Transcript of Local Hour: Greg Cote's NBA Comp

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This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast. I have a problem. What's your problem? I have a huge problem. It might sound very back in my day-ish, but hear me out here. I don't want to listen to anything anymore. I don't want to watch anything anymore. I want to read.

Why do you want to read?

I'm intrigued. Go on.

He'd have a big win last night on the road against the Clippers. Great end to that game. Norm Powell gets his revenge game, locks up Kua on the last Great fun, right? Great play. Bam out of bio, 25 and 10.

That dude was aggressive.

They're running their offense. They ran the same set around, say, four or five times down the stretch. Clippers had no answers. You know what I wanted? I was like, You know what? Big win. Norm Powell, revenge game. I wonder what they said after the game. So I'm trying to find a transcript of the postgame comments. That way I can read, I can make notes, I can copy and paste, ready for the show. Everything. Everything is a YouTube video. I don't want to watch no video, man. I I ain't got time for that. I want something I can look, read, refer back to, look away, look back at. Not like, Hold on, let me rewind it again. What do you say? Oh, yeah, he said that. I'm tired of this.

I got a little something for you. Yes. Wait till you find out about YouTube's transcripts feature. You go on to the transcripts, and you read them and they're long. Yeah, but you get the whole thing.

No, it's not doing no weird, funky AI thing. No, no, no. Or it calls them band out of bio or something like that.

No, no, no, sir. I also got a website to share with you that also you can pull YouTube transcripts from that I use often. Very nice.

Because I'll tell you a big deal for me. People are like, Oh, did you so and so reported this? I'm like, Well, I'm following them on Twitter. I'm reading the athletic. I'm into it. Where? They're like, Oh, they said it on a podcast. I'm like, I'm not listening to our podcast. If it's not the Dan Leventhal show with Stugatz or-Cynaphob. Cynaphob or Basketball Illuminati, or Here's the Science, A Bar-Rescue podcast.

Even those, you don't really listen. You're talking them.

I listen to Cynaphob every Every single episode.

After you record it?

Because it drops weeks later. But you lived it. Oh, my God. To relive it?

You're the Greg Cody of the day.

Oh, my God.

Speaking of that, I don't know where he is.

Well, there's traffic because there's a big thing happening. The big thing is tomorrow, though.

It's not today. It's tomorrow.

I can't wait.

There's a tidal wave. It's like a ripple that starts and then on the other side of it. I'm not going to do the damn thing and sit here and shame Greg Cody for not leaving earlier when he knew there was a huge event happening downtown. All right, good.

I'll be the one to do it then. Greg is late every week, all right? And this week in particular, we were specifically told, today's election day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tomorrow, the President is going to be here, okay?

Not here, but across the street.

That's here. That's here. That's here.

That's here. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So we were specifically warned and given options, okay, as far as how to make sure we are here on Matter of fact, your boy, Amine, that's me, I took the bright line. Wow. Same. For the first time ever today.

How was it?

I liked it.

Did you get a little morning pop? Just something to get you in the mood?

No, I took my seat. I wanted to make sure I was following directions, and I just enjoyed the quick ride, and then I got off and I walked on over here. All right? I liked the bright line. I'll probably do that again tomorrow. But even when it's normal, Cody is always late. God God forbid, he decides instead of setting his alarm for whatever God forsaken time it is that he gets up in the morning, how about you do it 10 minutes earlier? Ten minutes earlier. And you want, I'm not getting up in this. 10 minutes earlier, and you won't be late. He refuses to not be late.

You would think you would get out of his tomb now that the sun comes out earlier.

It's crazy.

It's crazy behavior.

I like the idea of one day, maybe Maybe AI can do this for us, and we'll get to how much it sucks. Hold on, we'll get to that in a minute. We'll get to that in a minute. But for right now, I'll say this. One day, AI will be good enough. Well, I'll say, Can you remake Back to the Future for me? But instead of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, put Greg Cody. At the end of Back to the Future, spoiler alert, he's like, he knows the doc gets shot. Doc doesn't want the notes. He's like, I'll show up 10 minutes early so I can warn him. Greg Cody will show up later. Ten minutes later, 10 minutes later after the doc gets shot.

Libian still He's like, Oh, Doc.

