NBA Daily Mailbag | Morning Shoot Around

Summary

The Athletic NBA Daily – Morning Shoot Around Mailbag

Date: December 10, 2025
Hosts: Andrew Schlecht, Dave DuFour, and guest co-host
Episode Overview:
This episode delivers a lively, insightful NBA mailbag session. The trio field questions from The Athletic’s Discord, Twitter, BlueSky, and YouTube, spanning stats and analytics, team building, Hall of Fame debates, viral food trends, player interactions, and trade hypotheticals. Their discussion is candid, often irreverent, and peppered with personal anecdotes.

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Main Theme

The hosts run through listener-submitted questions—ranging from basketball analytics to fun hypotheticals and NBA gossip—creating an entertaining and informative shoot around that showcases their knowledge, humor, and camaraderie.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Advanced Analytics: Usage, Limits, and Favorites

Timestamps: 03:14–10:07

• Favorite Advanced Stat?
  • EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus) and Box Plus Minus emerge as go-tos, but all hosts are wary of relying on any “catch-all” stats.
    • "All catch-all stats are bad, period." – Dave [03:56]
    • "Truthfully, it's like a tool in the toolbox. It's never the entire toolbox." – Co-host [04:33]
  • They cite how top players are reflected accurately in stats, but anomalies abound in the next tiers.
    • “BPM…top three guys in BPM right now is Jokic, Shay, Giannis. Good job. But then, like, Reed Shepherd is 12th... You can't tell me Reed Shepherd is a top 12 player in the NBA.” – Andrew [06:00]
• Game-to-Game Value:
  • Single game and lineup plus-minus can illuminate narrative, especially for role players.
    • “If you're involved in a lot of winning lineups, you're probably a decent player.” – Dave [07:51]
• Wins as the Best Stat:
  • Ultimately, “wins” matter most; advanced stats should inform, not dictate, the conversation.
    • "My favorite stat is really, is like wins. And that's the stat I care the most about." – Dave [08:08]

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2. Viral Food Trends and Banter

Timestamps: 11:14–15:51

• Hosts share their engagement (or lack thereof) with food fads:
  • Soaked, sugared, and baked cranberries; cottage cheese bowls; frozen grapes rolled in sugar.
    • “Welcome to the diabetes podcast.” – Dave [15:49]
    • Main message: American food culture is wild, and cottage cheese remains divisive.

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3. Thunder-Related Hypotheticals

Timestamps: 16:08–17:26; 43:08–45:14

• If the Thunder win the lottery with the Clippers pick:
  • Andrew promises to “flood a Chili’s and everybody have skillet queso,” echoing past show traditions. [16:26]
  • Dave notes the resulting scenario would just be hilarious—a reward for exemplary team-building. [16:46]
• Questions about Thunder’s next loss, their regular season dominance, and the third quarter tornado:
  • “Should teams be allowed six players on the court for the third quarter against the Thunder?” – Listener [43:08]
  • Hosts speculate on when OKC might next lose, agreeing it’s hard to predict any soon upcoming defeat, pending possible slip-ups against Spurs or Nuggets. [43:36–45:14]
  • “They're the most fun thing in the NBA right now. Not just because they're great, but because of the way that they're great.” – Dave [45:31]

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4. NBA Hall of Fame Debates

Timestamps: 17:26–20:49

• Comparing basketball to baseball:
  • “It feels like everybody gets in [to the Hall of Fame] now.” – Dave [17:54]
  • Basketball lacks “snub” debates; if anything, the problem is lesser players getting in thanks to fame or team success.
  • Example: Could Rasheed Wallace deserve more HOF consideration? “He affected winning at a high level… but personalities got in the way.” – Andrew [19:17]

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5. NBA Player Trade Rumors and Team Building

Timestamps: 24:38–26:46 (Wolves’ point guard options);
26:46–28:12 (Timberwolves roster construction);
28:33–31:13 (Pelicans, Derrick Queen, and franchise direction);
36:11–38:44 (Detroit, Duren, Ivey, and Harris contracts/trades);
61:42–66:49 (Giannis hypothetical trades and team futures)

• Wolves' Point Guard Dilemma:
  • Names floated: Anthony Edwards, Dante DiVincenzo, Kobe White.
  • Trades are hard due to cap and asset limitations; consensus seems to stick with DiVincenzo and Conley’s intangible veteran value.
• Pelicans’ Pick/Trade Retrospective:
  • Derrick Queen is showing star potential, but the front office’s previous trades continue to impact the evaluation.
  • The Pelicans’ broader organizational stasis and poor attendance spark talk of a potential relocation.
    • “I don't think they're building anything cool. I think they're building a freaking ship at the bottom of the ocean, bro.” – Andrew [30:49]
• Detroit Pistons:
  • Duren set for major extension. Likely to move or forego Jaden Ivey and Tobias Harris next year. A need for a secondary scorer is highlighted.
• Giannis as a Trade Candidate:
  • “If Giannis is on that Hawks team, they're the front runners in the East.” – Dave [62:09]
  • The calculus for acquiring stars: "What do you have left after you trade for Giannis?” – Co-host [63:03]
  • If the Bucks do trade Giannis, their only sensible direction is a full reset focused on youth and picks.

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6. Best (and Most Awkward) Player Interactions

Timestamps: 48:53–56:00

• The hosts share memorable and sometimes awkward real-life NBA player encounters:
  • Kevin Garnett: "I go to go up to him, like, 'ticket, what's going on?' He's like, 'get the... I don't know you.'" – Co-host [49:37]
  • Bill Walton: “I don't know who you are. I love Dr. Jeff, but I don't do media with people I don't know.” – Dave (impersonating Bill Walton) [50:43]
  • Russell Westbrook: Andrew tells a story where Russ, after being asked for a podcast soundbite, simply says “maybe,” walks off, and then doubles down with “I’m gonna say no.” [53:02]
  • Allen Iverson: Both positive and negative anecdotes are shared.
• Musical Past Lives:
  • Co-host bonded with Iverson at a freestyle contest due to a shared birthday. Reveals former life as a rapper; Alex Spears also gets a rap shoutout.

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7. Other Fun/Nuanced Segments

• Bench Mob Challenge (32:50–35:44):

  • Constructing a starting five from NBA Cup quarterfinal benches; names like Sandro Mamukelashvili, Goga Bitadze, Jaime Jaquez Jr, AJ Mitchell, and Aaron Wiggins get playful props.
  • “You could feasibly start the bench of the Oklahoma City Thunder and win 30 games. 35 games.” – Co-host [35:05]

• Dodgeball Jump Balls and Bane's Cannon Arm (39:28–41:42):

  • Listeners propose replacing jump balls with dodgeball; Desmond Bane is praised/mock-lampooned for his recent line drive inbound at OG Anunoby.
    • “He let the intrusive thought win.” – Co-host [40:42]

• Joe Mazzulla's Movie Obsession and The Town (57:41–61:23):

  • Coaches can be quirky. “It's a weird movie to be super into.” – Andrew [60:17]

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Notable Quotes

• "All catch-all stats are bad, period." – Dave [03:56]
• "Box Plus-Minus... it's actually a good place to go to [for] MVP arguments, but... for who are the top 20 players in the league, it's actually kind of a bad stat." – Andrew [06:45]
• "It's never the entire toolbox... it's something you can use to validate what you're watching." – Co-host [04:33]
• “Cottage cheese is disgusting. I’ll try again in five years, but it's bad.” – Dave [14:13]
• "If the Thunder win the lottery, we're going to flood down to dunk listeners into a Chili's, and we're just going to party at Chili's." – Andrew [16:26]
• "It feels like everybody gets in [to the Hall of Fame] now." – Dave [17:54]
• "I don't think they're building anything cool. I think they're building a freaking ship at the bottom of the ocean, bro." – Andrew [30:49]
• "They're the most fun thing in the NBA right now. Not just because they're great, but because of the way that they're great." – Dave [45:31]
• “If Giannis is on that Hawks team, they're the front runners in the East, I put them ahead of the Knicks.” – Dave [62:09]

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Memorable Moments

• The food segment veers into absurdity: frozen grapes with sugar, baked cranberries, and cottage cheese bowls elicit laughter and debate.
• Listener hypotheticals (e.g., third quarter six-man disadvantage for Thunder) draw playful speculation.
• Hosts riff on pop culture references, including coaching with DVD commentary from 'The Town'.
• Authentic NBA media stories emerge, from getting stonewalled by KG to rapper showdowns with AI.
• Revelation: Two hosts have musical/performance backgrounds, leading to challenges to track down their work online.

