The Deep 3 Podcast - The Most Confusing Players In The NBA | Ep. 196

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

The NBA's most confusing players across the NBA! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW   Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794   Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree   Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/   Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D   0:00- Intro 6:11- Confusing NBA players 52:03- NBA news roundup 1:17:02- tiktok time Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every year in the NBA, there's players that play better than you think, players that play worse than you think. Leads to a lot of confusion. You don't know what to take away from that. And there's no time of the year where that is worse. Then March basketball, we are officially in the thick of the fakes part of the NBA season. Every day we'll look up and we'll see players who we should never expect to score a lot of points, drop in 30. So that leads to the question, what do we take away from this?

Get to that point. We're going to talk about the most confusing players in the NBA right now this season. I ask you guys in community post to give us your picks for who's confused you this season and we're going to sit down, talk about it, and decide what we can take away from their strange season. Perfect. Okay. We're going to try to weed out what could be fake, what could be real, and what is just the actual truth.

Basically, who's fraudulent? Not even as to who's fraudulent, because a lot of these are players who talk about a lot throughout the season, mostly like good players who have had weird years. It's really like what we can take away from them outside of the first reaction of slander or being up what we actually learned this year and what can be applied towards the playoffs. to next year and so forth. So pretty much it's a recalibration. Gotcha.

Pretty much. Yeah, for players that people don't quite know what to think about right now. All right. Let's do it. Talking about you, Zion Williamson. Talk about you, Zachary Shish. We know.

We know. Come on. So with that being said, let's cue the intro music. Talk about some confusing NBA players. We're throwing it back. Whoa. That's crazy.

He was bragging. I'll meet his shit. The cranium is screaming. Crazy. Oh my God. Crowd eaters rejoice. Before we get into the main topic of this episode, take a quick second to thank everybody in the comments that was commenting about how happy they were for us

to get the new serious XM deal moving our show to a new network. Lots of love in the comments. Appreciate y'all. But also, there was one thing I'd like to mention that you guys commented a ton about, and it's our bad. I mentioned that nothing would change about the show. That's like 95% true. It's like 99% true.

But there's one big change. I should have highlighted that I forgot to tell you guys about. You got a dressed elephant in the room. It's the biggest hell right now. Yeah. There's no more video on Spotify. That got taken off. The video will exclusively be on YouTube now.

And we didn't know it was going to happen at first, but it makes sense. It's not because anybody wants to. It's not because Sirius wants to. People on the Spotify comments were like, boy, God's serious. Big serious. They hate video. If they could have the video on Spotify, they would. It's a much more complicated thing that I can explain to everybody.

I guess we can get into the weeds of how the audio business works. You can just talk a little bit. Yeah. Go ahead. Also, our cats up stairs going crazy now. I think she's mad about no video on Spotify. What? No video. What?

I gotta go on YouTube. Fuck! So basically, before we were with Sirius, we were hosting our podcast, the audio version on a platform called Megaphone, which is owned by Spotify. That's what Warner Bros. House of Highlights,

no, bleach report used. And that's, you know, directly Spotify own thing. So there was good integration for a video. So I could upload the video there and it wasn't a problem, right? If you look across any podcast you guys watch that's on a big network like the athletic NBC Serious eye heart stuff like that anybody that's on like a network network you're usually not

going to see video on Spotify and that's because the Spotify not Spotify the podcast audio like monetization is mostly built through these things called DAI ads dynamic ad inserts you ever listen to podcast and like halfway through you'll get those audio ads that aren't people taking them to school right now I know I know I know there's some kid right now listening he's like nah I don't care sell out It's don't matter. No, take notes. I'm telling you how to the short. Yeah.

You ever listen to a podcast and you'll hear ads that aren't from the people, like, it's not us talking. It'll be like a random. Mattress ad or something like that. Yeah, mattress ad. That's just like a commercial someone else talking. Those ads are called dynamic ads that change every month. So mattress firm will buy 30 days of that and then their stuff will come up and the

company will sell a new company to come into that for the next 30 days so your catalog can constantly be refreshed. Huge part of monetization on audio. It's basically like YouTube, how they give you different ads every time you watch. Same type of thing. But it has to do more. manually on Spotify and any audio platform because there's not the like crazy amazing ad program that YouTube has, that's like a non-negotiable part of monetizing podcasts.

Spotify doesn't allow to do that with videos right now. You can't do DAI ads unless you host the platform through Spotify. If you host through them and upload your video through them directly on their platform, then you can do DA ads. And obviously every network isn't going to do that. So they kind of gatekeep the ability to monetize video. So to go to any network and like tell them we're not going to have any monetization on the audio. product is like a non-starter. It's just not realistic. So our agent actually told us that they tell most clients not to even start uploading video on Spotify because this will inevitably happen and people will be mad. I didn't listen. I uploaded it anyways for the last year because I was

like, whatever, we can do it. I want to get people the best product possible. But it's just kind of an unfortunate reality that Spotify doesn't let you monetize a video properly. Yeah, it sucks to suck, but we obviously have no control over it. If you could, if you wanted to do it, we would have. It's honestly way, I like me personally over the last like year or so, I've been enjoying watching this video podcast on Spotify because it's, I guess, a little more convenient convenience ways. But overall, it's still here on YouTube where we were born at pretty much. Yeah. And I completely sympathize with people who get their, you know, like habits disrupted.

I've got to switch to YouTube. I understand that's unfortunate. It's annoying. But like you said, it is still on YouTube. So we're not taking it away from you. Hope you guys give us some grace there that the content is still exactly the same. Just got to change the platform a little bit, which is annoying. But the second they changed that.

The second Spotify allows the ads to be in video and actually be able to like, be a reasonable business model. We're so back on the way back on that. It's really just on if they were changing the rule. It should to go back, bro. It's quite ridiculous. So they can't do DA ads unless you are with Spotify directly. Yeah, let's turn this on Spotify.

It really is. We've been like, boycott serious. I promise you serious would have a video podcast be on all video platforms if they could. It is not up to them at all. Yeah, I've seen one comment saying boycott me. I don't know. See, if we can boycott Biosol you all want. If you don't want to spread that,

I mean you can boycott the shit out of him. But yeah, just come tune in with us on YouTube. Switch back and forth if you need to. Appreciate y'all being hopefully understanding of the realities of Spotify at the moment. Now, as that being said, let's talk about some confusing NBA players. I said there's some confusing platform rules. Let's do it.

Starting on first, the most confusing NBA player this year that we got to talk about. Lamello Ball. Derek White-94 says, Lamello, his elite playmaking and creativity can make him look at a franchise-level offensive engine, but his scoring efficiency, I said efficiency weird, shot selection and decision making fluctuate heavily from game to game. Some nights his playmaking his top three to five in the league,

like Halliburton when healthy, where he can lead an unstoppable offense and other nights he becomes a high volume, low efficiency score who hurts his offensive flow. It's obviously been great as of late for Charlotte since they've been healthy, but that doesn't mean the Mello's inconsistencies aren't still there. All that is obviously true, good assessment by Derek White 94. So what did we learn from that?

What do we learn from the Mello Ball is confusing up and down season? for me personally I learned that lamella ball should never be looked at as the franchise level face of your he should never be the face of your franchise at all and why is that but he can be a part of your franchise he can be a very pinnacle part of it because of the ups and down the ebbs and foes that come with the nature of his scoring efficiency and ability overall there's things as a score that he's never been able to like hit home at hit home at one thing that people have been talking about for ages it's like oh my god like his paint scoring if you can do that for one solid season like he'll be an all-star he did that for one year he was an all-star that has just never been realistic so having guys like con and brandon miller was incoming to his own as each and every month has gone by and overall just like a good cast amount of role players gives you a lot less of like you rely on it's going a lot less would lead to more consistency overall with your offense and that's why we've been seeing them like surge up in the rankings over the last what three

months or so yeah i think one of the things that probably like we're gonna we're gonna see with this with this list is we're going to have to set the line for when you expect consistency every single night because if you're like the 35th best player like yeah the highs everybody's so talented like the highs of what you're able to do is obviously you know top of the world like world class obviously when lammelo gets going he's amazing he's not doing every every night and so that's the difference between him being the 35th best player whatever i don't yeah i'm going out of number being that or like a top 10 player or a top three point guard like those guys come in and they do it every single night and so if we're going to set that line at yeah you're a

top 20 player you should not have these many off nights so you shouldn't have these many inconsistencies on a game to game basis that's fine everybody has everybody has a bad game like you can be the best in the world like she and get 20 points every single game for two straight years that is his standard lamella ball we are not holding him to that standard You know what? So that's why, like, for him, because of what you said, like, I'm not looking at you as the face of my franchise. He just is who he is. I don't think we can no longer look him as, like, an offensive engine.

More so he's like a battery. Like, you need him to keep on going. He'll give you and generate power no matter what. But to look at him as an engine, there's just so many, like, intricate, complicated things to want to ask him to do. And you can't do that. They'll fail you. Okay. W.

A mallel ball. The battery. Let's make that nickname stick. The battery. It's a battery and everybody's back. And that's what you see. B. Soldiers had this visual on the screen bringing back up. The biggest on-off court swings

in offensive rating this season, minimum eight minutes. Lamella Ball, plus 4.2.2. And that's always been the case for him every year. The offense has lived and died with Lamello Ball in Charlotte. In pastures, it's been because everybody around him is fucking ridiculous, and they're playing crazy lineups that include like four non-MBA players in the rebuilding years.

Now they have healthy Brandon Miller, they have Concanipple, they have a stable rotation of Big Man. It's a little bit more stable. But even then, everything lives and dies by the Mello Ball's playmaking, because like everything you said I agree with, we should no longer view him as this like future top 15 player that can be your lead score

and playmaker on any kind of like efficient high level playoff way. But as a lead playmaker, just that, Tyrese Halliburton light, he makes everybody around him so much better. And I just like, yeah, this whole thing. Instead of him being the Pokemon evolution to like Hardin or Luke or whatever, he's a Pokemon evolution to Tyre's Halliburton

and that's the change. That's crazy. If Tyree Saliburton was 10% worse, he wouldn't be a top 10 player. He just cracks that threshold. Make him a little bit worse as a score a little bit less efficient. Now he's a top 35 player like Lamello. Yeah.

And we've, we've, we've also been trending on this, on this path for a while. Like, there are times where it's like, oh, like this player is confusing. But loki, we've kind of known. Like even earlier in, in Lamello's career, whenever he was, scoring 28, scoring 30, a majority of the time we were watching him and saying, yeah, this is nice. It's cool that you're, that you're doing this. This probably isn't the best version of you and the way to maximize you. So it's, it's confusing, yes.

but also it makes sense. Yeah. And I think the thing we learn with Lamello is for a guard like him that clearly has this tantalizing playmaking and jump shooting upside that could lead you to believe he can be this like

upper echelon superstar, there becomes a point where he is where he is. And you have to stop projecting and hoping for a change when you get to like year four or whatever, you kind of know who they are. And when you take away the idea

of like future leaps, that's clearly what it was. He was an inefficient, amazing playmaker that has his strengths, but too many weaknesses to be like the top guy. And that's completely fine. Next player.

shangoon he keeps changing what he's good at every year that is a hilarious quite scathing criticism that every year i forget and don't quite understand what you're good at he said man's is a chameleon that's so fucking funny what is he good at this year what's the playmaking i think i think so okay he's been good at playmaking but i think this is the year where it's kind of like tangible point center stuff averaging 6.1 assist this year 4.9 last year to be honest is mostly usage because presently isn't there. The ball's in his hands more. He went from 16% on ball percentage last year

at 23% this year. So they put the ball in his hands more and said go be elite playmaker and provide value there and I think he has to his credit. He's shouldered that burden pretty well. I wouldn't even say he keeps changing what he's good at.

