The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #78: Southeast Division Breakdown with Dan Favale

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

The guys were pleased to be joined by Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale on the latest episode. The trio discussed a disappointing ending to Team USA’s FIBA tourney performance before transitioning to the Southeast DivisionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and Team USA winds up with a whole lot of nothing in the FIBA tournament. And, you know, we may have an Avengers style team up of the league's top stars at the Olympics, it sounds like. Ultron.

Well, I prefer Baltron. We'll get into that and conclude our team-by-team prediction series with the Southeastern Division with writer and podcaster Dan Favalli on today's episode. I'm Miles Ray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is... Miles Ray and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Moe and Jack O'Brien Bootskis Curry a three-pointer

Steph Curry from downtown again. Giannis with the take. Oh, look out. A little short time. What you got, Giannis? What's up, Dan? You're right for Bleach Report. You are the host of the fantastic Hardwood Knox podcast. Mostly known for having been on this podcast before as a wonderful guest. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you for returning.

Yes, thank you so much for blessing us, lowering yourself to come onto our show. But yeah, how you been, man? I have been great. Thank you guys so much for having me back. It's always nice to be in for you to make the mistake twice of inviting me back to this. Hey, you know what they say? Shame on you. Wait, fool me.

Fool me twice. Never mind. Can't get fooled again. You're not going to fool me again, Dan. Okay. What's good, man? again. You're not going to fool me again, Dan. Okay.

What's good, man? You got a life-size Groot looming in the background that I'm expecting to attack you at some point during the course of this recording. It has yet to attack me in any recordings that I've done, but that is obviously its sole purpose. And that was clearly a must-have when I was putting together

my office. I feel like that's very on-brand for our podcast, to just make sure that there's a life-have when I was putting together my office. I feel like that's very on-brand for our podcast, is just make sure that there's a life-size alien behind it. Yeah, right, right, right. Did you have this set up last time when we chatted? No, I made the super smart decision of buying a house at the peak of the interest rates and the peak of house home prices. Just super smart financial decision on my end.

People know this is not a financial advice show, obviously. To quote Cola Scola, my finances are none of my business. Yeah, it happens. And then you got Penny Hardaway and you get Green Knicks jersey back there. Yeah, so it's actually a TMAC Magic jersey.

TMAC Magic jersey. And then, of course, I was one of the only people that ever liked the Knicks having a St. Paddy's Day green and orange jersey. I have a Danilo Gallinari New York Knicks St. Paddy's Day jersey. Wow. Okay. In my background.

I have no sign, but wow, you got, man, I gotta step my game up. I just have loose jerseys on wire hangers. But hey, inspiration all around. I got an old camera that someone bought at a garage sale like 10 years ago that my wife was like, we should put this somewhere. That's nice.

That's a nice set dressing. Anyway, should we talk, should we touch on Team USA before we get into our preview here? Why not? Someone's going to have to do it. So what's our excuse here? The excuse I keep here and those international teams are playing together constantly um but like where are they are they

playing in like underground basketball tournaments like is there like a mortal combat for basketball that's constantly happening and we're not usa is just not not admitted to or what yeah dan where are you where are you landing on the the hot takes about the team usa coming up with nothing at the feeble world cup i hear we don't take it seriously we gotta send our best or they need more time to build some kind of consistency what we're what's your feeling after that disappointing tournament yeah i can't i don't want to say i can't bring myself to care but i'm not a fan of like the making excuses of it all when it's if you want to claim that we have the best basketball talent in the world um then we should be winning these tournaments and the other

thing to me is i it's hypocritical because i sit here and will critique nba players all the time and i'm not doing it but if we're gonna have stars come out and like subtweet this or like have problems with how it fair, like, well, then participate when it's not just like the actual Olympics. I do probably think there's something to the team chemistry aspect where when we're having these World Cup tournaments, like, yeah, they're dealing with the same rosters. And I know JJ Redick pointed out that some of these guys in international play just turn into Michael Jordan. Yeah, they just go out of body. So I get it. But it's also kind of super ridiculously embarrassing. I feel like I don't want to insult the talent that actually won.

And shout out to Germany for winning it all. But you're just supposed to have these guys, even when we're throwing out what you call the B roster, there are still stars on there. The fact that it can't really coalesce to me is, I don't know, it's fair. Like I said, I can't care a lot about it, but it is fairly, I think, surprising.

