The Deep 3 Podcast - The Mavericks Just Ruined Their Team | Ep. 30

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

The Mavs are failing Luka DoncicSign up for Underdog Fantasy today with promo code "TD3" to double your first deposit! ⬇️ https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-the-deep3Join the TD3 Discord!: https://discord.gg/e63QYQYrVAListen 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 Instagtam!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacgMuhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So I know we talked about them last episode, but I think we had to double down and start this episode off by talking about the Dallas Mavericks and how much of an utter failure they've been since the trade deadline. It's a victory lap. It's a victory lap. I told you off from the moment the trade went down that they were going to get worse. And everybody was like, they have Luca and Kyrie. How are they going to get worse? Exactly what I said. The defense is no good.

Jason Kidd is a fraud and has been exposed. And now the Mavericks are sitting outside of the play in. wondering, like, listen, vibes are terrible. They might not make the playing? With Luca and Harry? Damn! The playing? Listen, it's dangerous out here.

It's dangerous. Can someone please tell me what's their record with Kyrie and Luca so far? I don't know, but it's not good. It's four and eight. Yeah, and in the last five games, they had lost four in a row. But then luckily yesterday,

they beat the Pacers who were purposely trying to lose and rolling out some of the worst lines we've ever seen. Rick Carlyle donated his old team a win as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. But before that, four straight losses. They're now with the 11 seed at 37 and 39 for the season. They lost two straight games to the Charlotte Hornets who didn't have lamello ball,

Terry Rozier, or Kelly Ubrey. Yeah, no. They got pieced up by PJ Washington. He was looking like Joellen B. We need to put PJ Washington versus the Mavs in the MVP conversation. This is disgusting. This is disgusting commentary for that. Man.

And then to have the vibes as low as they are. Luca, Luca is coming to the press conference afterwards. He's saying he's not smiling. Things aren't fun. And look, he's dealing with some personal stuff, some stuff off the court. But it's just not a good situation out there in Dallas. Clearly his personal life is having some issues going on. We won't talk about.

But his work life isn't helping. I'll tell you that. We're doubling down on pain for Luca Donchitz. And then you got Kyrie to the side, you people. Kyrie is one of the worst NBA players to ask any questions to when you're team is going through any type of disarray, bro. The worst, he's doing nothing but bringing the team chemistry down.

We'll talk about that, though. Absolutely. People have been a little unfair to Carrey Irving in this whole debacle because, you know, it's easy to blame it on him with his past of actually taking teams. I don't think this is a Carrey Irving issue per se. We'll get into that. But you're right. When it comes to

media ongoings and dealing with people asking questions about his team struggles, that's not the guy. That's not the guy. Zero patience. Yeah, let's get into specifics of why they suck. Before that, if you guys are watching on YouTube, do us a favor, drop a like and subscribe.

Go to the link in the, can't even talk. Go to the link in the description, join our Discord, follow us all on Twitter. If you're listening on audio platforms, rate us five stars, download every episode for us, so we see those numbers go up. And yeah, let's talk about these masks. Let's do it.

Donovan, you told us already. You took your little victory lab. You called it. Tell us from the jump why you thought they'd be worse. I thought that, listen, So I thought that Kyrie would help the offense. I don't think that like the idea of them having two stars and two ball dominant stars was going to hurt. We've seen Kyrie play off ball.

Yeah, for sure. In his career, I didn't think that was going to be an issue. My big thing was you are asking for a very dominant offensive team who traded away their best wing defender to now pick up the pieces and gel in a very, very short amount of time and to become a solid defense. and I didn't think that that was going to be able to happen, considering that they were already a very poor defense. And the way for a team to kind of be successful around Luca Donchard's is you're going to have to have defenders and shooters, right? It's kind of like the LeBron model that we saw for the last 10 years

is let him handle and direct everything. Let him cook. Exactly. Let Luca cook, have some guys who can knock down shots and kind of hide him on defense. When Luca and Kyrie are in your back court for a majority of the game, it's very hard to hide two people on defense. And then it's very hard to hide three people on defense whenever you put Christian Wood into that equation.

Same hard of ways in a lockdown defender either. Exactly. So now you're trying to hide four guys. That's impossible. It's impossible. And that just means that you're going to have a bad defense. They're backing a lot of, like they're dangling their only hopes of being an okay defensive team. on Maxie Kleber

Who has to be known from the jump That they were done and he hasn't even been all that great Like whatsoever I just had faith in Kyrie and Luca Because like I just didn't assume I didn't see an impossible world That they could get worse as a team But that world is here

And we're all living in it And Maverick fans are all in the most tumultuous state of mind Now they're calling for their coach's head Everybody's talking about Or Christian Wood is liking cryptic tweets as usual and shit like that defenses and shambles as you all know josh green has been a young player consistently up and down and shit like that and if anyone if there was any there needs to be a book put out there by the dallas mavericks and mark cuban on how to

lose a franchise player one-on-one for dummies this is the perfect example there is a book about this it's dan gilbert's cleveland cavalier than what they did with lebron james he's following that motherfucker he's doing the exact same thing this man read it word for word bro and he's doing a magnificent job He didn't even change any words. He just copied the paper straight up. Exactly, bro. It's interesting because I was a little higher than Donovan was. I wasn't thinking they're going to be that contenders like some people were,

but I was like, they'll be a little better, right? Like they got a star ball handler who was an incredible offensive player. How could they not get better? People like Donovan and everybody else was saying that, you know, they lost Doreen-Smith. They're already not a good defensive team. That's not going to bode well for them. I was on the side of, listen, it's Dorian-Fini-Smith, not Kau-Lennard.

Like, their defense will survive without him. Like, he's a really good defender, but he's not going to be a difference. And their defense wasn't even all that great when he was there still. And he was hurt for most of the year, and they stayed afloat. It was like the four or five seed. But I think, looking back, one, we still have to get a little more time, right? Because there's been some positive elements of Kyrie and Luca together, but they need any more time to gel and be able to take advantage of all the matchup opportunities they bring.

But even outside of getting the benefit of the doubt, when you think about it, from the team last year that was in the Western Conference Finals, they got rid of their second best player, third best player, and fourth best player in exchange for Kyrie Irving who is a star that needs a lot of time to gel. That was never going to be

a winning recipe for immediate success. That's so tough. That's so tough. Like you guys said, this is just how to lose a franchise player one-on-one. And like,

for them to go all in on Kyrie and go in all on the star when clearly, like, the issue last year was you just don't have enough guys around Luca. And they would have been better. They would have been better off

keeping Jalen Brunson and keeping Dorian Finney Smith and being able to have Spencer Dinwood he too. Yeah, and being able to have a little bit of depth around Luca to where now he doesn't have to feel like he has to have 40 and 10 every night. And I know that Kyrie takes a lot of that pressure off, right? Because now, because Kyrie can score 30 and he's been great, right? And again, and I think we all think this, like this hasn't been

Kyrie's fault at all. No, not whatsoever. Right. Not everybody thinks that, though, so we should talk about that. Yeah, I don't, listen, Kyrie. Kyrie has been doing Kyrie things. I feel like at the start of Kyrie's tenures with a lot of his teams, he comes out firing. And when he's been on the court over the last two years, he's been fantastic.

Like he's finished with 50, 40, 90 splits several times with high, high points per game. So I think if you're asking for him to kind of replace that role that Jalen Brunson is, he's a supersized Jalen Brunson. and he can carry an offense to a level that only a few people can do and especially playing off the ball with Luca that elevate your offense and we've seen that the problem is and we just can't stress this enough the 22nd in defense since since the all-star break like that's just tough it's hard to it's hard to stay afloat like that

let's get more specific than just defense though because the 22nd defense they're what says 27th in rim defense because they are the smallest fucking team in the world. This team has zero size. One, like you said, having Luca, you have to hide him on defense. Kyrie, I wouldn't say you have to hide him. He's a decent defender, but he's not elevating anybody. Like, at best, he's fine, right?

But he's not making up for Lucan anyway. You put Tim Hardaway Jr. out there, Josh Green out there. They're okay, but they're 6'5. Like, they're not big people. Christian Wood, not a big guy for a center. Maxie Klebe was been hurt and coming back hasn't been the same. Dwight Powell was a fine backup center. You're having him start.

