The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA All-Star Arguments, Fake Embiid Trades, CP3’s Comeback, and Low Ratings Theories With Ryen Russillo and Joe House | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: January 21, 2020

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo and Joe House to make their NBA All-Star picks. They also discuss the possibility of the 76ers moving on from Joel Embiid, the NBA’s ratings decline, All-Star honorable mentions, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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If you're serious about growing your business, give Sales Genie a call for your free 14-day trial, 866-549-6803, or go to salesgenie.com slash BS. Meanwhile, double meanwhile, now that new year's here, it's time to deal with all that stuff. You never use sell it on Mercari, the selling app that makes it fast and easy to sell almost anything. Just take a few picks at a description and boom, your item is listed. I repeat, boom, bringing the new year, less stuff in your home and more money in your pocket with Mercari, M-E-R-C-A-R-I, Mercari, the selling app. We're also brought to you by theringer.com where you can find the hottest take on Spotify, where I am very proud of the hottest take I did this week. It's about dogs on airplanes. I'll leave it at that. You can imagine

where my head is at with that one. The rewatchables might be happening this week. Haven't decided if we're running the reheat this week or next week. Stay tuned for that. There is a book of basketball coming up Wednesday night. It's a very special episode for Knicks fans. So be ready for that one. And then you can check out all the great stuff

on TheRinger.com and the rest of The Ringer Podcast Network at your convenience coming up. Me, Ryan Rosillo, Joe house. We're breaking it down. The all-star teams in each conference, our picks a whole bunch of arguments. I'm very excited, but first some new music. Music. All right. We're taping this on a Tuesday morning, LA time.

Joe House is here. He flew in from DC a couple of days ago. His flight was delayed by five hours. Ryan Rosillo is here. He just spent an hour and 40 minutes in traffic. We are fired up. They are picking the all-star teams on Thursday. LeBron and Giannis are the captains.

And they're going to go through the whole thing. Which is difficult for LeBron because LeBron always wanted to take Giannis first as a recruitment tool. So hopefully, no, I'm serious. Like, is that true? Yeah. And, um, you can't pick them if he's the other captain. Well, LeBron is busy trying to make believe Kyle Kuzma is a really good NBA asset who

has trade value. You're just high right now because I mean, we're not 12 hours removed from, from the beating. Wow. LeBron was focused. I mean, he took a helicopter to go see his son play like five hours for the beating. Well, LeBron was focused. I mean, he took a helicopter to go see his son play like five hours before the game. Once I found out about that, I was like,

oh, we might win today. I just don't think that that's that big of a deal. That he was in Springfield. It isn't. Your focus is your focus. If your focus is I got to get to the game and then I'll come back and play the Celtics, that's great.

I'm glad that's a great fatherly move, but I'm just glad as a Celtics fan that that was his attitude. Not to be the ringers most dangerous employee, but I saw a video of Ben getting a haircut. You could, we have two pods of tape today. Yeah. Were you prepping or were you taking your kid to get a haircut? Kyle took him actually. Oh yeah.

You think he has anything to do with this kid raising this kid? I don't even know my kids. The dismissiveness that Bill just gave me to look like, come on, come on. Uh, big picture questions before we get to, we're going to go through,

we're going to make our all-star picks. There's going to be some people who aren't happy with this podcast. Uh, a couple of groups before we start Trey young fans. I don't think you're going to be very happy with this podcast. Fans of people who love fake stats that don't resolve it, resolve an actual wins. They think are going to be very happy with this podcast. Fans of people who love fake stats that don't resolve in actual wins, they're not going to be very happy. Joel Embiid fans might not like this.

They might not. My first big picture question is the East better than the West. Can we officially say it? I looked at the top sixes, and Indiana is the sixth team in the east right now and i think they are better than the sixth team in the west and if you start going backwards and you go six then five it's like oh wow this this might actually be the first time we we have real balance between the conferences you're not with me i like the balance idea i think the two best teams in the West are better than everybody else. Who do you think the two best teams in the West are?

The Clippers and the Lakers. Do you believe this? I do. I do. I still want to see what good Conley is. I believe that good Conley still exists. It's maybe just me being hopeful because I like the Jazz and because I like Mike Conley's game. I don't believe in Denver. We've been over this. Yeah. We don't need to go over that. We don't. But why isn't Milwaukee the best team? No, I think I'm leaning more towards like,

I think the best version of the two LA teams might be the best thing that we still have. So the ceiling of the team, the ceiling of the two LA teams is what I like. But I mean, this, this Milwaukee thing's ridiculous. I mean, they were, they were really good last year. They're far ahead of that pace and they've gotten even better across the board statistically. And Giannis is even better.

So I, I'm not going to argue against Milwaukee being the best team. I think that that'd be stupid. I think there is a reluctancy to give up on what LeBron and ADL look like once this thing, you know, that's all the only thing to me that distinguishes that distinguishes Milwaukee from the two LA teams is reps. So Giannis had his first real deep run into the conference playoffs last year.

And, you know, both Clippers and the Lakers have a bunch of guys that have those chops. There's serious questions on those LA teams that I think they can answer at the trade deadline. But there's still questions. The Clippers are too small. I think they're going to be in real trouble when they go against a bigger team. And I think they're starting to realize that maybe Harrell is not the answer

if they're going to be playing the Lakers in the playoff series. The Harrell thing's kind of like, that front office is so good with the Clippers. I can imagine, I'm sure they are. They're going like, is there a way we get out of the Harold contract problem with also sort of reinventing ourselves? But do you think they would trade him? Because I actually think they I'm starting to think they would.

I just think that they're such a forward thinking group of guys that if they saw something where they go, you know, this this maybe doesn't really change too much of who we are right now. But in the future, you know, it doesn't lead us to... All these guys that everybody's like, oh, he's a free agent, he's a free agent. There's just not that much cap space out there. And there's not cap space out there with great options. It's all bad options. Like if Indiana called them and said,

we'll give you Miles Turner for Harrow and the Harkless expiring. I think the Clippers would do that. Is that really an upgrade? That actually might be a downgrade. Well, but... But, I mean... I know what you're saying. If you're just talking about

do we have enough size and you're deciding collectively as an organization, we actually don't have enough size. There's certain teams that we're going to play in the playoffs Can we just stay on that, though?

Who are they playing, though, that has so much size? Lakers. It's only one team. They have to get through the Lakers. But then they beat them. Do you trust them against Davis? I don't know how they stop him if he's healthy.

That's all I keep hearing from Lakers fans is that don't even worry about the Clippers. They don't have anybody. And then the Clippers beat them. I would say LeBron's the second biggest guy in that game. I don't think there's anybody. Just big size-wise. Do you know how many years I've made the mistake of going, oh, they have those three guys

that are all like 6'7", 6'8", to kind of throw 20 minutes at LeBron? None of it's ever mattered. Yeah. It doesn't matter. So I don't know that, you know, other than... Look, they've got Kawhi.

They've got George. They can switch all of these things. Hell, when Beverly switched on to LeBron, he blocked his shot. Not saying, like, Beverly's going to lock up LeBron. So you would upgrade... You would get one more wing.

Because I think... If you were sent me and you gave all the options to me, I would actually rather try to get one more three and D guy and hope that I could get a buyout guy for more fouls and then just go with Harold and, uh, and the tall dude hands up all the time. Who got just ripped out of that golden state series. Hands are up, but one more guy. I don't. Do you think Thompson is a buyout guy? Or do you think he's somebody that will actually get traded?

Because the cashman's like, he's not a buyout guy. We're not trading him. And it's like, okay. There's a lot of front offices that will tell you, like they've told me for years, is that at times you help out the agent. You help out the agent. You do the buyout, even though it doesn't make a ton of sense.

And then the agent fucks you three months later. Right, right. And then the agent never repays the favor. There's other front offices that wouldn't do that, would just say, hey, I'm not in this to do a favor for the agent. And that's a really easy thing to explain there, too. So I don't know what's going to happen with Thompson. But Thompson is a valuable asset to somebody.

And I can't believe, like like there's two guys this year. Thompson on a lost cause season. And Derrick Rose. I wasn't going to say Derrick Rose, but I would add him to it. But like even watching Draymond, do you have any other guys who would just, with the team resume that Draymond has had and the group that he's playing with now and that he's still pretty engaged. And I know he's getting paid.

I know he doesn't score. But like that would, there's so many other guys that would be like, I don't even want to dress. Like this is beneath beneath me the fake injury would have happened by now i'm with you no i was talking about february guys that are actually kind of overqualified to be buyout guys because i think rose is the same way like you have to get a real asset for rose's number is awesome yeah he's kind of unstoppable offensively again he goes by anybody he wants in every game. He's only playing 25 minutes a game.

He's not a restriction. But for a contender, that's him. But House, I gave up on Rose. I never thought this was possible. He came all the way back last season. He was terrific last year, I thought. And look, he's 7.6 next year. He's 31 years old.

So when you start looking at some of the salaries and the money you can spend, like that's a great one. But the Montrez, I just want to add this though, in that I don't, when you're starting to figure out like, okay, the Celtics need a big, if they have to play the Sixers or they're screwed. Okay. They're not beating them. I don't care how great they looked against the Lakers, but I think there's a lot of teams that can kind of avoid that big matchup. I think with Montrez, it's, it's pretty simple. And do you think there's some sort of way to flip this on the fly where you don't have to worry about his contracting, think with Montrez, it's pretty simple. And do you think there's some sort of way to flip this on the fly where you don't have to worry about his contracting?

But then Montrez is, I mean, the energy part of that, the way he plays. I personally would keep him. I would keep him, but I just think those guys are really smart and they're probably going

over every single scenario and that could we, like they'd be daring and bold enough to change something on the fly when most teams would never mess with it. And I still would say don't get rid of the guy.

I think with the Harkless contract, which is fairly sizable and the Jerome Robinson, I think he makes three. They can pretty easily get to like 18, 19 million, which puts them in play for at least an expensive wing guy. But I think the Celtics, I'm with you. The Tice and Cantor on the right night, you can catch them like last night and be like, Oh yeah, they're set. You add those stats together and it's like in a playoff series with the

fouls, um, with the possible injury. It's a no for me. It's a no for me. They need a third guy. And I don't know what happened to Robert Williams, but,

um, I think these, I think it's a conversation that it's better than the West because I like Miami. I like Toronto. I think the Celts, there was a stat that the top seven on the Celts

had only played, I think, five games together. Last night was the sixth. When they actually have their seven, it's a good team. They're still two guys short. It's one of those two guys, Hayward. Philly high upside.

Hayward's a good last night. Yeah, Hayward. I mean, the Hayward thing, whenever I look at this Boston struggle stretch, you go okay you know it was a little overblown they had the second easiest schedule as of going into this week when i was looking at some of the stuff in the entire league like second easiest to the first 40 games or something but therefore it's hard to come up with too many more teams that you think okay i like their top four better than the celtics top four even though hayward since he'd been back like let's see how it looks in, in April before

we just assume he's washed again. Cause I don't think that's the case. Cause he was so good at the beginning of the year. So what they did last night, granted, they caught the Lakers in, in, on the right night in the right game, but they were, when they play with pace and they attack the rim, they're a really interesting team. And I do think that's the one kind of style that the lakers have trouble with because the lakers don't want to play fast like that and everyone lebron never wants to play now it's one of the funniest things up on

him it's it's a little trouble for him every time somebody goes out with a new coach new system more athletes are going to get out there and run it wouldn't be better than lebron a transition he's the one that dictates pace yeah it doesn't matter what the roster or the stuff and run it wouldn't be better than lebron a transition he's the one that dictates pace yeah it doesn't matter what the roster or this up and and it by the way it's working for him it's working but every year i hear it oh wait we got larry nance jr out there running with lebron you kidding me well my favorite thing with lebron on that point is he he doesn't really have to cross half court he they run transition and he passes the ball from half court. I mean, it's effing incredible how many assists he has

and how good they look. And he had a couple last night. The reinvention of, and this is what's made him so great. This is why he's one of the three best players ever, that he can assume different forms depending on the season. And this year he's just like, I'm winning the assist title and I'm going to try to make everybody else better, but I'm still going to be able to score 25 points a game.

And this will be my goal this year. What's crazy to me is the minutes. Didn't, this is probably the most, the pace for the most that he's played, I would say since like the second Miami season. I don't understand it. Even though last year was like a mess i found myself like even more impressed not that like i didn't think i could be any more impressed

by lebron the player yeah and there were moments last year where i go he has he's taking off this quarter but he's playing yeah and it looks like he's just out of it a little but he but he isn't because he's still out there. So you still have to worry about him the whole time. And then you look at the box score and be like, he had 29, 10 and eight. Well, it's like, what, how did that happen? It's like a boxer, right? Or a boxer can go, I'm going to take off the fifth and sixth rounds and just fight for the last 20 seconds. And I bet I can still these rounds anyway. So this is the most refreshed he's been in 15 years, right? He had a nearly six-month break from competitive basketball,

serious competitive basketball for the first time. He needed it. So it was like the very best timing. And he got the very best compliment in Davis for, you know, the reinvention that you're talking about. And the Warriors guys have been pretty adamant about this for the last year, about how fucking grueling those hundred game seasons are and even as they're trying to win the title last year and kurt talked about i wanted the book basketball pot with him you just stack those

seasons in a row and it's five seasons but it feels like eight and at some point you need to step back and i think last year maybe lebron knew that that whole time he was this is my reset season we have all these young guys the davis thing or whoever gets going to take a year to play out i thought it was because he wanted to make movies well that might have been it too because that's how you go to his kids games but just just for all the people like when they weren't playing well and he got hurt and were they going to be a four seed no but they would have made the playoffs but when they're not playing well and he got hurt and were they going to be a four seed? No, but they would have made the playoffs. But when they're not doing well and every talking head, that's like, you know, they launched this game show.

