Will LeBron be around for another season?

Without the ones like you, who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop.

Hospitals, factories, schools, and power plants, they all depend on you. No matter the weather, emergency, or time of day, you're the ones who get it done. At Grainger, we're here for you with professional-grade industrial supplies. Count on real-time product availability and fast delivery.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. The NBA is back because what the All-Star game was this week, the broken All-Star game that everybody loses their mind over, but somehow people still watch long enough to realize that the game is broken because it's the All-Star game. What are you looking for, people? Anyway, we got some NBA stuff to talk about, and I got my man, Brendan Whitted, at H.U. Cosell on Twitter to discuss it with me.

He follows the league better than anybody I know. Let me get to something we weren't, I wasn't going to ask you, but I see now that we are looking at the sunset, apparently, of LeBron. Is he going to go out quietly?

Now we're starting here. He's going to finish his career with the Lakers. Is it this year and one more? I mean, I don't think Bronny is coming to the league anytime soon. I think Bronny is probably, if he's an NBA player at all, I think we're looking at a little bit longer down the road.

Is the sun setting here? Are we looking at the last year, maybe two years of it? I mean, that's kind of where I've been the last few years with him.

Like, I've been kind of like, okay, waiting for him to slow down. He's still playing, especially on the offensive side of the ball, really, really well. You know, I mean, like he's playing really well on that side. It really kind of depends on what he wants the last part of his career to look like.

Obviously, he has more holes behind him than in front of him. But in terms of like, what does he want the last few years to look like? Does he want to go out as a guy that's a legitimate All-Star, right?

He didn't get there on legacy votes this, this year. Like he's legitimately an All-Star. Like, do you still want to be that guy? Or do you want to be Vince Carter? Who's just kind of at the end of, at the end of your career coming in for seven to 10 minutes right there. You know what I mean?

And I can't see that for him, but ultimately that has to be his decision. But yeah, like I also wonder if, if I were like a diehard Laker fan, like you played in the All-Star game, but you can't play in the regular season, like it's got a bad ankle. I mean, yeah, but you were out there trying to dunk from half from, from the free throw line during the, during the All-Star game. Hey buddy, how about you sit a couple of plays out? It's your 20th. I think you can, I think it's okay.

It's all right. So I'm just saying if I were a Laker fan, I'd be a little salty. A couple of things about, we'll get to the All-Star game in a second. Here's what LeBron, cause I was looking at it last night, roughly 25, eight and a half, eight, 52% from the floor, 40% from three, 75% from the line. He's 40.

What is he 30, 39, 40 years old. It's ridiculous that he is still this good at this age. We are, we are, I am privileged to have seen all of it and been actually doing this. I was doing this job for like five years before LeBron.

Gosh, I feel so much older than, than before I said it. Real quick, let's go to the All-Star game because everybody wants to fix it. I think we have to come to the agreement that it's not fixable in today's society. In today's, the way we consume, the way the players compete. I mean, for the most part, these guys are friends. Like the reason why LeBron is in his 20th All-Star game is that it gives him a chance to hang out with his guys. Like some of the young guys that he wants to mentor and still have a connection to. That's their way to do it during the season cause they don't have that opportunity to do it. So I don't, it doesn't bother me that he played in it.

You know, maybe the dunking from the free throw line might be something else, but it doesn't bother me that he played in it and that he's load managing in another game. I, I would push back on the idea that because they're friends, they don't compete, right? Like, but I don't think that has anything to do with their friendliness or not for, because Barkley and Magic and Bird and Barkley were, and Jordan were all friends. Right. And they, you know, no one would question their competitive. Yes.

Yes. They hung out outside of basketball, outside of the basketball sphere. They would hang out and go play golf and do whatever.

I mean, somehow Barkley's been playing golf for this long and still terrible, but that's what's up. But like, they've been, they've been doing that for a really long time. And so I pushed back on that about them being friendly. I think they just don't really want to compete that hard cause it's their own vacation. Right. Like they're, they're legitimately on vacation.

Like they're going to these places, they're hanging out. It's Sunday. Right. So you've been there since Friday. Right. Been there since Friday.

And that was Sunday evening. And now you want me to perform? Come on, fam. Stop, stop, stop.

