The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Over/Unders, Part 2: The West With Ryen Russillo and Joe House
Episode Date: October 13, 2021In Part 2 of a two-part podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo and Joe House for the annual NBA Over/Unders pod. They run through win totals for each team in the Western Confe...rence and look at odds for the NBA awards. Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Ryen Russillo and Joe House Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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If you missed part one,
me reselling house
at NBA over-unders
for the East,
it was 20 minutes too long.
It's fine.
It's an annual tradition.
We're excited for the season.
This is going to be part two.
We're going to be doing
the West in one second.
First, our friends
from Pearl Jam.
All right, the West.
We're going to get into it.
All lines are from FanDuel.
We're doing it by divisions.
House, you're going to have to be like our FanDuel.
Make sure the odds haven't changed in even the last 24 hours since we did this thing.
Dallas Mavericks,
they are minus 210 to win their division,
16-1 for the conference, 31 for the title,
and their over-under is 48-1.
Rosillo, there's a case
that you could go way over here
that they're a stealth finals team.
We've discussed this on this podcast
with multiple guests,
including most recently with Jonathan Jarks.
The case would be this is Luka's year.
Did some research.
Did a little research for the pod.
When guys have the year,
and it's usually like they're somewhere
between their third and sixth season in the league,
but we just going from 1977 Bill Walton,
1981 Moses,
86 Hakeem,
88 MJ,
95 Shaq,
99 Duncan,
01 Iverson, 03 Dirk, should have been the finals that year,
05 Wade, 07 LeBron, 2012 Durant, 2015 Curry. This happens over again with the elite, great
future superstars where kind of a year, two years before you expect it, all of a sudden
they're in the conference finals or the finals. You're like, wow, this is happening now. Could this happen
for Luka Doncic?
It might happen for him, but
even if it does, Bill, there's just too much
uncertainty around it. I mean, look, there's
not much anti-Luka stuff because then on top of that
comes playoff time.
This guy, the usage rate that he had
over the last
couple postseason, we're talking like 40%
usage rate. He's doing this a lot on his own
because the Przingis part hasn't worked out.
Hardaway's been a really nice running mate with him.
Jalen Brunson was bad in the playoffs,
but I do like him going off the bench.
But it gets so thin.
So I don't know how the outcome of this team
is like a sneaky finals team
until one of these other secondary pieces
becomes something that I don't think is possible.
And I even like Powell.
I like how it might be Powell
at center more often and Porzingis
off of him. Healthy Powell
this year. Everybody's saying
Porzingis looks way better. Who knows? I don't
trust it. I don't hate Porzingis. Bullock?
Reggie Bullock.
Bullock? Oh, that was Bullock.
We fortunately
did it on both pods.
Josh Green breakout year?
The backups are Brunson, Burke, Bullock, Maxie Kleber,
and Willie Cauley-Stein.
Yeah.
They might also be a buyout guy away.
So one of the cases for them with buyout guys,
Nets and Lakers loaded up.
There's actually going to be a couple of buyout guys
for teams like Dallas.
House, do you like this team more than you liked them last year? I would guess the answer is yes.
Do you think we probably don't realize when we talk about their last two years that maybe they
just had bad luck playing the Clippers two years in a row. It was a terrible matchup for them it is a terrible matchup for them uh i i i like the fact
that luka donchic is healthy and not fat entering this season so that that does make me like this
team better um i don't like jason kidd as a as a head coach oh i don't like you Kidd as an NBA head coach. He does not have a track record with a super-duper star,
a budding super-duper star like Luka,
that is particularly impressive.
The defensive rating of his teams over the years, not good.
Defense is the single thing that this team must improve.
Must improve defense.
Dallas must improve
defense. The thing
that counsels in favor of the
over is this division is awful.
And they're going to get to play a whole
bunch of games. For the people listening, it's Memphis,
New Orleans, San Antonio, and
Houston are the other teams in this division.
None of whom have an over under over 41.
Exactly. Yeah. So there,
that's the case.
House brought the eight game prep today.
It's pretty great job by him.
Thank you.
How about that?
I got to keep up with the big boys here.
I really liked the over.
I don't,
I was looking at the China,
talk myself into conference 16 to one and title 30 to one for them too,
just because everyone's just pushed the Lakers into the finals.
And I just like,
just can, what are our other alternatives?
And we don't have the Clippers in the same way this year.
We don't have the Nuggets in the same way.
And then you start looking around the West
and you start quickly landing on teams like Dallas,
where you're like, Dallas, hmm.
Dallas still feels like a reach.
It just does.
I mean, would we ever do this with anybody else?
It's a star power pick.
That's it.
I mean, as great as Luka is.
And, you know, there's one part of the kid thing
that is worth and i just the only reason is the neighborhood i live in like living out in south
bay i would see jason kidd at this breakfast spot that i go to all the time i never said hello to
him uh he probably wouldn't be super into talking to me um but greg st gene who was a lakers assistant he brought him to dallas
and i know of greg i'm not like tight with him or anything only because he was like a st john's guy
when chris mullen was there yeah and if you hear anything about him like i have a hard time
believing that kid would go you're gonna come with me to dallas and not be willing to change
some of the stuff that kid has done in the past. Okay. Where
it seemed to be very stubborn, sometimes non-functioning defensive stuff. And this kid,
Greg and scary St. Gene, you know, if you remember him from the warriors, um, he's just such a
hardcore film, everything prep. And he has a voice that Kidd would bring with him gives me hope that Kidd would lean on him
a little bit more
because this guy's held in pretty high regard
and probably be a head coach one day.
Okay. All right.
So I like that.
Is it wrong that I haven't quit Porzingis yet?
No.
I mean, you know.
He just didn't seem healthy to me last year.
It seemed like the lower half of his body was compromised.
Hilariously, Tim Kalashow kept pushing a Zinger-Ben Simmons straight-up trade.
And I actually sat down and started doing a little, and I was like, you know what?
I can kind of talk myself into Zinger on Philly. I can
almost kind of see how
that would make sense.
Kyle, turn the
overhead camera on. Holy
shit. Porzingis
Simmons. Let's talk this out.
I mean, it's just, it's hilarious.
Right? That's the starting proposition is
it's funny. So Porzingis
stretch for playing
his natural power forward position maybe letting
him cook a little bit more or sell out
then on defense
what are you doing just I can't
trade Simmons for somebody if I don't know is going to
be able to run up and down the court in a couple years
I just can't yeah when we already have
him be it's a no but it's a fun
thought experiment I just thought it was funny
that's good man yeah what about Kyrie for Simmons Kyrie for Simmons Kevin B. It's a no, but it's a fun thought experiment. I just thought it was funny. That's a good one.
What about Kyrie for Simmons?
Kyrie for Simmons?
I can't do it if I'm Philly.
Philly would never.
I can't put Philly in with the Sixer fans.
That's a disaster.
They're not going to do anything that is going to help somebody.
They're one of their big competitors in the conference, right?
Yeah, that's not. Simmons is leaving the Eastern Conference.
Unless one side's like,
here you go.
Which one is the here you go?
I haven't been able to figure that one out.
That's a great one.
I would imagine Brooklyn would be like...
I agree with you.
But the reason the Brooklyn thing...
I mean, on top of the Kyrie thing,
he's got an extension that he could have done.
The Kyrie not doing the extension
was a mistake.
Because guess what?
That extension's not going to be there anymore
for that guy.
All right, so I'm going over.
House is going over.
It's a slight over for me.
Slight over.
Rosillo?
Is it zag time?
Zag me up.
The king of the zag.
Wow.
Get the zag music.
Wow.
I don't know where...
The zag master. Going to Memphis. 40 and a music. Wow. I don't know where... The zag master.
Going to Memphis.
40 and a half.
Over under.
Division.
Plus 440.
Playing game.
Minus 110.
They actually have minus odds.
You got to lay odds.
79-10 team.
I'll start here, House.
I've asked Chris Vernon this question.
I'll tell you his answer after.
Are we sure Jaron Jackson is good?
We have no idea.
Okay.
I think that's the right answer.
Literally no idea.
We have no idea.
I think people have penciled in this.
He's good.
And Vernon, I was like, he's a monster.
And I looked at his stats and he averages,
basically he's like five rebounds a game.
The stats aren't very good.
It's that he's that young, that he's that big,
and that he has the perimeter skills.
I get it.
That's all we're talking about here.
I get it,
but he hasn't actually done anything yet.
No, he's been hurt,
and I think he's played out of position,
and I think that's part of the Valanciunas move
to get a more traditional center
to also protect Jackson.
I mean, the thing,
the high side of Jackson
is that he can do different things,
and he can be this perimeter guy that's that size, but like him I just I like his talent but I just think it's
you're on this thing though with Jackson I've noticed this now like we all have our guys that
we kind of like talk up a little too much and then question a little bit too much Jackson is in the
Bill Simmons crosshairs in for a good way or bad way because bad way I think yeah when you start
doing the is so-and-so
good, then it means you
don't think they're good. I just think if you talk to
the average basketball fan, you're like, Grizzlies,
what are your thoughts? They'll be like, well, John Morant,
he's awesome. And Jaron Jackson,
Triple J, he's great. It's like,
is he? That's fair. If somebody
starts telling you how great the guy is. I think people
have penciled him. First of all, I don't think he's the second best player on their team.
I think Dylan Brooks is.
I think he's the wild card of their team.
I think he has incredible upside,
and this is where I'm going to pull it all the way around.
One of the reasons I like the over-under for them is
I still like his talent.
I just don't think we've seen it yet.
But on this team, with Adams doing all the grunt stuff for him,
this is what Verno was saying.
Jackson came in.
He's in great shape.
He's healthy.
Adams takes away some of the dirty work stuff and the rebounding and the picks,
and they can kind of concentrate on him as a stretch forward.
And then John Morant, who, you know,
there's a world in which he's awesome this year
that I think has to be factored in with the over-under. What if John Mor in which he's awesome this year that I think has to be
factored in with the over-under.
What if John Moran is just fucking awesome this year?
I mean,
this is a team that conceivably to me could win like 47 games.
I don't know if they will,
but I think the variance of them,
I could see them slipping like 38 wins,
but no really lower than that.
And the variance of them being able to go up.
That's why I'm going over.
I'm going over as well.
I just believe
in the franchise. I think that
there's still a player out there
that we're going to be shocked that they
pull in because they do
an incredible job
with building
assets, trade, and
room for additional
cash under the cap.
