← The Right Time with Bomani Jones
The Right Time with Bomani Jones
Nick Wright on Wemby's "revenge", LeBron James to New York? and the Lakers’ Next Move | 05.13
01:01:21
Loading summary
Transcript153 lines
- [00:01]
A
Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Right Time. A Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest. Join us to check them out on FS1 3 o' clock Eastern. First things first. Nick Wright. What's going on?
- [00:33]
B
Bo, Great to see you. Great to talk to you. How are you this morning?
- [00:37]
A
Dude, I'm good. I'm loving that. Like, we're getting to a place. It's very interesting and I don't think people understand this. You and I have more times than people would recognize where we are in dead on alignment. Right where we will. I will be at your house and we're talking about something and one goes first and the other is like, oh, that is exactly what I was going to say. Which makes it even more fun to me when we are completely divergent or largely divergent, which is often in spirit, usually your discrimination against skinny people, which I find to be odd because you kind of in the crew, right? Like, I don't. I don't. I don't really understand it. Now, first I'll tell people two places where Nick and I were in complete alignment. I got a. A text from Nick where he saw that I said that the Pacers should have fired Kevin Pritchard for that dumb shit he said on Twitter. And Nick was like, I forced this into the rundown of my show. Just so say the exact same thing.
- [01:31]
B
You can't make a trade. That's a 5248 coin flip. And then be like, man, I actually thought it was 7525 because of karma.
- [01:39]
A
Like, you can't.
- [01:40]
B
That's the. It's the GM equivalent of being in Vegas, walking past the roulette wheel and that stupid little signs like, wow, reds come up seven in a row. I guess black is due. So yes, that was bad.
- [01:53]
A
That was exactly what he said. And then I saw that Nick said the thing that I had been meaning to say, but I forgot, which was bringing your kids to press conferences after a loss is actually some sucker ass shit. You did not use those words. But not Joel Embiid definitely plays the. The. The shield game. Would you bring him to the press conference after a 40 sweep? Come on, man. You can't do that.
- [02:16]
B
I don't know what his intention is, but I know what the impact is. And the impact of, like, it should just be a general rule of decorum, which is, if there's any chance this tough questions need to be asked, I shouldn't bring my kids. Like, a legitimate question to ask Embiid after that press conference would have been, do you think you're going to be traded? Not. I don't even know if he's tradable. Right. Because of the contract. But do you think you're going to be traded? But can you ask that question if there's a child sitting there and you're like, wait, am I going to be breaking news to this kid that he might have to move, like. And so I. I think it started with good intentions. It started with Steph Curry always winning and bringing Riley. And everyone loved it. But there were no tough questions to be asked. Steph, to his credit, to my recollection, the. The press conference after he got thrown out of the finals game for whipping his mouth guard into the front row when LeBron was walking him down. And he didn't have Riley on his lap that day. And so I just think there's a time and a place for it, but that's where we're aligned. I'm curious where we're misaligned on Wimy.
- [03:31]
A
We're not so much misaligned. Well, we're misaligned on the fundamental right. Like, you know, you kind of operating on the assumption, just like you did with my man Chet, though I don't like Chet as much as I used to. Cause Victor don't like Chet that much. You know, you just. You just think all the skinny guys gonna break down. Y' all think we tough enough, you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like you're holding out as the last skeptic. Like, I give you credit for this. You will hold to take as long as it goes. It seems very obvious to me that this is the best player in the NBA for the next 10, 12 years.
- [04:00]
B
Like, health. 10, 12 years, a long time. Here's. So listen, I am. I've said this before, but it was never more apparent than last night in the broadcast, where they framed a game that Wimby was fortunate to be playing because he had avoided what would have been a totally reasonable, if not a little punitive suspension, as if he was the one who got elbowed in the neck. The entire conceit of the broadcast was this. Wimby's. Wimby's hero return. As if he had been the one who was wronged. And it it included how the game was officiated early when Nas Reed gave him a little shove to the back and they called it a delay of game technical foul. And again I, I felt like I was a crazy person. I was like everything about this is. It's as if Nas had elbowed Wimy and Wimy valiantly fought through it. As opposed to a 22 year old who at 20 was studying all star skills game competition fine print rules, pretending he didn't know what a flagrant two was right after seeing Nas behind him and clocking him in the neck. And so I, I he's obviously a transcendent talent. He's obviously a great player. And if we do get Spurs Thunder, which I'm not, I don't think the Timberwolves are quite dead dead yet, but they're on life support. I'll probably be rooting for the spurs because I find the Thunder so irritating. But I can't. It is the, the just snap double standard for certain guys bothers me. If Luca got thrown out of a playoff game for yelling at a ref, people wouldn't frame the next game as his valiant return to work. I so I just didn't like it.
- [06:01]
A
So I do agree with you on this, right that I don't want to say that I enjoyed him elbowing Nas Reid. I did enjoy his full on indifference to the fact that he had done so after the fact. Like I appreciate even if whether or not he Knew A flagrant 2 meant an ejection, I feel like it's on the board that maybe you don't. We don't see flagrant twos every day, right? Like maybe it's on the board that he does not know that that means automatic ejection. What I do appreciate is that he didn't act like an ejection was something crazy.
- [06:33]
B
Right?
- [06:33]
A
It seems that the decision has been made. I'm going to elbow this dude in the head and if they put me out of here, they gonna put me out of here. What I did think was interesting was how few people framed it truly in the context of they lost that game and it's because of you and these guys that you're going to play against next round are going to have a r a week to rest up, get right and your team won't because you lost your shit and you elbowed this dude in the head. But I do appreciate that he didn't act like he didn't elbow the dude in the head.
