The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 38: NBA + NFL Best Bets w/ Joe House

Episode Date: December 11, 2015

HBO's Bill Simmons brings on Joe House to talk about Golden State's streak and answer questions from NBA Reddit about the struggling Wizards (10:00), the lingering Mavs (14:00), the Hinkie 'process' (17:00), Ben Simmons (27:00), Harden and the Rockets (34:00), the 2016 Lottery/Lakers (39:00), Charlotte(?!?!--42:00), 2016's elite small forward glut (49:00), NFL Best Bets (53:30) and 'The Revenant' (1:07:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and the best app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music and even events like December 11th Warriors at Celtics. Oh yeah. With SeatGeek Marketplace, you can sell tickets without getting hijacked by a ridiculous after the sale cost. Go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to learn how to buy and sell tickets on SeatGeek and don't forget to download the free SeatGeek app and our promo code BS. SeatGeek will send you $20 once you've made your first purchase. Today's episode is also

brought to you by MeUndies.com, the home of great fitting underwear that happens to be two times softer than cotton. I'm wearing them right now. My favorite MeUndies product is the Men's French Terry jogger, the most comfortable pair of jogging pants I've ever worn. I actually lost them because I wore them so many times they walked out of my house to get away from me. Go to meandys.com slash BS. Get 20% off your first order as well as free shipping in North America. And also I should mention the Channel 33 podcast

available for subscription on iTunes and Stitcher and SoundCloud features Andy Greenwald, Chris Ryan, Julia Libman, and myself. We did a challenge podcast that we simulcast on the BS Podcast and Channel 33. And just today, Vulture said Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald's podcast on Channel 33, The Watch, they called it the best pop culture podcast on the market. Wow.

All right, let's go. Yeah. Clear enough for you. podcast on the market. Wow. All right, let's go. Joe House is on the line. What up, House? Oh, we're Friday rolling. You know how we do. I'm excited for this one. First of all, we're taping this at noon East Coast time, Friday, December 11th. Okay, Tupac, you can go right now. We're excited. Tupac's excited.

We're going against his Warriors tonight. This is great. I mean, we only really have, there's like a seven and a half hour window for people to hear this before the game actually starts. But the 24, are they 24-0 the Warriors or 23-0? I should know this. I would say 24-0. 23-0, but they've won 27 straight going into Boston. Yeah, talk about that real quick.

There is some controversy about giving them regular season wins from last year for the purposes of the streak. Oh, I thought it was the playoff wins. Which game did they lose in the finals? In my head, I was just calculated, and they won three and were in the finals. So for me, they won 26 straight. But I guess we don't do that officially. I think for the purposes of the streak, the 33-game streak that they're challenging,

and there's been some stories about it this week, that they're counting the regular season wins at the end of last season. I don't like that. I don't like it either. Yeah, that's not legit, especially because the end of the season is always wonky. I think just them starting the season 23-0 is one of the 15 most incredible things that's happened in the NBA. And I know they haven't played San Antonio yet,

and I know they haven't played Cleveland yet. And those are really the only other two teams that are worth a damn right now. But incredible. It's just to win 23 straight, you're going to have, like they've had three or four 50-50 games where either team could have won, comes down to a shot, a play, a bounce. They won all of those. They've had really good injury luck until this week

where there are three players that matter, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson. Those are the three indispensable guys in the team. They've been able to keep them healthy for all 23 games until Klay got hurt near the end of the last one. And just to be able to bring it to the table every night, that's the hardest thing. I mean, the 86 Celtics, which I think was the best team ever, lost 15 times.

And I think nine or ten of those losses were to teams that were under.500 because it's just hard to show up every night. House, am I overreacting or underreacting? I think you're reacting appropriately. Okay, good. I thought the Pacers game was super interesting. As that fourth quarter got started, I thought, you know, this could be the game where Golden State has some vulnerability.

And because of the particular position they were in going into the fourth quarter, they were up by so much. And this might be the first time I might give Lukey a little bit of a down thumb grade, thumbs down grade. He sat all the starters and watched Indiana over the course of the fourth quarter bring it within, you know, like a dozen points. And by the time he got the starters back in, those guys had been sitting for so long that they were clearly mentally checked out. They were physically not up to it. And in the last four minutes, I thought, you know what? This might be the loss.

This could be the one. It was sitting there. Yeah, Luke Walton went a little Sam Mitchell on us, unfortunately. I'm pumped for tonight. My buddy Sully, CMO of the Celtics, MVP of my wedding in 2003, he said this was the hottest regular season ticket since opening night of the first LeBron-Wade game in Boston, which I think was late October 2011. Everyone wants to go.

I think the word is out in the street now that when the Warriors come through town, you got to go. You just have to go. You have to call in whatever connection you get. You go on, on SeatGeek and all of our favorite, uh, the SeatGeek marketplace,

all that stuff, anywhere to get tickets. And, um, the word's out. It's not like you need the word to go out to go see, you know, and a great opponent anyway,

especially on a Friday night. The reality is very few teams reach this point. I think Miami and the Heat got there to maybe 90% just because people were so excited to see Wade and LeBron together and just the aura around that team and all the hype and all that stuff. People wanted to see that that first year. The 27-game stretch that they went on. It was great.

That was an unbelievable one. I don't think they were even 40% as aesthetically pleasing as this Warriors team is. The real story with this Warriors team is they're so much fun to watch that anyone can watch them and enjoy it. My wife can watch a Warriors game and enjoy the hell out of it. If she's watching Miami, she doesn't care that their rotations are perfect and stuff like that, you know?

I know. But the LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, when they were shooting on all cylinders, that's what I'm after. Yeah. That was pretty impressive. It was great. The streak was awesome. It was an awesome inside-out game. I'm proud of... I wrote a column that I'm after. Yeah. That was pretty impressive. It was great. The streak was awesome. It was an awesome inside-out game.

I'm proud of, I wrote a column that I actually liked. I don't like a lot of my columns after the fact, but I wrote a column that I think holds up about the streak. And that team was special in its own way. The way they were constructed, it was just so hard to ask the kind of effort that they needed from those three guys game after game for a hundred games a year. And, you know, Wade broke down the last two years.

I think that's, what's interesting to me about this Warriors team among all the other things that's going on is they're doing this in a way that these guys seem to have energy for the next game. The fact that they can sit for a lot of the fourth quarter is the fact that a lot of this is outside shot and not punishing drives where they're just getting pounded every time. The pace they play is fun. And it all lends itself to a regular season. You know what I mean? Yeah, all that's true.

I still think we're dealing with an awfully small sample size. Well, it's over one-fourth of the season now. Yeah, right. Yeah, and that's not – it's not time to start comparing them to the Heat team and the trajectory of that Heat team. It's really the first quarter of this season and the last, what would you say, six weeks of last season? Yeah, well, historically, teams are kind of have their shit together

heading into a season have always been able to rip off pretty good streaks right so like the 09 celtics before kg went down in utah i think they were like 30 and 5 or 30 and 4 some crazy record like that remember the pistons the year after oh five the oh five finals they had that great run they got the four all-stars 05, the 05 finals? They had that great run. They got the four All-Stars. Exactly. That was the comparison I was going to make too. Yeah, a lot of these finished product teams have an

advantage because there's a lot of turnover in the league and the next season starts and these guys haven't played together and Ty Lawson's on the Rockets and Rondo's on the Kings and it's just basketball players need a while to figure out how to play with one another. I think and Ty Lawson's on the Rockets and Rondo's on the Kings. Basketball players need a while to figure out how to play with one another.

I think when you can come into the gate and you know who you are and you have your identity and you have your best player, it's an advantage the first two months. And you have to look no further than who's on the bench coaching the team to sort of prove that point with this squad, right? Or look at the Spurs. The Spurs have four losses right now. It's another team. They added Aldridge, which was a big chess piece to bring in,

but they know who they are. They have the infrastructure in place, and it's great for them. They've also been quietly doing what they always do, which is rest guys. On any given night, two of their important cogs are sitting out. They're getting a great kind of Kawhi leap season that I think we all wanted him to have. And I think it would have been weird if he didn't have it. You know, I don't want to criticize Kawhi cause I love Kawhi and I'm not criticizing,

but this was the year for him to go up a level. And he did. It was right on the timetable of what we wanted from him. Yeah. It reminds me of Bradley Beal, except for the opposite. Are you officially ready to trade him? No, no.

