The Bill Simmons Podcast - Top 20 NBA Players Right Now With Joe House (Ep. 288)

Episode Date: November 17, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to construct a top-20 list of the best current NBA players through one month of the 2017-18 season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Friday Rollin', old school edition, on the BS Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor. For $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on NBA tickets, for instance, Golden State of Philly, Saturday night. I'm sure there aren't any tickets left, but there might be on SeatGeek. All you have to do is use promo code BSNBA, and you get $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. On NBA tickets, download the SeatGeek app or go right to SeatGeek.com.

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Go to grasshopper.com slash BSs you get 20 hours off your first month and finally we are brought to you by house of carbs that is joe house's food podcast that has swept the nation for the hungry people by the hungry people you had you had your dinner with kelly olenek last night yeah we have a great we had to have a Canadian on to celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh, there you go. You went to Mama Fugu? They have Thanksgiving in Canada. Did you know that? Who knows what the hell they're up to in Canada?

Yeah, I'm glad you guys made up because you hated his guts after game seven of the Eastern second round last year. I remember that. I told him that. I told him that to his face, and then I bought him dinner. Yeah. Kelly. He forgave me.

I hope the whole restaurant trained Kelly on him. Anyway, subscribe to House of Carbs. Are you doing another Shack House Golf Podcast now that Tiger is starting to out-drive people again, all that stuff, or are you going to wait? You're going to use your guard up. No, we have to. We have to.

I mean, you know, we're in the zipper zone. When Ricky Fowler goes on social media and says, the Tigre is hitting it by me, well by me, the next thing you hear, zip, oh, yep, there's got to be a shack house. We've got to talk about the Tigre. All right. I look forward to that because, I don't know,

I feel like he's taunted me so many times. I don't want to get my hopes up again. But goddamn, 2018 would be so much more fun if Tiger Woods was involved. All right, Shack House Pod, House of Carbs, both hosted by Joe House. You can get those wherever your podcast, wherever you get them. Speaking of podcasts, we are going to do something a little polarizing coming up right after our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. So, House, you haven't been on in a while.

How are you? I'm great. I'm so happy to be rolling. It's Friday. We're rolling. It feels like old times. I wrote a column on TheRinger.com today about the winners of the first month of the NBA season. And it was really inspired by what we witnessed on Wednesday night with Joel

Embiid, who, who ran through all the Lakers, Kaiser Soze style. And, and it was one of the most unbelievable things I've ever witnessed. I try not to get carried away by, by games and by young,

young players and potential and all that stuff. But I mean, that, that was kind of basketball. We grew up watching just a center completely demolishing a team by himself. Did you watch the game and what was your reaction? I did not get to watch the game. I caught extensive replays and extensive social commentary and actual basketball journalism commentary. I mean, the guy did a thing that's never been done in the history of the NBA. That's true. The only player in the history of the league with 46-15-7-7.

So that performance, which I wrote about today, you can read all my thoughts on TheRinger.com, but that performance did inspire a conversation that we seem to have all the time. We have a lot of good players right now. You can usually judge the quality of a season and the quality of the league in general by the number of really good players. And like the heyday from 87 to 93, basically, the previous heyday, there was just a lot of good players. And you go through those first team, second team, third team, all NBAs. And you're just like, whoa, that guy, oh, my God.

And Jordan's in there, and there's Hall of Famers, and just people at the peak of their powers. And it feels like we're headed there again. And one thing I keep hearing is, oh, he's one of the best 10 players in the league. Well, now he's one. And suddenly there's 25 guys who are one of the 10 best players in the league. So we're going to try something today in this podcast. When I do the trade value column, which I swear to God I'm going to do this year.

I swear I'm doing it. Did you take a break last year? I don't think I've done it since February 2015. We are so overdue. It's unbelievable. But when I do that, I slave over that list. I want to make sure every person is right. I treat it like it's a historical document.

No less important than the Declaration of Independence. Of course. The Magna Carta. This is just an argument. I asked House today, let's come up with a list of the top 20 players in the league right now. Just right now. Not who do I want for the rest of my career, not talent, not potential, not ceiling, not trade value, any of that stuff.

Just who are the best guys right now? We're going old school. We're going almost like in a pickup game if you're just picking guys. But we're not doing it that way. But I think when you make lists sometimes the truth kind of falls into place and you're surprised where the list leads you you had a lot of trouble i didn't have quite as much trouble we're gonna play off mine and you can argue with me but um the the reason this started was because i was starting to wonder if poor

zingas was one of the best 10 players in the league. And I know he didn't have a good game against the Cavs on Monday night. But you watch what he's been able to do night after night. And it just seems like he can get to 30 now on any given night. Plus, he can protect the rim. And it's like, wow, is this guy one of the 10 best players in the league who drops out? And then you think, like, holy shit, do we have a lot of good players and i know you had the same reaction when you were trying to make your list right that's the trouble exactly

right i mean uh i was doing it in groups because i couldn't and and one of the things just in terms of ground rules we had to leave off uh the injured guys right we don't put in gobert or kawaii or chris paul because they're not playing they don't have i have i have kawaii oh you have kawaii yeah okay well that helps i can't take kawaii out that can't happen i mean he hasn't played so you can't say he had he's not one of the best players of the past month no but okay i think he play. I think they're just being super, duper careful. I think Isaiah Thomas is a better injury question because I think if we made this list in April, I think he would have been on it.

I think he would have been in the 15 to 20 range, but I don't see how he can be on it right now. The big question for me is Chris Paul because he was a mortal lock to make any top 20 list, and he probably should still be on this one, and I don't want to give away my list. But he's been hurt for a month. The game is starting to change on him. The game's getting faster.

He's hitting a different point of his career. And it's not ridiculous to say that he's just not one of the 20 best players in the league anymore. Where do you stand on Chris Paul? That's funny. It feels like you have two different rules, two different thresholds for Kawhi and Chris Paul. Kawhi is a unanimous top 20, top 5, top 10. I mean, he's in the MVP discussion. Kawhi's one of the best five players in the league.

I mean, just because he has an injured quad right now Doesn't change that Chris Paul I'm just worried his body's starting to break down And I'm not sure he's one of the best 20 players in the league anyway He would absolutely positively be A top 20 on my list If he played this entire month

And we got to see him and Harden together He would be in my top 20 unequivocally We're not going backwards We're starting with one and we're going down Because it actuallyen together. He would be in my top 20 unequivocally. We're not going backwards. We're starting with one, and we're going down, because it actually gets more interesting as you start going down. All right, LeBron is one. I don't think we need to go into this too much. I will say, though, I looked at his basketball reference page last night.

I was going to write something about him in the column that I put up today, and I decided not to. But the basketball reference page is one of the most incredible and I decided not to. But the basketball reference page is one of the most incredible achievements I've ever seen. Just the consistency of 15 years. Think about how long, 15 years. And just every year, just around 27, 7, and 7, has never had a major injury.

