The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Most Improbable 2023 NBA Story Lines Draft (So Far) With Joe House and Dave Jacoby

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House and David Jacoby to discuss whether the Lakers or Warriors are a better postseason bet, how the rest of the Jazz's season will play out, the Celtics' narrow victory over the 76ers, a tightening MVP race, and more (4:00), before drafting the Most Improbable 2023 NBA Story Lines (So Far) (50:39). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and David Jacoby Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, if you go to nbarankings.theringer.com, you can find our top 100 NBA player rankings, which are updated often. You can find our league past player rankings, our NBA odds machine that we just launched last week, as well as the trade value, top 70 players, which we ran that last month. And then who knows, I might be updating it again as we get closer to the playoffs. It is called nbarankings.theringer.com. Go there. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action.

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or visit rg-help.com. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this, it's game day, all the gang's here. You're tailgating outside the stadium. It's a great time for beer. Or how about when you're standing at the grill and the smell of sizzling burgers is in the air? Moments like that are when you want a light beer that tastes like beer, that's delicious. You don't want to load up on those heavier beers and then you only have two of them. Then you feel tired. Your stomach feels full. Miller Lite, it's your friend. It just accompanies whatever else you're doing. You're super happy

with it. Opening an ice cold Miller Lite can signal the beginning of Miller time. Miller Lite is the light beer with all the great beer tastes we like. 90 calories per 355 mil can. So why not grab some Miller Lites today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I have new rewatchables coming for you on Monday. We did Catch Me If You Can. It's a Leo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks movie directed by

Steven Spielberg. It's awesome. If you want to watch it, it's actually on HBO Max and a couple other places, but that's coming Monday night. Keep an eye on the Prestige TV podcast as well, because not only are we breaking down The Last of Us and Poker Face, but we're going to start running Succession Hall of Fame episodes starting this week. We did one from season one. If you remember from, I think last year, 18 months ago, we did the Safe Room episode from season two, which I think is the best one out of the three seasons. But maybe you heard the news, Succession, they're wrapping up.

This is the fourth and last season coming at the end of March. So we are going to be ready for it with podcasts on the Prestige TV pod, as well as The Watch. And we're going to have some Hall of Fame episodes leading up to season four, the final season of Succession. So there you go. So we

recorded this podcast during most of the Clippers-Nuggets game. I actually got to watch most of the fourth quarter and then the overtime, the Nuggets won by 10. It was an awesome game. Kawhi looks like two-way Kawhi again. He really does. He had 33, but he's just all over the place on both ends. He was punishing Jamal Murray. He was going at Jokic. It was really great. And then Jokic was spectacular. He finished 40, 17, and 10. And I think what's amazing about the season he's having, we talked about a little bit later in the podcast about how Embiid is inching closer to him and the MVP stuff. But then Jokic will just have another game like tonight. The consistency of him, this is what I grew up with, with the guys

like Bird and Magic and MJ, where you just night after night after night, you would look at the newspaper, USA Today, and be like, oh, Magic had 19, 20 assists and 15 rebounds, and you just wouldn't even blink. And that's the stage Jokic has gotten to. He looks, you watch some of these games,

he's got cuts all over him. This game he had like seven bloody cuts. He looked like Mick Foley after a Hell in a Cell match or something. But just the way he dissects these teams, it's so much fun to watch. Ryan Rucco asked J.J. Redick at the end of the game today,

he was like, what stands out about Jokic to you? And J.J. said, the patience. And I completely agree. That's what, even you, 30 seconds left, 45 seconds left, 15 seconds left. He's always like dissecting, you know, he's, we already had the doctor and Julia serving, but he's another kind of a doctor. He's just dissecting the game constantly, always making the right decision.

Today is 14 for 21 and 12 for 15 from the line. It was a tough loss for the Clippers. There's a lot of Marcus Morris at the end of that game that I couldn't necessarily agree with. They're trying to figure out what they have. But that fourth quarter, that OT felt very second round, third round-ish to me. Those are two teams that I think

are probably gonna be there. If I had to say who's in the final four in the West, I think I would have those two. I'm not sure who the other two, but I think I would have those two. I can't quit the Clippers, even after the Westbrook signing, which we're about to talk to with Jacobian House.

First, our friends from ProJep. All right. Ten years ago this month, one of the great cinematic productions of all time happened, House Eats 3. We have the star of House Eats 3, Joe House, as well as the mastermind behind it, my old Grantland colleague, Dave Jacoby, is here as well.

You know, it came and went. I was waiting for a 10-year-old history in like Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Jacoby, just nothing. It just came and went. I was waiting for a 10-year-old history in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Jacoby, just nothing. It just came and went. Well, this anniversary is meaningful to me because there was a House Eats episode that we filmed and never aired that was the real House Eats 3, the Vegas House Eats that we just bailed on. But House Eats 3 is not just the peak of my career, but I also think it's just the peak of artistic achievement by digital content creators.

Ahead of its time. That's how I feel as well. And the other thing with House Eats 3, it was the height of just us being able to do stuff and just charge a TSPN without them really wondering what was going on. We rented out a restaurant. We had judges. Like a whole thing just for a YouTube clip. Like thousands of dollars of food. Houses thrown up

everywhere. We have to pay up extra for the cleanup. I mean Sal threw up everywhere. Multiple rooms inside the restaurant Sal threw up. He changed colors. He tried to throw up on you by the restaurant. Sal threw up. He changed colors. He tried to throw up on you by sticking a finger down his throat. It's really the proudest piece of art I've ever been a part of. It's somewhere on the Internet house.

There's a link, right? It's on like Vimeo. There's a link. I can send it around. I get private requests once or twice a year. I make sure that I have a lot of private requests. It was really nice of you to invite me on and pretend that we were going to talk about the NBA when we're just going to spend the next 90 minutes doing it behind the scenes of House Eats 3.

Sorry, I've got 120 minutes. My bad. That's a special eight-part podcast. Let's talk NBA. We have a big project at the second part of this. We're going to do the most improbable 2023 NBA stories. We've got to start. The Lakers win and the Warriors win. These are the two teams that you could see them making the Western

finals, or you could see them missing the playoffs completely. It looked like it looked like at one point here, the words we're going to lose. They're down like nine, Minnesota falls apart. Golden state wins at home house. If you had to pick a team to ride for the next two to four months for months from an upside standpoint, would you go Lakers or would you go Warriors? Curry's coming back soon. I am officially on board with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Oh, it's happening. Oh, my God. I'm here to pronounce and announce. I believe that the version of the Lakers that we saw today, they are flexible. They can bully you. They are big. They can go small. I think they put on a clinic against that Dallas team and that Dallas team who I thought on paper, as we exited the all-star break might have a sneaky, uh, approach, a way of, of coming together that put them in contention. They're out.

I'm done. I'm out of that Dallas team. I'm out. They are lost. That is a lost basketball team. They can't play with size. But I was so impressed by the Lakers. And, you know, D'Angelo Russell's played all of about seven and a half

minutes for him. The poor guy got a bum ankle. It's Jared Vanderbilt. I mean, they stole Jared Vanderbilt. They did. At the trade deadline. And that transforms that team. His role on that team, it's a perfect compliment.

Malik Beasley's just standing out there catching wide open threes and knocking them down. I really think that this Lakers team, obviously it all comes down to health with them, but they have load bandage successfully up to this point. This is like a first take monologue from

house. Between those two teams, I could see him on a split screen with Perk and Stephen A just going for three minutes. This was impressive. With the little graphic underneath, the Lakers are contenders, we can quote something like that. Jacoby, are graphic underneath. The Lakers are contenders, like in quotes, something like that.

Jacoby, are you in on the Lakers? No, no, I'm not in on the Lakers. Absolutely not. I, I thought that the headline was like, they reunited with D'Angelo Russell.

Guess what? Jared Vanderbilt is the headline of this trade. You saw what he did today, the difference that he makes, what he does for Anthony Davis, you know, that play with Dennis Schroeder takes it by himself at the end of the game with with anthony davis trying to post up misses you'll never believe this missing the left-handed layup

vanderbilt's just pushing people out of the way swinging his arms around batting balls getting rebounds like vanderbilt you know if you weren't paying close attention he's he's very effective when he was in minnesota and i think it's exactly what this lakers team needs and you know if russell gets healthy that'll be great but like this team is not, I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. They're going to make the play in maybe make the playoffs. And then you see them going up against the Grizzlies or the Nuggets there. They might win a game, but how you would rather be them than the reigning champion warriors who are about to return Steph Curry.

I want to make sure I heard that correctly. I think the warriors are snake bit. I think every time that they've had a chance to string something together, they just, you know, it's, it's half a step forward and two steps back. We will find out the results of Draymond Green's MRI with this podcast is up overnight, you know, tonight into tomorrow, and that will determine the fate of this team. But this is the version of the defending champs that we've gotten. It started with a punch before we even really got rolling.

And every step along the way, the biggest problem for the poor Warriors is they made a gamble on the bench and the bench turns out to stink. They look at Moses Moody, played four minutes tonight. They had poor Patrick Baldwin they had to press into service. I mean, this is the version of the

Warriors that unfortunately we get this season. Steph will come back and I think they will do Warriors like stuff once the playoffs get rolling, but it's just too tall a hill to climb in my humble opinion.

Warriors 31-30. Right now they're the 7th seed. We're taping this. It is 725 Pacific time. So Clippers Denver is happening right now. Lakers are 29 and 32. They are the 11th seed. I want to go Lakers first and then come back to the Warriors. The Vanderbilt piece, I mean, that was the key of the trade.

I always thought Russell was kind of the smoke for the casual basketball fans. He was the biggest name in the trade. But really, he was an expiring contract and somebody who could handle the casual basketball fans. He was the biggest name in the trade, but really he was an expiring contract and somebody who could handle the ball and shoot. But for the most part, what they really needed was Vanderbilt. They needed a guy who could play next to Davis, who could guard different positions.

And he's somebody, we talked about it a bunch of times on this podcast, like where were the contenders for that guy? Because he was on a cheap contract. Utah just wanted picks. Anybody could patch whatever with them. Like I was the contenders for that guy? Because he was on a cheap contract. Utah just wanted picks. Anybody could patch whatever with them. Like I was watching Philly last night. I know we're going to talk about that game later, but they're throwing in McDaniels in these big spots. That guy's never been like, he might be good. I don't know. We'll see. But he, that guy's

never been in a big game in his NBA career. He had those two free throws, I think in the third quarter and had the knee knocker, two clangs, you know, and you think like this guy's been in Charlotte. He's like a witness protection program. But Vanderbilt is somebody that I feel like could have played, you know, pretty pivotal roles on a bunch of teams. So Jacoby, you look at them and you just think like, we all like Vanderbilt. I think he's a playoff guy as we always talk about. And he got Davis who looked a little rejuvenated tonight. I don't trust him. I know we go game to game with him. Same for LeBron who's, who's in year 20, who knows with him game to game, the point guard position, whatever

the Schroeder Russell, like they'll have people who can bring the ball up and dribble. And then you put Beasley Reeves, whoever is the fifth. That's at least the recipe for, I'm not sure I would want to play them in a series if everyone is healthy i just think the if is too big of an if it's not just that it's for me you asked about the next two to four months and it's adorable you think that either of these teams will be around in four months but the lakers have a great starting five on paper they're great like i'm watching you know lebron james looks it's like marshawn lynch at like six nine just like going to the basket i don't even want to know what's going to take lebron charge for the rest of the season like he's just going hard at the hole and using his

strength and size and experience and footwork but i don't see this team beating the nuggets or the grizzlies i've seen them as a playing team they really need to like really go on a win streak to get into a five like a four or five series. What if I, what if I give you 27 and 14, Anthony Davis, just rising from the ashes. And that's what I'm getting.

