The Deep 3 Podcast - Power Ranking Every 2025 NBA Team | Ep. 128

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Today we power rank every NBA team after the trade deadline! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 3:25- 30-26 11:35- 25-21 24:50- 20-16 52:15- 15-11 1:04:07- 10-6 1:21:43- Top 5 1:39:30- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't really have an intro in mind for any clever way to open this episode, anything funny to say, anything interesting to say. So I guess we're here. Back in the day when you first started our first few episodes, I forgot that you guys could hear me after the edit. And I would mute our FaceTime calls and let out the nastiest, wet as farts. And I forget, I'd be like, oh shit. Why did you have to put wet in there? Can we redo the intro? I was being descriptive.

Can we redo the intro please? I'm being real. That's all. Okay. We're human. Anyways, we are here I'm a little one now too Evacuate this entire bitch

Okay, I guess We're back, we're in person Welcome to the NBA All-Star Break episode Unfortunately, unfortunately in person Fing to blow it up The Tread deadline is officially behind us Every NBA team is set in stone For what they're going to be

For the remainder of this season Into the playoff run We have an idea of what each team will look like At their best in a playoff setting So naturally it's about that time for us to do part two of our power rankings for the 2024, 2025 NBA season. This one's especially fun because with it being post-deadline, we've seen exactly two games of Jimmy Butler on the Warriors,

exactly one game of Luca Dodgers on the Lakers. So every time we do a power ranking, I'm always like, don't project, don't project, who's good right now? This time we've got to project. That's the whole point, I think, post-deadline. This is 100% imagination. Because even after the 20 games, we are going a lot of times like that one is the most like I'm going based off of exactly what I have

seen in these 20 games I'm going off of all the evidence and now it's like hey maybe it's a fresh start who knows they might turn it around and you can just say you can just say whatever yeah exactly the first power ranking in the season the first power ranking in the season 20 games of the season it's concrete we're only gauging what you've seen this season giving credit words do the second one's post headline we're doing a little projection what we expect to see with these new look teams and then we're going to do one more before the playoffs start where it's we're here now the playoffs are starting these are the best team so kind of cool we kind of have like a different slightly different variation of each list yeah i would be continue to see any fried whenever we would do power rankings and i had a very important meeting that you guys didn't know about with the crown eaters okay it happened a couple weeks ago um after the original power rankings were posted and they let me know that i was doing power rankings wrong the entire time but they also let me know too that today's power ranking would probably be my bag because is what I love to do, which is production. Yeah, yeah.

You definitely don't know how to do power rankings. You know how to do, like, future rankings, but... Didn't. Past tense, didn't. All right, well, here's the thing today. Part of this is projection. Yeah. Part of it.

We still have the account for what teams are right now. I have a feeling that line will still be stepped over, but we'll see. Let's get into it. The cranium is crazy. Oh, my God. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what to say Pray on eaters

Rejoice You guys know how this works We're going to go section by section To reveal our top 30 players We're going to start with the bottom five teams And the next section of five All the way into we reveal the top 30 Yeah man let's do it

The bottom feeders Every time we do a ranking of any sort We end up spending a lot of time On the first two tiers Because that's where it's like Lots of nuance Because you don't discuss it as often That will not be the case today

I'm not gonna lie I genuinely did not give a fuck about the bottom five The bottom five, I don't give a single shit. Here we are. We're not even going to go with team. Usually we go like person by person. Here's all five, all three of our sections. At 30, I have the Wizards.

29, I have the Pelicans. 28, I have Charlotte. 27, Utah, 26, Brooklyn. Yep. Okay, nice. At 30, I got Washington. 29, Utah. 28, Charlotte.

27, New Orleans. 26. Chicago. At 30, I have Utah. At 29, at Washington. 28, I have Charlotte. 27, I have New Orleans, and at 26, I have Brooklyn. Yeah, this is a number of discussion to be had here.

This is a year, like every other year, we're around this time. There's eight, nine teams that have clearly kind of just TKO themselves at the conference side of the relevancy in terms of postseason play. So, yeah. Yeah. The interesting part to me was noticing because I had zoned out with this team for the past couple weeks. The Pelicans have lost nine straight games.

Yeah. It's crazy. I want to put them a little bit higher over teams like Utah and Charlotte because Zion's back. I know Zion's playing really well. I've loved what Tray Murphy's done. Nine straight losses is insane. That is tough. However, again, at this point, because all of these teams are won out of playoff

contention, out of playing in contention, the tiebreaker for me is how much quote-unquote fun am I having whenever I'm watching you play? And at least with the Pelicans, there are some, like I like watching Tray Murphy hoop, right? I do. I like it a lot. He's a good hooper. Whenever Zion does play, there's some good stuff to see. So out of a lot of these teams, the Pelicans are higher, even though that they've lost, you know, nine straight and that they're in the absolute gutter.

But tiebreaker, they got it. So that's currently averaging, since he came back, 30 points per 36 minutes. Yeah. It's crazy. He's been on a scoring tear. It does not matter. The team is horrible. No de Jante there.

The center room sucks. Teens just been in turmoil. We know it is. The season's lost. Yeah. I agree. It's just a different type of turmoil when I look at teams like Washington and Utah. Like, I see Zan, see what he's doing.

I'm like, okay, like, I seen them get into it with, I believe, it was the Sacramento Kings that they lost against the other night. Ass is ass. They're separated by, like, two games or so. We've seen what the Utah Jazz got done to them with, like, by Jackson Hayes. I'm not even going to get through Luca Donag's name out there. I see what Ruehachimira did to them. I see what Dorian Fini Smith Jr. did to them.

And I'm like, wow, they put fist on you guys. So I'm like, you guys definitely deserve to be number 29. Yeah, and Charlotte is also one of those teams. that obviously Washington should be last here. I just go with Donovan as Utah last. That's hilarious. Washington, hey, you're not 30th to one of us. Congratulations, Washington.

You made it come up outside of them. I really, really wanted to put Charlotte's second and last just because there's such an abomination. I, uh, I'm going to know I was spending on top talking about it. He's salty about the Mark Williams trade. That's all it is. Oh, I forgot about Mark Williams, yeah. Maybe Dalton Connect could have saved their season

and get this on their play for it. Yeah, man. Since the lamello ball thing kind of died off after that crazy start, 30 points per game, He's been pretty bad since coming back from injury. And injury prone, too. They have nothing. Consistently in and out, dude.

He's consistently in it. He got hurt again recently. Same thing, ankle roll. Remember early in the season I was telling you guys when we did our top 30 play rankings? I don't know how to gauge how good I think Lamello ball is. I am even less sure these days at a gauge Lamello ball. And I saw a tweet where someone said they don't think any GM would take Lamello over Tire's Halliburton despite their differences in PR. Um, I would certainly take Tire's Halliburton.

I'll leave it there. certainly wow like you wouldn't even think twice about it no I would certainly take Tyree's hell of me I would not I would not and I think I honestly think that the fact that lamella has like come back from injury but then also still been in and out the lineup has dropped off and he still you know has all the keys has the ultimate green light all that but this is kind of more of what you think of what would happen if lamella ball had a green light Like if you gave everybody in the league, ultimate green light, 40% usage rate, all that stuff, how do you think it would go in terms of like efficiency and winning and all that type of stuff? Lamello ball, obviously, I think, and again, he's not in a great situation, but still.

Hey, oh, he's in a horrible situation. Yeah, so let's be sure that's clear. Yeah, it's not, it's not all on him, but him doing that does put your team on a certain side of that spectrum. So I think that like for me, whenever we get into ranking season this summer, I kind of have a clear. a very clear place of where i think lamello ball is in terms of point guard rankings and in terms of his standing throughout the league yeah when we did our top 30 rankings at christmas you know when we do that list it's like you know we have 20 years a sample size part of it is like we know something that's gonna age bad my the hyping up of lamello we gave him credit for

averaging 30 being a just bucket green light just bucket getter that part to me is age a little bad we all put them like top 25 or so the some of the people i left off i would certainly rather have Definitely. I mean, we could list off on long with some names. But I will say, Evan Moby, I am sorry. Things change. You put, you put up fucking, what's his name? Bam, out of bio on the list over him.

And I was like, Ryan, giving Bam, no credit. Obviously, like, bam, I'm done. It was 20, 25 games. I'm done. It's 20, 25 games. And I understand. I feel like you put most players in this Charlotte, Charlotte Hornet situation, they're going to look like shit.

Maybe not as bad as well because there's certain things in his game that you are worried about but something i will say is that throughout the first 20 25 games of the year or maybe 18 games because i think he got he got hurt around that time yeah um he was his efficiency was great no like student 44% 38 39% from the three point line and all that and when you when he went out with like extensive injury he came back like a different player a clear worst worse worse player and he's shooting like 39% from the field so it's like there's there's like to me, it's cool seeing these buckets into the spectrum that you're talking

about. It's entirely dependent in my mind when it comes to how effective are these buckets. They're really effective earlier in the year. And since he went out with extensive injury, he's looked like shit. And so I don't see him as a player necessarily swinging for me. I see a situation just getting that

much muddier and it's harder to have like built in respect for players like him in terms of hierarchy when your team is just like a pile of shit. This season, I'm always, whenever we discuss players like Lamello over the years of this podcast, I'm always team like, situation sucks. I guarantee you put him in a smart coach's system.

He can be better. You can find ways to extract value from these skill sets. I'm never, ever going to say somebody is empty stats, good stats, bad team guy, the, you know, the Bill Simmons line. I will never say that about anybody that's against my basketball ideology and how I want to appreciate talent. Lamello ball is making rethinking some things. It's making me think maybe I need to be less hardline stance on that. It's either that or the Charlotte Hornets are some real generational ass.

Exactly. So I got to see. I'm not out on the Mellow, but I'm, he's making me question my ideology a little bit and how absolutely I should be about that, about the way some people are able to. Do you see these highlights right now? Todd Gibson's on the court. Todd Gibson in 2025.

People can see you. I'll switch it back over right now, but yeah. Todd Gibson in 2025. That's what he's running right now. T. John Salon. Yeah, so we'll see again. It is the worst case scenario. so I'm not saying he's trash.

Yeah. But when we hype him up was like a top tier player and the team's continuously ass, I'm just gonna say like somebody else like Harry's Halliburton is a little more safe. Maybe I'd rather take that and build around a higher floor.

Yeah, if you want to make those statements as of now, that's perfectly fine. Me personally, I would not just yet. Yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure. The verdict is out. I'll talk to you in July about that. Yeah, we'll see.

Again, I'm not not out, but I am noticing in the worst way. But that's the only interesting thing to talk about these bottom teams. Utah is shit from a butt Washington shit from a butt Shout out Jordan Poole I think he's had a good season

Brooke we have two of us have Brooklyn on here One of us at Chicago on there Tanking teams They traded their best player Both teams so Yeah then they're gonna be Like totally ass in similar ways

In a too much said Not too much you said about that at all Yeah let's move on to the next five Which is also going to be when we speed through To get to the interesting teams But a little bit more conversation From 25 through 21 at 25 I have the Chicago Bulls

24 to Toronto Raptors 23 the Philadelphia 76ers which is still crazy to see 22 Miami Heat 21 Atlanta Hawks Okay wow Alright so 25 I got Brooklyn 24 Toronto 23 Philly

22 Portland 21 I got Phoenix Okay That's so low for Phoenix Not to say it's low It's bad but it's hilarious They're in the place but that's reasonable Yeah

Okay I have Toronto at 25 Philly at 24 Chicago at 23 Portland at 22 and then Atlanta at 21 So I think you guys need to be more Portland appreciators

No, listen I love Portland so much And not enough Something no no earlier in the season I vividly remember I vividly remember I was like Yo like this team is trash But if there's one identity that they could lean towards Is their fucking defense and they've been doing it

Like literally last Or maybe it was towards the end of last year Earlier the season either one of the two I noticed that their offense is, of course, horrendous, but they were like 18th, 17th in defense. I was like, yo, like, they're kind of doing some here. Like, they're asked, but they're being like super productive. And when it comes to having a rebuilding team, sure, they're not the most like glamorous whatsoever. But in terms of what they're doing behind Denny of Diaz, school Henderson, having coming alive and then Donovan Klingham, which is who's been one of the, you know, better rookies that no one's talked about because his offensive numbers is just, yeah, they're actually doing some real productive things over there.

and they're not as asked that many people think of them to be. When I watch Donovan Klingin, I just think to myself, I cannot believe this man is not a member of the Atlanta Hawks. He would be so perfect for Trey Young. Donovan Klingan is going to be one of the best rim defenders in the NBA. And I'm, I feel immediately confident that any single time I watch him, his drop technique is so good once he's in a position to start full time and, like, have his feet under him.

I have no doubt in my mind he'll be an elite defender. And that's exactly the reason why, like, coming in, coming into the year, we all felt like confident about at least like the the direction of where portland was going because it was like okay maybe if you could see a little bit of something from scoot you can see something defensively from from clinging and i thought that at the deadline maybe you know you go and you move you move off of jeremy grant you get some assets going into that year they didn't necessarily do that but in the off season we'll see what happens but they're kind of they started off really really bad they're kind of on track to where like we all thought that they would be at

this point in the year and in terms of like their their development which is really cool also i'm feeling gasset because the other day on stream i was i was i say that the other day on stream i hinted towards like hey the blazers are kind of doing something and i just like oh boohoo they lost they lost that was the is and now and i he puts them higher than anybody saying we don't appreciate it i just want you guys to know that i think your pussies every time you say i feel like so gaslit it's so wow we can't express how we feel these days no wow we should be mad We used to be men I was I was lied to

I get the most like fucking just like Gen X old man brain every time I hear that sentence Like oh my gosh shut up Something else that I will say about this Poland chivalers seem that I've been like so I've been so disrespectful towards Is one of their wings specifically

Who I disrespected so hard when I think it was a part of the Damien literature Or something like that They got this certain new dude Who I called too many cameras To Moni Kamara He is so fucking fucking good.

He's one of like the seven best wing defenders that the entire league has to offer and they just stumbled upon him off of nothing. Shout out to the Belgian slash like my Malian brother over there. He's fucking hooping. What is he? He's Malian. Oh, Belgian and Malian. Oh, I'm interesting.

Yeah. Yeah, I did not know that. But yeah, shout on him. He's fantastic. For a lot of this power rankings, I'm looking at last 15 games as like the main thing I'm really judging on because, you know, you kind of want to think about who they are right now in the essence of a power ranking. last 15 games

his team is number six in defense and that really came about because they bench Shaden Sharp who everybody likes because he moves like a star he jumps like a star he's shifty like a star the potential still is there

hasn't really come together in any meaningful way throughout the first few years of his career that you'd want to see once they benched him and really kind of I think it really balanced out their guard rotation

Simon's looking a lot better recently I think offensively DeAndre Ate and his life. I just want you to know as an Aitn Truther who has since been beaten into submission. I'm starting to see the Aden that I thought I would see and why I've always said he's still good. I know he's whack and he's not a hard worker and he's letting tell. He'll be good. We're getting that for last 15 games. Do I currently believe that I should still hold the stock I once did and think this would be the case for any meaningful amount of consistency? No. I still, I'm over it.

I've been beaten into submission. I'm done with the DeAndrean experience, but I'm noticing it's looking good. And like you said, having Denny and Kamara as wing defenders with clinging and bench minutes to just constantly give you an elite center to guard the rim, who Aden's been pretty good defensively. Maybe I shouldn't say elite. But, you know, good rim defense, two of the best wing defenders you could possibly imagine. That's just a high floor. That's four great defenders to really build out of defense. That's how you get the competency. Exactly. And to your point, I hope that DeAndre Aden finishes the season very, very strong. And that the Portland Trailblazers do exactly what the Atlanta Hawks did and they sell high on DeAndre Aiton.

I think, I think that like, I do think that the Blades should move off of, off of Aiton. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, they're playing. You know who they should move into, the Atlanta Hawks. The Atlanta Hawks could definitely use Aiton. Oh, get the hell out of here. He does not meet. He needs to be very far away from the city villain.

He's banned from Atlanta also. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it would be a good basketball fit, but actually, maybe not that good basketball fit. He moves. I don't know. Just keep him away from here. bro he's banned from Atlanta once again I said I have connections ATL water boys when they see him there they're gonna kind him down I'll always believe

that the right coach to get him out of Aden and he could be really good but yeah I don't know if Atlanta has the infrastructure to really get that out of him but they're good I respect you a lot for putting them higher I wanted to put them higher but I'm just like these other teams are trying really really hard I don't know how high they can so yeah well I don't have much higher so I'm not gonna pretend I have been some drastically different tier I was kidding they're I haven't I've been relatively the same yeah I don't remember probably 20 or 19 or something yeah 20 so yeah the Miami hit at 22 that's interesting yeah the

yeah the Miami heat are not going to be that good a shout out them for getting rid of wiggins who is very true shout out Wiggins I think will be great whenever they figure out the next version of the team this version of team without Jimmy Butler will be feisty will be fun they will be unsurious I put Miami and I put Atlanta here because Miami lost Jimmy Butler and Atlanta lost Jalen Johnson I think both teams can make a nice shit pie out of the shit situation they've been dealt being undermanned and getting the most they can of these new role players they added nevertheless they will be entirely irrelevant because they just don't have talent so I put the team Portland above them who has shown life as of late they've been a good team

for a small sample size and I'm like shout out them I'll reward them over a team that just doesn't have any ability to really elevate more than what we've seen now I can I see that I wouldn't want to put Portland over Miami because I think Miami's obviously they're two different teams two different times we're just talking about how good they are right now I think Andrew Wiggins isn't as hard of an experience to figure out because at the end of the day he is Andrew Wiggins and he's not like a humongous part of your offense necessarily whatsoever and as for Atlanta, it's hard to gauge them against Portland too because Portland is just so set and solidified and Atlanta made so many exterior changes to their offense and their defense. So I'm going to hold verdict on that, but I feel like those two teams need more respect over Portland. Yeah, so I'll let this be said to I did kind of just

In the reshuffling of teams Forget about Miami So I don't really feel strongly about this So if they're about Portland That's fine You know you move teams around Somebody gets pushed down A couple spots back

And you're like oh I forgot to move them Yeah Maybe I'd put Miami above Atlanta They do have an all-star Bam's really good Oh Oh no no you go I'm talking about Portland

Leave it later right there No Portland I don't think Miami and Atlanta Are worth shit right now They have a higher floor than Portland for sure Portland could fall off and we could be looking at a team

that is just bad again whereas Atlanta and Miami are safer but I don't think they have a ceiling that's worth acknowledging so I didn't that let me reward Portland Amen three three game one street Kerasavert Who'd you beat those three games

Don't worry about it Yeah yeah Don't worry about it We beat the stinky ass Orlando Magic You beat the stinky ass wizards We've been doing what we've been supposed to be The bucks without you honest You gotta win games

You gotta win games Shout out then they want a few We just beat us before in the season earlier bro Shout out then you want a few we all have Philly in this tier. Wow. Juel and Bede is back in a very part-time basis.

