The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast S2 E2. Lakers turmoil, Surprise teams, Luka, 76ers woes

Hey, what's up, everybody? We're back.

It's Rich Eisen Show basketball podcast. Yes, we're coming to you on a Friday. Normally it's Wednesday, but hey, look, there's stuff going on around here and we're busy.

You couldn't get to it. We got a lot of ish going on a little bit less than Tom Brady, but we're heading you right into the weekend talking about some NBA stuff. There's a lot going on in the association before we get to it. What's up, fellas? Adam T.J., what up?

What it do, baby? What's up? You guys doing you guys all right Friday? We're good.

It's Friday. I got a headache, but I'm happy to be here nonetheless. Well, I got good news for both of you, right? I got good news for both of you. Congratulations. We're getting on a P.J.

to Minneapolis tonight. Okay. We're all starting for the Lakers. Oh, man. I know I can get at least three rebounds and maybe two dimes.

That's what I'm talking about. Adam, you get a little shots up. I'll distribute. I'll be the facilitator. Let's go. We're going to have a great time. It's us three, LeBron and A.D. Congrats.

Let me explain something to you. That's a 30 win team right there. Just the five of us. 30 wins. I think they're going to only get about 30 wins anyway, but let's just start. That's the sad thing, Brock. Let's just start talking about the Lakers, Matt.

Do we have to? Yeah, let's just get it out of the way. I just wanted to quit the podcast because if we talk about the Lakers one more time, I'm walking out.

I know because they were so bad. It was so fun to talk about it than winning time. Brockman loves it. Brockman loves talking about them so bad.

Here it is. This is so awesome for Brockman right now. This is basketball ecstasy. This is basketball ecstasy. You don't understand for 23 years, I've been the poster boy for Laker Hater in this town.

Everybody knows it. And I'm even at the point where it's just like, I'm so sick of beating this dog. I don't feel bad, but I'm just like, Oh, okay. You know, whatever. What are we going to say? They stick.

All right. They should have surrounded LeBron with shooters. They didn't. And now they're paying for their sins. This is LeBron's own doing. It's so fun doing their fans are so cocky. Also, that's the best part.

Well, they have nothing to be caught with their own for okay. Their point differential is minus 31 already in four games. They're going into Minnesota tonight. LeBron has, I mean, he's going to play, but if he's, he's day to day with foot soreness already. Anthony Davis is probably going to play tonight, but he's a game time decision. Russell Westbrook is coming off the bench for the first time in his career.

And what would you saying that's the plan for the foreseeable future? They're going to see how it goes tonight. I think of Anthony Davis is out with the back soreness.

He kind of tweaked it the other night against Denver, but Russell probably will start if a D's out, but a D plays it's going to be off the bench now. And that's his role to lead the second unit. Oh, they're just crumbling and falling apart at the seams. And I just couldn't be happier. Adam, what are you making of all this? Are you as happy as I am? Cause I'm really happy. I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm not as happy as you are because I'm not a true Laker hater like you, but I, but I do enjoy watching them unravel because like I've said before, their fans are annoying. When I first moved to LA 11 years ago, I was a Laker fan. I rooted for the Lakers in 2008 against your Celtics. I rooted for them. But then I realized after about a year and a half, two years, how really awful their fans truly are, how conceited, how annoying with their flags and the car flags, the flags and they show up late. I'm not saying that the Lakers have bad fans in terms of loyalty. They have a lot of good fans, but just like the whole, they're just Hollywood and the Clippers are more of, you know, the, I guess the working class team in LA, more of the blue collar team and they're just annoying.

So it's fun to see them unravel like this. I thought Russell Westbrook would be with lethal shooter every single day of the summer. That's what I thought he would do if he had a logical sound mind, but apparently he has too much of an ego to do that.

He didn't work with anybody. It looks like his shooting, his confidence, even worse, it looks even worse. And the problem now with the Lakers is every time they play a home game, the fans, every time he shoots, they're like, no, don't shoot. Don't shoot. People are so upset the other day when they were playing the blazers and Russell Westbrook shot that shot with 30 seconds late in the game.