None of us liked what they did
with the Valanchunas, that whole Adams
and taking Bledsoe back.
We don't know the answer yet.
Like they roll those things out
and they're creating space
that only they know what their targets are.
I just trust them.
I think they have,
they've built an enviable track record.
They finally parted ways with justice Winslow.
Best of luck to justice in China.
I don't, I don't, I don't blame them taking a flyer on.
No, I agree.
That's right.
They were like, they wanted to find them for helping Miami beat the Celtics in the playoffs.
That sucked, but they're really good at drafting.
Bain was great.
I love Bain.
I like Tillman.
Clark was good. I don't know what happened to him last year, but they've done over and over again. Theyain was great. I love Bain. I like Tillman. Clark was good. I don't know
what happened to him last year, but they've done over and over
again. They've found value.
We're still going over?
Over. John Moran is point guard Giannis
with his mentality, with his
limitations, with the explosiveness
and
looking at that number,
every one of these teams is healthy, but if they're
healthy, they're an over 500 team.
So Trey, Trey and Booker, I think were the two breakout guys last year of the young guys that just clearly made a leap and made their teams legitimate.
Ja would be the candidate.
I think this year he'd be the, the number one guy I'm looking at.
We're all comfortable at 41 and a half, right?
Is that what it is now?
It's 41 and a half.
God damn it.
These lines keep moving.
41 and a half. There must be like a lot of NBA over under action lately. All right. I still? It's 41 and a half. God damn it. These lines keep moving. 41 and a half.
There must be like a lot of NBA over under action lately.
All right.
I still like it at 41 and a half.
New Orleans Pelicans.
What are the Pelicans?
What's the updated for them?
I had it at 38 and a half.
I looked at it today too.
They'd put it 38 and a half.
I can't believe it's still 38 and a half.
Yeah,
I don't get it.
It's under for me.
It's a lock.
It's an under for me.
It's a lock as well. It's an under under for me and it's a lock as well.
It's an under for me
and it's a lock as well.
I have some material on this though.
Plus 500 for the division.
No thanks.
Plus 100 for the playing game.
I think I'll pass.
House, what's their in-season panic move?
Because there will be one.
This is a team now with an ownership
that there's rumors they're trying to sell the team.
Seems like a pretty decent chance they will.
Well, here's the sale of the team.
There was a time when it was going to be
potentially packaged the Saints and the Pelicans.
But now it seems like separate, right?
Yeah.
So I think the unfortunate thing here is eventually
this thing will probably get moved.
They should be in Vegas.
I don't want New Orleans to not have a basketball
team. They should be in Seattle.
Seattle's fine too.
I think the Jazz. New Orleans will be
fine. They love football. They'll have the Saints
a lot of LSU. They'll be
totally fine.
They'll probably survive with the Saints and LSU.
But whatever. I just really like the city um
i love it too but sometimes like like basketball just doesn't work out in certain places for
whatever reason i mean you could argue sacramento's like well i think they have a huge problem with
the zion part of it so whatever whatever like i think we can't do the panic move until we talk
about zion because i think if you're in that front office you have to have like real conversations
about like we're not even to the extension part that front office, you have to have like real conversations about like,
we're not even into the extension part of this.
And we already have to worry about this guy,
like threatening to do a max deal and then telling us he wants to leave immediately.
Cause if there's another guy that's going to try to ask his way out with
multiple years left,
it's Zion.
Like all the rumblings are always this.
And then all of a sudden we find out he has this foot fracture that people
didn't know about.
How many injuries are we up to with him now?
At least three.
This is like his third major one?
Because he had the knee thing.
We're not sure whether this is major or not.
He might be, he was last year.
He was my single favorite player to watch.
And he backed it all up.
Would you mortgage the entire future of your team for him?
If you were another team?
If I were in a different city, yes.
None of this is going to be popular, okay?
And you end up just giving the guy the extension.
And if you're Zion,
we've talked about the guy one day will do
where he turns down the rookie extension
and hasn't happened,
but I imagine one day it'll happen.
But if you're Zion, you're like,
all right, just where's all that extra guaranteed money?
Because we're always worried about his body. But I would be real tempted with like two or three people on
my staff that I would really trust and be like, what if we went completely outside the box?
Like if this guy is leaking that we're the worst all the time and the organization isn't the right
organization. Should we just trade him now? What could we get for him that we know would be healthier?
Now we're speaking my language.
I know
Daryl would take Zion for Ben Simmons.
I know it sounds crazy. What's he worth to the Knicks?
He's worth everything,
but the Knicks don't have enough.
R.J. Barrett, Obi Toppin, four first-round picks.
How many times are you going to bring up Obi Toppin?
I'm just throwing guys out. Randall?
Is it R.J. Barrett and Randall?
Once you said Knicks, we're on to the next offers.
Because, I mean, it's still, it would have to be such a monumental package
because if you're going to keep the Pelicans in New Orleans,
you actually have to keep Zion, the sales, the marketing people,
the business side.
They all get involved and then you can't do any of this stuff.
I think you sign Zion and you...
Of course you do.
Of course you do.
But I think you're shitting bricks about it.
You're doing
all of those things this is this is the most name and on the on the flip side everybody and i even
talked about on this pod about could zion be the one who doesn't i thought it was gonna be luca
potentially but zion from a health standpoint has to take the extension yeah he's never made the
real money before okay but then you're asking like with the push of of labor versus management here where ben
simmons tried it you know dame may throw it out there if this year doesn't end right with three
years remaining like these are all this is again the uncharted territory of this stuff where would
zion be like okay thanks for the extension now i'm out of here in a year you know i possible
we joked about towns doing it and then he finally seems like
he's sniffing around
but it took an extra year.
I don't know
what they do.
But I'll tell you this.
Ingram for Simmons is still
a fun something.
I'd need to get a little more
from Philly.
I think Ingram has more value
than Simmons for obvious reasons.
Simmons and Maxie?
Or is that too much?
Could I get Simmons and Maxie in a pick?
You'd probably be able to get a piece of the guard stuff back
because they brought in Graham.
They got Kyra Lewis.
They've got Alexander Walker.
That feels like my number one pick for a New Orleans panic move.
It's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
I got to know what's happening with Zion.
Yeah.
Because Ingram.
Well, when they said he had a Jones fracture, he'll
be ready for opening night. It's like,
what fucking opening night
2023? What night?
What year? I don't
know. I don't know. The Jones fracture is
fucking brutal. Go Google Jones fracture.
It's rough. Anyway,
under is all around probably
a couple of locks. I don't like anything they did.
I didn't like the Lonzo Ball thing.
Val and Shun is sure.
They're able to get rid of Bledsoe, but when
you're touting like, hey, we got rid of the Adams
Bledsoe contracts and you go,
you're the same motherfucker who signed
and traded for those dudes.
Now it's a party that we got rid of the contracts?
You just did this. And watching
Drew Holiday in the Olympics. Yeah.
Why didn't you keep Drew Holiday?
Go look yourself in the mirror.
You could have had Drew Holiday, Ingram, and Zion.
That's exactly right.
That's exactly right.
I think it's, honestly, Griff's a nice guy,
but one of the worst GM jobs we've had in the last 15 years.
Like, I disagree with everything he's done.
At least Stan's gone, because that wasn't helping anything.
That was also terrible.
San Antonio Spurs, 29 and a half.
House, is this your least favorite roster or is there another roster you dislike more?
I can't name.
I could look it up, but I can't name five Spurs right now off the top of my head.
Murray and White.
I know, right?
I know.
Keldon Johnson.
Yaka Pirtle.
You officially, I could have done Murray, White, and Purtle.
Those are the three.
Thad Young and Devin Vassell.
Sure.
Lonnie Walker.
The fourth?
It's a strange team.
And yet, I'm still going over at 29 and a half because it's a bunch of guys who I think will play hard.
I think the Kelton Johnson
Olympic thing
was weirdly valuable.
Okay.
You love
Olympic experience.
I think he'll be better.
No one has ever.
I like their guards.
You're one of the great
patriots of the day.
I really do.
Just point me to the guy
who's like,
I wish I hadn't played
the Olympics.
I'm a worse basketball player now.
No, I'm not saying that.
I'm not around those
other 11 awesome guys.
That's not what the argument is.
No, it is.
I think it's right.
It's the Kelton Johnson comes back to Spurs camp, and they're like, who's this guy?
Yeah, I think that's what happened.
Team America.
Prove me wrong.
Fuck yeah.
Prove me wrong.
No, he picked up some stuff.
He was playing with all these great guys, and he's like, oh, I didn't realize that.
Oh, that guy got up at 530.
Oh, this guy worked on his turnaround jumper for an hour.
This guy brought home three girls from Benihana.
This guy got BD.
This guy has a shoe cleaner who's a human being.
I'm going over 29 and a half.
What do you guys got?
I can't believe they went 33 and 39 last year.
This is why I'm going over.
I don't want to deal with it again.
I'm going to be wrong.
I'm going to pick under.
But they went 33 and 39. seed no one cared everybody didn't want to watch them anymore
458 winning percentage 30 and 52 is 363 i mean this is a this is a massive step back for a team
that should be better yeah so all the all the math tells you over, over, over. And there's no sign of them tanking.
I mean,
there's a world.
It's so weird.
I'm going to still say under,
I'm still going to say under.
And I hate,
I hate that I'm doing under because they're,
they just seem to be a group of guys that were competitive last year.
I mean,
look,
there's no DeRozan,
but I think all of these guys are going to be better.
And I still hold out hope for DeJounte,
but you know,
DeJounte in this point guard market,
what's the best version of that?
I don't know.
You guys already know the answer to
what the top salary on this team is.
Isn't it like $15 million?
It's $15 million.
I was trying to make fake Kyrie trades with them today.
And I had to use three guys.
I had to do Murray with Thad Young
and with Al-Fariq Aminu
to get to $39 million.
And then the Nets threw other stuff in.
Yeah, because you can't trade any of the other guys.
Jacques Melendale.
I'm going to over.
I'm going to say one of the crazies.
Kyle, you might have to turn the casino camera on again.
I actually think this is the team
that should trade for Kyrie.
Okay. It's fine for Kyrie. Okay.
It's fine.
Kyrie and Pop?
I think Kyrie is now a house that's in foreclosure.
Where it's like, ah, that house in Wellfleet.
