The Deep 3 Podcast - We Ranked The NBA Players Under The Most Pressure | Ep. 126

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

These NBA players have a lot to prove in 2025! #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 2:13- 10. Ja Morant 22:48- 9. Trae Young 36:08- 8. Tyrese Haliburton 43:08- 7. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 50:30- 6. Jimmy Butler 58:08- 5. Karl Anthony Towns 1:04:36- 4. Devin Booker 1:09:15- 3. Giannis Antetokounmpo 1:18:33- 2. Donovan Mitchell 1:27:30- 1. Jalen Green 1:41:40- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We got an interesting episode today. I feel like every time we do one of these episodes, like depending on the topic, it leans towards one of us and our interests more than others. Today is a donovan episode. Today is a day to hate a little bit. I don't know if we're going to use that word specifically,

but that's what's going to happen because today we're talking about NBA players that are under the most pressure. Players are going to be held accountable in the second half of the season, whose team is relying on them, whose reputation is relying on their play in these last 39 games or so.

A lot to talk about. up this is for sure like it's a michael irvin episode it's like it's we're staring at like at 10 players and we're asking them what are you prepared to do right that's that's what that's what i want to know and like as we get into playoff season that's honestly how i look at the playoffs it's just like what are you prepared to do right it's like you you guys i don't know over the next few days the trade deadline is about a week away we're going to see a lot of fake basketball going people playing their asses off just so they can remain in the city in the city that they reside in right now if you speak so oh some players yeah some some people on this list isn't about playoff basketball

some of it is about keeping a job so you're you're on the right track right there just for the week though what we're going to do is we're going to rank the top 10 players under the most pressure we I had them both send me a list to their top 10 and I compiled them into a like aggregate top 10 list So I know the list they don't So we're kind of going in this partially blind We're going to get some reactions to who we think Are under pressure aren't Maybe there'll be some disagreement

But 10 players in total Yeah man let's jump into it All right, how we're going to do this is crazy Oh my God I mean I don't know what to say Pray on Eater's rejoice All right how we're going to do this is since we have 10 players

we're going to take turns picking one on each list I'll go first at number 10 then Mo goes number 9 Donovan number 8 until we get to all 10 Okay I'm gonna start

Yeah Stan are you know how it goes Combined list A little combined ranking A little different than what we usually do It's all good Sounds like Number 10 I want to start off this list

of players on the most pressure With John Morant Yeah Yeah that makes sense I don't know if you guys remember We talked about the Memphis Grizzlies A few weeks ago on our, I think it was a contenders' tier list episode two weeks ago.

And I was telling you guys that I'm not worried, but I'm noticing that it's not a particularly strong John Morant year. And to me, it's because they implemented this new offense that's extremely free-flowing. They run very few pick and roles. It's very egalitarian, as we typically say with these type of teams. And in doing that, they made their floor a lot higher. They're really good team. They're not relying on any player.

Jaron Jackson is allowed to thrive and be the number one score. but it's really deep powered what makes John Morant special in previous years where his scoring was outrageous running a lot of picking rolls and really getting downhill with the ball in his hands.

He's asked to do less of that and I feel like he hasn't been super comfortable this year. And these past couple games he's had two straight games under 12 points under 40% from the field there's been a lot of discourse online

from Memphis Grizzlies fans who are panicking about it wondering if there's anything to be worried about and again, I'm reiterating I think it is something. Yeah. Okay.

Go ahead, it has to be, it's obviously something. Like, it's not, it is, it's obviously something, it's not nothing, however you, you want to put it. Yeah. There's a, there's a thing that's happening. And I'm, I feel comfortable, like projecting out and saying if we get into a playoff series, I still trust Jha to be able to reach like superpower, you know, ability and be able to elevate his game to a certain level because I do think that.

there's going to get to a point where maybe like maybe they get past the first round and across the seven game series once people start game planning you might look up and be like hey game one we got blown out like this game against the nix everything that the grislies do well the nicks were able to to handle because of their style of play as well and so if this was game one of a series taylor jenkins might go to the drawboard and be like okay maybe we should probably start dialing up a you know a couple more things jaw centered because I don't necessarily want Jalen Wells to be a big part of today's offense. I don't necessarily want to rely on, you know, all the other role players.

We're going to make sure that our, that the ball is in our star's hand. But if you give somebody that kind of, you know, benefit of the doubt, that's what the pressure comes from. It's like, listen, we're not going to say anything for eight months because we trust you. But also, it's been two years since we've seen you in the playoffs. You're in this new situation You are not looking too comfortable So I'm gonna let you rock right now

April comes around You got to turn up Yeah, it's again They play very differently And it's not impossible For him to thrive in the situation Like the way this team is set up Is essentially

prioritizing drivers on the court Sancho Adama is better as a driver these days Desmond Bain is a lot better As a driver these days Jaylon Wells can attack a closeout Jaron Jackson has made a fucking career year Off of attacking closeouts And using his size to attack the rim

and keep the ball moving. That's what they want to do one through five essentially besides when like Zach E's out there. That in theory fits John Moran. He can get downhill. He doesn't have to be a guy that gets a screen,

probes. He's not Luca Donchich wanted to play that slow and play his own very specific style of play. But nevertheless, while that makes sense in theory, he clearly is not comfortable.

He's currently at a 49% true shooting on pick and roll ball handling attempts and a 51% true shooting on isolation. It's not great. Yeah. Not great at all. It's hard for Jha because not only did he miss the basically entire of the last season

and he basically missed also on top of that too half of the year already too. So there's like so much adjustment going on and on top of like him just being out too. He has to sit down and consistently reiterate, reiterate himself into this new offense, which is just hard. It's so hard to like navigate your way through these things and being asked to like hold yourself back from a certain, a certain play style that he's used to. People in his corner probably tell him, hey, bro, you shouldn't be dunging like that. Him saying out loud in public, yeah, I'm not going to be douging like that and just clearly

lying and feeding into those ways. Lying's a funny word to use because I don't think he was lying. I think just he got on the court and the eye of the tiger took over and he's like, I don't want to dunk, but I see Wembe and I got to do it. It's a green goblin master. He sees the lane open. He's like, I got to do it. I have no choice.

I just got to try it. It's an addiction. I don't blame him for it. because it's fun as hell to see. But there's so many things going on with this team. Before, I almost would look at like this team overall and just feel like,

you guys have so much shit going on. Make everyone's life easier. All these depth and all these moving pieces, like fuck the egalitarian shit just a little bit. And lean towards your superpower, lean towards what makes you great NBA championship teams are made off of just pure greatness and not necessarily like strength and overall team.

like you always need someone to be that guy and empower jaw consolidate your death a little bit that's what i'd like to see that's what i'd like to see but even then like without that too i need i need to see john and his efficiency yeah like part of it you said there's a lot of things going on as a team exactly that's why it's not i'm not over here saying i think jaws wash i'm lowering jaw down my player rankings so i think he's done whatever whatever it's not that because there's so many factors i play like you said you're away from the game for a long time you're a three-point shooting is not strong so you don't have a strong like off ball floor there with how you can play without the stuff necessary revolving around you and he's only played 28 minutes for game because

clearly they understand he's injury prone they don't want to put too much pressure on him too much pressure on jaron anybody they want to play with that strength and number style at least in the regular season so that's also why the numbers down a little bit probably contributes to even less of a rhythm because you're not playing as many minutes to build that up lots of things went on and the point of this list is not who's being bad is who's under pressure, right? And there's a lot for the reason you said, you need, if you're going to have a final ceiling,

you need some superstar moments. You need a guy to carry you in the late game situations. Maybe that's Jaron now. We'll see, even as great as Jaron has been, he's not a ball handler per se. So you can't necessarily rely on him and like 30 seconds left in the game. We've got to go out and get a bucket.

That's not really what you want to be feeding Jaron touch-wise. Meanwhile, John Moran is fantastic at blowing by his guy and getting to a spot in the biggest moments. and if he's not going to be playing at the peak version of himself, that severely limits his healing. Yeah, just you can go ahead and you could say in a much more like clear way, he's on the precipice of getting his chain snatched on his own thing.

You know, you know, like, by Zach Edy? By Zach Edy? By anybody? I think that I, every, everything that we've talked about from this offense is very true in that you're kind of trying to make your offense job proof

because you don't know if Jai is going to be available. You go back and you look at at the last time that they made like a serious, serious run and, you know, they lose to the Warriors in the second round. Part of the reason, now they had the Warriors on the ropes, but part of the reason why they weren't able to do that is because why, Jai ended up getting hurt towards the end of that series. And you're like, oh, man, like it kind of, you know, everything kind of goes, you know, up in the air where if you don't have John Morant for a game

And obviously every game in a series is extremely crucial, especially out West where everyone's kind of, you know, near each other. You're going to be, you're going to have to be able to thrust yourself into that mode. And so for the for the Grizzies, I do think that there's a part of how they're operating this year that makes sense. But also, you're talking about, oh, we're going to turn to Jaron Jackson Jr. to be, you know, our guy. Obviously, I don't, I don't think that that would happen. I do think that the instinct would still be, all right, let's get the ball, like, in John's hands. And he is obviously going to be priority number one.

