 run it up to run it back. Yeah, run it up to run it back. Run it up. Happy Wednesday. Oh, wow. Look, Chandler and Lou look like they're sponsored the same way. That's so cool. Shamsherani, of course, Stadium Insider feeling better. Everyone across the board minus Lou. Everyone's a little bit better. Yay. Little bit better. Okay. Okay. You sound a little bit better. Um, guys, hopefully you were watching some basketball last night. And even if you weren't, I have a sneaky feeling that you saw this highlight right here. It's everywhere. Final seconds of Mavs calves. Looks like Dallas might have this one all wrapped up, but not so fast, my friends. Things get kind of crazy at the end. Yeah, Mitchell 31, 7, and 6. Luca, who normally we would probably talk about and we will end of that game crazy, but Max Drews. Have you ever, Chandler? What? Seen anything like this? Or I mean, I know you know what's crazy and actually had a buzzer beater like this from really far. And I feel like when you're just when this is happening, you're just trying to get it off, right? No, and a million years. Do you think you're going to make this dude? I mean, it looks like his normal jumper. It's crazy how this is just his normal three and this was clutching and they didn't panic. He didn't throw a home run inbound pass. He threw it to mobile. He got it right back. Dallas kind of messed this up. I feel like Dallas should have had somebody at the end of that court there just so they couldn't do something like this. They couldn't roll the ball and bounds. But you know what? They gave him an opportunity and he made an absolute unbelievable shot. I think I saw this as the second longest buzzer beater. Yeah. I think ever. Besides the antique or something. So I mean, shout out to Max Shoes. This is just a huge. I can't even say clutch. It's pretty lucky shot, but it's unbelievable. I mean, Lou, what was your reaction when you saw this one? I love it. Just it was a great shot. It looks like it looked like something they practiced. You know, I know Chandler said it looked like somebody messed this up. But you know, with a second left, pick on my behalf court and live with the results. And it just so happened that he cashed it out for the game. And so it's unfortunate break for for Dallas, but this is a very entertaining basketball game. And in fairness, Struce at that point was five for five from three in that final quarter. So he he was feeling himself a little bit. Shoms, the Mavs should have had this one, I guess you could say. So what's your biggest takeaway from the way things happened out for the Dallas Mavericks? Yeah, Michelle, just a crushing loss. To me, the Mavericks are a team that they probably need to get out of the play in position and get somewhere in that five, six range and go in order to go and make some noise in the playoffs and upset a team because getting in the play in with this team, there's just too many threats in the play in tournament. There's too many threats. Once you get out of the play in tournament, if you get out of the play in tournament, we know how great Luca Donchich is and Kyrie Irving, you know, are but to get the efforts around the board. That's why you go get PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford. And last night before that Struce jumper, Luca Donchich has that pass to PJ Washington for what looked like the go ahead layup. And the Mavericks really believe that that PJ Washington pick up is going to pay dividends. It's going to be a big pick up there. They compare him to Aaron Gordon, what Aaron Gordon means to Denver, someone that can play multiple positions, guard multiple positions, versatile, offensively can impact the game. And they pursued a few guys at the trade deadline, Bobby Portis, Kyle Cusno was another major target, and then they go get, you know, PJ Washington. They really discussed similar concepts. Grant Williams in our first round pick for either Bobby Portis or PJ Washington. They go and get him. So longer term, I'm curious to see how that pick up works out and how the rest of the season goes. But to me, they got to get out of the play in spot. Yeah, I would think, look, again, nine times out of 10, we're talking Luca after this kind of a game. But Max Struce decided to ruin that part of the rundown, but Luca did have a 45 and he and Kyrie together had 75 points. I want to make sure I word this correctly, Lou. Best duo in the NBA right now. No, not for me. I'm, you know, even though Luca is the leading score of the league, I don't know the exact, exact average. I know he's number one, but for me, consistently, it's gonna be, it's gonna be Tatum and Brown, right? You know, those are the only two guys, two teammates that are in the top 30 in the scoring. You know, even though they're way down on the list, they're the only two that's there. And so for the Boston Celtics to be in the position that they're in, for them to have the success that they've had, it's come down. Yes, it's come down to those two guys scoring at basketball consistently. I haven't seen this consistently enough from them and Kyrie has been in and out with injuries, this and that. And sometimes playing with Luca, he turns into kind of a facilitator and waits his turns and takes the opportunities that he gets to score the basketball. But last night was a great sample size for them for things to come for them to be successful. They're gonna both have to score the ball. So am I saying the best? I still got to go with Tatum and Brown because they do it at night in and night out. Are we agreeing with that, Chandler? Do you have a different placement for them? We're talking best scoring duo. They got to be up there. I think Lou's talking about best overall duo because then you got to give it to Tatum and Brown who are, you know, the most versatile, you know, best team in the NBA. It's hard to look away from Tatum and Brown. When you talk about scoring, yeah, they got to be up there and it's just the way they play. They can score the ball every which way. They're exciting to watch. They shoot it from deep, but there's so many good scoring duos now with, you know, Giannis and Dame and PG and Kawhi and Booker and KD. When you're talking about scoring duos, it's crazy because there's some elite, talented offensive players in this league, but they're definitely up there and this game, you're right. Without this, this hell Mary, we're talking about, you