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Mid Season Slammies + Will the Bucks Finally Trade Giannis? | Slam N Jam
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- [00:00]
Al
Prime 1 day deliveries fast how fast we talking?
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Andrew
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Al
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Andrew
Can so you can actually breathe out.
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Al
Of both nostrils fast like I just.
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Andrew
Ordered and it's already here. Fast fast one day delivery to feel better sooner. It's on Prime.
- [00:15]
Eric Naim
It's that time of year again for texts. We all know the stress of the.
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Al
Old way of filing.
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Eric Naim
You send your documents off and then absolute radio silence. You're stuck refreshing your inbox and sending awkward just checking in texts, wondering if they've even started.
- [00:29]
Al
But with TurboTax Expert full service I know my TurboTax Expert takes taxes fully.
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Eric Naim
Off my plate and updates me every step of the way so I don't have to worry. That way I can get back to the things that matter to me, like going on vacation in the spring or enjoying the NFL off season.
- [00:44]
Al
So stop chasing updates. It's time to switch to the modern.
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Eric Naim
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- [01:10]
Al
Service Experts Real time updates only in.
- [01:12]
Eric Naim
Ios mobile app.
- [01:17]
Andrew
This podcast is sponsored by Royal Kingdom, an amazing mobile game that's super fun, free to play, and has no annoying ads. This time of year there is a lot of travel and family time and Royal Kingdom is the perfect escape because it doesn't need any wi fi making it perfect for planes, trains and just a quiet break in the other room. Royal Kingdom is a story driven match three puzzle with stunning graphics. It's relaxing but has challenging levels. Royal Kingdom is part of an expanding universe filled with high quality animations and memorable characters. I personally love to play a few levels during a timeout in whatever NBA game I'm watching, or even while I'm listening to my favorite podcasts. So what are you waiting for? Join the fun and download Royal Kingdom on the App Store or Google Play today. Welcome to the Saturday Slam and Jam presented by Amazon Prime. On today's show we're doing a mid season slammies. Eric Naim joins to talk about the saddest team basketball, the Milwaukee Bucks. And then we will finish with some trivia. But before we get to all that, Alex, tell me what happened in the NBA this week.
- [02:38]
Al
Andrew the top story this week was the Oklahoma City Thunder finally beating some good teams. Those frauds first, fourth time was the charm as the Thunder finally looked normal against the spurs getting their best win of the season, beating San Antonio 100 1998. SGA had 34, 5 and 5 in the game with four blocks including a blocked lob intended for Wemby in the critical third quarter. After beating the Spurs, Thunder got their second best win of the season, a similarly dominant 111 to 91 win over the Rockets in Houston. It appears OKC has finally weathered their mid season slump and are now on a league leading five game winning streak. The only other team to have won eight of their last 10, the Los Angeles Clippers of course who have now won 11 of their last 13. The Clippers are now tied in the standings with the Memphis Grizzlies who sit in the 10 spot and who this week traveled to Berlin for the first ever regular season NBA game in Germany. The German crowd got a pretty good game as this one was close throughout featured one of the dunks of the year. With the game tied at 107, only two and a half minutes left, Anthony Black took a pass in transition, dunked over four of the five Grizzlies who were on the court at the time. And I promise that's not hyperbole. Four Grizzlies jumped with Anthony Black. None of them were successful. Now I know what you're thinking. I'm sure it was a cool dunk, but what was its dunk score? Was it actually very good? Well, the NBA scored this dunk a 55.4. I have to be the only person regularly going to the dunk score Page.
- [04:14]
Andrew
I was going to say, I don't even know if that that doesn't sound good.
- [04:17]
Al
Andrew, I. I figured it out. That makes it the 969th best dunk of the season. Andrew, I'm beginning to think this dunk score isn't as reliable of a metric as I once thought.
- [04:30]
Andrew
Wow, that's crazy.
- [04:32]
Al
Yeah. Now one metric that is definitely reliable is single game plus minus. Most NBA stat nerds like myself agree it's the first and last stat you should look at when analyzing this beautiful game. And so it was exciting this week when we got a plus minus record in a game between the Hornets and jazz that ended 150 to 95 in favor of Charlotte, Utah win. Cody Williams recorded a minus 60 which is the worst plus minus in NBA history, a record that was previously shared by Scoot Henderson and Jeremiah Robinson Earl in case you were wondering like I was the best plus minus single game in NBA history. Do you know what Andrew it was recorded by Luke Amute who put up a plus 57 in a 30 point win when he played for the Houston Rockets. Now, as rough as it's been for the Jazz lately, a lot of it is by design. When they let Larry Markinham play, they've actually been pretty good. Did you know that in the last 16 games that Markkanen has played, the Jazz are nine. Seven overall they are 1419 when Markkanen plays and 08 when he sits. Now speaking of sitting, that's what NBA referee Bill Kennedy will be doing a lot after he pulled his hamstring while running down the court during a Sixers Magic game, leaving the game in a wheelchair. Kennedy is out indefinitely, leaving a massive void for fans of entertaining replay reviews. Can Zach Zarba step up and show us some more personality? What about Pat Frayer?
- [06:03]
Andrew
No. Could it be Frayer? No.
- [06:07]
Al
Freyer was an official in the Celtics Pacers game this week, a game that ended in a 9896 Pacers win after Pascal Siakam hit the go ahead bucket with 6.8 seconds left. After the game, however, Celtics coach Joe Missoula turned the focus to what happened just before Siakam's game winner. In response to all six questions asked of him in the postgame press conference, Missoula said quote, illegal screen. The last two minute report would agree with Missoula confirming that Siakam had set an illegal screen, but doesn't matter. The win was the third in a row for the Pacers, their first three game winning streak of this season. Finally, let's talk about the Timberwolves, who have been on a nice run lately and got a big win over the spurs this week. In the game. The wolves were down by 19 in the middle of the third quarter, but came all the way back, finally pulling ahead with 16.8 seconds left on an Anthony Edwards runner. After this recent stretch of good play, the Wolves are solidly in fourth in the west, only a game back of the spurs in second. Since December 1, the Wolves are 15 6, which is tied for the best record in the league with Oklahoma City. Per Cleaning the Glass, they are one of five teams with a top 10 offense and defense, joining OKC, Houston, Detroit and San Antonio. And those were the top stories this week.
- [07:26]
Andrew
What a week Al. And this this week marks kind of the halfway point of the NBA season. With that, what are we going to do?
- [07:35]
Al
Andrew, it's time for the mid Season Slammy Awards Mid season Slammies, our own award show. We kind of do it at random, but this year it kind of worked out. We're doing it season and we're going to do it end of season. Okay. We finally got our act together.
- [07:54]
Andrew
There you go.
- [07:55]
Al
So we've come up with 10 awards and we're each going to give our nominees for these awards, starting with the I wasn't familiar with your game award. This award goes to a player, GM coach who we've changed our opinion about the most compared to how we felt about them coming into the season. So Andrew, who gets your I wasn't familiar with your game award?
- [08:17]
Andrew
It's got to be Keonte George. For me, who is 23, four and almost eight assists a game, shooting 45, 36, 90 last season, 16, four and five, 39% from the field, 34% from three. He's had just crazy improvement. He felt like he was heading toward being one of those backup guards that kind of floats around and it's like, well, we'll give him a try. We'll give him a try. That's mostly playing on like bad to middling teams, but he's been actually pretty part of like the, the competitiveness of the Jazz, who aren't a great team obviously, but there are nights where they will overperform and a lot of times Keonte George is part of that. And I tried, I tried to find like a number that said that I couldn't really find it. He, he and Markkanen together are a minus 1.3. Is that good?
- [09:13]
Al
No.
- [09:14]
Andrew
But is it better than their minus 3 from last year? Yes. So improvement. I didn't, I just didn't think that Keonte was even like a part of their core moving forward and I think he's got a good chance of being that now. So yeah, I'll give it to Keonte.
- [09:28]
Al
That's a good one for me. I, I was thinking about the Suns. I considered Colin Gillespie who honestly just like wasn't thinking about at all coming in the season. Yeah, thought about Jordan Ott, their head coach, but I'm going to go with the entire Suns team because this was a team that we barely considered for surprise team and they've become the runaway favorites. They're currently six games ahead of the pace needed to be this year's surprise team. I think they need to win 42 games. They're six games ahead of that pace. Seemingly overnight they became the gritty, hard nosed team that Matt Ishbia were wanted and it's really changed the way I think about them because on the one hand I still don't see a super high ceiling for this team as currently constructed, especially in the west without something really lucky happening. But on the other hand their floor is so much higher than I thought it would be. Like even in a best case scenario I was thinking of them as a team fighting for a playing spot, but honestly all I was really thinking about was the potential value of their future first. And don't get me wrong, I'd still love to have some future unprotected sunspace. That's still a good deal, but I'm way less confident that those picks, especially the nearer term ones, are going to matter quite as much. And because of the floor they've established this season, it feels like there's so much less pressure on them, like they already have something to build on and maybe they'll luck into something over these next couple seasons. So they are my I wasn't familiar with your game award which brings us to the opposite. Andrew, this is a first. I thought I was familiar with your game award. You think you know a guy. This award goes to the player, gm, coach who has disappointed you the most compared to how you felt about them coming in the season. And for this I am going with Jared McCain. Now, he didn't get to play a lot his rookie season, but he was awesome in the games he did play. As a reminder, he had a 10 game stretch at the beginning of his rookie season, his first time being in the NBA. He averaged 23 points per game shooting 39% on over nine three pointers per game. I mean there were, there was a time when you could go on stat Head and come up with some crazy queries about Jared McCain lumping him in with some amazing players. I was genuinely excited to watch him this season and it's just been a bummer so far. He had the meniscus surgery, he tore a ligament in his thumb and currently he's basically out of the Sixers rotation. He's getting like 5 to 10 minutes per game during this most recent stretch and at this point, like you kind of just have to remind yourself he's only 21. Both of those injuries are significant and maybe this season is just a write off. You know, if it is a write off, it's not the biggest deal in the world because he's only 21 and hopefully he can eventually come back and be 100. But it's been rough so far. Like you keep waiting for it to see those flashes of what we saw last year, and it just hasn't really happened over a consistent enough period yet, which is a bummer because he was pretty awesome as a rookie.
