Windy’s Rant: Done With Tanking & More + Spurs Finishing Strong & Knicks Rollercoaster

Hello, welcome to the hoop collective podcast. We talked about the NBA, which we're doing on Thursday evening, joining us from Northern California, home base. Say Anthony Slater. I'm just glad all star weekends now here this year. Yeah. By the way, I think America has come to know your backyard. You really put it on blast. I mean, they were probably like, oh, yeah, I guess I've thought about that. And you just planted it on a viral comment where you were ranting about something. I'm sure you're going to be ranting about soon again. Never. I'll never do that. Joining us from Los Angeles, where thank God I escaped from today. But Vince Goodwill will hold down our coverage this weekend. Not the only one. Trust me. But this is the day before the hell hope begins in LA, Wendy Slater. If any was sorry, Vince was too clean on NBA today, his suit that he had today was like, we don't, we don't meet that standard NBA today. You know, we dress up a little. I heard some sunglasses too, right? He, I don't even know what that was. You know, that's the toy thing. That's all just the, it's the toy thing Slater. That's like what Melo does. You know, Melo has the shades like the half shades when he's. Melo, you can't even see his eyes. I have a, the tint is dark and of work. I guess a nice eyes. They're not transditioners, right? Where it's like, they are, they are a little, they are low transition. They're low, Tennessee, Tennessee tent is the exact place. As if it wasn't black enough is called, Tennessee tent. That is the exact time I promise you this day in black history. All you need to know about, about Vince Goodwill Slater is that I once went to a black tie wedding and he wore white. What, what, what you didn't wear, you wore a different color toxido. You know, you wore blue. You wore a blue tuxedo. It was a blue tuxedo. I was gonna say white to white to the white. What if they, I take it back. I, I, that was a total foul by me and total insult to Vince. I want to pretend like I didn't say that he wore a blue tuxedo to a black tie wedding and he pulled it off. All right. He wants to stand out, you know, I get it. I'm just telling you, he operates on a different level. We're all, we're all following him. Okay. That's cute Wendy. All right. On the, this is where we're gonna start. Where I'm gonna ask you guys. Now, I've gone on Rance for you before and feel free. You guys sort of sit back and let me rant but feel free to jump in on what we're, what I'm about to do because I have some announcements we're gonna make. I can't wait. I intend to follow through with these edicts that I'm going to make. They're edicts for myself. I would never issue an edict for anybody else on my podcast, but not my podcast, our podcast with peace and love. I'm going, I am going to retire discussing several topics because I just, I can't do it anymore. Okay. The first topic that I'm going to, I'm prepared to say with peace and love, I am not going to discuss the tanking situation anymore. Prior to March and April is, is the time you're gonna retire that isn't that like tanking season. Slater with peace and love, I am going to settle all family business. I'm waving the white flag. I am done with it. Okay. I am not gonna ask any questions about and I feel terrible that Jaron Jackson Jr. now needs knee surgery. I'm not gonna ask any questions about why the physical wasn't failed and why Utah did not ask for a draft pick compensation for a player who needs knee surgery. I'm just gonna wish him the best. I'm not gonna analyze anything. You see the struttle analysis that he's providing within these announcements right here. I am nope with peace and love. Washington, Sacramento, Indiana, Utah, do your thing. You know, Vince, this is kind of like certain people in prison get like a pass on certain stuff. You all have a pass. You're all good people. I respect you as people. You all got to do what you got to do. All right. I am judging. You know, this is like windy. This is like the family rehearsal dinner at a before wedding. You're so right. This is a family rehearsal dinner before a wedding and the drunk uncle gets up and says. I'm stone cold sober. I don't like how this is going, but I'm not saying nothing and then goes and lists his grievances on why his niece should not marry this man and then finishes off by saying, but I ain't saying nothing. I support it. I'm good luck. So, so Wendy's the drunk uncle Vince is over there in a completely off colored suit at this point. I like it. Yes, correct. I wish I could, you know, there are good people who have to sometimes do bad things. Okay. So, I'm just saying you guys do what you got to do. I'm not going to ruin any relationships by talking about it anymore. It's just going to happen. Can I ask? I mean, are you just going to willfully like, let's say in late March where there's like an important game and it's clearly decided because the jazz, you know, bench all their guys or whatever team. I don't think we should change that. I think it's very easily happen with other people. I don't, here's the thing. I don't want to ruin any more relationships and harm any more relationships than than I apparently have harmed by talking about things that are happening. These teams have to do what they have to do. If I was in their situations, I would do it. The incentive is there. They are just they are playing within the rules. They have to do it. And so I'm just with peace and love going forward, it's just going to happen. And I'm just not going to talk about it. You can find your tanking coverage on other podcasts and your favorite platforms. It's not going to do it because okay. Second thing, the apologies to you Vince because you're there. I ain't talking about all star. I ain't talking about how in the celebrity game, there's an NBA player in the three point contest. I don't understand why Jared McCain is in the celebrity game three point contest. But guys, you do you. I am not going to talk about how Mack McClelln said that he didn't go in the dunk contest because people said they wouldn't go in the dunk contest if he was in it. And then literally like nobody did the dunk contest. I'm not going to talk about that. I do not I do not care about the world team, you know, having a bunch of Americans on it who like declare that like, you know, I'm not I can't be asked about and I can't give a level headed assessment about how this is supposed to be like nationalism and stuff when you got a bunch of Americans on the world team. I'm not not going to talk about Vince. You you are there. I will rely on your coverage are our ESPN consumers will rely on your coverage. I'm not going to talk about it. I'm not going to I'm not going to watch it. I'm not going to talk about with peace and love. Okay. I agree with that one. No complaints there. Okay. I am not going to