So, you know, how hard is he really going to try? And you just go like, we do this. Like remember when Roy McIlroy, like a girlfriend, he's doing a golf thing. I love it. It's like McIlroy has this great start to his career. And then it's like, he's seen with, with some smoke show and it's like, you know, he didn't make the cut. Sex. Spieth.

You know? Spieth, same thing. Spieth's worse. Rory ditched his fiancee by text, so I don't think he was that affected. One last thing on Milwaukee. Maybe he was roaming. Because I have a schedule.

We've got to move on. Milwaukee's at plus 12.7 point differential right now. And I remember when I was doing my book in 07, 08, 09, when we just had less stats and it was really hard to compare the greatest teams from different eras. And the pace was all fucked up and we didn't have the good pace stats. But one of the things that was really valuable is point differential. And it's like, if you're winning by 10 points a night, you're having a significant season. This team's winning by almost 13 points a night.

They've already had one long streak that I think was a 16, 17 game winning streak, something like that. And now they're in the middle of a seven game winning streak. And just night after night, they're killing teams. And at some point, that really has to start to matter. And when I hear people, and I include myself, because I was like, it's going to be Clippers or Lakers, the dominance that Milwaukee is showing, I think we have to start taking it seriously. Even though you and I have had a hundred conversations about regular season

versus playoffs, these games are ass kickings. And at some point that matters. It's like in club soccer, if one team's winning four, nothing, five, nothing, eight, nothing. At some point, it's like, all right, that team's killing everybody. Like Juventus or something. Milwaukee is starting to kill everybody. I don't know. Well, it's not starting. It's been two seasons. They're going to end up with the best regular season record for two consecutive seasons. That's pretty effing good. I do feel like they're better

this year. You talked about it on KOC with KOC on your pod the other day about how they lose Brogdon. That sucks. The guy is probably going to make the all-star team that we're about to pick. But they've been able to piece together different guys that have added up to the offense. And, and you know,

our man Dante has been really good for them lately. George Hill has been lights out all season. Um, Bledsoe's. I mean, I know no one trusts, but whatever this version of him is right now, it's been really good.

And then you, you go through the all-star stuff and you look at middleton stats and yeah it feels like is he is significant at two with some of these other teams that won titles other than say dallas 28 minutes a game and that's the other thing is that that bud keeps this thing just rolling and it's almost like a quarterback another year into the system a great quarterback who now i'm another year in i know where all the throws are and that's kind of what yannis is doing and i have i have no look the point differential what are they 14 13.8 is that what you just said 12.7 12.7 right now i think is a record okay the 73 and nine warriors were under plus 11 plus 10.8 um you know it and you could you can one of those

teams was in the 11s but you said something i remember one of the first times i was like wait a minute i don't think i've ever thought of that i mean this is early bill early bill and there's always there's always this assumption though and it was kind of just accepted i remember just being in college and you know talking about when jordan took those two years off it's like oh well if he hadn't taken those years off he would have just won eight titles in a row. And you're like, yeah, probably, yeah, because he was the best. And then you think, and you point it out,

and you're like, if it weren't for those two years off, I don't think you'd just pencil him in for the other three. And I totally believe that. And especially when you think of the third title, the tank's empty for everybody. It's too hard. Next topic. What do we make of how the Sixers look without Embiid?

Because everybody who is a believer of, I don't think Embiid and Simmons should be on the same team. I would love to see Simmons on his own team where he's basically the main ball handler, the pseudo center. Everything goes through him. He can just clog the lane by himself. There's not a second big guy there. All of these things, we wondered what they would look like. And now they're coming to fruition because Embiid got hurt. And it makes me wonder, is there a scenario where they would trade Embiid? I don't mean to say this in the hot take. Coming up next! I'm really serious about this. Should they trade Embiid? Would they be better off if they got some superstar back for him

or a star or two huge pieces and just built the team around Simmons? I would like, if it's okay, to pat myself on the back a smidge. Just a tiny bit. Just amongst you guys. You're a big self-promoter. Massage chair? You want to put the Balinese on or you want the stretch?

The Balinese is strong. I went to Wizard Sixers in November, sat, watched that game intently and intensely, and was so underwhelmed by Embiid's intensity that I was texting you guys. Chris Ryan was on it. We had to have a Philly guy in the text thread.

He was bad. He got kicked out of the text thread. Bill was like, all right, enough of you. You're not contributing. I think we were coming in too hot for him. He just didn't know. It took the first hot night we had. It took him like 48 hours to go, whoa.

I don't even think he responded. I think he was just like, how do I get out? He just wanted it out. He wanted the exit for him. So we kicked him out. Poor Chris Ryan. Bill was just like, you're not ready. He has higher standards than us.

I said, to me, having watched this with the body of evidence, this is in November of 2019, if it's irreconcilable between Simmons and Embiid. And it may not be. At some point, they need to try somebody other than Brett Brown as the architect of this thing. So who knows? But if you're going to be in this mode,

and Brett Brown's your guy, then one of those two guys has to go because they have had lots of time to figure it out we felt that way last year i know they've had a great guy so i added it up and beat is played in 189 of a possible 454 games was it like 30 of the first 240 yeah Yeah, that's right. I mean, to be fair, I'm just giving you numbers. He missed like most of the first two seasons. Well, yeah, I mean, he almost, the rookie of the year thing, people were like, we're really going to give it to this guy. He's third year in the league.

He played 30 games. Are you frustrated right now? I feel like you're frustrated. No, I'm just reading you numbers. And, you know, we've seen this over the years with big centers that carry a lot of weight that have had some health issues already that are young, that we see the talent and you see them on the right night and you're like, that guy's one of the three best guys in the league.

And then they're not there anymore. This latest hand injury was a little flukier than the usual one. But, you know, you think of Yao Ming, you think of Bill Walton, you think of Smiths, just anybody over a certain size or height, how risky is it? Like I look at Simmons, I'm like, that dude's, that dude's going to be playing. I'm not worried about him sticking around for the next 10 years. You can get 80 to a hundred, I think he's a phenomenal athlete. Whereas the Embiid, it's like, would you be selling high if you explored it at this point? And here's the caveat. They absolutely love him in Philly. I would say he's probably the most popular athlete in the city. And-

Behind Nick Foles. And I think Simmons is clearly less popular than him. And it would be risky to trade him, right? Okay. Yeah, it would be because I don't know okay uh yeah it would be because you know i i don't know how much you guys remember about one of my all-time screw-ups before that sixers team like put this thing together yeah everybody was picking for the playoffs i was like normally teams like this aren't good young teams that have never played before aren't good and they were really good defensively and that's in the 18 playoffs when they lost to the celtics when i thought it was a series they should have won because they had the two best players.

Embiid missed the first two years and then 31 games in. So as this was all coming together and he was coming up on an extension, I talked to some other teams about it. I'd be like, wouldn't you have to at least explore? Because whose story starts with, hey, remember that center who missed the first two seasons of his career and then only played 31 games in his first season? And then he became the seventh best player of all time. Right, and now he's just going to be healthy for the rest of his career and then only played 31 games in his first season like and then he became the seventh best player of all time right and now he's just going to be healthy for the rest of his life yeah like that's not a bet that i normally would think and then when woge came out with the

details of the contract remember there was stuff in there some language about you know if it's a pre-existing injury versus a new injury some of the stuff they could do he's due 90 plus million in the next three years i love him b so even when i suggested i think that you'd have to explore it because of the start of his career health-wise like i got killed for it but yet the same thing is like he's one of my favorite players to watch because when it's right it's incredible so i don't think door him i but this ben simmons run and player of the week and all this stuff this isn't this isn't new right like everybody's known this other than Sixers fans that I think just get annoyed that everybody else in every other city wants to break up their team but we want to break

up your team because it's not that the Sixers are better without Embiid it's just that those two guys it's one of the worst fits of two special talents in the league and this isn't new I've said it we've all said it I think for a year plus like it just screams in your face though when you see them without each other because really your point guard wants his best offensive motion is either in transition or ceiling guys on these switches where he kills people because he's so much bigger so really like i was laughing about the warriors thing where i go imagine simmons playing the five with dream warriors yeah and maybe you'd have to move some other pieces around. That was just like being excited because things would be open and he could actually play where he feels comfortable

instead of this thing where he and Embiid are just running into each other all the time. And they're five feet or less near each other on the biggest possessions of the game, like that rewatchables we did about Toronto Philly. And two thoughts on that. I think the way that they constructed this team this year is is a transition team like the richardson edition and and extending toby at the exclusion by the way jimmy butler they're discovering a bench here thibault's been incredible for a guy who couldn't shoot and cork must is cork was smaller in person um oh but but they're actually like there's more depth on this Sixers team and

then you keep looking up and you're like what we're the five we're the sixth seed like that's a joke that's a joke that's right I don't know if it's all on Brett Brown and I just I think if they have a bad exit if they have a bad exit in the playoffs this year which they're fully capable of doing it's a blow it up I I don't know why you'd give it a fourth year where like, I'm not trying to act like a GM on this. I don't know why anybody else wouldn't see this. My question is, when is the first time? And I haven't, I'm open-minded. I'd love to see the stories.

If there are stories out there about efforts to work on this, please point me to them. When are we going to see Embiid in the best shape of his life? When is that going to happen? We, we seems like we have this conversation like every five months. There was a stretch where it happened, but I think it was just people were writing about it. So I went through everybody's roster because I don't, I don't think you can trade Embiid unless you get another top 20, top 15. I went into this saying no off the bat, by the way, trading in bead just for the record. So I was thinking about Indiana because I really enjoy watching Indiana. I think they're good. And the irony of them being good right now is Victor Oladipo hasn't played a

game yet. And Victor Oladipo before he got hurt, I would say it was one of the top 12, 13 contracts or assets in the league. And he's on a pretty good contract. So it got me thinking if Indiana offered Oladipo and Miles Turner to Philly for Embiid and maybe Josh Richardson, maybe some contracts, whatever. But those three were in the trade together. What would Philly do? Where you could basically replace Embiid with Oladipo. Oladipo could be kind of your creator with Simmons. And now you have this fast, awesome team.

I don't know. I'd have to have like a three hour meeting about it to try to figure it out. You're, you're a little less bullish on this. Well, first, the first part is the record zag of like, what? People don't want to trade Simmons now? You want to trade Embiid? Because Simmons had a good week? I think Simmons is harder to trade.

I think from a contract standpoint and just in general, he's almost like, they're totally different guys, but like how Lamar Jackson, they had to create a specific type of offense so he could be awesome. And he was awesome. I feel like Simmons is like that. they're totally different guys, but like how Lamar Jackson, they had to create a specific type of offense so he could be awesome. And he was awesome. I feel like Simmons is like that. I would want Simmons. I would build a whole team around all the stuff he's good at.

And I think I could build a really great team with him. They're kind of close to that right now, by the way. With what we're watching now, they're pretty close. If the point guard was better, like it's like Nato and freaking Trey Burke. But if you put somebody really good in that spot for those guys. i know i'm sorry um next i think simmons could be a really special player on a team that just says everything every decision we make is for ben simmons i think he could be great i mean we already know the defense you know the intensity

he brings it every night i love how hard he plays and you know he takes heat sometimes because in these ksc just crushed him a couple weeks ago about because he'll he won't know what to do offensively if somebody's playing really good defense but at the same time they're putting him in a position to fail i'm not sure that's his fault no this is this is again it's not designed well because it's unfortunate it's like it's bad for these two guys, basketball's lives that they ended up with each other. They just are like, it's, it's honestly like the worst fit of any two talented guys. I can't remember. It's almost like Samson and Olajuwon, I think would be another example, right? Or Mello and Iverson on the Nuggets.

Well, Iverson was at the tail end though. Yeah, but he didn't know that. I think Samson and Olajuwon's a good, yeah, Iverson didn't know that I think Samson Olajuwon's a good one because Samson then had to play power forward it brought out even though it looked awesome in that one playoff you would actually set up your offense with like guys on blocks

which sounds insane no but it made him think he wasn't a center which is what he wanted all along Samson was always I can dribble the ball up court. And it's like, you're 7'4". Get near the fucking basket. What are you doing?

And I think it accentuated a bad habit for him. Then he had knee problems. It didn't matter. But he ended up on House's bullets at some point. Everybody ends up on the bullets at some point. Hold on. We're going to take a break and then come back. Hey, if you're one of take a break and then come back. be able to hack your connections, steal your personal information. That's why you need Norton Secure VPN. It's seamless.

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Get it right now. Go to norton.com slash VPN Simmons. VPN Simmons. Production starts at $3.33 a month for the first year with annual enrollment. norton.com slash VPN Simmons. Terms apply. So go over the trade again. Like, give me this, give me the bill Simmons from both sides here.

