 Run it up. Run it back. Run it up. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Good morning and welcome to our final show of the year 2023, a show in which no apologies will be given. Joining us today, Shamsherania in Chicago, Stadium Insider, Chandler P. Lou Will. We're from all over the place on this fine, fine day. And I'm kind of excited for what Shams got for us later on in the show. So that is going to be good, but we are going to start with a little Sun's Rockets. They got it done, y'all. It's happening. KD is 18th career, triple double, 27, 10, a career high, tying, 16 assists. Shingoon Baby Okich with 24 and 5. He's averaging, by the way, Kevin Durant, 30 points, 37 minutes. He's 35 years old. We know about his injury history. And we also know what's going on with the team and how we keep waiting for the big three to finally get out there, Chandler. How long can KD keep this up while we wait? Well, they got a key riding them, right? It's their only option with the whole expectations of this team was this big three. And obviously, with Bradley Beal out with Devon Booker kind of in and out of the lineup, this hasn't really panned out, right? They're 15 and 15 through 30 games. The good thing is there's still 50 plus games for this team to figure it out. There's still 50 plus games for Kevin Durant and Devon Booker to continue to stay in rhythm. And I'm not really looking at Kevin Durant right now as a load management, if I'm the Sun's, right? The Sun's did all this to win now. So if I'm the franchise, I'm an organization, you got to keep going through them. You got to keep getting things from Eric Gordon and you need a combination of everything because the expectations aren't met right now. Everyone thought this was going to be one of the most electric teams. They're kind of just middle in the pack and all offensive categories, all defensive categories. They're not, they're not doing anything really elite, but what they have is elite talent and they have as elite potential. So when you have a guy like Kevin Durant, you're always going to be in the hunt. You're always going to be able to win some games and they have no choice but just to continue to ride him and play him 37 minutes a game. And he's got to go and get you 30. Everything's going to fall on him. Everything's going to fall on Devin Booker. No one's expecting Grayson Allen, Eric Gordon, to carry this team. It's going to fall on those two, especially why Bradley built out. Yes, Shoms. I mean, the whole plan was, and I think a lot of us got very excited when they put this thing together, new ownership looks like they're going for it. What's the mindset of not just the team, but KD right now? Everyone has been upset about the losing. That happens across the league. When you're losing games, you're going to be upset. And whether it's teammates, players, coaches, team officials, they've all been upset throughout the organization about being 500, being a 500 team. And from my understanding, they haven't seen anything abnormal, anything extreme that's different, other than just normal frustration, normal being, you know, being upset from Kevin Durant. And last night clearly his, his, you know, his, he was dedicated to the task at hand with that triple double career high tying 16 assists for him last night. At the end of the day, the sons, they know they need to get healthy. They do need to start winning games. And that starts with Bradley Beal being back in the lineup, how much he eases the load for everyone on that team. He creates mismatches and he makes everyone's life easier. They need him back on the floor. We haven't seen that big three for more than one full game. And that, that's a problem for Phoenix getting him back in the lineup. He had that sprain ankle a couple of weeks ago, December 15th. It was a nasty sprain. I'm told he is progressing. He is ahead of schedule. Um, and I'm told he could return as soon as this weekend they play on Friday against Charlotte or Sunday against Orlando. Those games are within the window for brother, Bradley be able to make a return to the lineup. They know he needs to be available. Available. They need, they know he needs to be motivated. They know he needs to be in the lineup and really embracing that hybrid point guard role that they've set out for him because he needs to set the table for Gothic Devon Booker and for Kevin Durant. And so everything around this team was designed around this big three. Uh, and hopefully for the sons, they're getting closer to seeing that with those three being in the lineup. I'm going to not get too excited this time. I don't want to be disappointed, but Lou, uh, Katie, as we know, likes to get on the old internet and read some stuff. There were rumors that he was frustrated. He went back at that on IG later, deleted the post. Um, I love a Katie flatback, but how are you feeling about it? Don't argue with fools because people from the distance can't tell who is who. It's human nature, man. Like you sit on the, you sit on team planes and you sit on buses and you have so much downtime before and after games. It's human nature to want to check people for misinformation. You know, we have trolls. We have people on the internet. They only wake up to get under people's skin and for whatever reason, Katie likes to defend himself and a lot of us like defend themselves. You know, if you look at your phone every single day and somebody's talking crap about you or somebody's saying something untrue about you and they claim to be a reliable source or just think that they have an inside scoop on what you're going through, what your team is going through. It's human nature for you to want to defend yourself, but you're never going to win that battle because once you respond to one, there's going to be hundreds and hundreds of more people with something to say. So smart move on Katie, the lead in this and just moving on because that would have just been a tip of the iceberg. This is every day for every professional athlete in the world. I'll tell you this. I think Katie, he obviously, he toes the line, right? With the burner account and things like that. As someone myself who respond, if I'm responding to you on Twitter or on Instagram, it's