Can you trade him to Celtics? Can we make an offer? Do you like James Young? Do you like Brooklyn Picks? I like Ben Simmons. Well, if you're the Warriors, I mean the Wizards, how long do you give this? Actually, I solicited our friends at NBA Reddit.

Great site. Really topical stuff and smart comments. Not too mean. I think a lot of message boards get super mean and super personal. They do a good job of policing that. I asked them. I told them we were job of policing that. I asked them. I told them we were taping a podcast. I gave them an hour to send us some questions.

And they sent a bunch of really good questions, one of which was from HungryBear22. There's 21 other HungryBears. He had to go with HungryBear22. He wants to ask, why Bradley Beal and Otto Porter haven't made the leap everyone expected them to make after last season's playoffs? Keep this answer quick. So I'm not prepared to say that everyone expected Otto Porter to make the leap.

Speaking of a small sample size, the dude had two and a half good weeks in the playoffs after a full year's worth of grooming from Paul Pierce. Well, Paul Pierce isn't on the team anymore, and Otto Porter has regressed a bit. He looks a little bit lost. Maybe we were asking and hoping for too much out of him. I agree with that. Beal is just going to be, I think, kind of a slow development story. He is not physically. It looks to me like he might still be growing.

Every single year he's been in the league, he's missing games because of nagging injuries. Some leg problems, some ankle problems, some foot problems. He hasn't yet played 80 out of 82 games. He doesn't yet look like he has the physical fortitude

to deliver night in, night out. So he continues to be inconsistent. He is their best scorer. Also important to mention with him, 22 years old. That's the point. Same age as Michael Carter Williams when he was a rookie. Right, right. So the leap from Beal might be two years from now when he's 24.

So that's why you don't start including him in trade talks unless we're talking about somebody like the Boogie. But that's the deal. Last night we had national TV Rondo and Boogie putting on a little show on TNT. Rondo, I love that Rondo's back. I don't think it's possible to contend for a title if he's one of your two or three best players

just for the way the league has drifted, the stylistic stuff. But this is the perfect team for him. And really, one of his best skills is just being able to get the ball to a big guy. He's great at it. Remember, once upon a time, you and I in college, did I get you the ball where you liked it? Oh, so many times.

You knew exactly where I liked it. Yeah, we were like frickin' frack. I knew where you liked it oh so many times you knew exactly where i liked it yeah we we were like freaking frack i knew where you liked the ball i knew how to get it to you in this spot where you could do turn around and do your little bob mcadoo little turnaround shot or your little jump hook right rondo there's there's three big guys in the league that he could kind of click with like that and boogie's one of them. Boogie gets it. You see on the bench now, those guys like each other.

It's probably the craziest alliance we have in a while. It almost reminds me in MTV's The Challenge when two crazy people get together and all of a sudden they're kicking ass. It's like, uh-oh, these two. I don't know how this is going to end, but it's going to be fun. Yeah, there's a lot of evidence out there, sports teams over the years have had guys that have disliked each other, but they've been successful anyhow. Quick whiz question from a dead guy slash IRL. I want to know what House thinks of Whitman.

I think he's in an impossible situation. He's not responsible for personnel, and I think the space and pace system that they've adopted this year, they still need a stretch four. It will always be a heartburn for me that they didn't go out and get Channing Frye when he was available all of last year and all of this summer. Now he's not available because Orlando's playing great. And you need Chaney Fry. Yeah, stretch for a veteran. I can't believe nobody traded for him.

The two things I couldn't believe from last summer, nobody just stole Chaney Fry from Orlando. He was sitting there. He wasn't even stealing. They were offering him. Yeah. And then the other thing is, Zaza, after the Bucs plunked down all that money on Greg Monroe,

Zaza, anyone could have had him for free. And the Mavericks were like, oh, damn, what do we do? DeAndre just boned us over. And they stumble into Zaza. And it shouldn't have been a stumbling. Like, that guy's good. He got in shape. That guy rebounds.

He's played in playoff games. He's feisty. I like Zaza. You shouldn't be able to just steal him for $5 million for one year. Those were the two dumbest things. Those were the two moves that bothered me the most last summer. Yeah, and the complexion of Dallas completely changed with him. Yeah, we should talk.

I'm sure somebody, one of our writer friends asked about Dallas. Oh, yeah, hold on. Let me give the proper amount of love here because people took the time. I have a Mavericks question here yeah i thought i had one oh well oh yeah uh o-j-z-o-h how the hell are the mavs winning games seems like a fair question uh i think all the credit goes to the infrastructure you see you talk we talk about you and i talk about the infrastructure with football, basketball, the coaching staff, the front office, the owner.

Everyone's on the same page. And you bring guys in who might not work on most other teams. I think Darren Williams is an awesome example of this. I thought Darren Williams was finished. You bring him in. You got Carlisle. You got Cuban. You got Dirk. They bring Wesley in, you got Carlisle, you got Cuban, you got Dirk. They bring Wesley Matthews in, who's a gamer, who's a great guy. Some of the veterans

they have on their bench. And Darren Williams, whose career was pretty much over, the Nets paid him $29 million to go away. They bring him in, they pump him up, they're rubbing his shoulder, they're hugging him after games. All they're doing is getting him fired up and invested. They're getting him in shape. And the guy has rejuvenated his career. I mean, he's not an all-star anymore, but he's a valuable point guard. And that is the infrastructure. And then when you have a guy like Dirk, who's such a great leader.

So that's the point I was going to make. Dirk is having another incredible season. You just can't overstate how impressive it is. That's the point I was going to make. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dirk is having another incredible season. It's amazing. You just can't, you know, overstate how impressive it is at this stage of his career. I think he's around, is he a 50, he's definitely 50, 40, 90 right now, right? He's having his best season in a couple years, yeah. Yeah. He looks good, too.

Like, he passes the eye test. You watch him and he's not, you know, these old guys, they, they mummify a little bit and you, and you see him go, Oh man, that's tough. Like, especially around the basket on drives, things like that. And, uh, he kind of did, you know, he mummified four years ago, but I'm saying it's not worse. He's right. He still can get his little fallback. Yeah.

Uh, I, you know, this was the best case scenario for the celtics because we didn't want dallas to finish with a top seven worst record because we wouldn't have gotten the pick now they're winning enough games and they're in the mix that either they get the pick and it's near the end of the first round or you know there's some injury risks on this team and that's a team that in the second half of the season if if some guys go down, all of a sudden they're drifting the other way, and that pick turns into an asset. I would trade that pick now. We should talk about this one.

A few people mentioned that. We'll give the credit to Cornman. Cornman, nice. Good job, Cornman. Thanks for weighing in, Cornman. Sixers bringing on Colangelo. What does this mean for Hinckley in the process? Oh, am I glad somebody asked about this.

This happened since our last podcast. Where do we begin? Well, you know, one thing that I love is the ghost of Stern is still there. This league, more than any other league, is so transparent with stepping in when they see something going on with the team that they don't like. And they just said, you know, Stern did it two years ago with the vetoing of the infamous vetoing of the

Lakers trade, you know, basketball reasons. That will forever go down in the annals. But this is just the league stepping in. Hey, Sixers, enough is enough. I wrote a column, I think May, 2014 about the 10 steps to tanking perfection. I think it was called about what the Sixers were doing. And it was like, I hated it, but at the same time, I appreciated it because they were taking advantage of rules that the NBA just refused to change. And I think, you know, if you just remove humanity from this whole thing and personality, and you're just doing this as a mathematical formula, what they're doing makes

sense. They're basically saying, if we give ourself a five or six year run of being horrendous, one of these years, we're going to win the lottery, and we're going to end up with Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant. That's our best chance to land one of those guys. And now this year, Ben Simmons, who I think is the best college player in nine years since Durant, they're going to have, if the Lakers pick ends up fourth, they're going to have a 37% chance of Ben Simmons. The other thing is, the process hasn't failed them. They had a little bit of bad luck. You know, the lottery is indeed a lottery.

You don't just outright get the number one overall pick if you're the worst team. Right. They missed out on K.A.T. and they missed out on Wiggins. K.A.T. Is that what we're calling him now? And that didn't work. You confuse me with KET. That's what we're calling him now?

