Warriors lose back to back, Play in slipping and Tommy dating tips

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1:26And presented by PrizePix, get $50 in lineups. When you play your first $5 and use the promo code, welcome to LightEars. Tommy, you know, another day, another day, another dubs loss. Some interesting things happening around the league today. We'll get into everything we want to get into, but I think it's time to start with just letting everyone know. No longer we believe it's we suck. Really deflating. Look, like I have not gotten overly upset over what's gone on post-trade deadline, just like, I look at the roster, and I live in reality, so my expectations aren't that magic

2:28is going to happen, per se, like they are what they are, talent-wise at this point. But what a deflating back-to-back loss, again, say, tanking Utah Jazz team, who sat beyond a torch down the stretch, and then at home to Chicago, in a game that they had won with a foul down the end to force it to overtime, you just knew when it was going to overtime, given they were on a back-to-back, they were just going to get screwed. Yeah, I mean, I didn't think the foul at the end of regulation by dry mom was particularly egregious. That's typical in that situation. They let that one go. I mean, there was contact, but like, I don't know, I've seen that not called, probably more than I've seen it called in that situation, on plays like that, but regardless, that's every ludo-dork close-up. That's every thunder close-up, by the way. That's also every warrior close-out when they're good. It's amazing that, like, if a team has momentum and juice, they just get away with a little

3:35more tapping. And when nothing's going your way, it just feels like, it's just like, how many times are you seeing Dremon make that same play? A thousand. It's literally a thousand. Every good defender does that. They try to see if they can get away with kind of knocking someone into, like, the gray area, right? But it is what it is. There's a couple of things, like, you know, when you're not as talented, all those little things tend to add up a little more on lead to losses, like your margin for error just isn't as big. And if you're just on the thunder point, if you're just physical, the reps can't call everything. You know what I mean? Like, if we just foul 50 times a possession, the reps can't call it all. So I think that's, I think that's part of it, too. But I don't know. I see people in the comments saying, like, oh, you know, bad coaching by Steve, bad this, bad that. This is a fucking glee-grossier right now. I mean, no melting, again, who's arguably their second or third best player right now. I mean, better than glee-grossier. I'm being hyperbolic, obviously, but this is a bottom five roster in the league.

4:35I don't know what you guys have. They have 160 mil on the bench right now. And no matter what you think of those players, like, that's just the reality of it, you know? Yeah. Like, it is what it is. And so I just, is it the most fun thing to watch every night? But like I've said before, they're, they're competing. I can't, I can't fault them for not competing on a night-to-night basis. It's just not always pretty because they don't have a requisite talent to, to make a bunch of shots. The season is what it is at this point. Like, that's not the most interesting take to have. That's not the most interesting angle to bring. But, you know, it isn't, you know, we're losing to tanking teams. We have a worse roster than those teams. Both the last two games, the other team had the best player on the floor. Like, Mark and, and Kionter, George Bennett, and anybody the warriors have, modest, and Josh Gidear better than anybody the warriors have, right? Now, it's healthy and available. This is what you should expect, right now, but people are pointing it over, you know, players pointing it over. We go men out. We go.

5:36Sure. You take a step back on this because I hate the, I hate the, the rage to feel like TK these days. Shout out to TK the goat, but, but I, I kind of agree with him where it's like, I don't know how people get worked up over this roster. So I'd rather just talk about what's really going on here and some bigger picture stuff. And for me, like, it's not the most exciting thing, but it's like seeing what you have, going into the off season, seeing what you have on steps coming back. That's probably number one. I think the number one thing we know that we have with this roster is they have some good young players, but they don't have any foundational young players. I don't, I don't know that this stretch, like, changed my opinion on that being a thing. It's just solidifying it. You know, like, obviously they traded Kuminga pods, pods actually been really good post

6:37all star break, but it's, it's one of those things where like, I'm trying to put this in the, the right way. He is a good player, but he is getting the iron of warrior fans for not being what he thinks he is. Yeah. We're hoping there's a beat. He's like, he's like, he's the current whipping boy. And he's been that for a while. And a lot of it just cut stems back to the wise men miss, the Kuminga miss, that you look at all the young players, even Moses Moody, who's been the best of the bunch. And he's awesome. And he hasn't played the last two games in his absence, by the way, it was really missed. You could. Yeah. It's the first time in his career where I feel like I know it's him not being there. He played good. He played poorly. The recent stretchers like, oh man, they miss, they miss having that 3 and D wing out there. They miss having a guy who's just a little longer, a guy who can hit shots a little more consistently. He can move off ball, do those things. But to the pods point, you know what he's averaging post austrobrick?

