Tonight we’re recording the segment where we talk about all the DOC listeners with blogs and podcasts of their own. I’d love for each of you to get a little bump from other listeners (a not-insignificant number) checking out your stuff, so please let us know about it. I don’t care if you are two days old or are more established than we are, i want to tell people about you so you can help me down the road when my life invariably winds up in the toilet. Why is there a toilet in the road? I don’t know.
This is not the last time i’ll do plugs for people, but it won’t be for a little while. Get on it, kids.
To start this episode, Ken and Dan provide some suggestions on how NBA fans can pass the month of March, and talk about Michael Jordan buying the Bobcats.
They are then joined by the new lead blogger at Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie, Trey Kerby. We talk a bit about his new job, and how he plans to keep the awesomeness rolling there at BDL.
We also talk about the Bulls, the greatness of Michael Jordan as a player, and come up with a new movie idea starring some unexpected NBA stars.
In the process, we come up with a new phrase that we hope you’ll all use from now on.
Really, it’s your perfect post-trade-deadline, pre-playoffs, 20-games-left-in-the-season, early March NBA podcast. You can’t not go wrong!
Songs from the episode:
“I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody Got A Thing” - Funkadelic
“The New” - J Dilla
“I’m New Here” - Gil-Scott Heron
“Greatest Man Alive (Man’s Game Mix)” -Steinski
“One Two” - Cool Kids
“New Frontier” - Antipop Consortium
“Take A Rest” - Gang Starr
Dan and Ken check in after the trade deadline, and give their opinions about the various moves.
Their valuable opinions. More valuable than an expiring contract. Really.
The Knicks did a lot. Do Dan and Ken like it? What about the Bulls, or the Bobcats, or the Kings, or the Rockets? What could they possibly think about those teams?
In all seriousness, this episode contains the most Ken and Dan seriousness in weeks, if not ever. Serious basketball talk. Because this is beginning a serious part of the season.
Songs from the episode:
“Money Motivated Movements” - Guilty Simpson
“Busload of Faith” - Lou Reed
“From One Primadonna to Another” - 90 Day Men
“Won’t Trade” - Q-Tip
Who likes sausage? Well, you won’t after i reveal how they make it, kids. Let me walk you through this delightful scenario:
Last year the Knicks decline Sacramento’s insanely stupid offer to take Jared Jeffries for Kenny Thomas if the Knicks also sent Nate Robinson because the Knicks need Robinson for their “playoff run” that ends up netting 33 wins.
Meanwhile, the Knicks fail to sign David Lee to a reasonable contract extension over the previous two years in hopes of landing a second “marquee” free agent to pair with, ya know, Lebron or Wade . . . because signing one of those two was always a given.
So . . . the Knicks miss ample opportunities to pay David Lee something like 7-9 million dollars a year even as they watch him constantly improve his jump shot and post game to the point that he is going to average 21 and 12 if he ever plays with a decent point guard, making him worth something like 12-13 million dollars to one of the dozen teams that will have cap space this summer.
In anticipation of this conundrum, they draft a raw but promising but raw power forward to build up their frontcourt depth and possibly replace Lee if he signs elsewhere.
They never play the raw but promising power forward and instead give his minutes to Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender’s corpse. Nobody has any idea how good the raw but promising power forward is even though it looks like he can shoot and rebound at a very good per minute clip.
The Knicks are so happy that they held on to Nate Robinson that they celebrate by benching his ass for 14 games during a period of sustained success and then re-inserting Robinson into the lineup just before they [coincidentally] start losing lots of games again.
Then they dump Nate Robinson to Boston for . . . stuff.
Still in posession of Jared Jeffries thanks to turning down the Sacramento offer, the team must include the raw but promising rookie power forward and draft picks as incentive for the Rockets to take Jaffries. Why not include Eddy Curry, since this is all about salary anyway and Jeffries could actually contribute next year to a stripped roster? Shut up, that’s why not.
