The Bill Simmons Podcast - The 2024 NBA Trade Value Rankings

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is prepping for the NBA trade deadline by naming his 25 honorable mentions (2:14), followed by the top 75 NBA trade-value players (11:45)! Host: Bill Simmons Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, the NBA trade deadline is Thursday. Let's rank some trade value guys 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. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this.

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Please visit RG-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. You must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem called 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG-help.com. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a new Rewatchables on Monday night. We ran our live show from Chicago. We did The Fugitive. It was me and Miley Rubin and Chris Ryan and a special appearance from Craig Horlbeck. It's really good. We also put it up on our YouTube, which is youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. You can watch the entire podcast on

that as well. And you can see a bunch of clips and shorts and all kinds of things. If you care about the Super Bowl, and I know you do, I'm going to be doing my Million Dollar Picks on Thursday, but we are running all kinds of content on The Ringer relating to the Super Bowl right now, including Brian Curtis had an excellent

Tony Romo piece. That's a good piece, Brian. Did a great job there, Brian. And we have Solak, Ruiz. They're writing about the schemes. Rob Bohoney wrote about Luka Doncic. So we have a lot of good stuff on the ringer right now. Oh, Ben Lindbergh wrote an awesome Taylor Swift piece, which was super long and really good. Anyway, coming up on this podcast. So I wanted to do something a little shorter because Priscilla and I are going all out on the trade deadline. We are ready to go. We are on duty basically Wednesday night all the way through Thursday. We're going to do multi-parts.

We're going to be reacting to whatever happens. So I wanted to get a trade value list up, which I flew back from Boston actually today six hours on the flight thank God I had Wi-Fi I figured out a whole list I figured out a bunch of things to say and screw it

we don't need a guest I can just bang this out so we're going to go from somehow we have 75 guys this year we're going from 75 to one but first our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, the trade deadline is Thursday, and I forgot to do a trade value list,

which is my fault. I had a lot going on. I was on a rewatchables tour. I'm fixing it now. We are laying down a trade value list heading into the trade deadline. If you don't know what this is, way back when, when I had a call on my own website,

not even ESPN, I think it was 2000, I made a list of players based on what their trade value was. Not who the best players were, what the trade value was. Here were the rules. Salaries matter. So if you have Alex Caruso at 9.4 million

and Drew Holiday at 32 million, Alex Caruso, better salary. You can fit more people in your salary cap. Rule number two, age matters. So if it's like a Devin Booker versus Tyrese Halliburton situation, Booker's 27, Halliburton's 23. Hmm.

Rule number three, contract length matters, but not as much as it used to. Back when I started doing this, they were like seven-year deals. I think my old friend, Jalen Rose, I think he signed like a 15-year deal at one point, but the deals were long. They were scary. So it doesn't matter as much. It's like two, three, four years. Really only Bradley Beal, Zach Levine, there's a couple bad ones. Rule number four, happiness matters more than ever. so if you're trading for a star are they going to like being on your team in your city right like let's say let's say

sacramento trades for lebron james they just say f it and they just go get him he's going to be happy we've seen unhappy superstars either not like going to teams or going there begrudgingly or maybe even trying to block trades that are almost happening. So you got to factor that in. Rule number five, this is the Rudy Gobert rule. Bizarre real life trades actually should affect the list. So when you pay as much as you did for Rudy Gobert, if you're Minnesota, you're just going to be more hesitant to trade him because then you're admitting a mistake. The good news is Rudy made a dramatic comeback on the trade value list,

but you have to factor in what the situation was that led to the player being on the team. And last but not least, you got to concentrate on degrees. And this is huge because a lot of these guys would never get traded, right? Orlando's not trading Palo. Boston's not trading Tatum. But if one team called the other and said, hey, what about this? Who would deliberate longer? Who would call the longer meeting? Who would be more surprised by the call? Which team, if you're just doing like just slight percentages, would be more likely to do it? Even if it's like 0.02%, who's more likely to do it?

That's the point of the trade value. So there was a time in the mid 2000s when we had so few good players. I think I only went to 40 one year and I was like dragging the list of 40. The talent 20 years ago was just brutal. The talent now is awesome. In fact, it's so awesome that the last time I made this list, I think we did a top 65. I had to expand it to a top 75. And I got to be honest, I have 25 honorable mention guys. So what I'm going to do is read the toughest omissions and then we'll go into the categories and we'll go in reverse order from 75 to one. There's some drama once we get to the top four. I'm not going to lie. Honorable mention, just quickly.

And this is basically from least tough omission all the way to absolute toughest omission. Gigi Jackson on Memphis, who just turned 19. I went to see them play with my daughter in Boston on Sunday. And they were basically the same age. And she was stupefied because he was 6'8 and flying around and guarding Jason Tatum. And he's really promising. Kim Whitmore in Houston. Kula Bali in Washington.

Aaron Neesmith on Indiana, which is great for me because I never sold my stock. I never sold my beach house on Neesmith Island. It was me. And I think it was Zach Lowe, maybe Brian Barrett, somebody else on the house next to me. And then a hurricane took away everything else. But now Neesmith Island's back. He's been great. He might be the third best pacer. Jordan Hawkins on New Orleans, who unfortunately doesn't get to play enough because New Orleans has a hundred guys, but I really like him. So there's five.

Jaden McDaniels on Minnesota, who his contract's a little pricey. Not sure about the outside shooting sometimes with him. Little bit of a knucklehead, like he did punch a wall hitting into the playoffs last year. So I had to throw him into the omissions, but I do like him.

Shaden Sharp on Portland, who's got a lot of promise. Fred VanVleet. Help brought a winning atmosphere to Houston. They're a 500 team now. Would not happen without Fred. Emmanuel Quickly, who is going to get bumped off this list the moment Toronto overpays him. Terry

Rogier. There's 10. Danny Adia, who is just dying to be on a good team. This is a guy every single team would like. He's a swing guy who can guard threes and fours. He can shoot threes. He's tough. And he's trapped on the Wizards.

And they're awful. And I really, deep down, I'm kind of hoping the Celtics could slide him into their team this year. But I'm not holding my hopes up. Vince Williams Jr. on Memphis. The real ones know. The real league passers know. This guy's good. He just got hurt, unfortunately. Anthony Black on Orlando. I've just seen a couple moments from him where I'm really intrigued by his size and his unselfishness. He's not playing a ton because that team has too many guards, but I like him. I love Malik Monk, as you know. He's honorable mentor for me

because not only is he one of the best six men in the league, he's going to be a free agent this summer. And I think he's an intriguing free agent. I think that's a guy maybe you pay a little more for to steal from Sacramento and is somebody that

could be instant offense for you on a really good team. He's already proven that. So Jeremy Grant, who's expensive on Portland, but is a good player. So that's 15. Can you believe we're still going? None of these guys made my trade value list. Derek Lively on the Mavs. Now some people would say he should be in the top 75. What are you doing? That guy's a really good rim roller and he's been a rim protector. He's 19.

