This is the place for sports, being a lot, Dennis Sports, somebody else is gonna be in. Joining me on the show, we have Nick, Spike, Fifo, and Shelton. What up? What up?
What up, Nolan? What's going on? Appreciate everybody tuning in. Please make sure you hit the like button, leave a comment, and subscribe to the show if you enjoy what you hear.
Definitely do that. And if you wanna become a member, you can go to youtube.com slash Dennis Sports and sound up to become a member of the show as well. You can find that next to the Super Chat button also. And yeah, man, we have a lot to talk about tonight, including some breaking news that happened.
Wow. But, and of course, you know, our regular normal things that we do every week with our best performance of the week, worst performance on watch, we need to talk to us, we got all that coming for you tonight. So we appreciate you guys hanging out with us. So yeah, man, let's go ahead and get things started with our best performance of the week.
And we got Spike. Best of the week, then, shout out to UConn Women's basketball team. They took home the championship this year. I grew up a little bit older.
We see you do. I wanna see a better game. I thought South Carolina would be able to stick with them more, but it does speak to the brilliance of Geno. That's my best of the week.
He got 12 national championships. He's 12 and 12 in the national championship games. When you talk about best coaches of any sport, you've got to put him in the conversation with pop. You've got to put him in the conversation with Coach K.
Bella Chek, my man in San Antonio. I can't think of what's their pop already. But yeah, Geno did his thing. I was so ready to put Calvin Samson right here.
But that last play that they did in the championship game last night, I had to text Jalen and put a 911 switch up in and go back to Geno. So shout out to Geno 12 championships. One of the most dominant figures that we've seen in all of athletics since his tenure has been there. You've got to shout out to Coach Geno.
Yeah, I had a home in 2016, right? Boom. I had a home he hit me up because he was having a debate with a family member about Geno Ariema. And is he in the conversation of being the best head coach of all time?
And I said, I wouldn't necessarily cement him as the best head coach, but he's in the conversation. Because he went four years without a loss, bro. And we're not talking like no ranking division. We're talking major D1 women's college basketball.
And like you said, 12 national championship. What the hell? That's not like some video game stuff. That's virtually impossible to even do in a video game.
And I do, I think when you're talking about women's sports, people do look at it differently. But the fact that he won as much as he won and his dominant as he's been in South Carolina with Don Staley, has been a great program ever since he's taken over. In the last two times, I think he's played regular season and now in the national championship. Like Geno and Emboy, the mousster.
You know what I'm saying? So again, it just goes to the dominance that Geno has had over his tenure there. He had an interest in court at the start of the year. He said, whatever, he said his team, he thought.
And I don't know if it was Coach Stock, if he was being there seriously, he said he'd even think that this thing would make the tournament. So to go from that, he was out of the scrimmage and he got the hands with, he said, if we go from that to where they are now, and you actually could be, but I thought there was a really good quote for him to say that and then end up where they ended up. That's what great coaches do. They're going to talk like that.
He is a great coach. I can't say he's on that piece yet. And only reason is for a lot of those years, you come. It was it.
I mean, they had everybody. You know, it was the haves and the have-nots and women's college basketball for a long time during that range. And that's not a knock to him whatsoever, because that's supposed to do. But what it showed me was that he was a great master recruiter and he's also a great coach.
But I can't say he's on that level quite yet. Now that the competition is kind of leveled out, we've got to see what he is now. What else is he supposed to do? I'm going to say, what do you mean, you can't say that?
Like I said, during that time, it was the have-nots. The level of competition was not all the same. You didn't, you know, with women's basketball, you had super teams and then you had like regular teams. So, you know, you've eaten everybody.
It's for a job. That's what I said. No, you can't blame him for that. But at the same time, which is what I'm doing.
I'm not blaming him. I'm just not going to give him credit. That's like, if it's not the competition is not. That's the reason why people don't have the rest on the top five on top.
Because they look at the 11 titles or whatever. The 30 titles that he won, he wasn't playing against. Nobody good except for, we'll say that. What you guys about this?
That's just one issue with the competition level. I say we can judge them from here on. I say, that's probably the best. I can't even raise the previous 20 years though.
Like people say, it's four years without losing the game. That's insane. You know what I'm saying? Hey, the wound is still sore.
All right. Just kidding me. Y'all, this is where this is still from. Y'all can't have a reasonable conversation with Shelton right now.
Yeah, man. He's still better. So let's talk about some other bitter folks that we know about. We are Houston and up in Duke.
