The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 25: NFL/NBA w/ Joe House

Episode Date: November 13, 2015

HBO's Bill Simmons brings on Joe House to discuss NFL week 10 best bets, Giants-Pats (19:20 mark), Seahawks-Cards (24:40), Stephen Curry and the Pantheon (34:50), Golden State's 70 win quest (51:51), the 3 worst NBA teams (55:48), Boogie trades (58:33, and an 2015 NBA re-draft (1:11:12) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Happy Friday the 13th. Wow. Whoa. From the streets of San Antonio, it's Joe House. Well, look. Tomorrow night, Spurs-Sixers. Like, I'm in D.C. I got to get to San Antonio for Spurs-Sixers.

Are you going to be in San Antonio for that game? Are you going to be in San Antonio for that game? I am going to be in San Antonio for that game. Oh, we'll have to get you tickets. I'm sure they'll be hard to get. Well, here's the conundrum. I haven't taken my kid to a basketball game yet. Should that be his first game? His first NBA game?

See the best team of this century and see the worst team of this century? I think you have to. I think that sounds perfect. Maybe so. House, it's a really intriguing nfl week we're gonna talk nba because there's a lot of nba stuff going on so i want to rush through the nfl and do our best bets and then get to nba because lots of stuff is happening in bia but really intriguing nfl week Really intriguing NFL week. Every week we make picks. We try to figure out five great bets to make. We're going to skip over these.

I looked at your list. I made my own list. We're skipping over Rams minus seven at home against the Bears. I kind of like the Rams. Who do you like in that one? I like the Bears just because it's seven. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of mid-range underdogs that Sal and I were talking about just betting every mid-range underdog money line

and just grabbing all of them and trying to go like three for seven. But you have the Browns are getting five and a half in Pittsburgh. The Dolphins are getting six and a half in Philly. The Broncos are laying five and a half to the Chiefs. And then you have the Bucs laying one and a half to Dallas. You only need a couple of those to hit to pay it off, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously the Cowboys aren't a big underdog.

But those are the five games that we aren't picking. I like the Steelers a little. I like the Dolphins a little. I have no idea what's going to happen in Broncos-Chiefs because we don't picking i i like the steelers a little i like the dolphins a little i have no idea what's gonna happen broncos chiefs because we don't know if manning is healthy or not and cowboys bucks i i hope not to watch a minute of that game uh were any of those did you think about taking any of those in this in our best bets no uh the only one that I paused on was that St. Louis Bears one, because St. Louis has a history of not a great history at that seven or higher number. Yeah. But they already covered one line that high this year. So that's why I stayed away from it.

I looked at the Steelers Browns for a while because there's there's mounting evidence that the Browns might have quit on this season. And even the Landry Jones, Roethlisberger, even that major downgrade, it's still Pittsburgh at home. They can still take care of business and take a lead and have their defense do things to Johnny Manziel. I looked at that one for a while, but I just didn't feel good about it. I'm probably going to play the Browns in that one. It just seems like they quit at every halftime. They play hard for a half, and then they just quit.

It was good for a half. Yeah. Somebody tell the Browns that it's a three-hour game. All right. Let's go to our picks. You have the Saints at Washington. Who do you like in this one? I actually like the D.C. Grudens getting a point here.

I like the home dog. I like New Orleans on the road playing outdoors on grass. I like that the public has banged the hell out of the Saints on this play. This is a classic pros versus Joes situation. We have the Saints with over 80% of the action, but the money has been 60% on the D.C. Grudens. So that tells you that the Sharps are coming in and making big plays on the D.C. Gs. I like the Saints' 31st-ranked defense on grass going up against.

You like that? So that's my play. The DCGs. And the old skins last couple weeks, they lost to the Falcons in OT. They got their butt kicked by the Jets, who have a very good defense. They beat the Bucs, who aren't very good. They had a bye week, so they won that one. And then they got their butts kicked by the Patriots.

I'm with you. Against a bad defense, they might actually move the ball. I almost took Washington in this. I stayed away, though, because I don't trust your coach, and I don't trust your quarterback, and I didn't want to make it one of my best bets. Here's who I do trust. The Oakland Raiders. They're laying three to the Vikings.

I know I'm piling on the Vikings week after week after week. You really are. They keep burning me. I just like the Raiders. I think their fans are fired up. I think they're in the wild card hunt. They, I think they've been, other than week one, they got trashed by the Bengals at home.

But then they beat Baltimore at home. They played the Broncos really well at home. Well, not really well, but they were in that game. And then they beat the Jets at home in something of an ass-kicking. I kind of like them at home. I like the Super Bowl. What did Sal say? This was the Super Bowl XI rematch?

The Birmingham-Ber Birmingham Routage? I don't know. I like them. They have Minnesota this week. Then they're at Detroit and at Tennessee. Conceivably, they could be seven and four in three weeks with the Chiefs coming in. And then you watch Buffalo and the Jets. You watched Buffalo and the Jets last night or were you traveling?

I missed it. I was on an airplane. Yeah. I mean, they were saying after like week 17 that might decide the wild card here. Those teams aren't very good. The Raiders should be having

ideas. I think this is a big game for them. They need to lay the smack down at home. It's not a must win for Minnesota. Going to the other conference on the road. I don't feel like this is a do or die game for them. So I like Oakland minus three. I'm not going to take the other side of that. I like Oakland at exactly

that number at home. I think it's an easy thing to say. This is the most important game they've played in five years. The Raiders? Yes. It's a good one. to say this is the most important game they've played in five years right the raiders yes it's a good one and and i guess for minnesota it's important just in the sense of they're now neck and neck with the packers and the nfc north and you don't want to lose ground on that and they still play them twice so it's not like it's not important to them but if they could squander a game this would be the game you know the stupid game stupid game in Oakland. Bridgewater's dinged, right? He's dinged. He got a concussion.

So he's back, but he's going to be a little concussion-y. Yeah. Alright, so you have Green Bay, Detroit. Green Bay laying 12 at home. This is an official relax game. We're now in the relax stretch of the season for Aaron Rodgers. I'm guessing you like the Packers

minus 12? As a matter of fact Farron Rogers. I'm guessing you like the Packers minus 12? As a matter of fact, I do. I thought you might have anticipated me taking Detroit because there are a million contrarian plays that support Detroit here. I've reached the point in the season where I'm no longer taking crappy teams unless they're getting like 18 points. I'm done looking on Sunday and seeing the Packers up by 21 in this game and saying, God damn it, why did I pick that awful team? In fact, you're going to see me in a minute.

We'll get to Houston and Cincinnati also. I'm sick of it. I've had enough of these awful teams. Now, there is a ton of value on Detroit. Detroit, it opened at 13, and the pros came in and hammered that line all the way down to 11, 11.5. I guess it's back up to 12 now. But Aaron Rodgers has a sublime record coming off a loss when his next opponent is from his own division, 13-2 straight up and against the spread.

Green Bay has a dominant record in this series at home. I think the stat is like 24-0 at home against Detroit and 17-5-2 against the spread. I mean, that's crazy. I tell you what, everybody on the pro angle can have the Detroit value. I'm taking the discount double check. Give me Aaron Rodgers. It's time to relax.

And also, they're 4-0 at home this year. We always forget about home road. You know? They lost two in a row. They lost in Denver, and they lost in Carolina. They're a different team at Lambeau. I'm with you. I'm probably going to tease the Packers with somebody,

and I don't know who this Sunday. The tease is great. The length of this line, or the 12, scares me enough not to make it one of my top five. I do think that the Lions, did you see the Stafford stat, that if they just lose every game the rest of the way, Stafford will be the worst quarterback since Archie Manning, basically, from a win-loss record standpoint. I did not see that, but it's very funny to me.

