The Deep 3 Podcast - 10 Storylines That Will Shape The NBA Season | Ep. 109

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

The NBA's most important storylines of the 2024-2025 season! 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 Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 1:40- Is Scoot good? 8:38- Can J.J. Reddick save the Lakers? 21:55- Will the Celtics win again? 33:00- Is it over for the Heat? 42:00- Can the Bucks bounce back? 50:48- Suns. 56:18- Is it the 76ers time to shine? 1:06:35- Young stars that are taking over 1:12:40- The Knicks are all in 1:22:10- Are the Cavs going to work? 1:26:35- The final producer corner 1:51:45- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donovan. Hi. Are you ready to talk straight narratives? This is all I ever wanted. Mo. This is all I ever want to do. Are you ready to yap for two and a half hours about straight storylines? Honestly, storylines is all I watch the NBA for.

Who cares about the X's and knows? He cares about winning. It's all about the gossip, the drama. This is my reality TV. You know what? for anybody watching that feels that way and that every time I say weak side help defense, every time I say

Spain pick and roll, they cringe. This is the episode for you. Today we're talking about the 10 biggest storylines that are going to shape the 2025 NBA season. So straight big picture, straight TV, straight, just the fiction we follow in this league.

This is great. This is great. I'm so excited. Bad Girls Club NBA edition. Let's get to it. So, let's get into it. The cranium is crazy. Oh my God. I mean, I don't know what to say.

Pray on eaters rejoice. If you guys are watching on YouTube, do us a favor. Drop like and subscribe from audio platforms, five stars, leave a review. Check out the merch. Check out all of our socials. All that. Yeah, man, let's talk about the biggest storylines of the season. We're going to go one by one picking what we think should be on this list.

I kind of build out of top 10 by all, you know, going through what's on our minds. Mo, you go first. I feel like I always go to Donovan first. You can have the honor of starting stuff today. Okay, okay, okay. So let's start off with the most non-important storyline, but also super interesting. I don't know why, but I've been thinking about Scoot Henderson so much as of late. And how much he just seemingly has not mattered.

since he's been drafted. Wow. Like, no one cares whatsoever. I think the fact that I said, what's the number one most exciting storyline of the year you want to start with?

And you were like, how about the guy that doesn't fucking matter? That's just hilarious. Like, that's just like, I did not understand the assignment. Let's just get it out of the way. Let's get it out of my system.

It's muck. It's a disgustingness. Okay, well, why do you use Skoo Henderson as a top 10 story? What makes it so interesting to you? school henderson being school henderson is this top 10 story for me in my mind because of how much he pivoted and how he's like the pendulum to the portland trailers and how their future goes

they have like a plethora guards two other guards who play the exact same position as him and free sims a little bit more versatile whatever but he has a highest ceiling out of the three but for but he's clearly the worst out of the three right now due to where he's at and he's so far just a rookie. So many rookies have been a disappointment throughout the first first season in the NBA. So right now, the Portland Troyblazers are in the phase of the rebuilds where they don't know what's going on. They don't know who are the guys. They don't know who they should be prioritizing or building right now. They're just putting things, just throwing shit out on the wall, quite literally, as they should be right

now. And Schu Henderson should be the one giving the direction. And if he has, not a bunch last season, but elevates this year, then I think that changes a lot. He gets thrown into the already super deep long list of talents of young point guards in the NBA. But if not, then it'll just be one of the more disappointing stories in the NBA. Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting. You know, NBA media and NBA fans in general, I'll say, and even just from the media perspective, are just the most fickle guys in the world. If you're a star and you come in with high pedigree, like a Scoo Henderson, and you're expected to be a superstar.

You know, people are saying, maybe Victor Women Yama shouldn't be a lock for the first pick in the draft. Maybe it's a conversation because Scoo Henderson might be new age Russell Westbrook or whatever.

If you start your career and you don't immediately wow and you don't get yourself in high some highlights on making these big plays, fans are going to forget about you, especially if you play in the city like Portland, you're just not going to be on top of mind

and you're going to completely exit the just mind space of NBA fans. And yeah, it's kind of where Scoot is that, right now. And this year two is definitely a, well, obviously it's a vital season for him right year two. But if he's going to be a star and have that mind space back, he has to prove that in the first 40 games, I think. Yeah, 100%. And I think, honestly, what's kind of crazy is that like, Nikkel pulled up this highlight tip. Nicko, can you hover over this highlight tape just

so that I know exactly if I'm from right? Yeah, we're looking at a Zion Williamson versus Scoot Henderson duel. And the video is less than two and a half. minutes long. Like, we have to see something from school Henderson. We have to be able to have more than two and a half minute long highlight tapes in a single game. And I think that like Mo's absolutely right that in a Western conference where basically like 13 out of the 15 teams are trying to win, you don't really see tanking teams. But obviously, whatever the, whatever the Blazers can get out of Scoot Henderson is going to matter insanely for next season because Cooper Flags coming into the draft next year. And so, like, on one level, where are the Blazers going in the future? That

matters a lot. Two, is Scoot going to be good enough slash bad enough to where the Blazers are once again going to be, going to have like the absolute best odds to get the first pick and to get Cooper Flag? Or can those things be combined? And can Scoot Henderson progress as a player? And the and the Blazers suck enough to where they still get the first pick and then now you have a duo going forward of Scoot Henderson and Cooper Flag. Like all of these things are moving forward and there's a lot of possibilities. And I think that, yeah, you might contend with some of the bad Eastern Conference teams like the Wizards and the Pistons. This is the opportunity for the Blazers to really, really figure out third core, especially when you have Scoot,

you have, you have clinging who you just drafted. If you had Cooper Flagg to that, that's a very, very interesting trio to build around. So, yeah, you got to see something from Scoot or at minimum one of your guards. Yeah, and again, this is about, when we talked at length in the past about Scoo Henderson and why he was disappointing the rookie year and the fact that we're not necessarily

giving up on him, you know? We've said it in the past plenty of NBA rookie start slow. You don't give up on, especially a young, small point guard in year one. That's fine. But if we're talking storylines, That's the biggest thing is, is he going to be a star?

If not, where do the trailer's go? Like, what's their story and what's their arc as a team? Because we've, we've complimented them in the past, right? They have some smart guys over there that have done a good job since they trade Damon Lillard of building a, for the very least, at least an interesting young core. They just made some interesting trades to get Denny. They brought in Klingin. They have a lot of pieces, three bigs, two of them need be traded, like three forwards in

Jeremy Grant and Denny and, I'm blanking, and a Kamara. that can be complementary to ball handlers. The three ball handlers that will see who rises at the top but lots of options. Just a ton of pieces that'll be really good once they figure out

who the guy is. And this season is about finding out, do we have the guy in the locker room right now or is it going to be next draft? Yeah, exactly. A ton of useful pieces that you envision

being a part of any productive organization, but none of these pieces matter if you haven't figured out or identified the face of your franchise or the guy who can justly, you know, generate all.

offense or defense or whatever it might be for your team. So that's the biggest storyline for that side of things. And there's plenty of avenues to find the guy. Every team eventually finds it. Nobody rebuilds forever unless you're to Sacramento Kings. But pretty much every team. Well, we're not going to go like seven years without a guy. So

in the coming years, they'll draft him or they'll trade for him. They'll figure it out. So it's all about building up the supporting cast of when he comes in the locker room, you're ready. And yeah, Scoo Henderson's the biggest swing factor there. So I like it. Yeah. And if he's not the guy, it's okay because, you know, they have Milwaukee's picks in 2028. They got Milwaukee's pick 2029 and then they own swap rights back in like 2030, I believe, too.

So they have a lot of punches, so many assets to build up, to build on. But right now, Scoot Henderson is the main focus. We can dead the Scoot talk now, though. One of y'all. Yeah, it's crazy we started with Scoot. That's crazy. Donovan, what's your first? Major Storyland is going to shape the NBA season.

Okay, so this one is actually going to change the, change the NBA. I need to know if J.J. Reddick is the next Greg Popovich. I'm glad you said this. I think that that is one of like, if not top five, like top three storylines. Because from, and we talked about it on the stream on Tuesdays, you know what I'm saying? Everybody tap into that. But we talked about how everybody on the Lakers that was on the team last year completely basically just said, yeah,

Darwin Ham didn't know what he was doing. He had us just running around. We had no plan. And now with JJ here, it feels like a real basketball team. And you see clips on social media about how everybody's locked in. And as the coach of the Lakers, who is also coaching LeBron James, every single game that you coach, every decision that you make will be dissected. Everybody is going to have an opinion on it. If the Lakers who have LeBron, who everyone still recognizes, is a top 10 player in the league. If you still have Anthony Davis, right, who everybody says is, you know, one of the best defenders in the league can get you 27. You have those two guys on your roster. How is it that you guys were, you know, won 47 games? This should be a roster that

wins a lot more games. If JJ Reddick is actually competent and even more than competent, if he's good at his job, are the Lakers sneakily underrated? Are the, are the Lakers actually be a team that can sneak into the top three of the West? Like, those, those are, those are the things where, again, a lot of the West is separated by one to two, three games. And I'm sure that Darwin Ham cost the Lakers three games with his coaching, you know, last year. I'm positive. I'm positive.

J.G. Reddy can come in and change all of that. And we may be looking up at December. And the same team that was on a role winning the in season tournament last year in December, they could actually be going in the right direction. and be at the top of the conference. You said this is a top five storyline in the NBA. Maybe I'm just a homer, but I think it's low-key top one. Homer.

Obviously, the Lakers are always the top of our minds as NBA fans. They get the special treatment from the media, but it's for good reason this time. They have LeBron. They have AD, and they've been disappointing. And now they have also the Bronny element, which doesn't necessarily matter on the court, but that is a storyline that's going to be a part of the NBA season.

Like, whether you care about the pick, you think it was wasted, I don't really care, but it's undoubtedly a major storyline that LeBron James is playing with his son. Like that's ridiculous. So you combine that. Like, I had this written down to as my number one storyline. And I wrote, Bronny James and J.J. Reddick joined the Lakers Circus. Because that's really what it is. It's a media frenzy. And we added the two, honestly, the two biggest additions to the NBA in terms of names, right? Like in terms of headlines, J.J. Reddick doing his media career being very popular in the space. And obviously, we know Brony what comes with that and the baggage and everything. This is the most attention. that's injected into league for any team.

100%. And on the basketball side, again, I'm a Lakers fan. So, being a fan, I can sell myself on some shit. Every year, I can convince myself to my team is going to be great. Everybody can, right?

You can be nosing them, of course. Yeah, every fan this time of the year is like, maybe we're going to win the fucking championship the whole time they're a Spurs fan. There's no bounds for the open fans. But everything that's being said right now, around J.J. Reddick and the infrastructure he's creating

in the started training camp is exciting. We talked about on the stream. Everybody that talked to Media Day said, damn, we had no structure last year and it's kind of crazy. J.J. Reddick has a plan. They're like dumbfounded because Darwin Ham is out there

in DeAngelo Russell's words, winging it. They had zero structure, zero program, zero plan, anything of the sort. They were out there winning on talent, as DeAndre Russell said. And that makes total sense, right?

Everything we talked about with this team in the past couple of years has been disappointment because we expect more given their talent on paper and now we're at the point where they failed two years in a row so we don't really expect that anymore

because we're like maybe they just don't have that good of players or maybe Darwin Ham was even worse than we expected and now we're confident coaching and hopefully high level coaching I could, there's a reason people said

maybe this is going to be a top 14 last year maybe we should go back to have those expectations. I feel like if the Lakers were to become a top 14, the clear and cup pathway to that is their offense elevating. I feel like they did over the last few years a horrendous

job of maximizing their offense through the new town that they acquired like Delo and also like the new court, Delo, Austin Reeves, and the things that Reha Chimiri does. If they're going to be... Tori and Prince play 35 minutes a night. That's not optimizing offense

at all. Yeah, exactly. If they're going to be, you know, sneak into the fifth, fourth, third seat or whatever it might be in the Western Conference, it's going to be because they have a top five offense and then be a not more solar defense. I think there's a pathway for that, too. And look at everything that's been said this preseason

about the personnel and how they're going to be deployed offensively. He said, Rui Hachamora, you have to shoot a lot of threes. That wasn't something prioritized with Dardenham. In fact, Rui Hachamora wasn't always prioritized by Dardenham. Now they said, we know Rui has to shoot a lot of threes and has to focus on defense. It makes little sense. He said, Austin Reeves has to run off the screens

and get involved with off the ball. Duh, Darvinham thought he was essentially a point guard and made him try to become this third star and do a super on-ball role and it kind of diminished what made him so exciting a couple years ago. J.J. Reddick also said Anthony Davis can't go five-minute stretches without touching the ball.

Something Donovan has criticized everybody for involved in the Render Lakers, especially Anthony Davis. Sounds like it might have been a dog. Everybody's outfall for that. Everybody's yeah, exactly. And that's the clear thing JJ Reddick said, we just can't fucking let that happen and we all know he's mentioned Anthony Davis as a hub in a lot of conversations.

He said, you know, he's saying all the right things that You can imagine that Mo ends up being right and they are top offense. It wouldn't shock anybody. Yeah, I just, it's, we have very, like, short memory as NBA fans and as NBA consumers. Because, again, like, in December, this was a team that, again, was going, making a run in the in-season tournament. Their defense looked fantastic. We saw one of the greatest games of Anthony Davis's career in that in-season tournament final. And you're looking at this team.

You're like, okay, LeBron's here. Anthony Davis is playing at the peak of his powers. This is everything that you've ever wanted him to be. And all of a sudden, it turns around in an instant. And part of that is like trying to get back on track and that does, you know, land on the players. But also getting your team prepared every night, we look at that as a coaching thing. And to be able to actually not be able to have your team lock back in, that's on Darvin Ham. You had four or five months to get locked in.

And everybody, while teams did say, hey, we are going for the in-season tournament and we do want to win it, like these games are competitive, everybody understands that the playoffs and the Larry O'Brien trophy, that's the ultimate goal. And to win that in December and still not be ready by April, that's crazy. So we'll see what JJ Reddy does. And if he is, what, 10, 15 percent more competent than Darwin Ham? This is a team that can not only make the top four, make the top three. We're expecting a big jump from Memphis, but we have to see how all of those pieces fit together again. Hey, they're already getting injured again.

It's already looking bad for them. It's wild. Who Memphis? Yeah. Vince Williams is injured now, and so is Jared Jackson, Jr. Look at that. Look at that. The Timberwolves who made the conference finals just traded Cataway.

They have to reintegrate stuff. The Mavericks, who were doing all this great stuff on defense. They just brought in Clay Thompson. We'll see how he fits into their. entire scheme, the only team that we feel 100% confident about in the Western Conference is Oklahoma City Thunder. Because even the Nuggets, they have depth issues. It's wide open in the West. And so if we look up in December, January, and the Lakers are the second seed, they're the three seed, it wouldn't shock me at all. And all of that depends on how good is J.J. Reddick

immediately. So, yeah, I think that's, I'm with you. This honestly might be number one, just because it's the Lakers. Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the in-season tournament as a big part of that because I forgot who it was around mid-season last year there was some podcast.

