The Deep 3 Podcast - The Most Improved NBA Players Of 2026 | Ep. 184

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

NBA players that made the leap this season! #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 1:39- Most Improved Players 50:57- NBA news roundup 1:32:32- tiktoks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mo, what is one thing you think you improved upon this year? Sleep. Do you got better at sleeping? Yeah, man. Deep sleep. Were you poured it before? Got tapped into magnesium. Ah.

Yep. Got tapped into Elthini. You got performance enhancing sleep drugs? Okay. I'm not talking about performance. No, none of that. I'm not with a part. No.

It's quite fitting to something we'll talk about later today. No. But before we get to that, as you guys see about the title, we are here today to talk about the most improved players across the NBA. I ask you guys to give us your picks on who is the most improved player on your favorite team. I pulled about 20 of them so we're not to do every single team sorry but that's a lot of players to talk about

I'm gonna react to all your guys's picks and we're gonna talk about if we agree which I think we probably will we talk about a lot of these guys and then we're gonna say why we think they improve so much this year as in what was the main catalyst behind their improvement and how it changes how we view them and their team going forward

okay a lot of most improved players there's honestly a ton of good improved players this year it's actually quite a deep list compared to most years yeah it's gonna be a lengthy conversation it will be because I think a lot of them change the outlook at the league in a lot of ways. So we'll get into all that. Let's do it.

And after that, you guys know how these Monday episodes work. We're going to go through all the biggest news of this past weekend that we missed since our last episode. A lot to dive into do today. Like you mentioned in that intro, a lot going on. Cue the intro music. Let's yap. We're throwing it back. Whoa.

That's crazy. He was bragging. I hope you just said. The cranium is crazy. Oh, my God. Crown eaters rejoice. So we're going to jump straight into it and get into the main topic of today's episode, reacting to your picks for the most improved players in the league. Let's get right into it.

Let's talk about the first player on this list. Jumping into it, I think it's only right that we start with. My guy. Will Oates says, Scotty Barnes has turned into one of the best defenders in the league this season. It's not ridiculous. It's not crazy to look at Scottie Barnes this year and say, potentially, first team? All defense? First team all defense.

This is obviously like, and whenever we say that about non-biggs, it's like, all right. Like, if the bigs weren't here, depending on what bigs play enough games, like, we'll have that. It really is just like that title just to say you are that caliber of defender. But legitimately, there's always at least one, at least like one non-big. And so like, you know, you have your guys around the league. But Scotty Barnes has been at that level this year. So where like if you put them on that, if you put them on your ballot, it's not ridiculous. The thing is.

He's a big defensively. Like, he is that type of impact defender. Like, he truly is, potentially the only one in the league right now that can actually guard one through five in a very strong way. He's had to start plenty of games of the five this year because Yaka Perthal's been hurt all year.

They've done the C&B at the five thing, but there's some games before they unlocked that. He was legitimately playing the five. He went nuts and had like 17 rebounds against the Warriors playing the five. He can stick with Big Man. He's 6-9, crazy wingspan, crazy strength. Switching onto guards is not a problem for him.

I think he has, like, all the benefits of those bigs that you typically see them get first-team all NBA for while being as good as like an OCNA, nobody on the perimeter. I don't think this is crazy at all to say you top of. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Like specifically what makes him so special as a defender for me is obviously going back to what you said, just being one of the very true one through five defenders while also being one of the best

on-ball defenders as well, who just takes up space every opportunity he fucking gets and just makes defender or offensive players uncomfortable at all times. I just got an email from Popeye's. So we've updated our rewards, terms and conditions. And I'm wondering when I signed up for Popeye's rewards. Oh, no, that's the most big shit I've seen in a minute. You're all Popeyes member?

I guess so. When did I do that? His ass open a credit card or Popeyes. You big bitch. That's so disgusting. I have no idea. You know what it probably was? It's probably that guy.

then chicken sandwich craze. God damn sandwich man. Oh my God. The funniest thing would be if he's not signed up, he's getting recruited. I don't know when I did this. I might be getting recruited. So you buy two chicken sandwiches

a year. We got some hell cats for you. You get in this Popeye's uniform. You be out of. I haven't had Popeye in a while, but in college, there was one right from my college apartment in Austin. I was there.

I was there often. I will never forget. Yeah. Never ever forget. It was like, it was the craziest moment. We went out to an Asian restaurant, right? Oh, good Lord. There was this place called 888 in Austin.

We went there. Isaac was not feeling it, right? Isaac is a notorious piggy eater. He was like, there's nothing there at the Asian spot for me. Goes next door to the Pop-I. Yeah. Gets whatever three-piece, it's whatever combo he has. brings it into the Asian restaurant and sits down next to us.

That's not allowed. And eat the Popeyes at the Asian spot. I've never ever picked out. Yo, you have no shame at all. That was the most 19 year old thing I ever did in my life. We told him we're like, bro, like, I don't think you could bring another establishment food into here. And he was like, bro, like, who cares? Like, I'm just here.

He's like, there's like eight of y'all here. Yeah, exactly. He's like, there's 80 of y' y'all here. You got to give him the mad money. You're like, no witness. It's a fan ticket. But Popeyes to the Asian spot. Oh, man.

It's not like it was some fine dining, so I didn't feel too bad. No. It was a way to go to the Asian spot. But yeah, Scottie Barnes. How does this impact that you view the Raptors now, knowing that he's, I wouldn't say take no leap. He's always been a great defender. But really, the leap is getting back to having a good ecosystem offensively to be

able to be the best player on a team that's a four seed right now. When last year, they were just in hell around him. He was overtaxes of score. His efficiency suffered four. it. Now they have Brandon Ingram. Now they have RJ Barrett playing a little better being a very important part of the team when they're winning. Everything fits around him more now. So I think the defense is starting to shine because the offense isn't bogging down his PR. Overall, though, how does that kind of impact your view of him and the team? My view of him and the team are two separate

things. Okay. I feel very good about Scotty Barnes. I feel like the move to get Brandon Ingram. Yeah, like you wanted to elevate your ceiling in the things that you're capable of. You're not winning a championship with Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram being like your top two guys. And so I just wanted to know is the stuff that we saw from Scottie Barnes last year, is that truly his fault or is it like a product of the situation? It was a product of the situation. So now I feel much better about him. The Raptors are in such a, their roster is in such like flux and weirdness with with

Perl, with quickly RJ Barrett. You just have so many guys. It's like, if you were somebody else, we could probably fit a little bit better. And so they're the four-seed shots at them because they've been winning games. I don't know long-term if I feel super confident in them right now. But I feel confident about them building around Scotty Barnes because I know what that looks like now. Yeah, I agree. On to the next one, CJ says, Keonté George, real potential building block.

This is somebody we've talked about at length in recent weeks. One of the best scoring leaps of the season. Actually, the best scoring leap of the season, probably bar none. I think at this point he's averaging 25 points your game. What the fuck Not bad efficiency One of the best rim scores In the NBA at that size

I think he's currently She's like 68% At the rim something crazy The three point shot Has come around To league average efficiency While having a heavy Off the dribble diet

Kind of fits the mark Of that new prototypical Go-to lead ball handler That the team desperately needed How do you view him now How does he I get the real question for him Is where does he rank

Among Young Guards And the most promise Um Where does he rank among young guards I think he's He's still probably not Like at the top top of the tier because it's the most talented position that we probably have in the league to this date still.

But he's constantly like edging his way into those conversations. Now it is hard because he's in Utah. They're not winning a lot of games. Don't doing anything of like real impacts in the actual NBA in its scene. But when it comes to mentioning guys who are under 25 guys who are like building to be more and more efficient scores, he's at like very top of that conversation. and I think he still feels like a tier two, three level player in people's minds

when it comes to casuals and how they view the game right now but next year if the Utah Jazz are like a very respectable team in bare minimum when like 43 games, 40, 43, 44 games or whatever he's going to be an all-star. I think I see that in this future. All-star, okay, that's quite the recalibration. Listen, this time last year, everyone jazz fans are ready to give up on him.

So that's definitely the most improved season. at this point 24.8 points per 75, 61.5% true shooting. That's basically the exact same numbers that just got Norm Palis selected to the All-Star team, which we would get to later. But that, you know, all-star scoring guard that doesn't bring a lot defensively,

actually brings absolutely nothing defensively. The playmaking is a work in progress. He's on pace to be a Norm Powell-type player right now. Actually, he is an Orr-Pallel-type player right now, I'd say. And if he was in the Eastern Conference, he would be an All-Star. Yeah. That, again, the Norm Powell stuff,

we'll talk about that later. for for kiante i i'm with you i just feel like it's super super hard to talk about like rankings because even with the jump we can get to ranking season and i still have him as like the 18th best guard in the league that's pretty good for what he was last year i'm just saying like when you look at at the numbers he's putting up and it's like oh this is a guy top 15 at his position top 10 at his position it's like yeah like that that is super super deep so i don't know how to calibrate that right now but for teams that have been drafting guards that have been looking for a point guard of the future,

it took a lot of time. And I'm with jazz fans because there were times where we're like, yeah, this guy doesn't have it. And so to finally get into the situation where he does have it, that's a credit to him. Good for Kianti, George. One of the best feel good, most improves of the season. Will Oates says,

Jamal Murray and Payton Watson have made the Nuggets the scariest the scariest team in the league. Hands down. hands down. Wow. Like, I got belty yesterday. I understand. Listen,

wire to wire belt. And Shay was going crazy. There was a play when Payton Watson dunked on chat, filthy. Put him in the basket. Next play, She came down and hit him with this filthy crossover and immediately got his get back.

And you can tell him in his body language, he was like, no, I'm going to get one immediately and did it on Payton Watson. Gorgeous back and forth. He's been doing that so much this year, She of like, now like I'm going to force the issue and you can just

see it a little bit more than like than the normal. That's scary. Yeah. He's needed to with everybody that's been hurt. That's scary. Yeah, it's that. And then also too, like he won the championship. He's MVP now. Everyone's literally going to show their best and give you their best fucking effort every single night. So he has to force that shit

back. But going back to this conversation, Jamal Murray and Ping Watson, going back to our last episode, you know, we talked about how Jamal Murray is leveled up and he's had a comparable year. especially efficiency-wise, scoring-wise, and overall, like, the completeness of his game to someone of the likes of a peak, Steph Curry,

which is absolutely insane. And then we've also been keeping track of Pey Watson and his growth and development over the course of the year. I remember at the start of the year, his shooting was really blah, then towards the, you know, midway point of the season,

maybe like 15, 16 games of the year. He started shooting much better from the three-point line. Yolkich goes out, and then the world is fucking his, and he has all the shots in the world, all the Mid-Rane's opportunities in the world, and he's blossomed to an entirely different player that I want to say no one thought he didn't have the potential to be.

But, yo, he was not good in college. He was not good in the NBA for the first few years. You can say that. Nobody thought his potential to be, except for the former general manager who was fired. He thought he could be this, and he died for his sins because he, Peyton Watson took a year too long to get here.

But outside of, what was his name again? Why am I forgetting? Calibu. Outside of Calibut, you're right. nobody expected this. Like he was talked about as one of the wildish draft. I wouldn't say reaches

because everyone knew it was for like physical intangibles but like make a wish projects of like praying we can fix them making really good. The fact that he turned to that is crazy. Yeah.

And as far as the takeaway from this he said in the thing makes him one of the scariest teams in the league, it makes them have a precarious situation on their hands this summer. We'll see what they decided to do.

Payton Watson has played himself into a 25 million plus payday. I can promise you a team will offer him that. Probably the Lakers with how much dying on this cap hill I mean cap space hill

they have to decide are they going to pay him that if they want to do that the second apron team goodbye Christian Brown or goodbye Cam Johnson the playoffs will tell us a lot for which one of those three guys

has to go at this point see ya Christian Brown goodbye at this rate next up Denny turned from a random player to an all star from hoops and hoops

now I think it's in terms of a random player at all star it's like a two year leap because he got good last year but this year he became an all star was selected as a West Reserve one of the best drivers in the NBA.