Oh, what do you want to call him? Can't he just be Towns? Okay, he can be Towns. Sure. KET, you could talk me into it. Make the case for KET. KET. It just shows up.

It's all caps. It just jumps off the page. Oh, there's KET. Can we call him Big Cat? Then I could do Big Cat, Levine, and the Wigs. Can we call him Big Pussy? No. We can't?

No, no. Those guys are all playing on the Wizards. Good joke. You made Tate laugh with that one. So the process. Here's a couple flaws with the process. One is that they didn't really totally know what the process was. All right, so if you're just going to blow three to four years,

then why do you take 22-year-old Michael Carter Williams as a rookie? Why not take Greek Freak? Why not just say, if we're going to be terrible and we're going to roll the dice and all we want to figure out is to try to find franchise players. And that's the goal of the process. Then why not roll the dice with Greek freak? Why not take Porzingis over Okafor? And you and I,

before this season, we were like, we both like, Oh, we like Porzingis and Summer League, but we were like, I remember, I mean,

you go back two months and I was saying like, Oh, Hazonia might come back to haunt the knicks yeah you know this guy's gonna be exciting right away porzingis is a project a lot of pressure now clearly porzingis was the second best pick in that draft but you look at philly okafor terrible defensive player terrible we knew it in college we knew it was going to be terrible in the pros we knew like the comparison was Brook Lopez, somebody like that. I don't think anyone thought he was a franchise player.

The Lakers passed on him to take Russell. They thought he had a better chance to be the franchise player. Not that the Lakers are the best litmus test. But if you're doing the process and you have a team like the Celtics that's just offering all kinds of picks and assets and everything just to get into the top four so they could take Justice, Winslow, or Okafor, why not move down, add more picks, and try to increase your chances? Why not add a Brooklyn pick?

If you're just trying to game the system for the best chance at a franchise player, and you know Okafor is not a franchise player, why not trade backwards backwards this is the stuff I don't understand about the process well you need an insider we need a Philly insider or an NBA insider uh to give some insight into whatever their thinking was with that maybe they thought that Okafor was indeed a franchise player they misapprehended they certainly did not think that Porzingis had any potential to be a franchise player. Well, that's the culture, right? And this goes to another part of the process. When you're just throwing away everything, you're not building a culture for the players that you do pick.

So you have Noel and you have Okafor. And you have Okafor, who's potentially an A-list, low-post player. And then you put him with the worst guards in the league, well, who's going to get him the ball? If you really want to develop Okafor, why not sign Rondo to a two-year, $25 million contract, and he's not only a trade ship, but somebody that can help Okafor kind of fuel himself the first year?

And honestly, you don't even need to get somebody like Rondo. he's he's probably too expensive for you get your nelson get there that's there now you're talking to professor get go go get yeah get miller and and jameer right and bring them in and and work with the big guys that the whole team needs uh uh some veteran leadership to teach them about professionalism, apparently. Well, my good friend of the old podcast, friend in general, Mike Lombardi, Big Sixers fan, has obviously worked in teams for years and years and years. Big Sixers fan just couldn't understand what they were doing because he thinks that trying to build a culture is part of a rebuild. And if you're building a culture where everyone's expendable,

you don't care if you win or lose, you don't care how you're developing your young players, then how is that a long-term way to succeed? I think the flip side, Minnesota, Flip Saunders, RIP, really smart about the moves he made with veterans. I actually think he reinvented how to rebuild a young team a little bit because he was like, we're going to overpay KG.

We're going to bring in Andre Miller. Who was the other old guy they brought in? They brought in a third old guy. I don't know. Who was it? Tayshaun Prince. Tayshaun Prince. Three veterans.

Oh, that's right. Tayshaun. I forgot about that. Old guy veteran, respected veterans who know how to handle their business. And they've had Kevin Martin. They've had Kevin Martin. Who knows what he's doing. I mean, a legitimate veteran at least.

But you have Towns who's going to KG camp now every day. And think about the position Towns got put in versus the position Okafor got put in. Yeah. Who's 19 years old. He's on the worst team in the league. They don't care if they win or lose. He has nobody to get on the ball. He's playing with Noel.

They don't fit together. And how is that a process? So really the process was just, let's be as terrible as possible until we get a franchise player. And back to Adam Silver, you just can't do this in a league where the team is traveling for 41 road games a year and the other owners they and this is why Colangelo

comes in the other owners are like what the F yeah wait the Sixers came in you know we had zero walk-up sales season ticket holders complaining like what is going on why can't we fix this it's bad faith for the teams on the revenue share concept can you imagine like if netflix was like hey we're releasing narcos in five years it's going to be good these first five seasons are going to be atrocious while we develop the young actors that we hope will be good in season six when we hope we get a franchise player. It's like, yeah, you can do that, but

anyway. You can't ask people to pay for it. I mean, who are the season ticket holders in Philly right now? Well, alright, so they had bad luck with Embiid, no question, right? Yeah. All the trades Hinckley made were defensible. Drew Holiday, good trade got two

good picks from it uh the michael carter williams trade turning him into a lakers pick that has a chance to be the fourth fifth or sixth pick and you know more ping pong balls that's a good trade michael carter williams hasn't looked that good in milwaukee this year um would they have been better off just getting brandon Knight you know for that for Michael Carter Williams for Brandon Knight which was basically what that trade was because he was the third part of the thing and bringing Brandon Knight in and signing him and giving Okafor somebody who could maybe make a couple shots I don't know but I think they brought Colangelo in um as a sign to the other owners that they were taking this seriously.

Totally agree. And he's going to take over this team. I thought it was laughable that they tried to pretend that Hinckley had final call. First of all, Colangelo's been trying to get back in the league for a couple years. He's trying to put a group together to buy the Suns back from Sarver. And he wanted back in. He's 76. He wanted back inver. And he wanted back in. He's 76. He wanted back in.

And now he's back in. And I promise you he will have control of this team. So I think they just looked at what Hinckley did. They were like, all right, dude, this didn't really work. Well, it is an interesting coincidence that he's arrived in the season leading up to a once every five years kind of player. Maybe once every ten years.

I don't know. We can't compare Ben to Anthony Davis and Wiggins yet. I think he's a better prospect than those guys. I do. Better than Anthony Davis? Yeah. I do. Wow. I think he's than Anthony Davis? Yeah. I do. Wow.

I think he's a once-a-decade guy. Or maybe twice. I guess twice a decade would be fair. Yeah. Because it seems like twice a decade there's a transformative guy. I think this guy. That's right. The interesting thing about Ben Simmons,

it doesn't even really, as long as he stays healthy, he's going to kick ass. And the season's going to end. He'll turn pro. And he's going to kick ass. And the season's going to end. He'll turn pro. And he's going to have three shoe companies coming after him really hard. Because now Under Armour's in it. You have Adidas that's probably third place now and a little desperate. Nike's Nike.

And you also have a really good chance he could go to Philadelphia, Boston, or Los Angeles. Three of the league's signature teams. What is that worth? Would you pay? If Derrick Rose got a $300 million shoe deal, what would you pay Ben Simmons if he's on the Lakers and you're Nike and you're battling with Under Armour? What would you pay for Ben Simmons?

When did Derrick Rose get a $300 million shoe deal? Wasn't that what it was, Tate? It was like close to $300 million or $250 million? Recently? Like two years ago. Oh, okay. All right. In retrospect, not a great deal for Adidas.

That was one that didn't work out. Not great. $250 million. Oh, I'm sorry. Only $250 million. Yeah. Can I buy stock in Derrick Rose? I think you want to buy a...

I think you want to short that stock. No, no, I'm going to buy it because it's so low right now. I actually want to buy Derrick Rose stock. Oh, you think he's undervalued at the moment? Oh, I think he's super undervalued. First of all, he broke his orbital bone under his eye. And I've done that. And I was afraid to play basketball for like a year after that.

You're just constantly afraid you're going to hit in the face. I don't care if you have a mask on. I think he's playing differently. I think it effed with him a little bit. And the guy I'm watching now and the guy I watch Wednesday night is not remotely Derrick Rose. It's like an imposter. It's like an alien.

So I don't think he's going to stay this bad. Derek Rose. It's like an imposter. It's like an alien. So, I don't think he's going to stay this bad. I think he's going to get confidence in rally. Do you disagree? No. I just still have a hard time putting my finger on the pulse of this Bulls team.