- [07:00]
B
And I also listen Wimby doesn't the this is where track record and all this stuff really, really matters. He doesn't have a track record as a dirty player, so I can chalk this up as a one off. Lost his temper, you know, lost his head for a moment, and now he's kind of on a dirty player probationary period in my head, because he has. Since he's such a young player, he doesn't have much of a track record of anything. But assuming he gets through the next year or two without any instance like this, again, it gets wiped from his record and, you know, he's just clean moving forward. But that last. And, And I don't re. I agree with you. I. I like that he kind of owned it once, you know, Harrison Barnes explained to him what a flagrant two meant. I just. A lot of what has been taken by the audience as Wimby criticism is really very often media criticism, because it is. I've been doing the TV show for nine years. I think Wimby is the. The first superstar to be thrown out of a game. Why in a playoff game with the game in the balance. Joker got thrown out when that game was over and the series over when he whacked campaign. And we criticized him for it, but it had no tangible impact on his team. Steph, when he threw the mouthpiece, he was actually angry. The reason he threw the mouthpiece was because he had just been called for his sixth foul.
- [08:37]
A
It was hilarious. Oh, my God, that was so funny.
- [08:41]
B
And that was, you know, that was moments before rigged for ratings or money. Sorry. I saw it live tweet heard around the world and. But so step. It was already out of the game. It's just the difference between watching it from the bench or from the locker room. You just don't see super. And Luca fouled out again. He didn't get a technical, didn't get a flagrant fouled out of a finals game. And Brian Windhorst, who I adore, went on Sports Center 30 minutes later and read him the riot act and said, like, this is why you've got him. Like, this is the problem with Luka Doncic. And so it's so rare to have the discourse immediately be, you know, from the WIMBY perspective, as opposed to, again, to use weird language. The victim's perspective, I thought was odd.
- [09:39]
A
And to be fair to Brian, I saw that Brian was one of the people who came out and was like, hey, you cost your team a win. Yes, with Victor. Right?
- [09:46]
B
And Brian. And Victor's. Brian's guy. Brian didn't pull any punches on that.
- [09:50]
A
So this is what the thing that I. Where the NBA, I don't want to say lost me here. Like, they were not going to suspend Victor for game five after the ejection in game four. So early in game four. I think that if that had happened halfway through the third quarter rather than early in the second, then there is possibly a suspension because that really was egregious. Like, you gotta. I. Draymond's going too far to me with the. What if I had done that? Yeah, but that's you. Like, you, you, you, you, you. You make it somebody else. And now the point could be, you know, could be perhaps made. But there's a reason why we don't let you get away. That's like when Artest got suspended for seven games. That elbow with James Harden, he'd already helped incite a riot previously.
- [10:38]
B
The better comp is maybe because I showed the Artest video and Wild's correctly pointed out. He's like, bro, like, that's our test. Fought fans.
- [10:46]
A
He. He's got.
- [10:47]
B
He's on lifetime probation. J R. Smith missed a game for a much during the playoffs for a much less egregious elbow. But his. To your point, his elbow came, you know, late in the fourth.
- [10:59]
A
Yeah.
- [10:59]
B
So he didn't really get penalized much there. Can we talk about the Draymond piece just for a second?
- [11:04]
A
Yeah, go ahead.
- [11:04]
B
Or do you. I don't want to side derail us. Does Draymond not remember his own words when this is the very rough, loose timeline. Draymond almost broke a teammate's jaw. He then stomped on Sabonis's chest. He then did a spinning back fist against a different Eastern European. I think it was a nurture. He then put Rudy Gobert in a headlock, and he then checked himself into counseling because he said he had anger problems. Yes, that's what happened. So if. Yes. If in the midst of all of that you had thrown one, you had a fifth incident, of course it would be looked at differently. And that's what's so weird. Like, Draymond knows that Draymond. Draymond's got to. On an intellectual level know my track record is why if I did this, people would, you know, be calling for a harsh punishment. I don't. So I don't know why he pretended not to know that, but go ahead.
- [12:02]
A
He sound like in Dama Kung Suda. Did you remember Dominican Su used to do wild shit? And then he's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, yo, Something's wrong with that guy. Yeah, that was the only explanation. But where the NBA lost me was it seems very, very clear that the decision was made. We're not going to have any hanky panky in this game, Right. I'm sorry. But after Victor elbows somebody and takes him out like that, the Timberwolves are allowed one good really hard foul, right? Like, it's only right. It's only fair. Somebody's supposed to be able to go in there and even It's a flagrant one. That's fine. Some classic Rick Mahorn, Kevin McHale on Kurt Rambit shit, something like that. You get to do that, right? Like Minnesota being the type of team that they are. The only way that you're convincing me that nobody, Jaden McDaniels, whoever it was that nobody was like, all right, we gonna get this one. Is if it was not made very clear to them, ain't gonna be no. 1. And there should have been one.
- [13:01]
B
The people what one. Well, and that's why I found the way the game was officiated at the beginning so outrageous. And again, the spurs won by a hundred like that. It didn't determine the game. And the Spurs, the spurs have lost three playoff games this year. And it's, you know, one Wimby missed with a concussion, one Wimby got thrown out. And I guess, oh, one was game one of this series when Wimby wasn't scoring. So they, you know, they. They right now, look, it looks like I was wrong again in these playoffs that they look like the better team. But the refs went the other way with how tight they were calling it early. And with that technical delay of game, they called on Nas Reed for just jostling Wimby, which was essentially, to me, the way John Goble, who that. John Goble's whole crew, it's just a disaster.
- [13:56]
A
The.
- [13:57]
B
The way they called that game, it was like they agreed with Mitch Johnson that, you know what Wimy has been getting roughed up. It was, you know, justifiable vigilantism, and we're going to protect him. And that was. That part was just stunning to me, like, legit stunning.
- [14:16]
A
Nobody knows the referees by name like people who put money on games. I was like, John Goble. I was like, oh, he must be an official.
