 Welcome to another episode of In the Zone. I'm your host, Chris Bruce-R. We've got another terrific show for you today. We've got a very insightful interview with the Milwaukee Bucks general manager, John Horst. We've got another dynamic segment of Knock Down Jay with Jason McIntyre. And as always, we started off with the top five. LeBron James is having a phenomenal season. I mean, it's absolutely unbelievable. And a lot of people are even talking like, this is the best LeBron James we've ever seen. In fact, LeBron himself has said he's playing at an all-time high. And that got me to thinking, what are the five best regular seasons? Not including post-season, not playoffs, not championships, regular seasons of LeBron James' career. Now look, I'm not basing it on just stats because LeBron is basically 27 points, seven rebounds, seven assists a game, give or take a few every single season. This was like choosing Michael Jackson's best song. I mean, it's almost impossible to do. At number five, this season. That's right, 2017, 2018. Look, LeBron is playing great. Don't get me wrong. It's phenomenal what he's doing, especially in his 15th year. But while it's unusual for a player to play so well in his 15th year or close to his career best, it's not completely unprecedented. Carl Malone, he was 36 in his 15th year and he averaged 25 points, nine rebounds, 50% shooting from the floor. Kobe Bryant averaged 25 points in his 15th year as well. And then the next two years gave you 27 a game. At number four, 2009, 2010, it was LeBron's seventh year in the league and his last in Cleveland in that first go round. He was tremendous, led the Cavs to 61 wins. First time in his career that he shot 50% from the floor was a hair below 30 points a game, got to the free throw line 10 times a night and averaged what was at that time a career high 8.6 assist. At number three, 2011, 2012. That was the lockout shortened season, LeBron second in Miami and he was on an absolute mission after faltering the year before against Dallas in the NBA Finals. Where you really saw it was on the defensive end. LeBron was at his best on that end of the floor, better than ever, set a career best for defensive rating and anchored that swarming Miami Heat defense that took the entire league by storm. At number two, 2008, 2009, that was the first year LeBron James won the MVP award. He had a P.E.R. of 31.7, his career best, fourth best all time, only Will Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have ever had a higher P.E.R. for the season. LeBron was so good, he led a starting five that included Mo Williams, Zydrunas Elgowskas and Old Ben Wallace and Delante West to a league best 66 wins. And at number one, 2012, 2013, LeBron's third season in Miami. Now this year he was playing with the confidence and the swagger of an NBA champion. It was right after his first ring and he was just completely dominant, went to another level on the offensive end even because he shot 56% from the floor, including a career best 40% from three. He was just like a man amongst boys. He led the Miami Heat to a franchise record, 66 wins, including 27 straight. So there you have it. Those are the five best seasons of LeBron James' career according to yours truly. He's still going incredibly strong but it would take Superman to top his best ever. All right, here we go with another episode of Not Down Jay, one of my favorite parts of the podcast. What's up, man? How you doing? Good to be back after a victory's last one. You keep saying that, it was three-oh last week, two-one the week before you called it a victory. Just hanging around, just getting like one or 2% of the YouTube comments, pro-J-Mac, that's a victory for you. I'm like, you getting knocked down but you can't knock me out? No, you keep getting knocked down. If you had stopped there, you would have been good. All right, let's dive into the topics, Chris. So obviously last week the big story in the league was the Kauai Leonard beef with the San Antonio Spurs. It's lingering, we know about the players meeting. Chris, I gotta ask you, it's gotten ugly. We know he's up for the super max extension this off season. I believe Kauai Leonard should demand a trade from the San Antonio Spurs in the same way that Kyrie Irving said he wanted out of Cleveland in the same way Paul George said, I'm not sticking around here. We know it's the super team era. Kauai Leonard, I would ask Kauai, hey, how long is Greg Popovich gonna be around? You know, he's the longest tenured coach in the league by 12 years he's been around since 1996. He's 69 years old. How much longer is Pop gonna stick around? And if I'm Kauai, look at the roster, it's aging. Palga Sol's 37, gonna be 37. Manu, is he coming back? Tony Parker looks washed, he's had a great career. LaMarca Soldiers is great as the man, but he's gonna be 32, 33. If I'm Kauai Leonard, I demand a trade out of San Antonio. Wow, demand a trade? No way, no way he should demand a trade. You mentioned first things first, you mentioned five years, $219 million super max. Guess who can give that to him? San Antonio. And no one else. Nobody else. So that's number one. If you like money, then that's enough reason you stay in San Francisco, San Antonio. So there's what, 219 versus 100, what, 7,800? Yeah, about. So you're right, I mean it's a ton of money anyway, but still, if you want top dollar, you can only get it in San Antonio. That's the first thing. But it's not like you're in some basketball outpost that where you're never going to win. You have a coach who is arguably the greatest coach in NBA history. A coach who has won five championships and I could argue against you that the last four of those championships, he never had the most talent in the league. Cause his second champion, his first championship with David Robinson and Tim Duncan, obviously the Twin Towers, they may have had the best in the league. After that, he won during the Kobe Shack era. I have to give the Lakers the edge in talent. He obviously beat Miami, you know, with LeBron and Wade and Bosch and the big three and all that. So I could argue he has won these championships when his team was not the most talented. Certainly that last team to win at Duncan was old. They were old. So, and you're talking about the super team era. The Marcus Aldrich, remember a few years ago when he was on the market, everybody wanted him. He was the most, he's 32. He went to the Spurs last summer and said, I want out of here, I want to train. Yeah, but they work things out. Can I just say it like- They work things out, now he's happy. The Marcus knew their history and he still went in and demanded it. After he had been there and things weren't working out and he didn't demand it cause he reneged on it and they work things out and everything's fine now with him. Now, so my point is you already have a second star. So you got, and then Pop can build around me, Pop. Can he? Pop, yes. Okay, then the best free agent outside of the Marcus that the San Antonio Spurs available. My point is this, this is the point I'm making. Popovich takes guys that are manure elsewhere. Danny Green could not get off the bench in Cleveland. He goes to San Antonio. I wouldn't call him a manure, okay. That's a little hard. That's a little stronger. Danny is a good, but in Cleveland we didn't know what he could do cause he never played. But Danny is a key cog in San Antonio. It has been on a championship team. Patty Mills, Patty Mills wasn't even in the league. He's a nice role player in San Antonio. That's my point. Kyle Anderson is playing well for them now. I'm just saying these are guys that elsewhere Kyle wasn't elsewhere, but still guys that elsewhere wouldn't be that good. Matt Bonner, you know, we can go down the list, Beartrends, so my point is you've already got the two. No, it's not thanks to Dim Duncan. Cause Tim Duncan, but Patty is playing well without Duncan. So is Danny Green. I mean, come on. Is Patty Mills a factor in a series against the Warriors of Rockets? Yes. He was a factor against the Heals. Right now I'm saying. He could be. That's about years ago, come on. Greg Popovich, you got two building blocks, Kawhi and Lamarcus. A 32 year old power four is a building block in this league. Who's going to be the most coveted free agent this summer? Oh my God. Don't tell me. Hold on. Who's going to be the most coveted free agent this summer? Well, LeBron, obviously. How old is he? Come on, you're comparing LeBron. I'm just saying, don't give me the numbers. Stop going down. Guys are playing longer than that. LeBron is average in 23 points and eight and a half. Nobody else on the team is in the 15 of the West. Exactly. Nobody else on the team in the 144 games to last week. Nobody else on the team and he's got a 50. No, no, no. Since you want to rap. Since you want to get into it. This is crazy. What you're saying about LeBron is all this stuff. Let's say they're the fifth seed. We know it could change. The four seeds ahead of Lamarcus Aldridge and his junk squad as you call it. I didn't say it was junk. I said they're not at the point anywhere. They're like 47. Number one, Houston got two superstars. Number two, Golden State has four probable Hall of Famers. Number three, Portland has two really good stars. We can say even stars. McCollum is pretty much a star. Number