Transcript of Do The Philadelphia 76ers Have ANY Chance Without Joel Embiid? | Local Hour New

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Jeremy, what did you like yesterday? What did we do well? What did we do that wasn't pleasing to you?

Loved a lot.

Yeah, loved a lot.

I did have a few moments in my head where I used Zagaki voice, just sort of listening in.

What a performance, by the way, from the Cody— from the duo of Greg and Chris yesterday. Give it up real quick. What a— that was a— well done. That was a performance.

I was thinking of just sitting a few plays out today if I could.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

You guys take this and I'll just establish the run.

Yeah, bring in the firefighter.

You—

how was it when you got home?

Awkward in that I was like expecting—

I walked in like, oh boy, a lot of people were very worried about your marital status yesterday.

I telling you, I didn't think I could still pop. Like, I, I still got it. Because I saw multiple texts, people sending me screenshots of, you know, Reddit posts of, you know, Cody collision course, like divorce, you know, however the—

No, you got it right. That's the same.

Yeah, it's rattled.

Let's establish the run, bud.

Look, I'm established the run. Yeah, it was not a good day.

Well, let's establish or reestablish what happened. Chris Cody said that he sometimes fancies his wife's twin sister.

Well, maybe Jeremy has this on his list.

You said, truly, I would say you worded that differently than I did.

I would just say, well, not exactly.

We're not going to go back there. You know, I don't like that we're already here and I said I didn't have to fight.

But the twin sister's married to a firefighter. That's why I'm calling for a series of physical competitions between you and the firefighter.

What's with your obsession with the physical competition you want us to all go through?

Because that's how you settle hash! Now and forever! Way back a thousand years ago, nay, a million years ago, things were settled in physical competition. I say we continue that path. Chris Cody V. The Firefighter.

Moments that I loved from yesterday's show. Ho'olai, when our female coworker asked for locations for the honeymoon, Greg's inner monolog said, "The butt." Proud of that one. Oh man. Do you guys remember?

Greg was on one yesterday.

Number 5, whatever that accent was that Amin did during the Austin River story.

That's a fair observation.

Which accent?

I really loved when Greg was giving advice to that young woman about bringing a partner to appease the mom, that he just went for the good old assumption of it's definitely a boyfriend, only boyfriends. There was a quote, he is the only one that is allowed to admit his sister-in-law is hot.

First of all, you guys are taking this and running with that. I didn't like— I'm not attracted to her. I didn't say that.

Why wouldn't you be attracted to That's true.

I mean, she's, she looks the same as my wife. I'm just saying, I don't know what you said. I don't want to play small.

You said when you're, you're struggling in the sack, you envision her.

Relax.

I feel like that's a direct quote. I really like that one. Let's not go too early. Number 2, I like that it only took us 10 minutes to say, why can't we say redacted team name only to say it 4 times?

That was you. That was you, Dave.

I never said. I never said.

It's the guys with the potato.

It's a potato.

A redskin potato.

And I really We loved when Chris said he wants to fuck his wife's sister.

Didn't say that. So aggressive. Excellent job. So I, uh, alright, I gotta do share and tell now. Alright. I had a— One up it. I remember my—

See if you can beat Chris Cody's story.

Well, it's not gonna beat that, but I have dreams, okay? I remember my dreams. Do you always remember? Well, you wouldn't know if you always remember, because if you don't remember, then you wouldn't remember. But do you remember dreams?

Sometimes. Yeah.

Is there anyone here that doesn't remember dreams? Like, you straight up never remember?

Very rare. Very rare for me to remember to dream.

Really? That's a shame, man.

I know, because when I do, I'm like, that's fun.

Dreams are awesome.

I want to do that more.

I remember movies that you star in.

I remember the lucid dreams where you take control of your dream.

I have that every now and then. Those are good dreams.

I don't get those.

I had a dream.

You're not in control. I had a dream last night. I got arrested for a DUI. I wasn't even driving. I was literally in the back of a pickup truck and the cop stops the car and makes me get out and do the field sobriety test. And I couldn't hear. And I said, I'm sorry, you asked me to do something. I said, could you repeat that? And he says, oh, this guy, you want to run that game with me? I'm like, no, I don't know what you asked me to do. And then at some point, like, I begin to convince myself, oh no, this is a sign that you're drunk because you can't hear anything. Clearly you're so drunk you can't even focus.

