 Run it up, they run it back. Run it up, they run it back. Run it back, run it back. Woo! We are here back in studio. Happy Monday. You doing alright down there? Come on, man. Good, good. We all have watery eyes and runny noses. It's LA, baby. Yes, this is running back. That is stadium insider Shom Sharani with the sweet, sweet jacket. Chandler P and I rockin' the red and Lou Will down there. Do we look pale, or is it the red or what? I mean, we are. You're not pale. You're always tan because, you know, you live that good life. We've got breaking news right off the top. Oh. Who knew? Shoms, we're staring at you. Give it to us, Shoms. What is going on? Grayson Allen, four-year, $70 million contract extension with the Phoenix Suns that takes him under contract through 20, 27, 28 season. And he's someone that the Suns acquired in a trade from the Bucks. It was part of that big Damien Lillard trade. Deandra Aitin went to Portland. Damien Lillard, obviously, to Milwaukee. And Phoenix ended up with Yusuf Nurkik and Grayson Allen. And I think Grayson Allen was someone that was under looked in that deal. People kind of, he went under the radar. But this season, almost 14 points a game, almost four rebounds, almost three assists. He's shooting almost 50% from the field and 46% from three-point range. So he's had a big season. He's capitalized off all the open looks. Kevin Durant, Brad Beale, and Devon Booker have given him. And now the Suns are the sixth seed. And Grayson Allen has been a big part of that. And he's been, dare I say, less hateable. Yeah, he's played less dirty. Yeah, less dirty. Like, he's like a different man. Well, it's funny because we thought this Phoenix Suns team on paper was going to explode. They're going to be so good. They're going to be in a home court advantage team. And they haven't been. But Grayson Allen, like Sean said, he's taken advantage of all these open looks. He's never got this many wide open standstill threes. He takes good shots. He takes high percentage shots. And he's took advantage of it. So this is, I'm happy for him. He's found a home here. Hopefully this big three stays together so he can still flourish within this offense. But that's a huge deal for him. You like that? You don't like that? That's a big old vessel. I know. I was like, his eyes are bothering me. I have bad allergies. I love your reaction, Dad. They should feel sorry for us. So with Grayson Allen though, I mean, you two played on some really good teams. I mean, obviously Chandler, you benefited early in your career playing with James Harden. For Grayson Allen, how much do you think playing with those three guys? He's getting more open shots, more open looks than he's ever got. Oh, it's the best case scenario for him because he's not a guy that's going to go and have the ball in his hand. He's not going to create, he can. But when you're in a system like this now, again, now you're going from coming off screens, pen downs, running around to literally staying still wide open threes. Just because Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beale, they draw so much attention that he's a knockdown shooter. He's had a career year. He's one of the elite shooters in the NBA. His percentage is up there. So again, you can put a really good shooter on a bad team. But if he's taken tough fadeaways and contested shots, he's not going to have the percent in the year that Grayson Allen had. So again, just by playing in this offense with this much firepower, he really took advantage of it because they're going to double team those guys. They're going to blitz them and pick and rolls. And he's going to be one of the guys on the other end to have wide open threes. Grayson Allen, congrats on the moneys. It did. The whole entire NBA season, 81 games. And the last one is where it all came down to. Shocking, really. Thunder, beating the Maverick Sunday. They clinched the number one seed in the West because they did have that tiebreaker over Denver. First time in NBA history that three teams entered the final day of the season, tied for the conference lead. Youngest one seed in history. And now that they have the one seed, I wonder, I mean, look, we've spoken of this team almost all season long like house money. You're playing with house money. And here they are. They kept it. They are in that one spot. Does that raise your expectations for them now? Not to me. Really? I think they're still playing with house money. Because they're such a young team, the expectation level isn't there. They haven't built anything for fan bases to feel like they should be pushed forward. So them getting that number one seed, I still feel like they're still in a celebratory space with the fan bases. And as far as, you know, public opinion goes. And so I think anything good happens with OKC, they're still in good shape. Yeah, it's interesting because obviously with the number one seed, with the season they've had, expectations are there. But like Lou said, this team is so young and they're still in the process of building something so big that it's almost like even if they lose and they make a competitive, there's always next year. There's next year. Everyone's a year better. It's still early in this process. It's still so fresh and early. Now again, if this happens, if they happen to get knocked off in the first round here, I think now the expectations change. Are they real? Can they do it when it matters? Next year, all of a sudden, yeah, there's pressure. This year, no one expected them to be here. No one even knew how to say their coach's name. And now they're the one seed. The guy's going to get coached the year. And all of a sudden, so there's still not that high of expectation. There's more. There's higher expectations like the Warriors and the Lakers that are in the playoffs than the Oklahoma City Thunder with the one seed. That actually makes no sense to me. It's crazy. When we say it out loud. But here's the thing. The MVP case, it has been Yocitch, Yocitch, Yocitch all season long. And now we find ourselves in a predicament because SGA is the top dog. Should we be talking about him? What's the case here? Last season, this was a play-in team in the NBA. They okay seed the underwear. They did not make the playoffs. And now you transform this organization, which has been the last couple of years, rebuilding, retooling in the lottery. And they're the number one seed, really out of nowhere. The youngest team in NBA history as the number one