The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA League Pass Fun Rankings With Zach Lowe

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by ESPN’s Zach Lowe to discuss NBA All-Star snubs, the most fun NBA League Pass teams, top NBA crunch-time players, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's a huge sports card boom happening right now, and The Ringer has it covered on our new podcast, Sports Card Nonsense. We're doing it twice a week with host Gio and Jesse. I went on this week. I'm on the Friday episode. You get to hear me talk about cards for 80 minutes. Sports Cards Nonsense, only available on The Ringer Podcast Network. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this, it's game day, all the gangs here,

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where we have a bunch of shows that have gone up over the last few days. We're really flying right now. One big note, though. Binge Mode finally finished the Marvel season. They went through all the Marvel movies. So congratulations to Mallory Rubin and Jason Katsipsyum for finishing that project. Very enjoyable.

Coming up, Zach Lowe and I are going to talk about a sport that we both like that's played with a round orange ball. It is called basketball. That is next. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, Zach Lois here. He used to work with me on a place called Grantland. We've known each other for a long time.

We always have fun when we do these. Right now is a great time to have Zach on. There's a lot of stuff going on. Your favorite topic, when people get snubbed from the All-Star game. I know you spend a lot of time just bemoaning snubs. Oh, wait. No, you hate it just as much as I do. There's only 24 spots in the All-Star game.

Why do we get so bad out of shape every year? This really annoys me. Yeah, you know, it's not advanced stats. You get 12 spots, that's all you get. So when LeBron tweets, Devin Booker's the most disrespected player in the league, I love Devin Booker. I've been a Devin Booker stockholder for many, many years. There's only 12 spots, so LeBron should be required. The real act of disrespect would be LeBron naming

who has to come off the team for Devin Booker to come on the team. Now it ended up being Anthony Davis, so everyone gets off scot-free. But yeah, there's only 12. If your guy doesn't make it, it's not because we hate your guy or the, it's the coaches blame the coaches. There were some specific arguments. I don't want to spend too much time on this because it's annoying, but it was basically like Mitchell or Conley, uh, Devin Booker or Chris Paul, Chris Middleton or Julius Randall. Like you could just go down the line and it's like, it was an either or situation. I think the one that I probably flipped on at the tail end, even after I gave my picks, was Levine, who I just didn't want to buy into. He's a good team, good stats, bad team guy. But every time I watch the Bulls, it just feels like he can go toe-to-toe offensively against whoever the best guy is on the other team. And he kind of wore me down. So I think he ended up pulling my 12 spot away from me, probably over like Bam or whoever. Were you okay with Zach Levine getting in?

He was on my fake ballot. I still, there's part of me that's still skeptical about Zach Levine. But part of it is context, right? Like if he were on Miami with Jimmy and Bam as like a second option kind of guy, he would look who didn't have to. They have guys that can cover for him on defense. He would look incredible. So I'm a little skeptical.

Still, just the turn. It's the turnovers in the deep. The turnovers are so lethal. Those live ball turnovers that just turn into pick six for the other team are just lethal the defense is fine i think people are exaggerating how much better he's gotten on defense as part of this argument to build zach levine up into like a martyr but he's but the off like the shooting it's just it's just ridiculous how effortless it is for him to just just get to the rim like it's like nobody's there as a perimeter offensive player. He's probably

like an eight and a half or nine out of 10 on the wow factor with some of the shots he makes, especially late and how effortless he makes it look. Uh, or you're just like, there's a guy draped all over him and he still makes a 25 foot over the hand, his face. And you're just like, wow, nothing you can do about that one. I think Tatum is another example of somebody who occasionally just makes these shots. We were like, wow, nothing you can do about that one. I think Tatum is another example of somebody who occasionally just makes these shots. We were like, wow, that was amazing. So yeah, I'm okay with, I'm okay with the Zach Levine thing. And you think about who is the team that had the restricted free agent offer to him?

Who got it? Sacramento, Sacramento. How many times has that happened to them where they've had the restricted free agent? What do we call it? Not restricted free agent. Why am I blanking on this? No, he was a restricted free agent. It was an offer sheet.

How many Sacramento guys have they gotten boned on one way or the other? Because Bogdanovich was one the other way. I don't know if they were restricted. I don't think many of them were. But for a while, they were like the stalking horse for everybody who wanted fake leverage, like Monte Ellis, I think had a Kings offer. Andre Guadalla had a nice little dalliance

with the Kings. They were like, everybody's like, oh yeah, Vivek, because Vivek offered me four years, 55. You got to come higher. Yeah. That would be my move if I was a terrible franchise. I would be all in on the restricted guys on July 1st or whatever the date is, because at the very least competitively, you're screwing up somebody else. Right. And who knows,

you might get one of them. Well, the nets were the kings of that with Otto Porter, Alan Crabb and Tyler Johnson. They were just like, Hey, sign these horrible things. Otto Porter has one where it's like, he gets half his salary immediately. And like the first paycheck of the Caesar. There's crazy clauses. It might not be exactly that, but it's like half his salary comes much earlier than is normally scheduled. Yeah, they screwed up a lot of teams. Alan Crabb,

I feel like he has a bad PR agent when we talk about the famous summer of 2016. I don't feel like he gets mentioned. People default to Joaquin Noah and Evan Turner and Bismack Biambo and Alan Crabb. They just skip over.

Wasn't he that summer too? I think so. Or was he the year before? And the Plotswitz is, I think he was that summer. And the Plotswitz is the next, then still acquired him later in the game. It like got very excited about it. All-star, the most fun argument out of it,

which we litigated here already and you did too, but just to have two starting spots for Curry and Luka and Dame and having to pick between... Where did you land? I forget. Who did you pick for those two? Curry made it for you, but where did you go with the other one?

Curry and Dame. Curry and Dame. And the Luka-Dame thing went back and forth and then Luka, he beat Curry when they had the Saturday night game. Luka won that one. And it's like, it was just a great battle. Good rock, paper, scissors. You can't go wrong.

They're all amazing. It's no act of disrespect to any of the three of them. One of them's got to come off the bench. I just think Dame... Now, the Blazers are on this losing streak now, but that happened after we all had to make you know, make our picks or whatever. But I think Dame had just hit so many ridiculous clutch shots.

Of course, Luka just killed your team with two ridiculous clutch shots. But again, that was after the, after the picks had to be made. So I went Dame. They're all amazing. These guys are amazing. Chris Haynes was the one who killed Dame's season

because he talked about how he was a stealth MVP candidate a week ago. And it just felt like it sent Portland's season to no tailspin. By the way, I agreed with Chris Haynes. Like Dame, what he was doing, they were 18 and 10 when he said it. Now they're in a tailspin.

I don't want to spend too much time speaking of tailspin on the Celtics. But, you know, everyone's hitting me up. What's going on with this team? And I do feel like there were just some bad luck moments that now they have added up. But when you think like every time they feel like they're about to get momentum again,

you know, the New Orleans game was an amazing loss. I don't know if you watched that game. I did. There was 19 different times they could have won the game. The refereeing was just abysmal. It was just a really stupid loss. It was one of those where you're like, ah, that's one of the worst losses of the year.

And then it's compounded by the Dallas game two nights later where I actually thought they played well. They had a heroic comeback at the end. Luka hit two amazing shots. And the first three he hit, their defense was the best defense they played all season. They, for 20 seconds,

did everything perfectly. And it ended up with Luka having to hit like a step back 27-footer with a hand in his face. And he made it. And then the defense fell apart a little bit the second time. But it was one of those things

where it's like, man, that's a tough loss, but maybe there's some signs of promise. And then they get murdered the next night by Atlanta. And now Boston's in a complete panic. Can I just be the boring guy for a second? Yeah, be the boring guy.

Do the thing where you say, hey, it's a long season. Well, it is a long season, but okay. So they've had the talent drain has now caught up to them, right? Like Kyrie obviously gone, replaced with Kemba, who's a shell of himself in this half the season. Al Horford, people forget because it's now two teams ago.

Like they could use his IQ and playmaking. They have zero playmaking on the floor other than the two-star players. And then now Kemba is back to himself. Hayward, left for nothing. You don't think they could use Gordon Hayward's like secondary playmaking, some shooting, left for nothing. Trade exception, doesn't play any games,

hasn't played any games. Remember Kevin McHale had that great quote about cap space. He was like, oh, cap space, good old cap, put his name back on the jersey, good old cap, hasn't played. Kevin McHale's the best. Yeah, but that's what they got. They got cap space.

And smarts hurt. They just don't have a lot of good players right now. And I think if you... I looked at their schedule earlier today. They've played a ridiculous amount of games in the last 25 days. It's like 14 games in 24 days. So they're probably out of gas.

They'll be okay. They'll get rolling. They'll get in a groove when they get everybody back. But I do think now you have to recalibrate. Like this team doesn't look like a team that's going to get in the Brooklyn, Milwaukee, maybe Philly conversation. Agree.

Even if they hit their stride. Now, maybe we're underestimating them, but like something's just not right in the water right now. Yeah, because we know Philly's better. We know Brooklyn's much better. And Milwaukee is either about the same or worse. It's just Philly and Brooklyn got better and Boston is worse. And from a scoring standpoint, even though we'll get to my favorite team in the NBA, Charlotte in a second, but you watch Charlotte

at the end of games and they have all these dudes who can create a shot for themselves or somebody else. You watch the end of a Celtic game and they have two guys who can create a shot. And then when Marcus comes back, you have a third guy who can create a shot, but you're not always sure you want him to create a shot. You know, it's like, eh, I'm not sure I want Marcus Smart deciding my game. We've gotten to the point where I actually miss Marcus Smart.

