The Deep 3 Podcast - The NBA's Biggest Breakout Stars Of 2024 | Ep. 117

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

today we pick the NBA players who are making the star leap this year! #nba #basketball #sportspodcasts #nbapodcasts  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 Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 1:36- Grizzlies talk 10:57- Timberwolves stink 19:10- LaMelo Ball 37:55- Franz Wagner 50:29- Jalen Williams 1:00:26- Jared McCain 1:11:29- Cam Thomas 1:21:10- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we're going to do our favorite thing to do, our favorite thing to talk about in the NBA world. We're going to talk about the youth of the NBA. We're going to talk about all the youngest players in the league, the most up-and-coming promising stars, you know, all the guys that we watch the game for. Let's talk about these youths from. If you guys are watching, as you see about the title, today we're going to talk about the most exciting breakout stars in the NBA this year. You know, every year there's guys that make an all-star team for the first year, players that come into the league, you know, hyped up but disappointing to start but then finally have that year where they just make the

leap. We're talking about every single player that has done that this season. We're talking about the real most improved players in the NBA. The award, the awards cooked. We don't really care about that. Right? They don't know what they're. They're ruining the meaning of it. Exactly, Donovan. Let's just talk about it. They don't know what they're watching. We've got to make it up ourselves

now these days. We're already going to do enough as NBA fans. Yes. So these are the earnest candidates for the TD3 Most Improved Player of the Year award. Exactly. And it says, break out stars so we're going to talk about four to five guys that are legitimately hitting star level a few guys that are kind of stars in their role making big leaps that is there's some recognition and a little bit of stuff in between yeah man if you guys are watching on

youtube do us a favor drop a like and subscribe for an audio platforms rate as five stars leave a review check us out on our socials yada yada cue the intro I mean, I don't know what to say. Pray on eaters, rejoice. Before we get started talking about the youth, let's take a second to do a quick segment real quick. Then we're going to do our kind of check around the league and talk about one thing that each of us is buying and selling this week.

Let's get into it. Okay. Let's see. I have a couple things that I've been wanting to get off my chest. So I'm okay with this. I'm good. Okay. So for audio listening, not for anybody listening,

You guys don't know how buying and selling works, you know, it's kind of like a stock, the things that we're investing in because we see this player, this team as improving and somebody we want to plant our flag in and selling as in we're kind of giving up on whoever this is. Yeah, okay. Cool. Okay, Zonovan, you're excited. What's the first thing you're buying? All right. Buying? I'm buying the Memphis Grizzlies. Oh, my gosh. I love it. It's a good thing to buy. I was, I was very, very high on them. I wanted to put them higher, but I kind of tempered my expectations coming into the season. Because I was like, you know, Jai, you know Jaya's going to miss a couple games every single year. They're getting a whole bunch of people back. They already were missing. At the start of the year, they were missing, missing Vince, Vince Williams, Jee Jackson, right? They didn't have all of their depth. But, but. over the last 10 games, they've looked really, really well. They've handled their business.

They've played some stinkers. But that's honestly one of the most baseline things in the league to recognize who's good and who's not. Do you win the games that you're supposed to? And the Grizzlies have done that and they've done it pretty handily. Their top three in the league in net rating over the last 10 games. They've done that without John Morant for eight of those games as well. And you look at this team and the stuff that we liked about them in 2020,

when they were, you know, doing all the pregame dances and they were like the upcoming villains of the NBA. They had John Morant. They had Jerry Jackson, Jr., and they had a lot of depth. And it's the same thing this year. Their depth, and it's only going to get better as players come back. But they have a legit, like, 10-man, 11-man rotation on any given night. They have mad guys who are playing meaningful minutes, 20 minutes a game.

They have seven guys averaging double figures in points per game. And you feel like this is the Memphis Grizzlies of old, quote unquote, of like 2022. And that's a Grizzlies team that if John Moran is healthy, they can make a run in the West of Western Conference. So I'm back in. And I don't think I ever left, but I am adding more to my portfolio of Memphis Grizzly stock. This is a very pro Memphis Grizzies podcast all summer. We all expect them to be the most, what's the wording here? The biggest comeback team of the year, the team that surprises people a little bit.

and it's like back in the mix of being super relevant. Injuries still let down the start, but we all know what they're capable of. They haven't even really got Josh Zach Edy rolling. He was playing pretty good before he got hurt, but now he's been out, and they haven't really gotten the maximized version of that. So you add those wings back in. You eventually get him hopefully second half of the year really, really thriving. The ceiling is nowhere close to what it can be. Yeah, I mean, if you would have came into the NBA season telling me like, yeah, Zach Eadie's not going to be their best rookie instead it's going to be some dude named Jalen Wells, I'll be like, you're fucking crazy.

crazy and it's happening. So a huge shout out that I want to give is to the Memphis Grizzlies coaching and developmental staff. No one talks about them as much as they should because they're legit over the last five years specifically been one of the most one of the best developmental cores that the NBA that the entire NBA has to offer because they routinely have just stupid depth for no reason. Just young guys coming out the room whether be through G League or just like late draft sleepers or just guys. who just bounced in team to team, i.e. someone like, um, what's his name? Scottie Pippin, Jr. Scottie Pippin Jr. So it's like, what's his name? Scottie Pippin. For a second,

I was like, is this name Scottie Pippin Jr? For real, Jr.? Damn, Scotty. Scottie Pippin's son. Yeah, but guys like that. Which I feel like he's under-talked about. Why does nobody give a shit that Scottie Pippen's son has been in the NBA? That was so under-talked about when it happened. Like every other former player's son gets so much attention. Yeah. For some reason, no one gave a fuck when a Scotty Pippin entered the league. I guess no one just cares about Scottie Pippin like that. That says more about his dad than I guess Scottie Pippant Jr. himself. Because he went to the same high school as Brondie, bro.

Like, they were in the same, like, not class, but they were in the same unit and they were part of the same basketball. Yeah, he's a lot older though. Post last dance, the feeling and the sentiment around Scotty Pippin OG has really, really turned. And like the last dance really made, you know, Scotty Pippen look. a different way than you may have thought of prior. And so, yeah, it's not... And it's also because he doesn't look like him that much. He looks more like Larka than he does, Scotty.

That's the problem. On many levels. But, yeah. All right. Well, anyways, you're right, though. The development staff there is incredible. To get Jay Huff and Scottie Pippen from the depths of the Lakers G-League team and get them to give you great minutes.

I feel like every other day when John Morant was out, I look at the box scores to catch up on games I didn't get to watch. And every single time, Scottie Pippin Jr., had like 20 and 10 consistently. Like he's a legit backup point guard that has been very good for them. Jay Huff gave them good minutes early in the season. Like, it's always somebody with them.

They never really had to doubt the bottom of the roster. Like, it's very safe they'll figure it out. It's so crazy that they're doing this well. And if you were to tell me like, oh, this, they're doing this well earlier in the season through all the injuries and all that, I'd have been like, wow, like Marcus Morris playing a really important role. He's doing nothing.

Nope. He's a nobody on that team. They can't get to wait him out of the season. You know who does? There's a props. You notice there's a props is Jaron Jackson Jr.'s offensive leap this year. Absolutely. He has been so good offensively.

You know last year they had a terrible loss season. He had to play center and it was just like a season from hell with him being the first option with John Morant hurt all year. There was a talking point that like, okay, well, maybe he'll benefit from that. Being used to taking all this attention, used to having to play up in the pecking order, maybe that'll help his development with the skills. That's precisely what's happened. They've maintained a top 10 offense for the entire time John Moran has been out.

And a big part of that is Jaron Jackson Jr.'s offense is best. better than it's ever been. He's back to shooting extremely well. His handles as sharp has ever been. He's really good off the ball. He's really good at creating for his position. Like, defensively, he's in a little bit different of a role where he's not quite as impactful at the rim. That's why his foul percentage is also down. But that's helping him stay on the court and contribute offensively. So shout to him. He's definitely playing an all-side level. Staying on the courts has always been the biggest thing for him. I remember just two, three years ago, people would be like, oh, my God, this dude such an amazing defender and floor space and all

that, but he always, since college, since those Michigan days, he would always somehow get in trouble by just committing too hard on that end at times. And whenever you're a teenager defender like him, it just happens. Yeah. He doesn't spend nearly as much time around the rim anymore. They're clearly leaning towards, okay, let's keep you on the court for the offensive side. So whether that makes him better, I think was a couple years ago, defensive offensive value, who knows? But offensively, he's played a huge role. It's really important. Exactly. I don't, at this while, I don't, I don't even care. Like, I think, I think some teams may sometimes try to get caught up

in trying to recreate something that worked for them two years ago when the league moves so quickly that things can change so fast like don't even worry about trying to compare Jerry Jackson Jr. to what he was in 2022 it's working right now and so exactly what they're doing

like you have to create a team that works in this Western conference in this NBA season and that's exactly what's happening so I yeah shout out to the Grizzlies and they have the pistons I think tonight as we're recording this or in the next game, it's either tonight or tomorrow.

But if they can, like, sustain this because right now they're around, I think they're the fourth in the conference right now, that's exactly where you want to be early on in the conference. Because now it puts you in a position where if you can get some quality wins against some of the better teams, that's where you start to create the separation. It wouldn't shock me if I looked up at the end of the season and they were the two seed in the West. Yeah. Okay, so Mo, that's your buy as well as the Memphis Grizzlies?

Yeah, that's a buy that I had. Another buy, which is like not as sneaky of a buy. It's got great. I hate the rules. Never wants to stay the format. You get one buy. Well, that was a buy, but it was an obvious buy for me, bro. Or obvious buy for Donovan, too.

So another obvious buyer, the Milwaukee Bucks, they've been hooping as a late. Damien Lillard has been re-alived, and he's been the normal Damien Lurid that they initially traded for the synergy between him and yonis has been as best as we could hope and it's dramatically dramatically improved over the last what five six seven eight games or so and right now i think as we speak they're in a they're on a five game winning streak also when it comes to just player stepping up yo the role players are actually doing your thing a j green came out of nowhere i think you talked about them just a little bit last a little bit last year last podcast episode A.J. Green, dairy bird,

Trey J. Green, A.J. Cream, whatever you want to call him, is what's needed for this team, bro. He's hooping. He's hooping. Yeah. Yeah. I hope they can keep it up. I'm past the point of getting too excited about the Milwaukee Bucks because I spent the past two years being extremely excited about them. They continue to beat me down.

I hope is real. Give me five more games and I'll start to get excited than maybe they figured out. Beat down another team. Who are you selling on? Well, I could say the Los Angeles later. Because my buy was the Phoenix Suns who beat the shit at the Los Angeles Lakers last year. I mean, last night. Let's talk about it.

But I can't really say I'm selling the Lakers because I said it in our power rankings that they're fake demons. I had to reluctantly say I don't think that their record is indicative of how good they actually are. I think they're mid like they have been in the past. But my actual sell besides the Los Angeles Lakers is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yeah. Same. I was going to say the same thing.

Yep. We talked about it on the stream. And I guess you talked about the power rankings too, is that. Last season, I doubted them heavily. I said they're going to be the 10 seed because I did not see the vision with Kat and Gobert. They proved us wrong. We talked about it millions of times. Coming into this year, I just didn't want that to happen again.

I was like, let me trust the infrastructure. Let me trust Chris Finch. Trust the rising, ascending star and Anthony Edwards. Trust Rudy Gobert to continue to be the best defensive player of regeneration, yada, yada, yada. They'll probably be good again despite the trade, even though I obviously didn't really like it on paper when it first happened. But I was like, it'll probably be fine. They'll probably find a way to extract value. They'll probably be a little bit worse, but still like a four or five seed.

So I put them at four in my power rankings. And I, and not power rankings, in my predictions episode. And I said, I want to put the suns over them at four, but I don't really feel good about doubt in the Timberwolves, so I'll give them the respect to be at four. I'm done respecting the teams I feel like I should because they have looked absolutely terrible and have looked exactly how we thought they might look when they did the Julius Randall trade. And we all came up here and said, why the fuck are you trading Carltonty Towns after being

in the conference finals? It doesn't look good. Mike Conley looks like you take a step back. Gaubert looks good, but nowhere near the best defender in the planet. Julius Randall, Gobert, and everybody are having chemistry issues. The vibes are horrible. Aunt Can't really do so much. Chris Finch doesn't look that great.

It's all a mess right now. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about, I think one of the biggest reasons as to why they've especially looked like a mess on the offensive end, outside of like Julius Randall doing normal Julius Randall things and Dante Devinzo being at like zero because of his non-lack of spacing that he's providing right now. Mike Conley you said like he has been good boy hasn't been there at all bro which is so troublesome and the last time that we've seen Mike Colony or the last time we've seen this Minnesota Timberville

seen without Mike Conley it's always been a scary side it's been a terrible site you know and it's because they don't really know how to utilize someone like Rudy Gobert who is the most limited offensive player that I may have ever seen in my entire life and so when you have like an elder like so Mike calmly in the room who just knows how to do the simple things throw the ball up there. Somewhere only Rudy can touch it, you know, like life gets a little bit easier. And also defensively, just no excuse for that. Julius Randall is horrendous. He just gives zero effort and he's ruining their team effort. Horrendous is extreme, but you're not wrong about the impact there. He's not hoping them at all defensively. He's not expected to. He's

Julius Randall. We know who he is. But yeah, colony's been hurt. He hasn't been that great when he's there. His numbers are down across a board. He's only shooting 33% from three. So you combine that with Dante DiVincenzo not being able to throw the ball in a bucket. We're at the past 18 months of J.D. McDaniels also not shooting great from three and just kind of being J. McDaniels still and not really making a leap that you assumed he could make when he was given that big contract because he seemed like he had a lot of positive momentum going for him. He's kind of stagnated. They just, you know, last year wasn't a fluke because they earned it and they played that a certain level with a different formula they had and it was real.

But in terms of sustained excellence with his core, it doesn't seem like it's super sustainable for various reasons. It's awful. It really is a tragedy. And I, The big lesson for me, like watching the Timberwolves this year is that everybody just needs to get their money up because the Tim Wolves made this deal and the one silver lining was like, okay, well, in three years, we won't be in the second apron. In three years, we won't be paying Car Anthony Towns $60 million. But like we said, it's completely. What about today? Exactly. It's completely tanked a team that made it to the conference finals last year.