People are getting angry about that. But the truth is, if you look at that shot, he was wide open from medium range. Any other time in his career with Oklahoma city or even with the rockets, he hits that shot.

So 95 out of a hundred times. Yeah, it was a wide open medium range shot if you look at it. So his confidence is completely shot. The fans have turned on him all the way.

You know, Lonnie walkers, uh, he's doing fine. He's a good player, but he's not, you know, he's not going to solve any longterm issues for this team. Something needs to happen with in terms of a shakeup with the trade. I do believe that Westbrook coming off the bench will help the team. I think he'll be the number one guy he'll feel in his heart. He's the number one guy that second unit and he can take over. I think a lot of times he's, he can be passive with LeBron or he's just doesn't feel necessarily comfortable.

So I think that will help them. But in general, this team is just a total disaster. Yeah, TJ, it's gotten to a point where I almost feel bad for Russ at this point.

The fans clearly don't want him here or, you know, are happy with his performance or just enjoying the whole overall experience. And in a weird way, you know, to the extent of Tom Brady looks kind of miserable, Russ kind of looks miserable playing basketball, which kind of sucks because, you know, for a lot of these guys that, you know, the court is their sanctuary and where they, you know, where they feel the most themselves. And, and you can just see kind of the joy.

I think they talk about it on the Turner show, like just the joy being stripped from Russ at this point. Yeah. I look, I'm not joking. I literally had nothing to say. This team's 0 and 4.

Yeah. They say, I don't want to waste any more else this time on the Lakers. Like when they win a game, let's talk about them. I'd rather talk about this teams who should be losing basketball games. And for some reason, all of a sudden decide, you know what, there's no seven foot four inch unicorn over in Paris, France, that we've just a completely depleted our whole organization and, and hopes of the ping pong ball gods, uh, shining their light down upon us to grant him us.

I'd rather talk about this. So I don't like to do this, but let's move on to Utah jazz. What are you doing? What are you doing, man? Like in one hand, I go, damn man, Utah jazz, you're supposed to be down and out and you are, you are dogs. You got a bunch of dogs, Laurie, Mark, Canaan, dog, Jared Vanderbilt, dog, Mike Conley, dog, but guess what? Dogs, you're supposed to be lying, rolling over with your bellies in the air, getting rubbed.

What are you doing? Crown Vic is over in Paris and he's waiting to come and you guys are like, we don't want him. I guess we don't want him. Seriously. Shout out to the jazz, right? Like four and one right now. Nobody expected this out of them.

What do you think guys? Yeah, it's really crazy. Um, at what point does Jordan Clarkson get traded? At what point does they say they're apparently they're saying they're not going to trade.

They're not going to trade anybody. Clarkson was the one I saw in particular. Clarkson's great. Can you imagine a homecoming with him in LA? Like that's a team that I don't want to talk about the lake. That's a team that they, a guy that they need.

Well, I'll talk about this. Imagine if they still had BI Clarkson. Wow. You know, it's a whole different ball game. Well, then they, they wouldn't have got the bubble title.

Probably not with it without Anthony Davis. That's a, yeah, definitely. You're right. You're right. I just think it's hilarious that let's just say this Laker season goes totally South and they get the number one pick. You know how that pic goes to the New Orleans. The pelicans have BI Zion.

Uh, let's see, Trey Murphy, CJ, and now they get around Vic or even scoot if it's the second. Yeah, right. They're good. They're going to be fine. And that's why we shouldn't waste time. Cause even if the Lakers fail to get better, they're not going to get better cause they ain't getting the pick. So they're there. It's rough.

All right. So let's pick, let's piggyback on, on your theme, a TJ of kind of the teams that should not be tanking, but let's just roll that into surprises. We're now 10 days into the NBA season. Everybody's played three, four, five. Everyone's played at least four or five games so far would have been some of the big surprises that have, that have stood out to you, whether it's players or whether it's teams, Adam, you can start first here.

Well, the Portland trailblazers right now are playing better than anybody thought they would true that game. Lillard is still showing that he's one of the top 10 players in the league and they have an emerging guy in Anthony Simmons, who's, who's really, really young. A lot of people, a lot of casuals don't know about him, but that contest is the dunk contest, right? Exactly.