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Advanced Stats Mailbag: 03:14–10:07
• Viral Food Trends: 11:14–15:51
• Thunder Lottery Scenario: 16:08–17:26
• Hall of Fame Debates: 17:26–20:49
• Wolves’ Point Guard & Trade Talk: 24:38–28:12
• Pelicans’ Direction and Relocation Chatter: 28:33–31:13
• Detroit, Duren, Ivey, and Contracts: 36:11–38:44
• Funniest Player Encounters: 48:53–56:00
• Bench Mob Five: 32:50–35:44
• When Will Thunder Lose?: 43:08–45:14
• Joe Mazzulla/The Town Banter: 57:41–61:23
• Giannis Trade Hypotheticals: 61:42–66:49

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Podcast Tone and Style

The discussion combines deep basketball expertise with playful banter and a conversational, sometimes sarcastic style. The hosts often break into side jokes, roast each other, and riff off listener questions, keeping the content accessible and thoroughly entertaining for both hardcore and casual NBA fans.

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Summary Takeaways

This episode succeeds as an "NBA morning shoot around"—with a fresh, relaxed approach and a wide range of basketball and non-basketball topics. For those who missed it, the key themes are the limitations of advanced stats, the ever-changing NBA landscape, engaging hypotheticals, and the lighter side of life around the league. The show is uniquely personal, seamlessly blending anecdotes, intelligence, and fan engagement.

Transcript

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[Andrew Schlecht]

Hey, Andrew Schlecht here. The NBA on Prime is back with an exciting week of Emirates cup action. The knockout rounds start with quarterfinal double headers on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Then the quest for the cup heads to Vegas for a semifinal doubleheader on Saturday. And it all culminates with the championship game next Tuesday night. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the NBA cup and the drama that it provides. I'm telling you, players really want to win this, this thing and if you don't respect the Cup, I don't know what you're doing. If you're not a Prime member, that's not a problem. Sign up for a 30 day free trial to get started today. Emirates NBA cup coverage continues this week only on prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

Welcome to the morning shoot around here on the Athletic NBA Daily. We're live on YouTube if you want to join us. We're typically live around 1 o' clock Central Standard Time and would love Nobody lives Central Time.

[Dave]

Andrew, what are you talking about? There's a lot of people who live Central time. Statistically though, we use Eastern time because most people live there.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Sure. But people understand. People understand time zones. I don't know if people understand.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Let's see, Chicago, Denver.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Denver's Mountain Time.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Mountain Time.

[Dave]

Oh, no time.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Anyways, who cares?

[Dave]

It's not even that big of a city.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Listen, we're live. We're live right now. Okay? All right. We are gonna do a mailbag today. So we appreciate questions from Twitter, from Blue sky and from Where I'm going to start is our discord so we, we do have a athletic MBA daily Discord. You can find the link in the show notes of the podcast, and we would love to have you join us on our Discord. So also, if you happen to be in the chat right now, you can ask questions in the chat and we'll answer questions from there, too. We'll try to answer as many as we can today. Okay. This one comes from.

H. Folar Thorin. I don't know if that's how you say what you wrote, but that's how I'm saying it. Okay. He actually, he actually has three questions. Oh, what is your current favorite advanced analytics stat? What is an example of it working? What is an example of it not working? Like EPM or PER.

S? What's your go to right now?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

PER sucks, in my opinion.

[Andrew Schlecht]

In your face, John Hollinger.

[Dave]

Well, hang on, hang on. Wait a second. If I. Let me defend my guy, John Hollinger here.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Historically, PR is fine.

[Dave]

Well, wait, no, no. Historically, catch all stats are all bad. No, no.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I mean, I mean, comparing to NBA history.

[Dave]

Yeah. Right. But I'm saying all catch all stats are bad, period. And this is not coming from me. This is, if you ask Seth part now, who is, you know, well renowned, is like the head of like king of analytics. Like, these catch all stats are all bad. I would say box plus minus, maybe like the real plus minus kind of gives you a sense from game to game and maybe week to week. But I, I think these catch alls are all bad in defensive PER which was at its time one of the better revolutions. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

What is my go to? I don't necessarily have a go to. I think EPM is good. The dunks and threes. EPM is solid. It has like a good baseline. But again, truthfully, it's like a tool in the toolbox. It's never the entire toolbox. You know, like, it's, it's one thing you can use to validate and justify something that you're watching, but sometimes it will not match anything, you know, and I, I speak as a guy who, like, obviously watches a lot of basketball, but also, like, can see impact on a basketball court and what some guys do that might not show up on the box score that ends up not counting on EPM or any of these advanced metrics. So, yeah, I don't think you can use any of them as like, hey, this is the one thing I know there's a lot of guys who also love the Darko graph. You guys Know the dpm, Darko graph.

[Dave]

Yeah, that's fun.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's cool to like, look at. But again, like, how much are you really basing anything off of, you know, but there's people who live by it, which I think is the dangerous thing. Not even dangerous. We're talking about sports.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, it's dangerous.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's dangerous online. Trust me.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It is.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It is. I do like box plus minus. I think it's generally pretty. Pretty good. But especially when talking about the topic. The top three guys in BPM right now is Jokic, Shay Giannis. Good job. But then like, reed shepherd is 12th and he's had a nice season. But you can't tell me that Reed shepherd is a top 12 player in the NBA.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's not. It shouldn't be used like that. You can't tell me that Michael Porter Jr. Is the 19th best player in the NBA. Like, there's. Those are examples of like, how it's not working, but typically I think I use it more for like the, the very best players in the league. Rarely is there like an error at like in the top, like 4 or 5 ish. 4 is. Is Luca. You know, I feel like that stat is doing a good job of capturing what's happening at the very top. It's when you get like into like the teens where it's like, yeah, I don't, I don't think Mikhail Bridges is the ninth best player in the NBA this year.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So I just, I think that that's. That to me, that's. If I'm looking for like MVP arguments, like, it's actually a good place to go to. But if you're looking for who are the top 20 players in the league, it's actually kind of a bad stat to go to.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's just impact on their respective teams. Like, I, like, I do enjoy simple raw dog net rating and plus minus.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

As a way to measure something throughout a season, you know, maybe night to night on a game basis, plus minus is a little bit harder and it's a little funky because of the lineups.

[Dave]

But it's narrative, though.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Right. I mean, think about the, the cup game last night with the Magic and the Heat. I mean, you look at the plus minus and you see that the Bane and the bench units, like, you can get the story of what happened. And so, you know, there is like, you, you can knock the, like and we all do the, the single game plus minus. But from a narrative perspective, it does tell the story and the timeline of Kind of what happens in the game. And I think that there's a lot of value in that. I mean, if you're involved in a lot of winning lineups, you're probably a decent player.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

And you know, the game to game stuff is really. I actually think you learn more game to game than you do sometimes big picture stats about some of the players that aren't stars, you know, the role players, especially you, you get to see more of these flashes game to game.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

So.

[Dave]

Yeah, I don't know. My favorite stat is really, is like wins. And that's the stat I care the most about. That's my catch all stats.

[Andrew Schlecht]

My stat.

Hey, I've got a cool stat for you losers. It's wins.

[Dave]

That's right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Sort of talk about your VORPs and EPMs and all that. You know what I count? Wins. Yeah, that's. That's actually what we, that's all we care about in okc too. So it's.

It'S a good, good place to start. I would.

[Dave]

Hey, let me plug Seth's book, the Mid Range Theory.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Because if this is interesting to you, it's actually a very good and easy read and a nice primer for advanced stats, for sure.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dave]

He's gonna send me a check for that.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, for you better. I, I would also just like, caution people about like the. If like there's an efficiency differential number on cleaning the glass that like, tells you like, how like, what these players look like on the court throughout the season. But there, there's like some stuff where it's like Chet holmgren's like a minus 1.4.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah. So, yeah, like, Scotty Barnes is like a minus zero point something. That's like.

[Andrew Schlecht]

We know you have to be like, really careful about those particular, like, big picture numbers because it's not telling you a story about the player, it's telling you a story about like the lineups that they're in.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And so you just have to be really careful about those particular numbers. Like, oh, he's not that good because he's a minus this or minus that. Or using it as like only like, oh, clearly the most valuable player on the, the Thunder is Alex Caruso because he's a plus 17.9. Yeah. You know, like, they used to do.

[Dave]

This with demarta Rosen when he was in Toronto. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No, you're right.

[Dave]

He was in. He was in lineups that would, you know, they would have a negative net rating, but he was in. He was always in These lineups playing against the best players.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yep.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Exactly. Like Shang Shangoon right now is a minus 12.7 for the Rockets.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And you can't tell me that he hasn't been immensely valuable to what they've done this year. Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

There are certain players that are asked to carry lineups, you know. You know, as you mentioned with Demar, like, from 2019 to, like, 2022, Kyle was asked to carry a bunch of bench lineups. So it'd be like Chris Boucher, Ronde, Hollis Jefferson, whatever type of lineups, and they would. They would lose those lineups, but they would just barely lose those lineups, and that was a win as far as the Raptors were concerned. So it was like. It's tough to look at that type of data and make it be the. The before.