You talked about all the people they lost. And this is a point I made last year with Rosillo. And he was taken aback, but I think he came around to it where I was like, I felt like the Celtics missed their window last year. And it's weird to say that about a team that has two great young stars like they have, but that was such an awesome spot for them to be in. And the Hayward injury, I feel like if he doesn't get hurt, I think they absolutely make the finals. And I think they almost made the finals anyway. You go back to that Miami series,

and you think like that Tyler Harrow game was such an aberration, not just for the playoffs, but for every moment of his career. He's never had a game like that before or since, along with the Jimmy Butler game too. And you just look back at that series and you're like, man, how did they not make the finals? And same thing for 2018 with all the injuries. And maybe that was a three-year window

and maybe you have to start thinking it that way. It's depressing, but it's a fact. Yeah, that's a little dark. I think that's a little dark. Well, I'm in a dark place. They have these two and they lost the first game of that Heat game in overtime. The Heat came back and they had no regulation

in that game, if I recall. They should have split one of those first two and they did. I mean, look, a lot has gone wrong for the Celtics. Part of it again, is that Kemba, just like all of this is Kemba has got to be Kemba for them to have any

chance of where they, to get where they want to go. Agreed. And he's the Kyrie replacement, right? He's the, he's the guy who minimizes that talent drain. But as long as you have those two young wings,

like you're in an okay spot. It's not awesome that all the extra draft picks are now gone. And some of them didn't turn into exactly what the Celtics had hoped. But, you know, a lot of teams would trade plays with the Celtics if they were asked, you know, that theoretical.

I don't even want Kemba to be Kyrie. Can you be Terry Rozier? Ooh, it's dark, man. So Terry Rozier is making shots. Terry Rozier is a 20 points a game. He's not a playmaker, but he's making, he's shooting like 45% from three or something crazy. Do you think there's any lessons to be taken

from the last five years with the Celtics where they basically stockpiled all these picks, they banked on that Sacramento pick and that Memphis pick to basically strike gold again like they did with Tatum and Brown? And their plan was, we're just going to keep taking swings, but we're never going to go all in on a move or we're never going to leverage this potential of the future pick for a player right now, any of that stuff. And now they're just kind of stuck with all these non-lottery picks. Do you think anyone else in the league is looking at that? For example, Golden State. Golden State has this awesome Minnesota pick. Top three protected this year, unprotected next year.

Golden State's pretty year. Golden State's pretty good. Golden State's getting an unbelievable Curry season. You could argue maybe they cash in that Minnesota pick right now because maybe it ends up in the top three this year. They don't get it. Maybe Minnesota's better next year. And you're in the same situation in the Celtics where it's like, oh shit, we thought this pick was going to be awesome. Now we're picking 14th. Maybe we should have cashed that in. Do you think the league even looks at that and wonders if the Celtics should have moved? I mean, there are four guys that you're talking about when you talk about this with Boston, right? Paul George, who they came. So I don't know what happened. It doesn't matter. Jimmy Butler,

another guy they didn't get. And Kawhi, who's the third guy they didn't get. And we both agreed with Kawhi that they should not have given up Jalen Brown for one year of Kawhi. Well, that's the thing. I mean, those are people... When Toronto was winning the championship, everybody was laughing at the Celtics for...

You didn't give up Jalen Brown? Just bullshit. It was the wrong pick. And so you can't just look at what's happening in front of you and spin backwards and rationalize it that way. Like, Jalen Brown turned out to be amazing. And the most likely outcome from the Celtics trading Jalen Brown for Kawhi Leonard is you don't win the championship and Kawhi Leonard leaves, and then you have nothing. Maybe Jimmy Butler would have been a guy that stayed. I don't know.

Maybe Paul George would have been a guy that stayed, but all of those are going to cost you something big. And then the fourth guy, and I think this is, if there's a lesson, maybe it's don't put too many of your eggs in one superstar basket, but you know better than I do, they were eyeing Anthony Davis for three years. And Kyrie, when Wick Rouspeck came out today or whenever he did that radio interview and said, you know, Kyrie leaving really changed our plans. It had a whole domino effect. I don't know if he meant to imply it, but what I implied myself is Kyrie was supposed to be the reason that Anthony Davis would re-sign in Boston if they went all in for

him, right? Like Kyrie re-signs, you throw all the chips it's necessary in to get Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis sees this other superstar that the other superstars revere in the NBA for his ball handling. So it's all right. This is a place I want to be now. And all of those things went completely haywire. Yeah. And if we're playing the what-if game They For what I don't know, you know, teams always love to say After the fact when they didn't get anybody Or get the guy they want Well, we could have, but we don't know what happened

They flipped on us You never know what to believe They thought they had Paul George that night I think they did And I think they were surprised by the OKC thing Whether they thought they had the exact trade Or they thought they were going to have the I think they were really blindsided by the OKC thing. Whether they thought they had the exact trade or they thought they were going to have the... I think they were really blindsided by the OKC,

the old Depot and Sabonis trade. And you think about it, that leads to the Kyrie trade, right? Right, because they don't get Paul George, but they end up getting Kyrie. To me, the biggest what if out of all of this is what if Kyrie just stays with LeBron one more year and the Celtics can't trade for him? Because then they have that number eight pick from Brooklyn that turns out to be Colin Sexton, you know, plus the Sacramento pick. And maybe that's when they would have made a move

at some point. So you could drive yourself crazy with this stuff. I think they had really bad luck. I really do. And I think, you know, when people hold Ainge's draft record against them, they seem to conveniently forget the Rozier part, that Rozier was not a lottery pick

who turned out to be a good player. You know. Well, how about, how about, like Taylor Brown wasn't a consensus number three pick and Tatum for Fultz. Like that was not, that was far from a consensus. Like that's the smart thing to do. Everybody was head over heels from our Cal people tend to focus on like, well, he got James young with 17 and Kelly Olenek was 16 when Giannis was available and, you know, Jared Sullinger and on and on and on with these picks in the 15s and 20s. Just because a top three pick really hits, it seems obvious in retrospect. Of course, Jason Tatum, top three pick.

But at the time, that was like a bold move. You know, it was it was a little bit against the grain even. I think the last two drafts are the ones you can hang them on because, and I've said it before, not trying to trade up for Halliburton, who I know you love now. I was telling you at the draft, I was going crazy. I love Halliburton so much. I feel like they could have overpaid to try to move up to the Phoenix spot. And then the year before, even getting somebody like Hero or whatever, it's just they had a lot of swings at the pinata, and somehow none of the candy fell out.

And, you know, I like Peyton Pritchard, but if that's the best you did out of all those picks, and you think like, even had they ended up with Thighball and not traded whatever weird trade they did to get the Carson Edwards, you know, they gave away Desmond Baines. Some of that

stuff's really weird. All right, we're not talking about the Celtics anymore. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to do League Pass rankings, which we used to do on Grantland. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey.

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the university? The smart approach is to look at the facts, like the fact that York U graduates have a 90% employer satisfaction rate. That's because across its three GTA campuses, York U's programs are strategically designed to prepare students for a meaningful career and long-term success. Join us in creating positive change at yorku.ca slash write the future. All right, we're back. So we used to do these together. We used to write combo columns once. It seems like a million years ago, right? That was so much fun. It was a frenetic 24-hour process, the back and forth. It's kind of amazing

that we actually finished them. I don't even, my fingers don't even work anymore. It was more amazing when we would do the after the trade deadline back and forth because that was like a sprint. But the league pass, we used to really put time in. We came up with a whole awesome scoring system.

And then you have carried it on in ESPN. But that doesn't mean we can't do it right now. League pass rankings. I will let you have the first pick. And if our picks double, I'll just chime in and say that we did it. But here are the criteria for people listening at home who haven't heard this gimmick.

League pass rankings. Most reliably entertaining team. Team that if there's 14 games on at once, you're flipping channels and you just kind of gravitate toward the team. Team you just can't believe you haven't gotten tired of watching. Team

that seems to be in the most fun games and bring the most fun out of the other team. Just the most reliable entertainment team. Who is it for you? We're doing top five? What are we doing? We're doing top five.

So this is your number one choice right now. It hurts me. It hurts me to make this pick a little bit. And you never know what to do because a lot of these teams are on national TV a lot. Do they count as league pass teams? But I think right now you have to take Brooklyn number one. I think you have to.

I don't want to because there's a team that I would otherwise take number one with my single favorite player to watch in the entire NBA. But right now, when they get KD back, I'm already watching them a fair bit. When they get KD back, I want to watch every single minute of their first 10 games just to see what that looks like and how incredible it is. So I have to. And you throw in Ian Eagle, Ryan Rucco. I got to give my friend Sarah Kustak a shout out.