four, if it's OKC, you got three stars. Lamarcus Aldridge is hanging with those teams and he's by himself. Well, I think that's more Popovich, but if you want to get to Lamarcus. Okay, okay. Popovich is going to be, that's why I'm saying, I'm saying if you're Kawhi Leonard, do not leave Brett Popovich. Let me counter that. Come on, man. All right, listen. When you are Kawhi Leonard watching this team, man, they got old. Next year they're going to be a year older. And guess what? I look at the Sandings. Well, the Warriors lapped us. We know that. Shucks, the Houston Rockets have come up. They got Chris Ball. They're better than us. Portland. They're better than you because you're out. Well, yeah. And if you play, they won't be better than you. You can be just as good. When you come back next year with an older team. They're always old. Oh, man, they're going to be ancient. They're going to be ancient. When hasn't San Antonio been old? They've been old for a while. They're getting ancient. In 2000? They're old now, and your coach is 69. How much longer is he sticking around? Look, that's a legit question. If I'm Kawhi Leonard, I look at the total ball of wax. Demand a trade! The West is better. Get me up out of here. Hold on, okay. I see it's a super team era. I want a super team. Let me ask you that. Him and LeMarc is audage, and the cast of role-players that Popovich can get the most out of. Right. It's a super team. Yeah. Were they a super team last year? How'd they do in the West to get some Warriors? Oh, that's right. They got swept. That's really your argument, man. No, no, no, you don't determine when we go. That's your argument. No, that was actually ingested. Kawhi Leonard got hurt. That was ingested. Every time we debate something, you throw out a just crazy statement. I was funny. People are laughing. They aren't laughing. They're looking at you, scratching their head and quitting together memes, stupid memes. That's what they're putting in. Figure out your final wrap-up topic. Look, look. You have, if you're Kawhi Leonard, last year, every year you've been there, you've been one of the best teams in the league. You've been a top three or four team in the league. Has it been because you've had a super team? No, it's because you had yourself, you had a second star, Lamarcus Aldridge, and you had a tremendous coach who maximizes his roleplayers. And if you want to distinguish yourself from all these other guys that have to have two superstars with them to win, you win with one. You win and people say he did it without a super team. And you can do that in San Antonio. If Kawhi Leonard walked in the store and I said, hey, Kawhi, how are things going with the staff there, with the Spurs? How do you like the health and conditioning group? What do you think his answer would be? He's never played more than 75 games in a season and he doesn't want to return to this team right now. That's pretty evident. When the team brings him in and say, Kawhi, we're playing three on three. You look great. What's up? And Kawhi's like, ah, I'm not ready. That's a different topic. That's a problem with the Spurs. That's a different topic. No, no, no, no, no. That is. If I'm coming back, I need to know why I have my back in it. They do have his back. Well, clearly he disagrees with you, Chris. How do they not have his back? Because he's not playing. They're saying, Kawhi, you're healthy. That's because he doesn't believe he's healthy. His doctors are telling him he's not. But the team is saying you are. Where are you? There's a disconnect there, Chris. They've got to be. I'm not saying there's a lack of trust if he's not coming back. He says, I'm not ready. They're saying, you're ready. Get back here. Popovich calling him out. Manu calling him out. Chris, there is some beef there. I don't think Manu called him out. I think Manu just stated a fact. We can't rely on Kawhi Lunar coming back. The meeting was described as tense. You're coming back to that? No, but my, why not? They want you back. There's some beef. Look, man, you know how many teams have had tense meetings? Probably a few. Do you don't think LeBron and Kevin Love have had tense moments? We're talking LeBron. LeBron is the entire organization. We're talking two players. That's your guy, LeBron. That's what we're talking about, two players. Don't mention LeBron in the same sentence as Kawhi. All right, go ahead. Since you're getting silly now, go ahead. It's close, but Chris's first point with the max contract wins it. I'm sorry, McIntyre. The streak goes on. If you like money and you like winning, why leave? I mean, seriously. All right, hold on. You said if you like winning, let's just put you on the spot. Are the Spurs winning a title in the next three years? Maybe. Ha ha ha ha ha. All right, next topic. Let's move on, Chris. God, that's embarrassing. Did you ever think of, did you ever think an old Tim Duncan would beat LeBron Wave and Chris Bosch? Yeah, they had a chance in that series, of course. They were the best team in the West. My point is during that era, you would have said, no, they're not beating LeBron in him. I don't know. All right, moving on. It's a great coach and system. So, because Chris loves James Harden as the MVP. You did call that early. A rare good call by Broussard. He was on James Harden as MVP early. And I let you on my show. And his backcourt mate, Chris Pauls, had a good year, been injured a little bit. Missed what, 15, 20 games? In Golden State, we have the preeminent backcourt in the league, Clay and Steph. But I gotta ask you, you love Harden so much. Who's the best backcourt in the league? This year, Houston or Golden State? Look, I think Golden State with Steph and Clay. I think that's the best backcourt in NBA history. Yes, yes. Okay, and the reason I've said that is because these guys are playing their entire primes together. They're in a prime. It's like us, we've been doing this for six months. It's like we're boys now. And so, the other backcourt you've mentioned, Isaiah Thomas and Gail Goodrich and Jerry West, Isaiah and Dumar. Magic and Byron Scott? Yeah, I mean Byron wasn't quite on all Hall of Famer, like all these guys, but still he was very good. You know, all those you would mention, Clyde Frazier and Earl de Pearl Monroe. They were together maybe four years, five years max as in their prime. And so, longevity goes to Golden State and they won championships. But right now, this year, let me talk. This year, I think Houston's backcourt has unquestionably been, it's close. I wouldn't say unquestionably. It's close, because Golden State is great. I don't wanna take anything for those guys. But Chris Paul and James Harden, I think are slightly better than the Golden State Warriors backcourt for this one year. They're not together long enough where I could call them an all-time great backcourt long-term. But for this one year, and here's the thing, I mean if you think- I'm just looking at it, we're not counting Eric Gordon in here, right? There's just- No, no, just these two. Assist, they're giving you 17 assists again. Okay, let me just shut that down. Totally different system. The Warriors one, a system where Draymond Green leads them and assists. Well, fine. So it's a different system. Whatever, whatever it is. So I shut down point number one just so you know. No, you didn't shut it down. System schmish them. Teams play different systems. Is that a saying? I mean, teams play different systems, you know? So the last time we saw a backcourt average, have two guys with this many assists was Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon in the early 80s. Well, you watch your team. We watch your team. Yes, I was. This is incredibly unique to have two guys, and you got two Hall of Famers who are definite Hall of Famers, not because they win championships. Now Steph's gonna be a Hall of Famer, Clay's gonna be a Hall of Famer because he's gonna have the championship. So let's toss the Hall of Fame out. You're on a bad route. No, but I'm saying they're two Hall of Famers. And then on top of that, the one thing they do that Steph and Clay don't do a line, this is a big thing, they get to the free throw line. Harden gets to the line 10 times a game, CP3 only four, but combined that's 14 free throw 10 to the game. You know what that does? That gets your opponent in foul trouble. Clay and Steph, Clay only gets to the line 1.4 times a game. He barely touches the back. So they're getting there seven times a game. Yeah, that's fine. So I'm getting there twice as much. That's not as good. Fine. My point is that I have a backcourt that scores from the free throw line and also gets the opponent in foul trouble. That's a huge thing because that means more free throws for us. So look, I love Golden State. I'm not trying to take away from them, but I think these two Hall of Famers who get more rebounds, more assists, more free throw attempts, I won't even say points because you got Durant taking some points away from Clay and Steph, but they still produce more points. Boy, if that's your argument, you just lost. What's yours? I mean, that's terrible. What's yours? All right, let me start with Clay Thompson. By the way, did you know he's having the best shooting season of his career? Were you aware of that? Shooting 49% from the field, shooting