They're just... Dwight Powell. just blow by after blow by after blow by zero size yeah and then they they finally started playing i saw javille mcgee get a lot of burn yesterday but throughout this entire season he's been absent on the bench because supposedly he's been asked i can answer that question correct he's been terrible or not but he hasn't been good i'll tell you that and like the intriguing part is so the idea of them right is having these two ball handlers that can do sort of a not it's not can be the same, obviously, because it's different, but similar to the LeBron and Kyrie pairing,

where you have the big ball handler who can be the lead playmaker, and then defer to the same secondary guard, who can be the go-to score. In theory, they can do the same thing. You know what I see in my mind? I feel like an even better comparison would be, like, what the Rockets try to create with Chris Paul and James Harden and just having all those straight-up defensive-minded players. They did. They got the superstars right. Kyrie and CP3, completely different players, but you know what I mean. Elite, Elite bonding regards, but they have they have no support system around those guys

who help those guys direct weaknesses. I think it's also a testament to how brilliant Hardin and Chris Paul were in that team. The fact that we've seen the maps try it, the fucking Hawks tried it, which is always going to be doing, in my opinion. The fact that teams try to replicate that and can't do it shows you how just brilliant

of basketball minds Hardin and Chris Paul are because that shit only worked because Chris Paul, while being one of the best pastors in the world, is an incredible offball player, Fantastic catch and shoot Three-point shooter James Hardin High IQ

Obviously isn't a good Offball player But can be the lead guy While Chris Paul plays off him When you look over at these teams Lucas is not doing anything off ball We said they could be like LeBron and Kyrie What that involves is

Lucas setting screens for Kyrie Like LeBron did for Kyrie That was kind of like the bread and butter Those Cavs teams They're not running any pick and rolls With these two guys so far on the Mavs I think I was listening to Zach Lowe

He brought it up I think they ran 37 screen so far involving those two guys since they have been playing together for the last 16 games which Luca didn't even play in all of them 13 of them involved Luca setting a screen for Kyrie and 24 is the inverse of Kyrie setting a screen for Luca

when they do do it 1.5 points for possession and 1.6 that's incredible numbers average is like one so when they do it it's amazing they just don't do it because that's not how Luca plays yeah exactly and bro the timing is just so tough of all of this the mass put themselves in the most

disastrous position ever because guess what But if their pick lands within top 10, it's not theirs. Nope. And right now it's looking like with the trend that they're going in right now, their pick is going to be top 10 and it belongs to Donovan's New York Knicks. So at that point, the Knicks, I mean, the Mazz are really cooked. And they owe a 229 pick from trading for Karee? There's no way to be top 10 pick.

I'd be fucking nuts. There's no way to keep backsliding. I doubt it. I mean, listen, the way that they're losing, right? A lot of ping pong balls. has twice exactly the way that they're losing they their ping pong balls can drop and drop and drop i think listen they have they have they have one of the bleakest outlooks in my opinion just because they have to give kair irving a max contract oh yeah like that that offer has to be on the table

you don't know what lucidant is thinking you don't have 100% like grasp about the assets that you have the best assets that you have to trade are josh green and hardy to package oh hardy yeah to package with those with those picks but is that like really moving anybody to get to get anything of worth like bro we saw we saw teams turn down four first round picks for for oj and and no before mikhail bridges like people the prices the price is gone up Yesterday's price is not today's price. Nope. And so Josh Green and Jada Hardy aren't going to be enough to get them the depth or a third star that they need.

So it's really, really tough out there. Yeah, and Dallas doesn't even have a history of, like, attracting free agents like that. Which is so weird. Let's talk about this. Bro, you're right. They don't. But, man, they fucking want to. Do you look at the Mavericks right now?

Their biggest problem, they are obsessed with Clout and want to be the Lakers so very. bad. Every decision they make is based on chasing the biggest name. They hired a former Nike exec to run their team. Bro. Shout out to him. I love some Nike shoes. What the fuck does he know about running a basketball team? Let's go. A couple of years ago, their top dog, their big honcho back in the summer of 2018 when they got Luke, I believe. Their biggest free agent was DeAndre Jordan. And they didn't get him. Or they did later, but you know, they're constantly chasing this. Bro, D'Andre? He's on your drawing board you know who the coach is they lost rick carlyle the best coach in mavericks history

and they go get a former hall of fame point guard who last time he coached he was horrible and guess what he's still horrible yeah and on top of all this they're putting the balance and the future of their entire franchise on one of the most unpredictable superstars that the NBA has seen in kairie irving you know why you know why they did it because he's mad popular that's it they want to be clouded so bad I mean, listen, if you think it just, it really doesn't make sense why they haven't been able to get the superstar, right? Like, Mark Cuban has shown that he's willing to spend money. The Mavericks are in Texas and financially, it makes a lot of sense.

There's no state income tax. So your dollars go further there than they would in like Los Angeles, New York, or a place like that. Dallas is a cool city, right? NBA players, they like to be at the nightclubs over there. Especially Zion. I don't. Apparently, I don't. I don't understand why for decades

They haven't been able to get the guy And it's like I kind of understand why you had to trade for Kyrie Because if nobody's going to come there Then you're just like We just have to give up the assets To get somebody in the building And then maybe we can like have them

You wanna know why they haven't got them Because they're constantly trying to get them And not building the right way Which isn't to say they're not building the right way But they're not focusing on that They're just overly thirsty Yeah What the reason a team like the Nets

Who they're in New York But they were the Nets They were the Little Brother team. The reason they got a KD and a Kyrie at one time is because they built the right way, accumulated a bunch of assets, did shit the right way, and then that's going to naturally bring a star

because they were attractive. They were one of the most attractive destinations ever. And then threw it all the way. Neither here nor there. But the point is, unless you're the Lakers, literally just the Lakers, you're not going to get star players

just for simply being in a city. You have to also do the other half of it and build the right way. And they've done their part, right? They made the trade for Luca. They draft during Finney Smith, or not even drafted it, undraftedly signed him they draft jalen bruns in the second round they make these good moves to be a good

team but then they throw it away because they're chasing the fucking stars they don't want to pay jalen because they oh we can pay a star next summer then they trade those other guys you're and even if you're like doing all this i feel like a big part of when it comes up a big part of going for the big fish like this has to be the absolute perfect big fist because especially the team i don't all the teams in nb yeah i feel like even before the lucre trade the mavericks have like little to no error left on their palette because of how good Luke is and so like that and how much little they have to work with and like you just have to be really precise and cautious with any move that you make any pick first round second I don't give a damn you have to be very stingy

with what you do and they just do it all the way like you said Isaac and like they're just from my perspective they're just very impatient this is a really impatient move and I understand it they have all this pressure on their backs they just made the western conference final the year prior but they should have just been more patient and gone after another star potentially who knows maybe jalen brown uh whatever but people are always out there you know people are always out there and they'd have gone a better bang for the buck that they gave up but now it is what it is and they're going to be through the torquered chamber of lucodont's trade rumors and as a hawks fan i am happy because the maz are in the exact same position as us a lot of people gave us hell y'all were calling trade

this and that and I'm just happy bro. Hawks and Mads are literally the same team. Honestly they both have got too good too fast because their stars took big leaps and they had to match it. It's a little more justified with Donchitz but you're right. When it comes to like accumulation of just mistakes

that's been the definition of this team. They have Seth Curry. They trade him for Josh Richardson because he fifth next to Luca. Doesn't work out. They lose Richardson for nothing. They trade two firsts for KP. It doesn't work out. They trade him for Spencer Dinwiddie and Bertan. who doesn't even play. I don't even know if he's on the team anymore.

He's on the team. He barely plays. Yeah. The 2029 first on pick for Kyrie, throw it away. That might work still, but it's not working. They lose Brunsman for nothing.

Like, the shit just adds up over time. And you look back a few years later and you're like, wow, we have zero assets and a star who is not happy. Yeah. This mismanagement is generational. Like,

I love what I'm seeing right now. I love what I'm seeing. It's like it's like it's like, it's like, Nick's-esque. Yeah. God, man. It's like they,

and it's like initially after every single good, And you know that. Yeah, that's kind of crazy. For the audio listeners, I only, I purely said that for Donovan's reaction. And his face 100% was worth it. If you're not watching on YouTube, go switch to YouTube and look at him with Donovan's face just now. That was not.

Oh, my God, bro. What's next? What's next? Let's move on before Nick Slander gets too high. Oh, we can talk about some Nick, Sander. I got some more. Bro, ever since we dropped that clip, they've been asked, done. That was not on the rundown.

Stick to the script. We'll save the Nick. We have somebody else to Slander. Listen. Who we slandering? Joelle Embed, I did an interview with Shams two days ago. The general thesis he wanted to come across when he sat down with Shams, Sharania, was to say, I don't care about the MVP race.

I'm not trying to build my career around winning an MVP. He said that, right? Yeah. Every other word he said in that interview was the exact opposite. He was on there straight whining about not winning the MVP. It was crazy. I get it, though. I understand it.

