The Deep 3 Podcast - We Made Our Official 2025-2026 NBA Predictions | Ep. 163

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Predicting everything that will happen in the NBA season! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 1:48- West standings 59:07- East standings 1:49:53- NBA awards 2:37:28- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games. Make the most of your downtime with unbeatable promotions and jackpots that can turn any mundane moment into a golden, opportunity at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Take a spin on the slots, challenge yourself at the

tables, or join a live dealer game to feel the thrill of real-time action, all from the comfort of your own devices. Why settle for less when you can go for the gold at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call connects Ontario 1866531-260. 19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Are you guys ready to predict some stuff that's going to happen this year and engage in our yearly humiliation ritual when we get everything wrong inevitably? Oh, I've been ready. I've been ready. Last year we actually did pretty solid.

Two years ago, obviously, it was the horrific predictions era where we had Timberwolves low, Mavs low, et cetera. Last year we did solid. What do you think it was going to be this year? I mean, okay, so like obviously the east is so wide open. There's going to be somebody in the east that disappoints. So trying to account for that. Two, West is a bloodbath. So this is going to be somebody that we're going to say it's trash.

They're going to be decent or they're going to be all right. However, I do know that the Bulls will be the nine seats. Oh, for sure. I can all guarantee you a check in the checker box. That's one thing that's known, man. So as you guys see by that title, we're going to be doing our official 2025, 2026 NBA predictions. And what that means is we're going to predict the seating in the Eastern Conference, the seating in the Western Conference, every single NBA award, maybe some new NBA

boards we made up on her own and the NBA finals matchup and winner. Hell yeah. So everything important, we're going to tell you what we think is going to happen this year. Just the culmination of our month-long preview era of the season all here today to stamp what we think will happen. Let's do it. What the hell was that? It's a football.

You know, when you get them cool-ass gloves and you go ahead and just... Oh, that you're throwing up the rock? No. And your hands are ashy, by the way. So it doesn't work. Oh, don't you dare try my shape butter, my cocoa butter, man. Get intro music We're throwing it back

Whoa That's crazy He was bragging I don't need to sit at the office Today We are going to start these NBA predictions By starting with the Western Conference 1 through 15

Gotta start with a bloodbath Got to start with the conference That is going to be most interesting when it comes to deciding where this gigantic clump of teams from like really 2 through 11 where it's all going to fall. And how we're going to do it is

we're going to reveal section by section starting with the non-playoff teams 11 through 15. We'll see our whole tiers. Then the playing tournament guys, 7 through 10 is in the top 6. Let's do it. So let's get started with 11 through 15.

Here we are. At 15, I have the Utah Jazz. 14, the Phoenix Suns. 13, the Sacramento Kings. 12, the Trailblazers and 11 the Pelicans. This is hilarious. Okay, so 15, I have the Jazz, 14 kings, 13 sons, 12 pelicans, and 11, I have the Grizzlies.

Oh, okay. At 15, I have the Jazz, 14, I have the sons, 13, I have the Kings, 12 the Grizzlies, and 11 the Pelicans. Grizzlies, okay, let's start there. You guys have the Grizzles at 11 and 12, respectively. Yes. They are in this tier, I think, ranging from like 7 to 12, really. I think to me, to me. It's wide.

We all agree. The King's Son and Jazz are in their own tier. We'll talk about them a little bit later. So I think we should focus on 11 and 12 Who you guys went with Pelicans Grizzlies I went with Sherleaders Obviously I also considered I mean my bad

I went with Pelicans Trailblazers I also considered the Grizzles as part of it I feel like we've just seen so many years Of them being so good at the margins And more often than not being competitive That even despite the injuries Despite the question marks around who the coach is going to be like

I just feel like I have enough faith in their core Being competent and not tanking it in the year That I feel like I'd be shocked They weren't top 10 Yeah I'd just definitely do understand that that's why i put them right outside top 10 and number 11 for me is just the fact that okay well shit i love jaron jackson junior i think he's in for like a really good year considering doesn't bane's not going to be there his scoring is going to be juiced up but having john merritt

be out going back to what you said a couple of podcasts ago like he's super inconsistent being out one to two games every other game that matters and then also knowing like you know like okay you don't have necessarily that scoring juice zach edie is going to be out for a long time who the fuck is gonna grab rebounds your defense fell apart last year a little bit and that's like the whole like basis of your identity and then you're like relying on a rookie to give you a decent amount of output and also kCP as well and i think kCP's gonna be fine but you're gonna feel that like drop off in creation in my mind yeah losing doesn't bane's big yeah i just they didn't really they they didn't get better in the off season and i feel like one

One of the reasons why they've been able to sustain whenever Jha goes out, whenever Jaron goes out, is because they've had Desmond Bain. You've had somebody that you can look to to score, you know, 23, 24 on whatever night. And so that's gone for all the injuries that you said, your top two guys are already hurt. And Jha at Media Day, they were like, oh, you know, what's, what's a goal that you have for this year? He's like, I want to play all 82 games. Yeah, okay. Brother, sprained his left ankle in training camp already.

Like, it's already done, right? Well, he should be back to start this season. I just don't, and is he going to play, you know, back to back? Yeah, I don't know. Probably, probably not. Like, they're probably going to be just a little careful with the ankle. So I, over 82 games, I don't see a scenario where you still have the, that core and that infrastructure because Taylor Jenkins is gone. Desmond Bain is gone.

You're, your big rookie from last year, Zahidi, he's out. Like, the injuries have already started to pile up. I just don't know. And I also don't know if this team 100% knows. if they're going to be together at the end of next year the vibes are already off where you're in a transition year

this feels like a 12 seat that feels a bit dramatic to me I know what you're saying but I think the problem viewing them is everyone's viewing it through the lens of like everything we've known about them for a few years that version of the team playing the way they play they're worse now because they don't have Bain

I think you only trade Bain if you're playing on reinventing this team and changing the way you play we already saw that last year Taylor Jek had tried to reinvent it they found a method that worked well for Jaron, worked well for the team overall, they were the three seed before all the injuries started last year, didn't work well for John Morant right, led to Jenkins being fired. This coach they have now was a key part of that reinvention of the team that in every way

outside of John Morant worked well to make their offense better. It was a completely different style of play that we've ever seen for them in previous years, right? They finally had a good half-court offense for the first time in this entire era. I kind of do trust that with this coach being in charge now, they're going to continue to reinvent themselves. And while it is true, they are less talented without Desmond Bain.

They did sign Ty Jerome. I think we forgot about that. He was extremely good last year. As your backup point guard, very good. She said even in the games John Morant misses. Having Ty Jerome as your starting point guard and Scotty Pippin Jr. as your backup, that's a solid floor of playmaking there.

I just think we're going to see them continue to reinvent themselves. They still are extremely deep, even though it's not like, I get the most flashy names on the bench. It's still a ton of good players that they always have. Cedric Coward, I think is going to be good right away. He's a 3-D guy. they still have Vince Williams Jr. coming off the bench now with Jane the Welles coming in there and being the starting small forward.

I just feel like this team has infrastructure in place. They have a history of reinventing themselves. They have a culture there. They still have two good star players that are the nucleus there. Even without Desmond Bain, they still are a solid starting duo of stars. I'll be shocked if they're not competent for the season. Okay, so I agree with you. I also think that like this 12 is probably where competency ends in the Western Conference.

Like the, again, like the king's sons, jazz, they're in a different tier, like we said. So I do think like there is, there obviously is room for interpretation and they can move up, whatever. I just don't, like if you're talking about them versus the pelicans and strengths that like New Orleans will have, I think I might, which is so stupid. Because I don't, I don't trust either of these teams. Yeah. But in terms of like the high end possibility, I think I like the strengths of what New Orleans can do more than Memphis this year. Okay, let's talk about the Pelicans. We all have him here.

What? Zion Williamson, skinny, fit, healthy. We'll probably be a top, at least top. He will surely be a top 20 player in the NBA as long as he's healthy. I think if we all believe that he can be the best version of himself, we know that can be a top 10 player if he's healthy, potentially, right, depending on the defense. He can be in that range, undoubtedly.

That's extremely powerful. I think we all kind of like the role players there. We all love Herb Jones as one of the best primitive defenders in the league. Trey Murphy as a wing who can be a secondary ball handler, amazing spacer. We'll see what the defense looks like with less responsibility. and we like Jordan Poole and we like that fit there with Zion.

A lot of good things we're seeing here. Why did nobody put them top ten? Because they can't guard us. Like that's really the only reason. They can't do it. Also, too, a part of the reason that like made me put them a smitch lower than the Memphis Grizzies is that Kauffman Luni is going to be out as well

by a decent amount of time. I forget what the injury is. I think it wasn't reported like one to two weeks or something? Wasn't it not too bad? I think it was like kind of bigger than one to two weeks. But Kavon Looney is a guy who routinely just doesn't miss games like that. He don't be injured like that. There's nothing a part of his game that should cause him to be injured because he's not moving like that.

He's a smart player. He's witty. He knows his angles. Does his simple passes. All that. This is the most curse franchise I've ever came across in my entire life. Dyson Daniels last year was like, brother, he said out loud. He probably shouldn't have said it to.

He was like, this team is so cursed. And he said, I'm happy to be out of that organization. I don't trust nothing with the Pelicans. Now, two to three weeks for Kavana Looney, by the way. Okay. So he might miss five to seven games. Not a big deal at the end of the day. But in my mind, like when I think of teams that every year we know that there's going to be a team that like booms out of nowhere for it.

The team for me, for me last year that was that, that I just absolutely was wrong about was the Houston Rockets. I realize that the Pelicans out of this whole group probably could be that team. They probably could be. But I just don't trust that. their defense at all because that at the end of the day is what in my mind determines that swing factor yeah that that's fair and i have the the pelicans and the grizzlies again they are in their own mini tier for me because both of these teams are teams that i don't trust you start players to to be available and and specifically like for the pelicans everybody has just

been resurrected like for the the fact that everybody died last year and then you're trying to like come back to life and reinstall everything that that's really it's really tough for me and so i think like they'll be they'll be fun and they'll be there'll be nights where like you don't want to play you know new orleans because on is two 260 now and it's still going to barrel into people and it's not going to be the most enjoyable experience guarding that but like like you said somebody's still going to get hurt and there's there's going to be like some mistime and so their their margin of error is also so so much smaller than i think a lot of the other teams in the conference.

Yeah. I'm not even super worried about the health stuff. Like, yeah, obviously with Zion, you're always worried about the health.

But, like, teams that get super injured, like that happens. I don't know if we can just, like, assume what will happen every year. But even if they are fully healthy,

I'm very confident the team's offense working. I'm very confident in point Zion and Jordan Pull and Tremerfee being great shooting release valves off for that. They can both ball handle and attack closeouts, right?

Their center rotation is East Missy, a very light center that obviously, small, skinny center that can be posted up that isn't some strong force down low, and we know what Zion's off-ball defense is like.

They have Kavana Luni, who very disciplined, very good veteran defender that can do solid work there in certain minutes doesn't move well anymore. Obviously isn't going to save your defense, right? And then Derek Queen, I guess, is going to play some center minutes. The rim protection. And he's already hurt. Yeah, yeah.

The rim protection isn't good. Point guards are just guards. Jordan Poole, Jeremiah Fears. I like them offensively. It looks really good in preseason. Can't imagine either of them will be very good defenders. Jose Alvarado is their own. only guard screen navigator that I feel good about.

And I don't want to give Jose Alvarado that many minutes, but I need to because there's nobody else going to fight over a screen unless you want to send Herb Jones to die defending everybody for 48 minutes a night. And he's best as a wing defender that can be a good team defender. So I just don't see a world in which they're top 15 defense. I know a couple years ago they hobbled it together when we all said this when they had Jonas Found Tunis, Brandon Ingram, Zion, Herb Jones, and C.J. McCollum. That team was way bigger, way longer.

And even then, we're doing it in a way that nobody viewed a sustainable. They just got it done for a whole year. I don't see them figuring that out again this year This team last year was ranked as a 29th best defense in the entire NBA This next season I predict him to be The 34th best defense in the NBA Off the fucking map bad

Now they can still be good Like when we say there I put them at 11 Yeah inevitably somebody in the top 10 Probably two teams will be new because of injuries And be in the lottery We don't see it coming Can't predict that at all

So to me 11 means you will be in the plan You will be a respectable team That if you're in the plan You could be the 7th seed potentially right So I view them as still being a good team That won't be an embarrassment Because the offense can be legitimately ridiculous Like Zion should be all NBA this year

If he stays healthy That's me like with the infrastructure in place How much they're clearly gonna have to play through him By necessity and necessity to prove that he's valuable And like give themselves a reason to keep him He should have an all NBA season So I do think this team will be dangerous I just can't put him higher than barely

Making the playing because of defense Yeah, I agree Like I agree with you wholeheartedly But I will say When it comes to talking about teams who might somewhat be sneaky and just like blossom up to potentially an 11 seed. I don't know why, but the demons in my head wanted to put the suns up to 11. There's a world in which they're decent, I guess.

Tell me why it would be good. Mainly because I feel like, come on, Malabash is a demon defensively and seeing how well he moved, specifically guarding smaller players and seeing how able body was to shoot threes was. I knew he was that type of prospect. He's able-bodied. Yeah, like, he's so, like, aware. You know, able-bodied is nice

from what they've had in the centers in recent year. Yeah, exactly. Can you do something for me real quick? What's up? Can you look up the Sun's a Debt chart? Because it's one of... You want to hear the bench players?

Yeah. Jared Butler, Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neill, Ossa I Godoro, who they have listed up Power Forward, which is probably a bad listing. Common Wall to Wash is the back five. It's not one of the more inspiring depth charts

in the league. I truly do think that this team is going to suck. I don't think, I think like the, the idea that you can have Devin Booker run point guard, you can squint and turn your head and you'd be like, all right, fine. When he's playing point guard with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal next to him,

and like maybe we could do that. No, that didn't work. There's no, maybe it didn't work. No, but like the idea when it first happened, you could have told yourself like, okay, I guess maybe, maybe whatever. we're doing this experiment all over again and replacing KD and Bradley Biel

with Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks I hate this lineup I hate that I hate that so much and even if like it's like Dylan Brooks and Ryan Dunn and all this stuff and Ryan Dunn he shot well in the preseason last year and then the three for the rest for the whole year wasn't great the consistent shooting that you would need to make this actually work

I'm not sure it's it's gonna happen the defense on this in terms of like It's much better. That's genuine what they could, like, hang their hat on. No, it's not. They have two good wing defenders. Zero good big man defenders. Mark Williams is not a good shot blocker.

Common Mala was should be. You try to book a little bit of credit, but you're right. Common Mollahawash should be one day. I'm not relying on a rookie center to be a good defender holding down my defense, especially not to the degree that's going to make me a sneaky team. That's way too much to put on a rookie center in almost any role. So I'm not going to do it to him. And then guard defenders are complete bullshit.

Who is Green navigating here? Jalen Green? Are we putting Devin Booker on the lead point cards? I guess we're going to put Dylan Brooks on him which slots everybody up with a spot and he has to defend wings so now you're giving up size and rebounding their transition defense would probably be bad because of that

there's no world in which this is a good defense to me unless Dylan Brooks is Gary Payton no yeah all right yeah and yeah so like you're asking your bigs and also like Mark Williams he's going to be there for like 25 games this year and like you're asking your rookie to be go bear and hold everything down I don't I don't like this team and I think that it is genuinely bad

and if the only reason that I didn't put them at 15 instead of yeah the only reason why i didn't put them at 15 is because they have booker yeah and and that's that that's the biggest difference between them and and the jazz who the jazz are going to be in a situation where like they actively want to tank towards the end of the year the sons and because they don't have control over any of their picks there's still going to be pride that they're trying to play for from the front office down so they can get to 14 but this thing will suck yeah and the wing offense is bad i can definitely see that the wing it's all all the offensive like lies on devon booker's hands and shoulders

at the end of the day i don't know why but i did i just get this feeling that they're going to be a smidge better than anyone thinks now will that smidge matter at the end of the day no i don't think so but considering royce o'neill ryan dund dillan brooks and i don't want to say jalen green but he's not necessarily a negative release last year in the houston defense he wasn't viewed as a fucking negative what's the best case in there's the name you said i know In the Western Conference, those names do not inspire me. It's not inspiring. You're right, because it's not a complete, it's not complete dirt like what I'm saying it is.

I know, I know you're saying. You are right to some extent that we all write them off completely. There probably is a world in which we did overlook them because we hate them so much. So you're not wrong. That's very likely to be possible. And if it does happen, it's probably because of like internal growth from young players we don't necessarily foresee. Yeah, like Jared Butler who like fucking won an NCAA championship, right, two, three years ago or whatever. And look at the preseason.

Do something, you know? You're right, you're right. That is possible. And then maybe Ryan Dunn makes an offensive leap, which. who the fuck knows? Who knows, right? Maybe column is great. There is a world

there's a world where every team looks solid. So I'm fine writing this one off just because even if you're right and the margins get better, which I think, you know, I'm with you.

They probably will be better but just because they write them off so hard. The core of this team sucks. Like the Jalen Green Devin Booker experiment and idea, I hate that. So even if I do buy

that the margins are better, I don't buy that the general idea of what this team's strength is supposed to be, which is Jalen Green being good next to Devin Booker and they're being a solid off ball pairing that could

both have the ball in their hands, both of the boat without their hands, they can both shoot off the ball, cut, and all this stuff. I don't buy that working in the first place. So I'm like, I'm just not, I'm not encouraged enough to, like, care about the margins for this team. If they can get to, because, okay, so I think, like, best case scenario for them would be

will obviously be like 10 seed, playing range, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Hell yeah. Okay. It's a successful season. Yeah, that's best case scenario. If they do that, Devin Booker, Hall of Fame tomorrow. This, this team is, I, like, for all the reason that that you said and I again I do understand that there's always there's always every year there's going to be a team that I'm going to come up here and hate so so much and they're just

going to be you know much better this team if I'm wrong on the suns you're going to have to show it to me I'm going to have to be 100% wrong on them because I don't think that they have shown anything from the roster construction to just how the front office moves to the vibes of the team that should allow anybody to give them any type of benefit of the doubt that they're going to overperform what it is like their roster shows. I agree with you, but also Mo brought this up by saying, I thought there's a team that's going to surprise us and be the 10 seed. I think is what you said, right? Yeah, there's always a team like that. So yeah, I agree. They can be the 10 seed for sure. That's super possible just because there's always me teams tanking. And this team should be pretty

durable. Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks don't miss games. Devin Booker is extremely durable. Not so much Mark Williams, but they have common in Nick Richards. They should be available and should be trying hard so I can see them get to 10 seed for that reason I have more faith in the kings getting to the 10 seed and like I again I think I mean I guess no I do like I think of all three of these teams in the same tier and like I hate them just as much and I think that the kings have like have a better chance of getting to the 10th seed and shocking me and not being this actually awful team just because they they legitimately are mid where I do think that like the sun's roster is subpar and there's a there is a world and I think it is more likely for the kings that they

just come out here and they have a high offensive rating they don't guard anybody and there's just random knights in sacramento where subonis has his you know 15 15 16 and 7 and they win a game and that and that's fine like right yeah i i yeah so i think the kings have a bit of a higher ceiling than than phoenix does uh i didn't consider the kings on the plane race just because i truly believe they're going to blow it up at some point this year they just signed russell Westbrook, Russell Westbrook probably should be on a roster. He played well in Denver playing off of Yokic. If you think that vision of him is going to work,

Sabonis is the next best player I do that with. So I kind of understand it in that regards. I also think it's the most bullshit fit with the rest of the roster I've ever seen. Like having Russell Westbrook, Zach Levine, DeMarter Rosen, and Malik Monk, all four on your team as four of your, what, six or seven best players, meaning all four need to play heavy minutes, is absolute nonsense. Like, just from a construction standpoint.

And at some point, some will get hurt in it. It'll kind of even out makes sense. So maybe you can say they have insurance that they'll always have ball handling out there around Sabonis. There's a silver lining there. But overall, like if you're banking on your best team being healthy and those are four of your top seven guys

and one is also Sabonis who needs a ball in his hands, this roster is complete bullshit. Kegan Murray's your one good wing defender. He's hurt. It's utter bullshit to me. Yeah. Like this is another team where there's even more than the Phoenix Suns,

they're going to be heavily banking on a lot of the other young, guys we spoke about um devon carter knee clifford they're going to rely on keon else as well to like really hold up their defense and give them more traditional progressive offense than what we're used to seeing you're right but also think of all the names i just said they were barely playing keon alas last year because they had such a log jam and now they have a bigger log jam i forgot about dennis shrewder that's a fifth ball handler yeah oh wow i did i did i did this coming off the bench now for show i think he's gonna start and then malik munk and russellis

because your backup guards. And I guess they can put like Keone Ellis is like your backup small forward essentially and do three guard lineups. Or maybe they just won't play rest that much. So it's like Malik Monk and Keon at your backups. Can you believe this team had the audacity to fire Mike Brown? Like I just don't even know. I'm not to say he was doing like the best job over there for that for that specific early

season slump or whatever. But still like you're on bullshit. It's just so many ball handlers. I just, I'll be shocked if Zach Levine and or Sabonis finished year as a king. I feel like they have to blow it up. And, you know, their team like that always wants to be mid and trying to put the butts in seats. So maybe they keep it being mid forever. Yeah.

I think this will be really bad. And even for a team that's small market and needs to pay their bills, I think even they will say, God damn, we got to blow this up. Yeah. They're also, like, really weird because I do think, like, that they do have out of, like, the bottom feeders, they do have the best chance to get to 10. It's the most good players. Yeah.

But also at the same time, even if they don't make a trade, I think that might be worse for them. Because the construction is just so bad. It just doesn't, it doesn't make sense. And so for you to have Subonis, who is, who is like your offensive hub, but also doesn't shoot. And then to have Derosen, who does not shoot threes at all, and then add Russ into that mix, that is so nasty. And it is very hard for me to look at your roster of what you're doing and say, like,

are you going to be able to run not even 2025 NBA offense? Can you run 2014 NBA office? Can you run 2017 and do something that is somewhat modern? And I don't think that they're going to have that they're going to do it. So on talent and on just like math of where the shots are coming from, it's going to be very hard for them to be competent. Okay. Let's move on to the play in tournament. Real quick.

Can you guess where the Sacramento Kings ranked in offense last season? 24th. 22nd? No, they're top seven actually. For the whole season? Yes. For the entire year, they were top seven. Good for them.

That's just how good So you're right. Yeah, because they had and the Fox were most of the year too. And Fox was there too. Yeah, skewed a little bit. I wonder what the stats look like after. Oh yeah, post all start break.

Look it up. Yeah, post all start break. Let's see. That's super. Yeah, post all start break. I'm like, there's no fucking way. Yeah, I forgot they had, they did have a bonus.

I mean, Fox for most of the year. Yeah. Interesting to see where that lines up. In my mind, I don't imagine them being like worst in 17. They can't be worse than 17. Offensive. You know, they'll be a solid offensive. Yeah, you said,

They have a lot of good players. It's just a matter of, do they have offball players? Do they have defenders? It's just a weird team. Yeah, I agree. All right. Let's go on to the 6th through 10. Hopefully we spend less time here.

That was a good 20 minutes on the worst teams in the league. Six through 10. They need their time because we're not talking about it. You can get your time now. Yeah. At 10, I have the Grizzlies. At 9, I have the Spurs. At 8, I have the Mavericks.

At 7, I have the Warriors. And at 6, I have the Timberwolves. Oh, wow. Okay. So, wow, wow, wow. So at 10, I have the Trailblazers, nine Mavericks, eight, I have the Blazers, nine I have the Mavericks. Eight, I have the spurs. Seven, I have the clippers, six, I have the Warriors. Okay. So we're kind of, basically. I will say the first thing up is that I love you for putting the clippers higher because I wanted to so bad. But I was too glued to my agendas that I had to push. too glued to it, but I see the vision and I respect and I want to put them there. Yeah, I think assuming, you know, we're kind of assuming

good health for everybody. We're assuming like at least somewhat of a positive outcome. If we're doing that, I will be shocked for the clippers aren't very good. They were very good last year, especially the second half of the season and they're just much better now. Like their depth is legit. Whether or not it changes how we feel about them as a championship contender, that's a different conversation. For a regular

season performance, their depth is ridiculous. Especially their big man depth, which is bad last year. It is such a humongous difference when you have Brooke Lopez as your third best player like the Bucks did last year versus when he is your backup center that could play 10 minutes a night if you want him to because you have Zubatch and you have John Collins who can place a small ball center. That is an amazing just luxury to have in Brooke Lopez being there. Then I mentioned John Collins who changes things offensively

and defensively if it works out well. They still have a slew of good defenders. Kauai is the healthiest to start the season we've heard for in a long time. There's no reports of him dealing with anything. James Harden proved last year he could still be a playmaking engine when you have the right pieces around him. Bradley Biel replaces Norm Powell just fine. That is going to be a 51 team. Yeah, no, they're going to be really good. Part of the reasoning that I was going over with my rankings is three through seven

is going to be decided by two games. Yeah, for sure. That's what it was last year. And so, like, there's not a massive gap between any of these teams, even, you know, once we get up to the top. And so, like, I just don't like the clip side. We know. We know.

You know, so it's, it's just funny. What's funny is I was going to say he did that because he hates him. I didn't want to say it. He got it for me. Yeah. Yeah, that's the only reason why. But like they, they 100% are going to be in the same tier as, as Golden State, as, as Minnesota, like, for all the reasons. And there's a, there's a very good argument that you can say, like, they might win more games than they did last year.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I agree. Three through seven, really, damn near two through seven, but we'll give, we know who number two solidly. Three through seven is so close. So I use basically my confidence factor in you as the tiebreaker. So at seven, I did the Warriors at the bottom of that tier just because they're so old.

And I just don't love the depth. I don't love the fact that injuries are inevitably kind of the deciding factor for modern NBA. Every single playoff run we talk about it. It's a war of attrition. Same thing for the regular season. And I just feel like they're the most susceptible to that. We know Al Horford is a million years old. Slowed down a little bit last year after fighting off age for so long.

Still got it. And they'll ask even less of him than the Celtics did. but you know slow down a little bit doesn't move quite the same and still space the floor so be good for them Jimmy Butler always gets hurt Steph Curry a year older

Dremont Green a year older I don't love the we none of us love the way the Young Corps has developed it's not bad but it's it's not great we're no longer waiting for the Jonathan Camigal leap

we're no longer waiting for the Moses Moody leave the Brandon Pajamsky leap they're all just fine and that's enough like that's a solid bench but it doesn't inspire me when the starters are so old

I do think they'll start the year really strong and we'll look up after a month and they'll be like the four seed and everybody's going to be like, y'all doubted the Warriors, look at them, they're back, true contenders, and then inevitably will get to February

and they'll be back to six or whatever because injuries stack up. So I put them there, and the Timberwolves are the second lowest in this tier to me just because they're relying on so much youth that can work. We can see Shannon Jr. come out and be a great replacement for Nikola Alexander Walker.