The guy today against Dallas who completely destroyed them, especially in the second half. What if I gave you that guy for the next, I'm just, I'm just playing it out. As you know, I'm not a big fan of this Lakers team, but let's play it out.

What if we have that guy in the mix and healthy LeBron? Yeah, then we have the bubble Lakers. They have a much better team surrounding them now after the trade deadline. That is the ideal, but what are the chances of that happening? Low, very, very low. And then you also have Monique Beasley, who used to date one of the player's moms

on the team, which is not being talked about enough at all. Larsa Pippen, Monique Beasley, Larsa Pippen, like publicly dated, and then they traded for Monique Beasley. How is that conversation going in practice? How is that going in practice? You would have thought they would have just sent Scotty

maybe, hey, we're sending you back to the G League, something like that. Definitely a little bit awkward. The Davis thing, House. I'm trying to think of anyone in my life who's more skeptical of Anthony Davis than you and all the conversations we've had about it and just the lack of trust. But then you see him just demolishing Dallas. And at the same time, reinvigorating the Lakers, whatever potential,

because they won two straight, they beat new Orleans without Zion. Congratulations. And then they beat, uh, they beat the words without Curry. Congratulations. They're down 17 in the game today.

And I'm like, Oh yeah, this is why idiots. You thought the Lakers were, but they really came back and Davis was completely overpowering him. And Vanderbilt were the two best guys in the game. But you're not buying yet. Well, look, we saw this version of Davis for about 20 games earlier this season. I bet on him to win MVP

when he was reeling off his game. In fairness, you bet on every single star in the league to win MVP. I mean, you have 11 MVP bets. I do have about six guys I bet on MVP, but at one point when he was like at 20 to one or so, and he's ripping off these, you know, double digit rebounds, you know, 25 to 30 point games. Like, sure. Why not? It was, it was a speculative bid, but we're only asking him to do it for another, you know, he won't have to play every single one of these remaining regular season games. They can rest him if that's necessary.

See, I disagree. I mean, they're the 11th seed right now. I don't know how you rest anybody. There's a whole club in front of them. They're all bunched together is the thing. I mean, they'll catch. I don't have the schedule in front of me, but I know that they,

they catch one of Houston or San Antonio in there and that will be a rest, uh, opportunity for, for they have, if it's necessary. Grizzlies Tuesday. OKC on Wednesday in OKC, but SGA has missed the last two games. It's kind of a whiff of a tanker smell there.

Jacoby little, little Wimba, Wimba, Yama cologne. Maybe Presti's putting on Timberwolves at home, Warriors at home, Grizzlies at home, Raptors at home, Knicks at home. So a whole little homestand. Then they go on the road for New Orleans, Houston, back home for Dallas.

So, I mean, the schedule, it is what it is. It's a lot of West teams. Do you trust, Jacacoby where do you stand on d'angelo russell i don't know if i know the answer to this i i am not a fan i i rossillo is probably a 10 out of 10 on the not a fan scale i'm like an eight and a half oh i'm uh i'm a nine out of 10 and it all started with the the swaggy p controversy i know you remember that i know that that was really that would really that really stuck me that would really really stuck me ever since then every time he points at his arm after he makes a shot or whatever i'm just like you're still the guy that called out swaggy p

and broke his alia and swaggy p's relationship i don't care how many games you have i do not care 20 i do not care it is usable behavior it is behavior that i'm on the other side of that i think you're wrong joby I just think he was a kid trying to get his seasoning trying to find his way that was Nick Young's fault he's two years older than my daughter why do we care about Nick Young

and Iggy Azalea at the time both Nick Young and Iggy Azalea were very relevant at the time at the time the two of them were extremely relevant since then not so much not so much but they are going to end up in the plan because the jazz aren't going to be in the plan the timberwolves i don't have a lot of belief in like they're going to end up in the plan they're going to win a play-in game and they're going to be the team that the nuggets and grizzlies like worked so hard to get this record they're gonna be like

and now we have to play d davis lebron james you know and i want to stop you you keep talking about the grizzlies as though that's a team that's a formidable team to be honest about i also disagree we we need to sit down and watch some fourth quarters of the grizzlies together my man like that that team when it's ground down into a half court uh offense continues to just swing and miss. And if you have a fourth quarter where those two teams are close, I trust the Lakers a lot more than I trust the Grizzlies in a game, especially in a playoff context.

To me, that's a key point. I don't really like anyone in the West other than Denver, who just lost by 30 in Memphis. They're down 35 at one point. I'm with the house on Memphis. I don't like their last five minutes. And it was interesting the other night, them and Cleveland both lost really winnable games

that were basically happening around the same time with each other. Cleveland blew one, Memphis blew one, and it was the same stuff. I don't love the shots they get the last five minutes of the game. It seems like a lot of just jaw driving into three guys or some 20-footer fall away from Jared Jackson with four seconds on the shot clock.

I don't love the shots they get. And it's awesome. We'll talk about them later because I have them in my improbable thing. But Denver is really the only team I love, Jacobs. And I love the Reggie Jackson, just adding him. That guy's been in real basketball games and has real experience. I think he's going to help. But they do have these nights where they just get the shit kicked out of them. It's a very strange one seed. That Grizzlies game was so weird. Like I turned it off in like the second quarter.

It was just a weird, weird game. And right now, Reggie Jackson has probably got like 10 points against the Clippers. How many does Reggie have against the Clippers? It's like the first quarter. I'm predicting Reggie Jackson scores at least 25 tonight, at least 25. That was really a steal for them to just randomly stumble into that guy who,

uh, who's been around, you know, you mentioned Utah house. You think Utah falls out? No, I think Utah stays in. I agree with you.

That team's feisty. Yeah, and they believe in each other. I mean, we would have seen the note come down from on high much sooner than right now. They're way too far to the other. They're not going to help their odds, Eddie, by tanking. They're too good. They have this Walker Kessler

situation, which is the fucking craziest thing I've ever seen. I actually bet on OKC against them this week, and Walker Kessler just turns into Bill Russell with like a minute to go. It's like watching the 1960s Bill Russell highlights on YouTube of him just blocking Hal Greer.

And they have a go-to guy in marketing. And then another half of a go-to guy in Clarkson, because every once in a while he looks great. I don't know. When I look at those teams that are all bunched together, which is basically Dallas 32-30, Golden State 31-30, Utah 31-31, Minnesota 31-32, New Orleans 30-31. And then the Lakers 29 and 32. I keep looking at that Minnesota,

New Orleans combo where it just with New Orleans, talk about snake bit. I just say like the Zion thing, who the hell knows when he comes back and they're without Zion, that just have not been, not been thinking of them as a playoff team. And then Minnesota, I don't know.

Every time you turn on Minnesota, it's like somebody's not playing. Today it was Gobert. You go to the other game, it's this guy's not going. And I don't know. I could see if you had to pick one of those two, Jacobs, who would you pick to drop out? Minnesota or New Orleans? Because the Lakers have to get somebody's spot.

Yeah, they have to get somebody's spot. I would say Minnesota. The Zion thing is just so disappointing and weird and just vague. It just makes me so, so sad when you've seen what he can do and he just can't be on the court. He got hurt in high school, got hurt in college, got hurt in summer league. He gets hurt every year in the pros. He just hurt all the time.

And I really think that they have just kind of like taken that fun. Do you remember how you felt about the Pelicans remember last year in the playoffs about two months ago yeah like i felt so good about the pelicans coming out of last year and starting this year and i was just i felt so good about them and now i do not they were in the top three in the west on january the second i remember you know haral bob came on on here in December and he was basically like, that's the sleeping giant. Like that team, when they have all their

pieces together, that's actually the highest ceiling other than Denver. And it felt like that, what were they, three and 14 and 17 games at one point? Yeah, the 10 game

losing streak. Yeah. They played in the garden last night and like the garden didn't have any energy because they put up no fight. It wasn't because the Knicks were down.

It was just like there was it was over. It was just absolutely over the garden like was just had was a dead building because the Pelicans weren't even in the game.

Well so to put a bow on the Lakers part of this it's going to come down to those two guys. One guy's in his 20th year. The other guys made a glass.

Malik Beasley and Scottie Kim Jr. If they could somehow get 20 games out of these guys, LeBron went down today. LeBron, LeBron had that run for like 10 years when you felt, I always used to make the joke, like his leg could come off on a dunk and he would just go get it and put it back on and just be ready for the next play.

Now when he goes down, he'll go down for a little longer. Like he's definitely a little bit, it got a little bit of the old guy to him now, but, um, but the golden state part of this house, you were talking about the snake bit piece. I'm going the other way. Like, I can't believe they're 31 and 30 with how many games did I say Curry is missed so far? I think he's at, I mailed this to you.

Hold on, I have it. Curry has missed 22 games. So if you told me at the 60 game mark, Curry's going to miss 22 games, I would have said, all right, the West is tough. They're probably a couple games over 500. So they're kind of, I would say they are where they are. The big disappointment is what you mentioned before,

that they had all these young guys that you're waiting to step up. Kaminga, Wiseman, Moody. Who's it going to be? You figure they go one for three, maybe even two for three. And it feels like they've gone 0 for three. And Wiseman's already gone. Moody's not playing. And Kaminga, incredibly talented.

I'm a fan. I have some Kaminga stock. I don't know if I trust him. I don't know if I would trust him with five minutes left. Do you trust him, House? It's just not time yet. I mean, he's good. He's going to be good. I literally sent you my hoped for trade in advance of the trade deadline,

which was Kyle Kuzma for Kaminga. I thought that was a very fair trade. I thought it was going to help both teams. And I would love to see the development of Kaminga because I think he's going to be good. He's a monster. But he's learning. He doesn't have a mature basketball IQ yet.