Don't, don't lie to everybody. I don't know what you're doing right now. Like, cause we're all partying. We're having a good time.

No, you're not going to get the best out of anybody. It's a fun, it's supposed to be a party. It's supposed to be a good time.

And watching Dame Lillard like bomb from half court was fun. Like that's, that's not fun to anybody. Like put a hand up.

You want to put a hand up and you want, you're going to start checking guys, 94 feet. Like nobody wants to watch that. Like I, and I enjoy, you can still enjoy like Sabrina versus a burst curve. Like that was, that was fun. That was legit.

I really had a good time watching that. Like you can do other things are then the game. But if you did want to add something, I say it every year, you want to add something, add a game of 21.

Just take the, like all the, all the Chuck. I don't even want the best players. I don't even necessarily want the best players. I want the guys that take just will take any shot ever. I want to put those guys out there and just watch them hoop. Just watch them hoop. Just watch them hoop.

And you will see some real that you want to talk about competition when someone gets 19 and everyone starts playing his own defense on this. Like, I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a fun time, man. That's a, that's what would save the all-star day for me. All right. Forget about the game. We get rid of the game.

We have a tournament of 21. Yep. I like it. I like it.

All right. Um, you said, you said fam, obviously this, it's a, it's about a different thing, but, um, speaking of JJ Riddick versus the rivers for first doc and then Austin jumps in defending, I don't know. I don't know what kind of relationship he's got with dad. Uh, dad has traded him for the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time. There's Granger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts.

So you can quickly and easily find what you need. Plus you can count on access to a committed team, ready to go the extra mile for you call click Granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. That has, that happened before dad traded, uh, Austin at one point. Um, but JJ Riddick was not thrilled that doc rivers was, you know, maybe deflecting some responsibility for the fact that the bucks have struggled. Look, I don't understand why they got rid of, uh, their coach when they were what 30 and 13. There was a reason that doc was coaching really good. I don't really, I don't understand the whole, the notion of firing a coach who's nearly 20 games over 500 at the midpoint, but they did. And doc rivers who was consulting them is the head coach and JJ had apparently had enough, uh, and he just said he's never accountable. What do you make of this delicious back and forth? So I guess blue blood really isn't thicker than water. No, they're not.

They're not all going to be gyms. Okay. Nobody, nobody misses Austin. The only time that Duke fans like Austin rivers is when they show the highlight of the shot over Tyler's Eller.

That's it. Other than that, nobody misses him. That's one of the legitimate points about, and these are things that have had people have talked about on NBA Twitter for a long time when it comes to doc rivers, him being up three, one, him being up three, two, and consistently losing the series that they should be able to have control over. There are some conversations about guys getting hurt at very Chris Paul gets hurt during one of the series, uh, in the, in another one of the series, they were the underdog coming in. I guess, isn't as big of a deal.

Like there are some mitigating factors that you can kind of want to toss out there. Um, but it wasn't surprising to see Reddit do it. I guess it's just more interesting, a little bit more layered because he played for doc rivers. And because he had had so much success on rivers, him on those Clippers team, those were, those were good teams and he, and he played really well on it. I think that's what kind of drew some of the ire that, that, that, uh, you saw from his son, which, and you mentioned their strain relationship actually kind of like just off aside from this particular part of story, it was just kind of nice seeing him, you know, take up for his father. He had talked pretty openly about how, how kind of difficult that relationship had been.

And it was just kind of cool to, to see him, uh, to see Austin do it on Austin side. I thought he was legit. Like he's like, he's gets fired.

I don't know how much more responsible he's supposed to supposed to take for these, for these, uh, these shortcomings in his career. All right. I want to close on this because it's been a, uh, it's been a strange, uh, it's been a strange year. There was a time where, uh, like both the Lakers and the warriors were outside even of the play in tournament, which is, I can't even imagine right now.

They're both inside of it, although it is precarious. So I'm going to give you a, a predictive NBA finals. And you tell me if I'm crazy Clippers and the Knicks in the NBA finals. Oh man, Clippers.