because I think whatever you said is so dumb and so ignorant. It's not because I'm insecure, right? It's not because I'm trying to tell you my thought. It's because I'm making fun of you if I respond and I find it so just ignorant that what you said, I have to let you know that I saw it. I'm going to respond to it, but are you ruining my day? Am I thinking about you? So I think that's where Katie comes from, right? I think it's more, you want to be a troll, you want to clown a complete stranger that's way more successful than you. He's going to respond and clap back and make you feel slightly stupid. So I know that's how I feel. The only way I respond, if it's something so dumb that I just have to call out a moron. Look, I go back and forth. Yesterday, I responded to some morons, but it's more because you just said I want to, I can't just tell everyone not to breed that is stupid. Although I guess I could. I could spend the whole day doing that. But it's just sometimes you just pick one and you go for it. And Lou, you better have our back next time. I swear to God, when we're in studio again, we're going to have a real talk about teammates. Okay. Taylor and I had a rough day yesterday. Where were y'all? That's it. It was a fun day. It's everyone. This is the problem about social media. Everyone has an opinion and everyone can just say whatever they want and everyone's reachable. So that's the world we live in. Reachable. I know the names I was called yesterday, but I'm going to take it as stride. I'm not a racist. I'm not a racist. That's really going to hurt if I go to Memphis. So that's that. Well, the good thing is you're never going to Memphis again. So yeah, I'm from Memphis. So I'll be back before you're going. You're going. We're not going. We can go to Houston though. However, right now the Rockets find themselves in a bit of a different situation. They've lost five of the last seven. We know the hot start that they got with Lou, but are they destined for playing? Is this more realistic as to who they are right now? So this is my, this is my problem early in the season with this, with this group, let the basketball do the talking. I understand Coach Edoka, he's trying to find that identity. He's trying to instill some toughness in these guys, but you got to play basketball as well. You got to put yourselves in a position to be able to back up the talk. You got to be in a position to be able to back up the antics. And right now they're, they're in somewhat of a slight, they're still a very young basketball team, even though they have pretty good vets on that basketball team in Fred Van Fleet and Dylan Brooks and baby Joker is, is coming into his own as a, as a young player in this league. And they got a lot of talent. You know, this is going to be a process for this team. So it's looking really late playing eight, nine seedish for them. And for them to be respected, they got to get that down. They got to get one of those guaranteed spots. All right, keep our eye on that one. Big game last night for the Dallas Mavericks. They lost. That's the spoiler alert. Cavs come back from 20 down, winning this one by three. Karris Lavert finished with 29 and seven. Jared Allen had 24, Luca 39, seven and six wasn't enough. Chandler, the final moments, the final sequence of this entire thing, they're down one 13, one 10. There's a chance for the Mavericks to tie. What can you take us through this? What's going on? Well, obviously this is kind of what they do. They put the ball in Lucas hands. They try and let him make a play. But when you get a double team at half court, you got to get off the ball sooner than this. So I think the only thing he struggled with is guys didn't come to the basketball, right? Right now the big's got to flash to the middle earlier. He's got to help him. He's got to come to the free the line. And then from there, he'll have options. He can kick it, but kick it to someone that over helps and kind of get a three being down three. It's tough. The cast played this great, right? They were willing to give this ball up in the middle of the floor. They didn't leave shooters and they really didn't give them a chance to hit a three. And this is just the hell Mary that wasn't going to work. But if you're not going to, if you're Cleveland and you're not going to foul here and send them to the line, this is the way you have to defend this. You double team the best player. The maps probably shouldn't even have had lively in the game. Who's not really a three point threat down three that didn't really make sense to me, but he's got to flash to the middle. But even if he gets the ball at the free the line, if they don't leave the shooters, he's, they can't score three points inside the line. So I thought it was beautifully defended by the calves and just a, you know, a tough, a tough decision to have your center that doesn't shoot threes down three there at the end of the game. Yeah. And Chandler, I was, I was going to, I was going to say, this is smart by the calves. Somebody else is going to beat us. It's not, it's not going to be Luca, especially when you need three. And I'm also excited that a team tried something different than just fouling and playing a free throw game. I've always had this argument with my coaches. I absolutely hate that strategy down the stretch. If you're down three points, why am I fouling, giving away two free throws? And now I'm putting the pressure on my team to come down and make free throws in order for us to survive the basketball game. Make these guys make a play. I'm not donating two points to them. And so to see a team guard this differently and it works out. I was excited to see that because I've argued with so many coaches about the strategy of being down three and fouling and giving up free throws. And like you said, if I'm Cleveland, anybody besides Luca can beat me and we will live with that. We will sleep well and we will go watch film. We will get better and correct the next time, but there's no way that guy's getting the shot off. I mean, the fact that there's no Donovan, there's no Mowgli, there's no Garland. They still managed to pull this off. You see the defense there at the end, Lou. What does that do for a team like Cleveland? You