He only missed more than 10 games, I think, in a season once. He's shooting 50% for his entire career. The numbers now, you look at them, and they're just jaw-dropping. And he's really good this year, too. And the irony is, this is the first time in seven years that he does not have a top 30 teammate, which is his own doing because they traded Kyrie. But he's been awesome this year. And at the same time, he's a terrible GM, right? We have to criticize him for that. It is funny. I just want to make one observation. Kevin Love

is showing pretty good in the advanced analytics. We don't disagree that he's not a top 30 player. I'm agreeing with you that's that's where you get well that's where you get in trouble with advanced analytics though i know i know yeah and we're now kind of going too far with advanced analytics i still feel like the eye test um kairi is a great example of the analytics don't capture all the stuff he's doing for the team we're gonna get to Kyrie. But the great thing about basketball is that we can still break stuff down with stats, but you also have to watch, and you have to see how guys relate to each other

and what guys do for each other, and that's such a big part of basketball. I have Kyrie in brackets. I have him in brackets. So LeBron is one. If I gave you an over under for how long he keeps that number one spot and I gave you you had to wager on this

we'll do Captain Morgan's make-believe casino steal it from Cousin Sal Captain Morgan they have a great collection of rooms if I gave you an over under of one and a half years that LeBron will be the best player in the league before that changes, would you go over or under?

Under. I just think LeBron is in incredible shape and has spent more time, energy, and thought on his body than any athlete we've ever had. And the catch is what happened with Kobe, right? Kobe, that last season when he blew out his Achilles, was playing at the same ridiculously high level that he had played. He had basically extended his peak through 2012, which we didn't really think was conceivable.

But the moment he got hurt, then he couldn't work out and keep his body at that level and was never the same. And that's the question with LeBron. I think he can keep his body at this level. But the moment he gets knocked out of this routine of just four hours a day of these crazy workouts, the moment he can't do that for two months because he tore a meniscus or whatever the hell, I don't think he's going to be able to get back to this level. So it's almost like every day it's like, you know, he just has to stay here. I have the dumbest of dumb reasons and explanations. I'm acknowledging it up front.

Father time always wins, and at some point he will get hurt. He's not going to continue to defy these odds forever yeah because we were having these arguments with laker fans in 2012 2013 remember well kobe why can't he keep doing this till he's 40 because nobody's done it till he's 40 at some point something's your your body can't stay at this level lebron is is even um different from kobe in the sense that he's played way more games i think haverstrow was on the podcast stay at this level. LeBron is even different from Kobe in the sense that he's played way more games. I think Haverstraw was on the podcast

last week or two weeks ago and was saying how LeBron's played basically two extra seasons with the playoff games these last seven years, which when you think about that on top of the burden that he has and on top of how hard it is to play basketball now, you know, We'll see.

I would go under as well, year and a half. Anyway, second on my list. I'm not going to overreact to anything in the first month. This guy was second on my list in June. Haven't really seen anything that would knock him off the list since. If anything, I think his defense has gone up a level. Kevin Durant is my second pick. Okay.

That's fine. I mean, I think it's okay to quibble between him and James Harden. Yep. I think James Harden has a good argument. I did. I actually did some quibbling. I did think about it because it feels like Harden has gone up a level, right? Yeah, it does feel like that.

And especially in the absence of Chris Paul and Harden, his numbers both in traditional statistics and advanced analytics are all glorious. I mean, he's at the very top of real plus minus. He's at the top of wins. He's the scoring leader. And his team's winning. He's the deserving MVP 2000 the 2016-17 season right well he might win it this year we did uh i think it was sal's against all odd podcast when we were trying to figure out mvp odds and yeah harden was was kind of the underrated

you know he's one of the favorites but the odds were a little low. They weren't quite respectful enough, considering he had had two number two finishes. And, you know, I'm not sure. It's obviously incredibly early. We're barely one sixth of the way through the season. So to talk about MVP is stupid, but, you know, he's in the mix again. He's in the mix. He's in the mix.

He's in the mix. He's where he needs to be. So I have him three, and I think you could make a case for Durant as 2A and Harden as 2B. I just think the flexibility that Durant gives teams where he can play the five in certain situations, he's such a mismatch. Watching that incredible Celtics win last night that was really an old school,

late 90s defensive struggle. I was just so scared of Durant. I never wanted the Warriors to give it to Durant the whole time. I was like, please, oh, Draymond, please take the open three. Please go ahead and have that one. I wanted anyone else to shoot.

I never wanted them to go to KD and I think sometimes when you're either wagering against somebody or your favorite team's playing them, that's when you really get a feel for, oh, how good is this person? But I have Durant two, Harden three. Giannis has to be four, right? It's fine with me. I have him right there, absolutely positively.

Can't argue it. Nothing that we've seen so far this month. With the best possibility to jump, I could see, I watched the fourth quarter of the game the other night on the NBA Game Time app because I wanted to see how much pick and roll they ran with Bledsoe andannis in crunch time and the answer

was a lot but so may but so is not not gonna we're not gonna hear his name in this podcast but um is so much more competent as a playmaker slash point guard than anybody they've had you know and he really is gonna make a way to go out on a limb. Yeah, but it has to be said. We've been talking about this for two years. It is disappointing. A team coached by Jason Kidd finally figured out that they should get a credible point guard. Congratulations, Milwaukee. And he's not even an all-star, and he makes such a dramatic difference.

It makes it so much easier for Giannis. And now we're able to see what it's like when Giannis sets a pick and can potentially roll it to the rim. We have not really been able to fully see that. It's not a little with Brogdon, but it's different now with Bledsoe. And I think what's in play for Giannis? Could he average 32 a game, beat first-team all-defense, rebounds, two blocks, two steals a game?

He really is kind of inching toward one of those crazy hakeem seasons from like the early 90s when hakeem would have you know 24 average 24 13 rebounds three blocks four category guy yeah yeah he's yeah there's a reason they call him the freak so i have him for kawaii is five out of respect i couldn't nudge kawaii the top five all right that's fine i do feel like the spurs are up to stuff here like if it's the playoffs kawaii's playing if there's nothing oh sure sure it's this is not a dangerous injury i just think they're looking at it and going look the rockets and warriors are going to be the top two seeds in that division, in that conference? Yeah, our best shot at competing is with the healthiest of healthy Kawhi.

I think they made one mistake this summer, though. I didn't understand it at the time. I didn't know if there was more to the story. I don't understand why they didn't keep Jonathan Simmons. I just don't get that. I really thought he was good for them. I thought he gave them good minutes, and I thought he had the potential to get better.

And there were moments when he kind of looked like, you know, when he was playing Kawhi's spot, he could kind of give them poor man's Kawhi for a couple minutes. I just don't understand why they let him go. Did we ever figure that out? No, and I think we need to. We have some insiders at the Spurs. There's some story that's unrelated

to his basketball performance. There has to be, right? Because we were singing his praises last year. Everybody, you know, all the deep hoop heads were singing some Jonathan Simmons praises. Or there's some sort of cap situation that we're not, there's some sort of cap threat that we're not aware of. Yeah, we couldn't do the math on our own selves.