I would say that he continues to be consistent with what he's bad at. And that's confusing because we see stretches where things are good and you look up on the season and he's still shooting dog shit percentages at the rim

for a 6 foot 11 guy. It doesn't make sense. Still cannot shoot threes. Still is capable of being in a good defense but not any type of like ceiling razor defensively the weaknesses there are still what they always have been

and without progression there the playmaking can only take you so far and that's confusing for a guy who I test sometimes looks super dominant. He might be independent how next season goes you have you have players like Jalen Green March basketball demon

Shengu might be in October November demon he might be a guy where every year we come in and something looks fixed, something looks different. And then as the season progresses, then he kind of falls back into the player that he has been for a majority of his career. And for him to have shot as well as he did at the start of the year,

and then right now to be shooting 28% from three is like, dang. Damn, the company you keep, NBA, worst true shooting percentage among 20 point per game scores. Dylan Brooks, Shaden Sharp, bam out of bios, salute. Alper in Shangoon, Renan, England. Graham, Pascal Seaccom, Kate Cunningham, Palo, Jalen Brown, Brandon Miller. Jalen Brown, first team all NBA, my ass, but nevertheless, I'll finish Sengoon, fourth, where's year?

Crazy Stray. It's a good. I think we'd be more Jailen Brown Shreys for the insane PR is happening right now. You got to counterbalance it? If he gets first team over Luka, yes, I need to balance it. If he gets first team with a luca, I'll fucking vomit and eat it. I'll be so mad. I told you, you're going to be mad.

That's what I've been saying in the last couple of weeks, y'all will be mad about the accolays that Jailen Brown is about to get. If the Lakers. And I'll be here for. He's not even first team. You let anybody on TV decide it. Okay. That can't happen.

But back to Shingun. Back, aside from my right, back to Shengun. Terrible score for his efficiency level. I think we're seeing Rockets fans, starts to turn on him a little bit. And turn on him's dramatic because they still have hope in him. He's still their homegrown guy. They're not going to be like trade out beer or anything. But I think you're seeing more coming to grips with who he is, considering we're in, you know, your three or four.

He was drafted in 2021. This is year five. Oh, shit. We're in your five. So they're kind of understanding you can't have unlimited faith in a guy like that, right? They're starting to see the light a little bit. Some of the people that you say yelling me for saying, Chet Holmgren is better are starting to, you know, agree and starting to criticize his flaws

that we just talked about. That makes sense being at this point of the timeline, right? Yeah. What do we take away from that as a Rockets fan? If you're in their shoes and you're building around this guy who has these clear deficiencies, how do you put him in the right position to succeed and be the best version of himself? It's so funny because once a lick of expectation gets put on your shoulders, shoulders, shit changes completely for you as an NBA fan.

And now, like, when things aren't really as what they seem and Shangoon told you who he really is, which is, he's been truthful the entire time. We just have put expectations of our own, on our own, on ourselves on these players. And as a rock, if I was a Rockets fan right now, I'd be sick to my thumb because it's like, damn, like, now I have to think about can this franchise in this current state win with this guy as the top one or two player on my team? Probably not at this point in time. And you're right, the expectations on your shoulders.

That's exactly what I'm describing. You go from young player who I think is interesting for this point of his timeline, but might keep getting better, to, oh, this is just who you are. And now I had to be a little more realistic. What do you think about this to be? Jaylon Williams, when playing 30 plus minutes this season, 20.8 points per game, 11.3, rebounds, 4.8 assists. Different side note, big Jaylon Williams is really good now.

He's got a big league this year that's going under talked about in OECC's like title odds. He's really good now. And there's a lot of passing hub big stuff with the ball in his hands. And when he plays a lot of minutes, he puts up numbers. His quote tweet, I hope Shang-goo knows his gimmick will be realized. Is he farming numbers on the big man passing-up touches? Will the Rockets win the same amount of games of Jalen Williams? All right, please.

Please, please, please, please. Let's all do this. One, it would just be funny. That's it. I'm not saying it would happen. I'm just saying I kind of want to live in the world with that does happen. I don't think they win more games, but I think the difference would be less.

do you think? It's not even better than Asian Duke Dennis. Tough. Like he's clearly on picture Gung but like I show. I picked Shangoon. Yeah. The gap isn't as big as the sticker

but you think. Especially when you consider. I know. Like what they are defensively and then also too like Jalen Williams he'd be shooting that motherfucker man. He's a sniper. This is more Jalen Williams hype than it is

Gingwood slander. He's been really, really good. He was a total gimmick two years ago. Yeah. He's good now. He's put it together, man. And he's a great locker room guy. Facts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He stayed in the locker room because of his locker room energy and then got good in the meantime. When have you seen that? When have you seen a locker room chemistry gimmick guy get good randomly? Oh, Calden Johnson. He's the same exact thing for the swears. Okay. But that's, again, that's rare.

Yeah, it's rare as far. That's rare. Like Chetty Osmond? Chetty Osmond. He had a couple moments. Chetty is fucking, that's a pool. Cool. I forget about him, man.

He had a little bit of moments, a little bit. He got solid towards him. It's rare, though. you're right. It's so rare. Very rare. Typically gimmicks, stay gimmicks. Shout out to him. I'm calling my gimmick. How disrespectful? Meet gimmick, man.

Shout out Janet Williams, making a leap. Shangoon, we will see how the playoffs go. But, yeah, a strange season to say the least in terms of expectations from the start of the year to now. Julius Randall, the most inconsistent number two option on a contender. What do we learn from this Julius Randall season? Wait, we're still confused about Julius Randall? No, he's just been confused about Julius Randall.

He's been the same as that guy for like the last. I don't know, five years or so. And even then he has willfully, like I don't even think Julius Randall has, like, tricked this guy. Yeah. He's tricked himself. You know, you know, you know what Randall is. And I was watching that game yesterday with, with Shay,

Shaver's aunt, OKC, Minnesota. And I was just like, dang, them boys are getting pieced up in the playoffs. Like, it's going to happen again. And they, like, unless. Julius Randall, one, unless his three is falling, and unless he is in a like super good move flow stage, those two things for those, those two things for him manifest themselves, I feel like more overtly than for a lot of other players. Yeah.

Where you can very clearly see the ups and downs or see what, what like, stage of the roller coaster you're on with Julius Randall. And I do think it is correct. He is the most inconsistent number two option on a connection. tender. That's like, I think it just puts a ceiling on Minnesota. Yeah, I agree with Mo. I don't think he'd be confused. I think he's what he is. And he's really good, but inconsistent in some ways. And his numbers kind of are exactly the same as last year. He's scoring a little bit more 20.9 points opposed to 18.7 last year. Efficiency wise, essentially the same from two. He's just

down to 30% from three instead 34. It's kind of just that simple. His shot went really cold and that's making everything fall apart for a guy that needs that threat of the outside shot. This has happened many times in his career, he really does live and die by the three in some ways. Yeah. And I feel like whenever we did see Randall get traded to the Timber Rules, this kind of should at least temperate everyone's expectations for the 10 rules and how high of a ceiling they did have when it comes to winning in general. Of course, they went to back-to-back Western Conference Finals.

They had two appearances. But at the end of the day, like, no one looks at Julius Randall as like a serious player in terms of being the, being the like last domino to eventually get you over the hump, like he's not that for the wolves. Yeah, we'll see what that's like a gap. He is who he is. That one to me is the least confusing of the bunch you've seen so far. Yeah. Palo. I don't know, man. Some nice he's LeBron.

Some nice he's Mojo 99. What does that mean? That's crazy. If you ask me, I'm kind of fine. What do you mean? Some nights he's me. Some nights he's just LeBron again. Sounds like Paul is consistent, man. All right. Interesting one. Last week, if you guys didn't watch our episode, go to the section. This is backstone.

Sometimes he's motion 99. So what does that mean? Just throwing his body around. This is the version with 99 on it. Just throwing his body around. Just big going to the ring. Bricks. Just throwing his body.

Slashing the lane. Reckless. How would you describe your IRL basketball play style? I don't know. Like enough, he did say, I play with him. I played with him. Last year you said it was like, you're like, last year you told me, if you kind of play like a polo or something like that,

where I like to shoot too much sometimes where I know I, can shoot and but more often than I, if I go to the rim, I have higher percentages. If he's, if Moe is going is going to the rim, that shoulder is going into your door. He's going to have, he's going to have a spin move. It really is like very palo-like.

Frito magnet. Is he any shot is good shot type guy? Yes. Yes. I know your ball. We had, we're playing last week. And there were a couple, we're in, in our same game. So like, there were a couple times where it's like, you know, I'm just let you have, have this shot.

Mo was probably like five feet behind the line, just chucking. And I was like, you got it. And he got the same game, he got hot. Everything he put up was going in. I was like, yo, man. You got it. Back to Palo Van Caro. That's what Triang is done to my brain.

It's crazy. We talked about this extensively last week. Go watch our episode that came on Thursday. That's every NBA team's biggest regret. We just like randomly start talking about Palo in the magic section. So if we go to the division, you'll see it. Palo looks really good since the All-Star break, especially the last two weeks. He looks like Palo of old.

He's slashing better. We talked about he had those comments about understanding he wasn't playing an all-star level. He heard the noise and said, damn, you're right. I am playing terribly. I got to get right. And he did. He has a clear difference in his aggressiveness going to the rim, his decisiveness, the speeding which he's playing, less settling for jumpers, knowing he's a 6-10 guy that can get

the room every time, is driving better offense. His passing looks really good because of it. we're getting the best case scenario for Palo Bancao right now over his last two weeks. He's finally taken his season long true shooting percentage over what it was last year. 56.7 true shooting for the season now because this hot stretch, higher than last year of 55.2. Now it's still 1% under league average. But it's getting closer to league average.

We're finally seeing extended period. We're worried about ourselves and about individual growth. Yep. He is growing. He's better right now. So with that being said, we saw, what is it, 45 games of the worst case scenario for Palo Bancaro. We came up here and we said, oh my God, we wanted a leap. So long.

But it was a worst season. We couldn't even say it was a bad stretch. It was half of a season. That's a sample size. So we came up here and we said, we wanted a leap this year. We believed you making a leap. We thought the magic would be the three seed off of your leap

and you regressed for a long period of time. We know what it looks like now when your jumpside isn't falling, how quickly things are power for you. But now we see another stretch towards end this season where you get it together and look at the Palo of Old. And I'd say he looks better than the Palo of Old. He looks better than it last year. So maybe it is a midseason leap and he's figured it out

in an unprecedented way, right and we know he's in the playoffs. What do we take away from this up and down roller coaster of his season? I think at the end of the day for me, seeing the quote come out the other day, I think it was last week where he said he talked about how he didn't make the All-Star team. He was like, yeah, I had to look at the man in the mirror. I love whenever players give that level of realness because that just reassures me in general, like, okay, like things have to be getting better if you know things have been,

if you can admit that things haven't been right at all. So I'm going to take the high road and believe that this will be getting a better version of him. what is a better version of him like ultimately let it net out to i'm not 100% sure just yet but it would be better than what we saw for the first 45 games of the year yeah yeah i think yeah i think the comments the comments changed everything for me because if he if he didn't say that i would look at this out i would say all right cool like you're just dominated march basketball yeah and i think alongside those let me know that that he did have this like this mindset change so right now also because he is a number one overall pick he

He is talented. He has all of these traits that can help him be one of the better players in the league. Now I'm looking at him and saying, okay, I will choose to believe this. Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic because everything you said, the preconceived notions we have of Apollo and the ceiling we know he has with the physical traits he has and the really just draft placements. He should get this good. And he should be able to maintain it at some point of his career.