know, Luca having 45 and 14 and them combining for 75 points and do they have enough to compete and, you know, survive in advance in the playoffs and instead it's crazy. One shot will take us elsewhere, but when you talk about talent, offensive duo, I think they're top three for sure. I just love the ending and the fact that they got to do that at home was kind of perfect, but despite all of that, Cleveland right now is sitting strong at that two seed, but they happen to also still be seven games back of the Celtics. I mean, at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if you don't get out of the East Chandler. So does this Cavs team as you're watching them have enough to beat Boston? It's hard to say they have enough to beat Boston. Boston is so complete. They've been so good all year long. They've been consistent. They're poised. They play defense. The addition, they're just, they're too solid, you know what I mean? Now, when you look at the next kind of tier, when we start looking at the Milwaukee's, the Miami's, the Knicks, I think the Cavs are right there and I think they can kind of get to that Eastern Conference finals learning with taking the experience that they learned last year on the playoffs. A year of those younger guys better. The additions of Max Shrews and guys like that, I do think they're extremely talented. I think they're well coached. I think the the murmurs of Donovan Mitchell not being happy. Those have quieted because they've been winning. I still think there's some issues there long term. I don't know how much longer Donovan Mitchell or JB Bicker staff wind up being there. But as of now, it's hard. It's hard to complain. Why would you know? Why else would you want to go anywhere else when you're 30, 19 second in the East? And there's honestly one team that's. You know, drastically better than you. So they're in a really good spot. They're young, but they also have guys in their prime. They have a young coach. They're they're in a really, really good situation. Is blue dancing? Is that dancing? What are what is you doing? You agree? I'm delirious at this point. I took my kids to school. I've been recording. I'm just trying to find some mojo over here while I was on camera. Somebody's being funny and put me back on camera. You gotta know it was like perfect time. You gotta get to the nap part of your day and then you're good to go. By the way, do you have any? I mean, look, at the end of the day, do you have any hope that Cleveland could beat Boston in a series? That's just really the simple question. Yeah, it's not even about it. It's not even about Cleveland to me. I think Boston has just done a great job, even though I'm wearing a Boston green today, Boston has done a great job of just separating themselves from the pack. They look strong. They look complete. They look like they're ready to go. Well, all machine. And so I think it's going to be hard for any of these teams to compete with them unless Milwaukee gets their thing together. They start, they start to find some chemistry. I think they obviously have the names and the star power to be a problem for the Boston Celtics. Cleveland look like, Cleveland look like they have that that chemistry that you want going down a stretch and they've caught up and put themselves in a position to be in second. But Boston has taken off. And so I think this is bigger than Cleveland. I don't see anybody really competing with them. It is. It is crazy because looking at the West, I have no idea who's going to who's going to win the West, right? When you look at these, there's just one obvious pick. So barring an injury or some absolute meltdown, it's the Celtics to lose. Yeah, I think I agree with that. If they don't win, something bad happened is what probably people are expecting at this point. And speaking of, they did play last night. Easy peasy for Boston. 117 99 win over Philly. All of the Celtic starters finished with at least a plus 18 or higher. And they had a combined plus 20 27 if you're into stats like that Tatum 29 11 and eight Brown 31 and six and Maxi again sort of forced to do it all at this point 32 and five. They as we've been talking, they're running away with the Eastern Conference. But if you just take the NBA as a whole, is there a team that you would say is more whole W H O L E than the Boston Celtics? Chandler? No, I think they're the best team in the NBA. I think there's some other very good teams. I love the nuggets. I love the Clippers. I think the Clippers, the Celtics is what we've been talking about all year long. How that is their issue. But they're starting five has been so productive. You don't even really have to look much further than that. They've been somewhat healthy and they have been getting some good stuff from Richard and Houser and Al Horford. So then they didn't really, they weren't one of those teams that made a big move at the deadline because they're confident that they have enough. They're built to win now. They have arguably the best duo in the NBA that plays both sides of the floor. And the addition of Drew Holiday, I think, you know, on paper, Damian Lillard, All-Star Perennial score, I think people thought that would benefit the box more. And it didn't, it just, it didn't because Drew Holiday does so much more. He defends, he's a leader. He also can score. He's just an unbelievable complete player. And he adds a whole other dynamic to this team that they didn't have, especially when they lost Marcus Bart. They needed someone like Drew Holiday and he's the perfect fit for them. So when you look at this starting lineup, yeah, it's, it's, they don't even need to have a deep team because their starting lineup is that good. There it is starting lineup, Lou. Anyone better? Right now or ever? Yeah, right now. I mean, we can do ever, but that could be a long conversation. Well, the question I'm looking at it said, who was the last team? So that's, that's all I was saying. But no, I think, I think that this is them. You know, obviously, you got to put the clippers in there on paper. The clippers look like a very strong starting five. When healthy, you would like the Phoenix Suns, but right now they're playing like the most complete best starting five there is. I mean, first and offensive rating, second defensive rating. This is just setting up to be a massive upset if the Celtics do not win this entire thing. That is what this feels like right now