We can see Rob Dillingham finally take the steps and take a lot of weight off of Conley's shoulders. We can see so-and-so, all these young guys they have, make it work, plenish and better than ever, but we could also see those young guys not be ready yet. Yeah, the

old stuff, that's why I had the words and the clippers at 6 and 7 at the bottom of this year for that same reason. I think for Minnesota, and we'll talk about them a little bit more later, but they deserve a little bit more I think, like respect for everything that they've done over the last couple years. All these teams do, that's a hard

part. I really, I was thinking about doing what you were doing and putting Dallas at 8 over the spurs at 9 because the more more than I think about it, you know, Dallas is going to be nice. And they're going to be very interesting

and very hard to play. And I've slowly been buying into Dallas a lot more. Yeah, I'm shocked. I put them in the highest. I thought I was going to have him kind of low. No. Everybody's just delivered.

I know. Yeah. I thought somebody put in my top six or something. Fuck no. The highest I was thinking was like seven. Yeah, the highest I was thinking was seven, but I was like,

listen, that's just pure clipper state. Let me not do that. That's, yeah. That's funny. That's where they're after me. Yeah.

I wanted to put the Mavericks higher, but having Anthony Davis be the focal point of your team and even like kind of handicapping your team as well. Health-wise, I'm just like you feel like the perfect knight. So you feel like a team that's going to come in, I don't know, like 50, 60 games into the year. Oh, shit. Like we're kind of out of the race. AD has been in and out of the lineup consistently. And without AD in the sign, there's still like a very, there's still a very good team. You slide in PJ Washington or Cooper Flag got that four.

or three or four spot interchangeably. They're so incredibly deep. But I feel like this would just be one of those teams where you hate to see them on a random Wednesday night because you know they're, because of how ginormous they are, they're always going to be paining the ass. But I don't think they're going to be just enough

consistently health-wise because of AD. This is the deepest team in the conference, I think. They have like 13 good players on this roster right now. Your backup wings is Matt Christie, Max Christie, Najee Marshall, and PJ Washington? That's crazy as a second unit wing group. Obviously there's strengths and weaknesses there. That isn't extremely, I don't know if anybody outside of Houston

who obviously has ridiculous depth, and I should probably say they're the deepest in the conference. Outside of that team, this is the second best backup of wing group in the league. This is a obviously great team in terms of big men. You're going to have strong rent protection out there at all times with Derek lively, Anthony Davis, and Daniel Gafford, all manning down the center.

And then the starters, Daniel Russell, Cooper Flag, Clay Thompson is great spacing. We'll see you a first option, ADD. you can do these days. I like the supporting cast there. I like what we're seeing from Cooper Flagg to be a day one contributor, being a really good playmaker right away to kind of relieve some of the pressure of not having your best on-ball player in Cairo Irving. I think Cooper Flagg from day one will be a good release valve there. When they get it back, they'll be filthy. And I think DeAngel Russell is more than capable of filling the playmaking gap to run the offense

efficiently while Kyrieving's gone. We've seen them have great synergy with Anthony Davis for all those years of the Lakers. Their pick and roll was always pretty solid, beating Anthony Davis in good spots. Clay Thompson's a better space than Anthony Davis has played with in a long time. I struggle to point to something that will, like, ruin them outside of obviously 80s health, like you said. Yeah, they're, like, if Delo's not in L.A., and every shot he takes doesn't affect LeBron's legacy. Like, I feel like we look at him so much differently than what he, like, we look at Delo, who he really is, which is just a very solid NBA point guard, right, can do a little bit of passing, can shoot a little bit.

like that's fine and that that's like and he is in the perfect situation which is I really should be the backup point guard on this team kairies out and I can hold it down for for four or five months and everything like that is fine for them and for Portland I just felt like they had to be in the playing race and Dallas a little bit more because they're I think they're more talented than Portland but they just have to be there because the defense is just going to be so good and in the regular season to be able on any given that like you said some random Wednesday to be able to say we're going to pull up our shorts

and we're going to guard and defend and have super super high energy that accounts for at least four or five wins to you know the margins all that stuff they're going to be right there and they're well coach

like Jason Kidd has proven that he's a great defensive coach and like this whole idea these giant teams they're already showing their preseason they're willing to get fucking weird with it they've had games where Deandra Russell rested

and they started Cooper Flag and they had him and PJ Washington splitting like point forward duties and that'll probably be rough at times that's a weird experiment that won't always work he's a rookie like yeah but there will be nights where it's like damn this team is monstrous defensively and they have just enough shot creation and i guess my main thing and why i'm confident them is i just think cooper flag is going to be better than people

think from day one i agree but what comes with being like weird you tend to see nasty shit and i think seeing cooper flag run point guard or be like the at times second best shooter in the lineup that they'll roll out like without minus clay tom for the shooting here is like it's not putrid but it's not fucking good at all and i think that'll be the Achilles heel, some they're going to be relying on, of course, it's like physicality. They're one of the biggest teams in the entire league, and they're going to definitely, like, be at the line, but when it comes to the quality of shots, and I also think when it comes to the amount of three-pointed 10-fifth they're going to be getting up this year, that's just

going to, like, fuck them entirely. They're going to need, like, Kyrie's, as soon as Kyrie steps foot, I think next year, we're going to be like, okay, this team could be like top three, top four seed, but this year without having a consistent off-ball player or on-ball play. or someone who can genuinely like attract a lot of juice and attention on the perimeter, I don't see a way where they're going to like be higher than a, and genuinely this feels like a potential team who could do like a last minute tank like they've done before with Derek Levy, like two years ago.

That's always possible when Anthony Davis could get injured. So I see your point. And I like, so you said two things. You said the shooting isn't good enough outside of Clay Thompson and the shot quality won't be good enough. I agree with one of those and disagree with the other. I think the shooting is good. I like Max Christie a lot

I like PJ Washington as a shooter I think Cooper Flag will be a good shooter Daniel Russell was a good I think up and down the roster the shooting is good obviously the AD at the 4th thing

will be a big deciding factor in the space in those lineups we'll see where that goes obviously that's gonna fuck up so much yeah but maybe it won't we'll see

but I do agree with you that the advantage creation is going to be their biggest flaw that I like Dealow and his ability to run the offense in like a traditional point guard way but they don't have a lot of guys

that can create a paint touch and create open threes they're gonna have to do that through AD and through Cooper flag And you can imagine whether that be more clunky often than not. Yeah. And like on a night-to-night basis, like I don't like the thought of DeAndroo being my best decision-maker

or Cooper Flagg being my best decision-maker or at times Anthony Davis. Like you feel comfortable and those are like great, like, pros for their game. But for the level of defense that you're going to be facing on a night-to-night basis, it just doesn't feel enough. But you mentioned a lot of guys that you don't want to be your best playmaker. You're kind of okay with all those guys being your second best playmaker, though. So I feel like the overall roster playmaking isn't as bad as you would think.

Like when we talked about Derek Live and his rookie year being like this sneaky short role playmaker like you do some stuff. Same thing with PJ Washington. He can do a little bit of stuff. It's a bunch of guys that have like slight playmaking abilities. So I don't think they're going to have a lot of guys out there that like are just useless with the ball in their hands. Like they don't have a lot of like Dorian Finney Smith that the ball swings to him and he's like, oh, that's not the type of wing defenders I got. So like I think the overall thing is good enough. Defenders, I love it.

Get rid of the, uh, defenders. Exactly. Like even Nachie Marshall. can do a bit of playmate. He can. Yeah, dude, he had so many games last night where he just put up, or not last night, but last year we put up like Lucas stat lines, because they had nobody. He's got some Lance Stevens in his DNA or who do some fancy

dribbles and, like, most time I think he's looking for his own shot. Some pass the balls of it. Some hop steps down the court. Yeah. I think it's good enough, but yeah, I also put me for everything you're saying. Not higher. Yeah. True. But man, I love the team. Spurs. Yeah, I put the spurs at eight just because like, we keep saying

that, okay, Wembe is going to be here. all right man like you got to be in the in the top eight you just you just have to right for if for for this team if you are one of one of those guys and and you are going to be a top five a top six player in in the world it does come to to a certain point we're like can you be can you be top eight can you be in the in the playing so i'm putting a lot of faith in him i think aaron fox is going to be better um we've seen a couple clips um of dill harper and precy and he's looked really really comfortable So I think like they have they have the pieces to be in an eight seed now. And they also have their own like fit issues that they have to figure out obviously with the three guards.

But Wemby has shown that he can he can play down low. He can he can pop out. He can shoot the three. The defense is going to be good whenever he's on the floor just because he's amazing. And then we'll figure it out with the rest. But there's this is like as low of a floor of like. put up or shut up time that you can have and that's kind of where I'm at with the Spurs. Yeah, I feel you. I was

I struggled with this too. I thought about putting them as high as seven or people people are flirting with them being top six. People have a lot of faith in Wemby and I do too. But I also like for the same thing I said last year has some problems with this roster. They are one wing trade away I think for me being really confident in them.

And that's trading Devon Vassel plus a pick or whatever for somebody else. Trading that Minnesota pick they got in the Rob Dillingham trade that 2028 pick plus Devin Vassel for a real wing I'm confident in. Whatever that may be, their version of the OG and OB trade that the Knicks did. Because imagine that. Imagine, obviously, OG's a high bar.

He's amazing. But just imagine you slot OG there instead of Devon Vassel. You would feel entirely different about this roster. They didn't have real size in the wing. They wouldn't be relying on Carter Bryant to come in and beat that from day one. Because offensively, who knows what he's going to be? Probably closer to a negative than anything else. Kelton Johnson defensively is a negative.

There's no closer. He is clearly a negative. I like Luke Cornett. I think you're going to see when you play some four with Luke Cornett lineups. It's going to be awesome. And I like that they have three guards who can create a paint touch and gets you feeding when being, getting the ball moving. But in between, I feel like this team desperately needs good wing defenders

because you have so many small guards and so many gigantic bigs. The in between guys are going to be vital to them. And that's one of the weakest wing groups in the league. Yeah, I agree. Genuinely, I agree, because I feel like the in-between screams to me that you need someone to go ahead and help hone this thing in and be like the middle of the glue guy or at least like pick a side in which you're going to like,

make your presence be felt and figure out your identity at the end of the day. Right now, I feel like, when I see this team, I don't know what's necessary going to be your strength. Obviously, they have Wembe and a bunch of guards who can create a lot of paint touches, but do you have like a consistent 40% 3 points? Roussel could be that, but I don't know if that's something that's going to like be one of those things to propel you towards the top. But when I think about this is all Wembe in my mind and all the faith that I have in him being like genuinely a Hall of Fame worthy big in the future.

One of like who has someone who has like goat potential. You should be able to luck this team no matter what. Last year this team barebone as is before the Deeron Fox trade. Oh, before Deeron Fox even like really got comfortable too because he only paid like, I don't know, 11 games before he went out. This team won 34 games. 34 games as nothing. Genuinely, I think we could see them in a position where they scrape up and

an extra 10 wins and they ended up winning like 44 43 games i think that's possible i think that's fully in the cards yeah i agree yeah nine to me that's like 47 or something that's all these teams are good so yeah like 45 to 47 that's what's gonna yeah yeah it's gonna take that you're you're right you're right i the the line i think like the the nine seed last year had like 39 wins like the nine and 10 seed that was weird that wasn't it higher before like last year the year before that it was it might have been it's just always so hard 40 wins and out of the kings yeah so it's it's tough because i do think that everybody at the like tip top of the conference especially when you like when you start thinking about okay where are these wins coming from and

you think about okay see and there's been talk about you know do we think they can get to 70 this year the nuggets are are better and we have three or four teams that are getting 50 wins each and then like the east is over there i i just you start to think that you start to think think about, okay, how many teams are legitimately starting to creep up to that 45, 50 range? And that's where, like, 47 makes me a little bit nervous for them. But everything that you're saying is right. And, I mean, we obviously have them at the same place. But yeah, like, this is, this is 100% is just very, like, old school.

Like, hey, man, carry, you just have to carry the team. And it's not even a hard carry job because you have talent in the back court. This is more of a Mitch Johnson. Like, let me see, let me see what you can do, right? Let me see how you can deploy everybody and make. sure that everybody fits because you do have enough talent to be in the playing. It's just are you the right guy for for this team? And so we'll figure out a lot about about him on that front. But they should definitely, we should start to, you know, get back to San Antonio being in the

playoffs, we're playing meaningful games at this point. Yeah, in 2024, the 10 seed had 46 wins in the Kings and the 9 seed of 47 in the Warriors. Good Lord. Now, I think we're in for a year like that where it's insanely well-rounded. The top seed was a thunder. They had 50s. so that's 10 more wins that where's that come from and that's because that year the eastern conference was absolute piss the Celtics had 64 the two seed had 50 and then nobody else had 50 an entire conference

and obviously the bottom there was two teen digit wins in the Eastern conference so I think we're in for a year like that where the West just runs a muck on the east yeah and we'll talk about it with the east the east is pretty good it's not it's not as bad

I think it's pretty good in terms of like it's wide open because anybody can get the three but it's not pretty good in terms of like competing with Western Conference teams Oh for sure Yeah you're a hundred you're a hundred and ten percent right It's pretty good because the lack of really good up top

So everybody feels pretty good Because everybody feels that they got a chance We'll talk about it Yeah we didn't talk about the Warriors much Warriors fans be mad at displacement I get it You guys could be right I'm not really anti-warriers whatsoever

Like we said three through seven Is entirely open If the Warriors are three I won't be even a little bit surprised Like that is very much in the cards And again top first two months I think they will be three or four Some like that

They're going to start off extremely strong it's just a war of attrition thing that's really it dude at the end of the season if they finish up at three i will be extremely strong because i'm like holy shit that means you guys are able to either a remain healthy for throughout the entire course of the season jimmy butlers has shown that age is not a thing for him right now and then on top of that too some young player had to like pop eye like the whole jonathan comminga experience like finally like actually works hand in hand with steve current his ideas and visions jonathan camming is like rebounding more and he's like doing all the little things to make him like an actual tool in the starting lineup or it's like some like pods like

just being a consistent 15 point per game score in one of those like nitty-gritty guys that every team meets. I don't know. I'll be so shocked if that happened. Why though? Because we saw it last year after the Jimmy trade. That wasn't fake. Obviously the pace was ridiculous and it's March basketball. A lot of teams are trying to lose. So that makes the pace ridiculous. But the general idea of them being really good with Jimmy, that's not fake to me at all. So like all those things could be middling, all those swing factors you talked about. And I think we could still. see them like all they need is good injury luck which could happen yeah the one i didn't i don't assuming bad injury like because of age really yeah and i mean which is 100% fair yeah but like

and i didn't really index for for like trades on on my list but the one like if i was super high on golden state i would point to the fact that like hey they're going to trade comming and you're going to get somebody in there that one actually wants to be there and probably fits in everything that they want to do and gives them a little bit more boost of whatever area that they're struggling in at the time. So if you want to have some like ace up your sleeve that you can, you know, that you can pull and say, okay, they're going to be better because of this. That would be it. I guarantee you. Whoever trades for Jonathan Kaminga, that player will be damn near not a non-factor at all. You're going to be real pissed when Keon Ellis is traded for Jonathan Kaminga.

I mean, that move. Didn't the Sacramento Kings rejected trade for Kaminga? I thought, I thought, I don't know how legit the report was. No, the Warriors rejected them. like there was talks there but they couldn't figure it out yeah it's keon ells i'm gonna be pissed i don't know if keon ells i mean i pulled it up my ass but there was talks there and they couldn't come to a agreement on what the value was yeah we'll see we'll see i fucking open man i don't have super i don't have a lot of faith in the warriors long term yeah okay let's move on to the top five in this conference let's get through this is this will probably be the least discussion because this is pretty we know who these teams are we all agree it's just

a matter of what are the margins are going to be like to decide it at five i had the clippers at four i had the lakers three i have the Rockets. Two, I have the Nuggets and one, I have the Thunder. Okay, I have five, I have the Rockets. Four, I got the Timberwolves. Three, I have the Lakers. Two, Nuggets and number one, O KC Thunder. Yep, yep. Five, I have the Timber Wolves. At four, I have the Lakers. Three, I have the Rockets. Two, I have the Nuggets. One, I have the Thunder. Very clear, right? No discussion there. We know the Thunder are the best team in the NBA. They will be one CD game. Are they going for 70 wins this year? We will see. They're probably going to be a walking 65 again,

at least. And the Nuggets, we all feel good about their depth being brought back and they're going to be good like they always are. We don't really

got to talk about the nuggets at all. We know what they are. Clippers were five to me just like I'm sure Timberwolves were to you and apparently Rockets were to you. Okay, you have a discussion

there, everyone two and four and five. Me and Donovan, it was a team that got left over from the previous things. That's fine. Only thing I struggled with here was Rockets and Lakers and until last night

I had the Lakers at three, I moved them down just because I was like, let me respect the LeBron injury is being a thing. We got a new report last night that they're going to play it slow that was reported again by Shams

which to me probably meant something that they're putting it out there that they're not going to rush him back at all they're going to make sure that they're putting it out there that way they will be cautious with LeBron I think that's meaningful I think they're going to probably do that for a long time

and I think we're going to see a lot of the year without LeBron for different reasons so that to me was a deciding factor of why I went Rockets but I was very close that if LeBron didn't get hurt the Lakers would have been three

okay and yeah that's fair I think the Rockets for me I think even with LeBron the Rockets still would have been three for me though because the same reason why I had the Blazers and the Mavericks in the playing of like hey it's just hard to play them every single night it's the same thing with with Houston yeah and their depth and their size and their proven ability to already say we can just go extremely big and win in these super weird ways and be ultra physical and do all these things that that means a lot to me so I think like they

have they have a floor even without fred like fred is fred's injury is a ceiling um it's a it's a ceiling changer for me not necessarily a floor like really yeah i don't i don't think that they can without him or without a like competent point guard and we'll see if a man gets there i don't i don't i don't think they're going to be able to win a title with him though or or without him their defense is still so good the fact that you are going from jalen green to to kd in just like hey nothing else is really working I just need somebody to go get a bucket you have the person

who's like I just want to go out here and get a bucket so that I'd like their construction and then you have you have email as a coach so I really like what he's what do you think about the fact that obviously KD is going to be very helpful there as a go-to score better than Jaylon Green by a wide margin they're almost equal issue

last year was lack of spacing right that limited the offense their three best shooters last year I think Fred Van Fleet Jalen Green Dylan Brooks all gone Kevin Rand is obviously a great spacer In terms of just like spacing And you need to have the most bodies out there To keep the defense honest

Low key worse now In my mind it's pretty much like high key worst Now mind you Well DFS too Let me not ignore DFS he's there Yeah he's there Mind you you don't have anyone to create Those consistent looks you do how you'd have people

DFS is going to get his shots up But the shot quality won't be as crisp As we usually see it because Of course he does have no traditional point guard Along his side he's going to have reed shepherd or a men tom to i think he's going to we're going to see a real leap from him because uh i buy his post his i buy his preseason performance and how legit the shot or at least the willingness to take it will be yeah but i think because uh i love the kd fit

obviously i love that basically all of the jane green shot shot attempts imagine that being katy you would think that they that that that that prevailed that propels them to like an even better offices than what they were but i don't think that's the case at all because going back to they have like the same debacle as the mavericks in which they're going to struggle to get quality shots but they're so big they're so long even like on the wing basis even more and when it comes to thinking about guys who are going to set up these shots going back to shot quality they just don't have that factor which holds them back genuinely and to be fair they didn't have it last year either and they got to the two seed so they do clearly have a very high floor

and the reason I put them a couple of spots or I didn't do one spot lower was thinking about two before the Lakers it's just about the Lakers and the Nuggets getting better and I think the Rockets are going to be closer to as good as they were rather than making this logical next jump

to being so much better because you got Kevin Durant and it could be but it would like you said it would require Reach Eppard to come in and fulfill the role of Fred Van Vleet as a guy who can make the entry passes to Sengoon, keep the defense honest keep the turnover rate down

and be a legitimate floor spacer also a small guy defender that can fight over screens that's important a man thompson's leap is important the sangoon's ability to make theory a reality and take an offensive jump because he has less defensive

stress on him now and be able to be an even better creator finally be efficient as a score again that's important which I'm giving him credit for assuming it'll happen but it's not a guarantee there's reasons they can be substantially better but I think the mix of pros and cons of this roster probably to me keeps them around the same as last year

and they're probably going to have the same methods as last year to maintaining the value and there just won't be this gigantic jump like you would think with Kevin Durant. Yeah. And, okay, so, like, you asked me about the, about the, the spacing. I don't care. I think that, in a regular season context, obviously, like, that's, that's one of the reasons why even whenever they did have, have read there, it was taking me a while.

Like, I wanted to believe in them to, to win the title and take that step. But ultimately, like, that was the thing holding, holding me back. In the regular, in the regular season, you can, you can win in different ways. And you can, you know, and you can be, you can be very unique. And I think that that for them, that counts for something and it counts for a lot. And so I will take that and I will keep them at three. And even if they are the same team that they were last year, like you said, they were the two seats. So even now you're looking at them saying, okay, you probably took like a little bit of a step back.

Maybe other people or other teams are a little bit more prepared for you to throw out a double big. And we can exploit that a little bit more than last year. When it was just like, yeah, what the hell are you guys doing? Yeah. It's still probably around this range. And for the Lakers, if their other, you know, if their second best player also wasn't out for who, you know, who knows how long the Brown's going to be out,

then maybe. But with the combination of both of those things, Houston still should be extremely extremely. Yeah, they're leading into that gigantic line of even more, right? They can be playing the line where Kevin Aran is essentially the shooting guard. And they're going to place, they started Stephen Adams in their last preseason game. To be determined if they're going to start that as a regular look,

they might. And they might have damn near 35 minutes a night of double big. They might just go full on into that and have that be a superpower that nobody can match up with. And maybe they are the two seat again. Maybe they are better than Nuggets. That world is there. It's just not as much of a certainty to me as the Nuggets are. Again, like I think all these teams, just like last year, and I believe the year before that,

we're going to be separated by like two or three games. So this eating really doesn't necessarily matter until like we go in and talk about like playoff contention and stuff like that, which entirely changes the direction of this conversation. Yeah, but Lakers. I think when it comes to the Rockets, one last thing is that, Katie's another year older. I don't think he's going to fall off for this or anything like that. But last year you played like 65 games,

you do not have an option with less shooters or any more room for error at all. Yeah. Lakers, real quick, before we move on to the east, people are going to say we're too high on them. People are going to say they have no defense. People are going to say they're garbage. They were the three seats last year. I think you cannot overlook just how thrown together the Luka

it was after they got him, just how much nonsense they had to pull out to make it work with such a incomplete roster because they got him in the dead of night when nobody saw it coming. It was truly a broken team that didn't make sense, and now it does. Think which one about DeAndre Aden, he is clearly better than what they were getting before from that position with Alex

Glenn and fucking Koloko and Lassau's a small ball center. He's clearly better than that. Maybe he won't, he's not going to be a star for them. He will be a good release foul for Luca Donch's pick and rolls. He does have amazing touch in the short role. He's a very good score there. He is a better rebounder than they had. which rebounding was a big thing.

They had to do a lot of just, like I said, gimmick stuff to make up for the lack of size and rebounding. They won't have to do that because they have two seven-footers that will be playing all game. Marcus Smart will see how long is healthy. He's obviously still a good team defender to some extent and can be a wing for them that can, you know, defend at a high level. The health is going to be a swing factor there.

But that's obviously a thing. I think, why am I blanking on his name? Jake La Ravia, underrated addition there just because he fits so well as an off-ball player. Also, like, sneakily huge. I don't know. I just like noticed when I was watching for the Lakers the first time. I was like, it's got a legit 6-8. He's gigantic.

Once LeBron comes back, this team, like always in the LeBron era, will be gigantic. Luka Donchia's 6-7 at the point guard. Lebron, Ruey, Jared Vanderbilt, Jake LaRavio, all 6-8 plus, legit 7-footer and Ait, who at the very least is massive, they're going to have advantages there. I don't think there are going to be some terrible defense. Yeah. In my mind, when I think of what a successful Luca-daunted lead team looks like, it's this. Even with LeBron out, I think they're going to just naturally roll their way into wins

because of an unstoppable game style or play style that they go ahead and will be doing through Luca. And then on top of that, too, going back to what you said about Aiton, you got a paper chaser who's fucking hungry on this goddamn team. You see it now. I've been trying to convince you. Contract year. That matters. That matters so much. A huge swing factor is, of course, the biggest swing factor to me is how good Marcus Mark will be.

That changes so much for this team, like, long term and even like throughout the consistency of the. regular season yeah and i i feel like that's that's that's that's the big thing for me is like if if the rest of of your team is not is not something that i just completely hate yeah and you have one of you know the potentially like three best best players in the world all right like you're in you're in this year you can you can be up there and so like that's what they're at for minnesota also shout out shout out to them the last two years they've just proven everybody wrong and they figured stuff out we didn't think that they could figure it out what cat they did It took them time, but they figured stuff out with Julius Randall.

I just think, like, they're the ones, kind of like the Memphis conversation earlier, where their infrastructure, their continuity, the fact that you do have it still ascending, even if he doesn't fully add the postgame aspect to his bag. Yeah. He's still amazing. So we're adding all of that and now a full season, a full offseason with Julius Randall. I trust them and I like them to be, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, take a step up they were the 60 last year

win two more games and let's be the five six I think it'll be exactly the same. They lost in Killars Under Walker replacing him with youth that could work and they could explode or it could take time like it did the start of last year and Rudy Gobert took a step back offensively last year which obviously there wasn't a whole lot of steps to lose

he lost one last year until the end of season then they exploded with him and Randall finding their synergy maybe that happens again and maybe he does have a great offensive year with the playmaking of Randall opening things up but also Gobert is a year older I could totally see him continue to slip physically they did last year and that could be an issue. There's just enough things that I feel like to stay neutral.

