Chapter 1: What are the highlights of the NBA midseason awards watch?
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Hello, hello, all my people. What's up? It's Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with the one and only A$AP Rocky. He reflects on his journey from Harlem roots to global icon status and discovering the hip-hop origin of his name.
The Ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the Bucket Hat Kangol joint on. My pops was like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just...
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This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she?
She is not with us.
Okay, great, great, great way to start. Maybe you will cry. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know.
So I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Doris Day.
Right?
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Chapter 2: How did Jalen Johnson perform against the Grizzlies?
They're not steamrolling anybody by any means.
They needed this. They got a revenge game from Luke Kennard. The nerd! He's letting it fly. Yeah, 18 points in 25 minutes. He couldn't miss there for a stretch. Four for five from three. Hit a lot of them in the first half. Ten threes off the bench, though, for the Hawks in this one, which is kind of, I think, really where the game was won.
Their depth was a little bit better than the Grizzlies was last night. You guys nailed it. Really patient take there from Jalen Johnson at the end. You don't see him as a post-up guy all that often, but he just took his time, got to his spot, knocked it down nice and easy. And yeah, I thought Ja's game was pretty solid. Four for nine on jumpers. That's a thing that I track.
Like, is he going to take a lot of jumpers? Because that's not his game. But in this one, he was getting to the rim. He was getting in the lane, finding teammates. Did turn it over five times, but still 11 assists is nice. And you like to see the athleticism on those blocks on Dyson Daniels. Now he did sit out for like, Three weeks, so he should be pretty fresh.
But at least he looks athletic because who knows what's going to end up happening with Ja Morant. It still seems like the Grizzlies would trade him if a decent package comes around and him playing well and him looking more like Ja makes it more feasible that they could find a decent return in the next couple of weeks here.
Because he was supposed to sit out both European games, right? That's the vibes we got. And then he ended up playing the second one. Or maybe I'm just reading into... We didn't know.
Yeah, we didn't know. I think the league really wanted him to play, and probably both of them, but at least got one.
Yeah, he's only playing in half the games. Yeah. So that doesn't change.
He nearly had a sixth turnover at the end, too, where he bobbled the ball, because he did have a chance to... win the game. I guess I would have won the game for them. He like threw up sort of a desperation three. Got pretty close. They didn't have a timeout left. I thought they did. No, they did.
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Chapter 3: What is the latest on Giannis and the Bucks' struggles?
to go get a player that may or not help me to get to 500, which I think they can get to 500 and be a play-in team. But that's what Giannis expects of himself, too. Give me a playoff series. Even if we're seventh in the Eastern Conference. I can win a series.
Well, they haven't in a while.
No, unfortunately, they can't. Injured half the time. It's going to be tough. It will be tough.
I think Eric Name had a good write-up on The Athletic about trade options for the Bucs heading into the deadline here. And most of the moves are honestly financial money-saving moves to save them tax dollars. The best player that Eric โ suggested they could get is Zach Levine. And part of the pitch was they won't lose by as much when Giannis sits if they trade for Zach Levine.
So they're in a tough spot right now. They've traded away most of their future for Drew Holiday, for Dame Lillard. They signed Miles Turner into the Dame Lillard spot. So it's like they're paying Miles Turner and Dame Lillard $50 million. And that's a complete waste of money. So they're really screwed. They've tried different coaches. Yeah. They should try another coach. Sure, yep.
And I mean, if they trade Giannis, Doc is gone. That's the only reason he hasn't been let go at this point. But I think Eric also mentioned, I don't think the Bucs have been higher than 10th in the Eastern Conference since November 17th. That's two months. Wow. It's over. I mean, it's over for this team as a competitive team during the Giannis era. It just depends on, do you want to stick around?
Yeah, it's up to him.
Moving on to the New York Knicks, who broke out of their little slump. They had lost four in a row, but took care of business last night. Crushed the Brooklyn Nets 120-66 in the most lopsided victory in franchise history. The New York Knicks have been around for a long time. They had never done that. 120-66, the lowest points total in an NBA game since 2016.
For Brooklyn, they shot 30% on two-point attempts and worse from three and barely got to the free-throw line. I think they grabbed four offensive rebounds. They turned the ball over a ton. And the Knicks got a much-needed win here after Jalen Brunson had called a players-only meeting. Worked perfectly. Flawless execution from the captain there as they bounce back and get this win.
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Chapter 4: What caused the Lakers' family drama and its impact on the team?
Raptors have 27 wins here, which is amazing. Like, it's a good season so far. Feels like it hasn't been a good season in a strange way.
I know, I know. But it is a good season. Unbelievable. Yeah, this team runs deep. All five of their starters, 15 or more points. Darko Ryakovic will play who they're playing. Like, with the Warriors, Scottie Barnes starting at center. Yesterday, here comes Mamou Keleshvili, who was... He was great. And yeah, the zone, how they solved it. Get Scottie catching that ball at the free throw line.