But I do think you have to give credit to the rest of the world for catching up with their talent. Yeah, a lot of people of people were like what is this the man in the high castle the u.s lost to germany i don't think so a lot of people were saying that yeah like everyone yeah a lot of man in the high castle references um i it's confounding like it as much as people want to say these this is like not the best that the u.s has to offer i think that roster would win the nba title this year like or they'd be favored to at least um it's the usa basketball team like that that roster is absolutely stacked the germany basketball roster would be favored to be... How many wins would they win in the NBA this year?

18? I'll give them 28, 25. More than the Wizards, I think. That's the number. I think that's about right. I think they might be even lower than that. Because otherwise like more of these guys would be on NBA basketball teams.

So like, I, I don't, I don't totally understand it. Um, but it does seem, yeah, it's,

it's the having the experience of like everybody. So we lost to Germany. We also lost to Canada who has three solid nba player one great nba player two uh very good nba players um the great being dylan brooks obviously ah yes yes our new king the new kobe i think we can all agree on that. Who dropped 39 points on the U.S.? So I guess in that case, we have a team, like Team Canada is playing ball internationally at these international FIBA tournaments throughout the year.

And then when NBA players can come in, the same three NBA players are coming back and they know how to play with those guys. So that's the difference maker. Right. Right. I, I just, I'm just looking also at team Canada and I'm like, Jamal Murray wasn't playing. And you're like, what, what, what is that Olympic team going to look like? Cause there's a lot of people who I think assume that it's like, yeah, man, just get, just get this Voltron team together. And it's like, it's a wrap, but I feel like there's such a...

There's an arrogance to it all that doesn't humble itself to be like, we have to play as a team. We can't just be like, we're the best ever. So we can just sleep through this thing. Yeah. Jamal Murray and Wiggins were not playing for Canada. And they beat the USA.

Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know necessarily like, it does seem to be of a larger piece with like, it's hard, a harder thing to write about a hardest thing to quantify. And so it gets underrated, but we are seeing it now in international it now in international play and we're also seeing it in the nba that having the you know experience of playing together like seems to help the the teams that have stuck together for a little while um you know like denver like milwaukee like you know that as opposed to these teams that are just trying to assemble like the greatest net weight of talent per roster um that it seems to matter like when you have some cohesion when you have some experience um that that stuff changes things it works in the nba uh it certainly

works in international competition right dan what do you think of what do you think of this dream team that lebron is saying he's putting together with what kd steph he said he's already got uh draymond abayan jason tatum ad is is there like this is probably sacrilegious to say but like is the best team gonna be all right well let's roll out like a super ancient kevin durant steph curry and lebron like are we getting right that after they're going through an entire nba season where some of those guys might have played like 100 games or whatever it ends up being so i like yeah on paper that looks fun but i think jack sort of alluded to this what if they tried to like build and you could still use stack talent but what if you actually like tried to build a roster

where the skill sets they don't overlap and they kind of complement one another and they fill in for the gaps that you would have elsewhere i think this version of the usa team which just frankly i watch very minimal of because i just don't get excited about this particular tournament it's just like okay we can make fun of jaron jackson jr's rebounding but here's this guy who's a big who defends a bunch on the perimeter so why didn't you surround him with other smalls who are actually really good at rebounding like why why do we not approach building a roster and you even said it was just like the net sum of talent like why not approach this as an actual roster building process to see like how we can get yeah

it'll still be stars but how about stars that complement one another and fill all the gaps within an entire game right because steve kerr is dumb and bad and i think we can all agree it was steve kerr's fault let's move along um that that does he he's getting a lot of scapegoatage, which does not seem fair to me. Shouldn't some of it fall on Grant Hill? Didn't he come out and say, we're not going to hold tryouts for this. We're just going to trust that these guys are going to... Way back

when, I think I saw an excerpt going around that that's what he had said about it. We're just going to have a team off-site and do some trust falls and just like kind of vibe it out we're just gonna vibe out the roster yeah yeah we love it all guards just what ended up yeah we love it but the vibes were great but yeah that dylan brooks quote is really something where he said kobe bryant had to figure out how to create the black Mamba. I guess that's my persona,

the villain. Uh-huh. Yeah. I think those players are equivalent. Um, miles, your thoughts. Um,