Maybe his path there is a little rocky. But while we recognize how God awful he was to start the year, we always made sure to maintain that like while we'll talk about oh my god he's horrible what's going on there's always a caveat of like but we know he can't be better we just want to see it so i'm always going to have that in my head that like there will be that confirmation bias if i know you're capable of this i'm inclined to give him some modicum of faith when he does stuff like this i don't really feel like we can take away anything other than okay we're still waiting for you do it consistently for a season we still know you can do this i would still like to see it for an 82 game season so you can

have a good seed and have a better chance in the first round yada yada yada yeah all he's done is is really like extend the like warranty on him as me thinking about him as like a superstar. Yeah. The idea of him can maintain. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Extending the young player timeline. He still gets to have that.

The grace. Yeah, yeah. He keeps his grace. And that's the main thing is he dug himself out of, oh my God, do I need to give up in Palo Bank Carol talks? You just no longer, you feel that way. Because even outside of it being March basketball and small sample size, the eye test mixed with the comments, you can tell it's different right now that he's playing with a different level of intensity and a different understanding of where he needs to be to be productive.

It's real. They were having theories, the palo theory about having a mid-number-one overall pick and it was based around him. So, yeah, now that we're playing ourselves out of that, that's good. Exactly. You're completely falling. You're playing yourself out of massive disappointment talks and putting yourself back in position to earn your way into should be top 10 player one-day talks.

I'm still not quite there yet, but I'm at least on the path. Yeah. Don't Devenzo, swear to God, every game I see, he's brick. working every shot, but he's still always a damn near 40% from three on the season. It's like there's a different Dante on my screen and my screen only. Love the guy though. This is so real. I feel the exact same way.

I think this is just the nature of guys who shoot tons of threes. You're going to see a lot of misses and that might like, you might see three in a row and you're like, what the fuck? You look down when the other three hit and you only need to make three out of nine for it to be a great game. I just, I feel like, especially over the last like couple years, since he got to Minnesota, I feel like we've had a lot of

stretches in a lot of conversations about like man dante's not not shooting good or or you know he's playing he's playing a little poorly right now and then like you said you look up and the percentage is still fine you're like yo where where is the disconnect like do i do i literally have to watch a two games every single year to understand and like just focusing on dante divencenzhenzo to fully understand the dvincenzo experiment maybe and honestly like the t wolves in general kind of embody what dante to Vincenzo, like, struggles in, which is like consistency here and here and there. If he's not hitting, this team has no chance at all. Yeah.

Like, he's their only, like, volume shooter. He was supposed to replace, like, the offensive potency of what Kat does, partially when it comes to getting up seven, eight threes a game and knocking them down at a 40% clip. You know what we're describing? This is a second player type of all the Timberwolves and then being inconsistent shooting and stuff. Surprise, surprise, the shooters are a little up and down when you have no point guards on your roster.

Yeah. When Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall are essentially being your only point guards. Surprise, surprise. Your shooters have a little bit hard time of being consistent when the shot quality is probably not going to be as crazy.

It would be next to a Tyree's Halliburton or whatever. Shit is crazy, man. It's just kind of, I feel like it might just be built into the Timberwolves DNA. They're annoying. They're certainly annoying.

And the Timberwolves fans are tight the same thing. Yeah. New else is annoying. Friday pilot says, DeAndre Aton, I just don't understand how a 7 foot one big ass man

be so unengaged one game and then lock in on the next. It's like he's a different personality every time he steps on the court. Did you guys To report Two pack of ass Did you guys

Do you guys Do you guys About his different personalities Yeah he mentioned It right Yes Sometimes he goes in a team Playing

And he puts on a vaguely Spanish accent And cosplays a man Nandro Wait what He woke up feeling like Alejandro He has these like

Certain personalities Like dominating That he gets into that mental mode And people on Twitter Are like damn This guy is Undiagnosed D-ID

EY and Wemeli But you know It's like tracks with the up and down nature of his game. Not the undiagnosed DID. Obviously, I'm not a doctor, but the idea of him getting in these modes and having these mindset changes and being, needing to amp himself up with personalities for a guy that's biggest issue is what he just said. The lack of locked in this on any given night that we know what you can do when he has the perfect version of himself and he gives you an efficient 20 points for game and play solid defense. Then he comes out and

he drops all these balls and doesn't run back in transition. You're like, what the fuck? Did you wake up looking like Alejandro today or dominating? Which one? honestly for being honest i think it's time that the rick that the lakers go ahead and try to coach up alexo a little bit better work around his seven different personalities you gotta play some bad bunny in locker room or something activate him yeah identify when he's all the jondra when you walked in you hear that little spanish accent bad bunny in locker room and care your game plan around someone like that yeah but to the point what do we take away from dandre aiden this year i think we take away that he's dionre a yeah yeah he's still the d'andre eight yeah he's still the

24th, 25th best center in the league and that if you cannot thrive, you said it all offseason. If he can't thrive next to Luca Donchis, then like, and that's like the main thing that you were betting on is that you're going to get the best version of Aiton, which we are acknowledged is probably a top 13, 13, 14 center. And that's going to happen because you are bought in every single night and you are playing the style of basketball that can go alongside Luca Donchis. And when you have, when that goes south. and you have multiple personalities

and you say, bro, they're trying to turn me into Clint Capella and everybody and people, pull up the standings for me. And everybody looks at you

and says, I wish you were Clint Capella. Like, those things let me know. You just are who you are. Can we have a, you said 24, 25th.

I think we need to have an actual baseline conversation of what we think D'Andrean is right now because he is a Laker, which obviously brings a lot of reaction to every game he plays

on national TV. He's a frustrating player that has ups and downs. You think he's better than 20? No, no, I don't know. But we need to figure out

way he is because he has a lot of emotion behind his discourse right with lakers fans like wanting him to be so good and like sometimes he's good sometimes he's bad what is he actually because he's one the most efficient bigs in the league he's his true shooting percent is nine percentage points better than last year which is outrageous that is a luco effect we wanted he hasn't been bad defensively besides the transition defense which has been annoying and the half quarters been pretty good we just saw this game against the nuggets in which in the fourth quarter he locked in on yokech and blocked his shot did a good job defending him as well as he can he hasn't been quite the tire fire you think based on that December stretch where he was atrocious.

He's kind of bounced back. Obviously, beginning of the year was good. He's averaging less points clearly because he should just lower playing next to all those guards. But he has been this highly efficient big that isn't perfect but isn't like horrendous. I kind of feel like it's just like extremely average overall without the emotion. I feel like he's a little bit below average. I think if I also predict he's probably like 17 to 23, anywhere between there. Okay, let's see.

Now, mind you, last year, whenever. we did the rankings, you had eight in that, you were actually the lowest, you had eight and at 29. Damn. And I had, and I had eight in, probably a little, a little bit higher. I had eight and at 24. I had eight and at 24. What was that, like 19 or something like that? Yeah, I'll find it right now.

Yeah. So let's see. Let's go through all these teams because I have, you had eight and at 16, right in the middle. Okay, so that's what I'm saying. I think right in the middle is probably where he is. And it's more, more so, I think there's less great centers than we think. It's when we had these conversations about him being so piss and like feeling below average. I don't know if we have a good gauge of what an average starting center is in this league.

So let's go through. So let's go through Western Conference. Can you zoom in a little bit, Bucels? Yeah. Obviously, we'll go Chet and Hardinstein. We'll consider centers. Sure. Okay.

Wemby. One, two, three. He's still better in Jackson Hayes, right? Defensively, he's a lot better. I know offensively Jackson's might be better. Sure. We'll give him Jackson Hays. We'll go Shangoon.

Okay. Stephen Adams. He hasn't been healthy. Do you want to disqualify him because of not healthier? How do we parse that? If he's healthy, every single player or every single coach, in the league would rather have Stephen Adams. Let's say Stephen Adams.

I think we all think we'd rather have Stephen Adams. Sangun. I mean, I'm Stengun, sorry. Yokic, that's six. Okay. I'm taking Aiden over Valenciunis. Yes. Right?

Yes. Regal Bear. What the fuck do we do in Osreed in this? He's a center, I guess. But I'm, I, I think I'd rather have Nasreed. Me too, me too, but. But some teams would rather have Nasreed for sure.

The Lakers wouldn't rather have Nasreed than Aiden in that role. So I guess we can speak from a starting center standpoint. Sure. Okay. So seven so far. Mark Williams. That's where it's like kind of chalk. I think they're like equal level.

So I'm inclined not to give it to that because no. We can gloss over it. Okay. Nobody else in the suns, right? No. Reds seven. Clippers. Brooke Lopez is pretty washed.

Can't move on anymore. Yon is just too young. No. Warriors. Hell no. Nobody on the Warriors. Well, Klingin. That's eight.

Yep. Time Lord is never healthy, but when he's healthy, he's better, I think. Yeah, that's fine, but he's never, never, ever. Okay, then I guess he won't put time, Lord. Yeah, I'll take it over time, Lord. Edy is certainly better. Yes. He's never healthy, but he's clearly, clearly better.

I don't want to count Zubak for the Clippers. He's on the Clippers anymore. Oh, yeah, he's Pacer man. We will count too much, though. Mavericks. I think him and Gafford are very similar. Lively's, Lively, I don't know if he fucking exists anymore. He's like, I'll take, but let's count.

He's a career threatened, but injuries. We can count them though if we want. Derek Lively 10. Yeah, I'll just, I will count one of, One of the two. Derek lively, assuming he can play next year, hopefully. And then with these last three teams, there's nobody except for Walker Kessler. Okay, Walker Kester, 11.

Yeah. Sabonis, I suppose, we'll give Subonis 12. We'll count him. Sure. Yeah, whatever. I'm over the 80. So bonus is better. But yeah.

Zubotch on the Pacers, that's 13. Yep. Wizards. Ah, Tsar still young and inconsistent. I'd still would rather have. Also, is Sara Center or Power Forward? What are we going to do with that long term? I don't know.

Oh, AD is there now. So we'll count AD. 14. A.D. We count AD. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll say sorry as the power for it

because he's playing is 80 now. Okay. Yeah, we're kind of lively even with all the injury. Yeah, we're kind of 80. Claxing we'd rather have. Though I think that's probably close to people think

the idea of Claxton on like a good team is really good but Claxton is a little bit like idea man too. He has, he has, we give him benefit on the doubt. Yeah, so 15. Nobody on the Bulls.

Hell no. Nobody on the bucks. Hell not. Miles Turner, you were into eight in conversation that's no longer clear to me. Damn. Hornets. Hornets.

What? Debatte? Sure. Yeah, I'd rather do you about Deabate. Yeah, Diabate 16, Hawks. Is on Yeko center or Power Forward? He's the center. I think I'd rather have him.

Oh, I'd certainly rather have on Yeko, but is he center? He's the center, yeah. Okay, 17. Embede, we'll count him, 18. Miami Heat, Bam, 19. You're taking Ware or Aiton? That's a conversation to me at this point of Ware's development. Okay.

I'd probably, I would take Ware because he's young, can get better, but today, Aton is a good drop defender. Yeah, you probably want to roll into the playoffs in the Aten. Half court defense, Aten still is, like, pretty good. Is that that's our tiebreaker right now? I think so. Playoffs. Yeah, right now, today's current day,

would you rather have much your starting center? That's fair. I would rather have Aiden than Yaka Purtle still. I think Yonka Purtle's make a cook. Hey, man, he just had 19 rebounds last game against the, who were they? Who are they? Pistons. Yeah, they beat the Pistons.

