← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
Rockets Problems & Spurs Minus Wemby (Scoot!), Plus Knicks, Pistons & Kerr’s Future w/ James Edwards & Anthony Slater
01:58:42
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- [00:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey Resilo listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. What if your drive was fueled with more like More protection for more time on the road? Shelby Power Nitro plus provides more protection for longer lasting engines, so it helps you keep your engine running like new for whatever drive is ahead. Shelby Power Nitro engine performance that lasts compared to minimum detergent gasoline with continuous use of Shelby Power Nitro plus and gasoline direct injection engines, effects and benefits may vary. See Shell Us More Protection for more information. The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings all hoops for you today. I'll recap the three games last night. The biggest storylines you got James Edwards who covers the Knicks and the NBA in general for the athletic and some pist thoughts from his years covering Cade first entering the league. And we've got Anthony Slater on Denver and Minnesota as Minnesota is even that series. And the future of Steve Kerr? Will he still be the warriors head coach next year? And that in life Advice The NBA playoffs are in full swing and the intensity isn't letting up. And with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, your winnings get a boost every single day. All playoffs long bet player props bet live from the opening tip of the final possession and every bucket, every dime, every clutch takeover matters. And DraftKings sportsbook keeps boosting you all the way through. All DraftKings customers can enjoy a profit boost every single day throughout the playoffs. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Use the code Ryan to claim your profit boost. That's Code Ryan R Y E N To get a boost every day of the NBA playoffs In partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MERNET NEW YORK Call 877-8-HOPE-WOOD or text HOPE-WHY. CONNECTICUT. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass through may apply in Illinois, 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. One profit boost per customer per day. NBA Playoffs bets only. Bet restrictions apply and vary when offered. Max bet and boost vary. Boost only applies to winnings and expires at the end of the last NBA game each day. See terms@sportsbook.draftkings.com promos we start today with reaction to the three playoff games that we had last night. A bunch of stories to tell some great basketball, but the headline don't worry, we'll get to Scoot Henderson here. We're going to build the scoot. It's LeBron and the Lakers. He has been phenomenal. He's in complete control. And game two, Kevin Durant comes back, you're like, all right, they'll probably split this one here. No. And LeBron was clearly the better player for a night in comparison to Durant. We'll get to Durant's night here. But the Lakers shooting continues to be ridiculous. 53% from three in game one, 46% in game two. I figured LeBron would score because the shots were going to be available. There's no Luca, there's no Reeves. He's going to get 20 shots up, so he'll have the points. But it's so much more than the points. You could even argue he didn't even shoot it necessarily. Great last night, struggling with the free throw line a little bit, but he's getting to the line constantly. He had a play and this kind of like stood out to me and how Durant is struggling with any of this contact off the ball. But there was a play where Jayson Tate comes in. He's a rabble rouser and he's going to mess with LeBron coming off of the screen. And it's a bit of an armbar. And granted, if somebody's getting physical with LeBron, he's going to show you this because he's likely going to get the call on top of everything else. And LeBron just kind of had this moment like, get your fucking hands off me, man. And he's so much stronger than most of these dudes too, where it was like, yeah, you're not going to do this to me. And he got clear of it. Durant should watch that clip, by the way. He had a play where Jabari comes out on him. Jabari is a big dude, pretty good defender. LeBron went right past him. Tar Eason gets a chance. He beasted Tar Eason. Something I've noticed with Tari Eason, with his length and defensive stuff and athleticism and all that, the sleight of frame thing. There are a lot of plays that I've seen this year defensively, if you get him going backwards, you can just go through him. There was even another play towards the very end of the game. It's 97, 92, 55 seconds left in the game. And LeBron was so smart in what he did. Tar Easton's on him past the three point line. We're at the top right so it's at the very top of the key, but Smart is on the left side. He's got the ball. And it's like, hey, we're going to run some clock, right? And Eason relaxes because he's like, oh, these guys are going to relax. I'll just kind of like stand up. Not going to stance, not pay attention. Smart knows exactly what LeBron's going to do. LeBron reads what Easton is doing, and LeBron just kind of like pretends he's going to chill out and then cuts back door. And Smart leads him perfectly. LeBron makes the bucket. It's 99, 92, and the game is over. So you have LeBron out there. If you want to double them, no problem. You want to double Durant, problem. But he swings it to Rui, who's been really competitive in these two games. He and Smart. I mean, it's really what you're seeing here, at least in the first two games of the series, is that Marcus Smart and LeBron are smarter than every other player that Houston has out there. And you add in canard scoring. So really, honestly, like, whatever I thought LeBron was capable of, he figured, okay, well, the time off and the playoffs will matter and all these kind of. I just think he's been brilliant for two. For two games here. What else do we have? So we gave you the numbers, the splits from three. Let's take a look at Luke Kennard splits as well while we're on the shooting numbers from this. Luke is now 65% from the floor, 73% from three in the first two games. Another number that I was looking at in Synergy this morning, the last four seconds of his shot clock. What's the efficiency of these two teams? Usually not a very efficient shot. Last four seconds of the shot clock. Anything normally over one point per shot is a nice number. So you'll look at teams in transition, those numbers will be higher. You know, there's. There's all sorts of different ways you can sort it where one point will look really good somewhere, and then another times it's like not that great. You're never at one point on last. Last four second shots. So Houston on 14 attempts in game one, 0.5 points per shot. The Lakers on 13 attempts in game one, 1.6. That's a ridiculous number. Game two, Houston, 15 attempts, last four seconds of the shot clock, 0.2 points per shot. Lakers on 21 attempts, 0.8. Game one, Houston was 38% from the floor. Game two, they were 24% from three. It was actually 21% through three quarters. And things got better, believe it or not. Shangun started 3 of 11. He closed 6 and 9. Had a couple easy ones there. Late Tari Eason, more like Tari missing. He was two for nine. He missed everything. He was missing everything. And then I know he had a three and then another make there a little bit later. The KD off the ball stuff is bad. He can't get free. You just get into him and it's like, ah, it's going to suck. He's got to work harder on getting away from this stuff. Now when he's doubled and he talked about it last night, I was reading his postgame going, hey, they do something different where when they switch it, they stay with the two. Here's the thing, like, when I watched Houston in March, I was like, why are you having Durant bring the ball up, dribbling right into a double team 35ft away from the hoop? Like, who's that helping? And then it's unfortunately, this Houston roster, you're surrounded, like, with a bunch of maybes. But the maybes are starting to become like, no. Like, we know Jabari can't dribble. He's a nice player. But if you're doubled and throwing it to him, if you're doubled and throwing it to Tar Eason, I don't know if you're throwing it to a men, all right? But amen, you know, everybody's going to play him to go downhill. They're never going to respect his shot. So half of the options are kind of cut off. And then there was one play there, maybe two, where Durant was facing a hard double. And then he throws it to Shingoon and Shingoon's passing. And if he likes the matchup, especially if Ayton is part of the double team or whoever the center is, then he should have a size advantage, you know, with his skills, being able to score there. But that wasn't really working out because he was missing a lot of those shots. And then there was something in April that I noticed, especially as, like, read it and playing more and more, is that it least felt like Reed shepherd was some kind of outlet for Durant against these double teams. And I thought they were doing a much better job with getting Durant in a better position to start his offense, as opposed to just going like, hey, here's a double team, buddy. Deal with it. And, you know, it wasn't all just Durant bringing it up. It was probably less of the double teams, but he was double teamed the entire time. And it's like, you guys already went through this shit in March, and then it looked like you kind of fixed it. But I guess Reed is done now. And I think Imei is a terrific coach, but the lack of knowing what they want to do against these Durant double teams and having it completely clogged them up and, you know, again, this is on the player's part of it's like, all right, Tari, you can make more shots. Shingoon could have gotten off to a better start, but there was a play in the second quarter. I knew it as soon as I had seen. As soon as it happened, I was like, oh, there's a play in the second quarter where Reed shepherd is assigned to Marcus Smart. And Reed fucks it up. And I know what he's trying to do, but it was still bad. Like, he messed it up. He thought he was going to, like, switch the cut to the cutter off the ball. So he kind of like went back to the paint and then turned back around and Smart is in the slot. 4, 3. He hits it and then I've seen this timeout all season long. IME does the I'm pissed off at Reed shepherd timeout where Ima calls timeout, and Reed messed it up, okay? But again, I could see what he was doing. And then he just looks bad because you're kind of like the little guy out there turning your head, going, what the hell am I supposed to do? And then, of course, the 3 point shot is made. IME the scolding timeout looks at Reed, who knows what he said, and then he was done with him. I mean, I know he played him in a little bit in the third quarter, but Reed played 36 minutes in game one. He played 11 minutes last night. He played 14 seconds in the fourth quarter. So fine, you don't like his defense. Do you like the Aaron Holiday ISO creative? Do you like the Jayshawn Tate shots? Do you like Tari Eason and Jabari not really being able to do anything with the ball? You know, there's not four minutes in there through these double teams of like, hey, maybe we just give Reed the green light because tour with Kevin the entire time. So I'll be curious to see what happens there. I would hope, and I'm sure there were more than just the one defensive assignment thing with Reed for them to make that kind of decision. You know, I will defer to the guys that were coaching in the actual game, but as soon As I saw that and then that timeout, I'm like, okay, like, we'll see how much more Reed shepherd we get. And we did not get to see much. So if you're a Reed shepherd fan who bought a ticket to that game, you can't blame load management on that one. And you're left after two games just going like, wait, is LeBron actually like right now? Peak, like peak 41 year old version of LeBron better than Kevin Durant. Like, this isn't supposed to happen. When Katie came back, they were supposed to fix it. Reeves and Luca are not playing in the series and Houston is down 2. Oh, Boston. I hope some of you listen to me. Because the thing I talked about on Monday on that look, Phillies out manned here. It's going to be really tough. No one's picking Philly. No one thinks they can win the series. But there is something I noticed in the drop coverage of the high ball screen against the guards that seems to be kind of right there for you if you're Philadelphia. And I'd mentioned that Maxi seemed like there was a play in the first game in the second half where it's like, okay, so when we set a high ball screen with our center, their center, it's not come up with the screener and then drop, show and then drop. They don't even move. They just stay down there because you're so afraid of the speed of Maxi and Edgecombe, which I completely understand. In Missoula, it worked. It worked in game one. So I can't tell if I should be more on Philly's case for not going, hey, do you realize this thing that is right there, wide open threes off a high ball screen for Maxi of all people, like, he can just dribble to whichever side he wants and there's not going to be anyone contesting these threes or that Missoula stayed in it for the entire night until he didn't, which we'll get to. So it was there. It was there. And Philly pulls this one out. VJ Max combined for 11 of 22 on threes. They did. After getting torched with this version of a defensive plan again, they're probably like, well, look, it worked in game one. They didn't even do anything about it. It's like, okay, so what are we going to do? Sit here for two hours and watch it happen? Phillies clearly figured it out and nothing is going to change. They did change it. They brought Keda up after. It was like, hey, we have to do something. Different here. And the whole reason they're going with this defense is Kata came up, Maxi went right past him and missed the layup. Offensive rebound, everybody's scrambling. So another two points for Philadelphia. But this is. This is a little weird because I was like, why did it take so long for Philly to figure it out? Why did it take Boston so long to just like, you know, if they loved it, then they wouldn't have traded. Change it to that one time. But their argument would be, well, yeah, good one, dickhead. We did change it and then you already saw what happened. Maybe some variety because we'll see what happens in game three. Are they going to do it again? Because you were just basically telling two terrific guards, Maxi, one of the best scores in the league. All you have to do is pick a side and your three is going to be wide open. So I don't know if that means Boston will try something where Tatum has to play against a big. You can get into some pre switching stuff where it's like, well, let's not have. Make sure the center stays back and we'll have a wing run with the screener and then stay into the play and then, you know, figure out on some sort of switch to contest some of these shots. I imagine that that's something that's going to happen, but that was just too easy. It was too easy. So you can sit there and talk about Boston missing threes, which they did. And when Boston misses this many threes, it's never like, you go, wait, this team's good. It's going to be so, like, if they were to have a disappointing, like, playoff, I don't think they're going to lose to Philadelphia, but they were going to have a disappointing playoff exit. And you go, is this like a weird championship team? You get bounced by the Knicks and then. But this is all we're letting the negativity, or at least I am the negativity of looking at this thing that I don't know. It's a clearly a flaw with their combination of centers. Is it a fatal flaw? Fatal flaw in regards to, like, can they get out of the east with something like this? Or is it just that, hey, we're playing like this because Maxi and VJ are incredible and they're so fast. You don't want to ask a center to do that. It's a complete waste of time. So I don't know what the adjustment will be, but I imagine they're not just going to go, hey, for two hours and 15 minutes, you guys just get to take practice threes the entire time and just shout out to Vijay Edgecomb, who started his career in Boston with 34 points in his first NBA game ever. I felt like even though the shot totals are there in the first half of the box score in game one, it just didn't feel like he was much of a priority in that offense. And clearly he was a priority in game too. And I mean, he is just reeks of confidence. Like, he had one play that he made and then he kind of. They caught him on camera. He looked back at somebody and he winked. Like, this dude is so comfortable out there even as a rookie. And we're seeing a lot of this stuff from young players throughout college hoops and the NBA as well. One other thing with Boston and the offense again, 13 of 50 on 3, so 26%. So I just think if you're doing, hey, Boston shot variance, that's why they lost. I think there's a little bit more to it and there are just a lot of possessions with Boston offensively, even though it's working. Jalen went off last night, but starting from a stop, starting your offensive movement from a stop drives me fucking crazy. It's just easier to defend. Everybody gets to get ready and you're holding the ball and you're stopped and that's where you're starting all of your offensive decisions from. And you know, Tatum and Brown are so incredibly gifted. They're so good that it, it kind of works. But I also think it just doesn't really stress the defense all that much. But whatever, whatever, we're even in the series. I almost never think anybody's going to sweep because I just think there's times where teams like, oh my God, we're so much better than these guys, you know, come back and play with that intensity. But I don't think you would expect Boston to just let VJ and Maxi walk into that many wide open threes because it was there in game one and they took advantage of it in game two. Portland evens the series in San Antonio for two reasons. One is Wembanyama played 12 minutes left with what looked like a really bad fall. And in the concussion protocol, 857 in the second quarter, that was rough. I mean, he was having a hard time getting up. He was kind of like even stumbling as he was trying to sit up a little bit. So hopefully there's a quicker turnaround because Portland now has gone completely like full mode small guy on him. And it was Kamara. I think Denny even got him for possession, but I don't know if that was by design. And then there was a ton of Drew Holiday on him a little bit later. And on this specific play when Wembanyama fell down, Drew was right up underneath them. And look, as much as I like Wembanyama, he scares the shit of me because I think he falls down the entire game. And when you're younger and you fall down that much, like, okay. And you just bounce right back up so we don't have to worry about it right now. But on that play where. And he had one. He had one in game one when he was, like, mad. And it was really fun to see him be a little pissed off and just go, give me the ball, like, I'm taking over here. And he got a little carried away and kind of fell down. But when he has this guy, which is, you know, he can be 6, 3, 6, 4, but this dude is, like, in Wemby's hip. And it can probably mess with him a little bit because it's just like, what's this thing underneath me? Where most basketball players are, like, more torso to torso, even in a mismatch, and in this case, it feels like his entire torso is over a player who's getting down at a defensive stance. And so that leads to some of these collisions that he has. And once he's out of the game. And I actually. I think it took Portland maybe a little bit too long to be like, hey, Wembanyama's not in there. And Cornett's terrific as a backup, you know, but it was like, hey, all right, now we have this thing that we are going to be able to cook with here, and it's attack. The other reason Portland won this game is the birth of Scoot Henderson. So I don't have any kids. I think everybody knows that.
