Justin Verrier
Appearances
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, but thanks to everyone who emailed in. A couple people who were shouting out Waz's wine selection. A couple bro-los who were really excited.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
SGA is much more ethical Harden than I think we realize, where he does a lot of the herky-jerky start-stop. Oh, yeah. in a way that Harden does, but does it within the flow of an offense and frankly not as card counter-ish. He's not really trying to work the refs in a way or like manipulate the refs. He's trying to manipulate the game. Yeah.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And when he's not getting to the line, it does seemingly disrupt his flow. Obviously, the shooter is not hitting, obviously weighs a big part of that. But just when he's off, the rest of the team tends to fold. And that's just like not the way you're going to win playoff games, even against a Dallas again next year, a team that's,
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
just maybe about as big, maybe not quite as big as the Bucks, but certainly has a lot of thumpers that you're going to have to play through.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I'll be honest. I almost wonder if the Gordon Hayward trade last year was reason to maybe just stick to the system this year. But we'll see. I do think, on the other end, this was Giannis' night. And my big takeaway is... Quite frankly, if they had just had him in the past two postseasons, things might not have been as dire. This might be a completely different looking Bucs team.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I don't know why you said it so sexy. But yeah, that was good to see. I think people actually took note that Rob receives these emails and were very excited to talk to him.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Maybe they wouldn't have gone out and traded Drew Holiday because it would have just been a normally bad postseason, not just a catastrophe. Everything looks different. He can solve so many issues with that roster just by being dominant in the way he was last night. I don't think that much differently about the Bucs. The guys that were concerning are still concerning.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
The fact that they played better without Chris Middleton than they did with him on Saturday, I think is a huge issue. But it's just like through Giannis, I am strengthened or whatever the Bible quote is.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
He is risen, there's no doubt. I'm going to get a wristband with it on it because I do think... Donnis is playing one of the best structures of his career. And to that point, he has now made at least half of his shots in every single game that he's played this season. That's 24 games.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
But we're back. We're here. We're going to talk about some post-Cup storylines that we're eyeing. Things we're just kind of like turning the page to that we're excited about as we get to the end of the calendar year. But first, we got to talk about this Cup Finals.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, see, I think that's the big question here is how much you think differently about both teams coming out of this. And I'll be honest, I don't know if I feel all that different about the Bucs as a regular season team, because to me, the reason why they were successful is because they can be such a good postseason team.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
that Giannis can be such a dynamic force against anyone especially a team that doesn't have the size and also you have the days to prepare for an opponent and you also have days to give off for your older guys like Damian Lillard perhaps he looks spry I don't know what he was doing in Vegas maybe he saw Shania Twain he just had a song in his heart or if he just had two days out and like he just had time to prepare for this in a way that he typically does not um
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
So I'm actually I feel the same about the Bucs than I did before.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
We were not present for it, but probably for the best because we probably had to shield our eyes at one point because Giannis basically decapitated the Thunder, the Thunder team that has been rolling over most of the NBA, Rob. But Giannis... pretty much trounced them and looked small in a way that even the small ball Thunder have not this season.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
They get white chocolate out there, then anything's possible. That's a game changer.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Well, that's the thing. They've kind of flipped their mode where it's almost like you're more worried about the day-to-day in the middle of a regular season as opposed to in a playoff series where they have time to get up for these opponents. It's like, can they overcome an injury? They're relatively healthy outside of Middleton at this point.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
But for instance, if they lose a wing or two, who are they turning to off this bench? Pat Connaughton got 13 minutes in this game. It gets pretty dicey pretty quickly. And so I just I think if they get to the postseason fully healthy, they're able to pace Giannis out. Then I will believe in them. But there's still several months until we get there.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And Giannis just has not gotten to that point healthy for the past two postseason. So I've come to the to the place of like, I kind of want to see Chris Milton gone. Like, I think that is the move. I just don't know. Honestly, who's taking him?
