The Deep 3 Podcast - We Graded Every New NBA Starting Lineup | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Grading NBA lineups after free agency! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW   Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794   Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree   Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/   Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

NBA Free Agency has been in full swing for about a week. We have lots of new teams that have changed their construction. We are going to grade some of the newest NBA starting lineups. Some of these might change by the time you're seeing this. The Lakers might sign Kaminga by the time you're seeing this and he'll be starting TBD. But as of today, these are what we think the starting lineups will be. We have to grade them.

Okay. So first up. Kaminga. 76ers. Maxie, VJ, Jalen Brown, Dean Wade, Joelle, Imbe. Why is a Dem Bona not playing center? What the fuck are you talking about? A dim bone is going to play more games this year than Joel and B.

Probably. Probably. What would be great the starting lineup win their whole? When they're whole, I think I'll give it a B minus. That's fair. You're more talented now, getting Jalen Brown and Repul George in a vacuum is good. Very few defenders, very few passers in this lineup. I'm going a minus.

It's a lot of buckets here. It's going to be very, very hard to, it's going to be very hard to stop. And I do think that every, obviously you would like your starting five to be this very like balance, well-rounded machine where everybody can can fit perfectly. But if you're opening a lineup, it's just like, we're going to come out here. We're going to put 40 on you in the first quarter. That could be very, very valuable. I don't think they're going to be that level of offense, though. Do you think there's going to be a top three offense in the league?

They might score 50 a night. Yeah. In the first quarter. Oh, you're trying to say, goddamn. He thinks they suck. Jesus, Christ. 50 points per game. I don't see a top three offense in the league.

the league. I don't think. I think I could see at best maybe a top seven offense in the league and that's mainly driven by like, you know, they have like tier one athletes. Yeah. Point guard shooting guard and small for it. It's ridiculous. It's incredibly hard to stop that that level of speed and really strength from Julian Brown. Yeah. I think if you need to edgecombe becomes a fantastic defender, this can mean a starting five. That's a lot to ask if you jedgecombe year two. I'll go B minus for now. Yeah. All right. Next. A plus business B minus fit. next one Boston Celtics

other side of the trade Payne Pritchard Derek White Paul George Jason Tatum Namias Keda Yo Derek White looks balder than ever man

That doesn't even look like Derek White for real Balder than bald Yeah We will go Still bald We'll go B

Too bald B minus here I would A I like this lineup Like at least from a basketball fit wise better than

what Philly has to offer Philly obviously has a win more town, so that trumps the conversation. But the fit, honestly, I could see an A. Yeah, I think it wasn't a great trade to give up two first-on picks. I mean, to get just Paul George and two first-on picks for J-Lam Brown. But I do think Paul George would feel like a glove. And if Jason Tatum is back to being Jason Tatum, if Derek White hopefully can make threes again this year and isn't just a lost cause as a shooter, this lineup really checks all the boxes.

Yeah, it's still good bump, man. Good bump. You're completely out on the team. No, not. You haven't been, you haven't been high on your team Since they made the trade What do you mean? You hear that his voice?

He mean me. You're doing it wrong right now. I can hear it. You just disrespecting him. What are you mean? You might need to apologize to him right now. I don't. I felt real pain in his voice.

I don't. It's my guys, man. I'm a Celtics fan too. Is Paul Georgia guy? Yes. Yes. Once you're on the team, you're one of my guys. Look me in the eyes.

Yes. Is Paul Georgia guy. Yes. Yes. Staying all the hell. Yeah. You're going to be knocking down in threes. He don't have that

He won't do that But he's going to go in there right now He's going to look like that Kendrick Perkin video a couple years ago He's dribbling in the driveway He's no separation at all I think this team is once again Just like the word last year

Gonna be a top defense and a top offense In the regular season at least Playoffs might come around And we'll see if the lack of elite shot creation That Jalen Brown vacates is a problem But regular season-wise This is going to be a top lineup in the league You know it would be like a terrific story

If Tainon came out and like Actually average like 31 32 a game, 11 and 6 or something like that. That'll be tough. It's happening. That'll be tough if one MVP. Hey, man. Off of the Jaylor Brown.

