Red-Hot Raptors & Pistons, Herro's Season Debut, The Slop Scale Returns

Summary

---

No Dunks Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Red-Hot Raptors & Pistons, Herro's Season Debut, The Slop Scale Returns

Date: November 25, 2025
Hosts: J.E. Skeets, Tas Melis, Trey Kirby, JD
Podcast: No Dunks by iHeartPodcasts

---

Overview

This episode of No Dunks delivers a lively breakdown of Monday night in the NBA, featuring the surging Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons, the return of Tyler Herro to the Miami Heat, and a generous dose of “slop”—the crew’s tongue-in-cheek deep-dive into juicy NBA trade rumors using the “Slop Scale.” The hosts mix detailed analysis with their trademark irreverence, zig-zagging from on-court tactics and young player development to All-Star oddities, unhinged Twitter comparisons, and spirited debates about stuffing versus dressing.

---

Major Discussion Points and Insights

1. Wedgie Watch & NBA Rarities

Timestamp: 03:00 – 04:58

• The episode opens with jubilation for Wedgie #15 of the season, courtesy of Duncan Robinson (“blink and you’ll miss it!”) — a rare instance where a shot gets stuck between rim and backboard.
  • Tas: "It's a pretty unique one because Duncan Robinson throws it from the left side of the rim and it lodges in the right side of the rim." (03:54)
• The hosts debate how highly to rate this wedgie on their tongue-in-cheek “wedgie scale.”

---

2. Toronto Raptors’ Hot Streak & Ingram’s Resurgence

Timestamp: 05:01 – 14:21

• The Raptors notch their 8th straight win with a commanding 110-99 victory over a depleted Cavs squad.
• Brandon Ingram is front and center after a “season-high 37” on 30 shots, earning widespread praise for both volume and efficiency.
  • Trey: “Couldn’t believe Ingram took 30 shots. It didn’t feel like it at all to me...in the flow of the offense.” (08:20)
  • Tas: “I love how Ingram’s playing...He’s matched his games played from last season at 18.” (05:33)
• Raptors’ new coach Darko lauded as the leader; the squad’s depth and improved late-game execution are spotlighted.
  • Tas: “It’s 100% true right now. They are super deep.” (13:25)
  • Skeets: “He’s got this team organized...he is just pushing all the right buttons.” (12:44)
• Scotty Barnes’ defensive prowess is highlighted ("probably first team All-Defense right now"), as is the play of Jamal Shead and the bench’s impact.

---

3. Miami Heat – Tyler Herro’s Return & Playoff Ambitions

Timestamp: 15:10 – 21:35

• Herro notches 24 points in his long-awaited season debut, providing a jolt in a 106-102 win over Dallas.
  • Trey: “Hero did hit the biggest shot of the night…he was playing fast…12 of 18 from the field…felt like all 12 of his shots were floaters!” (16:27)
• Heat’s ball movement and willingness to attack mismatches praised; big man Khalil Ware is on a tear with “28 points, 18 boards, three monster blocks.” (16:27)
• Discussion of Dallas’s late-game woes, including a crucial PJ Washington turnover and missed shots.
• Skeets: “Tyler Hero was playing D in this game…he was out there working…they win a game because of him.” (20:42)
• Analysis of Heat’s approach to integrating Herro back into the faster, pass-driven system.

---

4. Detroit Pistons: From Basement to Beasts

Timestamp: 26:10 – 32:01

• Pistons match a franchise record with their 13th straight win, improving to 15-2—a stunning rapid turnaround.
  • Skeets: “They’re 15 and 2. They won 14 total games two years ago... The Pistons could lose their next 65 games straight, and finish with a better record.” (26:49)
• Cade Cunningham’s evolution as a big guard, highlighted by a clutch late-game jump hook.
  • Trey: “...Four baskets in the restricted area for Cade on this one; also drew 10 free throw attempts.” (28:53)
• Spirited debate about Cade’s comps: Is he more like Brandon Roy (as ex-NBAer Michael Redd tweeted) or more Luka Doncic/James Harden?
  • Tas: “Big bodied, never go too fast, always play at their own speed.” (30:45)
  • Trey: “He’s a big guard… he wants to do his damage inside.” (31:41)

---

5. Houston Rock-eting Up—Amen Thompson’s Breakout

Timestamp: 32:13 – 37:30

• Houston rocks the Durant-less Suns 114-92. Amen Thompson explodes for 28, Alperen Sengun continues his passing wizardry, and the youthful Rockets “just get it all together.”
• Deep-dive on Aaron Holiday’s hot streak and Reed Sheppard’s old-school comparison (“the new Kyle Macy”), courtesy of Trey’s dad.
• Tas: “This team just gets it all together… showed the depth of this Rockets team, which is surprising considering all their injuries.” (33:50)

---

6. Around the League—Quick Hits

Timestamp: 37:45 – 44:00

• Brief recaps: Knicks’ dominance over the Nets, Nuggets’ Peyton Watson starring in a win, Blazers top struggling Bucks (who are hapless without Giannis).
• Minnesota’s alarming late-game collapses dissected. Trey: “No chemistry for this team and no trust from Chris Finch on any of the young guys... Something’s going to have to change.” (40:14)

---

7. THE SLOP SCALE – Trade Rumor Roundup

Timestamp: 46:54 – 65:16

The crew assigns “buckets of slop” (1 to 5) to current NBA trade rumors, debating which are realistic and which are pure, well, slop.

a. Clippers Interested in DeMar DeRozan

• Tas: “One bucket of slop. It ain’t happening. They need a three-point shooter. DeMar ain't that.” (47:35)
• Trey: “Four buckets of slop. This is a Clippers kind of move. Get older... get another guy from LA.” (49:04)

b. Kings Open for Business (Except Murray & Clifford)

• Sacramento ready to move everyone (but Keegan Murray and rookie Nick Clifford).
• Tas assigns “five buckets” (“Do anything for this fan base… It’s probably time.” 53:01)
• Trey: “Give me three buckets of slop. I think the Kings are going to make a move—disappointing season, high payroll…” (51:01)

c. Utah Jazz Demand Asar Thompson for Lauri Markkanen

• Tas and Trey both: Only “one bucket of slop”—no way Detroit parts with Asar, even for Markkanen.
  • Trey: “I think the Pistons should let it marinate…eventually they're going to have to pay guys, but… I don't think making a move for Markkanen makes a ton of sense.” (57:44)

d. Anthony Davis: Is There a Trade Market?

• Tim Bontemps says the market is lukewarm due to AD’s age/salary.
• Trey: “I think if the Mavs were to make him officially available… other people are lying too. Maybe they're not lining up, but the packages won't be what you're expecting.” (59:52)
• Both agree Mavs (theorized here as AD’s team) should get what they can, perhaps via a three-team deal given the massive salary involved.

e. Markkanen vs. Michael Porter Jr. – Mini-Debate

• The hosts bicker over which is more valuable, ending with Skeets: “I did not expect a Lowry Markkanen vs. Michael Porter Jr. debate here on No Dunks.” (67:33)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Toronto’s hierarchy:
  “He [Ingram]’s established the hierarchy in Toronto. He’s the number one guy… When it comes down to it in a late shot clock situation, he’s the guy to go and get a basket.” – Trey Kirby (08:20)

• On Coach Darko’s vibe:
  “He comes into the locker room going nuts. I was concerned early on… He’s turned it around and he’s obviously not going anywhere because he’s been an elite, elite coach here with this winning streak.” – J.E. Skeets (12:44)

• On Amen Thompson’s athleticism:
  “Guy is just next level athlete on a floor full of athletes.” – Skeets (36:43)

• On Pistons’ unprecedented rise:
  “The Pistons could lose their next 65 games straight and finish with a better record than they did two years ago.” – Skeets (26:49)

• On Anthony Davis’s future:
  “Mark, stop lying to us. Of course you would [trade AD].… the Mavs need to move these guys… their best chances to get any sort of future assets back.” – Trey (60:14)

---

Fun & Offbeat Segments

All-Star Old Guys

(22:43-23:37)

• Skeets discusses how Norman Powell, if he makes his first All-Star team at 32, would be among the oldest first-timers—cue fun NBA history riffs.

Trade Value Thought Experiments

(48:53-50:21)

• Trey, describing the Clippers’ hypothetical pursuit of DeRozan: “An opportunity to add eight years to your roster. Beautiful.” (50:21)

Stuffing vs. Dressing — Underrated Thanksgiving Sides

(73:13–75:47)

• The crew debates the most underappreciated Thanksgiving food, with strong takes on stuffing/dressing, rolls, and green olives (“This is stupid.” – Trey, 74:24).

Markkanen vs. MPJ

(66:04-67:39)

• Table-pounding, stat-citing debate: “Markkanen is the Western Conference Michael Porter Jr. Put him on the Jazz, he’ll score 25 a game!” – Trey (67:39)

---

Timestamps – Key Segments

• Wedgie #15 & Uniqueness: 03:00–05:00
• Raptors’ Big Win & Ingram: 05:01–14:21
• Tyler Herro Returns & Heat Over Mavs: 15:10–21:35
• Pistons' Franchise-Tying Win: 26:10–32:01
• Amen Thompson, Rockets' Depth: 32:13–37:30
• Around the League Quick Hits: 37:45–44:00
• Trade Rumor ‘Slop Scale’: 46:54–65:16
• Thanksgiving Food Riff: 72:55–75:47

---

Closing Thoughts

The episode exemplifies what makes No Dunks a fixture for NBA junkies—mixing astute analysis, recaps, historical context, inside jokes, and, crucially, ridiculous banter. If you want to know not just who won, but why these teams are catching fire, and how front offices might try to keep pace before the trade deadline, this episode is a comprehensive (and highly entertaining) snapshot of the NBA’s current storylines.

---

Listen for: Deep dives on the Raptors and Pistons’ transformations, a sneak preview of slop season, and which host is most likely to rant about green beans or the historical crime of putting shrimp cocktail on a Thanksgiving table.

---

Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Lego Star Wars Advertiser]

When you say Lego Star wars, the first thing you think of is imagination or action. Or both. Definitely both. Like with Jango Fett's Starship, I mean, with stud blasters, seismic charges and three minifigures, your kid is gonna be creating stories until the Banthas come home. And for yourself, there's the Jango Fett's Firespray class Starship LEGO set from the Ultimate Collector series. Enjoy some Jedi Master level mindfulness during your building time. Shop now for Star wars lego sets on lego.com or in lego retail stores.

[Odoo Advertiser]

Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Odoo is the all in one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, E commerce, hr. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow. With your business business, thousands have already made the switch. Why not you try Odoo for free at O-O-O.com that's odoo.com making the holidays.