Yeah. And he can, he can legitimately become a second star. He can become the next CJ McCollum for game possibly even better than CJ. He has that potentially still really young player. So nobody thought Portland would be, would be playing well.

I haven't, to be honest, I haven't watched a lot of the Spurs games, but the Spurs being three and two, a lot of people didn't think that they would win more than 15 games. There are another team that should be tanking. That's another team on popping on.

It should be tanky. I should make a list of what the hell are you doing? Like those teams on DJ's list include, let's, well, the Pacers are handling their business. They're one, they're one and four, but they're kind of all out West. I mean, it's, it's the Spurs are three and two, the jazz are four and one.

Who else? I mean, the other Houston and well, Houston's do it. Oklahoma city has two wins. I don't know what they're doing. Like, come on now you need to, you need to lose these games, but Kings understand the assignment. Apparently cause they're all rockets.

They're all understanding the assignment. Like, come on. The Kings are so due for a superstar. The Kings could have had a Luca and they pass up on him for Marvin Bagley. So the Kings, Kings have loyal fans. The Kings deserve that number. I'm rooting for the Kings to get the number one pick. Yeah.

You mentioned Portland though. They're off to an amazing start. Even though it looks like Dame's going to miss.

Yeah. He's out one to two. He's going to miss a week or two, which is, which is kind of a, kind of a bummer.

It's going to hurt them. But look, the wizards being three and one, the Cavaliers are three and one. Um, I mean Memphis, look, we all kind of thought Memphis was going to be pretty good after the way they finished last year and how exciting they were in the playoffs and they are, but holy crap. This good, like Jai looks like the MVP. Dylan Brooks looks like I'm sorry. Desmond Baines out of his mind shooting the basketball right now.

Uh, he threw in 30 plus again last night. Uh, I just really like what they're doing. We mentioned Utah, but also Phoenix. I kind of thought that Phoenix was going to take a step back that a little bit older Chris Paul, the whole weird situation with DeAndre Aiten. I mean, they really took it to Golden State the other night.

They're three and one. I'm kind of surprised that they're playing really well and kind of like the team. They looked like the whole regular season last year. I loved that whole fight with Clay Thompson and Devin Booker because Clay, you know, he was going four rings out of four rings. He had every right to do that. And the thing is they were, they were talking crap to each other, but I loved afterwards how Devin Booker was like, I respect Clay Thompson.

I like Clay Thompson. He's right. He does have four rings. So essentially he was, he was saying he has every right to talk because he has the rings to back it up. And I think Devin Booker is, is very hungry for a ring. That guy is not even really in the prime of his career yet. So he's taken the next lead this year.

He's been unbelievable this year. So you can't count out Phoenix. You just can't count them out.

Devin Booker is a legitimate number one superstar guy that could win a championship is the number one guy. You were talking about that. And I, I heard someone else mentioned that as well.

And they brought up a good point. When you say, Oh man, we got four rings. That's something you say when you have no other argument because you know that the other person's better player than you actually. And maybe you're kind of transitioning into, man, you're not as, you know, you're not as good as you once were. I got it in me every once in a while. Like, you know, Clyde threw up one at the 30 point playoff game last year or whatever, but he's not the player.

He was a couple of years ago before the injuries. And you're just being like, Oh man, we got the four rings. Yeah. Cool.

Cool. Devin Booker's like, my time's coming. Like I know that I'm better than you. So I'm just going to say all the nice things afterward, but you know, the Phoenix beat them in the game and you know, I guess Phoenix will probably get the better of him more often than not here is as the warriors kind of get a little bit older and kind of transitioned to a different part of their game and their careers.

I just thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah. Clearly Devin Booker is the better player right now, but Clay, obvious Hall of Famer, still one of the best players of all time. But Booker, yeah, if somebody, if anybody would ask, who would you rather have right now? Clay Thompson or Booker. Any fan says Devin book. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, for sure. Only problem with Booker is this, right? No defense.

Well, you know what? How many guys in the NBA don't play the scoring right now. Nobody's playing defense. The problem is he's attached himself to a particular brand outside of the NBA. And this brand has a way of maybe not having them keep up, but maybe bring them down.