I can absolutely see. I think of all the teams that I've seen when they played their best, I think the Clippers are the best. Like when they, when they're, um, they they've had some, some questionable losses here and there and stuff like that. And I know there was a whole bunch of the jokes and memes and stuff when they first got hard and they've really got that thing moving. They really seem to understand how each other plays and play off one another. Well, I was watching one of the, one of the games before the, um, before the all star break, I think Paul George had like 13 points of like six of 18 shooting and they won by 20 points, right? Like they have so much talent on that team that they don't, everybody doesn't have to go off on every night. And Kawhi has been Kawhi.

He's been one of the best players in the league again, and it's great to see him healthy and he's been incredibly efficient for like the past month and a half. So that, that's the best team that I think I've seen all for, for either conference. I just don't see it with the Knicks. And I think I'm just doing a recency bias thing. I think, I don't know if you go from being a good team, a talented team, a surprising team to all the way to the finals. I have a hard time kind of wrapping my head around that. The Celtics have looked so unbeatable at times with their offense. They've like, they've just been look lights out juggernaut type stuff. It's not that the Knicks aren't good and they haven't been healthy for a while.

That's going to be a big issue. They have to get healthy at some point, but I just, I feel like it's the Celtics time after all the stuff they've been through. Well, we can eliminate the bucks cause doc rivers is the coach. That's fair, right? Is that unfair to say that? I think, I think the thing that he did that got him the chip that has ultimately gotten him all this cache with Boston was he was able to manage personalities and manage veterans. That Milwaukee team is full of veterans. There's a, there's, I think eight guys are, they're also awful defensively. They are awful defensively.

They have to, they're going to have to clean that up at some point. How? Does Dave Lillard, Dave Lillard doesn't want to check anybody?

No, but I think, I think maybe there's some stuff you can do. Like you look at Miami, they can come on this kind of weird matchup zone sort of thing. And so like they can maybe start switching things and make it maybe a little bit easier for Dane who can kind of die on screens anyway. Like go ahead and switch buddy.

Like maybe you can figure some stuff out that, that you can hide him as your point of attack defender. They just have so much, they just have, because they have guys that have won at this sort of level. Giannis has a title. I look at them in a different light that look at the Knicks, right? Because nobody on that team has really won anything of substance.

So it is harder for me to just wrap my head around a whole bunch of, you know, championship virgins coming out and getting the dub. I should have said Villanova because that's basically the Knicks. It's like the, it's like the two teams that won the title at Villanova, their whole roster pretty much is, is playing in New York. That OG pickup was nice for them though. Like that's, that's, that's a, that's a, that team is, is, is a talented, I thought that was a really nice addition to their squad. That team is a, is the most talented I've seen out of a Knicks squad in a while. Yeah, and I think, I think they've all settled into roles, which I don't know that they were before then. Finally, for before we let Brendan Whitted go at H.U. Cosell, are you pleased with where the Hornets are in terms of their development going forward? Obviously, this is not the, they're not going to make the play-in tournament this year, but are they set up for next year, the year after the year after that? Me 13 to 41 is not going to get you into play. Okay, fair enough. Well, we don't know.

We could expand more. I'm interested to see Trey man. They've had some real issues with non Lamela ball minutes when he's on the court.

I'd like to see him in that in a row. One of the guys that they picked up in a trade. They picked up a couple second rounders are protected first, I believe. So they have, they added the future stuff that they needed. They unloaded some, some players that weren't going to help them win in terms of Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward. So they've set themselves up well for the future.

I think the addition of Grant Williams, a guy that has done some winning as it can be a little bit of a veteran, sort of a presence could help that team, even though he's a younger guy. I'm happy that they finally decided to make the push and to finally clean house and to start over. I'm glad that they have seemed to finally have a plan.

That's what I've always wanted. What's the plan? Are you going for it or are you not? They decided they're, they're, they're, they're, they're going to push off. They're going to, they're going to fold and they're going to wait until the next hand. And I'm, I'm excited to see what that looks like for them. At huco cell, Brendan Woodard, our friend, NBA analyst for us here on the Adam gold show, sir.

I'll talk to you very soon. My man. Absolutely. Without the ones like you who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop hospitals, factories, schools, and power plants. They all depend on you. No matter the weather emergency or time of day, you're the ones who get it done at Grainger. We're here for you with professional grade industrial supplies count on real time product availability and fast delivery call click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.