seed. And Shagil's Alexander, most 30-point games in the NBA, he's tied for the league lead in steals per game. So he's doing it on both ends of the floor. And the fact that he's been able to lead this team after years and years of losing to this level, he's the face of a franchise and he wants the MVP. He's spoken about it. How much this would mean to him. He's a guy that's become one of the faces of the NBA. And I think he's done a lot in terms of solidifying his potential MVP status. I mean, there's an argument. What's crazy is me and Lou, all year long, actually not all year long but the last month. He's giving you attitude right now though. We said what's crazy is what's it going to take for SGA to get the MVP? Yeah. We said finish with the number one seed. So again, I think it came down to literally the last game and they've had a great season. I don't think you can look at it like last year, they were a play-in team. They're this many games better because that's what we're not doing the MVP the last two seasons. We're doing this year from start to finish. So I don't think you can look at like the progress that their team has made, that he's made. I think you look at the stats and by the way, he's got a really good case. I think now with Luke, go the way he's playing, with Jalen Brunson, the way he's playing. The best team in the conference, they finished the best team in the Western Conference in the last day. Boston Celtics have been the best team in the conference all year long. So if we're going to judge off that, then does not just Jason Tatum have a chance as well? We don't even mention Jason Tatum. We don't even talk about him. We're talking about Luca, who's the fifth seed. You know what I mean? We talk about, I like Jalen Brunson, who's obviously a second seed, but we're not even talking about Jason Tatum, who's dominated at the Eastern Conference, who averages 27, 8, and 6, very efficient. But what about the plateau we've seen from SGA though? Like to go from that far to the number one. It's unbelievable. This is a team what a couple years ago. They had the largest loss in NBA history. And now, two years later, they're the number one seed. His numbers are obviously one, you know, up there for the best. Nikoli Okich, we know what he's capable of. He's won back-to-back MVP's already. They've been a top seed already. I think for OKC, there's something that's unique, and I think you have to reward something like this. You think they'd be excited to give it to someone different anyways. Yeah. And Chandler, it's all year long. So no matter what happened in between Game 1 and 82, they finished with the number one seed. It's on the back of SGA. This reminds me of Steve Nash and Shaq. Right? A lot of people thought that Shaq should get the MVP years and years ago when Steve Nash got it. I think SGA gets it with this number one seed. Even though these other guys have very gaudy numbers, 30 and 6 in the number one seed, most 30 point games, league leader in steals. I think that's worthy as well. Think about this MVP race. It was Joelle's to lose SGA. Then he goes down. Then like for like a month straight, everyone's talked about you even admitted, oh, it's Jokic, I'm going to switch it. Now all of a sudden SGA, Luca has this crazy month. Jalen Brunson's had 40. I don't know for like three straight weeks. So like there's all these there's all these guys that now have just made this last minute push to make this really interesting because I thought it was Jokic and I thought it was done. Same. And by the way, he's had an unbelievable year. He's had this story here. I'm with SGA winning it. But I think it's going to still be Jokic. I think the voters made up their mind a month ago. I know. And that's what bothers me because I feel like if I had a vote, I might change that. And everyone was talking about how it's done. So we're almost moving on now. Okay. Defensive player of the year. Okay. Who's going to get the one seed. But now all of a sudden SGA is in the one seed. He's the best player on the best team in the West. You almost got, you have to look at that. They haven't voted yet, right? So how serious do we take the votes if they don't let it play out? Yeah. I mean, I think. Well, you should not vote until the day of. We need votes on this panel. Oh, I'm sure they'll look at us and take us seriously as basketball heads. I'm sure we'll hear from the league today. What I will say, what the thunder have done is probably the most impressive. Outside of the Knicks too, finishing two, which no one expected. There it is. The thunder season is unbelievable with the emergence of SGA, which we just looked at stats. He was really good last month. All up. His team has won more. So it's it's it's how crazy that this team has been so dominant with the average age of 22 years old and he's their leader and he's their guy. Like it's unbelievable. You can't not take a real look at him winning MVP. What are the odds is because I mean, I can't put money on it now. Anyways, dang it. Because we're on the state of California and not in a free state. Um, let's move on. Things happened yesterday. This was one of them. The Knicks took it over time to beat Chicago. They finished the season at 50 and 32 best since 2012-13. And the Bucks lost. So the Knicks are the two seed. Milwaukee gets the three. This is obviously one of those questions. It's it's it's fun for us to argue. But as a team, you probably try not to think about it, Lou. You think they're going to end up regretting this two seed now that you're going to face, you know, either probably Philly or Miami. Yeah, they messed up. They should have let DeMar DeRose ago lay that basketball. They messed up. Look, they've made it. And that's OK. You know, tip of those teams, they like to go to the rough route. And so this is an opportunity for them to really prove themselves. This is going to be this is going to be a rough road to take with a with a healthy Joel and B back with Miami Heat and how they always find a way to figure it out, come play off time. You know, they'll probably get one or two of those matchups. If anything crazy doesn't happen in this in the play in and Knicks are going to be right there waiting. But this is going to be a tough road. I would have preferred to say there's other teams that think will regret it with tips. There's no way he's never going to regret regret winning. Right. So he leaves his guys at the end of games. They're blowing teams out last week. You