But there's stuff on this team where you can, you might be comfortable in some situations with the leaps that that Jaron has taken. Also, just on a macro scale two years ago, because before everything, two years ago, John Morant was the guy. John Morant was next up. Everything that we were talking about with Anthony Edwards last year,

That was John Morant two years ago where he is, you know, the new young superstar. All the kids love him. His shoe was selling out the best. He's on that leap and then you have a year and a half of injuries and off the court stuff. Now this is going to be your first time in front of the national, on the national stage in two years. Once again, what are you prepared to do? You have to, like, you have an opportunity to go out and restake your claim and restake the Grizzlies as a legitimate championship contender as long as you are there and again a lot of it resides on your performance

you're going to you're going to play more than 28 minutes a night in the playoffs you are expected to play five games in a series right at least you are expected to lead your team in championship moments and clutch situations all that is on the table for john moran and he 100% has to step up to a lot of it yeah man it's hard we'll see it's hard it's so hard because something that a lot of people I don't want to say forget about or just maybe we just like gloss over sometimes but he's always been like a flawed offensive player because of the lack of spacing or the lack of spacing that he provides he's not the greatest shooter this year I think he's shooting like 29 30% from three and even before that too he's always had like lack of an in-between game and

that in-between game is even looks even scarier now because he's not getting off his floater as much as he nearly used to because again offense changed you're not going to see as many picking rules. Steve Bynum is not there by your side. Exactly. He's not like setting them screens anymore because Zach Eadie's not even getting an opportunity to send screens like that because he's limited to playing time. So it's like, it's not what they ask me. How can he operate to his fullest capacity? Especially when he when he has holes in his game that's already holding him back as a player

naturally. That's tough. 42% on Florida range this year down from 47 last year. But that's the, don't you think that that's also a little bit of pressure of like that's the next step that you have to take? like in you're going to have to learn how to play multiple ways like nobody plays one style of basketball for obviously like you have your tendencies and stuff like that but the team in which you play for does not stay the exact same for 10 15 years you obviously have to learn how to how to play different styles and so i think for jah like exactly you know doing doing that and in coming along as as the season goes that is that is ask of them especially for a guy that a lot of people

will have, you know, top 15, top 12 at his best, right? Like, that's, that's something that is reasonably expected of him. Yeah. I'm starting to think that maybe we're asking, maybe we're, we did our playing rankings. I think I put him in like 15 or something like that. Yeah. Because what we saw him before he was injured and came back, we were like 20 games the season.

We said, we'll give him for the doubt, right? He's just playing less minutes, but he's still job. I'm thinking what you want to do. I think maybe when he was. that is best and they're playing through him as a pick and roll player, the gravity he created, we all value that extremely, right? But if you're not going to be playing through that with that being your main source of offense, which maybe you shouldn't do that if you're the grisies because you know how volatile his availability is, maybe you should build for a floor without him.

Right now the offensive rating is almost exactly the same with or without him on the court, which is by design. You don't want to be reliant on him because they know he's prone to missing time for different reasons, right? And if that's going to be the way you're, you're asked to be deployed, maybe he just makes your strength less valuable. And maybe it's, we just shouldn't hold him that standard anymore. Maybe he is a little bit lower tier of a player than we once thought. This is such an interesting conversation in terms of like team building and construction. Yeah, exactly. Because like, because how would you, if you know that at his best job rank can be like a top 10 player, at his absolute best, do you want to build a team to optimize

that version and say like, you know, throughout the history of the league, we're only going, like, You only win championships if you have a guy who's playing at an all-time level, a top-10 player. There's only been so many instances of teams that are very egalitarian across the league. But are we even going to be in position to get there if we're relying on John? He's not necessarily there. I don't think so. I don't think he even, John Morant was given credit as being like the 11th, 12, 13th, best player in the league because of what he did, not necessarily because he has his skill sets that scream top-ton player to me.

Like, he just produced, so you had to give him the credit, right? But I don't think he has, like, he doesn't have, like, a top five player's ceiling because he doesn't have that go-to-scorn ability, doesn't have the insanely high. Well, actually, he's a very good passer. But, you know, he doesn't have the top takeover a game type of ceiling, I think. So I think if you're building your team around, like, we want John Moranico's Sica mode in a playoff series, that's not a particularly high ceiling compared to some other guys. Like, like, Shea can do that because she's a tier higher is a score in just about every regard

because he has in between game. I don't think Jha has that ceiling as a score. And at one point we gave him that credit because he was so young. But I think now we kind of know that he's just not quite that, you know? Yeah, his scoring at the pain a couple years ago was absolutely ridiculous. I think he was top three or four. He was top five a couple of years ago. 66% in 2022, 59% right now.

Yeah, exactly. And that right there made us look and feel like and believe like, you know, this dude can actually be the face of a championship team. But now looking back at it, like you said, Isaac, maybe that is kind of blurry because he lacks in-between game and players who have had success in his mold, someone like Shea, whoever else you can think of, who's just such in-the-rim-centric,

I guess the next championship guard you can think of like that is, I don't know, Dwayne Wade or something like that. They have an in-between game. They have shit to show for whenever shit gets rough. They play tremendous defense. And Jaws, like, the furthest thing from that. So I don't know. Yeah, I'm not saying he fell off or anything, but maybe it's a, it's a re-no, but no, no, I think we used to recalibrate because we thought about him in a certain way and we were so young and the progression just didn't keep going.

And this is one of the, this is, but there's like, there's clear reasons why the, by the progression maybe has not like, maybe it was more on pause rather than just didn't happen. You know what I'm sure. And I'm just saying that, you know, every, nobody is immune to biases. And sometimes, especially when a player misses time, that takes a while for you to. get the image of what you once out of your head. And, you know, the year after 2020 when he was his most efficient, he was slightly less efficient, 62% at the rim, missed some time, only started 59 games that year. So we could be like, okay, delta injuries, blah, blah, blah. Next year is completely wiped because of suspension and injury. So we don't think about anything. And it comes back

this year. And, you know, the last time we saw him fully healthy, fully who he was, was 22 now. So we still have that in our head. Now we have two and a half years that were interrupted. But now it's more time with him being not quite as high as he wanted to push him up versus when he was, you know? It takes a while for those things to really click your head sometimes. So right now, do you definitively think that he is a worst player just like overall right now? No, I wouldn't say that. I don't think I ever, did I say any, is that what you took away from what I said? I think, I think a little bit just because like if we're going in right now saying that, saying that like we have to recalibrate our expectations then I think you only do

almost I think you all I guess how to bring your expectations for guys that you think are like worse you know what I'm saying is we need to recalibrate how much we value what he does well and how much that can transcend to a top tier contender you know we gave him credit as being 11th to 12th when we did a rank his couple years ago because the team just continued to produce and so and so but now I think we see enough time and sample size and the way the team's choosing to deploy him plus how he looks when he has a cold streak like it is now that maybe the floor and the ceiling aren't as valuable as you once thought. The skills are probably the same, but I think the value of those skills, I think we have to reconsider.

Yeah. I don't know. This whole, this whole, I, I think, like, the Grizzlies are just an interesting case study for a lot of stuff. Yeah, they are. And so, like, we'll see. And that's, listen, we're, here we are, you know, 25 minutes into the episode or whatever. And, you know, we smile on the Grizzly. But I do think that there's, there's a lot to take from it because on, like, the team

construction side, and then, if you're looking at John, like, I still, I still think that being a downhill demon, like, I think that all of the credit that he deserved, I don't necessarily think that it was projecting. John Morant was scoring 40 points in playoff games, right? Yeah, it's not projecting it off. Like, he was closing out playoff games. He was taking over games. We've seen him do all of this stuff.

So it's not anything of like, oh, yeah, whenever he gets two, three years down the line, he's going to be this player. John Morant was already at a level that was really, really high. And I think that because of all the outside stuff, he's probably, like, that's probably hurt him more than anything because now the team has to look at him and be like, okay, well, you're just not reliable. So we can't, so we can't, like, build around you the way that we want to. And as, like, in return, it's made him worse because he's not as prioritizing the offense. Fair enough. But you're right, though.

He earned it was what I meant. Like, I never viewed him as a guy that pro typically makes sense to be a top 10 player, right? He's not a good defender. He's a very good, not top of the world passer. never a good shooter never hyper efficient but he just earned that right for what you said he had these big games he took them to wins when he was on the court he had just said like it was it was undeniable that he just produced so you had to give them that credit when that's not happening and the skills may be the same but they don't have the same outcome for all the reasons you said that's where i'm

starting to think okay maybe i was overreacting to whatever simile yeah yeah i think what really shows or screams through this to me is how jaw has to be, in order for him to be successful, like it has, the situation has to be picture perfect. I can go back to, I don't know, you could use Shea as an example or whatever. Like, She was still doing Shoe things before Chet hopped onto OkC and like the whole dynamic of the team really shifted and they like splurged up to a 50, 55 one team. Before that, he was still giving you like 25. to 27 or whatever he was averaging per game still playing his normal game but once chet went there things just like elevated and over there in memphis play style changed again still but because of

certain things the dynamics at jaw games jaws game and how he's not able to um benefit from the landscape or the atmosphere shifting he just naturally regresses and i think because i see this regression I see him, I don't see him as necessarily worse. I think my expectations like should be dimmed down a little bit compared to what they were. And again, he could turn up and this could all change. The point is that video is the pressure is there now for him to decide which we're going. We're on the line right now. I just got a great idea.

What did you get? I know how to alleviate every single Memphis Grizzies fans pressure from John Moran wanting to see him be great. Tell me. You guys have all your first round pick. I got some people I know people I know people who are at home and close to heart

I have one DeAndre Hunter for you Oh my gosh Give me a big or two And then I will change your goddamn life I will change your life If John Moran plays better He has an opportunity to prove These are what we're saying right now

Isn't definitive He's washed or he's not worth building around It's we're noticing patterns He has the pressure now to say Which ways and it go We're on the line We're on the fence right now Saying we don't know for sure

let's see how he approves the rest of the year All right, that's number 10 Who's the next player? Oh wait, real quick, real quick. Chat, we're not streaming, I said chat. Viewers. I'm going to give you guys a little peek behind the curtain. Mo and Donovan had these new mics they're using right now.