But, you know, Golden State's a great place to acquire that. But, you know, what's going on with Wiggins? He's got some kind of family situation that's serious enough that he's out indefinitely. We're going to get the MRI results on Draymond tomorrow. When is Gary Payton going to play? And then we have Curry

with two different, pretty severe injuries to different parts of his body, right? Yeah, that's all. I mean, you know, I don't doubt it. I don't doubt them. They just can't catch a break. that's all i mean you know i i don't doubt it i don't doubt them they just can't catch a break that's all this off season i remember thinking to myself like maybe bob myers is light years ahead like they don't have a championship window they've got like a full championship sunroof that they've just opened all the wind route windows and the sunroof they've got

like two nucleuses playing at the same time. They're set up for 10 years. This is amazing. However, I was planning on Wiseman being great, Kaminga being great, Moody being great, and obviously I like Poole, and Poole sort of further developing. But right now they do look like they need to ride

this Clay, Dre, Steph window until those wheels fall off. Because I don't think there is this sort of second window that I thought was in this offseason existing anymore. I have more words, thoughts, but let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey.

That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday night NHL hockey, and it's on prime all season long. Watch prime Monday night hockey, deliver unreal plays. The biggest goals can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL is best. They're all on Prime. Prime Monday Night Hockey. It's on Monday. It's on Prime. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance.

Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal

and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. We were talking about the words for the break. This Clay Thompson thing, where I feel like it's becoming over-covered and over-discussed every time he does well, we have to do the, oh, somebody thinks he's not done yet. And the announcers have to get into it. And Clay's got to talk to people.

It's like, dude, we've been doing this all year. We're good. Clay Thompson, you're good. We're all fine. We've all agreed. You're good at basketball again. Do we have to do this whole fucking circus? Like, you're good.

You have four rings. You're one of the best shooting guards of this century. We're good. We're not arguing about this. Nobody's doubting you anymore. You're not like Ozzy washed up. Like, we all think you're good at basketball. So I vote that we stop this, Jacobs.

I think that's fair. And I think with Klay, we're like, he's back now. Look at Klay Thompson. Now he's back. It's been like, I don't know, a year. Right. Kevin Durant tears his Achilles. It's out for two years and then just like laces up and scores 40.

We don't even bat an eyelash. You know what I mean? But like Klay Thompson worked himself back over eight months. And now we celebrate him like, you know, like he just, you know, scored 45 points coming out of the hospital. Yeah, his January splits house

27 points a game 43% from three February splits nine games not counting tonight 25 points and 45.9% from three. For the season 45.9% from three. For the season, he's 41% from three again. He's averaging 22 a game.

This is like a typical Klay Thompson season. Let's put a fork in the narrative. Klay Thompson's back. We're good. We all agree. Let's just move on. And guess what? When Curry comes back, you're not breaking new ground if you're like, I think this is one of the best backcourts

of all time. We've heard that one too. The Warriors are the most over-covered, over-discussed, over-talked about teams probably in any sport that we've ever had. We know all the angles. We don't have to keep saying it. Klay's a great shooter.

He's good. He's back. Took a while. Got him back. We get it. Bill, I don't know if you know this, but Draymond Green, he really helps this team in ways that don't show up on the stat sheet. I don't know if you've heard that, I don't know if you know this, but Draymond Green, he really helps this team in ways that don't show up on the stat sheet.

I don't know if you've heard that. But you can't really quantify what Draymond brings to this team. I don't know if you also know this. He's the heart and soul of the team. He's the heart and soul of the team as well. I don't know if you guys have heard that as well. Heard that. And the puncher.

Yeah, I just want to. I'm ready to, after watching a couple of Jordan Poole, after watching Steph throw his the Jordan pool, after watching Steph throw his mouthpiece into the stands after an ill-advised Jordan pool. And then he had a couple of those tonight. Like, I don't understand what green light Jordan pool thinks he has. He barely grazed the side of the underside of the backboard with one of those chucks. It was awful.

By the way, turn that, turn the Tik TOK camera on Kyle. Oh, the best words in podcasting. The most exciting words in podcasting right there. Really appreciate that. So Draymond punches Poole in the face right as they're deciding who's going to get the extension money. Is it going to be Poole and Draymond? Is it going to be one of them?

And Poole probably makes an extra, I would say 15 million from that punch combined with the fact that Tyler Harrow was also signing for around that same money. And in December, he was 27 a game. Curry wasn't in some of that stuff, but for the season, he's 21 a game. But he's not my kind of player for the most part, even though I really respect the player. They've turned him into an asset and he's basically like their version of Jordan Clarkson. I don't love the shots he takes. I think defensively, he can really be targeted and challenged in a lot of different ways. And I just wonder, would they have been better off doing what the Celtics did with Grant Williams and just not doing anything?

And just basically taking it to the summer, keeping that contract down, and then also potentially having the trade deadline flexibility. I look at that contract house. You, me, and Waz are going to do our worst contract second annual pod in a couple weeks. And I sent you guys like 50 possible contracts and I put the pool contract on it. I don't feel awesome about paying him 30 million plus a year. Where do you stand house? Oh,

you already know where I stand. I totally agree with this. I, his shot selection. He is a guy that's most effective coming off the bench and you let him try and, and, and put up a quick 12.

He either has it or he doesn't. And if he doesn't have it, you kind of take them out. He's got to be out. There is no other aspect of his game. He's like fine defensively. He doesn't blow me away. That should be his calling card. Like if, if they have an off season, sit down with him, like, here's the thing.

Let's take some of that energy that you're putting into 35-footers when nobody is paying attention and let's redirect that maybe into some perimeter defense. That's how you're going to stick around this league for another 10 years. Jacoby, four years, $128 million for Jordan Poole

starting next year. I'm a Jordan Poole supporter. House that is never going to be his calling card. If you, if you call, if you use that card and call Jordan pool, he will not pick up. It will be,

it will not happen. Okay. He's never going to be a defensive stopper. I think he's got a great finishing package around the rim, which I really like. He's not afraid of anything, not afraid of any moment. I do think that maybe when he's redirecting,

reallocating his energy, maybe less jumping around and fist pumping at the crowd after makes and more little defensive stance fighting through screens communicating on defense you know what I mean I think that would be fair to ask but can I speak to Conspiracy Bill for a second

yes please he's right here you mentioned the Draymond extension potentially and the pool extension potentially and then we saw the punch how did we see the punch You mentioned the Draymond extension potentially and the pool extension potentially. And then we saw the punch. How did we see the punch? That's a closed practice. It's a fixed camera.

That's a security camera. Conspiracy Bill, who put out that video? You tell me, Conspiracy Bill. I'm very suspicious of how we had our eyes on that video in a closed practice at the Warriors facility. Conspiracy Bill, the floor is yours. Well, Conspiracy Bill, when he tackles this, he likes to look at one thing. Who has the most to gain? You just start there.

Who has the most to gain from something coming out? Right? It's like when ESPN, when they'll put out somebody's salary and you're like, oh, that's a bad sign. They put the person's salary out. That means the crows are circling. The most to gain here was probably the Warriors

if they wanted to get out of the Draymond extension. But on the other hand, it ended up costing them more money with pool. So you could argue the Warriors didn't have the most to gain. They're trying to defend a title. I don't know how that video came out. Conspiracy bills actually like, I lost for how this came out because I would argue the Warriors,

it hurt the Warriors more than it helped them for this to come out, which makes me think they didn't plant it. Not that they would. The true map on the wall, the eight foot by eight foot map with the connecting red thread and the blue thread and the yellow stickies i want to know who jordan pool is friends with way down the food chain on that staff oh that oh interesting way down the food chain he's past a little santa cruz santa cruz warriors there we go that's there

we go somebody that that he from his way back machine where he has a priest a relationship that pre-existed or you know he came in immediately found somebody in the video room that's a they just they have maybe went to michigan yeah right whatever the connection might be some connection that we are not aware of that the general public will never be aware of. That is a Jordan Poole supporter. And by magic, voila, out comes the tape. Or just a person who doesn't like watching a teammate punch another teammate. Just felt like he had to do something. I don't know what the answer is, but I will tell you this. It probably made Jordan pool an extra 15 million. Hey, we have a gimmick that we're going to do, but before we do that,

can we talk about Celtics Philly really fast last night? You guys watch it? Of course. Yeah. What do you mean? So it was a really frustrating game for me as a Celtics fan, because I just think Philly's a team that the Celtics should be. If ever, if we have a healthy team and they have a healthy team. And they're just obvious matchups against Philly. As soon as you put multiple ball handlers out there, as soon as you quicken the pace a little bit, I just think Philly doesn't have a lot of answers. And the Brogdon White lineup, I'm just waiting for it last night. They come in, they get first half turns.

Second half starts, they go big again with Rob Williams, Horford, Tatum Brown, Marcus Smart. Everything bogs down. Philly takes the lead. The Brogdon White lineup comes in again. Boston takes off again. And they're up like eight to 10. And then Missoula feels like he's got to put that lineup in the end of the game, the starting lineup. And I just think that's the wrong line. If I'm playing Philly, I just want guards out there. If you want Harden, can't guard anybody, right? If it's Harden and Maxey playing together, neither of those guys can guard anybody.

Why am I letting like PJ Tucker just have the luxury of just standing next to a big guy or whatever you have? I just really hope they learned their lesson in that game. Sometimes you're starting five, Jacobes. Isn't the right five for a series? And in this one, I need guards. I need guards and I need speed and two guards with Tatum and Brown

and a big and just, I just want to put them on the defense because I think Philly is slow. I really do. I think they want slow plotting, lots of fouls. They don't want an up and down game and anybody who can go up and down on them has a huge advantage. So that was my take from Saturday night. I can't refute that. I think that you're correct. However, let me just go glass half full for the Celtics for a second.

Jason Tatum didn't have a great game, rightvp candidate didn't have a great game ends up hitting a huge shot at the end right yeah and joel mb did have a great game so you kind of took philly's best punch you didn't have your best player playing his best game and found a way to win and i think in a playoff series which is where i know your mind is going i think missoula over the course of games figures out exactly what you just said i sure hope so so. My dad and I were talking about it for a while today. My dad's like, I'm not worried. We're not even going to see them in the playoffs. They're going to be in the 2-3 playing the Bucs.

They're not going to get by the Bucs. I'm like, yeah, but I want our coach to be able to think on the fly at least a little bit. I think in some ways this Missoula story has been amazing, and in other ways sometimes you just feel like this is a guy who, you know, the speed of which he became a head coach was pretty abrupt.

I think to me, it's Celtics and Bucks and then a drop-off house. I just think those are clearly the two best teams now. And I'd probably have Denver third. I want to see how they fit in with the Reggie Jackson piece of it.

And the Michael Porter, how involved he is in the last three, four minutes, I think makes me the most nervous. Like if you had money on Denver, but the way Crowder has assimilated into Milwaukee, I just feel like that house, wouldn't you say Boston, Milwaukee drop off, or would you have somebody else with them? Boston, Milwaukee drop off from my take and perspective.

And really that was the assessment going into the season. It's kind of the way we sized this up. But we didn't feel that way a month ago, though. What do you mean? Like a month ago, I think we were a little more nervous than Milwaukee. And then they decided to win for a solid month straight. 14 straight wins. Including many without Giannis.

I mean, that's what's so impressive, honestly. But the way that it's amazing, it's all Brooke Lopez, like very quietly under the radar. Brooke Lopez, the glue that's really firing this whole situation up with Milwaukee. I'm very, very impressed. I was looking up. I put this on Twitter today about the Lakers team the season before LeBron.