Obviously, lots made and a lot of jokes are made about the free throw stuff. It is a free throw merchant, but it's because he's a very powerful driver that plays with insane physicality and leads to those free throws. Also, you know,

respectable outside jumper, pretty solid playmaking wing, overall well-rounded, point-forward type guy, kind of filling what we wanted Franz Wagner to be as a score. How does that impact that he view the Blazers

going forward now that you know that he truly is this guy that can put up these numbers? It's awkward because this is good and this is leading them to winning basketball, potentially if they make it playoff basketball, as you get through the plan, of course. But I don't know where we're going.

It puts you at a very awkward point because you don't know what's happening with the guys around him and School Henderson. Are they one move away now? A lot of teams, if they're this mid-tier playoff team that we thought would be there because of defense and we like some of the prospects. We like a cling-in. We like the veteran presence in defensive Drew Holiday. Shaden Sharp is promising yada-y-y-da. If they had a young All-Star that came out of here and proved that he could be that guy, I think most times we would say go get him a co-star.

We can make something happen. Is Denny on that level? Do we feel like he's this ascending guy that we need to pair him with somebody? No. I don't. I don't believe that. For a couple reasons.

One, because I don't think Denny's like one a that level guy. Yeah. But then also the infrastructure that we thought around the Blazers and we talked about it last episode. outside of that March basketball run that they had last year where they were top five, their defense has been just a defense.

It's been at best, you know, right outside the top 10. It's fluctuated in between there and like 17th in the league. They haven't shown the high-end talent of being this elite defense the same way that like OKC was before they got Chet. Where even without Chet, they were still, they were like 13. They were right on the edge. And you knew that they just didn't have. that they just didn't have a room protector as soon as they got there they blossomed into what they are now the the blazers for the most part have had a majority of their guys still there

and their defense has still been you know mad inconsistent so i'm not super super um intrigued in thinking that they are a player away from now becoming this this contender and it's like oh where are they leading them to the tentity they've lost five straight they're four games under under 500 they're wildly disappointing showbledges fans and there's one thing to take away from this episode not even fucking hate you yeah they're they're super disappointed everything about you actually

I'm very frustrated seeing seeing the blazers like this this year they just need better point guard play like they Scoo Henderson is apparently coming back soon he's finally been clear to return the court pray to God that he's good because if he's good and can be a passable playmaker I think we know it'll be a good defender two point shot came around a second half of last year I'm hoping that's real

the playmaking take a little bit of a leap and take a little bit of that burden off of Denny, who is a good secondary playmaker, but I don't want him to be this, like, heliocentric main ball handling wing. That'll go far. Scoot will make, scoo over the next two months, we'll really kind of clear this vision up and decide if we need to get a point guard this summer, which is always point guards available because there's a million skill ball handling in the league this year, or if maybe we are closer to one move away. Yeah. Next team, champion trick shots says Jalen Dern has become one of the greatest sidekicks in the NBA. Also, first time All-Star confirmed. Jalen Dern is there now. And I think,

think the main talking point for the pistons is going into the season. We talked about them as being like in the three through five range right after the Knicks and Cavs, who we thought would be the best teams in the conference by a wide margin, has been at their one all-star away from really making a splash, that Kate needs all this help. The shooting got a little bit better last year, but we know they still don't have much creation outside of him. Jalen During kind of took that into his hands and kind of became that secondary score a little bit. Yeah, that's crazy.

When it comes to thinking about Jeline Duren as a sidekick, I guess. that's like a valid sentiment to say he's one of the greatest. I don't think he's better than someone like Jamal Murray. I don't think he's better than, it's debatable between like Alfred Singoon. Byron James. Sangu. I don't know if he's a sidekick right now, bro.

Oh, he's certainly. Have you seen Lucas threes are falling again? I don't know if y'all noticed. Yeah. He's kind of got again. Yeah. I don't know if anybody's noticed. Yeah, there's no sidekick in L.A.

If you want to say one, it's Austin Reeves, Luca, Luca, Luca, and that's it. Crazy, Glaze. It is crazy. It's true. You saw who else his three? started to fall. Who?

Landry sham it. Gave him, gave him belt yesterday. You got the... Every role player went crazy. You got the Landry shammer last night. Landry shammer.

But yeah, Jayland Duren's a top. Beautiful. Five to eight second option right now, which not an insult at all, considering he was not a star last year. I think we did our breakout players of the season and I put him on there. I was excited for the prospect of Jailendurring

coming to this year. I think there was a lot of signs end of last year that he was kind of on the up and up as a score. The finishing numbers had really started. to become impressive, I didn't expect to develop his handle over the summer and be able to have a short mid-range game

and take guys off the dribble and do a lot of like, I'm bigger than you can dribble so you have no chance to stop him from getting to the rim. It's crazy, the on-ball league he made. I expected him to be a high-level role player, I think is the tier we put him in in our breakout players

because I expected him and K'd have a unstoppable pick and roll that continues to develop, but really, like, as I play finisher. Like, I expected him to be Jared Allen as a play finisher a couple years ago. The on-ball stuff, he's closer to Shang-Goon in that way. not the playmaker

but in terms of being the big 6-11 guy that dribbles and has the size to get the angle when you go into the rim Honestly like you're right Him being this good this fast Has been almost like a saving Grace for this team because I feel like Just maybe two years ago

When you ask when you were to get Your opinion or the overall Consensus opinion of Jalinder and everyone's like He's a player Yeah, cool player Because the defense was dreadful two years ago.

Yeah. Defense is dreadful. So when your defense is dreadful as a big and then you don't provide any like outstanding outside traits, like you, you are movable at that point in time. Yep, yep.

And now the defense is better. He's still not like some incredible high IQ rim demolisher or anything, but he's so much better. Someone's more polished with his footwork he was two years ago defending in the pick and roll in the offensive leap. Everything's just getting better on pace.

People forget, he's so motherfucking young. Like he was the youngest player in his draft class by a mile. He's still like, what is he 22 right now? 21 in year 3 or 4? That's insane. Like he's so young. He's like year two age right now.

Dude, that's insane, man. He's like a year older than Derek Queen. Oh my God. I think Derek Queen's 20 and he's like 21, Buffy, 22. What the fuck? Yeah, he's 22 is old. I swear to God.

I don't think Jaylon is older than 22 and Derek Queen's kind of old. That does not make sense. Check that from me. Make sure I'm not yappen. Derek Queen is 21. Yeah, Derek Queen's old as fuck. Like, wow, that's crazy.

Is Jaylan Dern 22? Yeah, Dern's 22. Yeah, that's crazy. He's barely older than Derek Queen. That's crazy, man. And it's a product of him coming getting incredibly young. Shout to Jayden, man. Shout out of Jaylen, he turned 22, like two months ago.

He's six months older than Derek Queen. Damn. Next up, champion trick shot says Anthony Black has made an incredible leap. Could be a good cornerstone player. And I like that framing. Is he a cornerstone player for this team now? Should he be viewed right after Paulo and Franz,

who are there two All-Star caliber players? I shouldn't even say right behind. Is Anthony Black on their ass? France hasn't made an all-star team yet. Is he almost as valuable to this team going forward? Is he a new third main guy? I don't want to say he's almost as valuable, but he is super valuable. He probably would be coming into his own to be like, oh, easily, 100%.

Most valuable players in the team? Yeah. 100% yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say like probably top three just in terms of like what assets do you feel comfortable moving off of because he's so young and obviously he's still on his rookie contract or whatever.

He just shown things that at this age that guys like Jaylon's sales was in. able to do at that age just yet. And I'm not going to say Jill and Suggles is replaceable, but there's a lot of things that this dude does that solves a lot of their issues. And he's going to make things like really awkward in the coming months, especially just since there's going to be like some. We know we know with how they've been performing and how they've been just constantly disappointing and wildly up and down throughout the entire year. There's going to be some reconfiguration. I don't know what's going to happen with the starting lineup, but for sure, like their head coach for sure sells are not going to be there. And whoever comes in through those

doors has to take note of Anthony Black and see how additive he is to these teams to this team. He's a very interesting player. I think the main cause for his lead this year is his handle. He's become just one of the more creative advantage creation handle ball handlers in the league. I forgot who. Who's their coach? Sham God. Sham God is a coach for them and it shows. It's crazy. The stuff he's pulling out. This is like spinning step back jumpers he pulls out. He's especially good though at creating shots at the room. 67% of the rim this season. And I think it's mostly because the handle jump still isn't very good from the mid-range. The floater needs to get better.

Only choose 38% from there and a good amount of his shots come there. That's kind of holding back as overall efficiency. And his three points is just average 35%. But that handle, I'm going to create shots at the rim. Pretty important, especially off of Franz and Palo, when obviously spacing has been the biggest concern forever. But last year, we were talking about the fact that they need a point guard. They need another guy who can dribble and create advantages off of those shots.

Yeah, it'd be nice if everybody can knock down 40% of threes staying in the corners. Also incredibly nice if, somebody doubles Palo Bancaro, he swings it to a guy who can attack a close out and create a shot for others, not a guy who's like KCP and just runs into your chest. Yeah, and that's why I say like when it comes to level of importance, I think he's third right behind Jalen Suggs or right in front of Jalen Suggs because Suggs is a fine player. He plays defense. I said before, he plays defense like he's off a pint of crack cocaine.

He's ridiculous. But when it comes to offensively and how he's able to like get into the teeth of defense, he just doesn't have the handle. He's not that level of offensive player or all or creative, creative at all. I would love to see them build to run lineups. This probably can't happen because of the defense.

If we can get something out of like a Palo at center lineup and have your five best players out there, Palo, Frans, Bain, Suggs, and Black, just in spurts, having three ball handlers

around Franz and that's a five ball handler lineup. If you wait a month, we could try it. Yeah. Yeah, we, it's February 2nd right now.

We can, we can try it. When you play the Nets, in March 3rd, we can try? Once again, they had another show and it's like,

oh, yeah. Is that time maybe? Some people were like, why did you guys put the net so low in your power ranking? I'm like, bro, they had lost my 50 twice. They just did it again. They should have been last the power ranking off of that alone. But I said Anthony Black. He was them the exact ball handling they need.

We'll see how it progresses. And like if it makes them have some more optionality, like you said, with the people that have their backcourt. But they suddenly have three guards who can dribble and create now with Bainler too. That's kind of been his main thing. More than the shooting has been. He's kind of pin their quasi point guard. Interesting. Interesting.

Get them a stretch five and I think we're cooking. Bro, I'm looking at the box score from. From the Pistons, Nets game, right? Pistons win 130 to 77. Danny Wolf had a plus minus of minus 43. Dude. Terrence man was minus 34. Do you know who's the least fun player

to watch in the league? Who? Pence seraph. Bro, he just do shit. Minus 20. He doesn't do a damn thing. Yagor Demon has kind of been interesting. He's also minus 20.

His shots look good though. He shoots me well. He doesn't do anything from two, but he choose three as well. Yeah. So he's like an interesting three-point shoot like a playmaker. little bit. I like an archetype. Ben Serap doesn't do it damn thing. Yeah, he had four points.

O for five from the field, one rebound forces, two steels. Perplexing draft big. I will never understand that. They said his ceiling on draft and I was Delo. Yeah. Come on now. Next up. Skeli 57 says Namias Keda easily. Dude went from an end of bench big to the starting center for the Celtics and he's been playing out of his mind. He's one of the biggest reasons the Celtics are still competitive and he deserves more love. Now, we could have said like four guys in the Celtics. They have a most improved bench from everybody, really. We talked a lot about Jordan Walsh earlier in the season.

He's become a really, really elite defender. That's exciting when they get Jason Tatum back. They have that extra wing there. But to me as Kada, man. The main reason why a lot of people doubted the Celtics' ability to be this good was that big man room. And we were like, shout out Kada. Like, he's cool.

I think we all like those things we saw in spurts of him. But like, that's your only big? Him and Luca Garza? Huh? Mm-hmm. And they've had zero issues with that group. in terms of stopping them from being good. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Now, I will say the Celtics themselves, you feel like they could upgrade at that center position, I think we saw some report saying either from the Clippers or the Brooklyn Nets. I think it was the Clippers, where they offered Anthony Simons at a first-round pick for Zubotch. But that doesn't take away from Nevis Kitas and his growth so far this year. Being a rotational big on a playoff contender is very important stuff. And he's final his way to a consistent job in that big.

which is great. Yeah, and if he could be their long-term backup center, because obviously you'd want to get a better, like, a high-quality starter, which they will. I mean, one of the Celtics ever not had a high-quality starter in the past seven years. They find a way to do it. They'll probably get a Zubach or a Claxon or somebody like that. If Kada can be your long-term backup five, that's pretty goddamn good.