talk about Jonathan Camingo with peace and love Slater. I hope that he averages 20 and 10 the rest of the season with Atlanta. I hope he gets paid in this off season. I'm this Vince. Did you read the story that that it was very well done. It was very every single detail from Anthony Slater from too much food in the family room to ask your man. Apparently there's not enough food Slater. That was the issue because there was be there you go. Petty Petty drama. Yeah. I mean, I the one thing with that is you might not, but if the Hawks are in the playoffs and he's a contributor, it might be that one. Yes. I mean, I'm just saying until there's new events. Well, I will tell you what you're not going to be talking about at least for the foreseeable future. His you know gripes with an organization who has gripes with him back because he from everything I've heard is is very happy and settling in in Atlanta. So fresh start. Yeah. I will just say that when I was a beat writer in Cleveland when I was covering the calves every day from 2003 to 2010. And then I did it a lot from 2014 to 18. I was in the family room when there was leftover food they would bring it to the media at late at night. So it would be cold. It was much appreciated. And lots of uncrustables Vince because you know they brought him for the kids. And like though, you know, once it we know once an uncrustable like has been like defrost or whatever like you could you know, it's it's one and done like it's perishable. Like they would just bring these big giant buckets of uncrustables and like they couldn't go to waste and like the media just I mean, you know how an incredible hits at like 12.45 AM after doing SVP like you know the pizzas they brought were a little bit rough. But listen, it was a kind thing that the calves would do was to dump us with the food they were going to throw away. And I have to say like I would you know, I would feel a certain way. I am maybe I shouldn't be maybe this is the naivety of me, but you know I wrote that story. I did as I was going through like the final stages of like yeah, you know this this anecdote is going to like you know make a little bit of headlines. But I didn't know it was just going to explode just such a degree where it was just like meme city yesterday. And you work so hard on a feature story and you know you do like you know there's like tough quotes in there and everything like that this happened with I think I think it was a Christian Clark with the New Orleans newspaper when he wrote the story about Zion Williamson and David Griffin and it was like David Griffin would play the piano or something for Zion. And like there was all this like reporting about it and everybody just focused on you know the concept of griff paying playing the piano. Yeah, that was yesterday. Yeah, but I mean by the way like the story is one of those stories that sort of goes deep into the I'm not going to talk about it. But let me say this because what you are voicing with your you know on your soapbox about all the things that you are never going to speak again you're voicing what felt like a fatigue from not only you but a lot of consumers about the John I think they're experiencing. I can't imagine you you lived it for years. I fact your heart right here. And the idea that like why is there so much coverage about a guy that has been like a fourth man and then a seventh man and then eighth man but as I was trying to convey in the story and I think throughout this process if you took two steps back bigger picture it was always like this was about so much more than John I think this was about the warriors this was about this brand franchise in the fading days of one of the most popular players in NBA history in this dynasty in this tug of war and the castle politics you know of it all in the two timeline era and and what Jonathan and the and the obviously within that are fascinating human elements of like stubbornness and ego and you know I it really you know Jonathan Camingas experienced particularly over the last year as he really tried to get away from the warriors this summer really struck a lot of the players I mean you saw how many former players came out and I think they saw hey young player really is trying to get away from situation that he feels is holding him down and maybe he is wrong maybe he is right but they seem to you know I guess understand that it was about so much more than hey why are we talking about a seventh man was always I think it is it I do understand that I will just say I you got Steve Kerr on the record on a lot of this yeah you know Steve Kerr like was like OK I'll talk about the relationship so I feel like Steve Kerr in my wrong I mean he's always been pretty good with the media but in my wrong or Steve Kerr been like extra honest this year yeah I mean he's he's one of the more open communicators probably history is considered one of the best analysts on TV right in this like TNT days he I mean the guy went on the D and C and gave like one of the like closing remarks at one of the like the the DNC nights like he's he's out there and he's willing to like express themselves it's one thing to say something about politically it's the only thing to talk about your team and say we're fading dynasty yeah well you know look it was in the story and part of what I got him on the record was that was a lot of the issues for Jonathan Caminga was how many times he openly talked about Jonathan Caminga and at times talked about how he didn't think Jonathan Caminga fit had the ceiling that Jonathan Caminga had and yes that was like a lot of like Jonathan Caminga's hurt in a sense was like he knew his coach who was controlling his future did not believe in him and he knew it because he would read about it and he would see it I put a story in there in the locker room in Chicago after he's getting a DMP and he you know Jonathan Caminga does the very political I you know I'll be there when I'm ready that's coaches decision and then it's like hey come over here did you know and he's asking me did you guys ask him about me tonight it's like yeah of course what did he say and it's like he you know Steve Kerr said hey it could happen anyone others and stars in his league and he's like you know again why you know why does he have to keep you know making these headline quotes about me and I said so to your point and Steve talked about it is just like look I'm honest I'm forthcoming and sometimes you have to tell players hard truths but yeah this season he has on the last year of his deal and I think we've talked about this on past podcast but there's a freedom to the way he is communicating for sure Wendy did you know what I don't think Steve Kerr even figured out though or maybe coming to didn't figure out like the correlation because you had a line and there are a couple lines in there about Kerr giving him like inspirational text messages and stuff