 What's the word y'all? The reason we love the NBA so much is that even like now when there's no basketball, you know, we on our all-star break hiatus, there's still gonna be stuff to talk about. So here's our news dump episode. Russell Westbrook is now a clipper. The Bull shut down Lonzo Ball in a signed Patrick Beverly. Kevin Love is a heat. Mayant is a heat? Is a part of the heat? You know what I mean. Myers Leonard is back in the league on a 10-day contract. We saw coach get fired yesterday. We saw coach get extended. There's a lot to talk about. We're gonna do all of that after we talk about a sponsor, Prize Picks. Hit the link in the description and download the Prize Picks app and use code Kenny because they're matching all deposits up to $100 for new players. I love Prize Picks because it's just you versus the numbs. You pick some of your favorite, the least favorite athletes. You look at something like points, rebounds, assists. Look at the number and you decide if the person is gonna have more or less than a number. And you're like, Kenny, the NBA is on break. What are you using Prize Picks for? Well, they got college basketball, the NHL, we got soccer, CS, gold, but they recently added this, which I think is really cool. You can now make entries based on the second part of the season. And actually, currently, there's a little deal going on with Luca. You can make an entry where you think Luca is gonna have just one 30-point game in the last 22. Brother, he's averaging over 30. So that's something we take it. And you could pair that up with pretty much averages. Do you think LeBron James is gonna finish with a 29.5 average? More or less, you decide. So this hypothetical output together sees Luca Dantzic, I'm going more on his .5 30-point games for the last 23. And we're going more on Trey Young at seven and a half and more on double-doubles for the double-double machine, Dematis of Bonus. And you see how quick and easy things can be? So hit the link in the description, download Prize Picks and use Coke, Kenny, so they can match your deposit up to $100. All right, man. Let's talk about this Russell Westbrook news because he is a clipper. After rumors about the Bulls, after rumors about the Washington Wizards, he ends up with the clippers because over the all-star breaking media day, Paul George is seeing the A. There's no other player in the league I want to see win a championship outside of myself than Russell Westbrook. They're campaigning everybody on the clippers team one at Rust Albeda and they finally made it happen. I mean, it's a team that traded away John Wall, traded away Reggie Jackson and they were ready to insert another point guard into the mix. And for the life of me, I can't figure out if I really like this or if I really don't like it. And I guess it's kind of the way the Russell Westbrook experience has been over the last couple of years, but there's obviously good things that he can provide for the team, but there also are obvious downsides. Let's start off with the positives of adding Russell Westbrook to the roster right now. I don't even know if I want to quote this account anymore or this post. I was going through Reddit and I saw this and I didn't realize it was from an account named MIT Westbrook. This might be a Westbrook stand fan account and I'm quoting it on my show and that's not something that we normally do, but they do bring up some good points. Basically, just of it is the Clippers struggled to Reggie Jackson and John Wall pair with Kawhi Leonard or Paul George. The net rating goes from plus one to a negative 10. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on the court with the point guards off, it is a plus nine. If you pair Kawhi Leonard and Reggie, it's just a plus one. If you pair Paul George and Reggie, it's a negative six. And if you go Paul George and John Wall is all the way down to a negative 10. So they've had this hole in the point guards specifically with these two guys around. So Russell Westbrook adds another element of being a playmaker, puts some pressure on the rim and hit shooters. And that's something that Russell Westbrook hasn't had at least this season when he was on the other LAT. And if you're going strictly based on the percentage of three point shots hit this season, the Clippers are tied for fifth highest in all the basketball while the Lakers were in the bottom five. So now Russell Westbrook is potentially getting into the basket and kicking it out to really plus shooters versus a team that didn't have much shooting at all. Get down here, playmaker. Something they kind of had a little bit in John Wall but obviously John Wall didn't fit exactly coming off the injuries and being out for an entire season. Another positive, at least for me and I don't know if many people are thinking about it from this aspect, they don't owe Russell Westbrook anything. Hypothetically, if Russell Westbrook is hurting the squad and random game or in the playoff, they don't have any obligation to keep this man on the court. It's not like when he was a Laker where they wanted to at least showcase his value or he was looked to be a part of a big three or he's making $44 million and you don't want that dude just sitting on the bench so you feel forced to play him. If he's hurting the team or Terrence Mann is better or Eric Gorton is better on this night or whoever's better on this night, they don't have to play him. And I think that the one thing that made me, at least like I said, I don't know exactly how I feel. But one of the reasons why I felt slightly positive is you look at the articles written around what made Russell Westbrook make this decision or what made