I think it was a Bill Simmons episode where he was interviewing some former player or coach and he mentioned the point that He might have been Doc? Yes, it was Doc. Yeah, before he took over for the bucks. And he said that he thinks

the in-season tournament is going to be weird for the teams that win it every year because it's, you know, emotionally as a person who's been a part of teams as a player and a coach, he sees that when you ramp up to try to win something

you put yourself in the emotional state that you're trying to chase a trophy trying to get victory you kind of ramp up you're building up to something the hype comes up the want to win builds up that's different than a regular random November regular season game and with that rise and emotion comes a drop because you can't just go up forever eventually you either win the championship or you don't that being the in season tournament and there's inevitably going to be a come down from that so doc was saying that he thinks every year whoever wins is it going to have a

strange arc to their season because that's just not a natural human emotion to come back from and go to work the next day you know teams are used to you win a championship you go home and you relax and you know how you can negate that as a team have a great coach who tells his team don't be fucking complacent fuck the in season tournament we have 60 more games to play you better lock in and i think jj redick is a lot more equipped to tell them to lock the fuck in than d'arfonham ever was 100% at least the one thing that i do know is that like jj whenever he's telling his players that he's going to have some type of hand motions he's going to be more animated right his hands aren't going to be in his pockets while giving the speech so yes i i think

that from what we've seen from j j in his media career i do think there's going to be you know a very self-awareness about the lakers this season where last year it kind of felt like there were there were parts of their season where you kind of felt like they were living in like delusion and you know part of that is darwin ham being like yeah we're going to try to try to have this lineup but we have four four forwards in the in the starting lineup and it's going to work god and so i think yeah the the lakers they will be better than than expected i think that a lot of people wrote them off and kind of put them in the same category because they obviously they ended up in the same standings as the warriors they those two teams are in completely different spaces going

into the season. And obviously, the Lakers are, in my opinion, they're trending up and the warriors are trending down. The other part's interesting, though, is I've seen a lot of reporting around this that all the beat report, this is crazy. By the way, we're not going to talk about this, but all the reporters that are there at Media Day have said that the general vibe is that they're not trying to go all in, that they're trying to build a culture that in the minds of these reporters is about a life after LeBron and establishing something that'll carry over if they can win now great, but they're not necessarily like preaching that. It's preaching. Let's build something and let's have a program around JJ Redick. And that isn't, I think some people

tell you that to me. They're unsurious. They don't want to win. I don't think that's necessarily true. I think it's good. I think you're better off building a culture and not setting super high expectations and then seeing if that culture can pay dividends early and maybe you end up winning more than you expect. It's good to know that that's the general vibe is let's build something, not let's try to cash in for short term wins. Also, that tells me they're being realistic and also that talk of like, yeah, let's build a program, build a culture. That's code for like, yeah, we're cooks. Let's just focus on the basics, you know?

And I think that's the best way to go about it at this point in time because usually, I remember last year, we were all focused on like, ooh, what can they go ahead and do with these two weak-ass restaurant picks? Can they even get Desonte Mary? Can they maybe get Zach Levine and all that other stuff? And now at this point in time, I think this is the right way to do it, just chill, relax, maximize on whatever you guys have right now and see what happens in the future.

I like you mention being realistic because I guarantee you, Darvin Ham was in that interview trying to get this coaching job and he was like, give me the reins. I was back in a championship. I'll figure out how to make it work with Russ and saying all this shit.

And I bet Jay J.J. Reddick was like, listen, man, I don't know. I can try. We can try to build a culture, not promising any championships anytime soon. Like, I bet that was just an entirely different approach because Darvindham was an assistant coach grinding and wanted the opportunity.

and J.J. Reddick is like, man, I am a normal person with eyes and I realize this is not the best team in the West. And you know what? I respect Darwoodham for that because all that tells me is that he's a bag chaser. He would say whatever, do whatever, act whatever. Exactly. And it worked. Because Rob Polina's

a fucking mark and it worked and he got sold a dream. And he's getting paid till this day from being fired from Blake's hip, bro. Yeah, Genevus heard that shit and she was like, I'm in. Good for him. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I respected. What's your first storyline, Isaac? Let's jump over to the other. Let's jump over to Lakers East, the other most popular team in the

NBA. It's talking about the Celtics. I think in the same way the Lakers are always a major topic of discussion in the NBA, so are the Boston Celtics, especially coming off of an NBA championship in which they finally got it done with their two stars that we spent the last three years saying, are they ever going to get it done? Do they have to trade one, so on and so on? You know, we know the story went. They added the necessary pieces and became the best team in the NBA by far and finished it. So, coming into this year, it's obviously, can they repeat, can they start a run that we're not going to use the D word yet, but can it become a multi-time championship team?

Can it become a team that is, you know, remembered NBA history is one of the most dominant teams of all time? Because, you know, most championship teams lose something after the year and they kind of go into the next year getting bits and pieces taken away. Maybe they have a role player in a contract year. He gets taken away. Ruth Brown. And we look up and we pick them to win again. But after the end of the year, we realize certain pieces were gone that make us realize their window wasn't quite as large as we

think. I don't think that's the case of the Boston Celtics. They didn't lose a goddamn thing. It doesn't look like they're going to lose a goddamn thing for the next four years. So are they going to be a dynasty or not? You tell me. Well, first off, listen, they, they, they're about to lose their owner. So that, that's one. I have to, I have to nitpick. I have to nitpick. I don't, I don't want to see them 60. I just, well, I don't know. They're over here and having conversations with the owner every other day. They probably didn't see them, man, other than during the first year. I don't want to see this thing be a dynasty.

That does matter. Like, that owner has been willing to spend. We don't know if the next one will be. In fact, we know the next one probably will be definitely has to be less willing to spend because this one is just the most one to spend possible. So that might matter. Yeah, but at least for this season, like, yeah, I think the back-to-back thing is really interesting because it's been, it's been so long since we've seen so long.

It's been like, what, like six years since we've seen the team. That is a long time. go back in the enemy history it's a long time yeah but i think i think for the celtics like the the back-to-back stuff we'll see that in in april i i'm not like too concerned about them in in the regular season although we did go through last year saying like at least me i know i i said are they really you know are they really this this dominant they didn't really play anybody in the playoffs all that stuff yada yada yada i think that like doing it again is very very hard and especially in today's NBA where teams are incentivized to to break up the team like you just don't the rules

are set up so that teams don't go back to back so that you don't have have dynasties i think the fact that like they have gone all in on the second on the second uh title it's very very interesting when everybody else is loaded up in the east this is more of like an eastern conference thing than just like a Celtic singular thing because the Sixers obviously loaded up, the Knicks back, the Bucks, expect to be good. Like all these teams are taking their shot. And now I think that we're actually going to see the Celtics get as tested as they have been now that they finally, you know, gotten on top of the mountain.

Yeah. It's hard to go back to back, man. Like you said, it's been six years. The teams that have gone back to back throughout the course of MBA history have been mostly dynasties. You know, we've seen a lot of basically super teams of multiple all-time level talents, multiple Hall of Famers in the peak of their primes, win multiple shifts.

The Warriors, the Miami Heats, the Lakers, the Spurs. Well, actually, Spurs never went back to back. But, you know, nonstop dynasties have really shaped the course of NBA history until the late 2010s and 2020s. That hasn't necessarily been the case since 2018 it was. Can they be the first? And, you know, of these last five championships

that failed to go back to back, I think they're clearly set up the best out of them all, right? If you think about them all, the Raptors lost Kauai. The Lakers got Rob Polinkud and blew up the core of their team what made them work. Morons. The Bucks, injuries, and PJ Tucker aged out pretty quickly. Warriors caught lighting in a bottle, probably should have never been there, didn't happen again. The Nuggets, Jamal Murray injury.

They're probably the second best setup to keep winning. But, you know, they lost Bruce Brown, so maybe that's something. The Southlakes don't really have any of those issues. We'll see what injury luck, but nothing else. Yeah, like this shoes like Chris Osprey. for Zingis. He's going to make some like unbeatable. And I don't think he's even starting out the season 110% just a he's thought of the same nagging injuries from the NBA final. So I think that is the underlying factor, the X factor for the Boston Celtics. If he's able to, you know,

remain healthy and if they're able to give him proper load management, then there's a real world where they're able to go back to back. And that is a daming world to a world that I hope doesn't ever cease to exist. But if it happens, it happens. And also... I'm honestly not even hating on them anymore. Fuck that. Why? I don't know.

I mean, now that got it done, I'm like... Yeah. I'm not... Listen, I'm not out here claiming to be a Celtics fan, but I'm not like... It was fun to put another downfall before. Now I'm just like, interesting. You know, if they win again?

As a Lakers fan, you should hate the Celtics with everything in your being. We've been over so many times. My brain does not operate like that. I don't give a shit. Man, it's not real. You, all of our other friends in our group chats at home want me to be this like emotional fan and it just won't happen the only thing good about the

Boston Celtics winning and to me is that I get to see Jalen Brown add another championship to his resume and also Al Horford is pushing his Hall of Fame case to the walls bro oh no Al Holford is a first ballot at Hall of Fame that's that's that's kind of that's kind of last ballot that's college too yeah yeah yeah college but um but no yeah I think I think I think Like with the Celtics, yes, the Porzingis thing is, is interesting. They have a lot of, like, many subplots going on because it's the Pozingis thing. It's the Tatum thing that we're going to see. Oh, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that.

Joe Missoula really, really stepped up last season and, like, took a massive step as a coach. I want to see how crazy is he going to push it this season, right? Like, is there another leap that we can see from Joe Missoula? And so all these little, little things, can Al Horford stay on the floor. Because like Mo said, he's pushing a Hall of Fame ballot thing. This guy is old. And without poor Zinus, he's going to have to play a lot of minutes. Is he going to be able to stay healthy?

So there's every, there's a storyline for nearly everybody on this team. Yeah. You know, you know what I? I don't think it would be crazy if they were better. And the only reason I say that is. That's wild. Yeah, I don't, okay, another regular season. That was absolutely outrageous.

And I really not even in the playoffs either because they were so dominant So maybe I shouldn't say that Because it's just like In terms of outcome It's pretty More by eye test you mean But

I am buying stock in Jason Tatum right now I think You know There's been a lot of criticism Over the last four or five months For good and bad reasons Especially coming out of the Olympics And coming out of the summer

Which I put zero stock in But many people do And that's fine But the jump shot has been bad As you've mentioned a lot, Donovan and I don't think it's going to be bad forever maybe it's just optimism but I'm not of the opinion

that his jump shot is broken and as great as he was last year if he can really have some fire lit under him from all the scandals not scandal is the wrong words but all the criticism around him and all the just ridiculous hate he's got in about to say Jason Taylor what happened

if he can be motivated by that which I think being coached by Joe Mazzula is very possible because he's fucking psychotic in the best way I can see Jason Tatum having a career year and if we see the best version of Jason Tatum, which I know is something we say every year, but I don't think it's out of the wrong

possibility. I think we can look up and be like holy shit, they're just as unstoppable, if not even more. I don't know what type of witchcraft or voodoo that Joe Musul has to do to Jason Tatum. He might hog time and put him over a campfire. He'll show him all the hate tweets and terrible

hate takes. Made about him. But I don't blame you. for having Jason Tatum or putting stock in a Jason Tatum because for me personally I haven't announced yet but I'm going to soft launch he might be my MVP frontrunner for this year I like that it's a beautiful story that makes so much sense and of course I joke about it all the time about like me this I team the Celtics or like Jason Tame or whatever I really don't care to be honest with you it's just fun to poke fun at other

what do you care about me look at us look at us look at the highlights oh shit oh shit that's me that's great that's great but um yeah audio listeners we're watching highlights from the playoffs and it's one of the games in which our logo was on the half court scorers table random little tidbit any crazy to see your face just pop up in the middle of a playoff game absolutely i'm saying all these people i know throughout life hitting me up like dude you're on the NBA playoffs court what the heck with the diamond's wedding and some dude i haven't talked to in five years shout out Alex it was like dude we saw you guys on the NBA playoffs i was like what the

it's just a crazy feeling that's insane that is insane but yeah no like I think this year is made for Jason Tatum in the South just to go ahead

and just shut up all the haters about the stupid-ass narrative that's been built our about them through things that I've said you said I think Donovan and the rest of the NBA world

we're just waiting for them to fall and break everything up and it's gonna be interesting because you know championship teams kind of go through different phases as teams after they win sometimes there's malaise and you don't see them

go back to back because they're satisfied sometimes there's criticisms that they crumble under sometimes they you know the expectations there's injuries and they fail to live up to it

and then they crumble in the playoff setting because it's just so much pressure very different outcomes are possible for a charity show team sometimes it take the regular season less seriously and that leads to different

outcomes in the playoffs that's the biggest thing to watch is how is Joe Mazoo looking to set the tone how are they going to come out are they could be just as hungry as they were last year because they were fucking starving

last year like you saw it You saw very clearly that Jalen and Jason Tatum has them to prove. They knew this. They didn't win that year. They didn't they're cooked probably. They're not going to win. What does that motivation look like in this year? Jason's the end season tournament.

That's what that's what is. They're going to make the push. They are going to, I can see a situation with Joe Missoula is trying to get them through the, through the malaise of like December and all that and like the early part of the season. It's like, all right, like, let's let's go for this right now. And then we can, you know, take. temper our expectations get ready for the for the playoffs but i can i can definitely see him like having some crazy whiteboard with lion's john everywhere and it's like win every game win

every possession like that might that might be it for this on things okay well what is the fourth storyline we're discussing today oh something that is very very underlying but so might be the most important storyline throughout the regular season because i believe this player is probably going to get moved is jimmy butler and the miami heat Jimmy Baller has exactly two years left on his contract. Next year he has a player option for $52 million. Pick that up. Which means he has one year left because people never opted in the last year

because they want a longer term deal. Exactly. NBA Dictionary, NBA terminology. So with that being said, also, the Miami Heat only have four players signed after next season to the roster. And Jimmy Bowler is one of them. This team basically is like, on a lease right now and this might be the actual last year that they have of being just like

meh trying to figure it out and seeing if they can luck their way into another NBA finals run or whatever it might be after year after year after year whether it be you know them trying to land on bradley beals or the zach levines donovan mitchells or as of late damian lillard's they've run their course it's either like i don't think there's going to be either any star player available for trade this year and I think they've run their course and this is probably the last year of like Miami heat tough body culture that we're going to able to experience and if they get off to another slow start injury riddled and all that and if we see Jimmy Butler and these boys going through the slums barely being three four or five three four games over 500 I believe

that they're probably going to move Jimmy Butler as they should and let Bam and I guess Ty Hero take over the range of this organization while they truly look for another superstar to do right by. Interesting. Yeah, this is extremely under-talked about. People have mentioned to me about his contract, but it's been under the

topic of like, maybe next summer or something will happen. We'll see if they said no, who's in a say? But nobody's really talked that much about the fact that this team's performance will decide if they blow it up or not because they are, as you said, very well positioned to do so. And you mentioned, you know,

maybe no stars are come available this year if you don't really see it coming. we didn't see car and Anthony Towns being traded and it happened overnight so you never fucking know so I like that like is there a world where Jimmy Buller is traded at this trade deadline maybe that's not crazy

we saw listen I think everybody in the heat you know on that team understands that this year is very very serious example one is Jimmy Butler coming into Media Day with his regular haircut yeah no Tom Fullery

Exactly. He's not playing around this season. He's not, this isn't the same guy that, you know, was a jumper away from sending the heat to the final. This isn't the same guy that just, you know, is coming off of a finals appearance. And I, we've heard all the stories about Pat Riley, not, you know, really being happy. He kind of subbed him after. And not even sub.

