The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 2: The 76ers Fell Apart, Embiid’s Next Five Years, and Week 12 NFL Picks With Chris Ryan and Joe House

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

In Part 2 of a two-part podcast, The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Chris Ryan and Joe House to discuss how miserable the 76er situation is right now, how we got here, and whether it can be saved (1:35). Next, Bill and House run through their favorite NFL games for the weekend slate (54:44), and make the Million-Dollar Picks for NFL Week 12 (1:16:39). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Chris Ryan and Joe House Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's part two of the special Thursday pot. Joel Embiid and the Sixers. What's going on there? Million dollar picks all next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us.

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in my life that we did this. A lot of people love that movie. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast, Chris Ryan, my long time Grantland slash Ringer colleague, my frequent co-host on the rewatchables and a diehard Philadelphia fan. We're gonna talk about this Joel and Bade Sixer situation

because it's getting really, really grim and it's worth two segments. So we had them with Joe House who stuck around and did million dollar picks with me after I like week 12. We're going to talk about that. Tried to figure out a way to squeeze Drake May into the podcast somehow, which we did a million dollar picks. Can't wait for you to listen. First, our friends from Pearl Jam.

All right. Taping this early Thursday afternoon, Joe House is here because we're going to do a million dollar picks a little bit later. Chris Ryan is here of The Ringer. We've worked together 13 years. Die hard Philadelphia fan. Chris, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you what it's like to be a Philadelphia 76ers fan right now. You know what? It's actually not as bad as you think because it was a head-on collision. And it was dead on impact. It's 2-12. Yeah, like they could probably scratch and claw their way out of this.

But to me this season, it had a kind of like end of the season vibe in the second half against Memphis on Wednesday. House, did you watch it? I couldn't look away. I watched the entire game. I think I watched every single minute of it. I was going back and forth, but It wasn't encouraging I Still want to know Why and bead is playing I still would like to know why he's playing. Yeah, see, walk us through this. What's the upside of not... So, alright, they fuck up. He plays the Olympics.

They don't talk him out of that. That was a mistake. They fuck up. They give him a giant extension before the season starts. They didn't fuck up, Bill. Come on. They have to fucking give Joel M.B. a giant extension. Well, I think they fucked up that he obviously wasn't healthy. Yeah, but he hasn't been healthy his entire career. He's not been like a 100% I feel perfect athlete. So you fired up when they gave him an extension.

I think that it's the price of doing business. I think like, and I think- That's what Steve Ballmer found out with Kawhi. I mean, I don't know what we're talking about. Well, whatever, we could, they put themselves behind the eight ball with the extension. But then why throw him out there when he's obviously not healthy? Explain this to us. I can't explain it to you because this has been a hallmark of the entire in-beat experience where

I think as fans, especially this generation of fans of the Sixers are completely okay with, hey, we're going to have to take some losses to make some gains. It's, that's the whole point of the process was that this was going to be this tear down to the studs and that we're going to then build up with homegrown talent and bringing in free agents from acquiring guys through trade to help that homegrown talent gets to a title. We're exactly in the same place we were when Doug Collins left, which is basically a second round basketball team. And we're aging now. Like we have changed the kind of the sort of character of the team to where

Joel Embiid is 30. He looks like he's 38. He might even look like he's 47, frankly. And like the guys that they have around him are largely veterans who are there on not necessarily mercenary contracts, but certainly like are there to win titles or get deep into the playoffs. McCain. But then you have this whole other fun Sixers team where it's like McCain and Maxey and Yabba Sallie. If there was a two and 12 McCain and Maxey team, I think it would have been like, Oh yeah, this is kind of weird and sucks.

And we're pretty much out of it, but who knows? Like, we're feisty and McCain's great. But instead, with George, who's now hyper extended his knee and is back out again and Embiid doing the like daily and not even daily, like hourly updates on like, maybe I will, maybe I won't. I'm never going to be 100 percent. I won't play back to backs, but I will if it's rolling for me. And I should be out, but I'm going to to be a hundred percent. I won't play back to backs, but I will if it's rolling for me and I should be out, but I'm going to come back in.

If they had just been like Joel Embiid tweaked something at the end of the Olympics, he's out for the first six weeks. I just think it's a completely different scenario. You agree with that, House? Of course, of course it is. This is, um, to me, the singular most baffling aspect of this entire deal. I thought that the Sixers in terms of team building had a pretty successful summer. They put all their chips in the middle.

They're like, we know you thought that cause you took the over 50 and a half wins. Remember that? I stand by it. It wasn't wrong in the context of the information that was available. It was a simple, uh, idea. of the information that was available. It was a simple idea. I do think it was then desirable for them to try and finish among the

top four teams in the East. Desirable right understanding of course, that you're not going to get a full season out of MP or a full season out of Paul George. You hope for most of a full season out of Maxey and that you can weather the storm enough to get around 50 wins and finish in the top four in the East, because all things being equal would be better to be have home court in the first round than not.

But having said all that, the thing that's baffling to me still doesn't have an answer is what's with the drama, mama? What are we talking about? Just shut up. Well, like you did a great job in the summer. You built the best team you could build. There is a closing window on Embiid. We all agree that Joel Embiid ain't gonna be playing

professional basketball for another mother effing decade. So you go all in and he's, there's something happened. Something either at the Olympics, after the Olympics. Something happened. Before the Olympics. Yeah. So we got to shut them down. Okay.

Shut them down. Shut them down and shut them up. That's it. There's nothing else to say. Why are we talking? Who benefits from the goddamn daily soap operas? Who is this for? Well, you can go to the why are we talking thing.

It's literally why are we talking because all this stuff leaked out from that hour long meeting where we come to find out the least surprising piece of information CR in recent Sixers history, which is that Joel Embiid, the other players were upset about his accountability, showing up late to meetings, his practice habits. And it was like, yeah, I, I'm not surprised by one aspect of this. Were you? No, but I think that this is all about how it's getting framed. Right?

So like, if you change over two thirds of your roster, almost every season, you're not going to be able to control the culture of the locker room. And if you bring in new faces who maybe don't have the same allegiances or the same relationships with guys in that locker room, they might just have like more incentive to say something to their agent who says something to Shams, whatever happened. Honestly, it feels like that literal part of Maxie calling out Embiid seems like it was kind of blown out of proportion.

You know, like there was like, well, because they're buddies, right? Yeah, they are buddies. And it sounds like at least from Embiid side of things, he was like, that was 30 seconds of like a 30 minute meeting. You know, like, was you one person being like, you got to show up on time more and him being like, you're right, I got to be better. Why Joel Embiid is 30 and not showing up to shit on time. And that that has become so detrimental to the team that it's getting out into an ESPN

report. And like other guys on the team clearly don't look at him as the alpha leader of the locker room and are okay with letting those details out of the locker room. Like that's a whole other conversation. But yeah, like the communication part of this has been awful from top to bottom. Well, and then you have comparing his work ethic and ability to stay in shape versus some of the other best players in the league, right? That's where it really jumps out. And that's been the thing we've said on this podcast over and over again.

He's competing against people like Giannis and Tatum, like LeBron in year 22. These guys that, you know, this is their life is to stay in shape and be ready for seasons and not make excuses about stuff. I think. How's that a little older than CR? We've seen a lot of centers hit this point and it usually doesn't end well. And that was the case I made before the season. As you get older, as you start carrying more weight, as you have some injuries

and some injury history, Not a lot of evidence. Like we saw it happen. You had Andrew Bynum that year. I think he was an all star in 2012 and two years later, he's out of the league. You just, when you're talking about these big seven foot, two, seven, three bodies with extra weight house, that's where my mind went to. Some of the guys we've watched where it ends fast. Yeah.

But the only thing that cuts against that is that it seemed like for the very first time in his career, it finally came out of his mouth that I think I should show up to the season in shape. I think this will be the season that I will choose. And there was a kind of logic thread to it. He just surrounded himself with the upper of upper echelon, a highest performing, highest successful NBA players.

And usually there's a bump from that. Right. The Olympic bump was somehow lost because he did get that experience. He was with all of those bright minds and very successful players with their own successful regiments. And he did say afterwards, I am going to be the skinny guy. It's going to be skinny and beat. I want to be like Tim Duncan. I want to have a thinner body. Yeah. Tim Duncan part that you needed to internalize probably was just not saying

anything. You know what I mean? Like it's just, they needed probably to put a cap on the narration and the interfacing with the press about, like, what his intentions are and where he is. And it's honestly, like, it's weird hero ball stuff for him to be out there right now. And it's really unfortunate because what happens to him when he's not feeling great is his game becomes repulsive.

It honestly becomes fucking nauseating to watch him play. when he's not feeling great is his game becomes repulsive. It honestly becomes fucking nauseating to watch him play. There's some guys who are like, oh, look at him, he's gutting it out. You know what I mean? This is not Philip Rivers on a broken leg. This is like- I think he fell down, what, eight times last night?