Here come your baseline cutters. Here come a Bajie. Grady Dick had a good game. So more movement runs deep, man. As Scottie Barnes said, preseason were like 13, 14 guys deep and all these guys contributing. That was that was a great one. Here comes Jonathan Mobo. That guy doesn't even play basketball anymore. I bet you're part of the rotation now because they're missing a bunch of guys.
RJ, Pirtle, CMB. Are you now saying CMB like everybody else instead of saying Colin Murray-Boyles?
Yeah, it's fine. When the name is that long, absolutely.
I didn't for a while. I'm in the camp of, I want to say the guy's name. I want to hear his name. I want to respect his name. But it's so much easier to say CMB rather than Colin Murray Boyles.
I'm doing a weird thing right now in the car where I'm looking at the license plates of the cars ahead of me and looking at the first three initials. Because here in Georgia, it seems to be obviously three letters first. And then I go, oh, do I know anybody that has those initials? I was reminded because I saw a CMB the other day. Oh. And I saw a PJE. Oh, nice. I saw my own.
You should have stopped them. I was like honking. Trade. So the new bumper stoppers? Oh, yeah. I mean, hey, try it out. Try it out. Try it out. You see the three, and then you go, do I know anybody, or do I know someone that has those initials? All three. That's the tough part, because you've got to know somebody good enough to know usually their middle name. Yeah, that's tough.
That's the tough part. That is really tough. You know, some of these NBA players, or at least in his case, he's got the hyphenated last name, so it works.
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Chapter 5: How did the Knicks break their losing streak?
The thing about the Lakers, as far as the basketball part goes, it is interesting to see that a couple of the buses were very much involved in G League scouting and that is gone. And so they need to do that now. They need to find a scouting department. to figure out that because they need to help their roster.
As far as the roster goes, I don't think LeBron James is guaranteed to be there next year, I think. What was clear in this is that the LeBron relationship with the Lakers, not that it's frosted beyond repair. It's not... It's still...
irreparable it's not it's not irreparable but it is very much transactional and and that's clear it's not uh it's not what kobe was with this team it's not like we get into fights i demand a trade but we're still buddies right or magic back in the day or magic with with dr bus but that's obvious too because lebron comes to this organization didn't start there with magic and kobe but he's not married to this organization at all for next year i don't think
If there is a better situation somewhere else, he's gone. But it might be a scenario where there isn't a better situation somewhere else, so he may be there. I think that's a possibility. But this team is moving on from, I also think, the clutch... the clutch representation to the Bill Duffy representation who represents Luka Doncic. It seems to be going in that way.
But I'll miss the family zoning teams in the NBA because we're going in a different direction here where it's all businesses. More so. The Lakers, the Celtics, even to a degree the The Cuban wasn't a family in Dallas, but it's definitely moving towards a business, has moved towards a business in there.
So it's yeah, this was a good time in the NBA world when when we had this infighting, when we had a Baxter Holmes article come out, because now there won't be these. they seem to be gone, gone, gone, gone. It's all about the dollar dollar bills.
That was kind of interesting where Jeannie kind of alluding to the fact that part of the reason the sale went through is because the bus family can't compete financially with the deep pockets of the corporations that are buying these teams. So definitely there will be changeovers from family owned teams to all corporation owned teams pretty soon. Another takeaway.
I mean, the LeBron stuff got all the headlines that you see everywhere, but how about the Rambis family? How about Kurt and Linda Rambis landing $32 million from the Lakers sale by virtue of being friends with Jeannie Buss being around her? Being buds. Damn, chiming in. Yeah.
Kurt's been there forever. Yeah, Kurt and Linda, man. We have the ear of Genie. Kurt was there before Genie, right? I mean, they've been there 45 years or something.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Buss family infighting?
And he's missed games, so that's a part of it. Shea is pretty resilient.
Let's go to most improved player. Check in the polls. Your results. Mid-season point. MIP. We had on the list here Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Denny Avdia, Keontae George, and Jalen Johnson. Again, four favorites when we made this poll on FanDuel in the odds. Denny Avdia, Trey. Nearly 44% of the votes. And then Keontae George, 32%. Jalen Johnson in third.
And Nikhil Alexander-Walker in fourth with under 10%. So Avdija, according to the people right now, the favorite to get this. Yeah, and I think that there's a reason. that the people voted for him because the numbers look incredible. The way he has added to his points, his rebounds, his assists. To me, his playmaking has been his biggest improvement this season.
The Trailblazers had a little bit of a rough patch in December turning over into January, but they kind of steadied things. A competitive team. They look like the team that they were the second half of the season last year. They look like that for the majority of the year this year. But I voted for Keontae George on this one because he was trending to out of the league.
And now he looks like a legitimate player. Will Hardy sat him down after the season last year and said, if your approach doesn't change, I wouldn't bet on you. And he came back as a much better player. His finishing is a lot better inside. He can hit all these tricky layups. I think his in-between game is really good. He's got a nice floater going this season.
He's taking care of the ball a little bit more despite having a lot more usage, a lot more opportunity. Denny and Jalen Johnson, to me, are kind of similar in that they are better this season, But I think a lot of the reason that their numbers look so good is because of the opportunity that they have this year. So they're seizing the opportunity. God can give them props for that.