can see it in that last clip, you know, they were, they, this team was playing with a lot of effort and a lot of energy. They're going to have to bottle that up. They figured out they can't outscore teams. They have very willing, very great scores on that basketball team, but they're going to have to be a defensive minded group. They're going to have to sit down and get stops and give themselves an opportunity to win basketball game. So I think they found something in their identity last night that they can work with. You know, these guys got to play with a lot of effort, a lot of energy to give themselves a chance to continue to move forward. And anytime, and anytime that you, it's, it's late December, right? It's not, it's a game against Dallas. You're never going to talk about this game ever again, but anytime you have your three top guys out and you can get a win, it instills confidence in a Coro who had 22 last night and instills confidence in all these other players, this new point guard Porter, who I love, it gives them confidence and it gives JB Bickerstaff confidence that no matter what happens, who's in the lineup, who's out of the lineup, we have enough to win a game. And that's huge for this team who had high expectations, who came up, you know, the four seed last year in the Eastern Conference, a disappointing postseason. This is huge going forward. This could give them kind of that boat of confidence to where it doesn't matter if Donovan's out, we have enough. It doesn't matter if all guys are out. We just beat a really good Dallas Mavericks team. So this is huge for the coaching staff and the players moving forward. A really good Dallas team and a really hot Luca. Here's the run that he's on Chandler. And I know you are one of his biggest fans on television and anywhere else. But last 15 games, he's averaging 36.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 10.3 assists, and he's just 24 years old. Obviously year in, year out, he's talked about amongst the greats. But where is he all time? Are we in that conversation yet? Yeah, you know, I think so. I think it's early. He still has a lot to prove. Obviously winning a championship and winning at a high level is only going to help him. But now statistically and individually, what he's done this early, he's an all time great. I talk to Dirk all the time. And when you talk to someone like that, and he praises Luca, he already says how much better he is than Dirk already. And, you know, outside of that championship run in 2011, what this kid has done is special. And there's nothing he can't do on the floor. He has no real position. He hasn't really had a great team since he's been in Dallas. So he's kind of doing this with a very mediocre team. I mean, look at those numbers. His over under tonight, I had to take under. His over under tonight is 36 and a half. That's ridiculous. I don't care who you are. That's that's that's absurd over under a prop bet for a player point. It's ridiculous, but he's probably going to go over because he's that good and he's that talented with the on his hands. But yeah, it's we haven't seen something like this in a long time. He's unbelievable. Lou, have you ever been on a run? You remember a stretch of games where maybe you were just on a roll? Either one of you really? Absolutely. 2000 2018 was probably one of the best years of basketball for me. I remember always making a joke and shoot around with guys like Terrence Mann and SGA that listen to shoot around. I got 20 right now. Anything else I do in the game, that's going to be extra. You know, that's just how I felt going into basketball games. I was on a tear. I felt like nobody could stop me. I felt like teams couldn't do anything with me. And that's the year that I won my second six man of the year averaging nearly 24 to 25 points a game coming off the bench on that basketball team. And so those are very special runs when you're coming into that arena and you have the confidence of the world and you know, it doesn't matter what they throw at you, what kind of any junk defenses and you're having that and you just feel like you can put a team on your shoulders. It's so powerful for a basketball player and to see Luca doing this night in and night out is going to be scary for teams coming. This is going to try to play this Dallas Medricks team in the future. Yeah, I mean, I've had nothing of what Luca's doing. But there was a good two month stretch in Dallas there where Dirk went out, Carlisle put me at the four. And like Lou said, I average, you know, close to 25 a game for a couple months stretch and it's like everything's going in. You're now the focal point. The ball is in your hand. You're making shots. You're efficient. So you just feel and that's that's for a small sample size. What I did, this kid, he's done it for four or five years consistently. So when you're on a heater like that, you just know, you know how people guard you. You know how you're getting double teamed every time you come across the court. You know how the scouting report is tailored just to try and stop you. And you still have 40. So he knows how, you know, powerful he is with that ball in his hands. And it's a crazy feeling. Another game last night, Nick's thunder. This is the one I watched. Thunder defeat the Nick's 129, 120. They're now second in the West. Sure, SGA did his thing as he does, but Jalen Williams had himself a career night with 36 points. Julius Randall with 25 and nine. Here's the deal, Lou. I know they're young. I think they're the third youngest team in the league now. But recently they've beaten the T Wolves, the Clippers and the Nuggets. Is it just the youth part of things that is keeping us from maybe talking about them more seriously as we move forward in the season? And that they just need another season or two of season? Am I saying season a lot? I am. Is that what it is? A season, season, season. Is it the age? Do you need the experience? What is it that's not allowing us to say, well, they could do some damage this year? It's a lot of basketball to be played. You know, you stick around in a pros long enough. No matter whether you're a young team or not, you're going to get some quality wins throughout the course