guard, which is better than Harden and better than CP3 and he's shooting 43% from deep. Also better than Harden, better than CP3. Clay Thompson's having a great season. He doesn't even touch the ball. Get into the foul line. That's not his thing. He is one of the best. It is not his thing, but it's an important part of the game. He's one of the best two-way players in the league, right? With Kawhi Leonard injured. You've got to put- And Chris Paul isn't? Chris Paul's up there, but I would say Clay Thompson is ahead of Chris Paul. Chris Paul is a great defender, as is Clay, but I wouldn't give, I'd say they're both close. We're gonna see Clay on the all defensive team. I don't know if it's first, but he'll be on second or third. He's a great defender. Chris Paul is a mainstay on the all defensive team. Yes, he's also what, 33, 34 years old? Right now? He's led the league of Steel six times. We're gonna see it in the playoffs when they meet. Clay will check Harden. That's gonna be the decisive matchup in the series. And then let's go to Steph Curry. One of the most underappreciated superstars in the NBA today. You think he's underappreciated? Oh my goodness. He's set the bar by everyone. He's set the bar so high. In the two-time MVP? When he was the unanimous MVP, something Michael Jordan did not do, something LeBron did not do. He set the bar so high with the 50, 45, 90 stuff. The guy's shooting 42% from three. And we're like, ah, it's a good season. He's averaging 26, 6 and 5. We're like, ah, Steph Curry is an amazing talent. And we're just kind of like, ah, because they're so dominant right now. People are like, ah. Dude, we're talking about as James Harden. Oh, we're talking about as James Harden, Damien LeLarne in the MVP tension. James Harden is having the best season of anybody in the league. That he has had. That's clear. But, again. That anybody's having this season. This season. No, no, James Harden will win the MVP, as you said. So, if we go down the line. So you can have all the assists you want. Give me the three-point shooting. Clay and Curry are both shooting better from deep than CP3 and Harden. We're in a three-point league, Chris. Give me the two better three. Who makes more three-pointers? Well, I guess that's the team. The Rockets make the most. But we're just talking back court. No, no, no, no, no. We're talking back court. Okay, they make one more per game. Better three-point. One more per game than Rockets. I'm just gonna stick to the facts here. Oh, they are. There's no question there. Okay, so you can have your six and your three-pointer. One more three-pointer per game. Yes, I will have my three-pointers. Okay, hold on. Let's clear it up then. Who's shooting better from three? You make one more three-pointer per game than the Rockets. No, it's not just numbers. It's efficiency. These two guys, as you said, Clay don't get to the foul line. It's not just efficiency. You make seven-point three-pointers a game in your back court. Houston's make six-point four. So you make one three-pointer. So you three-pointer. And does that not make up for the three-pointers? That's three-pointers. That's three-pointers. That's three-pointers. That's three-points, okay? My guys go to the line 14 times a game. Yours go seven. How many are they making? Both of them are great three-throats. So let's say they're making, they're probably out of 14. I would say they're probably making 12. So that's five points, at least, right there. So you have two points more per game. But my guys give you more assists. Hold on, hold on. My guys give you more assists. My guys are giving 16 assists a game. Your guys are giving seven. Seven assists a game. So the stats are very close both sides. I just, I just- Are they not very close? No. My guys average far more rebounds, far more assists. Again, the far more three-throws. What backcourt average is rebounds? What backcourt average is rebounds? These guys have Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. They got Clint Capella getting a lot of rebounds. Okay, so this boils down to the question. We'll get to Neil in a second. You will take the Rockets backcourt. If I said to you right now, Chris. Let me do one more thing. Who do you watch backcourt do you watch? I said Rockets. Oh my gosh. Now listen. It's just staggering to me. Greatest backcourt of all time or this year. Of all, we're talking about this year. Honestly. Of, of, look, you're lunacy. It's lunacy to say people's lunacy. And I know they're gonna come at me in the comments. You hate the Rockets. I don't hate the Rockets. Both of these, I'm not disrespecting the Warriors. Now let me ask you this. Of this year, we got Steph, Clay, Harden, Chris Paul. Who's having the best year of those four players? James Harden. Okay, I got one. Who's having the second best? Wait, are we counting Durant in here? No, of these four players. Who's having the second best? Steph Curry. Who's having the third best? Clay Thompson. Over Chris Paul. Clay Thompson's played more games. Chris Paul's missed 20 games. Well, Steph's missed 20. I can say that about Steph. But still, it's Steph Curry. Shooting 29, 20, 26, 25. If you want to go games. Fine. If you want to go play games. Chris Paul gave you 19 points. He's giving you 19 points. Eight assists the game and shooting well from three. And gives you great defense. Clay has given you 19 and 43% from three. Fine, if you want to go Harden. What else is Clay giving? Clay Curry, CP3. If you give me any assists, is he giving me trips to the final? That's not his game. Is he getting me a point and a foul trouble? It's a totally different system. I mean, if you're just looking at the stats, you're going to lose this game. That's crazy. Clay Thompson touches the ball like 15 times a game. They're probably going to give it to you just to give you the win one. No, they're not. Because this is your show. It's been like eight weeks since you won the second. I know you commented. I'm going to back me up. Go ahead. All right. These systems proved to be great in the regular season. Not so great in the playoffs. McIntyre is a three-point league. McIntyre gets it. Oh, I'm back, baby. I'm back. I'm so glad. Raise your dab on him. Boom. Yeah, Bruce, sorry. I am so glad for you. Because I was wondering if you were going to stop coming on the show since you keep losing. Rich Paul blowing up. I'm glad you got one. All right. Let's go to the final topic. Fired up here. You're just going to lose this one easy. OK, we know the Cavs are the best team in the East. That's obvious. That leaves a few teams. Philly, you love Joe LMB, president of the Joe LMB fan club. We got Milwaukee kind of sputtering. But I think it boils down to two teams in the East after Cleveland, Boston and Toronto. And if you asked me the question, who's the second best team in the East? I know the stats. I know the standings are going to say Toronto. I'm going to go Boston. And here's why. In a hypothetical Boston versus Toronto matchup, who's got the better coach? Brad Stevens, no doubt. Wayne Casey's having a great year. That's close, though. Brad Stevens, no doubt. I would probably go with Stevens, but Wayne Casey's having a phenomenon. Who's the best? That's not a big event. Who is the best player on the court, Raptors versus Celtics? Kyrie Irving. There's no doubt about it. DeMarco Rose has been incredible. It's Kyrie. Who's the better defensive team? Defensive efficiency, Boston. First in the NBA, Toronto. Fifth. They've split the season series. I go coach, player, defense, all to the Celtics. I know you got the bench in Toronto. I'm going Boston. I'm not how basketball is played. Just because I got the best player doesn't mean I'm winning. And the NBA Star-Driven League. And LeBron's won three titles. And how many years has he been the best in league? How many years has LeBron been the best player in the league? You have to have a superstar. How many years has LeBron been the best player in the league? I would say 14 until this year. And he got the three titles. So don't tell me just because you got the best player on the court. In a series, who's winning? I'm just saying, that was your argument. He's won three rings in 14 years. He's going to get superteens. I'm just saying, LeBron against the Celtics superteens. Just don't. Your argument that I got the best player, therefore, I'm going to win is not true. No, in this argument, who's a better team? Boston or Toronto? Who scares me more? Who's the second best? How many stars are you afraid of? How many stars are you afraid of? Are you quaking in your boots over Kyle Lowry? He's a nice player. Let me talk. How many legitimate stars do you have on Boston City? One. OK, how many do I have on Toronto? I got two. Who? Kyle Lowry is like a five-time All-Star. So I got Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRosin. He is a legitimate star. He's not a high-tier star, but he's a legitimate star because he brings it when the defense is in. OK, fine. Do you want me to toss in Al Horford? No, you better not. Your best buddy should not bring up Al Horford. So I got two. I got two stars versus your one. No, no, no, no, no, wait. Time out, time out. If Kyle Lowry is a star, how is Al Horford going to start? Kyle Lowry is better than Al Horford. At what? Checkers? Not a basketball. I don't know that that's