because we're talking about them so, so positively. And on the sixer side of thing, obviously, they're just sort of waiting on any and all Joe L and B news. Shams, do you have any for possible return? We reported on it when he had surgery February 6th. This is a six to eight week injury timetable for Joe L and B. You know, at that moment and still the hope and the optimism and the expectation is somewhere in late March, early April. That's when the window starts for Joe L and B potentially to make a return. It really all depends on how his rehab goes, where the team is in the standings. They're about a half game out from the playing tournament. So they're, they're teetering right now between being in the playoffs, being being a team that has to fight in the playing tournament. So you have to look from a team perspective. If you, if you are in the playing tournament, Joe L and B is right. Do you bring him back into the fold? Where's he at? The one thing I know about Joe L and B, I know Chandler, you know him well, Lou, you know, you know him as competitor as well. He knows his body. He's a smart player. He's been through these injury battles over and over and over. There's no one that knows his body better than he does. And so I think he's going to rehab. I think he's going to attack it the best he can. And at the end of the day, he's going to be the one that really knows, am I right enough to come back into the season? Because you're going to be missing about two months. You know, whenever you do make a return, is it worth it? Is your rehab really going that smooth? To have to hold on, to get there just for Joe L and B to come in after being out for two months, Lou? I don't know. It predicts the future for me here with this Sixers team. What are they capable of doing? If they're smart, I think they start fresh next year. You know, this is going to be a uphill battle and you're putting a lot of pressure on Joe L and B. You're talking about somebody who's going to be out, you know, 60 plus days, going to come back nine times out of 10. He's probably going to be on minutes restriction. He's going to have some limits on what he can be able to do for this team. So to try to survive and wait it out for him to get back and still try to compete for a championship, that's just, that's going to be tough. You know, when we talk about a strain on a guy's body, you're talking about putting a strain on him mentally as well and trying to put all of this pressure on him. And so if I'm the Sixers, I allow him to get 100% healthy, get back and you start over, you start fresh next year. I know that window is closing. You hate starting over, but you know, he's had a history of injuries. He's had his issues and, and rightfully so, I think this team should do right for him just by, by his health, you know, but if, if he's healthy and he can play, you throw him out there. I don't, I don't know what you really get out of that going into the playoffs and trying to get that chemistry back that you've been building all year. But I will just rather, I will much rather see Joel and B to 100% healthy then rush back for the playoffs. Yeah, here's the thing. They're, they're, the good news for them is there's seven games from falling out of the play in. So I think the beauty of the play in is it could only be one game, maybe two games if they don't win that first one. So knowing Joel, he's working his ass off and if he's ready to play, I think you play because you look at, like we just said, the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are the only team I'm, I'm afraid of and I'm scared of. And so if I can happen to win that play in game, one game, even with Joel on a 20-25 minute restriction and then I get a seventh seed and I'm looking at Cleveland on the first round. Now we're talking about surviving. Now we're talking about can we advance? And so I think, listen, obviously it's scary because his size and his injury history with everything that he's went through, you definitely aren't going to rush him. But if he's close to 100% to play and this, the way this team's built right now at the Ryzen Maxi and Tobias Harris, Kelly Ubre, all these, these older guys, they were also built to win this year. And obviously Joel and Bita had a huge, huge impact on that, but the play in, it's not like it's this long growing series. It's one game, maybe. So if he can play play, you have six months on the off season and obviously it's a rest to strengthen your injuries and to fully heal. So when you look at the landscape of Eastern Conference, if I can get in there and not face the Celtics in the first round, I'm doing everything I can if I'm too well to be to get on that court. I just hear fans of all the other teams just perking up their ears, hating right now on Chandler Parsons, especially the Cavs since you named them. All right, we got some scoops from Shoms. We got a lot of scoops from Shoms right now. Drew Holiday, we talked a little bit about him, but we got an update that's not necessarily Celtics related, Shoms. What's going on? USA Basel has been pursuing Drew Holiday for most of this NBA season to play in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. And I'm told, Holiday has delivered his commitment to USA in recent weeks and he's expected to be among the 12 man roster for the Olympics in Paris coming up, barring anything unforeseen any injury. They really value his two way ability. We know about his point of attack defense, his playmaking that he brings, his dynamic ability to be a scorer, three point shooter, passer. We saw it last night on display for the Celtics. And in 2021, when this team USA squad won the gold medal behind Kevin Durant's stardom, Drew Holiday was arguably the second best player on that team, the second most important player on that team. So when you look at this upcoming roster for the Olympics, you consider the locks along with Drew Holiday, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stefan Curry, Joellen Bede, Jason Tatum, I expect Devon Booker, BAM out of eye or those guys potentially, Anthony Davis to be among the other names as well. But you know Devon Booker, I think that's a guy that you would look at to be in that category as well. But Drew Holiday and his commitment, he's expected to be a part of this team. Hoops in Paris. Oh that's his wife's wife's old jersey, isn't it? Hoops in Paris, sign me up, sounds like a plan. Shams, we