And I can't yet figure it out. They seem like they can lose to anybody in the league. I'm really impressed with Powell so far, but I don't know what to expect out of D. Rose and how long he's going to be able to maintain it before, you know, I hate to even raise this, before another unfortunate injury comes into the picture.

It's a fair, Rose, Durant, a lot of these guys are all in the same show us two months in a row camp. Yeah, yep. And Durant is really starting to look like Durant again. But I want it to keep going until February, and then I'll be like, all right, Durant's back. I'm not willing to say it after a week. But I think they need to make it.

I think there's certain teams that just need to make a trade. Obviously, I'm addicted willing to say it after a week. But I think they need to make it. There are certain teams that just need to make a trade. Obviously, I'm addicted to trades. I love the trade machine. So you want the Bulls to make a move? That team is weird. It's not a team that works. I mean, they'll be fine. They're going to make the playoffs.

But just the pieces don't fit together. I don't think you can play Meritage and McDermott together. I don't think you can play Powell and Joakim Noah together. I don't know if I love the Rose Butler backcourt. It's just the pieces don't fit. So what do you do? I don't know. I think if they could, like if I'm Brooklyn and my team sucks,

and yet I don't have my first round pick, but I'm not a complete disaster. I would roll the dice with Rose. I would do the Joe Johnson and whatever and just be like to Chicago. Like we'll take Rose's contract off your books right now. Joe Johnson's expiring. You can just get out of the Derrick Rose business right now. How old is Rose now?

Late 20s. And what's left on his contract? He's got like 20... I mean, he's got this year and next year for big, big bucks. If you're the Bulls, you get out of that contract, all of a sudden you're a major player in free agency

next summer. I understand why the Bulls would do it, but why would a team like Brooklyn do that? Because why not? You have to roll the dice with somebody. You have no picks the next three years. At this point, you're looking at damaged good guys that you're hoping to rejuvenate. And if you're them, it's like, oh, we have Derrick Rose, Brooke Lopez. Thad Young. Thad Young.

Thad Young. And we have the makings of something. Maybe we'll make another trade for a contract. And all of a sudden, we're moving. I would think about it. They need a young guy. They need guards. Holy cow.

Yeah, they're winning games, which is annoying. They have two and a half, let's say nba players right but all those guys have been healthy through the first 25 games which is super annoying i would uh if i were the bulls i i would trade either no or gasol and i think gasol has real value he's got a great contract maybe you pair gasol up with Miritich or McDermott. McDermott's starting to look like he's going to have a career. Maybe you pair those. Maybe you do a two-for-one.

They need to do something. And Hoiberg, yet another college coach that I'm down on. This is the thing that I think is also one of the culprits for why, when you watch them, they seem so disjointed. I mean, they put off stretches. They run off stretches where it's like, whoa, that's a legitimate basketball team. That team plays great defense.

I thought they looked really good against the Warriors. But then you watch them other times. They're just garbage. They can't defend. They're slow. Today's biggest Reddit question ever. I just made up that sponsored segment right now. Today's NBA Reddit biggest question ever is brought to you by Personal Capital. Their free financial tools are fantastic.

Personal Capital shows you all of your accounts in one place, making it easy to manage finances, track investments, and grow your net worth. And it's all in real time. Do you need an investment checkup tool or a fee analyzer or a sophisticated retirement calculator? Do you need to speak to a financial advisor and get personalized portfolio guidance at a lower cost? Do it with Personal Capital. Head over there right now, personalcapital.com slash BS to link your accounts. And in seconds, you'll have your own personal financial dashboard. Get three free months of free advisory services if you enroll right now. That's personalcapital.com

slash BS. Okay, here's the Reddit question. You're going to like this one, House. All right. This is from Dusty Shot. It feels vaguely pornographic. Would you like to muse on why Hardin and the Rockets are playing like turds most of the time? Yes, I would like to muse on that. Thank you, Dusty. House, do you want to start? I'm interested in hearing your angle first. I think, here's my angle.

This is good. Feel free to steal this internet. James Harden was number two MVP last year and was one of the best three or four players in the league and had the best season he's ever going to possibly have because why what do you think happened that triggered that I don't I don't have a theory for you okay he's on team USA that summer okay all the best players in the league are there and you have psychopaths like Westbrook and Durant who are like coach K is like practices at 9 a.m today and Westbrook and Durant are like all right we'll be there at seven

and they're showing up and they're working their ass off for a couple hours and everyone else in the team's like well we want to we want to we want to work hard too and it just kind of goes and I forget who ended up on that team, but the team, because Durant ended up leaving after the Paul George thing. But there was a while where they were practicing during the summer and just in general, when the best players are around each other over the summer and they're kind of comparing how they're working out with each other. And there's always a couple of maniacs, like Kobe's a maniac, LeBron's a maniac. And the other players feel like, Oh,

I, I actually, I don't want to, I don't want to lose stride with these guys. And they get in shape. Harden shows up for that season in awesome shape and has a great season. All right. Now who did he hang out with this summer house? Uh,

Khloe Kardashian was in the mix. Okay. Pre-season starts. starts james hard not in shape wasn't in shape starts the season not really in shape yet uh well one of the things that's interesting he's never played a season like last season in terms of making it that far in that deep into the playoffs yeah because he was he was like a he was a chiseled, awesome, just ready to kick ass machine who realized when he's playing with all these other guys that he's really good at basketball. Yeah, I mean, in terms of carrying the load,

he was on that OKC team, but he wasn't carrying the load. Right. So he comes in, he's not totally in shape. Dwight Howard can't play back-to-back games. They're kind of tired of McHale. They quit on him last game six or five of that Clipper series, game five. And then Josh Smith rallied them back, and they somehow win.

Ty Lawson comes in. He's got his own set of issues. They have all these guys who think they should be playing, and that Monte Yunus is now. I think all of this is really understandable, actually. It is understandable. It seems like it could have gone the other direction as well, which is the crazy thing about it.

We were so bullish on them winning a ton of games on the idea that they were just going to pick up where they left off from the regular season last year and just kick ass and that they had so many interchangeable pieces that they'd be able to spread out the minutes and address, you know, things like Harden coming in not in shape and Dwight Howard, you know, with his perpetual, you know, combination of nagging injury and not 100% in shape. You thought the guys like Matiunas and Harden, I mean Ty Lawson and Beverly Back would help offset whatever those issues

are and that just turned out to not be the case in any way, shape, or form. Team USA 2014, Anthony Davis was on that team. Steph Curry. Steph Curry, nobody works harder than that guy. You don't think James Harden's like, oh shit. Gotta get going. I do think Harden's like, oh, shit. Got to get going.

I do think Harden will play himself into shape. I'm not giving up on this Rockets team. They're not going to win as many games as we said they were going to. No. We were right on a lot of those overrunners, though. A couple of people on the Reddit thing asked about the Cavs, what's going on with the Cavs. Both of us thought they were going to throw away the regular season. Yeah, Cavs, what's going on with the Cavs. Both of us thought they were going to throw away the regular season. Yeah, the answer is nothing's going on with the Cavs.

Their starting point guard might start playing again in the next two weeks. That's what's going on with the Cavs. They're fine. They'll have a run in February where they win 16 straight games. Everybody will be like, oh, the Cavs, here they come. Hey, can we talk laterally real quick? A few people asked about this. So,

the Lakers lose their pick if it's four or lower. Right? Okay. They lose it to Philadelphia. They have buried the young guys all season. Russell, Randall, Clarkson.

Well, not just buried, but publicly humiliated them. Yeah, it's... Undermine their confidence. Yeah, he's handled it in a way that it's almost like another team is paying Byron Scott to sabotage the Lakers, which can't be ruled out. I'm not saying it happened, I'm just saying I wouldn't rule it out. No, I think the Lakers are paying Byron Scott to sabotage the Lakers. Oh, I didn't even think of that angle.

You just explained why. They need to be in the top three, right, to keep their pick. But you don't want to lose a whole year with Randall Coy. So I think they lost to Minnesota by one, and it was the perfect Laker game, and it should be the blueprint of everything they do going forward. They played Kobe his 25 minutes. They sat his ass for the entire fourth quarter. They turned it over to the young guys.