He's just flopping around and it, yeah. All right, he wears all of his emotions on his face, good and bad. And this last night against Memphis was the all time worst case version of that. And it's just, this is not a together team. It's not being coached in a way that seems like the coach wants to be there. Maybe he does, but this is not the Nick Nurse that I thought the Sixers were getting. It's not the Nick Nurse that coached last year. And he seems super pissed about whatever the situation is. He seems disgruntled in every press conference.

He seems supremely annoyed with the press corps. And then on top of that... Welcome to Philly. Yeah, but like... Honestly, man, though, like, it's every... Every city is hard on a team that has expectations though, right? Like, I mean, the thing that I think is so jarring about this is that I almost wonder

if it would be worse if they were four and seven, you know what I mean? Because it would be like, why you're not quite playing up to expectations. This is a disaster. Well, I was looking at their schedule. They lose every game by 10 to 20 points. I think they've had one close loss. Every other loss is a blowout. Yeah, their net differential is fourth worst at the NBA.

That game yesterday, which they kind of fought back at the end because Memphis isn't good and also kind of fell asleep. But even that game, they're down 20 in the fourth quarter. Oh, by the way, they also got their quarter. By Luke, Canard and Aldama. And like they didn't have Ja or Ziti last night. So it's not like you can like be like, oh, well we got taken out by three all NBA guys. It's like, no, you lost to the B team Grizzlies

in a like kind of half full gym. Well, the alarming thing about Embiid, like House, what you said earlier about why so much talking, why telling us why you're feeling better, you're gonna lose the weight. To me, it's like, me and CR, one of our favorite movies, The Town. It's the Blake Lively character being like, Doggie, I quit drinking, shining eye, getting to get in the pot, man. It's gonna be great. And it's like, I don't know if I trust this. Not to compare Embiid to Blake Lively in the town, but I guess I just did.

It's like, ah, that all sounds good. But can I, can I see it for like a year? Can I, can I see skinny and bead? Can I see you play some back to backs? I just feel like the ship sailed. What was crazy about last night, the body language, the team just doesn't seem together at all. The bench seemed like they were really trying to like cheer baskets and stand up and do

the good chemistry thing, but on the court, uh, it was a mess. And I noticed this last year with them be during the next series. And I remember talking about it on the pod and house. I think you and I talked about it. He's just really slow to the ball now and rebounds and shot block stuff. And I don't know whether his knees are just like, he's carrying too much weight, they're shot.

He can't move quickly anymore, it doesn't have quick burst stuff. This was, we also saw that in the Olympics, which is why I think they were so hesitant to play him in certain situations. He gets killed on the offensive boards now. There's guys flying around. If you put him in a pick and roll

and he has to run out to a shooter, he can't. And over and over again, you watch, it's not just that they're losing. The offense that these teams are getting combined with the offensive rebounds that they can get, I think is the most alarming thing to me. He can still get his points. I feel like he can always get to 25 or 30,

but the other side of the ball is the alarming part to me. He can still get his points. I feel like he can always get to 25 or 30, but the other side of the ball is the alarming part to me. But honestly, dude, on paper, with all due respect, House, they're not the wizards. They shouldn't be 2 and 12. Paul George and Tyrese Maxey, I know they've missed time each, but there have been stretches of time over the last five seasons with the Sixers where the Sixers have been able to weather three weeks, five weeks without a bead and stay in the kind of like middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference. It's literally why I had them winning 50 games! This is like a mutiny.

They'd be able to roll with it. Well, House, they played Brooklyn on Friday night at home. And they played the Cl on Friday night at home and they play the Clippers on Sunday at home the revenge of James Harden I Almost think they're better off not playing at home Then they play the Houston pitbulls on Wednesday, which is just a nightmare game Talk about a team that plays hard and has athletes and is is relentless That's a team. I don't want to play And then they're at Detroit on November 30th. Does Nick Nurse make it out of the month for you?

Oh, of course. I mean, of course. Really? What's the thesis for getting rid of Nick Nurse? Like what, like how, how is that going to help? He's not the one. Well, under the Rob Polinkalov, things are going wrong. It's gotta be somebody else's fault. Who else are you going to blame? They can't get rid of George. There's nothing to blame. It's gotta be somebody else's fault. Who else are you going to blame? They can't get rid of Georgia. There's nothing to blame. It's November.

Well, you know, the season that matters starts in March. They're they're forecasted win total right now is 38 and a half. That will have them. Yes, it is. You can bet that right. That was 42 and a half two days ago. Well, it's 38 and a half right now. But I'm telling you, there are only only a couple slots out of the 10 seed They're dead last in the Eastern Conference right now as we're taping but only a handful of spots away and They right now have the seventh best odds to make the playoffs It's minus two fifteen for the Sixers to make the playoff. Oh shit

So those odds weren't even on Fando like three hours ago when I was taping. So CR. The people demanded it. We have to fucking short these guys. No to make the playoffs though. Much better odds to make them to miss. Yeah but they're not I don't think they're gonna be in the top six so agreed basically the cutoff would be the 10 seed CR, right? So you'd have to finish above five teams. So I'm going to list some teams. Like you'll finish ahead of Washington, no matter what happens. You have too much talent.

That's happening. Sorry, House. Way to go out on a limb. You'll finish ahead of Toronto. Cause I don't, I don't think Toronto even necessarily wants to be good. So that's the second one. I think you'll finish ahead of Charlotte. I do too.

So there's three. Then it starts getting a little gamey. Like you have Chicago that you catch Chicago on the right night and they can score, you know, they can score with anybody. They look okay. You'd have to pass Detroit and Brooklyn. You'd have to pass two of those three. Detroit right now is seven and nine,

and they're in these games, and Cade is playing better than anyone on the Sixers. Can you get to a 10 seed? I think you can get to a 10 seed. I think that that's going to be so far below the expectations of the franchise at this point, that it's going to still be seen as an abject failure. This is not... I don't think that this team had Miami Heat expectations

this season where it's like what they do is basically use the regular season as like an experiment, you know, and weather all these storms and Spoh is making guys from G-leaguers into All-Stars and it's just gonna... They're gonna scrape and claw their way into the playoffs and then nobody wants to play them. I think this is a team that was really hoping to have some kind of home court advantage in the playoffs. And also probably to be so safe in that, that they could rest guys down the stretch and make sure Embiid was healthy. Now it's the opposite. Now it's the opposite. And I think's the opposite. And I think like, I think now what happened with that meeting coming out, becoming public, is the problem is, is that everything seems like a reaction to something else.

So losing to Memphis, which sucked anyway, is now a failure of the meeting to galvanize the team. Right. So like, instead of it just being like, ah, you lost on the road to Memphis. What a shitty start to the season, but hopefully everybody starts to get it together. It's now like that meeting didn't work. Right? And B looked miserable.

He immediately comes out after the Memphis game and says, whoever leaked that is a real piece of shit. Presumably the person in the locker, somebody in the locker room did that. So that's what is happening in that locker room. George goes out. George does a podcast about the All Hands meeting, the team meeting. Oh, he did that? I missed that part. He did?

Apparently. Yeah, I haven't listened to it yet. I just saw House was just showing me the thumbnail from it. Definitely good to get podcast content out of it. It's like my recommendation would be for Joel and B to go out and not play for four weeks to four to six weeks and get as healthy as he can because him being like I'm gonna try and drag my body through 35 minutes against Memphis. No. No. They need to win like 34 games so just send him packing and make sure he gets in shape. I thought he looked so miserable last night when the halftime hit and he just walked off and he was like a tennis player. We could take a break.

I have a, so we're gonna keep talking about Philly, but I have a take that I'm so excited to throw at house that I've been saving for the podcast. That's next. Welcome to the O-Well Business. Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and Jon Hamm star in a new Paramount Plus original series. The world has already convinced itself that you are evil and I am evil for providing them

the one thing they interact with every day. You all right, here we go. From Taylor Sheridan, executive producer of Yellowstone. Get everybody back. Go, go. You just put a giant bullseye on this place. We rolled the dice one last time. Landman, new series now streaming

exclusively on Paramount+. Before we get back to talking about Joel and Beat a little bit more, guys, I love the NBA Cup. You know what makes the NBA cup even better. A ringer profit boost token on Fandual. I told Fandual we want to celebrate the NBA cup, give out some profit boost. We created the 30 on 30. Ringer PBT can boost any 30 points score 30 on 30 special bet.

On this Friday's NBA cup slate, for instance, CR, you can take cam Thomas against your Philadelphia 76ers, just like cam Thomas cook. Right. How are you a 30 point score bet guy? It's pretty fun. I haven't been, but I'm willing to jump in, especially with the profit boost. Yeah. So yeah, on Fridays it pops up and they'll give you like four choices.

So then you got to do the matchups in your head. Will they give us cam Thomas? They'll give us cam Thomas. So it'll probably be like plus one 40 plus last week on Friday, I gave out three, including Grady Dick was plus seven 50 against Detroit. I was very excited about it. He didn't get it, but it was a fun thing to monitor during the game, but just pick your 30 points for ride.