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Because he's got another year after this on a player option, and that's going to be bad money for virtually any team that doesn't have the muscle memory like the Bucs have with him in the flow of things.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Justice for Dardenham.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yes. Apparently, they did not celebrate in the locker room or they did not pop the champagne that was afforded to them. And I got to say, pretty corny. Silly. Didn't like it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I hate that with baseball. They win one series and they're like, let's celebrate it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
That's one wildcard game. Like just drink a beer and go home.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, this was an accomplishment. This is a tournament unto itself. What I'm saying with baseball, which I loathe, is that when they win a round, when they win one wild card game, they're freaking the fuck out. They got the goggles. It's just like, all right, can we settle down? Each tournament deserves its own celebration is what I'm arguing.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Because they definitely didn't go out in Vegas right after this.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
They would never.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I basically stopped doing it unless I need to really hammer someone. But I do think like it's online discourse. It's just like humanity to want to like fix something new and complain about it. And I honestly think it's partly because silver is noodling with everything all the time and almost lends itself to us than doing it. He's a human idea, really. Exactly.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I think the hoop idea mindset has infected like just NBA discourse. But the cup was good. I had fun. Like the once you got to elimination play, it was great. The group play, just figure out that so it's not confusing. And we're just like doing math on the fly in the middle of games. You're good. You have something you could sell to Amazon, which they already did.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And people will probably tune in more than they would in November basketball. I think that's a good thing.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Go for it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, we almost need like a census for the type of fan that attended this event. Because I think you're right. I think for maybe the general NBA fan,
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
they could target this time of year to build like a vacation around let's just like go to vegas and whoever's there we'll just enjoy the basketball but then we'll go gamble and watch shania twain uh i got the sense though that the people who are most interested in it were the fans of specific teams but the turnaround plus the fact that nba fans aren't
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
probably used to traveling as vigorously as like if you're a college fan like if Notre Dame play somewhere like tomorrow there's going to be thousands of people that are just on the next flight yep yeah and and so that seems to be a bit of a disconnect and so maybe like going to a team's
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
home game like our home arena if they were the best seed or they had the best record or whatever that could work there's also talk silver talk to some reporters uh on the ground in vegas about maybe moving the location to me that sounds a little bit more difficult like if you're trying to set this up in london or like mexico in order to make it like an international thing like i don't know would you then lose like us who like i don't know if spotify is going to be paying for for us why not
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
to Mexico, it just seems international flight is a little bit more pricey.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Well, if you guys want to make the ask, I'm down.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I got to say, I'm getting a little self-conscious at events like that because in my day-to-day life, I don't think anybody's recognizing us. Well, you in Portland? Absolutely not.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I kind of blend in that's what I'm saying it's like camouflage but I remember like just scarfing like fast food before I got on my flight thinking to myself I really hope no one catches me in this situation because I look like a fucking just like a mess you don't want to be like George Costanza with the ice cream sundae just like caught on camera in HD exactly but yeah it was good to hear from everyone we enjoyed our time there hopefully we'll get back there
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I didn't see Giannis bobble it, but I did see at one point, like Giannis was trying to do some jokey thing and Dame was like, okay, this is funny.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I felt for Dame in that moment, I'll be honest, because he probably has a tough go of it. On the plane, hanging out with Giannis 24-7. I feel like that guy's shtick gets to be a lot over time. You don't appreciate the bits? I appreciate the bits, but I don't get the sense that a lot of them are actually funny.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I think they're funny because he's one of the best players in the league and they have to be funny if you want to stay employed.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Thumbs up, thumbs down. It's a thumb middle, I would say.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
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The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
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The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I am looking at Giannis Antetokounmpo, your new NBA Cup MVP. The Bucs are playing the Cavs. Cavs, pretty tough competition. But here's the thing. Giannis is pretty much scoring 30 points every night before the Cup Finals. He had scored it... five games in a row of 30 or more. So give me Giannis to score over 30 in that game against the Cavs.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
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Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
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The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
right let's uh let's move along here so the cup kind of took up a lot of our brain power the mbas just like general discourse for the past week or so uh let's turn the page now to some of the things that we're looking forward to in the post cup period so i asked all of our friends here to come with like one thing we're watching that might be solved by the end of the year just anything we're looking to maybe plug into maybe the storyline that you're most excited to get into now that we've moved to a different phase of the calendar um
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Waz, do you want to go first? Yeah, man.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I hate it. I absolutely loathe this idea. The whole issue with the Nuggets as they're currently constituted is they just don't have enough league average rotation players in order to give Nikola Jokic five to 10 minutes off every single night. He's basically playing 38, 39, 40 minutes every single game because he does not have a credible NBA center to back him up.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And we're just going to go out there and completely change the complexion of our team in order to fit in a guy who the Bulls could not give away because his medical record is so spotty. I get it in theory. I also don't love the fit though. Like, yeah, they'll juice their offense, but is their offense that much of a concern?