We did a reaction after the game. If you guys want to get some of our initial thoughts, Nick and I hopped on to talk about that. But the last night, it was the championship game. So we had the final four, man.
The final four in the championship game were both highlights of a great basketball weekend. However, we first have to address the elephant in the room. The Duke Blue Devils took an ugly loss to the Houston Cougars. They do get out coached by Houston, or was this more about experience versus youth when it comes to late game execution.
And after this, we will talk about the championship game that took place last night. For me, go ahead, Shout out to him. Now I was just going to say, I can't say they got out coached at all because they played well for 36 minutes, 37 minutes. They were running things.
I just think that they choked down the stretch. And every opportunity to win a game was their game. It was in their hands. Youth did not show its head until it mattered most.
And anyway, it just got tight. And it happens on the biggest stage. Once you get on that stage, people think, OK, we're just going to rely on our god given ability. It doesn't work that way.
We can't rely on our coach either. It's what you have inside. And a lot of people just don't have it. They don't have it or it hasn't been developed quite yet.
So some freeze up in those moments. And that's what it seemed happening. It seemed like my coach used to have a funny saying about that all the time. He's like, you tighten it up, son.
You get tight. He can tell when you get a little nervous. That's what I saw, basically. I saw them getting nervous.
And Houston turned it on at the right time and made the shots that they had to make to win the basketball game. But more than anything, I think Duke lost that game. Houston didn't have to do some things out of stress, but Duke lost it more than Houston won. So I don't disagree with a lot of what Shelton is saying.
Duke definitely got tight. But it goes back to what I was saying. I want to say it was in the Elite Eight when I was talking about when Duke beat Arizona. And I talked about Cooper Flag handling the ball, being their primary playmaker down the stretch.
And as good as that is for a big man to have that ability, it just shows where they have a lack of guard play. That light-skinned cat, I know the coach was talking about him. But to me, a point guard, that's going to be part of a national championship team or a team that's really good, has to hit free throws. That's number one.
And they have to be either an elite playmaker or a good shooter. And we saw that vitamin ass down the stretch. A couple of things definitely happened. I still feel that Houston took it away from them.
I definitely feel sitting with it now, do definitely choke. But I feel like it was just a perfect combination of the right recipe, meaning that you heard what Coach Sampson was saying that, let's just keep it close, and then we're going to turn it up on them, the defensive pressure. Because we saw at spurts, and Ken, you talked about it, where they shot 31%, but they were only down six. You know what I'm saying?
And it felt like Duke was up by more, because they had got into a groove at certain points in time. But Houston kept it close, and they turned up the pressure. And they didn't have that elite guard that you could just say, clear out the floor, give him the ball. He's going to be able to bring it up.
He's going to be able to knock time off the clock. He's going to be able to get us into our set. He's going to get other players easy buckets. They didn't have that, and it rear its ugly head toward the end.
Do definitely choke. But I give Coach Sampson a lot of credit. There were a lot of coaching decisions that he made that attributed to that win, like not calling a timeout, letting the boys play out, letting that defensive pressure. So a lot of, again, Shelton, I agree with you, Duke choked.
Duke lost it, but I feel Houston took it from him. I felt like Houston slayed the light. Yeah, I think a lot of this was a result of Sampson's coaching one, and Duke just getting tight, like Shelton said. Like I haven't been in a lot of games like that this year.
And then we saw it come out by Houston in the butt when they were playing in Florida late. We'll talk about it. But when you're not battle tested throughout the year, SEC had 14 teams in the tournament. They were battling all season from Alabama to Auburn to Florida, who won it.
I do a lot of good teams in the SEC. Florida was battle tested. When Duke came down to it, you could tell that they hadn't been battle tested. We were talking about it in the chat.
Everybody looked tight on Duke's team. Like they hadn't been in this situation. When on other bench you had Sampson telling his team, we just down, such as such points. But like, all we need is a couple stops, and we right back in, his team believed that.
So that was one of the biggest things to me is you could tell the battle tested team versus the un-battle tested team. Can they make excuses or not? They ain't address the main, they ain't address the main elephant room. I know what I mean, talked about it for about half an hour.
Show them, have y'all mentioned Cooper Flag got all any assessment, y'all just took about the team. That's from last time I checked, Cooper had the ball at the top of the key with 17 seconds left to close the game out and had a good look, and he just missed it. And I know people were like, what you want more to do? He scored 27 points, the rest of the team let him down.
Show them, I want to hit all that shit. Cause the rest of the team helped him get to that point of the part of the game. And if you want to keep it a beam, that's what those are the games that you want the ball and Cooper Flag's hand. You want the ball in the best player, right?