[Dave]

This was before Ronde was doing his Kobe impression.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yes, that was before.

[Dave]

It's amazing. It's incredible. If you guys haven't seen it, go look it up on YouTube. I saw it firsthand during the. The run up to the World cup in 2023, and it blew my mind watching him play. I mean, it looks just like Kobe.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, it is. It is strange.

[Dave]

But Lefty, I mean, it's just. It's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

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

[Dave]

It is. It's all we could talk about when we were watching film the game was. It's like watching Kobe. I mean, obviously, he's not as good, but it was fun.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Second question is from the Same listener. H. H.F. aure Thorin. I'm saying every time. I don't know. I'm sorry. I just apologize for not being able to read. What is a viral food trend that you enjoy? I guess have a viral food trend. There's. There's this one where you take cranberries.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Oh, I actually have one.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You soak them in, like, Sprite and, like, orange juice. Okay, just shut up for a second. Okay. You soak them in the fridge overnight, and you take them out. You dry. You take them out, you dry them, and then you soak. Then you coat them in powdered sugar. Jeez, just be quiet, guys. And then you bake them for.

[Dave]

Bake them way back up.

[Andrew Schlecht]

S. Okay, You. Then you. You bake them for five minutes, and then you bring them out of the oven, and they're, like, crunchy. Like, a very crunchy, sweet treat.

[Dave]

So you take dehydrated cranberries that already have sugar added to them. You soak them.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Are they dehydrated? What does that mean?

[Dave]

Well, like, they're dried up. You're not going to, yeah, you're not going to have like a cranberry in your house. For sure. You're going to have a bag of dehydrated cranberries.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Okay.

[Dave]

All have sugar added. You're going to soak them in two different sugary beverages to rehydrate, and then you're going to roll them in more sugar.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, that's delicious.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And it sounds good. And it's good, Dave. And it's crunchy. You can hear a crunchy pop whenever you eat one.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

A long time ago last, last year, I think these little cottage cheese bowls really became popular. And so I know Dave hates cottage cheese, but so bad.

[Dave]

It's like chewing Styrofoam.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's not that bad.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It is.

[Dave]

It squeaks.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's like cheese curds, cottage cheese, sweet potatoes, beef avocado. And you kind of make this like Mexican bowl type of thing with cottage cheese is sort of the base. It's delicious. It's very good. Yeah, it's yummish.

[Dave]

Cottage cheese is having a moment also.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

To you, sweet stuff. Sorry, go ahead.

[Dave]

Apparently, for that cran cranberry, the viral one, it's raw cranberries, not dried. Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say.

[Dave]

Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I thought you meant you guys wouldn't stop talking during my viral food segment.

Okay.

[Dave]

I, I, I don't even know what a viral food trend would be because I, I'm not like, I don't, I don't, I don't use Tik Tok and I don't really like.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Dave, do you have a Ninja Creamy?

[Dave]

You know what? I will tell you, they look interesting, but I'm not a huge ice cream or sweets guy.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

People really don't like cottage cheese.

[Dave]

That's, well, it's because it's bad.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Renee, in the chat, cottage cheese is disgusting.

[Dave]

And I say, this is somebody who is always looking for new sources of protein. I, I re test cottage cheese like every five years because, you know, your, your taste buds change. I didn't like onions when I was a kid, and now I, I eat like half a red onion almost every day. Cottage cheese is disgusting still. I'll try again in five years, but it's bad.

I don't know viral food stuff like. Yeah, I'm just not, I don't know, I'm not super into the Internet like that.

Yeah, the closest I ever got was I got super excited about that Popeyes chicken sandwich.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave]

Back it was Delicious.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That was.

[Dave]

I mean, but that's not, like, even viral. That's just. It was good.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yep.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, that's Shutter King in the chat last time taking Mexican food advice. I'm a Canadian.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Look, I'm not saying it was Mexican. It's a Mexican thing. It's Mexican inspired. All right. Just like how Taco Bell. Bell is Tex Mex. You know what I mean? It's Mexican inspired.

Blame tick tock. Also, can I throw another one out here while we're at it? To your whole sweet treat thingy. Grapes.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Throw sugar on it, freeze it, and then you got yourself some candy.

[Dave]

Guys, grapes are sweet by themselves.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Okay, okay, I'm. I'm with. What are we doing? I'm with. I don't put sugar on the grapes, but I do freeze my grapes when I get.

[Dave]

Sure.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I don't put sugar on them anyways.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

If you do put sugar on them, they're. They taste delicious.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Be even better. Yeah.

[Dave]

Welcome to the diabetes podcast.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, stop, dad.

[Dave]

We're adding sugar to everything.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Welcome to the America.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Welcome to America, bro. Here we are. Okay. Third and third and final question is if the Thunder win the lottery with the Clippers pick. You will, what will you do?

[Dave]

That's a question.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Andrew, only a few years or a couple years ago, whenever the Thunder had a chance to win the number one pick in the WIMBY draft, I think they had like, the 10th best odds or whatever. They weren't good. They ended up getting case of Wallace in that draft.

They. We said, if we. If they win the lottery, we're going to flood down to dunk listeners into a Chili's, and we're just going to party at Chili's. So I think we'll probably keep that the same and just flood a Chili's and everybody have skillet queso on us, you know, so that's pretty good.

[Dave]

I'm just gonna laugh. It's just. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, this team has done everything right, and they. If they. If they wind up with the number one pick, I don't know what you can do but laugh.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It would be deeply unfair.

[Dave]

You know what, though? I don't. I don't mind it. I don't think it's unfair.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I.

[Dave]

And we've talked about this before. My draft reform would be put every team in the draft, and I don't care if a good team gets the number one pick. Matter of fact, it might be a pleasant surprise where, oh, wow, this player is in a good organization that's already Winning and doesn't have to go suck for the first four or five years of his career. You know, like, maybe. Maybe we get to see what that's like. I don't know.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow. At bear son from Discord. Who is the Lou Whitaker of basketball. Someone who should clearly be in the hall of Fame, but for unknown reasons is not.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I'll think Barry Bonds. I don't even know.

[Dave]

Well, I mean, Barry Bonds definitely should be in the Baseball hall of Fame. You know, the basketball hall of Fame is tricky because number one, there's all the. There's a worldwide aspect of it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

But also it feels like everybody gets in now.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

I can't think of anyone who's been snubbed. And as a matter of fact, I think the bigger conversation will be some of these lesser players who get in.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Because they're famous. And that is. You know, I think that that's an issue. It waters it down if you. If you care about that kind of stuff. But I can't. I can't. There's not a big hall of Fame debate with basketball.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. There's not. Like this guy should be. And one guy I did think of that I would. Would love to hear a Hall of Fame speech from. Is Rasheed Wallace.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That would be a cool one.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Who is not.

[Dave]

Is he good enough?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Is it. I think he's good enough. Is his resume good enough? Is what the mission is like his. I think that he's as good as a lot of the guys that are in the hall of Fame. He just like. I think he made three all star teams. He won one championship. He was like on the all rookie team. And like it kind of ends there for his accolades. But I think that Rasheed was really good and some of the personalities have gotten his way certainly.

[Dave]

Right. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You know, if he. If he didn't have those like. And like maybe sticks around Portland for a long time and racks up a bunch of numbers and All Star games. He certainly would have had more All Star games if he didn't have all the off. I guess a lot of it was on the court. But just like the mayhem that he caused.

[Dave]

Yeah, the technicals, man. I mean, getting getting ejected all the time. That stuff stands out. And like you said, he should have been. He should have won more.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Because he was such a really good point.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He affected winning at a high level. I mean, he did. You put him on that Pistons team, they instantly win the title and then they were competitive for a long time.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Is Chris Weber a Hall of Famer?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Chris Weber.

[Dave]

I don't know if he got in. I mean, again, I, I'm bad about this hall of Fame stuff. It's just not stuff that I really think all that much about. I don't put a ton of thought into hall of Fame. For me, I look at it like.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Weber is a Hall of Fame.

[Dave]

If I say a guy's name to you and you and, and you immediately say, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer, He's a Hall of Famer. And with Weber, I'm like on the fence about it.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I think he should be. I just wasn't sure if he got in there.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He got there.

[Dave]

I don't know.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He got there. Yeah. I'm kind of with you that like there's, there's a lot of. There's not, it's not baseball when we're talking hall of Fame, you know, it's just different. I don't think there's not, there's not a huge part of the basketball community clamoring for guys to like, this guy should definitely be in the hall of Fame.