of that season. And that's what they're doing. You know, this is a talented basketball team. They're going to compete at a high level. They have talented guys. SGA is talented enough that he's going to lead them to some very good quality wins throughout the course of the season. For me, it's the long game. You've got to show and prove this has to be something that you do consistently throughout the regular season and the postseason for you to earn that respect. And it's a lot of basketball to be played. A lot of really good basketball to be played. You know, you've got teams like Golden State and the Lakers not sniffing the playoffs right now, you know, teams that are over 500. The Lakers are over 500, not Golden State, but it's still very, a lot of good basketball to be played. It's not going to be sweet for anybody coming out of the West. And so they can take away some good vibes from this. And these are wins that they can build on and they're building something special. But for them to be contenders that come out of the West to compete for a championship, they're going to have to show and prove on a night and night in and night out basis. And you know what, dude, the makeup of this team, they're made up to be a great regular season team, right? They're young. They have energy. They don't get tired. The back-to-back rule, how, you know, they're going to be exhausted on the second and the fact that doesn't, that doesn't apply to them. That does not apply to them. They went in last night, smacked the Timberwolves, come right back. Oh, I think the spread here was three, nicks plus three. And I was like, oh, I'm all over that. Doesn't matter. This team, they're so young. They have so much energy. They bounce around. They fly around, but they're also very, very talented. So like Lou said, I think there's still a lot of basketball to be played. I think we haven't seen it yet, right? So we see, we've seen a lot of teams great in the regular season, get a lot of wins and then don't play that way in the playoffs. I have, I trust the Clippers more in the past. They've been there. I trust the Lakers against this team. One of the playoffs, are they going to have a better record or a better, you know, more wins? No, but that team to half court offense, slow down national TV games every single night in the playoffs where it's more physical. They're not getting the whistle. That, that scares, that's the only thing that scares me with this team moving forward, but it's hard. I'm nitpicking at this point because they're so young and they're so good. Yeah. They have a, they're in a great situation. Sam Presti, this was the long game. They had a, they had a blueprint. They followed it. Chandler, if you're the GM, do you take some of these picks, which they still have and you go out and get a player now, Adam, or do you continue along this path that you've set where you just, you slowly build? Not yet. Not yet. I keep riding this wave. I, in the back of my mind, I'm obviously observing and, and I'm watching every single day of how we can make this team better, but I'm not breaking up this core. I'm not giving up Williams. I'm not giving up chat. I'm not giving up SGA and I'm not giving up Giddy. So those four, if you want, if you want to play around with these, with these other, with these other guys on the roster, maybe, but it doesn't always make your team better at adding someone like that. Did you throw a DeMar deRos, you throw a Levine, you throw that sometimes can hurt your team and it breaks up the rhythm and the process and the growth of a team like this in the situation. Now it could help and it could give them that leadership and that that experience and the post season, but don't fix what's not broken right now. I'm going to keep riding this. I'm going to keep going. These guys are playing well. They're clicking. They look like they have so much fun playing together. They play hard. They defend. They have a little bit of everything. So I love that they have assets and I love that they can at any moment get better, but I'm not fixing what's not broken. Crowd is all in shams. It's, it's very rare that we talk about a team and be like, oh, add something quickly, but it seems like we're thinking, no, don't add anything. Have you heard anything about what their plans are moving forward? First of all, CP had a great assistant GM career while he was an NBA player. So he's speaking from experience. No question. The Thunder, they want to continue to build internally. When I talk to teams around the league, they look at the Thunder as a group, like Chandler said, like you're playing, you know, with house money in a lot of ways, you have flexibility long term. They have the ability to be in any superstar trade because of all the draft picks and young players. Sam Presti has compiled. So you want to see how far can this group go? It's hard to say exactly what their true need is on the roster, especially if you're trying to get a frontline player, you know, a tier one, tier two player. It's hard to know exactly what you need until you see this team in the playoffs last year to get to the play in the national progression for this team is making it to the playoffs this year. And so when I talk to teams around the league, they know the Thunder are looming as far as a team that can be aggressive in any superstar trade. We saw Sam Presti a couple of years ago, a few years ago, be aggressive, go out and get Paul George to pair him with Russell Westbrook. So they're not afraid to take swings, but this is a group that's built organically. And I think teams around the league expect that to continue. There was a moment last night, Nick's Twitter sort of blew up blue is quickly, he had 22 points in 25 minutes and he's averaging 24 minutes on the season. And I think he took him out, put RJ back in and the world blew up. She quickly be getting more time. Yeah, you know, excuse me, I know, Tim's is a defensive minded coach, you know, and so for those backup minutes, I know he's given Josh Hart those minutes starters, you know, even Chenzo, I think quickly should be playing. I think he's, he should be in that rotation. I know two or three years ago, he was an integral part of what they were doing and what they