The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Two-Week NBA Power Poll, Plus Drake Maye, Best Candy, and Half-Baked Ideas With Kevin Wildes

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons reveals his NBA power poll of all 30 teams through two weeks (2:11), before he is joined by FS1's Kevin Wildes to argue about Halloween candy, discuss Patrick Mahomes's MVP case, and talk about Drake Maye bliss for Patriots fans (53:43). Then they bring back an old favorite, another edition of Half-Baked Ideas (1:25:57). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Kevin Wildes Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up a two week NBA power pole plus half baked ideas next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this, it's game day. All the gangs here.

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It is the 40th anniversary, give or take a couple weeks, of Body Double, the belated Brian De Palma classic. Had such a good time on this one. Me, Chris Ryan, Sean Fantasy. A lot of laughs, some lines were crossed. You can watch it on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. As well, you can watch it on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. You can watch all the clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. Coming

up on this pod, I am going to do a two week NBA Power Pull. There's no games tonight and there were 15 games last night. So wrote down a bunch of notes. I was working on this the last two days. We're going to count down the teams from 30 to one. And then after that, our old friend Kevin Wilds is coming on. We're gonna talk candy for actually a long time. Drake May, Patrick Mahomes, and then a heaping healthy batch of half-baked ideas.

I wanted to put this up early today because I'm hoping everybody is out there voting. You can listen to this when you're in line, on your headphones, on your AirPods, whatever you listen to, in my case, the WirePods. Have we come up with the name of those yet? You can listen to it when you're driving to go vote, when you're taking the bus or the train to go vote.

But I hope you're voting. And I stayed out of the election this time around on the podcast, but you know where I stand. It's the same place I stood every four years. But I thought this time around on the podcast, but you know where I stand. It's the same place I stood every four years. But I thought this time around, we would keep the podcast around the stuff that people come for it for. And if you wanna consume politics,

there's plenty of places to do it, but you know where I stand. Anyway, we're gonna bring in the Power Pole in one second. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. ["The Power Pole is Here"] All right, I'm taping this Tuesday morning. There are no NBA games today, which is the perfect time to do a Power Pole after two weeks. We did this last year.

We did this the year before. Counting backwards with tiers from 30 to one, we have a nice little two-week sample size here. So first category, there's only one team in it and it's called poop for coop. You could also have talked to me in a sag for flag. You could have talked to me in a poop scooper for Cooper, but I think poop for coop is, is the right one for this. And this is basically just Utah 30th offense,

minus 14.4 net rating already. I don't know what's going on with this team. And I think the thing is they know, they want to stink. One of the things they're doing, they're putting a lot of eggs in the Quiente George basket, who I actually, I'm not against, like he might have potential down the road, but he has the ball a lot.

He's shooting 33%, 29% from three. When he's out there, minus 22.3 net, and he's a young player that you're getting good reps for. So it's actually like he's probably one of the best tanking assets in the league, because maybe four years from now he'll be really good. There is no path for this team to be good. They're in a conference that's way better

than the other conference. If you look at the standings, I think there's only two teams in the East that have an above 500 record right now. The West is absolutely ridiculously loaded. And Utah is the stinker in the West. So they are number 30. Next category is the pre-tankers. I think these are teams that haven't admitted yet

that they want to tank, but they'll get there. They're gonna get there, especially as Cooper Flags starts looking better and better in these Duke games. Number 29, Toronto. So 29th in defense and it feels worse. They've lost Scotty Barnes for at least three weeks. Rossella talked about this when we did the Over Under podcast. There's really no path for them to be good, especially defensively.

I don't really know what this team is. I do know that I like Grady Dick, so you got that going. But I wonder, as the season goes along, does Yacoperto become a trade piece for them? Anyway, not a very fun team to watch, not a fan. Number 28, Washington, who I watched a lot of last night in the Golden State game,

which they hung around they hung around They might have nailed the draft House was texting me about this. This is the 2024 drafts legendarily bad I don't think we have a rookie averaging 11 points a game right now and And everybody is either kind of lukewarm or kind of okay with who they picked the Washington's fired up SAR Bob Carrington, George, who's grown to six foot eight, they were talking about how his growth plates, he might be able to get to six foot 10.

The guy with an average of seven points a game last year at Miami. But this team plays hard. Draymond called it out after the game last night. He just talked about that was the hardest he'd seen a Wizards team play in a while. Now that's gonna change when Kyle Kuzma comes back. Shots of Kyle, sorry.

But I also like Kula Balle, I like Kispert, and there's something here. So this is like a very fun bad team that I think at least has a little bit of hope. Maybe get another top three pick. I'm not against this team. Number 27, Charlotte. 30th defensive rating feels worse.

This is a team you can catch for a quarter on league pass and they look great, but ultimately they can't stop anybody. LaMelo, good stats, bad team. We might have to wait the five year waiting period for the Hall of Fame. He's putting up giant stats and the team loses and this has just been his entire career. Now, you could argue if you just switched him with Halliburton in Indiana, could he be really good on the Pacers?

Probably, but I'm just, from a results standpoint, it has not been great for him. And then the last team, number 26, and the pre-tankers, the Atlanta Hawks. Oh no, they can't tank. They don't have their pick. Yikes. I really like this team on opening night. Since then, they've lost Bogdanovic, they lost Hunter, they lost Bufkin, they basically lost a lot of their wings, which I think is what made them interesting.

And they also are having Troy Young's worst year ever. Like all his shooting stats have been awful. I still kind of like this team. I want to see when everybody comes back back but the problem for them is there's You could say if they had their number pick like oh shit. Well, what's zag the other way? But you can't zag when you're another pick. So They're in the pre tanker category without a first-round pick. I don't know what to tell you next category potentially frisky probably harmless

Portland number 25. They have size. They have wings who can create shots. They have scoot who is starting to go downhill a little bit more. Rossella and I, this is probably one third of our tax because I think we owned all the scoot stock at this point. It's, it's like a dollar stock, but, um, he looks better than he did last year and they kind of need them. I'm not against this team.

I actually kind of like watching them. I think they've been a really strong league pass team on the west coast. 28th on offense feels like that could be better. So we'll see. They'll probably end up tanking one more time, but, um but there's some pieces here and there's some trade bay pieces too. Plus Robert Williams coming back. Number 24, Detroit beat the Lakers last night. Good news for them. They have a coach that's not in a coma. So that's a bonus. Kate and Ivy averaging almost 43 points a game. And this team rebounds,

they're out rebounding teams by seven a game. They were, they were kind of standing up to the Lakers physically last night and they legitimately beat the Lakers. I didn't even think like Detroit played amazing. I just think they had a deeper team with some size and even though Davis went off, they still won the game. Detroit's interesting because Tobias hasn't shot well yet. I think he's shooting like 18% from three. So I'm watching them because that's like a night to night. They're like a 10 point underdog against whoever and they win the game. Like there's something dangerous about them and Kade's been good, but he's still at five turnovers a game.

I feel like there's another level for him. I kind of like Detroit. Chicago number 23. This has been a league pass revelation. They are first in pace. They were 28th last year. They just push the ball and shoot threes. They're 43.1, three point, uh, three, three point shots a game. They're making over 16. They're shooting 38%.

Levine is averaging 22 a game, 50, 46, 82 percentages, and just dying for somebody to panic trade for. Maybe it would be the Lakers. On the flip side, somebody is scoring 70 points on them this year. And I don't know who it is. There's about nine candidates, but they're going to give up a 70 point game this year because they can't stop anything. But I kind of like how they play. They play like, uh, like one of those European Olympic teams that just pushes the ball, that has a center that can, can pass and create shots and, uh, they can do small ball lineups.

And I've enjoyed the bulls thumbs up. Good to see Josh Giddy finally, uh, on a team that's given him the car keys a little bit too. Number 22, the biggest surprise of the season Brooklyn. Now house and I went over for them 18 and a half wins before the season. Because we thought they had a lot of competent basketball players. And as the season has unfolded here for two weeks, Schroeder, Klaxon,

Cam Thomas is like 27 a game, Cam Johnson, Phinney Smith, the 20 minutes of Simmons a game, like they're actually a little too competent. And you think about the trades that they made before the year where they got their own pick back and it seemed like there was this whole tanking plan. I don't know what they're going to do now because the East just isn't good. Like we have, you know, seven, eight teams and then it's like this massive drop off to everybody else. And there's going to be a plan team that's like, all right, fine. We'll make the plan.

It might be Brooklyn shooters playingroeder's playing great. Schroeder is a legitimate trade asset. I think he's at 12 million. Uh, he's a fun one for a bunch of different teams. I would've said Orlando, but I kind of want them to just ride with Anthony black. Anyway, could they package Schroeder and Finney Smith to the Lakers for the DLO contract? Uh, Christian would something else and get one of those first round picks from the Lakers that they're still hoarding. They probably could. Would that be a good trade for the Lakers?

It actually would be. I'll get to that later. But Brooklyn at 22, and you can make a case they should be higher because I have some teams that have been playing awful ahead of them. Number 21, the last team in this group, San Antonio 28th offensive rating, ninth on defense. The Wemby on off stats are like genuinely hilarious. I think they're like, it's like a plus 40 swing or something crazy. They're shooting 32% from three.

Dem Vassell has been out. Uh, so Han made it, made a little mini leap now that they're not forcing them to bring the ball up. I'm not sure what this team is yet, but defensively, um, they're not nothing. They blew a huge lead to the Clippers last night. I haven't loved what I've seen from Wemby this year. He doesn't really see many different to me from last year. And I was talking to, uh, Termini and Eddie about this on their serious show the other day.

It just feels like he's too far from the basket again. And last year they rectified this in the, like basically the last two months of the season, they just had him around the basket more where he can use his size, his length, his long arms, his Freddy Krueger arms, and just kind of be around the rim and this year they, they seem like they've doubled down on making him more of a ball hander and I don't like it. So Chris Paul, not washed.

So Chris Paul, not washed. I can't say he's the point God anymore, but not terrible. We'll see whether he makes sense for them or somebody else, but the West is so good, it's probably going to make sense for them to, uh, to try to tank and do one more tanking session. All right. The next category is fantastic. There's five teams in it and it's called panic time with three exclamation points. It's not just panic time. It's panic time with three exclamation points. Number 20, New Orleans. Just guys keep getting hurt. Murphy's

been out the whole year. Herb Jones got hurt. CJ's out, which not the worst thing in the world, cause now it's Jordan Hawkins time and I like Jordan Hawkins even though he's not good on defense. But uh, Missy's not bad as a center, but they still need a center and they have Ingram doing an amazing trade bait season where he's basically 24 a night. He's borderline 50, 40, 90 guy and he's an an expiring contract, then somebody will talk themselves into him because it doesn't seem like they want to pay him. I guess the big, and it's early, it's two weeks, but the thing that's concerning to me is Zion year five.

Is it year five? Year five, year six? Can't even remember how many years he's been in the league. Field goal percentage is rough. Remember he was like a 60% field goal guy. So last three years, 61%, last year 57%, and this year's 44%. And his shot's just not going in.

And I actually thought he would be a better scorer as his career aged. He seemed like he was in good shape. So I'm just watching that, it's early. In general, super early with new Orleans. They have a bunch of trade possibilities. They year six for Zion. So it reminds me, um, they have a bunch of, of,

of picks and, and things they can do. The problem in the West is it might make more sense for them to punt on the year. If they fall way behind with all these injuries, we'll see what happens. Not counting them out yet. Milwaukee number 19. They have, they're tied for the worst record in the league. They're one and six. They're over under has dropped to 45 and a half on FanDuel.