I, I, I, I honestly, I don't know if I can truly express my heart at the moment. I'm, I'm so lost for words. I, the most I can do is maybe uh russell westbrook reaction me

and be like bro what trip i think is where i'm at with that he he did put in work though i um i don't know his story is very interesting you know him being like scapegoated in a way that i don't think i've ever seen a player like a major contributing player to a team be scapegoated in a way that I don't think I've ever seen a player, like a major contributing player to a team be scapegoated and then leaves that team, goes to another team in the off season, like puts up 39 on you against the U S does one of the just clowning is just the, the silliest thing I've ever seen where he got kicked out of the game and then went to

the locker room and put on boxing gloves where did we know where those came from the boxing gloves is that like part of their training knew that he was gonna get kicked i don't know he travels with those yeah right that's so like that's not a that's not a cool thing to be like i'm going to box you with these padded boxing gloves so it really is like prop comedy like is his whole thing just like he he's trying to be silly he's doing bits um i mean canadians are famously more hilarious than americans so very good at prop comedy this could be like some nathan fielder-esque 4D irony, like meta works that we're not quite catching on to yet. If it is that, like coming out immediately after and being like,

yeah, I guess you're right. I am kind of like Kobe Bryant is pretty funny. I do. I do respect that. My character is the villain. Yeah. Well,

good. We all need to brand stuff. Yeah. Anyways, excited for, for whatever reason, the Houston Rockets over the course of the off season have entered like the conversation for me of like, I'm real. I really want to see what they're going to be like. Like there's a big pickup and wins like from what Vegas is predicting for them.

Dylan Brooks is now very intriguing to me. You know, I think they're going to like going to be one of the best coached teams in the league this year. It's going to be interesting. Anyways, shout out to Dylan Brooks, shout out to Germany,

Canada, whoever came in second, Serbia. Yeah. Serbia. Serbia. You did it. You did it. You did it.

We got nothing. Do you guys still think, I still think that US team would be favored to win the NBA championship this year. I mean, if everyone plays at their absolute best ever that we've seen them, I could see that. I mean, I don't, I like that idea, but I, I guess they're, I don't know. It's hard. It's hard to know playing.

Like I saw them play together. I'm like, I don't know about that, but on paper again, on paper, that looks pretty good. I'd be curious if they'd be favored. I think I'm too. There's like the stain of how they just played his tattoo in my mind where I'm like, no, there's no way they'd be favored. But like that collection of talent, top to bottom is probably the best top to bottom talent that a team would have.

Alright, so shall we move into the Southeast division and look at some of what the over-unders are here and do some predictions? I think we should after we take a little break. You know Daddy needs his break, his little nap time, his little honk-shoe, honk-shoe for exactly

90 seconds. Yeah. Tell me when to go, hunk shoe. There you go. Exactly 90 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Tell me when to go because I got to hunk shoe this. Okay, E40. Go. Shoo.

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You can watch along on the Wake and Jake YouTube channel or listen to Wake and Jake on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. Southeast, baby. Yeah. First one up, the Atlanta Hawks.

Last year, 41-41. Oh, yeah, Southeast division team over under predictions. Wake up, dad. The divisions that everyone, the division everyone's been waiting for. Yeah. And I'm glad Dan is here to help us understand this just a little bit better. Because half of them are like, what? Who?

Is it okay? Is this good? Is this reasonable? But the Hawks, last year 41-41, obviously lost to the Celtics in the first round. They're saying this year they're going to do a game and a half better. 42 and a half, baby. I will say this division has

maybe the most baffling under. The furthest drop that I've seen Vegas predict for reasons that aren't clear to me. And that's called a teaser. I'm not telling you which team reasons that aren't clear to me. That's called a teaser because I'm not telling you which team it is until we get to them.

Alright, it's the Hawks. No, it's not the Hawks. Hawks predicted to go up a game and a half from 41-41 last year to 42 and a half. They showed me something against the Celtics a little bit. Quinn took over. Quinn Snyder took against the Celtics a little bit. Quinn took it enough.

Quinn Snyder took over with 21 games left last season. I don't know. I could see this. I could see this being an over. I don't really have a strong feeling either way other than that when Trey is playing well, he seems like they seem like they should be so much better

than 500. Right. But I don't know. It's going to be interesting. What do you think, Dan? I could see a scenario where this team ends up smashing this over just because do we think that Quinn Snyder could be worth more than two wins? I absolutely do. Him getting a training camp to go through with this entire roster.

The offense should be more balanced without John Collins, at least. But they also didn't do anything to get a lot better this year. It was just, we're going to get rid of John Collins, and we're going to sign Wes Matthews, and we have Patty Mills now. The minutes without Trae Young when you played DeJounte Murray were disastrous last year. And what have you done to make those better? So they just still feel like they have too many fatal flaws. But the top end talent, like their starting five last year was really effective for the most part

all season. And plugging Sadiq Bey or whoever they want to start in that spot of Collins, I would still think that they're pretty good. but I just feel like, I don't know, you look at this team and it feels like they are maybe like a wing or another combo forward short. And are we going to have any drop off from Clint Capella? Who's had some weird fits and starts to the seasons. What are you going to make of the Onyeka Kongu situation? Um, who looks like, is he ready to usurp Clint Capella? And based on everything they've said, and this is the, the last wild card that I'll focus on, is it seems like Jalen Johnson's going to have a pretty big role this year.

