulls because the team decides they're done winning championships, then Giannis can be traded after winning a championship. He was awesome. He's the best buck that's ever lived. Unless you consider Kareem Abdul Jabbar, what he did back in the 70s as well.

[Jay Skeets]

@ the same time, the trade for Drew Holiday that we all were speculative about when it happened. Will this work for the Milwaukee Bucks? Many draft picks for Drew Holiday at this. This perspective from the Bucks is we got to pick. We got lots of money. Maybe we can find somebody like that to help remedy us in this year of 2025 when we got a shot at winning an Eastern Conference. I know it doesn't seem great right now, but it was a hell of a lot better a few weeks ago when they were rolling and Giannis was healthy. They could. They could just make that.

[Tas Melas]

Move. Well, we know how TAS is voting here in this poll that we have up on YouTube. Do you think Giannis finishes the season with the Bucks task clicked? Yes. I assume 45% of people have, by the way, 55% say.

[Jay Skeets]

No. But I said this season, the injury is.

Somewhat of a factor. Like if he's out three months, his team is bad. They may not be a playoff.

[Tas Melas]

Team. So you think it's more likely than he's.

[Jay Skeets]

Dealt? I think so. Which is weird to say, but.

[Tas Melas]

Because you're saying, then the Milwaukee Bucks say, okay, we are not winning at all. No matter. Any move we make is not gonna work because he's out for a couple months. Yeah, I don't know. We'll find out here today. Hopefully it's nothing.

[Jay Skeets]

Serious. Yeah, it didn't seem as serious. Limu Emu. And Doug, here we have the.

[Tas Melas]

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

[Jay Skeets]

Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally.

[Trey Kirby]

Doug. Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching.

[Tas Melas]

Us. Cut the.

[Jay Skeets]

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

[Tas Melas]

Liberty. Liberty Savings. Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company affiliates. Excludes.

[Jay Skeets]

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

[Tas Melas]

Back. That means it's tailgate time. And this season, the only meat.

[Jay Skeets]

Going on the grill is Deets and.

[Tas Melas]

Watson. Some of my favorites are the Black Angus Dietz dogs, the Italian style chicken sausage, and the Asiago, Spinach, chicken, sausage, just to name a few. Oh, and I love the jalapeno mustard. It's flavor packed and you could just tell Dietz and Watson uses the highest quality meats in every.

[Jay Skeets]

Bite. Dietz and Watson was born in.

[Tas Melas]

Philly in 1939 and they've been doing it the right way ever since. Visit dietzwatson.com the right way to learn more about the deets.

[Trey Kirby]

Difference. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. The holiday season can be exhausting.

[Tas Melas]

With all the parties and the end.

[Trey Kirby]

Of year celebrations, but don't forget to take care of yourself by stocking up.

[Tas Melas]

On your favorite nutritional products. Now through December.

[Trey Kirby]

30Th. Shop in store and online and save on items like Cliff Snack Bars, Luna Bars, Boost Nutritional Energy Drinks, Premier Protein Shakes, Z Bar Variety Packs, Open Nature Powder and Body Fortress Protein powder offers end December.

[Tas Melas]

30Th. Restrictions.

[Trey Kirby]

Apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more.

[Tas Melas]

Details. Well, let's talk about the game then, briefly. What did you think of the injury TK Again? Non contact injury. It seemed to be though. Then Doc river said, well, he sort of got bumped before he turned and came back. But Doc, he is a.

[Trey Kirby]

Doctor.

[Tas Melas]

So.

What do you think TK about.

[Trey Kirby]

This? I mean, of course it's bad. He wasn't doing anything. He was just running. Same thing happened in the playoffs. He was just running right underneath the hoop. Exact same thing. So yeah, I don't know how that affects his trade value. I don't think the team that trades for him is going to care that he's hurt. Except for that, like he missed some games. Basically, since he started in 25, he's missing 15 games a season, right? That's just how it is. He's going to miss more this year, it turns out. But.

Anytime a guy just starts running and crumples, it's a disaster, right? Like it feels bad. And then the vampire doctor Brian Suterer comes out. I never see that guy when things are going good, you know what I'm saying? I didn't like that he was wearing black and red last night, I'll tell you that much. But of course I watched.

[Tas Melas]

It. So did.

[Jay Skeets]

I. So did.

[Trey Kirby]

I. You're Never tuning into Dr. Brian when people are healthy. No, only when the soleus is popping and the gastrocnemius. Watch that.

[Tas Melas]

Gastroc. But he didn't think it was all that serious.

[Trey Kirby]

No. And they can do a test right away to see if it's An Achilles. So it's probably not an Achilles injury, which, you know, that's the biggest question mark when a guy goes down and starts looking at his.

[Jay Skeets]

Feet. Yeah, yeah. And he started talking about other injuries. It wasn't so bleak. He started talking about. What was he talking about? I tuned up because I only just want to hear about Giannis. But he started talking about on.

[Tas Melas]

Gardner. Oh, yeah, that's Gardner clip.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Because there wasn't.

[Tas Melas]

Much. It's usually the look back that you think you've been kicked when it's your Achilles. I've unfortunately seen people on the basketball court do that exact thing like, did you just kick me? And you're like, no. Oh, that's not good. But he didn't do.

[Jay Skeets]

That. No, he did not do that. And listen, we got to learn more about these injuries. So we're going to have a doctor on Tuesday's show. I don't know if it's Brian Suterer. It's a weird pronunciation. Suiterer. It looks like a Sutterer. Anyway, we're going to have one to learn more about just the general NBA injuries overall. But he didn't seem too bleak at all. Just because he is very familiar with every sport. And the look.

[Tas Melas]

Back.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And this one was fall down control. Be totally supportive of my own weight. Walking off the floor and walking into the locker room. No one was carrying the.

[Tas Melas]

Dude. That's true. And he's also like. Even the. The Bucks, like, medical team, they weren't like. They sort of were just.

[Jay Skeets]

Like. No, they didn't even look at.

[Tas Melas]

It. Yeah. They were barely looking at. He's like, ah, I'm just sore. Like, I mean, I just strained it probably. So hopefully nothing severe here. We'll find out maybe in hours after the MRI to the.

[Trey Kirby]

Extreme. But they'll be very careful with them.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And it could be like the one in. In the postseason that kept him out. It's a week, right. Or like maybe I'm.

[Trey Kirby]

Wrong. I was in the 24 playoffs. Did he come.

[Jay Skeets]

Back? The 24 plays bounced before then. Anyways. It could be a Soleus. None. Anyway. It doesn't seem like it's extremely long. I think.

[Tas Melas]

That'S. We've completely jinxed it.

[Jay Skeets]

Now.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. He'll.

[Jay Skeets]

Be. That's.

[Trey Kirby]

Possible.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. He never came and 24. Yeah. And last year he was dealing with. I thought you're Francis. Last year, the 25 playoffs when he was dealing with another one, he gets.

[Tas Melas]

Injured. All right. Anything about the game itself? I mean, the Bucks big win. Jericho Sims with a monster game, everybody contributing, especially when Giannis left, like, three minutes into this game. I don't know if I said that, but yeah. Any thoughts on the.