Joel M. B. played in the most recent game against the Toronto Raptors. We're recording this a little bit earlier than usual because they're traveling to All-Stars, so maybe some other games that happened by the time you guys are watching this in two days. That game ended with Joel and Bede passing up a wide-open three to try to get into the mid-range and get into his jumper slash foul-bating game. Turned it over. They lost in dramatic fashion.

Paul George has continued to be absolutely terrible for the money he's making. it feels like this experiment is coming to a fiery disastrous conclusion even if they're healthy pain i mean just the other day he came out saying that he has like some very some bad knee pain that's been on they couldn't figure it out for the life of many might need surgery at the end of the year i say probably if they go on another skid don't want a beach look at this season chalk it up be like what the fuck i'm even playing for at this point of time it's probably useful for his for him to like just sit out and get as healthy as he as he's as he's

he can for as, you know, as fast as he can to get ready for next season. I have no hope, no belief. I think the last power rankings, I saw, I saw them maybe up to 15. Oh, yeah, you had him dumb high. I forgot. I had him high. I had him pretty high. And that was like me being super optimistic about Joel and Beat in his health. And he in general, he's looked like, he's looked like the pretty much normal regular Joleman Beat, excluding how this game ended or whatever. So when it comes to you scared living shit out of me when it comes to how. you're prefacing the end of Joe and being like his prime that still might happen after this surgery but as a no no no I was right that's correct I didn't say he is when he's on the court

he'd look terrible I said his prime is over because you just won't get 20 games in a row like ever again so you won't be able to consistently build around that I didn't say every time he's on the court joel and beat is going to go to get you 25 points in a game and it's going to be pretty when he's on the court it's do you know how good you have to be to like have no rhythm in your game and still be just able to like run into shit like I can say for years he's better than no listen he's he's very talented he's very talented right but I think like the at the beginning of the year he had came out and said the thing of like I'm not going to play any back to back

to back for the rest of my career we're like word like it's like that forever and and at first you were like okay maybe maybe it's like this year maybe he's you know over exaggerating whatever no it's it's probably legitimate he may not ever play a a a back to back type of situation he's out to if if i'm not mistaken i think he's out tonight with injury management and so again playing two games in a row playing five games in a row i'm not sure how a seven to two two hundred and eighty pound center who is not just like you're very traditional i'm going to back you down his game does require a lot of agility It requires a lot of movement.

For him to be the defender that we all thought of Joel and Bid, he's going to have to move around a little bit. None of that is available to him at this point. And if we're already in February talking about him saying he's going to need another knee surgery that might take a very extensive recovery process again, how many knee surgeries, how many lower leg injuries are we going to have to go through before we feel comfortable about Joel and Bid, who is on the other side of 30th? this point like it's not it's just sad it's just sad so yeah i hope that he does get that knee surgery that's in the news right now that maybe he needs that to take an extended period of time off and hope that it can fix the knee which maybe that means like eight months out then hope that it'll get better from there and eventually can play consistently do it at this point because right now it feels like it's either you take a year off and hope

things be better or you just deal with it forever and it's never going to be better so tough times yes a other team in this year you have phoenix at 21 we'll talk about them in a little bit because we have them higher, clearly, I'm sure, just slightly. Shout Toronto. I shout the Brianningham trade. We'll see what it looks like when they get them on the court. Maybe they'll look competent and rise up the list, but thus far, they're still atrocious and 24 is.

Five. Gracious, even at times? Sure. I mean, they're not completely trash, so. They're pretty trash right now. But is it completely trash? I guess not. Completely trashed like the Wizards, then they're not completely trash.

Yeah. But it's not far. Yeah, they got some parts. They may not be working, but they got parts. Yeah, they're there. All right. Okay. They don't fit together, but they're there.

Next team, I'm next tier. We got the first one that we're going to go piece by piece and really take our time with, 20 through 16. At 20, I have the Portland Trailblazers who just talked about at length. 19 the Phoenix Suns, 18 Orlando Magic, 17 San Antonio Spurs, 16 Dallas Mavericks. I really struggle with what to do with the Mavericks. Because we all think they're going to be good if they're healthy. But now we know they're not going to be healthy for a long time,

and they might fucking plummet down the standings. Derek Lively's out right now. Daniel Gaffer just got hurt. Anthony Davis is out for probably three or four weeks. And in the report, the Mavericks haven't really clarified how long he's going to be out for. They're playing it very coy from on purpose, I think. They know what it is. They just scared to say it.

Yeah. Mark Stein is also not going to say it because it's not his job to come on and say it. But he alluded to the fact that, you know, there's some worry that maybe that one month might become four, might become season over. That's in the air. And if that's the case, obviously, the American Airlines Center will be ash. so I hope that Anthony Davis isn't so unlucky that he gets hurt and out for the season this fucking first game back

but Dallas you're gonna be really good if you're healthy I fear you may never be healthy yeah I think that's the best way to put it I think I put them around this range in tier two I have no idea how to gauge the health of this team all three of their centers are out Derek Live like you said Anthony Davis and recently Daniel Gaffert

I like what Kyrie Irving does he's a great player but also like he still somewhat hobbled going through the season as well and when you are currently a team that is below water, I think they're slightly below 500 or just around that range. I see you, you cannot afford any injuries whatsoever. You're 110% relying on Kyrie Irving and the rest of your wings to carry you through the turmoil that's going on in the Western Conference.

And right now, as you speak, I do not believe in that. If AD was there, I don't even care about it, Daniel Gaffrod. I don't even care about Derek lively. If AD was simply there, then I'm like, yeah, they're going to like surge because 80s is that caliber. of defender and offensive player. Yeah. But it's not there, so. Yeah, it's not hard to parse what, what their house is going to be like.

Bad. They're injured as hell. That's where they're at. And so for, again, for the sake of the American Airlines Center and its infrastructure, the police presence around Nico Harrison's crib, I hope Anthony Davis is able to get back onto the court because it's not looking good. And so, like, I don't, I don't, again, again, I can't remember the exact number that I put them on here.

But I don't have a lot of hope for the Mavericks just because the whole season, on paper and even like on the basketball court, having Kyrie Irring and Anthony Davis makes sense in a vacuum. Having Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis on your team because you traded away Luca Donchitz, the player that you built your entire team around. And now your entire fan base, the entire vibe from head to toe, there is just. just confusion all throughout the team, that in itself. You lost our identity. Yeah, that's, all of that, that doesn't give me any hope. So I don't have a lot of faith for the Mavericks moving forward, especially when there's other teams in the West that got better at the, at the deadline, didn't trade away

a 25-year-old all-time great, and they have the ability to make a little bit of a push. You know what it is? To get to the play in. It's like, Nico, Nico Harrison had a bad bitch for the first time and didn't know how to treat her. And he just, like, lost her, bro. He just doesn't know what to do. He's a little bit, she's a little bit, like, high, high maintenance or whatever,

likes to do her own thing. And he's just like, we know, whatever, we're right or without you. She's wearing too many fashion Nova bodies. Yeah, exactly. She liked to hear her facials on all in or whatever. And he's just like, bro, like, you're doing too much. Get out of here. He had a date in his pay range, you know?

Exactly. She got too much for me. I can't do that. And he's just fumbled her and now. I haven't heard this metaphor yet, but I think that's like exactly right. Yeah. He was like, he had a problem with the amount of, like, people that Luca hired his own health team around. He had a problem with Luca moving like a star and feeling entitled and, like, doing star stuff and feeling like he didn't to work hard.

That's what you get when you're all-time great and you just wake up, roll out of bed and you're getting buckets in the finals. Nico wasn't prepared for that. Nico needs a little 15th best player in the world type of star in the round. Yeah, sometimes you don't know how good you happen until you fucking lose it, bro. Know yourself, man. Exactly. Act like you fucking been here before. Shit, Nico.

That's a good way to do it. I think you're right. Yeah, you lost his first bad bitch, bro. He did. He's never going to get another one either because he's like fucking fire. And there's a reason why the like all these Dallas Maverick fans are being so like dramatic about it. It's something to be dramatic about because they've been without. But you had the baddest bitch.

Exactly. You got the baddest is the baddest bitch. Exactly. You were from Dirk Nowitzky. You had a little drought because, you know, Dirk was Dirk at his old age or whatever. Then you went ahead, read up and got someone who's even battered. And then you let him go. what is going on here

all natural he's just it's Luca like I felt that pain before I was Nico Harrison in one point of my life never again Nico Harrison's been to turn into

an NBA in cell producing no facts he's the worst bro red pill red pill demon kill

yes he is legitimately makes no sense he's so bad for humanity he's not he's not going to hire another European player ever

other than Dallas at 16 How do you guys feel about the teams here? We don't got to talk about Portland anymore. How do you guys feel about 19 Phoenix, 18, Orlando, 17 spurs? I think you're lower on Orlando than what they actually are in terms of... I don't think he is. No, no, I don't think he is. I do.

And the only reason why is because, and I guess this is the difference, we projected a little bit. I think you are very much entrenched in terms of the stress that they recently have. And I think I'm projecting a little bit forward And I think that there's I think that they can be a little bit better than what they are right now Because what they are right now is not great Here's the thing, I agree A little bit better than what they are right now is the 18th team in the league What they have in over the last 15 games is like the 20 fucking seventh best team in the league

So I'm with you I think you love Orlando You're fully on board of Palo and Franz being the guys You're fully on board of what they can be If we're living in reality they're the worst offense in the NBA They are absolutely atrocious. Palo Van Carroll came in for five games to start the year. It looked like a demon.

It looked like he addressed every concern. People like me had for him last year. He looked like he finally became the idealized version that everybody that loves him and pretended he was last year. Got hurt. Heard his oblique. Tummy hurt was out for, what was it, eight weeks? Something like that?

It was a long time. Since he has come back, there's been some flashes. Overall, he has not been good. It's around 20 points per game on pretty bad efficiency over that time. It's like a 51 true shooting. Damn people can't warm up. How long you need to goddamn warm-up for it?

It's been like 12, 15 games. I do not, we still have yet to see a single stretch of play in three years in which they are better with Palo on the court than with him off it. Right now,

with Franz on the court and Palo off, they have an 11 net rating. You're about to say some... With Palo on the court and Franz off, it's negative 8.8 net rating with them both together

negative 5.2. I do not think Palo is bad. I think I would like to see a world in which him and Franz can coexist and win their minutes together or when palo can win his minutes without franz i would like to see the idealized version of him come to life for an extended period of time where they aren't anchoring the worst offense in the NBA they didn't do anything to the deadline i don't see any world in which it gets super much better

now suggs is hurt jalen suggs makes a big difference i mentioned those on-off numbers franz had the ability to play with sucks for a lot of that so maybe that helps him this is three years in a row of the numbers being drastically better with franz on and palo off maybe we need to just acknowledge it maybe they just aren't fitting well together the way they're currently being deployed and maybe there isn't some better world in sight in which the office is going to be anything decent or maybe right here we go no legitimately and this is something that i wish i i i'm with you i 100% wish that they made a move at the deadline because the way that i'm seeing it right now is that yes you need to be able to to win minutes and you need to be

a very very good team with fronds and palo out on the floor but also shout out to jalen If your team rise and dies on Jalen Suggs being in the lineup and you do not have enough enough answers if he goes out, that's a, that's a problem, right? Like, you need to be able, you need to be able to maintain without, without Jalen Suggs. And like, I think that, I think that Palo came into the season for the first five games, obviously on a heater. I'm going to give him a little bit more time. It is, it has been, has it been a, has it been a,

a end-all be-all in terms of sample size? No. Has it been enough to where you could be like, hey man, I'm going to need you to start hearing some time. Yes, yes. And that's, that's where I'm at.

But I'm also, as you acknowledge, I'm on the higher side of them to where I think that like those shots are going to fall. He's shooting like 27% from three in the last like 16 games. For the season. It's pretty bad. I mean, he played five games missing.

Yeah, and those are five amazing games are currently being just drowned by all. the sea of bad games. But it's kind of the same thing like with Franz last year where you were like, okay, eventually you're going to have to shoot better. Like I know you're not a 27% three-point shooter. I do think that some of those numbers will come back to the mean a little bit.

And once you start hitting one to two more threes a night, then it starts to look and feel a little bit different than what it is right now. Yeah. That's all dreams. None of it's real. None of it's happened. Asking for one more three a night is not like massive for a guy. Banking on that, making them a good offense.

is the dream because it has never happened oh no i'm not talking about the office i'm talking specifically about palo banjo that is where i think what it is where my my vision lies with palo is just so with his play style and archetype he's in the worst like possible scenario to try to uplift this team with zero spacing yes that is so gas that is so over exaggerating now something i will say no no no that is true that is true like him making him not making his shots his ability to just want to lean towards making trying to make tougher shots and i'm using more of his brute force is an actual issue you know if he if he was more of a brute force and just was on like you semi honest type timing then we wouldn't see or the spacing issues wouldn't be as loud because

yo his efficiency is fine pala cp is so bad once has no issue getting to the rim but that's because he's good at that play style though that's what it is what i'm saying it's the playstyle between these two and that's why I'm like okay like red flags are really loud right now and I look at someone like paolo I'm you're gonna have a tougher time being better in most scenarios compared to someone like franz because his mindset and ability just like read the floor and just get buckets effortlessly he's more down to you know but you're describing a skill issue not a fit not a team issue entirely like franz can get to the rim well the spacing doesn't hold him back from being a productive score when the mid range jumper isn't falling because he's good at

driving good at making snap decisions, good at making reeds. And Paolo sucks at that right now. He needs to get better at that. And we give him so much slack and just attributed most of it to spacing. They don't have some like league altering impossible to succeed in spacing. They don't have the best shooting the world. I'm not going to pretend that KCP this season. Anthony Black is out here giving them amazing to work with spacing. But it's okay. It's fine. Like it's doable to the point where you shouldn't be incapable of having the league average scoring efficiency for a season. Like that is true. That is, that is true because there is a certain level of like, hey, if you're going to be that guy, there are certain levels and certain barriers that you are just going to have to overcome by yourself. And then whenever you do get proper help around you, like Kay Cunningham, when Kate, when Cade finally gets this like this quote unquote ideal situation, which is just competency, you see Kade go from a guy where you're like, okay, I see the flashes, I see all that to an all star in the league.

If Palo, if Palo was showing a little bit more of that, I can 100% see a world where people who are thinking like Isaac right now are like, you, you can like see from time to time what Palo is doing. And then once you get into at least a slightly better situation, yes, you can instantly be an all-N-B-a type player. But he does have to be better. And this is something that we've seen for the better part of three years. But they, but in terms of how they are constructed right now, they do need Jalen

Suggs right now in this moment. So whenever Jalen Sugs does come back, I do think they are going to be a better team. I do think that Palo is going to be better. And so I'm going off of that. Everything else in terms of like big picture, ceiling, I was a little bit too high on that. But I'm not, I'm not, when I talk about the magic right now, I'm not focused on that. I'm just talking about them being better than what they are right now, better than the 18th best team. Yeah.

In my mind, when I think about some like Powell Bank hero, I'm like, you shouldn't have to be that dependent on someone like Jalen Suggs to like have. him affect the entire efficiency of your game and how this it just swings the entire like pendulum and that's why i'm also shout out to jane and sugs for like you know for like being important at at work you know yeah no for sure jail and sugs isn't the reason they suck offensively i said that as a joke earlier and we keep running with it jailin sugs is why the defense hasn't been very good and why they're losing games now there's 16th in defense over the last 15 game i think you'd feel a little bit better about them even looking at at the numbers i think if you saw a couple wins in like slide it in i do think you would feel a little bit different even if the numbers were

the same great win some games then because in the last 16 games they're 30th an offense and 16th in defense yeah the 16th in defense is why i think the jalen suggs thing is really really being felt he helps offensively too he's one of the better offensive players but this is just since palo's come back the aggressiveness we saw driving to the rim is non-existent that we saw those first five games that to me is where he's the head of the snake they're still playing through him they see their ceiling long term as him being the main driver and franz playing off at him i think at a certain point we need to have some recalibration franz is the better playmaker the better driver career of advantages and i think for a third year in a row we see the drastically different on-off numbers when they're

playing solo and together i'm not saying franz is better than him or will be better than long term but he sure is fuck playing better right now and sure is hell a better playmaker that needs to drive more offense and i don't have faith that that's going to be a dynamic they figure route. So I just don't know why I should put them higher until they show me the 20th best offense for a 10 game stretch. I mean over Dallas? Well, again, that's the thing that like I want to give them credit for they're going to be good if they're healthy. Maybe Anthony Davis only missed three weeks and one of those weeks is the all-star break. So maybe they come back in a few weeks and they're fine. In that case, they're going to be a way better team if they're healthy.