Yeah, it wasn't like he signed for a ton of money either. It was like $20 million for three years. Tate, why do you think they got rid of Jonathan Simmons? I don't know. It was weird. Big year for Simmonses, though. Yeah. Congrats.

Thank you. Thank you. Very excited about it. I wanted him in Washington, but unfortunately, we have to pay Jan Mahinmy. Not on the top 20 list. Number six, I still have Steph Curry. I think he's unbelievable.

He didn't play. The Celtics, for whatever reason, the Celtics are now in his head. He missed a lot of open shots last night that he makes. Even with 13 seconds left, they ran a great play to get him a wide open three to try to cut it from four to one. He just missed it. But the spacing that he provides, the level of heat check that he can go to

and just his creativity and how much fun he is to play with and how smart he is as a team defender, I just don't see how he goes lower than six. What do you think? That's fine. I don't have any problem with it. It's Steph Curry, the two-time MVP. He's going to heat up a little bit.

It's still early. The Warriors have not gone all the way down with the pedal yet. It was very fun last night. I really chalked up last night's competition to the battle of of coaching minds and brad got a little bit ahead of of uh steve because somehow he was able to get his team to control pace yep there was a lot fewer possessions in last night's game that we've kind of grown accustomed to seeing especially out of the warriors obviously yeah they did that and the celts are just really good defensively yeah i've been watching it all year and and for about

six seven games i couldn't believe it and then finally came to realize that this is just who they are that they have size and they can switch and everybody plays really hard and they're very well there was a noticeable discipline in terms of when it seemed they were taking shots in the shot clock that's what kind of caught my attention a lot of shots inside of 10 seconds left on the shot right they weren't running down and throwing them up they didn't want to go run and gun that's true no i grandy my friend sean grandy who does radio for the celtics had some stat that it was something like NBA teams are 14 and 89. Some terrible record like that when they score less than 96 points.

Or when they, yeah, it was something like that. And the Celtics were 8 and 2. And then it was, another one was, I think they've held six teams under 96. I don't know. The defensive stats are crazy. They're much better than everybody else in the league right now. That doesn't mean it'll hold. But I've been impressed by Kyrie in that end, too.

We'd heard a lot. Well, he's decided to try. Congratulations. I mean, he reminds me of my guy, John Wall, in that respect. When both of them are motivated to play defense, they can be sons of bitches. They are real sons of bitches on the defensive end. They're just not always motivated to play defense. Quick break to talk about SimpliSafe. The holidays can be a crazy time. You want to make sure your home's protected through all of it. That's why SimpliSafe Home

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These systems will fly off the shelves. This offer ends soon. SimpliSafe with two I's. SimpliSafeBS.com. All right, this list is about to get interesting. We counted down the top six. LeBron, Durant, Harden, Giannis, Kawhi, Curry. For number seven, I have Anthony Davis.

Who do you have? Oh, that's interesting. Everyone else left on the Davis. Who do you have? Oh, that's interesting. Everyone else left on the board. Who do you have? Two guys ahead of him. Okay. Including his teammate, Boogie. He's coming on my list, okay?

Yeah. So here's the thing. Here's the reason I dock Anthony Davis because we've already had that early season Anthony Davis knee trouble or ankle trouble whatever that leg trouble was. Very fair. Annual reminder Anthony Davis and his frail stems. So he's been terrific. He and Boogie

won two in double-double so far this season. I saw that. But I have Boogie in that next slot. Oh! I didn't have Boogie coming up for a couple spots. Boogie's been incredible. I still don't totally trust him. Is it okay that I don't totally trust him yet?

You're allowed to. We were just trying to do the 20 best players through a month. And he's been unbelievable. Yeah, but no. See, you screwed up the game. I knew we should have gone over it more i'm saying going forward right now these are the best players okay he's still better he's i know i still worry about about him doing boogie stuff it hasn't happened yet

he's been on his best behavior but how many times have we seen it his his advanced stats are crazy he's he has gone to nine other levels it was it's i left him off the all nba team the last couple years it would be flat out uh it would be a declaration of war if you left him off one of the top three teams the way he's playing professional malpractice like all the media committed on the mvp vote last year can i make the triple double can i we're gonna get to that can i uh can i make the case for anthony davis for one second sure sure sure always he's on the worst possible team for him i i want to see him it's a shame that he's not on a team that has a really creative point guard, somebody that could just do high screens all day and all night with him because I think he would be devastating.

If he played with Mike Conley. It's so funny you just said that name. Did we talk about this in the over-unders? I don't know. Because part of the speculation, I anticipated Memphis to be worse than they are and that Memphis would be looking to shop. And the dream home for Mike Conley, to me, just because I want to see him with these guys, is indeed the Pelicans. I want to see Mike.

It's so funny that you said Conley with AD. I totally agree with that. So I feel like he's succeeding at the level he's succeeding despite himself. And not to mention, like, the people around, the shooters and all that. Now here's the case against Davis. It's interesting that so many of his teammates have left his team and then played better on other teams. And I don't know whether that's a coincidence or not.

In Russell Westbrook's case, which I wrote about today, we have Oladipo, Cantor, Sabonis, and even Doug McDermott, all playing just much better than they did last year. I think we can specifically blame Westbrook for that. I think he's impossible to play with, and I think it really affected those guys. I know it's important to you to talk about things that way. I don't think about it in terms of blame. I mean, the credible case to be made for Russell was the team made a sensible decision because they knew that they were in a transition year to push the Uber RW.

And that's what they did. And it was at the expense of all those other players. Not my kind of basketball. And they won 46 games and one playoff game. Congratulations, MVP. And they left us at the end of the season thinking all of those guys were either overrated or completely useless. So I'm going to say that was a bad strategy long term.

He won the MVP. But it is interesting that with Davis. Flags fly forever. Like Eric Gordon was on New Orleans for a couple years there. Now maybe he was a late bloomer. Maybe he got in better shape. I don't know. Ryan Anderson was there for a couple years there. Now, maybe he was a late bloomer. Maybe he got in better shape. I don't know. Ryan Anderson was there for a couple years.

What happened there? Tyreek Evans, who's been out of his mind this year as a bench guy, he was on that team. It's not like they haven't had guys that succeeded before and after they played with Davis. My instinct is to say do not blame him for that, but I want to know why he hasn't had kind of that breakout teammate other than boogie who's been fantastic um i mean maybe we would need to do a level of uh a deep dive that only a millennial

can handle i can't handle it i'm too old i'll get zach kram zach kram will do it but we need a youth because you know when you when you start mentioning names like that then you need to know exactly exactly how many games they played together and what the rotations look like. I mean, you have to really, to be fair to AD and who the coaches were and what their pace was that they were playing at, you need a bunch more data before you can start trying to draw conclusions. Right. So that's the other case for the AD thing is that he's had horrible coaches. And maybe that's a reason why these guys didn't succeed there. Anyway, I have him seven. Okay. Okay.