Then I was like, wait a second, I'm not even driving.

And then he cuffed me.

Wow.

Cucked you?

Cuffed me.

Ah, okay.

Not a cuck.

Those are your dreams.

So I had a dream a couple of nights ago, and you know, like, do you ever have, for the married fellas here, which is almost everyone.

For now.

Do you ever have a dream where your wife, let's say your wife, she was cheating on you, okay, this happened to me in one dream, I don't know if I told you guys that, and you wake up and you're mad at your wife, even though she didn't do anything wrong, it was your dream. Do you ever do that where like you're upset with her about something she did in your dream? Does that ever happen to you?

That's not happened to me now.

Oh, that happened.

The reverse has happened to me before.

Well, obviously all women love to play that game, all right? They're upset with us.

Am I right?

I didn't do anything.

It was your dream.

I'm sleeping here.

You say women love to play that game. You just said you're playing that game.

I know.

Makes you a woman.

I'm allowed to hold her to a double standard.

So, so wait, she is the ne'er-do-well in the situation that you just dreamt on.

What's that?

What do you mean? She, she was stepping out.

Well, not in this dream that I'm about to explain.

Oh, okay.

That, that has happened before.

Okay. Okay. I'm sorry.

So anyway, in this dream that I had, all right, I was having an affair in my dream. All right. Not bad. Not bad. Whatever. You get some strange energy.

My sister-in-law?

It's not real.

Okay.

And I'm having an affair in my dream. And I get caught, alright? I get caught. Like, I pulled up, you know, like at a mall or something. We were going somewhere. Where were we going on a date? I don't know. I don't have all the specifics for you. And when we get out of the car, I get caught, alright, with the girl, alright? But I don't get caught by my wife. I get caught by my ESPN radio co-host Amber Wilson. She catches me, alright? For some reason— yeah, she won't tell. She's rad-a-dye. She won't tell.

Bro code.

And so, so she catches us, like, she was like outside the car, you know, we get out of the car, I'm like, I'm like, oh shit, you know, I just got caught. So I have to, I have to introduce, you know, my, my lady friend to Amber, okay? And so I introduce, I, I go, Amber, this is Jennifer, okay? And she goes, Jennifer Lopez? Wow, I was having an affair with Jennifer Lopez. I mean, how about that?

So wait, you were in the car with Jennifer Lopez driving around in your car?

I was having an affair with Jennifer Lopez. I was driving. Yes, we were going somewhere.

He was in your car?

Yes, incognito. You're not gonna ride around by the mall or wherever it is that you live. Paparazzi would know. That's J.Lo in her SUV with her driver. No, no, she's keeping it on the down low.

I once had a dream that I was dating Jennifer Lopez.

Is that right?

We were riding in the back of a limo though.

No, no, no.

You guys park your car in the same garage.

So, uh, yes, I was— that's— that was my affair with Jennifer. She looked great, by the way.

A means to have— means, uh, taking a run at your ladies, Aslo. I mean, uh, how's that make you feel?

I had her first, man. This is like 2003.

Oh no.

How about that? Now I don't have any other details.

You and Puff?

But I'm just saying, you know.

So I was playing with fire.

So that was a good dream right there, all right? We woke up feeling good that day.

That's a dream. The waking nightmare that is Chris Cody's life. Are you it? So there's there's another man out there, a firefighter, who's basically making sweet love to your wife, essentially.

How does this get back to me?

Well, because she's— they're, you know, they're twins after all.

You're going to say firefighter a lot today.

So do you have weird feelings? Do you have weird feelings towards the firefighter?

No, him and I actually spoke last night at bowling. He's the only person I like to even talk to.

Do you appreciate each other? We have the same taste, man. We park our cars in the same garage, but it's a little too close to home, right?

I mean, what do you want from me? Yes, me and him, we know that we have— we're both married to twins. I'm rattled.

Did he know what took place yesterday on this show?

No, he had— I said to him when I got to bowling, like, anyone send you the show today? Because usually he gets— he hears things I say more than my wife. And he had not heard it, oddly enough.

How could he have not heard it? Then I told one of his, like, firefighter buddies, hey, your brother-in-law, he's been thinking about some things.

