The Deep 3 Podcast - 1 Thing We Learned About Every NBA Team In 2025 | Ep. 131

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Every NBA team's most important aspect of 2025! #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 1:55- Knicks 17:12- Cavs 26:12- Grizzlies 30:30- Pelicans 37:05- Lakers 45:55- Pistons 50:05- Timberwolves 54:49- Nuggets & Rockets 1:00:05- 76ers & Suns 1:02:15- Mavs 1:04:45- Magic 1:09:52- Raptors & Jazz 1:13:35- Hornets 1:16:30- Bucks 1:24:45- Heat 1:26:04- Hawks 1:28:26- Nets 1:30:30- Wizards 1:32:28- Pacers 1:36:05- Clippers 1:39:55- Bulls 1:42:18- Trailblazers 1:49:50- Spurs 1:58:27- Warriors 2:00:40- Thunder 2:15:30- Kings (lol) 2:16:22- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You all ready to talk about the salamander, the Pythagorean The Paradox? Who? Who? The trolley problem? Who? The trolley problem? So y'all does all know. I guess I guess I'm not tapped in. You're just not knowers.

You're just not knowers. I'm not tapped in. We out of the loop. What's the game? Put me up on it. Actually, no, I do know the trolley problem. I don't know why they call Santay Adama the trolley problem, but I know that that's his name. I know that, that's what streets are saying. Again, I don't understand the streets, but I know what what they're saying. Let's pause this conversation for later. What are we here today for? We are here today. So what are we talking about? We're not here to yabble, Babylon about nicknames.

We are here to discuss every single team in the NBA as you see about a title. Specifically, we're going to talk about one thing we learned about every single NBA team in the calendar year 2025, which really kind of means one thing we've learned post-trade deadlines since January basketball doesn't really exist. But maybe there'll be so observations we had there. But, you know, one thing that's brand new to us, something that where you're thinking about going into the playoffs settings, thinking about in the second half of the year, whatever may be, one new fact that we feel like we've learned. All right.

Let's go do it. We haven't done this in a minute, bro. It's been weeks and weeks in interviews. I'm ready to talk about all these NBA teams with the deepest depths of analysis. iPad Mo, different animals, same beast. No, no, no. Every NBA team for the first time. It's a little bit different now because I got a pen in my system.

Oh, my God. That's insanity. seen your handwrite. That shit is awful. I can't imagine what looks like digitally. Wow. Shout out iPad Mo. Shout out the pen. Let's start. Let's get sure and do it. The cranium is crazy. Oh my God. I mean, I don't know what to say. Pray on eaters rejoice. No, we've done a lot of talk lately about the main characters of the NBA. We talked a lot about the Lakers and Warriors as of late since they're like the biggest storylines

post all-star break, you know, transform their teams. They're in a new era of kind of dominance as low-key as of late, at least for the Lakers. We're not doing that today. We're going to talk about the Little Brothers in the League. Shine some light on the less fortunate, the teams that don't get enough attention, the small market teams, the nobody's,

just the irrelevancies around the league. Let's start with the New York Knicks. Mo, what is one thing you've learned this year about the New York Knicks? It's just completely not true. It's just completely not true. I have the New York Knicks. Wow. I love that, bro. I love that.

Someone who wants to be the star, the face of the NBA, but never will be. Where can I start with the New York Knicks? I think when I was gone over like two weeks ago or whatever you guys dove into the Nix deeply on TD3 Tuesdays, 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Tap in always. You guys are talking about, I think you guys ranked how much you believed in certain teams, playoff teams, specifically the Nix and whatnot. And I tuned in a little bit. Great stuff as always.

and you guys eviscerated the Knicks and pointed out all the circuses. And Donovan looked like he like officially sold out hope on his actual championship belief in the New York Knicks because of the way the team's built and all that. And one thing that I learned when it comes to the New York Knicks is that through all of this, I learned that they need to pivot,

but also I have realized a certain pivot that they need to make. Now, through all the rumors that's been happening over the last, I don't know, two, three, four weeks since the lucid don't just trade happened. If I'm the New York Knicks and if I'm Leon Rose, you see cars in your towns, you like what he does

offensively, but defensively, that's you just can't, you can't ever achieve anything. Where is this going? If I am Leon Rose, I'm hitting up Nico over there in Dallas. He's not doing too well.

All right. I said, I put up some pretty serious allegations towards him, he's on some pharmaceuticals. I will leave it at that. Okay. That being said, if I'm in New York Knicks, I learned that they need to goddamn trade for Anthony Davis immediately as a season ends, bro.

When they get bounced in the first round or second round in the most disappointing fashion, that needs to happen. That will revive your hopes, Donovan, as a Knicks fan. I'm glad you started this. That's how we're starting today. I'm glad you said this because last week I was thinking the same thing.

I was thinking this I was thinking the same thing because obviously like when you when you get into like the space that the Knicks are at where you traded a lot of your draft capital you know that you're about to be spending a lot of money you don't have a lot of moves to be made and so you have to start being really creative you have to start going after players and after teams that are also desperate in their situations and it's like okay we do need a big man and we do need a big man defender. And how are we going to find a big man defender who can play center who is undervalue that we can get a little bit of value for?

Why don't we trade for the guy who was hurt when he got traded, got hurt 30 minutes into his new team debut, and is in a franchise that apparently anything is on the table. So I'm with you and I see the vision in that. I don't know how realistic it is, but I was thinking about that possibility and then the subsequent possibility of us coming on here and then Isaac yelling at me and being like, ha, ha, now you have to root for AD after you, you know, rooted against it for so long. But I don't hate the idea and the overall idea that the Knicks do need a pivot and that they do need to make another move to tinker with this lineup. I do agree with that because you are right. I have.

right now i am not in on championship ceiling i'm going round by round day by day seeing where the wind takes us and then we'll go from there but i do think that an ultimate big shake-up is once again on the horizon for the nix yeah so for some context we started off with draper anthony davis the real point here is this team has been playing fucking poorly as of late they just added mitcher robinson in the last three games he's back donvin i wonder what you think about that, how that's look so far. But for the last 10 games, they're not only 26th in defense, which calls back to everything Moe just mentioned with Carlton Towns as a defender, calls back to what we said when they made

this trade, what we knew would inevitably come about. This team has an untenable defense because they're 25th in the NBA in defensive rim shots allowed, which is not a good place to start from, and everything casketing around that has been pretty right. But in those last 10 games I mentioned, on top of that bad defense, the 20th in offense, even the juggernaut offense that carried them to start the season. Hasn't been too great lately? Why do you feel like that's been the case not even?

Because I feel like the defense is understood. We don't really need to go that far into that. That's just been pitiful. Offensively, why are they sputtering so much? I don't know. I mean, our offense kind of like all year has been obviously like very Brunson driven, very, very cat driven. There's been some games like Kat didn't play in the last game for personal reasons. But you've seen kind of like some three point stuff that hasn't been too, you know, pretty with everything.

And also, everything looks very, very hard. I think early on in the year, when Brunton was there and when Kat was there, they were kind of able to, and I'm when there, I mean, like, when they were firing, they were able to get into their sets very, very easy. And as I've been watching them, the fluidity in which they get into certain actions hasn't necessarily been there. And so I'm not, I don't know. I'm still like, I'm not sure because there are times where the Knicks look very good.

There are times where they look, you know, kind of suspect. This last kind of stretch, I'm not, I'm, you know, it's not a great analysis, but I'm not 100% sure what's going on with them right now. Well, Mr. Mikhail Bridges, Mr. Sixth First Round Picks looks absolutely horrible for the last 10 games, had this pulled up. In these last 10 games, he's down from 18 points per game in the previous 51 to 13.2. I'm also on this new website called Data Baller, which is a very, very good website with so many cool. tools in this one way to look at the last 10 games versus everything before that. He's shooting 29% from 3 down from 36 before that. 54% from 2 down from 60 before that.

I saw somebody say on Twitter, I haven't fact checked this, that before this last game where he had over 15, he had gone 10 games straight with less than 15 points. He just has not been good. And obviously, Katz missed some games. They're losing that offensive punch for a few games here and there. Brunson has still been good, but outside of that, you kind of, I feel like you're feeling the impact of how really, really, really, incredibly reliant to offenses on the Jalen Brunson, Carthetown's two-man game,

having the five-out spacing of Kat and having the creation of Jalen Brunson is the entirety of their offense. Mo, you mentioned on the stream, we kind of eviscerated them a couple weeks ago, and I had talked about this team's offense is not good, like in terms of the sets they run, the organization they have, the ways coach Tom Tibado is putting them an advantage to succeed with the talent they have. I don't think that shit is good at all. I don't think they're doing anything of note that's impressive. Their offense has been effective because Jailen Brunston and Cat are just a ridiculous two building blocks they build off of on that side of the ball.

If you lose even one of those building blocks, everything really comes crashing down because they're not putting McHale Bridges in a position to succeed. He's not doing himself any favors. O.G. hasn't impressed me. And nobody else in the roster has impressed me offensively in terms of creation outside of those two guys. It feels like a big problem to me. Well.

Hey, I'm just happy as hell, man. And that was leads me to another point to something that I was thinking of. about as well. Over the last few years, I feel like there's certain NBA coaches who you see who are able to, like, raise their team from the ashes a couple years ago. We saw J.B. Biggerstaff drew that with the Cleveland Cavaliers, you know? And then you see that time and time again with certain teams. Certain coaches, they're able to raise their team and like make them more useful in ways that which they weren't before. And I look at someone like Tibbs in the same way with the New York Knicks.

I feel like his time has kind of ran out and I don't know how much more he can do for this team schematically and inject to inject like a new look. Like I can say the same thing about, I don't know, someone like the Memphis Grizzies and Taylor Jenkins, he's someone else who's like fits under this holder like, yeah, your time is probably right now and I don't know how much more you can change this team. We probably need to get new minds, fresh brains in here to really like utilize the rest of these guys yeah and i'll say this i'll push back on the on the ogy not being impressed over the last couple games oj's been playing pretty well um especially like like offensively but i think that like

the the mckell part of it it's it's weird because whether he's playing good or not like there's sometimes where mikhail's oh j hit 29 last game my bad yeah i didn't see that game i met in his last 10 games in creation making up for the first game fact that you're missing Kat and missing Jane Brunson. I didn't mean to say OG's playing poorly. My bad. I didn't even realize he just had 29 points. Yeah. That's hilarious. But like with Mikhail, sometimes his performances, they kind of go over my head because he's been inconsistent all year. Like there's been, like you've had 10 game stretches where Mikhail has been awful offensively. And then

you had like 10 to 15 game stretches where everything is clicking. And even within those periods, the Knicks have still found ways to be successful offensively. So like, I think mckell playing at that level consistently that's what takes the nicks to like you know like a like number one offense in the league you have a offensive superpower that you can kind of you know lead behind if he's just regular mckell bridges which is you know again the ups and downs of what's been the season then what you are looking at is an overpay for mckell bridges that you understood was the price because you were going all in and it is what it is but you're just getting

McHale Bridges and you're not even getting like Brooklyn Nets McKell and so I think that for the Knicks a lot of it has to like I just said a lot of it has to come down

to just Jalen Brunton's shot making Carl Anthony Towns and his presence and his ability to stretch the floor and attack closeouts and you know attack mismatchets and stuff like that and it's like

okay like that's just what this offense is and so and so whether whether or not things are hitting, that's really like on a game by game basis. And so that's what I'm saying. Like if you are thinking about the Knicks in an Eastern Conference Finals, championship sense or NBA finals, you can't do that because it really is we have to win

one game, two games, three game, four games. Okay, got to do it again. It's not even by series. It really is like a very day-by-day type of process with them. Yeah. I think we're just learning that the Knicks are just a very simple team. and simple can be good whenever you have one of the best players in the league, right?

Since Luca Donchurch has come to the Lakers, their offensive organization rate has really fallen down a cliff, but it hasn't been a problem because they're running less offensive sets because they're just putting the ball and loop in LeBron's hands and telling them to cook, which is a winning formula

when you have the two smartest offensive players in the league, right? That kind of feels like also how the Knicks have been run all year on both sides of the ball. They just aren't super creative. You'll cross the league, there's so many smart teams that are really doing incredibly interesting things to maximize their talent.

You look at Kenny Atkinson with the Cavs, right? The ways that he's using these two bigs, position them in different spaces to really bend their gravity as cutters, as shooters, all these creative offensive sets to get them in specific spots to make them better. If you watch a Cavs game,

then you go watch a Knicks game side by side, it feels like you're watching two coaches that are operating on completely different levels. Like, it is a different level of skill that I feel like we haven't seen for the Knicks this year in terms of how they're being coached. Yeah, I absolutely agree. And then when I listen to you say that, I'm like, okay, that's very true.

And then I dive deeper in that. I look at this roster. I'm just like, you need, like, other actual playmakers. Like, Josh Hart is great, and he's a playmaker within himself. But he's not, like, one of the best playmakers in the NBA. He's not someone who you give the ball to an ass to create offense for players who are unable to do that, like the Mitchell Robinson's or the pressure issues of the world. Like, that is not his skill set whatsoever. So he doesn't have the synergy that allows him.

to do so like we see guys like there's going and Donald Mitchell have with each other you know and that's just like a structural issue Brunson is kind of similar to Shea and how they play in that he is the engine of the offense as a score he's a good passer and not amazing but he's going to keep the offense moving

by just being a nonstop dominant bucket or getting downhill creating actions for others that's okay you can decide to play that way because that's how Brunson is at his best clearly and as you've seen it works there's times when they've been top five offense in the league for an extended period of time. But I think that style works for Shea and works for the Thunder because on the other side of the ball, they put all their assets and having an amazing defense where they're like Shea carried the offense.

We can play the simplistic style offensively, which maybe that's dumbing down how OKC plays this, but maybe it's a back to me. But, you know, they have that because they have the counter of having crazy defensive talent, crazy defensive scheme and really domining on that side of the ball with the rest of their assets, the Knicks don't have that. So it's just it's kind of that one dimensional offense without the amazing defense. the play off of it, and it just makes them kind of fall fly as a contender. Yeah, and that's what sucks because that was the expectation.

The expectation is that you have Josh Hart, McKell Bridges, O'J, and Nobie. You're going to have these three wing defenders who can do absolutely everything and cover up everything for Jay and Kat. And that just hasn't been the case all year. And, you know, I don't know what it was. It was when you had Hardinstein and Mitchell Robinson as the background. And that is exactly why we didn't like the catch rate very much. We saw the vision.

They needed the center. We understand Mitchell Robinson was out. We understand they were put in a bind, and he was a short-term and long-term solution. We understand that we've come to turns with it, but as soon as it happened, we said there's no way you're building a good defense with that unit, and you need to be a defensive slanted team. You need to have a strong defensive identity as a coach Tom Tibido team, and there's just no chance they're ever going to have that again. I think this is also a great lesson for everybody at home just being like, damn, like the most important type of, the most important position of fitter. I just got nasally, dude. The most important defensive position

on the goddamn court is the center position. No matter what, you can have all the wings on the world. They're not terrible at that end, but they haven't reached up to expectation. But even if they did, like, they're still not saving your ass when it comes to how paints are looked at. Points are scored in the paint

and just how many times teams just punching them to throw on that end. Yeah. All right, let's move on another team in the East. My first team to talk about sniffly ass. You went like this. I didn't do anything. Yeah, bro.

I'm going through it like usual. First team I want to talk about today, the Cleveland Cavaliers. What have I learned in 2025 about the Cavs? Where do I begin? I could talk about the fact that they are still the most dominant team in the East, still amazing, still. Only reason they're not being talking about more is because the OKC Thunder are finding a way to keep up with their insane. pace of wins right now but they are having one most dominant seasons we've seen a long time i could say that but we've been new that before the season the main thing that i've learned

2025 maybe it's not fair to say i learned it because it started before then but what i've come to grips with and fully accepted i think evan mowgli is the top 20 player in the NBA nice that's that's fair good job evan mowgli has made the leap to not just being better not just being a star which maybe last year wasn't quite that and you know he made the all-star leap which is clear from the start of the year, I've fully come around that, like, there definitely isn't 20 players I want over him right now. And I'm thinking about him compared to someone like Chad Hongren,

who we've said a lot about over the past couple years and how much we value him because we understand the insane value of having a DPOI level defender as well as somebody who could stretch the floor and give you that five out spacing. Like, that's just a crazy team-building concept that even if he's not going to be the best player in your team,

him is the second best player because he's so complimentary to other stars, gives you a crazy elevation. I'm kind of starting to feel the same way by Evan Mowgli, but it's not because the shooting leap, which is real. He can't shoot the three now, which is a thing, but he's not the spacer of a Chahom Grin despite that. He is a crazy, crazy, crazy score attacking mismatches.

That shit is so unbelievably valuable from your second option playing off of guards like Darius and Donovan Mitchell. He looks like a 2000s power forward in the NBA, but with modern NBA big man defense. The way that he just like, he's kind of slow and methodical with how he attacks one on one. But he's like insanely long and strong now

that he just kind of like walks in and take these big ass steps side to side laterally and just throws his elbows around with these post moves and just finishes over people that are smaller than him. It feels automatic now. The leap he's made with unassisted buckets is insanely impressive. Yeah, I agree.

And I think that top 20, listen, once, I'm going to have to think about it. We will have to get to rank. I think he's a lock for sure, top 25. He's a lock. Yeah, 25 is a lock for sure. I'll go there. Top 20 is a bit much just because when you start ranking like top 10 guys,

there's like 12 or 13 guys that could be in the top 10 and then you kind of have to fill it out afterwards. We put Chet like 19 projecting a little bit, but like we value Chet as that range. And he's low-key better than Chet right now. It's hard to value Chet right now. I'm falling on my sword right now. I'm falling on my sword a little bit because I'm a huge Chet guy and I've been propelling him over people.

You asked since early in the year, I would have said, I'm easily taking him over Evan Mobley. The scoring leap is that real to me. And the defense, I think Chet's a better anchor defensively. But it's not a huge gap. Evan Mobley is also a brilliant, brilliant defender. Yes, he is. He is. The Chet and Evan Mobley thing to me, last year I was 100% on the boat.

I'm taking Chet home room in a heartbeat, and it's not even close to it. And that's because of the disappointment, the level of disappointment that I felt in Evan Mobley on the offensive side of the floor. Both tremendous defenders. they're easily both going to win one maybe two defensive players of the years i'm not having that conversation but offensively the issue with me was seeing how timid at times someone like evan wobie would be and how he was just like misutilized and he wasn't put it's like almost keny axon gave him and still like a lot of confidence in him bro it's like he locked up in locked his ass in a room he's like here listen to the 12 minute david guggins god damn podcast or whatever it is

is hype, hype music and shit. And he... Who's gonna carry the boats? And he's like literally been moving like that with that energy and he's like, I love that so much. He's legitimately like walking out there, like sticking dudes down. I don't know if I can have, I don't know how long I can do you talking about. That's crazy.

That's crazy. That's crazy. But no, you're right. He's way more aggressive this year. He went from 73 to 77% shooting at the rim. despite going from 75% of his rim shots being assisted to 70%. So they're harder, more self-created shots than you're shooting better now. And part of that is the office system is a lot better.

They, like I said, the spacing that Kenny Ackinson is created by placing him in better positions for him to succeed makes a big difference in what they were doing last year with J.B. Bickerstaff. But also, I think Kenny's getting all the credit when a good part of it is also Evan just getting better at these things. Like a lot of times he's spaced out to the three point line. And if he's not, he's not always shooting the three because he's not still not a high volume three-point shooter. He's not turning into Kevin Love and like opening things up that way.

But he's catching the ball from the perimeter and going from three-point line to rim off the dribble so often in his own unique lumbering way finishing over people, like I said, that he's making Kenny Atkins and system work in large part because he's just gotten a lot better at that specific skill set. Yes. And I think that like his his improvement obviously is like one of the reasons why they are one of the best teams in the league. And like I think about the Cavs. And one thing that I've learned about them, at least, I mean, again, it's not even like in 2025, whatever, but I, I think I'm getting there. I think I'm, I think I'm, I think I'm getting there to where they might be one B in terms

of title contenders in my eyes. Welcome to the winning team. They, they might, again, I'm getting there. I'm not sure. I think I still might pick Boston, but I'm thinking about them in a matchup with OKC because I'm expecting the thunder to get out the West. And I'm like, for me, that's kind of a coin flip right now. And it's because that's all I asked for.

