 I'm going to show you how to run it back. I'm going to show you how to run it back. Nobody cares about your busted bracket. Absolutely nobody run it back starts now. Run it up to run it back. Run it up to run it back. Run it up. Hey, Welcome to run it back. Look at the smiley happy charming faces. I'm just going to get right to it and introduce everyone Stadium Insider Shum. Sharania coming to us live. This morning. Everybody have a good weekend? We're thumbs upping. Okay, okay. Yeah, I feel like that was really half, but okay, we look we're going to start with a little bit of bad news. Lakers one. So that's where we are right now on a happy Monday. We're going to start there. Beat the magic career high 35 points for Austin Reeves six rebound six assist of Austin Reeves, who as you all probably know grew up the Lakers fan. Look, Chandler, is this a blip? Is this just crazy or is this a bit of a trend for young Austin Reeves? No, I don't think it's a blip. This kid can hoop and he's been doing this for a while now that basically made him untradeable deadline and he said after the game on my MVP. No, like I know those guys were really good and he's just but that doesn't make any sense. But this dude can play. He can play point guard. He can play off guard. He can he can defend. He can score. He can go ISO. He kind of is just a constant contributor on this team. He doesn't make mistakes. He plays hard. He's a great kid and he's producing and look, I don't think he's going to have you know have many 35 point games, but he's capable and he takes good shots and he does a great job. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great team where you need when someone goes down who can step up and provide an energy blast like this. And like I said, he's just he's very consistent. You know what you're going to get from him. He's going to be solid. He's not going to turn the ball over where he's going to run the offense. And this is what he does. He's going to play in this league for a really long time. And it's it's it's fun to see games like this where kind of his whole game is on display and he's bouncing. He's got handles and he's got everything I hear about the kid. He works hard. He's an awesome dude. He's a great teammate. He wants to win and those are exactly that's half the battle in the NBA. This kid's doing all those things. How about his last year and a half? I don't know who's had a better last year and a half. You think about it. He goes undrafted in the 21 NBA draft. He signed the two way with the Lakers before the regular season even starts. He gets converted to a full contract after impressing LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook. He was running errands for Russell Westbrook in training camp in 2021. And I'm told after his first year which was solid, the Lakers did not want him to play in summer league in part because they felt like the role wasn't what they envisioned him having the ball in his hands in summer league. That's not something that was envisioned from Austin Reeves come regular season. And now look he has the ball in his hands. He scores the last 10 points for the Lakers and last minute plus of the game last night. And when you look into free agency this summer, the maximum that the Lakers can offer him is four years and 50 million due to his restricted free agency status. That's increasingly looking like his marketplace at least. And so when you think about other teams, they can go higher than that. They can give him a poison pill offer sheet which Chandler knows a lot about. But the Lakers can match that because he is a restricted free agent. There has been some success over the years. Omer Aschek, Jeremy Lin when you think about poison pill contracts. So there's going to be a significant market. This is a guy like Chandler says plays the right way. He has an edge to him. He makes winning plays. He doesn't really make mistakes out on the floor. And so you have to give credit to Lakers. Joey Buss, Jesse Buss, Nick Mazzello, their executives, their scouting department that went out and got him. And you're starting to see a trend here. Austin Reeves, Alex Caruso, Talon Horton, Tucker Giles that either went undrafted or late somewhere in the second round that end up playing a lot better than expected and then cashing out in just two seasons. So Austin Reeves isn't go from undrafted to a non guaranteed contract to potentially four years and 50 million this summer. Hey, and not before before I move on, I think he gets more shots. I think this team, I don't think the Lakers are going to be able to hold him for $50 million. I think he's shown he's a starting point guard. He's a great bench player and a team that is actually good in the contender can use someone like Austin Reeves as that steady backup point guard that can fill in the starting role and that can be like help a contending team. So I look for him to get one of those restricted tough contracts that the Lakers are forced to either match or not match. And I don't think they can afford him. He would leave his group team. Hit him with that channel for our students that contract with it with a player option and whatever. Yeah, make it harder Lakers and I think he is out. Wow, that's like that's like the end of the Hollywood movie. That's his dream there. Oh, like if you're wondering, A.D. did it with 15 11 dealer with 18 and six. The Lakers are right now sitting in the 10 spot six and five without LeBron in the lineup and Darwin Ham said that he expects LeBron to be back before the end of the regular season, which is now we're on the last couple weeks here. Playoff hopes Eddie three weeks left. How hopeful are you for this Lakers team? I love that. We just spent five minutes talking about Austin Reeves because the Lakers. Yeah, you do magic at home. The Orlando magic. Let's let's like let's relax a little bit. Like that Lakers stimulus package is incredible. Like Josh Hart is fine. Lonzo ball. He was fine. Alex Cruz. So he's fine. Brandon Ingram. He's good. He's having his struggles. Julius Randall is fine. Kyle Kuz was fine every like when you're in L.A. I know the lights are brighter. They do funny lighting over there in the arena. You can't see the fans. It's like, you know, Chris Jenner's ex is always courtside. It makes him feel like it's a movie every time you're in Staples, but they beat the Orlando magic at home and they needed 35 points from Austin Reeves. Calling him one of the best young guards in the league. Like, are we serious right now? Are we drunk? I love Austin Reeves like everybody else. But I did not stand up out my seat and