And there you go. You can even maybe take Joel and beat if he ends up playing one of these games. Um, see, are you an NBA cup guy? I am an NBA cup guy. I love the courts, the courts, sure. You know, just visually stimulating. I love tournament basketball. So this is the group stages or whatever stimulating. I love tournament basketball, so this,

the group stages or whatever, but I love the knockouts. I like the concept of guys trying when they're down eight with like 10 seconds left. It's super fun. And by the way, very good for the 30 on 30 as well. Hope you like the ringer profit boost. We'll be doing it each Friday during the NBA Cup. Just look for 30 on 30 in the FanDuel Sportsbook app.

All right, here we go, house. CR, feel free to weigh in as well. Are we sure Nick Nurse is good? Can I just walk through? I'm willing to say yes, he's good, but can we just walk through it? So he takes over a Toronto team that went 59 and 23 in 2019. They went 58 and 24.

They win on that Kauai shot last second. Sorry, Chris. Um, LeBron's in the West. That's the first year LeBron leaves. They play the Warriors in the finals. Katie's hurt. Doesn't come back to game five. Immediately blows out as Achilles Clay Thompson gets hurt.

Same game. They get this miracle, uh, Kauai performance and they squeeze it out. And we're like, Nick Nurse is a good coach. And I think he probably is a decent to good coach. Next year, 53 wins. Yeah. Next year, 27 wins, 48, 41 gets fired from there. Goes to Philly the year after has that really weird Nick series and then looks completely miserable this year.

I just, I wonder if there's like only four or five good coaches period. after has that really weird Nick series and then looks completely miserable this year. I just, I wonder if there's like only four or five good coaches, period. And I thought maybe he was one of them. But I think what we're learning is he probably was. How's your thoughts? I think what you're speaking to, and I think is a fair criticism of him, is his ability to, to rally his ability to, um, you know, get guys on the same page with a common cause because the story about why Toronto fell apart had to do with, um, a defensive scheme where they had a whole bunch of guys.

They didn't have one tall guy on that team, on that roster. They all had to go, you know, uh, uh, baseline to baseline, side to side, full out defensive pressure extended way out to the three point line. And at some point they all got effing tired of it. And they went to coach Nick nurse and said, God damn it. Coach Nick nurse, you're, this is exhausting. We can't expend all of this energy playing all this defense in this way. And it fell on deaf ears and they were like, Hey, guess what?

Nick Nurse. Fuck you. Right. That's it. Then goes to Philly scene, you know, not like last year. And I was thinking about that Toronto team because it's such a weird outlier. Right. They had great defense, right?

They have Kawhi who's actually healthy. They have Marcus all rim protection. They have Kyle Lowry. They have Siakam. They have Ananobia. They didn't have him in the playoffs that year. Danny Green. They had wings. They had a Baca. But really they had Kawhi who we left that playoffs thinking this is the best part in the world. And we've seen coaches that have great situations like that. And I just wonder like, like when they hired him CR and we talked about I was like wow you got Nick nurse That guy's yeah, cuz it was like he there was and it was like is he you know?

We're gonna lose him to the Bucs. There was like a whole like Nick nurse is the hottest free agent. There's sweepstakes. Yeah Not sure there'd be a sweepstakes. Uh, this is my point. I don't really know. I don't really know Would Eric's bolster just do a better job here. Like, what can a coach do when the main issue seems to be effort? Well, the big issue is it doesn't seem like he can 100% connect with Embiid as we've seen basically from all of Embiid's resume this season. Yeah, but I think there's a, everybody gets a little piece of blame pie, you know? Embiid talking about-

You wanna go blame pie? We're doing an ESPN gimmick? I like this. Embiid deserves a slice. Darryl deserves a slice. Paul George deserves a slice. Nick Nurse deserves a slice. You know, like, Embiid can't stop saying stupid shit.

That's a huge problem, but that's probably more of a fan problem, I would imagine, than it is, uh, than it is a play. I mean, I think it's a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, That's a huge problem, but that's probably more of a fan problem

I would imagine that it is yeah That it is a player problem. I just think that this looks like a team that hates each other and I honestly I was trying to Rack my brains. I mean I you can look up It's like oh who's two and twelve and still makes the playoffs it's like not that many teams Six out of ninety two I look right, but it's now that the playoffs have been expanded. But more than that, you just don't really see teams that clearly dislike each other this much doing anything. Like there are teams.

Do they really dislike each other? It does seem like a happy team, I think is a very fair point. Yeah. They don't seem happy playing basketball together. Right, right. And I don't think any of the guys, nobody on that team, except for Jared McCain, is playing in the plus.

They're not playing in, wow, we never expected that, but Jared McCain, him and Connect are like the two big success stories of the draft so far, it seems like. It's not like, George looks terrible even when he's not being dragged off the court. Maxie's obviously hurt. Drummond looks old.

You know, like, Kaleb Martin. No signs that Drummond might have been a bad signing. Yeah, Kyle. No signs that Kyle Howrie might not have it anymore. Yeah, so. But here's the thing, CR, they, like, they crush the McCain pick. They get Kalebon at a huge discount

He was the only guy who was flying around my I actually thought he was really good last night and Yabaseli was a really good son. They added three guys to the rotation that doesn't matter They're awesome guys and it hasn't mattered at all and bead right the whole entire thing runs through and bead Especially if Paul George is gonna be this passive that's one thing that's been sad is that like, because he got hurt in the preseason and because like he's just re-injured himself, there's been no opportunity to be like, Hey man, Paul, we're going to need you to carry us for the first 20 games of the season. You know, you're going to have to go out and get 25 a night.

You're going to have to be the lead scorer. You're going to have to take the best player on the opposing team on defense. And he's just completely come. The terrifying thing is like, this is why the Clippers let him go. Yeah, probably saw this coming. Like I covered this in part one. It's like buying the buying the used car from somebody who's really eager to sell it to you. It's probably a red flag. But have you ever had a Celtic season in recent memory? We did. We had the second Kyrie season. You can see it the whole season. It's like it's off. This is off. But I talked about this when I did the Powerpull a couple of weeks ago about when the concept of sacrifice when you're putting together a big three and how like when people

always point to the 08 Celtics where it was like those guys were at the point of their career where they're ready to give something up. This time around, you'd have to have been beat, what's he giving up, and does he want to get in shape? You have Paul George, who's probably the most likely candidate to be like, yeah, I don't care if I score all the time, I just want to win a title. And then you have Maxey, who's trying to prove

he's a great player, he doesn't want to sacrifice anything, he shouldn't want to, he's a young player who's trying to prove that he's one of the best guards in the league. So that alone made me nervous, but then the Embiid conditioning and then the chemistry is, I think the variables, even House couldn't have expected as he went over 50 and a half wins. I'm going to cross that off House Arnie. I will take that L. It's literally why it's called gambling. But it was exactly what Chris Ryan just described. It was Paul George holding down the fort

through the first 20 games, and Paul George and Maxie in the East, building a little something. Could that have been with McCain? Yeah. Right, right. A little something, but he showed up dead. And he was hurt within days of us doing over under podcasts and I maybe he's not I

Mean after last night's injury, maybe he's he's still not you know restored to full health Mean, okay. Hopefully he can still podcast the thing I was gonna say ask the thing I was asking you about like the historical precedence or if you have this experience where it's been a very long time with the Sixers since a season started. I remember the first car I ever had was a 91 Ford Tempo, used 91 Ford Tempo and the transmission blew out on the drive home from the dealership. Yeah. And it was just like, well, that is definitive. This is a lemon. Let's take it back to the lot.

Like they clearly there's got to be some like 12 hour grace period. This wasn't like, oh, I'm driving it for a while and shutters a little bit. When you make lefts, you know, no, there was no like warning signs. This thing died as soon as it left the season opening gate. And it kind of almost feels like a little liberating after all these years of kind of coming up short is like, oh, there's something rotten here. And maybe this beginning is the beginning of a new chapter. We have to kind of-

New chapter? You just signed a beat to an extension and Paul George has a four year deal. What new chapter are we looking at? I like this. Because you're going to 2029 for the new chapter. What are you going to, you're going to hibernate like a bear for three years? I was talking about me. I was talking about my post-Sixers life. Oh. Yeah, maybe you'll have more time now to concentrate on other things.

No, isn't there a pathway where it'll be fun to root for 39 wins? Isn't that going to become the new, fun to root for 39 wins? Isn't that gonna become the new? The 10 seed? Like, okay, we understand. We take... Well, there's another... A big element of this is bad luck. Let's be honest. They have their pick... But it's top six protected.

No. Ah. So you can't even root for like, let's just bottom out. Shut and be down. Honestly, it would be really fun to root for like, let's just bottom out. Shut and be down. Honestly, it would be really fun to root for McCain, Maxie, and the pro players. It would be fine. They're too good to bottom out. Yeah.

