Latest / Bring The Thunder Podcast / All-Star Weekend Chaos Incoming 😤 Events, Games & Predictions | Ep. 38

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All-Star Weekend Chaos Incoming 😤 Events, Games & Predictions | Ep. 38 · Bring The Thunder Podcast

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  You're listening to the Bring the Thunder Podcast, a podcast
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  by fans, for fans. Yes, you are welcome everybody
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  to another episode from the Bring the Thunder podcast.
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  The All Star Weekend is right around the corner.
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  So today myself, Joe and Savior thought we would cover some of
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  the events as well as giving some predictions, some thoughts
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  and opinions on it all. So let's get into this.
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  Joe, why don't you kick us off with the All Star Weekend
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  events? Yeah, well, right before we get
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  to All Star, we do have a quick update today on AJ.
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  Mitchell will not be in the Rising Stars game, which hence
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  says that he's out through All Star Break.
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  Another blow for OKC. For me personally, this doesn't
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  come as a surprise now because there's only two games left and
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  what's the point? But I really thought he was
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  going to return against Denver and he just never got back.
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  But I'm assuming, and this is just an assumption, an educated
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  guess, one would say that he'll be back right after All Star
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  break, same with SGA. But your guys thoughts on AJ
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  being out these next two games against Phoenix and Milwaukee?
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  Yeah, I'm going to agree with you, Joe.
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  It just kind of makes sense that they're taking this All Star
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  weekend to really get him, get him back to 100% essentially.
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  I mean, I was in the same boat as you where it also felt like
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  we were going to get him back for that Denver game.
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  And now we're just still, you know, waiting.
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  And I, I would rather than play it safe and, and take the All
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  Star weekend off and give him more time to just rest.
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  And I mean, we know how important he is to this team.
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  I'm more interested to see what the lineups are going to look
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  like once he's back. Who's going to get minutes?
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  Who's going to lose minutes? I need Jared McCain to still get
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  minutes. And if he starts losing them,
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  I'm I'm going to be a little upset.
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  But we need AJ too. So I'm interested to see where
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  that goes. But for now, I'm happy he's
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  getting the rest he needs. Yeah, Joe asked me the most
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  difficult question on where to get the minute distribution
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  post. And it's before when this
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  question used to rise like it'd be some easy answers of like,
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  OK, this is our top eight guys, this is pretty much who we're
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  going to go with. I think the chat ended up
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  helping me out and I looked over and I think it was Leone who
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  mentioned it's just going to be a game to game decision
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  essentially like on who to play. And I think that's what's going
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  to have to be the case 'cause if you even spend 24 hours, less
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  than 24 seconds on trying to figure out who the Thunder are
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  going to end up playing on a nightly basis, you're going to
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  end up growing Gray hairs. Because it's pretty much
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  impossible to guess outside of four guys that we know are for
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  sure starting. And then that fifth spot seems
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  to be up for grabs a little bit. We could go from, you know,
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  playing big line UPS, small lineups to more offensive,
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  defensive. We have pretty much everything
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  the league wants and we have all our guys locked up, so I think
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  it's just going to come down to the health.
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  One thing Joe was thinking, they may rest SGAA little bit more
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  post ulcer break. At least that's what I'm
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  predicting with the type of injury that he has.
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  It's not one that it's easily recoverable from.
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  It's not like a soft tissue or you know, if you broke a bone or
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  something like that, it's a little bit more difficult 'cause
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  it's in the core area. Every function of your body
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  pretty much depends on it. And so from what I've heard from
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  other people, AKA Kendrick Perkins, it's a really tough one
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  to recover from. So yeah.
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  Yeah, we'll see where he gets back.
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  I mean, if he isn't, hopefully AJ is back and I mean that's
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  they'll be ready to roll after All Star.
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  I'm pretty confident no matter what their that being said,
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  that's your update on AJ Mitchell.
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  We're going to get into these All Star weekend events,
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  previews and predictions here. And boy oh boy, this All Star
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  game might be the worst one yet of all time.
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  But before then, let's start here with the rising stars and
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  this is one that I'm pretty disappointed in because AJ is
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  going to be out and I was looking forward to watching him
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  watching Chet and SGA, but we only get Chet this weekend, but
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  that's OK. So starting with team mellow and
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  I think this one is by far the best.