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Like I know that Michael Porter could be a little lackadaisical defensively, but like his size, I think compounds their whole identity that they're so big at the five, four, three spots that it really wears on team. And on top of all of that, Isn't this Jamal Murray's fucking job? Isn't this just a tacit acknowledgement that he's actually the problem?
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
The guy that we gave four years max to over the offseason and he's just not playing like that? That should be your creator when Jokic sits. We shouldn't have to go out and get Zach Levine who's just going to cause more problems.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
See, and that's why I like the buy low of someone like a Clarkson or even, frankly, a Jordan Poole.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Because if you're saying that Jokic has such an effect on other guys, like getting a guy with clear talent and maybe providing some structure like Poole, like could we bring out the best version of him, the Golden State from three years ago where he's just playing off the bench, he's an instant offense punch, and we can maybe mitigate some of the rest of that. If he doesn't play all the time,
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
That's fine, too. The issue is actually in addition to like luxury tax concerns and aprons and all that. The fact that the Nuggets don't have a lot of mid-tier contracts in order to make that work without giving up Michael Porter, for instance, like after their top four earners, it's basically Zeke Najee is their fifth most on the docket. And then it's Dario Sarge, two guys.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
not playing because they stink. And if anything, they have to give up more probably for someone to take the extra money on Zeke Nagy's contract. And so I don't even know how you take a flyer at this point. So I guess I understand shooting for the moon with Levine if it's your only option.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
But frankly, what they need, I think, is just like a guy with some zip to play some offense and to soak up some minutes.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I will say that, which is a lot of praise for him.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
We used to be a proper NBA discourse, let me tell you, when we had Amari in the flow.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
This was Denver's bench the other night against Sacramento. Hunter Tyson, Peyton Watson, DeAndre Jordan, Julian Strother. If you want to know what the original sin is, which Rob carefully tried to sidestep that phrasing, but I will outright say it. It seems strong. Is Booth believing in his fucking draft picks above all? These guys are just fine at best.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
The fact that Peyton Watson is giving them anything is a godsend because some of these guys, night to night, you don't know what you're going to get. And that's the issue. And until those guys play better, I think they're going to be stuck in this situation.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
If they go out and make a panic trade, which just kind of starts to sound like it is, I think this might be the nail in the coffin of Jokic's prime, at least from a team perspective. I don't know how they recover from that, frankly. So we'll see.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Just stop. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. All right, Rob, do you want to say what you're watching until the end of the year?
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I think we know who they are and it's that they are Kevin Durant for good or bad. Yeah. I don't know how Katie keeps finding himself in these situations where he keeps performing historically great in the face of having to do so because his choices of teams is so historically poor. Like he was supposed to go to Phoenix because Booker and like we'll do something different here.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Booker has been steady when he's been on the court. But yet again, they need him so much in order to be great. Their front court is a total disaster. He's probably their only credible front court player at this point who will give them good minutes, especially defensively. The team is just a mess without him on the floor. And when he's not playing, I believe they're one to nine.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Is that how the math works out? And so if he plays, I believe in them. If he doesn't, I'm not going to. And I'm at the point where it's just like that is happening so frequently. He's now missed two extended stretches due to injury where I can't take them credibly as like a top tier contender as a result.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
You're really pumping out the meme content these days. I'm too online. I don't like it. Waz, what do you think about the Suns going forward?
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, they're one of the few small ball teams that go small, not necessarily to juice the three-point math. They're doing that because their defenders are just a little bit smaller, but they're physical and they're pretty good. Probably one of the best teams I've seen in recent vintage of swiping. But the problem was when... you have case and Wallace guarding Giannis in the post.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
What ultimately undid the era of big threes was injuries. I'm going to say it for like the 90th time. It's always been the injuries that they don't have anybody else to turn to once those guys are injured. Yet again, Katie is showing why teams are pivoting away from that. Since we're talking about injuries, though, I'll go with my thing just to close this out here.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
It is almost Christmas time, which means that Santa is coming to town and that Kawhi Leonard's return is imminent. Is it? Blas has a black Santa mug. I have a white Santa mug that's gone through some tough times. Really just speaks to us in mug form, I guess. But I don't know if you guys have been keeping track of this, but it sounds like we might see Kawhi before the end of the year.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And I find myself, against all odds and despite myself, kind of believing maybe in the Clippers yet again. Because I don't know if you've looked at the standings at this point. They're 15-12. They currently have the fifth most wins in the West. Yeah, best team in L.A.,
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
team in la ninth in the nba i could even argue that maybe they're playing the best basketball in all of california uh i think that the clippers have just done a good enough job of basically being hodor and like just holding the line until kawaii can get back in here i can't believe you're doing this And James Harden scored, what, 40-something the other night?
