Latest / The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast / Timberwolves Basketball: Lore/A-Rod Win Arbitration! Naz, Jaden, & Young Players Stepping Up!

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Timberwolves Basketball: Lore/A-Rod Win Arbitration! Naz, Jaden, & Young Players Stepping Up! · The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Minnesota basketball fans. Welcome back to the Living and Loserville Podcast.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's been a long time, okay. Obviously, you know, if
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you're new to this podcast, it is about the Timberwolves
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: slash Gophers, right we mainly focus in on the Timberwolves. Obviously,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: with the Gophers having some struggles in recent years hasn't
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: helped the segment. But we're here to talk basically like
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the last eight games or so, you know, not not
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: one by one and break them down twenty minutes a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: piece or anything like that, but just kind of catch
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: up where we left off. I did try to record
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: two separate times. One time it was technical issues. One
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: time I was summoned in a in somewhat of a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: positive way anyway, so I couldn't do it. So yeah,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: uh so, yeah, that that's where i've been. You know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: life gets in the way sometimes. Like I said, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: tried to record this twice and it just didn't work.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: But it's good to go right now, so we're gonna
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: go with it. So yeah. Obviously, the last time we spoke,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Dante had just came up kind of gimpy in the game,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and then we found out, you know, he's gonna be hurt.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Not long after that, Randall gets hurt. Conley kind of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: gets hurt. He hasn't missed a lot of games, but
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he did get hurt. So we're gonna we're gonna break
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: down just where we're at right now. Obviously, we get
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: an All Star break coming off a big, big win.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: It's crazy we Timberwolves, you know, they they lose the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Bucks in a winnable game and then turn right around
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and beat the best team in the league right now,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: or at least them in Cleveland right as far as
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the regular season. Of course, can't just discount Boston or
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: something like that. But yeah, it was wild how that goes.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes it's just it. Had they I was
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: talking to someone the other day, just yesterday, I think
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: they said, you know, had Giannis played, we probably would
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: have beat him, you know, just getting up for certain opponents.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: We've definitely had an issue with that. We did have
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a five game winning streak in there, though, you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we had a nice run. So yeah, we're gonna break
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: it all down. Obviously, Nas and McDaniels have definitely stepped
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: up their game. Rudy's picking it up of late. The
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: big story. Speaking of late, has been the youth, the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: youth movement, Dillingham, Terrence Shannon, Jalen Clark coming in giving
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: us big minutes, especially on the defensive event. So we'll
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: talk about that obviously, now that we've shown that we
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: have more depth with the youngins, will the ape man,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: you know, rotation stick once Randall and Dante come back,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and then you know, clunch time, clutch games. It's been
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a struggle man and in company. You know, there's been
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that thing that's gone a little viral of late with Aunt.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I think it's two of twenty one from the field
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: my last you know, I'm game tying or go ahead,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: fourth quarter, overtime stuff, not the numbers you want. And
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: then you know, I mean ding dong, the Witch is dead,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Bill Lori and a rod by the team. I'll give
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: you my thoughts on that, then preview the next chunk
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of games. Obviously, in that time, I talked a little
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: bit about the trade deadline. I didn't think they make
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a move. I thought that, you know, I just maybe
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a minor one that wouldn't have surprised me. I'll get
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: my thoughts on that. As far as the durant stuff
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that people are talking about, how that was at least
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: being talked about and what that means for the summer.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: But yeah, just kind of preview the upcoming games before
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: we do another podcast. The aim was probably like every
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: ten days or so, sometimes a little shorter, not much
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: longer than that. As far as instead of doing a
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: weekly on the same night, because the last couple of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: years we've ran into where we were literally doing the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: podcast during a game and stuff like that. I don't
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: think that's all that effective. But later here in the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: season we will have Aaron on from time to time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's what we're gonna that's what we're
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: gonna get into. And and by the way, I almost
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: forgot the lead here. So the podcast now just you know,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you can find it under Ropindover Radio, right, but it's
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: on Spricker is the homepage. It's available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in a variety of other places Player, fn, Amazon. But
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: during the switchover from blog Talk to Spricker, I didn't realize,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: like Apple Podcasts, it'd be like a separate account. So
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: now there's two rope Adover radios, which I thought it
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: was just going to be like very easily, you know, changed.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't think that'd be an issue, so I apologize.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I have had people reach out to me for a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: variety of these podcasts saying, hey, where's the show. So
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that's the problem. I'm trying to fix it, trying to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: get that updated to where it just blends into what
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I already had on Apple podcasts. It's kind of crazy,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: but yeah, so bear with me there. I've been having
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: computer issues on getting new computer as well, so so yeah, anyway,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: if this is your first time, thank you, tell a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: friend to tell a friend about the switchover. While you're
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: at it, head on over to the gruelingtew dot com
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: at Sports News twenty four. One more thing from direct
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: TV stream. You know, there's a lot going on this
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: week in the All Star Game for the NBA, the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Daytona five hundred, just a variety of struck stuff, and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you can you can take care of it, you know,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: take take advantage of this deal. Stream every screen in
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the house, unlimited in house streams for Direct TV stream.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Now everyone can watch whatever they want. You're welcome. They
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: still have that MySports Beta, the sports package built for fans.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Still got that limited time off for forty nine for
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the first three months, you could try that free. I
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: think it's a five day trial. The entertainment package starts
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: at eighty six ninety nine. Local fans of the Timbrels
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: face a duel is included in the Choice pack of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: just one fourteen ninety nine per month, and then the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: ultimate is one nine per month with over one hundred