But I think Keontae changed the course of his career this year, which is why he was the vote for me.
Yes, there's no doubt. A great article on The Athletic from Tony Jones about Keontae George going to Finland and hanging out with Lowry Markin and becoming closer with him. Will Hardy getting into his face. He's definitely grown. This is a fun award because there's so many candidates. Jalen Dern was my pick for a long time, but the games played is a problem. He's missed a bunch of games.
And then, yeah, I think Denny and Jalen Johnson are sort of in the same category. I just didn't expect... Denny, after watching him year after year after year, watching him playing for Israel, I didn't know that he'd be able to be the guy that they rely on in the fourth quarter to have way more shots this season, but have the same efficiency.
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Chapter 7: Who are the frontrunners for the NBA awards at midseason?
I mean, I think Khan has a really good case. He's the better shooter. He's more efficient than Cooper is, but Cooper is better at everything else and has more responsibility on his shoulders than Khan does. Cooper's the only rookie in the top three in total points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals.
If you throw out the first two weeks of the season when Jason Kidd was basically trying to make a point about the roster that Nico Harrison had built, Cooper's at 20 points per game, six rebounds, five assists with two stocks. Khan's at 20 a game, five rebounds, four assists with one stock. Like I said, he does shoot. He does have better efficiency because he makes three pointers.
But Cooper does basically everything. And I just don't think the I think the Mavericks are seen as a disappointment this season. But I don't think that's because of Cooper, whereas the Hornets have maybe overachieved a little bit. And Khan has kind of surprised people.
He has definitely surprised people how hard that guy plays, even though he's a few inches taller or shorter than Cooper Flagg. And you could see it when he drives and how he lacks that size. And to be able to go over top of people like Cooper, he's got that fight. That being said, Cooper Flagg will have more highlights because he's bigger. He is a better defender.
But at this time, because of what happened there and... The weird rotations that Jason Kidd was putting on Cooper Flagg, asking him to be a guard. You've never been a guard, but you're leading the frigging offense at all times. That was odd, and that hurt him. And that's why I would take Cooper right now.
Excuse me, I would take Con Canipple right now because of the efficiency is ridiculous in comparison. If we're doing numbers, I know it's not fun, but 63.9% true shooting versus 55.6% for Cooper. It was hurt by the start. Let him play off the ball a little bit. So he learns. I don't know why they threw him into the fire like that. I still don't know.
But it may be different a few months from now when Cooper's number is just going to still be really good at the end of the season.
It's nice we have a race here, though, in rookie of the year between the two guys.
If he's a judge, he can't win. He said, I'm not going to the dunk contest.
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Chapter 8: What are the key insights from the polls on NBA awards?
The numbers are wild what guys shoot around him. And I feel like every top 10 play, like every second night, top 10 plays of the night from NBA involves usually an Isaiah Stewart just stuffing some guy right at the rim. So...
you know maybe deserves a little love here but it's it's a long list of guys that are going to be in the running for six man yeah stream team is uh advocating for aj mitchell on the thunder oh yeah yeah he's definitely got a chance absolutely case uh this one's good coach of the year i'm serious because i feel like you can make a case for a lot of guys and in the end jb bicker staff right now got the most votes 36.5 percent joe mazula coming in with about 31 percent in second
And then Jordan Ott with the Phoenix Suns, 23.3%. Mitch Johnson with the Spurs getting a little under 10%. Trey, who'd you vote for in this one? I voted for Jordan Ott just because of the total culture change for the Suns. You know, definitely Dylan Brooks gets a little bit of credit for that, as does the front office for shipping out Durant and Beal and just completely changing the team, but...
The way the Suns have become so competitive, the way they at least look like they are in the mix. I don't have like a lot of hopes for the Suns in the long term this season. You know, I don't really think they're a title contender or anything like that, but they're one of the hardest playing teams out there. And this is a team that I completely undervalued coming into this.
I thought they were going to be terrible. I thought they're going to be boring to watch. And they are neither of those things. That being said, J.B. Bix, he's a good choice, man. Their Pistons are exceeding expectations and they're at the top of the league. So it's kind of like a two for one sort of campaign that he could run here.
It's also very interesting that Kenny Atkinson won it last year for replacing J.B. Bickerstaff. And now J.B. Bickerstaff did win the coach of the year after Kenny Atkinson. Weird stuff. But I wouldn't mind either J.B. or Jordan not.
J.B. Bickerstaff is a great story. They don't have Cade last night. But here comes Dennis Jenkins. No problem filling in and getting the W. And guys like Isaiah Stewart, who he's convinced to go to the bench and be there and... So there's that. But I will take Jordan Ott and what the Phoenix Suns have become.
I had no hope in Brian Gregory leading that front office when he had no experience running an NBA front office, but he had a lot of experience in college. And you could see how that team looks like a college team. They also look like what Jordan Ott has been able to help coach in other situations as an assistant. Devin Booker, get off the ball.
We will let everybody else touch it, and your gravity will help those guys succeed. And they have. I mean, it's endless. So they're both great scenarios. Hard to debate those two.
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