Yeah, so you have him and you have Fitzpatrick and a couple other, but it's very hard to start 80, 90 games and be minus 20 in those games. I'm with you. If there was ever a week for you just look up and the Packers are up 21 or nothing with five minutes to go in the first quarter, this would be the week. You mentioned, let's just do Cincy Houston now, since you mentioned that one. We both have this one and I'm guessing you are also laying the 10 and a half with Cincinnati. I think Houston sucks. This, to me, seems like a gimme. Monday night, there's no way the Bengals relax on a Monday night.

They should be piling on. I can't imagine if Houston falls behind by 10 how they're going to move the ball. I have Cincy minus 10.5, and you have the same? We are in violent agreement. I like when we're in violent agreement. There's a nice stat for 8-0 or greater teams. They are 55-16 straight up through the rest of the season in recent memory. And 33 of those 55 wins are by 10 or more points.

So what you're kind of looking at here is, do you think that Cincinnati can beat Houston by more than 10 points? And I think they sure can. I love the angle here. They've only won three of their last 22 Monday night football games by more than 10. But hey, it's time for them to get to number four. I'm ready for it. You know, sincecy's going to be

either a one or a two seed. I'm guessing a two seed unless the Pats, something, we just keep losing guys the rest of the way and then Cincy will be a one seed.

But, you think like at the end of this year, Houston will be one of the five worst teams in the league. Cincy will be either a one or a two seed. And we'll feel really dumb

that we didn't lay more money down on Cincy on a Monday night against one of the five worst teams in the league. Yeah, I already feel dumb that I haven't laid enough money down on Cincy on a Monday night against one of the five worst teams in the league. Yeah, I already feel dumb that I haven't laid enough money on Cincy through the balance of the year. They're good. Why wouldn't we just tease Green Bay and Cincy?

Oh, it's just, it feels so obvious. But sometimes the obvious play is the right play. I have the Jaguars getting five and a half in Baltimore. Baltimore's just not good. It's not a good football team. Not a lot to play for anymore at this point for them. I know they can get fired up. We're home.

We're still in this. You're not in this. And the thing I like about Jacksonville, they can actually move the ball. Bortles ends up at 300 yards way more often than he does at this point. And Bortles isn't bad. I thought he was terrible last year. And this year, there's been marked improvement. He's got a couple receivers that can make plays.

I like TJ Yeldon. I think at the very least, it's a team that, if they were down by 11 with four minutes to go could come down and get the uh cover breaking touchdown but i actually think they can win this game outright i really like the jags plus five and a half i do too the reason that i didn't make it one of my best bets is because baltimore um has been kind of a single play away from winning just about every game they've been in this season yeah um so i was worried about you know some kind of a single play away from winning just about every game they've been in this season. Yeah. So I was worried about, you know,

something crazy happening late. The Jags are playing for the division title still. Yeah. I mean, they have to be excited because luck's out for we don't know how long. The Colts look terrible. The Jags right now are, let me see, they are 2-6.

And I have them as they've won one outright, they've lost three outright, and they've had four either-or games, including the last two weeks. They beat Buffalo in London. That was an either-or game. And then last week, the Jets game. They easily could have won that game.

So if they have, at Baltimore this week, they win this. They're home for Tennessee on Thursday night. I mean, that's kind of a game possibly for the division. Then home for San Diego, who has like five guys left that are healthy in the entire team. And then

they're at Tennessee. And then home for Indy, home for Atlanta, at New Orleans, at Houston. They do not play a playoff team for the rest of the way, basically, unless you think Atlanta is a playoff team. Or Indy, obviously. I mean, Indy, by that point, might have luck back. But that could be for the division at that point.

The Jags could go 8-8 or 9-7 or 7-9, and all of those records could win the AFC South. That's a fact. The Colts are 4-5. Colts go at it. They have bye week this week. At Atlanta, home for Tampa. At Pittsburgh.

At Jacksonville. Home for Houston. At Miami. And then home for Tennessee. Man, it's hard. That's not exactly a murderer's row. It's really not. It's hard to imagine.

Hasselbeck is good. He's not bad. He is our age, though. He's an adequate backup quarterback. Nine and seven probably takes that division. It'll probably be Indy. But I like the Jags in that game. All right, so you have Carolina is laying six to the Titans of Tennessee.

And who do you like in this one? I like the Tennessee Titans. I did, too. I almost took them. The public are all over the Panthers. The Panthers, there's a really kind of funny stat, and I wasn't paying enough attention. Are you aware that both Carolina and New England have played three consecutive home games? Yeah.

Being into this week? Yeah. That's a weird kind of phenomena, both teams undefeated, coming off of three straight home games. There's a bunch of angles in that kind of situation that favor the underdog Titans. I think this thing is, for Carolina, the challenge is not to play down to the level of competition. But, you know, Tennessee's got a little something.

Yeah, they were frisky last week. A little bit chippy, a little frisky. Yeah, they can move the ball. Their coach was obviously terrible because were frisky last week. A little bit chippy, a little frisky. Yeah, they can move the ball. Their coach was obviously terrible because they looked much better last week. And also, major letdown game potential. Because the Panthers had this emotional win over the Packers.

They're 8-0. Feeling good. Atlanta sucks. They're going to win that division. The only reason I didn't take this game is because Tennessee put up six points against Houston in Week 8. They put up seven against Atlanta. They put up 10 against Miami. 13 against Buffalo.

Now, different quarterback for some of those. But Carolina's got a good defense. And I'd like to see Tennessee put up points on a good defense before I took them as one of my five picks. That's the only reason. It's understandable. I'm not sure that I'm prepared to call Carolina's defense good. I think they're adequate. Yeah, you're right.

They have a couple playmakers. I like Josh Norman. I like Keeley. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you're right. They have a couple playmakers. I like Josh Norman. I like Keekly. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you're right. The Packers, though. See, I didn't see what happened. I never saw how the Packers climbed back into that game.

Because it was 37-14. We turned it to a different TV. Well, they had first and goal to tie the game. They weren't able to convert the Packers. They had a chance to tie the game. Hey, House. Saturday, November 21st. Yeah.

Las Vegas, Nevada. What's happening? Miguel Cotto defends his WBC middleweight championship against Canelo Alvarez live on HBO pay-per-view. And guess who's going? Me. Oh, yeah. Whoa!

Yeah, I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going to be there. I'm part of the HBO family now. I'm there to support the franchise. You can get ready for that fight with the Canelo Cotto 24-7 series that's running all month on HBO.

And by the way, you don't need cable. You don't need satellite to watch HBO anymore. Just download the HBO Now app. Start your free one-month trial today. House Cotto is the champ. Alvarez is the three-to-one favorite. How about that?

Is Cotto the cheater? No. Cotto was the one. He fought Margarito, who cheated. Okay. And Margarito beat the hell out of him, and then it turned out it wasn't legit. And I was always amazed Cotto was able to come back from that

because he took a beating in that fight. No, like koto this will be a good one all right we're not positive not positive canelo is good i know he's good but i'm not not positive he's really good you know what i mean i think i actually think koto three to one is a little high for me on this one yeah i'm more excited for that then I don't think it's as one-sided as that line. All right. The main event. Giants-Pats. You did not pick this game.

I did pick this game. The Patriots are giving seven and a half points in New York to the Giants, their nemesis, the team that beat them in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, the team that has beaten them five of the last six times. No Deion Lewis for this game. Not sure about Sheard and Collins on the defense. The offensive line is in shambles, and it's just mix and match at this point. I'm scared of this game, and if I reverse jinx it for the Patriots way, that's great.