And I watched their last two games closely against the Cavs, including last night where they did not have Giannis. They're basically the Midwest Lakers. They have an awesome big man. They have an aging offensive star who doesn't play defense. They have nobody else on the team who can play defense. They have no bench. And unlike the Lakers, there's no fixes

because if you look at what they can do, they can trade Dame, I guess. They have Conaton and Portis at 22 million combined for this year and next year, and Portis has been really bad this year. The net rating stats with him are terrible. The eye test, defensively, he's really hurting them. And that's really all they can do

is package those guys together with, I don't even know what, because they don't have any picks left. I keep thinking about Doc, who was in such a great spot here in LA. He was coming on my podcast, he was playing golf, he was doing TV, great times. And then Yanis got dangled in front of him,

and he jumped at it, and he's on this team that, I don't see any conceivable way this team is a contender. I felt that way fairly strongly before the year, except for the honest piece. Yannis has been awesome and they're one in six. I don't see a fix defensively. We've talked about it already in this pod, but it's, it's an atrocious defensive team. You look at every night after night, after night, after night,

last night it was Garland. Garland was getting whatever he wanted. They had no chance They're playing guys in crunch time that would not even play for the Celtics or the Thunder So I don't know what the fix is. I'm not counting out Anything with the honest yet. That's why I have them 19 and not 28 or 27 where they should be but really rough really rough with no fixes and there should be, but really rough, really rough with no fixes and doc come back to the podcast. Just move back to LA.

Make make believe this was like a dream sequence on the Sopranos. Just come back. Get out of there. Number 18, the LA Clippers. I saw these guys on Saturday night. They played Oklahoma city. They played really well for about a quarter and a half, two quarters. And unfortunately for them, OKC is just a ridiculous beast of a team where they

bring in their bench and their bench is Alex Caruso and Kason Wallace. And those are their defensive guards coming off the bench. So poor Harden who is having a great season, like for him, he's averaging almost a triple double. He's 21, nine and 10, three point shots down to below 30%. And he's on a team that has no chance to do anything, but he's having a great time. He has the ball at the time. He's with Norm Powell, who's somehow averaging 25 points a game. Not sure that's sustainable. But you go against a team like OKC and you realize what a chasm it is where the Quippers,

where they are without Kawhi versus teams like the Celtics and okay. Seeing Cleveland, these teams that have really good starting fives and depth and the Quippers are a million miles away. I still don't understand why they didn't sign Paul George. Um, I, when you go into that arena, the amount of money they spent, which it just seems like one of those like crazy mansions you see in the Rob report where you're like, wow, that guy spent $200 million on a house. That's what thought bomber did with that arena. And yet Paul George, he was like, ah, too rich for my blood. Doesn't really make sense. This

team has no path. It was weird seeing Kawhi there on the bench, just kind of being like, hey guys, go get him. And I don't see a path for him to be an NBA player anymore. It just seems like there's been too many knee injuries. So anyway, the biggest problem with them just as a night to night team, because they're really good defensively

when they want to be, but their starting lineup's terrible. Nobody can create a shot for anyone else except for Harden. And they're not a very good three point shooting team either. 12 for 34 basically every game for this season. So this is going to be a lottery team. I had them under 37 and a half wins in the over-under as a lock and I still feel good about that

because I do not see enough talent on this team. Number 17, sadly Orlando. I would have had them number six before the Palo injury, just a huge bummer. They're staying four to six weeks, which in NBA speak means two months. That ruins his all NBA chances because he's not to play enough games.

I think it also ruins their chance to be a top three seed, which they absolutely positively would have been no question now offensively they're challenged. And I guess if you're going to spin into a positive, no Palo means, Hey Franz, let's see it. Step up. Can you be a crunch time guy near the end of games? Anthony black, can you create some shots in the fourth quarter? Sugs, how much is in there? I mean, I have Sugs Sugs to me is now a top 50 guy.

Like we're handing in ringer 100 next week. I don't know how high Sugs is going to be, but he is in that 40 to 50 range. At least he's probably the best defensive guard in the league. And, um, offensively he's gotten better every year and he's, I think 18 points a game and creating offense for them sometimes. So could they patch something together that would give them confidence when Paulo comes back? Maybe I was thinking, speaking of sucks, the 2021 redraft, if you're going to do

it just quickly, this would probably have been a better podcast, but I'm just going to go quick. Cause I was like, where would Suggs go if they redrafted that draft? Mowby I think is still first. And I'm not just saying that because I'm over leveraged with Evan Mowby stock. He's been awesome this year for him. Kate, I think has to be second. And I have Suggs third Suggs was the fifth pick in the draft. I think he goes three.

If we do it again, Jaylen Johnson, I have Suggs third. Suggs was the fifth pick in the draft. I think he goes three if we do it again. Jaylen Johnson, I have fourth. Shen Goon's fifth. He went 16th in the draft. Jaylen Johnson went 20. So those would be the top five. Then I got Scotty, Trey Murphy, Franz, Herb Jones, Jaylen Green. Three-year run of putting Herb Jones ahead of Jalen Green

for me, and then Josh Giddy. I think that would be the redraft. Now people would argue with the Jalen Green part, maybe put him up. And I'm willing to accept that argument. I want to see a couple more weeks because that Houston team, as we'll get to after the break, is still trying to figure out what they're doing. Anyway, the point is I think if we're doing that draft again, Suggs would be third because he's that good and he's been that important to them and he's that unusual as a player.

I mean, could he be the third best player in the title team? I think he could. Number 16, the Lakers 25th defensive rating. I left that Detroit game last night thinking, how do we get Anthony Davis more help? defensive rating. I left that a trade game last night thinking, how do we get Anthony Davis more help? That was a joke. Um, D-Low Reeves, LeBron, Rui, and Davis as your crunch time team.

Good luck getting stops. If you're a wing or a point guard, it's much like the Milwaukee situation. You're scoring on everybody that team has. And really the reason, I mean, they beat Phoenix twice because Davis just owns Snurkage and both of those games, you know, are pretty close, but the real reason their record isn't as bad as I think it probably should be considering their bench is so bad that JJ could become a player coach like what we used to have in the 1970s

and he'd probably be like the eighth man on the team. The reason their record is better than maybe it should be and maybe the eye test says that they're a little better than I think they are is they just shoot a ton of free throws. They're shooting almost 10 free throws attempts more than their opponents. 9.7 to be exact.

For the season, 207 free throw attempts to 132. I'm positive they don't go to the rim that much more than everybody else, but that's part of what happens when you're the Lakers. And you have LeBron on your team and you're 22, you're gonna get some calls. But with the free throw attempt luck that they've had, if you want to call it luck, could also call it something else.

Um, I think the fact that they're basically a 500 team, not a great sign for the Lakers and this is another much like Milwaukee, what's the fix? Like you hope Jared Vanderbilt comes back. That's not going to help them with three points shooting. Um, Rui, I've been saying this, especially after the first two games and really Like you hope Jared Vanderbilt comes back. That's not going to help them with three points shooting. Um, Rui, I've been saying this, especially after the first two games. And really looked really good. And all the Waker friends like, Oh, Rui, Oh, Rui, Rui's trick or treat. That's just who he is.

Rui is the same guy who will go one for five in a game. Like he did last night. That's just who he is. He's in his like mid twenties now. He's been in the league for a few years. That's who he is. You's in his like mid twenties now. He's been in the league for a few years. That's who he is. You just got to accept it. So, um, the defense, the health of LeBron in year 22, can he play 70 games?

Davis fell down last night. It looked like he was going to be out. Then he got back up. But I, I still, they over under was 42 and a half. JJ is definitely a better coach than Darvin Ham. They might need to start playing connect more. That's not going to help with their defense, but at least it'll help them with the shooting. They still have a DLO trade to make, which I'm sure we'll, we'll be getting passive aggressive hints about fairly soon.

I have it on my calendar for November 15th, but, but they, to me, me, they just seem pretty far away from the best teams in the league at this point. So that's what I have. That's the top 15. We're gonna take a break, and we're gonna come back with the rest of the list. The NBA is back, and FanDuel is America's number one sportsbook.

They want you to catch all the action right now. FanDual giving everyone three months of NBA league pass. All you have to do to catch every tip off in Buzzer Beater is to place a $5 bet on the NBA. And it could be any $5 bet. You could say to yourself, you know what? Kind of enjoying how frisky Brooklyn is.

Start of the season, that's too many points. Just grab Brooklyn plus 10 against a better team and watch. Crunch time, all of the season, that's too many points. Just grab Brooklyn plus 10 against a better team and watch. Crunch time, all of a sudden, they're kind of lingering around there. I have enjoyed a bunch of these teams, especially watching, is Cleveland real? Are they a contender?

Well, we're gonna find out. You can bet on them. You can throw them in a parlay. Next time you get a hunch on who's gonna win or how many points a player will score, watch your picks come to live live. Just visit Fandl.com slash BS and get three months of NBA league pass. Courtesy of Fandl once again, Fandl.com slash BS.

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Gambit problem call 1-800-GAMBOR. Visit rg-help.com. Coming back from a break, Sir Rudy said that during the break that the Scotty Barnes fans are going to be mad that I had Suggs over him in a redraft. You know what? I put real thought into it and I'd rather have Suggs. Sorry.

I think Suggs is a winning player. We'll see with Scotty Barnes. He might be, but I haven't seen him yet. All right. The top 15. This tier is called Feeling It Out. And I'm not even sure what we're feeling, but we have number 15, the Miami Heat.

They beat Washington and Charlotte and Detroit. Congratulations. I think it's very possible they're the good bad team, much like the Denver Broncos. I said this on Terminati's show, and I genuinely believe it. I think it's over for these guys. I think the league just got better and they stayed the same. And I watched them and they don't seem that special. Defensively, I don't think they seem like, you know, really good or anything.

Crunch time, I always feel like the guy on the other team has just as good of a chance of scoring wherever the best guy is that they're playing as the guys that they have. And they just seem like they missed their window. You know, which was a great window, by the way. They made the finals in 2020. They made the finals in 2023.

You know, they had a really nice four year run. They battled Boston. This was great, but now Butler's 35. You know, they put a lot of, a lot of eggs in the, uh, Yeovage basket. I'm not seeing it. And, uh, you know, there's, there's panic trades to make. Like would Milwaukee accept hero and Duncan Robinson and a pick for Dame tomorrow, they probably would, but, um, I don't see it with them. And I don't think that's a controversial opinion. I just think that,

I just feel like they're at a different phase of whatever journey they're on. They're going to be mentioned in the honest a ton, like get ready for that machine to start the young. And, and basically that would be out of, by by I would have to be in the trade plus picks and you know is that a better situation than the one Yanis is in now if if Bam's in the trade I don't know but I think this team's going to be a lot of trade rumors and I'm going to be really interested to see if Butler's on this team in February because if I had to bet, I would say it's 50-50 and I would probably bet on no. We will see.

Memphis, number 14. This is a classic feeling it out team. You know, Jaws not even playing 30 minutes a game yet. Last night he had a couple Jaws highlight real plays that only he can do. I think he's ready to take his corner back from Edwards as the most beloved under 26 American guy in the league. Their 10th offensive rating, they lucked out again, but it's not luck because Memphis keeps doing this,

but Scottie Pippen Jr., who I saw in person last year when I took my daughter to an absolutely terrible Celtics Grizzlies game, and Scottie Pippen Jr. just looked like an NBA player, and I kind of filed it away. I was like, Hmm, that's interesting. Um, he's turned into a legitimately good backup player and then Huff who I'd never heard of and I watched the NBA every night and I barely remember that he

was in Denver last year and they've turned him into a really good backup big, hard to believe the nuggets didn't have use for him. Somebody get Calvin Booze some coffee. We'll see. Bain is hurt. Smart's hurt. Now, Smart was 23% field goal, 17% from three before he got hurt and looked slow and doughy to me. We'll see if he's at a different point in his career because I have a feeling he is. But, you know, maybe they have three, four months to ramp them up and get them where they need them to be. This team, you could pick any direction for them and I would believe it.

You could tell me they're never going to get their shit together. You could tell me they're going to win 49 games. I'll believe anything. Pretty fun league pass team though. All their games seem to be close. I don't think they're the same defensively as they used to be, but we'll see when they get everybody back.