I'm using this old mic that looks like a broke boy compared to them. My mic just got deliberate, so I'm going to go get it real quick. Oh, you are? Okay, Mike just dropped. All right, guys, I'm back. I got the mic fixed. I hope it sounds a little bit better. Mo, who is number nine on your list?

Seamless transition. Number nine on the list has to be, again, another port guard in Trey Young. It's not about Trey necessarily. It is, but also at the same time, it's not. It's about fucking the state of our team. We are in absolute hell right now. We just lost our second best player in Jalen Johnson, and we have been a do-or-die team based on if he plays or not.

And over these last five games, I believe we're on a five-game losing streak, big who cares what really sucks is that he is out for the entirety of the season with a shoulder injury right after jail and july just came back from i believe his left shoulder being you know sore tore up a little bit his right shoulder got completely completely disintegrated the other night when we faced off against the toronto raptors and he's out for the entire of the season that sucks that hurts so much because we were on pace to you know the usual alina hawks 40 41 game So let's go. Season, you know.

And now with that being said, we might, we might not reach that moment. We might not reach that mark. And if that happens, then that means that the season, again, it's need to say, it's going to go to complete waste. But I want to see Trey Young continuously thrive and find his rhythm, find his way back. So the San Antonio Spurs don't get an absolute steel killer of a lottery pick. This is just, we're just fighting for our pride at this moment in time. And we want to see Trey Young get back.

to taking 22, 23 shots a game. I need to see that floater keep falling because right now he has no help on this team. On Yaku Komu is probably our second best offensive player outside of like DeAndo who comes off the bench. There's Zachary Risha Say, like, the team is literally fighting for his life and we're back to, this is like the worst team

that Triang has ever played with right now. There's no way on Yenka is the second best offensive player. In the starting line of B.S. God forbid. No, there's Dyson Daniels. I'm just correct. I'm discreding Dyson. Oh, yeah, who's right there, bro.

I know. It's so bad. Dyson and Yaka is the debate. Oh, Lord. It's so bad. It's so bad. Yeah. I think you're downplaying this a little bit.

So obviously Jalen Johnson. He is one of the biggest net rating swings in the NBA right now. They're 12.4 points better than him on the court. They need him for all the reasons you said. Because outside of that, the players are talking about being the other good offensive players. It's so bleak that Jalen and Trey are the only good creators there, right? Yeah. This team is legendary.

mid. We've been talking about this since the show's inception. The quest for 41 wins is undefeated. They get that crown every single year. At what point, they're going nowhere fast. And I know we spent the first half of this year being really excited because we see the formula

started to build around Trey, right? The wings plus Trey creating good defense. At one point they were the five seed. Even at its best, when things are going well, we see a vision, they're still mid. Now they're going to have another year loss where they're probably going to give a good pick to the spurs because they can't

be good even if they want to try real hard they're probably going to be sellers it sounds like bojohn i mean bogdan is on the move out where can this for an office stomach another shitty outcome to a year like at one point are they can look in the mirror and start to say like what is the point of this triune quasi rebuild like at what point are we going to be good again it was just one year like they like they they went through the whole dejante murray era and then traded him and now you had half a season of Trey and Jalen Johnson and the quasi-re rebuild. And listen, you should have did this two years ago, right?

You should have never traded for DeJonet Murray. But we're here now. I think if Trey Young continues to play at the level that he is right now, then you go into the off-season and you say, okay, maybe we should tear it all the way down. I think, like, I kind of agree that Trey Young is under a lot of pressure right now because I just want to see Tray Young I need to see if it's still in there

I need to see if Tray Young can still go out and score 40 I honestly I don't care about wins for the rest of the season because obviously you guys are not going to be good I don't care about team chemistry I slightly care about Rishi's development I want Tray Young to be on a mellow ball timing

I want you to take as many shots as possible. I want you to score as many points as possible. I want you to feel as comfortable and as empowered as you've ever been in an Atlanta Hawks jersey because once again, Jalen Johnson being there, very, very critical. This only works. We are only going to move forward if you can combine Jalen Johnson productivity with elite Tray Young productivity. And I would like to feel good about a healthy Jailen Johnson and a healthy Tray Young going.

into next year. Even that. Listen, I've told you, I've told you, they are mid, right? You guys, like, obviously the formula feels good and it thinks, and it, like, you think about it and you can see the vision. But, like. The formula feels okay. It feels fine. It doesn't even feel good.

It feels okay. What do you want me to tell you? I'm not even trying to be mean. Like, Mo, I'm telling you, they should have, they need to trade, tray away because the, the fate of this franchise right now is just a mid-form. franchise and you don't like the ceiling is not very high do what makes it worse is that we're like worse than mid now for the first time in in years like that right there was so unexpected i was expecting us to be mid but you said you said something like last year we got a half a season of jillan

johnson we see this experiment and now we get another half cool like a full year in like two years bro that absolutely sucks balls so right now as alina hawks fan i'm seeing this and i'm just like fuck bro like the most a lot of pressure is on trey young again this is a tray young conversation because he is the only person who can save us from looking like an absolutely embarrassing product even though it's too late it's too late yeah i think right now they're holding on to life with treyong because you're small market team right you don't want to trade one of the best players you've ever had like small market it's Atlanta it's not a big market team for the NBA like it's the same conversation we have in Houston it's a big market in real life but for NBA context it's not a big NBA market

percent you know i i they don't they don't move like a big market they do not move you all fun fact you'll you'll see donovan defending alanna he he grew up in alina for a couple years in his life y'all know that chat chat chat y'all know that i need i need i need real question do you consider smirna i was out i was out of time is smirna Atlanta if it's a stupid ass conversation i know it's not it's not nevertheless this team that's what i was it's not a type of team that wants to rebuild through free agents or anything so they don't want to to Trey Young. But even if things go well, like we saw the first half of this year, your shilling isn't high holding on to life with the Trey Young led group. If there's a world

where the season goes terribly, Trey Young doesn't look good, he's not happy, you're not happy. If San Antonio wants them, they'll give you your 2025 pick back and you can get another top 10 pick in the door and just kind of restart around Ryshe, Jalen Johnson, another top 10 pick, Oneeca, and just kind of restart your timeline because the timeline around the star you have, which I know the goal is to get stars. This one isn't leading you anywhere under guys currently constructed it there's a lot of pressure because if things don't go well i think it'll make sense to rip the band it off i can i can see that i'm not gonna as much as i love trey young and as much as i like hold near and dear all the great moments that he's provided to my life as a

alana basketball homer yeah you know which is not a lot of good moments in general it would suck to see that happen but it's almost looks like we're starting to see the turn of a new page because okay shit like holy fuck click a pellet just got benched and wow like both botan bojanovitch is away from the team we're starting to see like a new page shift and it seems like they're getting ready to like look themselves in the mirror admit that they fucked up bad multiple times time in and time out they continuously did nothing but fuckups in the first good off season like real strong off season that you had they maybe only have two have two good off seasons in the entire eight year span or seven year span at char young scour which is damning um you've only made a handful of of good moves. Look at yourself. They're on a good path and it doesn't work sometimes. Start to unload all these picks. Look at DeAndre Hunter. This is the best

that he's ever been in his entire career. Unload that. Bogged on. He's iffy, but in general still has good value around the lead because of his contract and his natural ability. Just shoot the ball. Klingapela is a serviceable big. If we were smart, we would look at this team, turn the page. But

if we wanted to stay, chin toes down and continue this war of mid- I'll just run it back. Try Young, please save me. Tray Young save us. Trey young, please save us. What did they even do this summer?

What could they possibly do the summer to get better? What's the possible way to get out of mid? Just hope that Jalen makes another star leap that Dyson Daniels becomes a good offensive player? Like there's no path forward that is anything other than being maybe the five seed. There's two things that like, that you said. There's getting out of mid and being better. Those two things is like, completely.

binding happening this off season? That's not happening. There's no way you are taking a positive step forward. You can either, you can, the only thing that you can do is just get out of mid and that's tear it all down. That's why, like, the more than we talk about it, it's not even Trey Young that's under pressure. It's Landry Fields. What are you, what do you want to do? Like, what is the overall vision for this team? And if you, he's ruined my life. If I, like, if we had a serious conversation and you gave Landry Fields some true serum and you asked him with the ceiling, And you ask him what the ceiling of this team is, if he does not say championship, if he does not even say Eastern Conference Finals, then, okay, we blow it up and we tear it all down

and now we have to keep moving forward. But they have been, the Hawks have tricked themselves since 2021, since that run, which obviously shout out to the Hawks for making it to the conference finals. You have to beat who is in front of you and they won the games. They got to the conference finals. That year was a little bit fluky in terms of like the old. overall outcome, and they doubled down on it by trying to get DeJante Murray. Any type of success that you were going to have, you jacked it up for several years,

and now you're in this position trying to tear it all down without tearing it all down. You have to commit to something, and you have to have an actual vision. You have a number one pick on your roster. Obviously, not the best number one pick that you would want, but you have to work to develop him. And what you are doing right now is just like, hey, everybody's just going to come out here, We're still 10 points a game. We're going to win, you know, we're going to win 41 games in the season.

And we're going to be the 9th season. I'd feel so much better about their future. If they pick Alex Arr, man, if they pick somebody who I can envision being like, maybe not an all-star, but like a very above-average starter, which maybe Zach can be that too. I'm not saying he's cooked. He's a rookie. But if they pick somebody with at least, like, a ceiling, man, it would be so much

palatable to restart around Jalen Johnson, a really promising young player that has a world where they can be really good to close to all start level and then whatever you can get if you can get your picks back from San Antonio or whatever other pick package you can get

that would be so much more enticing. Yeah, and I'm not normally a tanking guy but I would tear it all down to like... We tell teams that blow up all the time. You're not a tanking guy now? No, no, I'm...