- [12:28]
Andrew
Yeah, yeah. He. He also is, like, limited in his, like, size and abilities to affect the game in other ways. So it like, has to be this, like, microwave scoring for him. Yeah. Which has not been there, my guy, Al. Evan Mobley, the winner of the defensive player of the year last year. He's now a plus 5,000 to win the award via our friends at BetMGM, with players like Derrick White and the literally both the Thompson twins ahead of him. Last year, Evan was defensive player of the year. He was an all star. He was all NBA second team, all defense first team, and he was 10th in MVP voting. Will he get one of those this year?
- [13:12]
Eric Naim
No.
- [13:13]
Andrew
No. So this is year 5, age 24 season. It felt like he was emerging as like, one of like the best bigs in the NBA. But he's regressed in almost every way this year. Maybe, except for passing. I think he's maybe a little bit better passer than he was last year, but his efficiency is much worse. His defensive impact has really just not been felt like it was last year. The Cavs are a plus 7.5 with him on the court, which is good. But like, a lot of it is like, the Cavs bench has been absolutely brutal with Donovan on and Mobley off. The CAVs are a plus 9.3 with both of them on, they're a plus 6.6. And with Mobley on and Donovan off there, plus 2.5, which is not awful. But I just expected a lot more from Evan Mobley. I think that people thought there would be. It's like, offensive leap for him that he could be somebody that could carry the. This Cavs team a little bit when Donovan was off the court. But that has not been the case. So I'll go with Evan Mobley for this one.
- [14:14]
Al
Yeah, that's a good one. I mean, and to be clear, like, choosing a guy like him, it's like we just had a such a high bar for him. Like, we really like him as a player. And so you establish this high bar in your head and you just want him to meet that. And it just hasn't quite been that, like. Like, if you wanted to spin it, you could say, well, he's averaging career high in blocks, you know, cysts, which you brought up. But. And. And part of it is the fact that he's regressed as a shooter. You know, last year he shot 37 on the over three attempts per game. And now he's down to 33%, which is more kind of what we thought he was going to look like as a shooter. So, yeah, it's, it's been a little disappointing. I'll. I'll come back to those Cavs, though. I think there might still be something, something there.
- [14:59]
Andrew
Okay.
- [14:59]
Al
But that brings us to our next award, There Are no Small Roles award. This award goes to our favorite player averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game. So, Andrew, who is your choice for There Are no Small Roles award?
- [15:14]
Andrew
I'm going to go with the other Jalen Williams for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who has missed some time this season, but every time that he's played for them, he's made an impact. And if you look at like his stats from last year to this year, you even say like, oh, he's a much worse shooter than he was last year. And he's, over the course of, you know, his entire season, has not shot the ball well. But the, the defense and the rhythm with which he plays are so helpful to okc. The thunder are plus 9.8 with J. Will on the court, with J. Will and Shea sharing the court together this season according to Cleaning the glass or plus 25. And then if you. And if you add AJ Mitchell to that trio where you have like these two guys off the bench playing with Shea, they're plus 33 this season. And so just having another guy on the Thunder that can provide just a rhythm to what they're doing, he provides a toughness and he's just one of their like ultimate vibes guys for the team. I'm going to go with with J.
- [16:20]
Al
Will. It's a great, great selection. I think what's encouraging is that he has. They have been so impactful in his minutes. They've been so good in his minutes despite his three ball not being there because post All Star break, he shot something like 45% from 3. He was so hot. Yeah. And you just wondered like, okay, is his impact right now? Like, are these impact metrics really just coming from the fact that he's shooting so crazy from three?
- [16:46]
Andrew
Right.
- [16:46]
Al
So the fact that that has continued while he's still trying to find his shot again, that's been really encouraging because you figured that like the shot will come back eventually. So yeah, that's been great. My selection is Dennis Jenkins. He's second year two way player for Detroit. I love Danis because his playing time, it hasn't been super consistent. But when anyone is out in their backcourt. He is ready to go. I didn't even really know who he was until that early season stretch when Cade was out. He averaged 22, 48 over four games. He's beginning some more run over this recent stretch as well. He put up 25 and a close win over Cleveland. He had 15 assists in a win over Chicago. Now he is on a two way. He's played around 30 games, which means he only has 20 games left of eligibility in the regular season and wouldn't be available in the playoffs, which might not matter unless there are injuries. But also complicating things is that the Pistons just guarantee the contract of 15th man Isaac Jones, meaning that Detroit doesn't have a roster spot right now to convert Jenkins to a standard deal. That could change by the deadline. And I hope it does because even if he ends up being just like a break glass in case of emergency guard for them when one of the other guards is injured, I think that's a really valuable player to have. Like when you can count on your 15th man to be an impact player when needed, that is a huge luxury. And so Danish Jenkins my pick for that award. Andrew that brings us to our next award, our favorite stat award. This award goes to our favorite stat for the first half of the season and for me has to do with Charlotte. So one of my favorite things when you're rooting for a bad team is finding lineup combinations of young players that seem to be working. It just gives you some hope that okay, maybe we have something here, maybe there's something here. And this season it's the Charlotte Hornets young core. This is a 15 win team, 15 and 26. But when their main young guys have been on the court together, Lamelo concanipple Brandon Miller. They have a plus 10.8 net rating. Now it's only 260 minutes but that's real hope. And then you go over to cleaning the glass. You sort by wind differential. So the difference between actual wins and expected wins based on their overall point differential, no team has a bigger gap between actual and expected than Charlotte. They're a 15 win team but they are playing like a 20 win team which would put them right around.500. This team may be closer to relevance than their record would suggest. And they're still in great lottery position and we'll have a second first in this upcoming draft as well. Andrew I'm calling it now. Charlotte Hornets early favorite for next year's surprise team.
- [19:26]
Andrew
I like that.
- [19:27]
Al
Unless they screw us and put their over under like 37 and a half. I could imagine a scenario where that might happen, but please don't put it a little bit lower. Okay, Andrew, what's your favorite stat man?
- [19:41]
Andrew
Listen, this 20 point streak that Shay's on is crazy. Like it's, it's insane what he's doing. And it's, and it's, there's. If you're watching Thunder games, there's almost a game within the game happening where it's like, Shay's got to get to 20 points. And credit to the Houston Rockets, they kind of made that a little bit more dicey than it's been really all season. But as of Friday, he has 112 consecutive 20 point games, which he is really close to Wilts 126. So I just, I don't know, I just think his consistency is ridiculous. And if you're tuning into a Thunder game, it's always on Thunder fans minds. Like, does he gonna get to 20? And sometimes he does in the first half. Sometimes he goes into the second half with like five points. You're like, I don't, I don't know that he's going to do it. And then he just blows up in the third quarter. I mean, he's one of the most special scorers in the game. And the fact that he's been able to have this crazy streak that, I mean, no one really knew about this streak before. So it's not like somebody's. Like anybody's really been chasing this. Like, oh my gosh, he's someone's finally doing it. But the fact that you can put yourself in the conversation with anything Wilt did statistically back then is unthinkable. And whenever you even just think about the consistent scores that we have seen through time before Shay, you would have thought that there would have been somebody else like Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Allen Iverson, like none of those guys did anything approaching this. And to me it just like highlights even more so like how special Shay is as a player. So I'll give, I'll give that one. That's, that's my last homer pick by the way. That's my last one.
- [21:25]
Al
Yeah, it's one of those streaks that it just takes long, so long to even get in the conversation. Like you need a year and a half of play just to be able to start talking about it.
- [21:36]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [21:37]
Al
As being close to Wilt and yeah, the consistency and also durability because that's usually how these streaks end. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Wilt streak he has One of the other streaks in the top five. And it's because of like one game where he had to exit early or something.
- [21:52]
Andrew
He would have had a. Yes, he would have had a streak that was probably unbeatable.
- [21:57]
Al
Yeah.
- [21:58]
Andrew
If not for this one game. And so.
- [22:00]
Al
But that happens. Like there's always those games where like a guy will pull a hammy in the first nine minutes or something will happen and they'll have to go out. And that counts for these kind of streaks.
- [22:09]
Andrew
Yeah. Just give Shea a ton of credit for. For getting this far. I mean, it's. I mean, 112 consecutive 20 point games in this NBA when teams are. I mean, just go watch five possessions of what the Rockets were doing to him in that game and you would have thought like, oh, like there's no way he's getting it tonight. But he always, he always finds a way.
- [22:33]
Al
And I'm still kind of shocked that Katie has never. That Katie. What?
- [22:36]
Andrew
Yeah. If anybody. I mean, KD is one of the most special scores in the history of the game, period. Yeah.