Good show. Hopefully he's on a good trajectory. Back to that. Magic. I think Wendellarter's conversations with Aiden. It's like, they're leveled. Okay. Jared Allen.

So we're a 20, cat, 21. You don't want to throw Evan Mobbly in her? He's a power forward. super power forward okay cat obviously on the Celtics any centers Mitch

oh yeah Mitch oh yeah Mitch for sure Mitch can't play in the playoffs so he can't hit free throws and he's like supremely unskilled offensively I don't know about Mitch Mitch probably better for Luca

yeah but I think I'd rather have Mitch Mitch is legit unplay he keeps you 30% from free throw you cannot play him in a playoff series as a starting center Mitch cannot start on a team ever

I like him I've seen a lot he cannot start I'm he's there he's at that line he's a difference for me for sure for sure where I would

I would consider even putting up with the foolishness of 30% from the Frito line which is it's crazy that I don't even consider it but that's I do think

that defensively he is that impactful offensive rebound and why I see is that impactful yeah and but the list is starting centers he literally can't start

even like 20 I think 20 17 to 20 minutes of Mitchell Robinson on a from a like series to series basis, I do think is probably equal to or more impactful than like 30 minutes from DeAndre on a series to series basis.

Sure, that's not a bad mental calculus, but I just like you can't start them. And I feel like I can't look past that for this at least. Okay, so we're just talking about because Mitchell's really like a damn near a special teams play. Exactly, exactly. So we're talking about like an overall 82 season gauge. But my special team is so, like,

it's such a difference maker. Like I do think that having. him on the team and and then just figuring out who else is going to is going to play center rather than giving a in 28 minutes and then now doing that like i i think i don't want to give a 28 minutes at all i want to have him split with another center ideally so how many 25 minutes whatever i don't know but either way either way i think we're going during and as asterisk so that's 22 so aiden is either 22 or 23 based on what you feel with him versus mitch robson and then kater yeah i would rather have kato over him and uh i don't know how y'all feel about

Vucevich right now. Vosovich. No, Vosovic. I'd rather have Cato for the Celtics with the Joe Mazzula benefit. I don't know if I'm putting Kada on every single team and seeing this version. So like, I think Missoula really raises things,

but that's fair to me. You wouldn't trade Kada for Aden for the Celtics specifically, that's for sure. Yeah. So based on those debatable ones, he's either 22, 23, maybe 24 in the low end where you have. Yeah.

So that's out to be pretty much like, I don't know what you said. And with the hating tax, he will probably be 20 seconds. Just because we're talking about you being a la And Yeah, so... That's not your name.

That's literally not you. So yeah, to Friday Pilate's point, confusing DeAndre Aden, what is he in the end? About a 22nd best center in the league, 23rd best center in the league. That should probably be playing 22 minutes a night. And you know what? No, it's crazy. That's probably worth about $8 million a year when he's getting paid now. Yeah.

He's probably exactly what you should think he is by the sticker. That's awful. Because he's also, like, in that Julius Randall camp where, like, for, for, for, For a lot of people, I do feel like sometimes, especially me, probably can over index on like intangibles in those conversations a little bit. Aitin is one where it's like very much a part of who you are as a player. And everything that people say about you is true. Yeah.

And so I, it's very hard to separate it. And I don't, I don't even think it's wrong to not separate it or to include all of that. So depending on how you want to say if he is, you know, 24, 20, 27 and anywhere in that range. Mitchell Robinson makes $13 million a year. That's the market for a for a special team for a 22nd to 25th best center in the league. So, you know, $8 million.

Not the worst. You're kind of getting what you pay for and maybe it's like a slight plus value because he is still like he's incredibly efficient. So Luka that part has worked out. It's just like not quite as consistent as you want. So he probably just is what you would think he is by, if you didn't even know anything about him, but just look at the production and the sticker,

he is exactly what you think should be. We've just seen multiple spots with Aiton, and even people who were super on his side have left the DeAndre Aitin experiment being crazy disappointed. Yeah. And so I think for to have him on your team or to think that he can do, you know, that he can scale up or be some version of,

some like idealized version of what you thought that he could be, that should be over right now. Yeah. He is exactly is who he is. And that's a fringe starting center that would be a overqualified backup, that level of guy that should play 22 minutes a night. Which, okay. That's good.

It's fine. I don't like him. You definitely, definitely, I'm not going to tell you need to like him. That's for sure. You definitely don't need to like him. You damn sure don't need to like him. In fact, you probably shouldn't. He said he wakes up and things broke.

That December stretch is crazy, man. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, me talking about the essence of, his psyche. Next player. Kauai Leonard. So is he top three or is he guilty? Right.

What kind of crisp smooth-ass bar is this? Is he top three? Both. He's top 13 and guilty. At the same time. At the same damn time, he's both. But this is certainly a confusing season because Kauai Leonard has missed like three to four prime seasons have essentially been

wiped away in some elements of injury. Confusing career, man. Let's extend that for sure. So what do we do with this? that he's having a stretch where he's been healthy. There's not even any, like, health scare or worry in the air right now. And after all these missed seasons

and missed early shutdown seasons, he's playing at the level of top-five player again? Yeah. What the fuck do we do with the most unique player I can think of? I thought he recently got injured. My trip, man? Maybe some small, but nothing like that.

He just tweaked his ankle recently. Yeah, that's fine. But, like, the degenerative knee stuff isn't playing up anymore. I think it's fair to say, to say Kauai's top whatever. I think every, every time that kawai goes on one of these stretches we talk about kawai in a like through the lens

of his entire career yeah like it's never just what's happening right now if kawai goes crazy for 10 games then it's like hey man he peaked higher than kd like i can't i can't say anything else as opposed to just he's having a very very good season he he's in contention for you know for all these all these actually no i don't know how many games he's played but he's playing at that at that level And we should just take it for what it is. And I think everybody else is also waiting for the other shooter drop in the playoffs and while waiting for the first round to happen and then we get the sham's tweet of, hey, Kauai Leonard is dealing with such and such injury.

He's going to miss the rest of the series. But right now, let's just enjoy it while we can. 32, 6 and 4 is awesome. Over the last 5. Yeah. That's nice. It seems like every other game, he's putting up 40 or he's hitting a game winner. defense is obviously what it is.

We just have to talk about Kauai Leonard in the most present tense possible and not have some career look back and some reevaluation of where he actually is amongst the all-time greats anytime we talk about him. Yep, yep. The Kauai experience is about enjoying the moment, taking every day and while you have it

because you don't know what the next will hold. And also it's also teaching me too, man, this like new generation of Oz is crazy because who would have thought like Kauai in year, what year is he in? I don't know. Your draft in 2011. Damn.

Damn. 15. Something like that. He missed a few. But yeah. Like seeing him like revamp his game, add a little bit more shit to his back when it comes to his handle. 14. Come out and like what?

He's shooting like 38% from three. There's been so many games this year or a couple games this year where he took like 12, 11, 10, 3s a game prior to his year. He's never done that shit. So seeing him just like morph into this new like super like super, super. filled out offensive version of him. It's like more fun to watch. It's crazy as hell. Yeah.

Good for him. Glad he's having his 2021, 2021, 22nd 2, KD type of season where you feel like post-injury, is it going to be the same? And you're like, oh, no, this is the best version he's ever had. It's crazy. Good for him. Avocado balls says, Zonlemson. Is he bad or are the Pelicans just that bad?

Yo. The Pelicans are turning it around since Giusei Murray came back? I fucking love Desonte Murray. I want nothing with the best for him, but I also want the worst of the pelicans right now. ruining my life as we speak. Johnson Murray came back from that Achilles playing the best best stuff I've seen from him in years. It's crazy. So, you know, they're inching

towards competence, still playing the same style of basketball. There's not prioritizing Zion Wilmson as the point guard, playing all through him, trying to make him stay healthy, figure out the realistic middle ground with him and what his body can take him, right? I don't know, what do we do with that? It kind of seemed like a foregone conclusion. That Zion Williamson's time with the Pelicans

is probably coming to an end. It would make all the sense in the world. They trade him this summer and kind of divorce themselves from this up and down experience. They're prioritizing other players and trying to find the path towards being good that doesn't involve him having 40% use it, right? So if he hits a trade market or even stays there, how are you going to view him going forward? Hey, man, he's good at some nights. He's okay. Zion is also in that, is banged the water bottle.

Oops. My fucking ears, be sold with headphones? No, no, no. He's in that church where. on the Lamello timeline where he's also really good, but we probably shouldn't be talking about Zion as the face of your franchise, lead score, point Zion, and lead playmaker in that way.

We should probably just look at him as, you know, if you get the right situation around him, put it next to the right number one star, maybe you can get something that's conducive to winning. But the Pelicans obviously aren't doing that. And I will give Zion a little bit of, because that franchise sucks and they don't they don't they don't do very competent things very often so if he does get to a situation where the infrastructure is better he can probably tap back into

the the better versions of zion yeah uh jalen green do you want to be a good NBA player or do you want to be known as the march marquis or the march marauder or even the duke of march i know enough march basketball will know that every march this guy will go crazy to go for two points in the playoffs when he has to score jala green man i feel like everyone should have not at least tempered their expectations on him and just look at him as just like a oh like that guy can give you interesting interesting things here and there but never ever like actual line him as a building block of your team yeah i think at this point he's just going to be like what norm power was a few years ago before he became an all-star this year which is still crazy to say out now that's a lot i don't know if he

can't be that i think he's like early clippers norm pal where like we never talked about him as like one of the best role players in the league but you come in average 20 and have some some valuable scoring with some good off-wall shooting but it was never one of the like premier players as position or anything i don't know i don't know about that because norm pal Even back then before the Clippers years, like for Portland, he was good. He was consistent.

Yeah. And I don't think Jalen Green is, it's impossible for him to hit that level. It's impossible for him to be consistent, I think. So yes, I think so. I don't know about that. I think he could be consistent at a lower level is the thing. He's not consistently going to average give you 28 for a month like he does in March.

But normal, we're talking about a 20 point per game score. That can be a good third option in the half court and stuff like that. I think generally consistently do that. One day, I'm just assuming for him to continue to improve and like reach a reasonable middle ground of expectations. Would you rather be an October, merchant or a March merchant?

October. That's way better for your PR. You can get paid off October basketball. Wait. You can make all NBA teams off. No, you can get paid off a March basketball, I think. Okay. Because, like, Jenny Green literally did.

He got a two-year contract. The weirdest contract extension ever. October basketball is like, ah, you know. Well, I think as a player is a different conversation, as a franchise, who would you rather do with? As a franchise, I think I'd rather deal with October. Well, I guess if I'm a franchise, I want the guy to be good closer to the playoffs

and hope I can carry it over somewhat. But I would do franchises? No March basketball is fake now. Are they catching on? They have to. But I think October, October merchant has to be better because if you start turning up in March, then I have to wait until next year to trade you. But if you go crazy for the first month, two months, you can carry that into the trade.

The teams are scared of so high. They're always scared to sell high. Exactly. Except for one guy, Mr. Mori. Sorry. At this point, I don't even know if he sold hot. Nope. He didn't.

Gorilla Gardener's. Trey Young. Is he just bad now? It seems like the Hawks have gotten better and better without him. And now the Wizards are as trash as ever, or maybe slightly extra trash. Does he make them better even a little bit? Seems like things might be getting kind of spooky for Mo Shela. I get small guards can't be a focal point, but it feels like maybe we've gotten no point

where there are questions about if you can be a positive impact player at all. Come on, man. Yeah, everyone's been talking about how the Hawks without train or with Trae Young this season, they're like two and eight. And since he's been off the roster completely, the Hawks are now mind you, we've been on like a, what, nine damn near 10 game win streak. Most hilarious schedule I've ever seen, by the way. Yeah, hilarious schedule. But if earlier in the year, we had like one of the hardest schedules, we were almost never home. So it's like kind of balancing out now.