The best broadcast experience. Michael Grady, I think, top down in the NBA. So I'll go Brooklyn. It's an obvious answer. I feel bad making that pick, but how can you not right now? They're the shiny new toy in the NBA. So I'll go Brooklyn. It's an obvious answer. I feel bad making that pick, but how can you not right now? They're the shiny new toy of the season. And sometimes we have seasons

where we don't have a shiny new toy, right? And we just have to kind of play with the toys that we got a year ago. You have kids, you know, it's like, hey, go play with that thing we got you last Christmas. And the kid just wants to play with the newest thing. My daughter's remote control car. Two days, that's it. Done. It just sits and gathers dust now. Brooklyn, which is a team that I'm just philosophically opposed to for just reasons

like what Kyrie did to the Celtics. And now there's been this whole revisionist history. No, no. Everybody loved them. Okay. And then what Harden did to Houston, which he half-assed apologized for two weeks ago. Sorry about that. Sorry for quitting on everybody, but thanks for the memories. So, and then Durant, who, you know,

wasn't happy playing on an all-star team in Golden State, but now is on the same all-star team in Brooklyn and has to be basically the stretch five center unless they can get him help in the playoffs because that's where this is headed. But he's happier because at least he put this together. And with all of that said, I really like watching them.

what it is, it's pulled out a couple things, right? So I had them number two on my rankings, and I'll give you my number one after we finish talking about Brooklyn. It's pulled out two things for, right? So I had them number two on my rankings, and I'll give you my number one after we finish talking about Brooklyn. It's pulled out two things for me that I really enjoy. One is kind of the realization of something we knew four years ago with Kyrie, that he's actually not a point guard,

that it's more fun when he's off the ball, when he kind of can drift in and out of the game at his leisure, and all of a sudden just take over for, you know, 10 points in two minutes or, oh, this play broke down. Give it to Kyrie. Oh, that's right. He's the most coordinated guard we've ever had in the history of basketball. What it's done for him compared to, I think maybe with the Celtics, it was too much pressure of this is your team. You have the ball all the time. And I don't

know if that's how he's at his best. He's at his best here with two other playmakers when he can float in and out. So this is the most fun I've had watching Kyrie. Second, the Harden thing and how he has basically changed his game again. How many versions of James Harden are we on now? Four? Because you think like OKC James, then first few years of Houston with Dwight Howard James, then point guard James, and now Brooklyn James. This is Harden 4.0? Maybe. I mean, he's thrown, you know, the first few games there, he was so deferential that it was a little bit alarming. And he also didn't look as explosive as I remembered him. Maybe he was just out of shape.

He's starting to look more like you just can't stay in front of him anymore. And he's going through people who start to look more like Harden. Yeah, but he's totally bought into I can average 12 assists a game on this team. And I'm cool doing that. He's creating baskets for himself and others

at a ludicrous level. And it's as frustrating as he is. And we did, we've done a lot of hard and playoff stuff over the years. You, you wrote a long, long piece about it. Um, I know we've talked about it on podcasts over the years and it's going to be the scar on his resume until they, until he wins the title. With that said, um, on his resume until he wins the title. With that said, has to be one of the three or four best offensive perimeter guys ever.

And continues to add stuff to his game. This version of him, we just kind of haven't seen yet. He doesn't need to shoot that much. His efficiency is actually up. All his numbers are up. And he just seems like he'd be really fun to play with. And it's such a switch from the last two years where I didn't think he was fun to play

with. And I thought he was getting his stats sometimes at the expense of the happiness of his teammates. This version of James Harden, wouldn't you agree, is fun to play with? Yeah. I mean, when he's spraying the ball around like this, he's actually having guys come set picks for him, which gets the defense moving. It's just dribble, dribble, dribble. And by the way, the best player on the team is Kevin Durant, whose name we haven't mentioned yet.

He's still the best guy on the whole team when you consider defense and just size, rebounding, all of it. I mean, the guy can do literally everything there is to do on a basketball court. Kevin Durant can do it at a high level. Yeah, and what's weird is, I think he's the most important player on the team. I think Harden is second most important. And then Kyrie is the luxury guy and it's an insane luxury guy to have, right? We've never seen a luxury guys

as the third best player in a team. Who's as talented as Kyrie is. We've seen great third guys. We've seen, you know, Chris Bosh, uh, Robert Parrish, James Worthy gone down the line, but nobody with the ability, like if it was, you're down three, two in a series in the Eastern finals, you're down eight points with four minutes left and your third guy could carry you to the, to the, you know, to a game seven, whatever. He might be the most overqualified for that role. It's been great for Joe Harris. I was worried about Joe Harris. I was worried about him with teams hunting defensively, stuff like that.

Then the Harden-Kyrie stuff defensively, what have you seen so far? Because it's gotten better. It's not great, but at least it seems like in crunch time, they can at least put together five decent minutes. Yeah, when they try, it's okay. I mean- It's okay. It's a C there's but there's a lot of

times when you know the effort is and their communication mishaps on the switches and all that and those guys are never going to be like good good but they're counting on the surrounding guys to to lift them up but what they're really counting on is nobody can guard us like like you just mentioned all these other big threes we have never seen a big three of guys who can from the three-point line create their own shot at at an elite level three guys like this like off the dribble so create their own shot get into the lane pass other people we just haven't seen three guys like Steph, Draymond, KD, Klay. I mean, that's a big four, but Klay and Draymond don't quite qualify as the kind of player that we're talking about. Bosh, you know, as a big guy, could create his own shot,

but not in the way we're talking about. Not in the way of just get out of my way. I'm clearing out. No matter, you know, you put your two best defenders on, those two guys will give the ball to the third guy. We just haven't seen that. I think what the Nets are betting on more than anything else is no one is going to be able to stop us

or really even slow us down. I mean, the 2017 Warriors is the best offensive team I've ever seen since the 86 Celtics, which didn't have a three-point line. Ultimately, that 2017 Warriors, if there's like seven seconds left in the shot clock and something happened and you had to reset whatever, Durant was the guy they would go to. And he was as good as anyone ever. He's probably the best offensive scoring forward we've ever had.

The Nets have three of those guys in the last seven seconds who can save a play. And we see this in the playoffs, especially when it gets to nut crunch time and everything slows down a little and you can feel the pressure and some guys can come and go and you end up taking a lot of bad shots. Think of that Celtics heat series last year, how many times it ended with the Jason Tatum 26 foot step back because they couldn't get a better shot. And this Brooklyn team has three guys that can turn a wasted possession into an awesome shot. And that's the thing that struck me watching them. It's like, fuck, you can play good defense against them for 15, 16 seconds.

And then they still get a layup or a wide open three. And you're like, damn, what just happened? And you can see these defenses sometimes kind of lose hope a little bit, right? Like, it's a little bit like an uppercut. You're like, ugh, this sucks. Can't stop these guys, you know? Which I think is a really special trait. And they're going to turn, because of all the attention that they draw,

they're going to turn these role players into just, the looks they're going to get are just ridiculous, like Bruce Brown the other night I don't even, I have an item in my column tomorrow, like I don't even know what position Bruce Brown is playing he's like a center fielder but on offense, he's just kind of moving around

like, hey nobody's paying attention to me here I am, look at me, now I'm over here now I'm over here. Pass me the ball. And then like the ball goes in the basket. It's crazy. Joe Harris is going to, I think Joe Harris is shooting like 50% on threes or something. It's good.

And that's going to sustain. The Bruce Brown thing. I think he's a playoff guy and you need luck with this stuff, right? You need like your seventh, eighth, ninth guy to be that random dude who is just like, he's,

he's been underestimated his whole life. He has a chip on his shoulder. He has a chance to play for a better contract. And he will literally die on the court for this team. And he's that guy, right? You need these playoff teams. You need a guy like that. And he's that guy for this team.

I never, I tweeted it at the time and I don't tweet much anymore, but I was so perplexed that I had to tweet. Like, I don't, I never understood what tweeted it at the time and I don't tweet much anymore, but I was so perplexed that I had to tweet. Like, I don't, I never understood what Detroit was doing in that trade other than like, are they so afraid of what Bruce Brown's next contract is going to be that they're like, we just got to get up Bruce Brown for Musa, who I don't even know where Musa is anymore. And I think it's a Raptors second round pick or some useless second round pick. Bruce Brown's good. And not only that, you drafted him in the second round. Now it's a Raptors second round pick or some useless second round pick. Bruce Brown's good.

And not only that, you drafted him in the second round. Now, it's not you, you. It's the previous front office. So you don't have sort of the same investment in him. But you drafted him. He played well for you. It's like a good Detroit success story. He kind of fits the ethos of what you want the Pistons to be, what you envision the Pistons to stand for.

Just dump him? The Nets must have been like, what? For what now? By the way, where were the 10 other teams with the better offer? It's like when Brooklyn gave away Jared Allen because they needed an extra pick. Where was everybody else?

It's like we're having a fire sale for Jared Allen. He's 80% off. Any takers? I love Jared Allen. You know why I love Jared Allen? You will never see Jared Allen make a business decision at the rim. It doesn't matter if it's Giannis. It doesn't matter if it's LeBron. He is trying to block

every dunk, and he does not care if you get him. He's coming the next time, and the next time, and the next time. I love that about him. Well, he's exactly what Brooklyn needs, and as I look at them, and maybe it won't matter because we might be in a world in crunch time where it's the three guys, it's Joe Harris and it's Bruce Brown. And that's just, they say, that's what we're rolling with. We'll play

Durant as small ball five. And if they're going against Philly, Jordan will have to play his 25 minutes. I'm sure they'll get some buyout guy like a JaVale that they'll get the extra six fouls on. But to me, this is not a team that needs Andre Drummond. And I don't even know if Andre Drummond necessarily even makes this team better. I know he puts up stats, but I don't know. Have we ever seen a winning situation for Andre Drummond?

I know he puts up the stats, but on this team, is he going to be happy just doing the dirty work and that's it? Rebound, be in the right spots, and we don't want to hear from you. I don't know if he wants to do that.

I'm surprised I'm saying this as a sort of Andre Drummond skeptic. I think Andre Drummond has become a little bit underrated. Okay. When you can put up rebounding numbers like he can put up,

and if you have him setting screens and rolling for Kyrie Irving and James Harden instead of Brandon Jennings, Reggie Jackson, and, you know, Killian Hayes slash DeLon Wright, he's going to look pretty good.

And he's going to look more than, now defensively, like he's got to dial it. The motor was always the question, right? Does this guy want to dial in every single game, every single possession? Maybe I just think he's become a little underrated.

I agree with you that I don't, this idea that he's an all-star and all this, like I kind of, I mean, he has been an all-star, but I've never really conceived of him that way, but I think he would help Brooklyn. But I agree with you.