The last feeling it out team is Philadelphia. So Paul George came back last night against the Suns and some really interesting crunch time stuff with them because the Suns couldn't stop Maxey. And then in the last four minutes, Maxey just never had the ball. Yabaseli took a few shots in a row, and then the biggest shot of the game,

Paul George took, and it was a contested 21 footer. And of course he missed it, and I think he was four for 14 for the game. And I was watching Maxie's body language just standing on the side as Paul George decided the game, and he was kind of like, what the fuck is going on? It made me think when Embiid comes back,

that's gonna be be even, um, more notable with what happens there. I was thinking about Philly a lot before the season. I meant to say this on the over under pod and I didn't, but when you put like three guys together like this, there has to be some sort of sacrifice in place with the three, right? Now think about the 2008 Celtics is a good example, not to bring the Celtics into this. I swear I wasn't looking for an excuse, but go back and,

go back and read anything about that team that year. You can watch the documentary we have coming six months, five months, four months, whenever it is. KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen. Doc brought them in and Doc was like, you guys are gonna have to sacrifice. I'll get to shoot 20 shots a game anymore. They were all at the point of their career

that they were ready to make sacrifices because they'd all done a bunch of great stuff on their own, right? Paul Pierce had been the best player in the Celtics for almost a decade. He'd averaged 26 game. Ray Allen had almost made the finals in 2001 and it got rudely taken from him by the refs and David Stern. We don't talk about that now, but he had been a real guy in his own and,

and had plenty of shots. Garnett had been an MVP in, in, in Minnesota in 2004 and just wanted to win. And all those guys were at the point of their career where they wanted to give up something. So you look at this Sixers team, you could argue Paul George is at that point in his career, right? He's been on a bunch of good teams. He's been close.

Maybe that's somebody who will sacrifice and bead, um, no comment. And then Maxie is the one that's interesting because when you're, when you're asking three guys to sacrifice and be, all right, this game, you're going to be the one that stands in the side. You're going to be the one that only shoots 12 times. Maxey doesn't know who he is as a player yet. He doesn't know how good he is yet. He, for all he knows, he might be one of the 10 best players in the league a year

from now, and he's just blossoming and figuring out. Like, what is the ceiling? How many floors does this go up? And now you're asking the sacrifice and he's sacrificing something that he hasn't even achieved yet. So I'm just flagging it because when you're asking, um, young players who haven't hit their potential yet, and he's a special player, I think he's the most beloved sixer, I don I think he's the most beloved Sixer. I don't think there's any question.

Um, I think if, if you're asking Sixer fans, protect one person on this team, they'll pick Maxie and he's still figuring out who he is as a player. So from a sacrifice element, that's the main thing I'm watching. You're asking three guys to sacrifice and they're not at the right point of their careers as a threesome yet. The supporting cast, Yabba Selle, I think was a good signing. I like Caleb Barton. Not willing to rule this team out, especially when there's only two above 500 East teams right now. The Embiid thing is just going to be a soap opera all season and they weren't honest about it before the year. There had been rumors and they weren't even rumors because people were telling

me this in September that his knee wasn't right. So we'll see. Um, he's had a bunch of surgeries. He's had a bunch of things happen to him. And I just don't think you can count on him week to week as a reliable person is going to be in the rotation. It only matters in the playoffs, but I also think this is what the Clippers did with Kawhi for four years and it never worked out.

So we'll see how it goes, but I'm really interested in the sacrifice piece of it. I was thinking about it last night as Max is just standing there in the side watching Paul George and Max is probably thinking this should be my team. We'll see how it plays out. Next category, trust the process. Number 12. Sacramento. Fifth in offensive rating, even though they're only 33% from three.

This is a team you watch them at the end of games and they almost have too many crunch time options, right? They got Malik Monk, they have Fox, and now they have DeRozan. All three guys I really like with the ball with like a minute left in a one point game. So they have to navigate that piece. They also, I don't love their bench, even though herders playing better this year. Um, Liles, Len McDermott, it just feels like a six man team. And that's the pain and how you feel about Ellis, but you know, they missed on Davion Mitchell and in 2021 with the ninth pick, then they took Carter 13th.

in 2021 with the ninth pick. Then they took Carter 13th in June, and he's not coming back till some point to winter. But it feels like they're a guy short. They have picks, they have things to trade. I'm watching them. That's a possible trade partner for Brooklyn or any of these other teams that have some sort of veteran between like 9 million and 18 million.

Utah's another one with Clarkson and Sexton. We'll see what they do. Number 11, I have Indiana who has the 25th defensive rating and is just getting a weird Halliburton season. He looked more like himself last night against Dallas. He had a 24 and 12. You think last year, the first 31 games of the year, he was 24 and 13, 50% shooting 41% from three and was

probably the most fun guard in the league. And then he got hurt. It never really came back. And this year before the Dallas game last night, he was 33%, 24% from three, 14 and seven, and it was worse than that. Cause if you watched it, it didn't seem like he had the same confidence in his legs. It didn't seem like he was going downhill the same way. It didn't that crazy 25 foot, three point shot that he would take that always

went in last year. It didn't seem like he even thought it was going in this year. So, um, you know, I'm not panicking about him yet, but it's notable that, uh, he hasn't been that good because Matthew came back 16 points a game for him and is a crunch time guy. Neesmith just got hurt. Uh, not sure when he's coming back, but I'd still believe in these guys. I have them 11th, but, um, really only because we haven't seen them all healthy

yet. They had a couple of bench guys go down. Um, I still believe in these guys and I still think night to night they're because we haven't seen them all healthy yet. They had a couple bench guys go down. I still believe in these guys, and I still think night to night, they're scary to play, and they know who they are. They have an identity. They beat the Celtics in OT already.

So 11 seems right for them. 10th, Houston. 9th in offense, 10 in defense for the ratings. They're shooting 43s a game. They're only making 32%, partly because Van Vliet has kind of sucked this year. He's 28% from three. I'm not positive he should be in their best lineup.

You could talk me into like them just going bigger and just playing, having Jalen Green bring the ball up when there's four minutes left and just go with wings and size. It's a really interesting team to coach. And I don't think Udca knows who his guys are yet. And he's been experienced like Shen Goon. Like I think he played only 21 minutes in the Warriors game last night.

He played a bunch. He seems like he really likes, uh, Eason and, um, and Thompson and guess what? Join the club. Cause I really liked those guys too. Those guys are hard to keep out of the game and crunch time because of the defense and guess what? Join the club. Cause I really liked those guys too. Those guys are hard to keep out of the game and crunch time because of the defense and the versatility and the athleticism.

I'm in Thompson. I threw him in a Butler trade. If they want to do a three for one, like, I don't know, a week ago, I'd like to recant that. I don't know. He might be a top 40 trade value guy for me at this point, but I'm not sure what their, what the version of their best team is yet and whether they need to turn

Brooks and cam Whitmore and I don't know what else into, and some picks into one more awesome piece or whether they just ride it this year. Cause they're not going to win the title there. Top five league past him. Whitmore had a DNP on Monday night, which I thought was notable because I feel like they could get something for him. I think he could really help somebody off the bench, but this is a team that has different looks night to night. And I think they might be the league pass MVP for me.

I never know who's finishing games for them. Shungun might have a 30, 20 any night. Jalen Green might have 40 points any night. Every time Reed Shepard's in, I'm mesmerized because he's basically Mark Price on the 1991 Cavaliers back. Really like this Houston team. They're in a great spot. Congratulations, Houston fans.

Number nine, last person in this trust the process category, last team is Denver. So, you know, there's been a lot of KCP stuff this first couple of weeks. Brown's been good. Their starting lineup is plus 14.9 net. It's been their bench that's killing them. The fact that, uh, the Westbrook was pretty good last night playing for Murray. The bench hasn't been good enough. And then, uh, Murray's just not the same guy.

And that's it. We could talk about the bench. We could talk about the league getting better, but Murray in the 2023 playoffs was 26 a game, 47% field goal, 40% three, 7.1 assists. And this year he's 16 points a game, 4.4 assists, 37%, 30% from three. And I-Test backs it up. He just looks slower. He has trouble getting a shot off. 4.4 assists, 37%, 30% from three. And iTest backs it up. He just looks slower.

He has trouble getting his shot off. And that's the guy to watch. Because if he's not back to 2023 Murray by April, this team has no chance of winning the title, no matter how good Yoko is. Next category, the sleeper. So this was my hardest one in the Power Pole. Golden State, who I think you could argue probably should be in the top five

with how they've looked. And I just, I don't want to shoot my wad on that one yet. They got Boston, Cleveland, OKC is their next three games. Not great. That's probably the, the, one of the all time gauntlets you're going to have in a regular season this decade. Their second in defensive rating, which is something Steve Kerr was talking about a lot in the pre-season that he really liked how this team was defending. They're playing Draymond with TJD a little bit. Um, he played 12 guys, the first couple of games, which I don't know if that was a

trade bait thing or what the plan was with that. As you know, I'm morally opposed to 12 minute rotations, but I think he kind of wanted to see what he had. I'm almost treated like a college team. The big thing for them is the buddy healed in the clay spot has been amazing. He's 22 a game in 25.5 minutes making five threes a game for all time heat check seasons, like the Pantheon all time heat check season ever was John Drew in 1983, averaging 21.2 points a game in 27 minutes. One of my favorites. Freeman Williams in 1980, 18.6 points a game in 25.8 minutes. But he's 22 and 25 and a half minutes, which might be as close as we've gotten to minutes and points

for anyone playing under 27 a game. But they've unleashed him. I think they really believe in him. The shooting coach was his coach for the Bahamas. And they've just basically running all the clay stuff for him and it's going great. Curry came back. This team's better than I thought it was gonna be.

I think I went over, didn't do a lock or anything, but with their depth, which you need in the regular season, I think I went over it didn't do a lock or anything but But with their depth which you need in the regular season, I think this team this is a high 40s team I think I think they have a lot of options and they have curry Okay, next category definitely lurking So we have four teams in here number seven is the Knicks This is weird third offensive rating 19th defensive rating fifth overall. I don't know if you saw Townes last week, but he eviscerated Bam Adebayo and it was notable. And I don't know if there was a history with those guys

or what was happening, but he absolutely destroyed them. That plus the Townes Brunson high screen, which I think is probably a top five unstoppable NBA player right now. I don't really know what you do because you basically have to settle for town shooting from 25 feet wide open. Cause you don't want to, you don't want to have Brunson basically attacking your big guy. That plays great. I love how towns is fit in their bench sucks. They're seven, eight, nine, 10 right now is pain Sims daddy and Huck Porty. Uh, I know the next fans are like, well, we go to Robinson coming back. Well, he played, he gets hurt every year.

The big thing for me is what was the point of the bridges trade for all the stuff they gave up, which I know they had to, but they gave up a fucking shitload for him. And then when you watch the Knicks play, he's basically Nikhil Alexander Walker on the side and for what they gave up for him, for how kind of little they use him, it's, it's kind of shocking. Like he's like a 15 points a game guy. He just stands in the corner and crunch time. I thought he would be way more involved with their offense.

And, you know, you think like, if you honest is really going to be available over these next couple of weeks, months, they shot their wad on this bridges package and, you know, they could have just done the town's thing. They could have kept everything else they had and kind of waited, but they, they went all in. I defended it last summer. It made sense to me, but I asked them that they'd use bridges as more than just like this complimentary player. So maybe it's got to sort itself out, but I'm just watching that because he just

seems irrelevant sometimes for them. And I don't, I don't like it. So if you're going to give up that many picks for somebody, maybe, uh, maybe use them. Number six, Minnesota. that many picks for somebody, maybe use them. Number six, Minnesota. Minus 0.4 net, 18th defense.

Edwards has been the story because of all the threes he's taken, which by the way, if he's gonna take 12 threes a game and make 43% of them, knock yourself out. I like how Randall's looked offensively for them. He's almost 23 a game. It's a little clumsy sometimes, but their defenses is obviously worse. One of the reasons it's worse is McDaniel's is basically unplayable.

He's sucks in Saddow series. Uh, McDaniel's, D'Fincenzo and Conley are basically at 30% shooting threes this year. And that's, that's why I think they haven't, um, looked like maybe we thought they'd look yet, but I'm watching the McDaniel's thing. Cause they gave him an extension and Alexander Walker's just now playing them. So is he a possible trade piece for them? Can they get him going?