Like to end the game, to close out the game. He didn't get the job done. So I'm gonna talk about how the rest of that shit go. Yeah, Houston did a phenomenal job.
I would say the poise that they kept while in those high pressure situations took, and Duke obviously messed up by the turnovers and I mean, I only did a score in the last two minutes or something like that outside of that technical foul free throw. But yeah, Cooper lost in the game. I mean, he might have been nine minutes or some crazy shit. Like, he was up nine for like two minutes or something.
And what I'm saying is saying that Cooper shitty, I'm not trying to say he shitty at all. He's probably more likely to be the number one overall pick. It's just that those are the moments when I was saying like, I wanted to see more of something. I wanted to see like situations like that.
Cause they even announced what's talked about in the game the last six weeks of the regular seat that they didn't play nobody. Like Duke has not really been tested at all for most of our season. You saw every game of the tournament, things were looking a little different, you know, as competition got higher. So that doesn't excuse them blowing it.
But like I said, he was supposed to be that nigga game. What about with Nick? What's the whole game though? Like he was all right.
Spike, Spike, let me get to him. Nick is not what you say is how you say it. You say that first of all, you expect more and he lost them the game. Like first of all, basketball, you know, it's a maker mist type of sport.
He got a good shot and I also watched y'all's reaction to it. Ken, you were talking about you didn't like that shot. In my opinion, that is the shot that you want that type of player to take because it wasn't a bad shot. Was it contested?
Yeah. But at the end of the day, we're going for the win here. Like you have to make those types of shots. He missed it.
I don't think it was a bad shot. It wasn't even really that bad of a miss. It was short. You say a little bit more touch.
That's nothing but net. You know what I'm saying? So to me, it wasn't a bad shot. I don't think you lost them the game.
They wouldn't even been in the game if he wasn't playing. So you know what I'm saying? So what Spike is saying? Like I know you said that you want to see more and I feel like you, like the way that you express it and lacks context.
Like your take's just always lack context because it's like you want to see more. But if he was it, if he played half as good as he played it, he would have blown out. He would have blown out. Like so what more from Cooper flag do you want to see?
He missed the shot, but he took it. B and I'll chat, say, hey, Mary, respect to him. He took the shot. He missed it.
You know what I'm saying? People put Kobe in a clutch situation that is all-time high. Kobe shoots like 30% from in clutch situations. And the tighter, it gets the lower percentage.
When clutch situations were five seconds or less, he shoots 24% bro. And that's Kobe. So come on. The context that you're talking about, I always provide, bro.
I said, I said, I said, I said, You lost in the game? Yeah, he did. He missed the game. That was the goal.
So when you missed the game, what is that? When you missed the game was correct. And he didn't have that key foul that, the foul was bullshit, Nick. A foul was bullshit.
A foul was always, I always tell y'all this. I was like, I always want to blame the refs what is convenient for certain areas. We didn't blame the refs. Nobody blames the refs.
I was like, I'm just saying, a lot of people talked about that. Call for the rest. And I always tell people, I was like, the rest are always poor. They are always good.
We're just gonna blame Cooper Black. Nobody said that. No, no, I'm saying that he lost in the game because when the game asked him to step up, to close out the game, to go to the championship game, on a team that everybody said was stacked, everybody, everybody on this program picked Duke. And it wasn't even like we was really much of a thought.
We were like, yeah, Houston, I had a good season, but this is where it ends. And all I said was like, all right, bro, this is what it's supposed to be. And I kept on bringing up expectation. I was like, if we have expectation for people and you don't reach that, then yes, this is where criticism comes.
I'm not gonna blame everybody else because at this point in time, the game came down to him making a shot, he didn't make the shot. That's fine. It's not in the diamond that he's gonna be shitty or not. He's not clutch.
He could probably be clutch later on, but all I'm saying is that this is what I wanna see. I wanna see him in tough situations, to see how he responds and see if he can deliver. He did in this time. All right, cool.
We gonna see what he like in the league moving forward. But if we keep it in the game, he lost the game. They didn't look the phone. He didn't deliver because he delivered all game.
He just missed a shot. He missed a really big shot, but he missed a shot. He delivered. We talked about Final Four saves, and you show up as the star player.
Like, dude, was balling for his head. He was making some dope ass passes. He was into big ass shots. He was playing great defense.
I even had to put in the chat like, dude, okay, he is nice. Like, man, I wanna be engaged. He's just missed a shot, bro. That's not surprising that he was balling because FIFA just came here.