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and sixty channels. Okay, so, like I said, we were
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: just just kind of talking about a variety of stuff.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: The first show I did was after the the Viking
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: season was done, and it was I don't think I've
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: done one. In February, I tried, like I said, two
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: separate times, but I had computer issues and then and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: then you know, something came up, so I couldn't do
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the show. So without Randal, we are four and four.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Without Randal on the lineup. We are ten and six
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: with no DiVincenzo in the lineup. The four and four
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: with no Randall, like I said we did, we were
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: basically we had a five game winning streak with him.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Though too you could see Dante had moved in to
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the starting lineup. What was it four and one or
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: something like that. Small sample size, but you could kind
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of see it was a better fit than commonly this year,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: so and it looked like both players that we traded for,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Randall and de Vincenzo, were starting to really settle into
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: what we need him to do and kind of highlight
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: what they're good at and what they can bring to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: this team. You know, Randall talked about how he's been
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: wired to score so much, and it did appear, you know,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: there was some positive stuff going on as far as
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: ball movement and just taking advantage sometimes of his physicality
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in the post, but also not overdoing it and running
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: into traffic and turning the ball over or just taking
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: bad shots type of thing. So you know, in some sense,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like a blessing in disguise as far
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: as being able to play, because I don't think anyone
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: really believes that we're gonna win a championship this year
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: or something like that, or even get to the finals
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: or something like that. So in the end, you know,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: we did get them more comfortable. Sucks that they got hurt,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: but we have found out, like I said, with the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: young players, a lot more about the squad. So it's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: kind of back and forth when it comes to that.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Now a lot of people are calling for for nas
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to stay in the starting lineup. Whether that happens, I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: don't know. I heard recently on one of the Dame
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: More episodes that they were saying, if there is a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you know, like a minute, you know limitation, that bringing
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: him off the bench makes more sense that way, And
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: you have seen that on our team and other teams too,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: that would make sense. Will Dante go right back in
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the starting lineup. He's been out for you know, much longer,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: so double the time. So we'll see how that all
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: plays out. But yeah, just kind of quickly reviewing, Like
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that Utah game, that's where I think Randall got hurt. Actually,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, he only played like ten minutes
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Nas was really lighting it up
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in that game, you know, doing his thing, and you know,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it just all kind of came together in that game.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of positivity, a lot of assists,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of just smart smart basketball. Clark hit his
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: first three in that game, if I remember correctly, I
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: think it was that Utah game, and there was a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: point there where Aunt had twenty four points. Whether whether
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: he was scoring on or he accumulated twenty four points,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: whether it was a sister scoring so you know, the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Utah game was was a damn good you know, showing
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: no doubt about it. But you also have like the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Washington game right where it's you know, it was weird
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: because Nas I think early third hurt his finger, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you know, we had so many people out that game
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that it was even though they're struggling so much, we
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: just we couldn't do much about it. You know, it
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: just seemed like the offense just just ran out of steam. Unfortunately.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: You know, McDaniels was the leading scorer in that game.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Dealing had had you know, had I think seven assists
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: or something like that. But we had some early turnovers.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: We had like five really early in the game. Washington
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: was like nine to fifteen from three. They were they
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: were getting it in but still it was only like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: fifty seven fifty six and a half. But yeah, just
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: just more turnovers. Man. It was just ugly. But and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: we even with like seven minutes left it was ninety
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: three to ninety Wolves were up. You know, Washington took
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it right back. It was ninety nine to ninety ninety nine,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: ninety three with three fifty two left. It was a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: bad loss still because it was there to be had
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: they missed like four straight threes. It just it was
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: just an ugly way to go out. You know, sac game,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: you know, Nas had thirty points, Rudy is doing this
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: thing kindly had like nine assists, and Nas did return.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, we're gonna miss nos now too,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you know, but he did return, thank thankfully and as well.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's like that has become a rivalry.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I think it was what ten straight games where the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: road team has won. You know, that's pretty crazy. Yeah,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: ten straight road wins. It's just the road teams like,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: no problem. I was hoping we'd be able to break
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: that streak, but yeah, I mean these winnable games, you know,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it was it's just rough man and was pretty sloppy
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: down the stretch, dribbling turnovers. You know, it's like they're
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: sending they were really launching the double beyond the three
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: point line. And if felt like he could have got
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you know, could have got it early, could have got
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: rid of it earlier. Derosion was just killing us. And
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: there's times where like nahs or not, we could have
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: grabbed a rebound. It was just it was just ugly, dude,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: it and it wasn't an ugly game per se, it's
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: just the way it ended. It was just like, dude,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: why can't we win these tight games? And obviously that's
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: been an issue the whole year. Then you look at
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the Bulls game, right, and we got like on a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: three game lose. So we won five in a row,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: then we lose to in a row, win three lose
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: to Now we've won a game, you know, to close
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: out the until break. Obviously, you know, we got a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: great start, like I think it was like twelve to two,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and then at some point it was like twenty two
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to seven or something like that. Twenty two to four