still got Devin Chenzo playing. Josh Hart literally didn't come out for the first like 19 or 20 minutes of a game. Up 20 the entire first half. He's one guy that doesn't care about that. But yeah, when you look at the big picture of matchups and stuff, I think when now that they're set, damn, I'd rather face, you know, the Pacers than either Philly or God's, you can't try to lose games. You can't, you can't do it at this point in the season. You've worked all your long creating these habits, trying to win basketball games. You can't just throw that away because you want the Pacers instead. There's no way. Yes, you can. But there's that team doing it. A lot of teams. You can rest. You can rest. But they didn't even rest. They didn't even rest. They're playing 40 minutes. I mean, Devin Chenzo played like 50. This doesn't work out well. Do we get a serious look at maybe this is in? No, I think they run this team back for Garlas. I think they finish second. The team for sure. Do we look at the coach? Is that what you're asking? Yeah, I don't. I'm not calling for tips job, but I'm just saying he has, he has a history of going, going alone. Like you just said, 19 straight minutes for guys. And at some point you got to play a little chess. Is it me or do you think these guys though specifically feel like they sort of match? Like I feel like this coach player matchup well, like again, I can't speak enough about like Devin Chenzo and Josh Hart. These guys are perfect players for defense. They play hard. They cut. They move without the ball. Those kids are perfect for this system. And then again, Jalen Brunson is now an absolute star to guys that had 40 points is over under in games like 33 and a half. I keep going under and the dude just keeps going over. It's unbelievable how good he is at basketball. So I think the system of it is working. Again, we always talk about how talented, how good the Milwaukee Bucks are. And then Julius Randall, who was their best player pretty much going into this season and finished second in the East. That's unbelievable. It's almost like Mitchell Robinson. Mitchell Robinson out mostly year like the adversity they faced. Julius Randall still out, you know, so give these guys credit. They've played their ass off and they've put themselves in a position to earn the number to see. However, it just it just failed that they're going to have to they're probably going to face a very tough matchup. It's not over Lou. You're talking about they've got enough to win win a series against these teams. But if you had to pick another matchup, I'm sure they would. Yeah. And the development of like Hartenstein filling in for the bigs, the McBride getting a little bag and him playing well, adding vets like Bogdanovich, they really rounded this team. And then the addition of OG obviously their record is insane with them. Yeah, it's it's silly. It's 23. It's going to be fun. The Bucks though will as the three see now face the Pacers and the Pacers and so we know a lot of the drama that's come from that one. The in season tournament all that good stuff. The Bucks losing in the first round like maybe before you honest that was a silly question. But here we are not sure what's going to happen there. Can you see a world in which they go out based on the based on the records. I don't I don't see it. I wouldn't I wouldn't bet on it if I had if I had some money to bet on it. I wouldn't but Pacers are four and one. They look like they like this matchup. So this one is going to take the Pacers. She's off the Bucks. She's been off the Bucks even before you honest got hurt. I think again maybe I'm just blinded by like the names and the talent just like the Phoenix Suns in the West. I'm blinded by the talent on the on the Bucks. The way you were like literally you actually acted that out. That was very weird. I think they're they have the best two players on the court every single game if you honest and they were on the court that series. I think that enough alone that's what makes it sad. They have the defensive potential. The biggest threat to the Boston Celtics. I love what the Knicks have done. I love these matchups. This is going to be the most competitive playoffs we've seen in a long time. I think they'll be zero sweeps. I think a lot of series will go to six or seven games. I think they'll all be competitive. Not getting all that. I want all of that because that means we got to keep working until late June. You know what we're here anyway that rather be working and sitting around. This is going to be insane. One through one to eight is going to be insane. I don't know what happened there. It got quiet for Indiana. After the end season tournament I think the Indiana pace has settled into being a five or six seed type of team. They just kind of pulled off a little bit. You talked about it earlier in the season. You know how hard it is to beat a team this many times. They're four and one against this team. They're going to beat them eight times this season. That is really hard to do. You want a friendly wager? Yes. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. You're talking about what we bet for. All right. Obviously Yanis is the gazillion dollar question here, Shoms. Is there a world in which we see him in game one? He's having daily rehab, daily treatment. It's a calf strain. It's a real injury. It's a non-contact, really his first big non-contact injury that he's had when he collapsed on the floor with that calf injury just about six days ago. He's going into the series. His status for game one very much up in the air. He has this superhuman ability to heal. We saw in the 2021 finals, the people around the Bucks felt he should have missed several weeks with a hyperextended knee. He ends up only missing about a week, comes back, plays game one. So he's shown and I think everyone around him, everyone around the Bucks, no one wants to rule him quite out yet. We're still talking about injuries in between the injury and game one for a calf strain to that level. You have to be very careful. And I spoke about it last week. Giannis has had multiple injuries on that leg. He had a Achilles tendonitis. He had hamstring injury as well. And now the calf. So the stakes are high for the Bucks. We know that. But the stakes might even be higher for Giannis and his career because if you come back too but listen, if he's healthy, if he can go, he's going to go. But I think there is some level of concern here going into the