- [14:25]
B
Well, yeah. Well, so his brother's an official, too, But Goble is the one that Austin Reeves with LeBron looking over his shoulder at the end of the game. A couple games ago, when they had the little huddle at mid court And Austin Reeves was basically like, you can't talk to me like that. That was John Goble. I yeah, I don't like. I should. I don't like games officiated by John go by.
- [14:49]
A
My official knowledge is fading a little bit. Like all my guys are aging out, you know, aging out or just moving to the side just a little bit. Like I used to know more of them by name than I used to. Let me ask you this though, about the Spurs. Are you surprised at how good they are separate from Victor? Because I did not expect them to be top to bottom this good. And I think we are. They are really young. Like De' Aaron Fox is 28. Harrison Barnes, I want to say is 32. Everybody else is 20 and Luke Cornett is 30. Everybody else is 26 and under.
- [15:18]
B
Well, 20. Yeah. And their best guys are 22 and under.
- [15:22]
A
Yes.
- [15:22]
B
I mean the. I'm the biggest surprise by me. And this is maybe, or for me, I should say maybe just because I didn't watch enough Rutgers. But I don't know if anyone's going to hold that against me. I had no idea Dylan Harper was going to be this good this quickly. Castle, you saw it at Yukon and you saw it, you know, you saw it building. And Castle's a legitimately just excellent defensive player and really good offensive player. But Dylan Harper looks like he's going to be a superstar and, and to be for him to be this good, his first playoff run, I think he's 20 years old is really stunning. I I'm really interested in as this draft is coming along, how last year's top four stacks up against this year's top four long term where you've got Flag Harper, Caniple Edgecomb versus what we think is going to be the top four of Dan Peterson, Caleb Wilson and Cam Boozer in one order or another. But it the, the spurs all year won the non Wimy minutes. Two of those wins against okc Wimby was on a low minutes restriction. Like they really. They have nine guys they really, really trust and as long as they have Wimby or Cornette on the floor, they have excellent rim protection. And when Wimy's on the court, they have maybe the best rim protection in NBA history. Yeah, they've been. It's really shocking to me how mature they've already looked so far this postseason.
- [17:09]
A
Yeah, like I thought that this was a next year sort of proposition. Right. And no, that's not happening. And as soon as somebody tells Victor Wim Benyama don't Take a single three for the rest of the season. Boy, the sky's the limit once that happens.
- [17:23]
B
So how much of that. So let's, let's circle back to the skinny guy thing because I think, I think the only flaw in his game relates or flaws in his game relate to his body. And obviously what makes him so special is, you know, the length and all of that. But I think, I think because of how cautious they were with him, minutes wise in the regular season, he is not. He doesn't have 40 minute playoff conditioning and I don't think you'll have it anytime this postseason. And the threes thing, I think is simply because he gets pushed around in the low post if he comes, if, if at any point in his career he, he doesn't. People always use the Giannis comp because Giannis came in so skinny, is now so big.
- [18:16]
A
Yeah, but that wasn't the same.
- [18:18]
B
No. If he, and if he got Giannis's body, it's game over for everybody. But if he could just get closer to mature. Rudy Gobert, F size.
- [18:30]
A
Yeah.
- [18:30]
B
Then I feel like offensively he won't ever have to shoot another three if he doesn't want to. Because the reason he doesn't just live on the block is because he can get pushed out of there.
- [18:40]
A
Yeah. Now, Giannis wasn't skinny for the reasons that I'm skinny because it's just like that Giannis was malnourished. Right. Like that was legitimately about three squares a day.
- [18:50]
B
And then I had never even thought of that. But now that I think about how Yanis talks about his upbringing and like what they had to do, he just didn't. That's, that's a really good point. I didn't even think about that.
- [19:00]
A
Yeah. No. There's a whole thing, especially in football, with having the ability to identify guys who've just never had adequate nutrition. And those are the guys that go from being 230 pounds, maybe coming into school and then turn into being 315. And it's really just a matter of three squares and an adequate, like, workout program. And that was the thing that happened with Giannis, with Victor, that hasn't been the issue. Right. They, they, they've got to figure this out a different way. I do want to say, ask you to do this about the spurs before we get out of here. I had largely believed that de' Aaron Fox was a guy who played losing basketball. And now I don't even think it matters because he has, he wanted to be there to play with this guy and he sees what that means and now all he really has to do is de' Aaron Fox things and throw up, throw oops and the team is fine. I just want you to tell the people about the first time you saw Dear Fox play basketball.
- [19:46]
B
So my my son who is my co host on what's Right with Nick Wright was a big time high school basketball prospect. Not on Dear Fox level but but a mid to High major D1 prospect.
- [20:01]
A
Yeah. 6A Texas High School first team all district junior.
- [20:04]
B
Like yeah, yeah yeah. Like legit. And so he, he, he played on the same summer league team as Quinton Grimes. Who Grimes Sidebar was two years younger than everyone on the team and was just so clearly a pro at 15 years old. But he we also traveled around Texas in the summer to these a tournaments and one time I walk into a gym and there's de' Aaron Fox's team is just starting and this you know my I feel like every time I tell this story the the maybe it gets a little more exaggerated but I swear I saw him score 40 points in the first half of a running clock AAU basketball game because he just every he was just so much faster than ever. He's got the ball and got a layup. They, they press get a steel ball layup and he was the even if my stats are a little off because, because I know I've always said it was 40 points in the first half of running clock AAU game but every time I say it I'm like that doesn't even seem possible but I know I saw it. But he is to this day the fastest person I've ever seen like on the court up close and personal. And so I always and then he went to Sacramento and you know my wife's family's from Sacramento so I always, you know had a soft spot for him and liked him. I really thought that the one light the beam year they were going to beat the Warriors. I still think they would have people forget he broke his finger in game five and it threw off that series a bit. But I thought it was really to your point mature of him when he's getting out of Sacramento. To say most guys if they've spent their career in one small market, don't want to go to another. He went Sacramento to San Antonio and it was because he clocked that he wanted to play with Victor. Now with that said, what kind of sucks for him is if they don't win the championship, he's the most likely trade piece because of the Salary that, you know, they could. They could use his salary to get a star if they wanted or, you know, to some maneuverability. But, yeah, I mean, he's. He's the veteran presence on the team with seven career playoff games prior to this year.