That's all I asked for. And I was chastised. All I asked for was a coin flip. And it's because, and it's because, it's because of every mobley, but it's also because of their, it's because of like their depth and what and what their bench can do. And I'm saying all of this just to say that I love Ty Jerome. I'm, that's, that's, that's what he's a baller, bro. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going this in this in, this in.

entire way, just because I wanted to talk about Ty Jerome this week, because he is a hooper. I said, I want to talk about Ty Jerome. But you're right. And there is, I'm a Darius. DeAndre Hunter has been fantastic for them as was expected in this, you know, much more specific role. He would be, as soon as that trade happened, people were like, that's going to be a guy that when he can have his skill set focused in a smart, effective way in a very specific role off the bench, he's going to be great. He has been. He came up huge for them in his game. against Boston. They started off obviously down like 25 because they got Blitz in the first quarter

running that lineup of Darius Garland and Max Trues next to Donovan Mitchell. Just way too small. They were getting picked apart. They put DeAndra Hunter out there. They put someone big, one less easy target for Jason Taden to pick at. What do you know? Everything came together and they made an amazing comeback and won the game. They got the, they got the anomaly up out of here. They got them out of here. Shit was not looking anomalous. Love it. What's the opposite of an anomaly? A normality? A normality? Shit was like mad normal. regular but yeah yeah

again I said this all not all a year but the past like month and a half and I've been chastised but you guys chastised by the comments the calves are currently better than the Boston Celtics

obviously now but with that being said the Celtics have key advantages over them like I said it's easy to attack Darius guard on the defense when you have Jason Tatum so they have specific matchups that the Boston Celtics have a good chance

to still be in the Cavs in a playoff setting but over the course of regular season this team is clearly playing on a higher level than them. And to me, that makes it a coin flip. Because even as you think the Celtics have matchable advantages that make them the favorites to you, that's fair. There's a certain level of respect you got to play to how well the team is performing

and how much better they are top the bottom, at least with the current Celtics health when KP is up in the air, Drew Hollidays had an offseason, Jalen Brown's been in a godforsaken slump. With all those things considered, the Cavs are, if it wasn't for the OKC Thunder, we'd be talking about them as the best team in the league.

Yes. Yeah, I 110% agree. I 100% agree. If the Cleveland Cavaliers were to face the Boston Celtics with a healthy Drew Holiday and Chris Osperzenius, I think outcomes, of course, be a little bit different probably. But need to say, I think you're right. I would agree that it's, as of right now,

it's 100% of coin flip, maybe even if KP and Drew Holiday hops back in the Atlanta because we don't know what those guys will be able to give them. And for the Cleveland Cavaliers, they're a proven concept time and time again and no one to down them. Yeah. Yeah. Again, and they might not win, right? They are facing a team that's a defending champ for a reason that is still insanely talented. Their system gives them an incredibly high floor. I just, it's not, it's not a sure thing. Like you said, Donovan, that shit, it feels like a coin flip right now. Exactly. Exactly. All right. I want to go to my first team. We're going to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Okay. This is not a fun one. Let's shit this conversation a little bit. What have you learned? I'm going very, very, very, very. big picture with them. I think that we've once again learned how important development and culture is. Because I think we, a lot of times whenever we talk about development, we talk about players going from year one to year two or year two to year three in very, very early in their careers. The Grizzlies, not only do they do that in terms of like finding guys that nobody else does and then they make them rotation players and they're good rotation players, Jared Jackson Jr. in his development as well at this point in his career, like normally whenever guys get to, you know, this stage in their NBA career, you don't really think of it

as, oh, the team is still helping him develop. It's like, oh, yeah, he just went out and got better. But the Grizzlies have put him in a position to where, you know, and part of that is just, you know, them asking him to get better. But because of John Morant's, you know, whatever, and like they have needed Jerry Jackson Jr. to develop and they have put him in situations where they are giving him more responsibility offensively, and he has answered the call. And so I think that having that infrastructure to where, in an off season, when you know that you're getting John Morant back,

the Grissey still said, hey, we need Jerry Jackson, Jr. to develop even more. We're going to change this entire offense. Everybody still buys it. We have all these role players that we need to do. Everybody's still going to buy in. And now Jerry Jackson Jr. is playing, you know, the best basketball of his career. Obviously, he's hurt right now. But I think like in this season specifically, looking at the way that Memphis does business is a really, really good template for guys who are no longer like, you know, rising stars, whatever.

They are legitimate all-stars, but you can still develop those guys and still help guys make the leap. That's a good point. Who do you think is the next player you want to see in that position where they're a low-level all-star that's going to make it some years, not make it other years? and you feel like with the right mind, right coach putting the right prioritization of them, that they can make a next leap to being like all-MBA level. I got that's what Jaron is. Jaron is going to be all NBA this year. Yes, he is.

Yeah. Ooh, that's scary, man. Not scary because he deserves it, but it's like, damn, he's going to be paid a bag, bro. Oh, yeah. I think the next player who's in the same fold is probably going to be Franz Wagner. I think he's an easy, he sticks out like a sword. Good answer. He sticks all like a goddamn sword thumb.

Like, I think as time goes on, things will shift for their land of magic. And if something happens again to Paul, I don't know, like, Franz is definitely going to be doing a lot of the same things that we saw earlier this season before Paulo came back into the scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good answer for sure.

I think, I think Scotty Barnes is another guy where, like. Oh, amazing answer. Yeah. Like, it's clear. And, you know, we're going to talk about this a little bit more when we talk about the Raptors. But like, it's clear that Scotty is not like 1A, put the ball in his hands. He's going to create for everybody else. but he still is obviously so so talented and has a lot of like very like high level physical traits

that if you put him in in the right system you get you get some complimentary players you can see the the flashes that we were talking about with scotty barnes like a year and a half ago where it's like oh wow like he's he's a top 30 player he's doing all this scotty barnes still has all the tools to where he could be a very very good NBA player but obviously the raptors just aren't in that position you start making some some changes around there he can he can elevate to a very, very high level again. Yeah. Yeah, shout out the Grizzlies and shout out them being the poster boy for prioritization

of talents, for putting players in reposition to succeed. I'm glad you went there because if we talked about how they're currently playing, shit would not be pretty. But what does ignore that? We'll ignore them being three and eight over the last 11 games. We'll ignore them being 27th in defense and 13th in offense. We'll ignore their 20th offense and crunch time and the fact that keep losing game winners.

We'll put that all aside and just focus on the big picture. We're trying to be positive, man. overall coverage of the league is so negative right we got to be positive we got to be positive i'm trying to hype up the faces of the league that's what i'm trying to do shout out jerry jackson june fantastic year what's your next team face of the league jaron jackson junior oh what's happened to this league uh man okay so let's stay out over there in the western conference i want to touch on the new orrence pelicans okay one thing that i learned is that goddamn Zion Williamson is still that dude

no matter what, bro. I could touch on like a few other interesting things like legitimately like a lot of people are not talking about Trey Murphy and how insane the leap that he's been taking over the last year and after whatever. Slurp and Williamson, let it out. Keep going. Brother, the stats that Zion Williamson

has been providing us over the last, I don't know, 15 to 16 games or whatever is absurd. In like 26, 27 minutes of play, he's putting up like 26, 8 and 5 or something ridiculous and his efficiency is out of this world that like 64, 65, I think it's like 63% from the field. He's been bawling out of his mind. And to see him play at this rate with such limited minutes, well, not such limited minutes, but 27 minutes to play for a superstar is not that much still.

Yeah. It's absurd to me and it genuinely still like breaks my mind, but also, again, makes me sad because it's like, damn, bro, this season is that a loss? but over the last few the past month he's reminded me that like yeah like he's still that do with me he's 100% healthy and there should be like no doubts about him as a talent agreed this is why I keep saying I've been saying all year I will not put down the Zion Cup no matter how much you yell at me I will never give up on him yeah like it's a drug what do you mean the Zion Cup it feels like it is sometimes because it's just you know it

there's a Zion cycle it's a drug every 360 is a bump of Coke like Every dung that he does brings you right back in. It feels the cycle is undefeated. He goes through the cycle every year where he has this 10 to 15 game stretch where you're like, oh, this is one of the 10 to 15 most talented players in the NBA. This is Shaquille O'Neal crunched into a 6-6 body with all the same power, put forward in a different type of way. In these last 10 games, 27 and a half points, 67% true shooting.

He is utterly dominant. and I'm trying to stop myself and getting too excited because this happens literally every year he gets healthy and gets in shape goes berserk and then gets hurt and we're like fuck the cycle repeat itself

but right now we're in the up we're in the apex of the up and down and it feels great and you said this season has lost blah blah blah correct for me it's not lost for me this is exactly what I want to see for the whole year I just want to see

40 straight games of Zion going ape shit and carrying the momentum forward he's the lightest he's ever been reportedly he's like 260 right now or something like that he looks yoked dude he looks insane he looks like he looks like a cross-crushing watermelon bro with his hands

he looks nuts so like if we can get a healthy zone for 40 games or whatever's left this year that would make it like 38 or whatever if he finishes out this way staying in shape staying fully engaged fully dominant

that means something to me maybe it'll focus the ping pong balls a little bit I hope not because I want them to see you can get a top three pick it means a lot to me we need to see extended period of dominance to make us as fans, the organization, the media, everybody feel like they can rely on Zion to perform on a consistent level and to be there consistently and, like, not

break our hearts every year. That means more to me than anything in the guy at MNBA right now. I need to see this for at least 20 more games. Last year, this, Zana Williamson looks completely different from last year because this Pelicans' offense has changed. Obviously, like, shit, this is literally not the same because so many players have been in and out and whatnot. But last year, they're obviously one of the better teams in the Western Conference. But Zahn Williamson had a usage rate of 28th last year. And so far this season, he's up to all the way six in the entire NBA.

And so it's clear as day like he's been fully empowered. Of course, it's easy to be number six when you don't have no one to play around. But needless to say, when the ball's been in his hands, he has been leading them with such power and force. And if I'm someone like their head coach, this should remind you. to like, okay, like next time, when the next opportunity, next thing that you get, when you have all your talented players around you, who knows what's going to happen, which is on Tim Murray with the tourney killies.

But the offense needs to be centered and catered towards him because he's a generational talent. Yes. Yeah, this is something that Pelicans fans are talking about a lot. They're saying it obviously everything feels and flows a million times better right now with Zion Williamson and Tramery being the focal points. They actually complement each other. Don't step on each other's toes

You mentioned that the usage rate thing That is a Brandon Ingram stack That's what that is He is gone The second person next is on Fits him off wall now Which isn't a slight to Brandon Ingram They just didn't fucking fit

We all knew it for a long time And this game was on the screen right now It was Pelicans versus Lakers Watching that game Offense felt so good The problem is their defense Is absolutely horrendous right now Because they don't have Herb Jones

And they have a rookie big man And Kelly Linneke of the four Defense was pitiful Luka was picking him apart He looked like vintage Luca because their defense is so bad, assuming that's not the case next year, and assuming the Herb Jones is back and an either second year leap for Missy or a different center is starting, this is going to be a very good team

again, very fast. Their depth is going to be ridiculous. They're going to add in like Ace Bailey or some shit to the bench. It's going to be ridiculous. I have, I feel very hopeful. And I think of Pelicans fans exist in our audience right now. They should feel very hopeful going to next year. I got a way to believe. I got, I got a way to, I understand. I got a way to believe i just can't i can't i can't do it again i can't live like this man i understand i don't like i said it is a cup he is a cup and you sometimes you're dizzy and you can't wake up in the middle of the day because you're just down bad with the side effects so i understand i donnava i think he has a real issue that he's like admitting right now because he's probably too much of a

probably what's a night cup right there what's a night cup exactly who's right now i don't know that's in. But there is there's always the looming downside because we've seen this movie before and the haters in the comments would be like, yeah,

blah, blah, blah, I'm not getting my hopes up. He's still him. He's still can't be relied upon. I get it. I get it.

I understand. I can't even say you're being negative anymore. You know, I'm always quick to say you guys are being dumb and negative and stop hating. I can't say it this time.

I understand. There's very, very real, proven scientific reasons to feel like this might and poorly again. So I get it. But motherfucker, I'm choosing to believe When it's happening, it's cool as fuck

That's all I'll say I'm gonna enjoy every game of it I can get Because I don't know how much longer I'm gonna get it Yeah, exactly Who's next? So I didn't start with the Lakers God damn

I shouldn't have asked that I think I should put them second You think we should go Just get into it? I'm not gonna talk about the Lakers We've talked about the Lakers so... We have talked about them a lot We have we talked about them so much

We talked about on stream a lot This past week It was actually a really good conversation And so I don't got to beat a dead horse the lakers are extremely good again luke and lebrown work all the stuff that everyone's talking about right the main thing i've learned in 2025 that actively i've learned in this year alone not anything prior j j jredic is an elite coach yes that's the part that i think is undeniable to me whatever number you want to put it at whatever you view as elite i think there's

fluctuation coaches that most people don't really update their understanding of who coaches are year by year you kind of carry the reputation for a while whatever the number is for you that makes somebody elite, J. Joretic is in that. We can call it top 10. He's in the top third of the league, at least, of coaches. This is just simply, when he was in the media, he was one of the smartest minds. When he was a player, I'm sure you felt that in a locker room if he played with him. People talked about that a lot whenever he joined the media that it made sense that he'd be good at this. That is translated immediately as a coach, especially coming off as a person who came off watching Darwin Ham coached the team, who I defended at times because he, you know, there was

some ups and downs and the downs and the downs were really highlighted towards the end it was nothing but downs and it was really ugly because the going got rough and he did not have the consistent clear like adaptability in his system but just being the smartest guy in the room and making shit work it feels like I'm watching a different sport watching a team that plays under jj reddick man yeah man who would have known who would have thought like a team with the back line of or with the front line of Luca and Austin Reeves

and I guess LeBron in that instance too would like form one of the better defenses in the NBA. Austin Reeves hasn't been here but still like they were still fucking great with him on the defensive side of the court like no one on this goddamn planet

would believe that since this trade has been one of the best teams in the NBA they are consistently like raising the bar higher and higher and higher for me personally when it comes to how I view them in the light of the content tender. I have bars in my head, but I will not release them until the time has come and it's

not the end of the season yet. But I am just getting closer and closer. I will say that. Yeah. The past like two streams and two episodes, I keep referencing that I'm waiting for this bad defense to come about. Everyone keeps telling me about it. It keeps telling me it's fake. I keep checking the last 15 games defensive ratings. What do you know? They're still number one. Like they have been for quite a while. It's like three weeks straight of them being number one. Every time I check last 15 games. It's just an extremely smart defensive team. It's a a good, bought-in organization, I mean, a team, I don't want to say organization's good, because I don't know how that feel about the upper management, but when the coaching staff and

players, there's so much buying, there's so much effort, it feels like I'm watching an Eric Spolster defense that finds a way to get out the mud no matter who's out there because their coach is incredibly smart and has good game plans, and the players all buy into his vision, it feels exactly the same as that. That's true. That's true. I'm, I'm licking out. I need like a week off. You need a week. Laker out. But all the JJ stuff is right. And I think like basically every time that people call a coach elite

is based off a one or two things. One is either I thought your team was going to be trashed. And you guys actually aren't trash. So like shout out to you. And then it's also the very clear like in a playoff series where they'll have a good playoff run. And you can see the changes. And you can see the adaptability.

Obviously we haven't gotten to that point with the Lakers yet because the season's not over. but we've talked so much about every 15 game stretch or every 10 game stretch being different for the Lakers because JJ has tried different things and the Lakers have continued to evolve you know who they are and now obviously everything changes whenever you get Luka and you are able to you are able to be a much better team but yes like he's he's done great so shout out shout out to the Lakers I guess yeah you know you don't have shot the Lakers then just shout out JJ that's why we're making us

specific today but we've talked a lot about why the team is good thanks it's not a given like it i've said a lot that i think people were being just lazy as fuck when they were talking about the lebron lucca pairing when they were doing the there's only one ball shit that was dumb tired argument but but but but it's not a given that it works so fast it would have been understandable if there was a period where they struggled and lost some games because they were adjusting right and there was some of that for lucas specifically but on a team level they didn't miss a goddamn step. They didn't go through a prolonged period

of struggling whatsoever after the trade. Even after Luke, before Luca debuted, and they were playing without Anthony Davis and without Luca, they were still continuing the momentum they had before the trade and playing really well. That's a JJ Wright testament to me

that he figured out how to make it work immediately. And even other great coaches, that's not always a given. Yeah, dude, one thing I can say is that when I watch the Lakers on an even night, it seems like now, compared to the last 20, 30 games

before the Luka Donge's trade, they play such a serious brand of basketball. They don't bullshit. They try fucking hard, bro. They don't bullshit themselves. On the defensive end, especially, it feels like DeJ. Reddick has, like, injected also, like, his insane, like,

you need to be 100% percent, 100% of the fucking time. Don't give up a cubit square inch of fucking space on the goddamn court. That is there when I see guys like Rui Hachimura when he's been healthy. go ahead and, like, do certain things on clothes, I'm just like, oh, shit, like, he's kind of here.

And then you obviously see the stuff that Vando does. He's fucking Vanderbue, but he's there 15 minutes, 20 minutes a night to wreak havoc and file the shit of the guys here and there. And LeBron is LeBron as well, seeing his, like, intensity to go at the highest you've seen in quite a while. It's insane. And JJ Reddick deserves all the props. And he, do you think there's a world in which he wins coach of the year?

no a world may i mean maybe i don't know i guess it depends on the season ends but there's some strong candidates like i feel like it's probably kinney actinsons's award he probably should win it uh i there'll be a push if you gotta tell me he's a finalist i won't be surprised at all okay yeah winning yeah winning's a lot i would have like like again like it would probably be kennie actinson and also jb biggerstaff in detroit would probably be kind of high up there with how like quickly detroit has turned around and like how competent they are That's true.

There was some shit. Yeah, no, they were not good last year. But again, we're an unprecedented times. And this is an unprecedented move with unprecedented level of attention that the Lakers currently have, like, even for the Lakers. The NBA world is really revolving around Luca Dantius and the Lakers for obvious reasons. Like, it's the aftermath of the crazy trade. So if you tell me that is carried over and that we get some clout boost to a J.D.

Aoretic coach of the year candidacy because he's maximized it so well, that wouldn't shock me. You know, like that wouldn't be the most shocking part of this whole ordeal. This Saturday is going to be so fun because it's Lakers Celtics in Boston, right? Like, if the Lakers come out and they have a, like, a statement game, you always see like towards the last like 20 games of a season, awards start to, you know, change because people have standout stuff. This could be a potential turning point for JJ to get coach a of the year. The Lakers might get the two seed.

They're currently the two seed, I think, unless they change in the last 24 hours. No, they are. If they're the two seed after they're starting at the seven, They make a crazy trade. They don't miss anything and they fully get the best out of Luca and LeBron. I'm saying it's a clout thing.

That wouldn't be undeserving of coach of the year. That's a really wild circumstance to navigate and get the most of and end up on top of the league besides O'KC in your conference. Yeah. That's a deserving coach of the year of Canada.

I think when it comes to what the coach of the year award has traditionally meant, it's like from start zero to game. We thought you were going to be trash and you weren't. Or you vastly outperformed expectations. that's the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He was a rookie head coach. Some people were saying you hired your podcaster, this guy is going to be trash. They have 11 losses. They have 11 losses. Like, it's probably going to be Kenny Atkinson. They know it definitely is.

We all know this. Yeah. But in terms of exceeding expectations, like usually that's team-based. J.J. Reddick is a rookie head coach doing this. I'm not saying that should play into it because, like, you don't get, but it's a narrative-based award. It's a narrative-based award.

He can be a finalist. But also, like, you did, you got Luca Donchitz midseason, whereas the Cavs, we were talking about blowing them up last year and you largely brought back the same group. And now you're, you know, you're doing all the things that you're doing. So I agree with you. All right. My next team. Which next team? My next team, the Detroit Pistons.

Okay. Detroit Basketball. And I have learned that Assar Thompson needs to stay in the starting lineup because he is amazing at his job. And this Detroit Pistons. And this Detroit Pistons team, listen, last 15 games, their defenses, their defenses is clicking, right? I don't, I don't care. I don't care in the last game against the Clippers. I do not care.

