NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Rose's Jersey Retirement, Giannis' Injury, Eat That Tweet

Summary

No Dunks Podcast Episode: NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Rose's Jersey Retirement, Giannis' Injury, Eat That Tweet Date: January 26, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, the No Dunks crew—JD Skeets, Tas Melis, and Trey Kirby—break down a dramatic NBA weekend full of on- and off-court developments. The show opens with a serious look at social unrest in Minnesota and the NBA's response, before pivoting to the usual lighthearted, comprehensive roundup of “Weekend Winners & Losers.” Key topics include player activism, standout NBA performances, major injuries that shape the playoff race, Derrick Rose’s jersey retirement, hilarious viral fan moments, and the strategic implications of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury for the Bucks. As always, the crew keep things lively, thoughtful, and unmistakably in their signature style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Player Activism & Minnesota’s Social Unrest (02:50–12:46)

• Topic: The tragic shooting of Alex Preddy and ICE-related violence in Minnesota prompts statements and protests by NBA/WNBA players and local sports franchises.
• Main Points:
  • Tyrese Halliburton, Karl-Anthony Towns, Brianna Stewart, and other athletes couragously speak out.
  • NBA cancels Warriors-Wolves, teams up for a united statement, and the mood at the make-up game is somber.
  • “We wanted to get that on the record here at No Dunks. We stand with the people in Minnesota. They’re showing the country what courage and resilience look like in the face of authoritarianism.” — JD Skeets (08:40)
  • Chris Finch and Steve Kerr comment on how the unrest overshadows basketball, with Finch correcting a reporter: “I’m not a resident. This is my city. People are on the streets protesting...” — paraphrased from Tas Melis (10:26)
  • The guys agree that raising voices, even in sports, matters: “It’s a positive, if you want to look at it like that, that people are speaking up more and more and more.” — Tas Melis (10:26)

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2. Weekend Winner: Luka Doncic and the Lakers vs. Mavs (12:46–17:26)

• Topic: Luka’s defense sparks gritty Lakers win over the Mavs; team displays surprising resilience.
• Main Points:
  • Luka secures a key charge in the final minute, impresses defensively (“It was good for the Lakers, I think, to see Luka putting that effort in defensively.”—Trey, 13:49)
  • LeBron excellent in the 4th, Marcus Smart vital, Rui Hachimura nails clutch threes
  • Luka’s “perfect” record vs. Dallas (now 4–0). “You could say they had to do a lot to beat a Mavericks team that was shorthanded…but you’ll take the win.” — Trey Kirby (14:38)
  • Luka hosts Dallas fans in a suite, sparks talk of a possible future Mavs return.
  • “Wouldn’t surprise me if he plays out the rest of his career and then at the end signs the ceremonial one day contract [in Dallas].” — Trey Kirby (16:18)

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3. Bucks “Win” by Losing Giannis? The Tank & Trade Strategy (17:35–25:51)

• Topic: Giannis Antetokounmpo suffers calf injury, likely out 4–6 weeks; Bucks pivot from win-now to asset accumulation.
• Main Points:
  • “I think the Milwaukee Bucks are a winner. It sounds crazy because Giannis got injured, but I do think that injury is the quickest way for the Bucks to get better around him this offseason…” — Tas Melis (17:36)
  • Bucks now likely to keep their lottery pick, can use it to rebuild or pursue trades to convince Giannis to stay.
  • “Their direction has—their decision is made for them here with Giannis probably missing…weeks if not months. Don’t trade for Zach LaVine…just get that pick, go from there.” — JD Skeets (20:18)
  • Debate: Will Giannis sign an extension? If not, do the Bucks have to trade him after this season?
  • “Maybe he does…sign the contract extension…like he wouldn’t be the first superstar to sign a contract extension and then be traded.” — JD Skeets (25:33)

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4. Winner: Derrick Rose Night in Chicago (31:11–36:05)

• Topic: Bulls retire Rose’s #1 jersey in an emotional, star-studded night.
• Main Points:
  • “Best player they’ve had since Michael Jordan…crazy seeing Derrick Rose speak for like 20 minutes straight. One of the quietest stars ever.” — Trey Kirby (31:25)
  • Massive turnout: Joakim Noah, Tom Thibodeau, and 20+ ex-teammates; Bulls win in thrilling fashion, Herder nails game-winner and strikes Rose’s “no celebration” pose.
  • “The city’s favorite son…just joined at the hip.” — JD Skeets (34:01)
  • Bulls improve to 2–0 on Derrick Rose nights, above .500 for the first time since November.

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5. Weekend Winner: Raptors’ Statement Road Trip (36:20–45:15)

• Topic: Short-handed Toronto sweeps tough road games in Portland and OKC.
• Main Points:
  • Emmanuel Quickley, Grady Dick, Ochai Agbaji, and bench unit fuel comebacks; Scotty Barnes powers clutch defense (“Scotty Barnes, like, yeah, he jumped into the Defensive Player of the Year conversation.” — JD Skeets, 39:43)
  • Viral moment: Large group of red-jacketed Raptors fans celebrates with players post-game (“What a friggin moment…for all those guys to share it with the Raps who were able to pull it out in Portland.” — Tas Melis, 38:30)
  • Team’s future strategy at the trade deadline debated: “Other than the Pistons, nobody’s really dominating in the Eastern Conference. You can at least talk yourself into…we can be the second best team in the East.” — Trey Kirby (42:27)
  • Tas speculates Raptors will stick with Barrett/Quickley core and just skirt under tax line (43:35).
  • “The Raptors are an interesting team. Like, what are they going to do at the trade deadline?” — Trey Kirby (41:13)

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6. Quick-Hit Winners (45:18–50:01)

• Sadiq Bey: 60 pts in 65 mins, sparks Pelicans to two straight wins (“There’s a guy like a team could trade for…only 26 years old, that’s crazy!” — JD Skeets, 46:27)
• Miami Heat: Win back-to-back road games, Bam Adebayo in top form.
• Pistons Coach JB Bickerstaff: Named All-Star coach, first for Detroit since Flip Saunders.
• All-Star Coach Selections: Confusion over which international coaches qualify (Donovan, 48:44).

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7. Losers: Impact of Winter Storm on NBA Schedule (53:56–58:02)

• Topic: Icy weather causes multiple postponements and shifts start times across the league.
• Memorable moment: Shoutout to a viewer powering the YouTube stream by generator (“That’s some dedication right there. A true sicko…” — JD Skeets, 55:58)
• Hosts exchange stories about cold weather preparations, generator use, and attempts to safeguard their homes.

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8. Losers: Injury Woes and Season Setbacks (59:14–74:36)

a) Grizzlies’ Triple Whammy (59:14–63:13)

• Ja Morant out 3+ weeks with sprained elbow, derailing trade value and playoff hopes.
  • “It just feels like any positive momentum for the Grizzlies this season instantly gets shut down and the Ja Morant thing ain’t gonna help.” — Trey Kirby (61:07)
  • “Is it possible they just want to get out of the Ja business entirely?” — JD Skeets (62:09)

b) Phoenix Suns’ Injury Bug (66:26–74:05)

• Jalen Green returns, tweaks hamstring again; Devin Booker sprains ankle, misses time.
  • “It just stinks for a team that keeps on fighting.” — Tas Melis (68:35)
  • Suns lose to Heat, struggle to replace Booker’s points; $2 value menu at arena softens the blow (“Every arena should have the value menu like the Suns have.” — Trey Kirby, 72:19)
  • “You’re already…asking Dylan Brooks and other guys…to give you more offensively, especially if Jalen Green’s not playing.” — JD Skeets (74:05)

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9. Viral and Hilarious Moments

a) Eat That Tweet! (74:36–77:44)

• Clippers podcaster Robert Flom promised to eat a tweet if LA went 15–3 in any stretch. They did; he’ll eat his promise on camera.
  • “Will I watch the replay to see a man eating a piece of paper? Absolutely, I will.” — Trey Kirby (75:33)
  • Even Kawhi weighs in: “I hope he eats something different. It's not healthy.” (76:06)

b) Courtside Cavs Fan Gets Elbowed

• Dennis Schroeder accidentally elbows a Cavs fan at the end of the half—she’s OK, but the incident highlights the hazards of sitting courtside.

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10. Whoa Boy of the Night / Trivia

• Cade Cunningham: 29 pts, 11 ast, 5 reb, 3 stl, 1 blk in Pistons rout of Kings.
• Trivia: Last Pistons All-Star starter? Allen Iverson in 2009, but did not play in 2010 due to injury.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “We stand with the people in Minnesota. They’re showing the country what courage and resilience look like in the face of authoritarianism.” — JD Skeets (08:40)
• “This is the first time I ever saw Derrick Rose speak for like 20 minutes straight. One of the quietest stars ever.” — Trey Kirby (31:25)
• “I think the Milwaukee Bucks are a winner. It sounds crazy…but the injury is the quickest way for the Bucks to get better around him this off-season…” — Tas Melis (17:36)
• “All paper is edible.” — Trey Kirby, on Eat That Tweet (76:26)
• “You’re not a baby, so keep them on hand so you get nothing on your hands.” — Ad read, but encapsulates the episode's playful tone.

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Segment Timestamps

• 02:50 – 12:46: NBA Player Activism in Minnesota
• 12:46 – 17:26: Luka, Lakers, and the Mavs
• 17:35 – 25:51: Giannis’ Injury and Bucks’ Rebuild
• 31:11 – 36:05: Derrick Rose Jersey Retirement in Chicago
• 36:20 – 45:15: Raptors’ West Coast Wins & Superfans
• 45:18 – 50:01: Quick NBA Winners Round-Up
• 53:56 – 58:02: Winter Storm Postponements & Life Talk
• 59:14 – 63:13: Memphis Grizzlies Fall Apart
• 66:26 – 74:05: Suns Lose Booker/Green, Arena Hot Dog Prices
• 74:36 – 77:44: Clipper Fan to Eat His Tweet, Kawhi Reacts
• 77:44 – 79:33: Cavs Fan Gets Elbowed
• 80:43 – 82:44: Whoa Boy of the Night & Pistons Trivia

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Summary Mood & Tone

The episode oscillates between serious, socially conscious commentary and the irreverent, comedic tone that defines No Dunks. The hosts show compassion discussing Minnesota’s crisis, then switch gears for classic, banter-filled NBA analysis. Emotional highlights (like Rose night) mingle with sports nerdery (debating DPotY, all-star ballots) and outright absurdity (Eat That Tweet). The camaraderie and warmth between the hosts and audience shine throughout.