- [22:23]
A
Yeah. TN Harrison Barnes.
- [22:24]
B
Yeah.
- [22:25]
A
Is those two guys. Now, before we get to the break, I just want to ask you one thing about the Cavs and Raptors, and I think it's the only question that matters here. And this is even after Donovan Mitchell just put up 39 points in one half, the only question that matters is, can they win this series without Jim Harden messing the whole thing up?
- [22:43]
B
I don't think so. And I. Edie's. It's whenever James Harden, because he was very good at the end of game three and he was solid throughout game four in this Piston Series. And obviously the story of game four is Donovan Mitchell going full Sleepy Floyd with 39 in the second half. Every time he has either a good or solid or excellent playoff game, people come, come for me and they're like, what do you have to say now? And I'm. I'm stunned. It might just be intentional. You know, people know they're wrong, but they think it's an opportunity to troll. No one has ever argued that James Harden doesn't have great playoff games. He has a ton of great playoff games. This is not an instance of. It's not with respect, Julius Randle, a player who just every year the playoffs come and he goes from fringe all star to almost unplayable.
- [23:52]
A
The.
- [23:53]
B
The argument with Harden is he will at least once and very often twice a series, have such an unspeakably bad performance that you will wonder, is he concussed? What's happening? Does he like, is he okay? And so James Harden playing well when his team's down 20 or 21 is not a shocker. It's the game fives, sixes and sevens or what we saw when the, like when the series is in the balance is where you just know a 2 for 11 is coming. You don't know when it's coming, but a 3 for 9 or 2 for 11. And so because of that, I think the Pistons are safe. With that said, Jalen Duran averaging 20 and 10 all year and now having. And he's played in two long series, now having one playoff game with more than 12 points is wild. The fact that Orlando and Cleveland and there's depth and I'm sorry, in their front line, I mean, he has scored 15. He had 15 and 15 in that game seven, which was awesome, but that's his playoff high this year and every other game's 12 or less. The Pistons have to get more from him. Unless Harden's just going to give it to him.
- [25:23]
A
And I say Cash, Raptors and obviously his Cavs, Pistons. 2 thoughts on that one. It's one thing if you're Duran and you play the type of game you play and Wendell Carter can body up with you and he can stop you, right?
- [25:39]
B
Yes.
- [25:39]
A
It's another thing when the tall boys from Cleveland are doing it because the criticism they've had with them for years is that they're not big, they're just tall.
- [25:48]
B
They're really good, too.
- [25:50]
A
But the question has always been whether you could have both of them. Right. Like Evan Mobley. What Carl Towns is doing right now for the Knicks tells you in a lot of ways what you can maybe get out of Evan Mobley if he was just a little bigger.
- [26:02]
B
Right.
- [26:03]
A
Like put him at, put him at the high post, run the offense through him. He can do all those things, but he's just not sturdy enough. Those are the people that Duran should feast on. And he.
- [26:13]
B
And that's what he feasted on. And what's crazy is that's why he's going to be second team all NBA, because he feasted on it all year long. He did.
- [26:21]
A
He.
- [26:22]
B
He stepped his game up when Cade went down. And so I. That has been really disappointing and surprising. I assumed, I guess totally incorrectly, that he was a guy. I thought he had very little chance, Bo, of being like a playoff riser. Like this guy's 20 and 10 in the regular season become playoffs. He's 25 and 12. Didn't seem like he had that type of game. But I also thought he was going to be kind of inoculated from being a playoff dropper. I just thought he was going to give you what he always gives you. And if they're going to get out of this series, he has to get back to who he was in the regular season.
- [27:01]
A
Yeah.
- [27:02]
B
And that, by the way, probably concludes the Cavs Pistons discussion for, you know, not just your podcast. I don't know if it's going to make the TV show this week. Yeah. I'm just telling you that it is not that captivating of a series.
- [27:19]
A
The long run question we're going to have is if James Harden is becoming playoff unplayable and that happens to guys who are regular season playable. Madre Harrell became playoff unplayable and that's why he is somewhere hilariously Speaking another language canner.
- [27:36]
B
It's why he's trying to, you know, ruin the country.
- [27:39]
A
Yes, yes. Like, like you just.
- [27:40]
B
He had to find a different grift.
- [27:42]
A
Yeah, you get to a place where you can't play, you, you just can't play the seven games.
- [27:47]
B
So on that note, because I am interested in this, Harden has a $42 million player option. The assumption from everyone was the Cavs, you know, when they traded for him, it agreed he's going to opt out and they will extend him. I, I don't think if you're Cleveland, you can do that.
- [28:10]
A
Year 18, Jim Harden.
- [28:13]
B
Say it again.
- [28:14]
A
Year 18.
- [28:15]
B
Exactly. I don't think you can. I don't think you can do that, even at a lower number. So does, does Harden opt in because you don't ever see stars opt in to player options. No, but I, if I'm hardened, I don't know where I'm getting anywhere close to $40 million. I mean, I guess there might be a team that says we just want. Because in the regular season he is still super valuable. He raises your floor, he plays all the time, he's durable. The he helps stimulate your city's nightclub economy. There's a lot of good things to having James Harden in the regular season, but I'm really curious what he does with that player option. I'm also curious because I think that might have a little bit of an impact on where we see LeBron James next year.