But this started in the playoffs last year and it hasn't gotten better. And you think like one of the reasons their defense looked like one of the best defenses in the last 20 years in the first rounds of the playoffs was because the size of towns and go bear. And then what McDaniels and Edwards were able to do together. And now McDaniels is, uh, in a complete funk. So watch out for that one. Number five is Phoenix. Somehow only a 16th offensive rating, which doesn't make sense when you're

watching them because, uh, Katie and Booker and Bieleler almost nine threes a game, 42% from three. Katie's 27 a game, 55% shooting. His crunch time stuff is as good as it's ever been. It's unbelievable. I mean, he, he was in the 2007 draft. I think everybody from that draft is gone, except for Horford and Conley, who are like role players at this point. And Katie's like beating double teams off the dribble and you know, he's going by whoever he wants.

He's been awesome. I think he's, he might be, it's him and Tatum, I think as the MVP through two weeks, just cause of how much they've meant to their teams and how good they've been. So it turns out having a point guard helps. Who could have guessed? We only had 77 years of basketball history there. They now get fast breaks. They now get KD rolling off stuff. Still some weird fourth quarter shit with them. The nirkage thing I still don't love against certain teams like Davis owns him, but I think Phoenix is where they want to be. That was one of the teams we went big on before the season and, um, you know, they have one

loss. They're doing great. So I almost put them in the, in the contender category, but I still don't think they know who their fifth guy is. Like they were putting Ryan Dunn in there, but teams started leaving them open and they, they need to figure out Beal, KD, Booker, Nerkage, O'Neal. I guess, I guess that's the five. I kind of like it more sometimes when Nerkage isn't in there and they just go smaller and they have shooting all over the place, but, um, I'm

feeling good about Phoenix. Good to see coach Bud in the sidelines again. The contenders, I have Dallas for other people would have them a little further back because they haven't been playing that great. They're 15th in offense, 8th in defense. PJ Washington who beat OKC last year because he made all those corner threes and they haven't gone in since. The big thing for me is Luca, who the, the MVP is sitting there for him now. Like Yannis is out. Yokej is going to be out cause Denver's not going to be good enough.

And Biedt's not going to play enough. Tatum who has, I think he's averaging 13 points a game in the first quarters, but the Celtics are blowing all these teams out. So he's not even playing enough minutes to like pad his stats, but he's been great. Katie's in there, but it just feels like Luca, if, if he goes on a tear, he's going to be the easy MVP favorite. He's only 28 a game, 40% field goal, 31% from three. So I'm sure that's going to flip.

I'm sure he's going to have like 72 points against the bulls and all of a sudden all those numbers will go up, but, um, just feels first two weeks hasn't. Hasn't gotten it going. It's fun to see clay on this team. I still feel like he's a little too involved because he's clay Thompson, but you know, in crunch time, I kind of want the ball with Luca and Kyrie and just standing in the corner clay Thompson, but, uh, they're starting to line up suck too, so they got to to line up suck too.

So they got to figure that piece out. Why is, why do they get better as soon as live that comes in? Maybe he should just start and play more minutes. Number three, Cleveland home run first two weeks for them. They're eight now. This was another team we went big on before the season. Second in offense, fifth in defense. They're plus 12.7 net. They haven't had strews all year, but Laverte's been good for them.

They've gotten good shooting from Dean Wade, people like that. But the big thing is Garland's back. And we flagged this, we talked about it extensively in the over and under pod. Garland broke his jaw last year. It was a weird year in general. They didn't know if Mitchell was staying or not.

This year, Garland's 53%, 45% for three. He absolutely obliterated Milwaukee last night. Now, granted it's Milwaukee in its name, but he's back to getting wherever he wants to go. And what I really like and what I think is really potentially special about this team, maybe Kenny Atkinson has a little bit to do with it. Maybe the fact that Mitchell resigned with them,

but there's a real generosity with Garland and Mitchell now. Like last night it was Gar with Garland and Mitchell now. Like last night it was Garland's night and Mitchell deferred. He let him kind of run the show the last four or five minutes and if they needed Mitchell he was there. I don't know if that was as seamless last year and I think these guys have been together a couple of years now. They had two huge crunch time wins over Milwaukee.

Mitchell made the big shot on Saturday. Garland made all the big plays yesterday, but I like the combo of them. And I think the combo of Mobley and Allen, who were wondering, should they trade one of those guys? Um, don't touch this team. This team, this is unequivocally the third best team in the league right now. So number two, I have okay. See, even though they are first in defensive rating at 93.2, which is 8.3 points

lower than anyone else. I don't even like, if we were going to say that's an NFL team, that would be like an NFL team giving up seven points a game for the first two months of the season when they play Caruso and SGA together, though, all the advanced metrics, they're basically the 96 bulls. Chet is averaging almost five stocks a game. He's over three blocks. He's getting steals.

They haven't played a close crunch time game yet. They're just dominating these games. And by the way, they're not shooting that well from three point percentages. Chet's under 30, SGA is under 30, Caruso is under 20, Wallace is under 33. So there's a level for them to go with the three point shooting defensively. They're unbelievable. I just couldn't believe watching them on, uh, on Saturday night in person. It just never ends. That's the thing. Like I know they have all these good defensive players and it makes sense that

they're awesome on defense. But when you see it over the course of two and a half hours with your own eyes in person, it never lets up. It's like watching a defense where the, in football where the defense is just blitzing every single down and the offense is picking up for the first quarter and a half of the game and then by the third quarter, the quarterback's just getting pounded.

That's what it felt like watching them. They have so many options. Everybody can switch onto a different guy. There's nobody to attack. It's funny watching these NBA teams. We're like, who the fuck do we attack out of these guys? Every, every person we want to get into a pick and roll can also guard the person that's dribbling. So that plus how good Chet's look this year. Um, you know, this has a chance to be a really special regular season team. We'll see about the playoffs, but you know, this is a team that could win mid to high sixties, I think because night to night, the youth, the legs, the defense, the Clippers

played really well on Saturday night for about an hour and it didn't matter. They were losing double digits in the fourth quarter. Then the favorite is still has to be the Celtics. They've only lost once. They won the title last year. Their fourth in defensive rating without poor Zingas 14.1 net rating. Really good back to back wins against an annoying Charlotte team over the weekend that I thought were meaningful because the second game was a classic. You forget to show up and you just kind of fuck the game up. But Grant Williams had done a hard foul of Tatum. That was a cheap shot at the end of the game.

Celtics were pissed about it and they came out and they laid this back down on Saturday. This is something that Steve Kerr talked about with me once upon a time. When I was doing my book about the year after you win the title, you have this different confidence and swagger to you because you've done it, you've climbed the mountain, you believe in the infrastructure of who you are. And it feels like the Celtics are tapping into that a little bit. Now, Jalen got a little banged up. Uh, poor Zengas probably isn't coming back till December. And then there's this Horford piece where he's playing 25 minutes a game. He's fine. He's eight and five.

They're just trying to basically get him to play. And then he's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game.

He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little bit of a game. He's playing a little there's this Horford piece where he's playing 25 minutes a game. He's fine. He's eight and five. They're just trying to basically pace him for the playoffs. He hasn't shot a free throw yet this year in two weeks. So last four years free throws, 95, 21, 30 last year, and then zero this year. So they're really patching together the center position with him and Cornette and Kata. Kata has been really big for them from a shot blocking standpoint. And as a regular season team, I still think they're in their sixties if Tatum and White and Holliday are all playing and Jalen plays enough games. Tatum's been on a mission and the three

isn't even going in every game, but he's, he's just peak of his powers at this point. This is the best game to game quarter to quarter that he's ever been offensively. He really knows how to attack what he wants to do, how to be a point forward. And this is still the best team in the league. When Porzingis comes back, this is a 18 game winning streak kind of a team. And I think OKC is too.

And I think my big lesson from the first two weeks is that Boston and OKC. In my opinion, are levitating above everybody else. Maybe Cleveland can kind of tap at their shoes a little bit, but it's Boston and OKC and that's why I picked before the season to make the finals. I haven't seen one thing to make me think that's not gonna be our finals. So there you go. That is our two week power pole.

We're gonna take a break and come back with my old friend, Kevin Wilds. All right, we're taping this late Monday afternoon, Eastern time. I got Kevin Wilds right after he taped First Things First. This is when I like him. He's just done a two hour live TV show. He's groggy. He's not really thinking anymore. Like he's just, he's just reacting, ad-libbing, not overthinking his takes. And I want to start here Wilds. You posted a picture of your favorite candies pyramid style. Yes, and you had Reese's at the top you did this Halloween week and

I had a lot of problems with the with the with the pyramid. I A lot of people had problems with the pyramid. It was meant to Provoke discussion, but it felt like nobody had a problem with Reese's being number one. The problem that everybody had was, and I didn't realize I was the only one that thought this, that plain M&Ms are better than peanut M&Ms. Turns out I was wrong. It wasn't one of those things like, well, that's just your opinion, Wilds, you're allowed to have it.

Nope. Every single person said I was wrong. So I said, you know what? I'll fold my hand on that one. I was wrong about that. I would flip those if I did it again. So people have peanut M&Ms over playing M&Ms. No, I was the only person.

So I folded my hand on that. If I was next tune in next year to see where they, they rank. See, I feel like those two are kind of their own candies. I don't feel like they're even like brothers or siblings or sisters or even cousins. I just feel like they're over here and over here. They're so different. And when I, like I went through the Quipper game on, on Saturday and they had the plain M and M's and the peanut M and M's and I really thought about it.

I'm like, am I in a plain M and M mood or peanut M and M mood? And I was like, you know what? I'm in a peanut M and M mood. Wow. I grabbed those instead, but I don't feel like they swim in the same pool. See, here's my argument if I was to make it. If I want chocolate, I'll go with the Reese's. I already have that, the box checked on that.

And if I want M&Ms, I'll go with an M&M. The peanut M&M is living in the middle of that somewhere. So for me, it doesn't work. And a lot of people will say, The peanut M&M is living in the middle of that somewhere. So for me, it doesn't work. And a lot of people will say, well, what about the candy shell? I would just, I get that from the M&M. So I don't need the peanut M&M to even exist, but everyone's mad at me. So here is my biggest, uh, my biggest pick.

I think the hundred grand bar is the best chocolate bar on the planet. And I think everybody really deep down thinks this, but nobody wants to admit it. And if you put like, we have, we have a candy jar in our house and you've been to our house and there's two full jars of candy. Cause for some reason, my wife likes having candy in the house. The hundred grands are always gone. And we start out equally and they just get pulled out. I don't know anybody who's against hundred grand. I think it's the perfect chocolate bar. And I actually think they market it badly.

I feel like their campaign, almost how like Lebron has been marketing himself as like since the last dance as like the goat. And he's just done all these different things to kind of push this whole, well, look at my whole career. Look at what else can I do? I'm still playing 22 years. 100 grand needs to hire like a media strategist to really grab the corner of the Go Candy Bar

because I don't think it's there yet. You're saying just being named after a denomination of money isn't really getting it done for the 100 grand bar. No, I think people mispronounce it. I think some people call it the 100,000 grand or they like they get they can't remember which one it is But then when they have it, it's delicious you go into like a Rite Aid or you go into a CVS Sometimes you can't even find them. No, can I tell you something? Little ugly for a candy Yeah, maybe a complete rebrand. It's kind of bumpy. It's not sure of itself versus when you take out for example

these kiss Aesthetically the Hershey kiss is just perfect silver. It's got the little hat on it for the yeah You can interact with it. Oh wrap it exactly a hundred grand bar you take it out. What's going on here? It's just it's all over the place It's just feels like it's like a, like when you see an alien trying to be born onto something, it's like, it's kind of emerging. So I could see that being an issue.

Nobody knows what it is. People get confused. Like, what does that have rice crisps in it? It's like, yeah, I think so. It's like, is there a peanut butter base, something in there? Like, I'm not a hundred percent sure. I don't know even what's in the hundred grand bar versus, um, is it a Milky way with rice crisps,

rice crisps and caramel. Three things that everybody likes. Everybody likes caramel with a chocolate bar. Nobody's like, oh man, there's caramel in this. I'm not eating it. That's a good point. Reese's, I think part of what the success with Reeses is, first of all, great name. Second, people know what it is.

