 Happy New Year. Welcome to Run It Back. And my New Year's resolution is for Luca. Stop whining. Let's start. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Oh, it's the very first show of the very new year. My name is Michelle Beatle. This is Run It Back. And as always, my beautiful, lovely, wonderful counterparts, Shamsharani Estadium Insider, coming to us live from beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Chandler Parsons. And Eddie G, who is finally, he and I are basically in the same air bubble. How you feel? You've promised to take me shopping. So I'm holding you to it. We're going shopping. That is happening. I'm boozing. I'm boozing and shopping. If we shop like rich people, they'll give us the booze. So that's what we have to do. You guys, it was a weekend with a lot of hoops and a lot of stuff. And it feels like I haven't talked to you in about four months. So let's get this bad boy started with a delay. What? How does this even happen in an NBA game that it takes this long to fix a net? But that's what happened. It was a 30, I think it was 38 minute bent rim delay, which Jaylen Brown then referred to as quote, handled poorly. My favorite thing, it took six workers, two ladders, a level, phone calls, and a crew member taking the rim off the back before, before it was finally fixed. Chandler, I know I hate delays in sports. How annoyed would you be? Yeah, I mean, this happens a lot, I feel like. And I don't know why they don't just have a backup rim there, some more efficient way for this to, you know, move on quicker. But the other day, it's a delay for both teams, right? It's not like this is an advantage for Denver to get to sit there and, you know, go cold and kind of stiffen up. But this does happen quite a bit. You got to expect all these big strong NBA players are going to have some dunks like this and the rims are going to get a little banged up. But it is, it is really annoying in the flow of a game as a player for this to happen. And it happens too much, but I don't think it helped one team more than the other. That's kind of ridiculous thing. Maybe not anything. Easy thing for Jaylen Brown to blame the L on, I guess he dropped dirty. He played well. Like he did. He didn't find it up afterwards. I don't know. When I'm exercising a 35 minute break seems like a positive, not a negative. Right. But I'm with Chandler. Like there has to be another basket in there somewhere. I see extra baskets in Barclays. Maybe it takes longer to wheel that out to put it up. But I was shocked. Like I kept seeing people just tweeting and tweeting. They're still not playing. They're still not playing. I'm like, what? I feel like I watch old football games since they played. But yeah, I don't, you know, 35 minutes it seems. Thankfully, Yanis wasn't there to push the ladders down, delay it even more. Wow. But they got to it. Good win for the Nuggets though. Great win for the Nuggets. I do think in the defense of the crew members, you probably think to yourself, all right, we're one second away from getting it fixed. And then the next thing, you know, 38 minutes have flown by. So I do feel for them in that regard. But there was a little dust up before the game between Bones Highland and Brown, which who hates that, Eddie? But are you loving the feistiness from Brown as the season goes on? Yeah, like this is one of my favorite things about him. And I see it a lot when he plays the LeBrons, the KDs, Steph's, you know, these guys that are the upper tier of the league, like he's competitive. That's, he gets into these guys. He's not afraid of anybody. It wasn't surprising at all to see him lighted up in the finals when he had his chances to do so. So I like it. Like I want these guys to be competitive every night. We talk about the NBA season being too long all the time. We talk about meaningless games all the time. So for someone like Jaylen Brown, who's going to be the All Star this year to show up and care about these quote unquote meaningless regular season games. I love that. I hope more guys bring that to the court. I know it's not easy to do that every single day at work. But the ones that do it make it more entertaining. Yeah, again, and this is, this is a regular season game, but this is number one in the east against number one in the west. And these guys have a lot to prove. And this was huge in my eyes for Denver. Obviously, we all know about Jokic. We know what he's capable of, but these other guys supporting cast looks like they're trying to play better defense, which I think it's kind of, you know, obviously they're clearing weakness. But you know, this, I'm glad it gets chippy. This is each team knows they're going to go through this team. They're, you know, they're both having great years. And, and this was a really, really fun game and a big win for Denver to kind of, you know, put that check next to them that we can, we know we, we're not scared of them come play out time or finals. A huge win. And yeah, maybe a possible finals, hopefully preview. It could happen. Shoms, as far as the win on Denver side, take this through what has been the biggest difference for this Nuggets team. Well, I think they've had a major change internally, like behind the scenes. We saw Tim Connolly, he left for Minnesota and that left Calvin Booth to be the head for an office guy in Minnesota in, in, yeah, in, in, in Denver actually. And I think when Tim Connolly left, the one thing that I noticed from Calvin Booth and everyone around that Denver organization noticed is like he was thinking championship or bust going into this season. I think when you have a player like Nicola Jokic, he's under contract till 2027, like Milwaukee with the honest, you don't want to waste years. And we're seeing that the numbers that Nicola Jokic is putting up last night, 30, 12 and 12. No turnovers. If he averages a triple double for the, for the season, Denver is the number one seed. It's hard not to look at him very, very strongly to be the MVP for a third straight year. So just the expectations that are on this Nuggets team a lot are coming internally. And also you have a guy like Erick Gordon playing at such a high level. He's got a real all star case this year as well. The numbers that he's putting up over 17 points, almost seven rebounds a game, career high, field goal percentage and three point percentage. So there's a lot of expectations on