Was it last weekend where he had him in the best performance of the week for the league? So we know what he can do. That's what I'm saying. Like him, he scored 30 at that time and I'm not gonna be able to highlight him.
And how many did he score in this game? She'll in 27. He'll be able to get 30. He'll be able to get 30.
So that's what I'm saying, bro. It's like, bro, if we gonna give you all this praise, we gotta do it, that's what I'm, I don't know, only Nick, if we didn't care, probably only Nick is gonna be like, look, bro, we gotta call it a both sides. You know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna just give you all the, because if you were to make that shot, I'll show them what we're talking about.
We ain't talking about the rest of the game. We're talking about the play. And everybody else speaks to this. I'm getting already talking.
I'm not gonna be able to see you. Anybody want to mention Cooper? I didn't say shit. Is there nothing to say about him?
Media, I agree with that. I'll give you that point too, that the coach does deserve some responsibility for that. Probably a majority of it, but I'm just saying in that moment when we want to see Cooper flat do some great things, Randy, he's a young ball player. Like he'll do some things in the league.
I'm only saying this shit just because motherfuckers always think I'm hating. I'm not saying that he terrible, but that was a shot that he should've made. That was a good shot. Yeah, and I'm upset about it because we had to watch Houston playing good all night last night versus Florida.
We didn't get an open core up and down offensive game that I really wanted to see. Congrats to Kevin Sampson. I know they were documenting him getting to the Final Four and not getting to the big dance and he finally got there and his team collapsed big time. So they actually had a Duke moment themselves.
So what stood out to you guys the most in the championship game? And just overall, which player or players do you see taking the next step in the NBA? What stood out to me most was the overall fight from Florida. I thought it was over with.
I really thought they didn't have a chance. I thought that Houston was going to run away with it. I thought that they were just a more physical team. I thought that every bounce was going their way.
They just seemed like they were more hungry at the time. But Florida just kind of hung around and we talked about Clayton, well, Clayton couldn't get going at all. I still think he's going to be great at the next level. I'm not, this game is not an indictment on him as a player, but they couldn't get nothing going.
He was, this is one of his worst games, but in saying that their best player is not playing well, you think that they'd be blown out. But they've hung up and what they did was they, what I saw was they punched Houston in the mouth and Houston just couldn't recover. And you saw that throughout this game that every time that they would go on a nice little run, Florida would come back and kind of battle themselves to keep it at least respectfully close. And when it mattered most, Florida got hot at the right, perfect time and they took the lead out.
The Florida only lead what? A couple minutes at the moment. I mean, in 37 seconds. Crazy, that's crazy that they didn't even have a lead this whole game.
They shouldn't even been in this game to be honest. Like I said, you think that Houston would have ran away with it. But what's the new name? Run away with what?
It's just like I told, look, Harrison, I didn't say the game wasn't close. And for some, it was entertaining because it was close it came down to the wire and make them. But bro, it's like I said in the chat, bro, watching the player in the second half, when that game got tight, it's like they were just driving to the basket or throwing shots up and hoping they went in. That's the office that I saw.
And it just was not pleasing to watch it. That's when I just knew they were in trouble with that. Okay, it's a real problem with complaining one of these big ass stadiums. I think that has a lot to do with it when we watching it.
It just seems like it's hard for them to get their foot in or get their sightline correct with the shot. And that's why we see all those bricks. But I agree with a couple of sentiments in the chat and what you just said, Ken, when that's not a true like Cooper playmaker out on the court, it's hard to watch college basketball because you just keep seeing them throwing up bricks and not even getting their own shot. Houston doesn't have a person like that.
Florida has a person like that, but he was having an off night. So it was like this game was just like brick, brick, brick, brick, brick, brick. And that's why the coaches are so important in college basketball because now you got them drawn up to play and stuff where they can get easy offense. But if you just going in transition, it's it is difficult to watch.
I don't know what college basketball, if they have to do anything about it because they're sure people still watch this. But just as a casual fan without a playmaker on the court, it's terrible, especially in the championship game. Yeah, some of those were like, they got out of solitary confinement, bro. Yeah.
This is always what it's like though, in certain college basketball games. Like they ain't all sexy, like, you know, like some of the classic match-ups that we've seen, like I remember I forgot what team it was like. The first half is always ugly, the second half is a little bit better. The one thing I was gonna say is like, it was the foul call that changed a lot of this game.
It was like, it was like, the thing about the first half. The first half, yeah. And the first half. The reason why the reason why the one likes playing Houston is because they play ugly, they play like the hood niggas at the court.