- [22:42]
Al
Our next award's a new one I came up with. It's the say Something Nice award. Now, this award goes to a player that maybe we've never really been a big fan of, but we have to admit they're having a pretty great season. So, Andrew, who is getting your say Something Nice award?
- [23:00]
Andrew
I have to admit Julius Randall is having a really nice season for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I found this stat that was pretty, pretty mind blowing with Randall on an ant off the court. The wolves are a plus 21 and a half this season in his minutes. He's really thriving as like this hub, which he's always kind of been, that he was really great in New York whenever he played that way. And he's just a guy who's like archetype. I've never really liked and never really enjoyed watching him play. And then we've seen him in the playoffs, like time and time again not meet the moment. But I have to admit he's having an amazing season so far. And the dude has. I was looking him up on basketball reference. He's had. He has so many nicknames. He has an outrageous amount of nicknames. Here are, here are his nicknames. Beyblade, Orange Julius, Don Julio, Big Jew. Julius Julius. Oh, no, wait. King Julius Julius is his name. Black Panther, the Sergeant and Goosebumps.
- [24:06]
Al
Goosebumps.
- [24:07]
Andrew
Is anybody calling them Goosebumps out there? Please let me know if anybody is regularly like, man, you know who's had a good Game tonight, Goosebumps.
- [24:17]
Al
What do you know the origin of that?
- [24:19]
Andrew
I have no idea what the origin is, but I might just start calling them Goosebumps.
- [24:24]
Al
Huh?
- [24:25]
Andrew
Goosebumps. You hear goosebumps had 20 and 15 last night. Did you hear Goosebumps is playing really good with Ant on. On the bench? I don't know. I don't know what the origin. I don't know. But it's. It's on basketball reference. So it's legit. It's legit. So anybody. If anybody knows, let us know in the YouTube comments. Go to watch. Watch this on YouTube and let us know in the YouTube comments if you know why they call Julius Randall Goosebumps.
- [24:59]
Al
Yeah, that'd be really helpful. So for my say something nice award, I want to first off by saying I love Anthony Edwards. He's one of my favorite players to watch. But I'm also choosing a Timberwolf.
- [25:10]
Andrew
Hey, we're choosing to say nice things.
- [25:12]
Al
Yeah, that's right. We're just choosing because mine's Rudy Gobert. Not the biggest Gobert fan, not my favorite basketball player to watch, but he's been so good this season. When he is on the court for the Wolves, Minnesota's opponents score 15 fewer points per 100 possessions than when he's off the court. That on off swing is the biggest defensive on off swing in the league among players that have played at least 500 minutes.
- [25:36]
Andrew
Wow.
- [25:37]
Al
Looking at his rim defense, last year, opponents shot 53.7% against him within six feet. That's. That's good. This year, it's 50.6% among guys who are defending five plus shots within six feet per game. That's the second lowest mark behind only Chet, who's at 49.3%. Rudy has been dominant defensively for Minnesota, and while that may seem obvious, like, duh, it's Rudy Gobert. I looked it up his odds for defensive player of the year, which are currently plus 300 second best. They were plus 12, 500 in the preseason. I would say that's at least somewhat of an indication that he's been better defensively than expected and just better overall this season than expected, even if we all knew he was great defensively. So that's my nice thing to say about Rudy Gobert. Shout out Rudy Gobert. Our next award. Andrew Anti League Pass Team of the Year award. This award goes to the team that we have enjoyed watching the least, and I am selecting the Dallas Mavericks. Now, admittedly, a lot of this may be a hangover from watching them early in the season when they were truly unwatchable. Yeah, it has gotten better from how it looked at the beginning of the season. And there have been some awesome Cooper Flag games. I remember watching one of his first big games against Milwaukee early in the season where he was incredible down the stretch. He's great. Everything else on this team, I'm just not super interested. That little Ryan Nem hard run got me back in for a few days, sure. But outside of that, I just don't enjoy watching this team. Part of it is that they're usually bricking a ton of threes. I looked it up. They lead the league with most games shooting under 30% from three. They've done it 16 times. So it's basically a coin toss when you tune into the Mavs whether you're going to see them miss an unhealthy number of threes. I'm still in on the future because Cooper really is special. But I need more youth. Okay. To get excited to watch this team.
- [27:33]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [27:33]
Al
Or, or, hey, bring back Kyrie. When's Kyrie coming back? That would help a lot. He would instantly make them a lot more watchable. So. But for right now, they are my anti league pass team.
- [27:44]
Andrew
Yeah. If I'm the Mavs, I'm not bringing it back.
- [27:46]
Al
Sorry.
- [27:47]
Andrew
Sorry to say. There just ain't no way I'm bringing it back. There's no way. My, my team is. And I won't spend a ton of time on them because it's the Milwaukee Bucks and we're going to talk to Eric Naim a lot about them. But watching them this past week, they have Giannis. That's about it. Everything else is. I mean, I, I, I don't know. I don't know.
- [28:09]
Al
It's a bummer, too, because Ryan Rollins has been so good and he, he was terrible this week. This is really what it was like. They knew we were going to do this award when we spun the wheel. And then we're like, oh, we'll show. We'll show you. He'll show you. You will not want to watch us when you're done.
- [28:24]
Andrew
It's brutal. Brutal. There's. And like, Ryan Rollins is a fun player, but he's, he's not like Cooper Flag, where it's like, oh, like there's like the, a future, like, potential all NBA guy. Like, that's amazing. I mean, outside of Giannis, there's nothing.
- [28:41]
Al
There's just nothing. Next award. I never stop believing in you award. Now this award is going to go to a player who has been underwhelming in the first half of the season, but who we still believe in. So who have you not stopped believing in, Andrew?
- [28:56]
Andrew
We.
- [28:58]
Al
We.
- [29:00]
Andrew
You know, I, I understand some of the hate that Paolo's gotten this season. I got, I get that it is. He has taken a step back. But this is a, this is a guy that has been an absolute gamer in the playoffs. I mean he's average last year in the five game series they're eliminated. But 29, 8 and 4 in those minutes and shot 44% from three. This is a really, really talented scorer. He's still super young. I think he just turned 23. He's obviously giant and super strong and a great score and I just don't know that they have put him in like the best situation yet in Orlando to really thrive. I know people, some people are just kind of out on Paolo. I think that's nuts. I think this guy is a superstar still. Like a guy that is going to be one of the better players at Eastern Conference as he continues to develop. So I'm still, I'm still with you. Paolo Bunchero and the Orlando Magic.
- [30:09]
Al
That's nice of you, Andrew. He did shoot 43 on two pointers during that series. Okay. My award. Yeah, these don't feel good. These. Because I, if like I chose Jaren.
- [30:26]
Andrew
Jackson Jr. Yeah, it's gotta be. It can't be great.
- [30:30]
Al
Yeah, yeah. It's obviously not going great or we wouldn't select them. And I'm not going to pretend that I'm not concerned about Jaren Jackson Jr. But I do think people are overacting just a little bit because I think if Zach Edie was healthy or if they just had a one functional point guard on this roster, I don't think we'd be talking about Triple J in quite the same way that we are now. Should he be good enough to be consistently impactful when Edie is out? Yeah, he should. He was pretty good in that Germany game, but he and Edie together was the plan and it's a good plan. It's been a good plan. They are a plus 12 when they've been on the court together the last two seasons. That's over a thousand minutes together. They've been good. I just think he needs a certain type of player next to him and that player does not exist when Zach Edie is out, which unfortunately is going to be for at least another six weeks. We got that update this week which is a huge bummer. But if they, if they don't trade Triple J. I'm confident that when Edie does get back, Triple J will suddenly become a much better player and we'll be talking about him differently. And if they do trade him and it was a team that makes sense for his skill set, I think his value would become more obvious again. But I get right now, whether it's the fouls or the rebounding, like all these things that we've talked about Triple J over the years, I get it. And it's, it's been, it's been rough, but this whole Memphis season has been rough. And I'm. It's not that I'm willing to write it off, but I just think it's going to look a lot different when they get their full team back together.
- [31:53]
Eric Naim
Yeah.
- [31:54]
Al
So I'm willing to give them the benefit of doubt for a little bit longer. Which brings us to kind of the team version of this why can't you just be normal award. This award goes to the player or team who we have found most confusing in the first half of the season. And for me, it's got to be the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last year I took Cleveland's under, which was the fastest. I've been wrong about something. They started 15, 0, had an awesome regular season, then they had that weird playoff run. It was easy to write off because of injuries, but there were also real concerns about how this team is would work in the playoffs. Well, coming into this season, I wasn't going to make the same mistake again, Andrew. And so like a lot of people, I was very high on Cleveland and similar to the playoffs, I was able to write off a lot of their early season struggles because of injuries. But now it seems like for a lot of people, the vibes are just too off. This has just gone on too long. It's taken them too long to get back on track resembling anything like last season. You know, the number of people still believing in this team, it's dwindling. And I'm confused because I could see them stumbling the rest of the season like they have been. Maybe Garland's in and out of the lineup like he's been, but I could also see things turning around in this recent stretch dating back to December 22nd where they've gone 8 and 5. They've had some quality wins. They beat a healthy spurs team, Phoenix, Minnesota, Philly. Those are some nice wins. Their losses during that stretch are to New York, Houston, Detroit, Minnesota, all good teams. And Utah, which that one does hurt. But it was a marketing game, okay? Marketing games matter. Revenge game They've had this sixth ranked offense during the stretch. The problem has been defensively, where they've been a middling 16th, but they do have the fifth easiest remaining schedule in the league. I know there's a lot of evidence at this point that I should be out on this team, but I can't give up on them, which is why I'm still confused about the Cavs. What about you, Andrew?