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This summary captures the full arc of a densely packed NBA weekend, highlighting the episode’s blend of deep engagement, humor, and genuine love for the game.

Transcript

[JD Skeets]

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[Tas Melis]

What makes you you?

[JD Skeets]

Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Monday, January 26, 2026. I'm JD Skeets here in the yard and alongside me, thanks to the power of technology, it's Tasmelis.

[Tas Melis]

Basketball lovers. This is for you.

[JD Skeets]

Also here on screen in the yard, it's my top shot, hot boy Trey Kirby Ayo. Hey, yo. And making the magic happen in the back. He's hiding out today. He's not feeling well. A little under the weather. Super producer JD but he's pressing all the buttons, making sure this goes live on YouTube. Hello to everybody in the stream team. Hit the like button. Subscribe podcast listeners. We love you too. Leave your boys a five star rating and review. We had one wedgie this weekend, guys. Wedgie number 37. And it happened in Memphis and it was Jordan Poole. And I could not believe this, guys. Jordan Poole. First career wedgie for Jordan Poole. I would have guessed he had like three or four of these.

[Trey Kirby]

You think he should have more because. Why? He takes. Takes a lot of interesting shots.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, I just would have thought he would have at least one, but maybe more.

[Trey Kirby]

But yeah, that's true.

[JD Skeets]

Jordan Poole gets his first career wedgie tasks as we're up to 37.

[Trey Kirby]

Not bad.

[Tas Melis]

We are. We are rolling now. Did we keep really good track of the shooter of each and every wedgie since we started tracking them in the year 2014? I believe so, because I didn't. I didn't track who shot it, where it was shot from, who was blocking that shot, who was part of that shot, who touched that shot. So I don't know. I don't know.

[JD Skeets]

Well, it's all up on wedgie tracker.com with links to the actual footage. So, yeah, it's there. The stats are there.

[Tas Melis]

So Mr. Richard, he went back and checked where each one was shot from. All right. All right.

[JD Skeets]

I do believe so.

[Tas Melis]

The first jump in the pool.

[JD Skeets]

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Okay, so we are here obviously in the yard because we couldn't make it way to the Classic Factory today. I mean, I guess we could have tried it. It's cold. It was icy yesterday in Atlanta. Tas lives a little more north of the city. I don't know if you got hit worse than us, Tas, but look, we just elected to hang out in the yard. For a day. Especially once JD Told us he was sick. We're like, who wants to be around him?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, I was. I was safe. I was safe because it seemed like it was going to hit me a little bit further north. I was having flashbacks of last year's All Star Game. Last year, during the All Star Game, that's when we had our last power outage here in North Georgia. You guys had to go on. I was literally having. I was having tea somewhere that had actual electricity. I was watching that stupid All Star game. I was. I was. I was literally telling people beside me, excuse me, I'm trying to listen to Mr. Beast. Can you please pipe down for a sec while I'm trying to have some. Some freaking bubbly tea? Anyway, I had some flashbacks. Yeah, we're safe. We're safe here. I'm sure a lot of people got hit by a lot of bad weather, though.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, for sure, TK no power outages or anything like that. I mean, you're not too far from me, so I assume not, but, no.

[Trey Kirby]

It was all good. I think the main thing we were worried about the entire weekend was things freezing, tree branches getting heavy, and then if something falls, maybe it hits your house, worst of all, or a power line. That didn't seem to happen around here. We had a couple of flickers yesterday, but never a loss of power, so slept in the basement for two nights. You know, an abundance of caution.

[JD Skeets]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Getting. Getting to use all the beds that we're not usually sleeping in.

[JD Skeets]

Oh.

[Trey Kirby]

And let's just say there's a reason we're not usually sleeping in these beds. We got bad beds. Sorry, guests.

[JD Skeets]

Oh, yeah, that's true. Tas, you on Friday or Thursday, I guess, obviously getting ready for maybe the really bad, bad weather or the power going out. You bought a bunch of firewood. Did you at least have a fire because you bought, like, $100 worth of firewood?

[Tas Melis]

I did not. No. Oh, it literally wasn't cold enough.

[JD Skeets]

No, you're right.

[Tas Melis]

I mean, somewhat cold. Did anybody else.

[Trey Kirby]

It doesn't go bad at least, you know?

[Tas Melis]

No, it doesn't. That's a good point. It can be burned at any time.

[JD Skeets]

Okay, well, we're happy to see everybody here, even if we're in the yard. Let's do NBA weekend, winners and losers. I want to get us started here today with an emphatic winner of the weekend to Tyrese Halliburton, Karl Anthony Towns, Brianna Stewart, and many other NBA and WNBA players for speaking out against what's happening. In Minnesota right now, most of you know this. Joining us, it's been nearly what, two months since ice hit the streets of Minneapolis. In that time, innocent US Citizens been straight up murdered. Children have been detained. And the federal government's campaign to arrest undocumented immigrants has only grown like more aggressive, more intense. It's like a ticking time bomb. It feels like in that city, in that state, in this country, if we're being honest. The NBA acted swiftly. On Saturday. They canceled the Warriors Wolves game in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of veteran affairs nurse Alex Preddy before the rescheduled game on Sunday. The Wolves held a moment of silence for him. We had a bunch of statements. The NBA Players association released a statement that said NBA players can no longer remain silent. And then on Sunday, we had CEOs of various companies in Minnesota, including a bunch of the sports organizations, the Vikings, the Wolves, the Lynx, the Wild, the United fc. They issued a lengthy statement calling for an immediate de escalation of tensions. So I just want to get that on the record here on no dunks. I know I can speak for all the guys. We'll get back to basketball here in a second. But like we stand with the people in Minnesota. We're basically showing this country what courage and resilience looks like in the face of authoritarianism. Pretty fucked up. And obviously there was ramifications here in the sports world. So be silly for us to not even address it. So that's where we are. And we can get to some more fun and light hearted winners on the weekend. But it was nice TK to see some NBA players, Tyrese Halliburton eventually kicking it off and then a bunch of WNBA players as well speaking out on this.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, Karl Anthony Town spoke. He's got a relationship with Minnesota and the Minneapolis community there. Julius Randall spoke, Chris Finch talked, Steve Kerr talked. Like you mentioned. Brianna Stewart had some really eloquent words to say as well. You saw the Timberwolves like dunk team wearing ice out shirts. You heard Chance in the arena as well. It's a tragedy. They were in the midst of protesting a previous tragedy just a couple of weeks ago with Renee Goode being murdered as well. It's fascism running wild in Minneapolis right now. But there are people who are speaking out against it and that's at the very least the first step. So heartbreaking stuff. And Minnesota, Minneapolis in particular has had brutal string of tragedies basically since 2020 time and time again. So it's good to see the support of people that you follow every day. Actually speaking out against this.

[Tas Melis]

It is a positive, if you want to look at it like that, that people are speaking up more and more and more. You could hear it in Chris Finch's voice when he was asked about being a resident of Minnesota, and he. He had to stop the question, say, hey, I'm not a resident. This is my city. And people are on the streets protesting. A day before Alex Preddy was shot out there, hundreds of businesses closed, striking to try and help their fellow Minnesotans, and there's tens of thousands of people on the street for several weeks. And then to see Alex Preddy the next day, his last act on earth, literally defending somebody on the street, was obviously, obviously very difficult to watch, but kudos to all those heroes who were filming it, because we all need to see it. And it all needs to become more and more of the dialogue because it's been happening for a few weeks. Federal agents have been in several cities, in la, in Chicago, in Portland over the last several months. But it is becoming the norm, unfortunately. It's being normalized. And now it's becoming even more. Even more difficult to watch because it's getting extremely, extremely tough. So, yeah, everybody thinking of Alex Preddy, thinking of Renee Goode and their families, but it is very, very, very difficult to stomach seeing all those things at the same time. People do need to speak up, and we are seeing it and we are hearing it.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. And they played the game, like I said, on Sunday. And I don't know if you guys saw Steve Kerr's comments after the game. The warriors won, and he was like, that was the most bizarre game I've ever probably been a part of. Just the mood in the, obviously, arena with what Minnesota's going through, and he thought it translated to the team and all that. So, yeah, you know, could they have canceled it completely over the weekend and rescheduled some of the time? Maybe. But they did come together, and they did play it, and we've addressed it. And now we can go to some. Some other weekend winners because, tk, we had Luka play in Dallas Mavericks again, and he was going the extra mile. Now, this guy.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, changing gears a little bit. Luka Doncic, definite winner of the weekend, did it again against the Mavericks. He was back in Dallas for the second time. He was very excited that he got to see his house, very excited that he got to see his cars as well. I thought that was a funny detail that he added in. But 33 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists for Luka in this one. But he really helped Win the game with his defense. Lakers were down 14 early in the fourth quarter. According to JJ Redick, Luka got stops on six straight possessions that he was being targeted. It wasn't anything fancy. It wasn't like he was Tony Allen running around out there with his arms behind his back and putting the clamps on people. He was just staying in front of whoever happened to get him on a switch. Sometimes it was Max Christie, sometimes it was Brandon Williams. Cooper Flagg had a chance at Luka as well, and he just stayed in front, worked hard, forced them to take jump shots. Eventually sealed the game by taking a charge on Najee Marshall, up eight with a little bit under a minute left. So it was good for the Lakers, I think, to see Luka putting that effort in defensively. JJ kind of called him out as well with regards to passing, saying, we need to move the ball a little bit more. Don't be such a ball hog. Luka, he went and only got 15 shots up. He mentioned that afterwards. Did also take 15 free throws. That kind of helps the offensive possessions. But 11 assists, the ball seemed to be moving in that fourth quarter. LeBron was awesome. Had 11 in the fourth. He was really active in the passing lanes. Marcus Smart was just kind of Marcus Smarting all over the place out there, finishing shots in the lane, drawing free throws just all over the court. Rui Hachimura hit a couple of big three pointers. It was a big time win for the Lakers. Sure, you could say they had to do a lot to beat a Mavericks team that was shorthanded and, you know, way below the Lakers in the standings regardless. But still, you'll take the win. They focused there in the fourth quarter. They showed that we can play defense. I don't think the Lakers are a great defensive team, but, you know, they can at least tune it up every now and then. And part of that is Luka giving an effort. When your best player tries, it's going to make everybody else want to try.