Yeah. Right now too, yeah, I can I can understand that logic completely. I've been wanting to see this Orlando duo figure it out and there's just needs to be a recalibration just a complete not a complete reset but just a slight adjustment in terms of how they decide to utilize someone like Palo and they probably need to up with Franz just a little bit more because that just seems to be more productive the number say it how players play with Paulo versus Franz say it everything just leads from that direction and Paula's defense even these last few games has just like not let up to expectations whatsoever you can't be that level of player and still have your team be 30th in offense like everyone who all the like

the star, young star players who are comparable to Paulo, you can see them in similar situations before in the past or whatever is have these have a similar level of offensive talent around them and not be 30th in offense. Yeah. And not like make their life harder and their teammates life harder as well. Like so much of it is just like the best, so much of it is palo's habits. and just this play style he has and the ways he's deploying himself on court and the type of reeds and movements he's making is this, it's so out of line

with the role he has. He has the role and the touches of being this half-court creator that's going to be the head of the snake, start, plays, create advantages, keep the bomb moving for others. And since he's come back, it is so often just been tough mid-range jumpers,

tough fadeaways that aren't creating advantages at all. Then you see the minutes where Franz is leading the offense and he's consistently generating a pain touch, consistently generating shots for others, and it's like if you just put those habits and that part of the basketball brain into Palo he would be the star we wanted to be but we need to see it for like some successful amount of time

yeah the numbers are jarring and they're irrefutable but I like to see the footage too as well and I watch specific footage of Palo Bencaro only I was just solely locked in on him rewatch the same game twice condensed saw Fons Barton and I'm like damn if I was a player bro I'd want to play some like Fonz because like these passes are getting off to me a lot

quicker versus like pound the ball five six seven eight times back behind the basket it's kind of it's just like it's like a washed version of basketball that he's playing and he's being forced into a specific role that he just might not be equipped to have yet if ron's had the gas of the one of all pick and pallet was number seven overall pick this team would be deploying those two guys much differently and their offense would be a lot better for it just get fron some aura give him some like give him some braids a couple tattoos get him the arm's sleeve legs sleeve that Paolo has and then we're going to draft bias is a motherfucker even infects

coaching staffs it's hard it's tough no no it's I think they can work together I have to stand listen listen I have to stand up for for my guy here because I think I do think that there is a little bit of unfairness towards Palo

because we are acting like we're acting like Franz wasn't like an awful shooter last year and didn't hold the team back offensively as well and we're acting like Like for three straight years, France has been doing absolutely everything carrying this offense when, yes, like the offense has been bad the entire time both of them have been there, whatever. But they've done all of this and Palo was a better score last year and you got to the playoffs

and Palo was better there. And so like, yes, they've both been hurt this entire season. Yes, Palo has played a limited amount of games. And so I think that I do think that it's unfair to be like, oh, Palo has to do this and do that. when he was kind of like halfway in that role last year because Franz was trying to catch up on his shooting and Franz had it down your shooting. I mean, sure, if you want Franz to be criticized last year

so it feels fair in the criticism level, great. But that has zero impact on this year. Either way, whatever you feel about last year and you feel about Franz's level of play, he's still not a good shooter this year. He's still shooting 31% from 3. It's just that's not the end-all be-all with him. Like, so far, this shooting has been end-l-b-all for Palo

because without the shot falling with season to come back, he's been on a cold stretch, which, like you said, he will start shooting better. not going to be terrible. There's also going to be shutters where he shoots poorly. And we need to see development in the playmaking, into everything else around the game. The driving to the rim specifically, the thing we harped on last year that we thought was fixed, it's not. Those five games are clearly, that was more sample, small sample size than since he's come back.

The pallet we thought we were getting, this dominant rim finisher is not here. Those five games were also with Jalen Suggs being Steph Curry and like hit and like in, and Sugg, shooting like 45% for three. and so there was there was a little bit more spacing in terms of like the outside the outside players I I think that like he he is going to have a little time and this is exactly why I love all-star break because I can sit here and I can say you know what just give him a little break give him a week off he's tired exactly he's going to come back and he's going to rock out I hope so I'm not out on him but they need to play better for me to put him higher on this ranking just because I can only do so much with hope and fascination I can project some people when

they make a roster move and I can say, this will fix this, this will fix that. If they would have went and got Amfordy signed me, there's some dynamic creator to make things better, maybe I could have done that. But with zero changes, it is a power ranking. And I know we're projecting more than usual. We do still have to gauge what they've been doing. And what they've been doing is awful. Yeah, their GM is making their life so much harder too.

Like, it's no matter what it is, we can see Paolo Franz working. Pallo could be the best version of himself, too. They still genuinely need to make a change. The KCP signing has not worked out in the slightest whatsoever. um kb is not or cb is not exact who you want him to be just yet and so they regardless of the fact paul and franz aside they needed to make a move they didn't make a move you belong to be in this range in this territory okay what's your next what's your five so my five is at number 20 i got sacramento 19 Atlanta 18 Miami 17 Dallas and i got 16 Orlando okay yeah i respect you

putting Atlanta and Miami higher for being safer I just didn't but I totally respected I think that's honestly it's probably the right thing to do so I'm cool with that Sacramento's hard one to gauge right now did you have Sacramento higher than this uh like I think I'm one yeah I suppose I'm left in one spot higher

interesting okay you had to my 15 yeah okay wow okay yeah all right just I think they have some learning pains to get through but I think they have a just more talent like Atlanta Miami over Sacramento like I think I hope they figure it out yeah maybe they don't because of the defense has been rough. Yeah, you're right.

Sacramento does have more talent, but like when it comes to like the framework of what's needed to win basketball, which is like a level of defense. I think they're going to bench Malik to start Keone Ellis and that'll be fine. And then they'll get back to being confident. Like I feel a lot better about them getting,

I feel a lot better about them making the plane that I do Miami and Atlanta. There's only so much that Keon Ellis can do though. He's not going to like change your entire D. He's great, but like, he's Keon-Elis. We've seen, we've seen, we've seen Keanu Ellis and like the insertion of Keanu Ellis be kind of a difference maker for this team and especially like you you talk about about this team and like the joke was that

they're the their Chicago Bulls West and the number one question that we had for the Bulls whenever they first assembled this team was like all right yeah like you have some talent you have some scores who the hell are you going to guard right could you could you have Levine and de Rosen and Vucevich and now you have all those guys three years older and Sabonis who has never been a great defender and so it's like again your defense really does rely on on a certain piece and so like for the bulls they had loneso and they had had caruso kian ellis is in that role for them and he and he's not two to since getting levin not o and four like they're just above 500 the two east teams are just below 500 so i don't think it's insane yeah not it's absolutely not insane like i could easily

switch in my mind like dallas and sacramido because there's a real world in which i can envision dallas like just not making the play in whatsoever yeah versus sacramento because they're going to continue to maintain a level of stability yeah okay let's reveal donovan's three we're spending a lot time on this tier but i like it the orlando talk is a lot to talk about at 20 i have dallas at 19 i have miami at 18 i have the spurs 17 i have the 17 i have the kings and then at 16 I have the piston. I forgot everybody's acronym. Yeah. Okay. So we have San Antonio in this tier.

Mo, you have them higher. Yeah. Yeah. So I understand why, because they added Deeran Fox. You think they make them a lot better. I didn't put them higher because these motherfuckers are insisting on starting Chris Paul next to the Aaron Fox. I know.

Because clearly they promised this man a starting spot before the season started. That's why he signed with him. And my God, do I hate it? Their defense has been asked. They lost to the shit from a butt, Atlanta Hawks. They lost to the shit from a butt, Charlotte Hornets. because the defense was atrocious they've had a

I think I wrote it down I didn't write down but they've had like what you say I said they lost an imagine too oh no it was magic I didn't mean to say Hawks it wasn't Hawks was it

no no it was the Hawks and it was the Hornets I mean my bad the magic and the Hornets which have neither of which have been good teams as of late you lost them

because your defense has been ridiculous yeah you're gonna get it off Pallel them were four for 17 for the game but then you hit the game winner listen you shine when it matters

do what you do palo and yeah If they bench Chris Ball and get some lineup balance and put some more defense on the court and don't have to hear Fox Lane shooting guard for the first time in his career, well, I guess he did it next to Tyree Taliburton for a little bit. But, you know, the team can make sense.

Currently it doesn't. And I don't like it. They have some insistence and some just, something is in their brain of like, yo, Wembe's so good. What if we make things hard on? Yeah. Like at every turn last year.

We were dumb on purpose. They see him doing 10 pushups. Let me add a 20, 20 pound break on your back. See how many more you can do. It's like you find, you did the thing. You went out and you were aggressive and you got the Aaron Fox. Why are you, why are you moving like this? Here's a new position for you.

Exactly. Exactly. And so like you find, it took a while to figure out, you know, like, like when. You know, like that. The fuck is. Yeah. The fuck is wrong with you, bro. You know how mad at all B files Wemby, bro?

Hey. You're close What the fuck? For the gallery. Shout out of Chris. Old Man tricks. You think they can be good. I like Chris Paul a lot

and a bench roll. And again, it's always a politics thing. That's where he's shine. He's 30 is old. He can't be a starting point guard like that. At this time. The Phoenix Suns are the same predicament. They promised Tyos Jones a starting spot

and Tyos Jones is one of the worst starters in the league right now, which we didn't even talk about them, but we don't even give him higher. Oh, you get him lower. Right? The Phoenix Suns? No, I just said that. You got him higher?

Oh, that's crazy. But yeah, the Phoenix Suns suck really bad because they start Tyson's because they promise him a starting spot to come sign with him for the minimum. And he's been an atrocious for them. That is, this is clearly a theme of politics impacting roster decisions. I hope the Spurters over time,

adjust, and decide not to start them full time. In that case, I think they'll look decent and I'll be one of them higher, but I'd like to see it first. That's what I'm doing when it comes to the projection thing. I believe that there's no way in hell you add someone like Dearon Fox to your roster just to continuously sit on your hands and not make the actual coaching changes as well like eventually those things have to align eventually

you have to put the politics aside and be like okay like we have a real chance to get wendy his first a bit of somewhat some level of playoff experience through the play in and times like this is crucial when it comes to development like you want him to have this fuckups early not when he's like 27, 28, 28, 29 years old. And I'm just hoping and praying that they realize that. And that's why I have them like just a slight tier higher. Yeah. And I see some Spurge fans defend it.

They like having the multiple ball handers out there and like playing less traditional. You're just not going to have a good defense though with these two. And I think you need a good defense for this team because either way, the firepower is not going to be great. So I think you need to have a defensive identity. I would certainly start Sohan or Castle. Yeah. It's too much to put on, on Wembee to fix the entire defense when you have those two.

guys so yeah i i do i do agree okay i guess that's enough for this tier uh some of the teams left like you have detroit at 16 we have a little bit higher we'll talk about them in the next section yeah we can move on donovan or mo who's your 15 through 11 ooh i did troyd just a little bit higher i have detroit at 15 14 i got the spurs 13 i have the clippers 12 indiana and 11 i got the minnesota timber wolves okay yeah okay uh detroit is interesting i think this is probably the right tier for them. They're just so competent. They just keep on going. They're above 500 now. They're continuing to rise up. I think, are they the five seed right now? I think there's six as we They are currently. Yeah, there's six right now. Look at them. They're one game behind the bucks for the

five seed. And one team is training in one direction. And it's not the Pistons. So they could very well end up with the five seat at this rate. Yeah. I could easily bump up the Detroit Pistons just a little bit. Maybe you could swap them with the Los Angeles Clippers or really like the San Antonio Spurs. But my belief in Wemby and Foxers is just like that high compared to the Detroit Pistons maintaining a level of stability. And in this case scenario specifically, like we're going to see them rise up in the same thing because Wembe's, I mean, not Wembe, but Yonis is out right now. But I like Detroit. I love them. I think they're the perfect, like, 15th seed or ranking in the NBA right now.

Kade is still doing K things. Malik Bezzi is over here being the greatest three-point shooter in Pistons history. Take that for whatever, what you will. Their identity is here. Is he actually like currently like they're like in the season my bad I figured you miss him like that yeah that's crazy uh shout out Jalen Dern who's coming alive offensively at least defense still a work in progress but in the last 15 games 15 points 12 assists I mean 12 assists 12 rebounds he's up from about 10 and a half points for

the season a lot more aggressive he had a comment in the media that was quite funny where he basically was like yeah I was playing bitch made the first 25 games now I got my shit together I'm being aggressive it was so candid I love to hear it you can definitely see that he's definitely been more of that athletic force down low that you expect hope it sticks i hope the defense sticks too but shout out detroit yeah confident basketball uh let's move on the show donovans we love them all right at 15 i have the orlando magic at 14 i have the suns which at this point i will say i'm taking this back oops yeah yeah that's that's one of those cases where it's like yeah i should move them back

down yeah at 13 I have the Timberwolves 12 I have the clippers and at 11 I have the golden state warriors okay I have multiple grats with this but I think the biggest one might reside in golden state do you have the material higher no I mean maybe slightly no I think I have around the same place I'll just reveal mine let's talk about everybody's I have 15 Sacramento 14 Detroit 13 Indiana 12 golden state 11 clippers Okay, okay, let's, we're all over the place. Wait, you have a tier higher? Yeah, I do.

Not too high. You have enough higher that you're upset about it? Yeah, because I think this is that much of a different team. Okay, I'll say this with the Warriors. Yes, they are better. They still, like, have some stuff to work out. And I think that, like, their ceiling is good, but, like, they're not going to, like, when we start talking about the top 10 teams or the top.

top eight teams in the league. Those are teams that I can legitimately see winning a playoff series. I still don't know currently constructed if I see the Warriors winning a playoff series. I think I think that Steph has looked better now that he has Jimmy Butler and like he just had he just had like 38 the other night. But only two games. Yeah. But like also in that first game and if you want to say that it's, you know, take some time,

I know that they came back But they were also down a lot To the Chicago Bulls And there are some There's some stuff that that's to happen So I'm not 100% sold I'm going to say I do want to see it for a little bit longer But I

Listen, adding Jimmy Butler If we did this before the Jimmy Butler treat They would have been like 20 So I think For sure I think moving them up to like 11 is like Hey shout out to you guys Yeah I'm just a little bit

I got like so so giddy about what Jimmy Buller was able to do for this team man, I'm definitely projecting in terms of where I think they'll finish out towards the end of the year because I think this Jimmy Buller's edition just makes it seem so much better. If you were tapped into the TD3 stream on Tuesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Tap in, tap in, tap in. We touched on Jimmy Bowler in his debut just a little bit. Talked about how, you know, clear his day, he is an interior presence, not necessarily a force,

but he's a presence because he knows how to get to that plugging paint and get to the line, which opens up a myriad of avenues for his team to get buckets that they're just not used to, which is free throw line buckets. And Jimmy Buller the other night, I think he got like 10, 11 free throws or whatever. And this team was just not used to having this amount of just like this mirroated ways to get buckets. And so this helps your team get advantages earlier in the game when you have someone like Jimmy Buller. And also like this has made Seth Curry's life so much easier because not all the intention is on him. So seeing that, I'm like, yo, this team just got.

got so much better of course it's like late in the season they sold so many they sold their season already but i think they're really going to lock in i one thing i did overblow a little bit was that i remember we talked about it i was worried about the spacing for the scene i was like yo jimmy bowler takes less free throw attempts over the last like three four years then draymond green that is a real issue of course yeah three point if that's right that is a real issue and it would be issue for like every other team except for this one because of how they lay everyone on offensively and how you know step curry is like the engine of it so they're just never going to be a moment in time where the spacing is really mucked up and that's proven to be

the case yeah jimmy brother will undoubtedly make them a lot better like donovan said us putting them in the top 12 is an indictment on that i feel really good about his interior scoring like you said really good about the free throw drawing he finally brings them since they've been bottomed the league in free throws for last several years and their fans love to cry about it they love to let everybody know they suck a drawn free throws and it's a conspiracy against them because the league hates golden state yeah whatever but jimmy bolly makes a big difference there i would feel a lot better about the team if they had also made a deal to trade gary peyton salary plus looney or whatever necessary to get a starting shooting guard of two-away caliber shout out buddy healed i hope he shoots really well for them i hope

it really brings the fit together obviously i do not want buddy healed on the court full-time starting minutes in a playoff setting for the defense uh maybe they can do moses moody there they seem to like to play moses moody as a power fucking forward so i don't know if they're going to do that we'll see what it looks like when Caming is in the lineup. Maybe that kind of shifts everything around in a weird way. Shout out Quentin Post. Yes. If Quentin Post can hold up defensively, the ceiling is high.

Finally having a stretch big next to Jimmy Butler and next to Camingo will be important. I'll reserve judgment though. I want to see it for longer. I want to get a better feel for him. I don't have a good feel for now how good of a defender he'll be and how much to hold up in a playoff setting. Yeah. That's a deciding factor to me. To me, I don't, I love Quentin Post.