The trade is like, if Embiid and Oladipo are centerpieces of the trade, what else needs to happen? You know? And then it's like, well, why would I want Embiid if I have Sabonis? Cause Sabonis is somebody who's going to come up when we do the all-star pick. This is why I don't feel like there's a fit for him. Now, Phoenix was like, hey, we'll talk about maybe Aiton. And that still doesn't solve this fundamental problem of how do we get an awesome guard for Joel Embiid? I don't, unless Portland's never putting Lillard on the table, and I'm not sure that makes sense for either side.

McCollum's not good enough you go through everybody and it's like eh there's no way this happens I'd love to see Embiid in Golden State with Steph I mean this is impossible this is just dream talk nonsense but I think the best version of Embiid needs to be uncovered

by a forward thinking franchise I mean God bless the Sixers put them in amazing shape. Yes. And then a year from now, it was like him. So the whole point is, this is moot.

The one team that would have traded for him and Bradley Beal fucked it up by signing this contract where he literally can't get traded, but an Embiid-Beal trade would have been... That's something. Just more shooting. And the thing is,

then you slide Horford as your main center and horford is actually kind of the perfect center to play with simmons and now it's like all right now we have something that basically what we're talking about here is unlocking simmons in a way the bucks unlocked yannis yes that's true where you're going i'm just putting shooting everywhere it's always stretch five hell are you know although they're back up stretch five it's not really the same by the way would yannis be as good playing with mb'd of course not no and this isn't really even a knock on any of the guys it's just like look we're just talking styles you can't be in my way all the time that's right and you can't be a post guy where you're being fed by a point

guard that nobody respects and then the other problem is it's like well how about if i go 25 feet from the basket and the other team's going, great, you should do that. Please. Please go far away from the basket. We can't guard you. The other problem with Oladipo, because my first instinct here is... Oladipo's coming up a big injury though. That's the other thing. It's that, and he's got a year left on the contract, so now

you're like, okay, so is there any chance that Oladipo gets here and goes, I'm not into this, and we traded. And the best part about Embiid is on the best nights, he looks like the best player in the league. So if you're, there's two different conversations. One's the quick one where you go,

you know what? We know we have some issues here with how these guys stagger each other. And I don't have the numbers, but I track it every now and then when I watch their games. Brett Brown, I believe, and I looked at some of the 82 game stuff is splitting up their minutes within a game better than he ever has before i mean that's that's what my eyes are telling me in some

just basic research i'd love to dig deeper so he's finally getting better at coaching in year eight but then when you're closing the game a playoff game and it's those last minutes where he does this kind of imbeed sub where he takes him out late and then brings him back in late the easiest part of this is just no we're not doing this the guy's too good there's no version of the return that we feel like we're good even if we don't like the match if they lose in the first or second round this year in the playoffs then i think ownership would go is there do we do can we really roll this all back for year four and i wouldn't what if minnesota calls and says, Towns for Embiid, you have 15 minutes.

I would do it in a heartbeat. For Philly? Yes. You hate Towns. He's in an unfair situation. What's going on? You've killed Towns for two years. I agree.

I'm coming to the, you know, again, I'm an open-minded fellow. I think the stink of the Wiggins, the Wiggins stench, what Wiggins represents and the noose around Towns' neck, I don't think we've seen the 75% version of what Towns can do. I was watching Wiggins the other night. He was really aggressive, and I was like, noted. Aggressive Wiggins. You night. He was really aggressive. And I was like, noted. Aggressive Wiggins.

You gave him a green checkmark. That was the night where I tweeted out that Towns would be vote for me all first NBA miserable. Let's talk about that. That was next to my agenda. You said he was first team all NBA miserable. Or all miserable. All miserable NBA. Yeah.

I don't know. I have a horse shop in it still. So first team is Towns, Bradley Beal. Towns' face face his entire face the whole game yeah is incredulous like just this sucks and i like he the refs the teammate thing it's it's and i like towns but the pouty level with towns, I was, I watched a full T-Wolves game the other night. I was like this, because he just got back. Right.

And I'm like, this guy's face is just, I hate everything. Like, that's just how he looks. I'm going to do one of Rosillo's favorite tricks. I'm going to name drop a book I just read. You love nothing more. Bob Iger's book, which I thought was very good. He has a whole section about how the leader has to set the tone from a personality standpoint. And one of the things he learned as he took over Disney and became the guy.

You're reading this now. Any reason? Uh-huh. It's a good book. You decided to become a good leader? I'm reading 75 books this year. I didn't talk to you about this. No, you did. Yeah, my 75 book odyssey. So I'm reading about Bob Iger and his, the personality. And once he realized pessimism is a bad quality for a leader and stay optimistic and all that. And I'm thinking like,

how many basketball players just do the opposite of this? Towns is number one to me. Towns, you watch Minnesota games and he just gives off the vibe of like, this sucks. I wish I wasn't here. I wish my agent had told me to sign that contract. How is that going to affect the other guys in the team? Guess what? Badly. Badly. I agree. This is rocket science. And you think about the difference with the Celtics. What time is it? I guess it took to the 34 minute mark for

Kyrie to come up. The difference of Kyrie last year and Kemba this year, and Kemba's just an awesome, awesome teammate and an awesome leader. And between him and Smart, the whole personality of that team has transformed. They're not going to win the title, but it's a happier team.

It's not even close. It's not even close. It's so much happier. It's not an accident. Like this basketball thing, like we were really early on this. And I liked some of the stuff that we've done on this

where we were talking about some of the NBAba ratings problems and i'm not even sure it's the right answer it was just me you know thinking of a theory where you go is it the unlikable star the unlikable star of today's game where you know westbrook and i'm not even talking about his disastrous monday game when they blew the lead to the lakers on saturday and his whole thing was well i have a family and that's what comes first and none of this matters. And I'm, I'm this and I'm that. And then Kyrie's whole thing where he can't help.

I mean, that guy fucks it up every time he can. I mean, he's, it's impossible. Like if he was a PR firm, they wouldn't have one client. They would just go like,

what are we doing? Like we might as well just light ourselves on fire. There was an article today about New York Daily News saying how, stop saying the Nets are better without Kyrie. That's absurd. I was like, I've literally read this article in Boston a year ago. Yeah, I used to try to argue against it in Boston a little bit and I didn't really like them.

And I'd be like, okay, that's still ridiculous. Like close up tight games and you need somebody who's a creator like him and then it's like oh wait a minute it's already happening in the next place and into the larger point here is that you go okay so what are we doing now we're doing this i think therefore i am mode i'm like we lose a game i'm a max guy and the fans are pissed and we're underperforming and i'm a shitty leader and i bum everybody else out but hey like i'm a man we share the same blood and you're like yeah just show up to fucking work man like i would love anybody listening right now you know any writer in the locker room but anybody in industry, and we all have somebody to answer to,

and just to have it be like, hey, did you not show up to work for three days? Hey, look, you know, this is great, but like I'm family first. And, you know, I like, we are all sharing the same galaxy. So just remember that next time I don't show up to work. Well, especially if you have fans paying

to watch you perform. And then you're like, this stuff doesn't matter. Yeah, that's the whole point. I wish you had told me that before I spent $300 on tickets and $25 for parking. And I gave it to my son as his birthday present. We're going to pay you $40 million a year. Are you going to have this existential moment in a couple of years where you just think none of this matters? Yes.

I have another theory, actually, on the ratings. Okay. I thought about this. It's a half-baked take. It's not a hottest take. This is not for Spotify. Hottest take is where I go and complain about dogs on airplanes, which I'm very passionate about. Are you anti-dogs on airplanes? Yeah, unless it's like

a service dog. Well, I'm convinced 90% of those service dog certificates are fake. Oh, they're 100% fake. It's one of the faintest things. Yeah, there's no one. You just get any doctor you know and be like, this person needs a dog,

and then you get to travel with your dog. Right, and guess what? If everybody got notes and we had 300 dogs on the plane, guess what? It would suck. Well, I had 11 coming back from Boston. 11 dogs. 11 dogs on one airplane.

Did you count it? I did. I was outraged. That's when you know you're pissed. You start counting dogs. And as you know, I have dogs. I was outraged. That's when you know you're pissed. You start counting dogs. And as you know, I have dogs. Here's my take. It's half-baked.

Did you see that Goldsberry did a shot chart? Yeah, of 10 years ago. Of what basketball is now versus what basketball is 10 years ago. And there were all these clumps like 10 to 12 feet on the baseline. The baseline shot. And all of those shots are now gone. And I'm just thinking like, maybe people don't like the threes that much.

Maybe when they watch basketball, it's basically a three-point shooting contest and the casual fans, there's so much variance from game to game. And like we were watching last night, Celtics-Lakers. Celts are up 27 in the third quarter. And I'm like, the Lakers could come back. They're just going to start shooting threes.

This is how Trae Young gets half his stats. They have the clutch stats. They don't have... I want to see Trae Young's garbage time stats because he's like Will Chamberlain when you're down 20 with four minutes left. Four minutes left and starts halfway through the first quarter is garbage time in Atlanta.

But it's just... Even San Antonio is going to take over 33s this year. And guess what? Maybe fans are kind of getting bored of just watching three-pointers constantly. Coming from a mega media superstar, I'm really surprised. I don't. This is why I said it was half-baked. It's not about.

But maybe people don't like the product as much. Is that possible? No, I don't think so. I don't think it has anything to do with the product i agree with you people what consume media i how do people consume i want them over i already won i was just waiting i was waiting because you want to know why because i watched the end of that warriors trailblazers game last night it was bad 60 it if no no not i'll say less than five percent of the people that are nba were up still watching that game i wasn't gonna watch it and i was like all right it's six minutes because i was writing out all this dwight howard bullshit yeah and um we're taping a dwight howard podcast later i go all right i'm gonna watch this and it was exciting and it was horrible

it was horrible horrible basketball i think gary trent Jr., he pulled up 10 times for three. He's played in like less than 50 career games. And Gary Trent Jr. is taking 10 threes in a game. He went one for 10. Lillard was incredible. He always is. But it turned into Lillard's like, I don't have my column. Like part of it was like, hey, you know what this is? Portland tonight is Houston every night where like hey lillard you're everything you're every high screen decision you're every single decision every single time and then it's like well lillard could do that too and that's why i think other players looking hard and going look he's great but if you're gonna let me run that you don't think steph would get 50 every single night if he wanted to do what harden did like of course he would be able but i think this is why i just don't think it's fun this is why i like watching philly, as we've discussed before. They're fucking weird. I like weird basketball teams.

I feel like weird basketball has gone out the window and teams that don't totally make sense and have a little different feel to them. I think the Celtics are a kind of weird team, right? They're built around these wings that attack and shoot threes. They're at least a little bit different than just like, all right, whoever gets the ball over mid court is going to shoot.

It's like, to me, Atlanta, people think Trey young is fun to watch. And Trey young's dad will probably come after me. I fucking hate watching Atlanta. That's not basketball. That's the pickup basketball that you and I would be like,

we don't want to play with that fucking guy. Well, it's not on the offensive end. Any part of that, except they never get, they Atlanta would never run it back because they lose every time and when it's

when it's 95-95 with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter the other team's like okay do you want to win this now and that's what happens at the end they're the worst

I'll look it up again but they're the worst fourth quarter they're brutal Trae Young's the guy you're playing pickup with it's a game to 11 you're down 9-2

and then he makes like four threes in a row and brings you back but you two. And then he makes like four threes in a row and brings you back, but you still lose. And then he feels great. And everybody's like, ah, we're sitting out for the next 20 minutes. I don't really feel as good. Plus you shot every time.

And I don't blame like Golden State for being desperate. They're a 10 and 35 team. But in that game against Portland, it was D'Angelo Russell. Okay, he got shut off. All right, well, let me just run behind who I pass it to. And you hand it back off to me. It was like, it was like D'Angelo Russell, like playing darts where it was just, just

keep giving me dart. I mean, this analogy sucks, but, um, you know, like nothing was, none of it was basketball. It was just, how can we get Russell a dribble into a three? Well, can you imagine? And he was like, look, he had 27. Imagine in football. Cause we've seen, I think Joe Flacco basically ran this offense once where you just basically throw it downfield and either guy catches it or you make it a pass interference. And sometimes it's effective. And Mahomes quenches the Casey game the other day, just heaves it downfield and gets an interference. Imagine if every NFL team

played that way. And they were like, we've done all the math. It makes more sense to just throw the ball downfield 50 yards every play. And here are the outcomes. The guy can either catch it. There's pass interference. It's incomplete, or it might be an interception, but we're just going to do this play after play after play. Would people like football as much? Like you still in football, you have like, oh, it's cool. The Tennessee Titans. This is weird. I haven't seen this. They're just going to run Derrick Henry and do play action.

Cool. Or what the weird Patriots offense with Tom Brady with like the Jenga stack of it. Like there's variance. And in basketball, we're starting to lose the variance. And I really honestly believe it's one of the reasons people feel like they don't need to watch the games as much because there's just fucking three point contest. I disagree with you guys. I think there is enough variance. I think the character of the best teams in the league is super varied. I love the Miami Heat. I think they're incredible. I think Bam out of Iowa. I like watching Bam so much fun. But think about

the teams we like to watch. Miami. Think of the league pass winners. Miami. I really like watching Indiana. That's a weird team. Sabonis is an atypical player that most people don't have. The Knicks have just a bunch of interchangeable parts. The Sixers with Simmons have been really fun to watch. I think the Celtics have been fun to watch. Utah, when Conley went out, all of a sudden it was really fun to watch.