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James L. Edwards
So there's.
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Ryan Rosillo
There's just certain young guys out there. Like, yeah, I. I kind of joke that Curry will be the last guy I ever really care about. You know, I'd want him to win. And if you were to lose, I'd be upset about it. Curry will probably be the last, to be honest with you. I don't. I don't know at this stage of my life, like, if Ant were to lose in the NBA Finals, would I be bummed out for a day? That seems weird, but I've been bummed out about Scoop for Scoot because coming out of the draft incredibly high on him. Was very excited because I thought he had as I like to say about some players every now and then, some motherfucker in him. And one of my favorite things about Scoot was that actually in that Wembanyama exhibition game, he seemed to be like, the one dude was like, I don't care. I don't care about any of this stuff. I'm Scoot Henderson. And then he has a disastrous rookie year statistically, like some terrible stuff. Remember we were talking to Jalen Suggs, who just looked like he wasn't going to play in the league after his rookie year. We asked him about it and then even asked about Scoot. I'll admit, I even reached out to somebody. I was like, hey, what's the story with our guy here? And I was told, scoot's going to be good. Don't worry about it. He's going to be really good. And I'm like, well, of course you guys think he's going to be really good. You have to think he's going to be really good. And then the second year it did get better and there were some ups and downs, but it definitely looked better. And then he gets hurt. And as Portland's starting to put some things together with this team, there was even a time I'm like, all right, so they acquired Drew. Do I have to worry about Caleb Love taking my guy's minutes when Scoot's back from this leg injury that took forever? Well, Portland starts putting together a better season. Scoot doesn't come back until February 6th. He shoots 24% from 3 under 40% overall. He had a bunch of double digit scoring games and that was terrific. But then something happened. And in March and April, he kind of lit it up from a shooting standpoint. 41% from three, then 39%. And last night he goes for 31 points. And he was even on the broadcast. It was so great to hear Tirico and Reggie Miller like, well, they've got a. Scoot's got to bail him out here. I'm like, they're talking about my guy. And like, Scoot has to solve the problem now. He was so good last night and it wasn't just because he made every single shot. He had a stretch of defensive plays early on where it looked a little bit like Jalen Suggs in Game 1 against the Pistons are like, this dude is everywhere right now. Another part that I kind of glossed over here. But like, when I was watching the Scoot stuff, what I loved is that he didn't have any assists last night. He had a score. Our guy had to get it done. He doesn't want to be like a 20 shot attempt guy. He wants to get the ball. And even if it's the outlet to him. And so many of these young guards, especially with this kind of profile and the high school and the recruiting and like, oh, this guy could be like the number one pick. Which is what the conversation was about. Scooter. Normally those guys are not willing to give up the ball once they're getting the ball in transition. And he's always looking to get the ball up ahead and he's playing off of Drew and then sometimes he's on. He was torching some guys with some moves. Then he just started feeling himself so much that he was just floating. And he had his coming out party, which I hope is real because I'm also willing to admit that if he has a 2 for 12 here, I'm not going to be necessarily shocked. But it's been tough. It's been tough for us Scoop believers because for those of you who do not live online, I'll tell you how it works real quick. You like a player in the draft, that player doesn't play well and everyone starts giving you shit, while also now having a vested interest and rooting for the demise of this player that this podcaster who I don't even know seemed to really like. And so that's what's been going on for three years. So even when Scoot was lighting it up in March and April and I'm watching those games and that's that type of year, or I should say the time of year where you're like, how much of this is real? It's like being a realtor before the housing crisis. 06 it's like, is it you? Are you really good? Or is it all of the circumstances around you? And so I didn't really want to sit here and like, I thought Scoot looked better. We had Haberstro on. I'm like, he looks bigger. He looks actually a little bit quicker. There's just something to him. You know what I love about Scoot? His hair tells me he only cares about ball. I love his hair. I don't know if that means anything to any of you, but it does to me. I look at that Dewey's got going like that, just as a guy who wakes up and thinks ball. And when somebody asked him like, when did you know you had it? He was like, when I woke up. So a big night for the Scoop believers and hopefully the start of many converts. You hear it all the time. In sports, you get out what you put in. If you're eating right, training right, and doing all the little things, you're going to perform better. Everybody knows that. It's the exact same dynamic with your car. You might just pull up, fill up and go, not thinking about what you're actually putting into it. But it turns out it matters a lot. Shelby Power Nitro plus is designed to help remove up to 100% of performance, robbing deposits from your engine. So instead of your car working through all that buildup, it's actually able to perform the way it's supposed to on the road. And that's where you feel it. More power when you need it and more performance every time you drive. If you're putting better fuel in, you're going to get a better drive out of it. Shell V Power Nitro Plus Premium Gasoline. More power, more performance in gasoline, direct injection engine fuel injectors with continuous use of Shell V Power Nitro Plus Premium gasoline compared to lower octane fuels. Actual effects and benefits may vary according to vehicle type, driving conditions and driving style. See Shell us more for more details. We'll spend some time in the east here with our guy, James L. Edwards of the Athletic, who covers the NBA. He's on the Knicks Hawks series, and he's also covered the Pistons in the past, too, as well. So it's good to see you, man. Thanks for doing this.
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James L. Edwards
Good to see you, too. I'm honored to get the call to be on the show. First of all, longtime fan, first time joiner, but I was telling your producer I thought we had beef like, seven years ago. Let me see if you remember this. It was either your show or you and Bill on a pod, and you just went apeshit on, like, some Pistons reporter or somebody you thought was a Pistons reporter.
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Ryan Rosillo
I know 100. It wasn't me.
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James L. Edwards
Okay? And everybody was hitting me up. I was like, is it you? I'm like, I've always enjoyed. I don't think I've ever said anything bad about Ryan. I've always enjoyed all the stuff he's done. But people were hitting me up and they were like, is it you? I'm like, I don't think so. Then I was like, checking old tweets.
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Ryan Rosillo
No, I was. I know immediately who you're talking about. I'm not going to say his name.
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James L. Edwards
Okay.
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Ryan Rosillo
He crossed a line in a way that was, like, so ridiculous.
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James L. Edwards
Okay.
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Ryan Rosillo
I'll say something if I ever see him. How's that?
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James L. Edwards
Good.
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Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Because it was like my dad was upset so. Oh, really? It was like really aggressive. So don't worry, man. All right.
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James L. Edwards
I was always. It was the mystery in Pistons world for a long time.
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Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, we'll have to catch up on that. I hadn't thought about that forever. All right, well.
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Ceruti
All right.
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Ryan Rosillo
Set the tone here early. I love it.
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James L. Edwards
You have a great memory.
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Ryan Rosillo
Well, that was an easy one to remember.
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James L. Edwards
It sounds like it was a little more harsh than I had actually thought it was. So I could understand why you remember.
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Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it got to the point it had nothing to do with basketball. Like nothing. It wasn't like, hey, I like a player, you don't like a player, let's fight. It was, it was, it was nasty, man. It was really nasty. So anyway, you move on though. But yeah, that was, that doesn't happen that often. So that was an easy one to remember. Let's, let's get into this series here because I'll lay the framework of kind of like what I thought and that is, look, I think we like New York better because of the talent. Although we look at that Atlanta five going, man, they put up some really nice numbers once they brought in CJ and I kind of love that CJ's having these moments too. Just a reminder, like, man, this guy is still so good. But the bench part of it felt like that's just going to be this, this thing that continues with Atlanta and New York developing. What I think is a deeper bench here this season with Mike Brown in. What do you think shifted in game two?
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James L. Edwards
There's a couple things, but I'm going to go a little surface level here. I don't think anybody that's honest with themselves and watch this Knicks team for the past six months was surprised by the result in game two. This is a team and I've talked about it a ton of the highs have been very high, the lows have been very low. And there are just times when this team gets in its own way. Sometimes it's on the defensive end. They've been a good turnover team in totality throughout the regular season, but there were a lot of games late, maybe that last month where you saw like 16 turnover game, 18 turnover game here and there. And then there's times when you just like they figure something out and then they go away from it. Whether that's involving Catlait or the two man game with him and Brunson. There's just something about this team that when they show you something, they sink you in. And then a game or two later it could be as Quick as that. They make you just realize that this is a group that is super talented, but something just doesn't click. And in game two, specifically the fourth quarters have been egregious even in game one. But I just think defensively the way that Atlanta played was, was awesome. They were showing and blitzing a little bit on Jalen and Akongwu was dipping back right into the meeting. Josh Hart basically right at the free throw line kind of mucking up those drives. Cat, when he's not involved in the action, just kind of standing in the dunker spot. And there was that play where Kaminga blocked Brunson and Kaminga was on Cat at that time. It's like, well, Cat's just sitting there in the dunker spot. Like it's just making it easy as Jalen's trying to go left and he just basically didn't move. The spacing was bad and Kaminga is there for an easy block. So I think with Mike Brown, the one thing he really wanted to do with this team, and I agree with him, his ideology with it, is not always calling plays and playing like a read and react feel offense. I do think that in most cases, and he comes from Golden State where Kerr is obviously synonymous with that type of offense. Like, I do think it makes you more unpredictable. With that said, you have to have the players with the know all to be able to execute something like that consistently. And I've wondered if the Knicks, I think they have a lot of very smart players on this team. I think there are some though that when you're asking them to do things based on feel that it can get a little ugly. And I thought that's been some of the issues in the fourth quarter, specifically in game two.
- [31:21]
Ryan Rosillo
He did a really good job of kind of hammering in on the substitution patterns here because it's something that I always look at. And then it'll be funny when the coach after the words says like, oh, that wasn't that big of an issue. It's like, yeah, except you never went back to that pattern the rest of the series, so clearly you didn't like the results. But let's, let's talk about the start of that second quarter for the Knicks and then also the combined minutes there with Cat and Brunson off the floor at the same time.
- [31:48]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, it is something that Mike did the last two or three weeks of the regular season, maybe even four. Like I want to say it felt like longer than people thought. I thought it was more like the last month or so of the regular season. And yes, there was some positive results there, but they played a lot of bad teams in that stretch. They had the seven game win streak in March against all tanking teams. And then you question like, okay, I understand why you're doing it in the regular season. And I think Mike has done a tremendous job of giving guys opportunities, empowering a lot of players on the bench. Like the reincarnation of Jordan Clarkson's been awesome. Working Deuce McBride back in from injury. Landry Shamet for most of the year was really good. There was some Muhammad Di Awara stuff that was really intriguing. But you're like, okay, this is just regular season. Just trying to keep guys minutes down and just trying to experiment. I was like, there's no way he does that in the playoffs. He did. And in game one, on paper it worked. I think they were a plus one in the minutes that Catton Brunson didn't play. Is that winning? Is that positive? Yes. Right. But it's the playoffs. You want to be able to. You want to risk, you want to minimize risk as much as possible. And then in game two, it just did not work. That was a lineup, I believe it was Shamet, McBride, OG Mitch and Clarkson. And that is just a lineup that doesn't have any natural ball handlers. Landry Sham. It's a win. Deuce McBride, I know he's a little undersized. He's a win OG. Tremendous player. Ball handling and playmaking is not what we love OGN and Obi for. And then Jordan Clarkson's not really. They don't really use him as a, as a ball handler. So you're playing this Atlanta team who's very intense defensively, especially on the ball, and you're out there with no ball handlers. And it's not a surprise that it was kind of a recipe for disaster. Like he had to immediately bring Jose in as a nine point lead. Went away in four minutes and he hadn't played Jose. Basically Jose had been out of the rotation the end of the regular season and in game one. So to me, people were. There were some people I was having conversations with. They were like, it was only. They were only minus seven in those minutes. Well, think about it like this. They played non cap BRUNSON Minutes for 11 minutes, basically a whole quarter. So if you make that in 48 minutes, that's minus 28. Right. And what do you hear coaches say all the time to players? You have to value every possession. You have to. This is why you don't turn the ball over every possession matters. Well, I think we have to hold coaches accountable that every minute, every rotation, every logical thing with the game should matter. And I think you, like I said, you maximize the risk when you don't have one of your two best players out on the floor. And it was just a situation where the Knicks have like that lineup has no ball handling and the Hawks just, really just got really aggressive on the ball. There was just nowhere that the Hawk that the Knicks guards could go and that lead went away very quick. And yes, they missed a lot of free throws, yes, they had a lot of turnovers. But think if they were able to build on that nine point lead there, like we're not having this conversation either. And again, it's about minimizing risk, I think. As a coach in the playoffs.