And you already knew you are, here's the crazy part is that we already know. knew that Mike Connolly was, was aging. And when he was on the floor, like, they weren't really playing Rob. They weren't playing who they weren't playing Rob, who we all thought that they drafted to give them a little bit of juice off the bench. And now that Mike is hurt, they've been playing him more. And with him, like, you get a little bit more pop, a little bit more, more juice offensively, but not enough to give them to a level offensively that is necessary

to overcome the defensive deficiencies. We were all okay, you know, we're not. okay but we all understood if you're not the top defense that's fine but your offense does need to come up and getting rob getting julius randall that should help a little bit it it hasn't and and that that part is is scary where you you understood the risk that you were taking defensively and none of the offensive pieces outside of aunt in his three-point shooting have really really stepped up and i watch them and offensively i'm really disgusted because they look like they look lifeless and the only time that they look like oh we actually might have a chance

today is when aunt puts his head down drives to drive to the basket and gets and ones or when aunt starts to shoot crazy from three and he goes on these wild runs and you look up and he's five and seven from three but a lot of times in those games aunt starts off five for seven and then he'll get into heat check mode starts missing a couple and now he's back at you know a decent percentage but not this crazy overwhelming percentage and you look up and you're not doing anything crazy. So I'm out. I'm out. They're 12th in offense, 12th in defense right now.

He's fluctuating around there. They're just kind of mid at both. It's above average. They're decent in both. But being decent overall in every way doesn't get you far in the Western Conference right now. Yeah. I've just, it's, it is kind of sad because they had, they had great vibes last year. And then it's also frustrating because I spent a year and a half doubting them.

And then finally, I bought high on the, if they were in actual stock, I would have lost so much money because I bought so high on the Minnesota Tim Wolves and then lost all of my money coming into this season. It's so tough because, like, I'm not going to sit here and be hard-headed and just continue to say someone sucks. Okay, good. And why I wasn't like ultra panicky about it is because the acquisition of Julius Randall and the playmaking aspect from the whole thing and also more importantly than that, like, D'Anse de Vincenzo actually carrying a fight, like being a, rocket launcher and being one of the best three-point shooters in the entire they might trade him now yeah and so like if he's not going to be that then what julius randall has to offer means absolutely nothing because you don't have this necessary shooters i didn't think julius randals playmaking was a huge deal like i believe you convinced me that it can give them a different look and i was

okay that makes sense i didn't think it was enough to make them better than cat spacing but i figured it would be neutral enough that they wouldn't be that different yeah that was kind of the thing is I didn't think that, I didn't think it would be good. I didn't think that the offensive benefits of Julius Randall would outweigh the defensive lapses and they would be a better team. I was like, okay, it'll be enough. It'll be enough that you can trust in the guys that are still there to replicate the stuff that they can do with Julius Randall that they did with Kat.

But it just wasn't. Kat ended up just being incredibly important there. And I guess to be fair, they might have fell in off even with Kat. Because like we said, Connolly still would have aged and taking a step back. Jada McDaniels still have been doing exactly the same things. Kat still would have been, the offensive player was last year, which is far worse than he is this year playing center full time so maybe they were due for an inevitable step back regardless and it's easy to blame on the trade when really that age regression might have came either way

yeah but but if you add regression on top of chemistry uh on top of chemistry issues that's where you get this situation where right now to get eight and seven right now they're outside the play in they're outside the top 10 we think that that this team because they have uh because they have aunt, we think that they should be in the plane. We think that they should be in the top 10. The way they're playing right now, it would not shock me if we ended the season and they're not in the top 10.

Who. Pain. Tough. Pain, pain, pain. And there we are. That is our buy and sell segment before it start, before we start the main part of the episode. I know, I think now we can talk about something more positive.

We can move on from the terrible Minnesota Timber Bulls vibes. And let's talk about the best breakout stars of this season. There's a few big ones. do you guys want to start with one of the main stories or talk about some smaller scale guys first that is much from recognition as role players? Let's talk about one of the main stories. I'm down for that.

Let's talk about La Mello God damn ball. Lamello Ball is the defining breakout player of the season so far. I think that's fair to say, isn't it? Absolutely, bro. Extraordinary. That's what he's about. For the past two years,

La Mello Ball has gotten slander for being unavailable. We've talked about at length that can you really compare him to some of the best young players in the league if every year he plays 20 games and then his ankles fall off it's been a looming ticking time bomb

that has held above the heads of Hornets fans of the past four seasons when he plays he is clearly dynamite and I think we all agree that he has been underrated in terms of the ceiling he has is like a true offensive superstar you think about players that are 6-7 and can shoot like him

dribble like him pass like him it's him and Luka Donchich he is in rarefied air in terms of what he can do with that size and that touch of offensive skill set but it's never been available and we've been up here for the past two years being like, please, for love of God, stay healthy. We want to see it.

We want to buy stocking you. We want you to prove to us that you can stay healthy. He's finally doing it off. Yes. This is what we've waited to see. And the fact, like, if we were going off of how people have judged the most improved player, you know, award over the last couple years, lamella, you know, to get it. I don't know what the rankings are.

I don't know what the odds are. I haven't checked. but he's he's gone from like 24 points per game last season in a year that he barely played to he's averaging 22 games yeah he's averaging over 30 over 30 points per game he's having 31 right now and that in itself is just a massive massive jump and obviously like there's there's more volume he's taking more more threes than ever but he's also slightly if you were just talking about like overall shooting from the field he's you know he's more efficient than than he's getting there he's getting to the rim a little bit more.

He's getting more futile shots. I like this version of Lamella Ball a lot. And this version is something where the Hornets can actually say, we feel good about building around you and we feel good about going out and making the necessary trades acquisitions to start building a team that can kind of win. There was a postgame interview the other day when they played against the Milwaukee Bucks.

And Damia Lillard said the most obvious thing ever. heels like yellow mellow can do whatever the hell he wants over there he said he has the greenest of green lights and that's absolutely i haven't seen a green light this green since like i guess you could say like luca don't just but really when it comes to this like new air green light it feels like james hard and esk when it comes to how he runs every single thing offensively over the last 10 years i think he's shooting like 20 24 shots a game as of now in the making of this podcast that's on par that's more than i think that's more than luke a lot i think that's more than luca last year, and that's the second most of the last 10 years right behind, like, James Harden.

That's a ridiculous. He's a 40% usage. In 2018, James Harden had a 40% usage. It's exactly the same usage rate. Yeah, exactly. So that just tells you how much he's dominating the ball while also, like, having the most fun and being also the most effective and efficient. Now, his team does suck.

That has nothing to do with him, though, as an individual. Man. And if you look at that big man rotation they have right now, It's hilarious without Mark Williams Shout out Diabate. He's had some crazy games Where he's rebounding the hell of the ball I'll leave it there

Shout out Diabate Man forget Diabate Shout out Taz Gibson That's great Shout out Starting center Todd Gibson Fuck Todd Gibson

Hey boy Holy shit And Nick Richards is the most Nick Richards is the most Nick Ritch is the NBA center You're like white my eyes I was like holy shit I got to wipe my contacts

Hold on wait I don't got no contacts What am I doing This is Todd This is real life It's crazy Yeah You look at this play right here On the highlights right here

Look at this Just dribble package He pulls out Yeah He's doing this in the NBA Look at this shit Yeah Yeah he's crazy

He's like dribbling sideways This is This is 100% Like I've seen that move before He's done that move In the backyard Cooking Lonzo Like that's what that is

And If he If Lebello's playing this free I think like This is obviously want this is obviously the way that you want for him to play the most free and he is a very creative player so you want so you like you want to give him the space to do that but this is this is this is this is the peak of what we thought lamella ball could be yeah he hoops we never

really seen somebody like this he hoops as if he plays basketball with in the in between lunch periods i saw a tweet the other day someone said it's like he has air pods on or something like that. Yeah. Creativity is nuts. You don't see this ever. Like, it's literally like watching what Pete Maravich did in the 70s where he's just playing with such swagger and just literally move in different than everybody else. Like for better or worse, whether a net's out as being better than the comparable star, we'll see. But it's entirely different and just not, you say it's loose. Yeah, it's a carefree style that he plays his own game. And people have always said in the past in when he's really young that like,

People use it as, like, a detracting thing. Like, he plays too carefree, like, it's an issue, like, he needs to play more disciplined. But I think at this rate, with the way his skills are developed, it's almost an advantage in the same way that we talk about, like, Lucas change of speed, where he moves at this rhythm that you don't quite understand, that's not normal. So, so those defenders off, where we've reached that point with Lamello, where it's actually refined now. He has an NBA body, NBA athleticism. He has years of refining his footwork, driving in the paint, refining his handle coming around screens. All this stuff is baseline level of competent. enough that that herky jerky crazy shit is just so weird and hard to defend because you're not

used to that whatsoever. I'm so curious to see what the Hornets do next because are they going to go like the pace route and trade for somebody like a Pascal Seaccom to instantly come in and give, you know, give Lamello some help or are they just going to write out this thing of like lamellas are one, Brandon Miller's going to be our two and we're just going to keep growing with these two and kind of, you know, try to fill in the gaps. Their plan and what they do over the next two years is something that's very, very interesting to me, especially given the fact that now, now Lamello and, you know, knock on wood, whatever, if he can, you know, stay healthy and you have this level of production and this level of usage rate,

what do you want your team to look like with a player like that at the health? That's a good point. That's what I've been thinking about a lot is, okay, so clearly this is very impressive. The production is putting up the just, he's rather unguardable right now. can get to whatever spots he wants. Clearly the talent is as high as most young guards in the league. But yeah, what does it look like in a winning team? Like, how do we apply this to a winning formula?

Like, or can you, can he play this way when trying to win? When was the last time you seen a player dominate like this as much? And my question to you again, follow up question is like, do you think you can have a successful roster with him? That's not, that's what I just said. I don't know. Like, I have no idea because I've never seen someone play like this. Like in terms of guards that come out and just get to whatever spots they want and are unstoppable,

I think of John Moran's breakout season when most improved player when he was truly moving different and like blown by everybody getting to the paint slash and creating whatever he wants, but his is more inside out. So it's a little bit different. But I think about that in terms of players that are just playing at their own wavelength and nobody can really keep up with it. But that was within a very different coach team with a lot of defensive pieces. And John Morant was like not a liability there.

You know, like he wasn't a bad defender, or he wasn't a good defender, but he wasn't, like, atrocious. He was part of a clear system. Yeah, it's. So it's not quite the same. Yeah, it's hard. I wouldn't even look at it from like a John Morant lens because, like, that whole Memphis Grizzies team is just like great grind all around. And Charlotte, they're just like all the mellocentric. And I'll look at them is just like, okay, you might just be an offensive led team.

I don't know how good defensive you can be because you don't have many great defensive prospects. You would think Rainer Miller is like a stud or whatever, but he's not necessarily that just yet. So I would just build all when it comes to how they should be built, I would look at similar to the James Hardin model or similar to the Luca Donge's model and just getting guys who can straight to defend at first. Even even them though. He's not that good though. Yeah. He's not to that level where he can be the guy everything. He just he'll never be.

You have to be a really great rim finisher. And so, okay, so let's talk about real quick before we get that. What makes him good so great this year? obviously Donovan said he's a little bit more efficient than he ever has been he's currently at a 57.5 true shooting which is a little bit above average considering he's max in usage rate averaging 31 and seven assists that's you can live with being a little bit higher than average in true shooting that's fine right to be slightly efficient it's not amazing but it's cool he's doing it on eight pull-up three

so he's just been massive volume from three he's actually taking less shots the rim than he ever has 7% less but you don't really want to see because we talked about in the past that the big thing with him is improving as a rim slasher because That's how you can be James Hardin, how you can be Lupid Donchish. I don't know what the stats are, though, because it feels like he's getting a lot of his floater off. He's not. Oh, yeah, his floater.

He is going to slow it, but he's not getting to the rim. Yeah. And the floater is significantly less efficient than a shot at the rim. So he has been doing well from floater range, but he's shooting 7% less at the rim and 5% more from 3. You can decide how, if you like there or not, if you like the less rim attempts and more 3-point attempts, but efficiency at the rim has been pretty much exactly the same.

And drawing foul has been pretty much exactly the same. So if the slashing, isn't going to quite be there in terms of finishing at the rim and efficiency wise can he play at that usage forever and lead a good offense i don't know maybe and i'm i'm fine with that i think like i think we've seen enough from him in his first couple years to know he's just not going to be a good a good rim finisher yeah that's just that's just never going to be his thing and so if you are going to take you know some of those shots and move him out to three where he where like he feels probably a little bit more more comfortable he can get into his shot more the way that he likes to i'm okay

with that the one thing that i'm nervous about is james hardin and luca even though that they're bad on on defense they're not lamello bad and they are and they are still somewhat like big bodies if it got into a crazy situation where they end up you know iso in or somebody tried to you know attack them in the post they got switched on to a big they're strong enough they can they can hold their own James Hardin was bad on the perimeter for years. Always an underrated post-defendant. Same thing with Luca. We saw him at times last year before he got hurt, lock in.

I don't know if Lamello has that gear where he can lock in or if he got, you know, somebody got switched on to him and there's a mismatch over and over. I don't think he can hold his own. So that's one of those areas where defensively I think that Charlotte has to do like above and beyond scouting and development. Yeah. What you're describing is those guys have shrank that you can scheme around to get the most of that. Exactly. You can, you have James Hardin's prime. You can play a switch all defense because you know he's going to be atrocious fighting over screens. But if you do switching, he can switch onto a big wing or power forward and be fine. Like, you know, you can build around that. Lamella doesn't have that. And Mo, you mentioned his Florida game is getting off right. That's a good. He's shooting 54% from Florida range, which is very, very good. And he's actually 85th percentile in drives that make up a percentage of his field goals. So he's attacking the paint. Yeah. He's just not getting all the way there. He's either taking the flow.

or passing, taking mid-range shots, whatever may be. So he's still applying pressure. He's not just, you know, he's not playing like Tyre's Halliborne right now, which is good. So I kind of feel like he's playing more like a Trey Young from a couple years ago with just crazy dribble animations. You know, like just a sauced up Trey Young is kind of more of the archetype rather than a James Harden or Luka. Just 67, six, eight, Trey.