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  They have Cooper, Flag, Stefan Castle, Dylan Harper, Reed
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  Shepherd, Jeremiah Fears, Donovan Klingen and Colin
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  Murray, Boyles, which obviously Coach Carmelo Anthony, Team T
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  Mac, Kong Knipple, Trey Johnson was going to be AJ Mitchell,
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  Zachary Reisache replaces AJ Mitchell, Khalil Ware, Alex R,
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  Jalen Tyson and Cam Spencer. Obviously Coach T Mac and then
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  Team Vince, VJ Edgecombe, Derek Queen, Keyshawn, George Bozellis
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  from the Bulls, Cedric Coward, Igor Demen from the Nets and
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  Jalen Wells from the Grizzlies. I don't know about you guys, but
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  there's a clear winner of this one.
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  And for me that's Team Carmelo with Flag.
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  I think Flag's going to show out and Castle will show out.
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  Harper's a good player. And then they got Shepherd and
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  Fears as well with Klig and rounded out.
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  I don't think the other two teams can compete at all.
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  I mean, I think of all those rosters that you just listed and
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  all those players, Flag and Castle are the 2 that are like
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  just kind of head and shoulders above the rest.
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  When I hear those names, I mean those two are Flag is obviously
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  having an incredible season right now.
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  He's been on a tear the last like month.
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  He's looked so good. And then Castle, we know what
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  Stefan Castle brings me know what he can do.
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  And he's shown already since last year that he's more than
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  NBA ready. He's more than he's adapting
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  well, he's figuring things out and just having those two on a
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  team together feels a little unfair.
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  That feels like one of those things in in the gym class where
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  you intentionally put two people on different teams and somehow
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  we put the two on the same team. So I don't, I don't love that
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  for the sake of competitiveness, but it is the rising stars where
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  anything can happen. Anyone can win.
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  For all we know. Flag's not going to care, which
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  I do think he will. I think he'll try, but I I
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  don't. I kind of like Vince's team as
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  well, actually. I think Vince has a decent team.
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  I like a lot of the players on his team.
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  But yeah, Joe, if you're just looking at the Rogers, Carmelo
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  Anthony's team is going to sweep, put them in the game,
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  make it more fair. I don't know.
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  Mind you, this was a draft too like.
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  Yeah, that's crazy. About like I understand like the
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  first 2 picks Melo went flag and I believe T Mac went with conk
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  nipple which makes sense. I'm assuming that Vince Carter's
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  first pick was VJ. I would guess it's VJ.
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  But yeah, interesting. Could I have your thoughts?
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  Yeah, Team Carmelo's definitely stacked.
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  The other team that I actually like is Tracy's team,
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  personally. They got Jaylen Tyson over
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  there, con Canupple. Trey Johnson's pretty good.
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  If AJ was playing, I think it'd be an even better chance and
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  opportunity for them. I think it'd be right there with
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  Team Carmelo, in my opinion. But with having Kello over
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  there, Axar, I like those names. Yeah, Alex Ars pretty
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  experienced and solid on defense and just as like a big man duo
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  actually like that over a lot of the guards that are on the other
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  teams, the other two teams. And then they have a lot of like
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  3 point shooting in general and just shot making.
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  So it makes for a good pairing when you have a lot of bigs that
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  can grab rebounds for guys that are going to be shooting the
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  ball at a pretty good volume. So I guess dark horse for me
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  since you guys were talking up the other two teams.
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  Yeah, I mean, one thing I'm taking away from this, and I'm
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  disappointed again, is like, I wanted to see AJ Mitchell get to
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  know what it's like passing and playing with a shooter like Khan
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  Knipple. Obviously he hasn't played with
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  McCain yet. He's played with Isaiah Joe, but
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  Khan's insane. It would have been a whole
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  different version of basketball for AJ Mitchell.
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  It would have been fun to watch, but.
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  Can I tell you guys what the draft results were for this?
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  Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking at this and I'm
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  like, there's no shot like it went like this.
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  I cannot believe it. All right, there's no there's no
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  reason past NBA players or current NBA players should get
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  into organizations unless they get there for a really long
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  time. But Cooper Flag was selected
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  first. That's kind of a no brainer.
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  I think he's the best overall player even as a Duke fan, but
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  just in general. And then con canople goes to T
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  Mac after that VJ Edgecombe completely understandable.
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  At #3 team Vince takes Derrick Queen at #4 at #5T Mac goes back
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  with Kalewar, reach Shepherd by team Mellow and then in a
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  back-to-back pick ends up getting Stefan Castle at #7.