McCain is honestly worth watching the Sixers for, even if you also have to watch guys rolling around on the ground in agony. House, do we need to convene the Ewing theory committee to just, should I send them to Philly to watch what the Sixers might look like if they have to shelve and beat for three weeks and all of a sudden that team is playing small ball and take it off? I don't know. Cause we had a pretty good sample size for that last season. They only played 39 games and they were bad.

They were bad at the games that he didn't play. How much better would you guys feel about this team or would we even be doing this segment if they had won like three more games? Still bad, but just a slow start So I think the two games this week Warned this statement because it wasn't just that words this segment. It wasn't just the Memphis game last night, which was riveting The Miami game was unbelievable. I mean that that was, they got blow the F out. Yeah. We're still a text to me. He was like, I'm not saying I hate watch pod of Sixers games would do well, but I

do think it would get an audience. I think he's right. Like I think you could, you could basically take the Philly special and just make it like a venting session after every Sixer game. And it might, it might, and it rarely happens in basketball because it's the most naked sport, right? In football, they have helmets on. They might not show some of the sidelines in basketball. You know, when guys are unhappy, you know, when guys are mailing in a play or a

sequence, you can watch the reactions on the bench. You can watch how the bench reacts. You can see the coach in the post. You can watch how the bench reacts. You can see the coach in the postgame press conference. There's like 40 checkpoints where you're like, ah, this doesn't look right. And they're hitting all of them. I can't think of a single one they're not hitting other than that McCain seems super happy to be in the NBA.

He's like, hey guys. He's like a puppy running around. It's like when we got Murph and he was just running around in the backyard. Well, I hope that a consequence of all this is not Maxie loses that joy. Because that's the other thing. I don't think that's going to happen. Over the last couple of seasons, I think that that's been really important for Sixers fans

is to see somebody who plays with so much unbridled pleasure. You know, because it sometimes doesn't feel that way for Embiid. And honestly, like, to me, as much as doesn't feel that way for Embiid. And honestly, like, to me, as much as the health stuff is obviously pretty disturbing with him and the way he's talked about conserving his body for the playoffs and what it's going to take and, you know, he's never 100% and all that. He has said multiple things about basically saying like, the amount that I've given to this city, if because of how much I've done for this team, because of the amount I've given to the city, it's ridiculous

that this is like the discourse on me. So I, I'm just, I'm, this is getting kind of dark. You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know even what Darryl, this would be the team that Darryl had always dreamed of right? It's like you The odd paper team. Yeah, you get the on paper like ours Yeah shooting and and and veterans who know what their role is and a really astute coach And if that doesn't work, I don't I don't really know what the plan is here, you know house They can't even trade and bead until the summer if they wanted to I don't think they do but They can't even trade in bead until the summer if they wanted to. I don't think they do, but they're stuck with that contract.

They're also trying to build a new arena. So keep that in mind with the in bead trades. It's weird. Cause LeBron did that whole thing this week about how social media is too negative and the whole discussion and apparatus around basketball has become too negative. I feel like it hasn't really been that different. I think the only thing that probably has been added the last couple years are these player podcasts

where the players are, especially the ex-players, they're like pro wrestlers. It's like Mick Foley talking about how The Undertaker was a giant pussy. Not that he did that, but just like these crits, and the NBA is kind of turning into that where guys are just lobbing, like Amon Schumpert had a whole thing the other day about how

LeBron ruined basketball when he teamed up with Wade and, and, uh, and Bosch. And it was like, didn't you want LeBron's championship here in 2016? What are you doing? But these pods are just crazy. And I do wonder if that's a sadded layer. I, I actually think people compared to how this would have been received in the 1990s have been pretty reasonable about this and bead thing with some of the stuff he said.

I, we've talked about a lot on this pod. There's been so many red flags. I thought the Olympics was a red flag. The no back to back was a red flag, but CR feels like something has shifted now with the city and embed where it went from like, you are our favorite son, we would defend you. And Philly's like this in a lot of ways. Where it's like, you're our guy, fuck everybody else. And that's what it is.

And it feels like that's been lost, which I think is significant. Yeah, I would say it's probably, I mean, to the extent that I can tell from Los Angeles, I would say that the fanbase seems split 50-50 between like, Joel, true believers, this is, he's just hurt, you guys aren't, you know, aren't being sympathetic to, I'm over it. I can't take the quotes. Like you can't do it anymore. I can't take the like, I'm not gonna let myself feel anything because it's just gonna hurt his knee or get Bell's palsy or whatever, like the litany of things that have happened to him over the course of his career. And then you go back to the origin story of his whole thing where it's just like, it's kind of a little bit of a miracle that he's playing.

Like when he was drafted, it was like, if we ever get to see Embiid, he could be the best player in this draft, if we ever get to see him. And we did. And he has never really really been a hundred percent He's also had some really bad luck With injuries with you know running into faults or whatever and all that stuff that was like not really like a muscle muscle damage thing But to your point earlier about like the Patrick Ewing's of the world that just go downhill really fast like there's just too many knee injuries now I think there's that is well. Also there's, you know what else there is? There's YouTube and you can go back and you can watch him six years ago, seven years ago,

and you can watch how he moves and watch him now and you almost doesn't look like the same guy. And that's, that's the thing that is undeniable. And that's, we have unlike 20 years ago where we didn't have the ability to just queue up whatever video we wanted, now we can. And you can go back and you can watch him in Kansas in 2014 even. You can watch him in the Sixers, even during that regular season,

when he just seemed like this fucking crazy, unstoppable offensive force. House, the thing that's crazy to me is, he's still able to get to 30 points. Like that's how skilled and how well-crafted his game. He kind of shot the lights out last night. Yeah, from 15 to 18 feet, it's going in 98% of the time. And he's figuring out how to do that

and have enough of going downhill, lurching into people. He can still get his points, but I think the rebounding and the defenses was falling apart. What else have you seen? Well, what I've seen is he shouldn't be on the basketball court. Like I would like him to take off. I think it would be good for him, for the team, for the franchise,

for him to just drop out. Come back after the new year. Get yourself right. Get yourself, give yourself the best chance. And you can, after the new year, play the games at, at, you know, NBA speed, getting yourself back up into it. But really all of this dialogue is November dialogue. It doesn't matter for shit.

That's it. Unless it's so poisons where you might get to come April and you really, the bar is so low, you just have to get to the play in it. It is the Eastern Conference. See, where does this go for you? Most disappointing Philly teams, any sport? Extra extraordinarily high. Yeah, what was that Eagles team when you had all those guys?

Yeah, that was dream team. Yeah, that was that sucked. But it almost that was like Pride comes before the fall. Like there was just way too much hubris about that team. Yeah. Yeah, that sucked. But it almost, that was like Pride Comes Before the Fall. There was just way too much hubris about that team. Yeah. And as soon as you started playing. Which is a little like this team. Yeah, maybe you're right.

I mean, I thought that this team was really wisely assembled. It seemed like Eric Gordon and Caleb Martin, Drummond was Embiid's best backup that he's ever had. It just seemed like this was a very, very expertly, wisely assembled team. And so to have this be quite the opposite. The opposite. Yeah. Yeah. And not only that, but it would be one thing if they were just like physically not there to have it clearly be a culture problem within the locker room and a huge amount of distrust and a huge amount of like, forget what the Philly fans think about Embiid. This was kind of repudiation of him from within the locker room and a huge amount of distrust and a huge amount of like forget what the Philly fans think about

Embiid this was kind of repudiation of him from within the team So whether it was like a towel guy who told somebody who told somebody who told Shams That article came out very soon after the meeting and it had quotes So someone wanted to get a point across and embarrass him and it worked there's somewhere to That Celtic team which was such a disappointing team coming off the Eastern finals getting Hayward back Year to Kyrie. It seemed like he was getting a sign and it fell off from the get-go, but it had a couple similarities one was The circus around Kyrie game to game, which he's since then admitted.

He was like, yeah, I was in a really rough spot in Boston that second year. You could feel it. There was like an emotional roller coaster that the players were on. The team was on, even the fans were on watching it. Like who, what are we getting today? What version of him you have that? But you also had people at different points of their career that were the wrong points for the team, right? And Jaylen Brown talked about that recently.

He was on that team or Tatum talked about it. He wanted to prove that, you know, he could do this and it's like, no, you're actually going to be standing in the corner for a lot of these plays. You're going to be the number four guy. So the Sixers have a little of that too. As you get older, you start seeing the signs of where it's not working. Whereas you look, I don't know if the Lakers are going to be good or not, but the way connect fit in just with what they needed.

And I don't think that team's going to be able to get stops, but Reddick's got AD playing well and you can see like, okay, this makes sense. And you know, you watched it from basketball teams. Like, all right, Houston, these guys make sense. There's an identity. Maybe it's not perfect. And then I watch Philly and I'm like, wow, I don't, I don't know what this is. Yeah, it's also with that Lakers team.