[Tas Melis]

It's that one time of year where you see a headline that's devoted to Luka's defense. The ESPN headline. Fantastic. Luka's clutch defense seals Lakers win. He comes through. It is. You mentioned Marcus Smart so important. I like during this broadcast how they brought up that Cooper flag who was born in the state of Maine up there, you know, close to Massachusetts, close to where the Boston Celtics played. Watched Marcus Smart as a kid and now he's playing against him. And Marcus Smart is kind of part of that. The vibes of who that that team is when they need to lock down defensively. And they did that. I thought some fun stuff in this Lakers game. I do still enjoy a LeBron going up for an alley Oop. Going up for a dunk. It happens at least a couple times a game. It is cool to see Luka looking for him for an alley oop. So they came through and that's exactly what this Lakers team is. We'll chill, we'll chill, we'll chill, we'll chill, we'll go down and then bang. They're not a team that's going to kill you for 48 minutes, but that's the team that's going to beat you when they need to. And hopefully Austin Reaves comes back at some point. I don't know what his, his problem.

[Trey Kirby]

Had a long time.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it is. It's like he's gone from this team. Um, I'm not sure when he's scheduled to come back, but they obviously need him being such a top heavy team.

[JD Skeets]

So Luka stays perfect against his old team here in the Dallas Mavericks. I guess he's four and oh, already against Dallas. And the big sort of story around the game too. Trey was him giving a bunch of Luka Dallas Mavericks fans access to like a suite at the game. A little like meet and greet. And I think maybe they got some shoes out of it too. So he took care of some, some day ones. Luca did.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. And there were fans in the stands with, you know, come home spilled or spelled out on their different poster boards. I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility that Luka Doncic eventually returns to the Dallas Mavericks. It might be at the end of his career. Right. I mean, like, it wouldn't surprise me if he plays, let's say he plays for the Lakers. The dude is literally the face of the league right now. Like it was that easy. He's leading. He's number two in jersey sales, number one in all star voting. So he's going to stick with the Lakers. I think that that's pretty obvious, but it wouldn't be that surprising to me if he plays out the rest of his career and then at the end signs the ceremonial one day contract or maybe place his last season in Dallas. I would, I just wouldn't be shocked to see him wearing 77 in Dallas again.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, maybe. But a long time from now probably. All right, Tas, let's keep it going here. Who do you have for oh, winner the weekend?

[Tas Melis]

I think the Milwaukee Bucks are a winner. It sounds Crazy because Yanis ten Kupo got injured this weekend, But I do think that injury is the quickest way for the Bucks to get better around him this offseason because this team wasn't going to win this season. Especially with Kevin Porter Jr. Out, they need every single guy to Play. Ken Porter Jr. Is going to be out for the long term here and now with Yance de Koompo out, they can say, all right, scrap it. Scrap this season. We can just use our draft pick that we have to get better. And whether or not that's using that draft pick that's now aligned at number eight currently, they can take that and trade it along with, you know, one of their players to try and get better around Giannis to convince him to stay after this season. It is funny right now, we don't know how long Yannis Dido is going to be up. He got injured Friday night. He does, yeah. He said. Well, he said four to six weeks. He said he's going to undergo an mri. No MRI experience yet.

[JD Skeets]

When can you ever remember a player doing that, getting injured and like, telling the media right away, yeah, I'm out four to six weeks, probably got a cast rate. He might be right, but we don't know. That was just weird.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. He said, that's my experience in the NBA. I know. And he did try and fight through it. He said, you know, something in my calf or my soleus or something, they'll tell me when I take my MRI tomorrow, I probably pop something. And you could see him out there trying to drag his team to a win, but he just wasn't right. And so eventually he sat down. But against the Denver Nuggets, who didn't have Jokic, Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, Christian Brown, Jonas Valencunas, they couldn't beat him. They just don't have the offensive weapons. And so the trade deadline, I didn't think was going to get them much to help him. But this offseason, when he still will be a Milwaukee buck, I do think. I don't think they're going to trade him here in the next 10 days. You can say that may have hurt his trade value, the fact that he'll likely be out or not, but I still think he was going to be there. And then this offseason, they now have more options. They can say, here's this draft pick, here's another guy that we can trade. But they are so limited. I think the fact that they have this draft pick to trade helps them convince Giannis here, let's give it one more shot. What do you guys think? Is that a possibility here on the board to help him out? That this is actually a positive for the Milwaukee Bucks, that Giannis is out and that they really should just sit him down. They don't have to tank because they were frankly tanking already. They were already bad. But then Kevin Boyd Jr goes out again, one of their best ball handlers. They had nothing. They just simply don't have enough.

[JD Skeets]

I understand you picking the Bucks for a win of the weekend because their direction has. Their decision is made for them here with Giannis probably missing, obviously a couple weeks here, if not months. And it is, don't trade for Zach Levine. You're not trading for John Moran. You're not trading for any of these guys to, like, help try your chances to get into the playoffs and keep Giannis happy. Like, that's not happening now. So you're right, they should. Like, whether they lean into the tank or they just continue to be bad and call it what it is, just being bad, not tanking, get that pick, go from there. But you say this summer, like now this just bleeds into the summer and they have to convince or get an answer from Giannis, are you signing this contract extension or not? Because that's all it comes down to now. Like, you were right, Tas. You were saying not till this summer. Maybe he's moved. But, like, that will be like, if he does not sign the contract extension, then they. They almost. They have to trade them. Then they have to get something back in return for a guy that probably is telling them by not signing an extension, I do not want to be here anymore. That's my read on it. It's going to. It's going to ruin our summer now. Because now.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, but either way, go ahead. Even if he signs that contract, he can still say, I want to leave. And the fact that the contract that is going to offer him the most is from the Milwaukee Bucks. So I think he signs it. But again, that doesn't mean that he's going to be there for the end of his career. I still think that could mean a 180 turn. So, yeah, he'll sign it, but he wants to win, and obviously they ain't winning. So this helps them somehow to try and do something. Because everybody is going to be trading more in the off season as well, where things can. You can start to piece things together and get more back from what's on your roster.

[JD Skeets]

Even just knowing where the picks, where the draft picks end up landing for a lot of these teams is a big day, I think, for then organizations to go. Now we have this pick. Oh, we jumped up to this pick. Now that's more enticing to a Bucks organization. Like that stuff too.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

But also after the draft day, you can trade your draft day pick. You can. Another draft pick is added to your cupboard seven years down the road. That's just how it works with the Stepien rules. So there's more options. And yeah, I hate to say it's 10 days from the trade deadline and I know we're all going to be sitting here, we're all going to be waiting. What deal is coming? What deal is coming? What deal is coming? I don't know if we're going to see many deals for big name players just because of what's being hurt.

[JD Skeets]

They're all injured. Yeah, I mean, the four main guys who keep coming up in any sort of trade rumors are basically, they're all injured. You're Giannis, you're Anthony Davis. John Morant now has an elbow sprain and I'm forgetting one more that kept popping up. Who the hell was it wasn't as big a name, but I'm drawing a blank anyway. Yeah, they're all injured.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, names are injured, but I'm with you. I'm with you, Skates. I think this is good and I can see this being a winner because it clarifies things for the Bucks. They're not wasting any of their meager trade assets at the deadline trying to save this season. So maybe Giannis signs, maybe he decides he wants to be traded in the offseason. At the very least, they're going to probably get a top five pick out of things because they get the second worst or the second best, I suppose, of their pick. And the Pelicans pick. The Hawks get the first best of that. So the Hawks got to be loving this as well. So there are two paths they'll be able to take in the summer. If Giannis wants to come back, they'll have a really good pick they can offer, plus their future first round picks, plus these extra ones they get added due to the Stepien rules. They'll have a little bit more to trade and try and keep Giannis around. Or he decides, yeah, it's time, I'm ready to be traded. There's hardly anything around here. Drafting a 19 year old isn't actually going to help me win at this stage in my career. They can trade Giannis, they can get back a ton of stuff for him alongside this really Good pick that they're now going to be getting. So they got forced into a tank here late in the season, you know, halfway through with this Giannis injury. But maybe that's the best for them from a team building perspective. Giannis or not.

[JD Skeets]

Tess, anything else? No, you're good. Okay, let me jump in.

[Tas Melis]

Totally agreed. Yeah, that's what it is. They have options.

[JD Skeets]

Now I, I'm curious about whether or not he does sign this contract extension like you were saying. Maybe he does and obviously, like he wouldn't be be the first superstar to sign a contract extension and then be traded, but you do wonder if him and his and his agents, they don't because they use that then as the leverage to trade me to the location I want to be traded to. Because then he's an expiring, basically expiring deal where said team he gets to sort of like demand, like, well, you can trade me to that team or that team because I will then sign with that team, but, oh, I don't want to go there or I'll just become a free agent and they'll leave. So like has some power in that. If they use that as like sort of a card looking ahead, I'm obviously, you know, looking into the summer and then the year after that. So that, that's, that, that's been done before too. So they could do that. Giannis.

[Tas Melis]

They could. So he, yeah, he's got, he's got one year next year and a player option the following year. So you're saying, yeah, he could just.