It was a direct shot. It was a direct shot after Jimmy Bowley. was talking in the playoffs and that riley was like yeah if you're not on the court you just need to shut up yeah it's very very rare that you see a gm player have like a conversation that direct but also be indirect because it's in the media but yeah the heat like I think all of us know they you can't do this every year you can't go through the regular season and get the seventh seed and then think okay we're just going to turn it on and now we're going to get to the finals and I think that the writing is going to be on the wall. And especially if we get into the start of the

season and Terry Rozier doesn't look like the guy that they thought he was going to be, if we don't see Tyler Hero, you know, ascend into something that another team would potentially want as like a trade piece. And you start looking around and you're like, okay, we have bam. And I guess we're stuck with Tyler Hero. What else do we have? Not really anything. We're probably going to, like most it, we're probably going to trade Jimmy. So I 100% see that situation because I don't think that they're going to be one of the five best teams in the east, one of the six best teams. Like, that's probably their range. They, they're going to fight for just being out of the play in.

It's tough, man. Well, what does it look like, though? Like, okay, so if they succeed, if they're top six team, everything goes as planned, they look like the Miami heat of old, which I think is very possible. I think I believe them a little bit more than you do, Donovan. Then nothing happens, right? They have another year where they try to make a deep run with their same formula they've done the last four years.

But if it's terrible, if there's injuries, if they are in a playing race in February and Jimmy Butler is not happy and they decide to move him. What does that look like for them? Like, what's the market for Jimmy Butler? Like, do they get a young star back for him at Jimmy Butler's age and contract situation?

Yeah. If they do, if they get under like second option, sure, you run with him, Bam, and Harrow and try to make it work. If the market isn't that robust for an expiring Jimmy Butler, what do you do now? Because I do have Bam outta bio

who's fantastic, not necessarily a elevate everybody around him type of star get it out the mud with him as one option. You got him and a whole bunch of unexciting picks, I mean, unexciting prospects that can be good players, but they're not going to have a huge ceiling. So they could be in a

really bad situation really fast. It's looking, it's looking scary. It's looking scary. Because you lost Caleb Martin as well, who you can say, you can, listen, you can say, you can say what you want about, about him Martin. If he's playing

for the heat, it's a different, it's a different player. We'll see, we will see what he looks like in a six uniform, but I know that whatever, whatever Eric's tells him gives him, you know, plus five, plus seven attributes across the board. So it's, I don't think this, this season is going to go well for the heat. I think I'm, I was kind about last year. I bought back in after they traded for Terry, but as we got to the playoffs, I bought back out. And I think that I'm staying out. I think I don't have that much stock in them for being. Are we predicting officially? Are we making the prediction of the heat or the next

team to blow it up? They should be, bro. They should be. And if they go ahead and blow it up or decide to retool or whatever it might be automatic suit. Yeah, probably a ritual because Bam out of buyers in the, he's in year eight of his NBA career. And there's no. Dan Gilbert, Dan Gilbert, tell Pat Riley, thank you. The Cleveland Cavaliers have ducked the allegations as the next team to blow it up. But Miami, he are now on the hot seat. Is there a new king in the trade machine? Is there a move that Miami can make to get back to, like, the top of the east? And by top, I mean top four. Yeah.

It depends. It has to be the most random player who has the most random fallout in either conference of course. And I don't know if that's there necessarily. It's unforeseen. It happens all the time. But also at the same time, like, what player is going to be moving the needle like that? Is that the McLevin, move you, Cam Johnson? I don't know.

Yeah, Zach Levine, Cam Johnson, Brandon Ingram, like, none of those players. players are... Oh, yeah, that is that. Ingram, that could move you. Do you think Ingram can move it? If they traded like, if they traded like where and hero and whatever picks necessary for Ingram, that could be a, I don't know, I mean, I don't know if I'd necessarily believe in it, but that's a talent injection that could change things.

Listen, when the pistons have seven wins in February, Kate Cunningham, go ahead, go ahead. Ask for the trade. Ask for it. That's why I'm starting. I'm starting it up. Kate, ask for the trade, man. You don't have to do this. You don't have to be.

Hey, that'd be kind of dope, though. If Ingram got traded the heat and Kelow Ware went to the Pellicans, who could maybe be a stretch five one day? That would make a lot of sense. Hero's a shooter. You have a shooter in Keller Aware. I kind of, I'm just, there's probably a reason that doesn't make sense. Maybe I'm pulling this completely out of my ass.

But I kind of like it off of zero thought. So automatic teams in my mind that might be interested in Jimmy Bowler, if this was to happen in the Miami, we're going to be like, all right, yeah, like our time is we've run the course of Jimmy Butler, guys are teams like the Indiana Pacers. I don't know if they still have a lot of picks and assets and young players left. I was thinking that. To go ahead and package, whether we've better than math or in Jaris Walker.

I think of the Golden State Warriors, like both of these teams have run out of time. And this could be like a last ditch effort to, you know, give Steph one real last opportunity. Great fit there too. Is it a great fit? That'd be kind of gross. Yeah, Draymond and Jimmy Ballard. they'd have to figure it out a little bit. I think they have to offload of Kaminga.

He can't be, he can't exist on the floor with Jimmy Butler. Yeah, and that might be the main, like, selling point. So I think as long as comming is not there, it could work. Interesting.

Okay. Donovan, what is the fifth storyline of the day? It's worth monitoring. Let me go to my list. Let me see what we're talking about. We are going to talk about, once again,

the two guys who failed to link up this summer for a workout. We're going to talk about the Milwaukee Bucas because... Okay. this is this is a team that right now i understand why some people might think that the bucks are back on the up and up and you have yonis who's still at the peak of his powers and he is good enough to will a team to a certain stature i'm not i don't know i don't think that i'm buying it and i think that the biggest story i don't think i am and i think that the biggest storyline is obviously dame and

Janus and their connection and their ability to play off of each other. And it was so, it was so clear and it was so weird last season how every time Janus left the floor or anytime Janice was hurt, Dame was like, oh my goodness, I remember like how to play basketball. I remember how to be Damian Lillard. And the moment Janus comes back onto the floor, they couldn't figure it out. And you had two different coaches. The whole situation last year was crazy you had two different coaches doc rivers comes in the middle of the season we're talking right now chris middleton we have no idea if he's going to be any type of healthy you got a little flash of like good chris middleton during the playoffs i don't know if that's going to come back

brook lopez is old this whole team is is old and somehow if damanianas can figure out a two-man game they can be the most they have the potential to be the most lethal two-man game in the NBA and that That will elevate the Bucks to be in a place where we're like, okay, we go into a seven-game series. I don't want to see those two. And that swings everything in the Eastern Conference. If Dame and Janus are like this and if they know how to play off of each other, the Bucks are right back to being a legitimate, legitimate title contender in that inner circle in the entire league. But if not, does Janus say like, you know what? I'm sick of this.

I'm out. How do we deal with Dame? the bucks have pushed all of their chips to the table. They traded for Drew Holiday, pushed everything forward, then doubled down, and they traded Drew Holiday, and then they traded for Dame. Now you really have no asset. You have an agent team. What does it look like?

And I think that, at least out east, this is the most interesting thing in the entire conference. That makes sense. They're in a very unique situation because two things are true. One, they had a new coach midseason, which is not an easy thing to do, right? it stands to reason that you could only get so much better while making a quick turnaround like that and that with a full off season they can come in more on the same page

with a new game plan taking the learnings they had from the second half of the season and really building with a full training camp under one regime who has one vision that could make you believe that this team will undoubtedly be more put together to some degree this season the other thing that is true

is that there's no way in fuck you want to bet on Doc runners to make those moves that's not an exciting mind to put your trust in. Not that he's a terrible coach, but he's not the most exciting coach either. There's a reason when they hired him, everybody was like, I guess, like he's a professional,

so maybe he can hit competency, which Agent Griffin wasn't able to do with this team. But I don't view Doc Berers as a coach that's going to take things to the next level and really unlock things. And maybe all they need is competency, right? Maybe they just need to get on the same page so Damon and Janus can be competent together

to the degree in which we'd hope they can be. I don't know. Like, does a consummate professional, is that enough to get them away there? Someone who you trust will put in basic offensive and defensive principles that will not do dumb shit, like make Brooke Lopez play at the top of the screen and be an aggressive help defender. They'll make him be a drop defender like he always should have been. They'll make Damon Lillard run, pick and rolls. Like, does that basic stuff get them to where they need to be?

Or do they need somebody smart to figure it out because it's just awkward? There, I think it's a great sign that they got. competent players like Dilan Wright and the Gary Trent Juniors of the world and the Torian Prince of the world who's like not the biggest names but they can each give you 15 to 20 minutes a game outside of Tori Prince to 20 minutes a game of just like okay like he's not absolutely killing our team he's actually doing some part of asset product of asset to the game that's not thanking us right now

yeah it's definitely good additions but I really like Donovan said it all comes down like those additions will help those are good role players of what they have at their disposal to get better but if we don't get elite dame with elite yannis it really doesn't matter at all yeah they're not they're not a title contender this is one of the reasons why i'm i'm very skeptical about them and we're going to you know make our our predictions but right now when i look at the bucks i don't see a team that is a top four team in the eastern conference i don't okay they're not top four i don't right right now i don't i don't see it i think

that i think that the calves over them yeah yeah oh come on we listen we got talking about them in their own right they're also not exactly exciting I don't know if I go that for

if we listen if we're talking about like championship aspirations yeah they're in the same boat but like if we're talking about regular season and who's going to be there

who's going to be available Janice has gotten hurt at the end of last of the last two years he's been dealing with stuff at the end Dame has also been injured

throughout throughout the regular season over the past couple of years once again Chris Melton in and out the lineup so there's a lot of injury stuff that comes along with them and they're

I don't it's just so weird and it's just so weird and it has puzzled my mind all summer that two guys who on paper should fit perfect and I'd like they should fit as good as any duo

right can be and it just didn't work for the entire it it's crazy. I think we haven't been able to figure it out. I can. I figured it out fine. I think we should learn something from this,

that we should not project that players will want to play new roles in the very play before. We assumed Yannis could play center and that he would be comfortable setting screens and being a pick and roll screen setter instead of pick and roll ball handler to a higher degree. We assumed he could do that because we know he has the frame to do it.

He has a rolling ability to do it. He has everything needed. Turns out he just didn't fucking want to very much. And I think that's when you take away from that is when somebody shows you their style of play, have hope that they can change it, but don't assume so. Don't assume that it'll happen to the perfect degree to make them the best duo in the league. You got to see it first. But don't you think that that's even more damning? Because it would be one thing if Yonis didn't have the skill set and now we're looking in and saying, okay, can we can't, like, can we get you to do something or learn something new?

Well, honestly, like, it is in the same vein. Oh, God, what does flew into my eye? What the This is help. Help. And anyways, but like, rather than like we know that you can do it and you just don't want to, I think that is more concerning to me rather than I just know that you straight up can't do it because then we can figure out something else and I've seen the whole season and it's like, okay, you are just incapable of doing that. But you watch John's play and you know that he has the physical tools to do the necessary

things. Now it's more about mentality. And maybe Doc is the coach to bring that out of him. But other than that, it's really on Yonah. So now you're just hoping him that's, that's kind of scary. I shouldn't have said, I shouldn't have said he doesn't want to. That's a bit of in the stream. He wasn't comfortable doing so, I'd say. That's probably the better word, Burbage. He tried. It's just, you know, when the player like Yannis has such a high usage and has played one way for so long, there's habits of form with that and also confidence that comes with that of you know you dominate and you're the best in the world playing a certain way, and then you're asked to get put into new positions on the court, think different thoughts, make different reads, just be put in different muscle

memory situations. Some people, that's really easy. Kevin Durant can go team to team and play off ball, be a weak side room protector, go to another team, one more pick and roll, do all these things. Carrey Irving has shown the ability to do that. Some players, it's easy. You just can't assume it will be for everybody because that's a skill in and of itself that doesn't work the same for every person we'll see we'll see we got we did have to monitor this because again if they can't get on the same page they're cooked and the whole franchise is about to get imploded do you know who else is cooked in your franchise might be imploding as well who or is it i don't know it's my term but you can go i don't care i have a feeling about tell me who this

what the six best storyline in the league is this year tell me what it is the sixth best storyline in league this year has to be the Phoenix Suns. Okay. We know their struggles and all the turmoil and the massive disappointment that they were last season through, you know, after upgrading the roster, quote unquote, upgrading and bringing in Bradley Beale and now the new additions being Ties Jones.

Hopefully, you know, they, it seems like all sorts of pointing, all signs are pointing towards Tice Jones becoming the starting point guard for this scene throughout this regular season. Will they work? I don't know. But looking hindsight, there's very little that this team can do to recoup and retool. There's no such thing as retooling with this team because they have no assets to do so through picks. They have no young players other than like Devin Booker, who's not even like super young anymore. I guess you can say Bulbul, but come on now. What are you talking about here? And if they were to fumble, Devin Booker, you look like an idiot trade. David Booker because he is the defense. franchise he is the phoenix sons you don't trade bradleyville why because you probably can't and he has a no trade clause kevin durant would be the only asset left if they were to go ahead and have another very disappointing season disappointing meaning they don't make no noise in the playoffs whatsoever

and they're a first round or second round exit and if that's the case i can envision a world and ironically enough the minnesota timbrels come out of nowhere they save a lot of money and Reconciled the Colossacar Anthony Towns and get the man that Anthony Edwards is basically in love with his childhood hero, Kevin Durant, and he becomes a Minnesota Timberwell alongside Rudy Gobert, Jada McGannios, and all those guys. Okay. That'll be something special to see, and that's a real story on that I'm seeing. Mainly, you know, the Phoenix Sun's imploding. Who cares about the Minnesota part? It's a crazy 2K storyline, but I can see it happening.

