Run it up, do run it back, yeah.  We made it to Friday. Run it back, Fandal TV, Michelle Buttle, Lou Will, Dady Green is here, filling in for Chandler Parsons. Thank goodness. Upgrade, and of course we've got Shams coming to us from Chicago. Shams, we talked about it yesterday. We're thinking where's the video of the Isaiah Stewart situation, what's gonna happen, and we finally got the scoop, Shams. What's the latest? We still don't have the video as of yet, but three games suspension handed down to Isaiah Stewart from the NBA. He served the first game last night in Indiana, and the league's investigation showed that he initiated the altercation with Drew U-Banks last week in Phoenix, pushed Drew U-Banks and also delivered a punch. I'm told he punched him in the face, in the mouth area, and Drew U-Banks took it, and there wasn't really much of an altercation after that incident. They were both separated, security stopped them. So this is not the second time Isaiah Stewart's been suspended by the league. Couple years ago, in 2021, it was the incident with LeBron James. He got two games. So now there's three game suspension for him, and hopefully he moves forward with this. He did also have a misdemeanor assault charge that the Phoenix Police Department gave him. That has since been dropped. That case is over. So everything for Isaiah Stewart has now moved on. His incident with Drew U-Banks is over with. He got the suspension. The case has also dropped now. So just essentially this three game suspension is gonna cost him upwards of $100,000. Ooh, yikes. Okay, so here's the thing, which three games didn't seem like a lot, right? I know yesterday or whatever, you were talking about like 12 games, possibly. Three seems low to me. Very low. I mean, I think what saved him is the fact that the video has not leaked yet. Yeah. The Jordan Poole video leaked quicker than this. It did. It's kind of crazy. But the fact that you don't actually see it is helping him. I thought if a punch, usually guys get more games. But because there's no evidence yet, which helps him, they gave him the suspension before the video came out. I mean, they've seen something, but I mean, maybe they're waiting for us to see it and have outreach. Maybe it's not as big of a deal as it reads, as it sounds. But I agree with Danny, the video is saving him because I said 12 games. You did. I felt like I saw what Draymond Green did if punches are being thrown. That sets the precedent. That sets the standard of how the NBA is gonna react to this. And I was surprised that it was only three games because, you know, just as a former player, this sends kind of a shocking, this sends a shocking idea to other players.  And now you're opening the door for some energy that's never been there before. You know, we bluff a lot. Guys talk a lot of trash. But once the game is over, every once in a while it might spill over to the back. But other than that, you know, guys get over it. It's in a heat at a moment. It's competitive with this. They were in street clothes. Nobody's revved up at that point yet. I was a little confused why he would even throw a punch at this guy. So I was a little confused with the three-game suspension. Yeah, we've seen guys get suspended more for less. A lot, yeah. So I was expecting at least five games. Something. At the very minimum. Is it because he's a piston and we don't care? Like, what is it? I think just because the video evidence is out there. It's just maybe, it's the video. The evidence is out there yet. I haven't seen it. He said 12, I said, to be fair, should be at least half to 12, maybe six. But three, he said he got off pretty lightly with this one. I will say this.  But $100,000 to hit them. I don't know if it's worth it. It's not. It's really not. It's kind of a lot of money. It's never worth it. It's never worth it. I'm keeping my cash on that one. All right, we did have some games finally last night. And the first one, of course, was without LeBron, Lakers, Warriors, Warriors, no issues here. 128-100, Curry had 32-8, Wiggins with 20 points, and AD with the 27 and 15. Eight of their last 10 games for this Warriors team have been wins. And they're a half game behind the Lakers. So this was kind of a big one for them. I've seen a lot of notices on Twitter saying, don't look now. But this Warriors team might be figuring something out. Is it too late or is there enough time? It's plenty of time, especially when you have to play in in your favor. I don't know if they can get down to that guaranteed seven. But they'll be in that conversation, in that playing. And they're trending at the right time. They're playing really good basketball, going into the tail end of this season, trying to figure things out. They'll get Chris Paul back. We'll see what that looks like. Clay Thompson coming off the bench. That's been a roller coaster ride. We'll see what they look like. But so far, they won 80% of their games in the last 10. Trending up for me. Yeah, they got a lot of time, especially the way the West is stacked up. There are not that many games behind those teams, said the Lakers, and all the teams at the bottom part of the playoff, sucked from 7, 8, 9, 10.  They have the guys at the pieces. I think it's interesting what they're doing with Clay. I don't think it'll last long with him coming off the bench. But we'll see. Hopefully, he figures that he had a good game, the first game off the bench, the second game. Wasn't as strong. But I don't know how well they continued with that. That's what's funny about the whole Clay thing. It's like 35, the first one, you're like, OK, maybe this works. And then he comes out, and he has a dud. So it's like, where is that middle ground where this works for Clay and where this works for the Golden Sting Warriors? CP will have a big impact on that. He'll help, if Clay continues to come off the bench and have CP with him, I think it'll help him adjust to that. So we'll see how that goes for them. But they're turning in the right direction. They definitely have a lot of time. They have plenty of time to catch the other teams in front of them to make up for ground. But we'll see how they continue to, I guess, the younger guys step up, and they're starting lineup. Comming to be playing great, Pazimski. If they figure this out, and Steph is leading all these young, it's just it's going to be fun and funny to watch.  