Okay, take that in a yeah, which is a very good player. But like, I almost feel like it's more like that. So the question is, do you see a, what does it look like building a, contender one day around a soft step try young a 2021 Atlanta Hawks with with with a little bit with a little bit better defense um that's that the defense was the best for the Hawks around that time so like yeah yeah yeah but you but you have to you have to go a level up just because you have those those deficiencies at your point guard position and they're really there can't be a a weak spot on that team two through five have to be able to hold their own at an above average rate for

Lamello to to be able to put all of his energy into into offense into leading the team on that side but so like I'm not saying you have to go out and get yourself a whole bunch of you know like Reggie Bullocks where all like you have Reggie Bullocks you know we should you just have guys who are there and they take threes but they don't do anything else but they'll still play you know some solid defense you still need a little bit of creation from that perspective but it it's a it's a It's a fun case study for the Charlotte Horn. It's on how to build around a team like this, or how to build around a play like this.

Case study is the best word because he's so unique and has such a, clearly the offensive skills hit is here. It's how to Charles Lee hone that in. And I do like that Charles Lee has been like holding him accountable a little bit. There's a one game where he bench him for the last four minutes and people were pissed about it. I think that's great because I think they're clearly not playing for a lot of wins right now. It's very important that, you know,

we're mentioning all these good things that come with his insane play style. he is still having an insane playstyle and having a lack of maturity that helps you in terms of how he plays because he makes it so hard to guard but that's a fine line and you have to really be a coach that knows how to get the most of that

in terms of his strengths and really not let the downsides of his play style hurt you so I'm all for Charles Lee like really coaching him with like a firm grip I think that was kind of lame with Charles Lee to do especially the specific context of it

which is like a dumb file that Lamello committed which is like, okay, like, Molo's ball is Lamello ball. He got benched because of that stupid foul. And when you lose a game against, the Brooklyn Nets by just one point, to get a point across when you're a team that wants to try to win, all Shorn and the Hornets fans have been in the mud forever.

I don't think that's something you do at that point in time. Like, he's a star player, of course, like you can give him a certain talk or whatever, but benching him and losing the game by forcing out three-man minutes and stuff, it's just not a good coach. If this is... It sounds like you wanted to be coddle. you said he's lamello ball we don't need to caud a lamella ball he has bad tendencies that need

to be coached like he needs yeah if any if there's any star that needs to be coach sternly i think it's so is it worth losing the game to get your point okay well i mean you should coulda woulda it's easy to say now i lost by one point i'll say i'll say this i'll say if it was i kind of agree with you if it was a game and not to not to that's a devalue the the regular season but if it was a if it was a game in march and you're making a push for the playoffs and Lomello did that and you benched him to make a point. All right, yeah, like you're kind of being an OD. That's a game from the beginning of November.

You have more margin of error for the rest of the season. Now is the time at the beginning of the year where I think it is more acceptable to do things like that, to bench people, to try to stand on points. But if the Hornets were actually 500, they're trying to make a push for the 10th seed. And then Charles Lee is like, well, you know, if he bench them then, that would be an issue with me. but now was okay I didn't hate it

This is a young-ass team Full of rappers You have fucking Miles Bridge on the team Lamello ball on the team Like they need culture They need to be coached They need to be taught discipline And it

Building that fucking building block Of playing a certain Discipline way It's so important Like I don't give a fuck They lost in one game Sucks I wish they would have won Clearly he didn't think he was

Guaranteing a loss When he benched him Hindsight says oh He would have played Maybe he would have won Or maybe they wouldn't know Because they lose games with lamello ball all the time i think it's okay yeah we're not playing our mixtapes

as you're around anymore all right lock in learn your playbooks you're over here studying fl and ableton you know we're trying to try to work on pro tools last year they had miles bridges lamella ball and jay's book night they need discipline oh my god charles lee's like i'm not an a and guys i'm your i'm your basketball coach i can't get you a deal he needs to be coach carner any other coaches need to be coach carter i i can understand the standpoint it's like yeah the hindsight talk or whatever but i think there are other ways to get your point proven across just not trying to be debating it's on your w and l record as a head coach first year head coach dude and again he did not think it was a guarantee loss and he vetched him

of course he would of course he did not i'm sure he would want to prove his point be like yeah this player plays right whatever like i get it but i just think in terms of just like Is this a star player I think there's other ways you discipline him So question for you Is there ever a situation Where Lamello could do anything on the court And you would bench him to prove a point

He's Lamello, give him a chair No, if he genuinely just wasn't doing shit Defensively or just throwing a game Or whatever just having He doesn't do anything defensively every game But making I can't voucher that whole game I'm sure it was accumulation of things throughout the game

I don't think it was one exact play that he did it for. I'm sure if we went back and watched it, I'm sure it's a culmination. I bet in the next day when they watched film, it wasn't just that one play he benched him for. Definitely not. His performance,

even offensively too, was not the best he shot like shit too. I think he was like four for 12 or two for 12 or something like that. But you need to say, that's not the point. The mellow's hooping. Yeah.

Listen, man, in the day, he has flaws and it's going to be interesting to see how they really build around this. But in the day, right now I'm looking at Senators culture, which is a really good analytics site. He's a 99th percentile and pull up three percentage.

and 99th percentile an amount of drives per game that that combination is just unique as fuck and that clearly is a huge advantage for him so going to be excited to see how he continues to refine this crazy skill set one thing that actually sucks though go ahead look at this oh no i'm just gonna say so right now lamello's tied for second for for most improved player that's hilarious i hate this new most improved player of the year culture bro it's annoying but if this is what it's transformed to when evolved to, he deserves it. If you're going to give him Don Moran, that's on Dyson. You just want Dyson, Daniels.

Can I tell you who's first? Who? Oh, Jen and Obie? Who's first? No. Who's first? Take your guess. Is it somebody I listed today on this?

Listen, am I just asking you this question so I can have an effortless segue? Yes, I am. Oh, because first is Franz Wagner. Oh, yeah. Oh, I love that because Franz Wagner is a second breakout star we're here to talk about today. He's actually on the screen right now. I don't even got to change the highlights

because they're playing each other in what I'm showing right now, so we'll just keep it rolling. So let's talk about Franz Wagner. Let's talk about the last few years. He was drafted. This is his fifth year. He's just three, four years ago.

Rookie year, he looked sensational. He had 15 points on decent efficiency, had passing chops, could defend. We were all like, oh my God, this guy, one of the best players in his class. Year two, they draft Palo Bancaro. This becomes Palo Bencaro's goddamn team. Yes.

And he has a year last year after that in the second year at Palo, where he shoots 26% from three for the year, and we were all like, we went from, holy crap, they had these two awesome promising young wings to, wow, is Franz Wagner shot gone? Do we need to be worried? Because we think he can be amazing,

but he can't shoot for shit right now, and that's a problem when you're playing next to Palo Bancaro. And I don't think any of us sold our stock, but we were like, we really want to see you shoot better, man, please, because we have a lot of hope in you being great. And you know, to say he's shooting better this year is an understatement. He's shooting like a goddamn star.

He is playing in Palo Bancaro's absence, being the first option for this team next to, you know, less help than Palo had because he had Franz, and he is performing like a legitimate All-Star this year. Yeah. Look at that. This is exactly, this is exactly why I told you guys at the beginning of the year that Franz is not only did we not sell our stock. We doubled down. We bought more. We said, you guys are tripping off of one year of bad shooting and Franz is going to come back. because it's it's one thing to have like a down year of shooting and go from like 37% to 35%.

It's another thing to go from like 36% to 29% from 3. That is just such a crazy drop off that you just can't think that that's going to be sustainable or that's going to be the new model going forward for Franz. And now that now that he's here, all the questions that I had in the offseason about whether or not the magic junk the gun too early giving him the extension whether or not they're doing the right thing not going out and getting a traditional point guard because you have franz and palo i feel comfortable around franz's playmaking i feel comfortable around franz's shooting in his in his and his scoring to where this this model of having the of having the two the two forwards

in him and palo i'm good i'm good yeah no i'm with you i uh oh listen you know i'm happy about it I am an NBA nerd. And you know what us nerds have thought about Palo vancaro for the last, I mean about Franz Wagner for the last three years. Many of them were like, oh, he's actually better than Palo. I didn't go that far, but I've long said, got clown in our comment section for saying that he is close to the same level. Palo's better.

He's the 1A. But Franz needs to be viewed long term as his co-star, not his psychic. That if this team isn't getting anywhere, it's because they have two 610 demons that are both all-stars and not that far apart and have a good distribution of touches because they are both, the guys. I think this is showing why we thought that for so long. Because now the three's here, he's getting to the rim well, he's solid touch from midrange, his passing is great. He's currently one of the best in terms of assist percentage for wings. That's the top

of the league. And his defense is ridiculous. He's their best wing-sized defender there. He's legitimately their wing stopper while being the primary ball handler with Palo out, while shooting 36% from three, shooting great off the dribble threes too. It's such a difficult, all-encompassing role with Palo Mancaro out, and he's rising to the occasion. Yeah. In those games of Palo, he's averaging 25.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6 assists on 2.2 turnovers, too. So almost a 3 to 1 assist of turnover percentage.

Yeah, he's been the all-around peak version of Franz Wagner. This is a Franz Wagner that you drafted back in 2021 with all-intent purpose to be a foundational piece, potentially the piece. He's living up to his potential. Now, I will say, Isaac, you are correct. It is worrisome that he has only been able to do this. When he's alone, you'd much rather prefer him to be playing like this or at least have more shades like this alongside Powell and Bancarro

because that's when real motion has had in terms of the overall team success. But this is great news. And also like random side note, side tangent, if we were to redraft the 2021 NBA draft right now, that was the K was in the same classes, Cade and Jalen Green and Evmobie to refresh your mind, would he go like number one and Scotty Barnes as well? I think so number one I think so

Top three is a debate One You got him Evan Mobley Sangoon and Scotty Barnes Atop four You can debate What order you want

But it's not crazy To put him one I don't think Yeah I think a lot of people Actually not Maybe a lot of people If he's playing like this

A lot of people Would take France One over Moble But I can see a situation Where Mobley is still Like It's still the top pick Yeah

Well let's make this If he's play like this When he would say this It means What he's done Well Palo's hurt he's won with the fucking smoking bullet he's won and it's not even remotely close

if he's playing like this to be fair it's been like 10 games so we're not going to assume this is going to be who he is forever because that's just you know we need more of a sample size and we have more sample size of him not doing this and he is but if it's real and he's capable of averaging 26 5 and 5 while being in a great defender

yes he's won he's a top 20 player if that's real he's playing like German Paul George like if this is real the debates will be much higher than Evan Mowgli. We'll be aiming a lot higher than that if this is real. They're 9 and 1 over the last 10 games, which is insane because I thought that as soon as Palo went out, it's like, well, there goes, there goes the season.

Like, you're going to, you're like the level at which Palo was playing him having a 50 point game right before he goes out, you're like, okay, well, that's kind of the offense. And even though that Fronter was obviously going to get more touches, going to get more opportunity, this wasn't on my mind. So I was like, man, these guys, they're. probably going to be at seven or eight by the time paula comes back and they're going to have to fight their way to get out of a hole and we're talking about how you know progress isn't always linear because things happen that da da da da the magic like shut up like you don't know you don't know what

we have because we have franz bogdan and he's going to carry us and now like they are they are they are the third best team in the eastern conference right now like like very very i you can make it's a conversation between them and the Knicks and depending on what night you cast the Knicks they might be the third but in terms of what we've seen this season the consistency that the magic have shown on a night in a night out basis and the ability to maintain their identity of we are just going to play crazy physical defense for 48 minutes and we're going to wear you down and Franz and Jalen Suggs are going to do their thing and we're getting more contributions from our young guys that has stepped up they are they are awesome

And when Palo comes back, I hope. I hope that they play well slash keep winning because if not, we're going to have like two weeks of nasty dialogue. But I'm waiting for it. I don't even think it's nasty. I think it's real. You know, so Mo mentioned that it's a bit disheartening that you only see this when he's playing without Palo. You want to see it together because that's how you become an amazing team and have the two stars click at the same time. They is going to slow.

He's going to slow down when Palo comes back to some extent. But they got to figure out how to make him not. Like this is a coaching thing and a Palo Bancaro thing and a Franz Wagner thing of all going on the same page. He is way too good to not have the ball in his hands. I think in this game we're watching these clips against the Lakers, the Lakers blitz the shed of him. They either double team off the screens or they played a really hard hedge where it was essentially like an aggressive switch. He's fantastic at fighting off that defender that comes screaming at him and pinpoint passing picking you apart and pick and roll. Lakers have terrible defensive personnel so it's, you know, easy to pick them apart.

But he made them pay. he was destroying them as a passer and obviously he had a game winning three on them he's a better decision maker with the ball in his hands and palo is as a passer and playmaker that feels easy to me obviously you know we know that palo is a better shooter he has the frame to develop into a better interior score and better score overall with his crazy bag he has at that size so you got to balance that of how to put the ball in your best pastor's hand and your best scorers hands who both operate with the ball in their hands at their best neither one of them are amazing off ball you know yeah obviously the example for this whenever you see two

really really talented forwards moving forward for like the next 10 years you're just going to think about jalen brown and jason tatum and if either one of them were good playmakers two three years ago we would have been like oh yeah the Celtics got it like that was what that was the only one of the downsides that we had for them and we were just like is jaylon brown going to do it is jason tatum going to be able to up his playmaking and eventually they were both specifically tatum we're able to, you know, upgrade their level of playmaking. Franz being able to do this

puts them on that type of trajectory to where now Palo, we've talked all offseason. Oh, you have to get a point guard for him. You like don't turn them into this point forward trying to make them into this passer. Now Palo's in a situation where if Franz can pick up the playmaking, all Palo has to do is just get buckets,

which is what he's best at. And you put him in this like peak situation. Now with that being said, something that's going to be. something that needs to happen as a way is like similar to the whole Jason Tatum Jalen Brown thing I don't want to say they need to reconstruct everyone around them but they need to be as picky and precise as possible to have the right players on them in order for hold this whole shit to work like these two can have great synergy all they

want it doesn't matter at the end of day because there's three other players starting with them on the court and then there's like three four other guys coming off the bench who needs to like play precisely to this new game plan yeah yeah yeah And we say new, listen, they've had Franz Wagner with him for two years. So we've seen this. It's just different when the shot is falling and when Franz is clearly making leaps as a passer and with the ball on his hand. So it's not totally foreign. I don't want to make it sound like they've never played together.