They're just so, I didn't put them because. like this is definitely one of the storylines in the NBA I wouldn't attach the word interesting to it I'm so over the suns personally they're just like they are who they are and they're mid and it's a failed experiment that somebody who has a lot of money decided to make one too many tinkering thoughts

tried to have one too many big brain moves and they made one of the most promising teams in the NBA that was in a championship window suddenly become the definition of mediocrity despite having the payroll they have I just can't think of a less interesting thing for me right now like if they blow it off thank god if they keep running it back being the six seed what the fuck ever like they're just they're just the sons what makes it interesting to me

just the thought of like katie being on the move again and him still being like pretty much at the peak of his powers yeah i hope he's on the move again i hope it fails i i think like like as he just said we've seen mat hb be crazy right we've seen we've seen him be delusional over the last you know year and and some change. And so how much time is he going to give this team to actually, you know, grow or do whatever, have any chance of stepping up? Listen, they won. They did win 49 games last season.

So, like, there is a- We put all the pressure on Isbiyah. James Jones is also a wild boy. Like, since he got there, he's been so trade-happy. That guy loves to make big moves. I understand that. But, like, when you have two wild boys in your front office, a lot of stuff can, can happen. whether it's what's that tweet you got some it's always two dumb bitches tell each other

and that is the son's front office right it's just it's just James Jones and Matt Isbia just saying that and so I don't like I I'm with Mo like I think I think there is a real possibility of them blowing it up and trying to get some type of asset because you remember like after the season ended and Ishbir was like, listen, 26 of the 30 teams would love to be in our position. It's like, actually, I don't think that's true. Is there a point in November where he looks up and he's like, oh, dang, it would actually be nice if we had some draft picks that we can trade.

And the only way that you can get there is if you trade Booker or you trade KD. And so maybe, you know what the funniest? Maybe this thing gets blown up immediately. What's funny? You know what the funniest thing I saw about the suns today? What is it? There was his picture of Grayson Allen at Media Day, flexing, holding the ball. Like, he looked pretty muscular.

And people started asking about that. Like, whoa, he looks like he put on some weight. And a reporter said today that he went from 190 to 225 over the summer. And these motherfuckers really, really, these motherfuckers really believe that Grace and Allen added 35 pounds in two and a half months. Hey, guys. Listen, I'm not, I'm not trying to blow up the spot, but there will be some blacks of bourbons at Grace and Allen. true in the next couple of days.

Stay hydrated, my brother. It's also just not true. There's no fucking way that he weighs that much. Like, it's not true. He was just bloated. He didn't drink his greens in the morning. It's just one picture of him flexing and people aren't used to seeing him flex. And people were like, whoa, he's a bodybuilder.

You missed a couple bowel movements. 225 is ridiculous. Yeah, that's a dangerous. That's insane. He's Derry Henry. all right man next story i got the next team we're going back east we have to talk about donovan's favorite team and led by donovan's favorite player the philadelphia 76ers big oh i really thought we i really thought we were to talk about the nix what a turn nope we're talking about you mentioned the bucks is the most interesting team in the east i think

it's probably the 76ers uh i saw a tweet that was in bad faith but it was funny that said Joel and B'd better make his third big three work. And it's lacking context, but this is his third edition of a very competitive team. Because if there's one thing the 76ers have shown over the last 10 years, it is dedication to making a contender around Juell and Bede. They understand that his window of being an elite player is thin. You know, his body type, his injury history, there's no givens with him. You can't waste a year.

And, you know, the past two years haven't been wasted, but they haven't been the most talent you could possibly. especially last season after James Harden departed. It was the Joel Embed and Tyrese Maxie show, and they made it work, but they needed Joel and Bede to play Herkulean basketball. And in the first three months, he was doing that, having the best season of his career, having the best scoring season of all time per minute, it was utterly ridiculous. And he got hurt again, per usual.

It hasn't do a lot, right? You're bound to get hurt more if you're having the ball every single play. And this year they went the other way. They brought in Paul George and kind of completed the post James Harding. move, right? We know that Darrym Worry was waiting until the summer to use that cast base. That's why he didn't rush do a trade deadline trade.

And now they have the fully formed version of what they want this team to be. And when Media Day came around, Joel and B talked about, I lost weight over the summer. I'm not going for MVP. I'm not going for all NBA. There's no agendas here. I'm getting myself healthy and ready for the playoff run because he understands the position he's in. Nobody fucking cares if you win another MVP at all. You need to get a ring because you have the

potential to be one of the most talented players of all time. And you've done absolutely nothing in a playoff setting, which is the only thing people care about. That's the storyline, right? Does this new style of play that they're going to do around him, having less of a usage, I assume putting more of the onus on Tyrese Maxie, who's continuing to develop, giving Paul George the necessary touches, does it lead to a healthier Joel and Bede over time? Man, yeah, I can agree. If Joel and Bede, you know, if all the things of the Philadelphia of his 76ers to preach and

the things that Joel Embed, like, you know, said publicly, I think he said the other day that he lost 25 pounds or so. He's trying to lose even more weight to maintain his overall health throughout the season. Like, if all that happens and all that is true and somehow, some way he ends up winning an NBA championship, do you know what that would do for his resume? Do you know how far he would like skyrocket towards the top of the NBA history? Yeah, exactly. He'd have the dirkering. It would be exactly what it would be. Yeah, exactly. And we're over here witnessing a real opportunity for him to go ahead and do so because there's a world in where we can see this very well being the second best team in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics.

Yeah, I think it's probably, they're probably the most likely team to be there. Then we're the Knicks, right? That's the competition. And it's not even about can they win to be the second seat, right? It's not about can the lead the regular season wins. I think it's almost a guarantee that if Joeline Bede has, you know, baseline level health, which for him doesn't mean 82 games, because that's just probably not going to happen, if he can play 68 games or whatever the arbitrary number that you feel is a good

healthy season from him, and you have regular Paul George, and you have regular Tyreys Maxi, you're going to be a high seat. That's not a question, but not only will it be healthy for the playoffs, but do you guys think that this trio will perform in the playoffs? Like, does it move you from a talent perspective with the supporting cast they have,

with the two sidekick stars they have? Like, do you think that is an actual championship ceiling ceiling yes um a likely ceiling no because to whether if it's his fault or not there's obviously like the joll and beat hell thing that we're talking about on the other side of it there's also the paul george playoff stuff so like yeah you have two out of your big three guys for a variety of reasons that are unreliable when it comes to to the playoffs And there's some, there's some stuff that like, when we, when you look at this series and you look at that first round series, yes, M. B was playing hurt. But at the same time, there were also opportunities at the end of games where he didn't look like he wanted the, the ball. Like he didn't, it was. Yeah, Bell's palsy. Why would he want the ball? You can see with one eye. All of all of them. And he's injured. Like, I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't be confident either, you know. That's fine. Okay, yes. But he was confident enough to score 50.

So we'll do that That is such a bad faith argument That is hilarious Just because he had a good game Doesn't mean it's not understandable There'd be confidence issues The end of a game When your knee isn't working well

And you can't see that well You think he's speaking in choosing When he wants to perform And apply pressure Fucking hate her Confident up to score 50 That's ridiculous All right

What's the next topic Y'all? Y'all gonna piss me off What's the next topic? No, no, I'm not gonna do this with y'all ya I'll piss me off though What's the next topic? Because y'all going to act like, y'all, y'all going to act like it's crazy that to be like, oh, wow, he scored 50.

And I need you to score one more bucket. Clearly, you feel comfortable enough doing all the things. I saw Jollin B running up and down the court. But now, now, now you're, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing this. I'm not saying you can't criticize him. I'm not doing it. But to say the confidence thing isn't understandable to use the 50 ball as a reason why.

I'm not doing this. You're hilarious. You've seen like players injure time. time again just go through like the worst and still perform like we've seen yonis have a whole high person in need not be 100% but play like he is when joel and bd put a 50 like you saw he wasn't 100% but he played like he was you know he made a lot jumpers it was it was a great performance but we don't got to pretend that other performances don't make sense because there was one good one like it's understandable why he played poorly and i'm not saying give him like to downplay he needs to

stay healthy that's the whole thing so i'm not saying you can't criticize it but to use a 50 point game as to make it sound like it's not understandable why the health impacted him down the stretches of other games no excuses like one doesn't take away the other like we just apply a little bit of context I got it it's fine I'm not saying you got a baby no it needs to stay healthy it's fine it's whatever it's whatever can he be lucky at the end of day can his health look at a decent level because he's been by far probably like when he comes the injury luck the worst NBA player that we've seen since either Kauai Leonard? Damn, never mind.

Guile Leonard exists. Whole argument is over. I mean, Kauai has like a degenerate knee issue. I don't know if his is luck. Joelle and Bede shit is routinely unlucky as hell. He had balls palsy. Yeah. I never heard that.

I never knew that. Dude, he had a stomach virus and he had the shits one time. He had the shits in front of a poor playoff game. Because he had a stomach virus. That's ridiculous. Like, what the hell? That's crazy. I had to run so I can't play a lot.

Say it. Yeah, I didn't say, yeah, with Kauai, it's one consistent thing. It's them knees. As for Joel and Bede, it's always something different. Always something different in Elbow, he has the runs or, you know. And he breaks his face. It's Looney Tunes bullshit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's always something. And then he has two guard stars that go diva mode and end up blowing the team up. Like, it's just ridiculous stuff over and over. Yeah, he easily is the most unlucky NBA player. Now I think about it. Kauai is just regular. Yeah, Kauai is just like broken Yeah, exactly The one thing that does interest me

Is Donovan, you mentioned the Paul George Playoff issues in the past two Are you guys moved by You know, okay, let me say this I mentioned with Janus just now That we can't assume changes we made Until we see them despite lip service We heard Joel and Bid say

He's not gunning for an MVP, right? So he's not going to be trying to score 50 against every lottery team he plays We also heard Paul George On his podcast as of late be pretty honest about his state of his career and who he is and his level of stardom and what's needed from him next to other stars, I feel like he's been pretty real and mentioned that in past years when he's collapsed in the playoffs, that he wasn't being as real with himself. Does that move

you at all? No, because we're going to get to that situation and the ball's going to be in his hands. Like, like, we're, we're not going to, we're not going to get to May and all of a sudden Nick Nurse is like, oh, wow, yeah, we have this third star. We actually don't trust Paul George anymore. We actually think that Paul George is at a diminished stage in his career. We're not going to give him the ball. He's going to have opportunities at the end of games to take over. And there's going to be times where Maxie may not have it. There's going to be times where MB does not have it. And to win a championship, especially when you have like a big three, you're going to need those games. And so there's 100% going to be opportunities where you're going to need Paul George to go sickle mode.

Is he going to be able to do that whenever they need him to? He might have a game. I don't know if he can do that consistently over four playoff rounds because we haven't, we haven't seen it throughout him. As a third option, you don't think so? We haven't. Because the last time you did try to see him, he's always been like the one option. For some guys being a third option, hey, for some guys, it makes it easier to be a third option.

Some guys it doesn't. Sometimes the lack of touches and lack of rhythm makes it hard to get your game off. Like, it's really to be determined what he looks like playing off of Jewel and Bede. Exactly. Yeah, that's true. We'll see that. All I can go off of is the data that Paul George has given us throughout his career. And it's not necessarily encouraging when you look at like the playoff performance.

So, no, I don't, that doesn't really move me. Yeah, I see. Donovan, what is the eighth storyline we're discussing today? Let me go back to this list. Y'all don't piss me off, man. That happens five minutes ago. I want to talk about, I want to talk about Palo because I think that, I think that Palo and his growth is very, very significant. And it's kind of like a duo thing because the second part of it is whether or not Franz Wagner gets back to like to his normal self.

to, and he's able to remember how to shoot. But on top of that, even if Franz is just never the same level of shooter, if the magic want to get to where they want to go and it looks like they're doubling down on the direction that they want to go, which is point forward, Paolo, and the ball is in his hands, and he is this massive creator who gets 30 at night but can also get eight assists, that's a lot to ask of him. And that's a big, big leap for him to take to do that consistently at a very high and efficient clip and if he is able to do that the magic are going to be really scary like they're

they're going to they're going to be a really really tough out and could they be a team that maybe you know sneaks into into the conference finals what type of future do we think that they have if palo becomes you know a star capital s i think that i think that his his leap in his development is going to determine a lot for the next couple of years of of you know the magic Let's expand this. Let's expand this one, because this is the great point. Let's talk about Palo and which young stars are going to transcend their current level of play they are and change the NBA. Because it could be Palo with the magic for all the reasons you just said. Could also be Victor Wenamma in year two. That's not going to talk about a lot. Yeah, so we see him

having a second team all-MBA season. That's going to change the spurs. They're not going to be a bottom feeder if that's the case. Who else is like that? Maybe the spurs under pisses are competent around Cade and maybe he finally makes an all-star leap. I'm not expecting to be to that level with these guys but you know that's possible is lamello healthy hornets could be healthy lamello could be one of those like look around the league there's a lot of young stars who you know the old guard is really getting old with us we know the top three guys in kd lebron and step are in the twilight years and then replaced by the three big men i've been the top of league plus shea plus aunt plus luca who's going to be that next tier like we're all those

guys came into the league five six years ago and are really hidden in their prime we should be seeing the next crop of stars start to make little leaps that won't be the biggest leap right to do what like luca and them have done this past couple years but you'll start to see okay that's the next crop of guys in the same way we saw luca in year two and three be first team all NBA we could be looking up and seeing palo wemby maybe it's just those two maybe we limited to that but whoever else run the league jdub potentially it almost always happens in terms like she's man jdum and check yeah yeah maybe it's them with the thunder which obviously the thunder are one the big storylines being probably the best team in the west maybe it's aunt maybe aunt takes another

big lead yeah like i i think those three the same ones to talk about palo wendy and aunt probably yeah i agree uh for anthony edwards you know obviously yeah zan that zon's another perfect name you can john morant too even though we already know what he is but um yeah can dude stay healthy you know for when i go we're not say if tary's haliburton stay healthy and doesn't doesn't fall off iries halibur was on my list too in terms of just like there's nothing that his team can do same thing same thing that can be said for you know the memphis gridsies or the orlando magic at this point in time this team already made up their mind what is the next step of their individual game to take things to another level and be one of the best at certain

skill sets which ultimately makes them one of the three four five best at their position because there's a world in where we can see tirie saliburn look like a top five point guard same thing is applicable to Palo Bencaro same thing it was also applicable to Dionne Williamson

and I think he's probably already is that right now but still yeah what is that thing the Matt

the Hallibran's a good one to focus on in this young star conversation real quick I feel like the patience have a lot of

a lot of people are high on them right coming off of conference finals appearance and the narrative is they gave the Celtics the hardest

push I think Jason Tatum said that too which doesn't mean a lot to me personally but they were in the conference finals and whether or not

the path there was easy you beat who's in front of you and even an easy pack to the conference finals is not easy overall you know just because it's easier than most so there's reason to be high on them if you trust that Tyrese Hallibur can get back to that level of early season Tyresein for a whole year there that changes the east it does it does because then you have what six six eight six seven Trey young in Indiana yeah and you have you have and we never saw that plus the Akum which is which is crazy um and now And then like what we were talking about earlier, then the paces are are once again in the position where one, they're never really bad, right?