So, but you know, Hey man, look at the sons. They've been balling since the bubble. That's when they kind of arrived, right? They arrived at the bubble, went to the finals. I was worried this year, not worried because I don't really care, but I was worried that the fact that, you know, eight and didn't have his contract, it seemed to be a point of contention.

Monty Williams hadn't talked to anybody. I was like, man, I don't know. You know how I like to say, you know, chemistry and pH balanced in a locker room. You would think that there wouldn't be a lot of chemistry, but look, they're four and one seasons early, but you know, that team should be at the top near the top because they've got the talent. They've been there. Whether or not they win a title is, you know, a completely different story, but the sun should be in the top four or five teams every single year with the talent that they have. So, and they're doing what they should be doing, you know, winning games right now. I know we're kind of bouncing all over the place, but you know, that's what basketball's stupid.

Hey, good point. TJ, you know, it looks really good and they've only played three games. I know they're back in action tonight, but damn, the Milwaukee Bucks look really good.

The honest is I'm a Terry. What's the, where's the, the shock there? Like, yeah, of course. I'm just saying they look even better than and kind of, I thought, I just thought without Middleton again, you know, obviously missed most of the postseason last year and you know, he's out to start the year this year. You might be back one Thanksgiving, something like that. Yeah.

November. But man, I just, I don't know. I guess I just started, expected them to kind of, you know, maybe not, maybe not just blow out teams. I mean, they're averaging 11 points a win right now. They're holding opponents under a hundred points or the only team in the NBA holding their opponents under a hundred per game. I mean, I just think right now, do you think that they're about, this is on another level?

Yeah. You think they're better than the Celtics right now? I kind of do. Actually, I kind of do.

Cause Boston, Boston needs that presence inside. And that's what, that's what the time Lord is. That's what Robert Williams is.

And how do you stop this guy? Yanis is just, man, every year it seems like he looks more jacked and he adds another element. Like, like we talk about wait till this dude starts knocking down threes consistently. He's 26.

It's coming. He's only going to get better. By the way, he doesn't even have to be knocking down threes. I know, but it's not even a necessary part of his game. He doesn't even need it to dominate. Doesn't need a three point shot. He needs to do his work on that foul line because by the way, once he gets the foul shooting, I don't know what he's shooting right now, but if he gets sat around, you know, a 70% clip, what are you going to do?

You might as well just like call in sick that day. He's 27. Excuse me.

But like, uh, I'm just, I don't know. I was just watching them play the nest the other night and they just absolutely spanked him and I just couldn't think of like, damn. Also speaking of damn, Luca Doncic.

Damn. Let's talk about it. Is this finally the year that Luca wins the MVP? He's been the favorite the last couple of years and he just hasn't been able to do it.

He hasn't had the team around him. Is this finally the year for Luca Adam? You love Luca as much as I do. Huge Luca Doncic fan.

It's looking like it right now. He had another 40 point triple double last night in Brooklyn. And his game is just so fun to watch.

He's just not that athletic and he's just so crafty and he knows where to pick his spots and his basketball IQ is through the roof. So right now it's between him and him and Jah right now. It's so, it's so fun to watch his game and it's so fun to watch Jah's game. Polar opposites.

They're polar opposites. They're both incredibly intelligent in terms of their basketball IQ. I remember when I first saw Jah playing college and that was the first thing that stuck out to me. Not his athleticism, but how smart of a player he is also.

So they're both incredibly intelligent players. Obviously Jah has better athleticism than Luca. But yeah, it's just Luca and I've noticed kids love Luca also. That's the thing.

I wonder what that is. There was a video last night that they showed of JJ Reddick's son being introduced to Luca. And the look of his face looks like he just saw Jesus Christ in person. Like he was so wide eyed.

He could not believe he was talking to Luca. And so I think. Yeah, but I mean, let's be honest.

Let's be a player like every, like, come on. Yeah, but it looks like, it looks especially with Luca. And you would think this guy's been around NBA guys his whole life as being JJ Reddick's kid. Right. But it just looks like he was in total awe of Luca. People in general I believe love Luca. So that's part of it. The popularity aspect. The NBA wants to have Luca as the guy along with maybe Giannis. And so.