a lot. Do you sense three-point shooting? All right, look. You mentioned that Boston is the best defensive team in the league. Number one. That's what the numbers bear out. Yeah, but they're number 17 in offense. I thought it was. Didn't you just say it was a three-point shooting lead? Yeah, it is. It's a scoring lead. Now, Boston does hit threes, but Toronto is a little bit more. They both hit about the same. Right. OK, so they're both shooting it well from three, but Toronto is great other places offensively. They can score inside. They can score in the mid-range. They are the only team in the NBA that is top five in both offense and defense. Your team is freaking 17th. By the way, who's scoring inside for Toronto? I'll let you finish. Ask Al Sycamore. Let me finish. Come on, get out of here. Syachem, and he dunked on LeBron James last week. And he dunked on LeBron when the boy he game I saw what I'm saying. All right, now look, beyond that, Toronto has like they got two stars to your one or even throwing Horford. Let's go two for two. Two for two. My team is more balanced. Toronto is a more balanced team. That's not even up for debate. Toronto has more depth. They give you 41 points a game from their bench. Now, that's fourth in the league. Now, typically, the leading bench scoring teams are bad teams because they got no stars. Their starters aren't that good. So their bench scores a lot. But they are unique in Toronto in that they've got two all-stars in the starting lineup and Jonas Valenchunas, who's a pretty good starter. They got a good starting lineup. But Jonas Valenchunas better than Jason Taylor. They have a good, let me finish. They have a good starting lineup. And then their bench still gives you 40 points a game. But Chris, the problem with the bench. There ain't no problem with the bench. Yes, there is. There's no problem with having a good bench. Chris, in the NBA playoffs, you know this. You've covered the league for 20 years. In the playoffs, the bench minutes are shortened. It goes to eight or nine. Because why? Because you've got to play your stars more minutes. No, but that's fine. You saw it in the final. But my prime could not leave the court for five minutes because the Warriors would just pull away. Okay? But the argument is ridiculous. You are saying benches don't matter? Is that what you're saying? They matter in the regular season. They matter in the playoffs. Not as much. How do you go to the state when it's first ring? The bench, it was all about numbers. No, it was Hampton's five. Who was in the beat? Andre Guadala. He came off the bench. Yes, he was in the final end of the game lineup. The end of the game lineup matters more than the bench. Nobody's bringing up the big minutes from Ian Clark three years ago on the Warriors bench. Stop. People are bringing up Sean Libbyston, Andre Guadala. You need a bench. DeLon Wright, he's going to light it up in the playoffs. You need a bench. Come on, man. It's all going to be. I get that the bench will shrink. Yes, it is going to. Of course. But it goes from 10 to eight or nine. So that's not going to. The bench, if you're going to sit here and tell me bitch is not important, then you don't even need to talk about it. But you're going to be shrinking those minutes. Kyrie's coming off the course. Of course. Barely. Brevillean Fleet is playing great back home. I love him. I'm a big fan. Jacob Poto. Pascal Siakam. These dudes are balling. OG Ananubi. And the one thing they didn't do. I like him. But I mean, I'm seeing him in a crucial. The one thing they didn't have last year. And the crucial moments he gets busted? It ain't about just the crucial moments, man. It's about 48 minutes. And their bench is going to be better than yours. So you're confident. You're going to be better offensively than you. They got more guys that can score than you. The coaching is very close. By the way. The way in case he came up with the defense. This is good. That stifled LeBron James in Dallas when Dallas beat Miami. He was the assistant. You didn't even know that. That guy didn't do it. That was all LeBron's head. Super team. But it was also a great defense. You're going to get Dwayne Casey all that code. No, not all of it. Because LeBron did definitely not play the same. That was a bad idea. But Dwayne Casey did a great job defensively. There's no ifs ands or buts about it. Let's go back. Let's take out the two stars at the top. You can't take out the two stars. Take out Kyrie and Horford, DeMar and Lowry. Who's the next best player? Jason Tatum. Who would you rather have after that? Jason Tatum is 19 years old. Jason Tatum is a potential superstar in this game. Potential. Are you watching? Are you watching what Jason Tatum is? Is he a superstar right now? Are you seeing the accolades he's got? Jason Tatum's on the cusp of stardom. On the cusp. What is the cusp going to be? That could be this postseason. No, no, no, no, no. It could be this postseason. I could see him go over the 30 in a big slide. So Rato is legit. They are legit. I'm not dismissing them, but Boston's better. Boston. And look, let it be known, this dude's a Boston fan. All right. First off, the Horford. Be unbiased. The Horford debate, five all stars to four for Lowry. And he's shooting better from three this year from Lowry. Chris. He's better than Kyle Lauer. But I love the KC 2011 point. I want to give it a McIntyre. We're going for a Kyle Lauer. Oh, my goodness. That is unbelievable. Jeez, I feel like LeBron. I mean, come on. No support here. Jeez. Good try. Good try. Sign it off for knockdown, Jay, with another ring. Oh, jeez. Chris Broussard. We are here in the zone every week. Go to Apple Podcast. Go to SoundCloud. Download us. Leave us a comment. And of course, five stars for Jason McIntyre. I'm Chris Broussard. Peace. Let's get it started. You're 34 years old. Obviously, general manager of the Bucks. You're the youngest, I believe, youngest in the league. Is that correct, do you know? I don't know, actually. I don't know. It's not the youngest. I've got to be close, but yeah. Yeah, one of them, for sure. How does that feel? And does that ever come into play or anything like that? You know, I think it's obviously been written, talked about a little bit more when I was originally hired. But I think, you know, independent of what my age is, just having an opportunity to be a general manager in professional sports is an unbelievable opportunity and blessing. And so that part, I feel very, very blessed and thankful for the opportunity. And I'm humbled by it. I also, you know, I know I'm prepared. I'm ready for this. I've spent 34 years old, but have been in the league for 13 years. And this is all I've ever done is work in the NBA and work in a front office. And I've had an opportunity to work for some great people, great mentors, and John Hammond, and Jeff Waldman, and Joe Dumars, and others. And I just feel really thankful and blessed for the opportunity and, you know, look forward to continuing on and then a role in getting better over that. You mentioned, you know, Dumars and John Hammond and starting with them in Detroit. I know you started as an unpaid intern for the Detroit Pistons. Can you take me through your rise from that position, obviously, all the way up to a GM? I think so. You know, start as an intern, unpaid intern. My beginning of my senior year in college and I was an office intern and I was really thankful to have that opportunity and go in there and just, you know, work in the front office and just do administrative type stuff for Joe and John and the scouting staff there and flip Saunders to coach at the time. And, you know, I think the rise, I would say, is working really hard and being prepared and when opportunities present themselves, being prepared to take advantage of them. But the opportunity, I think, you know, really, I'm just so thankful for and blessed to have is to be part of an organization that Joe ran that had a high-level success. I mean, that those Pistons teams in the period of time I was there in a little part of what I was doing had tremendous success. You know, some of the best success in the 2000s so far, you talk about six straight Eastern Conference finals, 355-plus wins seasons and two NBA finals and NBA championships. So, you know, I think it might sound very simple, but the rise and maybe, you know, some people would say like a really quick rise to where I'm at is starting off being part of an organization with that level of success and learning from those guys and seeing what they've done. And, you know, I'm thankful to, you know, to talk to Chauncey and Tayshon and Rip and those guys. And, you know, those guys are a big part of why I am where I am today. You know, being part of an organization that they, you know, had blood, sweat, tears to and had a lot of success and let me be part of that as an early person, early professional and here I am today. Now, I read that when you were working as an unpaid intern, obviously to make money, I mean, you worked at Federal Express, man bath and beyond. I read you even shoveled snow to make money. Was there, would there have been a point or did you have in your mind, look, if I don't start making money in basketball at a certain point, I'm gonna have to, you know, go get another job or full-time or, you know what I