When Brooke Lopez was on that team, they had him for a year, and they could have kept him for the LeBron team, and for whatever reason, they let him go. But that team had healthy Lonzo Ball, Brooke Lopez, Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Jordan Clarkson, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, Josh Hart, Larry Nance Jr., and Contavious Caldwell-Pulp. All on the same team. And they won 37 games.

It just makes no sense. That team would be pretty, I think that's like a five seed now, Jacobs. And then LeBron showed up and was basically like, I'm trading all of you people. You all need to go. All of you. And we're bringing in Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis. Eventually, that's what happened.

Can I complain about Embiid for a second? Oh, didn't expect to see that coming. I love Embiid. No, it's just, I love Embiid too. It's so frustrating when your team's playing him, how the officiating, it's very similar to Shaq back in the day, where you could call every foul or you could

let some of the fouls go and it just kind of comes and goes depending on the crew. He's really good at putting the onus on the officials to kind of decide what to do. And in a playoff series, especially as game-to-game, if they want

to extend series, things like that, he could go to the free throw line 20 times a game, to game, if they want to extend series, things like that, he could go to the free throw line 20 times a game, Jacoby, if they wanted to. Well, it's not just that he knocks down his free throws too. Yeah. You know,

he does. He knocks down his free throws. He just lumbers to the, lumbers to the lane with his weird little like body language, his shoulders slumped over and just knocks down two free throws. They never hit the rim. They always, he always was confident.

And he's the thing about, like, Giannis puts the officials in a similar position because of his physicality and his strength. But Giannis is moving, which kind of makes it easier not to call. Embiid is sitting there slowly just moving his arms into contact. There's contact every

time he shoots a shot that's not a jump shot. There is contact, and the officials need to decide whether or not they're calling it. And sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But, like, it's, you know, James Harden did it for years and won an MVP from it, and B's doing it this year. And I would call him if I was the officials.

I think he earns all those fouls. You got to learn how to play him differently. I 100% agree. It's just frustrating when you're rooting against him. I liked how you described it. It's like the difference between him and Giannis is Giannis is the guy on the highway who's veering between lanes full

speed and he's like, oh my God, is he going to try to get between those two cars? Oh, he did. And Beat is the guy who's just backing up in the parking lot and you're like, oh, he's just coming back. I guess I have to stop. He's going to rip it to me. And that's how he plays basketball. And he had a couple fouls yesterday where he just was going forward. He's going to rip it to me. And that's how he plays basketball. And he had a couple of fouls yesterday where he just was going forward.

He said, guys, I'm going forward. Feel free if you want to stay in front of me. They might call the charge. They might not. But just to remind you, I'm 290 pounds. And guys either at some point they'll brace or they'll try to move. The other thing I was talking to a Knicks fan friend of mine today, who I won't mention, probably guess who it is.

He was saying like, Embiid is offensively is the closest we've had to what Ewing was in theory. And what Ewing really was in a lot of ways, but in the wrong point for where he came into the league, where it was like so many big guys and you could front him and back him. And, and it was like, if you just put like 1992 Ewing into basketball now where he had space and he could do a lot of the face-up stuff, they basically him and Embiid, a very similar game. Embiid was bigger, but House, I kind of liked that. Like they, cause Ewing had

that little face-up 17 footer. He had that little spin move. He had the jump hook, but there was always like three guys on him and he had to learn how to kick it out. But it did make me think like some guys just in the wrong era and it's just the way it is. I absolutely love that. I'm bummed now that we're going through this and thinking about what Patrick Ewing could do.

Honestly, from my perspective, I think his footwork is better than Embiid's. And Embiid has great footwork. I think the single biggest hindrance, the only person on earth that can stop Joel Embiid is Doc Rivers. He continues to insist on permitting Joel Embiid to catch the ball out of the three-point line. He has a green light to take threes at exactly the wrong time and under the wrong circumstances. He catches the ball at the free throw line. He puts the ball on the floor.

That is all wasted energy, wasted time. It introduces an opportunity for the defense. Him in the low post is unstoppable. Or him at the block at the top, that little 17-foot spot. That's fine for a catch and shoot. That's fine. It's and shoot. That's fine. It's tough. I can't believe James Dolan admitted that, Bill.

I know James and I were texting. He was like, remember when we had Ewing? I thought that would have been a horrible Celtics loss. And it was like a relief of a win. But it would have been a way worse loss. And for Philly, they blew the tieball thing. Doc just blew that one. He won't play Paul Reed.

Maxie, who is this guy who should at least be Jordan Clarkson, Jordan Poole off the bench, now you just never know what you're getting from him game to game. And then McDaniels, I'm sure Doc will lose confidence in in five minutes and start yanking him around too. It's just the, his Achilles heel over and over again has been young guys, even dating back to the Celtics era. He's always been really hesitant. He's always going to default to there's 38 year old PJ Tucker. I know what I'm

going to get from this guy. Um, I think that team is really beatable as great as Embiid is but I will say like for me I don't know where you guys stand we're at the three-fourths mark and as great as Jokic is and Jokic is my favorite non-Celtic to watch to me the MVP has not been decided yet and I think Embiid is absolutely

in the mix you agree Jacobus? Well I think Giannis is in the mix, too. The Bucs could have the best record. And what Giannis has been doing on both ends of the floor is what he does defensively, Embiid and Jokic should not impact the game anything close to that.

And if the Bucs have the best record and Giannis comes back and finishes the season, he needs to be in the conversation, too. When I saw the straw poll from Bontemps, I like 77 it was just it just kind of jumped out at me i was like this is this is surprising this is very surprising because i do sort of like i don't vote i do take into account the fact that the guy won the last two like i'm gonna be honest with myself like i would like someone new to make a speech i would like someone new to win i would like to see him be win i'm not i'm not gonna lie to myself.

I think that would be more fun than watching Jokic win it for the third time. And then like ride carriage horses in, in, you know, Eastern Europe for the summer house. You've bet on every MVP contender we have. I think Luca has fallen out.

Oh, Luca thing. Luca's done. So it's a four man race. Tatum's not Tatum is 18-1 on FanDuel right now. He's not completely done yet, but just about done. But there's still, if the Celtics all of a sudden went on some major, and I don't think he can be crossed off yet.

Giannis has missed, how many games did we say he's missed? He has missed 11 and counting, which is right around where Embiid is. But Embiid is plus 400 on FanDuel, and Jokic is minus 230. And to me, that's weird. I think Jokic should be the favorite, but I think Embiid

should be right there. And I think he's been great. And I think it matters that he took it to Jokic in that weekend game when he just kicked the shit out of Denver. Like I care about that stuff. When I'm thinking about this at the end of the year, it's not just MVP, it's first team all NBA too. And it's crazy to think one of these guys

is not going to be first team all NBA, but guess what? One of these guys is not going to be first team all NBA and that's just the way it is. One thing I noticed today, I do think there's a Drew Holiday first team, not first team all NBANBA, but All-NBA possibility. He is a 14-year, this is his 14th year in the league.

He's never made All-NBA. I feel like this is the best he's ever been. I've watched multiple Bucks games this year where it felt like he was the best perimeter guy on the court and included the one today um if i had i didn't we we still have a fourth this season to go but if i had to do my ballot right now i would have him second team all nba guard i i wouldn't even argue with you i i was so glad uh with the all star um you know the way those rosters came together that he was recognized because he hadn't, you know, he's missed some games as well. And he's so quiet. But, you know, I just think think about the Olympics.

He made the game winning play against the Phoenix Suns. Our Olympic Team USA was getting ready for that run in China. And we needed him. He was like the most important player on Team USA after he just successfully clinched the game-winning play for Milwaukee over the Suns. Yeah, that alley-oop was iconic. Yeah, he's an echelon. He is probably the best big-game guard

just from a resume standpoint that we have other than Curry right now. He's come through a lot of times. And the thing is, even if he's not feeling it offensively, Jacobs, he can still completely destroy you defensively. And I'm just looking

at like, I would have Luca and SGA as my guards on the all NBA first team right now. And I would have looking at like, I would have Luka and SGA as my guards on the all NBA first team right now. And I would have John holiday as my second guys. And then that third team, it's like Halliburton and Mitchell and Curry. And you know, that Curry's already missed 22 games and counting Booker's missed 27. So, you know, you, you want to be, I feel like over 60, especially if it's

competitive, but I think a lot of people would have Mitchell as, as first team or second team. You want to be, I feel like over 60, especially if it's competitive. But I think a lot of people would have Mitchell as first team or second team. And I personally would not. I think that team has really struggled in the last five minutes of games. There's all these advanced stats about what their record should be versus what it is. I think part of the problem is I don't think he's been that great for them in crunch time since the first couple weeks. Jacobs, I don't feel like this

is as much of a, oh my god, he is haunting the Knicks situation as it was a month ago. Oh no, you know what? I follow the Knicks closely and people act like they didn't already have Brunson when they were in the running to get Mitchell. I think that's the part that people forget. It's like Brunson was already there in the running to get Mitchell. Like, that's the part that people forget.

It's like Brunson was already there. So you can't, for me, my personal opinion is- You mean the best point guard in the league, Jalen Brunson? I would not want Brunson and Mitchell as my backcourt. You know, I think a Brunson and Barrett is a better combination. Not, I mean, obviously Mitchell's better than Barrett, but just you don't, it's too redundant to have Brunson and Mitchell. And Brunson's been absolutely amazing for the Knicks, and they do have more flexibility

moving forward for free agents and trades and whatnot. I think that Mitchell not being on the Knicks was a win-win for both the Cavs and the Knicks. What do you think, Cass? I mean, the old, they have more flexibility going forward argument when Donovan fucking Mitchell is staring you in the face.

That one's a tough one for me to agree with. I would absolutely have preferred Donovan fucking Mitchell is staring you in the face. That's one. That's that one's a tough one for me to agree with. I would absolutely have preferred Donovan Mitchell if I was a Knicks fan. And I think that he deserves an all NBA nod. I don't mind if you don't have him on a first team or second team, but he's got to be all NBA third team. He scored 71 fucking points this season. He's playing. He's playing.

He's playing all the games he's and you know that that team uh which you know lost in the in the in the play-in last year is poised to to do big things in in the playoffs now i understand you know the the um issues that they've had thus far in terms of closing out games and fourth quarter against good teams that's that's normal growing pain shit. As far as I'm concerned, I like Cleveland. I think they're lined up to give somebody a real test in the Eastern

conference playoffs. I like them too, which is why I'm a tad disappointed. I don't like, what was that game the other night they had with a, yeah, Thursday night they played the nuggets and it felt like they were going to beatuggets. And then in the last five minutes is same shit that always seems to happen to them against good teams. Um, then they got waxed by the Hawks and they beat the

Raptors, but I don't know. Mitchell to me is like, I think people have him a hundred percent in pen as a first team or second team all NBA. I have him third team right now. I have Holiday over him because I think Holiday has been more impactful. And to me, it really matters that the Bucks and Celtics are the two best teams. And I think one of those two teams should have two all NBA guys. You could argue Boston. Jalen was in there,

but I think he's probably fallen out, got injured. I don't think statistically he hasn't been as good, but I would have Drew over Mitchell right now. Okay, we're gonna take a break and then we're going to talk about the most improbable 2023 NBA stories so far. When you ride transit, please be safe. Yeah, be safe.