[Jay Skeets]

Game? I'm always optimistic when I see a guy perform like Jericho Sims, but even I can't be the. Oh, you can't trade that guy. That guy is phenomenal. 15 points, 14 rebounds, both season highs, by far, because Doc Rivers doesn't trust the guy entirely to play a lot of minutes. But he came in and he had a huge offensive rebound. I was more impressed with guys like Adrian Green stepping up. And as I said, Kevin Porter Jr. Has only played four games this year. The last three, he's been balling. The great thing about Kevin Porter Jr. This season, which I was very bleak on, watching him in the playoffs against the Pacers as their starting point guard, is that Ryan Rollins is the starting point guard, and he is super good. So KPJ can play it, play off the ball and just score like he does when he's the sixth man. And he's really, really good. Ryan Rollins is a super, super confident player. Giannis loves him. He's a really good defensive player. And Kemper Jr. The last three games is when he started playing basketball this season, and he's been really, really good the last couple. So that's the optimistic part. And Doc, go on zone. I think that kind of helps. It always helps with this.

[Tas Melas]

Team. I was also shocked to see that Cade Cunningham is human. He air ball the three there that, you know, he's sort of been coming through in the clutch time and time again here this season. But that one wasn't even.

[Jay Skeets]

Close. Good D from.

[Tas Melas]

Robinson. It was. It was.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. He missed so bad that Rollins looked back like, are you okay, man? He missed that by two.

[Jay Skeets]

Feet. That was weird. So, Bucks last three games, right, Kate, has been pretty cold. I think it's the three games he's been bad.

[Tas Melas]

From. Three from deep. Yeah, I meant more taking over at the end of.

[Jay Skeets]

Games.

[Tas Melas]

Right. Has been, but, yeah, that one, not so much. All right, let's pivot to the other big news from yesterday. We learned a little bit more with Chris Paul and the Clippers and them parting ways. Talked to Pierre here on the show yesterday. The news broke early yesterday morning, and then no one was quite sure what the hell had happened. Right. We're trying to figure it out. Well, we got a little more info. CP3 had not been on speaking terms with coach Ty Lue for several weeks. That's sort of what led to this decision from Lawrence Frank. We also did learn like why it happened, I guess at three in the morning, why Chris Paul was on Instagram sharing like the Deuces. I'm out of here. There was that huge mechanical plane failure which got the team from Miami into Atlanta super late. That pushed everything back. Eventually, Lawrence Frank had like a three hour meeting with Chris Paul and they came to this decision. So the biggest takeaway from yesterday's reporting though is just like they just got tired of this guy, really.

[Jay Skeets]

Right.

[Tas Melas]

Exactly. Like Tyloo was refusing to meet with Chris.

[Trey Kirby]

Paul. I don't want.

[Tas Melas]

To. I don't want to hear it, man.

So that's what. That's a new news from this. Still weird. It's still bizarre, the whole.

[Jay Skeets]

Thing. Yeah. That he's butting heads with people. Not surprising. It's Chris. No, it's Chris Paul. It's happened many a.

[Tas Melas]

Times. An outspoken leader, a stubborn.

[Jay Skeets]

Leader.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes. The fact that Lawrence Frank met with him for multiple hours and they had this discussion. They both basically came to an agreement. It sure feels like rather than, hey, we're cutting you. Get out of here. I just want to. I just flew to Atlanta. Why the delays to meet you face to face? It was beyond that. It was more like, we don't want to release you, but there's some sort of.

[Tas Melas]

Connection. Are you going to cut this crap out and stop complaining about everything? Okay, well, we have to let you.

[Jay Skeets]

Go. That right? Yeah. And yeah, they had. They had to let him go. We've seen it. When he left Houston with James Harden and that they moved on after the. The 178 or the 19. They traded him to OKC after the whole hardened effect. But it wasn't the first conversation that Lawrence Frank, apparently, as he told the media, had had with Chris Paul. They had a conversation other times about the locker room. And so I don't blame this on Ty Lu. Even Chris Haynes report. I don't blame it on Ty.

[Tas Melas]

Lu. Why. I mean, why wouldn't t meet with. Because reports say Chris Paul requested a meeting with Tyloo a couple weeks ago to discuss internal rumors about how he was a negative presence on the team. It's pretty obvious that that was being said. It found its way to Chris Paul. Chris Paul didn't like that. We also suck. So I'm going to keep saying we suck and we should be playing this way. And then now I want to meet with you, coach. And he wouldn't even meet with.

[Jay Skeets]

Him. I'm sure that's what happened. I'm sure Chris Haynes report is correct and that he didn't want to meet him, but I don't know all the details. Maybe they met. Maybe they talked. I don't think Tyloo just says, there's a force field. You cannot come meet me. I think they've had a conversation before, so I don't. I just don't see all the. All the details, all the factors. Again, Lawrence Frank, meeting with him for hours. Not just saying, shake hands, goodbye, Chris. It wasn't that. It was more than that, but.

[Trey Kirby]

Anyway, yeah, it was a longer conversation, but basically, they signed Chris Paul and got mad that he started acting like Chris.

[Jay Skeets]

Paul.

[Trey Kirby]

Right. So, like, he was probably right. And Tyler and Lawrence Frank are like, I don't want to hear.

[Tas Melas]

It.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. We.

[Jay Skeets]

Suck.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. You're not.

[Jay Skeets]

Helping. If they're 500, this doesn't.

[Tas Melas]

Happen.

[Jay Skeets]

No.

[Tas Melas]

Right. It doesn't. It's. They were garbage. And Chris Paul. I'm sure. We know. We know. This is not. It's not a secret, obviously, how grading he maybe could be. And. And it's like, one thing when you're the point. God. And you're going out there and giving us, you know, 25 and 10 every night. Yeah, we'll take the criticism or we'll take your guidance and all that. It's probably another thing when the guy barely plays and when he does play, you know, can't hit a shot to save his life. Like, I get that where it would be a little.

[Trey Kirby]

Annoying.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. But he is trying, in theory, to help your team here. And I think a part of this, too, is having, like, this veteran coaching group, too. Like, it's Tyloo, it's Jeff Van Gundy, it's Brian Shaw, it's Larry Drew. It's guys that have been around the block for a while, and I think they're, like, your critiques are grading criticisms. Okay. Like, you're just talking, and we know we got these injuries. We're trying this. I think they are. Obviously, they're just frustrated with them, but it is strange to me that.

[Jay Skeets]

Tyloo doesn't want to meet with.

[Tas Melas]

Them. Like, he is ducking.

[Trey Kirby]

Him. That is.

[Tas Melas]

Weird. That's.

[Jay Skeets]

Weird. Yeah. Well, I'm in.

[Tas Melas]

A. If you.

[Jay Skeets]

Believe. If I'm. I would speculate that they had met before. Chris Paul maybe said, I got to start or something. I. I mean, I'm speculating, but there was a. Probably. I. I would assume Ty Lu gave Chris Paul the time to say, this is what we're doing, Chris. This is how we're Going about it. And then Chris demands a meeting to change, to say what he needs to say to probably change things in his perspective as a coach. Chris Paul wants to be a coach. I imagine he probably wants to change things. And Ty Lusa, we already talked about that. I assume we talked about this.

[Tas Melas]

Before we brought you back for the farewell tour because they sort of made it clear. Remember when they brought Chris Paul back, it's like, all right, Chris, you're not going to be starting all 82 games like you did for the spurs here. It's going to be a little different. Swanson, he seemed to agree to.

