The Deep 3 Podcast - Reacting To Your Best NBA Predictions | Ep. 247

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Your NBA predictions for the 2026-2027 season! #nbaCheck out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLWListen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthreeFollow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacgMo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D0:00- Intro1:38- NBA news of the week40:52- your NBA predictions1:35:06- eastern conf floor and ceilings Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are officially in October, the month in which the NBA season will finally begin. So you know what that means? About three to four weeks of us previewing the season, prepping what we're all here for. Our predictions for the season that will come the week before the season starts. But today, we're going to take a little break from that. And we are going to see what our fans think and what their predictions are. As you guys see by the title, we'll be reacting to your best predictions for this season, letting you know if we agree, disagree, somewhere between all of that.

Finally. Let's see what poopoo potter they've came up with today. You have no faith? Zero. You and Donner are kind of coordinate today. He both kind of looked like he shopped out of the like outdoor earth tone magazine. Like you're in the same collection of a designer. I'm happy you realize that it was actually planned.

I figured. Yeah. I tried to put in your emails and forge you the information. Didn't work. My bad. It's a little excluded. Yeah. Beaslesles of black.

He's excluded too. Yeah. Nobody's fuck with him today or me. Not really. there's a little group chat on the side which I said group which is what I was it's a little union

so we're going to talk about today's news talk about your predictions for this season getting it a little bit of mini TikTok time same thing as always for this Monday episode cue that intro music we're about to run a mixin four mix in four it's all it's up

at big man and he's buggy damn Jesus Christ Holy Nuggets I could cry Brown Eaters Rejoice

We're going to start Today's news section of the episode By talking about an investigation That's been going down Across my Twitter timeline Over the last few days I need to see you guys Get to the bottom of this case

How tall are all these NBA stars? We have a new ad In which five of these stars Went onto an Amazon proper commercial All stood next to each other Take a picture and my goddess is perplexing because Kay Cunningham listed at 6'4 7 looks noticeably taller the lamello ball listed at 6 foot 7

and Palo Baner looks like a fucking giant And then Tatum looks kind of like smallish here But I think really with Tatum he's just stepping a little further back That's all it is. Their feet look pretty close together I know that it is a perspective to some regard That's people are good comment about Their feet look pretty pretty close together

Yeah their feet are close together But he's definitely like a couple inches back I think Because he looks similar to fucking lamellosite He's standing But at the same time K is standing behind Lamello Is he? I mean his arms

He's like lean back a little bit Yeah So his right shoulder might be ahead of his But I feel like the The difference between them The difference between like Lamello and K Is the difference between

Like Palo and Tatum And so I don't know why Tatum is looking like that Tatum also looks like he's just like Photoshoped in Like he doesn't look like He's actually a part of this picture No he doesn't belong bro

What the hell is on? Pilo on holy shit It's a long summer Yeah he looks yoked Yeah, he does. And Kay just looks giant. Cade looks like he's six foot, eight and a half. Like, he's the one that stands out to me

looking Photoshop. It looks like somebody stretched him and made him bigger in all regards. Um, all right. Tyree's Maxie. He just happened to be there. He looks at him. Yeah, we just know his ass six foot two and a half.

We're very confident as Isaac Tyrese Maxie. So, all right. So, I mean, listen, if Kate is this tall, shout up. So do we think Lamello's like really 66 and Kate's closer to 68? but they're both listed at 6-7? He probably is 6-6. Honestly, that's what tells to me. And also, he looks so brutal compared to K.

He's yoke. Do K's Yikes? He's gained... I seen a video of him the other day of his rookie year. He gained so much weight. Like, good weight, obviously. It's ridiculous. He's on his body around the post these days.

Yeah. Dealing with that lack of spacing in a phone booth? Yeah. You have to get bigger. I think... Yeah, look, I guess Lamello probably is closer to 6-6. but again, what is Palo on though? I think that's the number one thing that's jumping out right now.

He is legit. That's the one that makes sense to me is the palo thing. Because I feel like there's been numerous times we talked about on the show that like there's times when you watch him play and watch him drive. You're just like, is this the biggest human being that's ever lived? Yeah. And that kind of leads to a couple years ago. We're like, get to the rim.

Stop with the middies. Like this guy feels massive on the court. That part makes sense to me. Cade is the only part where I'm like, wow, you're even bigger than I thought. What if everyone's just closer to like 6-2? like Tyrese max he's the the bar you know what I'm saying and depending on how they were spacing like the camera yeah and it's just the scale of the set that just makes everyone look big

Tyres max is really 5 foot 8 uh all right so Kate so is Cade adding I mean Cade doesn't have like a dream obviously he works in a post but he doesn't have like a like a dream shake do you already at a dream shake yeah let's let's get that going I seem to a skyhook before I seem to do a dream shake just because

Skyhook just seems so wash it's just like who does that anymore Nobody's ever done it Yeah I mean one player did it like recently Yeah I ran a role player Not like consistently though Yeah no consistently no You know like if Kate added

The sky hook to to his bag That'd be fine Paulo he's the main one who needs to have this He's sick of his But speaking of NBA player of body He's got a couple more on here. Conch-Knibbles been in the fucking gym. I don't know if y'all saw.

Let me see what happened. Cock-knipples looking gigantic. Swole Khan is here for this season. Oh, my God. How does this make you feel but the prospects of him leading this team this summer knowing he now looks like Chris Evans

that's Captain America. Oh, wow. Okay. He's fucking chill. Wow. Wow. First of all, you say wow, before you even put it up.

Both of y'all are saying the same thing. He just told me he looked like Captain America. I'm like, what? And then I see it. I'm like, okay. I wasn't guessing. I mean, hey, Dr. Dunes around the corner. Let's go, Khan.

And obviously, as a guy who came into the league not being like super jacked, and he obviously has more responsibility this year, we saw in the playing tournament him get a little physically outclass that hit that rookie wall and dealt with him for the first time. Guess it makes sense that he'd be in the lab with those weights over the summer. Yeah, you had to, right? Tell me you got to play 82 games this year without a little ball. You're going to be playing like 35 minutes a game or something.

crazy like that. Brandon Miller's going to be there too, but he's known to be in and out of times of the lineup. He has his shoulder like so much burden. It's going to be crazy. I see Khan's game. What is it? He felt that first breeze, that first 60 degree day, he said, listen, some are still here. I only have a limited amount of time to get these picks off. Wait, is this indoors or outdoors? Endores, I'm sure. Is it indoors? Yeah, okay. Nobody trains outdoors. That's the problem, right? Of course. Yeah, swans look. I said swan's looking gone.

Khan is looking swole. You know who's looking unswool these days? He lost a lot of weight. Luca Donchish, it is reported that over his past two years of body transformation, including this year in which I think he lost a little bit more weight, or is coming in a little bit more in shape, he even was last year. He's currently listed at the same weight he was as a rookie at 218 pounds. He's in that same range per Tim McMahon.

Wow. Okay. This is going to be very interesting to see how. And honestly, like, with a lot of the off-season body transformations, it's like, are you going to look like that in three months? Probably not. Yeah. Like, and so I do, I do wonder what Luca is going to look like.

And I'm very curious to see how quickly everybody goes back and obviously, like, has the, all the, all the videos of like, how, this is how he was moving. Because we got that for years. when he was a little bit bigger. And so, like, I just, I don't know. I think, like, it'll be fine. And he should, like, stay, I guess, with the weight off. But I think we're at a solid point to where, like, moving forward,

Luca Donch's weight talks probably shouldn't be like one of, like, the first three comments about him. Yeah. Honestly, if this was me in the past, I'd be like, yo, Luca Duncha's MVP season coming. I'm off that shit now, man. I've been disappointed too many times. But if I was to be on that shit, no better time than now. to be on.

Yeah. If I was going to be on that shit, it probably wouldn't be because he's 218. I'd be like, he's neat regardless. He was, that is best when he was chunky. Oh,

that's fine. Yeah. Now, hey, get the rooftops up, buddy. Get to the rim. We will see. There's a lot of clips

of stretch big Walker Kessler in practice. Shoot them shit. So maybe the paints can be wide open. We'll see how that develops. Speaking of developing stories, Jalen Duren finally signed his contract on Friday, or maybe it was Thursday night after we put our major, our last episode.

He took the deal. Four year, $200 million. That was reported. reported on that he declined about a week prior. He went down to the last second of the deadline to sign the qualifying offer. Decide to take it as he should. It's $40 million a year.

Kind of makes sense. What was y'all's feeling when it finally, the dust settled? And we saw the number he ended with. I personally didn't really have no feelings, but I was so curious to see what other pisses fans felt. They were pissed, really? Yeah, they didn't want him there at all. And I'm like, wow, man, like, he soured their relationship that much.

And then I watched a little bit of his press conference and he was on awesome. You know, I'm a man. I'm not scared. I'm a man. I'm willing to go to the gym and work on my weaknesses, yada, yada, yada. I'm just like, okay, cool. But the only way he could ever, like, obviously repair this relationship with fans is by literally proving it in the playoffs.

Yeah, but his last press conference he just did, he said, the way the season ended was humbling. I need to get better. I looked in the mirror and I realized I do need to get better. I'm mad enough to acknowledge my flaws and get my ass in the gym and get better. I'm not running from anything because I know it will make me better. And he also, the day he posted this conference, Got this contract posted a video of him in the gym

Dunking, spinning, doing all the stuff. Just a show. I'm putting in the work, guys. Yeah. I guess my first thought was like, damn, nobody else came through with that offer. Because, I mean, he was like, listen, I swear, there's people out here who want to sign me.

I will take the qualifying offer. It pushed. And they pushed him to the very end. And he was like, actually, no, I'll come back. I'll do it. It feels like that one dude who swears he has another girlfriend who goes to. another high school, bro.

Sorry, she's out there. She's real. She's real. We just hang out. He also said, I want to be a piston for life. I want to give everything I've got to the pistons and the fans. Everything that was being heard was speculation. None of it came for me.

That's part of the media's job to speculate. Oh, he's getting traded. That's the, anytime somebody says, I want to be a blank for life, they're gone. They're, they're immediately gone. We've seen so many players say, I want to retire here. All my jersey in the rafters. I want to be a, uh, uh, whatever, whatever for life.

And then the moment that they get the opportunity, they're out. He's gone within two years. I think that that's kind of solidified. Like, they're, they're going to treat him like the, like the, like the son did DeAndre Aten. He, he's going to get traded. It may not be that bad as Aiden, though. I don't know. So he's put into bed that he's saying what you're saying.

That it's not that bad that, you know, restricted free agency is what it is. We had to deal with the back and forth of both sides trying to negotiate. But at the day, I signed the deal. All you can do is go forward. I want to be here, right? He has to say that. Like after how ugly it was and how clearly it was reported to media, how he feels that the team treated him during this process. He has to say that.

I think he's also clearly kind of lying in some regard. He obviously was upset by all this. I think all that reporting doesn't come out unless they wanted to, especially during a negotiation like that. I'm sure his agent used it strategically. It wasn't just speculating. It was strategic. I'm upset because these guys are treating me like shit in this negotiation process, whether or not that's true. Whatever.

From their perspective, they were treated unfairly by the team during this. I don't just believe that they're just over that though Like I do believe he's matured not to move forward and be a professional But there clearly was some real smoke there other than media speculation Yeah and I think that I think at as like in the in the summer everything will feel a lot worse than what it will feel like in in season Because you're you're not with your with your team every day. You're not right You're you're kind of by yourself and so you're really focused on getting this contract done and then

And, you know, once the season starts, we're playing games every day, we're practicing, we're doing all that. Like, you'll feel the camaraderie. You'll feel a little bit better. The front office is going to feel the same way that they felt in the summer coming into the season and probably throughout the entire year, just holding their breath, waiting until the playoffs. And unless he has a major, major upgrade in the playoffs, that front office is still going

to look at him the same way. And it's a very interesting situation because. if he plays well in the playoffs, then they'll be incentivized to keep him around and be like, okay, you actually earned your contract and like, and you're worth it. But if he doesn't, then they're going to want to trade them. But the rest of the league also is like,

hey, you've had two bad playoff runs. I don't know if I want to pay this amount of money for a center. So that's those two things going like back and forth with each other is super interested. I think him and the team are becoming a little bit underrated in this whole thing because we're so focused on the element you do outline. I do think you're right.

All this comes down to me now is how they perform. The team's good and he does good. I think we'll just forget about this because it's four years into contract, winning heels all. But even if he performs poorly, obviously you'll feel that a little bit. I'm sure the team would move me a little bit differently. And I think that'll probably just make him and the feelings he had this past summer come out. And it might be a mutual. Like, we're both sick of each other.

He'll probably tell himself, I'm not performing well because of the situation. They'll say we're not performing well as a team because of him. Like it would just be this magnifying thing on both sides that it really does come down to. Do you make a deep playoff run? and he plays well or not, that'll be decided next summer what happened because of either outcome. God. Pretty toxic relationship alert.

It really is. Yeah, it really is. But like, I don't see, I don't see them getting the number one seat again. Yeah. I think we're, we also, like, we all spent the summer saying that. They're like, oh, the East got so much better, they fell off.

I think we're doing a little too much with that. And, like, the assumption of everybody, everybody had to pass them up. Like, they had to fall really far down the standings. Like, they can't get a little bit better with that youth. like I feel like we've done a little too much discounting of them. Yeah. I mean, I get why.

And even so I have been low on them for a majority of the summer, but like even in, even in that statement, I'm not saying that they have to be six or anything like that. I just don't see number one seed 60 games again just because that is such a high bar to set to set for yourself. Yeah. And I think that they, I think that they do have some real weaknesses that we've seen really for the last two, two and a half years. that they haven't addressed as a as a whole like that they haven't done like crazy crazy things to to address obviously they've made draft fix they brought in some some different people and they're hoping for a little bit of growth but it's from a prediction standpoint they haven't done the things that you would go in and look at and say okay yeah like that's fixed as far as

as playoff success i think i agree like they're i've always said a tie the hero trade away or i guess if he wasn't a insane contract as zach levine type of player away from you thinking and then like a serious playoff threat, and how often do we see a team that young win 60 games and they don't build on it, or at least stay at that level. Build on is hard. I don't mean build on like they're going to win more games,

but like, you know, maybe take a small step in terms of their playoff equity the next year, but still be around the same quality of team. Whatever progression looks like, it's not always regular season win total, especially in the new lottery odds where, like we've talked about all summer, the end of the season won't be the Tank Fest it once was.

Maybe they will win 56 because the least is different now. But how often do we see a team that young just fall off? Like, it really doesn't happen very often. Like when your stars are 23, 24, and 25, and you make 60 wins happen, what does that not mean something as far as sustainability goes? I think I would be like super concerned if they literally did like nothing this all season, but, you know, they got John Collins, who's a good placeholder, pretty neutral move. But I think Joe's there.

And that's like one of the things that gives them not necessarily like a different ceiling, but that is improvement at the end. He's someone who could come out the year and I don't know, average like a cool 14 points or whatever it was. but that 14 is a mad sound. 14's a lot. I've learned something new about you the past couple weeks.

You love some OKC Thunder role players when they change teams. First Aaron Wiggins and a minute just happened. Now Joe's going to average 14. I'm learning some things about you. You respect the people that leave Mark Dagnol's arms.