It's very funny because he was sneak this and Yokinz the whole time. it was barely sneaking just say his name at that point damn yeah i mean he didn't he didn't say he didn't say his name but i so the quote was right he says he says people have been talking about who has the most pressure to win people want to

people want to mention me i'm not at the top of the list i'm not a two-time MVP i've never made first team all NBA i've never won anything so why is their pressure on me to do something when there are guys who've won two mvps a bunch of mvps and haven't done anything either which a hundred percent is why like why are you giving me all the criticism when Yokic has gotten everything

that I've deserved and Yokic has stolen these awards for me and y'all won't and y'all won't slander him that was like the third most interesting quote there's a few others this was a long interview bro no it really was another thing you said was

I don't blame him though okay well I'll talk about let's go through the other things he said first another one he said were sham's referenced stat padding since that's been a narrative Joel said he doesn't need a stat pad right he said it is coming naturally

Evening as the Bulls I could have easily stat padded if I wanted to But I don't care I could have easily come back in And got a triple double And make sure that I keep going after the scoring title Or keep the 30 point street going whatever But I don't care

Do you hear I don't care I could have did this and this and this and this That he's doing but I don't care Wink wink wink Like he's what are you doing He's saying he doesn't care Whining his ass off the whole time

And then after this interview When it's like Shams waited to drop this interview Like on the day that he was supposed to play against Nikola Yokic. He did. And then he just, you said what? He did do that on purpose, you're right? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And fucking M.B. doesn't play. And now that you just let everyone down, you're saying all this, no way in hell. Well, if anyone was to not be on the internet whatsoever, it will probably be Yokic. He's probably the only NBA player to do that. But, bro, this was a huge marquee matchup, and this could have potentially solidified the MVP for Mbid, you know, in terms of narrative, because that's what we are right now. To be fair, that's probably a team.

not his but you're right even if it's a team decision bro like prepare like miss skip the game against the warriors skip the game against the phoenix suns you lost both anyway so what would have been the point so it's at this point it's one for straight it's all i'm saying god man yeah the nuggets won four straight and the MVP talk just keeps on swinging like a damn pendulum so it's like i don't even know what we basing off these days anymore but this is a very disappointing everything disappointing about this, bro. Because Joelle and B also doesn't know what we're basing it off of.

The third and final quote that I want to talk about in here is Sham said, Janice recently told The Athletic he believes that MVP criteria is ever changing year to year. Do you agree? And I'm about to read you

this long-ass paragraph that Joelle said and let me know what you think he feels after you read this. Let's do it. The criteria does change. If you want to talk about the last three years since I've been in the running

for it, the first year it was that didn't play enough games. Last year I came back, I played enough games I led the league in scoring And obviously Nicola deserved it and he won it But then again he won as a six seat in the West And this year I'm leading the league in scoring I'm doing all these things defensively

I should be making an all defense team too I don't care But every year it's something And when you add analytics into it Which don't make sense You can talk analytics all you want When you got some guys in the league The I test tells you they're not good defensively

But analytics tell you they're the best defenders Crazy sneakness And he said that's when analytics don't make sense at all I don't make the rules I don't choose whatever criteria they use so it's really about whatever people's preferences are does he sound like he doesn't care to you

no he clearly cares he cares mightily he clearly cares and I don't blame him for caring I really I really I really don't listen these things like these accolades one they're tied in with people's money right people you can you can get bonuses off of MVP's off of first team

all NBA stuff like that exactly millions of Supermaxes. Generational wealth of dollars. So I understand if he feels that he's been slided out of $30 million by Nicola Yolkidge because of this changing thing, right? That's one. And two, when you're the best player on the best team or one of the best players in the

league, a player with Joel and B's talent, at the end of the day, you're going to be judged by how many championships you got? How many times did you make the finals? And then if you don't have all that, okay, do you have MVP's? Do you have, you know, all-star appearances? You might end up in the situation that Damien Lillard has where the only thing that he has in his career is Rookie of the Year and All-Stice.

He doesn't have anything else. He has a three-point contest and an improved beard. You're saying a beard? Yeah, he has an improved beard. And he's a bubble MVP. He's a Mickey Mouse champion. I forgot about the Mickey Mouse MVP. He had the best eight-game stretch of the bubble.

That's big. But yeah, like for Embed, these are the two best big men in the league. And I can, I can understand how it is very frustrating for Mb who's one of the best two-way players in the league to look across the conference and look across the league and be like, y'all think that this guy is, white boy. Exactly. Big facts. Keep talking. Keep talking. Keep talking.

Because that Kendrick Perkins' narrative is winning right now. God, I hate that man. Yeah, I feel for MB, but at the same time, I just don't. want to hear all of this and then you proceed and you're hearing all this after like two back to back i would say not bad losses but discouraging losses against contenders you would say in the warriors and the phoenix suns and then you go ahead and skip the game against it's not his it's not it's probably not his fault you're probably right eyes against the whole team decision and shit like that but it just overall not a good look when it comes to the drama scene and the drow and the

the community in the NBA currently so I just I don't know like this talk this type of talk would be nice to hear this interview would be nice to hear let's say after you had a big game against Joel and beat or whatnot then now put kind of the nail on the confidence but now I feel like the NBA um the MVP award race is still not it's probably wide open still when it comes to honest Embed and Yolkich so I just it's so weird I was I was I was thinking about the last episode and how you said Yonis was your MVP and should be in these conversations and I was like damn he probably should but then I also thought to myself he probably may not be in it because he missed like 15ish games and historically speaking or whatever like there's only been

one ever play one is that why he's not in the conversation I've been wondering why the fucking is in history who's one MVP with missing a little bit more over 15 games and I was like back in the 60s or 70s it's like it's like I think bill watson one MVP playing like less than 60% of the games. Yeah, exactly, you know, but yeah, times are crazy. For the Embed thing, I'm sounding like a hater, like, I'm just like telling him he's being a crybaby

because he is, but it's not that I have an issue with him caring. He should care. This shit matters. Like, it should matter to you. You said, it's your career. Like, it's okay to care about these things, but it's whack as hell to be playing the card of like, oh, I don't care. I'm not chasing MVP. I'm not sad. I didn't win it. And then everything you're saying is

shady as hell showing about just how much you do care. Like, just say that. Just say I want to win Like doing both Like if James Hardin was saying this stuff And how people feel about James Hardin They'd be eviscerating him Like they'd be cooking his ass

James Harder he did Remember James Hardy came out And they cooked him Exactly James Hardy James Harding came out and was like Listen I wish I was seven feet And I could just run and dunk But I actually have to play basketball

You know what Joel said I wish I was seven feet in white And I could just not try hard Like it's what he's saying 100% He should care He should care and I just own it

I think listen I think that Joel is going to get MVP this year and I hope that I hope that he wins some playoff games because that way because I really hope that he gets it that way there's no more excuses for him and it's like you have your MVP

you have your scoring titles let's go out and let's win some playoff series and then we can talk like that that's all it should be about which apparently to him that's all he cares about he only cares about winning championships and this sounds like a pity MVP man

to be honest to you. I feel like it just wouldn't feel right with Embed leaving his NBA career without winning jack shit, not an MVP. He hasn't been to the Eastern Conference finals yet or anything like that. And I feel like at some point, I feel like a lot of the NBA voters, like they've came to an conclusion like this dude cannot walk away from this game without winning anything. And this has to be the year. Regardless of if they really think he's the better player or the most valuable player this season, I think it may be still Yolkich personally. but like regards to the fact it just doesn't me personally it just doesn't feel right like fuck all the fuck the pity shit or it feels right you know this may be the only one of the last chance or one of the last chances that imbid might have well actually let me not say that because these last three three straight seasons i don't think this is ever happened before too it's been the same three players in the exact same conversation so that's crazy well last year booker was third over yonis but yeah same type of thing i can't believe it was it was it was

nasty. Look who was third. So that was pity. That was pity. But that was like within the last two weeks of the season. People get pity third place votes all the time. For sure. Every year there's pity third place votes.

Yeah. Exactly. But I feel like this may be the first pity first place vote. The first place vote. So the third. Yeah. You might be honest. I'm not going to say that because he is deserving.

Like he's equally deserving. I joke that you could say. But the tiebreaker is going to be. This guy is two. This guy is none. Which. Exactly. Listen, there's a human element.

That's always going to be a thing, implicit biases. It's dumb as fuck if you're trying to be, like, objective. But it's going to be impossible to avoid with human voters. Yeah, exactly. I'm not mad at it, too. If I was a voter too, I might just be, like, here so he can shut the fuck up and no grill me on Twitter because I think they release all the voting ballots and shit like that and who you vote for. So it is what it is, bro.

I'm just saying we need a Nuggets versus Sixers finals to just, like, cement this. Tell us who's the best one in the biggest stage. I need to see it. That would be crazy. That would be crazy. That would be amazing. Because Embed would average 32 and Yokeesh up at 24 and he'd win. And then people would be like, oh, but you scored on him.

He ate his lunch. He had no defense. Yeah. It's just not good for discourse moving forward. Yeah, it's a nasty discourse. I'm so sick of the MVP conversation. Like, the NBA community is not going to see heaven as long as the MVP award exists. We need it.

