The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast #28. NBA Finals Epilogue, Power Rankings for next season, KD/Kyrie, 'Hustle' review

Hey, what's up everybody?

Welcome back. It's the Rich Eisen Show basketball podcast. We're here on a Wednesday. It's June 22nd. We're on the eve of the NBA draft taking place tomorrow night in Brooklyn. The Golden State Warriors are your 2022 NBA champions.

They dispatched to the Boston Celtics in six games as predicted by yours truly last week on the show. I knew it was going to happen guys. You tried to talk me out of it and I had already seen the writing on the wall, like I said, after game four. Uh, but thank you for your vote of confidence. I appreciate it. I'll remember that, uh, as we move forward.

But yeah, Golden State did it, uh, one Oh three 90 in game six to finish off Boston for the fourth NBA title of this run, uh, from their big three. Uh, it's been a week, but, uh, Adam, what are your thoughts first up? What's up, Adam?

TJ? Hi guys. How you doing? It's good to be here. I mean, the season's over, but we're continuing the, uh, the coverage throughout the summer.

So guys, uh, tune in for that. I'm happy. What's going on TJ? Well, the quote, Curtis blow bill Russell didn't take no junk and Daryl Dawkins got a monster dunk. Okay.

They're playing basketball. Just quoting Curtis blow here. Let's start this podcast. You know, when I was in like seventh grade, I wrote this, uh, so I would have been in the seventh grade in 92. And that was when Shaq came out.

Number one pick. I wrote this like super long, like rap about Shaquille O'Neal and I, and I don't, I don't remember it all the way through, but I remember some of the lines, like I talked about like bank in the funk and Duncan on Alonzo morning and stuff was like, so inspired by his, uh, just rip off Shaq diesel. Cause that sounds like a line from Shaq. We, I was talking about like, like, uh, I got my own shoe to battle on some morning or something like that. I think it was maybe he copied you.

What am I, what am I finding moments? First of all, put some respect on the lawns of morning thing though. Okay. No disrespect. I mean, it was just because he was the number one pick. Well, that's the morning. Morning was number two morning got dunked on by a lot of people though. He was a great defender, but he would always get dunked on people would challenge him shot. Well shot blockers all get dunked on. If you're, if you're a guy who blocks shots, you're going to have a highlight where you send them people packing and you're going to have a highlight world getting kept.

But I feel like he had more, more posters against him than, than even other shop blockers. It feels like we had him at studio last week. Tracy McGrady had a famous one on Alonzo, right? I mean, McGrady, another one, he dunked on pretty much everybody. Vince had a famous one on the lawns where Alonzo was actually like legitimately upset afterwards. He thought he was like hanging in the air.

It felt like it felt like he jumped and then just like went a little higher. Yeah. Vince was ridiculous.

All right. Like I said, NBA finals thoughts leftover. What do you think about the warriors here?

Adam? Couple couple things that I left over thought I was thinking about Andrew Wiggins, incredible NBA finals. Did not expect that out of him at all. Obviously coming into the league, he had huge expectations as his number one pick. And I don't think it was ever meant to be that he was supposed to be the number one player on a championship level team. I think he's found his role with the golden state warriors as a third best player on that team.

Possibly the second. He was a second to me. He was the second best player in the finals for them this year, but we'll see next year with clay getting more time to rehab. But yeah, Wiggins was, was incredible in this series. And then of course, obviously Steph Curry just taking that, that leap in his career. He always had the, um, the one, the one asterisks were where fans always knew he was great, but people would hold the fact that he never had a finals MVP against him. He should have won that first year. They won, I think it was at 15, 2015 when Iguodala won.

Yep. So Steph finally taking that leap, getting the finals MVP, just, just totally eviscerated the Celtics in game six. And Chris, obviously I know you were here in total pain, but I was at the cigar shop, the V cut on Melrose. Everybody was there. It was a great time. And, and we were legitimately all like cracking up, laughing at some of the shots he was making. Like that's how, you know, somebody's go to when people are laughing at how absurd the shots are. And so when you get to that level, when you're making people laugh, when, when you're doing these, these shots and these moves, you're another, you're another level, you're, you're an incredible player.

So Steph Curry, he's still, he's, I believe he's 34, but the way he conditions himself and with current NBA technology and in the way they're able to condition, who knows when this is going to stop this, this guy could have another prime with the emergence of that team, with the younger guys for another five, six years. So it's, it's, it's, it was awesome to wash. Yeah. TJ, what do you think? Leftover thoughts from the finals? Oh man. I got a lot to unpack.

I guess the, uh, the reports of the warriors demise were greatly exaggerated. I just come back to what you said a couple of years ago. It was like, get yours now. Yeah.

Get yours now. Cause once this team is fully healthy, look out. And you were kind of, you were way ahead of it. You were two years ahead on that. And, uh, you know, kudos to you for calling first and foremost. So let me applaud you because it's very hard for you sometimes to give me credit amongst the many things that I do say. Right.

And a lot of times you don't want to give me props. So I appreciate that you went back and you dug in the crate a little bit and pulled that out. Yeah, man. I was just like this team they're losing, they're down because they're injured. Right. And I'm like, but if these guys get healthy again, which there's no reason they shouldn't, you know, the days of Bernard King tearing his ACL and having this career over, thank goodness are done. And the fact that they got with his Achilles.

Yeah. And the fact that they got the number two pick who at the time we didn't know would never see the court. But we just, you know, getting the top three pick this year.

Clay's out, but he'll be back in. But obviously when Wiggins got there, I kind of knew, man, like, here's a guy, he's not going to have to carry your franchise like he, they wanted him to do in Minnesota. And you're right at him. He might not have been built to be number one player on a championship team, but to be the number four on the call sheet on the championship team, man, he's more than adequate and more than built for that. And like you said, he was probably the second best player in the finals, but to start the season and I always like to put things on movie call sheets. He's definitely was definitely fourth on the call sheet. And Andrew Wiggins, man, big ups to him because that guy had a lot of trash talked about him, a lot of naysayers, nice.