They play ugly, they play ugly, they not gonna score shit on the offensive end, but they ain't gonna let you score shit on the end. So that's why I look ugly, I'm playing not because it was like, they was doing that picking a role. And they was just like, we gonna make sure that he don't get off at all. He gonna pass the ball to somebody else in Florida.
Didn't really have much, like, I mentioned, didn't have much score outside of what's Richard. Richard was only when I was doing something to keep the game respectable, but that's like having a flip. But it was calling everything. And that's when Clayton started getting busy.
And he really, not an opposite of Cooper Flag as far as like, he had a really start off, really bad game and ended well. Like it was just kind of like, you saw what it's like to have a clutch play on your team, that's a lot of shots. But the game was ugly to watch, but I mean, it was awesome. If you were a betting person, if you were a betting person, that was the most exciting game you probably gonna see all year into the playoffs.
Cause it's like, you know, who the hell was going to win that fucking game into the last second? So this will be Tukushin. And that gave you some five points. So he was definitely happy if you seen that.
What did you think, people? You can't? Yeah, I didn't watch this whole game. I watched the highlights cause my horse in the race.
And it's not like I had them all here, but you know, I picked Duke the win and I felt Florida was the second best team. So when I saw Florida win, it was like, okay, well, you know, I was right anyway. But yeah, just ugly game, shocked to see some of the stats that came from it. Like, you know, Florida only leading that game from it in the 37th Houston.
Obviously that was their game to lose. And it's slipped right through the head. It's toward the end, you know what I'm saying? But I get short sense.
You can shut off. Dang man. That's a terrible way to lose. Yeah, people, I thought the stadium would call I was like, they didn't attempt a field goal in the last little minutes.
Yeah, well, that's another one. But I also agree with your assessment, where you know, college basketball, if you don't have a playmaker ball handler, you know what I'm saying? Y'all can say pause or whatever. If I don't have a playmaker ball handler, it's tough.
It's tough because of the way that the rules are. The defense could stay in a paint, you have a 35 second shot clock, you know what I'm saying? So it can get real ugly and it's not beautiful basketball. It's partly why I don't like watching college ball.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I own, I don't know man. So nobody gonna say shit about clay, not doing shit the whole game. We just gonna, we just gonna.
I mean, you showed up when he needed to kill. And we don't even know if he that dude came, he might like the fourth. He's not carried the whole night. He got carried, Ken.
That's it. Okay, my bad. He was getting my brother. Hey, I don't even know if he's good enough, not to be carried though.
He's had a great run. But I don't even know if he that dude for us to be like, oh, he got carried like he good. He had a good run, but I don't expect him to go to the NBA and light it up and that like that. I think he'll be a top 10 pick.
He's gonna be a lot of people. I mean, he's top 10. He's gonna be a lottery pick. You can't even name me 10 college play.
That's better than him right now. Because the right. Like we got a pro game. Yeah, like we got to don't act like we didn't see his run to the finals.
Like he was getting busy on everybody. And he was clutching every evening. Even in this past evening, he may clutch three to a whether the time of game would take the lead. He may clutch free throws when they needed to like he did his thing.
His first half is different than the second half. Okay. I think you'll see more of a focus to what FIFO said though on playmakers in college, men's basketball change in the offense. If they had like some of the people in the chat or saying, if they had a format like the women that like four quarters, 24 second cyclot versus 40 second cyclot, two 20 minute heads.
That gives you time to just be complacent and lazy and run these slow ass motions. Yeah, us as basketball casual college basketball. We're gonna see that shit man. Get into the play, shoot that shit and run.
Like we wanna see all this methodical shit. All right, man. Well, we'll leave it there man. Close game came down to the wire.
So created another great college moment that will be discussed and revisited, but yeah, we'll just leave it there. And we'll be right back after this quick break. If you're looking for real conversations and motivations to be your best, then you have to check out another week in the books. Another week in the books with Spike Liu and Rich is you're going to podcast for growth and community.
Plenty of dope conversations take place week to week as they inspire each other to be better through conversations. Another week in the books, whatever you get your pocket. It ain't on Luke. It ain't on me.
Nick, my speech. Oh, why did you say this is the most entertaining? I had to wear my OKC blue just because Onwatch, yes, I are spoiler alert. Like Omar from the wire.
Yeah. Spoiler alert. Yes, Onwatch is the Oklahoma City thirtor specifically SGA's Shagiel Out of Thunder. Not to say that he is not balling and probably is gonna be MVP this year, even though most people say Joker should be hit that.