But we need it. It's, it's low-key kind of fun, though. Usually, not this year. No, it's fun. I kind of like, it's always fun. I hate it this year. It's a little toxic, it's a little toxic, and it throws a little bit of spice. That's what I'm saying.

It throws a little bit of spice into the conversation. And so I, I need this, though. I need the, I know toxic. Exactly. I need toxic MVP conversations. See, I like, I like when it's toxic a little bit. Like, Russ versus Hardin was toxic because it was like, you know, they're polarizing players, which side are you on, but it was still basketball stuff.

It was like, you know, this guy is carrying nobody to succeed. He is. Other people were like, he's a stat pattern. He's inefficient. It doesn't help, so-and-so. But, you know, it was basketball conversations. Now it's just like, who can have the most illogical, anti-intellectual take, whichever side they're on?

Like, the things we're holding against each guy is so stupid, and it's just, like, not based in reality, and it bothers me. Something that really irritates me, too, like, something about, It's always irritates when players or people just grab crayon-eater arguments and apply it. They package it as a blanket statement as if everyone thinks this way. And specifically about this large article, this dude said because of advanced stats, Yolkich is an elite defender or top. No one truly thinks that shit.

When you think about elite defender, who is thinking about Nikola Yokic? You're thinking about guys like Yonis, Jaron Jackson, Jr. Rudy Gobert for his past day is like yo come on now let's be for real no one in their

right mind is saying seriously saying that seriously and everyone's always like people only vote for yoghitch because they're analytics I'm like

or because he's averaging 25 10 and 10 like it's also incredible like yeah they just pick and choose and dump off random points

from terrible arguments and then they just they're talking themselves into things it's just losing like you guys were applauding yokish you're averaging

a triple double when Russell Westbro did it he was stat patting because Russell the Westbrook had a 55% true shooting and Yokish has a 70% shoot shooting, motherfucker. Like, it's obvious. God, man.

I love this, though. Because this is why we're employed right now, Isaac. If there was no dumb-ass argument to be made, if we didn't hear any nasty crayon-eater arguments on a consistent basis or NBA Twitter and any Instagram, TikTok, and stuff like that, then there would be nothing to put our foot down on and, like, conversable. This is the beauty and also the sucky part about the NBA community. I'd rather converse by other things if it was me personally deciding, but

Oh, then go be a baseball fan, okay? Go talk about hockey, all right? Go talk about war, exit velocity. All the crap I'm talking about. That stuff sucks. That's what separates the NBA from any and every other. The stupidest baseball stat I've ever heard.

Well, do you know what that is? No, what is it? It's how fast the ball comes off the bat when you swing. Yeah, it's literally how fast, How fast does the ball leave the stadium? Oh, my God. Except velocity. Like, how hard are you hitting it that it goes fast?

That is incredibly lame. That is incredibly lame, bro. Yeah, baseball analytics are what bagged Twitter thinks basketball analytics are. They think we're measuring, like, the degree of yokech passes. Like, we're talking about the right angles he throws at. God, bad. Yeah, that's nasty work. That's nasty.

Yeah, man, we can move on. I hate the MVP conversation. Sadly, we're going to be drowned in it for the next couple weeks, so everyone, One can prepare to hear us talk about this more, but I'm not enjoying it. Let's talk about, let's keep it up with another sad story. Not sad in a direct way, but implication way. The Portland Trailblazers have shut down Damien Lillard, effectively decided to tank for the last 10 games of the season, which, you know, is fine.

They're the 14th seat or something like that now. Actually, I think they're 12 or 13. But, you know, they're said there's no longer any point of us. rolling our guys out there let's just throw in the towel and play for a good draft pick and while that'd be okay on paper right the 13 seed gave up that happens all the time this 13 seed has a point guard who is averaging 32 points six assists and five rebounds on the best shooting percentage of his career who is lighting the NBA up not getting any younger and refuses to leave what do we do what do you want me to say like he

damien litter doesn't want to leave Portland and Portland doesn't want Damon Lillard to leave you have a situation that is built for mid to to consist to thrive right this is a thriving situation for mid if both parties are okay with being the 12th to 13 seed every single year then hey that's what they want let them live their life and we just got to move on we just got to accept that they don't want to prosper in the Damian Lillard era that's just not that's just not going to happen or else they would have made moves to actually go help Damon Lillard and if they don't think that they can do that trade him and actually start a rebuild but again they don't want to do that i have a question for you guys i there's a team off the top of my head but i can't remember

a hundred percent that has done that has tried to do this the washington wizard time no but it seemed that's tried to rebuild while also at the same time they were actually a little bit successful at it is it the warriors i don't know they try to rebuild while also content yeah it's them yeah it was the warriors correct so like I think the Warriors, I don't want to say their proof in the pudding that it can work, but you have to, like, genuinely. Sure, if you have three stars instead of one. That's what I was about to say. If you have a Hall of Fame, if you have three Hall of Famers coming back to your team, then yeah, like, it's going to work.

But if you have Anthony Simon's Yusuf Nurkich and, like, Jeremy Grant, like, listen, no disrespect to Jeremy Grant, but you're not a Hall of Fame or nothing like that. It's just what it is. So you don't have the talent or the infrastructure to be. able to tank and then bring dame back into the fold it's just i just work i just feel like there's no way within the next over the next two years watch watch me my dumb as to be hell of wrong and we're still having the same conversation two years later when dames like 35 36 years old but i just feel like for the pool and table blazers organization to sit there consistently watch mid and run back the same exact thing you're you're doing obviously a huge

disservice to everybody that you're involved with. Damien Lillard, Dame, the fans, you're doing a disservice for yourself too. And, like, one day, I know this is going to happen. I just, I just sense it's going to happen, all right? Book it. The Blazers are probably going to, the Blazers are going to move Dame first before Dame separates himself. And then coming time, we'll see it happening like, I don't know, a Taylor Brooks interview

where Damil was damn near breaking down or crying and whatever. talking about he would have died for this organization and whatnot. Then we're going to have this revamped conversation about player empowerment and, like, loyalty and all this dumbass shit. So who's going to make the first move? Will there be a first move? It has to be the Blazers. I don't think, I don't think, well, listen, maybe, may, I don't think that it would. I don't think that's already established, right?

So if you're the Blazers and you say, damed, you've already done everything. like you're our goat we're just going to move on for you because we have to do it and like you still have a little bit of value it might I think it has to come from them it's very clear that dame

is not going to ask out if he is the opposite I think it's more clear they're never going to trade them like for a team like them at this point he's only getting older right his peak trade value was a year and a half ago

maybe you can say now yes he's not they're not gonna he's gonna be good for another two years 36 year old 34 year old dame it's not going to be worth enough for them to get rid of their greatest player in team history yet they're going to be loyal to forever why give that up when he's 36 and it's already doesn't matter

you're going to get maybe two first-on picks for him if that at that point you just give him the Kobe treatment give him a max contract and let him be your brand ambassador until he dies like i think that because of the position that they're right right now and they're in play for potentially a top 10 pick and whatnot you have you find yourself in a very good position when it comes to youth because you got guys like Shaden Sharp on the team who over the last five games has been averaging like 20 points on 50% shooting from the field

and the 45% from 3. You got Anthony Simons and whatnot and then Jeremy Grant I don't know if you want to throw him in the young player category but he's like what 27 28 I don't know but he's a piece he's an asset and I feel like if you were to land yourself on one of, I don't know if you guys

I don't know how serious you guys are into the draft or whatever but if you were to draft one of those young dudes whether it be one of the twins or Darius and Miller or hell maybe if you get the second number two pick and you you land yourself on scoot Henderson at that point something has to be done because like you can't keep you can't keep doing this cycle and just like a lot of luck to run it back bro they need lottery luck for sure I think hey I ain't gonna lie if I'm Adam silver I am rigging the draft for the Portland Trailblaids are rigging the shit out of it it's the only time the NBA regs is

It's for organizations that seem really incompetent, all right? True. And the Portland Trail Lairs are one of those things. I've been on this. Listen, we will have these discussions come to summer. I will let y'all know exactly what the NBA is going to do. That's what they did in 2019 for the New Orleans Pelicans. But that's neither here nor there.

But right now, according to- We'll have that round of time. According to Tankathon right now, the Blazers have a 39.9% chance of jumping into the top four. of the draft that's not bad no it's pretty good yeah that's that's pretty good they low key can slide into into one or two and get like wemby or scute henderson

like their entire their entire organization if they get wemby if you get wemby then then that is the only exception where you don't trade dame because okay why you might as well ride into the sunset with dame put them around these young dudes and just let shit ride that's the only exception, but if you get scoot, you have to move Damien Lood. There's no way around it, bro.