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There was one play where he spun out of that, saw Alex Caruso all like what? Six, four, maybe of him. And Caruso didn't even bother to try to contest the shot. He just went for the swipe and got out of the way because there's just nothing you could do against Giannis. Um, Yeah. There's definitely some stuff that the thunder need to look at.
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Because that worked before.
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Are his ligaments cracker jack at this point? Probably so.
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I don't know if they can. That is a huge factor. The fact that he would be in and out and you don't really know when that has oftentimes.
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Well, let me make the case on the other side of this. Do they have an identity now that he could now just slide into and come in and out of that because they are such a defensive focused team? Can he just honestly just supplement what Harden's doing offensively and they can roll from there?
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I think the big thing we should talk about is the fact that it didn't have neither Chet Holmgren nor Jalen Williams, the other J J will not J dub. He will presumably be playing that backup center role that Ken rich Williams, uh, is Manning now Ken rich Williams, who has a lot of success against Steven Adams in the previous game.
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Yeah, I feel like those guys can work within the flow of what he's doing. Like, I don't know if you necessarily need to take away from what Norm and what Zubat are doing in order to feed Kawhi. Like, if anything, I think it's just like he balances out the lack of offense that they're getting outside of those guys to begin with. Like, it's way too much Harden. And maybe he likes that.
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That would be a concern as well, that he's just dominating the ball. Yeah, yeah, that's probably true. I don't know. I just think it's something to watch. We'll see.
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I think though the most likely scenario, not like what I'm hoping for is probably that they end up, if not a high playing team, maybe even breaking into that top six because the top six is a little soft because there are a lot of teams dealing with injuries and nuggets trying to figure out who they are. Like, yeah, I think.
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The only other thing I have down here is that Dallas is 12 and two since November 16th. And I think we're going to get to the point where it's like January 20th and the first team in the West. So seems pretty good. Look out for that. Why don't we wrap it there, though? We'll be back on Monday. One pod next week.
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We're back to the normal schedule, but Monday and then we're taking off the rest of the week. The following week, I believe we're back Monday and Thursday as per usual. So we'll talk to you then. NBA Festivus. Get excited for it. Get ready for it. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely on production. Thank you, Ben Cruz. We'll talk to you next week.
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But all of a sudden when it's Giannis, you're trying to isolate on or even step back and take threes on, uh, it wasn't working as well. So The Thunder have stuff to figure out here, certainly. And we should reassess that on this pod. But I think this was Giannis' victory lap, for instance. He looked, Rob, if not the second best player in the NBA, definitively, maybe even the 1B at this point.
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Hello and welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Barrier and joining me, Rob Mahoney, Big Waz. We're back from Las Vegas. Waz, happy to see that you made it back alive.
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I think in a game like this, you can ask yourself whether or not the Thunder should go out and fix something. Because this was the type of result in a high leverage situation where I think a lot of people were probably asking that question. I think the issue, though, is the Thunder. This is where their youth really starts to show.
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And you recognize that much like last year, they do have a lot of guys still figuring things out. The fact that Caruso, for instance, is probably an ideal fit for what they do and yet isn't hitting shots. You just kind of have to play through that. Hartenstein has played particularly well of late, didn't have the best success against Giannis because not a lot of people do.
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But he is another guy working his way into the fold. I think J-Dub, again, like I keep mentioning, this seems to be the sticking point there where a lot of the offense revolves around SGA being a 30 point per game scorer. Pretty much every game. And to his credit, he did a lot of that last year. That's why he was number two on the MVP ballot.
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I was ready for this podcast to be an anointment of SGA. And like, can you be the next face of the league? Yada, yada, yada. I thought he had a fine game. You know, he was off for the most part, but he. But this is where J Dub, if he wants to be an all NBA type of guy, really needs to step up. This is where you feel the loss of Chet Holmgren.