7:40I mean, I know he's leading the team in points rebounds and assists since austrobrick. I want to say it's like 18, eight and five. Like, he wasn't particularly good tonight, 17, it's 17, nine and five nine rebounds, by the way. Anyway, those numbers are coming down because he didn't score the ball particularly well tonight. Let's just assume he's averaging 15 to 16, eight and five, something in that range, which on paper is awesome. And also, if you watch every one of the games, he plays well and there also feels like there's a clear ceiling on how impactful he can be because he doesn't score the ball well enough to actually be a primary option. And that's really what it comes down to with him. He's got great feel for the game. He gets a lot of loose balls. He knows how to play within a five man team contract. He will impact winning, but you're seeing them give him that extended runway that someone like Jordan pool got, the extended runway that Kumming always wished he got or whatever

8:43you want to say. And it's not that he's playing poorly. It's just that like, there's not enough offensive firepower in there for you to buy that this guy can be a legitimate like for a second or maybe a third option. I'll take that back. But like, you know, a primary or secondary option on a team. No, there, like you said, there's, there's a reason I think it's career high in terms of points is like 26 or 28. There's just a ceiling on his scoring game and he still has too many of those possessions where he's just kind of caught in between. Should I shoot? Should I dribble? Should I pass? Thought he passed up some good looks from three to night. But that's not uncommon for him. Like, like I said, I don't think he was particularly good tonight. And on the whole, he's been good since all star break. But yeah, there's just, I think just in general for this team right now, there's just, there's a cap on their ceiling. But I do like in a general sense, we touched on this a little bit. What I'm seeing from kind of what would be the middle part of their rotation under normal

9:43circumstances. Like, I've been relatively encouraged by pods play. I've been encouraged, obviously, by G Moses taking another step this year, even though he's been out the last couple of games, with the kind of what a way to resign mountain. Hopefully, Al comes back for another year. Like these are all positive contributing pieces. Posing is, you know, he's limited minutes wise, but he played in two games now in the last couple of days. So like, that's another positive. Played as many games as Kumanga, just FYI, you know, they both played three games. So anybody complaining about, you know, I saw that a little bit tonight. Like, you know, modest is killing us. What up we had coming in the more one coming, I can't fucking guard nosebleed. So let's, let's stop that right there. And number two, he doesn't play either. Like for, for as athletic as he is and for, you know, all the physical traits, he is incredibly injury prone. I don't think he's fighting more than 65 games in the single NBA season. So you're not exactly trading away, Iron Man, when it, you know, people like to use the Wiggins comparison in some respects, you know, if you can harness the energy and the physicality and the athleticism, you can turn into this elite defender, Wiggins was always available.

10:44I mean, out until he was, until he had, it's the personal issues, but like, he was literally never injured. He played like 81 or more games in the first six, seven, eight years of his NBA career. Terribility is underrated, you know, so it's not like they exactly swapped a durable piece for Prazinga. So obviously he has never been durable. But again, like I'm encouraged by what I see from Prazinga is when he's on the floor. It's a matter of whether he can stay on the floor. But again, I do like the middle part of the theoretical rotation entering next season. But when you're missing two of the best 20 players in the league and guys on Melton's out moody, you could argue they're missing what for their five best players right now for their top six. I think at the very worst with Steph, Jimmy, Melton and Moody and Melton's obviously he's just injury man. He's not dealing with anything actually, you know, wrong with his body right now. But yeah, they're missing for their top six. Any NBA team is going to struggle, I mean, the thing with them, the thing with them is they play 500 ball without Steph and Jimmy, which I think is admirable.

11:50Yeah. It's honestly, but even that is with a caveat because they play 500 ball. If Horford's available, they have three months available if like if everyone is available except for Steph and Jimmy, they can claw to 500, you know what I'm saying? And then what they've been dealing with since Steph has been injured is they also don't have the supporting cast being that available. So like they're just, they're just realities to it and like I think it's pretty fair to say that they're taking a very conservative approach with everyone's house at this point. Like everyone knows that there's not a deep run in this today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. Let me ask you something. Do you think championship athletes got to the top by guessing? No, they had coaching. Every elite athlete has a coach watching their forum, calling the plays and spotting the blind spots they can't see themselves. That's how championships are won. So why are you trying to win your career without a coach? You're grinding, hoping for the promotion, trying to read the politics, guessing your next

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14:00And so that also sucks. That sucks as a fan, that sucks as a consumer watching this, knowing that if this was a team that was fighting for the fifth or fourth seed, and everyone was healthy, and you had belief that you could make a run with it, they probably have more players available on a consistent basis. It just, that's, I don't know, you watched the NBA, dude. Once you notice it, like certain teams, guys are always available, and certain teams guys aren't, and it does tend to be like, if you're playing for something, guys play through stuff a little more often. And if you're not playing for everything, and like it's got a grigis with the tanking teams, but if you're not playing for something, there is that kind of like, what we really don't want is you to tear your meniscus for no reason, you know, like there's kind of that going on. And so we're dealing with that too. Like, do Moses Moody would probably play if this was a playoff game, at the top four seed, you know, staff might be playing, so it was a playoff game, you know, like these