also have some W. Important to know. It's his wife, right? Lorne Holiday. Yeah. His Lorne Holiday, his wife, two-time Olympic gold medalist. Yeah. By the way, that just shows you, that shows you his value right there because all NBA, all-star, you're picked on a 12-man Olympic USA team and they're made a priority to get you. That just shows you how important Drew Holiday is and he's not, I wouldn't say he's a superstar, I wouldn't say he's you know a fan favorite. The guy can do so much in impacted games that Grant Hell's like, no, no, no. I'm gonna get him before Devon Booker. I'm gonna get him before all these other players. So that's totally because that's flattering. You can't not be an Olympic star in that household. There has to be some trash talking that's gonna go down. So yes, I am all about this. He's not even a best Olympian in his house. He's really not. That's so dope. That's so dope. Crazy. And I love that for everyone involved. Some WNBA news, we have Breonna Stewart, of course the MVP, signing an extension with the Liberty. I hate the part where she took less than Max Shams because we already know their salaries, what does that say about everything that's going on here in New York? Yeah, you know, I had to get in the WNBA game a little bit. Breonna Stewart resigned with the New York Liberty the other day and it was a one-year deal. It's a below maximum contract, below the maximum salary of $208,000. But the interesting wrinkle here it's a non-guaranteed deal because of the hard cap and the restraints on the WNBA salary cap in order to keep this is a team that obviously is one at a high level. Sabrina Inesco also on this team in order to keep their starting five together, they made to the finals this past year in 2023. They had, she had to take this non-guaranteed deal. A couple other players on this team also have non-guaranteed or what they call in the WNBA, unprotected deals in order to allow the Liberty to keep this team together and have flexibility. I mean, I'm curious, Chandler Loo, they both played in the NBA when you look at your counterpart to the WNBA to, for this to even be a thing, obviously, I think it got a lot of people's attention. Yeah, I mean, you see guys taking, you know, a little bit less to try and form a team and then I think this shows a lot about Breonna Stewart, how, you know, she wants to win and that's priority even with a much, much, much smaller salary than the guys have, $208,000, I think you just said max contract. So the fact that she deserves, obviously, all of that and more, she's still willing to take less to keep her squad together in Kudos, that's great for her. You see some, you see guys in the NBA do this all the time, but the paid differences, you know, slightly different. So this is, this is, this kind of shows you about her character and how much she's willing to give up, to stay in New York and to stay on the liberty and to compete for championship. I don't know. Take the money, Stewie. It's gonna be hard to beat the aces. It's New York City, you got a family, but I will say this, being in the building when they lost last season at the end of that, it was a toward bad taste in everyone's mouths so I could see that, but don't be giving that money back women. It's, there's a difference between taking 300 million in 280 and 208,000 and the max of that. Come on. You take all the money you can while you can. That's just my little piece of advice. Oh, we're taking a break right now. Oh, I hope to hear you, but I am for good reason. When we come back, we will be joined by Channing Frye as he joins, run it back. See you in a bit. Oh, it's a good final image right there, 14 year vet and he's a champ and he's up early. Channing Frye joins the show right now. First of all, good morning. We just learned you're on the list. You're on the video of me dunking. Holy crap. How good is that? What's been early? What's been early in a career? That ain't it. We'll send it to you to make sure you have it. You know what? Channing yesterday, we barely got to get into it and it was a kind of a heated topic. It's a heated topic in the country. I know it's Wednesday, but now that we've got like grown ups talking about banning court storming, I feel like this could go on forever. So one, we can arrest them. I submitted electric fencing. No one likes that. What? Just for fun. Have you been on a court that was stormed? Yes. Just don't lose. Don't lose. Who cares? What are you talking about? Are you asking kids? Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Right? And I said this. We talked about this yesterday. Like, there's only one guy ever in the history of maybe college sports that I'd really be worried about his health. That's JJ Reddick. Right? I'd be worried if somebody stormed the court, somebody would punch him in his face. He was hated that much. Everyone else? Like just put your hands up and walk off the court. Like why are you trying to run where drunk kids are running? It happens. It's part of college sports. Like it's not that serious. And it seems like only the coaches that lose make a big deal about it. So stop losing. Stop losing the unranked teams. Coach better. And maybe no one's going to storm the court. That's the stupidest rule I've ever heard in my life. See, Channing, I said, Chandler, I said, aren't you opening up the floodgates? So like where else in the world can 30, 40, 100 kids run up on you and you not have to defend yourself or do something? Isn't it open up the floodgates though for issues? No. I've got the court stormed on me three times. And honestly, I did put my hands up. Right? We lost to, I think Oregon State, we lost to, in my four years, Oregon State, Washington State, and maybe like Stanford at the buzzer. And you see me just walk off my hands up and security runs to me. Nobody bothers me. But like, you know, if you're going to run off while they're running on, you're going to get hit. It's just, it's physics. They don't know their equilibrium is off. So listen, if you were to just stand still, somebody like, you know, Caitlin Clark, I'm pretty sure Caitlin Clark, the generator of millions of dollars, security is going to come get you first. Security is going to come get you first. If you just put your hands up and just like, hey, I'm just trying to get off. Somebody's going to come find you. It's not that big a deal. Those poor walk-ons are just going to get pummeled. Hey, listen, look, no