[Jay Skeets]

That. Yeah. And so that's why I backed Tyloo to some degree because they did want make this a farewell tour. And you're not starting like you did with Wemby last year. We heard your interview. You're saying you got one more year. Steve Ballmer said, all right, that's good. I'm going to be speculated about circumventing the, the salary cap. This would be good to have, but yeah, it just sucks that they weren't 11 and 10 or something. Way better. Way better than 5 and 16 before this great game that they had yesterday here in.

[Tas Melas]

Atlanta. They bounced back. Yeah, they got rid of Chris Paul and they bounced.

[Jay Skeets]

Back. Vibes were.

[Trey Kirby]

Good. It was that tweet, little teasers. Tastes so good when you don't have somebody in your ear telling you it's nasty. He's like, look at our team's fun. Now we can all play. They looked like the Clippers were supposed to look this year. Zubots was dominant inside the Magic City. Magic was working for James. That's right, 27.

[Tas Melas]

Points. He started on.

[Trey Kirby]

Fire. He was on fire immediately. Hit big shots when it counted, you know. No Jalen Johnson for the Hawks. So not as much offense I thought. And that was more of the problem than the Clippers playing really well. But the Clippers played great. They wanted to rub it in Chris Paul's.

[Tas Melas]

Face. So is this how Chris Paul's career ends? Or do you think he will find his way to another team here and. And then really end his 21 year career with another squad? And if so, what is that? Teacher.

[Jay Skeets]

Team. I find it difficult to think that he would end his career like this. I think somebody will bring him around. It's a team that needs a voice and needs help. I don't hate the Minnesota idea. Don't hate it. I know he might butt heads with men in that locker room named Anthony Edwards. Mike Conley, to some degree. He can't butt. He can't anger Mike Conley. But the whole him, Anthony. But at the same time, I bring up the Minnesota Timberwolves because they just don't look like a contender in the Western Conference to the level of a few teams. So that would make sense to me. Are there other.

[Trey Kirby]

Ones? I don't know. He's never played farther north than Oklahoma City. I.

[Tas Melas]

Guess.

[Trey Kirby]

Maybe.

[Jay Skeets]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. That's the farthest north he's ever played. He's got to be in a warm weather.

[Tas Melas]

City. I guess so. I mean, he might just want to stay in la. There is another.

[Trey Kirby]

Team. Lakers is a.

[Tas Melas]

Possibility. They have an open roster spot, but I don't think they're allowed to sign him or they can't sign a 15th player until January. So they'd have to be like, yeah, Chris, chill out for a little bit and then maybe we'll bring you in. Also, we might try and trade for Giannis. We might have to ship out like four or five guys, so we might have some open spots. So anyway, Lakers makes the most sense just because he probably doesn't want to leave.

[Trey Kirby]

La. I'm guessing that was part about going back to the football, was being by his.

[Tas Melas]

Family. By his.

[Jay Skeets]

Family. Yeah. He says he hasn't had his kids fucking be with him for six years. And this was awesome. Now it sucked to leave him again to go somewhere further north in Oklahoma City or whatever. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Orlando. Like, I don't know who. I don't know how much he helps.

[Tas Melas]

But. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Right. It doesn't.

[Tas Melas]

Hurt. Yeah. You know who, really, honestly, he's. This is never gonna happen. I. Well, I don't know. Maybe he really takes the coaching thing seriously. The Wizards should get Chris Paul, bub. Carrington needs Chris Paul. Okay. I would like to see that for his career. And that would be. If he ever did that. That would be a Chris Paul. Like, I am going into coaching. I'll do this again. I'll try and get another young guy back on track here, but very unlikely. I think he will be on the Lakers is my guess. If he's got some friends, if basically LeBron wants it. But he's buddies with him. But he might be one of those buddies that, like, I like seeing this guy every once in a while, you know, I don't want to hang out with him all the.

[Trey Kirby]

Time. It took a long time for Mello to get to LA when everybody was assuming they're going to join up right.

[Tas Melas]

Away. It.

[Trey Kirby]

Did. It.

[Jay Skeets]

Did. Well, you can't sign there until.

[Tas Melas]

January. Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Just make up another rule. We can't sign until February. How about that? Make up another CBA rule just so we can push it.

[Tas Melas]

Back. Or just say, okay, we'll sign you, but just come around once a week. Stay home, don't come on road games. Yeah, just stay home. You want to be close to your family, make that.

[Jay Skeets]

Agreement. Hard to say how much he did for the spurs last year because the spurs are the spurs and they have this great organization, but you look at everybody in the way they're performing right now. You mentioned Bob Carrington as a young guy. He could, you know, put his, his arm around Stefan Castle. Looks freaking awesome. They look developed and playing, you know, within their skill sets. So yeah, you could be a young team. That does it. I don't know how much he wants to go to friggin Washington. No, I, I am just looking at.

[Tas Melas]

Washington. From what I've seen, I don't see him really helping any team on the court. This is to me just maybe to either get a ring to maybe end his career with that sort of nice button, or the idea of helping and coaching and like he's done in okc. I mean, Shay talked glowingly. Oh yeah, I know. OKC has come up. They're like, can they somehow get him back there and try and win him a.

[Jay Skeets]

Ring? He was an all star. He left James Harden became an all star again with okc. He had a good.

[Trey Kirby]

Year. Houston.

[Tas Melas]

Rockets.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Teach Reed.

[Tas Melas]

Shepherd.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Here's how it is to be a little guy out.

[Jay Skeets]

There. Oh. In a, in a locker room with a bunch of guys that he could butt heads with but are already button heads now. You know, I'm imagine some, some of that's happening.

Butting heads in a good way. Like it'd be a doka's button heads with.

[Tas Melas]

People.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. But.

[Tas Melas]

Anyway. But he's in a good way. Yeah, I know what you mean by.

[Jay Skeets]

That. Yeah, it's a positive. Hey, let's get this done type of thing. Chris Paul, I could see that. You know, is it the 04 type pistons again, like that type of a hole with, with Sheed and Ben Wallace and that type of guy. Yeah. Rockets not.

[Tas Melas]

Bad. Well, you said it. Harden scored 27. They ended their five game skid. The Hawks were brutal. They had no Jelly Johnson, they have no Trey Young. They don't have much chance of like creating any advantages without either of those guys. It was, I think Hollinger said it, that Atlanta made a tremendous all star case for Jalen Johnson last night. With them not playing and the way they looked. They shot like 38% from the floor in the first half. They had a lot of turnovers. It was sloppy. But Hollinger also was at the game and he showed us those Outcast dolls because we were like, what are these.

[Trey Kirby]

Things? What are.

[Tas Melas]

They? Are they bobbleheads or are they plushies or are they like little figurines? And there they are. Cute. Those are TAs.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Those look like a crochet.

[Tas Melas]

Knit. They do look like.

[Trey Kirby]

That. But are they.

[Tas Melas]

Plastic? But I think they're.

[Trey Kirby]

Plastic. Hard.

[Tas Melas]

Plastic? Yeah, I think so. I think.

[Jay Skeets]

So. I look at the bod, looks like a crochet. Then you look at those feet. They look.

[Tas Melas]

Plasticky. Yeah, I think it's just made to look like a crochet doll. But I think they do look sort of.

[Trey Kirby]

Cool. No wonder it was so.

[Tas Melas]

Confusing. Didn't know what they.

[Trey Kirby]

Are. Cause it's both somehow. Yeah, they do look.