They've made this huge adjustment. But it needs, it's a lot more dangerous and hard to defend when you have two six and wings that can scream for each other and both pop and roll and do all this stuff. And I think before they did it well. They have two men games. They, Paolo doesn't stand around and do nothing when he's off the ball. He's not like,

you know, he's not James Harden in that way. But they have to make a more of a concerted effort to be aggressive with that and like get Palo rolling downhill with Franz the ball handler, do more pick and pop

with Franz as a shooter because his shoot shots looking better this year. Like it's just do more of it. They've already done it before but they have to make it like the emphasis and not just something they can do

when needed. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I absolutely agree. Something that wasn't encouraging, though, they're going to be filthy. Something that wasn't encouraging

when it comes to just like the conversation between the two is just like the net rating then whether it be them two together them two without each other on the court it's just like very has it's been very alarming there's a reason why we're like having this conversation about the both of them and like not sounding the alarms but saying like yeah like something needs to shake this needs to work out yeah they got to develop right like they have to again they both have to get better off ball both get better cutting both get more willing to run around and find spaces and other guys the ball in their hands. It's a type of thing you expect from a young duo, but I think the

past couple years has been really tilted towards Frong, you're off ball, Palau Cooks, and it has to be a little more evenly distributed, I think. Yeah, I agree. I agree. They're going to be so goddamn hard to defend. How do you defend two six, ten guys that can shoot, dribble past, and set screens for each other? That's insane. They're huge. You got to get the most special. You got to get them crow bars and you got to start swinging. That's all you can do. I don't know. I want to see Franz carry this onto the playoffs. Offs to along

first baby steps of course with Palo but I want to see him continue this level to play once the playoffs start six months

from now whenever it is it's very encouraging he's running to his first all-star game oh yeah

yeah he's an all-star right easily easily yeah yeah and the same way I planned my flag last year on

jdub and chat being stars I'm planning that shit on Franz Wagner he is the guy this year that's making

that leap for real yeah I agree I agree with that speaking of let's talk about our third breakout star of the year.

Or reliable. A TD3 staple we talked about him at length for the last year and a half. Jalen Williams is reaching another level, bro. Jalen Williams looks insane, defensively. Dude, Tom me. Chad Honging got hurt, and we were all like, fuck.

They're going to have to survive until Isaiah likely. I mean, Isaiah Hardenstein comes back. It's going to be tough. But listen, they can do it. We'll see what happens, yada, yada. They almost didn't miss a step because J-Dub became the best some all-ball center in the NBA, he has been utterly ridiculous defensively while continuing

to have just as much impact as did last year offensively. I think we all got up here and we're really excited for him last year because he's his on-ball score who is insanely efficient with his mid-range touch, 44% from three can pass a little bit, have this wingspan to finish to the brim, all the stuff that we saw that as another ball handler next to Shea. How do you defend both these guys? What we didn't talk about enough is he might have the best hands in the NBA for his position as like he be fighting fucking a piece of power forward he's leading the league in steals and blocks stocks for his position 2.2 steals one block a game and and 99th percentile deflections he's insane down low when people are driving he doesn't always set the size to block the

shot he'll get his hands in there and rip you when you're trying to gather obviously he's good in passing lanes he's incredibly stocky he's kind of sacrificed some of his burst to put on weight and play power forward and has made him into this weird like draymond green jason tatum ish type of power forward body that can defend down low he's kind of in that similar type of mold he's a ridiculous two-way weapon to have i'm so glad that you said that you brought up the comparison to jason tatum because that's what i've been thinking about and like think thinking specifically when we when you think about like how jason tatum was playing in in the finals and the fact that like he was he was you know you know he's he's guarding he's got precisely and and and

you're able to do all this switching behind it because you know tatum can can hold it down low i i hope i hope shay jdub and chet they probably won't but i want them to play together for the rest of their careers i i don't want to see them anywhere else because they fit so perfectly and they cover up everybody else's weaknesses and they all have these like amazing strength and they're just a trio of demons and like you you look at the at the shot distribution for J-Dub and nothing really is like changed too much like he's still getting you know his same percentage at the rim he's shooting a little bit more from three but nothing is really like drastic but well two-point volume is up a good amount he's he's the he's the kind of guy where

this is what like most improved looks like where you're not just looking at the box goal and saying oh this guy jumped six points per game no jaylon williams is like a better basketball player right now than he was last year than he was the year before and it's amazing yeah i agree i don't know last year i always knew that he was like a good defender that was one of his strengths but it feels like a whole other layer of defense has been added because of the massive gap at the time being at the five positions when chet was out but seeing how he's just an absolute nuisance and a real irritant and it's just like a bother whenever he's around the basketball That's all NBA type defense, bro.

I did not expect that. Yeah. When he plays center, the team has a 120 offensive rating near the top of the league, which as you expect when your center is as skill as Jay and the Williams. You can surround him with a lot of offensive firepower. That makes sense when you go small with him there. What doesn't make sense is defensively, they have a 11-deaf rating. That makes them plus nine when he plays center.

They force a turnover on 20% of their defensive plays when he plays because they have five people out there with ridiculous hands who can make some shit happen and get into passing lanes it's such a versatile skill set that like you know we talk about Jason Tatum

being a top player in the league and we've all kind of said like okay yes he's in this tier now and not for the reasons people thought a few years ago it seemed like he was going to be this next that Carmelo Anthony big wing score

that's going to just kill you averaging 30 he developed the other way he became a ridiculous defensive versatile weapon a ridiculously powerful rebounder a great passer all those other stuff around the skill set that's who jadub is i've seen some thunder fans are a little like it's fake pessimism but they're all kind of like a little bit nitpicking his game because he can't

really get to the rim super well as a self-created guy he's not really developing into that prototypical wing score that maybe they thought he would be two years ago but he's developing so strong all these other ways that doesn't matter like his best way to be used is an off ball score because it's a ridiculously good shooter can attack closeouts have crazy touch and do all the small stuff that really makes somebody like Shea look a million times better. Yeah, I agree. I agree. The other day we made a TikTok talking about length and stuff, boy, oh boy.

Jalen Williams has some length to him. He's like a seven, seven two wingspan, bro. It's nuts shit. It's crazy. And no, it is? That's just like Jamon Green. Dramon Green has ridiculous length too and that's how he can do this stuff at his size. J-dub, the reputation hasn't come around yet, but he is very similar in that way.

Now, he's not Drummond Green because Remod Green has a greatest defensive mind. we maybe have ever seen but he's from physical standpoint not that far off so the question for you because you were you were very early isaic on on the jdub trend on jdub island do you still think that jadip has like knowing that his offensive game is probably never going to get to like that level um or i guess assuming that because that's that's kind of why i'm at but do you do you still think he could be a top 20 player i think i always said top 30 but top 20 is like a ceiling that's fair yeah i think so. I think I'm even actually probably more confident in that. At the beginning of last year, we thought he was just like this good defender, but crazy score and tough shotmaker from

the midrange, which is like a prototypical type of guy that can, you know, get recognition as a top 25 player because he's a goddamn bucket. I feel better about actually being, he's more valuable now, I think that he's clearly an elite defensive player, good passer, and great offball score. Like, it's a different package, obviously, than what you'd expect. But yeah, I think so. I think that's a guy that maybe won't get recognized that way and maybe we'll always be an all-star for in terms of the guys that are consistently in leading impact offense

and impact defense leading to victories, I feel almost certain that he'll be a top 30 guy like that. Okay, yeah, I think, I think, like, for me, top 30 is good. The range while I'm kind of trying to figure out, like, if he can ever get there, is probably, like, in that top 20 range.

Is he going to have, like, a year where you look up and you're like, you know, is Jade of, like, the 17th best player in the league? something like that yeah that's nuts shit bro that's I don't think it's that crazy no it's just crazy to think about like what is

this is actually like reality yeah there'll be again he won't consistently be that but there will be years I said last year that I think he can be about as good as Jalen Brown and I still feel pretty certain that that's a good comp that Jalen Brown some years you're considering him this year where he's not having a strongest scoring

season you're like okay it's probably like a top 25 guy or you see the playoffs last year and you're like holy shit is that the 11th best guy in the fucking world like there's a wide range because he's the second option with some flaws with the ball in his hands but a ton of strengths around that i feel like jad up is very similar yeah i i agree i think i think for jadab like seeing seeing the way that he performed in the playoffs last year and we're like okay he's going to have to add a little bit to his bag he's going to need to be more uh you know have be more be more be more decisive

and be able to get easier shots because a lot of the shots that he was taking was hard Right now, like you said, it doesn't necessarily seem like that's going to be the case to where he's going to get like super, super easy buckets. But him, and this is why I want him, Chet and Shade to play together forever, we know that when Chet comes back, the way that Chet was playing also makes Jada kind of makes him like the third option offensively, which is completely fine. And it's ideal. Exactly. It suits everything that he does. and it allows it allows him to

reach his max potential defensively and oh my goodness if Alex Caruso can figure out how to shoot a basketball again and they can have and they can have these lineups of J-dub, Chet Caruso, Doris Sheet

and everybody can actually shoot that's that's what we all thought like okay this team can win 65 games this team can win the Western Conference kind of handily this team can make the finals, maybe even beat the Celtics. I can't wait to see what they look like at full strength whenever we get to January, February, whatever.

And please, please, Caruso, please make a shot. Because... I think you're overlooking the most important player for maximizing J-dub. I think there's one name you didn't say. No. Who? Isaiah Hardenstein. Oh, there we go. He's going to unlock him so much better.

J-dub is one of the better off-ball scores in the league. He's an amazing cutter. He's amazing running in transition and really good. just destroying the rim, and he's a great catching shoot three-point shooter. Isaiah Hardinstein is a passing hub big, who he goes out there, all he wants to do is throw a fancy pass to a cutter.

He's out there holding the ball around the frithal line, just looking to see who we can behind the back throw it to. J-Dub is going to eat all season off of those. That duo, I guarantee you when we look up at the end of the season, look at their lineup data. The lineups with Hardinstein and Jada playing are going to be ridiculous offensively. I miss him.

I miss Einstein. That's so bad. I bet you do. See, man, so sad. It's awful. Shout out Jada, man. It's a star making a leap. He'll be an all-star as well, I think,

especially with Chet missing in so many games. I agree. Easily. He should be a lot. Now, Mo. We got one more player. Not one more to talk about. One more specifically that we have to glaze a little bit.

Are you ready to glaze, Jerry McCain? Bro, I've been ready. I got my nail polish in my counter right now. Are you ready? What call y'all want? I got perfect. Let me hear it. A point nail potters on you goat.

Jared McCain is a special. special rookie that we were not as an NBA community prepared to witness in the slightest. We were over here talking about some, oh, one of the weakest draft classes, blah, blah, blah. Now, his peers have not still been living up to their expectations, even in the slightest. But Jared became within himself is saving this entire draft class. Not only that, he's saving the city of Philadelphia, bro. I heard every night that Jared McCain plays, crime rates go down. Everybody's watching Jeremy Cane play right now, bro.

He has been... Akeel car. He has been hooping his ass off in terms of his spacing. We've talked about his relocation and his ability to attack the rim. He... I saw, like, glimmers. I used to watch him. He was a popular basketball player since high school.

You know, he's been on TikTok. He was a part of the age and era. And whenever I would personally watch him, be like, yeah, he's good. But I don't see the creation. I don't see elite shooting. I definitely don't see like any like insane athleticism or size. He was just like a regular built dude in high school. And even now still is that's similar to that.

I didn't see any of that. Yeah. And now it seems like with the actual NBA system, the actual NBA culture and offense, he's just been completely unlocked on all levels. And he's a key piece to the Philadelphia 76ers and everything that they do because of how different he is as a player compared to everything that. they're used to they've never had a player like him before I'm two days in the college and I'm three lectures behind and when next time we're in person next month can I can we go ahead and do a Jared McCain TikTok I want to be the

sure yeah I want to be dancing next to y'all sure you dance and we'll be sitting looking at you like a teammate at one high school video yeah but no he's fantastic and we can we can do that yeah well let you lead it you'll be in the middle dancing. Yeah. Man, but no, this guy is, this guy is crazy, man. This guy, this guy is crazy. And I think like all of, I think all of us, like Mo said, knew he was good. Obviously, I didn't know that he had certain things in his bag. For me, the biggest thing that has jumped out. And part of it is the fact that Philly has missed a lot of people to start the season. And, you know, he's the

guard and he gets, you know, kind of a green light. The confidence that he's, he's, he's, he's the guard. has shown to start this season has bewildered me. It surprised me so much because it's one thing to have the green light and everyone's like, listen, you're going to have to handle the ball, you're going to have to be the point guard, like Joelle's out, Paul George's out, Maxie's out, all that stuff. But even then, to be a rookie and to take the shots that he takes, to try to get to the places on the floor that he tries to get to and to continue to have the ball and, you know, make moves and get into your bag as a score, that right there shows me like he's ready. And I have been so impressed with everything that he's doing.

And it's not like, it's not like he's just, you know, this wild like off ball shooter. He is out here creating for himself and creating stuff off the dribble, being able to get to the room, put his head down. And he's not the most athletic guy. So he's going into his bag. He has tricks. He has head fakes. He has stutter steps.

he knows how to how to move the ball like he he's shown so much already to where like the ceiling for him in this team whenever everybody gets back and i you know what forget about the sixers the ceiling for jerry mccain is very very high yes yeah that's what's we're talking about yeah i don't care about them we're not talking about this shit show over there well we're we're gonna grieve the joll and b prime pretty soon it seems like so we'll talk about them in future episodes i'm sure right now dude jeremy kane is the highest IQ rookie i've seen in quite a long time that it's simply put he's not super athletic

he's not tall doesn't have big wingspan doesn't jump very high is quick but not fast and it's just a regular NBA body not below average just average but dude

that guy can shoot at every single level in so many versatile standpoints he can catch and shoot he can run off screens he step back with a ball in his hands he can hit a three

at any level from any spot on the court consistently because his form is ridiculously disciplined He's ridiculously smart of finding space We've talked a lot of length

about relocating off ball Looks real Steph Curry-esque It's just high IQ shit That most young players don't do He's able to get the ball When you swing into him He can gun to a pick and roll So smooth

And make the most Discipline easy reads And make these passes That aren't incredibly difficult But young players Sometimes hesitate Because they're focusing too hard On reading their defender

And not seeing the back line Trying to get their shot off So whatever it may be They're not really taking everything in And they miss easy passes he does not miss easy passes he keeps the ball moving

he's just a clearly NBA ready cog in a good offense that isn't going to slow anything down and be incredibly highly connecting that's so rare from a player his age bro since he's been given the keys in the green light which is earlier this month around

November 8th he's been averaging 24 points shooting basically 10 3s a game knocking them down at a 42% clip what the fuck are we talking about right now this is this is he's great is he a star he is he going to be a star this is this is this is the star track this is the pathway now of he's not going to average like 24 25 a game for the rest of

the NBA season because he has guys sure sure sure but if he's able to maintain at this level why not why not are we are we getting it like is joel going to play meaningful time this year I don't know is paul jones going to play like there's a real there's a real real life situation where the sixers don't have those guys for a majority of the year and yeah McCain averages 20-something a game. Okay, well, let's zoom out then because it doesn't even matter. Whether we'll see what their team situation is right now.