- [35:04]
Ryan Rosillo
What was Brown's explanation for that time out of 243 when they were in transition?
- [35:10]
James L. Edwards
Well, his explanation was he thought that they had several bad possessions in a row and they wanted to get a good one. And if I'm not mistaken, they didn't get a good one out of the timeout. But he felt like they needed to draw something up and get a good possession because the last few hadn't gone well.
- [35:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that was. I had no issue with the no timeout at the end because I think sometimes you're doing the defense a huge favor, letting them set their inbound defense and the number of teams that just, you know, end up burning a timeout just because they came out of a timeout and the other team was set up really well based on the other stuff. I need to do more positive, like Atlanta stuff here because, you know, it's like I said that starting five put together a really nice run. Like when I was looking at the minutes stuff with lineups and I was touching on it, I think yesterday I forget if it was Monday or Tuesday because we're taping every day. But it's a plus 20, which is kind of crazy in comparison to New York's five over the course of the season. The second most used lineup in the NBA is like a plus two. So you're like, is there going to be anything there? Because sometimes those numbers tell you something and sometimes it's just like, oh, remember I thought that that was important and was completely irrelevant the entire thing. But I think late they're going to look to attack Brunson. The irony of this series is that it looks like they all want to attack CJ as much as they can. But what I love about CJ is just rising in the moment on the road, gets into it with Alvarado, is feeling it from the crowd and if anything I think that fuels somebody that's been around as long as he has. And I know it's easy to forget some of his Portland runs, but this isn't a guy that's in the playoffs for the first time here either. I'm just curious, kind of like what your observations were about Atlanta conference wise and how they were able to respond and kind of look to a CJ who's out of that group. Granted NAS had minutes as well, but out of that group to find a way to save them in these tough playoff possessions.
- [37:05]
James L. Edwards
Man, I think that it was. People have kind of referenced that dust up him and Jose had and to my knowledge they're friends, they played together in New Orleans. But I feel like to me it showed the rest of Atlanta like CJ doing that. Like we're not afraid to be here. And you mentioned like CJ in Portland, we all remember that, but there was some purgatory years from between then and now. And I think we just forget one when it comes to this whole villain arc thing. CJ's sarcasm and like the way just his level, what he likes in his comedy is hilarious. Like when it like the, the Jennifer stuff, just his kind of deadpan like smart ass comedy. Like it's the perfect. It shows one, like he's not afraid. Two, it just shows kind of the stoicness he has and we never. I've always thought this but it's really coming to light now when we talk about guys who have like some of the best handles in the NBA. CJ's name never comes up. CJ has some of the best handles and it's been that way. His in and outs, his hesis off the cross. Like there were a couple times he had guys jumping in wrong directions late in that stretch just because how nasty his handle is. Can get to the middy. Great touch in the floater. That Atlanta team is young. I think we're really seeing it with Jalen Johnson. Josh Hart has just really kind of stripped his pride. It took, it's taken a long time for Jalen to even get into the paint with the ball in the half court because of how physical Josh Hart has been with him. Nikhil has not been as good as he was at the end of the regular season. To be fair. The dude was shooting like 50% from three on eight attempts a game.
- [38:41]
Ryan Rosillo
I feel like somebody is in his grill every single Mikhail's done a good job.
- [38:45]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, yeah. Mikhail has done a good job. For all the kind of crap he's got, Mikhail has done. The Knicks defensively, outside of those stretches in the fourth have been really good. It's just C.J. we forget he is one of the premier scorers in this league. He has been. One of. You could say what you want about the defense, and then him and Dame together, like, that's why it didn't work. You can't have two guys who are that bad defensively. But CJ has for a long time been an elite scorer in this league. He's had big moments. He's at a point in his career, and I think the Hawks in general, where it's like, we have nothing to lose here. Nobody expects us to win this game. And the Knicks aren't just playing with the pressure of, like, we have to. Like, we should win this. We're in New York at the Garden. Like, we have to win this game. Like, they fire their coach after making the Eastern Conference finals last year. There's a world where this looks differently, and it's just the impact of, like, I don't think they're thinking about this in the middle of the game, but, like, going into the playoffs, if we lose, like, this guy that's been my teammate over here to the left. Is he my teammate again? This is a different level of pressure that New York is facing. And then Atlanta's playing free and CJ Playing free is. I think what we're seeing, and it's been really from a basketball perspective, from a basketball fan standpoint, what he's doing is. It's fun, man. He's a very fun player to watch play the game when he's cooking.
- [40:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Do you think Dyson Daniels getting put on the shelf here to close this game is something that we may see Quinn Snyder go to again.
- [40:15]
James L. Edwards
I think you have to try it again. Right? Like, I'm not going to sit here and say, I believe Jonathan Kaminga is going to play like he did in Game two again, we've seen Jonathan Kaminga have good performances. And then we've seen Jonathan Kaminga, the version that Steve Kerr didn't want to play.
- [40:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. The game one version. Like, I killed him after game one, that he had 19.
- [40:36]
James L. Edwards
Yeah.
- [40:36]
Ryan Rosillo
We just saw defense. I was like, oh, yeah. All right, here we go. I mean, 12 minutes. He gave them all 12 in the fourth.
- [40:43]
James L. Edwards
It was a tremendous performance by him. His physicalness with Cat. There were times people keep saying, like, cat, we got to get Cat involved. Well, There was a play where they were trying to get the post up for Cat late in the game and Kaminga basically fronted him, pushed him out to the Hawks bench, just nothing he could do with it. There was a play where Mike Brown is screaming for Cat to go set a screen on Jalen Brunson. It's like, again, I know that's not what you're asking right now, but there's just some stuff with the Knicks that's still confusing, but when it comes to Kaminga and Daniels, you have to give Kaminga another shot. Daniels, love the defense. Maybe you start games to try to try to just, I don't know, be aggressive and get steals and get easy points early, but if it's tight late, at least Kaminga has a little more wiggle in the half court. I trust his three point shot more than Daniels's, even though I don't trust either ones. Daniels is strong, but Kaminga is a little bit bigger. And there's just more of a. Daniels is like clinically good defensively. Kaminga can be like just like a shit stir. Good defensively. That makes sense. Just like kind of annoy you. And first, if you're going to put him on Cat, I think that's a good way to go. So certainly I think it's something Quinn's going to try again. I mean, I think at the very least you have to see how it goes.
- [42:00]
Ryan Rosillo
So the Cat numbers in the 4th and I'm with you. Like, sometimes you look at a game versus the box score and you're like, oh, they got away from this guy. It's like, well, the guy kind of took himself out of the game here a little bit. But the problem is when you're only taking two shots and we know this with bigs, then it means the rest of it suffers. And I'd say defensively, you know, he has not been the target that we traditionally expect with Cat, because their preference is still to start with trying to attack Brunson, which is, you know, it's kind of like a lot of teams that go, okay, which one of these two defenders do we want to go at? So I don't know that that's shown up. But when they're doubling Brunson, as hard as they are to close the game, which is not unexpected, you're not going to do it for an entire game. And I'll look at things in the fourth quarter, it's like, okay, this now, now we're playing, now we know what they really want to do. Is there something To Cat either getting more involved or them being predetermined off of some of these doubles where they know it's like bringing Cat up from a different position where he's not an outlet based on desperation. He's. He's the option.
- [43:03]
James L. Edwards
That's a great question. I think the easiest thing, easiest fix. I don't know if it's a fix. So the one thing I want to see that I think is easiest to do what the Knicks did in game two was because Akong, they went back, they had spent a lot of time of a congu on Cat, but late in that game they put a congu on Heart, Kaminga on Cat. So they did a lot of. Spent a lot of time doing putting Josh Hart in the action where he's setting the screen so that Jalen can get a Kangwu. And I thought again, Akongwa did a great job of retreating as Nikhil got around or whoever was guarding him got around just because Cat's being guarded by a wing, which. That's the book. Right. Everybody knows that's what you do. I don't think that means you just, you still can't put him in the action. Like either Jalen's going to go one on one with Kaminga, which let's see what happens. Or they're going to switch and Cat's going to be on Nikhil Alexander Walker. Let's see what happens. Cat is, I think Nikhil is a great defender. He gets so low in his stance too that if Cat's trying to dribble from the three point line, that could be an issue. But like, let's find out. Like, I don't think just because a Kangwu is guarding Heart that means you can't put Cat in the action. And if you're not going to put Cat in the action, I think you should at least use him as a floor spacer. We talk about that play where Kaminga had the block. It was because Cat's just standing in the dunker spot right outside the paint. Kaminga's right by the rim. So I think they need to fix some of the spacing stuff. And if you're not going to involve Cat, at least make him put him in a spot where he's a threat. And listen, I think again, it's everybody's to blame for why there's games when Cat's not involved. There's, there's. Should Mike Brown call more plays to get him involved? Sure. Like, is the freelance stuff always the way to go? No. Does Jalen can Jalen do a better job of hitting him in the pockets and being alert and finding him in those situations? Sure. Can Cat do a better job of like knowing when to roll and when to pop? Because he struggles with that. Sometimes he gets caught in the middle. He also is like the self proclaimed Greatest Big Man 3 point shooter and doesn't want to shoot threes. He'd rather pump, fake and drive. So. And when Cat drives there's the possibility of an offensive foul or a turnover or again somebody who can defend him making life difficult and he doesn't get a foul. I just think it's a combination of all these things. There are times it looks good, there are times it looks bad. They just, it's so weird because it's something that we've tried to put our finger on just covering this team all year and it's, it's, it's, it's just so random that you can't really. You just. Whatever happens happens with this group. When it comes to the Cat and Brunson and Mike Brown calling play stuff, it's, it's really weird.
- [45:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Are they in trouble?
- [45:48]
James L. Edwards
I don't trouble. That's a great question. Are they in trouble? I picked the Knicks in six and I did that because following this team all year round covering them, you just knew there were going to be two blunders where the Knicks, I didn't think it'd be like they missed 10 free throws and have 14 turnovers and they these weird substitution patterns. I thought they would lose like a three point variance game which they still might in Atlanta. Role players shoot better at home than on the road. That's just like statistically proven. The I'll say this, the Knicks have not played great for two games, the Hawks have not played great for two games and Jalen Johnson has been a non factor in the series is one to one. If there's a world where Jalen Johnson can find some rhythm, these like it's a crapshoot. That's why I said six. I don't, I don't want to say trouble. I think the Knicks are more talented and that'll show out. I, I've been kind of unimpressed with the Hawks half court offense and that's primarily because Nikhil hasn't been what we saw. Mikhail's done good there. Josh has done tremendous on Jalen Johnson. It's like when CJ's out, the half court offense doesn't look great and I think that could come back to bite them and I just can't Imagine that the Knicks are going to continue to allow Jalen to be on an island by himself in the fourth quarters. So trouble? No, I think they win the series, but there's nothing that's changed my mind that thinks this is going to go less than 6. So could that be trouble? I guess. Yeah.
- [47:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it's been good. It's been fun. And I'm with you on the. Jalen Johnson, I thought he woke up a little bit with his aggressiveness, and there's some stuff there that you're like, okay, maybe for these guys that are going through it the first time it took VJ Edgecomb a game. Granted, he's been around as long as Jalen Johnson, but that's one of the things that I'll look for. It's like, hey, you know, you can still be aggressive, man. Like, I know this is all new to you and everything. Okay, who did you pick to win the East? What's the better prediction? Ask you before the season or before the playoffs started? Cause I know we all have, like, ones that were, you know, you're kind of like, I said this in October, but. So give me your Pistons prediction timeline.
- [47:58]
James L. Edwards
My before the season was the Knicks. My playoff prediction was Boston.
- [48:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay. After game one. Go ahead, go ahead.
- [48:09]
James L. Edwards
Oh, I was going to just say Boston just continues to do the Boston thing. Last night was just the most.
- [48:15]
Ryan Rosillo
It really was.
- [48:17]
James L. Edwards
Being in the building for. It was. It was basically the same thing. Well, they didn't have as big a lead, but game one and game two against New York, it's like, when this team doesn't hit threes, it's ugly. Tatum inside the arc. I just really question him, like, be able to score for himself when he has to put the ball down. It just doesn't always look great. But Derek White, just forgetting how to shoot. I still think Boston, but anybody in the east could win. It's so weird.