Because what you do, others will do too. Others will do it too. So don't take shortcuts across tracks. Yeah, be safe. Because what you do, others will do too. Others will do it too. So don't take shortcuts across tracks. Don't do that. In fact, just don't walk on tracks at all. Not at all. Trains move quietly so you won't hear them coming. You won't hear them coming. See, safe riding sets an example. Yeah, an example for me. Because safety is learned. It's learned. Okay, give it up. Give what up? Really? Really, really. Ugh. This message is brought to you by Metrolinx. Alright guys, I asked you to prepare for a draft

because people love drafts. We're going to draft the most improbable 2023 NBA stories so far. We're 60 games into the season. You can define improbable any way you want, but I would kind of veer toward this definition. If you had told me blank in September,

I would be stunned. So, Jacoby, we'll give you first pick since you're our guest. We haven't seen you in a while. And you produced House Seats 3, one of the most important pieces of pop culture of the last 20 years. You go first. I mean, first of all,

I like to consider myself the director of House Seats 3. Producer director. Just producer director. Like a Tarantino. Yeah, showrunner. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, writer. Okay.

I bet we all have something to say about this. So I'm glad I had the first pick. I'm honored. It's very polite of you guys to allow me to have this spotlight and the first pick in the draft. And my first pick in the draft and um my first pick in the draft that i did not see coming in september if you were to time travel back to september me and tell september me that the grizzlies have turned heel and they're unlikable

i would be like what i mean like let's just over the past month we have john morant being like i'm not concerned about any team in the nba except the Boston Celtics, the Malika Andrews. Dylan Brooks punches Donovan Mitchell in the penis, like a direct targeted penis punch. Right. And then we have, oh, I don't know. There's some incident where the Pacers are playing against the Grizzlies in Memphis and the Pacers are getting into it with some of John Moran's friends. And then there's a laser pointed at the Pacers as they're getting on the bus. The NBA has to spend time and money investigating this alleged laser. Was it a gun incident? Was John in the car? Whose car was it? And then they're arguing with Shannon Sharp in LA. It's

like, it's honestly like it's a script. It's like, it's like, what happened? This team in the playoffs was so much fun. So likable. Remember after every game last last year, they would win a game on league pass. And I would stay watching that game just to watch the postgame interview because they turned it into a party. Like they were the most fun, the best chemistry, the best group, and they've turned completely heel. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how the Grizzlies became turned completely heel. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how the Grizzlies became unlikable. I don't know how it happened.

Please explain to me, because I know you guys have this on your list as well. House, I had this in my top three. It wasn't my number one pick, but it was in my top three. I don't understand how it happened either. I've never seen a team go faster from young and lovable

to just giant bullseye on their back against everyone. They play everyone. They play is like completely pissed off at the Grizzlies. And it's, it's kind of fun. I like it. But,

um, usually like the basketball we grew up with house, you usually at least, I don't know, made the conference finals before you started carrying the swagger. This has been unusual to watch a team that really hasn't done anything carry themselves like this. I'm not going to say a bad thing about Ja,

but they've taken on his personality. And I think it all begins and ends with him. He has supreme confidence and he plays that way. And I'm happy for it. The thing that remains the open item, they needed another adult. Like, Steven Adams clearly is super important to that team, and poor Berno keeps telling us

to wait till Steven Adams comes back. Then we'll start, we'll see a semblance of offense at the end of games. He'll settle them all down. He'll be the adult in the room. The only acquisition they made at the trade deadline was Luke Kennard, who is a fine piece a good shooter but i don't think he's going to be an adult in in any room that that the the grillies is going to

give a shit about listening to they needed another like player with some gravitas that's that was my view going into the trade deadline um and you know dylan brooks is a is is the best agitator in the league. I mean, he was openly provoking Harden the other night. It was wonderful. I could not have enjoyed it anymore. Yeah, he brought like a little side out of Harden. I was watching that when that happened. Great.

I don't think I've seen Harden mad more than three times since like the 2000s. Have you ever seen him happy? Have you seen Harden display any emotion, whether it be joy or sadness or happiness? Well, you can't tell. He's got the whole, the beard just covers his whole head now. We've seen some pictures of him at Delilah's.

He looks pretty happy. Love Delilah. When you say adding somebody with Gravitas, to me, it's not, it doesn't even have to be a player. Like they could add Sterling K. Brown. Just have them come in and give like, this is us speeches in the locker room.

And just like there's a mature- Samuel L. Jackson, you know? Yeah. I'm with you. House, we still love the Grizzlies so much that we're going to Memphis and we're going to eat barbecue there for two days in March. And I love the fact that they have positioned themselves as the agitator, but it does feel like it's been counterproductive to them a little bit because since that Shannon Sharp thing, they've really kind of unraveled and you could say, Oh, it's Steven Adams, but I just find it hard to believe that Steven Adams is that important. All right, house you go, you have a second pick. I thought this was a very hard challenge because it was

much more, uh, it's much easier to go through the, the probable stories of this year like oh uh coming into the season will kd or kawai play 55 games no i don't i don't think will kairi sabotage the the nets yes that's probable not improbable but probable yes i you know will the 250 million dollar man in washington will he deliver a team that that's uh 500 or No, that's probable. All those things are hard. Improbable and really seizing the mantle for the most lovable team

in the entire NBA. Light the motherfucking beam! It's the Sacramento Kings! Not only were we bullish on what they showed us on paper coming into this season we were all over they're over in terms of their win total this coming season we thought that there was a beautiful chemistry experiment underway that they could really make something happen

by golly they did it and not only that they like each. And not only that, they like each other. And not only that, they play all the fucking games. There's no load management in Sacramento. Look at how many dudes have played at least 50 games on that roster. It's wonderful. And they came up with this spectacular gimmick. Light the beam. I'm all about it.

God bless Vivek and God bless the Kings. They are 35 and 25. House, we did for our big, we did our over-under pod with Priscilla. Our big boost that we did for FanDuel, which seemed,

you know, we weren't sure about. It was Nuggets 50 plus wins, Bucks 50 plus wins, and Kings 35 plus wins. They boosted from plus 320 to plus 450. And we all like the over with the Kings, but it's still the Kings. They haven't made the playoffs since 2006. They've hit the over. They're at 35. 20 games left. They're at 35 plus. I had that. That was my second pick. Sacramento becoming a competent NBA franchise. It's been so long.

Like, Jacoby, you and I have known each other since 2006? It feels like I've known you my whole life. We've only known each other since 2006. That was the last time that was the first year that Kings didn't make the playoffs. So that's how long it's been for them. I went through

longest playoff droughts, which everybody knows Sacramento 16 years since they made the playoffs. The next team is Charlotte with six. And then the next team is Cleveland with four. So they are almost three times as long as a playoff drought as anyone else in the league. That's incredible. And then last round one playoff series win. Their last one was 2004, which was the same as Minnesota. So that's almost 20 years. Charlotte's the leader. 2002 is the last time they won a playoff series. Congrats to them. Detroit's 2008 and Orlando's 2010. That's everybody that hasn't won a playoff series in 2010. So just them getting in the playoffs with potentially a game seven at home.

Jacobes. I mean, did you watch that Clipper game? Would you stay up for it? It was the game of the year. I sold my tickets because we had like a monsoon here and I could have been there. It was the game of the year. Absolute game of the year. Insane.

And my guy, Malik Monk. Remember the Bulls last year at the beginning of the season it was like they started out really hot they had these new pieces and you were like okay i could smell that one kind of falling apart yeah and i can't lie i did feel the same way about the kings and now i was wrong about that like i was that i was watching king's thunder tonight a lot more than i was watching Timberwolves Warriors. Yeah. Because they're just, those are two fun teams to watch.

They're not just competent. Like you had them as a competent team. They're a fun team, a young team, a team I want to root for. And House really touched on the most important part. They've got a gimmick. They've got a gimmick. It's like Dave Coulier with Cut It Out. They've got a light the beam gimmick. Like they've got like, they've got a gimmick it's like Dave Coulier with cut it out they've got a light the beam gimmick like they've got

they've got a bit they've got a gimmick they can go back to and it fucking rules remember the Celtics when they had Gino dancing on the jumbotron and it was like it felt like it pushed them up a level that they had this old 70s disco guy with long arms dancing at the end of a win

gimmicks are great anytime a gimmick seems authentic and the team's winning and it's actually working. Just an amazing, the fact that it was 16 years, four presidential terms, basically, but they finally did it. And that game the other night,

the way Fox is playing right now, and Sabonis, who I have as third team all-N NBA center right now, 20 games to go. And then a bunch of shooters. You expect Keegan Murray will get better as the year goes along. I wish they had made a trade at the deadline, but maybe

they just didn't want to upset the apple cart. Kendrick Perkins, who as you know, will come in on Twitter with the fire of a thousand forest fires. He said today, Mike Brown was on Twitter with the fire of a thousand forest fires. He said today, Mike Brown was the front runner for coach of the year. And I mean, first of all,

the take burned my eyebrows off, so I had no eyebrows left. But then I was thinking like, that's ridiculous. And then I was thinking like, well, who is the coach of the year? Who is? Maybe it's not an insane take. I don't know.

I also have to mention Kevin Huerter, who I've always liked in Atlanta. And they've unlocked Huerter, who's just, I just love his game. Something about him, something about his whole, I can't really put my finger on it, what it is. The headband? Oh, right.

He's a white guy from America. That's what I like about him. But he's amazing. The Mike Brown piece. I don't know. I can't top it, House. I can't think of another coach of the year. Well, I'm not going to step on any of my... Is it Missoula who was barely a coach?

He was like the number two assistant? Well, there is a connection. It's Will Hardy from my humble... Oh, going 30 and 31, 31? Yeah. And a team that should make the playoffs, I think. All right, here. I'm up on the clock here's my most improbable 2023

NBA story so far Markel Fultz is a better trade asset and guy to have on a team than Ben Simmons that's an absolute fact on February 26th 2023

if we were still able to trade and Orlando got called by Philly or by Brooklyn and they said, we'll trade you Ben Simmons for Markel Fultz, Orlando would say no. If we were doing a draft of players, Markel Fultz would go ahead of Ben Simmons. What were the odds of this, Jacoby?

This would have been 30 to 1 three years ago. Ben Simmons made the All-NBA team at age 23 in 2020. He was third team All-NBA. He was a 23-year-old. And now he's the 13th man on the Nets. We all had Ben Simmons on our list somewhere. And I love what you did because I forgot that Fultz and Simmons are sort of linked in this way.