[Commercial Announcer]

Magical for everyone on your list. It's no small feat, but with TJ Maxx, your magic multiplies with quality finds. Arriving daily through Christmas Eve, you'll save on luxe cashmere, the latest tech toys and more. So you can check off any every name on your list and treat yourself to a holiday look that'll turn heads. Now you know where to go to make all that holiday magic. It's TJ Maxx. Of course, it's shaping up to be a very magical holiday.

[J. Skeets]

Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Tuesday, November 25, 2025. I'm J. Skeets, 20 here in the Classic Factory and alongside me, as always, Tas Melis.

[Tas Melis]

Podcast listeners, this is for you.

[J. Skeets]

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

[Trey Kirby]

Heyo.

[Tas Melis]

Hey.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, and over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer JD Hello. There he is. Here we are. Why you shooting your finger guns today?

[Trey Kirby]

It's break week here in Atlanta. Kids are off school. Okay, morning routines. Throw something. I feel like that tweet where it's like I'm just going to look at some box scores and argue with people who watch the game. Cuz I woke up about an hour later than usual today. So I was watching last night with my dad, you know, getting some ridiculous takes from this old man thinking, yeah, I'll catch Up on the details in the morning. And then Laura rolls over.

[J. Skeets]

It's a little. It was very, very dark out here in Atlanta today, too. Stormy this morning.

[Trey Kirby]

I woke up, instantly, starts pouring. So let's have a good show.

[J. Skeets]

All right. We're gonna have a good show. Hello to everybody on YouTube. Hit the like button. Subscribe, make sure you share the show. Podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. On today's show, it's the return of the slop scale. We're gonna weigh in on some few trade rumors or rumblings at least. So drop your piggies in the chat right now because we'll slop it up later. We'll get to the games from last night. But first we had wedgie number 15, but it was a blink and you'll miss it. Wedgie from Duncan Robinson in Indiana. And yeah, it sticks for a second. And then we think Jalen Duran sort of dislodges it by hitting the mesh, maybe the backboard there. Otherwise it maybe would have stuck a little longer. You never know. Who gives a shit? We're counting it.

[Trey Kirby]

We came up short last year, so we're counting everything.

[J. Skeets]

I mean, I asked the guys in slack last night, are we counting this one? It was really quick, Tasset. Sure. A couple R's in there. Trey Kirby came in a little bit later. Yeah, Count it. So there you go. Number 15.

[Tas Melis]

It's a pretty unique one because Duncan Robinson throws it from the left side of the rim and it lodges in the right side of the rim. So I went back and watched all of our 48 wedgies from last season because we've got a YouTube video on it. It's a great YouTube channel, and there was one like that last year. They're very unique.

[J. Skeets]

To them.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't even know if Jaylen Duran needed to touch the mesh at all. It was coming down. Yeah, it was a slipper. Yeah, it probably was, but it does matter.

[J. Skeets]

So what do you think I should rate this on the wedgie scale when I do that every weekend? I had it right now going quite low.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Because it's not there long. I was thinking half a star, maybe one star. One Ralph star. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Honestly, it wasn't there. Why not?

[Tas Melis]

It wasn't there long. The uniqueness of us one side to the other. I think that's warranted to me.

[J. Skeets]

Tell me on that a little.

[Tas Melis]

We've covered these wedgies for over a decade. How many have you seen of those? Not many.

[J. Skeets]

Not many rarity tasks. You just gained it. Half a ralph. Yeah. Yeah, you'll have to wait till the weekend when I drop that though on Substack.

[Tas Melis]

I'm half a star myself now.

[J. Skeets]

You are, man.

[Trey Kirby]

You're a full star in my book.

[J. Skeets]

You're a superstar, baby. Okay, let's get into some of last night's games. Speaking of superstars, how about those Toronto Raptors? Give me some Raptor news. Segue Brandon Ingram scores a season high 37. He was cooking at times in this game as the Raptors beat the shorthanded Cavaliers. Couple guys out again for Cleveland, but the Raps took care of business. 110 99. Their eighth straight victory task and again bi the big story had a big third quarter, but 37 season high for him.

[Tas Melis]

Most shots he shot all season long. 30 shots in this game. His previous high was 21. A lot of that happens because other coaches, they double him, they force him to get it out of his hands. Kenny Atkinson was not doing that. It's going one on one. I criticized that from other coaches. I said, oh, well, now he can get other guys going. And you see the Toronto Raptors, they are getting everybody going and everybody pays off. Well, I ate my words yesterday because Ingram was just on fire. He was just scorching one on one. Every time he ball fake you. That one that he gave to Naquan Tomlin who went flying by him as he gave him that ball fake was great. Listen, I love how Ingram's playing period. He's number one. He's playing a lot of games. He's matched his games played from last season at 18. Yeah, I was brought up to him in the post game interview and he said, also said Darko is our leader. You gotta like that. I mean the coach is your leader. I guess you like that or not depending. Everybody is playing hard. Ingram, Barnes, Baird and Quickly have all played 18 games. They close out quarters. Most importantly, I think is the most important thing. They always close them out well. They always finish it well and finish off games well like they did in the fourth quarter. Ingram is your leading scorer by far, but everybody's sort of, sort of a glue guy as we can see. Like Scotty Barnes ain't going to be a driver and a finisher at the rim for his career. That's just not who he is. He's not a takeover guy like that. But when you got a score like this and you got a cutter like RJ Barrett who was not in this game with his knee injury and you got quickly doing his thing, all guys taking part, all guys playing minutes, I Admired it all. Just. Just sitting back and watching this thing as a team. And then Barnes. Excuse me. Ingram again. His best game of the season, no doubt.

[J. Skeets]

Were you proud that this game was on Peacock here in America last night? Sort of the national TV audience to see this Raptors team sort of.

[Tas Melis]

At the same time, you know, the bordering city of Mississauga to Toronto and hearing Mark Falwell, who is calling the game on Peacock, he saw emmanuel quickley line one up from like 38ft, 36ft. It was a bomb of a shot. And Mark Falwell said from Mississauga, you didn't pronounce it correctly. That's okay, Mark. You brought it. They did bring it on Peacock. Him and Derek Fisher beside him.

[J. Skeets]

Derek Fisher, Yeah. Wasn't the biggest fan of Derek Fisher, if I'm being completely honest.

[Tas Melis]

He didn't have a lot of flair. He's a solid.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, he is pretty boring.

[Tas Melis]

He's a solid. Just a solid guy like us. Like, he was a solid player. That's who he is.

[J. Skeets]

He broadcasts like he plays. I agree with that. But it was cool that they at least put this performance together again with a lot of more eyeballs, I guess, on Toronto Raptors.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Than normal.

[Trey Kirby]

TK I couldn't believe Ingram took 30 shots. It didn't feel like it at all to me. Like 30 shots in the flow of the offense. I don't know. But he was playing single coverage. So go and score. Which is exactly what the Raptors needed. Ingram, at the very least, he's an All Star talent. Maybe he'll be an All Star this year. He is 100% American as far as I can tell. We shall see. He looks like an All Star so far, but he's established the hierarchy in Toronto. He's the number one guy. He's the number one scorer. When it comes down to it in a late shot clock situation, he's the guy to go and get a basket. So that slots everybody else down a little bit lower in the pecking order, which is what the Raptors needed. It allows Scotty Barnes to be a transition player and to attack when he has an advantage. It allows quickly to play against a lesser defender. Right. And when Pearl's out there, he can go score. It just ups their talent level and gives them somebody who can get a basket. I thought that sidestep three towards the end of the third quarter. That was a beauty. Couldn't believe he got his feet behind the line on that one from the corner. So I was critical of the Ingram acquisition. Especially when he didn't play at all last year. He feels like they got him in free agency over the summer, but really they just extended him after doing the trade last year. But he's been exactly what the Raptors needed. It's weird though that they've already finished their season series with the Cavs. How's that possible?

[J. Skeets]

I know. Three games, three wins for the Raps. Three games Cleveland was missing. Always guys. Unfortunately we haven't seen like two fully squad teams go against each other here and we won't until I guess potentially the playoffs because they're done. It's not even December and they're done their season series.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. From that Cav side, Evan Mobley just wasn't awesome in this game. I don't know where the bounce is in his dribble package. He just doesn't seem super confident. Three point shot was available. That one where Barnes was on him. It was a. Barnes had to go cover him and there was time to let it go. He still put it on the floor and that's when Barnes doing his thing. Incredible steel because he's so good at that. Evan Mobley just hasn't lived up to that this season. He just hasn't been peak Evan Mobley. And it's odd, I think, because Darius Garland hasn't played so much of the game, so many of the games. You can just rely on Evan Mobley more. Right. So that step that we've all wondered, we've all demanded it said that that was where how they were going to take their next step in the postseason has not happened. You need to see Evan Mobley grow and it has not grown.

[J. Skeets]

Few other notes going back to Scotty Barnes. Can't take my eyes off him when he's on the defensive end of the floor right now. He is everywhere on the defensive end. He's digging in on drives, he's sliding back, he's protecting the rim. You guys already talked about how disruptive he is with those long arms and then that gets him in transition. He's going to be. He's on his way to being I think at least on one of the all defensive teams, probably first team, all defense right now. Trey, you were even throwing out the idea where is he in the defensive player of the year conversation with no wembanyama right now? Being short on games and there's some other names on that list, but I think he's on the short list for sure. He was great. Jamal Shed. This guy's fantastic. Like once again, multiple times. He like Just blew by Cavaliers players after they had breakdowns defensively, sort of scrambling and just like, all right, I'll just take it right to the front of the rim. And I love how quickly he gets off the ball as a point guard. Like he just does not hold it. Just. It's like not even leading immediately to an assist form. It's just like the play that leads to then the assist. Like it's the hockey assist, I guess. He's so good at just moving it quickly. He's been a revelation at what, the 45th pick or something like that. Second round pick, I think he went and he's given them quality minutes. Mamu was great early on in this game. Hit a couple threes, had a couple blocks. And I got to give up to Darko. He started Jacoby Walter in place of injured RJ Barrett. He was one of the main reasons, along with Shed as the game went on in containing Donovan Mitchell. Now again Cleveland missing guy. So you can put a lot of focus on Donovan Mitchell. Bad game, though. 17 points. And it was Walter. It was Shed a lot of times. And then the rest of the help defense in making it a rough night for him. Both teams run back to back, so it's not like one team had that excuse more than the other. They were just great. And Darko, man, he is just pushing all the right buttons. He's got this team organized. He said he's the leader. He comes into the locker room going nuts. I was concerned early on. I didn't know what their defensive game plan was those first five games. And he's turned it around and he's obviously not going anywhere because he's been an elite, elite coach here with this winning streak.