Listen, there's a difference but I, like, just the general idea of like tanking and being bad for several years and I kind of told you guys this on the hot tapes when we were talking about the Bulls and their strategy.

But for Atlanta, they're like, I would get like disgusting levels of tank knowing. Wow. Disgusting levels of tank. Well, if you want to do that, you got trade Jalen Johnson too. That's a full tear down. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about right now. That's what I'm talking about right now. If I'm the Atlanta Hawks, I'm trading Tray Young and I'm trading Jalen Johnson. And we are. What could you get for Jalen Johnson? We are tearing this down to the stunts. Dailen Johnson is an insane. He's so valuable because he's, like, the deep.

defense he provides, he's improved to the score, the fucking... I might trade Riesichet. And then the fucking... Shut up. Get out of you. For what? What are you gonna get for Zachary?

You're just to say, bro. If you are... What team would this make sense for? If you are the Sacramento Kings, if you're the Sacramento Kings next year and you have the 13th pick in the draft, would you trade the 13th pick in the draft for Zachary Reese? What are you even talking about right now,

this is supposed to be about Trey Young and his own a team? Is he even a lottery pick? Oh, my God. That's very funny. Donovan, what is it number eight? What is number eight on our list? God damn, let's move on from this conversation.

So embarrassing. You see, Langer Fields, I'm embarrassed on my own fucking show. Holy shit. I don't know if they would. Yeah, it might not be the best thing.

All right. Number eight. Also, we got to speed this up. We're like an hour in. We're two teams through. All right. So number. Eight, Tyrese Halliburton.

Okay, three point guards in a row. Tell me about it. It's kind of simple about Tyrese. He had a lot of pressure on him coming into the season because of, you know, obviously he had the, he had the drop off from, you know, first half of the season, Tyrese Halliburton, you know, super, super efficient. His superstar true trial was going. It looked amazing, all that stuff. And then it started to get real shaky. and he came out at the start of this season

still started to look shaky. There was a period where the Pacers were like, it looked very, very lost. However, they are trending upwards. Tyrese Halliborne has played pretty well. And I think that like we, the stuff that we were talking about with John Morant is kind of where we're at with Tyrese Halliburon

where we have recalibrated our expectations. We are, we may not, we may not believe that Tyrese is going to be the third best point guard in the, in the league and he's not going to be this 26 and 13 you know super high efficiency guy but what he's giving you right now is still really really good yeah the pressure last 20 games yeah talk talk last 19 games 18.7 points nine assists which is not that different from his season standards right but it's a lot more efficient 49% from the field

40% of from three only 1.6 turnover so the great ratio we're not getting that classic what we thought we were getting last year, Tyree Saliburton with a crazy scoring boost. I don't even think they want him to anymore. I think they just went away from that style completely. They're putting the ball in Siakum's hands more, Nimhard, Mathur, and everyone's getting more touches. But as long as he can be efficient and can beat the like essentially game manager that we thought he was before that initial leap that kind of fooled us, that's still a player that can take this team far. Because early in the season, he wasn't managing the game well, wasn't shooting well, wasn't scoring well, like nothing was going well. Now he looks like 2022, 2023, Tyree Saliburton.

And there's two things, there's two things that, like, well, look at Tyrese that the, you know, the quote-unquote pressure is on. And one of them is, if Tyrese is playing at this level, the Pacers are now in position to go out and acquire a second star and you would feel good about where they are moving forward because then you actually say, okay, you have, you have Tyrese Hallibur doing X, Y, and Z, you have another second star on top of Siakum or if you have to move Seacom, whatever. Yeah, is this yacom a second star? What do you mean you can acquire a second star? Though, like, so I will say, I will say this, things have changed and shifted, like Tyrese Halliborne was supposed to be the second star or star star. He's supposed to be, Pascal's Shacken was supposed to be the Robin and now to, and now it's looking like Tyre's Halliborne in choice is like the Robin to Pascal Seacom's Batman in this entirety of the season. Exactly. So now it's looking like you need, like you need another guy guy.

You need a real Batman. We can't have two Robbins, you know, running around. Yeah. I think they're kind of okay, though. I don't think they're really, like, real, I know what you're saying. I don't disagree. It would be nice if they had like whoever it may be Star Wing X. I don't think they're really in that position to be trying to be trying to be trying to be trying to be trying to try to be trying to do that. I think they're trying to win their pace with you know who they're just going to be the best team they can sell seats, be a business, be competitive basketball every year. So they're not going to be at here trying to get Kevin around or anything crazy. What I'm interested is apparently they don't want to trade miles Turner, right? And there's trade rumors because they don't want to give them the $30 million. he wants, how does a Tyrese halberin playoff run kind of factor into that for you? Because if he's really good and there's a ceiling here, maybe they do want to pay him and they keep the team together. But if he's not really good and they're like, this team isn't worth going to the luxury tax for at all, that kind of makes a Miles Turner thing complicated, you know? Yeah. And that's why I think that's why I think going out and acquiring the second star is, or acquiring the Batman is actually

very, very crucial because I think that if Tyrese can have a good playoff run, he should. shows that he's improved on some of the issues that he showed last year in the playoffs. Then it's like, first of all, we can get rid of Miles Turner. They've been trying to get rid of Miles Turner for eight years. I just read that they're actually not trying to trade him from Marks. God, oh my goodness. What they said was that they're not going to trade him because people are theorizing that they're willing to just fucking give him away, which is ridiculous.

They're a team that's trying to win games. They're in the playoff run. They're not going to trade him unless they get a starting center back, which is the report. And that's not going to happen. Because there's no team out there that has a starting center that just wants to upgrade a Miles Turner for some reason. You know, like everyone's,

get them to the Lakers, get them to the Sons, whatever. Unless it's going to be a three-team deal and they get like Yaco Potal or something, which I don't even think that would move him. He's probably not going to get moved, at least not right now. It just doesn't seem possible for them right now. I think looking at this team,

I would agree with you, Donovan. Like, Tyres Halliburon probably does have the most pressure on him because there is no real pathway for them to go, ahead and get a Batman unless they did some bad shit, some like insane shit and like got KD or whatever, like Tyrese Halliburn still has to be that. I think his ceiling still is that. We literally saw it last year. Pascal, Pascal Siakum is great as he is. He's never going to lead your team to an NBA championship. So like the whole fate of this Pascal Seacum and Tyrese Haliborne era rest on like, yo, Tyrese Halliburon, we know you're good. We made this move because

we know you're good. You can be great. Can you like continuously be that? If not, then there's only so many Batman's this league has to offer. There's only so many Batman's that come across. So, like, all the pressure is on him and it's going to continuously be on him to see if he can reach the next step. Yeah. And, yeah, it's just interesting to think that, like, we seem to fully wipe that idea out of our minds of what he was early last year and just think of what he was before

that, which was still a very promising player. We were still, like, you know, top 10 point guard. He's getting those conversations. It's still someone who we were like, should the Kings pick their Fox over him? I don't know. That's kind of tough decision. That player is still there. Just not the, holy fuck, is he better than Jha? Like that, that's not there anymore, which is still an interesting place to build a team off of. Yeah, I don't, I, I think like the, the Pacers are by choice, always, like you said, by choice, they're always trying to be in that middle

ground. But I do think that there are certain points where even those, even those types of teams will feel okay going into the luxury tax if they want to make a push for a couple years and the Pacers they've never done it they won't do it I promise

not the Pacers listen that's fair I'm with you but they're the Pacers it's not going to happen in Indiana broke boys you can't take it out of them

so that is what it is not everybody's in New York or Atlanta since apparently that's a big market in BA City too I mean it's bigger than Indies Bigger than Indies, for sure.

Fucking everything's damn near bigger than indie. I like the theme so far is we're kind of like under pressure because players that have kind of disappointed us and recalibating expectations, that's kind of the theme so far of these first three names of like, let's adjust to the reality of who these players are and they have pressure to prove that either way. This next player is not like that at all.

For number seven on this list, I'm going Shay Guildess Alexander. Yep. Pressure on Shane. That makes sense. there is an immense amount of pressure. Exactly. Yes. Exactly.

Exactly. Fucking exactly. Shea Gildes-Alexander has reached a point that every all-time great reaches at some point in their career. They make the leap. They go from frisky young player to, oh, he's an all-star. Oh, he might be better than these other all-stars to, oh, no, this is a top-five player in the world. One of the best players of all-time. We can compare this peak season to all-time great-level seasons.

People are saying, like, it's these four legendary shooting guards. Then Shea, maybe. Like, he's reaching convos that are next level. And when that happens, and when your team is really good and you have expectations, you're commonly talked about as maybe the championship favorites over the reigning champ boss in Celtics, you have immense pressure in the playoffs. He has to come out. He has all the pressure on the world on him to prove he is on this all-time great trajectory.

Prove he is better than Luca, like his fans were saying. Prove he is a top two player in the world. Prove that the best team in the NBA is the Oklahoma City Thunder. prove that he's not going to be Joel and be James Hardin of his era that he can come out and prove at the highest level and even if it's not something that like the downside is as big as something like

Trey Young where he might get traded or whatever the downside is he's going to be slandered all fucking summer long if he doesn't have a super strong playoff showing and that's a lot of pressure players are online especially Shay that's on Instagram every day I guarantee you who'd see it he said that man's on Instagram every day

okay I can I can see a world in which that's a thing because this team is also speaking of pressure, like it's Shea Reliant like a motherfucker. He has a bad game or off game. Precisely. Precisely. Or if he doesn't score like an efficient 31, 33 points per game, you're cooked. We saw just last night he put up like 50, 51 or something like that against the Golden State Warriors still fucking lost because outside of J-dub, no one else can get a couple bucks for you, quality buckets for you.