But this is too high. This line is too high. The Giants, they had a semblance of a pass rush last week for the first time with JPP. They're going to be able to move the ball and throw the ball in the pats. They have the Vereen thing, which you know he's going to come back to haunt the pats somehow, especially this is the first game without Deion Lewis.

Eli's going to be confident. Their fans are going to be freaking crazy in this game. And most important, they have a lot of confidence against the Pats, and not a lot of teams go play the Patriots and are like, we can beat these guys. We've done it. Let's do it. We know what to do against these guys. It feels like a close game, and I think the line's too high,

and I'm going to take the Giants plus 7.5. How about that? I am right there with you. The number that I was seeing overnight was still 7, but I made a note to myself, if it moves to 7.5, I'm on the Giants. It was 7.5 this morning. And then that's the play. I take the Giants as well under those circumstances.

The same trends that favor the underdog against the spread in the Carolina-Tennessee tilt apply to this as well. The Pats are coming off of three straight home games. And for all the reasons you just said, the Giants love to play the Patriots. And I like the Giants at home in this one. The 7.5 feels delightful. I'm going to play that way as well. It's not one of my best bets, but I do like it. It feels like

a playoff game. And this is the game when I said this to Sal on Monday, this is the game where you pull the cover off Gronk, you drive him out of the garage and you bring him out on the highway for this one. Like no more... Yeah, well, because he was able to stay in the garage against the D.C. Grooves last week.

He's every week. They've been able to, you know, they drive him around on the side streets to make sure the engine works. And occasionally they gun it up to like 60 on a side road, but they haven't brought him on the highway yet. And this is the game where you do it. I don't know what to make of the james white replacing dion lewis thing i could just tell you like some of my friends were making fun of me about dion lewis reacting like this was like this devastating thing and first of all the guy was electric when he had the ball like the defenses were afraid of him you know he he when he was out there it was just this different wrinkle that the Patriots have not had before.

Like his yards per touch were way, way up there. And that includes the touchdown. He dropped like a 35-yard touchdown. He was wide open. But his ability— He has like a crazy yards after catch, right? Yeah, his ability to—first of all, he could run the ball and make guys miss, which Vereen couldn't do last year and Ridley couldn't do. And then Kevin Falk couldn't do that.

They couldn't do that with Kevin Falk. They couldn't do that with any third down back they had. He was just as good as Vereen catching the ball out of the backfield. The other thing they were doing with him was just lining him up as a receiver where they would hide it and then they'd run him out. And if he had a linebacker or safety against him, he could just beat those guys deep. It was a weapon.

And he'd gotten hurt after a couple games, and he'd come back, and he had abdominal muscle or something. They were just figuring out how to use him. And from a ceiling standpoint, I think it lowers the ceiling for this team. I still think they can win the Super Bowl. I'm still feeling good, but it lowered the ceiling. And that's what people are missing with this. It's like when they lost Sammy Morris in 2007, it's like, whatever, Sammy Morris, not a great running back, but the drop off from him to Lawrence Maroney changed that season. Everyone remembers that

offensive juggernaut the Patriots were in 2007, but it was really a 10-week juggernaut thing. And then after that, they were a very good team, but not the same offense. So my fear with this Deion Lewis thing is that it's going to change who they are a little bit. And you remember last year in the Super Bowl, Brady's down 10. How many catches did Shane Vereen have on those last two drives? Like 100? 110, I think.

Every time. There he was, security blanket. Yet again. Oh, there's Shane Vereen again. Oh, another big catch by Shane Vereen. So who's that security blanket now going forward for this team? Is it James White? Is it somebody they haven't picked up yet?

Is it Brandon? It's not going to be Brandon Bolden. I've watched Brandon Bolden for the last couple years. It's not him. So who is it? What do they do? And I'm nervous. So there you go.

If you had a gun to your head right now, who wins the Super Bowl? Patriots. Okay. That made me feel better. Thanks, House. I can't. There isn't anybody from the NFC that I think is playing at that level. that made me feel better thanks house I can't I don't there isn't anybody

from the NFC that I think is playing at that level our last game and then we're gonna talk hoops Seattle laying three

on a Sunday night against the Cardinals of Arizona we both picked this game and I think we might be against each other in this game. Who do you have? Oh, interesting. Who do you have?

Oh, I'm taking Arizona. I love the points. Are we against each other? Yeah, I'm taking the Seahawks. Oh, interesting. Alright, make your case. I'll make mine. This to me is a basic who is the better team game. Seattle's 1-2 against the spread at home.

Power rankings all across the board have Arizona slightly ahead of Seattle. They're 1A, 1B. Right there with Green Bay is 1C is the NFC contenders. Carolina is a step ahead. Well, Carolina and then those three teams, I would say. And we keep seeing this situation every week where lately the better team, to me, is getting points. We had it two weeks ago with the Broncos and Green Bay.

We had it last week with Carolina and green Bay. And I like Arizona coming into this situation and getting some points. There is also just really stupid, uh, crazy stat. Bruce Arians is 15 and one against the spread and his NFL career, uh, as a dog of less than seven points.

I mean, that is a dumb stat, but 15 and one sit up and take notice. career as a dog of less than seven points. I mean, that is a dumb stat, but 15 and one, sit up and take notice. The Cuz also has the cards as one of his SportsCenter picks. Oh, I'd love to be with the Cuz. I know. Well, and that's yet another reason why I like the Seahawks. I think like four or five times a year, everybody decides that there's a really smart under the radar pick that they're going against the grain. And, oh, I flipped it. And I actually think sometimes you got to then flip it back the other way.

You have Seattle at home. They're favored by three. Seattle's 24 and three in their last 27 games at home since I think 2012. They're 24 and three. And the cards are 11 and nine with Bruce Arians as coach on the road. The thing that people forget about the cards, great home team, really reliable at home, and basically 500 team on the road. Meanwhile, the Seahawks are an unbelievable home team and haven't been a little spotter on the road.

But 24-3 speaks for itself. This is the game of the year for them. They're 4-4. The cards are 6-2. They play the cards twice. They have to win this game. The cards don't have to win this game. They're going to see Seattle and Arizona.

I'm not saying they're not going to treat it like a playoff game, but from an urgency standpoint, this game just means more to Seattle. They lose this game. They're four and five. They got to play the Cardinals in Arizona still, you know, and you, you might not make the playoffs at that point. Like here, here's the rest of their schedule. Um, they did after Zona, they have, uh, Oh, apparently the Cardinals fans hate when I say Zona I'm sorry it's like I went through a Frisco phase with San Francisco and I apologize

for that too I'm going to try to get rid of Zona I don't know they don't like it I don't want to make the people from Zona unhappy after this first of all Seattle's in a stretch now where they had a bye week and then three straight home games, which you talked about before. That's a nice little stretch there, four weeks at home.

You're hanging out. You get to sleep in your bed. Yeah, you see your family. See your girlfriend. See your mistress on the side. You're juggling both of them. Going to your favorite food places. Going to your favorite coffee place.

Maybe your P.E.D. dealer. He's right there, he has a little something, something for you. Just better to be at home. So they have Zona, San Francisco, they're playing Frisco. They're going Zona, then Frisco. And then the Berg. Three straight at home. Zona, Frisco, and the Berg. So if they go two and one in that stretch, They're still right there in the mix, right?

What if they go 3-0? Well, 3-0 puts them right back in the dry receipt They're going to beat Frisco So then they have the Steelers and Landry Jones In Seattle I'm not sure It seems like Big Ben may be back and Landry Jones in Seattle. I'm not sure. It seems like Big Ben may be back.