Hey, man. He would sales it. You do have to have a better year than Jane and Brown had last year. That is tough. He set the bar pretty fucking out. Give me 32 to him. It's a lot of points. Yeah.

There's a lot of opportunities. Yep. Yeah. They don't need it because you think Paul George playing 82 games? Fuck no. Damn. He's not doing it. Well, he would do it last year

Actually, no, no, he got hurt before. He can play 62. Yeah. Is he going to get suspended again? 62 games from Paul George? Yeah, yeah. I can play 62. No, he can't.

Why not? That's out. Is he going to get the other feds going to do a sweep again? He doesn't, even before this year, he wasn't playing 62 consistently. Yeah, he dealt with some injuries, but like, I don't know.

I'm going to say no. Safe Fed. Didn't he get hurt like game one, preseason game one? Last year? I forgot about that. Remember he hyper extended his needs? Oh,

shit, I remember, yeah. He did the splits. Damn. Yeah, I feel good about the starting five. We'll see what everything else is like. This is a good team. I get this a B-plus. Next one.

Los Angeles Lakers. As of today, Luca, Reeves, Grimes, Mamu, and Walker Kessler. Four and a half white men. This is Walker Save Me defense, bro. Holy shit. Yeah, we're going to go. Walker might save me.

You can't save you all this time. Big walk might save me. Big walk. Luke is here and he has the actual center that I believe in. So I think minimum. And I also are level shooting guard. Yeah. So I think minimum I have to go B minus.

But that's probably the ceiling. It's designed Kaminga. And by the time people are watching this, he's starting a power forward and a mom who's six man. Then how do you feel? They have the athlete there to run the four, grab rebounds. B? So I'm from B minus to B.

Yeah. Camiga moves you half a degree. Maybe. If we call it a move. So, yeah. I just don't think. think that this team has a lot of defense. I do think that they can get blown by at a lot of spots on this starting fire.

Yeah, I'm giving it a B. Solid B. There's just too much to see when it comes to Walker Custler and what he has to offer. I haven't seen it just yet. I have all the faith in the world of Walker Cessler. All the faith in the world in Luke and Reeves. Quing Grimes, what are you prepared to show me? How much point of attack defense can you do?

Can you bring back Knicks, Quinn Grimes? If that's the case, you can do that? and with commingo there, if we can get Camingo, grab with the rebounds, wearing in transition, I think he could be a very good starting five. That was a long time ago. It was. But, you know, he's been in different team context

since then they haven't really needed him to be that. Or maybe they have. Maybe I can have more faith in JJ Reddick to get that of him who's proven to be a good defensive coach. Wasn't he good in, like, the first quarter of last year? No, last year he was dog shit, and Sixers fans hated him. He wasn't making threes at all.

But he was pretty good in the beginning of the season before that when he was at the Mavericks before they blew it up and traded Luca. But Sixers fans hated him. him had a bad year. No. If Kaminga's here, I'll go B-plus. Okay.

With Mamu starting, his defense is pretty stinky. But I do think Mamu and Kessler offensively can be amazing. We'll see. So I think with Mamma, they can be the best offense in the league, but they're not defending anybody with Mama with the four. Yeah, we're going to be minus. Okay. Can you get him save me?

Oh. What a sentence. What do you got from you, Kaminga? Minnesota Timberwolves. Lamello ball, presumably Iowa at the two and at the three. You, I hate the five. starting and go bear at the five already we made this trade so that aunt doesn't have to play out of position now he's a wing stop and now he's a three this is this is tough now the issue with the

with the wolves has been that their depth has been deteriorating every single year and the starting lineup has mainly stayed intact i do think that this five is still an a i think that the starting five is still good. Now, ask me about 6 through 10. We don't... We might have to create new letter grades. Yeah, we don't know about that. But this five and these players are... They're going to fit well offensively.