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  I'm not going to keep going down the list and go through this,
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  but to see Castle all the way at 7 is like bro, like what do you
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  have you never watched basketball a day in your life?
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  There's no reason those guys had so many opportunities like four
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  or five chances there from T Mac and pretty much four chance two
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  chances each to get Castle and they pretty much snubbed him for
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  Concanupel Queen Cloware. And yeah, I'm not going to well,
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  Reid was taken by a team mellow, but like I can understand Cooper
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  flag VJ edge couldn't go ahead of him and he drops a three.
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  But for team mellow to get both of those guys in, you know,
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  Cooper flag and then pick up Stefan Castle.
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  That's that's pretty crazy to me how that draft went.
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  I'm surprised someone didn't speak up or say something
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  because as you guys were mentioning, it's clearly not
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  fair. So.
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  That's just ridiculous. I mean, I think there's even an
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  argument potentially to be made to take him overall first
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  because of the just he's had a year already under his belt.
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  And like, I mean I would still take Cooper over him, but that's
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  just how crazy it is that this could have been the first or
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  second pick. And he falls to 7th and not only
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  does he fall to 7th, but Carmelo ends up getting him.
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  But Carmelo takes Reed Shepard first.
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  That's the thing. That's the thing that's crazy to
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  me. I'm like, how do you guys, how
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  does this even work out? And then the picks after that
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  get even worse. I don't want to go through them
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  but like they get. Even worse, the next person.
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  All right, the next person after Stefan Castle at 8 was Trey
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  Johnson and then Keyshawn. Keyshawn, George and then Matos
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  went at 10 and our guy AJ got picked all the way down at 14.
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  I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like, don't want to speak too
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  much about an All Star, you know, draft or whatever, but
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  This is why you don't let you know players kind of into
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  organizations because that's not really what they're good at so.
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  Yeah, I mean, All in all, this is where, you know, NBA All Star
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  Weekend is at. So I mean, it makes perfect
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  sense to be honest. Next, I'm excited for this one.
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  It's been missing for a while. I loved it when I was younger.
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  The key of shooting stars is back.
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  Now. I do absolutely hate the teams,
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  like terribly. But I do remember when we were
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  younger, the Chris Bosh, Dominique Wilkins and I can't
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  remember the WNBA player. I think it was Skyler Diggins
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  would would kill it every year. This year, team All Star, that's
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  quite the name. We have Scotty Barnes, Chet
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  Holmgren and Richard Hamilton, so the best shooter on that team
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  is however old Richard Hamilton is, he's still the best shooter.
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  Team Knicks, Brunson, Towns and Allen, Houston, Team Cameron
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  Con, Knipple, Corey Mcgetty somehow makes his way back into
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  the All Star and Jalen Johnson and team Harper, Dylan Harper,
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  Ron Harper junior and Ron Harper senior.
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  That's pretty cool. Can't lie about that.
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  Personally for me it's a shooting contest and you know
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  they have like 2 shooters out here players now wise.
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  But I would have to go with team Knicks, Brunson, Towns and out
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  in Houston. I think they'll get it done.
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  Yeah, this is interesting. I mean, there's just the teams,
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  like you said, are not the greatest of all time.
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  I think just for fun, I'm going to go with team Harper.
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  I just think it's interesting. It, it, it's like you mentioned,
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  that's just really cool. They were able to get all three
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  of them. So I'll go with team Harper.
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  I mean, realistically I I don't know man, but I'll rock with
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  Team Harper. All right, Team Knicks
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  definitely has the shooting prowess, I feel like for what
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  kind of stuff they're going to be getting into.
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  But I'm going to take take the team All Stars because we got
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  Richard Hamilton out there. I'm sure he hoops here and
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  there. I hope Scotty Barnes is a pretty
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  tough competitor. He's an All Star as well.
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  And then Chet Holmgren is an All Star, So I feel like that's the
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  only close chance. And then Team Cameron, I mean,
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  I'm not too familiar with Jaylen Johnson's shooting abilities.
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  I haven't really watched him too much this season.
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  I know he's definitely improved, but the other, you know, there's
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  legend or whatever I've never really watched too much of.
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  I think Joe can speak a little bit more about him, but I think
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  that's more of like a Charlotte centric squad right there.
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  But I'm going to go with the Team All Stars.
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  Yeah, you're right. Corey Mcgetty was on Charlotte.
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  I played with him in 2K. We were a dynamic duo.