Denver and a lot of that has come from Calvin Booth. It's coming from inside the house. I'm glad you mentioned it. It's also coming from the fan base because last night is clearly a matchup between two very, very possible MVP candidates in Tatum and Jokic and the home crowd is very aware. Take a listen. Five of six, Tatum's nine first half points that come from the first from the free throw line. And now, now the MVP chance coming from the other half of the building. This is amazing. Miller Cross and Tatum close to the cover. And then we got more MVP chance. I've been in league a long time. I've never been in an arena where two MVP chance are going on. Like actual MVPs because I know a lot of hometowns we always want to chant MVP for our players even though they're not even sniffing the award. But Chandler, right now, right now, who's more deserving of the award? I think it's Jokic and it's hard to pick apart any of these guys. And also, I throw Luca in there as well. The fact that that team is at the fourth seat right now and the numbers and what he's doing is insane, but he's not quite to the level of Tatum and Jokic. But it's got to be Jokic because first of all, I don't think they're a very good team without him. Every single play offense scheme that all goes through him, guys averaging 20, he's averaging a triple double. He's setting all these records, shooting 62% from the field while he's facilitating and initiating offense. I've never really seen someone do what he's doing. And like I said, I don't think they're a very good team without him. It just shows his value. Look, Tatum is having a great year. He's taking the next step. He is an absolute star. And even me, I kind of hate to give it to Jokic because it's his third year in a row, but I'm running out of excuses of not how he has my vote. I think most important player on the most important team on the best team in the West, I got to give it to Jokic. Yeah, as much as, you know, I feel like the MVP's in Brooklyn and by the end of the week, when they're the one seat, it'd probably be more obvious. But if we're talking about these two, I'd love to go against Chandler and just pick Tatum out of spite, but you cannot argue Jokic's impact on that team. You cannot argue his broad numbers. You can't argue his advanced numbers, all of that stuff. I get at him for defense all the time on here. It looked fine last night. They won a game against a really tough team to defend. And he made the Celtics stay big all night in order to defend him. So I get the counter argument to me coming up here and saying, he can't defend in space and guys going, well, he wins his minutes. Guys are getting me on Twitter about that all weekend. Yeah, I think it's Jokic's out of these two. I do like Luca being in the convo as well. I think as they continue to climb the standings, he'll be right there. His numbers are just too hard to deny as well. But yeah, I'm tossing the hopefully one seat by the end of the week, Brooklyn Nets and maybe their MVP candidate as well. It's going to be a good race. What I love about these two, Jokic is 27 years old. They can take them 25 years old. The league is changing hands in front of our faces. And I love to see that. I love to see these young guys entering their prime and looking like MVP candidates. Like we all hope they would be. And it's great to see it out. You know what I don't get to with this award? I know we talk about the fatigue and all, but why don't we just get over ourselves? Like in acting and in music, we have no problem just sort of repeat rewarding like Daniel Day-Lewis. And there was a time when Taylor Swift, lover or hater, just won everything. So I don't know. Maybe we just get over ourselves as far as, okay, maybe he's a 3P champ and that's okay on the MVP level. And it's slow down with your Brooklyn Nets. Eddie, by the way, slow down because you got to play the spurs first, all right? On your way to that one seat. So we just slow down. We're talking a little grizzlies right now because they had a, they had a little stretch last week. Things got kind of weird, but Morant with 35, Steven Adams, 13 offensive rebounds. They win over the Kings. They're only a game out of first place right now in the West channeler. So your confidence level in this Memphis squad, where would you put it at the moment? I mean, they're top five, top four, top, I mean, they're, they're a very good team. It's just to me, they're a little inconsistent. They're, they're inefficient. They need Desmond Bain fully healthy and they need him knocking down shots. They need Jared Jackson to kind of be that second option player that they thought they were getting when they drafted him. Dylan Brooks is having a lot of these games where he's, you know, five for 18, seven for 22. He's got to find a way to defend and be more efficient, but they're a tough out. Teams like him, like them and New Orleans, they're young, but they're super talented. They're super fun to watch. They're probably my favorite team to actually watch on TV. I just feel like they're missing something. They're, they're, they're missing something to kind of be that contender that's whether it's consistency or whatever it is. I just, I don't, I don't think they're going to win a championship this year, but they are on the right path and they are so fun to watch. Yeah, I agree with Sandler and like they, they feel like they're missing something. The team isn't as deep as you, you would like, but you know, I think depth is a little overrated. They're going to shorten their rotation in the playoffs anyway. I think what they do need is the secondary ball handler. They rely on John Morant so much for that. And I know the on and off numbers and all that stuff and they, they play well without them, but they're going to need that shot creation in the playoffs. And we saw Desmond Bain struggle a little bit with that last year. We see Dylan Brooks struggle with that all the time. Janeler mentioned his shooting. He was seven to 19 last night for 15 points. That's, that's not ideal, but I think they need a secondary ball handler. I'm curious, you know, maybe from Shams, if they're even buyers at the moment, they have such a young team. They have so many draft pigs maybe they are looking at that, but as far as their front court, they're so versatile, they can be big, they can be small. And that's what makes them so strong defensively in