offense, you'd air for the grades anyway. So come on, you get all the gear and you're there for the grades. Come on, let's keep it a buck. Poor champ, he's the only one, the only one fighting it. I just hate that it's due, because I just disagree with everything about due. Yeah, I don't know. Nobody likes due. Nobody likes due. Nobody likes due. If it was anybody else, I'd probably make an exception, but it's due. It's like, you know, elbow mop, they're fine. Janning, Clay Thompson, he's continuing to come off the bench and you've been on this early. You've been saying they should do this since November. What made you feel that way so early on? I think you saw him early pressing and even the year that they won, Wiggins and Clay, they are such good teammates and such good like team guys that they're always like, well, if I don't play good, he'll do it. Or if I don't play good, you know, Clay will do it. To me, you got to put the pressure on one of them to come out and play good basketball. And then also, for me, Clay right now, coming off of all his injuries, I'd like to showcase him. Ring some of that firepower off the bench. Clay is a top 75 player of all time. I don't care what about that list or whether you made it or not, but Clay is that good. And I think if you bring him off the bench or a guy like Chris Paul, you can keep that rhythm going that you need. So you're going to introduce the young guys like Kaminga and the rest of them to allow them to put them in good situations to win games. To me, playing Clay, Steph, Draymond, Kaminga, everybody in the first lineup, you're not getting any firepower off the bench. When they win, they have a great bench. Think about Sean Livingston. Think about, you know, Andre Guadala. Think about those kind of guys coming off the bench. Now you have Clay Thompson coming off the bench. It's no wonder that they're doing great. He's going to play us 34 minutes anyways. So with all that being said, the struggles, the up and downs, is this the last year Clay Thompson's on the Warriors? Does he go and start somewhere else or does he go back there? Man, listen, we're talking about Breonna Stewart. Take that change now. Look, I know a lot of teams that go pay him crazy. I think it's up to him. Let me go with my gut here. I do think it is. I do think this is his last year. I think there's a team that is going to pay him crazy just to not be on the Warriors anymore. You know, obviously the Warriors got to make decisions. I think they're going to go younger now. I think this is kind of their last full run. If Clay doesn't have a crazy playoff run, I can see somebody else saying, hey, we'll start you. You got 35, 40 minutes a night on a good playoff team. I can see somebody throwing some money at him. Man, just my brain explodes. It's just a truth because whether they think they're going to win, they're going to say, do you have 20 million for Clay Thompson or 30 million? Joe Shmoa, he's going to put people in the stands. You had Clay Thompson to Dallas. You had Clay Thompson to the Lakers. You had Clay Thompson to Sacramento. You had Clay Thompson to anybody. You're like, all right, well, we got a chance. Like we're going to be a playoff team. I mean, he's just that. It's a weird picture. I'm in another journey. It's a weird picture. I'm like an Orlando Magic. It is. Yeah. It's like D-Way going to Chicago. You're like, ah, I get it. But that ain't it. That ain't it. It's going to be weird. And it's going to take a while for us. I guess Damon of Bucks Jersey was a little bit weird as well. And that's a great segue because they've won three straight now. And we all know for the beginning of this Doc Rivers experiment, it felt like, uh-oh, but for what we all do for a living, it was fantastic. What is your opinion, not just on what they've been able to do and it looks like they're figuring things out, but kind of Doc's entrance as the Bucks coach and all the talking that he was doing? Man, where do I? Okay. Where do I? So I know a bunch of Clippers guys. You know, obviously I think Doc has had success in this league on different teams. I think this is an interesting situation for him to come in. I think no matter who you, you could have Phil Jackson on this team. I don't know if I put the Bucks above and it's a hot take. I don't know if I put them above a healthy Philly or Boston regardless. I just don't think they're built that way. I think I'm a little disappointed that they really, they're always going to be good because you have Giannis, you have Dame, you have Brooke, you have good pieces, but they haven't evolved for me, right? They haven't like adjusted to the times. I feel like they are very, very good during the regular season. I'm curious to see what happens if they get an unfavorable matchup, how they make adjustments, which is I think their biggest problem. I don't think they're an adjustment team. I think they're just do, we do harder. And that's what I worry about. But you have Giannis and if he can be healthy, he's a monster in the playoffs, controlling the pace of the game. But I think Doc Rivers is just there to make Dame and Giannis work as best as they can. So I don't think it's about X's and O's. I think it's about superstar management. So he did a pretty crappy job at the beginning. He won three in a row. I think a pretty big win against Minnesota. That was kind of impressive for me. But it'll be interesting to see what happens during the playoffs because teams are going to say, during a regular season, you ain't hacking Giannis like that. During the playoffs, teams are now stacked. And think about the Knicks. They got four or five dudes that are six, nine physical that can just guard him, right? And Dame, he's playing amazing. I think he has the most fourth quarter points in the league. Right now. So for me, it's like, I don't really see them both play great at the same time together. You know, it's kind of weird. It's almost like Luca and Kyrie. They could play well together, just not, like it's not like Penny and Shaq. It's not like Kobe and Shaq. You know, it doesn't, it makes sense, but it just doesn't look, it looks weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's my, here's my thing as, as much as we talk about the inconsistencies of the Bucks, right? They're still sitting in third and they're looking at, right? If it, if it was today, we're looking at a unhealthy Philly. We're looking at