like that and those messages not being returned so him not being returned and then him talking about it in the media I'm betting those two things are probably related in some way like Steve Kerr feeling rejected by a player when I'm sure if he went off on J.M. Green J.M. Green might you know MF from right back but he at least reply to come in gave him nothing he gave him dust so that probably prompted a lot more of this you know sort of media psychology like all of this I think is tied like you know what they say with the wire all the pieces matter like all of this stuff happened and I think for Kerr coming as the one guy he couldn't figure out and I think it to a degree it probably eats at him that he couldn't figure out the guy or he did figure out the guy figured out and this me and this dude just think on work also you know contracts in future situations matter and I think the warriors this past summer announced to the world that Jonathan Cumminga who prior to Joe Lake of Mike Dunley's front office in year two year three represented you know the guy one of the guys they wanted to hand the keys to this past summer they told Jonathan Cumminga to his face and told the world now your trade bait and in a lot of ways I think that freed Steve Kerr to coach him however he wanted to coach him and put Gees Santos in over him if he wanted to and say whatever he wanted and you know again I think the way he was handled above led to the toxicity below and part of that was yeah I don't think you know Steve knows look you're just trying to get this guy to the headline to move him I don't have to soften any part of my coaching of him. By the way I liked last night I was watching the Spurs Warriors game and Kerr called Dre Mondover in the middle of the like during a free throws and like was you know coach him up or whatever and then it was done the game which are there are slap high five you really see really see the mid game slap high five after coaching you know usually you know you get it like when you're coming on and off the bench like you know that's a greeting I like that move. Be that all is it may I'm not talking about coming anymore with peace and love with peace and love the last thing I will say I've heard this from a couple people in the last couple days they've said because of like you know the the profile name profile he's gotten through a lot of this they were saying hey look at the hawks league pass ratings you know the first few games coming in place there's some real curiosity if the Warriors fan base which has always been an a fervor over this if they're going to be watching some of these like 4 p.m. Hawks games to just argue with each other about what you know this 22 point game means this no it doesn't so I am curious to see if if there's a little bleed over on the storyline and by the way they play each other marks that we two things first off he hasn't played for the Hawks yet number one number two do you how do you get lead pass ratings do you have like a secret no I should like the rain you know just ratings of the how many people watch the game you know how many I don't even know yeah that you can get ratings are I don't know I mean look the Hawks should know if hey we got double the viewers that would normally watch Hawks Hornets tonight I don't Hey man the Hornets are must see TV I would watch it for the Hornets with all due respect all due respect you know all right by what speak sorry what else are you talking about they Wendy that's all right but before we move on to actual I mean that was an actual topic more who collective podcast after this but before we move on as long as you're talking about food team food you know like it's generally frowned upon to you know the team food and so I've told the story before but it's been a few years then so if I were talk to you or slater if I were talk to you about the Clippers playoff food no I know that you remember the Boston Lobsters before the fire well media food is different like I nobody cares about like what food media it's nobody cares about that I just want to say to you guys so a few years ago is covering a playoff series I was covering a Clippers sons playoff series and it was it was the it was the series were Kauai unfortunately heard his knee you know the twice he said knee injuries in in playoffs which you know as an aside this guy is they've waited for years for this guy to be you know to be the great player that they that they signed in 2019 and and he's that player he's almost never been better and now is when they take their team apart you know it's crazy I saw I saw him killing a man tops in a crunch time yesterday the game winning basket that he hit in Houston where he made like a spin move or it was for it was so robotically done but like yeah such control it was one of the most impressive things I've seen this season it was just like it's maybe the best wing athlete in the league maybe yeah I was going to say that that's the part I was going to say Kauai looks like a very mechanical version of 96 to 98 Michael Jordan and I know what I'm saying wow then I'm saying the aesthetic I'm not saying yeah no I'm because of the mid range saying because the big range game yeah he looks like a old older not old because old Michaels with Mike and older late prime but still best player in the game Michael Jordan and you can make the argument windy and I know we're going to get back to the clippers part of this the clipper store you got but you can make the argument that posts like what he's played 40 games this year 40 out of the 54 games or whatever that since he's been playing basketball this season you can make the argument Kwai's learners been the best player in basketball wow let me think about that do I you know there's been so you know like you know one of the complicating factors with when you like judge the MVP race right now is like so Yoke it's his back and he's back just ahead of the game threshold that remain the MVP and he's putting up triple doubles but he's not the same players he was before the injury no he doesn't look like himself yeah yeah like he's he's trying to ball over like crazy like one of the things that Yoke it does that's just when you watch him his mastery of the control of the ball like even when the ball is out of his hands he's got incredible control over it like when he shoots the ball and the ball lands on the rim and it like looks different he has a way of shooting the ball so it has a better chance of rolling in on the rim somebody who knows him really well told me that this people think it's water polo but he actually learned how to manipulate the ball playing volleyball and they pointed out to me that when that when he you know when he is at the free throw line and he like does a two handed dribble the free free throw line that's what a volleyball player does before they like the way he dribbles the basketball is the way as a way of