- [48:42]
Ryan Rosillo
It is. And that might be the lesson in all of this, because, like, I think Cleveland, if you have a B level, harden throughout all of this, which I know is assuming a lot, but, like, that's kind of the point. And sure, Toronto's outmatched here, but you look through this east, and I think even after a couple of games, I go, you know, I've got to have more of an open mind about what is possible here with maybe four different teams. So what was your reaction then to this Orlando team that we've been constantly frustrated on this podcast because we think they're so good and yet they're a game from not even being in the playoffs and then they get game one. So what. What kind of. I would say, like, what does that result, like, the impact on your thoughts?
- [49:33]
James L. Edwards
I don't think it's. I'm saying anything profound here, but I think people seeing it play out makes you wonder how this series could go. The Pistons punk a lot of teams. I think we all, as people who have watched Orlando, knew that one. Orlando may stink. They might miss every shot they take. They're not going to get physically punked. And the fact that they played two good games going into the first round of the playoff. Well, two games like, they got to get the rust off in high pressure situations as the Pistons wait to find out who they play one and then a day and a half later play Orlando. It's. That's not the type of team that I would want to play when you have no, when you're still lacking in playoff experience like Detroit is and Orlando's ability to just be physical with them. And to me that really showed itself. But yeah, the physicality that Orlando plays with, Detroit's not going to shy away from that. And I have thoughts on that series. There's some stuff I want to see Detroit do differently. Just as an observer, I think will make life pretty easy for them. But yeah, I mean, Orlando has talented players. It's just, can they make shots? Can the offense look fluid? And again, it's. Paulo seems to rise in the playoffs too. I know we all give Paulo a lot of crap, but he's been pretty good in his few playoff experience. Postseason experiences.
- [50:57]
Ryan Rosillo
We're defenders. Although the regular season was. It was tougher to defend.
- [51:02]
James L. Edwards
It was.
- [51:03]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, Orlando likely is due for an offensive performance that reminds you of why they're like, oh, aren't they already looking for a new coach? Like there's, There's a really ugly. I'd ask you this, like, and I'm putting you on the spot because I know there's not another answer. I can't remember how many 60 win teams there have ever been that aren't sure of what the rotation is.
- [51:24]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, no, that's a, That's a serious question. And it's. You can't play 11 guys in the playoffs. The whole thing with a sar not closing every. And I'm not the biggest advanced stats guy, but I factored into all to. I consider it strongly. All of the offensive numbers suggest that they're better when a SAR is on the floor, but yet JB doesn't do it. And then the other Thing that's really weird to me and I'm not around now and I haven't checked in on this. And I know Isaiah Stewart had a calf injury to end the year, but 19 minutes for him in Game 1 is too low for me. Like, this is a guy that, if he had got to the 65 game mark and I had a vote and I know other people, that he would have probably been on one of the all defensive teams this year. There was the plays at the end when he came in where he forced a steal on Paolo, blocked Suggs at the rim. This is a very much like, I'm going to try to match up Isaiah Stewart with Paolo as much as I can. That's. That is a guy that is built in a lab to stop a guy like that. Like 19 minutes for Isaiah Stewart is just too low and especially when he has the ability to hit open three. If Duran starts game too well, I would like to see a significant amount of like Duran, Stewart, Harris, Cade Asar or Cade Duncan. Like, I think defensively that lineup can do a lot. And like I said, I think 19 minutes for Stewart in that series specifically is too low. He's the perfect guy to put on Paolo.
- [52:59]
Ryan Rosillo
He's perfect too, in the sense that he's going to be so excited to fight with him. I think Paolo, when he's at his best, these reminders of physically, there's just not many people like this. I'm not comparing him to LeBron, but it's a bit LeBron. I don't know why I just came up with that, considering his son's name, but it's. It's this downhill, like, oh, like he. There's nothing I can do. And even if Stuart hits him and fouls him 10 times and gets called for five, you wonder if Paolo would just get sick of it. You know, sometimes these guys just get sick. We saw it last night with Durant against the Lakers. He's like, you know, and I mean, it's. There's just a different level of intensity that you have to have. And we can talk about the difference between the regular season and playoffs, but like, sometimes it's as simple as just, are you going to work extra hard to get free? Because everything off the ball right now is legal. You can do whatever you want. And you can see certain players going like, oh, this is like, I have to actually fight back to get free. And it's like, yeah, you got to fight back. Now, granted, Powell, it's not like they're running him off a bunch of curls and all that kind of stuff as some of these other guys. But I love that idea for Detroit. I think just the group that you mentioned, because of all that size and all that defense, you're just like, okay, does that mean everybody has a foot in the paint against Cade and no one. Like, the spacing is terrible, which I think is what JB's been battling all year long and why they brought in Herder and why they're trying to figure out, is there any spacing group here to make it a little bit easier on Cade. And you know, you're talking about another Orlando team that can probably match a lot of the positional size with Detroit that few other teams can.
- [54:46]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, no, and I think that's a great point. That's the part where people had questions about Detroit is just the lack of rotations you can put out there where you have good shooting and still keep the identity that you have defensively. Like, yeah, you could throw out a Cade, Duncan, Robinson, Herder, Tobias Harris during lineup, but that's defensively not.
- [55:06]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, he doesn't want to do it, right?
- [55:08]
James L. Edwards
Like, yeah, and he doesn't want to do it and he shouldn't. They won 60. I understand people's concerns, and the playoffs are a different beast. But they found a way to win 60 games whenever. Like, K doesn't have a running mate, still won 60 games, and he was MVP. Like, the thing that, to me that they need to lean into is they were bad defensively in game one that can't. And some of it was them, the players, some of it was JB not having a SAR on the floor. I just think, listen, the spacing is going to be what it is. That's the flaw with this team. They decided at the deadline that they weren't ready to make a huge move. They wanted to see what this team can do. And they'll probably address the roster, how it looks and all that stuff this summer. But even if, okay, you give Duran, see what Kyle Duran comes out in Game 2 if he doesn't have it again, you know what? Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris, Herder, Thompson, Cade, or throw Duncan in there, you'll be okay. You'll be okay. I think you could put Tobias on Wendell Carter Jr. And you live with that. Then you put Isaiah on Paolo and you live with that. You put a SAR on Franz or maybe you try. I don't know how much they try to SAR on Paulo, maybe that I can't. I'm trying to remember off the top of my head.
- [56:28]
Ryan Rosillo
I Don't feel like I saw that a lot. I mean, it was primarily Harris. Right.
- [56:32]
James L. Edwards
That's how I felt, too. Right. And maybe then you put Asar on Franz or Asar on Suggs and then put Kate on Franz. Like, I just think that the Duran aspect is obviously a big thing. He had a tremendous year, all NBA, but there are still things defensively that you. You want from him that you don't always get. And when he has it, he has it. They need to decide early on if this is a game where Duran has it and they have to immediately go to Isaiah Stewart. If not, because Isaiah can handle, obviously, the physicality. He's one of the best rim protectors in basketball. He guards well in space, and I just think he gives you a little more optionality. So they're going to have to make tough calls early in that game. Unless, again, Orlando, like you said, forgets what offense looks like and dribbles a ball off their feet and builds houses in downtown Detroit with their shots.
- [57:26]
Ryan Rosillo
It's going to happen, but it just, you know, the scary thing for a Detroit fan is just, hey, I thought this team sucked. And it's like, well, well, they don't. Like, this isn't a talent.
- [57:35]
James L. Edwards
They don't.
- [57:35]
Ryan Rosillo
This is not a talent thing. There's another world where these teams are supposed to be next to each other in the standings, but that has not worked out. Let me finish with this, because you had covered Cade, and in the beginning, there was a lot of, like, hey, I thought this guy was good. And I remember defending it because I was like, all right, I can't believe he's not finishing at the rim at a higher efficiency level because of his size and his handle. Like, how can this guy not have that part of it? Well, that was solved. It took a little bit longer than I think people ever expected it was going to take. But can you share with us, like, a better, like, read on him? Because he's not super talkative. Like, he is one of the stars of this league. Like, when I did my top 10 thing, I don't know that there was one GM or head coach that didn't mention Cade. Maybe One of the 13 people that I had talked to. So, like, this is somebody that's maybe at worst the 10th, 9th best player and then where he's going. But any insight to helping us understand more about, like, what this guy is about?
- [58:39]
James L. Edwards
I always, when people ask me about Cade, and I say this about Jalen Brunson, too, the best way to describe those two guys Is you can tell they were raised right. Like the way that they treat people, the way that they talk to people, the peripheral people, just very down to earth, normal human beings. And I think that's why people rally around these guys, because there's a level of being able to connect with everybody in the room, everybody in the organization and finding value in having relationships. And Cade came into a situation where it's very clear he's the man. And I don't think people know just how confident Cade is, but also so self.
- [59:21]
Ryan Rosillo
Aware.
- [59:22]
James L. Edwards
Like there's this story, I don't know if you remember this, but it basically took the Pistons until the day before the draft or the morning of the draft to decide that Cade was going to be the number one pick. There was a lot of love for Evan Mobley in that building. There was some love for Jalen Green. And I remember, I've heard a story about Cade when he went on his visit to Detroit and he's like, he asked him, he's like, why am I not the number one pick? And it's like there's this level of confidence, but also him understanding that. And he appreciated that Detroit is doing its due diligence too, because this is such a consequential moment in the franchise's career or franchise's history, having this number one pick after years of being bad. He also understands, but he's also so confident that he's going to be the guy to turn it around. He didn't want to go to Houston. He's from Texas. He wanted the. He's told me many times. I wanted the responsibility that comes with being the number one pick when he gets there to Detroit. I don't know if people remember this either. I think he missed his first 20 threes in his NBA career. I think he started over 20. And you go and you talk to him and he's like, you know what? Like, it's taken me a little bit to get used to the NBA three point line. Like it's a little bit more of a hike getting used to the physicality. He's like, but I'm going to figure it out. And then you go into the next year where he has the. He basically missed all of his second season with the shin thing. So now he's watching and he's observing and the dude came back yoked. Like, if people go look at photos from Cade's rookie year, he was really skinny. And I think that goes back to what you were saying about being able to finish now. Like, his shoulders are Much broader. I think he's even grown like his brother's like 6, 10, 6, 9. I think Cade could grow another inch or two, but he came back from that leg thing. Upper body much like more defined. And then the third year is the terrible year where the team has 14 wins and just the honesty and the level of humility that he had during that. I remember there was this, there was this game during the 28 game losing streak in Toronto and we're in the locker room and this was.
- [61:48]
Ryan Rosillo
They were doing this 28 game losing streak team I've ever seen.
- [61:51]
Kyle
By the way,
- [61:54]
James L. Edwards
it's like 80% of this. That team is still not 80.
- [61:56]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, the crazy thing was 60% is still playing. Teams were playing them like it was game seven during the streak at the end because it was like, we don't want to be the team they beat.
- [62:06]
James L. Edwards
The infamous Kyle Kuzma tweet. Yeah, we don't want to be that team. And all right, so they're in Toronto. And again, I think this is just the best way to describe Cade's mentality as a player. They had spent the lose the games leading up to that loss in Toronto saying, we're right there, like, we're not a bad team, we're just gotta, like, we're young, we gotta close this out. And they were bad that night in Toronto. I'm like, Cade, I asked him a question, I was like, Kate, you guys keep saying, like, you're right there, you're not a bad team, like, but at what point are you a bad team? He's like, we're bad. He's like, just like, plain and simple, we're bad and we need to figure out how to not be bad. And I always appreciate that type of player and that type of person willing to just like call a spade a spade. Because to me, they're not afraid of being in moments that make them look vulnerable. And I think because of that, that between him and Isaiah Stewart, the two guys who I think laid the foundation for this team we see today, I keep rambling, but I was part of the reason Isaiah, people remember Isaiah Stewart was a reach at 16, undersized center, played a zone in college, couldn't shoot the three. One of the reasons that he was drafted was because the front office knew what was coming. They didn't know 28 game losing streak, but they knew they were going to be bad. They wanted to draft players who they thought could make it out of the end of this stronger and some of those players could not. We're talking about Killian Hayes was obviously not a good pick. They traded Sadiq Bay. But that group and the mentality of those two guys specifically, I think is the reason you see Detroit is where it's at today. Just the humility to acknowledge that when things were bad, they were bad, but also not being okay with things being bad. And I think Cade just has a level of maturity, a level of humility that materializes into the court because the relationships right, like, he's going to make the right read. He's not selfish. He's going to make the right read, he's going to defend because Asar Thompson's defending, Isaiah Stewart's defending, Jalen Duran's defending. I just think that he just carries himself well as a person and that stuff. 10 to me, I'll always like take those guys on the court. I don't know if I answered your question or if that's what you were looking for, but just trying to get some insight into how the Pistons and
- [64:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Kate got pro rambling on this podcast. So we, we loved it and we are now more educated.
- [64:42]
James L. Edwards
No sense.
- [64:42]
Ryan Rosillo
And look, I mean, I know the game won't. You're the one seed. You lose at home. You know the history here and how frustrating it was. But it was. There's a layer of positivity. It's like, oh, yeah, well, he's clearly the best player in this series. He was fantastic. If they ever a little too early to do the rebuild for the Pistons when they're looking at trying to get out of the east. But if they ever had like a real, not just a dude who scores points, but like a real dude who can score and create on his own with a little bit of size. Now I'm basically thinking of like four players in the league that like. But if there was ever like a real dude next to him because they've tried it with Schroeder, they've tried it with Lavert. I don't even know if Lavert counts in this. Jenkins is honestly like kind of that guy in that Schroeder role in the past. And it's, it's just, and he's been an awesome story. But however this season ends for the Pistons, clearly that's something where they would start looking around going, you know, do we do a four draft pick thing for a Bane type guy and, and just say screw it because we're going to be good because Kate is so good. We're going to be good here for a little while. So maybe we're trading Four picks and a swap that are going to be in the 20s and the swap doesn't even happen.
