The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 43: NBA Holiday Special w/ Joe House

Episode Date: December 22, 2015

HBO's Bill Simmons brings on Joe House for NBA/NFL Holiday Friday Rollin' w/ Bill & House's 2015 All-NBA teams, Draymond Green as Warriors MVP, Kawhi as MVP (13:00), LeBron vs. Bird (18:00), Spurs' sneaky goodness (21:00), Anthony Davis (29:00), KD-Westbrook's return (32:00), Clips-OKC (35:00), Bulls' chemistry (42:00), most amazing Warriors stat (48:00), the fall of Dwight (50:00), Jabari trade scenarios (56:00), Xmas Day Picks (1:00:00) and NFL Week 16 Best Bets (1:05:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's special pre-holiday episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and favorite app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. With SeatGeek Marketplace, sell your tickets without getting hijacked by ridiculous after the sale costs. Go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to learn how to buy and sell on SeatGeek. Don't forget to download the free SeatGeek app, enter promo code BS and SeatGeek will send you $20 once you've

made your first purchase. Today's episode is also brought to you by SimpliSafe, the best way to protect your home without writing huge checks or signing long-term contracts with no way out. Seriously, why wouldn't you want a home security system that gives you 24-7 protection for just $14.99 per month? That's less than half what most companies charge. Visit simplisafebill.com and get an exclusive offer for 10% off. Finally, a home security system you can trust. Again, simplysafethebill.com. Let's go. So we named the Joe House Pod

Friday Rolling And we did the first one with Friday Rolling on a Thursday And then the second one on a Tuesday I don't know what to say This one's special though This one's the Yuletide Roll Yeah well The holidays screw everything up

Eventually we'll be on a Friday schedule for Friday Rolling But right now We're taping this on a Tuesday because it's a holiday week. And I'm not positive people are listening to podcasts this week. I guess we'll find out. But we're going to do some NBA awards. At the tail end we're going to pick three games of interest for week 16, which we have not had a lot of time to prep.

But we do have three games apiece that we like. I want to talk NBA. We are at pretty much the two-month mark. I guess the eight-week mark, the nine-week mark, something like that. The 30-game mark. Yeah. It's time to do some awards. Right, we're a third of the way.

Yeah. The two-month awards? It would have been a bird trimester. What was that thing that you and Jalen were calling it? Oh, the birdmester. The birdmester. Is it a birdmester? I mean, we're- No, it's not really a birdmester. What was that thing that you and Jalen were calling it? The Birdmester. The Birdmester. Is it a Birdmester? I mean, we're... No, it's not really a Birdmester.

We're only at like... Teams are 31 games in. There was only 82 games in the schedule. Some of them have played like 27. We can't do that. Let's do the two-month awards. It's such a catchy title. What are the Christmas awards?

I want to do first team, second team, third team, all NBA first. Let's just get it out of the way. Okay. Sure. They changed the rules so that it could be three front court players and it didn't have to be a center. I'm okay with that. I think I still have a vote.

I don't think they've rescinded my vote. Oh. I hope not. I'll go ham on that NBA team. How dare they rescind my vote? They can rescinded my vote. Oh, how about it? I hope not. I'll go ham on that NBA team. How dare they rescind my vote? They can't rescind my vote. I like the spirit of that, but I still feel like if there's somebody who plays the five at least a little bit, that should get priority over just taking three forwards. Because you could just have LeBron, Kawhi, and Durant as the three forwards,

but that doesn't feel like a basketball team to me. Where do you stand on this? It is a basketball team. Of course it's a basketball team. That's what the current iteration of the National Basketball Association presents. No, I know. But it's like, can I have somebody who could potentially guard Andre Drummond on my first team on the NBA? That's silly.

I was going to try and do Kevin Durant can guard him, but he can't guard him. Well, he might have earned this spot anyway. So here's my first team, and you can disagree. I have Draymond in the first team. I have LeBron and Kawhi. I have Curry, and I have LeBron and Kawhi. I have Curry. And I have Russell Westbrook. And many, many, many apologies to Paul George.

Oh, that was my guy. That's who's going in for me in place of Draymond. Okay, so... Because I'm not making it position specific. Okay. Well, you could talk me into that. Talk me into that right now. It's

the way the league is right now and I think you'll be accommodated this way. You just said so if you actually have a vote. It should just be the best five guys and looking back 10 years from now, 15 years from now,

20 years from now, in whatever version of the game is being played, it will be helpful to people looking back to say, oh, that was the era of pace and space. That was the era where they valued, you know, guys who could shoot three-pointers as much as anything else. And it will help folks understand, you know understand what the game was all about in 2015. So I'm cool with it that way. All good points. Here's my counter. The Warriors just had the greatest start in the history of the league.

They are 26-1 right now. They have three elite guys. I think they have three, I would say, top 12 guys in the league. And I want to reward at least two of those guys with my first team spot. Now, the Draymond thing is interesting because heart and soul of the team, leader, I personally witnessed multiple games where he just wouldn't let them fold. I think the Boston game is a really good example.

He's just the best guy on the court in that game. had the, I think he, what did he have? The five fives, the five blocks, five steals, whatever the hell he had that game. The swagger that he brings to the table, the, I don't want to say intimidation, but just the competitiveness. And he's the alpha dog of that team. He's an unbelievable defensive player. His versatility allows them to do everything that they do. The lineup of death only works because he can play center and play the five and guard all types of different guys. He can guard really any type of player on a team. Like they were playing the Bucks the other night. And at some point, Giannis was really catching fire. I mean, that Bucks Warriors, both of those games were really good. But Giannis was really catching fire. I mean, that Bucks-Warriors, both of those games were really good,

but Giannis was really starting to take over a little bit, and they just threw Draymond on him, and that was it. So I have that. And then also, so he's averaging basically 14 and 9, but he's also averaging 7.1 assists. So I looked this up, and this has only happened 21 times in the history of the NBA where somebody

has averaged 14, 7, and 8 and the guys on the list are like Wilt, Oscar, LeBron, Larry Bird Grant Hill, Magic Havlicek, Fat Lever three times there's going to be some randoms in there, too.

I think Darrell Walker had a season like that. No, Fat Lever's the only real random. All right. But anyway, it's, you know, seven assists as a forward. Yeah, it's special. The problem I have, and it's not fair, but when we're trying to come up with the most outstanding players, this is a player award in the first place.

He's not in the top 40 of PER. Not that PER is the only measure. So you're giving him, you're putting him in the top five of a player award on what he brings to the table with intangibles and the enormous, uh, contribution he makes chemistry wise. And,

and he is, I think it's fair to say the fuse that lights the, the, um, that, that candle. So you would say he's more of a, he's more of an MVP pick than a first team all NBA pick.

That's precisely what I'm getting at. Okay. I respect your opinion. It's a good argument to say that he's the MVP of the Dubs, which is kind of a crazy thing to say,

but I think you could make the argument. Paul George, 25.5 points a game, 7.8 rebounds, 4 assists, 22.7 PR, which is good,

not unbelievable. Elite defense. He's been a crunch time guy., which is good, not unbelievable. Elite defense. Spent a crunch time guy. That team is flawed, but they're, I think, four or five games over.500. I'm sticking with Draymond. I don't think he's going to end up as my first team all-NBA guy because I don't think the Warriors can sustain this pace. But if they do, I really want to have two Warriors in my first team all-NBA.

So I'm just going to – I'm playing it that way. Second team. Go ahead. Paul George and Durant. Drummond has to be on the second team, right? He's averaging 18-16. And that Detroit team is a playoff team. And a legit playoff team.