were building. And he had a lot of success with his basketball team. I don't, I don't know what changed from that. You know, maybe tips feel like, you know, I got three or four guys that I feel like I can put the ball in their hands and they can go give me a bucket. So it's not, it's not needed as much as it was in the past. You know, we're bringing in Jalen Brunson, bringing in Josh Hart and guys like that who can score the basketball. And so, you know, you've seen his minutes kind of dwindled a little bit, but he's still a six man type of guy. He's still a microwave type of guy that you can go throw out there and he can go get you 20 points in a quick, in a quick amount of time throughout the course of a basketball game. So I feel like he should be playing more minutes. All right, we'll keep our eye on that one as well. There was a game out here, the Nets, posting the Bucks. We're not playing for the Nets. It was insane. They arrested three starters against the Bucks who gets that, but the Bucks defeat a 144-122. Yannis 32 and 10, Middleton 27 and 10. Those are both season highs for him. Look, we're a third of the way through the season. The Dame Lillard, Yannis experience, we all knew needed a little bit of time. We'll figure it out. If we're at this point this season right now, Chandler, how would you assess what those two guys have done? I would give them, I'd give them a B plus. I think, I think the expectations coming out early were very high, right? We thought on paper this made the most sense ever with Dame shooting with Yannis' attacking downhill. We thought this was going to flourish, but what you don't realize is it takes time and they've had games where they've looked elite. They've had games where they've looked pretty mediocre. Their holes are on the defensive end. Their holes are playing defense, locking in, and the health of Chris Middleton in my eyes. But when you look at this combo, listen, they're 23 and eight. They're second in the east, so it's not like they're in a bad place. I think they think they can play with anybody if they're peeking and they're healthy going into the postseason. They have a tall task and they're going to have to go through Boston and Philly, and whoever else kind of ends up in that mix there, but I think they're fine. There's definitely no reason to panic. These guys are, they seem to be healthy. Chris Middleton kind of has been up and down. Lopez, same thing. They need to get Jay Crowder. They need to get Counten fully healthy to kind of help them on the defensive end, but they're going to score points. They're going to end up being elite offensively. They just got to lock in defensively to kind of take that step to being a championship team. Lou, you heard it. Middleton had a season high last night with the 27. I know he's sort of the variable on his health. Where will he be? If I could tell you that he would be an all-star form, but by the time the playoffs started, what would that do for your predictions of who comes out of the east? Well, I still think Boston is the team to beat, but there's a few things that Milwaukee has working for them. They have championship experience. They have depth, and they're starting to figure out what their identity is. We got to put the ball in, they may live us hands. And even though Yanis is a former MVP, even though Chris Middleton is an all-star in his own right, this is the guy that's going to have to carry us. And so having Chris Middleton as a third option is going to be very dangerous, very dangerous coming up in these playoff runs, and especially against a Boston team who can play defense, who's going to play defense at a high clip and has a clear identity of who's going to score the basketball for us going down the stretch of basketball games. And so Chris Middleton is going to be very important to what the Milwaukee Bucks are going to try to do going into the postseason this year. Trey Deadline-Shoms, are the Bucks going to do anything? Well, asset-wise they're pretty limited. They gave up a lot to go get Dane Lillard, so they don't have any draft picks, swaps to play with. And when you look at the roster, Damian Lillard, Yanis and Neda Gumpo, Chris Middleton, those guys are clearly untouchables. You have Bobby Portas coming off the bench. He's a valued piece, so they don't have much to play with. But when I talked to Team Drone Lee, the one thing that the Bucks have made calls on is trying to get a 3&D wing, a guy that they can plug and play as a starter coming off the bench. Jay Crider are coming back in the lineup. He's rehabbing his way back. They're hopeful his return is around the corner. Him coming back will be a big addition as well. They need that toughness that he was bringing. He was arguably their second, third best player to start the year at different points, how valuable he was. He was third on the team in minutes played, so they're going to be open-minded. They just don't have much to play with. The problem is, Bridges is really their only guy, right? Like he's their only player that can be a top one or two player on a really good team. And that's not to knock their team. They have players. I love Dorian Fendi-Smith. I love Cam Johnson. I love role players like Royce O'Neill. I love Lonnie Walker. Ben Simmons. Is he ever going to play? So they have all these players that are just these solid NBA players, but I don't really see their vision. I don't see what they're going for. Like I said, outside Bridges, I think all these guys are tradeable. I think these guys are a lot of teams could use a Spencer Dinwitty right now. So I think they should be very active at the trade deadline. But they're just kind of jumbled up in the middle of the Eastern Conference. They have no chance of winning this year. I don't really see their future. I don't really see what they're doing, but they have a lot of players that a lot of good teams can use. I'll say that. I guess that's their best attribute this year. And I got to be honest. This was my bad sound. I hadn't watched one minute of Brooklyn Nets basketball this season, you know, between Kyrie drama and KD drama, James Harden drama, Ben Simmons drama. It just got to the point to me. It just wasn't interesting anymore. So I tuned them