Knicks Nation Podcast
From Rumor to Reality: Will the Knicks Land Walker Kessler?
We are one month away from training camp and we keep on hearing about Walker Kessler. We're going to go over a rumor that we just came across, I guess, where there's smoke this fire. You're listening to the Nix Nation Podcast where we've got all your Nix needs covered. Now, live from the city that never sleeps. Here are your hosts, Anthony and Chris. What's going on Nix Nation? I'm your host Anthony, joined by my podcast co-host Chris. This is episode 63 of the Nix Nation Podcast. It is another recorded edition. We came across an article stating that the New York Nix are still knocking on the door for Walker Klezler. So, we decided to talk about it, but first, what's going on, Chris? How are you tonight? We're doing good, doing good, enjoying the off season. Obviously, the news is kind of slow, but one thing that has stayed consistent is Walker Kessler, the Utah Jazz, and the New York Nix. How are you doing there? Look, we got one month from, I think, media day is literally the last day of September. And then training camp is the next day. You can start your training camp after that. So, look, you got them off left of the summer, right? And the New York Nix are pretty much set in stone with their team. But over these last, I think over this last week, we heard a rumor regarding Walker Kessler. And look, Walker Kessler's name has been linked to the Nix. It was linked to the Nix last month. And I found it interesting that in this past week, we're a little late with it, but kind of wanted to gather our thoughts on it and really go through it. And talk about it in depth and why it makes sense for the New York Nix to do this. But yeah, it's just interesting that his name just keeps on coming up, Chris. I mean, you know, the saying where there's smoke, there's fire, but it was kind of the same thing with OG. OG and Obie's name kept coming up, kept coming up. Not comparing it, but you know, it's especially now with the New York Nix dealing with their backup center position. It's interesting. I have some thoughts on it. I'll tell you that. I have some thoughts on it. Yeah. I mean, hey, you say, you know, it's similar to the OG and the Obie, you know, news back in, back in, obviously when we still had RJ Barrett in the manual quickly. I think that's true. I think that's absolutely true. I mean, obviously two different types of situations, you know, obviously the Nix were reeling at the time. When a lot of the OG had to know we news was coming out of rumors, I should say. And now we're in the off season, you know, and the Nix are looking, you know, obviously the Nix have a glaring hole at backup center position. And Walker Kessler's name keeps popping up. But, you know, it makes, it makes me wonder. Why are the Utah Jazz even entertaining offers for a Walker Kessler? Who's he's a really young dude, man, and showed a lot of promise, you know, again, I'm not saying he's, it's going to be a superstar and all star, anything like that. But he's a solid seven footer, you know, who can, he can help many teams, to be honest. Yeah, the Jazz are kind of in this, like, they want to tank. What Danny Ainge wants to, like, acquire all these picks and, you know, the Danny Ainge aspect in this whole thing is kind of fascinating as well, because as we all remember, you know, Nix were interested in Donovan Mitchell. And, you know, Nix are very well aware of, you know, Danny Ainge's antics, literally went to Cleveland. The Nix, I think, tried to call his bluff and they literally took the Cleveland deal. And that was the end of that. So there's some history there. And, yeah, let's get to this, let's get to this article and then we'll go through it. So this is from, those of you listening, I'm just going to share my screen on YouTube. So if you're listening on the auto side, I'm going to, obviously, go through it. So this is from, who is this report of that? This is from Jared Coach. Utah Jazz have discussed Walker Kessler trade with the New York Nix. It seems Utah could be in the market to move one of their young pieces in a trade and could have even had some conversations about a deal earlier this summer. According to Eric Pincus, that's Eric Pincus, a bleacher report, he reported that. Excuse me. The Jazz have discussed a quotation marks, marks a trade revolving the 23-year-old center Walker Kessler with the New York Nix with a young big man potentially not part of Utah's long-term plan. Then the quote from Eric Pincus, Pincus, I hope I'm pronouncing your name right. For multiple sources, Utah has discussed Walker Kessler previously in trade, including a stalled conversation with the New York Nix. He doesn't seem part of the long-term, the team's long-term plan. So Kessler, who was once named the Rookie of the Year finalist in his first year in the league, is coming off a bumpy, sophomore campaign. Like you were saying, Chris, and then it goes on to say that the Nix have been logging for a center ahead of the NBA season amid the departure of Isaiah Hernstein. Yeah, and then that's pretty much the article. Chris, when you see, it says stalled, including a stalled conversation with the New York Nix. Yeah, when you see that, what goes to your head? It's