In theory, the Knicks are in a good position because, without Jeffries’ salary they can “slide two max contracts across the table to Wade and Lebron” this summer. Or one of those two and Chris Bosh. And then all the planning will have worked to perfection if . . . two of those players decide to leave their teams. Because the one thing that both Wade and Lebron have learned throughout the years is that you don’t need point guards, depth or big men to win in the playoffs.
Humble podcaster Ken Drews wonders aloud to nobody if the fact that Darryl Morey, the stat-geek GM who finds undervalued players that contribute insane value, likes Jordan Hill means that Jordan Hill might just be MUCH BETTER than Mike D’Antoni thought.
Of course, wIth nobody on the team to replace him, the Knicks have to take it up the ass from Lee’s agent this summer if the other free agents decide not to come to NY, leaving them with a 9 million dollar a year player who is signed for five years and 65 million.
So there you have it. If you don’t care how the sausage is made then this is a good day to be a Knick fan. They have lots of cap space for a deep free agent class, Eddy Curry’s expiring contract (for next year) to trade, two young quality rotation players (Chandler, Gallo), threetalented young wild cards (Sergio Rodriguez, Toney Douglas, Bill Walker), and a top tier coach (Mr. Pringles). For the first time in a decade, the Knicks are in good (if precarious) shape.
Hey, I’d feel even worse if I was Sacto fan (sorry, Ziller). They get a little cap relief for a major NBA talent, yet somehow Franscisco Garcia and Nocioni are still on their team until the next ice age. Lovely.
And I’d be tripping balls right now if the Knicks had a GM like Morey. Jeez, he played Walsh and Geoff Petrie like hand puppets. Talk about making something out of nothing. He turns the franchise-killing McGrady injury last year into one of the most efficient perimeter scorers in the NBA, and all it cost him was former second round pick Carl Landry (which is a tough loss mitigated by the fact that they just got Jordan freaking Hill). Not only that, kids, but the salary albatross that he absorbed for all his trouble is a decent player who will contribute to Houston for the next year and a half with his good defense and unselfish play, making him a valuable expiring contract next year.
For the third consecutive season, we get Chopper Ken up in the trade copter to report on the trade deadline.
Dan and Regular Ken also talk a little about the All Star Game, as well as trades that happened, trades that are rumored to happen, and whether the Cavs should make any trades at all.
And remember, if you believe any piece of information that you hear around now, then believe at least half of the information you get here. No, the other half.
Songs from the episode:
“You Can Have It All” - Yo La Tengo
“Put It On” - Big L
“I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel It)” - My Bloody Valentine
“Give Up The Goods (Just Step)” - Mobb Deep
Okay, we know the segment last episode with Josh Levin had some audio issues.
We decided that the best thing to do was have him back on the show, in our first ever Make-Up Call. Ken joins in this time. New Orleans and the Hornets are discussed.
It all sounds normal. The audio part, if not the topics of conversation or the participants in said conversation.
Songs from the episode:
“Re-Ignition” - Bad Brains
“Once Again (Here To Kick One For You)” - Handsome Boy Modeling School
“Whatever” - Husker Du
“If You Don’t Get It The First Time, Back Up and Try It Again, Party” - Fred Wesley and the J.B.’s
“Another Batch (Play It Again)” - Madlib
“Never See Me Again” - Vivian Girls
“Try Again” - Big Star
Yes, we’re back. It was only Dan that left the country for a week, but still, now the show is back.
Dan checks back in with Ken, and they talk a little trade action. Then Dan does something that’s never been done on this show.
In the next segment, Dan talks with Josh Levin, of Slate.com, writer and host of the Hang Up and Listen podcast. Josh is originally from New Orleans, which gave them a chance to talk about the sports scene there (Super Bowl relevant!) as well as the Hornets (NBA Podcast relevant!)
We’ll be honest, there’s some static-y noise in the talk with Josh. We did the best we could about it. It’s probably Ken’s fault.
Songs from the episode:
“Come On Feet” - Quasimoto
“All Tomorrow’s Linoleum” - Autechre
“Perception” - Kylesa
“Ease Back” - The Meters
“The Saints Are Coming” - The Skids
