 What's the word, y'all? A lot of NBA teams are falling into this trap and we gotta talk about it. Other day I was listening to Old Man in a Three with JJ and Tommy Alter and JJ dropped the gym that I need y'all to listen to. I actually wrote down parody distorts reality. So if you're the Raptors and I don't know their mindset, I don't know my size mindset, they're not a good basketball team right now, but they're close. And I think there's a number of teams that are close. As a full 12 minute clip, I highly recommend it. Before we get into talking, look at their banner on their YouTube channel. Look at all little career points, all little great NBA players, people in the media, coaches and then in that corner is me. Ain't that crazy? Everybody here has achieved greatness one way or another whether it be NBA championships, crazy points, championships, awards, awards, and then there's me. Shout out to the team over there, man. I appreciate that. JJ, this has been ringing in my mind all day. Parody distorts reality. First of all, this is exactly what Adam Silver envisioned when they decided to shrink in the odds to get the first overall pick. This is exactly what they envisioned when they incorporated the play in game because they wanted everybody to feel like they have something to play for. And honestly, the idea of parody for an NBA fan is amazing. I don't know what's gonna happen this season. Even the best team at basketball, the Boston Celtics are only the best in basketball but like a game and a half, y'all. And they're like, they're rolling over people like we've seen teams do. And let's say a previous to last season, every single year, we saw a Warriors. We saw Miami Heat. We saw Cleveland Cavaliers who we knew for eight years in a row was gonna make it to the finals. It was just a whether or not they was gonna win. You know what I'm saying? This year, anything can happen. You can tell me seven different teams are gonna win the championship this season. And I can tell you, you were crazy. That's real life parody. And that's a big thumbs up from me as a Die Hard NBA fan, but also a thumbs up for the casual. The Die Hard NBA fan, it's not a single day that goes by where I'm like, ah, today's Slater Games kind of me and I'm good. You know what I'm saying? And I feel like that happened a decent amount a couple of years ago. Maybe I wasn't in tune as much a few years ago, but still every single night, I know at least there's one game, two games, three games that's worth watching every single night. And for the casual NBA fan who probably won't watch any regular season, the playing game is lit. You know what I'm saying? A seven game series is crazy if you don't know if the one seed is gonna make it all the way. So the parody is exactly what they wanted and that's exactly what they're getting. But as I'm recording this video, there are 30 teams in the league. You notice, I don't know why I even explain it, there's 30 teams in the league. 17 of 30 teams in basketball right now at the halfway point are 500 or worse. 17 teams over 50% of the league are 500 or worse. And then you go back to thinking. Parody distorts reality. Some of these teams that are sub 500 think they have a chance. And I can't say that they're wrong necessarily but they think they have a chance. And I don't want every team, all 17 of these teams to fall into this trap. Of course I watch every single Chicago Bulls game and I watch all my home commentators. I know everybody don't love Stacey King and Adam Amin. Personally, I love both of those dudes. And one thing that I've been hearing a lot over the last couple of weeks because the Bulls had won like eight of their last 11 or whatever, they're starting to put it together if you wanna put it that way. Stacey King and every single one of these games whether it's Brooklyn or Boston the other night, the games before that he keeps saying, remember the Boston Celts were about 500 around this time last season and they went on to go to the NBA finals. And I love Stacey. I love Stacey. I wanna have a conversation with him as soon as possible. But if he has that mindset, I know that the front office has a similar mindset and I know there's other teams in basketball that are looking at what the Boston Celts did last season and look at their mediocre season and be like, we can turn it up. It don't take much. We just need to go on a little bit of run, a little bit of run. So no, we're not selling. No, we're not trading these fees. No, we're not changing the direction of our organization because we believe we can turn our season around because guess what? We might be selling 500. We go on a three game win streak. We're the 16. That's all it takes right now. So because of that, because parity is at an all time high, the reality of what your team is and what your team can be is highly, highly distorted. Absolute gem by Mr. JJ Reddick. And y'all know me as the internet general manager. Partially me saying this is because I wanna see trades. You know what I'm saying? I wanna see trades, but if everybody believes that they can turn this switch or everybody believes that they're actually in this hunt, you're not gonna see a lot of trades. But again, that's just me kind of being selfish. But I'm more so thinking about the long term for these organizations. One thing we've seen over the last couple of seasons is GMs be a lot smarter in when they trade their