It's like they're running their offense through Joe, Joe angles and Bogdanovich. And what, this is fucking working. What's happening. So you Clippers, when they have all their dudes, I like watching the team, the thunder and Paul,

like going from, you know, Hey, we don't want to play you all the time to him. Busting his ass. And then Shay. And then this multiple guards, they were down 15 of the rockets.

And you could see, I don't know. There was just something about that. I... So you think about... So those are seven teams we like watching. I'm not saying basketball is dead.

I'm just saying I wonder if it's one of the reasons where people just feel like it's the regular season. Everyone's just jacking up threes. I don't need to watch. And people are going to say, well, that's how I've always felt

about the regular season. Yeah, but the numbers are the numbers and the numbers are down. The ratings are down and it's a real thing. Your football suggestion, you're right. Like that would suck. That would suck to sit at home and watch every team just chuck it deep every time hoping to get a flag. Or I don't know.

Maybe people would think it's fun because all the deep passing plays. But as you sit there and speculate like a what if, you already have that result in baseball. No, but think about it. Like, hey, I'm going to watch baseball. Okay, what's going to happen? The ball's never going to be hit in play. Right. Never.

Well, think about how many high screens you watch. Like MLK Day yesterday, there's 14 games. It's just how many high screens and threes versus other kind of shit. I like the other kind of shit sometimes. I think we're gradually starting to lose it and you can have a team like the Wizards with nobody who can just shoot 48 threes in a game and beat a team that's way

better than them. That's why I think it's amazing what Milwaukee's doing. There's so much variance from game to game now with these threes. And anybody can just go 20 for 44 and stay in a game no matter what the talent is. And game after game, Milwaukee's just eliminating that. The opponents, I think, are shooting like 41% against them this year, which is a crazy number. Like they're almost below 40. I just want – it feels very hard to me to be doing year-by-year comparison on the numbers are down because TV is like – what's TV?

There's an existential thing going on here. I've heard this argument. I even made it and was corrected. Live sports is not down. are down because TV is like, what's TV? Like there's an existential thing going on here. So I've heard this argument. I even made it and was corrected. Live sports is not down. That's the confusing part of this. Football is not down. Football is the same as basketball, basically, where it's been done the same way every year

with the same nights and all that stuff. Well, I wouldn't compare basketball to football, though. I mean, we know more than anybody. Football doesn't bear on this. We know more than anybody, better than anybody, how you can consume basketball through multimedia. And there's no way to capture that. Like, I watch basketball. It might be on TV.

It might be on a computer. It might be on my phone. How are they tracking that? And how does that compare to five years ago? I reckon just watching on Twitter. People are as invested and attentive as ever with the NBA. But I'm not sure it's translating

to people sitting down and watching it for five hours. In front of a TV. Who does that? I've read plenty of arguments that convinces me that over 50% of the people constantly talking about the NBA don't watch any of the games. Or looking down at their fucking Twitter feed instead of actually watching the game you don't notice things like the trey argument to me like atlanta fans are going to get so mad about it i'm like how do you watch this team 82 games and not come to the same conclusion that everybody else does

that this isn't this isn't this is bad it's like he's 29 and 9 it's like they're 10 and 34 who cares um you know michael adams the Denver Nuggets one year. Yes. He averaged like 30 a game. It's like we all knew it didn't matter. It was like, well, that team sucks. Of course, somebody's got to score points. It has to be more than a year for me to get too worked up about it.

But the argument about all the different ways to consume it, that doesn't help this declining rating argument like not helping the nba is that the nba like look anybody that's ever been in the ratings game and this is always one of the things about being at espn where you'd see like a press release on another show that you knew wasn't doing well and the way it would be phrased you're like oh they're into this show like they're super invested fastest growing or they pick one demo. We're like, this is homeless people, can't turn us off. What is going on here?

And that would always kind of be the internal thing is like a guy was on air with his own show where you'd be like, okay, the decision makers are super into the show because of the way they frame this. So whenever it's games, right? Whenever it's games, it's the biggest audience since if the ratings went down because more people have tvs the population keeps going up so you should have more total viewers you should have more like the total number should always go up but whenever i think about the while they're streaming there's there's all these different highlight feeds and all but the nba would be telling us you know i'm saying? Like the NBA would find a way to include that number to brag about it,

to add it all up to one big, massive number. And still having said that, I'm not going to freak out about the NBA ratings and a dip post golden state and all this stuff until I got to see it for a couple of years before I believe it's like now a declining product. Golden state, LeBron leaves a small market team to go to a team that got ratings anyway. And Houston is unwatchable for 90% of the people. It's like they're Houston's a signature team that people don't like watching. They just don't know. I'm telling you, man. I mean, I watched so many Rockets games over the last few years because they're always on. Yeah. Got a good record. It's a big market, you know, hardens's a star. And then you've got Paul there. Then you add the Westbrook thing to the curiosity. I don't.

I watched their last two games, and I was like, yeah. Like, I actually think. I know this sounds nuts. This is going to be me and my anti-Houston thing. I think the Rockets being on too many nationally televised games could lead to part of the dip. And I would add New Orleans and Zion. New Orleans was just done all the time with no Zion. And then Golden State with no Curry. It's bad luck

this season. They have three teams that are featured in an inordinate number of national broadcasts that are kind of unwatchable. That was my argument talking about somebody. The only reason I think there's some real smoke here is the league is fucking freaking out about it. Well, what's the... They're freaking

out. And this whole thing about, we've decided not to vote on the calendar, that whole, we're changing stuff, we might have a tournament, that was all single-handedly generated by Silver to throw people off the scent of this ratings thing. If you talk to people that actually run NBA teams, they're like, we don't,

that story dropped, they were like, where the fuck did this come from? We talked about this two months ago and we tabled it. And now they've turned this into this. It's like a stern move because he just wanted people talking about stuff other than what happened to NBA ratings?

Why are they down? What happened? We're going to talk about NBA. I'll start one second. We're going to take one more break. Hey, with the new year officially here and everyone vowing to restrictive resolutions,

Pepsi wants to usher in the new decade a bit differently by encouraging everyone to unapologetically do what you enjoy, even in the face of others' judgment. Pepsi encourages you to let loose, be yourself, and live your life like nobody's watching. This is what Joe House does. Joe House doesn't eat lunch. He doesn't eat breakfast. He might have like a juice or a creamy soup or something, but nothing, no solid foods. And then guess what he enjoys? Overeating at dinner. And living life in the face.

Yeah. You know what? I don't judge him. It's just what he does. He likes to overeat. I watched him eat three and a half dinner plates of just everything that was in my fridge yesterday, including Chris Ryan's turkey club sandwich that was mistakenly delivered to my house instead of this office. And the leftover John and Vinny's pizza, which was absolutely delicious. You know what? I didn't judge anything you did. Pepsi, that's what I like.

Okay. We're doing the East All-Stars. I think there are three locks. Now, what's weird is you pick the All-Stars. I think there are three locks. Now, what's weird is you pick the All-Star teams and then they get thrown into like a blender with this whole Giannis and LeBron

just picking their own teams. My favorite part is seeing the player votes. Who they vote for. Yeah, when is that going to happen? I can't wait. Comes out soon, doesn't it? I'm excited. East All-Stars. I think Kemba is a lock. You went with him first.

I went guard to center. I know, I'm just messing with you. 22-4-5. Splits are good. He's had a good impact on the Celts. They're winning, etc. I think Giannis is a lock. Some Giannis stats. Well, he's 30-13 in five right now,

55% shooting 32.9 PR, which would probably be a record. Uh, the thing that's incredible about him is the per 36. He is playing 30.8 minutes a game. He is probably going to play less than 2,400 minutes this season. And he's putting up a 30, 13 and five and a half and 30.8 minutes a game.

If you're talking about per 36 numbers, the only guys who are better than Giannis is per 36, which is 35 points a game are 1962. Well, he averaged 37 and James Harden's last two years. And that's it in the history of basketball. He is basically averaging a point a minute. And it's absurd. And now you could say,

well, part of the reason is because he can go all out in those 31 minutes. I'm just pointing out it's never, there's no history of this ever happening. By the way, he'd be beating Wilt in Wilt's two years, 62, 63, 61, 62, with a PER of 31.8, 31-7.

Jordan's fourth all-time at 31-7. LeBron's fifth at 31-7. And Giannis is almost at 33. He's almost a point higher than Wilt's all-time PER. And then you throw in the Bucs. They're 39-6 now or 38-6? Yeah, 39-6 plus 12.7 points. They're averaging almost 120 points a game, which has kind of gone under the radar. That's like insane. Uh, they make 14 threes a game.

And as I said earlier, the opponent's field goal is 41%, which is a staggering number to me. So I think he's the lock and also he's a captain. so we know his lock. And then Siakam would be the third lock. He's 24 and eight this year. His last three seasons, he averaged 7.3 points a game. Last year, he was 16.9. And this year, 24.2. I don't really remember an NBA player over the course of three years,

basically three and a half timesing his scoring average. Like without some crazy injury or something. But I want to point this out. Kawhi last year was 27, 7, and 3, only played 60 games. Siakam and Green together were 27, 11, and 5. Yeah, they had a great record last year without Kawhi. This year, Powell and Ananobi are 27-10. They've basically been able to figure out

how to replace Siakam and Green's stats from last year with Powell and Ananobi. And then Siakam's giving them 90% of Kawhi's stats. And people are like, how is Toronto this good? It's like, it's math. They've figured out how to replace all the numbers from last year. Playoffs will be a different story,

but for regular season. it's not just math. Like you see, I'm continuing to improve in, in by exponents is, is also part of this. Well, and the fact that Powell has turned into like a real guy now, Powell went bananas.

I don't understand it. Yeah. Uh, their, their depth of guys that can get you a bucket is something that we've been talking about now for a year plus, but it's incredible.

So you have Siakam as a lock? Yeah, because of the forward thing. And then my other two, and then you guys can weigh in. I have Simmons as the other guard. Simmons is now 16, 8, 9. He leads the league in steals. I went on NBA.com.

They have all those super dorky stats. Leads the league in loose balls recovered. Second in deflections. Those are two great stats because they confirm the eye test of when you watch Philly games, you're like, God damn it. Ben Simmons is all over the place.

And it's like, oh yeah, here's some stats that actually prove that he's actually all over the place. On NBA.com, they have those hustle stats. So I have him. And then for the last forward spot, for me, it was between Embiid and Sabonis. I went with Embiid.

I don't like penalizing guys who are clearly one of the 10 best guys in the league when they're healthy because they got hurt. And I didn't think Sabonis did enough. Embiid was 23 and 12. He's not going to play anyway. Sabonis will get the spot or at a buy, whoever gets it. So that was my five.

Would you have? Giannis, I put him beat in there. Um, just because, you know, I have, I have this weird thing that can kind of contradict itself a little bit.

Like I care about games played, but then I also, I care about, are you one of the 10 best players in the league? You know, this is kind of what it's for. I don't need somebody who's marginally better than you statistically, who's not thought to be in this neighborhood,

getting the nod when you're good to go. I have Kemba in there. I've got Jimmy Butler in over Siakam. Okay. And then Kyrie's going to be a starter, right? Kyrie's going to be named on the fan vote. Is that true? They'll rig it so that doesn't happen. Okay. going to be a starter right Kyrie's going to be named on the fan vote is that true they'll they'll

rig it so that doesn't happen okay but just right now like the fan vote's going to close I believe can we double check this can we get it on Adam Silver's talking to the Russians right now about maybe maybe rigging then it's Ben Simmons then it's Ben Simmons and Walker's your guards and then I have Butler instead of Siakam with Giannis and Embiid. Same. I had Butler in instead of Siakam because Siakam missed a little bit. That's all. Can I make the case against Butler? And the heat. I mean, the heat need...

I'm rewarding. You're going to... My theme... I'd like to see this heat thing balance out a little better on the road. I've had this now thing with the heat as much as I love how interchangeable all their guys are. I'm going to give Jimmy credit here. I'm going to see Siakam's stats if I really wanted to nitpick on the starter, non-starter

thing. Maybe it's the health thing, but they've dipped a bit from the beginning of the year where you're like, is this guy going to be in the MVP? Here's my case against Jimmy Butler. I almost had him not on my team at all. What? He disgraced the All-Star game two years ago,

and I think that matters. He really did. He disgraced it. I've already forgotten about it. He took somebody's spot. Exactly, because you know why? It's forgettable. He went to the game, and he's like,

I don't feel like playing. I'm not going to do it. I thought that was fucked up, and now it's like, oh, you're a starter. It's like, well, what if he does that again? I don't know. It bothered me. I just wanted to flag it. What do it's like, oh, you're a starter. It's like, well, what if he does that again? I don't know. It bothered me. I just wanted to flag it.

What do you mean? Like, his identity is the Heat identity. I mean, the story's about. That's fine. I thought he was a dick two years ago, and I didn't make him a starter because of it. But you know what? You're a steward of this game. I am.

I'm a steward. So I think that. Treat the All-Star game with respect. You look at it through the lens of a steward. Thank you. Appreciate it. I have Jimmy Butler on my bench as a no-brainer pick. What about Bam?