the playoffs. We saw Steven Adams play last night and get those offense rebounds, but we'll see playoffs series, we'll start him play three minutes and he'll never play again. And they're cool with that because they have bigs behind them that, that are quicker, can move around a little better. And that's what's going to make them dangerous in the playoffs. So to piggyback what Eddie just said, I mean, the grizzlies, the good thing about them is they have all their flexibility moving forward. They have their young guys. But then when you look at Danny Green's contract, he's making around 10 million a year, they have like five first round picks to play with. And those are the first round picks they put on the table in any deal for Kevin Durant when they acquired on him in the summer. Obviously, they weren't willing to put in either Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bain from what I was told. So it was really a non-starter, didn't go anywhere. But the fact that they have all their picks, they have Danny Green, they can really go get a star player out there in the marketplace. And whenever that guy becomes available, the question is going to be internally, do they want to continue to do it in house homegrown talent, or do you want to go out and use your assets and go get another star? That's the decision that the grizzlies organization is going to have to make here, you know, at some point soon. You know what the Steven Adams thing, I know he's a fan favorite. And if you ever hear him talk at all, it's hard not to love the dude. I feel like he's been in our lives my entire life, but yet he's not even 30, which I don't, I've had to read that 17 times. Chandler, you know, a guy like this to have him around who's, I think he's 60 and he's lying, but whatever. How important is he to the young guys on the squad? Yeah, that's crazy. I thought for sure. He's a great dude. He's a great locker room guy. He brings that kind of that personality that every team needs. And he's really their only vet outside of Danny Green. And he's humble and he's hardworking. And he leads by example. You know, he's just in the weight room, just eating weights before these young kids get there. And you need that. And he's kind of that rock in the paint for them surrounded by a bunch of talented kids. But the fact that he's not 30 yet, I need to see a birth certificate. That's insane. Right? I'm blown away right now. It's just the hair. I think it's the hair. Let's take a trip down my New Year's Eve memory lane, shall we? I don't know what you guys were doing, but I was a bottle of red into this bad boy. Trey Jones with the intentional miss. This right here down to under 10 seconds left. He goes on to miss one of the two after the foul. And then, Luca, Luca, Luca, Luca does it again. Misses allows time to expire. Spurs go on to barely lose this one by one. And yes, I am going to work it that way, Chandler. But he does make it look easy. And it was really fun to get to watch him just as a fan front and center that way. Didn't realize he whined so much. We can get into that. But he does make it easy. How is he doing that? He's a very smart player. He kind of has that, you know, that brain that heads up thinking like Jokic where the game just comes easy for these guys. And you could just see the dude on the spurs, he kind of rushed the shot and he kind of throws up there. Luca, Luca cannot be rushed. We talked about this all the time with his size and his ability to shoot the ball and handle the ball and create for others. He can't be guarded. He, unless you're literally throwing double teams at him at half court, you can't put a smaller guy on him because he will literally bully him and take him, you know, on the block. You can't put a bigger, slower guy on him because he can get that bursting and go right by him. And then plays like this or this is just, I was looking for C of kid or someone told him to do this. This is brilliant because no matter if you're up one or two at the end of the game, all San Antonio can do is throw, you know, a full court shot here after imbounding the ball. So why even, why even give them a chance? This is just a heads up brilliant play. And this kid really can do everything. His numbers are more efficient this year. And also he's starting to get a lot more help. You look at box scores, you look at the guys around him, Tim Hardaway, Dinwiddie, Christian Wood, these guys are playing their role beautifully and helping him a lot more than they did early on. And like I said, talking about the MVP, Lucas averaging 34 points, nine assists, nine rebounds and Dallas Mavericks are the fourth seed. Like say it louder for the people in the back because this kid, he is doing his next level and it is insane and he is balling. Yeah. He's unbelievable when you watch him play the way he controls the game. I know he gets the LeBron comparison. I know he gets the James Harden comparison as well. And I think those are right on board. He's like a less athletic version. So like Chandler said, he has to play with pace. He slows the entire game down and then speeds it up what he wants. What I've seen him do this year that I really like is he's been posting of smaller guards. Everybody said, you know, we'll switch on those screens. We'll take the mismatch. We'll attack his dribble. So he'll reset and he'll just post your little guy up and make a turnaround or make a pocket pass from right there on the block. It's fun watching him add a little bit of versatility to his game. I thought the same thing is Chandler about that free throw at the end because he missed the first one, not on purpose. They got a look around. I'm like, well, he should probably miss this on purpose. This first have no timeouts and then he did it. He got his own rebound. Kind of trippy to see two on-purpose misses work within like 30 seconds of each other. Also, I know we're talking about Luca here, but I know Beatles saw pop being like grandpa pop with Trey and just giving him a hug and telling him it's okay. And you know, young fella, we want to lose anyway. It's all right. It was adorable. I wish we had the clip, but that incredible tanked up by the spurs right there. And then pop ran right to him and knew it. Just give him a hug. No, they're not. And I will say this, I was sitting right there and I was booing Luca very, very loudly at the free throw line. So I'm not saying that