And most of the time, those guys are going to lose. They're young. They're figuring out who they are. But they're going to get those crunch time chops. And the reality is, if you're not the number one worst team, you get 25% of the ping pong balls if you're number one. Number two, you get 19.9%. And they're probably not going to be one of the worst

two teams. The Nets are probably going to be worse than them. I don't think so. Do you think they're going to be the second worst team? I do. I do think they're going to be the second worst team. I would not rule out the Nets. Do not rule out the Nets. The Nets will get there if they trade

away two guys. The Nets are one injury away from losing like 25 straight. Okay, that's fine. That's fair. So anyway, if I were the Lakers, I would try to find some middle ground. I'm just way against blowing a whole year of development with young players. This is why I didn't love the process in Philly. Well, that's the curious thing about the Lakers.

They do have veterans, right? We chastised Philly for not putting the veterans around the kids. They have veterans around these kids, but it doesn't seem like any of it has taken hold. Now, Randall's been really impressive. He had an awesome game against the Wizards. I like Randall. And Russell doesn't look bad either. He just had a great game last night or the night before.

The two of them together is kind of a promising combo, but I think the Lakers' mission is to play poorly this year. Yeah, I agree. And that should be the mission, but you don't want to retard the development of your players. And that's the tension. I just used retard in a PC way. I'm very proud of myself.

Congratulations. But I had my Laker fan friends like, oh my God, Russell is fucking terrible. We should take him. Poor thing is it's like Russell needs the ball in his hands. You can't ask Russell to go stand on the left side and watch Kobe Jack jump shots. Anyone's going to suck in that scenario. The kid hasn't come off the bench since the sophomore year of high school. Russell's fine.

I like Russell. He's fine. Me too. We have three quick important questions, then we've got to go to the NFL picks. One more band says, I would like to hear about the Charlotte Hornets, currently second in the East. Are they legit, and can they keep it going? First of all, everyone in the East is separated by one win,

but I think it's surprising that they're a playoff team. Neither of us saw it coming. The two things that I see there is the Batum trade was just excellent. Unbelievable. They took a chance, and we both liked it because I just thought he had a bad year last year and he had some personal shit going on.

Now you're trading for a guy who's in a contract year who has something to prove. I'm ready to put him in the most improved player running he's well yeah he's back to what he used to be and what's funny is i always assumed the spurs were going to just steal him i just thought that's how this is a classic spurs how could he not be a spur french guy he's like he's a d and three guy. It's just textbook. And he's going to shoot 48% on threes and all the other,

like, oh, Batum, Spurs are juvenating him. But the Charlotte did it. And the upgrade of Kid Gilchrist, who was an awesome defensive player last year, but can't shoot.

And now you have Batum who's making threes. Marvin Williams? I know. Who I thought, can, we might have to make Marvin pee in a cup. Marvin, send us your urine.

What is going on with you? That's unfair. What if he just got motivated? I'm kidding, Marvin. Okay, good. I mean, what is it, year 11 for him? Yeah, he's been around a long time. I always kind of thought he was going to end up being.

Same year as Chris Paul. Yeah. This guy who can vacillate between the three and the four, who makes threes, who plays D. The guy they always kind of thought he was going to end up being. Like this swing game. Same year as Chris Paul. Yeah. This guy who can vacillate between the three and the four, who makes threes, who plays D. Like, he's been really good. They have just a bunch of white, just a steady stream of white guys who get garbage rebounds and putbacks.

And Kemba's a pretty good crunch guy. What's been crazy is they made this enormous leap in terms of the three-point shot. They're eighth in the league in made threes right now and 11th in the league in a tenth and in the top half of the league. You can't do that. They're 13th in percentage. Did you see their sixth in offensive rating? To me, that's the upset of the year. Right. That team looked like a rock. The guy who used to sit behind us at Celtic games, whenever there was a terrible game, he'd be like, oh my God, this is a rock fight.

And the Hornets were just a rock fight every year, and now they actually make shots. So where did all this efficiency come from? It's the combination of Batum and Marvin Williams on the Juvenation machine, and Jeremy Lamb's corpse has been a heartbeat, and Kemba's having a really good year. the Juvenation Machine. Jeremy Lamb's corpse has been a heartbeat. Kemba's having a really good year.

Jeremy Lamb, even though he's not making threes, he does stuff. He gets rebounds. He's athletic. I like what Jeremy Lynn's done for them. I think he brings something to the table off the bench. He's certainly better than having Austin Rivers. Tateate what are we

missing with charlotte anything tate tate just got a big boner over there pj harrison pj harrison tate says right yeah he's trying to get signed by the heat he's trying to get signed by the heat tate says why pj harrison it was like minus 300 he was going to be in an e60 profile in two months for something horrible and plus 250 that he was going to be a decent member of a playoff team in Charlotte. And people are cashing in on that underdog bet. No, the Charlotte thing's good. They look well-coached. Whenever something doesn't add up, I always watch the team,

and I'm like, oh, they're very polished, well-coached, professional. And they just gave Clifford an extension. But here's the thing. What the hell happened last year? We thought some iteration of the team looking like this from two years ago was going to happen last year. What was the interruption last year? Was it Lance? Yeah, Lance.

Lance was basically just hiring a nuclear reactor and just letting it emit fumes in the locker room. The Spencer Haas for Lance trade was a smart trade. I liked it. Spencer Haas, Doc just gave up on him after a month, and that letting it just emit fumes in the locker room the spencer haas for lance trade was a smart trade i liked it spencer haas doc just gave up on him after a month and that was it just wrote him off uh we two more really quick uh where is it oh oh we might have to save that let's save this one for next time this is from five point play I like that. Good username. Are we sure he's a good coach addition? Doc Rivers. Oh, my. Let's save it.

It's a long conversation. You and H-Bob already did a takedown of the Clippers. Yeah, yeah. All right, we'll save that. And, you know, it's a critique. It's an analysis of the combination GM-coach. It's not enough to just talk about the coach part yep uh joe boss 617 says laker fans or you should talk about laker fans being concerned that they're talking they're turning into the 90s celtics after bird's back

went out i just want to mention this quick we felt this way after bird retired when we had reggie that next year and it was just like this is gonna keep going and going where are the celtics and what you realize is 10 years can go by really fast where oh we have reggie reggie lewis and d brown and ed pinkney and brian shaw we have all these guys this is gonna be great we're gonna keep rolling through the 90s one guy doesn't pick we had terrible luck with reggie lewis obviously that was one of the worst things that's ever happened but you don't plan on that d brown never made it right brian shot got traded for sherm douglas um all of a sudden you look all of a sudden it's 1997 and you're

holding on to the tim duncan lottery balls with a% chance or 30% whatever. It was just praying you get it. You don't get him. And it's just, my point is, just because you had an awesome run doesn't mean it's going to keep going. Well, the other thing that you can speak to with that Celtics team was franchise instability. There was some GM issues going on then. We had, oh my God. Ownership issues. We had Dave Gavitt, who they brought from the Big East.

It was like, Dave Gavitt, he's a pro. Everybody loves him. It was a little like what Philly did with Colangelo. He was awful. Had no idea how to use the salary cap. It's like, what's this? I just signed Sherm Douglas. Is that bad?

So he was a disaster. Then they bring in ML Carr, who pulled off the first ever i think this is the only time this has ever happened somebody who's just a complete atrocity as a front office guy just a complete atrocity just couldn't have been worse and then retroactively tried to claim it was the plan all along and people actually bought this which i really appreciated it's like oh is your plan all along to sign dominique Wilkins to a long-term contract and double down on Sherm Douglas and have no idea how the salary cap worked for two years and pay Dana Barros 20 million bucks?

This was your plan for us to be terrible, to tie up our cap for the rest of the decade? He was the worst. And then they bring in Patino. Who was worse than ML Carr? Right, exactly. Patino traded an unprotected lottery pick for vitality topical so that's the thing that these lakers fans should be concerned yes very very concerned jimmy buss very concerned uh hold on i had one more good question for you oh yeah i like this one we've talked about this this before, but I think it's a good one. This is by Abshaz.