I just don't value that position as much. I just think it's easier to go get big guys and athletic big guys. We're just really deep. And he's not somebody who's going to be a top 15 guy at the center position anytime soon. So I have my arm on the bench and I like him. Trey Murphy just really deep. He's not somebody who's going to be a top 15 guy at the center position anytime soon. I have my honorable mention. I like him. Trey Murphy, really like.

I'll say Thompson. I still am all in on this guy. I think he's pippany. Terrible situation, bad team. The coach has been weird. He can't shoot at all, but maybe three years from now he will be able to. He's the type of guy three years from now, if he starts to. But I love the, he's the type of guy

three years from now, if he starts hitting threes, he'll be like, holy shit, who's this guy? I didn't have his brother in the honorable mention, but I thought about it. Isaiah Hartenstein on the Knicks, who is just an excellent playoff big guy and he's got a cheap contract. Devin Vassell on the Spurs, a little pricey, Good three-point shooter. I like him. He's maybe a number three on a contender. It's like between a three and a four. Not sure. And then the last five.

And all these are really tough cuts. And I thought about going to a top 80, but 80 is ridiculous. So we just, you know what? Maybe this will put a chip on their shoulders. Colin Sexton on Utah, who has turned into an absolutely awesome heat check guy. He's actually like better than a heat check guy.

He can, you know, he'll come in, he'll play, I don't know, 22 minutes. He'll have 25 points. He'll have 20 points. He can run the offense. He's just legit good. Keontae George, also on that Utah team, who's shown a lot of promise. I think he's been a little

better than Black because he's a better offensive player. But those guys are fighting for minutes on the same team. Scoot Henderson. I really wanted to jam him in the top 75 and I think by the end of the season when they trade Malcolm Brogdon, which they should,

he'll get more minutes. He'll play with Simons and Sharp. He'll have some moments. And I think March, April, he comes on. But I can't, with his stats and how up and down he's been, I can't justify it. I couldn't justify Jaden Ivey either. Jaden Ivey, I don't know what Monte Williams

was trying to do to him psychologically the first six weeks of the season, but it was ludicrous. He is exactly the kind of guy who shouldn't be standing over on the side. They were doing it. It was coaching malpractice and it made you wonder should

Monte Williams make $8 million over five years, much less $80 million over five years, much less $80. I feel bad for him, and I feel bad that I didn't put him in the top 75, but I just couldn't figure out a spot for him. And then last but not least, Jalen Green. Eye test-wise, he's getting better, and he's having moments. The stats just still aren't good.

He's still not a good enough three-point shooter. The advanced metrics aren't great with him, and I just couldn't justify it. Those were the two toughest cuts for me, Jalen Green and Jaden Ivey. Scoot was not as tough of a cut, but I think he makes it in two months. All right, here we go. The top 75, our first group is the Upside Gang. Number 75, Josh Giddey. 21 years old.

He's been in some big games. He has been on winning teams, contributing, figuring out how to fit in. The only thing I don't love is the three-point shooting. But he's getting less and less scared to take them. And four years from now, he could be all-star potential. I don't know if I would say all-NBA for him,

but he certainly has the skill set. And he's just huge. I love that he rebounds. I love how unselfish he is. As you know, I'm sticking to basketball, talking about Josh Giddey, if that's cool. Thank you. Number 74, Tyler Hero. Thought about flipping him with Ivy or one of those guys, but here's the

thing. He's 24 years old. He's been a 20 point a game scorer. He takes over eight threes a game. He's shooting 40% on them and he's been in some big spots. He's been in big games and I just had to have him. Same for Austin Reeves, who takes a lot of shit. He's been in some big spots. He's been in big games. I just had to have him. Same for Austin Reeves, who takes a lot of shit. He's been in a bunch of trade rumors for the last month, which is completely unfair. He gets targeted on defense all the time because they can't hide him because they have to hide LeBron

on whoever the worst guy on the other team is. I really respect him, the way he's stepped up, especially with the big fishbowl on him. He had to make it for me. Herb Jones, number especially with the big fishbowl on him. So he had to make it for me. Herb Jones, number 72. You know how I feel about him. Classic three and D guy, great D guy. First new guy, number 71, Kaysan Wallace on OKC, who I don't even know if he's 20 yet. This guy has it. This guy is going to be an elite two-way guard. He's already a really, really, really good defensive player. He's already a great corner

three shooter. Awesome pick. When you think about how they have SGA, Jalen Williams, and Chet, and he's probably the number four in that team. They haven't even made trades or really gone all in yet. What a great pick that was. I love that guy. Number 70, another guy

I love, Nas Reed. Signed a new contract over the summer. You know, he's playing behind Gobert and Towns could have gone either way. This is a guy that comes in

and impacts the game when he comes in. There's, the Celtics actually need a guy like this. I think Westbrook has been like this for the Clippers weirdly

where the energy of the game is off and then a bench guy comes in, and they can just kind of tilt the energy and either get the crowd going or get their team going. Nas Reed comes in, and you're watching going, how is this guy not a starter? I mean, he's one of the best bench guys in the entire league.

So he's number 70. And then probably my favorite role player in the league that's not on the Celtics, Jalen Suggs, number 70. And then probably my favorite role player in the league that's not on the Celtics, Jalen Suggs, number 69. We've talked about him on previous podcasts, so I don't need to go too far, but this is my kind of guy. This is like everything I want

from a role guy. Not only gives a shit, gives the most shit. If you're doing the give a shit rankings, I think he's in the top five. Giannis is one. Giannis is like a sociopath now. He cares so much.

Jalen Suggs is in the top five. And the great thing about him this year is almost 39% from three. If he can just be in that 39 to 42%, he becomes an absolute crazy asset. I don't even know what, when his salary stuff comes up, I don't even know when his salary stuff comes up. I don't even know where it goes.

He's only 22 years old. And as somebody that's just dying to be in a playoff series, like dying. So hopefully that happens this year. Number 68, Anthony Simons, who's 23 and five again this year, almost 40% from three. And I want to see them trade Brogdon.

And I just want to see those three guys, Sharp and Simons and Scoot. Let's see what this looks like. Let's officially take a gander at it. They need to trade Brogdon. I'm hoping they trade him for the Knicks or whoever this week, but they need to clear some space for those guys. Number 67, Walker Kessler,

who got hurt earlier in this year. He's actually coming off the bench for the Jazz now. They're using him a little weird, but is one of the best rim protectors in this year. He's actually coming off the bench for the Jazz now. They're using him a little weird, but is one of the best rim protectors in the league. He's young. He's on a rookie contract, and every team in the league would want him. Number 66, Keegan Murray.