Yeah, that's super duper ooper team. Super duper ooper spooper. Super duper oomers switcher. Head coach of the Portland Trailblazers Mike and Norrie thinks the back court of Damien Lurton and John Morant makes no sense. together.

Per J.W. quick from the athletic. Norrie said that starting Morant and Lillard doesn't make sense. Both are undersized and both have never excelled on the defensive end. The more analytically sound option would be to start Holiday, a bigger guard who is an exceptional

defender and have either Morant or Lillard come off the bench. Loki's calling the front office a bunch of idiots. Facts. He's putting it out there. Y'all know what the fuck y'all doing. When you see me try this game one, it wasn't me. they made me do it

I am not stupid And you know what fairs to him Because he's on a fucking minimum wage Coach contract That wouldn't give him multiple years guaranteed They make him the lowest paid coach in the league And then they make him do something stupid I will also be trying to cover my ass in the media

And be like bro I need another shot after this It's already started on a bad note It's not me I promise Bro I'm glad A coach actually came out and said this Because like us podcasters We have these theories about like Why things won't it won't work

and they typically just say, oh, y'all don't know what y'all talking about. Y'all are just podcasters. I'm glad our theories are being like certified by the actual coach. Yeah,

and this is the one that's like, I can't even be that glad. It is funny. You're right to see a coach like agree. But like he's so obviously right that there was never a part of me that question that whether or not we were wrong about this.

It could work. But there was never a part of me that said, are we not giving them enough credit for what the starting backward of Dame and John can do? No, we're given that line of theory. I think exact as much credit as it deserves.

It could shock us because maybe they're just really good and figure it out and there's always a chance. But as far as what we should assume, I don't think there's any part of us that should assume that back court makes sense. He shouldn't have taken this job, man. And I get it.

I understand. There's only 30 jobs. You want to be an NBA head coach. You want to get that opportunity. But you've got to know where you're going to have success at. And where you're going to be set up for success. And the moment that that owner comes out and starts doing some funky around how he how he's hiring coaches, how he's offering coaches.

You got to know, this is just not going to be the place where I'm going to have a a real opportunity to get my, to get my coaching back off. And it's like, what's going to happen? Like, this is a team that made the playoffs last year. They, they changed the roster a little bit right, brought in job, dames back. It's going to be super weird. If they missed the playoffs, Tom Dunning going to be like, man, we hired this guy. he got us out the playoffs.

He's the anti-coach. He's the anti-coach. It's going to be a nasty spin. And so I do hope for his sake that if it does go bad, that he gets another opportunity to, like, work his way back up and get a real coaching shot. Maybe this is the meta. And when I say that,

maybe this is the new tank job. You trade for a talented player like job that will not make your team better if everybody's healthy because the fit concerns we're talking about. not to mention the fit with Denny, who's a better driver than Jha and also in the starting lineup. You mentioned they were the team in the playoffs last year, the 7 seed. I said the worst place to be in the new lottery odds.

You're not going to make a championship push. You're not going to be in the bottom. If you add a guy like Jhaa, that makes you a little bit worse because of the fit, now you're the 11 seed. Now you're in the range with number one overall pick. This is the new way to tank and try to get the next superstar on your team. Wow. And you can flip draw for more picks and hopefully even get him some good stats along the way

to help you to 11 seed. Flip job for more picks. Yeah. More picks and you have for him. You can rehabilitate his image, rehabilitate his on-court value. For second-round picks? Flip him.

Wasn't give it for him. I don't remember. No one remembers, bro. Jared before that. Yeah, Jerry Grant, that's all I remember. Yeah, it was like a dump. But there was there's no picks involved? I would be shocked if anybody

if anybody traded a first-round pick for a job. You're shocked now, but when you let him get 25 points your game in route to spend the 11th, then what? Then what? And we get the number one pick, and we ship him away, and now we're up,

and Dame retires a legend, and he helped us get the next guy. Yeah, we're in the offseason. This is 2K rebuild brand. It was Jeremy Grant. It was Jeremy Grant, Chris Murray, no draft. Okay. Keep on, I'm not joking.

This is seriously the result in a top five here. I know you're not joking. They're going to be the 11th seat exactly and get a top five pick, and it's going to be the meta. All right. This is how you do. That's how you dip out of the playoff picture. I agree. It's a mad important, bro.

And they're staying right below mid. That's the plan. Okay. NBA officials have released the new points of emphasis for this year. officiating. No new rules, but two rules in which they're going to be, again, points of emphasis that they're going to be trying to make sure get administrated a certain way. The first one that's got all the chatter online because of Shay hatred, push-offs will now

be a point of emphasis. Offensive players utilizing their arm, extending it to push the defender off and, you know, starting the contact on their end, will be administered as a foul more closely. How do we feel about this? And do you believe that this will be emphasized throughout the course of the season? I think it will be emphasized for sure Like we usually see for the first I don't know 10 15 games or whatever

But I don't know like I it's kind of lame You kind of ruin in like the brittle defenders versus the Swole defenders and shit I can understand why it's so bad why it's like kind of intrusive And people would be like oh it's not basketball yada yada yada or whatever But it is like a go to move I think sometimes things have gone out of hand when it comes to certain Seeing certain players like yonis or whatever

it is or you can even say say I guess at times, just putting all your shoulder in somebody and like either playing for contact or creating damn near too much space. I'd literally shoving a guy off of you. I could see that but yeah it's basketball. It's a good rule. If they actually stick to it, this is good.

I think last year we saw offensive, offensive freedom go way too far. Like, it's the push-offs, it's the fact you can do like in the lane and it's like shove people off you, like you're literally stiff-arming somebody. Yeah. I think it push off to create a jumper at a certain point. Like it's a normal vessel move. This will be allowed to do it. There's rules about

arm extension. Like people are going to be mad because Shay's not going to get away with it still because they think any push off is a push off. Shea does always fully extend his arm. Shea's good at doing it with his elbow and like doing it legally like you can. Now obviously sometimes he does fully extend it and he will get called for it at times. People will clip that and they'll go crazy. He's not the main offender.

It's the drivers that get into the deep paint and then do it to go for like push shots and float a range. That's the one where it's like clearly we need to emphasize this and not let this happen. Yeah, Jalen Brown's cooked. Jailin Brown's cooked. He's actually cooked. He's a Bad offender. He's actually cooked.

And like Yana says it a lot. Guys like Scotty Barnes who are like muscular get into the short midrange area and do it. They do it. In the in the clip from the point of emphasis thing, they show RJ Barrett doing it. Those type of like muscular drivers that don't have the quick first step to get by you but can like create a paint touchdown low like that. Those guys are cooked. He just cooked because they're strong man. That's tough.

Not because they're not fast enough. You got to be strong and fast. You got to work for it. Yeah, I'm glad because I could. I wouldn't even. wouldn't even mind the push off as much if it was able to be balanced out with physicality from the from the defender but if a defender tries to tries to just you know go back and forth and they're both you know pushing off or whatever the defender is going to get a call for the

file every single time and so I just feel like a lot of times it's way too imbalance for the offensive player so I'm I'm happy with with this real change yeah it also it also makes sense that that you're happy with it. They explain to your style of play. You've been sending it on like crazy. He gets stronger. Let them cook. So yeah, we'll see how that goes.

I feel like the prevailing sentiment from when the community sees this is, yeah, okay, let me see if they do those past five games. And fair, because they always do these points of emphasis that are there for a few days. A bunch of people complain online and see more fouls and they stop doing it. On the other end, defenses are also getting

some new rules health against them. I shouldn't say new rules. Some new points of emphasis because they're not new rules. they're aiming to call more fouls on straight line pathway plays this season so basically when a defender drive an offensive player drive straight and the defender pushes them off their spot when they're already mid drive so they've already picked the dribble they're going to the rim and a defender bumps them that will be called the blocking foul more often this is awful oh whoa this is this is so bad

I I don't like this at all I think that a lot a lot of times like you you see you see dudes who don't have a have a plan who just like pick up the ball and drive very, very recklessly and very often do that for the idea of getting bailed out by the call. And now we're emphasizing this. And it's going to be something where it's going to have a lot more tiki tack files that I think will end up slowing, slowing the game down. And in turn, whenever people respond, it's going to, it's going to result to something where people are going to look at it and be like, you're just letting guys drive by you. And that discourse is going to be awful. I think.

What happened? Lucas for an average 40. Luca draws so many of these. He gets scouts his hip driving. He's really good to get him by people. And he draws the foul by bumping into him and throwing up a mid-range shot. He gets a lot of N-1-1 that way. Lucas is an average 36 off of this rule change alone.

He is going to eat like this. He's going to get to line so many times, bro. I actually don't like this rule. And I think it's going to set up so many defenses to be in so many unnecessary compromise positions, bro. I don't like this. Yeah, I'm not a fan of it. I think we've, I think from an individual offensive perspective,

we've swung way too far. We just talk about the other side. They're doing some for both sides. So I think. In the thing is, I don't have a lot of faith that they're going to, that they are actually going to call the other point, point of emphasis. I do have a lot of faith that they will, that they will call this one. Why one not the other?

Because they, they always have something in their ear to, to allow the, offense a player the benefit. And so once we get, you know, 27 games into the, into the season, you're going to have people still pushing off every, like, guys are going to be able to get away with that maybe like once a game. And the driving off of the, off of the, like a straight line drive, dudes are going to be able to get away with this. And even if people challenge it, like, you know how you can, you can, people, people will

challenge they play right now, they go to the board, come back. And the number one thing that they always say is like it was marginal contact and you have this and that. They will say that they impeded the straight line drive, even though it might be tiki-tack and guys are going to get to the line that's going to be in one. I don't think it's going to end up working in a balanced way. Yeah. Maybe also too. It's not balanced because the frequency of those two plays happening are like completely unbalanced. The straight line stuff happens. Dammeier, you could argue, every fucking possession for a defense player. And offensively, like, that's just like a tic-y-tack thing, I would say.

Yeah. I think it really just comes down to how they administrate people that are trying to flop for that, like Luca. Like, if it's clearly they're leaning into them, which I feel like I tried to outlaw a little bit in the last couple of years in like all regards. If they combine this with staying on top of that and not like people will hunt for it as much, I think it's fine

because it is a foul. And it is like a rather cheap file, just like a push off as a cheap foul for the offense. If both were administered good in a vacuum where they actually were true to it and didn't let people hunt for it on the other side. I think these are both good changes.

But to me, the only thing that really matters is what it looks like in the playoffs. Because we've been talking for the past two years, especially that the playoffs are an entirely different game as far as how the refs were letting things go. Last year it got like borderline too physical. Two years ago we talked about it, that the Thunder and the Pistons

were just mauling people in the playoffs. And it was like, pay attention. Look what you can do when you had these physical defenders. It helped the Thunder winning championship. Last year, they led everybody mall people like that. There was games that were just ugly because it was fucking football. on defense and offense

are they going to do this in the playoffs or is it going to stay football? I didn't like that. It was cool at times and then at times it got ugly because Defan Castle and Ludo are just boxing in the corner like it's just like nonsense.

It's new meta. Get a bunch of Lou Dors to Stefan Castle for your team. At least three of those guys in your roster at all times. We're like, okay. Let that be the game then I guess with the fact that the playoffs

such a jarring shift is this going to get called in the playoffs or is this just a regular season thing and come play out time and it's back to fisticuffs. It'll probably be more like that. But I don't give a shit about but ain't this thing because it doesn't matter.

Let's get active ball. Whatever, man. There's a playoffs. It will be a completely different rule set. I don't really care about any of these emphasis points to the regular season. So you're telling me all of these things have been rules.

They're just emphasizing it. Yes. Damn. Yeah, these things are already outlawed. You already as a defender couldn't knock somebody off their spot, but people are getting away with it a lot. And now they said we're going to make sure

that that is really focused on. Gotcha. Yeah. It's like the carry one. Carry's still a call. Yeah. But a couple years ago, they had the point of emphasis. And so they were just like, yeah, we're just going to look for this a little more.

Okay. Next story. Kevin O'Connor reports that he's hearing that there is nothing stopping Milwaukee Bucks from entertaining trade offers for Miles Turner and Kalilwa. Kalil where? He just got here. What the fuck? There's nothing stopping them from hitting this full rebuild and getting both these bigs out of here. So I'm guessing what this means to me is somebody that Kevin O'Connor talked to for the Bucks organization is telling him that they don't particularly care about

Caliware that he's not a cornerstone for those teams rebuild that somebody wants him, he is also getable. As he should be since the team has no control of their picks, they should be pick-maxing over the next couple of years. I'm very intrigued by Kalilware as a trade candidate. Calloward or whatever. We know what he is. He is a stretch big

that will not do any of the big man stuff outside of that. Could block some shots, but we know the limited player he is and the type of teams is useful to. If I'm a team that needs a young big and doesn't have a solidified franchise center, I'm running to the phone to take a chance on Kalilware. What do you think the cost is for where?

I don't know. I mean, at least a first-on-pick, right? I don't know. Potentially, it depends on who's calling and how valuable your first could be. But I don't know if I would necessarily be running to the phone for a big, like, hello-wear. I would be, like, shopping.

I look and, like, peep. I might take, like, a little stroll there, but. I'm putting my hand down. I'm putting my hand down. Spikes in the starting mounts, hand backwards. And taking the fuck off.

If you're cheap, we're rebuilding. team that doesn't know what they got. I think he's a, I mean, he could end up, the motor could be an issue, it could not come together the way the potential screams off the board, right?

You know, we see the flashes and when she's blocking shots, shooting threes, looking like the next Wembe type of guy. Yeah. And it's like, whoa, he's so amazing, right? Then there's games in which things kind of wax and Wayne.

There's a world that doesn't work. I really, really, really want to take that risk if the price is cheap enough. If it's cheap enough, then I just wouldn't give him up from them walkie bucks to see what you have in. Sure, well, when I say cheap enough, I mean, people aren't throwing first on picks

around quite as easy they used to. If it's one first jump pick, if it's two seconds and a swap, whatever it is, if it's like a reasonable price because they don't think he's that guy for them, I'm taking that risk for a team.

Two seconds in the swap, I'm definitely doing it. That's probably too cheap, though. You probably won a first for a way, right? Or is it swap enough? How do you think the bucks value swaps? What are they going to swap?

I mean, yeah, I don't know. A couple skittles. What the fuck do they have to swap? You're right, that I have to swap. I guess it would be, Oh, well, actually, maybe it is interesting for them because they know a lot of these picks they have swapped.

They get the worst of picks with, like, good teams. So it would be that that potential bad pick, Africa swap with a good team. You swap it with a team that isn't the thunder or whatever. So that could be interesting for them. But let's say it's a first round pick. If you're a team and he's the asking prices of first and two seconds. I'm on that.

What teams would interest you? A first and two seconds? Ooh, that's a lot, man. The second is dumb. Once, until we get to maybe like three, maybe even four seconds, I don't, I don't move. That's just say, I'm first time I pick then. Keep it simple. Yeah. To not to the price isn't the issue here.

What teams do you think would make sense for Coolware? In terms of needing a big. I think a lot of teams could just take a flyer like that. Like if I'm the Raptors. Chicago Bulls, I'll take a flyer. If I was the Raptors, I would take a flyer on it. If I'm the Hawks, fuck it. Why not take a flyer on it? They're the main one.