I think their plan is we're closing games with Durant at center or Jeff Green at center. And that's why the Philly matchup is so much fun, because I think they would look at Embiid. Yeah, I think you're right. They'd play Jordan his X amount of minutes. But I would think Steve Nash, I like the way he thinks. And I think he would look at that as let's not rejigger our rotation in fear of Joel Embiid. Let's make him guard us in space and see if he can do it. And if he can, if it's not working,

then I think they would attack him first by just, let's play Kevin at center and see who he guards. Maybe he guards Bruce Brown. All right, let's take Bruce Brown off the floor. Let's put Landry Schammett on the floor and just put a bunch of shooting out there and see what he does. Well, the scary thing for Philly in that scenario

is Brooklyn basically conceding Embiid's 38 points a game in the series. Or doing what the Raptors... I mean, the Raptors the other night, the last two times they played Philly this week, they just threw like three guys at Embiid every single time he got the ball and just said, you're passing.

We're not letting you shoot. We're not letting you even back it down. And now the Raptors have a bunch of long, fast defenders who can rotate and fly around. The Nets don't quite have that, but Embiid might get like 50 in some of those. It would be a lot of fun. I'm not anti them picking up Drummond. I just want to put a little caution in. It reminds me a little of when the Warriors got Cousins and people were like,

Oh, five All-Stars. I was like, eh. Well, this is the thing with buyouts. We were talking on the jump about buyout guys and I said, you know, I hate to be the proverbial turd in the punch bowl, but like, I remember when we all lost our minds that the Cavs got Darren Williams.

You know, it's like seldom. Not me, not this guy. PJ Brown's the exceptional, right? PJ Brown in 2008. Wasn't he a buyout guy for the Celtics who like made some plays in the playoffs? Yeah, he's the poster boy of the best case version of the buyout guy.

Well, on the German thing, if he was a buyout guy, which I don't think he's going to be, you could not knock Brooklyn on the price for that. But I think he's going to get traded. And I think he's going to get traded to my number one favorite league pass team, which I'm going to reveal right after this break. All right.

Who's my number one favorite league pass team? You could probably guess. There's been a couple of texts about them between us over the last two months. It's not. Oh, oh, oh, I know who it is. I think it's Charlotte. You're goddamn right. It's Charlotte. Yeah. I knew it. I love Charlotte. So as you know, this Celtics season is turning into a dumpster fire.

Joe house and Sal and I bet on Charlotte to win the division. They were like eight to one odds. And so I feel like now I bought my, my seat on the Charlotte bandwagon. I just enjoy the hell out of them. I'm just going to go through the things I love. First of all, I bought my, my seat on the Charlotte bandwagon. I just enjoy the hell out of them. I'm just going to go through the things I love. Um, first of all, I haven't, I usually feel like I'm pretty good at nailing. This guy's going to be good heading into the draft. I would say I bet my batting average is good. Even with Hal Burton, that was a win for me. I missed on the lamella thing. And I missed as badly as I've missed in a long time. I just, between the YouTube highlights, which I completely overrated of him not giving a shit,

taking 35 footers. Um, I underestimated the, his rebounding and traffic. Um, I hearing about his crappy interviews, which I know you heard the same stuff. It's clear now that he was tanking to get to Charlotte. He is so much fun to watch. I love everything he does. I apologize to Dave Jacoby, who was telling me from day one that I was going to regret my words. LaMelo's last 13. He's 26 and 6. Last night against the Suns, which is another team that's going to pop up my list, which a game I enjoyed the hell out of. Basically, they gave the car case to LaMelo at the end of the game.

He got Aiton in the switches and then just blew by him off the dribble and did these crazy one-handed layups. And it was like, wow, you couldn't do this a month ago. Seems like he'd be incredibly fun to play with. And I think he's going to be a real star. And he's the main reason I love watching that team. Were you surprised by LaMelo?

I mean, I'm surprised by any rookie who comes in as polished as this and as any command as this. And the 35% from three on high volume, like he's taking five threes a game. I don't think even the LaMelo optimists expected that kind of shooting from him. His finishing has gotten better.

His passing, I expected because I saw enough where I was like, oh, this guy, this guy has it. Whatever it is, he's got the vision. But I didn't, yeah, I thought there would be much more of a learning curve and sort of NBA growing pains. And he just comes in. He's like, totally changed their team, changed their franchise. I'm happy for Charlotte fans.

I said it the day after the draft on my podcast. I said, look, if the people that I talked to about the draft, if the Lomelo optimists are right, Charlotte finally has something really good going for them.

Has it gotten to the point yet where the Warriors front office guys are kind of looking at each other? I don't think so. I think they like Wiseman. I still have Wiseman

as my number one, but he's now 1A and LaMelo's 1B. Heading into the draft, I had Wiseman, Halliburton, LaMelo, or probably,

or Edwards, I don't remember, but I had Wiseman, Halliburton, one too. I think now I'd have LaMelo over Halliburton as much as I love Halliburton

because they're superstar. His, for where Charlotte was as a team these last 20 years, for what they've been as a franchise, for their lack of star power, to have this guy who for like my son's generation is going to be, I think one of the most identifiable NBA superstars on top of the fact that he's fun to watch. Like that's, that's the

piece Halliburton's not going to be able to match. Like this guy is a put, put him on your posters, put him in your local commercials. Um, and his teammates really like them. I think they really like playing with them, which, which is no small thing. Look, I just want to say, if I owned a used car dealership in Sacramento, I would put Tyrese Halliburton in my commercial. Me too. I would put him in there front and center, a grocery store, whatever it is.

I would be trying to get Tyrese Halliburton to be on my commercials. Well, we love Tyrese Halliburton, and that was an amazing stroke of luck that all these teams passed on him, and he fell to 12 for a franchise that has been a mess and sometimes you need luck. So LaMelo,

I think a big reason, this team is fourth in assists per game. They're eighth in made threes. They're eighth in three-point field goal percentage. But all this stuff's getting better because they actually have their full team. Right now, they're 14th in pace.

Is this a team that should play faster? They were super slow. As I recall, I think they were like 28th last year. So they're speeding up. They don't have Devontae Graham right now. And they're still winning anyway. And you haven't mentioned. Well, there's some other things I want to mention.

Oh, mention. I'm not going to steal your Charlotte Hornets thunder. Well, Rozier is 20 points a game, 49-45, 82 splits. No all-star buzz. I thought he might get a little... I thought he surpassed Gordon Hayward as their best all-star candidate by the very end. Very close. Very close.

He might be our weirdest last minute of the game they're clearing out for him, and I'm okay with it, guy. Ooh, that's a good one he's made some big shots yeah he makes big and he kind of did this with the Celtics in 2018 and then people because

he sucked in game 7 against the Cavs people kind of forgot all the big moments he had anyway he's scary Terry scary Terry that was a thing that was a scary Terry was a thing um the Hayward Renaissance season, it hurts cause it was going to happen last year and he broke his hand, but it was, it was completely predictable.

Like it's none of this should be Gordon Hayward with last year, even last year was like 18, five and five or something. I got like, it was very clear. He was still a very, very good NBA player. I think the bubble and how hurt he was just kind of tainted the memory of when he broke his hand, he was playing like this last year. And now he's 22 a game, 13th, ninth in Utah. And then it was like in Boston, you know, 500, 356, 112th. And now this year it's like 13th. So Boston just for whatever reason had the worst luck they ever could have possibly had with them. Miles Bridges, where does he rank for you on random off the bench, entertaining, exciting guys? That guy, God bless him, just wants to kill people on every dunk.

He's murdering his heart. I don't know if he's been in the dunk contest before, because you'd be shocked to know that I do watch the dunk contest and enjoy it, but its history is not embedded in my brain the same way. Me neither. He is just a vicious,

vicious dunker. And the chemistry he has with LaMelo. I don't know if I can really quite endorse the Airbnb nickname that people are trying to make happen for them. How about this? Can people stop trying to make nicknames happen? The whole point of nicknames is they kind of organically happen. If you're forcing them down our throats, they don't work. It's not bad.

I just think we can workshop. There are some other ideas that should be workshopped. But he's fun. He's a good passer, too. I've really enjoyed watching him. Yeah, they're fun. He's a momentum swinger, along with this next guy, a guy that I've never quit on in my life, Malik Monk.

I never gave up. I was wondering why the Celtics weren't trying to trade Semi Ogilvy for him a month and a half ago. He's exactly what they needed, a heat check guy who made some threes. You were the only person on planet Earth who, no, who even me, I can't imagine sitting there and having the thought of the Celtics really urgently need to trade Semmy Ogilvy for Malik Monk enter my brain. Like that's a sign of, that's a problem.

I trade machined it and we actually had to throw in one more guy. It wasn't a straight up deal. It was like Carson Edwards also needed to be in it. I can just picture you sitting there like your wife talking to you at dinner and you're like, and I'm ignoring it.

Yeah, I'm on the chat. And in your head you're like, Malik Monk, I And in your head, you're like, Malik Monk. I think we can make that work. Well, Malik Monk's last 12 games, 15.7 points, 3.1 made threes per game, 47.4 from three. And the reason I bring up him and Miles Bridges together, and it's one of the many things that makes the Charlotte team so much goddamn fun, they're momentum changers. You know like, oh, we're down 48-38. Yeah, we're kind of dead.

And then all of a sudden, Monk makes three threes in a row, or Bridges dunks over three guys at once, and they can flip the game. And not to go back to the Celtics, but that's the biggest thing the Celtics team doesn't have. They don't have anybody that can come in off the bench and swing a game for five minutes. And Charlotte has miles bridges. They have monk freaking Bionbo can come in and, and block three shots in two minutes, you know,

and can I, can I tell you the only guy on the Celtics who kind of comes close and if the Celtics continue to sputter, I almost hope they use it as an excuse to just take the kid gloves off Robert Williams and just play him 35 minutes a game and see what happens. I just want to see what happened. I understand there's some miscues defensively. He's a little over the place,

but the stuff that guy can do is special. He's a good passer, which people don't really realize, or a lot of people don't realize. I just, I feel like we're just perpetually stuck in this. The Celtics have a lot of veteran bigs. They don't quite trust Robert Williams.