He did up the 32, eight assists. Six threes last night. He also had a pass from last night. Well, let me show you this pass. And you guys can tell me how many people can do this. That's the pass. That was the pass. Yeah, wait, hold on. We'll do it again. It's impressive. I think the one to Katie earlier years was probably more impressive. How about this, Katie? No, we don't need another angle. We don't need another. That one's fun. It's cool. It's a solid pass. It's a good pass. It's a solid pass. I said the one to Katie, fast break, full court, that one probably more impressive. This one was impressive, but I think there's a good amount of point guards that can make that pass. He doesn't even look to see what happens after he passes. It's just so funny to me. Every point guard in the NBA can make that pass. Not every point guard. Every single point guard in the NBA can make this pass. It's like the Jalen Brown dunk. It's an impressive pass. First of all, it's impressive. He doesn't even look to see it been finished. The caress of my ear said, I'm hating. You are hating it. I'm just telling you, Jalen Brunson can't make this pass. Shay Gilder's Alexander can't make this pass. Cole Anthony can't make this pass. Trayon can't make this pass. I'm not even thinking right now. Luca Dunch is can't make this pass. Tyrese Magazine can't make this pass. OK, Luca probably makes this pass. Everybody can make this pass. We like it. It's a really good pass.  It's a good pass. So you're saying every other point guard can make this pass. The other point guards are good too. They're a good point guard. I'd like to find one that can't. LaBurne James can't make this pass. What about Jordan Poole? Jordan Poole can't make this pass. OK, there we go. I got you. We're not doing this. They're not executing that. Oh, we're doing it. We're doing it, and we're continuing it. Fine. You guys aren't impressed. The mere mortals amongst us, myself. We are very impressed by it. Steve Kerr mentioned pregame, however, and Shoms. We're going to talk Chris Paul. Danny just brought it up, said when he returns, it could change the sort of dynamic that is going on with Clay coming off the bench. When can we expect Chris Paul back out there? Yeah, Steve Kerr said last night they're trying to get a couple more practices in for Chris Paul. And the hope is that he's going to be back. They go on this four-game road trip next week at Washington on Tuesday. They played the Knicks on Thursday, Raptors on Friday, and then Boston next Sunday. So the hope is somewhere on that road trip Chris Paul is back. And that will change the rotation. That'll put one more ball handler for the Warriors. And I think him, Clay Thompson, coming off that bench, that's going to be interesting to keep an eye on how that develops.  Maybe that'll benefit Clay more. But I'm with Lou on this. Like, where's the middle ground for Clay Thompson? We know he wants to start. We know he can't be happy coming off the bench. So where does this lead Clay Thompson for the second half of the season? But right now, this group is obviously playing well. They're rolling. They won nine of their last 11. And Chris Paul should be on the way back over the next week or so. I guess I'm sort of stuck on the why wouldn't he be happy coming off the bench? I mean, look, last night, obviously, he's not the same as the first night. First night, he looked awesome. Last night, not so much. That's the only way you'd be happy if you continue to look awesome. Yeah, so just look awesome. But Chris Paul can help with that. He can be the soothing factor into helping him adjust to being on the bench. But as a start of your whole career and as a known as one of the greatest shooter I've ever played this game, it's going to be tough regardless. And especially not playing in certain situations. Maybe sometimes they have benched him in the fourth quarter.  But yeah, just having that longevity of a career, it's a huge adjustment for anybody to go to the bench. And especially behind the guy, when you're not winning, they weren't that good already. They weren't even late. When you're not good already, and you're playing behind guys, you're like, we're losing already. So now I'm being benched on a team that's, we're not. But he seems to be self-aware, Clay Thompson, right? No, he's not playing well. But it's like, who am I playing behind? Are these guys that much better than me? So that's part of it. That they should be started. And it's a thin line. We watched him last week when they announced that he was going to come off the bench. He took the high road. He was very professional, very understanding. He was open-minded about it. Now he'd get a few more of these three points, these fours, these fives, maybe a nine here and there. We don't know what his attitude entails and so forth. A team, like we said, that's trending up. You don't want somebody unhappy, especially one of your main guys, and Clay Thompson. Chris Paul coming back. He's been out so long with his injuries. God, he has. The last time we saw Chris Paul, they were struggling, right? And so this is something interesting to watch, to see how he can build himself back in his lineup and be a positive impact that he's been throughout the course of his career. And coming off that bench with Clay, like Danny said, this can give them that balance where you have one guy on the floor that's for sure looking for Clay Thompson to get him wide open looks to make the game easier for him. It feels like this will be a good thing. I know it's easier for me to say than Clay to have to hear it. But yeah, it feels like this could be a nice spark. But we obviously didn't have LeBron in this one last night, Shoms, and that was the 18 point loss there for the Lakers. When do we expect LeBron to be back in this lineup? Darvin Ham said last night that the expectation is the likelihood is that LeBron James returns the lineup tonight against San Antonio. There's Spurs, Michelle, but he's 39 years old. He's played 21 seasons. This is his 21st season. He's obviously managing that ankle last year. The second half of the season, he managed that torn tendon in his foot. This year it seems to be this ankle issue that he's been managing, the soreness that he's had. It doesn't look like there's going to be any extended absence, but it's something that he's going to have to deal with and manage for the rest of the season. But the expectation is that potentially tonight a return for LeBron James, his first game since the All-Star. Of course.  