And so you're banking a lot just between him and Griffin, and Onyeka Kung was sort of on this internal development from last season without making any major additions. So could you be better? Sure. But I think that also leaves open the possibility because of the lack of change in addition, that you're actually actually worse and so it feels like they might have a lower floor um than many people would expect but if you told me they won 47 games 49 games that actually wouldn't shock i think people have expected them to win that many games the last two seasons like

that kind of heading in people were like all right they might be really good this year and then you know after they made that deep playoff run um and then it never really came together for reasons that weren't clear really like it's not like they lost anyone from the playoff run to when they've been kind of mediocre for the past two years and yeah so it's interesting they they've gone similar similar to the celdics where it's like this mainstay of the team we've gotten rid of them and we think that should really open things up and it's like yeah i guess i guess it could um but we'll see you know shall we switch it over to florida sure let's switch it over to north or south you want to go north or south florida are they uh i actually don't know which one i guess or orlando central yeah yeah i guess right yeah let's go south florida okay the one that's higher or

lower than miami let's go to the one that's miami bouncing in the city where the heat is on yeah let's do that one welcome to miami uh they they went 44 and 38 lost the nuggets in the finals we saw that uh they're predicted to go four and a half games better 48 and a half uh now i think it's like when you see things like gabe vincent leave um or like max streus i think on paper i'm like okay so how do they do four and a half games better but i know they weren't necessarily big factors in the regular season like jimmy wasn't either but is dame the big thing that we're kind of waiting for like just to see what what happens there to begin to really make predictions what do you think dan if that 48 and

a half my guess would be that it's pricing and that damian lillard's gonna end up with the heat because i don't see how this team will be deep enough or healthy enough to win 49 games if they don't get damian like i just like kyle lowry's how old now yeah um we know what jimmy butler's gonna kind of pace himself during the the regular. And you lost, you know, Gabe Vinson, Max Struess were average to slightly above average NBA players. But like, they're just gone. You didn't get it. You didn't get anything for them. Like, they're just gone.

So you don't even have those innings eaters. I think, look, Josh Richardson, really good pickup. But there's still some just holes in the front court. And they desperately need shot creating and functional shooting around Bam and Jimmy. And they just, not only did they not edit, they actively lost it so far. Right. What kind of season do you think Duncan Robinson is going to have? I mean, he really had a renaissance during the playoff. So could I see him replacing a lot of what Max Schroos did?

Probably. Robinson's the worst defender. But like, is he, like, tucker robinson renaissance worth five wins compared to last year like absolutely not to me so right now i would think they're more like like i'm so first of all i'm surprised there's even a number for this at the moment i'd probably have like 42 or 43 for them yeah just without dame like if you again if you get dame let's have the conversation like without dame, do either of you two see them winning? Close to 50 games is currently concocted. No, I mean, that's why I was saying, as it is, without Dame,

I'm like, how are you doing four and a half better? I'm like, at best, you kind of net out where you were. Yeah. When you said the phrase, Josh Richardson was a really good pickup for them that made me have a physical reaction. I feel like I've heard that every place that he's been

for the past six years. He's on a minimum now at least though. It's kind of hard to whiff on expectations. Yeah. This feels high to me if the Dame thing isn't happening. It really feels like a lot of the people who know things

around the league are just like, yeah, but Dame's going to be there. Come on. This is a done deal. It's just we just need to wait for Portland to do the thing that they've chosen not to do up to this point. It's like I don't understand why

it would happen if it hasn't already, but people seem confident they almost had him on miami in 2k i feel like so oh yeah there was that screen cap that jabari was saying was out there dame was already on the heat in 2k but so do they know something at 2k sports already they're like oh yeah we just did a space game we were in miami vegas is usually pretty smart about this stuff so right look nicole jovich had a good world cup so just like he's clearly going to be the difference right that's what people i got a kick out of them for me like oh look at how good of a piece nicole jovich would be for portland look at what he's doing in reba and so we've reached that point of the the negotiations where it's like every little