He's already got the walking boot off. I'm glad it's Friday the 13th because he's the real-life Jason Voorhees. His foot bent 120 degrees in that game on Sunday. He might come back. That's unbelievable. What can you say? He's a big bitch. He's fantastic. He should wear a hockey mask.

Can't bust that guy. He should wear a hockey mask with scars and blood on it, just to complete the Jason effect. So then they go at Minnesota, at Baltimore Sunday night. Baltimore will be done for the season at that point. Home for Cleveland. They quit two weeks ago. Home for the Rams at Arizona.

That's not an easy schedule. Not an easy schedule. They need this game. They need this game. I just like the points. If it was one and a half or two, I would leave it alone. But three, I'm taking Zona.

So if they lose this game, they'd have five losses and they would know that they still have at Minnesota and at Arizona left and home for the Rams. That won't be easy either, plus the other ones we mentioned. I think this is a must win.

I love laying the three. And I believe in you, 12th man. Show me something. For God's sakes, I stopped drinking Starbucks for you people. I heard that. Why did you do that? It made me feel better to stop drinking starbucks i can't explain it you know the the the thunder left seattle eight years ago ten years ago however long ago it was

you know now you're gonna start now you have the principled position you know who always made me feel bad about it when i run into him on la live is uh Everett. Oh, really? See me at the Starbucks. He'd be like, oh, man. You know that's the reason the Sonics left, right? He just pointed to the Starbucks cup. And I always feel terrible. But he's right. The guy who ran Starbucks sold the Sonics to

two guys from Oklahoma City who were trying to pretend they weren't going to immediately move the team. Oh, no. We're committed. Unbelievable. All right. So we're committed. Unbelievable. All right, so here are our picks again. You have the D.C. Grudens 1.5 at home against New Orleans, and you have the Packers minus 12 against the Lions, and you have Tennessee plus 6 at Carolina.

I have the Raiders minus three against Minnesota. I have the Jacksonville Jaguars plus five and a half at Baltimore. And I have the New York Jints plus seven and a half at home against the Pats. We both have Cincy minus ten and a half against the really shitty Texans. And then we disagree. I love when we disagree. Do you have Arizona plus three? I have Seattle minus three.

And we'll see. If Seattle loses this game, it's a borderline write-off. But you know what? This is right around the time when – didn't Seattle do this last year? It was right around here when they made their run last year. It really was. You're absolutely right. It's a nice angle

to play that narrative right now, starting now. I don't have any issue with it. It's just the three points. Here's the difference last year's team, this year's team, the O-line. The much more lined offensive line, but man, they can't protect leads, and in the red zone,

I forget all the stats, but they are pretty damning. Like they just, Lombardo, I'm sorry, Lombardi always used to talk about how Kyle Orton was a 20-20 quarterback. He would just go between the 20s, but once he got past the 20, you're in trouble. And that's what the Seahawks team is this year. They're a 20-20 team. Really good between the 20s. That's not what you want to be if you're trying to win

the Super Bowl. That's why they're 4-4. Hey, house. Thanksgiving is coming up. If you're going to someone's house, and they're going to cook you a turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes and yams and carrots and everything else, why wouldn't you bring them a delicious porch pie? Oh, what a

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Southern delicacies. Delicious. And by the way, we did one last week, and Robin, the lady that makes all the pies for PorchPies.com, sent us two pies. Who? Who's us? And they were little sampler things in one of them. There was one full buttermilk pie, And then there was one with the four mini pies

Have you ever seen the mini pies? No, no, by the way You said us I live in Washington D.C. My mailbox is empty So Send me a pie I'll make a video of me eating a delicious porch pie

So there were mini pies And it was like One was like apple And one was pecan I'll make a video of me eating a delicious porch pie. So there were mini pies. And it was like one was like apple and one was pecan and one was buttermilk. And our entire family turned into Corn Julio. We were just mauling these pies. It was hilarious. That's what they make you do. They're so good. They turn you into pie zombies.

And then you go, it's a borderline diabetic coma afterwards. I was just glazed over watching football, but not really. I was hallucinating. It was so good. It's what makes life worth living. Why bother living otherwise? Porchpies.com. All right, so the Warriors are now 10-0.

Yes, they are. Not only are they 10-0, but they've turned into a team that is starting to remind me a little bit of 86 Celtics, 96 Bulls. The key to me with great basketball teams is when they go on the road and what their attitude is and how they handle it and how they embrace the performance aspect of it. We always talk about performance and art with basketball. There's a lot of great basketball players. Steph Curry now is entering that performance slash art zone where not only does he know that he's good, but he's got a different

attitude when he's at home versus on the road. On the road, he's like, oh, these are people here to see me. And I either come here one or two times a year, and I'm going to entertain you people. I'm going to give the people what they want. Yeah. Hello, people of Minnesota. My name is Stephen Curry, and I'm the best basketball player in the league right now. And I'm going to put on a little show for you.

Can we stop on that note for a second? Yeah. It's one of the things I wrote to myself this week. Let's have a very quick conversation about Steph Curry versus LeBron James as the best basketball player in the world. Okay. What is the argument for LeBron at this point? The only argument for LeBron is a ceiling argument. That if he's going all in, if it's like a game seven, and he's emptying the kitchen sink, his ceiling is higher than Steph Curry. But part of being the best player in the league is day after day after day, you're the best.

And Steph Curry is now the best offensive player in the league. His defense is pretty good, but the stuff he's doing offensively now, it's at a whole other level. I mean, Nash won two MVPs and was not nearly as good as Steph Curry is right now. Oh, not even close. It's not even close. I'm not prepared to concede that LBJ's ceiling, when he's going all in, trying to win a game, that it's higher than Steph.

If we're inside a minute and I need a bucket, I'm taking Steph. And the thing that's amazing is he's cutting these teams' throats in like the first two minutes of the game. Like the game yesterday, they're up 13-2 in like a minute into the game. The second shot he took was like a 30-footer. I love the stat that they showed after last night. He already has four quarters this year of 20 or more points in a quarter. And what's scary, and this is why I think that Ernie jokingly brought up the 70 wins

thing yesterday. It's not a joke. First of all, they're better than they were last year because Curry's better. Harrison Barnes is better. Azealy has turned into a really valuable big guy. And they're deep and they know each other. And the fact that Steve Kerr is not even involved and they're doing this, to me, is like this is just an engine now.

Like you could coach the team tomorrow and they'd probably win by 10. Wow. I'd love to give it a try. It would be fun. You'd be a great coach. You'd be very well dressed. I'd love to give it a try. It would be fun. You'd be a great coach. You'd be very well-dressed. I agree with that. How would you, from an eating standpoint,

that's like three hours where you wouldn't be able to eat. Yeah, that would be fine. No, I would really enjoy, I would savor the victory dinner afterwards. I would save up for the victory dinner. That's true. Yeah, okay. But anyway, the thing that the 86 Celtics, which I still think is the greatest team of all time, and if you never read my book, Book of Basketball,

it's probably available for like 50 cents on eBay at this point. But the 86 Celtics went 67-15, and then 15-3 in the playoffs. But they were 50-1 at home. They played 51 home games. They won all of them except for one game against Portland. But one of the things that made them special was they just killed everybody when it mattered.

And the games they would lose would be like the stupid games, like the freaking bullets and the nets and the games where they just kind of lost concentration and forgot to show up. This Warriors team shows up for every game. You know, it doesn't matter. They're just out and they're fine. And if the difference that they have versus what the 86 Celtics had is if they're bored or if they're not totally feeling it or whatever, they'll just start shooting threes and they kind of suck themselves into the game.