Back to back's overrated anyway. Yeah, but you just got to pick which one you're going to play in. Dang it. It's that one. There was a weird quote in this one. It's been a weird week for coach quotes, but Darvin Ham says that AD lost his voice, and that affected basically Lakers' defensive communication in the loss. I have never in all my years. Lou, how are we feeling about this one? Tag. Go ahead, DG. This is an interesting one. I don't get it. I never tried to talk down on someone's comments or post game, and you just never know where their mind was at that time. And not saying this is like off the wall, but it's just kind of an interesting aspect to look at or to try to gauge or try to take an angle of why a defense was bad. But yeah, if your anchor of your defense is not able to communicate well the way you need him to, you know, Draymond's out there. He anchors a defense. He can talk a lot. You guys are like Pat Bev or Denlon Brooks. But you could still communicate. Yes, you could. I don't know if AD is the guy that he is great at talking on defense, but I don't know if he's the guy that's like ultimately talking that much. So, but him not be able to do that without Bron there, I think affects them, you know, a lot. Because he is one of their leaders. He's one of their vets. See, I wasn't going to say anything close to that. Oh, wait, what were you going to say? I appreciate Danny's perspective. Like sometimes coaches, some things you just don't say. You just don't say it because as a casual fan on the outside looking in, we don't know anything about. It sounds silly. Yeah, we don't know anything about how this affects defense. Sure, Danny and I may know that this is a serious thing and he's the anchor behind everybody and he's directing traffic and quarterback and the defense, sure. But the casual fan, you saying this in a press conference, they don't understand it. It looks like an excuse. And they don't care and it looks like an excuse. And so I think this was just better left unsaid. Cause you're right. If a quarterback lost his voice completely, I do think that would be a problem. Absolutely. Right? I lost my voice last week. We had to cancel the show all together. Cause you're the quarterback. Thank you. But this just doesn't feel the same as those examples. It's funny. I mean, I like it. Yeah, it's funny. I would have just referred he didn't say it, but it is some truth to it. Yes, but because there are four of the guys out there that can talk. Right. And you can still visually. The main guy talking, you know, in tennis or you're the host. You're the show basically. You can't talk and we have no show. You're the show. You have four of the guys that are the show. You should be able to continue your show. Somebody should. And you kind of know what you're supposed to do and point and do all that, but it's okay. It was a loss. They have another chance tonight to get a win. Hopefully they don't. But Clippers Thunder was another game last night. And okay, see, Chandler got all of these right, Lou, by the way. He's not here to brag about it, but he's doing well. Here it is. 129-107, SGA with 31-8 and four, Chet 17-10, he had three blocks. Wyatt 20, Harden had 17. This was a pretty dominant win. They a joke. They're 22 and six at home, by the way. Okay, see, so I get that they're young and we may not have them going all the way this season, but having home court advantage in the playoffs for this kind of a team is how big a deal. It's gonna be everything. It's gonna be everything, especially with a young inexperienced playoff team, right? For them to have an opportunity to start at home, start in an environment that they're very comfortable with. Obviously they're successful at home. They play well at home, but those things are monumental. When you can sit at home for an extra seven or eight days and prepare for a team, have an opportunity to go up two-one before you go out on the road because this is gonna be a tough playoff run for everybody. You know, if you're the Minnesota Timberwolves, you may get rewarded with a Luke of Dungeons and Kairi Irving in the first round. Oh man.  So for this young team to have an opportunity to start at home, starting their building that they're 22 and six, so far this is gonna be everything for them. It's huge. It's impressive. I agree with Lou. I mean, I don't know if you remember how great the fan base was in OKC when they were a playoff team, but you know, most arenas that gave you plus three or so with your fans behind you, in that arena with those fans that it's been so long, it's been a while for them in the playoffs.  Their fan base is unbelievable there. And I remember playing at my Spurs days. They had an unbelievable crowd. So they have that crowd behind them that helped them get through those inexperienced moments or those moments where, you know, they lose their poise. Right. In the playoffs, the game slows down a little bit. When you're on the road, it's harder to gather yourself. When you're at home, you have more games at home. It's easier to gather yourself and kind of get an edge on collecting yourself, playing against those top teams like a Dallas or like a New Orleans or, you know, who knows if they're gonna match up in the first round. Fast forward to the playoffs. Shams, look, they didn't do anything at the deadline. And this was an argument that we were having about OKC is in a good place. Don't screw up any of the chemistry that you have going on right now. Does it still seem as though in-house they are very content with where they are as a team and just let this marinate? They got Gordon Hayward. And I think he made his debut last night. He hasn't played in a while off a calf injury. That was their kind of major deadline move. They got rid of a few contracts, Bertons, Trey Mann among them. And you bring in a guy like Gordon Hayward. He can at least be a veteran player that if there's a guy that's dealing with foul trouble, any issues come playoff time, you put in Gordon Hayward. But when you think about what they have going into the summer in future years, they got 10-plus first-hand picks they can trade. They got a boatload of second-hand picks. They got a bunch of swaps that they can trade. When you think about draft assets. But Michelle, another thing that they opened up that people don't talk about this summer is $30 million of cap space. So when you think about the cap space teams, this upcoming summer, we know about Detroit. They've got potentially 50, 60 million. But Oklahoma City is going to have $30 million in cap space to use. And I think when you're under, you want to see how this team looks. You're kind of playing with house money right now and seeing this group. Three players on this roster have had real playoff minutes. That's Shagils Alexander, Lou Dort and Isaiah Joe. Those are the three