The Deep 3 Podcast - 1 Question Every NBA Team Must Answer In 2025 | Ep. 121

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Every NBA team's biggest question! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 2:55- Warriors 24:29- Knicks 28:32- Nets 30:26- Pistons 40:10- Heat 46:37- Hornets 51:10- Heat 58:35- Suns 1:02:35- Nuggets 1:07:18- Rockets 1:13:20- Raptors & Jazz 1:16:10- Clippers 1:19:47- Timberwolves 1:31:29- Magic 1:34:25- Bucks 1:40:00- Lakers 1:46:09- 76ers 1:54:54- Pacers 1:57:10- Kings 2:03:54- Lightning round (everyone else) 2:09:38- Spurs 2:21:30- Tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So last week we did our, you know, annual Christmas episode. Every time we come around to the holidays, we get festive, and we rank the top 30 players in the NBA. It's a yearly tradition for us. But we have another yearly tradition at this point. For our New Year's episode, the one that comes out right before the turn of the calendar, we talk about every single NBA team's biggest question they have to answer in 2025. And that's what we're doing today.

Woo! You know, I'm still on out over the last episode. We got Christmas presents, and I got the worst Christmas present. the holiday spirit has left me and it's carried on and I'm just not feeling good so my mood isn't the best you know you know you're happy you know you're happy this is what you do this start of quanzas is crazy dude the comments are hilarious in the last week's episode because dude you played it up so much but how sad you were people in the comments were like I think most actually sad I think you actually ruined his Christmas I think you actually

give him a gift after this they're right and I'm looking at these comments I'm like this motherfucker gave me a frame picture of me bald and you think he has the audacity be actually upset shut up he's fine no i actually am because compared to last christmas you gave me actual useful things give me rat poisoning bro you gave me a bald johnis photo bro this an iconic sentimental moment of our friendship in td3 history for all of us bro and then all this all this living in the past listen man this episode isn't about living in the past this episode's about the opposite we're looking forward to the next season we're going to talk about every single NBA team, if you click this video, you're a fan of the trailblazers,

the Warriors, the Lakers, whatever may be, we're going to talk about your team. We're going to talk about their, I would call it a big picture question, but it's not just that. It's really for the remainder of this season, if they're a contender, if they have, you know, a relevant game plan for how to finish out this year and going forward, the rebuilding team, just whatever it is, whatever their timeline is, the one question that really defines what's most important for them. Oh my God, I just realized this is our last podcast episode for the year 2024.

That's ridiculous. It's crazy. You just, that's the whole framing of this intro and you just not realize that. No,

like this is the last time I'm talking to y'all in the year 2024. That's so crazy. I'm one underwear change, underwear change away from the 2020.

This is the last time that they get to like a podcast episode. This is the last time that they get to five star rate a podcast episode in the year 2024.

Y'all, like you available to the opportunity. Yeah, man. Run up those numbers on Spotify for us. We're still growing. We're still top 20 right now in sports podcast. I'd like to hit top 10 on Spotify if you guys can do it for us.

You can run those reviews, run those plays, watch the video there, all that. YouTube, you guys know. Drop a like, subscribe, all that, yada, yada, yada. Let's start talking about the future. The cranium is crazy. Oh, my God. I mean, I don't really don't know what to say. Prayon eaters rejoice.

I okay let's start with what word do I use to describe this team ass a team that is in the news and is interesting we'll call him that let's start with the Golden State Warriors that's the first team on my list

you guys know how it goes we each have 10 teams I don't for the Warriors the one big question that it finds their 2025 I just wrote LOL that's all I put because I knew what I would say in the moment I didn't yet to write down and take notes the biggest question the Warriors have I put it in the thumbnail

because it's the same question as last year is this team done that's the question they have the answer is the reign of dominance for the past 12 years under Steph Curry

next to Draymond Green under Steve Kerr is that done it's the same question we had this episode last year so I ran back the same exact thumbnail concept because they're in the same

exact place as they were last season they started off hot we gave them their credit we thought they made it proved us wrong they became a top two seed in the west we were like damn maybe we're wrong to doubt them and say they'd be a playing range team

or even worse and since then they've gone 4 and 11 in the last 15 games they once again look like they have all the same issues they had last year the young core

still isn't picking up this team they wanted to they still don't have a second star Steph Curry actually looks a little bit worse than it last year all these problems of their whole two timeline system of all the eggs they put

in these young players baskets are still here so I ask you guys are they cooked can they salvage the year that's my question they've been cooked beyond cooked deep five you know like yeah you asked this question last year and we gave you the same answer last year which is yeah they're cooked that's the same reason why we came into

the year thinking that they were going to be 10 11 maybe even 12 you know like in the in the Western conference because we didn't believe that they would be commented and you look back and look at 22 and it's such like wow I can't believe that everything lined up so perfectly so that the Warriors could go out and get that chip. And, like, they got a healthy season from Otto Porter in 2022. That never happens, right? You got the best year of Andrew Wiggins' career. That never happens for the first, like, for the first, like, eight, nine years of his career.

And now you're starting to see, like, from the moment, the Draymont Punch went down, it was over, right? Because all the internal chemistry was done. You've seen them. They had to go get a young piece that they believed in in Jordan Poole. got he had to get out of there you bring chris paul lost him for nothing all this stuff so you've seen piece by piece brick by brick the house of the golden state war is being torn down and yeah like they're they're done they're not winning another championship if that's the if like if it's yeah yeah if it's

like championship or done they are done yeah you're betting against the field over the next five years i don't know why like i feel like not enough fans have given the warriors front office and not nearly enough shit like everyone knows like yeah this two timeline thing that you mentioned earlier is completely done it's a two time it's a it's a it's a time line of like nightmares there's no real way out of it the way out of it was a couple years ago you know when you had guys like jordan pool clearly thriving even though he didn't perform necessarily well in the playoffs he helped them get to that point back in the year 22 now yeah you go ahead or you settle in you invest in those players or whatever things will work out it's been over a year since we knew like

Like, yeah, John didn't get necessarily won't be that guy on this team. And pods is pods, whatever role player. And you see what happened with James Wiseman. We see what happens with all the other guys. And what they do, this awesome is to, they try to supplement that with the depth that the Warriors friends have at the early of the season. They got into your mind. And they basically manipulated you, Isaac, into believing like, yeah. They're playing well.

They're playing well. you all manipulated you all manipulated into shit they were winning games they were good you should have talked to the yeah yeah exactly

and at this point in time we can give them credit they were defending extremely well and Buddy Hill is playing amazing he came up here and we said we don't expect them to keep playing amazing but they were showing things that they're more respectable team

than we thought they could be I didn't come up here and say they're going to be the championship team I said they might be a four or five seed you know we owe than that I think to at least give me credit for what they were doing and now

yeah well they are Now we thought they were. Now we are who they thought they were. And to Moe, like, you talk about that front office. There was only one way out, and Bob Myers took it. He's like, yeah, I'm just not going to work here anymore. I want to go be on TV. Like, that's the only thing.

They were in such a bad position with the state of the roster, the Clay Thompson decision looming. And obviously, like, Bob Myers not being, not wanting to be the one to be like, yeah, Clay, like, you kind of got to go. That situation kind of had to handle itself out and work itself out naturally. and he saw the writing on the wall two years ago we see it right now this team is this team is not going anywhere

you mentioned that not enough people who have given the Warriors front office shit for this this is the main reason I want to talk about them because you cannot be more wrong about that right now I am plugged into Warriors Twitter and these motherfuckers are having to meltdown they are ready to attack wherever Joe Laco is they look past ownership

they look past Mike Dunleavy they look past all the other guys involved in that team and they look at the ownership there because the whole two timelines thing is because of him and his desires. He famously is the reason they picked James Wiseman. He loved him. And he is insisted from the jump that he has a vision of two timelines of being such a light years ahead owner that yes, we built this team of Steph Curry. We have our greatest player of all time. We want with him. I'm going to use him as a catalyst to do something no other ownership group has ever done before. Extend it into another

championship window. Yeah, man. What's high up the finest psychedelics? Holy shit. For sure. He thought he was God. He thought he was a genius. And that was his passion project to do that. It worked though. Warriors fans are currently on the timeline freaking out. It didn't work though. Here's the thing. Warriors fans are going crazy right now and I agree with them. It did not work. They stumbled into 2022 and got lucky as hell. They won that championship in a year they didn't expect to be contenders whatsoever. Nobody before that year was expecting them to come back after the tumultuous 2021 season and be back on top. We didn't have the podcast at the time to be doing

preseason rankings. If we did, I guarantee you we wouldn't have picked them to be a top two seed and damn sure wouldn't pick them to win a championship. And they got lucky because what you said, Otto Porter won, all this stuff. They didn't win because of two timelines. The rookies didn't fucking play in the playoffs. They happened to have the first timeline get another championship. And after that, what they do? They didn't say, okay, the first timeline still was a chance to keep winning. We're going to keep on tearing it down, keep on building towards the second timeline and see if we can make these young guys be the next step. And we didn't hate it at the time,

because when you win a championship, that cures all, we can convince ourselves, yeah, you're right. Surely commingo will become better. Surely yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, will work in your favor because you just won and you've given us proof of concept. But that was lucky as hell. And since then, they've done nothing to really win now around Steph.

When he showed he clearly is still capable in 2022. And they just kept going down this hill, kept investing more and more of these young guys, not really doing any win now moves. And it brings us to where you are now, where the time. Second timeline is not good. Okay, but is it not good because they made a mistake?

Like, ultimately, how many championships do, how many championships qualify as a success for an era? Because if you get one, if you get one, is that good for the next three years, for the next five years? Like, surely you can't be so delusional. I know that Warriors fans are like, that they are delusional and that they were spoiled with KD and stuff and all that. So they expected to be either in the five.

finals, a winnetship every single year. But you got a championship on the front end. Does that mean that the entire experiment is a failure? No. Yes. No. You said the front end. It's not the front end.

It's the back end of the first time line. Those rookies had not shit to do with the first one. Jordan Poole had a good playoff run. That's what I'm saying. The other guys had nothing to do with it. But Jordan Poole, even you look around the league and you look at Young Cors, you're not going to have all four of players in young cores pop. normally what you want to do is you have four or five guys let's see if we can get one or two of them to pop

Jordan pool was the one who was looking like he was going to pop and then Draymond Green punched him in the face going into the title defense so like they never even got a real opportunity for that team to see to see the full extent of what two timeslines were because the title defense where everything was supposed to be happy everybody just got paid Wiggins got paid all that stuff went straight out the window Andrew Wiggins had a whole bunch stuff off the court that tore all of that stuff down. Like, I can't, I can't put it all on Joe Laker and, and say like, oh, yeah, he was, I can't, I can't, I can't say that. There was a lot of stuff that's not in his control. Whatever, whatever was, whatever was happening with Wigs is not

in his control. Whatever happened with Dremont, that's not in his control. Yes. You're right. Jordan Poole is not part of the two timelines thing, though. He was a late first round pick. They are lucky he became good. The point was, Kaminga, uh, Kaminga Wiseman, Moody, who else was in the top, was in the lottery, those picks were the main guys are really building around because those are the ones that were potentially

going to get traded for win now players. Jordan Poole was additive. Yeah, that's great. He was drafted back in 2019. He's part of that like that stuff, whatever era still, you know?

But you can't look at it. You could trade Kaminga and Wiseman from their picks for Winnow players or draft them to do two timelines. They could have had Poole and traded those guys for win now players. But it's unfair.

It's unfair to look at anything good that happened. like whether where the pool is drafted seventh overall or 17th overall it's unfair to say yeah the 17th overall overall pick that is you do not get credit for that that's not a that's not a two timeline thing you just got lucky rather than okay like good good for you guys for finding value at the 17th pick and if your seventh overall pick didn't work out hey do like you take shots and you miss them there's been plenty of times where there's been plenty of times where late late lottery picks have played better than the early um than like the early lottery picks and that's

fine but it's just i think that it's unfair to look at ownership in that sense and be like yeah two timelines was never going to work it literally got us into the first championship that like of whatever the new era was how though wait wait the point entirely yeah yeah my thing is like it did not get him into that first championship in 2022 of that new era because those guys haven't like And none of those guys that you mentioned have anything to do with it. The James, the James Wiseman, the Camingas of the world, had no actual real contribution to that championship whatsoever. It was all the old guys. Iguodalos was still playing basketball.

Andrew Wiggins was literally the saving race of that team. People were talking about it. They almost wanted to give that man finals MVP. It was this new era, this new wave. The trades that got Andrew Wiggins there, aka Dilo back in the day, was a part of the reason why they gave. That's that second timeline right there. They have Wiggins because of Kevin Durant leaving. Like that's part of that original thing.

They drafted the pool way before that. When you talk about two timelines, it's not just these years. It's the asset use. Literally you had the number, you're the number two pick and the number seven pick that you could have traded for win now players. You still would have a pool. You still would have got Pajemski eventually, whatever. We're not saying don't have any young guys.

The point isn't young guys versus no young guys. It's the specific trade that they could have made, everybody wanted them to make, that they said, no, we're not going to invest. back into this first timeline because we want to play towards the future. Again, if it would have worked, we would all look back and say galaxy brain shit, good job. Maybe it would have if they had a pick lamello ball or Tyree Talibor and whoever that may be. And the day it was also bad drafting. But how many times have you ever seen a team have a player like Steph Curry that is still in

win now mode? You still have Dramon Green, yada, and they don't go all in for him. And you stumble into three lottery picks in two years. Like that's insanely rare. and we witnessed, like, generational mismanagement of assets, you know? Yeah. That's what's a mismanage part. Nobody, nobody is, nobody's perfect.

Nobody's going to go out and- Shut up. What are you doing to go out and hit on every, on every single draft pick. You're not, you're not going to have 100% success on every pick, whether you are drafting consistently in the top three or consistently in the middle of the lottery or, or, or whatever, you are going to have all of that. And again, my question is, does a championship on the front end say, like, does that make whatever era a failure or a success? It's on the back end of the first one.

That's the point. It's not on the front end of anything. It's the back end of the last guys. If the young guys are in here, part of the second hand, nothing to do the first ship. This is the, right now, right now, this is the backing. You had two years off. And in today's NBA, two years, you are in a completely new era, a completely new era. Not really, though.

I mean, again, we're talking about the players involved and the system they're playing and who matters, it's really not a new era. Like, they had that down part. I know what you're saying, but practically speaking, I understand what you're talking about. That's a new era, like, narratively. But if you think about the actual players that came in and changed things, those guys, they're rookies. They have no ability to contribute to a championship team.

So, like, that first year when they're literal rookies and not playing at all, It's not, you can't give them credit for them being the reason they want or having any impact at all. So you are only, so you are saying that the, that the new era only starts in 2022, that like, new time. Whatever line, it doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. It does. It does matter. The players part of the second timeline did not lead to winning at all. It does matter because if you are, if you are making that line at 2019, right, or at 2020 and all of, in all of those picks, if you're talking about like the Jordan Pool pick, and I'm specifically focusing on that, if you are considering Jordan Pool a part of, whatever young core. Could he have been one of the older young guys? Yes.

But if he is a part of that core, then that is a second timeline that you have now started. I think whether or not whether or not you're like five years down the timeline, you got a champion. The new timeline starts when they got that ass bounce out of the playing by the Memphis Grisies back in 2023. That's when you're like, okay, you look at your roster. We need to make some change happen. And that's when this new era begins.

That's when you start to look at these young guys like Kaminga and okay, like, you're going to do with James Wiseman and whatnot. That's when you're like, okay, what can we get out of this? How can we retool this roster so we can get back towards the top of the top of contention? That's the area, that five, six months span of the offseason is where they messed up. And that's where the new era generation of Warriors basketball starts. And that's where they overly invested into some of their young guys and declined to make trades for Miles Turner or who are Pascal Siakum last year like we wanted. That's where there's like actually And they got a chip two years ago

Or three years ago at this point Like you have Steph Curry, it doesn't matter Okay, but the point is it to litigate this part The semantics about what is and isn't the first and second timeline is irrelevant We're arguing about nothing Either way, it didn't work They invested in guys and did a Ross construction around Steph Curry That was malpractice and apparently you're just a Joe Lacob super fan

This is no, no, I'm just saying First of all, relax I can't believe you said no one's perfect guys relax relax what I'm saying no what I'm saying is what I'm saying is that you and both of you guys have fallen into whatever delusion that Warriors fans have pulled you into and they think that they should be winning championships every single year I'm saying you just got a championship three years ago that is a success and now you feel like has there been mismanagement yes but it's the same thing how you can look at like you can look at at the Lakers era and what's the their mismanagement, obviously. But guess what? You got a championship on the front end. Overall, that is still, overall, overall, that is still a successful era of Lakers basketball. You got a championship. Unless, unless you want to say, unless, unless you go in and say, you have to win two to be successful for like Lakers standards. If that is your point of view, then yes, then it's a failure. But for the Warriors, this is like saying, is a Zik Naji pick a good pick because

the Nuggets won a championship with him on the roster? No, he was. It's irrelevant to that, just like Wisen was, just like Kaminga was, just like every young player that isn't the two weeks where Jordan Poole was going crazy. It is irrelevant to why there is no guarantee. So it's irrelevant to point it out as why. But there is no guarantee that if you take that, if you take that second overall pick, you could have, you could have did a trade to go bring in somebody and then that play gets hurt and then now you don't win a championship. There's all this. There's all right. It's about giving yourself the biggest, best opportunity to win and their GMs is simply didn't do that in this end of the session.

If we're seeing the wise and pick successful because they dodge a worse situation, like, sure, we can do this hypotheticals forever. But it's very clear those picks did not lead to impact at all and brought them to where they are today. Again, part of this hindsight, it's a pick land. If they pick lamello, then it's different. But they did not. And it's a much safer, easier bet that you could imagine leading to sustained excellence for your greatest player of all time. What? Go ahead.

Even if they pick lamello. Like, there's no guarantee that it works out there. either. I agree, which is why they should have trade those picks looking back. It's very clear that they, the two-timeline thing, they should have just maximized DeF Curry's era, like every warrior's fan of saying. That's the point. I don't know, like, we're arguing about some of us. That's not the point. We're getting caught up in semantics. Welcome to TD3, man. This is what we do. Anyways, we had to bring a big, deep-ass retrospective about why the two-timelines thing didn't work and what is the second timeline. But again, we're looking

forward now. What can they do to save this? Is there anything they can do to save this? Like, what are you doing if you're the Warriors? Okay. If you're the Warriors, you have to understand what got you so successful at the end or at the start of the season. There were an elite defense offense was starting to come around a little bit, but that's not where they hung their had necessarily. Rotations amazing. The way Jayon was playing, he was like he was the fucking defensive player of the year. Over the last 15 games, they've plummeted. I think they're the 15th or 16th to defense over the last 15 games. Over the last 15 games as well, offensive they're a pile of shit they're like 24th you know they got even worse even worse on both ends of

that four so you need to hone in on that defense and find out ways to realign things and in my mind okay i love andrew wiggins great player defensively does all the right things he's had somewhat of a bounce back here okay Andrew wiggins as much as i love your game i think the obvious pretty it's the obvious is right there we need to go ahead and move off him and get someone like Jimmy Buller who gives us a greater opportunity to balance off both ends of the floor and just raise our ceiling when it comes to contention. I don't think I have to trade Wiggins. It's kind of unfortunate that he's the only avenue to upgrade. Yeah. He's been very good. So the way you said it makes, I think people would

hear that and say like, we don't have to trade Wiggins. He's not a problem. But if he's your only money that gives you an avenue to get something new, you might have to spend those dice and roll those dice and try to get Jimmy Butler and see what happens. Like they are stuck in place where they have very little flexibility, very little upside. Kaminga is not playing as the two-way start the need him to play as. They've changed their roster construction beginning of the season. Kyle Anderson doesn't play anymore. He got buried.

Melton's obviously injured. We got in Schroeder now, who will give him time to adjust. Hasn't been pretty the first few days. It's just tough to imagine that you get to a point where they're actually capable of winning a championship. Maybe they'll be competent again. They'll get back to how they were early in the season. But like Donovan said, if the two options are, you can, win a chip or you're done, how can you say they're not done? No, that's all. It's, it's, it's a

right. It's over. But someone like Steph Curry at least deserves to, like, not go out this sad with how much value he injected into this organization, just fucking branding. He deserves to go out at least thinking that he has a chance, you know? Thinking has a chance. Yeah, we all Steph Curry the chance to the chance to the chance to hope. Exactly. Stuff Curry needs a dream. Feed him a little delusion. Oh man. Okay. So yeah, I guess the question is, are the warriors done? Probably. And again, they're one of those organizations you don't want to write off because they've managed to get competent again. But over the past few years, their air as a competency lasts like two and a half weeks. And then they're back to being mid. Damn, take me back to those

first like eight games of Buddy Healed, bro. Those were the times. Those were the times. He's averaging in like 18, 19, soon like 47% from the three point line. All the tough times. All right, well, that's 24 minutes on the Golden State Warriors and their failure to reload around Steph Curry and do right by their greatest player

of all time. Warriors fans, I'm sure you have many thoughts about that conversation. Let us know. Donovan, who's your next team? I got to regroup real quick. Did you wake up today and expect to be defending Joe Laco for 20 minutes? It's not even like that, man. It's just a principle.