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We're not having that next guy to turn to to pick up the slack. It really starts to show because their shooters do tend to be make or miss. And I think they need some source of consistent secondary offense in addition to Shea in order for this team to get to the level that I think that they're all expecting to.
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I don't know if you guys had this, but ever since I'm in the state of, am I sick or am I just in my 30s?
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But having said that, in the game against Houston, when they pulled away, it was Shea just kind of taking the reins, doing his herky-jerky move, isolating, and kind of winning the game for them. So it seems like it's almost part of their process that he takes over. And I think that is to their detriment, that they rely so much on him being great game in, game out.
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That one wasn't a favorable comp, I'll say that.
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I think the real question is, which one of us is Luigi and which one of us is RBF?
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I like the Houston option for this season because I would imagine the Kings aren't going to let go of Fox unless they get a couple birds in the hand, like some actual young players that they could start the rebuild with immediately. And if I'm the Spurs, I'm not getting rid of Castle. for sure.
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I'm probably not getting rid of Vassell, a player I still like, despite the fact that he's been a little bit up and down and injured of late. And so it becomes a little tougher with the Spurs, with the Rockets, for instance.
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Yeah, that's right. I don't know. I'm still pretty high on Vassell long-term, but I get it. If it's Fox, it makes sense. But I assume the Spurs' interest would be for picks, so they could just add Fox to what they have. The Rockets, for instance, as we talked at Nazim at this point, three to four young guys in there for Fox, that starts making a lot of sense very quickly.
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You can make something happen. Tar Eason was born a king, you know? He is a king, but also he is destined to be on the Kings one day.
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Can you imagine if we had Atari Eason on this show right now? He would just be yelling at us the whole time and it would be great.
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We need to be mean to each other in 2025. That's what we need to do. We need to turn the page toward just aggressiveness. And as a result, how about we get to our grievances right now? Yes, let's do it. What a perfect time to bring in our favorite holiday. Uh, so every year we air some grievances, as we mentioned as a nod to Festivus, a sort of real holiday.
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Now it's gone from like a Seinfeld bit to something people bring up fairly regularly and are at the very least like going out there and doing the performance of it for social media or whatever. Um, here we're going to talk about grievances about the NBA, but sometimes not so much. Um, who would like to start us off in this feats of strength?
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No, 14, 14, three plus the winner from the rising stars thing.
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Just figure it out. Just figure it out. Figure it out. On the slogan.
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I think you have the right idea, but I almost wonder if the shame works because there's fewer places to hide. If you're on a team with fewer roster spots, you then are more on stage. There's more of a reason to give your all or give something approximating that. And so for that reason, I get it.
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I think the format is interesting enough, but I wonder if it ends up like the draft, the all-star draft that we just had where it's like a fun novelty for a year or two and then it completely dissipates. I think Boaz's whole point is just like the main thing that they need to solve here is the guys need to care. And so if they don't care in a different format, it's not going to solve anything.
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I think there's two ways to do this. I think you give them money. which is seems like the only thing that people get up for these days and more power to them. And two, I also wonder if you revert back to East West, if the younger generation starts to be like, well, I'm going to care because like I used to care about the all-star game when I used to play.
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And I'm talking specifically about Victor Webinyama, who I saw a quote from was like, go back to East West. I'm going to care. I just like, let's just turn the page here. I think it's like a generational thing where it's like, oh, this generation did this. Well, we're going to, rebuke that and go the opposite way. And we're going to make this a thing.
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And so I wonder if we just need to hand it over to the young people.
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What else did he say in that speech? Do you want to go through the entire thing?
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Yeah, no, I don't do well on Raya, by the way. So I don't know if I'm at Luigi status. Catch me on Hinge, though. I put up numbers. There you go. Let's go. Give Justin a shout out if you're on Portland Hinge. I'm on there, so I'll find you eventually. All right. Should we get to the matter at hand here? Because it is the holidays. And in particular, it's one of our favorite holidays.
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This is foundational to the NBA and its brand and its history and the way that the Pro Bowl will never be. The NBA has to figure this out, but I think we all agree.
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It almost seems like a return to form and just getting back to the roots is what we're all wanting because it reminds us of those sorts of guys starting to come to form, becoming the next wave of guys, which is honestly one of the biggest problems in the NBA right now.
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Yep.
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All right. Let's just embarrass some young people.