Orlando Magic team. I still like them getting out of the first round and then playing somebody else in a second. I still feel really, really good about the Milwaukee Bucks with, with the circumstances. So I mean, if they played those two teams in the first round, I think that's a quick 50 piece nugget. Four and done. I just don't think, I don't think Orlando shoots well enough in their first year guys. I love Orlando. I think they need a true point guard and some shooting. And I think they're going to be top five in the East. But to me, that's the issue is like, what are our expectations for Milwaukee? You have Giannis in game. So you're like happy that you beat up on a, like a hurt Philly or a young Orlando. No, we need to see them in the Eastern Conference Finals. Like that's the expectation. When you have players like this, when you have two players that are probably top 15 in the league right now, and that's a lot of pressure, but it's also what you get. I mean, you have an older team. You've stopped developing your young guys. You started, you've really bought into like, this is our time, which you should. And so for me, okay, you got out the first round. Congrats, here's your cookie. Now who you got to play? What happens in the Eastern Conference Finals? Are you going there? Those are my expectations for them. So I feel like I know your answer then. What's more likely for this particular Bucks team, a first round exit or going to the finals and winning? Man, no, I don't think they win. I'll be honest, they not beating Boston. All right, fair enough. I just don't think so. Boston is too complete and to their bench, their system, their defensive versatility, their range of shooting, superstar power. Okay, let's say Yannis and Tatum. Okay, and then you have Jalen Brown and Dame. So those four just go out the window. Boston has everything else. Yeah. Or Zengas drew holiday. Boom, boom, boom. You're killing. You're too soon to start to need to win your two games. You're coaching your bench. That's four games in the playoffs. This one's easy. They happen to get a beat or something in the first round. They could very well lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Miami Heat. How well they'll play the New York Knicks. Yeah, if they got Miami, New York, they don't want that. They don't want them problems. They want Orlando, a beat-up Philly. They want something to kind of warm up and understand. They don't want Miami. You guys listen, no matter who's on Miami's team, they're going to get grandma and grandpa out there. And next thing you know, they're going to average 12 and five, make good basketball plays. Like, what are y'all doing at practice that no one else is? Oh, they're probably practicing. They're probably practicing. That's it. Man. Man, it's crazy. Y'all got a lot of hot kicks in there. They're going to lie. What are you talking about, Lou? These are good takes. Because that's your team. You like that because that's your team. You know, more so than adopting. You don't think Miami can beat Milwaukee in a four game. In a series, first round of the playoffs. You never count Milwaukee out how they're built. You know, they're a system team, so they can plug in and plug guys in and out. But they've been just as inconsistent as Milwaukee has this year. And Milwaukee's been able to survive and stay in a third place. So that's the only thing that's different for me. But I want to stay on the bugs really quick, because we always make a big fuss about Doc. But Giannis recently said he doesn't watch a lot of film, doesn't watch a lot of basketball. And I thought he said it in jest, kind of trying to get people going. He said he likes to be surprised going in games to see what guys do. What was your take on that? Well, you know what my take was on that. One, if that was funny, if he thought that was a joke, that's not funny. I just don't think that's funny. As a leader, you have to be the most prepared. I played on teams with guys like Brandon Roy, Steve Nash, LeBron, even guys way back, Stefan Marbury. All they did was watch film. And it wasn't a joke. It was like they'd get in a car, they'd have a driver just so they can continue to watch film. So for me, it was like he probably does watch film, but that's not really funny. I didn't think that was funny. I think your team has been pretty inconsistent this year. I think for you as a leader, obviously you want to portray that I'm doing when everything possible to help my team win these games. So yes, they're on a three game win streak, but I think it just depends on what happens this year. If they don't win the big thing, then people are going to come back to that unfunny joke of, oh, haha, I don't watch film. So it wasn't my favorite quote. It was bad timing too. Like you guys are losing. You just got fired a coat. Like it just it was rough and right. It wasn't funny. He's got four coaches in nine months. So it's like, oh, and I don't watch film. It's probably like, yeah, you probably should have kept that one to yourself. You have put that one back in the pocket, you know. Read the room. Read the room. Read the room. Can we talk a little Lakers for a second? Because I know you've talked about the title window being officially closed. I believe it was zero chance at winning the championship. Do you still, are you still there? Has it moved at all? With the Lakers? Yeah. No, that's a zero. That's a zero. That is a zero. Good try. Hey, I love you guys. You know, I mean, put it this way. If we stop right now, who they playing in the plan? The Warriors? That's a 50-50 chance right there. That's tough. And then you got to go against a young, a young Minnesota or Dallas. Yeah. Or Dallas who's cooking right now. Stop it. Braun, listen, that's my guy. I love you. If I saw him, I'd tell him the same thing. Hey, you had a great year. Big guy. That's crazy. You're 39. I sweat going up the stairs. I need a breath. You out here averaging 25. But it ain't it. There's no way no one could say, now if they win, I will come back on this show and say, you know what, I retire from media because I don't know what I'm talking about. But they got, they got to climb Mount Everest. They got to climb Mount Everest. He knows at the top of that? Yolkich. And there's nobody in the Western Conference. Maybe other than, I'll say the Clippers. Yeah. Because Kawhi is balling. He's the best, most untalked player in the league right