He's a pretty great rim protector for his role in caliber of player. Everything that they've done is, it's unfair. It is unfair to go from Al Horford and KP and have those two guys walk. And then you're just like, all right, well, who's left? All right, you guys would be the same thing. Like, it's, like, that same level of impact. It's not right. You know what I found myself thinking a lot this year?

I'm like, damn, I respect the something so much. I'm like, they're just the best organization by far. They always have been. But really in the Brad Stevens era, obviously they built that 2024 team, one of the best teams you've ever seen, tore it down and we're back. I've had so many games I'm watching. I'm just like, Brad Stevens is a fucking goat, man. To go from coach that revives the era, postdoc rivers,

and make some competitive through it. a little rebuild to now being just the best GM in the league for the past three or four years they're just goaded man yeah they've definitely got it even over like the spurs because crazy also hella ice in the water bottle was the loudest water bottle you make sure the mic picks us up because like the the spurs like yes they've obviously been super consistent like they know how to do things but there's a a little bit of you that's like man you guys are getting and lucky every time because the draft lottery just falls your way. The Celtics have gotten it out of the mud every single time.

And they've been able to have different situations in which they build themselves up for. So yeah, they probably are one. Yeah, they found success in every angle, whether it be in the draft like 10 years ago at this point, whether it be through the trade market with guys like Drew Holiday, Derek White, Chris House of Prisina and all that. Like, they have every layer of success in every organization needs. Boston fans are so Greek You got the Patriots who are the same way

It's so annoying It's so annoying Everything good happens to them I just think I'm like man Imagine if the Lakers had somebody That smart running the team With the clout and the It's on the way

So just hopefully hopefully I don't know Rob Blinken seems to have Some pretty goddamn good job security And apparently Jeannie Buses gets to stay The Governor for the next five years So that means Polina gets a job For the next five years Because they're fucking besties

That's what everybody says Until until it is But you saw the report About all the politics went into it this one might be true. It might be a condition of the sale since Mark Walter got it for a good price. So I might be cursed with my stupid

ASGM that's going to stay here. And like for everything that the Lakers get because their main character syndrome and all their privilege of being the Lakers, Rob Blinkett against like 35% of that value. 35? 50. Yeah.

About happening. We got Lucas. I can't be too down on it. But man, they haven't got a single starting caliber player in the year since they got a look at. It really is great privilege because. It's so fucking crazy.

Think about that. They sat on their ass. It's been a calendar year since they got Luca and they haven't obtained a single starting caliber player in the year. Like I ain't though. I guess that counts. He's a starting caliber player.

He's playing good since we got after last week. He's playing good again. But he's up and down. He's not a long-term starter. So he's starting caliber, but not somebody we view for the next three years as a starter. He ain't no starter. He is, but like not a good one.

He can start. But you're not like, woo, I got to eat. But there's worse starting centers in the league. Yeah, there is. Only a few. Only a few Next up

Caesar says Kelden Johnson has locked into his role As a six man And is thriving In that second unit Being a real anchor Both on the court

And off the court Shout out to Kelden Johnson Because I feel like a lot of times Whenever you have Tank commanders As soon as you are done With your Tank commanding

They're like all right Thank you for your service Get out of here Yeah And he's actually stuck around And be like no like I can still help Yeah

He's like I don't have to be the commander, but I can just be on the team. And like, we're here now. So he survived like Lou Dort. Yeah. Yeah. So like, and the fact that he legitimately is like important. You see the camaraderie.

He's out here shaving his head with, with Wembe. He like genuinely is a very, very big part of what they do. Who else survived the tank commander label as in. So what he means with that is a player who is part of the team in there at their lowest being an innings eater, just a guy who was there to be a starter while they lost on purpose. But they were, but even, even more so than Ludo, because they were like running offense and running plays through Keldon Jons. Like, there was a, there was a point where he was the guy on that team.

Yeah. I think for the Thunder, Ludo and Kynrich Williams are the main ones that live through the tank days and didn't die. I mean, Aaron Wiggins could have been shipped off easily, but he like provides constant value. Was he a commander though? No, he was part of those picks from those tanking years. I don't quite count him. SB people that were there from the beginning. And like, Kynrich Williams and Ludo were both there in 2020.

Yeah. Oh, Isaiah Stewart is one of those guys for sure who survived those years. Yes, Isaiah Stewart survived the tank commanding years for sure. For sure. That's a great pick. Anybody in the rockets survive a tank commanding? Nah. They keep bringing Jayshon Tate back in.

He's on and off. Yeah. Jayesaw Tate kind of survived in and out. He's a tank commander. He was a tank commander. He's not like in the army for real, but he's in like the tank reserves. Shout out Kelton Johnson. He really saved his career in these past three months.

Yeah. That was almost certain to be traded. Yeah, I agree. Like, they hated him not that long ago, bro. Not like, I remember it was just a couple of skis ago where they were just like, yeah, Colton Johnson, what do you do here? Just kind of breathe up a lot of shots that are not necessary. And we had to watch him before when we be like a number one option, number two options

offensively. And it was just real nasty basketball. He's what we call it no three, no D player for a long. long time. And he locked in. Next up, Andrew Lord says, if you watch a single Cavs game in the past month, you know it's Jay Lynn Tyson. Correct.

They just traded DeAndre Hunter because they got this guy who finally brings through Indy and it's exactly what they needed. This is a transformational player development for them. A draft pick that is year two now or is year three? Your two. Year two steps into the role they needed him to be when they drafted him. This is what every team that drafted in the late first round is hoping for to draft this rookie that can take a year and then come in and fill the shoes.

somebody that's expensive and they got to kind of cycle out over time, this is drafting 101. Yeah. Like you said, everything that they need, everything that they've been looking for over the last couple years, we saw what happened, you know what I'm saying? He was out there trying to put shame on the king's name in the city. But it's okay. He apologized for it immediately.

But even then, outside of that, and the one thing that did show me that, like, obviously showed throughout his play is like, hey man, this guy is very comfortable. very confident in his, in his ability and in his spot on this team. Because he was looking around at the other wings, he's like, bro, like, we can go one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one. I'll dominate everybody. So I think you've seen, you've seen Jayden Tyson really, really get a lot of the trust from the Cavs and step into that role.

And even, like, when they were, like, early on in the season, they were having their issues, he was the one who came out into the locker room and was like, yeah, like, guys are not playing hard. Yes. Like, he's been here. since the beginning of the year and been that level of like and we thought it was funny that he was the one saying it yeah it was like okay that's surprising to see jalen tyson saying it and has more time it's going on it's like okay he's earned every right of that locker room presence yes i agree

like the casso is such an interesting team because of course like donna mitchell's going to talk a lot and all that outside of that evan mowgli he's not a talker at all deris garland he'll take some accountability but he's not the biggest guy in the locker room or voice in the locker room necessarily jared allen especially not either he takes up a certain a certain space that was just like vacant and available. And there was all the opportunity in the world for him to like actually perform in the court because they just got run to Dionne John Turner. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit later. But he's been so impactful over the last 12 games.

He's like been a real threat offensive for them averaging 18 points shooting 55% from 3.1 on five attempts. He's so great three and deep. Going back to what you said, he's more more three and stuff like that, Vendee, but he's not a weakness defensively at all. or he he's a saving grace for this team. I'll just say that. Yeah, he lacks a little bit of length needed to be like an elite defender, but he's fine.

And yeah, like he said, very skilled shooter, exactly needed. And perfectly capable defensively to be the three there when Evan Mowgli and Jared Allen are behind you. Exactly. That's pretty much. He's like, you know, Max Trues level defender probably,

maybe a little bit better. Honestly, yeah, he's their new Max Trues in terms of that shooting oriented guy. I agree, man. Next one, TRM Landon says, as a Rockets fan, Reed Shepard has a,

improve the most. I guess. You weren't sure about that pick. There's not a lot of guys that I would have said were set to like, actually, no. I don't know. I guess. Yeah, this is, it's a weird pick because, like, his bar was just so low. Like, he literally did not play for real last year.

So this feels like a pseudo-ro rookie year for, for Reed Shepp. And so saying that he, like, improved is a weird verb for him specifically, whereas, like, you can say that that Shangoon has taken, you know, a small step forward. You can say that a man has gotten better. I don't, I think the reach ever stuff is the most surprising. And it's, it's very needed, but I don't know if improved is the right word. Well, Shangoon's step four kind of evaporated after the first month. He's been dealing with some injuries. And he hasn't been playing also a little bit past month or so.

So his numbers are all kind of reverted to being shangoon numbers. So I'm okay not picking Shangoon is making a big leap this year. The three point shot hasn't left. The scoring hasn't left. He has better playmaking load on his shoulders. So that's been like showing yourself in the assist numbers. But I'm okay applauding Rich Shepard for finally getting an opportunity and being a very important shooter for this team. And now he is one of the worst rim finishes in the NBA that people talk about.

He shoots 55% at the rim. Not great. Almost never shoots there. But 39% from three and 9.3 attempts a game while being top of the league and deflections. Exactly what we thought he'd be as a skilled shooter. that is a very active defender, I'm okay with it. I think earning a role

when you didn't have one previously is an improvement. If he was capable of doing this last year, he would have done it last year. Yeah, yeah, I agree. He needed a time. Maybe. They needed shooters bad last year.

If he was capable of doing this right away and ready defensively, they would have given him a chance. Clearly, they were saying he wasn't ready. He might have also just gotten this chance because, like, playing over Fred and a man is also the same. We've got to stop saying a man.

The man isn't like, we've lost that point guard dream. I'm saying last year. Yeah. Of like trying to figure out a way and then you have to get creative to, you know, to maximize it. Amends ass was in the Dunker spot last year. Yeah. He was playing off with Javar Smith.

Yeah. But you know all that. And even for, for Reed, like, Reed has had a lot of moments. And I guess it's just part of the development because he is just in year two. And again, really like year one. You still see a lot of that inconsistency. Like there's some nights, like last game, six points. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. But there's moments where he turns it on And he goes on these runs and takes over games It's impressive He's at least showing flashes now Of like the foundation of being this gifted of a shooter And his active hands defensively

You could build on that Yeah We'll see if you can never overcome the weaknesses In the grand scheme of things Maybe not Maybe he is just too small long term But foundation is laid of him being good one day Elmer Fudd says

Caminga He improved from someone Kerr could tolerate To someone who Kerr hates I disagree I think Ker has hated him for years. Nothing changed. I don't think he's ever tolerated.

I think Kerr was a good coach who tolerated him because he was a young guy. He was in his best interest to develop him and like take the lumps and kind of like nurture him to being the best version of himself. Then the summer happened and he was like, trade me now. Kerr was like, fuck this guy. I think the lockerer issues maybe made Kerr said, I'm done pretending he's good. Nah. I don't think Kerr has ever pretended to be good. Fair.

I think he's got to rules is day one. Maybe he never had any of these best interests at heart Yeah there's never been a time where I'm like wow man Look at Kerr giving coming all the opportunity in the world To just fuck up and play his own style bad When he's traded When Rob Polinka trades Gabe Vincent Maxi Kleba and a second round pick for Kaminga

How are you going to grade that trade for the Lakers? Hey Because those guys do nothing on the court If it's nothing but a second round pick Is that going to be worth it? Is that a good swing? Yeah a second for Kamika Yeah that's worth it was so worth it

Well, some might say, like, there's just, there's no reason for them to add Kaminga. There's no reason for them to add a no three, no D wing. That, like, the Lakers just don't need that straight up. You also don't need Gabe Vincent. Max Kriva straight up. So it's like, there's way more opportunity things that can have of Kaminga than those guys. Yeah, I think, like, for the Lakers, if it's not like, if there's no three or no D, what you need to do is you need to line up your prospects and put that little bar that they have at the combine where you test the vertical.

Whoever jumps the highest is on the team. That's Kmingka, right? Yeah. So we're getting athletes in it. A is crazy. I would never say a Jonathan Camiga tread is an A. Well, I wouldn't hate it if that happens.