And without Tray Young, overall, like our defense is genuinely so much better. And we're overall record is like 34 and 23. and it sucks to say, yes, we are a better team without Trey Young. But also two things can be true. Once I will say too, with the way that Trey's been playing specifically and Washington, I feel like he's going through recalibration on his own, his shot attempts are way down. Obviously, he's only playing like 20 minutes, 20 minutes tonight because he's just coming back from injury.

And I think for someone like Trey who, you know, you're not what you once wore athletically. And if you're going to be that small, you have to have every ounce of burst possible because you don't get away with too much shit because you're little. You have to be like at the top of your game. If you're not, you're cooked. Your efficiency is cooked. So I think he should be, we're seeing him in these few watching games that he's played, like recalibrate his game to where he's only taking like seven, eight, nine, ten shots a game.

And he's not forcing it anymore, which is smart. He's a distributor. Yeah, you're right. We need to clearly seeing him go towards being a lead playmaker. Yeah. It's unfortunate to be a lead playmaker and a bad defender these days. it's kind of hard to stand the court in that way for a good team. I bet next year he'll be an effective player for the Washington Wizards though,

which is a carefully worded statement. I think it's going to be good. Similar to what we've seen with like lamella ball, his playmaking is going to be insane. And I think also too he's going to like cut out the warts of the war to the level balls game when it comes to just taking like a lot more less shots and be like more Steve Nashy and really emphasize. Yeah, I'm here to make place for others.

Yeah. Hopefully the Wizards are foolishness. I don't really care. Steve Nashy's a hard one because that's a whole other can of worm. Same thing I said for the Mello. I want him to be Tyree Celebrity and Light. Played just like Tyrese.

Fair. Can I read out the last, the teams that the Hawks have beat during the Wern Street? Of course you can. Go ahead. Brooklyn. Yep.

Beat Washington twice. Nice. Portland. Milwaukee. Philly. With no maxi? And I know Bede? Yeah.

And Paul George. Probably. Dallas. Okay. Brooklyn again. Same Dallas. Just beat the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brooklyn again.

Yeah. And then Milwaukee again. Yeah. So it sounds like a good team doing what Kelly is supposed to do. Return to the corner, man. Tonight. Listen,

tonight is on. Tonight's a big game. We play. Orlando. At home. I saw the Hawks won nine in a row. Yeah. There was a 10th seat before.

The 10th seed now. That's crazy. That shit is crazy. Everyone's winning in the East because it is, we have reached unprecedented levels of garbage around the league right now of teams. purpose of losing. I say this every year. I forget just how many teams are tanking come March.

I can't find two games every night with two non-tanking teams. Yes. This slate is impossible. You watch one good game a night and breathed through the rest because it's bullshit. Listen, man, a lot of the league just got their hands on Darius A-cuff tape. Now I understand it. Now it's a four-player draft. But that being said, that's all the confusing players we're going to talk about today.

Let's get on to the news of the week. Our NBA News Roundup, starting with some breaking news that came out this morning. while y'all are on the way to the studio. Per Shams, Sharania, the NBA will hold a vote at the Board of Governors meeting March 25th and 25th, wow, March 24th and 25th to explore adding expansion

teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle. So they're not even going to think about other cities. They've decided it will be Vegas and Seattle that they're going to vote on whether or not to expand the league to 32 teams. What is y'all's first thoughts when you see this? Why? Your anti.

Okay, so one, obviously bread. I get it. Vegas hell of red. Yeah. Yeah. I understand it. I do think it is interesting that, and this is the type of stuff where it's like,

silver, you're dumb. Because we, you just said, it's March. It's very hard to find two games that doesn't involve a tanking team. And now we're going to, we're going to make teams across the league just slightly thinner. We're going to take away some of the depth. We're going to add expansion teams that. most likely are not going to be contenders or most likely going to probably want to get top picks

or whatever. We'll see what changes happen to the lottery. But diluting the league in this moment when your top priority, quote unquote, is making sure that everybody's super competitive and avoiding tanking. From that aspect, I don't love the idea of adding two teams. I'm glad you brought that last part. I also think that the idea of like,

there's so much talent in the league, we must expand. So Cam Reddish can't get a contract We need to expand so guys like this can play That's gas as fuck to me And I think the The contradiction of we want more teams And weaker teams and less tanking Is crazy

Here comes two more teams that need to rebuild I promise you they'll be tanking to start You think they're gonna come out here and draft The competent team year one Those teams won't have tank for several years Now instead of 10 teams tanking We'll have 12 That is a crazy contradiction to me

That pick one And obviously we've talked about our opinion Is get over the tanking thing I think that's also probably exaggerated in the league office some part. Exaggered by fans. It's probably not as big of a deal as they're making it seem. I think it's a lot of things that they need to have a clear vision. Otherwise, we're going to have a lot of contradictions in place here.

Listen, man, as long as the bread and the commons and zeros add up at the end of the day, they don't give my damn about what you guys are saying. No, to us is a contradiction. The fact that we have to give Vegas a team. This feels like a 20 years ago thought that Vegas needs a team. There's this hub, this crazy economy. This gambling money's around here. We've got to come in and put a team there.

because all this tourism comes through and they're going to have this unique fan-based and experience, anybody that knows anything about Las Vegas, all they talk about I see online is that Vegas is dying. That since sports gambling can legalize and that everybody can gamble at home, Vegas does not have the strangle hold on gambling culture anymore. So culturally, it's kind of a shell of what it once was. And the economy of tourism is like slowly dwindling on top of the economic state of the world.

Doesn't feel like Vegas needs to be a shoe in for a team. The strip. I've never seen a say you just gas up a strip. Like Seattle, I get, they deserve a team. I don't know. Why is there no other, like, courting of other cities? Why does it have to be Vegas? Vegas has been, I mean, across all sports,

everybody's been trying to get teams into, into Vegas. And I think, yeah, it's weird for basketball. Like, I kind of understand it for football because it's like, we're going to host a Super Bowl there and you can still have a little bit of motion hosting things in that, in that arena. But this seems like something that they've had on their list for 10, 15 years. And now that. they're like, well, now is the only opportunity that we're going to,

that we're going to have to do it. So we're just going to follow through with it. We're not going to reconsider anything. And I also think that Vegas is big enough of a city where if you were adding an expansion team and they're like, you know what? We're like Kansas City, you guys are getting a team. I think they are a little bit maybe wary of adding a team that is like a, quote, like a small market team.

Vegas is a small market. It doesn't necessarily feel like that. I don't know why, because you have this idea of what Vegas is as a gambling thing. It's a tiny market, though. That's why it's the same thing with Miami's the same way. Like, nobody ever considers Miami as a small. Miami's not a big city like that. But it's a place that people would like to go,

that people would like to live in. It has some types of attractions. I feel like Vegas is more in that category than some small like San Antonio or Sacramento or cities like that that are genuinely small, smaller market and don't have the appeal to free agents in that way. I'd take, I'd get rid of teams. Let's talk about it. How many teams are you getting rid of right now?

Which team really? Just number or just like? Off the top of your head, you don't have to make the conferences even. If you were commissioner today and you are taking away teams, who are you taking away? We can take away the Grizzlies. Wow. We can take away the Grizzlies. Yeah.

Off the top. Actually wouldn't. The grisies, the owner wants to take away the grizzlies. So, like, you're right. Like, the owner wants to move the team. I think. I'm taking away Sacramento. Sacramento, yeah.

I'm going to add Sacramento. I'm thinking about the Wizards, but I think the location of it's too good. Yeah, you know the Wizards. Yeah, so you need the Clippers. I mean, it's always fun to have a little weather there. Okay. Yeah, Ellie can't support your team. So, okay.

What about the Orlando Magic? Do we need them? Yeah, I think we do Orlando. Yeah. Yeah, I think we need Orlando. I would take away New Orleans. I don't think... Yeah, New Orleans and the Grizzlies.

Sorry to target the South. I would keep Memphis. I actually think the Grizzlies are fine. And for a team that obviously, like, his number one of a championship and one of those smaller market teams, I think that their culture and their fan base is strong enough to where you can keep that.

But New Orleans and Sacramento are the two that 100% are gone. You really don't need Brooklyn either, honestly. You don't need Brooklyn. They really haven't taken a stranglehold. I think the clippers have more. have more of a sense of identity than they do. They do.

Which also actually really just because they have the richest owner in sports who's done money at everything. So it helps that we had to talk about them a lot because of him. But yeah, we could go with that, Brooklyn. Yeah. All right. So three teams? Yeah.

2017, we call it up. Three, four teams. Let's do it. Yeah. I don't care for expansion in terms of like, I can't wait. It'll be fun. So like when it happens, we'll be like, oh, sick. The most fun part that I'm personally just excited for is the expansion draft and see what

players are cut away from their team. Yeah, get ready to pick Jeremy game first overall in 2021. So that'd be fun. but yeah, I do think there is some pretty obvious issues with expansion that need to be addressed by the league. Yeah. Also, I'm very, very curious to see, is LeBron going to be able to get one of these teams and be a part of the ownership group?

Yeah, maybe like in name. Yeah, he'd be like the face of it. Yeah, he probably would. Well, almost certainly, right? Like, it seems like that's like a guarantee for the Las Vegas thing. Like, that's been the worst kept secret ever. LeBron and Brady in Vegas. Come on, man.

Kind of sick. I can lie. Maybe maybe we do New Vegas. Maybe we'd take it back. To me Vegas is a thrifted. tourist economy. It's only on the up and up. And maybe, yeah,

maybe we're going to make them the gambling hub of America again. They're suddenly going to be better post-legalization. Don't talk about the Lakers a little bit? No. Too bad. Luca Donchish.

Don't ask me questions like that. Luca Donchich. Over his last five games has been potentially the best player in the NBA minus Shea for five games in a row. The Lakers are another three seed after he had a near 50-point triple double

and then a game-winning shot against the Denver Nuggets to win this weekend. and propelling them back to the three-seat, it's been kind of up and down. Three through six is incredibly tight, but the Lakers are trending in the right direction. Aidan has played well over the last five games as well. Everything's kind of clicking with the Bronb back in the lineup.

He's taking the clear third option role, being very deferring, being very passive in a good way. I think what this team needs. The defense is still in question, but offensively it's super clicking. He has been playing well. Pretty much everything's going well for them over the last five games. And, of course,

We got on TV when they won this game and we had a TV personality crying with the fact he's stuck with them as a contender being real bad at his job how do we feel about them though? Do you guys feel moved by them come playoff time?

Moved is an interesting way to put it. I think they... It's all that matters, right? I guess. We know where they are, but like for the playoffs, are you moved by them having a chance to make a run?

I'm always moved by Luke in the playoffs. 110%. Yes, I am. Now, overall, like, seeing how... And I'm also moved by seeing LeBron knowing that, like, he's not necessarily needed in finding out, figuring out ways to, like, fit in

and do random stuff to help elevate the team. So I'm moved by that as well. Yo, who was that guy again? I forget. He was on my team, too. David Roddy. Jamal Murray. He's so big, right?