They never like to bottom out. And they could be on the hunt for the next start. They could be the surprise team that goes out and makes a crazy move to go get, you know, a Jimmy Butler, go get somebody who can fit with Tyrese and Pascal. And now you're looking at them like, oh, wow, now you have a big three and you have surprised everybody. So also the drop-off that we saw from Tyrese is so night and day. That's why I think that the Tyrese thing is so interesting because him doing like 26 and 12 at crazy efficiency at like Yokic efficiency to dropping off to him not being able to make threes for the rest of the season, not really have an in-between game and just not the same level score. those are two like literally on the opposite ends of the spectrum and is it was that like the superstar free trial that people are joke about or is his actual I guess like career just

somewhere in the middle we probably probably find an answer about that this season yep I mean that's number eight Wembe Paolo and Tyrese Halliburton are coming hey my bad number nine earlier we talked about Donovan's favorite team and his favorite player in Joelle and Bede and it did not go well it did not end

in a positive way for you Donovan so we're gonna give you a little bit of a chance to completely shift your mood and flip it upside flip that frown

up side down we got to talk about the New York Dix as the number nine storyline because the New York Knicks are as all in as all in gets

obviously you guys went through a very dark rebuild I think it was very unfun for several years more than most rebos are because the Knicks are the Knicks and have the standards they had and they had particularly frustrating players with R.J. Bear leading a Young Corps for a little while

was not great. There were some years, if you look back, where they were playing some despicable names. Then obviously they get competent with Jalen Brunson coming in and becoming a surprise star and they've since put the pedal to the motherfucking medal and sea blood in the water and have made the moves to get O.G. to get McKill Bridges and not a good cat. They have to win a chip, 100% with the with the expectations of new york basketball and the talent that accumulated i guess i guess and i think that like the most interesting part is i want to ask you real quick before you go going do you think they have to win a ship this year because i think they're positioned well with the moves they made and the way they structured it they kind of have like a four-year

window where they can keep the starting five together how much pressure do you see for them to win in year one um on a scale one to 10 i would say about a six i think that i think that like for some people there is an expectation that, okay, this team is ready to compete for a championship. However, I think the biggest thing is I just want to see it work. I want to see proof of concept because once again, we went into the season with Julius Randall and with Dante and with, you know, another first round pick and some more assets that we could, that we could have traded to get somebody else. And you address the need for a center and you got Kat who has his obvious, you know,

downsides as a player. But it's a massive shakeup for a team that even with basically everybody on the team hurt was a game away from the conference finals last year. And instead of running it back and, you know, using some continuity, you go and you bring in Kat. I think that... And Bridges. He wasn't there. That is, that true. But I think that Boston is still good enough to where, like, the Knicks right now aren't the prohibited favorite. So it's not like, it's Knicks against the field, but you got to have some type of hope going into next season saying like, okay, everybody did look comfortable out here. We can't be having fit issues or massive defensive issues going into next season if we

don't win a championship. But they are, I'll put them in the second most inner circle to win a title. I think on the inside, it's OKC and Boston. And then outside of that, then we get to New York, Philly, Denver, Minnesota, Dallas, right, all those teams. So I'm optimistic and I'm hopeful, but I'm not expecting them to be number one seed, clear cut. The Knicks are the best team right now. They still have to prove that. Gotcha.

So you have leeway with them that if you see a good team that can be great and you see the right on the wall, it's not broken. You know they're going to be great with time. okay with that? Yeah, I'm, I'm okay. Do you feel like Knicks fans at large will be okay with that? It depends how we go out. Because I think a lot, that's the biggest thing. I think a lot of, for a lot of teams, the way that you end the season, shapes the way

that you view that year. And if the Knicks, definitely. And if the Knicks, like, if they get to the first round and if they match up against, let's say that they're like the three seed, they match up against the Magic or the six seed, whatever. And they lose in five games, you're going to be. We're going to be in the offseason saying they should have never traded for Kat. They should have kept, you know, whoever they were.

The defense doesn't work. See, I told you this is, this was a bad idea. Now you don't have flexibility. You're locked into this team. Whereas if it's a seven game series or you get to the conference finals or something like that, then it's like, oh, this is a building block to two next year. They look solid. They're one piece away.

So it's like, it's not a definitive answer, but yes, it depends on how the season is. I'm excited to see this team, man You know, we talked about it on the emergency episode When it first came out Obviously we had a colorful reaction from you And your opinions on Carl Anthony Towns And the fact that you had to reckon With your archedemesis who doesn't know you exist

Coming to your team That led to some You don't think you've never seen a TikTok? I don't know Listen like 40 million views a month Like there's a chance that it's come across his face But I don't know emotions

Are you feeling better about it now after a few weeks Because we talk about it on the stream And obviously not everybody that watches the episodes sees the streams I personally am feeling a little bit better And about it than I felt night one I really see the vision offensively And I'm willing to trust

The process defensively And even if I don't love cat defensively I'm not really of the opinion It's going to sink them As much as I might have been night one How are you feeling? I'm still a little nervous, man. Like, I think that the offense,

I don't think I've had a question about the offense. After seeing what Jalen Brunson can do and understanding that, like, hey, if push comes to shove and everybody's hurt, Jane and Brunson can go out and get you 35 every single night and it'll be fine. Yeah. And a lot of what made that possible

is that everybody else was defending like crazy. And now, when we get into a matchup with Philly, when we get into a matchup with Boston, that one-five combo of saying, where's cat's man come up you are in the screen now they targeted they targeted brunson so many times in the playoffs last year now to add another target on the on the defensive end that's what makes me nervous because when you because when you play high level coaches they are they know exactly what to do and so i'm interested to see how tibs counters that and if you're able to

protect at least one of them from being the target the entire time because cat yeah he played he played i you know defensively he was next to a d p o why like he's going to be the guy now and i'm very different role i'm not sure how that's going to go i made a tweet where i said i think this trade makes them less equipped to beat the celtics some people didn't like that because they got more talented so you think obviously you got a better chance of being the celtics but i feel strongly that they are very very easy for the celtics to beat and some people that came in the comment said well they were never going to beat the Celtics anyway so that's not a good measurement it's not really fair to them which is true so that was a big source of my being down on it

night one was you went all in and you're trying to win you don't stand a fucking chance in hell against the Celtics I think but most teams all time don't because they're that good and I am specifically encouraged by imagining them versus the 76ers now I think cat the power forward next to mr. Robinson against the 76 years could give them fits kind of doing the same thing you did to yoke it to joel and bead That's the best way to look at it. You can't, like, see them try to make moves to try to beat what could be looking like an all-time team like the Boston Celtics.

It's all about, like, maximizing who you are and how good you could possibly be. And all you have to do is hope at the end of the day, like, you don't see the Boston Celtics in the first second and wait until the third round in the conference finals. Okay, I'll play the many times. That is the, you say what? I'll play the many time. I don't care we have to play it. All right.

The only thing I hope is that we're not playing them in the first round because then that means that the regular season was, was bad. Bring, bring the, bring the Celtics to my front door. I want to see you right now. You don't want that. You don't want that. But you need to head and hope, you need to pray to God that something bad happens and that they just are not at match track and can play out of time.

And somebody else can knock them off. You need to be horrified at the box of Celtics. I'll tell you that. If the episode like that was to happen, if a scenario like that was to happen, then the New York Knicks might be immediately the favorites to come out of the Eastern conference. at that point I think the Celtics should make you cry

but everybody else should be food I think you can view it as now that like everybody else in the east soft like you have a good chance to match up well with any interior scoring big you run that too big lineup and you can really give them trouble if a big man has to be the playmaking hub like Joelle and Bede or maybe even Janus Dame is going to have to beat you

it's going to be dark actually let me not say that they can't lock on Janus but you know what I mean like you have options Celtics better strike fear into your heart I'll say that I fear no man. We fear no. You better fear Jason Tatum. I do not fear him right now.

I promise you that. You want to get really storyline. You want to get real narrative. Who in the league fears Jason Tatum? Let's talk. Let's talk about it. All right. Kendrick Perkins, whatever.

Who scared of Taylor? He called you Kendrick Perkins. That's worse than, that's like so derogatory, bro. No, he slurbed me. You heard that, too. Damn near Kendrick Berkins Whoie

Kedrick Perkins with a hard arm Perkins with a hard Now see There was some hate you hard When you said that That was a little too clear All right, Mo

What is the 10th and final storyline we're discussing today? Man, 10th and final storyline that we are discussing today So you could go a lot of ways I have a few honorable mentions but I think something also interesting are the Cleveland Cavaliers

you can keep this like roughly short obviously they didn't make any real moves in their roster the biggest splash that they made was internally like letting go a J.B. Bickerstaff for a coach who has been one of the better coaches when he was given the opportunity

in the entire NBA and Kenny Atkinson the last time we saw him before this was an assistant alongside Steve Curry. He was there for many years in Golden State. But prior to that, he was head coach of the Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Nets. And he was a part of the, you know, turnaround for that team when they're going through a very tumultuous time. And now, if you know Kenne Atkinson, you should know at least a little bit that he is a very smart offensive coach who obviously believes in movement

and all that type of stuff and can pretty much transform. He has transformed a lot of NBA offenses. think when it comes to what he's dealt with with the Cleveland Cavaliers it's going to be hard because at the end of the day like it's up to your players it's up to your players to determine how successful you are as a coach but if he can at a bare minimum like this is my favorite word bro just to maximize every ounce of Eben Mobley I think that's a W but if he cannot do so and you know change the way that there's Garland and Donovan Mitchell bounce back off of each other, then that's an issue. But if you can, we're probably looking out of the top three seat in the Eastern Conference.

Yeah, I respect, your respect for Kenny Atkinson, but respectfully, I don't think the season has anything to do with him. I think that, like- He's a last-ditch hope. Yeah. They better hope it has something to do with them. If it has nothing to do with them, then they're heading on a dark battle. All it is, all the season comes down to him, the biggest storyline with the Cavs is, is

Evan Mobley going to be able to shoot? because like you said, Atkinson, he can draw up some plays. He can put Evan Mobley in positions to where he can thrive as a score and as a shooter. But Evamobil is going to be the one taking the shots. He's going to be the one who has to knock it down. And if he can do that,

then everything else will open up. And then we can start having talks about, okay, we can keep this core four together. And specifically, we can keep Evan Mobley and Jared Allen on the floor at the same time. We can keep them moving forward. but if we don't see that growth from Evan Mobley then the calves are probably going to be

in the same situation that they were last year where they might be a three seat at best but they're going to run into one of the actual juggernauts in the playoffs and the fit is just not going to work. Pain. Damn, I got nothing to say about the calves. That's all it is. Can Evan Mobley hit a jumper?

Yeah. Yeah, honestly, Donald Mitchell at Media Day, said it's fun to come into one of these and the first question isn't about where i'm playing next because it's on the extension so if it doesn't work the attention is no longer where we're trading donovan mitch and he's happy about that but i got some bad news for him because attention is going to shift right around to where i'm trading the rest these guys because if it isn't work we're still blowing it up it's just not going to be de mitch is de mitch listen i'll start out for donovan mitcher right now if they lose in the first round is he asking for a trade

like oh my gosh contracts don't matter anymore he thought he was safe from the trade machine rumors I got some bad news for you I'll mock a trade about anybody whether you like it or not exactly people sign extensions and ask for and ask to be traded

whenever it does not matter in this league so Donovan Mitchell the rumors will fly and trust me I will be reading them when February comes around and I say Jared Allen for Trey Murphy you better be ready man you always trying to get some news to somebody

God damn. What happened to just appreciating where you are in life right now? Shout to the calves. He's in Cleveland. I don't know

why I should appreciate where the calves are in life right now. I see zero reason to. Look at that. Palo. Bucket. That's Marcus Morris

on the corner right there. What the fuck? Oh man, never mind. They're fried. Never mind. Never mind. Guys.

Wow. Yes. It's time for producer corner. Oh! Nickill What do you have for us today? All right So just to get the elephant out the room

Today is my last day As the producer for TD3 No Oh my God Yeah So in about one hour Effective immediately I won't be friends with you guys anymore

Personal or professional relationship It's over Bannon you kicking you off the island God damn thank God that guy sucks Nick Hill has exited the villa Yeah, it's tough. I just realized it was time for me to hang it up. There's just physical concerns with me producing going forward.

Injury concerns? Yeah, it's just not going to work out anymore. With that being said, man, we have a fun producer corner today. We're going to be playing, guess who tweeted that tweet? TD3 edition. Oh, my God. TD3 edition. Oh, gosh. Man, I was banger hunting today.

Did you pull out You pull out our old tweets? Oh, man I don't like this Listen, there were a lot that didn't make it But you are some crazy guys, man I hope they're not too crazy I hope this is like

I already Am embarrassed What a good way to go out What a good idea for your final Prudor This is for you off Before we fucking throw you overboard What a good way to go out

Exactly Yeah All right Let's start it off man who do we think he tweeted this Donovan why are you so nervous If LeBron gets one more ring The conversation is over

Donovan I'll say that's Donovan Yeah that's how He used Donovan well one to all caps That looks like a Donovan style of sentence A comma I don't say Mo wouldn't put a comma In the middle of the sentence

That's not his grammar bag Also Donovan had an era where he was a LeBron fan And then like shift it to a Jordan fan. I was going back and forth. Our friends, I was going back and forth. Yeah. Our friend Will famously always talks about this about how he switched sides. So, 2018 feels like a LeBron era for Donovan. You guys are correct. All right. Honestly, I don't think these will be that hard, but the tweets are just hilarious.

All right. So next up, this cat versus Yokic debate is about to be real interesting if he keeps performing this well. This is Isaac. This is Isaac quoted like a mug. Yeah. You know what? This is like 2015. This is a way he talks. This is a is before, this is before Yokish was a star, I called this shit, I was early. Hell yeah, you were right, listen, 2018. I didn't mean to say 15, that he was like a fucking second year player, but when he was coming up

before he made like an MVP leap, this is the first year he made an all-star team. That's hilarious, this is the conversation. I was looking for embarrassing tweets on Isaac and I searched up Yokic and like Twitter broke, bro. It was like, like, rate limited. I remember being like in class in like this like large, like,

like you're also like nobody's paying attention and Isaac's looking over at me and he has like yo like is he going to make all NBA this season like oh dude that has a problem do that really in that like history class that we used to skip and go to Keynes that's hilarious that's probably it's probably when i was making video essays on youtube that was yeah man that was the worst class of all time by the way that guy mind you in like 2018 had the old school projections where you had like the film and stuff talking nonstop for an hour and a half it was terrible when he yucca's first MVP was it 2020 he won MVP or 2021 2021? 2021 I think yeah it was 21 22 and 24 yeah it's 2018 that was early honest had 19 and 20 yeah okay makes sense yeah yeah people

always say Isaac you're such a yogh glazer so and so at least I'm not new to this at least I've been here since for like six years yeah almost broke my TV because of Madden That's Donovan. That's Donovan. I don't play Madden. I don't know if Isaac rages like that. That's easy. I don't know if Isaac would say it. I probably made Donovan rage.