I don't think they will. I think at the day, they're not going to move their franchise goat. If you're a small market team and you have your greatest player in franchise history, no competition, and he's done nothing but tell everybody every time he gets a mic how loyal he is to you, and then you trade him,

who is going to want to play for you? You can't afford to do that as a small market team. That's true. That is true. You got to be really, you got to be really fucking what's the word I'm looking for you have to really

be coordinated with what you decided to do after that because you know no one's really going to trust I don't think

it's full stop they can't do it who trade for Dame though who would who's trading for Dame who needs him the most right now

to make that great question okay so let's go through the teams the Hawks don't want them the Celtics would they trade Jalen

for him they would trade Jalen Brown in a fucking heartbeat for Dane yeah Nets I mean they're not

in that timeline the Bulls Dick DeWat Levine and some stuff Maybe, I can see that. Caves don't need them. Paceas don't need them. Do nuggets?

Could they try to game? Miami would. Oh, Miami and a heartbeat. They're always in the conversation. Would the nuggets do? That's so interesting. That would be sick. Oh, my God.

That'd be sick. The world needs it. Jamal Murray and everything else like I can trade to you. That'd be pretty cool. The clippers. I don't know if they're the assets anymore. Listen, the Pelicans, maybe. Obviously, the Knicks are always in a hell of ass.

We've got hell of assets. I like that. The Pelicans, deep cut, for sure. That T. Wolves don't have a long-term point guard anymore.

Yeah, no. But they don't have any picks, though. True. Yeah. Yeah. There are teams that would make this move.

Okay. Handful of teams. Whether or not, you know, the porn server blazers would do this. I just feel like we've been having the same conversation for like five years now.

No, for sure. Yeah. God, man. And we all gave up on Bradley Bill being traded that's past it. We're, this off season,

if things just go back, we're never talking about Damien de Lord over again. Yeah. Like it's cooked. We're barely talking about him now. He doesn't want to leave.

He doesn't want to leave. So he's just not going to leave. So it'll be a simple play. It's even more discussing that use of NERC is still on this roster. What does he do for your organization? It's just so. He's a friend. He's just a friendly guy, solid center.

He's a plus one. Yeah. That's right. Before we get out of here, let's talk about one more team. The Cleveland Cavaliers have clinched a playoff spot without LeBron James for the first time in 25 years. Damn. Good for them.

Now, the past 20 games, Evan Mobley has taken the leap everybody wanted to take. You know, people were kind of lumping him in with Scotty Barnes to start the year. Like, oh, these second year guys just aren't making that linear progression you want. That's so nasty. He's been better in every single way, especially last 20 games. These last 20 games is averaging 19 points, 9 rebounds,

three assists, 1.6 blocks on the best efficiency of his career. He's been a two-way force. Absolutely, dude. And I feel like not only the development part, he's just naturally getting it better, but by guys like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland has helped him find his way, and he's now moving in unison with everybody else. It's so hard to adjust alongside a guard.

It's not so hard, but it's hard for a guard for a big, like Evan Moby, to adjust with someone who demands a lot of attention and power, and has a ball in his hands on a consistent basis, like Donovan Mitchell. And now I feel like Donovan has a lot more trust. in Evan Mouldy, and that team is working beautifully, bro. I love that team. Me too, me too. Right now, for the whole season, not just the last 20 games,

but the season, they're number one in defense and number eight in offense. Being the best defense and still not top tier but really good offense, that's a championship recipe. That's how you win a championship. Being the best defense with Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell has your two guards. Ridiculous! Two undersized guards who are not known for defense, and you are the best in the least.

league that's crazy and listen they're still they're about a game and a half back of the three seed in the in the eastern conference they low key can can make that up they can they can potentially jump to three especially if if james hardin continues to be out if joel and b

maybe sits another game or two right because philly has some tough games down the stretch of the season is cleveland going to jump to three oh i'll be so interesting bro right because right now they're matched up to play the nicks in the first round home court advantage if they can jump up to three and maybe play maybe the brooklyn nets who who hold on to

the six seed they would sweep the nets it would be brutal it would be masker they would sweep the nets in the first round they might have yo this is this is great they really might have like a great chance to get to the eastern conference finals that they can jump up to three well i mean second round they're playing the celtics which not great that's not a good that's not a fantastic matchup yeah by me listen but if you have an easier first round right you have time to to rest you have time to plan get everything right going clicking it's better than playing the bucks after a hard first round series thanks so i don't listen i don't know i don't know i have a lot of faith in them like everybody's kind of like moving with

the air of caution when they talk about them because we have these other three teams in the east that are monstrous and like we've been talking about all year they're young and experienced a lot of people need to like see it before they go out here putting the calves in this top tier I don't need to see a damn thing they are one of the best teams in the east I'm lumping them in with the 76ers maybe the other two teams are a little in their own tier a little bit better but this team is as good as almost anybody in the conference and can compete with any of those teams that is very fair to say they're definitely right up there with the 76ers and if you were to tell me the 76ers and them face off in a play

off series. I couldn't tell you who wins off the bat on my head. Look at this growth for Moe. He was hating on the Cavs. No, they're still not on the Celtics and Cavs level. I mean, Celtics and Buck's level. Let's get that straight. All right. I just said they were never on their level. All right? Listen, if you had to have anybody out there to defend,

Yonis, I'd want Evan Mobley and Jared Allen to be those people. Not saying they're going to successfully do it, but it's not a bad place to start. One thing that I'm super proud of with the Cleveland Cavaliers, specifically Isaac Okoro. I've been peeping his growth 3.4% has been climbing over the last three months drastically.

And now he's a solid, seems like he's a consistent piece. The other night, I was watching them play the Brooklyn Nets. I saw Keros of Wurt, hop off of a nasty ass. I think he got a turn. I think he stole the ball. And then he was kind of in disarray and peaked Isaac O'Coro at the left corner three. And he swung that thing. I was wide open and he cashed it and now is basically game.

That right there is like, peak, what the calves need. what the fuck are you going to get from your wings and they got exactly what they needed from their wings carers avert your job is to go ahead and play mac do all the little things and i click a roll please just shoot and play defense and he did that so it's like it's working a hundred percent it's working no they're dangerous they're dangerous they can they can make some noise and if they upset if they upset if they upset if they upset milwaukee i would be shocked. If they upset Boston or Philly, I would not be shocked. I'd be a little shocked Boston, but I wouldn't be like, I never saw this coming, you know? Like, it wouldn't be like the most

bewildering thing. Yeah. They're in there. And Darius Garland is having such an overlook season because Donovan Mitchell came in and is like, is the guy obviously, he's better, took away shine. Like it would be easy to assume Darius Garland hasn't been that great based on the lack of conversation around him. But he's been putting up essentially the exact same number. numbers, just a little bit better efficiency. Like, he's just transitioning to having a lower usage and providing the exact same value you provided before. That is such elite.

That's such elite sentence that you just said. And it shows how good of a player Darius Garland. There's not a lot of players who can have the ball in their hands the exact same amount or a little bit lower and a little bit lower and give you the same exact production. It's hard. So it's how lethal a player he is. He's averaging 21 points per game still, taking one less shot per game. He's averaging one less assist naturally.

but like this efficiency is a little bit higher like it's what you'd expect from a high level guard who can play next to another guard shout out Cleveland they made the move they rolled the dice they really came out of nowhere to get Donovan Mitchell and now it's paying off so shout out to them

the Cleveland Cavaliers just like how we started off the episode with saying how to lose a franchise player 101 the Matt Dallas Mavericks how to build a great franchise once again 101 the Cleveland Calviers they did they waited the exact time the exact perfect moment to bite on a superstar or a star however you view that and donovan

mitchell and they're moving in unison bro this is this is beautiful what the cleveland cavaliers are doing for sure shout out them guys i want to keep talking about the calves i would love to but i think it's time for ticot time the crown eaters are banging on my door right now they can't wait who didn't hollering let's jump into it all right as always We're going to start with the draft, same thing we always do. And today we're going to do point guards only. So we're going to do by position. We've got to go and say, like, for my center, I'm picking this guy

because they know they're all really point guards. Yeah. I have the first pick. I think... Mo has the second. Mo is the second pick, Donovan has third pick. Yep. Cool.

I'm glad I have the first pick for this one. Go ahead. Let's draft NBA lineups with only point guards. First pick, give me Magic Johnson for my second. center okay okay that's nice i expected that i expected you guys you should that's nothing surprising lame-ass pick could give me step in curry okay all right that's cool are you putting that too look i need a little bit of height give me give me penny hardaway oh i was hoping he fell give me penny hard away at my five and then for my point guard give me james hardin as my point guard that's a great

pick. Damn. James Harden. Wow, you came with the heavy hitters this one. I like this, Donovan. I'm coming for the win. Damn. I got some girth to your team. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, whoa. Hey. I ain't cashed that initially. It flew over my head. But God damn, man. You kind of wrong for that. All right. So with my pick, give me, at my five, give me Russell Westbrook. I need to read. Fuck, I was going to pick him next. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Give me Luca Donches in my three. I need the exercise Yeah And then

This is weird I know Give me prime Ben Simmons at my four I gotta have the two- Whoa Whoa I'm so mad

I literally wrote down 2019 Ben Simmons To draft Wow That's good No one's having a bigger No one's having a bigger Front Court than me

That's good That's good Wow This dude said Prime Ben Simmons I don't even know I don't even remember What that looks like

anymore dude It's been so long It's a distant memory But he existed I promise All right cool So, for my two, go ahead and give me, give me, it's kind of small, but give me Alan Iverson. Okay, we'll let you have him as a point guard, that's fine.