Jimmy Butler 27-6. Two really weird just basic stats. 9.4 free throw attempts a game. Absolutely. He's not shooting it great. 27% from three. Yeah, I looked it up last night. But I love, you know I love when guys go to the Absolutely. He's not shooting it great. 27% from three. Yeah. I

looked it up last night. But I love, you know, I love when guys go to the hole. That's it. I love when the free throw attempts are in the nights. I think he's been awesome for them. I'm just penalizing him because of what he did two years ago. So he's in there, Chris Middleton, 28 minutes a game, but still putting up the 19 and six. He's almost 50, 40 50 40 90 i think sabonis has been a revelation this season he he's certainly house and i loved him in college yeah his rebounding numbers good you're like wait he's he's 18 and 13 every game and with assists now whatever's up with that relationship has always been weird too because it's like all right so now i get to start because you're trying to figure out the miles turn thing like i'm i'm now without oladipo i don't know i guess you could argue

brogdon a little bit but when i watch him i think sabonis is the best player and now with bogdanovich moving on too i mean sabonis wasn't great in the playoffs or anything like that but i mean he's looking at is like okay now i get to start you're still hesitant on the contract thing whatever i mean players i know it's always frustrating. It's insulting, but you know, just because other guys get the maximum, maybe they shouldn't. It doesn't mean that every team is just going to pay you a year before they have to. Um, but I, I asked the bonus there as well over Brogdon 34.1 minutes a game for him. 54%. I think from the eye test, just bounce around a league pass. He's not automatic two points, but when they need a basket, like he can really get them a basket.

They can run them in screens. His hands are around the rims. He gets little putbacks. He's just very present in these crunch times. And I really like him. I've been impressed. Same thing for Adebayo. 16, 11, and five.

Almost 60% shooting. he's not for stocks he's not a raw number guy he is a turn on the game watch him and see i mean he really is you want to talk about all the different things that like simmons can do or draymond but i mean it really is uh like a more explosive draymond it's it nuts. And I think this matters. And I only think there's a couple guys like this. Guys do think about him when they go into the lane. Like Gobert is the best example of this, right? Gobert, we have some stats like you have

that they have the under six feet field goal percentage of their opponents, all that stuff. But you can see it in the games. When guys are going around they're kind of looking around for bam and it's funny because he's not like it's not like he's seven two he caught a dunk the other day that was behind him and he like stopped in the middle of the air to catch it right and then was like okay now that i have it i will now dunk it on everybody and it was all in the air he was another guy who was good in college though i don't know what

happened with him. He just. He wasn't drafted in the top 10. No, it's still. I still think it's one of those things where you're so stuck in the. Do I. Can I really get away with this guy? Like under 6'10", playing a five. And now we've learned anything.

Like, you still have to be kind of special. You can't just go, hey, let's start getting 6'9 centers in here. How about Pop? In Miami. Cutting him in day two? Miami had to run. Team USA. Had to run.

Oh, my God. Had to run through the Hassan Whiteside experiment, too. Right? I mean, Bam's going to win. Yeah, they had to actually make him leave. Yes. And that opened it up for him. Yes.

So they're the second best team in the East. When you think about it, they probably should be because they have two of the best players in the East. I agree with this. Two of the best. When you think about it, they probably should be because they have two of the best players in the East. I agree with this. They have two of the best eight. The, oh yeah, so those are the nine.

So we have nine guys. Okay, so we have nine. So we have Giannis, whatever version of, I'm just trying to make sure because it's going to, this was tough here.

So we got, so all stars, Kemba, Ben Simmons, Giannis, Embiid. You guys went with Butler. I went with Siakam.

But you have Butler on the team. I have Butler on the bench. Middleton, Sabonis, Adebayo. Three spots left for the following guys. Jason Tatum, 22-7. Somebody that I think could actually, if I was going to pick guys whose stats are going to go up second half of the year, he would be on my list because I think he's really starting to put it together.

Like he's having some big scoring games. And just in general, I've been really impressed by him as a two-way guy. I think his defense is good. If it was between him and Jalen, which I think it's going to be, I would pick Tatum over Jalen. I think he has a bigger offensive load. I think teams are more worried about him and key on him more. I think his job is harder game to game. And his ability to switch and guard anybody along with Jalen makes the Celtics team good. So that would be my case for him. I can't believe I'm saying this knowing how much of a Tatum guy I've been,

but I feel like the peaks and valleys of him this year scare me more than they have his third year in fair. And he is more talented than Jalen Brown. The ceiling that is possible, I think is still beyond what Jalen Brown has been or could be. I think Jalen Brown has been steadier this year. So you go Jalen. I would go Jalen. I can't believe that's like me and my background, but I guess I've been just been steadier this year. So you go Jalen. I would go Jalen. I can't believe that's me with my background,

but I guess I've been just the last month or so. Can I agree with you and disagree with you, though? Sure. I think you're right. I don't disagree with anything you just said. I just think Tatum's job is harder, and that was why I gave it to him. I think Jalen has, in general,

he doesn't have to create offense. He doesn't have to deal with the other team's best defender. And if he comes and goes in a game, they can survive. And if you want to say, Hey, Tatum's played, I would think six more games. Then I'd be like, Hey, look, I can't, I can't counter that. This is, this is very much like my way of looking at them where I didn't expect as much from you, Jalen. I expect a little more steadiness from you, Tatum. And so I'm giving it to Jalen, which may seem unfair, but I am. You pick, you pick tiebreaker. It's crazy. I'm going to pick Tatum, um, because of the flip side of what you just described to me from, you know, as a, not a guy that's not invested in watching every

single Boston game all the way through, um, the peaks and valleys of Tatum are so demonstrably shrunk from last year when there were so many more valleys because of how disjointed they were and what a challenge it was to acclimate to the Kyrie experiment. I think when I watch Tatum, he is, to me, like a formidable, you know, he's a problem every time they're, they're on offense and then he can run, they can run transition. They can run them in the half court, that flexibility that we saw two years ago,

the Kyrie thing, you know, set everybody back in Boston considerably. But I, I mean, and I have nothing but love and respect for Jalen Brown. I just think Jason Tatum is a different talent. So yeah,

I actually look, I'm not going to disagree with any of that. I might be wrong here, but I just. I think it's a special twosome. And, you know, it's funny to have the Clippers have the finished version of these two guys, right? And when they play the Clippers, it's clear. It's like, oh, the Clippers have the better version of these guys. Yeah, their two guys are like in the top eight.

Yeah, yeah. But you look at when the Celtics were going toe to toe with them and it's like, Oh, this is what Tatum and Brown can aspire to. Maybe four years from now, they could be the version of these guys. And I do think it's in play now. I wasn't sure it was in play a year ago that the only reason the best wings,

the only reason you could ever say, cause it's still pretty lofty to say that that loud is that you're pointing to two of the longer development stars. Exactly. So, i just george for years we're like is that guy ever gonna be able to score now he can put up 38 in any game he plays in in kawaii nobody ever in a million years could have guessed the scoring from him ever no even san antonio um but the two-way thing i think is very similar i think the thing with Tatum that is weird to me is his offensive game. He has all the tools and he's kind of learning how to finish. Is there anybody, have you ever watched anybody who has more awesome moves and then the layup

doesn't go in or the reverse spin? Well, because he was afraid to get fouled. He was like quick shooting it. Twan got to the rim in more beautiful ways and never finished so Tatum 10th spot I am personally giving the 11th spot to Brogdon even though he's missed 12 games because

I just can't go two shitty team guys we're going to have to have the Bradleyville vs. Trae Young conversation I just can't go two shitty team guys. We're going to have to have the Bradley Veal versus Trey Young conversation. By default, one of them are going to have to make it because we just don't have enough guys. Zach Levine, we'll get to him in a second after we pick the team.

Brogdon has a real impact night to night on a team that wins and is competing without their best player. And he's been really, really good. In crunch time, he's great. He knows how to make other guys better. I would rather reward a guy like that than Zach Levine. Sorry, shoot me.

I thought that was going to be my place to distinguish between you guys. I thought there was no way you guys were going to do Brogdon. Yeah, Brogdon was going to be my guy because I think him as a catalyst for the success of Indiana. And it was, you know, we sitting down and looking at Indiana's prospects for this season invested so much in the amount of time.

When is Oladipo coming back? And when is that team going to have its identity? And Malcolm Brogdon came in and gave them an identity right away. And I watched those first two months of the Pacers. Like, he's an all-star. He's made the leap. I can't believe Milwaukee, you know, in thinking this through.

They're better this year, so maybe they knew. So, fuck, I like Brogdon's on for me. I was looking at this stat the other day i found online i don't know if you know this one um wins so when the team the two teams play yeah one team wins one team loses they keep track of this in the in the nba standings and the pacers have 28 wins and 16 losses that's what you call when you lose the game it's called a loss okay so there are 28 wins and 16 losses has it been adjusted for pace though atlanta has 10 wins and 34 losses so my hot take is that this matters

and that that we should calculate this into our picks so because i the kairi thing like i had kairi in because i think he's going to end up getting sell it they're going to put him into this no this is our team we don't care about the team all right so if we take kairi out so that means i've got two slots now and who i had in was bam middleton simmons jalen siakam sabonis my last spot came down to Trey or Tatum. Okay. So I still didn't have Brogdon in. I didn't have Beal in.

I didn't have Lowry. I mean, Lowry, he's missed 10 games. He's been okay. He was on the fringe in the missed games, I think, knocked him back. But he's had some really good ones. He has. But I didn't know. And then Dinwiddie's maybe like the last possible.

No, no, no. I'm just saying to make sure we mention any name that's been mentioned. No. Dinwiddie's a no. He's a no. I just felt like. I would go Devontae Graham over Dinwiddie. Devontae Graham.

He's a 19 and 8. Leads the, other than Trey, I think he has the most threes in the East. I just would love to see Rozier's tech chain with his buddies. Like, are you fucking kidding me? Roger stats are good too i think i actually think he likes playing derrick rose we should mention is 18 and 6 and 26 minutes a game he's not gonna be respect he's not he's not so all right so now it's down to i could just do this i could put well we have two spots left so house and i went brogdon for one right kairi's out we're not we're not okay despite everything and i know this is going to blow your mind i would still put trey

on in the last spot i just feel like whatever but brogdon in the 11th spot it'd be either it would probably have to be brogdon over beale okay so we're locking in brogdon for the 11th spot because then if i'm arguing beale trey young i I'm not going to let a team with 15 wins be like, well, Beal's team wins and Trey's, they both stink. So I don't have a problem with Trey being the last guy. I just don't. That pisses me off. This is exactly my argument. I also would put Trey Young in ahead of Bradley Beal.

Yes. I have it as well. I have it too. So everybody thought everybody was going to come in here and leave. We're the worst. You go through it.

You look through the 12 names and then that 12th one. And here's why I would say Trey was... The important thing is none of us said Zach Levine. Right. But see,

but this is the point. Is that Trey Young, it's still very early in this for him. So we can all hold out hope that there's a reckoning of like, hey, you get some better talent around you.

You're going to have to learn how to play with like your job as a point guard. Isn't just to take all these shots to like other guys going to be a little engaged here. And his passing is so special. Trace passing has been at Levine's that like, it still could happen where Levine's like year six, looking around and being like,

why does no one like playing with me? That's why. I also, I mean, you can't just dismiss out of hand that John Collins was suspended for 25 games. Like, you know, part of that little fledgling thing that made us all a little bit bullish about the Hawks as the season

began, we thought they might threaten to make the playoffs in the East. We sat down at the beginning of the season for our over-under thing. The Wizards are 11th in offensive efficiency and they're not even in the top i had uh i looked up on nba clutch clutch stats and what is that what's a clutch that clutch that's like within five four minutes or left it's got to be whatever yes usage rate zach levine had the highest clutch usage rate by far. What's it at? The worst net rating of anyone in the whole thing. It was just classic.

I was like, of course. Zach Levine is a social media NBA player because he gets into this thing with Boylan, what, two months ago or a month plus? And hey, guess what? Zach Levine made some defensive rotation. Do you think Jim Boylan wants to make up lies and start a fight with Zach Levine? Now, maybe he shouldn't say it to the reporters and Boylan

gets frustrated. He's obviously an emotional guy. And then the Levine comes out and hits like a million threes. And then everybody's team Levine. You go, Zach Levine is perimeter to Marcus Cousins. If you just look at the numbers and Zach Levine shooting it well this year and you go, man, he's really good. If he could ever get on a good team. And when you watch Chicago, you go, okay, marketing is worse. Wendell Carter, who I like is invisible at times. Kobe White doesn't even pass to anybody, even though he's a point guard. And he was less than two assists per game one month because I was doing game logs for

Kobe White. And I just look at this whole team and go like Levine. There are more NBA fans going, this guy's pretty nasty. And he's athletically, like, he makes Westbrook look slow. That's how special Levine's movements are. But you wouldn't want to play with him. But if you go, I think Levine's awesome and it's the Bulls' fault,

then you're no different than all the people that argue that DeMarcus Cousins was always awesome and that it was Sacramento's fault. So I have the clutch stats for him. He has the highest clutch usage rate. His net rating is minus 12.7. That's an staggering number. Donovan Mitchell, 23.3. By contrast.

Chris Paul, 22.2. Our guy, Devontae Graham, 13.2. Jokic, 15.4. What's Devin Booker? What's weird is, and this, we're going to talk about it in a second,

but Brandon Ingram was minus 31.7. Okay. But I think that's more of a New Orleans thing. All right, so all of us have Zach Levine out. All of us have Trae Young in.

And for me, it was like, Bradley Beal's team sucks too. So if I'm going, guys whose team sucks compared to team sucks. I'll go with a guy like, look, Trey's still like a 24. Trey's had some really fun league pass games. PER. Yeah.