12 minutes here, 18 minutes there, nine minutes there. I just want to see, I want to see it. I want to see the full experience. When you say miscues defensively, that's like saying my new puppy has had only a couple miscues in the house. The miscues are constant defensively because anybody who's, who switches him on the perimeter, he doesn't know where the three point line is.

How many three pointers has he given up where he's a step late because he didn't realize that shot was worth three points instead of two. That's I think that's why he doesn't play. I think it drives Brad Stevens crazy. He literally cannot figure out where the three-point line is. Last thing with Charlotte, because I think this is an important point. They have the Cody Zeller expiring contract.

They could package some stuff together to get to Drummond. I personally wouldn't do it. There is a Cody Zeller and a first for Miles Turner trade Kind of sitting there Oh no, come on No, no, no, no Indiana's not doing that

So they went from last year trying to get off Miles Turner For Gordon Hayward For Gordon Hayward And draft picks that were pretty high I thought it was Miles Turner and McBuckets for Hayward, basically. Right. Gordon Hayward they viewed as we'll pay him four years.

So you think they're good with Turner and Sabonis? Until a better alternative comes along, I think they're okay with it. I think they've made the best of it. You wouldn't want a first-round pick from Charlotte. I mean, Charlotte's going to fight

to protect it in such a way as it's not going to be as enticing as you say it appears to be when it comes out of your mouth as a Charlotte Hornets first-round pick. Is Charlotte Hornets top 10 protected first-round pick? Does that light your fire at all?

I'm giving an unprotected pick for Miles Turner. Well, they're not. In this draft. They won't. If you're Charlotte? No. Nobody gives up unprotected picks anymore, except for James Holman.

I think Charlotte could be like the four seed with one more guy. I will say this, though. I do think they are going to sniff around some trade names that usually would be outside their stratosphere. Just to see. That's why I brought this up.

They have the Zeller. They have a pick. Yeah. They can even put in PJ Washington if somebody wanted a two for one. Never mind. No, no. I want to hear it. No.

This is why you're on the podcast. Tell me. If you were them, and I just want to make clear, I'm just speaking theoretically. No reporting. No nothing. Listen, we're in a safe space. Even if you shot down my Miles Turner trade in two Listen, we're in a safe space. Even if you shot down my miles Turner trade in two seconds, we're in a safe space. Um, why would you not, why would you not call Bradley Beals agent and say, Hey, Oh, just like, would he like it here?

Cause if he would, like, if he'd resign here, we'd be prepared to give up a whole lot of stuff for him. I'm just saying as an example, why wouldn't you? Where else are you going? I mean, you have Lomelo Ball, you have all your picks. I would at least place the call. Again, this is no reporting. This is just my reckless... You're so afraid of the aggregators.

So you're saying they call and they say, Rozier, Zeller, and... We'll give you everything. Four firsts, four swaps. we'll give you eight first round picks. Everything but Mello. Four firsts, four swaps. We'll try to keep Miles Bridges and a couple other young guys, but let's see what we can do.

That's a lot more fun than Miles Turner. I was trying to figure out how they could get, because the Zeller-Biombo combo is what keeps them from being actually interesting in a playoff series. I feel like Cody Zeller, I have a 10 things item about this that I'll never write because it's Cody Zeller and not enough people care.

I feel like he's three inches off on every layup. Like every layup just rolls around the rim and falls off. It's just he's three inches away from averaging like 17 points a game and they all miss. Well, it seems like this team

has great chemistry and it does seem like he's a part of that all miss. Well, it seems like this team has great chemistry and it does seem like he's a part of that. It seems like everybody likes him. Anyway, that was my number one team. James Borrego's a good coach, by the way. James Borrego,

if that team ends up actually winning their division, I mean, Utah's coach is probably putting away coach of the year, but if they, I don't know, Borrego's on the list.

All right, who do you have? I don't even need to think about it. I don't need to think about it. Denver. Denver's my pick now. No, you just, Jokic is your pick. Jokic. That's it.

I got nothing. I mean, the guy, have you, he's actually like sneaky fast with the ball this year. Look, he's not, he's not permanently fast, but if he needs to get fast for like a baseline spin or he catches the ball in transition, he's got a gear now that if he needs to get fast for like a baseline spin or he catches the ball in transition, he's got a gear now that he didn't use to have.

And you can see teams defenses react like, wait, what that dude can, can like get by me a little bit now. And he just, he still does things every game, not every game, maybe every other game,

you'll see a defense that just, he does some fake or some pass where the defense just reacts as if they've never seen a human being try this before. It's so foreign to them that they don't understand what's just happened. And it's just, it's just so, I don't even care who plays. Gary Harris never plays anymore. Will Bart never plays anymore. Jemichael Green disappears somewhere. It doesn't even matter to me. Play Zeke Najee, Bull Bull, Jokic. I don't even care if Murray plays. They're my pick.

This was the first... To your point about how he seems a little faster, this was the first season that he actually started to remind me of Dirk, which is so weird where they... You just think like, well, those two guys have nothing in common, but some of the stuff he's been doing offensively is Dirkish.

And I do feel like Dirk is a one of one, but Jokic is pulling now from three different iconic players, Bill Walton, Sabonis, and Dirk. And, but also is like his own version at the same time. But I'm with you. I'm just so disappointed in that team. I had them lower in my rankings just because I, I think that's, if you had to say,

what would be the most shocking, abrupt coaching fire coming out of the all-star break? I think Denver would have to be one of them. I don't, I'm not saying he's going to get fired, but if you're just every year, there's always one shocking, oh my God, what?

That happened? I think they would have to be mentioned. One year it was Mike Malone. Remember, it was Mike Malone in Sacramento when they got off to a good start. Then Boogie got sick. I think he got mono or something and had to sit out for a while.

And they fired Mike Malone. Everyone's like, wait, what? I'm unhappy with how they're playing. I think they're going to have a run in them when they get everybody back. Porter was out for a while. Now he's back, but all those other guys, I think they're going to have a run in them when they get intact.

And I think Mike Malone, X's and O's wise, we might disagree here and there, but you don't do what they did in the playoffs last year. And you don't do what they did the year they didn't make the playoffs where they had to win like eight out of nine against good teams just to force the winner take all game. You don't do stuff like that if your culture isn't pretty rock solid. Now, I think they've had some clearly some of their players have verbalized, notably Will Barton, about, you know, I'm a starter. I don't care what anyone tells you know i'm a starter i don't care what anyone tells me i'm a starter like they've got to navigate the thing that happens to every

team that gets a lot of good players which is people get put in roles that they're unaccustomed to but you don't do what they did without a rock solid culture that that comes together when it counts and mike malone has to be given at least partial credit for that. Do you think they regret not going after Harden? No. No, I don't. I don't. Murray for Harden would have been a fun one. I actually, did Murray's extension kicked in?

I think it might have actually even been impossible for them to do it. I think it's kicked in, yeah. As a thought, I would have been like, ah, we can't do that to Jokic. Give him dribbling James Harden. But then watching James Harden on this Brooklyn team made me think like,

oh man, that would have been amazing. I kind of wish they had been able to do that. We're going to take a break and then I'm going to go to my second league pass team. We looked it over, looked it up over the break. They could have traded Jamal Murray for James Harden. I think it would have been

inconceivable two months ago. Now I would say, you know, I'd rather have James Harden. But what do I know? My number two favorite league pass team is Golden State. Which is your number two,

but it's number four on our list, right? Okay, Golden State. Golden State was on my list too, so I'll cross them off. I had Charlotte one, Golden State two. The Curry Renaissance season just single-handedly has... And also, you just don't know what you're going to get from night to night from anyone on that team, including Draymond. From Draymond, at least you know you're going to get rebounds,

assists, and defense, but he might score two points. The swing guys, I don't know if any of them are going to make a shot. The bench guys, I don't know if any of them are going to make a shot. And Curry has navigated this and the leadership and in this league where everybody bolts or is unhappy if they don't have enough help and he just doesn't give a shit and he's just carrying them. And he's been as good as he was in 2016 he's averaging five threes a game which would put him on pace to crack 400 we're not gonna have an 82 game season he's 35 and 5 just like he was in his second mvp year and i just love watching him i really missed him him. He's a show. You're right. He and Jokic are among the half dozen guys who by themselves get their teams

into this conversation. And yeah, look, Curry, he's invested in the Warriors. He wants to stay there. He wants to make it work. That's easier to do when you've won three titles, right? He's not facing this endless chatter

of, well, he's never done it. He's never done it. He's got to go somewhere else to get it. Like he's got that under his belt. So it's a little easier for him than it is for others. But yeah, there, I mean, he's just, he's unbelievable. This is a big year for Steph Curry because there was a lot of, you know,

can he carry a team? From idiots, by the way. You're an idiot if you made that point. And he's doing pretty well with this they won 130 games and back-to-backs in two seasons combined i mean i don't need to tell you this the durant 140 the durant moved to golden state changed just everything it warped everything about the nba including how we talk including how we talk about Curry. Yeah. They were 140 and 24

in the two seasons before Durant got there and people were like, oh, Curry can't carry his own team. You guys are morons if you said that. The 2017 finals between the Warriors without Durant and the Cavs as they existed are one of the great theoretical matchups I would love to see.

Because that Cavs team was awesome. Anyway. So the Warriors are 18 and 15 as we're taping this. They should be 19 and 14. They lost the dumbest game of the year to Charlotte, which was good for my Charlotte bet. But there was a point earlier in the season

when I was wondering if Golden State was going to make the playoffs. I think they are definitely going to be one of the eight teams. The Draymond season, I have no, I've talked about it on my podcast before, so I'll give you the four on this for 10 seconds. Do you have any explanation for why he just can't score in a basketball game anymore?