[Trey Kirby]

Brandon Ingram basically said, he's the reason why I'm good right now.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And he's had an effect on Ingram. Ingram was a guy playing with the Pelicans who would get the ball, dribble, dribble, dribble, finally get into a shot. He's playing a lot quicker now. And like you're saying, the Raptors are a pretty deep team. Their bench is a lot of the reason I think that they win these games because they can play five guys who actually know what they're doing. Shed picks up the tempo, moves the ball. Mamu stretches the floor. So they're playing five out. Gives guys a lot of space to score inside. Give them a combination six man of the year, maybe six and seventh man of the year. Because they come in together and they look great.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, the depth is ridiculous. It was Scotty Barnes in that preseason interviews with Kayla Gray when he was talking about the musicals that he likes. He loves Hamilton. He's seen it like five times. But he talked about how deep they are, that they're literally like 13, 14, 15 deep. It is 100% true right now. They are super deep. You mentioned Jacoby Walter starting. He was guarding. Was it the Aussie tyrese proctor, like 80ft from the bucket and he got pushed by Proctor and he drew a foul. That kind of stuff, you need six minutes left. Emmanuel Quickley with that awesome steal. Those little plays are what win you games.

[J. Skeets]

This was a close game, right? And the Raptors have been turning these super close contests into 10 or 11 point victories in the final minutes because they sort of ramp it up there and maybe that's the depth of the squad. There's a little more fresh legs on some of these guys because they can rotate so many guys in. You're right. And it's all those little things that add up to these wins.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. And the pressure that this has taken off of Scotty Barnes, he went from all star to last year to everybody expecting is he going to take that next step and he's just never, he's never going to be that number one offensive guy, I don't think where you can just drive in. But now he doesn't have the pressure and he can just operate in the fast break and do what he does really, really well. Post moves. He does that really, really well. And so he's just using that advantage. And yeah, the hierarchy works scoring wise. Brandon Ingram just buying into the passes, not having to shoot every single game or every single possession. Again, he's not to go from 21 to 30 in terms of his highest field goal attempts. Just shows he's willing to be a team guy. He's playing that role extremely well and trickles down to everybody.

[J. Skeets]

Let's keep it moving. Let's go to the Miami Heat. I got Tyler hero back. Scored 24 in his season debut. They took care of business. It was pretty close there over the Dallas Mavericks 106102. Thought there was some sloppy play on both ends down the stretch, but Hero did hit a big shot. Tk let's start with you on Hero, how he looked to you and them getting the win.

[Trey Kirby]

Hero did hit the biggest shot of the night. After a kind of disaster class performance from PJ Washington in the last minute.

[J. Skeets]

The Chevy tracks was broken down side of the road call caa. Yeah, that was caa, not caa. Well, Call them too, for different reasons. But.

[Tas Melis]

I'm like, I'm buying it. I'm buying State Farm.

[J. Skeets]

I mean, I would pull that in Canada.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah. Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

All right, well, they're gonna have to come a long way down to Miami. Calling my Canadian auto insurance. Come out, fix my car.

[J. Skeets]

What the hell do they call it then? What do we call it in Georgia? Aaa. Yeah, sure.

[Tas Melis]

Arp.

[Trey Kirby]

That's the American association for Retired.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. The old people. Yeah. Help the old people.

[Trey Kirby]

My guess is that whatever AAA stands for, you swap out the first day and it turns into caa.

[J. Skeets]

That's probably it.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I'm not gonna look it up. I would rather just have a feeling that that's what it is. And I was feeling like Tyler Hero.

[J. Skeets]

There we go.

[Trey Kirby]

Didn't distract from what the Miami Heat have been doing. He was playing fast, which I think is kind of the key for the Heat. They get the ball moving, they get the ball up the court, they score as fast as they possibly can. Hero was doing that. Went 12 of 18 from the field. Felt like all 12 of his shots were floaters. I don't know. They weren't all floaters, but it felt like they were. He's also just another good scorer with the ball in his hand. Like we talked about yesterday, the Heat are just weaponizing one on ones. Keep the ball moving, let whoever has an advantage attack. And Hero was able to do that for Miami last night. I did think the ball stuck in his hand a little bit sometimes. He's a guy who likes to get into his bag and do some cool crossovers and get to a pull up jumper. That happened a little bit with Hero, but not so much that it distracted from the way the Heat want to be playing and how they have been playing so far this season. So I thought a great performance from him for his first game back. He looked like he was totally in the flow with Miami. And then Khalil Ware, this guy has been straight up hooping in the last three games for Miami. 28 points, 18 boards, three monster blocks last night. Also hit three threes prior to that against Philadelphia. 20.16 boards. I think he had eight offensive in that game. He was dominant there. And then when they Destroyed the Bulls, 20 points, 14 rebounds, he's really coming around. They need him to be a force at the rim. Throwing him lobs is the majority of the way he's going to score and then hitting wide open threes. But having a guy who could score inside, even if it's just finishing plays, is Big time for Miami.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, super physical, talking smack. We didn't know that that was coming. I don't think. I didn't know it was coming. You saw a slow start here in sophomore season number two for him. And he did start, but now he is there clue where is real.

[J. Skeets]

He's averaging 20 and 16 over his last three games. Like Trey said there, the box score.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah. And you get back your best offensive player. As much as I respect Norman Powell, who wasn't playing in this game, the best offensive player in a one on one situation is Tyler Herron. And he was a baller. Even though he had a slow start in this game, this first stint was bad. You can see he was rusty. You can see that. And he missed his first two shots. He didn't had zero points in that first eight minute stint. He goes to the bench, comes back out and he was awesome the rest of the way. The rest of the way. He was 12 of 16. He was 1216 overall on two point shots. Cause he didn't hit a three. And the floater was the thing that was getting him those two point shots. It was floater time. I mean, he looks like he's got the best floater on that team.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, that one at the end there, like the one that sort of won him the game. That was a real true floater too. Was that sky. Nice touch on that.

[Tas Melis]

And that was the, the PJ Washington pass that got stolen by Bam.

[J. Skeets]

Washington thinking on that play, just gave it to Bam. He like threw it to him. Bam. Jumped up and got it and then did a good job to like keep it in bounds because I think his momentum was taking him out. Yeah, I guess P.J. washington saw, I think it was nem hard in the corner and just forgot that there was another Mavericks player. And bam. Between him and the corner.

[Trey Kirby]

He was in robot mode. He was like, here is the play. I must pass it to the corner. Cooper flag was wide open up top. So brutal play by PJ Washington. He also missed the three from the corner. 28 seconds left. Pretty much a wide open look. I would have actually liked to see Klay Thompson take the shot. He catches it on the wing, kind of hesitates, gets it at pj. Wide open shot for pj. Brick job. But Clay hesitated. You know, he had just missed a big shot against the Grizzlies. Maybe that's factoring into his head. Hasn't had a great season, but he told us, watch, the big plays are coming. Take the shot. Also I would like to see Cooper flag Take the shot. He gets the ball at the top of the key. When P.J. washington missed yet another three from the top of the key. This one. Six seconds left. Cooper had a chance to attack. Nobody's gonna be upset if you missed the shot.

[Tas Melis]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

Go do it. He's a guy that likes to make the right play. It's been playing really well for the past couple of weeks here. I would like to see him go a little hero ball mode.

[Tas Melis]

What did. Did you watch that last night? Yep. What'd your dad think of Cooper? Flag.

[Trey Kirby]

And he said, take the shot.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

He's like, yeah, but he plays.

[J. Skeets]

He plays the right way.

[Tas Melis]

He does play the right way. I will say the good.

[Trey Kirby]

Sometimes you gotta play the wrong way.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

See, P.J. washington was trying to play the right way. Didn't work. Trying to play the right way. Didn't work. Sometimes you got to take it upon yourself.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Be a man out there.

[Tas Melis]

Be a man.

[Trey Kirby]

Don't be a robot man out there.

[J. Skeets]

He's still a boy. That's the thing.

[Trey Kirby]

He's still a boy. Sweaty, sweaty boy.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, yeah. Take the undershirt off, man. It's too hot.

[Tas Melis]

Go.

[J. Skeets]

Go on. Anything else for this game?

[Tas Melis]

Well, I just will say Tyler Hero was playing D in this game. He's the guy who usually gets played off on the floor defensively. He was out there working. He was even top blocking at times. He was doing some stuff out there. So I will say that about him. They win a game because of him. They shot three from three point land. They shot 19%. They couldn't hit a three right. So Tyler Hero comes back and gets it all done.

[J. Skeets]

I did like that. He wasn't like settling for threes in this game because Tyler Hero can get them up in a hurry and he can take a lot of threes and he can make a lot of threes too. But I think the box score, he only had like two attempts. He didn't hit one. Like nobody could. Yeah, but like he was attacking, getting inside and you guys said the floater, time after time, he.

[Tas Melis]

He's buying it. It seems like he's buying into whatever exposure wants. I think he's going to adapt. And it seems like he bought it. I will say Cooper flight also, he sticks with the game. You can see him play really well in fourth quarters even if he doesn't have it going. So that's a great sign for a rook.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, it's true.

[Tas Melis]

He just keeps it going and hits shots. It was a crazy fourth quarter. Crazy second half. I Think for Jason Kidd, who said, here comes Ryan Nemhardt. Ryan Nemhard didn't play in the first half. He comes out, takes all of d' Angelo Russell's minutes in the second half, Even Brandon Williams minutes. They got some wild stuff happening in Dallas. We'll get to trade talk a little bit later. But what a strange team happening there in Dallas yesterday.

[J. Skeets]

I think it was yesterday's show. I was wondering, you know, Norman Powell, how great he's played. Looks like he could be making his first All Star Game. Didn't play last night, but I was wondering where he ranks or where would he rank among the oldest first time All Stars in NBA history? I looked it up. It's a fun list. In 2015, Hawks guard Kyle Korver was named by NBA commissioner Adam Silver to replace injured Eastern Conference All Star reserve Dwyane Wade. Korver was 33 years and 11 months old. So Korver at the time became the fourth oldest first time All Star in NBA history behind Knicks Nat Sweetwater Clifton. He was 34 years old in 1957.

[Tas Melis]

We're going way back then.

[J. Skeets]

Two fun names. Timberwolves. Sam Cassell. 34 years old and two months in 2004. And I did not remember this is the team he made it with. Anthony Mason with the Miami Heat. I thought for sure Mason made an All Star team with the Knicks or the Hornets. But no, it was his first year with Miami. 34 years, 2 months in 2001. The only other one older than would be Norman Powell, who's like 32 and a half. King Center Vladi Divat. He had just turned 33 before his first All Star game in February 2001. So he had a couple old guys that year making their first All Star Game. So Norm will be the sixth oldest if he makes it, guys. Because Mark Eaton and Antonio Davis were 32 as well. But Norm's a bit older or will be a bit older if he makes it.

[Trey Kirby]

Mark Eaton made an All Star team.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Ridiculous. I would love to see the highlights. Mark Eaton going through his legs in.

