Giannis & Trae Are Back: But For How Long?

Giannis, Trae Young, which of these two guys coming back are you more interested in?

I mean, Giannis is obviously much more coming back is much more impactful for the league.

I, because as you've heard me say many times on this podcast, I don't think that bad teams have enough avenues right now in the NBA to get better.

I hope the team I.

I grew up watching, watching the Washington Wizards Bullets, then Wizards, um, has a chance to get better in this draft, and I don't want them to lose their top 8 protected pick, and I don't want them to fall to 7 or 8 again the way, you know, last year they fell to 5.

So as a personal watcher of that team, I am eager to see what Trae Young does and doesn't do.

But in terms of the league impact, Young's coming back is huge.

Him coming back is interesting because there's a part of me that wondered if he was gonna do it , um.

And, and I kind of get it now from Milwaukee's perspective.

They're now sitting at 11th in the Eastern Conference.

They're 3 games back of the final play spot.

So they've still got a ways to go, some ground to make up.

Um, they have right now, as we tape this, the 10th worst record in the NBA.

So they're not in the mix.

The teams that are below them.

You're probably not gonna catch them.

They're gonna be more aggressive in trying to.

Oh, you mean they're not in the mix for the, for tanking?

Well, they're not in the mix to wind up one of those top 4 seeds or even a top.

So they're kind of in that spot where it's like, all right, if we win a few games, get into the play-in, wind up losing in the play-in, our percentage chances are not gonna move all that much.

We're gonna be right there.

So I kind of get it there.

Like they're, if they had been, if they had been 5th or 6th worst record, I don't believe we'd see Giannis back.

I think they would be like, listen.

I understand you wanna play, but our best chance of being successful with or without you in the long term is getting a top 3, top 4 type of pick.

But now here where they say, Hey, look, if he's healthy and he wants to play.

More power to him.

Uh, the Celtics, I guess, are not playing anybody in this game.

Uh, Jalen Brown is out.

Nami Kita is out.

I saw the injury report and I was like, Jason, Jason Tatum's on there.

Yeah, Tatum's not coming back in Milwaukee.

That's not happening.

Um, yeah, I, I, I'm fine with Giannis coming back.

I look.

He's competitive.

He wants to play, and I don't think the Bucks can really do much damage to their lottery chances by having him back.

Also, this is the part where people get upset with tanking and the lottery stuff, right?

When you are a middle of the road team.

I mean, this is a team that can definitely, uh, look at, they're not that many games back from some of the people ahead of them in the East.

This is a team that could get a city excited.

And have at least a little bit of playoff taste this year and to see them sort of calculating lottery odds would be a bad look for the NBA.

That's the problem is this middle sort of group, the ones all the way at the bottom and all the way at the top are not the problem.

And I think a star who wants to play basketball during the regular season is a good thing and we should be excited about that.

And I love that from Giannis that he's sort of like, yeah , they're not going to tell me I can't play.

I'm gonna play.

He said that a couple of weeks ago .

Um, and I honestly think in terms of the larger picture of get Giannis to stay in Milwaukee, having him have more time with the team and around those guys and in a competitive situation can only help that.

Yeah, um, on Trae Young, why do you think the Wizard is bringing him back?

I imagine there is pressure on all teams around the NBA to make sure that their stars play, but again was that conference call Adam Silver had with NBA GMs.

I heard a lot about that call.

I heard there was some, some fiery language in that call towards the tanking GMs.

I'm gonna just say this.

If the NBA really wanted to stop tanking , they could do it tomorrow.

They could do it this afternoon.

You know how every single owner in the NBA could march down to their GM's office and say, hey, we're not doing this anymore.

I'm your boss.

Don't do this.

That's like all of these complicated, we should change this rule and the pick protection should change what's allowed and all the different things.

You are gonna convince me you are serious about player participation.

You are gonna convince me you're serious about tanking and changing that culture when the ownership groups decide that they want their own team to follow these new ideas and new rules, because what's really going on, in my opinion, is you have owners who in the meetings pound their fist on the desk and say this is bad for TV ratings.

You know, we have terrible games.

People are losing faith in the integrity of our team, and then they're going down to their own general manager's office and say, every advantage you can think of to win, do it.

If you're resting this guy on a big night, so what?

Do it because that way he'll be healthy for the playoffs.

If you need to tank to get in a better position, do it.

We all know what the score is here.

30 people could completely change any of these big problems in the NBA, but they don't do that.

So we're stuck here having these discussions.

Yeah, but Adam can't yell at the, the other owners.

He can only yell at the general manager.

But if I was a GM on that call, you know, look, I, I think being respectful to the person, to, to the commissioner is really important.

So I don't know what I would say publicly, but privately to the commissioner.

My comment would be like, great, when all 30 owners say that their teams will stop doing this.

Problem solved.

I did like, what was it?

What the athletic wrote the story and it was one executive said that our coaches are on board with it and Adam and his staff were like, no, they, they tell us they're not.

Like I, I can't imagine who that executive was.

Like, coaches are never gonna be on board with this.

Like this is not, this is their record.

Like Will Hardy is a good coach, but whenever Will Hardy's time in Utah is done , he is gonna leave the Jazz.

With one of the most god awful records any head coach has ever had over a 456 year span, whatever it may be, but also this is above the heads of the head coaches, right?

This is, this is an executive level and ownership level problem.

They're not gonna say to their GMs like, yeah, or, or they're, they're not gonna say.

We hate this you.

Like they're trying to keep a paycheck.

They're trying to keep a job.

Like right now with your Wizards, Brian Keefe is taking some bullets, bullets for this team.

Another for the Wizards.

Another reason is they should go back to being called the Bullets because their head coach is taking some bullets and leaving that team whenever he does again, you know, I'm just gonna say the sentence again.

Bad teams do not have enough avenues to get better in the NBA.

Nobody wants to tank.

Nobody wants to lose for six months.

Nobody.

Wants to alienate their fan base and sell new merchandise and teach their young players how to lose.

Nobody wakes up and says, Man, this would be the best thing for our franchise.

They do it because they have to, which is why I don't know what Trae Young is doing.

But let's see what happens.

Something tells me he's gonna be load manager the rest of the season.

You won't see 35 minute per game Trae Young.

You won't see back to back Trae Young.

You won't see 3-game in 4 night Trae Young.

You may not even see 2 games in a row.

Trae Young.

Something tells me to keep an eye on that, um, that load management there.