- [33:48]
Andrew
Yeah, mine is a, is similar a team that is only a half game up on the Cavs in the Eastern Conference right now. And in an Eastern Conference that's like just begging somebody to be awesome, like just begging like somebody do it. And there's a couple teams that are doing it. One of them that I'll talk about here in a little bit, but the Orlando Magic, who were an incredible defensive team last year, a horrific offensive team, now they've become a mediocre offensive team and now they're a mediocre defensive team. It's like, why can't we, why can't we just keep the mediocre offense and have an awesome defense? Like, why can't we, can we not do both of those at the same time? Like, what is happening here? I don't get it. This team was supposed to be much better. They acquired Desmond Bain. Anthony Black has been awesome for them this season. They've dealt with injuries, certainly that's a piece of the puzzle. But still, like, this is a, a team that dealt with injuries last year and they were amazing defensively almost the whole season. So I don't, I don't quite get that. I think they were one of the teams that was maybe a dark horse to, to be a contender in the Eastern Conference, but their inconsistencies on the defensive end have been strange at best, I would say. And so, yeah, that's, that's a team that I just, I just don't quite get because I like a lot of the pieces that they have and defensively, I don't know why they haven't been able to keep it together.
- [35:14]
Al
Another team I was very wrong about. Next award, the time traveler from June 2026 award. This is originally, it said June 2025, which, that wouldn't be much of a time traveler. That, that wouldn't be very exciting because this time traveler who's from the future, they have come back and they're giving you this gift. They only have time to tell you about what happened to one team from now until June. So you get to hear about what happened at the trade deadline. You get to hear about what happened in the playoffs, even the NBA draft. And this award goes to the team we'd pick. And you can't choose the Thunder. Okay.
- [35:54]
Andrew
Yeah, I assumed that. That, that I forgot to write that.
- [35:58]
Al
Better not do that.
- [35:59]
Andrew
Yeah, yeah, I assume that.
- [36:01]
Al
Who did you pick?
- [36:04]
Andrew
You know, I picked. I picked the Boston Celtics. I just think that Boston, they were.
- [36:08]
Al
On my short list.
- [36:09]
Andrew
They have, like, something special going on here. And part of me wants to know, like, does Jason Tatum come back and if he does and he's good at all, like, they could win the East. I. I just. I do not believe in the Knicks or the Cavs or like the Pistons, maybe the Pistons of the team that we're just. We're just ignoring. But they have the same point differential as the Pistons right now, and I know that they are four and a half games back of the one seed. But there is something special about this Boston team with just the way that they have played this year. And maybe they're just a really fun regular season team that is certainly possible is that, like, this is just a regular season story, yada yada. But we kind of thought the same thing about the Pacers last year, and I just think the east is still wide open. I just don't believe in any of these teams that we, quote, unquote, thought were contenders going into the season. I just think that everybody's almost been eliminated from that conversation. And now it's like, okay, who is going to step up? And would it surprise you at all if it was Boston? To me, it would not be surprising to see the Celtics actually get through to the NBA Finals just because the east is so weird. It's. It's so weird. It's not even that, that it's that bad, but it's. It's mediocre and it's weird this season. And so I do think that Boston has a chance to be kind of special this year.
- [37:38]
Al
They were on my short list, probably made my final three Andrew, for this time traveler award, but I decided to go with the Atlanta Hawks because I thought they were a nice balance of kind of everything. Like, first you get some trade rumors, like, will they make a big trade for some reason? Will they do that in season? And if they do, how much better would it make them? Because then there's still the potential for them to be in the playoffs. But then beyond that, you have that Pelicans pick and, you know, they. They jump up in the. Probably the worst year to jump up like that in the draft. But this Time, like, if they jump up or honestly stay where the Pelicans pick is, that is franchise changing. That's a franchise changing moment for the Atlanta Hawks. But then there's also the question of their own pick, which is going to the Spurs. And I don't know if you've watched Atlanta these last couple games, but they look awful, like, just getting destroyed. I watched their game against the Blazers. CJ's playing for them now. He's taking a lot of shots. Andrew has taken 52 shots through his first three games. But what happens with that pick? Like, what if they don't make a trade? Do they start slipping? And does that pick all of a sudden become a lot more valuable to the Spurs? So I just think there's a lot of questions about this team and I have no idea how it's going to play out. So I would like, you know, the time travel ever to give me a little insight there. Which brings us to our final award, which isn't really an award. It's the bold prediction for the second half of the season award. A bold prediction. My bold prediction, Andrew. I mentioned them earlier. I'm still believing the Cleveland Cavaliers will be the 3 seed in the East. So that means they have to jump one of the Knicks or Boston in addition to the other teams in the East. Like they have to jump one of the Knicks or Boston to get to that three seed. My pitch is that they had the fifth easiest remaining schedule, and in their final 16 games, they play two teams who are currently top six in their conference. They're playing, they're going to be playing a lot of teams that are tanking right at the end of the season. So I think they have a chance to make a run right there at the end of the season. And we'll be talking completely different about them heading into the playoffs, which will be partly influenced just by this schedule. Yeah, I'm assuming they're going to figure things out somewhat and actually get better by the end of the season, but I think the schedule is going to help a lot. So I think the Cavs could kind of be where we were talking about them at the beginning of the season. They could kind of get there by the end of the season. So that was my bold prediction. What about you, Andrew?
- [40:19]
Andrew
So this is, this is kind of, it's circumstantial, certainly, but the, the Eastern Rockets have not looked very good as of late, but I kind of still believe in them as a playoff team. Like a team that can kind of like grind it out and like just eat, eat offensive rebounds and you have Kevin Durant, you have Shangun, you have enough. You have like two guys that can create their own shot. I think if they stay in this six seed, whoever it is at the three San Antonio, Denver or Minnesota, I think that they're going to upset whoever that team is. I just think that, okay, I think that they have an ability to just play like grind it out like very slow basketball. And I just, I still really like the talent that they have on their team and I think that they, if they stay one of these lower seeds, I think that they have the ability to upset one of these teams at the top. So.
- [41:14]
Al
Well, you know, I briefly considered a similar bold prediction for the Rockets because their schedule has been crazy. I believe the stat is that like through their first 36 games, they tied for the most road games ever for a team. And so the back half of their schedule should be a lot easier. I mean, overall I think that their strength of schedule is like 16th, middle of the road. But all those other west teams are top five because they're all having to play each other. So they're going to get a lot of home games in the second half of the season. They're going to start to play some easier teams. So who knows, they could make a run as well.
- [41:48]
Andrew
They have the second best net rating and I know a lot of that is colored by like Denver has had had crazy injuries, you know. Yeah, but Denver's like still been winning games along here and they've won more games than the Houston Rockets have. But I still kind of believe in that net rating number for Houston. I mean they're plus six and a half. They're one of four teams that have like that. If you're above a plus six, then you're. That's kind of like a contender number. And so it's like Houston, Detroit, Boston, which is why I mentioned them earlier. And then OKC are the only teams that are plus six right now, which the Nuggets. I think you get Jokic back for enough time. I think they'll be one of those teams as well. But like those are typically the teams that do the most damage in the playoffs. So still still a believer in Houston despite this kind of rough patch for them. All right, Al, that was the mid season slammies from something that is really awesome in the slammies to something that's really terrible in the Milwaukee Bucks. We're going to talk about them with Eric Naim right after this quick break.
- [42:57]
Eric Naim
Prime one day delivery is fast. How Fast.
- [42:59]
Al
Are we talking? We're talking game night delivered by tomorrow night fast.
- [43:02]
Eric Naim
So we can win fast.
- [43:03]
Al
Cards fast.
- [43:04]
Eric Naim
Puzzles fast.
- [43:04]
Al
Team games at your door and a day fast. Doesn't matter what the game is. We will dominate fast. We're talking game over. You win fast.
- [43:10]
Andrew
Fast.
- [43:11]
Al
One day delivery for the win. It's on Prime.
- [43:13]
Andrew
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- [43:48]
Al
Right.
- [43:48]
Andrew
And the best part?
- [43:49]
Al
They accept Discover.
- [43:51]
Eric Naim
Except Discover in a little place like this?
- [43:54]
Andrew
I don't think so.
- [43:54]
Eric Naim
Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh.
- [43:56]
Andrew
Discover's accepted where I like to shop.
- [43:58]
Al
Come on, baby, get with the times.
- [44:01]
Eric Naim
Right.
- [44:02]
Andrew
So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.
- [44:08]
Eric Naim
Discover is accepted at 99 of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.
- [44:21]
Al
All right, Andrew, it's time for the Wheel of Fandom, the weekly segment where we spin a wheel. It lands on a team and we become fans of that team for the next week. Last week the Wheel landed on the Milwaukee Bucks and the week started off pretty good with a win over the Lakers. But then the week took a turn. First a close loss to Denver. No big deal.
- [44:43]
Andrew
Kinda.
- [44:44]
Al
Then a 33 point loss to the Wolves without Ant or Gobert in the lineup, during which the Bucks got booed and the Bucs fans got booed back by Giannis. And finally an 18 point loss to the Spurs. A game that was a 33 point game at the beginning of the 4th per cleaning the glass. The 17 and 24 bucks had the 22nd ranked offense and 23rd ranked defense, which loyal listeners will know that means they are in the land of the lost. Andrew, if the Bucks are our favorite team, who is our guest?