I don't say, I'm not putting them lower, but I think there's probably the same good team. Yeah, I feel you on that. I think because of the, how last season started for them last year, last year when this cat trade happened, I was the highest on it and I was trying to bring up all the bright sides to it. Now, of course, like their offense has questions, but one of the questions that I had for them last year was you know i think dante de vincenzo was going to be like a huge swing factor for them in a legit flamethrower like two years ago he shot like 40% on like nine eight at tons of game he was crazy to start out the year for the first 25 games bullshit he shot like 35% from the field and like

31% from the three point line and then got her came back was a demon i think if he is able to and overall like the shooting is able to maintain at least a decent level while like having the floor, the defensive floor that Rudy Goodberry gives you, this team probably couldn't it out to be like a top three, four seed at the end of the year. I actually believe so. DeVincenzo is a good point. It's like maybe he just has a good year and like bounces back. That could replace a lot of it. He could just directly replace the Hill Alexander Walker's minutes and play more. That, that's a good point. I kind of forget about Devincento because he was so quiet for especially the playoffs. He was nothing. Yeah. He's such a huge swing factor for

a team that is entirely dependent on, okay, Anthony Edwards, get his bucket to Julius Randall. good playoffs series and he was able to do that yes he's on pout yeah yeah he was able to do that you heard he dropped the reefer I heard I heard I heard like that might moves he stopped smoking oh he dropped the reefer he said yeah no longer with the devil's lettuce yeah so I'm supposed to help him yeah apparently he said that his like yo he he dropped all the negative yeah okay yeah good for him I guess yeah moves it moves so yeah man I don't feel super passionate about any of these rankings in the top six they're going to be so fluid it's yeah it's literally just separated by one to three

games at the end we're just talking about the teams we have slightly more faith in at this point the west is ridiculous yeah if fred if fred was here i would have the rockets had two though oh for sure too no i don't know i would have did that maybe maybe i would have been crazy though i would have them firmly three instead of like questioning the three but i think the nuggets are just going to be so they're so consistent they are the nuggets yeah okay that's the watching conference now on to the conference that maybe we can have some actual solidified opinions on and actually feel good about it. The weaker one.

Let's talk about the Eastern Conference. At 15, I have the Nets. At 14, I have the Wizards. At 13, I have the Hornets. At 12, I have the Celtics, and 11 I have the Pacers. I have never seen anybody stand less on anything. What?

How do you put the qualifiers in the rankings? I put it there as a note just for you guys. I'm putting in 12 and 11. I'm just telling you that, like, that's how good they be if I thought they cared. I think there's no word. Coward! I put them 12 and 11.

What do you mean? That's just a note for you guys. I'm putting in 12-11 I feel so certain that the Celtics and Pacers will tank not certain is not the right word because I don't know what they want to do I feel so certain they should tank

and I'll be baffled if they don't tank so I'm putting them 12 and 11 I think they're good enough if they want to try as hard as they can and make moves I think it would be so ridiculous to do that in this year with how good the draft class is

so I think they're going to be in the bottom five I don't like you I didn't put them higher at 12 and 11 this is funny I just never seen like the qualifiers on the rules and regulations but what so that makes sense i had i had the nets at

15 the hornets have 14 the wizards at 13 the paces at 12 and the raptors at 11 yeah i got the nets at 15 wizard at 14 13 bulls 12 hornets 11 bucks 13 bulls you hate the bulls you know they're destined for nine yeah i sure i think they are but also at the same time too I think your 11 and 12 are also like potentially destined to be nine as well because they're they might be stuck in the middle of like I don't know if I want to tank or don't take let's start with them if you think Brad Stevens doesn't want to get the Bonsa on his team doesn't want to get Pearson on his team doesn't want to get boozer on his team you're insane if you think he thinks they can win without Tatum you're insane I'll be so unbelievably shocked if at the Celtics

specifically don't tank as hard as humanly possible at some point Jalen Browns and turn his ankle I miss two weeks. Next day, Simon's is getting traded. Next day someone's going to tear this bitch down with the studs. Funny enough not to leak my list,

but I'm going to leak my list a little bit. See that quotation, the quotations are not, parentheses you have for the Celtics. I have them at six. And that's assuming that they don't think. I'm assuming the best case scenario for every team in this conference.

So if that happens, me too, me too. And best case scenario is motherfucking tanking. I'm just thinking about the actual right way basketball is going to be played. Yeah, that's why I put that parentheses there because I figured if one of you would do that and I want to talk about the difference there. I think they should tank and I think Stevenson is for sure the type of guy that will tank.

We'll see. Maybe they're just really good and they stay trying to win. If that is the case, I agree. It'll be closer to six. The Pacers is a real question. Obviously, people point to the fact that Pacers never try to tank, right? They're always, they haven't picked top 10 in a long time. I think it was like 15 years and Patriots fans push back.

Outside of the 2020 draft, but yeah. Yeah, and they push back and say, we're never have top 10 odds. We're always trying to win. These guys do not want to try to. You know, they won't bottom out. They want to put butts and cease. This is their ethos. I'm with you.

I'm a little bit lower on their ceiling than some people. Some people think they can still be four or whatever. And if they are four, I agree, they won't tank. I don't see that as a realistic possibility. I think even with Pascal Seahakman there, with Rick Carlisle being one of the best coaches in the NBA, even if Andrew Nymard makes a leap and is this like mini Brunson guy, I still think it's the seventh best team in the conference at best. So I'm lower on their ceiling.

And I just think that, yes, they have the MO of never trying to tank. I think every franchise has their patterns, has their stick. There's always going to be exceptions to the rule. And Tyree Talbird missing a year is a clear exception to the rule. They are clearly not in the same place they always are. They clearly don't have the ceiling. And I'm just giving them credit that maybe they decide not to because maybe they're hardheaded and want to just make the most money,

put the most sales out there. I think they'll reach the same conclusion that Siakamo will miss two weeks and the tank will be very easy to get to 11. Yeah, they might get there without having to like tank. I just don't think that they're going to be that good me either I think like you look at them and they had they they were also one of those teams where early on in the season we're like hey man like what's like what's what's really good right what's what's really going on here and then what what's the I forgot like what the what the line was was it from like January 1st all yeah they got

really good they were top offense yeah so and top defense yeah so like after that day then they were like this very real you know finals contender team that we're playing as good as everybody else the first half of the season they weren't awesome and they still had tiris because he was dealing with injuries and you still have miles turner those two guys are not there this year and so i'm not sure if i fully believe if if like without without your engine offensively and without your your main room protector in miles turner that that nem hard is going to actually take this. Everyone's taking it for granted and this is one of those moments where the where like the last thing that we saw is the main picture. A hundred percent. Nemhart. Nemhart is

not consistently this guy who's going to score 20 on like some of the best efficiency in the league. He really has to prove that over 82 games. I think 100 percent that is true. It's recency bias. And also in the finals in the playoffs, we had this magical run where everything was clicking. Rick Carlisle was incredible. The supporting cast was incredible. Neesmith couldn't miss a shot. M. Hart was defending his ass off and hitting big shots. So y'all complete great for the playoff run. All these things were clicking and being magical, right? So people were like, okay, I got to respect these guys.

They find a way to get it done. While also in that time, they were saying Tyrese Halliburton is one of the 10 best players in the world. If you think a team can lose one of the 10 best players in the world and win the same amount of games, that feels like a ludicrous assumption to me. Like one of those things can't be true. Either Tyrese Halliburton isn't as important as you think or the rest of these guys need Tyreys Halliburton to hit that level. Yeah. Yeah, I 100% agree with you guys. And something hilarious that I don't know why I just didn't think about like that.

But, you know, Miles Turner is literally not here no more. Yeah. And Jay Huff is starting for you. I think you're going to be relying on J.F. Or he's like, say, Jackson, I think he's a good player. But that is the thought process of any Pacer fan expecting to come into the year in one like, I don't know, 43, 44 games sounds insanely tough. it's hard it's hard yeah and in there they're also another team obviously because of their losses where the the margin for error is also it's also tough if they don't have pascal for for two weeks and now you don't have your your creator of how you like to play offense or pascal who is the very nice yin yang to what you do it's going to be a tough two weeks or your stretch five and tj mcconnell's already hurt it's just you need everything to go right and i do think if they tried they could be from seven to nine just because the east is still weak as fuck but i just think they're going to be closer to ten closer to nine because of all these things

and if they're at 10, if they're at 9, they're going to barely get into the plan, it'll be mad easy to just duck out of that playing race and get the better odds. I don't think they're going to be 15. I think they're too competent for that to like truly tank and tear it down. I don't think they're going to trade everybody

and try to be as bad as possible, but I think they can do a stealth tank and get to 11 or 12 and get those good odds and try to jump up like the Hawks did. Yep. I 110% agree with you. That's why.

Go ahead. I was going to ask you. What was it? You've Janice outside the place. Yeah, let's move on. $11. Jesus. Dude, they're so bad.

I lied to you earlier. I assumed the best case scenario for every single team. And actually, maybe I didn't lie to you. I'm seeing some of your psyche. The best case scenario for the bucks is that they go ahead and trade away Yonis. I genuinely think that that shit is going to happen to this scene. To you guys? No.

That's the best case for Yannis. That's a horrible case for the bucks. If for Yon's request a trade, they're squarely fucked. Dude, it depends on, it's just entirely dependent on what they are looking for to getting. Like with Janice on this team, with how bad everything else is around him, I don't trust someone like Doc Rivers to maximize this roster. I don't trust any of the guys that they have on their coaching squad to develop these young players to become anything. They don't do that. They're not known for that at all.

So with that being said, like, I'm like, okay, you're relying on like internal growth from like a 28, 29 year old Kyle Kuzma. They bench him, actually. What the, exactly, coming up, I get the idea of having, having him, like, as a six-man or whatever, but genuinely, what are we doing right now? They benched him because they wanted to play power forward, because he obviously sucks a small forward and can't defend. So he's going back to be the backup for, which is the best place for him, clearly. And they're starting AJ Green to get the better spacing.

And I understand what you're saying. I truly do. I just don't condone it. I think that I don't. At the end of the day, it's the honest. Yeah, like, if, especially like with how. I feel in the West. Wembe, you have to show up and like,

you just have to carry your team to eight. I'm putting the Lakers at four just because I think that the Lakers will probably be the better of that group because they have a guy at that level. The bottom of the east, the playing range in the east is going to be, especially 9 and 10, very legitimately unsurious teams.

And guess what? Yonis can get them to that. I'm assuming Yonis is traded. That's misconception, really. I think Yonis is going to be traded. If Yonis requests a trade in the middle of the season, if I was Milwaukee, I'd be furious. What do you mean we just signed both of your brothers?

And you can spend the whole year. Y'all are going to stay here. And we can talk about this in the summer. But they're going to play out their contracts. You're going to play out your contract too. And you're not leaving. I also don't think that he's going to get traded in the middle of the year. Well, he could if they're in this range.

But I think, like we said, he's too good for them to be in this range. If they're floating around six, he's going to say, let's see what we do in the first round. if you're losing the first round again the trade request is a certainty but they'd have to be disastrous for in-season trade to happen and that's pretty hard we have yonis it's pretty hard to be disastrous i don't know man when as soon as yonis goes ahead and like he pulls his hammy or whatever and he misses like 10 games had to dig this team outside he doesn't pull hammies until april exactly i don't know man every april he pulls one but not before he might be my my my pick to win the scoring title he should 100% be your pick we didn't pick that he should 1,000% be the scoring

title pick like he might average 37 this year it's hard to deal with no jump shot 34 though 33 34 he should it should be his career high yeah yeah no I I definitely do agree I think things to get scary battle with him and shade 34 versus 30

look I would know LeBron yoke he's gonna go crazy if the scoring title comes down to four guys all averaging like over 32 oh it would be beautiful yeah that's crazy but yeah now they definitely a playing team yes they're gonna trade you on it we don't gonna talk about the net We don't got to talk about the wizards.

Hornets. Slightly interesting. Prove it to me. Like we've been so many years now. Yeah. It's going so poorly. Every year we're like, oh, the infrastructure's going

a little bit better. They should be competent. They never are. They're always terrible. They're always injured. Lamello's never available. It's always bad. The worst case scenario always happens.

Run the hits. Show me you can get the best case scenario. Show me Brandon Miller to stay healthy and he can be a pseudo star wing next to La Mello. Show me. Con Cognipal can come in and be the spacing you need. Show me you have better finishers at the rim.

Show me everything I need to see. last year or I feel like over the course of the last two years like one of us always tends to get burned by this team one of us two years it was you last year it was you because i think you were talking you were giving a lot of praise so their new head coach who came from the celtics and you were a little bit higher on them potentially being being in the playing and of course like what happened happened i probably did i probably had them in 10 but to your point with charles lee there i think you've seen the preseason if they are healthy and if everything does work out and people are good and available they're going to shoot heller threes like the celtics lamello's going to be a big engine again like we saw in the

first half of the season hopefully doesn't get hurt and come back and the roster is deteriorated so it goes bad row fast, but they will score hella points if they're available and the young guys are like sliding into their rolls properly. They should be a good offense at least. They should. They have a ceiling of being like nine, I guess, if they get some good scenarios. Who is their starting center?

Who is it right now? I don't even, I don't even remember. It's a, it's Cogran. Is he going to start? Is it Coch? Yeah. The rookie. I think he's going to start. It's going to be a hammered Diabate. And I know in the preseason they were starting Kulk, but people want them to start Diabate, which to your point, that's a horrendous center room. I thought it was Mason Plumley.

He's the third string. Oh, geez. There Mason Plumby is beyond cooked. Well, let's him go ahead and start him. Maybe. For venture purposes. That is the problem. That's a horrific rotation unless Calc Winner is really good and we just don't see it coming,

which I don't know shit about Calcbrner. Maybe he is good. We'll see. That's honest. I'm glad you're pointing it. That's a swing factor. If he's good and gives him competent rim protection, that will be huge. If Diabate can be a better rim finisher this year and get to league average there for a center,

that could be good. There's worlds in which they have things that can go their way. way. Maybe they get a second year leap from you know who. We'll see. Maybe Brandon Miller is that guy and can make it like a pseudo all-star leap. We'll see. I'm just done hoping for it. Yeah. Yeah. I told us too high. What the fuck was I doing? Wizard. The Wizards also just have. We know about it. First half of the year, they got adults in a room. So it's like 13. 6 through 10. At 10 I have the Bulls. At 9 I have the Raptors. Eight, I have the 76ers, which I have the most trouble with. If anybody on this list,

because I don't know what you think about them. Seven, I have the heat. Six, I have the bucks. Okay, so at 10, I have the Pacers, nine heat, 76ers. They're at eight, seven wrappers and six Celtics. At 10, I have the Bulls, and nine I have the heat. At eight, I have the Celtics, seven I have the 76ers, and at six I have the bucks. Yeah, I think the Celtics are six. That is a organizational failure from Brad Stevens.

It's super possible. They could do that. You're right. You're dumb. You're stupid. Literally, I think during last night's preseason game, Dale Brown went ahead and like he pulled his hand. me and didn't return into the game.

If little things happen like that, like throughout the entirety of the year, then I do think they're going to fall out of this race and they're going to be like, fucking the 11th or 12th seed and they're going to tell Jaylon Brown, we don't need you hurt any longer for next year. Like, I need you to be 100% healthy. And how do you tell Peyton Pritchard to not average 25? He can do that. Payton Pritcher being your leading score is the recipe for the 11 seed. That's what you want to see.

I want to see Payne Pritchard and Anthony Simon's led offense. please. I want to see Anthony Simons wearing a Raptors jersey and that's what we're going to do because we're going to pump and dump Simons. We're going to make him average 20

and then trade him to the Raptors because they need spacing from their guards and it's going to be great. Yeah, the one, like I'm putting the subjects A, just because I think eventually they'll get there and, you know, if everybody kind of stays somewhere healthy, it's probably where they're going to slide out.

Their big room is also stupid. Can't we even talk about that. They're also not that great roster. Yeah. Dude, a lot of teams have no centers, right? So, yeah, it would not shock me Like if the if the Sussex end up at at 11 And the Raptors end up in the in the playing

And they they replace them But I'm just playing the med ape right here Bulls or Bulls shout out modest Uzellis We're all looking for a star leap But they'll be the square 10 seed Top of the Pacers Miami Heat what do y'all feel Did you have any thought or consideration

To make them be a really good team again To push up with Tyler Hero Bam Norman Powell being a legitimate scoring duo Yeah I know where making a leap I kind of wanted to go ahead and push them up because I feel like this could be a year where they redesign themselves,

redesign their offense, bam out of bio, like finally hones into like a veteran role. He finally has like the keys to the locker room and he has like finally like stop to give me bullshit when it comes to, oh, let me take a long pull up twos and all that to a couple three like fuck all that.

That's not going anywhere. Yeah, exactly. I hope not. I fucking hope not. No, no, that's going to be there. He's going to continue to do that. He's not going to stop taking those mid-range jumpers

because he's not getting him. younger and he's not creating open shots of the rim anymore so i'm with you maybe he'll be better it's not because he stops doing that though he's going to keep doing that and you better hope they're going yeah if they're better i think it's going to come through internal growth from a lot of their young players and surprising growth from someone like yaka chum not growth but yaka chon's i think he's going to be able to be playable which is like huge for them and then also i think calel ware four in a row i think chel ware is going to be much more than it was last year because he just looks like such like a fucking enigma on like

court. That's the swing factor to me. If Kalil Ware can be one of the best role players in the league and make a giant leap, that could help. And I do agree that Eric Sposha is clearly going to reinvent this offense. They're going to play faster. They're probably going to shoot more threes. They're not going to be as mid-range heavy. They're going to make other adjustments that we don't see coming. He's too smart to continue to bash his head into the wall playing the same style of basketball. So I do think of Ware makes a jump. And I can see a world where we get some sneaky thing where Tyler Hero and Norm Powell are some like amazing duo as your two like combo guards. And we find a way to do the playmaking with the offense,

a lot of like dribble handoffs and hubs up through Bama out of bio. And it's kind of gross, but it works good enough because those two guys have electric shooting seasons and we're back to being a really good defense again,

which is kind of hard with those two as your back court, but maybe we can figure it out because Koloa and Bama are amazing together and maybe Andrew Wiggins is a very good point of attack defender again, which is very possible.

We have a top 10... Forget Andrew Wiggins is there. Holy See. Exactly. So we can have a top 10 defense because those three, the three to five is really good and that combo of those two guards

you really shoots the shit out of the ball. and we're the five seed that's the seal you just spent like two minutes going over hypotheticals like well we spent about two hours like i i think like for for this team to even beat the like the six seed or that so much has to as to go right and so so much so much so much has to go in in their in their favor and i just don't think that i just don't think that they're that that good like you know what it says to me i think you're doing the same thing with the clippers where you hate them and hate what they stand for so much so you're overlooking the upside we're just focusing on the negative

there's still a solid roster no no first of all the clippers was a was a very clear like i'm just just going to put you here just because you know it is it is what it is i think the heat have earned the the nine spot much more than the clippers had in seven yeah yeah and like what if bam just isn't you know what if he just doesn't fix everything offensively i agree i'm not i'm not that's not a thing what if like for all the the hypotheticals what if wears just you know just a little better not like one of the best you know role players in the league what if he's just a little bit better yeah what if your guy

you know he's a he's a rookie a rookie guard it takes him a while like I I think that the heat have obviously they have all the infrastructure they have all the heat culture stuff but there's also a year where they are being forced to reinvent themselves and so I think that that

transition is going to lead them to be a 90 to be just very very mid and respectable mid and it's going to look better and feel a little bit less like, oh, we're stuck in the mud than what last year was. Because last year really felt like, you know, we're just going to put our head down and just go, go, go and try to muster up all the heat culture, black magic that we can. This year is going to feel like, okay, we're moving into a different era. And it just might not be enough.

So that's why I have them at nine as opposed to seven or even getting up to as high as six. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I guess the difference to me is eight and nine. I put the 76ers in the Raptors. Are y'all confident in them? You put them above the heat. They have a way lower floor than the heat to me. The 60s just have more talent.

You say that. They do at the high end. Middle and bottom of the roster? Not so much. That roster is so top heavy. And so let's assume you get relative good health, which relative good health for Embed is obviously still not good. You know, let's assume he plays 50 games.

Paul George plays what? I'm not even going there. I'm going 45 for NBA. Okay. He plays 45 games and Paul George plays I don't know why I said that. Paul George plays 60 while being a little bit better than last year.

If I get 60 games out of Paul George, I will be happy. Okay. And he plays a little better than last year, but like not. He's still a little washed, you know? Let's assume all that happens. Your best players are all still like 6.3 and below. Hard to play them all at once. Hard to construct a good defense with all them at once,

especially with Joelle and Bede, not being what he once was and not being available. We'll see if Paul George never hold down the defense. Aside of that, who's your fit starter that you're confident in? Is your try Kelly Ubray, get some size up there? Yeah, Kelly Ubray is good. I agree, but he's fine. Like, that's not going to help your defense necessarily. He's good, and, like, he can run transition, can shoot solid cutter off of Joel and B post-ups and whatnot.

Not some wingstopper that's going to elevate your defense led by a bunch of small guards. You need Vijay Edgecombe to be incredible two-way right away. He's a small guard. Those guys take some time to get going, even if I do like him. Jared McCain, I like him. There's some conflict now between being going to close games with him or Vijay and empower both of them with Tyrese who has to start all the time. It's just a very weird roster that, like, are we getting Andre Drummond Backup Center? again? All right. Fine. Who's the back of wings you feel good about?

Don't worry about that right now. Quint grabs us a story like that. It's not a good roster. Okay, with the with the BJ thing. Yeah. You'll be all right, you'll be okay. Like I do understand like taking somebody third over on, you do want to prioritize them and everything. But also we are in the very last year of this Embedd era. We're going to do what like you right now are not the focus. But be patient because there is a very real scenario where you can have 40 games well you're the man and we run everything through you but right now i just need you to to play your role so i'm not i'm not super um worried about oh who are we going to close games with in when it comes to like vj um uh yeah when it comes to to vj i see your point yeah i think if you get 45

games of imbid a better pg and tyrese maxi you can be the seven seed and you can be the seven seed 45, no way. 45 is way too small, I think. You can be the 7th seat. I think it's just entirely too hard to project like what the 70-6ers can be if the end-all be-all is Embed health. They could swing from anywhere between like,

hell, I would say they could be the 6th seed all the way to the 12th seat if Embed isn't there. And if Vijay Edgecombe and Jared McCain just aren't like thrusting the offense and making this offense like top 10 alongside Tyries and Max which sounds insane It's not going to be a top team

I don't know how it can happen I can't happen Yeah it's not going to be a top 10 offense And I do I understand what you're saying But I do think especially once we We'll see what parts of the year And Bid is healthy Because obviously that's going to matter a lot

Like if he is healthy in March And we can play some bad teams at this point And we can you know boost our record And get to 7 and go on a little run And you know everybody in Philly's like hey man We're putting it all together and you're just playing stinkers? This is too many like mental gymnastics.

I know. I'll make it simple. If they didn't have Joelle and Bede and the starting lineup was Tyrice Maxie, Quinn Grimes, Paul George, Kelly Ubray, and Andre Drummond, how many games do you expect them to win? That's not a terrible team, but 38, 37.

So they'd be so, 36? 36. So well below 500, six things below 500. What is it like a 40% win pace? If you just said you expect Joelle and B to play 45 games, half the season you're expecting them to be below 500. That already is a hard.

place to start from you? I think everybody in the plane might be under 500. This is not like an indictment on the sixers and the something. It's the Eastern Conference is the year to be below 500. Because I do think and especially whenever we get to the top five, the top five in the east is very much like they're going to win games. I do think that the top like the cabs, the calves are going to be able to stack wins. We'll see what just how much of a difference Mike Brown has made. But if if things are better, then this can can stack. We'll see what kind of a jump Orlando takes. It would not shock me at all if we get to April and I'm up here yelling because

I'm like, we need to take away the playing because we have all these teams under 500 having an opportunity to be in the playoffs. It wouldn't like the Celtics over under, I think right now is that like 40 and a half. Yeah. I did eight just because I'm just like wish casting that Joelle and Bees healthy and has a one more year in him. But between the heights of 6'6 and 610 on this roster, we have Paul George. Kelly Ubre, Justin Edwards, and Tren Wofford.

So, issue, they're going to struggle so much, like, blocking shots. They're going to struggle so much when it comes to grabbing rebounds. Like, they're going to be bottom head when it comes to all the normal big men stuff that you need. What are they going to do well when Joe and be not there? Fast. Not even that fast, though. They'll be fast. They'll be fast.

Yeah, but, like, not in a way that I'm like, it's dangerous. Well, being fast can be dangerous because you can do a lot of bad things on the court. No, I mean, the dangerous is a good way. Like, they're fast, but, like, there's that type of fast that they're fast because they can't do anything else. Not because their pace is, like, hard to defend. That's exactly what I'm talking about. They can be fast. That's gross.

Regardless. That's gross. Yeah, I'm kind of convinced myself they should be lower. Like, maybe, like, they could make their identity being like, you know, we're going to be fast as fuck. And we're not going to grab no boards. Demons transition. And that's the way to go. Again, get up Heller 3s from Jared McCain when he's healthy.

Who else? Who else? Who else, Chuck? V.J. Edgecombe. it's a good three-point shooter. Paul George, please, unk, please. Pray.

Yeah, the shooting's not good enough. I mean, Grimes, Paul George, DJ, like, it's fine. It's just fine, though. No, genuinely, I think they need to pray. All the Philly Muslims, you just stand the fuck up. All the Christians over there,

stand the fuck up. All the Buddhists, bro. I don't care what you are. Whatever you believe every night before. Hit the churches, the mosque, the temples, get them all. Exactly, bro. Even the atheists, pull up.

Please. I don't know what to believe in, but surround the stadium and just pray every single night. Yeah. The only reason I put him eight is because I have just like the Raptors are so like, it could be good. They can have and everybody eats offense and we can see Scottie Barnes play better. We can see Ingram fit. We can see RJ Barrett have a good year. I could also see this roster being goddamn terrible because nobody can dribble and nobody can shoots. Dude, RJ Bear is so, so, so irritating. I watched their last preseason game or one of the last few preseason games. He's like so close to being good and also so like below average on so many aspects of the court. You can get to the rim, but you can't fucking finish, bro. You know how to

get contact. Through you going to the rim. You can't shoot free throws. What are we doing? What are we talking about right? There's so many like connected things that's semi there, but he's not finishing on certain abilities. Scottie Barnes. I'm so scared. Scottie Barnes. Holy shit. I'm so scared. What are you doing right now? It's preseason. I'm not going to let that, like, fool me too much. I'm not going to let that fool me too much. But assuming, I will, like, me personally,

I would have loved to put them, like, at number six. Or hell, maybe even five at their best case scenario. This team is decent all around. Maybe at their best case scenario. The best case scenario is three teams up top could hurt. Hell no. You said it for me. Yeah, I don't know.

Like, I see a vision. They have a good coach. which they were a good defense second half of the year. So it's not like there's some team that doesn't have their shrinks, right? Like they have a good floor in place defensively and Scotty Barnes is talented. Brandon Ingraham is talented.

Yacopold is talented. You ask him, Pertil is a top seven center league or something. That's a good core of players being good at different things. He's going to outperform with DeAndrean. I swear to God he is. He could, yeah, that's fair. That's not a high bar for you.

That's what I'm arguing. Go for it. Always matter to me. I play rather have Perthal in terms of, actually, I don't know about that. You would rather have fun of you. You're in. It's an easy conversation.

So it's an easy thing from last year. But again, my whole point is I think Aiden, like, you're coasting off for the worst case version of him. If we see a little bit better, I think it could be a debate. But neither here nor there. They have good players. The fit is a question. Quickly has to be good.

Grady Dick has to be good. We have to get Jacoby Walter Leap so the shooting can be good enough around these guys to be able to facilitate Ingram and Scotty Barnes having this, like, creation synergy there. But also Scotty Barnes. My whole thing is they have to make him be less of a score. He has to be able to score, though. He has to have something in his back.