[Dave]

Like, well. And it's because it's less of an individual sport. And so you get guys who are carried into the hall of Fame by being on good teams. You know, like, Klay Thompson is a Hall of Famer. Is Klay Thompson a Hall of Famer if he doesn't play in Golden State his whole career? I don't know.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

What I see out of him, maybe not. Right. So I do think that it's a little bit different. Whereas with baseball, it's individual sport.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Dave]

It's really a one on one sport. It's closer to tennis when you think about the way that, that the hitter pitcher interaction occurs. So I, I just think that it is there, there's less debate for that reason. And then there's a little bit of a watering down.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Barry Bonds should be in there, though.

[Dave]

Just one Barry Bonds? Yes. Like maybe the greatest baseball player ever. Yeah. Yeah, he should be it. The steroid stuff is tricky, you know, like the NBA, they don't actually steroid test. So like, we don't know, but like, let's say.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Let's say. Yeah, I was about to say let's say we found out tomorrow that from 2020 to 2025, LeBron James was taking.

[Dave]

HGH, you know, and it wouldn't affect anything for me.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

He would be a Hall of Famer still. Okay.

[Dave]

But yeah, he's still like, I. This stuff just. I think that we wring our hands about the Wrong things, you know, and these guys, like baseball had a real epidemic of abuse. And you know, we just don't see that in other sports. So I don't know, we're, we're lucky with the NBA that we really don't have to split those kind of hairs.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Right.

[Dave]

Like the baseball changes all the time. They change the height of the mound. They're constantly adjusting these other things. All we have to account for is the fact that they stop calling travels and moving screens. Well, no, no, you can't defend.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

We have to account for. It's the constant conversation of why is the game being played this way? You know, that's the one thing we always have to.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, state of the game.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, that's right. Mike Hernition from Discord. How tall do you feel you would need to be in order to dunk? The only variable being height. And no change to your overall athleticism. Your athletic. In your athletic prime.

[Dave]

Of course, I, I mean, I could dunk in my athletic prime.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I'd probably say 61 or 6 2. I'd probably need to be 61 now.

[Dave]

I, I don't know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Now I need to be six.

[Dave]

I'm old.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

But like, in my athletic prime, if I was 6 to 6 2, I definitely could though.

[Dave]

I haven't tried in a while, but I feel like, I mean, the last time I tried was two years ago. I get jumper's knee now and so I try not to do a lot of that, but the last time I tried, I could still grab the rim in my 40s and I'm five nine.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow, that's impressive.

[Dave]

But I have long arms too.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I was, I was actually thinking about this the other day. Like, if I was 7ft tall.

How close to the NBA would I get?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Tell us.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Like, like, I don't know.

[Dave]

I mean, I don't know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You guys tell me.

[Dave]

Pretty high percentage chance of like. Yeah, there is something. It's something like an 18 of 7 footers make it to the NBA or something. It's a crazy number. I don't know what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it is a really high number.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Like, look, at the very least, you're.

[Dave]

Getting a college scholarship.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I'm playing in college.

[Dave]

Yeah, right.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And then from there it's like, how much more can I make out of height? Yeah, exactly.

[Dave]

You know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You know, I think if I was 7ft, I'd have a pretty, pretty good chance of making the NBA currently at my age.

[Dave]

Do you guys, you know Pen and Teller? Penn Jillette? Yeah, yeah, he's like six, eight.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, he's tall.

[Dave]

He's very tall. And he. He can juggle. Like, he's. He's a magician. He's great with his hands. Apparently he tried to play basketball in high school because he was tall and he was really good around the basket, but he didn't. He wasn't competitive, and so he stopped. Imagine, like, you think about the way Jokic plays. He kind of plays like a magician, the way he manipulates the ball. I. I think about Penn Jillette as a basketball player way too much.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow. I need to be seven foot five in order to dunk.

[Dave]

Okay.

Well, the torn acl, you know, that's. That's. That's a tough one.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's where I'd need. That's where I need to.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You'd have to be Victor Women. Yamaha. Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

All right. Yeah.

[Dave]

Otherwise, I'm too scared to tear something.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I'm not, man.

[Dave]

Like, I just. I've given it all up. No basketball, no.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, you should.

[Dave]

No strenuous jumping.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I'm telling you, it's not worth it. None of it's worth it. Don't move. Everybody stay where you are. J.D. wants to know who is the Wolf starting point guard for game one of the playoffs?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Anthony Edwards.

[Dave]

What if it's Kobe White?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Who's the other guard next to Anthony Edwards?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Dante DiVincenzo.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I kind of think it's even Chenzo.

[Dave]

You don't think they're gonna make a move?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think DiVincenzo has actually been. Has been good. I don't think that. I think that they have a more holistic problem than they do a. Than they do a guard problem.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Wolves Fans absolutely hate DiVincenzo.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Because he just drives them crazy with the shot attempts. But I agree with you that he's been better than that. I. I will say.

It'S hard for them to make a trade.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It is. It is.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's very hard for them to find someone to replace that hole. You talk about John Morant, hard to make happen. James Harden, Hard to make happen.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Kobe White's interesting because he only get. Gets paid $12 million, so you can kind of cobble that up a little bit easier.

But tough.

[Andrew Schlecht]

But are the Bulls trying to move Kobe?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I think so.

[Dave]

Yeah. I think. I think he's available.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I think so.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So what?

[Dave]

Just not for Giannis. They are not interested in Giannis whatsoever. Make sure we put this in the paper.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I think they would trade Kobe because they don't want to commit $70 million to a backcourt of Kobe White and Josh Kitty.

[Dave]

Yeah, or maybe they do. It's the Bulls.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, whatever gets you to that playing game, you know?

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I don't know what the Wolves can do realistically to improve themselves because like, who are you trading in that deal? Are you swapping Divincenzo for Kobe White? Is that like something that the Bulls are even interested in at this point?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, tough.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Like, I don't. I mean, Mike Conley makes 10.7 million.

And I think Mike Conley is like low key, important just to the culture of the team. Just to have like another adult in the room kind of thing.

[Dave]

Yeah, sure.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Well, I mean, you look at how Rudy Gobert has been acting this season.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I know.

[Dave]

And yeah, you gotta have Mike Conley around.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. I don't know. I would. I would guess it's gonna be Dante because I just think it's. It's hard to upgrade that position whenever you're paying. Anthony Edwards 45, Rudy 35, Julius 30, Jaden McDaniels 25, Naz Reed 20. It's just really hard without trading any of those guys to upgrade that spot is really tough. And like Nas Reed is. Does not have increased trade value from the deal that he's gotten. Yeah, for sure. Gobert is hard to trade at that number.

Randall is like a very specific fit that I don't think a ton of teams are just like, man, we just need a back to the basket power for it. There's just not. They don't have guys that are super tradable. It's really just Jaden McDaniels and he's.

[Dave]

And they can't move him.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I don't think they should.

[Andrew Schlecht]

There's no chance they move him. He's been their best player in many of these games.

[Dave]

He's Scotty Pippen to Anthony Edwards. Michael Jordan going forward.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, sure. Yeah, they're great value Bulls. You know, I mean, it's. It's fine.

[Dave]

Gobert is Bill Cartwright. Is he Will Purdue. Like, where are we putting him on.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

The Bill Weddington shout out to the Canadian Bill Wennington.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. I don't know. It would be nice for them to be able to upgrade that spot, but I just don't know what direction they go. And really that it should be Dilly. Like, should be the guy. Like that would have been the hope. Whenever you trade that pick.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Is that Rob Dillingham can come in and take that spot.

[Dave]

He's just right he's so skinny.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That was a big, big call from them, man. What a trade to make that. And I remember that because that was supposed to be the Raptors pick that the spurs got. But yeah, man, I can't believe how badly that's turned out for them because Dilly is just.

[Dave]

I hope someone asks a question about Derek Queen so we can talk about. Speaking of, Speaking of bad trades.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Oh, I see here Dave do four or five.

I wanna.

[Dave]

Like, we talked about this a little bit the other night after he put up that 33 point triple double, four blocks.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Reframing the conversation around Derek Queen I think is more fun. And like the fears thing is really the problem. If they took Derek Queen 7 and he's doing this, man, we are all just in love with this. But making the trade. And I think a few years from now, like, Derek Queen looks like a real player offensive hub. Like, he's going to be good. A couple years from now, we won't care unless that pick really is something. Something special. But it is. I. I've watched as people are starting to come around on Derek Queen and like, people see him now, you know, he's getting more attention. The Pelicans are. They are actually not in a bad spot. If this is. If they can start to pivot, I think they've got guys who have value. They could get back into the draft next year. And it's. It's a little bit easier for them to reset and recover from the bad trade than it looks. And especially because Derrick Queen is so good.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I would agree with that. I just think, like, generally it's two different conversations.

[Dave]

100.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You can be okay with the fact that the trade sucked at face value and okay with the fact that Dairy Queen probably ends up being an All Star or maybe even an all NBA player like that. I think he's that good.