the Clippers decide to bring in Russell Westbrook. They kept mentioning fit and roll. Fit and roll. And if Russell Westbrook can comprehend his role on this team and the Clippers and Tyloo, comprehend where Russell Westbrook could potentially add his value and there's no like trying to take a step above that, then this could be a win. But the Clippers have been all-season team that I haven't talked about much because I just don't know what to believe about them, right? Earlier in the season, Tabarra Lu said all I want is 15 straight games and I'll figure out rotations. I trust myself, I trust this team. He never got those 15 straight games. And guess what happened? We got to the deadline. They traded for Eric Gordon. They traded for Miles Plumlee. Mason, Mason, they didn't trade for Miles. Mason, Plumlee, and they traded for Bones Highland. So a team that was already struggling to find continuity just added three players. Oh, and now bringing Russell Westbrook. And they got 20, what, 22 games to try to figure all of this out. And that's one of the scary parts. You know the last positive I'm gonna say, and this might not even mean anything, but I'm gonna say it anyway, they wanted him there. Paul George campaigned in Kauai Leonard and a lot of the people on this Clippers roster really, really wanted Russell Westbrook on the team. And you can't say the same thing when he was a part of the Lakers in those two seasons. I mean, you had so many Trey rumors and obviously every single Trey rumor you saw in Lakers fandom had to do Russell Westbrook going out because he was making $44 million and they had to take a toll. I mean, this man, LeBron James, at an interview leading up to him being an all-time leader scorer where he was asked about Kauai, or not Kauai Leonard, Kari Irvin getting traded. He said, well, I'm kind of disappointed. Obviously in order to trade for Kari Irvin, Russell Westbrook had to be in that deal. You know what I'm saying? So there was some turmoil whether it be Russell Westbrook himself or the Lakers organization, whatever it might have been. He was not really wanted there. And you could tell through the last couple of days where he wasn't a part of the huddles and they went onto TV and saying that he was a vampire in the locker room, sucking the life and the energy of the out of the locker room. They didn't want him, he didn't want to be there. And this one with the Clippers, at least as of right now before they actually got on the court with him, they want him there and that might be a positive. But for every positive, there's a negative. And that's kind of been what the Russell Westbrook experience has been over the last couple of seasons. Because we talk about him putting pressure on the rim. He's not the finisher that he was three seasons ago. I'm looking at the numbers right now. He's any 27% how he's finishing at the rim. That's not great. He can get there, he's having a hard time finishing. Maybe that was due to the lack of spacing. Maybe he just can't, he's just losing to the step. Whatever it may be, he hasn't actually been able to finish at the cup, at the volume and the quality like he has been in his previous seasons. And you know, you've watched Russell Westbrook over the last season or so. You're gonna get the pull-up mid-range jump shot, something that should not be in his game. He's in the 11% how on mid-range jump shots. I mean, it's just not a part of his game that he should be shooting. He fell in love with it obviously as MVP season where he was scorching hot from that range. He has not been good from there since that MVP season. Like even his last couple of years in OKC where there was Houston, whether it was Washington in the seasons in LA, he hasn't been able to hit the mid-range shot. Now obviously the spacing issue. I mean, the one saving grace for him over the last two seasons that don't really stand today is that he used to be a really good corner three-point shooter. Now the value wasn't crazy, but he shot 41% from three on corner shots in Washington and then he shot 44% from three on corner shots with the Lakers. And that was only on 52 attempts in 82 games. So it wasn't a crazy value, but this season he's down to 27% on 44 attempts. So like he used to be able to hit that corner shot and now the spacing is going to be an issue where if Russell Westbrook doesn't have the ball, he hasn't been a threat over the last couple of seasons. We saw do the first couple games in LA, like the first year, he was used as a screener for LeBron and they never ever did it again. I could see a world where Taran Lu is using him as a screener and that opens the game up for him as on the Roman as a little boop-boop dish off due to a Plumlee or a Zubats or whatever because Kawhi and Paul George both can be pick and roll ball handlers as well. So there's a world where he can be used differently than what he had been used in the last couple of years in LA, but only time will tell. Taran Lu doesn't have a lot of time to figure out exactly how we use Russell Westbrook exactly the way to make him the most valuable as can be. I just don't know what closing lineups look like and it might be a game-to-game basis because it's Taran Lu and they have some of the best depth in basketball. But like even though Eric Gordon hasn't shot the ball well in the few games that he's been a part of the Clippers, his defense is noticeably different between his time with the Clippers. Again, it's what, two games versus the however many years it was in Houston when they were bad, was it a year and a half or whatever. So he obviously elevated his defense. Taran's man has been really good for them and this might take