You guys show so much personality in your tweets. It's almost too easy. This is probably what Edwin beat you. Who is that? That's July. For the viewers, Edwin's our old roommates. I was at home. I think I was just playing online and some fugaziness was.

This is also like an 1130 p.m. tweet. because Ascretchen shot this PST This was late in a year You're raging For bed It was food gazing man It was terrible This was the time when you could

Do you remember what happened exactly in that game No I do not There's I don't remember My Madden game from July 2018 2018 I just Yeah

I Which Madden is that? Skill issue I don't guess Madden 18 Or yeah It's mad at 19 Much it just came out Actually you probably

No no it was just before So that was 18 Right before 19 came out I can't remember It was like two weeks before 19 I can't remember I can All right next up

Analytics are cool Just don't bring that shit up In an argument with me again I'm like immediately zone out Which I wonder I wonder That's Mose emoji Yeah

How do you feel about this now man It's been four years it's been four years I appreciate analytics now I will not absolutely zone out back then I'm just like yeah yeah who blah like what do they really do on the core I was more on like Donovan's timing in terms of

are they a bucket or not can they play like solid defense that's it that's the game to me back then there's two sides getting buckets and stopping getting buckets it's a very simple game that was the easiest one yet just saw an old Asian man's

ass in the locker room at the gym someone shoot me obviously this is Mo but Mo loves calling Mo tells stories and he will always mention an adjective describing the demographic of the person and sometimes I'm like why did you need to add that? He always does

okay so this happens September September 29 21 2021 I don't know oh wait oh wait no is this is this me I don't know if I It was, I used to go. I never used to go. I never used to go to. I just know it was not me.

I would say someone shoot me and I feel like this is ringing bells. That was this me. You got to mention, this is absolutely you. Yeah, that was not me. That was not me. Is this me? It probably is. Don, you're the, you're the final vote.

You were firing off on my ass too. This is you like a mug. Donovan, who is this? Just because of the period, I'm going to go, Isaac. This is me. You're wrong. Oh. Thank God.

It is Moe. Thank you. I immediately astroof. Oh, man. I generally don't wait, someone bookmark the tweet.

That's so crazy. Must have been eunichu. No, not because you would see it, right? No, that's insane. Man. That's why you took a screenshot first

and then you bookmarked after you took the screenshot. And you think the number would show up after the screen? Okay. Yeah, you got it. Moving on. Sorry, but the man's music fucking, oh, sorry, but the man's music sucks. You added that. Frank Ocean features greater than his own boring ass music.

Okay. I have. So. Frank Ocean hate. This is me. The emoji gives it away, I think. Oh, yeah. Because it'd be dirt.

There was a very, that's true. But there was a very specific error where, like, Isaac didn't like Frank Ocean. And then one day, just like, fuck. flipped and he just like under I had just understood it had the epiphany he was like oh my god is Frank Ocean like the greatest musician oh you know what's crazy this is this is a thread of me hating on blonde in 2018 when I was a freshman in college sophomore year of college it clicked blonde is like a top three favorite album I know like my taste thing so dramatically top three and top three is probably selling it short like that's maybe my favorite album of all time now

like it's unbelievable how much I used to slander him and then my frontal lobe developed a little bit more and I was like oh this is actually the best thing I've ever heard that's funny dude top three is insane that's an insane switch wow yeah I it's that to Pimp a butterfly and I don't know what else but like those are like Frank Ocean is my favorite artist dude you must have like literally levitated as soon as they like started to click for you in your head like oh my god this is actually I had an era why I started taking music more seriously in general and like became like a music nerd about like elite artists so I stopped listening as much louisievert and got it shit like for a question

okay honestly other than like this tweet the rest of your 2018 tweets are pretty on brand like it was a future uh Kendrake title of the creator

it was pretty on brand yeah he is good year he likes who he likes bro I don't care oh yeah sorry next week bro I don't care Steph's mom

is mad beautiful that's Donovan that is dog what do you mean that is not me that is not me I would never call someone else's mom Mad beautiful. That's not my legal. Matt is not my bad.

You're right. Mad. Donovan Coler. Donovan says mad alive. And plus, he is a guy. We're alive, but he's a guy. He's a guy. If this was you, you would have had to be talking about like Tyler Hero's mom or something.

What the fuck? What the fuck? This is why Donovan was nervous because you guys are correct. This is Donovan. Yeah. Yeah. We had a lot of discussions. He's a guy.

There's been a lot of conversations. Donovan just been doing a lot of noticing. That's all I say. Yeah. A lot of noticing. Again, a 9.30 p.m. tweet, early summer. The score had just gone out. You're back home with your parents.

This is June 3rd. I got to get this tweet off. It's June 3rd. They were probably playing. It was probably like in the finals game. They probably Yeah Just boring

Yeah They probably cut Couture in the audience I'm sorry And you were like Damn With all due respect He says there's

All right next tweet People have a picture of themselves As their lock screen Just rub me the wrong way 60 likes That's Mo But I would be too sure But I concur

That's probably Mo though Oh you agree Yes I don't know I definitely agree Mo do you think that this is a you tweet I'm not sure if it's necessarily you

Because I still feel the same exact way That's me I'm going to Mo. Mo also says rub me the wrong way A lot, he's like, just rub me the wrong way I don't think I've ever said that You guys are familiar with like five catch phrases Yeah

And he just spams Yeah, exactly Mo has 10, 10 verbiages that he just fucking spins a wheel and picks one 10 stuff, give me like 15 Listen, you guys are like Forensics experts because yeah This is Mo

100% Yeah And someone replied them, they were like, what if it's a picture of me and my wife? And he was like, of course that, like, that's fine, Bozo. Like, of course. Yeah, I don't know. Whenever I just see people who have pictures of themselves, like on their lock screen and also on their homepage too, something is wrong.

Like, something is wrong with that person. There needs to, seek help. There needs to be a real scientific study on this stuff, bro. There's just too much vanity going on. It is a little strange. Yeah. All right, next off. Driving in GTA about blasting juice just to clear my mind.

I, listen, I've heard both of you say a lot of sentences over the last two and a half years. I have never heard a more Mojo 99 sentence than this. Blasting juice. This is GTA. Muhammad. Driving in GTA is so embarrassing. I could drive then, too. I don't know what's going on with me.

I don't know what's going on. I had a license. Just clearing his mind is hilarious. Will you stop? I probably... No, thanks. Yeah, he was for sure. I probably had a mean nine out of ten on my dying YouTube channel back then,

and I was like, fuck, man, it's over. What am I going to do next? I graduate soon. So you turn off the GTA radio and just play your own music? Yeah. Dude, you listen to GTA music? You actually like appreciate it. the music they have preset on GTA

Some of the stations weren't bad I mean especially if you're in that mindset Like you tweeted this out like 11 or 12 Like if you're in that mindset Yeah just like like the station rock Steal a couple cars You were listening to all girls are the same In 2020

Just fucking feeling it I was in my zone man Got me through some times Next up BK has tacos I can't associate with them anymore Donovan Who's Big Back tweeted this?

What? Wait, it's either it's either me or, me and Donovan both liked Burger King a lot and we would like defend it in college. I remember when we were in college, we would always do like brackets of all sorts of their friends. They do call you taco. Everybody, that too, everybody shit on Burger King except for me and Donovan. So I can see either one of us feeling the need to disassociate after a strange decision relating to tacos. People didn't understand that Burger King is this is like that. Like it's very under. A rapper is quality. That's what I'm saying. Very good. On my drive to DC. with the Kiel, we stopped by and had Burger King. I had Burger King for the first time I like a year or whatever. Top two like I thought it was. Yeah. I will say I don't like it anymore. So I kind of should I kind of switched on the past year. Wait, what? I don't think I like it anymore. I think I'm off. I'm off it.

No. I don't need a lot of fast food burgers at all anymore, but like I hate their fries and I hate their chicken. Besides chicken fries. The original chicken sandwich I just had one the other day. Still holds up. Keep it. It's keep it. You don't like that? dude we're gonna work when we're driving to new york we're gonna force him to go ahead and have some burger king oh no you're gonna force you to hamburger yeah i don't think that's a that's a hill he'll die on ah this is isaac that's my guess whoa wow okay yeah it is indeed donovan did they really

the first reply was immediately that's what did it for you shout out shot out ross i mean yeah did you try the tacos from there listen they did burry king has gone through of phases and as identity crisis listen they've tried a lot of things they've thrown a lot of stuff at the wall when they start selling the horse meat tacos that's when you know that they're going downhill and i thought that i was very scared for the for the business plan of burger king i didn't know what was coming next dude you want to talk about identity crisis last night i went to 7-11 after i went to the gym and i i wanted that sugar-free slushy and i saw that they had You got tequitos?

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Oreo-flavored slushy I said what in the blue moon Let me try that I got it What that shit hit Oh my god

That's the new thing That shit hit That shit is different It's so cool It's smooth God damn God damn All right

Let's get a couple more He's going I don't know why Pascittles spelled with the Z and hot fry sound amazing for lunch

That is That's Isaac That is Isaac That's a crown eat Eaters diet Right there To the T This is what they eat

In and out Keep in mind Keep in mind This is 2014 He was in sex Period bro I was 14 years old

I was a freshman In high school At 10 a.m He's talking about Skittles and Highbride I know Yo, your stomach was burning after that. You don't just get a burger for a line?

I was 14 years old. I was on Twitter just saying, random bullshit. Who is this for? Who was I talking to? Nobody. Them. Skittled and hot fries, right?

Oh, no. Yeah. Did you say a Killeen legend? Oh, 100%. The DNA is there without the profile? picture, we could tell. Listen, next up. This is Mo.

The Nets got to find someone who can penetrate consistently. The fact that... Two tweets in a row. Two tweets in a row of Mo have had a random capitalization where it doesn't belong. I'm going to go ahead and bet this is a third miscapitalized word and penetrate.

However, I don't think that, I don't think this was a mistake. I think he meant to capitalize penetrate because it's a, because it's a joke. But I am going, Mo. you guys are correct and honestly the more I think about it I feel like he's like the way the iPhones

work is he started the word with like the sentence with penetrate he's like I need to find a way to get this and then he put the rest of the sentence around it he's like man he reverse engineered a tweet to get penetration off exactly and it worked

43 likes nice what's your threshold though if this got like under five likes delete it. I wouldn't delete tweets unless it was crazy. No. Okay. All right. Isaac, I want you to answer this one. All right. This is a 2014 tweet. March Madness and Chicken? I'm not sure if they were on Twitter back then. This is automatically me. No, I don't, I'm assuming this is March Madness. Oh, it's college basketball because it's March. So I wouldn't say this. So

probably Donovan. I'm leaning towards you. I have I have no idea I think's never been a college basketball guy though could have written this yeah

I didn't I never really fucking March Madness maybe in 2014 I watched March Madness but I don't care about college basketball it's the chicken

that you just want Skittles oh I'm the one where chicken jumps off the page you are a very big chicken advocate so

I am the chicken I don't listen you can make the guess I'll go Donovan It's up to it's up to I'm going Isaac All right Don you

Who's your answer I guess Is this me I guess it's this me? It's me Yeah Mark's a man And chicken

Yeah I think about Because I know I know it wasn't like Fried Chicken or anything I just need to know Where Like what kind of chicken

I was eating Probably Yeah I knew it was you Because of 2014 If it was 2018 you had several frontal lobe developments that you would know better than the tweet

That is true That will be deleted Wait you actually have that shootups too I don't have I didn't know I had this tweeted up from 2014 God damn March man is chicken All right next up

I said a heated debate with someone about how toy story is a better film than the Lion King That's Isaac Let's rapid fire this Isaac easily who would have a heated debate that's me that's me no I think that's Isaac I think it's Isaac I remember this is Isaac I remember this is me yeah yeah I used to argue with people also about how to it was great and one right he kept talking to himself in the replies he said and I one handedly

one like shout out to that one follower who always exactly shout out next up no cats I was called Minnyshack at the party. Stop playing with me. That was Donovan like a mug. He said no cap. So lame. Can we please end this, please?

This is true, though. This is true. Listen, again, my game is very much based on post-ups, and there have been moments where I have dominated in the post. And so I was called this. Listen, you're. You're not playing around, man. No.

You're coming different. No. The post is like, y'all don't, y'all know who I, like, pattern my game at. All right, all right. Listen, every time you try and put somebody on game, they try and act like you're the dumb one. Crazy. Tweeted April 23rd, 2020. Peak lockdown tweet with zero likes.

Talking about putting people on game. Who is this? This is the last thing I would ever fucking say. Put someone on game. What the fuck I look like saying? puts someone on game I have no idea I think it's

if I tweeted this or not I think it's let's get the guesses out I think it's Moe but I wouldn't be surprised to do with me I'll say Donovan would

Donovan wouldn't sign off tweet with crazy I don't think this is a Moe thought I guess he wouldn't I don't think I don't think I wouldn't be locked down

there you go Was this ironic or was it I don't remember it so this is like this is April of You were just fucked up in the crib during peak COVID lockdown. You're like, motherfuckers, never want to learn.

I mean, I'd be trying to spit out game. People don't. They don't take advice. I'm trying to remember. Yeah, put something on game now. I was in Austin at the time, though. So I can't remember what was going down. I do, but we will not talk about it.