Apparently, they're also trying to flip him for Andrew Wiggins if the heat are interested. And like, could the heat save Kaminga? Maybe. In that system? There's a lot of opportune slashing opportunities in that motion system in the heat run.

That might be what's best for Kaminga. Now, there is also those opportunities with the Golden State Warriors. It hasn't worked. So some might say if you can't be a good athletic finisher off of Steph Curry, you can't do it anywhere. Yeah.

But I would say the next best option was Eric Polsler. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's not a bad idea, but... I don't want him at all in the Lakers. They will have it.

I'm open to a small opportunity that maybe... Whatever you don't want, I want that to have. Okay, nice. Next one, Yoshisaurus says, Brandon Miller, he went from barely playing to averaging 20 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists, shooting 37% from 3.

My Hornets are up. And yes, they goddamn are. They keep on winning. In the month of January, they have one of the best individual month net ratings of all time. It's crazy. they've been dominant.

And yeah, man, Brandon Miller is finally becoming the Brandon Miller we wanted to see. Every time we talked about him leading into the season, it was with cautious trepidation about overhyping him or underhyping him because we just do not know

what to expect from Renan Miller so far. His career has been completely admired by injuries. The only thing you would talk about is he dunk some people sometimes and he's always hurt. No real other defining moments. Yeah.

And now we're getting that. Yeah. So far in the first three years of his career, first year he played 74 games. Great. last two years it was 27 games and at the start of this year you see that big ass shoulder patch in the graphic that we had he missed some time again at the start of the year but now he's been healthy from healthy from the most part of the year and he's been a real impact offensive

player and he's been filling in the gaps between not necessarily what con can do but what brandon lamello can't do and he's been like that high octane paul georgie i can dance on you step back from three and get to the rim with with all my length and all that like type of wing and he's lived up to that Potential to a degree. 70% of the rim, 38% from three. That's what you need for him in between Con and Mello, like you said, as well as defense. But having those three guys, all at 6'7, being able to be off the ball players like that, shooting well,

lamello's moved off ball more, which is exactly what we wanted. What we said about Lamello going to this year was obviously the injuries are a concern. That makes it so hard to ever really rely on him. But if you're going to sell yourself on him kind of reinventing himself and showing he can still have building block value despite the inconsistency, it was on him leaning back to be more of a playmaker and not such a high volume score or actually is a high attempt score

because the volume wasn't even always great it was just like the shots are getting taken they're getting up there regardless now he has to really defer to these two guys yeah everything kind of makes sense now with those three guys as you would hope you're right like I think what's more so happening is Lamello's been given a reason

to reinvent himself now with Kahn there and Brandon Miller there and guys who can like all initiate offense without Lamello like without being lived by Lamello or die by Lamello or die by El Mell. You're telling me he didn't want to defer to Grant Williams last year?

Oh, God, man. Wait. I forget Grant Williams. Yeah, he's, didn't he miss the majority of last year? He played 20 games, and he was actually quite good that he had that he tore his ACL. He was in the trenches. He was quite good to start last year.

Trenches. But yeah, shout out Brandon Miller. I think, I heard, I forgot who was listening to when I heard someone say this, that it's most interesting to see how he develops as a switch killer, being able to be fast enough to attack Biggs off of switching. and have the shooting ability to shoot over smalls and bully smalls and stuff like that.

That's the most important trait to have between a playmaker like Lamello and a shooter like con. That continued to develop and his slashing continue to be an asset. Very interesting. Next up, King Squid says, Dylan Jones, he went from out of the league to wearing number one for the Knicks. Never stopped dreaming, guys. Listen, somebody has to take that campaign number, you know, where we're pride, make sure that you are continuing the legacy of a bench guys. and shot chuckers.

And he did that. Last night, only played 47 seconds. Did get a shot up in that time. Shout out to you. Did you see that tweet? Were somebody the first game he was playing with them a couple of days ago. I think it was the sixers game?

No, it was after that. Anyways, somebody tweeted a picture of him and was like, who the fuck is this guy? And he used to be an OKC. He was like, I've never seen this guy before.

That's a champion to you. We're officially in that, in that time of the year. 10-day contract. season. Who the fuck is this guy? Dude, Sam Pricey likes to take wild, wild swings, man. His misses. When he misses, he misses. Oh, he traded up a lot of picks to get dealing with you. I know. Yeah, no one cares or talks about it. Man, this is wild. Yeah, yeah. Next up, we have Nikiel Alexander Walker has been

hooping this season from Game Boyle 6-162. Moe, we talked a lot about Nikillings Under Walker, and I know we've said your ban from talking about the Hawksville Res this year. I'll give you 48 seconds to tell me how to kill Alexander Walker changes the complexity of the Hawksman forward post-Tray Young. No, no, no, no. I don't even need 48 seconds. We're going to keep it short and simple. All right. This guy has been one of the few saving graces for this team. Even past

Ray Young, like, he's him and his synergy with Jaylon Johnson, fantastic. And because of the shooting regression that we've experienced from Dyson Daniels, who like people have been watching how little threes he takes, actually no threes that he takes for the majority of the it's been great to see.

He's not changing the projection or outlook of the Hawks, but he's a very valuable role player to have. And I can see a world in where a team's super desperate and they want to give us two first round picks for him with some. Two first round picks. Good Lord, you're out of your mind. Brother, he's averaging 20 points and giving you great defense.

Like, who wouldn't want that? I'd love that for two first time fix. Some teams would do it. 48 seconds, there you go. That's your Hawks Talk for the day. Next up, Harry Cooper says, A.J. Mitchell has changed my life as a Thunder fan. He's easily been the third.

best player on the team when last year we were shocked who's on an NBA final score. Correct. They are almost undefeated with him playing. They've lost one game with him in the lineup. They're one in five. Actually, no, two in five now when he sits. All of his losses, all the Thunder losses have been without AJ Mitchell this year. All the super ugly ones specifically.

Yes. Yes. Because they desperately need his ball handling. With Jadup out or terrible when he came back, him being the secondary ball handler that Jadip was last year has been everything. He is insanely important to that team. Hopefully Jadup ever. becomes really good again after his injury,

and we have all three of these guys being the ball handlers that they can be at one time, so much can be fixed as OKC offense. I agree, man. Changing lies out here. Jada, please, please get good again, please. Please. They're not going to win the championship.

It's good. Next up, Snazzi says, Dayron Sharp, simply because people know he exists now. Yeah, I mean, we already had our Nets talk earlier in the episode, so I think we're good. I will say I really want the Lakers get Dayron Sharp. That's one of those names that are talked about them digging around the bargain bin

I need him to be a Laker He's like he's the ultimate Like per 36 minute goon right now But every team is like If we give him the starting spot He can take a step up and be that next guy A lot of times these guys don't actually End up being able to do it

But sometimes they can And I think he might be the ones I can't he's a great rebounder Great finisher I think he's the truth Free him Free him Yeah free him or Nick Claxin

Those guys need able to thrive Yeah Zeke 2955 says Jada McDaniels is back to being A 40% three point shooter Nobody talks about that But he has been quite up and down throughout the last few years as a shooter.

Pretty important he shoots as well. Yeah. Dude, he's, oh my God. Yeah, I didn't know this year, but he's shooting not a lot of attempts. But he's shooting like 44% from the three point line. It's only three attempts a game,

which is, again, still three times a game. But still a good number to see. I think no one talks about it as much because it's not like changing their lives and he hasn't like became an insane sharp shooter still. He has to get, he's not that level of shooter just yet.

But still, good encouraging stuff. But it's not changing. the trajectory or additive to what the Minnesota Semple was like. Damn. He said, nice jumper. It doesn't fucking matter. How about that?

Not yet. Will says, Dylan Brooks, best scoring season of his career. Also the most efficient true shooting percentage wise while having to be the son's second scoring option most nights and even first option recently. So he's having his best offensive season while receiving the most attention from defense that he ever has.

Completely transformational player for my sons. Culture setter. The most important part wasn't highlighted. Complete culture center. Hell you. They play so hard every night, and that's like 35% of why they're so good. Yeah.

In an era where 82 games are getting hard and harder to get through, playing hard is such an advantage that we've talked about with young teams a lot, that you do that harder than anybody. And he's starting to, he's starting to really, really lock in on the fact that, like,

he knows that this has been a transformationally year. Yeah, software. The fact that we have gotten so many, like, Dylan Brooks' moments in the media where he's just like, just saying certain things or on stream with certain people

he's feeling himself right now yeah shout out of him he should be he's living his moment this is opportunity he's getting buckets up

he's having a all-star snub by the way yeah all-star snub he's getting his shots up in the most like glorified way honestly he's having the coolest

type of leap okay there we go he's having a cool leap taking leap as an all-ball bucket-getter vibes yeah in a house money like

vibes It's, you're just doing the cool stuff now. You've always done the dirty work stuff. Now you get to be glamorous. It's cool. Good job. Yeah, it's dope. And I think the recent stretch has really been the most impressive part of him

kind of keep them afloat what Devin Booker was hurt. Early in the season, I was like, he's shooting more. It's cool. Like, it's nice. He developed those skills the last couple years of the Rockets and now he's using them. I'm not like mind-blood. I don't view him as an entirely different player. He's just really, it's impressive that he's taking on this new role and continuing

his level. But like that, that's kind of like, reasonable to expect. Now I'm doing this one option. One just continues to say more and more about Jordan not as an elite coach. But also like that's hard to do to be able to take that role on. And because he's not the most like physically like explosive guy at all. And so when you watch a lot of his buckets, he's working as well. Straight shoulders.

Straight shoulders. It's a lot of just like really, really high like high level shot baking because he's not getting by guy. He's not crossing people. He's not creating not a lot of separation. You're absolutely right, right. Last one today I had zero idea who Ryan Rollins was last season

I'm looking at you just just because you made Ryan Rollins to post the board for who is this? I'm being honest here when I did that I think you did too Oh yeah no we did do

I just remember him being louder Yeah I was loud about Because I'm like he is the only guy Who you could have like this Midget of Hope open because we all knew like KPJ is KPJ He is not saving your organization

other than that, your team was so dire and desolate of any level of on-ball creation or young talent at all. He was like, the end-all-be-all that conversation. And to do that for someone who was like out of the NBA for other reasons, someone who was passed up by the going to sit, worries and the wizards and all that, like, you said those expectations on a pair like that, okay. And always lived up to expectations that were never set on him before. And he's been thriving and saved these guys lives. Yep, good for him.

Now at the point, now I'm saying, free Ryan Rollins. That team's been to get disgusting real fast and he's too good for that. Let's get him out of there. How quickly things change? For being who? Free real Ryan Rawls. Crazy work.

And that's the end of our most approved player talk. Let's transition over to talking about the news of this week, second half of this episode. And I think it's only right that we start with. The 2025, 2025, 26 all-stars have been revealed. Let's look at them

on both the Eastern and Western Conference to talk about it. Because I think this is one of the most, I don't want to phrase this. Surprising. All-star reserves I've seen in a few years. Debatable, say the least.

Deplorable. Say the most. Say his name. Don't like any of this, really. All this confuses me in many ways. Starting with the Eastern Conference, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Carl Anthony Towns,

Jalen Dern, Scotty Barnes. Oh, that kind of makes sense. Kat hasn't been too good, but we get it. He's on the Knicks. Norm Powell and Pascal Seacum made the All-Star Reserves.

Wow. Now, Norm Powell is having a 23-point per game, very efficient season, 161.5, true shooting percentage. No playmaking. No defenses to be seen. Medioka playing team. Just buckets and bow-legged, that's it.

Pascal Seacom was on a 14 seed. Listen, Pascal Seacom, when it comes to him, I'm just like, this is the ultimate, like, respect pick ever. Yeah, that's all that means. And keep on, coaches pick these. So coaches respect Pascal. Mm-hmm.

That makes sense. It's a, it's a couple things here. One, I think for, I think for Pascal and for Kat, we know who you are. And so there's not like an overwhelming D. Mitch, James Johnson, Scotty Barnes. Those are the three guys on this list that I'm like, you know, you guys are going to be all-stars really like in any conference at any time.