volleyball player dribbles the volleyball before they before you serve serve yeah and I've since I've been told that I've been like wow that is actually 100 percent so is he deflating the ball as he's dribbling in it is just like the plate gate I don't know basketball style I don't know like it's there's something going on I'm just telling you the ball looks different on his room on come when the ring when he hits the rim when he shoots at the name everybody else does anyway he is not as he just hasn't been quite as sharp and so like while he's playing he is not looking like the MVP the nuggets are winning and you know they've got other injuries and so him playing is really important etc but you know so when you say kawaii let me just tell you so kawaii is played 41 games and that is more than he played last year the most he's ever played with the clippers was two years ago played 68 by the way and he is averaging 1 8 points which is the most points he's ever averaged in his career he's averaging by the way 2.1 steals a game which is leading the league okay he is shooting 49% from the field 39% from 3 and 91% of the line so he's very close to being on the verge of a 50 40 90 season which I don't think he's ever done so that would be on that verge so I also think he becomes a very fascinating trade candidate in the summer depending on what happens with this aspiration you know they after that I don't know what's going to happen with the aspiration deal I'm not going to pretend to know but as people have talked about oh well when Joe when the walls got busted with Joe Smith you know ABC the EFG happened and so that'll happen again or whatever first off that was David Stern and if you think if you want to compare apples to apples you and comparing how Adam silver does justice the David Stern I mean we're we're in a that's a whole nother side conversation the second thing is Joe Smith's contract did get voided which was good because it was a BS contract but he didn't get punished Joe Smith didn't get suspended he was able to go sign whoever he wanted yeah I was going to say if if if koai just got voided then he just becomes a fascinating free agent yes I got I you know like I don't pretend to know what koai is going to miss they could find him guilty of but I think it's very unlikely that he personally faces discipline that would keep him even like a suspension you don't think for what right what's what you mean what what we're around his contract to you know honestly as you as you read and and you know follow the details I know this is a bit of a month on month's saga he's kind of one of the villains in the whole situation it seems we may be a villain but what rule is he breaking he's not in charge of giving himself money you know allegedly you know and I've all been alleged you can ask for whatever you want if someone gives it to you that's the problem this is not my father once told me Vince you can only get what you asked for that's a very simple but good advice yeah but I was I was actually he actually the way he actually said it was you could only get what you can ask for with a straight face but that doesn't apply to koai because he asked every conversation is a straight face like he's he'd be an incredible negotiator and maybe he is I think he put him in Uncle Dennis are probably very sure about a move I will say this when the clipper started off really slow and I don't know if it was ever reported or whatever but there were a couple of contenders that was doing some real homework on koai to try to figure out hey if the clippers are going to blow this up we still think koai is really really good and the bet would have been a good bet considering what we've seen from koai since then but it's a self bet that the clippers didn't make a move on him the question is they're not going to extend him right like they want to keep the books clean in 27 what happens next year like this year's a was to me right like the clippers are so far behind the city they punch they punch right no but not just like they weren't going to give hard in the money like if if if hardened was willing to play then they would have played this year out with harden harden forced at him because hard and want to get paid and they weren't going to pay him and we all know what happens when James Harden doesn't get his money we should get his back you know what I mean so hunting on this year wasn't necessarily the choice I'm curious what koai's appetite is after next season is he going to be tied to stand in LA that be him open in the door to be a third guy with the lakeers like I'm so fascinated by what this means for koai if finally his body is holding up in a way that he can manage it and be maybe a third guy if he finishes this season strong why wouldn't he go and say give me a new contract and if he doesn't get it why wouldn't he take action he'd be an obvious warriors candidate I mean you know secondary obviously they've been in the honest chase but that's exact you know they need a big wing who can score and defend well this is a thing as soon as they traded harden and I heard basically soon they traded harden I checked on zoo bots and the answer that I heard was I didn't hear no and so for two days I was like I think zoo bots is going to go and he did and I said zoo bots is going to go then what about koai and so you know Vince you're talking about teams investigating koai trust me they did I believe there were trade talks with koai I don't know if anything ever got serious but I know teams called because why wouldn't they call right and I expect them to reengage over the summer but none of that has anything to do with the fact that in the playoffs a couple years ago when koai got hurt I was finished wait I finished I was working this night in in Phoenix it was like three three it was like three years ago so the so the three names ago for the Phoenix arena and you guys didn't like that so the clippers media was like hey the team just left we should go down and get some food now I was like man I don't I don't eat teams food like you know what I'm doing like you know with all due respect like that's just not what I do journalism 101 well I just I feel weird about it anyway beyond that media as it feels weird yeah and they're like no no no no you you have to come down here and I was like no man I can't and they like beg me you have to come down here so I went there to the clippers locker room I've never seen a spread like this in my life in terms of like a buffet it was like going to it was like I don't even know like the Detroit Pistons press room there there have been less than the league right there not incomparable with all due respect respectfully it was like there have been many wedding there are going to many wedding receptions for 100 people that didn't cost what they were you know and I like him in compare this food was so unbelievable that they had and they