Let me try that again. A lot of naysayers because he was the number one pick. He didn't do what everyone thought he was going to do. He didn't reach the heights that people assumed he would. So, you know, there was a lot of negativity surrounding Wiggins, you know, like Nick Wright famously saying, you know, when the when the Warriors traded for him, they'll never win anything. He's watched Andrew Wiggins, man. Enjoy your summer, bro, because you earned it.

You definitely earned it. And he's going to be a free agent after next year. So, I mean, I can only imagine how much he's going to cash in. You know, he had he pretty much had cashed in before with a five year 147 before. Yeah, he was all right. And then he got traded to Golden State. And man, he was awesome.

Also, also, I want to I wanted to to shout out Clay Thompson because he didn't have an incredible final series, but he made some big shots. You can tell he's not fully where he he will be probably next year. That's also a problem. Exactly.

Yeah. He will be a better player next year. I would be shocked if he's not just the fact that he was able to come back from those horrific injuries and play the way he did. He is such a positive attitude.

You can't you can't hate clay. He's he's the most likable guy to me in the NBA. He's so funny. His prey shenanigans alone were incredible.

Like I was drinking Hennessy, running over people, losing his hat on the boat. He's just a character. He's one of the best people in the NBA to root for. And I wish nothing but the best for Clay. He's just the man.

He's totally the man. Like I said, didn't play great. Thirty seven percent shooting in the finals. Still threw in 17 a game, but he's just like I said, nothing pained me more than to have to root against Steph and Clay, because I love watching them play so much.

I love clay. And to see him come back after two and a half years of being out, you know, with a nine hundred and something days between games, like it's just awesome. I would have loved to have celebrated this Golden State team if they played anyone else in the final. But if they played against Miami, if they played against Brooklyn, if they played against Milwaukee, probably because I just didn't want Milwaukee to go back to back whatever. It's just like, you know, it was tough. It was a tough finals for me. I got to be honest, I really only watched about a quarter and a half a game six. Like you could just tell you had to feel, you know, they were up. Boston got out to a 14 to start. I was yelling and running around my house.

And then I don't know what what happened after that. Just like they forgot how to play basketball is really bizarre. And once you could see it go on a certain way, I was like, I'm not going to ruin my night by watching this whole game. You know, congrats to Golden State and we're on to next year. It was an awesome Celtic season. I'm probably I'm never going to forget this run.

And hopefully these guys don't either and use it as motivation to get back. The East is really tough. The East there's a lot of really good teams and a lot of really good players. Really curious to see what Brooklyn does, what moves they make.

We'll talk about that in a second. Philly, what moves they make. Miami, you know, they're going to make moves. And then Boston ends up adding a player like Nick Petune or something like that. Another big perimeter shooter. But Boston has a lot to be proud of. Tatum has a lot to be proud of. First team all NBA this year.

He's only going to get better, which is a crazy thought. And Golden State was just a better team in this series. I don't think they were the better team overall. I think Boston was a better team when healthy. If both teams were 100 percent healthy, I think Boston wins this series every time. But they weren't. And with the experience of the finals and Curry kind of took his game to another level.

Adam, like you said, we were kind of waiting for that. We'd never really seen it in the finals before. Aside from that one forty seven point game against Toronto, which is serious, they lost. But kudos to Stephen Clay and everybody on that team except Draymond Green.

I'm happy for that. And, you know, going back to Clay ring number four, you know, like you said, Adam, the injuries, you know, he's injured during the game we all saw. And then we get news one random day that Clay's rehabbing and then he gets hurt again.

So you can imagine like mentally what this guy had to go through when you were in the peak physical condition and you're at the peak of your you know, you're given vocation, which he was. And then to have two injuries back to back like that mentally that had to crush him. You could see there were times like he even said times there were shots of Clay sitting on the bench crying like sad, sad clay, because this guy to think like, am I ever coming back?

Like, am I ever going to be able to go out? You know, there was a video going around at the end of last season, Clay sitting on the bench wearing a mask and Steph comes over with a towel over his head and he kind of sits off there, not on the bench. They're kind of behind the bench and it was the end of their season last year and Steph kind of goes over to Clay and he kind of puts his hand on the shoulder and Clay he's wearing a mask, but you could just tell from his eyes the sadness, his shoulders are slunched down and Steph kind of just sits next to him and you could tell the two of them were just like, man, this sucks.

And I promise you in that moment, they're like, we're not going to have this feeling again and and they sure didn't. One guy we didn't mention that I want to give a shout out to is Gary Payton, the second. Yeah. Simply because first of all, joining his dad, Gary Payton, the legendary glove, becoming the fifth father son duo to win an NBA championship. But not only that, if you know his story, you know, getting drafted in 2016, bouncing around from club to club, I think he may have gone to Europe. But the thing was, if he would have gotten cut by Golden State this year, you know what he was going to do?

I do. He was going to join the media department. He was going to like he's going to be the video coordinator, the video coordinator in the media department for the team, the Warriors. Had he gotten because he was already like, I think he had gotten to the point where, like, I've been cut so much, this isn't working. He was looking to his future after basketball. He was ready to accept this job if he got cut and they were going to hire him. And luckily for him, he didn't get cut. And now look at the man, the guys, you know, who started out in the video department, Eric Stolstra.

So I just found that I thought that was a great story. Like he came so close to being like, all right, my dream's not going to happen. And then the next, you know, this guy's, by the way, Duncan, he had a dunk in that last game.

That was phenomenal. Like the dude's got hops. He's, you know, I'm always a fan of second generation stars, whether it be in football, basketball, pro wrestling, you get a lot of that in wrestling because you're able to watch like a father for years and years. And then next thing you know, his son or his daughter comes up and so I'm a, I'm a big fan of just watching generations kind of follow in the parents footsteps. Warriors have three of the warriors have three of those guys.

Yep, exactly. So that's crazy. More likely to get back to the finals next year. Warriors are Celtic. I'd say the warriors just because the east is going to be such hard competition next year.

To be honest, Chris, obviously the Celtics were great this year, but I kind of doubt if they would have beaten Boston, if Chris Middleton was healthy. Oh yeah. Milwaukee. Yeah.