I did not see that. Did I see James Harden done for the first time in 30 years? I did not see that. I did not see that. Did I see him do the nosebleeds celebration? But Assar Thompson, and now that he isn't in the starting lineup, which he's been basically for like all of 2025, he's. He's, listen, dude, like, we saw, we saw it last year and we saw how great he was defensively last year.

And we were like, yo, this is one of, like, the best defensive rookies to ever come into the league. It's the same thing. Every single night, like, you can see him making an amazing defensive play. And it's so cool. Like, the best defenders in the league, they all do a thing where, like, they can set up offensive players and, like, lure them into a track to where to where they can go and get a steal, go get a block. And you see Asar do that so so often. And so just watching Asar be back into the line of watching the pistons push forward like this. It's been super, super fun.

So yeah, Asar Thompson, shout out to you. Because I learned that once again, you are that guy defensively. Their second defensive rating last 15 games, like you said, they've been starting this off for 27 games. I can't see on MB.com the last 27 games. I shall do it by day. So I'll figure it out after I say the sentence. Yeah. I feel like it's probably a pretty clear.

delineation between when they were an average defense to when they were good as fuck it probably has to do what the saw are playing more minutes i feel it's like a pretty simple explanation for how things have gone so well is him but also jalen durin shout out him he's playing a lot better as of late on both sides of the ball he still wasn't like scoring quite as much because there's you know just not as many shots to go around with k being kade this year natural but he looks less clueless defensively uh i think piston's fans can talk to a little more specifically than i can for how much I've watched him as of late, but it feels like tangibly he's a little bit better

on that end. He's talked a little bit about being more aggressive offensively and getting back to the scoring rate he was at before last year. Not quite back, but it's better. He went from like averaging 11 points to 13 in the span of like two weeks. And good momentum for him. Still has a lot of development to go, but

it's a good sign. Yes. So many interesting things happening on that Piston team at once, bro. Like, they're so new and fresh And there's obviously, like, we know Kate Cunningham, he arrived a third of the way into this season, like 40 games or so. It's like, yo, like, this dude's a legit star. And then the rookie Ron Holland was, like, producing at a decent rate.

And then you got the melee pieces of the world, like reviving, reviving his NBA career, whatever that means, being an actual staple. And then Tobias Harris is just being useful out there again. Who would I knew? Who would have thought? Like, he's actually doing, like, productive things. This is like the least amount of times You've ever mentioned Tobias Harris ever on this podcast

This season bro No one talks about him anymore because there's nothing to talk about You set us up He's just consistent He just is what it is And to be fair he was never ass He was disappointed for somebody making $40 million a year on the 76ers

They need a little more out of that salary spot That he wasn't giving him But he was never a problem He was never like a bad basketball player He was just not the answer for they needed And they had no other way outside of him I mean no no no no Two, two points, three points, bro,

and, like, close-out games. You had bad performances. Oh, of course, he's not perfect. I'm not saying he's a perfect player. In high leverage moments. Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying he's infallible, but he was talked about as being bobbing the brook shit as points by 76ers fans,

but that was about how much he was paid. Now he's paid less money, less expectations, less high of a pressure cooker, like he was playing with the 76ers. He's a good player that shouldn't be paid $40 million a year, but you pay him a little more adequately. it feels like he's getting about right. Yeah.

He's biased Harrison. He's doing his thing, bro. Yeah, shout out. I what's your next team, Mo? The next team I want to talk about is the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are also one of the more interesting teams in NBA with a whole lot of shit going on. They started off earlier in the season. Pretty disappointing.

We were obviously they're fresh off of the car into any town's trade and everyone's like, oh, what the fuck's happening? Why did you guys do that, blah, blah, blah. No one cares anymore. And we've all accepted reality. Now, through that reality, there's been. a whole lot of ups and downs within the starting lineup of this team as a late Rudy Gaubert has been out since I think like midway point of February and Dante

Devon, too, just funny coming back and since he's came back, he's been hooping his ass off soon as efficiently as ever this season over the last three, four games as he's been back. But something that's like been even more injuring to me and that's just like, it's a massive deal to this team and what they are and the ceiling's limitations that they have, especially the cap-wise suits and Sarah's second apron team is the emergence of Jaden McDaniels. Over, let me put out this iPad, over the last

over the last nine games that he's played, this dude's been averaging 19 points, 20 points, my bad, and shooting 50% from the field, bro. Don't look at it's three-point percentage. It's not there yet. He's only 26. 4 or 5

a game. Now think about how efficient you have to be to shoot 26% from three and still shoot 50% from the few. I got a full of where you're seeing it. 62% from 2. That is impressive. And yeah, this is the scoring that we wanted to see for a long time and he didn't make.

Again, it's only nine games. A lot of mid-season scoring leaves like this is that we call the Jalen Green effect. So we'll see if it's real, but extremely encouraging from somebody they need to be playing super well going into the playoffs. If this continues to be somewhat real, which I believe it is,

that's an immense deal. Because over the last, I believe, 30-ish games. He's been averaging 15 points on 50% shooting from the field and 35% shooting from the three-point line. That is a leap. That is the money that he's been tied. That is not 100% worth maybe the money he's been tied to, but you see his performances and it's like, okay, it lines up. And I see like the constant elevation in his game alongside the Nas Reads of the world and especially Anthony Edwards of the world. And since January, I see that they've been, I believe a top six offense

and top six defense as January 1st specifically which is good now one of the main things that's holding this team back to me personally when it comes to how serious I can take them in the playoffs because right now I think they're what on the seventh seed

maybe or so in the Western Conference no they're the ninth seed that's insane they're the ninth seed it fluctuates a lot right now they were seventh like a couple days ago yeah I think Something that's... No, there's seven for now.

Okay, cool. My app is... My NBA app is just stripper right now. Something that's holding me back from, like, actually saying, yo, like, they could actually... They could literally, like, upset a team is seeing the intensity

in which they play out from night tonight. They get their ass beat on the boards for no reason. It doesn't make any sense because generally they're, like, one of the bigger teams in the entire NBA. With the Julius Randals of the world,

Rudy Gober has been out, which absolutely sucks and it hurts. But even with Rudy Gobert on that team, too, he's having a down to rebound rebounding year and overall they're just like not a great yearbounding team for whatever reason it is. I think that's purely effort

and intensity and how serious of a basketball team you are and I guess that's a Chris Finch thing or whatever but if they can fix that one issue and if Jane McDaniels can consistently keep up this slight uptick of scoring, you know, things are changing for this team and they can upset

someone in the playoffs. Okay. There you go. Yeah, I mean having Julius Randall Hack certainly helps with the rebounding factor, getting him and Gobert back both together will certainly help. The big part why they were so good rebounding last year you had two seven footers out there, two great rebounders. Hasn't been the case.

You know, Nazareed isn't an amazing rebounder by any means. So there ain't no in the last game of Julie Randall, by the way. You know, a lot has been made about him not being a good fit. It's better to have him than to not, even though sometimes it feels like it might not be the case. As of late, they're winning with him there. They're finding ways to be good.

He doesn't, he's not fitting out like a sore thumb anymore. So, yeah, I'm excited to see. see if they look on their hole. I hope to get to the 60 at least because if they had to face the Lakers, the Thunder, not looking forward to that for them. But if they can get to that three seed and face the Nuggets again or the Grizzlies, like, should be interesting. Yeah, I don't know who to take if they face them if this Grizzlies. I'm, I'm having an easy conversation when it comes to the Nuggets. I don't know if I can say that. But when it comes to the grizzies, I think they could actually like look them in the eyes and make something happen

in the first round. Absolutely. Well, let's talk about the Nuggets real quick. Since they're my next team, let's jump to that topic real quick. Because this one is very fast. I don't have a ton of insight to give you. I don't have a ton of numbers to give you. I don't even want to talk with them for more than five minutes. I have learned in 2025 the Nuggets just simply are not good enough to do anything of note this year. They are not good enough to be an upper tier contender. They have a talent deficiency that is too much to overcome, even with Nicole Yokic playing better than he ever has offensively and having one of the single most impressive offensive peaks in NBA history. It just does not matter. They don't have the bench

depth talent-wise. They don't even have the starters talent-wise to be good out to make up for the bench as they used to with KCP being gone. There's just stretches of the year where Russ plays extremely well and gave them the boost they needed. It hasn't been the cases of late consistently, but you know, he was kind of given more than expected, so it's okay that's up and downs. Christian Brown is very good. Isn't the defender KCP once was, which we're seeing game by game, is the important part of KCP. The offense didn't matter that much, but the defense with a huge deal for helping Nikola Yokic be a good enough defender to survive because he had that point of attack defensive guy to fought over screens.

Without that, their defense has no chance of being top 10 at any point in the year, I don't think. And they don't have the offensive firepower after JJ Reddick gave the league a blueprint on how to double team him, fronting him in the post, and really cut off the passing lanes to Yokic because they have enough bad shooters you can sag off. Everybody's doing that now. In the last five games have been hell every single night from Nicole Yokic. He's getting frustrated. And I just don't think there's an answer in season. I think they're just going to be a first or second round out. It's going to be what it is. Calvin Booth, this is your fault

This is on you Yeah, yeah, you're not seeing the pro the gates right now In the NBA world It's not great for you Yeah But one of the most insane things That I've seen in the entire Entirity of the NBA history

Is seeing a DM hop on that stage That podium and be like Yeah, we try to trade this guy But there were no suitors He's just out of the fuck At his economics That was insane That was so unprofessional

And just fucking idiotic I love honesty usually I hate Calvin Booth I hate rooting for him on my team That guy that guy does not seem like he has the most thoughts upstairs and he drops it from a mic I would hate that guy

but let me double up right now because there's another team that I feel this way about that's in the same boat the Houston Rockets I can also confirm that I've learned this year they don't have enough firepower very similar situation to the Denver Nuggets

different construction roster-wise but the same outcome they are a good team that's really faltering as of late and we're judging them at the lowest so I do expect some bounce back to some degree, especially on the defense side of the ball. But they're 5 and 10 in the last 15 games.

13th in defense in that time, 25th in offense. The 25th in offense kind of is what it is, been that way most of the year. They're currently 13th in defense, and I think a big part of that can be tied down to the fact that they lost Jabari Smith for a long time, who just came back and is playing off the bench now for Amen Thompson,

who were the biggest Amend Thompson fans in the world. We want him to start long term. I think now he shouldn't start at the expense of Jabari Smith. They got to find a way to have both of them. in the lineup, I think, because Jabari Smith is incredibly important for their defense. I thought he's underrated defensively all year. Having that big forward next

to Sangoon is, I think, a big part of what's made Sangoon so good defensively this year and not a problem at all. That duo makes all the sense in the world together. And if they're not going to have the top three defense at the start the year, they're damn sure not going to have an offensive surge. And again, their defense

will bounce back to some degree, I'm sure. But it just, they're winning off of offensive rebounding, and crazy grit early in the year. We didn't think it was a winning formula then when it was at its peak. Now that we're seeing a little downturn, it just feels like good jump this year from a non-contending team to being a playoff team.

You were ahead of schedule regardless. They still obviously got to find a way to inject some more talent to that team. Yeah, I think something that you see a lot where one team has either very, very good offensively or very, very good defensively, and that's kind of the thing that they hang their hat on. you have a very, very small margin for error

when you have a quote unquote superpower. Like the Celtics and the calves and the thunder, like yes, they are top five, top 10 defensively. They're also the same thing on the other side, right? And that's why they're like in a circle. But if you have a number one defense and bottom 10 offense, you cannot fall to, you don't have the room to fall to like a top six defense. You have to stay in that top five, top three areas.

So that's something that with the. Rockets, you've seen all year, on top of the fact of, like, you know, their youth on top of the fact that the veterans that they brought in, Fred Van Bleet hasn't, you know, been amazing, amazing this season. Like, there's been a lot of things contributing to them, you know, not necessarily being championship contenders. They've taken a lot of step forward. But again, like, you just, you have to be at your tip top if that's going to be how

you play basketball. Exactly. Everybody has slumps. It's part of the NBA season. When you're a team built like this, you can't have slum. You have to be the outlier. You have to be an anomaly. You have to be different.

You had to be different in every way you can't fall off at all. He's spitting. And again, mad regularly. There's no anomaly in sight. Yeah. True. Okay. I'm going to double up on my next two because I think that they kind of go together.

Right. We double it. We double different. Let's do it. Yeah. So we're talking about the 76ers and... I love double penetration. And the Phoenix and that is not what I said.

It's going on! Anyways, so with these two teams, you learned the Big Three error is over, right? Like the sons, they went out and they acquired Kevin Norett, they acquired Bradley Biel, and they said we have one in-house star, we're going to go get the other two. That's not working. This team is going to blow up in the offseason. Kevin Durant is going to get traded. They got swept.

They might not win a playoff game across their two years being together. on the you know that's insane it's wild that's crazy it's wild you have devon booker kevin bradley bill you might not get a get a singular playoff game which is which is wild and that thing has gone you know completely um to it's been a right the sixers same way you had imb obviously his health stuff changes everything but even if imb was was healthy you paid paul george $200 million, and he's having the worst year of his career, you would be in the same situation as you were last year where you have a $40 million player underperforming. And so you probably would not, like they would have been obviously better than what they are

right now, but you're not getting to a championship ceiling if you have $40 million in a player who's not giving you $40 million worth of production. And so I think that for both of those teams, you have to look at yourself this offseason and think about your future and think about your future. your trajectory because the current errors that you're in that involve big threes, they're done. And so I'm looking them together. I think the headline that main takeaway from these two teams is you can't cheat fate.

The Green Reaper will come. You trade all your picks. You go asset poor for Bradley Beal and a fit that doesn't make sense. Bill's going to be due. You get all the time you can out of Joel and Bede, but that needs a ticking time bomb. Bill's going to be due right now and they're going to be feeling the effects of that for the next five years. Both the teams are in a terrible situation long term.

Exactly. Let me add one more team on this. We'll just go to the trifect of awfulness. Okay, go ahead. My takeaway for the Dallas Mavericks is very similar. My takeaway is God hates Texas. My takeaway is nothing is good in Dallas that whoever is involved in the wrongdoings you have done as organization is paying the carmic debt that you owe them. And the fan base is all the worst for it.

Nothing is going good for the Mavericks. We talked about the Sixers and we talked about the Sons as having the bill being due now for the decisions they made, up to it. The Dallas Mavericks, they started this bill a month ago, and here we are. It's being paid. You trade Luca Donchitz. You... No, they're in debt forever. There's no like bill that's going to be due. They just, every month, just pay me after payment after payment. To just every time they open their eyes, they take a step outside, Tony Soprano and Pauly are sitting there with monkey wrenches ready to break their goddamn knees and they're never going to stop. You're never going to walk again. You're going to lose your fucking core fans because you

disrespect them by trading Luca Donschich and then going to war with them. After the backlash, you reasonably deserve. We don't show them on the Jumbotron. You do all this crazy stuff and you make your fans hate you. Didn't they raise the ticket prices too by 8%? 8% on season tickets, which is obviously hilarious timing. And then, yeah, man, they get super unlucky with the Kyrie ring injury, which you talk about on the stream, just clip up on the channel right now.

Shout out Kyrieu, you hope he's okay. It just goes to show the situation they're in. They're feeling the pain of this way more than they would. They didn't trade Luca Donchich. So even though it's not his fault, Kyrie Tori's ACL, the Kyrie Irving unluckiness is making Nico Harrison pay the Pied Piper. The future is horrible for the Mavericks. Nothing is going to be good for quite a while.

Yeah, man. Yeah. It's absolutely atrocious, Bill, because when you sit down and look at the Dallas and Mavericks, like pick situation over the next few years, it's very bleak. Like, of course, this year they have their own glutes to them. That's great. And the next year, as well, they have their own. But considering how old a lot of these guys are and seeing all the outgoing picks that they do have,

have it's kind of sad and it's getting a little bit scary yeah it's not a fun time uh i actually if you want to see more thoughts about this i actually in two minutes from we're recording this an episode of progeny four is going up where we cover in-depth the horrible horrible horrible situation of the dallas mavericks so you can go there you can go on a channel watch a clip to see talk more in-depth about a few days ago not much like to say on the matter if you're a mavericks fan tough all right speaking of tough i want to get an ounce of depression out of my system to the Orlando magic oh my god things have been so bleak over there bro i my people had so much hope for them this year i had so much belief in guys like paula van caro franz wagner window quarter juniors of

the world and their whole recipe and just like cookbook of how to fry the NBA in the most like unique style possible. Now, they still do play a unique style. To me, I think they play like 2005 basketball. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Real quick. What makes it so unique? What makes it unique and not just bad? There's quite a few things that makes it unique. But not being able to shoot. That's unique. Specifically, it's seeing how Paulo Bencaro is able to get his buckets in just a unique way.

He's brute force, all ass shit. Seeing him be second in the entire NBA since the All-Star break in points per game, putting up like 30. He's in Shay, Luca, Yonis conversations. It's insane, but your team is still, like, complete shit. And on top of that, too, I just seen you lost to the Toronto Raptors, like, back to back. He had 40 and they lost.

Check the stat line. Check the stat line. He had 40 and they lost. I love it. And I'm also, like, very aware, like, yo, you aren't shit. out of luck when it comes to the jail and jail and suck situation because news came out a couple days ago that he's out for the entirety of the year. That just blows every ounce of hope that every single Orlando Magic fan had when it comes to resurrecting this season or even making

a little bit of noise during the playoffs. The entire cookbook for this team needs to be reworked and revamped and this Paulo and Franz thing too, it just needs for the evaluation. But I've learned this season is completely over. What we've learned is that we were right about this team, is that what we said all summer is they need to go out and get a shot-making point guard to alleviate pressure and not force Palo Bancaro to be the point forward and do all the creation for himself.

Yeah, correct. It would be real nice if they had an Anthony Simons, had a, even just like a Jordan Clarkson, someone cheaper and easier to get who can be somebody that can create their own shot and shoot off ball. That is vital. And obviously we're judging them after they lose Jalen Suggs

who, in some part of us, supposed to be that guy with his development offensively. It sucks to lose him and to lose your top-tier defense hopes in losing him. So caveat, we understand that makes it worse. Even when he was there, you still felt some of that. Like, they need more offensive juice, clearly. And again, we like Franz a lot. We think he should be more of the playmaker for those two.

And we like the long-term ceiling of Palo Bancaro as a good to score. If the playmaking can be, you know, allocated in the right way between him and Franz, they need more offensively. It is so clear. And they try to get KCP to fix that. sucks. He hasn't been the answer there. That's unfortunate when we all expected him to help in some regard. But I think at least us up here said it when that happened, that he's not going to be the answer to fix it overnight. Even if you got good KCP shooting, they didn't

just need spot-up shooters. They need dynamic creators that can do a little bit with the ball in their hands as well as just shoot open shots. Steve is fried, man. Their GM has a lot, a lot of questions in making up a ground to pay for these Orlando Magic fans because these moves should have been made during the off season

you're right these moves should have been made during the trade deadline he just continuously like sat on his hands and just was like well fuck it ball up

and the last couple drafts haven't been that good either and that's been big that they've missed on some key draft pick that at this point of your rebuild you need those guys to be pretty useful

like they're not getting anything from Jed Howard and there's some other guys that we don't got a single out that aren't providing them a lot in recent draft years and that would have been how you make

all work by getting something out of those picks and with those being zeros and with you using your cap space to sign KCP and bring back your own guys which were really all big men you just kind of missed a window you had to really make something happen yeah okay I won't I won't say that I won't say they missed the window I don't mean to be a good team I mean in this past summer they hit those drafts and use that money better okay yeah they could have they could have duct all this by fixing those solutions like they had the opportunity to fix a lot of these issues. That was the window. Not to say the window's fucked like they're never going to be good. But the window

to be a lot better and not have these issues be a thing. You had a summer where you could have fixed a lot of this if you did the right thing. They definitely slowed down their own progression and stunted their growth easily. Yeah, that's what I mean. Sucks. But again, not to say the marathon's over. It's still, you have a long, long timeline

ahead of you with Palo and Franz Wagner. It does. Nevertheless, you're not fucked. People think I hate this organization and I want them to be bad forever. They're going to be good eventually. It's just taking longer than it should. True, true. I agree. All right.