thing has to have this big impact on does miami have any more picks like are they pretty light on picks for the next there's if they do they have to renegotiate something with the thunder but they can give up three first round picks plus swaps like the offer isn't nothing i just don't know if portland's trying to like i don't know if Portland's trying to, like, I don't know if you two, I'm assuming you two have given some thoughts. It's like,

what is the team that's going to come and give you more than let's just say the equivalent. I know they don't want Tyler hero, but Tyler hero and three first round picks and maybe a couple of swaps. I only guess would be, or the heat trying to low ball this where it's like, we'll give you Tyler hero and a pick because then that's obviously a different discussion discussion but their

offer their best theoretical offer to me is at least a real offer and I don't know who necessarily would be right well do we know how close or far we are still with this whole deal like I think the last thing I saw was like Shams tweeting it's like I mean he'll go to another team but

the second he's there Dame will want to be going to Miami. That sounds like a good deal for that team. I'm like, whoa, okay. That's pretty aggressive PR right there. Or is it an inevitability? Is Portland going to be petty and be like, we're going to hold you so you can't go to camp?

That doesn't help them. Right. Maybe it it does but it seems like that hurts um do you guys buy that dame wouldn't show up to i think the report was he'd only show up to camp in portland or miami and nowhere else like do you buy that he's that type of like could he do the harden i just can't buy it it feels like he's not built like that but yeah yeah i feel like he would show up but it's a lot to risk for an nba team right because i think i think the follow-up was i mean he'll go to another camp but just know he's not gonna like it he'll be there but his his whole mind will be on getting to miami the second he's there.

So I think that is a way of saying, look, he's going to do what he's obligated to do, but you don't want him unless it's Miami. But hey, we shall see. Miami is also not the shocking under from this division. People are just on the edge of their seat. I know. I can't believe that Miami and Atlanta were not the surprising under for me. Okay, what about this next one? What about this next one? Up next, the Orlando Magic.

They are being predicted to go up two and a half games from 34 and 48 to 36 and a half wins. That feels a little bit light to me. If we're, if we think Paolo is really going to be that dude, um, this is usually from rookie to second year is usually a pretty big step up. Um, and they have a lot of fun, young pieces around him. They signed Joe Ingles. They drafted a couple,

a sixth and 11 pick. Like those are not, not insignificant talents to add. I don't, I don't know, but sure. Two and a half sounds about right. Like that,

that feels, that feels reasonable to me that they would go up two and a half wins. What's that that feels that feels uh reasonable to me that they would go up two and a half wins what's everybody feeling i don't know i feel like 35 years anniversary maybe that i always like an anniversary for a team you know that might give a little anniversary yeah yeah wow so i'm like i think of like how old i am like wow that's i was i were but a boy when they entered the league but yeah like I mean Paolo and like Franz they're all

they seem like they keep evolving in the proper direction so I don't know I mean like part of me I get excited when I hear Magic fans talk about the Magic and when I hear their enthusiasm like they can do more than two and a half games but I don't know Dan am I fully off on this?

No, this one to me right now, anyway, it feels like, I don't know if you guys remember last year, the Kings over under you looked at it and you were like, that's way too low. They were at like 35 or something. And this kind of feels like that where they played their defense was elite for

most of last year. I don't know if they have enough like offensive juice in them yet, but as you already mentioned, Palo and Franz, um, they showed great growth throughout the course of the season i think jalen suggs actually made some steps forward on that end as well and if you can just get enough extra shooting from jet howard who they drafted or joe angles if he can play like a real role if gary harris is as good i worry about anthony black's fit a little bit just because he can't shoot either so there's a lot of shooting question marks here but on the defense and then just like sort of the talent

alone when you look at their top you know five to six guys i know the east is pretty wide open but this feels like a team that should probably be flirting with like in the 39 win range at east and so i'm a little bit maybe i've listened to magic fans too much myself. Hype up this team because there, where was it? 36 and a half, 37 and a half just feels low. Yeah. I love Franz.

Don't they down there? They love it. Don't they folks aggressively. So yeah. And your boy Markel too, Jack. Yeah. Markel is like the,

they, they, we, we're all rooting for Markel, man. We're all rooting for him. Um, yeah. So so yeah i could see that they're going to be interesting to watch um yeah all right they are not my surprising under

uh up next we have the washington wizards who last year won 35 games, 35 and 47. Didn't qualify for the postseason. This year they're expected to win 25 and a half games. They're expected to drop 10 and a half. Or nine and a half. No, nine and a half, yeah. It was 10 and a half before, and then it just went up one. Did it just change? This is my shocking under.