weekend. I got a question for you. If there's no Giannis in any of the games, who wins the series? Pacers. I don't know. I think the Bucks can still beat them without Giannis. You want to make another bet? How many bets are we making on the same series? All right, this is going to be even. What's interesting about this playoffs though that's going to happen. I think they might be sneakily the most stressed because of the expectation and where they seem to always run into a wall. Cleveland Orlando, they both think they're going to win. Milwaukee Basers, they both think they're going to win. Minnesota's Phoenix. I think Phoenix is over the moon that they drew the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. Anybody that has pressure on them is the Boston Celtics Mavericks Clippers. They both think they're going to win. To me that feels even. There's no team that's like fuck yeah, we got this. There's no looking ahead. There is no looking ahead. That's why it's important to have Giannis out on the floor. You can't afford to lose one of these games and let them get an extra couple of days because usually from game one and game two you probably get an extra three or four days. But anyway, the Bucks win this series. They're super confident next series against the Knicks. It doesn't matter. I'm just saying it is so level and it's so even and competitive that every team thinks they really have a chance. What are we betting? You need to come up with something. We're not really betting. We've been betting all year. No, we are betting. I've been strong about this Milwaukee take. 100 bucks. Yeah. What do we do? Just keep it in the West. We go Lakers. They beat New Orleans. I mean, it really came down to yesterday. So the eight seed which then sets up a rematch with New Orleans on Tuesday for the play in. So we can play the should again game because should they in a perfect world have lost so that they could have avoided playing the nuggets in the first round Chandler. I mean, you can't risk laying down and having a one game to determine your series. Maybe if it was a series, sure, but no, just one game. Who knows what happens? Who knows if someone goes down? Who knows you just happen to have a bad shooting night and that's game. Your season's over because you laid down and wanted to play your cards the way you thought they were going to play out. You can't do that. But I do like the Lakers against New Orleans. I think this is what it comes down to. Do you think this is a matchup that they like as well? And we're looking at a completely different Lakers team from two weeks ago, right? And that's what that's one of the benefits of having a veteran team. They turned the switch on. You're starting to see a different version of the Los Angeles Lakers that guard. LeBron James is playing at a high pace, playing with pace in the open court. So if I'm them, I keep on with my momentum and just keep going. But let me tell you this, if it did happen with the Lakers, I think they would be a lot happier playing the Thunder in the first round than the Nuggets. So yes, if it worked out that way naturally and organically, would they lost trying to win? Sure. I think right now if they could pick Nuggets or Thunder, they're going to put yourself in a position where you've got to win one game. That's what I'm saying. You're not going to win this game. And your back is against the wall. Now you're putting pressure on yourself. You are fully trying to beat New Orleans and play the Nuggets. And you're great that I think you're a little bit more confident. But you can't, at this point in the season with one game in line, you can't do that. I mean, this is just setting up perfectly. Anthony Davis though did leave the game in this one shams. Is he good to go by Tuesday? There's no doubt he's going to play. He said after the game I'm going to play. He tweaked his back but listen, this has been something that's been reoccurring. These things can happen from any given moment, any given step you take, jump you take and we saw it. We've seen it already this season and I'm going to turn around. Tuesday in New Orleans for the seven seed. And New Orleans isn't going to be a slouch either. I hope not. Since Ingram went out, CJ has been in rhythm. Zion looks great. Ballantuna's been great. Murphy's been great. So they are going to present a challenge for the Lakers. No doubt. We got to stay out here for one second too because Kawai, obviously the big one, he's playing. Yeah, he's good. Well, three weeks of rest is basically what it's going to end up being by game one time. There is cautious optimism within the Clippers and he's been healing up, getting right, going into game one. He's going to hopefully for them do more and more this week and get ready and get back on the court. So that's the word that I have. But we have a resident Clippers inside right here. My credible source, which is my two eyes. Kawai plays game. Wow. What did you see with your eyes here? I don't know. That'll be healthy to me. Three weeks is almost too much. What? I'll take the rest. Like that's now you're shaking off rust the first couple of games back. Almost. I'm going to roll out like fat bastard for that first game. Three weeks. Let's go. But that's what mortals would do. He's not one. Quick break. When we come back we will be joined by T. Will's point guard Jordan McLaughlin. There he is. He's ready. He can hear us. It's perfect. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. That's the stock. которые Georgia? Jordin. That's not wrong. Let me interel them at least first before you kill them. Five seasons. JJ and J-Max have joined do you want to apologize for it? No. I say it when I say it. 3 ducks. I think I just I was there I just miss it. Good Lord, all right. Respect, respect. Congratulations, by the way, on an awesome season with three seed, you guys finished. And I know it was like a lot of movement going on there. So you get Phoenix, here's the thing though. They won all three of their regular season meetings, each of those by at least 10 points. I mean, you guys are in the moment. Are you hoping as the game's going on, are you even thinking about the possible scenarios so that you perhaps don't get a Phoenix? I mean, we talked about it before the game, but you know, you're gonna have to see whoever you see. And at the end of the day, we're ready to compete with anybody. We got a few days to, you know, look at the film and figure out what we need to do in