He has to not be the worst on-ball score in the NBA. How can I, like, want to build my team around you? But when it comes to the most important thing in the game, which is getting buckets, I got to have you do a little bit less of that. That's kind of like... A little bit less, that's fine. But that has to make him better and more efficient because he's forcing less. You still got to be able to do something with that smaller responsibility scoring-wise.

You know, like, he still has to be somewhat of a threat, has to shoot the ball well from three, has to have a better handle, has to develop something in the mid-range. And you trust that? I never really trust it. No, you don't. Trusting less day by day. I'm getting worried. You don't trust it.

But okay, that's this tier. This is 6 through 10. On to the top five. Very interesting to me. I think really 3 through 5 is going to be the hardest thing to decide in this entire list for the East. Five, I have the pistons. Four, I have the Hawks. Three, I have the magic.

Two, I have the Knicks. One, I have the Cavs. We all have different three through fives. At five, I have the pistons, four, magic, three, Hawks, two, Knicks, and one, calves. Five, I have the Hawks. Four, I have the Magic. Three, I have the Pistons. Two, I have the Knicks.

One, I have the Caps. Every single year. How do we manage to have zero, three, three, five, there's not a single team that's on there in the same place. This is hilarious. That's a, I'm glad it came this way, because this is the most impossible to decide. I moved it so many times. Magic Hawks Pistons, put a blindfold on, throw some motherfucking darts of the wall and decide

that way. You're better off doing that than trying to think through it because it's impossible. Does anybody feel confident about one of these placements they want to start with? I feel decent about the Pistons just being surely number five. Barring like they make a trade happen and they like juice up their offense, whether it be like through the perimeter or on the back end with the bigs and trade for, I don't know. Maybe not someone like Larry marketing because the money's too insane, but someone of that nature just provides more juice. If that's the case, then I think they're going to be a little higher. So you feel like they're confidently five.

I don't feel confident any of this. Domney, you put him at three. Why do you feel like they're the best of this tier, opposed to clearly the worst? So, one, I think that they have, I think that, like, continuity is working for them. I think, two, I do think we get a better kid this year.

Why? In terms of just, just, just, I'm actually looking at him. It's growth. Yeah, and just growth. I'm just talking up to, you know, natural progression. Think the mid-range is better, continues to flourish? Just one thing.

I just think that like Cade is is going to it's going to get better. I think that his his ascension last year and the fact that it's like year one of competency and then we actually saw him develop a lot. This is the first year where we're not going into the year saying like, man, this is one of the worst teams in the league. So I do trust that for Cade. I understand that like playing together and like high high end ceiling with him and Ivy. That's going to be, it's going to be interesting and something to.

watch but i do like i like jaden ivy a lot i like their um in terms of intangibles dog levels are are very high i think i think we'll get a little bit better um in terms of offensively somebody i do think is going to get better between between assar or ron holland like one of these one of these guys that was just straight defense we'll get just a little bit more we've talked about the the growth from from jalen durin they have a lot going for them and so for orlando hey man like I got it can we see the offense show up and then for Atlanta like I like them I like the Hawks a lot um and I see I I don't hate you obviously that you put them at three we've also done this before where it's been like it's never been more real than this though it's time it's time for

Atlanta to be here and then it just doesn't happen I think that that Detroit right now that I do think that they're getting slept on a little bit because Orlando is rising up because Atlanta has a lot going for it, but Detroit is I feel are good. I had pistons at three for most of this past couple weeks. Yeah. I put none to five last second

because I agree with you. I put him three at first because I'm really imagining Asar and Jalen Duren specifically make a big leap. And Asar is just like don't get a blood clot and stay healthy and you'll get the reputation of being one of the best defenders in the NBA like you are. That'll be big for them.

And Jalen Dern got a lot better in the second half of the year. And I think he's a prototypical type of center that continues to get better because he grows into his body and learns how to use that athleticism proactively or productive I mean and not be like a terrible pick and roll defender like he used to be he already was fine

in the second half last year I could very much see him going and becoming like an impact defender and finally being able to be that theoretical athletic shot blocker he should be so that'll do a lot for me I put them down to five last second because you said I like jane ivy a lot why do we like jane ivy a lot he was getting buckets last year sort of he shot well off ball from three which is important obviously yeah I like the idea jen ivy a lot he just has really never been the like on ball score he needs to be for that role to work, you know, as it's like slashing guard. He was supposed to be an athletic point guard at first.

Now he's trying to be this like combo guard next to Kate Cunningham that needs to be able to shoot the ball to facilitate Cade spacing but still be in his own right a good on ball score that can make something happen as a score in a playmaker. I'm kind of worried that it won't work with Cade. Like I feel like we're just coasting off of like we wanted to. And I'm not, it might work. We saw that three be good at the first month before he got hurt.

I just, I don't know. I have a weird feeling at my knee that the J. I think this won't work. Yeah, so, okay, so I think, and you need that, that's great. I think, like, with, with Ivy and him, him being there, along with the addition of Duncan Robinson,

I think that's going to give them enough, I think that's going to give them enough of the shooting that they lost from, from Malik Beasley, and just a little bit different of a different look in terms of like, Cade handles everything and just sprays out to all, to all the shooters.

And so you have just a little bit more, more creation than what you had last, year Tobias is still there and at least in the regular season you know exactly what you're getting from Tobias Harris and so I that's the continuity and the consistency that I was talking about so I do like that from from them and did you say anything good about you and asked you something good about I no I I I told you I it's obviously going to be interesting and something that like we have to to watch for to think like if it's actually going to happen to the highest levels in terms of like how how they fit um because i i think that i think that like they can be a three

seed where they win the games in the regular season and then we get to to the playoffs and we're like okay like let's let's actually see if that three seed was real it might it might feel like that um as a guy have news for you he still doesn't say anything good about i know he just came around that completely but if you if it does just work then like yeah i agree if it works is creation it would be i yeah you know if it works and like the handle is there and like it works you're right i think they will be three if he's good i'm just wary of that because i'm just like we're coasting on hope but you're right if it works they will 100% be through to me yeah i mean i think that's what they should be doing at this point of time i don't know why but i

completely forgot that they signed um or they got duncan robinson like that is a huge addition and they fill in someone who could do a lot of the stuff that malikisly did last year and i love that but i feel less confident in them compared to a team like the magic who have something very like much tangible that we've seen, we see it, like, come together and also, like, the Hawks. Imagine the Pistons. I got Desmond Bain instead of the magic. Imagine if Ivy became Desmond Bain, imagine how good you'd feel about them. Very different players. I just mean the idea of, like, being able to shoot the ball like crazy and still dribble a little bit and create. Man, if they had Bain, they'd be easily three to me. But the magic campaign, so that's why I put them at

three. We can talk about them a little bit. I'm scared that they just won't be that good again for everything we've talked about for months, right? That like, it's all. just theoretical. Palo and Franz have to keep getting better and kind of figure out the fit, the spacing, the ability to win in spite of the spacing still not being amazing post-Bain. And the idea of them being this next vaunted team is one, they'll stay healthy, two, they'll have logical growth as you'd expect, Palo Van Carrow to become one of the best players in the league. I put them three for that reason. I'm like, yeah, it'll probably happen. But I'm very scared that if it doesn't happen, if Palo isn't a top 12 player in the league this year,

if Franz still can't shoot threes, if guys like Anthony Black and so on, don't make leaps really offensively they could still be a very bad offense and we look silly hoping it works every year for the same reasons it never does yeah i could very much see that and honestly it'll be outside of the hawks obviously because i'm a hawks fan it'll be one of my favorite storylines to watch in the NBA because if paula makes a leap and also fron makes a leap franz makes a leap too that means we get a new like star studded duo in the league that everyone fucking is scared of we see desin bane being the fucking juiced up right out for this team. We see guys like

Anthony Black. Okay, that can mean so many different things. I'm not going to get it to that. Don't juice me talking. I love Anthony Black. I think he's a tremendous player and he's going to be like such a great like replacement to have on one side jail and Suggled when an inevitable

injury like happens to one of their guards, you know? It's my favorite outcome. But again, like I need to, I think at the end of the day, no matter how good doesn't Bain is for them, if Powell and friends are never going to figure out a way to like elevate this entire team together which is like okay processing and can you shoot like better than 29%

from the three point line I think that's like I don't know I need to see it first yeah I uh the reason I put them three is mostly health related that I'm like there will be progression just by they don't all get hurt in such a dramatic fashion

with Powell hurting his oblique and then Franz hurting his oblique and then so he's missing the rest of the year with I forget what the injury was I'm just like if those guys stay healthy, they'll be a very good team. They have a high floor, probably higher than the Pistons and maybe Hawks because the defense is so good.

And then if I allow myself to buy in on those two young stars, just getting better because time goes on, then that's enough of a ceiling with the floor that I felt like they're the safest pick for three. Yeah, they, they are, they are. And I can understand that. I can agree with that. One, Suggs is already dealing with injuries as it is. And outside of two years ago, what's wrong with him?

Um, let me see. I, I forgot what it was. Okay, I got to. But, yeah, he's, he's, he's, is already hurt. Outside of two years ago, has not played 60 games in a, in a year. Tough. So that's something that we have to look for. And we talked about the last, the last couple conversations that we've had about the magic.

Like, yes, it's, it's, it's Palo in Franz and, you know, what happens with them. What if Jamal Mosley just doesn't know how to create a top 20 offense? What if that's, what if that's, what if that's, ends up being like the piece where after this year we get there and what if they actually cracked top 20 but they're like 18 and we still look at Orlando and like the offense is still there and you can move out KCP and you can say oh he didn't play well you know because of the spacing or if that just keeps being a problem because your offensive philosophy and your offensive system just isn't good enough I think that that's also a very real thing so for Orlando to take the step forward like if everything hits honestly I think Orlando can be in the conversation for two. If everything... Yeah, for sure. They have the highest ceiling.

Yeah, if everything goes the way that we want it to. What does that mean? What does everything consist of? The offense being good, Palo and Prallin and France taking the leap together and Suggs being there.

And what does it look like? Yeah, that's probably want to talk about. Like, what does it look like for the idealistic version of Franz and Palo team? Both of them make all-star teams. Palo is 13 all NBA? But I mean, like,

so is it just student threes? Is it what I mean? On the court? Like, is it just, Franz who shoot off ball and Palo can eat. I think more so I'm looking at Palo for that because he holds more responsibility when it comes to getting buckets in an easier, quicker way that allows France to take on not like necessarily a bigger role, but prioritize him and his playmaking abilities as well

to make your life easier, just easier offense. That's the part I'm, the only thing I'm sure with that, because that's what I was getting that is like, so yes, Franz is to shoot good off ball, right? So that way he can space the floor when Palo is cooking. That's one part. That's probably the hardest part because he's never done it. and we're just hoping that he figures it out. I feel like at this point in his age,

some guys like this just don't figure it out. He might just be a bad three-point shooter, and it is what it is. But okay, let's say he shoots 36% league average. He's good enough. We still want to empower Franz of the ball in his hands. And we have Desmond Bain now,

who obviously can space the floor, but his whole thing he's also really good with the ball in his hand. So you want to put it in his hands a little bit more too, right? Make ourselves less one-dimensional. There's two more guys now. We've got to really put the ball in his hands. Jalen Sugg's made a leap last year.

We want to let him do some stuff when you can. this is all taken away from Palo ball can we get Palo playing off ball and having value without the ball in his hands? I don't know, but I think for all this to work that has to be kind of like the glue that makes it all work. It comes back to coaching.

It sounds like you kind of need to be like damn near an offensive genius to figure this out. I don't know if Jamal Mosley is that. I don't know. Or Palo has to be genius and figure out how to do all the small stuff as this like big wing playmaker

and screen setter and diver and all this stuff that like there's been zero indication that he wants to do that Zero indication that he can do that Like I think that part is under talked about Is everyone assumes it's just like Palo becomes just unstoppable score

And everything else gets fixed around it But I feel like he has to kind of Fill the void and do all the other small stuff The LeBron like stuff That people always compare him to you know Yeah it's two different realities In terms of like How other people are talking about it

And then how you're talking about it In either one of those situations If I think that the best case in those scenarios even if like the synergy is not like one to one like 100 percent but fran shoots well palo shoots well everything is fine they can get up to two if they start playing together and like we really see everybody you know utilizing uh you know playing off ball and it's not like your turn my turn that can also equal to two those also two very different two very different uh situations and two very hard scenarios to overcome so that's why i do think that like while we do have a lot of

faith in the talent that they have and obviously in the investment that they made four is kind of where they slot out for me yeah and and then the hawks at five obviously like you know y'all just be mid just that you know y'all be mid and like tray has to show up and and be tray young again and if there was ever a situation and you keep saying if there was ever a situation where Trey can show up and be the Trey Young of two years ago, this year would be that year. If he is not, they are the five seed. So you said

have two years ago. Trey Young four years ago now. It's getting, we're getting pretty far removed. If he, if they want to be the three seed, push for the two seed, and everything comes together, fine. Cool. Again, if it doesn't happen, you guys are the five seats. Isn't that crazy? Back in the day for Treyong was four years ago now.

This motherfucker's getting old. Also And I had them, I had the hawks five um uh pretty much like the the entire way i should have dropped him to six for that for that for that crazy stupid video that he dropped with with lepco the ad like the hawks didn't drop that that was straight exactly he's a part of the hawks that he can't get his money are you that did piss me like what's wrong with that's we as a NBA society need to stop with the fake decision stop leaning on the decision as as the as the mechanism to sell whatever you want to sell specifically selling me alcohol because lebron was selling hennessee tray was selling spike tea

i don't want to hear it's been four years since shrey young with all NBA and six years since you average 30 now listen it's also been four years since we've had decent shooting around this yeah yeah yeah yeah small guard who you can do do those types of things like there's no room for error at all. And they've done nothing but error throughout the last like three, four years. So if there's ever going to be a situation in which like you do have the abilities to, or we are able to see like an all NBA season from Trey, it's going to be this year because we have now, okay, possibly like the best five out shooter right now in the entire league in Prazingis. Of course, I know Prazingis has ups and downs. You're chuckling over here. What you

giggling for? I forgot. Gigler. What do you think? Tray Young's field goal percentage was last year. Granted, just vanilla field goal, it doesn't matter that much, but like 41 to 42. It was 41. Yeah. I forgot it was that low. What the fuck.

Yeah, it was, it was. Career low. Very, very spooky. Now, for sure, while it was a career low, there was. It wasn't a career low and effective football percentage. It wasn't. Yeah, there was.

Second worst. There was a lot of times last year in which he was being tried out as like an off guard, off ball player. And genuinely, he had issues shooting the ball. And I think that's a part of the reason why. And also he had, he had major issues with this fucking floater. Just, like, depleted from his game. He didn't go into that.

Yeah, no, it was a three that was so bad last year. The two point percentage was exactly the same. Yeah. The three was 34% last year. Which has never been, actually, never mind I was. I said it's never been that low. In 2020, it was 23%. Oh my God.

Just not in a fishing guard. Oh, what the fuck? I don't even know is this. Last year, 34%. It's from three. You're before that 37. You're before that 33. Before that 38.

So we're oscillating every single year. You're before that 34. Yeah. where that 36. Why does he suck it at 3s every other year? Literally to weigh 100% degree He needs an offseason to lock back in. A whole season to lock back. Well, that does

mean this year he's going to shoot 38%. So that is good. At least. I think it's important to like also focus on everything around him too. Quick question. Genuinely. Yeah. In the in the in your mat for for doing everything around

Trey and using like how how real do you think offball tray is in letting like jalen johnson really like you know come come into his own as as a playmaker so do you think that that's actually real and that's actually going to happen or it's just like every other i think leaning more into not necessarily more but hell more often than we did in the past into jell and john damn did you guys hear that stomach loud as hell dude loud as a bitch i feel sorry for the audio listeners but um yeah i think if jalen johnson is able to have more

responsibility on offense and being the ignition key to that, then I think that'll just be able to have someone like Tray Young, give him less stress as a creator and have him give him less stress as someone who can penetrate the paint as much. I think that'll read dividends for us because that allows everyone else to just like flourish in different ways. You know, there's so many key plays throughout preseason, which, of course, it's preseason. I do this every single year. And guess what? I'm not going to stop doing it. I see Trayon do something off ball. I'm going to jump up and down.

I'm going to be giggling, smiling, send up the most wild expectations. But I think the end-all be-all genuine will be like, if you get a healthy year from Jalen Johnson, who should be actually like the bigger talking point, this team will be bare minimum in like top five C, which we all have them here. And I think that also like means as well.

Trailing is going to be bare minimum, like more efficient. So. Yeah. I feel decent about the Hawks. But again, it's like I said earlier in the, when we're talking about them in the West. It's just because Bearman looks great, Nepal, the shit. I think their defense is going to,

this is probably going to be the best era of defense that Tray Young has had around him. Yeah. The names on paper just like flat out to scream, oh yeah, you're better than you were ever since 2018. And then on offense, too, the versatility, the level of versatility that we have, I think it's going to scream better.

So I think they're going to just naturally net out as one of the more, I think it's a positive teams. It's kind of like you found an iPhone, 4S in a junkyard. So it's like, what a fine. This is this great value here. This stands out amongst all the cans I'm kicking around.

That's crazy. But like everything we're saying is like they're competent and they're regular and they have solid length, solid shooting, a solid star, a solid second star. Like it's all just like they're regular. So they're keeping up with teams three through six that are regular. So it's different for Atlanta, man. We're not able to be regular. Yeah, I know.

So I agree. I thought I put them there. But I also, I'm kind of scared of the downside. that like I'm paying them respect here but like KP and Jalen Johns would be getting hurt a lot so it's not like it's a everybody can get hurt yeah

I didn't even talk about it they get hurt a lot so there's that KP looks like shit last year he doesn't even get hurt he gets sick yeah but he looked like he looked bad because he was dealing with the illness so let's assume KP's back to two years ago KP where many games is healthy that's great they have depth of bigs now which is nice

they have hello wings now I don't forget about the creation room outside of Troy Young so they're going to need that Jalen Johnson thing and like Jailen Johnson offball like you said, I mean, Trey Young offball, like you said. All of this could, like, not go their way, and they could just be very vanilla again, and it's like a slightly better version of what we've seen

in years past, but still, end of the day, Tray Young Ball might not be that enticing. Yeah, I can definitely see. I mean, health is just an obvious nuke, it'll nuke any conversation and especially for us, because of how relied upon defensively we are to

our two best defenders, arguably in Christop's and Jalen Johnson. But, barring all that, Like, yeah, Dyson Daniels as well. Barring all of that, I think genuinely, if we are able to remain healthy, there should be no case in which we are below the five seed, none at all. Like the additions of also like Mikhail Alexander Walker and having another solid perimeter playmaker or perimeter defender, not a playmaker, but defender, we'll seek us out to be a net positive team at the end of the end.

That's just all we need. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I know it is they're the most like certain team I feel like on this list where they will be four or five probably I don't see any world in which they're like vying for the two or like making some big leap to be like surprise juggernaut they just like are who they are low ceiling high floor type of team to me also proceedings looks really good in preseason and this is like I'm not saying he's on aiding type timing but this is this year will his probably be his last year or a last opportunity to be given like a big contract next season and he kind of has That's to prove that he still has, like, a couple years in them. One thing I want to tell you about the KP experience, there's going to be a lot of nights where it's like, damn, he's looked better than he's ever looked before. That's how it goes. We'll see how it looks on that after that.

Yeah, I need it. Yeah. Okay. That is our Eastern Conference rankings. Next thing to do here, we are going to do the NBA awards for this year. This will probably be a little quicker, not quite as long as the whole entire conference. So we're going to do it for a wrap MVP, DPOI, coach of the year, rookie of the year, six man of the year, all of the above. And some additional awards that we decide to add on to the end, some T3, some T.

specials. The new TD3 tradition, I love it. Let's get into it. The first award we got on our list, I think, is going to be the MVP. We're going to reveal all of them at once. MVP, Luca Donchich, Mo, Luca Donchich, Donovan, Nicole Yokic. You know what I hate?

You're probably right, and you'll probably always say to pick Nicole Yokic. Yeah, I was thinking about it and I was trying to figure out, like, can I have an interesting pick? Nope. And it's like, no, like, Yolich is going to come out here. He's going to do his thing, you know what I'm saying? 28, 12, 10, right?

Shoot 38% on a bad year from three. And his team is just going to be the two seed and we're going to look up. And it's like, okay, well, he's the MVP. And whenever he was going for three straight, whenever we use race relations to give him that MVP, we were talking about like Voter Fertigin, like he can't have three straight.

Like only Larry Bird and Will Chamberlain. what if we're just in the middle of a prime of one of the greatest players we've ever seen we are and so it's like okay he just is one of those guys so it's okay yeah what happened here is I forgot to change my pick I kind of wanted to pick yoghitch too but I'm gonna stand on it

because we're going with Luca just because but you're right since in every other year thing with him Yokish lost last year good bet he'll win this year for all the reasons he was always in it and especially because he doesn't get hurt and his team's gonna be good

and his numbers are gonna be better than Lucas so it's gonna be hard to argue Are his numbers gonna be better than Lucas I actually don't know about it You said this last week and somebody in the comments talked about it. Like, someone was like, did Mojas say Yokic's won't have the numbers?

When I say, yeah. Yeah, could you, can go ahead and explain it. Yeah, like, when I say that, I say that because like, oh, shit, like his team is actually like more well-rounded than it was last year. Jamal Murray is going to come into the season, like, actually healthy. There's not going to be questions around that. And on top of that, too, hey, man.

We'll see. Questions marks to be had, but right now there are no questions. I know what you're saying. And all that is fair. And it stands to logic that they have a good amount of ball handling, Cameron Johnson is a better ball handling than they had before, so maybe they will ask less of him. That makes sense for 99% of players in NBA history. This motherfucker is different.

He's going to put his numbers up no matter what. So I think no matter who's around him, he will average 28 and 10, no matter what. So I see your point. Maybe he'll play less games. Maybe he won't close fourth quarters if they're dominant and that could help things. But I think regardless, he's the type of guy that his numbers are going to be his numbers regardless. On paper, this is the best roster. I guess it's debatable for the 20, the 23 championship team.

But on paper, this feels like the best roster that he's ever had. I think we're doing a lot of gassing up with this death thing. I think it's a good roster. And they got better because last year the debt was fucking horrendous, obviously. Yeah. And not being terrible gives the nuggets a chance to win. So, like, we're right to put him the second seed. I don't think we've got to pretend this is like strength and numbers depth.

Like, it's fine. Bruce Brown hasn't done anything in two years. And even when he was there, he was like a cute piece that they lost him and like didn't lose too much of the fuck up over it. The biggest thing was they lost Casey last year, Christian Brown came in and was like good but different. I think Cam Johnson kind of bring some of that KCP stuff and offsets it. They did still lose Michael Porter, who was big for their size and defense. I don't care at all about Jonas Valchunis. It's nice that they have somebody that can take up those 10 minutes a game.

Doesn't impact my opinion on the MVP race or anything like that. And like Tim Hardaway, more assist will go in for Yonka's. That doesn't affect my opinion on the MVP race. Like, they don't have the type of depth that I'm like, it's going to make him have to do less. You know, he's still going to have to play all the stuff through him. Yeah, I don't think it's going to, I think having someone like Yonis Valancho. I don't think he's like a complete. nothing like you're making it seem to be

but I'm not saying he's like a world changer but considering where they were last year DeAndre Jordan minutes world change or compared to that absolutely. Exactly. That is the 30th, the 30th best center in the league instead of the 50th? Yeah. That's a huge jump.

That's a huge. I think but you are right. None of this is going to change how Yokin's is going to have to play or how the legates want to play. So like I do understand that but you probably are running like outside of the 23 team just in terms of like overall depth that's they're probably the best which is why if you say hey the nuggets are going to win the title that's when you point to it not in terms of the MVP race and you know it

probably helps them because everything you're saying it probably makes it like pretty likely to the two seed and if they're the two seed and they're fuck if they're close to okay c and like oh he's winning MVP exactly and that's probably like everything you're saying that's more likely to me than it is that yokish has to do less just because he's yokech he's going to play his game it's like how lebron always average 27 seven and seven yeah that i feel the same way by yokech i just went with you luca because i wanted to I think I think that's fair

I think one thing I'm so like skinny plays for your team one thing I firmly disagree on is I genuinely think Luke is going to have better counting stats

just from matter of fact that points for game points your game assists rebounds the whole night he's going to do more because he has rebounds rebounds not rebounds

but you know anything but cumulatively all three because the points are going to be higher I see you yeah exactly he's going to have firmly way more

because he has way less and LeBron is going to be low management throughout the entirety of the year and he's going to be firmly like the

second best rebounder on That seemed the best playmaker, the best shooter, the best everything. So I think he's going to have like an outer, like super unstable inflated flats. That's on top of that, too. He's going to be one of us running for best DPOI. The narrative's going to be hitting harder than ever for that's what I did it too. That's why I did it too.

This is super soldier narrative syndrome right here. You're a Laker. People are dying to give the Lakers some attention no matter what the topic is. I do buy that he's skinny and we're going to see peak Luca. We're going to see 2024 before he got hurt in the second half when he was the single best. The best, most dynamic pick and roll ball handler in NBA history, I think. That was the most full package ball handler, combination of scoring, playmaking, off, ball, on ball. I have ever goddamn seen.

I think that guy is back here to stay. The team will be just good enough that he'll be available to be voted for. He's not going to be like a seventh seat down think. I'd take him out of the running. It'll be three or four, something of that nature. I get you in the convo. And he'll carry just enough burden on his shoulders that will have the argument for he's dragging these motherfuckers to three.

And if they didn't have him, they'd be 10. yeah all of that put together is a good MVP case i'm assuming yokech doesn't do we hit last year and be the two seed and to have one of the best seasons of all time if that happens he'll win it if okayc wins 70 games and shade is the same thing he'll win it yeah i'm i'm hoping a lot of things go well for me but if all those things go well luga will be a very good candidate yeah uh i agree with you i think this is the storyline that i've fallen in love with the most and what i want to happen in my fucking imaginary fairy tale of how i view the NBA sometimes and this just feels like everything. We always say this every single year. This is Lucas year to win MVP. This is

literally, it couldn't like be brought up to him ever more than ever at all. And I wonder if I'm seeing the narrative more and more as we get away from 2024. Many people are like rewriting history or not even rewriting. I mean not say that because some people truly have always believed this, but more people are buying into it that he was like robbed in 2024. And the further we get from it, the less we take it for granted, I think. And we see 34 10 in 10 and we see the highlights on him dropping 73 being insane. and we're like, how was he not MVP? That's one of the best seasons to not get MVP.