[JD Skeets]

Use it as leverage of like not sign a contract extension. And basically in his mind, with the player option of it all, I'm a one year guy. So train me to where I want to be traded and no problem, I'll sign a supermax. But don't trade me to a place I don't want to be traded because they're not going to. Because I'm going to tell them I'm not signing there after one year.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it's possible. It is interesting with the whole I'm going to go to whichever team I want, trade me to the team I want. Because it is still two years. It is still a lot of money for the next two years, basically. 120 bucks, 120 million after this year. But hopefully the man stays healthy enough that teams want him. Because that's the scary part is that this is now the same calf injury that he sustained. I mean, we don't know how bad this calf injury is, but according to Giannis, it's bad, and it's the same calf injury that he sustained several weeks ago. He he's also hurt his other calf twice over the last two years. So four calf injuries we're seeing twice on each calf. And it's obviously bothering. I mean, Doc Rivers even said, I don't know why he was playing out there, essentially said he wanted him to sit. You could see it in him. But Giannis fought through it because that's what Giannis does.

[JD Skeets]

I want to see Dr. Brian Sutterer like breaking down the tape of that game, looking at Giannis's leg. And then I want Giannis to like crash into that really weird dark room that doctor's in while he's breaking down the footage and take over the stream. TK he's in control. Dr. Giannis will call the shots here.

[Trey Kirby]

Well, seems like he's gonna have some time. So we know that Finalis has a great streaming setup. Maybe he can use that to launch his own show. Talking about other players injuries?

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, maybe.

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[Tas Melis]

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[Trey Kirby]

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[JD Skeets]

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[JD Skeets]

Up for [e-mail] Pro. All right, let's do let's do another round of NBA Weekend winners. Back to you tk. Where do you want to go?

[Trey Kirby]

Doubles. Doubles get a winner of the weekend. They retired Derrick Rose's number one jersey on Saturday night. I've spoken about Derrick Rose. Not a fan of his off the court, but definitely a fan of what he did for the Bulls. Best player they've had since Michael Jordan. This is the first jersey they've retired since Scottie Pippen back in December of 2005. They brought back basically everybody for this he had Joachim Noah on the broadcast. He had Tom Thibodeau there watching Rose speak. It was crazy seeing Derrick Rose speak for like 20 minutes straight. Yeah, like this is one of the quietest stars there has ever been in the NBA. He was famous for, you know, not dancing at the all Star starters. He was notable in Chicago for refusing to recruit free agents. Just a guy who is very low key personality, keeps to himself, but he was owning the stage out there. And then the Bulls actually went out and won the game as well, which was pretty exciting. Another 20 lead change 10 tie game type of night with the Celtics. Back and forth all night came down to Kevin Huerter hitting the game winner with 0.2 seconds left from the corner there. Then a great touch by Herder struck the Derrick Rose no celebration pose echoing his 2015 game winner. I forget who was holding them. Maybe IO. I don't know, I was laughing at it. At the very least, the Bulls are now two and oh, on Derrick Rose nights they beat the Knicks last year. So I say run it back every single January. Why not? Four straight wins though for the Bulls tied with Toronto for the longest active win streak in the NBA. And the Bulls are back over.500 for the first time since November 24th of this season. Great weekend for Chicago. They're back.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. What did you think, Tas, of the jersey retirement? I don't know how much you watched of it or any of the clips, but what do you think?

[Tas Melis]

Well, first, yeah, I flashback to last year and I thought, didn't they do this literally last year? Because I remembered watching Derrick Rose grab the mic and do his thing last year. Joaquim Noah was there. That being said, I think he had got some prep that was just a warm up for this one. And I thought he did speak better. As Trey said, this one. I thought the Bulls had a little extra bounce in their step for this one. The Celtics excuse time, you know, three games in four nights. Double OT the night before, they had Amari Williams starting Amari Williams, their G league guy because Nami Esqueta had an illness and he still fought through that illness coming off the bench. So they needed some guys. But it was, it was Kevin Huerta's time to win this thing. And the Bulls, yeah, again, they're ready. Giddey was ready. They're all ready to win this one.

[JD Skeets]

It was, it was pretty cool, man. The Bulls pulled out all the stops in celebrating the city's favorite son in Derrick Rose. Man, like this fan base and this player just like joined at the hip. Like that was the type of ceremony for someone that usually wins like, you know, multiple championship, like your Jordans or your Pippins or something like that. That's what it felt like. How, how much love and attention to detail. They showed it and then it was cool, man. It was cool. All the guys that played with them showing up like. Yeah. How many guys were there in total? Like 20 to 30.

[Trey Kirby]

So many.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. That was really neat. And some of them speaking I thought was was fantastic too. Yeah, that was. That was neat how they did it. And they got the victory too. It's always cool to do it after the Herder game winner. So the bulls above 500. So are they back then trade?

[Trey Kirby]

Of course they're back.

[JD Skeets]

Okay. Okay. You didn't really go crazy with it, so I wasn't sure.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean they've been 500. You know, I hit you with their back when they. They were at 500. But they're up in the ninth seed. Can you believe it? How exciting for that. Also a big time Matas Buzzelis dunk in this one split. A double team goes behind the back. Dunked on Derek White's head. Montas Bouilla Skeets has five of the top 50 dunk score dunks in the league.

[JD Skeets]

Yes.

[Trey Kirby]

He's an in game dunker. I would have to say.

[JD Skeets]

Great in game dunker. Yeah. Yeah. We don't probably need to invite him to the dunk contest again. I don't think we need to do that. But great in game dunker for sure.

[Trey Kirby]

Great in game dunker. Only bad thing for the Bulls this weekend. My six time champion flag out on the front porch got wet Saturday night to Sunday. It froze. And when I tried to like, oh, flatten it out, tore a gigantic hole in it.

[JD Skeets]

Oh, no, you should have left.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I should have left it left.

[JD Skeets]

I had no idea. Thaw that baby out. Oh, it just straight ripped, eh?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, it was bad. It was like. It was like paper, it tore so easily.

[JD Skeets]

Damn. Sorry to hear that.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, tough stuff. Tough stuff.

[JD Skeets]

How much does it cost to get a new one?

[Trey Kirby]

Very cheap. Very cheap. Also. Just go to the shed and get my backup one, my red one. Switch it up right.

[JD Skeets]

You have a second one.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And do I have six championship banner flags that I could hang out there? Of course I do. So there are options to be had. But this one was my favorite one that was out there.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Okay.

[JD Skeets]

Okay, Tas, back to you for another winner. Where do you want to go?

[Tas Melis]

Well, Trey's keeping it with the hometown team. I got to keep it with the hometown team. The Toronto Raptors were for nominal going into Portland on Friday. I love the way it started with Emmanuel Quickley, who has been, he's been ridiculed this year because he ain't shooting the three ball well. I think the other big thing with Emmanuel Quickley is that he doesn't get in the lane a lot as a traditional point guard does. But he started this game going right at Donovan Klingon. He is quickly. He is quickly. Clearly Quickley is clearly playing his best ball of the season because he is getting more aggressive, getting more comfortable just going at the center and hitting him with the floater. And so he was phenomenal to start this game, as was Mamu Sandra Mamu Kailashvili to start this game. But they were down in the fourth quarter and they could have died on the road. But everybody on that bench came and helped out in that fourth quarter to outscore the Blazers 34 24. Ochay Abaji, who, if we're going to say quickly, has been ridiculed. So has he. He just really hasn't done enough this season. Grady Dick, same with him. He hit two big threes in this game. So their bench coming through and maybe they were looking at all the Raptors fans that were in the stands. They're all wearing the bright red Raptor jackets. All of them, every single one of them. Apparently they've been traveling to see the team on the road for 11 straight years and darker. Rakovic knew that. He went into the locker room and they hand the chain to somebody on their team who's who had a special game and it was going to Mamu Kalashvili. He said, but hold on, before I give it to you, we're gonna do something special. He took him from the locker room and he met all those fans just in the hallway and they're all there and they all start jumping around and so does Scotty Barnes. They all start jumping around and what a friggin moment. What a moment for all those guys to share it with the, the Raps who were able to pull it out in Portland. And then some way somehow they go into OKC on Sunday and do the same thing. It was the, the Jamal Shedd and Emmanuel Quickley show that they somehow have worked out perfectly where Jamal Shedd is more of the guy who penetrates and gets into the lane and quickly is off. Ball ready to go. He's ready. He's doing that sidestep at the three point line. Give it to me, give it to Me, they set it up for him. Bang. He hits a couple big shots. And then Scotty Barnes, who is playing center in this game because they are injured. They have multiple guys who are injured in Jakob and Cullen, Murray Boyles. Scotty Barnes is bodying chet Holmgren last 30 seconds, ready to stop him. And he blocks Chet Holmgren straight up in his face. So that guy should get plenty of defensive player of the year votes. And somehow they pull it out there and win this thing. Two games to close out a road trip like that. This team just has plenty of heart. Every single one of them up and down the roster. They. They needed a baji. They needed Grady Dick for the, for the heart, and they got them. And then all of a sudden, you know, those, those other guys come through in the last seconds in OKC who.

[JD Skeets]

Were short a couple guys, no doubt, just like the Raps, but still quality.

[Tas Melis]

Oh, that's big.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And Scotty Barnes, like, yeah, he jumped into the defensive player of the year conversation, I think with that performance, how he's played all year. We brought it up the other day when we were doing our midseason award, like check the polls. We didn't have him on the poll. You brought it up, tas, because he was not one of the Favorites. According to FanDuel, he's top four now. He has entered the competition. What? Did he jump?

[Tas Melis]

No, no, I'm saying that's what a jump. I mean, he was. I guess he was sixth overall last time. And yes, that's the only reason really why he jumped to Man Thompson. I suppose maybe he maybe was fifth.

[JD Skeets]

Well, Bam was there too. And Bam dropped out. So yeah, it's Chet Holmgren still the favorite. Victor Wembanyama, of course, if he plays in that amount of games. And then Rudy Gobert and Scotty Barnes plus 3,000.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, that's USD. So that's. If you're betting in Canada, that's four. No problem.