Also, to your point, like, maybe they do entertain the idea of trading a Herb Jones, Trey Murphy. They probably have to somehow get off of Zion.

But yeah, I agree. They're building something cool. They draft well. Shout out to Troy Weaver. Does. Does good drafting.

[Dave]

Don't trade.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Don't trade.

[Dave]

Just hang up the phone. Take the battery out of the flip phone that Joe Dumars is still using.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

Yeah. Also there's. I mean, there's also an aspect of the Pelicans where it's like somebody's got to score the points. Like you're going to score 100 points in every game, guaranteed. Sure. Somebody scoring the points. I would love to see It. In a more competitive environment. Also, why the heck was he not playing at the beginning of the year? Like, that's weird. Like, there's just so much weirdness around the Pelicans.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I don't think they're building anything cool. I think they're building a freaking ship at the bottom of the ocean, bro.

[Dave]

I mean, come on.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You don't like Beers and Queen?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think they're. I think they're. I think they're good players, but, like, they've had Anthony Davis, they've had Zion Williamson. Until they change the ownership group, I'm not convinced the Pelicans are going any place whatsoever.

[Dave]

Well, I think. I actually think the NBA has cooled on expansion. This TV deal is such fat money. And it's nice to have cities to. To leverage when. When you're a team and you want a new arena or whatever.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

But I could see the Pelicans being the team that moves to Seattle.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Or Vegas.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Sell them. Send them. Send them on.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Because this poor people in New Orleans just.

[Dave]

They're giving away. They're giving away tickets.

[Andrew Schlecht]

People won't go. They don't.

[Dave]

Literally giving away lower bowl tickets.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. They don't go to the arena.

[Dave]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They have football.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's funny, they took a picture of the Pelicans Arena, I think, at the start of the season, and it was like the. The upper bowl was completely empty and the lower bowl was, like, half empty.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And it was the start of the season.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I know. You know, it's bad. I. I feel bad for, like, the real fans because there are real Pelicans fans. That for sure. I feel really bad for them. But the fact of the matter is, like, that city is not supporting the team. Nope. And they. And their ownership group hasn't given them a reason to in a very long time because it. That's the saddest part is, like, whenever you're tanking, you can sell hope. You can't sell hope to a franchise that has won the lottery twice in very good drafts and still can't get out of the hole. Like, that's when it. That's when it becomes like, for what? Like, what are we getting excited for?

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

They've got a life raft every five years or whatever, and they haven't been able to save themselves.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Anyways, sorry, Pelicans fans, that's, you know, instants and wants to know, you have to make a starting five from the benches of the teams in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.

Who are the five that you take?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Okay. Starting power forward, Sandro Mamu.

[Dave]

Kayla, I'm taking Mamu and Goga. That's my, my. That. That's my four and five. Okay. Everybody else, I don't know, but I'm taking. I'm taking Mamu and Goa.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Hame Hakez, he's still coming off the bench for the Heat, right?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Jaime has been really good. AJ Mitchell.

[Dave]

Mitchell.

[Andrew Schlecht]

AJ Mitchell.

[Dave]

I need AJ Mitchell for sure.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Give me Dylan Harper.

[Dave]

Why not?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You know?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I don't know. Are we just thinking about the teams that are going to lose? Because there's also the.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know with the Lakers, you know, I don't love their bench.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I'm not in love with it either.

[Dave]

OkC. I love every single player. Phoenix, honestly, Phoenix has some guys, man.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

The way that they're playing, but it's just Mitchell Robinson.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Take Goa out, put Mitchell Robinson in.

[Dave]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. I got Goa.

Yeah, but aj, aj Mitchell. Mamu's just having such a great year for Toronto.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Is that team winning 30 games in the NBA regular season?

[Dave]

It's maybe 30, right. If you had a team full of high level role players. 30. But then, like, you know, Andrew, like you just said, somebody's got to score the points.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Somebody's got to score the points.

[Dave]

And it's the NBA. So somebody would break out.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, somebody break out. What about Jamari Booye?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Sure, why not? Throw them on there. He'll be your six.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Man, that dude plays hard.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I don't know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Josh hart, Count Deuce McBride, Nicks, have some good bench pieces.

[Dave]

Have a lot of depth.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Deuce is hurt, right?

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Hopefully not that long, but it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Reevaluating an ankle injury is never a good thing.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

No. Yes.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Tristan De Silva, you know, De Silva's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Had a nice season.

[Dave]

He's been excellent. Yeah. He had a great Eurobasket run.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That team is not winning 25 games.

[Dave]

Actually, though, somebody make that team in. In 2K and see how they did it for us.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I gotta give a shout out to my. To my guy, Aaron Wiggins. Before we go to the next question, give me Aaron Wiggins and give me the other Jalen Williams as well.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

You could feasibly start the bench of the Oklahoma City Thunder and win 30 games. 35 games.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They would do pretty good. Yeah. Jay Will would average a triple double. It would be sick.

[Dave]

Yeah, J.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Will. All right.

[Dave]

Oklahoma City should be able to double down on their roster and split it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

And field two teams, play two games in one day.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's right. Like the B team and A team type of thing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. We've done this. We've done this exercise on down to Dunk, where it's like, hey, this one team gets Hartenstein and sga, the other one gets Chet and J Dub. And then, like, you just build with role players around those guys.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And then you just combine the wins afterwards.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

It's seriously amazing that they haven't played their full starting lineup one minute together this season.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

And that we're all not losing our minds about it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yep.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah. I. I don't see how they lose 10 games, man.

[Dave]

They're not going to lose against the east, maybe all season.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I just. I like, other than them waking up one day and saying, like, we're not in the mood to win this basketball game. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Do you guys realize that the Nuggets are off to their best start in franchise history?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I actually just saw this.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yes. I had heard this.

[Dave]

Nobody knows. This is. I mean, it's a tree falling in the forest. Compared to the Thunder doing it without.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. Pretty impressive.

[Dave]

I know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Nice. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Let's see. In. Fazikas wants to know, not to get ahead of myself, but how will the money Detroit needs to pay Jaylen Duran impact potential trades this season or potential contracts for Jaden Ivy and Tobias Harris? Any chance that both of the latter are with Detroit next year?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I don't think. I think they will trade Jaden Ivey and either not resign Tobias Harris or trade Tobias Harris.

[Dave]

Yeah, that's my guess.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I. I think that's like, there's a real conversation. I mean, we just saw that they are a suitor for Anthony Davis. We'll see if they end up doing that. But there's a real conversation for them to eventually make some sort of trade. And I don't think. Because Duran is going to get the max or close to the max, and Asar is a guy who they'll have to extend in a couple of seasons as well. And I think they absolutely will. They just like. I thought there was a chance Jaden Ivy could pop off this year. He is not now, for what it's worth, he's. He hasn't, like, played that much for them.

[Dave]

Right. It's like. I mean, Dennis Jenkins has kind of put a lot of pressure on him. Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

For sure.

[Dave]

Things up for the Pistons?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Ivy's only played nine games. Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So, like, you playing that much. Yeah.

[Dave]

He isn't. To me, the Tobias spot is the one that. That is like, itching for an upgrade and he was so good for them last year, but they've, they've outgrown the need for, for this, for this guy. It's funny because I think that Jeremy Grant, if you put him there, would be a nice perfect. Right.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Dave]

But there's just no way to make that work. But that's what they need. They need another guy who can carry the scoring load here and there, who can get his own bucket, you know, And I do think that Tobias is the spot that they probably.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

But yeah, to that point, Duran is absolutely getting extended and.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, sure.

[Dave]

For sure.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah, he's, he's made himself some money this, this season so far. Yeah. Poor Tobias Harris is like, everywhere he goes. Like, you know what spot we could upgrade is that Tobias Harris spot.

[Dave]

You know, now usually they're wrong, but in this case, I just, for this team, I just think that they're better than, you know, he, he's, he's the spot in the starting lineup that they can upgrade.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah. What about Paul?

[Dave]

But if he.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What do you guys think?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I wouldn't do it.

[Dave]

I wouldn't do it. But I don't hate the fit.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's a joke. Yeah, it's a joke, guys.

[Dave]

Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

All right.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Thank you. Thankfully, I was being my own eyes. I'm like, you know what, Andrew? I don't think I would do it.

[Dave]

I don't hate the fit.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's an absolute joke because the Sixers were trying to upgrade from Tobias Harris to Paul George. And it's like, you know what? Hasn't quite done it. Hasn't quite done it for him. Moving on to Twitter, thanks to our Discord people.

Let's see.

[Dave]

By the way, join the Discord. Yeah, it's in the. If you listen to the pod, it's in the show description.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yep, yep.