So I think the whole growing thing in the back of voters head that, like, Luca needs to get his. I can see him going to get Josh Allen MVP where it's like here, damn. Tough. No, it's Yolkin. That's the best bet. The only way in my mind, it's not Luke is if he doesn't like have this

the best season of his career and also if the Lakers really like are like the four seed. They have to be three. Also, for my third, I can't decide whether if it's going to be Janice or Shea. But I mean, this could be like a Steph Curry situation where... What if the Thunder actually go out here and if they win 70, he's MVP? I agree.

If they win 68 again, like, Shea might do the exact same thing he did last year. They might win the exact same games in the exact same fashion, the offense functions in the exact same way and he is exactly as unstoppable. What would be the argument to not give it to him? Well, we gave it to Yokic when Yolkich had the best offensive season we've ever seen have like they will be hard to tell ourselves Shay isn't the MVP dude I forget sometimes that okay we all know like damn bro like Chet Hung

shattered his fucking hip and missed half of the year dude I see a heartenstein missed like so many games as well and Jada played center and they won 68 games if they just simply remain healthy they're gonna win 70 and if that's the case then shit bro like whatever you got it I want to put that black and white it's hard to win 70 feels like that but you're right i mean it stands to reason it feels like that and like the

the three point shot from everybody else wasn't even crazy last year like it was the year before like if you get a little bit of a bump so yeah jadip had a bad shooting season for his standards yeah it's very why that's crazy shake gonna win him shake honestly shake on back to back he's the he's the favorite right now he is yeah it's probably for good reason i'm just MVP like ace is so like which one of these god players is gonna win it i'm just like using fan fiction for this one because like who cares there's no way to know you can't really have a good prediction for these three guys one of them will probably win it.

I hope it's Luca. Yeah. If it's not one of those these three, who do you think could, like, come out of the Woodward's? They're going to have no MVP then. No MVP. It will be one of these three guys. I guarantee it.

I mean, I guess Wemby. Yeah. People have the Ant thing. I don't see it with Ant personally. I know we've talked about it. And like, you guys are giving good cases for it

why it's possible. I don't think he's sniffing their level. And you have to have a, with these guys are all this amazing, this all-time talent. You have to have a certain baseline of skill. I don't think Ant's got it. Yeah.

But I guess if Wemby is just like Legend trajectory right away Like this is the year he makes that leap He might be a new guy is always in the combo Potentially If Ant just goes ahead and firmly Makes himself like a legend this year In terms of like skills and shit like that

Takes that leap then I can see it I just don't see that person But it's possible That's hard to say I think he's like the Tatum thing every year Where it's like this is gonna be the year I hope that's never is It's a different argument for him and Tatum

But I think they'll both be always like Watch out for Ant And he'll never win it Yeah And it's not as fall It's just because these guys are gods. Okay. Rookie of the year.

We all got Cooper Flag, surprise, surprise. The more interesting part, who do we think has the second best chance of winning it? Probably Ace Bailey. Okay. Yeah, I think Ace Bailey, okay. Because everybody else, like the other two guys, and really like everybody else

and kind of like the top four, top five that would really be in that range. Ted Johnson in Washington, there's a lot of bodies over there. I don't know if he's going to step up immediately. We talked earlier about Vijay and the fact that like it's just going to be hard especially if MB does play even half the games it's going to be hard trying to fit him

into places Dylan Harper and that whole fit in San Antonio so Ace Bailey is standing oh even you know Conn and Charlotte shout out to you my brother there's no award going over there and so and so yeah I think like Ace Bailey is probably the one that's going to have the best

opportunity in terms of talent yeah opportunity numbers he'll probably be the best answer right right I it's definitely going to be Dylan Who the fuck is going to be watching Utah basketball like that? Everybody's going to be tuning into Spurs basketball. That's a good point for voters. Yeah.

Not even that it's undeserving for Ace Bailey. There will be so much more attention put on Dylan Harper that that'll be a subliminal thing for an award that will probably be... I feel like the rookie of the year is a very, like, less and glamour award. They're like, sometimes like the guys that get it or just like these like big names that get the attention. Yeah. Dylan Harper's a star.

I don't know we talked about it over the past few weeks and like where this like whole logjam of guards is going, how we prioritize winning now with Deer and Fox, but also having Dylan Harper, I said this a couple weeks ago, we argued about it. I still believe it. He's quickly going to shift the conversation to this is clearly going to be Dylan Harper's team in the present and future. That's fair, but when Nate's Bailey's

out here, you know, dropping 20 every night. I don't know if I believe that to be the case. It's going to be 25 every night. It's going to be ridiculous. He'll average a cool 18 and a half, which is like a lot for a rookie. Yeah. Actually, that's too high. 16 and a half. That's, I was just about to say. If he gets to 18 and a half, he will be second in voting.

Okay. But yeah, Cooper flag is going to be insane amount of responsibility day one just the best player by far day one it will impact winning day one I think in small ways that most rookies aren't able to might be unanimous shout to Cooper man listen Dylan Harper

that's that's a superstar that's gonna that's gonna be one the best duo was in a league three years from now he may it wouldn't be DPOI what do you what do you know we all have the guy that will obviously win it if there's no injury virtual Womin Yama will win the next three if it doesn't get hurt next seven

when all of them there's no conversation really like Chet Homer can win it Grobert could win it Zubach could win it, I guess Amen Thompson could win it, I guess. All of that is only if Victor Romneyama misses too much time.

He could play the exact amount of time needed. He could play Barry Minimum 60 games and they will give it to him. That's too many words. There's no conversation. Amanda, he could play 55 games. Give it to him to him. Exactly.

Yeah, this is no conversation. He will be DPOI. Book it. Coach of the year, Moe and Donovan, you both put... This is confusing, Donovan, because you put the Hawks at the 5-seat. I don't think you can give the five seed hawks a coach of the year.

I think that only happens if they're like three or maybe four. I agree, which is why I put David Adelman, because I think it'll be his first full year coaching this team, and they'll be the second seed, and they'll be amazing. And we'll say, wow, this guy, they're playing defense at a whole new level since they fired Mike Malone, all this stuff. Jokish was so empowered. He figured out how to utilize these guys better.

He'll get a lot of the boost that, like, added depth gives him. Yeah, I think, like, the argument for Quinn, for me and still having the Hawks at 5 is like they and even though like that they had injuries last year they they sucked last year and so and so having them make that make that leap into a legitimate you know at like actual playoff team where we're at top six were out to play in I think like that that would mean a lot I was thinking about about Adam and but also the nuggets even with all the the turmoil they've been the two Cs right they've been the three C it's very hard for them to be to go up a level especially when I don't think that they're going to get the one

seed so that's why that's what it's hard for me to let me change my pick j jredic that's not crazy i'm just going all in i'm going all in if luka wins MVP if they're the third seat like i like i'm predicting them to be i can definitely see jrredic they gave them that extension hell yeah i could see that you know why because i put david addleman just because this award is always won by somebody whose team exceeds expectations dramatically right this is the you're better than we thought award every single year and i just don't see that on the calendar this year I don't see any team

making that gigantic Rockets type of jump so I just said I think he has a best chance of all the teams that we know already good but you know if look it JJ Reddick

Lakers are making that jump MVP Luca let's just go all in on wish casting on the Lakers getting everything but if it wasn't going to be them maybe the Spurs are really good

that could be a surprise team I think that they're very he's like very much up next in that conversation yeah so maybe Mitch Johnson but I don't know if he's a good coach at all

so like I'm not going to pick him for coach If, if, if, if, obviously, Thunder gets to 70, then you go Mark Dagnold again. Yeah. People are going to say Jamal-Ozley a lot because the magic could be really good now and jump from seven to three. Sure. Again, I'm not going to pick a guy who I don't know if he's a good coach or not. Exactly.

These guys have teams that exceed expectations, but also in clear ways that the coaching is a big part of it. Usually they unlock the offense. That's kind of like a way that this award goes. And you know what that could sound like? Potentially. They already had a lead offense last year, but, you know, if the Knicks are, the one seed that would be like somewhat shocking and Mike Brown could

easily win coach of the year. Yeah, that could happen for sure. Jason Kidd, if the Mavs get a top six seed, that's very possible without Karee. Nah, I feel like. Okay. No, that's a good bit. I think the top six is winning it. Yeah, because that's just, it's just not going to happen. So like, so yeah, if they do

the impossible and they are out of it then it's fine. Okay. Executive of the year, me and Mo went with the Hawks guy. Donovan, who did you pick? Who is that man? I picked the magic. Gotcha. Because I do, I do think that, what's his name again? Anthony Parker.

Anthony Parker. Because I do think that the magic and their offense, they will finally break the streak of not being in the top 20 offensively. And they will look better. These pictures kill me. I've never seen any of their faces. And they will look much better than they did last year. And even if they don't get up to three, it'll be a little bit less clunky.

And when you talk about like offseason transactions, the Desmond Bain Trey was one of the bigger transactions. So I do think that he'll be in consideration. This was tough because there was no big trades this summer. I thought about going Raphael Stone because he got Kevin Durant. And that's usually how this goes. So he makes a big splash. But they were already the two seed and like they're not going to get better than that.

They're not going to be the one seed, I don't think. So I don't see him getting a big case because he's not going to make them jump up this year. They were already that good. So I went to Hawks just because I think it'll be a like, like you said, they'd be mid. They've been mid for a while. No, they're not mid. A bunch of cumulative small moves added up and they rebuilt his roster on the fly after bringing in this new front office and undoing the wrongs of the last guys that that

feels like a because this isn't voted by the media I think this is voted by other GMs I think so this is different like there's no odds for this online this feels like a job that if it works other executives will respect no genuinely like on say solid changed the entire trajectory of this Atlanta Hawks team completely like with the crissosersing his trade getting him for basically nothing picking up a player or a veteran who's at his absolute low value why taking a swing on him because whether or not he hits or misses, it's not going to really affect us super long term. One year contract, do it because it's just one single year.

Doing that trade with the New Orleans Pelicans and getting basically two cracks, two swings, two bites of the apple at potentially having a lottery pick, whether it be from the Milwaukee Bucks or the New Orleans Pelicans, that's fucking huge considering that we have not, we don't have control over our picks over the course of the next few years. And then on top of that too, you did your thing in the NBA draft with Ace and Will solid player and you were able to sign Luke Kennard

and also Nikila Alexander Walker. Like you changed the entire trajectory of this team current day and also potentially in the future considering what might happen in the NBA draft next year. Like this is huge. It's also funny because we said like the Hawks be mid and we're like

yeah we're going to get them we're going to get them up just literally to the four seats. So like it's level is tier two of mid. And that's the type of stuff that wins us sometimes when there's no like meteoric trade. But we haven't won 50 games in ages, bro. Like the last time I won 50 games,

I was like 16 years old. 26. That's crazy. Damn. All right. Next one. Clutch player of the year. Me and Mo put Anthony Edwards, Donovan put Kevin Durant.

That's a good bet. Yeah, I think with no Fred, obviously like, this offense is going to be very weird and very clunky. And so because of that, like, they're going to be in close games just off of the nature of we can't really score with people. And even if the defense is great, it still might be like they're going to need Katie to be Kevin Durant. That's what they brought him here for.

And the two guys who would take, you know, all of the clutch shots from the perimeter in terms of Fred and Jalen Green, they're not here anymore. Yeah. So I think Kevin Durant is going to get all of the turnaround middies, all of the heady, tween-tween pull-ups that he wants. months in the last five minutes of the game. So I'm picking him as clutch player of the year. That could make sense for sure. Yeah, that's honestly a very good pick. I'm wearing at the average for similar reasons that he's the half-core shot maker.

He's talked about this mid-range game. He's doing, adding the post moves, sounds like a good clutch player of the year type of shot to be taking. He was already top 10 and clutch points scored last year. And this is an award voted on with a very clear, clear rubric the most points with some good efficiency in the clutch. You're going to win it. That screams Anthony Edwards to me.

Yeah, I agree. during his the YouTube video that he posted he talked about how this summer he didn't take not a single three all mid-range he's fully like going in on that and if you're doing that along what you said he said that yeah he did say that he said

I ain't take no threes boy that's exactly what he said it was hilarious he said I'm fully taking middies I took middies during the summer no threes he said he took no threes obviously like he's exaggerating I don't know what it comes to what three point shot falls off now be pissed

I don't what if it like just regresses a little bit I'll be pissed I'll be heated The foot's like 36 37 That's horrible 36 It was 41 last year Well end of the year towed off But like yeah It was one of the best shooting years of all time

I'll be pissed if this mid-range shit Makes him go from 40s and 36 He can only focus on one thing He has a bad case of ADHD That's what it is I'll be pissed That shit made him unstoppable That's funny

Yeah yeah solid picks Six man of the year Ooh we're all different here I went with Jared McCain this is one of the most unclear years for me personally I agree I pull shit out of my ass I don't know who to pick yeah

because fucking what's his name is favorite to win it right now on the Knicks uh Jordan Clarkson fuck no he's I don't think Jordan Clarkson so has a juice like that to win it no yeah no he's not he's favorite maybe he was top three

I forget who the number one was no Deandra Hunter's favorite it was Deandra Hunter than Jordan Clarkson yeah Josh Hart Josh Hart's not on there last time I checked maybe I'll be looked different ones it was Nasreed Deandra Hunter

and Jordan Clarkson for the three when I looked on what was it what was it did I read around? Maybe it could be someone like Nasreed just wanting back to back just because there's such an unclear year Deandre I chose Deandre hundred because it was the easiest one

considering yeah he was on the ballot last year and until he got traded and they expect him or then he like started a few games here and there and then obviously like he was asked a lot less yeah bed MGM right here has plus 1100 for Nasreid plus 1100 for John Drew Hunter

Jordan Clarkson plus 1400 that's crazy And Anthony Simons plus 1,400, tied to Rome plus 1,600. That's probably because Malcolm Brogden retired. But that 1,000% has to be a typo. On Fandu, Josh Hart is third at plus 1,100. Plus 1,400 for Jordan Clarkson right now? That's because he's Jordan Clarkson. He's won it before, and he's like six-man spark plug guy,

and they lost Malcolm Brogden. And the whole idea is they're going to play more depth now. Is he even on the list at Fandu? That's crazy. That's ridiculous. But I am picking P.J. Washington because I do think that

that front court in Cooper flag in AD and then the two centers like that obviously Faddy gets hurt a lot of stuff. It gets Derell pretty quickly. But if they are there, PJ Washington, you know, coming off the bench

and being a very legitimate part and even if they start like super, super big, you can see a world where they close with Flagg, PJ, Washington, AD. I just think that he just does a lot of good stuff. I think in the future they're going to probably have to start with PJ just because of the nature of AD's game. DeAndre Hunter wins it.

That'd be the most boring pick ever. He was a fucking flame throw last year. I know he was. Well, I'm like, dude, that would be the most vanilla pick ever. Because he just has no war. Yeah, like it's just such a vanilla pick. Okay, I guess a solid wing wins it. Go for it.

You need someone with a bag. You need someone who can just do otherworldly shit. Oh, like Jared McCain. Yeah. He's going to miss a lot of games, but I hope. Is he supposed to miss a lot? I know he's right now. I don't know if it's a lot, but.

Yeah. Assuming he plays enough games. It can make sense. Spark plug. What if he just starts? I'd be shocked because how do you have a good defense of him and Tyrese? Probably start Queen Grimes. I think actually I don't know that at all.

I think you want to start Jared McCain, me personally. I don't want to prioritize Queen Grimes. Well, I want to prioritize winning games and it's pretty hard to play defense with him and Tyrese. Tone to lock up. They don't want to pay Queen Grimes. So I'm like, what's the, what's the, the rush. Pumping it up like a running back

you don't want to pay. Give him 300 touches and telling him to kick rocks. Next up, White Boy of the year. I viewed this as a white boy rookie of the year because we already know

the swagged up white boys. We already know Peyton Pritchard. We already know Luca, Austin Reeves, all these guys. I went Johnny Furphy. I think he is going to be dunking on everybody twice a week and it's going to be lots of highlights

and he's going to be the new white boy of the year where everyone's like, ooh, he's so tough. Look at the swagged up white boy. He's so cool and he's all quirky and like treated like a meme. That's going to be Johnny Furphy. Dude, you know what's so funny.

This is white boy with the mullet mohawk. I never seen him ever on my timeline unless he's dunking on someone. Until he's dunking on someone. That's all he does. I saw him dunking on people in practice on my timeline. Yeah. You know what? You know me clips I see from Indiana Pacer's practice?

Fucking zero before that. He's going to be a meme. He's going to be the fan favorite. Dude, I know he's going to mean so much of the Indiana community. He'll be the dunk contest too. That'll help. He would he, you know what? You are on to some.

I like that. But also like your pig when it comes to modest. Yes, and I like the modest pick because, and we did this a little bit. You guys picked to Europeans. No. Well, I know. He's not. He grew up in Chicago.

And he's from Australia or something like that. And see, here's the thing. I didn't know that. He's not Australia. Yeah, he's not from here at all. I didn't know that? He's not from here. He went to Kansas, isn't he?

Yeah, he did, but he's not, I swear to God, he's not from here. You're probably right. I didn't know it. And what you said, that's exactly why. Because they're going to see his name. And again, we did it. during the draft process, but now people are going to see his name

and then they're going to say, oh, he actually grew up in Chicago. He's actually one of us. He's not from over there. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's the first generation. Okay, he counts as an American. Now, KP doesn't count. That's an invalid wet boy with your pick. Whoa, this is personal animal. We're going to change the fuck up out of my life. I'm not going to lie.

Like, he's going to get me right. I can't wait to go home to KP. What? I'm enjoying the TV every night, man. Come on now. You don't understand how broke I was man jeez that's hilarious

but apparently I picked the invalid pick too I don't know who's Australian it's one of these Australians I think Australians

Eastern Europeans don't count those are their own genre of NBA players are too many of them they're too good they're two different from American white boys

at KP's Australians are a different group of people yeah I don't know I don't know where to go with Australians there like they're kind of are they more

they closer to Europe but there's so few with them that I feel like they're in the white boy coalition No, but they're so different That they're just Australian

Like it really is a different Where does he fall on this? Did he grow up in Australia? Is he Australian? Yeah, he's Australian He's got that thick accent I never heard him talking actually I just don't know what he sounds

Me neither That's the problem I've only seen him dunk Exactly All he does is dunk He doesn't exist outside of dunk highlights Yeah Okay

But he'll probably play this year We'll have a role With all the injuries I'll probably be dunking In those minutes Yeah very true But I picked the Apparently I picked a non-American

So I lost I guess it's modest bezellis. Geriatric of the year our new award the old man of the year the guy who will leave a mark on this team while being old as hell

I started the inaugural geriatric of the year award with won Kevin Durant at 37 years old. That's fine. That's fair. I feel like the,

so like Clips player of the year it's a very, you know, very set in stone kind of rubric of what it is. Geriatric of the year is also going to get there because Kevin Durant is like,

Like, it's like, wow, it's crazy. See, Kevin Durant is not old. He just has longevity. Okay. Al Horford is the one where you watch and play. You're like, damn, he's old. That's crazy. You know what's funny?

We were calling Al Horford old as hell when he was 37. That's the same age, Kevin Durant is. Exactly. This man is different. We forget. I think, yes, there's strict guidelines for here. And to me, the guideline is you have to be one of the 10 oldest players in the NBA. Kevin Durant is one of the 10 oldest players in the NBA.

Yes. But yeah, for Al Horford, every time he, he's on the floor if he when he's doing something well he's like i can't believe out horford is still out here moving the way he is at that age yeah you didn't pick lebron no i didn't pick lebron he's already heard similarly yeah exactly and that's which might make him the most geriatric player of the year correct but geriatric in like a good way because like at the end of day out horford is going to consistently like have talking for us like you know he's getting up there and he's always like doing productive things on the basketball court and i think this is genuinely going to

embody geriatric of the year, considering he's on the oldest roster in the entire league. And when you talk about old, you're thinking about Alford immediately. Best player on best team, oldest player on the oldest team. So why do we give it the 38-year-old

Steph Curry? He's 40. That's what I'm saying. Oldest player on the oldest team. Okay. Yeah. We'll see. Once we get to this, I'm going to get to the end of the season,

we do our award show. This will be one of our new awards. I'm going to take this so seriously. It is of vital importance. Who wins the inaugural geriatric of the year award? Let's believe. I'm coming. up with my fucking arguments.

It's going to be LeBron. Yeah, Kevin Ram, listen, he's going to be averaging 30 at 37. Yeah. Shit's different. He's going to be geriatric of the year. Next one we have, we have the Here Comes Trouble Award.

The award for somebody who is just a troublemaker, a guy who fights, gets ejected, does whatever is necessary. Every time you look at him, you say, here comes trouble. Another award that we must take with utmost seriousness as we bring it into our show for the first time. And I picked Amen Thompson.

Oh my God, Yombe too! This motherfucker is a bad ass kid, dude. I love a man, Thompson. We all pick him. Oh, my God. Yes. Yes. He all.

Nobody took Germain Green? Why are you fighting in the preseason? Dremont Green, it looks like he is just like passing the torch onto a man. Okay. I saw that clip and the conversation that we had the other day when we, I found out that Dremont had 23 career objections. I was like, can a man pass Dremont? It's like the all-time scoring list of like, what would he have to do to surpass him?

How many ejections per year for the rest of his career? Bro. A man can do it. And because when he gets hot, it's not just like, oh, hold me back. I'm doing a little. He's punching. He's punching motherfuckers in the face on the court. And like, he's so even keeled and like chill when you hear him talk outside of the court.

Then he has the eye of the fucking tiger. He turns his sharring gun on and punches everybody. And that's why I think when you think of the term, here comes trouble. It's like looming. You don't really think about it necessarily. It just like comes at you all at. once and that's what the men Thompson like glorifies for me. Is he Dennis Rodman?

I don't know. And the fact that like his name is a man and it's very much of like a prayer and you know, very holy. And he's like, I'm, I'm going to kill you. Lord forgive me. Let's rob like a bunch of Elbrado and his shit. Like, oh, my goodness. Wow.

Unanimous prediction for here comes trouble. Yeah, he is. I need two fights this year. 94. Working numbers. Pump them up. Thanks. And that is the last of our awards for, oh, no, we have one more.

Next thing we're going to do after the awards, our finals prediction. So we're basically predicting who's going to win the finals. That's going to be the award, the trophy. My matchup is Thunder versus Cavaliers in the finals with the Thunder winning going back to back. Okay, I got Knicks versus Nuggets. I don't trust end of the year Cleveland Cavaliers at all. How they lost. We sat over here after a long-due recording, watching the Indiana Pacers dismantled

them like they did every single other team but the way that they dismantle the cleveland cavaliers disgusting i can i just will never get burned it i don't want to get burned again when it comes to my postseason expectations versus the calves can't do it so i got the nicks okay i just think the calves are amazing they were amazing last year they lost because of injuries once again they can't get a fully healthy run is what it is that is a gigantic part of this and maybe they are just going to be an injury real team that's cursed maybe also he got hit with the most lightning in a bottle team i've ever seen that pacers run is one of one in history for being able to demolish teams like that being undermanned with clutch shots and just blitzing everybody in front of you

the devil is dead he's not walking through those doors and i don't think we're going to see another team to throttle them that early in the playoff run i think they're going to be in the conference finals no matter what and if they make it there and they stay healthy i'm going to pick the best team and that's going to be them okay that's fair if not now to win you know what I'm saying Tatum is gone the devil's dead you got a new coach if you don't win the title if you don't get to the finals this year what are we doing what what is what is really good what is really going on here so I and also I do think that like listen shout out to Cleveland obviously like

they probably should they are the favorites to win the conference but the the improvements that that Mike Brown is going to bring in i really do think that that stuff is going to be like real for what um for what the nix can do very very plainly to play a series where you are using eight or nine players as opposed to six it's probably going to be a good thing so i think that they may not be eight and nine more considering barnes gone how did you feel when like that news dropped it's malcolm bradden like it was a good shooter he's one of my like favorite yeast role players in the league he's he's he's fantastic but like he's going to play like 10 minutes a night like it it's but he will shoot 41% from the

three point line it's it's going to be okay they'll pick the nuggets over the thunder yeah that's like the thing we've been like what the hell yeah okay okay they went seven games with the okay c thunder they also did go seven games with the los angeles clippers has nothing to do with the Denver nuggets when it comes to how bad they were earlier off in that series but considering how they juiced up and they got cam johnson who is better in so many ways than mpj whether it be from just like shirt up shooting whether it be defense or the beast like ability to be at times like a secondary playmaker means so much to me

and i think that because of all those additions onto their team and also like yonis around you as being like playable she is not playable against the thunder i think it i think it shit man i think it's gonna make a meaningful difference for them in the post season. Yeah, they had, they were playing games, like the Knicks, like they, they just ran out of gas and they had, they were playing with six guys. And so, like, they didn't have the opportunity to fix and go deeper into their bench,

but even when they, when they did, like, the guys that they were going to was awful. And then even the guys that they were playing, Aaron Gordon, his hamstring almost fell off the bone. Michael Porter Jr. couldn't lift his shoulder up above, above his head. And so you're getting a healthy Aaron Gordon. You're getting an upgrade at MPJ. And they just have the best player in the world. And so even if we get into a series with the Thunder,

I think that I think they can win. And I think Yolkich is going to be good enough. Yokic also had some of like the worst games that he ever played in that, in that series. And they were still able to push it to seven. They also got two clutch. Damn your game winning shots of Aaron Gordon. That's not exactly sustainable. That's, they, they, they did what you had to do.

Like it's fine. It's fine. I mean, same things can talk about. Yeah. It was a Ludoort too. Like, no, they didn't do it went off of game winning shots. They want to get like so many clutch shots. He shot well like he's prone to do the past two years.

He's a good shooter now. That's not unsustainable. And I don't know. I mean, all that's true. Also, Yonas von Chunis, not play about all against the Thunder. Tim Hardaway, not play about all against the Thunder. You thought you had no haters. You got one right now.

He played the Thunder two years ago when he was way more spry in the Pelican series. Got fucking demolished. Yeah, when he was on the Pelicans, they're like nobody else is fine. And we're also not like. Either way, we're attacking him. He cannot play against a thunder. That's fine. You got five minutes.

And that's, that's, yeah, it's going to be a dreadful five minutes. I also think, like, the, the thunder, if, if they are, you know, this all-time team and we're at the start of the dynasty, that's cool. Show me, right? We're at that, we're at that point where this, like, this iteration and what we have come to know of, like, the new NBA of people not going, you know, back to back. And it being very hard and doing all of this from, from year and year out and playing into June. I would like to see them make the conference finals as well.

I have utmost faith that they will, but I would like to see that as well. How quickly we get bored of reality? No, I mean, it just, this is just the last, we've said literally the same thing about each of the last four, four finals appearances, even with players that have been the best in the world and they have not not gone back for one reason or or another. I think that Denver retooling and doing and doing everything and again, still having the best player in the world. world, that means something. I know you're saying, but it's not just a, you're saying it like it's a patent written in the stars and it's not like, like it's not explainable. Denver lost Bruce Brown, lost KCP, the roster got worse.