I do take credit for the miss, but I do take credit for the miss. And look, pop a couple days even before this game was joking around about Luca and how great he was on the heels of the 60 point performance. And he's, you know, he sort of threw away the line of 50. We want to hold him to 50. And then the fact that he scores 51, his team goes on to win one. He's had 50 plus or whatever in the last three of the five games, Chandler. At some point, I mean, you'd like to think as a fan of the Western conference, but not a Mavs fan. Does this run out or does this just seem like this is Luca's new normal? I mean, this seems to be him and he seems to be healthy and he's in shape. And again, he's a fishing, shooting 51% 37 from three. And he's not even, he's taken tough shots to like some of the step back shots. He practices all, he practices them. He works them. But I think it just goes back to this summer where he played internationally all summer long. And that really helped him stay in game shape and come into the season and not miss a beat, which is why the usage rate was so concerning early on. But again, a lot of bonus goes on these, these other guys like Christian Wood and Den Woodie and Hardaway to kind of keep helping them and allowing them to maybe rest Luca a couple of games coming up here just to kind of, you know, not overdo it. But it really is shocking to see what he's doing and how he's carrying this team to home court advantage right now. It's crazy. Seemingly having a blast doing it. We waited as long as we could into the show to allow Eddie to shine. So the Nets, yes, 11 game win streak. That thing is over the weekend. Well, KD Tell and Nick Friedle from ESPN that the challenges this year so far have brought the team together basically overall. What is the vibe inside that locker room right now, Eddie? Oh, they're having a ball. They're loving it out there. These guys hopped off the plane. They were on the plane for New Year's for the 12 o'clock to fall and drop, hopped off the plane. They wanted to find something all to do together that night because there's a ton of camaraderie right now. And you can see it, you know, at the game at the arena, you can see it as they're traveling on the road. Road trips are good for when a team is bonding in the way they are. And, you know, on our show on the et cetera is when Kevin had the comments to Chris Haines that were essentially saying, yo, look who I'm playing with. What are you expecting? And he was able to break it down a little more. And, you know, they've been on a roll ever since that. Everybody was wondering if that was going to break them. They beat the Blazers the next night after that. And they've been on a roll and they've done it. And, you know, with a bunch of different injuries going on, they had obviously the infamous game where they sat everybody, you know, they're just finding themselves. I think their defense has quote unquote, regressed back to the mean number of offense in the league in December. And then, you know, plays like that are exactly why Kyrie has been the leading score in the fourth quarter all season long now. And I think he's having like 14 points a game in the fourth quarter in December. So they have like a setup now they have a dynamic where Kyrie kind of closes the door. Kevin obviously does KD things and everybody else fills in the gaps and they're just having fun. They had that ton of fun out there in Charlotte with that big one. Yeah. And looking at their schedule, they got this first twice the next two weeks, they got the Bulls, they got the Thunder, like they're going to continue to win games. And it just feels like the drama is kind of behind them. And you never know what the steam in this roster. But listen, anything is possible when you have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, when you have that much talent and those guys can go out and win a game by themselves. But the key to them to me, they're very thin up front. They have no size. Ben Simmons is kind of proving just to be a role player at most here, but they need Joe Harris 100%. They need TJ Warren to give them a little bit more and be the old TJ Warren. And once they get all these guys and their depth and their bench and their shooting, everyone clicking, yeah, they are really tough to beat. I still think they're a couple steps behind Boston and Milwaukee. But again, when you got KDM and your team, anything is possible. Yeah, Joe Harris will be back in the lineup tonight. But I think overall, when I look at this team, the one thing that always jumps out at me is just Jock Vaughn. And when I see him on the sideline, you're seeing a lot more energy, a lot more spirit. There's just a lot more accountability from everyone I've talked to around the organization. And just even his in-game adjustments that he's making, whether it's between quarters, in-games, halftime. It's something that this roster just has not seen just in this four-year era that we've had and just his level of communication throughout the roster. So that's the one thing that's changed. What's the record? 22 and seven under Jock Vaughn. To me, he's done a masterful job. Probably going to be in the running for Coach of the Year as long as this continues. And like Eddie said earlier, they could be number one seed in the East by the end of the week. Yeah. I'm happy somebody finally mentioned Jock as far as Coach of the Year. I know Willie Green is right there as well. I think this kid will be there as well. It's going to be a tight race. But what he's done to turn around this team, there's some strategic changes as well as far as the rotation. He stopped playing Patty Mills. He's had a tighter hook with a lot of guys. But he's also simplified their offense a ton. He's put the ball on Kevin's hands a ton. He's made them, the defense even easier for them. They just switch everything and the way they attack guys. And one of the things, I think it's kind of underrated. He's stopped doing shoot around. He does shoot around earlier before the game now. No morning shoot around. Guys seem to be loving that. But yeah, he should be right there in the running. You know, he's turned them around. He's able to, you watch some of these videos, the Nets post, you know, just the communication he has with the team and the way he's bringing them together in the locker room. It's obviously, it's obviously making a difference. I