The stacked small forward position. LeBron, Durant, PG, and Kawhi are all playing at ridiculous levels right now. When was the last time a position was that stacked at the top? Holy shit, I don't even know. Wow. Can't even tell you. What's the answer? I don't know. We have to do some historicals get tate on that

we need some now tate's 22 he's all he cares about is whether pj hairston's gonna play in miami he doesn't care about the history of the league uh i was thinking like in the mid 80s yeah you had small forward where you had uh and these guys aren't as, I mean, Bird is as good as the guys we have now, but you had small forward, you had Alex English, Dominique Wilkins, Adrian Dantley. It's a pretty good four there, but not on this level. Yeah, I'm trying to think.

This is like, those four small forwards are like four of the eight best players in the league. I don't remember a position being that stacked. Those four small forwards are like four of the eight best players in the league. I don't remember a position being that stacked. There was an era where point guard was impressive. Where it was like GP, Stockton, Isaiah. Yeah, Isaiah at the end. Tim Hardaway. But they never kind of overlapped at the same time.

That's the thing I'm struggling with. I can't put the eras together. There's some good center times where it was like Ewing and Shaq and Hakeem Robinson. Maybe that's the last time. I like the center one. Yeah, so you had in 93, you had, I'm doing this off the top of my head, Hakeem's career year statistically. Go look at Hakeem's 93 season sometimes, people who cares about basketball stats,

because you'll have a heart attack. Robinson, who was like the walking embodiment of where advanced metrics were going. And 50 years from now, people are going to think he's the best center of all time. It's going to happen. I'm just telling you.

Ewing, Alonzo Mourning's in there. Shaq's in there. I mean, Jesus. Yeah. That's pretty good. That's a good era. All right. That was fun.

Thank you to NBA Reddit for sending us those questions. We'll do that again. I enjoyed that. That's fun good era. All right. That was fun. Thank you to NBA Reddit for sending us those questions. We'll do that again. I like that. That's fun, right? Thanks for the help, NBA Reddit. Speaking of help. So, House, when we were in college together, I don't know if you know this, but I used to sneak off.

I had my sports column in the Crusader every week. I recall. I used to write it longhand in a notebook. I used to write out the whole column. With a pen? With a pen and a notebook. Write it out. I didn't have a computer until senior year.

That's how old we are. I did not have a computer until senior year. Yeah, I had to go to the computer lab. Yeah, yeah. So I'd write out my entire column. First draft of my column, longhand. I would go into the Crusader office, and I would type. I would basically transcribe what I had just written in the notebook into the system.

And that's how I did my column. Do you know where I used to write that column? Longhand? No. Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, I should have known. That's where we were headed. They had Dunkin' Donuts like about six, seven minutes from campus.

Yeah. And I used to go there. I used to sit on a stool. There was a window. I forget what the intersection was, but there was a window in the Dunkin' Donuts, and you could look out. I liked having a window. I didn't feel like I'm not trapped.

I'd just sit there, and I would write out my column. And this was, I think, 90, 91, 92. This is 75, 80% of the columns I wrote at the Dunkin' Donuts in Worcester. So it's my pleasure to tell you about the DD Perks loyalty program. Since I am a loyal customer. It's how Dunkin' Donuts shows its appreciation to its loyal fans. Members earn points toward free beverage rewards. They get exclusive offers of great perks.

They even get a free beverage on their birthday. Enroll right now and enjoy loyalty the Dunkin' way. Sign up at ddperks.com or by downloading the Dunkin' mobile app. Get a free beverage when you enroll. Use promo code BS when signing up. Participation may vary.

Thank you, Dunkin' Donuts. Thank you, Dunkin' Donuts. Thank you, Dunkin' Donuts. Let's do this. NFL lines, not NFL lines, NFL bets are best five. You have the Seahawks and the Ravens. Seahawks laying 10.5 in Baltimore.

Who do you like? You know how I like to do this sometimes. This is just a straight outout, regular old, pure contrarian play. This is a classic 80-20. All the money is on the Seahawks. The Seahawks have been kicking ass, back-to-back wins, scored a ton of points last week, beat the pants off the Vikings. Curiously, they are only 2-3 against the spread on the road this season.

And the main thing for me is there's a bunch of great angles having to do with home dogs getting at least 10 points. They cover over 60% of the time. And that's for like five, six years, right? Yeah. Even further back. Even further back than that. And there's some nice angles in a situation with a road favorite

that's coming in off of back-to-back covers. The home dog getting the 10 is 33-17 against the spread and 11-3 against the spread over the last four weeks of the season. Thank you, Big Al, for that little nugget. I like the Ravens getting all those points, and I don't really care whether Schaub's playing quarterback or Clawson. I kind of care because it'll be funny

to watch Clawson play quarterback, but for the purpose of the wager, I like the Ravens. The contrarian thing worked last night with Minnesota and Arizona. The line goes to 10. Minnesota's too banged up. Then you had me coming in taking Arizona minus 10, which was really

making Minnesota lock of the year. I think I'm, I have to look this up, but I think I'm like 2-11 on Thursday nights. Or 2-12, something like that. I suck on Thursday night. I don't put any thought on my pick, and you should go the other way every time I make a Thursday night

pick. Bills, Eagles. Pick them. That's you. Yeah. In Buffalo. Oh, no, I'm sorry. In Philadelphia.

I like the fact that it's in Philadelphia because I think those fans want to turn on the team as fast as any time anything goes wrong. It's like they have a home field disadvantage sometimes. The Bills. Chip Kelly's worn out as welcome, right? Yeah. I think, and they're coming off a win that they're feeling really good about themselves. So proud of the team. We're up 14 and nothing.

And our coach, who I think maybe took like three Advil and he should have taken two right before the game. Or something happened to Belichick in that game. But he does an onside kick with a rugby player when we're up 14-0. All of a sudden it's 14-7. Then we get a pump block with 10 seconds left and a pick six touchdown and a return. I mean, that game was ridiculous. You can't tell me the Eagles are back.

So I like this Bills team. Now that Tyrod's back. Tyrod? Tyrod. Tyrod's back tyrod tyrod tyrod tyrod tate's our pronunciation for all black athlete names is it tyrod taylor tyrod tate's an honorary black man uh bills last couple games almost they beat the Jets. Yep. Hung with the Pats. Lost by seven. Hung with the Chiefs.

Beat the Texans. Dropped 30 in the Texans. They did. I think they're pretty good. I'm taking them. I think they're a borderline playoff team. Right. Exactly.

More importantly, they think so. I like the thought of Rex Ryan figuring out different ways to attack Sam Bradford. I love the Shady McCoy revenge game. I like it. I just want to root for the Bills, and I think they can win, so I'm taking them. All right, Pats-Texans, we both have this one. This line has jumped back and forth between three and four. It is now four. The Pats are laying four points in Houston, coming off two straight wins. They haven't lost three games with Belichick as the coach since 1872.

I had 2002, but I didn't realize it went that far back. Yeah, it was after the Civil War had ended, but before the next war. It was somewhere in there, 1872. It's impressive. Who do you like? I don't want to sound like waffling, but the number is moving. So I like the Pats at three and I like the Texans at four.

Because I said it to you last night with the Pats at three and I have all these great angles. The Pats have been so immune from losing consecutive games and not covering consecutive games. And they have this sensational track record coming off of a loss. They're including this delicious angle, 16-0 against the spread.

The last 16 times, they were on the road off a loss when they're playing a team 500 or better. They're not losing to Houston. It's not happening. And if you don't think Belichick was just furious and apoplectic about the special teams catastrophe last week, which is what lost them the game, and if you don't think he laid into those guys all week, and if you don't think that the team is going to play well on Sunday,

then you have not been watching the Belichick-Brady Patriots since 2001. They're going to win this game. Can you promise me that Brandon LaFolle will stop dropping balls? Will you promise me that? He's hurt. He's got a toe thing. Yeah, he's playing hurt. That's what's going on with him.

He's not this bad. Remember, they threw to him twice in big spots in the Super Bowl during the last two drives. He's playing banged up. A lot of the guys are banged up. Amendola will be better this week. The best thing about that Eagles game was it got James White going. They're fine.

They're going to score 30-plus points, and Houston's offense isn't going to be able to put up more than 20. Take the Pats. So let's both be on the Pats. Pats minus four. I would take it up to minus seven, personally. Okay. Same thing for this game.

Broncos, Raiders. We both have this one. It's at Denver. Listen, I'm just riding Brock Osweiler. I think these lines all reflect the fact that the gambling public can't decide if Brock Osweiler's good and they don't understand with Manning and the whole thing. And it's like, this guy's better than Manning.