You could very well be right and he has to take a lot of shots all year or these guys get it together and he's playing a tertiary role. Whatever. He's obviously very capable of being a contributing role player right away. We established that.

Let's project a few years. Do you think this guy has star potential in knowing what you know now? Like, do you think three years from now when Joellen Beat is probably gone or whatever he looks like, can Jerry McCain be one of your two stars on your team?

He can absolutely, absolutely be a star on the team. Now, if you, viewer, watching right now, Crown eater, audio listener, whatever you are, however you choose to digest this content, if you were locked into TD3 Tuesday, 6 p.m. Eastern time specifically, on the clock, we never late. Look it up. Our track record is clean.

Isaac said that his comparison, when it comes to a star-level-ish range for Jared McCain was someone like Desmond Bain in terms of like, yeah, he's going to give you like a cool 22, 23 points a game. Uber efficient shooter And he's going to have Some level of creation as well Just like like you said

A cog in any system That would just work and flourish I think he'd be that level I think he's shorter Desmond Bain He's shorter Desmond Bain A better IQ that's what I said on the stream And Desmond Bain is not an All-Star But if you did an expansion right now

And we got these two added teams And let's say Las Vegas came into the league And they had to pick somebody And they picked Desmond Bain as their best player Desmond Bain can sneak into an all-star game I think in the Eastern Conference especially he can have years where he's just under that because his teammates are flourishing whatever

and he has some years where somebody gets hurt and he's the one option for a whole year and he average 25, 5 and 5. Desmond Bank could do that. I think that's where we're going to be at with Jerry McCain. Jeremy McCain is a borderline potential perennial all-star and that's where he's at. I agree with you.

I think seeing his IQ this early lets me know that his floor is insane. be high. I don't I don't know what the what the ceiling for Jeremy Kane is. And honestly, I really don't care. I, I, to me, like the floor for him and the floor for, especially for this class specifically, if you just want to look at it as a whole, everyone talks so much mess about how bad this, this class was. If you can get consistent, like actually good production from these guys, the floor is that's, that's, that's good enough for me. And so if his floor is, what, 18 to 22 points per game shooting crazy efficient from three being able to score off

the bounce in in tough situations attack mismatches I like that a lot and yes you can win with jerry mccane especially in three years you can win with jare mccain being your third best player where was jared mcane like five six years ago when the sixes really needed him uh using last grade algebra class yeah no he's fantastic and like what you just described on as the floor is like a better version of what we got from dante de vincenzo last year yes imagine that was dante for six straight years and even better even the higher numbers to everything that's like the floor for him listen pretty damn good for the 17th pick in the draft i mean 16 if the nix didn't have you know everybody's legs fall off they

could have been in the conference finals and that's and that's a team that you can see you can you can you can see, you know, or we will see what the sixes look like in two to three years. But just generally, yes, a player like Jared McCain can be that version and can lead you and be a part of a core that goes on a deep playoff front. What Jared McCain is doing right now is what we all thought Reed Shepard would be doing like day one into the NBA pretty much. And now he's at the opportunity. Yeah, exactly.

He's had the opportunity that he doesn't have a. Yeah, he's had the opportunity. between because everyone's basically dead on that team and that's all it takes sometimes that's what matters somebody gets whatever path is in front of him yeah they take that shit yeah and that's what that's what matters being being ready to take that as soon as you get it is so important for a young player dude i'm looking i'm looking at read stats right now this notice this is he barely plays a consistent theme in today's podcast something i've always preached on a consistent basis like yo it doesn't matter how good a young player is his situation

is everything. Sometimes a young but like his peers ahead of him are going to have to get hurt. The teammate ahead of him is going to have to get hurt in order for him to have an opportunity to flourish. We've seen it with someone like Franz. We see we are now seeing a new layer of J-Dab's game because the opportunity in the landscape is there. It's just a

frame to go ahead and paint his beautiful patron. Yeah exactly. Now we're seeing it with Jeremy Kane now that like guys are just not playing. So it's a consistent theme. I'm glad you brought this up. I got one more young player we're going to talk about today before we move on TikTok time and it's another player who is in a very specific circumstance

that is benefiting him right now and I want to know if what what you read on this player how he's playing right now how he plays in other situations potentially and all this and that player is Cameron Thomas you know he's hurt Cameron Thomas news came out today he just got hurt yeah yeah it's pain as a recording he just got hurt which keeps happening which is crazy yeah but cam Thomas is currently leading the Brooklyn Nets averaging 25 points three assists and three rebounds, shooting 38% from three and 52% from two. Honestly, he's, he's scoring like a prime Zach Levine. He has gone from a guy that we're like, ooh, this guy's a bucket. I wonder what's

going to happen if you get big usage. Then the summer comes and we're like, oh, he's about to get big usage. I wonder how many points he can be fun to watch. He's doing it now and he hasn't gotten any less efficient with the higher usage. He is clearly somebody that is truly elite at scoring the ball, especially from the mid-range. You look at the cleaning the glass page, you see all the areas, all the stuff in the middle of the court is bright fucking red. He can put the ball in the bucket between the three point line of the rim, seemingly as good as most guys in the NBA. But he's never been that highly regarded because he averages three assists and 2.8 turnovers. He does not pass the ball at all. Lord knows he's not helping defensively, even though maybe he

has some skills there, but he's not going to be an impact player there. Hard to imagine that this style of play would work on a winning team when there's better players that need the ball in their hands and not cam thomas taking all the shots how do you guys feel about him in terms of everything what is he good yes yes cam thomas is a good basketball player and like okay if you think if you think that now are there limitations to having cam thomas be your best player or your second best player of course is there a world where cam thomas can be a productive member of a championship team 100% i think i i think what is that role though i don't listen has to be a a role where it's a very specific role where you have like an uber dominant interior force

some like a yonis or like a nicola yokech he can be like in my mind almost like a jamal murray light obviously he's not going to like have any playmaking chops whatsoever but in terms getting that shit off he has to have a special like generational interior force who's also a facilitator to help him get get shit off and that's just like okay let's think about that I like that you brought up Yolkutton, I guess, because let's think about that. He's the size of Jamal Murray, and you could see him running off of these handoff actions and doing similar scoring back to Jamal Murray. That makes sense. But I feel like he's, in terms of him just having a green line to just get Bucking to do nothing else, that's almost more of Michael Porter Jr.

Because Jamal Murray can play make a little bit. So you'd basically be needing somebody who can score with the style of MPJ, but with the laser focus, I mean, with the style of Jamal Murray, but with the laser focus of not need to pass as MPJ. but MPJ can do that because he's big and has some defensive help being so large down the low Thomas doesn't have that or the passing so how does that fit into a team like Nuggets you'd have to ask him to do something else

yes so what I think about Cam Thomas obviously like the easy you know slide him in here is I think I think the teams like the Orlando Magic and okay and you have you have a guard in Jalen Suggs who can go and lock up anybody in in the back court and so you have somebody who can kind of you know cover his assignment

whatever. I think about teams moving forward, like the Houston Rockets, where eventually Amend Thompson is going to be, is going to be the starting guard. A men Thompson is all defense, you know, all NBA level, level defense. That's a great. You can get a situation where you're playing through Sangoon, he's the offensive hub, you have a guard or versus high defenders around him that can kind of cover. And then what you thought Jalen Green could be in terms of, hey, this guy can go and be a very,

you know, he can just be our bucky getter, you can have that for Cam Thomas. I think the fact that he has scaled up his usage and the efficiency is still there, I think that shows that he's more versatile to score than you may think. So I think that having him next to those kinds of guys would be okay and it could work out like that. That's a good point. Honestly, replacing him with Jalen Green might be the best spot for him in the league. Like Jalen Green is really up to his three-point volume, which Camp Thomas would have to do. but listen

so that's the side I referenced earlier Center's culture they have this composite rating that kind of gauges your impact plus talent at certain things he is 97th percentile in their pull-up three-point shooting composites care? Yes he's top three

in three-point shooting ability off the dribble but he's 18th percentile in catch-and-shoot composite scoring so not very good as a catch-and-shoots shooter but amazing a pull-up shooter I think catch-and-shoot three-point shooting is probably something he could do

if needed to be focused on more. And that rare off the dribble shooting ability is like the one value Jayland Green has right now is coming off of Sengoon screens. He can pull up from three. Can't Thomas can do that. So I think play next to the Sangoon might be perfect.

Nobody wants to say anything? Yeah. Wait, you liked that. I'm sorry. Okay, it's not only happening for me. Oh. You liked that completely. Okay.

Yo, I'm going to send this day is recording offline. I was saying. I was talking As if he was like I was talking And I was talking And I was like You like that a couple times

And the whole time And the whole time I was just like Yeah I don't you Having no What's going on And I'm like

Bro, what's going on I have no idea What you say Because I know Content Kings y'all Because I know You have another Like 15, 20 seconds

To talk Yeah Oh yeah And usually it's Like as soon you stop talking, Isaac, the internet works on par. And then I'm able to like, make me too. But this time. That's hilarious.

This is the first time where the timing went off. And it's so funny because for the people watching, we record offline. They send it to me and I edit it. So y'all aren't going to see that at all. So this is going to be the first time that you're like. It's just going to be like straight like there. And I'm just looking at you palpably confused. I'm like, are you fucking with me saying something?

Am I being trolled? That's hilarious. Would you, would you say that? Fuck if I know. Shout out to Cam Thomas, man. Oh, I basically said, yeah. Oh, see, happen again. Exactly.

Here we go again. I'm not doing it. I'm happy that I'm not. Put Cam Thomas in the Rockies and I can see that scaling up. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Cool.

I agree. But yes. So I, but there are, there are situations where like, and again, I always like, you know, I joke around now. I'm like, you know, the game's about a bucket. That or I. You guys are doing this. But I do think. that there is like some value to having a guy who is very instant offense and it's okay if you

have guys who their only job is to get a bucket there's some guys all i need you to do is run out here and play defense and that's fine you just you're just going to have to be a little bit more selective and you're going to have to have a fine balance of having both but camp thomas is not a guy who and his archetype is not a guy that can only live on tanking teams there are places in winning cultures and winning situations where a cam thomas can go and be successful and that team can also be successful and be a good team see i wish cam thomas was like a good defender because at that point in time he's a good defender and he's like a catch and pull a beam in that point like he can't he if he average 25 points per game and was a good defender yeah he's one of the 15 best

players in the one yeah like can he if he had like slight passing shot chops then he'll be like okay yeah again he can play that's a top three player in the world what are we talking about that would be nice i would love that if you average 25 10 lock up your other best player oh man or if he at least like be rebounding and i and 10 rebounds god damn bro is cam thomas is can't thomas monta ellis hmm i like that okay i like that comparison a lot okay i like that comparison a lot montalus is can't thomas monta ellis is a great comparison you have my mind swirling right now I like that

I need to go back I haven't watched Monta Ellis in forever software I need to go back Neither have a eye off I knew Monta was nothing but a bucket Yeah he's a guy that He led a team and got some like

Star recognition from the youth When we were youth But I think if we were at this age watching that We would have been like You can't fucking went Monta Ellis Like pick curry We would not have been loving As much as we did when we were 11

Imagine if it feels like Cam Tom who's another young guard It feels like Cam Thomas and like Jeremy Kane on the same team and you're like oh you got to pick one Like who are we going to pick Like that's that's the dilemma That the Warriors had Yeah I agree

It's very funny I agree shout out Cam Thomas man I'm excited to see where the rest this year goes Apparently there's some small rumors that maybe he'd be available for trade Hard to see what's team would want him Unless they want to put him on the bench Because he's such a unique player right now That you think the Warriors would have a full offseason

Fuck no hell no I don't do the war is the trade for him they don't have buddy hill they don't be like yeah why not you got nothing to lose that'd be crazy yeah pelicans need it

yeah man that's the last breakout star I want to talk about we had five big breakout stars to cover today we went deep dive into what makes them good how good they can be if we think it's real and so on

and yeah man it's time for some goddamn TikTok time I'm not hype Jalen Johnson's sub oh my gosh he lost but it's TikTok time

I'm ready if you're ready. Mastard! Welcome to TikTok time. A lot of fun stuff going on today. A lot of interesting stuff we've never done before. The first thing I want us to do today, you know, we've done a lot of guessing players, guessing teams, a variety of different ways.

I've had you guess teams through the colleges they went to, players by their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, whatever other physical by-part I can possibly think of. Today we're going to kind of combine everything. Okay. I want you guys to guess the NBA team based on all five of their players' faces combined. Oh, this is crazy. Oh, we're about a judge of mutants right now.

Okay, let's do it. I combine five starters faces from one team. Let me see the first thing. And you guys, got to guess what the team is. Guys, they're in this blind. Mo and Donovan didn't know anything about this. Just keep that in mind. But it's real simple.

Not all these teams are current right now either. It's over the years. Oh, what? So some are past teams. Some are current. Now, that's, you guys Which team You're like that's

Bull Jive. Yeah, that's some bull jive. That's hard. Let's see what we can do. If we're real bald doors, you're going to get this. Exactly. I do not appreciate this.

First off, I will perceive and be persistent through Isaac's BS. I'll do my best for you. First off. Which team is this? Ooh. Oh.