At Benelephant, King wants to know, would Desmond Bane have the league's best contract if the NBA solved tie ups with dodgeball rules instead of jump balls?

[Dave]

Well, I would like to get rid of the jump ball anyway. Possession arrows better, faster, just. And, and rewards the defense.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

It allows them. If I tie the ball up, I have changed the possession and I think that's how it ought to be. It is how it is in a lot of, you know, basketball leagues around the world.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dave]

You know, that being said, that was pretty insane that Desmond Bane just hummed the ball. I, I just don't, I don't understand why.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's like watching the replay of it. It makes absolutely no sense. And I kind of wish it wasn't OG that got hit with it, because OG Is just like, hey, man, like, chill out. You know? Like, he's. He's just too nice of a guy to do anything about it. I wish it was somebody that would have got up and clocked him.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You know, like, I w. I wish that it would have been something where at least somebody gets in his face, because, like, that's a ridiculous thing. Like, that was ins. That was insane.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

He let the intrusive thought win. You know? He let the intrusive thought win. You know, if you're ever like, oh, should I.

[Dave]

Like, if you're at, like, the broken window theory.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right?

[Dave]

He's just like. He's laying right there. I've got the ball in my hand.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I could do this.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Do we get to see it again in Vegas?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I hope so. I really hope so.

[Dave]

Yeah. We were.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

We were actually talking about this yesterday at the Raptors game. They should make it so that you get home court for longer in the NBA Cup.

[Dave]

Oh, they're going to. I. Next season. Next season they will. So next season they'll do semi finals and. Or the quarters and the semis.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, quarters and semis in the home.

[Dave]

Arenas and only the final. Vegas.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, that makes more sense to me. Yeah, that makes.

[Dave]

Okay, from the. From the YouTube chat, beef stew would have socked him in the face. That's from on the break podcast. Yes. But that's a bad thing, right? Like, we don't want the. We don't want.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

People want to go back to the 80s.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want anyone getting hurt.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I disagree. I'd like. I'd like to. Just for one. Just for one night or one night only? Back to the.

[Dave]

Bane is going to be at a reach disadvantage in any fight in the NBA.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Right.

[Dave]

He is. It's. You know, and so I just don't know if that's going to be fun to watch.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's why he throws the ball. Because he can't reach.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah. Back to, like, the. The Vegas conversation. It is like, the teams that go, obviously, they. These teams want to go. They want to do this. They're spending six days in Las Vegas too much. They're in Vegas for six whole days. It's just a. It's a lot. It's a lot. And these teams are doing. The teams that make it to the final, they do two media days. They do one on Friday, and then they'll do another one next week. If they make it to the final. It's just a lot.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I. I honestly think it's a blessing in disguise. The Raptors lost. They now get two games in 10 days, which is just. It's so important for them to just get like, basically two weeks off, you know?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Just relax. That's why the Thunder should lose.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, heck, no, man. We respect the Cup.

[Dave]

All right, listen. The Thunder are gonna run the table. They are going to run the table. They are going to win the NBA Cup. They are. Their players are going to be on the international team for the All Star Game.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's right.

[Dave]

Respecting the cup around here.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's right. That's right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

All right.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Shout out to the Cup.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Shout out to the Cup. All right, next question.

Also from Benella Fit King. Kind of another joke question. Should teams be allowed six players on the court for the third quarter against the Thunder?

[Dave]

Would it help?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Would it help? Is a funnier question, I think. Oh, boy.

At Banjelo. Another Thunder related question.

When's the next time? Basically, she's just asking, what's. When's the next time the Thunder lose?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I really don't know.

[Dave]

I've done this exercise now a bunch of times. And, I mean, listen, they're favored in every single game.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I would wager it's one of those spurs games. If Wemby comes back.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

And because it's hard to beat a team two times in a row, especially in a regular season. Yeah, it's hard.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. They have. I mean, they could play the Lakers on Saturday.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's still a win, man. That's still a way.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They could play the Knicks on the next Tuesday in the Finals.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, but that doesn't count as a regular season game. Nobody cares.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's true. It fades away.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's the same thing as the Bucks. Remember last year there was a win streak and it didn't even count.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. It's like, what even. What even is the Cup. Okay. And then the wolves on the 19th.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That could be interesting. Yeah, feasibly. Could be a loss.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Okay. That's on the road.

And then the spurs games you talked about.

[Dave]

Not worried about the Grizzlies. I mean, Zach, Edie, future Hall of Famer.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's right, future.

[Dave]

And if Hartenstein's still out, future gold medalist.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They play the rockets on the 15th of January.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That could be an interesting one. Little rematch.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Double OT Cleveland on the 19th. Do we fear Cleveland anymore?

[Dave]

No, we do not.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Too soft.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They are soft.

[Dave]

Really. The.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

The game that I'm looking for is February 1st versus the Nuggets.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's the one that we're, that's the one that we're all circling.

Could they. Okay. They're not gonna have only one.

[Dave]

They're not.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No, no, no, no. They'll lose once.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Maybe they'll have two losses when we get to February.

[Dave]

Look, man, they added an all NBA, all NBA defense guy.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

20 games into the season when they were 19 and one.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah. And he hasn't particularly looked like great on offense.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Nobody just had.

[Dave]

Nobody's been healthy.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, it's, yeah, they're crazy. It's insane.

[Dave]

They're the most fun thing in the NBA right now. Not just because they're great, but because of the way that they're great. It's not, it, it's a lot of Shay, but it's not just Shay and I, I love that.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Well, and I was making this point the other day, like, you can remove him from the lineup and they can still play their style.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You know, which is pretty unusual.

[Dave]

Hey, but look in the YouTube chat, someone brings up March 12th against the Celtics. Have you guys seen Tatum? Tatum workouts. What is going on now? Dominique Wilkins came back after nine months and he had the best statistical season of his career. And now that's probably an aberration. Yeah. But Tatum looks good. The defense against him in that one on one was atrocious. Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It look non contact.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

He's not trying to touch him or anything like that. But the way he was moving, he looks comfortable. I liked when he was changing direction. Like that's the thing with a guy coming back from a leg injury. How's he look when he changes direction? Does he look hesitant? He looked really smooth to me, even maybe smoother than pre injury, which tells me they've really been working hard in his rehab on his biomechanics. I, I, the Celtics have been good.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

They've been really good.

[Dave]

Yeah. And if Tatum is back, I don't know, man. Like, I hate to get too excited.

[Andrew Schlecht]

About this, but it looks good.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

So my thing with Tatum, and I agree with you, he does look good, and the Celtics look good. And that makes the second half of the season super interesting because we just talked about this last night. But the east is wide open. Knicks are the best team in the East. They should get to the NBA finals. Celtics can throw a wrench in that, though. And I actually think they have a pretty good chance against the Knicks just because of how they play offensively, the way they play.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They need to go get a center.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

They do need to Go get a center. I like Keda. How about Ivica?

[Dave]

Zubots. That's right. Can they get Zubots? If. If the Clippers. I'm gonna start unloading.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I feel like you guys are doing a bit, like, you guys both did it. Just like.

That was good. I like that.

[Dave]

No, we just. Great minds, you know, we think alike. And, And, I mean, I. There. There are centers to be had. I mean, I don't think they're an Anthony Davis team.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No, no, no.

[Dave]

But there are centers that. That they can go out and get. I mean, if Gafford's available, Gafford would be pretty good there.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

The other thing about Tatum is, like, you know, he's. He's moving like this, and there's still four months until March, so, like, there's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Really.

[Dave]

His birthday is March 3rd.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Sure, sure.

[Dave]

This would be. Hey, this would be a great days.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I also think the fact that Tatum had this injury when he was younger and he had surgery immediately really helps him. I'm about to sneeze.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. The Zubots one is interesting because he only makes 18.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Simons. And, you know, Simon's for Zubots. Basically. Simon's in a pick or something.

[Dave]

You have to send him a pick.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah. You definitely have to send a pick.

[Dave]

Maybe even, like, this year's pick.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. And then the Clippers will waste it like they do all their other draft picks. Okay, next question comes from. At Stone Cold S. Adams. What's the best. What's best funniest player interaction that anyone has had?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I have one, but I.

Don'T.

[Dave]

You're not gonna say it? Okay, I can say.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I could say it. Look, I. We saw. I. We all saw Kevin Garnett at the NBA.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, yeah. Yes.

[Dave]

This is so good.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And, you know, I, I. I grew up very much so liking Kevin Garnett, like anybody in my generation of watching basketball does. Big ticket, really big fan of the Timberwolves and Celtics days. Anything is possible, et cetera, et cetera. So when we see Kevin Garnett and he's out there mingling with everybody in the media, et cetera, et cetera. So I was like, you know what?

I should go ahead and shoot my shot and talk to kg. So I go to go up to him, like, ticket, what's going on?