And Denver's one of the best teams in the league, and this was the best thing that could happen to this team. I'm laying the seven with Denver. So that's fun. I don't get to sing this week because I am not taking Denver. Okay. I actually like the Raiders at the number. There is a bunch of nice historical footage, analysis, data that supports the Raiders playing Denver tough in situations like this.

Crazy stat. For whatever reason, Denver won 6-1 against the spread the last eight games in this series at home. Why is that? Who the hell knows? Maybe the lines have been inflated. I don't know. Seven out of eight times there was blood in my stool. What is that? Who the hell knows? Maybe the lines have been inflated. I don't know. Seven out of eight times there was blood in my stool. What does that mean? Does that mean I'm going to have blood

in my stool this time? You better go to the doctor. Oh, shit. You're right. That's a terrible sign. Why do I have blood in my stool? No, I'm kidding. That's a bad angle. I don't like that one. I just think this is going to be a low-scoring game like the first game. Denver offense is in exactly the mode they

should be in, which is not making mistakes, right? Not making game-changing, game-altering mistakes, which is really the biggest difference between Osweiler and Manning. The Raiders held Denver under 300 yards total offense last time. I just think it's going to be a low-scoring game, and I like Oakland getting the number. But they held them under that, and they held them to 16 points with Peyton Manning's corpse at quarterback. Well, Denver hasn't scored more than 17 points with Osweiler,

or 19 points, whatever it is. Where did they beat the Bears? 19-17? It all sounds great. I'm teasing the Broncos was like 17 different teams. Well, there you go. That's a whole different deal. Well, if I'm going to tease them, then I've got to lay that seven, too. Lions-Rams, I'll go quick. The Rams have quit on the season.

The Lions are only laying three points. The Lions actually have not quit on the season, and they're trying. They have had 10 days to rest for this game. They've had 10 days to recover from the Hail Mary Caldwellpocalypse. I don't even know what you'd call it. The Rams suck. And Quinn's out for the year now. Ogletree's out for the year.

They have no quarterback. And I think Fisher's going to get fired and the team might move. What am I missing? Why is this line only three? I'm taking the Lions. Yeah, I like the Lions too. Another one that I don't – oh, actually, you go here. Packers, Cowboys, Green Green Bay laying seven at limbo.

So this one's for the Cubs, because the Cowboys really handled the D.C. Grudens Monday night. They beat them on both sides of the ball, and the only reason the D.C. Grudens were in the game was because of the turnovers. Yeah. And Castle's overall general ineptitude and suckiness. Okay, you realize he's playing this week too, right? I know. I count on McFadden not putting the ball on the floor 17 times this game. I have this interesting tidbit for you.

If Aaron Rodgers' preposterous Hail Mary had not been completed, we would now be entering this game on a three-game streak of less than 200 passing yards. Aaron Rodgers, less than 200 passing yards. He's on my fantasy team. I'm very aware. So I love the Cowboys here. I think it's going to be a low-scoring game. There has been nothing impressive about Green Bay for about seven weeks now, and I don't know why seven. So you're saying don't relax. I would not relax.

The most impressive game for Green Bay in ten weeks was the beatdown of the Vikings, and the Vikings are now kind of schizophrenic. They're an every other week team. My biggest YouTube disappointment of 2015 was looking for the YouTube video that I had assumed some crazy Packers fan had made with Aaron Rodgers' face on Frankie from Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the Relax music video. And I don't know why that doesn't exist. And I'll be honest, I'm disappointed in all of the weirdos who do things like that on the internet.

That should exist. I thought you were going to say Harry's face on Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, Harry should be in there too. Harry Styles. Yeah, Harry Styles. Huge Packer fan who never turned around. Great story with the cuz. Big Packer.

We needed that game though. As I'm eating my sashimi. The deep analyst. Jags Colts. I'll go quick. Jags Lane won against Matt Hasselbeck. Here's my theory on this. I like the Jags.

I think they're a little frisky and they can move the ball. They can throw it. I don't think the Colts are good. I think Matt Hasselbeck, he's 40, right? So he's only a couple years younger than us. It's like all fun and games. He's starting. He's a football quarterback for a couple weeks.

Going pretty well. Oh, Matt Hasselbeck. Wow. He's actually a really good backup quarterback. Half-decent starter. Better than 12 quarterbacks in the league who's starting. Feel good about Matt Hasselbeck. All right.

Well, now it's like week six or week seven and he's 40 years old yeah and he's starting to get a little physically banged up probably get out of bed on monday morning took him like 10 minutes goes take a poop there's blood in it second poop blood joke enough already by the end please stop take had to up the painkillers. Just walking around. Like when he sits down, he has to put his hand down on the chair. I think he's in that stage of this whole filling in for Andrew Luck thing. And I'm taking the Jags. I like the Jags.

I thought that Jags-Tennessee game was the most entertaining game of the week. It was amazing. Got to see so much of it on Red Zone. I'm going to make the Jags minus one my there's blood in my poop lock of the week. Oh, no. The preparation age lock? Yeah. We've got to get on the phone with those people.

Last one. I can't wait to see who you pick in this. Normally, I can predict who you're going to pick. And this one, I don't wait to see who you pick in this. Normally I can predict who you're going to pick. And this one, I don't know. My guess is Cincinnati, but Cincinnati's laying three at home against the Steelers. Who do you have? Oh, good. I'm glad when I can go left when you think I'm going to go right.

I love the Steelers. What are you talking about? Oh, good. I like them, too. I like the Steelers. How about this crazy angle? Eight and one straight up and against the spread. The last nine times where they're coming

into Cincinnati looking for revenge. Love that one. Nice angle on the Big Ben. 15-5-1 against the spread in division games during December. 5-0 straight up and against the spread as an underdog. Love Big Ben in this angle. Pittsburgh

does not fear playing in Cincinnati. 13-3, straight up and against the spread in Cincinnati since 2000. Pittsburgh playing for his playoff life. I love everything about where Big Ben and Antonio Brown are in terms of making beautiful, sweet music together. I like Pittsburgh. I love the three. If it goes to two and a half I probably won't bet it if it's three or higher I'm betting Steelers and I think

they're two receivers we've been talking about Brian for a few weeks fastest guy in the league a number one receiver

on just about every other team and they have Antonio Brown who's the best receiver I think he's the GOAT receiver right now or not the GOAT

but he's the championship belt holder he took it over from Megatron last year and he's the GOAT receiver right now. Or not the GOAT, but he's the championship belt holder. He took it over from Megatron last year, and he's held on to it this year. And they just, they can move the ball and make huge plays. They have all those weapons. Wheatley's been unbelievable. Wheatley's been great.

But Wheatley's also, you know, he's being defended by the other team's fourth best defensive back or whatever. Yeah, right, it's a luxury. He gets to feast on the scraps. Yep. So I'm with you on Pittsburgh. I saw The Revenant with Chris Ryan and Sean Fantasy.

How was it? Leo's going to win the Oscar. Oh, my. He's overdue. He just gets the shit kicked out of him the entire movie it's great and and like i i took my wife to the screening and she went through like the nine stages of just having a heart attack that like covering her face she cried at one point she was just really upset animals were murdered during the movie like it was really everything like i had to basically i had to carry her out

basically i had to basically carry her off almost like kellen winslow in the miami's famous miami san diego game i had to she had to be helped off uh it's great it's so it's so well done and it's so interesting and i know it's going to get picked apart and people are gonna be like oh the first hour is better than the second hour and it was too blah blah and i know it's gonna happen people are gonna pick it apart i'm just saying i've never seen a movie quite like it and um the the thing that's interesting to me my dad's favorite movie ever jeremiah johnson you ever see that robert redford no no i don't know it so jeremiah johnson still holds up it's redford's best movie uh i highly recommend it to all the youngins out there and this is basically the jeremiah johnson movie

um updated done with different actors like what does that mean well you'd know if you saw jeremiah johnson it's it's the it's you can't explain it in 10 seconds? Jeremiah Johnson 2.0. Jeremiah Johnson. He's in the 1870s. He's happy. He's living out in the wilderness. He's one of those guys. A mountain man. Mountain man. Knows how to get stuff done. They

kill his family. Oh, no. I hate that. You know who didn't like that jeremiah johnson that's who didn't like it and uh you know who decides to go get some revenge jeremiah johnson all right so there we go yeah i understand it's redford you he grows a big beard anyway my dad loves it and the last line of the movie is this narrative goes some some people say he's up there still and it's like my dad it's every it's on, my dad will watch it. So I really like The Revenant.