He's like, Oh, Doc. There's no punitive measures. At a certain point, you need to bench the center that keeps having the false start, guys.

No one's even asking him to be here for a production meeting. No. Just be here for the show.

Just be here in time in front of that microphone.

I don't know, man. I think sometimes you got a star player, you're a star player. Sometimes we hold that bus, man.

Hold the bus a little bit. Right, but is he a star player?

Now we're asking questions.

That's the right question.

Is he coasting on a past resume?

He's He's a rotational guy. He's a great locker room guy. I think of him as like Udonis Haslem. His jersey's going to the Raptors. We could argue to build a statue for the man.

But you could also argue, what's he still doing here?

But he's also not getting more done.

You You thought his has some MO is work ethic. That's right.

In Greg's defense, I would argue this is more of a Kawhi Leonard situation, which is that this is a superstar, and when he's there, you're feeding him the ball, but he's in and out of in the lineup, and you can even question why is he in and out of the lineup. It's you, D.

It's more of a Joel Embiid situation. He's got 20 minutes in.

Okay. Maybe more Joel Embiid.

It could also be Kawhi in that. It's a contract no one else wants.

What about this? Hear me out on this. I hear Kawhi, I hear Joel Embiid, I raise you Zion Williamson. Where it's things where we're saying, You know what? Part of your unavailability is your doing.

You have to bear some responsibility.

But when he's here, he's a star, man.

I disagree because at least... At least Zion this year, he decided to make a drastic change, which was he lost the weight.

He's also done that four times. He made an attempt. Let's not pretend like we haven't seen the Zion looks in great shape during training camp four times previously. Then what happens comes January.

Well, all them pictures of Coke. Poe boys. Po' boys and beignets and all that stuff. A whole picture of Coke. Oh, man. It was one of the craziest stories I ever heard. It's not recent. It was a couple of years ago, but still, I was like, How?

When they brought it to the table, did they try to put it at the center of the table? Or is it like, No, though, that's right here.

That's mine. Why don't you just leave this right here? I'll take care of the rest of this.

Could have been diet?

Maybe. Okay. Diet's not bad. Perhaps.

Zero. Code zero.

A pitcher? Did he drink it straight out the pitcher? Because it's just for him.

He put a little straw on the picture, actually. It's like...

Like a cartoon character? Like a cartoon character.

There's no share-zees. It's just for him.

If I had read the story rather than hear it firsthand, I would have thought it was- That's your move.

You want to read it.

Well, yeah. If I read it, then I'm like, Okay, now I'm in. But I heard the story, but I heard the story not on a podcast. I heard it in real life. From a source. Yeah, from a source. This is me doing reporting, not really. But the other part of it, the first thing I thought of was, do you guys remember the Quye Leonard, Apple Time, Apple Time story? That story is true.

I don't care what they said.

Mike, to this day, I'm on the radio on Series XM NBA radio, which you can catch me, me and Jason Jackson, Sunday, 10 AM to 1 PM Eastern. Jason Jackson. Jason Jackson, if you're nasty. When people call and, All right, call here on the air, and he's like, Hey, guys, how's it going? Which they do. It's Dan Outlawed years and years ago on this show, but people still do it on other radio shows. Every time someone asks me how I'm doing, my response always is, Apple time, apple time. I just wait to see if anyone notices. To this day, no one ever said, Wait, what did you say? Everyone's just like, Oh, yeah, that's great. But the quiet Leonard, the Apple time, apple time story is the purest example of I want to believe. When we talk about fake stories, made up stories, there was a story yesterday about a certain collegiate executive being ejected from a game. I like that story. It turns out it wasn't real, but the reason why people thought it was real and ran with it was because they want to believe. They want to believe.

But the account was followed by Joshad.

Yeah, it's all Joshad's fault.

He's not willy-nilly with his follows.

What's the threshold for the followers on the account that put something believable, not believable out there?

There is no threshold. For me, if I don't know you, you're out of here. So I'll give you a great example.

But why would you know someone covering play by play in a St. Bonaventure game?

Yeah, you don't know everyone. It wasn't because it was a tournament. It wasn't a random game at wherever the hell they are.

I mean, Joe Shad follows. Don't just grow on trees.