I don't know, but I remember the three-point shooting. There's clearly one outlier year that was just a random. The year they won 73 games, it was just a random, like, this was just crazy. But I remember writing and saying, probably when I was still at Grantland, about, like, he could be one of these guys who, when he loses 10% of his athleticism, like, all of these layups and floaters that he barely gets over the hands of shot blockers, like, those all could elude him if he just loses a little bit of athleticism,

but that hasn't impacted his defense is passing his playmaking. So he's still, he's, he's a one of a kind player. And there's just, I can't really think of a lot of guys that have ever been like him. And you and I both love Wiseman, the potential of Wiseman.

I like the potential. I'm excited to start watching again. Like these guys go away for two, three weeks, you forget about them. But I do. I think I was actually surprised by how much Warriors fans or a segment of them seemed to be

dispirited with his early season play. To me, he was fine as a rookie center learning on the fly. He's a rookie big man. How many rookie big men come in? Essentially didn't play college at all. Yeah. Ridiculous.

Who do you have as your number three league passing? I have a few candidates. I think I'm going to go with the Pelicans. Zion specific? Just Zion. I mean, I just, he's making, it's like you look at the boxers, I go Zion 13 of 17. You just gloss right over it.

You don't even stop anywhere. Like 13 of 17. That's seems unusual. Someone, someone missed four shots out of like 20 in an NBA game. He's just doing it every night. He jumps four times. I would like to see how many times I could jump in the span that Zion jumps

like four times. And the point Zion thing is super fun. It's turned Lonzo into a different kind of player. It's got Brandon Ingram being a different guy. I think they're really, really fun to watch and mostly because of Zion. They're not deep. They're, you know, seven, eight guys deep.

That's it. But my other candidates were Utah. You know, fine. I've been like one of these nerdy best. I love Utah. Joe Engel's pass fake. It's like, okay, that's fine. I've been like one of these nerdy best. I love Utah. Joe Engel's pass fake. It's like, okay, that's fine. Philly, I'm a little bored with Philly.

So I think I'll go New Orleans. And the other team is guaranteed to have a great offensive game against the Pelicans. That's the other thing. So I had them fourth. I would not have had them in the top 10 until two weeks ago. And Stan was in a coma with Zion

and then finally realized like, oh, what do I have here? And now I thought some of the stuff he's done the last couple weeks and how they're using him on specific plays that just take advantage of nobody can stay in front of this guy. And if he has a head of steam, it's over. So now it seems like it's almost like watching, you know, like when the chiefs, how they use, you don't watch football that much, but Tyreek Hill is the fastest guy in the league and the chiefs will get him in motion sometimes.

And then they'll just run these plays where he's in motion and just runs a slant at full speed. And he could just get to this four yard spot. And it's, it's basically unguardable. And with Zion, when he's moving, which is why the point forward thing's been so much fun, when he has a little wind in his back, it just seems like he can go wherever he wants. And how many guys in the history of the league could you have said that about?

Nobody wants to take a charge from him. If you body him up, you just fall backwards anyway, like you would with LeBron. And he's going left every time and the team knows it, but he still gets the shot he wants. And I just don't know how you stop him when he's got the wind on his back. He had a dunk against Portland the other day from the left wing. I think Covington was on him, and he blew by Covington so easily. And then there was someone waiting at the rim. Who took off. I remember that. He cocked it back with two hands and dunked it. And this guy didn't even get near whoever was supposed to rotate, had no shot. And it happened so fast that I rewound it and i was like i i have to see what

happened to robert kubik does but he just vanished he was gone and it he has 10 plays like that every game where you just say to yourself it's it's it's alarming he's an alarming player i'm alarmed by how athletic he is yeah and it's weird because i still feel like he's not at peak powers yet it still seems like he can lose five or six more pounds, but maybe he doesn't need to. I thought Stan did a bad job coaching that team. And the last two weeks, you know,

you think about that Celtics game on Sunday might've been, it might've been an incredible fork in the road moment for both teams. And you get, Rizal and I talked about it Sunday. You can kind of feel it when they started coming back. There was a moment during that game and we were texting back and forth with moment for both teams. And you get, Rizal and I talked about it Sunday. You can kind of feel it when they started coming back. There was a moment during that game and we were texting back and forth with talk about, and we're going to lead with like the Pelicans. This is a disaster. What's going on.

And now it feels like it's flipped in 72 hours, which is part of the problem with podcasts. And then on the flip side for the Celtics to lose that game seems to have sent them in a tailspin too. But Zion, he's a one-on-one and it's all been said. So I had them as four. So go again. Oh, I get to go again?

Yeah. I want to pick an out-of-the-box pick here. Well, I can go then. You want me to go? Yeah, you go. I'll just go. I have Phoenix. See, I don't like watching Phoenix that much.

I'm interested to hear your case. My case is I'm on the West Coast. They're on a lot. And my choices are basically, if I can get a toggle going with a Warriors game and a Suns game, I'm pretty happy. I think with the Suns, I like watching the potential

of the team. I think about as Suns, I like watching the potential of the team. I think about as I watch them and is this a team that we might see in round two, round three? Because I've talked about this before. Round three? Ooh, that's spicy. Well, it's a weird season. There's going to be some injury that we're not expecting. Look, I like Phoenix, but round three means you beat Utah or one of the

LA teams, probably. Yeah, listen. I'm ready to see a weird team in one of the two conferences. I'm with you. They're probably not going to make round three. But it's a team that really knows who they are in the last five minutes of a game, and I think that's a really important trait. Well, that's CP. They have an awesome

scorer, and they have an awesome leader, and CP and Booker can get his own shot. And, you know, really that Aiton thing is going to be the piece, right? Because you saw what Charlotte was doing yesterday to just getting him in switches, and I don't feel like he can guard people 25 feet away, not that a lot of centers can. But it does feel like a team you can attack on the defensive end.

What have you seen from that end? Well, I'll go one further on Aiton. Aiton, to me, is one of the most interesting players in the league in the next two or three years. A guy who could potentially swing the balance of power in the league if he hits his ceiling versus not coming close to his ceiling. You know, McHale Bridges is going to get paid a lot of money. A lot of money.

I think people need to start preparing themselves for like the four-year $85 million extension. Oh, I thought you were going to say $100,000 and I wasn't going to blink. Or whatever it is. If you said $400,000 for $100,000, I was just going to stare at you. And Book is going to get what Book,

he's already got his big deal. Cam Johnson will get a decent deal do they want to resign chris paul in two years maybe not i don't know like i i think it's i think it the money is going to start adding up fast like if you give a max to aiden and you you know you can laugh at deandre and getting a max number one picks who put up numbers like he does typically get the max after their rookie extensions or something close to it. The bill gets pretty, pretty big, pretty fast for Robert Sarver. Zach, are you insinuating that Robert might have a history of maybe not paying for expensive

teams? I'm just saying it gets expensive. You start coming up on the, that's the thing about being a young, exciting team. You blink an eye and it's like, oh my God, we're over the tax. We just paid all these guys. It's like the dinner bill for the, for the person dinner we're like yeah twelve hundred dollars um but i i do think ayton is really interesting he's been on balance i think disappointing this year um i thought he made a big jump last year it hasn't sustained in his his defense, he's trying to find himself with those

two guards and where he fits in. Bridges is making a little bit of a leap. Now they're starting Kaminsky at the four, which they've landed on this as their stopgap solution. I don't particularly like it, but it's working okay. He's trying to find his place and he has one out of every three games where you're like, okay, just put up 23 and 15 or whatever it is. And then, so I'm, but I am interested in him. I do think they're really good. I think they're legit. One thing I like about them

is the better the team, the more kind of fun the game is. Like they had, I'm looking at their schedule. They had that game and they beat Milwaukee by one point. They beat Philly by nine,

but that was a really fun game. They had the Brooklyn game where they lost by four, where it was basically just Harden against the whole team. but that was a really fun game. They had the Brooklyn game where they lost by four, where it was basically just Harden against the whole team. But that game was really fun. They had two straight. They had an OT and a double OT game against Denver. So I'm factoring that into my league pass rankings.

It seems like when they go against somebody else who's good, the game is usually good. The game last night against Charlotte was really entertaining. But when I watch them, I like thinking of the potential of, hmm, can this happen? What about Sarich? And there's always like subplots with them.

And then I just like watching Chris at this stage of his career where it's just like watching an actor who just knows exactly who he is as an actor. And he just comes into these parts, you know, and it's just like, all right. Oh, that's that guy. It's like Gene Hackman. Oh, it's Gene Hackman. I know what he's going to do in this movie.

It's Chris, especially in the end of these games. It's like, oh, I know what he's going to do. He's going to go into the paint. He's going to do that hop step back on the right block, that little 12 foot floater. And the other team, for some reason, doesn't know he's going to do this. I just enjoy it. He's got a hop step back an extra six inches now, just to get a little more space.