The Hawks would be a good one. Honestly. that I think that thing should make a run that way. If Ware's good, him and on yoke together makes sense. Yeah. And Jalen Johnson, that's disgusting. I like that for the Hawks. And the Raptors obviously, I think it probably does take a solid first-on pick.

So like, I would love him as a backer pick to Walker Cessler. They don't have your first-on picks to get them up. The Hornets obviously need a potential. It could use more big swings now, the pair of debatee, unless it's really like who they just bought, who they drafted. you think the bucks would want one of the Celtics young wings maybe instead of like a draft capital maybe I'm trying to make something work yeah take a little huge you go sitting over there buddy he's not going nowhere

honestly I'm a face you made it was very funny I know you can't give a coach like you almost do the Miles Turner that's feeding into his worst impulses putting a guy out there that's only good to shoot threes he's gonna play in 48 minutes he loved that well I'm trying to workshop man, I'm trying to workshop something here.

The Jazz, after trading Walker, Kessler, they don't have the big of the future. Sure, that could work. That could work. The magic, get a little stretch five action, like real stretch five action, okay. I'm not giving up any picks if on the magic. They don't have no picks.

Yeah, I'm not doing that. Yeah, there's a lot of things out there. I think that'll be named to monitor. If he is actually available, that's a very interesting one as the season goes on, assuming he plays well and makes himself more or less valuable. Yeah. Janice is loving heat culture.

He was asked about it. And he said, he was under the impression that it was fake. He said, no, no, no. It's real and I love every fucking second of it.

I'm not going to lie. It gives me goosebumps. It's almost like being alive again. Whoa. Okay. It's like a sip of water for the first time. Okay. I do like this quote from him.

I like this a lot. Because it's, this is running towards the grind and getting everything that you want out of the grind. He's, he's, He's embracing it to the max. Yeah. What do you like this quote?

Because after this in the same article, he said, when I asked about starting about a month before training camp, getting in the lab with the team working hard, something he's not used to. He said, I'm not used to this at all. You got to deal with the personnel the team has. Speaking of when he was with the bucks, Brooke Lopez is not showing up a month early. Chris Middleton is not showing up a month early. Damn. Drew Holiday is not showing up a month early. Like we knew what the deal was.

The Drew this. I don't respect that, man. You throw him under the bus. Now, he probably doesn't mean it that way. But I do think it might be a little bit of a slip-up because I think he probably is telling the truth here that, you know, these guys were getting old. They weren't grinding before the season started.

They kind of, they were in year four, five, six of a window together, especially with him and Chris and Brooke Lopez. You know, he's what is. He got complacent. They weren't working super hard. And now he's here with fucking insane diamond gym motherfuckers in Miami. Yeah. Okay.

Dave Yom Mitch is doing a thousand push-ups. It's with every shot. I think it makes sense. that it feels like a breath of fresh air. That team was very old. Yeah, okay. Yeah, it was old. I wonder, I wonder how much of this.

This is also the, I always just have to go back to this. The fact that him and Dame did not work out a single time in that summer is one of the clear indicators of like, yeah, this isn't going to work. Because we've seen from the moment he was traded him getting working with guys, you know, around the heat whether in an official or unofficial capacity and he said a lot of those guys i am surprised that he didn't say say dame and listen let's yeah maybe dame is like maybe dame is coming in a month early yeah but that's i wonder if those three guys were like a stand-in because he didn't actually want to say dame but he was kind of hinting at it i think you just picked the guys he was with for a long time and kind of like set the culture and he's the coolest with those guys

too so it's like so they probably know but he's probably probably not going to be like, yeah, Dan wasn't on then. Yeah, I can't. He can't. Yeah, he's like, listen, my guys were old. It is what it is. These guys are young, got fresh legs. I'm the old one now, actually. He's, this is good, though. This is very, this is very good for heat propaganda of like,

we're going to come out here, we're going to get out the mud, and we're just going to fight our way to the top of the conference. I'm buying it more and more every day. And we need a good propaganda because the timeline is dying to slander them. They play one preseason game, And everyone was, I told you the guys didn't have enough shooting. I told you they would suck. No fit.

They posted a clip of a Yonis Bamb pick and roll. That wasn't super effective. It was a little clunky. Ended up in a BAM floater. And they were like, worst fit ever. It was one play. It was like a decent look. Bam just missed.

Like a disgusting duo. After one preseason game, one pick and roll. MVP, Twitter, man, this time arriving back. Yeah. Then again, the community doesn't, there's a few teams this year. I noticed. The community does not believe in.

Yeah. The Miami Heat are one of them. Who else? Lakers, especially. People hate this Lakers team. They think they're going to be garbage, worst defense in the league. 76ers are some of that sentiment there, but it's a mix of bronze stands and people just hate this some augmentation of talent. Have you guys ever seen?

Because I did see something make the point. And like, I've never seen an edit from a scrimmage before because they, because they broadcasted the Sixers scrimmage the other day. Yeah. And then people get this out of it. It's like that is a little wild. I mean, it's excitement, man. It's not wild for real. even basketball to five for like two, three months or whatever.

That's not even that long. It's really not. Like the, we talk about all the time. The offseason is super short. Like, I'd honestly be okay if we had another month. So did you, when you saw the edits, you were actually displeased? You're irritated? Not displeased, not irritated.

I thought it was funny, but I didn't, I wasn't like internally upset. I had other things yesterday that was more internally upset about it. It just will get to that in about five hours We'll record the other show Yeah The edit was the least of my worst Okay Yeah I think

The heat are really dotted right now The Lakers really dotted right now Who else is getting a lot of The pistons Yeah The pistons for some reason Oh not for some reason We understand why

Yeah I'm trying to think of teams I think are overly hated on Because there's some teams are hated on I don't think the timbrews are hated on There's not many teams in the West for a lot The Timberwolves are being gas Yeah. The expectations are Scott Hap.

They've been gassed. I think, and I think it's possible they live up to that. But I think people are treating them like they're going to be their scene for sure. Which, you know, after many years of doing this, it's where they get you. That's where the pitfalls come in. That's where the pitfalls come in where we be overrated team because we assume it would be best case scenario and shit takes some time. And we pick a team to be a three seed and we're like a month in the season. What happened?

And when it when there what happens starts, it's not going to be like regular rain. It's going to be fucking hailing, bro. Yeah. I do think they'll be good though. So I'm kind of on that side. I recognize we're getting a little overzealous. And it's weird because, like, that's always the Lakers usually. When this LeBron James's team, of course, we always get the,

the roast-inted glasses version of it. Oh, the nuggets? I know people, people hated the night. Yeah, but they're deserved. Like, everyone knew. Deserved. Yeah. They got bounced in, like, what, four, like five, six games or whatever without

Anthony Edwards. In a rugby season context, they still have yo pitch and Mergers. Yeah, yeah, they're going to be. Yeah, we're just like the regular season and shit with you. We're so far into this. Yeah. I like the Mars layout from last night. That was tough.

I was watching it live. I was like, oh shit. There's no way he should have passed that shit. There's no way to get to the rim. Slid his way to the rim through whatever. I'm like, okay, he still got it. Every time I post a video being remotely hot in the Lakers, people were commenting, it's going to be the worst defense in the league.

What are you talking about? Their bench is awful. And I'm like, all right, man. Okay. Okay. Doubt. We need to see the start immediately. Can't wait.

Yeah. Next thing we're going to do. off to the main topic of today's video we are going to react to your best predictions for this season. Be Souls will show us one thing you predicted in the comments we'll let you know. It's a W or an L. BeSoles, what are you at first?

All right, first. Bam drops 127. I don't like this. Like points? Yes. You got to go higher with this. What? He's already set the precedent that we can't really put a limit

on what we should expect from Bam out of bio. That's what I'm saying. So really, I think you've got to, If you're gonna go this route, you really comment, you should really comment, bam drops if Bam wants to drop. Because apparently he dropped 83 on a bad shooting night. You can really drop 135 on a good shooting night.

It's either that or, I mean, you gotta double it. 166. 166? 16. Yeah. Who would have, if you dropped, if Bam were to drop 100, who would it feel most appropriate that he drops it against?

Probably the Hawks. Probably like Bam goes crazy on the Hawks. Like that just makes sense. Luke already did it. Ah. That's kind of stale. Is it? Wouldn't you a new victim?

I think so. It's like toxic or the Hawks. We've seen it before. Maybe like. It used to be crazier. This gimmick again. It really isn't. Honestly, I think going,

going back to the scene of the crime and doing it again on AD and SAR. You got to do it on the Wizards. That'll be fair. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great part too. I'll give you a W.

I think history says, Bam, scoring record this season. The pattern has been set. How often do you guys think you see, like, sequels be better than the first movie? Superman 2. It's in general.

Fireman 2 is better than the first one. Shrek 2 is better than Shrek 1. Okay. Okay. The Dark Night's better than Batman begins. Okay. It happens. All right, ma'am.

Let's see. Are you the godfather, too, ma'am? We'll see. Okay. Next. Victor Rambayama will have a quadruple double game this season. I think we're going to see this every single season until it happens.

Every year somebody's going to predict that Victor Monjama will have like a five by five or a quadruple double and just hope that one day it happens. And guess what? Fair. Fair. It probably will happen. There's going to be a game where he goes crazy and he's going to get close to it. I like this prediction.

My prediction. He's going to have two games when she gets really close, but he only gets eight assists and he'd be real mad, but he's not going to get there because of the assist part. But he will get 10 blocks twice. I think he was already close to this like at, one point towards this past season, right? That's the thing he's always close. He's always close. Yeah, so April 2024, yeah, 23, 15, 9 and 8 against the Denver Nuggets. Was the Aetis? Yeah. Told you. Told you. It was Aetis. New prediction. He'll never fucking do it. He'll stop at Atis once a year and he'll never get it. He'll retire being super close 20 times and not doing it. This year, he's actually going to get close and blocks is going to be the thing.

That would just hurt. That would just suck. Team just not going to go around them at all. They're going to troll. Change my mind. Nine rebound. will be the thing that doesn't get it. Nah, it can't be. That's too easy. And that's why it's going to happen. It's supposed to be too easy. It's never supposed to happen. Here he is, nine rebounds.

And he's facing somebody that's a beating. He's not going to do it. And one's going to come back. Get in the paint. You're 7.5. Get rebounds. Exactly. Let me zag points.

Oh, God. It puts a dream on Greymong Green Stateline. Nine points. So no, L prediction. He'll never do it. How about that? Okay. Next.

Pissons are a playing team after finishing first last year coming from a Pistons fan. I miss Stu and Unc Harris already. You must like this already, huh? No, plain? I don't think playing. I think at one point in December,

you did say that. You said backtrack, but I think at one point No, I said 60. Exactly. At one point it was fucked up. Is that plain? No, I think he didn't say it plain. Is it plain?

Of course not. Okay. Okay. I think at one point you did. I didn't say this, but it's fine if I don't believe that anymore. It was, we say last shit over the summer. So I'm just saying. Bro, if there would be a playing team, some catastrophic shit had to happen like Cades out.

That's it. That's the only thing that has happened. Yeah, again, I get the sentiment of not having faith in them coming off the play in the playoff series in which we kind of saw everything we'd hold against them and why their team wasn't ready, kind of did come to fruition, especially people have the image of Dern falling apart. I think you kind of carry that, that a reputation around you into the next season. I think they'll be fine to come regular season.

We said it early in the episode. I can't remember last time a young team with three young stars or even two young stars. We don't want to give a star of that title. Be this good when this many games and just not continue to be good. Like when do we see young teams be one year wonders with a 60 game type of pace? It doesn't got to be 60 games necessarily. But when does one year wonder one seed young teams around an ascending superstar

and high draft picks that are very good be a one year wonder? I can understand people who have. Cavs. What are you talking about? Okay, when they won like 60 games and then they went 64 games and then fell off. That's pretty different though. They traded Darius Garland for James Hardin. They made the conference finals.

I wouldn't say they fell off. It was a weird year where injuries to a star and traded. I mean, in the regular season, you go from one seed. Yeah, you go from one seed 64 games to five seed on the road. Like that is a start drop off. Sure. And that probably is the best example. I think that James Harden trade and the fact that Garland's injuries kind of like led to that makes that

different to me than this circumstance. But to your point, even before the day traded and because they weren't quite the same level. So, okay, that probably is an example of what I'm saying I haven't seen.

That probably is a good pool. Yeah, I'm sure it's happened like many times in NBA history. I think for this more so, it's probably less about the Pistons and more about all the other teams in the Eastern Conference

and how they made like sound improvements whether it be the Miami Heat. Obviously the Sixers, hell, even the Pacers got better. Obviously, because they got Tyrese or Tyreys Hallibor in the back, but Zubach is there now too. So I can understand this,

but they're not going to be playing bad, bro. That's just a drag. So what does it look like then? If you guys see the world in which they're worse than last year because of partly regression, Cavs-esque, let's say it is that example, and partly teams around them get better

like the Raptors, Sixers, etc. What does that net out to? I think for me personally, minimal like 50 games. I think... If they win 48 games, I wouldn't surprise you. 50 games, what was that three-seat?

I'm probably, but I'm thinking, I'm thinking four or five matchup right now. So you don't think that won't 50 games? You think they drop off like a 12 game drop? That's someone to me that I don't, I think I could agree three C. I think it's like a lot. The top three is just hard because I have the nicks and the Pacers in my top two. I don't see, do you think the Pacers will clear them as far as, right now I think we're just talking regularly season when totals, not playoff equity?

Clear, I don't, so I don't know how big the gap is is going to be like in clear. But I think the Pacers will be better and will have a higher. seed than them. Okay. So, yeah, I don't know if they're going to be like laughed or anything like that, but those two teams I'm very, very high on. And then you have this of something combination of

like Boston, Philly, Toronto, where I can the pistons are in that mix. Right now, I feel the best about the other three teams over the Pistons. Miami. Huh? Miami, too? Oh, yeah, yeah. In Miami. Yeah. I think

I feel better about those teams being like real contenders. But I think coming to pick the pistons to be a three seed as far as regular season win totals go the one that the one that would that wouldn't like i can see them being like the raptors and philly i can see those situations not going as well boston is one where in a regular season context it's like they're a machine to me yeah like i can see boston being up there as the three seed again i think the i think the win more games in the pacer's i think the pacer's will take time haliburton's come off on a torn achilles zubuch can integrate it with Taliburton. I think this is, all these teams are really good. To me, I imagine the difference

will be like how you start the season. And I think it'll be like the Knicks, Celtics Pistons as the easiest smooth starts. So I'm thinking I'm going to pick those three. As far as seating goes. I do also think the Patriots will be a better playoff team. But for regular season seating, I think I'm going to go there. Brother East is deep. We didn't even imagine calves. I don't know a lot of games. Yeah. I don't know if I can go. Hey, maybe you're right. It's not impossible. It's clearly not impossible when you have this many good. teams. Like, Kay misses three weeks and they can be the seventh seed. Yeah. It's not, it's not crazy

to doubt them that much. I don't want to make it sound like I'm like the Pistons guy. They can't beat the six seed. But I'm not, I'm not going to be assuming they're the ones that get the short end of that stick, just because they went outside in the playoffs. Because like, we're, like, we're high on Toronto. What if Kau is Kauai? And then he

Kauai misses, you know, three weeks a month. Oh, then they're like the seventh or six seed. Yeah. And their offense falls off the club. Yeah. And again, I think Toronto is going to be a serious contender coming in the year. but I would not be picked in to be a top four seed of regular season for that reason. Yeah. Yeah, and probably same with Pistons.