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  That being said, he he only was on Charlotte for one season.
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  But Corey McGinty, yeah, it makes his way back in the NBA
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  All Star. I don't even know if he was ever
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  in the NBA All Star weekend to be quite honest with you, but he
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  makes it in 2026. We'll move on. three-point
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  contest. This one is honestly not
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  terrible. This one's not terrible at all.
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  The headline is Damian Lillard's going to participate in the
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  three-point contest. That pisses me off.
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  The dude hasn't played a single game.
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  He has coming off in the Achilles tear.
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  You got Isaiah Joe just sniping threes in the real, you know
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  when it matters for you and you just don't give a shit.
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  But with that being said, Damian Leward, Devin Booker, Maxi
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  Donovan Mitchell, Jamal Murray, Con Knipple, Norman Powell, and
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  you guessed it, Bobby Portis. So yeah, I, I actually will say
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  this is a, a pretty solid 3 point contest.
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  There's two names on there with Lillard and Bobby Portis Don't
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  make much sense. But for me personally, I'm going
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  with the rookie. I the con connect was great.
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  I think he's fantastic player. I think he's going to take it
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  home, but there's a lot of good shooters out there.
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  Runner up for me would probably be Devin Booker, but I'm going
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  with Khan. I'll I'll have you know Joe
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  Bobby Portis has been a sniper this season.
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  If you guys checked out one of the prop wars videos, I was
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  sweating literally I think I lost 8 lbs on the night.
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  I think I. Was on pure.
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  Sweat. I was waiting for Bobby Portis
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  to hit his second and three of the night, but the damn one
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  pisses me off as well. Joe, it it's you're taking and I
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  know it's the All Star weekend. It's not like the greatest, you
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  know, honor of all time, But you're taking a potential
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  player's spot who has played all season, who has felt like he
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  earned it and replacing it with a guy who's just got name value
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  because he's done this before and has literally not touched
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  the court this season in actual minutes.
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  So that frustrates me. I don't care if it's Isaiah,
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  Joe. I don't care who it is, just
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  giving that to Damian Lillard because his Damian Lillard is
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  something that I just cannot get mine.
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  I think that's ridiculous. Oh, that's.
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  Great. I I don't care.
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  That's awesome. Who cares?
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  I think Tyrese Maxey's taking this one home.
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  I think Max is going to have a really good All Star weekend.
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  I think I mentioned that in a video recently that we did.
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  I think he's going to cook here. I was going to say Con, but but
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  Joe Snipe, that one, I'm not going to take Con from him.
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  So I'll have Con as my runner up though.
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  And then for shits and giggles, we got Bobby Porters in there
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  too. That's crazy that you're saying
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  that about like a 40% three-point shooter at his
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  position. Pretty crazy.
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  But man, this is, you know what, I care.
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  All right, Gabe, I'm taking Davie Lillard to win this, to
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  get his three peat. I care.
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  All right, I I know he's going to do it.
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  And for me, runner up, you guys have chosen Booker Khan, and I
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  guess I'm going to go with you. Who?
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  Who'd you say? I said I had maxi as well.
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  Maxi All right, So I have to choose between Jamal Mitchell
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  and Norman Powell as more of a realistic option because I don't
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  know how much Damian Lizard's like, you know, legs are going
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  to even get off the floor. So I'm going to go with Donovan
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  Mitchell. He's had a really tough season,
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  but I think winning something like this, he's also a really
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  streaky guy and I'm trying to choose the streakiest of the
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  three and all three of them are really streaky shooters.
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  So I'm going, I'm going with Donovan though, just to take my
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  chances. I feel like going into this,
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  he's having some momentum with playing alongside James Harden's
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  shot shucking ass. So go ahead and take that guy,
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  so. I honestly I don't hate that
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  pick. You nailed it.
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  Like if Mitchell gets hot he's insane so it definitely could
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  work. My question before we move on to
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  the worst dunk contest possibly of all time.
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  How is Portland letting Dame do this Like 1?
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  He hasn't played and maybe like they don't care about that, but
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  like, he's coming off an Achilles and you just invested
• 17:41
  back into Damian Lillard. Why?
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  Why are you letting him? Do they don't give a they don't
• 17:46
  give a flying clip about Damian Lillard at this point, that has
• 17:51
  to be the only answer because man, this is like also the same
• 17:55
  case with the Bucks. The Bucks are not shutting down
• 17:59
  Giannis from what it looks like and letting him play out the
• 18:02
  season. And it's like, all right, like
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  some of these organizations just just don't get it.