It's chocolate with a peanut in it. It could be different sizes. It has brand recognition. It's had a great media strategist over the last 80 years where it's like the 100 grand bar, not as much. They advertise aggressively. Like Reese's is out here getting it done with the orange rappers. They're really making moves. I haven't seen an ice cream. There's like, there's like Reese's ice cream. Like they're really like aggressively trying to expand the brand.

A hundred grand is just kind of like, we might be at CVS. We might not. Yeah. It's, it's like a hundred grand. If I was to do a, uh, you know what, like remember when Tarantino got Travolta, I'm like, you know what? This guy's great and everybody's forgotten about him. If I was to grab the 100 grand payday, probably baby Ruth, I'd give Crackle a shot. If I was a Tarantino-esque director, I'd give Crackle a run. a shot, I would, if I was a Tarantino S director, I'd give crackle a run. Um,

well, so here, here's the one you're missing. He's far. I think the Travolta pulp fiction is the Rollo, the Rollo bar. I think everybody loves Rollo bars. You can't find them anywhere. Rollo is not good. No one likes Rollos. Rollo is, it's has a badolo has a bad texture to it. Rolos are slippery. Rolo, again, doesn't know what it wants to be. It's like, hey, we're a cylinder. Like, what? Get out of here, Rolo. Wow. This is my least favorite Wildsteak probably ever. If you want Rolo bars. What is it? It's a candy you pull it apart, it's a caramel comes,

it's kind of like bisected. Yeah, it's almost like a star, it's like Starburst. Like you buy like, it's like a roll of Rolo. No, I don't like those. No, those are bad, that's Caramello. You want Caramello versus Rollo head to head. That would be like Ravensville's. You think that they're both on the same level

until you see them head to head. Caramello would wash Rollo. Well, see, I love Caramello bars, but I never see those anymore. I thought those were just gone. I don't know. That's the problem. I would, I would care. What happened to Caramellos?

Well, do your thing about Crackle. Cause I really want to dive into this. I thought it was one of your best and most important takes. We've known each other since 2006. Yeah. Yeah. I guess somewhere in there. This is one of my best takes.

I thought it was the one that resonated with me personally as hard as anything, as any of your recent albums, any recent recent work, even when we did a little country there for a second, do a little hip, Billy rock, like still like this one, both a compliment and an insult. My crackle take was one of my best take. Look every year. You get the Hershey's fun bag mix and there's crackle You open it up. You have the crackle you think this is great. There's no reason

Crackle can't have the career that the crunch bar is having and crunch bars up here with a trophy case filled of most improved candy, most valuable candy, finals candy, MVP. Also, like Hershey bar was s'mores. Like it's, it's got this whole second career where it's like, you have to have it with the s'mores. It's, it's an, it's an ice cream. I've had Hershey crunch ice and there's crackle out here.

Pop in a game give you you know 25 one night and then disappear for weeks on end What could crackle pop up throw for 300 yards when you game three touchdowns and then just gone So I don't know what to do with crackle part of me thinks that crackle I don't want to say this but I part of me thinks that crackle, I don't want to say this, but part of me thinks that crackle doesn't have the heart. You got all the tools, but just might not have the motor or crackle on it. Here's the other thing about crackle might not want it.

If brain of the bright lights on Halloween, one of the ideas I had was like crackle, maybe you should bail on Halloween. Try to find another holiday like peeps did. Peeps couldn't compete on Halloween. He's like, we got to be out, we got to go to Easter. Candy Canes saw the lineup and Halloween that compete here. We need to go to Christmas and just try to dominate Christmas. Maybe crackle looks around says, Hey, you know what, Thanksgiving, why don't we we can take after

dinner mints. Uh, but right now, cracking can't cut it. Can't cut it on Halloween. I was thinking, you made me think about crackle, which I'd really never truly thought about and I'm with you would always be in the chocolate bags and be like, Oh, crackle game manager. Um, reminded me of a couple of actors over the years that seemed to have all the tools and something was missing.

Like right now it's Chris Hemsworth. I don't know why Chris Hemsworth isn't one of the crimps Hemsworth. Like just called him Helmsworth. Maybe that's part of the problem. Chris Hemsworth. Um, like I loved him in rush. I really liked the movie rush, the race car movie about, uh, about Nikki Lada and the other guy, but James Cook,

whatever his name was, the Bill's running back. He's got everything you need. He's 6'3", handsome, be a leading man. He was in Black Hat with Michael Mann. He could be in a rom-com. He kind of do it all, but it's never really happened. And if he's opening a movie, I don't think it's probably going to do well because he's the star of it

But Ryan Reynolds wasn't Ryan Reynolds was in this zone for 10 12 years And then I think he escaped because it feels like he's an a-plus Lister So, I don't know maybe that's all Ryan Reynolds did definitely. Yeah, right So you're saying but Ryan Reynolds it was I feel like and I'm not a Ryan Reynolds expert Although I'm a fan. It feels like Deadpool pushed him, pushed him beyond. He's like, you know what? I'm not going to try to be for everybody.

I'm going to be a little more foul and then that will allow my personality. So maybe, so I don't know how that plays. Just crackle. No, that's why it's Deadpool. Here's what I think crackle. Here's what I think Crackle, here's what it needs. It needs to be in a show like a stranger thing season four, like euphoria season three, and there's some episode where the character is like really obsessed, just loves Crackle, like a big Crackle fan.

And it's just, you know how those shows sometimes that our kids watch can just get momentum with weird shit. Yeah. It's like the ego. It's moment. It needs like, it's. It's some sort of moment. It's just never had it.

I'm going to, I mean, this is going to hurt if you work at crackle, but I don't think the leading characters in any film are going to love crack. Yeah. Like a secondary character or some, you know, a supporting character. It's like, man, my weird friend loves Crackle. The comic relief. Yeah, comic relief guy loves Crackle. Isn't that weird?

It's like, how did you get even 12 Crackle? You have to buy, there's only come three to a bag. Hershey's doesn't believe in Crackle either, or Nestle. I don't even know who the parent company is. But they don't believe in Crackle. They don't think Crackle has it either. So if you're not getting support from management, all right, everyone's given up on Crackle. Maybe, honestly, maybe this is Crackle's moment.

Maybe you should just be the change you believe in and just start eating crackles all the time. But again, probably not bad for the podcast though, because of the stupid rice crisps. I think it's like a formula one situation where Hershey is the preferred driver of the formula one team and crackles like the number two team could maybe if you gave it the number one car, maybe it could drive it, but it just, it's just not going to get there the way it is. I would do a rebrand.

I think the K hurts it. Maybe go back to the C. I think when people do goofy spelling for food or, you know, like things you have to purchase, sometimes there's a backlash with that and maybe the sizes have to be different. Maybe maybe thinner, maybe fatter. Like you think about Kit Kat thinner, can't go thinner. Then there's the score bar. S.K.O.R. get out of here. Nobody wants to. You can't go thinner.

You can't mess with the shapes. It comes across as desperate. Once you start... Well, so, counter. Kit Kat has done a lot of renovation stuff with the Kit Kat. Like, they'll have like a white chocolate Kit Kat. They'll have during Halloween season, they'll have like a spooky Kit Kat. And it kind of works.

It's like, ah, I'll try that. But Kit Kat is operating from a position of strength. KitKat, that's like the Lions running trick plays. Like we can do so much stuff. We're so good at the fundamentals. We're running other stuff. Yeah, that's fair. Crackle can't go out there doing, you know, the Philly special.

Like you just got to work on blocking and tackling right now, Crackle. I think KitKat's on the Mount Rushmore. I think almost everybody likes KitKat. I think part of the success is the double piece. Like you can burn, you can, you can share it. Be like, you want to have my half of my KitKat cut it out. Give one person the bar. You keep the other one.

It's just, it's good name. Memorable. It's just really good. Okay. I think that is 100% marketing. I bet less than 1% of KitKats are shared and you want the option to share it. Yeah. I think anyone's got it. No one's like, Hey, do you want, Hey, uh, I got this KitKat. Do you want one? I think that rarely happens.

You can share any candy. I can break a Twix in half too, but nobody does that. Twix is another one. I think Twix has had a really good, uh, really since we've been kids. Really good run. Great run. Great frozen. So who's on your Mount Rushmore? KitKat? I have a hundred grand KitKat, M&Ms, Hershey and Twix. Hershey Kisses? I have five.

No, I just like the regular, the Hershey bar. I have five in the Mount Rushmore because Twix has to be on there. I really respect the Hershey though. I like that the little squares, you could have half of it, two thirds. As you know, I make raw dog s'mores where I don't actually microwave them I just put like a graham cracker two marshmallows and like half a Hershey and I just eat it well it's

Snickers on I don't do Snickers Wow not a Snickers guy Wow okay what was your Mount Rushmore I mean the Mount Rushmore for me personally, or what I think should be your personal Mount Rushmore. Uh, you can go five, not four. It's, it's, it's not going to be, it's, it's not going to be well received. Reese's peanut butter cups. You ready? Yeah. York peppermint patties. Yeah. It's really weird.

It's getting worse. Necco wafers. I love a dry wafer. And then I'll probably go... I'll probably just go plain M&Ms. I like... It's the York that is really... That is really off- to people and the wafers.

The York's just gross. I don't know. I just love that. Did you, did you ever have the Reggie bar when Reggie Jackson had his candy bar? No, no, I never got, I never, that's a little before my time. And then I, I don't think I've ever seen them for sale. I remember reading them as a kid and liking them, even though he was a Yankee, but, um, it was basically a hundred grand bars. My memory of it.

It was right on the corner. Very similar. Maybe. Oh yeah. Celebrity endorsement. I mean, it's a good Anthony Edwards thing. Maybe this, maybe this is the keys. You remember when LeBron attached himself to blaze pizza and we didn't know if he was pizza was and we were like, wait, what's he doing? And then it was like, Oh, blaze pizza. That's the one. And all of a sudden blaze pizza was worth a billion dollars.

Maybe Anthony Edwards needs to do with the crackle. Okay. He's just, he, he takes Anthony Edwards, takes 13 threes in a game sits in his locker room after makes five funny comments to media members as he's eating a crackle and people were like, something's happened with crackle. That would work. That would have 100% work. That's the longest anyone's ever talked about crackle. And that includes inside the crackle building.

So we just moved on to Mr. Goodbar. Maybe they took some notes. It's, it's take season for you right now on first things first. And I'm catching right after Dak was scratched for five to six weeks. Is it better if the Cowboys are awful, mediocre or good? Good with flaws. I would say is the best. That's the ideal.

Good with flaws. I think every marquee team, when they're good with flaws, makes it the most interesting. And not to be too philosophical about it, but a superhero, like a Superman thing, like a superhero with a kryptonite, I think is the most interesting team. That's why I think like, I know we were talking basketball, like that's why I think Tatum is interesting. Like, oh, like I think superhero with flaws is fascinating, but

a mediocre team that could get hot, Interesting, but just a bad team, a marquee team that is bad. That's the worst. There's no, there's no takes that you can gen. That is, that is the dry arid land that no takes can grow from. Is that same for the Lakers? No, the Lakers I think are fascinating, but I always thought the Lake, the Lakers punchers chance for the last few years. And now that they're running interesting stuff, it's like, oh, two top 10 players.

Like maybe, maybe they can make a little run. I think the Lakers are always interesting because LeBron. Top 10 players. Who's the second one? 12? Where you put an AD? I would have, you could talk me an AD, not LeBron. What do you have?

What do you have LeBron? It's not in the top 10. 15? Yeah. Okay. All right. But how many, but every team with two top 15 players has a chance at the title, except them for the last few years. But maybe JJ can work some magic and maybe it'll work. They're not good defensively. You know, I haven't watched enough this year yet.