Outside of the top three guys, outside of Shay, J-dub, and Isaiah Joe last night, the rest of the role players were 0 for 17 from three. this team's offense lives and dies by Shea and J-dub J-dub has turned his body into a brick tank he's one of the best defenders in the world

and because of that he is not a reliable creator offensively anymore so when I say it lives and dies by Shea and J-dub I mean it lives and dies by Shea all the pressure in the world offensively

is on his shoulders even outside of the narrative standpoint the team is built to put pressure on him because they know he can handle it that's the entire mode of team building is there's very few guys in the past 20 years

of NBA hoops that can carry this much pressure offensively so inherently that's on him when the team is good enough to be a championship or bust yeah man this is what happens right heavy heavy as the head

that wears the crowd yeah that's the same that's the same what's that phrase Joe Mazula said Joe Mazzaa said um yeah pressure isn't a something it's a privilege he said yeah something like that

he's um I don't know he was he was talking about Tatum and he was like he gets to he gets to have pressure or something like that Yeah, you have the privilege you're having pressure because you've earned your right to be held to a certain regard because you're so great. That's where Shea is now. He has the privilege of pressure.

And if he succeeds, if he lives up to that and he already sees it, oh, okay, this is an NBA legend. Like, you can be crowned as a legend this, this June, even like as soon as that. So this was a quote from this season. Joe Mazzula says, I quote, we're all going to be dead soon. And it really doesn't matter anymore, so there's zero pressure. Quote. Never mind. Maybe nobody's under pressure.

Give it up to show. we're all just going to die i guess you either cure yourself or get killed what's you going to do what you're going to what you're going to what you're going to that's fucking facts yes but you are you are correct like shade does has to he has to come out and perform and he's done it to his credit he's done it at every level like two years ago the when the thunder were bubbling up and was like okay shay can you do it in in this playing game like can you can you be good and he performed he performed pretty well last year they have they finally get get the number one seed all right shay what are you going to do he played well everybody else didn't didn't have the best in series but

she did not play poorly in the playoffs now here you are again about to have the number one seed you're about to be the MVP they're saying they're saying you're the man you have all you have all playoffs long to prove that you are absolutely that guy so yeah you have to show up and you have to keep doing bare minimum what you do every night in the regular season. They're saying you're better than Dwayne Wade. They're saying you're him.

They're saying it's MJ, Kobe, Hardin, you. Prove it. Which is wild. Those are early conversations. It's wild now. It's wild until he wins a MVP in a championship

and then it's not wild. Like all he needs is the outcome, the skills and the production is there. So, Shay, are you going to be D. Wade or are you going to be Hardin? You pick a bath. And even that, like,

Luca conversation, too, is so interesting. Like, who would have thought, like, if you would have looked at me in the eyes, like three, four years ago. I'm like, yeah, she's going to win an MVP before Luca Dodgers

when Shay wasn't even like, he wasn't even in try young conversations when we first started this podcast. Like, I'll look at you and be like, yeah, you're out of your mind. There's so much shit that's, no,

back then he truly was. Yeah, yeah, he truly wasn't. But, like, point is, like, seeing him and,

like, me having to actually think about him being Luca, which I still don't think he is just yet, but who knows, who knows what will happen over the next five, six months. He's certainly not far.

He's not far. Yeah, like, definitely those conversations, conversations like have shrunken the space in between the two has shrunken dramatically because of what he does on defense and just his consistency as well um it's i think louis better but they're in the same tier now they're in the same tier now for sure yeah i agree it looks yeah i agree i agree the top players in the world is a four player tier now and maybe shea still is below luka and he's the fourth player in that tier but he's not any type of second tier with tatum i'm off that he's shay is top tier i'm so

happy you're off that tatum shit so happy honestly i've also because tatum slowed down That first month of the season, he was insane, three-level score. He has slowed down since those are a stealthic struggle. So part of it is Shay rising up and getting better. Part of it is the Tatum facade we saw in the season, that first couple weeks of the year when he was insane. He was never better, slow down. I know he was never better. I know he was never better.

I want to give him credit, and he deserved it at the time. Doesn't deserve it anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stay over there. Stay on that side. See, I feel prone to give Tatum credit. You feel prone to call him soft as baby shit. That's the difference.

I'm going to slide one way. You're going to slide the other. No one's calling him soft necessarily. It's just like, I see through it. You're not calling himself. I don't know about the other one in the room right now. I'll speak more. Maybe he is.

I'm not saying. Now they hear no there. It's an interim conversation. There was also also to that. Who's seven? Okay, Mo, who's next up on your list after Mr. Shah? I got six. I believe Donovan seven.

Oh, am I at seven? I was seven. you're six don't know oh i'm six okay oh wow we're at six already shit look at us flying by all right at number six i have jimmy butler oh okay okay seeing jimmy bowler have these tantrums year after year after year that's what i'm gonna call them their tantrums is like you know i want i want to i want to trade i'm not happy hearing you just like me my money and we just see we i don't think we ever see a superstar consistently like Like, just make a big up war.

I said superstar, my bad. A star, because Jimmy Baller's not a superstar. A star. We're hating today. Let's go. Keep going. He's not. We never seen a star like him.

Yeah. We never seen a star like him just continues to like do the absolute most and just make shit openly, loudly, awkward as possible. That's all he does. And it's okay. You can do that. He's been given and earned that right because of what he was able to produce like after the fact.

Okay, you're going to sit down and hoot and holler when you're over there in Minnesota. Cool. You go ahead and you get traded to Philadelphia and you help take them to the highest of highs that they've ever been over the last few years or the entirety of the Joel and Bede era. Okay, cool. You're hoot and hollering and you take yourself away from there. You get upset that they don't want to pay you. You go to Miami and you take them to the NBA finals, not only once but twice.

Amazing. You're doing the same exact thing. If you're going to hoot and holler again and do the absolute most, and hell maybe even embarrass yourself to like a certain degree at times you have to have some level of high level success wherever you go to next

or else I'm gonna look at you like bro like you did all that for what yeah you're right you could come out here and you can you can call Carl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins bitchmate and pick the backers behind you and go one on one and do this whole facade do a media roll out where you tell the world

you think your teammates are bitch made and you make it a whole thing you can do that when you immediately go to your next team and you put on a show and you're a star player taking them deep in the playoffs going to Miami making finals runs you earn all the respect in the world to behave however you wish if he plays how he has this year where his next team the next time he decides to do something like this nobody will want to hear about it he's 30 he's 35 like yeah like I but also it's not even about like I think at every at every stop the the common thread yes has jimmy but hooted and hollered.

Of course, has he backed up the hootering and the hollering afterwards? Yes. Yeah. But I do think that he is kind of off the hook a little bit from me. Like, I see Pat Riley. Pat Riley is under more pressure. I agree. Yeah, I'm not mad at Jimmy.

Because at the very core of this, Jimmy Butler was disrespected publicly. Like, you're just not going to do that to me. And I just like, and so for Jimmy Butler, it's like, I will make this uncomfortable because you went out of your way to, to disrespect me and to, you know, talk, talk about me, passive aggressively to the media and to, and not even passive aggressively. Basically tell the media to that I needed to shut up. I've taken you to the finals two times out of, out of the four years, right? All of that. Like, I have done stuff for this franchise and for you. honestly kind of restated your credibility because the heat were on the downward spiral.

I've done all of this for you and now you're going to be out here to talk a lot about me. No, you're not going to do that. I'm going to get what I deserve and I want that contract and you're not giving it to me. So I'm going to go somewhere where I can get that contract. Pat Riley is the one where it's like you've ran out. You ran out LeBron, D. Wade and Jimmy Butler. You are 81 years old. You are not getting any younger.

Bama at a bio has gotten worse on your watch, what are the Miami Heat going to do? Bama at a bio has gotten worse than your watch. It's so funny. I'm putting that on Pat Riley. I'm putting everything on Pat Riley. There is a very limited window for the Miami Heat to continue to be great. And while Pat Riley is amazing and he's one of the best GMs that the leak has ever seen,

there's been a lot of mishaps over the last decade or so. And somebody has to answer for it. And Pat Riley is that guy. And for somebody who rocks the way that he rocks, the same way, like what Moe just said, it's okay if you do all the hooting and hollering, but you have to go out and back it up. Pat Riley has done a lot of hootin and hollering and it's now time for him to back it up. Okay. Nobody believes in you.

Donovan doesn't believe in you. What do you have heard to do about it, old man? Okay, question. He's going to try to fight me if I see him. And also a weekend, Pat Riley's probably going to be there. Square up, Pat. You think he's going to fight you. He got some dogs behind him that are sick your ass.

But we're going to be like, UD. Come get him. Oh, yeah. Duncan Robinson. Duncan Robinson is going to whoop your ass. That's 6'7, 6'8 wings, man. You're cooked. Okay, real question.

I'll see you in those Armani suits. I know what you were. Pretty boy. What does Pat Riley, like, what does Pat Riley, like, what does Pat Riley showing out look like to you? I think it is, I think it's. two years ago. I think it's, okay, so there's the long timeline. I think one, it's the press conference.