[J. Skeets]

An All Star Game. Antonio Davis, he was doing much else.

[Trey Kirby]

Let's see those screens. I'll never forget Joachim Noah in the All Stars All Star Game. Like setting screens and playing defense. That's why we don't invite these guys now.

[J. Skeets]

It's like, don't worry about Mark eating.

[Trey Kirby]

In the All Star Game.

[Tas Melis]

Throw it up.

[J. Skeets]

I wonder how many blocks he had in the All Star Game.

[Trey Kirby]

At least set the record.

[Odoo Advertiser]

Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you are drowning in software. Instead of growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. Odoo is the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all in one fully integrated platform that handles everything. CRM, accounting, inventory, E commerce, HR and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part? Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business whether you are just starting out or already scaling up. Plus it's easy to use, customizable and designed to streamline every process so you can focus on what really matters running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you try Odoo for [e-mail] that's o d o o.com when.

[Lego Star Wars Advertiser]

You say Lego Star wars, the first thing you think of is imagination or action. Or both. Definitely both. Like with Jango Fett's Starship. I mean with stud blasters, seismic charges and three minifigures, your kid is gonna be creating stories until the Banthas come home. And for yourself, there's the Jango Fett's Firespray class Starship Lego set from the Ultimate Collector series. Enjoy some Jedi Master level mindfulness during your building time. Shop now for Star wars lego sets on lego.com or in lego retail stores.

[Tas Melis]

Limu Emu and Doug Here we have.

[J. Skeets]

The Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Trey Kirby]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[J. Skeets]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[Tas Melis]

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

[J. Skeets]

Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry Unwritten by.

[Trey Kirby]

Liberty Mutual Insurance company and affiliates Excludes Massachusetts.

[J. Skeets]

All right, let's keep it going. Pistons win their 13th straight. They tie their franchise record. They beat the Pacers 122. 117 Detroit match the winning streak from 1990 and 2004 NBA championship teams and they improved to 15 and 2. Pretty stunning turnaround for a franchise that started the 2324 season, which is two seasons ago. 3 and 36. And they finished with 14 seasons that year. And to put it another way, shout out to Ziller for this. The Pistons could lose their next 65 games straight and Finish with a better record than they did two years ago.

[Trey Kirby]

Wow.

[Tas Melis]

Great math.

[J. Skeets]

That's pretty cool. That's crazy, man. They're 15 and 2. They won 14 total games two years ago. But any thoughts on the game are on the Pistons.

[Tas Melis]

Well, you mentioned the last time they had a great long winning streak. Speaks to these old jerseys that they were wearing last night. They had the teal going on and I think against the. The old school Pacers jersey on that old school court. They look great. Great matchups.

[Trey Kirby]

Didn't it looked unusual, but I thought it looked cool.

[J. Skeets]

It took you a second to realize the Pacers were playing the Pistons because the pace.

[Tas Melis]

Because the Pistons have that. They call it charcoal. It ain't black. They're jersey with.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, of course.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, of course. Midnight black. I go Motown.

[J. Skeets]

Charcoal. I'm sure it's called. They always do that. I like them.

[Tas Melis]

I do like them.

[J. Skeets]

And I like the Pacers too, at the court.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, I think they all look great. Hey, listen, the Pacers are starting to click. I know it's. It's all Piston stock here. I mean, that was a good game.

[J. Skeets]

They're 2 and 15.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I know they're starting to click.

[J. Skeets]

They did win.

[Trey Kirby]

They did win this month, but they're starting to play.

[Tas Melis]

That was a good loss. There's Jairus Walker. Five three, splash. TJ McConnell finally looking like himself, saying, Colin Gillespie is the new me.

[Trey Kirby]

Shut up.

[Tas Melis]

I'm basketball here. Basketball. Pascal looking like himself. Anyways, it's all about the business right now. They look awesome. Obviously. Cade doing his thing. Sorry. Thompson, I thought looked good in so many little flashes.

[J. Skeets]

Thompson twins looking good last night.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. So they got it done. Not much more to. To talk about, I would say.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Kate had 24 points, 11 boards, six assists. And he hit that, I guess, what.

[Trey Kirby]

Do you call it?

[J. Skeets]

Like a little jump hook there in the maybe final minute. Yeah. With the shot clock winding down. And that held off Indiana's late rally because you're right, it was close, but that was alive. Big bucket. Durant did his thing. That guy's an all star. 17 and 12 for him. Caris LeVert with 19 points last. Last night for Detroit and Jaden Ivy, limited minutes once again, but contributed once again.

[Trey Kirby]

TK Yeah, I thought the Cade hook was pretty cool because the Pistons were maybe going to blow this one. They took their foot off the gas.

[J. Skeets]

Carp on.

[Trey Kirby]

But they needed a bucket. And Cade just as like, I'm bigger than everybody out there. There's not really a matchup for Cade on the Pacers side of things when it came down to it. So he got down into the post shot a hook shot. I remember in his like pre draft stuff that he's like, I learned how to shoot the hook shot in eighth grade. I used to be a post player. You never hear that for a guy who's a ball hand. It's always post player used to be the point complete flip. But four baskets in the restricted area for Cade on this one. Also drew 10 free throw attempts, went 8 of 10 at the line. You love to see it. You love to see him using his physicality and his size as a gigantic guard out there. So I thought that was pretty smooth from him. And I also loved the last play that the Pistons ran when they're just trying to run out the clock. First of all, they had Charis LeVert hiding by their bench. Yeah, Jairus Walker was like, I don't.

[Tas Melis]

Know who to guard.

[Trey Kirby]

Where is this guy? And then they're like, wait, you got to step out from the bench a little bit. So Caris LeVert steps out from the bench, Jairus Walker gets there, they blow the whistle, inbounds the ball, and Lavert just sprints right past him. Like, oh, we put a slow guy on a fast guy. What are you supposed to do? Car punt. Again, smart stuff. It's like literally just working with the matchups of, okay, so you have a defender, a big guy defender, and Jarris Walker who can move like he's not a slow guy, but he's not guard fast. So levert just literally ran past him. That was smart.

[J. Skeets]

I want to get your opinion on a Michael Red tweet that he shared the other day. No, I saw it going around again. I think he shared it almost a week ago. But he said on Twitter on X, Michael Red, the great Michael Redd. Kate Cunningham reminds me a lot of Brandon Roy. I was like, let me chew on that. Let me think about that. Any opinions on similarities between the two? Brandon Roy at his peak is obviously what Michael Redd is talking about. In the Blazers days, didn't have a long career, unfortunately because of injuries. But you know, seasons one through five compared to where Kate is right now, one through four and a bit. And in his fifth season, you see.

[Tas Melis]

Them both big guys, big bodied, never go too fast, always play at their own speed, get to their spots. Cade's got more of a dribble game than Brandon Roy. I would say Brandon Roy was awesome, but I think Cade's got a little bit more, a little bit more shake a little Bit more jiggle.

[J. Skeets]

I agree. I think Kate is also bad. I mean, Brandon Rowe was awesome. He was. And I think Cade is like, well on his way to being better. And maybe he's already there. I see some similarities.

[Tas Melis]

The way they play.

[J. Skeets]

Hey, look, man, Michael Redd, when he tweets, I read. I like his insight. At least it got people talking it through, which I thought was fun.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I don't see it. But Michael Redd is an NBA All.

[Tas Melis]

Star, and I'm not.

[J. Skeets]

Do you see any other comparisons? Let's say to Kate. I'm putting on the spot here.

[Trey Kirby]

He's a. He's a big guard, and that's. That's the difference to me between him and Mike and Brandon Roy. Like, Brandon Roy, I think of as a perimeter scorer. Shooting jumpers.

[J. Skeets]

He was more of a guard. A shooting guard, almost. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And I think of Cade as a guy who likes to get in the lane and work from there. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that in the past two seasons, as he's taken a leap forward, he's gotten a lot better at finishing. Everybody compares him to Luka. I think he's more along the lines of like a Luca or a James Harden. Guys who are big and strong and want to do their damage inside and then also can play on the perimeter as well.

[J. Skeets]

I don't know if Michael Redd thought this, but I do see some similarities between the demeanor between Cade Cunningham and Brandon Royce. How they hold themselves, I think. And maybe again, Red's looking into that. But. Fun tweet.

[Trey Kirby]

Great.

[J. Skeets]

Follow on on Twitter for sure. Final game. Really of note here. We already talked about Asar Thompson there with Detroit or he got slipped in. But Ahmed Thompson, 28 points for Houston last night. They rolled past the Suns 114.92. Despite missing Kevin Durant, who is missing the next two games, he's now missed one because of family matters. Hopefully everything's okay with him and his fam, but thoughts on the rocks.

[Tas Melis]

Rocks are obviously doing what they need to do. They won the fast break battle 184 in this game. I thought that was super important, just getting buckets whenever they needed to get them. But Asar Thompson doing. I mean, Amen. Thompson doing his thing. Alpern Schengen doing his thing. I think they should call it the. The Shangun Shovel. Whenever he's got a little bit of a pass, he's underneath. He gets doubled and he goes underneath the arms. That was a nice little pass. So no Kevin Durant out there. They also don't. We know we don't. He. They don't have Fred Van Vliet. Tar Eason out. Dorian Finney Smith is still on that roster. They're missing a lot of guys. And then Reed shepherd comes in, looks freaking great. Starting as he always does. He looks fantastic. He's just figuring things out. And then Aaron Holiday comes in off the bench with six threes. There's no fights with Dylan Brooks. I mean, this team just gets it all together.

[J. Skeets]

We got close.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Yeah, close. I thought he was getting the flagrant in. It was like, his third file at the end of the half, right? He, like, knocked over Stephen Adams. I was like, okay, so this isn't actually going to happen. There's no way Dylan Brooks is strong enough to knock over Steven Adams.

[Tas Melis]

That was a flop.

[Trey Kirby]

Adams gets up, laughing. There's like, the great moment with Udoka.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Like, pushes him.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I actually love the way you play.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, exactly.

[Trey Kirby]

I love how much. I hate.

[Tas Melis]

That's how much Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks grew after Memphis. Even the Rockets can't fight him. They. They still had friends with him there. So, yeah, that was just. It showed the depth of this Rockets team, which is surprising considering all of their injuries, considering the kids. Well, Reed Shepherd's the only kid at point guard. Aaron Holland, I guess, is an old man. But those guys that have never been a number one and number two, they have not. So, yeah, they're finding it all.

[J. Skeets]

And this was one of the games that delivered one of Steve Kirby, your dad's crazy takes.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, my goodness.

[J. Skeets]

Last night. Can you share that with the crowd we're watching?

[Trey Kirby]

We're talking about how Reed Shepherd's playing really well. He's saying my takes back to me. He's like, they figured out how to use Reed Shepherd. I was like, yeah, I know. He must be listening to no dunks. And he is. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.