Next one. Moving on. Bro, I just saw this profile. but I just saw this professor at my school leave the bathroom without washing his fucking hands October 22nd Mojo 99

I'm telling you he's always talking I remember this exact moment too Also what did you screenshot this on It was actually just taking like 10 minutes ago on a on Mac I don't know why I tried to shut up like this These bootleg ass emojis

Mo tell us what to know real quick exact moment this is my second third month into school and I remember I had a professor was typing a conversation with him until he went to the bathroom

he went into the stall and I had to go back to the bathroom because I think I forgot my phone in this like somewhere I left my phone somewhere and I see him again I'm like okay cool he was born that bitch up I went to the bathroom

twice it smelled different the first time To the second time I was like you have to smell fucking nasty Okay cool He walks past by me again In order to walk past Vime You have to walk past by the sink too Walks past by me and the sink

That's where the issue initially occurred All right and then I see him Pull out the sanitized and just squirt on his hand He was like to get the job done You disgust me You disgust me And then he carried on with his day So this is definitely me I remember

I don't even know how I found this tweet man What a gem Professor Hawkins, you're disgusting I remember this All right Final tweet Due to constant injury I'm officially announcing my retirement

From the yearly Thanksgiving This is easily mean That's Donovan This is obviously Donovan This is a super Donovan thought Listen Donovan In 2018 you got 19 likes This is probably a highlight of year year

On Twitter This is like pinworthy damn ear And look who's in the replies Nobody other than Isaac A true friend I said RIP to a storied career Truly the end of an era Now man I kept twisting my ankle

This stuff was annoying Bro We're out here playing on concrete I'm twisting it I had to stop It was terrible But yes Shout out to a real friend

What position did you play during Thanksgiving football I played everything I played everything Oh my God God damn Okay All right listen

And that's it That's the final producer corner I hope you guys aren't too embarrassed but yeah thanks y'all it's been a joy you had a great journey story and career yeah exactly we still had to cut you though we still do this and we have injury we can't we can't hold that kind of salary with the with the fucking bum ACL you gotta get you guys second eight business is a business got to make the mic up you might see your rafts your raptors or you might see your jerseys and the rafters one day

listen congratulations that and some crayons I can't I can't I can't you have any last words you want to go out for the last time to see you through history and you want to go out and tell the fans one word

just thanks oh mad wholesome wham as hell dramatic welcome to TikTok time get the fuck out back on

business welcome to TikTok time Today, we're going to begin with a fun game. You know, we've done a lot of guest NBA player by a variety of sources. We've done noses. We've done haircuts. We've done mouth.

We've done voices. We've done it all. This time, we're going to combine it. And, uh, voice got a shirt. Yeah. I'm joking. But, um, we're going to combine them. I zoomed in on random parts of NBA players' faces.

Okay. You're going to tell me who the player is. All right. I think this one's harder than usual. I think it's extremely difficult. But I don't know, maybe you guys will surprise me. Well, Donovan, you know what they call me. Let's see if it actually goes up.

We got the man nowhere in the building. This is the ultimate test of the man-knowing abilities of Mojo 99. Step up. Did you just see a fly or something? Team need you. Who, me? Oh, yeah. I saw you like jolt.

I guess you're reaching for the crayons. I look like you're going to fight a fly. Yeah, no, I need all my powers to come through so I can defeat this TikTok. Let's fucking go. All right, man. So, real simple. Can you tell me which NBA player this is? First off, who is this player?

Hmm, I think this is, I think I already have a name on my head for some reason. Already, immediately? Go ahead. Yeah, immediately. Does he play for an L.A. team? Right now, yes. Terrance Man. Incorrect.

That's a good guess, though. Okay. He plays for an L.A. team. Oh, is this? Is this James Harding? Yeah, this is Brooklyn James Hardin. okay I thought this was difficult I can't believe you guys got that so fast listen this no no disrespect but the headband is kind of high

so all right man next player oh that's awesome that's easy that is also yeah damn man mo god he loves the one in it I mean, has no filter on that fucking range. You just threw some teeth onto the... Yeah, what are you saying to say?

I just saw, I just see some pale man with like a saggy chin and some like frail teeth. He's going on. Right, next one. The filter gets even worse. God, just put a mute button on him. Next one. This is Austin Reeves.

Who was this player? See, now, I don't even think this is a player. It's not, I mean, it used to be. I know. He was a lot of things in this career. Looks like a coach. Man of many talents. Looks like a podcaster.

Looks like a color analyst on the ESPN. Is this JJ Reddick? This is JJ Reddick. And you're bad. This is the easiest one. Yeah, he looks how serious he looks. He should have stared at your fucking soul. He stared at the power of God into your life.

Man, he's written, bro, you don't understand how hard it is to go ahead and get these takes off while Stephen A. Smith has bring it out. Why is he staring like this? What is he doing? He said, ethical hoops? Come on. This is great. Look at him. He's so intense.

What thing do you think is, is this around like NBA finals-ish? I don't know what it has to be. He's locked in. Yeah, no. He pulled out the meanest P.E.R. I can't wait to get that shit off. you guys are flying through this so far apparently they've been too easy let's see if it gets harder next up okay let's see this is pixelated this better be difficult

it is pixelated to death this is done on purpose some people you know what I'm going to take a guess I'm going to guess that this is Kawhi Leonard incorrect no it's not a bad guess though is this LeBron James no damn no okay listen no kawai once you find out who it is

you're gonna be like oh it's not that hard see that's damn this is derrick favors god damn i don't know this this is honestly out of a lot out of the ones outside of like

the voice this feels like one of the hardest that we've done is jimmy bowler nope not jimmy bowler he's played with jimmy bowler before them. This is Joelle Embed? This is Joelle Embed.

There you go. Okay. That was hard. That was genuinely hard. I was, I was going to say fucking, I don't know, Evan Moby before Jimmy Bowler. But okay, there you go. All right. We'll see if we can get harder. Next one. Who is this player? Sweatty ass word. They got a dog. Put in work. That sweats crazy. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I have two guesses. I have a guess is.

only one go go with your guess that front taper is screaming at me could this be j prouder this is not jrouder i see what you fucking mean though that's not bad yeah listen this is yes the forehead is very shiny it's very glistening but the if you if you look carefully at that hair line and at that hair you can tell it's not doing well right that that hairline have some enhancements. I think this is, oh, wow. Well, that is not who I thought it was. Wow.

This man ruined it. You did. But I was going to get Jalen Brown. So what's doing? No. Oh, my God. All right. It was Jalen Brown.

God damn it to kill. What were you going to say, LeBron? Yeah. I was going to say C. Damn. I'm going to say, oh, my fuck. Yeah, I thought it was. Damn it.

All right, next one. Who is this player? I know who exactly this is. Screaming for a file like a mug. Ain't nothing happening. No one touched you, brother. This is Jordan Poole and the Washington Wizards. This is Jordan Poole.

Oh, damn, maybe he is getting filed. Never mind. He's getting hounded. He's getting hacked, wrapped around. Danthe email is this football. Damn. He's reaching for some. He was that ball.

Next up. Who is this player? What the? I can't even see. This is, this is pixelated like crazy. Honestly, it feels like. Scotty Barnes.

He's light. He's biting his lip. Biting his lip. Who's like. Detective Don, I need you in the building. I need you in the building. He's less. He's got to control.

I don't know. don't know who are these light skins okay listen we have to go through the exercise let's start naming all the light skins we know Tatum Tyreys Halliburton Booker neither of those players

Halliburton Trey Young Josh Hart Jalen Brunson well might be Jalen Brunson no it's not damn this is not fucking Jaylen Brunson It's not. Who is that thin little mustache like that?

I have no idea, man. Could it be Dezante Murray? It cannot be. This is John Moran. This is once again, Jordan Poole, back to back. The ultimate license. See, that's a trick. I didn't know we were doing doubles.

Okay, that's good. I see how you play. Gotcha. What a face. What a guy. Mating, ultimate mating face. It's like a peacock. Yeah.

Okay, next one. Who is this player? This is not good for Narrators one bit. I'm not trying to be disrespectful here. But you know who this is, Detective Donovan? Yes. Tell us. Yes, I do.

This is Huga Donchich himself. Who could do. Yep. This is Luka Dachich. Oh, this is so bad. Angles are so deceiving. Damn. Next player.

God. Who is this player? Oh my God. Why do you see God like that? The eye threw me off, man. It's wild. It just looks crazy. The yellow?

Yeah. It looks like Michael Jordan's eyes. Oh, yeah. Whoever this is, he might be hanging out on Michael Jordan, bro. He has so much whiskey and bourbon in his stomach. Damn. Is this? Bourbon and cigars.

This is a player who does a whole lot of, you have. It has to be bowl bowl. It's bold bowl. Damn. Yeah. All right, no further comments. Next one. Yeah, I knew.

I knew that. That's the last one. Y'all flew through that. Only one that gave you trouble was Jordan Poole. Yeah. It was also crazy pixelated. All right. Next thing we're going to do, Donovan, I believe you have some bold predictions for us that we are going to proceed to shit on.

Yes. I need to know what you guys think about these bold predictions. for the upcoming season. So I want you guys to rate these bold predictions from 1 to 10. Okay, so tell you if they're trash or not. 10 being 100% going to happen. One being, you're stupid. Don't you ever talk about basketball again?

Are these your opinions, or do you draw these from the internet? Just in the NBA ether. That's his. No, no, no. He'll claim the good ones and say you got the bad ones on Twitter. It's a nice, it's a nice balance. It's a nice balance. First one.

Cam Thomas will be top five in scoring this season. No. Four, I doubt that. But can it be top ten? I don't know, maybe. There's a lot of shots to be taken. Who was, what was,

who were the top ten scores from last season? What was that? Who was that 10? It was like 26, De Nara Fox or something like that? Probably. Yeah, it was something like, listen, Cam Thomas knows that the game is about a bucket, at least to him, right?

That's all he cares about. And there are buckets to be had, shots to be taken in Brooklyn. Because once again, they are the latest team that is going to be money laundering. They're going to be playing fake basketball, and somebody has to throw up shots. I think Cam Thomas has a pretty decent chance at doing this. I think we can go to about five. I mean, there might have been five 30 point per game scores last year. Top five is very hard to get into.

I understand that. Yeah. But if you discount efficiency and just say, can you put up the raw numbers? maybe maybe I can see him being like the ninth through 11

score of the league this year I think Cam Thomas might average 24.5 points for game or something like that I don't think

24.5 is good enough to be top 10 in the year 2024, 2025 so I'm going to say zero.

Wow. Okay, zero. Terrible take. Fuck off. All right. Next one. The Los Angeles

Lakers will be a top three team in the Western Conference. Ooh. J.J. Redick effect. Damn.

The three, three is hard. If we're going to say the Thunder, the Timberwolves, and the 13 are missing. Nuggets. Grisleys? Okay, see. That's, see, that's like five teams right there that could be top three. Are we sure the Lakers and be better than any of those teams? I don't know.

I don't know. It can be better than the Timberwolves. I'll give you a three, not a zero because I think it's possible, but I'm not going to go and expecting it. Yeah, let's say three. Okay. All right. Sounds good.

Listen, listen, JJ Reddy might be the next great coach, and we can be surprised that we finally see a coach as competent enough to have an elite team because you have two stars he can do all the things Darwin Ham didn't want to do I won't be shocked

okay okay next one the Charlotte Hornets will make the playoffs so get out of the play in yes they at the end at the start of the playoffs

they will be one of the eight teams in the Eastern Conference if they're healthy they should be a playoff team like they're good enough to be in the seven or eight and being the play in but are they going to stay healthy the data says absolutely fucking not so i'm going to go five

at a 10 yeah they have to be better than the indiana pacers the and the miami heat and the orlando magic and i don't think they would they're clear cut better than those guys other than they're clear cut worse than those guys they're clear cut worse than all of those teams yeah so i'm going to give this a kind like two a kind kind too okay I'm going to call you freaking stupid, but I'll be nice about it. I'm just going to say that you might be empty-headed a little bit. So not dumb, just absent of thought. Yeah, exactly.

Okay. Next one, Victor Womenyama will be first team all-N-Ba. Ooh. Hey. That's hot. Six out of ten. I don't think it's crazy. I think I would expect them to be second team all-M-A.

If you're good enough to be second team, you're a stone-throat. you're a stone throw away for first team it's not impossible Nicole Yokic has been known to be an Ironman throughout the entirety of his NBA career his team has continuously gotten worse if he gets hurt at any time this may be the season of Ford

I'm not wishing for it it's positionless you're right at this positionless I don't know I still can't sell myself on that because Yonis exists bro you can see you overtake Yonis Luca Donchich was first team

all NBA in year two I'm not saying he will progress as fast as Luca did but I'm also not saying he won't. It's certainly possible. I think he might be, if he does, he's taking Tatum spot. Ooh. Yeah.

Dang. Tatum wins a chip and continues to get disrespected. You hate to see it. You hate to see it. Would you look at that? Exactly. All right, next one. Zion Williamson wins MVP of the league.

We finally, we get the craziest Zion breakout year known to men. The only way Zion wins MVP is if the Pelangos are, are like one two seat in the NBA and that man is putting up 29 30 in the most electrifying way possible. And I think the pelagons are going to be trash. Zero. That man is starting next to Daniel Tice. He better put up a Herculean effort if he's going to win an MVP. He better have the most ridiculous season I've ever seen. I'm going zero. But this might be my favorite outcome to win the MVP. Like if you think about all the storyline as possible, Zion winning it out of nowhere would be the best one. He did say that he's coming for blood this year. He's trying to, he's doing

his all to go ahead and change everything. up, bro. Maybe blood sausage. All right. Next one. Trey Young gets traded mid season. Oh, turn it up.

Let's go. Give me a six out of ten. I love it. I love it. Y'all were saying this is going to happen all last season during the summer. Training is super happy. Hanging out with the rucks,

being a true vet. This is not happening. Hey, we were wrong. I'll take that. But what are you doing when you get knocked down? You get up and you try again. We're speaking back into existence. It's Trey Young, you're going to be a Laker, you're going to be a spur.

You're going to be something that's not a hawk. Trey's happy in Midtown, Atlanta, all right? He enjoys the deadline. Listen, it could happen. You just brought in the number one pick. They may finally suck and be worse than mid. And Trey Young might look around and be like, yeah, I'm over this. The Hawks might finally want to commit to a reboot.

It could happen. I'm going like seven out of ten, honestly. He is not looking at Jalen Johnson's eyes. be like you know what I'm leaving you he's meant they meant to be together they go together they're locked in all right next one russell westbrook wins six man of the year hell no zero no no you know i well hold on i grew up being told if i'd nothing nice to say to not say anything so i think we should move on to the next one oh damn respectful next one Jason Tatum wins the scoring title

Zero I mean it's possible If KP's didn't miss a lot of time Maybe but they have so many options I don't know if they would ever really need him to put up that many shots Do you know how many points you need to be you to put up in order to be scoring title in this thing age Like Luca put up what 33 last year or something like that I understand but like listen Jason Tatum was disrespected all last year

What if his jumper comes back and He's on a mission he's on his you know Jason Tatum Revenge Tour, can he be, can he be the scoring type, the scoring leader? Him gunning for the scoring title might be detrimental to his team. I think Joe Malzula would rather vomit than watch him take enough shots to win the scoring title. Yeah. You hate to see that about your best player, but I get it.

No, it's just not conducive to how they want to play. And then last one, the Detroit Pistons, win 25 games. You're asking for a lot. That's 30% of their games. Slow your roll. You're asking for a lot. They won 14 last year. You don't think you could, you know, win a little bit over 10 more?

You're asking for a lot. All right. We will revise that. The Detroit Pistons win 20 games. You are asking for a lot. I'll change it again. The Detroit Pistons win 17 games. 10 and at 10.