[Tas Melas]

Cool. They do look.

[Trey Kirby]

Cool. Andre 3000 would never wear that.

[Tas Melas]

Though. Yeah, you're.

[Trey Kirby]

Right. That looks like a big boy.

[Tas Melas]

Outfit. You're.

[Trey Kirby]

Right. But Andre would be a lot funkier. These little flutes from the head to the.

[Jay Skeets]

Toes. Yes, they look good. Just like the Clippers did last night. And you rewrite no Jalen Johnson. But the fact that they win a game where they shot 10 of 31 from three, it's not like they bombed away and had a great game. And Kawhi was 7 of 21. Great vibes with James Harden. Drive, kick and pass. It looked like a different team out there. 29 assists on 44 shots. I heard Kobe Sanders, a young player, say that we had a great talk before the game in the locker room. He told the Clippers radio guy, play by play, man, Carlos men is this. He said, we, it came together. So one game, great vibes around the Los.

[Trey Kirby]

Angeles. Did anything change?

I don't know. I don't know if anything.

[Tas Melas]

Changed. Yeah, for sure. They were allowed to play music.

All right, we are running long here, but let's get to a big performance last night. We have to talk about Jamal Murray scoring a season high 52 points as the Nuggets held off the Pacers. This is two nights after he sprained his right ankle. I think he was like a game time decision whether he was going to go in this one. But Jamal, Jamal Murray delivers one of the NBA's most efficient performances ever. Not of the season ever. He made 19 of 25 shots. He was 10 of 11 from deep.

And yeah, the true shooting percentage when you crunch the numbers. Keats had it 96% true shooting percentage last night. Jamal Murray now owns two of the six most efficient 50 point games in NBA history because he had a 50 burger where he shot 100 true shooting percentage back in 2021. So an incredible game from Jamal.

[Trey Kirby]

Murray. Incredible game from Jamal Murray. And I actually thought it was going to be Jokic that was going for 50 with the way the Pacers were playing him. To start this game, they're saying, J. Huff, see what you can, one on one. And the answer was not very much. So a couple of easy buckets for Jokic and then the Pacers are like, okay, we gotta change something up. They started doubling him, which opened up everybody else on the floor. Murray most of all, 52 points. And it just felt like every time the ball was leaving his fingers, it was going to be a pure, pure.

[Tas Melas]

Swish. Yeah, only one hit the front rim and bounced in. Yeah, like the only.

[Trey Kirby]

One. Pretty nice. And when he starts rolling, he's a great heat check guy. He's ready to get the next shot up. And it went in all the time last night. Jokic finished with 23 and 13 assists. Five of those assists were to Jamal Murray. And I was deep in the data. 5 screen assists for Jokic as well. I wonder if he ever gets a screen assist and a real assist on the same play with the dribble hand. Yes, because that happens all the time. But the two man game between these two, that's like the pinnacle of it. 73 points or 75 points combined from the two of them. Pretty.

[Jay Skeets]

Good. Yeah, it's awesome because as you said, game time decision because he was hurt the previous game and then to see him come out there, it looked like it was the Yokich night because he had Huff huffing. He was just going by Huff and Jamal Murray, as you said, he got that front roll on that one three. That's when he started blowing his hand. That was the heat check, right? Literally the heat check. My hand is on fire. And the true shooting percentage in this game and overall his career, his is. This is the most efficient season. At 63.4% true shooting. He looks like a great player, you know, nearly 25 points per. This is definitely his first all star appearance. If he keeps this up. And his shots have hit a career high in terms of shots per game. And to see him a career high with 10 threes, awesome season for.

[Tas Melas]

Him. Guffren Ali. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly on substack Asked who has the most 50 point games all time without ever being an All Star. So I looked it up. It is now Jamal Murray by himself. He's done it five times in his career. If we count the playoffs. He will probably make an All Star game this season. I think rightfully so. The only other guy to do it four times and not make an All Star.

[Trey Kirby]

Game. Jamal.

[Tas Melas]

Crawford.

[Trey Kirby]

Bingo. Four different.

[Tas Melas]

Teams. That's exactly.

[Jay Skeets]

Right. Nice.

[Tas Melas]

One. Got some more stats for you here. This one from Statitudes. Jamal Murray matched the highest three point field goal percentage in NBA history by a player to make at least 10 threes in a game. So he shares the record here of 90.9% from deep on at least 10 made threes in a game. Can you name the other four guys? One guy did it this.

[Trey Kirby]

Year. Aaron.

[Tas Melas]

Gordon. Aaron Gordon did it in early October or early start of the season. I should say game one, right? Or was that game.

[Trey Kirby]

One? Yeah, maybe that's game one, I.

[Jay Skeets]

Think. Oh, I don't.

[Tas Melas]

Know. Yeah, October 23rd. That sounds like. I guess it could have been the second game. Anyway, he's one of them. Can you give me the other three names?

[Trey Kirby]

One. Say it again. 50 points.

[Tas Melas]

10. Wait, no, no, I'm looking for shooting. Basically 91 from deep when you hit 10.

[Trey Kirby]

Threes.

[Tas Melas]

Clay. Clay is one. 20.

[Jay Skeets]

19.

[Trey Kirby]

Nice. This guy Curry's there.

[Tas Melas]

Actually. Nope, nope. We got a. We got a white guy that still plays in the league. No, nope. He's sort of like a corver, though, this.

[Trey Kirby]

Guy.

[Tas Melas]

Okay. He's a worse corver in my.

[Jay Skeets]

Opinion. Oh, a dis. You're gonna diss this.

[Tas Melas]

Guy. This guy's definitely a.

[Jay Skeets]

Worse. Okay, so it's not A.J.

[Tas Melas]

Green. No, no, he's older than A.J.

[Trey Kirby]

Green. Trying to think of some. Some old Kyle's. My old Kyle's. Oh, Duncan.

[Tas Melas]

Robinson.

[Jay Skeets]

No. Oh.

[Tas Melas]

Old. Smaller. A smaller version of Duncan Robinson. Smaller. Duncan sounds like a.

[Jay Skeets]

Duck. Luke.

[Tas Melas]

Canard. There you.

[Jay Skeets]

Go. I was gonna get.

[Tas Melas]

There. I was gonna get it. And then I think I mentioned this guy's name. I did. When we talked. Danilo Gallinari on yesterday's show Connection. No.

I mentioned this.

[Trey Kirby]

Guy. Kevin.

[Tas Melas]

Love. No.

[Jay Skeets]

No. What, did he play with the.

[Tas Melas]

Denveri? Yes, he did. And I said it. I said, oh, he got injured too, that year that Gallinari tore his ACL. It's weird. This guy went 10.

[Trey Kirby]

Times. Ty.

[Tas Melas]

Lawson. Ty.

[Trey Kirby]

Lawson. That is a weird.

[Tas Melas]

One. I think I remember podcasting with you. 2011. He did it. It was at the end of the Year. So there you go. Jamal Murray, Ty Lawson, Klay Thompson, Luke Kennard, the Duck himself and Aaron Gordon. Guys to hit at least 10 threes in a game and have a very high three point percentage. Also one more, because this is fun. He's the third different player Murray is to score a 50 point game for the Nuggets this season. You got Aaron Gordon, you got Jokic, and now you got Jamal Murray. Only two other teams in NBA history have had three such guys in a single season. Do it. The 61, 62.