guys that have played any type of playoff moments. And so you want to see what you truly have on this roster. Today, they also waved Alexei Pokhachevsky. He was the guy that they drafted 17th overall. That opens up a roster spot they could use potentially for a veteran player or anything. They have need-wise over the next month. Man, if you're looking for an NBA team to root for, you've never had one, you might want to jump on this. They got everything. They're holding all the cars. They're holding the Royal Frush right now in their back pocket. They can do whatever they want with it. All that money and all those picks. First round, second round picks, money in the summertime. And look, they might have something that we've never heard from OKC ever before. They might actually get a free agent. Somebody to voluntarily. Somebody to voluntarily come there. If you're watching and you're a fan of the game, you're seeing how they're building, how this team is playing, and they're young, and they have a window to be on top of the mound for a four to five-year window.  How hard is that if you're a free agent?   If you're a basketball fan, it's both. You're seeing the games, you're seeing how teams play, no matter how, even like Orlando. They have been bad in previous years, but because they're playing better basketball, they're playing at a certain pace, or they're playing your style of play. I like what they got going. They're building something great over there. OKC for short. Minnesota, they have been tough, some tough years in the past. They've been pretty rough the last couple of years, but this year you've seen what they're building. Those are now becoming destination. Because they're winning, they're becoming just, nobody thought like a couple of years ago thought like, oh, I want to go to Memphis, make a job, make a desk, they got a couple pieces. If you're winning, you're going to go there because you want to win, you have a chance. Memphis is a tough place to live. Memphis hates the show. I'm not sure. The city hates the show. Well, they hate Chandler more than anything, truth be told. They have a great fan base, but if you're winning games, those cities that you don't really like going to, you will be open to playing for. That's interesting to me. It's like, it's kind of a cool thing to watch happen.  So, you know, first game after the All-Star break, some older dudes, I'm not going to say old. Is it that tough to sort of shake the rust off? Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and pretend like I know what I'm talking about. Okay, fair enough. This first game back, PG and Kauai were in the All-Star game. I for sure know they probably went, I don't know for sure, this is an opinion. They went into this game cold turkey. Okay. They might've got some shots that shoot around, but they took an extended break and they came into this thing cold turkey. You see two different dynamics of teams when you come back from the All-Star break. You see young teams who are trying to prove something. So they're in a gym throughout the weekend. They're getting ready to go. They're also fresh. And they're fresh. Yeah, that's true too. And then you see veteran guys who take full advantage. When they break, they break. And they need a little WD-40. Yeah. Yeah, and so it's going to take a couple more days for them to get back in the groove of things. And so I think this was the perfect storm. You saw some young guys who were at home, ready to play, and you saw a clipper team that was still kind of getting themselves back in the groove. Just takes a little bit longer. Yeah, for sure after All-Star break, you got to give the edge to the younger team. Okay, fair. You got to give the edge to the younger team. For now, Sun's Mavs, another good one last night. Maverick's seventh straight win for this Dallas team. Luca, 123-113, he had 41, 9, 11, and four steals. Kairi with 29, 5, and 3. There was no Bradley Beal in this one. Booker with 35, KD, 23, and 5. Luca, it's just Luca doing Luca. He's averaging a league leading 34 a game. Nine rebounds, nine and a half assists. If they can get Dallas to be in that sort of top three range, do we seriously talk about him as an MVP candidate? 100%. No doubt. If, I mean, we'll see. I mean, we're talking about Shay, right? We're talking about him now. Yeah, we're talking about him now. You're talking about him now. Yeah, because I think Shay is having an incredible season. I think he's very much deserving of the attention that he wants. Yoakage is there. You know, you have guys that are there. If Mb wasn't hurt, he'd still be in that conversation. So it's not a slight to Luca. I just think there are guys that when you can't go with the numbers, you go to the next best thing, which is the wins. And then you have guys that have a more success in that area. Yeah, so if OKC ends up in the top two, I like Shay for it. It's kind of crazy. Especially if he's number one. For a team that wasn't in the playoffs last year or didn't make the playoffs previous years, take a team like that to be a number one seed is very impressive. I love it. You know, it's the year of the young guys, you know? So I know D-Rolls was the youngest MVP before. I don't know what Shay's age is now. 25. I think he'll be in that conversation. Is he in it somewhere in there? He's deserving of it. If Luca gets to the third seed, the numbers he puts in, I think we're kind of taking it for granted with him and Yolkich does. They do it so easily, so effortlessly. It's unbelievable the numbers they put up. It's video game-like. And we're just like, oh, you know, it's another day at the office for Luca. They're best friends. Somebody else does it. Like, oh, man. We're getting ready to see some of the best basketball we've seen in quite a long time, even though the All-Star weekend was a little lowly. And it was a little dull. That's what I was going to say. I think the NBA playoffs are going to make up for it. Again, if you're the Minnesota Timbers, if you're having one of the best seasons in a long, long time, you get rewarded with Luca Dunchers and Kyrie Irving. Not right. Or quite possibly a LeBron and AD or Steph Curry and Co. Like, those aren't rewards. You've got to start seeing some of these teams play chess a little bit and try to find some matchups that work for them. And so Luca is very much deserving to be in that conversation. But I think this is, at this point, I think it's SGA's MVP to lose. I think that's just awesome that we could possibly have that happen. Yesterday with AI, I remember we talked about him saying that