The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 57: NBA Reddit Mailbag w/ Joe House

Episode Date: January 29, 2016

HBO's Bill Simmons hosts a mega NBA Reddit mailbag with Joe House! Topics include: Blake Griffin trade ideas, Grizzlies & Mike Conley (13:00), Gordon Hayward (16:00), Cavs trade options (23:00), Kings playoff chances (34:00), Ben Simmons lottery bump (41:00), Anthony Davis (43:00), John Wall's new agent (49:00), Dwight Howard's next team (57:00), LeBron's role in Blatt firing (1:03:00) and three burning questions for David Stern (1:07:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Friday Rollin' is brought to you by SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the Bill Simmons Podcast and Channel 33. Enter promo code BS and buy Broncos Panthers tickets on SeatGeek. God, it makes me sad that the Patriots aren't in that sentence. They will send you $100 on that purchase. SeatGeek's Broncos Panthers prices are the lowest out there and they always show you the full price up front with no hidden fees, unlike some of these the lowest out there. And they always show you the full price up front with no hidden fees. Unlike some of these other people out there to get a hundred dollars off your

purchase, download the free C geek app and enter promo code B S. And one more, here's a little tip. Any home security that says it's free, quote unquote, has a huge contract attached three years, thousands of dollars.

You're locked in. Well, there's a better way to protect your home. That would be our buddies at SimpliSafe Home Security. No long-term contract, 24-7 protection, $14.99 a month. It's the only security I trust. For my special 10% off discount, please visit SimpliSafeBill.com. Let's go

is it clear enough for your house oh it's clear it is friday and we are rolling we uh first of all people ask how they can email us questions. And the answer is if you go on bill Simmons podcast.com, which is a little Tumblr page we created that has all the podcasts for this one. And for our channel 33 podcast that FI, my wife has been kind of secretly going on Juliet Lemon's bachelor pod. Have not made a big deal out of this. Yeah. She's done two pods.

Right. Yeah. Under an assumed identity, the sports gal or not assumed under anonymous identity real identity but it's a real identity well she is the sports gal but uh so if you go to that page billsimmonspodcast.com there is an email thing and you can email us questions but for this podcast we asked our friends at nba reddit i did a little post, created a thread, and said,

hey, send us questions. We'll answer them on this podcast, on Friday Rolling. So here we go. GG asks, what should we make of this Blake Griffin incident?

It is eerily reeking of the Kevin Love knuckle pushups saga. Here's my take. I have no idea if I'm right or I'm wrong. Just talking out loud. Saturday night, Toronto. He's not playing the next day because he's still hurt. Toronto's a very fun city.

I think drinks were involved. I think mistakes were made. And if I were him, I would just come out and say that wouldn't you house yeah i i i think we're in a day and age where the truth is is the best and the faster you can get the truth out and and put a pin in uh you know pop pop the um the the balloon uh but yeah well it's it's i was i wanted to come up with a name for the balloon. The faux outrage. The internet balloon.

Yeah, the hot take balloon, the first take balloon, all of that, the BS balloon. I don't mean the Bill Simmons balloon. Well, you could. You've got to do it. And, you know, it is a little bit of a snake bit kind of thing for Blake to be right on the brink of returning from injury. Right. And then to have a lapse of judgment that, what is he, 24, 25-year-old?

All right, but it's beyond a lapse of judgment, though. We've had some of those lapses of judgment in our lives at points in time. Yeah, but wait a second. You and I have known each other since September 1988. I don't even think we've ever had an argument. Have we? We've argued. It's all good nature, though.

Yeah, I'm trying to think the last time I was mad at you. We've yelled at each other on a basketball court, but briefly. Yeah, for sure. First of all, to punch one of your friends is pretty pretty strange if it's your good friend but then the guy's a foot shorter than you and then on top of it seems to be pretty popular with that clippers team makes me wonder you know zach wrote about it today

in general we always wondered if that team should make a move anyway, and now it seems like if they want to win a title, he broke his shooting hand, which means they said four to six weeks. No way. I'm calling BS on that. That's a two-month injury. NFW. Yeah, two-month injury minimum, right? Eight weeks.

Eight weeks. So do you trade him? Do you trade him for somebody who could help you win now? Does the trade push you into win now mentality um do you even risk having him come back his hand's not totally right maybe he needs a second surgery like who knows um which leads to the next question from uh dick cheney's rifle i love these these reddit names are hilarious. That's a good one. Should the Celtics make a run at Blake?

If so, what's the most you would give up? Hmm. Okay. Obviously, a Brooklyn pick would have to be involved. Yeah. Well, first of all, should they make a run? The answer is yes. Yes.

Yeah. In the playoffs last year, we all agreed Blake was the third best player in the league. Right? And he had a little stretch there during the season where it was legit to have him in the MVP conversation. Yeah, he's... Maybe like a six-week, eight-week stretch. I would argue that on a team that didn't have Chris Paul on it and didn't have a clogging center, lane-clogging center, his stats would even be better if you ran the offense through him. He's somebody that potentially on the right team could be a 25, 10, and 5 guy.

27 years old, I think. What's interesting about his career is he missed his entire rookie season, and now he's basically going to miss 50 games of this season. Yeah, I was guessing that he was a little younger. I messed that up. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

So I'm the GM of the Clippers. The Celtics come, and they offer me Jay Crowder, some expiring contract, let's say David Lee, and that Brooklyn pick, the 2016 Brooklyn pick for Blake. What do you do? No, no. It's not enough. What else do I have to throw in?

A player that can immediately assist with the bench situation in L.A. Another live, good contributor. Somebody, and Zach wrote it, and I like this quite a bit, like Avery Bradley. All right, so the Clippers come back to the Celtics and they say, Jay Crowder, Avery Bradley, and the Brooklyn pick for Blake.

What do I do if I'm running the Celtics? Yes. Yes, I agree. I accept. I think... We've done a deal. We have a deal. Oh, man. We, I agree. I accept. I think... We've done a deal. We have a deal. Oh, man. We have a deal. This is the point of having the assets. This is precisely what you've been

building to this very moment, this opportunity. You don't know when the opportunity is going to show itself, but this is why you collect assets. So when the opportunity does arise, you push these valuable assets into the middle of the table and say, let's do this big thing. All right, so the Clips make that trade. They have Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Avery Bradley as the third guard. They have Jay Crowder, who is excellent.

I think he's the Celtics' best player. I know Isaiah made the All-Star team, but I actually watched the Celtics, and Jay Crowder is the most indispensable guy in the team. Is he getting any most improved player buzz? Nah, he was good the second half of last year. So you have him. You have the peep.

You have the peep. You have DeAndre, Cole Aldridge. I'm probably leaving somebody out, right? That still doesn't feel like a finals team to me. Crawford's on the team. Did you say Jamal? Oh, Jamal Crawford. Yeah, I got four guards.

That's an important guy. Yeah. The important reason to have Bradley is the defensive part of this. I mean, you have to, in this Western Conference, have somebody that's going to just be able to chase the guards that you're going to run up against. At least the chase part of it, you know what I mean? So crunch time, they'd probably have to play the three guards together.

So they'd play Chris, JJ, Avery Bradley, Jay Crowder, and DeAndre Jordan, which is actually not a bad team to throw at the Warriors. I still think the Warriors would be better. But they'd also have that Brooklyn pick as possible trade bait if they wanted to go get some. It's interesting. Where is Deshaun in all this? I mean, I know where he is physically on the bench right now.

Who? Oh, no, I said Deshaun. That's the funniest thing I've ever done. You meant Lance? Lance, yes. Lance is playing pretty well for them. I have Deshaun in my, Deshaun Stevenson. How about that in the wayback machine?