Yeah, the bank's just going to take it.
It's like, ah, should we go see it?
I think that's where the spurs are with Kyrie.
It's like, Kyrie's in foreclosure.
Should we go see Kyrie?
Dude, it's got a tabernacle.
It's a boat thing in the back.
What do the Nets want from San Antonio?
You could give them Murray or White with Thad Young.
And then I would just wait it out.
White is tough.
I do like that.
It's pretty good.
Texas, he could play all his
home games. He could definitely play
all the home games. If I'm the Spurs
and I have a roster where I just do not have
one of the top 50 guys in the league,
we can name
50 guys right now that are all better
than everyone on this roster. I would have to
at least consider the Kyrie thing.
I wouldn't do it, but I would have a three-hour meeting
about it. I like this. And then I would have my staff go,
what the fuck are you doing? We're not training for Kyrie.
What are you doing? Yeah, those are the offers. I'd just be like, hey,
that's right. He can watch us on League Pass and we'll
wait until he changes his mind.
Well, now he's got Donald Trump Jr.
behind him, so the sky's the limit
for Kyrie. He tweeted it. He's going to feel great about
that. So we are
how many hours are you under?
Over. 30. 30 and 52. over and over again. It's me and
house versus Rosillo and these over-unders. I don't know what happened. So it came in hot.
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Houston Rockets.
Over under 25 and a half?
Under.
You have 25 and a half for them still?
I'll look it up.
Yeah, I'll look it up right now.
Russello, question for you.
25 and a half.
45 and a half.
Sneaky fun league pass team for you or openly
fun league pass team? Absolutely.
I can't wait. I feel like you're going to watch
a lot of the Rockets. I feel like you're going to be sending
us videos. Oh my God.
You're not going to believe this.
Kevin Porter Jr. pick and roll.
Kevin Porter Jr., Jalen Green, Christian
Wood. Banger.
Yeah.
Eric Gordon, like why am I here
Garuba
Where's John Wall
He's just hanging out
What's he doing
Nothing
They got Daniel Tyson
For four years
They re-signed Dante Exum
Which I didn't
You know when you're going
Oh three years for Dante Exum
Was there another
Were there other teams
Offering two
You'd be like
Hey we want an Exum
We gotta go to third year
Get a team meeting
And they're going,
our team's a little too brash.
We need a guy
who can come in
who just gets hit in the head
and knocked down all the time
and never fights back.
Like,
let's get Tice,
call him.
Call Tice.
I know,
really like Tice,
but Tice,
like,
hey,
do you want to get kicked
in the balls
and have a guy teabag
your forehead
on the baseline
and wipe his sweat?
Do you want to get knocked
in the basket support again
and then hold your nose as it's going
down the other way?
Just put your palms.
Do you want to just get your ass kicked?
And the thing is, Tyson's actually a really good player.
I've just never seen a guy.
I like Tyson.
I've never seen a guy get worked so many times in embarrassing fashions and never fight back.
He's like, he's Cranston in season, in episode, season one of Breaking Bad.
Ah, I like that.
Like first five episodes. Yeah. He's got to grow the goatee and just get Bad. The first five episodes. He's got
to grow the goatee and just get mean.
Under for me, though.
This is an under for me as well. I can't wait
to watch them. Under, under, under.
And also a team... They went six. Do you know
they went six and 45 in their last 51?
I
know that because I bet
they're over last year.
Not only did I say over,
because I thought that they might try and hang
in there for a little while. That was one of your
dumber moments. They started off
pretty, like, on their number.
House was holding on to James Harden
hope for some reason. Three-enters
could be a lock for me. 25 and a half seems
really high.
I don't know. 26 and...
This team's going to win
26 games?
And 56?
Is that what it is?
That's it for that division.
Jesus.
Thank God.
Clusterfucks.
Thank God.
Well, here we go.
Get ready for the Utah Jazz fans
to send their venom our way.
The NBA's most angry fan base.
Bloggers
moving their fingers
right now,
getting ready to
eviscerate all of us
because we deign
to wonder why
this team completely
choked against
the Clippers team
that didn't have Kawhi.
Their over-under
is 53 and a half.
Minus 310
to win the division,
plus 650 for the conference,
15 to one for the title.
House,
10 to one for the
play-in game.
Don't sleep on that bet.
10-1 flyer, that's like...
That's throwing money away.
I agree.
One hamstring injury for Mitchell for two weeks.
Just give me $100.
Okay, all right.
I'll do that.
I'll work on that.
They're not going to the play-in game.
They're not going to the play-in game.
House, how much do we hold the last two years against them?
They're good.
We can hold things. I'm not holding anything against them? They're good. We can hold things.
I'm not holding anything against them.
They're good.
You're not holding.
They have a playoff 26 point.
They have a six.
They have a very specific,
very,
you know,
they have a particular problem that they need to use the season to figure
out.
They are an awesome regular.
What succession character would they be?
Wow.
This is Tom.
Maybe,
maybe Shiv.
I think they're Roman. I think they can only
have sex if they're on the
side of a bathroom door with a 64-year-old lady
on the other side.
That's the only thing that can truly get them to the border.
I can't wait to get this Utah Jazz.
No, I just came up with it. That was juicy.
I love the over. It might
be a lock for me. I love this team,
a regular season team.
Rudy Gobert is like the single biggest regular season game changer,
possibly in the entire fucking league.
I love the Jazz.
What?
I love the Jazz.
They are perfectly built for regular season success.
They're a big over for me.
I love the over. I mean, look, they were one seed last year.
They were 50-22. That's 7-22 winning percentage.
All right, so with 54 wins, you're asking me to duplicate a 6-60 winning percentage?
No problem. They were number one in point differential by a wide margin.
Up there with some of the best historic teams.
They have a playoff problem, and we saw it against the Clippers,
and it's not just defensively asking
Gobert to chase all these guys around, which wasn't
great for him. It's that he doesn't do it anymore. None of
that shit matters to me. They could be the
one seed again. The problem for Utah fans,
they've got to understand, they could go 75
and 7, and no one's going to give a shit.
That's exactly right. Now, they're not good enough.
I'm kidding on the high end of it.
No one is going to care. You have reached
now the conversation of the other NBA players.
Your team is going to be treated as the NBA star that hasn't won,
the quarterback that can't get out of the divisional round.
You are that collectively as a team, but they should be.
I know Conley is a big question mark.
You would imagine Mitchell is going to be better to close the season
than he was last year.
The favors thing didn't really do that much for him.
They have Clarkson again.
Some Rudy Gay and Eric Pascoe.
Hassan Whiteside is on this team now.
I don't understand the Whiteside stuff because I just think he's kind of a net negative.
Well, if you guys like Utah this month, sounds like you should go on FanDuel and do four
to one for best record.
I just know they're going to have a really
good record. I agree.
I disagree. I'm going under.
Alright. I think 53.5 is
high. I think the
West is better, especially in the
middle class, than it was, even
though, despite the division we just routed off.
What are you talking about? I don't think many of the teams
are that much different. I mean, we're going to get to Denver.
Their injuries, the Clippers' injuries. We don't know what to do
with Golden State. I think going 54
and 28 is a good record.
So I get the leeway. That would be
the same team
and we're talking like
eight to nine less wins
than last year. No, but last
year, I'm sorry, but they
other than when Conley, when did Conley
go down like a fourth of the season?
Which time?
They had like an incredible health advantage for the first two thirds
that I do think helped them.
They had continuity and they had health.
I just, 54 wins seems like a lot and I'm going under
and I think it's a good zag.
Let me ask you this.
If it's such a lock that this would be an over,
why is the over-under only 53 and a half?
Sometimes we're better than the desert, bro.
It's the market.
We started off the East Coast pod with this.
In a different time, it would have been 56 and a half
and we would have had teams of 59 and a half.
But Vegas has responded to the overall direction.
I was in the room when they lost that Clippers game and I said, I don't know what the over-under is for them next year, but Vegas has responded to the overall direction. I was in the room when they lost that
Clippers game, and I said, I don't know what the
over-under is for them next year, but I'm going under.
I'm sticking to it. Yeah, but that's the worst possible
thing to have influence. It's just how I feel. I agree.
I agree with what I'm saying. I'm not betting it, but I'm
going under. When we're doing the playoff preview, bring it
all up, because they deserve it, because there's been
some... There's the Denver loss
up 2-0.
All that stuff is real, and it's all why I'm like,
look,
I don't want to hear about
the Gobert shit
in the regular season anymore.
I don't want to hear it.
But for the regular season,
I don't want to hear
about the playoff results.
Are we sure Conley,
Ingles,
Bogdanovic,
a year older?
A little big bull,
a little more of a bullseye
on this team.
They went 28-6 against teams 500 or worse.
Great.
Under.
Portland, 44.5 is their over-under.
Plus 750 for division, 31 in conference,
81 for the title, plus 125 for the playing game.
Priscilla, more likely Blazers, a legit sleeper,
or Dame gets traded before March.
You can only pick one.
Well, then I'll go legit sleeper,
but they're not winning the West.
I just think Dame is more content there,
despite some flirtations and frustrations.
But that went from a couple posts
and then the Chris Haynes thing
where he was complimenting Portland's fans.
And I was like, oh, wait a minute.
Are you celebrating them on the way out of the next ask?
Yeah.
Testing the waters.
Like, well, Russell Wilson said he didn't want to trade,
but if you do want to trade me here at four teams, go to.
Where you're like, what the hell are you doing?
Dame Lillard never even got to that point, but they're good.
Their top six is really good.
With Powell and the other projected starters,
they were plus 13 per 100 possessions.
Nurkic is going to be a year healthier.
I like the Nance addition.
They kept Powell around because that was kind of like the future of free agency.
Like, hey, let's make a move here, and then we know we're going to bring Powell in
and then also re-sign him. It's a big number. I like the future of free agency. Like, Hey, let's make a move here. And then we know we're going to bring Powell in and then also
resign him.
It's a big number.
I like the Nance thing.
Yeah.
And also they have,
I'm over on them.
They have a Portland tradition.
The young guy that they're telling you how great he looked training
camp this year.
It's in the Sierra little.
Yeah.
It looks great.
It's great by all accounts.
Anthony Simons is so good.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Who was the guy during the Pritchard era
the
we had the
there was a Rudy Fernandez
run with this
Rudy Fernandez
this is the year
it's happening
there's every year
with Portland
there's always a guy
Sergei Monia
Sergei
you gotta see this guy
just killing people
in training camp
I like this team
I'm going over
I actually think that
over under is like two wins too low.