The thing that impresses me the most is just how they immediately came into the season with an identity and a sense of purpose where you could have had the last few years of LeBron's career been like a Victory lap and it could just been a showcase and even the brawny thing in retrospect now Like has become a footnote to this season where everybody's like this is gonna be such a huge distraction doesn't seem to matter They handled it perfectly like reddit obviously commands that locker room to some extent which is incredible given the personalities And it's the exact opposite with the Sixers They came to see what happens when they have a couple tough games in a room to some extent, which is incredible given the personalities. And it's the exact opposite with the Sixers. They came in. We'll see what happens when they have a couple of tough games in a row.

Sure. The schedule's been pretty easy. The Sixers came into the season unprepared, which I don't know. I don't know whose responsibility that is. Ultimately, I've got my Nick Dyrs question. But to be fair, how could they prepare? They couldn't have Joel Embiid and Paul George healthy in preseason on the court at the same time.

Then they were unprepared for the eventuality that these guys weren't going to be ready and that they should just maybe, they should maybe tell the fan base, tell the team, this is what the first six weeks of the season are going to be. Like, don't look at the record. You know, when you're, when you're talking a championship from July on and victory lap in the whole summer, it's tough to just pivot. That was why it was so, it was so shocking when they did the back to back stuff. House, what was your most disappointing team?

I mean, other than the last 35 years of bullets, wizard, did you have a high expectations team that I can't pick one? Uh, I mean, honestly, no, like the, you know, the nationals, it took them a little while, but they won the world series know, the nationals, it took them a little while, but they won the world series in 2019 and it was a new franchise, you know, here in 2005, you know, like, oh, that, that, that team with Jason Worth, that should have been the one like not really the OV getting, um, you know, over the, the, the, the penguins getting past Crosby, uh, finally, like. Like that was going to be this real disappointing career, but he got his one and we'll see what the story is

with this knee injury. He may yet get Gresky's goal. It's getting close. Yeah, yeah, he is very close. House's most disappointing team is the Wizards not being able to beat Kelly Olynyk in a game seven. That's the one that keeps him up at night. You can't say Washington, anything having to do

with the basketball team because they haven't won 50 games since 1978. There is no one most disappointing when you're in that kind of a streak. We had a couple really awful Red Sox teams that were super disappointing. There was a Carl Everett season, there was the chicken and beer season.

But you kinda know early when it's happening. And that would be my fear with the Sixers. Yeah, and I think for you, for the Red Sox, the last couple of seasons, haven't you been like, ever since Mookie, you're basically like... Yeah, but I didn't have expectations. I think in this case, they were talking about the Sixers as a possible 60-win team and a two-seed and all that stuff. I was thinking about the conversation you had with Wz and Van last week. I think it was. Yeah. I think sometimes basketball moves on before NBA fans are ready for it to happen.

And I think that the sad truth here is that it just might, this might not happen for this team or for at least for Embiid's version of this team. And you just look around and I feel this way often version of this team and you just look around and I feel this way often once the NBA Finals comes around I'll Watch after the Sixers have been eliminated in the second round or the first round and I'll be like, this is a different sport like the Sixers are not close to this and Now that he is very clearly on the downside of his career and in kind of like a physical decline It's really hard to like look around and watch the way some of these other teams are playing and moving and be like, Oh yeah, I feel like this is, this is a month long break away from the Sixers. It's not, it's not. It's like,

this is probably not going to happen for this guy. And that's really sad. Well, there was, there was one play yesterday when Jaren Jackson fell down with his legs out and Embiid was dribbling toward him and I was just like, this is gonna be, you talked about the car crash at the beginning, I was like, oh my goodness, something horrible is about to happen and Embiid of course tripped over him but he got up.

But that's another piece of watching these games where there's three times a game where you feel like something horrible happened to him or maybe that was it or you know, it just feels like he's carrying the weight in his world. It's both not that fun to watch and incredibly riveting to watch with the expectations that this team had. C.R. what December movie are you the most excited about that you've either seen or you want to see?

The December movie I'm probably most excited to see is honestly the Bob Dylan movie, Complete Unknown. I just, I just, I can't wait to see what the hell they do with this. But yeah, I'm mostly caught up at this point. Gladiator 2 was the one I was looking forward to the most. Gladiator 2, Denzel is having quite the press tour. He's loving life. 15 years, he was drinking two bottles of wine a day and oh, I might have tried heroin. Somebody's got to get Denzel his own player pod.

CR, am I going to like Gladiator 2? You'll like it. Okay, good. I do not think it matches the first one. Fine, fine. I can live with that. House hasn't much to claim about. Do you want to talk about Landman for a minute?

Can you cheer me up? Yeah, that was the other reason you came on. House hasn't seen it, about Landman for a minute. Can I cheer me up? That was the other reason you came on. House hasn't seen it, but he can just nod. Landman, Taylor Sheridan, first two episodes up. Billy Bob Thornton as the lead. Jon Hamm playing a seemingly evil, rich oil guy. Married to Demi Moore, even though I think she's probably eight years older than him, whatever.

She also has had one line in two episodes so far, even though she's in a bunch of scenes. I think the line was, are you paying me in cash? like eight years older than him, whatever. She also has had one line in two episodes so far, even though she's in a bunch of scenes. I think the line was, are you paying me in cash? Billy Bob Thornton's daughter, for some reason, is comfortable with her body. I think it's more just like- Comfortable talking to Billy Bob Thornton about sex

in ways that I promise you fathers and daughters don't discuss There's that and then our guy who's our guy who spoiler lock got blown up at the end of the first episode Pena Michael Pena Michael Pena who they did the red herring of Here's a name actor. He's gonna be part of the cast But then if you looked in the credits, it was like, what was that other show where they killed Kyle Chandler in the first episode? Kingstown, Mayor of Kingstown.

Yeah, this is, CR, if we ever create one of these shows, we're just killing off somebody famous in the first episode. That's right. That's what you do. But I liked it. We enter a world and Billy Bob Thornton's just Chef Billy Bob. Yeah, it's basically how, if I have to pitch it, it's Billy Bob Thornton is just chef Billy Bob. Yeah, it's basically how if I have to pitch it, it's Billy Bob Thornton driving around West Texas from crisis to crisis.

He's basically like the Michael Clayton of this oil company. And every time something goes wrong, he's got to call John Ham, who's somewhere where he's like, hold on, I got to I got to get to the match. Yeah. And I'm a TCU track meet or a polo match Yeah, and they have an awesome conversation Where he's just like I'm your fucking boss. Don't yell at me and he's like, alright, well, we got to stop this leak and then it's great It's a lot of John Hamm a cell phone It looks like there's a couple people who look like they all film their scenes in one day

Possibly John Hamm's a candidate. Well, Allie Larder. So Allie Larder, Varsity Blues, Whip Cream Sunday fame. And then Heroes fame. And everybody loves her. And she just kind of comes and goes every seven years. So now she's in. And all of her scenes are on FaceTime. And I don't know, does she not have legs anymore, CR?

What's going on here? It's unbelievable. Because it's like, did she get paid like a million dollars to stand in a pool and be on FaceTime? Or does she have like an incredible character arc coming? And this is just the setup for the character. But she has been in- Or she couldn't do the first two episodes

because she had a pre-planned filmy vacation. Yeah. So can you do your scenes on FaceTime? She's like, I can. Taylor shared and breaks all the rules. That's why he makes the big bucks. Do actors have to be in the same location when they shoot scenes? No, apparently not. But what's the point of this show, CR? I think it's just supposed to be, you know, like about the sort of cynical world of oil production

where, I mean, you want to know what the point of like, why would anybody like this? Or you want me to get- No, I think ultimately like when we leave season one, what's Taylor Sheridan trying to tell us? Or is he just like, oil, actors, things blowing up, it's gonna be Yellowstone with oil. I think he's trying to tell us about like,

what happens to characters when they dedicate their life to something that is very morally complicated. So like in the same way with Yellowstone is about like everything it costs to keep a ranch like that going. This is about like, hey, like without this stuff the world stops running the way we want it to, but what we have to do to get it out of the ground and everything is like pretty complicated. Obviously not enough of an important theme to get House to watch an episode, I'll tell you that much.

We find it's- Where is it? Where do I find it? It's on Paramount Plus. Paramount, yeah. I have to pay for that. If it was Taylor Sheridan's massage parlor, House would have already seen the first episode.

No, I'm busy. The massage parlor industry. I'm watching sports. I'm here for the show. Yeah, that's true. It is football basketball season. I'm really happy for Olly Larder. I'm happy for Billy Bob Thornton, who seems to have more hair every time we see him.

He was completely bald 30 years ago. Now it's like a Michael Landon type of thing on the top. How's he drinks Michelob Ultra the entire show? Yeah. I love it. The balls. That's fantastic.