- [45:15]
Andrew
It's my guy, Eric. Name from the athletic. Eric, thanks. Thanks for joining us during, during this basketball season.
- [45:23]
Eric Naim
Happy to do so. You know, over the years we've had a lot of fun on this show. I'm. I'm hopeful that today can be a fun reprieve from whatever it is that I am currently doing.
- [45:36]
Al
Right.
- [45:38]
Andrew
So the Wolves and Spurs losses were particularly rough. How does the Mood around. What's like the mood around the team compared to, like, other rough patches that you've seen with this buck squad?
- [45:50]
Eric Naim
Yeah, I think it's among the worst. It's been like, this is so often over the last couple of years. You know, there's injuries, there is people that are out, there is, you know, just trying to figure things out. But there's ultimately the idea that at the peak of their powers, the Milwaukee Bucks can still be a title contender. And I think this year, you know, you went into the season kind of knowing that you were down your second best player. Like, I understand that they waived and stretch Damian Lillard to get the cap space to sign Miles Turner, but Miles Turner is a Brook Lopez replacement. He's not a Damien Lillard replacement. Like, that is still a gaping hole that the Bucks are trying to figure out how to fill. And they did it with two young guards, and I think both of those young guards, Kevin Porter Jr. And Ryan Rollins, have showed promise at different parts of the season. Ryan Rollins, the first 20 games while Kevin Porter Jr. Was out was great. Kevin Porter, juniors, excuse me. First 10 games back, he was playing really well. But now that they've tried to put it all together for the last 10 games since Giannis has been back from his injuries, it just doesn't look good. So that, like, championship equity or that belief that if things got right, you could find your way into a spot where you play through it and whatever, you're the four seed or the five seed and you still can do those things because you have that high level talent that other teams don't have. And right now the Bucks can't say that. You just look at the roster and, and that is not what they have. They have Giannis. And I do think, you know, Miles Turner has largely done what people thought he was going to do. Like, he's, he's not a second star, he's, you know, just a stretch big that protects rim, and he can do those things and he's a great fit with Giannis, but he's not going to be, you know, a 20 point per game scorer. That's just like kind of not who he is or even what you'd want him to be on, you know, a successful team. So it's just made for, I think, what's a really difficult, difficult season. And then on top of that, despite the Bucks kind of never entertaining the idea, there are Giannis trade rumors every day, every hour, every tweet, every, I don't know what you call a blue sky, post, whatever, at all times there, that just kind of hovers around and, and it doesn't really matter if, you know, Giannis goes, you know, one on one with Sam Amick and tells him like, hey, I will never request a trade. Like, right, that that existed. And it was good for two days. It was good from the time that, you know, they lost to the Golden State warriors, but he said it, they beat the Lakers and then all of a sudden they go to Denver and just don't show up and then they have two more no shows and these losses just kind of pile up. And in the background of all of that is always going to be, no matter if the Bucks don't really have any interest in trading Giannis and Giannis is not going to request a trade, that everything else just is around. It's in the air, it is in the world, it is in the Internet. It is, it is just around. And I think that leads to, you know what I mean? This is year eight that I've, I've covered the Bucks here at the Athletic, and yeah, this is the toughest year that they've been through and it's been really hard.
- [49:31]
Al
You mentioned that stretch since Giannis came back and it was going pretty well. They were five and two before this three game skid and the schedule has looked tougher. But as we've mentioned, the Wolves and Nuggets were both missing a ton of players in these losses. What have been some of the main on court issues with the team during this three game stretch where they're just getting blown out in some of these.
- [49:53]
Eric Naim
Yeah, I think, I think the young guards are going through true growing pains. You know, Ryan Rollins still deserves to be in the most improved player conversation. You know, I think what he's done from last year to this year, he's been spectacular. But when Kevin Porter Jr. Came back, Kevin Porter Jr. Went right back to starting at point guard. And at first they brought Ryan Rollins off the bench and then they decided to play them both together. And in an ideal world, the Milwaukee Bucks are going to have those three guys, Yanis de Kumbo, Kevin Porter Jr. And Ryan Rollins, be their three best scorers, three most efficient playmakers kind of do all those things. But as you can tell, two of those guys are point guards. That's going to lead to a difficult decision for Doc Rivers of, okay, well, you know, we have these two point guards. Do I bring one of them off the bench? And if I bring one of them off the bench, how am I going to get them enough minutes. Because I think there's an argument to be made that those are the Bucs three best players. So how do I get the Bucks three best players on the floor at point guard with the ball in their hands when, oh, by the way, you have the best player in the world, or one of them, depending. If you're from Oklahoma City or Denver or anywhere else and you want to argue about it, that's fine.
- [51:21]
Andrew
Top three guy.
- [51:22]
Eric Naim
Yeah, you have one of the three best players in the world and that guy needs the ball. And all of this was built on that guy will have the ball and be the playmaker. And to me, these last three games have been the, the kind of, all of that coming to a head where all three of those guys are trying to figure out like Giannis is on this minutes limit as he comes back from his injury and he's trying to explain like I need the ball, like I'm the one that's going to create everything. I am the, the heliocentric piece to all of this. And that's true. And they are better when he does get to do that. But then you have a guy in Ryan Rollins that was very good with the ball in his hands next to Giannis to start the season. You have a guy, Kevin Porter Jr. Who's shown stretches this year and last year where he was very good with the guy with the ball in his hands next to Giannis. Like there's just not enough ball to go around with those three right now. And I think it's led to some really ugly basketball. This is easily the worst four game stretch of Ryan Rollins season. This is one of the worst stretches of Kevin Porter Jr's kind of year with the Bucks, including last year when he was a major rotation piece as well. Like those two are struggling and that's led to some really ugly basketball where they're not scoring enough. And I mean, this team is just not going to be a good defensive team. That's just not in the cards for them. The only wing that they had on the roster, Taurean Prince, had a neck strain that turned into next straight next surgery that's going to keep them out indefinitely. So they just don't have the size on the perimeter to be good defensively. So they need to be able to score. And when you're trying to figure out how to do all of this with two point guards, both of them under the age of 25 and one of the best players in the world, it's a lot. And I think it's all kind of come to a head over these last, you know, three or four games where it's a struggle and they don't quite know how to get themselves out of it. They don't quite know when to feed each guy and make sure that they're putting a strong offensive team out on the floor because they've kind of loaded up the starting lineup, which is good. And, you know, you look at the on, off, you look at the analytics on the starting lineup, it's great. You know, they're a great offense, they're great defense, or they're great offense, they're an okay defense, but the numbers are good. But as soon as you go to the bench, it is. They just fall off the face of the earth. Their numbers are terrible. And Giannis has complained of the last three games, like, why is it that when I come back in the game, either the lead I built is gone, or we were even with this team, and Now I'm down 15 and I got to make a comeback? Like, why is it every time that I come back in the game, that happens? And that's just a lot of pressure to put on the bench unit that's obviously, frankly, undermanned in trying to figure things out, and then it's a lot of pressure to put on Giannis and the starters to always kind of come back and make their way through that. So I think overall, you just see a lack of depth on this Bucs roster, and you see them trying to figure out this triumvirate of those three guys, trying to figure out the playmaking, and you just get to a spot where they've played really bad basketball for the last three games. Games.
- [54:45]
Andrew
So Bucks fans, as I read and listen to Bucks fans, there is a pretty large group focused on Doc Rivers, who is now 86 and 85 in three seasons with the Bucks. Given the limited options that this team has, is there any chance that they would let him go in season?
- [55:04]
Eric Naim
Yeah, I mean, there's been really no inklings of the Bucks having any interest in that to this point. I think in previous seasons, we've seen multiple games that I would call, quote, unquote, fireball offenses. Like, you know, you can't go to Brooklyn and lose by 45 points of the Brooklyn Nets. You can't.
- [55:26]
Andrew
That.
- [55:26]
Eric Naim
That's not acceptable. It's not a thing that you're allowed to do. If you have any, you know, any inkling, any desire to be a serious basketball team, that's not something you can do. You can't lose to the Washington Wizards. And you can't lose to the Washington Wizards twice. Yeah, at both times with Giannis, those things can't happen. Like, all, like, you just kind of pile up all these losses that they've had. There's been so many bad ones where, you know, I think I would say, like, yeah, that's the type of performance that will get a coach fired. And we've seen no suggestions of that thus far. Obviously, this can change in an instant. You know, this could change. You know, I could get a phone call, and all of a sudden, ownership and John Horst have decided that this is what they want to do and there's a new path going forward. But to this point, that has not been the case. Doc Rivers has been the guy that's kind of leading the Bucks through this, and. And they're trying to figure that out. So I think the. Any. Any of the ire being placed towards Doc Rivers, I think it's totally fair. I don't think it's been a very good performance. You know, you look at the ways that teams on the margins have gone out of their way to. To win that battle, to. To win the possession battle, to find extra possessions, to. To give an Underman team a chance, and the Bucs have largely punted on many of those. Their foul rate is terrible. Defensively, it's been bad the whole season. They put teams on the free throw line a lot. That was a problem after the game last night here in San Antonio. Doc Rivers talked about how many free throws they gave up in the first half. They have punted on offensive rebound in the entire season, and that is a Doc Rivers staple. And that's. That's fine. But it is only exacerbated in an NBA that has put more emphasis on offensive rebounding, covered by our colleague Fred Katz earlier this season in a fantastic feature like the whole league wants to offense rebound now. And not only are you bad at it, you don't have any interest in it. You've punted on it in a way that teams in the NBA just don't do anymore. And there's just so many of those kind of strategic, tactical decisions that I think are worthy of. Of, you know, significant questioning and. And trying to figure out, like, what exactly is the goal here? What. What is the identity supposed to be other than, big fella, you're pretty good at basketball. Can you. Can you win. Can you win the game? Like, can you. Can you go do that? Like, go do that basketball? Giannis, thank you. And again, that's like, a good strategy. To be clear, like he is very good at basketball and he can do a lot, but the just not winning on the margins in, in really any other way. And I think putting tactics together that would allow for taking advantage of those margins has been, has been a real problem this year.