I mean, some of these shots, I can't believe he pulls from them, but the numbers are good. It's not like he's shooting 31% from three and they're all just a choice of shots. Here's what I don't like about it. It's the coach's son mentality of it where it's like the little league team where the coach is like my son's going to be the pitcher and when he doesn't pitch he's going to play short for the red socks he's going to bat third he's just going to get started now or um or you know in soccer my kid's going to be the high forward i don't care like the way and everything i'm going

to create this whole offense that feeds through that that's kind of what atlanta did with trey young he's the coach's son it's like every decision we're making is to try to get trey young stats but it doesn't seem like they're that interested in winning we can't talk about this without with the john collins 25 games out like they didn't plan on starting the season all over the place with his injuries reddish is not looking like the dude With the John Collins 25 games out. Like, they didn't plan on starting the season without Collins. Her has been all over the place with his injuries. Reddish is not looking like the dude. Hunter has had really good moments.

That's all fine, but I want to hear stuff like, man, it sucks to lose. I don't care. I want to hear him say once, I don't care about the stats. Stop telling me about these records. I just want us to win games. I think the Trae Young thing, though, is very different because he he and this is something that i've done here i love that you're defending

trey young is the best outcome of this pod i can't stand watching them play okay all right let's just let's just start with a headline and there's some serious problems there and he's going to have to adjust his game as he gets older yeah understand how you got to keep everybody around you engaged his shooting has been incredible his passing is spectacular his defense is atrocious i think like 460 something players even qualify for some defensive stat yeah he's like the third worst yeah i mean it's it's so so bad also for ite standpoint he is the worst player defensively night after night after night it's all teams torture him right but if you do the what if i were trey young exercise and go you know you motherfuckers had

me cut from the g league two summers ago and i you didn't even think i was gonna play and now i'm gonna play i'm gonna play for a long time and maybe i just put a big numbers and i don't ever win but like that if you're looking at this from trey's side that's where i think all of his animosity is where he's tweeting out you know your apology needs to be as loud as your disrespect was it's like okay i get why you're tweeting that out but you guys also lose every fucking night so like what what is what are we arguing about also whether he likes it or not luca is going to be in the first sentence i was trying to do it without it i was trying to do it without luca it's just a fact yeah they gave up a generational superstar for trey young and they were like and we got this extra pick and it's like oh is that extra pick cam reddish now it's basically a

straight-up trade because unless you think cam reddish is going to have a miraculous turnaround over the next 10 years do you i don't i one of my favorite scouts was like the cam reddish is a no in our room it's a no and i was like whoa and he just kept in it you know just over the course of months of conversations and he just he's one of the best scouts i talked to and he was like i he's like i'm not even saying he's a bad kid or there's nothing like that it's like his whole deal and his approach and the whole thing house and I have been aligned on this

since we met in college in 1988 if I'm watching a basketball game and you were out there and I didn't notice you for a solid quarter oh yeah

you're not making it yeah it was like oh I thought what he that's not Bembry it's a Wiggins is the all, he, that's not Bembry. It's like Wiggins is the all time example. That's exactly right.

Wiggins is, I think I've seen the trainer. No, he's been out there with Culver on that team now too. It'll happen where I'm like, oh shit. Call Culver. Oh,

that's Wiggins. Wiggins. He's back. All right. We're going to take a break and do the West. Hey, Fando is the official sports book partner of the ringer. Even if we can't legally say the name of a football game that might be coming up, let's

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or in Indiana 1-800-9 with it okay the west starters are and you visit 1-800-GAMBER.NET or in Indiana, 1-800-9-WITH-IT. Okay, the West starters are so easy, we don't even need to talk about them. James Harden, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi. Everybody is going to have the same five. Harden is over 200 threes for the season already. He is averaging over 13 threes and over 12 free throws. So he's,

he has a chance to create the thousand thousand club. It's which is in play. You know, you know how much I love clubs. He's averaging 37 a game and I hate watching them. And it seems like his team doesn't really like playing with him. So I'm worried about them. You're worried now about Houston.

I'll tell you who I'm worried about. Who Darrell, my friend oh yeah this is bad this is bad this is like two more losses away from i start to get scared you're worried for daryl yeah because the fucking guns have been out for him since the hong kong thing as soon as anything goes wrong there that owner is gonna going to shit can him. What if I told you, can you be fired for a trade? You probably didn't want to do. Oh, I just don't know how anybody could know Daryl and think Daryl sat around and

went Westbrook high usage, wicked, inefficient, 40 million plus couple firsts. yeah let's sloan this bitch if you redid that trade who throws in the first no kidding right seriously speaking of all stars in the west i didn't ever think chris paul had this in him and we're going to talk about him a second. Anyway, Harden, Doncic is 29, 10 and nine every night. Is that good? Nine, three point attempts, 9.2 free throw attempts. You know, I love that 30.1 PR 37 usage rate. And I'm going to bless him by saying he's the closest thing to Larry Bird since Larry Bird that I've seen. Unbelievable.

I'm not saying he is Larry Bird. I'm saying he has the most pieces of the legend of anyone I've watched. Jokic? Dallas is also 27 or 28 and 15, 27 and 15. They're always sneaky. Do you guys realize what their seed is right now in the playoffs? They're unbelievable. Carlisle's unbelievable. And Porzingis hasn't even been.

So Porzingis has missed 11 games. You could argue 20. I don't understand how they win. That's the thing about this. This is how dumb I am about basketball. But even before Luka, when they had awful teams, you're like, wait a minute, what's their home record? Well, yeah, they always figured out the advanced metrics.

If we put these guys together, this will add up to this. And by the way, does this mean the Mavs won the Dwight Powell trade? Who'd we get? at the advanced metrics. If we put these guys together, this will add up to this better than anybody. And by the way, does this mean the Mavs won the Dwight Powell trade? Who'd we get? Crowder and some picks. That was Rondo Powell,

Crowder picks, I believe. They're averaging 117 points a game almost. They are first in offensive rating. Here's your complete list of guys who averaged 25, 5, and 5 in the second season of their careers. Luka Doncic, Oscar Robertson, LeBron James, Jerry West. We're done. Next guy, LeBron James.

See how the year goes. LeBron James, 26, 8, and 11. 49, 34, 70 splits. He still got it. 26.5 PR. Still got it. Here's your complete list of guys who averaged 20 points a game in year 17 of their careers. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone.

We're done. Headed towards 60,000 minutes. He's over 47,600, and he played 10,000 minutes. 47. He's over 47,600 and he played 10,000 playoff minutes. He will pass 60,000 minutes this year which only Kareem

and Malone have done. So there's that. Anthony Davis 27-9. He's been hurt. Kawhi 27-7-5. Only 32 minutes a game.

He's missed 10 games. His ceiling is still when Kawhi's bringing it on a given night, he's still a top three guy in the league. And that's it. We're done. There's... I don't know how anybody could look at it any differently.

That's it. Most surprising guy on the list for you? If I said before the season, here are five guys. So you think Luka? Sure. I mean, all those other names you expect. There's absolutely nothing about those other names. I may not love the Harden thing, but he's averaging 37 a game.

He's seven more points than anybody else. Now, I don't think that we've done the thing, like when you were talking about comparing historical eras before, and you go, okay, the sheer shot attempts during the Wilt and Bill Russell and all that Jerry West stuff, like the number of field goal attempts you'd have in a game you look at some of those rebounding numbers for those guys you'd be like how the hell were guys getting 40 rebounds in a playoff game like well that's just kind of the way shit went but i think that there's another like end of the the timeline

of the nba where i wonder instead of saying it's hardened jordan or it's hardened this or it's hard where we go okay the Milwaukee Bucks are scoring 120 a game right now. If you go back to the seven seconds or less Phoenix Suns, they scored 110 a game. And there were 24 teams that didn't even crack a hundred points per game in the league. That's 15 years ago. That's not a 50 years ago. That's 15 years ago. So when you talk about Harden's three attempts at like 16 a game taking more free throws than anybody else and an offense that's solely designed for you to get off every single night and you're durable enough to do it like it's all credit to it but I almost feel like there's a 25

percent error bump for Harden that people haven't even corrected for yet could be yeah I don't the the one to me that um validated himself well this is a stupid thing to say, but Anthony Davis could have been a question mark because you don't know the chemistry thing or the health thing. That, that he's been awesome to watch. He's been awesome to watch. Like when you were talking about, you know,

going at the rim and bam, keeping people noticing, like sometimes I still think people forget about go bear. And then you're like, have you guys not played them in a few months? you don't want to do that house has a rational dislike because he's French well when Boris Diaw said that American women were easy and manipulative I was like maybe I'm fucking out on that whole country um do you have your phone yeah let's do a fake phone call okay you. You be Elton Brand.

I'll be Daryl Morey. Okay. Elton. It's Daryl. Crazy idea. Just want to talk it out. I'm not offering it. I just want to talk it out.

We're not trading you Embiid for Daniel House. What about Embiid for Harden? I'm just throwing it out there. Just what would that look like if we did a trade like that? Because I have a chance to trade Clint Capella to the Celtics for Marcus Smart. And I was thinking, oh man, maybe I should just turn James Harden into, and Clint Capella to Joel Embiid and Marcus Smart. Maybe my team would be better.

I was going to say yes until I found out you were flipping Capella to the Celtics, but now it means they have a big. So I'm not doing it. So now I don't want to do it. I'd have to think about that a little bit. Let me check with Brett Brown. Brett Brown does that. I don't know if I want to trade Joel.

I'm not sure I want to trade him. He's been such an ambassador to the guys in Philly. You're getting it man you're improving your i've been studying your so much better because remember last year we were just bumbling idiots so here's the difference here's the key to the brett brown he talks slowly boston people don't shut the fuck up whether boston's fast brett brown he talks a little like this it's a little new york and

you know but it isn't he drags it out he's from new hampshire or vermont somewhere yeah house who by the way i'm convinced everyone from massachusetts if you're from either new hampshire vermont or maine no one in massachusetts ever cares like they'll just go you're from like new hampshire vermont maine and it's like three three states that are just merged into did you think i was from vermont for a long time i still don't know where you're from every man yeah where are you from everybody like when i get the vermont thing like yeah you were born and raised there you're like hey man i really like it but i was not like house who says no hard and firm bead philly philly says no no fucking way how would they sell

their their fan base on that is that a phone call that could happen sure sure it's a phone call that could happen because you know the gms are supposed to do this that's exactly what they're supposed to be doing thinking about how to improve their teams it's not the craziest like honestly elton would probably say daryl like this is a decent offer. What is this? What got into you? Daryl's like, I've got to get this one last trade off before I'm joining the ringer. The bench.

By the way, Daryl is the all-time he'll be fine. If and when this Houston thing doesn't work out, I've never had more confidence in anybody I've ever known that he'll be fine. Wow. That's quite the endorsement. Yeah. And I don't think it'll be basketball next for him. Oh. Hedge fund? I think he'll just go make like a billion dollars. That's what I mean. And then buy an NBA team. That was the

original plan. I'd like to sign up for that. Bench All-Stars. I have four locks. Donovan Mitchell. 25, 4-4. Really good team. When Conley went out, that team fell into place. So now they've been able to figure out how to bring Conley back into it. And this is going to sound old, but you know what? When I watch Mitchell, I go, oh, he's the best player out there tonight.

I don't mind that being a bit of an influencing factor and going hey who do i want in there yeah this is the all-star it's supposed to be that way how much how much uh how much how weightish is he on a scale of one to ten house how what is weightish weight oh i like that uh let's see evolutionary weight i think he's like a strong seven and a half that's what i'm saying i was thinking an eight yeah speaking of Speaking of Wade, I just hope the NBA does something to recognize his career. I feel like he just retired and came and went. Did we, did we get to sit back and think about his career at all?

You know, it's in Chicago. I don't know if a week long celebration is long enough, but maybe like a, like, you know, Mardi Gras has something before it. Right.

That would be kind of cool. What if we changed the name of the All-Star game, the Dwayne Wade game, the Dwayne Wade All-Star Classic? I'm not going to say no. How many more retirement ceremonies can he get out of this? I liked it even Heat fans, when the announcement came out that it was a three-day jersey retirement, were tweeting at me going, all right, you may.

This used to be something we did at like halftime. And we should go back to that. Yeah. That's enough. Three days. Three days. Day two, we're at the Fountain Blue.

All right, so- It's Fedora night. It's a Clevelander. Donovan Mitchell's in. Hopefully he won't retire someday for in sections over the course of a year, 17 different times.

Dame Lillard, he's up to 28, four and eight. His team stinks. They are 19 and 25. In this case, I can't blame Dame Lillard for that. They had really bad luck with Nurkic. Hassan Whiteside is just like, not somebody you want to play with. And then Collins gets hurt.

Right, because Collins is hurt now too. And now it looks like they're trying to get under the tax. 19 and 25 is not as bad as it felt though. When you say it that way, where they were at the beginning of the year, where it was just, you know, you're like, this is a disaster. And how much they actually kind of needed Carmelo.