He gives them an entirely different look that they haven't had the ability to have in this Raymond and Steph Aaron. and having a stretch big is that much more important. But he's a stretch big who struggles to me with the games that I've watched. He struggles on the boards, struggles with physicality, but what makes him ultra-valible and what, like, oversees everything because you have Draymond, Jimmy, and just a great defensive attitude and mindset and scheme is that he's been hitting his three-pointers.

If he continuously does that, then, you know, I just don't see how this team cannot, like, find success. They will find success and they will find more success, but I still do think that there are a lot more questions that they need answered, especially because now that you brought Jimmy in, your team has reshuffled a little bit. So now a couple of roles do have to be redefined a little bit. You need to figure those out, lock those things down, and then maybe whenever we talk about playoffs, then I can feel a little bit more comfortable talking about you winning a playoff series. Again, the fact that they are this high for me is purely off of the. the fact that you have step curry all of the offensive burden isn't on him and clearly we've seen in just again just two games that that's been it's been very helpful and if if step does

start to get hot and teams are like okay we're going to go we're going to double curry now you have jimmy butler who can who can create for himself who can have enough playmaking for that team and when you have him and draymond right doing stuff on a four and three that's that's great That's exactly what you want to see. So they have a good upside, but I still, like, and kind of worry, I'm not, yeah, I'm not boosting them up too high too quickly. Yeah, if you were right in their top 10,

that wouldn't shock me too much, I guess. I just, I'm going to give them more than two games because they have more flaws outside of Jimmy Butler. I've always been high on the Jimmy Butler, just like him as a potential target. All season when we've been talking about players who want to trade for it, I've been just banging the Jimmy Butler drum.

And through two games, I think we've seen what I expected, but I just don't want to get ahead of myself. I just don't want to insulate. I'll do your work for you. I'm going ahead of myself. And I'm right now, I do believe that they can win a playoff series wholeheartedly.

Yeah, yeah, I think that might. So good the Clippers. They're 11 to me. For me, that might be their ceiling. Like the absolute ceiling. A lot of things don't have to. With a batch up based. I mean, there were, well, I don't,

I actually, I, again, I think that is their ceiling. But I don't know if I would have them as the favorites and any matcher that they go into. Like you're saying there's eight teams. you will for sure pick over them yeah can't i can't say that i would say there's like maybe four teams no no not no not for sure pick over 14 like if they if they got into into the actual like playoff and they're in the bottom because like they're not getting home court you don't think they beat the grisleys or rockets the two of the weaker upper i don't i wouldn't have them as the favors going into those series wow maybe it's the rockets i feel like they have the draymond

offers quite the hard problem for the rockets offense to solve so maybe them but yeah i mean yeah i don't if I'd say favorites either so we'll see yes the other the other team though and what you just said is like you didn't want to get your hopes up too quickly that's how I feel about Minnesota at 13 because they've shown some life and I had officially written them off like months ago and like they played well even before Julius Randall got hurt yeah they had they were they were winning games they want to four straight yeah they've actually been worse with him since he got injured they're like to three and three or something like that went out so they were better with him on the so far yeah and so that is something that i was not prepared to see from them but i don't i don't

know i it's gonna for me personally just it's going to take a lot for me to to kind of buy back in on them so that's why i'm still being worried but they have been playing a lot better they have they have been good so yeah i do so they're undoubtedly top 10 last 10 games are fifth in offense and fifth in defense anthony edwards had three 40 point games and last six games dude over the last 20 games he's average like 32, six, and five when he sued like 44% from the few points. He just became the best three-point shooter in the NBA. He is absolutely unstoppable.

Early in the season, people were kind of giving us shit a little bit because we still ranked them top 10, despite the team struggling, and there being some perceived, like, slump or whatever, and we were like, shut the fuck up. He is shooting 44% from three. Once everything gets figured out with the spacing, and they acclimated to Julius Randall, this is so clearly a guy who didn't forget how to score at the rim,

didn't forget how to do these other things, that once it comes back together, and the offense is more fluid and he adds his jump shot into things he's going to be a monster and that's what we've seen over his last 15 games he is hitting the best stretch of his career I think as a score at least

team is still not as amazing as we were last year but they're definitely to me the 10th best team in the league I think that's where I have them we can move on to the top 10 spoiler alert they should be in this range I think

okay so well for me so at 10 I have the Indiana Pacers at 9 I mean you had them at like 12 so I have the Pacers we live and die by these two differences i don't know if you understand 12 and 10 is a big difference i have the rockets at nine i have the bucks at eight i have the grislies at seven i have the nicks at six okay uh yeah i have indiana a little bit lower but whatever other than that i think i mean

do you have Milwaukee pretty high who's been reeling they've been reeling deionis has been hurt for a little bit now uh i don't remember exactly how many games that's why i'm giving i'm giving them i think a little bit of great so yonis missed the last five games before he went out they had lost three or four yeah so they were already looking pretty terrible they have since made their all in move for the season acquiring kail kuzma who has scored efficiently in this couple games has not impressed me per se in terms of like the dynamic he brings but we haven't seen with yon what would it take to to be impressed by by 2020 level defense and like really being a lockdown wing defender which lockdown's extreme he's never that but like a really capable wing defender the things

that's impressed me about kow kow kow kuzon so far which i can't believe those words that came out of my mouth This is me being like ultra positive and optimistic is like he plays at one pace, which is like generally not good in the NBA, but he plays fast. And that's what the team needed. Yeah, that's why they did. Athleticism and all that. And one thing that Calclusemah has, which just doesn't make any sense. But also when you think about the human mind, it makes sense.

He has the respect of being a three point threat. He's not necessarily hitting them bitches, hasn't been in him for a few years. But he has the respect like he is in them. Because he shoots real fast. It goes up immediately. The defense is like, oh, shit. Yeah. but he's been slashing well

which is a Kyle Kuzman thing he's typically good at so that's good we'll see how it looks like Jan is too early to have an opinion on Kuzma either way I just in general don't love that as the only move just because I don't think it necessarily solves their lack of dynamic playmakers around their two star players

I would have loved to see someone a little more passing juice in that role but we'll see maybe they put me wrong they added Kevin Porter Jr. to the team which is the ultimate cry for help I've ever seen I can't imagine more of a red flag or teams like we'll take anybody young it doesn't matter if they're terrible

We'll just take anybody with youth, please. Not terrible player, terrible person. Double homicide. He's just been a bad guy, bad player. Don't love that. They just don't have positive momentum right now. I originally had them at 11. I put them up to 10.

I think I can't reveal mine next because I was just like, they'll look better when they're healthy and their old team. They need the All-Star break. That's how I feel about them. But I still feel like I'm being generous because they have not looked great as of late. And that is okay. Yeah, that's okay.

I just think that, like, you, when you have, you have Janice and Dame, it's fine. And especially when you look at them through the context of the Eastern Conference. And, like, you have Cleveland, you have Boston. And then it's, it's them and the Knicks. Like, I think, I think that even in a series, as great as the Knicks offense is, the Bucks still have the best player in the series. Yeah. That's the ultimate.

And so thinking, thinking about, like, projecting them forward, projecting their, you know, potential playoff success i do think that there is a ceiling for them whereas some of the other teams out east or even in the west may not necessarily be there so that's why i'm putting them at at 10 i have the bucks nine i have minnesota eight houston seven memphis six new york not a huge difference you just basically if you slide milwaukee down your list we're pretty similar except for your indiana love but yeah minnesota's just good again and i don't think they have the what's it have it ended up to be top five like they were last year just as I think Gobert is taking a step back

and they just don't have the firepower they once did but the vision you have when they trade a cat for why they might win with depth and why things might be fine why they can do a lot of the looks they had last year just minus Kat with Nozreed stepping in with Nikkel Alexander Walker's stepping in taking a bigger role that's largely what has been as of late I think

plus with Kat I mean with Anthony Edwards scoring out of his mind which maybe you can say it's unsustainable maybe he'll cool down a little bit which is probably true I just feel good about their momentum going forward Yeah, I mean, I agree. All the T. Wool's fans right now have to be happy as hell. They finally started giving someone like Rob Dillingham minutes because they're kind of forced to be a loss and the loss.

So what's that what's that dude's in Dante de Vincenzo? Um, but. When is he coming back? Is he done for the season? I don't think he's done for the season, but he's like that. He's like, he's been that like, bro. He, he, he shot like eight three's a game last year. And he was like lights out in this year.

He hasn't been on none. So it's kind of like that now for him. But seeing them deploy Rob Dillingham has also been super encouraging because he is the juice. He is the, like, I don't want to say missing piece whatsoever. He helps elevate all these scenes offensive woes in terms of Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards handling so much on his own. He hasn't been doing too much. He's, I think, over these last, like, 10, 15 games, this he's just averaging, like, seven points or whatnot. But those seven points do alleviate a lot.

Those 15 minutes that he's giving a, getting a game right now does mean a lot. Devin Chenzo will be evaluated after the All-Star Break, it sounds like. On the 25th, it's reported he'll be re-evaluated in three weeks, which is coming up. So hopefully we hear about it soon. But, yeah, him coming back would be an even better boost to this. Yeah, exactly. So I love the fact that you have them higher. I initially, I was a little bit too low on them.

And before I finalized my list, I'm like, okay, I need to put them higher because Anthony Davis or Anthony Edwards is going Supernova. I'm waiting to put them top ten. I want to so bad, but I don't know how they'll fare off in the playoffs. And I'm just not going to jump ahead of myself too. much like I did for the Warriors in this case. So you can roll into my next, to my next five. So at number 10, I have Milwaukee, nine, Houston.

Eight, I have to go to say Warriors. Seven, the New York Knicks. Why? Because fuck the Knicks. That's why I don't have to explain that. Okay. Number six, I have the Memphis Grizzlies. I'm kind of worried about Memphis Grizzies a little bit.

I'm glad you said that sentence with the exact word because I was literally thinking, can we have that conversation? Because I kind of am too. I agree. About a month ago, I soft-launched the fact. When would we have this conversation? I think it was like two weeks there or something. It was about a month ago.

I forgot what episode it was. Maybe it was like one question every team has to answer. And my question for them was like, will the real John Morant please stand up? Like where has he been at? And I was talking, the question specifically was can they find a way to get the best of him in this new offense?

This very low volume of pick and roll offense, which is how Jaws been at his best running pick and roll. They spread the ball. They do a lot of driving, attacking closeouts. Everybody in the court has to be able to drive. They do a lot of, like, offensive rotations, like a college team where they fill spaces and play this real free-flowing 2014 Spurs style. And there hasn't been a second in this season, which John Morant has looked like himself

because he's kind of turned into a role player in this system. He's very talented, obviously, so he's still getting his 20 points per game. But he's just another guy, not the guy, in the system, because they don't want to make anybody the guy. And it's working for a regular season perspective. I worry that if you're not going to get the best version of Jha, you're not going to get the best version of Jha, you're going to enter a situation where you enter a second round playoff series against one of the best teams in the league and you're facing Lupa Donchich on the other

side, LeBron James, the other side. And then the game, you're going to have to say, shit, let's go attack these clothes out, Sonti Aldama. Jaron, Jaron, you better create an isolation bucket because we're having Jared Vanderbilt so much onto you. And we're not, we're not, we're sitting on these drives. We're making it so your best players have to beat us right now. And you've got to go ban for ban for ban with Lundjus and LeBron, ban for ban with Yokic. And if Jaw isn't in a flow state for an entire season for an entire playoff run where he can make those plays in the late game

and Jaron's gonna be your go-to guy or neither. That worries me for the playoffs. Guys, I think Taylor Jenkins' time has come. I see, I don't know because it's kind of smart to not put your eggs in the John Moran basket for all the health reasons, for all the other reasons. I understand why they want to be more free-flowing and not play through him.

I just don't know if it's gonna work in the playoffs, but then again, it works in the regular season so well it's not a terrible bit i i don't know well this i think this is the interesting question of like when you have when you have a john morant on on your team you have a player who can reach a certain ceiling do you coach to find a high floor or do you coach to find a high ceiling because the high ceiling obviously would be to to to make the offense more more jaw dominant that way whenever you get into the playoffs it like the the game against The game against the Knicks, like, it's very, it was very interesting.

Like, they got destroyed. And one of the things was like, you've seen the very clear blueprint to beat the Nix which is like Brunty come here, Kat come here. We're just going to attack you that way. But that's not necessarily how the Grizzlies play. And so when you get into playoff series and we get to the last five minutes, what do teams do? You come here, you come here. We're going to put your worst player in the action and they're going to have to step up.

If the Grizzlies don't want to do that and Jha and his athleticism isn't there, then I'm not sure how it's going to work. And so, like, you've coached for this entire floor to get you to this point, but now you don't have the switch to activate to get there. And that's why I'm kind of worried about. And it's a common, it's a similar, similar discourse to the Rockets where it's, we can acknowledge they're a fantastic team. Jaron Jackson is an amazing player right now. It's working incredibly well. There are certain play styles that we know are different. different and worked less well or more well in a playoff setting it's a different game obviously

whenever you're game planning for a team you can take away some of the cute shit some of the drives and all this it's just a very cute offense I think is a way to put it it's like the way that old heads used to talk about the golden state warriors and all the frilly stuff they did jump shooting as if you can just like fucking pull your shorts up and make it so they can't do this that wasn't the case for them I think that is the case for the memphis grizzlies I think it is some cute that in the playoffs setting a smart defense can hone in on over a seven game series yeah in my mind to answer your question earlier um what do you lean towards pulling putting all the sock into your star or give yourself a little bit more of like a consistent ceiling with just playing more of a

fair field offense for me personally it's all about how do you want to go out do you want to go out with your star shooting like 12 shots a game and not really being himself or putting all the cash saying to your star and letting him like go out shooting his shit off like letting him go out putting up 20 22 shots or whatever it is and to me I very much rather go that way how do you want to go out with respect I want to go out with respect I want to go out letting my people know letting my fans know like yo I gave it all they got my my guy the franchise player gave it all he got at this moment in time and all we can do is figure out ways to elevate and he needs to figure at ways to elevate.

Like as much as I love how they've been playing, you know, 2014 sport, spurs ball or whatever, they're just not simply not that they're talented and they're one of the deeper teams in the NBA, but there's levels to it when you compare themselves to like one of those historic teams and they're just not that yet. So I'm like, they need to revert back to this. But you also like played 2014 ball when you have like Tim Duncan anchoring. Exactly. When you have Tim Duncan anchoring the defense when you have Kawhi Leonard stepping up and him being like,

You don't respect Darren Jackson, Jr? To Tim Duncan level, even at like age 38, probably not. But like when everybody's stepping up to their absolute max, yeah, it can work. When you have Hall of Famers after Hall of Famer, that team had five Hall of Famers in the starting lineup. It's crazy. And arguably the greatest coach of all time. Yeah, I trust them to do that. But the Grizzlies haven't been out the second round.

They haven't been in a position to win a second round series. So I'm very curious to see how they go. and it's clearly going to be very, very matchup dependent. And so, like, if the Rockets win, if the Rockets and Grizzlies end up in the two, three, and they both win their first-round matchup, do you think that Memphis has enough to beat Houston, who we all have, or not like we all, but like,

yes, I mean, you name the one other team that has similar issues and similar firepower constraints, so, like, probably, but if it's the nuggets. That's what I'm saying. That's the only way where I can, be like, okay, maybe Memphis can get to the conference finals right now in terms of my belief in them, they're going to have to play the other flawed team out west. Yeah. Yeah. They have to go like Sacramento, Houston. To get the best look possible, basically. But again,

and that's what it feels like. We could be wrong. They're a very good team. So maybe this stuff will translate more than we think. I'm not eliminating that outcome. I still ranked the number seven. So I'm not saying they're frauds or anything. Yeah. But I'm worried. I'm more worried than I should be for a team of their regular season caliber and that sucks i saw i remember i don't remember who said it but i saw a tweet after luca dants were traded that they said something on the lines of i guarantee you the next star to get rug pulled like this and back doored out of the team is john morant no they were like no they're like it's not a matter of if to me it's when yeah and that wouldn't be surprising at all at this point no let me let me divert attention real quick to me the next

start to get rug pulled like that is going to be someone like lamenting mellow ball because he has similar similar situations as lucidontas you you have a whole new regime whole new front office whole new coach you are not their guy i can easily see a situation like people already have to get the systems that are fair to me about him as a player to me this is like me soft launching my next like my next hard push of what i want to see happen he's some rockets please make that fucking happen unload the clip or whatever it takes to go ahead and land the mellow ball alongside yeah he can't go anywhere he has to say but the jailing greens of the the world whatever a pick two whatever whatever it will cost i'm sure it won't be that expensive

because his value is is low i would make that i would make that happen if you could buy a low on him make that happen he's in theory you're right i think a men thompson would be a great player to play with lamello help him out i don't know if i'm a doka wants to see that i don't know if that's in his blood to deal with lamella ball type of player but in theory i men thompson would cover a lot of the weaknesses lamello has i would love that i'd like to see him with a good with structure like that too so I mean yeah could be cool but it's a risk it's a big risk that I don't know if they want to take but going back to topic at hand you really think John Morant might get backdoor that makes me so sad I don't know if I think that but I saw a tweet and I was like

that makes sense like the stuff the stuff that they said about Luca and obviously like not like the big in fact because like John's very skinny whatever but like they like not the obesity of it all but outside of that no but of like he's he's he's not he's not reliable we think his Achilles is going to pop any day that that type of stuff John Moran actually does not play on a very consistent basis John Moran all season long has not played six consecutive

games that's insane one play one if you think that you are going to have one playoff series that is relatively competitive he hasn't been able to do that in the regular season and so if we if you get into the second round right let's say you end up winning your first round

matchup the second round is every other night is John Moran going to be able to be there? I don't know. And I think that that's a very valuable question. And so then the question that I asked before of, do you coach to your floor or to your ceiling? If your ceiling is for a guy that isn't going to be there, maybe you do have to rethink everything that you're doing. And now Jock could be out of there. It's tough. But again, as far as this ranking goes and current day, they're worthy of the seven spot, but it's, you give less confidence than you would with most seven spots teams, I think. And they also have like

a top, they have like the fifth best record. So I think we put them below him at the Knicks, who I think they're outpacing. I actually well, I don't know. The Knicks I also don't feel too great about just because all the reasons we said whenever they got chronology down. Yeah, like their ceiling is eventually, you know, I think you kind of see the writing on the wall.