15:02are all kind of things where it's just kind of like load management, and kind of that gray area with injuries, which is probably led to like fan hire more than anything, right? Like, yeah, and no, I think you're entirely correct in saying that, like, and I, to be clear, I think it's the correct approach to take right now. This team doesn't have a championship running them. They're not getting to the top six seed, you're probably locked into the play-in. No, would it be nice again? And I think it could be helpful for some of these younger guys to get some playoff experience no matter who it's against, no matter what the real stakes are at the end of the day. But that doesn't mean you should be reckless with guys returning from injury or guys managing long-term stuff like Melton with his knee. So I think it's the right approach. It just, you know, it makes nights like tonight tough. Like I'm not, I'm not happy they just dropped two straight games. It's not fun to lose no matter who's out there. But am I really mad at anybody in particular outside of like Joe in the front office for,

16:03you know, fucking up the roster. So badly last four years? No, I'm not. Like, I can't get mad at the players. I can't get mad at Steve. Like, these guys are really, they're giving everything they have. Like, it's, again, it's not a lack of effort. They're probably hanging games they shouldn't hang in. Like, they shouldn't have been in that game with the Thunder. I know the Thunder are missing some guys, but Thunder's still a better team. So the MVP, who's the warrior's best player right now? Who's the best guy that's getting consistent minutes right now? I don't even know. I don't even know who he is. Thank you. He's 39 years old. Like, so I just... I'll work for that. I'll work for 40th birthday of Ash and June. I hope I'm invited. I want in. I want in. I want in. I bet it's going to be a great time. Yeah. I mean, again, like, it's like they blew that game. Like, you know, I would have liked for them to pull that one out, but I don't know. Maybe, maybe I'm a bad fan for not getting worked up about the loss tonight, but I just... I can't blame these guys because I know the effort and the intention and the right place are just suffering from a legitimate talent deficit

17:03relative to most opponents. Yeah, and it's kind of also just like... What does it get you? Like, you want to get me mad. Let's talk about what they're going to do in the off season. Sure. But, like, I don't need to go down that road right now. What I do want to go down is talk about our friends over at PricePix. Oh, let's do it. That is podcast. We are about to you buy prize picks. PrizePix makes every dunk, every dime, and every board with that much more exciting. So, it's a chance to get started in America's number one app and four sports picks. Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your sports takes into real money all season long on PricePix. We got March Madness in what a couple of weeks here. We're like a week and a half. Nine days away, buddy. Nine days away. Actually, if you're listening to this, basically a week away. Selection Sunday in four or five days. So, it's going to be fun, man. It's one of the best times of year just in general for sports.

18:05Like, you know, you got NBA and NHL playoffs coming up. You got the Masters in a couple of weeks. Let's try to, you know, let's try to find some more winners here for the people. What do you got for games tomorrow? Cleveland and Orlando, let's check that out. James Harden, 14 and a half points right now, is what his total is at. I feel like that's an easy more. That feels very low for Harden. I know he has the hand injury, but let's roll with that. And then points rebound to cis. You know, I'm not the biggest pole guy, but he's been playing better lately, taking less ill-advised mid-range shots, trying to get to the rim a little bit more, trying to get the free throw line. Let's go more on 36 and a half points rebound to cis. So that's what I'll be looking at tomorrow to get some action on prize picks. So double the up today and use code light years to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That is code light years to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. It is good to be right.

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20:07slash light ears for 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift. That's Thrive Market, back slash light ears to get 30% off your first order, and a free $60 gift. Free money. Who doesn't like free money, guys? I mean, lose money if you don't do it. Warriors, by the way, now, officially in ninth place. Yep, and slide it towards 10th. I don't know, they're not making the playoffs. That's my take right now. Yeah, I think especially if they end up in the 9-10, right? Because then you got to win two. I could see them if they get in the 7-8, if they somehow do that, and who knows what the clippers, co-wise, he's been obviously incredible. There's actually been one of the best players in the league when he's healthy and he's playing, but he's always, you know, one bad step away from a two to three-week injury. So if they can somehow stay in the 7-8 part of the bracket, I would give them a chance of making the playoffs for sure, but at the end of the 9-10, I just don't see them winning two games against good teams,

21:09and particularly if those games both have to be on the road. Yeah, it's going to be tough. And like the other part of this is the clippers have an incentive to win, and the Warriors don't at this point. You know, the clippers don't own their pick. I think it's a swap with a thunder, but obviously they're incentivized to just go as far as they can. And I don't want the thunder in the lot. I don't want the thunder with lottery odds, so I'm actually not mad at the clippers making the playoffs. No, not at all. The other thing that's kind of top of mind for me with the clippers as we're talking about this is, look, they made some pretty aggressive trades at the deadline. Trades are hard, except for the clippers, apparently. I don't know. What do you think of the moves they made? I don't think you and I have talked about it on the pod in any capacity. The hardened for Garland one felt like it's out of left field,