The eighth spot is between Kyrie and Westbrook. What? Yeah, I knew you wouldn't like it. That's very rude. I knew you wouldn't like it. That's very rude. I knew you wouldn't like it. I don't like it one bit. I wouldn't have either one of those guys ahead of the Lativian gangbanger.

Oh, settle down with the Lativian gangbanger. He's transporting the franchise. The whole franchise is on his back. The whole city of New York is on his back. I'm going to put Westbrook in the eight spot, and I don't feel good about it. I'm going to make this point. The Celtics are 14-2 with Kyrie.

There's an advanced metrics kind of pick-apart his season, a tiny bit of case that can be made unless you actually watch the season and you've seen all the stuff he does. He's a phenomenal teammate. He's way more of a leader than I expected. He has an insane sense of pace for when to get involved and when to let other guys get involved. He can get his shot basically whenever he wants. He's been really good on both ends. And I think if you're going to make the case for kairi over westbrook in this spot here's the case i don't think there's any way the celtics would be 14 and 2 if you just switch those guys i don't i don't totally agree with that

i just don't i don't with that i don't know if westbrook you look at the celtics and these guys are just are are kind of i wouldn't say overachieving, but hitting their potential in a lot of ways. And they have a lot of young guys and they've just been empowered and it's a real team. And, you know, this is part of what I wrote my book about. And this has been a constant refrain on this podcast. I'm always going to value those guys who can be the best player in a team that kind of comes together like that and has that kind of cohesion. That is a specific skill set

that I don't know if we have stats for. You almost have to watch it. It's a great point. And this is, I took notice of the advanced analytics and how friendly they are to Al Horford, who is having a career year in terms of all the advanced stats. And I think the right way, on just the point you're making, to think about Al, to put the context around Al's success this season, is to give Kyrie credit for it. There needs to be some kind of symbiosis. They have a shared

advanced analytic result here because Al Horford shooting 58% from the field this season in the top 10 there and 44% from three this season, top 25 there, and fifth in real plus minus

minutes and sixth in wins. That's all Kyrie. That's all because of that symbiosis is the way that I think about it. Yeah, and vice versa. They just play really well together. And Horford is, you know, there's been some, the MVP stuff and people are like, oh, Kyrie's in there. I'm not even positive Kyrie is the MVP of the Celtics

because it's really hard to separate him from Horford and all the stuff Horford does. I feel like taking Horford out of the Celtics lineup almost would do maybe slightly more damage than taking Kyrie out. They're just both that important. I've been so impressed by an intelligence that I thought was there because we saw it on the biggest stages and it was like there's no way this guy who could go against the Warriors these last three years

on the biggest stages possible and made all the shots he can make there's no way this guy isn't an awesome player I refuse to believe he can't be the best player on a very good team we were vindicated in that because we both felt pretty strongly about that. But I've been impressed by how willing he is to give up his stats to win. Because he really, he's probably averaging 22 a game. He could easily be at 28, 29 if he took more shots. He's only averaging 20 a game. It's very bad for our scoring bet. Well, there was one game that hurt him was he got hurt in the

beginning of uh that one game so that i think he played like four minutes and got went out that didn't help but the other thing is he's he can't play with this mask i went to the net seltzer game on tuesday night with kevin wilds our old friend and i've never seen oh wilds i've never seen anybody struggle with like there were two points during the game when he was dribbling at midcourt as the game's going on and was messing with the mask, and he just hated it so much. It's really screwed him up. It screwed him up last night. He finally took it off at halftime, which was...

Loved it. Which was... Very dramatic. Yeah, it was dramatic, but he just couldn't play with it. I think there's going to be a moment when... There's going to be some moment over the next two months when he rips off this 10-game stretch that's going to be crazy. Anyway, Westbrook, we'll see.

Westbrook's still, you know, whether you thought he was. Yeah, TBD. Whether you thought he was. OKC, TBD. Yeah, whether you thought he was one, two, or three in MVP. I'm still not convinced if he's your best player where you're going, but just from

talent and just night-to-night relentlessness, he's got to be, I think, he's got to be ahead of Kyrie as much as it pains me to say it. Tate, what do you think? Who would you rather have for 82 games? I'm going to say Westbrook for now, but I love Kyrie. i like what i see okay

rounding out the top 10 boogie cousins who we discussed yes good for deserves it phenomenal time effort by the way i he still has me blocked on twitter and he could care less what i think but i'm really proud of boins. I'm genuinely proud of the guy. I think it's really great that he pushed himself to go to another level. And he's been just devastating offensively. Really, really awesome. I want to just observe. Slightly condescending, maybe, for you to say that you're proud of him.

Thank you. He's in what seems to me to be the very best situation he's been in in his entire professional basketball career. Yeah, yes and no, because it's not like they have good point guards. I still don't think we've seen him in a great situation. The great situation would be your team, if your team can ever figure that out. Zipper zone. Zipper zone's happening again.

Zip. You know,'s happening again. Zip. You know, Otto Porter's been playing great. I hope everybody's observing. Shout out to Otto Porter. He's been spectacular so far this season. All right, so the top 10 best players right now. LeBron, Durant, Harden, Giannis, Kawhi, Curry, Davis, Westbrook, Kyrie, Boogie Cousins. And we should mention that trade for the Cavs.

Whoa, house. Was that zipper zone? You didn't go online porn, did you? I should have timed that better. Apparently I have an appointment coming up. It's with my pants and Boogie Cousins. We should mention that I made a list of 20 and then an honorable mention of 12, and there are no other Cavaliers on it other than LeBron James.

I'm going to say that trade was a mistake. I tried to say it all summer, even before my Celtics got involved. No, it's a TBD. No, it's not a TBD. They made a mistake. You can't trade Kyrie Irving. You can't. You can't do Kyrie Irving. You can't. You can't do it.

You argued with me about this. Maybe it was you. I thought it was you. I wouldn't have traded him. I would have told him, go play. You don't like it. I don't care whether you like it. Go play.

But somebody made the compelling case that you can't have guys have any kind of misgivings about the situation because ultimately it has such an undermining effect and it shows up at exactly the worst possible time. So everybody needs to be the happiest guys they can be. I would have kept them. And I held my nose and said yes to that, but I don't agree with it. I wish they had kept them. Actually, I don't wish they had kept them because he wouldn't be on the Celtics.

But, man, just point me to the one time when a trade like that has worked out where you're giving up the one blue, blue, blue, unquestioned blue chipper in the trade. All right. Next 10. Great big unknown is that Brooklyn pick. We still have to see. A lot of TBD still. They are not one of the six worst teams in the league.