Damn. Ah! Shit. Oh, God. Oh, God. This looks like Oh, God. An alpaca, a llama.

Nah, listen, my mother told me, if I don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. He looks like he got a long tongue. And I'm going to disobey my mother right now. This is ugly as hell. This is crazy. This is the monster under my bed. This is Victoria's Secret. This is just, like, forbidden and sacred, bro.

Like, he looks like. However, I do have a beat on this, though. I see Zabel McGee. What's your beat? Exactly, exactly. I know, I know Javelle McGee right there in the middle of the face. He's the light one. Now, the top, I think that's Avery Bradley.

Okay, Avery Bradley. I almost said it looks like Evan Moby for some reason, but you're right. That is Avery Bradley. Okay. Well, I was getting kind of two names. The eyes are kind of throwing me off, but the big forehead reminds me of TV3 legend. Big baby Davis I'm getting a little big baby there

But it's Javelle I think it's Javelle and Avery Bradley I think the hair is DeAndre Jordan And the lips is that Katie No that's not Katie You never had a beer like that Wait So what team is this?

I don't know I don't know okay if it's A B and Javelle McGee Is this the Lakers This is the Lakers This is the 2020 Lakers Yeah it is Because Deani Journal was on that team, too.

You're right. This is Deion. Yeah. No, he wasn't. But Deion de Jor is not part of this. We got Avery Brathie's, I mean, we have Avery Bradley's eyes, Javelle McGee's midface, Cantavius, Colwell Pope's lips. That boy, a smoker.

We have Anthony Davis's chin and neck. And we have LeBron's hairline. No facts. Oh, that is Lebron's hair. You got to get that Cocoa Bass elite. Yeah. And let's chat, my brother. Damn, put them black and mouths down.

What the hell? They're doing damage. Holy shit. I know what you're doing You're all the time He was in LA He was in LA and Denver That man was blazing bro

Oh shit Oh my god You're killing me He had the weed car And we have Anthony Davis's neck And like the bottom of his hair And made the hair come out of his ears Yeah that looked like

Chewbock or something bro I was like It's horrendous It's very Shrekish Yeah Okay You got it though 2020 Lakers

you guys got to the bottom of it honestly when I see the bronze head and Avery Bradley's eyes with that nose it kind of looked I made it look uglier so it doesn't anymore

it was kind of looking like brawny for a second oh don't do brownie like that no no no I'm just saying the eyes kind of look like yeah they kind of have the same eyes

damn I was like whoa I had to make it uglier because it looked it was too obvious that it was related to the bronze okay next one He looked like he come up on the ground

What the hell He snuck on the earth What the fuck? He has no spine, bro This is an alien Nothing but in neck can no hearts Nothing but neck just hard He just moved me moving

Side to side Look at his cooking neck Please let me find it in me I got to say I'm crazy Oh my He looks like he got some shit up his scene He's so mischievous

He's got a plan for world domination Are you alien Trust that man, bro World domination for show I have so many tears on mine This looks like he's from Destroy all humans Oh shit

And his head just looks The top of his head looks so dry Bro, that's something like He comes off the ground He'd be rolling in it, bro. Oh, I can't breathe.

Oh, shit, bro. Okay. And it's hilarious, too, because he has one big-ass diamond in his ear. This, this specific picture

when I send you guys this, this is what it looked like. It looked like. What is it? It looked like the thing in the middle. It looked like the thing in the middle. Take time Oh my goodness

So what team is this? I mean, listen Clearly it's the Boston Celtics From last year That's Jalen Brown's eyes It's Chris that's Foursingis Right here The Baldy is

Derek White You got Drew Holiday's chin I think you got Jason Tatum's ears Do you have Jason Tateum's ears? Oh my God This looks insane that fucking smirk with those eyes is crazy

holy shit bro oh my he's like Latino yeah bro he looks like a sneaky bro a sneaky Italian bro a sneaky who's a bartender

bro he could make you the best cocktail that's shaking him bullfucker side to side oh this going on I can make you the best he wears tight pants

he wears tight pants and Puma shoes oh shit ew neck crooked too it makes it worse as the neck is like crooked oh shit

this is crazy oh we have a lot more next up which team is this oh that brother been burned alive bro what the fuck get that yam on your face that yam on your face man

he has a camel he has a camel skin package. It's so nasty. He looks like my pants in the goddamn closet. Okay. Oh my goodness. This is an NBA Mr.

potato head for sure. Oh, my God. Listen, it's, these pictures are ridiculous. I don't know why. They're easy, but it's ridiculous. This is the Phoenix Sun. Yeah, I just see Royce O'Neill.

I don't know why, but it just looks like Royce O'Neill. You dumb, you're overconfident motherfuckers. This is not the Phoenix Sun. Wow. No, not even close. First of all, first of all, I see the bea-beads on the beard. I know that's Kevin Durant. Yeah, that's Katie 100%.

That is Kevin Durant. That is Kevin Durant. Oh, I got this. I got this. It's the Prime Warriors. Yeah, I see Jem-on-on-Smirk. It's 2017 Warriors. I see that darkness.

You got Dray-Mont smirk, I get down his eyes, the top of Clay Thompson's head, and Steph Curry's white nose. Oh, my God. His nose looks huge. That's hilarious. His nose is so pink It looks like it Has a cold

He's outside of a chilly day That man He's had COVID forever He can't He doesn't have a sniff A whiff of nothing Bro Okay

You guys are getting Them easily Next up Which team is this It looked like He got his head slanted Between the door Oh my God

Yo I'm not Two symbols Boing Boom Listen, if you take off the bottom two pieces and just look eyes up, that's ditty. Wait. Oh, my God.

If you just look eyes up, that's ditty. That's insane, but I see what you're cooking. Oh, man. This is the Husa Rockets, right? The James Hardin with Husa Rock. Because I know that dome is CP3, eyes is hardened. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's this is the 2018 rocket CP3 on top PJ Tucker beard James Hardin right there in the middle The mouth is Clickapella on PJ Tucker It looks crazy The mouth looks insane, bro I was about to say I like that's That's Clickapella's mouth on PJ Tucker's lower face

Ew, bro And Trevor Rees's nose The sizing of the scaling Make it hilarious where I love it Okay, my professional graphic designer girlfriend made these They're amazing She was in her bag It's hilarious

Alright next up Which team is this Someone stomped on his ass This is a gremlin This is a crucial I live in the dirt Oh man This is so bad No this is those little things from Mario

Those little mushy looking things All right. Now, I see. Now, I feel like I know this. I feel like I have this answer. I know the beard from anywhere. Yes. Yeah, the beard is, it's quite iconic at this point.

The streets know who it is. Who is it? That's Trey Young. Oh, okay. I won't say iconic, but okay. I mean, not quite iconic. I mean, listen. If you're into making jokes, it's iconic.

Oh, yeah, this year's Atlanta Hawks Because this is Dyson Daniels hair I don't know who's forehanded is Maybe as Dyson Daniels That might be Clint or a Kongu His eyes This is this year's rap The Hawks

This is this year's Hawks Who smiles that That's Dyson Daniel's hair Has Zachard Ruechase smile You don't know your number one pick And Jalen Johnson's for it Whose ears Tray probably Dyson I think

I think that's with the hair Oh no no that's No that's true Yeah looks like that's right That's right Who's to say I can't tell Okay

Next one Which team is this This looks like a normal player This is like a regular dude I've seen this dude before Listen, the same way, the same way that you know that man's beard from anywhere, I know this big-headed ball player from anywhere. This is my guy. This is Jalen Brunson and this is the New York Knicks.

Wait, but okay, can you tell each feature, though, taking a step further? Okay, so it's Brunson's head. It's Josh Hart's, like, lower body, but it's McHale Bridges' like smile, whatever. and then you have OG's eyes and then the bottom of the nose I think is cat maybe it's cat's nose

OG's eyes Jaylon Brunsons his forehead the bottom half is Josh Art and the mouth is Mikhail No this actually looks like a real player He looks like some random G league player I swear to God I can find you a G-League player like that No

Yo Loki Listen I'm not gonna say this show Have you all ever seen sex lives of college girls That show on HBO? No I had no I didn't I wish there's an actor on here there's an actor who's like a love interest a black dude on the show

that it kind of looks like you remember his name fuck god I don't know that he's name okay no this is this is okay you got it I got it okay I got it I got it kind of looks like Josh Christopher you guys remember him I'm gonna send a team

oh my god this is not like Josh Christopher but this is the most regular person looking one ever yeah looks like we're leading okay this is hilarious next one which team is this Oh, that's Perk.

That's a big perk right there. Wait, what part is Perk? The eyes? No, but I actually, wait, I actually might be right. This actually might be Perk. You were just talking, but you're actually right? Yeah, because I saw the beard across. But that, the head, that's Sergei Baca.

Yes. The beard, that's Kevin Durant. Then it's Russell Westbrook down here. It's, oh, no, it's Kevin Durant from the nose. It's Kendraking on the eyes. It's Russell Worsbrook on the, like, chin down and then James Hardin's beard. Yep. The 2012.

Okay. It's the baby thunder. Okay. Got it. The eyes and the fucking strap of beard is crazy. The eyes is insane, bro. Like, it's kind of confusing me. I'm like, hey.

What are you doing here? What are you looking? You're looking at me or mom? Yeah. Like, what's up? No, hey, hey, hey, don't, don't get you said. Oh, forgot. Donovan said that

Because when Donovan was a kid He had a lazy I had to get surgery I had to get surgery In the second grade Had to go to school Was that badge To the point you had to get surgery?

Yes I have like a brown spot Underneath my eye Where they had to like Do the thing I don't know how they did it I was in second grade But I stand

I stand with all of my lazy eye brothers and sisters because I know the issue so we're not going to go too deep on perk this beard looks like he put some glue on his face and rubbed his face and some shavings just came right with this is yeah this this is what happens when like when you're shaving your beard and you go like piece by piece to see different hairstyles that's what this is like so you had a sleepover played a practical joke on him to shave his beard oh my god right next one which team is this. Oh, this is a normal dude. I swear to God, bro. Donovan does look like somebody we know in our heard chats. Oh. That's insane. I haven't met many guys look the way.

No, you can't do that. You can't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's insane. I haven't met many guys look just like this. Don't do it. What's his name? What's the first? letter of his name start with. Nah. Damn. Nah, you can't do that. Ah. I hope that boy don't get bald, man.

I hope he don't get bald anytime soon. Shit. Oh, my goodness. Okay. This is a lot of girth in this picture. That's one thing I'll say. There's a thick ass face. Oh, my.

I don't know why. When I see this picture, I just think of like a Big Mac. It's like clumps of this stuff. Paddies on patties on patties. Different shades of stuff. Three pieces of bread. Yeah, and like two pieces of meat. Like, yeah, that's what I feel right now.

Okay. I see Kobe Ryan's head, I think. Damn, you know, you know head. I think that's the top of this head. And at the bottom, that's like, Shaq. Maybe the smiles of Derek Fisher. And then is the eyes like Rick Fogg. Yeah, it's Rick Fox's eyes.

This is a 2001 Lakers. I'm in my bag. Oh, my God. And that's the last one. He's saying no regular bag either. Let's do it. This is hilarious. Oh, you guys killed that.

That was fucking hilarious. What was the ugliest one? That one. The first one. The Lakers one is the pure shock. The hair behind it makes it so much worse to. Looks like a troll. Yeah, no, bro.

All right. Oh, no, no, no, no. The Celtics one was the worst. The Celtics is just. Noticing. Alternating light and dark is hilarious. Yeah. I know.

All right. Next thing we're going to do. We're going to stay on the topic in Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to do a tier list. Try to, try to rechannel the serious energy and talk about real basketball. Okay. What we're going to do is we're going to put the last 10 starting point guards for the Los Angeles Lakers into a tier list. Okay.

So it's over the last 12 years or so because a couple guys started for two years. But the last 10 players have started at a position. This is a hysterical list, by the way. Y'all have ass point guards. We're going to start from Kurt this year and go backwards with the last 10 of them. Yeah, man. Let's start off. We got 2024 DeAngelo Russell.

F. I mean don't even start anymore. It's a tragically. fair you did get a chain snaps he did get a chain snaps by cam motherfucking reddish that's a bad look yeah no no no no it wasn't by cam reddish it wasn't by cam reddish it wasn't by cam reddish was handed his chain j j j reddick snatched it j july was like you never ever will start for me again that that's what happened we have to put him in f because he is no longer actually is he no is he worse than the obvious f yeah no listen he average 18 points for game he had a good

regular season and shooting meant something last year get a bad playoffs but he's a decent enough player he has to be d at least i'll go i'll i'll do d but if you get bench and you're not starting no more and this is about starting there's there's a clear f and i just think that there okay there's a clear f okay yeah honestly he loki might be c he's he's talented enough this list is going to get heinous pretty soon okay he's movable we'll we'll flex on him what's next up yeah we'll keep keep our mind of next up we have russell westbrook from 2022 and 2023 i've never ever in my life never seen a basketball player play at home, have a wide open three, and the crowd says,

no. I've never seen a crowd do that. The level of hate that Lakers fans have for Russell Westbrook and the level of production that Russell had where he was there or the lack thereof has to put a minute. I was begging like, maybe he can set screens, maybe my $40 million point guard can grab rebounds. I don't know. We were trying to find any way for the fit to make sense. fucking f i don't even care

he's probably better than some people that are going to be an f he has to be f it's the worst fit of all time yeah maybe you just said screens yeah you guys were cooked they were already one of the worst shooting teams of the league as is

and you bring in like probably the worst starting shooting point guard that the league has to offer i don't think you understand acquiring him slammed shut the greatest players of all times championship window he deserves worse than eff for being on this list

is insane. Wow. It's not you, Russ. It's not about you. It's about like the predicaments that you're putting. Rob Polinka. Yeah. I can't believe they acquired.

Well, they had they had Russ and Darvinham at the same time. That's a war that Lakers fan fought. Who. Okay, let's go back one more year. 201, Dennis Schroeder. Oh, he was great. He was solid. He was great.