Yeah. So the, that and the fact that Brooklyn with who knows what's going to happen with them, but then you have, you obviously have Duran's and there'll be, I mean, conceivably the Sixers and bull. I just think there's a lot of competition in the east and there there's good teams in the west, but I believe at this point, the warriors are, are another level above the sons and the Mavericks still. So I, I would bet that the warriors get back, even the Grizzlies, Grizzlies I still am.

I'm not big on. You kept saying that whole person, they proved you wrong. I mean, not really. They barely won. They barely won the first round against Minnesota and then the second round. Yeah, they played decent, but I never really actually thought that they'd win the series there. They're going to be a good team eventually. I just don't think they're there quite yet, including next year. I just don't think that they have the weapons to go against golden state, especially with James Weisman coming back healthy. I just don't see it. Yeah. But what do you know about James Weisman?

Nothing. I know that he's talented and he was, how do you know that though? Like we've never seen, we did see him in the, in the, in the, uh, his rookie year.

He had stretches where you'd play as a talented player played a little bit. Like, I don't know that I'm going to like use him as the measuring stick to say that he's going to be the one to get a team over the hump. Another addition to this already loaded golden state team. That's just going to add to their, and also like states never played with a center. Right. So like, are they going to, I'm just wondering how he's going to fit. Like they don't run a traditional set, right there. I just don't know. Yeah. He played, he played a half a season, his first year, 12 and six.

I mean, it's pretty good. He can thrive with, with Steph off the pick and roll. He can be one of those guys. If he can become a Chris, I've said this from the start that obviously he needs to improve a lot to become this level, but the, the Chris Bosch comparison can be there. If he can hit that outside shot, he's a lefty and he can get rebounds and block shots and do the pick and roll stuff.

Well, I'm just going to be honest with everyone. Listen, I have not watched enough James Wiseman playing basketball to sit here and compare them to anyone. So I really don't know what the guy's going to bring the 12 and six, as you said, got to see how he fits in with this team. That team doesn't really run sets for like a big man. Right.

So I don't know. Is he going to fit in there? Do you think it was James? James Wiseman going to be that big of a player for them next year.

I believe in Steve Kerr and he'll figure out a way to, to get them to fit in. I just trust Steve. They just have a lot of guy like who doesn't come back.

Does B ELISA come back? Mooney looney, all these guys. Like, well, what is the good dollar? Is he a free agent? He's got to be thinking about retiring. He's also like 83 years old. Yeah.

Good dollar. Great career by the way. But he also like, he, you know, I saw something funny on Instagram the other day and it was like, and I don't buy this because this man has rings himself, but somebody was like, Iguodala is who, uh, you don this has them thinks he is, which I thought was a little rough because UD has rings. It's not like you don't got rings, but you know, he has been hanging around 20 years now. And I, but I feel like he serves a purpose on that team and then the locker room. And I'm sure that's what Andre does because you could see like points where Iguodala would take Peyton when Peyton would get out of the game. Iguodala would be on him before the guy even got off the court in his ear, kind of telling them what he did wrong, you know, pointing things out to him.

So veteran leadership and presence like that, you can't understate. So maybe Iguodala does come back. I'm sure he'd take like the minimum, obviously, probably to come back.

Essentially being a glorified coach. It just depends if there's a, there's a spot for him. TJ, who do you think will more likely have a chance to get back?

I mean, that's tough. Like you said, the East is going to be strong. We can't, I mean, obviously you cannot forget about the Los Angeles Clippers, especially with Kawhi Leonard having more than a full year to come back healthy. We all know what Kawhi can do on the basketball court.

Paul George, healthy. I think that they're going to make a move or two. I'm not really sure what that move is going to be, but I'm going to say you're going to have to look out for the Clippers next year. All right, here we go. Until the Clippers curse happens, because inevitably it always happens.

And it just upsets me. All right, here we go. We're going to do it right now. Real quick.

Way too early. Every team is 100% healthy. Top five power rankings heading into 2022, 23.

All right. Well, the Golden State Warriors have to be number one. Why? Because they're the defending champions. But 100% healthy. They're not the best team in the league. But you believe that the Celtics are, and I don't know that I agree with you on that. 100% healthy.

The Celtics are better than the Warriors. No, they're not. I don't. 100% healthy. No. What?

Because because then Clay Thompson's 100% healthy. Oh, OK. You know what I mean? I mean, we can agree to disagree.

So I mean, defending champions, unless Steph or somebody retires going in, I think you have to put them at number one. How could you not? I agree. Well, there you go.

All right. So you guys have the Warriors. Number one. Let's keep going to, I have me personally, I have the Milwaukee Bucks, the Chicago Bulls. Yes. The starting lineup. Milwaukee.

Yeah. I got to go to Milwaukee. You have Giannis who to me is still the best player in the league. Overall Steph. Steph was incredible, but overall Giannis to me is still the best. So yeah, you have him, you have a healthy Middleton.

Hopefully Lopez will be fully healthy. So to me, yeah, they're number two right now. OK. All right.

Brockman, take three. Well, I don't think the Warriors are number one. I just don't know how you can say that. Yeah.

I mean, 100% healthy. I kind of think Milwaukee is probably number one. OK. I kind of think Brooklyn is in the top five as well.

We don't have to put them in. Who's on their team? We know it's Kevin Durant and Joe Harris.

That's all we know for a fact. Well, I, Kyrie Irving is technically young 1243. We all know where Kyrie can change tomorrow. I made Ben Simmons. Yeah.

A lot can change. I actually think Denver is in the top five. We're looking at completely fully healthy teams. Like, look how good they were this year.

Yokish was another MVP. Didn't have two of their best players, players, number two and three, not healthy, not playing the entire season. And as much as I don't want to say this, probably the Lakers are probably in the top five. No, with a fully healthy LeBron and Anthony Davis on the top five. There's no way.

What do you mean? There's no way that team is trash besides those two. Who else is good on that team? That's a team in the NBA. All you need are two good players and you can go all the way to the finals.

We just saw it. But to compare those that Lakers team to all these other great teams, there's so many good teams now. To me, there's not even a chance that they're in the top five right now. Oh, interesting. All right. So I think the Celtics are up there as well. Adam and I have Golden State one. You have Milwaukee one, right?

I have Milwaukee one. I'm going to put Golden State not even in my top five. That's a hot day today. All right.