We're saying like, yeah, winning is supposed to be hard and you, you know, you're taking the easy way out that and out with LeBron. I think it's that. I think it's letting De Wade walk out the door and not giving an absolute legend of the franchise, whatever contract he wants, even though that it's not even like crazy, reasonable and then having to double back and do it and do it then. I think that in more recent history, after you go. to the finals and you are an eight seed, I think it is being delusional enough to say we are going

to run it back and not try to upgrade at any position where everybody was... Then went out and got Kyle Ari. No, people were making moves around the margins and that off-season in the heat, we're like, no, we're just going to bet on continuity and we're just going to do that. The dame stuff, you can partially blame him for that for not being as aggressive boss, the Blazers were like, yeah, we're just not going to trade him to you. so like you can kind of give him you know a little bit of leeway for that but then it's the relationship of going out in public and being like yeah if you're not playing you need to shut the

hell up you you just can't talk to people in public that way and expect for everybody to just fall in line i think a lot of that look at how you got donovan going i think a lot of that is just it's it's literally hollering it's you know it's a lot so i don't think he grew up in a different era man he over there back then they do things the right one Isaac, tell him probably an asshole in every era. I like, tell Mo the, the, the, the, the, the verbiage about, about the old days. The thing is, they're the old days. Exactly.

And I bet Pat Riley was an asshole in every day. I bet that was a common characteristic in any age you want. Yes. So, yeah, Pat Riley, you're under more pressure than Jimmy Butler. Because Jimmy Butler's fine. Jimmy, he's suspended. He's out there playing dominoes, making coffee. He doesn't care.

he doesn't care. He got his back there and get that money back. It's fine. Exactly. I'm good. You're 81 years old. What are you going to do?

Your 81 years old is so funny. You're just rubbing in his face. You're going to fall off, old man. Damn. You're on your last legs. You're washed. What's your next player, Donovan? Carry this energy over to somebody you want to criticize.

I don't even... I have criticized this player a lot in the past. and I will probably criticize him moving forward if he continues to play this way. But a player under a lot of pressure this year is Carl Anthony Towns. Oh, for sure, definitely. Carl Anthony Town.

Maybe I shouldn't have been treated it as criticism because it's not even criticism. It's just like the reality of the team building situation. It's straight pressure. Kat was under a lot of pressure. The moment he got traded, because it was like, okay, I'm going to need you to show up

and you're going to have to do your part. And to his credit, he has done that offensively. He has shown up and he has been amazing offensively and part of the reason why the Knicks have an opportunity to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, potentially the finals, whatever, is if this offense is clicking at all cylinders and Kat doing that and Kat playing the way he does, obviously allows them to do that. If this dude cannot figure out a way to either stay on the court or be productive or do stuff

defensively to make himself a manageable defensive player in the playoffs and the Knicks get bounced early, it is going to be on Carr at the Anthony Towns. The Knicks had a very, the Knicks had a solid defense last year. And when you, and you go up and you shake everything up about this team for Carl Anthony Towns, he's going to be the piece that everybody looks at it. I have rebuttal. It's putting pressure on pressure on pressure on pressure on pitch for it's going to be on Carl Anthony. I feel like innately it probably should be McHall Bridges because you invested more into him. But we're not talking about that.

But it's not going to be that. At the start of the season, though, at the start of the season, like he didn't start playing real defense until the last like. 7, 10, 15, whatever games you were, or whatever you want to say. Like, I understand, like, structurally, like, the team has flaws because of who Car Anthony Towns is and what you guys have to, like, replenish that.

But I feel like more so, like... But he didn't matter. No, he just, he matters way less. He's the fifth guy in the starting lineup that if he can be a great defender, great. The point of why we're excited about that is because if he was where he once was defensively, it could mask a lot of the cat stuff.

it was never McHill Bridge is going to be who you live and die by. Maybe, I mean, I guess you can say that's the whole starting five matters when you only play six guys in the game, but CAD is the defensive anchor on a team that has some weak defenders in the starting lineup. There's a lot of pressure on it for that matter. And even offensively, there's been some playoff runs where things don't go well for Kat. And the way this team is set up, they are fantastic right now because the Jaylon Brunson-Cat two-man game is unstoppable.

Jalen Brunson has been maybe the most underrated player in the league this year, setting up cat that has the most efficient season of his career with that five-out spacing he provides, he's been unstoppable as a score. 65% true shooting, 25 points per game. Take away the defense. Take away the pressure that's on him to guard a million pick and rolls

versus teams like the Celtics, which is a tough ask enough, if he takes any type of dip offensively with the lack of defense, because you're not going to see him rise defensively in the playoffs, if that offense takes any type of dip like we've seen in the past, they're cooked. They have to click at the maximum level offensively,

and he and Brentson are the offense. Yes. Yeah, I see that. I see that. I can agree with it to a certain degree. But also at the end of day, like you know who Carl Anthony Towns is. You know who you're trading for.

You saw Macau Bridges. You saw that he was one of the more like highly touted assets in the entire NBA because of certain things that he does. That is what catapults you to a lead NBA team in general. Car Anthony Towns, of course, again, we saw him reached their Western Conference finals, but there's certain holes and caveats to his game and that's what you have to accept with it.

Now, when you trade Macau Bridge, that's supposed to lead you into other universes. You accept it, but no matter what, a strong offensive center that doesn't play a lot of defense is a high pressure type of player regardless because you have to be at your absolute A game or it's really hard to win with you. That's what every year we've done this list,

Kat's probably been on here because no matter what situation he's in, Cass is going to have a lot of pressure because he has to be perfect. Otherwise, it's really hard to win with him making $50 million on your team. Car anthony Towns is an all-star starter. Yeah, he has more pressure than fucking McHale Bridges.

Even regardless of how everybody felt or thought about Carthetowns coming into the season, the New York City PR has worked magic for Carr Anthony Towns at the start of this season. Everybody loves Cat, right? Again, he is an all-star starter. He has been built up and offensively he has lived up to him, But he has been built up to this place. And now he is playing in the biggest market on a team that has expectations of a deep playoff run.

And you are one of the last pieces to whatever puzzle. You have to show up and you have to play. And you have to be at your best. And if you come into the playoffs and you are fouling out of games, you get three quick files or you're, you know, you're shooting two of ten from three. in a close-out game, that stuff isn't going to fly. And if that stuff happens, which we've seen, like I just said, and we've seen time and time again with Kat in the playoffs,

then we're going to be talking about the Knicks in the summer and saying, like, yeah, we had the dream last season, but now where'd you actually go with this roster because you're so limited defensively and, you know, the whole cap piece of it all? There's a very, very small window of where, like, expectations and hope and possibility meets for the Knicks, and that's this season.

How poetic. That's what this is. What I'm realizing also is that, like, you guys are actually do or die. I think about this a lot. You have dreams about it? What I'm realizing as we go on with this segment is that you guys are actually do or die by Car Anthony Towns. Meanwhile, like, the Knicks they do or die by Car Anthony Towns. Meanwhile, Macau Bridges O'Kee has an off game, whatever.

You can rely on the multitude of wings that you guys, whether it be O. Jener Novi, Josh Hart coming off the bench or, oh, or yeah, literally anybody, bro. Deuce McBride, too, you have so many options and guys who can mask and do similar things of Macau Bridges, but cat is cat. And what he does is one to none offensively. It's so rare to have a big who is just a walking mismatch towards almost every NBA player you put in front of his face. So I can see it from that perspective.

I was just trying to have fake arguments over here. I'm a stand on it, actually. All right. next player on the list doesn't require any fake arguments because this guy is just undeniable pressure devon booker oh devon booker the phoenix sons man the phoenix sons are fucking broken they've assembled the worst big three of all time they've been pretty good as of late after they bench braddy bill and brought in nick richards spend some easy some easy teens but they've been taking care of business they're looking more like themselves in large

part besides two things that is named because devon booker broke through that early season slump. He has been Devin Booker of late. As the last 15 games, he looks how you'd expect him to look. We saw earlier in the year when he wasn't looking great and the team obviously does not have the reinforcements behind him. Kevin Durand is old. You don't want to put too much burden on him. When Devin Booker looks good, this team has enough to win games, skate by and win by small margins, but they found a way to win games and can do some version of what this team was built to do formula-wise. But he, they can't afford to have Devin Booker to have any downs. any down games at all in a playoff series.

They had to have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker peaking every single game if they're going to have a chance in the playoffs. We can assume Kevin Rand will do Kevin Durant things. He's one of the safer, higher four stars you've ever fucking seen. Devin Booker, I mean, you're going to have to be that too. Otherwise, this team has absolutely no life

if they even get into the play-in. Yeah, this team... No life. I love that word. This team doesn't really have a lot of life. Like, you look at what they were last year. They got swept out of the playoffs last year. Exactly. You know, like, this, this team, we've clamored, begged them to, to blow it up all season long.

If they go outside again, somebody's for sure getting moved. And I don't know what Matt Ispere would do. I don't, he will have to call whatever lawyer is necessary to break Bradley B. who's no trade clause? Because he's got to be a weapon. I just got a BR notification from ESPN report. The son's declined incoming Kevin Durant and Devin Booker trades. They rebuffed him.

So they're not trying to blow this shit up. I literally just got the notification. Okay. So with that in mind, they're not going to blow it up. They're going to run it back. Devin Bougar, you better hoop because they're going to need it. Yeah, man. Because it's not only like for the Sun's perspective, because obviously they are cooked.

Like they're not winning a championship. They're not winning two playoff series. That's not happening. But you, once again, you don't want to go out. They can beat a. Just kidding. They could find their way to the Western Conference Finals. I'm joking.

I was going to joke and use it as an avenue to slander some teams and be like they could beat them and them, but then my brain stopped because I couldn't think of any teams that could actually beat. I think, yeah, I think the biggest pressure for Devin Booker is like, the two guard position is in flux right now. And it's a lot of weird stuff happening. We've given you the benefit of the doubt for a long time.