Internationally for sure. Yeah. And so politically it makes sense that if there was a vote and he was close to winning that he would get the nod. It makes sense to me.

So yeah, I can see that happening. I think it's fun to TJ that you speak of John Luca. Just two guys with totally opposite games. That's kind of the beauty of basketball, right?

You can get it done in different ways. Playing different ways like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. Total opposites, but they were both great, both dominant, both MVPs, both champions. I just kind of love that about the league. The thing about Luca right now is he is carrying a heavy load right now.

Right. And you know, the fact of the matter is Luca is great. He's putting up great numbers, but we're going to get to that point. I think where it's going to be, are you the most valuable player? Even though your team is not the anywhere close to being the best team, because I don't think this team is like that great.

He is a star and Christian would is starting to become a great player. I just don't like, look at 36. I like to round up by the way.

So 36, 10 and nine right now. Like, can you keep that up? Because he is shouldering so much of the load. So I'm going to, it's going to be interesting to see, um, how, if he's able to continue at this clip and I will say this, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm sure the kid was an Odyssey Luca, but I promise you, if Boban rolled up on a kid, you'd probably, you'd still be like, Oh my God.

You know? So I think it's just the fact that kids just love larger than life personalities. And it's almost like the smaller you are, the more relatable you are. That's why I think Steph Curry is so well liked by these kids because he looks like a normal dude. Like the rest of these guys don't look like normal. Luca doesn't play above the rim.

When was the last time you saw him dunk in a game? True. I just think it's fun. I love all these guys. Also, Luca was the first pick on my fantasy team. So I am reaping the benefits of what's going on with you. I have Joss.

So I'm pretty happy as well. But, uh, when you talk about Dallas and maybe they're not going to be there at the end and they may not have a good, a good enough record to get Luca that MVP. I couldn't help but think of what's going on in Memphis right now. And we mentioned Desmond Bain. Like who is the Desmond Bain on the Mavericks? You think the, this is your ally. Like really who can go?

Like, does anyone other than Luca have the ability to even throw up 35 on a given? You guys just totally no sold my Bain impression and I'm hurt. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm going to say. I was born in the ball.

You think darkness is your ally. Yeah. Just, uh, you know, just, just to your point, TJ, where like Memphis last year, they were the two seed out of kind of out of nowhere. And Chris, remember, and I remember how well they did in games that Jod didn't play.

Like they were like 21 and three or something. This is a good squad and they're only going to get better. Bro, could you imagine? Wouldn't that be great if the Grizzlies could go?

And I mean, just for small market team, that would be, I don't know. I think that would be kind of great. Didn't Rich pick down the one, the title, we don't need that again. Oh yeah. I take that back. Hey, rewind, but I don't want, cause Rich becomes, let's just put this way.

Yes. Rich, he predicted the Warriors last year. And guess what?

We've heard about it every single day since it happened. So yeah, but it would be fun to see, you know, them get up there. It also would be fun to Adam just to see new teams in it. So like, you know, it was cool to see, you know, the Celtics hadn't been in the finals for awhile. It was not just for me personally, cause I'm a fan, but it was cool to see them back in it. It wasn't just, remember, what was it? Four years in a row. It was like Cavs warriors.

Here we go. I mean, it was fine, but it kind of got old after a little bit, especially because, you know, barring a kick to the nuts, the Cavs had no shot to win. And so I want to see some new blood in there. It's always, it's always fun to see certain teams, uh, reach over the hump and finally, and finally breakthrough. I mean, I know it didn't do well ratings wise, but I thought Milwaukee and Phoenix was awesome just cause it was two new teams in there and you had no idea who was going to win and you didn't know who was going to win and it was Giannis is coming out party.

Like not a lot of the w you know, world or country gets to see bucks games. So that was kind of also CP threes. First NBA finals.

Exactly. There were so many good storylines for that finals that it was exciting. So, you know, to see like, like, what if Memphis makes it on a run or what if, I don't know who else in the East Atlanta or like, what about a huge basketball city that we're, that we're neglecting right now, the Mecca, New York city, the Knicks right now are three and one.