We thought it wouldn't matter. No, I mean, but they, no, but they were in, they were up 20 in game seven and choke. Sure, but either way, there's, there's clear reasons why they were in these margins to begin with. Their roster got worse. They drew all they fell off. They choked because Bruce Brown and KCP weren't there. Yeah, exactly.

These are things, their roster got worse. And they got themselves in places where they can have these margins and lose these series on the court, but their roster's got worse in obvious ways that are but like, but like, okay, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't blame them choking in game seven on like Bruce Brown not being there. Like, you're in that situation. You have, you already have that advantage. Yeah. And you, and you, and you, you made you skip the whole important part. Even, even, no, well, no, well, Casey was there for the. Oh, no, you're right. Yeah. And so, like, he's, he's there. He's, he's there. Even, regardless of who is, of who is there, being up 20 in a game seven

at home. Yeah. Like, you lost that because of the people that were there, not because of the people that you didn't have. Sure. That's unimportant, though. That's not, the reason why the Nuggets didn't win in the game seven isn't my point. But their roster deteriorated

over the next two years. I misremembered it and thought it was one off season. It was the course of two off seasons where they got worse, right? Celtics, old guys got old. KP got sick. Those guys, those rosters got worse

and allowed them to be in the situation where they were already down, they were about to go down 3-1. Yeah, because KP was terrible. And maybe if KP was 100% year prior, they would beat the shit out of the Celtics. Who knows? Those rogers got worse.

why would Thunder get worse? Their best players are young. Their second best player in Chad Holmgren should get better because he's not injured. They have a bunch of young guys coming up the pipeline. I don't know why that would be repeatable.

The whole point of these teams not going back to back, I think is mostly because these rosters are more flawed than they used to be for the new rules are intact with the roster building, right? We talk nonstop about how the Thunder are the exception to the rule

and they're the only team that's won a championship and we can project them to get better than next year. So obviously injuries can happen and you know, KP getting sick can happen. That can happen to anybody.

But looking back in hindsight, those things make all the sense in the world right drew holiday got old happens kp gets hurt a lot they got lucky one year didn't get lucky the next year the nuggets are cheap let the roster atrophy happen happens i don't see that with a thunder i think that you can be yeah but in like you can be you can you can be a better team than what you were before than what you were before and i can pick you also to to lose in a series and it's not even me me saying that like you're not going to win the title isn't necessarily saying that i'm going to that i'm saying that they're going to be a worst team.

But you see that point though, that if we think they did get better after being the best team, like that kind of offsets a lot of the things while we think the Nuggets could catch them. Like the whole point of like the Nuggets losing is irrelevant. No, but they also got better. The Nuggets also got better as well. Yeah. I think they both got better and I thought the Thunder were better before.

So I'm like. Yeah. The Thunder got better or they should be better for internal reasons. But like a genuine concern for me that maybe it shouldn't be concerned, but like going back to the whole KP thing, of course, like healthy one. year, not healthy another year. I feel not worried, but it's something that I'm constantly noticing when it comes to someone like Chet Hongrum. Like, of course, he can be the exact same last year and the Thunder could and might win the NBA championship. I'm not like, neither, none of us

are like harsh when it comes to, they cannot do it. No. I just feel like the greater sum of the Nuggets edition and potentially being healthy in the postseason will probably reap further then okay seeing the internal growth that they've made and I want to see if someone like okay hopefully if there's gonna if there could be a vet or scenario situation where an old guy falls off Alice Caruso he plays such a physical brand

of basketball that could be like the draw and fall but obviously like that's a super indexing into the future and we can't necessarily do that but matter what means like I can understand you no I don't know well okay so I don't know about that he's so important for being the nuggets specifically so he is important

but the Drew Holiday thing like they were a six-man star-studded team and behind them were like decent enough role players all five or six of those guys are like

really important and also Drew Holiday mattered more I don't know Drew Holiday mattered more because KP also fell off so I guess it was like a double thing you know

so I don't know I'm only to say that if Caruso all of a sudden fell off which he's not even that old he's like Drew Holiday was like 35 he's nowhere near that old but if he did fall off

like they have bountiful more answers you know yeah but even even in the such trend like they got to they got to the finals without KP in that Because Drew is that run.

And also the conference was fucking terrible in that run. Yeah. I mean, they were also, and I mean, he, did he come back in game one or game two of the finals? I can't remember. Some like that. Yeah. But, I mean, you have that aspect of it. And I do think like the Thunder, even when they were like great last year, they showed moments of being vulnerable.

Like they were down to one in multiple series. They were down to one in the finals. They did choke in game one. of the of the finals and we've talked we've talked about jdub and like we all we all love love jub and think that he's he's great what if like what if his offensive game also doesn't take this crazy step i think like at least you and i like chet's probably the the improvement that we're banking on the most but there could be a very real situation where we get into the playoffs next year jdub's offense hasn't improved like that and even if chet does improve past you know

oh i broke my hip it could just be like hey still just you know very hard hard hard Martinstein proved to be very hard to play. You don't believe that, though. Like, it could be, you're right. Like, it could be that chess and that good. You don't think that's going to happen, though. I think, well, I think Jadov and his, I think Jadob and his lack of creation. And if he doesn't take, take a step, like, that's also something that I could point

and look at because we're on the road in game six and every game, obviously, and it's because like you're young, but every game turns out to be a legacy game and you're out here, you're scoring 40 in the finals and stuff like that. that's not normally you right so like we're getting we're getting these moments i just think that like for for the nuggets to have that best player in the world to be in basically every situation that they're in he is unguaritable there's a a crazy high floor and if you get health alongside nicolioch you have a chance to win to win a series and it wouldn't be crazy to think that like that the nuggets wouldn't have over the over the thunder yeah it's not that's not crazy i'm just

having i guess we're going to talk about it my thing when it when it comes to okay c and why i'm just like if we're going to do the whole thing whereas every other team is winning inconsistently then i think okayc feels like they are not like unbeatable they're not unfuck withable i've seen plenty of teams or two teams over the course of last year like genuinely give them issues and we had like legit fears worries and had like all these grand deals takeaways about how much of a problem mark dagonal is talking about how inconsistent jay up is talking about SGA and certain reads on the court that he's in a not able to make and be like a real point guard is like all those things are still there and they've answered those

questions but there's they didn't nothing they did nothing tangibly not saying they should have but they did nothing tangibly to address certain issues like the Denver Nuggets did like no one's having grandiose takeaways about Nicole Yokin's I think obviously he's probably the best player of this entire decade and I think if that stands to be true alongside like the slight questions and concerns. And I just ability to see OKC being vulnerable. Yeah, I got the Nuggets. Is it confident?

No, but. I think in some ways the failure to the past few years has been everybody assuming the team would repeat because that's what teams in the history of NBA do is you have these teams with these all-time grates and they typically rattle them off when the roster is so complete. Like it felt like the Nuggets were in 23

and like it was the Celtics in 24. It was kind of an assumption. And we've learned that you can't make that assumption right that like teams repeat. There's more parity these days. It's harder to build these rosters and you have to like notice that pattern. I think people are taking it as like noticing that pattern when really it's you can't overindex too much on what has happened in the past couple of years and have to look forward.

So we used to say we assume teams repeat. Now we're starting to say, listen, nobody repeats. So nobody will repeat. And we'll continue to say that as fact in the same way until somebody does repeat. You know, we're kind of like making the same mistake on the other end. And this team just still is the best team in every way on paper. So I'm just not going to, I just don't want to, I don't want to assume too much. because we haven't seen a team repeat is what I'm saying.

It's totally fair to pick the Nuggets, like they're an amazing team. I've just people are latching on to nobody repeats these days. It's impossible when it's that way until it's not, you know? Yeah. And with Denver, there is like, and it's obviously different than what it used to be, but there is that aspect of you do have the best player in the world. And I do like to put faith in that. And like for any, like when we talk about MVP,

anybody can have these, like, great all-time seasons. At the end of the year, if Yolchis comes out and does the normal Yoki's things, we're all going to look and say, oh, he's the best player, like, by far. And it's, and depending on how good the season is, then we'll say how close somebody is. But it starts with Yolokich and goes there. I feel very good putting my faith in him and a very competent roster and a roster that has a little bit more depth than really,

honestly, almost anybody. Until my fan fiction comes in there. And I picked the Knicks to beat the Nuggets. So, like, that's, that's really it. The other part of the Thunder thing is you mentioned all the flaws they had last year and how they didn't add players to fix them. I would say we also saw them at their worst catch a bunch of punches and still figure it out and clutch up and win when they were at their worst with all those issues.

And we saw them fix them those issues the next year. Like, you know, they had those flaws while they lost to the Mavs, improve some of them and still had those weaknesses. But one, in spite of that, I kind of buy the internal growth that they'll be more equipped for those in another year and, like, won't be at. got susceptible to cold stretches offensively because Chet will be better with the ball in his hands. J-dub played amazing in the finals. You said like

those 40-point legacy games like it was like unsustainable. You could say the same thing about the down games. If there's unsustainable downs and unsustainable highs, you're going to get both. Yeah. There's ways that they'll get better. Mark Dagnet will improve. They won't have so many lineups with less ball handlers so they won't be able to, you know, blitchey so many times and half Kays and Wallace looking like a deer in headlights.

Like all these things can improve a time in the same way. So I don't think it's a given that those weaknesses will be the same. No, yeah. I agree. I hope they aren't necessarily the same and I hope that they're able to surpass some of these things that they struggled in last year but also with that hope

the reality is you know the nuggets got better at the end of the day the nuggets seemed that you had to go game sevens with got better and I just need to see it more so on paper than before I like go ahead and write it sealed off as if it's like truth you know

yeah I don't get it it's not crazy the nuggets are obviously like I probably the second best champion Bichibuds? Yeah. Yeah, they are too. But again, if not now, we're having to parade. It's going to happen. And there we go. That is our official predictions for this season. Every single standing in both conferences, every single NBA award, plus some are championship predictions. With that being said, it's time for TikTok time in this long-ice episode. This is our first predictions. TikTok time in a year. I feel so good,

so special. Eaters! we rise again and we move onto the next chapter crown drop welcome to tic-tok time we're once again going to begin this episode off with the draft and we're sticking to a theme that we started last week we changed up the draft a little bit

and how we're doing it now is I'm putting zero pressure on you guys to remember names zero pressure on you guys to have a deep bag of ball knowledge I'm giving you the names you have to choose from there is 15 exactly so we all will pick a name from this list until they're all gone. You've got to try to avoid the worst players. What we're doing today is the top 15 scores in Lakers history.

Damn it. And I got the number one overall pick. This is where I do not want to be. You do. Top 15 scores and total points in the history of wearing a Lakers jersey. The bottom five names are, or the bottom three names, are hilarious. I don't know who two of these people are. But apparently, I had number 13 all time in Lakers scoring history.

Vern Mickelson, who has 10,000 points in eight seasons. True. And number 14 is Rudy LaRuso. That's 8,000 points. That's my favorite player. Rudy Rousseau. Don't know who those two guys are, but they're both six, seven, so small forwards. Okay.

That's all I know. Shout out Norm Nixon getting on there. Okay. But okay, you guys know how it works. Mo, Donovan, me is the draft order. Point guard through center. Mo. Who is the first pick in the Lakers draft?

Oh, good God. Who could it be? Sakel, Shaq. And it's the version of them in the Lakers jersey, obviously. Rudy Ler Russo. So just go ahead and give me LeBron James. Naturally.

You're going to pick your king no matter what? I'm not going to think too hard about it. Donovan. Number two. Shack. Surprise. Surprise. Shack.

All right. Well, beautiful place to be. Give me Magic Johnson and Kareem. Perfect. He's a unit. Okay. He did that. Perfect.

Little words in this one And I guess who Donovan gets Kobe Straight to the point We're just bringing the duo's back I know How will you respond How will I respond

Well give me One of the first superstars In NBA history George Miken Put him at my 5 Why the hell Wait do I spend back Yeah

You do? Perfect And then Jerry West At my 1 Love to see it Okay, that was weird. Was it weird? Yeah, because we weren't going to take George Mike in

and we already have our center, so you were good. Yeah, but more power to you. I got in short respects to George. I do. No, you don't. You don't have to do that. Yeah, I do appreciate that a lot.

You know what? I'm going to let you build the team basically. At small forward, give me Elgin Baylor. Fuck. Damn it. That's what you should have done. You let him get it. You didn't have to do that.

He wasn't going to pick Mike in. Thank you. I was talking about it. Damn. Shit. I'm mad you soul because it made him goddamn unbeatable. Okay, go ahead.

Okay, so he picked Baylor. There's a lot of wings here. I guess give me James Worthy. I'm going to put him to power forward. Yep. And I'm going to put Gil Goodrich

at shooting guard. Damn. So, you guys, you guys get the guys I never heard of. I'll let you all have them. Damn.

I'll take the guys I know. And who I said, worthy. Let's go. Yeah, you said worthy at the four. Yeah, I put worthy power forward. Okay, I'm liking this so far. I got Team Oldhead, but put me respect to my elders.

See, I don't like this. I don't like this. I mean, honestly, you're not a bad spot at all. I'm not, but I would want something a little bit better. But you know what? Move Kobe to the one. Oh, Lord. And then we're going to take Byron Scott and put him at the.

So you didn't want Norm Nixon? The other point card? No. Okay. Shout out Byron Scott. Who's going to use more point guard size guys? I'm just to put him there. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, that's fine. But that, that transition, you didn't need that. Okay. You should have been a good fit with Kobe. Yeah. Now I just have buckets. Oh, no. We're good.

It's not like Byron Scott. It's Kobe. That's funny. Okay, Mo. Who are you picking from these four players? Gosh, man. Where does your ball knowledge go to when you see this point? names.

I just think of black and white TV. People just dancing. Shirley Temple. Silent movies. All right. Vern Mickelson. Shout out to you. You made the cut.

You are my power for six-time All-Star. Hooper. I have never seen his face. I'll show you right now. Okay. Not really what I was expecting. Not at all. Is he white?

He's not white at all. He looks like Babe Ruth. I think he's from over there. His last name has, and the last three letters is K-O-V from over there. I love that. Who's your shooting guard? Over there.

Okay. Shooting guard. I got two choices. Yeah, yeah. Two real choices. I'm going to move Jerry West to my two and give me Norm Nixon and my one. Okay. That makes sense.

Solid recovery. A little small of a back court, but solid. I got size of a liberer. Okay. Listen, you got Vern. Nobody's going to fuck with you. Big Vern, have you heard about him? Nope.

Sure have not. I'm sure he was sick in 1955. Yeah, he's not going to be sick on my team. Give me Jamal Wilkes. Okay. And I guess give me LaRuso, whatever that is. Just the idea of LaRousseau. I got a guy. Oh, my gosh.

I got a guy named LaRousseau. Ew. Shout out him. So if I are you. listeners, I have Magic Johnson, Gail Goodrich, LaRuso, James Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pew. I have Byron Scott, Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, Jamal Wilson, Shaquille, I got Norm Nixon, Jerry West, LeBron, Vernon, Veron, Mickelson, and George Micahen. Oh, man, if you were to pick Baylor, you could have spun back and pick Mikein last.

But now you have the 2018 cab, so it's tough. And guess what? I'm going to the finals and I don't see no Warriors and I'm winning I got the greatest show on turf I mean I got the showtime team with Gil Goodrich

splashing from the shooting guard Yeah you guys are getting clapped La Rousseau Hey man La Rousseau was a bucket People don't know I have Kobe and Shaq And then instead of Rick Fox

It's Elgin Baylor Yo some 70 year old Like you damn way he was a bucket right now to the screen I legit have never heard A La Rousse up before No Top 50s score in Lakers history

He played the 50s him and Vern DeBolt did. When you said his name, I was like, bro, you're lying. Like that's not a real player. Very Mickelson. Yeah. That's great. And maybe I don't know ball. He played for 10 seasons. So he's there for a long time. He's born in 1928. Jesus Christ. That's brutal.

Born into the... Listen, you might want him on your team. Because he's born and then he has to get raised through the Great Depression. He's seen some stuff. He won four championships. He's out the trenches. In Minneapolis. Yo, out the trenches for sure. His nickname

Rudy Lou Rousseau they called them Brutus They called him Musty They called him the Ivy Leagueer with muscles All right Did I get a unit? Do you guys muscles? I guess so Hey I'm cooking you all my team is huge

I got magic I got muscles worthy and Kareem I got positional advantage at every side That's pretty good That's funny All I had to hear is he's small I won Shout out of Lerousseau I thought you said he was a shooter

Oh yeah I was watching I was watching film today But before before we started I looked up Laruso highlights he had he was going crazy in game six

of the 19 game six of the 1963 finals pretty solid shot it's like he could shoot that's a George Miccan team or is that

Jerry West already no I don't think I don't think Jerry West is 63 I didn't think so really I can't remember I know the other one Vern he was there

in the 50s for the mickey teams he had four championships of Mican yeah not I don't know anything about the fucking 50s I'm not going to lie to you

Laruso is nasty though crazy I didn't pick him but he could play for my team okay okay okay fair enough next thing we're gonna do I'm gonna show you six NBA players and you gotta decide which one gets benched so we're gonna make a five man unit

point guard through center of five players you decide who gets kicked to the curb so you guys may have seen these on Twitter there's a bunch of these people do it with like legends and stuff in the off season yeah exactly peak off season content we got some stuff like that with a variety different types of players first off

Yokitch Luca Tatum Shay Wembe Curry Six of the best players in the world today. Sorry, Jason Tatum, sorry, but you are the easiest cut on my life right now. Really? I mean, I think positionally. He's the only forward and size guy there. I got guys who can play in any position outside of like, Shea, I guess, and Curry.

Yeah. And I need those two. And guess what? Your man, Luca's getting cut. Really? I'm, I'm cutting, Luca. I would cut. He's like the worst third best player.

Yeah, don't care. Come. Oh, you're crazy then. I would cut Luca and I would go Steph, Shea, Tatum, Wemby, Yokich. That's the best fit because you're going to want to play through the Curry and Yokich pair. Wem can obviously fit there.

Tatum can always fit there. And, you know, Shea can probably fit off ball a little better than Luca. And with Shea Tatum, with Shea Tatum and Wemby, that's defense is fine. It's good enough. Do you want to start Luca over Curry though? No. No, I'd rather, because if I have Yokich,

I'd rather have Curry to just be running around. in doing a marathon during the game as opposed to seeing like, okay, is Luca really going to play off ball and do all this other stuff? Curry and Yokic is match made in heaven. I can see an argument from where Luke over Shay, though, a shooting guard, be even bigger, have a little better outside shooting. I can see that. But I'm okay with going to Shay's shooting guard and cutting Luca.

That makes sense of me. Oh, man. We're not cutting Tatum. We just can't. We need that glue there. You guys don't know, man. You're a wing defender, Luca Dodgers out there? I'm giving you $60.

points. I'll give you 60 regardless with these guys. I don't need more offense. Give me, Luca. Next up, we got Steve Nash, Joel Embed, Anthony Davis,

Kevin Durant, Tracy McGrady, and Jerry West. Okay, so... This is hard. So, Steve Nash is staying we need a true point guard. No idea of starting Jerry West there?

Nah, not really. Okay. Wait, why? He's the best passer by far. So that makes sense. Steve Nash is, he's Steve Nash. You got these many buckets.

We need one guy who's okay with with never shooting a single time. Yeah, Okay, okay. I agree overall. This was double-taker. Jared West is out of the tiger. He wants to shoot 30 times

as a matter who's on the court. So Steve Nash, KD is not going anywhere. No. AD is also not going nowhere, too. Are you sure? AD is not going nowhere. You don't think maybe we can put Kevin Durant at the four,

Joeline Beat at the five? You know what? He's going to hate us. On my team, AD, you play the five. You play the five. Everyone healthy? I'm not bitching Joelle and Beed. Fuck no.

I'm easily picking Joel and Beat over Anthony Davis. But then Andy, you got to play the four. 18 can go to the bench We can put Kevin Rand the 4 But no actually no I want to go huge though I'm okay putting 80 at the 4

Kevin Durant to 3 And then two ways between T-Mac and Jerry West Give me Jerry West Oh but then I'm kind of small Give me T-Mac Give me T-Mack Let's like triple down on size Is it would be gigantic

Yeah But Jerry West is much better than T-Mack But we already have one small guard Do you want to just be the biggest team ever around Steve Ash? Someone who could just simply like shoot I mean how big is Jerry West Jerry West is like 6-5

But the T-Mack is 6-9 Give me T-T-Mack Fair. That point I have 6-9, 6-10, 6-10, 7-2 around Steve Nash. And just every bucket just goes through,

like every mid-range bucket goes through KD and T-Mack. Yep. Welcome to the 2025 Atlanta Hawks. Oh my God, shut up. Yeah, sorry, Jerry West, we're cutting you,

but only for fits sake. You're probably, you're the best player here besides Kevin Duran, I guess. It's still really, yeah. I don't feel good with that. I don't feel good with that. Sorry, team, Matt.

You got to go. Come on. You're right. Let's get Team Mac. cutting the second best player here I change your mind fuck the height disappointed again

is Jerry West like who cares I understand Jerry West I listen I can understand it if you expect him to be like a better defender for you in that lineup

then I get it I have no idea how to parse Jerry West on ball defense in 2025 versus T-Mack at 6-9 that's a conscious I've never thought about I just assume that you know

like he he got to have more to his game more to his shit next up Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr., Josh Giddy, Dario Sarich, Tim Hardaway, Jr. and Mo Bamba. Oh, my God. This is genuinely the worst.

This is the race to whoever gets number one overall pick in 2026. And we're still going to be better than the Brickley on Nets? Nah, I don't think that's. Nah, yes, we will. Okay, so Giddy's running point. Giddy's for sure starting. Best player here. Okay.

Which is hilarious, but best player here. Giddy's running point. We need a veteran with some sense. Tim Hardaway Jr. is at the two. Okay. I'm in the grids. I guess we got to start Kyle Kuzma after 3, which the bucks don't even want to do.

But what else we're going to? We're not going to go small ball with fucking KVJ. Kyle Kuzma can, uh, not true, can't pass, can't rebound. He got fits, though. We could put him at three.

Cool hair. Okay. Kuzum at the 3. Sarts at the 4? Yeah. Just because Moamba cannot play the 4. Yeah. Okay.

We can put Sar's at the 4. So we're short Moabama at the 5. Yeah. So it's either we go SARS to the four or we push everybody down and go three guards and start KPJ. No. Which is a general rule in life. I want nothing to do with KPJ. So we're going to start Sarge of the four and put my bomb up to five.

KPJ was always going to get cut. No matter what. We said way too many words. Yeah. Fuck them. Next up. Nikola Yokic. Hakeem, Shaq,

and Bede, Russell Westbrook and Will Chamberlain. The rest is hilarious. It's a polar bear. We have no choice, but they need them, but they need them. But they need them. This is funny as hell. No, it's funny. I was confused for a second.

That's supposed to be Bill Russell. Okay. Regardless, so Russell was going to start regardless. This actually makes it a little bit more interesting because what if we bench Westbrook and play Yoke's at that point? Dude, you're so slow. Just go full seven footers? You can't do that. No, you can't do that.

Listen, if we have four seven footers, we're still going to be too slow. So we might as well go all in on having zero small guys and play full advantage seven foot basketball. Oh my gosh. Because if we got four small guys, four giant guys and one small guy, we're still slow. We're not going to be fast, but we got somebody to pick on. Wilts's the athlete. Yeah. So, Will is the athlete.

No, this works perfectly, honestly. And B plays two. Yes. Hakeem is the, is the tweena that plays three. Shack plays, oh, no, no, no. Yeah, Shaq plays five, Will plays four. Yolkis plays one. No, Hakeem is the power four.

He's the guy that plays in mid-range, Kevin Garnett type game. Okay. Will can play three. He can fly up him down the court. He can be a Sarr-R Thompson. True. We got to shack down low. Sorry, Russ.

We got to cut you. We have a vision and you impair it. Yeah. And B. just gets to stand out, catching shoot. He gets to be Jaron Jackson. Elbow locked in.

Okay. And B could be a shooting guard. It would make total sense. Yeah. This is the worst lineup of a ride in my life. That's seven foot shay. Okay. You guys are.

We're cooking. You guys took two years off of my life just now. Sorry, Russell Westbrook. Next up, Magic Johnson, Jason, Kid, Damy Lillard, Penny. Cade and Luca. All point guards.

Yes. The variety of skill sets. Magic has to stay. Magic gets to play center for sure. Yeah. We need him. Magic playing center. Luca is playing point. Luke's playing point.

I forget, they're all points. And there's a lot of big ones here. So Cade has to stay because he is probably our best shot block. Kate's a small forward. Like he feels like a small forward for sure. It could be a wing defender. We need side. We need like genuine size.

Penn and six seven. At the four. Oh. So who's playing point point? So that's the thing. I think we go Magic Johnson 5, Penny 4, K3, the big guys. Luca 2, Dame 1? I think we have to cut Jason Kitt because we need the shooting

with us picking Magic and Penny. So we can't cut Dame, Dame shooting guard. Then you might as well go, Luca get even more shooting over Jason Kidd. Yeah, let's do it. Sorry, Jason. See that? It seemed disrespectful, but... We can put Jason Kidd at Power Forward over Penny if you want.

Great defender. And just tell him like, all right, man. But that'll muck up the spacing. Penny isn't going to shoot. like that? No, but he's more athletic. So I think I would like that. Yeah, so I would like that. Yeah.

Penny and Kate can both catch lobs. Yeah, Kit is out of here. Sorry. You start running high, low actions with Penny and Kay. That's what I'm saying you get a good offensive-minded coach? You're cooking. Okay. Okay.

It isn't too bad. Luca, Dame, Cade, Penny, magic. Which lineup is better? This one or the Hall Center's one? The Senate is going to beat the shit out of them. Who's defending Joel and Bede? Exactly. You're not like people

They like you pick up full court You just start posting up Full Court Yeah Dude Joelle Vee Damien Lillard is going to guard Joel NBee's My God

The most agile Big of all time Dude Dame is breaking Every bone in his body guarding him And then Shaq And Magic You can just play through that

What are you doing All right next up Amen Thompson Jdub Palo Bencaro Chet Garland and Cade Chet's at the 5

Okay Okay That's that's stamp Yeah, put the big there. They only like real big here. Power 4. Do you want to put Palo there? Go with the other superstar and build around them?

Uh. Because if we do that, some of these other guys fit around them pretty nicely. Well, we have Kate. Okay, do you want to start Kada point guard? Are we cutting, are we cutting Darius Garland? Or do you want to play both of them and have a combo guard? I think I don't want to play both. I don't want to play both at all.

I'd rather just start Kade. So start Kade at... No defensive liabilities, I'm sorry. So Jada at a shooting guard and then a man in Palo at 3 and 4? Yeah. Do we like that spacing? So we're going K'd at one or Garland at one? I think Ked at one.

So Kade, J-Dub, Amen, Palo, Chet. I feel good. That defense is disgusting. It is. The Amen Palo thing isn't the prettiest fit. But I play. That's bad. That's actively bad.