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: actually looking at my notes, and they gave up a
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: fair amount of points. They did score thirty nine though
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, so it was thirty nine to thirty after
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you know one and the Bulls you know, took the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: lead in that they had like an eight zero run.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Bulls were up, but Ants started heating up, hitting threes
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and whatnot, and we did have a lead there and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Ant was going off, you know, he was really going
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: off doing his thing. At think he had twenty and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the third quarter something like that, and they just kept
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: them at range. They used like a their defense was
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: was really tightening up. They used like a sixteen to
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: seven rundown the stretch and had forty nine points in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: seventeen at eighteen from the freight through line. Nas and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Rudy were definitely solid. So yeah, I mean the the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Houston game game and this was a fun game. And
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: people keep saying that if we ever get into if
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: we get in a series with them one, it feels
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: like we can match up with them in two. I mean,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: it'd be a great series because that was a feisty,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: feisty game, and you know, we really close strong, like
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that was kind of that's how we kind of did that.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I think it was the Portland game as well, whereas
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: like the last stretch, we just closed it out really
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: really well. There was a point early in the fourth
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: quarter game fourth quarter of that game where the Rockets
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: were up a little bit. Mcganial said, got in a
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: fourth fall. I don't know how good that was, but
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: you know, good of call, but it is what it is.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: But they outscored in like eight to three with Ann
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: on the bench, and Ant came back started going off
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: as well. At the that was the game he hit
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: his thousand and three, but yeah, they had a twenty
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to six run, you know, to close out the game.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And of course I'm not asking him, you know, I
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: don't expect that all, you know, every game or anything
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: like that, but it just it was nice to see
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: him in a tight game and then just close it out.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: The Portland game, they didn't have aunt Uh Dillingham I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: believe got his first start, if I remember correctly, really sloppy,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: slow start for both Timberwills went on a nice little run,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: did have a lead, but they gotta gave it up
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and it was a close game. You saw Dialingham struggle
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: in the first half, but then you know, started doing
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: better in the in the in the third quarter, second
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: half in general. And Jaden, you know, even third quarter
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: twenty points five of eleven, really doing his thing. They
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: closed a third quarter out really well. And we've been
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: having issues closing orders, right Portland was up ninety one
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: eighty seven with seven forty nine left. The bench was
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: going crazy. That's something we've seen a lot of obviously,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: and they just closed the game once again and they
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: got enough cushion to close it out and you know,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: like cleanly, more than cleanly win that game. We held
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: them to a you know, under ninety eight, and like
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I said, they were coming in hot. That's that game
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: where Jaden had like thirty I think he had ten
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: boards in that game too. Now the Cavs game, I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: mean you really, that start to the game was just horrendous.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: It was just a bad as bad as it gets,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: let's just put it that way. So they fought back
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: in the game. You give them a little credit, no doubt,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: because you have to there. But it's like, I don't know, man,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, Edwards went for forty four and all that,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: but you know, you just can't start a game like that. Actually,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: what was that first quarter? I think I forgot to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: write it down because I was in shock thirty to twelve,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, that's just that was ridiculous, man.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And then we took on the Bucks no Yannis, no dame,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: once again winnable game. We're down eighty five seventy nine
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: with the seven minutes left, and it was tied up
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: like under five minutes to go. It was right there,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: even ninety eight to eighty nine with a buck fifty left.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: The Bucks were up, but that's nothing nas hits A
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: three were up with forty four seconds, Porter Junior ties it,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: An misses a jumper, Rudy gets a fall, Lopez hits
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: both three dows. They're up by one and An't missus
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: three to try to win the game, which we'll Getn't
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: do as well now the okay, see, like I said,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, welcome home chat, that's what.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: That's what. After that nasty dunk with the commercial spot
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to go with it, thirty seven and twenty four. At
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter, Naz had like ten
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: points four to six from the field. We got a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: big spark by Shannon off the bench. Naz was, like
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I said, doing his thing. He had these nice like
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: short little hooks and runners in the lane. Shannon actually
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: had this off balance like half hook himself to close.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: They were up sixty four to fifty six at half,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and before you know it, you're not like I thought,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: oh we're up. You know we're up at half. We
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: got this thing, but it was sixty eight to sixty
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: eight fairly quick, right. They tie it up. Then the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Timberls push him away a little bit. Seventy ninety to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: seventy was seven minutes left. Nas already up to twenty
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: five points had maybe is probably his best complete game.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: In that game, nah, I had a you know, a
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: timely three as well. There was great ball movement. You know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: they were obviously really small out there, so you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of like Jalen Clark, played great defense. You know.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: There it was like some somewhere in the late third
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: quarter I wrote down on my notes it was nineteen
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to eight second chance points, which isn't always our our
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: great point. Garza came in, got two buckets and poked away,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you know, something on defense. Garza and Rob really doing
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: their thing. Ten two run, We widened it open and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: just run away with the game. You know, there was
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the bench did really good. Like I said, twenty seven
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and nineteen at some point McDaniels had a great game.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: You know, it just looked great. I hate to keep
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: saying that word, but it did. And you know, with