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  And honestly, I'm OK with that. Some some organization just
• 18:11
  deserve what they get so. It's also just like one other
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  thing like I know the NBA does care about its players, but this
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  if you know, if I was an outsider like I would be like
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  they don't give a fuck about their players throwing this guy
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  in the all started counting like 3 point shooting contest after
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  an Achilles tear. It's just ridiculous.
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  At this point, might as well bring Tatum out there, get a
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  couple, get a couple wheelchairs and maybe help us some other
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  guys. Yeah, that's what I'm saying,
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  man. It's it's they're they're doing
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  whatever they can to build the hype.
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  They're doing whatever they can to make people think that All
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  Star weekend is super relevant and it's just not.
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  And this is a bad look, frankly, bringing in a guy who could
• 18:51
  literally re injure himself in their three-point contest.
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  So like that would be. Horrible.
• 18:56
  I was going to say the only way I'm going to watch this is if
• 18:59
  Jello comes out and performs some musical theatrics.
• 19:03
  I really thoroughly enjoyed that last All Star, so I'd enjoy if
• 19:09
  you'd come out and do a performance on a real note.
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  I hope. Hopefully it's J.
• 19:13
  Cole with his new album so. But that'd be pretty.
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  That's facts. That would be cool, but jello on
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  top. Yeah, both, both of them.
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  Unfortunately, unfortunately, we're moving to the Slam Dunk
• 19:24
  Contest and we'll be watching because we haven't really
• 19:27
  decided yet, but we'll be doing something for the Slam Dunk
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  Contest alive or something like that.
• 19:32
  We'll have our own slam dunk contest.
• 19:34
  Yeah, maybe a mini hoop. Might as well.
• 19:39
  All right, in the slam dunk contest, you have Carter Bryant,
• 19:42
  rookie from the San Antonio Spurs.
• 19:44
  Who's played. Can I count on my hands how many
• 19:47
  games he's played for the actual Spurs this year?
• 19:49
  He's probably Jackson Hayes from the Los Angeles Lakers.
• 19:54
  Yes, he he spayed in a game the other day, but Christ almighty,
• 19:59
  Jackson Hayes from the Los Angeles Lakers.
• 20:01
  To follow it, you have a small guard whose father was
• 20:06
  absolutely insane and dunk contest, but he's just not his
• 20:11
  father. And that's Jason Richardson from
• 20:13
  Michigan State, from the Orlando Magic, who found out on Twitter,
• 20:17
  it seemed. He was in a dunk contest.
• 20:19
  He he, you know, he saw the tweet and was like, actually, so
• 20:24
  you have Jace Richardson, who you know, he could get up a
• 20:27
  little, but I haven't seen anything too crazy, especially
• 20:31
  even in Michigan State. He was one year there and he
• 20:34
  shot Johnson from the Miami. He don't even ask me who that
• 20:37
  is. And you know what?
• 20:39
  I did my research. I'm ready for this.
• 20:42
  I'm ready. For this you can.
• 20:44
  Start it, I got you. I'll educate you guys and
• 20:47
  everyone watching on the Slim. I'm taking Keyshot Johnson by
• 20:50
  the way. Give me Keyshot.
• 20:51
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a reason you don't know
• 20:53
  his name, because this guy can jump out of the gym.
• 20:56
  In literal terms, he has the most.
• 20:59
  If you literally Google what his vertical is, you'll like shit
• 21:03
  your pants up real quick. I cannot wait for this.
• 21:06
  Both of you guys look it up in real time and this guy is
• 21:10
  actually insane. When I looked it up and I was at
• 21:13
  work and they were mentioning the slam dunk contest, I was
• 21:15
  like oh I'll just look up all these guys and it's like bro
• 21:18
  this guy is going to destroy the competition.
• 21:21
  No ends ifs or buts about it. What do you guys think?
• 21:25
  Yeah, 42 inch vert. 42 inch vert is yeah, that's.
• 21:29
  That'll work, Jackson. Hayes sure is how it hit 40. 2
• 21:33
  inch vertical so Jackson Hayes vertical is about 3534 Jayce
• 21:38
  Richardson, surprisingly, surprisingly at a six one guard,
• 21:41
  he's actually a really good shooter and a skillful player.