The writing I see is they can be anybody but the Celtics. The Celtics are going to knock their fucking doors off. And they got to just pray that the Cleveland Cavaliers take of them. I hate the Celtics stuff. They embarrasses every time on national TV. I hate it. This team is, we said it the second they acquired Cat.

Yes. This makes you better. You need a big, okay, there is not a chance in hell. A Carl Anthony Town's anchored rim defense will be able to defend the Celtics in any way. They're getting just backshots from the Celtics. And that's been the case every time they matched up. In a series that will not go well and you cannot avoid the Celtics unless injuries happen. So I can only feel so good about the Knicks.

Cleveland, I am praying y'all are for real. Because like, that's the, that's. But they're the one seat. You're only going to see the Celtics in the fucking five conference finals. Yeah, exactly. So who am I bank? So who are banking on Jason Tatum gets injured and you have to pray on the downfall

health for the Celtics? And Jason Tatum never gets injured. Ever, ever. He's iron. That's right. I guess most other matchups, I love what Josh Hart's doing. I just posted a most underrated players in the league this year,

episode on Project 94. And I put Josh Hart and Jason Brunson on there. I think they're exceptional. It doesn't matter if Jason Tatum and Derek White and Jersey. and Jalen Brown walk through those doors. Yeah. They're the kings of like, you come here.

And look to the cabs. Cats been great. That's been awesome. I do not want to see him have to contend with Evan Mowgli and Jared Allen. With a bunch of six, four people next to him. You're asking him to get jumped.

We'll see about that. That one, there's at least a chance that maybe they can figure some matchup stuff out, shred another big. The Celtic stuff is cooked right now. Okay, we can move on

to the top five teams in the league right now. We'll build them all at once because our lists are relatively similar. At five, I have the Lakers. Four, I have Denver. Three, I have Boston. Two, I have Cleveland. One, I have O'KC.

Ooh, okay. At five, I have L.A., four, Denver, three, Cleveland. Two, Boston, one OKC. And I have the exact same list. Yeah, and clearly the only difference here between them is I rank Cleveland above Boston. And that's because I want to treat like an actual power ranking. And Cleveland has been much better all year, so they deserve it.

do I The head to head doesn't scare you at all I don't think I don't think you should factor head to head at all in this list and a power ranking why would this is about what they've done this season

their individual equity is a championship player and yeah I think Boston probably has advantage that they wouldn't head to head but I think a power ranking the spirit of it is you raid who they are as a team

what they've shown you and if you do head to head with a lot of this that would influence a lot of no but obviously the top two teams in the east obviously both great you know inner circle contenders if this like the the tiebreaker would be head to head

time breaker to me is how good you've been in the regular season once you've shown me so far and they've just been consistently much better and they've earned it i don't view power ranking as like like strictly predictions for the playoffs no it's not it's not even it's not even predictions i know you're saying like but like even even in a vacuum you're talking about like who's better and cleveland's been undoubtedly better i think for the playoffs no way we think someone like memphis will we don't see them maintaining it we see boston elevating because they have championship equity and we think they can play above the level they've shown they'll be healthy and whatnot so I understand I for a power ranking I err towards the side of what have

you proved to me and Cleveland has it again for a power ranking I feel like we disrespectful to put Cleveland below too now I can understand your point of view when it comes to how you are like regulating the bottom like the tippy top of the power rankings I just view it as like when you when you when you if you want to be number one you have to have a certain level like prove it show me and I just that's where things get a little bit more stickier for me they've been the most dominant team in the conference by far like five and a half games ahead of box you're right except whenever they played the other team in their conference that's the thing where I'm like I have extra modifications and they have specific I don't understand why that would have more bearing than

everything else for the entirety of the season for a power ranking because because these two teams are that close together that they are both super super good but they're not that close together in terms of like regular season production so far Cleveland has been much better and much more productive. Like, I'd understand if they had the same record. If they had the same record, I would agree with you. They, for the entirety of the season, have been just dominating.

We had like a week where we're like, oh, they're slowing down because they lost twice. Like, Cleveland has been absolutely dominant. And again, we, it's a bit inconsistent because sometimes we factor in playoffs and as part of it. But when you're the most dominant team in the conference, you deserve to be number two, I think.

So you have them, you would have them as the favorites in the series against the subjects to get to the finals. You know that's literally not what I just said. I just said the complete opposite of that. I just told you that that's not true, but I'm not using that as the disqualifier. I'm erring towards proveness and regular season production for a power ranking more than that. I said something and I said I'm explicitly not thinking that and you're like, so you think that's, I think that's, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think doing, doing that and not having, not, not having, not having, not having regular season head to head in

the tie breaker. Like, it's not a tie. They're five and a half games better. I think, Okay, something else to use against you that you said earlier is that, yeah, like something that you also use to gauge how a traditional power ranking is through your logic is you also pay attention to how these teams have been over the last 15 games. There is no gap, no space between these two over the last 15 games or so whatever. They have the exact same record. And with that in mind, also on top of like how I seen these two do get out for this number two spot, that's what leads me to put Boston over the top.

Now, if we're talking about like 20 games. games ago or whatever it is, you got it because Cleveland will send the world on fire. But they haven't been sending the world on fire over the last 15 and even 20 games anymore because, you know, everyone we've been out of the roster, we seem to get their ass beat by the Houston Rocks or whatever. It is what it is, health injuries, whatever it is. But over the last 15 games specifically, they haven't been as head and toes as you would like them to be over the last, over the entirety of the season.

That I can understand. That's a better argument to me. I don't, I'm, if you get into the regular season head-to-head thing, factoring that in, Like, that would make you, I understand why you think about that more for the top of the list. But if that matters to you, you'd have to apply it to a lot of areas on the list that would get dicey. So I just, again, we're not gauging who we think are the best teams like entirely for the future. A power ranking, you're gauging what they've done this season. So I'm not going to look at the three games against Boston as an important indicative factor when we're gauging 45 games.

But the last 15 games is a good argument. So if you want to go there and you say we're doing off recency and what they've done, and that's fair now again with that being that makes more sense for power rankings that's health has been into that health has been like a big part of the reason not a big part of the reason why but like emmole you've been in or whatever it is so no i'm leaning towards Boston at the end of the no because it's like because we're doing power rankings for the entire year and so like if you are looking at the last 15 games as the entire season then i'm not i'm saying it's okay if that's logic you want to use and say power rankings is what you are right now

I didn't do that. I'm saying if that's an argument when he was against me because I did that elsewhere, I understand. But I'm clearly not doing that. I'm clearly I'm still going Cleveland. So like you're,

don't judge me on his basis. No, just like how we are things out muddier towards the end of the, towards the end of the power rankings. When it comes to how teams perform overall, like there are just some things that just didn't necessarily.

If last 16th games didn't matter for him as much compared to how we view it right now. Yeah, I'm just saying that's a good argument. that you use that argument against me makes sense. I don't buy the head-to-head argument for a power ranking, but that's fair. But, like, yeah, there's a lot of these. I think that if we did head-to-head matchup,

you wouldn't necessarily go with the team in that order. I don't know. When it comes to the Los Angeles Lakers, we don't believe that shit at all. We don't believe that at all. Let's scroll through. Let's talk about the Lakers. Did you view that for your entire list?

You used head-to-head as like a tiebreaker? I don't think that anybody is as close as, like, Cleveland and Boston. that's very fair those are very fair okay i guess that's okay if you think they're just the closest on this entire list sure i don't know that i think that because i'm just apparently i'm viewing it more regular season-based than you guys are just in general so that's probably why i'm just like cleveland for the entire season has been nothing but the most dominant team in the league in their conference i don't know why i wouldn't give it to them yeah that's fair but again

like power ranking how they've been doing as a late and then on top of that too i added another the caveat which is like how you've been over the last whatever games and that's why teams like the Denver Nuggets they sort up I think they're they're on like a seven game win streak don't look at who they played doesn't matter it doesn't matter they played the new orange pelicans it doesn't matter um Charlotte Hornets I'm not looking at that strength of schedule doesn't matter stop asking about it exactly and then also there's another reason why we put L.A. up there as well because as of late again don't look at what they played don't look at what they've done But yo, they are here for a reason and we are projecting like a motherfucker.

How could we not? We've seen one game with their team is entirely different. Like, how could we not? Like, we can't even necessarily do the like, what have you shown me? Because it's an entirely different team. But if you want to do that, you want to call us Lakers Blazers, that's fine. If we actually look at what they've done over the recent weeks, they've been top five in the defense for a long time now without Anthony Davis.

Since Jared Vanderbilt came back, they're starting to play that switchy defense that JJ Redick started the season wanting to do. He just couldn't do it because you're not getting the best of Anthony Davis depending that way. He suddenly has the exact small ball team he wants to switch everything, have three insane dynamic creators. Everything makes sense now in adding Luca into the system they're already playing without Anthony Davis. I think there's enough positive momentum.

There's enough glove and hand fit. I think there's enough talent around them that complements it. Even without Mark Williams, if Mark Williams was there and healthy, I would put them above Denver. But the center rotation does suck. So we can't be out here saying they're better. and the best player in the world, Denver Nuggets who are fitting.

If you want to say the center rotation holds them back even further, go for it, but I'm not necessarily that threatened by the Knicks. I'm not that threatened by the Memphis Grizzlies. I'm not that threatened by the Houston Rockets. I feel like we can still give the nudge to the top three player in the world

with maybe the best second option in the league and Anthony Davis, I mean, Andrew James and a good, so far, competent of defense around them will see if it holds up. Five to me doesn't feel like a reach. It's not at all.

You put them up there for a reason, don't even too. did it hurt i mean obviously because i don't because i don't like them but like it didn't they could have played the jazz they could have played the wizards they could have played the thunder from day one you saw the vision of having luka as your creator in limited minutes mind you he didn't even play the whole game you have you put a prime event tournament numbers exactly it's crazy they were like fucking 60 it was crazy and i and i think like we all

knew that Luca and LeBron, they're just too smart to not be able to figure it out and to not click instantly. The first thing that popped up is what happened on the first couple plays where Luca comes in and oh my goodness, is Jackson Hayes? Like, the answer? Like, is he, is he here? Is he like a good offensive center? Luca, Luca is able to step in and immediately elevate everybody else around him. The passes that he was making, all of a sudden, I had tweeted it out. it had been like a month and a half, two months since I had seen Luca play. Yeah. You forget, like, oh my goodness, these passes that he's making are crazy.

But he's driving to the rim, just throwing stuff behind his head. He, he and everywhere, everybody's open. The law threats, all the law threats are open. The Lakers are going to get such good shots when Luca is on the floor. And if you have Luca with the ball and LeBron screening for him, which we've talked about so many times that especially at this point in his career but brown wants to do and it will make sense to put him in that role now you have two of the greatest passions of all time making making the best decisions i got to watch ween wings tonight on the floor oh hell yeah they play

they play tonight so they're they're going to win by 50 yeah so like they're going to win 70 70 we're going to find new wing place in chicago we're going to find new wing place in chicago we're We're going to watch Luca dominate them. That's going to be great. Yeah. So I think, I think like for everything, and this is, you know, some of the projecting and the playoff projecting that we have done in this list is that when you talk about them going up against the Memphis Grizzlies or them going up against the Houston Rockets

and teams, you know, also below them. Yeah. You look at them in the series and it's like, yo, Luca's going to eat your lunch. LeBron's going to eat your lunch. There's nothing that you guys are going to be able to do because. their offensive firepower is going to be able to overcome your superpowers and all of that. So the Lakers have the infrastructure to do everything. Yeah.

You know what it is? I'm only really projecting with the teams that made deadline acquisitions because I have to. And they're 32 and 19. They're nine games behind the one seed. The Nuggets are nine, I mean, no, my bad. They're 10 and a half games behind the one seed. Good Lord. The Thunder are amazing.

That's ridiculous. They're 10 and a half games behind the Thunder. Yeah. But the Grizzlies are seven and a half games. I think Luca is worth three games. I think that is fine to me. I'm okay with assuming Luca makes them three games better and that will give them enough breakfasts and equity

to say that they've earned it over the Grizzlies when you add in the projection. I don't feel too bad about that. If the Grizzlies were like two games behind the Thunder, I would do what I'm doing with the Cleveland Cavaliers where I say, I have my concerns. I don't know if you'll be the other best team out there, but you've goddamn earned it.

I would be silly to not acknowledge what you've done and what you've earned the respect you deserve. That would be different. but the grizzies are a good chunk back too so i'm okay putting the projection over them yeah i will say also touching back on this boston celtics versus cleveland cavalry's conversation we all are aware of like you know like there's some things that's scary in boston in terms of like yo kp how good are you going to be how healthy you're going to be he's even better as a lay you know same conversation can be had about out horford and also drew holiday as well but with cleveland

I still see, like, the same question that we had, the biggest question that we had over the entirety of the year is still a question when it comes to y'all and how y'all feel or we feel about Donovan Mitchell and him not reaching, like, his normal number. I'm not really, like, too pressed about DeMitch. I think, I think D. Mitch is fine. I think, like, obviously, it's not to the level that it was last year.

Yeah. Also, last year, Darius Garland was in and out the, was, you know, hurt for a majority of the time. And you needed him to start fast. Because, like, Dary Garland got hurt early on. And, I'm not a... D. Mitch had to, like, you know, get into the groove of the season as number one guy like that. So he...

I'm not, like, upset with D. Mitch or anything. I just think that you need as much firepower as you fucking can. And to beat Boston, you would like to see him go nuclear. And so far he hasn't. And I say that because I think Cleveland's a better team right now. I think they're not going to be able to beat them as if this playoff started, like, we both have full strength right now from what we know. they'd have a hard time of Boston

just because Boston is the one team in the league right now that you simply cannot start two small guards against that you can get away with a lot of starting Garland and Dematch together Boston is the exact best team in the league attacking small defenders it's just really hard to get away with that when they have like four players

who can pick on you spread the game out and isolate against both the small guards it really is like the worst case scenario match of why is that way that way that's really the only reason I feel like Dematch has to go nuclear because you're going to have to make up for that. Yeah, that's fair.

But yeah, other than that, like Denver, shout out to them, you know what I'm saying? They got everything back on track. OKC's been great throughout the entire year. Yeah, man, they're going to win the finals. They're going to win the finals. I'm sorry. They are.

Okay, she's going to win the finals. I still have my stamp. I want, I wanted to put them Denver Nuggets up on top because they are my new, like, finals prediction. Still, I got some bad news for you. Josh Gitties not walking through those doors. You're not going to have this thing like we saw last year with the Dallas Mavericks where everyone's like, oh, they figured it out.

The defense fell apart. No, it didn't. Josh Getty was a destructive force to the offense. They helped off him every single time. That's why the offense fell apart. They attacked them every time. That's why OKC hit a send a lot of doubles and the PJ Washington Open. That motherfucker is not walking through those doors.

If they're healthy, I feel like they're going to blitz the Western Conference. Yeah. I just think Nicole Yolkich is inevitable. And he's in a, because of his level of greatness and how things have been working out, seeing Jamal Murray be the normal Jamal Murray that we. have been used to seeing the best version of himself Michael Porter Jr. still doing his thing. We've seen Christian Braun and his like, he's actually evolved and like made a midseason

development in terms of his ability. He's already been a great transition player, but his finishing at the, at the rim has been superb. So adding a new wrinkle there has just been like helping me and the narrative of been trying to push of like Denver actually being the best team in the Western Conference. I haven't seen yet because, of course, like OKC is OKC and they deserve. that that ring but if I had a gun at the back of my head I'm having Denver as like my champions of favorites well look well I'll say this one tomorrow I do think Jamal Murray is

gonna have a very tough time in the playoffs just because okay C has so much length that they can throw at him and so and so many good defenders that they can that they can deploy on him to where I I think it's you're not going to see classic Jamal Murray playoff riser he's average in 34 he's game 35 in the first half i don't i don't think that's going to happen i'm very excited for post all-star break because i'm looking at as schedules right now okayc still has two games against denver in the last in the last 30 games the lakers have two games against okayc three games against denver a game against memphis as well there's going to be a lot of good matchups post deadline post-all-star break where teams are actually going to be kind of rounded out and we're

going to get to see these one-on-one these one-on-one these these head-to-head matchups and it's going to tell you a lot in terms of like hey what do you need to fix really really quickly and what is like the number one priority for everybody on these list I'm I'm super excited for these last 30 games and there we go that's our prior rankings you guys let us know what where are we tripping you guys always love to tell us who we're hating on too much who were hiking too much let us know I want to know I want to know specifically who you guys think I'm hating on too much who do you guys think I'm hitting on too much. I mean, you only, I think you only hit it on one team.