Like you guys are playing that well. Everybody else is like, all right, let's see how we go. So Kat and Seacom, that's where it's at. Norm Powell, I do wonder how much of the outrage from last year when he missed it because LeBron didn't declare that he wasn't going to play in there. Well, he's doing the same thing. He's still getting buckets. We have to give him credit.

And we need a representative from the heat. I think that's one. Yep. And two, the fact that he's there is like, yo, everybody's out on Bam now. That's wild. Because you know that the heat are going to get one. But no, you don't. They don't need one.

They're not good enough to need one. It's the Miami Heat. Yeah, I know. They are going to have that level of respect. You have a guy in Bam that is widely respected. Even though that he's not like a top top, top, top center in the league right now, still has my respect. And your teammate got it? Like, that's interesting.

Interesting. I said the least, I think you know that the coaches respect Norm Powell and what he did last year. And I think a lot of these picks, especially when we get to the West, very early season biased. And Norm Powell was lagging up to start the year. So you kind of get for every reason you said how they got there. Especially for coaches. Yeah. You kind of understand how they got there.

Maybe the last month they really tuned into their team and haven't quite been paying attention to things normalizing. I get it. I wouldn't pick Norm Powell, but I get it. Seacom, there's no precedent for 14 seats getting all stars. That's fucking baffling.

Yeah. And especially some of the people that missed it, there's no Juella beat here. That's a little surprising that he couldn't make it but Norm Powell could. And then there's no Michael Porter Jr.

here. Teams too bad. Numbers are better than Seacom. Seaccom's team is worse. Like, it's just a little confusing how things played out this year in terms of like precedent.

It's not individually crazy picks, but comparing to who didn't get it in. Kind of strange. Yeah, it is. wild inconsistencies that we do see Towns got it over Mowgli Towns has been worse

but the narrative is that oh Mowbly didn't take this step and all this stuff but like he's been undoubtedly better than Carly Towns this year I'm not gonna lie it didn't dawn on me until this moment

that Mowbly didn't make it that Mowbly did not yeah this list is dog shit I'm not gonna lie to you these are horrible pics yeah I'm not gonna lie there's only there's actually great

there's only four picks that I like here but shout out of Jland Dern yeah I agree I don't I don't agree with the Katzziaka and Norman Powell thing necessarily.

Shots to Joe Enduring, but bad. I think one of those three can get in, I'm fine. I just think Embed should have been here. Personally,

the games played, people made it with less games played than him, or around the same. LeBron only picked 30 games. He made it, so that's another precedent

that's weird. But it's LeBron James, I understand that's a special pick. So if it's mostly a games played thing, I understand, but I don't know. It's just strange that three if he picks got in the East.

Or to the West. Anthony Edwards. Okay. Jamal Murray, understood. Chet understood. Kevin Durant, understood. Denny, Devin Booker, and LeBron James at the final three. No, Kauai Leonard, who is currently playing at a first-team all-embae level,

has played 34 games, so LeBron's 30 is stupidly more productive than Devin Booker, obviously better than Denny Ovdia. Better than Kevin Durant's did not make it. Way better than Chet did not make it. Do you think it's because he didn't plant those goddamn trees? A hundred percent. I think if we actually look at the ballots, I'm sure a couple coaches put Kauai on their ballot.

They got the call from Big Adam. And Adam said, hold on, hold on, hold on. You think is Adam? Or do you think the coaches hold a grudge on that? Because the coaches believe that he cheated. I don't think the coaches give a damn about... Really? In terms of like an all-star voting type of situation, no.

I think it's actually kind of likely that maybe the coaches are like they did that shit. We've all known they did that shit and they haven't been punished. I'm not going to pick a clipper. Because Hardin didn't make it either. And I don't know. We haven't seen the voting to know if they were a clobling. to know if they were close. I don't think it's terribly unlikely that the coaches were like, we're not

going to pick the goddamn clippers this year. Maybe. I'm not going to rule that out because it is still like relevant in conversations when it comes to thinking about the clippers of the 2026 season. But overall, to see how like this level of dominance and how he's been like the standalone

driving force of their comeback and not even, I'm not, that's wrong way to put it because it's like a generational comeback that they've been having. It's still wrong on all levels, even if are thinking like that's the part I was talking about earlier with the norm Powell thing maybe these coaches are really kind of forcing not really

heavily on the early part of the season so that clipper stench maybe a lot of people were like not quite realizing that kai is having this crazy come turn around production wise he's been giving all y'all belt I don't know how you're not realizing it's but like maybe they just kind of like already decided the clippers aren't making it and didn't pay attention to the fact in the last 20 games are the best team in the league

yeah it can't it can't be that I mean because see Akam is you know like that's that's just a the loop pick, you know. Yeah, but like, you know, Seacob's up here, they've been losing since the season started. Yeah, I just think, I do think that whether it be the coaches or, or Adam, I legitimately do think that like, maybe there was a little bit of like.

Punishment. Yeah. Of, of some, some type, something, you know, subconsciously to keep, to keep the clippers out of this just because it's, if they get. if they get the punishment afterwards and it's not up to their liking and everybody is like you like it seems so so clear that the clippers actually did something

and All-Star game is in Intuit Dome like it's so nasty right it would feel it would feel weird if all of this stuff happened and then two weeks later we come out which it's probably going to take longer than that but two weeks happened and then the punishment comes out it's like ah we shouldn't have did that yeah well there's no guarantee they're being get a punishment there's no guarantee that they have ample evidence.

But yeah, I feel like the general, obviously among fans, it's, they did that shit. From what we know, it, my hunch is that they did that shit and like, I don't know if the evidence to prove it, but most teams do that shit and they got caught. I imagine that's something that's understood

amongst people that actually work in teams and there's chatter about that. Everyone, it's an unwritten thing. Everyone knows that we all kind of do this, but maybe they're like, these motherfuckers were blatant and that's wrong. And maybe not everybody accepts that unwritten rule. So I can see,

If anybody's going to have a grudge about it, I can see it being rival coaches. Question. Which org had a bigger thumb on the scale, the NBA, trying to keep the clippers off for aspiration tax, or clutch making sure that LeBron got in. Because LeBron getting in, we did know that, like, it's LeBron. He's going to be a reserve. Like, there's no way we're going to have an all-stoying without him there. But also, Kauai and James Hardin, they could have been the ones who had to die for LeBron's

sins because they've been more. playing so well and we just know that he's automatically going to be on this team. Yeah. I'm, yeah, probably. LeBron got in because LeBron. I kind of just like accept that and like, I don't even think he's that ridiculous,

especially with the fact that his early season was hampered with the injury and he's been pretty incredible since then. He's been an all-star level player, so I'm not too upset with it. I'm more so like, I don't really see the argument for Devin Booker being over Kauai. Actually, no, I do see the argument. It's play more games and the team's better. Good team.

Good team. I see that. I don't see why Denny would get in over Kauai in terms of precedent and arguments being made. Their team's not much better. He's not as good. Like, is it purely games played? Quas played 34.

It's not 10. Like, LeBron's not the main thing I'm pointing in. Yeah. Now, LeBron over Shangoon, maybe you can argue that if you want to be a Shangoon truther. But for the past month, Schengun has been playing like an All-Star. So I'm not terribly upset that he fell off the list.

Folks saying they just, they had to put Denny in there because they needed an eighth all-star for the international game. Shangun's international player, too. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. I need to take that shit out. I'm not terribly mad to Shangoon not making it. Just because he did slow down.

He's still better. You know, he's still a better player. He's better than Denny? Okay, you, if he those stuff is too, Denny's good. No, I'm, I'm saying, we're talking about like, you need the spot for the international stuff.

Okay. Right. Like, in that context, specifically, I think, Schengun is a better player than, than Dan. He hasn't having like a, he hasn't been having like a better season. Yeah.

I think we respect Schengun a little more for like his game translates to certain things we value more to playmaking stuff. He's not a better score than Denny. He's not a better defender than Denny. Then he's a fine playmaker. It's not a huge gap there. You would take Denny over? I think I'd rather have Shengun at the end of the day.

If I'm a really good team on my pick Shangoon, but I definitely understand Denny getting the spot over him for All Star talks. That's interesting. The skills are close enough that I think the production is fine. I just, I find it interesting. because one, obviously I do think that Schengun is a better player. And then two, the Rockets are one of like, like, again, that team's not in the playoffs. Like, it's very, it's very weird to see, to see a team that's in, like, the top three or four in this very competitive Western Conference and not get, and not get a couple.

It feels weird. But they've been more in the convo lately with like five and six in the top three. They haven't been definitive top three. The spurs and nuggets have really had a big gap over them. I know. Also, do you know what Shangoon's true percentage is this year? Oh, God, no. Please don't forget it.

League average is about 58, 57.5. It's okay. Shangoon is averaging 23 points for 75. That's fine. And again, he's a big man. What do you from the true shooting is? Taking a guess. I don't know.

I'll tell you who shooting 30% from 3 on the season. 55%. It is 55.4. Yeah. That's fucking dreadful. That's just horrible. It's okay. It's not surprising to me that with the numbers

not being quite as amazing as it were the first couple weeks of season, I'm not surprised he to make it. Also. But we're talking about that like, the like the coaches are looking at this and have their have their spreadsheet opening. It's like, okay, well, his, his true shooting compared, you know, relative to the rest of the league

over the last 20 games is lower than it's like. That's the whole season. I think the, I think coaches know what true shooting is. Maybe not all of them. Maybe not talk to him, but keep in mind. We're saying there was on the other side of the bracket, there's mad picks that we've already said are like very early season biased. The same reason why we're saying,

that the clippers potentially got left off is because of early season bias. I can see why, like, if you're going based off of that, like, yeah, if you're going based off of that, it is weird that Shangoon doesn't get that, doesn't get that bump. And obviously, we don't know exactly what these coaches we're looking at, we're just looking at the picks and saying, okay, I can, I can kind of piece together where you're thinking,

how you were thinking. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's tough because obviously you only get, you only have seven spots, but he would have made it over one of these other guys for me. Yeah, well, look at the, the coaches don't know true shooting, which really assistant coaches vote on this. They send an assistant to go do it.

It's not head coaches. They know 30% from three. They know 52% from two. One of the worst for any big man in the league. They know 60% from free throw range. It's just not a particularly great season for Schengoon compared to what we know we can do. Yeah. They don't know dog, man.

They don't know dog. I don't know dog is saving him. He's not Dylan Brooks. He's, he's, I don't, you love Shane Goon so much because he gives you some of that nostalgic basketball play that you love. Not even. Not even. I just.

they need a point, man. His playmaking is valuable. His playmaking is more valuable than his scoring. So, like, he wouldn't be a terrible pick if he did make it as an alternate. Like, he should be probably the first alternate. Yeah. Actually, no, Kauai should be.

But he should probably say, no, fuck yourself. So Shangoon should be the actual alternate. Oh, Kauai's not showing up. Yeah, Kauai should say, go, fuck yourself. Alternate, are you out of your mind? I'd rather, I'd rather go home. They are home. I'd rather stay home.

He's staying at a vacation. No, Kauai means home. He's like staying in the house. Next, new story to talk about. The biggest new story of this week, Paul George has been suspended for 25 games for Violated Nalese anti-drug policy. He has been dinged, the feds did a sweep, and they found some shit in that piss. It was reported.

There was a statement made by Paul George that this is his mental health related. He said over the past year, he has been dealing with his own mental health issues, and in searching for treatment for that, he took a substance that was not allowed. that's the furthest we got in any type of explanation. So I don't know what we take away from that, but it sounds like it wasn't performance enhancing drugs, at the least. At least it sounds like.

Obviously, the NBA is not going to come back and refute that statement. So maybe it's a good spin, but from this, it was a substance that I don't think makes him better at basketball is the point. But still, I think. Sucks. Yeah. Sucks to see. The statement.

really made it a lot less funny. Yeah, yeah. He definitely dole the jokes. I'm like, God damn it, man. Now I can't call you prescription and pee. Now I can't make jokes about it. Exactly. Because now it's serious and I respect mental health.

Because literally like the moment it came out, I was like, crack. I was so ready. Why are you going to crack? I was so ready to just have every single drug on tap. And I was like, oh, dang, like you was going through something. All right, get better. Get better big bro. Like, that's it.