22:09but when you hear the construct of the contract stuff, you get it. The Zubach one is more interesting to me because they didn't want to trade him. They were just basically of the mindset, the way I read it. You can tell me if you see it differently. I don't think they were shopping him. I think they were of the, because he's 28, he's on a good contract. He can be a part of the team for another five, six years, right? I think their perspective was, okay, you guys want him? Entices enough so we can move off of this. And I think it's actually kind of a win-win for both teams because they get to, they get Matherin who will see what he is. He's an interesting young player, though. Undoubtedly he's talented. And they get two first round picks, two first round picks, which one might convey this year. It's probably not, but they're kind of replenishing and they're sitting in this position where before the trade deadline, I was like the clippers are cooked. Not only are they not good this year,

23:09they have zero way to get better. And now I'm looking at it and look, it's not like they fixed everything, but I'm like, you know what, they're in a better position. The Warriors right now, they got nice little, they got Garland, young, really talented player, Matherin, young, talented player, not as proven, of course. They got draft picks, they have Kauai Leonard, who's a superstar, they have a little cat flexibility, like they're in a position where I would not be shocked if we look at their roster after the summer and they're like, damn those guys are stacked again. And stacked in a way that's not a bunch of 35 plus year olds. I mean, yeah, so for people who don't know, the protections on the pick, go into the clippers from Indiana this year. It's pretty interesting, protected one through four. Unprotected five through nine, I believe, and then protected again 10 through 14. So it's a really interesting set of protections on the pick. Like in theory, the clippers could make the playoffs,

24:09have their, have OKC's pick, which will, you know, be 27 to 30 range, but then also get Indiana's pick if it lands five through nine. So, and then they can either use, they can actually make picks with those, or they could move that Indiana pick if it conveys them for something that they deem worthy of it. So yeah, I mean, look, they're, I think they're an opportunistic front office. The last thing that anybody wants to deal with is a disgruntled James Hardin. Kill just, he'll just start to put on weight and he will make everybody's life miserable until he gets what he wants. So, you know, they saw an opportunity, they got a good young player in Harland who, Harland, Garland, who has been struggling for the last 12-18 months, that's related to, he had a jaw surgery. I mean, there's a lot of actually information about how jaw surgery can kind of affect your, I know he was doing with it last year, maybe not as much this season. It can actually affect like your grip strength because everything in the body is connected in some way or in others. So, like, he's been battling through that, but obviously an incredibly talented young player

25:10really quick. Also, there's been, it's not a secret that him and Donovan Mitchell, I think they hated it. Yeah, I don't think they necessarily despised each other, but they definitely weren't the best of friends. I think that's fair to say. But yeah, I mean, you're essentially moving off of post-Prime Hardin for a guy in Garland who really probably hasn't even hit his peak yet or he's in that window right now. I mean, they obviously have the aspiration stuff that nobody knows is gonna happen. A wise contract might get voided. Pobbos constantly dropping new stuff about that. But I think they, what they've essentially done is they protected against that, right? They put themselves in. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA's heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app.

26:11For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. I was in a position by accumulating some assets and getting some good young players were even if they do lose Kauai through, you know, Lee Mandate or whatever it might be. They are still in a position to be okay moving forward despite how much they gave up for Paul George, despite the picks they owe to OKC. They're just, I think they're, you know, they've obviously made a lot of mistakes too in building this thing, but what you can't say about the clippers, the number one, like they're willing to spend money. That's that much as obvious, Paul Merz, one of the richest people in the world, but they're willing to act opportunistically. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I'm not, I'm not lauding the guy by any means, but they're also willing to act opportunistically and they're willing to part with stuff when it's time to, like I just, and to bring it back to the Warriors,

27:14they just constantly misvaluate the market. Like they would never give a given up two first round picks for Zubach, which he probably, you know, that's a fair trade. You know, that's somewhat of a hefty price for Indiana to pay that, but Indiana believes in their core and they actually want to go win a championship, but I've given up two first for Zubach, probably he's a damn good player. Well, you know, one of the top ring protectors in the week can score inside great rebound. I think he's 13 all NBA last year, like that's where two first round picks to me. So again, well, the risk, you know, the thing with it is this is what the Warriors want to do. So you're right, the protections are interesting because the, the Pacers have clearly said like, if we don't get one of the top four guys, which is to say if we don't get Peterson, D'Imbanza, Camboos or Caleb Wilson, we're okay losing the pick. Because the guys projected to go five through nine or all guards and not big guards,

28:17put some of this weird spot with Haliburton and M. Hart. So they're willing to gamble on that. And honestly, there's a very, like as of today, the Pacers have a 52% chance of being in the top four. They have the worst record than NBA. The flat nods obviously make it a little more of a coin flip, but they have as good a chance as anyone of conveying top four, right? So their thought process is such. And then on the flip side, if you think about it, like if that pick doesn't convey, Haliburton comes back next year. If you believe in Haliburton, you're probably sending two picks in the, I don't know, the 18th and the 24th pick for Zubach. Which like, let's be real, that's nothing, you know? Because Zubach, I could even say this, Zubach straight up for like the seventh pick and most drafts is probably great value. Because you're probably not getting a better player

29:17than him at that point. So the real gamble they made is that this pick is not gonna convey it number five. They're not gonna get screwed by the lot of odds. Because if they do, even if those players aren't guys they want, they're gonna probably feel like, ah, we overpaid, you know? But that's the gamble that they made right there. And you're right, you're right. That's the type of thing that the Warriors would never do because they need certainty with every trade they make. They need certainty, they don't make risks. It's kind of the frustrating part with them, you know? They're just sitting here, I don't know, I don't know what was out there for Kuminga. I don't know what was out there if they put picks on top of Kuminga to be honest. But like, they clearly went with the safest, like don't risk anything if we can't get Yannis. If we can't use Kuminga as a contract piece to get a no doubt superstar, let's just flip him for an expiring. So we have cat flexibility.