Seriously. A little more space. But he is one of the greatest clutch players of all time. And as soon as Chris Paul's on your team, you have an identity. You're going to take after how he plays. And the ceiling for them is going to be Booker, who, the reason he make the all-star team is the way he played the first,

I would say four or five weeks. But he's also a guy that could, in the month of March, if you told me he's going to average 32 points a game and be the player of the month, I wouldn't be surprised. And when I talk about round three potential for them, for me, it's can Booker become a guy

who can go toe-to-toe in a playoff series against the other team's best guy? And then is Zayn going to get better over these next two months? You have one last league pass, Tim? No, I'm good. I'm good. My fifth choice will just be Philly

because I just am endlessly fascinated by Simmons and Embiid and how they fit together and how Doc is trying to solve that puzzle. So I just... And Embiid is... You just have to fast-forward the free throws. So let the game run for just, and Embiid is, you just have to fast forward the free throw. So let the game run for an hour

because Embiid's going to take 15 free throws. You're going to want to fast forward it. But he's just such a telegenic presence. I'll go Philly. Embiid has hit this point. I think Jokic is like this too. And Luka is like this. There's a couple others where

you just want to check the box scores during the game if you're not monitoring it. We'd be like a second quarter. Oh, Embiid has 29. You it, we'd be like a second quarter. Oh, and beat us 29, you know? Yeah. And they, then,

then it's time like that bulls game on Friday night. It's like, Oh, it's, it's an Embiid game. It's time to watch this. All right. We're going to take a break and then we have one more dumb game for you.

Okay. It's a new one. Every time Zach comes on the pod, I like to throw him a topic within a couple hours of the pod that I know will break his brain. Yeah. 90 minutes before the pod, I usually get a text. It's like, hey, last minute, we're going to rank the 10 best players in NBA history. Just get ready. Best left-handed power forwards. Just give it off the top of your head. So this is something I thought of the other day during the New Orleans Boston game when they were inbounding the ball to Zion. And I knew before they even did it, what they were going to do. They were going to run the Sabonis play that Indiana likes to run. If they're on the left side, they throw the ball to him on the block. He kind of fakes

the handoff, turns and goes, and nobody really stops it. And I knew the play was running. I think the Celtics knew the play was running. Tristan Thompson knew the play was running. And Zion got to the rim, got an end one. It seemed like an offensive foul, but it wasn't. He's just Superman. And it got me thinking like, all right, 15 seconds left in the game. I'm down one point. I'm coming out of a timeout. What's my list

of the guys I fit? My life depended on it. Who's getting me a basket? What does that list look like? Can you get a teammate a basket or does this person have to get the basket? He just has to get my team, a basket. He has to create a basket, create a basket, but I do probably he's going to be creating it.

Okay. Would be my guess. So, you know, the default, and this is where people will get mad. It's, it's one of those things where LeBron has to be first. It has to be LeBron. So I guess my first question is, does it? Does it have to be LeBron?

And where I landed was, it actually does have to be LeBron, and here's why. I think he has the ability to get to the rim, much like we just talked about with Zion, but he's also going to get the call almost every single time, even if the shot doesn't go in.

I think the amount of respect he has with the refs. Listen to you. No, this is a backhanded compliment. Listen to you. These grapes are so sour. I just trust his ability to either get a basket or get fouled more than I trust anyone else in the league.

So I would go LeBron first, 15 seconds or less. Get me a basket, LeBron. Or he's going to make a great pass and create something for somebody else. I still think he's the best option. Your thoughts on that? I didn't rank my guys.

To me, there are four that stand a little. There was a tier of four that like, whoever my five are, I have to have these four in it. And he's one of them. And for all the reasons you just said, he's not going to turn the ball over. He's going to make a good pass or create a good shot. He's able to get to the rim. He's able to draw fouls.

And that's why, you know, and the Celtics have been guilty of this a lot. Like those, when they end a game and it's just like a Tatum ISO three. I just don't understand how you want how you you want to remove the possibility of a turnover but I just if it's tied you just have to put the referees in play you have to and I just think it's it's bad coaching

to not even give the referees a chance to win you the game basically and I think this is something LeBron realized over the last three or four years that well first all, it's harder to guard him than ever because they've changed some of the defensive rules. And he's so strong now. And these guys bounce off him. And he just knows, if I'm going toward the basket, nobody's going to be able to stop my progress. I'm going to bounce off people and they're probably not calling an offensive foul on me. So I'm going to put this in the hands of the defender and the refs as much as I possibly can, because nobody's taking the ball from me. I'm not getting stripped and odds are I'm so strong. Even if I get fouled, I could make it anyway. And it's kind of unstoppable. And I don't really know what you do if you're the other team. What,

how do you plan in a timeout for that? If you know it's kind of unstoppable. And I don't really know what you do if you're the other team. How do you plan in a timeout for that if you know it's going to happen? Be like, hey, just keep your feet moving. What do you do? Yeah, everyone would just say stay back and let him shoot jump shots. But he's become a good enough jump shooter that, you know, in these kind of situations, an open LeBron 20-footer is a good shot. I mean, you don't get better shots than that in the last five seconds of a close game. Yeah, and if you're the other team, you're hoping he does a pull-up three.

That's my dream scenario. Like, please, LeBron, do that. You're going to make that one out of every three times, basically. All right. So who did you have? You said you had a list of four. Give me your second name on that list. I mean, Durant is the obvious one. You just have to have Kevin Durant on any list like this. Seven-footer who can shoot like that from all over the floor, has a history of big shots, has multiple iconic NBA finals shots. Like I just, I don't, I would be blown away if your list of five did not have the name Kevin Durant on it. I think he's the surest two points we've ever had at the forward position.

I think Kareem's the surest two points ever. I think Michael Jordan was the sure shortest two points at the guard position. And KD at four. Right? Because he can score on any type of shot in any type of way from any distance. So, I agree with you. I had... For my third guy,

I was really surprised he made this list. And it's kind of ridiculous, and you're going to laugh at me. I think it would be Zion. Is that crazy? It's a little ahead of schedule for me, personally. Okay. But I don't think it's crazy. I mean, Zion Williams, and we just waxed poetic about him.

He's a 70% foul shooter, so you're not too, too worried about him going to the line if necessary. I just, I went with guys that a little bit more of a track record and have better, that's why I didn't feel good about it and have better jump shots. Um, but I don't, I mean, it's a little premature for me, but here's my case. I still haven't seen anyone stop him from going to the basket when he really wants to. And I think he's just tapping into that right now. And I just know rooting against him in that Sunday game, knowing that he was going to get the ball, I was terrified. He's my 3A. My 3B was Luka, who my team just lost the game to.

Because the problem with Luka, he has the LeBron thing too, where he can get to the rim, draw a foul, whatever. But then he also has this crazy save the terrible possession that went sideways, step back three that he doesn't make until there's two minutes left. And he also has the pass

potential. Luka was on my list of five. And what scares me's it's a little ridiculous to say considering he's made a bunch of big ones is not the step back three you nailed it what scares me is he gets into that weird area where he's like 12 feet from the rim which is normally as is like a tough dead zone for a lot of guys he's just in his office down there he's gonna spin and fake and get you up in the air and find a corner shooter that suddenly pops open or someone's going to cut to the dunker spot. He just gets in an area where it's jail for most guys

and he makes plays. And that's what scares me more than the step back three. That's the piece that reminds me of Bird. Yeah. Which is like people, oh, okay, compare the two white guys. It's like the fact that Luka plays at that certain pace that he has, which is what Bird used to do, right?

He would slow the game down. He would slow everybody down to the pace he wanted to be at, and then he would do his stuff. And I think Magic was like that too. Magic did the same thing in the late 80s. He would slow everyone around him down to the pace he wanted to be at, and then he would do whatever he wanted to do. Did you happen to watch Boston Denver like a week and a half ago?

Yeah. That was the game. Jokic had like 30 at the half. He had no help. Yeah. And Scalabrini was just cackling at every single Jokic basket. Cackling. Like just, they stopped broadcasting the game.

They just started laughing at it because it was so ridiculous. Then they compared him to Larry Bird. Then I guess people on Twitter got so angry at them for comparing him to Larry Bird, Boston fans, that they literally apologized on the air. Oh my God.

Like, we don't, we're sorry. We know Larry Bird. And it was just very, it was a very funny. Yeah, but Jokic is another good example of the slow the game down thing. I just thought it was funny that the fans expect nothing

but reverence for their own players and franchise. That just the act of comparing an opposing player to Larry Bird, they felt the need to walk it back on the air. Well, it was Boston. And the Boston fans

are really touching these days between the Celtics collapse, they traded Mookie Betts, Tom Brady. It's tough. It's been a flip. So I had Zion 3, I had Luka 3B.

And then for my five spot, just the way he's playing right now is Embiid. But the thing that scares me about Embiid is sometimes he settles for the exact shot that the defense is delighted he's settling for.

When he has those moments where he's like, oh, I'm much bigger and stronger than everybody else. I just feel like he's the most unstoppable guy in the league. And sometimes he realizes that. But it's like his curse in a way is that he can make that crazy shot he made to end that Bulls game. Do you see that shot when he made the 24 foot off one foot? Wasn't even a three, two guys on him. And it was just his fuck you end of the game. And it was like, that's going to make him keep taking shots like that.

When sometimes maybe those aren't the shots he should be taking. It's a little interesting that we went all size. And I think indicative of the power of sort of a big wing kind of player in these situations, like how is Damien Lillard given all the shots he's made, I think indicative of the power of sort of a big wing kind of player in these situations. Because of the fouls. How is Damian Lillard, given all the shots he's made, not on either of our lists? Adam Sixth. Me too.

He's right under there. Chris Paul, one of the greatest clutch players of all time. Steph Curry. Neither of them made my list. So my five were Durant, LeBron, Luka. And then we differ on the last two. I had Kawhi still. Kawhi's missed a lot of big shots this year but I think the history speaks

for itself and you're going to laugh at me you're going to roll your eyes I just want you to when we get off the podcast look at the numbers in crunch time from the last from the last from the last three seasons

look at them. There's going to be a bunch of these guys, these wings and guards that shoot 30 to 45%. You know, nice numbers in crunch time to some not nice numbers. There's going to be one big guy who shoots like 50% and has a ton of clutch baskets as much as every guard in the league.