I obviously thought, oh, 36. year old trying to get back on the court. Maybe he had some certain prescriptions that help him with recovery because he's dealing with a lot of injuries and it's harder to hurt. The older you get, maybe he needs some extra help that you hope nobody notices. That's her my mind went. But now that you said it's mental health related,

I don't know what type of prescription drugs are not allowed that you would take for those type of reasons. Like you can take SSRIs, you can take antidepressants. That's not unallowed. Maybe it's like Adderall or something like that, something that's related to something like that. I don't know. It's kind of hard to speculate on. exactly

I can't anymore but Joe said done oh you want to hear one somebody in my mention said K-Holpe that's pretty funny K-Hol-P he's crazy

but yeah I don't know so hopefully hopefully Paul George is okay hopefully that it's not a big deal and that whatever he's dealing with that per the statement is okay

if he is going through that shit that's nothing it just makes this entire situation so much worse you're dealing through things and you try to take something that helps you get over them

and now you can't do your job and you've been having a better season than last season because considering you didn't play and you've been additive to the 76ers team that desperately needs size in that wing position. You are one of the answers and now you like severely hinder your team

for 25 games, bruh? A whole quarter of the year. Yeah, the Sixers literally just cannot have a regular season. They can't just start the season, play 82 games of basketball, and then just be done. Something always has to happen in the middle.

Yeah, I saw someone said that he. But they swap Paul George's pissed for Joel and beans. Because he's going crazy. Yeah. Yeah. But apparently again, it's not performance enhancing, at least as far as we know. Definitely, Stunct with Paul George, though. He's been dealing with so many injuries, so many things keep him off the court.

I mean, I get joked about, like, as you get older, that gets harder to deal with and maybe you go towards something to help with that. That's just hard regardless, though, to have an injury keep you off the court over and over again. Yeah. And now this, like, tough, just very tough. Morwell's got to be down, man, in the blunt. her. But the Sixers will be just fine.

25 games will be back by the playoffs by the time they need them. Their wing group is fine. He's going to be arrested. Yeah, I mean. Listen, 25 games. It's a long time. Yeah, it's, it's meaningful.

It is quite meaningful. How many games live in the season like 40? No less than that. Probably like 35. Yeah. I have a little runway. That sucks. That's a lot of time missed on.

They kind of need them in. Yeah, but I think they'll be okay to deal with it for those games. They still have a decent wing group. Yeah. They'll live. I don't think that this won't sink them or anything. Paul George hasn't been important enough that like we say,

oh my God, are they going to fall on the playoffs or anything like that? So all now, it'll be fine. It's also the Eastern Conference that I fall down in playoffs. Like they're completely fine. The real thing is like, damn, sucks for Paul George.

That's kind of like the only real takeaway. The team's going to be fine. He's not one of the three most important players in the team, so they'll weather the storm. He'll be back to support, come playoff time. It's like, okay. I hope he's not rusty. I hope he can play to his best abilities,

and I hope he's okay. Yeah. Next new story. Another trade has happened. Actually, I should say the first trade has happened at the season. For real. Cleveland Cavaliers are trading D'Andre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings for Dennis Roder, Keon Ellis, and the Bulls got Dario Sarich and two feature second round picks in this deal.

And my question is, what are these motherfuckers cooking all across the board? Who are you asking about the cooking? Really, the Kings? Yeah. I think we'll get to other teams. What are the Kings cooking? I think for the Kings, I can understand this because you got, you get another guy who can ideally be another spacer for you who can shoot.

Huh? At a decent level. Now, this year hasn't been the best year for him. You clear out that back court for who, I guess, Russell Westbrook, but still, it's like, okay. When I tell you that there is a skill gap in brainpower in the NBA, this is what we point to. The Kings had Keel and Ellis, a promising young. player that everybody isn't screaming from the top of the buildings.

Why isn't he playing? He fits among your stars. He's a competent 3-indee player. We should utilize him. They said no. We said, okay, we're going to pick up his option and probably trade him in the future, get some value for him and not losing it for nothing. Kings fans said, okay, they attach two second round picks and use Keon Ellis as a sweetener

to dump Dennis Shrewder's contract. That's insane. They just gave him a three-year contract and decided that they're going to trade off the veterans because they suck and they had to dump Dennis as soon as they signed him. and they use their best asset and Keon Ellis to dump Dennis as well as two second round picks for a no three, no D forward that comes in and gives them exactly the same things as their plus best players that already don't fit together. This is a horrendous deal for the Kings.

Dumb. Dumb. Oh, it is for sure dumb. Check. I told y'all last year. I told you my 10 predictions. I said in 2026, the Kings were going to make a dumb trade. And it happened.

I told you did. This is dumb as fuck. I'm not going to lie. You could see this coming for three months away. This is dumb as fuck. I'm actually very proud of myself right now. I can't like you could you could probably get a two second round picks for Keone Ellis if you're competent and look around the league. To attach two picks to him for DeAndre Hunter who is a bad contract, best case scenario starts shooting better and he's a fine value that still isn't changing your life.

Like this is a stupid, stupid transaction. Yeah, I think if you're not. I'm not going to lie. I completely spaced out and I didn't realize that they. attached picks to the straight to Yes to dump

Dario Sarich and Dennis Basically Keon Ellis was used to dump Dennis Schroeder and two second round picks were used

to dump Dario Sarich shout out the bulls for getting the picks for nothing they're the only winners this trade for real

and we'll talk about the cabs but like the bulls had good value they just took on a bad contract for picks

good for them two okay two major things that I think from this the first thing is if you're not

if you're not like a like a perennial all star I think the next best thing in the NBA is to be somebody

who gets a label on draft day that just sticks for the rest of your career because DeAndre Hunter has been able to just have this value and people think that he can go to different places even after years of not showing any of those traits, any of those skills for any time that is consistent enough

to where we can actually believe it. That has to be number one. Number two, this confirms to me that the Bulls and the Kings they're working together. they are they are colluding there's no reason why these two teams should be making multiple trades across multiple years and they are just involved like the bulls the the the bulls to get SARS to get these picks for doing nothing no they are they are colluding they are canoodling

they are doing all types of things together and i have no idea that that's the next investigation That needs to happen. This, it's actually when you, it's crazy. It's crazy. No, he definitely called up his friend and said, we need to someone take a salary and get picks. Do you want that deal? Any team in the league could have taken that deal.

Exactly. And he called up his friend that he works with a lot. Like, now it's not exactly illegal, but like, shout out networking. Somebody had to get free picks. He decided to let it be his dope, his boy. No. They'd just be on a phone having fun, man. Shared ideas.

Just shared stupid. Two dumb bitches telling each of the ass. Every, yeah, like at least once in a month, they are falling asleep. on FaceTime together. Yeah. Just waking up, figuring out trades together. I don't like it at this point.

You do it once or twice. It's like, okay, clearly you guys are friends. You're playing in our face now. You think that we're dumb and we don't know what's going on. We see you. Either hard launch your relationship or get out of it. But hey, good trade for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They get off of Deion Jolla and the money that he was owed because they are a second

apron team. And then on top of that, too, DeAndi Hunter just wasn't playing well straight up this year. Going back to what you said, he was not consistent. He showed the ability to be consistently inconsistent throughout his entire year, entire career with the Cavs or with the Hawks, the Cavs, and now he's probably going to do the same thing. So, Jalen Tyson's arrive, you can go. You get Keon Ellis who can swap, who can play alongside someone like David Mitchell and also Darrys-on when he comes back to and give you good defense while also being a great space or two.

Win trade for you. Yeah, you get a solid 3-&D guy. That's the idea Keon Ellis has gassed up a little bit. He's fine. He's cool. solid bench piece. And Dennis, kind of like that.

After they lost Ty Jerome and replaced him in a Lonzo ball, there's been a clear lack of paint pressure and a lack of ability to just keep their offense going by generating a paint

touch and starting the chain and motion of their system to create open threes. Dennis can do that. Dennis can blow by people and keep the ball moving. Yeah, I agree. I think the calves

are like setting themselves up perfectly to be a great second half of your team. How long can Dennis sort to keep doing this? What, playing for new teams every five seconds? What are the new teams?

What's the next stop after this? Oh, well, let's see. He's been on 11 teams. Can he get to 15? Can he play for happy? Oh, certainly. Certainly. Did he play for?

This year alone. Oh, this year alone. This year alone. Come on out. Come on out. In 2026, how many more teams? Will Dennis Schroo play for three teams in the calendar year of 20206? Meaning he's on this team now, probably signed some more new in the summer and it gets traded before the end of the season.

Before the, before December of next season? Yes. He very much good. That's hilarious. He very much good. It's very real. He is the. he's the most tradable player

in the NBA. He is. You're right? Like by far. I'm looking at a list of teams right now. And like I say, pretty much a lot. There's so many teams in league that could use his services. They're going to have to Toronto Raptors, the Dallas Maverick could use him, the Wizards could use him, the nest don't count. I'm just looking at reading off teams that already been, that haven't been with him just yet. But goddamn, so many, he's, he's a tradable player. I look at him on my team right now as these week. Y'all will too. I don't need Dennis on my team. He would help.

No, he would not. You want Gabe Vinson minutes? I don't need Dennis, but next to Luca Dantsch, I'm good. Oh, they don't like each other. I forget. Oh, yeah. I forget. They can't be on the same team.

Luke would call him a bitch. Multiple times and multiple continents. You got popped. Next news story. I didn't get to see this game. I went back and watched some highlights. And in that game, I missed. One of the best rookie duels of all time.

Cooper Flagg versus Kong Caniple, former college teammates faced off. Cooper Flag had 49. points and 10 rebounds. Connipal had 34 points, made eight threes. Did you all catch the game live? I did not watch this game live. Again, I did not get this. This is a trifecta.

I was so mad that I missed it. I'd go back and I catch as much as I could, but it's never the same. We miss greatest. Cooper flagged 49 points, getting everything he wants. Cooper flag is making that leap. Dude, I caught the second half of the game against the Houston Rockets, and I think

in that game, too, ended up with like 30, maybe 32 or 34, something. that he is making that leap so fucking quick it's ridiculous his confidence as a slasher is growing day by day yeah he moves so well with the ball in his hands there was one donkey had in like semi transition against the rockets in that game i saw that like he just flows through the court rises up so smooth now the handle is getting more and more confidence i can't wait to see if him and kairie and ad ever actually played together i think one of the more underrated skills and just like attractive traits for someone of his stature and his business

position and size and all that is one his ability to just like take along strides and not waste any movements while and then two something that i've grown to appreciate is this like overall spatial awareness and knowing where you are where other guys whether be your teammate or the opposing the team's defenders are at all times that's what just like gives him he's like working with two brains instead of one when it comes to him moving at a high level yeah he he's just so good and obviously concanip on the other side we talked about the hornets continue to rise and continue to be great. The funniest part to me was

after, I think it was after this game or maybe it was after the Rockets game. Jason Kidd was asked by reporter if he's starting to see the dividends of the Cooper Flagg point guard thing and if the criticism was wrong. This is what Jake Kidd had to say. He said, criticism, that's your opinion.

You guys write that bullshit. That's not, I've done this. I've played this game. I played it. I know what the fuck I'm doing I don't even fuck what you guys right because you guys have never played the game I build players so I know what the fuck I'm doing

so if I take criticism it only makes me better because I wasn't doing it right you oh because if I wasn't doing it right you guys wouldn't be picking holes in what I've done Jason K doesn't give a fuck he builds fucking players Listen man the proof isn't the fucking put No one is not

No it is not the problem with the fucking stupid ass Cooper flag point guard thing Was he refused to play single other ball handler next to Cooper Flag. The issue was not Cooper Flag, take a lot of reps, make your handle better, learn to be better,

and it'll pay dividends like I did with Yannis. That's not the issue. The issue was doing that while you play two bigs and no other capable ball handlers. So when Cooper Flagg gets blitz, he's throwing the guys

who can't dribble. That was the goddamn issue. It was how he deploys it, not putting the ball on Cooper Flag's hand. Jason Kidd is so goddamn arrogant. Nah, man. For a coach has a 500 record.