So, little slightly disappointing year for him. He's only 15 a game, 36% from three. He's been up and down offensively, but I really like his defense this year. He's impressed me in some of these Kings games. I feel like he's putting in the time on that end and it feels like the shooting's going to come. So this is right around where he should be. And then the last guy on this list is Jabari Smith, number 65, who is 20 years old, who unfairly, looking back,

was put into this Paolo versus Chet, just Jabari thing, which clearly Paolo should have been the number one looking back, and clearly Chet should have been either one or two,

and Jabari clearly is the third best guy of those three. With that said, he's eight rebounds a game already. He really tries on defense 38% three-point shooter

and I just like where this is going I think this could eventually be a 20-point guy who can defend and shoot threes as he gets older and older we'll see if this is the right team for him but I'm in on Jabari Smith so that is our first group and we're going to take a break

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Group J, legit quality starters. DeMar DeRozan, number 64, expiring contract. But this is somebody I would like to see Philadelphia trade for. Because we saw with the Embiid news, he's out for at least four weeks.

We'll see if it's longer than that. They could use another scorer. They have the expiring contracts. They have a couple extra picks. The Bulls are claiming they don't want to trade him. I don't know. The Bulls are just like, man, we love nothing more than the play-in.

There's nothing like that play-in energy. They should be trading everyone on their team. The Bulls not putting everyone up for sale right now on the trade deadline is probably the dumbest thing of the year, other than everything San Antonio tried to do with their point guard situation this year. All these guys should be available. They should be trying to trade DeRozan. They should be keeping Kobe White. Maybe that's it. I would just, I know they can't trade Levine because after consulting with the Clutch Sports Agency, Levine decided to have foot surgery or whatever he did.

But I would trade these other guys. Anyway, DeRozan's 64. Drew Holiday's 63. He's got a player option next year for, I think, 39 million. And people think he'll opt out because there's a lot of teams with cap space I don't know that's a lot of money I think there's a world where you just opt in and then sign a deal next year

I have him 63 and Alex Caruso 62 Drew's slightly better than Caruso and I have loved watching Drew this year it's amazing how little he cares about shots anything running through how little he cares about shots, anything running through him. All he cares about is how can I just help on defense, jump over on different guys. You can switch anybody and he's fine. But Caruso makes 9.4

million and Drew's in the thirties. So just that's the whole point of the trade value. You'd rather have Caruso at that contract. Fake trade. I'm going to throw a couple fake trades into this podcast. This is the first one. I want to see Miami get Tyler Hero and an unprotected first to Chicago and get back DeRozan and Caruso. What do you think of that?

Then the Bulls have their Kobe White, Tyler Harrow backcourt. Let's just score some points and have some fun and try to get in the top eight of the lottery. And Miami just goes all in. They use the Harrow chip. They use an unprotected first. Maybe they have to throw Jovich in that.

I don't know. I don't know what the value of DeRozan and Caruso together is, but Miami gets that. They keep Rozier. They have Butler. They have Jaquez. They have Caleb Martin. They have Bam. Keep going and going. That's a trade that would scare me as a Celtics fan. If it was like, hey, guess what? Miami got DeRozan and Caruso today. Number 61, this is a dramatic Jonathan Kaminga, who would have been 161 two months ago. Um, you could feel this Bruin even, you know, he'd have these little, I watched a lot of warriors. He would have these little moments and these little flashes.

And the thing that always jumped out with him was incredible athlete, completely unafraid. He could be going against Kevin Durant. He could be going against Giannis and he would just be like, okay, finally, the two superstars are going to be going at each other. He really carried himself that way to the point that he kind of threw Steve Kerr

under the bus with the media because he was mad he wasn't playing, which I didn't agree with. But he was right. He should have been playing. The last month, he's been awesome for a 21, 22-year-old guy who's kind of learning on the fly. They've been throwing him out in crunch time. He's been basically a 20-point scorer for a couple weeks.

And he's just tapping into all of his gifts. So he's one of the best athletes in the league, but he's also really competitive. So there's really something here now. And I remember I threw out on, I think Sunday's pod to Sal, I was talking about Clay and Kaminga for LeBron, who says no.

I know you could put LeBron and Curry and Chris Paul and Draymond. That would be really fun. Ultimately, where are you going? I don't think the Warriors should trade Kaminga. He would not be on my list. I would rather explore the Klay thing. Klay, clearly, his confidence is shot and probably needs a change of scenery. Maybe him and a first-round pick or him and Moody or something. I wouldn't trade Kaminga. I also wouldn't trade number 60, Jaime Jaquez, who I've talked about

many times in this podcast. He got hurt. He had a lot of momentum. He was playing like 35 minutes a game and then run the offense through him. Then he got hurt.

And now he's back. But I love him and I hate that he's on the heat. I hate it. Number 59. You're not going to be expecting this one. Jalen Johnson on the Atlanta Hawks. Look, he's 16 and eight.

He tries his ass off and he's a good defensive player. He's an energy guy. He's athletic. They're 18 and 18 when he plays. They're 4 and 10 when he doesn't. I'm taping this before the Tuesday game. So I don't know if they're playing tonight. He's just good. To me,

he's a borderline untouchable. If I had to say who was the most untouchable guy in the Hawks, it's obviously Trey Young, but you could talk me into it being Jalen Johnson. I love guys like this. And he's another one. He's like 21 or 22. Speaking of the Hawks, number 58, DeJounte Murray. It's interesting that there hasn't been a lot of trade stuff with him. And there was a report last week that only two teams had even made an offer on him. It was Utah and the Lakers.

And the Lakers trading for him would be just stupid because they'd have to give up, you know, not only would Russell have to get sent out in that trade and he's been really good for the past six weeks offensively. Like he's averaging 20 a game. So offensively, it would be just about a wash with Murray and Russell

and the Lakers are in the 20s in offense anyway. So part of the reason making that trade, you're not even getting better. The bigger thing with Murray, and he's got a contract coming up and he's going to expect to get paid. Is he even a top 20 lead guard? Like for instance,

Luka, SGA, Maxie, Halliburton, Booker, Curry, Edwards, Brunson, Jamal Murray, Darren Fox. There's 10. He's not better than any of those guys. John Morant, Garland, Dame, Harden. Not better than any of those guys. Trae Young, better. Kyrie, when he's being normal, better.

Derek White's just a better two-way player. And I think every advanced stat would suggest that. I also think he's way better defensively. Cade Cunningham, I'd rather have. So I've just listed 18 guys. Now we're in the Scotty Barnes. I'd rather have the Scotty Barnes upside of the rookie contract. Kobe White for $11 million a year. I'd rather have him than DeJounte Murray. If they called the Bulls and were like, give us Kobe White for DeJounte Murray, guess who says no? The Bulls. Then Lomelo, who we're going to talk about in a little bit. I don't know. I just listed 21 guys. If you're trading for Murray, you're trading for somebody who's not one of the 20 best lead guards in the league and you're going to have to pay him. No, thank you. I'll tell you what the Hawks should do in a little bit. Number 57, Kobe White. The last like 10 or 11 weeks,

he's 23 points, six, six, five rebounds. And the eye test backs it up. He's just blowing by people. He's Kobe White's like legitimately good. So, uh, especially at that contract, I almost thought about putting them higher. There's a couple of guys coming up that I'm like, man, is I'd rather have Kobe White than that guy. But, uh, I didn't want to get too crazy yet because it's only been 10 weeks. Number 56, Chris Tapps, poor Zingas.