I mean, the Pacers, like, I don't think I would have picked them to be a top three seed, even though I do think they might be one of the three best teams. I don't know. Like, I think the Pacers might not start off as slow. I don't think they're going to be blistering necessarily, but you said Tyree Salver, and he's coming off Achilles. It's been over a year now. And I think he's had plenty of time to just, like,

not necessarily be back on pace because you have to basketball, in-game basketball, It's completely different than all the workouts he's been doing. But I think I would assume that he comes in and like be regular tires, hurt Halliburn. Maybe not day one, but like week two or three. Maybe. I don't think it would be a process.

I think anybody who misses a lot of time takes time to get going. I mean, I'm not even saying his first game is against the Pelicans. He's a coacher. I'm putting that slip in free. Halliburian triple double. They're going to put one. Yeah.

I'm not even talking about like a Halliburn injury recovery thing. Like that could be, there could be playing time off. He's good there. I just think getting your rhythm back after missing that much time. First couple of weeks we always see teams like in general from missing time. Like not missing time, having the off season in a natural sense, case of time to get the rhythm going.

I don't think they'll start the season slow per se. But I can see the business being 5 and 0 to start the year. The saving grace for the business to me is like, you can't, there's no rhythm to defense at all. I'm sorry like communication. Like they're going to be leading with that and that's why I can never see them falling into the plan unless like, of course,

God forbid, K gets ready. Yeah. We also like, why are we completely outruling the possibility that Dern and the Saur get better? Like, they could just build off what they did last year and to be better players. And we're only talking about the stuff they lost and stagnated in ways we saw in the playoffs. And we're just like assuming nothing else gets better at all. Anyways, yeah, I think I'll pick me to be top three. But I understand the concerns.

During the main one, where it was like, he's getting worse, dude. Okay, next. Ant wins the scoring title now, not having the burden of having to bring the ball up the floor. Just because he doesn't have to bring up the ball. Okay. I think this is a good hot take. How many years he needs to average in order to get the scoring title? Like 33 or something like that. Probably something like that.

I mean, what's Shay been in past couple years? Like 32, healthy Luca with one less ball handler. Probably go out 33 as well. I have to average like 34. He does it up to get to 34. Last year, Luca, 33 and a half, Shea 31.1. And was at 28.8. Yeah.

I do think he can jump to the 30. Is that, that's too good as something he can average 30 plus? I think it is because, of course, like, the shots are going to be falling because he's going to be more unpredictable or a little bit harder to guard or a lot of bit harder to guard because the Melo is going to be there. I think last year you got the most room attempts as well to 30s in the cards. I see it happening. I definitely did that happening.

Their bench, their bent stuff got like a little bit worse. So there's more spots or points for him to eat up as well, too. There's going to be a lot of pressure when it comes to him scoring the ball. I'll say that. Yeah. The year prior, Shea was at 32.7. Giannis was at 30.4. So, yeah, 33 is the bar.

He'd start flopping a little bit more. That's what it would be. I think I'll probably assume Luca gets hits. Just because the offense is going to be. Like, y'all can't the rule change. Yeah, then the drawl. The foul is another drawling thing. I would assume him and Shay are still top two.

I'm not shocked, though, if Ant, passed up one of them and he's a top two. I think this could this could be a W take. And you know, Luke might not play enough games and you never know. He's been in the combo for the last year. He's been like top three.

Yeah, I think it's a good take. I think the logic about Lamello enabling him to be more scoring prone to have less to worry about. I think that makes sense. I think I can give this a W take. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

This is a good take. He just gets to the rim or gets to the free throw line a lot less than all these tops, all the other top scores in the league. So it's going to take some time, I think you do it. And listen, he has something new to his game over year.

Maybe now he's a grifter. Maybe he figured it out. Yeah. Maybe that's what he needed. I would hate that. That actually is what he needs, though. You're right. That is the difference between him and them.

Like, you get over 30. Yeah, like, Shay gets the line, like, at least like nine times again a game. Luca, like 10 times a game. And said seven right now. Yeah. You got a griff. That's a good amount. Wait, we're talking like he gets her four times a game.

Seven's a good amount. Yeah, I'm about to say you got a griff more. God damn. You got to get the phone. Yes. Legitimately, it is hard to be the scoring leader without 10. Yeah. Unless you're prime curry.

Well, he's not. Next. Yager Devin will be featured in GQ or some designer magazine. Hashtag slash. Oh, easily. Easily. Easily. Surely.

He hasn't already. He hasn't yet. He has to have like one month where he drops 20 a couple times. You got to get a break onto the scene a little bit and then slams him to call him. He's going to have his own booth. that complex context context here. Let's see. Slam did something about him.

Oh, he already was on Slam? I don't think he was a cover athlete, but Slam the magazine did an article about him. Okay, so the seeds are being laid right now. Yeah. Details his expanded wardrobe from his rookie season in Brooklyn. BK magazine did something.

It's Joe in time for the Brooklyn Nets. Wow. Okay. Okay, he's going to be, I think he's going to be first team all-N-B-A, league fits. We're on the way. Yeah.

Agord, Denham. Okay, next. The Indiana Pacers win the NBA finals in a rematch from two years ago, with Tyrese averaging a triple double and cementing himself as one of the top point guards of all time. It was the greatest my league sim of all time. I feel him. What a storyline. Return to the Mountain Top, get it done this time?

If that happens, shh. Man. Is it a good prediction to assume the Patriots end up being the best team? in the Eastern Conference and at least get there. To be one of the more competitive teams in the playoffs, yeah, he got. Like, they, I think they've earned that. And especially with the additions of Ubra and Zubach, for sure.

Ubra. Interesting. Yeah, I can see, what's here? I can see the happening. Their defense is going to be. Is the third one coming? Maybe. Would that be too many?

No, I think four is a lot. Four, it's like you got to go outside. Okay. Yeah. We'll give you grace for a third. Yeah. A fourth. People used to do that when I was in elementary school.

So I just start sneezing their brains out. Crazy. That's how my, because like, I don't get sneezes in like, like, like, I feel like I have more like fits than just like, than like consecutive though. Because once I, once I get started a lot of times, I just keep going. Yeah. A lot of times that happens in the morning, bro.

There's sometimes I wake up. I'm sneezing probably like 15, 20 times in a row. Yeah. Yo, that sounds so, like, unpleasant. How refreshing. Refreshed? What do you mean? My whole face is stuffy. Like, it's all swollen.

Do you hold all 15 sneezes in? No, by the time I get to six, I'm spraying everyone. I'm like, I'm over this. It's fine. It's holding your sneezes and hurts sometimes, right? And Loki does. Yeah. Loki does.

I want to talk to with that. Fair. I think it's fair to think the patients can be the team to make it out of the Eastern Conference. It's so stacked right now that we'll really see. how it shakes out. I'm going to go into the season assuming it's the Knicks again

just because of they've kind of earned that right. Yeah. But there's so many teams that history says there's probably going to be a new team in the Eastern Conference this year

to stop about how the era of parody has been and they obviously lost a piece and Mitchell Robinson won't be shocking at all if the Knicks aren't back in the finals. There's like four teams

that I think realistically have a good argument to beat the new team in the East and the patient is definitely one of them. Yeah, I agree. Now, will Tyrese average a triple double?

I don't know. Yeah, that I actually think he probably will not. There's too many good things But good players on the team right now, bro Has he ever average 10 rebounds for an assist I mean for a series? Fuck

I don't know I fucking doubt We'll have to be average For game regularly Like a 5-6 rebound guy Hold on let me see It should be a little bit higher I think that

The Patriots They can win the cup Fair Okay They're not a cup team You know They were in the cup finals Cup means

Different things to me now these days The Cups in Indy too You know the Knicks one last year so kind of like threw off how I thought what I thought like a cup should mean for a team. I thought it deserves to be like not deserves, but it should mean something like middle of the pack teams that are trying to figure shit out like the. That literally was the Knicks. I didn't view the middle of the pack though.

I thought there were like pretty much always. That's that's fair. But in the Cups defense, the three teams that have won have taken it very seriously. Like the Lakers, the Bucks and the Knicks all have put sometimes. of weight into into the cup and now that the Knicks have established the double as like a thing I think that the pacer is going after the cup and showing everybody like hey we're still here Tyrese's bag like you know don't don't we're not to be messed with yeah I think that that is a serious thing for them the bucks winning it was weird looking back what a strange little

I know I mean you buy your coach like two months later what a strange moment bro now who's up next all star Zach Levine shut the hell up those are four words you're all bet so much you're done let's deactivate the account damn I'm not a betting man but man I'll make so much

off the sky why not piss him off so much fuck no idiot die deactivates count ban him get him out of here because it's nonsense

yeah I mean how many unless he gets traded somewhere else even then yeah you already you already said you already said

you already said get out of here So if he does get traded the piss It makes the All-Star team You're already on that side No That's not what I'm saying You're already on the wrong side

You already reclaimed that this take is fucking trash Bro, he used to be one of my favorite players I saw the king's jersey and I reacted I'm sorry that was out of character Yeah that was more about the Kings than it was you sorry dude Wait really?

Sure sure makes sense Yeah what would the kings have to do to get an all-star selection Be like a three seed Nah doubt Three Seed on come on I think if they win like me You got to do unspeakable things

He got to move some weight to get a king to alter selection. We're not respecting the king's nine seat start to the year. Not happening. He better blow our socks off. Is that not enough though? Ninety by all star break? Everyone's going to be like, yo, what the fuck's going on here? Why are they good?

Then if they have the seventh seed and subonis has like a bonker stat line, then they'll probably let them sneak in again. God, that would suck. That would be it. Yeah. It's a bonus. 18, 12, and 7. Yeah, literally. 36% from three.

God. Two attempts a game. Get the Kings off my screen. That is a fire stat line. Like, if anybody else did that, we'd be like, damn, they're kind of hooping. But it's a bonus. Can you imagine Zon, like, had 36% from three? I'll be like, yo, bro.

He's back. Yeah. If Zom was after 18, 12, and 7 and 36% from three. Even if he wasn't a good defender, we'd be kind of glazing. We would be. Like, oh, my guy, he's the perfect second option. We need to trade his own anywhere, though. I don't know if he's a big.

If Palo did that. but that would be a complete D. Reve glazer, right? He changed the game completely. Yeah. 18, 12, and 7 from Paolo. That'd be awesome. Someone needs to train for it. That'd be awesome. The magic would be serious.

Yeah. Okay. Next. Lamello Ball makes a leap into top 15 talks now that he has an elite scoring guard next to him. They'll have less of a burden offensively and become much more efficient while still being an elite playmaker. Holy shit.

Top 15 talks. Top 15 is tough, though. That's a lot, man. I'm not just like leaping so many players in order to be top 15. We've got to clear to get top 15 talks. You got to be in like, you got to be better than, D-Mitch, Maxie, Jalen Brown type combos.

Let me just pull up. I'll just pull up the ring of 100 just to get a sense of like who's around that range. That's just, yeah, these people are maybe a little higher than that range, but that top half of the teens, Maxi,

Omba Mitchell, Jalen Brown, I guess, Devin Booker, do people? Cat, probably. So 12 to 17. Cat, Tatum, Brown, Maxie, KD, Scotty. Hell no. Could he be as good as Scottie Barnes next year? He could be as good as him next year for the regular season.

I don't think that's insane. I'm not going to predict these top 15. But if you tell me everything clicks and your version of the ceiling of the Timberwolves and it going well involves him being recognized as the 15th best player, I don't think that's ridiculous. Okay, paint the story from you. What does he have to look like and how many averages? What's the stats line with the line to like, too?

he has to go full Halliburton like 17 points per game because we're letting an get scoring title remember we're putting the ball in Jamie Daniels hands a little more beating Caminga in transition hopefully getting Gobert a couple dump offs a game that can stack up to like 12 11 assists so he has to be Tyrese Halliborne okay pretty much Tyre's Albury was a little more flared to him the cool 17 to half 18 points per game 11 assists he has to be mad efficient though because that's like yeah what makes Halliburton so special exactly don't know if he has because he can't take the stupid three point shots anymore because those go to Am

So now he does shoot 39% from three on a lot of off-dribble shots and he's big and he's grabbing rebounds and he's not a complete liability on defense So yeah, he's just halberd Yeah I don't think it's impossible I'm not again, it's not my prediction Yeah But I don't think that's ridiculous It's not far-fetched I guess this is a good prediction

If you're a Lamello fan, you can have those hopes Get hot take I guess I can see that all happening, but he's closer to like a 22nd best player still which is very high for Lamello Yeah, I don't think I don't think 15's in the in the cars is because even looking at this list like haliburn isn't even on this list because he was out last year and so you do have to be better than him right now you're taking lamello over jemore mary i don't know but if you tell me this works out and i do say that in the year i won't be shocked i'll go jemorem for now yeah yeah but again you tell me it works i'm i can see that combo yeah yeah i don't really want either for zero zero

i mean but like if if if stepan castle takes a takes a step forward and his offense comes together a little bit more. That combination of two-wayness, I might take Stefan over LaMello. Yeah. Okay. So make this 25th best player instead of 15 and maybe we can cook.

Yeah, because he's probably around like 30, 35-ish right now. Could go lower if you really want to be pessimistic, but I agree. Around 35. Yeah, I think a top 25 player of Lamello is a good take for these reasons. Okay. Okay. Next. John Moran and Dame combined for 50 points per game,

both playing at least 65. and making all NBA. Both making all NBA is insane. This is certainly a take, certainly a prediction. If they make all NBA, that means this team is like the third seed in the fucking West, bro.

I don't know that I've ever received a comment on this show that is less likely to happen than this. I think that of all the things, anything could happen in the world, this preseason, we can tell ourselves any team will have their high-sending outcome, any team will crash and burn. I will never say anything is off the table entirely if it's even a little bit possible.

Okay. This might be the one I'm betting against the most. Yeah, this is what I thought. I just looked it up. So in Oregon, so you can have eight ounces of usable marijuana at your house. Wait. In Oregon. And then in public, you can have up to two ounces of usable marijuana.

One ounce of, of extract, and then 16 ounces of solid. And 72 ounces of liquid at the crib. You know 72 ounces You can pour out It's like two at ease bro It's like 33 ounces At home you can have up to four plants So that's exactly where I thought from this

So that's what this guy's on Yeah Fair enough Yeah he's pushing the loss to the maximum Wow okay I think you're being quite gracious In the substance of choice for this But that's fair

I'll look up their crack laws Krat laws Ketamine legal usage rates In Oregon All right, what's next? All right, next. Nuggets trade Jamal Murray by the deadline, exclamation point. Oh.

I think if nuggets don't come out so great and they realize the Yoko Chera is coming to an end, they'll hit the panic button and trade Murray at the deadline for either a real blockbuster needle mover or a lateral move that gives their team a new look, exclamation point. This is a good hot take. And low key, man, if the Nuggets is just a point and are like just a middling 50, seed team. I really do hope they just ripped the band it off and just be like, yo, what are we doing here? Let's just retool this whole thing

mid-yokch Prime, or at least back half Yokch Prime, and get a bunch of young guys in the building. Hell, fuck it. Let's take things even further. Let's take a little bit. Kind of impossible tank with Yokic. But yo, Blango, Jamal Murray, and whoever else is

like viable to the league, that moves me. That might be actually more fun. There's been a couple times over the last few seasons, if you remember, Nuggets started the season and struggled, and Joel Murray did his play myself in his shape thing. And we were like, maybe it's time, explore a trade. Never happened because they're committed to him.