It's just the principle of the thing. That's it. Listen, we have talked a lot about the New York Knicks. And obviously, we're coming off of a game where my brother, my twin, McKell Bridges, dropped 40 in the garden on Christmas. And listen, my question for them is just very simple. And it's the same question that I have been asking all year long, which is, can you stop anybody from getting to the paint?

that's that's that's that's really it right obviously cat is the big and you're eventually going to get mitchie robinson back precious to chew is there now but cat is going to play major minutes that's just how that's just how tibs rolls now with that comes a lot of fouls cat was in foul trouble again yesterday got five fouls pretty early and if og and mikhail and josh hard if all these guys are not stopping these guys from getting to the rim whenever they want then you are putting cat in a lot of conflict constantly and you're giving up a lot of points and in the playoffs when you're playing against really really good teams who have dynamic guards who can get to the room who have bigs who have some touching some finish around around the rim that's going to be an issue and your

offense has to be at 100% clicking at 100% and it gives you very little margin of error. Is that something that they will be able to make any type of move? Is Mitch Robinson going to solve that? Are you going to be able to play these two big lineups with Mitch Robinson and Kat and get more to like, you know, Minnesota defense from last year? Is that going to be something that you're able to do? We'll see. But that is a major, major piece for the Knicks if they want to get to a true, true championship

ceiling and improve their defense. I 100% agree. that can Mitchell Robinson and Carrantney Towns coexist on the defensive end? It will be like the saving grace and that'll make me change. Look at you guys in a higher light. Yeah. Now, will that actually happen? I don't know, but I feel if that's what it's going to take, then I'll be okay with like, you know, putting, placing in that bet because other than that, like, you guys are pretty much like stainless, spotless when it comes to how your roster is and how you've been performing.

I think last year, one of the biggest, like, pain points for you guys was seeing how. bad y'all were without Jalen Brunson on the court and that's just not the case this year. Deuce McBride doing his thing and offensively you guys have been holding water and just as, not just as good with Jalen Brunson obviously but that's not a pain point whatsoever.

Yeah. Yeah. It's good that you make you the point that this is about winning a championship because they're going to be a very good regular season team that we all thought they'd be and you know, Katz PR is on top of the world right now. People are talking about him like in our comments like when we talk about the top 10 players in the world

they're like, where's cat? That's occasionally comments about something like that. It's that New York boost. Yeah, and obviously at New York boost, that's just like, you know, a casual viewpoint, which is fine. But he and the Knicks deserve this credit for what they've done from a regular season perspective. This offense is going to get them lots of wins

in the Eastern Conference. We know that. But we also know the playoffs is a very different environment. And last year, Jalen Brunson went absolutely berserk. And he was able to make them have a pretty good run off a ridiculous play. I think he's clearly shown he's going to be a great, great, great playoff player. But do we expect him to average like 40 points highly efficiently every single playoff run?

No, that's not to ask, right? He won't need to. You can't put all your eggs in that basket. Yeah, exactly. Hopefully, hopefully he doesn't need to. But for that to be the case, he's going to need to unless their defense is good, not just passable. Like right now it's bad. It can get to passable with their current construction. But it has to be good. You have to have a strong foundation of defense, so you don't have to have him be Superman. You don't even have to have cat be Superman. And that's only possible with Mitchell Robinson or another big, which they don't really have pathways to do that.

So, yeah, I guess, yeah, can they have Mitchell Robinson be a key part will define their season. I agree. Also, a shoutout campaign too. I love campaign. He has been hooping off the bench. Shout out campaign. Next up. What's your first email?

Let's go ahead and just stay in the city in New York. Let's move over to Brooklyn, actually. Never mind. Lovely. my biggest question for them is just asking how high they can sell we just recently saw them get off of Dennis shorter

for a few assets none too crazy and now all eyes are on guys like Ham Johnson and a DSF and all that so I'm just in here wondering like if you guys were

contending teams whether you're like the Memphis or maybe the Warriors or whatever team you can imagine how much are you willing to give up for guys like Cam Johnson on that team. A first-on pick, maybe two, depending on the team, for sure. I can see the bidding war ending with two first-on picks and maybe a interesting salary

filler going to them. But yeah, that's a good point. Their number one question is, how much can you reap the benefits of this current roster before you tear it all down? That's what they're doing. They're going down to absolutely nothing by the end of the season. It's how much assets can you extract before you start bottoming out for Cooper Flag? Yeah.

can you get, can you get into the mind of Danny Age? Can you get into the mind of Sam Pressy and say, I'm going to wake up today and I'm going to scam somebody? Like that's, that's the, that's the aggressiveness that they need to attack every single transaction, every single trade offer with because now that you have your own picks back, obviously you know that you're, you know, you suck and you need to find a way to get better and you guys obviously tanking and try to build through the draft in an organic way. all you have to do is just get shots on gold.

So you got to get the most picks possible. Yep. And I think they will. Clearly the bidding bar is coming on soon. They're taking their time, getting the right deal. But, man, by the end of this season, when April comes around, this team is going to be an abomination. It's going to be horrible.

An abomination in the best way, though. Yep, in a way that's productive for the future. Exactly. So good for them. Let's take to a team that used to be an abomination, but is now extremely respectable to Detroit Pistons. Yeah. Fresh off of a win change to go against the Lakers.

Basketball. They are very competent right now. And, you know, they spent the last four years being the opposite of confidence. They were the poster boy for everything wrong with rebuilding in the NBA. Anytime talked about, anytime a team was on the verge of rebuilding, you know, the Raptors a few years ago, whoever may be, and the fans kind of wanted to go that route, there was a contingent of fans that was like, yeah, maybe it'll work. Maybe we'll get whoever, maybe we'll get a superstar. Or maybe we'll be the Pistons. will take for five years

and get absolutely nothing out of it other than 27 game losing streak. They were just the personification of garbage. And that's not the case anymore. They're very good. So my question is, actually, I mean they didn't say this. Why are they so good?

Cade Cunningham is finally playing like an All-Star and they have shooting around him. That's the biggest differences, right? They got Tim Hardaway Jr. And they got Malik Beasley and they got Tobias Harris. They have adults in the room that have allowed Cade to thrive and now he's playing like an All-Star level player.

So with that being said, the question is, Do you have any other young guys on this team that can be around K for the next five years? Because I don't know if they do. Let me not say that. I do think they do think they do. But I don't think it's the ones they expected. Yeah. I think all my eyes, I think yes, to answer your question, yes.

And I feel like it's probably a twin. And then on top of that, too, Ron Holland looks very, very, very promising. That's my entire point. Yeah. I think all eyes are on those two. players that's kind of sad to say because again it's been five fucking years and you're telling me like your most productive time has been the last like 24 months it's tough tough news not even seven like the last like seven months yeah so at this point in time it's been the last

month and a half really what are you're always like seven months they've been good for six weeks you're trying to give them credit you're trying to give them credit throughout the draft you know okay okay fair run home was a good pick yeah exactly but uh before we talked about the young guys. Let's talk about Cade real quick. Because last week we did a rankings episode and we didn't include Cade Cunningham, our top 30. Bands were pissed, obviously.

The Cade disrespect is crazy. They think we hate them. We have long loved Cade. One of the first videos on our channel, our shorts, was a debate TikTok where I said, I think Cade would better than Anthony Edward's long term, which I don't know if I agree anymore. But that's how much we like Cade.

We were that high on him. He, last year I was a little worried. I think I voiced you guys over the summer that I'm kind of worried that maybe he isn't going to be the top 10 player that I once hoping he could do. be because the shooting never came around from where it was in college. The passing was good, but not great. You know, we thought he'd be like a true elite, elite passing prospect. And he's

been a good playmaker, but not amazing. So you combine that with not being able to shoot super well. And then you also combine the fact that for every year of his career, he's been average or below average scoring at the rim. He currently averages 55% at the rim, which is not good for a 6-7 guard. You know, we kind of started to see maybe he didn't have that ceiling we hoped he could be. The difference this year is you went from 32% from 39. That makes a big difference. He was destroying off the dribble threes. He looks super confident as a score. The rim scoring still isn't good. He needs to get that together if he wants to be a true superstar. But the shooting has made his scoring profile look more impressive. And the shooting around him hasn't made him a good rim score like people hoped

you would. People kind of rode off those numbers because the spacing was bad. Spacing is good now. And it's made him an elite passer, I think. He's really good at setting up threes. Him and Malik Beasley have been amazing together. So that's kind of been the reason he's gone from being, I don't know, it's looking a little scary to great shooter, great passer, very good defender, all-star. I think what I get from that is like, wow, I think Kay genuinely made us, has made improvements, but the biggest improvement has been seeing just how bad Detroit was. They're truly a steaming hot pile of shit.

You said personification of garbage. That is like the realest I ever heard you say in my entire life, damn near. Because last year, yeah, last year, for them to be that bad and to add low-level veteran players who on your average team, like Malik Bezzi might be in like 15 minutes game, Tim Hardaway Jr. around the same range or whatever. They're not contributing to serious teams. Good, good saw of veterans in the in the room who know how to do their job on a somewhat consistent basis. You get those type of guys around Cade and now he's him being able to elevate his game and average like 24, 25 on pretty, pretty, pretty. Pretty good efficiency numbers outside of course inside the room or in the paint. Very surprised, not surprising, but very alarming and telling to me how bad that front office was and all the talent around them.

Yeah. So again, so the question is, Donovan, what do you think about this? Which players on this team right now do you see being relevant around a Kit Cunningham team with all that in mind? Now that you understand, the shooting clearly unlocks him as a playmaker. He still isn't the best rim score. He needs somebody to compliment that. could use another ball hunting around him because of that

we need better defense yada yada do you see a core of young players around him that can stay around him yes because i agree with mo i think assar and i think ron hallin are the other guys i think jade and ivy has to has to get moved just because i don't i don't think that two things one i don't think that kate is ever going to be top ten i think kate will be very very good i do think that he will make you know a couple of all starts in his

career but I don't think he's going to be 1A lead your team everybody get on my back do all that now he can still be your second best maybe even third best player if your team is really really good best player on a championship team and so now now we got to find like all right we're going to go and we're going to get our fourth best player in assar we're going to get our fifth best player and Ron Holland and now we're going to fill you know we're going to fill the other pieces around because I can take Jaden Ivy in a couple of future, you know, first round picks. I may be able to get a guy and build him in and now we have two, you know, mid, mid space to throw out at people instead of like two just like dominant guys.

I may be able to get that in the middle and start building to towards the championship team. So long story short, yes, Assar and Ron Hallel are the two guys on the pistons that I'm like, y'all, y'all have to be here. These lineups as of late, Ron Holland's playing a lot better, shooting a lot better from the field lately. these lineups where you see Cade, Asar, and Ron Holland is just so fucking athletic having Cade who's a very good

big defender, be your point of attack guy with those two stupid athletic wings around him that's a formula that works as well as shooting obviously and like Jaden Ivy's good I actually think I've seen a lot of signs for him that like I'm not out on him at all I just don't know if it's

the best fit like we've always thought like it was a clearly talent not fit draft pick when they picked him and you know I was looking at a lineup data earlier he's good whenever him and Cade are on the court together, they have a better net rating than when it's just Cade and no Ivy. When Cades on the court without Ivy,

they are minus 0.3. So basically completely neutral. With Cade alone, no Ivy, they have a 112 offensive rating, which is not good, right? So that might lead you to believe, oh, they're better with Ivy on the court. They need both of them. They're two of their best players playing together.

But when Cade is on the court, Ivy's off. But also, Malik Beasley is on, their best shooter next to Cade. They are plus seven. net rating and their defense the offensive rating goes up the 115 so it makes total sense in those lineups it's kade malik tim hardaway junior two elite shooters in the wing next to kade things look a lot better than when ivy's there who's a very talented player at the ball in his hands has a certain level of burst in athleticism that is rare and i still think can be harnessed

with the right team i don't know how good i feel about him with kade he has to go he has to go and it's like you said it's nothing wrong with jayden ivy it's nothing right like He's not a bus. It could have been worse. Last year, it looked bad, right? Like, or the year prior. Like, when Moni was the coach, it looked really, really shaky. But again, one of the biggest things in the NBA is just figuring out how to get adults in

the room and how to get competent adults in the room. And the patients have done that. And now they're in a place that they probably should have been three years ago in this rebuild where, okay, we're starting to look competent. You know, we can make a push for the playoffs, whatever. You know, we're playing warriors, all that stuff. So I think it's fine and I think there's a couple other teams on my list that I kind of have the same question for. And the question is like how aggressive do you want to be in the off season?

Do you think that you can speed this up or do you think that you kind of want to stay the path and keep methodically building and stuff like that? But I think that Detroit will see how they feel about themselves after the season. right? I want to see them through a, through it like a playoff push. I want to see them through a play and run and all that type of stuff. Like how, how high just, that's it. What is your self-esteem level for the pistons? That would be my question for them. Yeah. That's a very way to put it because they're all-star guy has emerged. You now have the rest of this year to see how high he can emerge, get some more sample size, some more lineup combinations in front of you and make decisions this offseason of how you want the team around him to be built.

Because also Jalen Dern isn't playing that great, so not a good defender. Yeah. Listen, the Kings might be imploding soon. There might be a big man available who theoretically would be a pretty good fit with Cade. So a lot of questions to be answered the summer for them. Yeah. Okay. I like that.

I like that. I got a team, gentlemen. I got a team that we have to talk about because right before we started, we got news that Pat Riley went out to the media. And he was like, listen, I know what everybody else saying. but but this is from me and we're not trading jimmy butler right jimmy jimmy butler is not is not is not being traded and my question to the miami heat is is pat riley a liar because because if pat riley is a liar and jimmy butler gets traded then once again then the original question is how much are you going to get for for jimmy butler do you okay ben sorry he sneezing okay but yeah i i i want to i want to know

what kind of package they can get because obviously Jimmy Butler has a name that you can go out and get some more assets than you probably would otherwise for somebody playing like him in that position. And if he is theoretically going to go to a contender, somebody's probably going to try and go all in like the Warriors. They're going to, you know, try to maybe more gets the future to maximize or to go all in on this moment right now. If, yeah, it's a good point. I just, I just want to know what the package is going to end up being and if Pat Riley is going to be able to either be willing to get it done or

actually be able to get it done because like we saw last year, tried to get Dame, couldn't necessarily do it because of whatever. Now we're in another situation a year later. Big Trade Star is trying to happen. Let's see if the deal can get done. Yeah, we've got this statement from

Pat Riley literally right before we start recording. It says, we usually don't comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches therefore we will make it clear we are not trading jimmy butler this is coming one day not even 24 hours after shams reports that jimmy butler this is the verbiage here we reportedly prefer to be traded ahead of the deadline so he's not going full divan mode he's not full on demanding a trade tearing shut up like he did in minnesota going out with a blaze of fury it's not that but he's

hinting that i probably won't be resigned this summer so i prefer you trade me now and let me make use of this age 35 season i have because it's not looking good for our future here together yeah so even more context behind that to jimmy butler he is signed under contract through next season so the season after so after next season he's going to be a free agent he has a player option he's a player option yeah that he's gonna decline it though yeah okay yeah so if he decides to decline then yeah like this will be pretty much his last season and so like with that in mind if i'm pat riley obviously the right decision is to go ahead and trade it trade him but knowing pat riley and his history and tendency to just like sit on sit on his hands genuinely and just make moves mind

moves around the edges aka you know they went ahead and brought in someone like terroixier who wasn't like a major disruptor to the other pieces that they had they signed kyle larry a couple years ago to a fat-ass contract and just ended up being a complete bust they don't do humongous things and Pat Riley seems to me that he's not the type to want to like wave the white flag and start a rebuild or anything of that nature. He's a massive fan of retooling. And if he does that, it's probably going to be during the offseason. I think he'll be like a fool to do so. I think his ego is probably like way too, way too high in this certain instance. But I think that's probably what's going to happen. Yeah. So that's the question, right, is what do they want

from this team and how much how much downside are they willing to deal with in order to find a better version, which they clearly have, up to this point, have been wanting to deal with zero downside. They don't want to rebuild, like you just said. But if Jimmy wants to go, like, it would be dumb to not trade him

if he's saying I'm going to leave. And there could be a world where he options and they do a sign and trade this summer and maybe that's what they're waiting for. But like, it's just, the big question is, is it going to be Pat Riley brain that wins out or are they going to be modern and react in a way that makes sense?

because it's a clash like you said between ego and what's smart and history says ego will win and pat riley would do things his way his old outdated way that has not worked as of late they've tried jimmy's given them great years he's put his nose of the grind put so much time and effort into making this team good they've given him very little to work with they've failed to get these big second star for him they've drafted solidly cool they've got good role players around him shout out max truth who he gave for them shout out gave vincent shout out all these guys that are guys and they're helpful but they haven't given them a real elite chance to win so if jimmy's saying we tried shake it off on the next era it would be foolish to them to hold him there and not let

that happen i think i agree yes but that is what pat riley does yeah that's their prognative yeah even yeah old man is in charge even even even whenever they they made the finals do you like Miami is always a popular destination and they could they could have theoretically went out and made a deal but you saw Pat Riley before I say no we're going to run it back we're like we are going to just stick with what we have and and trust in continuity in our infrastructure and coachbow and all that stuff so he's done it before and I promise you he will do it again yeah and they only made the finals because Jimmy turned into Superman if they lose Jimmy for nothing there's no Jimmy waiting to come here next.

You know, again, maybe we didn't... We also didn't think Jimmy would come there to begin with. Yeah, yeah, we didn't think he would have began with and maybe this shit happened. So you never know. We really do never know. It could happen again. We don't see it until it does, but...

If I'm a heat fan, I'm not excited by this. If I'm a heat fan, I want them to trade Jimmy. What 25-year-old multi-millionaire is going to come to Miami? No. Like, they're going to find it. So my question to y'all is, what is a life without Jimmy Butler look like? How good can they be? Are they just going to be like a cool?

35 win team until they stumble on to their next guy. Yes. Like, God damn, that's, that's pretty bleak to me because it seems like, it seems like just going to be doing a whole lot of nothing. Bam out of bio is 27,

going to be 28. His hoop out of bio is going to get all the opportunity in the world to do whatever he wants. And I, listen, I hope he's in the gym with Drew Hanlon, working on some dribble skills. I hope all of that because like his,

his time is about to cope. Then you get to trade him, man. I'd be so mad by the heat fan. I would too, I would rip that goddamn band it off. You know, if I was a Charlotte Hornets fan, I'd be pretty, not mad, but I'd be pretty confused because that's my next team. And when I look at this team,

there's just not a lot to work with in general. If you see him a little ball, we had an extensive conversation last episode about him and his play and how he's like kind of confusing to rank. We all had him in like all different types of places. So when I look at this team, of course, like naturally, my question is,

who you need another building block who is that is that player there is that player in college or overseas and will that be will that player be attainable but also on a deeper level I look at lamella ball and I'm just like how good can you be so it's like kind of two questions that I have yeah yeah yeah so your question is like where are they in their timeline they have to figure that out because it's kind of like the business thing where they have lamello who's really emerged into he's been also a team before but you know he emerged to a new level this year and obviously he's hurt again but he's back now, but he's dealt with that throughout the year. But he's kind of taken another step seemingly.

Mark Williams is never available, just came back. We'll see what kind of season he has. I think Brandon Miller right now has the reputation of having a good year and he has a lot to work with. I haven't seen enough that I'm like, oh, he's for sure a star. You know, I think we kind of treat him like he's a 19-year-old, but he's a little bit older, and he's developing well. He's showing signs.

There's things there, but his current player profile, isn't super different the way we've seen from Jalen Green in terms of like a streaky shooter that has really hot moments and doesn't score at the rim

and do all these other things granted he's earlier in his career so he doesn't have that label yet of Jalen who's in like year five and he still that guy so Brandon Miller could go different paths right he could become a star or he could become Jalen Green

I lean towards he's going to be good just of that frame and just most guys aren't Jalen Green but it's in the air he's not a guarantee yeah in terms of a second star so they're not going to as a tank they're not going to go get another guy maybe t jean salon becomes something he's a big

long-term project they are kind of in a weird place too where they aren't going to have top three picks anymore but they don't have a clear-cut young core how do you feel about that well he's going after your guy he's putting brandon no i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not i understand it's so he said your guy's not good it's tough to like see brand and again i agree with him in terms like It's not a stellar second year, but also it's like he's around a pile of shit right now. Lamella ball has been healthy, so he completely had to change his play style. And when Lamella ball is there. Last year, he pretty much went the entire year without playing the little ball.

Now he's back and he's pretty much in and out the lineup. So there's a lot of inconsistencies. You got a new coach. So much going on there, so it's hard to gauge how good he is right now. But I just know, and I'm confident that he is a guy there. I'm just looking for the other guys. And I kind of disagree with you. I think they're bad enough to tank.