I'm just saying, man, my thing, remember when they came out? Someone came out with this lengthy column about Michael Jordan is coming back to TV because he's sick of people staying in the past, and he wants to big up the current generation. And everyone ran with it. And I said, Wait a second. This thing was, first of all, published on medium. Com, which is basically a glorified blog spot. But second of all, the credentials of the guy said he was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, which everyone ran with, who's covered the NBA for 15 years. I said, Buddy, if you cover the NBA for 15 years, I would have heard about you. You can't be an unknown working at the Chicago and you go cover my sport for 15 years. Mike, you said, how would I know? I may not be on top of college basketball like that. I know the names. Okay. I know Jeff Goodman.

You're in the circles. I'm sorry. You got people that know people. I wanted it to be true, and I showed you.

Gary Parish is.

I wanted it to be true.

I showed you and you had the right amount of scrutiny. This is how fake news is so effective. I still think it might be true.

Joe Shad follows 44,000 people.

Come on, man.

Now, he has 245,000 followers himself, so not the worst He's doing the Tay Diggs.

Follow me, I'll follow you back. I remember the day I got followed by Tay Diggs. I was like, I made it.

Can I ask you something how that works? How many followers did you say Joe Shad? Or how many people does he follow?

He follows 44,000.

Okay, so for someone I don't give out follows all willy-nilly, all right? I probably follow a couple of hundred people. Really? Yeah, you got to earn that shit. You just followed me. Yeah, well, all right, you've earned it. Notice I didn't do it right when I started working here.

You're on my turf, that's why. You earned it. You need to pay respect.

Didn't do it right away. But the point What is when someone like that follows 44,000 people, how do they navigate their timeline?

Zaz, 560 people I'm hearing is- That's how many?

Zaz follows 561, and he has 47,000.

How do you navigate your timeline? Good for you. How You can navigate your timeline now? It's not even the people that you follow.

I don't see anybody I follow, by the way. That's why I don't use Twitter as much anymore because it's just like, I open it-I've seen you lately in the Twitter streets, though.

I've seen you lately.

Just replies. I take I'm not a kid of my call.

Your threads algo is dialed.

My threads is on point, baby.

Man, I never check that thread.

I like threads. That's just where it's at, man. I never check.

The algo is exactly where I like it.

But my Twitter, I'm at 119, and I follow 1190, and that's a lot. That's a lot, man. But it's 10% of what I have.

But you only have 119 followers.

You got to up your game. 119,000. Put that K on that with that respect. Greg. Hey. How's it going?

It's going great. Thank you.

Do you have it back in my day? What? We talked about it last week that you were going to have it back in my day.

Oh, yeah. It's Tuesday. It's surgery week. It's knee week. There you go.

He's Zion, guys. What do you want? When he plays, he's amazing, but he's hurt a lot.

I'm hurt. That's on me. I didn't know that it was knee week. It's knee week. I'm sorry. Yeah, man. You got a lot on your plate.

How are you feeling, Greg? It's naive.

Going up to knee week.

I'm a little apprehensive. Going under the knife tomorrow.

Is this first surgery ever? Have you ever gone under?

Yeah. He had famously to get the tumor out a few years ago.

Then No, I had the belly button thing.

You went under for that? That was a local?

You're of an age where- That was a full anesthesia. Wow. Going under the knife at this point is always a risky proposition. Right.

Well, thank you for that.

You never know if you're going to wake up.

That's true.

What are you doing?

But then you do.

That's right. Then you do wake up.

The long nap.

But you might not. But you might not.

In fact- I'm two for two, but it's a small sample size.

Right now, the odds are worse than they've ever been in your entire life in terms of waking up from surgery. What are you doing?

He wakes up every day out of the tomb. Relax.

I tell you what, I am older right now than I've ever been in my whole life. That's exactly right.

But you're older now.

Now. And then now. And now. So we live and learn.

And you want to call him Udonis. How dare you? You disrespect for that.

That was stellar. That's good tape. That's good. He put on good tape just now.

Threw up the alley if he caught it, came down.

If we put him on waivers, he's getting claimed.

Absolutely. I like that.

Absolutely. We were discussing before you came in if we should... The way an athlete would get benched if they keep showing up late to practice. Should we send a message to you? But we said that You might be so good that we don't do that.