And as they should have been, he had the best regular season of his career last year. But when there's smoke, there's fire. There's always the seeds being laid out for a few years before something finally happens. None of us have a ton of faith in the trajectory this team is going. I could definitely imagine a world where come deadline. This is the surprise trade none of us saw coming. He has included in this year. He has three years left on his deal.

50 million 53 million 57 million yeah that's prime let's trade you contract they love trading players with three years left

hell you who would be I would be so shocked if he got traded you know what team he'll be nasty on fucking Raptors he's from Canada too

that'll be a fit what are they giving up he sucks when he plays international ball he does he's international he can't go back home really

he'll be that much worse worse. He's tucked in the Olympics. Hey man, for Franz Wagner. It's time. Hey, man. I wouldn't hate that.

I can buy the vision for both sides if Franz is ready to be more of a ball handler without Palo. Yeah. Seen that fits them better. I can buy the vision for both sides there. I would not hate that. W take.

I hope this happens. Actually, I don't hope it happens, but if it does, I'll be excited. I think it will happen. Okay, so he's just straight up cosines. I think he's, I think he's ciggled with this. Okay. We'll see.

I can't. I can't see it in the end season. Jamal Marie and Kate together? Yeah. That's tough. What? I don't know. Just pigs? I don't know.

Yeah. Money is responsible. I'm just talking. Yeah, it definitely can happen because they have people saw her during. It's not going to happen. Yeah. All right.

Next. Zion top three MVP season. This is like when you have your homie who went to jail six years ago, he just got out. He's like, yo, Zion's the best point in the world, right? You put your hand on the filter I got bad news for you That sounds a little too much

On the line of happening you Man Oh he was this The guy who stopped Stop watching basketball in 2021 This is funny Top three Let's revisit those

Those laws Donovan Let's see what it is I think Louisiana is drink though. What the fuck? Design have to do me top 30. It is,

but you know, they're not going to follow the law. Just like this is so bad. So possession of 14 grams or less is decriminalized to a $100

ticket, no jail time. Let's go. In Louisiana. So. Okay. Okay. So he's only paying

$100 to get this take off. That's it. And this is a economy? God. Take a gas. Fuck, man. Next. Cooper flag carries the maps

to the Eastern Conference Finals, Western Conference Finals, obviously, and finishes top three in MVP voting. Risa Shea makes a big leap and becomes a competent starter. Okay, what's more likely? Risha Shea makes a competent starter to leap or Cooper Flagg is top three in MVP votes.

Let's five. It's Ritcher Shee. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure. Cooper 5 could make all NBA, man. Yeah, but top three. It's a lot different.

It's a lot different. Top three in MVP voting is a couple more points to weigh his way. Sneak into the fourths. If he's top three and MVP voting, he's brunke in the top three to MVP. Yeah. Shea Zion Cooper Flagg. The victory.

Let's go. Whatever to my league, man. Adam Super says some Americans is going to win this goddamn MVP. damn. Tatum's fourth on the ballot just because. Do you think his range of outcome for this year includes third MVP voting? Probably not.

I think all NBA. On the high end, obviously. Yeah, I think all NBA, maybe like second team. All NBA is the highest that he can go. Yeah. Third in MVP voting, your team just has to be wildly good. Do we think they're just not there yet?

The Mavericks? Potentially, but like, what does he have to do? Yeah. Well, the Mavericks could be the fourth seat. They're a surprising story. Kyrie comes back 100%. Lively is finally healthy. and back to being the top 15 big,

we ranked him as before he got hurt, you know? And Cooper Flagg averages 27.5 points for game is very, a playmaker averaging a solid five. It says a very good defender that comes around. I don't, you know what? I could see him being able. Last year, Shea averaged 31, six, and four. Yonkis.

Yolkidge average 28, 13, and 11. Wemby, 25, 12, 3, and 3 blocks. Clearly some things have to go his way. He's not going to be a top three to be votes. Lucas at 33, 7, and 8. This is not happening. We need multiple guys not hit the 65 game rule. Cooper flagged to have the best second year leap since Luca.

I'll hold on. Maybe the storybook is there. Maybe it's going to happen because it's what the Mazra owed. After trading Luca, they get their next guy who does the same exact thing. He comes an MVP candidate year too. Luca, damn, me, average 30 years second year, bro. Who's to say they can't be coop? I do think all NBA is a ceiling.

I don't think that's going to happen, obviously. Yeah. But you tell me the breakout story of the year. It's Cooper Flagg's top 10 player. Okay. So Cooper Flagg averages 35 this season. He's just LeBron and mixed with Jordan. Yeah.

If he ever just 35 and the MAV to get to minimum three seed, he could be top three in MVP. If you average 35, he is the MVP. This is not going to be a combo. 35 is ridiculous. Yeah. Just 35. Get them both to like the fifth seat. Yeah, bro.

You're the MVP. for the next two years at that. You're not getting it to the, you're not getting it at the 50. I know. If he average is 35, yes, they will. 35 is ridiculous. He's not. Until you look up and yokech is averaging what he's averaging.

You're 30 fucking five. Do we hear the number we're saying? It's not happening. We're just talking. Lupa didn't get at 34, I think. Yeah, he was at Luka was at 34.9. Or no, 33.3.9. I was going to say, what the fuck is he 34.9?

My mind was racing. He was like, damn, I forgot. He was on that. Yeah, I don't think this is going to happen. Okay. Next. SGA averages 33 plus points, gets third straight MVP and gets a chip.

All that puts him in the top 10, the top 10 to 13 all time already. This is very realistic. This is a good hot take. Third MVP straight is, I think, probably the toughest feat to accomplish. Especially when you're headed like that. the media members don't all hate them.

But especially these days, for the media members that vote on MVP, they're too online. The narratives seep into them too. Like Brian Winhorst, I'm pretty sure as a vote. He's a podcast. He's on Twitter.

He's to hear all the hate and jokes and stuff. I don't think even if he is super reasonable, I'm just using him as an example as a proxy for all the media members that are super online. I don't think they'll have it in them to vote for a Shay for a third MVP in a row, knowing the narrative around him. Yeah.

I think it's extremely, extremely unlikely that he could average 35. I still don't think he's in a win to MVP over Wembe. You think people are going to be clamoring to give it to Wemby? Yes, I think Wembe might have that shit sealed for him before the season might even start, bro. As long as he does normal Wemby stuff, probably. Yeah, he could average pretty much the same as like numbers from last year. And if the spurs are the one seed or whatever, he's going to.

Yeah, probably. Because I can see both sides of it because, like, I feel like every week there's one game where we're like, oh my goodness, we've never seen this before with Wembe. And then the next game, we'll have like seven rebounds. It's like, get your big ass in the paint. This is the problem with him. And it feels like the pendulum's always going very back and forth on very opposite ends with him. Yeah.

And so I can never get a great gauge of how the overarching media truly, truly feels about, about Wembe. And they're just like actual like for him. I think it's more pros than anything. but yeah there is something to that. I think Shay will certainly be MVP quality again and certainly could be the MVP. As most years,

just multiple guys that have an argument. We see where the cars lie at the end of the year for all the multiple factors. I certainly wouldn't bet on it. Yeah. What does you have to do? Last year you averaged 31, 6 and 4 efficiencies out of this fucking moon.

55% from the field is ridiculous, bro. That's insane. Like, what does you have to do really? Same thing. Outside of like being the one seat. The same thing he always does. Be the best score in the league by far, leading the best team in the league. And it just comes down to if Wembe, Luca, Yolkits, etc.

Janus, I'll do that as well. Who's marginally a better case? I think Yonnes, I think if I was like, right now, two-day cash in my top two bets for MVP, I think it would be Wembe and maybe Yonis. Not bad. If Miami's like that. It's so tough, though, when we talk about how deep the east is. I feel like Janus would have to, like, come out on top of that crazy Eastern Conference.

for sure. Which could happen, why not? Like, minimum two seed. I do agree, though. If he does do all these things you outline, he would be thrown into top 20 all time instantly. I'm not used to this Eastern Conference Glaze, man. You started it for real.

No, but yeah. But see, we're saying that. Keep in mind, the two teams I can really win the championship I've had, I mean, respect to the Knicks that could do it again are in the West. So we're going to have a lot of like, it's so deep, but none of these teams of beating the Thunder and Spurs, you know?

It's just like, I grew up like 20 years. Yeah. It's 20 years out of East this week Now it's like, oh, this is the big bad East I don't even know if I can see But we're not saying big bad east We're just saying deep east that's different I'm saying that I know you're trying to make it out

Even this is last year You wanted to make the Eastern Conference of Better Conference from six months ago Hell yeah You were the sea man But the two super teams are in the West still Which but I don't even know if like any team I can't say like these teams

The East don't say literally super teams That's not what I meant Let Indy Yeah roll the ball out again I hope that happens I would love to see Indy make another run. Indy making the run again and actually winning this time

would be a great. If they faced off against the Spurs, that would be fucking cinnamon, man. Because they give the Spurs the same exact issues that the next game. Spacers everywhere. Big physical guy in Zubach as well.

Wouldn't be mad at it. Yeah. Okay. Next. The Lakers sweep the awards. Luca MVP, Kessler D.P.O. Y. Zaire Williams, M.P.

Luca Clutch player of the year. car rookie at a year Sex and Sixth Man of the year JJ Coach of the year And I guess zero for the teammate of the year award Because why the fuck not No I'm not delusional We found his burner

I know Alright so rank all the We ranked up with top three in likelihood here Likelihood here Likelihood I think number one for me Would probably be Walker Kessor DPLI What?

No Over Wendy? Fuck no Unless Wembe gets hurt Yeah Which honestly fair Yeah exactly could always happen.

Maybe that's a good bet in terms of likelihood. I would say Luca MVP won. Okay. Luca Clutch Player of the Year won. I think that's like mad reasonable. I don't. Sure. At this point,

Lucas is not winning MVP until we see it. Yeah. He's always going to be third. Luca Clutch Player of the Year is one to me. Actually, maybe JJ Coach the Year should be won. No, I think Clutch Player over coached in the year.

Okay. Those are top two to me. Zaire Most Approved players, crazy as fuck. Just had to pick someone, bro. I think I'll go, Clutch player of the year, Luca, JJ coached the year two.

Third, he put sex in. I'll say Mamu six mad at the year is the third most likely. I wonder what he edited. Did he add, no, I'm not delusioned at the end? Or like, maybe. He picked Bronny for most approved and switched it.

Maybe. You probably live with Bronny out. Maybe. Okay, next. I'm looking for his diet Williams on the, I'm the most approved. He's not going to be on there. Zero change, bro.

Next. Brody will posterize LeBron. Yeah, we haven't talked about this enough. Not about he posterizing LeBron. What's going to happen when they play each other and LeBron is switched on the guarding Brony? He's going to give him hell. Is Brody going to freeze up?

Because he doesn't know what to do with his dad in front of him. It's not even freezing up. LeBron's just going to, he's going to beat him. He's going to missmatch from hell. What the fuck? What if, like, I can imagine, I can already see the House of Highlights post right now. Bronny catches a swing three. Pump fakes.

LeBron jumps at it because he's overzealous to block Ron. and Brody gets an easy blowby because he jumped and he's a layup and it's oh He crossed up LeBron I can see it clear as day I think I think JJ owes Bronte oh his so if that happens man Just to see what happens? Yeah just to see what happens Let LeBron guard Brondie like he did Kobe in the 26th The Osloor game slap the floor and everything I think Luca and Reeges would probably give him that before JJ. I think they'd probably give it to him and clear out

Yeah, I could totally imagine that Yeah Do his ass, Brunney. No, I am very curious how that goes, though. Like, LeBron's probably going to, like, rip him or block him or something, and they're going to giggle up the court. Like, what a funny moment is going to be? It's going to...

I feel so bad for him. Right. Because Brown's going to block him, and then he's going to palm his head. It's the head. If he palms his head, it'd be so pissed, bro. And Brani, like, it's going to be the middle of... It's going to be a timeout right after. You'll palm his head, grab his neck real quick.

He's going to be nice. We haven't talked about this at all. What? Like, LeBron playing with his son was one thing. LeBron playing against the son is a whole other thing that I feel like hasn't been spoken about whatsoever. Because, I mean, how often they're going to play? You're right.

You're right. You're right. Right. And right. But the fact that, like, they'll be an opposite sidelines is like, that's almost crazier to me than them playing together. You think the Reddickson, like, force it and play Bronny if you'd be? I'd hope so.

I think they hope that Bronny actually plays it a little bit this year. Like, you know, nine minutes a game maybe, not not much, but like, consistently like he should be in every game there's still a content creator in JJ Redickman right you're just at the moment because I feel like during his rookie year

or Bronny's rookie year was kind of forced a little bit at times I'm like ah yeah well remember the game one you just gotta get over with to not have the media clamoring for it all the time this shit happened

LeBron's feeding for the jersey swap already you're right okay imagine a of six years Lakers final series hold on this might This might single-handedly make it my favorite finals matchup now.

Like, it's not going to happen. I'm picking this version of Thunder. But if I'm my fan favorite, it might single-handly be the LeBron James Bull. That'll be fire. Brony won't even play. Either way LeBron James is getting a ring. I need it.

I need it bad. Okay. Next. LeBron, despite being 42, will be all NBA second team or better. Hey, man. Did you all see that clip? Which one?

from the scrimmage they were playing there was a recorded scrimmage LeBron hit a step back three yeah bro it was so much smooth over a jump shot than he hit the last two years of the Lakers yeah damn it was smooth the Seattle's not bothering him clearly

he was moving it's only one play he was moving like he had a snatchback like step back three and it was like fluid jump shot his legs were under him made it he didn't do that at all last year his shot looked like one motion I didn't know he had that in his bag when I saw that too oh shit Ron

on the right side okay yeah and it seems to forget that he did start the year of Seattle and at fucking 100 years old, you probably never shake that until you get a full off season. And I didn't realize that somebody made a point on Twitter yesterday

that that was the first off season last year that he was playing golf a lot. He heard his back the first time he played golf all summer. He got to do something. He was just swinging. Swing it. He doesn't have good technique

because he's a fucking brute athlete. He's also too tall to be playing golf. Yeah. It makes sense that he fucked up his back. So like, I guess I'm saying this all to say, I guess there is a world where he's like meaningfully better

than he was last year, at least in terms of allemble of fluidity, not dealing with us. Jatica until it flares up again, but maybe he could be second team. Yeah, like maybe we should expect a little bit of a better brawn this year. Yeah, I think when the signing first happened, a lot of people were like, oh, yeah, he's coming in, he's going to be like the third, maybe look like the fourth option at times. I think he might be still like, if not the first best bar on team, because Daniel Brown's

team, because Daniel Brown's there in respect to him or whatever what he did last year. But, yeah, I think he's firmly going to be the second best player in whatever, like, in whatever universe that looks like. I don't know who's taking a step back but I don't think Bron is going to necessarily Yeah, who's team is that? Who's the alpha?