- [58:37]
Al
So the trade deadline only a few weeks away and depending on the day of the week, we're either talking about Giannis trades or trades the Bucks could make to upgrade this roster around Giannis. How aggressive are you expecting the Bucks to be at the deadline? Do you think that their future first and swap are in play or would they, or do you think they're more likely to play this out and wait till the summer when they would have more pick equity?
- [58:58]
Eric Naim
Yeah, I mean, I think you look at the last two transaction cycles, the Bucks were aggressive, that is true, but in the move for Kyle Kuzma, they held on to that future first round pick. One of the things that I wrote about when they made the Miles Turner decision was yes, they have put 22 and a half million dollars on their books for the next five years, but they did not touch their first round pick. Like there could have been other ideas out there where you trade an injured Damian Lillard for and your first for a player or whatever it might be, right? Like for some other team to take on the money of Damian Lillard for one year and a second year and they didn't. They decided to wave and trust Jamie Lillard and then create the cap space to go sign Miles Turner. So I think as far as the pick goes, you know, the Bucks aren't going to make a definitive statement about whether or not they're going to move a pick or not move pick. And honestly I don't think you could ever do that because you don't know who might be available, right? Like if all of a sudden one of the many young wings that NBA teams around the league are thirsting over becomes available. Yeah, maybe, maybe the first round pick is then available. But I think when you're looking at a number of players that teams don't necessarily want on their own rosters anymore, I think it's difficult to imagine giving up the only first round pick you still control in 2031 or 2032 for that type of player. Like I just for, for a player like John Morant, right? Like he's, he's got a lot of money left on his contract, he's got a lot of years left on his contract. He has not been a good basketball player over the last year.
- [60:51]
Andrew
That's A big deal.
- [60:52]
Eric Naim
Yeah, that's a problem. He's small, he's bad defensively, he's had injury issues and he's had availability issues that stem from off the court things. And all of that is like, that's what you're going to give up. This pick that you've held onto for all of this time, like it again, maybe the level of desperation gets to such a high, you know, threshold that then all of a sudden that becomes a thing. But it, to me, it just seems unlikely that unless this is like a true, like, real blue chip type of asset that you don't have significant questions about that. There isn't significant risk about. It just doesn't seem like the Bucks are very interested in moving that big. They haven't now for. For over a year. So as far as the pick, that's what I would say. And then as far as aggressiveness, like, they need help, they need depth, they. They don't have enough quality players right now. They could use a wing. They don't have a wing on the roster like it. I shouldn't say that there are wings that Doc won't play, but like, in their rotation right now, it's guards or bigs. You're either guard or you're big, and you still got to fill minutes on the wing. So that means guys are playing out of position. So that's either AJ Green or Ryan Rollins picking up early fouls, covering a three, or that's Kyle Kuzma attempting to cover threes when he's actually a four and maybe a little bit of a small ball five. So you're just kind of in this spot where the Bucks are going to be looking for things. I think the unfortunate thing for the Bucks is that their biggest asset is how much money they are underneath the luxury tax right now. Depending on how you do the math, depending on kind of all that, it's about 12 million that they are underneath the luxury taxes so they can take in money from people. Hey, you want to salary dump someone, we can help you figure that out. But teams don't make those trades before the deadline. And what I mean by that is, for the next three weeks, whatever, whatever delusions any team has, they can hold on to them, right? They can say like, no, we are going for the four seed, we are going for the six seed, we are going for the plan. You can do whatever, you can say whatever, but at some point there is a deadline and you have to decide then, like, okay, well, this was fun. We did it for a while. But we're $2 million over the luxury tax, and we're in 10th place. Okay, we got. We gotta chop some money and all right, how can we do that? And that's where the Bucks can come in and make a move. And we've seen teams make moves like that, but I think overwhelmingly, teams don't make those moves early, like those. Those moves to dump salary. They don't make them early. They hold out and try to get as much value out of the player that they're holding on to, or hold on to the delusion of being a playoff team or whatever it might be for as long as possible. And then you get to the deadline and it's like, okay, we see the reality. We got to get rid of this guy or that guy or this money, or we got to move this money in this way. And those are the moves that I think the Bucs can make. I just think it's unfortunate for a team that is in as desperate need of help as the Milwaukee Bucks are that the market in which they have the most assets, the most value, the most leverage isn't something that typically you can use until you get right up against the deadline. And I think that's where, despite everyone kind of knowing that the Bucks are aggressive and John Horst wants to make a move, and there are, you know, so many teams out there that are trying to dump things and do things and whatever else. Like, you know, when you don't want to give up the only first round pick you have left and you want to take on people's dead money, like, that's a situation where you probably got to wait it out.
- [65:04]
Andrew
I. I have one more question for you, Eric. This is all sounds terrible, by the way. Okay, sure. But I do wonder what you think the odds are of Giannis signing another extension with the Bucks on because, like, he's going to be offered super duper max. We'll give you everything. Like, what are the odds that he actually signs another extension with the Bucks.
- [65:29]
Eric Naim
Every time he has been presented with one, he signed it.
- [65:32]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [65:35]
Eric Naim
I don't know.
- [65:35]
Andrew
It's kind of why I'm asking you. And like, like.
- [65:38]
Eric Naim
And you can only. You can only kind of go off of what Yanis says, but then you have to counteract it with what his agent says, which he does not have any control over. And then you gotta figure out, you know, what the truth in the middle is there. But, like, I do think when you kind of go through all of this in, you know, throughout the year, as I've kind of told people, like, hey, the Bucks don't have any interest in moving on. It's like they're going to be aggressive to keep building this and keep trying to get stuff. I think one of the things that kind of has to sit in the back of everyone's mind is like, I don't think anyone thought this was going to be an easy year.
- [66:19]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [66:20]
Eric Naim
To get through like that. That much was clear. Like, as soon as you waved and stretched Damian Lillard. This was going to be a year where you had to try to overachieve and you had to, you know, try to find some of those things that we talked about earlier on the margins, and they didn't do a good job of that in. Giannis missed 14 of the team's first 41 games. That's hard. Like, if the team is built around this guy and he missed out at 14 or 41 is what, 33% somewhere around there? 35%. I'm not great at math, but I think that's about right. He missed 35% of your games. It's going to be hard for you to. To kind of get to those spots that you wanted to. For you to overachieve. Like, that is not what's happened yet. There's another 41 games that I think the Bucks can kind of hope that he stays healthy for. They're able to figure some things out. Maybe they're able to make a move. And if you can get to that off season without touching that future pick, what then occurs is you get to draft night and you have three first round picks that you can move. You have your 2026 pick this year, and because the Atlanta Hawks fleece the New Orleans Pelicans, you're also in a pretty good spot there because no matter how low your pick goes, it's probably not going to be the pick that the New Orleans Pelicans want to swap with, because it's going to be like the Pelicans pick is going to be worse. So that's gonna be the one that the Atlanta Hawks take. So, I mean, this thing can go as far down is wherever the Pelicans are, right? So not only could this be a first round pick in this year's draft, but it most likely is going to be a top. It might not be a lottery pick because the Bucks are going to try to push and get where they need to go, but this can be a top 20 pick and what most people consider to be a loaded draft, then you're going to have two future picks down the line that you can use, Kyle Kuzma will then be in the final year of his contract. So that's 20 million of Kyle Kuzma that you can move in a trade, and you can include Bobby Portis in there. And because you are so low in salary, you can aggregate and add 125% of the salary that you send out so you can get to some interesting numbers, some interesting players, and you have the picks to do so. So I think one of the things that I will always say with. With the Bucks and, you know, with. With John Horst is if you think he is all in, there is a couple poker chips in his pocket. A couple of them had fallen on the ground. Somebody bankrolled him at the last second. Whatever it is, he has found more things to play, more hands with, and he is going to keep finding them until the end of time. And again, I don't know if Giannis will sign the extension when it's put in front of him in October. First, he signed every extension he's had the chance to sign thus far with the Milwaukee Bucks. Maybe not for the full extent that you know, the full years, but he has signed an extension every time one's been put in front of him. And if. And again, it's a big if, because I think you can see the. The sleep in my eyes, and I think you can see my general disposition. It's pretty rough right now, and there's 41 more games to get through. So I can't say for sure that the Milwaukee Bucks can get through all of this. But if you get through all of this and you get to that big move, all of a sudden, maybe Giannis says, oh, okay, well, you actually added something that's interesting, and maybe we actually could be good. And also, 8% raises year over year sound better than 5% raises year over year. And also, it's pretty apparent that anyone can just demand a trade whenever they want in the NBA. So why don't I take the money and then demand a trade after that? So as far as the odds, I'm not going to put a percentage on it. I'm just. What I just laid out is what I would say about whether or not he would actually sign it. I think we are months away from October 1st. It's what, January 17th right now? Yeah. That's nine months away. So I cannot tell you what the Milwaukee Bucks will look like in nine months. I can't tell you who will be on the roster in nine months. I can't tell you who will be coaching the Milwaukee Bucks in nine months. I can't tell you. I can't tell you anything about the Milwaukee Bucks in nine months. But I can tell you that if the Bucks have an opportunity to do so, if Giannis de Kumbo still on the roster, they will offer him that supermax extension and see if he'll turn it down.