I'm going to double up on my next two because it kind of goes a little bit hand-in-hand in terms of what I just said in terms of missing on some draft picks. And the Utah Jazz and the Toronto Raptors, they need Cooper Flag. That's your takeaway? They need, like, no, no, no, like, okay. So some other teams. Oh, if you got the number one pick, yeah, it'll be nice. These two teams need Cooper Flag.

They need, they need a guy. I think Utah needs them more. No, the Jazz specifically, right? I think, because like we said earlier, I think that Scotty Barnes can still develop into being a very, very talented and good player, right, potentially, like, have an all-MBA type season. But he has to be in the perfect situation, and he's never going to be your 1A. I don't think that Scotty Barnes is going to be like your franchise guy. I think that for them, Cooper Flag can potentially be.

be that. And you just traded for Brandon Ingram. We are yet to see how like that fit works long term. Let's get Cooper flag in there. We're kind of unsure about Emmanuel quickly. We're kind of unsure about RJ Barrett, Grady Dick. We will continue to see what we have. But I think that the Raptors, if they get Cooper flag, you can springboard a lot of your development and you can get a guy in the building. The jazz, just have nobody. Like if you go back at the jazz's last, you know, four to five drafts, it has not gone. well and they one didn't have a lot of their picks and some of the some of the better picks that were made under the jazz were going to other teams because they had traded those those picks away

and even us like on draft night we thought that the jazz had a good draft right they drafted cody williams hasn't really been there this year that man does cardio exactly Isaiah Isaiah Collier can't hit though yeah can't can't shoot can't shoot for shit can't shoot can't shoot for shit can't shoot a great playmaker he is a dope ass playmaker and I'm And I will give him that. He cannot shoot the ball, right? I don't care. Collier's the one bright spot.

We're going to give him great. All the other guys. Like, Keante George is playing. He's still very inefficient. He stinks. He stinks. Okay. I sold it.

I'm sorry. See, I know why you feel the way because you were so high on him, so you were defeated. I get it. But if you go up and down the list, they don't, they don't, and even as good as Isaiah Collier has been because of his shooting. Right now, I don't see Isaiah Collier as a franchise, franchise guy in terms of like one-day. Cooper flag can be that.

Those two teams need to be on their hands and knees, praying, willing to give Adam Silver any amount of money to rig the draft to get them Cooper Flag. So they need him. The Jazz, you're right. They are desolate in terms of top-end talent. They need that guy. The Raptors, I'm not doing into this group quite yet because I look at you. I want to see them get Dylan Harper.

that's why I want to see them get really bad I really like the idea of Brandon Ingram there next to Scotty Barnes to be the main go-to score to alleviate some of that responsibility off of Scottie Barnes and let him get in the right role he's never really been in or I guess he was when he played Necessi Akron when he's at his best. He needs to be the second option

so he can be the crazy Swiss Army knife use his secondary passing uses energy defensively, use his scoring as a release valve attacking four-on-three situations off of the best offensive player and really be the Scottie Pippin he's meant to be Dylan Harper is that point guard

that can be the main off the dribble shooter can be that guy will fit really well with Brandon Ingram really well with Scotty Barnes I like that a lot I kind of want that's my main draft hope right now is that we get to see Dylan Harper in Toronto

And it might happen Either way I think that both of these teams could use a massive massive boost in the draft So that's kind of my point for them Oh yeah Let's say on top of things

I have a similar team That we can knock out real fast You know one of them out bro let's go do it Yeah, I got some shitters on my list, so let me just get these over with. My team on a similar regard, I have the Charlotte Hornets on my list. My takeaway from this season is, I am done. I am done predicting them to make the playing tournament when we do our preceding rankings.

Two years in a row, I put them in the nine or ten seed, and two years in a row, they've been one of the worst teams in the NBA. This team is just so much further away from being good than I thought. Lamello ball has been a bright spot He is not bright enough To make up for all the garbage there And he is not He's not raising the floor He's not the type of player

He can be it maybe Maybe he'll prove to be a really good ceiling raiser When he's playing next to good stars I don't good stars Good players, good players I'll say functioning role players With lingamics and brains When he's in a regular environment

That's not so bad Maybe he'll prove to be the guy That can take you next level He's not the guy that's going to crawl you out of the mud And be the bright spot That you build the organization around in that way Which is fine Not most people aren't right

it's fine. Brandon Miller has been gone and it looks like they lost Prime Paul George even though he's just a second year player who's not even that efficient yet. He's a great long-term prospect like we all think highly what he can be.

He's not super good yet and the fact that he went out and they became the worst team in the goddamn league. The fact that they are trying to trade Mark Williams trying to get off that life raft because they don't believe in him long term. The fact that they just are clearly making moves

that are trying to rid their hands of what the previous regime did because they have no faith in this core being anything of note. I feel like they're at stage one even though they're five years into a rebuild it feels like. And I'm,

next year when we do our preseason rankings, don't give a shit what they do in the summer. I'm going to predict them to be like the 12th best team in the conference at best. You know what the Hornet too? You know what they need? You know the show where Gordon Ramji goes and he like saves failing restaurants?

Like kitchen nightmares? Yeah, like they need that. Like we need like Darryom Warrior or Masayu Jiri just to spend. like one year in Charlotte and be like what are you doing like why is this guy on your draft board they need they need that for like a year and a half and if they listen you get that you film it you put it out on Netflix NBA I'm giving you game right now like I'm really am this is

this is how this is how we make content like hard knocks or table organizations exactly the NFL product where they send John Gruden into a struggling team to be like what are you guys doing I would watch that I would watch that so yeah Why are you, Julian? I'm feeling nice. That was John Green. You probably said the end word after that. No, no, no.

He doesn't say that. He's creative with it. I have no idea who fuck this guy is. Holy shit. Oh, yeah. He's like that guy. You'll find some slurs. He's a grinder.

I like it. You got me feeling nice. Let me do that right now. All right. few teams. I think the next team that I'm kind of excited to talk about are the Milwaukee bucks. And something that I would like to assume that we've all been wrong about. Don't remember U-2's standing point is that, yo, like, the Kyle Kuzma trade actually worked to a degree. Hey, man, I'm getting ratioed on Twitter by Bucks fans every day. I had to mute the tweet. They're

on my ass. Brother. They could be on your ass for all reasons, but it's all understood because right now since the Kyle Kuzma trade happened, They have a record of 8 and 2. You couldn't have tweeted about Kuzma that long. It wasn't Kuzma. I'll tell you what it was. It wasn't Kuzma tweet. I tweeted after, I think it was a third game after the deadline.

I turned on a game and I tweeted in the most passing thought. I tweeted, um, Yannis really has to set screens for Kevin Porter Jr. What Jericho Sims sets in the dunker spot? What did he do to deserve this? Because I meant that's a fucking disgusting lineup. It was gross. It was an ineffective lineup at the time when I was watching it. And what I, the main thing I was getting at is that Kevin Porter Jr. sucks.

basketball. It was the main point of the tweet because I think he's awful and awful person. And I don't know if you guys have seen. He has been an absolute bucket. He's been exactly what they need from a bench creator. And they are letting me hear it because I basically said he sucks. And I threw Jericho Sims in there because he was like making the line of course of time. But I like Jericho Sims.

He's been really big for their defense and their bench units to have like a backup center that can defend the room a little bit. Didn't hate that. I hate the Kevin Porter thing because Kevin Porter has famously sucked for the past four years. But if getting a Ragnanus and Dame has given him the fountain of being good at basketball, and he's going to continue to shoot 50% from mid-range,

career high at the fucking rim, being a great playmaker, I'll take my L, I guess it was a great move. I saw a tweet that said the Bucks managed to sign three bad players and get better. Yeah. And that's what's happened. Brother, the biggest L that we all

is to eat is fucking the Kyle Cooleman. I found it. Oh, what is it? Yeah, no, tweet I'm talking about. No, no. It's, it's exactly what he said but okay i found it yeah i'm gonna bookmark this i'm gonna go back to it later dude it's so funny but you're right the kuzma thing i think we didn't like it because you're trading chris middleton and something you pointed out lot mo was that they looked at their best in the few games he was healthy when they had that creation of him and had like a third

ball handling who can create and we were like shout out kuzma we liked him two years ago but this year he's been horrible and even if you get the best version of him but can be the big rebounding forwards you need i don't like the fact that you don't have the ceiling anymore of having three good ball handles you can create. I don't feel like that's the all-in move. That scared me. But you're right. They keep winning games.

So fuck it. Apparently, this injection of youth and athleticism and the idea that you need this athletic forward next to Yannis, it's working. Shout out, shout out John. Of course, you're a genius. It is fair, too. It's more than working, bro.

They've legitimately been like one of the five best teams in NBA since the trade deadline. And all the things that Kyle Kuzma does on the court isn't necessarily highly talked about because he's shining those things like four or five years ago when he won a championship with the Lakers. The rebounding is fantastic and I don't realize how piss poor the Milwaukee Bucks were

at that when it comes to finding other sources of just bigness on their roster outside of Janice and Brooke Lopez. And on top of that too, when it comes to Kyle Kuzma, the threat of him being a shooter. Again, he's not knocking that bitch now. He's shooting like 32%. But he has the respect of a shooter. And then on top of that as well, seeing what he does off ball and just continuously finding and figuring out ways to be useful

when the ball is in your hands is such an important and underrated skill and it gives them so much more juice in a different way than we're used to seeing with Chris Middleton. It offers like off ball playmaking which a lot of dudes aren't necessarily capable of. I mean, Kyle Kuzma obviously like hardness

that skill when he was back over there with guys like LeBron James and Anthony Davis and all and when he was forced to just play when he was forced to do nothing but play off ball all day every day. So seeing him in this trade coming to fruition and just seeing them flourish with him is so shocking and is the biggest thing that

I've learned so far in 2024-25 community. I don't think it's shocking per se. Like, it was never that Kyle Kuzman can't be. We all knew he'd be better than he wasn't Wizards this year because he was in the worst situation, obviously. So, like, it was clear that you put the guy in a better position. He won't be taking as many heinous shots. That'll be better.

So I'm not surprised with that part. Like I said, the biggest surprise is Kevin Ford Jr. Sheen 58% from mid-range right now. But my only worry with Kuzma is that it'll be good for him. now, but I'm waiting in a playoff setting. Minor sidebees, but Kevin Porter Jr., he got his triple double just like two days ago or whatever.

He was the fastest player. He's like the third or fourth fastest player in NBA history received a triple double. In like 19 minutes of play. It makes no sense. Listen, if that's the hill I'm going to lose on this trade deadline, that I disrespect that Kevin Porter, Jr., I guess I'll take it. I guess I'll just be wrong. But the

Kuzman thing, you're right, it's working as well as expected. My biggest concern was for a playoff setting when when they were at their best in 2021 it was because they had Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday as two creators off of Yannis to give you two release vibes

I can create off the dribble we gotta see if Kyle Kuzma can provide you that at all because I think that's important that it's not just Damon Yannis I think you really need that third creator hey maybe it's Kevin Porter Jr. The mid-range official auto

we'll see but it needs to be Kuzma I think and that's not what they need from him that's probably not what they want from him but I feel like that's going to be something that is going to be important yeah everything changes in in the playoffs but also like we you i think obviously like we do this a lot

with teams who have either like had long playoff runs before or had success and like you go back to the best version of them and you try to like recreate what you had there it's been four years since that you know like the all the entire team has turned over so yes you've seen them win a championship with having yannis and having these other pieces behind it but a lot of a lot of things things have changed. So now you probably are going to have to figure out a different way to win. And that's not the only way to win around Janus, especially with him being so good. And one of the things that we've said for honestly, like the last two years is that just get somebody who can run fast and jump high in Milwaukee because they've needed athletes. And so

they did address that situation. Did you have to give up some of the playmaking for Middleton? Of course. It's always like a give and take. But we will also appear, me specifically, saying, I don't think Chris Middleton's going to be there. So at least having... You were right. Exactly. So at least having another body to where you can give somebody minutes in the playoffs as opposed to Chris Middleton who is going to be there for game one but might not be there

for game two. Like that's also a plus. It's just having available people and then trying to figure out something else. So I do think that initially after the trade deadline, that is something that I probably overlooked whenever they got Kuzmo's that you did. you did address one of your other weaknesses that we've been saying for years to fix. Yeah, they heighten their floor

at the expense of not hiding their ceiling, I think. For me personally, what I think is going to be a winning form in the playoffs. But maybe that move wasn't on the table. So maybe I'm asking it for an unrealistic situation that's not possible, right? So they can just hold them to the standard of becoming one of the best teams in the league

and that wasn't necessarily possible. I like the Jericho Sims edition more than anything, though. I think Jericho Sims on their bench unit has been huge. Like you talk about they need athleticism, I agree. they need that shit from a big Drew Brooke Lopez is old and he feels older than ever

Bobby Portis is your backup five or if it's Yonis nomically whatever like that wasn't a super effective look on the bench defensively I like what Jericho Sims brought on that end a lot especially in the minis when he's not with Yonis Yeah this is what he's gonna do

he's gonna jump exactly that's that's it that's what he's out there to do is to detect his vertical every minute and they need that ability more than ever because Bobby Portis has been suspended for the last eight games and they have i think they got like 17 more games worth of suspension

i forgot he was on drugs that's crazy he's not on drugs stop i mean he was technically but there's different these different kinds that's pain killers bro he's also some pain killers okay i guess we can run out of some of the other teams that i have on this the miami heat we can touch on them quick nothing's really changed the team with this he might obviously witness them finally give him to the whole Jimmy Butler stuff

the only thing that's been interesting me is like oh shit like Bamada bio seems like he's low key back he's been much more efficient when it comes to his shots and the new shot died that he's had and I think over the last 16 games so like right even before

the All-Star break he's been hooping his ass off averaging like 22 a game efficient as normal and it seems like he's starting to get back on track which is cool beans I have nothing else to say for them because they just don't seem nothing seem is nothing is like changing trajectory rise for the scene they're right in the middle crazy when it comes to do it in there bam has been like band's been a beast other way his scoring has been hugely improved it's not just like an aside thing

like he has been a lot a lot better yeah he's been hooping he's been hooping he's right back in the scene when it comes to like being top 30 overall a top 30 NBA player and he's looked just like that as a late true okay good good who's next is it you or in me. Isaac might be out of teams. I thought you were saying you were going to do more than one. I go ahead and write off another team that no one really cares about.

The Atlanta Hawks, I literally have one, two, three, four, five words to say about them. That's hilarious? Yeah, exactly. I have nothing to say about them, but I look at them on just like, nice, Dave, I'm just playing defense. Okay, cool. The Atlanta Hawks, five words for them. Same shit in different toilet.

Next, X them off of my list. row. I thought Karas DeVert was going to save the day. He's been better. He's been so much better. He's been hoopin. No, he's good. I like him. You're not see the fucking Euro step game winner that he hit that team with the other day, the other day, bro. The Memphis Grizzies.

Shout out of his. I hope they, I hope I hope he's like a part of the team for a long time. I just really hope that it can matter next year, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think that's the, I think that's the eventual hope for this team. At this point of time, you're just fighting for your lives and praying to

God that, oh, one thing that I can say that's actually been interesting for this theme that no one really seems to talk about because whenever you think about this player, you think of one side of the ball and how insane he's been. But Dustin Daniels also been making a real leap offensively as a secondary creator. I don't know if you want him to be that on a serious championship contender level team, but seeing the development and the growth on that end could really pay off next year when we get Janlon Johnson back and just with him. him like learning all these new skills.

It's fucking great. That could be a really good silver lining that, you know, the season's lost. You got to find something to get out of it to say yourself up for next year. Just like adding Lavert. Yeah, just like adding Lavert is a move for next year. You want to keep him around. Dyson Daniels being better and a threat to attack closeouts and finish. That could be definitely a big silver lining.

Yeah, like a lot of people forget, like back when he got drafted a couple years ago in the, it was crazy. I keep on forgetting he was a part of the fucking G league. He was drafted as the goddamn point guard. That's what he is. That's the national position. And, of course, like, over there in New Orleans, he wasn't able to really fulfill that because the guy's in front of him. So he was deduced to, like, an awful secondary role who has the ability to do secondary ball handling stuff. And whenever Trey Young is out of those lineups, those abilities are still there and they're roaring.

It's just about, it's just all about his ability to be more aggressive. That's all it is. Shout out Dyson Daniels, man. I really hope he's continued to make that leap. Yeah, exactly. What team do I'll do next? I got three more teams. Brooklyn Nets.

Brooklyn Nets. I learned for the Brooklyn Nets this year that I learned a life lesson that something can tell you a lot about people around this world when you're observing those in your life, those you see on the internet, whatever. Commitment is easier said than done. Before this year started, they came out. They traded for their picks back. The government of Kilbridge's seemingly signaling to the world, they are ready to commit to a tank.

They were ready to do what's necessary to put their team on a long-term path towards excellence, eventually. Easier said than done. It has been the least effective tank I've ever seen in my goddamn way. They might make the playing tournaments. And listen, part of commitment is communication. They didn't tell Dennis Schueter that they were tanked. Because Dennis Schueter started the season off hooping, right? They were out here winning games.

They had to get him out of there. But I agree. I like you look at the also you look at the Eastern Conference and you're like damn damn you suck you suck you suck you suck yeah and then the Nets are about to sneak into the into the plane there should not be a playing for the Eastern Conference this year I can't believe that I can't believe in San Cam Johnson to a good team it makes me so mad he's rotting away there having to tell him tell everybody around us tell everybody time it touches the mic listen we're not tanking we want to go out there

and win he has to tell people this when like obviously he should feel that way It's ridiculous that they're making him have to explain that because he's not playing for a good team. He should be a pacer right now. He should be a thunder right now. He should be a warrior right now. Wherever it may be, I can't believe he's still on the Nets. This is crazy.

First of all, I'm looking at the standings for the Eastern Conference. Six through 12. All of them are on losing streets. They've either lost their most recent game or that's it. The bottom of that conference is, Absolutely ridiculous. This is awful. But yes,

Cam Johnson should not have been there. He should be gone. Unbelievable. He should be gone. All right, we're going to talk about another Eastern Conference thinker. We're going to talk about

the Washington Wizards. Okay. Let's go. My favorite team. We're going to talk about, again, not only just 202. Not only 2025, but really the whole year.

I learned that Jordan Pooke can still hoop. Good observation, man. He is underrated. Yeah. Jordan. Jordan Poole last year, obviously he gets traded. We made a, me specifically, made a lot of jokes about him in Washington, but he's been solid this year.

And Jordan Poole is a guy that if like a team like the Orlando Magic, they could use a guy like Jordan. Absolutely. I would love that fit. You know, like Jordan Poole can go onto contending teams and be what he was for Golden State, which is I can come off the bench, I can start in some situations. situations. I can give you a spark offensively. I can shoot the three ball. I can create my own shot to a certain extent. Defense, we're not worried about that right now, especially if we're

talking about him to the Orlando Magic because y'all have no offense. So that's exactly why you, why you would be bringing me in. But I do think that Jordan Poole showed his value around the league. And there should be a couple suitors trying to go get Jordan Poole because he really quietly has, you know, quote of quote, like revived his NBA. career and he's been good this year. I would like the Orlando Magic Fit a lot because I feel like Jordan Pool's defining thing is I've said before that he's like he reminds me of like a diet diet diet version of Damian Lillard where the game is built on off the dribble three point shooting where he's in

navigate the pick and roll be very shifty get to that three and use the fact that you have to stretch out and defend him really high to get to the rim really well he shoots 68% at the rim he really has shot around there for his entire career he's extremely the effect of driving, that's pretty much exactly what their land of magic need. Someone who can create a paint touch and be a high-level shooter both on and off ball. Exactly.