[Trey Kirby]

Lakers. Oh, yeah, yeah, for.

[Tas Melas]

Sure. You'll never name the third guy on that team to do it. Because you got Elgin Baylor, you got Jerry west, and you'll never, ever, ever name Rudy.

[Jay Skeets]

LaRusso. What a.

[Trey Kirby]

Name. And then Rudy.

[Tas Melas]

LaRusso. This one's not a shock. The 1819 Golden State Warriors. Clay Steph and Kevin.

[Trey Kirby]

Durant. That's a good team. Pretty good team. Didn't win the championship, though. I remember.

[Tas Melas]

That. That's right. Murray, though, was in such a groove. Did you see this during this game? Such a groove. He's signing autographs mid.

[Trey Kirby]

Game.

[Tas Melas]

What? Yeah, there's like someone in, I think in a Nuggets jersey on the baseline. He just goes over, sign something for them. While the game's not like while play was happening, but like a dead ball situation. Oh, awesome. Yeah, that's when you know what you're.

[Trey Kirby]

Feeling. He was feeling.

[Tas Melas]

It. Yeah. The other game of note last night, because it ended in style. Luke Cornett blocking Franz Wagner's last second, sort of little layup hook shot attempt as the spurs hold off the magic. 114, 112 TK. Luke Cornett, the opposite of Chris Paul. All good.

[Trey Kirby]

Vibes. He's only good vibes. This guy's got great vibes everywhere he goes. Since moving into the starting lineup with Victor Wembanyama's injury, The spurs are 7 and 2. So I know what you're thinking. Are the spurs better without Victor? Is it time to move on from Victor Wembanyama? I don't think so. But some nice wins for the spurs during this downtime. They beat the Magic last night. They also got a win against the Nuggets. Got a win against the Hawks. They beat some lesser teams as well, but they're looking good. And Cornett is just a nice fill in piece for Vick. I thought the four assists were pretty good from Cornett as well. Making plays out of the short roll, dear. And Fox has also been really great since when Benyama went down 27 a game, six assists, 49 from the field, 40 from three. Hitting a lot of big shots, including in this one. So anytime the spurs are winning without their number one guy, I'm impressed. And they've done it pretty regularly and against good.

[Jay Skeets]

Competition. Yeah. Excited to see Stefan Castle and Wemby come back. They're on a road trip. There was some talk, some. Some rumors that maybe that both those guys will be on this road trip and be able to play against the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA cup quarterfinal next week. That's still.

[Tas Melas]

Not. That's still a week away.

[Jay Skeets]

Basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Six days away. That's still a possibility. Mitch Johnson, the guy who's gonna get some coach of the year votes, was asked about it. He played it off. He said, luckily I don't have to deal with that. They just automatically got Luke Cornett.

[Tas Melas]

Baby. You think I need to worry about.

[Jay Skeets]

That? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The French horn, Wemby and Luke.

[Tas Melas]

Cornett. Come.

[Jay Skeets]

On. The.

[Tas Melas]

Combination. I mean, we like. It's easy to have fun with Luke Cornett. It's a hell of a.

[Trey Kirby]

Block. That was a great.

[Tas Melas]

Block. I think Wagner scoring. I mean, he's right there. Yeah, it was a nice play.

[Jay Skeets]

Call.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Got him a shot. It was a good look. It was a hell of a play call. Right, because as a back pick and all that. And he came like, Luke came screaming from the three point line, like, great awareness of obviously time and all that. I could leave this guy not going back to my guy and just like. And then didn't hit him as he went flying by. And then he dropped like a Usain bolt. Like, very funny as he screamed. Everybody mobbed.

[Jay Skeets]

Him. Yeah, he had that smile going for like eight seconds. So funny. Yeah, the. The spurs absolutely cooking now. Dylan Harper, as we talked about yesterday, just watched his pace of play, just how slow and comfortable he looks while obviously being super fast. Looks awesome. And we didn't talk about Carter Bryant. That's how good this team is. They're so deep. Guys like Carter Bryant, who's going to be their, their wing defender, he got into it a little bit with Wendell Carter in this game. Like, that's how confident this team is and that's why this team is scary in the Western Conference. As long as Wemby and the Castle come back, especially when we obviously, yeah, there were.

[Tas Melas]

Some. I was going to call them controversial, but they really weren't a fouls at the end of this game. One resulted in free throws for the spurs to sort of get them or no, the other way around. For the Magic to get back in the game. Franz Wagner hit all three, three of his free free throws. And then on the other end, it was Deer and Fox sort of in isolation and he sort of fumbles the ball. And then so Jonathan Isaac comes over and is trying to prevent obviously an easy shot attempt from Fox. But he like puts his arm in there because I think because the ball sort of got like loose from Fox for a second, he thought he might be able to go for it. But then anyway, his arm got caught in on Fox and that resulted in free throws. He hit those two and then we got to that game saving block. But I thought it was. It was a.

[Trey Kirby]

Foul. I thought so too. It was a lot of. A lot of chest, A lot of chest going on there from Jonathan Isaac. I did like the little boosty though that the Magic got from Jace Richardson. 8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists. He's had a couple of nice games in a row. Coming off the bench for them, giving us my athleticism. But he looks tiny. It's crazy that he's Jason Richardson's son. He's a big dude, quite slight. And Jason Richardson was like a. A muscle.

[Tas Melas]

Dunker. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. It's a character that doesn't exist in the NBA right now. Just like a stronger, real strong.

[Jay Skeets]

Guard.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. With like jacked.

[Tas Melas]

Muscles. Yeah. Who would be like the closest to that? Like Anthony Edwards is pretty.

[Trey Kirby]

Jacked. He.

[Tas Melas]

Is. But like not to that level.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. As a guard. Yeah. Desmond Bain, sort of. Maybe. Because his arms are short.

[Tas Melas]

Muscles. For sure.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think Franz Wagner should have not collected himself and just sort of alley and threw it up there? I know we could say that now because a second and a.

[Tas Melas]

Half. I think it.

[Jay Skeets]

Was. I mean, it's probably. He probably had to. I kept watching, I thought. Is it your mistake? Was it your.

[Trey Kirby]

No. But Champagne did a good job to stay in the play even though he was beat. Like, he kept hustling enough that Wagner had to pivot, which gave Cornett enough time to make a good.

[Jay Skeets]

Play. Great.

[Tas Melas]

Play. And then just. There was other games last night, but we've gone way too long. But the Mavs beat the heat. Michael Porter Jr. Big game against your Bulls. That's a tough loss for them. The Knicks did great. They beat the Hornets. Avdia, the Blazers, really good win over the Cavs. That's another eye opening loss for Cleveland. They had.

[Jay Skeets]

Mitchell.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. They had Mobley. They had Garland. And then the Rockets crushed the Kings. So we'll have to leave it at that right now because we gotta hit the beach. But first, a quick break to hear from our.

[Trey Kirby]

Sponsor. We're a quarter of the way into the NBA season. Does it feel like.

[Jay Skeets]

It? Nah, I.

[Trey Kirby]

Agree. It still feels.

[Jay Skeets]

Early. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. No, it doesn't.

[Trey Kirby]

Yet. It feels like we played 10 games and we played like, you know.

[Tas Melas]

20, 22, 20 plus at this.

[Jay Skeets]

Point.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Does it feel like FanDuel is your home for live.

[Tas Melas]

Betting? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I basically live there.