When we went to that game early in the season and Hazonia played like 30 minutes and house was like i could go out there right now and probably do a reasonable impression of his own yeah in this game he was just a complete zero in every asset of basketball it was really hard to believe that he was uh so they bring carmelo in and then lebron does one of my favorite lebron moves that was unbelievable please go does the tweet thought y'all said he couldn't play or whatever it was and it's like you could have signed him for nine straight months you run the fucking Lakers thought y'all said he couldn't play why is he on your fucking team then LeBron

who spins this shit in more LeBron-centric ways than LeBron? I love LeBron. He's one of the best players I've ever watched. But how do you tweet that? No, it's only like- You could have signed him for months. The LeBron thing is only like the 5% where you go, what is that? What is that? The rest of this is unbelievable.

What do you mean? Are you going to take it out on everybody else? You were picking off Boogie Cousins and Dwight Howard. You were basically signing the 2004 All-Stars in Carmelo. You were like, eh. Thought y'all said he couldn't play. Including you. Anyway, Brandon Ingram.

Let's table him, actually, because I'm not sure he's a lock. Rudy Gobert, I think, is a lock. 15 and 15. PER is 20. I mean, big guys like that. He's 68%. He's 68% from the floor right now, Gobert, I think, is a lot. 15 and 15. PER is 20. I mean, big guys like that. He's 68%. He's 68% from the floor right now, Gobert. Get him in the All-Star game.

And his, the advanced stats for him with rim protection. The screen assist numbers. I'm going to go ahead and see if I can't find one right now because I've gone through them, you know, every now and then. I'll go, let me check in on a Gobert number. And they're just stupid. I'll find it as we're doing this so if you look at the rim protection which was a big case for mb last year and they can track this they can track what the opponent's field goal percentage is within six percent within six feet and people

are under 50 with go bear and that doesn't even count for how aware they are that he's out there at all times and whether that can translate to the playoffs we'll see but for regular season he's in there Jokic is number one Gobert is eight screen assists per game she's number one in the league he's 319 on the season he's about 40 more than actually this is this is how staggering the stat is for Gobert so screen assist totals on the year. Gobert's won 319. Jesus. Domas is actually close at only like 40 behind him, 280.

Makes sense. And then Bam's 100 behind at number three. That's just the amount of movement. And Gobert's actually one of the most underrated teammates when you don't understand. And there are moments where I'm like, is he that great great is it all these special things and then you start digging into it you're paying more attention to it the amount that gobert sacrifices through a game for everybody else is everything you would want in a big teammates love them too yeah right i think that

team has really really good a good vibe good chemistry The only thing that you can say against him is if they play Houston in the playoffs, he can't play. We have enough evidence now, I think. He can't be on the floor against Houston. It's definitely still a concern. I don't know if it's a off-the-floor thing. I think it's one of those, let's see how this is going tonight with this matchup,

and then what does Houston do, or do we try to beat them up because pj tucker's playing center it's the best i mean i don't want to make it sound like i'm dismissive of a house but i i know i've said that about other bigs before we were like hey sorry you can't go out there sometimes in the course of a series you're like actually this is going to work tonight houston utah is the basketball series i want the least. Why? Because you're afraid Houston's going to win?

I just don't want to watch it. And I don't want to hear two weeks of, go Bears. Can they play other teams so then we can avoid it? Denver. Jokic is going to make the All-Star team. I have him as one of my eight. He's having a typical Jokic year. 2010-6. No, stat wise.

Yeah. Doesn't, hasn't felt like that. But when you, when you do the list and you go, ah, the numbers are there,

like you're putting them on the all-star team. And this is a problem. And they're a good team. They're a good team and he's the best player on the team. Offensively,

they're ninth in, in points per game, only 109th because they play slower because of him. Offensive rating is ninth. Let's do it.

Let's just do it. Let's spend two minutes on this. I just don't believe. I heard you with KOC last week. It confirmed every feeling I have. I don't see it. I don't think they have enough. And I think that's the team.

That's the first round upset team to me. I don't see it. I just have to see another version of them, another gear of them before I'm going to start saying, hey, they're coming out of the West. And that's how I'm looking at Denver. I'm not looking at Denver saying, hey, they're a bad basketball team.

They're 30 and 13. They're four behind the Lakers for the one seed. They're good. I just don't see it as a playoff team. No, I don't. Because it's going to be what happened last year, House. I can't agree with you more. It's like, all right, Jamal Murray, this is up to you now.

That's right. That's the problem with Denver. I need them to get a third guy. They need a guy. I'm not sure they're going to get it. They need a guy. The Porter thing is the wild card, and Russell and I both love Porter. And Malone yanks his minutes around,

and I would just be playing him 30 minutes a game. You're going to make the playoffs anyway. I want to explore the Porter ceiling. Well, I feel like there's something going on there that we are not privy to. Oh, like health? Yeah.

Health and being careful. Yes. Maybe. If that's it, then fine. Okay. You win. But here's the deal.

The other day, Jamal Murray wasn't playing and he played Porter 23 minutes. It doesn't make any sense. That's a game. Okay. And if you're sitting there going, well, Denver's good.

They have the rotation locked in. I don't know that they have it locked in. I want to score. And if you're sitting there going, well, Denver's good, they have the rotation locked in. I don't know that they have it locked in. I don't know that any team should be sitting there going, do we have eight we're so much more confident in than the way Porter impacts a game when it's right? Like that to me is stubbornness. I think there are coaches that go,

we still want to just beat down young guys. And yes, Porter's going to screw up. He's going to be, everybody's scoring now, man. So like, if you're telling me that you can't play Porter more than 20 minutes because of a defensive rotation that's missed here or there i would argue i think you need to figure this out and it's not because i would argue go look at jimbal murray right and it's not because you're some finished product i just when i hear somebody say i like

denver coming out of the west i'm always surprised i just go i you know i don't i don't i don't see it right now i think they need to make a trade for a completely 1,000% trust this dude in the second round of a playoff series in a road game against the Clippers. Who are your five guys in that situation? You're down 2-1 in the series. You're home. The Clippers are in there. They know they can cut your throat and then take it back to the Clippers

for game five. Who are my five guys? And I don't know who they are with them. I don't think you can do this. Oh, we're so deep. It doesn't work in the playoffs. You need to have your five. And I don't know what their five is.

But I think Porter potentially could be one of the five because that guy's, if you put him out there with Jokic, that's kind of a nightmare defensively. You're not running anything for him either. That's what I've liked about some of his scoring is that, yeah the the step backs and these little like mid-range pull-ups look really smooth for a guy his size like his movement alone right we've talked about it like it looks like a little bit like mcgrady and that's somebody that big that's great we all love that cop he's not you know again he's not mcgrady's pass the movement out there like hey this is this guy's comfortable with the ball there's a reason he was the number one player in high school and all this

different stuff. And, you know, Will Barton can get it going sometimes. I don't know if that's always the best thing for a team that's trying to come out of the West. We were texting about that this week because Marcus Smart is the guy for the Celtics. The more involved he is, the worse the Celtics do.

Yeah, I think there are some guys. His best stat line for me is two for six with seven points and four steals. And it's like, ah, Will Barton's heating up. I'm like, oh, that's bad for Denver. The only thing i would say is we're halfway through the season we have 41 games it's like totally reasonable for denver to let this experiment play out over the next half of the season and to be cautious with porter yeah harris hasn't been great in 33 minutes a game um the jeremy grant is the trade piece in my opinion. Which I like them picking up Jeremy Grant once the Thunder were just saying,

all right, you know, let us know. That hasn't been great. Malik Beasley, if I got to hear his name in another trade rumor, I mean, it's just they don't want to pay him. And maybe it's because they're afraid of what they might become. Or maybe they just don't like him that much. So there's a collection of guys that have been getting minutes for them that shouldn't collect

they shouldn't always be in the way of Michael Porter Jr. is my point and maybe it won't be as you pointed out House I would like to see them make a trade so that's my eight do you guys have any other all stars because Brandon Ingram would have been the ninth but I'd at least like to talk that one out

right now we have eight we have Harden, Doncic, LeBron, Davis, Kawhi, and then Mitchell, Lillard, Gobert, and Jokic. Oh, sorry. That's nine. So we got three spots left. And the candidates are Brandon Ingram, Devin Booker, Ja Morant, Shea Gilgis-Alexander,

Towns, Paul George, who's missed 17 games and counting, Chris Paul, Jamal Murray. As much as we all love Jha, it's a no. It hurts. It's a no. It's a no, and he's probably one of my favorite players to watch. He's going to be there the whole weekend.

He's going to be a centerpiece of the sophomore freshman game or the internationals against the— I think he has a table at Underground. I'm sure that's true i think it plays out somebody bags out with an injury and he gets in anyway would be my he doesn't need to be in the game he's going to be in everything there he's going to be in all the stuff we're gonna see a lot of westbrook's out right stop it i don't know i'm just making sure. It's funny. Can we just do 30 seconds on Ja? Yeah.

The Knicks in 2009 come within a pick of Curry, and it doesn't happen. Then they get Jordan Hill. I think RJ Barrett is better than Jordan Hill. But you have the Knicks again here with the third pick, and they're one pick away from this guy who, if he had been on the Knicks doing the stuff that he's doing in Memphis, that the real NBA fans are watching. And I've been watching a lot of them because the Celtics have their pick and

it's just getting destroyed. If he was an MSG, people would lose their fucking minds. I honestly, especially when it's new, like there's no criticism. There's no, can you imagine?

It is one of the great, Oh man. Can you imagine if that had happened? Basketball almosts. Damn it. They would have loved it. Are you mad about this right now? I am. I think it would have been awesome.

I'll do respect to Memphis, but I'm mad that the Celtics had this awesome pick that is now shot. Yeah, this isn't because you wish he was playing for MSG. You're mad that the pick is worse. Maybe it's about the pick. So he's a no. Is Shea Gilgis a no? I have him as a no. I have him as a no as well.

It hurts. 26 and three. His numbers are tight. You go, wait, what? I like that he rebounds. I love guards that rebound. I like guards that can go in traffic with two minutes left

and get a fucking rebound. Motor. Who are we talking with go in traffic i love interchangeable guys to rebound motor who are we talking with about motor that you can't the motor is incredible on him he was a guy last year in the clippers that having gone to a couple clipper games last year it was just clear he was going to be really good him when he was in that trade him in person is different it was like my first time every eye test i had right my first time with him in person baseline different. It was like, it passed every eye test I had. Right. My first time with him in person, baseline seats, a few rows,

and I, I don't remember who won the game. Like, it was one of those things where I was like, I can't stop looking at this guy. Yeah. He was always in the red spots.

He never needed the ball. He was just doing whatever the things you need to do to win a game. And, when he had to be in that Kawhi trade, it hurt because,

and I know he had to be, or the Paul George trade, sorry. I know it had to be to get Kawhi., it hurt because, and I know he had to be, or the Paul George trade, sorry. I know it had to be to get Kawhi. It was the Kawhi Paul George trade. But man, I still wonder, I still wonder if he had to be in the trade. I'd love to like a five years later thing, if they ever do like, we'll get you on that.

The oral history, get you in with Balmer, everybody be like, what happened after the third title? And then be like, what was the tipping point on the Shea, Gildress, Alexander? He had to have been the last piece. They had to have been like, what happened after the third title? And then be like, what was the tipping point on the Shea-Gilders-Alexander? He had to have been the last piece. They had to have been like, take every pick we have. What else do you want? Presti five years later, be like,

hey, I would have done it without that. But by the way, that'd be like the most un-Presti thing ever. Presti would never say that, even five years removed. If I were him, SGA would have been the first thing I wanted. Then you could throw in his... Maybe he was. Maybe he was. Who's to say he wasn't? Too bad. years removed. If I were him, I would SGA would have been the first thing I wanted to, then you can throw in as maybe he was, maybe he was to say he wasn't too bad. Okay. So we got Lillard,

Mitchell, Gobert, Jokic. So we're at nine locks. So I got, I got Devin Booker as a 10th. He missed a couple of games. That team is now only a couple.

He's at what? 39 games. He only missed a couple, but they lost the games that he missed they're 18 and 24 he's 27 4 and 6

51 36 92 percentages doesn't shoot as many threes as you think I think people think he's like Damo he only takes 5 a game

gets to the line and I test wise when he has it going he is one of the best scorers of all the two guard-ish kind of guys.

The Celtics couldn't stop him the other night, but we've seen him do that multiple times where- But they also didn't have Jalen. That was a bad night to not have Jalen for Booker. But I think one of the things I like about him is he's not a just jacking up threes guys. He scores- This sounds like a real 180 for you on Booker. But I think one of the things I like about him is he's not a just jacking up threes guys. Like he scores This sounds like a real 180 for you on Booker. Because you've had stretches where you didn't like Booker at all. Is that fair? I've always liked Booker.

Yeah. I've always liked him as a talent. I just like, hey, at some point win some games. You're really good. I think we've all agreed that guy's fucking awesome. I thought he caught a ton of shit because then he kind of got thrown in the loser category. Honestly, from that video that came out of the pickup game where they doubled him in the corner and then Joakim Noah, who everybody loves, screaming at Booker. And Booker's like, hey, and I kind of, this is a real, this is going to be popular.

I agree with Booker. Like, if you're getting in there getting a sweat, he's like, I don't need fucking double team closeouts in the corner of some pickup game. She said this for the hottest take but no but it made it look like booker was soft and like you know and everybody killed him and actually the team usa thing bothered me way more oh that's fine i'll admit too i shared with booker that i thought it was bullshit he was getting dragged from that video it was a very quick interaction we know it wasn't even that he was my guy i was like hey that was bullshit he was like yeah and that was it that was even that he was my guy. I was like, hey, that was bullshit. He was like, yeah. And that was it. That was our night. He's really good.