30:17These are the kind of decisions that lead to the roster that the Warriors have. Whereas you can make the point that the Clippers, all of the Clippers, like they have their own issues. If all of the Clippers fan out at least be like, oh, Matheryn, that's interesting. Garland, that's a young star who's had a bad year. They're like a bad 12 months to your point, like physically, but like, he's also been a multi-time all-star before his 25, you know? Like he's not a washed, he's a good player. There's nowhere around that, right? He might not be a super max player and you might have to deal with those discussions and that's a real thing, but like undoubtedly, he's a good player. Yeah, I just, I think the way I'd frame it is, the Warriors, the Horde picks like they were tanking to him. You know, like, you know, if you are a team who's tanking, you shouldn't be trading first-round picks because those are your most valuable assets. They don't operate, it's like a team who's trying to contend. You can even cross-sport, you know, like kind of compare this. And this might, I think the trade's going to be voided,

31:20but like the Ravens gave up a couple first-round picks for Max Crosby as of a couple of days ago. The, you know, the Ram just gave up current first in a future first. Yeah, for, for Trent McTubby. So it's like the teams that are in contending windows, they are seeing the first that draft picks are because at the end of the day, who's a better player? The potential 29 pick in the first round or a cornerback who has been one of the better cornerbacks in the league, you know, if you're the Rams or if you're the Ravens, if you know, I don't know what's going to happen there, but I'm sure their thought process was, yeah, we could pick, you know, a guy in the top 12, maybe one of these defensive end slides to us, but you know who's really fucking good right now in the NFL, Max Crosby. So like draft picks, they do inherently have less value to championship level teams for many reasons and the Warriors don't operate like that. They operate while like a tanking team while trying to put out in the media that they want to compete for titles. None of it lines or makes sense. I think, I don't even think that's the correct way to look at it. I just don't think that they know what they're watching

32:22with talent, to be honest with you. Cause chasing like a six year development window, like I mean, he's most movies example. By the way, most is awesome. Yeah. Took him to year five to get to what he is now. You could have moved that pick and probably gotten better results the last four years when he had a better chance to compete. Yeah, and now, and for what? He's not a franchise player. You can make the same point about pods. You can make the same point about Kumanga who they end up giving up for a gamble that Celebrini is gonna solve all the issues. Like, like, you know what I mean? Like Sam Thue, the wise man. Like it's just like all this comes down to poor process. Like if you feel confident about a player, you better fucking develop them and they better be the guy you want them to be. Or if you don't make a move, be like the, be like the Pacers, be like the Clippers

33:23where they're making very like convicted moves. You know what I'm saying? That's kind of the part that frustrates me with the words where I just feel like everything is like, you just feel like it's a front office where everyone's afraid to make a mistake instead of someone wanting to put like, they're not on the table and be like, nah, we're doing this right now. You know what I mean? Cause it's like, now you can make the point where it's like, we're the windows over, look how old stuff is and Jimmy and all these sort of things. I'm like, sure, but nothing they've done the last four years gives me confidence that like the rebuild's gonna go great. You know what I'm saying? You can, you can draft players and watch them take their seven year windows to develop as much as you want. Or, or you could be like one, you know, a team who understands what they have with players and then just makes moves. Yeah, exactly. And that's, I've seen that, that refrain a lot lately. Like, well, now the windows over. It's like, well, the windows over and they didn't compete in the last four years because of their own doing. And you can point to the Pacers directly.

34:25The Pacers believed in Halbert. And back when it wasn't obvious that they could make a finals right, you know, they traded for Pascal, see I'll come before the Pacers have really done anything in the playoffs. And that turns into, you know, see I comes the second best player, you know, on a team that's Halbert and Corniquili's away from potentially winning an NBA championship, you know, and he had a ton of spectacular performances in the playoffs. And now, and even with Halbert and Gapier, they take an opportunity to go get a guy who essentially really solidifies their center position after Miles Turner walks eight months prior. Like they didn't just let it carry over and become a multi-year issue, which is, I mean, we can point directly to the Warriors on that. How long did they fuck around with the center position in the post kind of like literally since KD left? You know, they had one year where they had minimum level like confident center play from Bialita and Dre and then Otto and Moments and Looney. But they never acted with any conviction in getting a big man. Every single dream on can, you know, you can't play with this type of guy, you can,