chant MVP at the young man last night. So let's just like temper it a little bit. They're still barely the 10th seed. The good thing for them is the Pelicans clearly like don't care about basketball anymore. Doesn't look like Zion. Zion. Winston's going to play again. And just remember what just happened a couple nights ago. Season on the line. AD lost his brain and let this happen. And they should have beat that team easily too. No Luka Dances on the Mavericks. Kyrie lit them up and our guy, Maxi Cleaver. Same spot. They gave up a game one early this season. So like, let's relax just a little bit. Shout out Austin Reeves. I hope he gets 60 million dollars. I hope he ruins the New York Knicks in two seasons or whatever it is. No. I'm all for it. Get your bag. My guy Austin Reeves. I also love that Chandler described him like to consummate white player like coach's son makes all the right plays knows where to be his shots all that good stuff because it's true. He really like he plays exactly how he looks besides the behind the back pass. Like I'm sure his pops was somewhere pissed at him about that one. But I like Austin Reeves. He's cool. The Lakers, I don't know. I don't think they went into playing games unless the bronze coming back. Well, I do think they put themselves in the position. Obviously, they're going to get in that playing game. They're kind of peaking right now. They're playing well. The bronze coming back eventually. They're getting stuff they're getting DeAngelo healthy. Anthony Davis is looking great again. So I do think they put themselves in the position. Portland's kind of slid out. New Orleans like ages said I don't know what they're doing but they seem like I think they're capable of beating Oklahoma City. So I do think they have a chance to squeak in there and then who knows what happens. But yeah, Austin Reeves listen, he's had a great year. He's had a great come up. Is he is he is he Josh Giddy? No, like is he is he one of these are actual but he is what he is and he's going to be a consistent NBA player for a really long time because of all the things that we talked about that he does with little sauce on his game too. So I definitely think the Lakers have done all they can to put themselves in the position, the moves at the deadline, everything they've done. It's going to be tough though to for the play in but I can see them kind of squeak it in getting that AC. Well, I can't and that's all that matters. No, wait, before I go to Shams very important breaking news. Hey, did you say that Chris Jenner and Corey Gamble have broken up? I think I don't keep up with that. Don't quote me on it but I know he's always there and he always there. No, he doesn't. And why does he have an entire bottle of wine in a glass? I don't get it but anyways, that's neither here nor there. Everything that's about the Lakers is obnoxious. Like everything that we just showed every image, every reference. Oh my God. But Shams, I understand that they're not done yet. We got three weeks left in the season and they're possibly making some changes, some moves. Yeah, they've got one open with Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley for work out today. I'm told. And so Tristan Thompson, 11 year NBA vet, long time Lebron James team made part of that 2016 NBA championship team. Tony Bradley was just with the bulls. You got waved right before the buyout deadline. So two guys that have experienced big body, close to seven feet tall, I guess you can see what they bring in a workout. But, you know this is a team that, you know, could use some size in the front court. Yeah, I don't think it really moves the needle. I think they could definitely dies when in Gabriel is technically they're back up center with Obama and they're very small. That's where it is. Yeah. I don't think it's really moves the needle for them and I don't think they're going to get much burn anyways, but yeah, you can you can always use a good locker and guide good that good size here. And great stories. I say do it. I'm here for it. Great news for Denver, however, because I don't know what they've been doing lately, but they they figured something out. They're finally out of it. You'll get to this 28 triple double, but the five game losing streak is over. So I don't know. It seemed like they weren't playing as themselves and it was getting worse and worse. Chandler, do you think that figured something out is do you have concerns as we wind down? I definitely have concerns. I listen they they won a game and they looked solid last night, but they're still glaring holes in this team and it starts obviously with the defensive end where this isn't just really a constructed good defensive team. It's like they have a lot of guys that are brilliant offensively that but they don't give the effort on the defensive end. You look at a lot of championship teams comes down to that and these guys are sublime offensively. They can score. Everybody knows what Jokic does. Everybody knows how good of a score. Jamal Murray can be. Michael Porter loves to score the basketball. Aaron Gordon had a great year. They have the talent on this team to compete. They just don't really put that same effort in my eyes on the defensive end, which is a huge issue. But then they found a rut right now. They're in a little rut right now where they're losing games. People are kind of figuring out people are exposing Jokic in a pick and roll. People are putting Jamal Murray in a pick and roll and they're putting them in uncomfortable situations where you best believe teams are going to do that four to seven times in a playoff series. So I think teams have a lot of film on them now and they see their weaknesses and they're kind of exploiting those but they are super talented. They're locking up the number one seed pretty much the Western Conference. They've had a great season. We can debate all day long. I'm sure we're getting there if Jokic is the MVP but there is issues with this team and they are glaring and there's a lot of teams. When I look across the Western Conference and especially the Eastern Conference that are a nightmare matchup for this team. So as good of a season they had and it's wide open still in the West. I can't just because they're the number one seed and crown them as the best team in the West. I think multiple teams could beat them in a series in the Western Conference. I'm going to tell you my dream scenario when I look at the standings and I just wonder like this would be the coolest way for this season to end. Sacramento Kings are three games back in the last column from the Denver