I think they win exactly 17 games. All right, cool. Book it. all right that's all i got i hope they're good man i'm kidding i hope they're better i really hope montaulence was a problem they got no choice but to be better bro 20 games is great facts 20 20 games is why if they get if they get to 21 games that's 25% of their of their games one out of every four you can't do that yeah i remember they're historically asked last year too didn't they like come close or did they break the like losing record they

Did they broke it. Yeah, they were like 27 straight. Ooh, man. It's tough. Historic ass is so funny. Wingstop. Wingstop was like, yeah, we don't want your money. We can't be associated.

All right. Next thing we're going to do, you know, we've done a new segment we've been doing recently is I've been telling you guys a player's name and you guys have told me who's between them and other players. And we did five levels to see, you know, where they rank among their contemporaries. We're going to do that again today. We're going to do it with teams. Specifically, the first team we're going to do it with is the Golden State Warriors.

So I'm going to name five different levels of NBA teams, and you're going to tell me if the Golden State Warriors are better or worse than each level. Okay. Ooh. The Warriors in the trenches this year. This is going to be tough. Very tough. So which team will be better next year?

The Golden State Warriors or this team I name. Level one, the Detroit Pistons. As long as stuff is breathing, they can never be worse than the Pistons. We had to start somewhere easy I feel safe to say that the Warriors will win at least 16 games To be more than the Pistons won last year Warriors fans You guys are safe

You gotta win on the board I don't know how many times is going to happen this season So cherish it Level 2 We got the San Antonio Spurs Already is getting dicey Oh God Already I think now listen

Asking the Spurs to go from like 22 wins to 40 wins That's a big big jump so I will save the Warriors right now but understand you both will be fighting for the 10 seat it's gonna be a battle this is the real race

in the Western Conference right here if I see two weeks if I see two weeks of successful Chris Paul to victim women Yama Lops my answer might change but for now I'm going to Warriors Dremont and Seth

you live to see another day level three we have the Houston Rockets I think this is is where they fail. This might be where they fail. Listen, I get it. The Rockets, it's really easy to project the Rockets to get better

because they have so many young guys. Like, damn, one of them will turn into a star eventually. But they are still a young team. I don't know. They're a young team, but the Warriors are probably worse compared to how they did last year. And last year they weren't even that impressive. And the Rockets almost took their playing spot.

Like, it was a close race at the end of the season when St.Goon was hurt. I'm still going to... I still have to go stuff. I still have to go Steph and the Warriors real quick. I'm going with them. Wow. You know, I'll go with the Warriors 2, but only to extend this video. I don't really believe it.

It's going to be a one game difference between the Warriors and the Rockets this season. It was only like four last year or something like that. So it might be clips. This is going to be a battle. Okay. Level 4. Can the Warriors make the Cinderella run? We got the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hell no. This is where it ends. This is where it ends. The Lakers. even as mid as they were last season still have two top ten players on their team the Warriors have Steph Curry and that's it and a whole bunch of guys who they're just standing around

and just being like I hope you turn into a star it's not happening I would rather be the definition of mid than ask so give me the Lakers exactly yeah Lakers taking this home Wow and that's the end of the Lakers part we have another team in this light show

level five was the Minnesota Timberwolves We all knew goddamn well They were never getting there Last year when Draymond tried to fight Anthony Edwards And aunt was like man Go on somewhere We knew We knew it was

It was tough times man All right We have another team though We're gonna do the same thing With the Philadelphia 76ers Oh okay Doubling up Yeah double enough

Yeah I'm gonna get this hail So Level one The Charlotte Hornets They got them They got them You could have that Philly It's okay

This is the wash This is the wash Not even close Okay, level two Are we closer If we say The Atlanta Hawks I hate to say

That is a wash But sadly It is a wash Again Why you don't believe In Quinn Snyder Jaylen Johnson The number one pick

I love reason I love Jaylon Johnson Trey Young You are my king But you do not stand A chance In Joelle and Beade's palace Not even close

His palace Yeah. Don't send a chance looking up to Joel M. B. Paul George and Tyreys Max, Caleb Martin now. Kyle Irish still there. Oh, Caleb Martin. If you're a Celtics fan, then you would feel those ways genuinely. Facts. Okay, obviously level two is a dub. Level three, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're running it up right now. Running it up? Yes, the Celtics are or the 76ers are running. it up right now this is not

I don't want to say not close but no we have to have a conversation we have to have a conversation no we don't they're a short one we're not yeah the conversation is oh I kind of like the calves this year maybe they'll be sneaky oh wait they still have two big as I can't shoot never mind give me the 76 years

the calves yeah let me let me check because I think that they did the calves were two games actually they did not but they were two games away from winning 50 games last season and they had their own injury issues as well like they're also a good team and if we're talking just regular season

yeah I might take the cabs over the sixers I think the calves will be very good I think they'll be I think the cabs will be good I think the 70 sixers will be great it's just going to be a different tier I think when we get to the end of the season I'll let you know y'all call me a mad man but when it happens

if the cabs were more games in the sixers something went terribly wrong and we're going to have discourse prepared a yap like something's gonna happen okay level four the Milwaukee bucks yeah they got that

I really I really really don't believe in Milwaukee this season what it's really easy to bet on the new big three we haven't seen versus the big two that we saw fail so it's hard to have faith in the books for me personally

I think it might end here and I'm all on the honest train again looking for vengeance I'm on the opposite side I'm going with the fillet I'm going with Philly Philly might be prioritizing

Joel Miedon you know load managing him through the through the entirety of the season Milwaukee might be doing the same straight teams I'll go with I'll go with the 76ers just so we can watch them

crash and burn at level five against the against the Boston Celtics yeah pack that up it's over these are the NBA champions no team in the east stacks up to the Celtics right now it's them versus the world

yeah the Celtics biggest especially not the Knicks I'll see you opening night you'll see you You'll all see whatever You'll all see Yeah whatever And that's the end of that

Last thing we got today Mo I believe you have some Geographical content for us Ooh yes I remember over the last few years People in general like to sit down and argue Oh no we got the best hoopers in Atlanta

No Texas got the best Hoopers. Oh, no, blah, blah, blah. New York of the best Hoopers. Well, we're going to try to put not an end to the conversation, but just have more direction when it comes to these conversations. And right now I have each state's all-time starting lineup full of Hall of Famers and the best tour that they're actually, that they produced. Okay. Okay. So I want you to tell me which state has the better all-time lineup. Oh, okay. Okay. So first up, We got L.A. L.A. is so deep. We have Jason Kidd, James Hardin, Kowai Leonard, Paul, George, and Bill Walton,

versus New York, Bob Coozy, Michael Jordan. He was actually born there, bro, and he was raised in North Carolina. So, NYC gets acclaim. Julius Irving, Carmel, Anthony, and Kareem. Okay. So when we have MJ on here because he was born there, it's a bit cheating because he wasn't actually from there. But I still think they might lose even with MJ. Louis Irving Melo and Irving and Kareem is

Shout out Mello Him and Bob Coosie might be the worst two players here But are they bad enough to like I guess you can get Mello over Paul George But I don't know if it's a big gap Bill Pete Mill Walton is giving Karima run for his money What

I listen we can go We can go L.A. purely off of the strength of Jason Kim versus Bob Coozy the rest of this there's Michael Jordan and Kareem on one side Yeah You're right

I don't know But the fit is so much worse Like if this is an actual team You got a lot of bucket getters Not a lot of anything else The L.A. team kind of The L.A. team makes sense You give the clippers Jason Kee

We said they need a point guard You give them the point guard And Bill Walton They're gonna go crazy Fit wise L.A. is so smooth But I don't know I think you're undermining Bob Coozy It's not even smooth like that

If Jason Kidd, if Jason Kidd is the point guard, right, what is James Harden doing? James Harden has played one same. He's playing one style of basketball. Same thing he did next to Chris Paul. It's not new to him. And that works when you have shooters on the outside. But when you have Kauai- It's Kauai ball George.

The shooting's fine. No, no, no, no, no. Now, this is a personal beep between y'all two right now. No, no, no, no. L.A. versus NYC. This is a setup. Let's go. Again, we can go.

Again, we can go, L.A. just because they don't have to hide Bob Coosie, but you, it's Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the other side. So if we took off Bob Coosie and put on a Kimball Walker, would you pick NYC? Yeah. What?

You just want to see more buckets. There's not one person on this, on this L.A. team that can consistently stay one-on-one with Kimball Walker. Oh, my God. Shut up. I'm sorry for telling the truth about Kimball Walker and his handles. We're going with Los Angeles. All right.

All right. Next up, we got the DMV featuring Alan Iverson, Jerry West, KD, Moses Malone, and Alonzo Morning versus New Jersey, featuring Jalen Brunson, Kyrie, Carl Anthony Towns at the small four position, Jared Jackson Jr. at the four. Shaq at the five. And that is disgusting. New Jersey was almost so good. Why did you have to put cat at small forward? That is ridiculous. That's who they got, bro.

There's no one of the best names. There's no small forward. Like, actually, there's no medium-sized guys. There's no medium-sized guys. There's the largest human beings you've ever seen or the smallest human beings on the court. No in between at all.

I'm going D&D. Their line of back didn't make sense. Not a way in scenario wing. Really? I mean, I saw cats. in front of Katie during the playoffs last year? Is that what's messing out? You saw Cat's stay in front of 2024, KD.

You put 2013 Katie out there and we're having a different conversation. Cat's ankles are broken in front of 2013 Katie. You put Jerry and Jackson Jr. in front of Moses Malone? Body bag. Ah, sternum. And Jerry Jackson, Jr., they do not believe

in your defensive period of the year. Wow. Do you know who Moses Malone was? They don't know, don't know. They don't know. understand. They don't know a damn thing about the drop stuff. They don't know nothing about grown man strength.

These are children we're talking to. They don't understand what grown man strength is. You don't know about most of it. You keep that shit on the field. Keep that shit back in like the 60s, bro. You don't understand. It's okay. One day you'll get it.

One day you'll get it. Shout out the DMV. Victory. Another victory for phone posits. Shout out, Wally. Phone posits. All right. Next up.

We got Pennsylvania versus Ohio. So Pennsylvania got Pistol Pete, Rip Hamilton, Kobe, Macau Bridges, and Wilts Chamberlain. Hey, Pennsylvania is kind of nice. And Steph Curry, Siegeon, McCollum, John Havillichick, LeBron, and Nate Thurman. Like Ohio wins. Ohio wins. But, hey, I didn't know Pennsylvania was like that, though. Pennsylvania is like that.

But there's also a polar bear in Arlington, Texas. Why is McHale Bridges, one of their top five players of all times? Elite glue guy, elite three. Yeah. True, true. It's just crazy to see. Honestly, LeBron and Nate Thurman might be the most muscular duo I've ever seen. That's just first team all bicep.

First team all bicep is hilarious. McCall Bridges is a great gluagher. You put LeBron and stuff on the same team. It's pretty hard to beat them. Exactly. You don't believe in Will and Kobe and Pistol Pete? Rob Hamilton and McHall Bridges are great, like, tertiary fourth options. I prefer you not to make me repeat myself

but I say again Steph Curry and LeBron James on the same team mo It's fried I'm darling Okay there we go Ohio wins With shooting too Oh LeBron three shooters

One of which is Steph Curry Give me Ohio Yeah Shout out Ohio All right all right All right Shout to the production Out over there in Ohio man

All right next up We got Michigan featuring Magic Johnson Devin booker George Gervin Traymond and Chris Weber versus South Carolina. They got Jaw, Alex English, Cash Money, Middleton,

KG at the 4, and Jermaine Amiel at the 5. South Carolina. Hey, this is the hardest one yet. South Carolina is very, very good. They don't really stand a chance against Michigan. I was, I thought that too. And then I, Kevin Garnett is a, that's the part I'm just holding me up. That's always, my bad.

Oh, wait, my bad. Oh, wait, time about. I mean, I don't know That Kevin Garnett Michigan's insane And Germain O'Neill? It's kind of disgusting Oh my God, you see Germain O'Neill and you just fucking

Heart emoji to learn in place It's kind of a problem You have an involuntarily obsession with them Might be an issue For a Michigan I think Michigan Medicated for your Germano Neal love

Germano Neal lover Ew Now I still think Michigan I'm going Michigan I still think Michigan. Yeah, Michigan, the playmaking is absolutely absurd, one through five. It's ridiculous. This is the best passing lineup of all time.

Yeah. Although South Carolina puts up a tough fight. South Carolina's tough. Yeah, so Kevin Arnett and Dramon Green are hell in a cell. They're throwing elbows. Chairs are flying. It's going to be raw. Yeah.

Fistakuffs. I'm going with the side that has Magic and Devin Booker with Chris Weber. The team fits so much so well. It just goes touching the whole time. Midway through the third quarter, Draymond Green, sweet chin music. From the top rope, ugly. Okay.

Okay, Michigan it is. Next up, we got Illinois, Isaiah Thomas, D. Rose, D. Wade, A.D. Wade, A.D., and George Miken versus Texas featuring Trey Young, Cade, Jimmy Butler, Chris Boss, and Lamarcus Aldridge. Hey, man. Texas is a football state. They make, clearly, exactly. Listen, there's some solid people to come out of Texas, right? There's a lot of people in the state. I understand that. This is a football state. Illinois is killing them. Kill them. I'm sorry. Shout out Trey Young. Shout out Chris Boss. Shout out Lamarckus Aldridge.

If you have all three of them on the court at one time, your defense is cooked. against AD and George Mike. Yeah, no. With D. Rose and D. Wade attacking you downhill? Oh, my God. Yes. They better call up some linebackers from U.T. U.S.

That's their only hope. That's their only hope, bro. I understand. They better put Arch Manning at point guard. They're cooked. Archmanning. You don't think D. Wade and Isaiah Thomas and D. Rose is too small defensively?

They are catching lobs all day. Like, there is nothing that Texas can do to stop this lineup. when we want to get frisky we'll bench George Mike in put in modest Buzellis Okay Lamarcus Aldridge We cannot sit here and take this

Put on the tape Oh my god Listen Shout out modest Relax relax He'll make us go on this soon But god damn And I think that's a last

Yeah this is fun Yeah Texas I mean, Texas is good. I mean, we might have to downplayed it. Jimmy Bullies me defending for his life. The playmaking those phenomenal. I mean, but as soon as you talk about defense, then it's pretty much clipped. Yeah, I wish Chris Bosch and Lamarcus weren't together.

I love them both individually together. It's not fantastic. Also, switch that. I put Chris Bosch at the five. Put Lamarcus at the four. It doesn't matter. Whatever. Yeah, it doesn't change anything.

Yeah, whatever. It sounds better. Whatever. Yeah. All right, man. That's the end of TikTok time today. If people are still here, Donovan, what should they comment? Comment.

Comment March Madden's in the Q. Oh, we'll miss Nikiel, Ben. Oh, yeah. Comment long-lived to Q. Gondon, never forgotten. Nikiel Galman ever forgotten. Free Nikiel.