think they have some tests coming up in the next week here, the pelicans and the heat on the road. And then they put in Celtics, the dreaded Celtics again next week here at Barclays. And we'll learn a lot about this team in the next 10 days. And I think they're looking forward to those challenges because they want to learn about themselves as well. Do we know how many guys have, has anybody else moved shoot around up? I love that. All right, Sean, you dropped this story last week. It's about Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan and the internal struggles that have been going on for him down in Atlanta. And I thought, this is one of those stories you want to elaborate for us. So about two weeks ago, what I was told was Nate McMillan expressed the potential of resigning to one high ranking Atlanta Hawks person. But I think as those conversations went on, it was very, very apparent that the Hawks want Nate McMillan to finish out this season. They don't want to make an in season coaching change. And Nate McMillan does have the rest of the season and next year on his contract. And there have been positive conversations that he's had with Landry Fields ever since Landry Fields took over. But there's some changes internally going on in Atlanta, not only the front office change with Landry Fields getting promoted to oversee the front office. They've let go of multiple, at least three front office executives, as well as the repositioning of Travis Schlink from president to an advisor. And I think it's strongly believed within those that know about the Hawks and across the league that Nate McMillan is nearing the end of his tenure, if not during the season. I think everyone really wants him to finish out this year. But, you know, as soon as the end of the season, and he even spoke about Friday night, the prospects of him potentially retiring at the end of the season and coming up with this decision at the end of the season. So I think we'll see how this plays out. But I'm curious, Chandler, you were in that locker room. You were there when Lloyd Pierce was there as head coach. What's kind of your take on this situation as well as playing for a coach who might be a lame duck coach throughout the season? Yeah, when I was there, I wasn't there obviously for McMillan. And once I left, he kind of took over. And I heard nothing but great things about him. He had the deep run, the playoffs right when Lloyd Pierce was gone. But yeah, when Lloyd was there, it was obvious. No one really liked him. Everyone wanted him out. And that started with Trey. And when you pay a guy that and you're a franchise player, a lot of the responsibility is on you and your relationship with the head coach. And it was just doomed from jump. And that year, they were tanking, though. This year is a little different because I think they came into the season with much higher expectations. They make the move for John T. Murray. They have guys like Deandre Hunter and they have this core going forward and they are just struggling and everything is exposed when you're losing. And having a guy like Trey Young who was young and still trying to find his leadership and his maturity level is tough because they don't really have that guy. They don't even have like a, you know, Stephen Adams per se to kind of pull them together and have a team meeting. And it's a very young team. And it's tough. And you got to look at Trey on this as their best player. But yeah, I can only speak on when Lloyd Pierce was there. And there was not a doubt they all wanted him out of there and they got him out of there. So with reports like this and stories like this, it's a player's leech. You got to imagine this isn't going to last much longer. It's a bummer too, Eddie, because, you know, at Nate McMillan, it did not seem like that long ago when everyone was so high on this entire relationship. But as far as Trey Young, he's a young guy. And this kind of looks like it falls on his shoulders. How much credit do you give him as far as this situation is concerned? Yeah, I mean, how could you not? He's the franchise player. He's, he's the team, he's the player that they're built around, both in, on the court and personality wise as well. Like the team is structured for him to thrive. So yeah, it does follow him. And these are the challenges of being a franchise player that are beyond just performance and counting stats and, you know, half court shots. He has to be the guiding hand here. And we've seen this since basketball has begun. We've seen vocal parents like Trey's dad can be on Twitter and elsewhere. We've seen young star players who were, you know, clashed with coaches. Chris Paul did this early in his career. People thought he was a coach killer. Kind of still do. But this is the challenge of being that guy. And he has to figure out a way to navigate and wait his way through this. I think a big part of this will be obviously there's another coach coming at some point, whether it's this spring or whether it's in the summer, but they need to find the coach that's for him. I mean, and whether he's a helpful hand in that, or he has to just, you know, take that bitter pill, then they'll find the coach that works for him and then find a way to challenge him. And so he can grow as well. And I think that's the rut that they're stuck in right now. And they're clearly clashing and then they can deny, well, they can like subtly not deny the reports all they want, but something is clearly going on here. And they're going to have to figure that out. They're just two years removed from a conference finals run. And they could have, if Trey had not got hurt, they could have been in the finals and who knows what happens against the Suns. And that's got to be their goal every year. Well, they have him and they made that big trade for the Giante. They've been buyers in the market for some time now. They want to win. So they got to figure this out. And this is a guy that you traded for Lucca Donchez in a weird way. And then the running story for a few years was like, Oh, both teams won. It doesn't look like both teams won that trade as of right now, but things can change. That's not right. That's not right. I would trade restarters on the Hawks for Lucca. Yeah, that trade doesn't seem. That would be loving Lucca right now. God, we're a totally different world. Taking a quick break right now when we come