only ate like half of it and so once I saw it I started running out into the hall like trying to find staff members at the arena just begging them to come in and have some of this food because it was a crime I'm like a Disney movies I'm telling you walk on the chocolate factory the clippers you got the gold windy found the golden ticket this man by the way you know since the first year Steve bombers lost 20 billion dollars in Microsoft stock value you think like he's worrying about like you know what aspiration might happen or like you know what will happen this weekend all started getting lost 20 billion 20 you can't just do here by just said 20 billion and by the way that's own that's like 12% of his network like I was about to say does that make him still make him the richest owner in the league by yeah by the league yeah but I think he fell below the wallmark the wall I mean 12% is a chunk correct so if I said to you I think of the sentence hey man guy over there lost 20 billion you'd like oh my god he lost 20 billion dollars yeah you lost 20 billion dollars you'd like oh my god yeah it's 12% of his Microsoft shares I'm sorry what so yeah 12% is rough but he's still living alright yeah anyway on Wednesday the spurs were in Oklahoma's in San Francisco later in saw I was watching the game we hit we hit we had to play the game on ESPN I'm sitting there with with our crew Kendra Perkins Michael Malone Lee Andrews and at one point in the late third quarter it was it was a 16 point game the Warriors rep by 16 and you know it was a second I have a back to back for the spurs but the Warriors were missing like like Drain Mao was playing but obviously no stuff no Jimmy Butler and like they were riding G Santos riding him he was he looked awesome you know he's had a really a month no and um pictures about to check into the game and he's doing his thing where he's doing his visualization you know he's putting his shirt over his face and he's like talking to himself and I was like were they showed it on TV and I was like I leaned over to one of our one of our producers Jiren Yang who's a big Warriors fan I go I think your boys are in trouble and they just walked him down quickly very quickly yeah yeah it flipped in the arena it was like that the game had gone from like 16 down 16 up and the night before you know the makers I was were playing you know second string team all five of their starters were out but the the game started and Jake Ravi with all due respect was was assigned to Victor to start the game and I don't think Victor was intimidated and so that after you scored 25 points in the first quarter in 7 minutes Jay Jay Reddick went to zone he also tried maxi Kleeba on him too he was not impressed and then he went to zone and you know there's zone the liquor zones actually been working a little bit like it's you know the liquor's been playing some better defense the last few weeks and mixing in the zone has been helping and for some reason for several possessions they had Luke canard in the center of the zone I'm sure there's I'm sure strategically good reason they had that but that's who Victor ended up basically posting and so Vince he scored 37 points in the first half he probably could have in the against that particular team you know he probably could have challenged Wilts record one of the warriors younger assistants had the scout for the spurs and Steve Kerr said he texted them at half time watching the game and said you got this right when he had 37 he's like yeah you got this man we believe in you we'll see your game planet at 10 a.m. have a good night. Yeah well went well the crazy name for me when there is everything not only just looks so like easy for big Vic it looks like he's toying with the league like it looks like he knows that he's that much better than everybody and he doesn't have to like figure it out anymore like he's going to have some off nice he's going to have some nice where it doesn't work for but it looks like he has mastered whatever he has needed to master at this level and he's nowhere near where he's ultimately going to wind up like that is the part that is freaky and it is scary for me and contrary to what you think I am looking for the C.M. Bixlem at all star weekend and seeing if he wants to embarrass everybody like he may be the guy that can save all star weekend because he may shame you with by blocking 10 or 11 shots and sending your stuff all the way back and forcing you to play hard like I'm when the I am legit looking forward to seeing Bixlem this weekend did you all see castles fall in the Lakers so I saw that he went up for it was an incredible block shot yeah and then he had a delicious just fall to the court and he left the game and didn't come back this was on Tuesday night yes Tuesday night and you know what league we cover and you know what's coming up all star weekend and back to back for the Warriors I I just presumed he was out for that Warriors game right no chance a fall like that a back to back the all star weeks coming young guy you know typically these franchises are very protective of of their players at this point of the season and the fact that he played I was like man there's a serious nature to their approach and I think you saw that in a second half but just like that strikes me from one beyond from Castle from Fox who is just named the all star like where they're their second and I think only like three and a half behind the thunder entering the break is that right obviously they have the tiebreaker right because of all the times they beat them and no shame we'll see I mean he's getting reevaluated out of the break J. Lambo Williams last night. Hammy you know he's not playing tonight. Who knows that they've got to that's a concern that's later don't bluff over that that's a concern. I don't know he was kind of grimacing on his wrist the other day got hit when he was playing the Lakers and Aten and to the point of like it's obviously the thunder roared out to that start where we're talking 73 wins like the way the spurs are attacking the season right now and where they're at as a team I'm the one seeds within reach for them thinking of recovering from injuries and Oklahoma City and considering we're in an era right now where there's a lot of attention focused on people who don't play shout out to Nikola Topic who it's in the evening right now the games haven't started but he is available to play tonight for the thunder and I think there's a good chance he's going to make his NBA debut he is come back from testicular cancer that happened this season. Yeah he played in the preseason they'd be you and then it was discovered like he played in their opener in the preseason so you know there's some guys who are you know look teams got you know teams are incentivized it's not a if a player is not playing because the team has him listed his rest it's not a commentary on the player you know