now. Yeah. Barbecue and the whole league with no words. It's crazy. No, no TV, no words. Just cooking everybody. But no, the Lakers. No, thank you. I'm sorry. Yes. I love the Kawhi part. Okay. So let me ask you this then. Because now we're already starting the Willie have a farewell to our wonky rumors about LeBron in different cities. Do you see a world in which he leaves LA for one last hurrah and a shot at a time? Oh wow. Heck no. That'll be the dumbest thing you could do. What for what? You're a Laker. You're about to have your number in the rafters with Kobe and Shaq and Kareem. What other place can you do that? You've already done an LA. You've already done it in Cleveland, right? Now you're in LA. You want to move from your $30 million mansion to where? Oklahoma City? To Dallas? To San Antonio? Stop it. No. He's living luscious. He's like this. Ah, we're in the seventh spot as he looks at the sun, looking at the Hollywood sign. He's like, well, all right, here we go. Another game. The ease of life is crazy. Yeah, I only played on the Lakers for like a quarter of a season. That's a different experience. Playing in LA is a different experience. Absolutely. And I played in New York. If you can be successful there, there's no reason to leave. You know where they get rid of people? People are like, now I go, I'll wave this, just let me stay. It hurts going from LA to Orlando. LA to Charlotte. LA to New Orleans. It is, it ain't the same. LA is beautiful. We got to have Channing on more just so you can keep shitting on cities like I do every single game. Crapping on the city, but I'm saying it ain't the same. You know it's not the same. Look, there are certain cities where you got outfits playing at the beginning of the year. Then there are sweatsuit cities. Okay. You're not leaving. You're not leaving a fashion city to go to a sweatsuit city. I sold my soul. I sold my soul at Winter Memphis for three years, bro. Trust me, I know exactly what you're talking about. Don't just sell for $90 million. Don't start, Channing. Don't start, Channing. I don't want to go too. Channing, start. We were doing good. Leave Memphis alone, Channing. Start, start. Talk about Memphis, Channing. Leave Memphis alone. We were doing good. No, no, listen. Look, man, you can have all the ribs you wanted, Memphis, right? Look, honestly, when you did that, I was like, dang, I didn't know your injuries or whatnot, but I was like, I think they had still had part of the grindhouse there. I thought that was a good matchup for you. Obviously, the city's not my favorite, but they got a certain culture there. It worked. So it's different than going, it's different than going to Detroit. It went from a good fit for literally all right. Oh, great fit. Oh, yeah. All right. Y'all would have been great. Tomorrow I'll meet a great grind because the Parsons contract. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't mess that up, buddy. But hey, you living good. I see that fancy painting behind you. Yeah. He's living the best life of everyone. I look expensive. Wait, kidding. So you don't think the Braun waits and goes wherever Brauny gets drafted or wherever he goes. You don't think he's staying in L.A.? Stop it. And then I said this before, but number one, the Braun is a dad, right? The problem is sometimes I think he forgets that he's a dad, so he's hyping his own kid up. Like for me, I got a 13-year-old boy. Now, if he's like getting ready to go to college, I'm like, man, yeah, Hendricks. I'm going to league him, but then I'm going to realize that, oh crap, I'm chanting fry. Like people are going to pay attention to this, especially if he's not playing the best that he can. So for me, it's like if Brauny plays in the league, when he does, I think he is a league player. I don't know if he's going this year, next year, whatever. Just an opportunity to play in a league, Braun will be happy. I think he's done it differently than his own, than his dad. I think if Braun can hang around, if he can hang on by a thread, even if he's 42 and Brauny's gone to San Antonio or someplace like that, but those two to play and be on the same court, I think that's going to be pretty impactful and pretty awesome for them, both of them. Yeah. Now, Michelle hates this San Antonio. No, I don't. I don't want him to go to San Antonio. I want to throw him back. Why? I just told my team, because then I'm putting a precarious situation, chanting. I'm even wearing his first hat today. You don't do this to me right now. I mean, he's very unprofessional. To me, I think if you're going to get somebody like Brauny, San Antonio is the safest place to put him. Why do you think the NBA put Wemby in San Antonio? It's the safest place to put superstars like that, where they can grow into their opportunity. Could you imagine Wemby in Detroit? What? You look, come on now. That ain't it. They put him with the best coach ever and said, hey, we're going to put you on TV just every so often. A little bit. There's no pressure to win. Don't worry about it. And you can live in your little bubble in San Antonio. No state tax. I want to bring it back to 2016 when you get to Cleveland. You said that they had sticks up their asses. What did you mean by that? And how did you remove those sticks up their butt? First of all, I wasn't moving. No sticks up, no butts. But so I got traded from Orlando. We were one of the worst teams in the league. I was with Scott Skiles, who I like and appreciate, but his practices sucked. They were three hours. We had to do like closeouts every single day. We had to do layups for 30 minutes, like tedious, boring, boring stuff. And we were still getting drug by 30. So one day I told Skiles, I was like, man, Skiles, man, look, I'm 33 at the time, whatever. I said, man, look, you tearing the skin off my ankles, doing all these closeouts, you know, dang well, I don't play defense like this. So we kind of had an understanding I didn't have to do that. So when I got traded to Cleveland, I was like, hold up. We don't got to practice this and we're winning. What are y'all thinking about? Y'all don't talk to each other? This is ridiculous. So me being me, I put every single player on a text chain and then started, you know, wait up at night to watching the games and then started just texting everybody. And then they were like chanting, leave us alone. It's late, blah, blah, blah. Then I send funny gifts. Then I send, you