He's like, he's a unit. He's massive, bro. Fucking hated him on my team. That's what you're saying, but he moved. Oh, bad, my. Yeah, yeah. Overall, I am moved. And I'm like right now because

Like all the other teams that are fringing the West Conference meeting the Houston Rocks the Denver Nuggets being wildly inconsistent The Minnesota Timber was probably even more even more inconsistent I think I kind of like insert the Lakers firmly so far these last like six seven games as a third best team in the West Now there's a gap obviously But I do feel confident in them being that right now So I'm hearing as Lucas gnatching chains Not snatching chains no Okay

Not even burning tattoos that's too much okay no much too much so it's like ringing doorbells and running away yeah

ding on the bitch donovan how do you feel about them in that pack that's really what matters right we're getting them peeking at a good time

we're seeing the health come together like I mentioned all the swing players are playing pretty well including Aidan Rockets Kimberwolves

Nuggets Lakers that's the tier probably at the top or towards the bottom they're towards the top I don't think we should put

in that category anymore. Well, they are, though. They're fourth right now. I understand what the standing thing. I think if we're having just a real conversation about what's going to happen in a month, I don't think Houston should be in that. Okay, well, let's say they're fourth. Let's say we had the least faith in them for all the things we talked about all year.

I think, for me, it would be between the Lakers and Denver for the top of that, of that tier. I feel much better about them than I did two when was low on the show two weeks ago was what low when we have low on two weeks ago two or three whatever because because we then I was like oh yeah I think I would take the rockets in the series over over the Lakers and that was kind of like on my last piece of hoping and since then the rockets have been disgusting

in so many in so many moments I now would take the Lakers over them in the playoff series. I feel much, much better about the Lakers getting to the second round than I did two weeks ago. They match up much better at Denver now in the Luka era. That's clear because Nicole Yokic just completely owns Anthony Davis. So like it was impossible for Lakers to beat them for so long. Yeah. Luca brings a problem that the Nuggets aren't the Nuggets aren't the Nuggets that the Nuggets aren't prepared to solve. As most teams aren't, Luke is impossible to guard unless you're the Boston Celtics or Oklahoma City Thunder. He fries them and that kind of like, even if we think the Denver Nuggets are the better and a well-rounded team, which is like undeniably true, the Lakers do have some.

a big advantage with Luca and the fact that there's nobody on the Nuggets that can match up with him in any meaningful way that I can understand if you have some more faith that the Lakers could actually beat them. Yeah, they can get there. Minnesota, obviously they're just so up and down and like their, their outlook is really like, hey, like how are we feeling for these next two weeks? And are we going to lock in? Is our defense going to be able to be fine?

Is everybody going to be happy? Is everybody going to be on the same page? is Ant to pull up three really working? Like how many things are going to have to go right for them to knock off Denver in a seven game series? I have no idea. Like right now if they played, they played the Lakers in the first round going to this.

Minnesota, they've just been trending down. And so I think I would feel better about the Lakers in that series too. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's a tough series to call. I think in general for the Lakers outlook, they still have no wings that are good at defense.

And that's like a non-negotiable thing for like making the finals. I have no faith that they're, that they'll make the finals. That's not, that's out of the window for sure. Yeah, but then again, I'm just thinking like, I have no faith that Patriots make the finals either.

So in terms of like, if the league's open, if Shay turns an ankle and things are wide open, I think that's kind of the viewpoint to talk about them and the rest of the West with how muddy it is, do I have faith the Lakers could have a chance as good of any of these teams of like being the team to make it out in a crazy scenario. Because, you know, nothing goes shocking in playoffs in reality.

They don't have any good defense. defensive wings, that's a pretty impossible place to start from in the modern NBA. But outside of that, like, with Reeves playing this well and with at least the offense, meshing pretty well with LeBron third option, and Luca hitting threes again and looking every bit of Prime Luca as he's been, they probably have one of the higher ceilings of this conference, even with the defensive woes, assuming, actually you can't assume that. Because in any playoff series, you will get good Aten games and bad Aten games. You have to chalk up some bad Aten games.

Hopefully we get four good ones and three bad ones. they can beat most of these teams outside of a healthy OKC So how When we say they have one of the higher ceilings For me that's either they have the third best Or because once we get into like Oh yeah you have the fourth highest ceiling And what do you do with San Antonio

And like the youth factor there I think San Antonio has a much higher ceiling Me too I think they'll beat them Like I will pick them 10 times out of 10 before the series But you know we've seen this young team team Like we can imagine a scenario where crazy shit happens And then Luca goes sickle mode And like they find an effective way

to double team when he shoots poorly from the field like it has at times his playoff teams and the shooters on that team shoot poorly. Stefan Castles open the corner every time. We can imagine this doomsday scenario for the Spurs pretty clearly where they lose sooner than you think they would. So there's not like a 0% chance. Yeah, but I think that's more about the floor of the Spurs rather than like their ceiling not being there.

That's what I mean. That's what I mean. I didn't mean to say they don't have a ceiling, of course. Then, okay. Yeah, if we're talking, we're having a floor conversation, then I think that I think the Lakers. Hmm. That's exactly.

The floor is low, but is it that low when they're healthy? Like, there's such a weird team with how they're built that it's hard to think about, you know?

Yeah. They would probably eat. I don't know. Even in terms of floor, like I think that their floor could honestly drop down a little bit more

because we saw, we saw even last year, you don't have, you don't have any bigs. You're playing with Luca Reeves, LeBron, in a playoff setting.

LeBron, even though they's diving on the floor now that the athleticism and the peak athleticism between those three probably is going to be lower. And so when you add a playoff DeAndra Aiton or playoff Jackson Hayes, a not super athletic big three in that way. You mentioned the lack of wings. There's a, this is a scenario where they also can't go into a series and get watched

in five games again. Yeah. I agree. And so it's super hard to talk about them. I can understand feeling through the third best team in this conference. No, I'll probably feel that way. You kind of have to do that, though, too, because all the other teams are super flawed as well. That's what I'm saying.

I think more teams around. Every team in that other tier is struggling more than them right now. I still feel like come playoff time, Denver will probably get it right a little bit, and I'll probably feel a little bit better about them. But as of today, I probably have the most faith at the playoffs start today in the Lakers, but they also have such a clear deficiency that I could also see them getting smoke in the first round. Look what the Denver Nuggets did to discourse, man. Being bummed for no reason come second half the season on defense.

Get it together. Be the clear second best team in the conference. We all know you should be. Run the gimmick back. Fire your coach. Lock in. Lock in. Let's talk about what's important in life.

How do you guys feel about this Chedongren clip that came up on TV? Is that the Q? Someone said they saw this picture and said, the price is $599. But for you, my friend, it's $5. I thought this is, this is AI, right? Or no. I don't think so. I don't think so.

He looks Egyptian. Really bad at it. I think they just fucked up the lighting really bad. Yeah, the color rating is terrible. And the beard, like, I guess he said a beard at some point and just got looks real dark from the dark shadows. He looks Egyptian. Yeah, I don't think his beer's ever been this thing.

And that's Ozempic Khalid. Oh my God. Yes, dude. Are you, my friend? $5. Just like, I was going on. What's going on, Chet? Looking from the eyes.

Can imagine him saying that. Chet, you know, is Matt, Bruce. That was a funny quote to. That's all. Is Matt, yeah. I have no idea why they, why or how they did it. Masha-lah, Bibi. These days, we can't scroll through Twitter replies before.

It's not a safe spot. I've done that on stream before. This website is fucking treacherous. Yeah, shout out the, was this ESPN? Yeah. Yeah, shout out the ESPN graphics team for making, Chad Holmgren exactly what he sees in the mirror. Is that what he sees?

No, you're right. He sees a black guy, you're right. But it's closer to what he sees. We've helped his self-image a little bit. Fred Van Bleet wants everyone to hit the brakes on the Spurs hype. Have they want a playoff series? Everybody slow the fuck down. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

They're having a good year. But what's the finish line, though? It's easy to say all this in the moments. Being 100, they beat our ass. But anybody in the media taking victory laps when we were just beating, when we was just beating their ass. I saw somebody quote Fred's Pott and was like, bro, we haven't won a playoff.

Yeah. So I, yeah, this is, this is good hate. Surprising comment to see from Fredman Bleet. Just, just Hayden. Yeah, he's literally just hating. And I'm sorry. Listen, this is what happens. When you're a player and you haven't played all year

and like your team is on the downturn, you start to look around and just be like, man, I'm sick of this. I'm gonna just start hating. Just get on the mic. can say something. I know he's really not that nice. If I was there, I would stop him.

And then you get these moments. But yeah, some good old-fashioned Hayden from Frivenvli, who I'm surprised to see that from. But I think we all understand. You just outline exactly why it's happening. And I like it too for that Spurs Rocket robbery. Okay, more hate. Kendrick Perkins compares Shea Gildos Alexander to Michael Jackson.

We got to stop doing this. He is the Michael. We had to stop doing it. No, we just have to stop. Let's hear him out. Let's hear him out. Let's hear him out. Let's hear the reasoning.

He is the Michael Jackson of basketball. He's an artist. Every album he puts out, every year goes diamond. I have never seen a guard the sufficient of my entire life. I thought I was glazing. Called him Michael Jackson. Wow. Okay. Let him cook.

Yeah, get him off the girl now. It's over with it. Turn a burner off. Yeah. There's a, come on, man. Also, this is the second, like, music analogy that that perk has used. He's been in his back. He said, Jaylon Brown is MVP, young boy.

He's been in his back. No, that makes no sense. I never understood him. Neither does it make sense, but I want to keep going. I enjoy the performance. I wonder what's his next analogy. He will, he will keep going. We just got to stop invoking Michael Jackson's name when comparing him to people.

Like, you just, we just can't do it. Even if what you're saying, like, I can, I can halfway understand the point that you're making. I don't, by the way. Leave his, leave his name out of it. Is he calling Michael Jackson consistent? Okay. Is he efficient? I suppose.

Efficient? All right. I don't get it at all. I don't understand even a little bit why Michael Jackson is the, though. There's been, there's been too many musical names this weekend that have been invoked. That should never have been invoked. Let's talk about something else has been invoked. Confidence.

Victor Womenyama. He voted. Right now, the focus is on my body because I really want to win MVP and DPOI. So I'm trying to press the gas. How do you feel about this comment? Let him really want to win MVP. He's really aware of the 65 game rule. He's really aware that he cannot afford to miss no more games pretty much at this point in time.

So the rest of the quote was a lot. layers around. Yeah, we'll get this. We'll get to it. Don't worry. Funny as hell. But he's aware and he knows that, yo, he's what? This is year three of Wembe or four?

Three. Year three, Wembe and like we can walk away. Yeah, by year three, you should have like two DPO-wise. And knowing that there's a chance like he may not have nothing is really like kind of hinders his pathway to like goal status. He'd be the youngest MVP if he won this year. He'd take Derek Rose's chain. Need it.

Take it. No, I can't take it. Take it. Take it. It is kind of weird to me that he has been more in the MVP conversation. I suppose it's because he missed all those games early in the year. So the media kind of treated it like, oh, he's clearly not going to hit 75. So he's kind of been out of the mind.

But the fact that like, I'm going to keep hating, the fact that Jaylen Brown got the MVP convos before Wemby, when he's the clear two seed in the Western Conference, being the best defensive player in the world who's hit like a midseason leap offensively. It's kind of crazy he's not at least in the convo in the same way other people are in some cute way. I'd tell you he's, he's, if, if Shay, and She's probably going to make the games mark. But if Shea did it, that's my MVP.

Yeah, if she and Yokic, they were disqualified, I think it would be Wembe. And I wouldn't really think about it. I think even with Yokic, I'm putting Wembe's. I'm putting Wembe as my second. I agree. There's enough of a gap. Defensively, obviously. Obviously there's a gap too, but seeing like win percentage and how drastic that is.