Kyrie has the best handles. He's also got a not-bad finish ability. I almost feel bad showing this to you guys. You're going to be like, eh, it's not that great. Everyone can do that. Is this better? Not everybody can do that. Does this impress you? Especially with the offhand with the left. Michelle Bido, can you throw a behind-the-back pass? Probably. I thought it was right. But I am an exceptional athlete. All right, but there you go. See, there you go. I really looked at this and thought this was his left hand. That's how much a magician Ky is with the ball. You finish with the right hand on the left side. Oh, wow. I thought it was his left hand this whole time. So not everybody can do this to put that type of spin on the ball on that side of the floor. Yeah. Yeah, from that angle, you don't see it as fine. He's deceptively athletic, man. That hang time is like to hang in there that long. It's not easy to do. Most people travel. Kyrie is a lot of people like to talk about his handle. I like to talk about him as a finisher. I think he's one of the top finishers in the league and of all time. It's through the game. When I start thinking about finishers, I'm thinking about guys like Shaq. And obviously, he was dominant. So you couldn't really stop Shaq once he got four feet from the rim. I'm thinking about MJ's finishing. I'm thinking about T-Max finishing. I'm thinking about his Vince Carter, because guys just got out of the way when Vince was coming down the lane. He's the only point guard I can really think of off the top of my head. That's an elite finisher. That's an elite finisher around the rim. That's not 6'8", 6'9". Yeah, that is actually kind of fun to watch. Taking a quick break right now. Shams, we will talk to you Monday, bright and early. When we come back, we will be joined by Kenny Beecham. Look, he's already ready. Boom! Run it back, returns. Run it back, yeah. Run it up. Run it back, yeah, yeah.  He is back. Kenny Beecham, co-founder of Enjoy Basketball, host of the Kenny Beecham podcast with the background that I'm obsessed with. And look, I know it's Friday, but this is our first time getting to catch up with you, Kenny. And we've talked a lot about the All-Star Weekend. It's something we're trying to put behind us, but not until we get your opinion quickly on it. Did you love it? Cause we're just trying to find the one person that did. No, no, I didn't. I'm completely okay with getting rid of talking about it. It's been a week, we got basketball back. You know, it wasn't a great time. I'm the honest with you. I enjoyed the Sabrina versus Steph Curry. That was the highlight of the weekend for me, but the game, the dunk contest, everything else wasn't very good. Cancel it for three years. Am I right? Not the best idea that we've had. I don't think you cancel it. Three? But the Steph and Sabrina thing, that gave us a, that was a bright spot, right? I would even enjoy seeing if Caitlin Clark comes out. I would like to see Caitlin Clark in it, bring Sabrina back, a Kelsey Plum. Definitely more cross overs. Put the women inside it and let them all shoot, put four guys, four women, best shooter wins. So Kenny, what do you think we can add or change to make this a better weekend? What do you think about a two on two tournament? And who do you think would be the best duo? Who could put together the best duo and then be it? So I got a chance to talk to Tatum about improving the all-star weekend. And the two on two tournament is very interesting. The reason he didn't like that idea is because some teams are gonna have two guards, some teams have two forwards. If you get Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum together to go against a team like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, the size is gonna win all. I like the idea of an individual one-on-one tournament, three dribbles and let the best Hooper come out on top. Guards, wings, centers, three champions. And I think the fans will love it. I like this idea. I just think it'll take all night. And foul. But that's okay. What are we doing with it? Yeah, you gotta put a dribble limit on it. You gotta give them a shot clock, everything. We're gonna be in there all night. I don't mind if it takes all night because think about how many hours we gave up this past weekend as consumers. Between if you watch the celebrity game, skills game, the teams, all of that stuff. We gave hours of our lives. If it's a better product, I don't mind. It'll be more entertaining. Yeah, it'll be much more entertaining. Danny, on the other hand, somehow, wow, God. I don't know if, I don't know if we get entertained. We're having a hard time for them playing hard in the Hall-Star game. You think they gonna play hard in two-on-two? I cancel it. We're back to canceling one. Am I right? Like, is that what you were just giving back to that? I just don't know. The dunk contest, Danny was shocked that Jalen Brown made it to the finals, and so was everyone else. And I get that they sort of wanted the star to make it through, but Mac McClung took it seriously as he did last year as well, and he won as a result. But again, is it broken? It is. Jacob Toppin had a crazy dunk that didn't get a great score. I think he should have been in the final. I think he would have had some better dunks than Jalen Brown, but look, look. There are two players in the NBA that I think can help resolve the dunk contest. Oh. It's the Thompson twins. Those dudes have a crazy amount of bounce, and when they were in overtime elite, they did a dunk contest and they tore the ceiling off of the house. We just need them to commit to it in year number two, and I think that can save. Now against each other, or do they form a super team? No, the last time we did dunk contest teams, it was awful. I remember it was John Wall, it was bad. So let them go against each other. The sibling rivalry will have them take it to the next level. Well, we got to get guys like Jaws, Zion. Jaws has to do it. We have to get those guys in the event to change. We need some guys to take it. Jaws has to do it. There's four right there. Yeah. If I'm his PR person, he's already signed up. Jaws already signed up. The problem is we just want to see more of the guys we want to see in all of these competitions. Which is okay. Kenny, a lot of people have been uttering some things about the past of how certain people have ruined the dunk contest. For example, LeBron James. People have been talking about LeBron and how he's ruined it. I know a couple of people, I know it was at KG, maybe Shaq, Charles. I don't know who else