35:26okay, maybe can't go get a big deck and shoot if you don't think you can play with a lob threat, which isn't true. I still don't believe that. If you have a vertical space where I still think it's harder to work than with a shooting threat, but I still think dream on can play with that guy and spurs. But okay, that might be true that you might limit your options a little bit. That doesn't mean you should just fuck it. They didn't want to give up two picks. That's what it came down to. It's they could have had a multitude of you guys. It kind of moves my turner when he's still in his prime for James Liesman, like that's something they, 100% could have done. The Patriots would have listened. They would have been interested. They didn't do it. But you could point to a million different ones. But yeah, your window is going to end because you didn't act with conviction at any time in the last four years and because also because you didn't do that, you didn't sell yourself up for any type of future besides potentially hitting on a draft pick within the next three to four hours. It's fall, like getting lucky with the lottery balls and getting Cooper flag, right? Yeah, right. That'd be nice to be fair. So I've been pretty sick.

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37:29Quince works directly with top factories and cuts out middlemen. So you're not just playing for a brand markup just quality clothing. Plus they only partner with factories. I mean, rigorous standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. So refresh your wardrobe today with Quince. Go to Quince.com slash light years for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's a great deal. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash light years for free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash light years. Question from the chatter. We're gonna talk about Tommy's dating life on the pod. Look man, we can get into whatever we want. If we want to bring colors on, we can do like a light years love line. We can take the same direction we want now. Let's talk about it. Let's get through it. Do we actually want to do this right now? That's your call. I mean, dude, I don't care. So I mean, I'll go and do it a little bit. I, anybody who follows me on Twitter,

38:32you guys saw that I put it out a tweet. I guess I would have been Sunday. I went on a date on Saturday night with my ex girlfriend from high school. We didn't break up for any like, you know, it was totally amicable when we were in high school but I hadn't seen this girl in, I don't know, 15 years. Sorry to wedding the previous Saturday. She was in the wedding for like a long time family friend of mine. That's how we originally met actually in high school if it was through a family friend. And yeah, I'm a little bit different than I was in high school. It's a very quiet, very reserved kid, very one track mind, very focused on basketball. Didn't really care about girls. So she just, I mean, she literally told me she was like, yeah, you're just so quiet in high school. I couldn't get anything out of you. She's like, I really liked you. But, you know, and I'm a much, much different person now. So yeah, went on a date on Saturday night. It went great. But, you know, I'm not overly invested in it, honestly, anything with my dating life right now. I'm enjoying being single. The clock's starting to tick though. A little rabbit with the clock meme. But, you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to,

39:33what do you pull it up here? She's close to two. No, I'm not gonna like, I need to feel the reciprocation from people nowadays to date them. So I have some options. But, yeah, she's a really, really sweet girl. We get along great. So we'll see what happens, man. I'm not, I'm not opposed to it working out, but it's, it's early days as they say. Where'd you go? What, high school did I go to? No, no, where'd you go on the date? Oh, oh, so she's, she kind of in the East LA area. Went to like this. She actually lives like a block away from my, like my best friend from college, one of my teammates in college and his wife, kind of in the East LA-ish area. So I know the area pretty well. We went to this little French, like French bistro, sat outside, people watch, grabbed a couple of drains, grabbed some food, and then just bar hop. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA's heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight,

40:36a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today, so you never miss a moment. A little bit, but we were, I don't know, we were back at her place by about 11, so. I stayed the night. Very exciting. Oversharing on a podcast. She's never gonna talk to you again. Dude, she doesn't have the link to the podcast, but I'll send this to her. I don't care. Give us the dating advice. Look, man, I don't know if people want to hear my dating advice. I'll probably, we're gonna start to attract a different type of listener base if I start to give up. Give out too much dating advice. I might turn out into the most hated man in the podcast world. I'm not trying to be co-vicular of the basketball world.

41:39So this is here. Let's get out there. Get out there. Here, bye. We're gonna go. No, more like what I would say is the biggest thing that I've learned is just to see you. Okay, fuck off. For anybody that's listening audio, Sam does put up a picture of Andrew Tate. No, I'm not Andrew Tate, but I just try to operate that, like, you know, I try to have bring people that I genuinely enjoy being around into my life, but I don't, I don't know, I don't overexend myself, but that's probably not, I don't know, that's probably not the best advice in the world, but I don't operate, like, I need anybody in my life. I love to, like, I'm a very social guy. I have a lot of friends in my life. I have a couple of girls that I'm seeing right now, but, like, I don't act like I need anybody in my life. I think that tends to repel people.

42:39I think being overbearing and being needy can repel people. So that's kind of what I try to avoid. That's, look, if anybody has specific questions, I'm more than willing to answer, but just kind of, like, just kind of riffing by myself here. I don't think that's the best content. But yeah, look, if, as the season goes on, that people want to come on and ask dating questions, we'll get into it. I'll, like, if you have a specific question with someone with a girl or a guy that you're doing with, women, I'll give you kind of the, the, the, the, the spectrum. On, yeah, that's a good, that's a good one. We'll go on this. Who on the warriors has the most res? That's the question. It's, I would say, GP is way up there for sure. Like, if you watch them mic'd up tonight, he's like talking to the female rep for the game. I'm like, Doc, what are you doing? Like, you can tell exactly the angle that he's taking, Jimmy for sure. Jimmy, absolutely. Yeah, I'm leaving that.