That is a fact. Unless they get more injuries and stuff like that. I saw them on Tuesday night. That team is well coached. They don't have any superstars, but they play hard. They have no incentive whatsoever to lose, especially when we get to February, March, April. The team that might just end up cratering is the Lakers I I'm very focused

on that pick right now that Celtics two to five we get their pick if it falls two three four and that's on on a differential basis and on a record basis or in the worst or a bottom six but okay what do you what do you put as the odds that Lonzo is working at the ringer in five years zero zero point zero zero zero yeah zero i think he's gonna be good yeah man i that that the other day good i didn't say great i didn't say superstar i think he's gonna be good he's a he's just a horrible shooter it's a bad position for him oh what a revelation the guy who who shot you know looks like it has 17 movements to it, 17 parts to it, and looks like it takes four and a half seconds to get off. He's not a great shooter.

What a surprise. It worries me when guys finish games with zero field goals in one field goal. That's such a bad sign. I know he's a rookie, and I'm really trying to give all kinds of benefit of the doubt, but I, God. We just, we live in a terrible moment. No, we do. Let the kid be a kid.

He's already had a triple-double. The youngest, again, another history lesson. The youngest in the history of the NBA to achieve a triple-double. Let him be a kid. Let him make his mistakes. The one good thing that's happened is we finally learned that. Can everybody please calm the fuck down with summer league can we just calm down i felt like a voice crying in the wilderness last year without all my all my millennial staffers who

think summer league is like the finals it's like nobody's playing defense lonzo should be good in these games wait till the season starts. All right. Second 10. Draymond Green, number 11. Okay. I like winning titles. Sorry. All the intangibles.

Still top 10 in real plus minus. 11th in wins. He's doing it all defensively. Let's look at his... I don't have the stats up. And he's a man's man. And he's a leader. Hely. Let's look at his stats. I don't have the stats up. And he's a man's man, and he's a leader. He's a man's man. He's got the biggest balls in the league, and he'll fight anyone and take your girlfriend out for a steak dinner.

Yeah, eighth in defensive real plus minus. All good, advanced analyst. That's all I'm saying. Am I supposed to care about defensive real plus minus i need i need harala bob's take on this i'm just saying you know the the you never get eye test with with draymond other than his hustle and the chemistry stuff so you need to look look beyond what your eye might catch to see the impact that's all that's the only reason i pointed out okay uh another guy clay thompson he's my 12th pick i've seen him perform on the biggest stages possible and make

the biggest shots possible and he's an incredible scorer and you could argue he's probably sacrificing four to five points a game on this team that he if he was i don't know the best guy in orlando i think he would be averaging 27 a game you know so i have a quibble yeah because we tried i thought the point of this was was top 20 based on the first month no i already first of all you were wrong and second of all i explained to you 20 minutes ago that that wasn't a list. The list is who are the best players in the league right now. Well Clay Thompson isn't better than Joel Embiid right now. Yes and no.

Okay. We don't know if Joel Embiid can play 30 minutes a game for two straight months. We have no idea. That's a true fact. That's the only reason I downgraded him. If you're just talking about what's the ceiling of their greatest game,

it's a different conversation. I know what I'm getting with Clay. You know what I mean? I think that's the difference. If that's the distinguishing factor, that's fine. Okay. I'll accept it. Embiid's the difference if that's the distinguishing factor that's fine okay i'll accept it and beads better his ceiling's better yeah well his franchise impact is better he he's if he can stay healthy he's going to drag the sixers into the playoffs listen if you're talking

to lose our over under bet if you're telling me i'm getting Embiid for the next 10 years, playing 70 games a year, playing 30 minutes a game, and then for this year I'm getting 82 games of him and more of what we saw this week, then it's a completely different conversation. He's probably in the top eight. Even 70 games. We don't need 82 games from him. We only need 70 games from him. He'll drag the Sixers into the playoffs. No one 44 44 45 games I'm very very very carefully trying not to overreact to the fact that he destroyed two below average Los Angeles basketball teams and the fact that he hasn't done this

consistently for a prolonged period of time so I'm just being careful your point is is very sound two months is all we're asking for please give us two months just 30 to 35 minutes a game keep doing it just keep doing it i just want to keep seeing it i am a an enormous believer in the ceiling uh number 13 chris dapps you could argue he might be a tad higher but i i had had him up in the 10 range. There's some health stuff that I worry about with him, with his size and the way he moves, that makes me a little bit nervous.

But I think from a talent standpoint, yeah. And the thing I like about him is he's just winning games by himself, where he'll just be like, oh, they won last night because of Chris Tufts. Oh, he put up 38. I'm giving him extra credit for the impact on New York. Oh, yeah. In such a stunning reversal. And he embraces it.

Yeah, he loves it. Think about barely four months ago, the stink of Phil Jackson. He was so fed up with everything that was happening. He skipped the exit interview. F you, Phil. Yeah. I'm going home. I'm going to go eat some Lativian hamburgers.

I'm not sitting around here in New York. I'm getting the F out of here. And here we are now at this moment where the entire, he is the hero of New York City, of the New York City basketball, you know, convening. And the garden is electric. And it's all because of the zinger. It's amazing. he's another one i just want to see 80 games of it before before i fully buy into a like a seventh

best player in the league type of situation so i need to see that i need to see that for a few months in a row but he's on this is an unbelievable pace that he's on. And I'm with you. I will say, I will confess, I was 10% disappointed in him on Monday night. I wanted more from him in that Cavs game. At some point, that was a pull-your-balls-out game. And that's what holds me back a little, is that he had just 3% deer-in-the-head-itis. It was like, oh shit, LeBron's mad now, and it's my turn to step up.

What do I do? Kind of face. Yes. I didn't love it. But four years from now, he's like, oh, we're swinging dicks, LeBron? All right, here's mine. I don't think he's quite there yet. All right.

We've done 13. LeBron, Durant, Harden, Giannis, Kawhi, Curry, Davis, Westbrook, Kyrie, Boogie, Draymond, Clay, Porzingis. Now it gets a little interesting. You could go ceiling. You could go performance um consistency all that stuff i went paul george with the 14th pick i actually really like the way he's playing this year i'm still not convinced he's could ever be the best player on like a title team but uh i think his all-around game in a really kind of weird okc situation where they don't have a fifth guy, where they're

all kind of feeling each other out. But he's been pretty great. I think he's yucky. That's so surprising. What do you think is yucky about him? He looks lost to me. And that's, I think, sort of an organizational activity. Not lately.

What's lately mean? Like the last three, four games when they've turned the corner a little bit here and strung together two or three wins in a row? The 42-point game that he had made me think. I was like, all right. I was a little worried about him. I was like, all right, he's getting it. He's asserting himself.

I just think he has too much talent. Okay. All right. I don't mind having him in the top 20. I just feel like this is a little high, and I think there are a couple other guys that deserve recognition for the impact on their teams. One name I would say is Andre Drummond, who is not... He's not making my list.