kind of like flashbacks to like what you mentioned, the Donovan Mitchell, you know, Donovan Mitchell rumors. Yeah, right. There was a report, and I believe this was Ian Begley who reported it, that the Nix had offered two firsts for Walker Kessler. So could it just be simply the Nix were like, hey, we'll give you guys two firsts for Walker Kessler, who apparently you guys don't want on your team anymore for whatever reason. You know, you guys are rebuilding. Here's two picks. And I guess the Utah Jazz and Danny Angel probably like, yeah, no, we want something else. We want a young player or something like that. So, could that have been the time where, you know, these talks stalled per se? Who knows, but one thing I will say is that it's always a battle. It seems when we try to trade with the Utah Jazz and Danny Angel. I mean, look, I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, we hear more about the Nix offering, you know, a first and a young player or something. And the Utah Jazz pivot and send it Walker Kessler to some other team for probably something less. I do want to figure out why they're trying to trade him, but maybe they don't view him. I mean, they, they, this article clearly says they don't view him in the team's long-term plan. So cool. I don't know exactly. I think Danny Angel is a little bit overrated. I don't know exactly what he's trying to accomplish there in Utah, but I mean, look, you want to suck, then suck. You want to like, they had an okay season last year? I mean, that's probably not where Danny Angel wants to be. So I guess that's why he wants to trade Kessler. He had a good rookie year. Last year, and I even thought he was like, okay, in terms of, you know, ranking him regarding the center position. But I've heard a lot of like the Knicks can play small and look, Dibs did that a little bit in the season. Like half of last season. But Tom Tovotal traditionally likes to play a traditional big in the lineup. So this is why Mitchell Robinson is so important this season for the New York Knicks. And, you know, we've been talking a lot of throughout our last episodes about how the Knicks can kind of manage Mitchell Robinson's workload and kind of, you know, ease the men and kind of, you know, maybe doesn't play back to backs and kind of, you know, limit his minutes. We just need him healthy for the playoffs. But Chris, I mean, if you look at the strengths and weaknesses of this roster, I personally think the center position is a glaring issue. Now Ken Randall and Precious and OG and somewhat of Jericho Sims and maybe Hulk Party. In my opinion, you're still needing that big because you're banking on a healthy Mitchell Robinson. And that is not really a good thing to bank on, you know. So, yeah, I mean, look, it's something that I think you can get away with in the regular season, right? Obviously the Knicks have plenty of firepower, plenty of defense, you know, especially with who we got roaming on the wings now. But like you mentioned, you're banking on Mitchell Robinson being healthy. Looking at a fairly healthy season, you know, recently, outside of, you know, obviously coming back and then getting re-injured by Joll and Bead in the playoffs. But, you know, I just think that's a big if, you know, banking on Mitchell Robinson staying healthy for the majority of the season. And that backup center, like I said, we can get away with some small ball here and there with Julius Randall. Maybe, you know, Sims, like you said, maybe even a board be Precious. You know, they can fill that role, but when it comes time to play off basketball, I think that will get exposed. You know, we need somebody there that can kind of anchor that backup big spot. Because I think if we don't address it, which I know we will at some point, but if we don't address it, that could be the end of the season right there in itself. In my opinion, that's my opinion. Yeah, so the reason why we keep bringing up Kessel and the reason why his name keeps coming up, Chris, is the next day kind of something interesting this summer, they kind of already strengthened a strength in terms of the guard position. You know, they draft the Tyler Colick, they signed campaign, Duce McBride is here for another year on a great contract, they re signed jail Brunson Dante now moves to the bench. You acquire me Cal bridges, so your guard depth is pretty much sentenced on, but the next round of interesting position because I think that that campaign signing was kind of them saying, you know, if we were to trade a Tyler Colick, if we were to trade a Duce McBride, we need someone else to handle the rock and shoot the ball. So they kind of gave themselves a glut of guards just in case a trade was to come about. And if you're Utah, if you're Danny Ainge, who are you wanting on the New York Knicks? If you're Danny Ainge, who are you going to want? You're wanting a young player. You're wanting a nice young player on a good contract, that's controllable. You know he's going to haggle over Duce. I think if it's Duce, I'm not giving him picks, right? I mean, I think Duce right now is a better, he's a better player than Kessler, but it's Duce. It's just so tough, man. It's tough, but I guess I'm going to pose a question to you now. What's more valuable? You know? A quality starting center, a healthy quality starting center to kind of give you that reinsurance from Mr. Robinson or 10 to 15 minutes of Duce McBride off the bench. When you already have campaign, you like what you see in Tyler Collek. I know he's a rookie, I'm not. This is me having high expectations of Collek. He could come in and just hit a wall and not really play well. He's a rookie. It's if Tom Tebowdo wants to go through those pains. That's the risk you take when you're trading a Duce McBride. But, you know, what's more valuable? A quality starting center, healthy or 10 to 15 spot minutes of Duce McBride when you already have a campaign, when you already have a minute situation with Dante and, you know, do send. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and when you pose it like that, I mean, if I'm just strictly thinking team and not, you know, with my, you know, my nicks pride. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely that back up, that back up big spot. You know, that's the more important. That's the more pressing issue. Or starting. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, as much as they will kill me to get rid of, you know, excuse me, not get rid of, but let Duce McBride go. If I'm getting a quality back up big, like a Walker Kessler, maybe at the most giving away a pick maybe. I don't think it would have to be that. I'm sure Danny ain't just going to try to squeeze every little thing you can get. Yeah. Well, I think I'm, I think a more realistic trade would probably be like a Tyler Colick mixed in with. We still have some tradable first round picks. I think that would be like more realistic trade. But I'm just saying Danny ain't you'll probably come back with, you know, what's up with Duce? Like, what are you going to do with Duce? He's on the bench, doesn't really, you know, get playing time, you know, now that you have Dante on the bench and you've got to figure that out. I'm just trying to see the, see the vision of Danny Angel, but I think more realistic trade would be a, a Colick and like a first round pick. Because at the end of the day, like Walker Kessler is a nice player, but like he's not, you know what I mean. Let me ask this. Do you think he's worth two first round picks granted not knowing which of those picks it is? But you know, it's rumored the Knicks offered two first round picks for Walker Kessler. So you wouldn't do it. With our draft capital that we currently have, that's tradable. You have to ask yourself, are you willing to trade the draft capital that, you know, the, I mean, we really don't have much to trade anymore. I think we have, I think we have two tradable first round picks, two or three left. And obviously we have a bunch of second round picks. You have to ask yourself, is that, you know, the direction you want to go in trading for Walker Kessler? Um, because the Knicks could view him as a starting center too. You know, maybe they like Mitch Robinson on that bench role. You know, I mean, when Harness Ryan was here, Mitch was on the bench role and he played he played amazing off the bench. I personally liked it a lot. It was kind of a way that you can, you know, monitor him a bit more and kind of control, you know, when he gets his spots in the games and kind of protect them in a sense, you know. I mean, granted, I'm sure they could do that with him starting as well, but I did like Mitch a lot in that back of big role. I thought that was just awesome. But in the reality, you know, we live in now where Isaiah Harenstein is now at OKC, you know, if you ask me, I think I would go the two first round picks for Walker Kessler. I'd rather give away the picks and then a young promising player like Deuce, you know, granted, like you mentioned, we do have campaign and we do have Tyler Colick now. So not a heart or they're all going to play lots of guys that can basically handle the ball if you needed them to, right? It's not like you need to use to handle the ball. This was like, you know, one of our major weaknesses, you know, the past season. We just the depth that we once had wasn't there anymore. And, you know, granted, Deuce McBride took strides. We've all seen it, you know, but I just, I just, I find it odd that the Utah Jazz would bulk at two first round picks for Walker Kessler, you know, granted. And I just, I don't think I could see them wanting Deuce that badly simply because they got guys like, you know, Colin Sexton is still there. They have Chris Dunn still there. They have Mike Conley still there. You know, obviously, you know, some of these guys are older guys, you know, they got a lot of, lot of veteran guys there. Kind of like, it's a weird team, you know, it's like, are you trying to compete? Are you trying to tank? You know, they just signed Laurie marketing to a long-term deal. And maybe that's the only thing I could think of, right? You know, Laurie marketing is also a seven footer. Granted, plays the power forward spot. Walker Kessler can kind of stretch the floor a bit at that five spot. Maybe they just don't mesh, mesh well, whatever the case may be, but, you know, it kind of kind of kind of temporal, sorry to cut you off, but college is optimal. Yeah, okay. But it makes me wonder, you