- [29:07]
A
Yeah. Now, last thing before we go into break about that series. It is the most aggressive Tobias Harris that I have ever seen. And I just want to take this moment to point out that Tobias Harris at the end of this contract, this is his last year of his contract. He has made over $300 million in the NBA and has received literally 1 3rd team all NBA vote his whole career. No all star team, no all defense team, no 6 Man of the year, no votes for any of these things and $300 million, brother, we salute you.
- [29:42]
B
Tobias Harris was. First things first started in September of 2017 and he was one of our first ever like in studio NBA guests. It was that that season or right after that season. I just remember him being in there and he was just about to get his second contract extent like second big contract. He had gotten one already. That was nine years ago. And by. And with all everything that you're saying, he after not having back to back 20 point games all year, had seven straight recently in the playoffs. He's been absolutely from the 31 down in Orlando to the 2o lead against Cleveland. He has been the Pistons second best player which is, you know, again goes back to the Duran stuff and also a Sar Thompson's having a rough series but it's a testament to him who you know, this was my guy, you know the now fire Daryl Morey. This was his vision with him in Philly.
- [30:55]
A
Yep. I'd say coming up next we'll talk about LeBron James and where we go from here. With him on the right time you can predict the playoff action all the way to the finals. With FanDuel predicts all you have to do is sign up to get your $25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes and misses. Every move is a potential plot twist. Predict the spread, the total points and even the game winning moments that make the playoffs where one run, one rebound, one shot changes everything from opening tip to the final buzzer. Stay locked in with every pass, every play and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up now for your $25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts. Offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets LLC, a registered Futures Commission merchant. 18 plus bonus is non withdrawable and expires 7 days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply see terms@fanduel.com prediction/bonus hyphen offer hyphen terms. All right we are back with Nick Wright. We mentioned briefly you know I want to take some LeBron the time to get into this LeBron thing but I was talking to a buddy of mine in Philly about I wonder what Daryl's going to do now to fix the team. And they're like what makes you think Daryl's going to be the one to do these things? And then I looked up and Daryl Morty got fired and I gotta say like he did well in the draft. You know I'm not the biggest Daryl guy but, but I don't feel like what happened to this team is Darryl's fault.
- [32:32]
B
Well here's the thing that is and this is where sports a little unfair a couple ways and again I, I am a big Daryl guy. I like him a lot personally I don't you know I, I, I, I don't pretend to be fully unbiased on this. I have a relationship with the guy but I try to be fair and transparent about it. The and there were obvious listen he went he Joe Ellen bead has a three year $190 million extension that hasn't kicked in. Paul George up until recently looked like he might have the worst contract in the league. George ascended enough at the end where maybe that stabilized to a degree. There are some really big, you know, you'd like things that haven't gone right. And so people get fired for that. Like, I don't think it's outrageous they fired him. What I do think is wildly unfair to me is he is getting annihilated for Jared McCain playing well for Oklahoma City when it is so clear he got a mandate from ownership to get under the luxury tax. And that's why they traded Jared McCain and they, so they got, they got a first round pick in four seconds for Jared McCain. He said he thought they were selling high. You then see the guy just shooting flames out his ass from three against the Lakers and it's like, man, we sure could have used him. But that was something he, you know, I, no GM wants to just give away a player and get no player in return. When you're trying to win right there and you're going to be judged on right there and you say, you know, drafted. Well, the Maxi pick and development is one of the best draft accomplishments of the last decade. He was. Where was. I'm going to check real quick, where was Maxi taken? I know he was. Was he late lottery? No, he wasn't even in the lottery.
- [34:33]
A
Yeah, I want to say he was like early 20s, right?
- [34:35]
B
Yeah, he was 21st pick and he's one of the 15 best players in the league. And so. And you know, people are killing him on the McCain thing. The flip, the opposite of the McCain thing was stealing Quenton Grimes from Dallas. But you know, it. Let me ask you this. And then we can do LeBron just quickly, if they had just lost game seven to Boston, down three one, get it to game seven and lose as opposed to winning that game and then getting curb stomped by the Knicks. I'm not sure if he's fired. I think if it's like, if it's like, oh, we got unlucky with the embiid appendectomy, we kind of acquitted ourselves well in this series. No one gave us a chance, but because they won it and people got their hopes up and then they just get an eviscerated, now he's fired. So I don't know.
- [35:27]
A
Yeah, no, I think what did him in or ultimately is going to be the thing to do them in is the embedding station that every single one of us would have signed in B2. There was really no Other option, no choice. Yeah, they were too good. They were too good to te down. Like, I think that's the part to be fair to him is they were too good to tear him down. But also Daryl's a dude making a shitload of money from a guy that did not hire him in the first place, who I'm sure has his own numbers walk that he thinks can do this. But let's talk about LeBron with the Lakers. I am inclined to agree with you. I think the LeBron time in LA has been a little weird and I don't know how good it's felt for Lakers fans, but I do think that people have forgotten what an irrelevant franchise they were before LeBron showed up. Like, they are definitely better for the time that he spent there. They won a championship. I thought it was going to go a little better than it has, but I can't say it's gone poorly. Right. It's also a new era of the NBA where parody has been kind of mandated by regulation in the cap and everything else. But I have no idea what is the move for him at this point. I don't know if I'm running a team if what. It's kind of like when Barry bonds became available in 07. Now, the difference is nobody liked Barry Bonds. Barry bonds were the 10 best players in baseball and nobody picked him up because they just decided there wasn't a good fit for him in a place you have suggested, if I'm not mistaken. You tell me if I'm wrong here, that the Knicks would be a great place for LeBron. And I thought you liked us being friends because I just don't know how it would be possible to be around you if New York. If LeBron is actually in New York City.