back, Shams with the latest on when we might get to see Gary Payton the dose. Plus let's talk a little Timberwolves, shall we? Eddie always loves that when running back returns. Love, love, love to see that. Carlton Treblazer's Gary Payton dose listed available finally to make his season debut tonight against the Pistons. I think a lot of people hoping to see this sooner rather than later. Shams talked to us about Gary Payton, the dose. I mean, when you look at the role that he had last year for the Warriors, really do it all played everywhere. I mean, he played guard, he played big. And I think that's really exactly the role that he's going to play on this Portland team. They've been missing him. They thought he was going to be back a couple of weeks ago. It took him a little bit more time to get back. He was coming off of core muscle surgery in the summertime. So he's now going to be back in the lineup tonight. We'll see if he'll be on a ministry restriction, but this is good news. And he just got his Warriors championship ring on Friday. So a couple of good things for Gary Payton the second to close 2022 and start the new year. You could just tell how much people love him too, Chandler. How big a deal is this for the team? Yeah, he's an ultimate glue guy. Like Shams just said, he kind of does all those things that a lot of these other guys don't do. And when you look at their roster with Anthony Simons and Jeremy Grant and Damian Lillard, this guy's a perfect fit for them. He's perfect defensively. He's a smaller guy, but plays really big. And what's great about him is you can plug him in with any which lineup, and he's going to be able to make contribution. So this, this lesson Portland's right there. They're having a heck of a season a lot better than most people expected. And you know, Gary Payton the second is only going to kind of help them going forward. Shams, we love to talk about rich people doing rich people things, something going on with the wolves. So Minnesota's owners, Mark, Laurie and Alex Rodriguez, they picked up the option to have now 40% of the team's ownership. They could have up to 80% by the end of the year. There's another option coming up in December 2023. It's crazy that we're even thinking about December 2023, but they have another option then. So they could have 80% ownership going into 2024, which has been the goal for Glenn Taylor to kind of transition his ownership. Mark, Laurie, Alex Rodriguez are in position to have 80% of the team. They've been a big reason behind the scenes, getting Tim Connolly, paying Tim Connolly five years, $40 million, going out, making the trade for Rudy Gobert. They're trying to change the image in Minnesota, trying to bring in the best, the best talent. Even though this season has not gone the way that they wanted, there is ownership change coming in Minnesota. I wonder if they had a moment of hesitation before getting that next 20% when they realized that Rudy Gobert thing maybe wasn't the right choice. And maybe we don't want the next 20% ownership. But speaking on this team, this was a fascinating quote. All right, Nasred was asked, is it a mystery to the players why the team's underachieving? Quote, not really. We know, we know, we know why. And you know, I'm going to kind of keep that in-house. But we know why. That is the most cryptic, mysterious, say-nothing-but-say-a-lot quote. I've seen it in a while, Chandler. What is he talking about? You know what's crazy? I don't know. I'm assuming Rudy Gobert. Guys, I have no idea what he's talking about, I guess, because I'm not in the long talk room. But I would just assume that the Rudy Gobert trade, all the media, him not having the best season, them struggling. I don't know. I have no idea. I will say he's taken advantage of his opportunity. He's been fantastic for them, with talents out, Rudy's struggling, he's knocking down shots. He's kind of been one of their best players all year long. But this quote, someone needs to follow up with him, because I need some details on this. Seriously, Eddie, I know you want to say something. Go ahead. I'm with Chandler. He said it in a way that who's telling what he's talking about? I want to say Rudy Gobert, just because that makes the most sense for all of my narratives and my agendas. But look, this is a team that's lost six straight. They look bad right now, and they're missing Cowanthony Towns. And like Chandler said, Nazreed's kind of the right guy to say this, because he's had a great season himself, and he's taken quite a leap. And he has a lot of GMs around the league, kind of looking around and wondering if it's possible to snatch him from Minnesota. But yeah, I want to hear more. I want him to say it. He says he's going to keep it in the locker room, but Buddy, you took it out the locker room just now. You just told us. Right. Let's hear some more. And that also implies that somebody in the locker room knows that it's about them. So that's a little bit awkward, isn't it? If everybody knows, but we're not going to say out loud. By the way, the Rudy Gobert thing was it last week when he said something about how front office execs know what he's about, right? And all I could think about was like, man, it wasn't in time for us to talk about that the average fan might not understand what I bring to the table. Eddie, but the GMs in the league do. That's what say you to that. One GM does and they're regretting it because of what they gave up to get them. I guess most of the other GMs in the league are laughing at this trade and just blowing up the trade market. I look, I understand the Rudy Gobert stuff. I know what defensive rating means, and I know that he protects the paint in a way that no other player in the league does. And that's fine. But Donovan Mitchell looks fine. Russell Neal looks fine. The Jazz look fine. It's the Timberwolves that don't look so hot right now. And you have to wonder, what is the common denominator here? Yeah, you might have great impact. And maybe I don't understand it, but the Cavs and the Jazz are better without you. Yeah, it's a little concerning. It's a little concerning. And you can ask Nazarene. He's the one who just told us. Oh, man, I can't wait for this to come out a little bit more. Shams, as always, thank you. We shall see you not bright and early. I would say this is a pretty civilized hour. So we'll see you tomorrow morning. But right now we're