And I'm thinking about a possible lock for me on this house
because I like the Nance Covington combo.
I like the fact that I didn't feel like this team was malleable enough last year,
especially the Carmelo thing, I just thought,
was such fool's gold in so many different ways.
Like he's just at a different point of his career
and was actually in big spots.
This team when Lillard and McCollum are together and healthy,
which they've had some bad luck with over the last couple of years,
but when they're actually out there together and healthy and doing well,
and they can get, I don't know, four people with them,
which it seems like they have this year, the team's pretty good.
They're good.
I feel like it's a 47-48 win team house.
I like the over for them as well.
So we're all in lockstep on this Portland team.
Do you realize the starting five guys with Powell in the Denver series, they outscored
Denver by 47 points and 112 minutes and lost the series.
Wow.
And I don't love the bench this year
unless Little can come through, like, past the seven.
It seems like they're about seven deep this year.
Yeah, and I still wonder how they're going to defend,
but getting rid of Cantor and Melo is...
Net positive.
Yeah.
And I also think there might be a little
bit of an invigoration
that comes from Chauncey, right?
Just a different guy.
A guy that is in their ears
that they like and they support.
Chauncey's one of the few guys in the league that I think
can get right in somebody's face and tell them
to fuck off. He's going to get away with it.
He certainly did it with Paul Pierce
on NBA Countdown.
Pierce would have some crazy take
and Shotzi would just cut his legs out
and left out for shit. It was rough.
I really like Portland.
I think
that division plus
750 bet.
I know you guys like Utah.
I just think those are pretty heavy odds.
Oh, that's a great payout. Yeah.
I don't think that's a bad bet at all.
There's a world where they're 50 and 32 in Utah.
Somebody gets injured for three weeks
and they're 49 and 33, something like that.
I like that bet.
Denver Nuggets.
This one's a tough one.
Their over-under is really high.
47 and a half.
Purely out of respect for Jokic.
So we've seen house like Jokic, Luka.
They're just certain guys now that are just,
if you're healthy and you're in the team,
you're guaranteed 48.
Yep.
As long as everyone else on your team is at least average.
Question for this team is,
it's definitely a little bit over average.
Man, that bench is rough.
They're going to need something from Gordon.
And then the big question, Michael Porter,
if you had to pick, massive breakout or weirdly disappointing,
if you only pick one breakout,
I think he,
I said bad things about him during the stretch last season that he was
making the leap.
He had looked bad.
He looked lost.
He was in Malone's dog house.
I came on your pod,
observed that in a game that
I watched them play against Washington uh but it had happened like two and a half weeks up to that
point and then I went after our that podcast sat down I was like oh shit he's playing good and he's
getting run and it looks like they trust him yeah and now he knows who he is on this team and he's going to get tons of
touches and tons of opportunity.
Plus that contract.
I like him this year.
He's shooting 44% from three for his career.
Okay.
It's 42 is rookie year,
45% last year.
He makes his free throws seven boards a game.
The advanced stuff is pretty good on him. Defensively,
I know it's a problem, but it was
atrocious in the beginning.
I actually think Malone could have been
a little bit more patient with him
because his shot making, he has
moments in games where you go,
there's not 10 guys
that can just make the shot that he just made and then he
added in the size. It's not five guys.
So you're on the massive breakout front, because I think I am too.
I think I'm buying it.
Look, I'll watch him enough.
I'm fine with like, oh, what are you doing?
And then you're a little bit of a black hole here
and lost defensively again and all that stuff.
But there's a version of this that's pretty special offensively,
and that's why I like the over, even with the Murray uncertainty.
Even if you're getting him back,
I don't think it's happening until later.
It's a Jokic bet to me
and Porter is the ketchup
on the cheeseburger. What did I say about
Dallas? Did I take the over for Dallas because
of how bad that conference is? I'll
stand by that. I'm not going to switch that.
Division. But I think
I'm going to stand by it. If you're just riding overs
for Jokic and Luka,
you're going to go at least one for two
and probably two for two.
I'm going to...
I really like Denver.
I really like them this year.
I like that number.
I love the 47 and a half.
Yeah, I feel like they're a high 40s team.
Look, they went 40s...
And then the Gordon piece will be fun.
Well, you know...
They can figure it out.
I could bring up last year's numbers again,
but it doesn't...
No, I know it was bad.
It doesn't...
No, no, no.
They were good.
I mean, they won, but... No, I thought I was talking about It doesn't... No, no, no. They were good. I mean, they won, but...
I thought I was talking
about the Gordon numbers.
Oh, those numbers
weren't good at all.
Yeah.
No, Gordon...
I trust Denver
to have used
this entire offseason
to figure out
how to make him work.
I think he's always
going to be generally
disappointing offensively.
I think Gordon's kind of like...
I didn't love the Beal thing
I brought up in part one,
but I think Gordon is the epitome of
we got Aaron Gordon!
There should be a post-game show where Rosillo reviews
his own takes of the podcast.
So I'm thinking about it more. I didn't love
the Beal take. We call it the Zag podcast.
We do it with Cerruti almost every week.
Just two people listening. I'll be honest,
I didn't love my Utah defenses,
but the numbers seemed high.
Sometimes that's all I got.
It's your worst part of the show so far.
Listen, I don't think they're a 54-win team.
I don't think they're going to be as good as they were last year.
They're a 56-win team.
Your whole argument is that they look like shit
against the Clippers in the playoffs.
I think that stuff matters.
If you completely choked on a pretty
big stage where you had a chance
literally to make the finals and then you watch
this Phoenix team that you could have beaten in a
series. The guy who loves Rocky
doesn't think the
Utah Jazz can be inspired by failure.
Unbelievable. I don't think the
Gobert thing is solvable, but you're right. Maybe for
the regular season, it doesn't matter.
I don't trust on my Conley thing either, I doesn't matter. Regular season, it's very solid.
I don't trust on my Conley thing either, I got to be honest.
Okay.
My Conley's been in the league since 07.
He was in the same draft as Horford and Joakim Noah and all those dudes.
He has a lot of miles on him.
Your guy, Jeff Green, is on this Denver team.
We like Denver.
Love Jeff Green.
All right, over for us. So, Minnesota, over-unders 33.5.
Be honest.
The first time you saw 33.5, you were like, wait, what?
Or no?
My hand's up.
My hand's raised for that.
Wait, what?
Wait, too high or too low?
Were you expecting a total in the 20s?
I have breaking news for you guys.
Something is happening.
What the fuck is going on with Minnesota?
The Sun Fan Duel? It's 35 and a half oh my god you have to lay significant juice to get the under the under is minus 144 well so maybe they put up a number because i mean i had over
mark tentatively down but now i don't know what to do 35 and a half riscilla what month is towns
asking for a trade? Pick a month.
Can't be November because that's too soon.
You get December, January, February.
One of those three months.
I'm going to pass on being critical of Carl Anthony Towns. Not saying you're critical.
I'm saying if you had to pick a month for the Carl Anthony Towns trade ask,
would you pick December?
July.
July.
I think it'll ride out Anthony Edwards.
Yeah, they're going to out Anthony Edwards. Yeah.
They're,
they're going to play this whole season.
Not the thing.
That's interesting about Minnesota is the Chris Finch,
David Vanderpool.
Like they,
they,
they,
it was such a shitty situation.
Poor flips on his kid who like God,
God bless him.
I think,
you know,
he truly believed he's just in over his head.
Yeah.
And that happens sometimes.
And the franchise tried to do the right thing by giving him an opportunity.
And it didn't work.
Chris Finch is a real effing basketball coach.
And Vanderpool is a really good defensive coach.
His reputation, I believe in the reputation.
And there's good evidence of him, you know, teaching defense to guys that have otherwise not learned it. Uh, so that would be the case
for the over with this Minnesota team. I'm just not there under, I love the over at 33 and a half,
uh, for whatever reason, watch them a bunch last year. I think they had the 13th best offense.
If you go from a March 1st on split.
They were 12 and 13 in the last 25 games under Finch. The Finch hysteria, because it was odd that you wouldn't just promote an assistant, but they didn't want to screw around. They wanted to
bring in Finch. And as soon as he got brought in, I'd heard from a bunch of different teams,
you're like, this guy's a stud. He's a stud. And they didn't want to screw around with it.
They were like, look, we're just going to go ahead and grab this guy. So I think a lot of people that were criticizing it probably didn't know
what Finch's reputation was.
And I'm telling you just from the eye test part of it,
I love how hard they played.
They played really hard.
They had some of those games.
I think it was the Philadelphia game where I was like,
man,
these fucking guys are like,
there's something I'm seeing out of the Timberwolves that I just not used to
seeing all that much.
Um,
because usually they're really bad.
They're four and 18 without Towns last season.
So clearly the odds makers here are on it.
I can't believe it jumped up two more games.
This is from last night.
It was 33.5 last night when I was doing mine.
God, it seems crazy.
Am I really going to say 36 wins for the Minnesota Timberwolves?
I'm not kidding.
I just spent five minutes complimenting them
and I think I'm going to say under.
Look, this is from March 15th
to the end of the season.
They went 14 and 19,
which is a 42.4 win percent
over 82 games,
which translates to 35 wins
and the numbers 35 and a half
that we're looking at right this.
I like them.
Like I'm finally seeing.
I saw some life
from them the first time forever but i in the west and that's that's the other thing about the west
it's not even the eight when you go nine through like 13 those teams are all talented yeah and so
that's why if you go 35 and 47 that's actually not a lot of shame in that
because it's going to be a bloodbath almost every night
except for the OKC game.
You can easily bet if you do that.
If you bet on Minnesota at this number
and they go 35 and 47, you lose your money.
33 and a half, I was over.
I'm not going to go 36 wins, so I'll say I'm not either.
I have serious reservations,
and I appreciate your case about how hard they play.
As you know,
I've loved Nas Reed forever.
Yeah.
Okoji too, I've enjoyed.
But...
Well, Jaden had moments.
Yeah, Jaden had moments
where he was getting thrown
in Ben Simmons trades
as like one of the prizes.
The Edwards and Russell
defending people piece
cannot be overstated.
I'm just not sold on either of those guys.
No.
And Russell scares the shit out of me over like the course of a full season, a full season.
