This Week's Show
This week special guest Justin Halpern joins us to talk the now defunct "Short Corner Podcast", the Cavaliers woes, the Clippers greatness, and even more NBA playoffs! Tune in.
Hosts
Special Guest Justin Halpern (@justin_halpern)
Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
Patrick Minton (@nbageek)
Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
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Video Show
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Show Notes
Patrick's dog Whiskey makes his debut on the show. We discuss the merits of door-to-door surveys. We are not for them.
The Short Corner Podcast and Justin Halpern
Justin, along with Paul Shirley, was host to one of the greatest basketball podcasts in the history of basketball and podcasting. Sadly, it was canceled. Ironically, we tried to start a hashtag campaign to get Patrick as a guest on the show right before its untimely demise.
We've done the next best thing and had the Short Corner Podcast members guest on our show. Paul Shirley was a guest recently. I guess that means Phil Hay (@phillycarly) is next?
Justin and Paul did a fantastic interview with Steve Nash about his impending retirement. Podcast One pulled all of the Short Corner Podcast material, so the excellent show was nowhere to be found on Podcast One when it was super relevant.
"Paul is not afraid to light a fire to bridges." is what Justin remarked in regards to the Short Corner Podcast's missing material.
Here's a testament to how great the Short Corner Podcast was. Both Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) and Dave Berri (@wagesofwins) were regular guests.
Since the Short Corner Podcast ended, Justin got two shows to pilot. Sadly, neither was picked up. One was based on Chris Hadfield (@cmdr_Hadfield). The other was based on comedian Tommy Johnagin (@tommyjohnagin).
One of Justin's claims to fame is "Shit My Dad Says", which culminated in a short-lived TV show starring William Shatner. It was referenced on Community, which I consider a pinnacle of human achievement on its own.
We may be starting a feud between Justin and Mark Cuban. I'd love to see this.
The Cavaliers
Behind the scenes note. Pre-show we talked a bit about Kevin Love's injury. I expected to talk more about it on the show. It did not come up.
Patrick and Justin offer some great points about what's wrong with the Cavs.
Justin compares Kevin Love on the Cavaliers to Rachel Harris on his former show "Surviving Jack." It's not always easy to just get talent to mesh when there's only one ball. Or a more basketball related example - Chris Bosh had a similar dilemma in Miami.
David Blatt may have an issue with being able to coach LeBron. Justin compares this to a showrunner that doesn't have control of their show.
Patrick and Justin have a good back and forth on Kevin Love and how he needs to fit into an offense. Comparisons to Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge come up. Tune in to hear the whole discussion.
The Raptors
A common theme on the Short Corner Podcast was how bad the Raptors were as a team. As Justin sums up: "If you're a coach, and you let Randy Wittman pants you...as a coach..."
DeAndre Jordan and the Clippers
DeAndre Jordan is MVP material. No, I won't stop repeating this!
Justin has a ton of insights into DeAndre on the floor. He apparently runs the defense, especially in terms of assignments to others Clippers. Justin actually puts DeAndre in the same category as Kawhi and Draymond Green.
Justin also notes the DeAndre Jordan helps "space the floor" for Chris Paul. And Patrick notes that being able to get open for dunks and play off the ball is a skill. In short, it's a DeAndre love fest!
We've been amazed by Blake Griffin's performance in the playoffs.
Blake and DeAndre are one of the best passing duos among bigs.
Did the Clippers "save themselves" for the playoffs this season? It feels that way.
The Eastern Conference Semi-Finals
None of these teams qualify as good. Justin doesn't think any of these teams could take the Spurs to seven games.
Fuck that Guy
A segment on the Short Corner Podcast was "Fuck that guy!" It's a place to give your hate to someone, either for something terrible or even something good they did. We've adopted it on our podcast since the Short Corner has exited the airways. We were thrilled to have Justin on for it. We had a few names this week.
Patrick puts up Derrick Rose and Paul Pierce for celebrating banked game winners. As Patrick notes, these were missed shots!
Justin puts up Stephen Curry for not being able to handle tough play from the Grizzlies. He has to have known it was coming. And the rest of the Warriors for not being proper enforcers. The Warriors seemed to have gotten over it in game four.
James Dolan. Isiah Thomas? Really??
I put up David Blatt. I'll just leave this tweet here.
David Blatt when asked about facing criticism on the job: pic.twitter.com/OfmBvGl006
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) May 11, 2015
Daryl Morey?
Justin asks our thoughts on Morey. They're mixed. I equate it to getting an A grade in a dumb class when it's more like a C. Justin compares Morey to the first football player to use the forward pass. It revolutionized the game but didn't make that player the best passer. Also, he has Kevin McHale as a coach.
Shout Outs
Joss Whedon gets our shout out this week. It sucks he's off Twitter, but here's hoping he's off producing something great. Patrick's suggestion? Netflix should greenlight a thirteen episode run of whatever Joss wants to make.