has mentioned it. What do you think about that? What is your take on it? Do you think LeBron is a part of the reason? Is it his fault? Or was he the main reason why the dunk contest is the way it is? Nah, I mean he definitely played a part, right? LeBron is like this, the model NBA player, especially for a superstar. I think a lot of players don't really like the idea of maybe getting embarrassed. And Jaylen Brown's very candid about it. He'll do it again, even though he got mean to that. I think some of the younger people, like the Jamarrents, the Zion Williamses, they're looking at LeBron and say, well, LeBron is one of the most ferocious dunkers we've ever really seen. And he's never done it, so maybe I shouldn't either. So LeBron plays a little part of it, but I can't put all of the blame on LeBron. I know where the blame for the goal is. I thought that was a wild take to put this on LeBron. Yeah, it's a stretch. Even as a LeBron hater, it's a stretch. I understand where this stems from, but it's a real stretch to go back that far. It's like a 10-year-old thing, though, like this is way past gone. He's 39 years old now, like what do you have to do? Way past gone. By the way, there is someone to blame for the dunk contest this year. This year, okay. Speaking of, do you think Jaylen Brown should have made the finals? No, no, he shouldn't. Does Jaylen Brown think Jaylen Brown should have made the finals? Doing the deep brown cover of your face after the ball was in the basket already is crazy. That's pretty amazing. I don't know how we can get that to the finals. I just don't. Kaisenette is shorter than I am. Oh, my God.  I know. We saw Shat get dumped over. We saw Taco Fall get dunked over before, but the five, three guy got us sitting in the chair. So obviously we have an issue with the judging, but what do you think about the judging? Matt McClung did a dunk that we all never seen before. Mr. Hillman gave him a kind 46. And it was just all over the place. They were docking points for guys missing the first dunk even though the second attempts were still amazing. What do we do about the judging? Do we have current players judge or? We get robots to judge it? What do we do? We get current players or go completely in on it being an entertainment thing, get some celebrities, get some social media personalities. I'm available if they want me, you know what I'm saying? But no, I think that we cry all day about seeing the same dunks. There's no innovation. And when a guy drops the ball mid air and catches it back and gets a 46, I don't know how we get better than that. So I think that we should just go all in on entertainment, go get some of the top celebrities in the world and say, have fun. I will go to my grave telling you that I think that the bobble thing was viewed by some of the judges as either a mistake or they didn't even see it. Like one or the other and that's why the score was low. Cause there's no way watching it on TV where you get to see it perfectly and then it didn't correlate with the numbers. I'm telling you, I don't think they saw it, right? It was so fast. Mr. Hillman. Mr. Hillman. We were being respectful to Mr. Hillman. By the way, we had Vince Carter on a couple of days ago Kenny and he was telling us how back in the day the league came to him, T-Mac, Kobe and LeBron and there was a million dollar pot that was being offered for them to all do the slam dunk contest. They didn't obviously, who would have won that? I gotta go with Vince Carter. Okay, thank you. He's the best dunker I've ever seen in my lifetime. Shout out cold cause he was in it before. I got a lot of love for the players that actually do it but there's no beat of Vince Carter, it's just not. I don't care what players you put it in history in a contest, I'm taking Vince Carter. Kenny, I was going to change my opinion about you. If you said anything different. You knew he wouldn't, you know? Listen, I like your opinions.  You understand basketball a lot. If you said anybody besides Vince Carter right there, I'd have had to look at you out my side-eye. Go back to all his other opinions. Kenny, don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break. We come back. We got more with Kenny Beachum. Don't worry, we'll get past the all-star break, I promise. We're on a back returns. We are back with Kenny Beachum and there's so many quotes, by the way, I'm so glad you're on today because it's been just a treasure chest of amazing words. But LeBron recently said he's 50-50 on doing a retirement tour.  Does he go out like Tim Duncan? Please. Is there a shot? We know LeBron. Thank you. We know LeBron. We know he wants the farewell tour. He deserves the farewell tour, in my opinion. When he does it, because there's no 50-50, it's 100% farewell tour. I will be here in the United Center when he's back in Chicago. No matter the price, I'm there because I need to see the last game at the UC. But there's no 50-50, we know this. Now, do you think he retires or finishes up as a Laker or is there going to be some sort of trickery at the end here? I'm still, if I had to put my chips on it, I'm still saying he'll be a Laker. I think that the pressure's going to be on this offseason with the three first round picks that they have to go get some more talent to really compete. But from Rich Paul, from Bron, he wants to end his career here and I think that's true. What if they don't get Bronny? But they're not getting Bronny. I don't know what's real in that. I don't know. I don't know. We know he wants to play a Bronny, so that's the only way he leaves, right? Yeah, Bronny's stats are not NBA ready. No, a lot of people's stats weren't at the time when they were drafted, but you can get drafted without NBA stats. Yeah, that's true. Peyton Watson averaged like four points per game at UCLA. And now he's a critical rotational piece for the different nuggets right now. So, I'm not looking at his stats. The basketball rainman right here, he was like, the basketball rainman, he got the stats for you coming out. I don't even know who he's talking about. I don't know. Brutal, brutal. Fine, fair enough, but yeah, it's going to be a weird PR circus. And back to LeBron, speaking of his retiring as a Laker. This season, the odds are that him, the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors are not likely to make the playoffs this year. Do you see both of them missing? What are your odds of seeing at least one of those teams making it or both of them missing? One of those teams will make it. And I think the team will be the Warriors. Okay, so you don't think the Lakers will make it? Interesting. I think that's the where we're both going to make it, but if I had to bet one way or another, I'm going Warriors. I think they have the easier schedule going forward. I think that they've looked the better, looked best over the last month or so. Jerry Migraine coming back. Surprise, surprise, matters a lot. I know you guys talked about Clay Thompson moving to the bench and how he struggled, but they have a lot of people that are really stepping up right now.  