[Dave]

He's like, get the.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I don't know you. I'm like, all right, sounds good. That was the. That was the most accurate Kevin Garnett experience. If it was really good, like, you could go through A tour, and the players react to you in the way that they react to the court. Like, if Rashid Wallace, you know, you could pay 20 bucks and Rasheed Wallace could yell at you. Yeah, that's kind of how it.

[Dave]

Pretty amazing commitment to the bit. Oh, yeah. Have I told my Bill Walton story to you guys?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, I don't. I don't know.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No.

[Dave]

Okay. So Bill Walton and I oddly, have a lot of mutual friends.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Dave]

Like, you know how it is with basketball. And I really wanted to talk to Bill Walton on the podcast, and this was a few years ago, obviously, and I shot him an email and I said, hey, I got your email from our mutual friend, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who. Here's who I am. Would love to talk to you at some point. And the response. And you have to hear it in his voice because that's the way that I read it, because, you know, we all know Bill Walton's voice.

I don't know who you are.

I love Dr. Jeff, who is the friend that put us in touch with each other, but I don't do media with people I don't know. And I said, I read this to myself in his voice. I just died laughing thing. He didn't even have to respond. I thought it was very nice that he responded in the first place.

[Andrew Schlecht]

But.

[Dave]

Yeah, I don't know who you are.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

See, everybody has an experience like that, you know.

[Dave]

Well, okay. Yeah, mine wasn't nearly as mad as yours was.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

I won't tell you guys what Phil Jackson emailed me back.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, no.

[Dave]

Yeah, it wasn't bad.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I have plenty, plenty of off the record Thunder player interactions. Yeah. But always, always having great interactions with Stephen Adams. I'll say that, like, any and every interaction with Stephen Adams was glorious.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I could imagine. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I can tell you about the time Russell Westbrook was kind of mean to me, if you want to hear that.

[Dave]

Sure, yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Why not? Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So this is media day.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

We're just talking about mean stories. This is nice.

[Andrew Schlecht]

All right.

[Dave]

I've got some good ones. I got some.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I have some good ones, too.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah. I've got. If you want to go to the down to dunk YouTube page, click videos, you can see plenty of fun interactions with Thunder players there. But this one, this one was not on camera. I've told. If you've listened to down to Dunk, you've heard this one. But. So I do an intro to the show every year, and I get it at Media Day now. I'm. I'm blessed enough to have the Thunder players come to a station that I have, but back in the day, I had to go around, and as. As the Thunder players were in between stations, I would grab. I would like, just like, hey, would. Can I have, like, five seconds of your time? You know, kind of thing? And so I'm walking around. I'd had a ton of success that. That particular day, and I was feeling really good about myself. So I'd already gotten Stephen Adams. I'd gotten Paul George. This is Paul George's first year in okc.

And I want to get Russell Westbrook. So I walk up to Russ, and I say, hey, Russ, would you mind doing just a quick sound bite for a Thunder podcast real quick? And I tell him what I want him to say, and he looks at me, and he goes, maybe. And then he just starts to walk off. And then I made one of my worst decisions I've made ever. And I said, hey, Russ, if you wanted to say no, you could just say no.

[Dave]

Oh, I don't know why.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I don't know why I said that. But he walks back up to me, and he gets really close, and. And he's like, you know me pretty well, right? I'm like, yeah. And he was like, I'm gonna say no. I'll say no. I said, okay. I was like, well, will you do the down to Dunk intro for me? And he looked at me, and he goes, maybe. And then he. And then he. And then he walked off. And then every. Anytime I tried to make eye contact with him the rest of the day, it was immediate. Just. He's gone. Yeah. So. Yeah. Wow.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

That's funny. That's really funny.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Shout out to Russell. Hilariously mean to me that day.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Be yourself. That's what I say to Bill Walton, to Kevin Garnett, to, you know, everybody else out there. Be yourself.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Also, Allen Iverson was mean to me one time, which was awesome, actually.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I have a good Allen Iverson story. I'm. I'm on the positive side.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, are you okay?

[Dave]

Yes. Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I went to. I used to. Oh, this is. Now we're diving deep here. When I was in my early 20s, I used to be a rapper, and so I.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What?

[Dave]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Do you have your. Is it on Spotify or anything?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Oh, there's a lot of stuff.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What's your. What's your rapper name?

[Dave]

I'm not gonna dive deep. No.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Not doing it.

[Dave]

Not doing it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Can we listen to it? Can we listen to it? When we go to the Grand Canyon?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

When we go to the Grand Canyon. I will.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

So I used to. I used to be a rapper. And. And so in Toronto, they had their All Star weekend, obviously, and Sway in the Morning was having a freestyle challenge for everybody to come and do a freestyle. Right. And there were so many rappers there. It was like. It's like 500 people waiting to perform in front of Sway in the Morning. This is. When did they have their All Star weekend? I think it was 2016. So. Yeah, like 10 years ago. Literally 10 years ago. That's crazy to think about because it feels like it was yesterday. Anyways.

So Allen Iverson there was there as, like, a guest judge.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And then for some reason, as we're waiting for him to, like, do all this stuff. Whatever, whatever.

[Dave]

He.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

He starts talking about his birthday. And if you guys don't know, me and Allen Iverson share the same birthday. And so he's like, yeah, you know, my. For my birthday this year, June 7th. And I'm like, that's my birthday. And he's like, hell, yeah, brother. And. And he makes me come on and I do the freestyle right there. Yeah, it was great.

[Dave]

And did you win?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I did not win, but I did very well.

[Dave]

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I was good, dude. Honestly. Don't mean to toot my own horn. I'm a pretty good rapper. Yeah.

[Dave]

Oh, we're gonna find out.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I would love to hear.

[Dave]

And everyone that listens to the POD is gonna find out. Yeah. One of these shoot arounds.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Oh, man, I kind of forgot that you guys don't know that.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna find this. Yeah, you can'. From me.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You know who else is kind of a good rapper is Alex Spears.

[Dave]

Oh, wow.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Really? Yep. Yep.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Nice.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He used to make.

[Dave]

We.

[Andrew Schlecht]

We used to play music together a lot. Alex and I did, but Alex. Alex and I would, like, make. Or Alex would make beats, like, just.

[Dave]

On his own, and you can find.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It on Spotify, but it is not under my name. I don't have it. I used to be a duo with my best friend and we had this group name, so.

[Dave]

Say no more. I'm gonna find this. Okay. All right, listen. You probably will.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It doesn't take that much.

[Dave]

Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow.

[Dave]

I. I don't know, but the only music I have published is in Russian. Oh, yeah.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Oh, you told me about this. Yes, I remember you told me. That's it.

[Dave]

Yeah, a little project I did.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I used to play in a screamo band called Sleep to Forget. Okay, next question.

[Dave]

Definitely owned Jenko jeans.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You definitely did not during that time, but yes, I did not.

[Dave]

Swoopy hair. Jenko jeans. I could see it now.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Those are different. Those are different times, though. I did have swoopy hair.

[Dave]

No, I know. I'm saying. I can see that. Your timeline.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Dave]

I started shaving my head when I was, like, 13. It's just been the same.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Is that true? Yeah.

[Dave]

Well, I was. I mean, I was pretty young the first. Like, I was in a buzz cut.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Wow. Well, I mean, I was a big Michael Jordan guy. And also not into, like, combing my hair in the morning. You know what I mean? It just had stuff going on. Yeah. Also, I've got this head. Like, it looks great without hair.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I just. Why don't you cover it up going on?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's a good head. It's good head. Good circumference.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

It's not too big. Goldilocks of domes over here at Medicine.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Clam wants to know. So, despite losing Tatum, K.P. drew, Horford, and Cornett, the Celtics are sitting at third in the East. My question is, are the secrets of successful coaching buried in these special features of the town dvd?

[Dave]

You know, Missoula movie. I will say he has figured out the formula for regular season basketball.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Right. You get up the threes, you play good. I mean, and I know this is all very simple, but they stick with it. And Jaylen Brown's been so good. Someone already.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Someone already got it.

[Dave]

There you go. Okay. So. But, you know, Jalen Brown has been really good. Derek White has. Has leveled out and kind of figured out. Oh, we got. So the name is. If you guys are listening at home, just S. It's literally.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I used to. My Twitter handle used to be just S music.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And now it's just us Barahini. So, as you know.

[Dave]

We are. I. I wonder.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Phoenix blazey S. All I see is pain behind your smile with the Raptors last seven games. Yes, absolutely. The light is gone from behind my eyes yeah.

[Dave]

Andrew, do we. I mean, I guess. Do we need permission to play this on the show?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I do not.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wait.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I do not consent. There's no way you got. I. I don't.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Let me see. I do not consent.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Find anything here? No, this is just another guy.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Hold on.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I don't think I could find it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

There's a lot of people that have that name, have similar names.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dave]

Yeah. Interesting.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yours isn't the one with all the prescription pill bottles, is it? No. Okay.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Is it. Is that the one where He's.