order to win this series coming up. It's kind of crazy, you guys have to turn around and do this again. Yeah, what does have to change for you to win a match up with these guys? Yeah, something, I mean, something we've talked about all, you know, the last, since the last, all-star break is just getting off to better starts. We've kind of been struggling at the start of games. And I think that's something that will help us throughout the game is just getting off to a better start. I do love when there's some extra motivation thrown in through the actions of others. So Bradley Beal says something, right, to the bench. I don't know what's going on here. It's the sun's time out. Everybody gets worked up. Ant gets worked up. Coach gets worked up. What is going on here? And did they, do you even need the extra motivation? My man, Finch, wanted all the smoke right there. I mean, he's got the health there. Finch is ready to fight. Yeah, Finch is super competitive, man. And he's just, you know, looking for our backs and we got his back as well. So I don't know exactly what was said, but you know, it sparked us a little bit. We tried to go on. We went on a little bit of run right before halftime and then carried it over a little bit in the second half. But we just weren't able to get over that hump. But like I said, we're competitive. Coach Finch is competitive. This organization is competitive. And we're going to figure it out for sure. This has happened before with Finch. He was my assistant in Houston. He would always like get into it and talk shit like to the players that would look at it. I love that. Yeah, it's the best. Finch is the best. He don't like that as a player. Oh, he gets you going. He will not back down. It could be LeBron. It could be it could be anybody. He's going. He's talking shit back. I like it. Jay, obviously, your teammate, Anthony Ambrose, has had an incredible season averaging 26, 5 and 5. I mean, just unbelievable year. What's it like watching him play, being a teammate of his? And do you feel he's the number one, number two? Is he a top five player in this league right now? Absolutely, man. The aura and the charisma he carries himself every single day. The kid is special, man. The things he does on a nightly basis, we all just look at each other on the bench. It's no way he just did that. Like the block in Indiana, the dunk in Utah, like the list goes on and on. And that kid is special and he's going to be special for years to come in the NBA. Jordan, I'm a big Anthony Ambrose fan. He's probably my favorite player in the NBA right now. I love what he does on both sides of the floor. He plays defense, plays offense. Your teammate, Jay McDaniels, said he's very similar to Michael Jordan compared to the GOAT. So do you see comparisons there? And do you agree with that comment? Yeah, I definitely agree with that. The things he does, the way his work ethic, when he's working out, he's always competing. I mean, the biggest thing with him is his availability. Like that man plays through all his minor injuries, major injuries. And then when you see him in the post and he hits his little shimmy fade away pivot, pivot, like it all emulates Jordan for sure. So he does, he plays a lot. Now, what's he like in practice? Like is he out there on the floor grinding? Is he talking trash? Is he going at dudes in practice? Because MJ is famous for being super, super intense in practice. Yeah, he brings it every single day. He may say like, oh, I don't got it today. And as soon as one play happens where somebody scores on him, somebody talks smack or Coach Finch gets him going. That's when he turns it up and then he brings his energy. He's out there competing for the entire practice. And then he plays off. Bro, you were front and center on Airman's dunk on John Collins. Is that one of the best in-game dunks you've been able to witness in your career? Yeah, that one's definitely one. That one's one. I threw the pass to him against the one against Toronto where he went baseline. Oh, yeah. And he dunked that one. But yeah, Utah was definitely number one, I have to say. I've never seen so much damage get done in one dunk from him doing the concussion protocol to putting John Collins in a concussion protocol. It was so much that happened. And I've never seen a dunk do so much damage, man. Crazy. Yeah, that one was crazy for sure. I don't care how hurt you get. You can't go to a concussion protocol. You can't. You can't not go to a concussion protocol. That's inexcusable. That's how it works. You can't do that. I'm refusing. Chandler's refusing. No way. Chandler. Anyways, Rudy Gobert. Let's talk about him for a second. Another great season, probably defensive player of the year. But this dude gets more hate than I think most. Whether it be Twitter, what have you, why do you think that is? And don't just say he's French because there are plenty of French people that we love. What is the deal? What do you see from your perspective? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's just people on the outside looking in trying to paint a picture. But Rudy's a great guy, great teammate. He does a lot for us. He's the main reason, honestly, why we're the number one defensive team in the NBA. But then you also got guys around him that want to compete on the ball defensively. So he's definitely the anchor to our defense. So I'm not sure why he gets as much hate as he does. Jordan, did his confidence ever, like last year, when people were talking, this could be the worst trade in the history of the NBA. You guys were struggling a little bit with the two bigs going to work when everyone's going small. Did his confidence ever wither? Did he kind of just stick with it and now you see the work improve now? Yeah, no, I don't think his confidence ever withered. I think he just needed, you know, a moment to adjust. He came into a new system where Finch, you know, last year we were high wall, where Rudy normally plays in a drop. So Finch and Rudy kind of had to adjust to each other and how they wanted to guard, pick and rolls and play defensively. And I think you've kind of seen that change this year happen. They tried to blame COVID on Rudy Gobi. I don't think he cared about that. Ground zero. I don't think he cared about that. Jordan, obviously, Mike Conley, one of the most well-respected players across the NBA. You've been a teammate of his. You guys got him at the trade deadline last year for D'Angelo Russell. How integral has he