We didn't know how good we had it. Yeah. He was good. He was fantastic. He's a beat here probably. was a demon defensively, of course, you're super comfortable with the ball in his hands can facilitate a bit. He's not the best facilitator, but he can get the job done. His shooting was okay too. Great, bro. Y'all missing. Yeah. He loki might be A for the standards of this

list. Honestly, let's do it. Let's put Dennis Schroeder and A. Let's go ahead. Man, I wanted to keep him over Russ so bad, but it wasn't possible with the cap sheet. Lakers fan did not know how good they had it with Dennis, man. They chose the wrong player. Tragic. 2020 LeBron James S The one time we had a great point guard In my lifetime as a Lakers fan Has been LeBron James

So that one year he played point guard He just has to do everything Yeah crazy That year specifically with LeBron is so historic There's only two players in NBA history Who were able to average 17, 20 points or whatever But average double digit assists while winning NBA championship It's Magic Johnson and LeBron

That's it Generation Damn Yeah that's honest It's a very underrated version LeBron too Because defensively he was locking the fuck in Yokies didn't do that

10 assists no No I think yeah Yokic is just now starting to average over 10 He was around like 9 for a long time Yeah I see

All right Hey shout out bro Fall COVID Got a rain He was playing point guard He had the best defensive year Of the last half of his career He was scoring well

In the finals MVP like This one of the better versions Lebron that gets overlooked I think I just don't like I expect 2018 2019 Lanzo ball It was special

The second or third year Lonzo Ball First and second The first two years The Lonzo's career Maybe see Listen man That week when he became the youngest player

To ever get a triple double I shed a tear Then he dropped like 27 On the Phoenix Suns or something like that he did in the second game of his career and that week when him and lebron had back-to-back triple doubles and back-to-back games i thought i was seeing the present and the future combined in a fucking montage in the future and then it didn't go very far and then he got traded and then his ankle fell off

yeah that was tough yeah he was playing in them awful football baller bbbb shoes he hit a high ankle sprained and missed like nine months it was crazy he had the worst ankle spray i've ever seen because he was playing in cardboard he had no he needed a doctor's shoulders. He had no support. It was crazy. I got an order a priority ZOT's and test them out myself. Next thing you know, they're probably still on back order. On God, I can buy a pair on eBay.

Now, trading him did get us Anthony Davis and did partially win a championship, so he has to get some points for that. I'm thinking see. Points for just being existent. That's hilarious. I go see. He helped acquire the guy by the virtue of existing. Hey, mental gymnastics, but we're really. Well, but okay. All right.

What do we go with the first day of DeAndsler Russell in 2016 and 2017? Also, listen, this guy created bad team chemistry. So just for that alone, probably has to be D. Donovan says snitches get stitches, D tier. Yeah. It's only right. We can't respect that. I mean, it's not.

But isn't 2024 D-Lo better than 2016, 27? he was a you are snitching on your man's i can't that was it that was your man's i can't i can't i mean he's telling the truth you know what i'm saying he's cleaning up the dirt in this world he did what he had to do i understand that y'all don't ride for woman enough for me he's not fed put him in a okay 2015 jeremy lynn who this man was hated by kobe bryant uh This year is such a blur, bro. Is this another, like, D or C year? He is one of the point guards in Los Angeles Lakers history.

I'll say that. He had a year. Put him at a seat there. Yeah, it was 11.2 points, 4.6 assist, shot 36.7% from 3. Listen, 2015? That's true. Put him to see. Yeah, sir.

Just a dude. Sure, C tier. For a very forgettable season of Lakers basketball, it was horrible. I think this is the year where Julius Rampers. Kendall Torres, bro, broke his knee on the first leg. I mean, the first game of the year. Yeah. Wait, 2014.

Terrible. Who, is that Kendall Marshall? Next up, we got 2014 Kendall Marshall. What? Oh, what a name. North Carolina legend. Kendall Marshall averaged 8.8 assists this year for the tanking Lakers. He got them, Julius Randall.

He led the fucking tank commander like nobody else has. Put him in B tier. Put him in F. Get out of here. Put him in B tier. Hell dog. Put him in F. Forgetting them Julius Randall.

Thank God. They let Julius Randall watch for nothing in free agency. It's okay. That's okay. It gave him hope. Ew. Put that man in that, bro. This is probably the single worst year

of Los Angeles Lakers basketball history. And Kendall Marshall represents that. But he also represents a singular kind of a little bit bright spot for a fun point guard that had one random ass year. And he's like the perfect, remember Kendall Marshall? Remember when he averaged eight and six? Kindle Marshall was a problem Hey somebody needs to be here

Kendall Marshall edit I want to see that real bad I think a Kendall Marshall and then I'm like I remember like Xavier Henry and I think Kent Bazmore was a part of those days too

Kent Bazesmore These are names When Kendall Marshall Camp Bazesmore and Jordan Hill ran through You know it was a problem You didn't want to see that big three Was Ryan Kelly there too

And neither Holy fuck man You don't want to see that big four And neither did Neither did Lakers fans Bobby Meeks Was that a two Boby Meeks

F Deer Fake Kobe After God bro Listen y'all can tell me Jody Meeks wasn't going to be nice I saw I saw one There was one Saturday afternoon

Where I saw Jody Meeks play At Kentucky And he had like a good game I was like Wow so like this guy's just going to be him Like for the rest of his career You just couldn't tell me that Jody Meeks wasn't going to be a star

I thought Bobi Mix was going to be special But he's just boby We got Steve Nash In 2013 Didn't even hurt, bro Didn't even play. Put him in FTA. Yeah.

The most disappointing acquisition of Lakers history. We thought we had a super team. Facts. Man, next thing you know, the hash slinging slasher came by, took out Steve Nash.

I think Dwight Howard heard his back and then Kobe like heard himself carrying this entire team towards the end of the season. I broke my back. Spying it. Triple homicide. Yeah.

Damn. And last but not least, we cut the last year of Derek Fisher with the Lakers in 2012. We can just put this. average a whopping five points and two assists. We can just put this B tier for vibes and respect because they really weren't doing anything in 2012.

Nah, maybe it should be D or F just to represent how poor the Lakers point guards have been in general. This is insane to me. But understand, understand. Yeah, we do have to go kind of a little because understand the next year, Derek Fisher was in Oklahoma City. Think about what you remember about Oklahoma City, Derek Fisher, and then just move back six months.

Not pretty. Not a pretty sight. It's not great. This is the last 10 point guards we've had in Lakers history. There's been one well above average one. And that's the one year LeBron James counted as a point guard. Fine. Look at this goddamn list. I think, you all might have like the worst list of point guards over the last 10 years.

One of the three, four worst in general, bare minimum. Is it worse than like the Pistons? The Pistons had Reggie Daxon. Reggie Jackson was, he was in the same tier as Dennis Schroeder. Ridge Smith has some years He was bro Ish Smith he's been on like 13 14 teams Fastest playing the league at one point

Yeah he's been on 13 14 teams for a reason Don't play about ish Half the league Yeah Monster Yeah Anyway that's a tear list What a terrible

League ass tier list Damn That's sad The next thing we're gonna do All right let's not my basketball again Let's do another Five level comparison Something we've been doing here

The last couple months today we're going to do it over Anthony Edwards so it's real simple I'm basically going to name two players one of which is Anthony Edwards and one of which is another star you're going to tell me which one's better and we're going to see if Anthony Edwards

can make it through all five levels and be crowned the winner this week okay okay let's do it it's time to glaze aunt something I know Mo's real good at whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa I'm great not good I'm an expert

okay level one is Anthony Edwards better than scotty barnes easily yeah without a doubt i don't think there's a world where aunt can be worse than scotty barns and that's not a side of less like to scotty barns it just speaks on aunt's ceiling yeah yeah again we start off easy set a baseline obviously aunt wins round two is he better than jimmy butler this year i actually think it would be harder for well i guess if you're going off of this year whatever but this this easy yeah this is also He fell off

He fell off a little bit this year Easily better than Jimmy Butler They don't respect you Jimmy Buckets They don't respect emo Jimmy these days If you would have flipped him I honestly think it would be a harder argument To say that Ant is better than Scotty

Rather than Ant is better than Jimmy right now Hmm So you're saying Scott Barnes better than Jimmy Baller right now Yes Yeah Okay you said the most confusing way possible I know I know I see what you mean

Okay another Another easy victory for Anthony Edwards words this isn't 2020 anymore round three is he better than kairi irving harder conversation but he's still better than kairi irving with confidence in in five on five basketball yes now if they're playing one-on-one one that's tough that's tough i recooks him i don't know i don't know i don't know about that i don't know about that but five on five on five when there's other people involved who would i want on my team to build my team around i just need them for one playoff series all that stuff, I'm taking Anthony Edwards.

Dude, one-on-one is even tough, actually, too, because Ant plays, he can play all NBA level defense. He can't guard him, though. He can't guard him. I don't know. That's let us turn in the verticality. You can't guard me. That's on five.

It's five-on-five. That's one on one I need to see, though. It's an, though. Yeah, Anne's obviously better. Ant can be the first option on your team, even though Kyrie's probably one of the better second options in the league. We know Ant's kind of transcended past this. Round four.

Now I think he's it interesting. Is he better than Devin Booker? I stamp this season without a doubt he is without a doubt because D-Book's been wildly inconsistent bro he hasn't been the same thing in the summer he's better yeah I mean listen it's it's a debate still it's not a blowout but if A is going to shoot 42% from 3 on high volume and be an amazing shooter while still having a slashing ability

while still being able to defend while still improving year by year as a passer it's hard to say Booker right now yeah if Devin Berger's going to sit down on average like 22 points per game and not like beasts have star studded efficiency then it's like all right bro you're great shooting you're one of the best but you're just not better than man hands just not yeah devon booker i respect you i respect my latino king we're going with anthony edwards latino king next up level five is anthony edwards better than jason tatum i think this is where it has failed if it was me last year i'd be roaring yes he's better than jason

Tatum, but I've been going to rehab. You're wrong last year and you're wrong this year. Jason Tatum's better. I've been going to therapy and my Jason Tatum hate is now gone. I am reformed. You worked through your issues out loud with a professional and now you're here? Yes, exactly. You cleansed your heart with Jason Tatum hate. I love it. Yeah, you were bugging last year. You're bugging now. Anthony Edwards is better. I understand the hype last year was at a multiple level. Exactly. You're right.

He got close. Anthony Edwards got close. But Jason Tatum is clearly better. Yeah, he's in the seat himself. Oh, did I say it backwards? No, you didn't. You said it perfectly. Ah, fuck. Yeah.

Jason Tatum is better, was better last year. Aunt had the hype around him, and now Jason Tatum was disappointing people. He's clearly the better two-way player. Yeah. I mean, just look at the, of course, like, you can say that their scoring is similar. Jason Stam is the much better rebounder, defense similar level. But the facilitating and the maturity in Tatum's game now? Defense is not similar level, though.

Jason Tam is a better defender for sure. Well, he can, he's more scalable. Sure, he's more scalable. But rebound facilitating, I love that. I love that. Yeah. Nerd. Especially with Jason Tating, the way he's been playing.

He's been playing the best basketball career, so it's clear today. Yeah, I agree. Sorry. He's for scalable. Shut up. He can't guard centers, man. I can't see him do that. Okay, man.

Let's get back to something fun. Mo, I believe you have some NBA celebrations to talk to us about. Yes, dude. We did this, I believe, just twice. over the last year one whole like 11 12 months ago and another one like six months ago and whatnot and there's even more NBA celebrations that we haven't gone to yet so today I want you to go ahead and rate these NBA celebrations from a scale of one to 10 I believe I have okay just based on how cool they are bro how funny they are yeah how good they are

yeah how good they are or how bad they are whatever it is right yeah just rate the swagger level of these celebrations yeah yeah exactly all right so first one we got my Michael Jordan's classic shrug. Everyone does this. I mean, hard not to give it a 10. It's pretty iconic. Yeah, you see people do this at all point. Somebody can hit one shot and then they'll be like, I guess I got it.

What am I going to do? Exactly. This is so cocky. It's so simple. It's so arrogant. It's so effortless. I'm getting it in 10. Yeah.

I love arrogance when the, when the, I love arrogance when the perpetrator is cool and Michael Jordan is a hundred percent cool enough to get the way with this iconic yeah I agree it's annoying as hell if you're on the other end about it but it's like what I'm supposed to do not shoot yeah we've seen Steph do it we've seen Anthony Edwards do it so many NBA players do it's scalable bro I agree it's scalable I sort of the pod I got him all right next up we got LeBron James shoulder shrug wait room shrug let me see this big body Like, I mean, get off of me, a little boy. Look at that.

Who is that? Who is that? Uh, not on Yuta. Not on you to. Guess what? Doesn't matter. Hmm. Now, that's tough.

Is this, okay, so I, this might be a 10 as well. The real question is, is it better than Michael Jordan Shrug? That's the real one. To me, personally, because I think it is because it's showing you, like, yeah, I'm, I'm an actual force. I'm imposing my will onto you. You as a man can't fuck with me. I like that more.

You got the arrogance of the, I don't know. know or the just power of like fuck off me like bro like one of the best videos ever created known to mankind was when back in 2021 trey young faced the Atlanta hawks and some bum on the on the on the nix bumped into him and tre was like and he just shoulder flexed on him and it was like yeah i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not going to lie that may have just lost you the argument hell no you know exactly a little video i'm talking about too because here's the thing you can't have skinny dudes being like kD does it too what again he's skinny he can't be doing that but again the shrug it's more scalable it works for everybody you can be big small short tall

whatever and this still works i can't have you be skinny and doing like that you don't have anything to do that way i'll say michael jordan's is a little bit cooler just because i love the arrogance yeah but lebron's close they're both tens yeah i agree it's a 10s yeah i agree it's a 10 bronze is more dominant mj's just looking silly to me yeah if you're six foot eight fucking fucking 255 pounds then you could get away with doing this anybody can try i can't be out here in the fucking gym hitting a open layup and being it's not gonna work off me just hmm people don't fucking laugh at me that's hilarious bro just doing it if i happen to hit a tweet i i can shrug a little bit uh bro just imagine like my your mom just asking you open a pickle jar you're

Hmm. Just a fucking dweeb. That's what you have to do. You have to do it around the house. You're right. I do feel stupid doing it around the house. Damn, what's going on? All right.