It was a, the Orlando Magic. Oh, yeah, they deserve it. That's not too much. Yeah, no, no, no. I think for you and how you had, I remember a couple months ago, you were like, yeah, you expect the Orlando Magic's and then you're being like New York Knick type territory in terms of standing and all that. There was a, there was a, there was a, there was a path, it's hurt.

There was a path, a couple, please, I think like a month and a half ago. Yeah. There was a, there was a path where I saw where I was like, yeah, they could, they could potentially make the run to the conference finals I still kind of think that's so fucking there's still a there is still a path is it likely no

but like there's still the path to get there's a you can say there's a path to anybody that they just become the best case scenario that you hope they could be before the season even though they've shown you exactly no reason I think there is there's a path for the Phoenix Suns make the conference finals fuck it I'm out there I think Kevin Rack had talked about the Suns

for like a second they're so depressing but that's the thing you don't believe that I do. I do. And that's all that matters, the power of belief. With that being said, we're on to TikTok time.

TikTok time. TikTok time. We move. Nice. That was a crazy salute. Double. Double hand? All right, Elon.

Oh, whoa, whoa. Whoa. Welcome to TikTok time. We are here, and we got a guess. Well, cats here. See, if you get some camera. Oh, my God. She's curious.

Look at her stretch. What a town. She can't make any noises. I don't know. I see she wants a podcast. She's something to say on the mic. She was sitting over here earlier and, like, was like speaking into the mic. Yeah.

She has something to say anything, but. She was dropping bars. We're going to begin with a new segment. We've never done before. We're going to play NBA Pictionary. Yeah, let's see how this is. Yeah. So I have the iPad pulled up.

We're going to do Pictionary with drawing it digitally on the iPad. So you guys are able to see the screen chair. There's not going to like a white box. board. So we'll see who can draw the best with their fingers. If you guys don't know, if you've never seen this game before, I have a box here with a bunch of note cards of various NBA teams, NBA players, phrases, whatever may be. We're going to take turns. We're going to draw a card. Don't let anybody else see it. You'll see what your card is. And you've got to draw it while we will look at the screen and we will try to figure out what you're drawing. Whoever gets it

right, you get a point. I will have you guys know, I did drop out a sixth grade art first semester. first semester He was a dummy Man, I can't draw Wow Yeah, so I guess We'll kick it off I'll go first

Let me draw blindly I've never played Pictionary before But I'm pretty good I guess him So let's see what happens Oh my God This is incredibly difficult

I don't know what to do We're going to say We have to draw in white On this iPad Because if we do Moe make a good point earlier If you do colors Like I've had Lakers

I would draw it in yellow And it'd be quite obvious So you could use Whatever tools you want on here for the thickness of the drawing, whatever. Okay. It's got to stay white, which is quite difficult. Okay.

So, okay. First player, not player, first name. I was about to say, did he just leak? I did. Let me draw, me one. It was a player. Who was it? I should shut up.

I should shut up. I didn't know what to drop for Shaq anyways. Are you going to draw this big bell? Okay. First thing. Oh, fuck. Okay. Oh, this is difficult.

Why did I put players in here? I did it again. Okay. We would, okay. we're not even talking like please okay this one's easier okay okay oh this is the bulls chicago boos look it's too easy it's too is that i got a losing one that time okay thank god i got

i dodged shack by accident giving it away that's a pretty good bowl uh bulls is the easiest one you possibly do that was pretty realistic okay okay okay your turn dude if i would have had a drop shack well what do you even do for that Yeah, I don't know what to draw for this Okay I don't know how realistic this is going to be Try your artist But I can make it as realistic as possible

Okay, just go ahead I'm making excuses right now Okay Just go ahead Okay, squiggly Basquiat Oh my god I'm scratchy

Oh shit, hold on I just got nerfed There we go Whoa, what is that? Is that a hand? Is that the claws? Okay, that a horse? Is that Kauai Leonard?

Is that a crown? King James, LeBron You got yuck super close earlier Uh Okay, so Miami Heat I said Kauai Is it a clipper?

What? Yes, it's a clipper. No, that was actually like a clipper, clipper. Oh, the hair clipper. Oh, these are the clippers.

Yeah. I was like, I have no idea how to draw like the clippers logo. Hey, y'all have synergy. I would not against it. That's crazy. Oh, that's hilarious.

That a clipper, I did not think you were drawn a clipper at all. Which is fair because if I drew a boat, like nobody, nobody ever nobody's mind ever goes to clipper well see man yeah i gotta draw something yeah just pick up the box oh yeah there you please please please i guess i guess i guess you

don't you don't got to draw blind like that as long as we don't see it i know i i realize that i was like you go the box uh okay uh all right we're gonna go here we're gonna go we don't want to find okay it's a circle it's a basketball it's a basketball it's ugly ass basketball but okay it's the fuck it's flying out wings the Dallas wings this is not the WMBA Hawks yes okay why just started with the basketball I need it's I can't draw a bird I need it I need something to try to draw right now let's let's let's it look like it's it like it's funny because the hawk logo is mad easy to draw yeah isn't it just like is this a bird no it's not a turkey what the hell it's a bird yeah that's that's that's

Yeah, that's it. The wings, there's only so many wings. That's the best of my ability. That was, listen, that's my go-to. I just had to get to the wings. Okay, that's not bad. That's not bad. I hope I draw a player.

I could have drawn a football. I was going to put wings on it. Oh, God. There we go. Yes, yes, yes. This is difficult. Oh, this is a difficult logo. Okay, so we got legs.

Oh, I can't talk. No, you can be quiet. It's okay. Wemby. Yeah. Oh, what the hell? You thought that was a baby. That's all the person I said someone was just

He took it the whole screen Extraordinary long neck He gave it away Damn You draw a stick for you Yeah Vitchin women y'all That's Maddie

Wow you are locked in right now That's my guy How would I not know? Maybe this game is easy Maybe this shit a slight for us All right Go ahead Let me go ahead

Here you go We need to have them sending things for us to draw Oh, they're going to be in my bag right now. Okay. I'm having so much fun. I'm actually going to try to take my time. I mean, whatever.

Okay, looks like Cayew. No, it's a head. It's a head. We got ear. Big ears. Already a big head. Oh, crazy hair line. Kind of far back.

LeBron? Is Stephen A. Smith? Hold on. Hold on. I want to see how good my drawing. Big ass nose. he drew a yam oh shit i kind of fucked up what are these dots

it's supposed to be his beard hair beard hair no you said i think you said his name earlier but i was too locked in oh is this lebron is that crap that's my goat lebron james i said it and i just wanted to draw this is crotty at the time man what do you expect i'm not going to listen i saw the headline i was locked

oh shit that's good that's good he's all the hell on you're locked you gave him a yam i should yeah i did but he kind of does have one all right now uh how am i going to do this this is very tough i have to lock in because again i am an art school dropout so i don't know how to do this um

all right we're going to try here okay The puppy? What the fuck are we drawn right now? Okay. It looked real suspicious. Yeah, like some balls. It's a turtle?

Is this an animal of some sort? Oh, I know what it is. It is an animal. Yeah, it looks like. Looks a turtle. This is a turtle? Looks like a turtle, like some type of fucking... Yeah, was he drawing?

What is this? Squirtle? Oh, this is... This is Franklin? This is something. All right, we're going to restart right quick. Motherfuckers John Blastoy's. No, we're going to, we're going to start.

But once again, we're going to start here. Okay. Oh, that looks like a nose. Could be a leg. You look like this person is bow-legged like a motherfucker. You're going to catch a hundred pants? Once again, we're going to restart. I can't shop for shit.

Take three. All right, so we're going to go. Ooh, he's going wider. What the hell? Hold on. Hold on. Knee. I'm holding under pressure.

Okay. Looks like a piece of toast. Oh, I'd look like a... Ew. What is that? Is that a beak? The worm? Don't make me start.

What top of a neck is that? Okay. It's eyes. Oh, okay. I think we finally got it. I think we got it. Is this a animal? I think this is the Toronto Raptors?

Thank you. Yes. Yes. So y'all said dinosaur. I did. You said dinosaur and I thought you were going to keep. Keep going. That's after a raptor.

That looks like... Yeah, I don't know. You think I know how to draw a rafter? What are we talking about? No, I don't know how to draw a raptor. Take the thing. Someone got to it, okay. Wasn't going to be me.

I was trying to draw... See, at first I was thinking like a long neck and then I was thinking like a stegosaurus or something like that. Stigosaurus. Okay. So, so... Oh, shit. Damn. Time to lock in.

So we got this. What is this? Okay, that looks like a tree It looks like already Like pretty squid word It does it like a good word Does it really? Glasses

Someone who wears glasses He looks really weird He looks like an alien Looks like a mushroom And he's kind of nerdy too He's a geek Okay This guy's a nerd

He has to be a nerd Jared Allen Most don't know I don't know what else to draw I'm just thinking about He looks bald Oh wait Go

No Oh, this is not Richard Jefferson. Dude, no. Fuck. Baldi with glasses? Yes. Who's out here? Come on.

Okay, baldly glasses. Does he have any hair? No, this bald. Look at his head. Oh, is this Ernie Johnson? Are you close? Oh, this is Charles Barkley? No, no.

Closer with Ernie. Kenny Smith? No, closer with Ernie. There's a defining feature you're going away from. Caruso? Oh, this is. Oh, this is Adam Silver. This is Adam Silver.

Yeah. He looks so evil in this bitch. This is so accurate. He looks so menacing. I didn't know commissioners were on the table. I am an artist. No, that's so hard. Homie, what's up?

Closer to Ernie Johnson. He was white. Okay. The drawing is completely. I don't know what else to do. This is the best of my ability to draw him's over. You're going to restart. Yeah.

Draw another white ball guy. Okay. I'm going to get in my bag once again. Okay. Yeah, right. Okay. Wow. Um

Hmm Hmm Hmm It's a basketball Okay Looks more like a baseball to me Basketball On the inside

A basketball A basketball That's a face In the basketball What the hell What He's puffing Smoking

He's blowing gas In the basketball Yeah Um He just be yapping Where's this thing too Okay If you guys

What You said You said Oh I'm gonna be in my bag and then got out of your bag I'm seeing This is my bag He puffs gas

And he wears a turban Okay if you guys don't know What this is Let me expand my thought process He smokes and wears a duress No What the I'm talking about

Sterectus No He don't smoke He don't wear a du rag Okay Let me move on To the next one Um

Ah Okay Trees No It's not a tree Gas Gunja No it's not a tree

No it's not gas I will also draw this Okay, let me draw a better Yeah, brother, hit that redo Let me go ahead and draw a better Is this still the same player? No, it's not a player Is teammate?

Hey, I think this might be a loss I'm no way, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, way No way. Con Gandy? No Is this Kevin Durrett? Has a little hat. Has a hat?

Yeah. Brother, you are off. Oh my God. Okay, if I, last attempt, last attempt. Please. What shit. What the hell? Plants?

Wait. With a basket? What is this? What did I just draw? What was this last to find? Oh, the trophy? Yes. Blast and Celtic.

Yes. That's supposed to be a fucking clover or something? Yes, this is supposed to be a clover. This is supposed to be the logo and this is supposed to be lucky. And I was like, God damn it, this is the only explanation that I have next. All right. How am I supposed to draw Jason Tatum? how how is that possible

corn cob I don't know last one Donovan you're going last to see if you can do a better show in last time yeah I mean y'all guessed it so I did what I had to do goddamn lucky he's so hard to draw yeah trying lucky's insane yeah all right what is this right yeah

last one last one trying to think where's my inspiration going to come from on this one. Do I go Bosca, do I go Picasso, Banksy? Some of the sort.

All right. So we're going to go to my have something on here. All right. So we're going to start off by drawing this. Okay.

A heart? A heart? No. Hunchback. Paw. A hand. It's a paw. Some kind of animal.

Claws. Oh. Is it a cat or a bear? Basketball in the hand. Okay, I'm thinking bear I'm thinking her He probably resides in the Western conference

But I want to see him more detail Yeah, I want to keep going Keep going I hate that I hate that because I know what it is I don't know what it is la la la la la Guess please okay Is this Chicago Cubs? I don't know keep going

I can't stand Joe I can I don't know what I'm looking at Yeah that's this is a perfect John and y'all know exactly what I'm going to get to Oh it's the Miami heat All right That is a nice basketball well that you did draw though. Thank you. Okay. So

take that in my. Be more specific. Uh, so once again, more detail please. Yeah, exactly. I I, I, I, we're going to do this. Hold on. Uh, let me tell us. Okay. This is a light. Oh, wow. Wait.

Is that, oh, it's a hoop? It's a hoop. Okay. Basketball nice. Oh, you're in your bag right now. Okay. Oh, we. Look at the angles. is we're going to draw this first okay and then this is a basketball in the air look at him computing right now i'm trying i'm trying to think all right so we got wow okay and then we got wait let me draw him okay basketball in the air he's either shooting it it's a terrible miss or this is a man to i'm trying to i'm trying to get the right Mike Wozowski dunking.

I'm trying to get the right, the right angle here. Is this Ben Simmons back in 2021? Man, what a terrible listen this must be for audio listeners. No, it 100%. Okay, it's a dunker. Okay. Draw the hair for me. Yeah, does he have hair?

Okay, so my long hair. Caitlin Clark flying through the skies. Can y'all put me on my midger? Can you guess? This is the Memphis Grizzlies. This is the Memphis Grizzles. Man, go to the next thing. And that's the end of that segment.

I tried so hard. That's hilarious. I was trying to draw John Moran just throwing himself at the basket. Good job. You did a good job with that. Take this thing.

There we go. That's the end of that segment. I hope you guys enjoyed a little pictonary. What a game? You can see our art skills a little bit. Let me make sure who's the best drawer here.

You don't know. You tell me. Maybe none of it actually. Listen, he showed out. He got us to Raptors and you got us John Morant, don't game? I would have given up.

I try. I don't know. I think Adam Silver was the best drawing here, though. I turned my artist. Adam Silver was hilarious. I think Adam Silver is quite the work of art. Hanging it up on my refrigerator when you home. Next thing we're going to do, we're going to do our draft for the day.

You might have thought one wasn't coming because we didn't start with it, but it is here. We are going to do a draft of Canadian NBA players. All time? All time. Okay. The draft order is me, Donovan Moe. Yeah, the only thing is they have to be a Canadian. God damn.

Okay, I got got. but I will work through all right don't care yeah I'm walking in right now so who do I want to go with here you know what I'm going to be recency bias I'm going to be a Gen Z brain

give me Shay at point guard okay thank you you make my you make my choice a little bit easier yeah yeah that's one of them I want my point guard to be Steve Nash yeah you can have the old head I want it let me start with me make it a little different than what I normally do

okay that makes my life hard very very hard but it's okay because I will prevail or at least try to you'll do your best and that's what matters this is the worst place to be in absolutely there's two legends here then yeah and then there's just like a bunch of man after that you better take andrew wiggins keep moving god damn bro all right so

I think for my point guard I'm just going to naturally grab Jamal Marie okay please defend from me and I need someone who's going to be an absolute irritant, someone who's going to destroy and make his life easier or make Shea's life harder. Give me Dylan Brooks, the ultimate menace. Okay. That's nice. If I have Steve Nash, one of the better passers of all time, I want Steve Nash to have every

pass available to him. I want him to throw behind the backs and lobs. And I want him to have the ultimate lob threat. Give me Zach Eadie at my center. Oh, he's Canadian. And I forget. A Shea attack every play. Okay.

There's not many bigs on this list. I'll take Tristan Thompson. I'll take a good defender. Worked. There's very, very few options here for Big Men. Okay. Nice NBA champion. Good locker room presence, I guess.

And then, ooh. You better go ahead and do it. Give me Andrew Wiggins. Thank you. Yeah. If you didn't do it, I was going to do it. Yeah, give me Andrew Wiggins. Damn.

I got so, dude, that's a good defensive infrastructure. You actually do have a solid team. I do kind of like that You know what I kind of need a way to No Damn I would like

All right so we got Steve Nash We got Zach Edy Very diverse group Give me Rick Fox at my three Okay Okay pretty boy Pretty boy Pretty Ricky

That's what they call Okay Mo where you going Who man okay Your team sucks God damn This is the worst draft ever for me and I can't do anything about it.

What's funny is, this was Team Canada last year. Tramal and Dylan Brooks putting on for the nation. Ah, man, okay. So, I can't let this lockdown defender slide to you guys whatsoever. Like, defense is my only hope of winning these games. So, naturally

give me Ludo, M.I., too. Okay. Give me Shea's teammate. Dort plus Brooks spacing. Let's go. Hey, Doris is a sniper this year. So is Dylan Brooks, bro. He's a hit 10-3-pointers the other day. Don't disrespect. Okay.

Reconstruction. All right, Mo, which is next quick? I can't see the screen. What do you need to see? I need to see how the board's shaking out. Okay. So after that, I need to grab a four. I don't need to prioritize a five whatsoever, but my offense is looking still super shaky.

I can lean multiple ways, but I think what I want to do in this. moment he says so many empty words when he's thinking it's hilarious oh okay actually yeah actually there we go i got it i'm going small ball this is my only hope of life at this moment time i want to shift dort and brooks back a little bit and put nikiel alexander walker on my two okay yeah he if there's anybody in the NBA who can stop shagel alexander or at least have a chance hope to do it's going to be to kill Alexander walker okay Okay. So not, I have to fill in the gaps at the two and the four.

At my two, I am drafting Andrew Nemhart. Damn it. Oh, I was about to pick him. That's nice. I thought you forgot about him. That's nice. That's nice. I wanted him too, but I needed someone bigger.

See this? I would have. He thought it was sweet. Damn. Yeah. It's not. All right. I need spacing and I want to be the biggest team here by far.