And outside of the two years that Luca Donchis carried into 50 wins, he has an under 500 record for his career. Jason Kiddick think he's a goddamn Messiah to coaching. I could do no wrong. See, you don't understand, right? Cooper Flag has been a number one prospect

his entire life. Right? He went to Duke. You have to create the trenches for him. Yes, you have to break him down and build him up. I agree. Don't make his life easier. Good job, Jason. You have to make this as terrible as possible so we can rise in the ashes.

Because Jason Kid knows, right? He knew. He's like, listen, I'm going to lose AD at some point this year. Karee's not. not coming back. I don't like this Nico guy. He's probably going to sabotage our team again. I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm going to make this the worst situation possible

so that whenever we get Kyrie, you're going to be two, three, light years ahead of everybody else. Yeah. And it's just so funny because Cooper Flagg has always hit the ball in his hands this whole year. He's not, you know, you're not understanding.

He has to go punch wood. As soon as they inserted. He didn't win the fight though. So like, as soon as they inserted Brandon Williams and Nemhart into lineups and a lot of second ball on the next Cooper Flag. One more guy that dribbles,

he took off. He immediately starts playing good. And it's, oh, thank God he played bad in the beginning. I'm sure that's the reason, not the fact that there's actually competent lineups around him. And that mass fans,

I see so many mass fans are so sick of this because Jason Gidd is just so, so arrogant about everything. It's so funny. It's so hilarious. Now that Cooper Flags, he's flexing this guy,

yeah. He said, I build players. I don't give a fuck. He said, I build players. He built Cooper Flags. The best prospect of the last 10 years. I need to go back and watch that press conference.

I need to know what the follow-up to that was. He's like, he said, I build players. What players? All you say is Yonis, that's it. What players did he build? That's his game. Are we giving credit for Yonis? I mean, he did put the ball in his hands?

Like, that was important, but like, did he build Yonis? That's what he's going to say. Sure, let's give him credit for that. I think it's fair to assign credit Jason Kidd for part of that development. Okay. Now what? Luca? No.

No. Look at his first team All the only thing That's the only thing that he can say. No. He didn't know. Looka of been that. Look who played for me. He would do the same thing.

Brunson? Brunson broke under Carlisle too. Come on now. Brunson already been that. Yeah. Brunson had been that too. Stinging about guns. Hey, well, I just know he builds players.

So, just go fuck what you say. That was so many F-bombs. I was going to fuck. Speaking to Cooper Flag, there is a couple other comments in media throughout this week. Everyone just keeps talking about Cooper Flag in strange ways. Eudanus Hasam says, I know Cooper is doing his thing. I know Khan is doing his thing. Vijay, out of all these guys, he is the two-way guy.

This guy impacts the game regardless of the basketball is in his hands. If I'm starting a team, I'm starting a team with the two-way guy. Well, you know what? I mean, listen, sometimes you're on TV so many times. Facts. You take a lot of swings. you missed some of your takes. It's okay.

It's okay. I'm not gonna kill you guys for this. It's not crazy to hype him up. Cooper Flag is quite the two-way guy. Conker, that was a two-way guy too. But people swear he's a turnstalk because he's white.

Yeah, exactly. He's a low-key better to better than random others. What are we talking about at this point? That one wasn't too bad. Yeah. It was like, okay, I mean, I don't... We'll give him grace because usually he has good takes on time. Yeah, and I get the sentiment.

VJ is incredible. All these guys are really good. Yeah. VJ specifically, like, he has... he shares something alongside Dylan Harper where he has to figure out ways to be productive while also not giving, not having the most amount opportunities like Khan

or like someone like Cooper Flagg. So he just figuring out ways to be valuable. So I can understand that sometimes. Yeah, I get. I get his point. He put his foot his mouth a little bit, but I get what he's getting at. Now, who I will not give grace to?

One, T&T's own, Jamal Mashburn breaks down why this year's top freshman stand out to him. If I was to put Cooper Flag on that list of current freshmen, he would be sixth. Is he talking about freshman? He is talking about Darren Peterson, AJ DeBonsa, Cameron, Boozer, Caleb Wilson.

I don't know who he's presuming is five, but the Caleb Williams is sixth. You're drunk. He is drunk as hell. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous hating. I don't know if he's doing that to like big up the draft class or to shut on Cooper Flagg,

probably a little bit of both. But man, you're crazy. He's doing that whole Cooper Flagg reclassified to run from AJ because he knew AJ would have been that guy in the class. Who gives a fuck? They all getting paid at the end of the day. And it's ridiculous because, like, Cooper Flagg took the harder route.

He went up, not down. Yeah, and he's better. He's a better prospect. He was a better prospect than AJ at this current time. Yeah. So lots of hilarious talking about Cooper Flagg right now in the media. That's hilarious, right. But that brings us to another huge game that happened.

Darren Peterson and AJ DeBonsa went head to head this weekend to presume number one and number two picks in the draft. Or I should say two of the top three, paying respect to Cameron Boozer, who was also in that mix. Darren Peterson gave belt This is He heard all the time This is like the first Regular season

College basketball game That I like sat down And tuned in for In years Yeah It was a point me viewing And this one game Single handily

In the eyes of like Twitter and Instagram comments And all this stuff Made Darren Peterson The number one pick Hey man It worked on me too He came out

firing I was like oh my goodness I said this is Shay This is Kobe This is the number one pick You have to take them right now. People wanted to give it to Rainbow Face real bad all year. And then now Darren Peterson was like, listen, man, it's different when you've seen side by side.

What are you guys' first impression, assuming that you watch some clips of this game? First thing, first thing I saw, I think the biggest thing that I saw, dog. Dog. It was just straight, it was a straight dog because the aggression out the gate from Peterson was on full display because he had a couple of steals. He had a play, had a steal on the other end, came down, dribble down, went instantly into into like a two dribble pull up over DeBonza. It's like, it was very much like, I know that this is like the biggest college basketball game in a while.

I know that you're on the other side. I'm out here to kill you. And DeBontza, DeBanta didn't even get a shot up for a while in the, in the first half. And so when he's on the other side of Peterson and Peterson starts the game like four-for-four, and he's getting he's getting shots off he's getting buckets off he's he's doing everything in terms of like in terms of creating for himself getting steals getting deflections it felt like peterson relished the moment much more than than debaza because like this one-on-one game obviously like it's going to influence a little bit but like if you're making your draft selection purely on this

game you're wrong for that yeah no yeah yeah i agree all the going back to we talked about this one day off of the pod you talk about how you're looking forward to this game and you wanted to lock in for it and fuck everyone was locking in for this game but so many executive I think Sam Precio was there, Kyle Corver from the They said 17 executives on the

broadcast across either 17 executives or 17 teams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right and I think one thing that we'll learn from this game is someone like DeBonza who got outshined in this game still is like a top three worthy prospect but he has worth

in his game specifically talking about his handle ability to create now we'll say Kansas in this game they were like super keyed on a keyed on him defensively and also you could tell like he clearly has like the worst set of teammates out there because they can't do a damn thing and his warts like just shined even harder compared to Patterson who just feels like complete in every end whether it be a scoring shooting the defense which we saw so several plays where he stood out as well I can't wait until he's a hawk man y'all y'all don't understand my life depends on lottery this year It's never been ever disimportant to me up until this moment in time because of the state of my team and how we can potentially like build something special Atlanta for the first time.

Yeah. All right. You're going to get Caleb Wilson and you're going to like it. No. Go die. Number one or nothing. What's the point guard's name? The other one is a little smaller.

That's Caleb Fleming? Richier Fleming. Or Rocher Fleming. You're going to get Richard Fleming. You're going to like it. You're going to die. What's funny is there's like seven prospects in draft that like you're going to be. you're going to be pretty happy

if you give Richard Fleming and the end of the day. Like you're going to, actually you're going to be heartbroken because you've had your eyes on the top guys and you have a good chance double dipping.

You'll be, you'll be fine if you get Caleb Wilson. I just got off of a draft two years ago. We got number one and we picked Zachary Richie Shea. You're not going to get lucky. Give me number one again. It's wonderful.

Who's the guy? Oh, Caleb. Caleb. You said I was like, there's another one. Yeah. There's a different Fleming.

It's a different Fleming. It's not received. It's not received. But Loki. But Loki, if you said that, I would have believed this since guys are going back to. Yeah, my bad. I was, why have I flanking on his name? I'm flanking too.

I know exactly what you're not. I know he's not so stupid. That's so fucking funny. What were we saying? Oh yeah, but yeah, if you get five or six and his draft, it's okay. Like, this is a deep ass draft. And you're going to want one because you have two bites of the apple and you feel like you're owed one. You're going to get six.

You're not owed anything. You're going to like it. I don't want that. I don't want that. It's one or nothing, man. It's one or nothing. Nah, top three or nothing.

All three of the top guys would be good for the loss. Fuck that. One or nothing. Okay. Cameron Booz is going to change your life. You're going to be like, he's not Peterson. For six to eight years stretch, him and LeBron

were battling for who was the best player in the game, says Reggie Miller on Derek Rose. I do wish. Kingston Fleming, my bad. Kingston Fleming, there you go. Okay, okay. They were later. They just got the same last name.

I think the same last name. You see, I knew it wasn't Caleb, so my meaning went for sure. Yeah. If they're related, we would hear about it. I don't know. Sometimes that's things up on me. Those guys that are related. You know Jaylon Tyson's brother?

He's going to be in NFL? He's going to be a top 10 pick. Oh, yeah, I know that. I've seen that. That's crazy. Now, on to this guy. I have learned. I wish I had the confidence of Ritchie Miller.

Just in life. Because to just be able to just go on wherever and just say whatever and just like, What I'm saying is 100% fact, even though that it's clearly not. That takes a level of self-confidence. And obviously you see one of the best, you know, club shooters of all time. You have to really believe in yourself in those moments. And I feel like, you know, going on a hit on Dan Patrick's show and saying for a six to eight-year stretch, Derek Rose, who was injured for three years post-2011 with battling.

Yeah, man, you got to really believe that. So shout out to Reggie Miller for standing on his convictions and for believing in the things that he says. it was a one-year stretch it wasn't even a most of the year months that we were talking about not even a year it was a one season stretch and even then it was like

exactly nobody was doing a lot nobody said Derek Rose is better than LeBron for real they had one moment and it was really like it was a two days the Bulls ran the heat off the court in game one of the conference finals there's two games in between the next one

heat go on sweep them right with the next more games and they were like okay yeah we're done with that those was cute there's a 48 hour period where there's a conversation and now it's six to eight years god damn what was he thinking like again I think there's just one of those moments you just say a lot yeah people just miss speak but like how do you like how do you get there like I've there's playing times where I've like mistakenly said a number and like I know I didn't mean that at all and people were like what I'm like bro trust me you know

I was an accident but like six to eight years it's kind of hard to fuck up Because Rose gets to, even if he says six to eight, if he's right on that and we go to eight years, Rose leaves Chicago in like 2016. He was on the timber wolves. If you go. He saw that 50 point game. He dragged everything out. If you go from 2016 back eight years, you're saying from the moment he walked into the league

to the moment he left Chicago, including three years of rehab for knee injuries. It was him and Bron. Sam wrong. Who's going to stop me? We got one more trade to talk about. And this is probably the biggest one of the season. This is one that we all should have seen coming. This is the one that we should have loved with

because it really alters the course of the rest of the NBA season. The entire deadline was really hinging on when this deal will get done. Veet Kretche was traded for duop Reese. We've talked about the Hawks too much. My heart. Somebody commented last time they were like, they told us like, oh, you guys said that that Moe wasn't going to be able to talk.

about the Hawks anymore. He's still snuck in, snuck in, snuck in, we got to stop. Listen, man. We have to stop. Okay, we'll consider Portland Trailbages to talk. They got a shooter. Good for them. This hurts my heart. But good trade for the Portland Trailblazers. Shout out Duolpris. He's big. He's hurt, though. He's not playing. Never mind. He's not playing. Shout out two second round picks. We just got two seconds and freed up worthless money. So I guess, whatever. Good by low for the Trailbages. His contract is dirt. cheap. Yeah, exactly. 42% 3-point shooter. Good passers

well. But it makes sense to you guys weren't going to use them anymore after getting Corey Kisper. Corey Kisper and everybody in there. They're a pretty deep wing room now. Probably we can get much for him. Selling high for two second round picks. Okay. Very whatever move. That's a good practice, but it's whatever. And that is the end of our new stories to talk about today.