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the remaining schedule overall, you know, in the short term,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it's tough games. Right. We got to play a home game, well,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we got to play at Houston, fly home and Sunday
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: play Oklahoma and then fly to Oklahoma and play them
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: again Oklahoma City. So and then we got the Lakers,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: who are hot lately, Utah, whatever, Phoenix and Philly, Charlotte,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Miami and San Antonio, Denver, Orlando. But when you start
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to add it up, you know, we played Denver again,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and we played Memphis, and milwaukee'll probably be that healthy
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: by the time we play them. But we have the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: least difficult schedule to close the season. And I remember
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: last time we talked to him, something like a was
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: it seventeen or eighteen maybe it's nineteen games in like
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: thirty five nights. It was the first time they had
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: two days off the last time we spoke, you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: so it was kind of a crazy schedule. I remember
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: last year. I think we only had two or three
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: back to backs, and then down the stretch we had
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: like eleven of them or something. We had like the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: second most or something like that. So we've gotten the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: most difficult part of the schedule. Odd the way, as
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: far as you know what's left, it starts pretty tough.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Like I mentioned, But you know, when will Dance and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Randall come back? We don't know exactly. You'd assume DiVincenzo
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: has a chance to return here pretty soon if you
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: go off the reports. But the reevaluated thing you know,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: getting back to where you're playing five on five practicing.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: You know, would he be back by the end of
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: this coming week Friday? I doubt it. So this tough
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: stretch where we got the Lakers, Okay City twice and Houston,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if either either one of those guys
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: are gonna be back. To be honest, you know, I
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: want them to be back, but I just don't know,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, so you know, we got all
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the way up to what sixth or something like that.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I think we got the sixth in the uh in
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the seeding, I'm pretty sure it was sixth, and just
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: because you know, you win five in a row, it's
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: gonna bump you up. You know, we ended in the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: seventh spot, only a game out of sixth, and even
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: that home court advantage, you know, we're only three and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: a half games back. So the home stuff last I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: talked about this last time.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: The home games have to they're sixteen and they they're
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: sixteen and thirteen at home, they're fifteen and twelve on
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: the road.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Like, that's just we can't have that. You know, you
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: gotta play better at home. And yes, you could say
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: some injuries other than that, but the Timbrelves are so
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: lucky early, like not even early, but just for the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: first up until recently really till late January with injuries,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: they were really lucky with that. So, like I said,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the combination of Nods and McDaniel's stepping up, especially McDaniels,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: he's really come around. He's not just not just missing
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: a bunch of corner threes. You know, he's starting to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: be more proactive on offense and getting the shots he wants.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Some of the mid range stuff if he gets close enough,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: is pretty damn good. I also heard a stat I
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: think it was on Dan Moore's show about he has
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the best percentage on long twos and when you look
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: at his game, you're like, yeah, I guess that makes sense.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: But just everything, you know, the guy has been really
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: really good. And same with nas. Put him in the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: starting up last year, starting lineup last year. He did
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: really well this year as well. So and like I said,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Rudy seems to be picking it up. Michael Calmley before
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: that injury, started picking it up a little bit. But Dillingham,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I guess you could say of late some
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: of the shooting hasn't been all that great, you know
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in recent games, but overall he has given us quality stuff.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Like I said, scoring not as much right of late.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I think he's had like a one double digit in
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the last five or something like that. Yeah, it was
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: thirteen points. He did get a start in there, but
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, he's just played are like there
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: was you know, he had a twelve point game of
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: fifteen to ten and nineteen. But recently, as I said,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: it hasn't been as good. He does have a some
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: pretty good five assists, six assists, seven assists games. Not
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a ton of turnovers. Defensively, that is something that he's
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: gonna have to figure out just based off size in
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: other stuff. But he you know, he's moving his feet
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: out there. It's I don't think he's he has a liability,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: but I also think that the shots he can get
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: in the offense and create, especially off the bench, like that,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: he is something that we're gonna need and we've needed
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: really bad. You know. So he's been playing pretty good
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: just shooting wise, a little funky or whatever. But Jalen
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Clark coming in with that defense, he's even you know,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: he's hit some threes. He's pretty assertive, he's either gonna shoot,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the three year is gonna drive. But his defense and
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: that's also helped a guy like McDaniel's not have to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: be on the ball the whole time. So Jalen Clark
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: has been you know, he doesn't get you in trouble
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: offensively much and he's just been a great defender man,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and he's given us really positive minutes. And then not
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: long after Shannon, you know, Terrence Shannon the rook has
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: done really well too, defensively and offensively. He gave us
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a nice spark not long ago. So Garza has played
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: well in recent time too. Yeah. I mean his last
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: two games he had eleven point six assists, and then
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: he had thirteen points and six rebounds. So he's definitely,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: you know, on the up and up, kind of a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: long linky six to sixth, you know, swing guy. And
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: when you got these type of you know, with this
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: youth movement, like I said, Gars is in there too,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: you can mix not necessarily young young, but Dillingham, Shannon
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: junior obviously rookies and even Clark not all that old, right,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: you know, not well, I suppose he's been twenty three
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: for a while now. But my point is just having
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: that depth, you know, is key for the stretch run,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and that does bring us to you know, Finch will
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: least stick what they eight man, will it be nine man?