And then I found myself in a spot where I then had to tell him what I said because he's like, why are you asking? So I told him, I'm telling you, this is what he said. Like, he laughed.

Yeah, way to be proactive.

Thank you.

He laughed. By the way, back to this, but AI says dreaming about Jennifer Lopez symbolizes a desire for fame, success, admiration, or a need to embrace one's own confidence.

Huh.

Guess what happened to me, guys? I won a Pulitzer.

Google's right.

20 years off, but right.

So no more firefighter. You stop saying fighter fire.

I won't do it. You don't tell me, you're not the boss of me.

Look at that. Look at, for the video audience there, that's me and my girl. That's my side piece right there.

I think the greatest— They're both driving? There might be, if there's a better job than playing sports—

That's how we drive, she sits on my lap when I drive her.

Or talking about sports or dating J.Lo. If there's a better job than that, I think it is dream analysis because it's complete and utter unprovable garbage. You know what that means when you're falling. You know what it means when you're flying.

You know what it means when your teeth are shattering.

I've had those.

Who knows what? You don't know? Based on what? It has its own set of rules. It's its own consciousness. How do you have any idea? Well, let me tell you what it means when you can't get up. Yeah, you don't know anything. There's no meaning whatsoever. It's phony science.

There's a couple things happen when you can't get up. We can talk about that another day, Dave.

You think about your sister-in-law.

You think about the firefighter.

Tony, I have, I have several recurring dreams. Uh, they don't happen all the time, but I, I have a few recurring dreams these days, and one of them is my, my teeth are, are, are crumbling, are shattering.

Yeah, I've had those back in the day, maybe like 10 years ago. I used to have those every night where I would bite into something, all my teeth would fall out, and then I was like, what is this? And then one day they stopped.

And I know people are like, oh, that means this when you're—

anxiety.

Chris is Googling it right now.

Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, I told you, I used to—

it's because you take the emotions and shove them down right here.

So they're like a real man.

That's where they belong, right?

But that's why both of All of you have these teeth shattering dreams.

But then they stopped.

You guys get emotions like a 14-year-old?

I don't. I shove them down.

Dude, sick reference, bro. You always have the best references.

Crumbling teeth can symbolize our fear that our life is falling apart.

Yeah, but like, my life's not falling apart. I'm very happy.

Been a rough couple heat seasons.

I have that recurring dream of teeth shattering. I also have a recurring dream of I'm back in school. And I don't know why I'm back in school because I have a job.

As a grown man?

Yeah. And I have this job, so why would I be back in school? I make a great living.

Like Billy Madison?

No, I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just like, I'm in— and in this school setting, I'm my age and everyone else is proper age.

Wait, college or high school?

Sometimes it's high school.

So it is Billy Madison.

Exactly, but he's not trying to prove anything.

Yeah, like I'm not being put through a test.

He's just doing it electively.

Yeah, but I don't understand why I'm here because I don't need to graduate. I have a great job.

That is my most recurring one, I think, is school, and it's the last day of the semester, and I did not go to class all semester long, and now it's the big test. And I'm like, well, there's just no way I can, there's just no way I can pass this class. And I'm panicked about that, and I'm like, oh yes, this reflects your actual time in school, Dave. Yeah, it's just remembering, basically.

—It's not a dream so much as it's a memory.

—Yeah, just recalling some of the past decades.

And I have another recurring dream these days as well, and this one probably has meaning to it, but it's one of those where I, like, I'm missing work. I overslept or for whatever reason I'm late and I'm missing the show. That probably has— 'cause that's probably like a real fear that I have deep down. Again, Probably with all the other emotions and feelings I have that are stuffed way down inside to never be heard or seen from again.

Your hand is gesturing way too closely to your genitals while you're saying that.

That's where you put all the emotions.

All my problems are down here, motherfuckers.

That's where you put the emotions.

That's what Dana White told us to do.

Put them all down there.

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Don Libertad! John Zaslo!

How you love that catchphrase! Bad news for opposing teams in the Triple-A! Stoogatz.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stoogatz.

So I have a waking nightmare I can share very quickly too, after— and I'm not talking about watching watching the, uh, the NBA playoffs. Those are just more boring. Hey, did you notice another blowout? Wow, what a stunner. Hey, oh, the Knickerbockers were fairly close, even in— even though no one in MSG or watching on TV thought that the Sixers were actually maybe gonna win.