going to take a quick break. The holidays mean everybody's playing in front of family, which means a lot of dudes got completely disrespected in front of those families when Running Back returns. Oh, Tyler, as you're here. Oh, yeah. See, I love when you just earn the money. Like that is the money. That's why you got paid. That is a good moment. It's a wonderful way to end a year and start a year. But some of these guys on the next segment, not so much. Some are on the winning end. Some are not. These men all have families. And yet, here we go. How about Aaron Nessmith? That's, I mean, that's Jared Allen. That was one of those plays. You can see it when it started developing. Like, is he going to do it? Yep, he did it. Is he going to do it? That's like, test to test, two hands, everything. This was crunch time, dude. This was the fourth quarter. Incredible dump. Incredible. The Pacers immediately went on a run after this as well. That's how you win games right there. These are one of those where the big, the big just immediately regrets it. He came over just a hair late and Nessmith didn't pay. I know the photos must be amazing. Like, I'm going to check his ID. I bet he posted it. You can post that one. It's cool. Oh, first of all, I would post everything all the time. This is your, this is your window. This is your chapter in the sun. Post it all. So one day you'll look back at it. Oh, you'll be LeBron? You'll be LeBron? I see. I see. No, hold on. Don't ever, that's the meanest thing anyone's ever said to me my whole life. How about Zion? This one's got just, this is, this is a moment. Oh my God. This is what dreams are made of right here. This is what I've been waiting on. I like that Rudy did the business decision. Like, he just knew and he just ducked. Like, right? It started with a hand and the hand just went, nah, I'm not going to do this. The fact that this guy goes left every single time though and just banged on the best shot blocker in the league with his opposite hand is pretty wild. Man. Yeah, like, don't look now. Now that Zion's healthy and he's been playing for like a month straight, he's been an absolute marvel to watch. So he's just the greatest theater in the league right now. Awesome. Him and Steven Adams bumped into each other the other night and just, like, it was just too grown man playing football out there. It was great. I hope he stays healthy. And that is just the obvious statement. I also love that Jose Alvarado just somehow found God in that moment and just looked up to the skies. Thank you so much. Bubble, I love bubble and I like saying it. I'll never stop. There's a trampoline there. He went over him. He went around. Look how long this dude is now. He's got his whole hand over the box. Like, that's not supposed to happen. That's not real. By the way, I just, you guys do know the go-go gadget reference, yeah? I mean, I know I'm older than everybody and their mom, but. I'm old too. I know what go-go gadget is. I'm wondering if some child is like, what does go-go gadget mean? But look it up, kids. That's what the Google box is for. You'll figure it out. He barely bit the knees and jumped that high. Like, this is, this is nice. Did he actually, did he touch the rim? I think he grazes the bottom of the net, basically. Oh, I got it. Did he? Did he touch the rim? We're counting it. That's how long his arms are. His arms are most people's legs. Like, it's just, it's insanity. Darren Fox, why not? Kelly O'Leary, no. These are my favorites. And the point guard dunks on the center. This is, this is what it's all about right here. Also, Kelly, we're slow or white? Take the charge, fam. I think he was stuck in the middle of trying to take the charge and, aw, damn. Like, this isn't what we do. Know your game. That's not what we do. Shut up. What do you mean, you people? What do you mean, you people? Who are you talking about? Side note, let people hang on the rim. It's more fun when we watch guys hang on the rim. It's, it's, it's cool. Yeah, except for if it's a 38 minute delay in the game, we're not doing that. Yeah, except for Grant Williams. Grant Williams is the only one. Don't do it again, but. You guys, it's too much. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Roberto, Roberto. Lloyd Markinon. Oh, no, the Sabonis. Here. Well, now, hey, by the way, what are you going to do now, Chandler? These are two white guys. Oh, how do you, how do you get this out? Yeah, and this. You got to give, you got to give Sabonis, you know, a little bit of, yeah, a little excuse here with playing with one hand. I'll give him that. Oh, that's, that's an astronaut. He is my favorite. The fact that he's playing with that hand makes him one of my favorites for real. Markinon is dead nice, too. Like he, I started, I didn't believe in the beginning, but this kid can do it all. And he's, and he's also massive. Like he's, he's, he's hitting the weight room crazy. I think he's like a legit seven feet, too. Like he's, you know, I can't believe that he floundered as long as he did his league. It took this long, but I mean, that's how it goes sometimes. Some of us are late bloomers, Eddie. It happens, you know, just takes a little while to marinate. And they come to, come to fruition. Victor, Ola, Depot. You guys are kidding me with just these white stiffs getting dunked on. It's a new segment. Well, I played well this season, man, but who? I mean, come on, we can do. Depot has been doing that since, since I remember seeing him like in like high school. He's just going to do this forever. The health issues. That's very generous of him to hug them in the air. He'll bang out on his head. He's like, I'm sorry. Walker, Walker hears like trying to like not foul him, but not block the shot. He's like, what's just vertical? He's not even trying to really block the shot. He's just trying to go straight up, which is a recipe for disaster. Yeah, he was, he was asking for it. I'm happy that he's still doing stuff like this. I know he's in and out the lineup, in and out the, you know, with his injuries and stuff. So I know he still had it. No, I think that's it too. It's like, we didn't get to see him for a hot minute there. It's obviously New Year's resolution time, which I think always works out when you make resolutions. So we might as well do that for our teams, Chandler. And why don't you start us off with the Lakers? Yeah, I think it's the live