You know what I mean? Like I would say we're a little flat today. Oh, Steph just made a 32 footer. Now I'm excited to play basketball. And the effect that he's having on these games and on his teammates and just how great he is. I got to say, like, from a point guard standpoint, it's basically you'd have to go back to magic. Right? Oh, of course.

I'm going back 30 years now for a point guard who has had this kind of effect on the psyche of a game. You can only talk about this stretch that he's in in terms of the very best players to have ever played professional basketball and played a point guard position. Yeah. You have to talk about the very best guys. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at my pyramid now. But yeah, the best point guards of all time, Magic, Oscar, Koozie, Kid, people like that. Do you have Isaiah in there?

Isaiah? Well, I'm going to forget somebody. That's why I'm looking up my pyramid. Okay. But like Isaiah and Steve Nash. Sure. Steve Nash won an MVP. Isaiah was the best player on two straight championship teams.

Neither of those guys cut the guts out of teams night after night like Curry's doing right now. So I have, yeah, I have Oscar. I had Oscar at 10. I had Magic at 4. guts out of teams night after night like like curry's doing right now so i have yeah i have oscar at oscar at 10 i had magic at four i had uh koozie at 21 isaiah at 23 stockton at 25 stockton never could go to this level that that steph's going to right now iverson at 37 game to game iverson couldn't get there he wasn't even a point guard Peyton my point is this doesn't happen this is

this is a rare thing that we're going to see like every 25 years where you see a point guard who just destroys other teams and everything he does makes his teammates better and puts them in a different frame of mind. And, like, I watched the beginning of last night because it was TNT and he was on the road.

And I just assumed he was going to come out and just cut their throats in the first five minutes, which is what he did. You know? And then it's like Minnesota's guarding him with Andre Miller. And it reminded me of 30 years ago when some team would put some goofy white guy on Bird and he would get offended. Like Doug Collins had that great story about the Cavs game or the Bulls game when Collins started the game guarding with Ben Paquette and Bird got mad

and he was running by him yelling at him to switch him off. He made like five straight shots. That's like what Curry's doing now. He's like, oh, really? You're going to guard me with Andre Miller? All right, I'm going to just score 10 straight points right now. I'm really mad about this. Seems like he's polite about it at least.

Yeah, he's polite about it. And then, you know, we missed Maravich. Both of us. Yeah, right, right, right. We didn't grow up with him. But I feel like the Maravich stories resemble what I'm watching now with Curry and what you're watching. What am I missing? At what point, well this is

my question. It still feels like it's a bit of a small sample size. At what point does it go from being a small sample size to a genuine sample size? You know what I mean? So you're saying, how do we know that this just isn't a super duper hot streak?

Right. So last season is a pretty good rejoinder to that. He had astronomical numbers throughout the season, but not at this level. Not able to decide the outcome of games in the first quarter of the game. And we're only eight or nine games in. This has to be one of the best 10-game stretches anyone's ever had to start a season. Right? So 10 games, 33.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists.

So he's 33-5-5 every night. He's making five threes a game. He's five for 11 from three every game he's 47 percent from from three he's 93 percent from the line so right now he's a he's almost a 50 50 90 guy he's a 53 47 93 guy he's got to be this could not have happened before. Right now, he's 33-5-5 with five threes. I don't think anybody's ever been 33-5-5 with two threes. I mean, the 33-5-5-5 club?

What the fuck is that? Did you know that could be a club? Look at you. You still got some of that rapid port in you. 33-5- 5-5. It's spectacular. Did you think that was conceivable? No. How about this?

How about somebody making five threes a game? It is inconceivable. I'm so disappointed. I was sure his PER was going to be like mid-40s. It's only 37.1 right now. Oh, my God. Is that that? I'm almost speechless.

That's his PER? Yeah, 37.12. I'm looking up on Basketball Reference. They have. Thank you, Basketball Reference, by the way. Yeah, always thank you. You guys are the best. Yeah, single season PER, highest ever.

Wilt Chamberlain, 31.8. And he had a 31.7. Jordan, 88, was 31.7. LeBron James was 31.67 in 2009, which was an amazing season. I still can't believe they didn't win the title. That's almost a 30 for 30 at that point, the 09 Magic. Yeah, sure. Just them beating Cleveland.

I still can't believe that. It was six years ago. I'm still in shock. I still can't believe that happened. SVG, really? You gotta give it up to SVG. Yeah, that's not the only three-letter acronym I would use for that

upset. There's another one that begins with P and ends in D. Steph Curry, 37.03 PER. It's just... I don't understand. If you love basketball... I don't understand. If you love basketball, I don't understand

how you miss the Warriors at any point now. Our friend Hershey, who works for the NBA, who hates when we name drop him ever because he always feels like... I don't know why it freaks him out. We always talk about how annoying it is that

in the 80s, we can only see magic like four times a year until the playoffs like just how much of magic's career i missed like 99.9 percent of magic's career because i was in the east coast and there wasn't really cable yet and then when cable came it was like one usa game a week and c barely showed Sunday games and that's it. I just missed all these magic games. And now it's like you can watch, this Warriors team is going to go for 70 wins and we're going to be able to see every single game.

You know? Like even the Bulls. We're going to watch every single game. The Bulls in 96. I was not able to see every game. I saw some of them. Nope, same deal. Yeah. And I would also say I think the Warriors now are at the point where if they're in your hometown, you have to go see them. Oh, the mustest of must-sees.

The mustest. You have to go. Yes. At least until they cool off. Right. They might not cool off. They might not cool off. 72-10 doesn't permit much in the way of a cool off.

I wrote about this in my book and I'm going to plagiarize myself, but obviously I was there for the 86 Celts. I got to go to those games, a lot of them. I remember when the 96 Bulls came to town, what that was like and how different it was. Did you see them? I did.

I saw them in Washington. Yeah, you must have. It was an event. It was an event. It was hot in that joint. It was great. It was just, it was the Jordan and Pippen combo, watching the way they, it was like, at that point, it was like Jordan had just cloned Pippen.

He had just, basically, they had taken his dna and just made a six foot seven swingman longer arm version of jordan and the way they moved together it was like they were in sync and they would just destroy teams and it didn't even matter and then mj took care of them yeah and they was like well we need a rebounder they go and they get rodman it didn't even matter who the other two teammates were it was Jordan Pippa Rodman it could have been me and you and they probably would have won 60 games uh so anyway uh the the Warriors right now like from you know they're only making 12 threes a game which is isn't outrageous like like yeah right right they're 12 they're 12 for 30 from three every day. They're shooting 40.8%. Barnes isn't shooting that well from three, which has hurt them. Draymond and Clay have been shooting pretty well.

It's kind of relative to say what's hurting them. What was their close game so far this season? The closest game was that Clippers game, right? Yeah, and you saw what happened in that game. And that's another thing that 86 Celtics and the 87 Lakers and the 96 Bulls could do is they could be getting beat for 40 minutes and then just put together a four-minute stretch and win the game. You know?

You'd be, oh, this isn't our night. Oh, watch this. We're going to score 12 points in three minutes, and now we have the lead. And you guys are rattled, and we know how to close. And then the other thing with them, because Curry's such a good free throw shooter, if they have a three-point lead with 30 seconds left and they have the ball, the game's over.

It's like having Rivera. So I'm just kicking myself. I'm so mad. We spent so much time talking about what would happen with this season. And if we had had the conversation of, you know what would be a fun corner to be on? Is that the Warriors are going to be even better than they were last year. And that they're going to be mad that everyone called them lucky.