I've just been so locked in on football. I haven't like switched over and we were, I was locked in on the world series. I got to switch over to basketball to get totally locked in. I'm just not expected. The Yankees Dodgers became like an actual spectacle. It got like 15 million people watching every baseball game. It was bigger than the NBA finals. It was as big as like a round one NFL game. It's huge.

And for, I was trying to, maybe you'll be able to pull this off the top of your head, but for a five game series, super tight and compelling versus usually thought like great series seven, six, like, oh, it's like every game was good. Moments, again, superstar with a flaw with Aaron Judge. You're always pulling for him to pull out of it. O'Conny kind of battling back, kind of Willis Reedy, although he'd never had like the big moment. Freddie hitting a home run all the time.

I thought it was just awesome. I thought it was just World Series baseball, just fantastic. Well, it's funny, because we always would have this in the NHL and in baseball, we're like, oh man, if it's only these two teams, then it's never the two teams. Yeah.

So it was like one of the two teams. And this time we actually got the two teams, and it was awesome. And anecdotally, everybody, I mean, I'm in LA, so obviously I'm a little biased, because everybody I knew out here cared about it, but it just felt like anecdotally,

you realize how many Yankee and Dodger fans you just have in your life. Even whether you're East Coast, West Coast, those two teams and the Red Sox probably have the most fans. Yeah, we went to the regular season Yankees-Dodgers game because it was on Fox Fox and there was a ton of Dodgers fans and I guess you can chalk some of it up to like, Oh, my dad was a Brooklyn or my grandfather was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and that kind of like there is some of that

still like rooted here. Like a mad dog is like a new year old New York Giants fan, but there was tons of died. There's a lot of Dodgers fans at the World Series games too. So it was, and Yankees fans are obviously everywhere, but I thought it was, I just thought it was awesome. I loved it. And I know I'm supposed to be a Red Sox, well, I am a Red Sox fan.

I'm supposed to be a Yankee. We don't count you in any way, shape or form anymore. You're like a fucking Chiefs fan now. You might as well like put a Chiefs jersey on. Okay, do I love sports? You've sold your soul to the church at Nick Wright. It's fucking terrible. I can't hate. I'm like Aaron judge.

Oh, all right. This is terrible. You're aligned with me. You're the great player. I'm going to, I'm going to be a fan of the great players. I'm not going to sit here. I already, has anyone shed more blood and tears for Mac Jones than me? I'm out here. Get a little respite, a little breath of fresh air after watching Mac Jones. I'm still on Mac Jones Island by myself. Filtering my own water volleyball all day.

No one's here. Just me. Mac Jones Island. Just me. Mac Jones Island. Well, I was critical of Brady's Sunday broadcasting performance, and even that made me feel like I was going to get hit by lightning and I was super ungrateful. But to me, it's apples and oranges. Now the sports career is over. I prayed to the church at Tom Brady as a quarterback, and now it is what it is.

I'm still there. I will say I do like that Mahomes has been a little odd now we're taping this before the Monday night game so maybe he'll have 15 touchdowns tonight but I do like that he's been a little off this year because he's hitting this point of his career where Brady was just awesome year after year except for the year that he blew out his ACL. And people are like, well, Mahomes doesn't have the same weapons. Well, I urge people to go back and look at Brady's weapons

in like 2006 and 2009. Like he had years where he had like literally nobody to throw to. If the Chiefs go undefeated or if they lose one game, but Mahomes statistically, counting stats are pretty bland. Um, but I guess there's other stats that we pulled off where it's like, you know, sort of must have moments, need to get it moments.

And he's great in those moments, clutch moments. But if his counting stats are bland, would you give him the MVP? It'd be 16 and one. Howson. I talked about this on Thursday about what would their record have to be for him to just get it no matter what the stats are. And I think it would have to be 16 and 1. Or 17 and 0. How about, how about, well, so yeah, how about 15 and 1 and they sit, and they sit week 18

and they, and Carson Wentz loses the game, but he only lost one game. 15. I mean, the thing is nobody's... I'm going to keep walking you back. All right. How about 14? Well, I've watched every, I feel like I haven't missed a frame of this season. Lamar is the best player I've seen this season. Yeah. And I think he means the most to his team. The record doesn't really back it up, but Lamar is just week to week. And I don't know if there's going to be voter fatigue with him or not.

Alan is doing a lot to him, Buffalo with what he has, but they, I, you know, they have some talent. Their schedule has been a little easier. Uh, what Lamar is doing week to week. I talked about this on Sunday's pod. I made the mistake of knocking that game off the multi view with like 40 seconds left in the first half against Denver when it was 17 10. So I just thought they were going to halftime forgetting that he could just easily get a 60 year touchdown if you wanted to, which he did. And, uh, I felt pretty stupid, but he's been amazing.

You don't care about head to head to the idea, like two MVPs going head to head. I, whoever won. So I put my homes over Lamar and I would put Lamar over Josh. I only care about it when it's self-serving to the team I root for, like with the Brady Mears. Yeah. Brady would be manning and I'd be like, he look at, look at the head to head and then manning beat him a couple of times. It's like, it's one game. Way better team. He's got a head, your J and Harrison.

I'm Wayne. I'm sorry. Does he play defense too? He's supposed to be Travis Hunter out there. Nothing to do with it. I think what's cool about the Mahomes Chiefs thing is that we just immediately replaced almost in real time, whatever the path's meant to the league year to year as this kind of arbitrary, you know, thing that's in front that you have to chase and this is the team you have to get by. And when you play them, this is the game that matters the most.

And this is the line you have to cross. And the paths were that way for almost two decades and then the chiefs were like, okay, thanks. And that's who they've been since. Like even you look at the lions versus the chiefs and it's just like, yeah, I believe in the lions, but can they beat the chiefs? Like, you don't almost think about, I'm not thinking, can they be Baltimore? Can they be Philly?

Like it's just about the chiefs. You know what? I realize it when I, this is going to be a, this is like the biggest compliment I can give them a homes when other teams have the ball with a chance to win the game. I will either think a they're not going to do it or B this will be challenging to do it, but if it was my homes are like, Oh, game's over and everybody you go, you go to draft Kings or it's like, Oh, or a fan duel or like, yeah, game. Everybody thinks this game is over now.

And the chiefs are behind. Right. But I mean, I, you know what? I felt a little bit like that with Drake May. A little bit. I was like, oh, we're getting the ball back? I'm out of my mind. Okay. I've never been, we won six Super Bowls at made nine and I've never been more locked into the week to week of the season. But I also think that technology is better. Watching the all 22 tapes of him on Monday Some of the throws that he made you see what I'm like did Drake saw this and this is why he threw it

Love it. Love it. His receivers are terrible. The plate calling is terrible his offensive line is terrible and he's doing 12 to 13 things a week that I've we've never seen a Patriots QB do some of the things he's doing because we haven't had like an incredible athlete at QB in 50 years. Yes. What do you think about this thing? I was like, I'm like, how do I feel about Drake May? Part of me feels like a little bit of a stretch.

How my parents view my kids. They're like, Oh, they're like so excited to what they Grandparent energy. Yeah. Grandparent energy towards Drake may like I've already lived my adult life with Tom Brady, so to speak, in my kid life with like Tony Easton and Steve Grogan. And then a big chunk of my life when I was really in it with Brady, but now I get this, I I've already seen it all.

I've seen how it all happens. And now like Drake is like, I've got grandparent energy. Look at this. This is great. Like, yeah, he lost. He fell down as straight as he that's okay. He's learning. I can see it's going to be great.

It like, Oh, you're in for a great time. Grandparent energy towards Drake man. I love it. Cause you've been through all the ups and downs. Yeah. You know, all the checkpoints and you're just kind of there to give gifts on the holidays and just be supportive and not overreact. But if you're a parent, like, oh, would you be worried about the inters? He threw a game ending interception for if you're a parent like, Oh, which would you be worried about the enters? He threw a game ending interception. If you're a parent, like first kid parent, what am I doing? Oh, this is not like, it's not a big deal. It's not a trust me, he'll learn to clap. We had a we freaked

out. Because Russell, we're like, is he this is real conversation. Is he clapping on time? We read some stupid thing. You should be clapping at you know, 12. Is he clapping on time? We read some stupid thing. You should be clapping at, you know, 12. No, is he clapping on so stupid and grandparent? No, don't worry about it. That's really good for him. That's fair. The grandparent energy you're talking about your little boy, your grandparent energy with little boys are like, They're all idiots until they're like seven. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Yeah, you're fine. No, but nobody's like fired up about how uh,

how mentally acute their four year old boy is. I worry about it. They're just worried all the time. Why is my kid so stupid? Grandparent energy. You're just like, hey, he'll be fine. We had a poop journal for our first baby. Okay. What time we were writing down, you know, come on.

You know, the one of the best things with Drake, I mean, there's been a lot of great things, but it really seems like he has a chance to be pretty special for like 15, 16, 17 years. And we having lived through that knowing how long it is, and it was kind of happening with Tatum a little bit. Like Tatum had that first year. He went head to head with LeBron. He had the block on LeBron and the game seven.

Made a couple shots and he was watching it going, this is a really good sign. This is a really good checkpoint for him to hit. I'm excited for this journey. And then he kept like making the steps and then they finally won the title. But I'm just excited to go on that journey again with AQB because it was incredible with Brady.

So the problem here is that the infrastructure, the IQ infrastructure of the behind the scenes patriots, like I just don't trust it. Like are they gonna do this, correct? Like they have to get a left tackle. They have to get a number one receiver. Like are they gonna know all the, once you have this, this is the number one gift you can get in football is to have a number one receiver. Like are they going to know all the, once you have this, this is the number one gift you can get in football

is to have a guy like this. Every decision has to be about maximizing this guy, which I love Belichick, but I feel like he didn't always do that with Brady, you know? No, he was just defense first. I think we're just trading down. We're going to have a great pick. We're going to trade down for multiple picks,

probably beat, get, you know, bolster the offensive line. And then I don't know how we're getting a number one receiver. Yeah, but if I'm going to board a receiver, I'd want to play it. I'm glad you're using we because the Mahomes, I gotta be honest, the Mahomes thing really worries me. Oh, come on. You mean it's right. It's like, it's like you're going to Chiefs.

You're literally going to Chiefs games. Can I? Going to Kansas City to Chiefs games. Don't think I didn't fucking notice. I didn't go to a Chiefs games. Going to Kansas City to Chiefs games. Don't think I didn't fucking notice. I didn't go to a Chiefs game. You did. You went to a Chiefs game. I went to the Chiefs parade multiple times.

You did that too. Yeah. I went back to heroin. How are you? I went to Patriot. I took my kids to Foxboro to see Patrick Mahomes. What am I supposed to do? Modern day Brady.

Just keep it in check. We're gonna take a break and do half baked ideas. All right, so Wilds, ever since I've had a podcast, which was 2007, Wilds would come on and do half baked ideas. And I don't remember the first time he did it, but many of them are on YouTube from 08, 09, 2010. Then on this pod when we brought it to the ringer,

same thing, he's popped on. Now he's a busier guy, but every once in a while we have to grab him for the half bakes. And the concept of a half baked idea, it's not a fully baked idea, but there's enough in there that it makes you go, hmm, I like that. All right, so what's your first fully baked idea, but there's enough in there that it makes you go, hmm, I like that.

All right, so what's your first half-baked idea? So I got a colonoscopy with the idea, go out and get your colonoscopy if you need one. And everybody needs to get it checked out. The idea being, you might think you're fine, but you might be dying inside. That's the concept that will run through this storyline. Also, hard stop. Second part of the

story. I know two families that recently got dogs. And they're like, they didn't want dogs for a long time. We're not dog people, this and that. Then they made the jump, got a dog. And then of course, they say, I can't believe we were ever in this house without a dog thus the half-baked idea is I'm calling it the I Don't even know how to pronounce it get an Aryan Okay, it's like veterinary get an Aryan you have to go just like you have to go to a colonoscopy Doctor every five years every five, you need to go to a

veterinarian. And it's kind of like a therapist, you sit and you talk, or maybe they come to your house, and you talk about whether or not you need a pet in your life. So even if you already have a dog, you should have to talk about getting another dog. So every you can go, all right, maybe get a dog, maybe get a cat, maybe get a snake, maybe get a cat, maybe get a snake, maybe you get something. But it's an outside consultant that you have to go to every, every American. It's going to be in federal law. Every American needs to go to a get an Aryan. And they ask, figure out if you need a dog that will make your life better.