43:39I'm leaving the injured guys off of this, but obviously the superstars are number one. Sorry, they get, they carry themselves, they carry themselves to the certain that you just cannot. It's GP. If we're talking, on Guy, Guy for sure, got kind of the South American Brazilian player, handsome dude, seems very confident. I would say it's probably between GP and G. If I'm saying like, everybody's going out and you're guessing who's going to like leave with the girl, it's going to be one of those two guys. I would say Al Horford. A steady old guy just coming through, coming through with the dad fit. Just there we go. Just there we go. I'm like, oh my God, yeah, I'm like, Quint, sorry, Quint's top block. Quint, yeah. No free ads, no free ads. Yeah, Mike in the chat here is saying, Al has six kids at 40 years old. So maybe it is Al. That's, those are some big time numbers from Al. Al Antistrip Club. He didn't come out against the magic city thing.

44:41What's your take on that? Let's get into it. What is your, on the whole magic city fiasco? Obviously it was a stupid idea to do a promo with them. Come on. Like, look, I have zero moral judgment on this, but like, have you ever been to a pro sporting event? Yes. It's like 50% kids. Yeah. I don't, you know, daddy, what's that? I don't want to answer that question, you know? You know, I think they were going to be playing video promos from magic city on like the jumbo trot. I don't think that's the angle they were taking. Half time twerketh on. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's like, it's one of those things where it's just kind of like, I get why they did it. Once it won't public it, they had no choice but to cancel it. I don't know. It's a, I don't think people think enough about how much going to a pro sporting event is mostly just like boring family event stuff, you know? Where it's like, I don't need, yeah.

45:42I don't need to be answering those questions to my son, you know? I don't need to be, I don't care, but I don't need it to be front and center. So, yeah, you're creating uncomfortable conversations for a lot of people that probably don't want to have them. And if it, you know, those are, it's one thing to like, and those are paying customers, that makes it a lot more difficult. It's one thing it's like, you know, I don't know, there's an ad on TV that like, you know, that's a little bit kind of off the wall or like risky in some way, like you can just turn the TV off. But if you're at the sporting event, there's really, and you paid hard earned money to be there and like it's something that you had to save up for for a while because sports games aren't necessarily the most affordable nowadays, depending on where you're at. Yeah, it's probably not, well, you have a captive audience, you know what I mean? Because that's essentially what a, what a sporting event is, you're a captive audience, much different than just watching something on television. Probably not best to promote strip clubs. I've heard Magic City is a great place to have never been, go on to Atlanta next month for work. So, maybe we'll do a pot, maybe I'll do a magic city.

46:47Nothing wrong with it. I'm just saying like, you know, they don't promote like, there's no draft game nights at a, that's where it is. There's no prize pickstight, you know? Like, they're not doing that either. Right. That doesn't, that doesn't mean people can't partake in it. It's just like, they're not putting it front and center in terms of like tonight's promotion is everyone gambles or something like that. And then, you know, you gotta deal with like parents and kids and that sort of thing. So, I don't know. It's just, it's pointless. It's pointless. It was a bad idea than it turned into a public thing, which is like, the minute it became a public thing, then I was just like, ah, no one's gonna win now. No one's gonna win in any capacity. Once it becomes the topic of the day online, everyone's a loser. No one wins. No one wins when they're the main character online. 100%. I mean, I was in dis, I didn't really, I don't think I necessarily have like a super strong opinion on it. Like, I totally get like your standpoint and I just,

47:48I was just shocked that it was a real thing. I saw it and I thought, I literally thought it was like an NBA Centaur tweet when I saw it was like, no, they're not, they're not actually doing this, but it was, I wasn't outraged by any means. I'm not outraged either, but I was just kind of like, well, this means or it's like when they cancel it. I'm like, ah, I expected that's the way it was gonna go. Luke Cornett runs the league. That's what we need to know. I'm just, I'm sure I actually got approved in the first place because you would think there are some like layers of red tape that, you know, you know how this stuff goes. It went through the marketing department in one team. A bunch of people were like, oh, it's a good idea. No one really thought anything of it. They're just like, okay, this is just gonna be our promotion for March 23rd or, you know, whatever date, right? Yeah. And how they got approved before the season. And then, and then it becomes a lightning rod online, then you get the owners calling. Like, you know, the owner didn't know this. The owner's not getting, you know, the marketing department coming up to him and going,

48:49hey, by the way, February 22nd is, you know, Latino Heritage Night. And then February 27th, we're gonna do, you know, free, you know, free door to Ashtonite and that sort of thing, right? Like, that's stuff that they just kind of handle it. No one really thinks anything of it. That's sort of thing. And then it just ends up here, right? So. Yeah, people in the chat are saying it was actually ownership that pushed it because they're trying to promote a documentary or something. So yeah, I don't have all the details on that, but it was interesting for sure. Do we want to hit on, I feel like we kind of have to hit on this because it's like big NBA news. We want to hit on BAM scoring 80 points tonight. And a lot of the takes I've seen online is like, I'm kind of surprised they left him in for the 83, because he got to 81 exactly. He was at 81 and they let him stay in another position to get to 83. I was a little bit surprised by that. It doesn't bother me in one way or another. I do see people saying like, I was disgusting basketball at the end and, you know, they're trying, they're fouling to get the ball back to him.