They only have, they're like seven and 22 or some like that right now. Sure. And my only question is like, okay, if you're going to be this bad right now, you need to find another guy immediately or else you're going to be in the same waste of time type of timeline that the Detroit Pistons were. And they kind of got like nothing, not nothing, but they've just like, they haven't utilized their time at all through the periods of them. being bad. I fear that the same things are going to be happening with the Sean Horns if they don't

have another guy to cling on to. Yeah. And again, Brandon Miller could have a strong second half the year. Right now, he's been pretty similar to last year. Less efficient in some ways. Again, I'm not writing him off. It's just he's not, people, some people talk about him like he's a hit for sure. And he very well so could be, but it's not set in stone. We don't know for sure that he's going to be really good. We see signs and we're remaining optimistic, but they don't have a star duo yet i think is the key so they don't have an identity yet and they're still trying to figure that out and mold that and the question is what is that going to be and you mentioned the mellow's kind hard to gauge and what we meant by that is when you compare him to other players in the league

the nature of this team right now of being pretty bad and allowing him to just run and gun and put up shots hard to understand how that's going to translate when you have more good players so they're just a tricky place right now of trying to find their identity yeah they're doing some soul searching right now so searching exactly and the question is what is that going to what's the answer going to be? You guys have to find out over the next course of season what type of team you're going to be long term because we don't know yet.

Yeah, exactly. What is Charles Lee Cookin? We will find out soon. All right, my turn. My next team. Let's do the Atlanta Hawks. They are in a space right now, a very good space, I think.

They finally found the vision for how to build around Trey Young. They took their learnings from the Jante Murray trade in which they tried to get a big guard that can beat this defensive stopper and play next to Trey.

and give them size positionally, they tried to do that with the Jante. It didn't work because he was a point guard and putting two point guards together doesn't make a lot of sense when neither one of them are particularly good off ball. You know while that crashed and burned.

They got Dyson's, Jalen Johnson's, can you continue to take leaps? They got Ries to Shea. They now have three, six seven to six nine, rangy wings I can defend and do all those things that the Jante was supposed to do.

And that's working really well. That's working really well in terms of finding an identity. It's not really working well in terms of being contender already, They never expect it to be, so not to say that they should be. But eventually you have a star in his prime. Trey Young is, you know, in the back half of his 20s now.

He's getting there. He needs to be in when now mode pretty soon. Otherwise, the timelines aren't going to make a lot of sense, you know? So the question I have for them is, what is the next step? How do you take this new mold you have as a team and make a, what's the next big move you can do to give yourself a chance to be a top three team in your conference? I think what we need to do to give us, give ourselves a chance. chance in order to be elevated into this conference has nothing to do with us or this

roster. We need to do some voodoo black magic to the Los Angeles Snickers because we got y'all pick. We got y'all pick. And I am praying on your downfall every single day, every single day. Hope y'all miss the playoffs. I hope you missed the best for my goat, James, but everything else, everybody else, do not care. Sayonara. That's going to be the 17th pick and you're going to like On the realer note, though, with the Atlanta Hawks, you're right, and final identity, Jalen Johnson has made a leap after his career was being sabotaged by Nate McMillan for a whole two years. I see J.L. Johnson, I love his potential. Every team in order to win at the highest level, you need wings, big wings like him at the three or four position.

You can pass, defend, score willingly because of their insane, brute force strength and all that. I love him in his game, but he can't be your best player. I don't think he can be your second list player, but he can be a great third option because of his scoring limitations. I see Troy Young, you're right. He's getting up there a little bit when it comes to his age. I'm not worried about him necessarily in his future just yet.

If there's a way out of this and if there's a way to spring yourself forward toward the top, there needs to be almost a consolidation trade because this team is semi-deep. Short-term, I think there's two ways to answer this. Short-term and long-term. Short-term, you need a backup point guard because the guard play isn't that strong outside of Trey Young when it comes to having another playmaker who can penetrate the defense on a consistent basis

that our second point guard is Jalen Johnson. So you need to find a point guard replacement whether it being the offseason, you want to throw Russell Westbrook a little bag or whatever or whatever random player. Long term, as a Hawks fan, I'm thinking about, okay, we got the number one overall pick

and Zachary Rishisei, who's developing, doing everything pretty much at a good level outside of like scoring. DeAndre Hunter's killing it. Bogey is bogey. He was a six-man candidate last year. DeAndi Hunter is just like six-man, probably he may be leading the race right now,

maybe second, third, whatever. We need to call him consolidation trade and we need to find a guy who is either like a star-studded center or someone who can lead the reins of our wing position and be the guy. And I don't know if that guy doesn't exist for us right now. So that's like the long-term answer. You need to consolidate.

trade to get rid of some of this depth this depth will that happen now i don't know but right now just building your identity yeah they need to start big that's the answer yes that's that that that's what i was going to say because and i don't think that like like you're praying on the lakers downfall obviously if their pick can fall low enough great but i i don't think uh for a lot of the reasons that i just said that drafting somebody right now is the way to go in terms of like trying to figure out what the next step is and the Tray Young thing because you've seen that

one, Tray Young can get you to an Eastern conference finals if everything like goes well and so having two projects with Rishise and then whatever big that you draft having two projects on top of like trying to maximize Jalen Johnson

like it's a lot of asking people to grow and like if you're going to do that that's cool if you're at the Pistons that's cool if you're like you know I guess the rocket at this point where you know we're just trying to get better right we were in a severe tank you guys aren't in that and not even trying to be funny you guys are just consistently mid and so how do you break out of that mid you have to go kind of big you have to be able to get guys who can play right now and not be you know so focused on development they didn't even a splash trade

this summer before that looker's pick is conveyed whether i don't i don't know if we need to necessarily rush into it that fast, kind of disagree on that. But in general, when we do make that splash trade, we did that like two years ago. Obviously, it fell on our faces. This is our last opportunity, really, to make a splash trade, and we need to hit it. Or else, like, trainers are going to be pushing 2830, 28, 29. At that point of time, he's not going to want to sit around for a second retool. You know, there's only so much he can sit down and watch his counterparts like Luke Dodgers go to an NBA finals. Jerry Jackson Jr. makes leaps and strides with the Memphis Grosies Shagel Luis Alexander pushed his way towards MVP conversations and he's just over here like,

Trayway all day. Anyways, now me personally, as an Atlanta, Hawks fan, I'm witnessing and I'm noticing what's taking place in Minnesota. There is a young 6-4 black man over there who resides in Atlanta. I am praying on their downfall also consistent because they're doing absolutely nothing. They're doing absolutely nothing. And if I'm going to want Julius Randall. A star, yeah, please, God, I almost, hey, I almost, hey, you just put fear on my heart, almost

I was going to say. A six, four black man, you're looking the, you look in the wrong side of the court. Julius Reynolds was about six, nine. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, whoa, boy, that's what you're going to do some wrong in my eyes. Hell no, hell no, they, and there words, please come home. We will have assets before you. You know, you with a left hand, Julie Randall, like, that's what you are getting. You're getting Julius Randall, or I mentioned earlier, the Kings are soon to implode.

you better learn to speak to Monta Subonis and you better like it. Good God, I hope not, bro. That's my worst nightmare. Actually, we're kind of fun. He's not a lot of right, though. That's disgusting, bro. That's even a worst. I don't want to say it's a worst version of Trey and thoughts, but it's not good.

You'd lose the lop threat ability of Trey Young, which sucks. But there's interesting things with those two passers that with those wings around them, I don't think it would be terrible. But yeah, you probably do just want a lot through it around them. Just know that I'm hoping a lot and I'm praying on Minnesota's downfall as well. And I'm just scheming and planning building assets right now. right we'll see anyways a big question for the hawks is how do we escape mid because they are going to be mid for a long time you're right you're right whose turn is it my turn again

no i think it's Isaac's one oh yeah oh so it's my turn no so it is my turn donvin's turn really okay yeah yeah settle down don't wait your turn my my question is for the phoenix sons and we talked a little bit about it last week when we were doing our rankings But the question is, can you get Devin Booker back on track? I'm very, very curious to see if Booker can get himself back to a point where he's like neck and neck with KD. I think you've seen in, like, since KD has gotten there, I do think that that Drent has been the better player. But you can make the argument, okay, like Devin actually is the better player. Right now, I don't think that that's the case.

I think that it is very clear, Kevin, it's very clear like Durant is one and Booker's two. And if you can close the gap a little bit in the second half of the season, I think that the sun's upside is really, really high. But if Devin Booker's playing at the level that he is right now, I don't think that they actually have that high of a ceiling. And not to say that they would get swept in the first round like they did last year because last year, that was actually kind of predictable that they were going to get bounced out. like they really weren't all all that but the way that they have the you know we all picked them to win the series right no no i didn't yeah you did yeah you did i didn't did i did i swear you did i think we did i i promised i did well i didn't believe it because i i like i because i i i like i saw them i saw them that i probably just did it just because i didn't like it was probably

more disbelief in minnesota than anything and i was like i'm not betting on cat it's i know what you though. The physicality wasn't surprising. Predictable wasn't the word because there were some things they had that maybe we theorize would make the Minnesota Timberwolves kind of sweat. But it wasn't surprising at all. The physicality was the rest. Yes. But going into this year, like

I really like the way that they look whenever they're firing on all cylinders. I feel like it is sustainable and I do feel like in the Western Conference. There is space for them to be in there and potentially make a run. But that doesn't happen in the playoffs that Devin Booker doesn't get back to like all NBA type love.

and I want to see if he can get there. Yeah, it's also just weird because they played the Nuggets last night on Christmas recording this in 26. Bradley Bill looks so good and he's looked really good in times when it's him and KD and he has asked to be a 6-4 small forward

which isn't the best for him. Like Bradley Bill is still good. Him and Devin Booker, a little duplicative, as we've always known they are, right? But they're versatile enough that we think there's a world where they can play together. What's interesting to me is

they're clearly pining hard trying to get Jimmy Butler. and you know that he said today they're not going to trade him my cap i think a little bit i think it's some negotiation maybe but then again is pat raleigh so who knows but i wonder what that does to jimmy butler i mean for devon booker if they managed to get him and get rid of bradley biel for a guy that's you know just positionally different and they kind of are a little more additive to each other i wonder if that would help devon boker at all yeah i agree i think it'll make Interesting.

Jimmy Butler or Devin Booker's life a lot easier because they're inverse players in my mind. James Boyle likes to do a lot of his work more so interiorly in the mid-range game. And Devin Booker can get his bucket from anywhere. We also know he's like a mid-range guy as well. But I think there's a lot. I agree with you in terms of like he, Jimmy Buller is way more additive to Devin-Booker's game. And I'll see, we'll be able to see either a better version of Devin-Booker. Maybe he'll be able to get something to unlocked in his game, better looks and whatever.

or whatever the case may be. But I like that thought of all this lot. Yeah, apparently it's not going to happen though because Pat Riley is a crumudgeon, but whatever. But no, I agree. Their ceiling has to be, we have two top eight players in the world and we have a good defense, good coach.

We're clicking at the right time. Without that, then there's never really a ceiling. You think they're ever going to get rid of use of Nerkitz? Can they be saved from Lerg? If they could, they would already. He's stuck there. Nobody wants his ass. God damn.

Tough. What's your team now, Mo? You were itching to get it out. What is it? I guess we can stick to that Christmas game last night. We witnessed them play the Denver Nuggett, and that's my next team. This team has been all over the place. Nicole Yokic, according to Kevin Durant last night in this post-game interview, he was like, yeah, the dude's a top 10 NBA player of all time.

But all no. Gugin. Gunna Gugin. But that's up the point right now, although you have a top 10 NBA player of all time, right now, you're playing like a very, very, very, very. mediocre team. And the Denver Nuckets should be far from that. When it comes to why they're mediocre, you can point in all types of directions, whether it be the front office and how they're not aligned with Coach Malone's vision whatsoever. You can point out, you can point at Jamal Murray and him not necessarily being the all-star caliber player that you need alongside Nicole Yoko

and you can point towards like someone like maybe a Michael Porter Jr. who hasn't elevated in ways in which you'd want to see when he has that humongous contract. And I think he's like my biggest question right now. Just the other day, Michael Porter Jr. was asked if, you know, he's worried about being traded or whatever. And he was like, no, I'm not worried. And if I was worried, they would have a conversation with me. But then I think he also said some like, even if they were fishing me out there in the market, they wouldn't tell me. So he can just do what he does right now and try to perform at his best.

And I think I'm looking at him and I'm trying to figure out ways to elevate this roster, whether it be, trade him for lower level players who can just, who are just great defenders and shooters, because right now with what he's giving you on a consistent basis, you're just, you're really limited. And he's the only way out. So how much can you get for Michael Ford Jr. if you want to train him? Yeah, that's the rest of the question, right? Because they don't have any other trade paths. That's all they have is trading him. And Nuggets fans are real upset about that. He's been good and like, doesn't deserve to be traded. He's done his role and he's done nothing wrong. He hasn't been a problem at all. The problem has

obviously been Jamal Murray and obviously been the nonsense that Calvin Booth has filled the bench with. So it would feel like he's dying at the altar for Calvin Booth's mistakes. And they don't want that for Michael Porter. But this team is clearly not good enough as it's constructed. Maybe we can just hope that in the playoff setting, we get playoff Jamal and Yokich carries. I wouldn't feel good if I was a Nuggets fan going to a playoff series with that being the hope, that things just materially transform because we enter the playoffs and we just get lucky. And that would piss me off. So you're right. It sucks. He might be the one that has to be traded for lack of other options. Man, these boys are brokies. These boys are brokies. And now, now, now, I do feel bad for MPJ.

I do. If he does get traded, I would feel bad. Yeah, it is what it is, though. Like Isaac said, he has to die at the altar. He is the sacrifice that they have to make. And it sucks. Now, I wish, I hope there was another, I wish there was another way around. I wish some other team was like dying in the need for Jamal Murray's, Jamal Murray's services, but they're not because he ain't doing really too much on a consistent basis for this team. Zach Levine, get ready to speak mile high city, 5280. The team is ready for you. I don't know if that'll be good.

I don't know if your defense is going to be possible if his shot making is better than the positional size that MPJ gives you because this team is huge right now with MPJ, Aaron Gore. Jordan Yokich, I don't know if this is a better world, but what I do know is Zach Levine is very, very talented offensively and him getting these wide open looks off a dribble handoffs next to Nicole Yokic and these wide open threes off on Nicole Yokic would be dynamic as hell. It would be pretty good. Yeah. If there's a way out, it's definitely that way and I'll be willing to bang on that because, okay, you do lose a little bit of defense. Not to say like you're right, Michael Porre Jr. is a lot of defense. Yeah, use a lot of events because the size

you lose defensive rebounding and Zach Levine all he gives is just like a walking flamethrower and I think at this point in time that may be what you need at this point because Jamal Murray used to be that he's not that anymore lost a lot of steps and Zach Levine can carry on that torch and just help enlighten them on that and move forward. Now what do you do with the three you can't

start Christian Brown, Jamal Murray and Zach Levine's maybe that's our Peyton Watson he might have to start but then you're spacing his balls that'd be terrible it would be fine If, like, if that's what it comes down to, I do trust Yokic to figure it out offensive teams.

Like, you'll be okay. Okay. You'll be fine. Okay. Top top ten player of all time. Go ahead and figure it out, buddy. This is what the label's for. You're speaking Calvin Lutz goddamn language.

Let Nicole Yokes do his job. Okay, what team do I want to do next? Look at my list again. Let's talk about the Houston Rockets. Houston Rockets are interesting because they've obviously had a very good season their top three team in the conference they are on schedule for this

win now rebuild around IMA Yudoka who has put together a program with good veterans that's winning based off defense my question is what can they do to empower amend Thompson and ensure that he is the future of this team next to San Gune because it is so clear

that this is a guy that can and in my opinion will be their best player one day how do they build this team team around him and his skill set how do they negate his lack of spacing and put him a position to going to this end of this year but especially going to next year when you have a full off season and you can really kind of reshuffle things how do you put yourself and make the necessary moves now so we can hand him the keys next year you tell fred van bleat to take a vacation

of turks and kakos and never come back like you have to you have to make a men thompson the starting guard of the future and you have to make sure that like He has control over the offense and that he's getting maximum playing time because the way he impacts the game defensively is insane. And you just see like whenever he has, even on offense, like whenever he has the ball, good stuff just happens. Like he is, he's able to put the rockets in such good positions. And the fact that like if you actually wake up and realize that Jalen Green is not going to be the guy for you and you still have Sangoon there and you. played through Sengoon and have him as an offensive hub and now you have Sengun who could do all this passing at the high post and then just this crazy athlete in Amen Thompson, that right

there and that formula can get you somewhere. So, but I, it starts with consolidating a lot of the guards and Fred is finally the first one to go. And they've been linked to all. Every star trade right now, they're linked to them always because they're a young team of win now mode with a deep young core logic says they can make a trade for a star better than most people can and be ready to win with them so i don't even know if this reporting is actually based on them being interested or if it just makes sense to people to throw their names in there but that does make sense and you know de aaron fox may soon be available and people want to see him go to the rockets for all those reasons i don't know if dearon fox and the men make sense yeah so if i'm the rockets

you don't pass up on here in Foxxie's an amazing player but if they believe in a man the way I do I only make a star trade if it's somebody that compliments a man really well if I'm pushing all my pieces in if I'm trading Reed Shepard I'm trading Cam Whitmore I'm trading all my picks doing whatever I had to see a world in which my big three on my team can be Sangoon a man and new All-Star

insert where the All-Star is that has to be the vision so I think they need to remain patient if they agree that amends their guy they have to set themselves up to have the perfect roster construction around him because that's a difficult player to build around you can reap the benefits like it's like building around ben simmons right him and joel and bead didn't make the most sense of world on paper but they figured it out and they were a good team for a time because the skill set that things that ben simmons brought were amazing i think you're kind of going to be in that same spot

with a man in a year or two yeah if you think like that about a men then you're also like putting in all you're cashing in that he's going to be like a top 25ish player in the league one day. And I believe that's how high his ceiling truly is once he gets the keys to the offense. Rock out, I'm with you, I'm what you, if you believe that.

I think when it comes to Fred Van Villeet, I think when he comes to Fred Van Ville, he has a, doesn't he have like a team option after this year? I don't remember. Yeah, I think he has a team team option. They gave a bad ass bag for two years.

I think he's making like 40 than 44 million this year and next season. And I think if Fredman it's a really for the team and if you love the situation, the Houston Rocks and just simply decline that, renegotiate his deal, get him on some more team friendly, and elongate his contract over the next few years. I think that's the easy way around it. This year, I think if I were you,

I would cut the bullshit, get that man on the bench and start amend and just get a feel for this new era and give him as many reps as possible, as soon as possible. That way if, you know, an opportunity does arise where, if not Deering or Fox and other stars, level guard has an ability to or another star level guard is out in the trade market you'll gauge if a man's ready for that type of type of leap is he playable is he scalable or whatever in whatever

right but yeah i think that's easier i think that's the easiest right yes and also you you are right so fred's contract he's getting paid 42.8 this year has a team option next year for 44.8 that's getting declined so fast so fast who's that's that's are going to be like I don't know like it could be a wing that way a man can be like is it brandon ingram I don't know they're not linked to him but like I don't know like probably not it's kind of you but like you got you're waiting for Devin Booker or Katie you gotta get that's answer they've been linked they're waiting to see the sun's downfall and try to spooping and get him and Devin Booker and a man will be fucking sick that'd be an awesome combo

oh that'd be beautiful so maybe they're remaining patient for that seeing if that crashes and burns but I wouldn't necessarily like be expecting that hey man listen there's a guy a six four black man who lives in Minnesota. What's up with all this profiling over here, man? What the hell are you talking about? A lot of six four black guys. What that mean in Minnesota? What that mean?

Is there a lot in Minnesota? We'll see. Yeah, man. But like, listen, you got the T. Woods, got the Vikings. You got some stuff. You know, but like. Yeah, you got Joseph Jefferson, we got Anthony Edwards.

But, yeah, but like, and in Houston, Anton in Houston. Oh. Extremely interesting. And it's not getting fucking traded. He's not, but we're just throwing something about that. If Mo can say and to Atlanta, I can say and to Houston.

Oh, you can't. What's the next team, Donovan? All right, so I'm actually going to double up because I kind of have the same question for these two teams. And that is the Toronto Raptors and the Utah Jazz. And my question for both of them is very conditional because the condition is, will you be able to get Cooper Flag? they are in both of them are in the middle of tanking seasons they are both like on the precipice of being well i think the raptors right now are in the bottom three so they will be able to get one of like the top odds can the jazz end up getting there and so if either one of those teams

get cooper flagg cool you have a building a building block moving forward that you are going to continue your reboot around Toronto is really interesting because Toronto has played pretty well like all things all things considered like scotty barns and r j barrett like all right you've seen a lot of growth from from their guys Utah this year sucks last year was was pretty good but you still have a lot of assets I have the same question for them that I did the pistons which is how high is your self-esteem would you would you be would you be willing to be more aggressive on your rebuild and I think that it's very very interesting because I think that they both have teams that they both have teams or front office situations that can welcome

another star you know good player low level all star and kind of speed some things up and so I'm really like for them to I'm monitoring their situation I just want to know how highly they think about themselves and how much they want to push the gas yeah yeah no much to say about them I mean the Raptors my biggest question for them is how how important it's quickly to you He has been unavailable, and he hasn't, he's been hurt, and we haven't been able to see him live up to the trade they made for him. Scotty Barnes is pretty good as a lead initiator. RJ Barrett's having a good year.