Okay, I'm not the John Morant of-Oh, still got your joy. Transition. Yes. I mean, come on now. I'm not a troublemaker. I'm just laid occasionally through no fault of my own.

No fault of his own.

Yeah. Thank you.

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Don Lebatard.

What do we got here? I got a Magnum condom. We won't get that out.

That's shocking.

Stugatz.

Here's a picture of Christopher when he was three years old.

Right next to the condom? Yeah. He has a subtle reminder.

Never forget. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugats. Speaking of Ja, as you asked the question, has Grant Cody lost his joy? Because Ja told the press that he lost his joy.

It's unbelievable. Can we play the audio here? So last night, Ja Morant, he made his return. One game suspension, and he returned last night, did not play well. He was like, I don't know, he was like 3 or 14 or something. And body language, horrible during the game. And here he was postgame.

Were you and the coaching staff able to talk about what happened Friday and get lost? You all asked that question to them, huh?

What about for you? You all asked that question.

You all know the answer to that.

That thing, Ben. Sure.

Do you feel like everything's been resolved? Yeah.

They told you that, right?

Well, yeah, but they didn't hear it from you.

Obviously, they can go and tell you all something I didn't say.

You feel like you got this same joy right now?

Do we use the same food?

No.

Why not?

What can be done to get it back?

We'll see. Of course.

Do you think you have a good relationship with the franchise, you're a gentleman?

Yeah. They told you all that, right? I didn't say anything about that. If I had a good relationship, I wouldn't talk to him at all. We had our convos over these.

Do you have any regrets about the way you played on Friday night in the second half?

You said what? Do you have any regrets about the way you played the game? I'm not talking about the-That's your home run question.

Where's your home?

It's not like a bait question.

Greg, is that a fair question? Your journal's that a fair question?

Well, how did he phrase it again?

Do you have any regrets about the way you played in the second half on Friday night?

No, I don't think it's a bad question at all. I think it's perfectly legit based on his performance and not driving, taking all jump shots. I'm not going to be an apologist for this guy's unprofessional behavior. He's taken the Jimmy Butler seminar on how to behave when When you don't want to play there, when you want out. He's just pouting his way. He hopes to a trade. It's ridiculous.

Do you have any regrets on the time you left your home this morning?

None at all.

Well done. That's how you answer. The headline is a little misleading of he says he's lost his joy. A reporter says, Hey, you have joy. I mean, he does answer no. No, he could- It just seems a little misleading, the headline. No, he answered yes. No, I know, but he could have just said no, but it's- Yeah, he could have just said, I wouldn't say that. There's no difference in that headline when you're asked that.

Look, Here's the thing. Greg's right. There's a way you do this so that you're not being insubordinate, but you're definitely not making everything run smoothly.

So easily could have come out and said, I'm putting that behind me. I just want to move forward and win games. It's so easy.

Jazz, if you want to stay. Correct. If you don't want to stay, you don't do that.

He's 100% getting traded.

I've taught this seminar many a time to so many players. Look, in the NFL, when you want out, what do you do? You hold out. I won't show up. In the NBA, when you want to be out, you do show up. You show up and you make a mess. You make a mess not by being, Oh, yes, sir, no, sir. Oh, I just want to move forward past this, and we're all working. No, you give answers like that. I didn't stop talking to the media. I didn't disparage. Everything he says when it's a little radioactive or third rail, what does he do? He says, Did they tell you that? Obviously, they wouldn't tell you something I didn't say. So he's always shifting the focus. It is a master- Nothing is ever his fault. Master class.

If someone wants to get out. On the court or off. Nothing's ever It's not for his fault. I mean, look, that's how you lead right there, right? That's team leader right there. If you're in Memphis, you start taking phone calls now. You really do. Because they get a lot for him. It's not a terrible situation. You get a lot for John Moran. You're in Memphis, you start taking phone calls right now. That situation is going nowhere. He is 100% getting traded.

Greg, I want to throw this to you because you weren't with us yesterday. We were talking about if you're the Miami Heat and you're off to this very positive start last night, great win on the road against the Clippers, Bam out of buy, it looks great. The offense looks great. It is aggressive. Right? But Ja Morant's available. Do you make that call?