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Well, speaking of embarrassing people, I have one here that kind of dovetails with that general idea. Joke Twitter accounts, specifically NBA ones, specifically this NBA Centel guy, woman, people. Okay, yeah. got to stop because there is no joke within the joke Twitter. A lot of the in air quotes jokes or tweets that this account sends out are just lies.
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And for whatever reason, people think that this is funny. Like I'm willing to go along with it if there was like some artistry behind it. And I guess in a weird perverse way it is, but the artistry is just disinformation that you convince like adults like us on podcasts that it was real, but
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It is NBA Festivus. This is where we air our grievances about anything in the NBA or if you're me, just all walks of life. The good thing is today is actually what people consider actual Festivus. So I feel like the timing for this is quite right. Yeah. Do you feel moved by the spirit, Justin?
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But it's gotten to the point where even the things they're trying to trick you with are like they sound like they're not even like crafted to be a joke. They're just like wrong information. I'll give you an example here. This was from December 13th. NBA Centel. The Warriors would prefer to keep Brandon Przemski out of any Jimmy Butler trade scenarios per Chris B. Haynes.
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Breaking. LeBron James announces his retirement from the NBA. That's not a joke. That's not a joke.
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I guess it's a joke because Bajemski has been bad this year. And so that's why they prefer to keep him because that's what they didn't. It's just like nine layers deep of meta if you really want to get to a joke. And I don't know. I think even that's giving them a lot of credit. Just stop lying as jokes. I'm here for it if you want to put something behind it, some sort of like craft to it.
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But this ain't it. So no more of that.
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How much am I getting paid?
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All right, Rob, you want to do one of yours?
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I feel moved by this particular spirit, the gripe spirit, pretty much every day. This is a 24-7 thing for me. But I don't have the poll this year. I don't have Mičić. I don't have the photo. I know. I'm trying to celebrate this with my heart, not necessarily with my accoutrement.
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I thought it was a Marky Mark song we're referring to here.
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Yep. The new permutation that I particularly like really sticks in my craw is we're going to give you an update about an update to come. It's like, we're going to reevaluate someone in two weeks. Yes. And then there's another three weeks tacked on to that. And so what really is, is five weeks.
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And they probably know that in advance, but they don't want to give you that upfront because it leaves the possibility that they might come back sooner, which they never do. Like this is a classic Zion maneuver, which like, What what's going on with Zion right now? No one knows. And that's like another classic example of a player that leads or gets off on obfuscation.
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But it's always like it's a month away. It's never seven months away. It's a week away from being a week away from being a week away.
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Can I give a hoop idea? What if we sent Daryl Morey to a desert island? Because I almost wonder when we look back 20 years from now, we'll say everything that we didn't like about the NBA at this time. It's all Daryl's fault. I mean, in addition to the Spurs, which was clearly has his gripes about. But we're talking about the injury obfuscation, talking about the three pointers.
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We're talking about the refereeing and like players trying to manipulate the refs. I think a lot of it ultimately goes back to him.
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Yeah, but he kind of started a lot of them.
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I think Quinn Snyder did that while we were in Vegas. So many coaches do it. Yeah. Was you want to do one of yours now?
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short-sighted NBA where they want to appease the owners rather than the fans. And so now they're up in arms like, why are the fans upset? It's because you prioritized the cash flow or not having to overspend in order to be competitive rather than the product, rather than building better teams, which has been proven time and time again. People want to see. People want to see the super teams.
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They don't want to see the parity in the smaller markets and all this other stuff. And I get it if you're a smaller market and you don't have the opportunity to land some of those bigger players, you feel like there's a disadvantage. I frankly don't care because the product overall is better. And if you care about money to begin with, this is how you make more money.
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It's a lot. I actually have an idea for you guys because I had this down on my list as well. So the apron has become the biggest boogeyman in the NBA at this point, right? All about second apron. Can't do the second apron. Can't even go over the first apron because that restricts you in certain ways now.
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What if, because the apron is such a deterrent from transactions, we actually get rid of salary matching in trade? So in the NBA, unlike in baseball in particular, you have to match salaries up to a certain percentage, right? So that's why you can't trade Jimmy Butler for Brandon Pajemski straight up. What if we just abolished that and allowed the aprons to do the restricting?