Going to be a tough out if everybody's healthy. I looked this up for Drummond. You think 18 and 16, wow, those are really good stats. Well, they haven't happened since Moses Malone in 1979. Nobody's averaged an 18-16 since Moses Malone. So that seems relevant to the discussion. That's pretty good. And you look at all the guys who have done it,

and it's like Kareem, Wilt, basically all the guys from the 70s and earlier, because there were more rebounds available. If you go look at the stats, people are taking 120 shots a game. It's stupid. But the rebounds were way up. So nobody's done that.

Nobody did it in the 80s. Nobody did it in the 90s. Nobody did it in the 2000s. And he's doing it right now you could argue that his free throw shooting uh is is the uh the third in the punch bowl of the andre drummond yeah he's like 39 but uh i i have him in that spot over cousins you could argue that you don't even need a center, but I do feel like he's been, him and Cousins have been the only two really dominant centers. So I have Drummond, George, Durant, Clay Thompson, and Kyle Lowry.

What do you think of that? So I push CP3 and Butler to the third team. You know what's funny is, very quietly, Houston's been on a roll. Oh, you little Harden. Sniff of Harden? Yeah, little. Little sniff. I'm penalizing him for being fat and dating Khloe Kardashian. I'm not putting him on any of my three teams. You're giving him...

Since this is only the Christmas award, you're going to... Yeah, that's fair. He didn't show up. Well, the Rockets didn't show up the first 15 games. He'll end up on one of those three teams. Yeah, he'll end up on one of those three teams yeah he'll end up on one of the three teams but it's a two-month mark and he got a coach fired his teammates at least for the first month of the season just looked absolutely miserable playing

with him I thought he was a ball hog I thought he was out of shape I think he's rallied back but I can't I can't reward him what do you think about be in the middle of that run we talked about by the way we talked about the possibility of Houston ripping off like a 22-8 run. I think they're 10-4 over the last 14. Well, they have a couple things going on.

Monte Yunus finally came back. Clint Capella's in the running for Bench Guy of the Year. We're going to get to that. Even though he's started some of the games. But they have some wrinkles. They have some weird lineups

they can throw out. And they have a great big move waiting to happen. They have a big trade waiting to happen. They've lost some awful games. I think they've lost to Denver at least twice, maybe even three times. They've lost to Brooklyn twice. It's embarrassing. I mean, it's just indefensible.

So I got Drummond, George, Durant, Clay Thompson, and skinny Kyle Lowry. I'm rewarding Kyle Lowry. Once again, congratulations, Kyle Lowry, for getting in shape this season. We're all really proud of you for making 12 million and getting in shape. Kyle Lowry was not out of shape last season and had a pretty damn good season. He earned the contract

that he got. He just made a commitment to be a slightly different body type this year. And it seems to have paid dividends. Third team I got. I'm not attached to this. Well, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, CP3, who's having the worst CP3 year in a while, 17-9. If you go see him in person, we'll talk about this in a second.

And then Jimmy Butler, who I think has really busted his ass on a really screwed-up Chicago team that is very poorly coached and the pieces don't fit, and that's another team that needs to trade. I have Boogie as the center on that team, but is there anyone you'd want to throw in there instead of Boogie? No, because you can't put Hassan Whiteside ahead of Boogie. Oh, God, no. Stop.

House. No, please. No, no. Oh, for a center, you mean. I'm saying, yeah, exactly. I still don't like it. That's where we are class-wise. Tate, should we edit that out?

Should we edit that out? I don't like the house point there. Do we have to save house? Well, if you try and stick with a center, what are the options? It's Dwight Howard, Hassan Whiteside, you know, who else? Dwight Howard. You want to call Greg Monroe a center? You just told me you didn't want centers.

Right. I agree. I agree with it. I'm saying. All right. So, yeah, I don't really know who else we'd throw in on that one. I bet you could make a Slate-Bosch case. He's been really good on Miami.

You know who I like that doesn't quite crack these teams, but I just want to give another shout out. I did it once the last two weeks. Yeah. Dirk is just out

of his mind. I mean, as much as anything, he gets so much credit for the Frankenstein that is the Dallas Mavericks.

You just can't kill him. I love it. Non-Curry MVP. Yep. I know who my answer is already. You can choose from LeBron, Kawhi, Westbrook, Paul George, or Draymond. Kawhi!

Okay. Kawhi. I owe you an apology. I talked you out of us putting a 50-1 bet on Kawhi for MVP, and he's in the mix. Still mad about that. Yeah. But you're not going to win anyway, because Curry's going to win unless he gets hit by a Mack truck or a Kaluuma.

Yeah, he's got to get that Mack truck or Kaluuma. But on the other hand, I could have been $5,000. But you saved me $100, so thank you for that. Yeah, Curry's going to win. I agree. Kawhi, 21.7.4 rebounds, two steals,

and he's 51-47-88 on the percentages. The defense is the thing. Did you see what he did to Paul George last night? This makes me maybe want to drop Paul George, by the way. I made an argument for him. Maybe I'm going to... Yeah, put Draymond in there. Come on, join me in the Draymond. I wouldn't put Draymond in there. Come on. Join me in the Draymond. I wouldn't put Draymond in there.

I might actually... Honestly, fly Drummond in. I would prefer Drummond to Draymond. I mean, I'm just saying. I can't shape my head. Boogie manhandled Drummond in that one game. I watched the second half of that game. He kind of took it to him a little bit.

The free throws are a thing, too. I'm not... You can't have a sub 40%. Does Shaq ever shoot under 40%? I mean, it's just an atrocity to go under 40%. It is. I feel like my daughter can do better than that. It's almost like it's intentional.

Yeah, it's just awful. Anyway, Paul George last night won for 14 from the field with Kawhi on him. Yeah, and you wanted to put him on the first team. I have my non-Korea MVP. I have LeBron, then Kawhi. That's fine. And then I have Draymond Green. It doesn't make me feel like a jerk going against LeBron.

I'm just recognizing the continued ascendance of Kawhi. I have a slight preference for the ascendance of a player, a guy that's grabbing the mantle. But LeBron has been spectacular as ever. I love where Cleveland is, and Kyrie's back. So all of a sudden, Cleveland, this Christmas game is going to be delightful. I know. We're going to make picks at the end

of this. The basketball game picks? The five game picks? We're going to rank the Christmas games at the end of this. Oh, great. So, LeBron's career stats. 27-7-7, basically. 50% shooting.

His stats this year, 26.5, 7.5, 6.5, 50% shooting. He's basically having the same year he always has. The only thing is his three-point shooting has been really bad this year. He's 27% three-point shooting. We've officially now never seen anybody put together the 13 years that LeBron just did. Because Kareem had a run, which I think was 11 years, where year 11 was right up there with all the other years. And they ended up, they won the title, the whole thing. LeBron, 13 straight years of just ridiculousness.

With no real injuries, no real drop-off. That's the point. That's why I like the Kareem comparison, because Kareem is the only player that comes to mind as a guy that might have played within 10% of the same number of games as LeBron over this period of time. LeBron's teams have been to the finals so many times. LeBron has played on gold medal teams. How many now?

Three? Yeah. I mean, he's playing in the international games. He's playing in the Olympics. His season is absolutely year-round now. And that's what makes him so legendary to me. Yeah. Just not breaking down is, you know,

we're in this modern era. These guys can take care of their bodies in all these different ways. Don't laugh, House. All these different ways. He's been the beneficiary of dieting advancements, sleep advancements, training advancements, equipment advances. He's also the beneficiary of being a genetic freak. He hit the genetic lottery. He's 260 pounds.