Rudy, you know, is going to hold everything down. We might get another leap from Jada McDaniels. This is going to be a good team. It's not be one of the best starting fives in the league. Like, the complimentary nature of Lamello's passing, and then Jaden and Gober's defense is crazy. Like, they check every box you'd want. Besides, like, maybe one more rebounder.

Yeah, I just wish that Ayo wasn't starting because I think he's more valuable off the bench. But if this is what they truly do, then still regardless of fact, this is a super talented starting to start. Trying to start Terrence Shannon? Who? Trying to start Terrant Shannon?

You're going to have to. You can sell me on something else if you want, but these are their five best players. Jelen Clark, what are you prepared to do about it, man? Hey, loki. Take a shooting leap. Something, man. Can you give me like 33% from a three-point line?

That's all I'm asking for. Not any more. I need more than that. The bar is low. No. Lamello and H. That low. It's not that low.

It's not that low at all. For Jalen Clark? 36. For anybody. Listen, man. I'm just trying to be. Jan Clark's like 6.4. You better shoot the ball.

He's not a huge guy. The overall, very good lineup. Lamello's going to bring the best head of Anglebear. Next one. I give it a. Minnesota. Charlotte Hornets. Kobe White.

Concon Ciple. Brandon Miller. Nas Reed. Diabate. Come by why it looks crazy in this picture. His hair is everywhere. He looks majestic. Damn.

Nasrida part of this offense. That's a lot of three points. Way more spacing than Miles Bridges. Yeah, who didn't offer really anything to the game at all. Yeah. The spaces would be outlandish. This is going to have nothing to care. I don't care.

It's a new way to say. We won't miss you even a little bit. The space is going to be fucking outlandish with the offense of rebounding of Diabate. they create second chance opportunities off of that. Kobe White can slash a little bit, get some paint touches with that spacing. The fit is there. Is Kobe White good enough as a playmaker

to make it all work? Is the question? Exactly. Who's guarding people? Brandon Miller and Diabate. Presumably Brandon and Khan. Khan, what you're trying to do from? Diabate's hustling. Because like, Nas isn't,

Nas isn't gardening. He's getting his hand up. That's about it. Okay, he can put his hand up. I don't think Kobe White is guarding anybody for real. Kobe White is he tries. Not the biggest guy. Is the shot?

Shots still might go in. And it may not be like his fault necessarily, but the shots are still making it over those. I'm not sure. What? Is there you shooting over those? Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not sure what the, what the defensive potential of this starting five is. Yeah, not high.

That's the, you're saying, I'm not sure. I'm sure. It's not that high. And that's why it does, it does bring me down. I see the vision. I know what the Hornets are trying to do. But without the defense, I'm going to be. I'll say B minus as well. That's fair.

If Kobe White can be the best playmaking version of himself because he has so much space in to work with, he can be probably better than we think. That's not a given. We've been asking Kobe White to do that for like the last, I don't know, three years and he just, that's just not him as a player. He's never been an offensive ecosystem as good.

He's played for the Bulls. The Bulls, if the Bulls had one thing, their offense was like consistently decent. Yeah, decent. This might be like the third best offense in the league. We'll see, man. We'll see. We will see because maybe

Or maybe they just missed Lamello entirely and it was a terrible idea to ship him out and maybe they were like the 11th best offense and all fails. That'll be so bad. Maybe Lamello was the answer.

17th best offense on the way. That would be baffling. Dude, that would be horrendous. Everybody would get fired. That next one. Miami Heats. Dave Yon Mitchell, THJ,

Andrew Wiggins, Yonis, and Bam. I don't like this starting five. I'm going C plus here. But we have, Yeah, honestly, bam, the defensive ceiling and floor are both crazy. And Davey on Mitchell at the point of attack, your defense is going to be elite.

That's easily... If you saw an offensive version of this with the mid-defense, you'd probably feel pretty good about it. Yeah. Well, here we are. I would. The defensive version. It's not one-to-one.