He's not making your list at all. Not a top 20 player. No, but I'm willing to drop George. Want me to put your guy in there, John Wall, 14? Make the case for John Wall. I'd rather make the case for Brad Beal. Wow. See, now we're getting complicated, man.

I just have a hard time with this is the second consecutive year that John Wall has sucked in October slash November. Hold on. Let's build up the drama. Quick break to talk about our friends at Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans. They understand that home plays a big role in your life and family. That's why they created Rocket Mortgage, which gives you the confidence you need when it comes to buying a home or refinancing your existing home loan.

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Understand fully. Mortgage confidently. To get started, go to rocketmortgage.com slash Bill Simmons. Equal housing lender. Licensed in all 50 states. NMLS, consumeraccess.org, number 3030. You know what we're gonna do?

I just realized. I think that 13's set in stone. I'm keeping it. These next seven spots are up for grabs. I think that 13's set in stone. I'm keeping it. These next seven spots are up for grabs. I'm willing to talk this out. I'm willing to get input from you. I'm willing to get input from Millennial Tate, who will probably put Kemba Walker

in there. I don't like this Millennial thing. I'm out. I'm out. Every time I say Millennial, Tate just clenches. He doesn't like it. Here are the candidates for spots 14 through 20. Paul George, John Wall, Jimmy Butler, my son, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Marc Gasol, and then we'll throw in DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal.

And then I had a bunch of honorable mention guys, Mike Conley, Jokic, Gobert, Isaiah Thomas, Drummond, Kemba, Towns, McCollum, Horford, Aldridge. That's funny. So I know that we had a little discrepancy in terms of what we're really measuring at this point. But I have Towns much further up than this. Towns is in my top 20. Jokic is in my top 20. Jokic is in my top 20. Drummond was like right there around 20.

I just didn't, I don't like, you know, some of those guys and where they've been so far. Marc Gasol deserves more respect, especially because I learned this is, he's going to be a house of carbs candidate. I need him on my house of carbs. Let's see your bumping up. He gardens in the summer. He's a gardener. Marc Gasol, the gardener.

I'm upset at Towns. Oh. Yeah. Let's hear why. I think he's on a really talented basketball team, and it's all set up for that team to be really good. And I need him to have a both ends impact every night. And I'm not positive he's capable of it.

I think he's capable of it offensively, but I really worry that he's a good team, bad stats guy or a good stats, bad team guy. I have not seen, I keep waiting for him to go up a notch and I haven't seen it yet. And I don't know why. I don't know why he's not better defensively

that team to have maybe Tibbs I just I was there for Tibbs when he was the assistant on the Celtics and he completely changed their defense I don't I just refuse to believe Tibbs is the coach of a not that good defensive team

and it's got to come from Towns and it's not and it really bothers me and when i watch them it bothers me it bothers me that they're not better defensively and uh and i just wonder like if i'm building around that dude and what where am i going what's my ceiling as a team is it 47 wins wait what what can he do to do more? How can he go up a level? He's shown us so many times he's capable of grabbing huge rebound numbers, but it doesn't translate into defensive success. That team doesn't get stops. They don't get stops. And he should be the stopper. He should be a rim protector. You know what? You planted enough doubt in my head about paul george and

john wall and we said this was going to be a work in progress that i think i have to give the 14th pick to my son ben simmons i i can't argue with it i i, he's been, you made this point at the very outset of the podcast about the feeling we have, the sentiment about the current talent level in the NBA. And this rookie class is really responsible for it. It feels like there are six or seven cornerstone guys, potentially. I mean, you know, we're 15 games into the season, so let's not get too crazy about it. But, you know, Smith, Collins, you know, Fox.

And then you get to, you know, the guys who have been clearly dominant. Simmons. Did you not say Tatum just because you're trying to make me punch something? I'm good with Tatum i he's he's wonderful uh the thing i love about the thing that makes him special and and the more i'm thinking about it probably puts him in the top 15 of whatever conversation we're having is every night he's doing it that's like like, I want to start there with, when you're talking about something in the top 20, like I need to see it every night.

You do it every night. You show up, you got to be at a certain level. I need to know with no ambiguity. It's the one time you're coming to my town. Are you going to be awesome? Am I going to remember watching you? And Simmons has been like that pretty much every night. They're playing Golden State on Saturday night.

I think Embiid's a wild card. I have no idea how he's going to play. I have no idea how Golden State's going to defend him. You'd think how badly the Lakers defended him in that game was really criminal. Golden State will not be single-teaming him, and they're going to be throwing, talking shit to him. But Simmons is going to be good in that game.

You can lock it down. And as a rebounder, I have been blown away by him. I had no idea he was going to be this good. I watched him a ton in college. I thought he had a high ceiling. Had no idea he could go to this level. So if we made him 14, that's not a bad thing, right? No, it seems totally fair.

And the aspects of him that have so impressed me are kind of, again, soft considerations. Disposition and composure. Yeah. And it's both game composure and off-the-court composure. I wonder if the year off was indirectly beneficial to him. Yeah, it was like a redshirt year. Better than playing on that shitty LSU team again.

It took enormous pressure off of him because he came into, he slid into this season as kind of the third story, second story rookie-wise. Lonzo's got all of that attention. And he's had the benefit of Joel probably as healthy as Joel has been, even though his conditioning is still, you know, very much under development. Which is weird.

And he's got a couple of vets on that Sixers team who are making a difference. JJ's made a difference. Yeah, one of the things I love about Simmons is he makes other guys better. It took him – I went from – at the start of the season, I'm like, why the hell did they sign J.J. Redick? And why is Simmons the point guard all the time? The guy can't shoot. And it's just they kind of figure out how to make it work.

And now he's finding Covington and Redick all the time with open shots. And he just seems like he'd be so much fun to play with. I also love that he knows what he can and can't do. He's got his little, that running hook that I wrote about in my column today, that little junior sky hook. That's phenomenal. He can always go by left or right,

whoever he wants. Everybody's backpedaling on him. He's got, he's really nice around the rim and he knows he can't shoot. And he really actively tries not to shoot. He figures it out. I love that. I love watching him. around the rim and he knows he can't shoot and he really actively tries not to shoot he he figures it out um i love that i love watching him i think he's a worthy number 14 i'm i'm glad we talked it out good with him and the more i think about it as we as we go through this i think blake griffin

has to be the 15th wow yeah interesting i i don't think it's his fault that he has a bad coach and a weird team because you know he's he's gonna get to his 24 and 13 to 14 whatever he needs to get to he's making threes eight i don't know i just think the guy's really good like if it's him versus paul george who's better at basketball they're on a six game losing streak i know but some really bad losses do you blame him for that or do you blame the team and the coach and does it feel like they're kind of quitting on the coach here the concept yeah we need to work on our uh i need i need i have a little bit of wager out there that needs a hedge by the way reminding me of that oh uh we need doc i need some money on doc where does mb go on this list

like what about mb say well i already had him in the top 12 because i i just think you know it's very fair to ding him um you know several spots the way that you did, but I have him well inside my top 15, and again, in like a 12 position. All right, I'm going to put Embiid at the 16 spot. I mean, you can't take a guy that's done something that nobody in history, and you can say whatever you want about the Clippers and the Lakers, you can't take away what our eyes observed in terms of his his footwork is incredible he sees the court incredibly he passes beautifully yeah and he's back to the basket and he's face up we just want him to play please play and you also have to remember he's only been

playing basketball for what yeah six years now seven years now? Alright, we'll put him at 16 with the chance to go up or down. Definitely the most volatility in the 16 spot. He could be at six. Alright, so who's 17? You could have Paul George, John Wall, Jimmy Butler,

Chris Paul, who we have not mentioned, Marc Gasol, DeRozan, no, no, Jokic. No. Yeah. Yes, Jokic. Really, Jokic? I would have Jokic in there.