I'm gonna call it. Get out the chickens. This guy's a fraud. There's no chance you stayed up for that late game. You looked it up today. Oh, it's a blowout.

I didn't miss much. He probably misses all of his shots. He's probably terrible. He's the last pick in his pickup game. They blow by you so big. You have no memory game. You looked at the sports section and then at the box scores. You read the box scores and you're like, "Oh, shut up. It was a big blowout.

I'll use that for my material today." A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of geese. Now listen. Chicken! Those weren't good. But then I turned my TV off before the end of the late game. You're absolutely right. But when I did it, it took me a few extra seconds more than it rightly should have because I went for the remote in my hotel room and I hit the top button on the remote. There is one button, singular, separated from all the other buttons underneath. That's the on-off button, right? I mean, that's obviously the North Star of any remote, turning it on and turning it off. So I do that and I was reminded as I did it, oh no, for some reason this remote control's top button, the single one at the top of the remote mountain is not the on-off button. It controls some other function that I have no goddamn interest in figuring out what it is. No, the on-off button is down to the left at an angle, catty-corner from the North Star button. I have to go scrounge around and figure, oh, this is the on-off button to say my goodnights, to find the cloak of darkness so that I can prepare myself in terms of rest so that I can be at my best to hear about Chris Cody talking about how he wants to make his love on his wife's twin sister.

Now you think I'm in a bad mood for a reason? NBA remote, Chris Cody doing whatever the hell he's doing. We're off the rails.

Stop talking about that.

The Knicks-Sixers game was great. It was a good game. It was a great game. It was a great game. Dominic Barlow, how about that? Revelation. That was a good game, man. It's a great game. It's a great game.

What do we make of the Sixers without Embiid? Well, here's the deal.

They played a style that was a lot more competitive, obviously, in Game 1. But I believe— Tony, back me up on this one— they got tired down the stretch. They kind of needed the big fella to just throw the ball to so we could all catch our breath.

Let him work a little bit in the post. Let him get a lot of the, a lot of the offense, you know, moving in and out.

Is it tough? Is it a fair criticism to say they would also get tired with Joel Embiid because he labors up and down the court these days?

Yeah, but the laboring gives everyone a chance. It like slows the pace down almost. They played fast as a result, and that was great. They're down—

pace slows, he's best equipped for that, and they're better at this.

And that usually happens in the fourth quarter. Yeah. And how did you—

first, man, he is tough to watch getting up and down the floor these days.

Yeah, the lack of depth really hurt them. Like, they couldn't go— that's why Barlow was such a great revelation in the second half there that Nick Nurse turns to, and he does great on both ends of the ball. But then he got tired because he didn't sub him out, like, because it was working, so he just kept, kept going on with him. I think Nick Nurse, if he had to do it all over again, maybe freshen up the rotation a little bit more. But again, it's tough in terms of the guards. They don't have much.

So I brought this up before and Amin yells at me when I do bring this up. I'm gonna bring it up again. I would assume Joel Embiid is going to play Game 3. All right, I'm— day to day, I would assume he's gonna play, play Game 3. And by the way, going into this series, like, the biggest reason that the Sixers are not gonna win is because you can't count on Embiid to play an entire series. He didn't play an entire series in round 1, and he already hasn't played an entire series in round 2. Like, That it's, it's why they're never going to be able to win with him. But the part where Amin always gets mad at me when I bring this up is when Embiid is available, and maybe, maybe he's not even 100% like now when he couldn't play last game, why play him in the first quarter? Why play him in the first quarter so he can, instead of be laboring in the fourth quarter when the game slows down, when you probably could have used him yesterday for a basket, a fresher player and a basket in the post, why, why does Embiid play in the first quarter?

I'm not even necessarily saying only play in the second half, which is when Amin really gets mad at me. But what if you just start playing him in the second quarter?

I think there's a couple of things. Number one, this argument where I yelled at you is because you suggested this as a form of load management, and that's ridiculous. But this is different. This is the case of like, hey, he's only got so much for a particular game. Last night, I'm just assuming he couldn't play at all. The problem is you're assuming it's like a video game where I can just sub him in and he'll be Joe Allenby, doo doo doo. And like, guys need the rhythm to get into the game, particularly guys who are dealing with—

He's pretty great in the first quarter of games. So when you say rhythm again into the game, but that's because everyone's starting.