Is it not obvious? Who is it? It's not LeBron. It's LeBaron. I forgot he was there. It sounds like a other joke. Yeah. Like it's LeBron with like glasses

and a mustache on. I know. LeBaron. I don't think we'll see any 60 win team season. Oh my God. I don't think we'll see any 60 win teams next season, mainly because

tanking are incentivized to win now because of the new draft rules. I think that's a pretty fair assumption. I think maybe the Spurs and Thunder will cross 60, but it's probably closer to 60 and 68. Yeah, I don't, wouldn't I'd

well, teams try at the beginning of the year, so I guess it's not out the picture, but like the thunder coming out the gates and going 24 and 0 like that we're going to have to get another type of pace like that for me even think that like 66 is in the cards yeah so yeah i i agree i probably don't see it but i don't see 68 in the cards but i think i think 60 60 61 is still possible i've really come around on this on this change like i'm thinking it's like really good for the league what this new lottery odds to promote this that like every time we talk about this and the idea that teams

will tank less and it'll make less shitty games in march like i kind of do think that's better for the league. Even though it fucks and rebuilding teams that will be rebuilding longer by not getting top picks for being really bad, I kind of do think we're going to enjoy the regular season meaningfully more. For sure, for sure. But the long term outcome versus like 82, you're sacrificing just 82 games for like five years of an organization's life, bro, if they don't have the opportunity to select whatever top players in the drafts. You might get to the middle. But bad organizations are bad organizations and sometimes it just make bad decisions regardless. Get out the gutter. Also, whose fault is that? Like,

Like you, these teams, and I said when they made the change, I was like, I don't even care anymore because they've done, they've just, they've done so much damage to, to the league. Yeah, I think we'll have some bottom dollars forever, but I think it'll make a lot of teams just be more like, like Joe Dumars, you'll just get fucking fired if you don't get out the gutter. And we're going to just survive with the fittest. Some smart GM will get in here that makes margin moves and is able to get out of that bottom three.

It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. No room for shit or staying at the GM jobs for a long time. because in the name of tanking. I don't hate it. It's just gonna suck some teams seeing whatever team like the

I don't know, the nets or something like that. You don't care about them for real. Don't try to. I'm trying to. They don't have zero lottery balls. They think you still get it. And it'll be fun because like when it happens we'll be used to it because it'll be deserved

because we'll have that race out of the bottom at the end of the year. So it won't be a surprise. You know, it won't be like, oh, they got so unlucky. You were bottom three. We knew this coming in. Their expectations are set. Yeah. At the end of the day, like he will hit his goal in terms of making

this regular season, like the most entertaining product as possible. There should be like very little like shitter games. But man, the ramifications will be Steve for those teams who need that bitch bad. Yep, get good. Okay, next. Palo Bencaro will make all NBA. It can be 13 but under Sean Sweeney, and depending on health, I'm much more higher on Palo than you guys are.

This is the first time we've seen Paulo with a coach other than Mosley. And I think under Sweeney's system, he will be able to get activated much more than past years. Again, I understand that we've been waiting for a while, but I think this is the year he balls out. I'm not upset at this. Me neither. I think he laid it out perfectly, the last sentence.

I understand I've been waiting a while. Earlier, he said I'm higher on him than you guys are. We're not, like, saying Pallas sucks forever. We're just waiting on it. And we're just done assuming it'll come. But if it happens, I don't think any of us rule out the possibility that Pallup figures it out and becomes a top 15 player. We're just not, we're just not a pseudonym.

The silence is definitely Yeah I might I'm like to speak for myself Nevermind he ain't probably you're right But I but I do think that like especially Especially with last year and him coming out and saying the comments And we saw a change directly after that Even though he ultimately did revert back to his normal style of play One I think it's very hard to completely change your style of play and kind of

rewire your brain on the fly and you probably do need to an offseason to get the right perspective and get in the right mindset to play a certain way. And having a new coach there probably incentivizes you a lot more and you can have more of a clean, fresh start. So I see the possibility of Palo bouncing back and Palo having one of those seasons where we look up in December and like, hey, he's putting everything together. He's back in like the top 20 of the league or top 25, whatever, the magic are on pace. they have a lot of, they have talent. And if you squint, on paper it's not the,

it's not the most ideal fit. But if you squint, you can see the vision with this team. A lot of it just depends on whether or not Palo and Franz can play together. And what does Sean Swinney's system mean? I don't know yet. Like, I don't know. Maybe Magic fans have a better idea from like

offseason reporting and stuff and I just not tapped in enough. I think in general, the idea of Palo getting a new coach and figuring things out at the same time and resulting in him being a player you've always wanted him to be. It's like, cool. as a possibility in the world.

I don't know what Sean Sweeney's system means. I don't know exactly how they plan on making him better other than new coach, new ideas. So, like, cool. If it happens, it happens. I just will not be the one to assume it happens. Yeah. If it works out, regardless, it works out.

It doesn't. I think I'm going to this all season thinking, like, this is single-handedly one of the most important coaching hires that we'll probably see over the next few years because this Orlando Magic team gave up everything to have this team be in place all the pigs give up all the money in the world they have pretty much no ask no really important

assets outside of players that they have right now anthony black is looming the contract extension and all that so it's like the only thing that can be upgraded is just going back to what you said play style and we have nothing on paper at all if it works amen they save so many people's sean suenis saves some people's jobs from being fired bro because it could be real ugly if they're just the same or old orlando we see same old injuries have to that's really like honestly the bigger conversations i can't name a team right now who's been in this constant stage just trying to break out who's been fucked more than injured more fucked by injuries more than than than than imagine it consistently happens for whatever reason

yeah yeah that's been like the same stage like yeah we're done rebuilding we have our core players got to do some rushing to we're trying to like get to the four three seed or whatever they're crunches yeah dude just name is Sponschard. That would be very funny. He didn't do any crunches. He was like, all right, bro. Let's hit 10 a day.

And he's just oblique free. Obliq free. Okay. Next. Celtics will have a top three seed in the east is here. I agree. I agree to. That's the most normal take, bro.

Yeah, we got a regular take that I agree with. Nice W. I also expect him to be very good, as they always are. Yeah. Hell yeah. All right. No pushback. Lakers are a playing team.

You know, off a hate alone hell yeah i i don't i don't think this is going to be the the case a lot of do i i think this is a very prevailing narrative amongst like especially the more casual fans that like are inclined to hate the lakers already i think a lot of people don't have faith in this organization and their turnaround and like the names brought in versus names went out like you see losing lebron james obviously and like they know marcus smart they know ruy and they bring in matisse thieible zire williams walker kessler who was this guy that you open all-star it forward.

Yeah. I think a lot of people were just like, who the fuck are these guys? I think, Mamu? Okay. I think since, since Luca got to,

got to the, the Lakers, I think a lot of the Lakers hate has clouded a lot of the Lakers predictions preseason. And I do think that even as good as he is, Austin Reeves being who he is

and coming from where he came from in terms of an undrafted player that grew into this player and not being somebody that's established. in the same way as AD was when he got to the Lakers. I do think that that clouds a lot of the way that people talk about the Lakers and their setup and their foundation.

Because if it was, if it was Luca and AD, I think people would have a much different thing. And not to say that Austin Reeves is as good as Anthony Davis, but somebody with pedigree of that sense, I think you could see or you would feel, people would feel a little bit different about the Lakers. Yeah. Yeah, because they used to get overrated in the LeBron era.

And now I think the Luka era, they're getting underrated because Lucas has he's yeah first it was the fat thing now was the he didn't play in the playoffs and he's the choker like can't want that play style like there's all these things and the whole team is white and people are and people are races and it's like oh this team full of full of white boys is is going to be nice like that yeah and it's just a lot of like people that don't have an established name like that like again I don't think you have championship hopes for them I don't so I think there's I know yeah stealing sure sure yeah you you see a championship ceiling there I don't see them really having any chance of competing with the top two teams

most crazy stuff happens. But like healthy team, healthy team, I don't really see that for them. I think we're a year away from that. But I also don't see any chance of them. Let me rephrase that. There's always a chance. I don't see it super likely

they're playing caliber team. I think they're closer to that three, four, five seed, like firmly than being in that six, seven, eight range. And, you know, I'm a fan of the team, so obviously I'm going to be optimistic. But I really don't think there's any argument for assuming the things people say

that, like, their defense got worse. That's prevailing things. Everyone's like, oh, with that defense? get ready to speak eight seed. I don't see any chance of defense is worse than last year. That just doesn't make any sense to me when people say that, bro. Like they've pretty much went into the offseason. JJ Redding seems like specifically too is like walking into a defensive force.

And they've got all the answer that piece to try to make it working Walker Kessor. Matisse Stival, Zaire Williams as well. That doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, do Cam. The Ravis is not a bad defender. Like obviously a Vanderbilt can play. We'll see. But like they have a, their wing defense is like not an issue.

Fair. It's not amazing. They don't have O.G. Makeel, like, obviously. They're not going to be a top-tier defense. You do have the bad defensive guards. They won't be elites. But, like, if the team sinks,

I don't think it's because the defense is 30th in the league. It won't never be 30th in the league. Unless Waukesh. Then they could be super fucked. Yeah. Which, that is a concern. The center depth is terrible. So I, I don't think,

you don't think Luni hold it down. Yeah, yeah. But, like, I don't think there, if this thing can be mid very clearly, there's ways we can get there. I don't think them having this, this unforeseen, horrible defense that can't even bring

together stops, that to me isn't the way I see a downside coming. Unless again, Kessar gets hurts, which is always hanging above us. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to panic if you get hurt. I'm going to be able to show freaking the fuck out. Don't panic. Loon dog is there. Loon dog.

I don't freak the fuck out. Okay, that is your guys' predictions for this season. Last thing we're going to do today, we are going to see every team in the Eastern Conference and give our opinions for their floor, ceiling, and realistic outcome. We did this last week for the Western Conference teams. Today, we finished it off with the Eastern Conference.

This was highlighted last week by Donovan loving the Lakers and hating everybody else. What will we see today? We also saw everyone be a playing team as well. I think prediction. In the West Fair. Yeah. You loki.

Prediction. Donovan loves the Knicks and hates everybody else. That's pretty accurate. That's a good assumption. That's just reality. first team up at lano hawks what is their floor worst case scenario probably nine C C playing yeah playing the floor playing they're too good to follow the playing they have too many good players yeah so so i guess floor 10 sure general playing range it whatever the eastern conference

i don't know how much of a difference is going to be between eight and 11 so but i think playing for sure i'll be absolutely disgusted if the team was a playing team bro really disgusted yeah ceiling 60 about three games above the plane I think there's absolutely no way you guys are Absolutely no way that you guys are a top five Like you would bet your life on it That we wouldn't be a top five Because that's what absolutely no way means

Now you stun her a little bit You know there's a way Mind you I haven't said a word We're gonna kill this guy No way If that was the situation And you did have some type of power I would do it

You lock in your ass on I think ceiling is five seed. I think the East is super deep this year. And there's like, there's going to be four teams that are like serious. They can win the conference. And I think best case scenario, they can be right below that. Yeah. I think five seed.

Bro, drop that down. There's absolutely no way it's up. There's absolutely no way. It's possible. You're so, so sure. I promise you, there's no way there's no way there's. There's no way there. Kauai gets hurt.

As a ceiling? As a ceiling? No way. You want to hear the way? Kauai gets hurt. Lebronty B get hurt. Tyrese Hallibird is a little slow to come back All these so many players

Palo and Frans just don't work There's no spacing on the heat All this could go mediocre And they're just chugging along 49 wins We're like out of all the teams In the East and Carvers is going to get all these drastic teams All that happened last year

They were to succeed Like they're not getting up to five No It's not happening You got to work for one seat It's not We don't think differently about the team It's one number

It's not happening It's those two games Mo Those two games Come on man Realistic 8, 7 I think 6th is realistic for me personally But they're so again

So they're gonna be better than What? 60 Knicks Y'all suck Knicks Celtics Custins Caves Rappters

Pacers Heats That's a lot of good teams In this fucking conference You know way I'm gonna get top 5 man The hell out my face Bro, crazier things happen

What you mean? I think we can say that for the ceiling I think realistic What happens when the net's past y'all look? then what then if they do that that means we're all in hell buddy that's not happen on this god to be the eight seed i'm probably good quick than to be the eight seed did you say the magic in that in those eight i don't know he didn't say the magic no there's absolutely made me hear it all time bro i don't i'll say realistic eight seed uh top half of the plane so really

what we're saying is realistic is top half of the plane floor is the bottom half of the plane their range of outcome is quite small here they are who they are come on now it's all playing now It's playing. It's fine. Whatever. It's not playing, bro. Realistic?

Yes, it is realistic. Again, you can, you could, you could, who do you think y'all are? I think we're a six,

normal six C team that has made the least amount of drastic changes. We have dealt with, that's the problem. No, it's not. Everybody else had it. We made our changes literally last year.

And then we just added a fucking lottery talent, lottery level of talent in Kingston Filming's. And we, of course, added blue, blue, nice, but in terms of like having camaraderie. Like, we have that shit.

We don't have to go through any warts like the pistons who didn't really make too much changes. We have no weird contract. You see our influence? We don't have no old vets. And now the building block of your team has to be fresh. I mean, it's true. That's what we have, right?

I think they're a good team. I think they can be the 60 clearly. I think if they're closer to shit, I'm not surprised. It's just there's so many teams that got better that somebody has to follow. Can't nobody in team dribble. Aaron Williams. Come on.

You forgot those two games. You bashed you over the head. Talking about nobody can dribble. What are you talking about? Next thing. Yes, two games. So what's the next team? Chicago Bulls.

They could be really bad. Yeah, the floor could be 14 seed. They could just suck shit. That's super possible. 14 seed? They could just be terrible. They could be bad. They could be one of the worst teams in the league.

It's been a minute that they have been to 14 C, Brown. I think this is the best state of their team. And the floor is always that low. I don't think they'll be there, but the floor is there. Okay. You know, I got against the floor. There's no reason they have to be a good team. 14th seat.

They could be one spot below the hawks. Yeah. 14th seed is sweet. Ceiling. I don't really, and the east is so deep. I don't see them being a top 16. If they're a 9th seed,

they could get to 9 and 10. I think that's the absolute ceiling. They've been like the 11th seed for the last four years straight, right? Well, perfect. We have perfect even math here. Floor 14, ceiling 9, realistic 11. Right between.

Let's keep it pushing. Great. Perfect. They all who they are. Easy math. Who's the next team? Toronto Raptors ceiling.

You're in the finals. I think if we get a slightly better year from hurdle and quickly in Barrett, stay healthy and we get a good vision of what that starting lineup can look like and it works and Kauai's healthy, that team could represent the east in the finals as a ceiling. See, the Kauai's healthy thing is that's just hard for me to get to

I agree. Yeah. That's why it's a ceiling, not the realistic. And we're going best case scenario, but even that, I don't know if, even in the east, I don't know if quickly embarrassed. are good enough to to carry you in terms of like your your rotation for

for four for three rounds I won't pick them either but I do think they have a chance to win the east it's whatever chance I think it's in cards as a ceiling yeah I think they have a great amount of deaths to do those things and I don't think quickly

quickly and Baird are more additive than they are like not good too yeah because they will not be my final pick but if someone tells me they are I will not say they're stupid yeah yeah yeah yeah

I can have it. Yeah, I think it's... No, no, I'm also assuming they make a move with the deadline and, like, bolster maybe another... Get another big or something? Yeah, or whether it be a fit starter or a six-man, like, I think, I'm just assuming they, like, continue to build on this a little bit. The mom-ery's on the way.

