Nightcap Hour 3: Dylan Harper Says “F*CK NO” to Coming OFF BENCH + Zion Williamson in IMPECCABLE SHAPE + Jimmy Butler WON’T CHANGE Playing Style

Shannon Sharpe (0:00)

Dylan Harper spoke to GQ on if he actually thinks he's going to come off the bench. What's the political answer here? I'm going to do whatever the team needs me to do, man. If that's come off the bench, that's crazy. If no, I ain't coming off no bench. Later in the conversation, Harper walked the six-man thing back. I was lying.

Yeah. What you think, Joe? Yeah, I think he's still gonna be coming off the bench, Unc and Ocho.

Hey, listen, huh?

Chad Johnson (0:26)

Hey, Joe, Unc and Joe, if you don't come off the bench, who finna sit down for him? And that mean no disrespect, huh? I know how well he play. I know how well he played when he came off the bench last year, especially in the postseason hell, even in the regular season. But who the hell finna sit down, Joe?

Shannon Sharpe (0:40)

Well, listen, you got Champinney and Vasile in that lineup. I like both of them because they play great off of Wimby as far as catch and shoot and defensively. And defensively, those two guys, they work horses. They're going to work hard. You know what I mean? So it's kind of hard. But at the same time, the young man showed in the finals, okay, Ocho, that he was ready for the moment, bro. Yes, you could see how he was moved. They had no, the Knicks had no answer for him.

No, you know. And I think if you say, Antonio, it was a couple of those games. Hell, had you played him down the stretch, you don't know how they would have went. Maybe you would have won a couple of them.

You know what I mean? So, I think- Well, hopefully Fox is healthy now. And we don't get to use that excuse to about where you know he wasn't supposed to be playing. He made some mistakes that had nothing to do with health. Absolutely right.

Gilbert Arenas (1:26)

Excuse me, health.

Shannon Sharpe (1:27)

Nothing to do with health. It had everything to do with this. Absolutely right. Just a couple bonehead mistakes that you don't, that you typically don't see from a guy of his caliber, bro, you right. You're right, y'all.

Oh, yeah. Stephen Castle and Dylan Harper don't believe the Spurs will collapse like the 2012 Thunder because they don't have egos. They had strong ass egos in that locker room. That's why they were so good. We've got eight people on the team that if we all had an ego, we wouldn't blend together.

Well, listen, y'all ain't got to have a damn ego, but the way this money got to get split up, hell, somebody ain't going to make it. They're going to break it up. Yeah, they're going to break it up. Even if y'all don't, they will. Yeah, they're going to break it up because, look, the thing about the NBA is like, if you really got something working for you, you got a team that's pretty good, these other teams come get your old guys or guys that you really value or they know that's a valuable piece of your team and they know you can't keep them, hell, they come pay them good money, man. Right. Them San Antonio going to be able to keep all them boys. Man, they better understand the moment that they in right now, which is win time, and try to take advantage of the window that they do have because you don't have an opportunity where you have all this talent on one team. That's what they got, bro. They got a special unit.

They do. But if Fox is on a max contract, Wimby is on a max contract, Castle, you got to do something with him, and you got Dylan Harper coming. Yeah. You can't pay off. You're not going to have no four guys on max contract. Three is the max you can have. Right.

Yeah. And them guys are all going to get max money. Hell, when it's time to come to the drawing board, Uncle Ocho, I don't want to have to say nothing. Just give me the blank check, homie. Let me, you know what I mean?

Chad Johnson (3:05)

Right.

Shannon Sharpe (3:07)

Yeah.

Pelican star Zion Williamson is reportedly in impeccable condition. And now in seven pounds lighter compared to last season. NBA Hall of Famer and Pelicans basketball operations chief, Joe Dumars, maybe had something to do with that. Let's take a listen to Zion.

Joe Dumars (3:26)

We talked just about a couple of things. One was to be a great player in this league, you have to be in impeccable condition.

You just can't play 82 games and not be in great shape. And so we talked about him being in an impeccable condition and he's done that. So kudos to Zion. He's gotten himself in great shape. The second thing you have to do is, and I've said this to Zion, it's like, look, you have to think like a great player. You have to think like you have to carry yourself the right way. You can't just be in great shape and then still do things that don't match with being a great player. So mentally, everything you do, you have to carry yourself the right way. And so I've talked to him about his condition and just about the way he carries himself. And so Zion put his head down this summer, man. He worked, he stayed off the radars.