Why not? You don't respect defense now? Come on now. Like, listen, you got, you do have to score points. And so I don't trust their ability to score consistently and often. If only they have one of the greatest scores of all time and the power four position. I thought you

don't talk about bam. They got two of the greatest scores of all time. They got bam. You know,

Williams can give you like a cool of 15 points per game. Tim Hardaway, Jr. literally did that

off the bench. He gave you 14. It's my average 50 a night. I don't think it's a bad lineup. It's not perfect.

You're right. They're one shot creator away from being like an lineup. If that was, I don't know who at shooting

guard you could expect to see that if that was Tyler Hero shooting guard, maybe I'd be more moved and I'd be like

oh, I see all the vision. They don't have enough dribbling, but I think the defense is so high that I'm still going to give it a B plus. Yeah. I'll go B plus. I'll go B flat. Let me not have the glaze too much.

B flat. I think this is, I'm going to see plus. Outside of the Timberwolves, like this is, they have like the strongest defense here. Probably stronger than the Timberwolves, honestly. Oh yeah, definitely strong.

Yeah, so I give this a B plus. Yonless and Bam is going to move mountains defensively, man. How are you going to score in the paint? And also offensively, too, like it's hard to guard two bigs that are that mobile. Facts. You said floaters?

Runners? Runners? Yeah, you're right. Who is Biggs that can keep up with those guys like the dribble? They're going to give a lot of teams issues. Got to flick that rights together. Like Yonkech is going to have hell trying to guard

one of these two. You can't hide anyone at all. You sold me, B plus. B plus. This is a good team. Yeah. You got to keep your hand open on the floater. Follow through, follow through.

No, you don't follow through. You got to keep it open. Oh, that's, that's. Soft touch. Come on, man. All right. Next. No spin on the ball.

Toronto Raptors. Basically, Barrett, Kawhi, Barnes, and Jakob. At the starting five? Jacob, at the five. They won't like 44 games last year. With Brandon Ingram in place of Kauai Leonard. Whatever that means. Whatever that means.

Now they have Kauai. Now they have Super Brandon Ingram. Multiple Pokemon evolutions upwards. Super Ingram. I give this an A, honestly. A? Yeah, because I think Scottie Martin's ready to make that leap. Me too.

Me too. A. I can't go A on part of Yacopurto's holding down the fucking center of the court. I guess. Maybe he gets healthy and bounces back a little bit. Yeah. B plus to A minus.

If they get a different starting center, I'll go A. Again, we talked about it when they got Ingram. We were like, listen, Ingram was not that great. Getting a shock carrier next to Scotty Barnes will change his life. We cannot forget where Scotty Barnes was two years ago with no shot creation being forced to get it out the mud, shooting the uglyest mid-range jumpers. Ingram represented not that. Now we got another step forward.

This is going to be a very good team. I'll go B for them. I think I can't overlook Yacca Brayette. I can't do it. He's hard to miss. He's large. He's just too big. Now, when we go to this lineup and it's C&B there, that moves me.

I like that more. Do we just start C&B? Sure. No centers. Scotty grabbed them boards. You can do it. All right, fuck it. Put C&B there at center, and now we're starting that.

What do you give it? A plus, there we go. Okay. You got Jordan and Pippin. There you go. next one Milwaukee bucks who's a mean man

Ryan Rollins Tyler Hero Jaime Hawkees Jr., Kyle Kuzwa and Miles Turner We didn't have to set them up like this And it is To John Horse I didn't set this up

It is stuff because Like you know those games Where you combine the two teams And it's like Can this team beat The San Antonio Spurs Can these two teams Beat the Oklahoma City Thunder

Together? This team ain't beating nobody Man They're not being the Nets right now It's real I'm giving this enough I don't know if they're beating the Shanghai Sharks right now. I don't know if I can give them an F because Ryan Rawlins is good.

What's your team's name? Hamit me. You can beat the Nuggets. We have a chance. Fuck out of here. Where's that from? Gilles Arena. RIP.