Well, that's crazy. You probably get into jobs. I do think it's as a ceiling, I think it's possible. Floor. Floor is playing. So many good teams, yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of good teams. Kauai misses a month and a half.

You fall down. What were they last year? they were the five seed no four seed i think last year they were the five seed yeah yeah so but so they they can definitely drop down okay uh realistic probably probably three seed i honestly three or four seed i think four i would say yeah so home home court advantage yeah a top four seed yeah only because it's so tough with the other competition no sign on in but yeah yeah i just think that their defense is just so good yeah realistic outcome is is tier two Eastern Conference team

that can make people shake. Sure. They can make cats knees buckle. Okay. Next. Miami Heat. I think a lot of teams in the East we're going to say the ceiling

is can't make the finals because there's so many good teams. Do the heat belong in there? Yes, 100% they do. I think their defense is fucking stupid. As a ceiling, yeah, can make the finals. But they need to make a deadline move. They need to get some type of shooting

or ball handling reinforcement. Brother, they have clay. Shabon. ball handling enforcement. We have clay. Dummy. Maybe the ceiling is Eastern Conference Finals.

Yeah, I don't know if their rotation is good enough to get them over the home. A year away. One more mid-level exception piece added? Yeah, so I'll say Eastern Conference Finals for the ceiling. I think I agree with that.

I think they can be extremely good, but it's hard for me to imagine they get through four playoff rounds with the deficiencies they have unless they add something major. But their strengths are like, are absurd, man. They could be the best defense

in the fucking east. We see more balanced teams beat these teams with an absurd strength a lot. True. They have absurd strengths, but if the Knicks are playing it the day before, there's not the weaknesses. Yeah, I could see that. They're not shooting the Knicks, bro, unless the Knicks fall off.

I don't think anyone in the league can do that right now. Well, if they're playing how they last year, you're damn shoot, right? They're not. But they probably won't. The floor? Floor is 60. I don't think there's, they're not a playing team.

Yonis wins regular season games. Yonis and Bam defense. And the heat, they win, they win games. I think the floor should be Loki. like fucking five seed four seed okay either way top 16 you don't fall to the playing top 16 for sure yeah

realistic uh it's so tough with this jumbled up amount of good teams here it should probably probably be like if we're splitting the difference it's the same like

about as good as the Raptors right like four or five range four realistically they might be four C but we can't for everybody. Maybe it's better to rate them off the playoff outcome. Yeah, yeah, you're right. I think realistic.

I actually don't know what the realistic playoff outcome is. Yeah. Because they can make the competition. Like if they get into the second round and let's say they play like the pistons or something and now you have Duren who's trying to make a leap but he's going up against Janus and Bam

and their entire defense stifles the pistons again. They don't make a move for a set. That's a bad matcher for the pistons. Right. Like they don't make a move for the another creator. then I can see them in the conference finals. What? Is conference finals realistic?

I feel like even the ceiling of the conference finals, once they're there, what's stopping them from making it all the way to the finals? The shooting. Yeah. The shooting. I just think that one of these other teams will be able to have a little bit more firepower than them. Yeah. Okay.

Realistic. Hard fought second round exit? Respectable second round exit? Sure. Sure. Okay. It feels a little bit disrespectful, but a lot, like you said, a lot of the stuff is jumbled up. Yeah, there's a lot of good teams out there.

Okay. New York Knicks. Sealing. Back-to-back champions. Finals again. Yeah. Stamp it. Floor.

We trade Cat in February because he's really upset about his contract and we fall off after win the championship because nobody repeats anymore. The camera she dies. We're not friends anymore. Oof. And Cat plays across the country. Oh. Across the country where?

Anywhere. Portland. Floor, it all falls apart. Oof. The court's like, I think you did right there. It's cooked. Realistic.

It's not cooked. I think realistic conference finals minimum. Yeah, that's the expectation. They just do that type of thing now. They make it deep. So Eastern Conference Finals minimum. But like you can win that.

And I kind of expect you're back in the finals probably. I agree. I'll say conference finals. Okay. Next. Ooh, Indiana Pacers. They can make, they could win the Eastern Conference. But do you feel confident enough to say it's their ceiling?

Like, is it? Their ceiling? Yeah. Okay. They can make the finals this year. Mm. Yeah, if we're just assuming Tyrese Halliborne's, there's no reason to say they can't be the second.

The Knicks are going to be the favorites to win the conference. After that, there's so many teams jumbled up. There's no reason to say the Pacers can't be in that tier. And I feel so much better betting on Halliborne because he did take a full year off. Yeah. As opposed to, you know, nine months or something like that. So I feel, I feel good about where the paces are at. I feel good about Bazubosh giving them, like, that upgrade over Miles Turner is massive.

Yeah. Because even in the series that they beat the Nixon, Miles Turner was getting fried by Kat. Like, they actually have somebody who can bang a little bit down low with him. Yeah. So I would say, I would say finals for them. The floor? The floor is playing. I do think that I, even though that I am very high on Halliburton,

if everything that we've discussed today, that he starts off slow, it takes a little bit of time. We've seen him go through some slumps. We've seen that offense be weird. Like, what if it just, what if they are the ultimate flip the switch team and they're like a post-all star team, a post-all-star break team? I mean, I could see that happening because even like two years ago. go when they did make the finals.

They started off the season mad slow. I remember you had like your rant, your telotuby outfit. Tyreys Allumon specifically was like he was not good at basketball at all. He was horrible that first month, bro. Yeah, exactly. So I can, same thing could happen. Playing is just so steep for me. It's hard.

Because I feel like this team is much different from the team that was casted two years ago. And guys like, of course they have Seacom now fully. And guys like Nemhard got. quietly better last season. No one just gives the fuck last two years ago or last year you saw like, what, 29% from three point line. This past year you saw like 36, 37, you know? So it's like, I think this team is well insulated to be like Tyresearch Halliburn

slow start to the season proof unless he's like this plane making is actually way off. We're talking a lot about all these teams and somebody has to fall to play and I actually do think they're immune from that barring injury. I do think they're fluoris. Immune. Okay. I mean, maybe it means the wrong word. I don't mean to mean literally.

but like when we're outlining the range of outcomes, like anybody can get hurt so they're not immune literally, but assuming decent outcome health-wise, I think a lot of the teams in the East have way more question marks than they do. Like the Philly thing, if they fall to the 7th seed because LeBron and Juella and B miss games

and it's hard to figure out how to build chemistry in that time, okay, Kauai could get hurt, the cabs, James Hardin's oldest dirt, that could fall apart for the regular season. There could be no spacing in the heat, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think the Patriots have that type of question mark,

assuming they're healthy. It's very boring, but I feel like the floor for a lot of teams is playing just because there's nine teams fighting for six spots. Yeah. Outside. I feel confident they're going to be that six team, I think, at least. So we have, what, like three teams already

that are top six, like, stamped? Yes, so far. Okay. And no, again, so funny, when we did the Western Conference last week, people were mad at us because we wouldn't let anybody get to have finals ceiling besides the top two teams. His life.

Here, fucking everybody can make the finals. Yeah. Yeah. Very different conferences right now. I agree. realistic four seat everyone was four seed

by my realistic tier two Eastern Conference contender yeah they're just in the bunch it's got a cop out though it is what it is

that's the state of this conference tier two Eastern Conference team yeah we just have to put everybody in two yeah yeah

okay next Brooklyn Nets floor worst team in the conference it's always possible

yeah you could tell me that MPJ gets hurt again or whatever and Julius Randall is just playing unhappy basketball. I believe it. Yeah, you can tell me they trade MPJ and they're just a 15C because none of the young players are coming around fast enough. I guess it's clearly possible other than Nets. I think you might be stuck to be in that though because I doubt they want to trade them.

Unless they get like some insane offer. I think they, Randall stuck there, but I think they probably trade Porter. We'll see. Yeah, obviously they can be the worst team in the conference. It's possible. Yeah. Can they make the plan this year? Can they make the plan?

They could. With two competent vets, Joe Min and Fernandez. Amazing coach. Amazing coach. If McHale Brown Jr. is like legit day one, he's like, no one gives a fuck, but he's like one of the five best rookies in the entire league. I could see that. 10 seat ceiling. Average in like 13 points a game or whatever.

Yeah. They'll have to be the last team. They'll have to be the last team in the play if they make it. But sure. That is your bar. Yeah. 13 and 15. We're giving it out of the candy.

You can have 14. You can have 14. You can have 14. If you could average 14, you're Mo's guys. You could do it. You're a real player. I'd flip that. I'd say Mo's guys can average 14. Just because they're most guys.

Yeah. Realistic. Probably like 12 seed. Actually, what do we say for the Bulls? We say 11? Yeah. So 12, I guess. Okay.

Yeah, realistic, 12 seed, which hopefully a year in which your young players make strides. You flip MPJ for picks, and you take a step in the right direction. I think they're better. They're going to be better than the Bulls, low-key. I just don't care about that combo.

I'm fine. You can have that. I think it's better than the bull. The bulls can be 12, they can be 11. Okay. I probably do I probably do agree though

if I thought about it. Washington Wizards. East is so crazy. The floor, if AD gets hurt again and Trey isn't as good as he once was, is you missed the playing

and are very disappointed. 13 seed. Worst team in the conference. Worst? I don't think it'd be worse. If everything bottoms, stop it.

If everything bottoms out, if AD gets hurt again, they can be the worst team in the conference. Well, he's not going to miss 82 games, probably. So I think 80 getting hurt, he's going to play enough games. Trey.

What's enough? Trey can, I don't know, whatever. 30? Whatever. Trey can be mid. That doesn't matter. Yeah, Trey can be mid.

You're still going to win some games. You do get a number one pick. Sorry, people are taking steps forward. I don't think they can be worse than the bucks. That's hard to imagine. I, I did.

I did. I did forget that the bucks were a team. Yeah. Like, sure. In a nightmare scenario where AD plays 10 games, I'm sure, but like that. So 14. They're going to be a good team, I think.

Like, they're going to be like, cool. I agree. I do think that there's a doomsday scenario for them where they fall down. I also don't know if they have a good coach. Yeah, we don't know anything. Who knows, bro. He's just a dude. I think we should expect them to be a playing team as the expectation.

Oh, he said realistic. Yeah, realistic. I think we should expect them to be a playing team. Oh, okay. So to me, the floor, which would be disobeying team. be disappointing is you don't make the plan with two star players on max contracts a number one pick and a slew of young players we have faith in you should be a playing team and i think just missing that as a floor is a massive disappointment for this team okay so for this plan okay like that would

that i agree that would be disappointing that would be disappointing that would be just gave trade young 40 million dollars a year for no reason and you and you still got ad you can't make the playing hell bread like that's crazy that would be such a fucking failure yeah what's her ceiling succeed yeah you just barely escaped to playing. Five. First team out to play in. That'll be great. That'll be such a success for them, bro.

Sixies wizards, that'd be kind of late. If Trey, if AD, you know, he lost that weight, he said Rob Blinka made me get fat. I didn't want to do this. I'm skinny now. I feel good. You play 60 games. Trey Young's back. Yeah.

They can be the 60. Amen. Listen, let me not body. Is he you? This is not my bad. Amen. This guy hates optimism. Let me calm.

that's the next team I'm not trying to be yeah Cleveland Cavaliers Donald's favorite fucking team the Cleveland Cavaliers the floor is playing

floor is playing no it's not no it probably is yes the hell it is it's gotta be they're gonna be good changes are we keep having this

combo come on man all their floor is a player they've never been that bad in a minute bro they've been so competent

but there's just so many they're like the one team of my mind where I don't imagine They've, they've stood through so much bullshit. They've never won like below 45 years and a minute. And eventually, and eventually it catches the team. You can't live your life like that.

You're probably right. You're probably right. They're the one team where I'm like, I don't see one where you make the play. You miss the plan, but or make it because. Can I can I? Go ahead. Go ahead. You know, retort.

Go ahead. I would love it. James Hardin, right, aging, less efficient. He's been aging. He's been less efficient. And it gets to a point. D. Mitch again instead of still doesn't adjust

and his scoring takes a his scoring and his efficiency takes a step back. Well, why? This is all playoff stuff you're talking about right now. No, I'm talking about. We've seen it in the regular season. But why would his regular season numbers take a step back? Because he's just not as good. Like, why? Why would you be?

Like, James Hardin's old. We've seen, we've seen, we've seen D. We've seen D Mitch for the last couple of years not have as efficient seasons, whether it be because of the setup up of the team, or because he himself is gunning and taking more responsibility of the offense, and we haven't seen the best version of him, whether that be with James Hardin right after Garland got traded. We've seen versions of him. Like, two years ago, we were like, okay, I don't know if it's Demit or Ant as the best guard in the league.

Ant has lapped him. We're not even in those conversations anymore. I don't think that it's crazy to think that. that DeMitch in as like a he's either 30 right now or approaching that in those seasons taking a slight step back he's gonna be mad right last year he had the second highest efficiency of his career at 28 points per game i don't know that he's showing signs of declines all i'm saying that like make it could happen you never know but like i don't know there's any reason to bet against him in the regular season context we've we have not talked super highly for playoff reasons yeah for even in the regular season

not in the regular season they're damn they're not a machine necessary they do have their hookup the haircups, but having just a regular NBA team, you have two bigs who are good defensive players, one of them being elite immobile who won DPOI, not that long ago. You have, Pey Watson there, who's an interesting young player

who can at least play really good defense. Who we don't know is amazing. For sure, but having hardened two good defensive bigs and someone like Donovan Mitchell's like guaranteed at least 25 a night or whatever it is, that just lends you to roll into wins everything. I do agree.

I think seven seed wouldn't be crazy. I don't think your initial point is wrong. I just don't think that throwing in like, hey, do you miss my falloff? Like, I don't really have a reason to doubt him like I do Harden.

And it's not going to be like a complete falloff, but like, just a regular step back. I know what you mean. I don't see why we break the step back like for anything other than like, shit maybe.

If Hardin had like some catastrophic injury or whatever, then it's like, uh, like, but even then I'm like, I don't know. I still think,

I think they're just, he's looking 30. He's six feet tall. So like, it's always possible. I'm not saying you're insane. They was saying stuff about Brunson a year and a half ago. Like, oh, yeah.

Brunton had 10 bag, or not even 10 bag, but he had a rough stretch. You was like, oh, yeah, the error is over. You might want to trade him real quick. Listen, man. I ain't all right. And now we're in October. That was a hundred months.

And I can't be like, oh, yeah. I'm kind of curious about DeMitch. You can be curious. Okay, whatever. I'll say floor. I think the, I think seven seed is a very reasonable floor. Sure, sure. I don't think it's ridiculous.

Sure. I don't think it's ridiculous. Go ahead. Just know, you're now a cabs guy. This moment establish that. So when the calves have a week that's bad, he's going to kill you. Okay. I mean, everyone has a bad week.

So, I'm just dead regardless. You're going to die. You're doing your grave. You're just on their nuts. They're going to be a regular team. You forgot. He's a Payton guy.