star players or when they trade their pieces. Because we found out, hey, if I trade this man on a one year deal, we're getting a little bit less value. So let's be proactive instead of reactive. The Spurs got three first round picks for Dejante. Maria, two years left on this deal. They got three first round picks. If they would have held Dejante for another season, that three picks is probably one in a super protected one. You know what I'm saying? So because every team out here thinks that they have a chance and every team out here thinks, well, not thinks, but they know that this period is an all time hunt, they might hold on to that piece one year longer. And it might set their franchise back just one season. Minimal, but again, it's almost impossible to know. And because of that, I don't envy anybody that is in the front office job because it is impossible to know. Like if you told me that the Raptors went on a six game winning streak and then their season is around, I couldn't call you crazy because I know that they have talented on that roster. If you told me the Atlanta Hawks went on the same streak, I couldn't call you crazy. If you said the Bulls went on another five, six game streak, I couldn't call you crazy. And I think that that's the mindset that we're seeing with these organizations. But a lot of us are so accustomed to it not being this much parody. We're like, the Miami Heat are just two games over 500 right now. And the fact that they were one shot away from being in the NBA finals, you look at that to say they are extremely underachieving, right? Only two games over 500 halfway through the season. But then I think about all the factors. And I think about, again, there's eight teams beneath them. I'm like, yeah, of course you wanna be one of those top four sees right now because that's who you were last season. But like, it's slightly disappointed but you can't even be too, too mad. But I say that, I mean, I know every fan base right now is upset with their team. Like I know we did that video like, oh, is every fan base happy? Is this fan base happy? If this fan base happy, I would assume that majority of fan bases right now individually are upset with the direction or the production outcome of their team so far this season. That's just the way fandom works. I would probably see a lot of Milwaukee Bucks fans not extremely happy right now because they are struggling in their sense but they're still the three seed and above the pack. You know what I'm saying? So fandom is a weird thing like that. A team that is extremely interested to me right now is the Portland Trailblazers. The Portland Trailblazers started off the season. Guns blazing hot the first week and a half of basketball. Damian Lillard was that dude and he was the MVP of the league for the first 13 days at a season but they lost again tonight to Orlando Magic at home to Orlando Magic who I absolutely love, Wendell Carter. I'm so sad that the two pieces that we traded away from the Bulls are both blossoming and looking great. Obviously, Laurie is in all star conversations. Wendell's not there just yet but Wendell is the perfect center for I think the future of basketball. This man can switch on to anybody and offensively he's still coming around but he's still a quality offensive center. I think that these players needed a new place to spirit the wings to get to the point they are now but I wish it was happening here in Chicago. Either way, the Portland Trailblazers lost their two and eight in their last 10 and they're 19 and 21 and no, I'm not about to rehash let's try to get Damian Lillard to a new team. I'm past that you'll never hear me say that again. The next time I'll mention Damian Lillard trade talks is when Dame requests if he ever does which I don't think is gonna happen or we'll make a video once he actually gets traded which I don't think will ever happen but at this moment in time, they are struggling mightily and I wonder what they decide to do. But then again, I mentioned four game loser streak they're 19 and 21, guess how many games back they are from the playing right now? I just realized my shirt was going crazy, my fault. No games back, they're literally no games back. They just lost a tiebreaker between them and the jazz. So do they have incentives to maybe move Jeremy Grant? No, do they have incentives to do this, to do that? No, if anything they might be buyers because they have Damian Lillard. The difference between being the 12 seed in the Western Conference right now and being the six seed, think about that. That's one, two, three, four, five spots jumped. The difference is a game and a half, a game and a half. So the team, that's the 12th which happens to be the Lakers in this case. They probably like, hey, we're here. Go on a little streak, we're here. But because of that, if I was a team that is at this point and we see the right and is on the wall and we're trying to be proactive, you can probably finesse some of these teams. Oh, they think they one piece away from being that team. Oh, we got that one piece. Oh, we got that one piece, that's crazy. We want a lot for it and you're gonna pay. So we'll see exactly what happens. But again, it keeps ringing in my head, parody distorts reality. Let me know what you think is your reality as an NBA fan of your organization has it been distorted because you have a chance or are you more realistic? Let me know.