Granted, he probably should. I have them on watch because they're currently on a two game loser streak. They lost it. He was sitting in the Lakers.
They're playing the Lakers right now. I think they up. But they're losing number two. They may be on a three game loser streak, but I find it interesting because we've been talking a little bit about OKC all season long as far as are they legit or not.
Me and Ken have asked the question, if you have an MVP on your tower player on your team and you're the best team in the West, maybe the best team in the NBA, at least record wise, how are you not a favorite to be a title game or NBA finals? And everyone is saying that they're not. It's a point of people saying that he probably will pick the Lakers over them just based off of talent and experience. So I got them all watched.
To me, they have to make the Western Conference Finals. Do they have to make NBA finals, not necessarily, but they have to make the Western Conference Finals. Anything less than that is a failure. And it will be an indictment on everything that's going on OKC because if everybody says that they're not ready yet, then I don't know when they will be if they ever will be.
And as far as SGA specifically, he may have the hard in effect when it comes to regular season playoff. What's the name? The Mr. Hyde, Jack, or whatever that is because the calls he's getting in the regular season, I don't think he's going to get that in the post season.
And he's going to get free throw shooting to get his points to be effective in the game. So we'll see how that plays in the form. He is a free throw merchant Nick. I don't disagree with that, but that is part of being greatness because that is a skill that you have to learn how to become and lead at.
And all of the elite scorers in the NBA have all been able to get to the free throw line multiple times. However, the reason and the main reason why I've said that OKC is not ready yet is because their average age is the same average age is that Houston team that we just saw in the national championship. Or no, I'm sorry, the all team we saw in the league, which averages right a tick under 24 years of age. 23.2, right?
Nick, we've never in the history of the NBA seen a young team win a championship. Don't give them how talented they are. You can go far, but to win a championship it has yet to happen. So that's the only reason why I say OKC is not ready because when they go up against a Denver or a Lakers team that has way more experience that they could draw upon, they're going to get beat.
You know what I'm saying? It doesn't matter. And here's the thing. I definitely think OKC has the most talent, not named Boston or even Cleveland in the NBA.
But they just they're not battle tested yet collectively. You know what I'm saying? So I think SGA will get the whistles. Compose season.
I think SGA is going to ball out. I think OKC is going to make a nice little run. But when they meet one of these experienced teams, they're not they're not going to be able to beat them. And even if they make it to the final and they play Boston, Boston, on my two-out them boys.
They're not ready for it. No, no, no, no. The next second round. You speak you speak strictly from an age perspective, right?
From experience. Play on. They don't have enough mango seasons under their belt to overcome adversity. But you don't think the time that people said it about the Bulls too until they won.
Well, people said that about the Pistons until they won. So you don't think like they went to the playoffs last year, they have the MVP of the league this year. Like you don't think that there has to be a turning point. So it's just not the season.
I put it to you like this. How many times have Jordan lose in the first round? How many times have Jordan lose to Detroit? How many times have Jordan lose to Boston before he was able to get over that hump?
And my rebuttal to that would be how many times the joint have a team this talented. You just told me this was the second most talented team in the league damn near. And I'm not against you totally on this topic because I don't agree with Nick. They're not going to watch.
I think this team is actually in a good position. And I think they're going to do well in the playoffs, possibly even go to the finals. But I do want to understand when you say that if they are this talented, why can't it be different for them? So let me and I have a retort for you.
The Boston Celtics just won their first championship last year. How long have they been knocking on the door? About six years. They were the finals.
What are you saying? I understand. And that's why I say like can OKC even make it to the finals? OK fine.
Even if they get past the garlic that is the West. They're not being bought by it. My thing is like what's the floor for OKC this postseason? What's the least they do?
They should make the West account. They should make the West account. What's the average age of OKC right now? 23 years.
Yeah, something like that. So that's 24 years. You may have said it. So that's two years younger than when Katie went.
Because they were 25 years on average. And they got swept in the finals. They got Genesu. Genesu, they went to the finals.
They went to the finals though. They went. So how far do you think they'll get to you? What are you saying?
I think they'll make it. I think they can make it to the Western Conference Finals. I see what the matchups are. I need a betting slip, CFO.
I don't need to. Because anybody can make it to the West. Anybody. Last year, something to do.
Somebody could have said, now let's can't make it to the West Conference Finals. And they get to understand, like, any team in the West can, based off the ceiling, how it changed a lot of time, except for number one seed. So what do you want to be able to do? We can revisit once the matchups are set in stone.
Like, once I know that exactly. Because there's still everybody's name. They're two or three games, you know what I'm saying? From each other.