It was Rashop McCants talking about European teams can beat NBA teams. And when he played, and I think it was Lithuania, he was like, we can beat the NBA champs. We have a chance any given night. And they asked him his team name. He met me. And he sounded like he was going to cry. You can be a guy. He said, we have a chance.

I'm like barely exaggerating, by the way. No, I need it. I'm going to look up that clip after the show. We have a chance. That's funny. I'll lose by 200. That's what this team would do. Lose by 200.

Yeah, this is one of these teams in the NBA. This is the 25th offense and 22nd defense in the league. That's too much credit defensively. 26th offense and 26 defense in the league. There we go. As you know, flip that. 24th offense, 27th defense. How do you figure that?

I think Hero can get some buckets. No. Ryan wants to give you 20. My best. No, this is a team waiting to, like, trade people's deadline. This is going to be a great seller season when we get two first on picture, Ryan Rollins, two first on picture Tyler Hero,

and we'd salary dump Kyle Kuzma to, like, I don't know, not a tech company. that wants his genius mentorship. Yeah, just send him to, I don't know, North Korea or somewhere. Send him to Open AI. Apparently he has ideas. He'd be so big on startup culture now. He's so cringe.

Yeah. He's on Twitter. Just never mind. Yeah, this is an... He wants to get traded to the Warriors, actually. He does. This is a nice little F lineup. But what do you expect after you trade Janus?

Yeah. Next one. They thought this was going to make Yonis stay. Portland Trailblazers. John Morant, Damian Lillard, Denny Avdiya. To Mani Kumar and Donovan So funny.

All these players right here got something to prove. Tumani had a wonky year to start out. Their fans fucking hated him because he forgot to shoot. Denny, good three-level score, and he made it all-sart team. So I guess he's the most proven guy here. Dame coming off Achilles, Jaws, Jha, and Donovan, Klingin, you were ass in the first round. He was horrible to playoffs.

He said, Danny. It's just, bro. The past is happening. I got to give him a little bit of credit. I said, dudey Yeah I cannot understand how you make a good defense

with Damien Lillard post Achilles at 35 and John Morant on the same court You don't You don't even try We're not worried about that I can also barely understand

Thank you somebody understands the method We don't care about any of your stocks We don't care about We don't care about any of your What do you call point of attack? What is that?

What is the thing? What is the thing? What is a slide? The fuck is a table setter. Come on. That means nothing to me. The problem is I also don't know how they score well enough with those guys. I don't even know if they hoop.

How are they going to defend? Because they can't bring up. Stop asking that question. You have to play defense. We just talk about this, man. You don't. You don't. Are you listening?

You don't have to do it. And that's the trap. that everybody falls into you. You're being brainwashed right now. And you're thinking defense matters? You want to play like everybody else. Go be different. Go do something else.

Okay. Go be on some other shit, man. You know what you're saying? Okay. Go be different. You're right. You're right. Come on, you know.

Very inspiring. And what type of other shit is John Damon as a duo? You know, in between, like, in commercial, they got the dudes who jump on the trampolines. John needs to be like that. John needs to jump off the triple leads, man. When he's mid-air, you think you can't block him? What is Dave?

Is Dave? I need Jai throwing mid-air, he-hees to Dame in the corner right there. And that's how we're playing offense. You never know what innovators do, man. If Jaws are the Trembling kids. They think I'm crazy. My definition, innovators, you don't know what they do. Next thing you know, top five offense.

And they're one genius. And Chris. Come on now. Anyway, this is a D. They're trying to act like he never said anything right. That's a bar. That's a bar. So if Java rat is a chap link is, can Dane be the chihuahua that has a ball in his nose?

He still got a little something. Yeah. It's going to be the Chinese lady with the pots on the head. Red panda. Yeah, red panda. She's lit, man. It's saying she's underpaid. Okay.

Her books came out on Twitter. I saw it. Wait, really? Her rate card came out. And everyone's like, yo, you are mad underselling yourself. Wow. She just does it for the love of the game. Respect.

She loves the balance. I mean, where else are you going to do that? She can't do it at home. Should we book her? On the show. She'll be in the middle right there. It's the entire show for three hours. I think the ceiling is high.