So Cynical New Yorker asked, should the Celtics offer the Brooklyn pick a half-eaten zucchini and a used condom for Blake Griffin? That's rude. And then, please explain why you'd be hesitant to part with the half-eaten zucchini and a used condom for Blake Griffin. That's rude. And then please explain why you'd be hesitant to part with the half-eaten zucchini. Who says no? Well, I actually would give up the Brooklyn pick for Blake Griffin.

I wouldn't even blink. That's why you have those assets to get somebody like that. Wismania asks, Boban for Blake Griffin, straight up. Who says no? I don't know. Boban's an internet sensation. He really is. He's everything you loved about George Mirosan,

but you don't feel bad. Like, George Mirosan used to make me feel bad. You know, he had that pituitary gland thing. Boban feels more of the... It feels like he has a normal life, for the most part. I'm not sure that... At the outset of George's, uh,

career, George's career here, um, the pituitary gland thing, I think was, was understood to be manageable. And then it turned out to not be, um,

are you sure that Boban doesn't have one of those? He probably does. His hand is like, he's like Andre the giant. Uh, here's a good one. Mantis Tobias six sends us in, and this has been discussed on the internet. It's not an one. Mantis Tobias 6 sends us in. And this has been discussed on the internet.

It's not an original thought. But Blake for Melo. I mean, I really like it. Melo is a few years older. I think he's... So he was the 2003 draft. But I think he's only four years older. But I think he's got a nice little run

left. My thing for the clips is it depends on what their objective is. And if their objective is we want to win the title this year, because we have a window that's closing with Chris Paul, then this is the trade to make. And it would make them good right away. I would give them a chance to be a top three seed. And if I'm the other teams in the conference, that's the trade that scares me the most. And I think the answer to your if question, if this is the year that we're going to go for it all,

they answered that at the beginning of the season. They've already circled this season as their make or break directional season. And if that's the case, whether or not Doc stays, whether or not the corpus of Paul, DeAndre, and Blake stays together, if all of that is on the table, then, yeah, you say, F it. Let's get Melo in here and take our shot.

And you don't look at, you know, what the Spurs and the Warriors have accomplished so far this season and the regular season and use that as a disincentive to try and take your run. I wouldn't say. I would say let's put the very best thing that we can put together here. We have an opportunity to really take a genuine run at it, and let's do it. I wouldn't be scared off by the Spurs or Warriors. Do you know who Carmelo's agent is?

Oh, boy. I bet I'm going to like it. Who is it? It's agent is? Oh, boy. I bet I'm going to like it. Who is it? It's Leon Rose. Oh, interesting. Do you know who Chris Paul's agent is? Is it Leon Rose? It's Leon Rose.

Whoa. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. It is pretty interesting, isn't it? It's pretty interesting. Is Doc's agent Leon Rose also? Who knows?

Here's one from Tomasini407. All three Nets picks for Anthony Davis. Who says no? It's absurd. Who says no? The Pelicans. The's absurd. I mean. Who says no? The Pelicans. The Pelicans. They can never, ever, never trade Anthony Davis.

I'm offering you all three Brooklyn. I'm going to give you all three Brooklyn picks. You have all of them. Come on, man. Come on. Hey, let's talk about the Memphis Grizzlies because they don't get enough attention. I feel bad. Everyone just talks about the same four teams Boyer asks

Should the Grizzlies give Mike Conley the max if not, what the hell should they do? I think they should trade him I would blow up that team because that team is going nowhere fast and the move is to trade Mike Conley right now and try to figure out how to reconfigure some stuff.

They have, you know, he's just one of four players that they need to sort out. They're going to have Marc Gasol for, you know, the deal he designed, the extension. That's your centerpiece, not to whatever. Yeah, yeah, I got you. But beyond that, whatever, right? I mean, who knows?

Everything's up for grabs. There's nobody that I would sign to any kind of a max deal. Jeff Green's expiring. Zach is under contract for, I think, at least one more year, but at a really good price, like $9 million, $10 million, something like that. Pau is a free agent, and I was always wondering if Pau would end up finishing his career back there, even though he left on terrible terms and they kind of hate him there.

But if it was a Gasol brothers thing. I've always said this, but I love the idea of them just going full Spanish. That's the move. You keep pounding that. They're on pace right now for 47 wins, and they've been playing better. I still think there's a reasonable shot at them getting to 50 wins and getting, you know, they and the Clippers, I think,

are going to be battling out for the four seed. Maybe it doesn't matter because the four and five. Well, Dallas is still kind of threatening. You don't want to be six, seven, or eight in this year's Western Conference playoffs. No, Dallas is still kind of threatening. You don't want to be six, seven, or eight in this year's Western Conference playoffs. No, sir. Because you're going to get your ass dusted. Yeah. But even

if you get to five, you're going to lose in round two. Well, I... Okay, but, you know... Here's another question. Are we sure Mike Conley is going to resign in Memphis? Would you resign? Somebody's another question. Are we sure Mike Conley is going to re-sign in Memphis? Would you re-sign? Somebody's going to give him the max. Yeah, they should do the best they can.

I don't at all have any argument with the idea of getting the very best deal you can for him right now. But, you know, there's now competition for point guard because Jeff Teague is on the table. I know. And I was having fun with the Utah fans yesterday. I love Gordon Hayward. I was trying to net Gordon Hayward's trade value on Twitter. I really like that guy. I can't believe you did that. I will say that Gordon Hayward in crunch time is shaking.

I think that's one of the reasons Utah has had so many problems. The crunch time stats are not great for him. And that team has not performed well in crunch time, mainly because he's not a number one guy. But I think if he's a number three guy, you're in awesome shape. But the Jeff Teague, I'd like to see Utah have a point guard at some point this decade. That would be the first time in Gordon Hayward's career

that they would have a legitimate point guard, wouldn't it? One of these two guys we're talking about. They would immediately be the best point guard he's played with in his career. I think he played with D. Will right there in the point of D. Will's career when he was painting his head. So yeah, when the wheels were coming off. But that's one of the reasons I like Hayward because I think he's asked to do a little too much on that team. I totally agree with that. And I'd like to see him in a situation where a point guard is getting him slashing kick baskets and just looking out for him, getting him some transition.

I think his stats should be better. I think his game should be better. And I think sometimes we forget. A point guard that's got enough of an offensive threat to create opportunities for Gordon Hayward. Come on. Yeah. And also, Utah, it's funny because he's really the perfect member of the Utah Jazz.

He wants to be there. He's the right, shall we say, he has the right look. Yeah, he's like the demo. He's like the demo, right? He maybe resembles some other guys who might have had some success there over the last 30, 40 years. But Teague on there is interesting, and the trade's pretty obvious. I mean, it's Trey Burke and Alec Burks for Teague.

So with those three guys, probably a couple other elements. But it seems like Atlanta wants to give the car keys to schroeder schroeder whatever his name is yeah i don't even blame him um he was much more of a concern to me last year in the playoffs um when the uh the artist formerly known as the almost bullets um were competitive it feels like five lifetimes ago but in playoffs, I was much more concerned about Schroeder than I was about Teague. So there's no – you can't trade Mike Conley to Utah because he might not re-sign there. Right.