All right. So this is really interesting because I've had people in my life who've gotten pets and I just thought it was a mistake. Oh, I could probably go the other way too. Like, do not get a dog. You're more of a fish. Well, I think if they get an Arian should be really candid. Oh yeah. Like I've looked at you.

You've been living alone your whole life. You seem like you're having pretty fun life. You do a lot of traveling. Like you can't have a dog. The dogs can be alone. You're going to be always like either putting it like having somebody stay at your house with the dog or putting them up in one of those dog places. Like don't get a dog.

It's meaning of the dog. You traveled too much. Yeah, that's, that's, that's prime reptile right there. No, you don't put, but if you need a dog, how many dogs do you have right now? Two. We have two and probably going to be two going forward. Okay. I know you think that, but you should probably go to the get an area and be like, hey, man, we ran the numbers. You're actually a three dog household. I'm not saying it's a

guarantee, but you should get, you should get checked out. My wife wants to get a third dog. It's better than right now. Cause we basically lost our kids. Like we went one kid in college and another kid who never wants to be home. Very well. It's just us now. So it's like a third dog. Start thinking about like, Oh, I've always loved those Bernice Mountain dogs.

Exactly. I was just going to say that, you know what you're going to get? A huge dog. Yeah. You got to get a huge dog with big dogs. Small, medium, large. Oh yeah. All right. Do one more. Unless you want me to chime in with some quickies. I've got one more that I think you're either going to love or really hate, which is the key sweet spot for a half-baked idea. I've got an appetite

sweet spot or half baked idea. I've got an appetite to consume more media than I have time to consume. Just like I have an appetite to consume all of the Sunday football games with, but I can't watch everything, you know, live. So I have red zone. But shows that I have started gladiator, I started the boys penguin Yellowstone, those four shows, I've watched a bit of all of those shows. Right. But but I'm not going to, you know, I find myself well, maybe I'll get the flu and I'll be laid out. That's not that's no way to live rooting for the blue so I can bang through all these shows. Yeah Some sort of Scott Hanson Hanson zone. I'm calling some sort of Scott Hanson red zone thing where he's up there But alright, let's go to the penguin. Oh the penguin just killed this guy. Oh my god. Boom quick shot Well, all right, we got to go back now. We're going over to Yellowstone. Oh my goodness. There's some real estate deal coming back.

All right, let's go to the boys. We're on season one of what it's just for you. Maybe it's AI, but I'm bouncing around. I don't need to see every little piece of plot. I just need the big moments so I can be conversant. I get a little emotional about, oh my God, I can't believe, you know, Rip killed this guy on Yellowstone. Red zone for serialized television.

Let's go over to Tell Me Lies where Bree is just fucked her professor, but the wife knows about it. I didn't even know that show. I gotta put that on the list, I guess. That's Hanson's job. That's the idea. I really need this in my life. Yeah, I don't really have any notes. I don't even think that's a half-baked idea. I think that's a fully baked idea. Thank you. Just, and just like, you know, YouTube has, you can pick, they don't let you

pick the multi-view, they're like, here are the four shows. That's what you go into. It's like, we're going to start season one of these four shows. We are basically, it's talk, you're in there for an hour. This is talk soup, but you're now taking all the prestige TV shows, which we have way too many of. Yup. And we just sit there. I don't know what's going on with the penguin, but I would love to know just enough to be able to, um, chime in at a holiday party in two months. Be like, wow,

I was stunned when he did that in episode seven. Yeah. Can you believe that? Like, yes, exactly right. Drip away a lot of the art of it. Like, ah, here's the penguin walking through Gotham in this beautiful scene. I get it. But also, something that Hanson's taken out of the show for me.

Boom, I'm out there, Red Zone Hanson. See, I thought you were gonna say it's AI TV takes where you just listen to this podcast and they give you five things to then say at a, at like, if you go into a holiday party, no, I don't know if tell me lies. Season two was as good as season one. And here are my three points. And it makes it seem like you watched it, but you really didn't know way

more of a half-picked idea. Yeah. There was an idea that I had for, since the show that is produced, first thing's first, obviously, we kind of know what we're saying, we have notes and stats and full screens, and here's my point and here's my thing. I've never said this before.

I come over and produce your Thanksgiving dinner. It's like, all right, Bill, what do you want to talk about? All right, I got to talk about the landscape in my neighbor's house. Dinner producer. Yeah, it's like, all right, Bill, what do you want to talk about? Like, all right, I got to talk about the, you know, the landscaping in my neighbor's house. Dinner producer. Yeah, it's like, all right, what's your issue with the landscape and everything? Like these trees are too tall.

I'm like, those trees are too tall. Like the average tree is this. I'm going to make you a full screen, say the average tree is this and this block in your view of whatever. Like what else? And this, and we've got lots and I'm throwing stuff up. You hope that the seating chart?

Well, yeah, but I'm also- Like Bob's got to be in the middle because Bob can go either way. It's like on TV when the middle seat is an important seat on a studio show. And I'm in Bob's ear. I'm like, Hey, Bob, don't forget. Don't forget. Bill said this the other day, stick it to them. Like, right.

Don't bring up the election to aunt Louise. No, that's a no go. She'll go nuts. I have a couple, I have three tiny ones. I have two that I like, but I'll give you quick ones. I don't even know if this is a half-baked idea. Full service gas stations, just come back. Yeah, they gotta move to New Jersey. How many full service gas stations are in California? None?

Really? Everyone's on their own with gas. How many, how many full service gas stations are in California? None? Not really. It's, it's everyone's on their own with gas and I just kind of miss having the guy like do my, do my windshield and just pump the gas for me. Apparently there's one place in Beverly Hills that does it, but I miss full service gas stations. I was trying to think, is there like a 2.0 version of those? Cause they had those in like the forties and fifties, like maybe in LA, it's standup comics who were doing gas, but they're also doing like three

minutes of their act. Oh God. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Um, 10 day Westbrook. So Westbrook pops on all these different teams for a year. And then he kind of wears that as welcome, right? But everybody's really excited when he shows up. Cause it's like Westbrook second unit, he'll be able to run the offense himself and he puts up all these stats and he'll change the energy and each year a team talks themselves into it. But by like midway through the year, but it's like, ah, wish we'd

have Russell Westbrook. It also revitalizes your superstar. Like every superstar is like, Russ changes the art team. He's like Joker the other day, he's like, hi, this is what he does for us. Like, all right. The stats don't back it up and he's shooting 20%.

If he's just 10 day contract Westbrook, he's just like Memphis right now is a bunch of injuries or New Orleans. And it's like, oh, 10 day rest is here. Comes in. He's a hall of Famer. He's padding stats, instant offense, but then, then you kind of, he just kind of leaves, it's like having leftovers in the fridge. He's just gone after 10 days.

It's come again. This, this will be the second pulp fiction reference, but kind of like, like the wolf, like West, like I'm here. Not like, not as confident. Yeah. Oh, we got, you're bringing Russ? Oh yeah. Shows up there super fast.

He's always dressed really well. And the key is he, so he signs with these teams so he can make like three, four or five million a year, whatever he gets. So 10 day Westbrook would just be more expensive on the salary cap. It would be, he's basically getting paid like a hundred thousand a game. And you just sign in and it's like, Oh, I'll do 10 day Westbrook for four games. We got Jaren Jackson's out and JAWS, her, we need whatever. Um, great.

And then I have a NBA announcer navigation systems. Okay. Oh, for your GPS? Well, just for specific moments, like when you're parking and you could just like switch to Ryan Ruko mode and he's like, he's going to parallel park in the back. Can he get it? You bet. He's gonna parallel park in the back. Can he get it you bet? No Run this red light is gonna get caught bag All right, what do you got I Should like that one Do you like that one a lot? This one is super, oh, this one is super depressing.

You want a depressing one or a stupid one? Give us both. I'll start with the depressing one. Okay. We're trying to go to Hawaii for our next vacation. I'll be probably after my birthday birthday so I'll be like 47. It's a long way from the East Coast. Good luck. I know. We're gonna pit stop and then we can go. Any of them. 47. Yeah.

Brian funeral photo time for me. Brian. too young, like, like right on my casket right there. What photo you got? It's that photo we took on vacation in Hawaii. I'm thinking about it. So right now, I don't know if there's photographers that specialize in this. So you get you get exposed to a professional photographer a few times in your life. You're born usually get like a nice and much on your own. Like there's very few times that you're going to run into a professional, maybe at a going down a roller coaster and that's probably a robot but that's it. For all K through 12, your wedding and if you're going down a water slide with a scary face, that's the only time you're getting professional

photos. So when you die, your poor loved ones have already have the stress of dealing with your departure. Now they have the stress of dealing with your departure. Now they have another stress of going through. How many pictures of me? A 3000 pictures on my iPhone. You got to go through 3000 pictures and try to find the one. So they have to figure out your passwords. Oh, yeah.

Like just a bunch of things and then a photo on top of it. Exactly. And and I have a few things. One got to be solo. Gotta be on the cast. You can't have two people like, hold on, what happened here? Is this some sort of act? Or you have like your arms around somebody

and it's like the cutoff stump of your arm? No, that's a no go. Gotta be solo. It's gotta be sort of a candid photo. Like, oh, look at this. Which, you know, normal people have a hard time capturing. You pose on a photo, sure, but just like a candid photo and who am I laughing with like that person's taking the picture got to need a pro got to be

smiling obviously and I need a um lived life to the fullest background can't just have it you know just walking out street at the coffee shop I have to have wow what oh look at that remember you to Hawaii. That's a great moment for him. And then part of me, and this is just an idea here. I have no proof of this. Part of me thinks that when you go to heaven or whatever you may believe in, and if you are a physical entity there, that you need to put a recommendation up into the management at heaven on how you would like to be perceived. right? Do you want to 28 year old Wilds? Do you want to be mid 30s Wilds? Yeah, no wild you kind of baby because it's also confusing for everybody else

Like I was just thinking like I would have Benjamin Franklin's 20 years old I like who are you like bench Ben Franklin like Ben Franklin, bro What are you like and he's like playing basketball like dude? No, you have to be how you need your stretch for He's just like this young like strapping dude, like no dude where you're stocking So anyways, it's I called it Taken but since it's like the idea of the clock is ticking tick tock. It's called no, it's that I called it either weight gram casket gram or tick tock. It's called, no, it's the, I call it either weight gram, casket gram or tick tock. But it's a photographer that only does funeral photos.

So you consult with a photographer and he's, he's like, great spot at the top of this mountain in Kauai. Um, we'll get background. There's like a volcano over your right shoulder. It could do that. Or I'm thinking maybe hotel bar, just with a big drink and you're, you're looking at somebody laughing and there's like the ocean behind you. Love it. Yeah. Love it. I wouldn't do it honestly for that. If you were the photographer, I'd be like, let's do the bar because I think the

clouds at the top, little two on the nose. So let's do the hotel bar. Um, good lighting and it'll be great. Like save it. And if you hear about my demise, let's, let's print that up. Well, you know how they have these national days that I hate. Like it's like national daughter's day. And then you have to feel bad if you don't post a picture of your daughter, because it's not, it's this arbitrary holiday that we've created five years ago. Um, maybe it should be, here's the photo I want shown at my funeral when I died day.

I mean, that's certainly there. Then whoever dies, you're just like, what did Wilds want first photo? Oh, that hotel bar one and now. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great one. I really like this. This is good. This is almost a fully baked idea.

Good. I'm glad I thought that was going to be more depressing. I thought it was uplifting. Go. All right. This is this is stupider. OK. NFL game, you're going to the game.