He's the superpower of the Celtics when he plays the Celtics look like the best team in the league if he doesn't play they don't I am more scared of him every time he's jumping around in traffic than I was when I had little kids

and they were like on the jungle gym or something it's just you always think please don't get hurt like I went to that Memphis game Sunday and they, second row Joe played Porzingis for some reason. I have no idea why he, that's exactly the type of game. Just get him the F out of a game like that. And he's playing, he's jumping and traveling. At one point he hit some, he hit knees with somebody and he's like limping around and we're all like, oh my God, why is this guy in this game? He's basically playing 30 minutes a game and he's averaging a 20 and seven, 52% field goal,

almost two blocks a game. Incredible team chemistry guy. One of the things that struck me when I went to Sunday's game, because I hadn't seen a home game yet. I'd been to a couple of road games. The Celtics team chemistry is out of control. It's the best it's ever been.

I was watching during the timeouts. They're like all buddies at a nightclub. They're all going up to each other. They're hitting each other. They're joking. They're laughing. They're watching the jumbo trying to make fun of each other. And he's a huge part of it.

I think he's been one of the glue guys behind the scenes on the team. So I have him 56. You could talk me into him being higher, actually. But he's 30 plus million this year, plus he signed the extension. Number 55, Pascal Siakam. We know he's valuable because he just got traded for a bunch of stuff. So that's it for group J. Group I, this is a fun one. This group is called, if you tell Woj, I'lly It to the Death, but I'm listening. Number 54,

LaMelo Ball. As we're taping this, his team is 10-39. He has missed 89 games and counting in three and a half years. They are minus 79 from a win-loss record since they drafted

him. I don't like where this is going. At all. I don't like... There's definitely people who are... I don't want to get aggregated. Number 53.

Kyrie Irving. We've had a normal Kyrie Irving here. We're at like the 50 game mark. He hasn't done anything weird yet. Even I thought a couple of days ago when he gave his whole speech about how he's part of a conglomerate and him going back to Brooklyn doesn't matter

because he's in a conglomerate and teams don't matter and fans don't matter, whatever the hell he was saying. I didn't get the cliff notes of it. It was funny though, because he did this whole speech about Brooklyn, I didn't get the cliff notes of it. Well, it was funny though, because he did this whole speech about Brooklyn. It doesn't matter that I'm going back. But meanwhile,

when he went back to Boston, he walked around the court and burned sage. So as usual, Kyrie just contradicting himself, but he's having a really good year and he's been really fun to watch. I've been enjoying Kyrie Irving this season. Number 52. This might be,

might be too high for him. Maybe he should be in the 40s. I don't know. I had a lot of trouble with Scotty Barnes who just got named to the All-Star team because they had a couple injuries. He's averaging 28 and 6. His on-off rating is minus 2.9. His team is 17 and 33 as we're taping this.

I test wise, I'm not sure I can get there yet with him and the concept of him being like basically one of the best two guys on a title team. Not sure I see it. It seems like he needs the ball a lot. And if he has the ball a lot, is that a great thing?

Am I a 17 and 33 team if Scottie Barnes has the ball a lot? I don't know. Good defensive player. Good athlete. He's young. The arrow's pointing up. But something held me back with this one, and I can't put my finger on it. So he's 52.

Also, as you'll see as we keep going, we just have so many good players. It's just, I mean, it's like, wow, Scottie Barnes is only 52. Watch the guys I'm about to list. You'll be like, oh, that makes sense. Last guy in this group. If you tell Woj, I'll deny it to death,

but I'm listening. Number 51, Trae Young, who is having an excellent offensive season for him. Three-point shooting still isn't totally there, but it's funny. There should be some all-star team. People who take three-point shots that you think are going in and they don't, but you still feel like it was a good shot. That's how I felt watching him.

He's just not Curry. He takes shots that they go in for Curry and they just don't go in for Trae Young, but he's fine. I do like that he has been trying harder on defense this year. He's clearly put work on it. He is not a turnstile. He's not a disaster.

I would not call him one of the worst defensive players in the league anywhere. I don't think he's going to be the all-defense team, but he's trying harder. So here's a member I mentioned earlier about DeJounte Murray, and I'm stealing this from Kevin O'Connor. He'll be fine. I'll text him later about it.

But he was mentioning how Sacramento had Hal Burton and they had De'Aaron Fox. And both of those guys were really good. They knew it. They were great assets and they couldn't really play together and they didn't make sense together. And on paper, it made more sense to trade Fox and keep Halliburton, who was on a rookie contract, who they knew was really good. But the market for Halliburton was higher. And KOC's point was, maybe it didn't totally make sense to trade Halliburton, but for them it did, because they were able to get way more back for Halliburton than they got for Fox. I think Atlanta's in the same boat here with Murray.

I don't think the offers are lighting them up for Murray, but I think the offers could be pretty good from the right team for Trey Young. And I think KOC was the one that threw out San Antonio. I'm just like pilfering KOC. Sorry, KOC. But one of my goals in life is to get Wemby a fun guard that can interact with him properly

because the Spurs are just bound and determined to just have him be on his own and do all his stuff like he's a tennis player and being on a team doesn't matter. I think they should overpay for Trarey Young. I agree with KFC. And you look at, they have all their own firsts. They have Atlanta's unprotected 25 and 27 firsts. They have a Chicago first that has some protections, a Toronto first this year, a Charlotte first. And if you told me, if you're Atlanta, you can get Denver sell, you can get McDermott's expiring,

you can get San Antonio's number one this year, top one protected. I can get my own 2025 first back. And I keep Murray and I trade Trey Young and I rebuild around that. I would think about it. And I would really, really, really think about it if I was San Antonio

because they have all these assets. Have you seen Wemby lately? Have you seen what's happening? Like, I'm not wasting a month of Wemby at this point. I know that San Antonio sucks. It's a weird team. And they're headed for a top five pick in the lottery, but the lottery sucks.

Maybe you zag. If I was the GM of the Spurs, I would zag. I'd be like, we're getting somebody good with Wemby now because what Wemby is doing right now, he's basically 20 and 10 with three blocks and 17 highlight plays and nobody wants to drive anywhere near him when he's under the basket. I want to see better players around him. I want to see a real guard. So I would do that. We're going to take a break, and then we're going to do the top 50.