- [36:59]
B
I think, Listen, I do think assuming the Knicks don't win the championship, I think that the. If they win the championship, it's moot. I think the Knicks would be a good fit. I can. Real quick. Before we look forward, can we look back on the. Because I'm. I am dismayed at not only the revisionist history about LeBron's tenure with the Lakers, but the. The revisionist. I don't. You just con. I don't know what's contemporary analysis? I guess LeBron James in his time with the Lakers. The Lakers had as much team success as the Nuggets have had in Nicola Jokic his entire career and the Bucks had in Giannis's entire career. Would any they. One Finals trip, one championship, one. One other deep playoff run. And that's it. Would anyone in the world argue that the n. The YIC Nuggets era has been a failure, the Bucks Giannis era has been a failure? Of course not. And when LeBron got to the Lakers, the ide. Nobody was saying, oh, he's about to win a bunch of championships. There it was, he's 34. It's the Western Conference. They have been the worst team in the league for six years. It was it.
- [38:33]
A
It.
- [38:34]
B
The expectations from the general public were low, and within two years they're champions, and the next year they're the Vegas favorite to repeat until Solomon Hill somersaults into his ankle. And so I just. I. I think LeBron's time with the Lakers was a huge success. And I don't know how anyone can read it any way differently.
- [38:56]
A
I did think that. I think the read is. I don't think it's been unsuccessful. I think it's fair if one has found it to be a bit disappointing. Right. Because Jokic and his team having that run comes with Jokic exceeding our initial expectations for him. Giannis. The Giannis tenure, I think, is actually interesting because it has some terribly embarrassing postseason flameouts that we do not really hold against him. Again. Again. Because I think the expectations that we started with were just a little bit different. I just. Did you read Yaron Weitzman's book on.
- [39:33]
B
I not read the whole thing. I. I have it, and I need to read the whole thing.
- [39:36]
A
I have not. Yeah, yeah. It's. It's a. It's a good read, and I think it kind of just speaks to. It's been an awkward time period for him there just because he showed up into the land of Kobe. Stan. Right. Like, I don't think anybody. I think everybody underestimated what the awkwardness would be for him simply being on the Lakers. The.
- [39:57]
B
I. I think that's true. It's also been awkward because for the last four years, the team has operated as if they are annoyed he isn't. Worse, they have operated as if the. We had a plan for. For by 2022, for you to be washed adjacent and so we can move on. And so they have just been stuck in neutral. And, and that's why when they got Luca and everyone's like, well, you need a lot of time, a whole offseason or more to build to get the right types of players to play around. Luca. That would be true for about 26 teams. You know, the one team. It shouldn't be true for the guy who Luca modeled His game after in LeBron, you know what players you need to have around Luca, the exact players you need to have around old LeBron. And so that part's been frustrating. So I, yeah, I mean, I think that to. To go move forward, I understand if he wants to stay with the Lakers, that would bum me out because I don't. I understand he is not. If LeBron at this point in his career, if LeBron's your best player, you're not winning the championship. So he's in a different part of his career and he needs to go somewhere where someone else can be, you know, the highest usage. I get that. But the delta between that and taking a full time backseat the end of his career to Austin Reeves is too big for me. I, I enjoyed watching this LeBron playoff run as brief as it was, because we got to see hand on the joystick in full control LeBron again. And so I think, I think Cleveland, if they move on from Harden with Donovan being this, you know, the number one scorer and best player, but LeBron kind of controlling the offense or the Knicks are interesting. If they like say the Knicks make the finals and just get waxed in the finals, losing five and it's bad, then I do think a LeBron McHale Bridges signing trade because Bridges is the exact type of player you need alongside Luca is. And the Knicks might be, you know, not, not the Knicks might like the idea of having a shorter contract in that salary spot. I think that could make a lot of sense for a lot of people.
- [42:26]
A
I think there appears to be a huge difference between 82 game Austin Reeves and seven game Austin Reeves. And the Lakers need to be very, very careful about what they ultimately decide to do with him because I think there's a ride high with him because he has exceeded all expectations that anybody has had, but he is not. Granted there's been an injury factor this year, but he has not been the same player in the postseason this year or last year as to what he had been previously. Like, like that's a. That, that. That's where the Lakers, I think have themselves in a bit of a bind.
- [42:56]
B
Yeah. But I don't know what they're going to do because the. He's a true unrestricted free agent and the Nets will just offer him the max. Yeah, that's Will just like. So maybe, maybe he'll take a little less to stay with the Lakers. And I think he wants to stay with the Lakers. And he and Luke have an amazing relationship. He and Braun have a great relationship. But I Don't know if Braun will be there, but listen, this is. Austin Reeves has improved so much each and every year from undrafted to where he is. I'm not going to put a ceiling on what he can do next because he's earned the right to say he's gotten better in every way. But Austin Reaves. This goes back to the theme of today's show, my overall skepticism of skinny athletes. I. I have a huge problem with professional basketball players who don't have defined muscular structure in their arm.
- [43:47]
A
The Paul Pierce class of player.
- [43:50]
B
Well, at least Paul. At least Paul was big. But yes to the. And. And I. I don't mean for Paul. I have no idea how much that level of alcohol consumption affects your, you know, your body type, but I. Austin has to get stronger. He might not be able to get faster. He can get stronger, and OKC bullied him. And so this offseason, he doesn't have to come back full Caruso, where it looks like, you know, he's had a body transformation, but he needs to get stronger. And if I'm the Lakers, I'm going to be paying him $50 million a year. I need him to come back looking a little more Jack. I think it's fair. I think it's fair.
- [44:37]
A
Right? Because he's not even. It's not even just that. He's not Jack. He's not Jack. And he don't never have no professional haircut. You know what I mean?
- [44:47]
B
You know, that's the white guy from Arkansas thing. I give him a pass on that.