Yep. It seems like his natural carrying weight. And in terms of body type and the durability thing, I understand how silly it is. But Karl Malone has the same kind of body type. Right. And Carl Malone is pretty effing durable. Will Chamberlain, same thing. Well, that Wilt did blow out something at some point. But yeah, I always wonder, like, you take some of those 80s guys, like Larry Bird, who was drinking beer during the summer and didn't really start working out until the tail end of his prime.

If you had all the things that these guys have now, I wonder does his body break down? Does he have like a Dirk kind of career? Like Dirk's putting up 17 and 7, you know, borderline 50-40-90 club. This is year 17, 18 for him. He was in the same draft as Paul Pierce. To be fair, Bird had things available to him. He just didn't take advantage. I mean, he's not a guy that at any point in his

career, even in college, you thought, oh, let's see, LB can walk around with his shirt off. I don't think you ever wanted Larry Bird to walk around with his shirt off. Jordan worked his ass off from the minute that he hit the league. He was in the gym. Larry was in the gym too. Larry was shooting. MJ was doing full body workouts from the moment he hit the door. No, he started that like in about, all this stuff started in the 1990s.

Really? Because I think Jordan and Karl Malone were the first two, yeah. Because Jordan started doing it because the Pistons were beating the shit out of him. Yes, they were. So I think it was like somewhere around 90 he started. That's when he hooked up with Tim Grover. That's late 80s, though. Yeah, well, it was like 90, 91 range.

And then Carl Malone, you know, you look at Carl Malone in the mid-80s, and he was skinny but still had that body. Like, you could see where his body was headed. Even last night I went to the Clippers' Thunder game, which I want to talk about at some point. I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it so much. The guys are just built so much differently now. I was with Tone.

We were talking about it. Like, Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook, Blake Griffin. These guys are just ripped now. Yeah, I want to talk about that game. Hold that thought. So, Coach of the Year, Carlisle, right? Because I don't know what to do with the Golden State thing. We're really going to give Luke Walton Coach of the Year?

I feel like he goes in the locker room at halftime and Steve Kerr just tells him seven things as Luke Walton nods. Yeah, the funny thing would be Kerr, to give it to Kerr for staying away and showing the world. Carlisle's got to be running away with it. Do you have him ahead of SBG? Huh? I'd like an honorable mention to Stan Van Gundy.

Okay. I mean, I really, because I think he contributed to the idea of getting Reggie Jackson there. Reggie Jackson has been off the hook. I mean, he averaged 30 points last week. He won Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Yeah, and he's not afraid. He reminds me of he's a slightly better version of what the Celtics have in Isaiah Thomas,

although that's not working out that great this season. But you need at least one guy on your team who's not afraid to take shots with four minutes left. Yeah, I mean, I'm giving an honorable mention to SVG the same way I give it to Skiles. SVG a little bit ahead because I just really think that Detroit is built for the long haul.

I'm good with Carlisle. I have Popovich second. Yeah, sure. A kind of sneaky, tough team to coach. He's got to worry about Aldridge and Duncan. He's got to make sure Duncan's okay with all of a sudden averaging nine points a game. He's got to make sure David West is fine with just being completely expendable.

He's managing the Manu thing. Manu's been a borderline six-man-of-the-year guy, even though his stats aren't great. But he's coming in and swinging close games still, which is amazing. I am not going to say anything with the intention of demeaning or diminishing Pop's contribution, but everything you just described is Spurs system stuff. No, I know. I mean, they deliberately went and get guys like West and Aldridge, because those are mature guys who are going to have the

patience to work themselves into the system. The thing that Pop gets the most credit for, and maybe they do it on a team basis, I don't know, but it's managing the minutes for those guys. The rotating cast of two guys sit out each game, which two need rest. It's just been spectacular and uh the thing that that um i don't know what who gets credit for this but tony parker has been you know night and day uh healthy difference in terms of of the way he looks from as recently as the international competition from the end of summer he He looked terrible for France. Yeah.

Physically, yeah. I think the other sneaky thing with Pop is Aldridge is not an easy guy to coach, I don't think. I think there were a lot of scuttlebutt on him in Portland. Not a bad guy, but just moody. Let's talk about that for two seconds. I'm not sure that he was ever comfortable as lead dog. He's found exactly the safest, most comfortable place.

It's why I thought Phoenix was kind of a ridiculous situation for him as a potential destination. This Spurs team is the most comfortable situation possible based on, you know, ding-a-ling like me sitting at home watching games, thinking about the league. He never looked to me as a comfortable top banana. Except for that Yahoo, the big piece that Wojnarowski wrote about him, why Aldridge left.

It seemed like Aldridge really resented how much they pushed Damian Lillard in Portland and all the billboards and stuff. So it's like he's not comfortable as a top dog, but then also wants all the spoils of being a top dog. I think he's a moody, complicated guy. Okay. And for whatever reason, in the Spurs, he's cool. It's like, all right.

Yeah, he's being stroked. He's being groomed. One thing I loved, I tweeted about this last week. Somebody was saying, I think Barkley was saying about how Popovich was telling Kawhi, the most important thing for him is like, when we run a play for you, the play is for the Spurs to score, not for you to score. Yeah, that was Barkley last week.

Yeah, and Popovich was like, once he understood that, he took off. And I thought that was really, really, a really cool way to put it and a cool way to think about basketball. It's like, you're our guy, but our goal is to score in these plays, not for you to score, not for you to take your dude one-on-one. You have to create points for us, and Kawhi does that. What I like,

think about the IQ of Kawhi to understand that and execute it. It's kind of one thing to hear it and process it, but it goes to, again, that Spurs system. He's the right kind of guy with the right kind of, you know, grooming from the moment he arrived as a rookie to understand that and implement it. Pretty good.

Biggest disappointment of the year. Here are the candidates. Anthony Davis's MVP season. I feel disappointed in that, as well as our New Orleans overbet that I think we made. Only one of us had made that bet. The Clippers. The Rockets. Darren Williams being good again.

I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed that he's good again. I don't know why. I'm being spiteful. The Kings not being funnier. I really thought I was going to have more laughs with the Kings this year. It's gone the other way. And in fact, the Bill Kennedy thing was probably the darkest moment of the last couple seasons.

So not a lot of laughs with the Kings. And then last but not least, Phoenix, who had a really fun, weird team of competitive guys and young guys and assets. And they had the Lakers pick. And now they don't have the Lakers pick. They have this night Bledsoe thing, which is fun, but not really something that's going to win you the title. And they dropped all this money on Tyson Chandler, who's like, you know, I don't know if he's just banged up

or breaking down or what happened, but that is a red flag contract and a half. They gave him like, what did they give him, $60 million or something? 50 million? Yeah. Phoenix has been on a curious run for, this is the third season going on now. You just, like a what's the plan? What's your?

Right. They went and spent all that money. They are the what's the plan team. Yeah. They spent all that money on Chandler partly because they thought it was going to help them get Aldridge. Then they didn't get Aldridge. And if you'd watched Tyson Chandler closely the last couple years,

he wasn't the same guy that he was on that Mavs 2011 team. I'll never get over it. They started last season with three point guards, and only one of them is still on the team. And Drogic guarding small forwards. So what's your biggest disappointment? To me, it's Houston. It's indefensible that they showed up with such a lack of enthusiasm for the season.

Right, after being a Final Four team. Right. And had them, you know, there's only the window of opportunity. We've seen this in the NBA. It's so short, so tight. Yeah. You've got to jump through. Once you're through, you've got to stay through. This is, in a very small way, the same kind of complaint with my local team,

the Almost Bullets. You know, they've been challenged by injuries, but they're sort of foreseeable injuries. Nene's hurt. Okay, strained calf. I don't know what that means. He's had a strained calf, I think, for the last 14 years and Beal with recurring leg injuries.

