Hello and welcome to the tampering podcast, part of the Athletic NBA Show Network.

I'm Sam Amick, NBA National Writer at The Athletic, here with usual suspects.

We got Anthony Slater, we got Fred Katz. We have more

guests to come as well, gentlemen. We're going to make the rounds today. Fred's got to go here

pretty quickly, but we want to talk Knicks with Fred. We are going to shift and talk with Mr. Slater

at some point here about his Malik Monk article on the King's sixth man of the Year frontrunner and what his future might look like in free agency.

But we will also have Calli Hiko Rockets Be Rider to talk about the surging rockets and what the heck is going on on the bottom end of the West play-in landscape, if you will.

And then last and certainly not least, Law Murray, Clippers B-Writer, to talk about the other clippers who are going in the other direction. Lots to get to guys, Fred. I want to make sure we make good use of your time. I saw you last week, my friend, and Nick's Warriors game. It was great to have you there, and Slater was there. We got to see each other in person. You're nicks Warriors game. It was great to have you there and Slater was there.

We got to see each other in person.

You're Knicks, man.

I don't get to see them that much because I don't get back east during the regular season, really.

They are a tough-ass team that is fighting through all these injuries, still sitting there in the fourth spot in the east.

We have got to, you know, make sure we pay homage to the pregame media session that you had with your fellow next beat writers where you all went at, Tom Tibinov, regarding OG Ananobe.

Because the New York media went soft, right?

Holy smokes. Slater.

You got to hear this in a minute.

But first just start with, you know, you're in Denver and it's, you know, not ideal to be recording before we know the outcome of this Nuggets matchup.

But even if they falter in Mile High City, I'm just curious to see how they play because after seeing them against the

Warriors, I did have the mentality of, okay, if OG comes back and he's okay, if Julius

Randall eventually comes back from the shoulder dislocation that's had him out, you know,

and if they get healthy to an extent, like this team is dangerous and they have an identity

and they're fun to watch.

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