- [44:50]
A
Yeah. No, no, no. He been playing basketball too long, man. Like. Like any white man in the NBA who still lets white people cut his hair. I know who you voted for. Like, obviously, you have not immersed yourself in. He is not immersed. He has not immersed himself in the culture. If you can't go, go get you a haircut with the other cats. You know, you could do better than this. I know. Luca, I don't think Lucas still letting no white man cut his hair. He from a. A whole nother country that ain't got black people.
- [45:18]
B
My guess is it is a white guy cutting his hair, but it's a white guy from Eastern Europe, which the. Like. Listen, the mean streets of Slovenia got more in common with Camden, New Jersey, than you think. Like, the tough parts of Eastern Europe. Head on a swivel, like. And so. So, so I don't know who's cutting Lucas hair, but I know that there's a lot going on in the back of that business.
- [45:47]
A
Yeah, yeah. No, no. I talked to a buddy of mine. He talked about he'd been over there, one of them countries. He's like 30 story buildings with window units, baby. They over there. Keeping your head above water, learning the brakes when you can, like, that's. That's. That's where they are. But, no, if it's so interesting with LeBron in this place, because he's still good enough to be good. I know that sounds obvious, but I. I can't think of any other way to put it. Right. He's still good enough to be good. He's not good enough to be your number one option. He did a much better job off the ball as a tertiary figure than I thought that he could have or would have been down to. I'm just kind of like, hey, brother, you don't have to keep on doing this. And I guess he wants to, but, like, the Lakers seem like for what his future ambitions seem to be the perfect place to go ahead and move into retirement. Right. Like, we've seen guys do that. Wilt Chamberlain is a great example where you wrap your career with the Lakers and then you become an LA fixture from then on out. That seems like the play. But that's easy for me to say because I'm not the one who can still play basketball really well and get 40, 50 million dollars a year for it.
- [46:55]
B
So it is so fascinating because the other element of this is, is, has Bronnie improved enough that in the. Depending on the Lakers offseason goes Bronnie, Bronnie is going to be like their ninth man in the rotation. And if. If he has the question, I would. If he has improved enough, the question I would then have is, for LeBron, is there an element of. I'll bring up my podcast for the second time. If. If Netflix came to me and was like, hey, we'll triple what you make doing the pod. But it's just solo. It's just you. Your son's not in it, I think. I would say not interested. Like, I. My entire enjoyment out of it comes from doing it with him. There might be a part of LeBron that the most. The thing that is most fun to him was those playoff minutes with Bronny, and the idea of having real regular season minutes with him might trump all of it. Flip side of that is Bronny might. If he has earned his way into the rotation, I don't know if he has or not. He might feel the exact opposite. He might be like, no, I want to do this on my own. So there's that piece of it. There is the financial piece of it. There is the fact that the Lakers, when it looked like in January that LeBron finally had fallen off the cliff. Baxter Holmes has that article where Jeannie Buss is, you know, through sources or whatever, basically saying how annoyed she's been the last couple years of the LeBron era. And that seemed to legitimately hurt LeBron's feelings. So there's that piece of it. Then there's also the where if he wants to win another championship as a key piece, where is the best place for him? So I'm going to throw out one that I do not think is likely, but it peaked my. My antenna when a month and a half ago, McMinn included them in his article about where LeBron could go. Because the team is owned by one of his friends, because the team has on his coaching staff another one of his friends. And it is your Denver Nuggets, Bo. I see the vision and that.
- [49:21]
A
That is a fat.
- [49:23]
B
Now, it'd be weird seeing LeBron finish his career in Denver, I think objectively would be weird, but because they got beaten round one, it wouldn't look, you know, and because they appear to be stuck, like, I don't know how they get back to contention level, that would be interesting. And then the one team we haven't talked about, of course, is Golden State. But they. That would just be like a. Almost Harlem Globetrotters, like, come see the attraction. You're not winning anything there.
- [49:53]
A
And they don't like you, man.
- [49:56]
B
Like fans. Yeah, great point. Do not like you.
- [50:00]
A
You'll be doing the same thing you just did, but even to a, to a different degree, like, the Lakers fans had a rivalry with you that kind of different didn't really exist. Right. Like, like, like, you know, you go to the warriors, they don't like you. And I'm not sure how much the guys on the team, I'm sure they respect you. Not sure how much they really like you. And playing with Steph, man, in the, in the, the nature of that offense and everything else, that is a taxing way to play basketball.
- [50:29]
B
Yep, that's right. No, that's true. And. But you're. The most important point is the first one you made that the fans acted like the best thing that happened to warriors fans all year long was OKC sweeping LeBron. Like, it's.
- [50:48]
A
They.
- [50:48]
B
They had a brief moment of holy, is he gonna blow a 30 lead? But a lot of their. The last few years when Steph Curry hasn't been A real fixture of the postseason. Their, you know, postseason enjoyment has been watching LeBron come up short. That's a good point.
- [51:05]
A
Yeah. No, this is like, it's amazing that he can continue to play this long, but people are not supposed to play basketball this long.
- [51:14]
B
Right.
- [51:14]
A
Like, it's just. It is, it is exceeded all our understandings of the, like, the lifespan of Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a result of his whatchamacallit stealing all his money.
- [51:24]
B
Right.
- [51:24]
A
And his house flooding out and everything else. Otherwise, he doesn't keep playing this long. But again, nobody's been as good as long as LeBron has.
- [51:34]
B
So what do you do? So that is the thing, because it is. It's almost like I don't know enough about the Greek tragedies, but I'm sure there's a good comp for this or maybe a Twilight Zone episode or something. The curse of. You'll never be bad. Right. Like, you'll never be forced to play your way out of the league. So.
- [51:58]
A
And apparently you'll never have a terrible injury.
- [52:01]
B
Right? Well, right, exactly. The. You'll never be bad. You'll. Whenever you decide to stop, you will truly be deciding to stop, not. Forced to stop, not. And that's a. So I, this, this is why I said, I think he's playing 25 years. I think he's playing two more. I think he's going to do a, a, a cor. A true quarter century of NBA basketball as the final, you know, line on his resume. Yeah.