- [65:52]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, I think they're at that point too. And.
- [65:56]
Ryan Rosillo
But I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that right now. When they're down one game like what do they need to do this?
- [66:02]
James L. Edwards
Yeah.
- [66:03]
Ryan Rosillo
But look, keep up the great work. I can't believe we've never had you on before. This is awesome. And we'll have you on again. So thanks James.
- [66:11]
James L. Edwards
Hey man, longtime fan again. Appreciate you having me and anytime.
- [66:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Tastytrade has a suite of probability tools so you can make smarter picks for your portfolio and manage your money the way you want. You can trade stocks, options, futures and more all in one platform. Tastytrade offers low commissions including a $10 cap per leg on option trades so you can keep more of what you earn. The platform is packed with trading features like backtesting, which lets you simulate your trading strategies using 10 plus years of data so you can test your IDE about potential Cinderella stocks. Active traders can use features like ladder trading mode, one click trading and smart order tracking to manage their positions during crunch time. Get live stellar support from Tastytrade's deep bench of experienced trade desk reps. During trading hours, you can search for relevant symbols that align with your investment interests and broaden your understanding of the market. Using AI powered search, you can earn a double commission rebate on your stock and ETF option trades up to $3,000 total for your first 30 days. When you join tastytrade today, visit tastytrade.combarstool today to learn more. He is from ESPN now. He is Anthony Slater. He is covering the Nuggets and the Timberwolves. He also covered the warriors for the Athletic Forever. So we'll get into the Steve Kerr stuff as well. But let's start in this series. I love this series and I'll tell you, I don't know, 12, 14 minutes into game two, I'm like, all right, this is not going to be a series. Like, why don't we take Minnesota seriously? I have my thoughts. I already shared them with the audience here. What do you think changed so dramatically for them to come back from down 19 and then even the series?
- [67:56]
Anthony Slater
It's funny you say that because and I know we're going to get to the other story I'm kind of covering at the time, which is like this Steve Kerr will he won't he and the warriors are going to hold a press conference at some Point in the next 10 days, either he's coming back or he's not. And I'm sitting there in game two like, oh, okay, I might have some time here. I might have a real buffer between rounds one and two, because, yeah, what were they up 19, like you said, early second quarter. They even start the second quarter with Jokic on the bench on a 50 run. And it was like, oh, man, this is. This is an avalanche right now. And then I believe it was 110 wolves right after that series flips. What changed? I mean, according to Jaden McDaniels, they just could score anytime they wanted against that Denver defense, right? Like, and we could maybe get to that quote.
- [68:38]
Ryan Rosillo
He wasn't necessarily wrong, man, in that game two step.
- [68:41]
Anthony Slater
It's what's interesting, but, man, you don't usually hear that after game two, which, again, I think is why everybody, you know, there's more and more interest on this series because these teams, you know, I think it's coming to the surface. There's a. There's a distaste between both sides. The coaches the other day, pre game were kind of having a little bit of back and forth, but, you know, I think Edwards, I didn't know where it was going with him in the first quarter. He had, like, a move. He was kind of coming down a transition. It was a very small move. And then he grabs at his knee and, you know, you hear this run. He's dealing with the runner's knee type issue that Steph dealt with, but, you know, it's not as severe. He's obviously way younger, but I just didn't know where his series was going then. I thought he showed a lot of burst. He has a couple blocks in that game that were like leaping transition blocks. Obviously, he scores. 30.
- [69:25]
Kyle
Go.
- [69:25]
Anthony Slater
Bear on Jokic down the stretch. Like, you know, Jokic went one of eight against him, including, I think, three stops in the final, like, five minutes or so in Minnesota. I just thought that was a really impressive response from Minnesota, more than, like, you know, Denver, you know, letting go of the rope. Murray looked gas, I thought, in the second half.
- [69:43]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know what you saw. Murray did look gassed, I would agree. I think Gordon has stretches where he looks exhausted because of how hard he plays. And again, it's not like, sometimes you're like, are you at full conditioning when you've had time off, or should you be better conditioned because you're not coming out of 70 plus games in six months? And sometimes I think those guys look a little Bit fresher in the playoffs and we get into the whole Denver thing, but it's like, well, when they're at home, we're not thinking about them looking gas, but it can certainly happen. There was a Gordon three on the left side in the second half where I was like, that's a tired person's three. Like, he. I think he had Jaden on him, and you'd think he'd probably want to go like baseline and see if he can ride him back inside and finish. And I'm like, whenever you're tired and you're playing basketball, like, you can just tell when somebody goes, I'm just so tired. I think I'll just take a three here. The Jokic stuff, there's two parts of it. I went back and looked at all the shot attempts, and I think summer misses. And I also think it's been Rudy. And I think Rudy was terrific against him. Just fighting, fighting before the catch, and once there's a catch, you know, reaching and being disruptive. So all of the Rudy grades for him on Gobert, or, excuse me, Rudy's, Gobert's numbers defensively against Jokic or Trivic. I do think there's some Jokic misses, but then again, I'm like, hey, are these misses? Because it's also Rudy? Because then Jokic had a drive late in game two, where you would have thought he would just go up with it, and then he just kind of threw it into a bit of a crowd. And there's been some turnover issues late with Jokic. That again, for the world's best player, probably, you know, I'm going, all right, you know, do you going to have these all the time? Even though he has the ball all the time, I'd expect him to have more of these makes. But this Rudy stuff for two games against him has been terrific. When I thought Jokic would look forward to this one on one matchup, even
- [71:35]
Anthony Slater
like the dunk he had late, which was really impressive, it almost was like Jokic usually, I don't think would dunk that if he had. If. If he was like, this guy's not going to get to my shot. It almost felt like he had to sneak dunk it because he knew Gobert was there. It was almost like, I know he got. Gobert got dunked on, but I was like, almost impressed that Jokic felt he had to go dunk. And then going back to the Gordon stuff, I mean, he's had these repetitive hamstring strains. And the other thing I just wonder is how Is he concerned about that? Right. What is it now? Three in the last couple of years? Obviously it derailed his playoffs. And then you look at Peyton Watson, who I think you might see at some point in the series that could end up being a monster X factor in the series. But their two best defensive wings, I just have had these repetitive hamstring injuries that I think, you know, when we retell Denver's story, if they, if they don't go as far as they want here, I think that may be the thing that derails them because again, Back to the McDaniels point. If they don't have those two out there disrupting things, they really are kind of a bad defensive team.
- [72:35]
Ryan Rosillo
I can't believe Jaden said it after game two because it was like, why do you need. Why do you. I mean, thank you, but I can't imagine Finch in the. In. Mike and Nori are like, awesome, man. Like, great. Because now they're just going to. The human natures are going to come out and be a little bit more focused.
- [72:52]
Anthony Slater
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I expect them to be flying around in game three. But yeah, to your point, I think the One thing about McDaniels and really the Wolves, which, you know, covering the series on both sides, they are media friendly in Minnesota and the star says really whatever he wants. He had an incredible press conference the other day. So I think that filters down to the locker room where McDaniels just feels like he can say it.
- [73:15]
Ryan Rosillo
I want to stay on the Jokic part of this defense here, okay? Because I would say five years ago, when you're like, hey, you realize how special this Jokic player is? And then you would see some playoff stuff. I would even go back to the Suns in four guy series where you're like, Chris Paul is just going to bring Jokic up. They're going to attack him like, this is so bad defensively, like, I don't know that I can take this team seriously. And then boom, two years later, they won an NBA championship. And you basically, with this great offense, you just need passable grades on defense. But they were not a passable grade this year defensively. And this is where that late season stuff where you can look at and sort these numbers from, hey, look at this team. They figured all this stuff out. It's like, did they or did they just play a bunch of shitty teams? And granted they beat San Antonio, they beat them twice. So it's not necessarily the same. But I'm wondering if there's any part of this from the Minnesota side, that is, like, thrilled. They don't like that. Jaden said it, but it's like, this is our point. If we put Jokic in more of this stuff, if Murray is the point of attack, I mean, Brunson and Cat catch all this shit because they don't have a ring. Is it actually worse with Murray and Jokic?
- [74:28]
Anthony Slater
Yeah. You know, clearly Minnesota feels a level of confidence against this team. Obviously, two years ago, slightly different Minnesota team, but they. They beat Denver in the playoffs. You know, Jokic is so smart defensively, and he does have good hands. And I do think at times he can be, like, disruptive in his own way. But, yeah, like, the targeted action and again, the lack of what I think is 100% full throttle. Aaron Gordon, they don't have a ton of, like, protectors out there either, or guys that are going to, like, you know, scram, switch out of it, or, you know, whatever. So I think that part of the problem is it's. Again, I just don't think they have some defensive ecosystem built around them either.
- [75:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, positionally, I think they always get away with, like, being smart. Like, they could just go, we're okay, fine. Like, there's not going to be the rim protection with Jokic. Like, there's going to be with other guys, but if you're always positioned in the right way. But it got really ugly, man. It got really ugly because it felt like, Minnesota is going, we can't ever settle. Every dribble. Handoff was like, let's make sure Jokic is meeting us at the handoff. If we're doing this on this side. Let's start with Murray and try to get Jokic and Murray isolated on the same side. So there. There may have been something. There was, you know, and it's kind of like the Philly Boston series. You're like, there might be something here for you. And Philadelphia is like, oh, I guess these threes are just going to be wide open. Maybe that's what it took Minnesota. It took them to play five bad quarters to wake up and go, we're gonna have to change something here. And I think it also gets into the ant conversation because three minutes in, when his knee buckles and he's grabbing is grimacing, I'm like, okay, so you were there, like, where is this guy, health wise? Because it didn't seem like it was a concern at all when I was wondering if he was going to finish the game early.
- [76:14]
Anthony Slater
Yeah, I mean, I'm on press row when he. You mentioned he's dribbling up in transition and like, I think Jokic kind of took a stab at the ball and it was a very simple move. And then suddenly it's like, oh, and like all the pressure, I was like, oh, you know, it's like, oh, did this series just really end? Right? But then he's, you know, has some of the like, burst to the rim layups that are like, you know, unlike anybody in the league. So he can clearly, like. I think that the issue kind of turns on and off. It's one of those things. I think he feels fine through a majority of the game, but suddenly like, one movement will just like, shoot some, some pain and obviously he's dealt with some swelling. Uh, again, I, I view this through the lens of like the Curry stuff I dealt with the last three months, which was this, you know, issue that popped up that where. Where every time he worked out and if he felt some pain, it would like, swell the next day and like, there'd be just like a ton of management. And again, having to. Having talked to Minnesota and you know, they organizationally compare it a little bit to, to that situation, say it's a lessened version of it. But the thing I also hear from them is like, Edwards has never dealt with an injury in his life, like a real injury. And this has been like the first time he missed 11 of the last 14 games. Like, he's not award. Like you could tell how bad an issue is it because he didn't push through it late in the season just to be award eligible. Like, he really needed to rest that thing. And so they just say part of what he's dealing with is mental too, because he's just. He has the type of body and like non injury history where just even dealing with what at this point is like relatively minor thing. Like, it's not structural, but it is bothering him because I just think he's always felt so good, you know, physically, and he doesn't quite feel, you know, 100% right now. You know, even post game, you know, he's limping a little bit to the, to the podium post game, but it is clear he's going to play through it in the series and, and we'll just see how much it impacts him.
- [78:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Watson coming back will be huge though. And I look for that update every single day because it just, I mean, whether it's just this series, okay, but it. If you start mapping it out and have hopes for Denver going deep in the west, it just. Christian Brown assigned to everybody's best perimeter player is asking a lot of him because it can't be Murray, it can't be Cam Johnson. Spencer Jones is better against bigger guys. I think Bruce Brown has a target on him now. Even if you're proud of his competitiveness, a hardaway isn't exactly going to lock anybody up out there. And so Brown just has all these minutes chasing all these different guys around and not only Watson's improvement on the ball offensively and everything, but here we are, we're looking at where Denver was closing the season, where Minnesota was closing the season going, all right, it's 1:1. And now we're, we're sitting here going, well, if they get Peyton Watson back, they should be fine. So that's probably my last question on the series is where are you with Denver's chances now?
- [78:55]
Anthony Slater
I think there's things going six or seven. I'd lean Denver because I just, I think Jokic will have more success again. I do think, you know, Gobert has bothered him to a degree, but also like, you know what he airball like two threes the other day and like some of his shots are just have missed in odd ways that I just don't think is necessarily going to continue. So I would have, I think I picked it Nuggets and six prior to the series. I'd probably stick with that. I just trust that Denver over the course of a series a little bit more.
- [79:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, Golden State covered it forever. Now, you're a big national guy for espn, but we know that you're assigned to the curse story. What is the curse story right now as we know it?