And they got Pat Beverly, who's going to definitely be.
And I got this.
Let me teach you young guys how to win mode that I don't know if the hell great that's
going to go.
Let me show you guys something.
Oklahoma City Thunder, over under 22 and a half house, and we're going to talk about it
right after this break. The smart approach is to look at the facts, like the fact that York U graduates have a 90% employer satisfaction rate.
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Okay, OKC.
Over Under is 22 and a half.
This is our second take on this
because I screwed up my whole
Sam Presti secretly as the best GM job in sports thing.
I just couldn't make it work.
I tried.
We talked for nine minutes about Oklahoma City.
It was like I was doing stand-up comedy
at the comedy store,
just working at a riff
and the audience was like,
eh, not sure.
So I'm just going to, I'm just going to scrap it. It was like you were going to barbecue with Nate
Bargatze and you were throwing him jokes. He's like, I don't get it. Um, I am jealous of his
ability to just accumulate these picks, roll assets over. And then now each year he's just
going to take the high impact,
high ceiling,
swing my dick
on the table
if this works out guy,
which I really respect.
At the same time,
House,
this team is
the worst team
in the West.
And I think
they're going to have
moments where they're
just hilariously bad.
I think you're right.
They finished the season
2 and 23.
Beat the Celts, right? Tough one.
Really hurt us. It was
very, very intentional
that they finished the season 2 and 23.
Yes, it was. And I actually think
there are a bunch of guys that we like.
Yes. Couldn't agree more.
I even like Kenrick Williams a little bit.
Kenrich Williams? Kenrick Williams a little bit. Kenrich Williams?
Kenrick Williams?
Okeke?
Okeke?
They were 16 and 19
when SGA played.
16 and 19 when SGA played.
At the end of March, they were 20 and 27.
Shout out Matt Moore
at the Athletic. I mean,
Action Network.
Dort?
Like Lou Dort.
Like Lou Dort.
Don't like their big guys.
This is a team that, weird,
they could have really used Shang-Goon if he's good.
It's not like it's like,
ah, he would take time away from our center.
I'm kind of stunned.
They took Shang-Goon.
I think this would have been a league pass must for me,
as it is now.
Not as much of a must. So I'm goingoon. I think this would have been a league pass must for me, as it is now. Not as much of a must.
So I'm going under.
I think this is almost a lock
that this will be the worst team in the West.
Give us your thoughts, Rosillo.
Remember last year when we did this?
And I was screaming lock.
I was screaming under.
And for most of the season,
they were headed to the over.
And that's even though...
Did they get over?
It depends on what number.
It went over in some books, under in other ones.
And they found ways to win a bunch of these games
despite having easily the worst point differential in the NBA.
They were 30th in offense,
and they were four points worse than Orlando who was 29 so their
offense wasn't just awful in the worst in the league it was like off the charts worse than
the next worst offense and they were terrible on defense too um they found a way despite trying to
tank and they they did a good job on the tanking part. They even told Al Horford, hey, we're good. We're good.
I still think they're really bad.
And I think they actually got incredibly lucky to have the record they had last year.
So unless Poku takes a massive step up
and some of the wings are giddy,
which is, giddy is actually kind of a weird fit.
But again, it doesn't matter
because most of this roster is never going to be part of the future.
I'm going under, but they almost,
they almost screwed everybody that played the under
against a team that they were right about
because it was the worst team in the league
and they still eclipsed the number depending on where you got it.
They only have one player with four or more years of NBA experience.
Can you name him?
Who is it?
Oh, you have the right-
Derek Favors?
Yeah, Favors.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, they have two then.
I was going to say-
DJ Wilson?
I was going to say Muscala.
Do they still have Muscala?
Yeah, I think so.
All right, we don't need to talk about OKC too long.
I like what they're doing.
I think they should take in Shinga.
Under for me.
Rossello under?
Under.
House under?
Over.
Over. OK, House. 23 wins. Russillo under. Under. House under. Over. Over.
23 wins.
That's all.
That's my zag.
Just a forced zag by House.
Los Angeles Lakers,
53 and a half.
Is that still the over-under,
House?
I don't know what's going on
with it.
The numbers are changing.
Somebody moved in
and our fan-do odds
is happening.
Moving it around.
Basketball is happening. Minus 110 for the division. 52 and a half. What's happening. Moving it around. Basketball is happening.
Minus 110 for the division.
52 and a half.
What'd you say?
I said 53 and a half.
It was 53 and a half last night.
Man, what is going on?
52 and a half right this second.
Why is FanDuel doing this to us?
They love this pod.
Conference plus 195.
Title plus 450.
Rosillo, is this the 2004 Lakers all over again?
Or do we have higher hopes?
No, no.
Okay.
Because they already know that the two main pieces work together.
All right?
They won a title.
And I think it's pretty clear that they would have done some damage last year again, too.
Remember how good this team was the first 30-plus games in?
I think all of us that cover this stuff are going,
all right, they won the title.
Say what you want about the opponents, which is a fair criticism,
but they still won the title. But when they came in on paper, you're like, this team is better, all right, they won the title. Say what you want about the opponents, which is a fair criticism, but they still won the title. But when
they came in on paper, you're like, this team
is better than the team that just won the title. They were
playing that way. And they even
held up a little bit through some of the injuries,
which was crazy because I was watching
going, how are they still winning these games?
The only reason it's an
under for me, they're the favorites in the West.
They are the favorites in the West. We could talk
injuries, but we could do that literally with every single team i think the the reasons i would
go under is not just age and injury history but vogel trying to figure this whole deal out
trying to figure out the rotation and figure out the personalities because this collection of people
they put together there's going to be a couple guys that are really bummed out about what their
role is.
And I could see Vogel
trying to maybe appease people
in the beginning of the season
and Westbrook,
who's going to have to figure out
a way to somehow adapt,
which I don't think he's really...
I don't think there's...
There's just stuff with Westbrook
that's never going to change.
I don't want to hear about it.
But the only reason is under
is Vogel getting through it all,
resting some guys here and there.
But they're still the best team,
I think, on paper right now in the West. west I agree with you I'm interested in hearing who you
think the candidates are for who's going to be bummed because one of the things about amassing
these veterans is you as you as I have assumed and not what one might assume as I have that all
those guys have bought into whatever the configurations are. That's the whole point of going out and getting five guys that are 36 years old or older.
It's all leadership.
It's all guys that can go with the flow.
And they're deep.
They're deep.
I don't understand 52 and a half in any way, shape, or form.
Over for you.
Oh, it's a big over for me.
What do you have for some i have under because i think that they're going to pace people this is where i like the westbrook trade is for the regular season his energy and his care and all
that kind of stuff like i think he helps bring them a kind of energy throughout the regular season
that'll help them get through some of those months that feel like it's slogging but i also think that
with all of these guys that Vogel is probably going to
try to play nice with
everybody, give a day or
some minutes here. And then I think there's going to be a stretch where
Rondo and Mello are watching Kendrick Nunn
and Taylor Horton Tucker play ahead of them
when it actually matters who's winning some of these games.
And those guys aren't going to love that.
I hate this. This is my least favorite
over under Evolvum
well it's because you hate
the Lakers
no no it's not
I love money more than
I hate the Lakers
that's true
I can
and I love winning this contest
over you two guys
over anything I feel
about the Lakers
it's hard for me to believe
if they get
70 games from LeBron
70 games from Davis
and 65 to
70 from Westbrook, that this team's not going to go 53 and 29.
Yeah.
But are they going to get all those games from all those people?
And I think Rossello's point about the happiness factor, it's hard not to think about it.
We've seen Rondo not be happy.
You also have Nunn and Monk who I think...
Nunn could be closing
with this group.
And they're there because they're trying to
increase their value, correct?
They're hoping that they're going to be in this situation
that people are going to look at them.
Nunn and Monk.
Those are the only two guys that would need that kind of
nurturing we're talking about. I think everybody else
Bazemore is not going to be
fighting, you know, upset about minutes.
Trevor Reza ain't going to be mad about minutes.
Why is DeAndre Jordan there?
I think five of these guys are going to be irrelevant.
Like Wayne Ellington or Reza.
DeAndre Jordan
was done three years ago. I don't know if
Howard has anything left.
Howard's serviceable as a backup.
He is.
He fouls the shit out ofable as a backup. He is.
He fouls the shit out of everybody the whole time.
He's a dirty player,
but he still makes you think about hanging out down there. But they're talking about they want to play Davis more at center
and LeBron more at power forward.
How much do we even going to see?
But Davis has never wanted to play center before.
He said this year he wants to play.
I know that he has,
and I think they only played together for 173 possessions with Davis as the center of LeBron on the floor.
All right.
But when they won the title, it's what they shifted.
Everybody in basketball knows it's what Davis should be doing all the time.
But I wonder over the course of the regular season if he's just going to like it's clearly something he's never wanted to do.
Because he's just going to say yes and do it all regular season.
They're going to be like, hey, we're going to put Dwight out there with you a little bit to give you a break.
House, I'm going under.
It's fine.
I don't feel great about it.
This team reminds me a little of the 2018 calves.
As weird as that sounds,
Davis is way better than Kevin Love was that season.
But that 2018 calves where it was just like,
they're just signing people left and right.
They had Dwayne Wade and they made a bunch of trades mid season.
And Darren Williams.
Yeah.
If you go look at their basketball reference,
it's like 22 guys they had that season.
They had Jay Crowder was there for a little while.
Isaiah Thomas was there.
And it just was kind of,
you knew at the start of the season this wasn't what it was going to end with.
I think they have a lot of fat on this team
for all the wrong reasons.
I don't know.
The Horton Tucker monk, none thing.
I'm not sure any of those guys make sense with LeBron James, except monk.
And I think, you know, I think none does a little bit. Do you like none though? I don't, I don't,
I mean, I've never really been a fan. I always felt like when the Celtics went against them,
the playoffs, I was like, please play none more. I'm not afraid of this guy.
He had some really up and down moments there where he also was like, well, if I'm not scoring,
what the hell am I doing out here?
But I think there's a real LeBron fact
that we all have to understand
is that when you're out there and you're playing with him,
you don't just start doing whatever you want to do.
Well, that's why Schroeder's out.
Westbrook will.
That's the other thing.
It's like, I have no idea how this is going to work
with Westbrook and LeBron.
I've read all the stuff.
I've heard all the things.
And Westbrook needs the ball all the time as well.