But what are you going to do? You're going to bench Palo and start Garland. And you have a small guard you can pick on. I mean, I don't know, man. Yeah. We can bench a men if we want and have elite spacing. Non-men has to stay, I think.

I forgot, we're men glazers. We can't even think about. It's either Pollo or. We can't even think about starting an all-star above men toss. Blasphemous. Okay, so I guess so what we do. We caught Garland.

Yeah. Simple. Jalen Suggs, Herb Jones, J.D. McDaniels, Evan Mobley, O.G. and Zubach. Yo, this team is losing every game. They're scoring 100 points, losing 104.

Every single night. It's very clear. to me that sorry McDaniels you're out of here everybody else stays really yeah so you're going to Sugs at point guard you're gonna go Mowgli and Zubwatch together ever dude Jaden Jaden is like one of the best shooters

here he's like the second or maybe third best shooter here is there a world in which you run one big and have all these forwards out there do I look like I give a damn we need spacing no none of these guys are for real offensive guys like that we'll see what Mowgli does I know

but however if we're gonna go and do this, we're going all in. It's like what we do with the centers. If we're going all in on defense, all right, fine. If we're going all in, we cut Jalen Suggs and go the biggest team possible. No. No, we need Suggs's one point.

Honestly, Suggs Mowbush, that's not a terrible offense. We can move around there. Then you do the best basers. Didn't get OG right there. Herb Jones' best perimeter defender out here? We're locking up. I think in that scenario we need a little more offense. So maybe we go Jamie Daniels over her Jones.

Jamie Daniels got to stay. He's the shooter here, which sucks. That's a crazy sentence. But he's a better shooter than Herb Jones. And that's why I'm saying there was a moment. A quick flash in the pan where Herb Jones is out here shooting 40% from 3. It was a very quick flash in the pan. I listen, man.

We can fix him on our team in our system with our coaching. No, I don't care about the shooting. He can shoot that this is the dribbler. We need more ball handlers. And Jamie Daniels can attack clothes out. You can dribble a little bit. See, just a little bit. I think that Herb Jones, we can teach him how to do that.

Okay. We can coach him up. We can nurture Herb Jones. Yes. To be a semi good ball handlerer? All right, I'm killing to Herb Jones He's out of here. He's out of here, sorry Why?

The Nassas, Alex, Brony, Seth Curry, Austin Rivers, and Robin Lopez. The Nassus is stang. I don't give a damn what nobody's saying. The Nassas is staying. He deserves a spot on my team. Keep mind, it's supposed to be Seth Curry, not Steph.

Okay. The Nassas is staying no matter what. Okay, the Nassas. You're running in my center. We're going small? You put him in power forward. You're having, there's no chance. You have a good offense.

But center feels weird, too. I think we need a big guy. Robin Lopez. Okay, Robin Lopez and the Nassas. Yeah, really feisty. They're going to talk a lot and bark at each other. Hey, man. All these are NBA players. Alex is not, man. He's not an NBA player. That's not what we're doing here. Cut him. Cut him. Okay. So we have Austin Rivers and Seth Curry as our backcourt. You can do worse than that. Ronnie plays up a little place, plays a small four. It locks up. The Nassas is playing the four. Brooke Lopez at the five. We're hooping. Robin Lopez. I'm telling you 76 points a night. We're cooking. Yeah, Austin Reeves is getting cut though, for sure. What? Austin Rivers? Rivers, my bad. Hell no, he's not getting cut. Are you crazy? He's going to cut.

Are you dumb? Are you crazy? Yo, listen. We got two Autenigupos. What if another Greek jersey on? What if another Greek dude comes to our team? Put some respect on the Wisconsin herd. Stop that.

What if we're able to attract the other Greek guy? It's a long-term play here. You're too focused on the present. Okay. Alex, goodbye. Next up, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem, Magic, Larry, Bird, Duncan, the big six.

Who gets cut from the best players of all time? Sorry, MJ, team morale. None of my players like to get punched. We don't take too kindly as that type of gear. It is quite literally, I'm sorry. Two of these players play the same position, and one of them is better. So, damn. Larry, get out of here, white boy.

I don't know. Lo, like. What is he put me for? Loki, I think we go one big. And we put LeBron and power forward and keep Larry at three. That's what I was thinking of. I think we tell Tim Duncan or Karim to kick rocks

and you pick which one you want. I think I probably want to keep Tim Duncan for the sake of defense. It's Kareem. It's not exactly a bad defender. Yeah, I know, but I want to scale him down. I want an offensive player who genuinely isn't that, like, you know, I mean, it's all.

He don't mind taking a couple looks. Kareem played a magic. Kareem played without the ball on his hands a little bit. He's not exactly. He's not Hakeem. He's Kareem, though, though. So you want to cut Kareen because they have one too many cooks in the kitchen? Like prime Kareem, he needs the ball.

Okay. So one too many cooks in the kitchen that way? We want some guy who's okay with never shooting? Yeah, exactly. He's the ultimate teammate guy. Okay. Tim Duncan's very okay taking zero shots of game. We need Larry Bird spacing.

You also could cut magic if you want to go big and have LeBron run point. I got to have LeBron Magic and MJ that type. Yeah. I can't count. The way you said that, there's too much aura? Yes. I've seen flashes in my mind

about what that synergy would look like. Those passes. It's a lot of he he's. Man, just, you know what a plan I'm talking about too. Dude again. Stunning. Exactly.

I guess we're cutting Karim's little Jabbar. I guess we're cutting the third best player of all time. Sorry, Karim. It is everything. Sorry, Karin. And that's the last one. I didn't expect that.

Alex, I tend to Kumpo, man. disrespect in your name. Oh, God. Next thing we're going to do, I'm going to name you an NBA team, and I want you to tell me what the best and worst-case scenario is for them this season.

All right. So if everything goes well, what their outcome is, if everything goes goddamn terrible, what it looks like for them going to the future. Okay. First off, the Golden State Warriors.

What's the best-case scenario? They make the finals? Yeah, best-case scenario is everything we saw posting to the Butler trade, all that shit is real. We win 60 games. We're contenders again.

We might have a 20-22 run in us. You think they could best case scenario they can win the final well obviously in this best case scenario some shit got to break their way with the other contenders but i guess i'm gonna scale down a little bit and say best case scenario they stay fucking healthy and they maintain like the three seed that best case scenario is the old man don't break their hips yeah exactly best case scenario these guys are on their resistance bands and just stretching every day daily as soon as they wake up okay do i think they actually can win the title not really it's hard they're the hardest team to write off because

I don't think they're good enough on paper. You look at the teams I compare them to in the standings. Those aren't championship teams per se. But we know what happens with Steph Curry and Drummond Green if they catch a lightning in a bottle. Yeah, I guess like since we've seen, since we've seen 22, I guess you can't write it off. So, okay, best case scenario, they can win the championship.

Very unlikely to be possible. Which is wild. Worst case scenario, they're old as hell. Get injured a lot. Nobody wants coming good. None of the young guys take a leap. And we're looking at, you're kind of just wasting the last years of step curry being mid. Yeah, worst.

okay so worst case scenario would be 11 seed you missed the plan yeah and loki nobody talks about this Steve Kerr is on the last year of his contract worst case scenario you're bad you missed the playing Steve Kerr walks and you have a new coach in here with step Kerr for his final years your team loses identity the entire band is broken up and you're just kind of nothing until stuff career retires there is zero chance in my mind in which where they don't decide to match up Steve Kerr's contract with draymond and stuff zero you've got to listen to the teeth lose better then because there is a real chance everything Steve Kerr is saying there's a real chance he leaves he's a free agent he's and a test the market we know they're on the last leg is dynasty the ownership's a little

iffy there's a real chance that'd be so sad nobody's talking about it's super possible when he talks about it he's like yeah man we'll see this might be a last dance he's so I mean he's really done with everything too because I mean he's he's not the heck that's what I'm saying anymore like he might just be done exactly like he it's so clear if you listen to him talk about it there's a world where he's gone after this Caminga broke him. Next up, the Orlando Magic. Best case scenario, they are like the third seed in the

in the Eastern Conference. Well, best case scenario, maybe a little higher than that. Best case scenario, they're the one seat. Yeah, best case scenario, this is the new powerhouse in the east. If Palo becomes a top team player, people want him to be and Franz is a shot, so now he is just like German Paul George. But let's be realistic, though, because like we can't say best case scenario for everyone. We won't be realistic.

They are like 10. I don't know. I'd be very every magic fan obviously would be happy if they were like the third seat firmly and this two these two guys like were firmly all-stars as well that's a realistic guy scenario that's not the best case that's like the 76th percentile

I'm talking about 100% top then they win the championship no no they're not the roster isn't that good to do that but they can be the best team of the east and I think if they make conference finals finals that would be huge yeah that's what I'm saying no one's gonna win but if palo is the eighth best player in the world and Franz shoots 37 and a half percent from three

that's crazy They can be the one seed. Yeah, that's crazy. That is league average. I'm going to average is 35, but coming from him. It's 36 these days, catch up. From him, no? Shit, that's crazy.

Yeah, that is kind of tough. Worst case scenario, none of that happens. And this team, the fit doesn't work. And we're looking at a duo that kind of has to be broken up one day. If they're the sixth seed, that would be such a disappointment for me, personally. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's worst case scenario.

If the bucks are ahead of you in any shape, way or form. Worst case. The worst case scenario, though, is Franz, who's 29% from three, and we have to just look ourselves in the mirror and say these two can't play together. It's probably buns. Having to break up this duo would be the worst case. Yeah. Next up, the Rockets.

Best case scenario. Fred of Miracocally comes back, like, I don't know, sometime in March with a whole new ACL. He gets that Jason Tatum surgery. Yeah. He comes back. Best case scenario is a man Thompson could play point guard full time. And he can shoot a little bit, the handles there. So Fred Van der Leet doesn't even fucking matter.

championship is the best case scenario yeah you build off of what they did last year and kevin around elevates them yeah and with kd's with kd's singular like i can just go get a bucket and your defense you you you punch scratch and claw maybe literally your way to a championship that would be best case maybe literally yeah worst case scenario katy gets hurt a man thompson doesn't develop his jump shot and they're scratching and clawing for like an eighth seat in the western conference and i feel like their worst case scenario is kind of high though Like worst case scenario, they're like six And they're still like a good playoff team But they're just not making the leap they wanted to

For this specific season, yes I think everything that you're saying Is like the long term best case scenario And on top of that Like it read Reacher doesn't put on two pounds of muscle this year Then like that's also worst case scenario Yeah If he's unplayable and you're wasted number three pick

That would suck. Yeah. Lakers Best case scenario West and Coventon MVP And they win the finals When the finals is tough with his roster with how stacked the West is. I don't even know

if that's a realistic scenario per se. But they can make the finals, I guess. Like, if you tell me they get their way in their way, the same way the Mavericks did when nobody expected it, you've seen a little good do it before. Best case scenario? I don't think best case scenario is winning the final.

They can get there, though. I do agree with that. Well, if they get there, that means they got through the crazy West at the East's cake. So if they get there, I suppose they can win it. He thinks it's sweet. I think that shit is Charmin.

If the Lakers get out, oh, I'm going to be fucking insufferable. That'll be. cinema for this fucking If they can beat the thunder they will throttle the Knicks That'll be cinema for I pray to God that fucking happens

That would be the best day of my life Because they beat the fuck out of this It'll be the best day In the NBA's life Cat You got Lakers Knicks finals And you get it's true too And you get highlights of Luca

Doing Cat on the perimeter Oh my God You kill him But our best case scenario Is Luca's the MVP And we have the best player In our team for the next seven years We established that

that we have the new guy. That's all that matters. The roster isn't quite ready this year. I hate Rob Polinka so much. LeBron James be able to come in and grab that fifth ring. Solitifies the status even more, too. The NBA is up. Solitify.

It's a debate. All right. Worst case scenario, though, is that LeBron barely plays. He leaves a free agency. We have no way to replace him. And the roster's kind of buns. And we're worse off with Luca than the Mavs were. And Luca loses the tummy tuck, too.

Yeah, Luca, yeah. And if DeAndre Ait scams you guys They're playing really hard Get you in Rob Link It pays him like a $25 million contract And he's just like, all right, I'm chilling out Yeah, but if we're just stuck with a mid-supporting cast around this guy And he goes out sad for the next four years

Yeah, how do you feel about that scenario? Because I do feel like that Yeah That is very realistic Dave Pam? Yeah I gotta see what it looks like I mean if he plays well

And they reward him market rate I can't be too mad But I'd have it back in my head Like fuck is it gonna last Without the contract your diet Because like year three of whatever four-year contract Is like I don't think they give him a four-year contract

I don't know if we have to leverage, unless he goes stupid. It makes an All-Star game. I think he's looking at like a two-year, 25 million each deal, right? I don't know. I don't think any ways to be jumping to give him a long-term deal. Regardless of what it is, you guys are going to be first up to potentially accept the bait, and he's going to be over here just like coming up with the most disgusting excuses ever. The L.A. is getting to me.

The traffic was so bad. I can't do it. I can't make it to the stadium, guys. Yeah. If he's good, I won't be mad at keeping him in general. Is that general rule? We'll see what the numbers look like. Next up, the Grizzlies.

Oh, worst case scenario is that you are picking in the top five because everything falls apart. Everybody is hurt once again. And you look at your team and you look at John Moran and you're like, he can't be the face of all that. Yeah, worst case scenario is John Morant is on the Trailblazers and you're drafting A.J. DeBonsa. Best case scenario.

Loki is the best case scenario too. Loki is just a scenario. It's not awful. Best case scenario, you are able to gather up all those picks at the Atlanta Magic gave you trade that boy jaw to the Milwaukee bucks and you have Giannis on your team Jared Jackson Jr. team. Zach

Edie's are one of the biggest big trees. We're not entertaining any world in which they're just good with who they have. The best case scenario trade worst case scenario trade. The best trade in some money. It's sad but like the best case scenario is you finally win a playoff series for the first time in three years. Yeah.

Who would they even be like you beat the clippers in the first round as the eighth of the five? The worst would have to happen to that kid. Yeah. The worst of that happened. There's very few range of outcome for this team. Atlanta Hawks. Best case scenario, you're back in the conference finals, I guess, just to get stomped out by either the Cavs or the Knicks. Hell not.

Best case scenario, Trey Young improves that efficiency. Jalen Johnson, All-Star, Chris Sos for Zings. I'm talking about 19 points, 41% from the three-point line. Zachary Richie say cool little like 14, 15 points a game showcasing that elite three. This week ass, Ben, case scenario you're describing a second round exits dyson daniels taking a leap as a secondary

ball handler this is the most how many is this and we win the mb for who for dyson in his ball handler leap four you just described the coolest 52 win team second round exit i've ever heard wow best case scenario that my happiness is available again wow worst case scenario Trey Young's trade because his team goes nowhere fast. KP's hurt. Jalen Johnson's hurt again. The same shit as always and Treyong's looking at different jersey. Oh, no. The worst case scenario genuinely is like regardless of what happens with Trey, if KP and Jalen Johnson get hurt, then that just mucks up everything for us.

Yeah, another year where you learn nothing because your team is not going to do. Hey, best case scenario has nothing to do with our team. Warren's Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks are fucking ass cheeks and we get another number one overall pick to save us from despair out of nowhere. Yo, scriptwriters Not only will they have The worst number one pick The last 15 years

They'll somehow find a way to ruin Whoever they pick And have two of the worst number one picks In last 15 years You think Boozer's a can't miss prospect Not until he touches the Atlanta He's not Bucks

Best case scenario Second round appearance No Best case scenario You make the playoffs And you lose in the first round Again like you always do You don't think that is

Is there any world Do you honestly be pissed If that happened If they if somehow How everything clicks, five seed. Okay. And they're playing the Hawks in the first round? They play the four or five match.

Yeah, like, let's say, let's say Detroit, who I picked to go number three and then got the, got a notification that Jaden Ivory got surgery. If Detroit drops to six and then you have Milwaukee Atlanta in the first round, they beat them, get to the second round, then get clapped. I think that's best case scenario. Okay, sure. Best case scenario is you won one single playoff run and you convince Jan and say, hey, we won one series in our roster was Bunns.

Stay one more year. We'll fix it a little bit better. Moving two. Okay. I guess that's the best. That's the best case scenario. Worst case scenario isn't even that bad because worst case. Actually, no, that is bad because you have no picks.

Worst case scenario is you're terrible. You're not tracking to make the playoffs. Yonis request a trade in February. You don't have control your picks. And now you don't have Janus. And you're kind of just a black hole for the next five years. Yo. Milwaukee, hit me up.

I know people in Atlanta who will solve things for you. Jaylon Johnson. He's from your streets. Let's talk. 76ers. Best case scenario is Joelle and B. He plays 70 games and has one more run in them. And that's the only scenario, honestly.

There's nothing else to hang out on. Best case scenario, Joelle and Bede is healthy. Worst case scenario, Joel and Bede is not healthy. Pick your poison. It's really just the same story. It's the same story. Yeah, it'll matter how good Tyrese Maxi ends up being next year. It doesn't matter how good Vijay Edgcombe is or if Jared McCain's able to capitalize

and build off his next, his last, his rookie year. None of it matters, right. Joe Embed, start and to finish. Yeah, I guess best case. scenario is we j edgecom is donovan mitchell and it doesn't matter what happened because now you have two all-star guards now you need to be too small yeah you need him beat we can figure it out though if we have tary's maxi and donovan mitchell for the next few years we can pivot i guess not really well though because we still have paul george's money and we still have joel and b's money yeah and we still have

nobody else but two all-star guards let's trade and b for what no one's trading for me for for what who's training for me for what come on now i don't know nobody's straight for him Boston Cleveland Cavaliers Best case scenario is you win the championship The worst case scenario

Is you go outside Once again And everything's that you're Yeah So obviously you win Championship They're in the running Every year now

Worst case scenario Is you go out In a way That people say This court can exist And we've got to trade One of the core for Yep

Which we've been flirting For for fucking years Yep And that is directly Correlated to Darius Garland And also Potentially Jared Allen too Both maybe yeah

That's definitely The worst case scenario Yeah You're gonna blow it up and you just never get to see this beautiful core you put together kind of fruition. Like, if they lost to the bucks, if they lose to the bucks in the first round,

worst case scenario. We got to throw them in a meat grinder if they lose to the bucks. Oh, no. I'm actually like driving to Cleveland myself and I'm throwing tomatoes at their stadium. I'm throwing fucking dynamites. Dude, I would hate this team.

They lose to the bucks. Dude, that can't. I'm throwing laser beams. That'll be one of the most embarrassing playoff losses in the last like five years. It would be so funny if the Pacers made the play in and they beat him again in the 1-A-D. No, no. See, Ackham just kills him.

Take them out of this nightmare, man, no. Seacom average is 40. New York, next. Best case scenario, you win the title. Best case scenario, this east is four of the pickings. You get in there. Whoever comes out of the West is a little bit unhealthy and you strike while the iron's hot and you take them down. Worst case scenario, Mike Brown changes nothing.

And this is a first round exit. And you got a trade cat. First round exit. That can even... I mean, there's absolutely, unless everybody gets shot in their leg, there's no way that they, like, missed a playoff. But, like, they'll be there. So if you, but if you lose in the first round, the leg. What's going on, man?

Are you from the future? What's going on, man? Everybody's leg one by one with a gun. Yeah. I don't know, man. Oh, my gosh. The city of demons, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, he did to go outside and his court can't work. They be scheming. Worst Kish Niro, we find out you can't win with a 1-5 combo that's this bad defensively and somebody's got to go and his name of the Carinthetowns. Damn. Yeah. And at that point in time, the market for Carinthetowns is actually not that bad. They'll be terrible. Would that be two years in a row where you lose because the defense is bad?

Who's going to want to say, bring that to me? Milwaukee. I guess, yeah. I guess you better hope the bucks kept you honest and they're. What the fuck would they give you? Miles Turner and some stuff? I don't know. Miles Turner and Kuzva, I guess.

Such an ugly ass MBA trade. We're getting Miles Turner and AJ Green for Carleton's Timberwolves. Best case scenario, Anthony Edwards elevates the top three player in the world. This is Dwayne Wade. He is an MVP. We can build off of that for years to come. I don't think the finals is the best case scenario in this year. I don't really see that, but it's possible.

They make it to the conference finals, I think so. Yeah, you're right. And they don't lose in five games? Can you win two games in the conference finals instead of one? Yeah, if they're always in the conference finals, I guess any year could be the year they push through. But, yeah, I'm more focused on best case scenario, Anthony Edwards elevates him being that guy. And your championship window, like, opens up

because he's good enough to lead you to a window. Yo, that's the case. And that guy looks like him pulling up from, like, the three-point line and shooting, like, 41% from the field, while also having that post-game that he's been talking about. Worst case scenario is a three-point shot regresses. That wasn't real. Rudy Gobert, old as fuck, bald as fuck,

watched as fuck. He's got to go. Bald as fuck. Nasree can't be your starting center. Your defense is going to be terrible. suddenly you have Julie's round and making a lot of money you're not really in championship contendo

because Gobert's gone it could get stinky real fast if these young guys aren't good Julia starts smoking weed again Oh my God Yeah maybe if Dillingham doesn't hit He's just not playable Ooh then you know what that means

If Dillam doesn't hit That means that future bed that you gave to the Spurs useless Oh hey this could go south real fast If Rudy Gaubert sucks This organization is on the shoulders of aim right now

They really are This could get bad but it probably won't. Clippers. Best case scenario, you win 52 games. Worst case scenario, you come back next year and try to win 52 games again.

Nothing will change. Yeah. Best case scenario is you win 52 games, you get cleared of all the allegations. Yes. And Steve Balmer gets to dance in Adam Silver's face.

That's the best case scenario. Yeah, and you guys get to put Pablo Tori in a guillotine at Town Square. Worst case scenario. Everything that Pablo said is true. You guys losing the first round. And he does five more.

podcast about your downfall. Oh my God. That's the worst thing that happened. And you know what they do? Because of that, they run your owner out of the league and you went to get at the self somebody else. And then on top of that, too, you lose your draft picks for the next 10 years to make an example out of you.

You're in the gutter. We're describing relegation. They're going to send you to the fucking Australian basketball league. Let's cook, buddy. Let's do that. They're going to make a new league in Abu Dhabi. You're going to be playing there. If we put the clippers in the, in the G league, if we put, okay, so who's the words?

If we put the nets in the G league. are they winning 50 games? Yes. Probably. Yes. 60. No. I don't have a game to play.

I don't know. I'm just thinking about it. But yeah, they're clearing. What? Can anybody? Cam Thomas is being Michael Jordan there. The process sixers might not win the championship.

That's what I'm saying. Who's the worst team that you could put in the G league and they would like win 50 games? 2013. Sixers. Can the Thunder go 82? Yes. Kings, best case scenario, or worst case scenario, you suck and you got to blow it up and go a new direction, no good players left. That's not.

Best case scenario, you suck, you got to blow it up, no good players left. Listen, that's actually not true. What's up? Worst case scenario, you are who you are, and you stay the same. And you are subjected to this mediocrity. You're in and year in and year in and you're out. Best case scenario, you suck and you blow it up. It's a bonus demand to trade.

That would be the best thing for this franchise. rip the goddamn bandit off please send the bonus of the trailblazers send Zach Levine wherever he wants to go tank tank tank tank your jerseys are too nice your fans are too good for y'all to be this trash there is no best or worst

case scenario right you're just the king there's just inevitability yeah and that's the last one okay ah the fucking kings man they're the most despaired franchise right now them jerseys though nice they're fine

they fire bro they just gave Kigemari a hundred four million dollars yeah i didn't want to say anything but it's a crazy contract dude players going worse offensively every year of his career 140 yeah they're going nowhere fast man maybe money is crazy it's berserk

next thing we're going to do let's talk about a little bit of NBA player discourse I'm gonna name two NBA players you tell me by the end of this season who will be better who will rank higher when we do a rankings in the summer first off Victor Webenyama or Luca Donchich this will be a close one

if Wemby is what we think he is. Yeah. This, with how Luca played last year, if he was to, like, if he was to maintain that level of play and Wembe took another step up with a new physicality has, amen. Don't talk to me about last year. We've been on White Watchers. We're coming different this year.

I watched the game where they played the backups on the Phoenix Suns and preseason, and he fried everybody. He fried everybody. Good job. He fried everybody. From that same game, I saw a clip where they said, three dribble moves and three pump face to get by a rookie. It's so old.

He's the stupidest you I've ever seen. He did comment and they were like He couldn't blow by I'm no burst I'm like he mixed him up What do you mean?

They're finding ways to hate He killed them Nah he was with him He was like there In his stands hands And he was just bids They barely moved He killed him

Yeah you scored Due to two moves though It's not Exactly That's funny There's a world Be efficient It's super possible

That we look up this year This summer And we're like Damn Ebbies and best The World Convos But it's also possible That we're like A year or two away

From that Yes I don't I don't think it would It's not going to happen Unless the Spurs Get to like the 60th Or something like that But after this year

Especially since LeBron's out If you're right And this weight was really holding him back We'll also see Luca Return to Forum And you picked him to win MVP So he should I think like after this year

Luca probably still It's holding on by a threat Yeah I got Luca for now Yeah I really don't know I think it'll be debatable I think this would be like

Player 3 and Player 4 in the world And it would be a close debate For the next five years Yeah Yeah, I could actually Penal like that. That'll be tough. There will be plenty of arguments

to realistically pick Wemby and it won't be crazy. Yeah, this might be the closest one we see all day, honestly. Yeah, honestly, I think this might be like the closest possible debate in NBA for the next few years.

Cooper Flagg versus Draymond Green. It'll be Cooper Flag. You're one better than an elite defender still? Yeah, better shooter. Playmaking is, goes towards Draymond, probably better off defensive mind,

obviously. I'm going Cooper Flack. Like, shout out, shout out to Draymond. I think a lot of people are going to look at Cooper Flag and give him the nod because and the one thing that anybody's always said about Drayman is like, his skill set is so valuable because it's so singular to the Warriors and what they do. I think after this year, you're going to look at Cooper Flag and say he can average 18 which Draymond just can't do.

His defense is good enough. His playmaking is good enough. I would rather have him over Draymond. If these two were to switch teams, the Mazz are so much worse. Oh, you did be so much worse. Bad fit, but unbelievably worse. Yeah, I think Cooper Flagg, Mike. That line would be crazy.

That line would be hilarious, dude. Tremont, Anthony Davis, Derek lively. Oh, you're shooting yourself in that. Defense is nasty. They're playing volleyball. That'd be stupid. Yeah. And then Clay Thompson.

Oh, my God. Clay would be so upset. It'd be pissed. With Delo taking 12 threes a game? They need shooting. God. I think Cooper Flag could be. close to all-star level by the end of his rookie year.

Like, we could be looking at a guy that we say going to year two is clearly about to be an all-star right away. Yeah, I can agree to that. And listen, Jeremy's not getting any younger. Dylan Harper or Jamal Murray, year one. Do we think Dylan Harper can pass him up? No, I think it's a lot. Yeah, Jamal Murray has one more year ahead of Dylan Harper, probably.