I don't know what has changed other than everyone being like, yeah, I don't know. These guys stink. It just feels like their fans just kind of quit on them. They got Jordan Poole. They lost Porzingis. I guess Porzingis was pretty good last year. Pool was not great last year.

So maybe people are just like, is this is bad, bad, bad vibes here. But 10 wins. I'm not saying I would take the over here necessarily, but it's a, it's a big shift.

But who hurts you Vegasgas people who who they brought in like you know an interesting piece and lost a piece that like is not it's not like one of the top 20 players in the league it's not 10 win a 10 win swing on the surface but what am i missing here dan i mean i think the two things are just like you lose what were your two best players last year. And the other thing is, and I would fall into this camp, this feels like it's pricing in that their new president of basketball ops, Michael Winger, is

not going to let them hit the over on this. And it's like Kyle Kuzma's deal feels like it was signed just to be traded. Tyus Jones, will he finish the season there? Are you going to see them start to maybe if they keep these guys shut them down um in march or something right and i think you also get into like well what team in the east could they feasibly be better than and i think

you kind of start to run out of runway after detroit and maybe charlotte who we've yet to talk about in this division and i think that's a big part of it, is that they're clearly starting over. 25's aggressive. I think there were only two teams that only won fewer than 25 last year, or whatever it was. This feels like a team that's going to do their darndest to win fewer than 25 games.

Yeah, I guess that's true. If they're tanking for whoever... Tanking for flag? Yeah, for flag. They're like, yo, man. Yeah. For flag flag. Like, yo man, just,

just get rid of them. Trade pool. Cool. Give me a flag. Yeah. I mean, get rid of them all. Lose them all.

Yeah. All right. Yeah. I can see that. It's bill was bill did play a lot last season and they, yeah. All right. All right.

I'm, I'm, I'm on board. Forget what I said about this being a surprising under. I think they're going to stink harder. I think. I'm under on the Washington Wizards. Charlotte Hornets.

You seen these guys? You heard about these guys? They're expected to pick up four and a half wins basically from the return of Lonzo. You mean Lomelo. The return of Lonzo. I mean, LaMelo, sorry, the return of LaMelo,

but this is a thing we were talking about how we lump them together. We're like, they're always hurt. Yeah. I don't even know if he's coming back and like, Oh wait, LaMelo is, LaMelo is a different human being. Um,

who's very good. Uh, he's a lot of fun actually. Uh, we'll say drafted Brandonrafted Brandon Miller. Passed on a chance to draft Scoot Henderson. This is... I think they will be haunted by that throughout this season. But yeah, four and a half.

Going up to 31 and a half wins doesn't seem crazy to me. I could see it. Yeah. Yeah, especially because you mentioned Lomelo missed a ton of time last year when he played like 30 games or something. Yeah. So if you get relatively good health from him and you get even like Cody Martin missed a bunch

of time last year, Mark Williams should be better. Brandon Miller, I think was the wrong pick, but like there's also a chance that Brandon Miller is good. Yeah. Just not Scoot Henderson. Right. And I think their defense improved a lot last year under steve clifford so like that feels just like better health from lamello and you know having maybe better health like surrounding him like that should be worth

in the east i would think like four or five wins especially when you're working off such a low baseline it's not like we're saying they're going from 37 to 31 here right right yeah uh yeah i mean i like i love the confidence so like yeah wait till wait till b miller got that rookie of the year though are they feeling are they are people i mean that's i have i have i know some uh some well i know one rabbit charlotte fan in my circle and they're like, trust me, we made the right decision. People are always wrong. In the immediate aftermath, everyone was like,

Mathurin, what were they thinking? It's just the people who the obvious mistakes in the draft don't always turn out to be the case. So we'll see. Keegan Murray was supposed to be like well they're gonna be looking back on that one and oh wait keegan murray's really good never mind

all right so there you have it we have completed our team by team rundown of division who's who's going to be good this year. Yeah. And you have it, the official facts of you can take all of our picks to the bank. Well, not mine. Look, like you said, this isn't a financial advice podcast. Don't take it to the bank, literally. But, you know, use it to talk spice.

No, take it to Las Vegas and then you take your winnings to the bank. Thank you. Thank you. you exactly i still have uh phoenix and uh okc if either of them win the title yeah you really went big on that one i did i went big on okc if okc wins the championship this year boy am I in the money. What were their odds that you jumped on? Like 27. I get it. I had just seen Chet in another summer league game for the first time in a year.