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All right, we're down to the top 50, and this is group H. It's a long group. Sorry he's worth way more to us than to you. And number 50 is Rudy Gobert, who almost a year ago, Waz and House and I did our Worst Contracts podcast, which, by the way, is coming up in a couple weeks, the 2024 edition. And Rudy was, I think, one of the first three that got taken. And in the span of a year has made an improbable, incredible turnaround. And it didn't totally make

sense to me until I listened to Austin Rivers' podcast with him. Rudy was hurt last year. And I don't think they really did a good enough job of telling us how banged up he was. He gets traded, he's banged up in all these different ways and just had the year from hell and then spent the summer getting his ass back in shape and he's been really good for them. And that's a team that has a chance to win the title. He's one of the reasons. I would say he would have been 50 to one

to be a top 50 trade value guy a year ago, but he made it. I still think they gave up way, way, way, way too much of that trade, but now he's a top 50 asset so obviously it wasn't that bad. Number 49, Julius Randle who's now hurt but he has been 24 and 9

for three of the last four years. He has always been either the third or fourth or fifth best forward in the East. He's made all NBA teams and the Knicks fans complained about him. But guess what? I went to the Lakers Knicks games on Saturday when they just decided,

oh, we should just double Jalen Brunson. They have nobody else. Guess who would really help? Julius Randle. Number 48, Aaron Gordon. Again, the concept of this group is, sorry, is worth way more to us than you. Aaron Gordon's 48, Derek White's 47.

Those are two teams that have a chance to win the title that I would pick to make the finals right now. And those guys are hugely super important to them. And it would be just almost unfathomable for either guy to get traded. So that's why they're so high. Been dreading this part of the podcast. Number 46, Evan Mobley.

As you know, I'm over leveraged with Evan Mobley stock. I just couldn't justify putting him higher than this. Especially when number 45 is Jared Allen, who the moment Mobley got hurt and they just decided to revolve the Cavs around Jared Allen's defense, Donovan Mitchell having the ball all the time because Garland was out too, and then a bunch

of shooters, and they changed their identity, and then the whole team fell into place. They brought back Mobley and Garland last week, and they had this new identity, and now the Cavs make way more sense than they used to because they figured out like this is the Mitchell Jared Allen team you guys got

to fit in the rest of the way Mobley the outside shooting has to happen for him for him to get higher than this and it just he can't shoot he can't space the floor and ultimately he's going to end up being a small ball five like a Jared Jackson Jackson Jr. type.

They need to figure out if he can play next to Allen. If he can't, they got to think about dealing one of them and Allen's on a better contract and they could probably get a shitload for Mobley. So this was the first time I was like, man, maybe it would make more sense for them to trade Mobley and get a lot of stuff for him. So Jared Allen, by the way, would not have made the top 75 for me two months ago, but he has had a remarkable resurgence. Number 44, James Harden, who has been completely

rejuvenated. I don't know if he is tricking the Clippers into giving me a big extension, and then he's going to go back to doing James Harden stuff. But the Clippers have been the best team in the league for two months. I don't think I've ever been more wrong about a trade so far. I'm not ruling myself out

for potentially being right with my Clippers are dumb, which is a YouTube video you can find on the Bill Simmons channel right now. Harden's been great. He's been really good for them and really unselfish.

And this is the most fun I've ever had watching James Harden play basketball, honestly. The Clippers are really fun to watch. I cannot believe how good they are in the last six minutes of these games, the shots they get. Like I was watching, who were they playing last night?

Atlanta. And just great shot after great shot. I think they had like 118 points with five minutes left and with a minute left, they had 143. It was just like every possession, open three, layup, 15 footer, open three, layup. They just get great shots and they would be so freaking scary

in a playoff series. I, you know, Kawhi, Paul, George, Harden. You just think like one of those guys, they're all old. One of those guys will probably be banged up by April, May. But if all those guys are healthy, that's the best team in the West.

And I say that being the most afraid of Jokic of any player in the league. But that is, they have so much. That would have to be Jokic just going to a level that he hasn't gone to yet in the playoffs. And he's been awesome in the playoffs. And by the way, won the title last year, but that's how good the Clippers have been. So Harden's a big reason. He's number 44. Number 43, OG and Anobi. Bringing back the concept of, hey, you know what's fun to have on your team? Guys who can guard basically everyone on the other team's roster.

There's only a few of these. You got Kawhi. I think Jalen Williams on OKC can do this. Drew Holiday, a little bit. Caruso can guard everybody basically six foot eight and under. Giannis can guard everybody. Bam can guard just about everybody.

Tatum, when they need it for five minutes, it's in them. Same for Anthony Edwards. There's a couple others. But OG, man, that trade. I like the trade more for the Knicks when it happened. And I think I went to that game on Saturday

and every Knicks fan I talked to was like, that's the greatest trade. We love that trade. OG was hurt. They still love the trade. We love that trade. OG was hurt. They still love the trade. Number 42, Cade Cunningham. Cade Cunningham for Mobley is an interesting trade. It's just a principle. I don't think it makes sense for the Cavaliers in any way, shape, or form

because they would have done it after Trey Garland. But they're kind of in the same boat where I really like the talents and I'm not positive they're on the right team. Number 41, Desmond Bain. Number 40, Dame Lillard, who is 25-7-4 this year, 43%, 35% from three,

and just seems like he has at least one stinker a week and sometimes has these stretches where three weeks of blog games with one awesome game and i'm not sure he can consistently be good anymore at the level that he used to be but we're gonna find out um we'll see there's some weird yana Dame stuff that they still have to figure out with how to play those guys off each other that even though

I know their offensive rating is great. I know they're good at thinking crunch time, but there's still some car keys stuff with them that it feels like Giannis is like,

you know who should have the car keys? Me. But yeah, I have Dame 40th. LeBron James 39th. You could have talked me into 60 for this.

You could have talked me into him being like 28. Where do you put him? Who's going to trade for him? Pick a team. Does he make sense? If you're Miami, would it make sense to go all in on LeBron? I know I've thrown that fake trade around. If you're Philly without Embiid, does it make sense?

Not really. Golden State, the Kaminga Clay trade without a bead, does it make sense? Not really. Golden State, the Kaminga Clay trade. Ultimately, does that really make sense? Are you winning the title if you do that? Probably not. He's kind of stuck where he is. And he does the hourglass emoji thing a couple days ago.

And this has been a recurring theme with him really since like 2014 when he was the last year he was on Miami. I'm like, man, I need help. Just this kind of passive aggressive prodding the team year he was on Miami. I'm like, man, I need help. You know, just this kind of passive aggressive prodding the team to get him more help. It's actually, I hate the Lakers, as you know. I'm actually offended on behalf of the Laker fans that LeBron is making it seem like he needs more help at this point.

Because I actually went back, I looked up all the guys or picks that they've traded or let go since they got LeBron. So this is over the last five and a half years. When they signed him in the summer of 2018, they got rid of Brooke Lopez and Jordan Clarkson. From 2019 to 2021, they got rid of Alex Caruso, Josh Hart, Horton Tucker, Brandon Ingram, KCP, Kuzma, Lonzo, Nance, and Zubats. Some pretty good guys there. I know they got Davis. They got Davis back and Davis is great. But you know what happens when you trade a shitload of stuff for Anthony Davis?