Well, heat culture thinks it can fix anybody. I think that's the starting point. I would look at that talent and say, I can fix him. We can make him fit. But the question, can they? Tyler Hero is going to be back soon. There's already talk about how do they make him fit in what they're doing now. But short answer, if Ja Morant is available for a fair price? Yeah, I would. I would think I could fix that guy.

We're looking at an option where last year, Desmond Bain went for how many first-round pics? A lot. Five, I think. Four or five. Four or five, okay. Does Ja even get close to that?

See, I think it's an interesting question because when you phrase it like that, it sounds like, okay, if Desmond Bain is worth five first-round pics, how many pics is this guy worth? And that's not what it is. Desmond Bain was worth five first-round pics to the magic. Right. It's about one person. Just like Rudy Gobert was worth five first-round pics to the wolves. It doesn't mean that those players are worth that.

To clarify, Bain was four first-round pics and a pick swap. So four and a half.

But Ja is a superstar, and you're looking for a permanent fix. You're looking for your culture to permanently fix somebody. And you look at the recent history of the Miami Heat when they bring in these projects, guys that have a reputation around the league. Probably the most sterling example is one of the examples that they would hold against you and Jimmy Butler. That worked out great until it didn't, and he absolutely nuked a season. You have examples like Terry Rozier, Deion Waiters, Hassan Whiteside, where they worked, but temporarily, Terry Rozier- Birdman, too. Never worked. Birdman, I think, is the example where he was in your building, and from start to finish, he was bought in, and he had that reputation. What I'm saying is it's been a while. Yeah, they did this with Timmy Hardaway. Yeah, they He did this with Alonso Mourning. We're talking about 30 years ago now.

No, but I think there's a point also where many of those names, right? Terry Rozier probably is outlier, actually, from all the names you named. There was a level of productivity and value they got out of all those reclamation projects.

They were essentially considered winning players before the heat even acquired them.

Even Hassan... No, no. Whiteside, no. Whiteside, no. Oh, but come on.

They didn't even know. But I don't include Whiteside in that group because they didn't give up anything to get No, it's not like there was a gamble.

We're not talking about the acquisition. Reclamation project.

You're hanging your hat on this culture being strong enough to change Ja Morant, and you're cherry-picking from examples that are pretty long ago.

Mike, what I would say is, one, in terms of reclamation projects, like I said, they all had a level of value that they got out of those guys. Now, as time goes by, things happen, and there's a reason why those guys were reclamation projects to begin with. I was very critical about how they handled the whole Why is that situation? Because I'm like, You know who he is. You might have gotten him to a level, but you guys knew, and you handed him that money, and you handed him that money before you did Dwyane Wade, and that sends a message, even if we all know, Well, that's just the order of operation. You know for a kid like that, he's not going to see it. He's like, Oh, yeah, I'm the man now. There's that. The second thing also is, of all the reclamation projects, where would Ja Morant stand in terms of talent and potential in the moment?

A greater than Jimmy Butler was at the time. Yes. He's younger- You were arguing, is Jimmy Butler a superstar? When Ja is right, we're not having that argument. I know.

Well, I would call Ja Morant a budding superstar, a can be superstar.

And he's played himself into that because two years ago, no doubt her.

Yes, but he's coming to his prime. He just turned 26. I think the Butler analogy is apt because this is a team with a short window. If they get four or five big years out of Ja Morant, that's fine. You don't expect to have this guy when he's 35.

Well, he's 26. He's smaller but super explosive. We have some examples at that position of smaller explosive guys like John Wall, wear and tear.

It'll age poorly.

Right. You hit your prime. It's been said, you hit your prime in the NBA at 27. You're a fully formed player at that point.

Can't shoot.

It's hard for guys to get better after that age. We have a guy that for two years, yeah, there's been off-court stuff, but a diminishing player given where the hopes expectations were. This is not exactly... Given everything that we know about him, and when you include the concerns you might have about this guy relies so heavily on his athleticism, this isn't a slam dunk trade to make. I agree.