He has a scene where his hand got fucked up. So he went to the doctor and he didn't have time to wait for surgery. And the guy's like, we got to get a hand specialist in. And Billy Bob's like, I'll just cut the pinky off. Let's save the time. And just cut, carves his pinky off because he's a tough motherfucker. What's his name on the show? Billy Bob?

His nickname is Tommy Norris. Tommy Norris is a tough motherfucker. I really had a good time. I loved it. My wife fell asleep like seven different times. It was great. It was a perfect experience. You didn't wake her up for the daughter scenes

to be like, get a fucking load of this? I have a question I want to ask, but I can't ask it on the pod. So I'll wait. You want to ask it during the break? During the break, yeah, whenever we're together, I have a question. All right, CR, I'll see you tomorrow because we're taping a rewatchables

and it's a movie from the 1980s. And that's all I'm going to say, but we're both very excited about it. Been circling for a while. Thanks CR. See you Chris Ryan. Taking a break. Now it's time for a special part of today's episode brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket

on YouTube TV, where you can find Joe House on the Ringer Sunday pregame show that we do on Sunday mornings. It is a very fun show and it's right on there on YouTube TV. we do on Sunday mornings. It is a very fun show and it's right on there on YouTube TV house. We passed the halfway point of the season and NFL Sunday ticket now only $89. Oh yeah. For the stretch run. When it matters. Yeah. Get it now. Bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV together, which I would highly recommend. And you can watch every game every Sunday. I wish I had known this last year, but now I love YouTube TV.

It's great. You know what YouTube TV does from your house? It tapes the challenge. Just puts it in my library because I always forget. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's the challenge. And I just zoom through. It's great. It also allows you to thank yourself this holiday season.

NFL Sunday ticket for $89. Offer ends December 2nd. Local national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games December 2nd, local national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games, terms and embargo apply. And as you know, house YouTube TV has crowned me there. CMO chief multi-view office officer to help pick the top four games of the week that you should watch with multi-view.

It's the early games this week. Minnesota, Chicago has to be on there. I think nice little NFC North battle. Classic NFC North divisional rivalry. Lions Colts. I want to see Richardson. It's a home game for the Colts. Me too.

The lions are a really fun multiview team because their offense is good. That's on there. And then I think we throw both of our favorite teams in here. New England at Miami And then Washington Washington hosting Dallas. Hopefully we'll get two wins. We should probably those together. Oh, I like that Yes, let's do that. So that's our multi-view choice Thanks again to our friends at NFL Sunday taking YouTube TV for sponsoring this part of today's episode Don't miss a moment of the action when you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. Again, how much is it house? 89 bucks.

That's it. And you can sign up at youtube.com slash BS and get it off our ends. December 2nd, local national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games terms and embargoes apply device and content restrictions apply. All right. Million dollar picks week 12. I'm not happy with how we did last week considering we love the Broncos and

chargers, both those hit, we really liked the Colts and the jets and somehow did the wrong bet. We did a bet with the Colts plus three and a half with Richardson's rushing. And then he had the ball a ton rushing and somehow didn't hit the 38 and a half. And then we had the chiefs in a tease chiefs up to plus eight and chiefs plus three and a half another tease. And that game was a one score game and they didn't win. I have no regrets about putting the chiefs in the T's.

No, no, I do regret listening to you on the Browns. That was a mistake. House. That was a mistake. Don't talk about it. We're, uh, we're moving on. So week 12, there's three games I like and a parlay I like. Which one do you want to hit first?

The parlay or the three games? Let's, let's say the parlay for last. Parlay is like dessert, right? It's like the, the, the nice Sunday at the end, cause we're taking all these nice parts and put them together. All right. So Schrager and I in part one of the podcast talked

about this Packers Niners game. Packers are minus one and a half at home. They almost beat the Niners last year in the playoffs and really could have. They've been a team that we all kind of like from a talent standpoint that has not really totally put it together again. But what we have always seen perennially with the NFL right around Thanksgiving time, somebody starts making a jump. And some people would think that's going to be the Niners. And I just don't see it.

I think it's been a year from hell. I didn't like the way McCaffrey looked last week at all. Kittles banged up. Their defense isn't the same. And from a narrative standpoint house, I could see this being a game where the Packers take care of business. We officially realized it's not the Niners year. And we started thinking about this Packers team as a possible, all right, maybe they'll give the Lions a good game in the playoffs game.

What don't you like about that narrative theory? That the Packers don't look like a team to me that can take care of business. They are messing around, playing around, effing around with their food every week. And I think it is because Jordan love, um, is not a hundred percent healthy. We haven't had that real Jordan love breakout game that became the hallmark of that Packers team, the second half of last season that also coincided with Aaron Jones ripping off a bunch of honey yard so they don't have they have the back it is Jacobs but you know that we haven't seen sort of that two-headed

monster they get vertical with with Jordan love because he's got all the time to get to those receivers the receivers that core is still great the receiving core is still great and Jacobs will get his yards sometimes, uh, in certain circumstances, but we haven't really seen the full red. Can I give you the game that we were? We did see it because it was a while ago. Let's hear it. Week six, Arizona love through four TDs.

They beat Arizona 34 to 13. We chalked it up to like, ah, wow, it's Arizona. Arizona's been really good since that game. And now I look back to that week six and I think, that was a pretty good win. Cause then after that they play Houston, they win by two. They play at Jacksonville. They win by three. Kind of a stupid game. They win by three, kind of a stupid game. They play home against Detroit. They lose by 10, but Detroit's the best team in the league.

Much worse than that. And then they play last week against Chicago and it was a play your with your food game against a team that had a new offensive coordinator. And I thought the bears played really well in that game, but they did get it done at the end. So I guess my theory is they're a little undervalued. I think San Francisco is still a little overvalued because I think people keep waiting for the real San Francisco to show up and I'm not sure it's there.

And maybe this is the week. I think they should be favored by two and a half or three. So I feel like I'm getting like a free point or point and a half. So the crazy thing is the line was two and a half earlier this week, but I think that was a hedge because the reports of, of Purdy, Purdy was doing limited practice and he's got a sore shoulder and there was a, you know, some speculation about whether or not he was going to play in this game.

The fact that it's moved down to one and a half seems like some money's come in on the Niners that suggests that Purdy's going to play. And if that's the case. Injured George Kittle who said he's going to try to play. Yeah. Well, that makes me nervous. What do we know?

What do we think about Bosa? Joanne Jennings, Bosa a little compromised. Well, Bosa, I mean, it seems like it might be game time decision whether he plays or not. And then in Lambeau against a team that feels like they should have beaten him last year and has something to prove. I like the spot for the Packers. I'm in on this bet. I'm going to let you do it. We're not going to have a disagreement. You're afraid, but you're still like a little afraid of the Niners.

Yeah, because they have all that talent. We haven't seen McCaffrey yet. But that's my point is I don't think McCaffrey's healthy. He may not be. So it's like you saying like, I don't, we haven't seen him beat yet. It's like, I don't know if we're seeing him beat for a while. Like I don't think to me, McCaffrey doesn't look like McCaffrey yet. I think that's kind of fair. I'm worried about seeing him this week.

Packers minus one half. I'm marking that down. this week. Packers minus one and a half. I'm marking that down. Cardinals Seahawks. Cardinals are getting one and a half in Seattle. There's some, some weather stuff maybe with this game that makes me a little nervous with Kyler Murray and bad weather. Um, in general, the Seahawks going from seeming like their season was over last week, they get the huge drive from Gino against the Niners, which is another bad sign with the Niners that they gave up that long Gino drive.

And now they're playing the Cardinals at home this week and they have a chance to really reinsert themselves in this race. We have Seattle bets from before the season. I think I might even have them win the NFC West, which could be still live, but they win this game. I'm a Cardinals believer. I think they might even have them to win the NFC West, which could be still live, but they win this game. I'm a Cardinals believer. I think they're good. I, they really won me over the last few weeks. And the thing I like about this house is you have Seattle's defense, 27th against the run and Arizona with this physical pounding running game.

They have with James Connor. I just feel like they can run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. And even if you're going to like Seattle in this game, then maybe it's an Arizona first bet Seattle for the game, like plus 800 type thing. But I think Arizona can beat them. I think this, this is another narrative game to me where we come out of and go. Arizona, I think they're for real at the same time, Seattle's ability to throw the ball and run the ball and come from behind, which they did last week scares me a little.

So where do you stand? Um, it's a 50 50 game. We talked about this on, on East coast bias. Uh, Raheem Palmer and I were heads up. I preferred, uh, Arizona and the dream is on Seattle. My issue with Seattle is that is the least trustworthy offensive line in football. Each of the times that I've tried to come up with a basis for Seattle, you know, taking advantage of somebody it's,

it's born out of the idea that they can establish the run and they sometimes can and sometimes can't. And most of the time can't, um, part of the reason to prefer Seattle would be the return of DK Mettaff. And really, I mean, Smith and Jacob has been incredible, both from a fantasy perspective, but most importantly, from a chemistry perspective with Gino.