Speaking of deep shooting and someone who's just like kind of revived their career, it's not to this degree where this player has revived their career, but Tyree's fucking Halliburn has been hooping out of his goddamn mind. Dude, I'm glad you're the Pacers. That's next. And he's been very, very, very, reminiscent of the Tyrese Halliburn

from the past, bro. Over the last seven games he's been absolutely out of his mind shooting like 60% from the field as a point guard brother we know the type of shots that he's been taking we know the type of deep threes that he's like to take and since then he's been shooting 54% from the three point line and averaging 28 points as well alongside that's a casual like 12 and a half assists per game as well he's been frying the league and if he's playing like this then the eastern conference just got a little bit more entertaining because yo he opens up, he opens up everything for the end of the Pacers and everything, including all the

possibilities of what the outcome of this team might be. Yeah, you mentioned the last nine games. The last 44 games, if you look at him after that 15 game stretch to start the season where he was terrible, like outright terrible, he averaged 15 points on 49% true shooting. We were up here panicking as people who held a lot of Tyree's Halliburton stock. You look at the last 44 games, 19.6 points, 64 and a half true shooting, which is absolutely elite. basically for the entirety of the season after that horrible stretch he's playing exactly how he looked

before that Lin's sanity run early last year where he was averaging 27 before that we still liked Harry Talibur and we talked about him as a top 10 point guard averaging about 20 and 10 being a highly efficient keep the ball moving can be a good shooter but not going to be like some volume score

he's been it all year now he's been exactly what was before so maybe that specific month stretch where the volume shooting hit the next level wasn't real but he's no longer this disaster he was to start at the year where we had a question, like, what happened to this guy? But now that is, it is back.

It has me thinking, again, it has been thinking, oh, my God, is this dude back? Was this whole, like, last year and also, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I know he had your reservations. I think we've learned. But I'm so happy that it's happening. We can learn to not, that Tyrese Hallibrand is the type of player that's going to have ups and downs. Don't react too harshly either way. He's always going to be somewhere in the middle of those two versions, right? He's in half-f15-game stretches where the three-point shot is.

falling. He struggles with confidence and the the scoring threat really crumbles because of that because he is such a outside in base score that the three point shot isn't there. He's really not a threat to score at all. Don't overreact when the three point shot is gone. It'll come back. And don't overreact when he shoots 50% from three for a stretch of time because it's not going to be consistent. Most definitely you were over here in your telitubby having a whole tantrum about Tagius Halliburn. I remember that.

He was so unbelievably bad. It made me so mad. It was amazing. He used those exact words to He's so unbelievably bad Like it didn't make sense How horrible the start of the year was That like it left the worst taste of people's mouths That he doesn't even get talked about anymore Because everybody's just like

All right well fuck it You screw me once I'm done believing in you And he's earned the right To no longer be viewed in that way He's not a disaster at all He's once again a very good 9th 10th 8th

Whatever may be best point guard in the league Yeah absolutely And you still like deserves to have a title Of like yo he's a cornerstone piece I don't know if he's the guy or the piece but he is one of the guys on any given night for sure yeah he's he's all-star level again

he's playing at that level at least he can be an all-star again he's no longer playing where it's like this guy's completely fake yeah we love to say absolutely absolutely agree shout out him man when that shooting confidence is there he's a whole different player he's so fun to watch in stretches like this you know who else is so fun to watch bro it's very very not irrelevant

but it's it makes me happy i'll say that it makes me happy to see james fucking hardin go ahead and score 50 points last night against who do he play against again um the Detroit Pistons on yep yeah against the Detroit Pistons he was bawling his ass off bro now I didn't see that game what happened why did he score 50 I don't know what happened I didn't get to watch a second of it bro he's getting to the room like a madman bro shit oh he was dice it was Jalen Duren playing uh yeah jane jane derr was playing and assar thompson was on him as well so I take back what I said my very very scary sight but seeing James Harden I mean you played the game long

If you're going to be got, this is. He's not like someone's being got. But something that I've learned this season for the Los Angeles Clippers is that, okay, I see this team. I know their archetype. They're getting it out of the mud offensive. And they're getting all of the juice they can out of James Hardin while being one of the better defensive team. But the second they're not that defensively, everything crumbles and it's cooked. they've done absolutely nothing throughout the trade deadline to go ahead and reassure the three-point shooting outside of trying to trade for Bobadonovich.

But he, as a hawks for myself, I see, I saw the, it was already written a long time ago. He is not the same player right now, and I think he needs a full offseason of health. So going ahead and trading for him, which hasn't worked out. And then also training or signing some like Ben Simmons, who's a good player. I think a lot of players would a lot of teams like to have him on his team. But what he needs, with what this team meets, he's not conducive to that at all. I have learned to finally like ship the sale for this team

I kind of thought that they would win a couple of playoff games or a couple of games one or two games in the playoffs now that sale's written they're still gonna make the playoffs but I have like little no hope for them whatsoever

yeah we held on early in the year they were obviously very very surprisingly competent whenever they played without quiet Leonard to start the year like they were in the playoffs didn't really have a stretch

where they faltered and we're all like shout out the clippers man they are proving everybody wrong. As soon as the Kwai Leonard news broke, we were like, fuck, this team might be the 12 C. This is going to be painful. And no, they proved that wrong. And the positive sentiment around them was really carried by the fact that, listen, you're doing this without Kauai. What's it going to be like when they add them? You're going to add prime Kauai back to this

team. Healthy Kauai was always a verbiage used. And he's playing. He is on the court. He is healthy. He hasn't been dominant, really. You know, like, they're, what are they currently the six seed so there's still a good team with him like he's probably made them better but they haven't they actually dropped off in standing since he's been back but that's not to fault no what are they at today what are they at today they're not they're not at the seventh seed i believe let me reverse this app okay wherever they're at we haven't seen kawai be at the level that's like right now okay they're eighth yeah this should fluctuates so much here but we haven't seen kawai be at the level that it makes them like the next level where you're like oh

the scene might make a run hasn't been the case yet still a lot of season left they could they could surge and we see that as Kauai gets more games under his belt, but the theoretical hype of what could be hasn't really turned into productivity when Kauai got back. Yeah, so me personally, I think the book is kind of closed on that when it comes to

seeing a very, very healthy, we'll see what a very, very healthy Kauai looks like on this team. I just have no hope for this team whatsoever, and the only thing that's keeping them alive is James Hardin. Yeah, fair enough. So me and maybe they are who we thought they'd be with a healthy Kauai. They just are a spunky, good,

7 through 10 seed Yeah, exactly. Especially with the warrior Surging now. It's hard to end the Timber was playing well. Hard to imagine them getting a top six seed right now.

It's kind of impossible, especially with the way their defense has been reeling. Let's talk about the Chicago Bulls. That's something that don't say very often. How about not? What I've learned this year is Josh Giddy,

you are going to be a rich man this summer. You are going to get paid. Josh Giddy has been hooping. Josh Giddy has been getting the most perhaps the greatest or not greatest that's not the verbage i want to use just the most prototypical contract year i've ever seen a guy that gets to a team off of a low point in which he's dumped by his team he was on before because they just didn't have faith in him being what they need right

for whatever reason for we know why it went the way it did with the thunder wasn't a promising season he goes to a new team gets opportunity a freshly in a contract year which will be afraid the next summer and man the ball is in his hand and man the ball is in his hand that he is putting up numbers for an organization that loves to see their in-house talent put up numbers

and loves to pay them to stick around because they like continuity more than anything in this goddamn world and over these last 10 games Josh Gidey's at 19 points on 62% true shooting

with 8.3 rebound 6.6 assists just being the good version Josh Giddy you could want and I'm not here to say it's fake and he's playing well I guess it's not like it's you know like Fugazi or anything it's 30, never mind

953% from 3 I just saw. How much? That helps. Who? 53% from three. Oh my God. And 45% from two.

Never mind. It is fake. That's fake as shit. That is fake as shit. That is witchcraft, bro. Never mind. It's completely fake. It's pure three-point shooting variance.

That right there in my native language, that's what we call. That's what we call. That's what we call. That's not real. Holy hell. I came up here to say a soft, good job, Josh Giddy. You're going to get paid because the bulls are. dumb and they're going to give you $30 million a year.

It's still going to happen. Still going to happen. But I'm also here to say this shit is fake as hell. 45% of them, too, this is not real. Do you think that the Chicago Bulls are looking at the same numbers you are? They're not. They're not. These guys are numbers.

They're not. They open up the ESPN app and they go and they look at the box where they say he's getting paid. Yes, Josh Gidea, you are going to make multiple, multiple tens of millions of dollars. Yeah. And congratulations. pose. Yeah. All right. I got some teams. Let's talk about the Portland Trailblazers. I like this one. Okay. And I have learned that while you are waiting for one of your young

draft picks to develop offensively, you need to sit down, pull your shorts up and get into a defensive stance. And you need to play defense. Because the Portland Trailblazers have made as much of a push as they can towards the top of the bottom to try to get into the playing because they are defending and they have they have they have some guys they have to moni kamara amazing deni avia uh clinging all these all these guys who've been defensively since since the start of the calendar year they have the six best defense in in the league now throughout that time again scoo henderson has been playing well he's been he's been playing better but the thing that has stood out to me about about the Blazers is that they've gone on runs they've won they've had a

couple they've had like win streaks and stuff and it's because they're they're defending right now and I think that that is something that like has really been underrated about the Blazers and their season to where right now again it's going to be hard because the schedule is really tough but there is a possibility of them sneaking into the 10C to get into the to get into the play in especially with Dallas about to go through the stretch that they're going to and Phoenix being the Phoenix Suns. That'll be a massive win if that was to happen, bro. It would be crazy.

It would be crazy. And I do think that at this point right now, it is unlikely because they have to play a lot of like the top, top contenders. But it's still on the board. You know, and they've gotten a lot of really good wins. I think we take this step further to the Trailblazers.

And like the things you're saying are all true, but we can zoom out with it and take a long term outlook with them. They don't have a star, right? Scoot hasn't hit like we wanted. Shaden Sharp. his rim pressure has been a little bit better as of late but he doesn't seem like he's going to be a star either outside of the guy

who they don't have you look at like two through eight or let's say two through six of your young core they have one the best in the league they have the perfect young core that for when they get a star he's going to be in such an amazing situation if they draft Dylan Harper

or if they draft a whoever I mean it seems like they're not going to be fucking high enough in lottery at this rate but if they were to get a top tier guard or a top tier four whatever may be the defensive infrastructure of Tumani Kamara, Denny, and Klingan alone, just those three guys next to your two main creators.

That's a legit, like, playoff team caliber supporting cast. Like, those are three eventually to be elite defenders when Klingin hits year two and three. I have a question, y'all. Where do you think this Portland Treblers' this team would be if Damien Lode was inserted into this roster? Tensi. I mean, like he came back?

Like, you just like magically put him on the team? Yeah. Tensi. Let's say he replaces Anthony Simons. There's one for one. guy there. I think that much. Oh, damn.

Like, like nine, yeah, like nine or ten C. Listen, at this point right now, if they were the 90, they would be like three to four games better. They'd be about as good as a Timberwells, I think, if you put Dame in the situation. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. This is a master class of team building when things haven't panned out for your quote unquote

star player like you once wanted it to happen. focusing on the outer edges, which I don't know if they necessarily didn't, maybe they just stumbled onto this shit. But seeing, I think Chaunty Billis was on the fucking hottest hot seats over the last few years because he was absolutely doing nothing. Now, I did realize last year that he was semi-cooking. I saw that this Portland Trailblazers team, I believe, at a certain point in time last year.

They're a middle of a pack defense, which is seismic, and it's one of the biggest tell-tale signs for an NBA team finding an identity early, especially if they're still a fucking ass at the end of the day, like 28, 29th in the entire league. So to see this and to see the two money Kamar's out of the world, I gave him like all the credit in the world a couple podcasts ago because I didn't know, I thought he was his name was just throwing in that when it comes to the Damienler trade, like seeing all this happen, seeing Donovan Cleon, who doesn't get that much playing time and whatnot, but when he's on the court, he looks like he absolutely fits.

You couldn't be happier as a Blazers fan. Yeah, all that's true. I just wish Chauncy Billis wasn't the worst offensive coach in the NBA. That would be nice if you could bring some of the defensive instincts to the offense because they've routinely been the least inspired offense I've ever seen. It's just the most basic pinball. But we're not talking about that right now. We're not talking about it. Yeah. See, we knew that. That's what I'm saying. We knew that. We didn't learn that. When they get their guide, they're going to be in such a good position, man. I love Klingin. And maybe they can trade Aiden for something. Maybe they can trade Jamie Graham for something and get some more young guys.

Klingin, Denny, and Tumani are such a awesome defensive core. Like, I don't know what their route is to get the start because they're not going to be in the top five of this draft unless they get some good luck. But I want to see it really bad because they're not terribly far away. They kind of got too good, too fast, bro, with their defense. Like, it makes sense because...

I disagree with that. Really? I think there's kind of... I don't want to say, I disagree. I don't know. No, you need something. You need silver lining because their ball handling picks have been asked so that they need a silver lining. And I don't know, I don't know if you can ever get too good at a defense

it's too fast just because, like, on a year-to-year basis, that stuff also does, like, kind of fluctuate a little bit, especially, like, even if you have good defensive talent, like, you know, depending on if guys get hurt or depending on, you know, certain, like, three-point rates or stuff like that, like, it's not a given that you are going to be a top three defense every single time. And so I think that building a good defensive infrastructure does help a lot, especially when they're trying to do the thing that you said, which was building an identity for a young team. So I don't, I don't think that that's necessarily a negative for them. No, it's a huge positive

because if this didn't happen, they would be desolate. Chansu wouldn't have a job anymore. They'd have one of the worst young courts in the league. Like, yeah. It's a, it's a blessing that they are defending well because they absolutely need something to build off of. Like, but I'm, but in my mind that directionless. I only say that because I'm just like, the talent would still be there. They might not have the direction of what Chonsie Bill has provided on that in. But in terms of just like a long term outlook over the next few years, like how are you going to stumble into that star? Because, I know what you're saying. Yeah, I get it.

Like, there's legitimately no pathway. You had the chance and you blew it. Yeah, there's legitimately no pathway to that and you might be a middle of the pack team. I'm thinking way too ahead of time, but I'm just like making my observations. But also, that's also, I think that might be a little bit overblown because guys get upset in their situations all the time. Like in a year and a half in two years, obviously nobody's going to say, like, well, nobody's going to say, I want to go to Portland. Like, that's not, that's not really what. happens, but people say, oh, I want to, I want to go to New York. I want to go to L.A.

I want to go here. I want to go there. And then the team that straight at him is like, good for you, buddy. Go to Toronto. Like, you know, so I think like Portland could be in a situation where a year and a half from now, two years from now, a star gets upset and you have a whole new crop of draft picks to trade. And then you can trade and go get your star there while all of these guys continue to develop. So I think like for teams like that, that is the way that you go and get a star and, you know, quote-un-called start. I just ran a tank-a-thon simulator. They got the number one-pick?

No, the spurs did. They went up eight points. Why don't how we're talking about the spurs? I just press tak-a-thon to see what would happen, and Portland stayed at 10 and Spurs went to one. That's great. Does anyone have the Spurs? I do, and I'm so glad that you said that,

because if they got the number one pick, that would be amazing, because what I have learned is that they are still so far away from being a competent team. And, like, coming into the year, I thought that they were going to make a push towards, like, the playing and be good. Like, we all saw the ascension of Wembe and everything. Obviously, Wembe being hurt does not help anything. But you had him, you had Deerrin Fox, and they didn't make a crazy run like we all thought it would have looked like. And when you look at the numbers in terms of their defense and their offense, they are still not amazing on either side of the ball.

when wemby's on the floor they they have like out on cleaning the glass they're in like the 60 second percentile something like that when he's off the floor they drop all the way down to the eighth percentile and so a lot of teams when your best defender is off the floor when your best player is off the floor obviously you're not going to be as good having that big of a gap shows everybody that the rest of the team is cheeks and so and so you still have you still have to build out was a let's dive deeper into this you still have to build out everything I want to talk about the individual teeks let's talk about cheek at cheek cheek for cheek for cheek one at a time bro the first cheek that I want to talk about who was very scary with the level of cheeks

that he is considering like what's attached to this cheek it's a whole lot of money man a whole lot of money what the hell happened to Devin Vassell I had such high hopes and aspirations for this man Vessel just had a good game, too. Yes, he did in general. Just in general, what happened I did Vassel?

I don't even know. For the entirety of the year, he's been a pretty large disappointment considering how much money's attached to his name. He were slandering the San Antonio Spurs for how much they paid him, like I think a year and a half or two years ago now at this point. And he surely looks like a bad contract right now legitimately. It's easier to see how someone like Stefan Castle fits on this team And hell, even at Jeremy Sond, who hasn't been that good as well on this team, then Devin Vassel and the Spurs legitimately for the first time and a long time, have a bad contract, a really bad contract on their team that they need to get off of really soon.

Well, I don't know if I'd say that because, I mean, they're not in position where that money really matters yet. They're not like, having a Bissell being a bad contract only matters if you're like an upper tier contender that needs to make moves a certain amounts of money and he's really blocking you. That's not the position they're in. So I think you still, he's not being good. I'm with you. I think his ceiling isn't very high. I think I was saying that earlier in the year. But it's not to the point

where you had like dump him or anything. You can still give him more time. But he's just not a very good rim score. Like last year he shot 71% at the rim. The volume has never been high. It was only 22% of his shots last year. He just doesn't have a good burst that really consistently creates easy shots for him.

He's really relying on jump shooting, especially from the mid-range. 36% of a shots this year come from mid-range, which is a pretty high number. And that's just a hard archetype to be unless you're going to be like an extremely skilled shooter and you better provide some defensive value or passing and I feel like all that's just kind of been okay like he is shooting well on mid-range shooting right now 46% on long mid-mid but only 36% from three 64% at the rim

I don't feel like he's a super strong defender it just kind of feels like you're just a guy right now it feels like it feels like real like later towards the end of his career like Monta Ellis like right now whereas it's like you're not like doing anything that's really like super needed on the court. You're not one of the best at it, and also you're not playmaking like that. Well, late career, Monta was a defensive liability,

so I wouldn't say that far, but I know what you're saying. He doesn't, he's not an impactful offensive player. Like, he's just a guy, and when somebody you're paying max rookie extension money, you want him to be like a core

creator for your team, and it's just not that. Yeah. The reason why I have so, like, there should be so much attention towards the reason why, I see a lot of Spurs fan, like have a little bit of static form

is because what's tied to him, which is all that money. The Tobias Harris effect. And I get why Spurs, a Spurs fan will probably see them. Like, we gave you this money, you're not doing well, yada, yada, like, that feels terrible. The money doesn't matter at this point in the career. Like, for where they're at, the money I don't think is hurting them, per se. But I understand the ritual you're describing from Spurs fans.

Like, it doesn't feel good, like, emotionally to see the extension and see you get worse. If you're the Spurs and if you guys who are, you guys people tell me, like, Victor Wenma is that guy, and then you see so many players around the league, like, wanting to hint towards playing for the San Antonio Spurs. This dude is, like, a deterrence towards that, if there's ever going to be a move. But also, like, if there's ever going to be a move, like, who knows, maybe he's just a contract. He can, he can get, he can get, they're not in a luxury tax. They're not, like, it's fine.

Yeah, and he can, again, he can also still get moved. Like, I think going, like, going into the off season, especially now that you have Deerran there and then hopefully, like, Wembe's okay. you have a little bit of time to reassess everything. And so if Devin Vassell gets moved in the offseason and you go and they go and make a move and now you have another like trio that you're building around in terms of Fox, insert player here and Wembe,

that's cool. That's cool. But eventually, I'm with you. They are going to have to make a move because the rest of this roster is just not bad. It's just not good. You see it this year. You saw it last year. And obviously it was expected last year.

was the number one overall pick you're going to a bad team you know you know it was going to be bad you thought they were going to take a step forward this year they won a couple more games right vick was better but still the team is bad but whenever you get to the point of hey the rest of the team isn't bad and you have vick that's when you start getting into title contender deep room contender and obviously they're just not there yet and so like yeah and so like when we go into predictions next season, I think a lot of people would be like, oh, they got Fox, they got Wemby, I want to put them in the top six. I want to put them in the top five. It might not be that. They might, they might just be the eight seat next year. People were doing that this year.

People were trying to say they're going to make the plane term before the Deerrin Fox trade. And people were mad at me because I said they'd be like a bottom two team in the Western Congress. I mean, that was me. I thought they would be like 10. I was the highest honors out of all of us. Yeah. They were a little bit better than I thought. But like the reasons I said, I don't think they're going to be a playing team, is because the roster I said it's going to be fucking sucks. Like, I like Sohan. He's a very good defender.