[Trey Kirby]

Wow.

[JD Skeets]

But man, you did see why he should be in the conversation. Because he guards everybody and like, my God, blocking the 7 foot 1 chat on a jumper. Then he got a huge offensive rebound too, off the missed free throw. That was massive. Like, great game. Anyway, Raptors vibes are high. Vibes are so high right now with this squad. With those fans in attendance there in Portland. That was amazing. Tk they're all jumping around.

[Trey Kirby]

How are there that many Raptors fans in Portland?

[JD Skeets]

Well, I think they're driving down from.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, obviously.

[Trey Kirby]

So it's because. It's because the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, they just adopted the Raptor.

[JD Skeets]

I guess.

[Trey Kirby]

So, yeah, I mean, I assume those would be Grizzlies fans if things had gone well in Vancouver. Nonetheless, very cool and definitely I thought Scotty Barnes kind of big boy Chet Holmgren chat tried to bump him off the spot and get to a step back jumper but you know, Chad is probably half the weight of Scotty Barnes. So he didn't really move and just sent the shot back in his face and then he just big boy Jalen Williams underneath the hoop for the offensive rebound as well. The Raptors are an interesting team. Like what are they going to do at the trade deadline? Because the only player they could realistically trade I think at this point is RJ Barrett. Like that would have value to another team because the thing with Quickley Purdelt just doesn't play. Guy hasn't played in a month, has a terrible contract. Quickley is at least a decent player, but he's on a really bad contract, not worth what he's paid. So probably not going to bring anything back going into the season. Bobby Webster is like, yeah, we're going to make a trade so that we can get underneath the apron basically. And that kind of means either Barrett's gone or they'll just do like a small move with Ochaya Baji, who's kind of like the most expendable even though he did have a good game against the Blazers. But now it's like they've had a successful season. Other than the Pistons, nobody's really dominating in the Eastern Conference. You can at least talk yourself into if we make one smart move here, we can be the second best team in the East. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but I think you could at least feel that way. So these next 10 days are going to be pretty interesting for the Raptors to decide do we just make a money move, which is kind of the plan going into the season, or do we actually try and make our team better going forward?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, I know Bobby Webster said that coming into the season, but now watching these guys and watching a guy like RJ Barrett, who is the most tradable, basically come out and say, I bleed red, blue and white. I mean, bringing up how much he loved watching Toronto as, as a, as a kid and being so important to their offense, I don't see how you trade that guy. And quickly. Yeah, hasn't played up to the contract to this point, there's no doubt. But this being his first season, truly as a starting point Guard. And now clicking here into the last five, eight, ten games where he is playing his best. I think they just go forward and they probably do a little cheapy deal to get below the tax line. That's what I.

[JD Skeets]

Or something like that.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah, most likely. Most likely. But yeah, to see. To see what they are and to see with a turnaround for Scotty Barnes and who he is and definitely deserves a defensive player of the year in 2026 when who cares if you're a big. Doesn't matter. That guy will body anybody. He'll defend everywhere the most clutch blocks in the NBA. That's pretty good.

[JD Skeets]

I think he leads the league in stocks too. In blocks.

[Tas Melis]

Yes.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. Quickly has been what you were hoping quickly would be when he got that contract. Trey maybe still not living up to the big bucks, but it's better than it was. Like he's averaging basically 20 points per game and whatever. You know, fill in the other box score stats in rebounds and assists. He's shooting the three ball well in January. January has been really good. 2026, been a lot better to Quickly here and it's a big reason why the Raptors are looking obviously better here, winning some of these games. Great road trip. A lot of fun. That Portland crowd coming down there going nuts.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Where, where, where are they from? Because I, I see in the article that they have traveled the last 11 seasons to. To be with the Raptors on the road. But it's not just Portland, is it? It's not just where they.

[Sponsor Voice]

My.

[JD Skeets]

My assumption was like they're a big group of fans, buddies. Well, whatever. And like they pick a location to go sort of.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[JD Skeets]

Cheer on the Raptors every. Every season. Which is pretty cool if. If that's the case. And this was the Portland one. So maybe, yeah, maybe they're not even from the west coast and maybe they're from Ontario for all we know and they're just going about their thing.

[Tas Melis]

Seems that way.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Or some province. Maybe they're from Saskatchewan.

[JD Skeets]

They got great jackets wherever they're from.

[Tas Melis]

Well, yeah, yeah. They stand out. They stand up.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. All right, just some quick other winners here. Let me just chuck them in here. Before we take a quick break. I want to give a winner of the weekend to Sadiq bay. He scored 60 points in 65 minutes. Over the weekend, the Pelicans won two road games. They won in Memphis. They won in San Antonio. They only won in Memphis because of. Sadiq Bay. Scored 19 of his season high 36 in the fourth quarter. And don't look now. The Pelicans are no longer the worst team in the league. Oh, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. They're still tied for the worst team in the Western Conference, but they're up to 12 wins now. And there's a few other teams that are worse.

[Tas Melis]

So Milwaukee can take them, Milwaukee can take their worst record and then Atlanta will get their pick, and then Milwaukee will get New Orleans pick. But Sadiq bae, is this the annual time where Sadiq Bejus gets good?

[JD Skeets]

It feels like it. He always has like these stretches where he just goes nuts. But we bring up, I mean, Zion Williamson did play well too for the Pelicans over these two victories. But you know, Sadiq Bay, there's a guy like a team could trade for. I'm sure he's only 26 years old, which, that's crazy. I was like, what? I thought he was closer to 36 than I.

[Trey Kirby]

26, no doubt.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. So, you know, and he's like a very small contract, so he could be traded very easily. I think he's like a $6 million per year player. Maybe 6.5 in the next year. So anyway, could he help? A team guy can fill it up for stretches. He is hot and cold, so maybe. But anyway, good weekend from him. The Miami Heat, they won back to back games over the weekend in Salt Lake City and Phoenix. So they finished their five game road trip three and two, which is very respectable for a team that struggled on the road all season. So good on them. You know, it always helps when you play Utah Jazz right now. You can just go score 140 points and watch Nurkic get a triple double and be like, all right, man, good triple double. We beat you by 30. Thanks for all the points. But yeah, bam. Adebayo has been playing a lot better. I know we recently talked about that. But he over the last, well over the last three games, he's like averaging 27 and 11 and he was good over the weekend. So they took care of business against the Utah Jazz and then beat the Suns, who are banked up and I know get to them a little bit later. And then finally JB Bickerstaff Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff named coach for the 2026 NBA All Star Game after Detroit clinched the best record in the east through February 1st. So they cannot be caught at this point. And he will be the first Pistons All Star head coach since Flip Saunders. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I love this graphic because I read it the first time as J.B. bickerstaff versus the world. I just like, skipped over USA and it's like, wow, Bickerstaff versus the world. Okay. I like the world's chances. But anyway, good on him. And the Pistons got a win last night. Yeah. He'll be one of the coaches. How the hell are we going to do the coaches?

[Trey Kirby]

I've been thinking about it because Mark Degnalt's also one of the coaches.

[JD Skeets]

Yep.

[Trey Kirby]

They're both Americans.

[JD Skeets]

No, Dagnalt can't coach. He was coach last year, wasn't he?

[Trey Kirby]

Okay, so who's number two?

[JD Skeets]

Mitch Johnson. Right.

[Trey Kirby]

Okay. So I think American as well.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Darko David has the best record of any international coach right now.

[JD Skeets]

Yes.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, they should pick an international coach for the world.

[JD Skeets]

100 agree. I don't think they will, but I 100 agree.

[Trey Kirby]

They need a third coach, though.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

They gotta have three.

[Trey Kirby]

So I think it's got to be Darko. But yeah, I also like on that J.B. bickerstaff graphic that they have his accolades up at the top with, like, the little laurels around him as if he was a Sundance movie submission or something like that. He's been doing really well in the festivals.

[JD Skeets]

Just a great graphic that made me laugh, so.

[Tas Melis]

That's so funny.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

This changes the resume for coaches. I just don't like. I don't like three teams now. You have three coaches.

[JD Skeets]

Well, hold on, hold on. We don't know. They might. For all we know, they might be like, hey, assistant coach on the Pistons. You're coaching?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah. Who wants to be there? Yeah, yeah. Just get there. That is so odd. G.J. benno says here in the. In the stream that Mark Dagnot didn't coach last year. Oh, I'm not.

[Trey Kirby]

They could have had the best record two straight years.

[JD Skeets]

Oh, yeah. So who was it?

[Trey Kirby]

Dingal? All Star coach?

[Tas Melis]

Well, I was. It was the Rockets that Eme Utoka.

[JD Skeets]

I don't remember that.

[Tas Melis]

I don't know.

[Trey Kirby]

I don't know. I see something here that says he did earn a spot as the head coach in January of 25 last year. So I don't know. We'll see. That's the thing. I'm mostly excited. Who's going to be coaching these?

[JD Skeets]

Oh, yeah. Because it definitely matters. All right. Those are our NBA weekend winners. Who do we miss? Let us know as you are in the stream team. Let us know in the comments. We'll take a quick break, then we'll do some losers. It's the last call for football on FanDuel. One final Sunday. This coming Sunday. No, the one after that. It's a long break between the conference championship games and super bowl, but we got one last kickoff and the final chance to place your bets before the NFL season closes its tab. This is Super Bowl 60, baby. 60. That caught me by surprise. Can't wait to learn those Roman numerals. We got the Seahawks and the Patriots.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Boo.

[JD Skeets]

Anyone pumped about this matchup? Running it back? Anybody?

[Trey Kirby]

I'm excited to see some Sean Alexander highlights.

[Tas Melis]

Ooh, Marshall, mvp.

[JD Skeets]

Get ready for some Tom Brady highlights, too.

[Tas Melis]

Oh, yeah.