Hmm. His advanced stats are good. And I just think he is a guy that you give credit to for the direction of the franchise. And they're figuring some stuff out still, that team. But he is the thing. He's the straw that stirs the drink for them. All right. So eight and six isn't very good so far.

And only plus one differential. But they're going to be good. And he's going to be the reason. That's what I think about the Denver Nuggets. All right. I've heard your advice. I've digested it. I listened to it. And I'm not going to heat it i'm gonna put i'm gonna put paul george

there i'm gonna put yokage after him because that's fine i'm not sure i'm not sure if your team's getting stops if yokage is your best big man i've not i've not seen enough defensively from him you know and they added milsap too and it their defense is better than it was last year but i'm still not i'm still not positive he's he might be a better fantasy center than a real center that's my fear it okay that's fine it's a work in progress they're they're in denver i think denver is going to end up pretty good i think they're going to end up in the 4-5 slot in the West. Maybe 5-6 is better. Let me ask you this.

Would you rather have Gasol or Jokic? That's a great question. You don't have to have them for the next 10 years. I'm just talking about right now, rest of the season. Oh, Gasol. For this season? Yeah. So then Gasol should be in that spot over Jokic.

Just because Gasol doesn't need any learning. Yep. You know? You know exactly what you're going to get out of him. Okay. So 13, Simmons. 14, Griffin. 15, Embiid.

16, Paul George. 17, Marc Gasol. 18, Jokic. Man, this is getting really tough. You don't have Andre Drummond in your top 20. You disrespect Andre Drummond. I don't trust Andre Drummond yet. I don't know.

That Detroit team has really been something. What do you think, Tate? SVG coach of the year. Have you seen enough from Drummond to think he belongs in the top 20? I love that Pistons team. They're great. Drummond has been really good. And Bradley.

That's been the most shocking thing of the year to me is that I thought Drummond was somebody. He seemed like he was out there for any team to trade for and nobody wanted it. I still can't put him in the top 20, though. We're ready to write him off we wrote him off does chris paul have to be the 19th picker that's fair i like chris paul chris paul's fair i had him 19 originally anyway so yeah that's good that's a good spot for chris paul let's put chris paul in he's been hurt for a month but he's still a top 20 player in the league. Yeah. I mean, at the end of last year, he was somewhere between 10 and 13. So it seems like that would be fair.

But if we do this again three months from now, I would not be shocked if Chris Paul was not on the list. And then 20th guy. So you see more Wizards than me. You're saying John Wall doesn't belong in the 20th guy. So you see more Wizards than me. You're saying John Wall doesn't belong in the 20th spot. I mean, I know the Wiz are 9-5, but that's really more than anything because of, I swear it's true, Otto Porter showed up ready to play this season and has been outstanding. And Beal, this is the, I'm going to really knock on wood. You hear the hero. I'm laughing. It's really loud. My knocking on the wood because he's, he's healthy. The thing that,

that, um, I've observed on this podcast a few times over the years past was we were waiting for Beal to grow into his body. And that was the main sort of limiting factor in terms of the, um, the injury recurrence that we were observing. And now we have a pretty nice sustained run. God damn it. I hate even saying this. But he looks good. And he's able, because of that foundation, the physical foundation he possesses now, he's adding things to his game.

He's getting to the free throw line. And he's going to the basket with a sort of fearlessness that we've been sort of wanting out of him. And so to me, the MVP of the Wiz to this moment is Bradley Beal. How's he on defense? Learning. He's learning. Still like a C-plus?

Yeah. C-plus, exactly. So we don't really have a 20th spot. Jimmy Butler, I think, would be the default pick. What about DeRozan? From a talent talent standpoint DeRozan I had 21st he's right there my problem with DeRozan is he's such a negative on defense

the advanced analytics are very unfavorable to him on defense they're not good he's fucking awesome though he's so scary when he's going to get your team I never feel like we can guard DeRozan ever let me ask you this though though he's so scary when he's going to get your team i never i never feel like we could guard the murderers and ever let me let me ask you this though yeah well i've had this experience it comes playoff time i don't fear him the whiz have owned toronto a couple times in the playoffs we've

knocked him out you know two of the past three years or three you know whatever the timing is and he's he's been you know underwhelming not up to the moment you know what maybe it is andre german's time for the 20th spot hey welcome i mean all right what what he did what he's doing from the free throw line deserves recognition okay and defensively who take take a liability and turn it into an asset in a way like that, that means he worked hard and something clicked for him and that he gives a shit. And I like giving him credit for that.

Would you rather have him or Towns? Just for this season. Always Towns. I would do Towns a million times out of a million. Tate? 16 rebounds a game for Drummond. Give me Drummond. Wow. If we actually want to win the title title I'd take Al Horford over both of them

but that's alright that's a different thing altogether you would take Kyrie Horford that's I mean because that's the it's a combo deal with Horford one of the great things about this list and we should definitely do this again in three months to see what's different and what's the same is drummond is a little bit reactionary but at the

same time he's kind of earned that 20th spot i had him on the honorable mention close but he's just he that that team is performing better than minnesota's team and i agree with this and that should matter And he's been a little more unstoppable than Towns, and that should matter too. And if we're playing one game with our lives depending on it and the other team has Drummond or the other team has Towns, who am I more scared of? I might be more scared of Drummond.

I think it's a fair assessment. It's reasonable to have him in the 20. All right. He's earned it. Our top 20 right now. Right now. List subject to change. We'll do this again in two months or three months, whatever.

LeBron, Durant, Harden, Giannis, Kawhi, Curry, Anthony Davis, Westbrook, Kyrie, Boogie Cousins. That's our top 10. Draymond, Klay Poor Zingas, Simmons, Blake Griffin, Joel Embiid, Paul George, Marc Gasol, The Joker, Nikoli Jokic. Chris Paul, and quite possibly his farewell appearance on this list at number 19. And last but not least.