mean? Was there any of that or were you just all in like, I'm gonna do this basketball thing until it starts paying off? Well, I think, you know, at that time in my life and everything is relative to where you're at in your own life and at that time, I mean, the struggle was real. I didn't have any money. I was a lot of jobs and doing things just to kind of survive and, but I had a college degree, right, I mean, I had a degree, I had a degree from a good educational institution. I had a great internship, so I had a resume, I had an opportunity to use that resume and go get a job that would pay me. I had a college and I also had an opportunity to be working in professional sports and that wasn't paying me, but that was my passion and that was my goal is to be involved in basketball. It was really, the general goal was to be involved in basketball and get paid for it at some level in some way. So it wasn't ever, hey, I wanna be an executive in the MBA at that time. I just wanna be able to work in basketball, the game that I'm so passionate about, I love so much and get paid to do it and this seemed like the best opportunity that I had, but the struggle was real. And at one point actually when I was working for FedEx because I had a degree and I was working the night shift in a pretty quick period of time, they approached me and offered me an opportunity to manage the night shift and it paid me like a real salary and benefits and a good company, and that was probably the closest I came to saying, you know what, maybe I need to kind of cut away from the dream, it's been two years, I'm not really getting paid anything. No, no one really succeeds, you know, this is such a long shot and here I've got an opportunity to kind of go this path, but if I would have done that, obviously it would have been a full-time commitment and I would have had the partways of my internship with the Pistons at the time, but decided ultimately to kind of turn them down and just keep working the part-time shift that was working and keep doing the intern opportunity to the Pistons and it's all worked out. Now, did you go to the Pistons and be like, look, I got this offer, I want to stay with you guys, but obviously I need to start making some money or did it just kind of come naturally that they just decided to, you know, promote you? Yeah, and this is, you know, maybe just, I think again, like I truly believe I'm blessed and just have had unbelievable people to work for instead of circumstance and opportunities in my life and have been in a position to take advantage of them so far. I've never asked for a raise, I've never asked for a promotion in my career so far. So I've never, you know, my time in Detroit, I never went to Joe or John and said, hey, I need to get paid or I need to do this or let's talk about a title. I never asked to go to Milwaukee when John approached me. I've never asked, I've never asked for anything. Just keep working hard and try to do the best I can and treat people the right way. And so far that's, you know, lend well for me. That's worked out. Well, now look, as you know, I know you grew up a basketball junkie in Sand Dusty, Michigan, a small town. I wanted to play in the NBA and there are a lot of guys out there like you who can't play in the NBA or even maybe even at the college or high school level, but they wanna work in basketball and they wanna run a team like you do or coach a team. What advice would you give guys like that? You know, as you know, Chris, because I mean, we do different things, but I feel like our story is parallel. You know, I imagine you grew up a basketball junkie, you played basketball at the highest level you could, the most competitive way that you could and try to find a way to be involved in the sport. And you've done that at the highest level in your business and had a lot of success. And so far, you know, I'm trying to do the same thing and I think I'm sure you could ask the same question by a lot of young people that don't wanna try to figure out a way to have a path and have success that you've had. And you know, for me, what I always tell them is kind of what I just said to you, my goal was never to become a general manager. My goal was to constantly work hard, treat people the right way and be involved in basketball at some level as best I possibly could. And that's kind of gotten me to where I am today. What I, the one specific thing I would always tell them is get as many experiences as you can. And so I said, if you start, if you're hunting to become a general manager, now you're gonna narrow your experiences. I personally don't think that's gonna lend well for you. I think that what you can do is broaden your experiences, be involved in sport, basketball, as much as you possibly can, take opportunities, take chances, try as many things as you can and your path will kind of find its way. And so I've always challenged people to do that. And then in the other piece, you know, just academically, I always tell them, I truly believe in any level in any business, business probably, but I think in professional sports that people miss is you have to be able to write really well and you have to be able to communicate really well. And so, you know, so often I always say to people, like, well show me some written work that you've done. You know, show me a project to be done. Show me an analysis you've done. You know, those are the types of things that we've looked for in the box anyways of people that we want to add to organization, people that can really present right. Do you still play? Yeah, we try to play. I have, you know, a bunch of the young guys on my staff, we've got a little bit of downtime or if it's late at night or whatever, we'll try to get out there and play for an hour. Just as a way to exercise and kind of get a little stress relief. So, so we play hopefully at least once or twice a week if I'm in town. That's pretty good. When you're, you should, you guys should play, you're in Oakland. You should play Bob Myers and his crew, because I know they play too. They do and Summer League actually got together with Bob Myers and his crew a little bit. We played in Summer League. So we'll, we'll do it again this year. You know, yeah, Bob Matt done that. It's been great. Now, did you guys play like Bucks against what year did you mix it up? No, I don't know about that. That's a funny little story. Like last year we were playing Toronto in the playoffs, right? And got some of the guys together in Milwaukee before, must have been game four, I guess, in Milwaukee. And we're like, hey, let's, you know, let's get together, we'll play some moves. So we played like six o'clock in the morning. And we contemplated the idea of Bucks Raptors, but there's no way that that was a good idea to play out here. I'll tell you what, it'd be exciting. At least for the media guys, it'd be fun to watch the staff go out there, you know? Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, it'd be fun. So what's your average day like as an NBA GM? You know, I think there's, there's different periods. There's different seasons within a season. I think, you know, if I were to break it down, you have your off season, which is drafts for agency. And, and I would say training camp, you have your in season, obviously, which is, you know, when you're playing, and then within the in season of your regular season, playoffs, you have your trade deadline. So for us, you have the games, the season, you have your trade deadline, you have your drafts for agency, and those are all the cases to them in different, different speeds, different schedules. So I think what I would say on average is, you know, there's, there's a lot of phone calls, there's a lot of communication, communication with ownership, with agents, with players, you know, being a general manager and, and heading up, you know, multiple departments in the side of basketball. There's lots of communication with security staff, the medical staff, the scouting staff, coaching staff. You know, we try to beat, we try to be really diligent about meeting and having department head meetings and things like that. So I just think, you know, on average day is just really full of a lot of communication, negotiating or troubleshooting. And then, you know, the part I'm trying to learn and get better at every day is because I have a great people who work with me is delegating, you know, delegating stuff to build me and my assistant GM, or Ryan Hoover, who runs our scouting, or Dave Dean, who runs basketball operation, delegating to those guys so that they can manage their departments and that frees me up to continue to do the thing that ultimately I'm responsible for, which is evaluating talent and acquiring talent on our team. Well, look, you're in a great situation. And one reason is because obviously you have Yanis or Dedicumbo, and Kevin Durant, he said Yanis could become the greatest player ever. What do you feel is the feeling for Yanis? You know, being around Yanis now, since we trapped him in what an honor that is to be able to be part of his growth and development, just witness it for one thing I would say, and I'm not trying to be funny when I say this, but one of the things I've learned is to not ever put a ceiling on Yanis. I think he is unique enough as a player, unique