Oceo Abaji looks like a really, really promising 3-and-D wing. They got a lot of pieces coming together is quickly your point guard, right? Like, is that spot in your rotation, your star lead, not star, but your lead guard, your main primary guy, is that Emmanuel quickly? If not, if you don't feel super confident, and you get to the NBA draft, you get a top three pick, there's. some lead guards that are going to be available as well as some wings there's going to there's a very good draft here so how you feel about quickly i think really impacts how they approach this draft yeah and

i think that's the like the biggest that's my biggest question for them too how strongly do you feel about quickly is he someone who's a legit building block who you have to plan around or is he someone who you just like gloss over and be like yeah like we'll see we can get out of him but we have other pieces and players potentially to prioritize. I agree with you. Yeah. All right. What's your next team, Mo? All right. So my next team has to be the Los Angeles Clippers.

I think the biggest question for them has basically been frying the fuck out of this organization since 2019 or 2020. When are you going to get back a healthy Kauai? There's nothing else to really talk about when it comes to

what else is reaping around or shadowing this organization. James Harden is bawling out to the best of his capabilities. Norman Powell has you can argue that he's the most improved pair of the year. Their defense has been great. It's been holding them down throughout the entirety of the season. I have

no real questions for this team. They've been maximizing on their potential. What was that noise? Are you hearing that, bro? It is it's thundering and lightning outside. It's going crazy. That's me as Wi-Fi are going to go out. No, no, I'm good. Keep on. Keep on. Speed up. No, you're right, though, Demo.

They're in a spot where we've talked a lot about young teams so far that are in the position to change who their team is going forward, they're in a rebuild, retelling whatever. Yeah. That's not the Clippers. The Clippers are who they are. They would either be mid and not do a ton of the playoffs or they'll be a sleeping giant because they might add Kauai back

and Kauai hasn't been available for several years now. But when he does play, he's still playing like an all-em-B-A-wing. So if he comes back at the right time and they get a healthy playoff run, they could do some shit like they have that defense you talked about they have some firepower like the question is

are they low-key feeling good about their team right now because if they get Kauai back I don't want to see them in the playoffs yeah at the start of the season I remember a lot of people are like holy shit

like wow they lost Paul George the team's gonna be so mid so ass you're relying on an old Hubble James Chardin to carry this team and be back in his ways like he was back in 2019 when he was still like letting loose

with the Houston Rockets and whatnot I think my number one the number one thing I'm looking forward to with this team is like how much can you mess up the plans for other teams they messed up already Oklahoma cities not plans but you know okay see we're all over here worrying like oh shit these guys are like kind of ass on paper and it may look like they can escape with another like lottery pick as right now and then the recording of this podcast shit is not happening at all this is a consistent team I believe they're like the sixth seed in the Western conference right now hovering around that range very respectable team very respectable team so they already fucked up okay scenes plans as of now still could like you're right i agree now can they fuck up any of anybody else's plans when it comes to in the playoffs can they make someone's life hella hard yes they can i think they're just like they can't do anything in the cells but they can ruin everybody else's night hey man it's seven C right now if the season today and they'll say the rockets in the first round and

kawai is there i don't know if i'm picking the rockets that that'd be difficult i don't know if i pick the Rockets, bro. I don't know if I can pick the Rockets, bro. That would be so storyline for James Harvey. But also, also, Kauai Leonard is the friends he made along the way. So we're doing a lot of assuming that he actually comes back and actually plays good. At this point, he's a figment of our imagination. So who's to say? Yeah. He's an imaginary friend. Yeah. But that, that, they could definitely, they could shake some shit up in the conference for sure. Yeah. They've already shaking the things a little bit wood o'clock. God. Damn. Thunder is crazy. You're going to die tonight. You're going to die tonight. You're going to die tonight. I hope you're ready. Say goodbye. Get ready to light up them cuddles Them candles I hope you got a janitor I said a janitor I'm going to say a generator I don't listen

The place I'm at Is now on tornado watch Damn Lovely That's hilarious Let's see Next team I got the Minnesota Timberwolves

I don't know how we wait so long And talk about this team Because this is one of the teams We have to talk about the most The point of this episode Is to look to the future What is the rest of this Season, summer,

calendar year, what does 2025 hold for these franchises? 2025 is going to be the most important year of the Timberwolves for next decade probably. They are currently around 500 after a year in which they were the best

team in the Western Conference for most of the season. Anthony Edwards bloomed into a star. Rudy Gobert led them to the number one defense in the league. Things were looking great. They trade cat for all these dumb reasons that we didn't like in the moments. We came to understand because of the business and yada, yada, yada, long-term planning.

We get it. The deal was fucking ass The team is in current disarray Julius Randall Rudy Gobert Alwash Mike Connolly and Jada McDaniels

who has not taken an offensive leap has proven to be a really terrible offensive core around Anthony Edwards He hasn't grown as a player It's made his weaknesses look worse now because he has even less creation

and even less playmaking around him than he had before less spacing too He is struggling right now to replicate or not to replicate to take the next step as like a star ball handler

because they're asking him to be the lead playmaker all the time essentially and that's not his game he's a true true guard not a lead playmaker the team construction right now is not conducive

to your best young bright star continuing to make strides that is a problem for a team that is in a small market that has a star that is vocal

about his discontent his content he has for this team he is not comfortable ever he wants to win and when he doesn't he goes to the media and he's like

these guys suck we're not playing good we need to do some shit better. If I'm in the two rules organization, that doesn't make you feel good because they have so little paths to getting back on track. The question I have for them is,

can you salvage this era over the next six months? Can you give Anthony Edwards to reason to feel good about this team? Can you make fans feel good about the vision you have for the future? Can you trade Julius Randall? Get him a good guard to play next to,

a good point guard, all these things. Can you fix this shit? Because it's currently really, really bad. This is hilarious, bro. almost every other night that they have just a terrible loss you're right

Anthony Edwards is like yeah bro I don't know what this team's identity is a couple nights ago I believe it was like last week I forget who they were playing but Anthony was like yeah we have no identity we're playing like we have no confidence we're playing like jumps right now I'm gonna know what we're doing

all I know is Julie's Randall shooting the ball that's literally that's what he said it was hilarious and it's like I mean yeah he ain't lying he's telling absolute facts what's so interesting about this team is like they started off super slow defensively

And now they've caught up to a point to where they're top 10 in that range. And they're actually, ironically enough, or surprising enough, they're better than they were defensively last year. But so many other teams have, like, taken a massively defensively or be OKC, he's Rock, a Tulano Magic and all that. So they're still not the best defense in the NBA. They're right where they were last year. Still one of the best defense in the NBA.

But their offense, like you says, is like so, so slow and sluggish. And the decision making and the fire powers is not there. guys like, you didn't even touch on it that much, Isaac, but you, you've been like not calling this player overrated, but he just isn't as fantastic as many people make him out to be, which is like Nas Reid. You go ahead and trade away and trade away and trade, we got, we got quarantine Johnson's at home again and Nas Reed. He hasn't been absolutely fantastic and taking those.

They don't fucking use them enough, though. It's not even his whole right now. Yeah. So it's that. And then Jane McDaniels hasn't taken that leap as well. We talked about it a couple streams ago, TD3 Tuesdays, except for this past season. I feel like Isaac's talked about that for the last year. that McDaniels hasn't been like the guy.

Yeah, I thought you were getting to him, not Nas Reed. Nas Reid is like, can't defend like that, but you know, he should be playing more than Randall at this point. But the biggest problem, people aren't aware that Jayne McDaniels is wildly disappointing. Great defender. Everything does is cool. He has been probably the biggest swing factor of why their offense sucks and why Anthony Edwards are struggling.

They paid him with the expectation of him continuing to develop and continuing to make strides with the ball in his hands and be a good connective offensive player, try to make the McHale Bridges development and do some mid-range stuff with that length, yada, yada, he's not good offensively. Like, for his standards, for his pay scale, he is not particularly impactful on the offensive end. And that sucks when, like I said, Mike Connolly is old and washed. One of the most inefficient players in the league.

And obviously a Randall and Goberer, offensive football is not fucking pretty. And what makes it work is if you have one of the most offensively talented, big of all time over the last 10 years on your side which is car and 30 towns at his shooting ability and you delete that he's not there and you have someone like Julius Randall who bro I ain't a lie I overrated Julius Randall speaking to him overrated his um his connective

ability and how like what type of passer he was he just he just makes offenses look so catastrophic at times with the type of passes that he is making and he's not like an ultra he doesn't process quick passes at all he likes to do with that's what it is bully ball a little bit and he's he's like she's not the type of facet that I initially thought it was you know yeah and I mean yeah he's a slow methodical player yeah and I think like the answer for me in terms of like

can they fix it the answer for me is no I person for the 20 24 20 25 season I am out on the Minnesota Tim Wolves and I've said that I've said that for like I think about like a month now but the way that they're playing somebody's losing their job right like yeah i don't and it it it can be chris finch it can be rudius randall it can it can be um it can be uh a rod and the ownership somebody who is in the building right now is not going to be there next year because it is so rare i think that that you have a guy like aunt be so vocal like that that that part is the that's what that's one of the biggest parts that I've seen this year is that like we've seen LeBron be passive aggressive right but it happens like every you know 10 games you see

players come out and in and say certain stuff but it's like you know once every 20 games whatever Anthony Edwards they are they are 15 and 14 14 times this year Anthony Edwards has come out and been like yeah this is not going well I'm not having a good time we saw it at the beginning of last year too he's like listen they're just no space to drive. Anytime you put a mic, and that's like the good and bad of Anthony Edwards and, you know, having him as a personality and all that, and I love everything that comes with him. But he, if you put a mic in front of his face and ask him, how do you feel? He's going to tell you, I don't feel good. And you can't have that consistently for nine months

a year and think that nothing is going to change. And so I think it's, I think it's very obvious that the Timberwolves are not going to win a championship. They're not making it to the Western Conference finals. Something has to change. And I'm very, very, very obvious. I'm very, very curious to see, one, whenever this ownership stuff gets resolved, what direction does the acting owner take this team in? And that's good. That's, like you said, 2025 is the most important year that they've had in a long time. Yeah, I'm not going to do the whole ESPN thing. I don't want to be up here like, how do we going to do a big market? It's time to trade. Is he on trade alert? None of that bullshit. Because he's on a contract for a long time. It's not how

this shit works. We don't got to play that up. But I will say, you're starting. You're starting. starting when teams, when things do get to that path eventually, you see, you look back and you see times like this start that snowball that accumulated for several years and then we get to a point where he's 28 and he's like, I can't fucking do this anymore. It's ridiculous. It's so annoying. It's, this reminds me. I literally feel like I'm that Kay, Anthony Words might be that KG meme back in back a few years ago when you shot that movie. It's like, why the fuck would you show me something? If I can't have it, you go ahead and you like give him car Anthony Towns. We go bare. You guys finally figure it out. You've made.

make it to the Western Conference final and the most success that you guys have had in over 12, 15 years. And you snatch it away all because of roster flexibility and all the financial freedom and stuff like that. And I get it. I understand that I was the most positive of that trade. But it just sucks. I let you convince me months later that it could be decent. I hated that shit. And it still could be.

But right now when you're losing like this and you have Anthony Edwards, again, you only have so many like times to strike in the NBA. injuries happen and all that and when you're when you're just like self-sabotaging this early until like your new revamp or your franchise it just sucks to see yeah and again i said this last episode and when we did our power rankings that they're in the same spot right now that the mabs were right before the kai re-trade where they had to really retool things were going poorly or i guess just to say right after the kai-re trade whenever they fucking crumbled after doing that that's where the matures are they're not cooked they have a star under contract for a long time and he's not going to like it. He's going to hate that you're wasting a couple great years, but you can do it. You know, you have a lot of years ahead of you that if you spend 18 months rebuilding, you can make the right moves. You can get a PJ Washington, a Kyrie Irving, a Daniel Gafford, a Quinn Grimes, really build up these role players through small transactions like, like Nukamanyan has. That's possible for them. But you got to get it going. You got to pick a plan. It's always possible. It's tough, but you don't see it in the moment. We were low on the maps because we didn't see it coming.

It was like, we were saying, how do you get yourself out of this? That's why you're you picked him to be 11 the next year because it was like I don't see how you fucking fix this specifically like the the Kyrie move like I the the Kyrie move for me is one of the deals in the NBA where I feel like it's very it's a very unique deal because of all the circumstances and all the stuff that was surrounding Kyrie and so to get a guy who to get like a top 30 guy for you know borderline top 30 top 30 top 30 guy whatever to get to get a player like that for as cheap as they did I I I do feel like that's a unique situation.

And I don't, and for like the Timberwolves who gave a lot of the draft capital up to go get Rudy Gobert, it's not like they have a wealth of assets right now to go make something like that. And, you know, people who don't think about it because you think about the Timberwells as a team with no draft picks. And it's already been, I know replenishes. So it comes back, replenishes. As I'm saying, 18 more months by the time that comes up, you'll be four and four and a half years removed from the Gober trade. You'll have a decent amount of picks again, just like the Mavs. gave up picks for Christos Horsingis.

By the time that came around, they had a few to send out for Washington, Gafford, et cetera. That's where they had to be. They had to do that and that's got to be the mindset. And they have, this year the question is

how do you start their process? How do you put yourself down the path that by the end of next year, shit looks brighter. Yeah, but in 18 more months, Rudy Gaubert is going to be 33, 34 years old. Like, it's, it's going to be,

you're going to have, I didn't say it was easy. Yeah, like you're going to have, you're going to have to replace two guys on that, on that team. as Anthony Edwards is entering the prime, you know, trademark, like, that is going to have to be the key.

And it's, it's just hard. And I know that they've made that move. They traded cat so that they had the flexibility to do that. Is this a front office that would do it again? That is scared of spending big money to go out and maximize Ants prime and do all that. We'll see, right? We'll find out. Yeah, we will find out.

all right what's your next team let's do a contender we've been talking so much big picture about teams and making moves don't give us a team that's actually good right now that we're actually actually asking a question about this season the orlando magic are good right now and one question that i have is when we talked about it before can franz and palo both play at a plus level at the same time this season if you can do that the Orlando magic are as dangerous as ever as ever they can mess up a lot of people's plans i'm looking at you the cleveland cavaliers because they are if you have two two wings who can score the ball at a high level france who can who can distribute the ball really really well play play good defense do everything

you already have the infrastructure and the culture there it's so very clear that they are going to out fight and out hustle everybody on on any on any given night having both of your two young stars who you have just recently paid and put all of your efforts into. If they can take the leap at the same time, oh my goodness, that is what you will see, like what we saw from the Timberwolves last year. We were like, oh my God, is Anthony Edwards Michael Jordan? And like, is Carnathy Towns playing the best ball of his career? Yes, both of those things were happening or like look like it. And you get a conference finals run. That can happen with the Orlando Magic. And their timeline I can go to the moon in the next three months.

If both of them can come back and get clicking really quickly. Yeah, at them it's easy. It's not even a question. It's like a hope. The question is, will we be lucky enough to have a healthy run? Because we know we can be. These guys are dogs, man. Yeah, they're dogs, but they're injured dogs at this point in time.

Left and right. Someone's always going out. And the question is obviously, are we going to see Franz Wagner be able to hit that star level he hit when he was alone when Paolo was there? Is his shooting going to be good enough? isn't going to be enough touches to go around for him to be this lead playmaker he was showing he could be is like, is he capable of producing as a second star? I personally, if we're projecting, I think he can.

And part of that is just, yeah, part of that is I've always been high on France. And so I just have this like innate belief in him. But also I think that it just makes so much sense that you guys, like the magic have needed a point guard that needed playmaking for, you know, the last two years. and you just don't have to force Palo to do it. You don't have to, like, we are seeing it with Anthony Edwards, and you try to make these bucket getters run everything. That's not always the best case.

Just if you let Palo focus more on, like, bucket getting, than being a true point forward and control everything and be a lead playmaker, and you tell Franz, you can have the ball in your hands. Now, you don't have to go out and get 30, but you can still have the ball in your hands and be impactful. that on paper and theoretically feels like it works so perfectly

and so that's why like I do have hope that both of them can get it clicking at the same time let Franz be German Scotty Pippen let him do the playing making wing please that's hilarious bro what's next

okay we can go ahead and stay in the Eastern Conference let's talk about the Milwaukee books good one the only they've looked like a different team compared to the first five games of the year compared to the last five games that they played. You know,

went ahead and won the IST, got that championship extra five. The Emirates NBA Cup. How many times does I correct you? Sir, come on now. I am respecter of oil. You are correct. My bad.

Big my bad. But. Nothing's in turn anymore. All right. But everything has been clicking at the right time. They've had their guys like, Derry Bird and then Andre Jackson emerged and they've concealed

you know that two spot there there's so many situations which two of these guys can fill in all types of gaps Dairy Bird obviously is the guy who's absolute sniper who's also I love it bro but then he's also gonna fight his ass off defensively but he's not going to be as good

of a defender as some like Andre Jackson and Andre Jackson is but Andre Jackson just can't he's not a consistent shooter whatsoever so they've stumbled their way into some level it consists of when it comes to their two-guards spot, which was a big concern to start the season. They've had, like, new life now, jolted when it comes to that spot. Yon's playing inspired basketball on the defensive end,

which is new and great for them. Chris Middleton has recently come back, and he's starting to hit those strides. He hasn't been the normal Chris Middleton that we've never used to saying. But my question is, like, how good can, how healthy can Chris Middleton be? Because if he's there, then I'm looking at this team that has a And that feels really rejuvenated. They have a new spirit, new life.

I'm looking at this team in a different line. I'm not going to say, like, yeah, they're looking at the Boston socials and the eyes and their actual contenders just yet. They are contenders. When you have you honest, you're always contender. But how serious of a team are you? And I think Chris Middleton has that, is the swing factor. Yeah, I mean, obviously Chris Milton has to be healthy.

We've all said it forever that they have to have all four of their old guys healthy to win. That's a given. but that's you know luck right can he be healthy or not isn't something they can control what I do think is more interesting somebody you mentioned my biggest question for them is

can Andre Jackson survive a playoff series he's the biggest swing factor shout up everything AJ Green gives them fantastic off the bench to have that jolt their defense works now because of Andrew Jackson like you said and it's not like a

if we can get him to be there great if not we'll figure it out no he has to be able to be the core of their defense defense in the playoff series, he is the biggest screen factor for them. If he can hit enough threes to stay on the court and not be something that kills their offense, he can give them a defensive identity that will make a legit difference. Yeah.

Yeah, I like it. I like the bucks, man. I thought that I was done. I thought that that I was out. But they've really, they've turned a corner and you can start seeing them be, you know, a very sneaky team in the Eastern Conference. and I wouldn't, I'll say this, I wouldn't be shocked at this point if we looked up

and it's the Bucks and the Celtics and the Eastern Conference finals. And I feel like that is completely different than how I felt about three weeks ago a month ago when a lot of things felt like the sky were falling. And you see the building blocks that I think like Mo said, seeing Chris Middleton come back, I played it off all offseason

because I was like, this is, like obviously I know how how connective Chris is specifically for that team there's just no way he could be that important to everything that they do and nobody is in the in the limited minutes every time he's out there you're like oh so this is what you guys are like trying to do this is what the vision is and it's it's just wild how how singularly important he is to that team to what they do and to how their ceiling is it's it's really it's really crazy It is crazy until you think about it you need more than two guys who can dribble to be a good offense and they only have two and Chris is out and having three I said I think I said it's on a stream three is only one more than two but in terms of this specific thing it makes a lot bigger of a difference than you think just off of being one extra guy like it's 33% more of all handling that's a big difference yeah I agree and dame's not like a generational patch or whatsoever there's one of the most like mediocre parts of his game that you just like kind of gloss over and having a guy Chris Millerton who can just like

alleviate some of the frustrations that Dame is just born to face with when it comes to being the elite level score that he is. Chris Middleton is just the perfect guy to alleviate stress and just handle some responsibilities on that. This needy-ass cat was crying because I wasn't petting her. So she jumped on my lap just now and now she's demanding me pet her. Oh, adorable. Kutti patootie.

Well, yeah, the bucks are clearly on the up and up. I declared it after week two that I'm done with them. I'm done having to hoping them because I spent the last two years since they got a Damien-Lillard continuing to be disappointed because I've been the highest in the world in them and they've disappointed me.