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't doubt if it comes to matchups, you know,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: if you're playing a smaller lineup, then you know you
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: go off the matchups. But I do think some of
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: these guys have to play because they've they've earned it.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: They've earned it. Now some of them will go to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the bench. They're still they're not gonna get as much
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: minutes as they've gotten obviously, but it's just good to
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: not just for this year, but for the coming years,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: right I think it has been key now. That win
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: over Oklahoma City was phenomenal, right, a little frustrating because
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: we dropped some other ones, but still a great win.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I could never go against that win. That was a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: great win. A lot of folks, though in the media,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: kind of used it as a point of that, you know,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: it's time to go young right now. Nas was center,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: McDaniels was the for Alexander, Roker, Edwards and Clark. They
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: played pretty small, you know, and I think it it
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: does work at times, but you're not gonna be able
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to win like that just yet, right, and speaking of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: just the future and whatnot. You know, I had an
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: in depth, somewhat in depth segment on the last podcast
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: about the trade deadline. I didn't think they'd make a
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: move just because you know, they made this big trade
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: and they want to see it through at least a
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: year now. You know, if they could add Durant, would
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: they have pulled the trigger? That I don't know, you know,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and that is the decision in the offseason. What you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: can do around the draft, what you can do, possibly
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: a sign in trade, because if someone is going to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: give Randall, you know, a four year, three year deal
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: or something, it might just have to be a sign
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: in trade so the team can fit it in there.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: And like I said in that segment, it's like, what
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: do you have a team that it would work better
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: this way to be able to get two quality players
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: for him, or do you go for the home run
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: to get Durant? And if you do, because of the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: salaries and all that, more likely it would mean McDaniels,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of people of late have
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: been really saying, hey, Ant Nas McDaniels, that's who we
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: should build the team around, and I do get that.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I do get that recently McDaniels is definitely a lot
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: closer to living up to that contract that we gave him.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: And to be fair, like, I don't like to go
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: too crazy with the scoring part of it. He's only
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: averaging eleven points, right, but if you're not consistently running
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: plays for him either, you know what I mean, So
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: it goes both ways. He was struggling majorly with confidence,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: missing shots, like I mentioned that corner three the last
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: ten games, sixteen points seven boards, shooting about thirty six
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: percent from three forty nine point six from the field.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And I mean, like I said that thirty point game,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: this last game was clutch. And you know, he is
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: making really good money. You know, he's not making like
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: anywhere near a max or anything like that. So I
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: think some people think, well, maybe he should be a
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen. We're not paying well, we Pippen didn't really
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: get paid that well. But obviously it's under you know,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: different contracts now, different union, you know, agreements and all that.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: But his contract looks really big, and to an extent
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: it is. I mean, the offense will have to come more.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's got an average twenty points. Dude,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you know, but he's gotta be closer to seventeen and
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: eighteen than he is closer to to ten and eleven,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so do you think
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that you can depend on him through this contract to
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: live up to that contract? You know, in the first
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: two months, a lot of people are like, let's trade him.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: He was starting to get going. Him and Nas we're
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: starting to really get it going. And the injuries happen
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and they continue to boost their games. So McDaniels, you know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna sit here and make that decision right now,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: right We're not. We didn't make a trade, so it
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: didn't happen. Now, if you could add Durant for the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: last couple of years, that probably, like I said, would
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: mean McDaniels and Randalls. If you have Rudy, Nas would
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: go to the four. You know, obviously he'd be the starter,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: so you would get Nas in the starting lineup, which
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: everybody wants, and then you'd have Duran at the three
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: and and honestly, you might go instead of Devincenzo, maybe
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: keep him off the bench. You might go Na at
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: that point, assuming you know, you'd bring him back. Maybe
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: it would be Chanley Clerk, but you probably want to
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: have a defensive dude that I mean, that's why now
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: would be a great point in that lineup, because having
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: a guy that can defense of the hound people slash,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: he can hit the open three, that would be a
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: pretty potent lineup. I can't I can't lie, you know
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: what I mean that that would be potent. And I
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: think the ball movement that Nas naturally has Durant generally
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: produces good offense, you know, so I don't think the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: point guard would be as much needed. You know, I
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, I mean, I think Durant's probably want
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to There's not many players that we could trade for
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: where it would you know, really make Aunt mad, you know,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: like if we trade me Daniels, dude that now you're starting,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: It's like, dude, you know we already a couple of
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: years ago we got Rudy. There is problems for him
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: with Rudy. Now, Rudy helped us in a lot of
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: ways too. We're not as crazy defensive as we were
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: last year, right, and I don't think, well, we don't
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: get to the conference final without that last year so,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: but I don't know. I'm not I'm not saying which
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: way to go. I'm saying those that's probably what would
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: have to go. Maybe the pick this year and then
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: a future pick of those two. I don't know. It's
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: so either way, we didn't do anything. I'm not surprised.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I think we can do something before he walks or
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: you know, who knows, maybe it does go. Well, that's
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the thing. If if we have a great stretch, right
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and we get to the second round, or let's say
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: we somehow got to the conference final, it's weird because
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: is not gonna re sign though what you know, I
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: don't you know, I don't know. And then Randall, if
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: that worked out really well, we'd probably you know, It's
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funky. And that's why, like I usually
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: go back to you gotta see it, you gotta see
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: it play out. You gotta see how this plays out.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: I remember for the Viking season talking about people are saying, hey,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: give give Sam, you know, a fifty million dollar contract