This is what I would say. First and foremost, that's the biggest concern to me. It's not his attitude or off the course stuff. It's this is his game's played. '67, that was a shortened season due to COVID. '63 out of '67, second year. Third year, '57 out of Fourth year, 61 out of 82. Fifth year, '9 out of 82. Sixth year, 50 out of 82. This year, obviously, six out of six. We're talking about a guy, Oh, you can't even stay on the court. That's number one.

I heard, I think it was on a podcast or on Twitter, that Ja hasn't played seven consecutive games since 2023.

That's not because of suspensions or whatever. That's because he's not healthy. And part and parcel of that is what Mike is talking about. He's a great athlete who has, respectfully, like my He's about my height and probably around my weight, maybe a few pounds less because I've had a lot to eat since I got here.

And he's getting in trouble in Memphis. Now we're going to move him to Miami.

I don't discount Memphis as a trouble town.

Okay, but I count Miami as a town that there's a lot more to do.

Oh, yes. But then my rebuttal to you is, again, knowing this organization, how many people have actually gotten in trouble here? A little weight. We have a really good security staff. I know, but it's not about what you did.

It was that one time in the hotel. Yeah.

Thank God for Mario Charmers is all I want to say.

It's not about what you did. It's what you get caught.

What's chat about Miller light? That's right. Football season is in high gear. The leaves are turning. That means these football games have more consequence. That means you'll be tense. You want to enjoy these games. Well, enjoy I enjoy these games like I enjoy these games with a Miller light by my side. It makes tailgating better. It makes catching up with friends easier. Game Day just hits different with a Miller light in your hand. From jaw-dropping touch downs to fantasy heartbreak, it's a beer that has been there for every moment. Fifty years of great taste, simple ingredients in that iconic golden color that you can spot from across the room. Look at that beauty. And here's the kicker. It's just 96 calories, 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting five decades later. So whatever your game day looks like, remember, Miller Time is always a good time. Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite. Com/dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.

2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Don Levatard. You are a fool. You're nobody.

You are an infant.

You have no thick skin. You have nobody to me. I literally put together a freaking stage for your toenail.

Mike Ryan is nobody to me. I am your career right now, pal. Look at me. I am your career. No. Stugatz.

You have messed with me, David, and now you're messing with me, and I'm more dangerous, pal.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

Ironically, one of the other fits that would make sense in terms of a swap where you could take two guys who maybe aren't living up to exactly what those franchises wanted, it would be Trey Young for John Morant.

Are you going to move John Morant to Atlanta?

That's smart.

Yeah, that actually really works.

Unfortunately, Trey is out for a month right now.

All right, so let's take some examples that might be a little bit better to compare to. Miami's had opportunities and sniffed around acquiring James Harden at at this point multiple times. Russell Westbrook was available, I remember. I think at the center of both those trades, we were wondering, do you give up Tyler Hero for this player? I think maybe here we are again. The Miami Heat, ultimately, whether it be their trade capital or just internally, they decided to not go down that path and not acquire players that had a certain reputation. Westbrook was one of these players that was getting up there that relied heavily on his athleticism, even though he was Actually, if you want to be encouraged by Ja Morant, the durability of Russell Westbrook, their frame is different.

No, it's a different beast.

Yeah, but the Miami Heat decided, for better or worse, to not go all in on those moves. Can we forecast what they decided to do with Ja Morant here?

Again, the problem is the inherent risk, again, I don't think the risk that you're weighing is, Oh, he's a knucklehead. He won't get along. He won't buy in. He's not healthy. He hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy.

His play might be starting to decline.

I don't think so. I think that's totally a part of what's happening right there. I'm not saying the way they're doing it is wrong. I'm just saying I attribute his poor play to the coach, and the coach even talked about it. He said, We're doing something that's different, that's cutting edge, shorter stints, higher intensity. He said, There's going to be casualties in that. Casuities of guys are used to playing a certain way, and now they have to play a different way. Casuities in terms of the way they used to play makes it easier to breed chemistry on the court with your teammates. This might be harder to manufacture that, but we believe that this is the best thing for the short, medium, and long term. That's all well and good. But again, it goes back to what I talked about yesterday, Greg. I said, that tells me they never had the conversation with Ja, which tells me, organizationally, either they're idiots or they've moved off of them. They're like, maybe this team isn't meant to be built around.

No, you really believe they haven't had that conversation with Ja?