[J. Skeets]

He doesn't listen. Wednesday or Friday, you don't listen to the drop list.

[Trey Kirby]

I don't think so. I don't know.

[Tas Melis]

I don't know.

[Trey Kirby]

On his shows, he doesn't. He doesn't like rapid fire anyways. He goes, you know who Reed shepherd reminds me of? I'm thinking he's going to say Mark Price for sure. Kyle Macy. I was like, who?

[J. Skeets]

A literal who?

[Trey Kirby]

So I had to look him up on Basketball reference. Drafted in 1979. He's got a black and white photo. Basketball reference. His nickname is Vitalis. I was like, this is the oldest person anyone's ever been compared to Kyle Macy.

[J. Skeets]

But he played in the 80s.

[Trey Kirby]

He played in the the 80s. I don't know why they don't have an updated photo.

[J. Skeets]

Like it's like 1957. Like he's playing with Sweetwater Clifton.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, exactly. But he's got a little bit of a Reed shepherd look to.

[J. Skeets]

It's the look.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

But a lot of random sons were coming up. Walter Davis I was telling about Devin Booker had just passed Walter Davis on the all time scoring list. And then we started talking about Alvin Adams. Oh yeah, another guy. You don't think Alvin Adams looks like he does? I couldn't believe there's a guy named Kyle who was born in the 1950s. I thought that name started coming around in the 1980s. Kyle Macy. But reach Jeopardy's the new Kyle Macy out there. And Aaron Holiday, dude's on a roll right now. 22 points last night. Six threes like you said. He's been in double digits in four of his last five games. I remember in the game against the the Cavaliers he had like a massive fourth quarter. I think he had 14 in the fourth quarter. He's up to 48% from three this season. Like as long as one of Reed and Aaron Holiday shoots well off the bench. They've got enough perimeter play at least right now with the way Sengun is able to create only 5 assists I think last night for Chengun. But he's up to seven assists per game this season. Doing the Sengoon shuffle. Career high in assists. Career high and assist rate. He draws a double team almost every time he catches the ball inside. And then the Rockets are playing unselfishly enough that they move the ball as soon as they get the ball out of his hands. The fast break was the difference I really thought in this one. And that's why amen Thompson went nuts just running the court. Looked like the best athlete out there as he usually does.

[J. Skeets]

He had like two or three like incredible plays again last night you had that double clutch dunk on the baseline that he got compared to Dominique Wilkins with that one. How he put it down and then that beautiful like I guess like acrobatic sort of Jordan like is the best way to describe it. Sort of up and under the defense as he flipped it up and scooped it up off the glass. Also pretty. That one in transition guy is just like next level athlete on a floor full of athletes. It's so weird. We've said it a million times at this point but good win here and.

[Tas Melis]

He'S under control at all times. He Never rushes himself like a young Brandon Roy or Cade Cunningham or Luka Doncic. I mean, he's got a post move. Balfic, Balfic, Balfic, Balfic, Balfic. He's got that in his game. He's got it all.

[J. Skeets]

So Rockets win. Other results from last night. J.D. i think you've got the board here. Just show it to everybody on YouTube. At least I'll read them out quickly for everybody. Knicks beat the Nets. They own them 12th straight victory over Brooklyn. Jamal Murray. Peyton Watson helped the Nuggets hold off a late push by the grizzlies. Jeremy Grant 35 points to lead the Blazers over the slumping Bucks. Oh, no, Giannis, that's a problem. Zion scored 29. Pelicans ended a nine game skid against Trey Kirby's Chicago Bulls. Vouch was, stop clowning around, you kids. Steph Curry scored 31. He looked great as the warriors ran away from the Jazz. And then the Kings took advantage of the Wolves second straight collapse with the 117, 112 overtime victory. Who wants to get a start on any of these that you want to point out?

[Tas Melis]

The Wolves need an asshole. They need Chris Paul. They need somebody to finish games just to get them right. They're up 10 with three minutes left and they only score two points the rest of regulation. So it goes into overtime. That's when the Kings take care of business. Also, Randall just didn't finish the game very well, which happens at times. Six turnovers for him. Listen, I said the Pacers have something to play for. The Kings, they don't. But I will not put them in that same category. But it was cool to see some stuff. Something for fans like Malik Monk diving with a minute left in overtime, out of bounds to save a ball. That's at least something. Yeah, it's not.

[J. Skeets]

Malik had his little section of the game where he caught fire too. That was big. And then Keegan Murray was. Was great. He really was. 26 points, 10 to 19 shooting. Hit a couple threes, 14 rebounds for him as well. And all the talk after the game is like, I think it was, I guess it was Zach Levine. It was like, yeah, this is Keegan Murray's team. I love that because he's like, yeah, everybody else is going to get traded, so it's his team. Because he might be the only one left here when it's all said and done. But it is and maybe should be. So he played great.

[Tas Melis]

Does that have to do with him not playing in overtime like Levine played three Seconds in overtime they went to Malik Monk. Monk is playing hard. Doug Christie making at least trying different things to see. But yes, we'll get to the Kings and who they'll trade a little bit later in the show. And yeah, Levine's on the table. I will say no. It's the from the Minnesota Timberwolf side. They've lost two in a row. As you said late game. They're still pace for 48 wins.

[Odoo Advertiser]

It.

[Tas Melis]

It's somewhat like last year where they finished the season off 174 went into the playoffs and doing that. But I guess that's what they do. I guess that's what an Anthony Edwards teams does now. Like they just don't play to their above their opponent, to their potential, to their own potential. A lot of the times that's what they did in this game.

[Trey Kirby]

Completely collapsed. They missed 17 of their last 19 shots in the fourth quarter. Chris Finch is just like shuffling guys in and out. Like Jalen Clark barely played and suddenly he's in. You know, for defensive purposes, they've got a minus 1.7 net rating in the fourth quarter this season and they've played the second easiest schedule in the league. So they're blowing these leads because they have absolutely no flow offensively, because they have no point guard offensively. Anthony Edwards can be a good playmaker. Randall can be a good playmaker, but he's turning the ball over a ton this past week. It just seems like despite the fact that they brought pretty much everybody back, no chemistry for this team and no trust from Chris Finch on any of the young guys. Like Shannon was out of the lineup with an injury. He came back, didn't hardly play. Rob Dillingham doesn't look like he's ready to be on the court right now. Does not look strong enough to be on the court right now. Divincenzo. Not a playmaker. Everybody's out there trying to get their own shot, trying to fix the problem by themselves, when what they need is a little unity. That's why they were so good in the second half of last season. Cause like you're saying they were struggling through the first half of the year last year. They do have a decent record right now. It's because they've beaten up on some easy teams. Like we said yesterday, no wins against winners. Still don't have any wins against winners. Something's going to have to change for this team and they don't have a lot of ways to upgrade going forward. So it's going to have to be internal stuff.

[J. Skeets]

I think, yep, it's a great point. And I sort of pause there on the slumping bucks line because, T.K. you said it. In the preseason, Milwaukee has fallen to 0 and 4 without Giannis this season. I saw Ziller with the breakdown with the numbers. They're pretty alarming. The Bucks are plus 74 this season in Giannis's 400 plus minutes on the court, and they're minus 125 in the 460 minutes now without him out there. Not shocking by any means. Giannis plays. They're good. Giannis doesn't play. They're below average, unfortunately.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Their only win in the past three weeks has been against the Hornets in overtime, and that was the con. Knipple game. Not. Not a great run here for the Bucks. I was impressed, however, with the Denver Nuggets pulling off yet another win, this one against the Memphis Grizzlies. Jokic was awesome. 17 point, 16 assists. Had a beauty late in the fourth quarter that was just wowing everybody. A dish to Peyton Watson. It was like kind of like a spin move behind the back pass out of the post.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Just cool stuff to see with a.

[J. Skeets]

Minute to go in a close game. That's the best part.

[Trey Kirby]

That's not a risky pass. No, for yogurt. I mean, he was wide open as well. Yeah, Watson was. And Watson played really well. 27 points for him. They moved him into the starting lineup when Christian Brown went down, but now it's Christian Brown. It's also Aaron Gordon, but in seven games as a starter, Watson is at 16 points per game, seven rebounds, basically a steal and a block per game, shooting 47% from three. And Jokic is going to feed him the ball. He's saying, take the shots. We don't care if you miss. And right now, he's not missing. If you've got a guy who's going to empower you, it builds your confidence, and that's what Peyton Watson needs to be able to shoot well. So. So if they can get him rolling and keep him playing well, once their starters come back, that's like another guy who's going to contribute to this team.

[J. Skeets]

That's right. I said that yesterday. That could be the. The silver lining of the injury to Aaron Gordon and Christian Brown. A guy like Watson again, maybe another guy like Strother, they get more opportunity, they get more chances to play with these other guys, the starter guys, and maybe you can turn into, like, something special down the line and. Yeah, part of that rotation and, you know, help Win a quarter or a half or a game even in a playoff series. So we'll see. But a great game from him. Jamal Murray too. He cooked, I thought as well. Okay, those are last night's games.

[Trey Kirby]

How about those sepia tone Warriors? You see this?

[J. Skeets]

That was not a City Edition court, was it? No, it didn't say city edition on it.

[Trey Kirby]

I thought it was written in brown. And the brown laid. They had three shades of brown on the court.

[J. Skeets]

There was a lot of shades of brown.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Okay, maybe I'm wrong. I couldn't see City Edition.

[Trey Kirby]

I thought it was, but I'm gonna have to go into the Getty Images. Yeah, enhance, enhance, enhance. Looks weird though. Looked like an old timey photo.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, it did. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. It's like that Instagram filter nobody uses anymore. It's like, why do we have these still?

[Tas Melis]

It's like old shows coming back. Everything is coming back in terms of hardwood. Hardwood floor looks in NBA games, right? I mean there's NBA teams are just going, oh, yeah, well, that was cool. Let's do it again.

[J. Skeets]

Hey, we heard woods in, so we updated the studio.

[Tas Melis]

That's right.

[J. Skeets]

They were inspired by us. Okay, let's take a break and then we got to get to the slop scale. But first, a word from our sponsors.

[Tas Melis]

The NBA season's a grind. Schedule is packed, games every night. See these bags under my eyes? Yeah. I don't know how to hydrate, but I can work out. That's why I'm fired up about the new Peloton Cross training Tread plus, powered by Peloton iq. Peloton IQ plans or workouts, tracks your progress, even corrects your form. And with the swivel screen, you can go from a ride on the bike plus to a quick yoga, stretch or ab workout in seconds. I'm mixing it up with Jess Sims on the tread, Adrian Williams for strength, and I'm looking for anyone to help with my eye sacks Add jokes aside, I feel great. Let yourself run, lift, flex, push and go Check out the peloton cross training tread [e-mail].