Nuggets. It sounds a little crazy and it's like three games. It's like 11 games left to play. That's a lot. But we're not on a team that just lost five games in a row and they finished the season against each other. So my dream scenario Sacramento Kings they take them they overtake them April 9th in Denver. But yeah there's a ton of concern here. There's a ton of reasons to be worried. All their flaws are pretty apparent. They're defensive issues. Their coach has been talking about it. Everybody's been talking about they know that that exists to have this losing streak at this one of the season. It's pretty damaging because they should be cruising to the one seed and putting a nice cherry on the top of a great season a great MVP season for their best player. Instead they're struggling. They're not fighting off any of the you know the allegations of their watch being fake. They're actually showed us like yeah their wrist is a little green. And so yeah it's damning. It's got to be frustrating for them. And look we can talk MVP all we want and I guess that can be their title if they want. But he might end up losing that. So yeah there's a lot going on out there in Denver. You had me at Sacramento Kings by the way that would be an amazing ending to a pretty fun season so far. And it's almost like Chandler looked at the rundown. We are going to talk about MVP right now as a matter of fact because it seemed like from the second game of the season. Yolkic had this thing wrapped up. He was the MVP. Let's not talk about it anymore. But look at this. Fandall's forceful gods have now put Joellen Bede at the top of the potential MVP list. He broke the 76ers record with nine straight 30 point games. And yes that is more than Wilt and AI. I do love that we get a little bit of a change of scenery here and more argument to be had Chandler. What do you think is it a lock now for and beat. I wouldn't say it's a lot. But I'd say it's looking really really good. And I love that these two teams play each other. I think next Monday and that will kind of be the icing on the cake last showdown. So look for that game and knowing Joel he's going to go at him. And I think here's the best thing that happened. Joel is this kind of fall off. And this you know Joe gets to win back to back to back. You pretty much have to be perfect for the entire season. And now at the season when it matters the most his team is kind of taking a hit. And they've fallen off a little bit. And that hurts his stock. And Joellen Bede is the opposite. His trajectory has been up. He's dominating. They're winning. They're rising in the standings. And and the nuggets are doing the exact opposite. So I do think Joel is the front runner. I hope he wins it. He deserves it. And again to win it back to back to back you can't allow these kind of stretches in the season. And Yoko just done that was giving doubters voters a little bit of doubt in my opinion. Yeah I'm old enough to remember that Joellen Bede gave them forty seven to eighteen last time they played each other. So if he repeats that when they play again he might lock up the MVP right then and there. Chandler's right. He's trending right. We remember what you've done for us lately most. And so if he's going to kill it in March and April if he's going to push his team up to the two seed and possibly even the one seed you got to give him that. At some point he's winning all of the conversations you can have. He's leading the league in scoring. He has a great narrative. He's putting up these Goddy like accomplishments. He's doing stuff we didn't do like OK. What else do you have to do to win an MVP at this point. Oh you got to beat up the reigning two time MVP. Did that. It might just do it again. But we're going to talk about him in a second. And you know this is I think they call us a segue. But there's another guy lurking and he's lobbying for it. He's openly lobbying and telling us like if I'm not the MVP then what's the MVP. So it's three man race right now in my eyes. Yes. Segway or Segui if you will. Giannis and his team beating the Raptors. There was an NBA game last night. You might have missed it with all the college stuff. But he did finish with twenty two thirteen and ten. Brookie Lopez twenty six Milton twenty. Giannis talked to Sam Amick about the MVP award. Here's what he said. So what is the MVP. Is it the guy who scores the most points. Is it the guy who's the most efficient. Is it the guy who's the most dominant. Is it the guy who's the most valuable. The criteria just thought. Sorry for my language. It just changes. You don't have to apologize. You're an adult. But he did weigh in on it. And I do love when guys start to sort of talk about the topics that we've all been wondering about ourselves. Does he have a point Chandler. What exactly is the criteria for this award. Yeah you never really know. And this is why guys get frustrated because the Bucks are the best team in the NBA. I think and he's been the best player on the NBA. So it does that count. Yolkich kind of has doing something different than his position usually does. And averaging triple doubles and having these crazy numbers. Does that count. Joel Embiid is now dominating leaving the NBA and scoring kind of peaking at the right time. Having his team rise in the standing. So they all have they all have a like a you know a vote and they all could deserve it. It is tough. You look at Giannis game last night. The guy was perfect from the field. He only missed free throws. The only thing he did wrong was literally like four free throws or whatever it was. It's insane the season. This guy is having. He's probably the best. Like if you had a draft right now of any player in the NBA you're probably taking Giannis number one. And everything that's happened with Chris Middleton being in out of the lineup. This guy is he also has a strong case and I think it's the last two weeks of the season three weeks of the season. They play a huge part because all these guys are right there. They're both they're all three on great teams and it could cut. I think any of them can still get it which is insane that there's this little mini games left and all three of them are still an option for MVP. Just shows how good the league is right now shows how many dominating seasons these guys are having. But to me it's Joel Embiid everything he's doing. I hate the hate getting how he's taking plays off. I watch him all the time. A lot of the plays he's taking off is when he's usually in foul trouble and doc keeps him in the game and he's kind of avoiding contact. But the guy's been unbelievable. So it's