I think they have a better chance, but the Lakers still do have AD and LeBron too. And we saw it in the end season tournament, one game elimination type situation. It's hard to take that team out. Well, you know what? Since we're on the Warriors thing and you mentioned Clay real quick, were you surprised by this move? Do you think they stick with it for the remaining 20-something games? I was definitely surprised just given a pedigree of Clay Thompson.  He's been an all-star multiple, multiple times. I thought the timing was right though. Brandon Pajemski has been playing his best basketball of his young career. And because we haven't seen Clay Thompson do enough to warrant him getting back into starting lineup, I think we stick here. And he's gonna have a few games whether it be during an end of the season run or something where he looks amazing. I mean, his first game coming off the bench was one of his best games of his season so far. So I think it sticks. And I don't know how he'll feel about it because he's on the last year of his deal and he wants to get paid, but we'll see. I know he's writing that turning down the two-year extension situation right about now. He's gotta be regretting it a little bit, right? Maybe, I just don't think it sticks. I think that he's gonna play well enough to get back into starting lineup. And I think he'll deserve to be starting. I mean, I hope so. I think we're all rooting for that. But yeah, so I'm not gonna torture you by reliving all of the Doc Rivers quotes that we got over the course of last weekend. But given what they have looked like and the way that the transition occurred with the coaching and all of that, does it feel like he's maybe doing a little too much? Yeah, but I'm not in a position to have a real opinion about this, right? When JJ goes on and he talks about it or Danny or Lou, when you guys talk about it, I respect that opinion because you guys have been there. You guys have played under Doc, right? Both of you guys have played under Doc before, correct? Yes, that's correct. So your opinion weighs a lot more than mine. All I can do is watch the interviews and kind of take away and say, hey, I can see that there might be a lack of accountability, but I don't know Doc as a person to say that that's who he is. Yeah, my opinion was, I think some of the... It's a few. There's so many now. I think some were sitting just and obviously when you don't have the context of video or audio and you're just looking at a quote, some of these things can come off the wrong way. But knowing Doc, he's saying some of these things in jest and they can come off the wrong way if they're not put in the right context. Same, same. I think a lot of the things that people found, especially on Twitter and social media, it's all from past interviews. When he sat down with KG and Paul Pierce, they're just asking him questions. Now they're pulling those things out as if he's blaming people. He's just talking about conversations that he's had with people and not necessarily blaming anybody. But it's a JJ had his take, Kendrick had his take, Austin chimed in. I'm just sitting back and watching. It's popcorn. I keep my comments to myself and watch the show. I told Danny off-camera today, your relationship with Doc is one thing or other, either it's hot or it's cold. Either you really love him or you really hate him as a former player. It's no gray area. I'm one of the guys that love him. I had my best years at the end of my career with Doc. It's hard for me to say anything negative about him. We've had our ups and downs, we've had our disagreements, but through and through, he's one of the better coaches that I've had in my career. And that is fair. Luca and the Joker, the bromance that keeps on giving. It seemed, look, they may not care about the game itself, but the actual weekend, nobody had more fun than these two did. If they were to team up and the league allowed us this treasure, would it be the greatest duo of all time? The greatest of all time? Of all time. Shaq, Kobe. I'm just trying to make a viral moment. Magic career. That's tough. I mean, I'm gonna say no just based on, yeah, Shaq, Kobe exists. Okay, fine in the league then. Pimp, JJ. Yeah. If they were teaming up right now, I would say that's the best duo in current basketball, but all time is kind of a stretch. Both of those players are MVP Calibre players year and year out, but all time, I can't get there. I like Katie and Russ before. If the average numbers are averaging now together, then they could be. That's what I'm saying, the numbers. If Luca's numbers stay the same and Jokic's numbers stay the same and they're on the same team, then they possibly could be the best duo all time. It seems shocking to say, given the names you guys are mentioning, but... There's one basketball. So one of those guys just got to turn into an absolute score and one has to turn into a passer. They're not gonna average 23, 24 assists between the two of them.  Yeah, but it'd be fun to watch. Sounds fun though. Yesterday we had sort of a conversation about teams that legitimately have a shot at the title and there was some disagreement. How many teams right now do you believe have a real shot at winning this year? So out east, I got the Boston Celtics as the heavy favorite. If the Celtics aren't in the finals this year, something went really wrong, if you ask me. I think that the Bucks still have a chance. I'm giving them another month under Doc before I changed that opinion. That's kind of it out east, no disrespect to the Knicks or the Cavs who play a really good basketball. Out west, I still had Denver. I still have the Clippers, even though they lost last night to OKC. I think the Suns are gonna be a tougher team to eliminate. They're not on the same tier as the first two teams I mentioned. There are probably four teams out west and two teams out east that I have confidence could win a championship. Six total. Yeah, a six total and he's leaving out the top two teams in the west. I think that opinion is because I think they're still youthful, still