He's just angry about what happened. Heading into the season. I got like, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Boston, Denver, Lakers.

In no particular order. All right, who you got, Adam? You got Golden State, Milwaukee. Golden State, Milwaukee. Fully healthy.

Fully healthy heading into the season. I'm going to go Clippers. Clippers number three. I like your stuff. I'll go.

That's a good one. I should have took Clippers and said, well, I'll go Celtics four. And this is the homer in me. If we get Rudy Gobert tomorrow. Oh, come on. Can we get Rudy Gobert? Dude, that starting lineup. If the Celtics get Bradley Beal, we're number one. I mean, we're playing that game.

Okay. Well, with the current roster, then, then we're not. But tomorrow, if we get Rudy Gobert, the Chicago Bulls can be a top five team in this league. Fully healthy.

That is an incredible, incredible lineup. Yeah. Bad stuff will probably happen with injuries or whatever.

Who knows? But that team can really. I know I'm a homer. I know it.

It's fine. We are. But I'm going with the Bulls number five. We'll take it or leave it. Blatant Homer ism. It's a great second.

Take it or leave it. Bulls number five. P. J. All right. Well, I got Golden State one. I got Millie Wacke at two.

I'm agree with Chudwin there. I'm gonna go clips at three C's at four. Number five, man. You know what?

I might just I thought I was gonna do a stretch here, but I don't know if the stills gonna go through, so I'll hold off on it. And now if they're healthy Sixers, I mean, as much as I want to. But I'll say the Nuggets, man, because I think people kind of forget Jamal Murray before he got hurt, was putting himself on that next tier, man. And then he got hurt. So we just got to see how he comes back.

But if Jamal Murray can come back to 90% of what he was, if you come back to bubble Jamal Murray, then yeah, these Nuggets are a problem. And also think about Yeah, exactly him, too. But think about what that does for Joker. Now, all of that isn't on his shoulders. He doesn't have to score the many points. He doesn't have to, you know, do everything that he had to do currently without those two guys without Porter and without Murray is in such a good place.

Because think about it. We did. We just did not mention the 64 win Phoenix runs. We didn't mention 56 win Memphis Grizzlies. We didn't mention probably the best young player in the game, Luca Doncic.

We didn't mention who else? Well, the thing about the thing about the Raptors, the Sixers, I think it's kind of a known thing that I don't believe he's going to be there next year. Yeah, that's a team I could see taking a fall for sure. And by the way, I was I would have put them fifth. But because we don't know the eight in situation, that's why I couldn't put Phoenix and fifth.

If he's back then. Yeah, because I feel kind of bad for the Suns, right? They had such a great regular season. They had two bad games in the playoffs. And by the way, they were bad. They lost by like they were bad games. But bro, they had two bad games literally in the entire home and got some they got smoked.

But are we going to allow that to take? And then, of course, all the trash talking about Chris Paul, like he was just some bum and stuff and all that stuff come start coming out. But like you take away those the two bad games at the end of the season. This Phoenix Suns team was really good. They had a great season. And if he comes back, I'll put them in five.

I just from what I'm understanding, it looks like he might not be back. They were up to oh, the year before Milwaukee in the finals. I wonder if we're going to find something out in a few months that like this team had a secret covid outbreak or something, and they all were sluggish and sick because remember field missed the game. I mean, yeah, I just I just don't understand what went wrong with that team.

I also lost a lot of money like betting. OK. Also, that's what I wanted to point out, just the talent like the league, I think is it's really in a place we've never kind of seen before in talent wise. I mean, if you look. At one through 10, the playoff teams this year in each league, each team has a super duper star. You know, like Zion Williamson is going to be back. He looks great in some of these workout videos, right?

Yeah. Anthony Edwards, super duper star. The Clippers, they're two superstars. DeJounte Murray, superstar. Trey Young, superstar. Darius Garland, superstar.

LaMelo Ball, superstar. The league's in such a great place talent wise. Yeah, I agree with you on that. To me, I'm a little more discerning in terms of the word superstar. Yeah, some of those guys, I don't know. Well, they're stars, though. They're stars. To me, there's also young, young stars, young could be first team All-NBA at some point.

That's just what I mean. Yeah, it's I don't remember a time when there's been this much talent in the league, maybe the early 90s, early. Yeah, like early 90s, I guess. Maybe when you have like the end of Magic and Larry and Jordan in his prime and and all those guys.

But I haven't seen anything like this. If you have you guys, I remember in 1996, that draft class when there was like 13 guys and in 97, I mean, the late 90s, we can't forget the amount of talent. The late 90s, I don't think was nearly as talented as now, though. The late 90s is kind of a drought. A lot of bad, a lot of bad offense, a lot of 85 to 75 games, a lot of Boston was a lot of great defense, though, being played. But if you look overall, there just weren't the late 90s to me was was actually one of the worst periods of the NBA, the late 90s, early 2000s. Well, there was there were just some tough games to watch. You tell me those Lakers dynasty in the early 2000s. That was bad basketball. They're an amazing Spurs dynasty.

That was an anomaly. I mean, a lot of a lot of Knicks heat like crappy ass games. And a lot of teams that was really bad 90s, though, like whatever.

I mean, I will agree to disagree on that. I think to just Adam's point, there's twenty five guys in the league right now who would be first team all NBA and twenty five years ago. Every team, every team has sensational young players.

Yeah, it's amazing. The off the top of my head, the only team that doesn't necessarily have a potential superstar is really like Orlando. I was going to say the magic.

Yeah. Like maybe Cole Anthony will become good. They're getting a top three pick this year. But off the top of my head right now, every team kind of has a guy. Well, the Kings don't.

The magic don't. The bonus is, I mean, not that he's a superstar, but I guess Fox. I like Fox is a good player. But I guess you could say the Kings. But who else?

There's a lot of great young talent the week. That was my point. Yeah.

I didn't want to argue about areas. I'm just pointing out that, you know, so many teams have a lot of really good young players, you know, as we come towards the kind of end of career of Kevin Durant and LeBron. And, you know, Steph has been around for a long time now.

It's it's just good to see the league in good hands. That was my point. Yeah. Any follow up thoughts on that? All right.