He's like.

Screamo. Is that the one you're talking about?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I don't know. I don't know what's going on there.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

What's the prescription bottles?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I have no idea, bro. I don't know.

[Dave]

Music is in a bad place, in my opinion.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I don't know. Anyways, I'm gonna listen to.

[Dave]

Don't worry. We will get this music on the show, folks. We. We owe it to you. We will deliver.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. For real. Anyways, I watched the Town for the first time last year.

It's fine.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

It's a good movie.

[Dave]

It's a weird movie to be super into.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's a. Yeah, it. I will tell you this. I saw it and I was like, yeah, pretty good movie. And I have not thought one other time that I would really like to watch it again.

[Dave]

Yeah, it's. It's not like.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Like, no, I'm not gonna lie to you. It is good enough to watch again.

[Dave]

No, but you don't pick up on anything extra when you watch it a second time. It's not like it's not one of these movies that has layers to it. Like, it's not like an Edgar Wright movie, you know?

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Dave]

Where there's all kinds of stuff happening.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Great movie, Great movie.

[Dave]

Oh, the Accountant, too is apparently Joe Missoula's new movie. Well, now, I don't wanna second accountant.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

The first one's good, though.

[Dave]

I know, but this is. This to me. See, now, listen, this is a guy who's aware of the bit that he's doing, and now he's, like, really leaning into this bit, you know, including, like, you know, the. The goofy quote that he had a few weeks ago about how, you know, fun and basketball don't mix, which is just silly.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Sure.

I'm officially looking at my stuff and I see no prescription bottles. So you were looking at the wrong thing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

All right.

[Dave]

That's like Joe Missoula listens to Joe Rogan.

You know? Yeah, that's the vibe I get.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I see that.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

Okay, next question from Jesus P. Mora or Jesus Mora.

If you were the Knicks, would you rather have Giannis or Cat? From a. He said, like, trade dynamics aside, who would you rather have?

[Dave]

Giannis.

[Andrew Schlecht]

If you were the Hawks, would you rather have Giannis or Jalen Johnson?

[Dave]

Trickier. But I think Getting a top 20 NBA player all time. Yeah. Like, we still in his prime. I think you just say, yeah, I'll go with Giannis.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah.

[Dave]

If Giannis is on that Hawks team, they're the front runners in the East, I put them ahead of the Knicks. Yeah, Giannis is that good.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah, he's. Yeah, he's the best player in the Eastern Conference.

[Dave]

Yep. I agree.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And so, yeah, without a doubt. That's why. That's why I think the Hawks should go get him.

[Dave]

I don't think, you know, this is a good question from the trade, but.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think that they should trade for him.

[Dave]

From the YouTube comments, why are we underrating Giannis? And there is a little bit of this happening. I think it's because the team is just so bad, and that's it. I mean, Giannis is gonna. I mean, the numbers that he was putting up before he kind of went out with the injury, not. Not this most recent one, but the previous one, if he was sustaining that, we'd be talking about him in. In the MVP race, they probably would be better. I mean, I would imagine so. And you put him on a team that's got players and they are instantly title contenders.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I'll say this. I think it. The whole conversation about trading for Giannis is, what do you have after you trade for Giannis? It's not about player for player, who's better or who would you rather have on your team? Because, of course, you know, Phoenix plays the ass about Giannis or Scotty Barnes. Of course Giannis is a better player than Scotty Barnes. Do you have enough to win a championship after you do that? Same thing with the Hawks. Do you have enough to win a championship after you do that? They. This is what all the teams are asking themselves, and I think that was part of the reports that we've seen over the last little bit. It's like, most of these teams are evaluating. Hey, if we trade for Giannis, do we have enough to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

And if that answer is no, or maybe you might reassess your options. If it is, yes. If it's from the Knicks perspective and you're like, cat for Giannis, I think, yeah, that does put them in the conversation.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and are the. I mean, what do the Bucks want? Is another huge.

[Dave]

Could the Celtics swing it.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

With what? Like Jalen.

[Dave]

I don't know. I mean. No. I mean, could they do it without giving up Jalen Brown?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, they let go of too much.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Like, what do they have after Jalen Brown at this point?

[Dave]

Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, I just.

[Dave]

I'm looking. I'm like. I'm trying to think of who's the dark horse, who's the team we're not thinking of, you know? And if.

[Andrew Schlecht]

If what? If it was Jaylen Brown and picks, is that, like, something that you're interested in if you're the Bucks?

[Dave]

I don't think so.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I. I don't know.

[Dave]

I mean, you're not better off.

I think if you're the Bucks and you're moving on from Giannis, you have to either get the next guy, as in a young player, like, if it's Jaylen Johnson, that's a great start. You got to have picks, too.

Yeah. It has to be a reset, though. You've got to reset the deck. You've got to start. I mean, Andrew, like, you talked about this before, you gotta start selling hope because you got to rebuild your fan base. I mean, you're trading away, you know, the sec. The second time you've done this in your franchise history. Trading away the. One of the greatest players ever, right? Yeah, I think you've gotta. You've gotta start thinking about a reset. Miles Turner will have value. You know, I mean, we. We talked about centers for. For Boston. Miles Turner would fit there very well if they can figure out the money. So I. I just think that if. If the Bucks make a trade, it is going to be one that's focused on a clearing of the deck, reset, get as many picks and young players as you possibly can, and then that's the rebuild plan going forward. I mean, it's the East. You can rebuild fast in the East. You just need. You need one good draft, one good young player, and you can be. Look at the Pistons. One good draft, one good young player, and you're right back in the mix.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yeah, Yeah, I totally agree. I. I think, like, if there's a world in which. But also the thing we're discounting here is the fact that Giannis is going to choose.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right? Yeah. There's no.

[Dave]

Like.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Like, I think. I think Austin Reeves.

[Dave]

Should be getting ready.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No, but I mean, how good has Austin Reeves been? To the point where, like, he could viably be a part of a Giannis trade? And you wouldn't. You wouldn't be surprised by that being the main thing going on the other way.

[Dave]

He's still really good.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

He's been that good.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah, he's. He's a good player and he's about to get paid big time.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Yes, you will.

[Dave]

Yeah. Yep.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if there's some kind of Anthony Simons and draft compensation for Miles Turner. Right thing.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Miles Turner, though.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What? What?

[Dave]

Miles Turner. That just, like, anchored NBA Finals team. I would.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

I would argue he was their fifth worst player or. Sorry, fifth. Yeah, their. Their worst starter.

[Dave]

Okay. But stylistically, you think about how he fits with what Boston does. He.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

He fits perfectly.

[Dave]

Perfectly on defense. And shooting above the break threes at the five is exactly what they need.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

No, I agree.

[Dave]

Well, and I'd rather have Zubot too, by the way. Shout out to the. To the YouTube comments. I would take Zubac overturner because I better.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Better contract, too. Like three years, $18 million a year versus Turner, who just got paid a bajillion dollar. Like, I don't know.

[Dave]

But if the Celtics are. Are thinking about trying to compete, like, this year, I could see. I could see either one of those guys being in the mix.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah, He. He did not have a great. I mean, he. He played well enough for them, but I agree, right. As far as, like, production goes, he probably was like the fifth best.

[Dave]

But the geometry of the court when he's on it is. It does create more openings for everybody else. I mean, again, his. The trail threes that he hits and just shoots, just by virtue of being a threat to shoot, he does open things up. And with the Celtics, man, that's. That's their bread and butter. He would fit right in.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah, that does help. Okay, thank you guys so much for all the questions. This was super fun. I think that we might make this more of a regular thing where we have questions from you guys. So you're thinking of them. We'd love to have you in the Discord. That's where we'll go first for questions. So if you want to get priority for questions, go to our Discord and. But also follow us on Blue sky and. And also on Twitter.

[Dave]

We Instagram. We're starting to put more stuff on Instagram.

[Andrew Schlecht]

There's stuff on Instagram as well. Yeah.

[Dave]

Follow us in all the places except for the streets.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What does that mean?

[Dave]

Don't follow me around. Around town. You know, just don't be weird.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Listen, we have any advice for you guys?

[Dave]

Definitely don't follow me.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Don't follow Dave around. Okay. We will be at the NBA cup this weekend. We'd love to. If you're going to be there as well. We'd love to connect with anybody that listens to the show. You guys are enjoying the rest of your day, and we'll talk to you guys again tomorrow.

[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

Peace.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So good, so good, so good.

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[Andrew Schlecht]

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[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

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[Andrew Schlecht]

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[Co-host (possibly a basketball analyst or host)]

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[Dave]

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