It's my.

[Trey Kirby]

Home. Yes, you do live there. You live in.

[Jay Skeets]

Fanduel. You live in the.

[Trey Kirby]

App. Every day before the show, we gotta hack into Skeets's computer. He comes through the screen, sits there and has these beautiful questions for.

[Jay Skeets]

Us. He's the one who picked the game today. Usually it's.

[Tas Melas]

Me. I was wondering where you were running everything.

[Trey Kirby]

Today.

So even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets and apparently housing live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. However you want to play. Now is the perfect time to join FanDuel's giving new customers $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So just visit FanDuel.com to sign up today. Play your game with FanDuel officially sports betting partner of the.

[Tas Melas]

NBA. All right, hit the like button. Subscribe podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. Let's hit the B. You got the buzz, I got the rockets. You got the nuts, I got the chocolates, we got that blah, blah, blah. You got that certain special genesis.

All right, we're on the beach. Keep your emails coming. Keep your comments coming in the YouTube section below. All that good stuff. We'll move with some pace here. First one from Rohan in Melbourne, Australia. I've been tuning in since 2013 and every year I marvel at Tass's optimism for his beloved Toronto Raptors. When everyone's tipping a down year, he's got faith at least a 500 year and it made me think, even a broken. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. When's a time when you've been. When you've been stuck to your gut with an opinion. Been wrong several times, but eventually it's come back around to being right.

[Jay Skeets]

Again. Rohan, I think you're wrong. I think you look back, I. In 2022, the Raptors had been over on their over under total in 10 of the previous 11 years. So.

I ain't no broken clock. I'm just right all the time. I hope I was right. I hope I picked them. I didn't go back and check. Although listen, I've been wrong and since 2022 made a couple over picks, that's for sure. But this year it's paying off. Rohan. This year it is correct.

So anyway, thanks for the. Thanks for the email. That's all I.

[Tas Melas]

Got. Do you have an.

[Trey Kirby]

Answer? My Jimmy Butler Paul George take aged beautifully. I think when I was saying Jimmy Butler was better than Paul George. Paul George was probably actually better back then. He certainly had a higher profile. As the Derrick Rose injury kind of took the Bulls out of any sort of contention in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers ascended. Paul George was an MVP candidate when he went to the Thunder and you know, people had high hopes for him when he went to the Clippers. But once Jimmy Butler got to Miami, basically the tides completely turned. Took them to the finals two times and I think at this point people would agree with me. Jimmy Butler over Paul.

[Tas Melas]

George. Mine's pretty obvious answer. You probably know where I'm going in 2020. I told Trey Kirby specifically All star season from Shay Gildus Alexander. Loading. Unfortunately, no. He didn't play a lot that season. 2021 I told Trey Kirby all star season from Shay Gildas Alexander. Loading. No, nope. Getting closer though. Putting up some points. He was in the consideration. And then 2022, 23, I said it once again and he became an all star. He became a first team all NBA player. He became a top five MVP candidate and then would be a runner up to MVP and then eventual winner. So you know, I was on the SGA train pretty.

[Trey Kirby]

Early. You.

[Tas Melas]

Were. And I was saying this guy's something. He's from the Hammer and the Hammer. It's different. There's a big hill. You gotta go up and.

[Trey Kirby]

Down.

He has such good.

[Tas Melas]

Fitness. That's.

[Jay Skeets]

Right. You also just loved Kentucky.

[Tas Melas]

Guards. I do love my Kentucky guards. My Jamal Murray's, my Tyrese Maxey's Devin book. Devin Puck. You're right, I do. There's a lot of them. Not so much, dear. And Fox. Thank.

[Jay Skeets]

You. Oh.

[Tas Melas]

Fox. Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Tas Melas]

Why. I never really fell in love with hero Plays a little differently in a weird way. What's.

[Trey Kirby]

That? You're a.

[Tas Melas]

Racist. I'm racist. I hate white.

[Trey Kirby]

Guys. That's true. Here's something I'm wondering if I'll ever be right about again. I like mock Turtlenecks you know, like not a full fold over turtleneck, but the one that just goes a little bit up maybe covers.

[Jay Skeets]

That. Adam's.

[Trey Kirby]

Apple. I've been in on mock turtlenecks since the 1990s. For a long time, it was only me, my dad, and Stan Van Gundy. I don't even think Stan Van Gundy is still. But I wonder if it'll ever turn to where people agree because it's been a. It's been a tough 20.

[Tas Melas]

Years. It's fashion and it's cyclical. It'll be back. It's been a.

[Trey Kirby]

While.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. You think it would have been back by.

[Jay Skeets]

Now. Yeah, yeah. I think somebody saw you in one earlier this season.

[Trey Kirby]

Right. And I'd wear a.

[Jay Skeets]

Mock. And they every now and then. What is that? What is that? Yeah, listen, you. You wearing the. The New balance shoes that have literally have come back in terms of fashion. I. I can't get behind it. You know, these. Yeah. These shoes that everybody's wearing. But I used to, I used to sell these shoes. They looked exactly the.

[Trey Kirby]

Same. Look exactly the.

[Tas Melas]

Same. They were geeks. They're old people.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes. Middle aged people in the majority of them. I would get on a knee and lace it for them.

And I thought, why are you buying this thing? No, no. The 608 was a solid shoe anyways. There's some. There's some solid ones out there. Out there. But they've come around. And I'm thinking about wearing basketball shoes because the New balance ones look that good. Like every. It seems like they've. They've started to expand. It's not just a Jamal Murray brown shoe. It's everybody's.

[Trey Kirby]

Wearing. They've got some good looking shoes for.

[Jay Skeets]

Sure. Yep. Next one. Hey, no dunks. When Tastradamus will Thiago Splitter into a head coaching role, Splitter joined a select company of NBA players whose most famous moments were on the wrong end of a highlight. Taron Lu got stepped over by Iverson, and Splitter got rejected by LeBron both in the NBA Finals. What other NBA coaches, past or present, have most famously been on the wrong end of a highlight? Burn up. Love some fries. All done. That is from unadvanced analytics.

It's their.

[Tas Melas]

Name.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Yep.

[Tas Melas]

Yep. They long time fan. Tk you go on this one. You got anything? Because I have like a. Something a little.

[Trey Kirby]

Different. I had a hard time finding a current coach. Like there's maybe there's some Jason Kidd highlights or low lights, but for him, like the biggest lowlight I Think of is his coaching career when he did the. Hey, bump into me so I can spill some ice. Yeah, that was pretty ridiculous. So I got a flashback to the 90s, Rudy Tomjanovich. The only real highlight you ever saw, Rudy Tomjanovich was being on the wrong side of vicious punch from Kermit Washington. And it's like, that's all I knew about Rudy. Tom Jonovich as a player and then was obviously a really good coach for the Houston Rockets. Couple of titles. But if they ever showed anything from his playing career was like a tragic, scary.

[Tas Melas]

Moment. It's a good one. Did we. Did we ever see footage of Steve Kerr getting popped by Michael Jordan in practice.

[Trey Kirby]

Or. No, they talked.

[Tas Melas]

About. They just talked about. Because you just reminded me of Steve Kerr, I guess could be an option here, but. Yeah, I didn't think we saw that footage. Yeah, I couldn't. I was struggling with this.

[Jay Skeets]

One.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. I have a whole other story, sort of related, but do you have.