• 21:45
  So it's kind of weird that he's in the dunk contest, but he's
• 21:48
  got like a 38 inch vertical. So it's not horrible like he's
• 21:51
  not going to be, it's not going to look horrible, but it's still
• 21:55
  not like a 40 inch vert. And then I'm blinking.
• 22:00
  Who's the other guy we got in here?
• 22:01
  Carter Bryant. I think he had a pretty decent,
• 22:04
  pretty decent vertical as well from what I remember when I
• 22:06
  researched him. So I mean, I think it's a three
• 22:09
  person race. I think Jackson Hayes being out
• 22:12
  there is like the most insane thing.
• 22:14
  Like 1. I don't like him as a player
• 22:16
  because of the play style that he has.
• 22:18
  And then on top of it, he's just a rim rattler guy kind of guy.
• 22:21
  Like he is the definition of on a fast break, barely touching
• 22:26
  and scraping by the rim and then falling on his face essentially
• 22:29
  half the time. So don't understand why he's
• 22:32
  there. Not going to enjoy.
• 22:34
  If I had to put any money down for any of the betters I'd
• 22:37
  probably bet on him not to make it through to the next round.
• 22:42
  But that's just me hating on him.
• 22:43
  No, I don't even think that's hate.
• 22:45
  I think you're probably right. It's just.
• 22:47
  An objective. I'm just going to assume it's
• 22:49
  Keyshaw Johnson and Carter Bryant, but like, yeah, that was
• 22:54
  green assault, I guess, right? Carter's got a near 40 inch
• 22:59
  vert, so I mean, he's pretty tall.
• 23:01
  So I mean, it could help out. I think it's definitely still a
• 23:05
  three man race because we could see some crazy dunks if they get
• 23:09
  coached up maybe or do something unique.
• 23:12
  But Nah, the Johnson kid should definitely take this.
• 23:15
  Like he makes one of those and he's going to be looking like
• 23:17
  freaking Air Jordan out there. Got 21 games played this year so
• 23:22
  is everything so I guess all right let's move on to yeah
• 23:28
  something that just needs to go back to the original because
• 23:30
  this is insane NBA All Star game let's go over the format before
• 23:35
  we get into the. Raw Games Games.
• 23:38
  NBA All Star games of 12 minutes each Get your popcorn ready and
• 23:43
  and and and and just sit down and relax and enjoy the 12
• 23:47
  minute games all right. Structure three teams of at
• 23:52
  least eight players, including two US squads divided by age,
• 23:57
  the stars in the stripes and one international slash World Team.
• 24:02
  The structure is a round Robin tournament consisting of 412
• 24:06
  minute games. Game one will be USA Stars
• 24:10
  versus Team World. Game 2, winner of game one
• 24:14
  versus stripes. Follow stay stay with me here.
• 24:19
  Game three, loser of game one verse stripes, Sure.
• 24:24
  And then the top two teams with the best records will be in the
• 24:27
  championship game. OK.
• 24:30
  I'm not going to repeat it. I still don't really understand
• 24:33
  it so I will just be just watch I.
• 24:34
  Guess I don't, I don't even understand it.
• 24:36
  I've tried, I've tried to follow it and I'm like, they're
• 24:39
  essentially saying that Team Stripes is for sure pretty much
• 24:44
  in there and then it's just a battle between Team World and if
• 24:49
  the other team actually wants to win anything.
• 24:53
  So. So here's here's the rosters you
• 24:55
  get too and then stay with me here on this one because Jesus,
• 24:59
  USA stars, right? The two USA teams are divided by
• 25:03
  8. So you get this the young stars
• 25:04
  here you got Scotty Barnes, Cade Cunningham and Edwards.
• 25:08
  Jaylen Johnson, Tyrese Maxey, Chet Holmgren, Jaylen Dern and
• 25:11
  Devin Booker. Pretty solid coaches JB
• 25:14
  Bickerstaff pretty solid. I'm assuming the starters will
• 25:16
  be like Cade and maybe Chet. Maxine Barnes I I would presume
• 25:23
  I guess. And then you go to USA Stripes,
• 25:26
  right? Because you got to have two USA
• 25:27
  teams. Why not?
• 25:29
  Curry's injured, he won't play. So you get Brunson, Jaylen
• 25:31
  Brown, KD, LeBron, Donovan Mitchell, Brandon Ingram who
• 25:34
  replaced Curry, Kawhi and Norman Powell.