It's like trying to get on a train that's slowly moving versus a full-blown, the train is moving, I got to run and jump on, right? That's number one. Number two, especially the guy who's dealing with injuries and stuff and trying to play through it. A lot of— and if he's accustomed to being a starter, I told the story before about Grant Hill. You're used to warming up and then let's go play basketball versus warming up and all right, now have a seat.

I mean, we're watching Anthony Edwards do it these first two games with, you know, the Wolves and Spurs.

One of the most freak athletes we've ever seen though, right? Like, that's, that's not the body of Joel Embiid. Joel Embiid can't sit for 45 real minutes and then be like, all right buddy, get back out there.

And also Anthony Edwards last night not quite as cool as he looked in Game 1. And so the— like, I wouldn't point to that as like, oh, that's how you do it. I think ultimately it's like, yo, is the guy healthy or not? That's what it comes down to. And Joel Embiid, this is why, like, I— it's a fair criticism in terms of like, I can't count on him. But I don't like when people turn it into like, he doesn't want to play, or he's soft, or that—

that's where it gets ridiculous. He definitely wants—

he wants to play. He wants to be out there. If he could, he would. And he's just dealing with a lot. The guy's just unlucky.

I mean, is it Nick Nurse saving him for later on in the series? Because when you take Joel out and he's like, alright, he can't play. If it was Game 6 or 7, he would have pushed it. But like, what's the other option?

I mean, the other option obviously is, is to play him in some sort of limited role to get to slow down, to get these things going. But it's like, it's tough, man. Like, if the guy can't go, and again, he's dealing with two injuries, it's an ankle and a hip. This is besides the appendectomy that kept him out for the beginning of the playoffs too.

Game 7, they were stretching out his like midsection.

He said he was trolling. He claimed it was nothing. I was just doing that to troll them, but I don't know. But he was like favoring it.

We're in the middle of Game 7. He's like, how can I trick everyone right now? He's doing a bit.

That's what he said. He said he was doing a bit.

He came out with an ice pack.

He went into the locker room. He said he was doing a bit. I'm not saying I believe him. I'm just saying that that's how he explained what was going on there.

Game 7, famous stage for bits. AJ Brown, right?

Book during, what was it, the title game. So it's not unheralded for guys to do bits in the middle of big games. I mean, though, as a thought experiment off of what Zazz just brought up, a more extreme version of bringing Embiid in for just certain quarters of games. What happens? Who's it tougher on? The Sixers, obviously their best player, you would think nominally, or maybe not. The adjustment of how you play with Embiid versus without. In a way, I could see the Sixers feeling good during the game and then even after the game last night because Game 3, to Zazz's point, oh, now Embiid's going to be back. But it's such an adjustment. It's almost like, you know, the Pittsburgh Pirates with Paul Skeens on the mound and then you're playing the Pirates without Paul Skeens on the mound. It's two completely different approaches.

I would say yes, except for the fact they have a lot of experience doing it, right, over the last several years.

I'm saying, so is it easier on the Sixers and then it's a different— the Knickerbockers are now in a tough spot? Like, well, now we don't know if Embiid— if we're gonna have to play this kind of game versus without him.

Well, I think that's what happened last night, right?

Yeah, it obviously changed a lot. And then also the Knicks didn't have Mitchell Robinson, he was out sick. Uh, OG Anunoby might be hurt too, so there's other things happening in this series. But to answer your question, Dave, the Celtics very loudly and famously proudly said we don't have to make any adjustments. They, they did not factor in that Embiid would come back, and then he came back and they literally had zero answers. Oh no, they had an answer. Let's start Luka Garza, Baylor Shireman, and Ron Harper Jr. in Game 7. That was their answer. But yeah, so it's a bad coach for a team that is playing against the team that may or may not have its full—

but that's enough. But right. So that kind of proves that point. It's the unforced error. The Celtics got got because they're like, well, we don't know what we're going to do with this. It got in their head and it ultimately cost them the series. You have said that repeatedly this week, and I think there's— it's a valid point. They adjusted their lineup unnecessarily because of Embiid's presence or absence.