49:53Sam just put up a picture of Kobe looking down from the heavens with his hands full of, for anybody listening tomorrow, whenever you're listening. But I, you know, it was a disgusting game at the end, but was there also started like triple teaming him? So it all got out of whack. And I think he ended up 20 of 43. So yeah, he was definitely gunning for it. But that was like really the last six minutes. He was actually barely efficient before those last six to eight minutes of the game before it just became, it came kind of like 40, what was his free throws 41? Something ridiculous 43. I think I think he was like 36, 43 from the free throw line, but he had 31 in the first quarter. And I want to say 48 it happened like 62 at the end of three. And for the most part, like I said, until about the last six minutes, I've watched as soon as it started to kind of, I saw 31 in the first quarter. I was like, okay, that's wild, but who knows this continues? And then it's kind of just kept progressing. I was like, all right, I can tune into this. Even like early in the first quarter, he was in transition. He had like some open looks from three and he like made the extra pass to a guy

50:54who was a little bit more open. So it wasn't, it's not the way it's being portrayed and the way it is going to get portrayed is, oh, this was a courageous, the ending was, but for the most part, like the points came within the flow of the game. And I'm sorry, people are like, I don't know how many of you were alive and coherent to watch Kobe's 81 point game. It was some egregious gunning and there was a lot of free throws in that one too. Wasn't this egregious? But here's the, here's the thing. Here's the thing, here's the thing. Anytime someone gets hot, yes, and they're pushing not just 50, but above 50, then there's a level of that's cute, just get me the ball and get out of the way. Like get me in a one-on-one situation, get me the ball to my spot, whatever it is, right? And that's just, that's just true of every player who's ever scoring and like kind of gunning for a milestone. Like it doesn't start that way and then they end up going that way, right?

51:56Like I've seen every player do it that way. I think the, my two thoughts here are, it's shot, like if you asked me to guess who is gonna break Kobe's 81, I would have guessed 50 players before, Bam. Yeah, exactly. And maybe I wasn't thinking about it the correct way. Maybe I should have guessed what team they were gonna do it against because that's the actual thing here. Like this, to me, this is kind of a commentary on where tanking is in the NBA. Bam, Bam could have put 50 on these guys and we would have been like, damn, they're tanking too hard, you know? Bam going for 83 is just like really? Like you're not even gonna like try in any capacity? I don't know, that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm at with it. I don't have a problem with it. Happy for, Bam's one of my favorite players. I like him. He plays the game the right way. Yeah, but a lot of those, a lot of those free throws were like, even just because the Wizards are terrible defensively and he was constantly getting angles,

52:57the rim and he's a really strong dude and they were like, they had to foul them because it's a bad defensive team. But I like the angle that you just took, playing the Wizards, egregious tanking team. Somebody else's two of their three game with the Atlanta Hawks have come against that. That was a dream. Maybe, maybe that was the thing. Yeah, I think that was kind of your angle there. But no, Bam's a great player and like, all accounts, an incredible leader for that Miami franchise. You really have a hard time finding anybody that has anything bad to say about Bam. So it's not like, I think in terms of just like, it couldn't have happened to a better guy in a way. But yeah, I just never would have, like I would have guessed, Cam Thomas would do this before Bam. You know what I mean? You gave Cam Thomas like, 45 minutes and four minutes. Tyler Hero. Sure, yeah, Bam's not even, I would have guessed Norman Powell before Bam. There was two guys on Bam's team who I would have guessed would have gotten 81 instead of Bam. So I think that's definitely the weirdest part of it.

53:57The second highest scoring game of all time would be a history. Only four guys have scored more than, or no, three guys have scored more than 73 points in a game. It's now Will, Bam and Kobe. It's pretty wild. It's, yeah, I don't think I've still properly processed it because the idea that Bam is all out list is insane to me. It's nuts. But I mean, like, you know, who's like not far below him? Cat, cat at 73, a couple of years ago, Luke had his, I mean, Luke had 73, book had that 70 point game. And like, if you watch the end of that booker game against the Celtics and that's from a while back, it's kind of the same thing as like this, this he game, like you kind of alluded to. It's not like you can't just gun a greedously all game and get to that number. You're doing, it starts to happen because you scored 60 plus. And now it's like, okay, now that guy should just shoot the basketball every time. Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. All right, I still end it here. Appreciate it, bro. Thanks, everybody. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports.

55:00Right now, the NBA's heating up, March Manus is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.