[Trey Kirby]

The NBA is rolling and FanDuel is your home for live betting. So even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on any on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. However you want to play now is the Perfect time to join. Join because FanDuel has given new customers $300 in bonus bets if your first five dollar bet wins. So just visit FanDuel.com to sign up today. Play your game with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA.

[J. Skeets]

Okay. If you haven't hit the like button, make sure you subscribed on YouTube. And please, please, please. Five star ratings and reviews. Do it. Do it for the Thanksgiving week. We're thankful for you. You be thankful, especially for JD's hard work here. The NBA trade deadline isn't until February 5th, but with a month of the season in the books, teams are starting to assess maybe what moves they want to make. So let's open up the barn doors. Jd, Time to feed the piggies. Let's mop it up. Our first slop scale of the season where we are our worst intro. No, this is the best in a good way.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, it literally grosses me out to see that trough, but it kind of.

[Tas Melis]

Looks like a Thanksgiving meal.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, God.

[Tas Melis]

Same color. Same color pattern.

[J. Skeets]

You're not wrong. Cream corn gravy.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

So we're weighing in on the latest NBA trade rumors using the slop scale. So the heavier, the juicier, the sloppier an NBA trade rumor, the more buckets of slop the boys will assign to it. We go from one bucket of slop all the way up to five buckets of slop. That is maximum slop. So let's get it started. First one here, DeMar DeRozan is drawing some interest from the LA Clippers, according to the athletic Sam Amick, in part because of his partially guaranteed contract for next season that could pay him only $10 million of the $27 million deal. So we start with this one. Clippers interested in DeRozan. How many buckets of slop?

[Tas Melis]

I'm not lying for this one. It's one bucket of slop. It ain't happening. I don't buy it at all. Okay, they need a three point shooter. Demar. Ain't that. Do we need another older player? No disrespect to Demar, but this team doesn't need to get older. It's the same shot map as Kawhi Leonard out there. Why do you need to pull it out? You're old. This team needs to pull it out.

[Trey Kirby]

Love your old is what you said.

[J. Skeets]

It works.

[Tas Melis]

I guess. They tried to get Demar. They thought they're getting Demar when Kawhi tore his acl. That's four years ago when they were on Their conference finals run. Those Clippers. Oh, that was the day. And then that off season, there was lots of talk about Demar going there, but do you need him now? It doesn't make sense to me. I understand the partial guarantee is appealing because it's not a ton of money in 26, 27, but still, I know the Kings are going to do something and anything for a Kings fan right now that we'll get to a little bit later is good. But this ain't good for the Clippers. I don't get it.

[J. Skeets]

Okay, so one bucket of slop. Barely wanted to give it that. It sounded like.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, there's literally. You can't pick no buckets of sloth. Nope.

[J. Skeets]

You gotta give these kids. You gotta clean something.

[Tas Melis]

Clean that trough.

[J. Skeets]

That's right. Okay, TK Agree or disagree with one bucket of slop on Clippers. Interested in Darwin Rosen.

[Trey Kirby]

So if I'm saying five buckets of slop, I think it's going to happen.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, I guess.

[J. Skeets]

I think you love it. You think it's possible? Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Lawrence Frank wants it.

[Trey Kirby]

Four buckets of slope. This is a Clippers kind of move. Get older. Get another guy from la. Get another guy who shoots mid range jumpers. I think it's absolutely perfect for them.

[J. Skeets]

Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

Stupid move. Which is why the Clippers would do it.

[Tas Melis]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

I think this is actually pretty good for the Kings to turn a slightly longer, longer contract into Rosen, into a guy in John Collins who's going to be expiring pretty much right away. And he also kind of fills a position of need. We've had Sabonis go out with injury. They lost Valanchunas over the off season. They signed Precious Achua and now he's playing major minutes for them. So getting a big guy I think would actually help the Kings a little bit. I don't think it's a smart move and I don't really think it would change things for the Clippers. But DeRozan at least plays, you know? You're saying he has the exact same shot map as Kawhi Leonard. A hundred percent.

[Tas Melis]

True.

[Trey Kirby]

But Kawhi plays 50% of the games and DeRozan plays 100% of the games. So at least you got a Kawhi like player out there all the time. They need somebody else who can score. Because right now, if Harden is not doing something, nobody's doing anything. And I mean, an opportunity to add eight years to your roster.

[J. Skeets]

Beautiful.

[Trey Kirby]

Okay.

[J. Skeets]

All right. Trade four buckets of slots. Task just one. All right, Keep it going. We'll stick with the Kings here. The Kings apparently will trade anyone. Basically. Here. A new report from Jake Fisher in the Stein line says that the Kings are willing to part ways with any and all players other than Keegan, Murray and rookie Nick Clifford. Fisher added that it's Unlikely Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan and Sabonis bring back much to Sacramento in terms of the trade. Sounds like it could be John Collins. But. But the idea from Fisher Kings open to trading every player except Keegan, Murray and Nick Clifford. How many buckets of slop? TK we'll start with you.

[Trey Kirby]

We'll trade everybody except for the people that you might want, right? So give me three buckets of slop. I think the Kings are going to make a move. Disappointing season, high payroll. And they have veterans in Lavine, DeRozan and maybe Sabonis who you can at least talk yourself into a team that thinks they're a contender who's had a disappointing season, you know, like, I don't know, the Clippers, for instance, could be interested, right? Like, I, I don't know, if Paul George goes down with another injury, maybe a team like the Sixers can talk themselves in to a DeRozan or something along those lines. Levine puts up efficient numbers. It's unbelievable. Like he shoots great percentages, he scores a ton, he gets to the rim, he shoots threes and it never adds up to anything. But every team can convince themselves. And then when you trade for him, you're like, let's go. This guy's a highlight factory.

[J. Skeets]

Well, it's funny you said that because Fisher wrote, quote, I've heard multiple seat, I've heard multiple teams say that a Levine market could indeed take shape if he were willing to bypass his 48.9 million player option for the 2627 season and replace it with a longer term deal at a lower annual salary. End quote. That's Fisher on Levine. Specifically tas. Sort of speaking to what Trey just said. He is good. But maybe now at this point with that contract, you'd like it for a longer term deal on much less money.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, it feels like Zach Levine is going to play for several more years in this league. If you can get it at a better rate, it's understandable if he's going to fill sort of fill in. Obviously he can score. There's no doubt depending on the, the roster makeup, he could play a role. So yes, I think he's available. I think everybody is available for the Sacrament Kings. They need something for the fans to get a little Excited. There hasn't been any sort of effort. I know it's not a pig town, it's more of a cow town. But. But fill the troughs. Five troughs. Five buckets for that trough. Scoop that trough. Do anything, do anything for this fan base, whether it's Levine or DeRozan, I think Demonte Sabonis could be traded. There's a. Yeah, I think you know what you're getting from your vets. You know who they are, you know their peak, and it's probably time. I don't know if Scott Perry is willing to do it. There just is no fight on this team. And so it makes sense that they want to keep Keegan, Murray, Ni Clifford, probably keep Keon Ellis. Super duper cheap.

[J. Skeets]

Fisher says more than half the league is called about Keon Ellis.

[Tas Melis]

That's understandable.

[J. Skeets]

And that he might have the highest trade value of all these guys. You know, a big part of that obviously makes a lot less money than those other guys, but 2 million maybe land them like a first round pick. Because teams look at Keon Ellis as like a, you know, a piece that sort of puts you over the. Over the top. Top.

[Tas Melis]

What are you trying to say?

[Trey Kirby]

The edge of the top.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. I wonder how much is coming back for Keanu because he makes $2 million. You got to figure out the. The money, money wise.

[Trey Kirby]

That's why it's. Why it would have to be a pick because they're not going to get a player back.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

That low of a contract.

[Tas Melis]

Unless the Sacramento Kings say, hey, you've got to take one of our vets. You want Keon, you gotta take one of our vets. And then the money starts getting worked up. Speaking about the money, Dennis Schroeder was 3 for 45 that he signed this year, right? Yeah, he kind of made up for when he didn't sign that Lakers contract way back when, 4 for 84. He said, no, I'm not taking it because I'm going to get more. And he didn't. And now he's.

[J. Skeets]

He got paid, so now he's overpaid.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, this is his contract, man. This is. This is his last contract. Good for him.

[J. Skeets]

But that team, stinky GM Scott Perry does not plan to pursue Trae Young, Lamelo Ball, or John Morant, because, quote, none of those lead guards is known for the sort of defensive toughness that the King's new regime has made it clear wants to be a priority. So whether you believe that or not, you can maybe take the Kings out of any Running for those potential three.

[Trey Kirby]

Names new regime I think is important because Scott Perry didn't build this team, so he has zero connection to the players. The only guys he brought in were Dennis Schroeder. So, you know, I mean, he's not off to a hot start, but it means that you don't have the connection. You don't feel like, oh, I built a great team. Let's see how it actually plays out. You can make some moves. The biggest thing for the Kings is if they trade these veterans, they will get somehow a little bit even worse. And then they would get a chance at a really high draft pick, which would be what would really get Kings fans excited because I don't think shipping vets away and getting picks back is exciting. But having good lottery odds can be.

[J. Skeets]

Exciting for sure in a loaded draft at that. All right, according to NBA insider Jake Fisher, we'll stick with him. The Utah Jazz quote, would almost certainly want forward Asar Thompson in return for trading Lowry market into the Pistons. Quote. Sources say that the Jazz in fact considered trading up to select a Sar Thompson during the 2023 NBA Draft. The Pistons, as you can imagine, do not want to trade their Thompson twin end quote. Tas Buckets. A slop on the Jazz wanting a Sar Thompson if they're doing any sort of move for Lowry.

[Tas Melis]

Markkanen, the Utah Jazz absolutely want a Sar Thompson.

[J. Skeets]

Would they get him?

[Tas Melis]

No, I don't think so. I don't think so. No disrespect to Larry, still young. It's going to be an all star here in this new international versus USA format. I think Larry Markin is a great player, but the Detroit business cannot give up on this upswing of who they are. There's no way. There's no way you give up a Sar Thompson. I just don't get it. Pair him with Cade and I get it from. From the Utah Jazz perspective, I mean, they haven't destroyed in the draft the last few years. They picked 5, 9, and 10. Notice break the Ace Bailey, but they want somebody awesome immediately. And this is of course you think about trading Larry Markin, but if you're not getting a Sar Thompson, I think you. It makes more sense to keep him around in this. This Jazz team that's overachieving may not even be an incredible draft season for them because they're. They're just good in a way. So I think Detroit would be smarter to go get Michael Porter Jr. Instead. Instead of having to give up more, you give up less for Michael Porter Jr. He's not paid for as long. It's only a contract this year and next. It lines up better with when your team has to give extensions to USAR Thompson and to other guys. So I think that makes a little bit more sense. He's a year younger than Larry Markinon. I think that one makes more sense.