You're very impolite to Chris Paul today. Last but not least, Andre Drummond. Yeah. So, the following people did not make it. John Wall, Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan, Mike Conley,

your son Bradley Beal, Rudy Gobert, Isaiah Thomas, Tate's favorite basketball player, Rudy Gobert, Isaiah Thomas, Tate's favorite basketball player, Kimball Walker, CJ McCollum, Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge. No, Dame Lillard. Dame Lillard and Carl Anthony Towns. We want those guys hungry.

Kevin Love didn't even make that list. John Wall's going to be hungry. He gets hungry in December. I hope he's not eating wins like Jameis, but he'll be hungry. By the way, Damian Lord's not playing that well this year. Go look at his stats. I still think that team should pick one of those two guys. I agree with you.

I would go all in on one, and I would trade the other. If it were me, I would keep McCollum and trade Dame. If it were me. That's interesting. Very good rapper, though. I think Dame has a chance to be one of the great NBA rappers we've ever had. Top three NBA rappers. Really good.

He's had some good songs. That's it for the BS Podcast. Thanks to SeatGeek. Don't forget, first-time NBA purchases to SeatGeek. Don't forget, first time NBA purchases on SeatGeek. $20 off. All you have to do is use offer code BSNB.

Don't forget about Joe House's podcast. House. Oh. Carbs. And the Shaq House. And don't forget about the House Instagram,

which is my top five favorite Instagrams right now. The House of Carbs Instagram. the shack house and don't forget about the house instagram which is my top five favorite instagrams right now uh the house of carbs instagram we're we've been we belly sourced that thing it's trying to get something up every day from from somebody glory you know and it's international we've had a couple of of uh nice posts from italy we've got a post i think from tokyo hit us with a keep it keep up the good belly sourcing, our friends. My favorite Instagrams right now, number one, drunk people doing things is the, it's the

godfather of Instagram accounts. It's incredible. I can't get enough of it. And my second favorite one is dummies doing things, which is a lot of like people riding their bike downstairs and crashing into the wall or going overhead first or you know swinging from a rope at a lake and the rope rope breaks and they just fall 35 feet and belly flop i showed wilds when we were at the at the nets game on tuesday he was suspicious and now he's all in and those are my two favorites house of carbs is in the top five

though it's the house of carbs is the instagram account yes my son will take that my son randomly posts instagram pictures and i think he's gonna get in trouble at some point that's can i bet it on that can i gamble on that can you give me your one minute here's why i should get excited about the Tiger Woods possibility? Sure, of course. I mean, this is the talkers, the quiet talkers that him and his camp have been doling out there are that he has done this season what he should have done last season, which is the combination of rehabilitation and restoring that physical strength to his back and his glutes and all that kind of stuff so that he can perform on a sustained recurring basis. And more importantly, they've learned a lesson from last season.

They're not going to load up a schedule and pretend that he's going to come back and play 30 events and fly his ass to Dubai after playing in California or whatever. It sounds like he's going to be on a much, you know, they'll focus on the majors. They'll do a couple of the important kind of events, all based on the idea that he's healthy and he's hitting the living daylights out of the ball and the swing looks good. We're going to watch him for four rounds at the Hero, which is the first week of December. So we're just a couple few weeks out.

And we'll be able to confirm everything that we're hearing in terms of how he looks. But if he looks as good as he looked last year, or maybe even a little better, and they don't try and hustle his ass out there to churn the piggy bank, then we might have Tiger for a whole season. And if it's only 15 events, that's wonderful. But I think they learned a lesson. They're not going to fly, play in California, and then get on a plane for 22 hours so you can go get a $3 million appearance fee

and play one round and then be done for the season. That sounds encouraging we're it's the eight year anniversary next week of of uh the car accident i remember where i was at dinner with my wife and it just felt fishy from the get-go i'll never forget it's like that's a weird story just imagine if it happened now as opposed to eight years ago yeah the internet is so much more sophisticated now yeah we're talking stories now rob harvilla wrote a really good piece for us yesterday about pop music not quite the death of pop music but the how things have changed because of uh the genre itself it's it's just in kind of crisis and we're seeing it with this taylor swift album and he had some theories on that and my one of my theories is

people are just too smart now they're too intelligent they can see through everything and there's theories and if you're trying to be calculated they can see through it and taylor swift's seeing it right now but i think that tiger woods thing when you know the time that elapsed and then the explanation like people just would have been all over it within five minutes yes and now you're excited really fun now you're excited for tiger what was really fun. Now you're excited for Tiger. What was the best thing? Well, you know, my hand's on the zipper. I'm not quite in the zipper zone yet. What's the best thing you've eaten in the last month?

I was at Momofuku last night with Kelly Olenek, and they brought out this incredible dish. It's been on the menu for about eight, nine months. Crispy rice cakes, which come out in the shape and form of little gnocchis, like the Italian gnocchi dumplings. But they're crispy and they're rice. And it's in this glorious spicy sauce that's got some red pepper in it and some onion. And it was just an amazing dish. So that's the best thing.

Last night's meal at Momofuku CCDC with the best dish I've had in the last couple months. We need a... Surprise, surprise. I saw a business meeting with somebody in New York who you had sent sushi recommendations to. I'm starting to realize you should just have an app that

people could just dial up and you just spout out sushi and steak recommendations. Yeah, well, somebody should pay me for that. I'd be happy to do it. All right, we'll get on it. People out there, pay house. What's the best steak in D.C.? There's three.

I talked about this on the podcast with Kelly Olenek last night, as a matter of fact. I like bourbon steak quite a bit. I don't want to step on that, then. Yeah, I won't step on that then. Let's save that for next week's House of Carbs. Yeah, that's right. Did you ever recover? Next week's House of Carbs, we're about to record a food fight.

Mallory Rubin, Juliette Littman, Joe House breaking down. We have our savory 16. We have 16 sides. We're going to duel it out bracket style and break down the best Thanksgiving. We're going to come up with the number one best Thanksgiving side just in time for Thanksgiving House of Carbs. Why wasn't I invited to be on that? You're always invited. I assume you know how all these things are happening at all times.

I don't know my own name anymore. I might crash that one. All right. You can hear that on House of Carbs. That's coming up. Joe House I'm glad we batted around this list I think I figured out the concept by the end of it did you?

no I still don't understand it but it's a good solid 20 it was fun it was a good exercise enjoy the weekend thanks for listening to the BS podcast don't forget the Ta-Nehisi Coates podcast we did on Wednesday was very very popular and if you haven't heard that one

I would encourage that one. He was excellent. And don't forget about my column on TheRinger.com. Don't forget about the end of Superhero Week on TheRinger.com where especially we kind of done the top 50 superhero movies. And don't forget about Tate's new podcast, One Shining Podcast.

When are you going to book Joe House on that one, Tate? Whenever you want to come on, House. You're welcome. House, when you're ready to come talk about Maryland and DMV, those boys are ready for you. All right. I have to do some studying. It's not college basketball time yet for me. Thanks, House.

Good times. On the wayside, I never said I don't have feelings for him. On the wayside, I never said I don't have feelings for him.