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: right now. It's like, well, let it play out. And
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: we saw how that play out. It didn't play out
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: that all that well, it wasn't all his fault, but
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: he did. You know, it's a lot of receivers. But
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: back to basketball, like I mentioned, I do think Rudy
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: is starting to pick it up from where he was.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: He did struggle earlier. It seems like a lot of
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: people on the team did. But I still I still
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: think the next two years we can get a lot
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: out of them and then maybe jump them that third
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: year because I think it was a third year, three
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: year extension right. Oh you know what, maybe the last
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: year is a player option in either way. It will
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: be interesting to see though, how they handle who closes
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: because this year last year too, but this year we've
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: seen him not close as much as he had and
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: there are times where we're gonna have to do that,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: you know, And then it comes down to is that
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: were Randall that? You know? For a while the Nas
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Randall thing looked really bad defensively early in the season.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Then it started to tighten up. So is that will
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: be closed? And we have both those guys closing? Ken
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: we who's you know, Rudy's played plenty of minutes with
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: doz as we know. You know, how many times is
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: nas gonna get to close a game? And I'm not
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: you know, it can come match up. It can come
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: to a hot hand whatever. Will we see him more
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: at the three? You know, I don't know. Will Dante
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: come back and look like he was before? You know,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: he had really turned the corner. It looked, you know,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the slow start couldn't hit a three, but he really
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: looked like he was turning the corner. So we have
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: a fairly deep team. And like I said, it's good
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: for this year and moving forward. It does give us flexibility.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I did get some messages saying now that we know,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and I talked to somebody just the other day, Will
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: my buddy, and we're like, you know, can't live in
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the past. But if we didn't trade Cat and we
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: now know, we actually would have had some pretty decent depth.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: We know Kyle Anderson was gone and j Maack was gone,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: but it does appear that we'd have some pretty good depths.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so the clutch stuff, right, the clutch stuff
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: has been bad. We talked about it all year. We
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: have the work. We have the most games where you're
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: in the clutch game five points or less, five minutes left.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: We all know the stats. It's been bad. We have
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the most losses we've been in the most, but we
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: have the most. It's just been bad, man, It's been
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: really bad. And and it is two a twenty one
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: from the field when it comes to either game, tying, game,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: go ahead, fourth quarter, overtime. Right now, a couple things
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: that I noticed, because you know that I clip going
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: around to him missing all those shots right well, first
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: and foremost, just way too many difficult shots there, okay,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: long guarded threes here, ball stuff. Now, I will say
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: that some of them were a little bit more on
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the desperate side, meaning like go go go flip it
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: up from a step in from half quarter or even
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: half court. You know, so you gotta you gotta put
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that in there. And then if you google search this stat,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: I think it'll surprise you. You know, clearly he has
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: to improve on this. There's a couple of things that
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: really are holding him back being a top five player,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: and some of it is just getting his team either
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: him have the best shot or a teammate having the
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: best shot. Now, you can also go right back with
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: that of saying, well, if mcdel's in the corner, you know,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: I suppose that gets frustrating after a while, right, he
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: just keeps bricking the damn corner threes. But you know,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, it's rough. It's it's a horrible
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: stat and I don't know. But here's some stuff like
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: al Horton, right, this little timbrels Twitter, I mean, it's
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: it was that wizard game. Man. They had lost sixteen
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: in a row for the second time this season and
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: the third time in the last twelve months. And it
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: just that just some of these games that we lose, man,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and even you know Horton. This was like at the
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: beginning of February, right, ten wins in fourteen games, best
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: stretch of the season. They were eighth rating in offense,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: fifth and defense, and fourth net rating and eight out
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of the ten next game, eight out of the next
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: ten games were at home. We saw how that home
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: front went. It was it was kind of all over
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the place, right, But yeah, when you look at points
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: per game, net rating, rebounding, turnover percentage, it all was
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: improving early February and now it's just kind of kind
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of back and forth from game to game. And they
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: also I remember fly I screenshot of this with nas
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Jaden Conley in Dillingham. All in the last ten games.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: This is at the beginning of February, they're shooting percentage
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: for up like pretty dramatically, so they're I don't know,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: I just there is a there is a fair amount
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of positivity going down, right or going on. But also
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you know Finch. I've had plenty to say about Finch,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: positive and some negative. Right. There was that game where
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: he said they just was it the Washington game where
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: they just gassed out and people were like, well, lay
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: the young guy like Phil McKie. Here's here's a tweet
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: of him. Chris Finch hates Rob Dillingham, doesn't he That's
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: the only explantation for stashing him on the bench while
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: watching a depleted Bulls team fail to generate any offense
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: against the worst team in the NBA. Now, this is
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: where I think Mackie is unprofessional. Chris Finch hates Dealingham,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: doesn't need That's so the only explanation is Finch hates Dialingham.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I just he could have just made the wrong call
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: right there, and he even said I could have could have,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: would have should of course, but he did. You know,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like some sometimes not just fans, but
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: media members, And I'm not just talking about Mackie here
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: at all, like this Nas thing. Should he be in
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: the starting lineup? I think he could make an argument
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: for it, no doubt about it. Right, we've seen some
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: positive stuff last year for that nineteen or seventeen game
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: stretch where cap out he played damn well. I did
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: think some of that was overvalue based off the competition
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: we were playing, and I mean competition by who was