Well, I would say they adjusted their lineup stupidly, maybe not unnecessarily. And there was— I think there were different ways to go about it than what the way they went about it. But that was also in reaction to not adjusting for the prior two games where he was playing and getting better and eating them up and they had no answers. So I think it can be difficult. But also because the Sixers have played a lot without Embiid, there is tape. We do know how they want to play. We know they want to play faster. We know they want to play through Maxey. And Edgcumbe. And then— but then here's, here's the wild card, really. It's Paul George. Paul George. If they had won that game last night, Paul George probably would have been man of the match, right? Because offensively, he was incredible shooting from deep.

Good shot selection with 30 seconds.

Well, that was other than that one play. All peace strikes again. Come on, like, get that medicine.

Who was it? That was it. Edgcumbe. That was— no. Or who was yelling at him about the shots? One of the other players like, what are you doing?

I can't remember. It might have been Kelly Oubre, but I don't remember. But, but the other part was defensively, right? When they had the foul trouble with, uh, Adembona, with Andre Drummond, and Barlow is— bless his heart, but he's playing like 700 minutes in a row. He's getting tired. They put Paul George on Karl-Anthony Towns, and that kind of really mucked up the Knicks offense a lot. Like, because what Towns had been able to do, take advantage of, was if you're smaller than me I'll post you up. If you're bigger than me, you try to close out, I can get past you and I can make plays. And Paul George is a pretty big dude, even though we don't think of him that way, but also obviously an elite perimeter defender. So he did an amazing job. If it weren't for the fact that they lost that game, we'd be talking about Paul George today. And that's the one that's hard to game plan against because remember, he missed 25 games this year due to suspension for PED use. It's a blessing. Yeah, no, it's an absolute— but it's the best thing that happened to the Sixers all year long.

Dan Le Batard. If Daniel Day-Lewis did it, you'd be jerking off all over yourself.

Oh, come on. Yeah, I would be.

Aggressive description. I mean, what is it?

What is that? I'm just saying. No, you know what? That's just saying what?

That's me. Daniel Day-Lewis does something. Yeah, I see that photo of Daniel Day-Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln, and you know what I do? I mean, stugatz. I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do. Lincoln, who you outed the other day. Don't make this a rejoin.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

I mean, is that a note for Nick Nurse and defensively? All right, maybe what we can do to muck up the game and to force a different look on the Knicks is put Paul George on Cat almost full time.

I think the best thing is to just keep mixing it up. And Nick Nurse is a genius at that, like throwing different defenses. He's done this in the past with Toronto, like where most teams have a base defense, like, hey, we're going to guard pick and rolls high like this on the side like this, whatever. And Nick Nurse will have all these custom-made defenses in a regular season setting that usually doesn't happen. So if there's anyone in the league who I can think of, like coming up with some shit on the fly, it's him. But I don't think it's like, hey, we're just going to guard you with this guy continuously.

With Paul George having this level of success, it gives me an idea. Should Kawhi Leonard or other players who need to limit themselves until the postseason purposefully take banned substances to get suspended? So instead of it being an issue with tanking games or with sitting out games—

He lost $12 million though. Yeah, so he's fine. Yeah, yeah, but so there's a couple things. Number one, yeah, like you lose your, your paycheck. I have some whimsy. Number one. Number two, and this is the big one here, right? Like Paul George could do that because he's legitimately like the third or fourth most important player on his team, even though, as we see, he's very talented. Yeah, but those guys are missing games anyway.

Like, why not just give them a run where they can learn how to do it? By the way, just in case you miss time in the playoffs, just like the Sixers, right? Like, in Paul George's case, he is healthy right now, but who was to say he would be? So if Embiid, for example, I think he had missed a 25-game run, but it was because of a suspension.

Jeremy, he might be healthy right now because of the banned substances too, and they, they help her recover.

Maybe that's not what He took like some over-the-counter or whatever.

Have some whimsy. Have whimsy. So I don't know if you guys saw this, uh, the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jimmy Haslam, right, who also owns the Cleveland Browns, he talked yesterday and I thought, I mean, I thought it was a dead giveaway about what the Milwaukee Bucks' plan is here with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Give this a listen.