I'm just not going to buy back into the hype. I should. I'll save a seat for you on the train. I'll save a seat. Yeah, no, I don't think they're bad, but in terms of like emotionally, I'm not letting them get me excited again because I've been burned too many times. Yeah, yeah, I'm not,

I can see a world where it is, where it happens. I'm not personally putting my money into that stop. emotional damage let's talk about another team that's emotionally damaging me night day night out the Los Angeles Lakers What is the most question

for the Lakers this year They're just a weird fucking team man There's been weeks where they look so bad That people were going doom and gloom Like their hair is done And there's been stretches like early in the season Where it's like Hey man they're kind of good

Maybe Djoreorex the guy They gotta make some moves The truth is when you're an inconsistent mediocre team You have ups and downs like that So every other week can come in, we can have a different opinion on them. So the biggest question is, what type of team do they want to be? What identity do they want to choose?

Because the first beginning part of the season in which they started off really strong, they were very offensive leaning. They were a top six offense for the first like 12 games of the year while being pretty bad defensively. It was like 25 or something like that. Then they have that rough stretch where the numbers got wonky because they just played really terribly. And then the last six games, they're 26th in offense now.

They're bottom of the barrel. It was 30th in offense for a couple games. but second in defense they have been locking people the fuck down since JJ Reddick decided he looked around this roster and he saw that his switch everything defense was going very poorly

because Rui Hachimura has the worst off-ball awareness I've ever seen from a wing of his stature and DeAngel Russell is not good at switching all these different things he realized he couldn't be hard-headed the type of team that he wanted to coach

wasn't the type of team he had he couldn't switch everything Anthony Davis spent too much time of three-point line so he wasn't there to bail out these terrible defenders at the rim. He decided to go to a different, more versatile defense. They're running a lot of drop coverage these days where the guards are fighting over the screens,

and Anthony Davis is playing a traditional center role and being able to beat the backline help and save these guys. And that's led to a good defense that's really been clamping the last six games. But like I said, they are a mediocre team. They will have ups and downs like this. So we're not buying the hype. We're not saying this team is elite defensively now. That would be foolish.

But they've clearly shown that this focus. they put to the defensive side has inversely hurt them offensively they're 26 in offense now so are they going to be this team now are they going to go on on defense and play this style and get back in transition defense so it hurts their transition offense and do all this stuff that prioritizes the defensive end are they going to try to find a middle ground are they going to go back to early season where they just run teams off the core offensively and they have to pick a strategy there and I'm assuming they're going to do something at the deadline they're going to make some kind of trade they have to keep in mind what role they want these players to have

on what type of team they want to be. And I think that they will be somewhere in the middle, depending on the day. That is, right? That is what the Lakers have been, you know, this season. Like, depending on the day, Penny, can we relax, please? Yeah, depending on the word out, dog. I know. Let her podcast.

Let her take stuff. She has nothing to say. She has nothing to say. Penny, you'll take that? Yeah, I just don't think that, like. Like, that the, the roster's flawed. Like, they're just, they're not, it's not a great team. And so, like, do I think that the Lakers can do this for six games, maybe two weeks?

Yeah, but guess what? In two weeks, we're going to come back here and we're going to be like, oh, yeah, like, you know, JJ, he's so, like, he's doing a really good job. He figured out how to maximize his defense. And then they're going to have lapses in defense because their defensive personnel is not good. And they'll try to revert back to their offense. and it's just going to be waves and it i'm i i agree with isaac's question i would just wait until the trade deadline to answer it and yeah exactly they have they have the next two months decide what their identity they want to do and make a trade for that if they want to be a better

three-point shooting team and lean offense go get cam johnson if you want to be go all in on defense maybe you get doing phiney smith maybe you find other pieces i'm not thinking of the top of my head right now maybe Jonas Valchunis Whatever may be The type of moves they make Are gonna be wholly dependent On which way they want to slant their team Yes

Yeah I agree on all ends bro Last six games You're right They've been playing A better defense I think the last six games They played like the Kings twice

And somewhere in that Like the Timberwells fall into that too And in all the years They've been brutalizing the Kings They've been running trains The Kings Yeah they scored like 90 They let Kings score like

Just about 100 points And the Timberwell scored like 97 points bro so they've been doing anything when it when it comes to what they're supposed to do against these and offenses it just depends on the weekend who they're facing overall you just have a mid product because you have a mid roster and that's because you have a midgium who's just paralyzed your organization similar to the golden state warriors and there's another we can do we're just waiting here until yeah but yeah yeah yeah yeah like natural of course of course but there is it's not it's not everything is like oh the team

sucks oh like there is you know they have team and players in front of them that are not horrible and these are coaching decisions that can change so i i'm it's not fully doom and gloom like teams just made it's going to be what it is like they can decide identity they want like they are clearly this can go different paths that's not all on rob link his shoulders jr ready can do some things i'm more i feel like he can do some things but there's only so much he can do with the things that he asked sure i'm not saying they're going to win a chip either way like like if okay so what's in front of them can they win the playoff With what's in front of them, with what's in front to you, like,

defensively, how does it look like this team could, like, thrive? I don't know. I think it as a good difference is. I'm not thinking as big picture with this question. You guys think about it, like, through can they win a chip? I'm not, this isn't a chip team. I'm not focusing on that. I'm just saying for what this team can be, they can pick an identity.

But either way, they're not getting to a chip. Okay. Gotcha. I'm trying not to make everything so big picture and all these moves. Like, some of these teams, we can just talk about who they are on the court and the lakers half be one of them because they're not doing shit in the big picture gotcha small picture wise i just hope they can get another useful wing who can help get them closer to whatever mid goal it is mid goal much is i have one more team uh before we get to

uh what we or at least before i enter my lightning round and i want to talk about the philadelphia 76es because they've had a very interesting week. They've had Joelle and B. ejected and, you know, crash out on the floor against the Spurs. They went into Boston, beat the Celtics on Christmas Day. Ooh, right? Listen, really, really big win.

Really, like, honestly, like a good win for them. And the fact that you can have all three of those guys in terms of them, B, Maxie, Paul George, out on the floor, go on the road, big spot, get a, get a dub. that's that's showing something and it it lays a foundation moving forward however my question for them is i i don't even want to talk about mbid health obviously that's the biggest question i don't i don't want to go there my thing is with paul george is paul george is paul george's gonna show up because paul george has not been fantastic yeah this season and right now he's their biggest

question for sure like you've seen you see what maxi can do alongside mbid when imbid is on. And you know that if Joel Embed is there, I trust Maxie to be out there taking big shots in crunch time situations, being able to get downhill, play off of Embed, be really good in a two-man game. If Joel Embed can be 75 to 80% of himself, which is probably what we're going to get in a playoff series, he can still go out there and get you 27 and 9. We'll see if he is there, but whatever. Paul George is the guy that they brought in to take them over the hump. Paul George's, is the guy who they said, we're getting rid of Tobias Harris and we are replacing him with Paul George, a guy who can create his own shot, a guy who can play off ball, a guy who can be a

very connected piece between our one and two stars. Right now, Paul George is shooting 40% from the field. He's having his worst three-point shooting season since his rookie year. He is not shooting well. He's not having, he's not being that guy. And if that is the version of Paul George, Max contract, Paul George, you are essentially getting Tobias Harris. And if that's the case, then your feeling is extremely limited. And I'm worried about the Sixers. If everything else is good, I'm worried about the Sixers because Paul George is not playing well. Yeah, I was watching this game. And I was my first thought, not first thought, but a random thought I had midway through the game, I was like, man, the Sixers role players are fucking boring. This cast isn't bad,

isn't great. It's just cookie cutter and vanilla. I was like, why is that? That's kind of, I was thinking like, man, we kind of had some hopes for this team. Their role players are kind of mid. I thought about it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I forgot. They have three star players.

And you can only do so much. And they've done a pretty good job of what they could do there. But I forgot, there's three max players here. And you forget that because Paul George either has been hurt or not producing this year. So you kind of forget that like, oh, yeah, he's a star player. Yeah. And other thought here in this game. Tyrese is the biggest

I've never seen a player be so starkly different when they're playing next to their star player or without. Without Joel Embed it's cool. You know,

he can carry your team and do what he can but he's inefficient because he's just asked to do too much but man, when he can play off with Joel and Bede

off that gravity he's a goddamn goon so you were 100% right if Joel and B's healthy he's going to be Joel and Bid he's still a good player but to see

if that health can be there consistently enough cross your fingers and Tari's Maxi is a goon when he's playing next to Jewel and Bede. And the role players are going to just be the role players. Everything comes down to Paul George.

He will swing them. Yeah, I agree. Cody Martin, I believe that's the one in Boston. Caleb. Yeah, that's the one in Philadelphia. He's going to do what he does. Gerasaun Yubeseli has actually been like really good considering he just was out of the league for like four or five years or whatever.

You know, Kyle Lowry is going to do all the nitty gritty. on the ground type things and whatnot. It's all on Paul George's shoulder. He's currently have the worst stretch of his like entire career. He's shooting like 29% in the field over the last four games. And he's averaging like 11 points. So this is like the worst that he'll be. At least I hope this is worse.

My only fear is I don't think it's so part of it's rust, part of it's getting used to to system yada yada, we'll give him some credit. He's getting no lift under the rim. Like he is not a threat driving to the rim very much at all. He does some veteran stuff, you know, with the elbows. on the drives and using contact to get some open layups and using his length a little bit

but he is really groundbound right now and the defense hasn't been terrible I've seen some fans pointing out the defense has been good cool and he's compensating for it he knows his shot isn't going in so he's trying hard there he needs to do that as a third star

but I don't know part of it might just be the age I don't know like the shot can go in more but he's not as athletic as he once was he's not getting lift and his finishing under the rim I don't know if we're really going to see a great version of Paul George this year

yeah he's 34 he's had multiple lower leg injuries in his career and sometimes when it goes it goes and it's okay and like he's he can still be we also saw this we kind of saw the writing on the wall last year where even when kawai is gone and he's in a bigger role and he's the you know the second star honestly the kind of like the first time because like james hardin wasn't being this version of james hardin he's not like you know dominating the offense this way so paul george was still in a position to where he could have been a very, very impactful offensive player. And we're watching last year and we're like, eh, like, you kind of see him diminishing a little bit.

And so it might just be the natural progression of an older NBA player who's gone through some stuff and now he's in a new system adjusting to everything. It's a lot of stuff coming to fruition at one time. And it's kind of like a cliff. And so, like, we'll see I, yeah, we'll see if Paul George can be there. So the question is, can he adapt to even smaller role, but if you're right, and it is just who he is?

And can Tyrese max, he be this much of a goon as he's been the past two games that he can, that it can be okay because your second star is just like the best secondary star in the fucking league, maybe. But if your, but if your third star is a max guy and... Yeah, stuff, it's not great. Yeah, like, for, and for all the reason that you said, the surrounding players are not, like,

They don't have a ceiling of, like maybe Caleb Martin, because he just does whatever. If Caleb Martin does what he does last night, what he did last night and he hits, you know, six, three, seven threes, whatever, that's cool. If you are saying, hey, I need Caleb Martin to shoot six or seven threes, you are now in Miami Heat Black Magic territory where you have to sum in whatever voodoo. And you're not supposed to do that because you paid this guy $212 million. They don't have a Derek White, you know. Not every team has a luxury of having elite role players. so you need your top guys to carry especially when you acquire those guys

like a Paul George, you get him to free agency. You're not going to have the luxury of helping this kind of team building strategy where you can be more widespread. It's okay with Paul George having old age and like all these injuries finally catching up to them. But if you're going to like

see, be past your prime to this extent like you still need to find ways to be hyperproductive. And we've seen that time and time again all players find their old man game we've seen it with lebron we've seen all types of players like tim duncan back in the day just figure out ways to just be productive offensively and not try to do all things that he did and just evolve his game paul george used to find that bag whatever it is whether it'd be like his shooting

because he's truly been a great shooter throughout his career this season he can't hit the rim at all hopefully he can hang his hat on that end but other than that they're absolutely fried and this is a joan and b depended team they're not fried paul george is fried paul george is fried And maybe their championship hopes or maybe fried if their third star isn't a star Exactly But I wouldn't say they're fried though Because if Juelan B... Okay, never say that

Maybe you're right because I don't You can't get too happy about Jueh and Bid health situation He's been back for two games It's been cool but you know That could quickly change If Juele and Bid on Tyrus Max You're healthy They're not fried

I think you still have a good chance Maybe you're fried in so far As you're not being the Celtics Which is what it's all about When you have three stars So I know that's your point So I don't want to say like it's crazy but they have a high floor

if they have Joellen Beat in Paul George I mean Joel and beat in Tyris Maxie If Jared McCain didn't get hurt Then we'll be talking about this team A little bit different because it's like okay Paul George you can't shoot can't do another shit It doesn't fucking matter Because we got this six one

TikTok star demon on the bench waiting I don't mind they're fried you got it They're right yeah Okay so moving on My next team's gonna be the Indiana Pacers I think the question is super simple Can Tyrese Halliburton get back to his old ways if you want to dive deeper than that, cool.

We can talk about the Bennett Mathrims of the world, or we can talk about how much of a difference maker Andrew Nebhardt has been, you know. But at the end of the day, no matter how good all these outlier pieces are, it starts, the conversation starts and stops with Tyrese Hallibur, and if he's ever able to reach a certain level of stardom. Like, I love what Andrew Nebhardt is doing since he came back.

He's filled in a lot of gaps. He's a great defensive player. he's the perfect piece alongside Tyrese Halliburton but like there's only so much that he can do he's not raising this team back to one of the four or five best teams in the Eastern Conference like that goes behind Tyrese Halliburton can we uh can we stop talking about the Pacers you don't like them go cool with that time you're go cool with that yeah I'm right we can we can we can we can have the conversation there I'm just kidding but I have no thoughts on the faces man there I just feel like every time we talk about them we beat the Tyrese Halliburton drum yeah and

And I'm sure fans of the Pacers are a little tired of that because there's more to the team. These national podcasts only want to talk about Hayden or Star, they don't talk about it, X, Y, and Z. I find them so interesting. I have no thoughts on them. They're just the Pacers. They're, honestly, they're the Hawks.

They're 15 and 15. They're going to stay 15 and 15. Are the equivalent of that for the rest of the year? They are just mid, and I don't necessarily think it's going to change. So I don't know what to ask. The only thing that can get them outside of mid is if, like, Ben and Mathrim just, like, explodes, which he has a slight chance to

because there's certain things in his game that give him a pathway to being a certain level of star player but outside of that like they are what they are you keep holding on to that Benedict Mathes and stock you bought

two and a half years ago I hope you strike gold I hope you strike gold nobody else has said the words Benedict Mathin and starred in the same sentence besides you in the past year but whoa whoa whoa whoa

Patriots fans do you hear that madness I don't think Patius fans are considering Benedict Mathis star anymore you don't speak for all Paceous fans, brother. I don't. Thank God.

Maybe a little comment and tell us we're crazy and that he's him but I don't know I just find them so boring. They're so boring. Who's someone

more exciting you want to talk about? The Sacramento Kings because... That's not even more exciting. It might be because you might be free. We might be freed

from Sacramento Kings basketball in a couple years in terms of this iteration of them. The past couple weeks I don't know if you've been paying attention if you guys are familiar with one Richard Paul

or one Sean Serania, but they've been talking about Deeran Fox and they've been talking about they've been throwing smoke in the air that there is a fire brewing that might be the Deeran Fox trade request this summer. That might be brewing pretty soon. They're putting it out there

that if they don't start winning and they don't produce results, he will start thinking about his future. They're soft launching a trade request if they don't make a deep playoff run. Unless they prove to him that they have something magical that they unlock

in the second half of the season I think we're going to be entering a Deeran Fox trade this summer that feels like nearly inevitable so what's the question for the Kings what can you do

in this next four months to convince Deer and Fox a stay? That is the question. They are a mediocre team that was mediocre last year they went out and acquired Demard Rosen

none of us liked it but we were we weren't in favor of the trade but we were polite about it because you recognize they didn't give up a ton and we recognize that DeMar is a good player that we don't want to slander necessarily

but we all politely said fit don't make sense it just doesn't at all and that's what it was we were like they essentially upgraded Harrison Barnes so I don't think they'll be worse you know you can't really get worse than that they didn't give up a ton they've been worse

if it has not made sense the DeMarter Rosen experience has made them worse I think we can say that all the reasons that we said it doesn't work it's been a detractor not neutral they can't they're not going to trade them right so they're demar dearen it's a bonus kegan murray that's set are do you want to give up assets to make this team better and try to convince de erin to stay if you already have an idea that he's willing to leave maybe not so that makes

it difficult to convince him if you're not going to give up assets in case he still wants to leave it's a difficult question i don't know if it has a good answer but the question is how can you convince him to stay i'm not sure and earlier you had said like when we were talking about the pistons we were like yeah certain teams would have been like yeah like maybe maybe we shouldn't think because we might turn into the pistons it's kind of the same thing for the kings like maybe maybe you don't want to take because you could be the kings up until like two years ago the kings had the longest playoff drought in the entire league they have been in a position where they've been so

inept of any type of talent or success that I'm not sure if it's wise for them to be so willing slash so accommodating to a trade request. And now it is Demona Sabonis and Friends. Because that right there will get you into the top 10 of the lottery. Like hands, hands down. If you have subonis and nothing else, you are going to be one of the 10 worst teams in the NBA. But I also think that like it sucks to say

and you want to please your fans, got to do what you got to do. Because this team isn't, They haven't taken any steps forward. You've bet on continuity before. It hasn't worked. You've bet on Deeran and Sabonis and this core. They couldn't beat the Warriors in a first round series a couple years ago.

Like it's not great. And I don't have a lot of faith in them. I don't have a lot of trust. You might just have to tear it all down and start again, which is not what Kings fans want to hear because you just got good. Like you just got competent and I'm sorry. But you got to start over. Yeah. And even then, it's tricky to like want to start over because Atlanta holds semi rights to their picks this year or possibly next year if it doesn't convey, probably won't convey this year. So they owe Sacramento owes Atlanta their pick if it lands in return anywhere between 1 to 10 in the year 2026. And they're just like kind of strapped into you have to be somewhat good. You can't be complete trash because you're going to be trash for no reason.

2026. They have all their own picks. I'm not worried about that. But it sucks to see the timing of things right now because it's like, okay, if you can hold on to DeN. Foxerson for just another year, cool, I'll love that. But do they have enough moves to in them to go ahead and do so? Yes, those moves are draft picks because they have every single one of them outside of this year or whatever next year, since they're held under, held by Atlanta for a little bit. Do you want to gamble that? Do you want to risk your future away and invest more into this weird, funky core of De Mardos and DeMontasabonis? I don't know. Yeah, it's a tough spot. Dearen Fox has given them plenty of time. They've done absolutely nothing to put him in a position to

succeed. And he is a player of a certain caliber. Rep by clutch, they understand the power of his stardom and what he can be in the right situation. They understand that if he's playing next show, Victor Weniamma, or if he was playing in a big market, he can be a true superstar and he can have that sort of notoriety that gets you paid big and makes you a really, really high-level player and that's respected in all facets of media, he can be that. And he's kind of just waiting around, hoping, giving them a chance to put him in that spot, but they've proven they can't. And they've made their swings on Subonis Forum, then DeRosen Forum. It's gone into the same exact place. They're realistically out of options. There's no way for them to convince him

this day. It's so funny that they finally found our identity and then ran the complete opposite way from that and decided to like stagnate. Okay, we stagnated. We believed in a certain young player to be the third option or not. Not necessarily that. Kind of put too much onto his shoulders. Now let's go ahead and get another absolute bucket getter who doesn't fit our identity and just run even further away from what made us popping into the NBA scene just a few years ago and make a lot of noise. Yeah, they self-sabotage like hell, though. Yeah, and we'll see if they can fix it, get out of it, but it's a really terrible spot to be in as a small market team.

I'll say that. I agree. But it is they can trade to Rosen. I mean, they could trade Fox. They can trade some bonus. They can get a good amount of picks of those two players that they end up having to do that. So it could be a decent opportunity to get into rebuild. You'd rather have two stars to trade than one that could leave for, like Darren can't leave for nothing.

So if you're going to have to do a rebuild, having two all stars to trade is a decent place to start it from. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And now it is time for the lightning round. All the teams that we didn't have that much to say about, we're going to loop them together. Not that they're not relevant, but it's just there's no, there's no, we can't narrow it down to one question very well. So we're going to kind of loop them together.

Donovan, you go first. Who's in your lightning round? I feel like the king of the lightning round, the Chicago Bulls. And my question, my question for them is, do you have anything for the fans to be excited about? Can't be insane. Look, because she's on my chair. She's been running around I'm so scared

She's to knock shit over She's jumping through All these cords and stuff She's going to jump And it's going to look crazy She's a queen at a jungle I love it She is

She's insane But yeah Like for the Bulls Do you have anything For your fans To be excited about I feel like constantly The fan base

Of this team Is always like What are we doing Why are we here Why are we here And even now When you thought that Like

Okay Derozen being gone We're maybe in The direction of a tank they are exactly where they want to be in the front office the nine seat the 13 and 17 i just don't know how i can feel any type of good about this team moving forward and i would if i was a fan of this team can you give me one thing in the off season but if it's a consolidation trade a draft pick new jerseys a promotion of like free chicken or something like at the end of games if somebody misses fritos can you give me something that i can give back to the community

make yourself useful bulls yes You know what? That's too much talk for a lightning round. No more yet, but the Bulls. Who's next? One thing that I always say that is super cool about the Bulls. So anyways, modest Boozell is his nickname. They call that man Lil Boozy Vert.