And it's the guy you very rightly compared because of this exact thing to Dirk Nowitzki, and it's Jokic. And so Jokic was the other guy on my list. Very fair. That's a good list. The reason I thought of this topic was and this is the problem with playing Brooklyn. And Brooklyn has one guy

we mentioned, and Harden probably should have been when we were talking about Dame Curry, we should have mentioned Harden as well. It's just the playoff hangover with him. And then Kyrie's another one who, if he's feeling it, is unstoppable.

I just, the consistency of it. He's made one of the biggest, I mean, that's a top five big shot in NBA history in game seven of the 2017 finals. Top three, maybe.

How many shots are bigger than that in history of the league? So we just mentioned like 14 or 15 guys? Yeah. None of them play for Milwaukee. It's true. And it's a thing I thought of,

and I think I talked about it at the time when they played Brooklyn, that game. And it basically became three on three. And it became clear that their three just are not as good at scoring basketball as the other three guys on the Brooklyn team. And you came away from that series or that game and you think like in a series, I just don't think they'll be able to match baskets at the end, which has been a problem with the Celtics too. Like you think like the Celtics in that Toronto series, Lowry and Van Vliet are going toe-to-toe with their best guys the Miami series it's all these one-point games and they can't

pull these games out you need these guys and you're right about Jokic Jokic should be on there but Tatum should make a run at one of these spots soon right I mean Tatum's made it to even the other day against Dallas Tatum made a couple of big shots like he's a shot selection yeah this kind of player

it's the shot selection. He's built to be this kind of player. It's the shot selection, the combo of needing to get to the basket a little bit more. My dark horse for this conversation is Sabonis on Indiana. Okay. I do feel like he gets really good shots at the end of games,

especially in the last 20 seconds with that Zion play. Now I want to pick a dark horse. Like a random guy that I really trust. Well, the ultimate dark horse is Rozier. We did name Rozier. Rozier is, I feel weirdly confident

when he has the ball with like eight seconds left on my adopted Charlotte Hornets. Kawhi was a good one. I should have thought, I didn't even... To me, it just doesn't look like he's at the same level he was those first couple rounds in 2019.

But I know statistically he is. I'm just saying, I test. He's missed a lot. His crunch time numbers this year are bad. He's missed a lot of big... I mean, big regular season, you can only get so big. But he's missed a lot of big-ish shots.

Is it an overreaction to say he doesn't have quite the same lift that he had two years ago? Because I don't feel like that's an overreaction. I feel like he's like, almost like his shoes seem heavier. I go back and forth on it. I thought early in the season, he looked heavy. And people at the Clippers assured me he was not heavy. And then he started to look more like himself again.

And then there are days where I feel the same sensation you just described. So I'm just sort of TBD until, you know, maybe there's just, it depends how he feels that day or how much he cares about the game or whatever. But there are games where I feel like, there are definitely games that I watch even now where I feel like, oh, that mid-range jumper was a little better contested. Like not as clean as it usually is. How about Jamal Murray?

Can we put Jamal Murray as an under? He's not a dark horse guy. He's made so many big shots. Definitely not doing that this season. Wait till the playoffs. Jamal Murray, you know, puts on the cape in the playoffs. Goes in the phone booth. Kyle Lowry and a contract

for Danny Green, Mike Scott, Tyrese Maxey, contract, and a 2022 first. So basically, Maxey and a first. Yeah.

Maxey and a bad first. And then you flip Green. Or Danny Green is just getting traded for everybody. So basically Maxie in a first. Yeah. Maxie in a bad first. And then you flip green. For the greatest player. Danny Gray is just getting traded for everybody. For the greatest player in the history of the franchise. Yeah, but you know Masai has no loyalty to anybody. I think... I don't think that's a lot for Kyle Lowry.

I think they're going to have... Well, the problem is he makes $30 million. Yeah, they're going to have trouble so it's going to be really hard. They're going to have trouble. And all these teams have traded, all these contenders have traded all their picks already. I mean, there's nothing to be had. Few of them have young players that are as enticing as Maxie.

So that's not bad. I mean, a couple of things have to happen, right? Like one, Toronto has to conclude. We don't have a deep run in us this year. The Tampa thing cannot be understated. I know you've talked about it on your podcast. things have to happen, right? Like one, Toronto has to conclude. We don't have a deep run in us this year. And- The Tampa thing cannot be understated. I know you've talked about it on your pod,

or overstated. I know you talked about it on your pod. That's such a shitty way to spend a season where you're not even home. Yeah. You know? And they don't have a center. And-

Yeah. It's interesting that- I just don't think they're that talented. It's interesting that nurses just decided I'm starting Siakam or you want to call it Anunobi the center because he guards a lot of the centers, whatever. Like he's just I'm dispensing with the centers in our starting lineup completely. I didn't I didn't think it would take I didn't think he would get there this early or if ever.

And he got there pretty early. And it will also take Kyle saying, hey, I'd like to I'd like to leave. And these are three or here's my list of teams. If you can accommodate it. The thing is, as you pointed out earlier in the, in the pod, like he won the title. He doesn't have the same urgency to go join a contender. I was just, there was some Lowry buzz today and, and I was just looking at all the teams and really that's Philly's the only team that makes sense. If there's eight, nine contenders, whatever you call it, unless you were going to throw Denver at me,

it would be the other one. And Denver, Porter's not on the table, obviously, but if you did a Gary Harris, R.J. Hampton, and a pick, something like that, you could add up and get to Kyle Lowry range. Can you cobble some Miami salary and give me enough in there that I'm interested if I'm Toronto?

I can't because the league ruled that illegal for him to play on Miami because the amount of heat culture stories, if we'd actually, they'd have to shut down the league. You're not a believer. You're a heat culture. Hashtag. No,

I am. I am. I like the heat culture. I'm just saying like the amount of people talking about Kyle Lowry, heat culture, Jimmy Butler, Udonis, and just that would be a never-ending slew of things. So you would say Dragic is in that trade then? I don't have the thing in front of me.

I'm just thinking in my head, what's going to make it worth Miami's while? Are they really going to trade Tyler hero for Kyle Lowry at age 35 or whatever on an expiring contract? I don't think so. A Chuba. I, they have stuff there that could maybe they are. I believe Bobby Marks has told me probably nine times in the last two years that Miami could free themselves up to trade a first round pick. If they changed their protections on one of the picks two years that Miami could free themselves up to trade a first-round pick if they change their protections on one of the picks maybe that they have outgoing or something like that. So I think they could put

something in. I just know Miami at 15 and 17, having just made the finals and having a superstar, whatever you can see about Jimmy Butler, who's I think 30, they're not going to just sit on their, rest on their laurels, as old people say.

You know what would be funny? If they traded Dragic, Precious, Harkless, Lowry, like, you know, and Toronto saved $6 million, but then Dragic is awesome on Toronto. It's like, oh shit, Toronto's not dead yet. What happened? In Philly acquiring Lowry, and again, just to make clear, I have no reporting, but there

was a report out today that the Sixers are interested. That's the only reason we're talking about it. It was not a report by either of us. It was in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lowry to Daryl Morey's team would be like the poetic end of the James Harden trade coming full circle because Lowry to Daryl Morey's team would be like the poetic end of the like the James Harden trade coming full circle because Lowry for that draft pick

was one of the crown jewels in what became the James Harden trade. It's a great point. So the thing for me with Lowry, if Philly somehow pulled that off and they had the picks, right? They could maxi, they could add the contracts,

they could throw in maybe even two first rounders if they wanted to get super serious. Harris, Ben Simmons, Embiid, Seth Curry, Kyle Lowry, and Crunch Time. It's exciting. I kind of like that team. Kyle Lowry is awesome. I mean, people now give him his respect,

but that guy has been awesome at basketball for a long time. He's a perfect fit for any team that has other guys who need and want the ball because he doesn't care. He'll just make the right play all the time. He's a great defensive player. Yeah, they'd be really good. They would vault themselves into true

blue championship contention. I still remember when Daryl traded for Kyle Lowry for like nothing from Memphis and texting him just be like you motherfucker how the hell did you get Kyle Lowry like what the hell that was when the late 2000s

when players just were given away that we all knew were good and now I think those trades are much less hard to come by don't you feel like we still don't know the whole story of what happened with Philly and Hardin? Were they just a stalking horse to drive up Brooklyn's price? Was Houston ever actually interested?

Did Houston ask for too much in addition to Simmons? Like there's just so much, so many competing theories. I feel like I don't know if all of them are true. Some of them are true. And no one's going to tell the truth for like five years. There's not theories. There's two versions of the truth. This is a good thing to end on

and then we'll go. One theory is that the deal was done. Philly thought it was done and then Houston shopped the finished deal basically. Brooklyn panicked and did it. The other theory is that Houston was never trading with Philly,

dragged them along as a stalking horse and that there was some some Fertitta, Daryl stuff that prohibited Houston from ever actually trading Harden to Philly. But we both have the same intel, and I know Rosillo does, and some other people, that there was a point during that day

when Philly thought they were getting James Harden. That we know. Place for the Nets now. It's a great what if. Zach Lowe, I'll be on your podcast in two weeks, the Lowe Post.

But until then, it was great to see you. I'm sorry I broke your brain a couple of times. I love it. That's why I come on the pod. Say hi to the fam. Always good to see you.

All right, that's it for this week's last BS podcast. If you want to hear more from me, you can hear me on the Sports Cards Nonsense show this week. You can hear me twice on Ringer Dish talking about Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley on Jam Session, as well as breaking down the challenge, Double Agents with Dave Jacoby,

which we do every Wednesday on Ringer Dish. Also, we did new rewatchables this week. Neighbors, the we do every Wednesday on Ringer Dish. Also, we did new rewatchables this week, Neighbors, the Zac Efron, Seth Rogen movie. So that's happening as well. And we have another rewatchables coming up Monday. Stay tuned for that. Be back on Sunday night on this feed. Enjoy the weekend. See you then. I don't have