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And so you could trade a big star for a bunch of young players without having to take back contracts like the expiring contracts are just bad contract, which is a huge part of this discourse every single year. And you just let teams the penalty would just be the apron penalties at that point. So it really be come down to who wants to spend and who doesn't.
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Maybe we're just getting older, you know? I've been keeping track of some of these grievances over the course of, I would say, the entire season. So I've got a list of like 10 to 15 deep. If you want the deep cuts, maybe you can subscribe to our Patreon and we'll give you the cuts. But first, we should probably talk about some NBA matters before we get to the very super important NBA matters.
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The magic keep losing players practically every day. They're out multiple Wagner bros in addition to Paulo Banqueiro, but they do play defense really, really well. Rarely are you going to see them give up a loss of 10 or more. So I, I like that as kind of like a buy low option plus 10 and a half. Give me the points. Give me the magic.
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In particular... it seems like things are going pretty poorly for the Sacramento Kings. It's going bad for the Nuggets. I saw them live here in Portland. And let me tell you, even after our pod, even after we wrung our hands for what seemed like 15 minutes, it was way worse than it actually was in person.
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I have a more bold idea, if you allow me. I'll take the win and just double down here and just throw it all away. What if such an issue is the fact that big markets have so much sway over the wants and needs of the best stars and because stars matter so much in the NBA? What if we got rid of all small markets and everybody just played in big markets?
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You're just throwing me to the wolves here. And I guess the wolves in particular. The Minnesota Timberwolves fans. Washington, Charlotte,
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You have five teams in LA. It's almost like EPL. Everyone's just kind of in the same area or even whatever ones are just based in London. You have seven teams in the same area. So there isn't really a market advantage. It's all about team construction and maybe money. LA, New York, Miami, some of the Texas teams. That's it. Those are the only teams I get to. We're criminally online now, too.
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Yeah. We will now be the L.A. three trailblazers. There you go. The the Highland Park trailblazers. Just throw a new arena out there. Yeah. I mean, I'm just all for democracy, you know. Rob, do you want to do another one of yours?
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But the Kings might be in a worse spot right now because it sounds like Deere and Fox is kind of
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That's a good question, though. Has the challenge made basketball better or more enjoyable?
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More stoppage in the final two minutes.
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making the moves or inching toward the exit here so they've lost four in a row rob uh and fox is in the athletic he's rich paul is coming into town he's talking to the brass he's saying things like oh i don't know like maybe they need to make more moves so like if we're talking about worry like def con levels are you all the way at the top or are you somewhere in the middle
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Who can say if it's one Waz is going through? Here's a hoop idea. Next live pod from Waz's hot tub. Let's do it.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
It circles back to my whole thing about we're constantly undermining the refs. And so we build in these new mechanisms in order to get the game right, like to get the calls on the court right. But it doesn't actually help the product. All it does is save the NBA from the inevitable two minute report the next day or the news or like. Oh, they actually got it wrong.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And so it really only helps marginally this veil that the refs are omnipotent and they get everything right. Honestly, I go back to my Popo mobile idea. I think nobody should talk to the refs and we should just listen to them and whatever they say goes.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
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The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
right i have two before we go here uh one is semi-related uh or at least related to basketball so we'll go with that one first uh we need some sort of asterisk or some sort of like addendum uh when a player goes over into overtime and we need to asterisk their stat line and so i constantly see like oh this guy put up 50 points but with five extra minutes And it's not the same playing field.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And I constantly see this. And it's like it warps your mind when you're going through basketball reference and just like the logs of the game. Like, yeah, like a player is doing better because they have more opportunity to add more points. And so we need to find a way to like mark this just so frankly, just me.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
for continuing excellent play into overtime i just want the field to be the same for everyone you know not everyone gets to play 47 minutes like nikola jokic every night because his team is garbage yeah they'll say if you play for the knicks you do i could tell you that that's for sure
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
I guarantee there's like a small percentage of that's why. Because it disrupts like how many games, when you look back in history, everybody played just like in the same way that they don't want to.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Support Josh Hart is the ultimate point here. This is a much more important gripe and one that we really need to solve here. Pants are just too big. Just seeing the kids, these giant pants.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
They need like the chain wallet or they need to go to Bob's in order to get the JNCOs. But yeah, they're just huge. It's like hammer pants now. Like you can fit like four people in these pants.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And that's the point because if you look back 10 years from now, I guarantee some of us on this call might have been wearing pants that were way too skinny for them. They were just clinging way too tight. And I regret that. And so this is more of like a PSA to the younger generation.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Don't get caught up so deeply in the trends because when you go to the extremes, my friend, you'll look back and you'll be like, what the fuck was I thinking?