[Jay Skeets]

Any? Well, yeah, Flying through IME Udoka. This is different in that it was a. It was a highlight as a coach when he got into it with LeBron James. And it was transcribed by a Twitter account called Legends when he got into that fight. And Odoka, you know, apparently allegedly looked like he said, stop crying. Like, man, soft ass boy. Stop bitching, acting like you're gonna do something. I think Emory Doke is more known for that than an incredible head coaching career so.

[Tas Melas]

Far. But you.

[Trey Kirby]

Couldn'T. That's a good one.

[Tas Melas]

Though. You couldn't unearth Udoka highlight where he got crossed up or something like.

[Jay Skeets]

That. Yeah, no, the Sam Cassell doing big balls. He's an assistant coach now. I mean, that's. Is it a bad thing that he did the big.

[Tas Melas]

Balls? No, that's.

[Jay Skeets]

Legendary. Or. I mean, Chauncey Billups is currently a head coach. He's known for something far worse off the court now, allegedly. It's an alleged crime. Yeah. But that's all I.

[Tas Melas]

Got. Here's my sort of, like, story off of this question. So I'm watching the New York broadcast of Raps Knicks earlier this week. Right. I love me some Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier. Sometimes I just default to the home team. I say that because usually I'm a Devlin guy. Although I will say it was hilarious watching the Knicks broadcast because Devlin is right beside him. You could hear Devlin on the call for the Knicks.

[Trey Kirby]

Broadcast.

[Tas Melas]

Wow. It was like, bleeding through. Like, Scotty Barnes kept taking threes and he was hitting them during that stretch. I brought it up on the show. I kept hearing someone yell, scotty, Scotty. I'm like, wow, there's like a Die Hard Raps fan like sitting like right there. And then little bit later you could hear Devlin, like actually Devlin's voice saying whatever it was about the game from Westchester. It was like, oh, it was Devlin the whole time. And then I was like, like, oh, he's right beside him. And Devin's got a loud voice, he projects. Anyway, I'm watching that game. I'm watching the Knicks broadcast. There's a sequence where Mitchell Robinson was dribbling up top near the three point line, like actually dribbling. And Mike Breen, he noted, wow, that's more like ball handling from Mitchell Robinson in these last two possessions than we've seen like in weeks. I thought it was pretty funny. Which triggered a funny Clyde story about when he played. Knicks coach Red Holzman would tell Phil Jackson, here's the whole point of this now, don't dribble the ball, just give it to Clyde. So this is what the legendary Red would say to, to Phil Jackson when he played for the Knicks. So Jackson says to Red, well, what if Clyde is covered? And Red says, well, just throw it in the stands. I don't want you to dribble. So, you know, I guess Phil Jackson maybe was, you know, he was out there for defensive purposes, but not out there for.

[Jay Skeets]

Dribbling. Yeah, it's great to tune into the other broadcast because I was just reminded of this the other day because I don't, I just, I'm just lazy. Okay, this, this game's on. But this is a stat. This is stat geek dumb right here. The other day I said, Denny Avdia started his career with the second most 30 point triple doubles in NBA history. And I was told by our friend Seb, apparently it's this guy. I'm listening to the Blazers broadcast and it's this guy. So I said, whoa, let me go over there. And I heard who it was and I did. I checked the stats. I think it looks like they're tied with four. It was 30 points. Yeah, they.

[Tas Melas]

Tied. It's Pistol Pete, isn't.

[Jay Skeets]

It? Pistol Pete, yeah. I was surprised by.

[Tas Melas]

That. Never guess.

[Jay Skeets]

That. No, no, but he had four. You'd think it's Oscar, but he only scored. Oscar Robertson only scored 20 plus and his triple doubles to start. So anyway, cool story, bro, very cool. The other, the other broadcasts are fun. That's.

[Trey Kirby]

All. A lot of.

[Jay Skeets]

Variety. A lot of.

[Tas Melas]

Variety. Oh, we got time for one more. Why Not. I have some urgent news. This one starts. I just found a Michael Jordan playoff game wedgie yesterday. I wanted to watch some random old games to compare the pace and style to today's play. So on YouTube I just typed Chicago Bulls, 1992 playoffs. And I found game six of the Eastern Conference series, Bulls versus Knicks. And I just started watching. And then halfway through the first quarter, MJ posted up Gerald Wilkins and shot a turnaround, fadeaway, boom. A wedgie. Just a thing of beauty I had to share with you guys immediately. Interestingly, the broadcast refers to the wedgie as an incident which already had happened during the 92 playoffs. So I will start the search for that wedgie and I will let you know asap. Keep up the great work. That is from Marvin. And Marvin shared the clip. We have the clip. JD you can roll that. Because I know there's a bit of build up to MJ finally getting it on the block versus Gerald Wood. But you'll see it here. Here we go. MJ in his spot, backing him up. Little shimmy turnaround. Yeah, that's a nice.

[Jay Skeets]

Wedgie. That's the best player we've ever seen have a wedgie. Stuck in D. Yeah, Nostalgia comes back, you see 92 NBA playoffs on the floor. That was a great.

[Tas Melas]

Clip. I was wondering, I'm like, was. Was a young 12 year old skeets watching that game? Game. And what did he do when he saw that? I can't remember. I have you on. Maybe I wasn't. Maybe I wasn't. I don't know if that was a day game or a night game. It was a day game. It was more likely I was watching it than a night.

[Jay Skeets]

Game. But we can find great.

[Trey Kirby]

Wedgie. I know what.

[Jay Skeets]

Time. Yeah, we can find out the.

[Tas Melas]

Time. Do you remember before you got in here this morning, we were talking about the time we were on a stream yard? I don't know if it was during the COVID years, but Lee had like a hookup. Somebody he knew was like feeding him all these like historic wedgies, like from the 90s and stuff. Like, do you remember that? Like he was like, he was like teasing us with them and he was like sprinkling them in. Yeah. J.D. you. You confirmed that wasn't crazy, right? We definitely watched.

[Jay Skeets]

Some.

[Tas Melas]

100. Yeah, okay.

[Jay Skeets]

100. I know who it is. I don't.

[Tas Melas]

Know. Least.

[Jay Skeets]

Source. Yes, we all know the source. But I can't remember if we're allowed to say why. NBA tv Canada. You said too.

[Tas Melas]

Much. You said too much.

[Jay Skeets]

Much. It's him. No, but. Well, I remember that person sending some in.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. But no, I don't remember the least giving us his source. It was very cagey about it. Yeah, I have a secret. Oh, that's why. Secret wedgie source. No, he was totally. That guy was totally fine letting people.

[Tas Melas]

Know. Yeah, I thought so.

[Jay Skeets]

Too. Oh, I guess Lee was just.

[Tas Melas]

Hoarding.

Historic.

[Jay Skeets]

Wedgies. Shout out to.

[Tas Melas]

J. Yes. Oops. Oh.

Jakey.

[Trey Kirby]

Boy.

Here's his home address and phone number if you want to call.

[Tas Melas]

Him. Little bite. Lovely of the night. Unsullied by sponsorship since November, this one was easy. I started working on the graphic last night before I went to bed. It helps. We got all these early games too. Yes. I like that. I like that a lot. I really like that Jamal Murray gets your. Whoa. Low boy of the night. Season high. 52 points. You noted there. I said season high. This guy does have a 55 point game under his belt. He shot 19 of 25 from the field, 10 of 11 from deep. As we talked about six boards, four assists, one steal in only 36 minutes too, man. Go watch the highlights. When Jamal Murray's cooking, it's fun. Cause he's going.