enough as a person. I think you see the 60 minutes special that was done on him and you really get to see the human side of Yanis, which a lot of people don't get to see, and I'm glad they can now, but, you know, he's sense of humor, how humble he is, how gracious he is, how confident, quietly confident he is. He is just so unique in every way that I truly don't think there is a ceiling for Yanis, and I don't know if that manifests itself in becoming the greatest player of all time or not. I just know that it's not fair to put a ceiling on him right now with his age and his development curve and the things that he's done in a short period of time in this league. I just think that the future is kind of unlimited for Yanis. What, now, obviously he's, at this point, he's not a three-point shooter. How important in this day and age do you think it is that he has to develop that shot? I mean, obviously he's greatly successful without it, but in this type of league nowadays, is it, how important is it that he develops that part of his game? Well, I think it's important. There's no doubt, anytime you can add something to your game and one of the things that Yanis has proven early on is I think he comes back every year with something different. He's been able to add, and I think great players do, I think great players figure out a way year in and year out to continue to add something to the game and to continue to evolve and develop. And Yanis has done that. I mean, he's now added a really, I think really effective mid-range game. He's added a post-game. He's become even more reliable inefficient as a ball handle and playmaker. So he's added every year, and I think he'll continue to add to his range and shooting the ball, and I think that is important. It's important to his development. It's important to our team's development. I don't think, however, that it's necessary for us to get where we wanna get. I think, and I might be wrong about this, but my opinion is if you actually study that the great players that have won championships in our league, they kind of define the style of play that is successful in the league at that time. So I think if you look at the Miami Heat teams and the way that they played, they are very much defined by the pace and space and the kind of the driving kick game that LeBron initiated, just his ability to put pressure on the defense and move the ball for his teammates surrounded by a lot of shears. That's how they were successful. You look at Golden State Warriors and the way they've been successful. They've been very successful with shooting the ball. And Steph has really been the catalyst for that in his ability to shoot the deep ball. I think if we, hopefully our goal is to talk to a team that consistently contends for championships and Janice will obviously be the key cog in that. I think he's going to define the style of play that hopefully is a championship style play for Milwaukee Bucks and that could include him shooting the ball for three really accurately and it might not. I think it helps us if he does, but I don't think it's a necessity necessarily. That's a great point you made about, because I had to be honest, I had not really thought about it the way you just said it, but you're absolutely right. You see a lot of teams copied the Miami Heat style, and now obviously people are copying Golden State. What do you feel like, and obviously this is, you talking with the coaching staff as well, what do you think the ideal style would be for the team to play right now as it's currently constituted the Bucks? Yeah, I think in Coast Party would agree with this. We talk about it all the time. Right now, the Milwaukee Bucks are best when we're really aggressive defensively. Just really kind of taking up spaces in our length of athleticism. And when we get a team to reinforce a miss, we get out and transition and we run. You got guys, whether Janice has the ball or he's on the wing, you got Eric Bledsoe who's, if not the fastest player in the league, one of the fastest pushing the ball up the front. You've got Yannis and Jabari running the wings, Tony and Chris running the wings, either shooting or finishing. I mean, we really just kind of an aggressive, athletic long team that can get out and go and transition. That's when we're at our best. I think for us to get to where we want to get, we have to be able to find ways to do that more often. But also then, as you know, games are not always played in transition and always played at a fast pace. So you have to be able to be a good half-court offense as well and a half-court defense as well. So we've got ways to go and ways to develop, but I do think that we have the potential to be a team that just uses our length and athleticism as we grow and get older and mature. The body's mature, that athleticism and length will also add a lot of strength. And I think that we can be, you know, kind of a nightmare matchup for people because we can play three to five positionless players at any time that really can kind of switch everything and do multiple things with the ball in your hands, multiple things off the catch. Just be a really dynamic versatile team. And that's, you know, I think that's what we're trying to build here in Milwaukee. I mean, obviously you're always looking to improve the roster, but do you feel like you have the core of a championship contender right now that, you know, as the team grows and matures, you have that in place and then it's just adding around that? Or do you feel like you need some more big moves to get kind of where you want to go? I think we're really, we are really happy with the core group of guys that we have, you know, you look at Yannis and Eric and Chris and Tony and Malcolm and John and Jabari, you know, the young guys, Afan and DJ and Sterling, you know, we have a core group of guys that I think can take us to where we want to get. But we don't know that yet. I mean, we're early in the evolution, development of the team and what we, I think what we want to do is we want to constantly continue to look to improve and get better. And so we like this group that we have a lot. We think this group is good enough and that continue to grow and get to the place that we want to get. At the same time, we're constantly going to do our work and look for opportunities to improve and be better and constantly evaluate where we're at on every facet. You know, the roster is only one of the facets that I think is necessary to have a championship level organization. So I mean, that's from a staffing standpoint from infrastructure standpoint, from a roster standpoint, you know, all those things are things that we constantly look at and continue to try to improve on and get better. But we're very happy with the group of guys that we have and I think this group has a chance to do some special things now going forward. I know you called into a radio station recently to deny reports that Jabari Parker had been close to getting traded. Why do you think those reports about Jabari have surfaced about him? Yeah, good question. So and I wouldn't usually do something like that. It's just it's been, you know, there's there's been a number of reports. It seems like maybe throughout the entire year it started early on with the Eric stuff. When we were talking about trade to Ferrari Blood, so Jabari was never a part of any of those conversations. And it's kind of just went on throughout the year at different times of a surface, you know, bucks can trade Parker Parker is not coming back all these different things. And finally, you know, and of course, you know, talk to Jabari is agent and we have great relationship and great open communication. And they know that if anything wherever in the name of any of our players, like we're going to handle our business the right way. I learned that from John Hammond and Joe Dumars in a strong way to always err on the side of the player, communicate well with the agent, the player and be fair to those guys and never let them read about something in the media and something that's real that is. And so yeah, Martin and Jabari know that, you know, none of that stuff is true, but at some point I'm like, you know, at some point we gotta go out and actually say like this is just BS and had enough. And I think the reason it continues to come up, I truly believe this Chris is you have a guy that's had multiple injuries. And so the unfortunate truth is Jabari spent a lot of time rehabbing over the last couple of years and hasn't, you know, been a part of playing for our team as much as some of the other guys and had he been playing for our team over the last couple of years. More people would be talking about training and people would be talking about how good we are and how good he is. And the more that you see him come back and be healthy and play the way he's been playing recently and we're really proud where he's at today, I think that that'll become less and less of a story. And I had the other part of it, I think that's natural is we didn't extend him, you know? So we tried, we had conversations, we tried to extend Jabari. We went through the process like every team does with, with pending restrictive free agents going into their, into their last season. And the truth is that it's really hard to get extensions done. I