- [52:30]
A
Like, Michael Jordan suffered his first serious soft tissue injury in Washington.
- [52:37]
B
Yeah.
- [52:37]
A
Right. And I haven't read this book. Joel Anderson is ready. He talks about it all the time. I forget the name of it, but it's a book about Jordan's time in Washington and there's a scene in how miserable it was. Yes. And it's like Eton Thomas looking at Jordan with the ice packs on and just being like, why are you doing this? But the answer seemed pretty clear. He was doing this because he thought the Wizards were his team. And then a polyon shit canned them right after. Right. But it was like, you don't have to do this. Why are you doing this? And like Wizards, Jordan was a very good basketball player. Obviously wasn't a Michael Jordan level basketball player.
- [53:11]
B
Good player.
- [53:12]
A
Yeah. He was still a really. He was still a like, legitimate all star level player. You needed to figure out what you were going to do with him. And there was always a possibility on a given night he could give you 40. LeBron is physically sturdier than that. And LeBron has this computer up here, so even if his body slows down, he'll always be able to figure it out. And so yeah, you're right. He may wind up out here playing for 25 years. I just wonder how much fun it is for him at this point to keep doing this.
- [53:40]
B
It's. It's really. It's really fascinating. I just looked it up because I knew the book as well. When Nothing Else matters.
- [53:46]
A
Yes.
- [53:47]
B
Is the book on Jordan's time in Washington. Yeah. And the other. The other piece of it that. And he mentioned it and I do think this will really matter is what Savannah and Zuri want him to do. Like the. I mean, it's so. I remember one of the like little soft reasons that people thought he left Miami was because Riley spoiled. Riley revealed that Savannah was having another baby like before the family had revealed it.
- [54:23]
A
Yeah, I remember that.
- [54:24]
B
Intentional. Obviously. It just like kind of slipped out.
- [54:26]
A
It was at the exit press conference in 14.
- [54:31]
B
That baby's now 11 years old.
- [54:33]
A
Yeah, he.
- [54:34]
B
He left Miami 11 and a half years ago. Like, it's just. It is, it is truly. Austin Reeves is one of his longest tenured teammates ever.
- [54:49]
A
Yeah.
- [54:50]
B
And so he really has been with the Lakers a long ass time and it just.
- [54:57]
A
It.
- [54:57]
B
Whenever he walks away, he'll truly be walking away.
- [55:02]
A
It.
- [55:02]
B
I. The comp would have been Brady, but Brady's last year in Tampa, he wasn't good and it was fine, you know, he was 46 years old. It was absurd how good he was so long. But you final. The year before his last year in Tampa, he almost won NFL mvp. I think he led the league in passing. But then his final year in Tampa, they were 8 and 9 and it was, you know, you finally saw it. So I don't know. I really don't know what he's going to do.
- [55:30]
A
I just know if he comes to New York, man, it's just gonna be too much. It's just. Look, look, it's about to be enough already with the Knicks actually being good. Right?
- [55:41]
B
I. Here's my thing. If he comes to New York.
- [55:44]
A
Bo,
- [55:47]
B
what is the. What's the upper bound of how much money I'm gonna spend on tickets? Dude, I don't know that there is one.
- [55:54]
A
I just.
- [55:55]
B
Because I don't get free tickets. The Knicks don't. I don't know. Like the people assume like the. The n. I've never gotten a single free ticket from the Knicks, by the way. Knicks, if you're watching, I'll Take them. I. But so I buy my tickets, you know, like, everybody. And Knicks tickets are so exorbitantly expensive and that if they were to get Braun. I don't know, man. I. That fancy car I got, I might sell.
- [56:25]
A
No, because you every now and then will actually pay for Nick's tickets. And I will not. Like, I'm just.
- [56:29]
B
It's.
- [56:29]
A
It's like if somebody. Our guy compliment, he's got great seats. If he calls me to go, okay, cool. Or like, somebody gets the Viacom seats, I might pull up. I refuse to pay Knicks ticket prices. I just. It's what they say is maybe you just get in right before the game starts. But I need a little bit more certainty in my life. You understand what I'm saying?
- [56:47]
B
By the way, quickly, before we go, speaking of offering compliment, because I know he'll watch this, and I haven't talked to him in a bit. He's very busy. He's very busy because he has created a new television show based in Las Vegas about Vegas gangsters. And I am here to tell you, I have not spent as many hours as I have in Vegas. I have not grown my hair out as I have to not get a cameo as some sleazy Vegas gangster. Like. Like Brian. I'm available. I. There, there. I don't know what the SAG rules are, but I'll do it for free. I need to show up in that show.
- [57:32]
A
That reminds me, I just got a residuals check for my cameo appearance. That's what I'm saying.
- [57:37]
B
What? You were great in Billions and you played Bomani Jones.
- [57:42]
A
Yes.
- [57:42]
B
I'm saying you want to be somebody. I. I don't need a line. I just want to be one of. I can be a guy that gets thrown into a dumpster for not paying a debt. I don't care. I want to be in a Vegas.
- [57:53]
A
I was about to say, just so we're clear, Nick doesn't want to play himself. He wants to play a Las Vegas degenerate who is not Nick Wright. Check him out. 3:00 clock Eastern. First things first. What's Right podcast with the homie Dean Bird. My brother, I appreciate you.
- [58:10]
B
Love you, bro. Thank you for having me on.
- [58:11]
A
Amen. You, too. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the Right time. We do this thing four times a week. Ryan Brumble handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 323-596-7767. Go to Bowmani Jones live dot com. Live show Friday, May 15, in Atlanta, get your ticket. We still got some. Bomanijoneslive.com Remember, follow the right time, subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. And we'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy, Sa.