Now, before we end this episode, let's do our annual Monday abbreviated TikTok time. I'm going to start off for putting you guys on the spot. I have a prompt for both of you guys to go ahead and you have 60 seconds to convince me

of an opinion I know you have so we're going to set a timer you have 60 seconds to get your shit off and to say your take and convince the masses to see this on TikTok see this on YouTube

why this is true who wants to go first let's go first let's run it okay I'm going to set a timer on my phone for 60 seconds I'll hold it up by one week in debate club

prepare me for this Mo you have 60 seconds to convince me that LeBron James is the good Okay. Starting now. Let's talk about it, man. Someone who birthed an entire new play style.

Someone who birthed another NBA player into the NBA and he's playing with him right now. Someone who won a championship. Not one organization. Has Jordan played with us on the bee birth? Not two organizations. We're just hyping him up for ever since. Hey, hey, did he get a son to the league? Yes or no.

Yes. Hell no. He said, did he get his rocks off? All time. scoring leader, playoffs, regular scene, it doesn't matter. One of the more clutch players in NBA history, come on, man. Like, I don't even really need 60 seconds, but if you want six, I can overly glaze and give you 60 if you want.

I can give you more than 60 minutes if you want, really at this point in time. One of the more clutched players in NBA history, one of the better position, position less defenders in the league at his absolute peak in prime powers. You've seen three different errors of his game developed, whether he was like no jumper just running duckman in 2009 to just insane offensive back in 2018. This magic daunting in 2020.

Please give me more than 2060 seconds. I can give you more. But man, he's a goat. Congrats on the sex, LeBron. Donovan. Yes. You have 60 seconds to convince me that Steph Curry in his prime

is better than Kevin Durant in his prime. Oh. Starting now. Okay. Well, we get to. lost. No, first of all, I'm not. So we're talking about back-to-back MVP is the first

unanimous MVP. If you want to go head to head, they obviously beat them. And the wars were up. In 2016. Exactly. It beat them in 2016. They joined the team. Kevin Durant was able to thrive because of Steph Curry.

But he was never the best part on those teams. No finals MVP though. Hold on. Never, again, just because you get the accolades, I set the table for you, right? I allowed you to have this career. If it wasn't for Steph Curry, Kevin Durant would have been banging his head against the wall with Russell Westbrook.

But do you think he's a better shooter than that? He needed a KD. He needs a KD. He's a KD. Of course. Then it's a kiddie. And now. And how do you get buckets?

You shoot the ball. Who is the greatest shooter ever? It's Steph Curry. You have that. You have the fact that people were doubling Steph Curry to leave Kevin Durant open. They were more worried about Steph Curry. I'll say this right now.

I'll say this right now. about Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant left has not been back to the conference finals since he played with Step Curry. Where was step back

in the NBA finals dropping 40? Time's up. So he does. Did he convince you? Hell no. Not even in the slightest. And I'll say this right now.

The only reason why Curry has all those rings, Steph has to do with KD. KD. KD. KD. I know, but I said all those rings. And the ring after him.

So that's still multiple. Yeah, he would have just two though. You wouldn't have four. Yeah. Next thing we are going to do. We talked earlier about all-star snubs. Let's make the best NBA team possible with the stubs from this year. Point guard through center.

Who is the most disrespectful of the snubs? Point guard. I don't know if any point guards really got snub this year. Well, we can start with small four then and pick the obvious. most disgusting snub I've seen maybe in like my lifetime as the NBA fan Kauai Leonard. In terms of quality of play, I've never seen a worse nub

than this. Worse snub? Think about it. I feel like there might have been like a year where like Dane got snubbed where like Dane was whooping. I'm not going to like Kauai. I'm not this season Kauai is ridiculous. This level of 50D. Now if we are punishing him

for cheating, for taking money on the table, I'll allow it. But let's be honest about that. If it's about the play, he deserves to be it Star clearly. Honestly, he's playing at the level that he's more likely to be an All-Star starter than should have been snubbed. Yeah, I agree. Another easy one we can get out the way at the center should be Joel Embed.

He's been averaging like 27, 28 points a game. It doesn't look necessarily the same, more jump shot efficient. But overall, yeah. I think Embed should I rather have Embed overshund. If you want to go team success, I'm okay with going Shingun. It's not like Shangoon's a great defender. Joel and B has been a much better score. I respect the playmaking to Shangoon.

Jewel and Beach should be up there. The only reason he's not because the game's played. Yeah, I agree. Fair. You know, I will leave my Turkish agenda at the floor. You know of a Cameroon agenda?

No, I don't. You should. But you have a Turkish one. I'm telling you, in five years, I have to go there. Ah, okay. I have to go down. I'm going to say,

says a lot about your priorities. No. I will say, I did find a tattoo artist in Charlotte, North Carolina who'd be tattooing her lines. The Doc Rivers? You begin that?

Yeah. Point guard, link me. Do you want to go like James Hardin? Do you want to go block? I guess so. There hasn't really been a point guard that feels like snows. But James Hardin has been like not good over the past a month. His 50s so bad.

I know. What other point guard would you put there then? Looking right now. Think about Keontay George maybe, but even then it's like, no. I would much rather say that James Hardin is a stuff. The 13C Jazz being an all-star. Yeah, I know. Hey, man, the 14C Patriots has got one.

So anything's possible. Anything's possible. That shouldn't have happened. Could I say Austin Reeves? He plays a little game. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Austin Reeves,

all-star snub. Did he play enough games? No. Are we putting them on here anyways? Yes. Okay. That feels the best. We shouldn't do that.

Shooting guard. Dylan Brooks, you want to applaud the guy who wants it real bad? Let's do it. Fuck it. Anybody can be an all-star. Fuck it, man. So we have Reeves, Brooks,

Kauai, Joel and Bede. At the four now. It's Evermobli. It's either Evermobli's, you want to pick someone who's actually good and deserves it, Or, listen, man, if Seacob can get there on a terrible team, why can't MPJ?

Put MPJ in there. I'm taking him over, I'm taking him over Moby any day. Any day? Just today. It's only today exclusively. MPJs, again, if we're letting 14 seats in all-stars, there's no reason MPJ can't have it. We have to do it. We have to reward buckets.

And fair or not, we judge you by the standard that you set for yourself. Evan Mowgli, you're disappointed this year. We're taking Mp.jay. because he has shattered through any expectation. Now, MPJ definitely should have Carleton's a spot in real life. But it's funnier to go MPJ. So let's go him over every Mowgli. Mowgli should definitely have Catspot.

To give the Knicks a second All-Star just because, even though Cat has been worse than Mowgli is crazy. That's so fucking hilarious. We need to pick him too. Now, Mowley, take this as a learning lesson. Don't ever get disrespected like this again. Don't put us in this position. What do you want to do about that?

When you see someone Tweet Slander, punch them in their shit? Exactly. And that's the thing. It's not about what I want to do about it. It's not what you want to do. It's about what Evan Mowbly wants to do. What is he going to do for the rest of this year for the playoffs in the off season? Are you ready to step up to the challenge? You know what? Let's add Evan Moby's six man to our list. No. Take this motivation. You're a snub of the snubs. Take it as motivation. Lock in. Please. No. Let it be clear. Lock in. next thing we're going to do

how many NBA players can we name that we would take over Cooper Flag today in a redraft in a redraft so like to build your team around going forward how many players out there you would take before Cooper Flag

I think I can confidently say right now four players are not even thinking without thinking right now yeah I can maybe get to six yeah okay give me eight you can name eight players

you would start a team with before Cooper Flagg yes eight players name a name Yeah, I don't think I would go wait. Wembe, Luca, Shea. Okay, those three are obvious.

If you're an MVP level player and you're below the age of 27, that makes sense. At best, we're hoping Cooper Flagg becomes them, and they already are that. Yeah, so, Wembe, Lucas Shea, I am going to take Yokch. Even right now. 31 years old. I would still, I would still take that. Five more years than Yokch is still incredible. Best player in the world, I do have to take that to build my team around.

How many years do you need for it to be worth it? I think four to five. Four. So he's the best to five. 35. Don't have a half of a decade, you're,

you can get that. I'm sure he'll still be the best of 35. He's not going to change that much physically. He's already slow. Yeah, and I would, for me,

minimum three year, like legitimate title window. So you give me a year, build the team, and then we're there. I would do that. Okay, that's four. Would I potentially?

Chet? Hell no. Hell no. Hell no. As a biggest check in the world, you're insane. Kate is okay. Okay.

So, before you get the case, are you taking Janus? Nah, you can't take Yonis 31 years old, does another jump shot Do you think he's gonna be great When he's 36? You know what? I am gonna take Yonis

Because I think that Obviously it's part It's partially his fault But if he was in a better situation And if it was a redraft Books are clean I can build a team from scratch around him I would take Yonis

Okay, Janus is five Anthony Edwards I would take Ant Six Now Even right now Even right now And I understand

And it's tough. I still do think coming off the Achilles, I'll take Tatum. There's no way I'm taking someone to come off the Achilles. Just out of principle, you have one Achilles, the worst engineering sports. I'm going to take Cooper Flags upside because there's two functioning. That's a gamble from hell, man. Jason is definitely good enough. If he didn't have an Achilles, we pick him.

But because of the injury, I'll go flag. That's tough. That's too tough from you right now. Cade is where it becomes a conversation. Yeah. Cooper Flag can, I think, be better than Cade. I think should be better than Cade. But those are the world where it can see him.

like, flat and a being the same level of Skate, which is just a cool top 10, 11 players. I really don't see

Cooper Flag being worse than Kade. Maybe that's too much glaze, but I really don't see a world where he's less than top 12

in the NBA. I'm gonna take flag over Kade. Okay. That's fair. I'll let you rock with that. So what's that seven?

We name's six, I think. Six? Ending at, yeah. I don't know if you can think of any other ones.

Listen, I might be done. I might be tapped out. Unless you want to say Colin Cigipal or something you're just all high off the moon from the rookie year.

And I love Conn. I'm not going that far. Nah. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not taking Conno over Cooper. Like Brunson?

He's getting up there in age. He's not going to age amazing, I don't think. Hell no. I would take Flag right now over, over Brenson.

Yep, to build a team around. I would do that. You're taking him over Mobley. You're taking him over Chet. You're taking him over, same thing

with Brenton as like D. Mitch and Booker. You're taking him over J-dub. You're taking him over Dylan Harper. you're taking him over Shangoon over Austin Reeves Amen Oh come on

I'm gonna sorry Yeah Come on So yeah He goes number seven in a leewide redraft Damn okay Wow yeah I don't think there's anybody else That's crazy

This man's amazing Wow man I really and then I really will be shocked If he's not better than Cade long term This is This is super damning too Because John Morant you should be in these conversations

conversations. Zion, you should be in these conversations. Yeah. How the mighty have fallen. Every Mobley should be in this conversation. Nah, I think it would be in different combo than Evan Mobley. I think, he should be in the next combo with Chet.

He should, I think, I think right now he's in that conversation with, he should be, he should be above. I don't think, I don't think Evan Mobley should ever be in a different conversation than Chet.

Not now. No, like ever. Like, I think that's just who Evanably is. They can both be 12 to 14-ish in the league. Like there's like a world where I'm like a season where he's top 10 or whatever Like around there I don't see him having the same ceiling like ever

As Cooper Flagg I don't feel that way anymore Yeah I think Cooper Flagg's just a different level of prospect Yeah Okay so it's really more about Cooper Flagg And his Evan Mobley Like I think Mobley and Cade are kind of the entry level

To being top 10 talks So we got seven Sounds good Yep that's where he end You failed I did feel I did fail I never thought you were gonna actually get there

I was like, I don't think you thought about this enough. No, I 100% did it. Yeah, exactly. But with that being said, that is the end of this episode. If you're still here, we appreciate you. Go check out Friday's episode in which you power ranked every single NBA team as a group. Put them into a pyramid and stay tuned for Friday's episode this week where we are going to do a topic that I haven't yet decided. Our Thursday's episode, I keep saying Friday.

It's Thursday now. I almost forgot. I keep forgetting. Check out every single Thursday. And we'll see y'all later this week.