So the question for Arizona is, can they put pressure on Gino? Because the Spitz are crazy with Gino when he has time. And that really was the thing that Seattle was able to take advantage of down the stretch against the Niners, no Bosa. And Gino got really comfortable with the lanes he could run in and the lanes he could see to throw the ball in. I don't really have a strong feel.

I express a preference for Arizona, but I certainly could see Seattle. Dream said that in his model, these teams are dead even. So it really does feel like a 50-50 game. I just want to point out Seattle's last five and their last seven. Sure, sure. They came within one San Francisco stop,

with that being six to seven. Yep. I'm happy to be wrong on this and if so, lose some money, but I like this Arizona team. I think they know who they are and they can run the ball and I think they'll be able to pressure Gino and make a couple of mistakes. I just think they're better. It's just a defense for Arizona, that's all. They've been on the right side of variants, a bunch like games that they've won by one or two points. 21st pass defense and Seattle is second with the past.

And as you mentioned, Smith and the Jigbo has been a, been a revelation in the last few weeks, he was awesome. And now asking like they were going over again, I'm going to mark the Cardinals down. That's fine. Raven's chargers. My first instinct was I really liked the Chargers. And the more I stared at it, and the more I stared at it, I keep coming back to this question.

Are the Ravens really going to go seven and five? That's going to be their record after, after week 12. They'd be seven and five. I don't want to do this because we had a conversation the very beginning of the season. We were looking at teams after week one and said, here's the list of teams. You know, we were looking for some, some, there were some giant lines out there. And we were like, are the Ravens really going to go 0 and 2? Are the Ravens going to lose to the Raiders?

And the mother f- They did it. They did it! Sons of bitches. So I don't want that to be the rationale. Well, can I give you this? They have four losses. They lost to Kansas City on the Isaiah-likely-stepped-on-six-inches-of-the-line game. They blew that Vegas game when they're up 10 in the fourth quarter.

Blew it. Blew it. And that's the weirdest result of the year. I would put it against any other game. They dropped a game-winning interception in Cleveland. The fucking guy dropped it. And James ends up going down and getting it, but they, he just threw them an interception. They didn't catch it. And the Pittsburgh game was stupid. I mean,

I loved it because I had Pittsburgh, but miss multiple field goals. Like it was just one of those games. What happens it's a, that's what happens in those games. And then I look at the chargers who I think are a really good team, uh, for, you know, as a home team, I get it. I had them last week, but, um, I feel like the, the, the Ravens can just run on them and move the ball. And you think about how easily Burrow was able to just move the ball in the second half

against the Chargers. Why wouldn't Baltimore be able to do that? That's the thing to me. So I don't think the Chargers are a really good team. I think they are really, really- Maybe I should say a really good surprise team. Exactly. Perfect.

Perfect way to put it, because it is incredible. They tried their goddamnness to charger the F out of that game. Right. But hardball and then whatever's going on inside the locker room with those guys, they just did enough to not charger the outcome of that game. But I thought that what we saw in the second half when Cincinnati, I mean, it really was a game where like whoever has the ball at the end of this game is going

to win this f-ing game. Um, and they could not under any circumstances, slow down that Cincinnati offense, slow down Joe Burrow. And I really think that which one's the younger, who is the charge of coach? I thought Jim was older. Jim's older, I think. And Jim is the charge of coach, right?

Yeah. Oh my God house. Really? No, I think John's older. That's why you're confusing me. I'm pretty sure John's older. I'm confusing you. You thought Jim Harbaugh was maybe not the charges coach.

That was a John Harbaugh older brother. I think it's John. John Harbaugh is older. Good call. There we go. He tried to make fun of me because I don't know which is which. Big Brother, Little Brother, I like it.

It's a rematch of the Super Bowl. Big Brother had his way. So you're saying if you coached against either of your Black Sheep brothers, Oh my God. It's a guaranteed win? Just backhouse with any money left? Not only that, but I would be looking for an opportunity to put my nuts on their forehead. Absolutely positive.

We might have to have both of the house brothers on at some point just so people know they exist. I can assure you they're available. Wait would Dick house ever come on or would we have to put about a seven second delay? Definitely with delay. Yes yes For sure. Well, Baltimore, I love the Ravens. I mean, you know, we can cut to the chase. Yeah, because they have the 30 second pass defense. But what we saw from the Chargers last week, the receivers, they're OK. They're really getting, they're eking out the most they can get out of it. But there's still some moments where like, oh, yeah, that's right.

You're Josh Palmer. And oh oh yeah, that's right. You're Josh Palmer. And oh yeah, that's right. You're Justin Herbert. Remember? Like for a quarter and a half. Like, yeah, right. I, we know who you are, buddy. We know all, you've got the great-

Oh wow. I don't want to talk this way. You make the nerds mad now. Don't make the nerds mad. I actually like him. I think he's like terrific. And, and all the reports, like he's a golf guy. Like I'm into Justin Herbert.

I like that shot they had before the game of him Harbaugh pounding his pads and just yelling at him. And he was just kind of like, I like that. I'm into Herbert, but he'll, he'll disappear for a quarter in a heartbeat. Let there be no doubt. I just can't get past the Ravens going seven and five seems crazy to me. And I think they're going to be able to move the ball up and down. The Chargers, Mack didn't play last week. get past the Ravens going seven and five seems crazy to me. And I think they're going to be able to move the ball up and down.

The Chargers, Mack didn't play last week. The Chargers defense doesn't seem as crazy good as it was five, six weeks ago to me. I agree. All right. That's our third one. And then, uh, I really want to work the Broncos into something. The Broncos are that line is now up to six and a half in Vegas. No way.

No, can't do that. That's way too many points. Well, we're gonna put them in a parlay. Thank God, that's a relief. Vegas is offense, this is really something. So Amir Abdullah was trending as a roster trend in fantasy leagues this week because he has a chance to be the running.

And I was like, Amir Abdullah, it feels like he's been around a while, he's 31? Wow. I would've guessed like 25. So he feels like he's been around a while. He's 31. Wow. I would've thought, I would've guessed like 25. So he's like almost Zeke Elliott's age. Um, he's going to be the running back, their quarterback situations and the block all they have no receivers. It's just Brock Bowers over and over again, which I'm pretty sure Sean

Payton is aware of Brock Bowers. I don't know how the Raiders Denver's defense it's first yards per play, second sacks, third hits. Vegas can't block. I get that it's in Vegas, but, and, and you also have Denver coming off a big win last week, but I just don't see how, I think Vegas might be done. They might be a short for the rest of the year until we get to some sort of weird Christmas

situation. So Broncos with the chiefs in Carolina, they're favored by 10 and a half. Okay. Chiefs coming off a loss. Carolina's defense 32nd against the run and 31st on first downs. Just feels like the chiefs will move the ball and do chief stuff. So chiefs down to minus two and a half Broncos money line, and then your team, down to minus two and a half Broncos money line.

And then your team, the Washington commanders, AKA the C words. Yeah. Favored by 10 and a half against the Cowboys. Can we, can we just have them win by three? Can we have Casey win by three Washington wins by three and the Broncos win. That is plus one Oh three on Fandual. And I would like to do it. I love it. That's a, that's a dessert parlay three nice ingredients pulled together to

make beautiful harmony in our, in our mouth, in our mouths. If it was a sun, what are you doing for your, for your dessert? Are you a pumpkin pie guy for Thanksgiving dessert? What are you putting in your mouth for that? I love pumpkin pie, but I also really love pecan pie. Oh, great. And what I like to do is get a slice of each and then eat both and even mix the bites.

Let me, let me recommend that you add one more because this is all. Have you had sweet potato pie? Oh, sweet potato pie is great. Magnificent. Yeah, I would, I would totally add that. So you're going a Minaj pie. Yeah. Forget forget it man. We can do this in in proper Thanksgiving style That sounds great about my all of my thanks to those sweet potato pie pumpkin pie and

Pecan pie all together I'm gonna s bomb that one call that one The Joe house is asleep on the couch pie Because that's what would happen about 14 minutes after that's a full pie parlay. That's what that is We're getting the pies ready. Everybody's getting the ingredients everybody's you know, go to the store this weekend to pull it together We'll be going to store this weekend with all the extra money in our pockets from that right Parlay, baby. Yeah, that's our we'll make that the pie parlay I was thinking I watched the Sopranos every night

before I go to bed, because my wife's asleep. And so I finished season four, five, six, seven, and then I was like, you know what, I don't, I'm gonna stay with these guys. I circled back, started with one, so Pine Barrens was on last night. Oh my God. Which, you know, was the legendary Sopranos episode.