There's no way you have something that drastic of a change, and your star player is not bought into that. You can't do that.

You cannot say-They can't force him to buy into it.

Yes, then you don't do it. That's the point. I remember when Don Nelson was the head coach of the Knicks. Greg, you remember this, right? It was a short stint, and they were above 500. But Don Nelson was like, We're not going to give the ball to Patrick Ewing anymore. We're going to give the ball to Anthony Mason, and he's going to initiate offense. You're asking to get fired at that point unless the organization is like, Yeah, I like it. If that's the case, then they've already made a referendum on the star player who's getting deemphasized here.

Then they've chosen Jaron Jackson.

To me, or they're idiots. They could be idiots. They always leave that door open. I'll give you a positive example of this. The Toronto Raptors with Dwyane Casey and Kyle Lowry and DeMar Drozen, they'd win 50 games. They'd win the division. They'd go to the conference finals. They'd lose in the playoffs to LeBron every single time. Dwyane Casey's last year, he says, Guys, they were a very ISO-heavy ball club. So we're not going to win like this. We're not going to win with the ball in your guys' hand. We weren't 100 picking roles. We have to have more of a motion offense. But you know what he did? This is their season. It just ended. He took Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRosen to the NBA Finals to go watch the Warriors play. He That's how I want to play, moving like that. You see how Steph is off ball? How much of that? That's how we need to play if we're going to break through to the next level. They spent a whole summer talking about it. They were bought in. That next year, he was coach of the year. They won a shit ton of games.

They still lost to LeBron because them to be the breaks, right? But the point is, when he made the decision, I'm changing the system that's made both of you guys millions of dollars, the system that made both of you guys perennial All-stars. I'm changing it. This thing that you do so well, you're so successful at. And by the way, we're winning We're going to the playoffs. We're losing to the eventual the best player in the league or whatever. They have every reason to say, Man, I ain't doing that. It ain't my fault. But he sold them on it, and that sell job started before the start of the new season. It started before the end of the old season. He started selling them on that, and they come in and they bought in. Now, Dwyane Casey got let go after that, but that was not because DeMar DeRosen and Kyle Lowry were like, Get this bum out of here. Matter of fact, nick Nurse was the assistant, and he took over and he continued that same system, which they eventually won a championship with, with Quye Leonard. I say this to say Zaz, you don't make a drastic change to your system without buy-in from your star player unless you don't give a fuck about what he thinks.

And in which case, you do whatever you want, especially for a first-time coach. You're trying to get fired, dog? You want to piss off the best player in the locker room?

Well, maybe they don't care what he thinks.

But that's my point.

Maybe they don't care. That's my point. Maybe it was two things. They don't care what he thinks because A, if he doesn't like it, we will then deal with it. We're tired of him anyway. Or he may not like it right now, but he's going to like it when it works, and we're winning. I will win him over with this new style of play.

Oh, man, Jeremy. The show within the show. Make it the show.

Sacramento King.

Oh, my God. That's the spot. They would absolutely give the sun, the moon, and the Earth. Then I would have the delight of saying, Who's better, J'Aaron Fox or John Marant in real life? We could see what John Marant gets done over there.

That makes It makes so much sense to me. When you look at their contracts, you're a bad basketball team. You have 47 million in Zack Levine, you have 42 million in DeMontes Sabones, you have 24 million in DeMard DeRosen, 18 in Monk, 15 in Schroeder. You have all of these guys that are movable contracts, and you desperately need to do something different than the roster that you created here. You just put together a bunch of pieces that are names that really have no flow to their games. They don't complement each other. Obviously, building something around the idea of Sabonis and Marant offensively is very interesting. When you look at how long those guys are under contract, like Sabonis directly matches up, and Levine has a player option next year. So if Memphis just wants to get out of this. They can do that with Zack Lovine at the very worst. It's next season instead of one more year of Marant. That seems to be the place that makes the most sense so that they can make a splash and Memphis can reset.

Yeah, but it's makes a sense for Ja Morant, too. You're trading for a little bit of a head case type player, right? If he doesn't want to play for Sacramento, if that's the last place in the league he wants to play, do you really want him if you're Sacramento?

Splash. Let me say this, Greg. Respectfully, he's playing in Memphis. You don't really get to be a chooser at that point.