That's shit, hard as hell. That's cool. That's cool. Anyways. Next on my lightning round. Yeah. Next on my lightning round, the Portland Trailblazers. Internally or externally, you have to make a decision about Scoot Henderson.

That is. What's a decision? that is it they can't get rid of him he's just gonna be a backup player and just hope you can have a role

what decision is there to make do you have to make a decision I don't know I don't know what it is I don't know if he has to listen I don't know if he has to go I don't know if you want him to stay you want him to die

what do you mean by that make a decision cloaks you have to you have to make you have to make you have to make a truth he's listen he's two years in we've seen front offices before trick themselves

in the players two years in they just have to decide do you actually believe in this guy like 100% if you do i listen i don't believe in him like that but if you do then okay let's start making moves to build around school if not that is that is the decision and then the last team that i have in my lightning round is the washington wizards and i just want to know alex r what are you going to work on in the off season because alex rar offensively he does not get to the rim a lot he shoots a lot of threes but he does not shoot it at a very high percentage so are you going to work on getting to the rim more, right, getting shots closer,

or are you going to work on the shot that you take a very, you know, high percentage of your shots come from, but you don't hit at a high clip. I want to know what the growth in his offensive game is going to be. That is my big question for them. Okay. What a lightning round. I have three teams in my lightning round. First off the pelicans who, what is their big question?

Their team is destroyed by injuries. The question is, who are they going to trade? We've talked about it at length. Apparently Zion is available. We know McGrims available. We know McCorms available. Maybe they make a move. Maybe they don't.

All we can do is wait and see because their season is lost. I have the Cleveland Cavaliers who are so good that they don't really have a big question. They've answered it. Their core is their core. They're going to stay together for the foreseeable future. My question is, do you feel like you need one more big wing? Do you try to make a small move? Maybe try to trade Karrislavert, who is having a very good season.

Maybe you can sell high and get somebody that, you know, better defender for a long time. maybe you try to reshuffle a piece where you feel like maybe you don't feel super good about Dean Wade and Nacoro I think you probably should they're pretty good but maybe you have one small move you want to make and the Grizzlies same thing do you feel like you need one more small move a consolidation trade do you need a Cam Johnson

do you need adoring Finney Smith whoever may be you're pretty goddamn good you have a unique play style that's very good in the regular season maybe you feel like you need a little firepower for it to translate to the playoffs I love it speaking of pretty damn good here's my lightning round The Oklahoma City Thunder, they are one of the best defenses that we've seen over the last, like, five years.

They are the number one seed, meanwhile, missing one of their two, three best players. Have you viewed Chathamongham? They're struggling shooting. To harm will fix that as soon as he gets there, but regardless of the fact, they're still runaway number one seat in the Western Conference. Not much to say over there. Also, reigning NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, elite team. they've consistently had minor tic-tac injuries to their guys. We all know the Western, the Eastern Conference has been a lot better this year compared

to last year. We have real contenders, we're real stepers now in the New York Knicks. Milwaukee books are better and whatnot. The Cleveland Cavaliers looks like the best version of themselves. What will the Celtics do to, what's wrong with your cat? What's going on? She's being sane. She's sprinting back and forth across.

Go ahead. I need to see this visually actually one day, bro. It's hilarious. But yeah, the Boston Celtics, they're going to face tougher competition. Will Prozingus be there at the start of the postseason to help alleviate the pains? Who knows? It doesn't matter because I think they might win it all just again this season. Dallas Mavericks. They again went to the NBA finals last year, but as a late, it seems like Luca Donchis has like real health issues and the season is just entirely

contingent on him. I have nothing to say about the roster. Derek Laidly starts out cool beans. They're an elite team already. Just contingent on Luca Donchis in his health right now. And the last team that I have for my lightning round is the San Antonio. Antonio Spurs, we've seen Wemby fully, like, we're watching him ascend right into our eyes into, we all agreed he's a top 10 player. I think last night. Spurs in a lightning round. Yeah, we can, we can talk about them right now. We don't, they're one of my last four teams. Um, yeah, like, we're witnessing Wembe, Wembe assembled right now in front of our eyes last podcast. We all agreed that are they top 10 player last night. You said that last night you said that you feel like he's like a top six, seven player on your. You know, you feel like he's like a top six, seven player on your. Twitter. And I can't sit down and argue with you much when it comes to that claim whatsoever because he's doing it offensively, defensively. He's the defensively. He's the defensive player of the year, even though the Spurs haven't been elite this year. He's just that impactful, single-handedly. In my mind, when I think about the Spurs, I'm just looking at the other guys.

Yeah, the question is obviously, okay, so I'll respond to what you just said. We ranked him at 10 last week in our prior rankings. That was way too low. He went absolutely berserk on Christmas. He is a top Okay, top five players in the world Yokic, Yonis, Luca, Tatum, Shea and whatever order you want, those the clear cut top tier. As soon as you exit that tier,

you have Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards. He's better than Anthony Edwards. I'm so confident in saying that now. He's better than Anthony. Victor Woman Yama is in that tier. In that game. Maybe you put him in the back half

right now because of Prove it still. He's in that tier. He's not number 10. He is, can be. is high as six maybe seven or eight whatever whatever you want the the new combo for me is is he better than nancy davis right now he's close i'm still go ad by a hair but he has entered those talks and we think back to the last player who's entered these talks at this age is luca donchich who was first team all NBA in his second year what did they do they weren't able to keep rebuilding

they had to enter win now mode the next summer they traded for kristops for zingis the big question for the spurs is are you going to remain patient are you going to be The Thunder, where you have Shea playing like an All-Star for like three years, and you tell them, fucking deal with it, we're going to keep drafting. Don't get too excited. Or are you going to be the Mavs? Are you going to say, we're too good. We've got to make a win-and-out trade.

He makes it so we can't tank, so we might as well make it so we can be competitive around this young star. That is a big question because they have future picks. They traded Rob Dillingham for 2031 Timberwell's pick. That's essentially a trade asset. That's why they did that. They have all their other picks. They have some Atlanta Hawks assets.

They have young players. they can enter the mix if any single star player that comes available the spurs how the ammo to go and get them the cap space the salary

the draft picks whatever matters they can make it happen do they want that to happen do they feel like they have young players that are worth keeping around if that happens

is Vesel set in stone or can you trade them for a deer in fox Castle's shown he's still an inefficient rookie do you feel like he's your point guard of the future

I don't know Sohan's been defending well is he your power forward to the future your one big you want to put next to Wemby I don't know, a lot in the air but they have to pick a path

because they're put in a specific situation that only the Mavs have been in recent years. And that is why to me they're not interesting because it's so clear. It's so very clear because the MAPs, because go get somebody. Like stop, stop waiting.

The Mavs did it. It didn't hit, right? But you saw what happened. Like after they traded away Chris Hops, Prozingis, and they were trying to, you know, tell Luca like, okay, like, be patient. Before they went and got Kyrie, there was already the rumblings to smoke of like, oh, Luca's unhappy. It's not going down the right way.

Like, is he going to, you know, move in a certain way? Are we eventually moving towards a Luca trade? We've already seen Wembe is insanely competitive. Webby's not going to sit around here and be like, yeah, I'm, I'm okay with just not being competitive for three years. No, you go get somebody right now. and it's just like for me it's so very obvious and so like I guess like I'm but you say that but you see why I thought too I can I can I can no I can understand why somebody would be like

kind of conflicted but then I would tell them let's let's let's just think about it for like 30 seconds and then you can be a smart individual and then say yes let's go get somebody to be to be alongside the first team second team all NBA player who's 20 years old he is getting Deere and Fox isn't going to make it good you had there is a question of when to do it he obviously eventually

he's a star he is 20 getting you go ahead you get your 20 years old he's he's 20 years old and we are talking about him like he is the eighth best player in the world he just had nearly 40 and 20

in Madison Square Garden on Christmas day. If he is the biggest star, superstar that you can see right now as clear. And if the Timberwolves can go and identify themselves with Anthony Edwards and be like, okay, yeah, we're going to go make a trade for Rudy Gabbard. I'm not saying you have to go out and get the biggest star in the world, but you have to go get somebody. You have to make a trade to bring somebody in to help Victor right now. Okay, you got to relax a little bit though. It matters when you do it. This team is competent now and is good not be people i think people see that and they assume the roster around him is like making strides they have these adults in the room all the stuff they're good

no i think the roster still kind of sucks wendy's just amazing so he's carrying them the roster would still suck if you got de aaron fox in exchange for vassel filler and picks whatever whatever would be you still wouldn't be a good team so you don't have to do that like right now you know you don't you don't got to rush into it you can give it time maybe get one more draft pick because they might still not be in like they could very well be the 11th pick and end up being in the lottery still like I mean 11 seed you don't got to rush into it and be like now's the time you're gonna wrong like they have such a runway ahead of them they can be a little patient I think that makes a little more complicated than you're giving a credit for it like it you have to

handle with care because last thing you want to do was jump the gun too fast and go all in on a core that doesn't deserve it yeah and that that's like the completely opposite of what the san Antonio spurs are and have been known to be over the last like 24 25 years they almost never jump the gun they don't do anything too crazy all the moves that you do make is in the NBA draft on a consistent basis is what we see they move back then forward whatever you know we just saw this past draft with Rob Dillingham they selected him didn't want him trade it back for a future pick I think though what history tells me that they'll probably remain patient and traditionally this is what they do now they do have a very untraditional player on their roster some

who breaks every he defies like what basketball is and what should be and what a player limitations should be, especially at this size. So do I think they should make a move? Yeah, probably, but is feasible right now? Do you need to rush into it? I don't know. I don't think so. I think you need to, what you really need to do is just identify more young guys

gather up more information when it comes to what does the perfect team alongside Victor Mbonyama look like, and can you maximize that with certain young guys that you have and so on? And I'm looking at Devon, especially because you paid him a fat ass bag and he hasn't his utilization his usage rate has like dropped tremendously

obviously because Chris Paul is there and he's aligning things a certain way so I'm looking at some like them so mainly and I'm just like can you be a part of my future long term he's like it's important that when you it's important that when you get those players that you can contend that you have a supporting cast built out already of young players that can remain cost controlled if you reach it jump into it too fast then you are where the Mavs are where they have these two guys and a bunch of nothing and it didn't work part of it was because of Prisengis, the star they picked didn't mesh well with Luca.

But they also weren't in the best position for the mess well because they didn't have a young core around those guys. So it behooves you to remain patient if you're in a position where you can, and that makes sense. If Victor is the guy that we all think that he is, you should start building out that core right now. And so, and so like, and that's what I'm saying.

We're like, I'm not saying trade every asset that you have for the next 10 years to go and, like, get two superstars right now to do it. But a Deerrin Fox type player, you should have his running mate and another guy. They should be able to play together for a year or two before we start making like this, like the run and enter into the, you know, quote unquote prime. Like I don't like, yeah, what I'm saying like, oh, go go make a move. I'm not saying go make a move so that you feel like you are the championship favorite next season.

But you do need to be able to build chemistry between Victor and whoever his running mate is and you should be able to go out and get that guy as soon as possible. And so if you think that like you, I would rather go get a more proven piece than be patient and wait in the draft and see if I can draft his running mate for the next two years because I believe in Castle. I believe Castle is going to be really good. If you have him and if you have Castle and you have Vic and you can go out and get a guy like D.R. Fox, just for the sake of names, Trey Young, whatever, right?

like that that type of a player that is that is the way that you want where you can start building your coin they have two years to play together whatever and now in you know by the time vic is two years older his body's morphed out he's learned some more all that stuff oh it's ready to go we're going to have this dynasty ready that that's that's what i mean yeah but you're not get dynasty you're not getting a dynasty unless you draft four or five really good role players that sustain that and if you do that drade now and get a daren fox tomorrow let's say de jaren and Fox requests straight today you get him tomorrow your pick this year is not going to be a top 10 pick is you know the next year won't be top 10 pick like you have to have a long-term view

of how you sustain that because you'll use the word dynasty you want to build an ability to make it that with around when you got like Vic you don't want to enter a window that's immediate where you have dear and Fox who's a good player very good player could he be the second star in championship team of Vic maybe is he clear cut good enough to be the second star it's not a no-brainer you know like he's a it could be with the right guy but he's not like you're not going out and getting Devin Booker. You know, it's a little bit different. And if you have Deer and Fox, you have Wembe, you're sending Vassell out,

then you just have Castle Sohan and a bunch of second round picks. That's not a sustained excellence core. Like you might, if you can get one more top ten pick and then Fox, like it makes sense to wait a little bit. On paper, yes, I can see where you're coming from. But again, when you have the future goat of the sport on your team right now, like there's just some things that you have to go do and Vic is that. like it's it's so like like most said you don't want to see him wasted anymore like like

most said he breaks every rule of what you think team building is and he is the guy like it's no and i i'm with you i don't want to see him wasted here and i get why it's exciting to be like go out and get him this player but from their position yeah you don't want you don't want to shoot your low too fast wow what analogy let's go a tick to word choice that's a very common phrase come on let's go to tic type i agree I agree with you. I'd rather save my asses and, like, keep all the old, keep all my asses in the back end. That way you have unlimited versatility and flexibility with your future.

Do the natural mishaps that happen through an NBA player's career and team buildings like timeline. So I'd rather just hold your horses. Let Vector do his thing. Figure out and figure out his game fully. Wait till he's like 23, 24, whatever. If guys don't bust at that point in time and they've just been like missing consistently. Then at that point in time, sure, go ahead and make a trade for whatever player it is. But at this time, at this point in time, like, there's no, no need to rush and shoot your load.

Save it. Hey, man. Don't shoot your load. That's the message of today's episode. Keep your load. Exactly. Man, if you have Wemby on your team, fire away. He said, you got Wemby, bust.

You said unload that goddamn clip, let it out. With that being said, that's every team in the NBA. We give every single person one question we're looking at for 2025. Yeah, man, on to TikTok time. Tinkle time, Donovan. Don't run to the bathroom. I know you want to. No, don't stop.

Don't make me expose these texts that you send before, before it. Let's go to TikTok time. Welcome back to TikTok time. Woo. Fireworks, light the sky. Today, we're not going to start with the draft. I'm taking a week off of those. So I'm not going to say those words like usual.

What we're going to start with today is, let's talk about alter egos. You know, I feel like the NBA has a lot of characters. Obviously, you know, it's a star-driven league. And there's a lot of common versions of players that we talk about. And, yeah, we'll call them alter egos. It's type of players when they have certain accessories,

certain times of the year, et cetera. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to show you an NBA player's alternate ego and you're going to rate it from 1 to 10 just based on how iconic it is. All right. Sounds good. Take me back into my childhood.

Yeah, maybe we'll get a little nostalgic with this. We'll see. So first of all, you guys will see what I mean. First of all, masked LeBron. Listen, this is 10 out of 10. This is 10 out of 10. Only because he wore this and got extra powers, right? He scored, he got a career high in the mask.

Like, I just don't know how you can, put this mask on, have the greatest game you've ever played scoring wise, and, you know, that not be a 10 out of 10. So shout out to Brown, man. Of course, it's a 10 other 10. You have no idea how many souls, how many dreams and beliefs that this man crushed. This was, he was evil back then. He was so evil back then. He's a villain, Ron. Yeah. Yeah. It added to the mystique of LeBron James. They were marketing him as a villain. And really, it's the black mask with the black jersey. That combination was just crazy.

The aura was ridiculous. I don't understand. People used to only wear clear masks. And then LeBron came out and they're like, yo, he got this carbon fiber mask. And I was like, I want to break my face. Like, I want a mask like that. Like, that's crazy. Y'all don't understand.

When carbon fiber hit the streets, everybody lost their mind. Nobody knew what to do in the NBA. This is a moment in history. That's a different type of aura right there. I want to break my face. That's crazy, bro. Different type of war. I would like reconstructive nose surgery, please.

He was banging my head against the doorframe, just trying to be like a brown. I would be like Braun. We're going 10 out of 10. It's iconic. Yeah. Next up, untucked Kyrie. Back in 2016, 2017, as soon as he got serious,

he pulled that jersey out, he went nuts. You already know. It's 10 out of 10. If that jersey is a little bit more baggier, bro, you already know the bag work is going to be insane and you're in the grit and grind era with like last three, four minutes of a quarter but when he's going to hit you

the nastiest combination moves. Was a jersey on tuck? Was the jersey on tuck when he hit the shot? Probably. I think so. It might have been. He drilled into Steph's eye in the biggest stage ever with the jersey on tug.

That alone makes it then. He's lucky he never played against Chris Paul because CB would have pointed out this should be a technical foul and this should not be on. I'm just saying, I'm just saying you would say, in the rules, right?

Hall monitor. I'm just telling you, according to the NBA law. Excuse me, sir. His jerseys on tucks. Paragraph five, paragraph five subsection C, you are not allowed

to have untug jerseys. But Kyrie, listen, if you are crossing anybody up like this, you can do whatever you want. I don't care. I won't call it. Kyrie would have picked him up, put him over the trash can,

put him in a stuff him in a locker. Yeah. Shut up, nerd. I won't do it. I won't, I won't snitch. Another 10 out of 10. That's easy. Game six, Clay.

Man, nostalgia's really winning here. This is 10 out of 10. Is this a 10, though? Because he had that one game 6 where he got the nickname. You know, later on in his career, people were trying to force it. They were like, listen,

they're forced to do at Game 6. You know what Clay's going to do? And then he's like, two for 12. No, but he did it multiple times. He's had at least because he had the original Game 6 against OKC. I think he had a game six against

against Houston. He had, I know he did it multiple times to get the nickname. I know he did at least twice, but I don't remember. I just remember in the later half people kept trying to force it and they never lived up to it. Well, you know what happened. He went, he went Game 6, Clay, was going so stupid, tore his ACL against the rapist. He was forcing, he was forcing that series into a, into a game. Or did he forcing, yeah, he was forcing that into a game seven, and he tore his ACL that game.

He died for that nickname, bro. Yeah, he sacrificed his fucking prime because he wanted. it goes so stupid in a game six this is a 10 I'm not going to lie he left it all in the line for game six clay Claire my mind yeah three tens in a row we deserve it he deserves it he deserves it

you're shown us the best era basketball man I almost doubted you clay I'm sorry I almost forgot the lore of game six play that that's all me I almost fucked up look it out put his goatee on sharpened it up he's ready to go has I forgot the razor next up

Emo Jimmy Man This is like a five A five Yeah he didn't He didn't dress like this for a game We didn't see him in actual game like this at all This was just for

Shits and giggles This is just to mess up ESPN graphics And 2K graphics and shit like that If he did this in a game I'll be elite And nevertheless Oh I can't talk And nevertheless

I've never forgotten about it And I don't think I ever will It's etched to my brain forever To me that's iconic Like, this is one of the best troll jobs I've seen. Yeah, we have rarely seen people troll ESPN trolling them on the, on the graphic picture. See, that's just next level devious. And that really shows who Jimmy Butler is as a person.

So I'm giving it at least like an eight. Really? Yeah, I go seven, rate. I respect commitment to the bit. And Jimmy Butler knows that better than most people. Man, if he was really committed to the bit, he would wear this for at least like two, three games to start out the season, bro. He can't sweat out that hair? He can't sweat the hair out?

Yeah, he can't. He can't. He can put it in a bun or something like that. Is this a... Is this a white teenager cultural appropriation, though? Ooh. What if he's just a fan?

What if he's... What if he's... Sure, born, hot topic, kid? Yeah. This is him behind those doors? All right, maybe, maybe it's who he was. Who knows? Who's to say?

This is the road. Next up. It's the real me, Mom. Olympic mellow. Come on. Get it all. Come on. Come on.

It's a 15. Whip it out. It's a 15. You know what it is. There's only one through 10, man. What the hell? Olympic mellow. Olympic mellow is one of the reasons that one, he said an Olympic record was dominated in the, in the Olympics in London.

Against who? Huh? No, no, no. Again, too. Listen. I left it out for a reason. I wasn't trying to say it like that. But them Nigerians had no idea what he was three to the dome all day, all right?

Understand that. Two, Olympic mellow is the only reason why people thought that Carmelo could play offball in the NBA. They were like, well, he's done it with other stars before. Let's bring him in. As soon as you meet that three point line up and those long bids become threes, I was killing. Oh, there's more than unstoppable, bro. Then buckets became bilingual.

You could do it to anyone in any type of infrastructure, bro. Multinational buggy. Exactly. Exactly. Listen, it's the best version of mellow. It's iconic. I guess it's another 10. One of the best moments of his career, bro.