I don't get the three. She can get the three bowls and stop. Next one. Oh, my God. Brooklyn Ness, Mikhail Brown Jr., Jumman, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randall, and Dayron Sharp.

This is no shade to them, because, like, individually, you can see the vision with all of these players. This lineup is stupid. It's just dumb. It doesn't make any sense.

It's one of the more random collection of people that we've ever seen. Collections of people. Random. collections is an interesting way to put it. What's a random about McHale Brown and J.R. What's wrong? Come on, man.

McCall Brown and Jolman are one team and then Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randall are another team. It's a random this is what you said earlier. You get two teams and combine them to make their best five. This is what you get. Two timelines to a T and the day runs. He's in his own world.

He's just out of hoop for him. Yeah. Outside the Bend diagram. He's quiet for him. get to know him. God. Yeah, everybody else is talking, chattering while Jody's trying to go over, plays and stuff. They're on like...

And then we got Jody. We got a genius trying to get them in line with Mockaport Junior's like, let me hoop. Two young guys, two fours, I need to be traded tomorrow and a genius trying to put it all together. Let me give it. C minus. C. It'll be fun. Yep, C. It'll be solid.

I can watch it and I can have fun watching it. You're two gentlemen, what you got from me? If you make a leap, maybe I can see the vision. I'm going to see. One of the most suicide squads. This is a suicide squad. I've ever seen. But not even that, though, because we had two young core players.

It's so weird. We drafted Blue Beetle to the suicide squad. They're going to be decent, man. D minus D plus? I give us a C. A C? They can win 30 games and end up with like a top three picnic. For some reason, for some reason, Nightwing is there.

I don't know. Oh, wait. They don't have their pick next year, right? I got to. No, damn. No, it's a swap. Damn. So they're here for the love of the game.

Fuck. They have to be decent. There's no choice. Next one. Los Angeles Clippers. Darius Garland. Keen Wogler. Brandon Ingram.

Rui Hachimura and Brooke Lopez. Yo, this is a frail-ass team. That first three is tough. I've never seen a stupid real line. If I'm not going to lie. That first four. Who's grabbing rebounds on this team? Don't tell me Brooke Lopez.

He hasn't done that in several years. His wag. Don't tell me Rui. If Rui can grab rebounds, he'd be a Laker. There's no way. Keaton. Hell not. Super hell not.

Yonik has to start. I don't think Brooke Lopez is going to start for this team. He adds like nothing to this team at all other than like. You're saying it's Brooke Lopez? No, he's good. To pair with Brandon Ingram? Yeah. Yeah, just super fuck no.

Give me Yonik as the starting lineup in the starting lineup. Okay, so let's say Yonik starts. Doesn't move anything actually. D still. It just looks better. I like Garland a lot. I like Wagler a lot as a prospect. End of sentence. D. I think one of the most interesting things is like whenever teams,

like new teams or like new lineups get formed, like I'm looking at these five guys. I'm just wondering, what are they going to talk about? You know, like, in the locker room on a bench? What does Keating Wagler have to say to Brandon Ingram? What is he curious about his life?

What is he curious about? So glow. That might be it. When's the next drop? Guaranteed he don't pay attention to that. You said the Nets are one of the most random assortment of players. This is way more random. All these guys are in completely different stages of their career.

This is truly a randomizer of names with like quite literally zero rhyme or reason about why they should play together. They all pretty much have like nothing alike. It's like a team he built on 82 and O. Oh, and you're the worst 802. of all time. It's an expansion team lineup. It'll be interesting to watch. This is the Seattle Super Sonics

in three years. Literally, yeah. They built a dome for this lineup. They got a thousand bathrooms for this line up. They gentrified Englewood for this. From behind Keene Wagler. Inglewood is down bad Because of Brandon Ingram and Keating Wagli, man.

They're going to tear down American Deli for this. Fuck. Your wings sound good right now from radio. You're hilarious. You got the last one. I'm just put me on, man.