If he plays off the ball, it'd be great.
Well, we saw him play off the ball with Harden
and they were fucking miserable after a year.
So he's going to be happy with LeBron and Davis?
I mean, Daryl basically had to say no centers
to make the Westbrook thing work.
I don't care what it looks like in the regular season.
I only care.
Yeah, I just think, I agree with you.
I think they're the class of the West,
at least from a talent standpoint.
I think it's going to take a while to figure out.
And I think there's real injury risk.
Davis has been hurt a bunch.
LeBron's in year 19.
And I'm going under.
I think all those things are true.
It's a soft number.
Of course they're true.
I think it's a safer bet.
My life depended on an under is safer.
Okay.
I hate it.
I would never bet it.
It's a lock for me.
It's a lock for you to go over.
Yeah.
Jesus.
We haven't even gotten to the lock set. 53-29.
It's crazy to me that you guys are taking the under.
Phoenix
over-under is 50-and-a-half
unless that changed like everything else is changing.
Division 2-1.
Conference plus 850. Title
50-1. I like the division odds at 2-1.
I think it's, in my mind,
a toss-up between them and the Lakers.
51.5.
51.5.
What the hell?
How does all this stuff change?
It's been the same for two weeks.
It's starting to sense like they updated it maybe the day we did this.
Yeah.
So maybe that could be it.
Come on, Fane.
It's not real time.
Priscilla, what happens to this team if they don't lock down extensions to Aiton and Bridges?
Well, I don't think they're going to.
They're 44 million away
from next year's tax line,
but they're going to be over that
with two of those guys getting signed.
So, are you asking?
I brought this up with Zach last week.
I'm not convinced they're going to pay
Booker, Chris,
Aiton, Bridges, where three maxes and Bridges
making $25 million a year,
which he's going to get in the open market.
Like he just did.
Yeah, he will.
He's going to get $100 million for four years from somebody.
He's not taking a discount on that.
If he does, he's stupid.
I'm not going to bet where I have to tell you
Sarver's going to do the right thing financially.
But before the Chris Paul deal was done, when he opted out and then there was that weird week or so where it sounded like they weren't really talking, which didn't make a ton of sense and it didn't matter.
And the people were saying, oh, Sarver, is he actually going to screw this thing up?
Because if you lost Paul, then you got to revisit like the rest of those guys.
What are we doing?
I don't think Paul really had that much interest in going anywhere else, but it was an anti-Sarver argument because of history.
It's like, well, he's not going to do this with Paul.
He's not going to do this with Paul.
It's like, wait, what did he do this radio hit where he's like, well, we'll see.
We'll just see what the market is.
Remember, people are like, wait a minute.
Is he actually doing this?
And then he signed him for a big number. I gave him the three, maybe four year extension on it.
So, you know, the TV money, when's that going to kick in?
2024. big number i gave him the three maybe four year extension on it so you know the tv money when's that going to kick in 2024 so you know isn't that when the new tv deal money starts or something
like that they're gonna have a year where he gets crushed by sellers now maybe they can time that
where it's not the tv thing but what's what's the franchise worth from when you bought it to what
it's worth now you know what i mean you're pitching the choir. If you can't pay these guys, sell the fucking team. But I'm
just saying, they're going to have
three max guys and another guy
who's worth at least Jalen Brown money.
So you think maybe flip bridges at some point?
No. I don't know. I don't know
what to expect. This is a team that in the 2000s
traded the rights
to the Lil' Al Dang pick just for a future
pick and did shit like that.
They sold the Rondo pick.
They just sold it.
Remember how many of the picks they used to sell?
Yeah.
They just used to sell them all the time.
I still have it as an over
because they're really good.
Their four guys are terrific.
They brought in Shamit,
which I think knocks down
just another useful player to have out there.
They had to put him in therapy after his year with Kyrie. Kyrie couldn't stand him. which I think knocks down just another useful player to have out there because they
they had to
they had to put him in therapy
after his year with Kyrie
Kyrie couldn't stand him
JaVale's the backup center
Cameron Johnson's
a good basketball player
you know
I'll raise my hand up
on that one
like I was like
I'm not sure
if he's gonna
even Kobe White was like
wait how high did he go
and now when you watch him
you go this guy's just
solid everywhere
with everything he does.
He can handle it.
What if Jalen Smith is decent?
Sticks?
What if he's decent?
What if he can give them 15 minutes a game?
I like this team too.
House, I'm going over.
I think this team has a real chance
to be the one seed in the West.
And everyone, if there's dialogue about who's this
year's Phoenix, and I did this on the pod a few weeks ago, I think this year's Phoenix
is going to be Phoenix. I like their team more than Utah. I think they let an unbelievable chance
slip away in the finals. I watched three, four, and five. Those games were... Two of those games were just
way closer than I think I remembered
because I watched those in the moment we did pods and then it's
done. But holy shit, man.
If you're going to the offseason
and you're like, man, if
Holiday throws that alley-oop
a little too high for Giannis or
we had Booker with the ball with a
chance to put away game 5.
You just go through and you can...
They were really close.
So 51 and a half seems...
To me, they'll be better this year from what they learned from Aiton.
Yeah.
I mean, we're only asking them to...
It's the same number of wins as they had last season,
except for they have 10 more games to get to the number.
If they had the most regular season wins this year,
11 to 1.
That's interesting.
Could they go 57 and 25?
The problem is it's a Chris Paul bet.
Him staying healthy.
I'm not willing to do it.
Could they go 57 and 25?
Sure, they could.
It's not unrealistic.
No, it's not unrealistic.
They could.
We all like the over on that one.
That might be a lock for me
too.
Golden State Warriors.
Yikes.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Their over-under is
47 and a half unless it's changed.
We've got to be really diligent now with some of these over-under is 47 and a half unless it's changed we gotta be really diligent
now with some of these over-unders
division plus 550 conference plus 550
title 12-1 playing game plus
155
47
and a half right? Yep. That's the number
I say this out of love
for Steph Curry my favorite non-Celtic
this is
a team
I really like watching.
Russillo,
are we wishing this 2022
Warriors thing to happen
because we like watching them?
Because that number seems high
when you consider Clay's not even going to be back
until probably January.
Yeah, I had under 48 and 34.
Do we want this too bad?
I talked myself out of it last year
and then I watched them put together a run
that I almost thought was improbable
because when Steph didn't play,
this was a horrible basketball team.
Yeah.
And that's how good he was
and that's why I was in the MVP conversation
towards the end.
I was like, oh, cool, playing game.
Now he's not in the playoffs.
Awesome system.
I'm going over
and I know that that's a clay projection.
I'm really surprised.
You're the most surprising zag of the day.
Their defense is really good.
I think they figured some stuff out rotationally.
I don't expect much from Kaminga as a rookie.
I'm not even a huge moody guy.
I'm not basing this any kind of trade. I just think that in a weird way,
Steph was overlooked as a guy that was able to care.
Like I was already getting ready for my Steph defenses.
We had,
we had the shields up.
We were ready to go.
We're putting in work.
We're scouting.
You're watching Braveheart on YouTube.
Absolutely.
You know,
and,
and then Steph has that season.
It was almost one of those weird seasons.
You could appreciate him even more than one of the seasons
when they're playing in the finals because of how bad it was around him.
So I do think they figured some things out there,
and I think there's some guys coming back at some point
where Wiseman really hurt him defensively,
and now he's not available right away, I don't believe.
How's he buying the auto-porter, Russ? I don't believe. How's she buying the Otto Porter, Russ?
Oh my God.
That's one of the...
I had two Warriors fans this week because I
asked like, hey, how are you feeling?
They're like, well, if Otto Porter
can keep looking like
this... That's a problem if you're saying that
to yourself out loud.
I kind of like Otto Porter. Why?
He's never healthy.
When he's actually healthy, he's...
He's fine at $7 million a year.
Better than some of the guys that were playing last year.
I mean, he ruined two and a half to three years.
It was the most predictable Grunfeld.
Yeah, it was.
You know.
I felt bad.
Our big three, Wall, Beal, and Porter.
That was actually one of those when they did that Porter contract.
I texted House the same way I would text him if there was something bad had happened in his family or something like that i mean the
brooklyn was dying to overpay him and the stupid wizards matched them yeah but that's when you're
just afraid to lose the asset you know you know we'll do it this way and then the next thing you
know you're attaching assets to get rid of the asset god damn it yeah it's weird usually that
doesn't work out when you're afraid to lose the asset so you match the terrible offer i guess the kings are the other way where they didn't match
bogdanovich probably should have that's that's or if you knew you weren't going to match him
trade him that's the key that's right and then their argument be like well everybody knew that
he was going to walk it's like here all right i don't know you guys murder each other for second
rounders every now and then that's right act like it matters i'm going to make. It's like, all right, I don't know. You guys murder each other for second rounders every now and then. That's right.
Act like it matters.
I'm going to make the case against,
I'm going to make the case for the under
while also keeping optimism for the Warriors.
I think this is going to take like two months.
They're going to figure out these rookies.
I think they're going to be 500,
maybe even a little below 500
heading into that Christmas game.
There's the Wiggins,
that re-acclimating him.
He missed most of training camp.
You got the Otto Porter thing.
They're relying on him.
We know he's going to get hurt.
Wiseman, you got to figure out what you got there.
They're going to,
you know, they're going to rely on Iguodala early.
I think he's done, unfortunately.
He looked done.
Yeah, he just looked done last year.
I hope I'm wrong.
But I think until Clay comes back,
this feels like a 500 team to me.
So if he comes back in January, then you're talking about a guy coming off of an Achilles
and a knee. I could see this team in March and April, all of a sudden, like the Warriors,
14 and two in their last 16, like one of those things.
Thompson, he said December, Myers, I think think said January so I didn't love
the Draymond throwing Myers
and Kerr under the bus with the
Durant story either thought that
was weird and they're like ah it didn't bother me
it's like alright would have bothered
me yeah but with Draymond
it's clear that it's just like
if Draymond he's like biff
before they go back in time
or when he comes over and you're
just like,
fuck this here.
Let's let him,
let him break shit and fucking blame us for everything.
And I'd like Draymond more than I like Biff in the first back to the future.
But I think,
I think you just know when you're around and like,
okay,
cool.
Got it.
Yep.
Thank you.
You just don't want to argue with him.
It's like the blue boy in college.
Um, is there a Draymond-Ben Simmons
something that could happen?