Here's something I did want to do. It seems like there's just a lot of news pop in the NBA draft is tomorrow. We're not going to talk really any draft really. We can react next week in case there's some big trades or anything. But I think everyone kind of thinks Jabari Smith is going to go, you know, number one.

And then afterwards, you know, Chet Holmgren or Paolo and we'll see what happens there. But what did you guys think of this Kyrie news from yesterday? Was it the least surprising thing ever to wake up and see a headline with Kyrie, his team X and then the word impasse about his future? T.J., what does that shock you at all? Nothing that comes out about Kyrie is shocking at this point. It's just like. What is it with this dude?

I wish I knew. And I mean, because it's obvious, like Kyrie does good things, right? He really does. If you look around and you look at some of the stuff where he's donated money and the things that he's done for WMBM salaries, of course, building. So he's done great things. It's just like, I don't know. He makes it hard, I guess, for himself.

But, you know, if these are things that you believe in and you want to stand firm and you know what, man, if a man's got a belief. To salute, as they say, you know, like, but I don't get some of the choices, I guess, that he's. Do you think he's on Brooklyn next year or do you think it's one of the other three teams rumored Lakers Clippers Knicks Adam? Oh, I just don't see what those other three teams could give up an equal value. Who are the Lakers going to give up for Kyrie?

That's anywhere close to him. Westbrook is not tradable at this point. Nobody wants Russell Westbrook.

That's just the truth of the matter. They don't want him. They don't want the forty seven million dollars. Yes.

Contrast is a huge albatross. Nobody wants that. And then the other teams, you said the Knicks, maybe R.J. Barrett in a draft pick. No, that's not going to happen.

He's not going to go to the next. And then the last team, you said the Clippers. Well, they're not going to give up Paul George or Kawhi. So unless they're, they're trying to fleece the Nets, that's not going to happen. So to me, I just don't see a viable trade for him. So if I had a shot, I see him staying on the Nets to start the year. Can T.J., can Kyrie be the best player on a championship team at this point in his career? No.

He's actually never done it. No, I mean, he was number two to LeBron and his only title run in 2016. And by the way, great spot to be in. Guess who else is number two? LeBron, everyone that plays with him.

So there ain't no shame in that. And also, you know, you look at Kyrie, man, he, you know, he won that first championship, like pulled up on Steph, busted the jumper in his eye when a lot of people are like, what are you doing, Kyrie? And he, he hit the three. So, you know, if there was a way, you know, Rich asked me that yesterday, would I like Kyrie on the Clippers?

The answer is absolutely. I would like Kyrie on the Clippers. And as I say, if it doesn't cost you Paul George or Kawhi, then yeah. Now the question was why? Well, we were just talking about the Cavs winning the NBA championship in 1716. Who was the coach who coaches the Clippers?

So if there's someone who maybe can manage Kyrie and kind of understands him and maybe who Kyrie respects, because, you know, you're starting to hear rumors now that after Steve Nash had a practice, Kyrie would hold his own separate practice after the official practice. I don't know. I don't know if I don't know if I should look at that as a bad thing or not. That, because I think right off the bat people wanted you to look at it as a negative. My first thought was like, yo, my man is just getting extra work in. And if you're getting extra work in, it's kind of hard to knock somebody for that. Now, if you're doing that second practice because you're trying to overwrite what the coach was saying, obviously that's a huge issue.

We don't know, you know, which box that, you know, this information should go in. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just say maybe he was trying to get extra work. But yeah, if there was a way that you could get him to the Clippers without losing either of those two, sure, because Kyrie is still guys. When it comes to food chains and the point guard world, he's definitely still near the top of the top of the food chain. So if you could get a chance to get him, but I kind of agree with you, Chris, I just don't see a way that it does happen.

And a big if you're just looking at fifth, right? It's so it's so frustrating. Well, it's frustrating that Dame Lillard didn't listen to me months ago and try to get his way to Philly because that would have been the best choice for him.

But, you know, whatever I gave up at this point, my hands are in here. Yeah, I don't want to jump around too much, but like the Dame situation is just insane to me. Like, what does the rest of his career look like? I don't want to get too far off of Kyrie because I still had one more point. Kyrie Kawhi and Paul George. That's a nearly unstoppable trio.

Oh, they would win the championship. I believe so. I really believe that. He fits perfect.

He fits perfect with it's perfect. But those two guys. Yeah. Which is why it's kind of insane to me that like it just didn't work with harden Durant. Yeah, I just don't get it. Well, Chris, you know what I'm fond of saying here on the podcast, we talk about chemistry. A lot of times the only thing ph balanced in some of these clubhouses is the shampoo.

So sometimes it just comes down to there's just some kind of chemical thing that's just not working. And apparently that's what went on in Brooklyn with the Clippers with Paul George and Kawhi. You get better defense, way better defense to me. Yeah, then harden and Durant. So Kyrie's he's not a great deal. He's all right as a defensive player, but his offense is so good. But then you have the defense with Paul George and Kawhi that would make that threesome a championship level to win the rest of the like Zubac and whoever.

Yeah. You know, if you could keep Reggie Jackson, but of course, if you know, Jackson, he'd have to have to go. Yeah, he'd be probably the number one guy they want. Norm Powell get Marcus Morris to stay. And what do you think Kevin Durant is thinking now? Because he sees the team he leaves win a championship now that no one really thought was probably ever going to happen again. Like, let's be honest, I don't think we thought a fourth title was in the cards for Steph and Clay and Draymond. And then now the guy he wanted to team up with, for some reason, Kyrie Irving. Now there's talks that he might leave. And now Kevin Durant is just kind of Will Smith at the end, just kind of looking around the house. We'll probably never know the actual reason because he's too busy trolling and fighting people on Twitter and just like, you know, just doing whatever he does. But what do you think he's thinking right now? TJ, Kevin Durant. All right.

That is a tremendous question, man. You know, I feel KD man, you know, he's embattled in his field with Barkley right now. And they're talking about bus drivers and miss that in the third. I just I the thing about I love basketball. I love basketball more than football. I love it more than baseball.