I just think before the draft is a natural time, right? Because you're gonna, you know, if Giannis does play somewhere else, then we ought to get a lot of assets, and that's John's job to do it. If he's here, then you build the team differently. So I just want to stress, though, that our relationship with him, despite what is reported by certain ESPN writers, is very positive.

Is this a decision that keeps you up at night?

Like, it's a big one.

It's a big one, and you got to get it right. And John knows it, and Wes knows it, uh, and we didn't hold back with Taylor. We just said, listen, he may or may not be with us, so don't come because because you want to be straight up.

So this is now the second time that there's been a reference like this. The first one was, you know, that we, we will, you know, we're not going to lose Giannis for nothing, and we're going to offer him the max, and if he doesn't accept it, then we're going to trade him. That was said, what, it was like a month and a half ago, something like that. And you don't normally hear someone speak that way about your star player. And now you have this where the owner is telling you there's going to be a resolution one way or another before, before the draft, specifically because you want to get assets if you are going to trade the player. But if you want— I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here— if you want a resolution, the only resolution is trading him. Because even if you offer him this extension and he signs it, that's not a resolution. That doesn't stop anything. That doesn't stop Giannis from 6 months from now, I don't like what's happening here, I want to trade. Like, the only resolution that he's talking about is being out of the Giannis business.

Wrong? Yeah, I mean, I think he's trying to say all the right things. That's the problem, everyone's trying to say the right thing. Giannis is trying to say the right thing. Jimmy Haslam, which is the first time I ever heard his voice, and I did not know that he had that thick of a twang, is trying to say the right things.

And can you imagine that guy asking a homeless person for advice on the quarterback?

What would you do at quarterback? What?

I mean, it's just, it's very clear that he's going to be traded before the deadline.

This is the first time before the draft. Excuse me. It's the first time we really hear anything like this. Yeah. On the heels of the Jaylen Brown conversation and stream where it's like Could Jaylen Brown be had? And all you're connecting dots, somebody in the, in the Milwaukee Bucks was like, all right, wait a second, hold up.

That's my gimmick.

If, if he's, if he's available or wants to get moved, we can make something happen here where we can send some picks here. We can take some picks from over there. We can get Jaylen Brown and not really lose as much face to the fans getting another all-star player in Milwaukee. Connecting dots.

I think that is my gimmick.

I— that makes a lot of sense. It's nice and clean. The thing that, um, Amin and Nick Wright and everybody in here was talking about yesterday that I think is, is pretty intriguing is another thought experiment is from the Celtics' point of view, from the Bucks' point of view, what makes sense? I, I mean, it really does as you add it up. Jaylen Brown with the 'this is my favorite season ever' and all of that kind of talk, it does kind of indicate— and even though they won a title, people still say you're, you're doubling down at the same position. There's redundancy there. Maybe it does make better sense to pair Giannis with Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum. But what's the right answer there? I mean, if you're the general, if you're Brad Stevens, first of all, start from that point of view. Which way are you going? Are you trading Jayson Tatum and getting Giannis to play with Jaylen Brown? Indulge what Zazz is getting at here, that maybe you would trade for one of those two Celtics, which is the the, the correct play here for both sides?

Well, I would start with— obviously it goes with health. What's Jayson Tatum looking like? Yes, I get it. He came back and he played and he missed the last game because of whatever. But like, overall, what does my medical team say? He's on the road to recovery. He'll be fine. If that's what we're going with, then I think I'd go with Tatum for a couple of reasons. Number one, Tatum, better perimeter shooter, better suited basketball-wise to fit alongside Giannis, who's very paint dominated. Right? Number 2, also disposition-wise, again, what we've learned from Jaylen Brown is, hey, I really like being the number 1 banana, right? And Giannis might come in and say, hey, I'm just here to help, but the reality is he's such a dominant personality and dominant basketball force, it's almost impossible to marginalize him in, you know, in favor of someone playing on the perimeter. So maybe personality fit, desire fit, Tatum also beats over there. And then number 3 is, even if I know that Tatum is fine, the trade market might be like, wait a second, this guy's come back from an Achilles, he missed games in the playoffs. I'm not trying to give up market value for that guy, even though there's a good chance in 6 months he'll be fine.