Next up, we got Jason Tatum's three-point celebration. He's kissing the sky. Blowing a kiss to the crowd. Here's the thing. It's good. How much does your Jason Tatum hate hold it back for you, Donovan? It holds it back a lot

It holds it back a lot It's just not cool when he does it I don't know what it is It's okay It's not a 10 out of 10 I'll tell you that I'll tell you that Because he's not

He's not disrespectful with it Like it's just a very quick like It's like Steph Curry Like tapping his chest And pointing it up to God It's just a respectful thing Of like oh yeah it happened I need you do

MWWW You know what I'm You know like I do it again do it again do it what i like you like you took them moist off your lips with that way that's what i'm saying i'm in a splash zone ah i need you to be disrespectful with it and he's just not so it's it's a seven out of ten for me okay so it's a seven out of ten because he doesn't do it with enough aggression for you yes like that's fair you need it you like aggressive kissers is what you're telling me

that is what he's telling you why you like this you it came out of your mouth what No one's framing you Let's get dinner Live your truth Yeah, exactly It's fair, bro It's 2024 Why now?

No, okay 7 out 10 All right Next up This is new Janice's Bain celebration I will say

This is not Yannes's celebration This is some sweetest bat football players But he brought this out in the NBA And oh my god bro I almost lost my mind

When I saw this shit It's a pretty It's pretty tough His arms are so long Yeah Is it Look how big his fucking Dude, his face is gone.

It's crazy. This is a good fit for him to do. I'll give this a eight. Okay. I would damn me give this a nine, bro. You think this is corny, Donovan? Donovan. Get this dad moment off my screen.

What? I think it's a better, it's a cool picture, but seeing him do it is the same as like LeBroning him. It's a cool picture, but then you start to think about it and you're like, Oh, this is wet. Have you seen the soccer players do it? I think it's kind of just cool all around. I don't know.

Nah, I'm not. You see, the problem was you, you, you nearly adopt it the dark. You weren't born in it. Yeah, raised by it. Yeah. Molded by it. Go ahead. See, Janus didn't know the light until he was already a man.

Yeah, exactly. You don't understand. And by then it was blinding. He was cut from that cloth. You and him don't breathe the same. His blood's different. You just don't get it. Exactly.

Hey, you want to hop off? It's not what I like. What's trying to do? I'll give it a good day. I like that. What's the next one? All right. Next up, we got James Harden nosebleed celebration.

This is distorted naturally through the video, but you see the celebration after he dunks. He used to do this back in 2017, 2018. Just be like, oh, my nose is bleeding. And it was an actual celebration. So lame. That's kind of tough. I just saw it. his team is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's like, psych. The announcers always, no matter what, they always got tricked by this. They always like, you, it's, first of all, it was very clear. James Hardin was not touching the rig. But then they were always like, oh my God, I think James just hit himself on the basket. Like, no, he didn't relax. Not the $40 million man. Yeah.

But I don't know. It's not bad. It's like when Justin Jefferson scores and, like, thinks he, like, pulled his hamstring. and then goes into the gritty, it's like, eh. I don't like this at all. I don't like it. I love a good prank. I love a good bit.

Seven? Nah. I wish you could do this again. But he don't be dunking anymore. This has no longevity. I'm going to give this a three. It's not iconic. Yeah, I've never seen another NBA player do this.

The closest thing to it's when we saw Jalen Brunson like hold his nose and do that celebration. Because these guys aren't funny. These guys don't respect a good bit. James Hardin gets it. I agree. These new age basketball players, man, they don't get. get it. Next up, we got Katie's telling, next up we got Katie's, you're too small. But this time

with his pinky, his fingers. This is pretty, again, this is pretty versatile. Yeah. Too small has been done for decades. I feel like Katie does a little bit different. He teaches you like you're a crush cup. Yeah. Russ, he would tell you're small like you're a literal child, but Katie is like, you're pee-wee. And I like it. He's, and he's international with it because he's not saying too small. He says, petite. That's nice. You know what I'm saying? Also, KD, he's seven feet tall. He has big hands, big fingers. It's the dichotomy of like that with the too small.

I like that. Getting crushed. He like stared him down and then, peteet, peteer. Yeah, that's cool. I'm going nine out of ten. I like that. Yeah. This is the honestly, this is one of the coolest I've seen KDB.

Yeah. I'll give him a knife. If someone did this to me while I was actually playing basketball in person, I would be ready to fight for show. Just not even saying. Come on, man. He looked at you. looked you up and down for a couple of seconds and then I was like yeah a little little guy this is the 10 for so took his time to get his analysis ready and then

it was like yeah petit too also saying that to mfoyne was fired too oh yeah that's true discipline somebody in their native language I was on dual lingo right before this just just for you next up we got devon bookers just simple Three arcs This celebration every single time It's peak Devon Booker Where it's just simple And it just gets the job done

And it's just fundamental Exactly Back I'm going three Out of 10 this is just like I did it back in the summer Respectful taunt It's the same as the ref being like Feel well good

Yeah He's not even trying to disrespectful He's just like yep Back in he's just telling the score heber That's just to the point In the summer in the summer during like team USA basketball camp or whatever a reporter came to him and was talking about him

or was talking about overall team celebrations and shit and I think Anthony Davis pointed out like or LeBron pointed out DeBook just simply does this and Devin Bucker was so in denial of it it was hilarious he was like I don't do this I don't do this I don't do this and all sons fans came up with screeches of the million pieces of him doing these and so it has to be like a one if he don't even claim it himself

fair enough he doesn't like it if he doesn't claim it if he's in denial we can give it a 1 at 10 Okay Who next up we got Steph Curry's No Look 3 Talk about disrespectful This is the ultimate disrespect This is 15 out of 10

This is 15 out of 10 Potentially Potentially one of the best celebrations We'll see ever in any sport Not everyone can do this bro Not everyone can do this Because it's it's gone Almost nobody can do this

You have to have a breathtaking amount of arrogance to do this I see Jai didn't do this last year No is not the gentleman going to make the shot yeah he did do it for him I bet he doesn't try it every game do it again and again

have the confidence you that every night and again yeah we can't have we and then 400 more times yeah we can have a five minute compilation of Steph Curry doing this bro it's the ultimate disrespect what makes even more disrespectful

is like okay looking at looking away is one thing but staring at me while you look away and I have to stare your shot go into fuck the fist where the guns it's never been a better clip farm

than Steph Curry he puts all the phase to shame he is the go at this and this is why yeah that's that's so crazy from half court from half court he's turned around this celebration it's not even a celebration at this point it's literally a 2k animation it is too like it has and you know what it's it's he knew house of highlights to post this the next day he knows exactly what he's doing and it's great yeah he does it he does it for all the video editors out there he does it for house of highlights he does it for all father and Jordan that's hilarious that's the last one next thing we're going to do you know last week we did a 2K related thing where I had you guys guess the NBA player's

2K rating based on what it was last year and try to like you know see how they improved or got worse this year we're going to do 2K ratings again but what we're going to do is you're going to guess which NBA player had a better 2K rating old or new so it's supposed to be a past player from a past 2K versus this year's version of a new player okay okay this is interesting last time we're in our back Let's see if we can replicate it. I don't know if you're in your bag this time. All right.

Okay. First one, 2K15 John Wall or this year's Trey Young? 2K15 John. Actually, no, no, no, no. I can't even say that because John Wall really got popping around 2016, 2017. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to say this year's Trey Young.

This year's, Trey Young is like 89 or something like that. He's been consistent. Yeah, I'm going to say they had John Wall at an 88 in 2K in that 2K, in that 2K. I don't know. Maybe they've given it. right. Trey Young is one better John Wall was 87. Trey Young is currently 88 after the last update. Damn.

Chase in 88. What's happening? One point better. PR is trash. You guys were right in spirit. I guess. I understand it. Okay. The efficiency super trash. Yeah. 2K8 Kevin Garnett or Luca Donchich.

So 2K what Kevin Durant? 2K18 Kevin Durant or go right now. No 2K8. No, you guys. didn't hear me at all. 2K8, Kevin Garnett. Kevin Garnett was the screen. He was the grand main dude of that.

He was the man. He was the man. Yeah, he was the man. That's tough. I will say, though, I think I'm still going to go Luca because even though that KG was like the poster board for that game, it feels like games were a little bit more like specific, or not specific, but like, they didn't give out high ratings as much. And I feel like Luca could be at the top of this.

Back in all the old 2Ks, they would only give like three or four players like 90s overall, 90 overall, bro. It was only for a couple years they were that stingy with it, though. I think I'm going to leave a Lucas. It's very selective. I'm going to Luca. Kevin Garnet is one higher. He was in 97 and 2K8 and Lucas currently in 96. Ooh, okay.

Shout out KG. 2K new ball. OK, G, mandama. Championship year. Okay. That's great. That's true. That's true.

That's true. That's true. You should remember that. Okay. 2K11 Derek Rose or this year's Tyler Hero 2K11 D Rose That's MVP or D Rose It is

Tyler here has been hooping but it's It should be D Rose bro, that's It has to be Derek Rose. Yeah Yeah that was fairly easy right Okay I was about to be so upset if Tyler Hero Except it's not It's Tyler Hero

Tyler is in 86 and Derek Rose was in 85 In 2K11 I fell for the bait and I knew it Ronnie 12 he was 92 they bumped him after the MVP but I guess they weren't doing he was 85 he only got to a 92 after winning an MVP that's hey man they were stingy Stingy Tyler Hero 86 though over Derek Rose all right that's nuts but okay okay okay 2K okay okay 2K 3 TMAC or Jason Tatum

2k 3 I'm going I'm going 2K 3 TMAC I think I think I think Timak at that time was winning scoring titles. It was him. It was Kobe. Now, he wasn't going deep in the playoffs, but I think the respect that people have for TMAC, it might be a little back. Jason Tatum has a championship war as still, though.

He won't, he's not Timet. I'm Maline TMAC. I have no idea why either. The Jason Tatum, hey, he's just squeezing through a little more for you. Maybe. Well, are we right? They're tied. They are both 96 overall. Oh, okay.

So I was right. Now it makes sense. You weren't right, but I guess you weren't wrong, but you weren't right. Exactly. Okay. 2K18, Dwayne Wade or this year's Jalen Green? 2K18, Dwayne Wade. Excuse me.

Is that Cleveland Cavaliers, Dwayne Wade? The Chicago Bulls, Dwayne Wade. Ooh, Lord, let's not act like that ever happened. Delete that mind. Now, but they made the playoffs that year. Like they were him and Jimmy Butler and Rondo. Got him to basically 500. I'm gonna lean D. Wade.

I'm gonna lean D. Wade even at his world at lost age. Go on Jalen Green. Jalen Green is two overalls higher than Dwayd. D. Wade, it was an 82 at that point. Jalen Green's 94. I forget Jalen Greene got that boost because his last season performance probably. Man, that man has aura points.

That man is there because he's sexy. That's why they gave him that overall. That's the only reason that makes sense. They gave him overall because he's curls. He has curls. It does not make sense. That's good. All right.

Okay. So next one, 2K-14 Camelo-Anthony or Jalen Brunson. Ooh. I think it's 2K-14-C-Money-Anthony was a 90-some overall. Nix versus Nix. Yeah. Are we going to Jaila Brunson here? Again, I think I'm just, I think I'm okay siding with the newer 2K rating,

just because I think that they're quicker to boost somebody up. I will go. I think Jaylen Brunce is coming off of fresh success too I don't remember what Mello was doing off of that year off that calendar year well okay so 2013 was like the best Knicks wait it was 2013 2014 that was like the best Knicks run

that they had I'm leaning Jalen Brunson because they had an even better run I go Brunson by one Jalen Brunson is one overall higher he is a 92 on Carmelo was in 91 2K14 is when they were being real stingy overall so this is the one year

that had everybody down real low okay they didn't get back down like a 94 that's inside LeBrona 94's hilarious man yeah okay 2K 13 Russell Westbrook or Anthony Edwards this year 2013

Russ demon bro I'm I'm okay so I don't think back then too but he can't shoot like aunt can shoot now

so I think I would go because you're coming off of the playoff run He started the season hot. He's shooting all these threes. I'm thinking about the attributes, too. Wes, he was rebounding, but he wasn't rebounding like that. But he has a good defensive. I'll go in.

I'm going in. Anthony Edwards is one overall higher at 94. That was a great. We dissected that shit. Attribute. We're really in it. It's a science, really. We don't even play the game.

Exactly. Okay. Next one. 2K13. Dwight Howard or Anthony Davis? 2K13. Was Dwight a Laker at this point in time or no? He was.

First year, Lakers. Only year. The hype must have been insane. Wow. Wow. Okay, so this is very tough because Anthony Davis is playing the best basketball of his career. So I don't know, like, is Anthony Davis like a 94, 95?

Are we going to say that Dwight Howard in 2013 was, was a 96? I think that's a little bit too high. But we've been going with- I'm leaning towards Dwight. The expectations were insane back then for the Lakers coming into the first year. I'll follow you. I'll go Dwight.

Anthony Davis is in 96. Dwight Howard was a 95, one lower. Okay, okay. He was actually above Kobe. Kobe was in 94. That's... I should never listen to. The Dwight hype was crazy.

He was supposed to come in and dominate for L.A. He was supposed to be Shaq v. too. He wasn't built for the lights. Exactly. Tragic He's not like that He wasn't like that It was too much

Okay last one We got 2K17 Kimball Walker Or James Harden Day Um 2K 17 Kemba Walker

Was good bro I was like Damn your peak Kimba Walker Yeah that's what That's when Kimber Walker They were talking about him You know

Getting a max contract He was He was gonna be the face Of the Hornets again Do that we're gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna be Kimba Yeah I'm gonna lean Kemba

Kimba too James Harden is insanely inefficient right now He's seen like 38% from the field and like 32% from three. Current day, James Hardin is an 84 overall. Kimmel Walker was in 85, one overall higher. Yeah, that makes sense. That checks out. That doesn't surprise you in the slightest.

I was joking around earlier talking about how 2017 and 2018 or 2018, 2019, Lonzo was special. 2017, Kimber Walker, special. That could bring tears to a grown man's face. 13-Mall NBA. He was there. I don't understand. 41 wins for the Hornets. Understand taking the Hornets to 41 wins.

That means something in this game. That's damn near an NBA championship, bro. Exactly. It's basically a Hall of Her and career one year. They got to the playoffs without a play in Charlotte. Understand what he was doing. And that's the end of the segment. That is also the end of this episode.

Mo, people are still here. What should they comment? Scalability. Big on that. scalability there you go and we'll see y'all next week let's go mustard