What about that? What about fellow Stevenson alum, Jalen Brunson, who everybody thought the Knicks overpaid and he is having a fantastic year. Spike Lee is having a ball right now, watching the Knicks and lions going crazy. That team is, is fun to watch their scrappy team. Cam Radish was a good pickup for them that people kind of wrote off. He was teammates. There's a reason they wrote them off because he was not balling. But now he's with his former Duke teammate, RJ Barrett, who's having a great year.

Also still a really young guy. So that's a fun team that are they championship level? Probably not.

Probably not. But they can, they can at least get the garden rocking. Exactly. And the NBA just leagues are definitely better when certain teams are good. Like the NFL is better if the Steelers, the Raiders and the Cowboys are good. The NBA is better if the Mecca is just popping, you know what I mean?

So it's good for business when the Knickerbockers are playing well. Again, though, we're four or five games into the season. It's still really early, but you know what? And that's why I'm saying this because I'm going to say it's still early and because the six are suffering. And that's what I was going to ask.

That's how I wanted to end today's episode. This week's episode is what is going on in Philadelphia? I have no idea. I don't know what's happening. Here's the deal, guys. Right there at my apartment building, they're replacing the roof.

Okay. So they went up there and they took all the satellites down. So I haven't had, I haven't had cable in like two and a half weeks. So I've been trying to stream everything, but it's just like I had the NBA is not coming through for whatever.

So I'm not seeing all the Sixers games. I think that's a good thing. I don't really know what's going on.

I'm not ready brought me asked me yesterday. Dot, dot, like, I'm not quite there yet because again, one and four, it's not optimal, but it's still early. Then again, you know, to kick to something, someone that probably am with this later, you guys know I've been watching legacy on Hulu. I forgot. Remember the Lakers fire Mike Brown after an 0 and 3 start?

Yeah, it was really fast. Like, man, you want to talk about like the shortest leash imaginable. So I don't think that we're going to get to that point. I don't see the Sixers would have to be like one in 10 for a move to get made. There's enough talent there that they should be able to turn this around.

I'm not pushing the panic button yet, but it's, it's not great right now. Yeah. And it's like, I think in the games that I've seen from you guys, they had hardened looked awesome the first couple of years, but they lost and you know, you're just not playing any defense. It's kind of similar to what's going on in Brooklyn.

Not to that extent. The nets are playing no D the nets are giving up 122 points a game, which is absolutely insane. But Philadelphia is giving up 111, which is a lot.

Yeah. And that should be a defensive team. We've got him bead. We've got maxi. We've got PJ Tucker. Hardens a huge liability though. That's the problem. He is, but you know what?

I'll take him giving up 20 because he's going to get 30. So, you know, there's a balance there, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to do what everybody thinks I'm going to do and flip out, man. Not yet.

Not yet. But this time next week, I might be overturning some furniture. It is still pretty early. And also Chris, just to bring him my other team, the Clippers, two and three, I'm not worried about them because we understand what's going on. But Kawhi and June, far more valuable than Kawhi in October.

And again, like I told you guys in the group chat, like I dislocated my kneecap years ago and it took like a solid two and a half years before I felt like fully comfortable. And look, Kawhi and I, we're both machines. Both machines. I mean, that's obvious. Totally on the same level.

Both machines. No, he might have slightly more athleticism than me because he's younger than me. He doesn't love pizza as much as I do from Riverside. He didn't put on 15 pounds during the pandemic, but still like, so let it go. I think he did a muscle.

But he put on good weight and I put on bad weight and that's the difference. But yeah, so I'm not ready. Like if we've got to sit him out for a while, cool, man. I just, you guys know I feel about this Clippers curse and it's real.

Just we've got to stay competitive, but give Kawhi all the time he needs because like I said, healthy Kawhi made June far more valuable. Even with both of these teams, I always just think about the 2010, the first year with LeBron and Miami, they were nine and eight. They were nine and eight. Yeah. And everybody was ready to like, it was, it was not, it was not good. Yes.

Bo was like over his skis and who are these guys? And not seven times like, and they went to four straight NBA finals. Like, so it does take time. You got to get some legs under you for about six weeks before you can really, it kind of like the NFL, like September is not six weeks in the NFL. No, but I'm saying in terms of September is the new pre-season in the NFL.