You can't really go to bed after you watch it No, I was so fired up And I was like, I'll watch 20 minutes, I end up watching the whole thing But they're in the car and Chris finds the ketchup packets And he gives them the ketchup packets and there's relish And Pauli Wall, that's the funniest character of all time I think he's funny and then he comes and he's eating the ketchup and he's like mix it with the relish mix it with the relish with the ketchup packets and the relish packets and that's what made me think of the

Pumpkin pie sweet potato pie pecan pie is the poly walnuts mix it with the relish dessert extravaganza Mix it mix it with the relish prissy Rages, I'm to lose my foot. Before we go, before we move on, you don't have any interest in this Philadelphia L.A. Rams game. I, because folks are, you know, I've seen some arguments on both sides that people are really arguing, you know, be careful. It's a be careful situation.

And, you know, especially Jalen Hurts these nuts. You know, you want to, you don't It's a be careful situation. And, you know, especially Jalen hurts these nuts. You, you know, you want to, you don't want to be in a situation. To me, I had it marked down as a stay away. Okay. Okay. Because I thought the Pats absolutely could have beaten the Rams last week and they did some of the dumbest shit. We blitzed Stafford the whole game.

There were stats afterwards after Sal and I did the pod that they single covered Cup and Nakua basically all game. Which guess how that turned out, terribly. Mayo just couldn't have been less aggressive in the worst possible situations. And yet the Pats had the ball with a chance to win the game. I just didn't think the Rams looked that good. I'm with you.

But I don't trust the Eagles. I just didn't think the Rams looked that good. I'm, I'm, I'm with you and I keep waiting for it. Well, that, that, that's it, especially, you know, the, uh, jail in Hersey's nuts has not been as accurate. He is running great. He has his legs look, look great, but here's the test and why I understand why people are advocating in favor of the Rams, their home, their home dogs. First of all, they're plus two and a half. favor of the Rams.

They're home dogs. First of all, they're plus two and a half. And the Eagles secondary deserves the plaudits that's receiving from the draft or those two rookies, they've been playing very well, but this is an entirely different class of offense if this offense really gets going that the Eagles are up against. So I just wanted to make sure we talked through it. Didn't have a conviction on it. So the case is they,

they kind of went straight forward last week because they knew that the Pats game knowing this Eagles game was coming. McVeigh against Fangio. Yeah. This is a kitchen sink game. I, that's one of the reasons I like the Ravens. I think the Ravens it's a kitchen sink game. Love it. Cause you're seven and five. You're out of the AFC North. Now you might be like a six seed, you know, and you, you, you kind of need to, you need the game and the, uh, the six seed is going to get either Buffalo or the chiefs in the first round. No part of that.

So in the Rams need every game cause they're in a dog fight with all those N S U West teams. So I do wonder if like, that's why it's a state way though, because I could talk myself into each side. There was one other game I really liked. You're going to make fun of me. The Pats are plus three 10 in Miami. I'm not making fun of you. I think it's funny. I think that that line's crazy. Uh, I understand it, but man, I'm not betting against Drake may give me, let me have Drake may in a touchdown. That's fine. Is it seven and a half?

Yeah. So I was wondering, is there, is there, I mean, they're, they're so stupidly coached that I almost feel like you should take the money line and just, which team. The, but, well, both teams, but there's like, uh, the money line and just. Wait, which team? But, well, both teams. But there's like, you can get May for 200 plus yards, the Pats to win the game. And Drake made two passing touchdowns is six to one. Drake made one passing TD, 200 yards passing,

Pat's win the game is plus 411, which doesn't really buy you that much value from the plus 310. I just didn't know if there was some sort of Drake may with the Pats bet that we wanted to think about. I'll let you think about it. I know that I'll just play the side on the Pats. I'm not laying those points with the Dolphins. It's crazy.

You're not laying the seven. No, no, no. Do you like the seven with the Pats? Or do you like the plus three, 10, fuck it bet? No, no, I prefer the points. The plus seven? Yeah, I prefer the plus seven. All right.

All right, Sam, Million Dollar Picks, week 12, heading into Thanksgiving, House's favorite day of the year. Does anything even close to Thanksgiving for you? No, nothing rivals it. I think you, I have a lot of people in my life who love Thanksgiving, including me, including nephew Kyle, you're number one, you love it the most. I've seen you be, be worried that you might have to be driven to the hospital

because you ate too much, you passed out multiple times. You drink too much. You eat too much. If you, if you die from overeating over drinking, it will be on Thanksgiving. Everybody will understand. Like how's that Thanksgiving? It was million dollar picks week 12. We lost $355,000 last week and it was really because of the chiefs, because they didn't cover a couple of teases. I'm fine with it.

Did you say it was the fifth time in 124 games that the chiefs have lost by more than eight points? It's fine. We were on the wrong side of a historic event. We are still up $413,000 for the season house. And we're going to put 200 K on the following bets. The Baltimore Ravens minus three on the road against the LA chargers. Are the Ravens going to go seven and five?

I don't think so. Can they throw all over the place of the chargers? I do think so. Is there a big brother getting revenge on his little brother house? You're a big brother. I mean, it's not even getting revenge. It's just taking advantage of what's rightfully yours. That's it.

You were first with your little brother. So exactly right. Yeah. You were first and that's it. So, um, chargers great win last week. Some, some holes, some things that we saw we didn't love. Uh, I just think the Ravens, uh, they're not going seven and five. It's too ridiculous.

They've already had four dumb losses. They're not going to have five Ravens minus three. That's our first one. Cardinals plus one and a half in Seattle, uh, Seattle, a great, somewhat lucky win against a banged up Niners team that last week to save their season. Uh, I think the Cardinals were on the ball all over the Seahawks. I like their defense. I think they lose that game in week six to the Packers.

And since then, I like the way they look house. I think they're going to win the division. We're both in. Yeah. Cardinals coming off the bye week. And if you look at the last 10 games, uh, of the Seahawks at home, uh, they're against the spread numbers are not very good at home. The 12th man might need to step it up a little bit.

12th man in trouble. They beat roommates with Joel Embiid. Packers at home minus one and a half against the Niners. Almost beat them last year in the playoffs. Couldn't do it. Catching a Niners team at a really nice time. I think this is a shell of the Niners team we think it is. You're on your own on this one. You're not against it, but you're letting me do a guitar solo. That's it. I believe in the talent

on this Packers team. They killed Arizona in week six. I think they're due for another really good game. Fans are going to be fired up. Atmosphere is going to be great. Weather won't be awesome. I like the spot Packers minus one and a half. So put 200 K and all three of those. And then we have a little parlay for you bringing the chiefs in Carolina out of minus two and a half, bring in your Washington C words. Against the carcass of Dallas Cowboys down to two and a half at home. And then the Denver Broncos, a team that did us really nicely last week that

we've won some money on this year that we really appreciate. Bo Nicks making a run at offensive player of the year with your guy, Jayden Daniels. Fine. Um, we are going to take the Broncos money line in Vegas against a terrible Vegas team. You put those three together. Broncos, money line, chiefs minus two and a half, Washington minus two and a half,

plus 103. Good. 200K on that? 200K on that, yes sir. It is the pie parlay after all. And then last but not least, cause it's Thanksgiving and House is feeling generous, he's allowing me to do a Drake May parlay,

cause I love Drake May. He's playing in Miami. This is a Drake May podcast. He doesn't need a player pod. This is it. Well, the line's too high. And this Pats team might be deficient in certain areas. They might be poorly coached. Maybe.

They might make them mistakes every week, but they almost beat the Rams last week. And I think it's worth a flyer. Pats plus seven and a half. Good, like the extra hook. That's a nice one. Good, like the extra hook. That's a nice one. Drake made 200 plus passing yards.

Drake made over 26.5 rushing yards. That's two scrambles. Yeah. Roll them out. There, maybe in the first half. Drake made one passing touchdown, just one. Okay, okay. Plus 341, we are putting 50K on that. 50K, good number, that's right, good number. 50 K on that 50 K. Good number.

That's right. Good. No, it's a, it's a little sprinkling the Drake may full facial. Well, it's the Drake may almost like the pie parlay. You talked about earlier, a pecan pie, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie. That's Drake made 200 plus yards over 26 and a half rushing yards. One plus passing touchdowns. Hop on the Drake Bay bandwagon right now.

Those are the million dollar picks for week 12. House, happy weekend before Thanksgiving. Great to see you. And we'll see you on the Ringer Sunday pregame show on Sunday on YouTube TV and Fandle TV before the action. Thanks for being on. Can't wait, thanks buddy. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Steve Cerruti and Kyle Creighton, as always.

Thanks to Joe House and Chris Ryan. Don't forget, Ringer Sunday pregame. That show is going on on YouTube TV and Fandl TV on Sunday. Maybe I'll even pop on for a second. Who knows? And don't forget about a new rewatch of what's coming on Monday. It is a movie from the 1980s. I'll give you some hints over the weekend on the rewatch most Twitter feed.

Enjoy the weekend. I will see you on Sunday night. I never said I don't have a few years with him. On the wayside, on the first time I never said I don't have a few years with him. Must be 21 plus in President-elect states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and President DC. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.

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