know, still, why bulk at two first round picks? Yeah, I would rather give them the two first round picks and Colic and, you know, rather than Deuce, because I think Deuce and Deuce for Cola, Deuce for Walker Kessler works straight up. So I think Deuce is on such a team-friendly contract that I really don't want to give that away. And Deuce took a major stride last year. I had the big shots in the first round. The rest of Philadelphia is 76 years. And that was really his first major playoff experience. So you build off of that. And I think I would rather do that. Because worst-case scenario, Chris, you come into the season, Mitch Roberts is not healthy. I mean, you need a big. You do. I know a lot of the next fans are saying, like, we can get through it. We can play small ball. It sounds great. But knowing the history of Tom Thibodeau, you know, he normally loves the traditional big down there and rebounding was an issue without Julius Randall and which is precious there without Mitch Robinson. It was an issue. So, I mean, and Kessler does that. You're talking about, you know, building a championship containing team at this point. You know, at this point, if you add Walker Kaiser to this team and subtract the guard, I think that makes you better, in my opinion. You know, because it gives you that insurance that you need. It gives you a starting caliber center. It pushes Mitch Robinson back on the bench. It even can make Mitch Robinson expendable, you know, Kessler still under team control under a great contract. So, you still have options regarding that. And, but yeah, I thought that we did. This is just interesting. It's interesting, you know. It makes it makes sense, you know, it does make sense. And, and yeah, I mean, look, I'm still looking over this Utah Jazz roster. We have Kyle for the Palski, right? So, that's another young big. I can play the four, the five. He's a seven footer as well. Obviously, really highly touted prospect shown that he can shoot the rock. So, again, more redundancy and more reasons why it looks like the Jazz are, you know, just trying to cut ties with Walker Kessler. So, the only thing that worries me is, of course, obviously, the Utah Jazz know the New York Knicks are dying for a backup big. So, obviously, they're going to use that advantage. And that's where I can see, you know. All right, you probably got to give up somebody you maybe don't want to if you want to make that deal happen, especially considering you're dealing with Danny Age. Yep. Mr. Ainge. All right. Walker Kessler, he plays, man. Rookie year, 74 games, 23 minutes, 72% from the field. 51% from the line, two blocks a game, eight rebounds, three offensive. Almost a half a steal a game, nine points last year, 64, only 64 games only started 22 games. So, he's been coming off the bench for the Utah Jazz. So, you know, he's primarily a backup big at this moment, but he is still super young and can't start because his rent protection is elite. You know, two, two, two, two and a half blocks a game, seven rebounds, his rebounding can improve a little bit, but his rent protection is elite. And, you know, you pair that up with the guys and I think that, you know, you have yourself a squad, but, you know, if I was to ask you, Chris, what's our glaring issue? It's mainly that, man, because after the loss of Isaiah Harenstein, it's like we're all hoping that Mitchell Robinson can have a healthy year and, you know, we're praying for it, hoping for it, have a bounce back year, and we just need him in the playoffs, man. That's all I care about. Yeah, you know, I mean, it sucks. I wish Isaiah Harenstein resigned with the Knicks. Obviously, we wouldn't be, like, static, our roster would be extremely insane, in my opinion. You know, but, you know, I am still surprised. The Knicks kind of, how do I, how do I say it? Did they drag their feet on this? Did they just think somebody else was going to be available? I know the guy heart thing. I mean, maybe you could say dragged on a little bit. I don't feel like it took too long. But look, that's why the campaign signing was so interesting. Yeah, yeah. And I agree because, obviously, the Knicks saw what campaign did, you know, during the playoffs, you know, when he was with Philly. So it's like, are you really signing that guy just to kind of, you know, all right, be a cheerleader? Are you signing him for what he did in the playoffs and how he can help your team, you know? And just in case you were to trade somebody. Exactly. Yeah. And then I also thought it was interesting, too, with Tyler Colick, right? Yeah. We heard he's easy. He's a good young player, obviously. But he didn't really look to score the ball too much, you know, and it's like almost like they told him, "Hey, let's see what you can do from a, you know, a creation standpoint. Can you create for others?" You know, and what did he do? He went out there and ran that team and it was a cyst after a cyst after a cyst with barely almost no turnovers. So, you know, there could be something there, man. They could be something there where they're just like, you know, trying to convince themselves, maybe, like, should we include Deuce in a trade for Walker Kessler? It's an option. They're giving themselves options. They're