very inexperienced when it comes to wins and the playoffs and playoff runs. But those teams are dead serious. I think we gotta start factoring them in. The reason I didn't put the Timberwolves in there, it's not really on their youth, honestly. It's like fourth quarter offense, late games get kind of stagnant for them. And I worry about that in the playoffs series against some of the top teams. And then for OKC, it's really just the youth. They have every other thing to tell me they are contender. But the fact that their average age is like 23 and a half makes me think that they just, they need some playoff experience before they go on that championship run. That is funny. They're very different teams as far as I think why people have the expectations they do. I don't know if it's disrespectful towards Minnesota. I've seen more and more Timberwolves fans on the old internet getting a little bit riled up as we get closer. Go ahead, I'll leave it alone. What? No, yesterday I said the pressure was on Chris Finch, the second half of the season. He has to coach. He has to make sure that we understand that that team is real. And so for Kenny to say, fourth quarter execution is a problem for him, that's a coaching thing. You know what I'm saying? And so for them to be like, if they're gonna finish the season third place, I think this is a, this is a bad run.  And if you surrender that, I think that's gonna be a, that's gonna be a. But one through four is all. It is. By half a game, right? Yeah, absolutely. So a game or two, so they could easily drop quickly, but in the playoffs, they do have to at least get out of the first round. Yeah, these final weeks are gonna be very, very interesting. This can be a good or bad, but what has been the biggest surprise to you so far this season team-wise? It might just be the OKC Thunder to go from a play-in team to like one seed. And it's not like they made any significant moves. They didn't go get a superstar. They got a second year rookie in Chad Holmgren. And then we see Jalen Williams every month of his NBA career so far. His numbers have got better and better and better where he's getting to the point where you can argue him being a top 40-ish player in basketball. So that's my biggest surprise. We knew that Shay had this. He did a lot of it last season, but now he's got the pieces around them. I think that Coach Mark Daytonaul has felt comfortable enough to say, like, I know we use a top pick on Josh Giddy, but Isaiah Joe is playing better basketball right now, so he's gonna close out this game. Or we're gonna see Gordon Hayward probably get some opportunities to close out game. So I think they're well-coached. And again, with them being like the third youngest team of basketball, it makes no sense for them to be as high as they are in the standings. I agree. I mean, nobody saw this coming at the beginning of the year. OKC, being number one, you would think some of you, if somebody told you that, you would think they're on heavy drugs. Shay has been my favorite for MVP for quite a while now, so I'm not as surprised. I had the opportunity to play with him, so I knew what he brought to the table. It's just fun to see it come to fruition. I mean, look, this was the long game. OKC has been playing, and now it's starting to do what they wanted it to do this entire time. It's kind of the process, as they say, is working. Kenny, love having you on. Appreciate the time, sir. We will talk to you soon. And we will take a break when we come back and wrap things up. We will. Get in on all NBA buzzer beater, ankle breakers, and tomahawk jams with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers get 150 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. The app is easy to use, and there are so many different ways to bet. Live game, same game parlays. Find bets in a new explore tab. Make a parlay in a parlay hub. The best way to find popular parlays and more. So download the app and make your first bet a layup. FanDuel, official partner of the NBA. Danny, I got to ask you before we go, man. The Wizards are taking a turn. Bench and Jordan Poole, is this a surprising move to you? They fire their coach, they're making some change. I think they're trying to spice some things up. It is surprising, because a guy like that, who is still a good caliber player, to be on a team like that, if you're one of the worst teams in the league, Bench, maybe it's something disciplinary. Maybe they're trying to make a punch. Maybe they're trying to light a fire in the room. Obviously he's had a tough year, but it is shocking, especially at this point in the season, when they're not really playing for much. And I guess in another word, and I guess in another angle, it kind of isn't shocking. If you're trying to play younger guys, or if you're just trying to get a higher pick, so quote-unquote tanking, I wouldn't be surprised they benched other guys as well. Yeah, this feels like an accountability thing, right? Especially when you got young guys on your team that are considered stars for you. Heavily invested in Jordan Pool. Maybe there are some disciplinary things going on behind the scenes that we're not really privy about. Would you say that his contract is one of the... I hate to count somebody's money, but I think that money was earned, you know. For sure, 100%. Four years 128, I think that money was earned, but has he done enough to sustain the level of trust for that organization? Not yet, not yet. And I wouldn't say it's one of the worst contracts and I never want to speak on somebody's contract and say it's one of the worst. He earned it, he played very well, especially at a great organization, helped them win a championship over there in Golden State. Without him, they don't win. So he's definitely earned his contract. Right now, he's struggling. He still has three more years under that contract. He hasn't done enough to sustain or prove to that organization that he should be the guy, but I think he'll look at himself in the mirror this summer, go back to where he started from and come back and have a better year. Still doesn't say he'll be an all-star, but I think he'll be a lot better next year coming into that organization. Yeah, I think they're trying to get rid of plays like this that we're going to show here. Just let's take a look at it. This is tough, man. I mean, we all have some brain farts shacked in a full moments. He's mentally in his own head and I feel like he's kind of had more than most this year. So I'm looking forward to him bouncing back. Run it back. See you guys next week.