I love it with wrestling. It's probably on equal footing. But the old school NBA and the new school NBA, these guys just can't get along. They just you rarely it does happen in football, granted, but not to the effect that it is in basketball where you have the players from the past constantly at odds with the players of today. It happens, like I said, sometimes in football and you never see it in baseball. And it happens.

It probably happens 10 seconds ago in basketball. Like, I don't understand. Is it jealous? I guess I get to a point, right? If you were such if you're one of the best players on earth in the 90s and you see what these guys are making today, of course, yeah, you're going to be a little bitter because, you know, you know that had your parents just met a decade later that, you know, your whole life savings would be a little bit different, right? But, you know, Katie walked into a situation where he got so much crap, right? He walked in the Golden State. And no matter what anyone tries to say, he was the best player on those two championship teams. I mean, with all due respect to Clay and Steph, who were balling at the highest level, Kevin Durant was the man. Now, does it hurt that argument when they've won without him?

Yes. So basically, I'm just talking right now and I'm waiting for one of you guys to jump in because I'm very confused and I don't know what to think. It's like he definitely drove the bus on those championships.

But now the bus has come back around the block and you see there's a different driver and it's still on the same route. And I don't know what he's thinking. Just your point about jealousy, about the money. You want to play the career earning game for Clyde Drexler? Oh, man.

Let's. I would say Clyde Drexler. So just Andrew Wiggins is in the entering the final year of his five year one hundred forty seven million dollar contract. Andrew Wiggins, who we just said is the fourth guy on the call sheet, fourth guy on the call sheet. Clyde Drexler, number one on the call sheet for most of his career. Yeah. Career earnings.

Adam. How many years did he play? He played like eighty four to ninety.

He played eleven in Portland and three with Houston. Yes. Fourteen. I'm going to go with forty five million dollars. Okay. T.J., I must say fifty two million dollars.

Well, you guys are way too high. Too much credit. Okay. Clyde Drexler, his last three years in Houston, nine point eight, five point five, five point five.

The majority of his thirty one point one career earnings. Oh, my God. See. And so you can understand. I mean, again, Clyde isn't the one doing any of this talking.

I have no idea what he sounds like, even though he's been on the show. But that guy all time great. Yeah. Top seventy five of all time. All eighties.

All eighties team for sure. Like the second best to guard of his era. Thirty one.

Thirty one. He would have if he was coming up in his prime now, his career earnings could possibly have been four to five hundred million dollars. He could have had two max contracts. If you think about it, Clyde had his own shoe. Okay.

And he had so all world game. Yeah. But I'm saying just the sneaker contract alone. He had his own shoe, which they didn't pay like that back then.

Right. So, you know, you got guys now getting one hundred million coming out of college for a sneaker deal. Imagine five slam a jamma in the NIL era.

Oh, my gosh. Clyde Drexler would have been paid. Even if you look back, like Michael Jordan would only in his prime in the early nineties was only making, I believe, maybe two to five million dollars a year. The most criminally underpaid athlete in the history of sport. By far, he was making way more off his endorsements from Nike and Gatorade and Wheaties than he ever was from his salary. He actually made real, real significant money with the Bulls, was ninety seven and ninety eight seasons. So Michael, you want to do the Michael Jordan career game real quick?

Yes. Well, I know he made a lot in his last two years, so I will say his total earnings with the Bulls are wizards also. That's important. The Wizards is only one million each year.

OK, OK. Maybe it's not important. I'll say Jordan's career earnings were. Seventy five million dollars. OK, TJ, I'm going to go a little over that and I'm going to say over eighty six million. OK, so Michael Jordan in his two mega years, ninety seven, thirty million, ninety eight, thirty three million. That's sixty three million right there. Add Clyde Drexler's career and you got ninety four million dollars from Michael Jordan.

But without those two years at thirty one. It's can't even fathom. And so it's so to our point, a completely different era in the NBA than twenty five, thirty years ago.

The salaries guys are making. So I totally understand why some of the old heads, you know, want to talk down this era of basketball. I totally understand. And also, you know, you get but then we have to take consideration that time, OK, because that money at that time, that was huge money. Right. Right. So I mean, Jose Conseco was the first ever million dollar baseball player. And that was that was in like 1988. Yeah. So take that into consideration.

I just. And they're they're also huge haters, not only on the amount of money people make, but I think it's more of the style of play that I see the 80s and 90s players talking trash on players now because they're constantly saying, oh, it's well, no, no, no defense. Like, you know, they've got a good point there, man, because you can't touch people now like Michael Jordan playing the day. I mean, maybe not 50, but he's definitely probably getting he was getting 37 a game when they could beat him with a bat. And he didn't shoot.

No. So imagine imagine him now if you breathe on him, he gets a foul. Mike's average in 45, 46 a game. And that's that's not like hyperbole either. That's it's.

And like I said, hit him with the bat. They were getting hit, bro. And I don't understand when people say they missed the old days of that. Like, do you miss guys getting clothes lined and like there's nothing about that that would make me go, I want to see someone else put in a position where they're getting like the teeth knocked out or they're getting, you know, undercut.

Like, I don't know. I don't pine for those. Yeah, I don't miss those days. But I also don't love today either where the last five minutes of a game takes an hour, you know, where we're reviewing every little tiny thing where, you know, a hard foul suddenly becomes a flagrant two. And here's he's ejected and here's two shots plus two technicals plus the ball back. And suddenly, you know, Golden State as a seven point play like I don't love that air that, you know, specific of today's game either. So, you know, if we could somehow find a healthy mixture of tough, hard nosed basketball, let them play, let them play a little bit. But also, if it's obvious, call it all foul. You know, I, you know, the officiating is just so tough to watch sometimes.

It really is. We got we got off the point of what Kevin Durant's thinking. Oh, yeah. But, you know, you kind of look at them on Twitter and he, you know, he does a good job. People say that he's sensitive. But I'm like, I don't know if that's necessarily sensitivity when someone's and I'm finding this out, which, you know, we have fun with and I hope you know that I'm having fun with. If you see someone say something about you on like a YouTube page, props to you, right? If you're someone who can see some jabroni on his phone, talk trash about you and you take the high road and be the better man and not talk back to them.

If you can do that, then, man, come teach me the way, because I can't do it. You know, they want. But that's what they want. So Durant, like I like to say, people want attention.