It's either Olympic mellow or hoodie mellow. Yeah, I couldn't decide which one to include, but win Olympic. Okay. Next one, I really wish you would imagine if he was allowed to wear a hoodie during a game. that would have been next level. NBA would never allow that. David Stern for sure wouldn't. His passing vision would be absolutely fried too.

Passing vision, okay. Next one. Trade request harden. Relax. Trade request harden. This man was beefed up, carved up. I mean, it was a refee day, bro.

What do you mean? Exactly. He was just a little bloated. That's it. Anytime this guy wanted to move. move. He wanted to package in a U-Haul and leave a town. You put on the fat suit. He made that shit happen. He got what he wanted every time. This is nothing if not effective. Yeah, in my mind, it looks like a blueprint. He sounds like a trailblazer to me. You get what you want every time.

You know what to do. If you go diva enough, you will get what you want. Yeah, I have to give this the same way that we gave Jimmy Butler an eight just off a pure commitment to the bit. He did this in multiple places. Every time he wanted to go, he's like, yeah. It's time to get big. Time to get big. He did it in multiple places, but he did it to Daryl Mory twice. Oh, yeah. Twice he was like, trade me now, bitch.

And he got what he wanted. Overse. Too. Tradebrook has hardin is a different animal and the same beast. Darry is a liar. It's the perfect way to put it. Next one. We got wheelchair Paul Pierce.

I relate to Paul Pearson. moment, bro. Sometimes when you got to go, you got to go. You do if you shouldn't. Exactly. In the moment, in the moment, this is actually a 10 out of 10 because he came out of the wheelchair, came out of the tunnel, knocked down two threes back to back, right? He was, apparently this was like a level up for him. He just needed a breather. You can wipe that butt. Exactly. Looking back on it, no, this is like a zero out of 10. His whole legacy, or not his whole, but a lot of Paul Pierce's legacy has been reduced to bowel movement. And for a player of his stature, you just can't have that.

Why? He's representing something that's so under-talked about not only in the NBA community, but just humans, bro. He's putting off for IBS. Exactly. This is representation, honestly. Exactly. For people like me and Paul, Paul Pierce, I appreciate you. I'm going to come out with having IBS on this country.

I'm going through. kidding he wasn't kidding next one we got laughing kawai oh this is so good this is so good i have to go 10 out of 10 i have to go 10 to this day i still just randomly just be like i'm a fun guy you know you're laughing like him how you do it can i do it can't do it There you go I'll take that for a moment I don't know if I can do it Let me hear

Uh Uh Uh Ha ha ha ha ha Yeah It's like his spleen is hurting When was laughing Yeah

Like you got the wind knocked out of him Oh shit Yeah He's trying to stay He's trying to stay chill He should lock in But he really The whole time

It's chest hurts Yeah Yeah This is This is This kind of This kind of This kind of

I enjoy people to see him a little bit. I mean, shit. Yeah, you're right. This started like, we saw his personality the most in this. This right here started his personality and like the market form exploded because you want a championship at all. This is a new era. Why?

I think I'm going to call it. I'm going to give this to 10. Everything's a 10. Sorry, man. I'm good alter egos. I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay.

I'm with it. Next one. Bubble AD. I'm sorry. This is all. Also a 10. Really? It's rate in 10s today.

The story, listen, the bedtime stories that my children were here about bubble Anthony Davis. Different. Different. Do you understand the amount of middies that he was hitting? He's jumping. They ran a play for Andy Davis to get a catch and shoot three to win the game in the playoffs. And it worked. That's how stupid he was going.

Anthony Davis in the bubble was special. And it's special because we've never seen it again. We've never seen Andy Davis be that complete of a basketball player And it was just gone in an instant Dude, we're gonna look back in like 20 years Nicole Iokic is gonna be like a top five player of all time or something crazy And AD is gonna be like yeah I saw him in the bubble one-on-one no crowd man v man

Whooped his ass beat his ass want a chip did it in front of Mickey Mouse It's gonna be iconic I don't like the I don't like bubble AD though Because it almost feels like diminishing to him and that championship he won the bubble nobody else did i think that's a 10 he went to a level that he's never he locked in like he's never locked in before i think that's commendable nobody else in NBA history has locked in the bubble like he locked it in the bubble and nobody else ever will exactly unless the bubble comes back and until the bird flu comes for us until the next bubble is it Nah, no, that.

No, right, no, no. He's like, I'll PR, PR, PR. Rigo Bears are going to find it with. Next one. We got gang sign John Wall. John Wall from the 919? That John Wall? That's the one.

He hasn't made that many appearances. He's like, what do I say? Yeah. He's like, I'm not trying to encourage it, but like, it's kind of cool, but like, don't be affiliated. I'm not sure. He had me throwing up signs. I didn't know what the fuck meant, but it was kind of cool. I was throwing up in the mirror every day before school.

You guys don't understand the order that he had back then. I'm going to give it a five, though. I do not. I was in middle school. I remember this happened. I remember seeing a white kid be outside. It started to act like egg sign John Wall. It's like, big bees, bitch.

And I was like, what? Oh, this goes crazy. Yeah. I'm going to give this a five. Not the greatest influence, but... I'm not a role model. Exactly. Exactly.

Okay, that's the other than you guys. I want to see what you'd say to that, and you shriveled up. Next thing we're going to do, a tier list of sorts. You know, we've done today's before. The LeBron James is best.

teammates of step Curry's best teammates so we're going to do a cheer list right now of maybe someone who has the greatest teammates in NBA history we're going to put all of Kevin Durant's greatest teammates into a tier list. And this is we're putting the cheerlist of like them when they were KD's teammate right?

Yeah as KD's teammates you know like how good at the not necessarily just how great the player is is how great of a KD teammate are they gotcha. Yeah okay that's different obviously these guys are all amazing players they're all deserve high but different types of resumes next to Kevin Durant. It varies a little bit.

So, first off, start with the most iconic one. Russell Westbrook. S-S-S-Tere. S-S-Tere. S-S-Tor. S-S-Tor? Is that he said? Yes, it's S-Tier. Oh, I thought you said S.S. Like, you're making a new tier.

No, no, no, no. But no, yeah, I mean, he's S-tier. But then again, there's people on here who were superstars and want chips next to him. Does the fact that he didn't get a chip, make him go A? Come on. It can only be S-tier because of how iconic it is and how, like, explosive that duo was. I don't know if it could be S-tier because he didn't win with him. There's one superstar who won a chip with Kevin Durant.

And so, like, yes, he obviously gets S. The Russ and KD went to, they went to a finals together. They went to multiple conference finals together. KD won MVP. They were two of the top five players in the world at the same. time like as teammates it's not their fault andre robeson couldn't shoot you know like they were doing their job okay i just i'm just open the doors answer asking the questions but russ can be esther there's nothing crazy yeah i'm never gonna i'm never gonna be one to put down russell we can put

them here you've done several times step curry obviously s tier honestly it's in the conversation for the greatest duo of all time you look at across league history you look across league history M.J. Pippen, Shaq Kobe, Katie, Steph. Okay, yeah, I'm with that. Makes me think maybe we reserve S2 for Steph only because he is like that level of duo. And here you are putting down Russell. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not putting down

Russ. I mean, you literally are, you're putting him down into a different team. I know, Curry, listen, Curry is a superstar and a champion next to him. Russ is just one. That sounds like a different tier to me. These are all great players. we have to have some separation. Y'all just want to hate all rights.

No, hell no, I'm not hating on rest. I'm just like. They've been trying to break these two up since 2014. And Kevin Durant looked over in his MVP speech and said, don't think I forgot about you. Don't think. And then two years later, he forgot about him. And he left him.

He didn't forget about him. First of all. He didn't forget. You're right. Exactly. He didn't forget it at all. He consciously knew I'm leaving this guy. It wasn't forgotten.

He was a clear choice. And he left him. Was he leaving him? Or was he leaving him? Oh, was he leaving Kendrick, Perkins. Russell Westbrook, welcome to A.T. And Kerr, you're a loving next.

Y'all hate so much on the Brody. We love Russell Westbrook. You don't love him on my team right now, actually, bro. I love him. You don't love Brody. James Hardin. Team was named twice. First time, six man.

Second time, they were the best team in the NBA for seven games. All three stars play together. You know, seven games are good enough to put them in B, bro. I kind of want to go A, though, just because James Hardin, kind of died for Kevin Durant. Had his hamstring off the bone and still tried to play in a game seven and still... He ruined his prime.

Exactly. He sacrificed everything for Kevin Durant. He did. You kind of got to give him credit. And they would have won a chip if they said healthy in 2021. Yes. If one of them, because remember,

Kyrie was already hurt, even if it was just a healthy James Hardin and a healthy Kevin Durant, they beat the bucks. Like, that's one of the few reasons why the bucks were able to come back is because Kyrie got hurt and James got hurt Let's go out. Fuck it.

Put that one went to 2021. I'm cool at A. A tier it is. Put him right next to James Hardin. I mean, put him right next to Russell Westbrook. Okay. Where are you going to go with Devin Booker? The newest duo.

S is out the question. A is out the question. Might be B or C. I think it's C. I think it's he. They haven't done shit together yet. Yeah. They got swept.

They got swept. And then what happened before that? Oh, shit. Yeah, in the second round. They lost the nuggets in the second round. They played good. They lost. They got just mollywop by the Timber Wolves.

Now it's inconsistent this year. That's a C tier to me. They have a little up to hype at all. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go see. That's fair. Yeah, listen, we got to separate it. He's two tiers removed from the guys above him.

That's true. Okay. Where do you want to go? Let's stay on the note of the Sons. What about Chris Paul? I mean, they like. They made it to the second round again. Yeah.

They didn't really play together like that. they did it was kind of cool but we could put it in d because a show was accomplished yeah chris paul was honestly really bad that year everyone thought he was washed he kind of sold them a little bit they had to trade him right away that looks like a d tier yeah clay thompson want to chip together was instrumental in making the greatest team of all time but he's not step kerry he is b though um he put him below okay so the guys that were part of that great team but aren't the superstars go right below the three guys that were like the stars yeah yeah Clay was still instrumental for obvious reasons to greatest shooter of all time, had some of the best moments of his career with KD on the court.

Huh? Do you just call Clay the greatest the greatest? No, one of the greatest. He's not the greatest. One of the greatest. He deserves to be a B. But put that shit on record. Make that clear.

You trust me. Trust and believe he is one of not the greatest. Okay. Yeah, I'm good. I'm good with B. Just because, like, it's clearly Steph, KD, one and two that are. driving that bus and then Clay Thompson is right there. Yeah.

Okay. Where do you want to go with Sergei Baca? Sergei Baca. Long time teammate. Whoa. Longtime teammate, integral part of a team that had a run. He isn't Russell Westbrook, but he's not that far behind. Not that far behind.

In terms of importance of that team. He's not. Sergei Baca was moving for years. Yeah. As a KD teammate and what they meant to the run that KD had in that era, he's the He covered a lot of his deficiencies defensively. Sergei Baca's versatility back then

kind of ahead of his time Yeah Great fit for Kevin Durant Like that matters on this list Not just talent It's how good you are As a KD teammate Yeah

And he was a good fit Are we going to A? I think I might Serge B B There's an argument for A But I feel more comfortable In B because

It's shooting They come around But can we say B though If that all applies To Clay too But they want chips together So He can be C

He can be C He can be we can't we can't do that though we can't do that okay no he can't be seen he he was whatever too long and made his life so much easier on the defensive and kd was not playing defense actively because he had two big dudes back there i guess i guess we have to go be we have to go be yeah right next the guys he wants chips with okay yes sergey vaco is that important i feel like for these lists the chips matter i think i think that if you gave if you gave k d sergey Rocka and Russell Westbrook, Clay Thompson, I think they would have won chips, too.

Okay. Okay, I had to compete that. I was like, what is that mean? Okay. Dremont Green. Got to put him in C. Wait, really? He won chips with him.

But he also called them a bitch. He's the reason. But was that motivation? Motivation to leave town and go to Brooklyn. Yeah. They could have won titles forever. And Draymond's like, nah, you're not like that. They'll never love you like Steph.

Get out of here. Scram. Skram. All he got to do is be nice. All he had to do is be nice. And they could have been the greatest team to ever touch a basketball court for a decade. Not even nice. But they were for a couple of years.

That's not a decade. It could have been a couple more. But they got it done no multiple times. And then he got it done by making the run end because he kicked them out of town. La, boo. Nah. Ah, boo. La.

Now, but we're still going to see. He kicked him out. Listen, Clay and Dremont both on ships for him. Clay was nice to him. Dremont was not. That's the difference. They mended their beef, though. We're all grown men here.

You don't need to carry on baggage. Not me. I'm going to hold a grudge for him. Bradley Beale. Got to put Bradley Beal in D. He's in like D or F, to be honest with you. I don't know. I mean, I think he's a better KD teammate than Chris Paul was.

They made something around at least. They haven't done anything. Yeah, they don't really nothing. He didn't do shit with Chris Paul either. They got sweat. They got a second round. Okay. Okay.

I mean, Chris Ball was asked, though. There's a reason he was. I mean, yeah. They got sweat. Yeah. Bradley Bill does nothing on. Chris Paul's ball off is like kind of why they lost. At least they got one.

At least they got one. They saw some type of progress. Bradley Biel doesn't do anything on the court to me that makes Katie's life like tremendously easier. Sure, which is why we're not talking about A tier or anything crazy. You think C here for Bradley Bue? No, no, no, no. I was just thinking maybe maybe first fall as to be F if Bradley Bills D.

No. No, they're okay. They'll live in the same in the same case. They can be the same tier. Kyrie Irving. F tier. What? F tier.

What the hell? No, no, no, no, no. Get out of here. Get out of here. now he broke him up they never they barely played together but when they did keep in mind kairi kairi kind of convinced him would what would kevin durand have left the warriors if not for kairi bring him into his orbit kairi was over there during the pregame of the all-star game having conversations psyching him out doing all-time manipulation to take him over there to bro

and make him feel loved make him feel appreciated and then brooklyn was like the worst thing never happened to kevin durant so what is that a good thing? But could you, but they're best friends hooping together, bro. It's a beautiful story. He said, bro, come here and play with me. And then they didn't play together. I'm going to. There was, there was, there was too much drama that happened in that era to where you can put Kyrie on the same level as Chris Paul or Bradley Bill.

Chris Paul or Bradley Beal? That's not exactly a high part of you. How quickly they forget. No I figure what That is one of the worst Eras of Nets basketball What are we talking about

If you ask a Nets fan I bet they probably think Kyrie and Katie is like the worst duo Of all time They probably hate the fact That that happened to them It is one of the most Theoretical

Duos we've ever seen They have such limited On-Court performance together They do You know Those guys are nice Yeah Exactly. I want to get psyched out enough to put them in like C just because I'm like,

What? Where do they belong to you, D? I, there's sometimes where like we sit down and we record and I don't like y'all. Because y'all make me feel like like I was in a different universe. Like we all weren't watching the Nets implode on a daily basis because of what Kyrie and Kevin a rate we're going to. You make me feel like I'm a different. What are we talking about?

Fine, you got it. We can go F. Just so you don't have an existential crisis about the universe you can have it. F is not right, man. But whatever. Where do we go with Kendry Perkins? He can stay there at the bottom. You don't even make it a tearless?

He's okay there. He's fine. He'd be on ESPN defending K&D's legacy. What you mean? And then goes on Twitter and be like, yeah, KD needs to shut up. He'd be on ESPN talking all slow. No. He's his country.

Like, like, he's this country from Texas. Yeah, he can't get no playing time. No, he can't even get no screen time. That's fucking crazy. Oh, no, he gets screen time. He gets a lot of screen time. But is this it? We ended in the video like this?

Kevin Durant is one of the greatest basketball players to ever play. play like that's like like kentrick park he's just from beaumont texas that's it but no he's good there he's all right unranked yeah that's the hell he's fine am i the lone kentrick perkin fan what the fuck man kentie doesn't like him the answer to the question is yes yes you are what the hell what he average in that playoff series a whopping 2.4 points that beef you right, damn. All right, so we got Steph Curry and S tier,

A tier, we got Russell Westbrook and James Hardin, B tier, Clay Thompson and Sergio Baca, C tier Devin Booker and Jemong Green, D tier, Chris Paul and Kyrie,

I mean, Chris Paul and Bradley Beal and F tier, Kiree. Man, what about Kendra Perkins? He's there on the screen looking at you,

looking at me. And that's our tier as well. That's hilarious. Next thing, we're going to do. We're going to play a new game. Something that's awesome. Let me do on TikTok, but we're going to do a little differently. It's kind of like a blind ranking. We're going to do

keep four, cut four. So we're going to do this. I have eight players for you. You're going to blind rank them one through eight, but the top four people you keep, the bottom four people you cut. So the order matters a little bit, but it's mostly like two groups, which group you're going to put each player in. Okay. All right, I bet. So you can loosely do a little blind ranking like one through four five through eight whatever but that's not super important which is who gets cut who gets kept okay so first name Paul George oh shit okay wait real quick what's the context of yeah is it just like players in general or like small forwards or like keep for a cut for

we need a prompt though we need a prompt we need a problem you don't though you just got I do feel it out okay I need all right you know what let's cut him That's cut him. At five. Okay. Yeah. We'll call Paul George your first cut. Yeah.

I think I think I want to cut him. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Paul George is like just below the all-time greats. So maybe you're hedging your best a little bit. Yeah. Okay. That's fair.

Larry Bird. Keeping two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll keep him and we'll put him at two. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. There's no world where you're cutting Larry Bird. So you can put him as high as you want. He's safe. Keep him no matter what, no matter what the conversation is okay Chris Middleton might be cutting him

yeah if you cut Paul George you have to cut exactly PG in what world am I keeping Chris Middleton I love him

but goddamn let's be serious where you want to put him seven um put a space in between Paul George is like Paul George

space Chris Middleton it gives us some flexibility spread the players out as you go yeah okay okay Tracy McGrady four

We'll put them right above. We'll put them right above Paul George. I feel like T-Macken versus Paul George is like a debate. That's a debate. Yeah, this is a real conversation. That's what I'm saying. I feel like we could. You're going to cut, Paul George.

Yeah, like we could have them interchangeable, but we've already made that decision. And T-Mack has more or so I'm putting T-Mack at four. And T-M-M-E just left there. Yeah, so I'm putting in there and I'm putting Paul George right there. Okay. Listen, T-Mack simply cooler. It is what it is.

Ball game. Next one. Jason Tatum Keeping him You only have two spots In the Keith left You gotta be careful with these Yeah but I feel comfortable

Keeping Tatum He won an NBA championship Consistently an MVP Convoles Needless to say Will he win and win one I don't know But he's an elite player

Yeah So we will keep him He will be under Larry Bird We'll put him at three Yeah Tatum is like the finalized idea of Paul George Hmm

McHale Bridges Eight bottom yeah we have to cut mackale you're one spot left and keep and cut scottie pippin

shit I don't I don't know this sucks because is he going to put like lebron or Kevin Durant on this list how do you feel do you feel like

would you feel worse if you cut scotty pippin or if you cut somebody better than him I think I would feel worse if I cut somebody better than him. him. Yeah. Ah, man.

Either way you fucked up. Let's go ahead and cut him. Oh, we're cutting Scottie. I'm banking in that. Yeah, I'm banking. These Gen Z fans don't know nothing about it. No, nothing about Scotty Pipman in his prime. I feel like you'll have something better.

And last but not at least, we have Kawhi Leonard. There we go. Okay. It's just kind of a debate a little bit, but I'm taking Kawhi at the end of the day. Yeah, you don't feel terrible about losing Pippin for Kauai. You should feel terrible about, like, you should feel terrible about, like, getting T-Mac over Pippin, but you live and you learn. Yeah. Not the end of the world. With what we walked into, this is not bad. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we'll live. Yeah, you guys did

very okay. That's the word to say. This is fine. You didn't, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't great. First go at this, not bad. I like where we were. We didn't embarrass anybody and that's fine. Exactly. Yeah. The worst person you disrespected is Scotty Pippen. You'll live. Oh, I'll do that again and again. he's had enough of that in his life to go on some slack next thing we're going to do you know

there's been a lot of discourse on the internet specifically on Twitter about the NBA and its TV ratings and how the sky is goddamn falling the NBA is a dying product what's going on with the league

meanwhile Most of it's bullshit. We talk about it a little bit on stream. We don't care. The NBA is fine. Taddy, three, two days, 6 p.m. Eastern. Tap in. But nevertheless, we're going to get some engagement out of it.

We're going to get some TikTok views out of it. We're going to ride the way of the negativity bias. What we're going to do is, let's do a little segment. I want to know, if you were in charge of the NBA for one day and you can make any change you want, what changes would you make to try and save the league to fix the biggest issues they have? I got you. I got you. We go one by one, Donovan.

What's the first change you make? Obviously, the biggest thing is every game that is played, somebody has to wear a white jersey. I'm tired of color on color. It's too much. If somebody's at home, you wear white. Have some decor. Please, I need to know.