There's a couple teams that you could trade him to that might make sense, one of whom, the Los Angeles Lakers. Oh. D'Angelo Russell, unhappy. Stuff's trickling out. Can't click with Byron Scott. Lakers not sure he's a point guard, all this stuff. If you're Memphis and you're looking at this

and you're not going anywhere anyway, why not make a run at D'Angelo Russell with Connolly? And if you're the Lakers, you get Connolly. Now you have him in-house. You can offer him more money than everyone else. Now you have a real point guard to put with whatever else you're going to build. Pretty appealing. I don't like it for Memphis because I feel like Memphis needs to get back somebody that

can really still make a contribution. They're right in the middle of the playoff pack here. And I don't have any real rebuttal to your point that whoever wins the 4-5 seed first round in the West is going to lose in the second round. But you kind of owe it to yourself to see this season through, get your 50 wins. So if you're going to trade Conley, you've got to get back. I like the idea of getting back a rebuilding

piece because that's the direction that you're headed. But you've also got to get back somebody that can play. I would steal Russell, and it reminds me of the Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson situation, which still haunts me, from 1998 when Rick Pitino traded Chauncey after 50 games.

If it was Lou Williams and D'Angelo, then okay. Well, I think it would have to be, because the contracts don't match up, so they'd have to throw in another $7-$8 million guy. So it could be Lou Williams, it could be whoever. I mean, that's not terrible. What about Mike Conley to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, the Boston's pick, not a Brooklyn pick, and Dallas' pick? So you get two non-lottery first-rounders with Isaiah Thomas for Conley to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, the Boston's pick, not a Brooklyn pick, and Dallas' pick.

So you get two non-lottery first-rounders with Isaiah Thomas for Conley. Why would Boston do that? Because Mike Conley's really good at basketball. Yeah, but the thing that you're solving for in Boston right now is a player that can score the basketball with three minutes left in the game. Inside of three minutes. Create and score. That's the single thing that has been the glaring weakness of the

Celts. I don't think Mike Conley is that guy. I think Mike Conley is really good. I think he's really good too. I watch a lot of Celtics games and I love Isaiah Thomas. But here's the thing. He's somebody who should be playing.

If he's on a really good team, if he's on a contender, he's somebody that's playing 25 minutes a game. And he's a hit-or-miss guy that you come in when he's hot, you ride him. When he's not hot, you sit him. He has real trouble. The really smart teams, the best teams, either they throw somebody with size at him, like Cleveland just owns him. He has real trouble. The really smart teams, the best teams, either they throw somebody with size at him, like Cleveland just owns him.

Iman Shumpert just shuts him down. He can't do anything. So somebody who's like six, seven inches taller, who's like a defensive wizard, those guys seem to have the ability to take him out. And then the other thing that teams do, anybody that has two guards who can handle the ball or you can't hide Isaiah

on either of the guards it's trouble like Dallas it's weird because Darren Williams and Ray Felton aren't even good but they are kind of good and they know what to do and they're smart and like when Dallas plays the Celtics they just attack Isaiah Tom and whoever he's guarding they attack him and I I don't know if the goal is to win a title this decade, I don't know if you can do it with him as your crunch time guy. It's ludicrous. Well, the thing that I like, that I definitely subscribe to, is settling high.

This is his all-time high moment. So now is your opportunity to get the best kind of value back for him. All right, let's keep going. City of Dub, 2Bs, asks, what two non-playoff-bound teams, if any, could you combine to immediately turn into a contender? I like this one. I'm looking in the east.

Yeah. I like, honest to God, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Almost Bullets. You could make a hell of a team if you slam those two franchisees together. So you have basically John Waugh with all the Bucks pieces, but then you're giving them a couple centers too. Yeah, that would be

a good team. That would be a good team. Yeah. How about... Middleton, Waugh, Freak Freak. If you combine Brooklyn and Philly, would that even be a playoff team? I don't know. Isn't that amazing? Yeah.

Congrats, Philly. Yeah, congrats. We can't even combine you with another team. What's the best fake trade to get the Cavs to the level of the Warriors and Spurs? That's asked by ZigZagZil. I have an idea for this. Oh, I want to hear it. It involves the Cavaliers spending even more money

and paying even a larger luxury tax. They have to do it. They have a $10 million plus trade exception from this Brendan Hayward funky contract they did. That's healthy. New Orleans made a really dumb contract move where they they paid omar ashik like five years 55 million or something he's you just in the modern nba you just can't can't play him with anybody else who can't shoot you basically have to have four offensive players

with him or you can't play him new orleans found that out the hard way but they also have ryan anderson who's in a contract here. He's playing well. Great shooter. Kind of the ideal guy to have on that Cleveland team, right? Great game last night, too, by the way. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. The answer to your question is yes. What a complimentary

player he would be on that Cleveland team. So Mozgov is expiring for Cleveland. They trade Mozgov and a couple tiny contracts like James Jones, Sasha Khan, I think were the two like $1 million contracts.

They trade those to New Orleans for Oshkosh, but then they get Ryan Anderson with that trade exception. So basically, they're taking Ryan Anderson, but as part of the deal, they're taking on

four more years of Oshkosh and giving up Mozgov. I don't love giving up Mozgov. It's a weird thing to say. I thought he was extraordinary in the playoffs last year, and I felt like the advantage that Cleveland had in the finals against the Warriors really came from the rebounding edge that Mozgov was a crucial part of.

So you keep Mozgov. Okay. Yeah. But here's the problem. In the current NBA, it doesn't seem like they can play Mozgov, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, or Verjao, who's another disaster of a contract.

They can only play one of those four guys at the same time. To me, the player on Cleveland that got to go is Love. And if you have Anderson as a replacement, then you've upgraded that immensely. But the question is what other player is in the mix to properly compensate Cleveland for the potential that they're giving up on with Love. Okay, so... You can't do straight-up Love for Anderson.

I think I asked you... Dollars don't work and all the rest of it. I think I asked you about this trade. Kevin Love for CJ McCollum, right? Didn't we talk about this? I don't know. I talked about it with somebody. Okay.

Oh, I talked about it with Chris Ryan. That talked about it with chris ryan that's what it was last week so on the podcast we did uh all-star ballots so kevin love for cj mccollum he cj mccollum makes like 19 million dollars less than kevin love but the blazers are 20 million under the cap so i suggested kevin love for a column and of course everyone in portland because they're the soccer moms there's a week-long conversation some people are mad at me some people thought it was a good good idea yeah why would they be mad at you so now blake griffin is in a whole thing why isn't that a three-team trade? Oh, wait a minute. Kevin Love to the Clippers. Blake Griffin and his injured hand to Portland.

So now they get to tank because Blake Griffin can't play anymore. Right, eight weeks out. And then CJ McCollum to the Cavs. The Cavs save $20 million in salary and like $50 million in luxury tax and get somebody who's probably a better fit for them unless they can figure out how to use love, which is idiotic to me that they can't, but whatever. Portland gets Blake,

and they actually might have to throw a little extra into that trade because it's hard for me to imagine somebody could get Blake Griffin for CJ McCollum, so maybe they throw in a pick to somebody. But that's the framework of something. That's the framework of something. You like that one. I do like it. The problem I'm having

with it is thinking about McCollum. It feels like Cleveland becomes so guard-heavy. I know Ty Lue wants to run an up-tempo thing, and I like McCollum's fit there. But, you know, Love ought to be able to flourish in an up-tempo kind of game, too. And maybe

part of Cleveland's design here in moving Blatt is to see, you know, over the next six, eight weeks what they really got with Love. And if this up-tempo thing will spring him into an opportunity that he hasn't had before, I don't know. But we haven't seen, we've seen so little effective Kevin Love in a season and a half now. Crunch time.