giving themselves, you know, some different ways to acquire another backup big if, you know, it was to come to that and, you know, whether smoke does fire it. And, you know, even with, you know, I always thought like it's, it's, it's, it's like, what would you rather have a backup point guard or back or like a starting quality center that can rim protect at a high level? You know, we had the same situation with a manual quickly. Like he was on our bench. He wanted to pay a different situation. Nix didn't want to pay him that much, but, you know, let's say you trade, God, I'm just throwing this out there. Let's say you trade Deuce McBride, you still have campaign, Dante, Josh Hart, Tyler Colick, and now you add Walker Kessler to that mix. You know, it's interesting. You're asking a lot from Colick, though, to handle the basketball. You know, that's a thing. So you're already seeing the Tyler Colick, you know, off-season workout videos pop-ups. It's interesting, man. It's definitely an interesting situation. And look, it's not to say that something's going to happen per se. It could also just be, we end up, you know, keeping our guys as is. And down the road, maybe midway through the season, we add a piece, you know, maybe somebody shakes loose, you know, it could just be simple as that as well. But I kind of feel like, you know, as far as the Nix and the Utah Jazz go, maybe the Utah Jazz have a certain price in mind for Kessler, the Nix most likely know what that price is. And again, it could be similar to the time of a Mitchell situation where the Nix are just like, look, we're going to stand pat here. I'm sure nobody's knocking on your door for Walker Kessler. And hopefully, you know, hopefully it doesn't blow up in our face again, you know, especially with a decent deal. Yeah. So, you know, we'll see if it's, you know, it's an interesting conversation. I'm glad we're having it. So it's interesting. It's really interesting because, you know, as we stated in our last podcast, Mitch Robinson has not done any basketball activities, and we have one month to go for training camp. So, as we all know, as we, I mean, as it's currently stated, I don't think he's been in the gym. Like, he hasn't done any basketball activities, right? I'm sure he's been, I mean, am I, have I not seen anything? Maybe he's doing stuff that we don't see, but, you know, he's still rehabbing. So, you know, he's still rehabbing. I haven't seen anything saying that he's doing any type of own court activities or anything like that. I mean, the way I see it right now, it's going to be like, what, precious, precious is going to be our starting big, you know, the way the way I'm seeing it. Yeah. You know, it doesn't look like he, you know, I'm sure he's trending in the right direction. And I mean, Mitch Robinson, but, you know, it's looking like, it's looking like precious, the true is going to be the one starting out there. And again, I think we can get away with that early on. Yeah. But, you know, when we face those elite bigs, you know, that those embeds, those, those joke it, yokech, you know, that's going to be, that's going to be problems. It's just going to be problems. The thing is when he's healthy, exactly, yeah, take it right out of my mind. That's going to be the problem for us. Yes. So, you know, it's interesting, but, you know, the New York Knicks, one month away until training game, I'm still excited. This is, you know, obviously some rumor stuff that we wanted to get into, but we're still going to have an amazing season. And I can't wait. It's just, you know, going to be one of those incredible seasons. And I think this is going to be special. It's just as Mitch Robinson thing is obviously hovering, you know, because it's our weakness. You know, every Knicks fan knows it knows it. It's our weakness. And this is why Kessler's name has been in the trade rumors as well. It's just health. You know, if this team, I sit on Twitter at next nation. What are the expectations for Mitch Robinson? What do the Knicks have to do to win an NBA championship? 90%, 95% of the answers were health. Julius Randall, Ojan and Obie, we're talking about Mitch Robinson, but Ojan and Obie, Julius Randall, have to stay healthy. Hey, even Jalen Brunson, let's not forget, you know, the past season, he's had those, you know, nagging ankle injuries where, you know, he's taking a jump shot and guys are just overstepping. He's not getting those holes, you know. Yeah. I don't want any of that. I don't want any of that. But yeah, I agree, health is definitely the number one factor. I think as long as our guys stay healthy or at least relatively healthy throughout the season, and especially come play off time, we have bodies available. Yeah. I think we're in for an amazing season. Amazing season. And yeah, man. Wait. Who's to say, you know, maybe Mitch or Robinson misses a few weeks early on in the season and stays healthy for the rest, you know. Because usually it's the reverse. So I'm here for that, man. Yeah. Usually it's the reverse, you know, it's like he's good. He starts off well and then boom, some freak accident or injury. And then he's out a couple months and then he comes back late. And gets re injured or something like that, you know. So we know we've