the team you know the team is does it you know the team's going to make that call so it's not comparison but just as a you know a profile and courage how about it you know he missed all last year with the 20 CL and now he is all ready to play you know plays in the summer for his national team and then Serbia and then he is ready to go for you know make his debut is going to you know play for the champs and gets you know has this terrible diagnosis you know gets treatment immediately for it and works his way back he's by the way he's played a couple of games in the G league and you know head I think the one game I saw he had 16 minutes he had seven points and seven assists so yeah so that's really a cool story right ahead of the all star break here so but yeah I mean the spurs are you know if you're going to create the case that they're going to win multiple series it starts with having home court and as far as the all-star game goes which I promised I wasn't going to talk about Vince but one thing I will say is the all-star game you know part of the reason why I think the all-star game is lost its importance is that between 2005 if you look at the 2005 six season okay the Max Salary was between like 12 and 16 million so if you were like the low max in 2005 six you made 12 if you were the high max you made 16 okay 10 years later so 2015 16 season which I'm picking 20 in 10 years ago but it was also right before the cap spike the the salaries went from like 12 million was to our 14 most lowest max to like 22 million was the highest max so you know this the super high the highest paid players went from 16 million dollars a year to 22 million dollars a year in that 10 years okay and part of that was affected because we had a global financial crisis in between there but you know that was the growth of the top end players 10 years later 25 26 the low end of the max is 38 million and the high end of the max is 54 million so 10 years ago the highest paid players are making in the low 20s and now they're making in the low 50s okay so if you tell me why are why years are not a lot of incentive in the all-star game I would say well why was you're incentive to do anything the money is flying at the players just flying at them for the for the star players like what is their incentive to you know you know that you know it's hard it's a hard sell to them to say you know go out there and sell the game well this is the you can't make me generation to if you think about well you can't make me is one thing but then you can't make me and you also look at every year my paycheck is exploding exploding exploding why should I talk about incentive well I mean also not I tweeted this yesterday and when you think about the league as a whole you've got everybody will say it's a negative thing it's just a factor where we are everybody's thinking about themselves right the players think about themselves and I think about growing the game when we talk about tanking the teams that no one's thinking about the greater good of the league right now nobody's thinking themselves as a business partner in this enterprise this competitive enterprise but a business partner in this enterprise that's still supposed to be grown and like not to get on the soapbox anything like that windy but everybody's cashing in on the stardust but not creating any like every like the throwback jerseys and everything else what classic things are we creating now we're not creating anything classic we are just cashing on it and the players are being our function of that like they don't you don't have to tell them to play like there is no incentive for all star weekend for them to go and do more things because it's going to be a financial reward on the back and because they're making so much money no shade to them get all of your money I want those people get all your money right but there is no incentive for them beyond there's no way you can emotionally bribe them anymore or an emotional game is code for growing your paycheck right that's code yeah so if the paycheck is already exploding what incentive do you have to do that the other thing is in 2016 that's when Kobe retired so you have the explosion of salaries plus the guy who was mister you know we talk about holding people accountable in the all-star game you remember that one game in Orlando I don't remember what year it was where the where LeBron didn't take the last shot and Kobe you know it was against Kobe's team you know and and and Kobe like was holding LeBron accountable like what do you what do you talk about you know I didn't wait like break Kobe's nose yeah that game that was that was that game that was and Kobe wanted just the chance even the LaBron busted him in his face with the shot I think Kobe would have respected it had that happened but he he saw LeBron chicken out like you will never see that level of accountability from player to player anymore a because Twitter holds players accountable in ways that we will never like like the fourth wall has been broken so players are so afraid of being dunked on a being crossed over somebody doing so being embarrassed in some way that they'll never try hard again in these games they're so afraid there's they become such snowflakes to some degree and you said snow flake snowflakes yeah I said it and is the other thing if Kobe was the guy that was holding all the guys accountable because Kobe was the standard bearer Kobe was the old guy we gotta look at today's old guys and say they're not holding up there into the bargain not want to come to this I was going to say that you are violating your rules already my myself Brian I made you violate your rule my bad this is my fault blame the black guy so that was going to do I was going to wait till we're off the area to do it by speaking of that did you see TJ maca jalen brunson like crossed over TJ McConnell like halaciously the other day in the guards yes and yes jalen you know crossed them over TJ fell Jalen step back took a three and he missed it and then TJ put his arm around Jalen said thank you for missing that I did not need that on my on my clip resume forever yeah well maybe that'll be with Victor does I mean I don't know if you know I don't know if a player of Victor's profile you know a young player French player who's yet to win anything meaningful on the stage can do that but he can certainly show him up more who collective podcast after this speaking of the next Vince I've we've had two nickgames in the last week on on ESPN ABC so doing a lot of prep work with that and watching one game was was in Boston and they absolutely destroyed the Celtics was is is is extremely impressive performance is good as I've seen the next play defensively all year long then they lose at home to the Pacers in a game where they were favored by 15 points now in the NBA works of the year is that worse to the year I don't know I don't have the end I