Kyrie Irving, CJ McCollum, Iman Shumpert, LeBron James, and either Thompson or Mozgov. That's a fivesome that's appropriate for the finals here's Andy Weir asked this one

I think just for you Wall for Kyrie oh how dare you no way absolutely not wow no way you're giving that a no way Kyrie

no way I need Kyrie? No way? I need Kyrie to play 82 games for the first time in his life. Okay. I need him to complete one season for one team since his high school days. As soon as he does that, then I'll say, oh, yeah, maybe I'll have to change my mind about Kyrie. But that hasn't happened yet. Husky422 asks,

Ask House what he thinks about having the Wizards just completely tank for the rest of this year for a top seven pick. So they don't have to change anything to completely tank for the rest of this season. They've got the formula. Just keep doing what you're doing, fellas. Just keep Randy Whitman. That's 100% what they're going to do. They're not going to fire Whitman midseason. There's no reason whatsoever. I don't

anticipate it, let me put it that way. I don't know what the point would be. I still don't think they're going to be bad enough to get inside the top seven, because there are so many craptacular teams this year um they'd have to jump uh brooklyn philly la phoenix you know it you know it helped if bradley beal is more fragile oh wait he can't be any more fragile sorry i forgot hey uh it's time to put a hop in your step house you love to eat eat so much that we created the House Eats video series for you on Grantland.

Yeah, that's true. That's how much you love to eat. You love to eat so much that we went to Yang Chao for House Eats 2, and we tried to keep ordering food, and the guy cut us off like we were drunk people at a bar. He refused to bring us more food. We went off menu, and then he's like, I gave you one thing off menu. That's enough. Right.

I also know you love to eat takeout. You've been ordering takeout ever since I've known you. You invented takeout. You were the first person who ever ordered takeout. I hope that we're not. Well, go ahead. You finish this because I do have a vendor I use quite a bit for takeout. Well, what would happen if you stopped wasting money on expensive takeout?

And what if you signed up with the delicious Blue Apron? Because 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. Let me throw some possibilities at you. Let me hear. Would you eat a Philly-style hoagie with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and aged cheddar sauce?

Yes. Would you eat chicken scallopini with roasted broccoli and whole white farfalle? Yes. What about creamy lemon linguine pasta with caramelized onion, walnuts, and rainbow chard? Rainbow chard?

Yeah. Yes. I figured you would eat all those things. All those things. Use Blue Apron and you could be making those healthy dishes tonight. Like right now. Make them tonight. Less than $10.

Right now you could get your first two meals for free by going to blueapron.com slash BS. House, at some point in life, we'll get you your own Blue Apron URL. Yeah. You can put that on housefromdc.com too. Yeah, blueapron.com slash houseeats. Oh, wow. And it could be like just their high-calorie stuff.

Heavy sauces. No, I like healthy things, just as long as there's enough of it i gotta say that the philly style hoagie with green peppers onions mushrooms and aged cheddar sauce even though it's only 9 17 in the morning right now i made me hungry aged cheddar sauce sounds delicious i'm in all right well check out blueapron.com slash uh bs so back to the reddit questions thanks again to the to the good people people at Reddit for doing this for us. Thix, T-H-I-X asks,

who do you think could be the biggest surprise challenge in round one this year? Do you have a thought on it? I'd be afraid of Dallas in round one, especially if they were a five seed and I'm the Clippers with Blake Griffin coming back from an effed up hand injury. And I got Carlisle and I got Dirk doing Dirk stuff

and Wesley Matthews is feeling good and those two weird guards and Darren Williams resurgence and Zaza's going nuts. I'd be afraid of that team. Yeah, I kind of like that. I'm looking in the east where the 7-8 right now are Miami and Indiana. Yeah.

And neither one of those is an easy out for Cleveland. I'm not saying that they're going to beat Cleveland, but both of those teams would give Cleveland more work in the first round than they're accustomed to. Sacramento, if Sacramento could somehow get to a seven seed. Sacramento has moments. I don't think they could ever beat the Warriors because Sacramento likes to play this fast pace, which is just like throwing meat to the lions for the Warriors.

But if they played the Spurs, and I know the Spurs would just pick them apart, pick the wings off the butterfly basically, but at the same time, the Kings can score. The Kings are scary when Boogie gets going. The Kings have shooting sometimes, and like Willie Cauley-Stein does stuff, and I don't know. I watched that team,

and even though they've blown, I think, what, 29 games in the last 30 seconds this season so far? It's unbelievable. Which is probably a bad sign for the playoff hopes. At the same time, they have playoff guys that I kind of like. Is Willie Colley-Stein good? Well, after the bad things you've said about him leading up to this moment,

he's in the right situation, it turns out. We were very, very skeptical about whether or not this was the right situation for him, and why would Sacramento take a guy with such raw offensive skills? I would say non-existent. Yeah, and just a pure kind of defensive focus. But you know what? It works because it gives the guys who want the ball in their hands all the time the opportunity to just keep the ball in their hand on the offensive side.

It accommodates that. It's complementary. Well, it works and it doesn't work because I think it works having him and Biggie together. Biggie, Boogie. Him and Boogie together, I really like. I actually think that's a combo that could work

long term. The problem is you can't play him and Rondo at the same time. Because neither of them can shoot and now you're going three on five. And you see these teams, especially at the end of the game, they just, you know, they play off Rondo. They don't even think about Colley Stein. They just double, triple team Boogie. They send everybody everybody at him so i don't think long term you could play rondo and collie

stein that can't be two of your five guys but i think if everybody else could shoot and you had boogie i think collie stein could be out there and he does like you know he defensively he's really really quick with his reactions. Like, he had a block on – I watched that Charlotte-Sacramento, which was a really, really randomly great game going against Golden State-San Antonio, which was a dud. Yeah. And Colley-Stein had a couple moments in that game where he's –

you know, Kemba's driving the basket and Colley-Stein's coming out of nowhere like he's Bill Russell. That was the thesis. Yeah. That was the basket, and Colley Stein's coming out of nowhere like he's Bill Russell. That was the thesis. That was the thesis, right? That's why they took him at that high draft spot. An immediate infusion of athletic defense. I wonder if his destiny is going to be this tantalizing guy that never quite gets there, Like a Derek McKee type.

Remember Derek McKee? Maybe he'll be a— Oh, this will be the year he's—and he just never got there, but he was still valuable. I remember Derek McKee. Yeah, he's a good role player. Yeah, but that's Colley Stein's destiny. Colley Stein should just be a defensive specialist and own that. That's fine.

There's jobs in the NBA for guys like that. They still shouldn't have taken him sixth. They should trade him back. Trade back. He's going to be there at in the NBA for guys like that. They still shouldn't have taken him sixth. They should trade him back. Trade back. He's going to be there at number 10. Move back four spots. That's right. Moutier and Justice Winslow had the highest value on the board.

So, Ola Depot. This is a great, great, great Reddit. Congratulations to this guy. He spells it H-O-L-A-D-E-P-O. So, it's like Victor Ola Depot, but it's spelled Ola Depot, which actually sounds like a place I would go to shop. He asks, what is the single funniest thing that could happen to the Kings during the first round of the NBA playoffs, assuming they make it?

I mean, the sky is the limit. It really is. How can you even answer this? It stretches the bounds of what you could imagine. Me, what I would think would be the funniest possible thing is Viv runs onto the court and challenges a ref to a fist fight because they call a foul on Boogie. That would be the funniest thing.

Or Boogie gets in a fight with a ref and Vivek comes flying in as the third man from the stands. He grabs his leg like a Van Gundy? Or Vivek Yeah, I guess it would be somehow Vivek accidentally getting involved in the game. Maybe Vivek

getting so furious that something's going on with George Carl that he runs up and punches George Carl on the back. See, anything that happens with Boogie wouldn't be funny. It would just make me sad and hurt my feelings. Like if he got thrown out of a game with two minutes left. Anything. I love Boogie.