been since he came into the fold? Yeah, he's been huge for us, man. He's just so consistent. He's somebody we needed going forward. D'Lo was great for us, but having Mike, he's been able to kind of pull the reins for Ant and Cat and also, you know, somebody he's played with before Rudy Gobert. And it's just helped us tremendously. He's created a constant role for everybody on this team. Jordan, you went to USC. We all know Brani now has, you know, entered the portal and then declared the draft. So do you think this is a mistake? Do you think he's just testing the waters? Is he going to come back? Do you think he's going to leave USC? What's your take on Brani James? It's interesting. I'm not sure. I mean, he's a great player. He could be NBA ready. I believe he could help a team out, you know, figure the ropes and the NBA. But I also don't think it would be a bad decision for him to go back either to another college or back at USC as well. So it'll be interesting to see what he does, but I think he'll be fine either way he goes. So around here, Jordan, I'm sorry, we're fashion experts around here. And we noticed that to one of your games, you wore a Kendrick Lamar shirt. Your teammate Leonard Miller wore a Drake shirt. Oh no. What's going on here? Has sides been picked already? For sure. I mean, Lenny's from Canada, so he's from Canada. I'm from the L.A. area. That's fair. But man, I got Kendrick Lamar all the way for sure. Okay, that's fair. Who do you have, Lou? I like these shirts. No, no. Who do you have in this debate? I like these shirts. I got Drake all day long. What? For sure. Really? Lou, do you? I like, I really, really like those shirts. You are really the worst person ever. You're not even ready for office. Let's talk sneakers for a second. You used to have a podcast called Kicks of Your Life. Favorite sneaker of all time. What is it? Favorite sneaker of all time. I'm going with the cool gray 11's. That's my favorite sneaker. I'm obviously looking to YouTube for approval. I like the 11's, but I like the black and white. I'm a Jordan 3 guy. That's my favorite. Okay, okay, okay. Favorite sneaker right now? Favorite sneaker right now? On the court or off the court? Ooh, off. Off the court, Jordan 1's. I'm going with Jordan 1's. That one's good first. All the way there, 4's and 1's. Okay. I wear like chucks and converse every day. All right, now you're worse. Flip flops every day. In your opinion, I see a lot of these videos on TikTok and it's always the same answer. So I'm wondering if yours is going to match the worst or most overrated sneaker? Worst overrated sneaker. Man, there's so many. What's crazy is if this went viral, everybody said the panda dunked and I'm like, I don't like it. I like the pandas. They're simple. I wore the pandas last week and I got shamed. My new people are like, why you got the pandas on? You murder the pandas. I think it's just because people have so many of them. Yeah, that's what that is. I think they're still lovely. It's one of the only things I have. And then talk to me about the kairis. So you wear them, but do you wear them when you play kairi? No. How does that work? You can't do this. It's an unrated rule. It's an unrated rule. Whenever you play somebody that got a signature shoe, you got to switch it up. So what do you wear when you play? They got mind control over you a little bit. Does that even with like Braun and Kobe and guys like that? Nobody. You can't do it? No. Demanded roles and religiously wore Kobe's. And when we played the Lakers, he would wear something else. So for those games, you just change it up. Does that not mess with you at all? No, not at all. Because you know, the day before, when we have shoot around or the day of, that's when I break on the other shoe and get it right. While we're on the fashion, how do we get our J-Mac shirts? What's that about? That's your own line. What do you got? Yeah, we got the merch at the website. Jmakofficial.com. We got shirts. We sold out of the graphic tees we had, but we got hats, beanie, socks, and some sweat pants. Send the beanies out. Send the beanies out. For sure. I'll have one sent to y'all. Jay, I got to ask you. Your teammate, Ant, debuted his new Adidas shoe yesterday, last night. You're the expert. What grade do you give these? Man, these shoes are probably top of the list right now out of everybody that's out there. I've seen some of the colorways he's got that you guys haven't seen yet. They get in the locker room before they released. And he's got some really dope colorways, man. But this shoe, the way it looks, I give it a 10 out of 10. When I tried it on, it's not fit for me. It's fit for more of a player with his type of style. We saw the Winby logo, though. We haven't talked about the actual shoe. Yeah, we weren't going to. Have we seen the shoe yet? It looks ridiculous. It's like a prototype, I think. It's insane. It looks like it's not comfortable. I'll tell you that. It looks like a car or like an automobile. Well, at least they got the logo right. It's sleek. It's cool. Well, we're not going to rip on Winby right now, Jordan, and I'm sorry about that. Funny things that happened. This one's from a few years back. You're on a fast break. The Oklahoma City mop dudes. I don't know that I've seen this. Have you been a part of anything like this or seen something like this when they come out and have a defensive stop? No, this was the first time this ever happened. But the thing that made it worse was D-Lil had missed the put-back right after it. So it made it a little bit worse. But I had people hitting me up about this and they still do when it comes back up on it. You must have not saw it. You should have ran his little ass. Oh, my God. Yeah, I'd let him say he had the year on him. They were both out there, though. They cost him two points. You got to listen. That's a mess up. Jordan was supposed to run one of them over. D-Lil was supposed to run the other one over. That's how that was supposed to go. I had to add it to my workout regimen in the summer. That's why I got right. It's funny. We just found out all the good stuff because we also have one where you basically get almost kicked in the face just, you know, trying to do a three-pointer here. Dude. Who's that? Yeah, it looks worse than slow-mo. Drey Ma's on the paces? Oh, shit. That's a... Is that ever happened to you? No. You know what's funny? One time in college, I hit a three in the corner and my teammates was trying to celebrate and they threw a towel and whipped me right in the... Right in the back. And I literally went down. I could kind of call it a timeout. I got, yeah, it was bad. That towel can put you out of... I got, like, rat-tailed. Jordan, you do not need to send them free stuff. They're both rich, so don't listen to them. They can go to the website and buy it with everybody else. We appreciate the time. Best of luck. Good luck, Jordan. I'm not going to play else, my brother. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It's going to be a fun one. When we come back, Chandler and Lou pick all of the awards. When Run It Back returns. If you don't come into Training Camp on day one with the mindset of doing everything and taking the steps towards winning a championship, you don't end up in the Thunder organization. You know, credit to our front office for putting the right guys in this locker room and, you know, in the building with us. But that doesn't change the back of how hard it is and at the end of the day, only one team can win. So we're going to, you know, take all the steps to put us in the position to have the best chance at doing that. But we also understand that it's not going to be easy and nobody's just going to, you know, let us win it. So, you know, we got to do what we got to do to put ourselves in the best situation and then, you know, we got to live with that. I mean, Chandler just pointed out who were studs and who weren't. They're all so good. We went through all the video. What was your takeaway from that one? My takeaway was earlier, at some point in the interview, Chet was talking about the fact that they're all so similar in ages. Like the factor of ego, of desires, of individualistic, you know, desires that they have, it's not there with this group. They've all kind of come up together and Shay Gildes Alexander, he's about 24, 25 years old. Like, and he's... Shay had good bits. Oh, here we go. There you go. He had good bits. Shout out to Lou Will. Shout out to Pat Bev. Shout out. I just said he had good bits. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. But I think the fact that Shay at whatever he is, 25 years old, he's the OG, the veteran on this team and the fact that he's able to move in such a carefree, selfless way, it's trickled down to all those guys. If you had another player, maybe, you know, who was a little bit more driven by goals with accolades, maybe it's not the same trickled down case, but clearly, okay, she's building something special. And what's crazy is they hopefully they keep this core together because Jalen Williams is an absolute stud, Chet, SGA, but they have so many assets and picks and everything. They could do whatever they want. There's so much room and Sam, they've just done such an unbelievable job developing, building this team, while not even really going through a crazy rebound. They're set for life. They haven't made their debut yet. They haven't even made a trade. They haven't done anything. It's crazy. I also like the art in the background, by the way. My takeaway is, have I been saying organization wrong? No, that was a Canadian pronunciation. This is the second time I've heard organization today. Usually it's Canadian when they say organization. That's the second time I've heard that today. He's not Canadian? Why would he say it like that? You hear different... Maybe SGA says it like that. And it was trickled down. Fearless leader talks like that. So now they do too. Mystery solved. Let's look at some awards. You guys are boring. You basically agree on all of the following. For the record, we did this separately on our own time. Fair enough, fair enough. And we did not do this together. Kind of crazy, though, that you agree on five of the awards. Malik Monk, because he might not have a chance now since he went out. Maybe Nasred in there. Throw him in there. I think he played enough and did enough. But Nasred is my close second favorite. So if that were to fall through somehow, that's your... Okay. All right. So then let's look at some of the ones you might not agree on. Most improved, Chandler. I went with Jonathan Caminga. I know there was a lot of hype around him last year. He didn't get the minutes that he wanted. He actually even complained earlier this year about the minutes. But now he's looking at, you know, he's played... What is it? 74 games this year. He's ever been 16, 5, and 2. He's kind of showed this franchise that he's their guy moving forward. No matter what happens with Dreymon, no matter what happens with Clay, I think he's developed his game enough offensively. He's always had the instincts defensively. He's a freak athlete. So just how much his game has improved within a year, I think he should win this award. And I think he is the absolute brightest spot piece that they have moving forward. I like that one. Staying on the OKC train for me, Jalen Williams is going to be my most improved pick. Not so much because of the numbers. I'm thinking in terms of impact. You know, you look at this Oklahoma City team and we've been raving about how young they are, but how good they are. And a lot of these nights, Jalen Williams is either carrying his team or he's the second best player out there. So he's going to be my most improved pick. I like this. I like this. The big dog, most valuable player, Lou, you first. I'm sticking with Shay. I'm sticking with SGA. That's my little brother. That's my pick. I'm not changing it. I said once last week on the show, I believe I said... You did. You did. Joker, things change. Interesting. You might have been the number one seed Denver was. Yeah, it was. At that point. Because I felt like that was going to be one of the things that was going to be important when it came down to voting. Shay was able to go get that number one seed along with his teammates. I still got Shay. You know what, as adults, we're allowed to get more information and change our minds. I'm changing my mind. I'm changing my mind back to my original. We were man enough to admit when we knew Wimby was going to win Ricky of the Year. Barely. He gave in, but I still got Yoka Trivip. You do? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Let's do all NBA first team is up first. You guys agree on everything on this one? We did. Wow. First team. Okay, first team agree. One, two, three, four of the five are international players. I love that. Okay. The game has grown. The game has changed. It's amazing. The game has changed. It won't be long. We'll be in there. Jaylen Brown will get there. What's interesting is if Joelle stayed healthy for a couple of years, she would probably be on second team, which is insane to think. Yeah, that is. The seasons they've had. A little bit nuts, by the way. I know the Tatum one is so quiet, but again, we all know why. Lou, let's do second team then next. What do you got? Edwards, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, DeMontes, Sabonis, and Rudy Gobert as my second team. I especially want to show Sabonis some love this year. League leader in double doubles. For whatever reason, the Sacramento Kings have been overlooked. He's played his ass off. He's done well. So I think he's deserving of second team NBA. I think the rest of these guys are proven in what they've done. Rudy Gobert is on the second team. Being a defensive player this year, showing him some love as well. The other three guys were obvious pigs. Okay. My second team is a little kind of similar. I put Steph Curry in there. Just the things he's done to even keep this team relevant at all this year. I have Anthony Edwards. I have LeBron, Jaylen Brown. I think you have to reward winning when it comes to these awards. Celtics, for whatever reason, Tatum is not even in the VP talks. They've dominated the Eastern Conference all year long. Hasn't even been closed. Jaylen Brown's second team and Kevin Durant's third team. My only thing is we did this before Jaylen Brunson went on this absolute rampage. I would probably find a way to put him second team how he's finished this season. Okay. That's fair. You're allowed to do that as well. Wow. No Gobert though. Interesting. Let's go to the third team, Lou. You're up. Third team, Steph Curry. I actually agree with Chandler. Jaylen Brunson has been on an absolute tear. If I could have switched him out, I would have had him second team in there. Also, I got Devon Booker, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis. When Chandler mentions the things that Steph Curry has done to keep his team afloat, I think Devon Booker and Kevin Durant, they fit the bill for that and Anthony Davis as well. See, I had a tough one here. I went with Sabonis on my third team instead of Rudy Gobert, which was a hard one because Rudy Gobert is the catalyst on this defensive end. He is the reason they're the number one defense. So I think he can find his way on here. And I went with Palo Bancaro, with just the season Orlando's had. No one expected them to be good. They damn near got home court advantage. He's been an all-star. He was rookie of the year. He continues to get better and better. I think he deserves to be rewarded for his work all season long. And then I still have, you know, Devon Booker and Anthony Davis. So you don't have Gobert, who's probably defensive player of the year on any of them? I think that's probably the one I missed there, where he has a way to slide in. They're probably over Palo or maybe even Sabonis. But then I also think Jaylen Brunson deserves to be second team. I mean, I don't think... Second best team in the Eastern Conference, the way he's ended the season with 40-plus. Even the second best team as long as we've been on set, Chandler. I'm just saying, I think he... I can make a case that he's the first team. I just wanted to get her there. You know what's weird? Is that I'm the one up here with the least amount of knowledge. It seems like I'm right a lot. Did you have Wimby first team or second team this year? Not yet. I'm trying to be unselfish. We're going to take a quick break when we come back more. Run it back. You're on Fandal TV. Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. The road to the NBA finals starts now. And new customers on Fandal can go on their own playoff run with 150 bucks in bonus bets. Win or lose with any $5 bet. Use your bets on same-game parlays, live bets, championship futures, and so much more. No better place to bet all the playoff action than America's number one sports book. Just download the app to get started. Fandal, official sports betting partner of the NBA. This led into the weekend and boy, did it get some talk. It got a lot of talk. This is Alan Iverson's big moment. Heisman Trophy. Watch his face. He grabs his head. He slanted a few times. He grabbed his head. Okay, so this is just awkward. But in retrospect, we have now seen a lot of the other statues and they are all sort of on a smaller scale, if you will. Then we're used to, but his is also kind of... He's doing a crossover, so he looks tiny. Yeah, and originally I was... I gotta be honest. My honest opinion, I was livid. I was livid. I thought it was a bobblehead version of... I said, is this him as a kid? Like, I was really upset and it took everything in me to not say anything publicly until I got more information and I'm glad I did. Smart. Because a lot of the statues are of that size at the Prax facility. So... We were worried. Congrats to... Hey, I, in getting this statue, but I was... I originally was upset. I thought they did them wrong. I thought it was a joke. I was upset... It's still 10 seconds ago. You just showed me a picture of, like, some other ones that are just as small, but why not just make all those bigger, make his bigger? I don't know. This is dope. Like, I... From what I understand is they're leasing the land at the Prax facility. So it's some type of rule or law that the size of statues that you can have out there. The statue shouldn't be smaller than the actual person. Like, you know what? It's crazy. I didn't... Now it's like a trophy. I didn't like it one bit, but now that I know... What is he in on the tab? Yeah. What about outside the arena? Yeah, that's where I thought it was. They don't own the arena either. That's the Huckies. That's considered the Huckies. Does the face look like him? I mean, let's... Yeah, well, let's... I give it that... What? It's not awful. I mean, it's hard to do, too, you know? It's not great. It's not... It's a statue I've been given today. Give it an A. Give it a grade. C minus. Wow. Like a pass. No, I'm... I'm for you. C's get the grease. That's what I know. Holy... Holy... It's very torn. I'm torn. Give it a grade, Lou. Because I give it a B. A B minus. I give it a B because they're all small and he deserves a statue. He deserves that. He deserves that. That's... He deserves something bigger than that. But that is something. That's gonna do it for us on a Monday, but good news, we're back tomorrow. Enjoy your evening.