But for Houston, you know, you go from a Final Four team to mediocre 500 team in a matter of really, you know, three months. It's extremely disappointing. And I don't fault what Daryl's been trying to do one bit. I thought that the Ty Lawson addition was terrific. It seems like they have some sorting out to do still in terms of the alpha dog thing. And Chris Sheridan's report about your boy Dwight, you know, not being happy and all the rest of it. I mean, Dwight's never happy.

Dwight's never happy. Perpetually unhappy Dwight. He's like he's one of those like women who just keeps having new boyfriends and just has, just can't settle down or vice versa. A guy who keeps having girlfriends and there's just finds things to complain about with the new one. And it's just like, you probably never getting married. It doesn't seem like anyone's ever marrying Dwight. That seems right. I mean, you know, unless he ends up in a place where the pressure is completely off,

like Brooklyn, where he's just the man and he just goes in and collects his, you know, 16-12s every night and his team stinks. Maybe that's where he's going to be most comfortable. I don't know. Let's save the Dwight talk for it because that's coming up in a second. I have my biggest disappointment is that Anthony Davis has not been that good this season. I haven't seen him with that. There's no way we're losing this effing game type of edge to him. When I turn the channel, he just seems kind of complacent is the wrong word. Just accepting of that. He's not on a good team.

And, uh, and I don't know if, if he's going be an all-time guy or one of the best guys of his generation or, you know, if he's even in the Durant conversation, forget about the LeBron Jordan top 20 guys of all time conversation, but just like one of the best guys of his generation conversation, it's really tough to think he's going to be on like a 27-win team. It's not a common thing for great players. Go ahead, defend him. Slight defense.

I mean, the Pelicans have been in disarray. They've been discombobulated since really August, September. They had so many guys hurt, and guys are now sort of rolling back into health. But they haven't had the team that they imagined, maybe like back in July. They haven't had that team yet. And on top of that, Alvin Gentry is in with a new system, new empathy.

No, Raul Bob does not like him. H-Bob is down on AG. What I needed from Davis that I'm just not getting are the three games a month where he just beats somebody by himself. Where he's just like, oh, Davis had 38, 19, and seven assists and single-handedly beat whoever tonight. That hasn't been happening. And I'm starting to wonder, well, he's young. So, you know, you don't want to give up on it yet.

But I'm starting to wonder, maybe he's one of those guys that he's better with better guys, which is fine because I think most guys qualify for that. But I wonder if he's not a guy like Durant reached a point where if you just threw him with a mediocre team, he'd still be able to drag you to 42, 43 wins. You know, he was there from the time he was like 23, 24. And I think Westbrook is like that, too. And really any great player can drag a team to 500 or a little bit better and davis isn't doing that and that and it i don't know i'm disappointed i thought he was slightly better so maybe he'll go on a run now this is why we're doing the two month awards because this that'd be fun but i'm rooting for it i i feel

like he's drifting during some of these games that's what i you know he's he might be there they're not competitive it's a little too polite you know at some point he'd be like hey tyreek evans give me the fucking ball what are you doing give me the ball i'm anthony davis i'm one of the five best players in the league get out of my way i'd like to see that a couple times. Most gratifying non-Golden State situation. Here are the candidates. Kawhi is a crunch time guy.

We covered that. The Paul George comeback. We covered that. Flip Saunders rebuilding the Timberwolves and leaving a really nice legacy of an awesome roster that those fans are going to enjoy for the next 12 to 15 years. The Knicks fans, after just a horrendous century, really awful. From the moment

James Dolan bought the team, just one awful thing after another. And then poor Zingas comes in. They finally have some hope. And then finally, last but not least, KD and Russ. Back. Doing their thing again. So what do you got? I love OKC.

That game last night reminded me. I love those two guys being back, playing the way that they're playing, the symphony of the two of them, and Abaka as that awesome threat from the elbow. He catches and shoots in one motion. Those two guys, second and third best PER in the league. And it looks like they're rounding into form. And I just love that athleticism, that unmatched, unparalleled athleticism is back.

And I love watching OKC. It's such chaos watching them. So I went last night. I would actually vote for this award. I would vote for the Paul George comeback just because anytime you lose a year and a half of your career, which is basically what he lost, and you have the injury that he had, you don't know. Like, look at Rose. Rose has never really been the same since he blew out his knee. Different injury, but same kind of thing. Like, look at Rose. Rose has never really been the same since he blew out his knee. Different injury, but same kind of thing. Like, you lose a year, you just don't know. And I like that he's now back to being a top seven, top eight, top nine guy.

I wasn't, I had my guard up with it. I didn't think he was totally going to get back, but he did. So I went last night, and KD is back. I know I kept telling you that I needed to see two months of him playing at this level of play. You had 20 games. Yeah. Yeah.

He's back, though. In person, watching athletically, he looks exactly the same. And he's got the competitiveness, and he's doing all the KD things. He's playing 100% hard. And God damn, that team's breathtaking. Yeah. They really are. Like, Westbrook plays so freaking hard.

And, you know, I always say this. I know, look, everybody's finances are different when you want to spend money on. But the two teams I would urge people, if you had the money and you wanted to go and just be in the arena for a basketball game this year, the Warriors, obviously, which is now an impossible ticket to get. But I would go see OKC because who knows how long these two guys are going to play together.

In this Clipper game yesterday, tight game back and forth, crunch time. They run two straight plays for Westbrook. And then they run the last play of the game for Durant it's like they have two of the two of the four or five best crunch time guys in the league for either getting the basket creating a shot creating whatever and it's just it's freaking jaw-dropping to watch you know I just thought they're gonna keep going to Westbrook because he was hot now they run the last play for Durant coming off a screen he jumps jumps up. He's like 7'9". When he jumps up to shoot, Luke Mababu Day was trying to guard him.

Durant just jumps 7 inches over him and just gets a nice little 20-footer. It's like, Jesus, this team is ludicrous. It's unstoppable. Right. The end-of-game sequence was what I liked so much. And some credit to the clips. I mean, that was gutsy. Are you trolling me?

No. The interesting thing, I mean, Deion Waiter's playing crunch time. Billy Donovan's not exactly getting an A-plus right now either. He's a midget vampire. Have you seen him in person? He's got to be the shortest coach in the league. He's replaced Lawrence Frank as the shorty. He's like this little guy who walks around. He looks midget vampire. Have you seen him in person? He's got to be the shortest coach in the league. He's replaced Lawrence Frank as the shorty. He's like this little guy who walks around, he looks like a vampire,

and he's playing down waiters at crunch time. It's true. Waiters at crunch time, and he still trots out lineups where KD or Westbrook are not on the floor. One of those guys needs to be on the floor at all times. Every minute. Every minute of the game. Every single smart basketball person,

every single person who thinks about efficiency says it's just indefensible to not have one of those two guys on the floor. It's criminal. But the turnover that the waiters was really responsible for and Chris Paul's conversion there at the end was kind of excellent. Yeah. The thing that was so predictable, they ran a great play with CP driving the lane and then dishing back to Blake for a thunder dunk, you know, one possession prior.

What was the step- back CP3 shot? That was straight out of Doc's old Celtics playbook for an end of game shot. I have a newsflash for Doc and the Clippers. The league has caught on to the play where Chris starts on the left side of the court, dribbles to the right side, goes to his little spot at the top of the foul line on the right side, and then shoots before people realize he's going to shoot. Everyone now knows he dribbles to that spot and shoots he was dribbling to that spot and okc was sending every tall guy they had just running at the spot because they knew he was going

to shoot like it's over yeah you need a new play they need a new play what was wrong with the play that ran before you know it's tolan and i went and tolan had been away for two months doing a movie so he hadn't been in a clippers game but he'd been watching and we we've just watched the clippers blow so many games over the last couple years everyone in my section now expects it just sitting there going how they're gonna blow this even when they're up three with a minute left is how they'll blow this and they blew it again in like a new and improved way where they were down one but somehow got the steal for the go-ahead basket, but then Durant scores. The team, it just doesn't work with the people they have.

Like, DeAndre didn't really play crunch time again last night. They spent all this money on DeAndre, and they still can't play him against certain lineups, you know? Yeah. I don't know what you do. I don't question the judgment of paying the money to DeAndre. Me neither. But the bench is still, how can they not have a three?

They still don't have a three on that team. You could say the same about OKC. They were trying to have Kyle Singler. What the hell is Kyle Singler doing on an NBA team? But I don't know what the clippers do because i just think that nucleus now is is the league has figured it out in close games they just know how to stop it blake's one guy for three quarters and another guy for the last six minutes and chris we said this last year i was wondering if he if there was something he was getting old getting old, whatever. But he does look physically, I don't know, it's like year 11 or year 12 for him.

Yeah. I don't know. At some point you've got to start fading a tiny bit. Westbrook athletically just looked at another level from him last night, even though Chris had a good game statistically. It wasn't the difference. I mean, the game came right down to the end and the Clippers

had the ball for the final game-winning possession. They did. It was the same terrible possession they always have. The Clippers are not that far off. They just have been on this terrible spiral since the collapse against the Warriors.

They haven't really been able to regain their stride. Their huddles don't look right. The body language doctor did not enjoy what he saw. By the way, the body language doctor noticed Josh Smith not joining the huddles. I don't understand the point. If he's still on the team in a week, I'll be suppressed. Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. What is the point of having him?

I'm not sure. From what I saw last night, I don't think he will be there the whole season. At least Lance is getting a little bit of a run. He did really funny Lance things, but he also was contributing last night. Did they show it on TV when they got a steal and 70-year-old Prigioni didn't pass to Lance cutting across the middle, and Lance jumped up and down in complete anger and disappointment and dismay right in front of the O.K. C. bench and down in complete anger and disappointment and dismay. I don't remember it.

I was dying. We were dying laughing. He's like a nine-year-old kid. It's like watching my son out there playing small forward for the Clippers. Like the way his reactions to stuff. I will say this. Durant wasn't 100% excited to have Lance guarding him. And that's why Doc has to play Lance more because he does affect the other teams. Durant was like, God excited to have Lance guarding him. And that's why Doc has to play Lance more,

because he does affect the other teams. Durant was like, God damn, this guy's got some. Oh, man, I hate this guy. Yeah, there's a way to channel that nine-year-old kid to make him work to your advantage. There was one time he got mad at something and started walking over to the ref. He was mad.

It was near the clipper bench. And DeAndre and blake and somebody else they all jump up like no no no no like it was like it was like uh like a kid walking on the crosswalk when it wasn't supposed to walk like people just jumping for his safety for everyone else's safety it is a great ongoing subplot the lance stevenson there anyway uh incredible to have kd and Russ operating in all cylinders again. I don't really like the team they put together around them. Abaka's obviously great.

Adams is interesting. He now looks like Khal Drago. Well, you know, Roberson's just back. By the way, I heard last night he prefers that it's pronounced Roberson. He's not Roberson. It's spelled Roberson, but you don't pronounce it Roberson. He's not Roberson. It's spelled Roberson, but you don't pronounce it Roberson. He's back. And remember, he played a pretty important role last year during the stretch KD out.

He could be a little bit of an X factor for that three, for that three position. I wonder, Donovan will get better as the year goes along, I hope. I've given up on Fred Hoiberg. He just seems like he's just lost in space. But Donovan... Well, let's do a quick thing on Hoiberg and the Bulls. You and I did this pod, the Friday roll-in last Thursday. At that moment, the Bulls were 15-8

with three games coming up against the Pistons, the Knicks, and Brooklyn. And we had a legit sort of discussion around trading Derrick Rose. And, you know, I argued for sort of holding the line for a moment just to see what this Chicago team's all about. Since that happened, they lost the four-overtime game to Detroit. Which ruined them. I think that game might have killed their season. And Jimmy Butler, after the loss to the Knicks, calls out the coach, and then they don't show up at home against Brooklyn,

and Zach Lowe's piece goes up today about chemistry issues in Chicago. Yeah, he just spent some time there. I feel a little bad, honestly. I love how ESPN.com promotes Barnwell and Zach every time now on the main page. It's just so hilarious. Sneaky fun story of the year. All right. Rondo's back, but I'm disqualifying him because the Bill Kennedy thing was also the worst story of the year. Alright. Rondo's back, but I'm disqualifying him because the

Bill Kennedy thing was also the worst story of the year. So sorry, Rondo. And he's taking games off. He sucked against the Almost Bullets the other night. He is averaging a 12, 11, and 6. Well, he scored two points against the Almost Bullets. Lillard and McCollum in Portland?

That one is so interesting. Lillard and McCollum, both averaging 20 a game. McCollum in Portland. That one is so interesting. Lillard and McCollum, both averaging 20 a game. McCollum is on, I don't know, most improved. I don't know what award. He's got it. He's locking it up. He's amazing. Not reinvention, the invention

of C.J. McCollum this season. We loved him when we interviewed him. There's real value in interviewing those guys. Jalen and I loved him when we interviewed him. There's real value in interviewing those guys. Jalen and I loved him when we did the interview. We thought he was the most interesting guy we interviewed other than Old Depot. Ahead of my guy, ahead of Bradley Beal at the moment.

Beal gets headlines, McCollum's got game. So, Kemba Walker, crunch time guy in a playoff team. Oh, Tate got a boner. Tate, put that thing away. Put your boner away tate uh kemba walker crunch time guy i feel vindicated because coming out of yukon yeah just like that guy's got something man he doesn't he he's you know a fearlessness fearlessness yeah not afraid

not afraid i like having him in the mix dirk on a team, potentially, putting up a 17-7, borderline 50-40-90. Another Dirk. And then Drummond we mentioned, and then my vote for sneaky fun story of the year. Warriors, Warriors, Warriors, Warriors, 26-1. Oh my god. The Spurs are only two wins behind them.

The Spurs are 24-5. They also have, their differential is also in the same stratosphere. Yeah. Historically unprecedented stratosphere. The offensive-defensive efficiency. The Spurs are 15 points better offensively than what they're giving up defensively. The Spurs are plus 14.

Yeah. They're pretty much right there. I mean, and that's the thing with these hot starts is all it takes is you go, you know, one three game trip where you go

one and two or only three and then all of a sudden that magical start you had starts to look like everybody else's record. And the Spurs have done a nice job of

kind of lurking. I don't think they care about the one seed or the two seed. But what's interesting for me as a basketball for me as a basketball fan as a gambler uh as somebody who loves big pictures uh-huh i don't want to play

okc in round two do you oh i i i think they do care about the one seed or or the two last year do you want to play okc in round two yes this, this is what I'm getting at. I think last year was a wake-up call for the Spurs. They ended up with a bad draw and lost in the first round. I mean, you know, I think they do care. And how about this? This is a nugget I like so much. They haven't lost at home this season. I love it.

And it's not that they just haven't lost. They've been wiping people's, you know, rear ends all up and down the floor there in San Antonio. I love it. So, OKC, and then who's the fourth team? I guess it would be like the Clippers or the Rockets. I mean, that is such a round two drop off. If I'm the Spurs, I'm going for the one seed if I can get it because I don't want OKC. I don't want any part of that team.

I think the West might have the three best teams. I think I like all three of those teams better than I like Cleveland. I don't. I don't have Oklahoma City ahead of Cleveland. I honestly think Cleveland healthy gives the Warriors the best challenge in the league, and I think the Spurs have a slight edge over Cleveland. That's the way I rank it. I'm with you if I know Kyrie's healthy.

Yep, yep. That's it. Would you trade Chris Paul for Kyrie? Are you—come on. No. Okay. No, no, no. The reason is the difference in age. I mean, Kyrie hasn't played a full season of basketball since he was seven years old. But other than that, you know. Kyrie just got hurt right now trying to download the podcast. He just broke his finger. But what he can do offensively by himself and what he did last year, I'll never, ever, never forget that performance against the Spurs last year.

Yeah, it was great. That's going to stick in my head for a lifetime, so I give him benefit of the doubt. Quickly, just some stats. Most amazing Warriors stat, 24-0 wins for most amazing Warriors stat so far. Some sad news. Steph is no longer in the 32-5, 5-5-5-what-the-fuck club. Oh, what happened?

Now he dropped down to 31.8 points and he's only making 4.93s a game now. So he's got some work to do. Yeah. Step it up, Steph. Draymond 7.1 assists. We talked about that. The Warriors are still 13-for-30 every game from three-point land, making 42%

of them. That's a good number. Yeah, that's pretty good. The red flag stats of the year. Oh. Yeah. Your boy Otto Porter shooting 27.4% from three. Oh.

I think that's got to be part of your trouble. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm leaving him open. Please take that, Otto. It hurts. Zeebo, one of your favorites. You've always loved him. He's dipped under 13 points a game now, and he's 46% shooting.

Not good signs. Not strong. Not good. He's been in the league for a long time. I think we're coming. Look, at some point the grit and grind catches up. Yeah. Goran Dragic.

A lot of grit and grind. Goran Dragic signed for like 90 million a year. He's putting up an 11-5 right now. Now, part of that's how they use him, but I'm still worried about that. I find that situation slightly confusing. It's the wrong team for him. They should actually trade him for like a spot-up shooter guy. Right?

And there's a bunch of teams that need the type of point guard that he is. I would take him. I love Goran Dragic. It seems like there's a bunch of teams that need the type of point guard that he is. I would take him. I love growing drivers. Seems like there's a trade out there. Dwight Howard, we talked about the fall of Dwight, but he's averaging eight field goal attempts a game and six free throw attempts a game. You know I like looking at that stuff with centers?

When centers stop being active, the things that drop are blocks, field goal attempts, free throw attempts. Someone who's trying to get in touch. Is that Dwight on the other end? No, no, I'm not done yet. Dwight has reached a point. I don't know if anyone has done studies like this yet, but Dwight has reached a point where statistically it is now very improbable that he returns to an Olympia level.

This happened to Jermaine O'Neal a few years ago. I remember writing about it maybe 10 years ago. When there's like a dramatic drop-off statistically, it's really tough for the person to then come back and make it up. I think the thrust of Dwight's complaint with his situation in Houston right now is he doesn't have the opportunity to take more shots. He's only getting eight attempts a game because Dwight Howard, I mean, James Harden is holding on to the ball for 48 possessions,

and the other guys have to touch the ball once in a while. Have you seen Dwight run? Well, the thing that I would say, forget how he runs. I won't forgive him this season for that play where he was running down the lane. He's halfway inside the free throw line with his head looking straight towards the basket. And I don't remember who passed him the ball. It hit him in the shoulder because he wasn't looking at the ball as he entered the lane. It's also he's not finishing around the room with explosive dunks anymore.

That era is just gone. He's 30, but he feels like a very old 30. Like when Larry Bird was 30, he was winning, I think, his second MVP. This Dwight has aged almost child actor-ish, at least from what we've seen. I'm not totally ready to write him off completely and say he's never getting it back, but the evidence is starting to mount that it's just not going to come back. And if he opts out of his contract this year, I know the salary cap's going way up,

but I just wouldn't feel good about giving him $20 million a year. Somebody's going to do it. Somebody's going to do it. Somebody's going to do it. It's going to be stupid. Kobe Bryant, 34% field goal, 24.7% from three-point field goal, even though he's taking 7.2 a game, 12.7 PR. You'd think that's really bad, right? Derek Rose. It is really bad. I knew you were going to – I knew D. Rose was going to be next.

The 50-40-90 club that we've come to appreciate with Steve Nash, Dirk, all those guys. Dirk Rose is working on the 37-22-70 club. Here's the thing. 37-22-70? He had his eye bone broken. It's just a terrible season.

He was sat in a dark room for two weeks. Then don't play. I'm not arguing with that. Just sit down. Sit down and tell your face is healthy. Or go play D-League and get it back. His PR is under 10. 9.7.

Which would be awful. Like, historically, like, oh my God, remember the year Derek Rose's PR was under 10 when he wasn't even 30 years old yet? But Joe Johnson, 34.5 minutes a game, 35% field goal percentage, 10.8 points a game. So for every three minutes he plays, he scores a point. 9.1 PER. He's basically a corpse. He's basically dead. He's a dead person running up and down.

30 million dollar corpse. And we have their pick and somehow a dead person running up and down. A $30 million corpse. And we have their pick, and somehow they're 8-20, and I can't figure it out. It's like Thaddeus Young and Jared Jack and Brooke Lopez just made a pact to win 30 games together, and I'm so pissed off about it. I do think they're going to win between 27 and 32 games. So what's your red flag stat of all those? Probably maybe Dragic, just because it's so weird? Yeah, the Dragic thing

is so hard. I don't understand it. I know folks are putting some of the blame, laying some of the blame. It seems like it's proper on Coach Spolstra for running a system that doesn't allow

him to flourish. But there's a personnel kind of issue there in Miami. They got something up their sleeve. Feels like a trade waiting to happen. Can you trade Dragic after you gave him $80-90 million or whatever they gave him? I don't know what the rules are. We have to ask somebody smart like Nate Duncan or somebody.

We have to rip through these. Most fortuitous transaction. The Knicks not making a trade with their 2015 lottery pick and getting Zinger. The Mavs being devastated they didn't get DeAndre and then they get Zaza and Darren Williams,

which is, anyone makes that trade, right? Zaza has 11 rebounds. He's basically matching DeAndre's stats. Charlotte stole Nick Batum, which we talked about last week. He's only 26 years old. He's good. The Portland fans, I got a couple emails from Portland.

People are like, good, I don't care if he's doing well. Screw that guy. He sucks. A lot of that comes from Portland. I don't think he sucks. And then how about Colangelo taking over the Sixers and getting to be the hero if things turn around? And if things don't turn around, he could just blame Sam Hinckley. I wish I had that job.

Things are going to turn around of course. There's only one direction they can go. They've hit bottom. They can't go any lower. What better job than to be the guy who replaced Sam Hinckley? Right. It's nothing but upside. You just blame him if anything goes wrong. Most fascinating non-playoff subplots

can the Lakers stay in the two spot for the lottery? Because if they go to three, that becomes very easy for them to get jumped. If they're at two, two teams would have to jump them to lose their pick. Much less realistic. I mean, they're there. I mean, there's nobody else within. The Nets and the Pelicans are the closest.

The Nets have the Brook Lopez injury possibility. Or trade, I guess. Yeah, something. If you're New Orleans, do you pull a 97 Spurs and come up with a fake injury for Anthony Davis? And trade away. Just trade and just tank. Rhino and trade away.

I kind of like that i really do for the pelicans they they have to do something about their guard situation um to get the best out of anthony davis you can't have you know 50 game a season true holiday and you know not sure whether he's a small forward shooting guard or point guard, Tyreek Evans as the guards. They're 8-19. They have the fourth worst record in the league. If Boston offered the Brooklyn pick to Milwaukee for Jabari Parker, does Milwaukee say yes or no?

That's interesting. If I was running Milwaukee, I would say yes. Okay. All right, we'll throw in I would say yes. Okay. All right, we'll throw in Jurebko, fine. Jurebko and the Brooklyn pick. What would you say? I'm not sure the Bucs need Jabari. I'm not positive he needs to be on that team.

I've been disappointed by the inconsistency. People forecasted that they were due for a downturn, and I was stubborn about it, you and Zach Lowe both, and I was stubborn arguing the other side of it. But they... Yeah, well... I was wrong. They are inconsistent.

The two games they played against Golden State is the version of the Bucs that I expected to see all season long. That's a team that's right there in the thick of things in the East. Instead, they just don't show up some nights, and I don't like that. Quickly, bench guy of the year, with apologies to Clint Capella, Enos Kanter. Enos Kanter quietly averaging an 11-8 in 20 minutes a game. Zach Levine,

Kelly Olenek, Will Barton. Yeah, the answer is Will Barton. 15-7, 40% from three. Who the hell is Will Barton? Every time I see the Nuggets, it's like, who is this guy? Where'd he come from? By the way, Nuggets is sneakily fun to watch

because Gallo's back. Yeah, they're not bad. I think they thought they were going to be awful and they're not. They're actually like they have good guys in their team.

Yeah, I thought 27 was like the ceiling for wins for them. They play hard. They're kind of sneaky fun to watch. Yeah, they're lingering in the eight seed conversation

because the West is so weird. The McKeskey Award is down to two worthy candidates. This is the award I give out every year to the best white guy in the league. Not Europeans, you can't count. The West is so weird. The McKeskey Award is down to two worthy candidates. This is the award I give out every year to the best white guy in the league. Now, Europeans, you can't count. Porzingis, not eligible.

Foreigners, no. It's got to be an American white guy. I love that foreigners aren't white under your... No, this is an American white guy. It's the McKeskey Award. Okay, American white guys. That's fine. Kevin Love and Gordon Hayward. It's a two-man race right now.

Yeah. Gordon Hayward quietly with a 19-5 every game and 44-42-81 splits. A little bit better than what Kevin Love's doing. Rookie of the year. Towns has it pretty much locked up. The zinger.

Towns is 16-9. He's a borderline 50-40-90 guy. He's putting up blocks, huge PR, all that stuff. And he totally passes the eye test. He's just really, really polished for a 19-year-old kid. Complete player. Complete player already.

Zinger is not in the conversation. No. And then... It's good for the Knicks. One other thing I wanted to mention, just, and I don't know where this stands. I remember Shaq and Kobe might have been the last guys that did this.

KD and Russ are averaging 52.2 points a game combined. Yeah. 14.5 rebounds a game combined. And 13.7 assists combined. Yeah. Russ is averaging a 25.9 and 6. Only Oscar Robertson has ever done that. Yeah.

And KD is putting up 52.43, 88 splits. Yeah. Magical. Magical combination by those two so far. Yeah. Magical combination by those two so far. Yeah. Is anybody else out there got a $500 parlay on the Warriors and Thunder over? This guy does! So anyway, good season so far.

Really interesting. I think the highlights for me, other than the Warriors, are Katie and Russ being back. And Towns being good, Porzingis being interesting, the Spurs being the Spurs, and some real drama with the West, where you have three potentially just killer teams, and

two teams having to go to war. We had this last year a little bit with Spurs-Clippers, but the three teams that are in the mix this year, I think, better than those Spurs Clipper teams. What we love is, you know, the season starts in earnest on Christmas. That's when the NBA really legitimately gets going. And the way things have kind of shook out here so far in the first eight weeks here, you know, great storylines with the rookies, some disappointments, but teams that can redeem themselves.

I'm looking at you, you Houston mother, sons of guns. Yeah. And, you know, kind of a radical re-rack of strength between the two conferences from Christmas on. It's going to be a good one. The Christmas games. The first one's Pelicans Heat on ESPN. I'll be skipping that one.

Bulls Thunder at 11.30 Pacific time, so 2.30 East Coast time. That's a pretty good one. It's a good one because the Bulls really need to do something to prove to themselves. They have such shaky internal confidence. It's so weird for guys that have been in the league for a long time. Yeah, the roster doesn't make sense. It's the butler as leader proposition that feels awkward.

But you also have Miritich is really like a stretch four, but he doesn't make threes, and I don't totally know what position he is, but you can't really play him with McDermott together, but Noah and Gasol are weird together. They have all these guys that doesn't totally fit when they're together. Also, look out for an annual Christmas tradition. Cause this was something that I noticed the two years that I was on the show. The ESPN game is going on ESPN and the ABC game is going two and

a half hours later after the early start for the whatever. And they have the countdown pregame show on ABC going head toto-head against real basketball on ESPN, which makes no sense at all. It's one of the dumbest things ever. It's one of my favorite traditions. The second year, I wanted to actually just do it shirtless and see if anyone noticed or was watching, because I don't think anyone watches. Cavs Warriors, 5 o'clock East Coast time.

In Oracle. Yeah. Kyrie in the house. What a game that's going to be. What a game that's going to be. That's followed by Spurs-Rockets and then Clips-Lakers, which will just be, you know. Clips-Lakers is my food coma, you know.

Let the red wine do what it wants to do. Ten o'clock at night, you know, on the couch. Yeah. That's my on-the-couch game. But the Spurs-Rockets. It's a fun one. Always a little feisty should be a good one. Yeah, it's a fun one.

And, you know, the epic Warriors. I'm disappointed that the streak isn't still going. But, on the other hand, it's still no less fascinating. No, it'll be good. I'm going to be interested to see how the Cavs approach the go big or go small thing. You can make a case they just play LeBron

at the five. I bet they go big. I think they'll go big, and they'll try it, and the Spurs, and the Warriors will torch it, and then at some point, there will be a LeBron at the 5 lineup that will get everybody fired up. The thing that will be fun to watch is whether or not the Dubs get any offensive rebounds at all.

I mean, if Cleveland controls the boards the way they did in the first three games of the finals last year, then it's a dogfight. It's last possession time. It's the sequence from two minutes left until the end of the finals last year. Then it's a dogfight. Then it's last possession time. It's the sequence from two minutes left until the end of the game. House, before we do NFL picks, remember you can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Stitcher. You can catch up on any episodes you missed at billsimmonspodcast.com.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Channel 33 podcast featuring pop culture podcasts and interviews from former Grantlanders Andy Greenwald, Juliet Libman, and Chris Ryan, as well as some NBA podcasts and even some occasional cameos from me. We will have that Heat podcast, me and Chris Ryan, 20th anniversary. It's going to be before the end of the year. You can follow Channel 33 on Twitter, at, uh, and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud. All right. Week 16 picks.

Let's do our NFL picks really quickly. Sure. So we're, we're narrowing it down to three games because we, there's too much time until the games. And by the way, I'm going to make a motion that we only do three games next season, assuming we do this next season. Well, if we do this next season, we have to actually keep track of our picks.

I think that would help. Or at least do a best bet. I think we should agree on a best bet that we do every week, our combined best bet. Let's start that this week, actually. All right. You have cards in the Packers. Cards in Arizona.

Lang, four and a half. There's going to be 25,000 Packer fans in the house. Maybe 30,000. Who do you have? I'm fine with it. I love the cards. The number is four and a half. I would take the cards all the way up to six and a half. Green Bay is coming off a three straight, straight up

and against the spread wins against awful teams. Dallas, Oakland, Detroit. And it took a miracle to beat Detroit to get against the spread thing. There is a nice angle out there. My boy Big Al

feeding it to me. A great favorite like Zona. 56-22 since 1980 against spread in this situation yeah um i like the zona cardinals i'm staying away only because i think teams get bummed out when there's 30 000 of the other team's fans in the stadium always makes me nervous i have uh the eagles are playing your uh your Washington professional football team. Yeah. The Eagles are laying three points.

They are. I think the Eagles stink. I think the Patriots were about to beat them 45 to 10 until they did the stupid onside kick and then a block. And all of a sudden they have three return touchdowns and everybody thinks the Eagles might be good and they had pride. And really that was a fluke game that probably is going to happen once every five years. I like your Washington team. I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl, but they're a little frisky. I like when they get points.

I think they're in bad shape when they're the favorites and when they're supposed to win, but I think when they're not supposed to win and they're getting points, I kind of like them. And I don't know. I just think your team's better. The defense is much improved for the D.C. Grunes, and that was the thing that had me select a delicious over on the season total. Six and a half was the number. Seven came through on Sunday. Cash winner for the daddy.

Yeah, I like where they're at. I honestly have stayed away from wagering on them the entire season long because there's such a discrepancy between them on the road and at home. And I'm going to stay away from this one as well because they're on the road. Do you win the NFC East if you win? The Eagles suck. The Eagles suck. Yes.

Outright win the NFC East if they win. I think it's over. The only thing I'd worry about is the NFL rigging this game somehow so that there's a week 17 Giants-Eagles game that matters. And Dallas-Washington game that matters. You have the Bills-Cowboys. The Cowboys getting six and Buffalo. I have no idea why you would select this game, pick it, care about it. What's your incentive here? I had two of these last week and lost both of them. Buffalo, Dallas, by anything less than a touchdown, I just take the other side. That's it.

We're at the point of the season where I'm getting less than a touchdown. Buffalo's at home. I like just a plain old touchdown cover. Funny stat, the Bills 33-13 against the spread when they're coming off of back-to-back against the spread losses. Recently 7-0 in that spot. So Bills favored by less than a touchdown over the Cowboys. I take the Bills. Obviously a stay away. And I think you're a dumbass for even going near that game.

Jets-Pats. Pats laying 3-1 in New York. Must win for the Jets They're Suddenly on the outside Looking in In the playoffs The Pats are banged up

Which worries me But here's what worries me Even more I'm not positive The one seed makes sense For the Pats Oh Yeah

Why is that? Who's gonna be in the six? Pittsburgh or Denver? Let's say Pittsburgh's five and Casey's six. Mm-hmm. And we have the two seed. We're guaranteed to play the AFC West team in round one unless the six seed beats the AFC West team.

Right? Got it. If they have the one seed, they're basically playing the best wildcard team in round two. You could argue the best wildcard team, which is almost definitely going to be Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's the second best team in the AFC right now. Yeah.

If they're the two seed, I'm sorry, if they're the one seed, they're guaranteed to play Pittsburgh in round two unless the six seed upsets the three seed. If the six seed doesn't upset the three seed, they would play Denver or KC, whoever. So the six seed could really upset the three seed because isn't the three seed going to be Houston or Indy? The four seed is going to be Houston or Indy. So they play the best wild card. Yeah, that's right.

Okay. My point is, I don't think the one seed really matters. And if the Pats are banged up and they have Amendola hurt and Gronk's a little, I could just see them throwing this game away. I don't know. That doesn't seem like the Belichick way. He's done weird stuff in the past. I don't like three and a half.

I like it better at three. I don't see this isn't like, hey guys, we got to win this. We clinched the win seed. Something about it scares me and I think the Jets played them really well the last time. They have a good defensive line.

They can rush Brady up the middle. The Pats are really banged up. Now chunks hurt. I don't know how many guys we can lose. This feels like a three-point game to me. There's a bunch of red flags with this, and I think the Jets at least cover. The last one, we both agree on.

Let's make this our best bet of the week. Seahawks and Rams. The Rams are getting 13 points in the land of Seattle. Who do you have? I have the Seattle Seahawks-Rams. The Rams are getting 13 points in the land of Seattle. Who do you have? I have the Seattle Seahawks. I have seen enough over the last five weeks from them. The pedal is to the metal. I took the Browns last week. That was dumb.

I don't, you know, 14 and a half just felt like too much. Even with Manziel and the obvious frailties of Cleveland. And Cleveland kind of hung in there. But Russell Wilson is on a tear right now. I don't want to get in the way of it. I just am happy to lay the points. I want the Seahawks.

I thought you were going to the Rams with that one. I like the Rams. You're taking the Rams? No. The Rams are not afraid to lose by double, triple digits, by the way. I've had enough of Jeff Fisher this season. That's all. I'm going to stay away from that one.

Oh, you're going to make it a best bet, but then I took Seahawks. If you took the Rams, I was going to get excited and take the Rams with you. But no, you didn't take them. I'm not taking them. So I'm going to take I had a backup pick, just in case. I'm not going against Seattle anymore. You're

probably in good shape with that strategy. I'm going to take the Giants and Minnesota plus seven. Oh, sure. Sunday night game. I'm going to take the Giants of Minnesota plus 7 oh sure Sunday night game Noel Delbeckham you know what screw it I changed my pick again

again I'm going to I'm going to take Monday night oh the Broncos only laying I'm going to take Monday night Oh The Broncos Only laying three and a half points At home to A.J. McCarron

I looked at Yeah I looked at this one Long and hard I felt like singing Because it's holiday time If But Osweiler McCarron

Yeah If you watch that Cincy game closely last week, it's not like they had a lot of drives. He kind of managed the game and they put him in a place. What if they're down 10-0 and he's in Denver and he's got to actually start making some plays? I don't know if they're

getting Eifert back. That line seems low to me. I thought it was going to be Broncos by six or something. I'm going to take Denver. House. Bone-in rib roast tastes so good. Yeah, it's prime rib time. What's on the menu for you? My mom, Christmas Eve dinner, Chateaubriand.

Oh, my gosh. Of course, Chateaubriand. Go ahead. I'm sorry. And some porch pies. What about you? What's on the menu for you? Oh, delicious rib roast.

I'm going to have a little sliced turkey, a little sliced ham. Delicious. This is going to be the coup de gras. I'm going to have a little sliced turkey, a little sliced ham. Delicious. This is going to be the coup de gras. I'm going to cook it for the first time. If you have any recipes, any of your fancy meat people, Jimmy Kimmel is a fancy meat guy. Adam Perry Lang can send me a rib roast recipe. I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm jumping right in the pool for some delicious prime rib at Christmas dinner.

Is it going to be one of those things where you have to take all your clothes off after? Yes. Red wine, rib roast, and the Clippers Lakers pants down. All right, House. A fascinating... Oh, I guess we have one more 2015 podcast, right? Yeah. Yeah, we got one next week.

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Thanks, HBO. Download the HBO Now app. Start your free one-month trial today. thanks to HBO they were nice enough to give me my own television show that launches next spring thanks HBO download the HBO Now app start your free one month trial today don't forget about the Channel 33 podcast Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan

are posting best of the year stuff we're gonna do my heat podcast that I did with Chris Ryan we're gonna do that next week I think cause we're gonna need

that more next week than this week if that changes I will tweet and that's it for the BS podcast happy holidays thanks for spreading the word We're going to need that more next week than this week. If that changes, I will tweet. And that's it for the BS Podcast. Happy holidays. Thanks for spreading the word.

It's been a very interesting 2015, but I'm glad we were able to get the podcast going. You can subscribe to it on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. And enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas. We about this bitch. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. the holidays. Merry Christmas.