You don't have as much stuff anymore. That's how it works. If I'm spending a million dollars on some Maybach car, and then I'm like, man, why don't I have as much money? It's because you spend a million dollars on the Maybach car. That's Anthony Davis. 2022, Malik Monk left. Now, he was on a one-year deal and he could have left to make more money in Sacramento, but they had Malik Monk, one of the best six men in the league. 2023, Westbrook and Schroeder left. Those are a lot of good guys, right? And then on top of it, all the picks they had to trade. 2019 first, number four pick, DeAndre Hunter was in that Anthony Davis trade. 2021st, that was the number 28 pick. They traded for Schroeder, who they had for three years. That

became Jaden McDaniels. 2021 first, that was number 22. I think they put that in the Westbrook trade. That was Isaiah Jackson. 2022, the number nine pick, that was Dyson Daniels. That was part of the Anthony Davis trade. They're losing either their 24 or 25 first round pick as part of the Davis trade. That's New Orleans choice. So they'll probably take this year because the Lakers are pretty mediocre.

Maybe they'll roll the dice with next year. And then they're losing their 2027 first to Utah. Top four protected because of that trade they made that got them Russell and Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley, who they didn't fucking play. My point is, I think the Lakers

have done a lot here, and I don't know what else they could do. Oh, man, Russell and Austin Reeves, we got to upgrade those. Well, there's no way to upgrade them. Those are your guys.

And I think the better move maybe would have been two weeks ago as the leader of the team to be like, you know what? I don't want to hear about trade rumor stuff with us. I actually like the guys we have. We just have to play better. But these are the guys we picked over the summer.

We're going to figure it out. I'm the best guy on this team, and I'm going to make this happen. And instead, it's just hourglass emoji shit. And then you wonder why guys don't play that well. Well, would you play well if you knew you were going to get traded? Reviewing rumors every day? Or every time you go on Twitter or Reddit or anywhere, it's like, oh, D'Angelo Russell, here's 17 fake trades with him.

D'Angelo Russell has been playing good for like seven weeks. I don't get it. Number 38, Jalen Brown. Now, this is a little high for him because his contract is crazy. He makes like 50 million a year. Boston's too close. And the Tatum Brown thing has been too successful for the last eight years.

And they're just not trading for him unless they're getting somebody who's actually legitimately better than him back. He's not on the table. Maybe he'll be on the table this summer if the season doesn't go well. Number 37, DeMontis Sabonis, who should be on the All-Star team.

That was ridiculous. Number 36, Brandon Ingram, who's been playing really well. By the way, used should be on the all-star team. That was ridiculous. Number 36, Brandon Ingram, who's been playing really well. By the way, used to be in the Lakers. Next group, group G, the incredibly touchable untouchables. Number 35, Darius Garland, who was a legitimate untouchable for me. And then you watch how Mitchell's playing without him. And you think, man, could they turn Garland into a bunch of assets and just keep Mitchell and just triple down on him

and not worry that he's going to go to Brooklyn or the Knicks in a couple years? By the way, why would the Knicks want Mitchell with Brunson when Brunson's taking over the city? Why would you want to add Mitchell to that? I don't get that. He's in a good spot here. Here's the thing. Orlando needs to jump on this. And they have a bunch of firsts. They have Anthony Black, who I think has a lot of value. They have Jed Howard, who they took 10th pick. They have the faults expiring that they should use. I would

keep Jonathan Isaac because of his defense. And they could throw in two first unprotected. They could throw in a swap in another year and just try to overwhelm Cleveland with a Garland offer. Because ultimately, if you're Orlando, you can end up with Palo and Franz and Garland and Suggs. Figure out the rest later. You got your four. Those are four guys that could be in the Eastern Finals in two years. So if I was Orlando, I would godfather them for Garland right now. Number 34, Carl Anthony Towns. I would have put him higher, except he was having a game where he had 62 points and his coach benched him. And it just regurgitated all the, wait a second, does Carl Anthony Towns get it?

Because I watched that game with my dad and both of us were like, what the hell? Never seen that before. So I had to bump him like seven spots because of that. And then number 33 and number 32, Zion, number 33 and Ja Morant, number 32. These guys are either way too high or way too low. I don't know what to tell you. Zion doesn't rebound anymore. He'll have moments and stretches where he looks like Zion. It feels like, you know,

James Harden was like this too, where James Harden would just lose 10 pounds and all of a sudden be faster. And you'd be like, whoa, James Harden. Maybe that happened with Zion, maybe not. But this seems like the right range for both of them. 33 Zion, 32 Ja Morant.

All right. Next group, group F. Too young, too cheap, too good. Please stop calling us. Number 31, Mikael Bridges. The Nets should absolutely trade Mikael Bridges. What are they doing? It's like, oh no, we got to stay pretty good

because Houston has our top four pick. Don't worry about it. This draft sucks. They should be cashing in Bridges for as many picks and things that they can get because the recurring theme

in this trade value thing, which I should have said at the top, but I'll say here, everyone has offense. There's going to be almost 50, 20 point scorers in the league this year. The shooting's better. It's so easy to find guys who can create offense for themselves. That's the easiest thing now all over the week. What nobody can find are three and D guys, swing guys, guys who can switch on D,

guys who can create their shot a little bit, who can hit threes from wherever, and just do all the stuff Bridges does. Everybody wants that. That's why the Celtics paid Jalen Brown $50 million a year, because it's hard to find those guys. So if you're Cleveland, would you think about making a Bridges run? And like a Bridges and Finney Smith for Garland and Okoro? Or maybe Mobley's in that deal.

Would you think about making a run at Bridges so you have a core of Mitchell, Bridges, let's say Mobley, and Jared Allen. Plus all your shooters. I don't know. I think about it. Number 30, Franz Wagner. Number 29, Brandon Miller. So I thought Charlotte should have taken Scoot.

I'm on a run of just being wrong. Jesus. Even though some of my future stuff was good. But this one, I got to be honest, I was worried about all the off-court stuff with him. I didn't like it. Made me nervous. Then putting him in Charlotte,

a franchise that hasn't exactly been great off the court, just felt like a bad fit, Felt busty to me. KOC, one day, KOC, big winner in this pot. He loved Brandon Miller. He was like,

this guy's Paul George. I'm all in. This guy's going to be an elite two-way guy and a guy who created his own shot and he's going to be good right away. Well, he was right because Brandon Miller's really good.

I love Brandon Miller. If I'm Charlotte to me he's the only keeper on my team everyone else is available call us we'll talk any trade you can't have Brandon Miller

number 28 Shangoon discount Joker 22-9-5 this year really has laid the smack down on a couple teams too really fun to watch Discount Joker, 22-9-5 this year. Really has laid the smackdown on a couple teams too. Really fun to watch. He sucks on threes right now.

He's 29%. And that's, if you're thinking like, where does this go? How high can it get? The threes I think would be the thing to watch. Because if he can get that to like 37, 38%, you're looking at somebody who might score 27, 28 points a game in a couple years. But he's been a revelation. Just goes to show you how stupid the draft is.

You draft somebody. Now we thought we have, and you can go back and listen to it. We thought Shen Goon should have been a top eight pick that year. And he fell to 16. OKC traded out of the pick, which I'm sure they regret.

A rare mistake by them. But he was 6'9 when the draft happened. Now he's 6'11. It's just the draft's stupid. You draft the guy and he grows two inches. And the one thing is like, ah, he might not be tall enough to post that. And then all of a sudden he's 6'11.