Give me Kelly Olinic at Power 4. God damn it. Yeah. Yeah, I would be wait for my five. Yeah, I was going to, but I needed to take gna off from you. Yep, not happening. And then, you know what? Give me someone who's having a good year.

Give me Benedict Mathrin, a shooting guard. Took his guy. Yeah, I need a little more firepower. Oh. I got defense. I got spacing. I got two slashes. Oh, okay.

Look at this team. Hmm. I like it. Yeah, it's not bad. Not bad. I am looking at this list and I'm looking at all the people who can sit here and potentially play the four position for me. Maple, Mamba. Maple, Mamba.

No, I can't, I can't put, I can't put RJ at the, at the four right now. Oh, you know, was Wiggins ate me from all by? I'm going to get that mixed up. I think anybody who comes out here, you're not wrong. It's like the number 10 jersey and soccer. You just get, get passed off the generation. At my, at my number four, what I would like to do is give me Trey Liles. Okay.

It's a very okay pick. Damn. Okay. Fuck. My team is so cooked, bro. Currently, I have, like, no bigs. And my only hope I could look at one of the Maple Mambas and just put them on my team and say,

fuck this, let's just deploy the ultimate small ball rotation. But I need some sort of size. I can't let Zach Eney, Kelly Olinic, and Tristan Thompson abuse me. Well, the RDR can I get to abuse me with my next pick. He's putting Dylan Briggs at the five. No, give me Chris Boucher. Give me a stretch five, who's not necessarily one of the better stretch fives in the NBA, but he has the ability to do so.

He's the idea of a stretch hot. Exactly. Yeah. You might have drafted the worst team in TD through draft history. I think you've been history today. I had no choice. I know. Listen,

the player pool wasn't a hundred percent there. I was at the worst. You guys have to start off with two all-time great players. Yeah, we have Hall of Fame. And you left me with Jamal Murray. I've seen better. I've seen crazier comeback. Silver Spoon draft.

I've seen crazier comebacks. Boy on third base draft. Trust fund draft. So my team is Shea, Benedict Matherin, Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olinick, Tristan Thompson. That's not bad. It actually makes sense. That's a team. Yeah, this is not bad.

My team, I have Steve Nash, Andrew Nimhart, Rick Fox, Trey Liles, and Zach E.D. Okay. Your team makes a lot of sense. I think it probably fits better than Isaac's. You have no playmakers on your team. I'm Shai Gildas Alexander. I'll be fine. She's not a playmaker.

I got Jamal Murray, Nikiel Alexander Walker, Lou Dort, Dylan Brooks. My wings are great. My wings are great Where I just fall off And come short-handed Is that the big position Chris Boucher You can't even break 20 minutes

A game bro He's looking Chris Boucher's in the eyes I don't know Okay That's the end of that Next thing we're going to do A little key for a cut forward Let's go

We've been doing a lot lately We're going to do Key For a cut four With LeBron James teammates Okay this is very very interesting So all-time players He's played with Key For at their peak

I'm assuming Yeah, everybody's at their peak. Actually, let me transfer to the other screen for you guys, so you guys can see it better. But yeah, so we're good. This is incredibly hard, because obviously LeBron has had a gigantic amount of good teammates over his career. All time help.

And the list just keeps on getting juicier and juicier and better and better as time goes on. Yeah. I love it. So you guys know the game works. Eight total names. You got to put four keep, four cut. First name, Kyrie Irving. He deserves to be kept.

He's one of the... So, okay, but if you think about it, so, like, obviously, Luca's gonna be on this list for sure. Yeah. So Luke's gonna be there. 80 going to be there. And Kyrie's...

I wouldn't be so sure. We put Kyrie at... We can put Kyrie up for. He won a championship with Kyrie. LeBron has four rings. One of them came with Kyrie. He needs to be there. Okay.

We will keep Kyrie at number four. Okay. Kevin Love. Cut. First cut. Easy. I love Kevin Love. I remember...

You know how LeBron told Luca to fit the five. out instead of fitting in yeah way back of the day he told kevin lel stop trying to fit the fuck out and fit in yeah told you stay in your role you are a role player put that man in arson ilias sober for him put that man in the akron asylum anthony davis three we're keeping him we're keeping it you fan again he won an NBA championship so if you want a championship him you are one of the four best players of lebron james damn you just called him aunt i've never heard anybody call anthony davis ant before i keep on confusing them i was i was halfway through anthony and And now I was going to call him AD.

So I just called him. Okay. Dwayne Wade. Two. It's arguably the best individual Lamont teammate of all time. So I've got to keep him too. You guys are flying through the keeps.

Be careful. No. Picking out. Okay. Anderson Verrajo. See you. Salute. Yeah.

Top of the list. Yep. Salute to Anderson Vergeau and all of your flopping and all of your magnificent hair, but you are cut from this list. Okay. Ray Allen Ooh

This is interesting I think I'd We're talking peak Ray Allen though No no no No no version with Yeah the Miami As LeBron team He did win

Not win a series Obviously it's crazy If you were talking to LeBron Sater He saved him He saved his legacy He saved his legacy No I believe it Probably not

He did But he's the fuck are you talking about We don't have to get into it right now But you know But if it's just Just as LeBron's teammate, we do have to put him at seven. It was Ray Allen at the end of his career. He wasn't the same Ray Allen.

Yeah, I agree. Even though that he did save LeBron's legacy. Okay. My God. Shaquille O'Neal. Okay, so. Literally, the version of Shakir O'Neal and like the six months after that is the version that people say, when you are that, you are past your prime.

You are watched. He has to be cut. Okay, so if we're cutting him, we are hoping and praying that someone like Chris Bosch is on this list. That's fair. 2009 Shaq cannot be on this list as one of the four best LeBron teammates. Or Luca's here. No legends. No respect for the legends.

We can have Eam. Amon Shumper would be kept over 2009 in something Shack. Oh, okay. I wouldn't go that far. Shout out the homie shop. So we're keeping him. We're cutting him. It's only two spots left.

We're cutting Shack. Shout out J.R. Smith. Shout out Matthew Delavadova. I hope Luca or Bosch is on here If not, you are in risk of getting strangled on him The last spot for number one Top of your LeBron James teammates list We have Russell Westbrook

See, I couldn't really do anything Oh my God I couldn't really You were hoping for that But like as soon as we cut You sold me What do you mean? We cut Kevin Love Kevin Love was like the only other name

That could be on here And we cut him the second You could have kept right out Allen. You could have kept Anderson Farrs show. I'm not keeping Anderson no matter any certain things. You could have kept Love or Ray Allen. That's what I'm saying. The Kevin Love Pick was the worst one, but that was our second thing.

Once again, I'm never going to be made to feel bad in these because it's literally blind. I don't know what's happening next. We're playing odds. Cop out. We're playing. You gamble all the time. This is what you do. So I expect you to be a good gambler here. We're playing we're playing blackjack. Listen, you don't win every hand. Sometimes you lose. And he'd be like losing mentality over there, man. You've been losing a lot of hands. It's rigged.

He's making the list. Yeah, I made the list beforehand, though. So if you would have kept Kevin Love, you'd have been fine. No. Damn. We would set up. We'll take that one. We'll take that one.

All right, man. Next thing we're going to do, another new staple of ours. I'm in a... Let's talk about Shakeda's Alexander. We've talked about his MVP case. We believe he's, if not the MVP favorite, second to Nicole Yokic. Clearly, at the... at least an MVP caliber season will go down as one of the most dominant guard seasons

in recent history, especially as a score. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to name five other classic guard seasons. You tell me which one is better this year, Shea or this past player. Let's go. Let's talk about it. So kind of a historic comparison to Shea's current season, five levels. We'll see how you can get. Okay. Level one. We have 2025 Shea or 2023 Lillard when he averaged 32 points per game. Shout out to Dane. Lute, right? She's about to win MVP, and Dame has just never done that. So I have to go, I have to go, She.

Even on the court, too, like, Shea's doing, obviously their play styles are so different, but where I give, where I took my hat off to Shea is that he's more efficient. And then on top of that, too, he plays defense at a great level. But also, I do, we do have to shout out Dame, though. He was playing in basically basketball purgatory and was still hooping to his absolute best. He did get him to a Western Conference finals. Did he win a game in those conference finals? I'm not talking about that.

I'm just talking about getting there. What we could talk about is he won a game, or he went to the West of Conference Finals with Yusuf Nurkich as a starting center. And to be fair, this is 2023, Dame, not 2019, so that is absolutely irrelevant. But shout out Dame nevertheless. Exactly.

I just had to say all of his accomplishments because we're going with Shea. And I just can't outwardly hate it against him. Yeah, we're going with the maybe future MVP. Level two, Shea or 2015, Curry, We're stopping this right here We're stopping this right here 2015 Step Curry is still a great player

Of course We're comparing MVP level player To MVP level player It's not a slight I understand that I'm going with 2015 Step Curry Should we beat this guy up with the fucking hammers We got hammers in the back for a reason

We didn't tell him Y'all don't know but we got hammers for stupid ass shit like that It's not stupid It's fair to say What It's fair to do you're It's not Steph Curry

I respect the MVP season We could do this right now if you really If Shay was the MVP and we rank the 10 MVP next year I think we ranked this year Shay over 2015 Curry 2015 Curry was before he P became Curry he made the world know who he is But

That was the MVP about team dominance as much as anything else He wasn't the amazing go-to score yet In the late game situation and he became a 2016 in onward, I'm okay saying Shay. She averaged 10 more points in him. Guess what? He didn't even have to be a late game.

Oh my God. Because they weren't in closed games like that because they were beating people. Yeah, that's a team thing though. We're talking about MVP MVP. It's close enough. I'm willing to go Shay to see who's next, but I understand going to Curry.

It's Shay. We got to go stuck. Hammers is hilarious. He doesn't beat this guy up with the hammer. 2011 Derek Rose. Damn. See, you should have flipped this. shout out Derek Rose your MVP is legendary you put on for the city next level I agree

next level yeah I think you put Shay on that team with that defense you would have got even better results yeah I agree um Derek Rose did so much for the city for the kids with the community still doesn't matter when he comes to these conversations it's Shay level four 2017 Russ oh shit you want a hammer to beat me up now what are you going to say I'm going to Russell Esprick. Yeah, storyline, narrative. Don't talk to me about basketball reasons whatsoever. Triple, first triple double in the very, very long time.

She's a better defender. He's a million times more efficient score. He's leading a better offense, helping be part of a better defense. Who's a better rebounder? Who's better at energizing his teammates? Shout out the rebounding, guiding the championships. Shout out the rebounding. Who's better at elevating their teammates, bro?

Who had to run double lineups of. Canter and Stephen Adams. Who did Russ elevate into where? Like where? In his cancer. Is that, what did he elevate his cancer to? He gave him an opportunity.

He gave, yeah, employment, bro. As soon as he was separated. Yo, she could not employ in his cancer. You know how good of a basketball player you have to be to elevate in his cancer, give him a platform? Shout out. He didn't win with his cancer. Stop.

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Shout out to, listen, shout out to Shea and everything that he's doing. I know that he hasn't had checked for a majority of the season, but still his, his supporting cast is still much better than what Russ was working. And he's getting much better results.

Duh. If they don't have Russell Westbrook, that team picks first in the NBA draft the next year. Great. I hope that he carries that to the grave. I hope we give him a banner for getting the six seed one time. Russell was for the people. You can't tell me how he helped the Cody Zellers. And this is exactly what I'm saying.

We hate him where Russ is out here leading teams to the six seed, but Yokic is out here leading composal to the six seeds. And now everyone loves that MVP as well. respect Russell Westbrook and what he did. Yeah. Respect him. Do you see what he did for Alex Sabrina's career? He'll put him and his family on the fucking map.

Victor Oladipo before he was Victor Oladipo. This was, bro. Was this as Demartis Sabaubil has seen this too? Before he was supposed to be. You noticed there hasn't been a single reason why he's a better player than Shea. It's just been like, damn. It's about a better person, bro. Bigger conversations.

I'm over here, you're over here. You're just not on the same field right now. You have to get the most moral victories ever. Okay. The most moral victories ever. Like he wasn't out here actually putting up, actually good numbers, leading an atrocious team to wins and to the playoffs. Nevertheless, Shea's a better basketball player. Shea leads to winning more.

She's better. We can say it. His team is better. Because of him. We always talk about his other. They have no offense. Even if you take away, even if you take away Shea. That's who we's trash without him.

They still have another all-star if you take away Shea. You're going to look me in the eyes and Toby Jado is making the all-star team who Shea's not on that roster? he's still he's an all-star he's insane he's an all-star is anybody is anybody j-dub's an all-star because Shay led them to that many wins

so they earned an all-star as a team if you put j-dub on that 2017 team is he not the second best player on that team what does I have to do with fucking shit about these two players and who's better listen man is we're talking about single seasons and we're talking about what Russell Westbrook was able to accomplish

with one of the worst supporting cast of all notice every time all you can talk about supporting cast and not why he's better at basketball because he's not She has He gets people employed He helps the economy What are you talking about?

You don't know nothing about The Josh Hustis of the fucking world God damn If you were building a team And you wanted to win a championship The objective of every gym In the league Would you pick that version of Russell

Or for this version of Shea? I'm picking the person Who looks out for the city of Oklahoma Okay, okay, all right All right Yeah Yeah, I'm picking I'm picking

I'm picking the Walter Payton Spong Spongship Award And if you were in a situation If you were in a situation where your actual best player just left you high and dry got no asses for you and you're like, dang,

is our small market about to go underwater? Notice it's a question. And here we go. Notice he hasn't said he thinks he's better at basketball. And here we go, Russell Westbrook, having a better basketball season

than Shea Gilges, Alexander. Would you pick him if you had to win a championship? Yes. You'd pick him over this year. Yes. With this scene? Yes.

Man, all right. Can you imagine Russ with all that spacing? Bro, he had his most efficient three-point shooting year with the worst spacing of all times. on his team bro and his can he's playing with en his cancer and steven adams that that front court is nasty get his only shooter was anthony marro give give give russell westbrook three indy guys around those numbers are even crazy he's averaging like 35 okay and 15 35 and 15 maybe we'll get

the four C we're 20 with 20 rebounds yeah he's going this guy hates russell westbrook i love sure on you guys because you guys just like don't believe in logic when russ comes up it just becomes like no no can you actually stop being me now no you actually don't you like to disrespect people's accomplishments i'm saying another MVP is a better player i'm not saying if it was up to you he wouldn't even have an MVP you're just saying oh yeah russ of charles uh james hardin would have had it yeah i'll see ultramotas we see it we see it i mean that that's been known for like a decade that's that's by who he everyone's know i felt that way for a decade everyone yeah we can yeah we can listen we can run this in in 2k whatever spreadsheets you want

I know that Russell Westbrook was out here getting buckets, helping everybody else, leading that, leading that team to wins as well. Shout out to Russell Westwood. With a win, a couple. Bare bones, bro. Bear bones. The scene was ass. Those numbers are ridiculous. I just want one day for someone to explain to me why he's better at basketball.

He's a better passer. There you go. Playmaker. Great. And I'll name everything else. Name every other. Rebound. Tangible skill.

There you go. No, he's not. There you go. No, he's not. He's not. He's more explosive. There you go. Great.

Also, he has better celebrations. He upless everyone in the room. Bro, I'm telling you. You put yourself in the room and also Russell Russell, Russell, he goes out as dinner. You're going to realize who makes you a better person

at the end of the day. You're going to do 10 more push-ups. You're going to go die for rebounds harder. You're going to set screens harder for Russell Westbrook. Are you doing that for She? Probably right. He's going to look you wise and tell you to shut up. He's going to be like, yo, he's going to ego you,

bro. He's going to make you feel lesser than him. Russell Westbrook comes up and Isaac forgets to, and not even forgets, acknowledges and likes to throw it away the fact that, like context with basketball exists did I ever say you're acting like I'm saying

lamella balls better it's MVP versus MVP MVP level player it's not crazy that's the guy that's better at basketball stop disrespecting the brodie we're going with Russ it's so easy to try you guys at Russ it's so funny and level five would have been his fits are better too now oh fuck no

okay okay okay over Shay he's more daring than now that is very true he is very important he's not gonna win the or off with Shay I'm sorry He is more daring than Shea. He is. He takes more risk than Shea as a as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, okay. Great.

Doesn't mean. Shout out to say in the box. You know what I'm saying? But you know who made the box? You know who made the box? You know who's Pinterest page? She was looking at Russell Westbrook. He's the blueprint.

Mr. O'KC. I love it. I actually don't give a shit about this debate. This is so funny to get you guys rolled up. That's all the time. That's what I'm talking about. We have people who don't care about Russell. He's so quiet.

I just wish you guys are talking about basketball and I'm not talking about basketball. I'm not doing that. Not doing that or us. He's bigger than basketball. Does wins and elevate? No,

but like a serious thing. Does wins in elevating an absolutely atrocious team to a certain floor? Does that actually not matter to you? Not when the floor is like not impressive and not more than somebody who's like better tangibly.