out. I'm just waiting for them to get back on track when they have some consistent hooping plan and we can just focus on that part. Then I'll be back on the Brooklyn Nets train until the end. I'm tuned out. So I saw one clip and it was Nick Claxton yelling at Cam Thomas to pass the ball. It's the pretty much the only clip I've seen on the Brooklyn Nets. And Cam Thomas was wide open. I was so confused about that. He was wide open. He was still yelling at him to pass the ball. This was the strangest thing to me. I don't know if you guys saw last night. McKill Bridges plays only the first quarter plays 12 minutes and then doesn't play the rest of the game. I guess they're on a back to back, but whatever it was, it wasn't communicated to him because after the game, he goes, I didn't like the choice and whatever that was, but it's whatever. I'm definitely not a fan. And they asked him, do you need rest? And he said, no, I never do. So I don't know what miscommunication happened between McKill Bridges, Jock Vaughn, but McKill Bridges clearly was not happy last night playing only the first quarter. I mean, you guys play in the league. Have you ever seen a situation where a guy only plays the first quarter on a back to back had no idea he was only going to do that? And obviously he's very upset at this. This is my point. More drama. I'm out. Here we go. They don't even know how to properly rest a player. If you're going to just don't play him at all. You're going to play a guy. Well, he got the consistent game streak going. So maybe they want to keep the streak going. But that's weird too. But then why wouldn't he know that? Why wouldn't that have been communicated? Right? It just, it just doesn't seem your, your, it's not like you guys are rolling or you're exhausted. Like you're, you're the ninth seed. You're fighting for a play in and you're resting. You're playing a guy one quarter is your only good, real good player. Like seems a little silly to me. Also resting them against Yanis. I feel like those guys would want to play in that game. But I, what do I know? What do I know? Shams, the good thing is, you know, lots. And when we come back, we have Shams scoops and a little bit of in and out. There's nothing more, you know, that I want to do other than win a championship here in the city. And I know the city really wants it. You know, when I got to Kentucky, they just won a championship two years ago. When I got to the Lakers, they wanted four years ago. You know, so I guess that a little bit more patience. But, you know, coming here to New York, it was a challenge that I wanted to, to, to win a championship. That was the recent sit down with Julius Randall Shams. What'd you learn? I learned that there's a lot that gets made of Julius Randall's happiness. He's gone back and forth with the fans at different points, but I do think he wants to win in New York City. He wants to win with the Knicks and his happiness can be misconstrued at a lot of, at a lot of moments. He's obviously a lightning rod for Knicks fans, but he's turned it around the last couple of months of the season. He got off to a rough start that those first six games of the season, but really the last month, month and a half, he's been dominant. The question for the Knicks as always, can they win in the playoffs? Can Jalen Brunson, Julius Randall be your duo that can lead you to the playoffs? Julius Randall, to me at least, told me he believes so. Yeah. There are some moments in last night's game where I was like, that's the Julius Randall. That is the guy that can get things done. We also have some scoops, a weird one from yesterday's shams. And I immediately texted you because it involved a dog. What happened? Aaron Gordon, on Christmas night, he suffered dog bites, lacerations to his face, to his shooting hand, his right hand, 21 stitches from what I'm told were required. And now Aaron Gordon is going to be out and definitely the hope is it's not going to be super long term. Certainly going to be through the weekend, but he's going to be out in a definite period of time. There's no timetable that they want to give him time to recover. Michael Malone, their head coach, said yesterday, we need to give him time to recover physically and also mentally making it seem like there's something traumatic that obviously happens when you get bit by a dog like that. But obviously, we're wishing Aaron Gordon the best from this Christmas day, night activity that happened. So there was a lot of speculation. I don't know, I don't even know if we know, but is it a pet? Was it a stray? This is a crazy visual. Yeah, it was, from what I'm told, it was his dad's dog. Not sure which type of dog it is, but it was his dad's dog. It was a family dog. And obviously, it was Christmas day, Christmas night, everyone, his family was around. And clearly what seems to be an accident happened. I feel confident in saying it was not a Chihuahua. That has to be one big ass dog. And hopefully everyone is okay. But him being out for a while, guys, that seems like kind of a big deal, Chandler. How big an impact? Yes, we all know how valuable he is. And they don't really have anybody like him on that roster. You know what I mean? They can go with Najee, they can go small with, you know, holiday. It's Christian Braun, guys like that. But they don't really have a big, strong physical muscle like Aaron Gordon, who plays well off Yolkwich as a lob threat. You're basically, you're taking out 14, 15.78 rebounds a game, and the guy does all the little things. He can defend the other team's best player. So it's going to be a blow to their team, obviously, but we still have one of the best duos in the league. And this is an opportunity now for one of these young guys to step up in his absence. That's, Lou, that was one of the crazier shams moments on Twitter yesterday. I was like, a dog? What? I hadn't seen that one yet. Yeah, I'm curious to know what type of dog. I know if you, if you go on Aaron Gordon's social media, he has pictures with Rockwiler. So just being a guess and then I'm probably thinking it's going to be a dog in that range. And, you know, that family probably likes aggressive dogs, but definitely a freak accident. Hope Aaron gets, gets better. He's