I was like, man, he's tall and very smooth. This is going the right way. Yeah, we'll see. It is going the right way. Yeah, we'll see. It's going the right way. I don't think it's going that way that fast, but it'll be a fun one. It's a team that I'm excited to watch and I'll be even more excited to watch them because I got a little ticket in my wallet.

A little girl can dream, can't she? Let's take a break. Should we? Yeah, let's do it. We'll be right back. We'll be back. Bye. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast,

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Hey, everyone. This is Jimmy O'Brien from John Boy Media. I want to quickly tell you about my podcast. It's called Jimmy's Three Things. Episodes come out every Tuesday, and for about 30 minutes, I dive into three topics in Major League Baseball that I am interested in. Breaking stories, trends, stats, weird stuff. Sometimes I make up my own stats. Sometimes I do a lot of research and it ends up I was wrong the whole time.

So that's something you can get in on. Use Jimmy's Three Things podcast to stay up to date on Major League Baseball and to make you just a smidge smarter than your friend who's a baseball fan you listen to me and then you go tell him hey i know this and you don't so i make you smarter than your friends that's what jimmy's three things is all about listen to jimmy's three things on iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast you could also find it on the talking baseball youtube Baseball YouTube channel and new episodes drop every Tuesday.

And we're back. And we're back. And we're back. I'm sundowning. All right. Is it time? It's time. It's time.

Dan Favelli. I need my juice. Yeah. It's time now for the fourth quarter It's time. Damn. I need my Valley. Yeah. It's time now for the fourth quarter rapid fire round of questions. Damn. Favelli, you are not a stranger to this segment. You answered correctly.

Most of the questions last time, if I recall, uh, but here it is. It's the fastest question answer segment in podcasting history. We're going to ask you a question. Don't think too hard. Just react,

respond. Give us the answer right back don't let jack or i drag this segment on it's up to you to say hey get it together keep this thing moving this is the fourth quarter round of rapid rapid fire questions so are you ready to enter i probably not ready but let's do it okay i love the confidence are we ever ready? Ryan, start the clock. Here we go. Do you want to go first or should I go first? I'll go first.

That's great. Thank you so much for offering. Dan, you can take two players from all of history to create your Mad Boosies edition NBA Jam team. Which two players are you taking? I'm taking Glenn Rice and Shaquille O'Neal. Glenn Rice. Glenn Rice. I love that.

Glenn Rice. Yeah, baby. Over Steph. Glenn Rice just fell. I used to go on fire with Glenn Rice a lot. One of my favorite players. He was a good NBA Jam player, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly. Was Shaq a good NBA Jam player? I actually don't remember he could probably dunk from half forward in that game i think with the cheat codes on you know obviously yeah like jabari says shout out to the 2000 lakers with the dual ankle braces you know what i mean i was always weird i'm like glenn are you okay but look he's just doing doing what he has to to stay out there um Dan, what is your absolute boldest prediction for the upcoming NBA season?

I'm talking about like, put your integrity on the line right now with a wild, reckless take. Go. Pelicans are going to make the Western Conference. Wow, you're consistent. That was your pick last year, bro. Was it?

Yeah, you were going hard for the Pels. I remember. And afterwards, I was like, damn, kind of convinced me with his Pels confidence. But I put a lot of money up on that, man. Lost a lot of money. Hey, send me that Groot behind you to make up for it. Didn't we preface it that this wasn't financial advice?

Yeah, I guess so. That's true. You should have known. You know I don't believe anything that Miles says. But like, yeah, again, this year, what? We're seeing Zion healthy. We're seeing Bingie healthy, right? I mean, Trey Murphy's already injured,

so that doesn't bode well. And that's big. Can I ask this? Is Trey Murphy the third a little bit redundant like as a player on this team or no the name his name being Trey like isn't Trey like people get Trey as like a as a nickname if you are the third right yeah there's also I don't know if you guys have any calories like New Orleans fans don't like when you call him Trey Murphy the third I know I've never because I never see it it's always Trey Murphy III. I know. I've never, because I never see it. It's always Trey Murphy. But then, when you look at other reports, like Trey Murphy

I-I-I. Is that what they would have us call him? Trey Murphy I-I-I? Yeah, is that what it is? Are they Ying Yang Twins fans? Say I-I-I-I-I-I. I don't know. Anyway, I'm going to call him III. I'm going to call him III. Thank you, Jabari.

But yeah, I mean, to call him the third. I'm going to call him the third. Thank you, Jabari. But yeah, so this is it. It's this year. It wasn't last year. It's this year. It could have. I mean, if Zion was healthy. I mean, that's a big if at this point. It's like saying, what if Ben Simmons had a jumper?