[Trey Kirby]

Left. He's going left. Sometimes he's going to the rim, but a lot of times he's stepping.

[Tas Melas]

Back. He is stepping back and splashing. So great game from him. You're right, Taz. I picked tonight's game. I wanted a weird one. I wanted to get funky tonight. Jazz, Nets, Utah favored by three and a half at the time I saw it, I think it has moved to four and a half, but we'll go with three and a half. What is everybody.

[Jay Skeets]

Taking? It's also a great pick because we had this debate here at the desk. Lowry Market or Michael Porter Jr. Oh, God. Better.

[Trey Kirby]

Player. Curious Mark versus curious.

[Tas Melas]

Mike. Mike. It's.

[Jay Skeets]

Exciting. That's why you as a Mike supporter, Trey, have got the Brooklyn.

[Tas Melas]

Nets.

[Trey Kirby]

Yep. I love. I love everything Michael Porter Jr's about. I agree with all of his opinions. I don't know, I've seen. I think I've seen like the last three Nets games live. I'm too devoted to the Nets right now, so I'll give you some Danny Wolf.

[Jay Skeets]

Action. Oh, yeah. Michael Boore Jr. Called out Danny Wolf for. He called out everybody post game yesterday. I don't know if you saw his interview, but he was giving love to all the guys around. He's getting love to Noah Clowney and how much he grew. Ben Soraf came off and helped us Out. AOR Agor helped us out. And the proper pronunciation. I was surprised with that. Danny Wolf. Drake just calls Drake Powell Drake. And then he said. He said, okay, I'm. I'm saying everybody, I think this is what. Internally he said, okay, I'm saying everybody. Now I got to say another guy because he's like, oh, yeah, who might. He literally said, who? Am I forgetting Nolan Traore, who isn't with the team right now? He literally said, oh, yeah, I think he's in the G league right now. He's just like, I'm gonna name.

[Tas Melas]

Everybody. Gotta name them.

[Trey Kirby]

All. He's balling in, learning to be a leader, I.

[Tas Melas]

Guess. Looking crazy with that goatee. I guess it's a goat. He's like evil looking.

[Jay Skeets]

Goatee.

[Trey Kirby]

Very. Yeah, it fits.

[Tas Melas]

Him. It does work. All right, so, Tassen, I need the Jazz to win by four points or more. Trey's got some points to play with with Brooklyn at home. TK looking for his first win here of December. Pickup.

[Trey Kirby]

Battle. Might have to get a Michael.

[Tas Melas]

Porter Jr yeah, we haven't decided yet on the payoff, so you still have time if you have suggestions. So let us know. Not the greatest games on tonight for being honest. Warrior, Sixers. Okay, maybe. But I mean, Curry's not playing. Celtics, Wizards, Jazz, Nets, Wolves, Pelicans. They just had a great game. They had a very entertaining overtime game. Lakers.

[Jay Skeets]

Raptors. Yeah, that's a good game. A little surprised you didn't go with.

[Tas Melas]

That. No Luca, though. Yeah, no Luca. Yeah, I thought about going with it, but then I was like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna take the.

[Jay Skeets]

Raptors. What's. What's Luca.

[Tas Melas]

Doing? Potentially having another.

[Jay Skeets]

Child.

[Tas Melas]

Oh. So. Positive.

[Trey Kirby]

Reasons. His.

[Tas Melas]

Wife.

So anyway, we will maybe talk about those games tonight. We'll see how they go down. But we'll have some fun on tomorrow's Drop podcast. So you'll have to join us at 10am Eastern if you're a Survivor fan. We'll be Talking about episode 11 at 1pm Eastern with Nora here in the studio. So come join us over at no buffs. It's on YouTube feed. It's on podcast feed. We'll break it all down. So that's later today. Tomorrow, the Drop. All right. Well, that was fun. I like talking trades, talking Chris Paul, getting in a little game talk, hitting the beach. Did a little bit of everything. You got worst of the week nominees.

[Jay Skeets]

Tomorrow. We got to with that batch of.

[Tas Melas]

Games. Yeah. You know, I mean, that Tyler hero one's pretty funny. I'LL leave it at.

[Jay Skeets]

That. It's a good one. Yeah, lots of good.

[Tas Melas]

Ones. So we'll show you tomorrow. We'll break them all down. Worst of the week nominees and a whole lot.

[Jay Skeets]

More.

[Tas Melas]

More. Until then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you.

[Trey Kirby]

Guys.

[Jay Skeets]

Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, Basketball Reference is great for looking at individual game stats info. I thought I would know if I just went to game two of the Bulls Knicks in round two of the.

[Tas Melas]

Playoffs. Game.

[Jay Skeets]

Six. It's game.

[Tas Melas]

Six. That's what he.

[Jay Skeets]

Said. Oh, is that my.

[Tas Melas]

Mistake? Game six of the Eastern Conference.

[Jay Skeets]

Semi. Okay, let me check. But it's not going to tell me.

[Tas Melas]

Anyways.

[Jay Skeets]

Sorry. Game six. That's all right. It doesn't.

[Tas Melas]

Matter. They don't say that. They.

[Jay Skeets]

Don'T. Yeah. Two hour and 18 is how long. Two hours, 18 minutes is how long it took to play. It's a quick game back.

[Trey Kirby]

Then. They have the game length on there. I'm surprised they don't have the time. I feel like they do have time for new.

[Jay Skeets]

Games. Yeah, they didn't back then. Yeah, it's not around. You know, the Knicks had a 15 point quarter there in game six. The Bulls had a 16 point to end the.

[Tas Melas]

Game. Team six could be on a weekend that very well could be because, you know, they like to get those sixes and sevens on a.

[Jay Skeets]

Weekend. May 14.

[Tas Melas]

1992. Okay, look at. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I mean now we're looking up two different things because I was wondering if it was a day game. My point is, if it's on the weekend, I bet it's a day game.

[Jay Skeets]

Right?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. So we just need to look up May.

[Jay Skeets]

14Th. Come on, Internet. Don't AI me. Just tell me, tell me it's a.

[Trey Kirby]

Saturday. Tell me it's a.

[Tas Melas]

Thursday. It's a.

[Trey Kirby]

Nike. Yeah, it's a.

[Tas Melas]

Nike. Okay, so Young Skeets didn't see that. I'm telling you, I probably didn't see.

[Trey Kirby]

It. Yeah, fair.

[Tas Melas]

Enough. That was eight. I'm just like wondering. Yeah, we would have had it, I guess. NBC. Yeah, I guess it would have been on Bulls.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Broadcast exposures. We're getting broadcast coverage for.

[Tas Melas]

Sure. Yeah. Brace the day people. Brace the.

[Jay Skeets]

Time.

With.

[Trey Kirby]

Venmo. Stash a taco in one hand.

[Jay Skeets]

And ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash.

[Tas Melas]

Back.

[Jay Skeets]

Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash on your favorite brands. When you pay with your Venmo debit card from takeout to ride, shares, entertainment and more. Pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with Stash Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me terms. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first.

Ah.

There the last one.

Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that.

[Tas Melas]

Refreshes.

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[Jay Skeets]

Podcast. Guaranteed Human.