away from what Taran's man might be doing. It's taken away from Bones who was complaining about play time and stuff like that and now we just add another guard to the mix. Either way, the Russell Westbrook experience could go either really good or really bad. I don't really know, only time will tell. I mean, long time on that topic, but Russell Westbrook deserves those type of conversations because he is such a polarizing player on court or whatever. Let's quickly go over the other news topics starting off with the Chicago Bulls. There was a guy on YouTube on this channel that came on here and said, hey, over the all-star break, the Bulls are gonna tell the world that they're shutting down Lonzo Ball because nobody talks about basketball after the all-star break and they did exactly that. We knew it was coming. I'm not surprised. Get well soon. So I've heard some really bad things about that knee. So I'm hoping that he recovers and I'm not even just talking as a Bulls fan. I'm talking as a human because he should be able to do the things that he loves and he loves the game of basketball. So get well soon. We also signed Patrick Beverly. Am I crazy for being excited for Pat Bairf? I know he's not the Pat Bairf from two years ago, three years ago or a Pat Bairf that was making all defensive teams. But again, the team that made zero trades at the deadline to just have something new was something to be excited about. And what I keep saying is what could go wrong? That's my mind. What could go wrong? He's on his podcast. He said he gonna get on the ass of Zach Levine and all these dudes. What could go wrong? You know what I'm saying? If he pisses somebody off, who cares? We should be selling anyway, you know? He is the type of grit and tenacity we only have in like two players on the roster. And you can say what you want about him over the last couple spots of his career he has made an impact in the locker room and he helps teams defend. And he's home. I don't know. I like it. I like it. Does it make us good? Probably not. But again, what could go wrong? I want him in the ear of Patrick Williams telling him to shoot the ball more. I want him in the ear of Zach Levine and all of these dudes. Why would they respect him? I don't know. He's Patrick Beverly. Who cares? We also have 76 guards on this roster. Kobe Weiss been really good. His men is gonna get taken away. At least some of them. I thought we were gonna release Gorin' Jarajic. Nope, still on the roster. So there's a lot going on. They also signed Tyrell Taylor who is on a two way. So, yeah. Kevlarov is bought out and he goes to the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat are another thing that didn't do a lot at this deadline. They traded away Duane Deppman and that was it. And they used that spot to bring in Kevlarov. And they also brought back Cody Zeller. Cody Zeller been out of the league for a year. I forgot about Cody. I hope he's doing well. Yeah, Kevlarov is the Miami Heat, which is interesting. Okay, this is the real-life realization that a lot of people have to realize about the biomarket. There's very rare cases where the biomarket actually matters as far as contending for a championship. I don't think Kevlarov moves the needle enough where I feel like the Miami Heat are back into contention. But it does help because they need Depp and they haven't had that. And I do believe that him and Bam as a front court could be interesting, but it is. We're not thinking about three years ago, Kevlarov, or even last year's Kevlarov. We're talking about the 2023 version of Kevlarov. And as I'm looking at that version, it's a 36% three-point shooter. Great in the corner steal, sheesh. Great in the corner steal. Can't finish at the rim anymore. And yeah, if anything, it opens up the game a little bit more for Bam out of bio. And I think that's the perspective we should be looking at it from. This is not about Kevlarov having a research to his career at the age of 34, but more along the lines of this might open a game up more for Bam to have a threat from the three. Even though he's a theoretical threat at this point, being a league average three-point shooter, but he is still as Kevlarov, and Kevlarov is a respected shooter. Nate McMillan got fired. I don't actually have an opinion. Isn't that crazy? I do not have an opinion about Nate McMillan being fired. I've been seeing a lot of hot, takey stuff about Trey Young and being a coach killer and all that. I won't go that far. I don't know. I just, I thought that Nate McMillan had run his course too. But again, the Atlanta Hawks, there's always something going on within the organization. It just has been the case for like the last three seasons, but nobody cares because it's in Atlanta versus New York or LA or something along those lines. Everything, something's always going on. Again, I don't really have an opinion. It happened. So let's see what happens next. They're interviewing some people. I think Joe Prudy is now an interim coach who seems like he's always just an interim coach. He never gets the full job, but you know who did get the full job, Jacques Vaughn was from interim coach to being extended, which is dope, because they've been really good as far as Jacques Vaughn being the coach. So shout out to Jacques. That's the last piece of news. Let me look at my notes because believe it or not, sometimes I do write notes. Oh, the Bucks signed Myers Leonard. Another situation that people are like, what do you think, Kenny? What do you think, Kenny? I don't think, I don't have an opinion. As a 10 day contract, he's been out of league for two years. I don't, I don't think. Quote me on that. I don't think.