hard. It's hard to hate on any of them. Yeah I mean all three have amazing cases. I mean Joel Embiid league leading and scoring. I think he got snubbed probably the last couple of years one of the last couple of years. Yoke leading the league in triple doubles. He's he's going to become the third player. You know as long as this continues after triple double overseas and with Oscar Robinson Russell Westbrook first is a big man. They're probably going to end up as the number one seed in the West. Giannis has a great case too. I talked about it last week. Why aren't we talking about him more number one seed in the East. Despite all the injuries they've had Chris Milton being out for most of the season he's literally just got back to being the Chris Milton that we know and expect from him. So Giannis has really led that team to know the number one seed out of nowhere this season. So all three have cases. I think it's amazing for the league for three guys to be going into the last two weeks of the regular season. And really the MVP could be decided right here. Eddie look we're fans right. So when we talk about these things with friends and stuff it's not a checklist like it's not that easy to just sort of check these topics off and say you're the MVP. It's like a vibe. If you had to explain it to someone who has no idea what you're talking about what is the MVP. I mean it's a great question and it's a question. These guys have been wrestling with for some time because when Russell Westbrook got a triple double experience like he has to win. He had a triple double. But there was times when it was like well LeBron was just the best player this year and it has to be LeBron and I don't think there's a clear answer. And that's why I understand why it's frustrating. I've heard people say you know there should be a checklist and they should be and I'm like well then we're going to see guys playing for those numbers every year and that's not going to be fun. So it's weird and it is kind of a vibe. It is kind of a you know a feeling like this guy was better than everybody this year. To me that's what it is. This was the best player he had the best season of everybody all year. But for each person that definition is different. So I get why why Yannis is frustrated LeBron once spoke about that quite vocally as it was very clear that Steph was about to win the MVP. He said yo if we're talking about the most valuable player in the league who's more valuable to their team than me which was like if I'm the way I'm sitting there going hey chill bro. But he was kind of right. He had a good point like he was incredibly valuable to his team. So but if we're going to do that then we do on off stats and like who has the most net rating and like it could be so many things. But the short answer to your question is I don't know the MVP is the MVP. You know what's funny is that the thing that helps Joel the most is that he hasn't won the award. I swear the NBA just wants someone who wanted it. He just won it. He just won it. Joel has complained that he should have won it the last couple of years. Like Damian Liller he kind of chirped so much in the beginning. He's now like a locker and all starting to be made the USA team. If you vocalize it so much you're going to speak into existence and I swear that is helping Joel and beat because now you're giving you doubt. Giannis has already got it. Now let's have a new fresh star in the NBA. Let's give us Joel and beat and the next year they can all just fight over it again. I know it's funny because it's on the delivery right like when Joel was I wouldn't even say he was complaining. He was just matter of fact very truthful about the fact that he wanted the award. He deserved the award and it was just like I kind of like that. He did that. He wasn't acting like it was too cool for the award and it made me happy. Look we are Suns Thunder. It's our next game. Thunder is like second half Utah Jazz. Like what's even happening right here. Thunder beat the Suns 124 120 SGA with 40 points five rebounds. Devon Booker finished with 46. No big deal. Lou Dork 25. OK. So OKC is two and a half games out of the five seed. Where even are we right now. Is it a realistic possibility. They're peeking at the right time which I guess is everything that you could ask for at this point. So what do we think Chandler A. Did we expect this and do we expect to be here this early and B. Do they have a realistic shot to do anything. No. First of all I definitely did not expect this is probably been the biggest surprise outside of Sacramento is I thought this was a lottery team. I thought this was going for the victor sweepstakes young coach youngest team. And they have fully blown everybody's expectations. And when you look at the standings now now they are dangerous. They are young. They are athletic. They have an absolute star in SGA. And they have the solid point guard and giddy. And they just have you that can shoot the ball. I can move the ball. And when you look at these standings right there no matter how high they climb up. It's a fun series against Memphis. It's a fun series against Sacramento. It's a really fun series against Denver. So I think if they get to that 7 8 6 seed whatever it is. And it's not going to be sweet for those top three seas. It's not just going to be an automatic sweep. These guys are going to play hard. They're going to be excited to be there. They're probably going to be nervous. It's going to be their first series pretty much. None of them have been there before. Their coach has never been there before. But they have had an unbelievable season. And it's it's it's going to be fun. Whoever they do draw because they are a dangerous dangerous team. And this kid right here is an absolute star. I'm with you Chandler. And this is one of the reasons why I could look at the plan and be like do we need it because they absolutely deserve the 8 seed. And they could be tricked out of that. You know what I mean by losing two playing games which would be unfortunate. But they have two games with the Clippers coming up. They can move up in the standings. They have a road trip against the Lakers and the Blazers as well. So they can put distance between the guys behind them as well. So they should I'm not going to call them a lock because they are a young team and they have a lot to learn and they do make some mistakes. But they are right there. They are in prime position to grab their playoff spot and be a playoff team in a season where we absolutely did not expect that. And I understand why they're not chasing Victor when they feel like