What's the bigger cap, offensively or defensively? That's interesting convo because Wemby's raw offensively still and Yokish might be the goat. Winby might be the goat defensive player. What's the bigger gap? Between the two, I think the bigger gap is defensively because offensively, Winby, he has playmaking in his back. If this was last year,

if this was last year, maybe it would probably be like slightly more, more even. Yoki's just like 5% worse than what he was last year offensively. But obviously he's not like a worst player, but like just in terms of pure performance. Well, just shoot.

like what you know Yokic to be without the injury like just you know peak Yokic like let's say he's healthy come playoff time and he is the best offensive player you've ever fucking seen then I'd probably go it's still be defense because like yeah top five weapon in the league like I don't top five weapon let's say top 10 weapon for sure

yeah top 10 weapon to goate offensive player versus a bad defensive center and goat defensive which is crippling yeah the hard part there would be just how bad Yokich is because he does have some strengths he is pretty good in the inside, breaking up passing lanes,

big man stuff like that. And like, is Wembee Goat defensive level already? Or do we just say that? No, I think he's. Okay. I don't think we're just saying. He's on the short list of like,

of goat defenders. But when be, I mean, but Yokic, if he's just being Yokic, he's going to walk into 40, 15 and 10 every single night in the playoffs. And the one thing that

is so dumb. Everybody was always like, you got to take away his past it. And now he's like, okay, I'll score 60. Now what? Like,

and so I'll score 60. 60 I'll get I get 20 assists and and I get 20 rebounds like he is different when he's on his game so I do think that Yokic at his peak is world's worlds better than than one beat okay what is playing in my ear right now you'll hear that no I can't hear it did you okay I can't hear the club right now anyways the inflammation of my body is basically me down everywhere except for one place he letting y'all know he's in real pain except for one place

teahee-he there was silence in that room after he said that he wanted the teahs so bad look like grin on the right except for one place and you can see it on his face after nobody right he was like damn he's like I'm bombing out here

tough crowd Tough crowd. Tough crowd. That's definition of tough crowd. Is that one of his first misses? Yeah. Sure. Some people already think he's corny.

So to those people, this is like his 12th miss. All he does is miss. Yeah. Do you want to laugh at Derrimor real quick before I move on to the last segment? Oh, of course. Okay. Just don't make sure it's a safe space to hit on Darry. Always.

Jeremy came today or yesterday. 15 points, 50% from the field. Bye for now from three. plus 13 and only 17 minutes. The Zodiac GM was right. He's a perfect fit. He's a perfect fit. I just want to take the second to have a moment of silence

for Daryl Morey's credibility in the trade market. And it's all these are, time for the last second of this episode. Next thing we are going to do, I'm in a name to you. Every single number one overall pick in the last 10 NBA drafts, we had to pick their biggest flaw.

So some of these players are obviously good, some not so good. whatever level of player they netted out to be after their draft year, what do you think is the biggest flaw in their game holding them back from hitting whatever the next level that's in front of them is? Okay. So first off, Cooper Flag, the most recent one. What's his biggest flaw right now?

Three point shooting probably right now. Whenever he launches it specifically off the dribble two, it's always going like, it's always hitting the back arm. He's always way too strong. But outside of that, like, he's such a superb offensive player. But that's his biggest flaw. Yeah. And then hopefully I should come with time, right?

It's really just you're a rookie and you have this one glit. thing that I would assume year two you're going to develop. Yeah. He can't be this bad of a shooter. And as soon as it develops, we're going to be looking at the guy who we're going to take the title away from Palo Pankero for the closest thing to LeBron James. There was a play the other day. He jumped

from like two steps inside the foot the line just flew. Just rose. Once that jump, his slashing is crazy that size. He's going to be Caucasian LeBron James real fast. When he gets down, it is scary. And it's crazy because like he's obviously a rookie. He's like 19.

in two years, three years, he's going to put on like 15, 20 pounds. Just freight train downhill. It's going to be disgusting. The battles between him and Wembe, oh my God, man, they're going to feed me so well. I mean, it's going to be entertaining.

Masterclasses. Time out historical battles. Free Dawkins type shit. Free Dawkins. Yo, shout out for Dawkins, man. Shout out feeding him. Shout out feeding Mo. Apparently, he loves to be fed. Look at the AP though.

You see that shit? Zachary's Shea. What is his biggest flaw? This picture's mad funny for no reason. I am not going to lie. I've never seen this picture. Take that fucking head off. Mo.

Chamans. What is his actual biggest flaw? Outside of the laughing at him for not being number one overall pickworthy, what is stopping him for being a productive player from being a productive three and D starter? At the three of the D. Top of the year. I would defensively, he's actually really good. Okay.

So it's the three. He's a great defender. Good, lengthy guy makes guys uncomfortable all the time. Whenever he's like dealing with some type of guy I was trying to get into his sets. He's good at absorbing contacts, surprisingly. So defensively, I'm so happy with him. But offensively, it's consistency. It's a service.

It's creation or they want to, they want to to be able to create. I don't know if he's like in the mindset of doing that or just. He doesn't want to create. And go ahead and shoot. He doesn't want to dribble. Stop asking. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But more so is big.

biggest weakness, Quinn Snyder. Biggest weakness, Quinsider. Go get a bucket. I don't want to. I'm tired. Any team would live, like, you put him on any team across the league, they're going to be a better basketball team. Okay. We got to last.

He's a good average player. That is a lot. You don't even start him. That's a lot. If he was on your bench, you guys would be better. You would be better. Then why is in your starting lineup? Because Quinn's, Quinstonters are coach.

What do you mean? He should be in our starting lineup. Oh, he's a question. He hasn't been, he hasn't been doing the best. job, I'll say. The head coach stopped playing the young player. If he was on your team, if he was on your team, we would look at you guys not differently,

but a little bit better. We would not look at the Lakers. I've already had Tori and Prince in the Lakers. I don't miss him that much. Come, he's better than Tori and Prince. No, he's not. I promise you, everything.

All my soul, he's better than TP. All my soul, he's better than Torian. What? I legit don't know if that's new. No, you're, get the fuck. I'm only sort of joking. I don't know. All my soul, he's better than Tori and Prince on defense alone, bro.

I don't do you get. I think you're gassing the defense because there's nothing to point you offensively. So you've got a really hyper focus on the defense. Like it's better than you think. Maybe it's not. I'm not gassing his defense, bro. Top board defender in the league. Yeah, the way he was talking about his defense was insane.

I'm just, I just say that to say it's like it's an underlying part of it. If there were four all defensive teams, is he making? I'm not saying top 20. No, I'm not saying top 20. If there were seven all defensive teams, is he making the list? TV, you know, team number nine. I'm just saying.

It's upset on paper. What is Victor women on paper? It jumps out on paper. It literally does not. If I jump out to the eyes. So what you're looking at, if you're looking at anything, it's like,

okay, like he got that. Okay. What is victim woman Yama's biggest flaw? Um, hmm. This is Glace already. Silence filter.

That was crazy. I was trying to figure out the way of it. No. that. I was trying to figure out the way to put it to express it. Ball handling and core strength. He can't blow my guys on ball because he's too weak right now with his lengthy limbs. He needs to put on more muscle or learn his driving.

It was a tighter handle better. So you do more on ball creation. Offensively, he's so prone to having stinkers. Yeah. From the big range area of oper and finel, but he needs more strength to be able to get his own shot off more often. You got that. But outside of that, nothing.

Palo Ben Carroll. This suit. Oh, man. I thought you liked it. I think I did, but looking back, this is not good. He's gone older. Facts. Unk modengaged.

What are those pins? I don't know. I forget what those were. Oh, yeah, I can't tell from this picture. Those Larry L. Maybe it's just the background color where I'm like, I like those colors are. Oh, yeah, the purple doesn't lend itself well to this maroon in the back. Yeah.

Yeah, if I see it differently, I might like it again. I mean, we've talked so much about it. Just, yeah, play style. Yeah, play style, decisiveness. shooting. Yeah. Shooting is probably the post-aboy.

We can just call it that. The jump shooting consistency and then more importantly, how often he gets aggressive as a driver when the jump shot isn't falling? Him being able to know I need to get in the slashing mode more often because the jump shot isn't going to carry me

to half-quarter deficiency. Adaptiveness. Yes. In-game adaptiveness is the thing. And in-season adaptiveness, let me see a full 82 games of you having a good feel for how much you should be slashing relative to the jump shooting

and not just second half of the year turn-ups. he's going to end up like sing cunger's like every year he's good at something different yeah so really what they really answer is consistency i need to see 82 games of efficient play and not these flashes that's which really just being young we need to see him get grown essentially and hit that prime level grow up palo yes be a man kade cunningham he also has just efficiency issues he's just not a great score he's not a top to your score and that's the biggest flaw if he was he would be Luca Donchich but I think he's never going to be a like truly elite rim finisher because the burst isn't like truly top tier yeah and for what he is defensively

and what he is as a distributor that's perfectly fine he can get to he still can get to and access a lot of spots on the court but when it comes to his tough shot making that that just isn't in his game at this point in time no I'd say I'd say the easy shot making isn't always there yeah sometimes he doesn't oh hit the easy threes and create as many easy rim attempts that he's on pretty good at the mid-raying he's on pretty good at the mid-raying range and being able to just show over people and do the tough stuff. But the easy stuff doesn't come easy enough for him. A low key thing,

bro just might be tired. Like, that's good. Yeah. Like, I think once, like, we can kind of get away from,

from the spacing, but just the amount of effort that is needed every single play from K'd to set up the offense, the amount of times that he sees double teams, the amount of times that he sees pressure from, from other teams, if you get somebody else who can drivel who, well,

we've been saying for two years now, you can probably get another. 5 to 10% of energy from Cade Cunningham and you probably see, I think there's another leap from Cade Certainly, certainly. Based solely off of everything in this offense is not based on what I do and what I can accomplish. If we can get him an elite score next to him

and he can average a more efficient 21, 22 points for game instead of an average efficiency 26, way better player. Yeah, 100%. Way better player. We need to get him a Quiet Leonard. Anthony Edwards. Playmaking probably. Offball defense.

His off ball defense has been dog shit this year. Yeah, that's been a big talking port over the last few games for him specifically. And it's real. He is out there letting everybody cut back and forth. He pulls up his shorts and he locks up well on ball come playoff time. But regular season, he doesn't give a shit about playing helpside defense. He's slapping the floor. He's like, I'm staying here.

And I'm not moving. I got the corner. Yeah, passing and offball defense. That's what stopping him from being like the best playing in the world level guy. Yeah. Offball defense stuff. I feel like it would be so much better. And I've seen it be better before.

But obviously, whenever I have seen to be better before, he's tasked a lot less offensively. And now these days he has to be pretty much everything for the Minnesota's number. So there's only so much energy that can be expended. Yeah, if he was a great shot blocker and like a really good passer, at that point we're describing 6.5 LeBron James. Yeah. So it's asking for a lot for him to be great at everything. Just be the good. Just be amazing.

How about you be perfect? How would you be literally Michael Jordan? How about that? What are you prepared to do about that? Tell me what you can't. honestly listen it is about time for him to turn into my literally

we've had to cut literally we've had here's a rare candy we've had so many you're at level 36 now bro we've had so many of the of the adidas commercials the campaigns where he's been taking shots at

and obviously the team the teams are very very different yeah but she goes in every time and just wins these games and he keeps sending them home and they had they were cutting the the promo earlier and they were like yeah you know they had the running MVP they beat us in the conference finals last year it's personal i need to see that at one point in time do you think it like stopped his team just stops taking shot at shee because it's he or the timurul just can't like

it's probably now one more play of loss they they probably have like one or two commercials already lined up they're not shooting anymore after this year if they don't beat them and well yeah we'll see what happens in the playoffs if they beat the lakers again he's in double down on luka being fat and out of shape if he beat shay he's in double down on that they'll pick their target wisely okay they'll have a whole summer to improvise smart zon wiliamsson was his one biggest flaw what he got to pinpoint to why he isn't who he is overall we would say health if he's on the court i think all the time that we talk about him differently but also because like how his game hasn't changed and adapted necessarily

it's so hard to like sit down and talk about teams right now who need to trade for zon williams because even if he was healthy like we still come back it's still all things probably lead to this point right now where the Pelicans are still ass and he's doing a whole lot of nothing on the team. It's health. And I wonder if the health is why he hasn't developed because he hasn't had as many encore reps as he needs.