Doesn't give you offensive punch to that forward position. Bessel hasn't taken leaps. Their wings are trash. I mean, they have some guys that have been better than you thought, like Champany and Brannum who are like good rotation players, but like they're your best wings. But like, come on.

Come on. They should be decent best players. They're like, they should be your Sam Hauser, like your luxury to have this guy who's pretty competent for a cheap contract, not the guy who you're like, we should probably start him over Kelton Johnson because he just plays a lot better.

Like, that shouldn't be the situation you're in. And shout out Chris Paul, everything he brought them. Do you need a little more punch in that position, which is why they got Deere and Fox. Like, I guess I'm with you, the Dev of Vesel's in disappointment. It's just not my biggest gripe right now just because I feel like they're so far away

with everything else on roster that we're across the Vesel Disapplement Bridge when we get there. But we have like seven other slots to upgrade before that becomes like debilitating. Exactly. Exactly. which sucks to see because obviously if wembe comes back and he's healthy you want them to be in contention you want them to be good but it's just it's just a process and honestly they they're kind of moving on the timeline that mo always talked about because mo's always like oh you you'd you'd hate to get too good too fast the spurs are like you know what we're not going to do that at all we're going to take our time which is why this year listen you didn't want to have two lottery picks again like last year but you do and last year could have been a big opportunity but the draft sucked so you punny one of those lottery picks

because you didn't want to take a guy like Robbill again. Here you are again with your own pick that I ran Takedathon one time and it went number one. I ran Tengatong one time and the Atlanta Hawks pick was number 11. If you could have the number one pick and number 11, you will be good next year

and none of this will fucking matter. No matter of fact. I love Devon Fasel. I love what he's doing, bro. You know what? You know where Devin Fisle is actually from Swanee, Georgia, bro. Yep, exactly.

So I think what is... But who isn't from Atlanta at this rate? I feel like you're talking about this. Every week you're telling me so many news from Atlanta. It's DeFon Castle's from Georgia, too. We're deep out here when he comes to talent, bro. Let me see. I think I have one team left.

I have one more as well. Everybody has one team left. Okay. My last team is Golden State Warriors. Duh. I don't know what to say we've learned because I feel like you've talked about it so much. Like, what have you guys learned about the Warriors? Like, yeah, they're still good if you have help around Steph.

Like, I guess that's the one thing I learned, which I didn't learn this. I never thought this. Steph is not washed. He's just taking a natural step back to where he can't carry everybody in the goddamn planet with no help around him. What we learned is you give Steph the requisite amount of ball handling around him to give him enough ability to get his game off without the insane amount of attention he was drawn before.

And he can still be good. So I learned what we assumed and now we see it in practice. Steph Curry is still very capable of being the best point in your team. Thanks. Yeah, I can agree with that. Not much needs to be said. same so literally like similar exact themes when it comes to talking about the warriors and the lakers yeah we're talking about i thought i thought step was washed i thought lebron was washed a little bit

same conversation applies to step and all that give them talent then they're going to thrive everyone's diving everyone's going crazy and woos moody in minutes dramons draymond they're dope bro i was i was way more worried about lebron than i was about step lebron i was scared step i was never that worried i was obviously he's not going to look good with the situation just because he's not that he's not that guy anymore it's a top three player in the world so if we want to say he's washed like if we're using the word washed me he got worse in some regard yes he's 37 he's now closer to number 10 in the world than he is three like he used to be but he's still very much as a top 10 guy when we had

some ticot comments whenever I would say that he's like he hasn't even a top 20 player in the world like there was so much reactionary dialogue around how he played this year without realizing that like I can guarantee he'll be better if you inject a little bit more talent that's my case yeah i had whereas lebron i thought he was just old as fucking cooked i was scared of lebron he's 37 he's gonna be 37 in two weeks

that's your goat that's what i'm saying like i'm not gonna use the word watch he's just plain like a 37 yeah i've been thinking that he was like 35 for like the last no he's step is one of those players where it's just like oh damn like he's a little bit older than I thought because he came onto the scene a little bit later

he's 37 yeah and he was it was also like a two three year college player too i forget Yeah, it's crazy But we can move on to my last team That hurts The Oklahoma City Thunder There is not too much to be learned Because they came into the NBA

Fucking send the whole league on fire But one thing I will say Is that something that I personally learned You know Aaron Murph I said Aaron Murphy Aaron Wiggins Is a vital piece to this team Offensively

He provides and fills in so many a lot of the scoring gaps that whenever you see like okayc go ahead and struggle and shit and just have why y'all sin like that i don't i think i i think he looks like he has i had to get some bars off bro i think he's i think he's holding he's contending his excitement i'm gonna get it off in two minutes erwin against is so wild for what this team wants bro because hey yo just say right there i'm gonna get it off for two seconds just stay from you all right stop getting me off you're getting me off we got to stop we got to stop we got to go I want to get off.

But Eric Wade is so goddamn important, bro. I want to say back-to-back years, O.KC. hasn't failed or fumbled necessarily when it comes to these trades, but they traded for two players in the last two years. Gordon-Hara last year, trade was horrendous, and they lost that trade, obviously. And then they recently got, not recently, they traded for also Alex Caruso as well. I think last year or something like that. Great moves, but it hasn't necessarily. paid off in the ways you want it to be

and seeing Aaron Wiggins. Not necessarily because he's not adding to your offense at all. Who gives a shit? Look at their defense. He's been a brick offensively. He's been a brick offensively. And then on top of that too, like he's almost, he hasn't been as consistent in the lineup when it comes to availability. And Aaron Wiggins helps close the gaps

on all ends. And whenever like the Lou Dorts ain't hitting this side of the Chet Honger was a struggling or the J-Dubs who struggles once in a while when it comes to heavy contenders, Air Williams just seems to always be there consistent as ever And I learned how much of an important And vital piece that he is

And he's probably like He should be like top five on Sixth Man of the Year ballot I don't know if that matters or means anything But that's the level of importance that he is Sure, the fifth best six man The League is That means something

It's a good luxury to have I uh All year I've been called a glazer Around Shade Dialogue And I understand This episode is about what I've learned I would be remissed

if I didn't glaze a little bit because what I learned this year about the OKC Thunder is not that they're a great team is not to be the championship favorite I was saying that this summer as soon as they added Alex Caruso and Hartinstein

came on here came on Twitter and I said I think they're going to win the championship I've stayed steadfast in that approach but what I've learned this season I've approached I mean that I've accepted

in the last two months you'll say that they're all time She Gildes-Alexander is a legend he is playing at a legendary level the three-year peak that he's cementing himself to be at this year Welcome to the party

It's no walking party He's just now breaking into that Because he It's easy to say Because obviously I early in the year I wasn't as high It's not just that I came around He has gotten better again

Every single season He finds a way to add to his game And get more efficient Higher volume scoring Better Playmaker Rising his team to a higher level He keeps getting better And this year is no exception

Early in the season I said him versus Jason Tatum Is a hot debate and I went Jason Tatum's way because he was also choosing like 45% of three playing at the top of his mind but all things be equal I like the all around game of Tatum

because I thought he was a better playmaker right Shea has reached a level of scoring dominance right now that the playmaking is like not amazing but it's better than you think because the scoring gravity is so goddamn insane after this year ends however the playoffs go

assuming he performs well again maybe it includes the fucking finals if people will see but even if that doesn't happen it's just a regular good playoff performance as a score, this is going to be like a top 10 to 12 three year peak as a score. I think we've seen in NBA history. That's the level he's playing at. The ability to be it's like 44 points or 75 for 100 possessions on 65% true shooting this year while leading your offense and carrying to the degree that he is, like he is a one man offense in the same

way God damn James Hardin was. It just looks different because it's not the same level of playmaking. This is simply put one of the most impressive scores we're going to see. I 10010% agree And I'm not saying all time Great level player like overall You still got to prove that But just as a score This we're watching one of the most dominant scores

Of our lifetimes He's like that I 100% agree bro Honestly this OKC team as a whole to me They like remind me so God damn much Of the 2015 Golden State Warriors Where they're just like kind of coming up to the scenes

And Steph Curry and Shagos Gilgus Alexander in the same light like they were viewed as like really good damn really really damn good players but they like rose up to the scene and became like top three players so fucking fast and they took the storm of the goal obviously going to say where it took the storm of the league with their new style of play and all that and stuff curry like revolutionized the game and all that it looks very different again but it feels very similar in terms of where NBA fans are mindset-wise to how they view Shea and the Oklahoma City Thunder as a whole and how this style of play is just really damning road.

The best way I can put it, the way they've elected to build around Shea this year and put themselves position to maybe win a championship, be the best team right now, it's a modern version of what the Sixers did around Alan Iverson of we have this one dominant, dominant score that will create an advantage every single play because he just cannot be guarded and he can create for others using that score and grab. We're going to surround him with nothing but defensive talent and offensive players

that complement what he's doing. That's what the Thunder I've done this year and obviously it's sacrived just to say because Alan Iverson made the finals in YvipP and Shea hasn't done that yet with no, I think he might. This is a better version of that.

He's playing at a better level when Alan Iverson. I don't know if I'm going to get fucking stone for saying that. But he is just the most dominant three level score that we've seen in recent years.

It feels like I'm watching Guard Kevin Durant at times with obviously we know he's the rim score, right? He's the best in the league from the position at that. But the level of which he dominates in mid-range now,

that wasn't the case in 2022. That wasn't the case of 2023. That's become the best in the league. The three-point volume is higher this year. That's been the big thing of why he's so much better this season and more efficient. The three-point rate has gone higher,

37%. He checks every box as a score and keeps getting better at every small level detail that he's just truly unguarded now. I understand. You want to be great. Go get buckets.

Go go. go go get buckets in a variety of ways make sure that your bag is not only deep but endless just like shay and you you too will be great i saw i saw thunder fans say on twitter that like you know this is it's hard to talk about shay in this way because people are going to hear this and be like oh free throw merchant he sucks blah blah blah blah you're wrong you're glazing it's dumb but also like i understand not everybody puts so much time thinking about it and it does feel weird that he's being propelled this high without doing a lot to earn it as whereas other peers of his like Tatum

has to win a championship and do all these things to get this level of hype right. So I understand on the surface level to the person that's just a regular NBA fan that isn't thinking about it all day why that feels like too much too fast. I get it.

But you have to understand this man is not fucking normal in his development path. The way that he literally just keeps getting better is unprecedented. Like this is one of the outliers in player development in NBA history. Outliers.

Outliers. Outliers. In the level of the way he got better. I saw a Thunder fan say this morning, which I thought was really well put. He got way more athletic after the bubble. The first three, four years of his career as late up to 2020, he was like, think about, how do we describe him? We were like, oh, he's a slithery, long slasher that really gets around people with these smart angles, yada, yada, you never would have said he's some like elite athlete. Now he's extremely strong. His quick first step is better. He knows how to weaponize that

better. That alone is very unique. Think about it. He was like, not slow, but he wasn't like fast. He played at his own pace, is the word we used because he kind of had this like Kyle Anderson's slow-mo off-kilter rhythm to how he drove. He was bopping dudes. Yeah, you know what I mean? The word's a burn.

Now he's quick as shit, strong as shit, knocks you at his spot. That is a weird development. You don't see a lot from players at age at this point of his career, as well as adding the most unstoppable mid-range scoring bag in the league that didn't exist before.

Adding the three-point volume, that didn't exist before. Like, it's not normal to see players develop in this way where they keep getting better so incrementally to go from three years ago we were like oh he can make an all-star leap to now oh this is one of three best players in the world i think that does not happen very often i think he what it sounds like it's just like he just grew into his body more and maximize every ounce of god-given athleticism that he's been

given which wasn't a whole lot because you're right like all those things date back to all the deficiencies quote deficiencies athletically in his game date back to when he was fucking high school bro date back to when he was over there in kentucky like people were just on his ass about how he was not an explosive score whatsoever. Exactly. And he's explosive in his own right.

It's at a different pace. It doesn't look normal the same, but it seems like things have gone higher to another level. And what really helps I think you're saying it too softly. What intertwines that and what really helps amplify those things

is all the other skills that he's like harnessed on, which is the three-point shooting, him getting even better of finishing the pain, bucking getting the mid-range shot and the playmaking. Well, I think that's what

screams to me, not necessarily the athleticism bar. I think he's going to his body normally like Jason Tatum don't look the same compared to when he was like 21, but I think I know what you're saying, it's not normal. This is not, you said, maximizing what he has. He's gotten more, he's worked on his body, he's strong as shit now.

Like, he is like quick. Like he is an explosive athlete now. And like, I know what you're saying, you're saying he got the most out of it that he built everything around that because he wasn't an explosive athlete and it's making him look more explosive. I think he just worked on his body. And I think we've seen that this guy

works at every level of his game in a ridiculous way, that he doesn't market it the same way other players do where they talk nonstop with the summer work they do. But he just keeps coming back better and more explosive and more skilled. I think it's just like an unprecedented level of development that he probably starts. And that's just consistency. You know, like his whole life is consistent, you know. So I, so I can, I can see why, why when you do something every single day, eventually you're going to get farther than wherever other people go, you know? So, yeah. That also amazing clip, man. Amazing.

It is. My whole life's consistent. I like, see, people don't like, he gets, he's like this like pretty boy, Instagram captions, like, fuck boy in that way that people don't like, don't correlate that with that crazy hard worker because it's like not the normal combination and he doesn't like. Yeah. Mostly with our gym rats like that are posting pictures of them fucking in the gym and constantly talking about it.

And I feel like he'd rather talk about his fits rather than how much he works. So people like don't think about it. But clearly he is that type of guy. Yeah. regardless of you to say what he's done for the last few years is special

I pray he makes the finals otherwise people are gonna be on my ass how much I'm in glazed I pray they make the finals generation see the thing about you is like when you love a player you really love a player

in the storyline and shit so you put all your chips into it and I think you should I think people don't people are so pussy about not wanting to be wrong when you're watching a legend you're watching a legend

I was telling you Jonas's legend I was telling you Yonis is a legend and people were like you can't do it in the playoffs We do this thing where you're scared to be proven wrong because everything online is Twitter discourse and everything online is slandering you for being stupid and sometimes you're going to be wrong.

It's okay to acknowledge you're witnessing a legend before it's proven fact. Sometimes you can tell before the championship confirms what you think. See, that's okay, but also like the caveat is just like you say it as if it's like sure and lying going to happen instead of just like letting the player give himself a chance to prove it. That's the best way to... No, I'm saying

because I don't need to be confirmed by a championship. I know. But I'm saying like when you talk, it's almost like you set a player up in that way, fan-wise and on Twitter-wise. Not like big picture world or whatever.

Obviously. And that's a problem with them. I think what I'm saying is I don't need a championship to confirm he's a legend. You can look at so much else to see how good somebody is and people feel the need

to say it only matters if you have the chip. And I think that's just a dumb-ass way we talk about basketball where only thing can be validated team success. And it matters, of course. I'm not saying

he's a top 15 player all time anything crazy. But I think we're talking about your skill as a score, which is really the main thing I'm bigging up. Like, you don't have to show me the chip bar. It doesn't matter. Like, you're saying I'm sent up to get slander because a slander is coming from a point of stupidity and from a point of linking outcome to process. And that's just not at all what I'm saying. Right. And if you know that people are, don't have as many brain cells. If you know that they don't have as many brain cells, then why like go ahead and throw something in their face? And they're like, yeah, is that. But you're not that. You know what I'm saying?

Because I think it's important that we don't operate off of this, this toxic, like, basis of things only matter for my championship. I think it's extremely important. Keep calling them stupid in creative ways. I think we have to set the standard of acknowledging that play on the court matters and then you can highlight when people are becoming some of the greats and the play matters and that it's important to, like we're talking about in the, every time you go on ESPN or T&T, they're just shitting on people. I think it's important to the opposite and acknowledge when you're watching somebody do something historic. Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's just the way that people like find ways and links to hate and just be like slow down It amazes me. You're not wrong. I'm just thinking about that's on them the side of things, you know Say God read a book sometimes. Oh my God

It's not even that it's like it's stupid, but it's like stop being a hater is a real thing like it's not like people lack the intellectual ability I'm not saying they lack the intellectual ability to understand why step why stuff Shay Curry I keep what the fuck that I just say I am. I say is playing at the level. I'm not saying I'm not saying they're intellectually incapable. I'm saying they choose to go from this basis of hatred, which is a dumb place to be, and they're not putting the time into analyzing why we're talking about the sport in this way

and what extra your factors have shaped sports media discourse to behave in this way. That to me is stupid, and it's a symptom of a stupid discourse, not stupid individuals. And that's human, humans that we're talking about as core. People like to watch basketball casually,

and then on top of that as well, just fucking negative all the time, bro. So that's why we get the result that we do. I don't think it is a human nature thing. I think it's a what we've seen on TV and what's been conditioned of people to talk about issue. Guys, I hate to interrupt.

I still have the Sacramento Kings on my list. Ain't nobody give a damn about the King. I'm like, okay. I'm the Sacramento Kings on my leave today. They're the last team, right? I didn't know how long we were going to keep going. I was waiting. I was like, when I jump in?

I'm going to give them the spot. like today. Anyway, it's important to highlight, highlight how greats the greats are playing. Fuck the negativity. If I'm wrong, I don't give a shit if they don't win the finals. Nevertheless, Shays is good and we should talk about it. All right. So we're going to end with the Kings here.

I've learned that Dermana Sabonis is going to get a statue outside of that arena because they don't have anything. really going for them. And they have committed themselves to this court. You want to hear this new song? You want to hear this new song? This guy's... Hell yeah. I'll be here.

Oh, that's fires. Is the intro to TikTok time? You know. Y'all are rude. I was actually trying to make a point here. I was actually trying to make a point. man go to tic-tick-tie time go to tic-tac time go to tic-tac time i'm sorry king's fans i got you next week

i got you next week i promise do you hear that verse one of the hardest of all time bro with that being said we're on to ticot times I didn't talk about the Celtics either fuck them Welcome to TikTok time.

Today we have a very fun thing to start with. Are we singing more LeBron songs? Oh my God, my goddamn face. We are starting with something that has been flooding my timeline, flooding my timeline mentions on Twitter. We had to talk about this nickname trend. Yep. Listen, we lied to you. I know all of them.

I've been reading all the TV. I know what everybody has been saying. It's hilarious. If you guys have been on NBA Twitter as of late, there's been a big trend that started with the anomaly with Jason Tatum getting the nickname the anomaly and everybody making fun of it and doing this ironic spin

of giving like every player in the league their own nicknames of the same ilk and now it's become like post-irony everybody's just coming up with the crazy nicknames they can imagine about every player they can imagine and today we are going to rate some of the best ones from one to ten let's go let's go

I've seen a whole lot of bullshit on my goddamn timeline I've been so confused, bro, so let's see what they're talking about. I pick the best ones. You guys let me know how these work, if they're good or not. First up, we have the predicament for Evan Mowgli. What? What's the predicament? Please break this shit down.

No, that's awful. That's awful. Bro, he's a problem. He's a predicament. Stop it. No, it's not. No, it's not. This is tough.

What do you mean? I just ran into the predicament in the paint. What am I going to do? That's hard. I don't know what you guys are on about. That shit's a predicament. It's better than the anomaly, for sure. It is, but that doesn't.

He is a problem to be solved. That doesn't say he's a predicament. No, I would say, I would say Wembe is more the predicament. Because you see guys, you see guys think about going up and then pass on the layup when Wembe's there. That's the predicament in their mind. Ever Mobley, again, amazing defender, all NBA, all defense this year. He's not the predicament, though. Of course you turn this into Wemby Clay is unbelievable.

God damn, exactly. But we haven't seen what you spent 25 minutes. You spent 25 minutes on Shake Lays. I don't want to. And you can spend 40 on Wemby. Stay on line right now. I'm going to give this a 8 out of 10. I'm going to 6 out of 10.

I'm going to give this a 5. I'm going to give this a 5. Whatever. I feel like you're cooking. The ad homininin fallacy for Jalen Green. Ad hominin fallacy. What the, I've never heard of that word in my life, bro. You cry.