• 25:37
  You know they'll probably be OK. They got 2 legends there,
• 25:41
  LeBron, KD. It would have been nice if Curry
• 25:42
  was there. He's always great to watch and
• 25:44
  the All Star at least. And then you come to this and
• 25:47
  Mitch Johnson's a coach, by the way, this first coach, then you
• 25:50
  go down the world, OK, this word gets it gets kind of messed up
• 25:53
  here. I'm just going to assume the
• 25:56
  starting, oh, wait, Shay's out. I'm going to Shay's out.
• 25:59
  But he was on this team. I'm going to assume the starters
• 26:01
  will be Luka Doncic. I don't even know.
• 26:07
  Maybe Jamal Murray, Giannis, Victor and Jokic.
• 26:14
  The team rounds out outside of those 5.
• 26:16
  Danny Avia, Haskal Siakam, Karl Anthony Towns.
• 26:23
  And. Shengun, sorry, so like 87
• 26:27
  footers and it would have been the best guard in the world with
• 26:31
  Shay, but he's out. If that team wants to win,
• 26:35
  they're going to dominate it. Dominate it like there's no
• 26:38
  reason they shouldn't. The one reason they might not is
• 26:42
  I don't. Is Giannis going to be
• 26:43
  participating? I don't think so, right?
• 26:44
  He hasn't gotten taken out like there hasn't been a reserved yet
• 26:47
  for him. That's kind of weird that hasn't
• 26:50
  been taken out because I suspect he's not playing because his
• 26:55
  timetable is still 4 weeks to return as of today.
• 26:58
  I was just looking at it for some random reason.
• 27:00
  So yeah, he should have some injury replacement.
• 27:03
  Or it could be the case of like a LeBron James type situation
• 27:06
  where his name's just a little too big for him to have an
• 27:09
  injury replacement. Yeah.
• 27:11
  Because, yeah, because we've seen that with LeBron, like he
• 27:16
  may not even get any minutes, but he's still out there, that
• 27:19
  type of thing. So that that's something to
• 27:22
  suspect. One thing that's kind of unique
• 27:25
  about the Team World is with Isca, the guard defense drops
• 27:29
  off of pretty much of A Cliff. And that's kind of where I'm
• 27:32
  worried for Team World is they don't have many defend defenders
• 27:37
  throughout that roster other than it looks like Victor, maybe
• 27:41
  Pascal plays a little bit of defense and then Giannis isn't
• 27:44
  even going to be out there. So I think maybe from a
• 27:48
  defensive standpoint, it's going to be really funny to watch
• 27:51
  maybe the young guys against Team World.
• 27:53
  Yeah, now that I have it in front of me really quick, maybe
• 27:57
  Team World isn't as powerful as I thought because SGA is out and
• 28:01
  Giannis is out. So that leaves them with Jamal,
• 28:03
  Luka, Jokic Towns and Victor Wimbunyama I assume so still
• 28:08
  insane but you're right. Like the USA guards can can
• 28:14
  probably like Anna Edwards, K Cunningham, Devin Booker, Tyrese
• 28:17
  Maxi could probably cause some damage so maybe it will be kind
• 28:20
  of exciting. The only problem there is Gabe,
• 28:22
  you only get 12 minutes of excitement.
• 28:26
  The other problem is it's All Star game so defense is
• 28:29
  meaningless. Like I just I, I do agree that
• 28:33
  they don't have anyone can play defense and if they do try to
• 28:35
  like turn it up and play defense, they're not going to be
• 28:37
  able to. But like 90% of teams are just
• 28:40
  not going to be playing defense anyway.
• 28:42
  Is this just going to be which offense works better?
• 28:45
  But I think what kind of hurts the team world for me is
• 28:48
  actually Jokic. He just doesn't give a flying
• 28:51
  shit about anything. Like he he could walk off with
• 28:55
  like 2 points and three rebounds and he'll be like unfazed, like
• 28:59
  nothing mattered. It was like, all right, I'm
• 29:01
  here. So honestly, I think that young
• 29:04
  team, the team stars have a good chance because they have Ant.
• 29:07
  I mean, honestly, Ant's one of those guys who wants to succeed.
• 29:09
  He wants to play good and they have a lot of young guys who
• 29:12
  might want to go out and do good.
• 29:13
  But the stripes also might succeed because it's going to be
• 29:16
  the, you know, the story of LeBron and the older guys trying
• 29:19
  to take take on the young, the young Bulls and and all that
• 29:22
  crap. So I don't really know.
• 29:24
  I I think I'll go with team stars as well.