Yeah. Cause it's like, nobody really freaks out and still until October, November. And so it's a little early to freak out. Maybe we'll do some overreactions next week.

Cause that'll be pretty fun. Anything to say about the Bulls, Adam three and two nice went over the seas the other night. I was kind of expecting a Boston, you know, just a Boston coronation there Monday with the pats playing the bears and the Celtics playing the Bulls.

And you got the best of us twice. How are you seeing things with the Bulls so far? Yeah, that was a surprisingly fun Monday night. Yeah.

One of the best Monday nights you've ever had. I just thought I was about to take two L's to the face and, and the Celtics are up, I believe by, by around 18 or 19 points, like 40 in the four in the first quarter. And then we just forgot how to play ball. Yeah.

And I turned off the game at that point. I was like, all right, time to watch the bears lose again against Mack Jones. And surprisingly, the fortunes, uh, favorite favorite Chicago for once, which is pretty rare, but yeah, the Bulls are, are kind of around the same record. I thought they would be, I'm really liking the progress of IO DeSumo. He's taken over the spot for Lonzo ball. Yeah. I'm so good. I'm so not good right now. I don't know.

What's the Honzo? Yeah. Lonzo in street clothes. Is there any ball brothers playing in NBA right now? Like what's going on?

Actually true. Amela's still out, right? Yeah. Amela's still out and who knows what's happening with Jell-O, but, but yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's been tough not having him, but IO's filled the role, the role. IO's a really good player. Patrick Williams sucks right now.

I have to just be completely honest. I've been a believer in Patrick Williams the entire time and I'm starting to reassess those thoughts. The guys just completely lost out there on the court. He stands in the corner all day. He's not aggressive.

I don't understand what it's going to take. Maybe he just needs to be on a different team. Maybe it's a type of situation where the Bulls will trade him and he'll flourish down the road. Kind of like, uh, marketing is doing right now with the jazz.

He looks great. Laurie marketing always, to me, always had the talent in the shooting ability, but there was just something off. His defense wasn't good, but if you're in a lot of times with NBA players, it's the situation that you're in. So maybe Patrick Williams just needs to be traded. It's not working with the Bulls.

I'm disappointed about that. DeRozan and Levine look awesome against DeRozan. DeRozan looks amazing. He's about to score 20,000 points tonight. Yeah, he's really good. It'll be one of the... This year? That's amazing.

Yeah. It's been, it's been quite a run, you know, Wilch Chamberlain asks, but, uh, yeah, he's going to be one of the guys who gets 20,000 points in his career. So future Hall of Famer, a lot of people thought when the Bulls would get, uh, DeRozan that he was, that he was kind of on the, on the last leg of his career, kind of washed up, but he had a sensational season last year. He's playing great again.

So I'm excited about that. And the pickup of Andre Drummond was a tremendous pickup for the Bulls. He's been great on, on the offensive boards, great on defense. So, so he's been a solid pickup. So overall, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm liking where the Bulls are.

I'd like to see some improvements, but overall I'm, I'm okay right now. Nice. Love it.

Love it. All right, guys. Celtics look good too. We win 75% of our games. I'll be super happy.

Uh, expect to win tonight at home against Cleveland. Uh, anything else guys before we ship out here on the weekend? Yeah. You know, I started making a list of just like things I want to see in the NBA this season and just the first thing on there. And this is just like a fashion statement.

You know what? I wish they would like, let come back, bring back the suits on the coaches, but I care less about that though. The Ninja style headbands. I miss them. You know, the ties, the long ones. I don't know why they ban those man, but I got like a one year run, like a one year, maybe two year run cause I think some people snuck them in the year before. And then they kind of wear one too.

And then they were like, they're done. Just NBA. Let's bring back the Ninja style headbands. That's all I'm asking. Just, that's just one thing. That's, that's all I have to say about.

That's it. All right, everybody enjoy the games this weekend. We'll be back in our regular spot on Wednesday. We think unless more weird stuff happens, more weird stuff happens, but more than likely we'll be back on Wednesday. Uh, enjoy the association this weekend for TJ and Adam. I'm a shady out. Go Clippers sixers. Go bears bulls.