We're going to take a break and then we'll do the top 27. All right, the top 27. Alright, the top 27. Group B is called Let Me Save You Some Time. Fuck no. Number 27 is Paul George. A big part of that Clippers team that might make the finals. Are you ready for the Bill Simmons finals?

Clippers Celtics? That's it. A lightning bolt will hit me right at the end of it number 26 Jaron Jackson Jr. weird Grizzlies year I don't know they might need

an exorcism number 25 Jimmy Butler he was in the teens but you know it'd be nice if he played more

he's missed 15 games I'm not even sure why he's played like 35 of 50 he's been showing signs of life lately, but I don't understand why they just throw away the regular season. It's risky, especially with the league as deep as it is. Number 24, this shocked me. B.M. Adebayo. Normally, it would have been a guy I would have put in the teens, but I don't know what happened to his shooting this year. He used to be a 57, 58% field goal guy and a really good,

reliable foul line jumper guy. Now he's 50%. You think a lot of that are dunks around the rim stuff, that 50% is bad. His true shooting is way down. His true shooting used to be in the mid-60s. Now it's like 55. There's a lot of bad advanced metric stats with him. Maybe he's in a slump. I don't know, but I had to discount him for that. Group D. There's four people in the budding franchise guy group.

Number 23, Laurie Markkinen, who is 24 and eight, 40% from three, taking eight a game. Really good at the end of games. And he's discount Dirk. We have discount Joker and discount Dirk. It's great. I had never understood why he was in trade rumors. They should not trade him. And if I were them, I would be trying to build around him, which I think that's what they're doing. Number 22, Tyrese Maxey, who he's this low because he's still in his rookie contract. He bet on himself. Very smart. Now they're going to have to max him out and he's probably going to make like 250 million bucks. I don't think he should be most improved.

I actually think Kobe White should be most improved that's who I would vote for right now I don't know what his odds are and I'm not allowed to bet on it but Kobe White went from oh fun bench guy to wow Kobe White

might make it all-star team someday Tyrese I think we all felt like once they got rid of Harden he was going to take off and he took off number 21 Chad Holmgren

and number 20 Jalen Williams. J-dub on OKC, who is basically a 25-5 guy already. His shooting percentage is 54. Field goal, 45, 3.81. Free throw. Oh, and he's an awesome defensive player and really plays hard and gives a shit.

And he's super competitive. I love that guy. I immediately loved him last year. Now I sound like LeBron. I knew right away with Jalen Williams how good he was going to be. But he jumped out of the TV immediately. OKC has three of my top 21, just for the record. Group C, only if they made us do it.

Number 19, De'Aaron Fox. I think he made the all-star team bel only if they made us do it. Number 19, Darren Fox. I think he made the all-star team belatedly. All-star game. Or he's going to. Is he going to be added in? I want one of these guys to be like, no, I'm not going. You didn't vote me in.

He's number 19. He should have made it. I think there was a real case to put him in over Curry. I know it's sacrilegious and I know it's more fun to have Curry in the all-star game. But if you're just saying like,

who is having a bigger impact on their team? Like the Kings had a way better record than the Warriors and statistically it was pretty even. So that was at least an argument. I feel like I'm going to get hit by a lightning bolt. Number 18, Anthony Davis. So I looked this up.

He's had a really good season. It's weird that, you know, the Lakers try to do this, oh, we've had so many injuries. You really haven't. LeBron and AD have been healthy

the entire season. So has Austin Reeves. Those are your three best guys. If your three best guys are healthy all year, you can't play them injuries. Just period. Davis,

for his career now, he's played 708 games. Only seven guys have ever averaged 24 and 10 for their career. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Will Chamberlain, Carl Malone, Larry Bird, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, and Anthony Davis. That's really good company. I feel good about that. I voted him for NBA Top 75.

After I did that, two months later, Joe House mailed me a picture of 600 grand candy bar wrappers. They were all empty. He said, I'm so upset about Anthony Davis making the NBA Top 75 that I ate these six candy bars.

That was the feeling about Anthony Davis, but he's been really good this year. Number 17, Kevin Durant. So since he blew out his Achilles and missed a whole season, since he came back three and a half plus years, he's averaging 29 points, seven rebounds, six assists,

he's shooting 54%, 42% from three, 90% from three-point shooting. He's a 50-40-90 guy for the entire 2020s. So I remember, I'm old. I remember the days when an Achilles injury meant your career was over. No more. Number 16, Kawhi Leonard. And I thought about putting him higher,

but it's Kawhi Leonard. I don't know when he's going to get hurt again. He has been one of the four best players in the league for the last, I'm going to say, two and a half months. He's been there with Jokic and Giannis and now that Embiid's hurt, and SGA and Kawhi.

There's crazy Kawhi stuff. I mean, for the season, he's a 56-43-89 percentage guy he whenever he wants can just shut down the best player on the other team I talked about this on a previous pod but I went to the OKC game where he's just like

I'll guard Shea and then stuffed him on the biggest play of the game he's played 45 games this year he looks like he has his burst back and it's just hard for me games this year. He looks like he has his burst back. It's just hard for me not to think they're a finals team if he's healthy. I have

it's them or Denver unless OKC makes a trade. I think it's the Denver and the Clippers. OKC with one more trade if they get a big guy, maybe. Then it drops off. Kawhi has won 73.4% of his games in his life. He's heading into tonight's games,

494 and 179. Third highest ever behind Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I don't know if you've heard of those guys. Just an amazing career. Let's say they make the finals. Let's say they win the title this year, the Clippers. I know that is impossible because they're the Clippers, but let's walk through this the finals. Let's say they win the title this year, the Clippers. I know that that would, it's impossible because they're the Clippers,

but let's walk through this. That would mean he won a title where he was the best player on three different teams, which has never happened before. Then he would probably have a case who was the best player of the last 10 years. It might be Kawhi. He might have the case.

Anyway, Kawhi Leonard. Good to have him back. Holy shit, is he good. Really, watch the Clippers. As you know, I was not a fan of the Harden trade, and I'm the first one to make fun of the Clippers,

but they are playing about as well offensively as you can have. Group B, we have two groups left. The Untouchables, Jamal Murray, number 15. It goes back to what I said earlier. When you have a chance to win the title, he's their second best guy. He's perfect with the Oak Ridge. They're not trading him.