[JD Skeets]

FanDuel is making sure you're in on it, though. Seahawks, patriots, Super Bowl 60. If you're a new customer, bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if you win. So whether you're back in the favorite, you're riding with the underdog, who I think is the Pats. I think the Seahawks are the favorites. Or building one last same game parlay. Make it count. Because after the super bowl, the football season is over. So it's the last call for football on FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of Super Bowl 60. Visit FanDuel.com podcasts to get started. I will say the the Broncos game was pretty crazy to watch on tv. At least that was awesome. Started as a completely normal game, weather wise, and by the third quarter tasks. I don't know if you saw the damn blizzard. Like, it was great. It was weird to see a game start with no snow and then just become a game where you couldn't even see the lines. Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

I don't know if I find it more fun to watch a game in snow or not.

[JD Skeets]

The game sucked.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. They can't throw the ball.

[JD Skeets]

That game was brutal. A lot like brutal. Actual football being played. Yeah. Because they couldn't manage.

[Tas Melis]

Now, I do have to mention here, Gigi Benno, who said that Mark Dagna did not coach last year, made a mistake. So I don't know if that's on me or if that's on you, Beno, but that's all right. It's all right. We all make mistakes.

[JD Skeets]

So I was right in the end. He will not be allowed to coach again. Is that what you're saying? Okay.

[Tas Melis]

Right, Right. Yeah. He's not. He was there. He was there last year.

[JD Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melis]

We all make mistakes.

[JD Skeets]

He was squinting. He was like, is anybody going to play defense? Is that. Who is that? Who's Mr. Beast? Who the hell is that? All right, let's go to NBA weekend, losers. I'm gonna start it again here because I got a very weird one. I'm giving NBA Weekend Loser to this historic winter storm that really did take out a lot of America here and I guess in Canada too, we had NBA games between the Nuggets and Grizzlies as well as the Mavericks and Bucks. They were postponed on Sunday because of the massive winter storm that was really creating a lot of dangerous travel conditions. The Mavericks Bucs one was sort of funny because they're like, the Mavericks have not left Dallas or wherever they were. Like they still are not leaving the airport here. When are they going to arrive? Are you going to call this game? I don't think they're going to make it in time. So obviously they postponed it. And then in addition we had three other games that had adjusted start times. So on Saturday, the start of the Wizards Hornets game was moved up by about six hours due to the forecast of the winter storm. So they got that one in. Got that one done. And then the NBA adjusted the start times for two more games here on Monday. So the Pacers game here in Atlanta versus the Hawks will begin at 1:30pm Eastern. What a weird start time. 1:30pm Eastern.

[Tas Melis]

Who's going? Anyone going?

[JD Skeets]

No, I'm not going. No. But that was going to be on tonight. And then we also have Philadelphia's game at Charlotte again, that's going to tip at 3:00pm Eastern instead of 7:00pm so yeah, you know, a lot of games postponed, a lot of games straight up starting earlier. And I was gonna like really get your breakdowns of how you guys manage during the storm, but we already started the show with that, so everybody's good by the sounds of it. Not a fire was had in Tas Melis's house.

[Tas Melis]

No, no, no salt purchased. I know people were worried around here because not, not every neighborhood is salted. That's just the way it works down here. People were texting each other, hey, you getting salt? Hey, you getting salt? No, no I'm not. I'm putting on my friggin boots and I'm going where I need to go.

[JD Skeets]

Honestly, like the roads. I don't know where you are task but the roads and sidewalks were never that bad or hasn't been bad here. But like your front porch, let's say. Or like wood that was slick because there was like obviously like a layer of ice over the one night.

[Tas Melis]

Oh yeah.

[JD Skeets]

So that was.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it was. It was icy, that's for sure. But some brine salt would have been handy. But whatever, it was fun.

[Trey Kirby]

I haven't seen a crystal of road Salt in the 13 years we've lived here.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. They don't have. Doesn't exist.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

A single molecule of salt.

[Tas Melis]

When you watch the weather report there, they always come up with the stat that there's this amount of miles have been salted of the road have been salted. Like Governor Kemp says, I don't know how many. It's some big number. I've been solved a lot of miles.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Haven't seen it though. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Still looking forward to driving on it. But we got to give a salute here to Grape Ape and the stream team. Who says, I'm watching this stream. Powered by generator, letting the fridge get warm to transfer power to the laptop.

[Tas Melis]

Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

I don't understand necessarily how that works, but great to see people putting an effort in.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, look. Yeah, like, we're fine here and like, so far so good. I mean, we obviously didn't go into the factory just to stay off the roads, but yeah, a lot of people, obviously, in other parts of the country are without power. So stay safe, stay warm, and maybe don't use it to watch. No dunks. But my God, that's some dedication right there. A true sicko making your way through this. Get the generator, though. That's when you feel like a real man, the generator going. I don't have a generator.

[Tas Melis]

You guys got?

[Trey Kirby]

No, me neither. Last year when we had. We had this similar storm, you know, last January or something like that, Our next door neighbor went out of his way to get a generator, ran the power from next door to our fridge here.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

So he was awesome. He was a real man.

[JD Skeets]

That's a real hero.

[Trey Kirby]

He's generating my house.

[JD Skeets]

Hey, sir, can I have some power?

[Trey Kirby]

A little plug, please?

[JD Skeets]

I gotta keep my spin drifts cold. Okay. Well, the only thing we had just quick story time is last night I took the dog out one more time before to. To go potty before we went to bed. And like, I heard around the house, like, my. My AC unit was like making the most insane, like, clanking sound. Like it was like. And it's like right outside our bedroom window. It's like not far from our room. So I'm like, oh, that's not good. So I got the flashlight, went around, looked at it, and it was like, obviously covered in ice or a lot of ice and like icicles dripping down on the top of the obvious, the AC unit. And I'm like, oh, crap, what do I do here? Never experienced this. I'm probably not supposed. So what was Making the sound is ice was dropping right into, like, the fan part of it, like. Like banging around. So it sort of stopped as it melted or whatever, or chipped away or whatever. But, yeah, I was like, what do you do? I guess you just sort of. You're not supposed to cover that. I know. You can go emergency, which then turns that off, but that takes more power. So I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. Maybe someone smarter than me lets me know what I should do. Tass, what did you do with yours?

[Tas Melis]

Oh, I. I didn't do a thing. I would think, though, that covering it might be the way to do it.

[JD Skeets]

Well, I think you can fit. You can cover it. You have to do it safely. Like, you can't put a tarp over it and wrap it up like. Well, it's still running. You shouldn't be doing that. I know.

[Tas Melis]

No, no, no, no.

[JD Skeets]

But, yeah, I'm not sure. So I just.

[Tas Melis]

Listen.

[JD Skeets]

Just left it.

[Trey Kirby]

The.

[Tas Melis]

I. The ice on the leaves out there, so peaceful. You hear. You hear the. The ice is on there. It's like asmr. You go out there, the ice. Sun leaves, the wind hits the ice. Yeah, that's the beauty of being a city within a forest. You know, they're everywhere. It's so calming. I said, look, girls, let's get out. Let's get out there and walk into.

[JD Skeets]

It is quiet.

[Trey Kirby]

The crunchy feeling when you're walking on anything right now. It is. It's nice. Yeah, it's cold. I'm not going outside today.

[Tas Melis]

It's super cold.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, it's too cold to go outside today. We did watch Titanic over the weekend. That's a good cold weather movie.

[JD Skeets]

Oh, wow. That's a really good cold weather movie.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. I mean, not for Jack, but for Rose, it was fine.

[JD Skeets]

Kind of still cold. All right, back to basketball. Losers of the weekend, who we got starting this? Trey, back to you.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, back to me. The Grizzlies, triple whammy weekend. I thought for Memphis, they had a fall from a head loss on Friday against the Pelicans. Like you mentioned, Skeets, they just couldn't stop Sadiq Bay. He just looked way too big. Their Grizzlies have a ton of injuries right now. They're running out of lineup. Running out closing lineups where it's like Jaren Jackson Jr. And their 8, 9th, 10, 11th man. So they don't have the team behind them. But you couple that loss with the Clippers winning on Sunday, now LA is two games clear of Memphis for the 10th seed. Also over the weekend, Grizzlies find out that Ja Morant is going to miss at least three weeks with a sprained elbow. Happened on one of his chase down blocks against the Hawks last week. We were talking up those blocks. Remember how excited we were? We're like, look at the athleticism from this guy. It's so cool that he's actually back. He's looking more and more like John Moran. He was coming off a 24 point 13 assist game and then 23 and 12 against the Hawks. We're saying this is good for Memphis because either they can keep him and he's looking like he's going to be able to contribute a little bit this season. Looks like maybe he's turned a corner or him being on the court and performing is good for his trade value. But now due to this sprained elbow, he's going to be out past the trade deadline. So that means Grizzlies either got to keep him or take a bag of beans in return. The packages weren't looking good before this latest injury. But like we've talked about in the past, as John Hollinger noted, John morant hasn't played six. Hasn't played more than six consecutive games since 2023. He got two in here, so the streak continues. But it just feels like any positive momentum for the Grizzlies this season instantly gets shut down and the John Morant thing ain't gonna help. He probably, who knows if he really wants to be there. He said he wants to stick around. He said he wanted to leave. I think the Grizzlies, if they could get a good trade, would trade him. But a good trade is not happening this year. So we're probably running it back again next season.

[Tas Melis]

When he did that chase down block where he got injured on, he literally hit his elbow on the backboard. Right? Is that where it came from? It looked like he heard.

[Trey Kirby]

They said it was hyperextended, right. So maybe it was.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. And it was the, the ucl. It's that baseball ligament that's. It's hurting every pitcher out there right in the elbow. So it literally. There was a, a good angle from the end of the arena somebody was taking and you could see him literally, he was up so high and it looked like he hit his elbow on the backboard. But I could be making that up as, as far as to how it happened. But it is that elbow that. Yeah, he's literally going to be out as, as we talked about earlier past the trade deadline. Just like Giannis, most likely. It seems like, yeah, those guys are. It's difficult to trade him when he's literally not playing basketball.