been talking about it. The next have to have some type of plan in place for Mitch Robinson. They have to have some type of plan in place. Yeah. But it always drives me a bit mad because again, you know, I feel at least as soon as the Knicks find out that Isaiah Hardstein was going to okay see. What was your plan? Because I know and I hate to say that because the front office Leon Rose, William Wesley, they have been amazing. Yeah. They have not, they have barely missed on a lot of the stuff they've done. But when as soon as the Knicks found out that I heart was going to okay see. What was the plan? We just saw center after center, after center, after center, just come off the board. You know, and then basically. Had to get the last man standing, which was precious, which I felt again was just like some sort of safety, safety blank. Yeah, and remember they waited a long time for that too. So I think and I think someone in the next front, some, some people in the next front office thought Hardstein was coming back. And they made the bridges trade. Remember they did they that trade wasn't official for a while because they were trying to figure some cap space stuff out. And I thought I think some people thought Hardstein was coming back and then okay see gave him that $29 million offer. And obviously he went to okay see and the Knicks. Yeah, they resigned precious. They have campaign and they drafted Tyler Colick, so they gave themselves, you know. Enough guards, some wiggle room to, you know, acquire that big just in case. Mitchell Robinson was to go down. So, but yeah, I think that was the, I think that was kind of, I think they thought Hardstein was coming back. I truly do think that. Yeah, I, I, that's, it has to be, it has to be and, and. Like I said, it's rare for this front office, I guess to get caught in a. In that type of scenario, because usually we've seen this front office have plan A, B and C in a sense, right? And I think in this instance, man, they must have thought he was really coming back because they didn't go out and get a damn person until, you know, basically precious sign for, you know, relatively cheap, you know, relatives. I think about five, six mil. Yeah. So kind of bailed us out there, but as far as having a traditional big, I feel like we kind of missed the mark there, you know, especially once I are left, they should have acted a little bit quicker to address that. In my opinion. Yeah, look, I think I saw something on ESPN plus that, you know, some scouts were disappointed that the next didn't address the Hardstein situation. They say, they say that we kind of overpaid for OJ and an OB and, you know, there was a lot of pigs for Michael Bridges. But in essence, the New York Knicks are going to be a great team next season. It's just a matter of staying healthy, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's the three big guns. It's Julius Randall. It's OJ and an OB. And, you know, I throw a Mitch Robinson in there. Really? If, if one of those guys goes down, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough to overcome that. And, you know, we have Michael now. We have, you know, Jalen and Josh and Dante, but all in all, we need, we need the guys. We need Julius OG and especially Mitch, man. So we'll see, Chris. This is, it's interesting, you know, we'll see. We'll see. It is. It is. I mean, Mitch instantly becomes like critical, you know, literally critical because outside of Mitch at seven foot, the closest you have to that is Jericho sins, six, 10, a 40, six, 11. That's our guy right there, baby. A 40. Let's go. I feel like a 40 is going to, you know, obviously not right away or anything like that. I'm not going to say he's just going to, but I feel he's going to have a, you know, he's going to do what Jericho Sims did early on in his career, you know, kind of surprise some people. It's going to be nice 22 years old. Hey, this site I'm looking at right now has him at seven foot Chris. You get you left of an inch off of him. Okay. Hey, I mean, we'll see walk your castle is rumors are still, you know, alive and well. And, you know, I thought this was a good conversation to get to you guys obviously not much really going on. I think what I mean, what else is, I mean, I think Bronson's birthday is the 31st. McElbert birthday is the 30th and, you know, oh, the Carmelo Anthony thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What about that? And Carmelo Anthony, I think it was the 2022 season, you know, Carmelo was approached by the New York next up, about a reunion room and both sides had mutual interest, but ultimately Melo turned them down. What was your thoughts when you when you when you heard that, man? I didn't really like feel anything towards that. I was just like, damn, it could have been nice to have Melo on the team. I think his concerns were that he, if he wasn't going to play or not, I really do think his concerns was Tom Thibodeau, like I don't know if he really wanted to deal with the, you know, the grind. I think he was already checked out and he didn't really know the Knicks plan about how to use him. I think Knicks players wanted to him to be on the team and we're courting him, but Melo decided to, you know, not come. And I thought it would have