- [79:36]
Anthony Slater
Contemplation. True, genuine. Like I don't know from him, you know, and I talked to him would have been before one of those Clippers games, I think before game 82. Actually, you know, they played two in LA and you know, he said 5050 to me. And again, I, I don't think any decision is ever truly 50 50. You're probably leaning one way or the other. But he felt that some postseason conversations between him and Joe Lake of him and Mike Dunleavy, him and Steph Curry, which he had purposely held off on about like organizational direction, where he was at in his life, where this franchise should go from here, whether, you know, a fuller reset is needed, whether like a tweaking and this, you know, veteran corps should move forward with him still in charge. He felt those conversations needed to be had, but he did not want to have them until exit interviews. Essentially he wanted some time away from, from the daily Grind to think about it. And that's what this time is. He, you know, they get eliminated Friday night, he reveals a lot of his thoughts to the public, which I think surprised a lot of people. Didn't necessarily surprise me because I knew he was going to take some time away and didn't know if he was coming back. He took the weekend kind of away from the facility. Monday was more rotation players in there doing exit interview type stuff yesterday. Tuesday, we're talking on Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday was assistant coaches, staffers. I would expect Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of this week. Some of those bigger picture conversations into next week. I, you know, I don't know if they're. If and when there will be some like Joe Lake of Mike Dunleavy, Steve Kerr, you know, powwow in the facility where they officially decide yes or no. But I would say over the next seven to 10 days collectively, they're going to come to a pretty massive decision for the franchise, which is, you know, does Steve Kerr remain head coach? And if he doesn't, then the warriors move on to the next part of their offseason, which is finding a head coach if Steve Kerr does come back. They still have a lot of questions to answer this offseason, but it's less complicated if Kerr's back.
- [81:33]
Ryan Rosillo
So they would have him back if he wants to return. Correct?
- [81:36]
Anthony Slater
There is. And we, you know, we reported it, me and Ramona Shelburne in our story Monday. Like, it's not as simple as just like, hey, Steve, tell us yes or no. Okay, yes. Like, let's just keep riding this out. Like, they want some full of philosophical changes, some offensive stuff, maybe some, you know, staffing tweaks. And the other thing I have repeatedly heard, particularly from ownership side, Joe's side, is they want to, they want a hungry Steve Kerr, they want a refreshed Steve Kerr ready to, you know, and they're talking of like, hey, don't just sign a one year deal where it's a write it off. It's nostalgia. I'm doing this out of loyalty to Stephen Draymond. There's going to be quotes all year about we're a fading dynasty. And like, they want to, you know, get back to trying to squeeze out every win in the regular season. And like, you know, there was some frustration from management about the start of this year. Before the Butler Injury, they were 13 and 15. You know, they lost a lot of stuff late in games. Like they're losing some of the analytics, analytical stuff, right? Like the possession battles. And they just, you know, they. They want Steve Kerr to guide this. You know, I think at the end of the day, they would still like Steve back from a, you know, a management of the locker room face of the franchise thing, but they want to talk to him about if he's about, like, basically if he's, you know, mentally ready to coach and in almost like a young way. Right. Like, you know, kind of like one of those younger, fresher, analytically driven minds.
- [83:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Sure, I get it. But, you know, to me, sometimes this stuff is like. Or. Pajemski led the team in minutes with 2,300. He played almost 500 more minutes than Draymond. So he's the only player to play over 2000 minutes. Top minutes, guys, we run through. It's Pajemski, it's Green, it's Moody, it's Guy Santos and Will Richard. Those are your top five minutes, guys. Steph plays 1300 minutes this year in 43 games. Then it's Pat Spencer, Butler plays 1100 minutes, and then it's Quinton Post. And, I mean, I could keep going on and on and on. 22 different players on this team, so they can want different approaches and all this kind of stuff. Like, I think the front office has done an amazing job with those players that are rotational or could be rotational players. The stuff that this front office has done on the margins, I'd say the development with some of these players, like, it didn't work out with Kaminga. I'm sick of talking about it. I know no one is more sick of talking about it than you are, so we'll just keep it moving. You know, Moody's okay. You know, he's has balance all of
- [84:01]
Anthony Slater
next year, basically almost majority, but on
- [84:04]
Ryan Rosillo
the development part of it. But then when I look at, like, ye. When I look at, like, Post had even healthy, you know, they. They have a bunch of decisions to make, but, I mean, Porzingis barely plays this year. Horford, I thought, was terrific late, you know, but this was not some roster that a head coach messed up. Is. Is my point with Steve. So I. I don't know that ownership can ever help themselves. Hey, maybe we change an assistant. Maybe we change up our philosophy. And sure, there's plenty of things that could be changed and maybe it optimizes, but this was, I think, an actual, like, pretty remarkable coaching job.
- [84:43]
Anthony Slater
The last two months, for sure. The last two months.
- [84:45]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, Post, the nights I'm watching, And it's like, GI Santos is our ISO option here, tied at 96, and I'm just like, Jesus, how are they even in these games?
- [84:56]
Anthony Slater
So, you know, and I guess even the bigger picture question then is like, is that the type of team Steve Kerr, at his age, you know, considering the other things in life he can do, wants to coach the next couple years because there's not, you know, maybe there's a big fish trade that they're able to execute in July that they don't know for sure they're able to execute now. Right. We're talking Giannis Kawhi. That changes the equation. But very likely it's going to be a similar type team next year. How available is Steph going to be over the course of an 82 game season? Where is Draymond Green at? Jimmy Butler you might see in January, February, coming off an ACL at age 37, Al Horford's going to be 40. You know, he's, he's might come back on a player option. Like it's going to be a lot of young guys. Yes, sure, they'll probably get a lottery pick in here. Maybe it's the 11th pick. They got a 9% chance of jumping into the top four. That could change their outlook to a degree. But also that could be a very important developmental piece for them next year. That might be one of the most important parts of the roster. It is probably going to be a play in level, maybe below type team unless they swing something surprising this summer. And beyond the fact that I would agree, I think the last two months Steve really did do a good job with that type of roster at his age. In, you know, this situation, does Steve want to come back to coach that type of team? Because I don't think, and I don't think not many people in the building think he's going to be coaching a championship contender next year.
- [86:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Having said all these things and the limited options that they have, and this is what is supposed to happen. And really this group, it's not the way a competitor thinks, but when it's all said and done and they're years removed from this, they should be going, thank God we got that one in 22, because normally you don't even get the one. If you win your first one in 15 and then you win a couple more, the 22 one doesn't happen unless you're Tim Duncan. Right. So this is what is supposed to happen. And yet there's these conversations about these teams like, oh, what can they do? And it reminds me a little bit of Kobe at the end where it was like, well, nobody's going to want it More than Kobe. It's like, well, Kobe can want everything anyone has ever wanted. It doesn't matter. The team isn't good enough. And I know everybody said a million times, like, steph, he's just. And this is what makes him great. He's the greatest teammate in the player empowerment era. He not only was one of the greatest players, but he was the best star because he understood all the bullshit doesn't really mean anything. And it just makes everybody else's jobs harder around me. But if this is what we're looking at here and mapping out the next couple years, why would Steph want to end his career this way?
- [87:29]
Anthony Slater
Because he is very protective of the one franchise legacy. I mean, he's obviously incredibly settled with the Warriors. It's the only franchise he's ever known. The Bay Area, all that family, you know, school systems, everything. And it's just who he is. I mean, think about his quotes the other night as Steve Kersey, you know, talking about, you know, maybe walking off and they're in that type of situation. He says a few things, he wants to play a few more years. He's open to contract extension talks with the warriors this summer. And then he had a long quote which we put at the end of our story, which I thought was pretty fascinating, basically about, you know, the next few years being like kind of resetting the foundation. And within that quote, he said something like, we don't have to always just say championship, championship, championship. Like it can be about just like playing good basketball, like, you know, being competitive on a more of a nightly basis. Like he's not, he's not upset. As obsessed with getting 5As, like, you know, I mean, look, he's a competitor and like he, he fought his way back this year and like tried to muscle them through the play in because he loves the stage. And sure, I think in his ideal mind he'd win the title and then walk off to the sunset. But also, if you're him, are you at age 38, going to completely uproot your life and go try to like, you know, boost the Hornets championship chances because you're that obsessed with five or, or it's okay to write off like Dirk write off even like Kobe. Like, I understand that those last couple Kobe years were, you know, from a competitive standpoint, probably weren't easy on a day to day basis for Kobe, but I don't think we look back at Kobe's career and like, wow, what was he thinking staying with the Lakers in the last three years? I think it feels like a very complete Laker legacy for Kobe. And I think everything I've heard from Steph is he wants that. He wants to be Duncan Dirk Kobe. Yeah.
- [89:16]
Ryan Rosillo
And I totally understand. I guess I just. We're not used to it anymore. Would it be better? I just think he was so good. He was so good in some of these games to close too. And I'm like, God, he is now. Maybe it's because he was a little fresher, missing that much time, but man, he was good again. So go ahead.
- [89:36]
Anthony Slater
And I mean, I think, look, if he was suddenly like Wimby's point guard for a couple of years in San Antonio or, you know, name your team where you just like, obviously he could boost a ton of teams, put them on the Rockets or something as basically their shooter and. But it's also like, I don't know
- [89:52]
Ryan Rosillo
is that he made probably bench him in the fourth quarter for missing a defensive assignment.
- [89:57]
Anthony Slater
Oh, what a reshaper play. Like 10 minutes 11.
- [90:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [90:01]
Anthony Slater
Oh, there you go. Yeah. I don't know, like, is it. You want to see him on the playoff stage? And I think there is, like, obviously some disappointment that, like, you saw the Steph Curry game against the Clippers and it was so invigorating, I think, to the viewing public to kind of get that one night, you know, picture back into him and Draymond. Right. The way Draymond defended in the fourth. And I think there's a desire to see that. But I don't know that. I don't know that the public would love to watch a Year of Steph Curry in a red Rockets jersey or something like that.
- [90:30]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't want that. I don't necessarily want that. I just hate how often the playing ends with like, oh, I don't get to watch him for another week. And that's selfish. That's completely selfish. And that's it. And that's not important to the Steph calculus on his next move. Enjoy game three, man. And thanks for stopping by today.
- [90:52]
Anthony Slater
Yep.
- [90:54]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [91:57]
Kyle
Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [92:01]
Ryan Rosillo
What's up?
- [92:03]
James L. Edwards
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid. So.
- [92:12]
Ryan Rosillo
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life Advice, lifeadvicermail.com, couple good ones for you today. But quick revelation, James. I hear we do have an actor friend that's doing some high profile stuff that Ceruti just completely murphed here on the show.
- [92:36]
Ceruti
No, no, no, no. Yeah, I forgot how this even came up like a while ago, but wasn't
- [92:42]
Ryan Rosillo
that long ago we just said, do you have a friend who's an actor?
- [92:44]
Ceruti
And you said that was it.
- [92:44]
Ryan Rosillo
Do that was it.
- [92:45]
Ceruti
Yeah. And I do. I legitimately do. And you know, we were texting or whatever. I think he was like, hey. You know, his brother texted me, was like, hey, shout thanks for the shout out on the pod. And I didn't even know they buried the lead. He's in Euphoria too. So shout, shout out to my guy, Joe Shambrello. Great dude, very handsome guy. And he got to kick it with Jacob Elori. So I guess I need to start watching Euphoria. I don't watch it. My wife watches it. She was really interested in what Elordi was like as a. As a person. Sounds like he's an awesome dude. But maybe that's. Maybe that's the show. I mean, Kyle's seen it, but you and I haven't. So maybe that's the show.
- [93:16]
Kyle
I haven't seen the new season. No, I have not. But I think we're like, old to
- [93:21]
Ryan Rosillo
be talking about that show with people.
- [93:25]
Kyle
Yeah, it could be really uncomfortable.
- [93:26]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, definitely could I have, like.
- [93:31]
Ceruti
Like I've been downstairs, you know, usually I'll go up, like play video games or do whatever, anything, watch games. If my wife's watching it downstairs, I'll come downstairs. Grab a snack. And I'm like, what the heck is going on in the show? Like, everyone's yelling at each other. Like, there's so much drama. People are doing drugs. I'm like, I don't remember high school being like this, but I don't know.
- [93:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, what's not even for a captain?
- [93:51]
Ceruti
Joe Shambrello. Great, dude.
- [93:54]
Ryan Rosillo
There's a character named Ali. Muhammad
- [93:59]
James L. Edwards
dude.
- [93:59]
Kyle
It's probably a more common name than you think.
- [94:02]
Ryan Rosillo
True. But TV show.
- [94:08]
Kyle
Did you get any submissions? Do you get any submissions for our show? Dude told me Mobland. But I'm pretty sure you and I already breezed through that. Right, Ryan?
- [94:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, this isn't him. I'm trying to look up.
- [94:20]
Ceruti
I'll just send it to you here.
- [94:21]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, wait, now I see him. Yeah, this guy's got a chiseled look.
- [94:27]
Ceruti
Crazy.
- [94:28]
Ryan Rosillo
He went to high school with this guy?
- [94:30]
Ceruti
Yep. Yeah, we played sports together.
- [94:33]
Ryan Rosillo
Are you like friends, friend, core guy or.
- [94:36]
Ceruti
Not a core guy, but, like, was. Yeah, like, you know, was he cooler than you la and. Yeah, yeah, he was cooler than me. He's a cool dude.
- [94:44]
Ryan Rosillo
King of the school.
- [94:47]
Ceruti
Not really. You know, it's funny, like, he didn't really act in high school and he was like, you know, he played hoops. He was a basketball player. It's funny. I think I remember he was like a. You know, we went to a pretty bad.
- [94:56]
Kyle
Wasn't on punt return though, right?
- [94:57]
Ceruti
No, he didn't. That's right.
- [94:59]
Kyle
So, I mean, he really was the cool.
- [95:00]
Ceruti
He was like the guy. You know, our basketball team. Like, he was like the center and he was like 6 4. And it's like, all right, you probably know you're not going to be a good basketball team if your center's a 64 guy. But no, Joe was a good athlete.
- [95:09]
Ryan Rosillo
What class were you guys at? Southington. Because that's like a big school, isn't it?