Brown is the guy who's coming off of a career year. Brown is a guy who's healthy. Brown is a guy who's probably at this stage right now is going to net the biggest haul because as I think Tony was talking about yesterday, the reality is it probably won't be Brown to Milwaukee. It'll be Brown somewhere else. Oh, really? Milwaukee gets a bunch of young players and picks and gets to start over.

Atlanta makes so much sense. Yep.

Why do you say Brown wouldn't go to Milwaukee? Because it wouldn't make sense because Milwaukee is trying to rebuild or because Jaylen Brown would be like, I don't want to go here.

Let me put it this way. Look at the Milwaukee Bucks, right? As is. Now give them Giannis Antetokounmpo. What were they, a 500 team?

Yeah, I understand what you're saying.

Right. So now give them Jaylen Brown, who I think we can all agree, career year or not, not as good as Giannis Antetokounmpo. Right.

I feel like just from a marketing standpoint, that'd be like we gave away this guy who felt like the best player in the league, or in fact was the best player in the league. Jaylen Brown, great. I feel underwhelmed, but I'm a Bucks fan.

If it broke that way, it would be the best player that they could get back in any one of these, I don't know, prospective deals. But having said that, like, it'd probably come with picks. It wouldn't be just one for one.

But compared to Giannis, I agree with Dave.

Sure, no, absolutely, everyone does. But again, if you're saying Giannis is gone and they went from, I guess, Tyler Herro and 3 picks to, wait, we got Jaylen Brown and a couple of picks, it's a huge win for them. That's a huge win for Milwaukee. Having said that, realistically, that does not move the needle for where they are as a franchise.

Yeah, as far as winning and losing might just make them a middling team still, right? If you are them, like, I don't know if it was someone in here who brought it up yesterday, but the idea of getting Jaylen Brown to Atlanta and getting a top pick back and potentially other young pieces and future picks so that you can bottom out, that might be the way to go about it so that that way you're working Atlanta into being a better team. You can hit bottom at a time where you don't have your star rather than acquiring another one. But from a ticket sales perspective and from a competitive standpoint, bringing in Jaylen Brown and being able to build around whatever he is is obviously a better starting point than the unknown.

Yeah, I mean, put differently, if you look at their roster, who do you have to be optimistic about? Like, that guy— Milwaukee. Milwaukee. That guy could really become something one day.

Uh, the Rollins kid, right? Like, that's it.

Looks like he's going to be a decent NBA player. That's what he looks like.

And the clip that we just played of Jimmy Haslam sounded like somebody that wanted to asset build. Yeah, not, not, well, let's, let's just replace Giannis with Jaylen Brown.

I hear what you're saying, I mean, about like, you must understand, you must live in the world as it exists, not the one you want. And so if you're a Bucks fan, you wish it would work out with Giannis, but it feels like it's not going to. That said, it's terrible to trade a generational talent. You know, I keep talking about it this week, and off of the comments of the Edmonton Oilers as they lose this series and their two stars, Connor McJesus and Leon Dreisaitl, feels like that's tracking in the wrong direction too. The obstacle is, if you're on Edmonton's side, or even if you're just an objective hockey fan, like, we can't trade, can't trade that guy, can't trade the one of the, the five best players in history, except that the Edmonton Oilers already traded the alleged best player of all time in Wayne Gretzky. You guys in Miami love your stars. You go and get Messi even though he's past his prime. You have LeBron, and I suspect that that is the reason you have a lot of the conflicting emotions you have. He came here in his prime and delivered you guys some titles, but then he bailed on you guys.

It's, it, it's interesting letting the guy— he's in your house and you're, and, and you're letting him go. Will In fact, you're giving him— you're paying his taxi fare to leave. It's a weird move.

Sounds like what Chris is willing to do with his wife.

Haha.

The other night I was staying in. At least that was the plan. Then the text from my buddy Eagle Eye comes in. Mike, we've got the games on. I say, yeah. I grab a pack of Miller Lite and immediately my plan's gone. Now it's playoff basketball. Every possession feels huge. Baseballs on another screen, and I, I somehow care about that too. Everybody's got takes flying. Nobody's watching just one thing, and we're all way more into it than we ever expected. It was one of those nights that you take a sip, you look around, and you think, yeah, this was the right move. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975. And it still hits different. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.