Oh, I never did. I never was a Payton guy. You have? You're doing Peyton Watson guy. You're doing all. All this jumping up and down for Payton Watson for me to be a Billing a bouncy house for paint Watson. We did our top 30 young players in league.

You ranked him top 30 over Palo. Only because Apollo, not him. I didn't. Did we rank Payne Watson? No. No. I just wanted to make a point about Palo. But you didn't have to put Watson on us.

I just used him as a puppet. That's all. I'm done with that. It's too much side. No fairs. Sealing. Back to the conference finals. I don't think they'll win it.

But like, fuck, no. No, there's no way they're making. I think they're a first round exit. Oh, they're getting melted in the first round. Yeah, they're a first round exit for sure. There's too many teams. I was going to say they can just get there again because somebody has to get there in a conference that can't blitz itself. So like they could get, it's a ceiling.

They can't do it. No. Never mind. Fuck you, you calves. Second round exit is a ceiling, I guess. They played the two least equipped teams to be in the playoffs last year. I agree. I don't like that.

And everyone got better. every ass, they're getting belted. Ceiling is second round exit? I got pushed to seven by the Raptors who had no offense. No, sealing his first round exits.

No, it's not. Yes, it is. They're not winning in the series this year. So, why are you, something in the water, y'all are so definitive with these Easter conference teams this year.

Because I just know a lot. It's so jumbled up. Fuck. Yeah, I just don't. Okay, so second round, maybe if like,

they play the heat and the heats offense. With the pistons again. They're losing to the pistons. They lose to the pistons. We're all over the place. We like the pistons, but it's convenient. No, I think I just like the pistons more than that. Fair.

Fair. I guess I can't be bad at that. Realistic. Realistic? Realistic first-time exit? That's how you're sure. Yeah. Okay.

I'm just, I have no pains on them anymore. I don't even know what to think. Y'all got it. My opinions for the Cavs is just there's no variances. It's very firm, bro. Obviously, I feel like that mad variance. Charlotte Hornets. They can be the 13th seed.

They can drop out of the plane and they can get lapped by some of these other young teams. And your offense not falls apart, but is very, very different without lamello. And you're trying to, you know, be in this space. Brandon Miller doesn't take a step forward. Khan takes a step back from a legendary shooting season. Yeah. Like, it could fall out. It's gonna hurt my soul if that was fake

and the con can't keep it up. Because that was, he looked like Clay Thompson. He can be good and still a very, very good three-point shooter. But the season that he had last year was insane.

Yeah, yeah, we should be. The bar he set as a rookie is like, you should be Clay Thompson. Yeah. Like literally, you should be one of the great shooters of your era.

That's the bar he set in his rookie era. It's gotta suck if he's not that. Yeah. So there's a lot of stuff that can take a step back. I can see a 13C for them. Yeah,

floor is the La Melo Trail was a disaster. Yeah. The defense is going to be atrocious next year. Realistic, I don't think they're going to be a good team particularly that matters. I think they're going to just miss the playing, honestly. They can be in the mix for the plan. Yeah, in the mix.

Okay, realistic, Tennessee. 10, 11, whatever. Realistic, you barely make the plan. Yeah. Sealing, you barely make the plan. Yeah. I think we're judging them out of the ceiling. You win a playing game.

Fair. You win a playing game. Ooh, new tier. You're right. There you go. Winning the playing games. I think there's, I will be. very, very surprised

that they're top 16. Yeah. Like that, yeah, if they're top 16, that means that, you know, Brandon Miller is a

fucking all-star and same with Con Cineppel, row. And I don't really see it on the Miller side. So to me, that would mean Canipal is like

the next elite shooting guard and, like, adds a lot of on-ball chops and he's like, he becomes what we always hope that Clay could be if he had his own team and has a real,

which, you know what, maybe the rookie year was legendary. We'll see. Okay. Next. Should have been a rookie of the year. All right. Philadelphia 76ers.

I mean, if we have our concerns, the ceiling is make the finals. Sealing's championship. Sure, yeah. Sealing can be championship. If everything goes right with that talent. And it beats healthy at the right time. Yeah.

Sealing is win a chip. But, man, the odds of getting to your ceiling with the team are very, very hard. It's a fine needle to stretch. Yeah. So the floor. Floor is playing. They have so much, so much outcome variance. I think they're top six team.

Yeah, I think they're top six. Because they make the plan last year, which they didn't. I don't know how they could happen. If Jailen Broder just routinely stays healthy. The same thing we said for everybody does too. Other teams got better. Like the same thing we've said for everybody. Yeah, but they got better too.

I agree. But I do think there's a floor here where they have the most catastrophe with all the moving parts they have that LeBron's extremely old. Jwell and B's never healthy. But even without those two guys, you still have a lineup of Maxie, BJ, Jalen Brown. Like I think that they still have, they have so many built-in answers because of the amount of talent that they have

that I don't see them falling below six. Okay. I wouldn't be shocked of their upper half playing team whatsoever. Just because even when they're all healthy, we have questions about the fit and like they can make it work because they're so talented,

but it's not like an obvious no matter what would be good. We have questions that even when they're healthy you can take time to figure out how to utilize everybody. Yeah. As far as winning regular season games, I won't be shocked at all

if they start slow to start the year. I think in terms of once the playoff comes around, I would bet that they're a pretty good team that's not going to be a disaster playmout. But for the regular season, I definitely see a world in which things aren't like a high win count. Yeah.

Okay. You don't go succeed for the floor? Yeah. I think so, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think top succeed. Realistic? Listen, I know LeBron didn't leave his family for this, but realistic is probably second round exit.

Damn, LeBron's sad. Has the serious. Second round exit. Man. Yeah. I could see you. I mean, history says with Dwell and B's on your team, you got a predestined outcome. True.

It's kind of ruining the stars. Who are we to side against fate? Exactly. Let them get back. I'm not Dr. Strange. What? They get bouncing the second round and what? I'm going crazy.

What if it's the Celtics that bounce them? I'm going crazy. What are you going to do? Don't worry about that. I'm worried about it. Don't. All right. Next.

My guys. Boston Celtics. Sealing, once again, I say, can make the finals. You think they can make the finals? Yes, he's just that out. Yeah, no, I'm just like. Yeah, this is that. Yeah, I do.

I think outside the Knicks, I think the Celtics should be in that second tier of teams that we all think have a chance. Yeah, I don't think the heat are. I don't want to be high on the heat, but. If you, to be fair, I suppose the Celtics have shown us. They also have some pretty big weaknesses

says I can come back to buy them in the playoffs like the heat do potentially. Yeah. So if you want to say conference finals, I'm not mad at it. Yeah, I would say conference finals. Because even, because you can. I'm high on them. I think they're really good. They can get to the playoffs.

So like their big rotation can fall apart very easily. Yep. With Mitch and Mitch can be hurt for the wrong week. And then now all of a sudden, you still got catered back there. And it's like, all right, man. Like, hold it down for a please. Yeah. Like if, if Mitch gets hurt and I'm,

I'm optimistic that Derek Wright will bounce back. If he does not, I'm nervous about that. But, I mean, they're the, they're Boston. For a playoff setting. Okay, playoff sentence fair. Yeah. But for a regular season setting, I think they should cruise and it should be like, I don't know, top four seed, maybe five seed or whatever.

There's always going to be some random role players coming out the woodworks and providing valuable basketball minutes for them. Playoffs are different, though. You're right. Okay. So the conference finals is a ceiling. Okay. Floor.

I mean, they lost in the first round last year. First round exit? First round exit. I guess so. Maybe you're super limited still. You need to jail and Antatem together. Paul George isn't ready for the responsibility he has, the second creator, and you die by the three again. Okay.

Tough. Realistic. Thank you, Rob. Sure. Split the difference. I think so. I kind of think each two cards finals can be realistic. But, again, there's too many good teams to make that a realistic claim for anybody.

Yeah. Okay, next. Milwaukee Bucks, floor, 15, ceiling, 14, realistic, 15. I think that's perfect. Smooth. There we go. That's the next team, man.

Smooth. Finally, a team we agree on and understand. Yes, what? We understand their place in this world. Who's gonna get a clue where? Pist is about to get, Tyler, we're vultures picking at these fucking, at these corpse of a team.

Pistons? Pistons? I think I mean, Huckus. Why not? Sound like a war type of guy. I can imagine the wars. Why not? I'll take him.

A couple second round picks. They're going to go get Norm Powell, man. That seems like their vibe. Like, I don't think the Pistons doesn't feel like they want to bring in another, like, big hydrate. I think that'd be a good fit for Norm Powell. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay.

Detroit Pistons. Floor is playing. Floor is playing? Yes. Okay. I'd personally be shocked. I think they're going to be very competent. They're going to be very good regular season.

I think the floor to me is embarrassing first round exit again. That we look up and we say, damn, this team didn't make any progress. Yeah. Okay. This is the floor. Should we make the floor Jalen Duren centric? Okay. Floor first on exit, Jalen Duren once again pisses down his leg.

Yeah. And nobody wants to trade for him because he pissed extremely hard. The stream was powerful. And everybody saw it and was like, don't want that. during disaster class Okay Okay In first round specifically

That's a key part Because if it's the first round again Does this air is cooked bro A ceiling Outside conference finals They damn near made it last year Yeah They were in a game seven to get to the conference file

They were two game sevens On the way on the road They couldn't make it last year man Are they barely snuck off past the magic Yeah They might be a second round Well, this is assuming that if you don't get the disaster class and Jalen Duren, the best case scenario is that he comes back from all this and it's like, I was embarrassed

last year. I'm back. I'm back now. He doesn't have a massive, massive drop off. You're still getting 18, 19 points, 9 to 10 rebounds. Actually, and you make the conference finals. And if Kate has another leap in him, then okay. Yeah.

You can have that. Your defense powers you. you can get there. So are we not entertaining the world they win the East? Nah. I think they can win the East. I don't understand the world.

I don't think you can win the East with the office. I understand the sentiment of like we doubt them. Before a ceiling, the ceiling doesn't include your 23 and 25-year-old All-Star are getting significantly better? I don't think they have, until you get that second creator, I'm never going to think that your ceiling

is winning three playoff rounds. Sealing Carver's finals then. Realistic. Second round again. I think realistic would just be the same team as last year. we've once again into a summer where we say you've got to fix these issues. It's a realistic, no change.

Yeah. Which is a problem. All right. Last team. Orlando Magic. Everybody's favorite team. The floor is the 10th seat. 10?

The floor is we trade Franz Wagner because it's a disaster. And we're changing this team entirely. Trade Franz. Okay. You think they do that in year one of a, like, I don't know if that would happen in year one of a new coast, that they would. wouldn't give them the whole year to figure out to the 12th at the deadline that's people aren't going to be happy we'll see they don't have a year bro like if they're the 12th

see guess what they don't have their pick this year guess what you could be giving up the number one overall pick there's no room I don't think they were given the whole year yeah yeah you have to they have to figure out I feel like you have to figure out things fast bro if you if you if they give them the whole year it's only because you want to wait to see what other coaches you might want to hire survived I mean but like I don't think that they're going to fire Sean if they're like the 12thie but I think that you just got to give them a chance for a. I mean, I don't think what I just outlined is not getting them a chance

because I think we have some pretty clear data that maybe this duo doesn't work. And if we see months of it not working still with a new coach, maybe it's a big sample size. Like that's not exactly, it's not 15 games, you know? So if we say that like new coach came in, this still doesn't work, let's give the new coach some input on how to pivot this team. I don't think that's crazy. Because, you know, it's not, you're not blowing it up.

You're just getting the- Kind of blowing it. up? I mean, I think in this scenario we probably argue that it makes a team better by subtraction because we need a better fit in the door to make Palo and Bain and Sug and everybody better. Just retooling, so. Fair Franz for

for MPJ and picks. You have a better space here in the door? Interesting. Fronson and Jermin? Hold on, whenever we're cooking. That'd be kind of fun. We've got a fire. Hold on. Make it happen. Okay. That's mostly a Frontergenit, because I like him.

I want to see him thrive on his own team. Sealing. There is always the world with this team. figures it out and the data we have when they're starting five together being really good bears itself out because they stay healthy. The ceiling to me wouldn't be surprising at their top four team. I mean, ceiling.

I think the ceiling is winning a playoff round. Okay, to me, I'm more focused on regular season success for them in the ceiling route just because the playoffs will be what they are. To me, it's about getting this team back on track over 82 games and showing that they have something here with this court. So I'm concerned about like, can we win 50 games?

Can we get to the four seed? Okay. The playoffs are going to be a bloodbath in the east this year. They could be a first round. They could be the Cavs where we could say, oh, it should have been a first round next year, but now you're in the conference finals because these teams suck. I don't know where they fall in that,

but like, can we win 50 games? Yeah, I think I can agree with that because they almost made in the second round. They made the second round last year in the seven game series or Franz just went out. And if he was healthy, they probably would have made the second round. I don't know if that means something obviously,

but they need like, they need to, going back to what you said earlier. Like, they need to build their pedigree and be a regular. regular NBA team Yeah Last year they won 45 games Can we break 50?

Yeah That means a lot But if you break If you break 50 And you still go out in the first round I don't think that that Is giving you any more Indication of whether or not

This team is like in the right direction Sure Especially because Palo's whole thing right now Is I'm Mr. Playoff Ryzer I get buckets I put the team on my back

Y'all haven't won a playoff series And that's my point. I'm like, I don't have faith in them in the playoffs. So I don't even care yet. We haven't even gone to that point yet because show me in the regular season that I, did you deserve me to have faith in the playoffs? That's what was more important to me right now. Just because like,

I'm not even thinking about the playoffs with them whatsoever because I have no faith. They probably are. I'm sure. Yeah, they probably still think, especially because Franz went out last year. They're probably saying to themselves, if we were healthy, we would have,

we would have won a playoff series for the first time in this era. I think that that is kind of the bar that they're holding themselves to. Yeah. or that they should. Realistic. That's fair. Realistic is probably like 70. Yeah, 17.

17. You just stay who you are and we're just looking up saying what now. Yeah. Realistic. What now? What now? Realistic is also you trade sucks. Yeah.

That's a part of it. What now? Somebody's got to go. I'd not envied the position of a magic faner now. They have just enough hope to keep themselves going and just enough reason that hope will probably get squire. And they'll just be like stuck in what now forever. That place sucks.

The weird team. I would hate to be there. Tough. Couldn't be me though. I know. It could be me. Yeah, but you actually have somebody on the team. Uh-huh.

I know the pain of mid. All right. Y'all ain't made. Well, I've known mid a lot of years. That's what I'm saying. I'm not new to that mid-shed shit. Yeah, shit's crazy. I'm not new to that little bit of glimmer of hope, but still mid-shit.

I was born through that. Okay. That is the floor, seeming and realistic for every team in the NBA. And that's to end this episode. People are still here. What should they comment?

Let me know who you, if all the teams in the lead that Donovan hates, power rank the top three of teams you think Donovan hates the most. That he has the most just like vitriol for that. Obviously there's a lot of vitriol out there.

Try to like rank them based on like what's the least reasonable where the anti-takes are like clearly hate and not like legitimate criticism. Because those two things blend together a lot with him. It's hard to parse it together. So I'm going to see y'all's analysis of where the lines are. Okay.

I'd be analyzing in the comments. And we'll see y'all next week.