All right, okay. All right. Hmm, where am I going to go? Okay, for my two, for my two, give me, give me Damian Lillard. Oh, I messed that up. For my two, give me Damian Lillard. Damn, I wanted him. Fuck.

And then for my three, I kind of want somebody who can do a little bit of everything, play, play some good defense, a little off the wall, but I need some role players. Give me Lonzo ball to play my three. Okay. I see the team building vision. Okay. That's solid. That's solid. It's my turn, right?

Yeah. All right. For my three, give me a better version of Lonzo ball. Give me Jason Kidd. That's a good pick. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I definitely need some defense. So give me Gary Payton That's one of my guards That's good That's nice And then I do one more shooter shooter I'll take Kyrie Irving Kyrie okay

That's nice That's nice That's good All right So I got Curry AI And then Jason Kidd And then I'm my 5th I of Westbrook

So I got one more pick I need someone Who's kind of low usage And can do it all and I need someone who Give me two-time All-Star Drew Holiday for my four I need that

That's a great pick I need to play defense He could do it all I won I want to do the mic drop But this mic is too expensive to drop All right That's a $30 mic

Thanks All right Let's see I really just want some talent Right now So at my four at my 4 Give me 6.5 Oscar Robinson

That's nice That's a great pick Damn That's a great pick My team is huge That's my team So I got Kyrie at the 1

Gary Payton at the 2 Luca at the 3 Ben Simmons of the 4 And Magic at the 5 That's good Ben and Magic at the 4 and 5 is nice And Luca 6 7 69 69 Yeah

Who you got Moe All right So I got Curry at the 1 AI at two, Jason Kidd at the three, Drew Holiday at the four, and I got Russell Westbrook at the five. It's a pretty good thing. Very versatile.

Why not? You didn't sell. I got James Hardin at my one, Damian Litter at my two, Lonzo Ball at the three, Oscar Robinson at the four, and Penny Hardaway at the five. I love every single one of your picks, except for Alonzo. Who won this draft? I don't, I don't know. I mean, like, all these point guards are mad ball dominant.

I just needed somebody who I know. can just keep the ball moving, play a little bit of defense. That's why I got Ben Simmons and Gary Payton. They don't need the ball at all. Yeah. And that's why I got Jason Kidd and also Drew Holiday. Listen, I got Magic, Luca, and Karee, so the comments are going to pick me for sure. Magic, Luca, and Kiree.

But you also have Ben Simmons, which is a big-ass black hole on your team. But he did get Prime Ben-Soo. It's all-stars, all-N-B-A, Ben-Simmons. He did get Prime Ben-Simmons. We got to give him that. I have the best defender on the list. The best two defenders on the list. I'm sorry, but when they see it.

When we see Ben Simmons, we're not thinking about 2019, Ben Simmons. We're talking about street-closed Ben Simmons right now. I made it clear. It is not this year. I think this might be the most equal draft we've ever done. Yeah. I like this one. That's hard.

The comments will be split, I think, between me and Moe, because Moe is Curry. Moe is the best offensive team, I think. The rest of the five is tantalizing. We'll see. Real quick, we're going to take a break from the pod to tell you guys about under-dard fantasy the best and easiest way to play fantasy sports online and it's super simple you can play on the app or online and all you have to do is it higher or lower on your favorite or least favorite players stats for the night and if you get up to five entries right you can win up to

20 times your money and a single night of hoops and listen playoff basketball is right around the corner there's high stakes basketball to get in on the action every single night and if you sign up today using promo code td3 underdog will double your first deposit up to a hundred and that's free money that you can use to make more winning tickets. So again, sign up today using promo code TD3 and get in on the action right now. If you can play a role and set screens will be good. Next thing we're going to do is we're going to play a game with NBA nicknames, which as you guys know, if you go on basketball reference and type in any player you want

and then look at underneath them, you'll see 10 nicknames you've never heard of day in your life. So I'm going to name some of those nicknames. You guys that tell me who this player is. I'm going to use some options. Let's go. Which NBA player's nickname is this? Tsunami Poppy. Is this Kelly Uri?

Kelly. That's Kelly Ubray. That's Kelly. You guys have heard this one? Kelly, yeah. Yeah. That was a pretty well-known. Kelly's the man.

Kelly's the man. Who hasn't heard that? Okay. I was wondering who was going to say it. Yeah That's crazy Sweet melon Ray Allen or Camelo Anthony

I think that's Ray I think I'm gonna go with Ray I don't think Yeah that dome is definitely Ray He has that sweet melon on him bro Those Boston lights are beaming at his head Are you kidding me? Who could it be?

He has the what Oh whoa Hold on He has the sweet melon on him That's crazy This is Carmelo Anthony's nickname Oh wow What?

Yep I guess, mellow, melon, that's still, that's a jump, though. No, no correlation. Honeybun. This is Glenn Davis or James Harden? Oh, no, that's Glenn. That's Glenn Davis. And what a shock you feel is James Hardin because the amount of emotion that he got back there is kind of crazy.

What do you think, Mo? That man came out of training camp 300 pounds. That's him. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely Glenn Davis. But it wouldn't shock me if it was hard to know Because of all the motion that he has gone Going on Well it shouldn't shock you

Because this is James Hardin's nickname Word Who? Who calls him honey bun? The streets, I don't know God, man, these streets are nasty That's your strip club name? Next one The Little Emperor

LeBron James or Chris Paul I'll say it's got to be You might try to throw us Off It has to be Chris Paul It has to be It has to be Chris Paul, but I feel like it's too obvious.

It's Chris Paul. It has to be Chris Paul. Yeah. Who the hell call LeBron Little? Somebody, this is LeBron Jamesick name. God, I knew it, Donovan. What the fuck? I told you.

He was trying to throw us off. He's already the king. I didn't think he was going to be the king and the emperor. What do you want me to do? I'm trying to be reasonable here. He's a unified belt. Multiple weight glasses. bubble cheese

is this oh this is Deion Waders Let me finish this sentence This man loves Dion Waders Yeah it's Deon Waders Ritig Boeher or Dion Waders And you already said it Okay

Last one Underground goat Is this Lou Williams or Jamal Crawford This Harry Tumpin This is good Who were the options Jamal Crawford or Lou Williams

It got to be Lou Williams It has to be Lou Williams Bro, he has Mix tape on Mix tape on Mix tape on right now Oh, shit, I'm crying Yeah, Lou Williams be in these streets He's the underground Yeah, he's like he's a Gwinnett County

goat, all right? There's definitely Lou Williams. You guys got this one right. It's Lou Williams. Let's go. Oh, my God. That's funny. Do I include that in the edit? Yes. Please.

We can't breathe. Oh, fuck. You need to do. Next thing, we're going to do a tier list again. This time, we're going to put teams in tier lists instead of players like we usually do. And it's been based around who has a lot. best jerseys okay so how many let's put these NBA teams into a tier list based on how good their jerseys are first off the Lakers uh I think they're like like current like current

jerseys just yeah the current jerseys the entire package okay A I'll give them an A I still don't think that they figure out I don't want to put them beyond the low but I still don't think to figure out how to um how to structure their away jersey the purpose of jersey. I still don't think they figure that out. And then the yellow, the yellow, it's not, it's not gold. It's like, it's a yellow. It's still good though. It's mad bright. Bro. You take it away from the history of the gold. It's a good yellow jersey. It's still mad bright, though. I don't like it. I'll give them A. I'll give them A. Yeah, they deserve a. They consistently have really good. If they had this jersey right here that was in 2019,

this shit, they would be. Talking to your mic. Yeah, I'm talking to my mic. If they had just jersey, if they had this jersey right here still around, I think I would constantly put them in a. see i resent my that jersey sucks what are you talking about it would be are you kidding me this sucks that's ugly i don't know why i don't know why you put your money on that that's stupid that's a that's a bad well it's fake jokes on you man it wasn't even this prop man shit no they consistently do have really good alternate jerseys even if that one's not great that one's fantastic that was bad that was bad i'll get put them in a for sure the golden state warriors i want to give them s tier because the rest of their package is great that's stupid

gray, black, rose jersey, whatever they have. Hey, but you can't see it when it's tucked in. Yeah, it doesn't look as bad when it's something. That makes it even stupider. Do I even put it there? I don't know if I don't see it, so I don't care. It's a cool black jersey to me. I can't put it in this.