And did kind of, you know, get to the top of the mountain. Do you want to slide down to three on that? Are we going to have to start talking about? some other guys and now the conversation that we talked that we put different booker and that's more we're like all right what are you what's going to happen are you as good as get ready to speak Tyler hero comparisons oh my god hey man hate hate to go there but you go outside in another playoff series i can only do so much for you yeah but simply put this team is two good players they both have a lot of pressure on them Kevin durant is 36 and better so i'm not

necessarily putting that on him. I think his story is written. He's kind of devoid of criticism at this point. You can't really, unless he just has an all-time shitter, you're not going to look at Kevin Rand and be like, this is your fault. So, yeah. If they fail, no matter what happens if you lose the playoff series, there's a blame game, even if you're not expected to win, there's just like

a narrative of like, Stephen A. Smith has to go on TV and yell at somebody. He's got a big Devon Booker. I mean, yeah. Mad Dog Russo will have bars for you for no reason, but you're going to have me. Don't make me call you a Chris Paul merchant, Devon. I don't want to do it. I don't I don't want to have those conversations either, but the last time they won playoff games was two years ago, where they, were they, yeah, let's talk about it.

Shit ain't been the same since Ricky Rubio left. Oh my gosh. Hey, man. That's all I got to say. Amen. I'm just saying what happened. I don't think DeAndre aden is a floor raiser. I don't think that we're making stuff up.

Hellen up. That's a lie. We did make that up. We did make that. I will apologize for that. that on my behalf yeah we don't got to spend some time on this we've talked the sun's downfall into oblivion we know where they are simple simple algebra here for white different booker has pressure who's next mo let's roll into number three my last pick is yonest then a cumpo man

this moucky bucks team has definitely been better as of late i believe there's seven to three over the last ten games and dame miler has been absolutely cooking he's been looking like the normal, Damien Lerner, that were, like, used to back in his Portland days. Obviously, like, the volume isn't there because, you know, he has to share the ball a little bit more or whatever. But the efficiencies there, I believe he's been shooting, like, 43, 42 percent of three during that stretch, during that stretch two. And overall, like, this team is clicking. Now, of course, like, they still have several massive weaknesses. Their bench could use a little bit more juice.

Chris Middleton is Chris Middleton off. I don't know how many injuries at this point. They've been struggling rebounding the ball and all that. But overall, this is the best that we've seen the Milwaukee books throughout this entire Damien Lillard Tenture. With that being said to, okay, you guys are rolling into the NBA playoffs. I need to see Janus healthy, bare minimum. Because he hasn't been that over the last two years.

Two years ago, he missed several games in the first run of the playoffs against the Milwaukee and against the Miami Heat and they eventually end up losing that series. And that's what caused Mike Boodenosa to be exited out of the scene. Okay, cool. Last year, you're not even there for, you're not even there fully for the Indiana Pacer series, so that sucks as well. Are you going to be there?

And if you're there, can you still be the same Yonis that we've seen throughout the regular season? I really don't know. I like the term exited out of the team rather than fired. That just sounds like, ejecto Cito, because he just thought Mike Bounos are off the defense. It's like someone got to go, bro.

Get exited, bitch. But no, you're right. Yeah, simply put, this is an all-time level player that has now two straight years of not being able to be an all-time level player because of availability. Nobody's doubting his ability at all. I think a third straight year will have conversations if he's not healthy.

And sure, it's just been kind of bad luck. But you know how these things go. You know how Donovan goes. He's going to say it. I'm sorry. He's going to call Brittle. He's going to make sense probably not. He's going to be you.

He's going to be you and Anthony Day to Day Davis. And like those are going to be the conversations. I'm going to be mad all. because it's going to be fucking stupid, but it's going to happen, and I'm going to have to deal with that. And Janus, maybe I'm under pressure, Janus, because you're going to make me defend you if you get hurt again. Yeah, here we go.

Here we go. Janus, all offseason coming into this year, everybody was trying to, everybody was trying to soft launch it. Nobody was, nobody was strong enough to actually staying on the tape. But there was a lot, a lot of like, you know, Janus is actually underrated. you know he's actually he might be fighting for it and a lot of people were pushing you know yonis back up to this mountain where we had already crowned yokitch one but there was a a small contingent of people that was like it's actually could be like one a one b type type situation yonis i haven't

seen you in the playoffs two years that's exactly what we're most saying and i think that now like you have to be you have to be worried about this like i'm people yonis is one b Janus is right there. I don't know why we're pretending nobody's like still saying it. He's damn near. He's in the same tier as Yolkinch. It's interchangeable to some degree.

Yannis is that good. He's going to be that good regardless. But yeah, you're right. I hope he has a chance to prove it. So I don't got to deal with this shit for another summer because even you soft launching it right now. I'm like, fuck, it's going to be a long year. Yeah, I actually don't think that he's.

Some people are said, I don't. I don't think he's one. I do think that it's like Yokich and then next three in terms of like tiers. Sure, semantics. But I think he's, he's whatever the, wherever that tier ends, the line between is very close to me. Yeah, it's, it's been a long time since 2021. So, like, the further and further we get away from, from that series, a lot of, a lot of stuff can be said.

And even, even the series after, after it, the year after when they lost to Boston because of the Grant Williams game, that specifically was, in my opinion, the best I had ever seen Yonis play in terms of, like, defense, carry, carry job, put the, team on my back we're going to get to this point that was that was some amazing stuff and we just haven't seen it and so now for yannis like shay's moving up if shea has a good playoff run and magically in in march whatever yannis gets hurt again we don't get to see it we're gonna have conversations you know like it's gonna be there even outside of um even outside of the narrative reasons we're talking about discord there's a lot there's just a lot of pressure on him just how the team's constructed you know like they're 14th and half court defense that's good enough, I guess,

if your offense is really, really clicking. And Damien Lord looks to be about as good as Damien Lord is going to be at this age. He looks, I probably just about as good as he did in Portland, albeit the productions less, because he's handling the ball a little bit less here in touch with Janus. True.

I think that they've gotten better at the two-man game. You're starting to see them have natural chemistry and Janus has sent some screens. You know, like it looks better than we did last year and better than it did the first two weeks when we were, like, panicking. Chris Millington is cooked. I don't know if you guys saw that tweet where it was there's been twice in Chris Milton's

career in which he's played over 15 minutes in the game and got zero points. They both happened in the last calendar week. That's not good. That's not good. So they're clearly trying to trade him or if not trading him. They're trying to make some kind of move. They are clearly committed to getting their best foot forward this year and getting the best chance in the playoffs they can and bolstering their roster.

Not sure they're going to be able to do that being the secondary print and having so little assets. Brick Lopez has been still good, but not quite the dominant defensive force he once was. So that 14th half-core defense to me is really relying on Janus. I saw some Bucks fans push back on that because I said Janus has been carrying defensively. Sure, shout out Andre Jackson. Shout out everybody else that's been trying their hardest. Somebody in the comments was telling me that Damon Lourdes having the best defensive

stretch of his career. You're probably right. Nevertheless, Janus is the fourth that makes that all possible. He has to be a legitimately great two-way player because this is a team that is kind of Kind of like what we say with the Sons, right? Two great players, they have a better supporting cast on the Sons do for damn sure, but it's really live and die by these two great players. So in that instance, Devin Booker is the one that would catch the heat.

In this instance, it's Yonis. Yeah. And right now, I think in order to alleviate some pressure from Yonis, they need some type of big wing who has a combination of an ability to, like, rebound, of course, score at some whatever level, and just be a big body force who can be a connective, these in similar lights Chris Middleton before before all these injuries

happened and sounds like they need Jimmy fucking Butler that's what I'm here if not Jimmy Butler hey I got a DeAndre Hunter for you but outside of the trolley too outside of that outside of the fact really like they are able to move off of their

they have a first round pick and then on top of that too they have the ability to move off of Chris Middleton or Bobby Portis and shit like the guy where we see on the screen right now like that EFD would be fucking nice on this team, bro. Danny D.D is a really, really good player who can push the pace and we'll fill in a lot

of gaps for this team. He can hold his own defensively. Of course, like, he's not the greatest issue in the world, but he's 35% normal and his playmaking in terms of pushing the pace to when the transition would, like, eat for this team. Yeah, I don't know if he's available for that price, but that'd be great. I mean, could you imagine they trade Chris Middleton for DeAndre Hunter, how disgusting that would feel as a Bucks fan to watch a team legend go out the door for Deandre Hunter? Team legend.

that is true he is a legend fuck he is a team legend he brought him a championship he's yeah they took the took a what's it called a chance on him early traded for him after his rookie year he blossomed that is true but again the man had surgery on both ankles

before the season it was never going to work out isn't it we don't talk about that I don't know they traded for a second round pick in Chris Middleton and he fucking turned into an all-star when he was thought to be a nothing in that trade that's crazy shout to them that's under talked about like

has that happened like he was even like a high what was that trade I don't remember that trade but I do know like consistently you got it throughout their like through your honest as early days they're looking for that second guy

initially we thought was gonna be Jabari Parker okay no Jabari Parker cool boom we got Thon Maker Thon Maker what are you gonna do for me baby he did absolutely nothing for this team in an organization okay boom I'm not Thon Maker can we find some other draft big DJ Wilson

damn can't do shit for us either and then here you go you get blessed with one of the better developmental stories over the last Middleton joined the bucks after being traded with Brandon Knight and what crazy Russian name I don't know how to pronounce

from the Pistons in exchange for Brandon Jennings that was how they got him they traded away Brandon Jennings 2013 and he's the second rounder from 2012 I think Brandon Knight was clearly the headliner of that trade and Chris Millington was a guy like we took a chance on

and he became an all-star like that's an under-talked about crazy development story good stuff good for the bucks but yeah man listen it's it's time to get chris militaire out of here though might be time to move on all right man uh number two on this list donovan where are we going we are going to cleveland ohio donovan michael i'm looking at you i'm looking at you we have given you grace all year long because the team is amazing you guys were winning games Daris Garland is back to playing amazing basketball. Every Mobley has taken the leap.