I want Boogie to do well. The comedy all begins and ends with Vivek. There's no funnier owner in all professional sports. What non-playoff team has the best chance of winning a championship in the next five years? Oh, that's a great question. Non-playoff team. I'm going to say Minnesota because the Towns-Wiggins combo is such a good foundation that there is some –

remember Durant and Westbrook circa 2009? I feel like it's been a week. Yeah, yeah, I do remember. And they made the leap so quickly. Right. I feel like you're also slightly being disrespectful because there's another player there in Minnesota who has been hell of fire the last like two weeks.

I mean, Zach Levine can play some basketball. You been watching? Well, yeah, he's frustrating because he seems like one of those guys who's just going to thrive on bad teams for his whole career. But he is young. He's young, and he can fill it up. Here's the scenario that terrifies me for the next 15 years. So let's say they finish with the seventh worst record and they get Ben Simmons.

And now you have Ben Simmons, Towns, and Wiggins on the same team. I mean, good Lord, God almighty. That's in play. It's like a 9% chance. Well, that's when you go hire whoever you think is going to be the best incubator. Who's going to be the best coach that's going to teach those guys to play the right way, that's going to install a... I know, I don't disagree with that.

I honestly think that Blatt may not be terrible at that either. I mean, that was what Cleveland hired Blatt for in the first place. They hired Blatt before they got LeBron, before they knew that LeBron was going to come to them. They were hiring Blatt for the purpose of incubating. I don't like that Blatt was such a wuss with LeBron.

I don't know about that. I did all those stories about him just rolling over and not calling him out when they were going over tape and just being like, okay, LeBron, okay, LeBron, whatever you say. What's his choice? That's not how you handle it. Oh, whatever. Can't Say No

asks, which lottery team would be given the best bump by Ben Simmons? Oh, I mean, come on. To Washington, almost bullets. Oh, man. If you tank and you get Ben Simmons, I'm going to be both happy for you, but sad.

I'm going to be wounded. That'll be our first fight. We'll be out somewhere. We'll have a couple drinks, and you'll just be raving about how great Ben Simmons is, and I'm just going to get mad. You're going to punch me? I might.

I might punch you like Blake Griffin. I hope you break your hand then. I'm going to punch you and then follow you outside might i might punch you like blake griffin i hope you break your hand then i'm gonna punch you and then follow you outside the restaurant and punch you again that's the answer the real answer to this uh uh is the new orleans pelican oh that would be amazing that would be amazing in fact that's my answer also to um a team with the best chance of winning a championship the next five years well lone star 122 asks what are some realistic moves the pelicans can do to surround ad with talent i would use ryan anderson to get rid of that ashik contract i don't know if

that's even possible i would get rid of tyreek ev Evans as fast as I possibly could. I would let Eric Gordon leave. I mean, the reality is they did exactly, they did to Anthony Davis, the same exact thing Cleveland did to LeBron last decade, where they tried to immediately build around him and they made terrible moves and they gave up two lottery picks for Drew Holiday and they overpaid Tyreek Evans and they overpaid Asik and they clogged this roster that doesn't make sense. The Gentry hiring, which I thought was going to be a good one because he got to the conference finals, almost made the finals once, but he's been a disaster. I think it's hard to take any individual variable in this situation and say it's been –

I'm defending Gentry on the idea that the team has been in disarray from the second he was hired because of the injuries and the terrible composition of the team. Wow. I can't believe somebody defended a coach on this podcast. I think that's the first time that's ever happened. Yeah, I just think they've done a terrible job assembling that team. And if I were them. They need somebody that can evaluate talent.

They have a problem properly pricing talent. The Ashik deal is astounding what a misfire judgment that is. And not understanding, uh, not, not being able to get to the bottom of Tyreek seems like a, a kind of a problem also. Yeah. That was a terrible contract.

You know, the reality is they traded Chris Paul. And when you look back at what they actually got, it's, it's one of the worst halls anyone got for a superstar when they did it. It was like, this is great. They're going to get Eric Gordon. The guy's going to be a star.

He's probably going to be the best two guard in the league two years from now, and he's been a bust. It's flat out. He just keeps getting hurt, just never got there. Keeps getting hurt. Keeps getting hurt. They got a first-round pick from the Clips. It turned out to be Austin Rivers, I think. You look back at what they got in that trade versus, I think, the initial trade they got,

where they got a bunch of players. The one the league vetoed, I think, was actually a better trade, just for players they got versus what they ended up getting over the next four or five years. But they made the mistake that Minnesota did not make with Kevin Love. New Orleans was like, we've got to trade Chris Paul. We've just got to. We've just got to do it. And the league is running New Orleans at the time,

which was another terrible variable. Look, I'll never, ever forgive that. The second lowest point of David Stern's tenure. Right. What he did to Seattle being the lowest and never forgivable. So that mentality of we've just got to do the trade now. We got to make it. So they do it and they end up making a bad trade.

And you think about it, like if Minnesota had done that in June of 2014 with Kevin Love, when it's like they had to trade Kevin Love, it's unhappy. And Flip Saunders, rest in peace, Flip Saunders. Yeah.

One of the smartest moves anyone made this decade was Flip Saunders saying, no, I'm not taking your crappy deal, Boston. I'm not taking a couple future picks and some contracts. Like, I'm just not doing it. I know I can do better for Kevin Love. And he held off, much to my chagrin, because I was hoping the Celtics would get him. And then LeBron goes to Cleveland.

And all of a sudden, he has Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. And my point is, New Orleans never kind of waited for the right deal with Chris Paul. They had a couple months there before the deadline. Really Ponderous asks, what were you drinking and or smoking when you picked the Rockets to win the most games in the NBA? This goes for both of us, because both of us did. And it's one of the worst moves we ever made. And I will, for the rest of my life, regret that we didn't say to each other, let's just double up on the Warriors.

Maybe they'll win 70 games this year. We would have been geniuses. The bigger regret is not being offered what James Harden andardashian were drinking and smoking together which completely sabotaged this season that's what i regret i would like to have been smoking that and drinking that i would have had just as enjoyable summer as them and i wouldn't be um in you know in the whole some amount of um u.s dollar currency well to be fair we don't we don't know if they smoked or drank anything. We're just guessing. Well, whatever vices they enjoyed that impaired

James' ability to arrive this season. In fact, I'm going to go on a really quick mini rant. I would have, I think it's borderline indefensible that he made the All-Star team this year. I don't understand how, you know, you're in a situation in the West in particular where Kobe's stolen a spot,

and, you know, these guys are still having in their contracts all-star appearances, and it's still a benchmark for the purposes of Hall of Fame admission to have, you know, how many all-star teams did you make. And I think it's a real disservice to somebody like Dame Lillard to not make the all-star team. And for a guy who really punked his team this year, punked his franchise. Got a coach fired.

I'm putting him, got a coach fired. I'm putting it all on Harden. He's hit a stretch where he returned to form. Congratulations. There are three games above.500, and that's going to be good enough for them to be a bottom-tier playoff team this season. Congrats. That's really great. Your franchise

was on the brink of something awesome, and you sabotaged it. I reject the idea that he deserved an all-star spot this season. There were much more deserving guys. I would have liked Dirk to have got it. I would have voted for Dirk.

Yeah, I would have voted for Dirk over Harden, no questions asked. And I agree with you. He showed up out of shape. He sucked the life out of his team. His coach got fired. He played himself into shape over the course of four to five weeks. We saw no leadership at all from him. His stats are there,

and it's a good example of how stats aren't everything, because I no leadership at all from him. His stats are there, and it's a good example of how stats aren't everything, because I wouldn't have voted for him. This comes from Jason Syke. Hi, Jason. Ask Joe about his opinion on John Wall hiring Rich Paul to be his agent. Will it undermine the future of this team? I don't have an opinion on it. I actually, I don't mind any of, what's their clutch group? Is that who they are? Clutch sports.