I can't do it. I kind of want to put them in S-G. No, I'm getting a mess. The Warriors consistently have incredible jerseys every year. They are asked year. I can't do it. For the record, Donovan hates this one. Donovan hates this one.

I hate it. I'm glad Donovan hates it. It's awesome. Isaac loves it since we're doing this. The Houston Rockets They have to be S for me personally Yes Yeah I like their jerseys

I like the jerseys a lot too I'm closer to B than I am to S Yeah I think 2019 or so when they had CP They had really good jerseys But the rebrand's a little worse now I think That's fair There's not too much personality in the new rebrand

I'll drop them down to B I'm cool B I like the throwback so a lot. That's what carries the The green ones? No, the blue ones. Wait, you like the green ones? No, the blue ones, my bad.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the blue pinstripe, those are hard. Those are hard. Yeah. The Minnesota Timberwolves. Bro, I hate their alternate suck ass. It reminds me of the public transportation bus,

bro. I don't like it at all. I don't mess with it. Is it about the city ones? Yeah, terrible. I think C's okay. I like their jerseys pretty much Over the last five years

I've liked almost all their jerseys, I think I think they're I think we gotta go C, C, we have to put some C's in this bitch We do Okay, if y'all think they're C we can go see C, for the record I like the jerseys

But I also just love neon green So maybe I'm just biased Yeah, I see for sure C The Clippers Oh, that's a F Big F Yeah Nah, they're terrible

Get them out of air. We talked about it earlier in the season. They have those racist jerseys that's disrespectful to the Mexicans. Yeah. You can't be prejudiced with your jerseys. I don't like it. Yeah. F.

Yeah, I know. Every city jersey they bring out is worse and worse every year somehow. They keep trying to insert themselves into GTA. I don't understand it. They're trying to. Yeah. I don't get it. Yeah, bro.

It's like they went into Los Santos customs and told the mechanics or did. them right and this has failed every single time. Listen, they're building their, they're building their new stadium in Inglewood and they're showing it's, the Milwaukee Bucks. I want to say, this is an easy A tier for me. I love the Bucs jerseys. They're good. Bro, the Cream City is crazy.

But they don't have Crook City anymore. Isaac. That's not this year. Yeah, they're no Cream City anymore right now. That's not the current year jersey. Croom City is like two years ago. But now they got, now they got the blue ones, which are gorgeous. I might go S if you all.

all about it. I'm down with S. Let's do S. Let's go. Let's go put him in S. That throwback that they have, that purple throwback is fire. It's perfect.

It's absolutely perfect. S. Nice. And that concludes that TikTok. Next thing up, we're going to do some more all-time lineups. Okay. So I should have prepared for this one.

I didn't. So we're going to just go off the cuff. But I'm going to name some NBA teams and we have to make their all-time one-to-five of the greatest players in their team's history. okay in the team's history like how they were with that team right yeah yeah it was great it's not best okay how did they hook this last time did i do a hook the beginning i can't remember you did um

um um i'm gonna miss NBA teams let's make their greatest I'm a name some NBA teams let's make their all-time starting fives there you go who is the all-time starting five for the The Oklahoma City Thunder All right So you got Westbrook, of course Yeah, Westbrook's the one James Harder at the two

James Harder at the two Wait, wait, but it wasn't All-Star Hardin when he was there That's true I think we should put Gary Payton at the two Okay, Gary Payton is two That's fair You're right

Right Okay KD at the three KD at the three No brainer Nick Collinston at the four He fuck no He is an all-time member

that team. He got his jersey retired. Are we doing Sean Kemp or Serge Baca? It's got to be Sean Kemp, right? Yeah, for sure. Let's put Serge. I mean, Sean. Okay.

Sean, easy. Okay. Sean Kemp at the, at the Center. So who's their five? Are we putting Serge Baca at the five? Are we forgetting about somebody? Is it Sergey Baca?

I think it might be Serge Baca. I don't know. Okay. Is there nobody we're thinking of miss? Is there nobody we're forgetting from before that? Let me see. Devontas was asked back then, forget, never mind.

I think, I think we're good. Okay, let's go, Serge. Prime Serge was a legit, the Prime Surge was legit, one of the best defenders alive. We can go with him. Sergei Blaka! They called that man back then day. True, true.

The Clippers. They called that man that back at the end of the day. All right, so CP at the one. Easy. Easy. Who's at the two? do we put Paul George and Kauai in there already yeah definitely

Paul George Kauai Blake Griffin book it just off a skill Phil if we have to wait so Paul George at the two Kauai at the three and Blake Griffin at the four yes I think so and then who else is there from who else is there from like the

pre-CP days we're not thinking about they didn't exactly have the wealth of talent you're thinking about ESP or pre-CP days oh there's Barron Davis that I think of and then there's Jason Richardson. Nah.

Okay, yeah, I think Paul George and Kauai have to be there, even though it feels weird. Yeah. Okay, okay. And then are we doing DeAndre Jordan, DeAndre Jordan at the 5? Yeah, I think Gianjord has to be the 5. He was all NBA. I don't know who else would be.

Dude, the greatest moment of... Well, Bob McAdoo. Oh, yeah, Bob McAdoo. Thank the Lord, you said that, bro. I'm glad you're here to think of the old head. It's Bob McAdooleckin. It's blocking out Blake Griffin from escaping his house. Thanks.

Okay. All right, cool. The Orlando Magic. All right, so we got Penny Hardaway at the one. Yep, yeah. Tracy McGrady at the two. Okay. Grant Hill at the three.

Okay. In your bag. Who's the best four? We can't put Dwight at the four. No, we're not. That's cheating. We got to do an actual four. Okay.

It should be Dwight and Shaq. Obviously, Shaq's on there over Dwight, though. Yeah. Who is there four? Is it Richard Willis or? Is it Horace Graham? Is it Horace Greer? Oh.

Well, I'm cool for a Hito. That's kind of cool. That's fun. You're not doing good for your agenda right now, Isaac. What? Yeah, I think at the 4th, Titha Rishar Lewis and Hito Tirkaloo. Hito was an all-star, right?

Yeah, Hidu was, I like Hito person. Yeah, okay, we'll put Hito. Okay. Shout up, Turquil. And then Shaq at the five. Nice. It's a nasty five. Sorry, Dwight.

Okay. The Houston Rockets. Okay. James Harder at the one. Okay. I'm not putting him with the two. You don't put with the one? Yeah, I don't think they have.

You don't put Chris Ball in there? Is he, it was not there long enough? I think we should put Chris Paul in there. No. They're nearly beat that Warriors team, and that should be an accomplishment alone. He was there for like two. You were there for two. No, I'm not putting him as one of them.

like the best rockets of all time I would I would rather put James Hard at the one Tracy McGrady at the at the two okay um at the five obviously we have Hakeem Elijah on of course um and then we have to figure out three four let's

do we put Clyde Drexler he was old though oh we can't put we can't put Clyde in there for not putting CP in there yeah granted Clyde won a championship though so maybe you could yeah we could put Clyde at the two we i feel like we loki might be able to move tracy to the three yeah we can put collides a two if you want to do that okay so then we have to pick up the four

um who's the four in that rocket's team it was there was nobody did moses malone ever play on the rockets did he i'll check i think so i think he did you i think you want to some i think i think he did and he made five all-stars with them let's go moses malone all right yeah even though he was a center the whole time do we want to still allow it we didn't see the position Muslim alone's kind of a center

but he plays enough power for I think we can get away with it yeah yeah okay what was he 6A or something like that he's like 610 yeah he's a power 4 whatever next one the Milwaukee Bucks

okay so obviously we got Yannis of the 4 Karim of the 5 at the 1 or 2 What do you say? Big O, Oscar Robinson. Okay, Big O, Yannis and Kareem are the locks. Yeah.

So now we're getting interesting. Do we put Ray Allen or do we reward Drew Holiday or Chris Middleton for winning a championship? Who will be most more remembered? We got to put Sidney Moncrief in there. Do we? I think so. I think Sydney Moncrief is better. I think he might be better than Ray Allen.