That would have been a fun corner. And that they got a taste of this. We both took the over. Yeah, we both took the over. We both liked them. I thought they were going to have one of the best two records in the league. But my thought was, I got too trapped on the whole thing where they were too lucky with not getting injured last year. And this year they'd have to pay the piper.

Well, I don't want to jinx it. That's still a risk. Yeah, because it's really hard to stay healthy in the NBA. Yeah, like two whole seasons of nobody important being out for an extended stretch. That would be fairly extraordinary to see, I think. I will say this though. If they're going to be able to keep winning games by 15 to 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 points and only play Steph like 33 minutes a game and,

and basically not have to put a ton of miles on their dudes, that's going to lend itself very nicely to the injury front. Here's who they have coming up. Well, they do an extraordinary job of managing minutes. I don't think anybody on the Warriors averaged more than 32 minutes last year, and I think they're right around that same number. I think they were targeting 30 this year. I thought I read somewhere.

A game. They play the Nets of Brooklyn at home Saturday night. At home against Toronto on Tuesday. So that's 12-0. Yes. And then Thursday, November 19th, Golden State at the Los Angeles Clippers. Bill Simmons will be there.

Oh, good for you. I got to figure out a way to get Tate. You need to be healthy. I got to get Tate in the building for that one. Tate, I got to get you in the building on that one. Tate just had an orgasm. He just, it was terrible. I'm sorry.

Oh my God. I don't know what to do, Hess. They need to be healthy. Tate just ejaculated himself I'm so scared I'm staying away from that I'm pretending I'm not hearing that So then after that let's say they get through the Clippers Bulls at Denver

Lakers at Phoenix Sacramento Oh and then here's the road trip Wow so they could be... If they could get to 17-0, going to this road, that's absurd. No, they're not going 17-0. But let's just say for fun.

I don't think this will happen. At Phoenix, it could be a little bit of a trappy game. I kind of like Phoenix now. I do, too. Again, because they were this way last year, too. A little bit of an attitude. I like it. The two guards have been very good. Again, because they were this way last year, too. A little bit of an attitude. I like it.

The two guards have been very good. The Brandon Knight-Bloodso combo have been very good. And we mocked a lot of what they did the last two years. Well, they seem to be rudderless. Well, I would agree with that. I will say, I was thinking about this yesterday. I think this is a really good year for the league. And one of the things I like about it is even the non-contenders, a lot of the teams have identities now, right?

Like I watch Phoenix. They're built around those two guards. They have guys with attitude. They're tough. You're not going to go into Phoenix and shove them around. I think they're a playoff team. I do too. They're going to take the New Orleans spot. New Orleans is not going to reclaim when they get healthy. Well, New Orleans, there's another spot New Orleans could grab, potentially. It's going to be New Orleans versus Dallas. I watch Dallas. Dallas, veteran team.

You know? Not great, but veteran team. They know who they are. I liked how they beat the Clips the other night. That was a veteran win. I agree with you. Detroit, Drummond, and Jackson. That's their team, though.

I never thought Reggie Jackson would be a building block. Apparently, he is. I'm still a little dubious. Drummond's a beast. And you watch Detroit now, it's like, oh, that's that team. We said it's the Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson thing all over again. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of a poor man. Not a homeless man, he's a poor man.

The Knicks, who haven't an identity forever. It's Carmelo but then the Zinger is just kind of in the mix now he's he's uh did you hear Rappaport he was saying he was a Latvian gangbanger he was calling him Latvian

he was calling him Lativian yeah Rappaport did an incredible one hour podcast I can't recommend it enough it's just for the stickman story with cornrows. The Ratport did an incredible one-hour podcast. It was in rare form. I can't recommend it enough. It's just for the stick man story. The stick man.

You got to get on that podcast for the stick man story. Stick man was incredible. It was actually one of the rare times I've forwarded a podcast to a couple friends to be like, just go to the 55-minute mark. You got to hear the stick man story. But you got down the line. I'm sorry,

why were you cutting him off? It seemed like you could have gone for two hours. There was a couple stories that didn't get told. What was the time restraint? Well, we took out like six minutes

of his ESPN interrogating. Ah, he tried to go. It's good for everybody. Tried to go deep. Yeah. I understand. It was just that one bit.

there's a reason, by the way, that you are expressing an affection for this NBA season and why I'm 1,000% co-signing. The pace of play is incredible, and the Warriors get a ton of credit for it, but it fits both of our eyes because we're going backwards to how we grew up with basketball in that golden era of the 80s when, you know, pace was great and defense was a secondary consideration. Yes. And the difference, now it's threes. Before it used to be post-play would set up open shots and there was a mood, the big guys would run and that style was different. That style is gone, and now the threes and the pace and space is kind of replaced. Yeah, and that era, you weren't allowed to hand check the point guard,

so the point guard could go run all over the floor with the ball and create shots that way. Is it fair to say, can we officially say we have three terrible teams, and then there's a drop to the next or drop up to the next group? Sure. I think Brooklyn, the Lakers, and Philly are just atrocious. There's three atrocious teams. And then after that, you can make cases.

The Lakers is confounding because they don't have to be atrocious. They should be playing those kids. Who, the Lakers? Yes. That's the only one that i really have a you know a dispute with i don't i'm not disputing that they're awful but i i i don't like the the approach that they're taking so far well they have a coach who's basically like an usher at the stadium who gets to coach the team is basically like they gave an usher a clipboard. And then they have young guys who are fun

combined with Kobe Bryant and Roy Hibbert and all these people that don't fit in with the young fun guys who should just be running around and running. The best thing Kobe could do for this team is

just to pretend he's hurt. but he won't do that, right? He's not going to do that. He won't pretend. He's legitimately hurt. He's been playing 20 years. He can't play but once a week. That's fine. He should be a player coach. He should be embracing it. I loved the scene of him giving

some dap to the zinger after they played the Knicks. If he's doing that with his own guys, building up those young guys and helping them understand what it means to be a player in this national basketball association, that's a cool role. And that's the role that I'd like for him to embrace this year. Are you scared about the Wiz yet? Oh, my God. Are you kidding?

Yeah, I'm petrified. The schedule, so last season I sent a basket of delicious fruits and chocolates to the NBA scheduling office because they set up the almost bullets with a wonderful first 20 to 25 games. This season, brutal opening stretch. Like, you know, four-fifths of the teams are up against our last-year playoff teams. And the Wiz team is going through a little bit of an identity change. They're trying to implement this pace and space, space and pace,

and it has come at the expense of defense and turnovers. The Washington professional basketball team had 50 turnovers in two games last week against the Celtics and the Hawks. That is not efficient basketball. Would you trade Nene and Beal for Boogie? Immediately. Without hesitation. Reservation or hesitation.

Would you trade Nene and five first-round picks for Boogie? Yes. Unprotected? All of them? Yes. This year and then every two years from that point on through like 2022? That means I get Beal, Wall, Otto Porter, and Boogie, all of whom are under 25 years of age?

Yes. Yes. Wow, so you trade five unprotected first-round picks. That means 10. So every other year you give up your unprotected pick. So it essentially runs 10 years because you can't have consecutive first-round picks going. That's true. So it'd be 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 unprotected.

For boogie? Yeah. I'm going to have an unprotected affair with the boogie. Yes, I would do it. You think that's risky? If you're the Celtics, so you would trade the Brooklyn pick and David Lee's contract for boogie.

You would do that sight unseen. Of course. You wouldn't put any top one protection on the pick? No. Unprotected. If you're the Kings, don't you have to do that? Bear back for Boogie. The Kings have to do something dramatic.