And the Lakers own the tiebreaker. So I think that they're going to lock in the third place. But I just got to see where everybody else falls. And then I'll be able to give you that floor for you.
But as of right now, I think they can make the Western Conference. They should get past the second round. I would not be surprised if they make the Finals, but they not win in the championship. They get to the Finals.
They should win the championship. No, they don't be. They're not being lost in. They're not being.
Look, first of all, look, as much as I like the other teams in the East, primarily the Cavs, the Knicks, they just don't have it. But I think the Cavs get beat. I think it is going to be Boston. And OKC does not have the experience to overcome everything that Boston has.
Because Boston can match them, talent for talent. And then they have the experience. And then it's not like you're going to outrun us. Because you're 23.
And we're like 37. No, that boy is 26, 27. So no, I just don't see him being Boston. All right, we'll leave it there.
Can I ask my question real quick? Look at the standards right now. Who always act like anything? He's a real quick.
It's a yes or no question. So he should be quick. The Warriors in the playoffs. If they get the AC, do you think they would be in trouble if they played the Warriors?
First round. I think the Warriors could knock them off. OK, leave it there. All right.
Rob had a question. He said, do MVPs get their coaches fired mid-season? Mm. And he's probably talking about Yo-Kitch.
This is actually at the end of the season. So let's talk about it, man. Breaking news that took place today. The different nuggets who are currently the fourth seed in the Western Conference made major changes to the franchise by firing not only head coach Mike Malone, who brought them a championship in 2022, will also Calvin Booth, the general manager, with the playoffs and play in tournament less than a week away.
What are your reactions to these changes? And is Denver in a good position for a soft rebuild, meaning that will Yo-Kitch prime years be wasted after a move like this, or can they remain entitled contention? And that's a great, great little third there. Left it all alone.
I was going to say, you messed up. You should have said post Malone. OK. Yeah, post Malone would do that.
That was go general. Yeah, well, you messed it. You go. It was top five.
I would say that I'm going to go real quick. I'm somewhat shocked, but Ken is also hilarious, because remember that championship at the parade. He was talking. He was talking.
Don't say like that, but Ray was like, just like a couple of years ago. It seemed like a lifetime. I was just thinking, I was talking cash. Because the first time you ever thought that was what he said, Bruce Brown was coming back.
He was like, I think it left. That's the same, baby. That's the same. But I'm low-key shot.
I'm low-key shot, because it seemed like no matter what you do, you're going to get fired as a head coach. I guess if the owner, because if you're firing a GM, this is the owner decision. If they're getting rid of the head coach and a GM. And I guess maybe, many was the one that said in the chat that the GM has been fucking up, not Mike Malone.
But so far, it does seem like the Nuggets were kind of going to be mid this season or this post season. Yeah, Joker was probably going to get his numbers. But I don't think anyone had the Nuggets. But did you think that they had a legit chance going to the finals this year?
Because the playoffs is all about matchups. And nobody can match up against Joker. Joker has shown his dominance now for multiple seasons. This is arguably his most dominant season.
Why is that not going to translate to the post season? They're on a four-game losing streak. And they're four-game U.S. If they were a top two-seat, then I would be like, OK, I'll get what you're saying.
But they're in the, like you mentioned, in about three days, or four days, they could be 60. You know what I'm saying? And that's a whole different matchup. I don't really see them going into the post season when they're momentum outside of Joker just playing out of his mind.
So I mean, Mike Malone is what less than three years away from a title to a title? Two years away. So like, you fired at? You know what I'm saying?
And right before the playoffs, it just doesn't make sense to me. So this is like, who is the other coach that was just fired? Not too long ago? Taylor.
Taylor Jenkins. Yeah, Taylor Jenkins. Yeah, from Memphis. And we question that.
I don't understand. And even Magic Johnson said, you know, he's been part of the NBA for 45 years. And he's never seen this. I haven't either.
And I don't understand the ideology behind these type of moves. I did see Nick Wright say that four out of the last five coaches to make the final season fired. So it looks like there is no longevity in the NBA as being a head coach, no matter the level of success that you have. But for Denver's particular, because I had to watch Hello TV and clips and all that, because I'm just like, yo, this feels like it's out of left field.
But people have been discussing how toxic of a work environment has been between Calvin Booth and Mike Malone to the fact that they're not even talking anymore. And part of their rift is that Calvin Booth wants Mike Malone to play the youngins and Mike Malone is trying to win games. So he's playing the veterans. You know what I'm saying?