I think he's probably better than than Chris Middleton They got some guys He's a Hall of Fame where I respect that Yeah they got some guys for back in the day And then one of the Their color guy, Marquez Johnson He's also fantastic for that

I think he's like a great buck For them Yeah he's not Sidney Mon Creepie's a two At three We can't go round at three Round's a true two guard Yeah

Are we putting Chris Milton Yeah I think it's Chris Okay Listen he won the chip So we'll put him there Shout out Chris Middleton shout out to the greatest lumpy head player of all time lumpy head is crazy

that's crazy the Memphis Grizzlies All right Mike Conley at the one Definitely Yeah too soon for Jha But he'll get there eventually But right now it's my calling

It's going to happen Inevitably it's going to happen Personally I will put Jha in there Because we all five years from now We're going to say Jha Now Mike Conley deserves it for now Give Jha a couple more years Let's give him his respect

Mike Conley Then again Then again Mike Collley was never an all-star with the Grizzles Lee's yeah that's what I'm saying let's avoid we should we should give Mike Conley his credit you're right we'll give it some

listen lame he's the leader of a whole era you're right but listen he's only a one time all-star so the lead is not secure yeah fucking whatever bro anyways five is Markersoll we're not debating that Markersall is the four going Zibo yeah I say

Zibo yeah Zibo 2 and 3 Rudy Gay or we're not putting Rudy Gay on this list that's the damn sure are we just going with the grit and grind we put Tony Allen on there yeah nah

who are you forgetting about who else do they have a two like those Mike Miller as like these iconic teams throughout the years they don't have

like it's just grit and grind it's like iconic expansion team right yeah yeah they don't have a lot of history

Dylan Brooks it is I'm fucking damned I'd rather do you go Tony Allen Let's do it. Shout out to Tony Allen. He's a defense player of the year, right?

No, not DP-O-Y. He was... He never won't? No, he wasn't. Really? Yeah, that's crazy. Marcus Mark broke. He was...

Tony Allen is the... Six-time all defensive team. Yeah, Tony Allen is the epitome of the people's DP-O-Y. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Tony Allen, who's the three? It's too soon for Desmond Bain. Dillon Brooks is right there. Oh, shut the fuck up.

I got to look at the best players in Grizzies's history I'm looking at this right now we got Sharif Abdulram Rahim we got Shane we got Shane Battye Oh Shane baddie is a big Forget about him, forget about him Fuck I forget about him Let's just put Shane baddie and keep it moving

Yeah I like Shane baddie okay This team has no history You get depressed looking at this team history shit Okay that's cool I'm not shame baddie. I'm glad he has a place in this list. I've got one more TikTok. Donovan.

Donovan, you're the host of it. Tell us what the TikTok is. All right. So we are going to rate NBA players' haircuts. I kind of haircuts. All right. We're going to rate them or are we going to compare them one-on-one? What do you want to do?

I want to rate them. Okay. I want to rate them. Yeah. All right, I'm going to send them right now. Let me know when you guys get them. Rate them 1 through 10? Yeah.

Cool. Let me see straight zeros in this bitch. Let's hit this hook down. I'm in, no pressure. Let's go. Just know I'm staring at you. Don't look at the camera. Look at us.

No, I'm looking at y'all. This is how I'm good. All right. All right. Well, you good? Yeah, I'll just pulling down my sock. My fucking ankle had no circulation. All right.

Let's rate these NBA, dang it. Let's rate these NBA haircuts on a scale 1 through 10. Okay. I still haven't got them, though. I'm still waiting for the pictures. Dang, my Wi-Fi is slow. Wi-Fi's always selling. It's always.

That's why it takes so long to upload after. NBA haircuts is always so funny. I always love these because they always bang, you matter what, because they're hilarious. But they've got to be some of those fun things we do. I think an NBA players came across one of our TikToks before, specifically, like, disrespectful ones. Maybe not yet, but eventually it'll happen. I think there's zero chance that knowingly NBA player has seen at least one of them, bro. I mean, yeah, we get 30 million views a month.

Like, it's a lot of people. Listen, everybody tag NBA today So that we could be featured on the TikTok segment Or not because that will not go well for me With my employer Oh, yeah Oh, thanks, oh, thanks Okay, I got the pictures

I got them Okay Alright, first bet First up, Alfred Payton Oof I'm not going to give this a bad rating It's not a bad cut, it's just crazy no it's a bad cut

it's a terrible cut we're gonna see a lot worse is all I'm saying I'm gonna give it a five his haircut was literally impeding his shot it literally came over his eyes when he was trying to shoot this is a built-in defense

this is a two this jump shot had a home court disadvantage yeah bro dude's been double teams his entire life as an NBA player bro it's crazy I'm gonna give this a solid three because I think if it was an

Art or something like that, he'd have some of the most influential hair in the game. But he's a basketball player, bro. He's 20% from the three-point line. Bro, you gave Aesab Rock in his haircut. Everybody would love it. Yeah, bro. He's never seen a wide open shot in a day in his life. Like, yeah, no.

This is definitely three or four. All right. I'm going to try that hook again real quick. All right. First up, Alfred Payton. All right. Okay. Let me use the first one.

Go ahead. Cool. All right. Let's keep moving. Next one, we got Kenrich. Dang. I completely bossed it. First up, we got

Kenrich Williams Oh, he got that flight reacts going on It's just a shag It's nothing wrong with it Like South Dallas special Listen, if you're in Dallas It's a 10

If you're in anywhere else in the country This haircut is awful You cannot be walking around with this Listen, I grew up in Texas So I'm used to seeing this This is nothing So I'm just getting it's an eight It's a fine haircut

You in Texas And I'm in Atlanta You come here And we're grilling you frying you. We were making you go back inside the house and cutting that shit off immediately. That's right.

Just because you're used to it doesn't mean it's good. This is trash. This is trash. Fair enough. All right. Next up, we got Andrew Bynum. Is that a perm?

He looks like he's straight out to the 70s. This is crazy. I don't know what he was going for. I don't know where he was going for. Straight out the 70s, straight off of making a classic hit in the studio, bro, that our grandmothers were dancing to and shit. And Marvin Gay were cooking.

But I ain't know like this. This might be the cleanest one we've seen so far. Yeah, that's cool. Seven. I don't got a problem with it. Seven. We're respectable. I'll say six.

This looks terrible. What are we talking about? This is awful. I've tried to be nice. We don't have to. We don't have to be. Fine. It's a five.

You got me. This is awful. Listen, this was at a point in his career where he was struggling, right? I understand why he has their haircut. Listen, things in life are not going well That does not excuse this haircut This is a three This haircut is what caused the process

For the 76ers right there His curve was over And therefore the sixers were over And that stumbled into all this madness This is like when the high school girls Go through a breakup and dye their hair red All right Next up Gordon Hayward's

Attempt at a fade Fucking zero What is this? I ain't go lie Gordon Hair would look like he got bad intentions with that hair cut. He looked like he called me the inward right now. What kind of Tiger King bullshit is this?

This is awful. This looks like he looks like a rookie who, he, dang it, he looks like a rookie who had his head shaved by the, by the vets. Yeah, it looks like his barber pranked him. It looks like a practical joke. He really went out in public with this. That's crazy.

No, he looks like, he looks like a street fighter character. Bro, he looks like he can't wait to assault. He looks like he can't wait to harass a person of color. that's what it looks like to me bro this is this is how video games treat black people hair this is awful all right what's next next up we got jeremy lind's mohawk bro this shit looks dangerous it looks like i shouldn't stand with a four-foot vicinity of him i'm gonna slice my arm off yeah i ain't gonna lie i think that's an eight because that hair coat will probably come in handy it's self-defense give me an eight yeah self-defense that has the big uh

The big bumps in top of him for something. Yeah. If I need to cut fruit, yo, Jeremy, come here. Sling! And I'm right there, bro. And it's clean.

It looks like he biologically evolved to survive harsh conditions in the wild. That's pretty. Listen, it's a productive haircut. For productivity, 8 out of 10. For look-wise, 2 out of 10.

These are all trash. These are all trash. Yeah. It looks like a video game character again. Yeah, I love it. People need advisors for their haircuts. The same way that they need stylists, they need people telling them every day how to wear their hair. This is terrible.

Last one. We got this braided beard. It's not even about his hair. It's about his beard. And the dreadlocks or the cornrows or whatever he was going for on his chin. No, no. No, no. Oh, my God.

He looks like an extra from Scooby-Doo Monster Island. This looks like, this looks like the type of hairstyle you do while you're in prison and you have nothing else good to do with your time, bro. This is a prison, prison style, bro. I don't know how to explain it, but this picture gives him the same vibes as 2018 Kodak Black. It does. He looks like Spadham got him, but bald. It does.

This is, this looks like somebody losing control. Dang it, this looks like somebody losing control of their life. This is awful. It looks like the trapper of the century to me, man. No, I ain't going to lie. I'm trying to dig this right now. I mean, it's unique, at least. You wouldn't do this yourself.

Yeah, I wouldn't. I wanted to say, yeah, but no, I couldn't go out like that, bro. All right, that's it. That's what we called the end of the episode. That was a quick episode. back-to-back like really long episodes in and out on this one I like it yeah it's refreshing I was getting tired

the last couple episodes energy was low I was dying running on E wish we had the people comment if they're still here hmm don't know Donovan you decide

uh comment that is a jail haircut comment jail cut that's a little easier hashtag jail cut yeah hashtag jail cut

there you go I bet I bet I bet I'm gonna see hell of hashtags in the comments so I'm saying but yeah w pod we're done talks yeah w fanbase see you