- [71:07]
Al
Well, Eric, thank you for answering all of our Bucks questions. Before we get to Andrew versus the Beat, I wanted to let you know I was at a three year old's birthday party this weekend talking to a dad from Wisconsin and he brought you up, said, that's the guy I trust.
- [71:23]
Eric Naim
That's very sweet.
- [71:24]
Al
Now, on the flip side, on the flip side, Eric, I was also at the Blazers Knicks game on Sunday and Bango was there and Bango came up to my seat. I also asked him if he knew Eric name and he did not respond to me so well.
- [71:38]
Eric Naim
See, that's not fair because he can't talk. He can squeak his nose though. So did he? Did he honk his nose?
- [71:43]
Al
I didn't see any nose squeaking or honking.
- [71:46]
Eric Naim
That's unfortunate.
- [71:47]
Al
That hurts a fake Bango though, because there were a lot of mascots there.
- [71:53]
Eric Naim
The mascot, the mascot parties. I have questions about the travel budget. I agree with that.
- [71:57]
Al
Yeah, that's fair. I have questions about the integrity of these mascot parties. Are we really getting the real deal?
- [72:03]
Eric Naim
I mean, for years I recorded what different days we were celebrating Bengals birthday on at the start of my time on the buck speed. And I believe in the first six years. Years, it was six different days. So you know the integrity when it comes to mascot birthday parties, you know, who am I to say? I don't. I wasn't there. I haven't seen birth certificates, so. So I can't actually say. But I do have my questions as well.
- [72:30]
Al
Now Eric, you have played Andrew versus Beat before. I've come up with eight questions about the Bucks. Some are easy, some are hard. You'll give me a number between one and eight correspond to a question. If you get it right, you'll get at least two points. If you get it wrong, Andrew have a chance to steal for one. And we'll go back and forth until all the questions have been asked and answered. So to start us off, I just need a number between one and eight.
- [72:49]
Eric Naim
Let's go. One question.
- [72:51]
Al
Number one. The Bucks had the 22nd ranked offense per cleaning the glass. The last time their offense was ranked that low was the 1516 season. Who led the 1516 bucks in total points scored?
- [73:09]
Eric Naim
Oh, that's a great question. I think Giannis was averaging like 16 ish, 17 ish points per game that season. I'm trying to decide if anyone would have played in more games and averaged more. I'm gonna say Chris Middleton.
- [73:30]
Al
Eric. That is correct for two points. Points. All right, Andrew, board is yours number two. Question number two. Kevin Porter Jr. Is averaging 7.7 assists per game. There have only been three Milwaukee Bucks in history to ever average more than 7.7 assists per game. How many can you name? You could get three points here, Andrew. You get one point per correct answer. So there's only three other Bucks who have averaged more than 7.7 assists per game in a season.
- [74:07]
Andrew
There's one guy that feels like maybe he should have done it, but I don't know. I would gander that Brandon Jennings didn't do it.
- [74:17]
Al
You'd gander that?
- [74:19]
Andrew
I would gander it. He likes shooting more than passing.
- [74:26]
Eric Naim
Who doesn't, though, to be fair?
- [74:29]
Andrew
That is fair. What about. This is going to either be good or really dumb.
- [74:36]
Al
Okay.
- [74:37]
Andrew
What about Ramon Sessions?
- [74:40]
Al
Very close, Andrew, but he was 7.4 or 7.5. I'm sorry, that is incorrect. All right, Eric, you have a chance. You could steal three points here.
- [74:50]
Eric Naim
That was gonna be one of my guesses, so that's unfortunate for me. Let's go with Oscar Robertson.
- [74:57]
Al
Good start. One point.
- [75:03]
Eric Naim
Give me Paul Pressy.
- [75:08]
Al
Yes, I will give you that. I think his. His name was Phil, right?
- [75:13]
Eric Naim
Oh, yes, it is. No.
- [75:15]
Al
Is it not?
- [75:16]
Eric Naim
No, it's Paul. It is Phil. Phil is his son. Phil's his son or did I flip him? No, Paul Pressy was on the Bucks.
- [75:22]
Andrew
Yeah. Phil's the younger guy.
- [75:24]
Al
Okay. Okay.
- [75:25]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [75:25]
Eric Naim
Phil is like an assistant coach at Boston. I don't know, Somewhere. He's right.
- [75:29]
Andrew
That's right. Yeah, you got that correct.
- [75:32]
Al
So you got two or three. Can you get the third one? Really? But Andrew in a hole.
- [75:39]
Eric Naim
Man. Ramon was going to be my guess for the third one. Let's go. Brian Winters.
- [75:50]
Al
Brian Winters. That's a name. The correct name, though, was Sam Cassell. He's actually the last one.
- [75:58]
Andrew
Oh, wow.
- [75:59]
Al
You have to go all the way back to the 90s. Okay, Eric, control the board and control of the game. Up 4, 0.
- [76:07]
Eric Naim
Let's keep it rolling. 3.
- [76:09]
Al
Milwaukee is scorching from 3 so far, shooting 39.8% as a team. Let's name the top 10 in three pointers made in Bucs franchise history. So how this works, Eric, you'll give Me a name, then Andrew will give me a name. We'll go back and forth till one of you stumbles. So, top 10 franchise history, three pointers made.
- [76:30]
Eric Naim
I start, right? Yes, sorry. Chris Middleton, number one on the list.
- [76:36]
Al
Andrew.
- [76:39]
Andrew
Brook Lopez.
- [76:41]
Al
Brook Lopez, number four on the list, back to Eric.
- [76:48]
Eric Naim
Bobby Portis.
- [76:50]
Al
Bobby Portis, number eight on the list, back to Andrew.
- [76:56]
Andrew
He's number eight. Oh, man.
- [77:01]
Eric Naim
I mean, just, just think, most of these got like three point revolution, man. Like, I know you've seen almost all these guys play.
- [77:08]
Andrew
I know this just seems crazy. Ray Allen.
- [77:12]
Al
Ray Allen, number two on the list, back to Eric.
- [77:19]
Eric Naim
Oh, my gosh. I can't remember where Giannis is. I think he's in the top ten now. I'm going to go Giannis.
- [77:24]
Al
Giannis is number six on the list.
- [77:31]
Andrew
Oh, gosh. Michael Redd, like, has to be on this list, right?
- [77:38]
Al
Michael Redd, number three on the list. You've got the top four back to Eric.
- [77:44]
Eric Naim
Pat Connaughton.
- [77:45]
Al
There's number five. So you've gotten the top six.
- [77:49]
Andrew
These. These names are just so funny to me. I don't know why this is so funny to me.
- [77:53]
Al
So there are three names remaining. Andrew, what do you got?
- [77:58]
Andrew
What about Brandon Jennings, Is he on the list?
- [78:01]
Al
Jennings, number seven. Which means there's only two names remaining. Number nine and number 10. Franchise history, three pointers made. Can Eric get one of those names?
- [78:13]
Eric Naim
Oh, man, I am running out. Trying to think of guys that have been around long enough to get on this list. Let's go. Like, super high value volume. Grayson, Allen, Grace.
- [78:36]
Al
Now it is not on the list. Which means, Andrew, you get one point for all that work.
- [78:42]
Andrew
Yes. Any other guesses as Earson Ilya Sova on the list?
- [78:47]
Al
Oh, yeah. Your son is number nine.
- [78:50]
Eric Naim
Nice.
- [78:50]
Al
And then Glenn Robinson is number 10. I thought that was a pretty good list of names. I liked that one.
- [78:57]
Eric Naim
That was a fun. Remember this guy List.
- [78:59]
Al
Yes. Okay, Andrew, you got on the board and you have control of the board. 4 per cleaning the glass. Giannis leads the bucks an on off differential with a plus 21.2. Who is second at plus 14.5.
- [79:17]
Andrew
Oh, no.
- [79:23]
Al
Number two in, on, off.
- [79:25]
Andrew
Probably have to be somebody that plays a lot with Giannis. Is.
- [79:30]
Al
It's a good guess. It's probably, probably not the opposite of that.
- [79:35]
Andrew
It simply can't be the opposite of that.
- [79:39]
Eric Naim
I'll give you one that it isn't. Jericho Sims has barely played with Giannis. So it's not Jericho Sims.
- [79:44]
Andrew
Give me Jericho. Simon Sims. I was not Going to guess Jericho Sims.
- [79:48]
Eric Naim
Okay.
- [79:52]
Andrew
What about AJ Green?
- [79:54]
Al
It is AJ Green for two points. We now have a game on our hands. Eric, you're up four to three. Four questions remain.
- [80:03]
Andrew
Shooting is important.
- [80:04]
Eric Naim
Five.
- [80:05]
Al
Question number five. How many Bucks have had a 30 point game this season? You don't have to tell me who, just give me a number. How many bucks have had a 30 point game this season?
- [80:22]
Eric Naim
Who? Let's go with four. Eric.