No, he wants out. No doubt about it.

But my point is, Sacramento is a step up. Everything is a step up off of Memphis.

I also feel like he believes a step up is going to be wherever he can go, that they do whatever he wants.

Where he wants to play. He play the way he wants to play. I think that's the big thing.

I'm looking at this through the heat lens right now. If you're the heat, it's about fit and cost. Can you make him fit? Does he want to play for you? Is the team sold on it? What does Captain Bam say? I think everybody has to be on board. And if the cost is right, then you go for it. You're not going to trade Hero in two first-round picks, but if the cost is right- You wouldn't have to.

I think they would.

Every time. I don't think they would.

I hear you. We might be a Norm Powell team right now.

Norm Powell. I love Norm Powell.

He's great, man. That's a likable player right there. I can root for that guy.

I will say every time we've had these debates and we're like, No, let's stay. We don't need that guy. It's come back to haunt this franchise. And then the same complaint is there lobbied often by me, We got to do something. Now, the something might have been Norm Powell, but I- It sure looks like it.

Can I ask you guys?

I'm a little I'm scared, given the recent history.

I will say you're talking about guys who most of the time when you were talking about making those moves were still at the peak of their powers or just starting to tail, where you weren't making the massive moves of the recent lottery picks and multiple first for them. This is a different scenario where you have a guy who's probably at the basement of his value, where maybe you'd be making that swap for a talent, but I just don't know that it is a fit right now.

Let me ask this question. As you guys are all Miami guys, grew up in Miami. I'm definitely Miami guy. Is this market capable of rooting for a team that's scrappy? That's like this right here.

That was how the Miami heat started.

That wasn't until you got Shaq. Then everything changed.

Hard as working, best condition, most hated.

Most physical, nastiest, toughest team in the NBA.

You guys know that's not like- Did you ever see Thunder Day and Marley get a hip into a guy?

Did you see 30 and 11? He did see 30 and 11. He did see 30 and 11. He did see 30 and 11. He When he tossed that Charlotte and Charlie Ward into the crowd?

Did you see Tyler Johnson and James Johnson off the bench?

Come on, we wrote it on the court.

I'm going to tell you guys right now. This is who we are. You are- This is my life. Fugazi. No.

I'm not LeBron D. Wade and Chris Bosh. No, no, no. I'm John Criody and Sasha Denelevin.

Someone who was what? Twelve years old in 2004.

You know about Grant Long?

Someone who was 12 years old in 2004 is now in their 30s. That guy, all they know is we had Shaq, and then we had Dwyane Wade, and we had LeBron.

I was 11 years old when the Heat won the Championship, and I bleed Heat culture.

How dare you? Hold on. Let's not act like this is an old thing.

Are you waxing poetic about Ike Austin? You know what? For Sean Leonard?

No, but I am about Luke Babbit.

Guys, they were that in 2020. When they made it to the bubble final, they were that scrappy- You remember Myers Leonard?

You guys wanted more. You guys wanted more.

Yeah, but we rallied around that team. But the question that you asked, is Miami capable of loving a blue-collar team?

Yes, we are. This is it.

The two most recent finals we've been to, we had that blue-collar team.

So blue-collar.

It's all about winning for heat fans. They don't care about anything else. Plus, if you get- Force and fire. If you get Ja Morant, all of a sudden, it helps you on the most hated category.

Oh, definitely get them boos.

I do miss that, too. That's the spectrum. Blue collar, most hated. Good with both.

6-7 is what you just did.

What's chat about Miller light? That's right. Football season is in high gear. The leaves are turning. That means these football games have more consequence. That means you'll be tense. You want to enjoy these games. Well, I enjoy these It seems like I enjoy these games with a Miller light by my side. It makes tailgating better. It makes catching up with friends easier. Game day just hits different with a Miller light in your hand. From jaw-dropping touch downs to fantasy heartbreak, it's a beer that has been there for every moment. Fifty years of great taste, simple ingredients in that iconic golden color that you can spot from across the room. Look at that beauty. And here's the kicker. It's just 96 calories, 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting five decades later. So whatever your game day looks like, remember, Miller time is always a good time. Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight. Com/dan to find delivery options near you. Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces.