The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 53: Bill's NBA All-Star Ballot with Chris Ryan

Episode Date: January 20, 2016

HBO’s Bill Simmons & Channel 33’s Chris Ryan talk Eastern Conference All-Star ballots, PG-13 vs. LeBron (10:50), Miami’s vice (17:40), Carmelo’s post prime (24:30), Cleveland’s possibly fatal flaw (31:40), the West’s killer starting five (44:00), Durant’s next stop (50:00), Clippers & Dirk (59:00), Harden/Boogie/Dwight getting snubbed (1:07:00) and Bill’s greatest 'who says no?' trade ever (1:14:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's special NBA All-Star Ballot episode of the BS Podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS Podcast and Channel 33, as well as our favorite app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. Go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to start using SeatGeek, especially if you're a Patriot fan who lives in the Colorado area. We need more of you there. Don't forget to download the free SeatGeek app, Enter promo code BS. SeatGeek will send you $20 once you've made your first purchase. Today's episode also brought to you by Blue Apron. So sorry Joe House isn't going to be here to hear this read. Stop ordering expensive takeout for less than $10 per meal.

Blue Apron will deliver you all the fresh ingredients you need for a delicious and healthy home-cooked meal. Hey, Chris Ryan, would you eat juicy Lucy burgers with frizzled onion and butter lettuce walnut salad? I'm going to top you here. I am a Blue Apron customer. Oh, wow. There you go. Vegetarian options.

I love the butternut squash tacos. Oh, there you go. Blue Apron. Chris Ryan uses it. Use Blue Apron and you could be making healthy dishes right away. Tonight. Right now you get your first two meals for free by going to blueapron.com slash BS. It is all-star time. Let's go.

Tupac would have loved this podcast. Toronto rolling. Yeah. I've never been to Toronto. I don't know if I'm going to this all-star i haven't decided yet it's gonna be a little cold it can't be that much colder than it was in new york last year though or la the last two months um we're gonna do all we're at the midway point basically we're literally at the midway point we're taping this on a wednesday so if anything crazy happens

in the wednesday night games our apologies. Hopefully nothing weird will happen. Yeah, hopefully not. I'm going to give my teams, and Chris Ryan is going to play devil's advocate. Chris Ryan, formerly at Grantland, currently of our Untitled Digital Project that might be titled soon, very, very soon. I like it. That's like a Radiohead album, the Untitled Digital Project. Yeah, or Prince. So you're going to devil's advocate the living crap i'm gonna do my best yeah this is really all you have you're a sixers fan and uh there's also a lot of pressure on this

podcast after the heat 20th anniversary podcast which really captivated america i know i don't know if i have as much uh as much to say about the chances of of jimmy butler as i do about the acting work of val kilmer but i I'm going to try my best. I'm going to tell you one thing. Give me what you got. Give me what you got. Eastern conference. Here are my starters and we'll go through them after,

after I list them. I have LeBron and Paul George as the forwards. I think those are no brainers. Yep. Andre Drummond at center, which we can talk about. And then my guards are John Wall and Jimmy Butler. I bumped skinny Kyle Lowry to the reserves.

What is your biggest gripe with those five picks? I think it would be the Lowry-Wall trade-off there. I think that Wall's been really good. I was watching highlights the other day. I went back and re-watched a little bit of his Isaiah Thomas duel. Yeah, it was a duel. It was a little bit Hamilton-Burr. I could see a Broadway musical about it in 200 years.

I don't know who's who in that equation, but Wall's been okay this year. I think Wall's been really a victim of like, is he a small ball point guard? It's interesting. He's so fast, and he moves the ball so well, and they reimagined this offense to be a small ball offense and obviously hasn't worked out partly because bradley beals made of porcelain but like bradley bills he's played 20 or 40 games yeah and here's the case for a while 2010 and 4

20.4 pr a couple steals a game the splits. 43% shooting. They're only 19 and 21. I don't blame him for that. I watch the Wizards and I just feel like he's the guy trapped on a bad movie. He's Mark Wahlberg and shooter. Is Paul Pierce really that big of a difference? Well, but I think Nene really dropped off too. They're counting on a lot of weird swing guys like Gary Neal, Garrett Temple. Wahl has been the only constant.

I'm kind of amazed that they're near 500. Every time I watch them, I just think they're not good at basketball. Randy Whitman, I don't know why they haven't fired him yet. Because he got the glasses. So people don't think it's Randy Whitman. They think it's his evil twin, Bandy Whitman. Randall. Yeah, but I'm not penalizing him for that.

I don't think he had a good first couple weeks. He got booted home once. But every time I watch them, I just feel like he's kind of carrying them. There's just a cloud hanging over this Wizards season. Totally. You know, sometimes I think this happens with teams that play a little over their heads in the year before. And then there's a little bit of a hangover because they have to play up to what they were the season before. I think the Beal drop-off has been tough, especially when you watch guys like Lillard and McCollum

kind of grow together and become these sort of great backcourts on other teams. And I just don't know what they're going to do with that. But Wall is a piece, though. You can build around him. Of course, yeah. And I still think that you have to imagine that they're still in the conversation for Durant,

even if Washington fans are booing Wall at home i remember that when that happened people were like bro kevin's not gonna like that i'm not i'm for me it's miami riley just over and over and gets gets dudes and figures out stuff and they're the durant dark horse for me okay washington seems too easy i think durant's almost too smart to just go home and be the savior and have that pressure the guy hates pressure he hates the media stuff he hates getting picked apart he's probably the most sensitive superstar we have I like how he gets mad and then apologizes how many times does he apologize his relationship in the media that's right this week because he gave that really complicated I actually love you guys. Yeah.

And at one point, it's like, this is great. Durant, he's really shooting from the hip. We always want athletes to do this. But then every time he does this, I'm like, God, shut up, Kevin Durant. You're more coddled. You and Westbrook are more coddled than any two basketball players in the same team on the internet. The internet loves those guys. How are you?

What are you thinking in terms of so why why not Lowry here all right so I just think if you switch those guys and you gave John Wall all of those Raptors pieces that team would probably have around the same record but if you put Lowry on the on the Wizards I don't know if he could have done anything better than John Wall did. Lowry right now is 21-6-5. Nice. Splits are good. 21 PR. He's been good.

Once again, congratulations to Kyle Lowry for getting in shape this season. I thought that was really noble and great of him to remix 12 million a year. I don't know. When I watch both of them, I just feel like Wall can keep teams in the game by himself. I just like how he's playing a tiny bit better. And Lowry, I'm not even sure if he's the best guy. Wall's shooting a little bit better this year, too. Looks like it.

Yeah, he's at 43%. But part of my problem with Lowry is I don't know if he's the best guard on his own team. DeMar. Yeah. I have DeRozan as a reserve who's 22 points a game this year, which is the best he's done. But more importantly, getting to the rim. He's over eight, which is really good for a guard. Zach had a thing in his All-Star piece about how he's like 12 drives a game.

He's really old school. Everybody has drifted toward this. All your primary guys have to make threes. And Lowry is just like, no, I'm from the 1970s. I'm just going to drive every time. I'm just going to try to get as close to the basket as I can. But DeMar going to the rim is a pretty recent revelation. It's almost like over the summer, they all sat in a circle and said,

what do you want to work on over the summer? And Kyle Lowry's like, I'm going to stop eating pancakes. And DeMar DeRozan was like, I'm not going to be afraid of the rim anymore. Kyle Lowry's like, I'm signing up for Blue Apron. The guy's basically a condor. He should be driving every chance he gets. Well, it is a contract year, Chris. I hate to be afraid of the rim anymore. Kyle Lowry's like, I'm signing up for Blue Apron. The guy's basically a condor. He should be driving every chance he gets. Well, it is a contract year, Chris. I hate to be cynical.

But I don't know if next year DeMar DeRozan's going to be 8.2 free throw attempts a game. Really, to be honest, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, you can pick any of them as the starters. It's Kyrie Irving's spot. And it's kind of screwed up this whole Eastern team because, you know, and we'll get to the 12th spot in a second, but really there's 11 All-Stars, and then the 12th spot could be anybody because it's Kyrie Irving didn't play enough games.

But Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler are the two best guards in the East. Butler's having a great year, 22, 5, and 4. 45% shooting. Le's having a great year. 22, 5, and 4. 45% shooting. Leads the league in minutes. Yeah. Again, but not as many as what he used to play under Tibbs.

Right. Yeah. But if he was leading the league in minutes and Tibbs was there, people would blame Tibbs. Right. But I looked up

in the 2000 season, the year after the lockout, 99-2000, 17 guys played at least 38.2 minutes a game that year. And Michael Finley was at like 42. And I think that's one of the trends I've noticed this year is

this is really the year that everybody's just terrified of playing their guys too many minutes. You know, you look at like Curry's under 34. All the Warriors guys are like 34 and under. Durant's at like 35. Westbrook's, I think, under 34. And, you know, know 10 15 years ago these guys are 40 42 minutes every single game i think people know now that it's a marathon not a sprint it's really smart do you think it has anything to do aside from the improved science and then what we

know about what the body needs in terms of rest is there anything about like the way that this regular season is shaken out and the the separation that's already happened with the elite teams no question yeah and these guys are just like i mean i i'm pretty sure if you go see the spurs in february or march you're not going to see at least some of the main guys oh yeah yeah it's just it's more logical you know and it's funny because it burned the spurs last year they were almost so careful with the schedule that it ended up they had to play in the road in round one and it probably cost them the Western Finals appearance. But I think this is logical to me. 38 minutes is the right number for a great player. Somewhere between 35, 38. You rest five minutes each half, come out maybe three minutes to go.

The transition from first quarter to second quarter, it's another timeout. Then another timeout, 10 minute mark of the second quarter seems right right 37 38 minutes yeah and then some some guys are getting kind of experimental that doesn't Vogel plays George like these really concerted blocks of minutes right yeah and then he rests him in a very like concerted way where he's not so he's not like subbing him in and out in and out i think blat still has a pretty itchy trigger finger with lebron you know what i mean like as soon as as soon as things start going wrong i feel like lebron's got to take all his towels off and all his like shirts off and start wandering back to the to the scorer's table blat's just itchy in general yeah he's itchy and tense

and i i think he knows we'll talk about the calves after we finish the teams yeah i think he knows the team that they have the the pieces don't fit. It's not quite right. So Paul George is having a great comeback season. His team's, you know, he's 24-7 every night. Great defense. I would say he's in the top five defenders. He's not better than Kawhi, but he's probably at that next level.

His team is 23-19. So funky. When you watch that team, you're like, oh, my God. Like, it's Monte Ellis post-prime. It's all these guys that are either past their prime or not even close to their prime yet. And they're kind of lingering. That's a Vogel. I think Vogel and Paul George get all the credit for that.

But he's—I think he's been—what would you put LeBron versus Paul George this season? More reliable night-to-night? Probably LeBron versus Paul George this season? More reliable night to night? Probably LeBron, but I think... But it's an argument. Paul George's peaks are higher than LeBron's peaks this season, I think. Yeah. LeBron... Can I say that sometimes I find watching Paul George

more pleasurable than watching LeBron? Yeah, LeBron's got a little... It's a little more Karl Malone-ish for him this season. Yeah. Very robotic. I think the creativity doesn't seem to be there as much. He's just kind of

mechanically going through the games. I don't think he likes his own team. We're going to talk about the Cavs. I don't think he does. We'll save that

for after we finish this. So LeBron, he's not past this prime. This is like the tail end of his post-prime, I think. But if you look at his stats, I combined the stats from 13 and 14, the last two Miami seasons he had.

Every night, 27, 8, and 7. 30.4 PER. 57% shooting. 41% shooting from three. And got to the line 7.3 Free throw attempts This year It's about 85% as good 25, 7, and 6

The PR is 26.6 It's about 85% as good The three point shooting Has dropped to 30% That's been the biggest difference for him He's no longer a good three point shooter Do you think this is just something He's in a cold streak?

Or are people closing him out more? What do you think is happening? I think it's legs. I think year 13, all the miles he put on regular season playoffs. The legs are going to be the first to go. More responsibility. Miami, especially that third year, the second title year, when they won the 27th straight, he'd become kind of this crazy sabermetric robot creation of just every shot he took was the right shot.

Now he's got a lot of people dumping him the ball in the last seven seconds and guys in the wrong spots. I think his Goldsberry shot chart back then was just a giant heart beating. It was like you couldn't even make a chart about that yeah so i would say when you think about it 40 to 30 right yeah so he went from making four out of every 10 to making three out of every 10 but it makes sense because one out of every 10 threes he takes is a terrible shot you know and that's the part where pr and stuff they they don't take into account when you're just screwed by your offense or your teammates. And the best guy just has to take bad shots sometimes. That was one of Kobe's best skills was that he was a great bad shot taker.

And he was okay. Some guys aren't as good. So anyway, I looked up, this is year 13 for him, which is amazing. Like Larry Bird retired after 13 years. And LeBron is still in the conversation. Yeah. So here are all the guys who had a PR over 24 in year 13. 98, Karl Malone.

That was his last kind of really good MVP season. Even though the lockout next year, I think he might have even won. But who cares? The lockout season was stupid. 05 Shaq. Shaq's first Miami season. LeBron this year. 08 KG.

The last great full KG season. 98 MJ. The last MJ Chicago season. 2010 Duncan. He doesn't count because he's an alien. Right. And then 2009, Kobe. Those are the only guys who have been this good and this efficient in year 13.

That's not a long list. If you look at that list, a lot of those guys are about to go off a cliff. Yeah, and all those guys are aliens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So who knows? So anyway, we didn't talk about Andre Drummond. A little bit polarizing, Andre Drummond. Doesn't play hard all the time.

Does Andre Drummond sometimes feel like a guy on a Doug Moe Denver team? Yeah. Where you just look at the numbers and you're just like, if I look under the hood, am I going to find two gnomes putting spark plugs together? I love watching. I kind of really enjoy watching Detroit. The alley-oops are fun. Him and Jackson are really fun. And I like KCP, just watching him play and stuff.

And I think that they're going to be fun for a couple of years. They'll be an interesting round one team. Yeah. They're well coached. They have some weird pieces. Yeah, if you get Stan in a weird round one matchup with somebody that he's going to be able to chess move out, it would be really exciting. There's some danger teams. Like, that's a team that potentially against Cleveland, it could be interesting just because Cleveland

is such a weird team. But if they do get to, if it's like a 7-2 with Toronto or something like that, they could get into the mix of them. So Drummond's basically putting up 17 and 15 every night, which does not happen very often. In the last 40 years, 2012 love, Moses did it three times. 91, Kevin Willis. That's kind of who I was thinking about

when I was like a double player. Very suspicious season. I'll leave it at that. And they think they're Chuck Robinson. Yeah. Chuck Robinson. Oh, yeah. Who ended up getting his own Nike poster out of it.

The catch with Drummond, other than the fact that Cousins just kicked his ass earlier in the season. I watched that game. That was like, oh, Andre Drummond is the league's next best center. And then Cousins just killed him. But 35% free throw shooting.

Yeah. Almost single-handedly made me take him off the team. But I'm old school. I feel like my all-star starters need a center or somebody who at least plays center. I couldn't do, like Zach had Paul Millsap on his team. I couldn't do that. I didn't feel good about that.

So let's look at your bench though a little bit here. Yeah, yeah. So the two Toronto guys. Chris Bosh, I really thought long and hard about putting him in that drumming spot. Yeah. Like the way he's playing. Year 13 for him too. Also just one of the most reliably entertaining quotes and presences in the NBA. So great to have him back. Everybody loves Chris Bosh. Yeah. Like the way he's playing. Year 13 for him, too. Also, just one of the most reliably entertaining quotes and presences in the NBA.

Everybody loves Chris Bosh. Yeah. Remember when people were out on Chris Bosh and down on him and shitting on him and posting dinosaur memes and all this stuff and memes, memes, memes. Why can't I say that correctly? Chris Bosh, yet again, just efficient. 19 and 8 every night. Good D.

He's a three-point shooter, which he wasn't 10 years ago by any stretch. Yeah. And yet, I don't know. And he's playing consistently on a very inconsistent and confusing Miami team. And it's weird because I gave Waugh credit for being on a weird team, and I don't blame him. But yet, I blame Bosh and wade a little bit for how weird that team is those guys are the veterans they've been they were in four straight finals well i think it also just it what it reflects poorly on is dry like it's the dragic

deal and the fact that they haven't been able to figure out a way to make a guy who's two years away from being one of the most exciting point guards in the league right now he's just looks like you know but like if Dragic was on the – A slightly faster Jose Calderon or something, you know. They don't use him right though. Yeah. You know, like think how the Celtics use Isaiah. They just tell him to go to the hoop.

Just get to the rim. Just do your thing. Like if Dragic was on the Celtics, they'd use him the same way. He'd have eight free throws a game. I hear that. The way your voice changed just for a second. For getting excited about Isaiah Thomas. So I don't know.

But that Miami team has been so dissatisfied. And they had a really easy schedule too. Their schedule is about to get tough. Yeah. I don't know what to make of the way Wade's playing. Because the stats are kind of there. But if you actually watch them, it's like an old guy season. There's a lot of pointing.

Can you get him? Help, help, help. A lot of pointing to other guys. Speaking of old guy, we're starting to get our annual, like, Dwayne Wade needs an MRI, and this is a very essential part of his body. Yeah. I mean, he got through this part of the season

pretty favorable schedule season. I thought Winslow can't shoot yet. He'll be able to shoot in two years, but right now he can't. There's just something wrong with the team. You've got it a little bit at spolstra too because his offense hasn't really like changed with the talent it feels like it's a banjo's offense it's your turn my turn your turn his turn your turn it's like they're not playing basketball together and then white side is just a monkey i don't know what to make of that so did you see this what is that guy did you see the uh What is that guy? Did you see the...

He put up a triple-double with blocks. And he's very proud of that. Yeah, and then we'll talk about it for an hour. It's like, you guys are barely 500. You see what happened with Gobert and Evan Fournier last night? Yeah. That was incredible. So Gobert was tweeting about how...

I can't remember the exact line, but he was basically like, there's a lot more to this game than just putting up stats. And Fournier, somebody was like, you got to gotta name names or vukovic from yeah first of all i love that fournier gobert and vucevic have like this like side european twitter you know right and then uh and then fournier said blanc coat which is the uh like french translation would be white side right so. So it was just really great, as if nobody was going to figure that out. Isn't it amazing there's not more Twitter beefs? All these guys are on Twitter.

We're writers. We have that internal shit detector of, oh, I shouldn't tweet that, although that's failed me a couple times in my life. But at least we know where the lines are. These guys are professional athletes. How do they know where the lines are? Maybe we should start more writer beefs, but only it in french that's a good idea yeah just got french

subtweeting i like that uh all right so i have pow as an all-star no question in my mind 17 and 11 um 2.3 blocks which really puts a big spotlight on how little he tried those last couple laker seasons when he just wasn't playing defense at all um back to the history thing again though it's year 15 for pal um here are the guys who put up 16 and 10 in their 15th NBA season 1999 Charles Barkley who's who fell apart the next year 89 Moses I think he was on the Atlanta at that point. That was his last good year. And then Gasol. That's it. That's crazy.

That's not a long list. Like this is year 15. The fact that he is a really competent big guy on a top three seed is not normal. And it's nice because the second half or like the second part of Gasol's's career I guess would be the third since Memphis with your first but this whole era has been sort of defined by the fact that he hasn't fit in in places anywhere yeah we don't know where to do with and it was like the last like the Lakers seasons I feel like the last few years it was always he was always the trade rumor and it was like Kobe was sort of dangling him but then would bring him back in and give him a hug and and then

ever since he got to Chicago it's been like how does he fit with noah how does he fit with taj gibson does he work well with these guys is he working well on the tibbs offense or defense and and it's so it's nice to see him actually have a pretty decent season i mean this chicago team is so weird you just it's like the best team that i've never felt good about at all yeah and the combinations never totally work. Right. I always feel in my head when I'm watching them that there's a five-person combination that I'm going to love, and they never find it, and maybe it doesn't exist. There's a lot of redundancy on that team.

I think the Noah injury really, in a weird way, is going to help them, though. Yeah. It just kind of unclutters the rotation a little bit. It forces them to play some guys more minutes. I'd like to see Bobby Portis get a little bit of a run. Let's see what you have there. Those guys on the Bulls seem to think he's going to be really good.

They talk about him a lot, unprompted. This draft, basically the number 11, number 12, number 13 guys, I think were Miles Turner, Booker on the Suns who's really good they classic the suns are all over the map they're either making the worst moves ever they're drafting making great draft they're really like the new joe dumars uh but then trey lyles yeah who i was kind of hoping would follow the celtics just because those kentucky guys who the hell knows they'd like eight of them like you figure you get a couple gems. So two Kentucky guys back-to-back, and both of those guys are good.

Then it drops off. The Celtics, of course, picking 16. And then Portis right after him. And Portis looks like he might be good. Yeah, but you also have to wonder, what does Portis look like on the Celtics with Olenek and Sonder and all these guys who are like, I'm 6'10", but I'm not quite this. Now, the poor Celtics, they have six big guys

and can only play one of them at a time in this modern NBA. It's brutal. It's like, David Lee, great idea. I love the David Lee thing. It's like the guy's a cheerleader now. They can't play him. So Gasol, good season for him.

I think, to me, those 10 guys are a lock. And then you get to the last two. I guess Carmelo has to be in here. Just reputation. Yeah. I don't feel great about it. Can I just say that this is also, I haven't enjoyed Carmelo this much since Denver. I don't think.

You haven't enjoyed him this much since Denver. Yeah. Like this is my favorite Carmelo Knicks year. I just also, it's been fun to watch the Knicks on a pretty regular basis and he seems to be enjoying himself and it's fun to watch him out there with like this weird young kid it's like it's just been a great story and it's been it's been cool to watch him I think he's like just a much better all-around player than he ever really gets credit for but just kind of like what he's been asked to do and what he what he was he's had available but yeah i liked you know like that jr jason kid team

was like fun i guess and in its own way but uh i this is the most i've had fun watching carmelo since since denver i i do think he's at a different point in his career yeah to some degree i i would even say he's past his prime which is a phrase that has negative connotations. But his prime, 13 and 14 combined, he's putting up almost 29 a game. 45-39-84 splits. 24.6 PR. Every night he was 28 a game. And now that's dropped to 21.5 a game.

The PR is down to 20.7. Not getting in the line quite as much. He's about 90% as much. Field goal percentage down a little bit. Just feels, you know, he's at a different point. With that said, I still think he could be the best guy on the title team. Yeah. I think you could, like, he could be the 2011 Mavs Dirk on the right team.

But this isn't the right team and I have no idea why they won't trade him well I mean I don't think he wants to be traded because that's the other thing is that he's really really come into his own as a Nick is I think that he it feels very much like he is a a Knicks legend

now I mean is he but I'm serious like he seems like a kind of guy who doesn't shirk away from being in new york seems to really love being in new york doesn't mind the media attention his wife obviously loves being in new york like they feel like a new york kind of like part of the like social life out there and then it's also like would was it is it that much better to like gamble and go play i guess you could say bulls or you could say like whatever trade you'd make to put San Carmelo somewhere? Doesn't he have all sorts of things in his contract about no trade clauses?

He must, right? Yeah. I don't know. He's in year 13 now. So he's just never going to be in the finals? Yeah. It's going to come and go. He's going to be like George Gervin?

Yeah. I think for him, probably that's why those Olympics, like he plays out of his mind in the Olympics. You know, he's like, yeah, I was never in the finals,

but did you see the 2012 Olympics? Did you see me against Portugal in round two? They should trade him. I think the Knicks fans would trade him. I think they understand the poor Zingas is the future of the team, but you could also make a case, you know, next year. Could you find one more piece?

Is there some sort of move to make? You know when it's tough to make trades when you don't have any first-round picks? Yeah, I know. Yeah. Toronto gets their pick this year. Toronto does. Yeah. Toronto is the most fascinating trade team

because the Rosens are expiring. Yeah. Could argue he has a lot of value. To have that Knicks first round pick to play with. This is also probably one of the last years you can sell high on Valanciunas and you can convince somebody that he still has value. Yeah. Why do I?

I like him, though. He's young. He's like 22. I know he is, but don't you think that this is what he's going to be? I don't know. I trade for him. Is he available? What do they want for him?

And then the last spot is just stupid. I mean, you could put Isaiah Thomas here. You could put Reggie Jackson, Kemba Walker. Isaiah Thomas' stats are basically exactly what... He's actually a little bit better from a scoring standpoint than Carmelo, which surprised me. His points are a tiny bit higher. Field goal percentage is a tiny bit higher.

Does it matter that he's like an absolute turnstile on defense? I think it does. That's why I have trouble putting him in the 12th spot. So I'm going to leave this decision up to you. Who would you put in that 12th spot? I'm surely on go with just surely like surely on a guy I enjoy watching and a guy who I'd love to see

on a big stage like this and see like in a game like this is Kemba I've had so much fun watching Kemba over the last couple of weeks he just scored what did he score 52 the other night?

Yeah he did and he's also just still incredibly like it's so weird that this happens with some guys who are just like fourth quarter killers yeah he's just so clutch right and i so i would just love to see him get a chance to be in on a stage like this i can't in good conscience put love in there horford's great i'm not even

thinking about crowder the tomb's probably the best player on that team yeah um but i would put kemba in i would not put Kemba in. Okay. I just think Isaiah's a little better offensively. And I think Kemba's probably slightly better defensively, but anybody decent is scoring either of them. I was looking at Dish Smith. Only 12 Sixer games, putting up a 17-8. He saved the Sixers.

He did save the Sixers, yeah. Coach's pick? Yeah. It's possible. I don't know. The bottom save the Sixers. Coach's pick? Yeah. It's possible. I don't know. The bottom line is that's Kyrie's spot. My problem with Isaiah as the Celtics all-star pick is that I think Crowder is the best player in the team. If you just told me you're going to be missing one of... Somebody on the Celtics is going to get hurt for the next 20 games.

Who's your worst case scenario for that person? It would be Crowder. Crowder in a heartbeat yeah that guy that he's the only real two-way guy that they have other than bradley i would probably say if there's anybody i want to get hurt for 20 games it would be evan turner because then maybe you could dedicate more of his resources towards his snapchat yeah all social media excellent yeah he's like the social media czar um yeah i I don't know. I mean, could Horford be in there just on a legacy pick? We did the Hawks thing last year. Yeah.

We took a year off the Hawks thing. Well, and everybody emulated it. Yeah. And that's a problem. That's a problem the Celtics had, too, where these teams that, with these new wave lineups and small ball and a lot of ball movement, now everybody plays that way and you're not taking anyone by surprise. Last year you're playing the Pacers and West and Hibbert are out there and you're throwing these weird lineups at them and they don't know what to do.

And now everyone has an answer. And like Atlanta, they lose Carroll, but Bazemore has been pretty good. Like shocking considering he was like a towel waiver on the Warriors and now has turned into a really solid swing guy and is probably going to get overpaid. Korver is the one that fell off for them though. Yeah. I also, is that just people figured out the combination lock on him and are just like, okay.

He's kind of quietly in his mid thirties now. Oh yeah. True. I mean, I think everybody, that goes, that's a different category because he does that whole like racing the bottom of the ocean with turtles workout routine right yeah or whatever whatever his like bizarre offseason what are you insinuating about cal carver i would never what is this al jazeera no i agree i mean it's just shooters mid-30s it's gonna flip a little you're not gonna have your legs every night you You get a little nagging injury for three weeks,

and all of a sudden your stats go down. So let me ask you this. Let's talk Cavs. Hold on, a little sabbatical before we get to the West. Okay. Yeah, Cavs, because go ahead. What were you going to say? Well, I was just going to say there we were talking about this yesterday and that they are a team that looks pretty great for 95 of their

season but when they play the two best teams in the league they look like a team from the 19 from 1984 yeah playing against playing as a team today and i don't really know what they do here i was watching so they make trades that's what they do i know they do but this morning i was like watching um a highlights from a clippers timberwolves game from december of 2013 that we actually all went to at grantland oh yeah and it was a huge uh it was like love had like 40 he put 45 19 and 6 it was the first time somebody had had that line since elijah won and love just seemed like a completely different human being right like not even i you know and this is the thing is that

they also lost that game to the clippers and you know he was easily every time down the court he was the focal point but there was something to see him not look so lost and i just think that there's something about how he's being used you know he all stuff from Jason Lloyd's Akron Beacon Journal, the numbers I got here. But he's 6 of 21 and 1 of 8 on threes and 13 points in two games against the Warriors. I mean, that's just, he's going to be a liability in the finals. Are we going to get to a finals and see Kevin Love not playing fourth quarters against the Warriors? So they have the same problem that the Celtics have, where they have too many big guys.

Nobody thinks the Celtics should win the title. No, no, but I'm saying, because I watch this with the Celtics every night and I constantly think about it. They have this team that was built for three years ago, and the crunch time for the Celtics is the three guards, Jay Crowder, and one big guy. Well, they're paying six big guys.

Yeah. And they have David Lee and Zeller and Sollinger and, I mean, Amir Johnson. It just goes on and on. Only one of them can play. You look at the Cavs. They have Kevin Love. First year of a five-year deal,

he's making like $20 million. Tristan Thompson, who they just completely overpaid. They got one last year of Mozgov. And then Veragiao for $10 million a year. And they can't play two of those guys at the same time against any team that goes small. They might not even be able to play one of those guys in the finals. Right. So I don't know what the answer is other than that they'd be a little better off with Andrew Wiggins.

Yes. I mean, we knew at the time, and we did a whole thing on Grantland about this, but I would have waited. But I think the love thing was part of the, I'll come to Cleveland if we make this Kevin Love trade, which is why Wiggins wasn't in. I always believed that. But in retrospect, the way the league has gone and how hard it is to find swing guys who are the biggest commodity now. And you can find a big guy anywhere. I'll get a big guy from 12 teams. I'm not getting Andrew Wiggins.

I'm not getting Jay Crowder. Those guys aren't available. So you have love here. And it's like, what do you do? So that's one part. It's just a basketball framework part. Then the other part is, he's somebody that needs the ball. He needs to be at the top of the key.

That's what I was watching. How many of these points are coming off of late-arriving, top-of-the-key three-pointers that he's somebody that needs the ball he needs to be at the top of the key that's what i was watching he's like yeah his points are coming off of late arriving top of the key three pointers that he's coming where he'll get a rebound on the defensive end get an outlet out team gets down the court he arrives late and then smokes a top of the key three pointer he's also doing a lot of like getting in the post and guys just standing around waiting for him to do something like he was just absolutely the fulcrum of that offense in Minnesota. Just watch him kind of linger out in the corner. Nobody really looks at him for a while,

and then he gets like a last second in the end of a shot clock three-pointer. You're just kind of like, I mean, is that much of an upgrade over? I mean, he was playing pretty well without Kyrie, which leads me to my other point, which is that maybe we're looking in the wrong direction when it comes to how to fix the Cavs. Well, but, you know, you can only have a couple guys at the top. That's part of it, right? This isn't like a movie where the more actors, the merrier.

You can only have a couple guys who can have the ball. Drogic is in the same situation in Miami. That guy needs the ball at the top of the key with people setting him picks so he can go to the basket. He's dumping the ball to Wade and running off to the side. It was a little like Kevin Love. But I, you know, this is something I think, I think Goldsberry did something for us on Grantland when the love trade happened, pointing out that Kevin Love shot chart was this specific spot of the court

that was also the exact same spot LeBron loved. Remember that? It was like the left side of the top of the key. And he was like, unless they figure out how to do a high screen with these two guys, one of them is screwed and it's not going to be LeBron love. Remember that was like the left side of the top of the key. And he was like, unless they figure out how to do a high screen with these two guys, one of them is screwed and it's not going to be LeBron. And that's exactly what happened. So they basically took away the thing. Love is the best at, which is to play on the top left key, to have somebody come out, to decide what to do using his passing. I mean, these numbers 2014 26 a game um 46 percent shooting

26.9 pr here's the big one this is the one that is super important 8.1 free throw attempts now two years later 3.7 free throw attempts he's getting getting on the line 40% as much as he did. He's scoring 10 points less. These are per 36 minutes, by the way. He's scoring 10 points less per 36 minutes. His field goal percentage is down from 46% to 41%. And he's not even shooting threes as well. No, he's not.

That's a huge thing. Every part of his game is atrophied. Yeah, and it's also from a confidence standpoint he's shot but just to go back to what i was saying about irving like here's just another thing from that jason lloyd piece which is that love's averaging 12 points 12.4 and shooting 37 since irving returned to the lineup before that he was 17.6 at 43 yeah uh i don't know that you're not really going to be able to do anything i mean i know that you we've thrown love around in trades like we've talked about like i think i was joking around about like love to phoenix with something as a make way and get tyson chandler and blood so back and you basically just are playing for next year because you don't think

you're going to win the title this year tyson chandler you'd be playing for for 2011. I know. And I don't really know what, having Tyson Chandler. I came up with a trade for you. Oh, hit me. Kevin Love for CJ McCollum. Straight up. I can't get over this. No, you laugh and it's a great trade. The Cavs would save like $18 million and what, $50 million on the luxury tax.

Yeah. The Portland has $20 million in cap space. That's where he's from, right? McCollum and Damian Lillard. Where am I going with that? Two undersized shooters? It's fun, but congratulations. I'm the eighth seed for the next 10 years.

Whereas you put McCollum on Cleveland, he's now playing over J.R. Smith, shooting 40% from three. I have another shooter. I get J.R. Smith off the court because that dude cannot be on a championship team. And I'm probably better, even though it's a trade that makes no sense

and Kevin Love's better than McCollum. And if you're Portland, you have to think about it. Of course you have to think about it. You get Lillard and Love together. That's like your team for the next 10 years. Right, if you're the Celtics, would you trade Avery Bradley and not one of the Brooklyn picks,

but just your own pick and the Memphis pick you have a couple years, would you even trade that for Kevin Love? Well, I just don't... For where the league's going. Why do you need Avery Bradley if you have Amon Shumpert? What do you mean?

Aren't Avery Bradley and Amon Shumpert, like I was talking about this last night with Fantasy, isn't that like the same guy? Well, I think the way the league has gone, they need more perimeter guys and less big dudes yes because the current roster construction is just fatally flawed it doesn't matter who they play out of the west any of those three teams is gonna throw a lineup at them that they're not gonna have an answer for unless it's della dova dova dova and shumpert and jR. Smith all playing at the same time.

You're going to lose. You can't win with that. After the Warriors game, here's the other thing, aside from just the tactical parts, is that after the Warriors game, LeBron said, we've got some inexperienced guys that haven't played enough meaningful basketball games where they can fall back on. When it gets a little tough, sometimes it's not like they can kind of fall back on previous experiences to try and help them get through it. We're going to have to go through a lot of bumps and that's okay we'll learn from it and get better yada yada but the teacher the best teacher in life is experience

thank you tau of lebron take over love see what love's got to say we got beat up on our home floor i think a lot of things went wrong a lot of things we can clean up in our preparation etc that's going to take a lot of guys looking at themselves in the mirror and it all starts with our leader over there and dwindles on down and he had sort of gestured to to lebron so it's just not that's not it's not happening like those two guys have not locked in as like teammates yeah if you said that about me with all this stuff we're planning i'd take that personally yeah i think so we'd probably get in a fight yeah yeah and that's it all starts with our leader over there yeah right and it just dwindles on down now to say nothing the fact that like jr was allegedly late for shoot around for this game

that you know i look i i kind of like the idea that you basically if you did something like kairi and varajow for chris paul and you or kairi and maz got for chris paul and you brought paul in that's like generationally I feel like that's like we have a two-year window to win that's another guy who's just at the top of the key though yeah they need to you don't think that he he couldn't like orchestrate an offense a little bit better than Kyrie no they need to flip love into a perimeter guy if they want to win this year I don't think they can win with the team they have. I just don't see it. They have... You know, I went to a Celtic game.

When was it? It was game three of round one. This was before Love got hurt. Yeah. And it felt like they'd kind of figured out that offense a little bit. I thought they looked good at the beginning part of the season without Kyrie. If they played the Warriors 20

times, how many times did they win two I don't know four I guess the x factor and this is why this is the big caveat is we've seen LeBron do this before where he goes to another level at some point that people make him mad they make him mad maybe he takes two weeks off and goes to Miami whatever he has to to do and he goes running turtles yeah he goes swimming with turtles he comes back and he's like lebron again yeah at some point in his career that's not going to happen he's not going to come out of the phone booth um it's going to have to happen soon with this team though because it just seems to me like the divide between the top three west teams and everyone i'm watching in the east it it's no contest. The third best team

in the West throws out Westbrook and Durant every night. These guys are both first team all NBA guys. Like that doesn't happen. I know. And they're in their primes.

And they have waiters. Waiters. Hold on. Got to mention our friends at SimpliSafe. Oh, please. Because we're talking about how the Cavs don't have a lot of security right now. Maybe they should get SimpliSafe. Oh, please. Because we're talking about how the Cavs don't have a lot of security right now.

Maybe they should get SimpliSafe. Yeah, I've been thinking about security. Are you ever more angry, more annoyed, more infuriated than the moment when you've been lied to? No. Yeah. Well, I see all these ads from home security companies, the one that keeps saying free, quotes and free, free, free, free, free system, million dollar value, free everything.

Here's a little tip that'll save you a huge headache later. Any home security that says free, probably a huge contract attached. Three years, thousand dollars. Who the heck knows? You're locked in. It's like the Ennis canter of security contracts totally there's and and the funny thing is there's a better way to protect your home it's called simply safe it's the home security i trust no long-term contracts no hidden fees

none of the bad stuff 24 7 professional monitoring someone's always there to call the police lightning fast absurdly easy to use and the best part if you want monitoring it's just 15 a month some of these companies are charging three times that uh go to simply safe bill.com to get my exclusive 10 discount simply safe bill.com uh also being discounted right now kevin love because i think you can get them for maybe 75% of the available talent. Alright. Let's go to the West. Let's. The West is, the starting five for the West is almost easy this year.

Yeah. It's Steph, it's Russ, it's Durant, it's Kawhi, and it's Draymond, and anyone who has any different player out of those five is crazy. What I was thinking is that could be like the best all-star lineup just for how the pieces fit with each other ever that should just be the olympic team i was just throw those five guys out send these guys to rio everybody else chill out steph russ durant

kawaii and draymond wait let carmelo go because he loves loves the Olympics. Yeah, Carmelo can sit on the bench and cheer them. So Steph is still at 30 a game. He's almost averaging 11 threes a game. He's 51-45-90 splits, 32.3 PER. Not as awe-inspiring as it was the first 20 games of the year, but still really awe-inspiring. And the the first 20 games of the year, but still really awe-inspiring. The thing that's fascinating to me, he's averaging 30 a game,

but he's only playing 33.9 minutes a game. I looked it up. Who's come the closest in minutes who's also scored 30? Girvin, 1982, 32.3 points a game, 35.3 points a game 35.7 minutes a game

almost dead even and then MJ if you project it out couldn't we also say the same thing about Ennis Cantor at 20 points he fouled out 7 times and then 91 Jordan was 31.5 points and 37

minutes a game we talked about Steph on the BS Report a million times he's modern day Maravich, he's the best shooter of all time, he's most popular guy in the league I think in the last 30 years since early Jordan

and I was a little worried he was losing his mojo a tiny bit that the streak wore them down he was a little banged up. Shit injury yeah. Yeah it's like oh man what a run i hope we don't look finally back at those first 25 games and then steph broke down a little and now he's gonna hurt his ankle no they destroyed the calves and i thought i felt like they needed to they destroyed the calves with like swagger all over it total swagger and even a little bit of chirping from steph yeah tastes like champagne. A couple,

yeah, a couple shoulder things that he does. And what I liked about that was the Spurs were creeping. And I think all the, all the smart basketball people are kind of watching that and going, yeah, the Warriors have a better record, but I think I might take the Spurs in a series.

And all those guys are online. They see all that stuff. They, all NBA players read everything now. I think that's part of what goes on. Yeah. Yeah. Especially Draymond. Yeah, especially Draymond. They're all looking for reasons to get mad.

I think Draymond starts every Warriors practice with a digest of all social media slander. Hey guys, I saw this thing on SB Nation. I just want to read it to you. So I expected them to go out in that game with a certain level of intensity and it went way beyond that. And it was a total ass smack.

And somehow the Spurs and warriors have not played yet and it's halfway through the season but that's gonna they play next month right they play i think three times three or four times that's crazy yeah my thing is does popovich just rope it up with them every time i just throw or or does no aldridge oh kawaii sitting tonight yeah kawaii's got no tony parker tonight guys you'll never know what our real team is until you see us like he might actually do that westbrook uh not chumps change putting up the 24 10 and 7 every night somehow his per is 29.3 even though it seems like he commits 40 turnovers a game do you think that when like does this just have like a like does hollinger's computer just start speaking in the war game voice? I think Westbrook broke it.

Yeah. Like, do you want to play Thermonuclear War every time you look up Westbrook on that computer? 100%. It's like, do you want to reward bad threes and a couple turnovers? I don't care. I like Russell Westbrook. Also, I would say, has the championship belt of the guy who plays the hardest every night. Yes.

He just cares the most. Loving this Thunder team this year. So much fun. Love kid. Donovan might, we might be okay. Or Scott Brooks was just so bad, like you could have taken over and it would have been better. I can't decide. Yeah.

I mean, I just think that this year, if this is the last year of these guys together together it'll be a great send-off there's entirely possible they could lose in the second round of the playoffs and they'll be one of the great what-ifs in nba history of this whole this whole window yeah this whole window will just be like how does this team not a three-time title-winning team yeah um but by the way that happens every decade there's a team like that and so it's just really it's but if this is the last time we get to see Durant and Westbrook on the floor together in this situation, I love this team. My guess would be Durant signs for one more year to time it with Westbrook

and to time it with the 2017 windfall. And they run it back. Now, if they got upset in round one or round two, who knows? All bets are off. But I find it hard to believe these guys would split up and they've really found a nice balance of you know who russ you're a little bit more of the alpha dog and i'll let you do your stuff but i'm always here and hold on i gotta miss i'm gonna take over now i just they've they've really figured

out how to play with each other it feels like like. What do you think of the rumors from the far-off reachers of space that one of the contenders for Durant free agency would be Golden State? I don't know if it works for the cap. I heard the Celtics. Oh, you heard the Celtics? I heard it in my bathroom and I muttered it to myself. There was something where it was just like how Golden State could be if they did some creative accounting, they could be in the mix for him.

If he leaves OKC, I think he goes to Miami. Wow. You're really convinced about this. I'm not convinced. I just think Riley, he just pulls it off over and over again. He sold his Miami place that he had. He had a place on the beach and he got rid of it. Maybe he's looking for a bigger place.

I think he's a guy that is ready to get out of a small town, but also feels super loyal to that small town. Yeah. And he probably, my guess, I don't want to make him mad because he gets mad at everybody. My guess is that he probably vacillates a whole bunch of different ways. But there's no chance that he goes to the Lakers or something like that. God, I hope not. That would be a bad move although you know the lakers are more appealing than they were uh like a year ago i just think that resets his championship clock three years like totally yeah

he'd have to they'd have to play like work for three years to get that and then got to say nothing the fact that he'd be playing for byron Scott. But, you know. What if he was playing with Al Horford with the Celtics? Get three Brooklyn picks coming. Durant putting up to 27, 8, and 4. 51-40-90 splits. Just gets there every year. It's so, to be a 50-40-90 guy when you're actually shooting threes is amazing. Like, it's one thing when it's steve kerr

you're shooting eight times a game or whatever but these guys are shooting 17 to 20 times a game getting to the line eight nine times and taking a pounding and um i don't know he's also uh he's playing 35.6 minutes a game which seems a little bit high a little high do you think you may scale that back a tiny bit yeah it's there i think they're a game, which seems a little bit high. A little high. Scale that back a tiny bit. Yeah. I think they're a little high off of getting him back and having everything clicking for once because it's been such a grind for the last calendar year.

And we all wanted to see him play two months, and he did it. And they started out 7-6, and now they're 31-12. I think Kawhi, I would have Kawhi just a slight sliver over him this season. Yeah. Super efficient, best defensive player in the league. LeBron actually looked afraid of him, which I can't really remember seeing since the 2011

finals when LeBron was afraid of J.J. Barea. The reason I like watching Kawhi so much is when you watch him, you're just like, I don't know where this guy's ceiling is. Yeah. If you told me he was running point guard for the Spurs in two years. I don't know necessarily. I wouldn't laugh at it. Yeah.

I have no idea what, what he isn't capable of. What about him in fast furious 10? It would have to be a silent film, but that would be, you said, you know where a ceiling was. That's true.

Maybe he becomes like the master of Aaron Sorkin dialogue. One quote. Yeah. Now he's just driving cars and looking mean. Shut down Vin Diesel. Uh now he's just driving cars and looking mean shutting down vin diesel uh he's shooting 48 from three that's insane making two a game which is just nuts because he came in the league he couldn't shoot that's why justice winslow basically the same thing right the the great athletes who are super competitive are just gonna lock themselves into a gym until they figure it out.

I think somebody like Kid Go-Crest will never be able to shoot a three just because his motion's broken. Right. But if you're, that's why with Ben Simmons, they're like, oh, he can't shoot from the outside. Yeah, I'm pretty sure when he's like 25, that dude will be making 20 footers. You guys talk about this a lot more, but I don't know whether this is an impact of the AAU college system that provides the talent. But in the 80s, did they talk about, well, we just got to fix his shot and then he'll be great. Was that ever something that people talked about in the 80s?

Or was it just like, oh no, he can just shoot? 100%. It was. Dennis Johnson was a good example of somebody who never really had an outside shot and then eventually became semi-reliable 17-footer, but they always left him open. He couldn't shoot threes.

Yeah, there were always guys. There were guys like Quinn Buckner, people who were just bricklayers. I think that the coaching and the science and whatever they do now is just better. You rarely see people who are just abominable shooting. What's weird is the free throw shooting. The fact that we have this cluster now of horrendous free throw shooters right we have multiple guys under 40 meanwhile there's only been like 12 guys in the history of the league that have been under 40 like playing big minutes you know the deandre drummond guy yeah right it's more than deandre

drummond right tate isn't there more guys than that? What? Like under 50%? Yeah, DeAndre? Yeah, Verge, yeah. Well, he doesn't shoot free throws anymore, but anyway. And then Draymond is a no-brainer fifth guy. Edging close to 10 rebounds a game,

but also over seven assists a game and over 15 points. And is running that read option from the top of the key once they do once people try to trap out steph up like you know at midcourt then draymond is basically playing bootleg offense right like up the top right and it's like that's awesome like watching him throw lobs or or hit corner passes or do floaters is great it's it's it's like a new player he's just like a new NBA player yeah he's second round

during an era where people were like oh you can find some gems in the second round this isn't like 1982 where you just stumble into this guy like they all looked at him he was in the he was in March Madness he made like the final four so let me ask you this as a Sixers fan watching the team repeatedly try to get something going with one of the top three picks yeah and turn it flip it into anything do you think that part of the lesson three picks. Yeah. And flip it into anything. Do you think that part of the lesson that we should take from the Warriors, aside from the small ball and all the positionless offense and switching on defense that they do, is the fact that they're doing it with two seventh picks,

an 11th and a 35th pick? Something to prove, guys. Yeah. But just also that you don't necessarily need to be in the top three to put together a core. Steph's kind of like a miracle, I guess. Yeah, it really was stupid when Minnesota passed him twice, though. It was legitimately ridiculous when it happened.

But yeah, the something to prove thing, I think the one thing that people forget when they draft guys is the competitiveness part. And Draymond was a guy that the rap on him was he was overweight which is real like that's something you might struggle with your whole career might be undersized and he was like a like an inch small and I we were talking about this yesterday with Gary Harris Gary Harris fell to 20 and it was like he's an inch too small to be a two guard if that's your only reason somebody's gonna drop 10 spots that's a bad reason because we've seen

too many of these guys oh he's like Sollinger another one solinger fell to like 21 in that draft there's like he's too short his back hurts he's like that guy's gonna put up stats if he plays yeah it's a 10th man at least well gary harris is also another thing where it you know people were pronouncing that guy's career over and he just one bad rookie season 21 you know yeah with no point guards yeah i guess i said the same thing about Valanciunas earlier. But you forget. I haven't seen James Young much this year. But that's another guy where everybody was just like, James Young.

He's going to be playing for Maine for the rest of his life. And it's like, maybe he'll be good. He's going to be young. He's young. Well, I don't know. He's not 21 yet. I hate giving up anyone who's not 21. The way the NBA does it, I think the Spurs are the only team that have figured out how

to use the schedule to also develop young players, where they're just like, hey, tonight these three guys are off. Yeah. Jonathan Simmons, you're going to play 20 minutes tonight. Jonathan Simmons was bagging groceries, though, wasn't he? Wasn't Jonathan Simmons bagging groceries a year ago? Steven, who I've been Kind of up and down with

This year I don't Really Honeymoon's over Nah I don't think you can play 12 guys a game I think you gotta go in

And be like We're playing these 10 And you three are sitting And you'll play I just don't think You can juggle that many guys But I wish he approached The season like the Spurs do

For the bench Here's my first sub on the bench. This is like my first bench guy that has to be on. Klay Thompson. Yeah. Like, it starts for me. He has to be on my all-star team. Him and Steph combined are 8 for 18 from 3 every night.

And that's got to matter. And that's the most relevant team. And they should have three all-stars. And it would be ridiculous not to. I also's only he's playing less than 33 minutes a game putting up over 20 a game and he's a great defensive player for that position yeah i would say he's in the top three or four um and and allows them to do a lot of different things i thought when barnes was out he was able to he can always guard the toughest guy. He can guard Chris Paul from time to time. And then has in his locker like the crazy 36 point night.

Yeah. Once a month he'll have the 10 three pointers or whatever he does. He's also a guy that I do think if he had ended up on a different team, his career might've been a little bit different. Oh yeah. He's a good victim of. If he's on the Bucks, who knows? Right.

Yeah. I was there when he, when the day after they traded Monte, they played the Celtics, and I went to the game, and I had good seats. I was sitting courtside. And Clay, it was the first time they kind of unleashed him. You could tell right away. I was like, this guy's great. Yeah.

This guy's a gem. Who is this guy? He was one of those. He was just good. He had it. I mean, was Who is this guy? He was one of those. He was just good. He had it. And I know, I mean, was the defense there then? He just seemed athletic and tall and could shoot and had a right stroke and was competitive. I don't know why he went 11th.

That's weird. Other than the fact that we have a lot of bad GMs. I have LaMarcus Aldridge also. I need two spurs. They're 36 and 6. You can't tell me there's only one Spur in the All-Star team. No, I would prefer having Boban on there.

Yeah, or Boban. Whatever Spur you want. I picked him. He's putting up 16-9. He's fine. I have two clips. I have Chris Paul and I have Blake Griffin. Chris Paul, typical Chris Paul season. He's in his post-prime. He's saltier and angrier and more unlikable in person than ever.

How are you feeling about our annual man they look good without Blake Griffin? It's weird. It's just weird. Way better this year than last year too. It's just strange. It's you know if you're watching a TV show if you're watching Game of Thrones

and Dinklage is just out for eight episodes and the show's better that would be weird it'd be weird yeah the show needs dinklage the clips have always if if chris paul's out or blake's out the team plays better and i don't know if it's because they're trying to prove a point or the every it's all all hands on deck without whatever or it's sort of also that when it's it's also when chris blake and deandre play together that blake is always just on the elbow or even farther out and i know he can play really well from out there but the irony of this whole thing is that within the draymond warriors

copycat everybody's got it like the the clips have the guy it's blake yeah just play him at center play a small ball lineup around blake and throw DeAndre the hell out of there. DeAndre is having a decent DeAndre season. Double-double every night. I don't think you can win a title if you play him and Blake together, especially with the way the NBA is going. No way. So I don't know what they do.

They just double down on DeAndre, give him all this money. Blake's missed 11 games at the time of this taping. That's not enough for me for him not to be in the All-Star. He's 23-9-5. So you're okay with that, right? Yeah, I'm fine with that. What about Nowitzki? I'm having a little bit of a hard time understanding.

Is this sentimental? I saw this is on Zach's ballot, too. I mean, I think Dirk's fine, but you really have Dirk in... Well, I want to let you finish your team, but... Well, I have him. He's 18-7. 45-40-90 splits. Pretty good.

Yeah. Making almost two threes a game. He's only playing 31 minutes a game. He's playing with the Walking Dead cast. His team is like, you watch them and you don't understand how they win. He makes big shots for them over and over again. He's still reliable. They throw him the ball top of the key.

Any close game, like the Celtics lost to them in overtime the other night. And it's like, they just figured out all these different ways to get Isaiah Thomas to guard Dirk. And it kept working. And it's just Dirk shooting over Isaiah Thomas. And I'm like, I'm in hell. I'm just in hell. Just shoot me. The guy's still an alpha dog crunch time guy.

Yeah. And he's 100 years old. Like he's in year 18. Only 10 guys ever average more than 10 points a game in year 18. Only four guys average 15 or more in year 18. Only 10 guys ever averaged more than 10 points a game in year 18. Only four guys averaged 15 or more in year 18. 2003 mailman. 1987 Kareem, who was an alien. 92 Moses, who I don't even know.

It was some crap. And Dirk. This is not common. I'm rewarding him because of all the people we're about to mention. What do you think of Tommy Heinchen's comparison of Olenek to Dirk, that that's his ceiling? I don't know. Olenek's had some moments.

He does throw the Dirk thing around a lot. Yeah. Probably not great for Kelly. Kelly will have a moment on a playoff team at some point in his life, though. Sure. He's the guy I could see the Spurs getting and him just hitting big threes for them in 2024. When he probably has a crew cut at that point. I think that's one of my favorite Tommy comparisons in a really long time.

Who was the guy he compared to Bill Russell? That was the worst one because he played with bill russell like he should have been protective of bill russell it was it was some guy like some 14th man i'm really excited about your 11 12 debate here though well i i put davis in i don't feel good about it because that team's 14 and 27 has this been one of the the toughest guy playing up to maybe unreasonable expectation seasons in a really long time. Yeah.

Cause he's putting up 23 and 10. He's PR 24. Now the league belongs to Davis. That was before the season. Right. But I think you can't then have a backlash where he's not on the Austin. That's what I'm saying is that it was weird. Cause he's almost fall completely out of discussion.

It used to be the new Orleans was like must see TV. People were watching. I know that they are just absolute trash to watch. Horribly coached. Tyreek is just, it might be, I don't know what's going on. What happened with the Gentry thing? Gentry might be the worst coach in the league. Really?

You think that? He might be. Just from performance for this season, it's him or Hornacek. You think he's got the pieces to get a good team out of that? Hornacek might be trying to get fired, though. Yeah, Hornacek must be. Those guys also aren't playing for him at all. He had Ish Smith.

So did the Sixers. I can't believe we traded for Ish Smith. But that team should be going up and down. You could have had Ish Smith just going balls to the wall with Davis running the floor and Ryan Anderson in the corner. There's ways that could have had like ish smith just going balls to the wall with davis running the floor and ryan anderson in the corner and like there's peace there's ways that could have worked uh ashik that contract was the worst contract that's another 2012 guy like that's a guy who's just out of the league you know it's like what do you do with ashik nothing and he's very available for

anyone who wants to trade sure uh and then gordon the one of the you know he's hurt now yeah he'll be i noticed it was like very not convenient but like he'll be getting ready he'll be back right before the trade deadline right probably yeah but i i'm not gonna totally blame him i will say though watching him um he signed a huge deal it doesn't seem like he's playing with the kind of you know nobody's westbrook but i don't feel like it's playing with the kind of, you know, nobody's Westbrook. But I don't feel like it's been life or death in him in some of these games I watch. It just seems very resigned to his fate, which is a bad sign. Those first 10 games and when you lose, when you're almost out of it in the first two weeks of the season like that,

first three weeks of the season, like what that does to your season psychologically. Because I remember when the 2001 Sixers team that went to the finals and they started off that season winning 10 that was the team had no business being that good but there's something about that early season momentum that happens or the reverse of that where if you lose a bunch in the beginning of the season like that it's really hard to get out of that yeah especially when you've just been handed 120 million dollars or whatever you got right they have an interesting thing with him though where the the all nba or whatever he got. They have an interesting thing with him, though, where the all-NBA or whatever, he could trigger an extra $20 million or something for his contract if he makes

all-NBA first team. I forget what it was, but I don't think he's going to make the all-NBA the way the season's coming. They've come on a little bit. All right. Well, this is the most fun part of the whole podcast, and then we're going to go. The 12th man. We're good with davis right

yeah so you you don't think dirk's gonna make it no i think boogie all right well so we'll say there's two spots open here because davis will make it yeah i have dirk in one of these spots but then we have all these guys for this other spot but before we uh talk about it i want to talk quickly about the channel 33 podcast that you're on. Yeah, sure. So you and Andy Greenwald are doing The Watch. Yes. Which just got recognized by EW.

It did. That was really nice. It was nice of them. Once a week, that one. Yeah, that's on Mondays. Andy does some interviews every once in a while. That's right. You and Juliet do NBA Sources Says.

That's right. Sources Say. Sources Say. Once a week. Once a week. Yeah. And then Juliet has a little bachelor party going Yeah

That's happening So she's got the reality Angle cover We got NBA We got Andy and I Talking about television Yeah Andy's doing interviews

With television showrunners And writers and actors Yeah So all you have to do Is go to iTunes Or SoundCloud Or Stitcher You subscribe to channel 33

I make an appearance On it every once in a while. We'll probably have some more cast characters. Oh, and Julia and Amanda. Yeah, jam session. Amanda Dobbins moves here in February in jam session. We'll be starting with Julia and Amanda. We're going to spin off some of these eventually, but right now, check out Channel 33.

Subscribe there, and you'll hear all of our people. All right, the 12th spot. James Harden. of our people all right the 12th spot james harden did you think that you would be sitting here in january of 2016 wondering whether james harden was an all-star well here's the catch he is an all-star and yet i can't i don't feel good about putting him on the team he shows up out of shape mikhail gets fired his teammates look like they all want to, you know, it's like the guy, this is a 35-year movie reference, sorry, brace yourself,

but in Airplane, Robert Hayes, the pilot, he's telling the stories and they cut to the person next to them and they're pouring gasoline on themselves trying to set themselves on fire. That's what everyone on the Rockets looked like with James Harden.

They're just so tired of playing with him. And then the defense slipped way back. And I think what happened with him is, I mentioned this theory before, but a year ago, coming off the Olympics, he's in shape, competing against these guys, comes in this season, he's in the best shape of his life. This year, no.

Not the best shape of his life. And I blame him for that. This team should have been one of the best teams. This is another expectations team. A couple of the themes of the season. Some of these teams not living up to expectations. The lower tier teams. Pelicans, Rockets.

But in this case, this is really inexcusable. He was one of the best four players in the league last year. And this team should be good. And this team should be good. And they have real pieces. And I blame him. Yeah. real pieces. And I blame him. Yeah. Over everyone else, I blame him.

And Daryl Morey for putting a sabermetric friendly team without any regard whatsoever for how the personalities might mesh. I feel comfortable tweaking him a little on that. Okay. I think this is a Sloan Conference team where it's like the panel topic is when advanced stats go wrong. It's all these situations, all these decisions

in a vacuum made sense, but the team they put together, it was a personality nightmare. Yeah. And there's no leadership and there's a bunch of head cases and it just didn't work. Here's the catch with Harden though.

He's still averaging 27 and a half a game he's still putting up seven and six for rebounds and assists pr still way up there like statistically there's a great case for him and he's one of the best crunch time guys in the league when he wants to be yeah and he gets to the line he's just not making threes this year so i don't know that's the case for him i actually you know especially you watch that Clips Rockets game, like Dwight is putting up 15 and 12 pretty quietly. He's only missed seven games. He killed DeAndre.

You want Dwight on the Celtics? No. No. But we have to mention him for the all. Because if you're going to mention DeAndre, you have to mention Dwight. Sure. And then Boogie Cousins would be the other one he's averaging almost 26 and 11 every night i feel like boogie's on the all-star team this isn't really his mistake games

one because he gets suspended and they they crater when he's not playing he's taking almost four threes a game you're not into that he's only shooting 44%. That's horrible. You're a big guy. You're not 50%. That's an abomination. That's something that happens at the tail end of your career. Defense comes and goes. But can be very good.

I would say he... I hate calling anyone a cancer. I would say maybe not a fun guy to play with from time to time yeah okay um i would say he's in one of the best situations any good player can be in where it's this team all they do is revolve around his offense he is told over and over again that they coddle him we love you you're a guy all we need you to do is just be you oh you want to shoot four threes a game great go ahead here's rondo rondo doesn't want to shoot all he wants to do is just be you. Oh, you want to shoot four threes a game? Great. Go ahead. Here's Rondo.

Rondo doesn't want to shoot. All he wants to do is give you the ball. Yeah. And this team is still six games under 500. And here's why I didn't put him on. They had the Warriors come there like, what, two, three weeks ago. Big game. Yeah.

Time for the Kings to really kind of show that maybe they're a playoff team. And he gets 5,012 minutes and then gets kicked out can you rely on this guy no but i think he's an all-star i don't feel good about it okay um with that said if you wanted to put him on that's fine i i i feel like you can't really in good conscience not have him on i also oh i can totally in good conscience not have him on what are you talking about the guys that you also have here that are in competition i just feel like boogie's having a much better season than dirk who would you rather play with oh dirk but this isn't about my that is that it's totally what it's about all stars not the who would you rather play

with i'd rather play with kent basemore and and you know like i would rather play with a bunch of guys who are really cool to hang out with i'd rather play with Kent Baysmore and, you know, like I would rather play with a bunch of guys who are really cool to hang out with. I'd rather play with campaign. Let's switch Dirk and Zaza with Boogie and what power? Omar, Omri Caspi. Okay. Is Sacramento a playoff team? Well, probably not.

Dirk's professionalism. We saw how Dirk and rondo worked out last time i forgot about that damn it yeah all right although i really love seeing rick carlisle coach boogie so you're saying boogie and harden are in and dirk's out yes i'm not gonna do that because i love basketball and i love dirk nalitzky and i love chemistry and I love Dirk Nowitzki. I feel like you're setting me up. And I love chemistry and I think the little things matter. Well, if we're just going off of our feeling here, let's get the newly tatted up J.J. Redick in there. Well, that's what I was thinking.

I was hoping we'd get there. Yeah. Shooting 50% from three. Almost making three a game. 19 PER. He's never looked more in shape. Or tatted up. He just looks...

This is the J.J. Redick we wanted 10 years ago coming out of the Morrison draft. This is our dream J.J. Redick. What if J.J. Redick just keeps getting tattoos and keeps getting better? I love it. And he's the first guy with the Sons of Anarchy jail guy full body tats,

but he's shooting like 60% from three. I want this to get to a point where he gets rid of the J.J. It's like, 60% from three. I want this to get to a point where he gets rid of the JJ. It's like, I'm James now. Or Jimmy. I'm Jimmy Redick. That'd be great. You can make a case he's more valuable to the Clippers than Blake Griffin.

At this point, yeah. Because when Blake comes out, they figure out how to win without him. If you took JJ's shooting and his motion out of that offense, it's just a clock toilet. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know the answer. The other guys that,

uh, Marcus saw who's showed up out of shape and a little banged up and just has to be mentioned. Then towns and Wiggins. I've just enjoyed them. They should at least be on a miss the cut list. Yeah. And you have Deandre on here too.

Yeah. I just can't watch that guy play basketball no it'd be great if they just i wish they hacked deandre in the all-star game i would hack him out of my brain yeah all-star hacking deandre if deandre was was a girl i would break up with him and tell him it's not you it's me yeah then i would unfollow them from facebook after that would be after you wrote them an incredibly long email to try to convince them to come back with you. No, I would never convince them to come back.

I just can't watch him play basketball anymore. He's the most frustrating, does a couple things that I know he can do, and does a couple things that he just can't do. We're coming into this now. Who's the team that you think? Because one of the things that's sort of't do. Do you think, so we're coming into this now, who's the team that you think, because one of the things that's sort of been weird about thinking about trades this year is just how much the vocabulary of it,

the idea of expiring contracts is sort of, the value of those have been diminished with the cap and everything. Yeah. Who do you think is a team that could actually do something, who actually should do something? Do you think they should break up the Clippers? Do you think that they should do something?

I don't think you can break them up until this summer. The greatest trade that's in there, and a couple different people have emailed this to me, is, this is a great who says no. You ready? We should end on this one.

Blake Griffin to Miami. For Chris Bosh and Justice Winslow. Wow. end on this one yeah blake griffin to miami for chris bosh second wait a second for chris bosh and justice winslow wow who says no who says no blanc coat does blanc coat say no who's that white side oh what's that who says no i don't know does that where does that put them with the Durant sweepstakes? I think they're fine if they let Wade go. They can Blake and Durant next year. I'd love to have Winslow in LA.

Winslow? How about Bosh? How well would Bosh fit in with the Clips? I feel like the Clips could win the title with that trade. You know what Doc wants to do? He played against Bosh. He coached against Bosh in the Eastern Conference Finals. Clips, I think, have to do that trade.

I think Miami says no. Because they don't want to get rid of Bosh? Or because they don't want to get rid of Winslow? Blake was in the playoffs last year. Blake put together 13 of the best playoff games that have ever been strung together in the history of the league. And all of us ever been strung together in the history of the league. And all of us said he's now the third best player in the league. And yet I almost feel like they, no, they'd say yes.

I think both teams say yes to that. It's a great trade. But Bosh and Winslow for Blake, the Warriors are like, oh shit. So the starting Clippers five would be Paul, Redick, Winslow, Bosh, DeAndre. Right. And then in crunch time, maybe you take DeAndre out. Little Paul Pierce. Yeah.

Can we get, can we allow Paul Pierce to cheat? Can he take PDs? We all love Paul Pierce, right? Yeah. I don't want him going anywhere. Can we send to germany for a nice little three month pd cycle i'm totally fine with it i love paul pierce and then miami has wade drogich griffin and nothing white side that's right yeah did the rentant coming this summer. It's great.

It's a great one. I don't know who says no. I don't think we can top that. You got to end on that. That's it? Yeah. Kevin Love for Avery Bradley? I mean, would you do... I still think Blake Griffin for Kevin Durant's fun.

You can't trade Durant. If he's like, I'm walking. You guys got gotta know that he would never do that though Blake Griffin that's also the one team where Blake wouldn't be totally pissed off

yeah going home you'd trade him anyway like trade him to Denver trade him all these different places he'd be like oh you guys are such dicks for Gobert and Lyles

like yeah you're going to Miami like oh okay yeah alright make that work. I think if you do that trade though, you'd probably have to follow that up with either figure out something with Wade or something with Dragic. If you wanted to make a run this year with Miami.

Right. God, what a trade that would be. That would be like a complete lead changer. It really would. I actually think the doc... I don't know. I don't know who says no. Who says no?

I don't know. All right. Thanks to SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe has no long-term contracts, period. You get the best 24-7 protection possible for just $14.99 a month. It's the only security I trust. Visit SimpliSafeBill.com to get 10% off SimpliSafeBill.com. You cannot get a better trade at SimpliSafe than Chris Bosh and Justice Winslow for Blake Griffin.

But you can get great security for $14.99 a month. Thanks to HBO. You don't need cable or satellite to watch HBO anymore. Just download the HBO Now app and start your free one-month trial today. Thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS Podcast and Channel 33. Subscribe to both those podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. And thanks to Chris Ryan. Thanks for having me. That was fun.

What was your biggest disagreement? I think that my biggest disagreement was Dirk in the Western Conference. Because you hate basketball chemistry and winning. That's right. I just want Boogie to destroy the league. You want Boogie to be a cancer. You want to bet on the East. You want Boogie to be a cancer in the West.

I still love you, Boogie. I would take you on the Celtics in a heartbeat. We'll be back Friday with Joe Hass and NFL picks. Until then.