But then again, it's just hard. If you're going to scale down and be traded to a team where you are like a second third option, it's tough to also be a mediocre rim defender and non-existent shooter. Yeah. You got to pick one of those things to be good at if you're going to be a third option.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So health, but it ties into just overall. Where's the evolution in your game? Exactly. Lack of development over time. DeAndre Aden I would say pick one identity would go a long way I would say stop listening to the monsters

under your bed or be fearful of the monsters under your bed and get to a new crib where there's no monsters but to get to a new crib you need money you need a contract you need to lock in and get that contract every single year

yeah multiple personalities are not it is clear the biggest flaw in DeAndrean's game is not being locked in We have good nights where he's very locked in And he's aggressive at the rim And the nights when he's lack of day's goal Doesn't want to warm back in transition Because he'd rather look at the floor and be sad

Doesn't want to jump high enough to catch every love Doesn't want to fight for every board Consistent energy is the story of his career I wonder what his nighttime routine is man Like what does he do to prep himself Madden 26 Mountain Dew Mountain Dew

A bunch of refill bottles We could have his own allegations now that he'd be game until 2 a.m. Waking up, tired, doesn't want to run back in transition because his energy's low. Eat an apple. Found soda under his bed. Man, if we do any, I'll mail you a dream catcher and something like that and put it above your bed, bro. Something.

Make a smoothie in the morning. Eat an apple. Get some energy going. You come to work tired. It really, like, nothing. I give him grace for, like, dropping a lob, not being quite high enough, like, all this stuff. The one thing I'll never look past is whenever he misses a shot, he doesn't sprint back in transition. He looks down.

jogs does that get the fuck back like it's understandable to miss a layup as a big not get back in transition that happens like every time but to look down and not even try pick your fucking head off god

that's him switching god it's him hitting his fucking Omity tricks oh my god oh my God no I'm only 100 Omni tricks Markkel Fultz

man light went up i just saw that he got picked up by a g league team i think was some i think was a raptor's g league team or maybe the king's musher pretty clear can't shoot a lick pretty hard to be a point guard that doesn't have a single three-point motorcycle is his weakness did they ever get really confirmed i wonder no never but like we all know it's real right like it was an injury he was not an accident i think so but nobody wants report on it yeah yeah no jump shot to speak of it's tough you can't can never come back from that ben simmons also mindset you know we give him so much flack his body fell apart i know his back he can't bend over pick up a fucking crayon off the floor we're like you're weak his back doesn't work it sucks

that's why he didn't want to dunk on trae you i love that we index on that so much yeah just once a little everything that he all the great things he's done that's that's why that's why he never wanted to take threes in game unless it was a preseason game he took a three in a preseason game and they were like oh my god stop the game Give him the ball to take home. I love the Trey Young specifically Because it is very funny You should dunk that fucking ball clearly

It's also like understandable That in a high pressure moment He got the ball It was like through it to the next pass Real fast and didn't realize It was Trey fucking Young I don't think it's I don't think a moment like that Is ever honest

Well it's understandable Like he should fucking dunk But like I don't think he was scared To Trey Young I think he was thinking too fast It was like a turnover Like going out of bounds You know

It's like the same thing as that You're an NBA player In your wide open into pain You see no one Trey Lined at Chung is not even in your eyeline at all. I'm not saying it wasn't fucking stupid. Yeah. But plenty of players are caught the ball and thrown out of bounds and we haven't been like,

this will define you forever like we do with that play. I suit you mean. We got to talk about more of these plays, man. I'm already thinking of a couple. Andrew Bynum, three-pointer. I remember that? No. What was it? Tough. It was like his last season on the Lakers. He took a three at the top of the key. Oh, you're saying more career-defining bad plays? Yeah, more career-defining bad plays. He took a three at the top of the key. Mike Brown called the timeout, benched him.

That's going to happen to the sisters like that season That's gonna happen to Aiden Aiden's gonna miss a lob Because it like goes through his hands in the playoffs And he's gonna get bench to close the game And they get eliminated And that's gonna define Aiden That's what we're gonna do for a clip

We gotta talk about the worst play of every player's career Every star player's career Funny shit ever Plays that ruined you With one bad decision In one split instinct sports decision You ruin your reputation But I do think like out of all like

Worst plays that a player could have That Ben Simmons and Sri Young thing Has to be like top tier I don't think there's too much worse I can't think of a single one that defines you more than that. That has be number one. Unless there's like a LeBron,

JJ Barrier moment that I even can't think about. I mean, LeBron won four rings. Yeah, exactly. People got over it and this Ben Simmons. I'm acting like I don't understand. I understand it. It's indicative of everything people hate about Ben Simmons

because they've seen him not be aggressive many times. So this is the one they can point to you to explain the lack of aggression. Yeah, he's a scammer. That's the last one. That's the last scammer. That's funny. Some of the other guys aren't scammers.

Ben Simmons is a scammer. Harding on it. Does I make him a scammer? No, not really. No, he's, yeah. People have been telling us about who he is from day one since he was at LSU. There were so many reports talking about like, yeah, he doesn't really love basketball as much as he should for some of this time. I think he's less of a scammer and we willingly got scammed and we had to learn from Ben Simmons and other guys to like take these guys with face value.

Yeah. But we never will. I never will. Because I'm realistically, how am I going to get up here and be like, I think this guy doesn't love basketball. Exactly. What do I know about this guy? What do I know about fucking Darren Peters Has love for basketball?

I don't know him. How am I going to get in my draft seat on draft night? It would be like, this guy's going to be a bitch in five years. I guarantee you is. How am I going to do that? You got to make those calls. Sometimes you're going to stand on someone. What calls?

Do we're really a jackass is. You need to stand on your principal. Sometimes you got to try to identify the marks. Yeah. Be a volume shooter. If I go 10 guys mentally weak, the numbers tell me at least one will be. And I can gloat about that.

These jobs that we have are preposterous. We got to have an opinion about everything. We have to do it. And then we told them about why they're so bad. It was like 100 of them. I don't even ever saying that. All of them. Best shit is a two-path of ass.

Last thing we're doing before we get out of here. Let's play NBA 20 questions. All four, three of you guys, you can try to guess my NBA player. Zero questions about basketball. All off-the-court questions. Okay. Nothing about the professional.

Okay. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. Does he put that shit on? I'm gonna assume no. I'm gonna assume he does not. Is he a family man? Yes. Actually, yes.

Family man, okay. And we have like evidence of a specific instance. Is he a nuclear family man? Whoa, nuclear family. What does that mean? Whoa. I know what you're asking. He is not the matriarch of, he is not the matriarch of nuclear family. But he is not the matriarch of nuclear family.

But he is not, He's also not Anthony Edwards. Okay. He's not Anthony Edwards. I know what you're getting at it. No. Did he used to get hos? What did you say?

Did he used to get hos? Oh, I doubt it. Oh, shit. So he's new to this. I don't think so. Used to? That's a legit question. I don't think so.

It's a good question. Does he now? Whenever NBA player, probably has capacity, get hos. But we're five questions. Two of them. Minimals. He probably can. But he's not,

he's not Mr. Getham. He's not going to be anything he is. Okay. Is he under 30? Yes. Okay.

Under 30 K, Gil. Come on. NBA player. Come on. Who are we talking about? He probably can. He can.

No, no, it's funny. He'll probably be sneaky. He's this sneaky getem guy. What the fuck? His game is that he doesn't have game. No, no, not necessarily.

You just wouldn't expect it, but it's probably more than you imagine. But you wouldn't associate him, like, on a clear level. Like, it's not, it's not Jalen Duren. He loves it, dude. Okay. But he's not a loser. He'll shock you, I think. Mid-level Riz.

Okay. Probably, yeah, probably mid-level Riz. Okay. Mid-level Riz. That's where we're out right now. Probably. You said he has a family or no? He's not the matriarch of a nuclear family.

Okay. But he is a family man. Does he have a signature shoe? No. No. signature shoe under 30 Would you consider him like

Like a like a comic book nerd and stuff like that? That was my next question I don't know that he is but he looks like he could be nerdy If you didn't know he's basketball You'd look at him and you would assume some nerdy elements are true Okay okay okay You'd make that leap logically Does he have like great coordination

Can he catch like a fastball? He's probably an athlete that translates Okay, okay, cool. Does it look like he reads a lot? If I'm going to be racist, I guess. What? Like, I guess I could profile that, but like, I don't know. He's a basketball player.

I don't know if he reads, but to help you with a hint, like, yeah. Does he look like, hold on, what's the way? What's the best way to frame this question right here? Also, I have no idea. One, I don't know how many questions we've used. 10. I'm keeping track. Yeah, 10. I don't know anything.

I have no inclinations. Okay, you asked him by his name. narrow that down some more. Okay. Does he look like his parents set him up well for college? Absolutely he does. Absolutely he does.

Okay, okay, okay. We're getting somewhere. He had a fund in place since birth. Is this Brommy? No, that's a good guess. That's a great guess. That is good. No.

That's 12 questions. Okay. Great guess, though. But no. Okay. Not necessarily Mr. Potash. I wouldn't have. but I said about the get him ability about Brani.

Brani's a little more of a clear like I would assume so. He's the Bronjane's his son, you know, like, come on. The guy, I said that for a reason about this. This is concan nipple? This is concan nipple. This is cocked a nipple. Oh, you're sniping. Oh, my gosh.

What led you do that? No, man. The white boy is the sneaky like, you know, maybe let's get white girls. The center boat for college really helping. Yeah. Yeah. He has a good family I can sell. Okay.

It's concordable. Right. Damn. Concordible. If you're seeing this on Instagram, let us know how many else you can. Let us know where the line really is. He has a girlfriend, man. Oh, never mind.

Don't tell me a thing. Ignore this. Untag yourself. Listen, we're going to comment back to this video. We're just going to say flooded. If it was true, just like it and keep it moving. That's it. he follows us we can make him see this

with that be said to end this episode if you're still here comment what you think of he definitely get hoas not that I'm thinking about it yeah but no if I said yes you'd probably be like

naming all these pretty boys and this like very stereotypical fashion so I didn't want you to get too lost yeah I'm okay but every NBA player does like you can't hear come on

come on you're an NBA player get together skill issue and where is he from too He's from like, like, Wisconsin, right? From Wisconsin. Six, seven white boy in Wisconsin.

Oh, he's running it up. He's running it up. He makes snow angels. I love you too. If we're still here in comments, snow angels. No, actually he's not. His girlfriend's black, bro. Oh.

I won't follow up. You're lying. Swear to God. She's like, miss or something. Yeah. She's like what? Huh? Would you say she's like what?

She's mixed. Oh, black. Yeah. Oh, well, uh, so she's not making snow angels. Stop. Okay. He's like. Yeah, stop.

He got some shit to his game. He's Dr. Umar? Yeah, Khan is special, man. Black Queen's forever. I'm crying, man. Would that be safe? We'll see y'all on Thursday for the next episode. Also, come happy birthday, Isaac.