And I remember when Orlando extended Fultz. After one year, I was like, what are they doing? He was hurt at the time. I was like, they know more about Fultz than I do. They've seen more of him and his work ethic and his practice and his rehabbing. They see something in Fultz that I did not. And this is what they saw.

People always talk about the young farm magic and they don't mention Fultz. Fultz has been great and I've always I love defense right I think people forget that's 50 percent of basketball and I've always loved Ben Simmons because he like me is a mentally weak basketball player you know what I mean like just just easily shaken you know confident miss one shot don't want to take another one like but I didn't see this coming from ben simmons now he's saying he's not healthy but i don't i i didn't see anything like this from ben simmons and if the coaches in press conferences be like i don't even know what to do with this guy that is not helping

his trade value at all but i did never considered if if brooklyn called orlando and said i will trade you faults you trade me faults and i will trade you Ben Simmons. They would say no. They would. Which Ben Simmons are you buying going forward? Brooklyn Ben Simmons or my Ben Simmons? Oh, I mean, your Ben Simmons. I think my Ben Simmons is coming on now. He's at least like a 10-to-1 underdog now.

I don't think this is probably going to have to get edited. I mean, that makes it clean for me. I'm just very, very, very sad about the basketball, Ben Simmons. I'm just very sad about it. Like, we spent a lot of our time and energy on this podcast this year trying to figure out where he can go to get a fresh start because he he needs i honestly wonder if he should leave the country if he should go play in australia or new zealand or something for a year wow too much money

he's walking away from too much money i can't i understand i i got it. But he needs a kind of life reset. The last two years have been miserable. Jacoby, let's hear it. I got it. Take a week off. Join Aaron Rodgers on a trip to Peru. Ayahuasca for four days. Ben Simmons comes back like the old Ben

Simmons. Darkness room? Can we throw the darkness room in too? Why can't we double do it? Ayahuasca in the darkness room. And a sh we throw the darkness sermon too why can't we double do it stimulation room in the darkness room and a shaman the whole thing had the shaman sit behind him on the bench all year whatever it takes but i remember when he said he was going to play this year in brooklyn i was like this is the perfect spot for ben simmons they need defense they do not need him to shoot they've got kairi they've got kd this is the ideal situation for him they need him to run in transition where he is one of the best passers and finishers they need him to catch and dunk and they will set him up

with wide open easy looks this is going to be perfect for him they're bad at defense he's good at defense he can guard all five positions he'll be guarding the best player this is the ideal basketball situation for ben simmons and then they started playing basketball and then he stopped i mean you could argue it's the ideal situation now. They have a million wings and a couple long centers and he could be the point for them. It's really a shame. I hope he figures it out

because I really thought he was such a unique player. And I was a big fan of his. All the stuff he did, I really liked. It's sad to watch. He's only 26. We're going to take a break and keep the draft going. Alright, most improbable 2023 NBA stories draft. Jacoby, you're up.

Okay. Bill, your kids are a little bit older. House, your kids are kind of my age. Encanto is a very big Pixar film. No one talks about Bruno. It was sort of the most memorable song from that and for the fourth pick in the improbable stories that you would never tell me draft no one talks about emay emay udoka remember he started coaching the celtics they sucked right

and then he coached them they beat the bucks in seven they beat an eric spolster led heat in seven they go to the finals lose to the warriors he is the hottest thing in seven. They beat an Eric Spolster-led Heat in seven. They go to the finals, lose to the Warriors. He is the hottest thing in coaching. And then there's this controversy, which we don't get a lot of details about. He allegedly had a consensual affair with someone that works in the building, and that broke the bylaws of the Boston Celtics. So he's just gone. And then there's a rumor he was going to coach the Nets. I have a

theory that like Adam Silver was like, let's not do this. You know, he's just like, let's, let's not do this. But no one talks about Emei Udoka. If you think about the teams in the NBA, the 30 teams, which teams would be better with Emei Udoka as the head coach? Why isn't this discussed? Why doesn't a team hire Emei Udoka and who will he coach next year? I just think that I'm surprised. It's an improbable story to me that he is not more of a discussion topic and a potential head coach. When you look at someone like Quinn Snyder, who just got signed today to coach the Hawks, no Emei Udoka's name not even mentioned. Why is that the case? To me, there's an improbable story. I did not expect to play out this way.

Yeah, that's fair. I think everybody's been told hands off till the summer but i think he will be one of the top coaching candidates this summer i don't know what's your take house do you have a take that we can run on a podcast his name was associated with uh what the nets were gonna do right wasn't he yeah that, Nets. And the Hawks for a split second. But yeah. But so it must be the case. He's under contract with the Celtics still, though, right? That contract hasn't been terminated. So is Snyder.

Yeah, I think it's terminated at the end of this season because they announced Mizzou was the full-time coach. I don't need to be overly legal about it. It's not like the contract matters. If they really wanted him to go somewhere, I guess it must be the case that they were giving him a one year cooling off period and then he'll come back. I mean, that that's and he will be in demand. I hope that Washington gives him a long look. Cooling off period. I'm going to lay off that one. All right, House, you um all right house here you're on the uh you're on the clock yeah so i think it this one might might straddle the line between probable and improbable but i just like to congratulate the los ang many players, many organizations care for the regular season, for the fans. and I'm giving it to them myself, by virtue of the way that they've staggered Paul George

and Kawhi Leonard's minutes all the way up to this moment. But every instance since the beginning of the season when they were playing that stagger, that guys sit out for reasons that are not obvious, it goes back to me, the Clippers, and they are paying the price for it. This is a team that is barely 500, a little bit above 500,

that was supposed to be a contender to win the Western Conference, a potential NBA finalist. They just brought on Russell Westbrook. He single-handedly sabotaged a game in which they were up by 14 points with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. He was the missing piece.

Yeah. And trying to experiment with pieces at this stage of the season because you're barely above 500, because you rested your most important players for most of the season, it's disrespectful to the rest of us. And I think they murdered the regular season. I had them as a side one of just that anyone would go on to Russ Russbrook as the final piece. The fact that they played that card, I thought was astonishing. Just didn't understand that at all. I just, I just don't get it. I don't, I don't fundamentally, I've been watching basketball my whole life. I don't get it. I just don't. I don't think he's a guy who could be on a basketball team playing more than 25 minutes a game that can win four straight playoff rounds at this point in his career.

As the game slows down, as things get closer, teams are just going to back off him and he's going to have to shoot, which is basically what Sacramento was doing the other night. Kawhi had this insane shooting performance and they still lost. I don't get it, Jacoby. Fundamentally, I don't understand it. The only thing that makes sense to me is if they just use him as a

regular season rental and then in the playoffs, he's got that role come in in the second quarter and if you make three shots, then we might consider you in the second half. But he still thinks he's a great player, though. You can't accept that if you still think you're an all-NBA

player, which I genuinely think he does. I still think he thinks he's really good. Of course he does. But I have faith in Ty Liu. You know what I mean? I think that he will manage this. It's really about Kawhi Leonard's health and abilities more than Russell Westbrook's impact. It's funny. Youwhi Leonard's health and abilities more than,

than Russell Westbrook's impact. It's funny. You have, you have more faith in the Cooper fans too, because they're super frustrated with Ty Lue right now. Like, I think that there's a huge break between how the national media and the fans think of Ty Lue versus how the Cooper fans who watch this team, like Terrence Mann,

who I think all the Cooper fans are really in on. And there are all these advanced stats of when he's playing with Kawhi and Paul George. They're borderline dominant with the per 100 stats. And he played the 18 minutes the other night in the double overtime game. So I think people are looking at it going, you're going to play Russell Westbrook,

who the Lakers are trying to trade for a year and a half over this guy Mann, when this has clearly been our third best player. Anyway, House, I have a Clippers related to what your pick was. Same for me. Most improbable story for me, sixth pick of the draft. I'm really fed up with Adam Silver. Oh, hey now.

Yeah. I just think the league has a lot of problems right now. And it feels like a league that's kind of missing the parent. It's like an absentee parent league. Where, you know, where is he? Where was he an all-star weekend? When we took this all-star game, which granted was never great for the last 20 years, Where, you know, where is he? Where was he at All-Star weekend? When we took this All-Star game,

which granted was never great for the last 20 years, right? It got, the competitiveness started to wane and wane and wane. But we always had the fourth quarter. We always had like, you felt like there were moments. It was fun to watch. Now it's like just a layup line. It fucking sucks. The whole weekend sucks. But the player, just guys not playing, people not knowing who's going to play from game to team.

Somebody told me this story. They went to a Laker game the other night. And they were in the kind of runway at the top of the stairs when you're about to walk down. And it was like the game had already started. And there was a kid who was decked out in LeBron stuff and the dad and the son had just gotten there. And the person who I heard the story from said to them, wow, you love LeBron, huh? And the dad said, yeah, I hope he's playing tonight. And his kid's wearing like all LeBron stuff. And it's like, that's kind of this point

we've arrived to at 2023 when you go to games or you're going to bet on a game or whatever. And you just have no idea who's going to play. And to me, it's like, I just, David Stern had a bunch of issues with, I think he really tailed off the last eight, nine years of his career, but he still had some wins. He had a lot of losses,

but I just feel like he would have really cared about this. And I don't feel like the league does. And we, house, we've talked about this before, but I'm just regurgitating it. What do you think she copes? Well,

a couple of things. I can't take my kids to games because it's too expensive. Like, that's another thing. It's like, I, I, like I went down to Washington to houses hood with,

with my son, Quincy, just the two of us. We were going to, I looked at the prices for a wizard's next games right just looked at the prices couldn't take them it's it's insanely expensive right and then i think everyone talks about player empowerment player parent player movement that doesn't bother me as much as players not playing does and i think bill one thing that you know and I know is this is sort of a contract year for the NBA too. Like the rights deals are going to be up soon. So this is when you should be looking your best.

You know what I mean? This is a contract year. These next two seasons are contract years for the NBA. And I think if you are Adam Silver, you should be smart enough to know that you want to look your best when you go into meetings with streamers and with networks and say, give me billions and billions of dollars for our products. He's in the Godfather where they have the peacetime conciliary versus the wartime conciliary. And I think he's been a good peacetime conciliary, but now he's got to be a wartime

conciliary a little bit here because I think there's some real stuff happening with the league that's starting to mirror for very different reasons what the late nineties were like when fans just had a lot of issues with whatever was going on with the amount of money people were making for how they treated the product on the court. And you go to these games and somebody who's making 50 million in a year and it seemed like they didn't give a shit. And now it's like a different version of that where people think it's okay to just, I'm not playing tonight. Or teams are like, yeah, I'm not going to play this guy. Like why hasn't, what happened to Shea Gilgis-Alexander the last two games? OKC is like, yeah, we're going to, you know, we're going to sit him out. Like I,

I just, I don't like it. And if you're going to devalue the regular season, then we have to come up with real ideas for how to change the regular season. Maybe we have to think more soccer style and go 60 games or something like that. So that the regular season games are just more important where you have to play because you have, you know, a much smaller sample size. I don't know what the answer is, but the answer is in play 82 games and everybody's going to miss 20 to 25 games who matters, House. Well, and we went through this just in the last handful of days. The Portland Trailblazers on the first game after the all-star break encountered a snowstorm trying

to get from Portland down to Sacramento. They made it, they, they were going to play. They decided to rest Jeremy Grant and Dame. Like how many times in a year runway, like imagine telling Oscar Robertson, that story, Oscar Robertson was like transferring planes four times to go from like syracuse to cincinnati and then just going on the court in shitty shoes and playing 48 minutes well and think if you're a fan of sacramento and you want to see one of the the hottest players of the last like you know 30 games dame dollar might drop 50 on any given night. Well, he did today. We just got hot off the press. Dane had 71 at home. We just found out against the Rockets as we were recording.