Or saying, what if Zion was healthy? But they were near the top. They were second in the West leading into the new year. So it's legit. I still think the leading into the new year. It's legit. I don't think the Knuckers are better. That's the only team that I'm prepared to say,

oh, they're definitely better than New Orleans. Okay. I like that. I like that. I like that. Props, though, to remembering what I said last year,

because I clearly didn't remember what I said last year. No, that was Jabari because we were talking because we were trying to remember the last time you were on, and then we're like, oh, right, Dan was going hard for the Pels. And that's when I

remember, too, because I think that was the beginning of me getting on that boom-bust cycle again. We're like, this year, this year, yep. It was the beginning of me writing your name on a list of people who have wronged me. Yeah, then he prank calls you and puts lipstick on after you resolve your dispute.

Who's the best player you've ever witnessed in person? And what'd you see them do? Kevin Durant was in person and it was when he was on the Thunder. He was playing the Knicks and they went into overtime and he hit some truly, I was sitting behind the basket,

he hit some of the most ridiculous jumpers i've ever seen in my entire life like the knicks weren't good then so it's not like they were defending him with peak level but his ability and control just when he's spinning and turning with the ball and the range that he had on it uh and i was like not an old man like i am now at the time i was just i marveled at what he was doing in in person I think as you get older and go to more games too you become numb to some of the stuff like that was just like it was a revelatory moment watching him go to work but okay I got to ask you this one and and please Dan we got to keep this moving like I appreciate that answer is very

thorough but sometimes we're about speed and not quality yeah okay we're about quantity so it's too poetic too good an answer yeah we said revelatory I was like this guy's a poet and don't he know it but that's not what this is for so the best player I ever saw was Daniel Gallinari in bound thank you because he was wearing his

blue or his green St. Paddy's Day jersey Dan Favalli, if you could have any player's skill set for a day, whose is it and what skill set is it? And we do add the caveat that it's in your body, whatever condition

your body is. So if you think you're going to get just mad boosties and be taking change off the top of the backboard, can your body handle coming back down to earth? Yeah, so take that into mind. Or if you're willing to risk it all. Take it into mind, as the saying is. Take it into mind.

I want Steph Curry's handles, then. Steph Curry's handles? We've heard it. I'll take Steph Curry's handles. Wow. Okay. You said no elaboration. I want Steph Curry's handles.

Okay. Okay, well, this time I do want you to elaborate. Why? Because the way my body is built, like it would do more for me if I could actually be elusive. And rather than just chucking up threes where I would probably easily get blocked. Even if I had Steph Curry's touch and range, my shot would easily get blocked. Right. And Dan, like I said, we have to keep this segment moving.

You know? And I appreciate that answer but uh that was a setup all right dan you can place any former new york great on next year's roster which former great are you adding to the mix oh man i just throw prime patrick ewing prime ewing next year's name yeah i would love that, man. And what is it about Prime Patrick Ewing? We got to keep this moving,

so I don't really care. Okay, yep. I like that, which brings us to our next question and the most important question of all. Dan Favalli, Jack or Miles? Both.

Yeah. Right. Okay. We'll take that. We'll take that. We'll take that. We'll split them. That's okay. We'll do that. We'll do that. Well, that we'll take that we'll split them that's okay we'll do that we'll do that uh well dan favalli thank you so much for joining us on miles and jack got mad

boosties man where can people find you and follow you and read you and all that and support you how do they do that uh they can follow me on any social media app at dan favalli f-a-v-a-l-e and they should consider checking out the Hardwood Knox podcast, spelled like it sounds. It's an NBA pod. And if you like sub-mediocre basketball takes and bad jokes, it's the podcast for you. All right. Amazing.

You can find us on Twitter. I'm at Jack underscore O'Brien. Miles is currently indisposed. He's at Miles of Gray. And you can hit us hashtag mad boosties for show links and updates. Also shout out to our listeners

of the week at Dan B tweeting and at Sideshow James. Shout out to y'all. Thanks for listening. Give us a rating review if the rating is five stars, of course, if it's less than that. Keep listening

and then listen to your heart. That is going to do it for this week's episode. We are back next week with more NBA action. And we love it. It's fantastic. Yeah. We'll be right back. season, we're taking in a bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and

the piña colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre join us for the new podcast lucha libre behind the mask a 12 episode podcast in both english and spanish

about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre and i'm your host santos escobar emperor of lucha libre and a wwe superstar listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straightway. He tried to save everybody.

Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.