I don't need it. And ad hominin is when you attack some credibility and not their argument. So they're saying that Jalen Green is going on for his personality

and not who he is. Go to school. Then I'm sorry. I'm not reading it, bro. This is a tough nickname. Now, with this being said,

the nickname is saying that he's better than people think they attack him for his personality. Now that's not true. He is not good. But if you're a fan and you had to think

of a good way to defend him, this is a tough nickname. Yes. But it doesn't roll off the tongue. The honestly, honestly, the predicament is better than this. The ad hominine fallacy. It's hard. I'm not doing that.

Yeah, no, bro, by the time you get done saying that, like, it's pitch black outside, it takes way too long to say that. It's not it. Three out of ten. Three out of ten. Now, for those terms of background, the origin of this one is somebody made a TikTok of the worst nicknames in the NBA and they made this up and people started running with it. ironically but it was originally presented as being a terrible nickname oh so you have to be in nowhere

so it is terrible okay cool yeah you're just not online enough i'm sorry damn well either way either way we're aligned because it sucks now this one hold on your seats the anomatopoeia for bam autobiio love that this is hard this one might stick this one might stick past a twitter joke this is a real legitimately cool nickname ban i do like that bio that's tough this is what the onomatopoeia bam like that oh and no m l t o p oe i a this is what it's about right now god man this might be my favorite nickname in the NBA I felt that that's the one that's the one word he remembers from seventh grade spell it again oh bro he wouldn't spell it with that word god I shay don't tell my secrets don't tell my

secrets it may have been third or fourth grade it is what it is this is clever it rolls off the tongue it's unique This is a 10 out of 10. I'm going 9 out of 10. I don't think it's the best one, but it is still pretty, it's up there. This actually has a chance to stick. So I agree. It's a 10 out of 10 to me, man.

It's going to be, he will never run away from this nickname. I'm calling him that. It's going to be on Basel reference. I'm sure it already is. The peculiarity for Luca Donchich. What's, what are we cooking? That's the issue. We're online too much.

What? He's not normal. She's peculiar. What are you? You ever seen Luca Dodgers play basketball? It's not regular. Oh, man. You see the way Luca Dongers hit that tween, tween, has he stepped back?

He's so peculiar, bro. Ooh, he's so peculiar. You see those behind the back passes? Peculiar as fuck. Nah. No, I don't like this one. That's a pip squeak-ass nickname. It's not hard.

What are we talking about? It's not valid whatsoever. Zero out of two. Yeah. I got, I got to go one. I don't think it's good. I'm off this one. Too geeky.

Too geeky. I know that you new king and you have to ride with whatever, but I don't like this. Been my king. Oh, of course. The abnormality for Shaden Sharp. I'm not going to lie, this is kind of hard. The abnormality is kind of hard. I don't know why, but it makes sense for Shaden considering.

I don't, I don't, I don't like it. You don't like anything. What do you like? I would like sunshine. Do you like grass? Do you like happiness? What do you like? Old ass man.

Unc candy shit on all the fucking young nickname. I would like to switch the abnormality. To Luka Dachich because I think no to Luka to looka I think this nickname is too good for Shaden Sharks I think we have to switch it today too much ah are you he didn't see dump is you didn't see dunk for the last three games bro I saw the dunk I saw the dunk the dunk that's you didn't think it was that normal that's peculiar I mean I listen I've seen people fly I've seen people fly I've seen people I've seen people I've seen you really you have to really dissect shit if you're if you're peculiar bro that really takes some real high but like when you say some

when you say something is abnormal that really is like not normal look at the way he look at how far away his feet is up off the ground that is abnormal he is lucca donchitz smokes hookah and drops 45 that's not normal that's abnormal the way shading sharp jumps that's peculiar that's just strange i can't believe that a human would do that no no it's just simple who jumps higher who does abnormal He's not the same. He's not like the rest of them. Who's more abnormal? Luca or Shaden Sharp?

Shaden Sharp is. Your name is Shaden Sharp. You're actually, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Listen, you know, me, you're actually stupid. No, you're actually stupid. It's harder to find a Luca don'tches.

What are you doing right now? It's harder to find somebody. It's hard to find somebody who plays like Luca than somebody who jumps like Shaden Sharp. He is abnormal as hell. Look at the way he. What? Okay. Moe the moron. Now what? Now what? No, no, Donovan the Dufus. Dr. Dufant, Smurth Donovan.

I love how this is the stupidest argument ever heard. Peculiar and I've no one mean the same thing. But what words sound smarter. That's what we're talking about right now. I don't need, whatever. I'm going to one out of ten for both of them. Switch them and it'll be ten out of ten. Oh, my God. Okay. the salamander for she gilders alexander come on man come on man you think converse wants to call him that you you think salamander they're long they're slippery they're slithery i don't know i kind of see the you don't know what a salamander looks like you could have point one out if i should if i told you you're telling me she doesn't give you lizard vibes and he attacks that paint no no no no no no

no no no i think this ruins his oar if you call him this in public bro no it's a stock He's not getting like 10% less hot If you go on the salamander 10% less high If you yell this out Converse If you yell this out He's not acknowledging you

He's not He's not gonna nod He's not gonna wave He's not gonna do anything Tough You can't give this any credence I'm going I'm going zero out of 10

This is actually the worst one Damn You don't like anything bro I think it's like a solid six Seven out of 10 It's fitting Donovan you've never looked more unk than you had the last 10 minutes

Yeah Oh no I Yes I have Yes I have I got some for you there He said I got some unction moments in my lifetime The Pythagorean theorem For Brandon Pajamsky

Pods, okay The Pythagorean theorem Huh He's smart like that Pithesky Pythagrian Again I'm not calling him dope But he's like that Oh man, I don't know what to think

It can't be a five out of ten at all I think this is Putting towards being a bad nickname Bad nickname I kind of like it Why explain it The problem is I find all these very funny And you guys are up here

Like these young motherfuckers Don't know anything about nicknames I would have come up way better I think these are all hilarious But wow A square plus B square equals C score. What the, I don't get it. Spell Pythagorean.

Flex. You spelled Pythagorean. I'll just saw numbers to you and I'll give you a... P-I-T-H-A-G-O-R-E-N. You're looking at it right now. Not you're looking at the screen. Dummy, we got you. P-Y-T-H-A-G-O-R-E-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A.

Yeah, this is a zero-to-10 for me. I really don't know. Oh, my God. Because pods isn't, he's just not that exciting to a player. It doesn't in align with his game. what do you think the Pythagorean is supposed to be exciting I mean you've clearly you've clearly never found the hypotenuse of a triangle like it's it's very riveting

it's thrilling break it down for me break down the angle for me real quick oh my god next one the paradox for Kate Cunningham that's hard that's hard this and the Anamontapia are two that I will actually call these players the paradox so this was going to stick yes what's paradox about Kaye Cunningham. Break this down for me. I don't know. It's just hard. I don't know what it means, but it's provocative. But it's provocative.

And it's cool. I might drop the, the, in front of it. He might just be Cade Paradox Cunningham. Cade Paradox Cunningham. You're inserting a middle name legally. That's funny as hell. Paradox is paradoxical.

It sounds like in 40 bar. It's paradoxical. You're legal on that it's too good. It's too good. It's kind of scary. We spent a lot of time making fun of E-40. Like, we have the boys down. Kay Cunning, that was magical.

She's paradoxical. What the hell? I'm just scared. Why do you sound like it? paradoxical. Hey, Donovan. Say Pascal Seyakum. Pascal Fiacom.

Stop. He's the dumb. What's going on? Next up. Jalen Brunson. head of the table. Oh, 100%. One big ass.

10 out of 10. Any nickname with Jalen Brunson has to mention how he has the largest dome in the NBA. The fact that we can weaponize his dome for cleverness makes it a 10 out of 10. You don't often get to see Dome put the use like this.

His cranium is legitimately crazy. It's actually one. What a proper way to put it. And it aligns with his play style on the court. He is the head of the team, head of the table, whatever it is. He is the focal point. So I like it. I'm rocking with it.

There we go. Well, finally, a one that unks like. There we go. I would have 10 out of 10. We got Zachary Rishi Sheet. Lee Anomily. Anomily. How are you saying in French?

I'm going 10 out of 10. I'm going to 10. Why are you going to do this is 10 out of 10? This is so funny. Lee Anomile. This is so funny This is clever The Atlanta Hawks official Twitter account

tweeted this out I think it's Eshton history I got to go 9 out of 10 The French are from people man I have no words for this But he's a bucket right now though So we can give it a 10 out of 10 The poster child for John Morant

That's hard That's 10 out of 10 Oh my guess The poster child Let's see at the table. That's, see, this is an actually unique nickname that uses an element of his personality, his game. This is elite.

I like that. This can actually stick, bro. Put that on the commercial. Put that on the commercial. 9.10 or 10 out of 10? 10 out of 10. 10. I might go, I might go 11 out of 10.

TPC. You love an acronym? I love a good acronym, bro. Okay. This guy can't read. The trolley problem for Santhi Aldama. The trolley. The trolley problem

Is this is what Donovan was talking about earlier? I have no idea. I have no idea what this is what I mean Why he's called the trolley At all. Did he like fight on a trolley?

I don't know. I know what a trolley is. I know what a trolley problem is. I'm aware of the idea of the thought experiment. In this scenario which we're discussing Santay Aldama

I don't know who the person would choosing the kill is I don't know who the person we're choosing to save is and I don't know who the five people who are dying incidentally are I don't understand

any element of this nickname. That's a damning name to have style to you I ain't gonna lie to you That's so damn And I looked it up I couldn't find anybody explaining it I don't know where this comes from Charlie Pott

Is he just He just like a killer on the court or something I don't know Like he's having a great year But I don't call him a killer on the court This is a zero out of 10 Until we get some explanation It's a zero out of 10

Damn All right man That's all the other games I got for you today I can't believe you argued about the definitions of abnormal and peculiar for so long. We're talking about what's fitting more, bro. Yeah, it shouldn't have been like that. Exactly. Damning conversation, bro.

How could you lean that way? Abnormal. He's been on the right side of history. The hell? He could have moved on. What's going on, man? No, you wanted to fight for the wrong side. Send me your high school GPA.

He's got a kid for GPS. He was 17. the girls are fighting the girls are fighting next thing we're going to do I've been seeing a lot of talk in the past two days on Twitter about Janus

and how ridiculous season he's having and somebody made the point that the media is kind of over Janus for some reason everybody's kind of set Janus aside and like nobody talks about the fact that he's still like an all-time amazing player at his beat so with that being said i want to give yonis some flowers today

okay let's do it we're going to do a five level all-time comparison game with yonis i'm going to name five NBA players all-time legends other hall of famers people have to find the game you let me know who is better this player or yonis let's do it let's like the fuck in donovan yeah you want you to take a second So again, I'm going to name five players, one through five levels. You tell me who's better, them or Janus. Level one, Janus or Dwight Howard. Oh, this is Janus.

It's easy. It's easy. It's easy. I don't think, I don't think Dwight is within two tiers of Janus. Two tiers? Two tiers. Now, again, the Orlando Magic Loki laid the blueprint of how to build around this slasher in the modern game with the spacing,

Janus took that shit to the next level, clearly honest. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a question. Okay, we gotta start easy. I go always. It gets harder every time. Level two, Janus or Aaron Wiggins? Wait. I mean, the Air Wiggins of like the last like two, three weeks. That's a hooper.

Aaron Wiggins? I don't know like, Andrew Wiggins, not no like, whatever other Wiggins are you thinking about. twice. Pick aside and stay on it. It's close.

Pick aside and stay on it. It's close. But I'm probably lean towards Janus. I think I have to go with Janus. But Aaron Regens is right there. If we're talking legends of the game, you can't really, you can't disrespect either of them. They both have to define their era. But I guess we can go Janus to keep the game moving.

I guess we have to be biased. Yeah, let's just, let's go to level three. The things I do for content. Level three, Charles Barkley. Okay. Charles Barkley. It's definitely honest still. it's a closer conversation than

Aaron Wiggins and Janis It's a closer conversation But damn, damn, damn, bro They're all top three players in the world For a long time I guess you can just go to Janice Because the defense is that much better

The defense is that much better Playmaking is still there And he has a ring MVP and defensive player of the year MVP difference in the same goddamn year bro that's only been done like twice I think in history Outside of him

Go better jokes Janice At jokes Well it depends on what type of jokes you're into Those dad jokes move you I like dad jokes Me I like jokes that everybody in the room That moves you

That makes you giggle Horny Ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha Ha ha ha Next one Level four Kevin Durant

okay um i think i'm this is tough i think i'm gonna go finally you gotta think about it i think i'm i'm going kd no no i think i am i think i am no you're going yonnes over kd i think i'm going yonis over kd this level of he's not he's not better than kate he's not better than kemp in direct i can't i can't say you thought you thought about it way too fast you have to have a real discussion we thought about way too fast yonis is

good enough that you got to have a discussion with almost anybody and the gap isn't gigantic but it's pretty clear the gap goes to kevin grant it's a small gap but it's obvious it's like the 12th best player of all time versus like the 18th so the gap isn't huge i almost think the honest is like 16th i don't know i don't know where katie lands on that either either way kevin berrant tore his achilles and came back in average 28 like i he as a score is as effortless and as easy as quote unquote skate as you can have in NBA history, I don't think that, yeah, I don't think. I understand, but Yonis has had better scoring years statistically than K.D.

And then on top of that, too, the defense is a landslide. I know what you're saying, the playoff scoring is the biggest difference. We know regular season scoring, I see why you say Yonis has seasons just as good. Kevin Rann is a much better playoff score. And the defensive gap isn't big enough to make up for it. When you look at like later career, Katie, when he's also an elite defender, is Kevin Brett. I don't know, man. It's not Janus. I think the defense's gap is, gap is much bigger than you're giving, than you're letting it

be known right now. So you want to go to record and say you think Janus is a better all-time player than Kevin Wright? No, I just want to make content. Katie's better. There we go. It ends. Level five, we would heck Akim Elijah one. He didn't guys sucks. You know, you know. I'm, I'm going to hook him in there. Yeah, it's Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, what would y'all just have to do in order to surpass a team? I don't know, win three more rings.

I don't know, I don't see it happening. Damn, damn. I don't know, I mean, yeah, two more at least. I don't know. It keeps just better. You need to have like a outsized accolade boost to get over him because I think he's better on, I don't know, offensively, low-key, I don't know.

I saw like three more rings, I don't know about that. I got to see, because he's maybe the goat defender. So that takes you really, far if you want to tell me yonis is a better offensive player so if you think he matched him accolades wise you could put him above him i guess i wouldn't hate it but i don't know it'd be tough the fact that yannis is adding that midranged to his bag right now like that that kind of like if he could do that for what maybe like two or three more years and we see that that's like actually consistent and then maybe another ring then i would say offensively because like hakeem

could do all the low post stuff he has the little you know 15, 16 foot jump or whatever, and then, like I just said, goat defender. Yonis would have to get to that level of offense in terms of having multiple, multiple things in your bag. So, but yeah, I'm going to Hakeem pretty easy right now. Okay. Okay, that's fair.

Next year we're going to do, let's do a tier list. It's been a while. You know, last season we did a tier list of every single position, one by one until we did them all. This year, let's mix it up. We haven't done that for every position yet. I don't want to run it back the same exact way. So the thing we're going to do today is

we're going to put NBA big man into a prediction I'm into a tier list We're going to combine power forwards and centers I got 12 of them for you You guys know how it works S through F put them into a cheer list Based on how good they are this season All right, let's do it

This year, got you. Yeah or like right now You know somebody's hurt Whatever you can take into account But just you know From now going forward Who's a better player Okay

Where are we started Let's who you want to set the bar with Carl Anthony Towns I'd go B I'd go B Like he's having an amazing scoring season But the defense is such a fault And obviously like his situation

Shows the show the flaw so much more But it's just you can't avoid it So I'm going B Yeah B's a safe place to go When you're a great offensive player But you're just not above average defensively B is about where you can be Okay

He's a good mark start though So shout out great year Doesn't change this to your list Anthony Davis Oh he's like A Yeah He's in a different tier than Than Cat

I would I would definitely agree with that Now the injury stuff Scares me but it It always does but Anthony Davis's talent is crazy Is there argument for us? No Since we're combining both positions I guess not

Because like we did centers last year He's the top three center, so that deserves that tier. But I guess we can go A for now. Maybe we'll adjust it. Okay. We'll see. Victor Wembe Nyama. Has he officially surpassed?

He's not a whole tier above AD. You have to know the same tier. If you want to say at his best this year, if you think Wembleu is marginally better, that's fine. It hasn't been longed of sample size to say he's like straight up better than Anthony Davis. At worst, at best they're neck and neck, I think. And the fact that both of them, are probably going to be out for the rest of the year.

Like, you have to take that into account. So, yeah, I'm going to cinematic parallels. Okay. Evan Mobley. Oh, he's a solid beat to me. Has he earned the same tier. He's earned the same tier as Kat. Yeah, because his defense is that tremendous. And offensively, the growth that I've seen him make stands out to me, bro.

He deserves a be beat. And people are going to see that. People are going to see it, and they're going to hate that. They're going to be like, how could you, how fucking dare you put him next to the big bodega? Big Bodega gets goddamn buckets. And I understand why you say that. If you want to win a championship, and Evan Mobley is just as, if not more impactful, I think.

No, you're right. It's more impactful. I agree. I agree. He's more impactful. If Evan Mobley was on the New York Knicks, do you think you look at him differently, Donovan? 100%. Oh, if he was on the Knicks at the Knicks bump, he'd be talked about as a next Tim Duncan.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. If he was on the Knicks, we'd win the title. I don't know about winning the title. Slow down there. But I think we'd beat everybody in five. All right, relax, relax. He's not, he's not Janus.

We might sweep the Celtics. Okay. I'm just saying God Alperin Sangoon He is not be at all I'm going to see He is If we're talking about like the best of the best big man

He's fine Right he's cool he's solid Yeah I'm going to see tier He made an all-star game Cool stuff Sure yeah The team

Put off for the city But he did his part He's an important part of what the Rockets do But No he's above average He's not a star level Let me a second He made an all-star game

So I don't know what verbiage I should use. He's not touching a superstar level. You would clearly take seven, eight other big man over him. Yeah. I'm going. You can say he's at the top of the C tier, right? Well, depending on who else goes in here. But if you really want to, you know, hype him up,

that's probably the highest we can go. Yeah, you could argue be on a good day. Chet Homegrid. See, he hasn't been around this year. He got hurt. He got hurt. so he wasn't able to take a big leap that would look like he was going to make to start the year.

So. I think he probably deserves to be in the same tier as Sangoon, maybe a tier lower. So maybe because when he's seen enough. Hell not not a tier lower. Fuck no. I'd put him in, let's go same tier.

We'll go same tier as San Guil. Just because he hasn't been there. Yeah. Because I think he's just as good as Evan Mobley, but Evan Mobley's having a better year deserves to get that nod just because he's been producing. He's been there. And not to say Chet couldn't do that,

but he got hurt and slowed down to start to his year I think by the end of the year we'll be putting Chet in B tier again 100%. Okay that's fair

yeah if he says Ubots D he has been a bucket this year I don't know he's been a killer on the block he's been great

he's a bucket but I see him and I see him and James Hardin bro I yeah that's a little bit too much a little bit too much he's getting spoon fed a lot of buckets

he's not enough food fed a lot of buckets he's great at being big down getting rebounds defense. It's not enough. I love it. But he's definitely being spoon fed, I know what you're saying. It is easier for him. That's also doing him to service. He has been getting some self-created buckets. He's been a killer

on the glass on putbacks. He's been having, he's really good one-on-one in the post now. He's having a much better year than just being spoon-fed buckets. He's not like Djanjay Jordan catching lobs every play. No, definitely not. But that's like a heavy part of his game, though. Like that big of role has transformed him as a player. Yeah. But he is, man, he is so much better than people thought coming in of the year. So we're going deep?

I kind of want to go see. Yeah, I want to go see. In Alfred Sengoon range, you can't do that. San Gung was an all-star. We're not putting Zubosh next to chat. I can't do that.

Okay, I forgot, but Chet's only there because of Y'all don't respect St. Gung. That's what I'm realizing. Wait, we're at next to chat. What do you mean? Who gives a damn about next to Chet?

He's in the C-Tier. Do you think Sangu should be higher? No, I'm just saying, like, using Chet as a meter instead of Sengoon. Oh, yeah, because Chet's better. What do you want from him? That's what I wanted to hear.