[JD Skeets]

Injured guys have been traded before. I mean, it. It could happen. I think what you're. You're right, TK though. It's like, just how desperately do the Grizzlies want to get out of the John Moran business? Sort of like the Hawks with Trae Young. Obviously not the sexiest return, but they were just like, nope, we don't want to pay him. We don't want to have to cross that road. We'll sort of obviously help our books a little bit with some expiring deals there. And McCollum. So just like, how badly do the Grizzlies feel that way? Because it's not going to be what. It's not going to be great. Whatever it is, whoever's offering anything for them, it's like going to be a minuscule trade offer. But maybe they're like, you know what, let's just get out of it and, and move on. But we'll see here.

[Tas Melis]

I can't believe maybe two weeks, maybe a trade for. A trade for an injured player gets done. If you trade them for another injured player. Like when we started talking about John Morant at the beginning, it was maybe he goes to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro, also injured. So who knows? There's a. There's a matchup there. And that if you want to get out of the trade. Excuse me, out of the John Morant business, you move on to the Tyler hero business. That's a possibility there.

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[JD Skeets]

Who do you have for NBA weekend.

[Tas Melis]

Loser Tess well, I got to give it to Gigi Benno who said that Mark Dagnot didn't coach last year. I kid, I kid. I will say just quickly, the Philadelphia New York game, which was. Which was fun in that third quarter where Mitchell Robinson shut down Joel Embiid. Either Mitchie gets a winner of the weekend or Joel Embiid gets a loser of the weekend. How they fell apart and they had a bad Sixers homestand. All in all, as much as we were praising them, they did have a 2 and 4 homestand. And to see a great matchup there, that was pretty fun. That was big man to big man. He just didn't have the space to get around Mitch Robinson. He is Mitch Robinson, just a gigantic man. So that was a fun third quarter. But who I'm giving it to right now is it's the Phoenix Suns. And it feels so wrong giving it to the Phoenix Suns because I was watching them on Friday here in Atlanta and they were diving all over the place. But at the same time, Jalen Green came back for them, hadn't played since November 8th. And then in the first quarter he's out, aggravates that same hamstring. And then you could see this Suns team still scrapping again. They're falling all over the place in the third quarter. And then at the end of that third quarter, they lose Devin Booker to injury. He had a right ankle sprain. He left arena in in crutches. And as his team tried to still fight without John Green, without him, Colin Gillespie, he hit Jalen Johnson right in the Johnson late in, early in the fourth quarter, I should say. He gave it to him, hit him and Jalen Johnson was really upset. But. But Colin Gillespie kept fighting. He had a great steal with four minutes left. Unfortunately, they lose in the end, shorthanded against the Atlanta Hawks. And then they go back home at the end of their road trip for their first game home and they see the Miami Heat. You got Bam. Adebayo firing away from three and they're unable to beat the Miami Heat without Jalen Green sitting out because the hamstring, who's supposedly day to day, and Devin Booker, who will be reevaluated in a week because of that ankle sprain, but looked like he was walking under his own power as opposed to leaving the arena with crutches on Friday. So they're just strictly shorthanded in a conference where they have played so well and done so well to stay up in sixth, but now currently tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who will host the the warriors tonight in the second game of that baseball series. And then the warriors who are coming on strong. So it just stinks for them. It just stinks for a team that keeps on fight. And I also feel wrong giving them a loser of the weekend because I saw the prices that they're offering in their arena for food and there's some good deals out there. This is their menu. If you're watching here on YouTube, their taco, whether you want a beef or a bean, it's two bucks. An ice cream sandwich, a blue ribbon ice cream, two bucks. Hot dog, two bucks. Water, two bucks. I thought, whoa, water, two bucks.

[JD Skeets]

That's a what? That's a good deal.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They price it as high as they possibly can. But Ishbia giving you a deal on, not only on water, if you want a soda to live it up. Two bucks. Chips, two bucks. Popcorn, two bucks. What a menu. What a menu they got. I saw somebody say, I think it may make more sense to buy two tickets and go to the arena and eat there as opposed to going out for dinner. I buy it makes sense to me.

[Trey Kirby]

I think it'd be cheaper.

[Tas Melis]

And you know, we have all this Taco Bell talk. I'm still, I still need to go to a Taco Bell. So I saw that taco and I thought, oh yeah, a two dollar taco. I'm in.

[JD Skeets]

Sounds like Taco Bell.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it does sound like Taco Bell. But I'm going. When I do end up making it happen, I got to talk into existence here. When I do end up going to Taco Bell, I'm going for breakfast. Because every, everybody's talking about that, that crunch wrap. Apparently it's good either way. This sounds good. This menu pretty decent. Pretty, pretty decent. So kudos to the Suns for doing that and for having such a good, good season. It's, it's just tough to watch Devin Booker go out and then, you know, you have guys trying to chip in. Isaiah Livers trying to chip in and hit shots.

[JD Skeets]

And what liver is a ball? Is that $2?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it depends on what you're looking for. Is it a chicken liver or onion and livers? Okay, that's cheap. It's a dollar. It's cheaper than a taco to get onion and livers. It's a buck $1. But anyway, sons, you got to give him a loser. I am interested to watch how it goes down here in the second half. The Booker injury doesn't seem that bad. The Jalen Green who's kept fighting to get back doesn't seem that bad. But the guy has barely played. So. Yeah, overall, just wanted to talk about the sun spit.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, I thought of the other guy whose name's been in non stop, you know, trade rumors that's injured as well, because I was doing John Moran, Anthony Davis, Giannis, Jonathan Kaminga, I was drawing a blank on his name. That was the fourth guy. He's out with a bone bruise in his knee after that weird fast break sort of ankle, knee injury. Anyway, now Booker is out here. He's not going to be traded. But I bring that up because winner of the weekend, if you're a fringe all star candidate, a couple more spots opening up here. I mean Giannis. So I'm going to be taking that spot for the international team. And Booker, maybe we don't even know if he'll be selected. I think he will by the coaches as a reserve, hopefully is back because I'd love to see him play in the game. But it's possible that you don't. You said reevaluate it in a week so we'll go from there. But yeah, that does suck for the Phoenix Suns. TK Any thoughts on on the menu or the Suns losing a couple guys here?

[Trey Kirby]

Well, I can actually tie them both in together because I went to the game on Friday and I went out for refreshments apparently when Jalen Green played his four minutes because I saw him warming up and then I was like, how come we didn't play this entire game? I must have missed his tiny little stint there when I was out spending a ridiculous money on concessions at the Hawks game. Every arena should have the value menu like the Suns have. The Falcons have it here at Mercedes Benz. They were one of the first to do it. Like it shouldn't be $8 for a hot dog. It should be $2 for a hot dog. $2 still probably too much for Dasani water, but at least it's a good deal compared to what it used to be. So I think that is a win and I think it's actually a win for the Suns if Booker only ends up missing a week because he was down for a while. When he rolled his ankle, it was a really weird play ball got deflected on the sideline and he was just jogging back up at mid court and I think he stepped on a congloo's foot as they were just jogging back to get back on the other end. He was hooping as well. Devin Booker had 31 through three quarters and that when I think he had 16 in the third quarter, even my nine year old was like, the Suns would have won if he played. I was like, whoa, you were paying attention.

[JD Skeets]

Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

I didn't know that. I mean I was telling her every time, look at this beautiful jump shot. Look at how he's getting to the hoop. He was playing great. So if he's able to only miss a week, I think that is good for the Suns because like I said, he was looked like he was in a ton of pain, couldn't put any sort of weight on it. Obviously it hurts the most when it first happens. But Booker's, you know, like he's a Kobe guy, so he will play through little injuries, so I assume he'll be back pretty quickly. But yeah, a tough, a tough run for the Suns over the weekend for sure.

[JD Skeets]

It's not easy for them to just like find 25 points per game basically to make up for Devin Booker missing time. Like we saw it against the Heat. Heater a good defensive team, but like they barely got over 100 right in that game. So you know, you're, you're already Dylan Brooks is playing incredible all season, but now you're asking him to score more and you're asking some of these other guys that are just like not absolute bucket getters to give give you more offensively, especially if Jalen Green's not playing. So yeah. Yeah. All right, let's do a quick other two NBA weekend losers. Who you got?

[Trey Kirby]

TK I got Rich Homie Flom, loser of the weekend, but maybe a tiny winner of the weekend on December 20th. Robert Robert Flom tweeted if the Clippers go 153 in any stretch of the season, I'll print and eat this tweet. Clippers smoked the nets yesterday, so 153 in their last 18. Robert tweeted. It's officially 153 so I'll be eating this tweet tomorrow, aka today, Monday on Clippers pod for their stream at 5:30pm Pacific Time. It'll be very anticlimactic, I'm sure, but you are welcome to tune in. They were talking about the paper bowl on the Clippers broadcast. Their social team printed off the tweet so you can see what Robert is actually going to have to eat here. Will I catch it live? Probably not, right? But will I watch the replay to see a man eating a piece of paper? Absolutely, I will.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. Somebody has to have the report on tomorrow's no dunks on. Yeah, Rich Homie Flom eating this tweet. I just, I'm happy it's you, Rich. I'm glad it's not me. This sounds like something I would have tweeted. So thank God I did it.

[Trey Kirby]

What a crazy number to pick though, like 15 and three and then to actually have them go like exactly 15.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.

[Trey Kirby]

The odds, man.

[Tas Melis]

The odds.

[JD Skeets]

So he'll do it tonight. He's a man of his word, you know, Take down that paper.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And Mr. Jeff is right here. He said Kawhi commented on it. They asked him about the guy eating the tweet. He's like, I hope he eats something different. It's not healthy. Thanks, buddy.

[JD Skeets]

I mean, you can buy edible paper. Is that cheating?

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, I don't know. If you ask me, all paper is edible.

[JD Skeets]

Well, I mean, I guess it is. Maybe not. Not healthy for you.

[Trey Kirby]

No, no, no, no.

[JD Skeets]

We'll see.