I think that the next. I'm sure he was just as impactful for him. The thing is, now that Aiton's back. Right. Yeah, here we go. I'm playing hard. We watched him last night. Yeah.

He's, since he came back from his, whatever he was doing that got him suspended 25 games, he actually seems more athletic to me. They found out he was 37 that got him suspended 25 games. He actually seems more athletic to me. They found out he was 37. Don't rule that out. That was load management. I think he's looked really athletic and kind of committed. He's definitely playing harder than he's ever played. Aiden has this weird thing.

This happens to players sometimes too where you're kind of off the grid because it was last year. Because I think you turn into checkout and you go, Oh, he's going to be able to play. Like he's good. I get it. He was the number one pick.

The Donchik thing's going to haunt everybody. Right. Aiden's going to be good. He's going to be all right. I don't know how great he's going to be, but like if this were the late eighties, Aiden be one of the biggest stars in the league, you know,

thinking about this guy. So then he disappears and then Baines plays. Well, Phoenix kind of has this fake beginning of the year thing and it's without ayton the ayton baines thing is harder to figure out than like ayton booker and all that so i would feel good about him right now can i do a hot take just so i can get on the phoenix suns block because they love writing whenever i say anything about sons so the sons are 18 and 25 they are're two games behind Memphis for the eighth seed.

You have Memphis 2023, San Antonio 19 and 23. And God, God, let's hope they don't make the playoffs. I can't watch them. Portland is 19 and 26. Phoenix is 18 and 25. Pelicans are 17 and 27. One of those five teams will make the playoffs. I actually think Phoenix has the best chance of those five. And the roadmap for them is Devin Booker taking it up a level.

This is sitting here for him now. His team's pretty good. Like they have three and D guys. I think Rubio, who is amazingly only 29 years old. What? Yeah. He's 29 years old. That's like when we were doing the Dwight stuff. Dwight just turned 34.

Yeah. But they had pieces. They actually had the Tyler Johnson expiring contract. They can go get one more piece. And they have a guy who can, in the fourth quarter of a game, going against whoever in the last five minutes, can match baskets with you name the player. So I guess my challenge for Devin Booker,

Simmons' challenge is Devin Booker. You can make the playoffs. Let's see it. Put your team on your back. Start putting up 29 a Devin Booker. You can make the playoffs. Let's see it. Put your team on your back. Start putting up 29 a night and kick ass. You're talented. I want to see it. It may happen because of Aiton.

I mean, maybe. How many games back is he now? Five? Five or six. That's a pretty formidable Baines coming off the bench. Combo.

That's a pretty interesting Signs of life from Bridges. Oubre has been a really impactful contributor to them. Russillo, true or false? They traded up to the 10th pick and took Bridges over Shea, Gilgis, Alexander. That is false. It's true.

No, it is. He was the next pick. Yeah, because it was Shea and then jerome robinson clippers had they had the back-to-back picks the jerome robinson one's a tough one because there was somebody i couldn't i was shocked that they well i mean look it was their own picks but i didn't i didn't see jerome in that same group with with shea um all right so that's my challenge to booker. So we all have him in? I have him in.

I have him in also. I have him in as my last guy, actually. So who are your last two guys? I have Ingram in. The numbers are staggering. I have Ingram too. Efficiency's good. This turnaround's helped a little bit and he's basically played a full season.

And then it was Chris Paul or Paul George for me for the last spot. And Paul George has played 26 games. And Chris Paul's stats are... It's not just his stats, it's him. I think Oklahoma Thunder fans, like Oklahoma City Thunder fans, like a weird thing happened to him here. Durant left, you defended Westbrook because Durant left,

and Westbrook was your guy. And for the rest of us that kept watching the Westbrook thing, decline, decline, decline, losing these playoff series that you should have been losing in. You didn't want to admit it because he still was your guy. And then George bounces Westbrook gets traded and you end up with this Chris

Paul guy that you've been arguing against for five years, passionately that your guy is better than Chris Paul. And now you've watched half a season with Chris Paul and you go, Oh, this is what a point guard is supposed to do. Like this is what it's supposed to look like. And it's the oddity of like Chris Paul's rep that he's the difficult one. And I'm not saying he's always a joy to be a teammate with, but when Westbrook like doesn't want chairs in the locker room and needs the

temperature a certain way and never is going to pass to you unless his drive is aborted uh you know we this is just an unbelievably unique experience for thunder fans where they're having a moment by themselves looking in the mirror asking themselves about themselves where they go this is actually better isn't it it's your buddy who is madly in love with somebody and got dumped in a really horrible way. And then the next person he dated was super nice to him. And he was like, oh man, I'm in love. This is great. And then the years pass and all his buddies are trying to get him to break up with her and say, nah, this is a bad one.

And now Chris Paul is the third, the third one where it's like, oh, this is a bad one. And now Chris Paul is the third one where it's like, oh, this is what love is like. I'm just... No, I like that. I like that. Because I feel like the Westbrook thing, so much of it came out of the pain of the breakup with Durant

that they kind of had to go all in on Westbrook. That's true. They did. The moment they traded him, they were like, oh man, it was really fun he was an awesome representative of us like if you think about if you think about like a tv show girlfriend wife movie girlfriend wife where you just watch the characters and you go you know what like that's gonna work that's gonna work like i think a I think a Tommy boy, Farley,

and the character. Like it. Yeah, remember Julie Warner? Great. She was the girlfriend. Like, you knew that that wasn't a sexual tension love story in Tommy boy between her and the girl

that worked at Callahan and our parts. Yeah. But like, you just knew if Tommy ends up with her in Sandusky, everyone's happy. It's going to be all right. It's going's happy. It's going to be all right.

It's going to work. It's going to be all right. And that's kind of what I feel about Chris Paul and the Thunder. I will say, again, going back to October when we sat down and did our over-unders, one or both of you guys were pretty adamant that the Thunder may not, because at that time, where is Chris Paul going to land? Miami or, you know, who would it be? I was adamant that he wasn't going to trade.

It was you that was most adamant. It was also me. Oh, yeah. I was trying to get both of you guys credit. No, don't start. I don't want to hear this from you. Both of us. It had to have been both of us.

But I just remember being like. We couldn't figure out the trade. We would text. We'd be like, where's he going? There's no trade. Well, that's an info on it, too. And I remember it was like one of those mornings where i'm watching first take and i'm getting ready at my house and i'm just watching the tv and it's like where's he going and right you know putting my pants on screaming to no one they're not

fucking trading them right you know people are like well if miami and all the word out for miami is like we're good we're good we't want him. But here's the thing with this is a good one to end on because I think it's an important conversation. It's been fun and he's somebody that's been frustrated to watch over the years and I didn't really enjoy going to the games when

he played with Blake and DeAndre and I just didn't enjoy those teams. I'm confused. I'm surprised. Oh, I hated going to those games. Yeah, I've told you that before. There was a time, no, but there was a time when that was pretty exciting. I'm confused. I'm surprised. Oh, I hated going to those games. Yeah, I've told you that before. There was a time. No, but there was a time when that was pretty exciting.

They all argued nonstop. And look, I love Doc, but he's a big arguer. It was just everyone just yelling and yelling. It got tired, and all we remember is how tired it was.

And by the way, every other team in the West hated them. Like, hey, who's the team you hate the most? That was great. I love that. It was Houston.

It was OK. But you think about Clippers-Golden State rivalry for a while was great. I love that. It was Houston. It was okay. Clippers, Golden State rivalry for a while. It was awesome. But part of the reason it sucked was a little like what we were talking about with Simmons in a beat earlier, Paul and Blake were just a bad fit together.

Blake is not a typical basketball player, even at his peak when he was the third or fourth best. Remember when Paul was hurt for that stretch and how great Blake was? Right. They actually kind of didn't need each other. So he ends up in that situation. Then he goes to Houston and he's James Harden's caddy for two years that gets to like run a couple of plays.

This is the first time we've seen him on a normal basketball team that does normal basketball things since he was in new Orleans. And I think that's why it's been so much fun to watch. Cause he's like, he actually learned how to play off the ball with Harden, which I don't think he could have done five years ago. But you know, Shea will take over their possessions

from time to time. And Chris Paul's like, I'm good. I'll just be over here. Even with Schroeder, like they do this three guard thing where I'm like, man, I don't even hate Schroeder anymore. They don't either. I'm a DAP. Everybody's loving Schroeder now. I really think that this team is like this collectively this is cheesy but it's it's this huge like exhale moment for the organization post everything that they've gone not to mention all the fucking pics they have right and you know

i mean not having a ton of pressure on him and you know another thing and look i'm a pro chris paul guy but they didn't want to play him a ton. And he's like, nah, like I'm playing. I love the way to play and let's go. I love that. He could have, you think about how so many people in the NBA have handled this specific situation. He was a fucking pro the whole time. He's given him their best. He has a chip on his shoulder. He's made everybody on that team better. And they have five guys who don't totally make sense, but who are all guys who know how to play basketball, play hard.

It's three guards, Steven Adams and Gallinari. Their wings are atrocious. They, if they wanted to actually upgrade their wings, their wings are all over the place. I mean, Dort was playing the other night.

They're the worst wings in the league. That's a team that Kuzma might actually help. Until the extension, the Beal extension, I thought that's where Beal was going to go. Right. Because you can get the picks out of him. So it's been a pleasure and a privilege to watch him. So yeah, I think we have Ingram and Paul in the last two spots.

So the omissions would be Carl Anthony Towns, John Morant, Shea Gilgis. He loses his spot to Chris Paul. I think that's fair. You'll be in there, Shea. Jamal Murray. Paul George.

Not enough games. Sorry. Even though you were one of the best six players in the league last year. If George ends up on the team, I'll be happy that it happened. It's fine. But for our exercise. This was a big Durant thing where he would get furious with like all NBA and stuff where he would just be like, how am I not the first team on NBA? I'm one of the best players in the league

because I missed X games or how is Curry not like, he's like, at some point if we're making lists and we all know who the best players in the leagues are, what does it matter that I missed 12 games or 14 games? So with Paul George thing, you could say, well, he's one of the best 24 players in the leagues are. What does it matter that I missed 12 games or 14 games? So with Paul George thing, you could say, well, he's one of the best 24 players in the league. He should be in the game. Right.

But the West is so loaded this year. I can't give it to him. Okay, but if you had argued, like if you had come in here going, all right, I'm going George over Booker for the all-star, like just that reason

that going, oh, look, I'm going to put in the guy that we all know is always kind of flirting with top 10 in the league versus Booker. I'm not necessarily against it. I wouldn't. I think

it's George versus Ingram for me on that spot. I had Ingram more of a lock than I had Booker or George. It's funny because the team's not very good. No.

It's kind of what we were talking about before with Zach Levine and Trey Young. I didn't guarantee there'd be no contradictions on these 24 picks. If Paul George is healthy, he obviously makes it and somebody gets bumped. Ingram gets bumped, I think. So Towns really quickly and then we'll go.

The numbers are unbelievable. We never did the all-miserable team. That's the perfect way to go out. Towns really quickly and then we'll go. The numbers are unbelievable. We never did the all-miserable team. That's the perfect way to go out. Towns, captain. Bradley Beal. Levine or Levine's teammates? Levine's teammates. And everyone on the Nets when Kyrie plays.

Kevin Love. And Kevin Love. So it's basically Kevin Love, Carl Towns, Beal. Let's go with Spencer Dinwiddie when Kyrie is playing. Yeah, when Dinwiddie, when Kyrie's role changes. I don't understand why people were like, did you watch Dinwiddie? Wouldn't he be like, oh, we're doing this?

But how about, can we just, if you're going to do a bowl, can we do Thad Young who willingly signed there? And it's like, oh my God, what did I do? Okay, Colby White. But at the same time too, like when I, can we do Thad Young, who willingly signed there? And it's like, oh, my God, what did I do? Kobe White. But at the same time, too, when I look at Thaddeus Young, you want to do the disappearing exercise. Right here. And then somebody's like, you know, it'd be a nice ad.

It's like Thaddeus Young. And you go, what? Thaddeus Young's going to be 20 years in the league, and he's going to be in a trade rumor. And they're going to go, he'd fucking add some nice wing depth. Hal Horford? He's just too jovial. He can't be miserable. Internally?

Deep down in his bones? Nah, he's like, I can't believe what I'm going to make in year three and four of this contract. Dwayne Dedman. Oh, off the bench. He demanded a trade. Three-year deal with Sacramento, instantly out. I'd like to throw in my dad anytime Brad Wanamaker plays more than 20 minutes in a trade. Three-year deal with Sacramento. Instantly. Out. I'd like to throw in my dad anytime Brad Wanamaker plays more than 20 minutes in a game.

I'm going to add him as well. Russillo, we can hear you. You're only doing two podcasts this week, but you're coming back later in the week on yours. Yep. House, you and I did fairway rolling with Nathan Hubbard.

Season premiere. And House Carves too. Thanks for listening. And I'm not sure if we had another BS this week but we definitely have a book of basketball coming

Dwight Howard is not going to be this week Knicks fans are going to be addressed this week but thanks for listening everybody alright thanks to

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Pepsi, that's what I like. Don't forget about the rewatchables of Book of Basketball this week. See you soon. I want to see them on the wayside I don't have feelings with them On the wayside