[J. Skeets]

So you're, you're low buckets of slop here on this one.

[Tas Melis]

Well, it depends on how we're sloppy. I mean, really, do the Jazz want to start Thompson? Not realistic. I, I, I don't think the Pistons.

[Trey Kirby]

Do it at all.

[Tas Melis]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

Very unrealistic Tk 100% agree with tasks. One simple bucket of slop here. I think the Pistons should let it marinate. Yeah, let that slop marinate. They're having an awesome start to the year. They have played the easiest schedule in the Eastern Conference so far. They're such a young team and eventually they're going to have to pay guys like they're going to have to pay Jalen Durant. He didn't sign an extension before this year and he's taken a step forward. So he's getting even more and more expensive because once he hits restricted free agency next year, a team will offer him a really good deal. And if he decides to sign it, Pistons can obviously match. But it will cost them a pretty penny. So yeah, I don't think that making a move for marketing makes a ton of sense for Detroit. And I would rather have Michael Porter Jr anyways. You're totally right. I think he's an equivalent player to Lowry Markkanen.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, I think if I'm Detroit, I don't want either of those guys just with how well we started and where our future is going and who we're backed by. And I bring, I bring up those two guys like I get you the mark and in Mike Porter Jr. But like Carlisle said it after last night's game, this team is like being built similarly to like the Bad Boy Pistons, where it's physicality, it's toughness. They're sort of the mirror image, he said of those squads that he used to coach right before they won that 04 championship of that version of the team. Those two guys, Markkonen and Michael Porter Jr. Do not scream bad boys to me. So don't worry about fattening up the piggies if you're Detroit, go vegan for this season. Try it out and don't mess with what's working. But yeah, the Jazz want a Sar Thompson. So would I if I was the Utah Jazz. That part makes sense. All right, final one here in the slop scale from our guy, Timmy Bontemps. Timmy, good times. He said during Monday's episode of the Hoop Collective. Anthony Davis's trade value isn't as high as many would expect for a player of his caliber.

[Tas Melis]

Quote.

[J. Skeets]

There's not a lot of teams that are lining up to take on a 35 year old ad making 63 million, end quote. Bontemps is talking about ad sort of would be in the final year of that deal making around 63 million. So Bontemp saying teams aren't lining up here for ad. TK how many buckets of slop we have with this one?

[Trey Kirby]

Well, when you put it that way, that he's 33 years old, making $63 million and never plays. I would have to agree that it's hard to come up with an idea for who should go after him. But. But I think if the Mavs were to make him officially available, we got Mark Cuban faking the funk. San there's no way we'd ever trade, right? Yeah, you would.

[J. Skeets]

Of course you would. Mark, stop lying to us.

[Trey Kirby]

Mark, stop lying to us. And other people are lying too. Maybe they're not lining up, but the packages won't be. What you're expecting from a guy who when he plays is an all NBA caliber player, can have an impact on both sides of the ball, makes your defense better instantly and is still an effective offensive player. But you know, if the Mavs continue to struggle, it just doesn't make sense for them to hang on to Anthony Davis. They don't have a lot of future assets because Nico Harrison traded them all away. They should fire this guy. Traded them all the way to build a perfect team around Luka Doncic. But it leaves the coffers pretty bare if they're trying to build around Cooper. Flag, which they should. Anthony Davis should be available. Clay Thompson will be available as well. But both of these guys are nearing the tail end of their career in Clay's case and the tail end of his prime in Anthony Davis's case. But these are your best chances to get any sort of future assets back. Which is why the Mavs need to move these guys. They're not going to have a winning season this year. They need to keep their pick. They need to get another decent lottery pick. They need to hit on that one to have building blocks around Cooper, around Derek Lively. They need a perimeter guy, it seems like to me they would like if they get gifted the number one pick again, they would take Darren Peterson. They would want a guard out there, another playmaker. But it makes sense for the Mavs to trade Anthony Davis. So I'll give this one a 2.5 slopper.

[J. Skeets]

Okay?

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, they have to, they have to trade Anthony Davis. The, the tear down has to continue for their fan base for that organization. Yes, it feels good to trade Nico Harrison for a lot of those fans, but it has to continue with Anthony Davis. My question is, what's the better route to get the most for Anthony Davis? Is it him coming back, being healthy, looking great, or is it this idea of Anthony Davis helping out a team that could go for it? I think it's a bit risky, him coming back because he's got a calf injury. So he hasn't got into basketball shape the last couple months and he wasn't in that. I shouldn't say last couple months, the last month. He wasn't in that when he was playing. So there's that risk. Maybe there's another calf injury like Lucas last year. So I think there is a bit of a risk because I agree with Tim Bontemps that teams may not be lining up, but you got to take what you can get right now. If you're Mark Cuban, who's now jumping on in with Michael Finley and Richardi, you got to get something for Anthony Davis. It surely makes the most sense for this, but it's.

[J. Skeets]

It's tough because you got to have a lot of money coming back to make any sort of deal work here. He makes $54 million, right. This year, let alone the player option that we're talking about or bond temps is talking about a couple of years from now, which I'm going to guess he's going to pick up unless suddenly he gets healthy again here and plays himself into one big final payday. But that's the tough part. Yeah, like trying to just put together enough salary to get back for any sort of deal. You know, like the warriors could use a semi healthy version of Anthony Davis, like no doubt. They could honestly use like a Sabonis sort of healthy in terms of gobbling up rebounds and stuff like that. But then you got to get into the contracts of it all and how you're making that work. Yeah, Kaminga is a piece, but he's not making a ton of money, so there's still a lot of money to fill in there in the trade machine. So it's just difficult. But I'm with you guys. Like, I do believe the move is for them to get off of Anthony Davis, whether he comes back and plays and helps his trade value a little bit here before the deadline.

[Trey Kirby]

Sure.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. He just has to look healthy. Maybe if he comes back and just plays one game, that's enough that he's. That he's out there. He's out there. I thought this was the year he was wearing the eye goggles. That was the main reason he got injured last year was the eye injuries. Multiple eye injuries. His eyes are safe. The problem is knees down. He's 32, as you said. He was going to be 33 next year. This team has to. The team that acquires him has to be super close. Right. They have to think, whoa, one piece. We're one piece away and it could be Anthony Davis competing. Yeah, yeah. Because that's happened soon with Anthony Davis. You don't know how many more years you have with Anthony Davis. No disrespect him, but he's, he is getting older and we're seeing again with the calf injuries that are happening around and Anthony Davis getting them. It might be a three team deal where that money goes around to get involved. A third team deal. So Mavs don't have to take as much back in terms of long term money. But Cube's got to think about it. He's got to think about this as much as I. Cubes listening to Cuban's interviews saying, we got to do something for the fans here. We got to do more for the fans.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah. Go get some wins. Yeah, that usually works.

[Tas Melis]

Well. Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

Or not. And it's like, yeah, this is a down year and stick with us and we'll be back next year if we luckily hit in the, in the draft again. And this is just Cooper flag growing year. Showing the potential.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

And it'll be as simple as that.

[Tas Melis]

And you can finally wipe your hands clean of that whole Luka Doncic Anthony Davis era. If you trade Anthony Davis, you know.

[J. Skeets]

All right, that's the slop. Wasn't the juiciest. Let's be honest. It's just the start we're getting going.

[Trey Kirby]

There'll be more than 20 days until.

[J. Skeets]

The official start until December 15th. Yeah, right.

[Trey Kirby]

Slop season.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah, you're right.

[Trey Kirby]

You gave me a stink eye when I said that Michael Porter Jr. Was an equivalent player to Lowry market.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, listen, you're right. Good eye. Good eye. I'm a Lowry fan. Who do I want in a playoff round, playoff series?

[Trey Kirby]

The guy that's got a title or the guy that's never played in the playoffs?

[Tas Melis]

Come on. Colin Gillespie's Got a freaking title too, man. Everybody gets.

[Trey Kirby]

Michael Porter Jr. Played in the finals. He was good in the playoffs for the Nuggets.

[Tas Melis]

So did Jordan Poole. I mean there's lots of guys. Larry's. I think he's underrated in terms of how much he can help. It's a good equivalent.

[Trey Kirby]

But who do you think is averaging more assists per game this year? Michael Porter Jr. Never swing the rock or Larry Marks.

[J. Skeets]

It's Michael Porter Jr.

[Trey Kirby]

Absolutely.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Because Will Hardy has got that ball moving to Larry Markin. He knows what Larry Markkanen's role is. What's happening with the Brooklyn Nets is give him the ball and watch him do things. Oh, he's fine.

[Trey Kirby]

What's happening, what's happening with the Jazz?

[Tas Melis]

They're winning games. He's scoring frickin 50 12.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

What are the Brooklyn Nets? Three and 14. Yeah, exactly.

[Trey Kirby]

It's basically the same. Come on, they're the same guy.

[J. Skeets]

That's what I'm saying.

[Trey Kirby]

They're equivalent players. Who averages more rebounds, the seven footer or Michael Porter Jr. What do you think?

[J. Skeets]

Michael Porter Jr. Yeah, that's exactly right. Look, about the Pistons. I'm not touching either of these guys.

[Trey Kirby]

I'm just telling you. Markinen is the Western conference. Michael Porter Jr. Put him on the Nets or put him on the Jazz. He's going to score 25 a game.

[J. Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, I believe in Lowry's bod. Going and fighting and driving off the.

[Trey Kirby]

Games played in the past few years.

[J. Skeets]

Believe in his boss.

[Tas Melis]

Well, I think he's gonna drive. I just mean he's gonna drive Michael Porter Jr. Where? No, we know where he's shooting from. We know where he's shooting from. Larry Markin will at least put it on the floor.

[Trey Kirby]

It was taken.

[Tas Melis]

Use that drive. I don't care.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, it's marketing. Michael Porter Jr. Is good. He's underrated. I'm sorry. He is. And he's played in the playoffs a lot.

[Tas Melis]

Okay. He's played with Nikola Jokic.

[Odoo Advertiser]

Of course.

[Tas Melis]

Larry Markin would play in the playoffs if he played with Nicola Jokic. You know, that's a part of it.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I'm just saying I've seen it in the playoffs with Michael Porter Jr. We have. Can I see it?

[J. Skeets]

I love this. I did not expect a Lowry Market in versus Michael Porter Jr debate here on no dunks.

[Trey Kirby]

You give a guy an opportunity, they're going to score 25 points per game. Remember Mikhail Bridges? He scored 25 a game when he got to touch the ball all the time. Markkanen gets to touch the ball all the time, and he gets 28 a game. Michael Porter Jr. Gets the ball the time. He gets 25 a game.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, they're both good players. Yeah. Anyways, that's why I said Detroit should.