I had to say one of the names. But Chet's only here because his hip was broken. Like if he was healthy, he'd be at the top of this list. So that's all I'm saying. Let's measure it against Sengun. And Zubach is. I'm fighting for you right now. Zubach is not better than Sengen.

I can't do that. No, that's what I'm saying. He's not better. He's not better. But he could be at the, if Sengun is at the top of that tier, Zubach can be at the bottom of that tier. Okay Whatever I'm okay with him in top of D

But if you want to say he's bottom of C on a good day I'm fine with him Oh my personal tierless He would be in C tier But this is a communal thing So I will I will buy it Well yeah this is your tierless

You know when being S plus You'd have nobody else And within two tiers I mean listen Do I speak facts? Yeah You know what I'm paying I'm early

You know I'm paint Did you take your meds Donovan? No Oh Makes sense I'm awful. I'm awful.

Oh, shit. But that's a problem. Zion Williamson. Ooh, he's, it's so hard to write him, bro. He can't be. As of late, he has been incredible. You do have the durability concerns. You have the concerns of, we've seen this peak before, then we saw it fall.

I don't know what to do with that. But listen, the last 20 games, he's been playing the goddamn A tier. When he's on the goddamn court, I can't look at anybody below B tier or in B tier and be like, yeah, like, yeah, like, you're better than Zion Williams. I'm just thinking about when he's on the court. Don't talk to me about anything else. I think he's eight-tier. I'm going to let you have it because I cannot speak logically when it comes to Zion Williamson.

How can anybody? I'm okay going B-tier. We can put the durability concerns in there. We can go B-tier. But when he's healthy, the past two weeks, he has undoubtedly been playing like eight-year level. Tough. But we'll be a little reasonable. We'll go B-tier.

We won't glaze too hard. I guess. Dremon Green. Hooper B tier The C What? No

Wait You guys are disrespect Relax relax relax Relax relax Relax Next to Evan Mobly Evan Moby brings a different level of offensive production

Relax Relax I'm okay with C tier though Next to Chet and Sengoon But the scoring punch That someone like Evan Mowley brings While also being an elite defender I can't put them in the same tier

Oh I forget over Moby's in that too We'll go C tier But then again Then again you're trying to win a championship you're taking cat you're taking draymond i'm taking draymond so you should put them higher it also it also it also depends on what the rest of the team looks like not really because if with jermont on that next team right now you guys are much better off i mean listen listen yeah like we're much better we'd win a time on starting at center yeah

we'd win a time to what cat is we're beating everybody in we're beating everybody in five you think it makes me better with draymond is we might sweep this out of He had Draymond at Center. Okay, you're calm down. Cat isn't that bad. He's not that bad. I'm talking about when it comes to winning a championship, who's better off leading you closer towards that?

It's 110% Draymond Green. Well, is Steph coming along with him? Yeah. If you insert, Draymond Green, then DHO's with Jalen Brunson, he's going to send him to the moon, bro. They're a package. They don't separate. That's the case, then, yeah.

Do we go B or C? I don't know. Put him in B. No, that's, that's, Just things that we can't explain. We got to go see. How much of the voodoo magic is tied to Steph Curry and him being a perfect fit there? And how much of that would Draymond bring to another team right now at this stage of his career?

According to Oscar Robertson, all of it is attached to Seth Curry. And I'm going to trust the old man. We're putting Draymond in C. I don't know, man. I think if you put Draymond in any offense, their offense prevails and their defense skyrockets, me person, I think he would be. Keep in mind, the C tier is still all-star level players. So we're not exactly putting him in like.

A terrible company, you know Yeah, it's not Zubach Put him next to Singoom You're the one who hates Sangu No, I'm not, no I'm not Next to Sangu Listen, you need to be careful The Turks are not going to allow you

To head to the mafia, man Bro, I love the Turks I actually met a Turkey other day at the mosque Man, like we're aligned, relax I'm good over there Alright Brooke Lopez what's the lowest tier

F he's that oh damn he's good rent protection and three point shooting he just put him in F tier

and he was like no but he's good though he's like yeah yeah but he's like F he's not better than Zubach damn let me stole my tracks a little bit

Zubach is having a better year no Zubach is better not at this point Brooke Lopez looks old is old plays like he's old Zubot's better at the stage But he's still stroking that motherfucker, though. Yo.

Damn. You like that? I like when he strokes it like that yet. I mean, ooh, who. Let me go back to his three-point percentage. Wait, wait, wait. I can save myself.

I swear to God, give me a second. I swear to God. Brooke Lopez three-point percentage. Oh, shit. I typed error Brooks. Fuck, forgive me, please. Give me a second. Okay.

shooting 36% from the three point line this year. That's pretty good on five attempts per game. Yeah, that's crazy. Ooh, man, he's only averaging five rebounds. Holy shit, that's tough. That was the worst verbiage I can imagine. Ah, yeah. All right. I didn't mean that. Nicola Yokish.

S-tier. Clear cut, best player in the world. Best big man in the world. Without with Joel M. B. being dusted, there's no competition for him anymore. Yeah, it's S-tier. And I'm sorry that I paused for half a second before I said S-Tier. that was too long

it was too long yeah you owe a great debt to Yokish Nation for that Serbia I'm putting it up Can you imagine how much Last year One of the recipes of The Denver Nuggets failing

Was due to Nicole Yokoj's lack of spacing He came back the next year Now he's shooting like 45% He's the best base in the league What the fuck is going on? Make no sense Yeah It's insane that he might not win the MVP

And that's like okay, that he's having such a great season and might not win the MVP is insane, but that's the league we're in today. It's just like Luke Dodger's last year. 34-9 and 9-9, not winning an MVP. Not good enough, buddy. Welcome to the modern NBA.

The amount of stars we have, the legends at their peak is insane. 45% from Keoges don't make no damn sense, bro. It's hilarious. How many attempts? Like fucking five? Yeah, like 4.4. It dropped off a little bit, but... Yeah, still. It's still a good amount of attempts. Run that bitch up towards his way. It's insane.

Crazy, man. There we go. That's our tier list of these 12 big men. So in S tier, we have Nicole Yokic. A tier, Anthony Davis and Vigua Mianiyama.

B tier, Kat, Evan Moby, and Zion. C tier, Sangoon, Chet, and Dremond. D tier, Zubach, and F tier, Brooke. I don't want to do it too.

I think that's perfect. I tried to pick an array of talented levels of players like, well, an array of levels of talented players to, like, have a nice spread. I feel like you guys nailed it.

me personally i'll make a couple of changes we're just really one but other than that I feel pretty good with this list you want to put you want to put zangoon down to d tier don't you no no no I want to raise Dram on up I have no spoke with Zangoon I think he's all right I was showing y'all guess what we don't care

we don't care but guess what this is not a perfect TD3 tier list like you usually think it is it's a nice damn it's tough sorry we don't have the most stamp of approval perfect tier list

you don't next thing we're going to do blind ranking I'm going to name you five NBA players I want you to blind rank them

based on their career earnings oh let me sit up I love pocket watching who you think has the deepest pockets I love pocket watching one through five

I reveal the amount they made at the very end number one our first player Jamal Murray he signed a big ass contract after the championship I believe

he did but has that has that kicked in yeah wait so i don't know like we're doing like up until this point or just like well yeah yeah that's career earnings how much you made so far do you want to go like future he doesn't matter i think damal murray's like five five i mean he may be four actually he may be four i'm not a pocket watcher you do this better to me man we'll go we'll go four i listen i just enjoy doing it i don't know if i'm good at it but i do like pocket watching but we'll put jama at four Okay. Okay.

Jamal Murray. Okay. Kobe Bryant. Kobe's made money. One. One or two in this. We don't know who's one though yet. I don't know.

It's hard. It's hard. Like, obviously Kobe has made a lot of money. But Kobe's, like, Kobe didn't play in one of the most lucrative NBA scenarios. But it's also Kobe Bryant. Yeah. It's also Kobe Bryant. So I'm going to go.

Kobe one no I think I think we're shooting you want to go to do you want to go to the person I might put him three in terms of how much money damn stop stop are we talking about just NBA contracts yeah then he's probably going to be three he played for 20 years and is getting max due after you heard the man he's probably going to be three but what does like the max contracts look like compared to like back then compared to now it's different all all right we we can go We can go three, but if we get jacked up. If I cook us, this is it, but okay. Okay, Kobe Bryant at three.

All right. Rudy Gobert. Bag man, Mr. Bandman himself. He's made a lot of money. Yeah. We do endless money spreads. So we have to go to. The money spread?

We have to go to. I'm not putting them at one, but two would make sense right now. So we have go bear. Above Kobe Bryant. We have Gobert, Kobe, Jamal Murray. And now we have one in five. Max contract and Max contract.

I'm leading. Gobert at two. Okay. Paul Pierce. This is ridiculous. Paul Pierce? It's five. Yeah, Paul Pierce.

Five. This whole ranking is so messed up. Am I not good at pocket watching right now? What's wrong? So messed up. All right. Number one, we have Dwayne Wade. He's.

I mean, he's going to. in the one spot so it doesn't matter no choice but ooh I don't feel good about Dway that one

you guys did an absolutely horrendous job Of course we do Wow Mo you did indeed fuck the list

the real order we have actually not the real order but this is the damn this fucking screen is messing up I think I fucked up with Kobe

this is what the actual numbers are Jamal Murray made 136 million Kobe Bryant 328 million Gobert 217 Paul Pierce 200

Dwayne Wade 199 Wow This is our worst Blind rankings ever Thought of it is so mad Kobe was a clear cut Number one It wasn't even close

Bro what time of money Where they slinging Kobe back then The salary cap just doesn't make sense It don't add up bro He retired in 2016 Not 1995 You were talking about the old days Like it was the 70s

He played for 20 years Damn Jamal Murray was last by far and Dwayne Wade was second to last Dwayne Wade actually made one million less than Paul Pierce That's interesting Damn

Yeah I probably would have That messed up Right You guys got one spot right though You gotta go Barrett too That was correct Good job Hey band man Rudy Gilbert

He never let me down Steady and ready as always Steady and ready All right All right Steady and ready the first time anybody has ever used those words to describe, where do you go bare?

Yeah. Next thing we're going to do, I'm going to name two past NBA players. You let me know who would have the better career if they were drafted today. Right. So they started their career in 2025, going forward,

who would retire with a better career? Okay, let's talk about it. First names, Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady? Tracy McGrady. Easy. His game is tailored made for today. Easy. You don't think Yao Ming can be

Wenbi meets Yokic? They would have Yao Ming up on the perimeter They would attack him in every single picker roll And I'm not sure if he can move that way So I'm going Trace McGrady He'd be a bucket He'd have so much more space Is he'd have so much more space?

The team acts as a slasher in today's NBA 32 He was like a tough shot maker That could slash when he was young Today he would be the inverse He would be unstoppable attacking the bank Bro Yao Ming might slip a disc in his back By trying to run around so much

In this goddamn space to be allowed today He's not catching up I'm going T-MAC Herniated disc And don't listen And don't put T-Mack on a bad team He will look

Stop 307 Exactly easy 37 easy Lamella ball numbers But better Gilbert Arenas Orrano or Rajan Rondo Gilbert Arrinas or Rondo

We've seen Mando in this age already I'm 100% Starting a career today. It depends on what the team around them is. But the league is catered towards. I'm leaning towards the high power, like that firepower guard always. What kind of vets is Gilbert Arena is having his locker room

to influence him from a young age? That's a question. I don't know. I mean, listen. The NBA has a very good safety and prevention program right now in place. I mean, part of that is because of Gilbert Arena. This is how you inject the right type of dynamite

to come and test those motherfucking rules. I don't know if that's good PR. So with that being said, Isaac, after the last statement, I'm leaning towards Ronzo. Yeah, I think I'm going to Rondos. Because what was illegal in 2007 is still illegal now. So I'm going with Rondo. The question is who would have a better career,

not who would have the better one-year peak? Exactly. Some actual correct, she got to take into account. Exactly. That's good with Rondo. Next one. We have Steve Nash or why am I drawn to blink? What the hell?

Who is the coach of the Mavs? Why is my brain fried? Jason Kid. What the fuck just happened? I'm looking at his face. He's fried. I'm going to Steve Nash. And I actually don't, this might be a little blasphemous, but I don't think it would be close.

I don't think it would be close either. Yeah. I think everything that made Jason Kidd special, would be a little bit less affected today and everything that every flaw that you could ignore back then would stand out a little bit more today he's perfectly suited for the 2000s

yes but Steve Nash like his passing the pace of which he played the game his shooting if Steve Nash was either allowed or told to shoot more with his efficiency

oh my goodness I mean he would he would dominate he would get at least one MVP in this era as well yeah you get everything that 2021 Chris Paul brought in the market modern era plus everything that prime tri young brought when he averaged 30 for his season like you'd have that combination of scoring and like and discipline playmaking read shepherd don't let me down i believe in you oh god that is not the count that's not the count that's your only hope

for finding a new steve nash fuck i like read a lot but damn setting him up listen stature wise i mean yeah it makes sense but then again i just hope steve nash would actually take more shots today and wouldn't be Mr. Ten Shots a game like he was back then. Who knows he might because shit, there's a lot of easy looks that he would get off this year. We need, I need Steve Nash at like 17 shots a game. At least.

Yeah. Minimum. Hakeem Elijah one or Charles Barkley. Hakeem Elijah one. Yeah, Hakeem. Easy. I don't know, Charles Barkley. That mobility he had back then was different.

Like everything Yannis does like a lead playmaker today, you would do that with Charles Barkley being this power forward that can like function as a point guard. He might translate perfectly. But so does Akeem Olajuwon when it comes to, obviously, all the, like, free range post skills that he has to touch around the rim. I'm assuming that he'd be able to, like, stretch out to straight out, oh, shit, stretch out his game because of the mid-range ability and shit, the passing is there as well.

And then, he's the one defensive player in the years on defensive player. Yeah, exactly. So he's just a total package. He's the perfect center to- He's the perfect center today's three. He's the perfect center today's in any era. He really does. Yeah, you said perfect center in today's NBA. He's not more suited for today.

He's just perfectly suited for every era. So you can say that for whenever you want. Yes. So I'm going with Hakeem, and it's kind of easy for me. Yeah, he's just, I think Charles Barkley would be better today than he was in the 90s. And Hakeen would be just as good. But Hakeem is coming from a level that's better than Charles Barkley. So you still pick him.

Yeah. I agree. Nick Young or Tony Allen. Nick Young or Tony Allen. I think I'm winning. Who? I'm going to Tony Allen. Prime Tony Allen scoring.

eliminated we've eliminated both versions of these players from the modern NBA so who could who could be the last of a dying breed I'm going I'm going Tony Allen because I know teams that have that have had like good defenders and bad shooters and play them and just pray that they knock down shots but eventually you get to a point where guys are like buckets and off the bench buckets and can't play defense you're like yeah yeah like that's that's it that's all he is The highest three-point attempts that Tony Allen ever had in this career was one, and literally one. The second highest, one point nine, point nine, bro. He was not too much.

I'm still going Tony Allen. I have pure principle. I have respect for Tony Allen. You can't go in you any other way. I think Tony Allen's more of a winning player. So I think I'm going to lean towards Tony Allen. He'd be Alex Caruso. Like, that's, oh, hell not.

Bro. With them offensively, there are nothing alike. He doesn't playmake whatsoever. Yeah, like... I'm talking shooting-wise. I'm talking shooting-wise. Yeah, well, I was Russo, like... 28% is...

Keep the offense honest. This is like Ben Simmons level of, like... If they started today, if Tony Allen started today, and he came up in today's NBA, and they told him what to work on, they told him what to prioritize, he could get a skill set similar to that.

I think I'll more so compare him with Chris Dunn, bro. I think that's better. I can't bring him to Jared Vanderbilt. Either way But way better defensively Either way He's on a roster He's on the floor

He's making an impact I'm taking Tony Allen Okay Keeping a job Next up Mugsy Boggs or Mnou Bull You can't You can't be

I'm sorry You can't be Five in today's the NBA They will keep you around If you are seven something You don't get the Boban treatment You'll just be in a roster Yeah

It's proven concept One hundred percent They're treating them like a circus It's thrown up city to city Playing like five minutes A game Frans ruined for him Damn, he's getting Taco Falls treatment, basically.

It's tough. Taco Fall was in the G-Lean. Yeah, he played basketball. I guess. What? Manu's actually good, though. Manu could shoot a little, well, Isaac.

Back then, yes, he could. He'd be, he should a lot today. I'm sure he developed that more. He'd be a real stretch big. Yeah. He'd be like Blue Corvette with a jumper. That's dangerous. Donovan.

That's dangerous. Isaac, Donov, you don't believe in your short kings being able to thrive in the league today? he's sort of to me I don't understand still like I get a that's insane that's fucking crazy

I got it's the most impressive feet I gotta go we don't talk about it enough the fact that he had a long and big career is one of the five

most impressive things anybody's ever done in sports 14 years is ridiculous Mugsy Boggs playing a decade is more impressive than LeBron score in 50K points let's talk about it

the beard entries that's the A block for the stream on Tuesday Mugsy It's more impressed than Bo Jackson playing two sports

It's more impressed than Dion Sanders playing both ways Oh yeah No I mean That was always a sham We knew that No I'm playing

I'm playing This happened In MJ's era bro It's tough You hate to see it Nice little propaganda Getting off there I know

I'm probably just facts Dennis Rodman or Lamar Odom Oh Lamar Odom Dennis Rodman would be a nasty small ball five

today He would Lamar Odom them, though, more space for that slashing and playmaking, that'd be interesting. I think teams would more so be feeding for a guy like Vermar-Ratim than Dennis Robin. Dennis Rodman was a defensive player of the year. He's going to be able to be a little bit more versatile, I think. Oh, but the offense would be a problem today, though.

The offense would be a real problem. He's not like a good role man. You have to play the five like that. Yeah. Now, I don't know if you know, right, if you use Dennis Rodman on 2K and you put him in the corner, he's knocking that corner three down. It's kind of, it's kind of like that. Welcome to real life.

I don't know if he's doing that in the modern era of real life basketball. If we can get Dennis Rahman to stand in that corner and take one to two threes a game, I'm doing it. If I was to pick either between either player, I actually want to see Dennis Roman today's NBA because he'll be putting that shit on, bro. He was a trend set of her fucking league fits back then, bro. You kidding me. That's true as well. That's true as well. I'm going to-Lamarr-Lamara without any distractions in the modern NBA with all the spacing in the world.

like without any more distractions there's way more distractions the league today oh that's true that's a major issue row that's true instant access to your phone I didn't want to go there

anybody's reach about all points there's like four more Kardashians in the rotation they make they make the rounds now they're the court time now accessibility is at an all time high Keep in mind of the lead today, bro.

Kendrick Perkins or J.R. Smith. J.R. Smith, easy. Nothing's fun about Kendra Perkins' game, bro. What the hell? Kendrake's only going to get no playing time. What the hell? You don't think he can come in and be an anchor? You don't think he can be Zubach?

No, he can't be Zubach. He can't be Zubach. If you put J.R. Smith on, put J.R. Smith on the, on the magic. That's what they mean. Malik Monk. That's exactly what they should have did this summer. Yeah.

Gloving hand fit. I love in hand. We're speaking facts right now. We're speaking facts. Who is Kendry Parkinson's today? Ooh, that's a great, great questions. Dominic Barlow on the Atlanta Hawks. Great.

Are you five? What is he? That's a great, great question. Oh, that's great. Luke Cornett. He's Luke Cornett today. Oh, Luke Cornet is a way better rebounder. Don't disrespect him.

Oh, my bad. Yusuf Nirkich. he left from his iPod no he left he probably he probably left from his iPad he said use of Nurkish you hung up on us y'all are hearing him talk because I'm recording the camera separately we can't hear him right now so you can't give guys iPads man dude you can't do anything these motherfuckers don't know what they're doing anymore never gave y'all money We got a deal Your favorite

Your favorite guy What happened Stephen A. Smith Just got a hundred million dollars And y'all That was last matchup This is the end of the episode Oh, Mo's back

Wait, Steve Nesmith's got a hundred million dollars Live on the pod? Wait, what happened? You go to Twitter. Who broke this news? Oh, now that Donovan lagged out All right, y'all, this is the end of the episode If we're still here, comment, shout out

Stephen A. Smith And we'll see y'all next week.