I'm here to give it to you. And I think that's how Kevin Durant feels. Bottom line is this Kevin Durant's place in basketball lore should be pretty secure. He is one of the greatest scores we've ever seen. He's one of the greatest basketball players we've ever seen. He's got two rings.

And whether or not he went somewhere else to get them or not, he won MVP of those finals. And, you know, with a size smaller shoe, maybe he goes to a final last year. He doesn't tear his Achilles.

We don't know what happens. But I feel like Kevin, I think Kevin Durant, you know, don't don't don't take the cheese, bro. You are greatest of all time. He to me, he takes pleasure in in clapping back. It's like a hobby of his. Because, like I said, like, like, really, the bottom line is this, Adam, he should look at there and be like, Kevin Durant, you know who I am. And if you think you're going to talk about trash, no, no, no. Because I'm good at talking trash and I'm good at basketball. So what really can you beat me at?

You can't. You would think apparently people say that Kevin Durant is super boring in the off season. He essentially just stays in his in his house all day, playing basketball all his life. He plays video games and smokes weed.

That's really all he does. It's a good life. Yeah, it is. It's a good life. But you would you would believe with all the the opportunities he has and all of the money and access to everything he has, the fact that he's essentially wasting his time talking back to these trolls is is kind of crazy to think about.

I think so. I guess if you get pleasure out of it, then who's to say what to do? But he has so many other things he could be doing. Is it time, though? Like, it takes 10 minutes to sit in.

If you gave me 10 minutes right now, I could tweet 35 times. Put my phone down. Even put your your your your mind in that sort of place. There's to me, it just seems kind of a waste of even a mindset to do that. I don't know.

But I'm not having to run. So like I said, you guys should really check out that the book by Matt Sullivan that follows the nets during the pandemic before and during the pandemic. Like even Steve Nash was just like, I wish he would put his phone down. It seems like you get the sense that he's on it all the time.

Yeah. And it's not it's not just a 10 minute thing where he's just like, oh, let me just respond to a few people. It's just like constant scrolling and reading. One thing we have to get used to is, you know, for instance, the era what we're in there, like Rich was talking about Kyler Murray, you know, with his thing about putting things out, like scrubbing your Instagram. And people have to understand that that's the era we're in. This is like we're addicted to our phones.

We're not addicted. It's you grew up like for us. We're older.

Maybe we don't have that. But like if you're 23, you've had that phone in your hand since birth. That's all they know. So, yeah, you're going to like make announcements on your Instagram and Twitter because that's all, you know, like you're going to spend time on these social media outlets because you're of an eight. Now, obviously, Durant's in his early 30s, so a little different. But we're just, you know, different generations. Just you have to adapt to the way the world is and the world is now.

Everyone is going to be talking through their phone. And like I said, I give you props if you're someone who could read something about you in a negative light and just brush it off like kudos. I don't feel bad for Durant either. He made his bed with this whole situation. He decided to leave the Warriors. It's nobody should feel bad for this guy at all. He still has won championships. He's one of the best players of all time. Yeah, I think he's asking anyone to feel bad for him.

He's definitely not. But the narrative of like what is Durant thinking has definitely been out there for the last week. That's why I just wanted to bring it up with you guys. All right. Let's we're near in the end here.

Let's just get out. Not to interrupt. It would help, though, if he were to be able to get a title where he was that, quote, unquote, unquestioned bus driver, then it would be like, what can you say now? You can't say anything. Just because with the Seth Curry thing with that finals MVP, that was a little asterisk.

Now, this is something with Durant, whether people like it or not, that will always be something that people will say about Kevin Durant unless he wins a championship by himself on his own. I totally agree with you with that. All right.

Let's get out of here. Five minutes on. We promised we were going to talk about it. Finally, we had a one show or mangonas in studio about it. Obviously, we love Adam Sandler.

Let's talk a little bit of hustle. If you haven't seen it yet, it is awesome. I loved it. I loved it. It might have been a little too long to the point that TJ is going to bring up, but the basketball scenes were great. You may have knew which direction it was going or maybe how it was going to end.

But I had so much fun with it. The cameos from I think there were like twenty five something NBA players in there. Kenny Smith was great. Not playing himself, but playing an agent. Leon Rose.

Right. What was it? We on Paul. He's probably based on on Rich Paul and Leon Paul. Great great character he was. I loved it. I have the story of Adam Sandler as a scout for Philadelphia. And he's off to find the next big international player.

And he does so in Herman Gomez. What did you guys think? Well, you said about the time thing that was that wasn't me. That was more Adam. I think Adam had a time issue. He was a little too long with the training montage.

For me, it was just like this. Bottom line, I'm not Cisco nor my Ebert. I will just say this. Do you like Adam Sandler? Check. Yes. Do you like basketball? Check. Yes.

Boom. Go watch. It's just that simple NBA players stir and serve it hot. I want to say it's if you if you're not an Adam Sandler fan, then you're not going to like hustle.

If you don't like basketball, you're probably not going to like hustle. But if you like those two worlds, it's like chocolate and peanut butter in a Reese's Pieces. It comes together. It's magical and it's fun. And it was just a fun watch.

And I had a great time with it. You know, Wanchoe did his thing as Bo Cruz. And it's just another of the long list of Sixers front office head scratching mistakes.

When you have a guy's talented as Bo Cruz and you in your scout, your lifelong scout slash coach. Hold on. Are we doing spoilers with this or no? Well, at this point, I mean, yeah, spoilers.

I mean, it's OK. Yeah, it's just making sure. But it's like I said, the Sixers had Bo Cruz and they decided they want them. So it's just it's just another in the long list. Tomorrow night, I don't know what's going to happen with the Sixers in the draft. They might do the same thing.

I don't know. And he ended up on the cell, which aggravates me even more. And I realized he was only on the cell because Wanchoe was on the cell.

But still, it still annoyed me that the Sixers had this guy and we pass him up. It was like reliving your Jason's had a nightmare all over again. And Adam, that's a nightmare that I will never, ever wake up from as Jason Tatum's wins, championships and MVPs. There's always going to be me sitting there going me.

And by the way, and I'm going to be right there next to you to remind you every step of the way. What was your favorite NBA cameo, Adam? I don't think Anthony Edwards counts. He was I was going to say a little too much. It was awesome. It wasn't quite a cameo. He played the perfect villain. That guy was awesome. He legitimately has a future acting career ahead of him. He was fantastic in this movie. I hate to be everybody loves this guy, but come on, the Boban cameo.

It was so great, especially that scene where they show his son about saying it. Then you said, I want to go against the grain and say, I don't know, Trey Young or somebody like that. That's like, oh, there's Trey Young or it was great. One wave, Trey Young showing up. I'm 22.

Yes, I'm 22. And then his 610 son comes in. He's like, he's 12. Like, wait a second. Physically possible. I mean, technically, no, no, no, no. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I, I, I enjoyed the movie.

I'm a little biased also. I was lucky enough to, uh, to cover it for the, for the show. I had to go to the premiere in Westwood. It was such a trip because I was watching the premiere under the same roof as LeBron James and Adam Sandler. I was like, what is my life right now? It was so bizarre actually.

And, and there was a lot of famous people there and queen Latifah was there and uh, queen Latifah and Adam Sandler is a couple of the couple I never knew we needed, but you know, I was like, okay, fine. Did you buy that? Did you buy them together? I did once you kind of got the backstory of how athletic she was, how athletic he was like, I've gone to school with people like those. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

That was definitely a little jarring at first. You're like, oh, they're, uh, they're married. Yeah. That does it.

First. You're like, really? Cause I never would put Sandler and Latifah together as a marriage.

It's just him and Jennifer Aniston. Yeah. Yeah. Overall, I re I really enjoyed the movie.

Yeah. I had a couple of critiques, obviously, like you said, I'm not Cisco Eber or Roper, but still a couple of critiques, like I said, a little too long to me, it could have been cut by 20 to 30 minutes. The training scenes while fun, they just drags on a little too much for me. I thought they were definitely trying to emulate the Rocky. It had a Rocky theme to it.

Obviously being in Philadelphia sports movie him, you know, training the montage that could have been cut a little, um, another critique for me. And I told you guys this before was I didn't think that the boat cruise character was incredibly likable. He seems a little bit like he, he was not very grateful for all of what, uh, Sandler's what was his name?

Bert, what Bert was doing for him. Yeah. Um, he could have been a little more likable. Maybe they showed some of his, yes. Yeah.

I don't know why I call him, um, because there's a guy named Bert Sugarman and maybe you're thinking of that. Yeah. Um, he could have to me been a little like more likable, um, and maybe show a little more of his backstory of him working construction and some of his life.

But at this point I'm kind of nitpicking on that. Um, and again, Adam, he was being lied to the whole time he was here. So maybe him being a little standoffish was right because essentially Stanley was lying to him the whole time.

Yeah. I know I can see that where he'd be standoffish, but also this guy brought him for the opportunity of a lifetime where if he didn't do that, he just would have been a construction worker. He was assuming that the Sixers were paying for everything. So he was kind of like, what do I care if I only take one bite of this $60 state? Yeah, exactly. Like the team's paying for it.

They're billionaires. He didn't realize, you know, obviously spoiler alert that Adam Sandler's character is footing the bill for all this. Yeah.

Yeah. Just, it's just, to me, it felt like he, in the training scenes, he obviously wanted, he was going hard, but the entire time I didn't get that feeling like he was desperate to make the NBA like another guy would, he just was, it felt like the Sandler character was way more desperate for this to work out than, than Bo Cruz was because he was, I think that's true because Bo was pretty resigned to the fact that he was going to work construction and raise his daughter. That was his and hustle people on the, on the black top. So yeah, we're where Stanley was essentially having a, a career slash a midlife crisis where, where he thought to himself, this has to work out for me or else maybe my career is over. And so I respected that with, uh, Sandler's just a great actor. This guy, he went just from, from the funny guy and happy Gilmore and Billy Madison.

And he's a legitimately good dramatic actor. And you can mind that with the fact that he was able to make the jokes in between. That's, that's what I enjoyed about the movie. It had a serious tone, but, but there were moments, multiple moments where I laughed out loud. And so that's what I really enjoyed about the movie. It was the combination of it being more of a serious drama, but you have the comedy within it. And that's what I really enjoyed about the movie. And then like you guys have said, as a basketball fan, you can't help, but not to enjoy the movie.

The, uh, the cinematography in the shots that they had of the training and in some of the games were incredible. I love the beginning where we meet Bo Cruz and he's wearing the construction boots while he's hustling guys, even while he's in New York and he's still trying to hustle guys. And they're like, Adam, Sam was like, you don't have to do that anymore. Like you're going to be in the NBA.

You don't have to hustle guys for 20 bucks. And then how they got social media involved. Uh, what was, what was score on Bo or something? What was the hashtag?

Anyway, just the Bo challenge. Like that was, that was awesome. Like I said, I had so much, it was a really great fun kind of uplifting.

If you love NBA two hours, like to just spend and, and chill out. So that it was great. It was great.

I loved everything about it. Do you think, do you think people who don't love basketball would still enjoy it? I was, I was wondering about it. I don't know. I think so. I mean, it's just also as a feel good story.

Yeah, for sure. You know, like there's, there's, there's a happy ending and you know, it's ups and downs, family dynamic for your family. You know, there's a villain Ben Foster's character is kind of runs the Sixers.

Like he's kind of a Dick. And so it's clearly made for basketball fans. It has those Easter eggs of even like the, the, the cameos by the, uh, the professor and lethal shooter. And so you have those Easter eggs for the real hoops heads that that gives it more of a, of a fun time to watch.

Yeah, it was great. All right. We're going to have a little more fun chats like this throughout the, uh, summer off season. We'll probably talk some summer league. We'll recap the NBA draft next week. And we're going to have lists people, all these Instagram lists.

My goodness. We're going to have our take on all of these. Uh, I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. It was a really fun NBA season. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of it. I miss basketball. There's more to come. I know it's been a week and we already miss ball draft tomorrow at least yeah. Draft tomorrow.

So check it out, Adam and TJ. Thanks guys. We'll see you next time. We'll see you guys later.