Oh, I've thought about this
for way too many hours.
They just threw in Kaminga and Draymond
and they were like,
let's call it a day?
I don't think I'd even give them Kaminga.
A couple picks?
And could Draymond make sense in Philly?
It's not crazy.
No, I think it's pretty bad in Philly.
I just think it's really good for Simmons to be surrounded by shooters. No, it's great for Simmons. For Draymond make sense in Philly? It's not crazy. No, I think it's pretty bad in Philly. I just think it's really good for Simmons
to be surrounded by shooters.
No, it's great for Simmons.
For Draymond, though,
it's not crazy that he could...
Oh, I think it's bad.
He would have to be rock bottom
for them to have to want to do that.
Another non-spacing ball handler
for who's older, for Embiid.
No, but that's why you'd have to get Kaminga and Picks
if you're doing it.
And then if you're the Warriors,
I'd just rather keep Draymond.
That's why it's not going to happen.
All right.
Under for me.
Over for Rosillo.
House?
I'm going to do under.
I think 47 and 35.
And that is a five seed in the West.
I like their playing odds at plus 155.
I think they're a seven or an eight seed.
I think that if Clay was here the whole year,
I'd feel great about it.
Obviously,
you know,
here's what I would ask you.
Why do you like Dallas so much more on paper than what golden state is on
paper right now?
Good question.
Dallas was really good offensively last year.
Like they're all their offensive numbers were pretty off the charts.
And I don't know.
I just feel like their team's better than it was
last year. They were good. Lucas is going to be a year older.
They were like eighth in per 100.
So it wasn't like they were tough.
Yeah, but remember there was one stretch there about
halfway through the season. They tailed
off at some point.
And they obviously had
some weird stuff with Carlisle.
And then two years ago they were number one.
Which was crazy.
They had the best per then two years ago, they were number one, which was crazy. They had the best per 100
two years ago.
Clippers,
45 and a half,
plus 750 for division.
Conference,
plus 550.
Title,
16 to one,
which is ludicrous.
Playing plus 110.
My question for you,
House,
what if this is just
not a playoff team?
We never see Kawhi
what are the odds for
them to not make the
playoffs well there
there's no playoff odds
but there's playing game
odds which I think
playing is realistic for
them that's plus 110
I don't really like I
don't think they have a
lot of above average
guys in this team now
I don't know if
playoff Reggie is going
to now be regular season
Reggie and they're going
to become one guy but I'm just going to list the guys who aren't Paul George, Reggie Jackson,
Eric Bledsoe, Marcus Morris, Zubats, Terrence Mann, Batum, injured Ibaka, Justice Winslow,
Luke Kennard. If you just cover the Paul George name, that's a below average roster.
And then, so they're asking Paul George
to basically be one of the top 10 players in the league.
We're not seeing Kawhi this year, in my opinion.
I do not think he will come back.
I'm sure at least it'd be really cool
to have Sherry's shares information with the team
and giving them updates.
So that's why I'm under because of the Kawhi.
If Kawhi were normal about injuries
and we had a timetable and, you know, instead of
the, is his ACL torn?
No, he's coming back.
He's not coming back.
Oh, but you can tell.
We've had no communication with him for five months.
You can tell something was wrong when you started having the sideline reporters being
like, people have been blown away by how responsive Kawhi has been and how into it.
He's in the locker room cheering him on.
You're like, all right, he's totally, he's actually hurt and checked out on these guys.
So the Kawhi part of this,
47 wins in this,
this blue collar working class part of the top end
of the Western Conference.
It's deep.
Like it's all these teams.
It's 45 and a half,
right?
Yeah,
46 and a half.
I don't know.
It went up,
it went up a win?
No,
it was 46 and a half last night.
Oh man.
Okay. I like man. Okay.
I like it even more.
A lot of volatility with this Clippers market.
45 and a half right now.
Yeah, okay.
45 and a half.
45 and a half.
You have to lay juice on the under.
You have to pay minus 142 on the under.
Not only am I going under,
I'm in the mode of,
I'm kind of pissed off that
Tolan, the guy I shared Clippers season tickets with,
we're going to have to send like the
playoff, you know, you have to pay
the playoff tickets ahead of time. And it's like, this team's
not going anywhere without Kawhi.
When is their stadium going to be done?
Oh, that's all like 2025.
So there, that's the answer. Okay. I thought it was a
shorter timetable on that. That might have been
the only reason for me to think about
an over. There's no way I'm
taking the over. Zion will be a great
clipper, though, when they open that place. Wow.
That will be it. That's amazing. I'm
shocked that the over-under is this high.
But the reason why
is because they shot the shit out of the ball last year.
Yeah. They've got a bunch of vets.
You can name all those guys. Ask for Paul George.
Paul George,
I'm not going to say prove the doubters wrong because he
gave us plenty of evidence to doubt him
for years in playoff games
and guess what
last year he stepped up
he changed it
how about change the narrative
I hate the word narrative
because narrative usually means
it's like
it's insinuated
that the narrative means
the conversation around
the person's inaccurate
and what it usually means
is the person saying
and using the word narrative
doesn't like the accuracy
how about one over some people
yeah there you go
just shut up.
I was trying to think of whatever the best thing would be.
Think about how well... Paul George deserved any
narrative that was said about him
until he came through last year in the playoffs
and played... He played really well. Played
fucking awesome. Right. So they missed 38
games between them last
year and they still had a good record. They still... You know what I
mean? They still actually... Remember how limited
time they had together and it still kind of worked and it was crazy.
So I think that's why the number is what it is
because of a belief in George,
guys that know their roles.
I don't believe in George as the number one guy.
And I think the Kawhi thing is just so much.
I'm under two.
I'm under two.
So if Kawhi was playing,
would the over-under be like 54 and a half?
Yeah, sure.
But in the low fifties,
they wouldn't put them ahead of the
late i think the over-under should be 43 i'm going so we're all going i just can't wait for
kawaii updates oh god next spring when it starts happening rank your rank your oh my god so kairi
is one ben simmons is two are the kawaii how's your knee doing updates would that be three i guess
i'm an old-fashioned sort over here.
But, you know, what happened to caring about team?
And I'm not talking high school football varsity jacket out back
looking like an asshole.
I'm just, you know, this is still about being there for your teammates.
It's still about some buy-in.
It's still about rowing in the same fucking direction.
And for whatever reason, these guys, like not all,
but there's a handful of guys that are so driven to be selfish in a way
where it's like, what are you trying to prove?
Like, I'm surprised you even like sports.
It's not great when it's your signature guy.
At least he extended his contract.
All right, we're all going under.
Last team, Sacramento Kings,
35 and a half.
Their playing number house is plus 175.
I'm going to end with this question.
Is Sacramento's non-playoff streak?
I have an update for you.
36 and a half.
It's like they hacked
into the mainframe.
This is bullshit.
I really think they're messing with us.
Is Sacramento's no-playoff streak the NBA's greatest streak right now? they hacked into the mainframe. Yeah, this is bullshit. I really think they're messing with us.
Is Sacramento's no playoff streak the NBA's greatest streak right now?
Yes, it's 15 years.
They haven't made the playoffs in 15 years.
If they miss the playoffs this year,
it will be a record.
Let's do it.
It will be a record
for most times
any team has missed the playoffs
in consecutive years.
Do we have someone on that?
Maybe a newsletter?
No, they got to make it. They got to make the playoffs. They got to missed the playoffs do we have someone on that maybe a newsletter no they gotta make it they gotta make the playoffs
they gotta make the playoffs because I just always thought
the baseball thing was really lame when a team
would be like oh we made the playoffs two lesser years
you lost in the wild card game
15 years no playoffs this is year 16
Russillo how many head coaches during that
time seven
oh wait 15 years
in the 15 years where they didn't make the playoffs nine head coaches
that nine what do you say wow i think it's more like what he said i think it's like seven
10 no no they had like a really weird stretch they had like four is that right they've averaged
50 plus losses a year jager wasn't there how long was jager there for a couple years wasn't
here's where they picked him.
Boogie Cousins would have been a Hall of Famer.
First round picks during that 15 years.
10th, 12th, 4th, 5th,
7th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 6th,
8th, 10th, 5th, 2nd,
12th.
No playoffs. It's like impossible.
You could
take a drunk person
from in front of the 7-Eleven
and they would do just as well running the Kings
the last 15 years as they actually did.
And with all that said, I think I'm going over, guys.
I think this will be a frisky.
There's an identity with them.
I like the three guards thing with Fox and Halliburton.
I think Mitchell's going to play for them.
I don't mind the Rashawn Holmes, Tristan Thompson,
as much of a disaster as he was last year for Boston combo.
Barnes, steady forward.
Terrence Davis?
I don't know.
I think this team will compete.
So what Rossella said about Minnesota,
I feel the same way about Sacramento.
They're going to go head to head for the,
this team's not going to make the playoffs,
but they're young and they give a shit and they try and they play really
hard.
I think that's my team.
I'm going over.
The single thing that I wish I could look into crystal ball again.
The answer to is will shithead Luke Walton still be coaching this team by come christmas time because
if he's the coach for the whole season it's an under for me but i think he's going to get fired
and he deserves to get fired i love d mitchell d mitchell is my guy i think he's going to come in
as a rookie and inspire all these guys to take on his bulldog personality he's going to
earn the minutes i already i can see it i can already imagine how hard he plays the defense
intensity that he breaks how about the little crunch time where they can go basically fox
haliburton mitchell if they wanted to just all together go super small and play them with
Barnes and Holmes.
And just be like, we're just going to be really active.
Mitchell, I think, is one of those
guys who's going to be able to guard
basically anybody. What do you think, Roussel?
Under 6'7"?
Wait, say that again?
What's the height range?
Oh, 6'7"?
Where it becomes unrealistic.
Probably 6'7"? 6' becomes unrealistic. Probably 6'7"?
6'7"?
6'7"?
6'7"?
6'7"?
6'7"?
Feels big.
But again,
is the guy going to post him?
Could he guard Paul George?
That's giving up a lot of size.
Yeah, that's a lot.
So maybe 6'6", 6'7"?
Yeah, but then again,
what are you going to do?
Post up?
I mean, people have post mismatches
all over the place.
They don't go to them anymore.
I like that they put out
that Simmons is not on the table for them.
They're not interested.
They literally put that out.
They floated it out.