The best thing they could do is figure out a way to get Vivek out of his majority controlling position. The instability, the organizational instability, and how directly it translates into on the court just sham mockery. What in the – I'm not going to rapaport it. What is going on?

Rondo played 48 minutes back-to-back nights. I know, and then I tweeted about it, and the Kings fans got mad at me. They're like, our backups are hurt. It's like, nobody should play 48 minutes in an NBA game. It's absolutely ludicrous. Come up with some sort of way to not do that. There's got to be a way. There's got to be any way to.

The thing people don't understand is there's three-minute breaks near the end of the first quarter or near the end of the first quarter near the end of the third quarter it's a tv timeout when it hits the three minute mark the next time the ball stops there has to be a timeout that's when you you can take your guy out there and he gets to sit through all that time out all the way to the end of the quarter all the way through and then bring him back it's like it gives them like 10 minutes of real life, real time rest. Yeah.

And so you can play somebody 43 minutes and it's basically 48 minutes. You just, they skipped out of the last two and a half minutes of the first and third quarters. That's fine. You're not going to lose a game because your point guard missed five minutes. But what you can do is you're putting miles on him. That's going to get him

hurt a week from now. And that's what people don't understand. It's clear that it's willful. It's intentional. It's not an accident. You know what's funny, though? Rondo looks good in these games. I mean, he really looks like old school Rondo,

except he's got the craziest look on his face at all times now. And his body language. It's almost like watching when you watch the US Open in tennis and every year there's one crazy tennis player and you're like, what's wrong with that guy?

Wacko. Why does he have that look on his face? We've never seen that in team basketball by a point guard. Who's the tennis player who said the thing to the other guy about his girlfriend? Yeah, that guy. That's the current crazy guy. Yeah, he's the current crazy guy.

I love that guy. But Rondo, just weird. The dynamic on the Kings games are incredible watches. They're incredible to watch. You boogie who might just give up at any time. Just stop running back. He might make a face. He might show who knows what he's going to do.

He's so, he's so unhappy and angry. And then you have Rhonda who's basically an alien at this point. He's has no interaction with his teammates. And then you have George Carl, who's just sitting there with this look on his face, like are standing there with this look on his face. Like,

Oh my God, what am I doing? I, I my God, what am I doing? It's like he knows. He knows. So that's the 30 for 30. Somebody needs to go to George Carl right now and say, George, when you're done with this, you got to get him signed up now.

George, please be keeping notes of last season and this season, all the behind thethe-scenes shit. It's got to be the craziest stuff in the history of the league. Well, if I was a minority owner and I had sunk money into this Kings team and I was watching what Vivek did to it. Now, the minority owners are apparently mad. And I'm watching this.

I would be so mad. And there's Vivek with Drake, and then he brings Drake into the locker room after the game and it's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? It's a Traversham mockery. It's so bad. And what's sad is

I don't know if Boogie is just a flat out coach killer and a guy that I don't want on the Boston Celtics or is he somebody who would be awesome on the Boston Celtics and this should be dominating my thoughts? Every night when I fall asleep, I should be praying that today is the next day is the day when we trade for Boogie.

I don't know how to feel anymore because you read that he had a tirade against his coach in the locker room. That's weird. Well, I don't think it's that weird. It's the situation. The situation creates these incomprehensible pressures mainly on

him because he is the best player. He's been the best player. He's the identified and identifiable franchise player for them for a franchise that stinks like a shit sandwich. And I think, you know, the pressure is getting to him. George Carl can't visit any kind of normalcy into this, inject any kind of normalcy. The idea was right.

Here's George Carl, an accomplished guy who can help rewrite the book for a franchise that's been headed in the wrong direction. He did it in Seattle, did it in Denver. Or the most overrated coach of the last 20 years. You can go either way with George Carle. That's fine, but you can't deny the success that Seattle and Denver both had with him. Yeah, and then how badly it ended in both places

and how acrimonious it got and how many team chemistry issues there seems to be with him. That's all fine. Milwaukee, same thing. The point is to flip the script. He can help you flip the script. This is now the fourth team that he's been on that he's coached.

Seattle, Denver, Milwaukee, which everyone forget, the Ray Allen thing just completely blew up. I don't think Ray Allen's a bad guy. Why do Ray Allen hate George Carl? Why do all these guys hate George Carl after the fact? This is weird. They don't start off hating him, though. No, they don't.

But at some point, I have to look at George Carl and wonder, some of it's on you, right, buddy? You know? Well, we've seen the same thing with some other coaches. I mean, you know, I hate to ever say a bad word about your buddy, but Doug Collins had kind of a reputation of coming into situations, helping guys

resurrect, redirect, and then he'd burn himself out and burn them out. It was a three-year run with Doug. Skiles is kind of the same story. I could tell you about this with Boogie because I watched that Detroit-Sacramento second half very carefully, and he took it to Drummond.

He won. That was a heavyweight fight, and Boogie won. The scorecard was like 116-109, Boogie. You know why? Because he's one of the 10 best players in the league. I know. Yeah, you're right. What am I thinking?

Yeah, of course we should give up the Brooklyn pick. What am I thinking? We should do it right now. What do you want, Sacramento? All right, here's my offer. Brooklyn pick, Sollinger and David Lee for boogie. I'll do it right now. That's fair.

That's a good trade. Right now. That's a good trade. That's my offer, Sacramento. Oh, you want me to throw in Terry Rozier? Okay. You can have him too. I just have one question

to ask. Why is Jared Saunders still fat? How can he still be fat? He's in good shape this year, and he's actually stolen minutes from David Lee and Amir Johnson. I'm a little worried about my team. My team's breaking the hell out of the almost bullets, but... We have too many players.

We've been talking about this for three weeks now, since the over-under pod. They're going to find the right rotation and the right complementary set. They're going to come up with I trust in Brad. All trust in Brad.

It's never good in any sport to have too many players and not enough spots to play other players. Even my daughter's youth soccer team last year got ugly. Well, it's a great problem to have, though, because unlike your daughter's soccer team, Boston can actually trade players. I know.

We have to make like a four for one. You know what's interesting? We have Minnesota's pick, which I think is like top 13 protected. Basically, if they're like the best non-playoff team or they make the playoff team, we get their first rounder. And then we have Dallas's pick that's top seven protected. But Dallas is pretty good. Like Dallas is going to be either 7-8 seed or just miss the cut. Yeah, they're going to win in the mid-40s probably.

Or they'll be on pace to be in the mid-40s probably. Or they'll be on pace to be in the mid-40s and then Dirk hurts his knee and something else happens. Yeah, somebody gets hurt and that'll drop them down. They'll tank it. And then we have the Brooklyn pick, and then we have our own pick. There's a world in which the Celtics could have four of the top 15 picks in

next year's draft. You want to live in that world. I know you do. You just mentioned Minnesota. I have one issue with you. Yeah. I want to take up something with you in Minnesota. The criticism of Sam Mitchell feels to me a little unbecoming.

It's a little tone deaf. Okay. I know I don't come at you hard this way very often. I love when you come at me. You know, well, you're still cleaning up tape. The game plan in Minnesota was not for Sam Mitchell to be the coach of this team. I mean, you know, they had a game plan. It was a sound game plan.