mean, there's, there's, maybe if you look throughout history in the last probably 10 years of rookie first classes, first round pick classes, I would say five or six guys a year get an extension out of let's say 20 to 25 guys that are eligible because not every guy gets their options picked up. But I mean, that's a low percentage guys that actually get rookie extensions. And so I think other, the other thing people saw is that we didn't extend them and so the natural thing is to say that we're trying to trade him. And that's just not true. We're really happy with Jabari. We're happy with where he's at. We'll look forward to having continued a growing organization. Do you see, I mean, we all know what he was at Duke and all the expectations on him. Healthy, do you see him still being able to be that type of player who really could, I mean, if he can, he could be that, that star right next to Yanis. I mean, does he have that potential or is he more of this a really good pro but may never be what, you know, people thought he was coming out of Duke? No, I think there's no doubt in my mind he has that potential. If you really just kind of look at some of the stuff he's done here since he's came back, it's remarkable. I mean, his body, the conditioning that he's in, his athleticism, his speed, his pop, everything that he had prior to these injuries is there. And some people would even tell you that it's even better than it was before because he's redone his body. And he has such a natural gift of scoring, he has a natural gift to be able to make plays for others. He's an unbelievable person. And I mean, he's a young player that in his four years in the NBA is probably missed the equivalent of close to two full seasons. So he's missing development time, but he's still really young and he's still in a great spot and he's gonna continue to get better, he's gonna continue to work hard. The thing I'm most excited for DiBari is just for him to really have the opportunity to continue to focus on basketball and in getting better as a basketball player and better as a person, continue to improve every day. And I think, you know, as he gets more time to do that, I really think the sky is over for him as well. I'm sure, John, one of the toughest decisions you've had to make so far was getting rid of Jason Kidd as a head coach. Take me inside that decision process. Yeah, a really tough decision. You know, I was fortunate enough to work with Jason. His entire time at Milwaukee, obviously, was there when he was hired. And, you know, we're really thankful for the things that he was able to do. He was an important, he was an important piece of, you know, he honest has developed an important piece of, you know, helping Fawn develop and a lot of our young guys, you know, some of the stuff that Chris has done. And so Jason and his staff, you know, have done a really great job, led us to the playoffs multiple seasons. And so those decisions are tough. And that's the first time that I've been part of making a decision about magnitude on a coach in that role, obviously, my first year as a GM. At the end of the day, you know, we have publicly stated goals and internal goals of building a team that we think can consistently compete for championships over a long period of time. And, you know, there's certain things in performance wise of going out with a team that we evaluated, discussed and went through the process and just felt like at that time that it was the best thing for the franchise now and going forward to get in a different voice and bring someone else in. But, you know, as we said, and truly mean that, you know, I'm very thankful for the, personally the things that Jason, you know, I learned from Jason of being around him, very thankful for the things that he contributed to the organization. And we hope for the best of luck going forward and I believe he has a chance to be a coach again and do a great job again. And as you know, there were reports that came out about his relationship with Yanis and how much Yanis liked him and wanted him as the head coach. What's your view on, you know, consulting with players, star players, concerning personnel moves, whether it be a player move or a coaching move? Yeah, I think for us that you've got players in your organization that know what's going on. So they know what's going on from a coaching standpoint. They know what's going on in medical staff. They understand, you know, dynamics of their team. They know other players in the league, whether it's, you know, players on their team or opponents, you know, these guys are great resources. And what we've constantly, you know, talked to these guys about is, in Yanis in particular and Chris and Eric, I've had these conversations with these guys in Jabari at times, never, I don't think it's fair to ever put you in a position where you're making decisions, right? So we're not going to ever come to you and say like, what do we do here? What should we do? I mean, that's not the role that they want to be in. It's not the role that we want them in. But I do think it would be senseless for us not to get their opinions and get their input on decisions and not every decision. I mean, certain decisions are bigger than others. Certain decisions, certain guys have more of a voice and an input into it. And I think, you know, using Yanis and using Chris and using Jabari and Malcolm and these guys using their opinions and their knowledge, I think is an important thing for us as we make decisions and evaluate decisions. So I would say I'm just kind of condense it down, never put them in a position to make a decision. But I think obviously utilize the resource at different times when you feel like it's appropriate. Now you guys were 23 and 22 under Jason, 16 and 13 since then under Joe Prunse. What do you feel like is a realistic goal for you guys? I mean, obviously you want to win the championship every year. But you know, are you, is there a benchmark where you're going to be saying, man, if we don't get this far, like we should definitely get this far. If we don't, it's been a disappointing season. Yeah, I think a really good benchmark for us. First off, if we're able to make playoffs this year, and we hope that we are, and we hope that we finish this season strong here, we're in a great spot right now. It'll be the first time that this organization has made the playoffs in fact-to-back seasons in like 14 seasons. I think the 0-3, 0-4 season. And so that's a realistic goal for us. And that would be a great accomplishment for the franchising for this team because what we talk about is consistency. And so we want to build consistency from season to season. That's important. Obviously we want to build on consistency within a season as well. But if we can string together back to that playoffs appearances, that's a really great warm-up for a young team. And then last year, we felt like we had a real opportunity to win a first-round series against the Toronto Raptors. We felt like we were a half away from having them in a stranglehold, beating up 3-1 in that series and really having a chance to win it. And I think it's a realistic goal and an opportunity for us to get into these playoffs and to make some noise and try to win a first-round series. And if we were to win a first-round series, that'll be the first time the franchise has won a first-round series in 17 years, I think since 2001 season. So regular season record matters, the way that you play and the dominance and the consistency in which you play matters. And those are things that we want to improve on and get better on every year. And I think we've made steps in that this year. But overall season kind of accomplishments, if we're able to get into the playoffs again this year and we're able to really compete in the first-round and maybe even win a first-round series, I think those are great marks. And I'm not trying to put a ceiling on this team. This team has the talent and the opportunity and the potential to be more than that. But if we could do those two things, I think those would be really impressive things for the season. I know you said that Joe Prenti has a chance to be the head coach going forward. There was a report a while ago, like a couple of weeks ago about Jeff Van Gundy, Rick Patino, David Cisner, as you guys had a lift already. And I know there were some strong denials. How far along are you in the coaching search? Or is it just we're waiting until, you know, we see how this season plays out? Yeah, it's like such a sensitive question and every kind of comment that's made or a retort that's put out there, I think can be taken, you know, multiple ways. And so it's always like a sensitive thing to comment on. But as I said, publicly a few times, Joe and I talk about this all the time. You know, our ownership group talks about this. They've talked to Joe about this. And so I'll try to say it as plainly and clearly as possible. Again, there is not a search right now. When we hired Joe to finish the rest of the season as our head coach, not as an interim coach, but as a head coach, our promise to him and we've held that is that he is the coach for the season and what comes along with that is we're not gonna be out interviewing and going through and trying to find his replacement during the season. That's just, that's