don't have that data but it's got to be pretty close you know in the NBA you know a lot cited line is what like six and a half seven and a half yeah yeah this was 15 and a half and the Pacers one of course the Pacers have had a lot of success in MSG over the last three years so you know maybe they just still home there is just a match up I guess but I was over time and then they play the second I would back to back in Philly now Philly no NBA they're coming off the West Coast etc etc but they have one of the best offensive games I've seen from them all year and after the game is decided Jose Alvarado gets deployed and knocks down eight three pointers off the bench and has five steals been like 19 minutes or something I don't know what it was something like that was 19 and eight points five steel the Philly fans all left and the Nick's fans were all there and it turned into a massive squad garden south again as they were celebrating Alvarado Alvarado's first game he scored like 12 points and like 15 minutes was unbelievable comes home to the garden was awful goes to Philly is unbelievable he's already a Nick he's he's he's fit right it he's practically a Clyde Frazier he's so much of a Nick right now with that they say to me who's gonna win who's gonna win these so I go I don't know and people are like what do you mean you don't know you said your job what do you want me to say look at this team I've watched him in the course of five days I've watched him twice dominate teams that I think they could face in the playoffs one on one end of the court one on the other get obliterated you know lose to the one of the worst teams in the league and by the way the game before the Celtics game they played in Detroit and lost by 40 what am I supposed to do with this Vince their highs are so high and their lows are so low like offensively because you got so many guys that can shoot from three because you have some you know like the wing that potentially not it you know adding Jeremy so hand I'm looking forward to seeing what color he's gonna wear his hair but the highs are just so high like they can bombs away you know from you from three and if Carl Towns is engaged and not in foul trouble right and not in his own head then they have an element of talent that nobody in the East can match but the problem is the second something goes wrong and this is the problem to me the great indicator of being in the playoffs is how well will you play when things are not going your way can you manufacture a win when something goes wrong the problem with the mixes when everything's going right they can overwhelm you but when one thing goes wrong they don't know how to handle the slightest bit of adversity like even Jaylen Brunson the other night against Indiana just went full I'm taking every shot like in the last five minutes or so and he hasn't done that in a long time because normally he comes up big late so you don't pay much attention to it but when he's off it's very noticeable when Carl Towns is on it's very noticeable when he's off committing offensive files jumping on people's back plan the bond goes or whatever it is you see it all the question is you don't know what to believe because their highs are so high and their lows are so low he's calling them front runners Brian Nick fans I've said nothing of the sort I did not call the front runners win three playoffs series and when the East a team like that can win two playoffs series a third playoffs series unless you're playing to me against a team that shouldn't be there they're going to capitalize on the East is very possible that you're playing against somebody that's not your typical just a why it's across the way I mean but think about like this now I I challenge you a little bit he loves these this year no no I don't I don't trust me I don't if Philly gets to the conference finals and they're planning next they will have enough sweat equity in the playoffs for you to say they they're legit if Cleveland gets there you will say the same thing if Boston gets there we've told them you know you're going to say that same thing for Detroit whoever gets there is going to earn their way there and they're going to be confident by the time they get there so I don't think it's a matter of all man this is a week East unless there's some crazy upset in Atlanta gets their Orlando gets there I think you get some quality teams that just have not put it together consistently including the damn New York Knicks you caught on front runners I just you just you just have the exact definition of front runner and I don't don't don't don't do that you make a great point Vince about how the difference between winning two playoffs series and three or four like it's oh if you win two you can win three the level of competition that you step up to like I'll never forget the first time I ever covered an Eastern conference finals game I was a young in it's like my second year I was in Detroit was Detroit against Miami I think oh and I felt I why I covered that game I was like wow this is another level and I remember Durant talk about you remember of course in the the covid year where Durant had the shot where his toe was on the line otherwise the that's what I won the game and you know and the bucks end up winning it over time and then they win the title and people always used to say you know if Durant's toe is you know sent him two centimeters shorter you know people said he I guess Durant sometimes war a size bigger than he had needed because he liked the way it felt um you know if he wore like one size smaller shoe like and Durant like called him out on that he was like as you're talking about winning the second round he goes you know how much you know good Durant's a guy who had won championships like you know had been to like three finals like he's like he knows like it's like do you know how but the differences between winning seven playoffs games and winning 16 is because that's what they'd won they'd won seven he's like he's like you know because because kai ria got hurt you know and hard and had been hard and was hard hard and had a hamstring groin or hamstring yeah and he's like he's like you're crazy he's like you weren't winning that championship he's like you have any idea the difference between winning a second round series of winning a conference final series much less winning a finals game and like that is damn right and so that's important when you look at these teams it's like when you look at the spurs too like the spurs I think can beat anybody can they with the team this inexperienced and you know my concern with victor like last night i'm watching that game slater and while the warriors are behind i'm watching um you know there's three four five possessions in a row where victor never goes inside the three point line um on offense and i know we can hit the three in fact he's been shooting the three better in bedder