• 29:27
  I think you mentioned that, Joe. I think that's where I'm at is
• 29:30
  the young guys. They got something to prove.
• 29:32
  I don't know. I think I'm leaning it towards
• 29:38
  you guys as well because I mean, I'm looking at both rosters that
• 29:41
  are injured up and down, and they don't really have too many
• 29:45
  guys that are looking like they're going to play for real.
• 29:47
  Like Kawhi's not going to care, Lebron's not caring too much,
• 29:50
  KD's not going to care too much. I mean, Jaylen Brunson could
• 29:55
  care. Jaylen Brown couldn't care.
• 29:57
  But I don't suspect that to be the case.
• 29:59
  I know Donovan's definitely going to play his heart out.
• 30:03
  And then Victor Women, Yama obviously is going to play his
• 30:06
  heart out for that team and Jamal's already said he's going
• 30:08
  to be playing pretty hard. But outside of that, like all
• 30:12
  the guys on the USA Stars, though, those guys, all of them
• 30:16
  are pretty much dogs. I'm looking at the whole roster.
• 30:18
  Like they all love to hoop. They all go really hard
• 30:22
  throughout the whole regular season.
• 30:23
  So I probably could see them taking this.
• 30:26
  I know I'm just going to throw a proposition out there.
• 30:30
  Hear me out here. What if they just took all of
• 30:32
  these great NBA players, put them on two teams and played a
• 30:34
  game? Joe, that's too easy.
• 30:38
  That's way too easy. I didn't mean a 12 minute game.
• 30:41
  Oh well then the no deal. Like.
• 30:45
  Not next next year, Joe. We're going to have six teams
• 30:48
  and they're going to play 6 minute quarters.
• 30:50
  Bro it's going to be the two expansion teams versus the All
• 30:52
  Stars. Like NBA is going to be a shit
• 30:55
  show. Maybe just figured out another
• 30:58
  thing for our members only video.
• 31:00
  Sign up for a membership if you if you just go sign up for a
• 31:03
  membership anyway, that really does it for NBA All Star
• 31:06
  weekend. I'm excited to, you know, work
• 31:10
  with you guys and whatever we create is going to be pretty
• 31:12
  cool. That's it's always great.
• 31:14
  But other than that, like I'll watch 3 point contest, like
• 31:17
  actually excited for the three-point contest.
• 31:20
  I will. I'm excited for the shooting
• 31:21
  stars just because it has some like nostalgia to it for me.
• 31:24
  But other than that, what a shit show.
• 31:28
  What a shit show this is going to be.
• 31:31
  I think this is finally the year that they go back, you know, the
• 31:34
  end of it. And next year they'll go back to
• 31:36
  the two teams because I don't know if you guys remember last
• 31:39
  year there was about four hours worth of commercials and like
• 31:44
  talking like Kevin Hart, just talking nonsense like Kevin
• 31:47
  Hart's hilarious. We talked way too much during
• 31:51
  the during the game. So we'll see.
• 31:53
  And I'm sure we'll get 19 musical performances as well.
• 31:57
  So you guys have any other thoughts on All Star Break?
• 32:00
  I think you summed that up. I think the one problem, yeah,
• 32:03
  the biggest problem that I had with it was how short the game
• 32:07
  felt with how many ads were being displayed.
• 32:10
  I felt like it was a little too, like I rarely comment on that
• 32:13
  because I understand they got to make money, that type of thing.
• 32:16
  Like totally get it. But last year, like I actually
• 32:19
  turned it off because I was like, all right, like I can't
• 32:21
  even watch the game without there being an ad pushed in
• 32:24
  front of me. And that's something that I
• 32:26
  absolutely kind of despise. So hopefully they don't do that
• 32:29
  between each of the quarters and it turns into a 30 minute
• 32:32
  segment each time and I'm sitting there waiting for the
• 32:35
  next game because I promise you maybe after the first go around
• 32:39
  on that like I'm out of there, there's no way so.
• 32:43
  All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for turning into the
• 32:45
  Bring the Thunder podcast how to blast today talking about NBA
• 32:48
  All Star and just laughing about it because it's how terrible
• 32:51
  it's it is. Update on AJ Mitchell, we got
• 32:55
  done. If you like the video, like the
• 32:59
  video, subscribe to the channel, turn post notifications on go
• 33:02
  get yourself a membership. I don't know why you aren't
• 33:04
  signed up already. And Thunder up baby, let's go.