I need to know because the NBA's too bright. That's why I have bad eyes, right? I'm going to get a cataract. I can't do it. I need to know who is at home, who's on the road. I can't even tell by the court anymore because all the courts are different colors. Let me know who's playing the game, and then we can proceed from there. I need white, I need white jerseys and brown courts.

I'm sick of these gray courts. I'm sick of these red courts that hurt my eyes. It's too much. I'm going white jerseys. I'm going to looking too good for your PR on Kahn down here. No. Fucking unk. That's the first thing I'm doing.

He goes to the unkshires and he yells about white jerseys. Man, that's our number one topic at the unkshire. Out of everything you see with the product. You talk about these damn jerseys. Oh, my God. That's hilarious, bro. I think if I was... If I could make one change.

You go first. Go ahead. If I could make one change, I'm just starting the season a little bit later towards the end of the NFL season. I'll probably start off the NBA season right around Christmas time.

We all know, LeBron said it as itself, bro. Around Christmas is the NBA's day. And it will be elite if the season started around then. That way would be. Something happening

throughout the calendar of just human interest in sports. I'll piggyback off that. I would start it later. I would cut the games in half. I would do a 41 game season. Wow. Yep.

The biggest thing the NBA has going for the, the biggest thing the NFL has going from them? Scarcity. Every game matters. The NBA would never do this because they're not going to cut the revenue in half. But if you did half the games, every single one would be intense.

Fans would care. It would be more spaced out. People would have the ability to allocate time to it. You'd start later. It would be a much better product, I think. okay people always talk about

go down to 60 games fuck that go down to 41 let's go all the way okay you play every team once every team once shit matters

every game is do or die that's sick no that's more than once I'm stupid but it's all good okay yeah whatever but you know

there's no room for low management no room for taking a game off you gotta care every single night I like that okay okay

uh what's my next oh if you are able to offer somebody a supermax contract you can offer them the super max at like 35 percent it would only count to 25 percent of your cap that's smart that's what they should do that that way it incentivizes teams to to build from the draft you get homegrown stars you and you can keep teams together and not force these billionaires which they shouldn't be anyways to be broke boys and now we can keep and now we can keep teams together we can see people the hammer and sickle up for a second exactly

And now we can keep Get them, comrade. We can get teams together, keep that camaraderie, see rivalries, all that. That's what we should be with the super PAC. You're forcing NBA teams to be a lot smarter through two with the NBA traffic. They just don't have the easy bailout button

and just spend recklessly anymore. I like that thought. But at the end of the day, spend that bread. You have four weeks. Yeah, I agree. That's too smart, though, for my liking. If I was commissioner for a fucking day, I'll make all aloops

Instead of count as two-pointers Three-pointers Alu-Ups Yeah, just al-Ups Not regular dunks Not like fucking I need lobs in there Because it's easily one of the most fun plays

In the entire Vienne That'll lead the league in scoring You want Dejah Jordan to be MVP Team would spam the fuck out of that bro I need that back Big would be the greatest player of all time He'd break Kareem's record in 10 years Yo

He shoot three's and gets three-point dunks It's unbelievable You know, the most random NBA players will get, regain, like, so much value. Hey, Christian Coloco. Yo, Kenneth Farid is getting back in the NBA, bro. You don't have to be overseas anymore. Come back, buddy. We got about three more years of DeAndre Jordan's prime loves.

If you play with, if you play with Tray Young, Clint Capella, he's eating. Oh, my God. He's on the MVP, actually. Took a Puzz averaging 27 a game in this universe. That's crazy. I'm gonna do I already cut games in half I already made shit matter

I'm gonna I would allow you to loan players like in soccer so not only can you trade your players and tank for picks if you're if you're the sons Kevin Durant tears his ACL now you got Devin Booker for a year

we loan them over to the Lakers they give us two first-on picks they get them for just this season so we can kind of do like mini rebuilds within a year nah that's sick and then Katie just comes back after winning an NBA championship or whatever

yeah Booker goes to the Lakers wins a chip comes back gets back of KD. We get assets. Lakers get a chance to buy in for one year. Everybody wins. Except for Sons fans

because Booker will come back and not win the chip and they'll be like, man, where you got one somewhere else? Everybody would just be upset. Shit, the TV ratings

be through the roof if you have nonstop trade talks. It would be amazing. As a podcaster, I need it. I need the content. No, that's hilarious. All right.

Last two minutes of the game. Mm. You get one time out. Oh. In the last two minutes of the game I'm so, every time we get to the last two minutes of the game we have a play happen, time out.

Play happen, time out. In Fiba, right? When we get to the Olympics, the end of games are so electric because it's just nonstop action back and forth. There's so much drama of like, can you instantly make something happen? I want the game to move faster.

I don't want the last 35 seconds to take 10 minutes to finish. I wanted to go quickly. I want to see what the players can do. Let's drop it down to one time. out in the last two minutes. Okay, that's fair. Okay, that'll help the flow of the game.

It kind of like how half times some of them go away if you don't use them. It happens again at the two minute line. That makes sense. All right, I got my next one. Instead of doing jump balls and having two players compete with just like pure verticality and whatnot, let's use our fists. Let's see who are the two best fighters on the goddamn team. Throw a couple punches.

One minute of the straight hands kickboxing or whatever it is. bro. We already a minute. Yeah, one minute, 45, 6th, whatever's the healthiest number to put out there. No, don't you got to do? You ever seen those slap boxing things with a big white dude stand there and get slapped? They take turns, slap each other?

Yeah. It's a competitive. We got to do that. We have Anthony Davis sit there. No, no, no, no. No players. Coaches. Fans? Coaches? That is now changing the entire coaching landscape. I need Joe Mazula. Is not being a coach anymore, right?

I need Joe Mazula. to backhand Nick Nurse for a jump ball in the Eastern Conference Fighters and oh my goodness Dude I know

Joe Mozilla's psycho ass has the best slapping technique in the world I know he's a he knows he knows Cromagha he knows all the

he knows the exact knuckle to hit your cheek with he would get metal plates surgically put into his hands yes he can't even close his hand he can't even close his hand anymore but he can win a slap every time

he's that insane okay next one let's go back to I would redo the NBA Cup fuck the fuck the money as it as the winning team gets the winning team gets a 15th pick

in the NBA drafts and an extra win to their schedule to help them get tiebreakers in the playoffs I like that I like the extra win I like we're not going crazy with the pick it's not the number one pick nothing crazy right after the lottery get a nice middle round pick see me i would take it even further than that if they're able to make

the playoffs they immediately get home court advantage that's okay i was thinking about that's a little bit much i didn't want to make it so like they can just fuck off and not care for the rest of the season but just one extra win that'll be the difference that's why that's why see i like the idea what you have to do is you have to create tiers right tier one tier two two two three everybody gets different advantages and wherever you finish if you win the in season the in season tournament you go to the top of your tier so like the good teams get even better the bad teams get they don't get you know so high up they only get to be better than the other bad teams so but i like that uh oh my next one once again we're talking about housekeeping

adam silver if you do not start being punctual i'm going to start getting upset i need NBA games to tip off if they say if they say the game starts at eight i need the ball in the air at eight and one second we need to start on time no more of this game starts at eight we don't get tip off till 812. No more 7.30 starts. Game doesn't start to 7.42. Listen, you want to build the future? Kids have to go to bed. Start games on time, Adam. All right? You want to go to bed. Stop using the kids.

Everybody wants to go to bed at 10.30, but I can't do it because the game starts so late. All right? Ultimately, start the game's on time. Start the game on time. Okay. I like that. I like that. I got one more for you guys. Let's put a little bit of power onto fans' hands, okay? They already let us vote All-Stars.

You know what they should do instead or also? Every off-season, let every fan vote one player off of their favorite team. All 30 fans get the ability to be like, I don't want that guy on my team regardless of like money or whatever it is. Get one guy out of here. Yes, and throw them into a pool of free agency. Exactly. Put the power in the fans for real. You just want to vote Clickapela off the box in a video.

Don't read my mind. You read my mind. Let's go back to jerseys real quick. City jerseys, minimum three years. No every single year. We need to give them time to build history, define an era, three-year recyclers, three-year refreshes on city jerseys.

I like that. I like that. I would extend it to five years. That sounds painful. Some teams are trash, though. Yeah, there's some bad. 5280 for five years. You don't have the Boston Celtics's ridden jerseys?

I'm sorry, now it's time to lock in, right? Lock it, do your job well. And then you can be celebrated for the next five years. Back. One more. I didn't make this one up. I actually saw us on Twitter from another podcast. I forget what it was.

I wish I could shot them out. I forget who said it. But for the All-Star game, they said, players don't win a cash prize. They have to, like, bet and give the losing team has to give the winning team money. So the West starters have to give the E-starters 50K each. No, we can't do that. No, no, no, no, we can do that.

That's how you bring real competitiveness, bro. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, we're going to have too much fan doing prospects involvement in that. I can't, I can't have that. Somebody you're beat up on site. ESPN has ESPN bet. The NBA loves betting money. They're all in.

It's cooked. Let's get the players throwing it down in the middle of the court. They put a lot of cash out. Listen, I'm not saying that I would do it. because I am not this type of individual, but I know that there are certain people, oh, you guys are, there's $50,000 here, $50,000 there? Bring my shy steen.

Where's the All-Star game at? Shout out to the podcast, I thought about this idea because I just know for a fact that James Harden to get out there and go for 60. He's not going to want to lose that Atlantic City money. And somebody will be plotting. I promise you. I ain't a lie.

There's going to be several DMPs going on in that game. to whoever ends up being a coach bro LeBron Steph, Yonis they don't play

about that they don't play about their coins I don't know my parts I want to say home and that's everything I got

yeah that's hilarious let us in charge man we'll fix this league y'all talking about ratings this rating that yeah we'll get

right back where they need to be we'll overtake the bed with illicit businesses exactly yeah like you're

Like every good thing we're going to do. We're going to get the mob back in this bitch. Oh, yeah, now, buddy. Y'all don't understand. Okay, we're restoring the power dynamic back into the Italian fans. Next thing we're going to do. Don't let me get them. Next thing we're going to do

I'm going to show you two NBA All-Star teams and you're going to tell me which year would win to play each other These are interesting These are only the All-Star starters from each year

These are more interesting than you think There's some years There's some unexpected players Okay Okay first up We got the 2022 Western Conference versus the 2006 Western Conference See

I mean listen Oh man We got Andrew Wiggins in the starting line up in an all-star game. I can't, I can't do that. He's the best defender there, though. He's the best defender there. What?

LeBron is right there. Tim Duncan is right there. It's 22, LeBron James. Andrew Wiggins, he hung his hat on that end. They want to escape each because of that defense. Listen, man. One side has a power of K-pop Twitter on their side. The other doesn't.

Choose wisely. First of all, it's an all-star game. Yokies doesn't care as is. He's playing five minutes. Facts. so okay let's assume everybody cares in this world it's a real real teams and everybody when everybody cares they're for the west's front court is absolutely frying the oh shit this is both the west lebron and yokech are fucking frying tim duncan and ming sorry yom yommy's

gonna be in hell a little bit trying to guard of curry lebron yokech pick and roll i'm sure wiggins can stand somewhat of a chance against mcgrady the curry kobe we are not picking the line with Andrew Wiggins as an all-star. He is playing defense. You need someone who gets no shots. Andrew Wiggins is not getting no shots. We've talked too much. Andrew Wiggins is an all-star.

What are we doing? All right. 2006 gets it. The Donna of is going to blow a gasket. No way. I don't want to give you a stroke. Tracy McGrady. Well, I'm not.

We got to take her onto blood pressure. What is Steve Nash going to do with John Moran? Can't do shit against that. What is John Marang going to do with Steve? Nash, what are you talking about? Hey, you'll look at him right in his eyes, what you mean? He can't hold it. He can't hold it.

Okay, next one. 1996 West versus 2017 West. Oh, that 2017. Oh, my bad. 1990, my bad, 1996 East versus 2017 West. That West is looking crazy. The West is insane. The Golden State Warriors duo plus Hardin,

plus AD is a lot threat. You casually throw in Kauai is the best perimeter defender you've ever seen. And at the end, Anthony Davis back when he had all his agility and ability. Oh, that's nasty. And his jump shots, too. This guy thinks he's all phrasing it. Ability and ability.

But what's in addition? Jordan and Pippin. Jordan Pippin. Jordan Pippin. But Jordan Pippin with Shaq is kind of crazy. I understand, but Kauai's locking down Pippin. Penny can't run with Steph. Steph is doing no look threes from half court.

There's just nothing. How does Penny? How does Penny Hardaway react to that? Does he get right? He says Michael Jordan, go get him. Yeah, I got the 17 less. I'm sorry, like, don't get embarrassed that half court now.

Don't put too much dip on the chip. You better send Scotty. I saw what I did to you. I saw what AI did. You don't want that. Only one who has a crossover that taking as many ankles as Alan Iverson is James Hardin and he's right there.

Don't want these problems. James Arden has a lot of bones in his pockets. You think you do. You do not. It's not sweet Over here, Mike It's not sweet These young guys can get you

These young guys can dribble I'm going to have a migraine Trying to keep up with all these crossovers And movement Oh fact You're rubbing that bald head You're gonna see you veins That he didn't know

Just pop up Like ah You see the steam coming off His head like it's cold outside These are the real monsters Mike This is not space jazz I'm going with 2017 West

bro 2017 ad with kawai please give me the west 17 yeah give me the west where am I 2017 east versus 2021 east is that the year bradley be able average like 30 a game

yeah he's a bucket still means nothing to me I have to though 2017 2017 is small they got yonis at the center we have yonis at the four I like that

and in B K.D. Yonis and Bid is crazy size. Yeah, Kady Yonis and Bid might do it for me. I love Jimmy Butler and Derozen, but there's just so much that. Also, this is, because it's really like a four on four, because you would just have like Kyrie versus Kyrie off in the corner. They, they, all they do is just like dribble against each other. It would be like shadow boxing.

What are you going? I don't know, I don't know. 2017, Kyrie and 2021, Kyrie are very different people. They'd be in the corner having debates. It would be crazy Not that it's true Debates and crossovers And it would be debased

You don't want to hear at all It would be horrible So again Four and four basketball here We're going with the one With three MVPs In the East and 21 We're going with them

Yeah I'm going 21 East Okay Last up We get the 2001 West versus the 2012 East Yeah you got Chris Weber

That's small forward Get out of here, man This is what happened So, listen Y'all wonder why we shoot too many threes today Because Chris Weber was out here Taking 17 footers as a three man in the outside That's a shocking Tim Duncan

And Jason Kidd Everybody can reach out And form a circle And just play rid of the way There's no spaces That's a crazy zone defense All that side In the schematics right there you ask me

You're giving an argument for the 401 West that's what they said but listen people said they used to they should have formed a circle around step curry yeah the 2012 team is fucking filthy that's the most dunking power one two three and five i've ever seen this team won a gold medal then you had MVP derrick rose yeah give me to east in a heartbeat i'll take these but then again but then again you got prime shack versus Dwight. Oh, he would be motivated.

He'd be pissed. We are getting 60 from Shaq. We are. And you got Mello? Who's gonna guard? I guess LeBrona Guard, Tim Duncan?

Yeah, Mello can bang around Chris Weber. That'd be fine. Yeah, they could go pissing. Just two Rams. Just hit together.

Just too old line. Or the pack blocking. Just bumping shoulders at the back. They're grinding each other. It looks like step up. Not as much. Real basketball.

Okay. When the guy's, when the guy is banging you. No, I'm still going 2012 Ease. Yeah, 2012 smokes. Mind you. 2012 E's a lot of,

because LeBron, or at least LeBron, I know, he would be wearing those 2012 hyperdunks, iconic shoe. I'm going on. Okay. The man's bumping you. Who said that?

It wasn't a shack or Charles? Charles. All right. Okay. Okay. We got one more thing we're going to do. Let's play a game of 20 questions. Okay.

So, but actually, no, let's do 10 questions. I forgot. We do that now because 20 questions is too easy. You always get it. Okay. So we're going to do 10 questions. I got to play your mind. You guys know how much.

I'm going to think of an NBA player. They have 10 questions to try figure out who it is. They don't get it within 10 questions. They fail. Before we start, is this current day? I'm not going to tell you anything. What the fuck, man? You want me to waste one of my questions.

Question one. Is this a current player? This is not a current player. Okay. Fuck, we got to think way back then. Okay. Question two. Was this player an All-Star?

He was not. Fuck. question three has this player won a championship he has not okay not also not a championship you have no motion seven questions love don't don't fail for the first time we're not we trust and believe we're not going to fill we don't class this out okay no all start no championships and you're an old player no motion he must have some type of motion off the court donovan I guess so Ask a way

We need to figure out the era Yeah exactly Exactly Where are you Where are you want to cross out first Because it could be newly out of the league Yeah so let's try to figure out Maybe this decade

Or I mean this this century Like 2000 and above Okay Very broad Yes All right So what are you asking Did this player

Wait actually what are we asking? You're just yapping, ask a question. Okay. Yeah, like how do we narrow it down? Did this player play in the 2010s? He did.

All right, Donovan. There we go. That's a better question. All right. So 2010 role players who did not win the chip. And he did not go to an All-Star game. Not a single All-Star game? Not a one.

And he didn't win the championship. So how was he like relevant to our mind? is Isaac asking about him he played it in the 2010s he's not a it's either he's like a meme or let's let's try to get position yes let's do that is this player or was this player a a back court player yes okay so he was a guard okay I always did the thing every single time I got thing back court guard front court big I'm out of my head for a second Yeah. Okay. So he's a guard who never won a championship, never was an All-Star, and played in the 2010s. Okay. Now, Donovan, do we want to do the East and West thing?

How many questions are you at? Yes. I think we're at five or four or five. We asked current All-Star Championship played in the 2010s. In position. So you have five questions. Five questions left. Yeah. So this next question is six. Um, yes, was this, halfway there, it's getting tense? Was this player's primary team that we would know them by in the Eastern Conference? I don't believe it's a primary team you would know them by.

There's no one iconic teams. So that kind of answered your question. Okay, he was a journeyman. I don't want to answer that. So I'll go ahead. I won't cancel it against you. Okay. Okay.

Cool. We got our question back. Well, if that's the case, then, we should. If I had to pick one, if I had, okay, no. No, we'll take the question back. We're taking the question back. We're taking the... No, because if I had to pick one, there is one team that's the most iconic, I guess,

and it's in the West. Okay. It wasn't the most amount of time, but it was the most famous that he's on. I want to take a shot in the dark, I don't know if I'm going to lie to you. I don't know if I want to... Go ahead. Go ahead.

Is this player a meme? I would know. I wouldn't say he's a meme. Okay. I have one name. that's kind of coming to mind right now. You have three questions left. Yeah, we shot off seven already.

Okay. Three questions. Don't, don't fold. Do you want to use these three shooting off these names, Donovan? Or do you want to get off one more question where we ask something nitty and gritty? Let me. Do you want to ask what position they are? Either.

No, no, because I think back court is good enough. Let me. Okay. Let me see. Three questions? Has this player ever scored 50 points in the game? I don't know. Jesus.

I would assume not, but let me see. Hey, it's if, no, I had, I had a, I had a name in mind. No, he's not scored 50. Damn, we might be fired. That's a hilarious question. Yeah, I think you just tried us, Donovan. That's, you just tried this. You better question it out.

That was dumb. You better clutch it up. I was, I was thinking it was Jamal Carpick. That's not bad. That's not a, okay. Okay. Hmm. I see how your brain got there.

That makes sense. Okay. By detailing off of Isaac's reaction to that, it sounds like a player of Jamal and Jamal Mori's or Jamal Crawford's ethos. Similar range. Now what that word means. Go for it. You're rude.

You're rude. Two questions, love. You guys are fucked. we have really one question before we have to take a guess dude this might be the first loss we've never seen a 20 questions lost first of all we've never lost 20 questions we might lose 10 questions me personally I'd never let that happen okay this is a pretty obscure player

do you want to ask if they're like a shooter or a defender or something like that because like they're they're clearly a role player so we have to narrow it down to something that we know them by. Damn, bro. Come on. I feel like I just really kill. Okay. I think some

I really want to know. Come on. Ask. Ask. What, whatever you want to ask? We have two more questions left. I know. Whatever you want to ask, ask it. Has this player, the fuck? Has this player average more than 10 points for game? Yes. Okay. That's what you waste. God, you guys are sucking you at this. Go ahead. Who is it? Is this Lou Williams? This is not Lou Williams. You guys lose. This is J.J. Reddick.

Hmm. Okay. That's fair. Damn. That's fair. I knew, okay, I knew some type of, like, online presence. Got you. Damn. All right. Well, not wildly off, though. Not wildly off. The first loss. And that's the end of the episode If people are still here You guys should comment How do I want to phrase this? How should I have you guys be mean

To Mo and Donner for losing? Me to Moe and Donovan's hilarious How should they be mean to Isaac? God damn it Comment How should they mean to like shit in here? That's a real question right there That's the real question

Comment whatever you want Just be mean to them For losing the first game of ten questions Come on now Yeah, man We'll see y'all next week.