Just because I have no idea what this fit is going to be. Like, I have no idea how they're going to deploy Dylan Harper and to ask him to walk into the league and start scoring 8. and have, you know, forces and all that stuff. And keep saying this. It doesn't matter. Whoever is the odd man out is getting booted to the fucking curb to make way for Dylan Harper.

If you're worried about the fit, worry for Stefan Castle. He's fucked. Dylan Harper is going to be the one. Who's playing defense? I don't care. Dylan Harper's playing a lot of offense. One beat back there. It don't matter.

Dylan Harper is going to be on Star Trek real fast. As a rookie, Jamal Murray is going to be better. But I think by the end of the year, it's probably going to be real close where we assume year two Harper's going to be better. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think I'm going to give my notes to Jamal Murray for now.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. As a rookie, it'll be that way. But listen, when we get the end of the year, the last, after it hits the rookie wall, makes a little leap in the end of the season, the end of the season. I can see that. Start a season next year. I'm coming for the start talks. Let's let out. Let's see and play a couple of regular season games.

No. All you need is preseason you get, you just ready. Zero. I respect it. No, but year one is going to be Jamal Murray. Yeah. But I'm not worried at all about the whole fit thing. I'm worried about the 15 for Stefan Castle

who was get ready to speak six man of the year. Yeah. Can you just like commit to playing defense and being in Google? Ain't nothing wrong with that, man. I wonder what's going to happen with Deer and Fox? Trade. If he's a star on that trajectory,

do they trade Deer and Fox next year? No. In the summer? Wait, no, not next year. Can they go two years at least with this? You have to, you just gave him an extension. Yeah, exactly. You can trade next summer.

If Harper's just like that guy. And put your, put your, put your, If Wemby ascends, if Wembe ascends, I don't think that you would trade Fox and then now put your entire core on year two point guards. Yeah, exactly. I think you trade Fox so you can successfully

do the two timelines thing. Unless you get y'allis. You're talking about these two timelines. They're not on a championship timeline right now. They could be. You don't know how Gwembe is going to be. Okay. They could be.

You never know. You never know. I doubt it. If that is the case and they are two contended, then you're right. They won't do it. But I don't feel like they're going to be that. So you never know.

But I'm really saying that in like the pretext Texas of like they trade him for another star that fits better. No, yeah, I get it. So, like, I'm not really saying they trade Fox to get worse, I guess. Yeah. Okay. I see you to me. Next up, Palo Van Carover is Jalen Brunson.

Come on, man. Can Palo break in the top ten talks? Pass up Brunson? These are your two kids? What are you going to do? You swaddle both these babies at birth? This is tough. They both suck from your teeth.

Yeah. One of these. Actually, no. Listen. It's going to be. It's going to be Brunson. You nurture these agendas. It's going to be Brunton.

Brunth could be hanging by a thread. Palo should. If Palo is who his biggest supporters want him to be, he should be able to pass up Jaylon Brunson at some point. If Palo is what we as Palo supporters want him to be, he becomes 6'9 Jalen Brunson. He becomes this guy. If Jaila Brunton was 6'9, he'd be better.

Oh, he's the best friend of least. No, of course. Of course. But like, even then, Brunton is still, McClitch, he's going to average 27. He's going to be efficient with it. Yeah, I lean Jalen Brunson, because I'm obviously a little bit of a skeptic, but if you

tell me it works and you're telling me his playmaking comes around, his shooting keeps getting better and better. He gets a better feel for how to be a slasher without relying too much on a mid-range jumper. There's a world where Palo is the eighth best player in the world next year. Eight is high. I know, I agree. I'm not, but he's number one pick. He is like that level of talent and size and like raw.

We should view him as that too, for sure. Yeah, that's possible. I don't see it happening. We should view him. like that for sure. You're a number one overall pick and over the course of this decade at least. That's a ceiling. Eight's a lot. I'm gonna go Brunson, but that is the ceiling. It should be

eight though. Like, he should be perfectly in timing for like for experiencing a leap. We see it with Cade. He made it all NBA 13. We see it with, um, yeah, let's worry. Let's worry about passing Cade right now before we talk about Brunson. Fair? Cade didn't pass

depending on depending on who you talk to. Let's worry about passing Jada before you, before we talk about passing brunt. Hey, let's fucking talk about it. Depending on who you ask. If you ask me, Jada's better now,

but Palo will probably be better by the next year. Yeah. This probably be the year Palo passes, but for sure. Okay. Next up, Sangoon versus Chad Holmgren. Sangoon's life gets a little bit easier with Kevin Durant.

Chad Hongren's hip is no longer broken. He can develop properly. Well, I mean, I would have taken Chet over Sangoon last year. I was taking Chet when he was broken. Yeah, he was talking to last year. I'll take Chet again.

I know Sangoon fans. think that they won this agenda war, you didn't. Yeah. I'm not dropping down at all. I'm staying 10 till those chats better. I think because OKC's going to be stupid in the regular season, they're both going to be all-stars. So that's like already negated.

Now who's going to be all-NBA? Probably the DPOI candidate. Ah, yeah, that's tough. If Sengu's going to be better, he needs to take a massive efficiency leap. Like I need to see him, one, the jump shot come around a little bit better. And two, he gets better finishing on the rim consistently. Yeah. Which he can.

I'm not going to stay too hard-headed. If he does do that and he does have an efficient scoring season, we can put him above Chet but I gotta see you first This is hard This is hard for me I think it's way more likely Chet comes off that injury

And his offensive develops And the three point shot is consistent And he's better at the rim And stays DPOI level That's more likely to me Than Sengoon making a big efficiency leap I don't know What if like Chet

That just never happens with Chet There's no reason we've seen it before We've seen him be on a better trajectory And then the injury is like a tangible thing He broke his hip He was hooping Yeah like those five games The year before that he was moving

The year before that, he was moving so much better if you watch side by side. And again, it's not like it's just like a... It wasn't just a slump. What if he just doesn't move like that no more because, like, this injury changes the whole trajectory of his career? He's not a torn Achilles.

It's not something that's like degenerative. It's a broken muscle. Muscles heel. He's 22. Yeah, he's 22, but there's like... No, it is. It is big. But it was a fracture of the bow

and it wasn't like... For someone that big, that's monumental, genuinely. It's not much, I mean, we saw him come back and play in a championship. Monumental. That makes it sound like it's already he's cooked. But I know what you're saying. It could be serious. I don't what you're saying. It could be serious. I don't think we've seen or heard anything to suggest that that's going to be the case. So I'm not really like worried about it. But that is a possibility. It's up for debate. I generally don't know where to go with this one though. Now if Chet, I'm already out match anyways. If Chet comes out, first two games, 30 points each, you change? Well, that'd be ridiculous.

I'm not even thinking twice. What are we talking about? If Chad, I was just 30 for a week, a single week in his career, I'll be all over the moon. I'm only, torch set though for sure now I'm just gonna always I'm always gonna pick the elite defender he's gonna walk into Denver and outplay Yokich now what okay let's try oh he did that like early in the year that's what I'm saying that first game he was

well who cares yeah I think he did that if he never moves the same that would be depressing because like it's so clear how hampered he was last year yeah but I think it was mostly time off like he'd look like he was just weak I mean anybody would at that what he was faced with you can't lift weights when your bones broken

And he was already, like, dumb light, too. So it's like, damn. He did not much to give away. You know, it was very much, very much, like when Darry's Garland lost that weight, it was moving weak as fuck, he's already a little guy. That's kind of how it felt watching Chet Hungren last year. Yeah. And he still won a championship.

He's so good. And he still won. So he was still kind of tough at his least tough. Oh, my gosh. Jalen Green versus Jordan Poole. Goulda Poole. Easily. Easily.

Yeah, he, I don't think Jeline Green has ever been as good as Jordan Poole. ever are you entertaining anything that may be in this new scenario that like he'll fit with devon booker and they can figure some stuff out where he can be valuable hell no exactly all right never mind next one yeah it's helpful evan mowby or donovan mitchell who's the leader of this team come playoff time who's the best player vocal leader donovan mitchell actual best player on this team if they want to genuinely go genuinely go far might it might have to go through mowgli whether it's true or not, they should operate like Moby's their best player. They need...

Donald Mitchell's going to get his game off regardless. One thing about him, he's going to shoot the motherfucking ball. They have to force feed Mowbly and play through him and allow him to eat. Because last year in the playoffs, when people got hurt, I'm not calling him a ball hog. I'm not calling him a black hole. Yes, you are. I'm not calling him a non-passer. I'm not calling him a negative playmaker. But when everybody got hurt, he was shooting a lot of shots.

He operated like he had two right hands. Mobley didn't get the ball very often. I would like to see that change. I'm going D. Mitch. One last year. One last ride. I think it's sales. I think it sells.

One more job. Can you give me one more day? Steph Curry versus Kunting him. It's still stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I think Steph again. Come playoff time?

Yeah. Yeah. Regular season playoff time. Is there ever going to be a point where Steph drops below top 10 levels where he gets passed by guys like Kade? Because Kade's, well, like the 15th best. See, and that's a great question because the answer to that is no. what he's be 42 running around the same player yeah like there's that's not real when i tell you

about gravity then you'll understand it right when you look at at basketball in such a different way that you start to understand what he does when you are enlightened then we can talk you say when you join the cult he's on your laugh away i'll show you up no no uh he already lost a step step step he's already pretty slow now i feel like he's gonna be at this level of speed for like at least another two years. Maybe he'll lose another step when he's like ancient, we're still playing. But yeah, I think he'll be better

than Cade for at least six years. If you want Cade to be better, then you're expecting him to literally be like a top nine, eight player in the NBA. And at that point you're asking him to become one of the best scorers in the league. And I don't know if he's ever going to have

like the burst to be a consistent like rim finisher to be an elite score. And now I think about you're asking to also be like the second best player in the Eastern Conference. Not necessarily. Well, that's kind of easy to get to. It's just him for Jalen Brunson.

so like that's not unattainable that's easy I'm not to say calm down oh it's kids up ask me who I'm taking today ask me who's better right now I can't hear you

I can hear you it's not the little one I'll tell you that La Mello Ball versus a men Thompson I don't want to entertain him lamella ball not only

he has to prove again that he can be a serious NBA player and not a cartoon caricature of one I'm in Thompson right now actually implicit Pax winning basketball games. You said he's Wilk from Fossosome from imaginary friends?

A hundred percent. Whatever they're, whatever they're doing in Charlotte, up until this point, it's been fake. He's a regular show Hooper, spinning the ball on his finger. I'm going with the men, Thompson.

Rolling a ball in his shoulders like this. Oh, man. It is a man. How the, man, how he's falling is so dang. I can see himelope being better. This isn't a crazy conversation. You could, but the discourse is so...

Roll the ball out. A man's locking him up Whoa One on a one I don't know how he's scoring either One-on-on-one It's not exactly his forte He just probably running through

Lamello's chest Yeah he was gonna fucking put him He'd fry him in one-on-one Honestly Would it be good at one-on-one He's very fast, very strong Yeah he would be He's a good athlete

And he can lock up his opponent He'd fry him But you gotta give a shoot a little bit The Mello's not small Why? Because he's not fucking Yonis He's not gonna run through Lamello ball every time

Lamello bird chest ball I'm not know A man is killing him He'd fry him Okay he's one of his on one they're standing there from a start it's not a full head of steam like it's a one-on-one game be realistic it's brutal he is a men's first step would get him no he what i'm not saying can score but like we're making his i i don't think for the game of one-on-one in the nature of like

just physicality yeah quickness and athleticism your ability to shoot doesn't matter if it's three dribbles you're talking about lamella like you're trey young's what i'm saying and lamello's tall he doesn't do shit defensively at all you're right in a fucking five-on-five game and one-on-one we're just look at this guy i don't think he's gonna get blister if it's three dribbles if it's If it's three dribbles, LaMello has no chance. If it's two, maybe. Maybe he has a chance. But three dribbles one-on-one, a man is beating him, 11 to two.

Damn. Yeah, I'm not saying he'd win, but like, I'm not buying he'd win if he can't hit a mid-range shot. I don't think he'd run through him every single time. I'd get to the ring. Lamello's not a child. Like, Lamello's got a big. He's not, like, skinny like that. Yeah, he's, he has frame, but not framed that leads to positive production in a one-on-one setting.

I know what you're saying. And it's based on his 5-05 game But I just wonder if it would be different If he was defending one guy in front of him In that scenario Like I feel like Bad reputational NBA defenders Can probably do a little better

His defense might be worse man I'm sorry It might be worse on one man He might not play deep until he gets the ball back That would be the best argument Is he wouldn't try He'd just let him run by Thinking he'll miss

And he lost the ball Just fake Fake attempts, bro I just think Lamella's kind of huge I feel like people forget how big he is Yeah Just in like the way he plays and nobody watches the conversation about his defense.

He's a big motherfucker. We had dudes last year saying, is Men Thompson the greatest athlete we've ever seen in the A's light? Lemuel's big, but he don't feel big considering how he does not finish at the rim at all. Amen Thompson. Yeah. Amman Thompson, you're better than La Melle the ball.

LeBron versus Zion. This is very good. This is very good. What do you think Zion is going to be in the year? Do you think Zion will back to being a top 15 player if he's healthy? if he's top 15 then that this is very real it's very real LeBron's getting older LeBron can retire than this year and he'd still be better than Zile

You gotta get the hate out of your heart No he would just be better like I think might But he might he very much might be he's better now That's what I'm saying it's not this really isn't hey I just think that like LeBron until the day he he retires That I disagree with is going is gonna be like top 20 I mean he's old as hell he's getting older every year like it's not like he's never lost a step

I also say until the day he retires that's at the end of this year so for one year he can still be a top 20 player let's say Zion plays 65 games and the health doesn't a factor you're viewing him for what he is on the court I'm probably still taking LeBron

because he's a better shooter he's a better passer better playmaker defender better defender but what Zion does he's probably the best in the world historically yeah exactly

him and Yannis and also like I'm expecting a massive playmaking leap too I might edge towards the Bronron still considering the defense. He doesn't want to add as LeBron. He wants to finish.

I think do you think this can make Zahn a better defender? Do I think what? Can the skinnyness? I think it's going to be too overtaxed. Can the weight loss makes on

a better defender? I feel like his issue is always off ball defense. Well, it depends. And the shape thing could help. That's what I'm saying. Because you can lose weight, but like how many hills

were you running in the off season, right? What is your cardiovascular system like? Yeah. And so I have no idea what that's like. Nah. So I don't, I don't know.

We will, we will get a good sense of that in the first 10 games of his engagement level of his activeness how tired he just looks you know uh whenever he goes to the bench but for right now i will still say lebron okay that's fair i can see it being close but yeah i can also very much still still see lebron being the 13th best player in the world in his island's like touching top 20 maybe he's like 17 yeah yeah just because even if he is healthy and skinny he's still going to miss games he's still going to have that hanging over his head even if he plays 70 you're still going to remember all these other years so you're never going to like fully divorce it

from you. He has to go back to back years. Yeah, he's got to be an Ironman for a long time.

Damn. Jalen Brown versus Franz Wagner. Ooh, this could be a debate. Franz was better last year.

Could be a real debate. Some might say Franz is better now. He could have been better since last year,

yeah. They might be glazing, but some people would say it. I'm sorry, if you should, well, I don't know because Jaylen had

a bad year too. He didn't shoot as bad out of the It really comes down to if Franz shoots well from three, he's a better he's a better playmaker,

a better defender, England. Jalen Brown is good there. He can create more at the rim. If he can shoot threes competently, he'll be better. But I don't know if that's going to happen or not. I think I'm cash in on Franz. Over the finals MVP? Yes. One of the worst finals MVP. What's the bar? 32.

You see 32? I'll take 32. I'll take 34. 32 is too low. 32 is still a non-shooter. That's still terrible. 34. 34? That has to be the floor. And also like the volume. He has to like be taken him with a quick trigger. If he takes... He'll take him. That's the thing. Like, he's He's not going to dial the three-point volume back.

And so I do like that from him. But he does have to get to 34 or 35 for it to be, you know, minimum. You can build around that. Yeah. And manageable. Sounds like we're going to go on Franz Wagner. Yeah. Next thing we're going to do.

We're going to play some five level games with two different players right now. We're going to do it with two different varieties of stars of different levels. You guys tell me who's going to be better this season, projecting, continuing our predictions with NBA player discourse. look we just talked about a lot of we might have already touch on some of these combos first off we're going to do Kade Cunningham

Spooky let's do it spooky I'm scared of how high he's gonna get yeah just putting fear in your trade on Stockhart well now

you know he passed in my shit I was having a combo Level one Cade Cunningham versus La Mello Dust him he's two levels above yeah yeah I'm gonna start some more easy

I get it I get it that was bait For Lamello fans in the comments, they're going to be pissed. Level two, Cade or Palo Bankero. Which number one pick would better this season? Projecting. I think it will probably be safer to say Cade. I think Cate's closer to his ceiling than Pallo is.

Yeah. Really? Right now? With Cade, you're just asking him to get more buckets. With Pallel, you're asking him to change who you are as a player. Yeah, you're asking to fix a lot of bad habits. And the way he sees the floor in some ways. Yeah.

So I'm going Cade. Yeah. But it's easier to imagine Palo fixing that than it is for Cade to become a great rim finisher all of a sudden. Just get buckets, put the ball into who? What do you mean? Nice? Yeah.

I mean, that's true. Like, if I'll just do it more. I'll just make more layups and we'll be fine. Exactly. Stop missing. It is simple, clearly. This is what we work on. This is what we practice.

Exactly. I think it'll be better. I think maybe Palo has like a higher scoring average and people will think he's better. But I think I would take Cade over Palo going to playoff time. Okay. Even just for style of play reasons.

Fair. Okay. Okay. Donovan Mitchell, level three. This might be the line. I think I might go Cade. I don't know. I'll still go,

I'll still go DMITS. Demit. I understand. I understand where we're at with the DeMitsch discourse and saying that Mowgli is better. But if Mowgli is better, I feel like that is more of a statement. Mowgli's progression rather than D. Mitch

completely falling off. Demich is still amazing. And if you put the ball in his hands, he can still be a very, very good high-volume score for you. I'll go, DeMitt. You don't think it's possible that Kay breaks into top 10 talks by having a better scoring season,

improving inside the arc, getting a little bit better at the deceleration at the rim, improving the post game, still being 11 assists a game. You don't think it's possible that he just gets better than D. It could happen, but I think if that's the case, then you're going to have to like literally

I have to wait until you see it. This is a top, this is that type. This is a projection game. Are you willing to put you, do you believe in Cates? No, I don't believe that. I'm stopping it right now. I'm going to be. We're losing at level three for Cade.

Yeah. Now, they will be the, they will be the 14th and 15th best players in the league. Yeah. It's going to be like that. But for one more year, I'll take D.Mitch. I think if it's close, it'll be Cade because I'd rather the playmaking. But I think Cade has to do a lot to get up to D. D.Mitch is scoring.

Who's level four and five? Level four would have been Steph Curry. and L5 would have been Luca Donchich. No. Yeah. Damn. Kay, you got some ways to go still, man. Okay.

Next up, we're going to do it with Victor Wembeyanama. We're going to continue to juice his name until there's no more views left to be reaped. Okay. We're juicing Wemby. If you're still here, comment, we're juicing Wembe. Level one. Wemby or Mowgli this year. Oh, we're already starting super high.

We got his Wemby. He's better than Mowley. Yeah. The offense is night and day. If the Cavs had Wemby, Championship. Yeah, exactly. He's better than Wembe.

Mowbly might be the second best defender in the world. Well, Wemby's first. The offensive gap will be massive. Yeah, exactly. Level two, Steph Curry. Do you think Wemby will pass up? Yeah. Your goat this year.

This is not a fair argument at all, man. They play two different positions. You can't compare them. Who's more likely to be MVP? No, it is Wembe. I think Steph might be more likely to, actually. No. MVP.

No, no, no, no he is not. No, he is not. When B is more like to have more team success. That's why I'm like Arrally lean towards Steph Sure but like Did more factors There are different conversations

Yeah individuals I guess It would be shocking If Wimby doesn't Pass up Curry this year He would have to not be healthy again And like Make zero improvements offensively And we've already seen the preseason

That's not the case I'll tell you that It's Wemby Stiff would have to go back to like 2022 Steph Winby grew two inches He's better than Curry Level 3

Anthony Edwards Yeah If he's better than Curry he's probably gonna be better than aunt if we're talking about that type of leap see now what kind of leap is aunt gonna take that's a good point i don't know uh yeah i think it's i think it's more likely that aunt is similar level and he's still like the six best player in the world this year and doesn't take a massive leap i think that's more likely than wemby doesn't take a leap like i think wemby's clearly going to jump into top five talks this year i think see my aunt might do that

he might as well yeah there's just more room for wemby to grow right now yeah there is there is. I think we can go Wemby. Like, it's not a testament to Ant, but he's like closer to his ceiling than Wembe is, by proxy of Wembe being incredibly far from the ceiling. He has so much room to grow. Yeah, we can go Wembe. I think I'll Wembe. Yeah, for the game purposes, we'll go Wembe, but that's really

tough because I do think that ant can be like that again, obviously. Level four, Janus. Can Wembe get into top three players in the world conversation? And this is where we stop. Yeah, this is where we stop. Unless unless, like, the craziest stuff happens, that's, that's great.

But Janus, everything that, for Wembe to get into these conversations, he's going to have to do the things that Yonis already does in terms of averaging 30, averaging 12 rebounds, having five assists, the playmaking is going to have to have to come along. Like, it's carrying this load of an offensive, carrying the load of this team, it's going to be, it's going to be so much. So I'll go with Yonis. Yeah, we'll go with Yonis because I think this case, this year, best case scenario of Wembe can match Yonis.

I can't really seem to passing them up. Yeah. Because Yonest, we said earlier. Yonis might average like 35, 36. Like the year that we get from Yonis might be crazy. But he's going to be a lot worse defensive than Wimby. If he averaged is 36, Yonis is playing very little defense. Wimby still has ways to go.

36 points is 36 points. That's going to be crazy. But he won't be like a top tier defender if he does that. No. I feel almost certain. At this age, doubt it. Let's say Wemby's at like 24 a night. They used at that last year.

I think he's probably been 26 and a half at least. Yeah, it has to be 26, 27. He's going to be, I think it'll probably be a 26, like four assists and however many blocks is he possibly possible if yonis is at like 36 and six that's wild no i mean yonness is amazing we're not yeah levels over anyway sorry with me last thing we're gonna do we're gonna play king of the hill with me drawing random names out of five yokech oh five with she yeah yeah he was yeah that's not happening

he wasn't doing no i don't even i go back and forth every day between yonis and say he's saying it's not happening and i think it's better i'm like unless he is he's seven for six now he might shoot four 40% from 3, he might dunk like Shaq. He's always been 7.6. Dude, he's bigger. He's, I know. He's like 7-7 now.

Yeah, yeah. Some people are saying, Christ. Yeah. Nice thing we're going to do. NBA King of the Hill. I'm going to draw a name out of this box. Continue to go. You tell me who's better.

Okay. So first off, two, first two names, they'd be completely random. John the Camingo are. Or the Bald Eagle. Oh, I'm taking Alex Caruso. No, I'm taking Alex Caruso. No, I'm taking Alex Caruso. No, I'm taking out of who you are.

If you're picking Camingo over Alex Caruso, I don't care of who you are. You're stupid. This is why I said, if you're the Brooklyn Nets, you're picking Kaminga. True, true, fair enough. Next name, Alex Caruso or Kevin Durantz. Well, sorry, Caruso. Sorry, Caruso. Yeah, you got to get on you.

We tried. He got booted. Kevin Durantz or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I mean, come on. Sorry, K.D. At their best, no, Ardman, best three-level score of all time. Versus the second best score of all time. Yeah, it's Kareem.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Donovan Mitchell. DeMitch, you should not be here. There's a pull-up war. You set you up. Fucking Polar there. Next one. Karim Abdul-Jabar or Scotty Barnes. Never mind.

There was a polar bear in Arlington. There's a goddamn penguin in Arlington. Jeez. Next up, Karim and Duljabar. We're met a world peace. Okay. Different conversation in a fight. Who'd win?

Kareem has reached. Kareem has weight on him, different weight classes. He takes him down. He's not getting back up. Ron our test does have crazy eyes. He is grimy. He is crazy. Hugo to whatever links to win.

All right, we're changing this mid-video to who wins in a fight. We're going to run our test. Yeah. Goodbye, Kareem. Who would win the fight? Run our test. Chet hungren. Oh, Ron is.

Yo, Chad is getting killed, man. He's getting physically dominated in the worst way. That's first-degree murder. He's getting stuffed in a box. Oh, my God, Chad. Run our test. Zion Williams. This is good.

This is an athlete. This is a fucking tank. I would pay so much money to see this. This is UFC 2 when they had no rules. Backyard brawl. This is Kimbo Slice. Kimbo slice. But I still have to go wrong.

Okay. I don't know. I don't know. He's just crazy. He's just different. Yeah. Next up. Charles Barkley.

Charles Barkley. He wants no part to remember. the World Peace. Okay. You call on Charles Barkley's soft? I'm just saying like run our test. We've seen the clips of Charles Barkley like throwing basketballs and hiding and you know throwing fake punches.

Paper Tigers. Okay. Yeah. Run our test versus Anthony Davis. He is killing Anthony Davis. He's just like fucking wide these days. He is fair. He is big but Meta World Peace don't play fair.

He's going for them knees immediately. Yeah. A knee shot, a body shot. Yeah. And we're going pre prime pre malice run our test before he got like. No. I'm going malice. Okay,

Matt's the day of the malice. That's who we're comparing him to. Now, that might just mean that, like, you need to pull out John Jones to be here. So I don't know.

Next up, Yao Ming, seven foot seven. What is Rod Artes doing to him to harm him? Yeah, one slap and Ron might be dead. I don't know. He could beat,

yeah. I think he could beat yeah. Bro, at certain points, there's a weight class difference that matters here. But can he jump up and like, all Yao can do is just like lay on him

and he's dead. You don't have to do much. I think Yao can just back up and just make a little kid putting a hand on someone's forehead. Oh, wow. He is that big. Seven foot six.

Give me Yao. He's sturdy. He's a castle. And I guess we go, yeah. We're going, yeah, and he wins King of the Hill. He wins surprise hands, King of the Hill.

Yal mean, you're untouchable. Yeah, me, man. If you're still here, watch people comment. Come on, we're juicing Wembe. And we'll see y'all next week for our reactions to opening night of the NBA season.

fucking back. Next time you guys see us, regular season basketball will be upon us. Thank goodness. Dude, it's really next week? It's next week. Oh my gosh. Next time you see us will be the stream on Monday. T3 Lives are now on Monday night. We're going to be previewing opening night. And then Friday we'll be back for the mainline episode, reacting to every NBA team's first game.

We are activated once again. Woo!