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: playing that game. But you also saw the ball movement.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: It just certain things that just blends really well with
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: the offense and at times better than Kat and definitely
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: at times better than Randall, no doubt about it. Now,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: do I like, I think Kat's a better player than Nas.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: I just do. I don't know if Nas would ever
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: reach what he can do Kat, But you know, I
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: don't know. I just don't like to add certain stuff
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: that's not really true. Like we can look at his numbers,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: but we are four and four without random, right, so
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: it's not like we're doing great Stevincenzo was actually playing
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: well well. Like I mentioned, we got them in the
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: starting lineup, we're ten and six without him. Well, there's
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: there's more nuance, there's more context to it. Britt Robinson
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: had that non clutch number of things at the time.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: This is like a week into February, man, that one
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of his tweets Wolves Wolves all scored their opponents in
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: non clutch, right, they outscored their opponents by two hundred
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and six points, but in clutch minutes they got outscored
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: by fifty five points. You know, It's it's just some
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: of this stuff is just crazy, man, It's just I
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, I really don't know. But yeah, I
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: mean I think that you can inflate certain numbers, like
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: remember how we were having so much issues in the
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: fourth quarter in general, not just clutch, and then we
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: had the Chicago Houston Phoenix and al Horton pointed this out,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: thirty eight to eighteen, thirty three, eighteen thirty five to sixteen,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: thirty eight to fourteen in the last those three games
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: one oh six to forty eight. You know, like it,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and you're not going to do that all the time, obviously,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: But I don't know. I mean, I did see some
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: tweets about nas in the lineup and by the way,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: alex Or Anthony Edwards man forty nine, forty one and
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: forty four points like this, dude's been getting it in
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: there's there's some times where well, that Milwaukee game, he
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: was like he had more shots than points, right, I
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: think it was four to seventeen from three. Once you're
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: I just I don't know if you should ever get
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to seventeen threes. If you're four, you only have fo
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's it's just kind of like, dude,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: what are we doing here? You know? But I have
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I've noticed I noticed an inflated like multiple medium members
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: inflated NASA's numbers since the since Randall went down with
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the injury. I just I just have I've noticed that,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: like Phil Mackie posted NAS read twenty one points ten
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: boards for assists and two stocks since he went down,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: So basically in February, he's averaged twenty one points. But
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: when you run the number, and then Jade mcgannal's eighteen
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: points eight boards. But when you run the numbers, it's
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: actually you know, and then there're the stat news. Right,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: nas Reid as a starter this season, so he did
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: start some earlier ones, right, nineteen point six, eight point
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: eight rebound in one point three blocks, So the statmuse
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: saying averaging more points, rebounds, blocks than random the starting
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: lineup now whennings you know, I don't. I think this
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: was a little bit ago. So it was a couple,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you know, early ones that he you know, he had
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: scored a lot. Jase actually added to Phil Mackie saying,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: probably worth noting. In their ten games before the injury,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Reid was averaging seventeen and five, shooting fifty seven and
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Jaden had had an uptick too, he was shooting shooting
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: fifty five percent from the field. They already started playing well.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Obviously the volume numbers tick up, but I I I couldn't.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I did the math, and it wasn't twenty one points
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: for nos. It just was, like I'm not saying it's
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: a big deal, but even if you just look at
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: because it's basically been February, it's been since February since
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Randall hasn't played in February, and like nas has had something,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: not like she said he had. I think he had
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: fourteen boards in the last game. Yeah, that was one
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: of his best game. Twenty seven points, fourteen boards. Seven
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: desist when I go, okay, so this is hold on,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: hold on. Yeah, So it was it was nineteen points,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: not twenty one. It was eight point eight boards, so
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: basically nine boards, not ten, and that's just what I'm
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: looking at February, so it was it was a little
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: short of twenty, but it wasn't twenty one. I don't know.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe I missed a game in there. Maybe I I
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: thought Utah was the game that and if you add
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the Utah game where he actually went out, NASA had
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: twelve points and four boards in that game. So maybe actually,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: let me go right to it. So I'm pretty sure
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: that Utah game is Oops is that. I'm pretty sure
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: that Utah game is when he when he went out,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: But I could be wrong. Let me double check this. Yeah,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: I mean one eight to you know, one thirteen he had. Yeah,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: he only played ten minutes in that game. Random, So
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: it is kind of weird. And like I said, show
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: me the stats. Maybe I'm wrong, and as a starter
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: is a different one, right, But the the last game
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: he played was the second to last game of or
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: day of January Thursday, you know, the first or the
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: first that's the bunth the thirtieth. So I didn't I
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: didn't see the twenty one points. Maybe it was just
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: an air or whatever. But I do think that some
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: folks are using that one game. That was my whole point.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I kind of rambled here. I've been done one in
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit. I just think that we can't use
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: what happened in Okay see and think that we're gonna
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: win with that lineup this year. I don't. I think
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: that's wishful thinking. And I've seen multiple media members saying
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: that that's what now, saying that's what you know, that's
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: what we should go with or whatever. Obviously Dante comes back,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: it could be different. But for sure, Nas being in
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: the starting lineup, and I get that. I did think
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Dante being in the starting lineup was a good trade off.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: But like I said, Randall was playing good down the
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: stretch before he got hurt within the team, and it
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: was he was starting to figure it out. So if
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: they keep with Nas in the starring lineup, I'm totally
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: okay with it. Now. He has comfort this year, right
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Whereas Randall doesn't have a lot of time coming off
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the bench, So would that affect him. I could see
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: him being able to really take advantage of what he
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: can do coming off the bench, So I understand that part.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: He could be an instant offense. He can really bully
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: some folks, he can maybe you know, he's pretty good