know, rude things and things probably like HR would talk to me for. And then honestly, everyone just kind of ganged up at like hating my text threads. And then a month later, everyone started to love them. And so I was like, hey, Kyrie, you have a book reading. Why don't we three people go to the book reading? Right? Whatever it is, right? He had a sound bowl reading, right? So I went to that. You know, Bron had a shoe release. We're like, hey, let's three, four people, let's go to this. So it just turned out to like actually take time away from your life to go hang out with your teammates. Like they're not that different. We're all cool. Like, I think Kevin especially was like, dude, Kevin, you're just chilling and Cleveland by yourself. We're like, you got a big old house. You got all this expensive liquor. We're going to come over there and throw a party at your house. And so we literally used to throw parties at Kevin's house, right? Because he had the best, obviously the best charcuterie plate, but, you know, he had the best liquor too, right? So for me, yeah, we were like, why not hang out? Listen, we're not practicing. We're drumming teams. What are y'all mad for? I just got came from Orlando. Come on, man. We got to have some fun while we do this. So we started having fun and started working. Yeah. Like you started to see people start to talk to each other more, hang out more and obviously it worked out. Just a text thread, you guys. See, Lou, we want to hang out with you. And you won't respond. And it hurts our feelings. Lou lives in Atlanta. He's with his people. I know Atlanta people are different. He won't do anything. All right. So you guys won the championship that year that, of course, then led to the argument that I just, I'm not a huge fan of the, if Draymond hadn't been a suspender, the Warriors would have won that series. But it is an argument that's been made many times. Why? And none to do with Draymond. It was Andrew Boget got hurt. It was the biggest issue. If you watch the film, Andrew Boget, the first two games, regardless of staff or anybody else, made the biggest impact on our ability to win. So he was blocking shots at the rim, setting big time screens, rebounding, outletting. Like he was doing everything. When he got hurt, you notice we started driving the ball over and over and over again, like relentlessly. And the only time we'd settle for a three is if, like, end of shot clock, or you were wide open. But to beat Golden State, you had to play street ball. You could not play, let's just shoot threes with them. You were going to get crushed, right? They can go on a 9-0 run like this. You make a mistake, you know? Every game that we lost, we'd look at the film and they were so... I mean, it was wild how good that team was. You made a mistake. Oh, that's three points. You made another mistake or a turnover. Oh, that's five points, four points. Like, you're like, dang, I'm down 12 now. How did that happen after three possessions? Well, you had turnovers. You didn't, you know, get to the body. You didn't communicate. You didn't know the assignment. Like, Andrew Boget was the biggest issue for us. When we started driving the hole, he would block everything. So when he left, when he got hurt, we were driving to the basket, getting layups and then getting our defense set so that we could actually have an opportunity to grab and hold so they weren't running around like crazy people. It was, he should get the most credit. It wasn't about Dremon. We were going to win that game regardless. Dremon could have played. You could have put Scotty Pippen out there, Dennis Rodman. We were going to win that game. Channing, this has been awesome. If you don't know, you probably already do. Road Trippin is the podcast with that fool Richard Jefferson and Allie Clifton. We appreciate the time so much. We could probably go on for another hour. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, anytime, anytime. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. My goal, I appreciate that. My goal is, um, Paul George. Are you, are you, I'm leaving. Paul George is the best player ever. Colby, Paul George. When are you going to say your... Call my little Anthony. Call my little Anthony. If you didn't say your dad first, it's crazy to me. That's, I don't, obviously you need to go at his levels though, like, he don't, he don't even got it. He just threw the cards at me. He doesn't have to. He don't even got to be talked about. Yeah, it was a good, it was a good big fit in. All right, that's obviously Kai and Anthony and Lala. Um, any issues here? Does your kid have to name you first? Let's start there. Lou, you first. No, this is, listen, I'm the corniest, lamest person in the world to my daughter when it comes to everything. She thinks I'm a square. She thinks I'm a loser. And everybody else is the coolest person in the world, but she absolutely adores me behind closed doors. Is it so in public? I, I, I get this. That's just dad. You know, that's not Carmelo Anthony to him. That's, that's pops. That's dad. And so, you know, and a lot of kids like Paul George, man, you're starting to find out that a lot of young hoopers really, really love Paul George. And so, you know, she can't tell him who his goats are. He like who he like. I have no issues with this. It's just, it's just funny because it's not like you say an MJ or LeBron. He's saying, he's saying Paul George is cause that's just, that's his personal prep. That's probably who he likes watching growing up. Probably who he emulates his game after. So yeah, I got no problems with it. And I'm like, Lou, like my daughter thinks I'm cool right now, but she's only two years old. So give her, give her some time. So, so definitely think I'm a big loser. The honeymoon ends, Chandler, trust me. The honeymoon ends. Yeah, Chandler, you have got, you've got two little ones. Do you already play footage of your golden days so that they can start to understand? You know, what's funny is that my daughter, my daughter Rocket, she watches the show again in the other room or zoom. So she wants, she'll see me on TV. And then we have shown her like highlights of me. So now when I'm watching basketball, she'll just point to a white guy on the TV and go, dad. So now she thinks any white basketball player is dad. So that's who we got going on. Yeah. Same. Oh, that does it for today, but we will be back tomorrow. Good news.