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Show me your pants.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
What if we just had drab colors that only our comrades would approve of? Like what? Just like the blanket. I'm making a communist joke where it's like we just completely filter out all color and joy from life. And we just have like olives, you know, charcoals.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
uh i am okay with fewer jerseys there are way too many and there are too many bad jerseys like the the new jersey every year like we ran out of good ideas five years ago and when you have a good idea just fucking stick with it it's fine uh the white and and and road colors like that i don't care about that you guys are so wrapped up i do yeah i do
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
there's two different colors we have color tvs it's fine no brand identification contrast these things are important oh the team in white is at home oh okay cool dope or just a giant logo like there's a giant screaming hawk in the middle of the floor like who could this be yeah but that hawk could be completely different colors from the colors the hawks themselves are actually wearing it's like bruh it's craziness
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
All right. I also have a gripe about Sidney Sweeney being the ultimate bad hang, but that's a whole other story. We can get into that. Why don't we wrap it there? Merry Christmas to all. Happy Hanukkah. Whatever you celebrate, I hope you do with people you love. Festivus, real Festivus, NBA Festivus.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Absolutely. We'll be back next Monday. So a week from now, we're off for the holidays for the rest of this week. We'll be back then. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. Thank you to Ben Cruz. Thank you to all of you guys for listening to us. We'll talk to you in a week. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
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The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Great to see them at the NBA Cup. I found Amick to be quite warm in the fighting. And great to see. Wow.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Yeah, I don't know who the kings are if they're not Deere and Fox and Damanis Sabonis at this point. And to that point, they went and traded Tyrese Halliburton and brought in Sabonis to aspire to some level of competence that hadn't been there for nearly two decades. And so... It just gets pretty bleak pretty quickly.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And I think that's why I would be concerned if I'm the Kings or a Kings fan or just anyone watching this team is it seemed like they got DeMar DeRozan in part to stabilize what they used to have to get back to the playoffs. Now, we're not even aspiring to the second round at this point. We're just trying to get back to what we accomplished with Fox and House.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And the fact that DeRozan, they go out and trade for him. They didn't give up much. So there's that. There still is a big move in there if they do want to make a panic trade. But it just hasn't given them enough to be competitive. And you look at the roster, too. It's not like they've been suffering injuries like Monk missed a few games like DeRozan missed a game or two. This is just the team.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
If anything, this just shows like the team just isn't talented. And that level of transparency that like what we have just cannot compete with even like a team like the Spurs, for instance, I think is very depressing. And so I understand where Fox is coming from.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Hello and welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Verrier and joining me from the Brooklyn Penitentiary, Rob Mahoney, Santa Waz. What's up, boys?
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And listen, this is kind of what we were talking about with superstars not necessarily griping or putting pressure on their front offices. And the way that they have in the past, but haven't in recent years, or at least publicly, this seems warranted. The fact that they haven't gotten anything out of the draft practically since Keegan Murray, which is in 2022.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
I know Devin Carter, their lottery pick this past year hasn't played because of injury, but they're just giving away draft picks. They punted on one pick two years ago in order to re-sign Sabonis at a higher number. But you look at the lack of a bench, it speaks directly to the fact that they've kind of not replenished anything on the back end when they had the opportunity to do so.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
It's not like they didn't have the means to go out and add a seventh or eighth man. They've just kind of punted. And those are the type of things, if I'm Fox, I'm concerned about. as an organization. And so I'm looking like, where are the next guys coming from? If you make even a big splashy move, who, like, by the way, the Kings haven't really drawn much in free agency or in trades.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Like, guys still don't want to go there despite the fact that things have turned around a little bit in recent years. Like... That's it. There really aren't many moves left to make here. And so if I'm Fox, I'm looking over at, for instance, the Spurs, a team that keeps getting mentioned as potentially interested in Fox if he does hit the market. And like there's a runway for me.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And frankly, I appreciate it. I appreciate a superstar being like I could sign for the most amount of money here or I can go and win and make the most advantage of my prime. Like that's what something we as fans should be like congratulating. Like that is the move that I want to see these guys want to win.