What are you wearing? Jersey. NBA game, wearing a jersey, soccer, wearing a jersey, baseball game, hats and jerseys. Kentucky Derby, full suit. Kentucky Derby, either jockey jerseys, little checkerboard action with the hat in the pants, or dressed like the horse. Outfits where it's like, oh, nice markings,

with a shirt with a mane that goes down your spine. Like, Oh sick. You dress like your favorite horse. You don't have to wear a dress or some like fancy suit dress like the jock. Got a shirt with a number on some of those shirts. Look great. Green checkerboard with Jackie, Jackie shirt. Like almost like when soccer jerseys took off like 10 years ago. Yes.

And all of a sudden soccer jerseys were the rage. Yeah. So you're saying jockey jerseys happen at a moment. Yeah. I don't know about the horse part. Well, okay. Horses. You might not want to dress as the horse, but certainly you can dress like the jockey.

They look great. And part of this is born. I started riding a, I bought a bike, so I'm riding a bike in the first hurdle to get over after you buy the bike. It's like, all right, am I really going to buy the, you know, are you going to dress like one of those guys? Bill, I look fantastic. You're dressing like one of those guys now.

Oh my God. Bill, I look great. Oh, I was on a rim, my car, and those guys. I, well, if you did, I would look great. They would be my twin or old pick. And I was like, I like, they're like, that dude looks fantastic. And it's slimming.

You're squeezed in there. You're looking aerodynamic. You're in bright colors. You just look like you're like out here living life. I look fantastic in my biking outfit. You just made me think that this should be an AI feature where I just get updates about my friends and everybody has to sign up and it'll just be like the Tuesday edition of your newsletter of all the people you know. Kevin Wilds now a bike guy. Yeah. And that's how I just find out from the newsletter.

I'll post some stuff of me looking like you look muscular in them. It's like they're like Spanx in there and once you start biking, you start to get, you know, cut off a little bit. It's like they're like Spanx in there and once you start biking you start to get you know cut off a little bit. It's great. Wow, I can't believe you're a bike guy. That's unbelievable. Being a bike guy it's been fantastic. The other part of this is, this is a half big idea subhead, lower body. Or fanatics. It's really like that basketball sneakers that's taking care of hats. So, so, you know, tip to toe, that's taking care of the whole upper body's taking care. All sorts occasionally, but the lower body is is there for you if you want to wear a Yankees pinstripe pants. Definitely.

No, I do that. Well, I'm just saying like they're like the lower body is available for is a is an open piece of real estate for fanatics to jump on. I'd wear personally, I wear the little jockey shorts, jockey and high boots. I have I have two that I really like that I'll go fast on, but one that's not even half big. I just struck me with the NFL trade deadline. Yeah. How much content we get from it, how I just wish it existed in other parts of life.

Like it'd be like my wife, my, my wife and like all her friends. It was like Tuesday's trade deadline might get rid of like one of my friends. It was like, really? Which one? Oh my God. And, it was like Tuesday's trade deadline might get rid of like one of my friends. It was like, really? Which one? Oh my God.

And it just like the conversations it would provoke. My God, you're getting rid of Helen. Yeah. Well, you know, I, she hasn't been doing as much this year. She stopped drinking. Um, and we just go anyway. All right. Here are my two.

Can I, can I spin one off of that? Yeah. I read a study. It was about like loneliness is like, you know, epidemic. It was like, uh, 58% of men haven't made a friend in the last year, a new friend in the last year, I was like 58. I would buy it, put that at 99. I didn't realize like everyone everyone's getting these new friends.

Like a draft day of like, hey, draft is coming up and you just call a guy that your kids, your friend's father that you've seen in, like, hey man, I just want to let you know I took you in the second round of my friend draft. We're gonna let you, happy to welcome you aboard friends. You're gonna invite it to, we're gonna go out for a beer too. It's like mandated, you gotta get new friends. I always announce at the end of my year to my wife who my favorite new friend of the year was.

But you're getting new friends all the time? Yeah, somehow I always end up with a new friend. Oh geez, I'm stuck. I've just been rolling up. We're in New York, everybody's just, it's like freaking Game of Thrones. I've been rolling with the same friends for a while. I'm like just trying to think of a team that's just like, yeah, we're running it back again.

Like really, we all got a year older. I gotta get some new blood. I'm thinking about, I might, I met one of Billy's soccer friends' dads. Could be a new friend. Might be a' dads. Could be a new friend. Might be a new friend. Might be a new friend. The parents of the kids usually end up being a very fertile new fan base of friends.

That's my only, yeah, that's my only ground. I don't know, like a guy on the street, like, hey buddy, I did meet a random guy. Like, buddy, we should be friends. Right. Well, it's weird because guys being like, hey, you want to go to a sports bar or watch the Laker game? Yeah. All right. Here are my favorite two that I had. I'll make them go. I feel like VHS players need to make a comeback.

Vinyl came back, right? All of a sudden, vinyl is as big as it's ever been. It's like, man, that's weird. Oh, man, I shouldn't have thrown out my vinyl. Oh, I kept some. Oh, there's some over there. And now it's become this whole thing that's happened. And Sean Fantasy for, you know, Sean.

He's been a big physical media guy forever with Blu-rays and DVDs. But there was this whole VHS era forever. And it wasn't just with buying movies and TV shows. It was also like, you know, if you had a video camera and you videotape, like your kids or people in college, you just have these VHS tapes. And then all of a sudden the VCR player just died and you couldn't even buy them. And they, you couldn't, that none of them work with HDMI cords. And then you can go on Amazon and they like refurbish them and it all feels super shady.

I just want them to come back. So then I was thinking, I also don't like how annoying it is to have DVDs and to stand up instead of just like with my remote, I'm like, I'm going to watch something on Amazon. I just press a button. You like you like you like doing that, let the scroll to find stuff. I would rather not move when I'm about to pick a movie, but with the DVD party, you have to get up, you have to go out, you put the DVD in,

you got to press the button. So then I was thinking, could they just have these VHS DVD players that are attached to the side of the TV? So you have like this, you know, like these long thin TVs that we put on the walls. Maybe on the left side, it's like this little DVD thing I just plop on the side. It's like a little VHS thing. And it's part of the TV and that would encourage people

to bring VHS and DVDs back. Half baked idea. That is not only half baked idea, I believe that is a full baked idea. I stayed at a hotel. Oh, I broke the rule? I stayed at a hotel like in the Catskills and they had like a little library there of VHS's and then it was included in the thing and it was like literally

Was it part of the TV though? I think being part of the TV is the wrinkle. I think it was one unit. Oh interesting. Alright bad idea then. No, not the bad idea. Nobody has this idea. It's a great idea, but it's- This is my best idea. Okay, here we go So we're on these zooms

right and sometimes you're on a zoom and I'll do like I as you know, I walk around so sometimes I'll be walking around when I'm on a zoom But then I was thinking it would be great if AI Which I think we're all afraid of but also has some really good fertile things that whatever help all of us. I'm more pro AI than most. I was thinking of AI could basically replace and replicate my face on a zoom so that the zoom's happening and AI bill is just there like nodding every once in a while and like a laugh and it just can kind of react to the cues of the zoom, but I'm not actually there. I'm just in another room.

I'm not even on the zoom or I'm on the zoom, but I didn't feel like being on the zoom. So I just did a bill for the zoom and I'm just over there listing and I'm not really on the zoom. A bill is pretending to be me on the zoom. Yeah, it feels like a is good enough that we could pull this off. And I think we should use AI for good. And part of AI for good is, let's figure out ways to cheat on zoom. So people don't know we are not actually on the zoom.

Can I ask you a question? Cause I do very few zooms now with that are, do you feel the need that zoom replaced conference calls? Like, why aren't you just on a conference call? Why do you need to see everybody? I don't, cause it's a leftover COVID thing. People like seeing everybody. But no one likes to be seen. Or maybe they kind of do because nobody goes to an office anymore.

Very few or less people go. And it's like this is interaction time. We're in the, yeah, I guess so. We're in the office. You're in an atypical situation. We're in the office. You're in the office. You're in an atypical situation. Oh, we're in the office and then with the Zoom that we have, everyone's camera's off. I'm like, we're actually just having a conference call.

The poor conference call industry is just really falling off. Conference calls are done. Yeah, dial in, press this pin, it's over. It's just Zooms now. Anyway, AI face for Zooms. Let's work on it. What do you have for your last half bag? Is you going rapid fire?

She's gonna shoot three until I pick one? Yeah, I have two, hold on. All right. I have this one from Hutchinson was injured and he went to the game and I said sports bar and he looked very comfortable as he recovers. So Godspeed Aiden Hutchinson. Sports bar but the seating looks like you just had major surgery. It's more of like you're just

kind of being pampered. But Aiden Hutchinson. Oh like an Alamo Drafthouse sports bar? Yeah but it looks like you just had surgery. So you're really, it's really just, I mean it's really short for, it's a bar where you put your feet up and take your shoes off. I think that's where that's kind of the underlying current. Oh, interesting. Okay. I don't like a self checkout.

I'm not a huge fan of that. I hate it as well. I'm like, all right, I have to work here too now. Not a fan. However, you like, hook my own food at your dining establishment. So all buffets, love it element of fun, the movie theater for my own sodas. Fantastic. There's like a yogurt shop in town, you can make your own yogurts do that.

That's great. Those like little like hibachi plays a little teriyaki where you like have a little open flame. Fantastic. Is I don't have this is a quarter bag. Is there a another food that is ripe for that treatment? Where it's like, yeah, you you actually go and you just do it yourself. I'm like, what they don't do it for you. Like, no, you have to do it. They give you all the tools, but you get to do it like great, but I don't, what? They don't do it for you? Like, no, you have to do it. They give you all the tools, but you get to do it. Like, great. But I don't know what the food is. So this is happening with pizza, at least with this 2.0 version of pizza, where they give you these giant, heavy, sharp scissors and they just bring the pizza out and it's just a circle.

And then you have to cut the slices with the scissors a bunch of that's like as they're doing So that's just like the ninth inning. I'm not gonna buy one. I come in in like so you're saying like they give you the ingredients for a soup and You stand in the bowl and you like make a soup or you make like your own I wouldn't mind being the guy who threw the pizza. Oh you want to literally make your own pizza But I don't just like a lot of times make your own pizza just means throw some basil on her. I wouldn't mind. I don't know. I'm trying to find out the best thing. A very hot steak. I don't know. But I know I like pouring my own sodas and I know I like, uh, you know, cooking my own

hibachis. So I don't know where you're grilling your own hot dogs and burgers. You just get your own grill. Oh, that's not a bad idea. You get a bar. So you just say you're just on there and then you're, you're, you're like Tony Soprano. That's what it is. It's a giant sports bar and it's almost set up like top golf.

Yeah. You go in there. It's like, here's your station. Here's your grill. Maybe you have like a huge smoker. Maybe you have a pig on a spit. Right. And it's like, this is your little area. You got to do it.

And you're making friends. And you'd be like, hey, buddy, you want to be friends? Come over. So you're basically like, you get to be Adam Perry Lang for like four hours. Yeah. It's hot. Yeah. It's high end. I got a big grill. Like, Hey buddy, cause I'm grilling by myself.

Making friends and grilling. You're like, you're competing other guys more for a high end grills. That's pretty good. Get anything. Well, like anybody had this? Good. We solved it. Kevin Wilds, you can see him on first things first every single day.

We're aligned on Drake May for the next 20 years. Can't wait. Can't wait to see your funeral photo. Oh, thank you. I'm going to send you mine later. I think I have a good one from Hawaii last summer. Thanks. I have a Layon.

Wouldn't you have a Layon? Isn't that like, that's like bonus points. Yeah, you're always having a blast. Yeah. This guy really lit. Yeah. All right. Good to see you, Wiles.. Yeah. This guy really lit. Yeah. All right. Good to see you, Wiles.

All right. Good to see you. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kevin Wiles. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti as well. Don't forget, you can watch all the clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel.

You can watch the new rewatchables episode on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. I hope you're voting today. I hope when I come back on Thursday to do the third podcast of the week, I hope the country is in a good place. We will see go out and vote. See on Thursday. I never said I don't have a few years with him On the wayside, on the brink so I never said I don't have a few years with him Must be 21 plus in President-elect states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and president DC. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.

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