- [95:13]
Ceruti
Yeah, that was. We were the biggest thing. It was like double.
- [95:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Double L. Is that what it's. Is it still double L in Connecticut?
- [95:18]
Ceruti
I don't know.
- [95:19]
Ryan Rosillo
But six four center, that must have sucked.
- [95:22]
Ceruti
Yeah. Probably wasn't awesome for him all the time, but, hey, he was a worker.
- [95:27]
Ryan Rosillo
Some of those schools are just nasty is all I'm saying. Because I remember going to a couple of high school showcase things and it was like, the hell? Where are these guys from? They're like, oh, they're from New Britain. Great. This is going to be fun. All right, well, shout out to Joe. Maybe we'll get him on the pod. But we don't watch Euphoria yet.
- [95:46]
Ceruti
Yet. He's been in other stuff. Check it out.
- [95:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it looks like he's a boxer here. We had a couple show recommendations. I don't. I don't know if I trust anybody. I think I'm going to try to make it through leftovers again in my top five favorite shows ever.
- [96:03]
Kyle
Yeah, I'd say worth it. That was good.
- [96:06]
Ryan Rosillo
We got Widow's Bay coming out on Apple here. Our guy Hiro.
- [96:10]
Kyle
I'll give that a go.
- [96:11]
Ryan Rosillo
And his production company. I went to the set. It was filmed outside of Boston. It was actually in a town I'd never even heard of. And so they brought me to a night shoot and the guy was on fire and he had a limp and he had to jump out of this window. And I was able to listen to them with the stunt coordinators and the creator kind of going, do you think you'll land here? And the guy's like, I think I have one jump in me. Because his leg was hurt from being burnt like a couple days prior. Wild. So, yeah, I got to watch them film that show. So we're going to be on Widow's Bay. Or at least I'll be on Widow's Bay. Maybe that's our show. April 29th on Apple TV. Fine with me.
- [96:49]
Ceruti
Oh, that's Matthew Reese, too. I love Matthew Reese. All right, I'm in TBD.
- [96:55]
Ryan Rosillo
Get to some emails. Instagram posting is a 35 year old man. Jim Stats. 35, 6 foot 2, solid 250. Same in the shoulders as thighs. That's pretty good, right? No impressive gym stats, but do stay active. Run 15 to 20 miles a week, lift in 1 10, 1100 rep sets, split 4, push, pull leg hybrid. That's all right. We got it, man. Herniated discs, took barbells lift. Took barbell lifts off the table. This guy said no impressive gym stats, then just listed a ton of impressive shit of like how hard this guy goes. Player comp, Chris Dudley. I should be better than I am. But no offensive skill set. When physical under the hoop, I always miss an assignment or fuck it up. Chris Dudley was a bucket at Yale, by the way.
- [97:48]
Ceruti
Yale?
- [97:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Really? We'll look it up.
- [97:57]
Kyle
I believe you.
- [97:58]
Ryan Rosillo
I just wasn't expecting you to say that.
- [98:00]
Ceruti
Wasn't either.
- [98:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. 17 a game. Because I think I have this right. Dick Kutchin. What was there? Yeah, come on. He replaced my guy. Tom Brennan. UVM's Tom Brennan. Tom started at Yale four years there and 13. And 13 was not enough. Then he went to UVM and went 5, 23, 3 and 24 and 6 and 21 in his next three seasons. But that patience paid off. That patience paid off, obviously. Okay, we wanted to not talk about Tom Brendan for a long time today. No problem. Should I stop posting to Instagram? Now that I'm in my mid-30s and married, I spent most of my 20s single, casually dating, traveling, largely just enjoying life. Naturally, I would post what I would consider to be an average amount for a socially aware guy. Just enough to wet the whistle, but not enough to be obnoxious. Yeah, I like this guy already. Like the cut of his jib. Some of this. Speaking of jibs, Ceruti's actor buddy, I got to close this page out. What a job. This kid can't focus.
- [99:07]
Anthony Slater
All right,
- [99:11]
Ryan Rosillo
some of this was conscious. It was easy way to add value in a saturated online driven dating world. I traveled a ton of wanted to share that. However, I also shared important moments with friends and family without really thinking about it. Just because that's what you do. I'm two years out of the game, happily married and God willing will be starting a family soon. I certainly don't post much anymore, but when I do, it's always my wife, dogs, friends, some adventure we've been on. Recently I posted pictures from our wedding reception and honeymoon and when going to tag my friends, I noticed zero of my married friends my age post anymore. In fact, most have deleted their accounts. To be transparent, I don't keep Instagram on the phone. I download it to a post that's no place for a married man to scroll, but do still like to share the highlights. As a proud husband, uncle, friend, and hopefully soon to be dad, this made me suddenly insecure and asking myself things like my brother and dad don't even have Instagram. Is this something a man should do? I feel like the transition from bachelor boyhood into husbandman manhood has been pretty reasonable to navigate. The things you should stop doing and things you should start doing have revealed themselves pretty seamlessly. But this one is tough to navigate. It's just fantastically written email. All those miles you're putting in every week. This guy. No wonder he's married. Fucking guy's killing it. Would love to hear your thoughts. And any advice for a newish husband hoping to enter fatherhood soon?
- [100:33]
Kyle
Sounds like you're ready for Facebook dude. And Facebook only.
- [100:36]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean this is exactly.
- [100:38]
Kyle
This is the lane.
- [100:40]
Ceruti
I mean Instagram kind of is Facebook.
- [100:42]
Ryan Rosillo
How come they only shoot the guys in the middle and Then don't get the extra guys on the side.
- [100:48]
Kyle
No, you're right. I think Instagram is the new Facebook for our people of our age.
- [100:52]
Ceruti
But like, you know, I'm kind of in this group. I mean, I recently posted for my daughter's first birthday. It's the first post I had in a while. I was like, when's the last time I posted? It was when my daughter was born. So I went literally a full year without posting anything. Yeah, I'll post in the stories here and they're like, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll, you know, repost like a clip from the show or something. Or I don't know, I don't like to do the thing like, hey, I'm in this cool place. Let me take a picture so everyone knows I'm in this cool place. Like, I think that's kind of like a little bit overplayed. Now if you make it a little artsy and nice, I don't know, maybe put a little production value into it. I guess I see that. But as far as like posting to the smart cat, I don't see. I don't have any buddies that really post the feed anymore.
- [101:29]
Kyle
I think a lot of times you hit a certain age and it's like kids and like, look at this big fucking fish I caught. Sorry for cursing, but I think that's like a genre of older dude.
- [101:38]
Ryan Rosillo
It's just, do we have a new swearing policy on the pod?
- [101:42]
Kyle
I keep forgetting what it is, but I just know it's probably frowned upon.
- [101:44]
Ryan Rosillo
You just didn't feel like that was a well placed one.
- [101:46]
Kyle
Yeah, and I think I'm like nine minutes in with my first one, so. Yep. It's not the worst I've ever done, but yeah, I do think that's one of those genres where it's just like, you know, had our youngest one's seventh birthday party, you know, went out to the lake last summer. Look at this thing.
- [102:02]
Anthony Slater
18 pounds.
- [102:03]
Kyle
Well, that seems like a lot, but that's sort of like an older man update.
- [102:07]
Ryan Rosillo
Post a picture that is worth posting. Yeah, I'm not a fisherman, so you're
- [102:12]
Ceruti
a big, you're a big like song poster though, Kyle. I've seen that.
- [102:16]
Kyle
That goes away though. You know what I mean?
- [102:18]
Ceruti
That's just right, the story stuff. I do like that because I just like to know what you're up to, you know. Well, you can pretty much guess what the vibe is.
- [102:24]
Ryan Rosillo
You can pretty much guess. I love a Kyle Jukebox playlist being Posted to social media. I retweet them all the time.
- [102:32]
Ceruti
Yep.
- [102:34]
Ryan Rosillo
Because then you killed. And then you decide after seven songs you're going to just shake everybody by the collar.
- [102:41]
Kyle
Yeah. Because the one guy's like, oh, you're really going. You're appeasing the old folks today. I'm like, you're right. I've done about eight or nine. When's the last time you guys heard Chameleonaire? Buckle up.
- [102:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Who wants to ride dirty up in this bitch? This guy. I don't really have much to offer this guy, so I don't know what to tell you.
- [103:02]
Kyle
I want the hardest.
- [103:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I don't think you should start getting weird about it because, I mean, other people just don't want to do it because you get older and you have other shit that's going on. But if you're traveling and you're doing stuff and you want to share that. Think of it this way. If you went to Iceland and it was before social media and before everybody had a camera in their pocket and you actually took real pictures, and then people came over like, hey, do you want to see the pictures of my trip to Iceland? That's a yes. That's a yes. That's mostly a yes. So back in the day, that's what we did. Let me grab the old shoebox, go through some of these pictures, and we hand them out. Hey, look, you're getting pictures of your kid. Well, you're standing right over there. All right, so maybe we don't have to go through those pictures because people do get sick of those after a little while. But I think there's something that's been lost in not having the physical pictures anymore. And that that's what people used to do. When you did something really cool, part of it was you. People would say, hey, take pictures. Right? I mean, I know they still kind of do it, but they want you to text them immediately. The process was you take the pictures and then people that you cared about and people that cared about what you were doing when you did something really cool, they would want to see those pictures. And if you feel like you're still doing some cool shit and you want to share it with people, I don't think you should be beating yourself up. You're running 20 miles a week, dude.
- [104:12]
Kyle
Yeah, I think the threshold gets higher. You know, like when you're 16, like a four loco fueled night, you just like take a picture hanging outside next to like a wheelbarrow. And that's something you put.
- [104:22]
Ryan Rosillo
But I Think as you get older, obviously.
- [104:25]
Kyle
Totally.
- [104:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, sure.
- [104:27]
Kyle
Something like that.
- [104:27]
Ryan Rosillo
The middle finger thing's been like. It used to be so great.
- [104:30]
Kyle
Tongue out, middle finger.
- [104:31]
Anthony Slater
Gross.
- [104:32]
Ryan Rosillo
But a long time ago.
- [104:34]
Ceruti
Yeah. It was on the train to New York City. The caption is out with the squad. Hashtag bless.
- [104:41]
Ryan Rosillo
And it is. It is hashtag bless. My caption. Mike, that's actually your caption. I'm sorry, that was a.
- [104:47]
Ceruti
That was a screenshot of, I think, Snapchat. And then my caption was, we go hard.
- [105:00]
Kyle
It's nice to know we're all the same dudes.
- [105:06]
Ceruti
I miss that content. I'll tell you that right now.
- [105:08]
Kyle
But that. But that's when you knew that was like, had to be posted. And now you pretty much know what should be.
- [105:14]
Ceruti
I gotta send you guys.
- [105:15]
Ryan Rosillo
You see how hard Steve and the guys went last night?
- [105:18]
Kyle
Squad. Squad goals.
- [105:20]
Ryan Rosillo
I did. Like, that's what they do.
- [105:25]
Ceruti
That's the definition of Vegas can't handle us right now. And it's just like four dudes at, you know, MGM losing 400 bucks each,
- [105:31]
Kyle
losing all their allotment, 400 bucks combined.
- [105:39]
Ryan Rosillo
Would you even remember what you did? I'm dying, right?
- [105:44]
Ceruti
I think it was. Hold on. I gotta send it to you guys first. I'll send it to you.
- [105:47]
Kyle
Please.
- [105:48]
Ryan Rosillo
I think it was gonna see it
- [105:49]
Ceruti
was my birthday, which then got hijacked by another friend who didn't want to do some of the stuff. I don't know. I don't really. I'm not a big birthday, guys. I don't really care. But this is the picture. Let me check the date on it. I think it was my birthday.
- [106:01]
Kyle
Yeah.
- [106:03]
Ceruti
So shout out to the guys.
- [106:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, my God. This is one of the best middle fingers ever.
- [106:09]
Kyle
You in the New Haven line there. What is that?
- [106:11]
Ceruti
That's from. Yeah, I think it's from New Haven. Yeah.
- [106:14]
Kyle
Metro.
- [106:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Did you guys all go as Latinos this night? What's going on? This is a crazy picture, dude.
- [106:28]
Kyle
It's up still, huh? That's crazy. Wow.
- [106:34]
Ceruti
No, just four white dudes. I think that's a Coors Light maybe, but. Yeah.
- [106:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Are we sure about the four white dudes? What was the. What was the theme?
- [106:44]
Ceruti
I don't know. It's just.
- [106:45]
Anthony Slater
That's just the time.
- [106:46]
Ceruti
It was 2015, you know, it's a different era.
- [106:50]
Ryan Rosillo
People had different Cario 3.
- [106:52]
Ceruti
I had a bun. Yeah. There's a lot of long hair. A couple bald guys. Beanies. Yeah.
- [106:58]
Kyle
Fucking hashtag blessed, dude.
- [106:59]
Ryan Rosillo
You fucking. That's the cherry on top, that middle finger. Is strong. It's really good. It's a really good middle finger.
- [107:07]
Ceruti
I think I need to send this picture out today.
- [107:09]
Kyle
My point was that was a no brainer. You know what your no brainers are now? You know, sonogram, whatever.
- [107:16]
Ryan Rosillo
The thing is, you'll know. Probably don't want to do this now, buddy.
- [107:19]
Kyle
If you're thinking, you'll know what's right.