as the season goes along but i also know that if he does that at the wrong time he's bailing another team out which is what Durant was saying the other day when the rocket speed him he's like you're bailing out and so like i i believe that um victor will i could i could be proven wrong because he's that type of guy but i believe the victor will learn will end up learning the lesson that you can't go down in the playoffs with him shooting threes if they're gonna go down it's with him just might take a minute elimination to learn that not he might never we'll see who knows i agree that's why i look at the choy and i'm like can the team doesn't ever want to play off series go from being eliminated in the first round to going all the way to the NBA finals that's asking a lot that's your experience talking and i know that it's frustrating to i'm sure players and fans who hear that are like hell yeah we're the best team you know Detroit's like we've been the best team since october you know and then they see them with the third or you know best odds or whatever it's just like somebody got to come out these well that's true and i mean maybe this is a year where where you see an experienced team do it because all the teams have flaws but you know what i i i was talking to a eastern conference head coach the other day and um he said to me he goes New York's the best team and i was like you know oh well but but but but he's like no New York's the best team and um and i was talking to like an executive in the eastern conference high ranking executive who's been doing it for a long time and he goes yeah New York's the best team they can be the best team would they play the best when it counts right well that's the thing they didn't say New York was winning the east said New York's the best team two different things y'all would be much more the experts than me on this but every time i'll flip on a next pistons game i know who the best team on the floor looks like in that matchup Vince remind me so i was working with jb bicker staff a little bit last year when he was after they got eliminated he came in and did some some studio days with get up and first taken yeah i look to see what he said but did he say we're like he said something like we're not going to lose to the next again or something like that no i think i don't know if he said that on air i think Steve said that he said that to him i can't remember but okay i would not be surprised if those words came out of jb bicker staff's mouth because if you look at it he was if i zez through a place in that series car sounds doesn't do a car sounds does that's true yeah that's the first thing of you know this mean a trite guy that that's what the pistons first thing they say is well we didn't have beef mm-hmm if he's healthy this season that changes the math especially in a pistons nix matchup because carl times are supposed to be the one guy that is the matchup problem for everybody he goes against and then if you got jalen brunson he was put on lockdown by a star Thompson in the trade like i talk myself out of saying the trade and then i give you all the reasons why the trade makes sense i know yeah it was funny like we were on air last night and during during during on air i got into a back and forth with perk about the spurs about like because i was breaking up experience and he was like you know he was trying to basically tell me you're you know that's that this team's so good they can win and then we got off the air and malone was like i like the spurs a lot but you know you're right a lot of times teams who don't have experience it shows up you know experience you know two things show up at the end of the game and i don't care if you're playing high school basketball if you're playing low major division one or you're playing NBA finals two things show up at the end of the game size and experience i'm not saying that that always determines the outcome size and experience always show up and so look out when victor gets experience this one saying but um size and experience show up and so i don't know we'll see the nicks have got a lot of reps with this unit they got some scars but this unit has put some years in together now they better win this year they don't want to mean ease that better when yeah i mean that that's one thing Detroit's uh stress level is completely different than New York stress level you know Detroit gets down to owner series and New York is down to owner series is a totally different feel you know or you know they've been the facilitation game so but the one thing i'll say before we go every year i see the same mistake it made and it's a lot of times made by people who have been around the game for a long time and that mistake is thinking that the regular season has anything to do with the playoffs different sport playoffs and regular season different sport yeah a jackson um gave the uh the current draft kings uh odds for the eastern conference calves are plus 300 that are favorites nicks are plus 330 that's essential the same pistons plus 350 Celtics plus 380 so you're basically getting three three and a half to one on all of them and uh the the the the 76ers as of last night were were plus 1100 so 76ers were 11 to one and i was trying to talk myself into saying that that's a undervalued don't do it don't you do it and then i saw what i'm doing d don't you don't you do it which imbedient got hurt and um and then it was never a game so i had a i'm glad i didn't say that so maybe they're properly valued so uh all right slater enjoy your all star weekend uh Vince i'm looking forward to your robust coverage of the robust robust coverage yeah we'll be fine you were built for all star weekend i don't say i don't know how i mean we made you know Vince is low man in the totem pole so we made him go i don't know how you got out of it slater i think i think you should be there i'm gonna call a meeting of management there are also zero warriors participating in all star weekend so that's be that as it may i think uh you know i know all due respect he's going to say that for like the avetime today we've all due respect that was like Jordan Clarkson did you see that the other day on x somebody somebody said something about him and then he told them to um uh do something to part of his anatomy and they followed up with another uh post respectfully i loved it uh respectfully uh you know even though you guys got like decades in like you know how you didn't get that assignment slater i'm off to speak to somebody about that we're gonna i'm gonna adjust that i'm gonna make you cover the uh the the draft skills challenge yeah the skills challenge we're over the plan no worry yeah uh yeah the plan uh all right thank you very much to our producers Tucker mark davan and jackson thank you to viny Vince goodwill and Anthony's thank you for watching listen to hip-golective we'll talk to you next week