[Trey Kirby]

Agree with you 88% think that market is better.

[Tas Melis]

I think, yeah. I think. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Michael Borger not on podcast. That's the major, major thing.

[J. Skeets]

Benefit.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tas Melis]

Exactly. Right. Well, I will say, listen, I said Detroit.

[J. Skeets]

Curious Lowry doesn't have the same ring as Curious Mark.

[Trey Kirby]

Okay, that's.

[J. Skeets]

That's good.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah. Curious Mike. Good thing about him is he's trying to reign it in. He was asked to talk less about things, and he is doing that.

[J. Skeets]

He was basically told, hey, stop talking about some of these dumbass things, man.

[Tas Melis]

Absolutely.

[J. Skeets]

All right.

[Tas Melis]

Love it.

[J. Skeets]

That's a slop. Don't worry. The slop will get juicier as the season goes on here. Let's go to wob.

[Tas Melis]

Slop will get juicier.

[J. Skeets]

Wboy line of the night. Carl Anthony Towns, a guy we've barely talked about, talked about this year, honestly. Great game last night. Game high 37 points. Led the Knicks over the crosstown rival Brooklyn nets. Town shot 14 of 20 from the floor, 3 of 4 from deep. Perfect at the line, 6 of 6. Game high 12 boards, 3 dimes, steel, 2 blocks, bonus points. Only committed 1 turnover in 33 minutes played. Yeah, we haven't talked a lot. We haven't talked a lot about the Brooklyn. Excuse me. The New York Knicks or the Boston Celtics. I just have it.

[Trey Kirby]

No, yeah.

[J. Skeets]

And the. The Celtics. And you wrote about this in the power rankings on Substack I saw today. That one makes sense. It's like we've talked about this team for so long. No Tatum out of the equation. Just like we've been talking about other teams. So they've sort of just like. And they've been decent. Like, Jalen Brown's having an unbelievable year. Like he really is. But the Knicks are like a level below that. Haven't talked about them much because we're like, we know what they are. We know they're good, and we'll see you come April and May.

[Trey Kirby]

Who says no? Carl Anthony Towns for Anthony Davis. Because they're like two guys who are actually pretty similar on the salary scale.

[J. Skeets]

I think the Knicks say no.

[Trey Kirby]

They do. I agree. They're calling caa.

[J. Skeets]

Yeah. I think they say no. Yeah. But a big part of that is just ad you can't trust them. And why. Why are you going to Trust them moving. Getting older to even play anymore is the problem. All right, that's. Well boy. Way to go, Cat. Catman, do. He did it.

[Trey Kirby]

He did it.

[J. Skeets]

Pick him tonight. Tas. There's only three games on NBA cup action. These are big games.

[Tas Melis]

Let's go to Los Angeles where the Lakers are hosting the Clippers and they are a six and a half point favorite. Oo, so Trey and I both believe in the Lakers covering seven points or more. While Skeets, you're taking the Clippers to lose by six or less or obviously when. Why are you taking the Clippers?

[J. Skeets]

Oh, this is the Clippers NBA championship tonight. Cup man, you gotta win this. Whoever wins this is looking pretty good to move to the knockout stage. So I'll say the Clippers keep it close. James Harden's on a heater right now, so maybe he puts on a show.

[Tas Melis]

Look, he scored 55, then he had a slow game after that.

[J. Skeets]

But look, I hate the Clippers, so this is not great for me.

[Tas Melis]

But why are you taking the Lake Lakers, Trey?

[Trey Kirby]

I think they're a lot better.

[J. Skeets]

You're right, they are.

[Tas Melis]

There ain't no question their three best.

[Trey Kirby]

Players would be by far the three best players on the Clippers. That was the main thing for me. I think they're very good.

[J. Skeets]

I. The concern to me is like, okay, I'll take the Clippers because I got a lot of points to play with, right? Like yes, it could be a. Obviously a Lakers four or five point win. That's realistic. But then you add that cup element in. That means the Lakers are, they're not going to take their foot off the gas at the end because differential matters though they will be in the driver's seat picking up this victory. If they do, they'd go to 3 0. Clippers would follow 2 and 1 in the cup play. But hey, come on. Come on old guys, for the cup. Come on for the Cup.

[Tas Melis]

This is the seventh game of the Clippers road trip. This game is considered a road trip because it's in la. I always consider the first game home after long road trip to be a bit of a dud. It's happened to teams and so I think this is kind of like their first game home.

[J. Skeets]

Well, they're not playing in the same arena anymore.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[J. Skeets]

They don't even have that. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

If there's traffic. Come on long commute.

[J. Skeets]

Come on Clips. Keep it close. I want to end this month in style. I like this record right now. 11 and 5 tray 9 and 7 test. You know adding some W's here over the last little bit. Had the wraps. Once again, you may have gotten 03 with the Raps after losing last night, but we'll see what happens tonight. Couple cup games, only three on. But don't you worry. We'll be here tomorrow to talk about those games. And it'll be our final show of the week because of Thanksgiving here in the States. So we'll have some Thanksgiving NBA fun tomorrow. Start thinking about the biggest NBA turkey this year. Start thinking about which players. Cranberry sauce. Which players. Green beans. Start thinking about what the hell that even means.

[Trey Kirby]

Which player is green beans.

[J. Skeets]

So we'll have some fun on tomorrow.

[Trey Kirby]

What's the most underrated Thanksgiving dish?

[J. Skeets]

We decided green beans. I think it's a good pick.

[Tas Melis]

Still remains.

[J. Skeets]

You asked on substack. What were some answers?

[Trey Kirby]

I forget.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, okay.

[Tas Melis]

Let me check.

[J. Skeets]

Any other options for you. Most underrated Thanksgiving dish besides green beans.

[Tas Melis]

I'm sticking with stuffing. I know. Dressing for some in America. Stuffing for some outside of America. I know it's widely had.

[J. Skeets]

That's such a key player to me.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

It's not even Thanksgiving.

[Tas Melis]

But that's because you rate it. That's because you rate it highly. I think a lot of people just don't. They're just not having enough. Yeah, I think that's a part of it. Yeah. And they call it dressing, which is a lot of time. It's in the turkey as stuffed.

[Trey Kirby]

Right?

[J. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melis]

Yeah.

[J. Skeets]

What do they call it here?

[Tas Melis]

More dressing?

[J. Skeets]

Oh, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, it depends.

[J. Skeets]

I go back and forth.

[Trey Kirby]

I always say, if it's in the bird, it's stuffing. If it's out, it's dressing.

[J. Skeets]

I mean, I love both.

[Trey Kirby]

Exactly. People are. A lot of people are saying stuffing, dressing is the most underrated.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, that's underrated.

[Trey Kirby]

See, I thought it was perfectly rated. Yeah. I think it's on the Mount Rushmore.

[J. Skeets]

So do I.

[Tas Melis]

Potato salad.

[J. Skeets]

Interesting. Oh, no. A cold potato on Thanksgiving. No, no, no.

[Trey Kirby]

Maybe it's underrated. No, it's not.

[J. Skeets]

I'm telling you.

[Trey Kirby]

Our guy Lawrence says the green veggie side dishes, you need that fiber to.

[J. Skeets]

Assist in a comfortable exit. He gets it.

[Tas Melis]

Comfortable exit.

[J. Skeets]

He gets it. All right, well, shrimp cocktail.

[Trey Kirby]

What are you doing?

[J. Skeets]

What are you doing?

[Tas Melis]

Jared?

[J. Skeets]

What are you talking about?

[Trey Kirby]

Green olives. That's crazy.

[J. Skeets]

As an underrated Thanksgiving dish. Green olives. This is stupid.

[Trey Kirby]

This is stupid. I like this one. Celebrian says, love me some Hawaiian rolls. If you want to count rolls as a whole side dish, you don't think.

[J. Skeets]

About the rules now. That's interesting.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, they're just there.

[Tas Melis]

Hawaiian roll is. That's a good roll.

[Trey Kirby]

That's a great roll.

[J. Skeets]

You don't have it enough either. That's only a thing. Not only. But doesn't appear in your life very often. Right?

[Trey Kirby]

You're right.

[J. Skeets]

Holidays is really when it comes around.

[Trey Kirby]

And I love that you can just build a fat old plate, a real slop trough of food. Just throw a roll on the top. You don't need to clear space for your roll. Just stack it on top. Just throw it on there.

[J. Skeets]

Oh, man, I'm getting hungry. Can't wait. But anyway, we'll have a fun drop podcast for you tomorrow, seeing as it'll be our last one live of the week. Until then though, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first.

[Trey Kirby]

Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.

[Tas Melis]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, I can't get over the shrimp. Shrimp is not a side dish. It's just not. You don't have it on your plate. You can have it as an appetizer.

[J. Skeets]

Right?

[Tas Melis]

Right. But it also prevents the comfortable exit. Was that the. Was that the term? Yeah. That's a weird one. I mean, that's just saying that for sure. You're backing yourself up a little bit more. I would say.

[J. Skeets]

I would say be careful with the shrimp this week, everybody. Raise the day, people.

[Lego Star Wars Advertiser]

Does anything go better than Lego and Star Wars? I don't think so. Kids will love becoming a part of the galactic action while playing out their favorite adventures. Like with Jango Fett Starship. I mean, this LEGO set is fantastic. It features a detailed recreation of Jango Fett's starship with four stud shooters, a seismic charge dropping function and wings that rotate with gravity. Plus, it has three Jango Fett with two blasters and a jetpack. Young Boba Fett and Llama Sue. Perfect for endless play. Now for the big fans, there's Jango Fett's Firespray class starship from the Ultimate Collector series. Packed with details and surprises for fans, this large scale set is perfect for anyone hunting for a mindful building escape. Plus, you end up with a fantastic display piece. You, you can build this while your little ones build the kid set. You'll be like Jango and Boba building an adventure shop. Now for Star wars lego sets on lego.com or in lego retail stores.

[Commercial Announcer]

Amazon Five Star Theater presents real customer reviews performed by a real serious improv podcaster. Tonight's review. Furby. I bought a Furby as a nostalgic joke. Joke's on me. Day 1 Adorable giggles wiggles its ears says me love you. Day 3 Woke me up at 3am whispering in Furbish. I think it summoned something. Day 5 I'm starting asking for life advice. Day 7 It blinked at me like it knew I blinked back. We've reached an understanding. I fear it. I love it. 5 stars. Aaron M. Find your perfect gift this holiday on Amazon.

[Coca Cola Advertiser]

What a matchup we got, y'.

[Tas Melis]

All.

[Coca Cola Advertiser]

This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non stop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit Chance echo drum beat everybody showing that school pride Game like this. Yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it passionately. Fans, school colors everywhere and an ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo no matter the sport, no matter the yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work so grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.

[Commercial Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.