Clutch sports. Like, I loved all the conspiracy theorizing that I saw out of the stories that immediately followed the Blatt thing and how, you know, people write stories that are written as though they're documented fact, that what was really going on was Mark Jackson was going to be hired to be the coach, and everybody has been openly conspiring since the moment that Blatt was hired to get him fired. I love that people write that as though it is fact. Unnamed sources, of course.

But I actually don't really have any problem with the idea of the best player in the game having kind of a management team that has managed to persuade other players to sign up with their team and coaches and create a little bit of leverage for the guys that actually sort of deliver the labor to the league. I don't really have a problem with that concept, that idea. I do have a slight concern that Mark Jackson might be the next coach of the Washington Almost Bullets. I wouldn't love that. So I guess that's the extent of my concern there.

But I don't have any problem at all with J. Wall signing up with the Clutch group or Clutch Sports. I'm good with it. Well, you're going to have a problem when they hire Mark Jackson as your next coach. Don't say it. I just said I don't like that. I don't want that to happen. Okay.

That's your next move. You're Fasal, lol. That's your next move. Your facade, Lowell, your face, LOL, I guess is how you pronounce that one. Which team do you see getting blown up at the end of the season? And he asked Grizzlies, Clippers, Rockets. I think it's too early to say. Depends who has the most ignominious first round and out. But somebody's getting blown up. I think there's going to be some blow-ups, some explosions.

It could be all three of those teams. The thing that's the enormous number of unknowns, as we sit here on January the 29th, 2016, we have a trade deadline still coming. We have the rest of the regular season to see what players, you know, which teams stay healthy.

And so everything's going to change because it always does. And we'll enter the playoffs with whatever picture for the teams at the top exists, right? We were rooting for the very best for every single great player on all of the great teams to stay healthy but you know it's not crazy that one great player might get hurt between now and then and could alter oh that's definitely happening right so we don't know what the trajectory of the playoffs are going to be all three of the teams mentioned here grizzlies clippers rockets have enough to be like pretty competitive in the in the playoffs i have a dark horse for you. On the draw.

Go ahead. I think OKC could be in that conversation. Yeah, yeah. I don't disagree with that. If something goes bad for them in round one or round two, with all the contracts they have coming up and the roster they have, that's – or it could go the other way. They could win the title and we'll be like, oh my God, they did it.

You know what? I have a slight disagreement with that, though. The guys, we know what's going to happen with KD. He's going to put himself on the same contract cycle as Westbrook and Ibaka, which is 2016-2017. So I don't think they're a candidate to blow up this season. We think that's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. That's what makes the most sense.

It makes the most economic sense. It makes the most chemistry sense. It makes the most you know, run this thing to its logical conclusion sense. Do the Knicks have the cap space to sign him? They got like $20 million for Carmelo. I think Aflalo and Lopez are

like another $ 28 million. Durant to the next is interesting. Durant, Carmelo, and Porzingis. Well, he did a lot of love this week in New York, right? He really did. I noticed all of that. He gave some gestures. He made some gestures.

Winked his eye a couple times. Troy at work asked, did you guys both play basketball? What was your play style and who did you compare yourself the most to in the NBA? We were stocked in them alone. Just flat out. We just were. In concept,

I don't think I was exact. I don't have the mailman build. It's ludicrous. We weren't remotely stocked in a Malone, but that's what we tried to do. We tried to run the high screens. That was our game. We did try to run high screens. I'm like a catch on the elbow shoot kind of thing. You were Bob McAdoo.

You were great at giving me the ball. Yeah, you were Bob McAdoo. Yeah. Let's talk about Loot Crate quickly. It's a monthly subscription box service for geek and gamer items as well as pop culture gear for less than 20 a month you get four to eight items that include licensed gear apparel collectibles unique one-of-a-kind items and more they guarantee 40 dollars in value in every crate sometimes more every month has a different theme my son would like this february's theme The Dead. It includes five exclusives

including a t-shirt and two figures to celebrate new episodes of The Walking Dead as well as Deadpool's solo film debut. You only have until February 19th, 9pm Pacific to subscribe and receive that month's crate. Head to lootcrate.com

slash BS and enter code BS to save $3 on any new subscription. Poor house. You don't get any URLs. crate head to loot crate.com slash BS, uh, and enter code BS to save $3 and any new subscription. Poor house. You don't get any URLs. I get all the URLs in this podcast. No house seats. We could change that.

No house from DC. Nothing. Uh, sports fan seven 86 asks, who's the fourth best team in the NBA? I think he's assuming it's worse. Spurs. Okay. See, and then the fourth best team in the NBA? I think he's assuming it's Warriors, Spurs, OKC, and then the fourth team is...

Why isn't it the Cavs? I guess. That's what I would say. I honestly would say OKC is the fourth best, because I think the Cavs are better than OKC. That's why there's 785 other sports fans before he got to 786 because he didn't think

it through uh valor porzingis interesting name writes do you think adam silver will ever take steps to fix the crunch time timeout nightmare something like a timeout after two minutes um i don't know why they haven't gone to 25 seconds in the last two minutes. I don't know why teams are allowed to call timeout after a timeout. I wouldn't allow any timeout after a timeout. 22nd timeout, no, no timeout. I mean, just move the game along. Call timeout, come out of a timeout. You can't call another timeout, period.

Yeah, we're in strong agreement on that, and I love the 25-second limit because that means that it's really a, a minute of real time. Cause you know, the limits, it's always double whatever they say. This is a 60 second timeout. Okay. Call me in two and a half minutes. By the time they're finally all, you know, reconvened, uh, ready to, to, you know, put the ball back in play. Two minutes of real time is a lot. Summers of 69 asks, can clairvoyant Bill predict where Dwight Howard goes after this season?

Oh. That's a good question. You mean other than the bathroom to get rid of? Well. I could see him doing totally, something totally misguided, like going back to Orlando.

Whatever the worst decision is, that'll be the decision. That would be the Dwight decision. I want to go back to Orlando and finish what I started. And then he goes back and he's not even remotely the same guy. What would have the least pressure? Least amount of pressure? Philly? No, Philly would be terrible.

The media market there would kill him. Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Brooklyn would be terrible. The media market there would kill him. Brooklyn? Brooklyn would be gloves off. I mean, gloves on. They would treat him gently. Cleveland? Cleveland's pretty good. Cleveland's pretty good. I kind of like this. Yeah.

Little sign-in trade? Kevin Love's involved? Who knows? That's not crazy. Mr. Bucket asks, who are your favorite non-and-trade? Maybe Kevin Love's involved? Who knows? That's not crazy. Mr. Bucket asks, who are your favorite non-lottery rookies? Non-lottery rookies? I don't know why he had to say non-lottery. That means from 15 to 31 and the second round. I'm going to look at the NBA draft and see.

I like, you know, that 11- 11 12 13 with the Trey Lyles Miles Turner Devin Booker I forget what the order was but uh Miles Turner was man this was some draft like first of all MJ turned down four first rounders to take Kaminsky at nine and the next four picks were Justice Winslow Miles Turner Trey Trey Louse, and Devin Booker, all of whom are better than Fred Kaminsky. But whatever. Tate just got bummed out. I'm sorry, Tate.

Tate, you got your teams in the Super Bowl. Settle down. Yeah, that's right. Dab on it. I like what I've seen from Bobby Portis on the Bulls. I'm excited to see him actually play, and they can't really figure out how to play him. Oh, here's one. I really like Larry Dance Jr.

I think he's good. Is he getting time in LA? Yeah. You're asleep. West Coast basketball has been a nightmare. You're right about this. I am asleep. I'm literally asleep. The Lakers come on at 1030. I am going to bed.