they drafted him last year last year already. They had some footage this week of Chet shooting around finally finally getting back on the court. And can't wait to see him playing. Wish he could play this year because it would be really exciting about what they could do in the playoffs. But they're set in prime position to actually make the playoffs. And it would be really unfortunate if the play and gets them out. But that's the name of the game this year. Super excited for them. Like Charlie said if it wasn't for the Kings we'd all be raving about the Oklahoma City Thunder right now. So I hope they pull it off back to back against the Clippers both in staples coming up. And then the Lakers the third game in staples a weekend L.A. for a young team like this who needs to do everything they can to get into the playoffs. Could be a blessing in disguise or it could be where their playoff hopes in. But you can tell it's a tight knit group. I really hate when people who fantasy trade say goes to Alexander because he seems to just love his guys. He seems to love everybody there. If you look at him on Instagram you always make sure to post either of the Jalen Williams is or whomever else they look like they're just enjoying having their their their cake and eating it to right now. And then next year they're going to be even better. And they still got cap space. They still got opportunity to add people. They still have all their picks. They still have all the Clippers picks. They still have so much room to improve. It's exciting. Just trying to see what they're going to do going forward. Yeah the Sam Presti experiment is working. And now they're a year to see. I mean in two seasons I think they're going to be so much fun. Chet Holmgren did he put on any weight. I can't tell. All right so then we're going to talk about the Suns though too because they're still obviously without Kevin Durant in the lineup. They're in the four seed. So Shoms can you tell us anything. Can we expect him back anytime soon. Yeah Kevin Durant is doing more and more on the court. I would expect more evaluations later this week. I think there will be potentially an update later this week and early next week when they reevaluate him and see exactly how much progress he's made. But definitely there's optimism within the Suns that they're going to be cautious. But they are hopeful that he's going to be back in line up before the end of March potentially early April. The goal was always here two to three weeks in that range. But they're going to be cautious. They know the best time for him is playoff time. So making sure that he's 100% not rushing him back. I think that'll be a priority as well. I mean the big deal to Chandler right now is the Clippers are a half game back. So the home court advantage thing is basically what's up for grabs at this point. Do you have high hopes that Phoenix holds on to that. I mean they need Kevin Durant back. But like Shoms just said they need him for the playoffs because no matter what seed they get whether it's home court 5 6 They're not scared to play anybody when they're fully loaded. This is why they made the trade. They believe he was the best option for Devin Booker for Chris Paul for Deandra Aiden. And this is a very very scary team. We just haven't really had a chance to see it come to fruition here. Guy goes down with a freak injury and layup drills. But Devin Booker has got to have games like that slang where he's dominating scoring 40 50 points and he's got to just trying to continue to bear down and get it done for his team. But it doesn't matter again where they fall because Kevin Durant is coming back. He's coming back soon. And we talked about the West all year long. It's pretty much wide open. I don't think anybody fears Denver. Memphis has a lot of stuff going on. Nobody fears Sacramento. So this team has a chance. They just got to get Kevin healthy and get him in the lineup. Eddie, you're going to let him say nobody fears Sacramento. Really? We're just going to let that slide. Hey, we're talking about the Suns now so we're getting a little bit more biased than we were 10 minutes ago. You're in a trick spot. The Suns aren't worried about seeding. They feel like they can go on any gym and win game one or game two and still home court. They're not worried about that. I'm sure they'd like to stay out of the play-in. Let's not play an extra game where we don't need to. But yes, Kevin's on the way back. He's feeling better. He told me in these videos that circulate where he's shooting around. He said, yo, he was told not to push himself and then he started pushing himself so there's no holding him back at this point. But yeah, he's right around the corner. I don't know. I would guess a week or a week from now or so. They finally play back at home against Denver and Minnesota. They need both those games. So coming up right around the corner, but no, I don't think they're worried. Remember Deondre Aitton was out last night and he's obviously huge for them. They just beat the Thunder twice since the All-Star break. I'm like, yo, how many more times are they going to play the Thunder? But no, yes, you would love to stay in the top half of the ledger, of course, but that's only home court in the first series and from there on out. Those guys aren't worried about seeding. They just need to get healthy and then they can beat anybody out there, including the teams in the east. But it's a but. They got to get healthy and they got to stay healthy. Big but just a giant but get your coffee ready. Sit down and get comfortable when we come back. Shoms with updates on John Morant, Anthony Edwards and Lonzo Ball when run it back returns. Welcome back to run it back. Memphis Grizzly's got a lot of airtime this weekend. Shoms and we would love to know when can we expect to see John Morant back on the court? So he's out tonight, even though his eight game suspension is over. He's going to miss tonight. They're going to ramp him up. I'm told he could return to the lineup as soon as Wednesday at home against the Rockets. So it was overall an eight game suspension for John Morant unpaid. The NBA had its investigation. They concluded a few things in that video where he was waving the gun on camera on social media on March 4th. That the gun, they conclude did not belong to Morant. The gun was not brought by him to the club. They concluded that he didn't display it for longer than he did in that social media video. They conclude they did not conclude that he traveled with the gun. So a few things that their investigation showed and that's where they landed on