been nice, you know, I mean, we dealt with a random injury and we couldn't literally score that year. So in the playoffs. So it would have been nice, but it is what it is. It would have worked out. It would have been awesome. I would have loved to see Melo play again in the Knicks uniform, but that would have been nice. Yeah, exactly. With Brunson with Randall, you know, it would have been dope. It would have been dope to see. And I'm sure he would have helped the team, but you know, like you said, I think, I don't think maybe so much it was Tibbs per se, but I just think I don't like like he said it. He didn't want his like image to, his lasting image to be him sitting on the bench, you know, for the New York Knicks, you know, he wanted to be remembered as Carmelo Anthony, you know, scoring 60 plus, you know, just a flamethrower, just having a huge impact on the game. And he thought it was going to be a distraction, which honestly, I agree, you could, you could clearly, you know, you could clearly see a Knicks fans probably going crazy in the garden chanting for Melo, you know. So I get it, man, I thought it was pretty dope, man. I mean, we've all heard the rumors every season since Melo basically left. When will he come back? When will he come back? So it's nice to kind of get some acknowledgement that yet it almost happened, man, almost happened in 2022, man, but I would have loved to see Julius Carmelo, Jalen Brunson on the core. I don't know how the hell that would have worked, but I would have loved to see it, man. For sure. It would have been dope. It would have been dope. So that was, that was, you know, Melo pretty much throwing that little, I mean, that was random too. I was like, yeah. There was rumors about it, but we didn't really know the full story and then Melo came out and told the story. So it's pretty cool. That was dope. It's always nice to get those, you know, like behind the scenes, kind of details that, you know, that's awesome. Yeah, it is awesome. All right. So look, this was another recorded episode of the Nix Nation podcast. We have a channel announcement. So here's what's going to go down. Chris and I are going to be recording a player series. So every single player on the active New York Nix roster, we will do a single video 10, 15 minutes, depending on the player could be longer. I mean, it just depends on, you know, the conversation. So every single Nix player, we're going to do one YouTube video. So one player equals one YouTube video before the season starts. You guys can kind of get a preview for the 2024-25 season. That should be fun. It's our first year doing that. I'm excited to do that, Chris. Yeah. Should be some fun conversation. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, man. Yeah. A lot of videos, a lot of work. So, you know, we're going to post it on the audio side and on YouTube. So would appreciate if you guys, you know, tuned in and yeah. And then after that, you pretty much have media day, a little after that finishes. And you know, that's when you know, little bits of rumors and tinkers and news and things are, you know, got to come out. So it's fun. It's exciting. I'm excited for that series, though. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's going to be fun, man. It's something new. We're going to be doing. So, you know, like you said, a lot of work, but we love to do it, man. We love to do it. Yeah. So lock into the next nation YouTube channel, subscribe to the channel. If you haven't done so already, smash the like button, tons of videos coming your way. I think we're going to start with, do you want to tell them who we're going to start with or do you want to? Yeah. Why not? Yeah. We could get some questions on these guys. I'm thinking we're starting with Dante D'Vincenzo and Mitchell Robinson. Yeah. First. Two. We're going to start with Dante and Mitch. So yeah, I mean, after that, we're going to go obviously go to the roster and whatnot. But yeah, Chris, this was fun. Anything we missed out there in next land, not much going on. No. One month. That's it. Yeah, man. Walker Kessler. Is this the hot rumor out there right now? And you know, reminiscing about mellow mellows days as a Nick, right? That's it. That's all we got right now. Yes, sir. So yeah, we got one more for tour media day and you know, look out for the content on the next nation YouTube channel. And yeah, if anything, obviously was to transpire, we will be on here. We normally live stream this at these episodes every Sunday. But like we said, last episode, because it's kind of on the slower side, we're kind of reacting to content on and recording it for you guys. And I think it makes for a better conversation as well. So episode 63 in the books. That's it. That's it. I'm Anthony from Nice Nation. I'm Chris. We'll catch you guys next time. Peace. Peace. Thanks for listening. Please hit that follow button to stay updated with our latest episodes. And we also greatly appreciate those five star reviews. For you video enthusiasts out there, head over to our YouTube channel to catch the podcast in video form, youtube.com/NixNation. You'll find all the relevant links conveniently listed in the show notes below. See you next time. Bye. Bye. a (crowd cheering) [BLANK_AUDIO]