[Tas Melis]

Smoke it, man. Just smoke it.

[JD Skeets]

You can buy at the Intuit Dome. You can eat tweets for $2. They have that on their value. That's horrible. That's. Anything to add here on this Clippers fan. He's going to be eating some. Eating his own tweet tonight.

[Tas Melis]

Oh, good for him. Good for him that he's doing it. That he's. He's living up to the moment. I'm ready. I'm ready to watch.

[JD Skeets]

Good on the Clippers for, like, like, their social media team. I know the fans and the wall, they were, like, chanting, eat that tweet last night. Like, that's pretty funny. Yeah. So I like that everybody was aware of this and it took on a life of its own. It's really what makes the NBA hilarious at times. So. All right, 5:30pm Pacific. I guess he's eating this tweet. I wonder.

[Trey Kirby]

That tweet.

[JD Skeets]

I wonder if they're going to treat this like. Like the draft lottery, you know, where you tune in, you're like, all right, let's find out. The draft lottery. And then they, like, stretch it out for 30 minutes or will they do it right?

[Trey Kirby]

Probably, yeah. I mean, this is. This is great marketing for Clipper Pod.

[JD Skeets]

Hey, man, at least give it 15 minutes.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, let's stay tuned in, clip it out, turn it into a short. You got to do all that stuff.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can. We can help if you want. Yeah, for sure. All right. Final NBA weekend. Loser. I don't know if you guys saw this. Got to give it to this courtside Cavaliers fan who got elbowed, accidentally elbowed in the face by Dennis Schroeder of the Kings. Just gets clocked at the end of the first half. You know, Dean Wade launches that full court inbound pass. Schroeder tries to intercept it, and, like, his momentum takes him into the front row, and his left elbow Just strikes her right in the head, you know, he checked on her right away. I know. Donovan Mitchell came over. Like, you okay? I think she was, but wow. Like, can't even blame her for it. Like, it's not like she was on her phone or not paying attention. That's just like. Oh, my God. I'm actually amazed. Has it doesn't happen more often in a weird way, guys like, barreling out of bounds into these people in the front row. But she got climbing.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Can you. There's nothing. There's no one to blame, really. I guess if you want to blame the person sitting beside her who. Who came to the game with her could have got up, taken one in the chest for her, I guess.

[JD Skeets]

Wow.

[Tas Melis]

But. But then he would have gone propelling back and right into her, I'm sure, too. So. Yeah. That it is. It is odd that it doesn't happen more often.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah. T.K. what'd you think of that elbow strike from.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Look bad. He looked like Lex Luger out there coming in with a metal plate. But you're right. How does it not happen more often? We see guys go into the stands quite regularly. They land on people pretty often, but rarely is anybody actually suffering an injury. More than likely, it's going to be like a sprained ankle from all the legs being there, but bodies flying. It's one of the risks of sitting courtside.

[JD Skeets]

Absolutely. Yeah. She paid a lot of money to get hit in the head that night by Schroeder, of all people. But she's okay. And the cast got the victory. All right, those are our weekend losers. Who did we miss? Let us know. Let's go to the night sponsored by Jay Chow in the Stream team a couple weeks ago. It was actually for Lee having the confidence, baby. Confidence to hoop around the world. That's what Jay was sponsoring. He was inspired by that. Lee. Lee going to play basketball all over the world. So, Jay, here you go. Whoa, boy. The night it's going to. Cade Cunningham, 29 points, 11 assists as the Pistons crushed the Kings. Cade shot 13 of 22 from the field. He hit 3 of 5 from deep. He had five rebounds, three steals, and one block in 30 minutes played. Cade Cunningham gonna be starting an All Star game here. And we had our buddy Grish. My buddy Grish. Your buddy Grish. Everybody's buddy Grish. Asking the trivia question in the. In the group chat. I know TK Saw it has. I don't know if you saw it, but.

[Tas Melis]

Oh, yeah.

[JD Skeets]

Who was the last Pistons all Star Starter. Nobody got it right.

[Trey Kirby]

That was good.

[JD Skeets]

It'll be. It's a tough question. You know, people are throwing out some names. I went way back to, like, Grant Hill. No, that was wrong. You know, somebody else suggested somebody in the end, though, Blake Griffin. Somebody said, yeah, Blake Griffin. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Allen Iverson. The answer, which is like, whoa. Oh, yeah. He played for Detroit and was still an All Star starter.

[Trey Kirby]

So fan favorite.

[JD Skeets]

Good question there. From Grish.

[Tas Melis]

That was that year where he got traded during the season, right?

[JD Skeets]

I think so.

[Tas Melis]

From Denver to Detroit.

[JD Skeets]

Yep. So starting in the East.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Would he have been starting in the West? A fair question. And I always think about. I mean, he was starting. So that was back in the day when it was all dependent on fan vote. Yes.

[JD Skeets]

Yes.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Maybe he was a Western Conference All Star starter. Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

Whoa, Whoa.

[JD Skeets]

No, it was the season f. No, no, that.

[Trey Kirby]

No, it wasn't. Controversial. Controversial. Trivia question here from Dave Grisham, because I'm seeing here on the basketball reference 2010 NBA All Star Game box score. Allen Iverson did not play this game due to injury.

[JD Skeets]

Oh. So it's a bit of a technicality.

[Trey Kirby]

But was replaced by David Lee. I mean, he was named an All Star starter. Absolutely.

[JD Skeets]

He was, but did not play. Interesting.

[Tas Melis]

Hold on. You said 2010.

[Trey Kirby]

Okay, so 2009, did he play?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, 2009.

[Trey Kirby]

He did play. He did play.

[JD Skeets]

And that was when he was trained.

[Tas Melis]

He started.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Yep.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Great.

[JD Skeets]

Wow.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Trying to find the.

[JD Skeets]

Looking at his voting, it's hard to find the voting. For sure.

[Trey Kirby]

It's hard to find the voting. It exists out there, but it does.

[JD Skeets]

Well, Trey looks for the voting on Allen Iverson and his old All Star Games tasks. We gotta pick him tonight because we got a hell of a race going here in January.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, we got a great one. We're not picking any of the afternoon games that are happening today. A quick 1:40 Eastern start in Atlanta. 3:00 clock Eastern start in Charlotte. We're going directly to Cleveland where they're hosting the Orlando Magic. And it's just such an interesting time for the Orlando Magic as they are struggling, trying to find themselves, while the Cavs have kind of found themselves. They are playing better. No Franz Wagner tonight for the Orlando Magic. So I said, this is the time to pick the Cavs. I'm never super comfortable picking the Cavs, but in this instance, I was. So was Trey. Skeets, you got the Magic to cover that four and a half point spread. The four and a half points you get going into Cleveland. They've got a win at home by five or more for Trey and I to cover.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, this was a tough one. Good, Good game. You picked in the old Google Doc this morning. I had Cleveland initially, and I was like, no, no. I'm going against my gut here. I've been off the last couple weeks here. It feels like I'm not playing well when it comes to pick them. I'm going to say we have a close game tonight, hence the COVID but the Cavs got them in game one, so it's, you know, they're playing again here, so we'll see if they can bounce back. Don't love that. Franz ain't playing. Definitely don't love that, but it is. What?

[Tas Melis]

I'm not sure on Garland if he's playing because he's also been out.

[JD Skeets]

I wouldn't think so.

[Tas Melis]

I don't think so either.

[JD Skeets]

No.

[Tas Melis]

But they have won three in a row, so that's. That was my pick. That was last night in bed. I want to get in for you guys. If you got there before me, I've had to make the decision, and I did it.

[JD Skeets]

Nice.

[Tas Melis]

Oral@cle bracket minus 4.5, but the line is now up to minus 5.5. So people must be Franz factor.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, maybe. All right, Well, I love that it's come down to the final week here, and all three of us could win this thing or lose this thing, so that's exciting. If you have a pick and payoff idea, let us know in the comments. The last one was me in a Christmas box helping. Good podcast show. Yeah, it ended up being a fun one. So if you've got dumb, silly ideas, let us know what we should do for the loser of the month of January in the pick and pair.

[Tas Melis]

Okay, this one isn't as good. This one isn't as good, but I was shopping at Costco and I saw a big A football for. For the Super Bowl. It's a chocolate football. Oh, it's only like. I don't know. I. I forget how big it's not. It's not that heavy. It doesn't compare to when skits you had to eat a pumpkin pie from Costco for. It doesn't compare, but it's fairly big that you got to finish in. I don't know. It's not as good, but, you know, if we want them.

[Trey Kirby]

Is it solid or hollow?

[JD Skeets]

It's got to be.

[Tas Melis]

It's kind. Yeah, it's kind of hollow.

[JD Skeets]

I'm sure it's a lot of chocolate?

[Trey Kirby]

Sure.

[JD Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tas Melis]

It's bigger than my head. I did take a photo. I don't have it ready.

[JD Skeets]

So it's like the size if not or bigger than an actual football is what you're saying?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah, it's more of a CFL football, I'd say.

[JD Skeets]

Oh geez. Balls are bigger, aren't they?

[Trey Kirby]

How about you have to eat a football like an actual football.

[JD Skeets]

Hey, if the Clippers go 15 and 3 over their next 18 games, I'll eat a football.

[Trey Kirby]

If the Bears go 17 and 0 next year, I'll eat a football.

[JD Skeets]

Okay, okay, okay. Here we go, here we go. Football's on the line. All right, let's call it there. Thank you so much to everybody that joined us live on YouTube here in the yard. We should be back in the classic factory tomorrow, but we'll see what the weather brings us here today in Atlanta. Everybody stay warm, stay safe and hit the like button. Subscribe Podcast listeners, 5 star ratings and reviews and we will see you tomorrow. Until then, Clipper Bro, you heard it here first. Have a great time.

[Trey Kirby]

Turn up.

[JD Skeets]

Love you guys.

[Trey Kirby]

Awesome.

[Tas Melis]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, sports brings people together.

[JD Skeets]

Brace the name people.

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[Tas Melis]

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[JD Skeets]

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