- [107:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Although I think maybe now I'd respect it. It'd be just kind of funny. It's like you already went through your middle finger phase and the guys start bringing it back, pull it out for old time's sake. There's just too many times where it's like, oh, look at this dork at Coachella. Like, you can't be giving anybody the finger. No offense to the dorks that went to Coachella, you know, I don't mean everybody, because obviously some really cool people went to Coachella. But, like, I don't know, is this guy cool? Let's give him the middle finger.
- [107:51]
Ceruti
Yeah, he's a cool dude.
- [107:52]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, we'll let it slide then. Keep looking at it. Oh, my God, dude.
- [107:59]
Kyle
I just love that you have stuff from way back then. I might have to do a deep scroll. I don't know if I ever went back and see what you were up to back then. It's nice that it's still out there.
- [108:05]
Ceruti
There's a lot of weird stuff. There's a picture of looking at one picture of Gyllenhaal time he came into espn. That was a good one, Steve.
- [108:12]
Kyle
Underscore Ceruti.
- [108:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Check him out. Yeah, I just want to clarify that dork Coachella thing.
- [108:19]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [108:19]
Kyle
You really have to keep clearing up
- [108:21]
Ryan Rosillo
just because I don't want to sound like I know I'm not like the coolest guy. I just. There's certain. There's certain guys I just don't think should be giving the middle finger in a picture.
- [108:30]
Ceruti
What's up with Coachella now, by the way? I've never been.
- [108:33]
Ryan Rosillo
I've never gone. I. It's always like, right around the playoffs. When I first. First moved to la, there was talk about a movement of like, hey, let's go do this. And then I started realizing I was like, I think I'm being asked, could pay for everything. That's kind of early, you know, because it was like, hey, do you have a hookup for this? And I was like, yeah, I think I do. And it was like, do you think you could pull this off? And I'm like, well, let me Make a call. And then I was like, ah, it's going to be a playoffs. And then I was like, yeah, we need, like, this and this. These are the numbers. And I'm like, wait a minute, am I. These people think I'm an asshole. I'm just going to pay for all this stuff. So I immediately lost interest. And then now, I don't know. It'd be kind of.
- [109:11]
Kyle
Yeah. I've never been to a festival. I don't think I would go to one.
- [109:15]
Ryan Rosillo
I saw some footage from one in Bali that I was like, is that awesome or terrible? I don't think I've seen.
- [109:24]
Kyle
I've been seeing the Bali is fake creeping into my algorithm. It's like, this is what it's supposed to look like. And I actually stayed here, and there's like a. You know, there's snakes in my thing.
- [109:34]
Ryan Rosillo
And this.
- [109:35]
Kyle
This is like a facade apartment. It's actually really shitty. But that's. Maybe that's just me. I've been seeing a lot of, like, Bali's actually not as cool as you think. On a budget.
- [109:46]
Ryan Rosillo
On a budget, sure. I've never been. I have some people that don't have to worry about budgets, that have told me it's, like, the greatest place.
- [109:52]
Kyle
Well, I'm sure of that, but I. But before that, it was in my algorithm. It's like, dude, why aren't you just going to Bali? Look at how much everything costs. Look at this sick room. And then now I'm seeing, like, all those rooms are like fucking cardboard cutouts.
- [110:03]
Ryan Rosillo
And look.
- [110:04]
Kyle
Look at what it buys you.
- [110:05]
Ceruti
Is Bali the place where they always advertise where you're just, like, in the water. Your places are just like huts on the water, and it's like a big U. And Is that what I'm talking about? Is that the Maldives? I forget what you're talking about.
- [110:15]
Ryan Rosillo
I think it's the Maldives. Almost certainly those ads. I know exactly what you're talking about because I've already looked it up. But you've already checked it out for. Yeah, but I'm sure it might be both. Cerruti. I just know for certainty. I know exactly the. The picture you're talking. You walk by the picture, and it's like a delta ad, and you're in the airport and you're making a connection, and you're likely miserable. And then you see this hut, and you go, I want to do that. So. All right, I want to read this email. The guy with a caddy. The one guy with a caddy is the headline. Stats 56180205, bench 335, squat 146-half- marathon. Strava verified six out of 10 wargons. All right. Player comp. Herb Jones. Great lockdown defense. Scared to pull the trigger on open shots. Streaky shooting in general. Not going. To be honest, I think when guys say streaky shooter, it just means it's a good possible way of saying I can't shoot. That's my guess. I'm not even sure that it's specific to this email. We're getting a lot of streaky shooters checking in lately. Seven of best frat bros from college and I are going to a nice golf resort for a buddies trip this June. I don't know if he wants us to say where they're going or not. Yeah, he says we can say it. Stream song, anyone?
- [111:39]
Kyle
Surudi stream song?
- [111:42]
Ryan Rosillo
Are you saying. Yeah. We're all in our late 20s, gainfully employed in jobs for the degree everyone pursued. Wow. Guys were locked in early and executed the plan. We aren't struggling by any means. And in a 10,000 foot. In a 10,000 foot view, you'd probably say we were crushing it. None of us came from any money either. All right, we got a bunch of go getters out here. I'm debating.
- [112:07]
Kyle
I don't know, I wonder. All nine of us, we all were in a frat and we're all doing awesome and none of us, none of us had a leg up. Some guys don't know that. They're like, way better off.
- [112:19]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, Kyle's gonna have to see everyone's dad's 401k.
- [112:23]
Kyle
I'm just saying, like, there's some people in that, like, middle upper class. You're like, we didn't have any money. And it's like, man, come on.
- [112:30]
Ryan Rosillo
Anyway, I need to know situation, Kyle.
- [112:34]
Kyle
No, I don't think so. But again, I got no proof.
- [112:36]
Ryan Rosillo
So.
- [112:37]
James L. Edwards
Yeah, I just.
- [112:38]
Kyle
I think it's just funny when there's a group of like eight, nine dudes that, you know, none of us.
- [112:43]
James L. Edwards
Huh.
- [112:43]
Ryan Rosillo
There was a real shift though, like six years ago when it was like, you're successful and your family's successful, you piece of shit. Yeah, I know. You don't want to be bored. Yeah. Then it was like, how dare you? How dare you not have any students?
- [112:59]
Kyle
Well, when I had guys coming over to my dad, when I had some guys come over to my dad's house, they were like, holy fuck, you're rich. And I was like, I don't think So I was like, well, I've been over to your house. So I guess if it's a matter of perspective, I guess so, you know, so it's just funny. So now I don't. I don't go around being like, dude, we didn't have shit. Because that's what people will say. Well, because you. Because you drove. Drove past Wendy's with your dad and you had to eat at home doesn't mean that you weren't doing well. Anyway,
- [113:25]
Ryan Rosillo
let's get to the email sticking point for Kyle.
- [113:27]
Kyle
No, it's just I thought it was funny. I just thought it was funny. It seems like it's a real thing where dudes are like playing down that there was like, shit was pretty cool
- [113:34]
Ryan Rosillo
when we were younger. Is there a chance Kyle grew up richer than either Cerutty or I?
- [113:41]
Kyle
Maybe. But again, you got to think the split household, you know, it was sick and then it was like Hamburger Helper.
- [113:48]
Ryan Rosillo
So I don't know. Student loans, Ceru.
- [113:52]
Ceruti
No, I did.
- [113:53]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, but Kyle, no student loans.
- [113:56]
Kyle
No, dude, Potsdam. Reasonable rates.
- [113:59]
Ceruti
Right?
- [114:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. There's also something to be said about that. You guys, you went in state. I mean, I know no one who like the people that listen to the pod but don't like me are going to go Martha's Vineyard. Why are we even doing this exercise?
- [114:11]
Kyle
Yeah, but year round, that counts.
- [114:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, but I will tell you, the only time my father was doing well, I was already out of the picture. And then I feel like we might
- [114:20]
Kyle
be doing it right now. So anyway, I'm just saying I like it.
- [114:23]
Ryan Rosillo
I like these exercises.
- [114:26]
Kyle
Let's get back to the cabinet seminar.
- [114:28]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, so the question here, and it's a very specific one, and I don't know the answer, I'm debating if there's a way I can get a caddy for just myself.
- [114:36]
Kyle
That would be hilarious.
- [114:37]
Ryan Rosillo
I would be ridiculed the entire trip. Part of it is that I don't want to spend all of the energy pushing my bag around in the middle of the summer. The other part is I personally think I suck at reading greens. And if a caddy can help me convert on even one more birdie a round, it makes the experience that much more memorable for me. It does cost about one third of the round for the caddy, which I think is worthwhile. I offered to get the caddy for anyone else in the rest of the group, but they're all good with just riding in carts. Am I ruining the vibes by being the one guy walking instead of riding? It is as big of a douche move as it is in my mind. Massive.
- [115:13]
Ceruti
It's bad.
- [115:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Additional context.
- [115:15]
Kyle
And you're going to do the caddy.
- [115:17]
Ryan Rosillo
It's crazy.
- [115:18]
James L. Edwards
Yeah.
- [115:18]
Ryan Rosillo
Additional context. I'm a 10 handicap and the group ranges from low single digits to an 18. We were planning on playing five rounds over three days. Love the show. Thanks in advance for any advice. So let me just clarify. Am I ruining the vibes by being the only guy walking through instead of riding? Is it as big of a douche move as it is in my mind? Where he says parentheses, massive? Saruti, you seem to have already answered this one.
- [115:41]
Ceruti
It just feels like you're taking this way. Like, I know everyone's competitive and wants to get better. I just went on a golf trip with some guys in December. You know, some people are better than others. And, yeah, obviously everyone else will win, but, like, there's no need to bring it. I mean, yes, the caddy will help you. You'll probably be better, but, like, at what cost? You know, the end, you have this extra caddy who's kind of hanging on one of your boys while you're doing this thing, while you're golfing, all trying to have a good time. It is a little bit weird if there's, like, one random guy, they're helping you out and you out alone. I just feel like you're taking this way, too.
- [116:10]
Ryan Rosillo
That's hilarious.
- [116:13]
Kyle
I was going to compare it to, like, it was. It would be like if you were the only guy walking when everyone else is in carts and he was like, I'm also doing that.
- [116:20]
Ryan Rosillo
So I was like, all right.
- [116:21]
Kyle
Well, then, yeah, I think. I think you.
- [116:23]
Ryan Rosillo
It.
- [116:23]
Kyle
You are the problem.
- [116:27]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, there's a math thing here, too. You're going to walk. So that means that, you know, the reason eight of you are going is two guys to a car, and these are how the rounds are going to play out, and then you're going to be walking or one guy's going to
- [116:40]
Kyle
pay for a full car.
- [116:42]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, I'm not even talking about the money part of it, but just, I don't know, maybe you guys can correct me because you golf more than I do. But granted, when you're just paired up with randoms and everything, you kind of make it work. But when it's three guys in a cart and then one walker, there's a lot of times depending on what the course is like, and this chance is probably a really nice one. Unless you're just nasty. You said you're a 10 so maybe it's not that big of a deal, but there's just going to be moments where they're going to be in the cart, feet up on the front of it, looking back at you, going, all right, is he ready? Or hey, have them shoot. And then there's another part of it where there's eight guys who all went to college together. Depending on what that caddy's personality is like. Like, what if you get some older, like, uptight guy, right? And then that's kind of changing at least that dynamic. And then the dudes, the next round are gonna be like, hey, we wanna make sure we're not paired up with you because we wanna just let it fly and tell old stories and not be around a stranger for four hours. So I would say don't do this at all. Cause you are gonna be made fun of the entire time and get to the point where they don't even want to make fun of you anymore. They're just kind of pissed about you changing up the equation here.
- [117:51]
Kyle
It is an interesting, like, plot point though. It's like, do you remember last summer when Doug brought a fucking caddy? Like, it is kind of. It's like a funny novelty.
- [117:58]
Ryan Rosillo
It is really funny that.
- [117:59]
Kyle
It is funny. But you know, maybe for one round. Yeah, for one round. Maybe. Maybe the last one. You know what, that'd be cool if
- [118:07]
Ryan Rosillo
you did it for the last one.
- [118:09]
Kyle
If, if you're interested in it being funny. But it sounds like that's not even a part that you care about. It sounds like you're like, really want to work on my game. I'm really bad at reading greens, so I'm just going to rent a guy for a couple of days. Now.
- [118:22]
Ryan Rosillo
These guys are young, so maybe it's fine. And what I'm thinking about, of a guy in a bag versus other people on the cart in your foursome. But Suri, wouldn't that be a thing? Maybe depending on how the day plays out, that it would be just kind of mismatched with the cart, you mean? Yeah, having you actually pay for a
- [118:41]
Ceruti
cart, like the way you pay for, for the car, like, I think it's like a one person fee. So it's not like somebody has to like double up on the fee.
- [118:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Now I'm just talking about I paid
- [118:48]
Kyle
for half carts and if you're like, anyway, it doesn't matter. It could be different.
- [118:52]
Ryan Rosillo
I think these guys are doing great. I don't think they're worried about the money.
- [118:55]
Ceruti
Yeah. As far as pace of play, I don't I think it's like an issue as you think it would be but it's just a weird like again like if you're hanging out with your buddies and they want to just let it fly a little bit and there's just kind of this unwanted rando it'd be one thing if it was like one serious group and one not serious group and they all had caddies but I I just it's cool then what you win at the end of this this week like and you and you had the caddies that make you feel better like are you how did you go home Sounds like win something like I don't know what's the win long term for you like if you make that extra birdie it's more just about hanging out with your buddies man
- [119:31]
Ryan Rosillo
I think that solves it yeah that'll do it for the show thanks to Tom thanks to Kevin thanks to Rudy thanks to Kyle the Ryan Rosillo show barstool sports we go hard. Sa.