not how we wanna handle business and that's not what we've done. What we are gonna do is we're gonna evaluate him and this staff and we're really after what they've done so far. They're doing a great job. Joe and I have a great relationship. We have a great relationship with the staff that's in place and these guys are working their tails off every day to accomplish the goals that we just talked about. And what we are gonna do is we're gonna give them every opportunity to be part of a search that we are gonna have in the off season. So we are gonna go through a search of the season. Joe and this staff have every opportunity to be part of that and to earn the opportunity to go forward with this team. But we're not going to go through and create a list and have priority guys and interview guys and talk to guys at any point during the season. So that doesn't mean that we're not gonna do our work. Of course we have to get ourselves prepared. We have to put together what our process would look like. We have to be prepared for that off season search process. But as part of that, we're not meeting with anyone. We're not formulating any list of priorities and saying like these are our targeted guys or anything like that. So I think, again, to be plain and clear about it, Joe's the coach. There isn't a list in place. But of course we're getting ready and preparing a process and so that we're ready for when the season does end. We can start our process and I fully believe that Joe and the staff have done a great job so far and they're gonna be a part of that. Now, I saw one of your owners, Wes Edens, he came out and said that he'd be open to hiring a woman as a head coach. How soon do you think, whether it's you guys or whoever, do you think we're close to that happening and what challenges do you think that might present if any? I hope our posts don't happen because I think there's some really qualified, really qualified candidates that are out there. Obviously, Becky Hammondby, one of the most publicly in kind of renowned ones that have been talked about recently. But I think, I don't see challenges with that. I think that diversity in the workplace is important but not diversity for diversity's sake. Diversity because there's really qualified people from all different walks of life, races, genders that are really qualified people that can contribute at a high level and a high way at any position in a professional sports franchise. Like they do in any position, any other corporation in the world. And so I hope that we're not far away. I don't think that we are. I think that by and large, we're a league that supports diversity, that supports opportunities for everyone that's qualified and deserving of those opportunities. And I think you're gonna continue to see our ownership specifically from the walking blocks but other ownership groups from the rest of the teams in the league continue to be aggressive and be open to doing what's right, which is allowing people that are qualified to work in these positions, no matter what it is, head coach, general manager, assistant coach, assistant general manager, president of the team, whatever these positions are, there's multiple people that are qualified and deserving of these opportunities. And I think that you're gonna see them start to take advantage of that. Okay, I promise I'm rousing wrap up. I know you've been very patient with the time. What to ask you, with Yanis, obviously with the 60 minutes episode, his fame is just transcending basketball at this point. And we've seen some of the great players in the league small markets for more glamorous cities like LeBron, Carmelo, Stephanie, Shaq from Orlando, the LA. It even happened with the Bucks, back in the 70s, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, wanting out and going to the Lakers in a trade. How do you, how make of a concern is it in Milwaukee that that could happen with Yanis? I mean, he seems like a type of guy that doesn't think that way, but how big of a concern is that for you guys? I think it's just something that with any prominent player is going to be talked about and as you get closer to any type of contract, date or deadline, whether that be an extension deadline or a freeze, upcoming freeze, or anything like that, those things always get traction. It's a snowball effect and they just kind of really grow and grow and grow. So it's always gonna be a conversation whether or not a concern. I wouldn't say it's a concern and here's why. There's examples of guys leaving free agency, that's their choice. There are mechanisms in place in our league that really benefit the team. Whether or not the situation's good, their success, their organization is strong, functional dysfunctional, whatever, their financial things in place that benefit the team from keeping their players. On top of that, especially at a peer-based level, on top of that, I know how great our organization is and it will continue to become and grow. I know how much Yanis loves our city and loves our organization. And Yanis is an extremely loyal person that has publicly stated this where he wants to play, this is where he wants to be, and that he wants to win championships in Milwaukee and our goal is to win championships with him in Milwaukee. And there's also lots of examples of guys that have chosen to stay with our teams and most of those examples, I think are organizations that are strong, that are well-run, that have high-level success and I think your most recent examples are San Antonio, obviously with a number of guys that they've had and Tim Duncan and Manu and Tony and David Robinson, they go from the city, what you saw with Russell Westbrook is a great example to go back and look at Detroit Pistons or the Chicago Bulls. I mean, I think, again, I think it comes down to who the player is and who the person is and what do they want out of it. And then it comes down to how well the organization's run and how much success they have. And that's my job. That's my job to put this organization from a basketball standpoint in a position to have the ultimate level of success with the honest as part of it and to run it in such a way that, in a family way, the way that I learned under Joe Dumars and John Hammond and run an organization that feels like a family that's loyal, that's open, that's trusting and that has a high level of success. And I think if you do those things, you put yourself in a great position to keep transcendent stars like Janice Siddiquilbo is becoming. John, last question. He's kind of, I don't know if I should say mystery player, but sign maker, you know, you got to drive to him and he's had some really nice moments. What, I don't want you to, you said you don't put a ceiling on players, but what's his potential? Well, you know, son is, I think it's an interesting story because he came in, you know, to start last year and we drafted him early and people were kind of surprised where we drafted him, but, you know, the things that we saw in son, that the reason, some of the reasons that we drafted beyond his physical attributes really just comes down to his character, his work ethic. I mean, he is, he works as hard as anyone. He's an unbelievable person, he's really intelligent. And by the way, he's seven foot one, he's athletic and he's got a seven, three, seven, four wingspan. And so you've taken this young guy who people would say was a prodigy and he signed his raps as a development guy and doesn't play much early in the season last year. And it really doesn't really start getting time until, you know, 50 games or so into the season. And in a short period of time, he comes our starter and has an unbelievable run in the playoffs as our starter in a playoffs series in his work year. And so I think when you do something like that, people put expectations on you of what they expect you to do in your second season. And, you know, son's gotten better, he's improving, but he hasn't probably taken the jump that people expected when they think, like, well, here's the guy that started six playoff games for the Waukee Bucks last year as a 19 year old rookie. And so now he's a 20 year old player and he's still seven foot one, he's got a seven, three wingspan, he's still an unbelievable worker. He's still really intelligent. And, you know, our only expectations for Thon are to continue to work hard, continue to treat this thing the right way, be patient and just invest in the development. And he's done that. And I think as long as he continues to do that, I think he's gonna have a really successful crew in the NBA and we're gonna be really fortunate to have him. Well, John, man, thanks a lot. I appreciate your time, man. You've been great. And good luck this season. I would like, I say this honestly, I would really like to see you guys do some damage in the playoffs. I think that'd be very exciting. Chris, I really appreciate the time. And, you know, we'd love to have you come to the Waukee for a playoff game that would be unbelievable. And if you're gonna put together the last basketball tournament, we ought to make you the commissioner of it. Hey, I'm with that. I'm with that. As long as I don't have to get out there and play. I appreciate your time, man. Yeah, thanks a lot. I'll talk to you. Okay, thanks. Talk to you later. All right, bye.