And, well, again, I don't even know. I'm trolling with the shaving obviously better. I guess it's the debate. I'm mostly kidding. But not as much as you guys want to make it seem like.

that roster is atrocious though yeah good for him i don't know why that you guys it's like it's impressive it's a respectful feat does not make him better at basketball than other people yes for that's for but for that single season when you're out here actually like lifting up and and getting getting a team that has absolutely no business in top eight conversations again pre-playing got a team to the to the playoffs that team that team should have been in like 2012 the process sixers conversations and russell westbrook and his play and his leadership and everything that he did in that specific season his scoring his passing his rebounding i don't think russ sucks i don't know why you're selling me on this like

russ is a great it's impressive season yeah i think being able to win championships and contribute championship basketball and be a person that you can imagine fitting around other stars and can imagine being a person that will he had he had another star and they made the conference finals the year before and then that started left and they still were able to make the playoffs and they blew a 3-1 lead if you we've said it's plenty times if you replace russe with a more scalable point guard like chris paul we always say they probably wouldn't want is it not kevin durant's fault like kevin derratt also had bad performances in that like it's not all on russell westbrook okay you make it make a wish i'm not saying it's all on russell west but you but you look but you

look at but i'm saying she could shake a go and have and have a decent series if kevin derrant is on that team as well kevin derratt is going 10 for 31s in game six and not not and not having great, great, three, great, five, six, and seven games, and they, and they lose. Are you going to look at, as Shane, be like, oh, yeah, they lost because you needed a better point guard to, to carry over, over, to carry over. You look at this roster. You look at this roster, Stephen Adams, DJ Augustine. What are you? What are you?

What's your point? Randy Foy? Randy Foy. Randy Foy. And it's, quote, unquote, freedom. Serge Baca, Mitch McGarry, Naji Mohamed, Anthony Morrow, Steve Novak, campaign. Andre Roberson. Kyle Singler, Dionne Waiters,

I can't even troll the Russ fans because it becomes the Bible coming out. You have that roster with Billy Donovan as your coach. Not even like one of the premier, premier coaches. He's a felon. I ain't going on that way. What do you know that I don't know?

But yes, Russell Westbrook and that MVP is one of the most impressive MVP and he deserves it. And it's not crazy to say that he's that in that season what Russell Westbrook did is better than what Shea's doing this year. Again, you keep trying to make it like an impressive level. Is he better at basketball?

Do you think he for that, for that singular year? You don't believe that. Yes. You don't believe. You think he's more conducive to winning championships. In that specific year, yes. And I think that if you gave Russell Westbrook in that season, the same situation or anything kind of similar,

you could get some, you can get some results. If you gave him another All-Star, let's see what happens. I'm not going to bash today. We're talking about. That's a ridiculous, ridiculously dumb argument, but I'm not going to bash Jacob. Let's see. Let's see where I'm not going to bash Jacob. You're begging me too.

All I'm saying is worse is better for the economy. He was, that's my standing point right here. We would call the guy's top 20, top 25 players in the league. He doesn't have a top 70 player on his roster. Still getting to. And of course, and I'm not holding that standard because he did a whole lot less. I didn't say he should be doing what she did in his one seat. No, could he know?

But I didn't bring that up. You did it. Being into winning argument just helps everything better in arguments. I'll say that. People like to pick and choose when floor matters, when ceiling matters. Every single time. I said ceiling matters. Every single time.

When winning matters. Every single time. Who is a better chance to winning championship? You know it's not Russ. It's okay. Right? If you want to, if you, and I'm not accusing you specifically of doing it, but I'm just saying as a general thing, right?

If people want to go. No, say him. More static. If you, all, fine. If you, if you, if you would like to go and base the results. off of like oh yes this number is bigger than that number this this number is better than that number instead of instead of saying actually we do this whole thing for for winning and for elevating other people russell westbrook did that i love donovan man he's standing for

shit that i won't stand for facts what a lovely way to not listen to just say what you want to say now we're just all day we're just hitting on russ for no reason i love not listening next thing we're going to do last thing we're going to do and that's the problem That he doesn't listen. I was cosplay as you. That's the issue. If that wasn't clear, I was P-O-V-Honovan. In case I needed to break it down.

Last thing we're going to do, I'm going to name an NBA team. I want you to tell me who the most fun player to watch in NBA history is. Who is the best highlight reals? Who is the most entertaining and so forth? This is going to be fun because it's not necessarily going to be the best player. At all. It's straight up not. It's straight up entertainment value.

Okay. First team, the Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics. Byrd. Larry Bird. Really? Easily. It's not close.

I guess a lot of the other stars aren't super flashy, so I guess that makes sense. Like, yeah, it's not as close. Even KG, whenever KG was there, he's part of this other collective and you don't get like the athletic peak of Kevin Garland. But Larry Bird is scoring 60 points with his offhand. He's faking people out. He's still running down the floor. He's a really, he's not like the best like point guard, but he can give you those flashy passes

from time to time. He's taking tough shots Larry Bird is the guy Okay, I like that I like that I don't know if there's anyone else To compete with Larry Bird And that there's a seismic gap

After that You could say I guess like Early 2000s like 2007 8 Or 76 Paul Pierce Marcus Smart Respected DPOI Oh my god

Nobody likes Oh we could say 2015 Isaiah Thomas That is When he was averaging like Or 20 I don't know what year it was When it was when it was average

28 that definitely is up there as well yeah for sure i don't know if i'd say over larry bird but i think that's not it's not over larry bird but in terms of just like straight fun i don't think we'll ever see that happening again like a five eight dude just averaging 28 points per game in this NBA that's never happening again he lived out my dream for me yeah he means something different yeah exactly also i think he's up in there for one singular play kair irvin for that one play against step where he like drops the ball does a half spin and then turns that singular play might be one might be like a top three highlight in boston septic history oh okay san antonio spurs

oh i'm tim duncan is very far away from this list very far away is he quite probably more fun to watch then like 2017 twice probably more fun to watch what are we doing or david robinson i wasn't around but i bet he was fun this is david robsonobes yes monogynobes in this car how long until wimby gets there like maybe current wimby doesn't have enough of a bag but like year four wimby's probably going to be his award Yeah, it's probably going to be Wembe, but as it now, today, I think it's, I lean towards Amanu. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because you, because not only do you have the Eurostep, you have the hair flowing back and everything, you haven't fallen on the ground, the theatrics of it all. That, and then eventually you have a baldhead, which makes it fun because it's like, look at this bald, you're going crazy. And most effortlessly in this era, bro, like, once he knew, once he knew it was starting to go gone, like, he just embraced it completely.

He shaved it all off. He didn't try to go back whatsoever, bro. and he evolved his game he evolved his aura shout out to mona evolution aura we have a highlight

of modern genobly at like 38 blocking James Harding James Harding in the playoffs too yeah he's like that okay honor is a good answer

the Miami heats and naturally you think of all the great players in all time your brain probably goes to Tim Hardaway maybe Shaq maybe Jimmy Butler

Tyler Tyler Tyler hell what listen low key the peak of Jimmy Butler if you're going to going like a three minute highlight tape no jimmy bubble could get there

bubble jimmy is pretty insane you could get there for three minutes give me one minute in 30 seconds of dwayne wade highlights and we're picking him a hundred times now we're going to 2020 2013 lebron i mean yeah i don't know though the exposure is just in next you're right i mean the highlights

are more ridiculous than what d wade yeah and he has a benefit of playing next to d wade versus like 2006 d wade doesn't have that spectacle 2013 lebron is one of the most fun moment you could possibly imagine as a fan I don't know. Deweil was flying all over the place.

I mean, different types of athletes. You're right. This is the most, this is like. What are we talking about? He is a human version of a Decepticon. We can go ahead. It was a missile every time he touched the court. Yeah, just like straight.

They brought out all black jerseys because they knew he needed the aura to match. Yeah. Dwayne Wade did a spin into a dunk over Kendrick Perkins and then cabbage patchback. That's a good argument. You know what I mean? That's a specific one? That's crazy. LeBron James did jump over an entire human being in John Lucas.

John Lucas, the third, respect. Okay. Shout up John Lucas, the second and the first. The Detroit Pistons. Oh, this is sad. It's not even sad. Yeah, Josh Smith. Oh, this is sad.

It's two answers. It is two answers. Okay, there's obviously And who's the other one? Oh, my God. It's clearly Isaiah Thomas. And then if you're into that, Bill Lambert. Explain the Bill and beer case. What do you got to be into?

Do you like aggression? Like, what do you like fights? Do you like UFC? Bill Lambeer. There you go. That's your guy. Combat sports? Bill and beer.

If you're into that, you know what I'm saying. It's a type of thing. The fist of cuts get you going. And guess what? Okay. I'm into that. No Brandon Jen. It's actually I love it.

Okay. The Utah Jazz. Shout out Dara Williams, man. That's probably the right answer, actually. Yeah, you're right. Is it prime Gordon Hayward? No. Oh, stop it.

A low key. Bubble Donald Mitchell. When he was going to war with Jamal Murray. When he was shooting like 45% of three, dunking still. Going ban for ban with Joe Mulmary. He was dumb athletic shooting the lights out. Oh, yeah. He had some heaters.

But does he have six minutes of a highlight team? Probably 12. He was going to. crazy with Utah. It's got me Donald Mitchell. Yeah, I think it's Donovan Mitchell. You know, I'll go. I'm not picking the guys from the 90s. I'll go D. Mitch is entertaining. I go D. Mitch. Yeah, I think it's D Mitch. I forget he was a Utah Jazz. God doesn't respect errors.

It's crazy. Not that one. Not that me. I'm good. The Clippers. Shout out Lamar Odom, man. Okay. That's okay. Mara Odom's an answer. Uh, I think the two number one names for me have to be, of course, Blake Gryffin. And then I'm also

throw in Jamal Crawford. It's got to be Lobb City, right? That's probably the most entertainment factor they ever had. Yeah. I'm sure Bob McAdoo was a thrill to watch in the 1980s, but that might have to be Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. No, I'm having Jamal Crawford and Blake Griffin for me.

The thing with Jamal is that Jamal, Jamal's highlight tapes, because he played on so many teams, it's always a cut-up. Like, I don't think, I don't think you can have a singular team where Jamal Crawford's highlight tape feels complete. Like, you have to go across errors,

across teams to get all of his best moves. I think the peak of Blake Griffin and like 90% of his best stuff is with the clippers. That's true. But the crossovers, killer crossover, Jamal Crawford. He won back-to-back six men of the year awards. Blake Griffin ain't won no awards back-to-back. Blake Griffin, again, Blake Griffin dunked on Pagosol twice in one game. Nice.

He also faked jumped over a car. I'm leaning towards Jamal Crawford. That's not in the game, though. But I agree that dunk contest was rigged. By big Kia and big car I don't like that The Los Angeles Clippers Oh I said that last time

The Los Angeles Lakers Oh man this is I mean what do you Where do you want to start at? This actually is like This is the hardest one obviously It is all their stars are amazing And kind of fun

Like yeah Shaq's fun in his own way There's three answers Kobe's fun to people in their own way LeBron's fun in his own way Like you didn't even mention magic yet Is it magic? It's magic it's magic though right It's magic

It's magic Kobe Shat I think I mean for me I like the dominance Physical dominance is probably more fun, so I'd probably like Shaq more. It's got the 4-4-4-ball player. That's what it is.

That's what you like. That's pretty fun. That's pretty sick. That's what I was saying earlier, if you were into that. Yeah. But, I don't know, I mean, if we're adjusting for era especially, Shaq was probably a just divine intervention to sports fans back then. It probably felt like you were watching just a Messiah.

Yeah, human version of a Hulk just on the NBA court. Yeah, just slithering around. The 1980s brain couldn't understand fun to level in which Magic Johnson brought fun. I don't know. I don't know. Magic Johnson is also like we've never seen 610 point guard. I'm talking about magic. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. Like that's hard. It's either magic or shack, I think. I like high flying Kobe. Actually, no, no, no. I like high flying. Those 1980s brains, they weren't like, they hadn't seen the internet yet. They hadn't seen a lot.

They've only seen like golden girls on TV and like local news. Magic Johnson was like Might as well have been Like putting excessy in their brains Yeah Magic Johnson just gives you a different feeling bro That's the level of war That you just like predetermined about Magic Johnson

When you watch him play You feel like you're not on this planet You feel out of this world In the clouds Man Crazy I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with Shaq

I'm gonna go to Shaq I think seeing somebody That big that fast that strong just dunk on everybody that's also the epitome of what you want to see when somebody's like seven foot so I'll go shack

okay can't hate that who's next the Rockets it's Hakeem Elijah one really you don't you don't appreciate those James Hardin it's James Hardin in terms of fun

I mean Hakee's better the two-way impact shoutout rent protection I mean if you wanted that James Hardid is one of the most fun players at his peak to watch he was after 36 and we were like Yon it was 38 last month He had guys guarding him from behind because they couldn't figure out a good defense in front of him. In 2018, if he averaged 32 for a week, it was damn.

He's in a slump. Yeah. That's crazy to think about. What the hell, man? Get it together. Get back to 38, idiot. He literally broke basketball. We had to build in rules to try to nerve James Harden.

It didn't work. It's hard. You got to got it. I'm not going to. He wants to hate so bad. Yeah, he can't. What you want to say, Jeline Green? I'm not going to argue with this.

Yoming. I mean, he had a stretch. Steve Francis? Before the foot kicked in. Okay. It's crazy. The Washington Wizards. Damn.

Shout on John Wall. I'm probably going to pick gang signs on Wall. I think of Wes unselled. Good God. The 6-4 Power Forward, led the league in rebounds. Good God. All-Star MVP, you know, really lit up to 1970s. Washington Bullets.

Dude, Washington has a real issue. Like, they have no entertainment. I mean, they had, you know, Gilbert Arenas had some highlights. Shout out, shout out to Gilbert. That is true. It might be Gilbert Arenas, actually. No love for 30-point season, Bradley Biel. Fake ball.

Fake ball. Yeah, no. Russell Westbrook's highlights from that year were better. Russell Westbrook. That is true. Carrying another team to the playoffs. It's crazy. just doing it

Westbrook, man I love that that lovely two months to end of the season where he started going nuclear after being terrible the first seven months of the year that was an incredibly fun

see because it's not about how you start it's about how you finish and them dudes got to the play the birth or the Russell Westbrook calendar meme yeah

yeah okay shout out to Russ being productive when the team needed him to shout out to Russ the New York Knicks what I mean you don't say Carmillo

I mean obviously you know But if you don't like Bucking to say that. Is it really fun, though? It's more fun than Jalen Brunson in the playoffs last year. When he was going crazy, averaging 40 as 6-2 guy, nobody expected him to be able to carry a playoff offense, and he just can't be stopped.

He's flying around everywhere. Like, he does it from the three-point line, mid-range, and also he's, like, throwing his shoulder into it. I think I might only talk to Jalenbunson. I can't. I mean, I don't know. He probably has more fun factors than, like, Patrick Ewing. Yeah, I'm going to Jalenbunson.

How he does it is just insane. Maybe at the time, Walt Frazier was that guy and was super entertaining to watch. It's not going to be as fun for us as Jaylon Brunson. Yeah. Melos is not in, he's not in these conversations. But he's just not surpassing Jim Brunson. First of all, not in these conversations is actually idiotic.

Yeah, I agree. He's not. I'm not going to say he's not in the conversation. He has to be in the way that J.R. Smith's in the conversation. And the way that Josh Hart's in the conversation. Yeah, and the way that like, Bill Baker and his canters in these conversations. But Ray Josh Hart has played.

He might be up there, actually. Josh Hart, sneaky pick, man. Josh Hart just flying from every angle of the camera. If you told him that a basketball was loose behind this wall, he would dive into the goddamn wall. Transitioned Josh Hart is basically honest. Like, there's a fun factor. Yeah, exactly. 10 plus attributes everywhere for no reason.

Shout to Josh Hart. The Indiana Pacers. He's Reggie. And I don't think it's close. No. Pre-injury Paul George. When he was nasty. You know, fun factor.

We're not saying he's, yeah, Paul, George, that's what helped me get into basketball. We cannot, oh, it's Paul George 100%. Fun factor. Young Paul George was a highlight. You remember that dunk that he made on Chris Anderson? Hey, Danny Granger. Danny Granger was a dunking before Paul George took over.

Hell not. No, Danny Granger is not a part of this conversation. It's absolutely Paul George. Jeff Tick had a moment. What the f? Listen, in terms of just fun, Paul George. Lance Stevenson. oh you're on to something

that's a different type of fun though okay but it's fun Lance Stevenson and his antics that's like idiot type fun though it's just like we're just trying shit we're giggling I love idiot fun I watch fucking Pineapple Express all the time I like to giggle when I have fun

yeah we we're just not in the same crowd I like to have a cool ass hairline I like to have like bounce in my game I like to be smooth and stuff you like the risk game winners ball game ball game I like to and then get made fun of it in your own locker room that's crazy i'm talking about 2013 2012 paul george in this instance and he takes the conversation for me if we're being

real watching roy hibber discuss oh hell no how hell no particular i've been saying it oh my god he's watching roy hibber do that honestly legitimately breaking the league the league learned what verticality was because of roer hibber he taught a whole generation of people how to play defense at the rim just put your hands up if you're that big for that Listen, for that three-week stretch where Roy Hibbert was like unimpeachable as a center. Unimpeachable.

That was crazy. I don't know. I didn't enjoy watching Roy Hibbert in the All-Star game. Like, what is he supposed to do? We're not, vertical, bitch. What are you talking about?

You hear us? He's not fun, though. Like, how are you the most fun player when all you can do was just this and this in the All-Star game, too? We just got to get back to respect in the fundamentals. Like, youth coaches today

clearly aren't doing a good job implementing just like. LaSalle. Values. Values. You know. Need to go over there, help him out. Do you Paul George.

It's Paul George. No, it's not. And that's the end of the list. And that's the end of the episode. If people are still here, what should they comment? It's on you. They don't respect Russ. Russ is for the economy.

Russ is for the economy. Go ahead and comment that. and we'll see y'all next week