Are you excited to see The Revenant? Well, now I'm so far behind. They're just coming out so fast and furious. I haven't seen Creed yet. I haven't seen Spotlight yet. Spotlight, you could probably wait to see pay-per-view. I'm excited to see Big Short just came out. I really want to see that.

Yeah. I mean, there's a bunch of hot to trot ones. So just wait on Spotlight. Creed, I need to go see. Creed's in the theater. You have to see that in the theater. Yeah. Go see that and go take one of your friends.

Could be a Monday matinee. It's Christmas season. Do a Monday matinee. I'm going to sit and work all day long. You got to see the boxing scenes in the theater. Totally different movie in the theater. Yeah. Quickly, Warrior Celtics thing.

What do you like? I mean, the Warriors until further notice. It's going to be really fun to watch. What about Hobbled Clay? I know the Boston crowd is going to be up to it. Hobbled Clay? Who? Hobbled Clay.

Hobbled Clay is what you're saying. Clay Thompson? I just don't think it matters. I – the Warriors have shown an incredible resiliency, an incredible flexibility. They didn't miss a beat with Harrison Barnes being out. Clay is different. No doubt about it.

But I just think, you know, until further notice, it's Warriors all the time. So you're just blindly taking them every game? Yes, yes. 23 straight wins will do that. I like the evidence. I'll tell you who's going to show up tonight. My brethren.

I know. It's going to be a great crowd. It will be treated as a playoff game. I think the one thing that's going to be a little jarring, because now we're in the SeatGeek era of anyone being able to buy tickets, I think there's going to be a lot of Warrior fans there. There's definitely going to be some Curry love, right? Curry is the most popular person with under 15-year-olds since Max and Ruby.

Here's the thing i mean i i think the warriors will bring to the celtics that will be a challenge for the celtics which is a perimeter defense that the celtics um are unaccustomed to they don't see a lot of out of the teams in the east um because they don't there's just not personnel wise teams in the east don't match up and the celtics have been exploiting that They beat the living daylights out of this stupid wizard from the perimeter. I think Golden State matching up, getting in guys' chests all the way out. And they have the right combination to defend Isaiah Thomas. So it's going to be good. It's going to be fun.

It's going to be the best. I have two things for you to watch out for. One is in a very nice way, but a revenge game by David Lee. I think he's going to be man-possessed. He might only play 20 minutes, but I think he's going to be all over the place. Here's the big thing, though. Avery Bradley, and nobody knows this outside of people who watch Celtic games, but he has been one of the best four guards in the Eastern Conference this year

and will not make the all-star team and might not keep it up. But he's an all-star right now. If you just do the list of the best guards in the East, he's on the list. And he's been an amazing two-way player. He's gone up a level. He's been clutch. He's a phenomenal defender. And I look forward to introducing him to Steph Curry tonight.

He's actually shooting reasonably well this year, right? Really well. Okay. So that's the change with him. Tate, what are Avery Bradley's three-point stats? 38% last time I looked. 38%, Tate says. I'll check.

But yeah, Avery Bradley's like 18 points a game Um The thing I love about him Is he doesn't take anything Off the table The Celtics 43%

43% from three Avery Bradley Oh and look His field goal percent Is 46% But here's the thing He's averaging 16 points Yeah he's shooting

Six threes a game house He is? Yeah 16 points a game Six threes a game, House. He is? Yeah, 16 points a game, six threes a game. He's making 43% of them. Yeah, that's great. And he's one of the best defensive players in the league at his position, and he's clutch.

Like, when he takes shots in big moments, I feel like they're going in. So I'm really intrigued to see how tonight goes. I think it's a big test for the Celts. And I think it's going to be weird to have 30% fans of the other team in the stadium. It doesn't mean that the Celtic fans are rooting for the Warriors. It just means Warriors fans got into the building. And it's going to be a college atmosphere. I would urge the Warriors fans to be careful tonight.

It's not your typical city. Not a city that really loves having fans of the opposing teams. Just be aware of your surroundings. Is that your recommendation? Yeah. I might scale it back. I might scale it back a little bit. The J-Bug will be in the house tonight.

Oh. He's not afraid to make an observation to another team's fans. The J-Bug will be in the house tonight. Oh. He's not afraid to make an observation to another team's fans. The J-Bug is benevolent now. Maybe the late 90s J-Bug might have handled Warriors fans in his role a little bit differently. I just said make an observation. I didn't... Yeah. No, it was a fair observation.

But, yeah, I think it's going to be a festive atmosphere. Also in the house tonight, Dr. Bill Simmons. Oh, of course, the doc. The doc is going. He has not seen Curry and the Warriors in person since this whole thing. Well, he needs to go. Is he going to go early enough for the warm-up, or does he need to go to the blue plate special first?

That's a good idea. I should tell him to go early. And then he can go get chicken fingers or something. There you go. Yeah. You'll see him tonight. He's the guy with the long hair and the mustache and the cardigan sitting near the Celtics bench who won't budge no matter how exciting the game gets.

Won't move. Won't stand up. Just sits there like a fossil. There's that Bon Jovi video on the internet of the guy doing the Bon Jovi thing in his section. My dad, like, just a rock. Doesn't move. The doc just does the doc. The doc's the doc, man.

You can't faze him. He's immovable. But he's pumped. I think it's going to be a great game. I'm excited. Joe House? Yeah. It was a pleasure.

Always. Oh, I have some people to thank. Thanks to Dunkin' Donuts. They just launched their DD Perks loyalty program. It's to Dunkin' Donuts. They just launched their DD Perks loyalty program. It's how Dunkin' Donuts shows its appreciation to its loyal fans because that's how they roll. On Friday rolling. Members earn points toward free beverage rewards. They get exclusive offers and great perks.

They even get a free beverage on their birthday. Sign up at ddperks.com or by downloading the Dunkin' Mobile app. Get a free beverage when you enroll. Use promo code BS when signing up. Participation may vary. Thanks to Personal Capital, a great way to track your money with the best financial tools imaginable.

Monitor all your accounts in one place, manage finances, track investments, plan your retirement, grow your net worth in real time. Go to personalcapital.com slash BS to link your accounts. You'll also get three months of free advisory

services. If you enroll right now, thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS podcast and channel 33, as well as our favorite place to buy and sell tickets. Go there tonight. If you need tickets for this Warriors game last minute, they're going to have them. And if you have one extra minute today after this podcast, I hope you do. Please head over to BSPNsurvey.com to take a very short anonymous survey about today's episode. It would be a big help to the podcast as we head into 2016. The podcast is free. It's going to continue to be free. And you can help us out and go to BSPNsurvey.com to help our show. And also we have an iTunes page, not just for the Bill Simmons podcast, but for Channel 33,

and you can leave the comments there. Leave us some comments. Tell us what you like or you don't like about the show. Always happy to get feedback. I never take it personally. I've been on the internet since the mid-90s. Always trying to make the show better. So leave your comments there on the iTunes page.

And especially if it's comments about the blood in Joe House's stool. Definitely leave that as well. I had to go back for thirds. You did. I appreciate the comments. They helped me with my mouth breathing. Well, the comments helped us the first couple weeks. People were like, more NBA.

That's right. Cut down on the NFL a little bit. Just give us the picks and talk NBA. We're like, okay. And they said, Joe House sounds like a serial killer he's breathing into the mic we're like you're right he does sound like a serial killer we should fix that they said Joe House is giving us too many stats

just give us more balanced analysis we fix that Tate's farting in the background please tell him to stop it's disgusting and we fix that I'd threaten to fire him and he doesn't fart anymore. It's great.

So, yeah, leave us comments on stuff and definitely BSPNsurvey.com. Fill that out. That really helps us. And House. Yeah.

This will be fun. Warriors Celtics tonight. Football this weekend. I got the pizza and the popcorn ready for tonight. And we got the Steelers. We'll go big on the Steelers.

All right. Great time of year. Great time of year. Thanks, buddy. Talk to you soon. All right.