able to fully recover and continue on on the path that he's on. And so big blow for the Denver Nuggets, like Chandler mentioned, they don't have another guy like him, even though his stats don't jump out at you on paper. He's the recipient of a lot of those Yolkwich passes with the way that he plays. He's coming out of the back doors, create mismatches and using his size to create advantages for himself on the floor. And so this is, this is going to, this is going to sting a little bit for the Denver Nuggets. A big ass dog. I stick with that. Sean, this is the last time we're going to talk to you until the new year. I know you probably have the sexiest plans for New Year's Eve. I hope you rage. Happy New Year to you all. You know how much I appreciate you guys. I think we're going to kill it even more in 2024. So appreciate y'all. Back soon. Have fun. Be safe. You guys, we're doing in or out on third year players. Okay. This is going to be fun. So Okay. That's specific. Yep. Yeah. It's very specific. So we're going to narrow it down somehow, Lou. We're going to start with you in or out on the number two pick, Jalen Green being a future all star. I'll give them some motivation. I'll say out, you know, this is, I just, I just, I'll give them some motivation. I'll give them somebody to be mad at so he can get in the gym and get in his bag and have somebody to put a picture on the wall to prove wrong. I just feel like he's, he's very talented player, but you got to think, you know, the all star game is 24 guys. He has to do something outstanding that sets him apart from the rest of the pack, you know, especially he's on a team with another young guy and, and, and singoon that's averaging 20 points a game. You know, I feel like that success should be his. He should be the focal point of the Houston Rockets with them drafting him so high. And so having another guy on your team playing slightly better than you, I'm going to give singoon that, that, that vote of confidence of being a future all star opposed to Jalen Green. And so I hope I'm wrong. I love, I love Jalen's game. I love what he brings to the table. I would really want to be wrong in this, but I must say I'm out and the motivation has been laid out. All right. We're going to look at the fifth pick from 2021 Jalen Suggs. Can he be a good enough shooter, Chandler, to be a starting point guard on a championship team? I don't think so. I think he's solid. I think he's, listen, I think, I think he's having a great year. He's, I was in 13, three, two or something. His numbers are actually shockingly well shooting 37% from the three. So if he can continue to do that, it's just, he's not a shooter, right? So that's not his attribute. What he does do is he defends, he's athletic as hell. He gets out and transition. I don't see him as a starting top point guard in the league, but I think he can still have value and be that backup point guard that comes in with energy and toughness and does all the little things while getting, you know, 10 to 13 points a game. But I don't see it. I loved him at Gonzaga too. I thought he's going to be a lot better earlier and he's having a great year, but no, starting point guard on a championship team. I don't see it quite yet. Okay. That's got, we got two out so far, Lou. Here's a good one. The seventh pick that year, who's been on a roller coaster ride so far, Jonathan Caminga, when Draymond comes back, are you in or out on Caminga keeping a starting spot? I'm out. I don't, I don't see a scenario and Draymond Green coming back and coming off the bench for organization that he's won four championships with, that he's probably the best defensive player that they have. And he's just, he's an integral part of what they've been able to accomplish over the years. The day I see Draymond Green coming off the bench for the Golden State Warriors, there's going to be trade talks immediately. Even though Jonathan Caminga is playing well, he's getting valuable minutes and that's going to be great for the, for the Golden State Warriors moving forward, but I don't, I don't see him starting over Draymond Green coming back. So I'm out. What a visual that would be Chandler. All right. Here's a good one. The eighth pick, Franz Wagner. Are you in or out on he becoming eventually better than his teammate, Paulo Bencaro? It's tough. It's tough. Who knows, right? Like maybe, but they're kind of similar. I love the way he plays. He's kind of like that, you know, Turcaloo, big six, 10 point guard can post up crafty, really knows how to use his body. And he, it's, he does things like that where he goes, it's unorthodox. It's opposite hand, opposite foot. It's euros slowing down step through. So I love his game. It's just to say he's going to be better than a guy that's, you know, rookie of the year that's having a currently a better year than him is tough. But I think going forward, this could turn into a really dynamic duo that Orlando, but you know, vitally, they need badly. So I think it's a good situation, but to say he's going to be better than, than Paulo. I can't do that yet. That's tough. By the way, Orlando, Orlando's got dudes. Like there's three guys we've already talked about in this short segment. Okay. You mentioned him, Lou, Shingoon. He was the 16th pick in 2021. That's impossible. Are you in or out on he being the best player out of that draft? I am out. I thought about it. You thought about it. Yeah, because it's a, it's a one A one B thing for me. He's having a lot of success right now, but we've talked about Scotty Barnes much more than we have spoke about him since that time of the draft. And so I'm going to give Scotty Barnes that nod, but Shingoon has been doing a great job in putting his name in that conversation. So I'm out again. Okay. Have we had an end? We have not had an end. All right. Maybe this one. I don't know. But I know, try to figure that out. All right. If we redraft this entire class, Jailor, start with you. We're both going to answer this. Would Cade Cunningham still go top? Yes. Yes. In. Okay. We got an end, Lou. We're looking at his team and it's gone awful. So I know you put him on any other situation. I think I still think he's just as good and he's going to be a great player