They had an architect that was there. The poor guy passed away. I'm with you. It's a terrible story. Huh? I'm with you. It's a terrible story. Huh? I'm with you. It's a horrible story. I think the right thing to be doing would be to be celebrating the success that Minnesota

is having. And Minnesota themselves would have to be reassessing on the fly what they want to do about the organizational future. But it was pretty, you know, it kind of undermined the game plan to have the main architect, you know, drop out of the picture. I'm with you one million percent. It's a terrible story. This was obviously an outcome nobody wanted. My only question is, you have Towns and you have Wiggins, who I would say are the best

two building blocks on the same team that anyone has right now. And you could even argue going back to Durant and Westbrook in like the late 2000s for two young guys in the same team who are both studs and there's something here. At some point we have to find these guys an awesome coach so when is that maybe you get away with this year it doesn't matter i don't know um yeah agree agree i i think minnesota concedes that sam is interim it's not you know he's not permanent head coach i think the the description of him is interim can we get sam some help right now can't we hire him like an old assistant coach to come in and kind of help him? Because when you're putting Audrey Miller on Steph Curry, I'm worried.

That makes me nervous. That shouldn't be anything that happens ever. That's true. It just shouldn't. There has to be a better move than that. I don't know. Where's Tibbs? Can't they pay Tibbs like $5 million for four months?

I like that. I love that. If I'm Tibbs, don't I want to coach this team? How much fun would that be? All these kids? You're right. They should get through this year, make their mistakes, be a lottery team. I do think they're a playoff team, though, if properly managed.

They have the talent. They don't have the experience. They certainly have the talent. Towns is. We love it. It's really exciting. Let's redo the draft, and then we'll go. Go ahead.

Towns still goes one. And Towns might be like a top 10 trade value guy at this point. It's still a little small sample size, but he is everything that people projected, anticipated he would be, which is super tough, great hands, soft touch around the basket, beast defensively. Reminds me of young Rasheed if Rasheed wasn't a complete maniac. I like that.

Rashid 2.0 on a lot of medication. I think he's a hair stronger than Rashid. But remember how athletic young Rashid was? Oh, he could run the floor. Terrific. They had Rashid, C-Web, and Juwan Howard. Yep.

They had all those three guys on the same team. And it was like for a year. But Towns won. lakers at two there's no way they take russell i'm sorry i'm sorry laker fans you're not taking the i know you can make every excuse possible for russell i'm still not against the russell pick i'm not giving up on russell but there's no way you don't take okra for or pausing or Porzingis after watching those two guys play basketball. Why not Moutier? Or Moutier.

Yeah. Who would you take if you're the Lakers? You can redo the draft. Okafor. I'd love the Randall-Okafor combo. I'd take the gangbanger from Lativia, Chris Depps, Porzingis. All right, so the Sixers get whoever's left between Okapp's Porzingis. Alright, so the Sixers get whoever's left between Okafor and Porzingis.

Right? Well, the Sixers should have taken Moutier. So if you're the Sixers, you would take Moutier over Porzingis? Yeah, I still would. Oh, I wouldn't do that. I love his zinger. It's terrific. I feel like the

diversity of the skill set offensively is terrific. He can't stay on the floor. His foul rate is still astronomical. And he's going to learn. That's fine. And he's in the very, very, very best situation for him being on the Knicks. They're just going to play him, which is awesome. I'm so happy about that.

It's great. It's really fun to see. I feel like there's a little bit of this undercurrent of like, hey, here's a European player that wasn't a bust. He's not a big white stiff. Holy shit, the Zinger. The Zinger 2015. All fair.

I love the Zinger, though. I do, too. I love that we made the three. I had all this skepticism about him. I have no skepticism. And I the zinger, though. I do, too. I loved when he made the three. I had all this skepticism about him. I have no skepticism. And I'm glad I was wrong. We did that Rapport podcast, and then that night, the zinger made a game-winning three, but it was right after the clock.

But I liked it. I know. He pulled out his big watermelon Lativian balls and put them on the scores table and made a 25-footer to win the game. But it was like a split second too late. But I liked his reaction. It was an awesome shot, too. Was not surprised after.

Yeah, he was like, oh, I'm the zinger. Of course I'm the zinger. I love he's so tall and so comfortable from range like that. Yeah. He really could be a monster. And that's what I was saying on the Rap Report podcast. The thing I love about him is even if you run out at him, he just shoots over you.

What do you do? How do you stop the zinger? You can't. Gotta foul him. I don't know how his free throws are. I'd give up the Brooklyn pick for him right now. Sure. And then Moudier.

So Moudier at four. So that's your top four. And you could argue Okafor, Porzingis, Moudier, but that's clearly the four. And you could argue Okafor, Porzingis, Moutier, but that's clearly the top four in this draft. Yeah. Five, I think, is Winslow.

Sure, yeah. Really impressive. Still on potential in what he's achieved. Right. Then I think it's Winslow, Hazonia, and Russell in some order. Yeah, that's right. But I would have Winslow first. I think he's clearly, Hazonia, and Russell in some order. Yeah, that's right. But I would have Winslow first. I think he's clearly, the defense alone, he's better at that than, I love Hazonia.

I think Russell's probably seven. It's a real TBD with Russell because of that shitty situation he's in in L.A. We have no idea what kind of player he's going to be still. You know who's not in the top seven? Willie Colley Stein. Good job, laddie. Who could have saw that one coming? He's a role player.

He could be good in his role, but taking a role player inside the top ten is a tough one. That's a little bit of a tough one. That's my professional assessment Moutier over Willie Colley-Stein probably should have happened probably should have happened if you have the six pick I'm going to guess that might have been the move or maybe Winslow alright

well Joe House hey it was great as always looking at the river walk Thinking of Tim Duncan And New Orleans Noel I need to send you some Some porch pies Yeah

I'm telling you I'll take a video And if it's any good I'll send it I'll post it on the Twitters Alright thanks to HBO For sponsoring today's podcast And more importantly

For giving me my own television show That launches next spring Don't forget We have a new podcast Launching next week on the Bill Simmons Podcast Network. It's called Channel 33. It's going to feature The Watch with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald, TV.

I think that's going to be twice a week or at least once a week. Awesome. Juliet Lipman's Reality TV Takes, NBA Chatter with Chris and Juliet, as sources say. We're going to call that podcast The New and Improved Andy Greenwald Show he's going to be doing interviews again and some more surprises

down the road down pow when do I get to hear about these surprises well you'll hear about them I like all of this stuff

my podcast docket's getting filled up yeah so you can subscribe to channel 33 on SoundCloud right now. It will be available on iTunes this weekend, and we are launching it next week. More details to come on the Monday podcast.

Thanks also to SeatGeek for sponsoring today's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast. That's actually our presenting sponsor, as well as my favorite app for purchasing tickets to sporting events, concerts, and whatever else. Download the free SeatGeek app. Use promo code BS. Get a $20 else. Download the free SeatGeek app. Use promo code BS. Get a $20 rebate off your first SeatGeek purchase. Joe House. Yeah.

Enjoy the Riverwalk. I'm going to get out there. I spent a lot of time in San Antonio in the 2013 and 2014 finals. Yeah. Oh, remember that time we got a boat and we rode on the Riverwalk? Yeah, this is what we're going to take my kid out on the boat. We're going to relive that experience. Oh, I thought you were kidding.

You really genuinely brought your family to San Antonio? My family is here in San Antonio. We're all here. Are you at gunpoint? I don't want to discuss the circumstances, but it's true that my family is all here in San Antonio, Texas. Oh, your kid will love the boat. Do the boat. I know, I know.

We already walked him down and showed him the river and some boats on it. Okay. All right. Thanks, Joe House. We'll talk to you next week. Play us out, Tupac. We about this bitch. Anytime y'all want to see me again,

rewind this track right here Close your eyes And picture me rollin'