Didn't play the other night. Was awesome. The all-star game. Took a game off. Won the three-point shooting contest and then could have been his first game. Should have been in Sacramento, but took the night off for reasons

I still don't understand it. But I'm interested. Here's why I think they're going to care. Sorry to interrupt your house. Because the ratings for the All-Star game the whole weekend was absolutely atrocious. And the regular season ratings are way down. You could say part of that

is the playoffs are fine, whatever. But I think it's a combination of the way kids and younger people consume the league. Sometimes they're not even watching the games. They're just going to YouTube. Like, I don't, is Quincy a fan, Jacobs, or no? Yeah. Like Ben Simmons is, I would say he's somewhat of a fan, like knows what's going on, but

would never sit and watch a basketball game with me, but feels like he can follow it through TikTok and YouTube. And what should really worry the league is what happens when those kids grow up and now they're the people who would spend money. And are they going to spend money when their whole habits, their whole life has been to not actually sit through a game? And if you're de-incentivizing them from, I don't know, caring about the regular season. I just don't know how that's good. There's no upside at all. They need less games.

We all know what the answer is. Everyone says, well, what about the money? What about the money? Take a short-term hit on your rights. Your rights deal is going to be lower, right? I understand that. But the rights deal is going to be higher anyway, so maybe that's a little bit of a yin-yang thing. And you're splitting the money with the players. Your rights deal is going to be lower, right? I understand that. But the rights deal is going to be higher anyway,

so maybe that's a little bit of a yin-yang thing. And you're splitting the money with the players. The answer is less regular season games. That is the answer. We all know that is the answer, and it just needs to happen, and it's going to be a short-term hit but a long-term gain. What would Stern do? I don't know. I think you just have to do less it has to be shorter it has to be

a shorter regular season that is the answer that and i can't take my kids to games i got three kids i'm looking at four tickets for like a bad tickets for the knicks or the nets even and i just cannot do it every time i look at it i'm just like no chance no way am i doing that spending a thousand dollars to watch the knicks lose by 15 no chance chance. Oh, come on. The Knicks are red hot right now. Last thoughts, House? Well, just the TV aspect of it is what intrigues me. We had news over the weekend of another set of RCNs about to go under. All of these local TV deals are all going away because they're not profitable. They can't make any money. I don't understand how it is

that the league expects some kind of gigantic whopper of a rights deal at the national level when they're telling us they don't give a shit about the regular season. Why are they so certain that there's going to be a giant increase in the national rights deal?

If the NBA Finals this year is Denver against Milwaukee, what kind of rating do you think that that's going to fetch? They were very lucky to get Boston and Golden State, two marquee franchises in gigantic markets last year, and they celebrated the fact that there was a 22% increase in overall viewership of that Finals. Let's see what that looks like if we get some smaller market teams into the Fin finals this year,

which seems very possible to me. Well, you think like going back to the eighties magic and bird, they give way to Jordan, Jordan, um, a bunch of stars pop up during that whole run. The Knicks are involved in the mid nineties.

Even when Jordan goes away. Jordan comes back. Then you have this whole new wave of stars after Jordan leaves. And we get the Shaq and Kobe era. And then we kind of head into the mid-2000s. LeBron is starting to come in. Kobe's there.

We have LeBron and Kobe. Then Curry rises in the beginning of the 2010s. Then we have LeBron and Curry. Curry's now 34. LeBron's been in Then Curry rises in the beginning of the 2010s. Then we have LeBron and Curry. Curry's now 34. LeBron's been in the league for 20 years. Now we have Walker Kessler. In the next wave of guys, it starts with Walker Kessler.

Yep. But the next wave of guys, ironically, Tatum is the only American out of the top five. You've Giannis, you've Embiid, you've Jokic, you've Luka, and then Tatum and Ja, right? Those would be like your top six. So I don't know if any of them are going to resonate the way Curry, LeBron, like going backwards, all those guys I just listed. So that's another issue too, is like, who's going to be your version of, you know, Messi, Ronaldo, MJ, like,

like the signature dude. Um, it's very interesting time. I just, I need some indication that Adam Silver doesn't like this at some point, just at some point you're in charge of the league. This is your league. Like when the Donald Sterling thing happens and that's an easy slam dunk, everybody wants the guy out of the league and you get to ride an under white horse and he handled that great. That was awesome. But now, now we're in the tough stuff.

This is the hard stuff. This is, I, we are now actually potentially losing fans and losing passion for the game. If you don't fix this and he doesn't seem fixated on it. I'm disappointed. All right, Jacoby,

let's do one more round. What do you got? If you would have told me in September that a Greg Popovich coached San Antonio Spurs. I had this. This is my next pick. Was going to lose 16 games in a row in the National Basketball Association

with professional basketball players. And the way the lottery is structured you all know this that they sort of like smooth that slope so you're not as rewarded for being the worst team in the league i'd be absolutely i'd be shocked i would i would i would wonder about his health i would wonder about a clone situation and then you gotta think then you remember how they started their season their lottery pick was kicked off the team for exposing himself multiple times prima like a team psychologist tough one who also claims that the team didn't do anything about it when she reported it i don't know if any of that happened

it's all alleged but it is like this if you were told me that this spurs season would play out this way i would assume something really dramatic happened to greg popovich told me that this Spurs season would play out this way, I would have assumed something really dramatic happened to Greg Popovich. The fact that this is happening in front of my eyes, I have to do like a double take every time I see it. I'm shocked. I want to know what you think, Bill. Like,

how did this happen? I was Greg Popovich, the head coach losing 16 games in a row in the NBA. It's hard to do. House. This is what Popovich said in April last year. I can't operate like that, meaning tanking, which might not be the most intelligent overall philosophy to have,

and I get that, but we am who we am. We're going to go ahead and compete. I think the young players gain a real understanding of a philosophically moral space where it's the right thing to do to continue to compete. Frankly, I do not know how I'd go to my team and say, okay, guys, we're not going to compete the way we should.

Here's this long quote about how important competitiveness is. They've just lost 16 straight. 16. He's the best. If you think about how hard winning 16 is, it's not equally hard to lose 16, but it's like not equally hard to lose 16 but it's like you're the neighborhood here's the defense they did this and they got tim duncan and they got

basically two decades and they got five titles and they ended up with one of the best seven players of all time and they must think wimpy yama is that good for them to do this that's that's that's my take house i i don't think they would do this every year, but I think they're looking at this and they're like, Wampanyama and look at Scoot. Did you see that picture of Scoot this weekend? Scoot looks like he's 30. He looks like a linebacker.

Yeah, he's complete. Seriously. Well, if you fall to number three, then you get, oh, oh, wait. Oh, wow. Then it gets... No, no, there's some other guys before you have to go to that guy gets oh yeah oh no there's some other guys before involved in some very serious situations in alabama right now okay is there another non-us player anyway i my view of the spurs is like uh right on time like the clock you know strikes 12

who's going to be the very best team at tanking. If you put a challenge in front of the Spurs and say, here's a challenge that's in front of you, let's go execute this masterfully. You'd be the champion of tanking. No, if you find out who coach of the year is. I think we just found out. That's exactly right. We talked through it.

We talked through Greg Popovich coach of the year. I'm glad that we were able to unpack this on the pothouse. You're right. Nobody more masterful. We have trauma for Wimbinyama sweepstakes right now. Rockets are 13-46. Spurs 14-47. Detroit's 15-46.

Then the fourth team is Charlotte, who actually has looked pretty confident lately. I was texting you about this last night, House, that Hayward's been playing pretty well. They've won four straight. So it seems like they know. last night house that Hayward's been playing pretty well. They've won four straight. Yep. So it seems like they know they're Orlando's 25 and 36. They're fifth.

So Charlotte can actually try and they're kind of locked into the fourth spot, but Houston versus San Antonio versus Detroit, they've combined. It's an eight game losing street, 16 games and four games between those three. So that's where we're going. House, who do you have for your next pick?

It's the Utah Jazz. I'm feeling, you know, at this point in the season, I want to be glass half full. I like good stories. I like good storylines. When we were sitting in October, Miu and Rosillo trying to forecast which team is going to be openly planning for the Wembeana sweepstakes. They compiled

a mismatched team full of cast-offs and castaways. And goddammit, Will Hardy and Laurie. Really, I had to put Utah on here for Cerruti because Cerruti had to stand up to Larry Markkinen and publicly apologize to his face in Utah. I think I have to stop calling him the Finnish Bargnani,

which kind of hurts. I mean, I've been calling Larry Markkinen the Finnish Bargnani since his arrival as a rookie. Little known fact, Jacoby fucking loved Bargnani's game there for like three years. He really did. When he got traded to he got to the next i was like oh yeah 20 points a game guy yeah but him with moskov who knows what's gonna happen he definitely had an unbelievable girlfriend that's the only thing i remember about bargnani

yeah that's a good one on ut. I had a Utah side one of just most improbable being Gobert just for Walker Kessler is a terrible trade for Minnesota. Just those two take away everything else that was in that trade. Just straight up Gobert for Kessler. If you said in September, if this trade

was just Gobert for Kessler, Minnesota would have a lot of regrets. You'd be like, that's crazy. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And yet Walker Kessler is the new Bill Russell. All right. My last take, man, you guys took some good ones there. You're picking last. I don't really want to.

I don't want to use my last pick. LeBron averaging 30 points a game, 17 years apart. Seems pretty improbable to me, but not quite improbable enough for a draft pick. But if I would have told you that in September, you wouldn't be like, you could see that happening. Yeah, I could have seen it. Brooklyn making that crazy Durant trade,

but then not trading Seth Curry and Watanabe, and now they're just kind of buried on the bench. I'm just confused by that. It's not improbable. I'm just more dumbfounded. How is Seth Curry not on a contender? What are you doing? It's like they made that trade

and there was like, what, 15 hours left in trade deadline and Sean Marks is like, I'm going to go outside and have a cigarette, guys. I'll be right back. And they never saw him again. It's like, there's still 15 hours left in trade deadline. How do they still have Seth Curry house? He played six minutes today.