I think they could have been a little more interested in him.
But I like this team.
I have him as an over.
I'm doing the over as well.
Alvin Jettree's on the bench waiting to take over for Luke Walton.
Alvin!
He's right there.
That would be, what, his fifth shot at it?
No, seriously. I think sixth. Sixth. He's right there. That would be, what, his fifth shot at it? No, seriously.
I think it would be his sixth.
Sixth?
He was an interim once.
He's a great interim.
Almost made the finals.
I love him as an interim.
Better than St. Van Gundy.
All right, we're going to recap.
Dallas, over under 48 and a half.
Me and House went over.
Rosillo went under.
No lock there.
Memphis, 41 and a half.
I'm going over. I'm putting a lock next to that one. Ros a half. I'm going over.
I'm putting a lock next to that one.
Priscilla went over.
House went over.
Pelicans,
38 and a half.
I'm going under.
I'm making that a lock too.
I do not think.
That's an under lock for Joe House as well.
I do not think.
Priscilla, you're not using any locks yet?
I'll lock it up.
Oh, lock it up.
A triple lock for us.
Another triple lock. another triple lock.
Get that music.
Pelicans four seat.
San Antonio Spurs.
I went over house,
went over.
Priscilla went under 29 and a half.
That was a red wine.
Pop of it's over rockets.
25 and a half.
We all went under lock.
Oh,
a lock for Priscilla.
I might lock that one down too.
Yeah. I'm going to lock it down as well.
Utah, 53 and a half.
I went under.
You guys went over.
Lock.
Lock.
Okay.
That could be a good swing one for us.
Portland, 44 and a half.
Over, over, over across the board.
I'm not going to go lock because...
No, no, no.
Is lock worth extra points? No, it's just bragging rights. I thought we only got go Locke because... No, no, no. Is Locke worth extra points?
No, it's just bragging rights.
I thought we only got five.
You guys seem to have a lot.
Well, it's like seven or eight.
He gave us four.
He said four per conference.
At least four in each conference.
Oh, per conference.
Up to four.
Denver, 47.5.
Three overs.
Minnesota, 35.5.
Three unders,
although we're all rooting for him.
OKC, 22.5.
Me under. Rosillo under. House over. Locke. for them. OKC, 22 and a half. Me under.
Rosillo under.
House over.
Lock.
Which one?
OKC, 22 and a half.
Oh, yeah.
It's not a lock,
but I'm not sure.
I'm staying away
because I'm afraid of OKC.
Lakers, 52 and a half.
Me under.
Rosillo under.
House over.
House over.
Lock.
OK, house.
Well, it's always a bad sign
when house locks it down
with their team
since he goes two and five on this every year. I was four and two last year on locks. S, it's always a bad sign when house locks it down with their team since he goes two and five on this every
year. I was four and two last year on locks.
Suck it. Yeah. Phoenix
51 and a half. I'm
overing the shit out of this.
We're so low over
house over. Warriors 47
and a half.
I think I used all my
locks. I don't want
to root against Warriors anyway. Under for me. Under for house. Over don't want to root against the Warriors anyway.
Under for me, under for House, over for Priscilla.
It's a good position.
I have regrets.
Clippers, 45 and a half.
Under for all three of us.
I really want to lock on that one,
but I'm not going to do it.
And then Kings, we all went over 36 and a half.
That's hilarious. As their streak to go 16 straight playoff losses.
All right.
The other reason I like them, though, is the over.
Yeah.
Sacramento, 12-minute segment.
They were defiant last year because of the playoff streak
where they weren't going to trade Barnes for a pick.
They didn't want to do these things,
so I go, I think they're still going to go for it.
They may add.
And then Marvin Bagley,
I think they'll probably give up on him
at some point,
and that'll just open up minutes
for the rest of the small guys.
Marvin Bagley's dad against De'Aaron Fox
is my favorite storyline
entering the season.
I'm not selling my Marvin Bagley stock.
My NBA stock accountant keeps like,
hey, dude, we've got to get off this.
This is going to be a penny stocks.
Write it off at this point. Yeah, I'm keeping it. Quickly, we'll just do futures
quickly. MVP, who do you have? Steph Curry. Steph Curry, 8-1. I'll give you the odds, actually.
Doncic, 5-1. Durant, plus 650. Giannis, 7-1. Embiid, 8-1. Curry, 8-1. Dame, 12-1. LeBron,
16-1. Jokic, 16-1. Harden, 18-1, Jokic 16-1, Harden 18-1,
Trey's 21-1, then it gets a little bit...
Harden's 18-1?
Yeah, Mitchell...
Oh, I'm going to bet on that.
I think value-wise, Mitchell at 30-1 is the best value.
I wouldn't bet it, but if you're just riding Utah going 16-22,
something like that, who do you have for MVP, Russolla?
Durant.
He won his only other one in 14.
He's due for one more.
And I think if they have a nice season
to lock it up,
it'll be kind of a sentimental vote
to go with him again instead of somebody new.
No Kyrie all year, possibly.
Or half the year. That's why I harden
at 18-1. Like,
I wouldn't touch it at 10-1 or
12-1. 18-1 has my attention
though. You know, whenever I think about the MVP stuff,
I'll always go, how disappointing was your playoff thing
where now people get pissed at you?
And after the last Harden-Houston thing,
I thought, they're never going to vote for him for MVP again.
And I felt good about it.
Halfway through this past Nets season,
what he was doing, carrying them when the other guys were out
and they were winning games.
And he was like the leader of the team by all accounts seriously and he was it was nenek sort of story-wise which is
what you have to bet on you have to bet on the story that the voters are going to like harden
had redeemed himself yeah in voters eyes like i thought steph after back-to-back and the unanimous
thing first time ever and then blowing the through i was like he's never going to win another one and
yet he became kind of a sentimental pick last season because the way he was carrying that Warriors team. So I can write
guys off, but then it's like, okay, what story exists? So I like the version of a Durant story
where he's healthy. You know, the team is going to be good. And just a little nod to him that he's
only had one. Uh, for MVP, I think Luca is the smartest bet at 5-1 for the narrative thing.
Those are horrendous odds.
Brutally bad odds. I would not bet those odds
at 5-1 because I don't think they're good enough.
I like your Duran. I don't love the odds.
8-1?
I have it at plus 650.
Oh, okay. Giannis 7-1
I think is the one out of those three because I just
feel like it's a toss-up between those three guys.
I think Harden's the best odds
at 18-1 for the
for what we just talked about
I think there's a narrative with him I could
see him being awesome it happened
whatever I thought was like he was on the
do not disturb list post
Houston he's gotten that out of the way
so I just think odds wise
18-1 Harden
Mitchell like a 30-1 flyer.
If you wanted to put a penny on that, fine.
Whatever.
Scoring leaders.
Who do you have for scoring?
Who's leading the league in points, House?
And I'll give you the odds.
I'm going to go ahead and just say Bradley Beal.
I'm fine with that.
He's the favorite.
Plus 340.
What do you have?
Kevin Porter Jr.
Trey Young, 29-1, I think is a fun one.
That is fun.
His team's too deep.
I agree.
It makes more sense for him.
I just think those odds are really high.
And then you have Durant, 9-1.
Curry's 6-1.
Tatum's 10-1.
That's not going to happen.
Most improved, do you have a pick?
Kanter.
Kanter.
Zach Lowe's guy, O.G. Ananobi, 26-1.
Could be the year.
Did he pick him?
Zach might just create a FanDuel account just to bet that.
I think Nurkic is a real option.
Well, your guy Garland's 34-1. Oh, I bet that. I think Nurkic is a real option. Well, your guy Garland's
34-1.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah.
I might retire on that one.
Garland got the blessing
from Steph Curry
the other day.
Almost my lead odds.
Most regular season wins.
Who do you got?
Nets 2-1.
Bucks plus 350.
Utah 4-1.
Lakers plus 750.
Suns 11-1.
And then it gets stupid.
I like the jazz.
I'm going to do the jazz with best regular season record.
I love those sons.
I like the sons.
I like the sons,
but I probably,
because of the depth that one through eight,
again,
one through nine in the West is still kind of hard to figure,
you know,
let's not rule out Memphis of that group.
Yeah.
Where,
you know,
Brooklyn might just get to 60.
I mean, think about what Brooklyn did last year,
and those guys didn't play.
Finals picks?
It's time to go on the record.
I'm going to say Milwaukee and the Lakers.
Brooklyn over Phoenix.
Chris Paul, another injury. Interesting. I. Brooklyn over Phoenix.
Chris Paul, another injury.
Interesting.
I have Milwaukee over Phoenix again.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's great.
I meant that not as a criticism of Chris Paul,
but we haven't spent a lot of time talking about the fact he did have surgery
and that's why he didn't look so good.
I feel like we need to do an entire podcast
on that for Chris Paul at some point.
Is he 100% healthy now?
You ever 100% anymore at this age, Bill?
I certainly am not.
I am not either. Unless I go to
cryotherapy with my daughter. Let's talk about some sushi
that we're going to eat tonight. Yeah, we're going to have some sushi
tonight. This was fun.
I think part two is a little faster than part
one. We're able to do this in
two parts. So Milwaukee Phoenix
for me, Brooklyn Phoenix
for Brasillo. Milwaukee
Lakers for House.
You just love Russell Westbrook.
You really see him on the big stage.
Coach of the year?
Ime?
Ime Adoku?
I don't have a coach of the year. I'm doing Rick
Carlo. Let's wrap
this up. It was produced by Kyle Creighton.
Six man?
Kyle Creighton.
Hopefully, he's still alive.
But back on this feed on Thursday.
Check out Rosillo's podcast.
Check out Fairway World with House.
Check out the Prestige TV podcast.
House and I did an hour.
I counted down my 25 favorite succession characters.
And House heckled me and was upset at me over and over again.
Where's Tom?
I had Tom too.
Yeah.
Spoiler.
He deserves to be.
Spoiler.
He should be one, but two wallets.
There you go.
All right.
We'll see you on this.
Greg Sprinkles?
Greg Sprinkles.
Oh, and if you want to play against us,
Fando has their over-under contest.
Go to the site.
Go to the app.
Go head-to-head.
There's 14.
And then there's a bunch of tiebreaker stuff.
And you can see if you can beat us.
We'll see you on Thursday.
Thanks for listening. I don't have feelings within.
On the wayside, I'm a person never lost.
I don't have feelings within.