in the moment. Listen, you have the best arguably of all time. Look at James, your future is pretty awful. There's no real other option. You got to get Anthony Davis healthy. You got to have Russell Westbrook healthy and listen, it could be either one of two ways. Just live in the moment and try now and you're only three and a half games out of the play-in. Michelle, we stop. The only other option would have been to blow it up. And I don't even know if that makes them better. So you know what, LeBron is, you know, he's chasing Kareem. He's going to pass Kareem. Let's give him his flowers. Let's ride this great season he's having and live in the, try and get in the play-in and see what happens. Oh my. Wow. I like this. I like this one. You know, day at a time. I like it. This is, don't listen to people. You didn't get 29 other teams, but you gave me the Lakers. Thanks. We gave you the Lakers. Hey, man. That's what you get. Eddie gets a team. He gets to pick his team though, obviously. Oh, Joker. That was picked for me, but I'm going to go with no more drama for the next. Let's just play basketball. Kevin was on the podium a few weeks back saying, hey, we always are like this. But right now you are. So let's just play basketball. Let's keep winning. Let's keep rolling. Guys look great. When this is a basketball team, when it's just a basketball team. It's not like a, you know, like a social experiment. It's just a basketball team. They look amazing. And they've been great. 11 straight wins. Probably getting 12 tonight. I'll see Beatle up there and then laugh at her and we'll know. But, yeah, 12 straight wins. Yeah, start, you know, wondering what's the record? Looking forward. Just OD with it. Just, just take it. But no drama. Basketball. Well, that's the thing. Chandler, we got like, what, three, four months left in the regular season. What are the odds that they make it all the way to then without drama? I mean, isn't that a novel idea? Just play that. Ask about nothing else. It's not what they're supposed to do. But yeah, listen, it seems like it's in the past. I'm starting to believe it. The Kyrie Irving, something new is going to happen. And hopefully it's not with Brooklyn and they're going to just continue to win games. KG is going to continue to dominate. And they're going to be a tough beat in the playoffs. But yeah, the less drama, the better off they are. Yeah, can we get like sixers drama, Celtics drama? Like blocks. You want Celtics. You need Celtics drama. That's what you need. Just another team. Not the Lakers, nothing else. Just another team to just have something ridiculous happen on their, on their organization. Let's do that. All right. I'm in on that. I like drama everywhere. Anywhere we can get it. I obviously am picking the spurs for my New Year's resolutions. And building on the cheese that Chandler decided to drop on us, I'm just going to, you know, live, laugh, love, be in the present, embrace it, just be zen. No, but for real, like, look, they're not, you're playing with house money at this point. You just got to do what you got to do. They're young guys. They're having fun. Personally, I'm loving watching them play. And I know that doesn't make sense because I sat through five championships as a super fan, but it's fun. And it is what it is. So both of you shut up. And I don't want to hear it anymore, Eddie, about your 12 wins in a row. I'll see you in a few hours. Okay. And we'll see how that plays out. We're going to take a quick break because guess what? We are on a roll. Oh, that's right. Harley Geniuses. Try to make it keep going when we come back. America's number one sports book just got even better because you can now bet on horse racing directly in the sports book app. Not only can you place bets on live horse racing, but you can watch horse races lie from the app. We make it easy to bet on horse racing with races going off every five minutes, free picks and easy tutorials to help you learn about horse racing. Bet on horse racing today, directly in the Fandall Sports Book app, or learn more at fantall.com slash horse racing. Feels good to be winners, guys, but this is our fourth straight win. This was from Wednesday. Look at us. Look at all that green. What did you do with your $119, Betel? Oh, I'm just going to keep doubling it up. Just put it on the next one. Let it ride. There you go. Isn't that what you do? There you go. That's what you do. That's what you do. So that's what we did on Wednesday, and we got to live out that high until now. It is time to start the New Year. Can we continue the streak? Oh, do I hope so. Eddie, your parlay begins with what for tonight? Okay, so I wanted to pick the next just to really, really stick at the Betel. I didn't know if there's some kind of like, you know, law there or whatever. And I said, how else can I really stick at the Betel? Wow. I went with LeBron over 31 and a half points in Michael Jordan's arena tonight. Yeah, I'm betting on Bron. Big, big died on his birthday. It's pretty good. He's going to beat up on this sorry excuse of a team. And you know, he's a stat pattern. So that's fair. He is. He's on a mission. He's on a mission. Chandler, what you got? I like the Hawks. I like the Hawks in the midst of all this drama. I think they're playing a banged up team and with the Warriors getting points to this team. It's missing half of their team. I just don't see. And again, I think this is a big game for Trey Young and for this team to kind of get back going on the winning streak here. And enough with the drama with the coach. God, seriously, enough with the drama, boys. I have the Knicks. I feel like I've done a couple of these now, but they've been good so far. So Knicks minus one and a half against Phoenix that just seems like a small enough margin that I don't see it as being impossible to overcome. But that's us. That is us right now. We are trying to get you guys to start the year off right with some cash in your pockets, 20 bucks, get you about 114, and then you let that ride. But I got to be honest, Eddie, 31 and a half. I don't know how I feel about that. If anybody misses this, it might be your leg. Last time you said this, you were right. And it was me. So trust me. Bet on the Knicks. This is the person who bet on the Knicks. You know what? I'll see you guys back here 23 hours or however that math works. Until then, we'll see you all in the morning.