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: at drawing falls when he gets offensive rebound. He can
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: draw falls that way. So I don't know, man, I'm
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: not gonna think Finch is like just a horrible coach
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: if Randall ends up starting again, because I can go
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: off a small sample size and be like, hey man,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: they won five in a row with him starting, you know.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: So I mean, the whole point is just consistency. You know,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: when a few lose a few, when a few look
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: like the whole lose a few has got to be done.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Like it really can't get past too now. It really can't.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: If we're gonna try to get out of the plane.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: That that's the whole key. But I will be not
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: taking you know, two week break from the you know,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: from my next show. This one was kind of long.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to make them this long.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: I want them to be much shorter. But you know,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: things got in the way, technology in life. So the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: two times I, you know, made time to do the show,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: I just couldn't do it. So that's what took so long.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Bear with me on the Apple podcast thing. I apologize
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: for folks that thought that I wasn't uploading anymore for
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: any of my shows, but I definitely will get that
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: figured out. But you can go or you can search
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: it right there on Apple podcast Rope it Up Radio
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: find the new page in the main pages under spricker.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: We're on Spotify. I forgot to mention that we are
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: on Spotify now too, so a lot of folks can
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: just go to Spotify as well. But we're gonna let
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: some games go by. Obviously, we don't have a game
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: till Friday, so this will be a little bit longer
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: probably from the next time i'll do it. But well,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: let's see, let's look at the schedule real quick. So
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: we have those four tough games really out the gate,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: and so yeah, I think that I'll be able to
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: maybe it'll take a little bit longer than normal. I'm
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: trying to get like in the ten day range, like
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, but being that, it'll be four days before
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: we even have a game to do so after Lake
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: a game, it'll be next Thursday. Okay, So so they
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: have those four games. I'm gonna try to check in
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: somewhere after those four games. Houston at Houston, Okay, see, okay,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: see Lakers, you to Phoenix somewhere in there, and that
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: would be a good stretch to get back the team
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: to full strength because no matter who's in the spying
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: lineup or whatever, the bottom line is, we have found
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of positivity since those injuries. For depth, Okay,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: one more thing. So Lauri and a Rod won the arbitration,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: and in that time frame before the arbitration, they've added
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: Bloomborg Bloomberg Bloomborg Bloomberg in like an ex Google CEO,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: So they're ready to go. They've talked about how they
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: want to privately fund the arena. If they showed that
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: they really want to do that, I wouldn't be shocked.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: If we at the state or Minneapolis or both put
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: up some money towards it, I wouldn't be shocked. But
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: if they privately, that would be crazy too. If they
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: built it privately, you know, yeah, that does help them
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a lot in other ways, but honestly, if we don't
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: have to put any money up and we get a
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: brand new arena, that'd be pretty crazy. So I am looking.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: I'm really happy. Like I said, ding Dong, the Wicked
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Witch is dead. Like I've had enough of tailor. He
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: made a gigantity buy it for like eighty eight million
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: in the nineties. He made a gigantic you know profit
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: from this even selling it what is now undervalue, right,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: And and for those folks that think they're gonna move,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I just totally disagree with you, man, I just don't
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: see it. And think about it. Think about it. If
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: they bought it for one point five it's worth like
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: a at least another billy and that's without a new arena.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: So it's like, and now he got some real real
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: heavy hitters in the fold. So it's like, I don't know, man,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: it seems like a pretty damn good deal for them.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: You know, why would they the value what they'll get.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: You know, they can really sell off a fair amount
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: of the team and make a ton of money, you know.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: And so I don't know. I mean, I understand like
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: selling it off and then they what, they're not going
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: to control it anymore. Whatever people freak out about that.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I get it. I totally get it. But they did
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: say that on the Dane Moore podcast when they you know,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: when this shit was going down in the summer or
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: in the spring, they did say that the first two ors,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: it first three installs were ninety percent them something like that.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: So the deal was weird. But remember Taylor set up
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that deal literally. Taylor like a few years back, went
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: on the radio multiple shows and said, I set the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: deal up like this to show house serious. I was
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: about them not moving right because there was another buyer
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that wanted to move to Vegas. So in that time
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: they now kind of established more anyway of where they
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: want to expand. Seattle and Vegas are the two that
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: they talk about. Just remember there's large markets and small markets.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: We're nowhere near the smallest market. There is such a
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: thing as a like a mid size market, and we're
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: actually much higher rank than you think when it comes
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: to TV market share. Go look it up, go google
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: that shit. I'm not saying we're eighth, right, but we're
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: not twenty seventh either. So there's really no reason, especially
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: with the ant to lose the market that has value and
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: it's going to continue to have value a new arena potentially, right,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: You still got to see it to believe it, but
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: just try to try to remember that stuff. Okay, you're
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: gonna hear pieces. We've already heard one where it's like,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: oh stability where we're taking a chance, or you could
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: have had stability, you know, you could have stayed with stability,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: meaning Taylor, and it's like, dude, it was not stable
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: with Taylor. It was not not at all. These last
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: two folks, the last two guys that ran the show,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Conley and then the previous like Roseas like they they've
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: they've done a pretty damn good job. Okay, so it's
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: something that we needed to do. Obviously, Tim Conley set
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: up the structure of his contract hoping they'd be the owners.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: So we'll see how it all goes and how it
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: all plays out. But like I said, I'll be back,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: you know, after those four games somewhere in that time. Anyway,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: this was a little long, winted. The rest are not
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: going to be this long. I apologize for that. Anyway,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: I'm out of here. Enjoy your week. Peace,