- [80:35]
Al
That is correct. It was four. You get both points. It was Giannis, KPJ, Ryan Rollins, and Kyle Kuzma at 30 point game. All right, Andrew, you're now down five to three. Three questions remain.
- [80:51]
Andrew
Six.
- [80:52]
Al
Question number six. Giannis has a free throw attempt rate of 0.574. Who was the last Milwaukee buck, other than Giannis, to have a free throw attempt rate that high over a full.
- [81:08]
Andrew
Oh, my.
- [81:14]
Al
And that means that he's taking 0.57 free throw attempts per field goal attempt, which is pretty high.
- [81:21]
Andrew
Per field goal attempt. Goodness.
- [81:29]
Al
Who's the last buck to get to the line like that?
- [81:38]
Andrew
Kareem? I don't know.
- [81:41]
Al
Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He's. He was good. He was good for sure. That is not the correct answer. Eric, do you have any guesses?
- [81:50]
Eric Naim
Corey McGetti.
- [81:52]
Al
It was Cory McGetti, right?
- [81:55]
Andrew
Oh, my gosh.
- [81:56]
Al
Nice pull.
- [81:57]
Eric Naim
It's under. It's under. Undeniably. Maybe his greatest skill, like the outlier rate of which Corey McGetti got to the free throw line in that era of basketball, is outrageous.
- [82:08]
Andrew
It's true.
- [82:10]
Al
Okay, Eric. Wow, that was. That was big for you. There's two questions remaining. Would you like to keep it going with seven?
- [82:16]
Eric Naim
Yeah, let's do it.
- [82:17]
Al
All right. How many blocks does AJ Green have this season? You get to choose who answers first. You make Andrew answer first, and then you go higher or lower. Or you answer first and then Andrew would go higher. Lower. If you make Andrew guess, though, and he gets it exactly correct, he would get a bonus point.
- [82:38]
Eric Naim
I'll go.
- [82:39]
Al
Okay, three. Eric is setting the bar at three blocks for A.J.
- [82:45]
Andrew
Green.
- [82:46]
Al
Andrew, would you like to go higher or lower?
- [82:51]
Andrew
3 is so few. But the way that you asked this question makes me think that it's very small. So I'll say lower.
- [83:01]
Al
The correct answer was three. Exactly correct. Wow. Eric gets his own two points plus a bonus point, bringing him to 10 points.
- [83:15]
Andrew
Wow.
- [83:15]
Al
A dominant performance. Now, Andrew, you can't win.
- [83:20]
Andrew
No, I can't.
- [83:21]
Al
You can still lose some pride if you get this wrong.
- [83:26]
Andrew
It can get worse.
- [83:26]
Al
It could get worse. Which of the following is not a basketball reference, official nickname for one of the Milwaukee Bucks players? You nailed this last week. Let's see if you can get this week.
- [83:37]
Andrew
I did.
- [83:38]
Al
Samurai Miles, Green Giant, Sukuta. G Money. The Mayor of Milwaukee. Again, that was Samurai Miles, Green Giant, Sukuta, G Money. Or the Mayor of Milwaukee.
- [84:04]
Andrew
Okay. There's, like. There's. There's one in there. I don't know if I could repeat it if you paid me.
- [84:10]
Al
Talking about Sukuta.
- [84:12]
Andrew
Yeah. Sukuta. I don't know. I don't. I don't know who that is.
- [84:21]
Eric Naim
Sukuta.
- [84:23]
Andrew
Why is. Why am I stuck on Sukuta? This just seems like a name that you couldn't make up if you did. It was just like, I'm just making up. I don't know. I don't know what that is. The Mayor of Milwaukee.
- [84:38]
Al
Oh, Andrew. No, that is, of course, the nickname of Bobby Portis.
- [84:42]
Andrew
Eric. Oh, duh.
- [84:43]
Al
You have any guesses?
- [84:45]
Eric Naim
You must say Green Giant.
- [84:47]
Al
Green Giant is correct. I made that one up. It kind of fits, though. I thought it was pretty convincing. Andrew. Sukuta is the Japanese word for scooter, which is KPJ's nickname. I don't know why he has a Japanese version of his nickname as well, but he does. He has both. He's both. Scooter and Sukuta.
- [85:08]
Andrew
Wow.
- [85:09]
Al
So that means. Eric, you won 11 to 3. Congratulations. That's gotta feel good after this week of Bucs basketball.
- [85:18]
Eric Naim
I needed it, if I'm being honest. I needed it. And I. I thank you guys for giving me it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna believe that Andrew's such a good friend to me that he just tanked the game so that I could have it. And I appreciate that. That's why we're such good friends.
- [85:33]
Andrew
Any. Anytime, anytime. I'll stick with that narrative as well. Go read Eric at the Athletic. Thanks so much for coming on the show.
- [85:42]
Eric Naim
Of course. Thanks for having me.
- [85:46]
Al
All right, Andrew. That was Bucks week. A sad week.
- [85:50]
Andrew
Give. Give me. Give me an uplifting week. Wheel. Come on. That was too. That was too depressing.
- [85:55]
Al
We're going to spin the wheel. It's going to land on team. We'll become fans of that team for the next week. Would love to get a team who's got some. Some trade rumors going with the deadline coming up. Let's see. This week's wheel of fandom team will be. The Chicago Bulls. No. Now, didn't I just see a report that they were Considering blowing it up or something.
- [86:23]
Andrew
Blowing what up?
- [86:27]
Al
Blowing it up further. What? Didn't I just read that?
- [86:32]
Andrew
I hope you did. I don't know.
- [86:35]
Al
Okay.
- [86:38]
Andrew
Some Bulls basketball. Josh. All right.
- [86:42]
Al
Josh Gay's not even healthy.
- [86:44]
Andrew
No, he's not.
- [86:45]
Al
We're watching Trey Jones.
- [86:48]
Andrew
A lot of Trey Jones.
- [86:49]
Al
Let's see. They got. Maybe they got some big matchups this week. Let's see what we got.
- [86:53]
Andrew
Okay.
- [86:54]
Al
Okay. Friday at Brooklyn. Sunday. Sunday, Brooklyn at home. Tuesday, Clippers at home. Thursday at Minnesota.
- [87:10]
Andrew
Okay. All right.
- [87:13]
Al
Oh, man. If we had gotten them at the end of January, they play the Miami Heat three games in a row between January 29th and February 1st.
- [87:24]
Andrew
Wait, why? I don't.
- [87:27]
Al
Three in a row?
- [87:28]
Andrew
That's crazy.
- [87:29]
Al
That would have been something.
- [87:31]
Andrew
Wow. Wow. Leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we'll read it on the show. Just like this one from I Love Ball 1637. This is the best basketball podcast there ever was and ever will be. Andrew has so much basketball knowledge. Thank you. If I'm being honest, spurs are probably not winning the chip, but they are making the playoffs. I agree with that. That statement. I think that's true. Next one comes from px. Legit question. Is one of you on ASAP Weekly Rocket League podcast? Podcast. Not me.
- [88:12]
Al
No, but I. I've been. I've played Rocket League since the beginning Beta. I have the Golden Nugget on my antenna. So I do love Rocket League. One of my favorite games of all time. But I'm not on a Rocket League.
- [88:25]
Andrew
Wow. Wow. This one prompts from Comes from Coasters Raf rafting. Hey guys, it's been rough out here for the Bucks, but can't wait for Trip. The. I think he meant to say love Eric name, but I. But he wrote Live Eric name. Okay, that's positive too, which is much funnier. Live Eric name. Also, don't forget about whitewater rafting@coasters.com and use the code Slam and jam to save.
- [88:57]
Al
What?
- [88:57]
Andrew
Shout out to Coasters Rafting. And then we have one from Turb 999. Great. Best basketball podcast of all time. Thank you. Wow. So nice. Leave us a five star review and we'll read it on the podcast. And if I don't get your review, just screenshot it to me and send it to me because there's one that I missed last week and I. I think maybe I just read it. I don't know, somebody reached out to me. So appreciate you guys listening to the show. Hope everybody's doing well. Enjoy the basketball this weekend. We'll talk to you guys again next Saturday.
- [89:46]
Eric Naim
Amazon, Pizza Hut, Audible. How'd they get so big without soul destroying complexity? On Founders Mentality to CEO Sessions. We're going to find out who's number one. It's a customer. Whose Walmart is it? My Walmart.
- [89:59]
Al
If you looked at Audible, it was kind of like growth, growth and then growth.
- [90:02]
Eric Naim
It separates Amazon and AWS from anyone else.
- [90:06]
Al
Join me, Jimmy Allen, partner of Bain and company to hear surprising stories from.
- [90:11]
Eric Naim
The world's greatest leaders. Subscribe to Founders Mentality, the CEO Sessions.
- [90:15]
Al
Now thy ticket lady, Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks, good sir.
- [90:22]
Andrew
Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance Fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop.
- [90:31]
Al
Geth with the times.
- [90:34]
Eric Naim
With the times.
- [90:35]
Andrew
You're playing the loot.
- [90:38]
Al
Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?
- [90:40]
Eric Naim
Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. If you're an H Vac technician and a call comes in, Grainger knows that you need a partner that helps you find the right product fast and hassle free. And you know that when the first problem of the day is a clanking blower motor, there's no need to break a sweat.
- [91:02]
Al
With Grainger's easy to use website and.
- [91:04]
Eric Naim
Product details, you're confident you'll soon have everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.