for a while. Like if you look at who's going to have more All-Stars, Cade Cunningham, or Jalen Green going forward, I'm taking Cade Cunningham. The only player I really like better than him to make more All-Stars is Shingoon probably. Maybe. Go! That's the only thing I was going to say. I would just say if we were reclassing, give me a single at one and put Cade Cunningham at two. Shingoon's a stud, dude. I don't know where he came from. He's a bucket. He can pay. He's baby yogurt. By the way, I love Evan Mobley too. Evan Mobley doesn't get a lot of love too. He's not playing right now, but he's bouncy. He's got the Jaren Jackson potential too to be an All-Star one day. Goals, guys. Goals. Take it a quick break. When we come back, the top five duos. Oh, I love a top five. According to these two, run it back with turns. Welcome back. We got a rank them here. It's a top five, a legitimate top five list. Duos in the league. And Chandler, you're going to get things kicked off. Give us your list five down to one. Okay. At number five, I'm going with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. In my defense, I sent this during the NC's tournament with your role. Historically, I'm paying my respect to these two. I think healthy and I don't care about LeBron's age. They can still dominate and still be a very effective duo. At number four, I love Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. We haven't seen the best of them yet. We've seen big games. We've seen bad games. We know these two are elite scores. I can do it all. Just need to start winning some games. Number three, I went Yanis and Lillard. I think these are two of the, you know, most dynamic players. I think, like we always talk about on paper, they should fit. They should play their second niece. They're sitting well. At two, this is a tough one for me. I didn't know if I wanted to go then one or not, but I went with the Joker and Jamal Murray. They're the champs. I feel like they could be either one or two, but I went with number two just because, you know, I'm much like Celtics. I like Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. Number one, I think this is their year. I think right now, currently, this is the best duo in their prime age, politically, everything about them. I like them. Number one. All right. So this is what I find interesting, Lou. I thought you guys would have a ton more overlap, but you don't necessarily. So it's just crazy. So Lou, give us yours and then you guys can tell me what's wrong with what. Yeah. Reason being for me with, with Katie and, with Katie and book and, and Greek and no, no, no, these are not my, these are not my picks. I'm just saying I left them out because I feel like they're part of the trios. And so number five, yeah. So number five, I'm going with, I'm going with Luca and Kyrie. And I'm, and I'm basing this off of potential. We still hadn't seen enough of these two guys play together. But when we do, it's electric and they do a lot of good things together and, and two of the top guards in the league. And so I'm going to kick it off at number five for these guys. Number four, Joelle Embiid is proven former MVP in Tyrese Maxi is having a coming of age moment. You know, he's getting to that point where he's, he's, he's trusted. He's a liable. He's a, he's a liable number two guy in a mix of things. And so I'm giving them number four and number three, I'm going with Kat and I'm going with Ant-Man. And this is based off of, yeah, this, this is based off potential. You know, these, these guys are in the middle of the pack for me because you're starting to see the fruits of the labor. You're starting to see that duo start to pay off and they're getting some success out of those guys. So at number three, I'm going Tatum and I'm going Jaylen Brown. You know, we've seen this, we've seen this duo do a lot of damage. They're on the brink of turning that corner and being a championship duo, but they hadn't quite done it yet. So number one for me is going to be the guys who've proven it. It's going to be Nicola Yolkens for me and Jamal Murray, proven championship duo. They can get it done. They have enough in those two to win a championship. So that's my number one. That's a good reason for the top dog, Chandler. Why'd you say, oh, right off the top with Luca? Was that what you're talking about? I honestly, I didn't even think of, of towns and, but I mean, listen, they're 22 and seven. They're the number one team in the west. They deserve to be on there. I could argue Chet and SGA could be on there. I just feel like when you're looking at a duo, like I feel like everybody we named on that, on those, you know, both named 10 players, they're all better than towns right now. You know what I mean? So I feel like, I feel like I like Joelle and Maxi a little better. You know what's funny? Neither of us said Zion and Brandon Ingram, who they think are the best duo. I think that's another trio for me. I like, I can't say those two and leave out CJ McCullough. I like this technicality. People are hot on Fox and Sabonis. People are like, there's so many good duos, but I mean, we're talking top five here beats. I know. I know you guys wanted to go seven because that seems to be your MO. We're going to take a break right now. When we come back, we'll wrap things up. Maybe, maybe a little party or something. We got one minute for a prop party channeler. You're first. Go. Okay. I'll go first. I like put it up there. I got the Mavericks plus 10. I think that's a lot of points, which is funny because I also got Luca going under 36 and a half. They'll cover this bread, but Luca, I mean, that's outrageous amount of points. That's a lot. That is a lot. All right. Yep. They're at Minnesota. Lou? I like, I like Mavs. I like Mavs money line, big win on the road, and for that to happen, Luca is going to need a triple double. So Mavs money line, Luca triple double. I have a little bit of overlap with you. I have Mavs money line as well. And I have cat over nine and a half rebounds. Look at me being positive. It's all part of the new year. New me, you guys. That's going to do it for us for 2023. Oh, get that year out of the way. Let's get a new one. Be safe. We'll see you guys next week.