The guy on Miami, he would close games for them. I really think that there's a decent chance that not only do they drop down into the play-in, but that they get bounced, that they're out of the playoffs altogether. I think you're right. How do they

end up with Seth Curry? Put him in the Phoenix trade. Put him in Miami. Put him somewhere. They should try to at least buy him out. We have multiple Rivers family members on the Ringer Podcast Network. Anyway, I don't have that one. I think I have, even though we

talked about them earlier, I think I have to do this one. Golden State twice in four years coming off the finals missing the playoffs is an actual possibility like I don't care how crazy like the pool punch

all that stuff but just thinking like Golden State might actually miss the playoffs that's in play but this just happened in 2020 they missed the playoffs after they made the 2019 finals that could not have happened in the history of the the playoffs after they made the 2019 finals. That could not have happened in the history of the league. Somebody making the finals twice in four years and then

missing the playoffs the next year. That has to be making history. Anyway, I would have that for most improbable. And then the other one, this would be my tie for the last pick. Jacob, is the Knicks nailing a free agent signing? Actually nail nailing it. Poof. I'm trying to think of the last time that happened. Fucking nail into the wall. I mean, you could say Randall, what was that? Three years, 63 was pretty good. Yeah. But this was like a marquee signing. The Knicks fans going, wait.

Jalen Brunson for $108 million? But this is one of the best signings of the last couple years. The Knicks are extremely exciting here in, it's, the Knicks are, it's extremely exciting here in New York with what the Knicks have been doing of late recently. And also like,

also improbable, RJ Barrett, still on the team. Julius Randle, still on the team. They've got, I mean, RJ Barrett's like a tick away from averaging 20.

They almost have three 20 point scorers. I'm amazed. Brunson's the king of New York, isn't he? these copes people love yeah i mean he's like he's like five nine it's so wild it's just like it doesn't make any sense like i'm watching the game with my nine-year-old son i'm like see that little dude there he's the best player on the floor right now he gets to wherever he wants and he scores in the paint constantly and he gets whatever shot he wants, and he scores in the paint constantly, and he gets whatever shot he wants, and he runs the team. It has really been – it's a – I had faith in the sort of, like, new-look front office because of, like, who the people were and their names,

but they hadn't shown me much. But this time is one of the first times I was like, oh, maybe they do know what they're doing. Okay, this makes some sense. This does make some sense. And then pushing this another way so we all love the challenge now the knicks the knicks aren't johnny bananas from a title standpoint johnny bananas seven titles made the finals just made the finals with nani almost won

an eighth i went on his podcast said they'd talk about it but banana is like an institution on the challenge right year after year people coming at them and the Knicks are an institution in New York, even though they haven't won a title since 1973, they're still the Knicks, the New Yorkers. There's generations of fans. They're going to care about them the most. And then that's where like the guy in the challenge who comes in, who's like, they were like Nelson. They're like, this is my year.

I'm going to, I'm going to steal the challenge from Bananas. I'm going to go right at him. This is my challenge. And then it was just a disaster. And then they lost on some climbing thing in round two. The Nets challenge to the Knicks in New York was aborted. Oh, yeah. It was bad.

It was never going to happen from the beginning. It's over? Never going to happen from the beginning. It never had a chance to begin with? We've got James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving on the same team, and New York City collectively is just like, so? We've got Julius

Randle. They're like, we just got Hartenstein. Should they relocate? Should Brooklyn relocate Jacoby? Oh. They can't. The jersey's going to sell. They're going to be good eventually. The Liberty play there. Are they? oh oh they can't um it's you know the jersey's gonna sell

they're gonna be good eventually the liberty play there are they it's a great venue no I think New York should have two teams

I like this I agree it's the same thing with LA like people come through twice it's a huge city you get

Giannis double the Giannis games double the Jokic games like there's a game stealing from jersey though that felt why the theft jersey was close enough you ever go to a games, double the Jokic games. Like there's a game in... Stealing from Jersey though. Why the theft? You ever go to a Nets game in New Jersey? It was one of the most depressing things

ever. But I like when because it happens here in LA too. Like Jokic has a weekend in March where it's like Knicks at one o'clock on Saturday, Nets at one o'clock on a Sunday. And if you love basketball in New York, it's like, alright, it's Jokic weekend. Or you have the same thing where Giannis

will be in there next Tuesday night, Nets Wednesday night, or something like that. So I'm glad they have two teams. We can gamble here so you know the second game is almost guaranteed to be a no. It happens all the time. It's like, oh, we're playing the Knicks on Thursday, and then we're playing the Nets on Saturday. It's like, they're going to

lose to the Nets. That is a schedule loss. You're going to go out Friday night in New York City. I know you are. House, gambling legal in Massachusetts on March 10th. Whoa! That is bad for the J-Bug. I mean, it's not like he hasn't been... It's bad for a few people I know in the

extended Boston area, including myself when I go back to Boston. Yeah, right. I was just in Colorado for All-Star Weekend, and you're just looking at those All-Star props. You're like, all right, Mack McClung, minus 125. Winner. You really start, well, you know it wasn't a winner. It was Team LeBron.

But it is nice to have those easy wins. All right, guys. Did we hit everything? Jacoby, any non-basketball stuff you want to talk about before we go? Ooh. I went to an indoor water park all weekend in Pennsylvania.

Okay. You just really have to be in a mindset where COVID-19 not only doesn't exist now, but never, ever existed. When you have 4,000 people just like in a pool together. Or bacterial infections. Oh, also like foot fungus. You just have to. I was just like, because you can't wear your shoes around because you're going on rides and stuff.

So just like walking around in these. But I stepped on a hot dog bun that was soaked. And I don't like the feeling of wet socks. But when I looked down, there's hot dog bun between my toes. It was wild. And I made the mistake of going to the bathroom. Again, 4,000 people indoors. Bathroom completely empty.

My wife said the same thing about the girls' room. There's no line. All stalls are open. People just go in the water open everyone's just going in the pool of course that's what it's there for i had a great time though shout out to the kalahari resorts so this is your last podcast with us before you're bedridden for like 11 days yes i'm gonna have my left foot i never i never wear sandals you know what i mean because i live in new york so like the the little the thong part was digging into my toe and created like a cut so i had like an open wound on my foot in this environment i'm definitely gonna have to

have my left foot amputated it's gonna end my pickup basketball career how do you have a quick parent corner along the lines of water park i have one if you want to think about it. Yeah, you go ahead. So my son is just inexplicably playing varsity lacrosse. And I went to his first game on Tuesday and I realized I hadn't been to a lacrosse game in 35 years since I was in high school, going to see my buddy, Jeff Gallo, playing high school for our high school team. And there was so much I didn't know. I felt like I was, you know, like the parent who doesn't know anything that you laugh at when you're at like a basketball game.

And, you know, one of the parents is like, is it three pointer? That's three points, right? Make a goal. And they just asked him to make a goal. Shit's happened in this lacrosse game. People are getting penalties and it's like there was a 30 second penalty.

There was a minute penalty. There's three defenders and three offensive players are just on one side of the field. They're not allowed to come on the other side. They're just stuck. So my son came in, he played defense and he's just standing next to this guy for 30 seconds. I'm like, come on, Ben.

I'm like, oh, he moved. He walked one foot. And then something comes on his side and he's got his long stick and you just get to like beat the shit out of people and there were all these things I didn't realize like somebody would shoot a shot and it would go out of bounds

it's the other team's ball it's like no actually their half is the closest to the ball they still have the ball it's like what how do we still have the ball they just threw the ball away I loved it I was reacting and reacting and there's a lot of goals too. They won like 17 to five. And every time there's a shot and there's probably like, I don't know, 80 parents there. Every time there's a shot, I'm like, oh, like I'm like grunting, yelling. Oh! I'm the only parent clapping. Everybody's been to lacrosse games for years and years.

It's just like this. I really had a great time, guys. Lacrosse. Who knew? I love this. I'm buying lacrosse stock. The professional league is going to be very happy to hear that. They're like a touring professional league.

Some of it gets on ESPN occasionally. But you know what I liked about this was each team only had, you know, every team there's like a hierarchy, especially in high school. We had a couple of kids that just went like, you know, they broke up a play and they just went full field,

dodged a couple of dudes, took two hits and then scored. And it was like coast to coast. It was fucking amazing. Does that happen when we get to the pros? I gotta get more focused on this. I might add a league, guys. The pros run more plays. They run plays than the pros.

It's a little more organized than high school. We're driving home and Ben's like, I really like lacrosse. I'm like, this is great. I didn't... My daughter's going to college. I didn't... They're in the spring. I'll have no club games to go to. I really felt like I had a void, but I have to like start doing more stuff with my wife. Thank God.

Now I have more games to go to. This is great. I'm in lacrosse. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Spectacular. Thank you.

The good Ben Simmons who wants to play sports. Uh, how's the paracord before we go? I do. I do. I'm glad you gave me a minute to think on it. My kid was a public school kid up until through COVID

and then the school that he was at only went through fifth grade. We started in sixth grade at a new school, whole new set of friends, but he has managed to remain pals with his his public school buddies our neighborhood buddies primarily by way of the internet primarily by way of connecting on uh the the discord and they talk and they strategize and they uh make all these schemes

and they play this roblox but once I would say every couple weeks he figures out a way for them to be in each other's company and yesterday was one of those days these are 12 year old boys some of whom talk like they're 12 going

on 19 or 20 I'm worried about what direction my kids headed with the internet but i will say there was a very charming milestone moment yesterday all the boys had a great time with it my kid out of nowhere dropped the uh unexpected moon. He pulled his pants down right in his buddy's face and it brought the whole house down. The kid who didn't catch the first ass demanded that my kid come around and do

it to him as well. It was a double moon. The 12-year-old boys, my kid with his ass out, shining the bright light. It gave me some real hope. This is what kids are supposed to this is what we do it's what we did to each other farts mooning yeah you're right it's like three you can't just puke once you have to puke twice and the second time you puke you have to

try to puke on bill simmons yes so how you were worried you worried as we entered whatever fucking weird time we're in right now that even moons would be out the window. Well, and thinking about how little time they spend in each other's company, right? The kids, you know, it's hard for the buddies to get together. They're not going down to the park and playing football every day or shooting hoops every day. They're getting online and play the Roblox. Yeah. Face to face.

There's still a place for the moon. That is one of my parenting tips for everyone out there. But face to face. There's still a place for the moon. That's, that is my, one of my parenting tips for everyone out there, but face to face, let your kid hang out with other kids. Or ass to ass. Face to face. Ass to ass.

Moon to moon. Puke to puke. Dave Jacoby. It was wonderful to see you. Thanks for coming on our little Sunday night podcast. Joe House. A pleasure as always. I thought it would be drunk house,

but it felt like it was. I'm saving that. Semi-sober Sunday house. We'll see you for the worst contracts pod. Thanks, Copcrate, for producing. Thanks to Steve Cerutti as well. I will see you in the Rewatchables feed on Monday night.

Until then. I want to see them on the way so I never say I don't have feelings with them. On the wayside, on the way so I never say I don't have feelings with them.