that eight game suspension conduct detrimental to the team. This is a Grizzly's team though that has played pretty solid without John Morant. They lost their first two without him after the initial suspension, but they went five and three overall in the eight games without him. They're nine and eight this year without John Morant. They have another game tonight against Dallas. So this is a team Memphis that looks like it's ready to get their player back. I think they're all trying to move on from this saga. Yeah, this is kind of the best case for them. Honestly, they they maintain their their seed right there. They're right in the third seed have a chance to still steal the second seed from Sacramento. I feel like this went really quick and they kind of like I said, they they try to water hopefully job got all the help he needed and you know there's nothing further punishment wise with legally or anything like that. So this is great news for the Memphis Grizzlies because this team's a contender with John Morant and they're not without him. It's pretty simple. And now the fact they get him back and they start getting him acclimated before the playoff start is huge. They overcame a 29 point deficit on Friday night against my spurs. I feel like no one's addressing what a confidence build that probably was for the team. That's fine. Eddie looks they blew out the Warriors. This is the moment right here. Clay Thompson, Dylan Brooks at the end of the game talking smack back and forth from both ends of the court. Clay with the four Brooks saying he owns real estate in the Warriors heads. Is that true? I guess it's like being like a troll. I mean, I don't know if somebody talks roles all day. I wouldn't call that real estate. I mean, she's kind of being irritated. I the Dylan Brooks rollout has been kind of incredible and I'm not a fan at all. He just bothers me. But yo, he keeps winning games and hitting shots and cussing dudes out. And he's clearly rowing these guys up. I love Clay Thompson. And I love that when you go at Clay Thompson, he just goes low. He doesn't care. He's just, well, you suck and your life is boring. So whatever. I'm Clay Thompson. And he just does that. So after the game when he says, you know, they're not even gonna remember Dylan Brooks in 10 years, it's kind of right. Which is makes it even funnier. And he there's no play with Clay. It's I have way more rings than you. I have one way more than you. I'm a Hall of Famer and you stink. And that's it. He gets nothing else out of that. At least Dreymon has a podcast and there's a little more banter to that. But you're dealing. Dylan Brooks, you're riding high. He's got to be taking calls with like lightning and all the Chinese shoe brands. Somebody has to be beaten down his door for some endorsements because nobody has been more talked about in the NBA than Dylan Brooks ever since John Moran went out. So, you know, we lose job and then we get Dylan Brooks. I don't know. I would rather have job back ASAP. Please bring him back tonight if we can. Yeah, this is there's no real estate. There's there's no real estate in the Warriors head. There's no real estate in Thompson said is it fun? Is it exciting? Is it hilarious? Sure. But please write Dylan Brooks has zero all star games. He has zero championships. He has, you know, about half the money or less than half the money Clay Thompson's man's career. So he has nothing on Clay Thompson. And it's I love the way that Clay Thompson is handling this and this is what Dylan Brooks has become. This is his role. He's he's the chirpy new Patrick Beverly for his team that is a good player and will be a good player for a long time. Will he ever be an all star or all MVP or all NBA? Probably not. But this is who he is. He's tough. He defends. He's versatile. He does a little bit of everything. But Dreymon's right. This isn't a rivalry. Memphis has done nothing. Warriors have done a lot of things. Thompson's right. No one probably will talk about Dylan Brooks when he's done and everybody will talk about Clay Thompson is one of the best shooting guards of all time and would be the best shooter of all time if his teammate never existed. So it's it's not a rivalry. There's no real estate. It's fun. It's trash talking. I think it's great for the game. I think it's great for the ratings. I think it's great for the league. I love it. It's chippy. I hope they play in the playoff series. But yeah, if anything, this is good for Dylan Brooks followers on social media. But that's about it. Can we agree though that for Dylan Brooks sake, the timing is about as perfect as you could hope for in that the Warriors are just absolutely two different teams both on the road. I mean, if you're going to talk smack to the defending champs, they are at their weakest right now, seemingly. So I feel like his timing is pretty good. Yeah, you couldn't do this a couple years ago, right? Because they just beat you by me and they went a championship. Literally nothing to say. The Grizzlies are rising and the Warriors are kind of falling off a little bit. So it is the perfect situation for Dylan Brooks to be able to bark like this and possibly go and play them in a playoff series and win. Please God, don't let that happen because who knows what once that does happen. And I do think the Grizzlies would probably beat them in a series right now. So you're right. It is an ideal situation for Dylan Brooks. And it's going to be a lot of fun if they do happen to face each other. Yeah, Dylan Brooks was very funny until the cameraman incident. That was a jackass move. So I hope he figures that out and doesn't do that again. There was some bad news really, I think for a lot of us on Friday, a guy that everyone seemingly is rooting for Anthony Edwards, Shoms, the guys, the Iron Man. What's the latest on his injury? Yeah, he's healing like a Wolverine. Like he was in a walking boot. It looked like a nasty injury. You can see right there, he was really hurt. He exited his walking boot in about 24, 32 hours. The swelling's gone down. He may miss another game or two, maybe a few more games, but they're listing him as day to day. They think this is a day to day injury. They're going to keep evaluating it. See how the swelling goes down. He's moving around a lot more, I'm told. So the hope is that he's back sooner than later. And guys, Carl Anthony Towns is also getting closer and closer. I think the Timberwolves are hopeful that he's going to be able to make his debut here before the regular season is out. So look for him potentially to return to the lineup as well. Yeah, I think fans definitely