So there's always this tug of war between front office and head coach, because the coach always wants to win, because that's what's going to keep him in the league. But the front office has to look three to five years ahead. And it's like, hey, we drafted this guy. We need to develop him.
He needs minutes. But if the coach is like, we got to win this game, I'm going to go with the veteran. So that is the discord that they had. And obviously it was so toxic that the owner was like, OK, I'm going to everybody go, which is crazy to me, especially before going into the playoffs.
Now, the only reasoning that I can see that the owner did this was because what if Mike Malone pulled another one out of his ass and they went another championship? Are you a fire or coach that just won the championship? So I think from that perspective, I can see why he let everybody go. It's just not a move that we are accustomed to or one that I would have made if I was an owner or if I was a GM, I wouldn't be firing my coach down the stretch of the season.
That just it's just asking me to be. It just makes very little sense. I'm sure everybody this time, the object of the game is to win. I don't get how this can help you.
When you're in a position, yeah, to answer that question, yeah, they have an opportunity to win it all at Denver. You've got the best player in the world on your team right now. You've got a shot to win it. You always do as long as your joke is on the court.
So to make this move at this moment, to me, I don't think I could dig up as if it was signed off on my joker. Like maybe there was a rip between the two of them or something like that or something else bigger than we don't know nothing about. So just to that point, they're saying that Mike Malone is a very old school type of coach and that a lot of players didn't like it. Now, who was it?
I wanted to say, who was I just listening to? It was either Sean just saying that Mike Malone did take it a little easier on Joker and Jamal Mary and his stars. But for the most part, he is like a tough coach and the players just wasn't feeling it anymore. And I saw what he was saying in his presser not too long ago, where he was getting on him by not watching them.
And he said the players, basically they sucked. Like he kind of threw some players under the bus in one of his last pressers. And he could have very easily lost that team and lost the top committee. And they could have easily went and said, we want him gone.
You know what I'm saying? And that could have happened. These guys, they hold up more power today players do. And you can definitely be like, look, I'm out of here.
If we can't change this. So we really don't know. Unless something comes out, we won't know the full reason. But I guarantee you, Joker is behind this move.
It's some kind of way he has something to do with this move. I don't think that you make a move like this without Coach Kill. You got to be a coach. Russ is the coach killer everywhere.
Russ is the coach. He's fine. I'll get where he goes. I said, I was a coach.
I said, I was a coach. Last week. I just want to know what Joe Coach Kill. Well, if you count him this time, I think he has something to do with this one.
Yes. I don't know what you said. Yeah. And only reason for that.
Exactly. The reason why I disagree with that statement, and I don't even want that narrative to be out there, is because let's not forget Mike Malone was fired from the Kings after he had another big man have the best year of his career in the market's cousins. And I never understood because the Kings at that point in time, and they still are fucking a catastrophe on the damn court and in the front office. But Mike Malone brought stability in the market's cousins.
Ken, and that was your guy. He had MVP time. She's in under Mike Malone, and they got rid of him. So I can't say that this is Joker driven, maybe Joker accepted, but I don't know if it was Joker driven.
But at the end of the day, Mike Malone, I don't know what's being talked about him behind closed doors at this point. But I know this, somebody's going to hire him. And I put a two like this, Nick, your boy Thibs might be on the short leash. And if he goes, I can see Mike Malone step right in.
Mike Malone has been there with him. Mike Malone has been there 10 years, right? Is that what they said? No, I ain't.
Is it not long? I think he's like seven? Six or seven? I'm not sure.
I'm just going off the top of the dome. But I think he's like six or seven. I think Malone is a good coach. If the reports from what they're saying are true, how I would look at it is if I'm an owner, I just got tired of the bullshit.
Like beyond the players that Joker telling me to do it, or the rest of me and the coach, you know, like, I'm not paying a GM and a coach to have a toxic relationship and not even talk. Like, how do I get good information if I'm an owner? Because the coach is telling me one thing, the GM is telling me one thing, y'all niggas don't even talk. And that's your job.
So at the very least you can buy after your support nation. If I'm the owner, and it don't matter what time it seems to be, it's because I'm the owner and I'm probably disconnected from its playoff time, like the timing is bad. Like none of that shit matters to me because if I'm an owner of an NBA team, yes, winning is important to me. But money is also important.
And you were thinking about a line with you guys wanting to be having to move forward with it. How you affecting the bottom line when you're a top five seed in a stronger conference and you already have the MVP, you know, so I don't see how you're affecting the bottom line. Because as an owner, I'm forecasting on the future. It's not just about right now today.