I'm not staying up to watch the Lakers. Yeah, the Warriors, you know, the game's over by 9 o'clock. They're up 102-70 with five minutes left in the third quarter. So it's not even fun to watch them after halfway through third quarter. The Kings are fun. I think the Kings have been the most valuable West Coast league pass team this year because their games are stuff that's always going on. But I find myself watching the Lakers every once in a while. And when they play Nance and Russell and Jordan Clarkson and Randall,

it's kind of interesting. I like Nance. So my answer is Nance. I'm going to have to rep for the home guy. I was very, very skeptical, and I still don't approve of the shoes. Kelly Oubre Jr. showed up at the draft in a Wizard of Oz costume. And I understand that the day and age is hyper-stylized and you have a fit-to-made suit and a shoe combo

and somebody telling you all this stuff, and he showed up in shoes that were, you know. Yeah. Bad start. Bad start for Kelly. Yeah. It felt like the second coming of Swaggy P, which was not a good look.

Yeah. But he is really athletic. You know, the reputation he had at Kansas was, you know, he needed to be coached up a little bit, so he didn't get full run. He arrived in college kind of physically ready, but not mentally there. So they sat his ass on the bench until he was ready to play the way Self wanted to play. House, wrap this up or I'm going to edit it out. This is way too long

on Kelly Oubre. I mean, seriously. He's a rare bright spot in a season of overwhelming disappointment. Oubre Jr. is my guy. Congratulations. I vote for Bobby Portis or Larry Nance Jr. Oubre Jr. I still think Kobe Great. Congratulations. I vote for Bobby Portis or Larry Nance Jr.

Oubre Jr. I still think Kobe's going to, at some point, run Larry Nance Jr. over in his car in the player's parking lot for those Twitter comments from seven years ago. He'll never forgive him. Pably Toe asks, how ridiculous is it that Sting is the halftime entertainment for the All-Star Game? On a scale of one to ten, it's a 17. It's the dumbest. I don't understand it it i didn't even know sting was still performing i mean i it i'm speechless

i don't have i don't even have a joke all my jokes would be about tantric sex and drake not being available like what are we talking about here any there's a hundred hip-hop stars just take anyone any anybody from the last 20 years. This is a good one. I'm excited for this one. Never Fast Forward writes, which NBA player would make the best wrestling heel? So here's my answer. I think it's Blake Griffin. Yeah, that was tip of the tongue, son. I'm right there with you. That is the answer. So Blake Griffin's basically been that was tip of the tongue, son. I'm right there with you. That is the answer. So Blake Griffin's basically been this John Cena type figure for years and years in the NBA,

where he's like the good guy, but everybody hates him and the fans are ready to turn on him. But it's a bad idea for him to do it because of the jersey sales and the merchandise. And so he's still trying to be a good guy, but everybody's just like, just be a bad guy so we can officially root against you and hate you. And now he punches this dude and gets in this whole incident. It's almost like what the WWE fans

wanted for Cena for years and years and years. Like, just be a bad guy. Come on, come on, be a bad guy. And he just wouldn't do it. Blake is John Cena if John Cena turned heel. I like that a lot.

My favorite in-the-moment reaction to the Griffin thing was the little bit that you sent around. It looked like it was from Reddit about sources say he immediately fell on the ground and tried to get a foul after punching the guy in the face. Right. He flopped. He punched the guy in the face and then flopped.

To get a foul call? So Afro Panther, interesting name, writes, do you think Afro Panther? That sounds like one of the anchorman colognes that Paul Rudd had. Do you think the Celtics will make a move before the trade deadline? Do you think the Celtics should make a move? The Celtics have too many players and too many draft picks, and if they don't do a four-for-one

that has multiple draft picks at some point over the next six weeks, I'm going to be upset, and I'll leave it at that. That sounds like a yes and yes. Yeah, we don't need to talk about that. Gots2geo asks, how much of a hand do you think LeBron played in the Blatt firing?

Both hands? An Andre the Giant-sized hand. A Boban hand. A Boban hand. Here are things LeBron did. LeBron traded Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. Yes. LeBron threw Anthony Bennett in that trade,

got him off the team. Yes. LeBron signed Tristan Thompson to an $82 million deal. Yes. LeBron got a new coach. He brought his dude in. Yes. And guess what? He's the best player and he should do things like that.

That's what happens when you have the best player in the league or one of them. They make calls like that. That's right. If Steph Curry said to Joe Lacob, I don't like Steve Curry anymore. I want Luke Walton to be our coach. Guess what? Steve Curry will be looking for a job.

That's how this stuff works. It's the way it's worked for 45 years, 50 years, 60 years. You know who fired a coach once? Magic Johnson. Yes. BTGO, no relation to gots to geo oh said the what if the what if section was one of my favorite parts of your book where does indiana keeping their pick in 2011 and just taking kawai leonard rank uh not that high for me because i think part of what made kawai great is that he landed in the perfect

situation with the perfect coach and the perfect infrastructure and was allowed to evolve and develop at his own pace this is something barkley and i talked about on wednesday you end up on a team like that you you enter that whole spurs vortex when you're somebody like kawai and it's it's transformative i don't know if we know what it would have been like for him to be on another team. I mean, I'm saying, I don't know what, you know, would he have been amazing? I don't know. He might have just been passive and frustrating and who knows. Yeah, that version of Kawhi, that's who he would have turned out to be if he'd come to

Washington. Because, you know, it is one of the things that Washington fans like to circulate when you're running through the list of Grunfeld draft failures. That's the infamous Jan Vesely draft. I was sitting there available.

Jan Vesely 6. The GM is still there. Yeah, I think that's all going to come to an end. We're going to have a new GM and new coach this year. If you want to know who it's all going to come to an end. We're going to have a new GM and new coach this year. Just, if you want to know who it's going to be, call Rich Paul.

But I totally agree with that. Rich Paul might be the GM. Fine, sure. Why not? He knows all the players. That'd be fine. He can bring in anybody he wants. Shub 17.

This is a good one. I'm excited for this question. How do you feel about the Bosch dynasty coming to an end with the cancellation of the Shooting Stars Challenge? What event would you replace it with?

They gave me a coughing attack. I've always been on the record. I think the slam dunk contest should be changed to dunk on Roy Hibbert. Roy Hibbert should stand under the basket trying to block dunks. That would be my all-star Saturday.

Shooting stars, I don't know. I would just get rid of it. I wouldn't even add anything else. We've always talked about horse for 20 years and they tried it once

and they half-assed the try and now nobody wants to do it anymore. Pumper Nickel 5, this might be a good one for us to end on. If you could give David Stern some sort of truth serum and ask him three

questions, which three questions would you ask? My number one question go ahead, you do yours first did you suspend mj for gambling oh wow with actually serum i don't know if i'd waste one of my three questions on that because i know the answer and the answer is yes right now who knows i i would ask him that i would ask him uh mine would be how cold was that envelope that that had Patrick Ewing's name in it? That's a good one.

And then maybe a 2006 finals question? Oh, I know what my third question was. How many positive HGH or PED or steroid tests did you cover up over the last 25 years? I don't like that one at all. Why? Why don't you like that one? I want every great player to play as many games as they can play. So suggesting that there's been cover-ups and that they're, you know...

I didn't suggest anything. I'm asking them a question. You can say no, and there's the answer. I'm rooting for the answer to be no. I would like to know why for basketball reasons he shut down that trade. What was the basketball reason?