disappointed on the Anthony Edwards front. And then Lonzo Ball, I know when everything went down, we kind of thought this is an awful situation in Shoms and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Yeah, he's going to have his third straight knee surgery on that left knee. Sometimes this week is what Billy Donovan said. And this surgery is a cartilage transplant procedure. And this is expected to cost him most of next season as well. And so it's just brutal for him. Of course, the optimism is there that he's going to be able to recover from this cartilage transplant and that it'll revive his career. But from one person told me this is a 50-50 proposition at best, depending on how that surgery goes. And so he had a tremendous impact last year for the Bulls. You can't make a question about it. They won 22 and 13 with him in the lineup. They're competing for the number one seed. We've talked about it a lot. I think Chandler is a great person to talk to about this. You feel for a guy like Lonzo Ball who's improved so much throughout his career. But he's going to end up missing two, two and a half. We'll see how much longer of his career in his prime. Yeah, this one hits me hard because I went through the same exact thing. And this kid's 25 years old and he was on the path to be an absolute star and a great player in this league. And this is the problem is the guys like him, guys like Jonathan Isaacs, this is just unfortunate. This is bad luck. It says nothing to do with his work ethic. It says nothing to do with whether he's soft or he's injury prone or whatever. And that's the stigma these guys are going to get and it's unfair. This kid works extremely hard. He puts the time in and this is just tough. And I hope for his sake he's got the right people around him because mentally this is going to take a toll on him. And this he's going to go through things he's never gone through before. He's already been out so long. His brother is a big star in the NBA. This is a very, very tough situation for him. And I hope that he's got the right people around him and he's got the support he needs because this is impossible to go through. And this is very, very hard and he doesn't deserve this. And it really does suck up because he was going to be such a good player. And the Carlos Transplant, I don't know anybody that's ever come back for this. I know Festus Azele's tried it in Germany to do similar procedures like this. And it does help but it takes a while to rehab. And you're basically in a constant moving motion machine for three months where you sleep with your leg kind of moving back and forth. And you kind of got to have to teach yourself how to re-walk again. You can't put weight on it. You're doing a lot of workouts in the pool. And you literally are a kid again. You have to learn how to walk, then jog, then alter G. Then you can start running and then you get on the court. So he's got a long grueling process ahead of him. I hope he reaches out to me or anybody I've went through because I've been through situations like this and it's not fun. But there is lead at the end of the tunnel and I'm glad that he's doing this. It clearly shows he's at a dead end and he's all options are being exhausted here if he's going to this route or the third surgery in a row. But I'm hoping I'm praying for the kid because this sucks. Chandler, did you go to Germany? I mean, Germany seems to be the place to go for everything. Did you do that? How was that? Yeah, it's great. And there's this Dr. Peter Bayling. I heard LeBron actually just went last week or something where it's basically like a five day process where you do injections and you can work out. It's kind of the European way of PRP, but it's not approved and patterned by America and you go and you work out and you kind of do all this different things with it. But it helps. So it's just temporary and it doesn't last very long and it's hard to go obviously to Dusseldorf, Germany in the middle of the season. So it definitely helps. There's guys in Cologne that do the transplant from cadavers or you can get it from something else, but it's intense and it's expensive and the rehab is brutal and it's no fun. That's a gut punch to say the very least. Shams, thank you so much. There was a lot of information to relay. We're going to take a quick break, but we come back a very full and star studded in addition of that man has a family. We get to laugh and mock next on run it back. Star addition. How about teammate teammate on teammate? How does this happen? Great defense joke. Best defensive to hear from the MVP. That's just that doesn't look right at all. No, I kind of love it. You gotta go get that body. No matter what, I love it. You're being healthy. This is one of the few times he walks out this year and his own teammate puts it on his head. Right? Like it's like he walked into the joke. I feel kind of bad for him. I'm not going to lie. We got a guy next who's multiple time victim who actually finally, but finally gets his just. There you go. I love this. The guy that's got banged on all year finds the opposing team's point card and puts it on his head. But I mean, the guy, yeah. One for the credit. Shay is not an average point guard. He's six, seven. He's got gigantic arms. But yeah, this is big on small crime. But I guess go go for you. Well, look, Jacob's vertical is not great, but it took everything he had. It took everything he had for the half court running start one leg. He needed everything to happen here and it did. He definitely shoved out. It all had to go. It had to be all right. He needed a minute. Poor Pertle. How about Naz read on Pascal's the outcome? Okay. It would have been so funny. It would have been so funny. This next clip was Nasri dunks on Jacob. Yeah. You are so disrespectful. Yeah. I know we're not doing that. Let Pertle have a minute. He's not. He might never get another one of those. So we're going to let him have the day to celebrate and then move on from there. This. Oh, Eddie, you want to take this next one? I just I'm speechless. I just love it. And he got a flagrant for that to like take that Rudy. I text Jason. I'm like, yo, your poster collection is disgusting. Like who's left? I think he's just said Joel. Joel's the last one. Oh, that'd be a good one. Good luck. Yeah, I scared me though. The way he the way he fell. I didn't like the way Tatum fell for a half second. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. Also, that's unbelievable. That's smart. Yeah. Yo, I'm so happy. You mentioned that. Crazy. Hi. Guys, one of those cuts. You don't even expect the guy to throw it. You're just jogging through there. Eddie hits you in the chest anyway. Look at it. You need to go bare. I love it. Not looking great in any of these, by the way. Miles Charter over. Yeah. Oh. I know some people don't like to throw in dunk that Dwight. How are you to do back in the day? I love this. I think this is harder to do. I think it's more impressive. He's jumping from further away. And he just poked on the longest NBA player in all of the land. So I love this. Right down. As captain, that's a, as captain, that's just a loud layup. I'm with you on this one. That was impressive. I like that one. I like that one too. It's all about context and who and what and where and when. So yeah, I think that was a big one right there. Another game we haven't talked about yet is Clippers and Blazers. And we're not even really going to go in a full detail about it. Clippers did beat Portland, but it's really our chance to show you and let you hear some sound from Damian Lillard after this loss. Here it is. Pretty much falling out of the race for the 10 spot, you know, unless we go out there and win every game, you know, when you really look around and really look at it truthfully. So I mean, right now I'm just not ready to not play. Last season I missed, I think 52 games or something like that. So I love to play. I love the competition and, you know, I just haven't been ready to give that up, but it does come up a point in time where you look around and you like, you know, when do you stop putting your competitive nature out front and look at, you know, what what a game of chess would look like at that point. I mean, for anyone who does no idea why this is a big, big deal. Remember, he has been very loyal to the city of Portland. He seems to be one of those guys who may never, ever leave the city of Portland and play for one team his entire career. And these words are sort of eyebrow raising Chandler. What did you make of this? I mean, he's being realistic about the situation. They are basically out of the play and they've kind of dug themselves a hole and there's only a couple of weeks left. They're pretty much done. And he's been so vocal, like you just said, about never leaving and his loyalty. It would almost be weird now if he did request a trade. So I don't see that happening. I think maybe we can see a mutual decision here made where there's going to, you know, Portland at least can owe him that where they'll make it a mutual agreement to move him and to find him a different home on a contender. But you know, he's been very vocal about, you know, championships being watered down and being loaded once he did, never wanting to request a trade. So I don't think that will ever happen. But I do consider, I would consider the team kind of going to him and, you know, trying to find the best possible scenario for him and making it look as good as possible for him if he were to get moved. But the guy deserves better. He deserves more help. He's still playing at a very, very high level. But it's going to be tough for him to watch these playoff teams and to watch the playoffs all year long and to watch these other teams that he, you know, can still be a huge factor on. And meanwhile, he's just being loyal to his current girlfriend right now and it's not working out. So it's tough for him. And he is getting older and his time is now. It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do with him. But I can't imagine him for everything that's been said, him going out there and publicly making a request. I don't think that's going to happen. Chess. Yeah. Eddie. I appreciate the realism he's bringing to these conversations and that's basically been his main point. Like I have to look at this in a real life perspective. I had to look at this from a big picture perspective. When he says chessboard, you know, he seems a little younger than he is. Damus 32 would be 33 this summer. Like he's been in the league for quite a while. So when he says chessboard, I'm guessing he means like these need to be meaningful games as I go on in my career. Unfortunately for him is he's had an aggressive organization. They've been in all of the conversations they've had. They had meetings with LeBron James way back when they've been after every free agent after every trade conversation through different owners, different regimes as well. They just haven't, they haven't put together that championship roster for him ever at this point. And maybe they can try this summer, but I get what Dame's saying and he's being realistic. Like, look, I'm not going to play when we're eliminated. I'm going to go home. I'm going to be Damian Lillard and he's keeping it real. I can't do nothing but respect that. Yeah, I think those were, those were big words. It was a moment for sure. We're going to take a quick break here when we come back. We're going to make some picks. Then you weigh your options after hearing the words we say and decide how you want to invest your money properly when run it back returns. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Yeah. Fando Casino's March Weekly Super Sweeps is here and you can win a share of $300,000 each week from March 14th through April 2nd. Every Tuesday through Saturday, opt in and any bet of $200 or more gets you an entry to that Sunday Sweepstakes drawing. See Fando Casino for more details on how you can enter the March Weekly Super Sweeps. Well, Wednesday seems like a lifetime ago, but unfortunately the results of Wednesday are going to live forever, guys. Would you like to see how well we did last week? Ta-da! I don't really know why we needed to pull it back. Nailed it. I don't even remember why I picked this. Yeah. I don't either, and that's the beauty of how bad we are. So that's what it is. With the good news, and if I could even say that at this point, we have another shot at it, Eddie. Take it away. I'm going to L&B over 33 points tonight. He's playing the Bulls. He's playing Nick Butcher, bitch. I'm expecting him to dominate, to be told. So yeah, I'm going to take that one. Okay, okay. I like the Jazz. I like the Jazz plus five. It's now or never. They're in the 11th seed. They're right there at the Lakers. They got to win this one. Or lose by four. Or lose by four. That's fair. I'm going to go with the Rockets plus ten and a half because I don't understand. Warriors can't win a game on the road, much less come close to this. So this feels like a lock for me, guys. Anybody have any final last words before we part race for a Monday? It's never a lock. It's never a lock. That's a great point. Fine. We'll be back tomorrow.