Number 14, Donovan Mitchell, who climbed up. So they gave up Laurie Marketing, Colin Sexton, Agbaje, three firsts and two pick swaps for Mitchell. And he's been justifying it the last couple of months. He's plus 11.3 net, 28 a game. He's going toe to toe with all the other best players in the league. And he's been awesome. Jalen Brunson, number 13. I don't know what's going on here, but I went to that Knicks game Saturday and he's like the

most popular Knick. He's already more popular than Carmelo. He just is. Sorry, Carmelo fans. The crowd just absolutely goes crazy for him. You kind of have to see it in person. The Lakers had to double him in the whole fourth quarter of the game I went to because he just gets a shot off. Jacoby was there and he was mentioning how it was very similar to that crazy Isaiah Thomas Celtics season. The difference is Brunson's not crashing

into the basket support and crashing a cameraman and leaning on his back 10 times a game like Isaiah who just was playing, just was an absolute maniac in a good way. Brunson, it's a little more in control. I feel like it's more sustainable over the course of four or five years. And Dallas, losing him for nothing when they had Luka. Biggest boner of the 2020s for NBA. Biggest NBA boner. I'm going to give it that. Number 12, Joel Embiid.

I have no idea when he's coming back. He would have been in the top eight before he got hurt, but he got hurt again. I thought it was interesting that there was a lot of stuff about, see, this is you guys, you're always saying,

you're playing and he should play and look, he got hurt. I mean, Kaminga kind of did a flying elbow on his knee and it was the other knee. It wasn't even the knee that had been hurt before. Every single player in the league would have been hurt on that play.

So I don't know if it was the media bullying Joel L. Beat into playing. It seemed to me like it was Kaminga just diving onto his knee and every single person in the planet would have been hurt. Number 11, Steph Curry. First time out of the top 10 for him on a trade value in a long, long time.

He's 35 years old. He's at the tail end here of his prime prime where he can't do it night after night after night anymore. He is going to lead the league in most threes for the eighth time in his career.

Nobody else has more than three. And we'll see. We'll see if the Warriors can make a little run here. Number 10, Devin Booker. Number nine, Tyrese Halliburton, which is a fantastic argument. Booker's slightly better, but Halliburton's four years younger,

and I'd rather have the younger guy. Okay, last group. Group A. Completely and utterly untouchable. This is a good argument. Paolo Bancaro, number eight. Anthony Edwards, number seven. I switched these guys back and forth

a bunch of times. I think both of these guys could be the best player on a championship team. Paolo's probably a little more unusual because of his size, and especially when he fills out a little bit. There's, I mean, a bunch of people have mentioned,

like, it's a little LeBron-ish sometimes with him, with how athletic and strong and just overpowering he is. But Edwards, I mean, Edwards has it. You could see, I remember the late 90s with Kobe those first couple years when I had my own website writing about Kobe

and everyone was on the bandwagon. It was like, I think this guy has it. I think he has it. And then it was game four of the 2000 finals when Shaq fouled out and he had that moment against Indiana. I was like, yes, he had it. He has it. That was it. And then it was game four of the 2000 finals when Shaq fouled out and hit that moment

against Indiana. I was like, yes, he had it. He has it. That was it. Edwards feels like he's in that. He's swimming in that pool. So that's the only reason it's like just a slight edge, but in six months, that might be a flip-flop. Either way, phenomenal outcome for Orlando, where they have the number eight guy in a trade value list in a pick that they agonized over with him and Chet and Jabari and they made the right pick. Number six, Jason Tatum.

26 years old this season. He's been on so many good teams and in so many playoff games and series that there's been this weird... I just... If you're going to criticize Jason Tatum, and I'm not going to sound like a Celtics homer. As you know, I'm not a homer. I'm the first one to criticize my team.

But Tatum's done a lot of good stuff already, and he has a lot of big series and big wins under his belt. And he is on pace to play like 275 playoff games if it goes like this. You just have to point out that he's 25 starting this season.

And players peak from 27, 28, 29, 30. That's how it goes. So just point that out. If you're going to criticize him, just point out that he's still young. Number five, Shea Gilgis Alexander, who

it's him or Jokic right now for MVP unless Giannis goes nuts down the stretch. There's a slight, Kawhi was like 50-1 on Fandle today. I was like, hmm, well, how good would the Clippers have to be for the last 32 games for that to become an interesting bet? But Shea should, he should win that stupid clutch bet.

What's that, that clutch award? I think I voted for that last year. I can't remember who I voted for. Shea should win the clutch award. Shea has been the best guard in the league, unless you count Luka as a guard, even though he's 260 pounds. Here's a stupid Shea stat.

If you go on Basketball Reference, I was looking at the game score. I don't even know how they come up with game score, and it's not the most reliable stat, but you can look at game score, and then you hit the button so you can see somebody's best games all the way down to their worst games.

And 44 of his 49 games had a 19.5 plus or over game score, which is good. He had 19 of his 49 games or over 30, which means that guy was fucking awesome. Everybody was blessed to be there. And he only had five games under 17

out of 49, which means only five of his 49 games that basketball referenced was like, eh, not that great of a game. It's unbelievable how consistent this dude is and how easily he just gets his shot off without shooting threes. This is like he came out in 1975.

He has every move in the book and he's also really good on defense. He's 2.3 steals a game. I think he's leading the out in 1975. He has every move in the book and he's also really good on defense. He's 2.3 steals a game. I think he's leading the league in steals. Could Shea be the best guy on a championship team? Yes, absolutely. Number four,

Victor Wembyama. Number three, Luka Doncic. I really thought hard about flipping this. I don't know if you've seen Wemby lately, but oh my God. Luca, ultimately Luca's a safer bet. I'm still not positive Luca's fun to play with. And it seems like he's in that same lineage with Harden

and even like LeBron to some degree of like, if you're on my team, you have to do this because I'm going to do this and everybody's got to fit around me. It's weird to me that Grant Williams went to Dallas and just wasn't good because I know Grant Williams is a good role player, but I think there's certain guys who are so great at their individual basketball and you either have to fit into it or you don't. Rob Mahoney wrote an awesome piece about it for The Ringer this week. How do you play with somebody like this? It's a weird problem to have

when it's one of the most talented guys of the last 20 years, but you have people trying to figure out, how do I play with this? Whereas somebody like SGA, everybody can fit in with him. So I have Luka three and Wemba Nyama four. I have Giannis two.

Giannis has just been a borderline sociopath this year and I mean that in the nicest way possible he really really really gives a shit about every game it's great I love it I don't know if it's sustainable but it's the reason why

you can't count him out I think he's like plus 650 or 701 he could roll off like a 37 and 15 for an entire month of March, something like that. So just keep an eye on that. Jokic is number one. He's the best player in the league. He gets the best shots throughout a game at the end of the game. He lifts everyone around him. Everyone's better. We've done a million Jokic things already. he's clearly the number one I don't see that changing

we'll see if this is the lowest Wambinyama will show up on one of these lists for the next 10 years if he's healthy I'm going to guess that four is the lowest

he's going to be for the next 10 years anyway that is the trade value list for early February 2024. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget, me and Rosillo, we're going to be going whenever that we're on call, Wednesday

night, Thursday, we're going to be doing multiple partners on here. Anything related to the trade deadline, anything that happens, and we'll have a little wrap up after. So multiple parts coming up on the BS pod. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. As always, don't forget, you can watch this on youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. And I will see you either Wednesday night or Thursday. I never said I don't have feelings with him. On the wayside, I'm a person I never said I don't have feelings with him. Must be 21 plus in President's like states.

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