The Chris Paul trade. It still doesn't make any sense. Oh, I thought of a better one. Shout out to my favorite city that's not Boston, Seattle. Did you know that they were going to move the team to Oklahoma City

when you greenlit that deal? Well, that's another one where we absolutely positively know the answer. Alright, but I'd still like to see him with truth serum running through his veins just say, yes, I knew the whole time. I stared at the Clay Bennett. Vivek PTL 40S, where would you stack up this Warriors run of the last one and

a half years against recent great teams? I think it's the best team since the 2001 Lakers. Huh. I think the 2001 Lakers, the Celtics were kind of getting there before KG got hurt the year after they won the title, which was the better Celtics team. Yeah. I think they were like 30-4, but they were just humming on all cylinders, and KG got hurt in Utah and it ended. But 2001 Lakers, when they just ripped through the playoffs and Shaq and Kobe were getting along, is still the best team in the century for me. I think that team beats anybody.

Yeah, I'm going to go with that. I like that because this Warriors team is devastating. It's not that they caught a right streak and a nice compilation of players. All the other sort of suggestions here are teams that got on a hot streak because it was an excellent chemistry moment and an excellent moment for where those guys were in their career. And those things are also important to the Warriors. But the Warriors, you know, kind of have something that's so unique and special and it seems like indefensible

that you have to go really historic to properly put it in context. And the other great thing for them is everyone's trying to copy them and it's so misguided because as we discussed, you're never copying having the two best shooters in the league

and two of the best of all time and Curry's the best shooter of all time. As well as Draymond, who's unlike anyone else on the planet and is not replicable. And you're just not matching them with small ball. The team that figures out the recipe is the team that doesn't just try to go ahead and end in small ball. It's not going to work.

Yeah, we know the recipe. We watched it last year in the finals. Cleveland should have been up three games to work. Yeah, we know the recipe. We watched it last year in the finals. Cleveland should have been up three games to none. If LeBron could have finished an end-of-game possession in game two, that series was going to be 3-0.

Guanico's asks, who's the most underrated point guard from the 80s? John Lucas, hands down. John Lucas... I like that. We'll never know. One of the many cocaine casualties from the 76 to 87 stretch. And was just the all-time pure, perfect lefty point guard. Perfect.

Even when he was on Milwaukee at the end of his career, when he'd had some rough times and Benson threw some stuff and was still scary as hell in the Celtics series. And you watch him and you're just like, wow, this guy is phenomenal. Last question. What is House's... Yeah. This is from Oranje15.

What is House's favorite arena food? Oh, my. Yeah. Figured you'd enjoy that one. That's a hard one. Yeah. hard one yeah what do you get like a basketball arena or any stadium basketball you go to the you go to a whiz game i know you're thinking about food the whole time because that's just how you roll what are you thinking about you're like oh i can't wait to go to the game, and I'm going to get blank. It's a hard question to answer because the home of the Almost Bullets had notoriously been such an awful food desert, the most generic kind of—

Chicken fingers and fries, hot dog, nachos. Nothing interesting whatsoever. Now, to my boy Ted Leonsis, to his credit, they brought in a whole bunch of local food purveyors. And every year they bring in one or two more people. Yeah. Now, the one thing that did become my go-to when I was going quite a bit more a handful of years ago, there was barbecue on the second floor. So I would always rush right up to the second floor and get the barbecue.

Ted Leonsis is not your boy. He refuses to fire in a gruff felt, and he kept Randy Whitman for an extra year when both of you knew it was a bad idea. He's not your boy. I know, but the Caps are awesome. I love the Caps so much. I haven't done anything on the Caps this whole season.

I'm keeping it on a way DL, but I love this Caps team. You like Justin Williams, don't you? He's so good. Yeah, that was a great signing. I told you. I texted you. We have Justin Williams. We have T.J. Oshie.

We have Mike Richards. You have a good team. You have Mike Richards? We have Orla. The former King Mike Richards? Yes. Oh, no. I didn't even know he was still in the NHL.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're loaded, and we have a great coach. Maybe the best coach in the Washington— Well, actually, you know what? Shanahan was not a bad coach. He got run out of here for Redskins reasons, and I don't mind saying the name that way because it's pejorative. But Barry Trotz is awesome. So the Kings are really good too. I actually think this might be the best Kings team that they've had,

and this is a team that's won two cups since I've had the tickets. They got Vincent Lecavier. They just kind of picked him up from Philly. He wasn't playing. He was a former number one pick. He scored 50 goals 10 years ago. They put him in, and he became immediately rejuvenated. Yeah, end of career guy.

They're good. They're loaded. King's Caps would be a fun finals. Let's root for it. That's a spectacular final, isn't it? Yeah, the Kings are good. They just signed Kopitar to an eight-year extension. That guy, night after night, is just money, man.

In those three-on-three overtimes, certain guys have just emerged in those overtimes as being even ten times more frightening than they usually are. It's been a super-duper innovation. Great innovation. He's out of his mind in those overtimes. You watch those, you think he's the best player of all time.

Alright. Thanks to everybody on the NBA Reddit page yeah that was awesome that was an awesome job yeah I really appreciated the questions I appreciate everybody

it was very nice thank you for doing that for us thanks to Blue Apron 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 right now you can get they might have to deliver me something right now you can get your first two meals Blue Apron will deliver you all the fresh ingredients you need for a delicious and healthy home-cooked meal. They might have to deliver me something. Right now you can get your first two meals for free by going to blueapron.com. Thanks to HBO Now, you don't need cable or a satellite to watch HBO anymore. Just download the HBO Now app. Start your free one-month trial.

Coming soon to HBO Now. It's very soon. Fast 7, San Andreas. San Andreas is going to have a nice long cable run at the Simmons house. And thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS Podcast and Channel 33. Subscribe to both podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. Coming up next week, we're going to have an NBA guest. That's a household name that you know will be on Monday's podcast, unless he cancels, which hopefully he won't.

Oh, fingers crossed. Wednesday or Thursday, Super Bowl props with the cuz. And then Friday, we'll have a whole bunch of stuff, including the house. We'll make our Super Bowl pick. Yeah, I have a leaning right now. Can I give a quick shout-out? Yes, please do.

Yeah, I want to do a rest in peace for an unexpected passing of a buddy who was one of the very best basketball players I ever had the pleasure of playing with as a teammate, but as good of a basketball player, he was a much

better dude. Tom Patante. Chit was his nickname, and the reason is because he had a beautiful shooting stroke reminiscent of the one and only Jimmy Chitwood. And he was an awesome dude and, you know, a beautiful family, and he went way too early. So I just want to give a quick shout out from my main man, Chit. He was our age? Yeah, our age, yeah.

I know. Just brutal. that's terrible um and you know like uh the best kind of dude like quiet compassionate like easygoing great sense of humor and awesome basketball iq i love playing hoops i got to play with him he played in college with uh our boy my boy but you know you know him quite well, the junior. They played together. He was a D2 player, but he had D1 talent. I mean, he had an inside-outside game that was ahead of its time.

Very comfortable playing with his back to the basket, but also would line you right up from 18 to 20 feet and shoot over top of you, 6'5", with nice long arms as well. But a nice healthy ass on him, too, so he could take you and put you in the torture chamber a little bit. But yeah, totally unexpected passing and just a super, super, super solid dude and very sad to see him go. But an awesome family and everybody's rallying around and celebrating his life, which is

exactly what you're supposed to do when you unexpectedly lose somebody. So celebrating Chit and love him and love his family. All right. On that note, enjoy the weekend. Sorry about Chit. Hang in there. The fam.

Thanks for the shout out house. That was good. You did a good job with that. Appreciate it. And we will talk to you all next week. Have a good week. that. Appreciate it. And we will talk to you all next week. Have a good week. We about this bitch. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here.

Close your eyes. And picture me rolling.