So much good stuff has gone on in Cleveland that you can't even hate about some of the, quote, unquote, weird things that have been going on this year. And you can look at their season and say, oh, yeah, everybody's just doing it for the better of the team. But when you look at in terms of just like shots taking and stuff like that, like D. Mitch, you're still putting up shots trying to get points. And the shots aren't necessarily going in. And I think that part of it is when you have guys like Donovan Mitchell, where it's like him, Jamal Murray, Jimmy Butler, when you get tasked with that label of I'm a playoff riser, that's cool. But you have to rise in the playoffs. And like, that's where that's where the pressure comes from. And so now you have the calves with the best team that they've had throughout this entire, you know, two-guard lineup, this the entire, the entire.

Darius Garden lineup, if you guys go out sad, and I think for them at this point, like conference finals is bare minimum the expectation, that it is going to be you and the Celtics for a chance to get to the finals. If you guys, if they go out anytime before that, it's going to be a failure. It's going to be a disappointment. And I think that even as well-rounded as the team is right now, a lot of that is going to end up on Donovan Mitchell and his ability to make shots and create shots for himself and to keep this offense alive. And so I think that, like, every mobility has taken leaps. We'll see what that looks like under playoff intensity.

I think Dary's Garland is fine, but we've seen him, especially going up against the Celtics, you are able to put a lot of, like, length and size on him. We'll see how that goes. D. Mitch is the guy on that team with the highest offensive ceiling. I need to see it in these playoffs and for the rest of the year. I need to see him turn up. Okay, that's fair. Me personally, I can see a world of war on a lot of pressures on Donovan Mitchell,

but I kind of want to lean a little bit away towards that because we've seen him time and time again perform and sometimes like be the, a lot of times be the best player on the team. Even more reason. You got to do it now. You got to do it when it matters. We saw him last year look someone like Jason Tatum in the eyes. I agree with you too to that light, but more so I look at the legitimacy of this team

and I feel like because of the respect, And what he's done in the past, he should be able to do it again. It's just the respect factor that I have right there. As far as someone like Darius Garland, I, me personally, I'll more so put more pressure towards him because I haven't seen it before. Of course, last year and before that, too, so many things were going on with him injury-wise. But we saw his play style just get, like, iced out. And I said a couple podcasts ago, like, he's just been hit with a stun gun whenever you put

a couple, like, six, seven wings in front of his game, you know? And it just dismantles everything that he's. like used to doing. I don't see that with Donovan Mitchell but that's the point. Darius Garland is not as good as Donald

Mitchell and that's a problem that hasn't been clear this year. You know like I feel like D. Mitch has played himself down to D. Garland's level a little bit this regular season and you're right

Darius Garland is not a playoff proof score. He is a guy that can be slowed down and can be game planned out of a game by throwing size at him and that's why D. Mitch needs to be the guy that makes that really fucking hard to do

because the guy next to him demands more attention. And for the reasons you said, we've seen him do before, we know he's capable. He's career low right now, Philgoal percentage of the rim.

Thank God he's shooting 40% from three. This has been a thing all season. It still is. It hasn't gone anywhere. Career low, percentage of shots at the rim and a field goal percentage there. He needs to have all the, we've ever seen from him,

because Darius Garland will have stinkers. It's part of the Darius Garden experiment. Sometimes those lights get bright and he misses two for those at the game and lose to the Houston Rockets. That's going to be the thing. there will be games where Evan Mobley, the jump shot isn't falling, and the offense gets bogged down a little bit.

Donovan Mitchell is going to have to play superhero a little bit if they play the Boston Celtics. My thing is, though, is that if Darius gone who I think and deep down know who he is or who he can be, then Donovan Mitchell Stinkers will not be as, you won't smell it as much. But if Darius Garland Stinkers are there and he's not able to, like, playmaking, be as much of a scoring threat that he is, then I think he dismantles. So he throws the entire team offensive them because they're not able to

get as many, like, easy looks off. I think Darius Garland, his playmaking and just the insane threat that he is, affects his team more entirely than what Donovan Mitchell does because he's just going to do what he does, which is get buckets at an unbelievably level overall, you know? I under, okay, like, I get what you're saying, and I do, like, I think that us three and, like, there's also just Darius Garland fans when it comes to the NBA, like, Darius Garland fans love Darius Garland. I think that we are very, very high on him.

But if you do like take a step back out of that and you look at the hierarchy of this team, Donovan Mitchell is one. You can argue who's two between Garland or Mowgli. But like Donovan Mitchell is one on the list and on the pecking order and then we go down from there. Whether or not like if they want to win a championship, yes, everybody's going to have to have to have to play. well and whichever one of the four doesn't have a good series. We're going to talk about them and we're going to say like, yeah, they didn't have a great series. They were part of the reason, one of the main reasons why they lost. But DeMitch throughout this season, while everybody else

has kind of elevated this year and like Jared Allen's playing well, every mobly is taking a leave, Darius Carter, all that stuff, all the bench pieces. Everybody is taking a step forward. Donovan Mitchell has been the one that hasn't necessarily taken that step forward or, even if you thought that he was at like his ceiling played at his normal standard. So right now he's underperforming and for a guy that has repeatedly said, it's okay if he underperforms, you know, in the regular season, he gets to another level. If you don't have the other level, then the entire way that we've talked about you in terms of potentially being the best two guard in the league, being a top 12 player, whatever,

all that kind of goes out the window if we don't get that. the playoff like think about where think about how we were talking about D Mitch two years ago after the next series like that was kind of nasty because he didn't have a great series if the same thing happens this year it's kind of we're kind of back in that space

yeah and this team if they don't make the conference finals or they get their ass by the Celtics having gotten there they will get just called the next Atlanta Hawks that's what's gonna be there's 2016 Hawks or whatever year it was is it 15 15 yeah 15 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 They will just be the new 15 Hawks.

And that is something that rests on Demich's star equity. The other guys are all-star level players, especially this season. They are not superstars. They are not above falloff. You know, like they can be affected by a defense. And if you're going to be a championship level team, you'd have one guy who seemingly isn't able to be knocked down like that. And that has to be DeMitch.

The fate of the regular season is resting in the Cleveland Cavalier's head. Because if they lose, it's another notch for people who are like, the regular season doesn't matter. I don't care about these teams. Yeah. Everything. Is it unfair? Is it unfair?

Yes. The Celtics might just be better. And that might just be it. They might just be a team well built to beat the Cavs. That could very well be the case. Nevertheless, the pressure is there because the slander will be there if they don't come through with it. It's hilarious.

DeMitt's got to have it. Okay. I can agree with that. Yeah. And I think that's a difference in the conversation is sometimes. you're arguing what should be and we're just like no what is like the pressure is there whether we like it or not no it definitely is there it'll just be a boring conversation if we're just like yeah yeah yeah you know kind of throwing another tidbit in there no i agree with you hi dari's garland is

but he's very important for sure i just think that he's gonna have some games where he gets locked up i'm kind of just like accepting that reality like the nature of like the yeah he's a small guard second option that sometimes gets out of the flow of the game. Like, it is what it is. Like, he's going to have those moments. I won't watch. If he didn't have those moments, if he didn't, if that never happened and he was the best version, then we're like, holy shit.

This is like Steve Nash redux, but that's not going to be the case. Okay. Yeah, I agree with you, Donovan. I just simply will not pay attention. Yeah. Okay, last player on this list. The number one player under the most pressure in the entire NBA, specifically come playoff time, Jalen Green.

who jalen green Houston Rockets Jalen green Jee G that one number four that one Dre Michelle BD correct I wanted to say it but you got it

I think Jalen Green has obviously been a point of much controversy year in year out in terms of is he good is he worth building around right and that hasn't

out of that much because the team hasn't been very good and they've been able to let him develop and put all their stock into developing this number two player that could one day be really great. There is no more one day available. They are the number two seed in the Western Conference. We did our contender tier list two weeks ago.

I was telling you guys, this is just a fucking good team that deserves respect. And since then they beat the Cavs twice. They beat the Celtics. They beat the Grizzlies twice. They just been being the piss out of every great team they come across because they are legitimately great team that will severely hampered in the playoff series if Jalen Green does not give you a good Jalen

Green stretch. He could, he has the ability to be the difference between them making a conference finals and living up that hype or being a first second round exit and saying, oh, well, I guess where the season doesn't matter. I guess this young team wasn't ready. That's going to be the talking point is their youth. They weren't ready for the big stage when really Jalen Green sometimes likes to shoot 42% from three about 10% of the time. 90% of time he likes to shoot 35% from three. And if he does shoot 35% from three, their offensive firepower something won't be good enough. so he is the swing factor that decides their ceiling and that's a lot to ask of a guy who is not great

you know has a lot of flaws in his game so that's a lot of pressure you have to play above your averages you better be the best outlier version we've seen from you otherwise your team is going to fail I don't think you know what I'm describing is a lose-lose situation in my mind but he better find a way to get that shit out the mud and figure it out I mean, I don't know what to say.

Yeah, he is a swing factor. I mean, for all the reasons of, like, why someone like in me don't necessarily believe in the Houston Rockets and their high, like, their peak and their ceiling this year is because, like, it's all contingent on Jaling Green. So, you know, like, they can, we could easily see them upset a couple of teams. if we want to call it that. Someone like me would call that, but I don't even know if it would be a thing because we've seen them doing

to all these teams on a consistent basis. But it's all on his shoulders and what he's able to do. But almost right now, I'm like, damn, bro, like does that even matter

because of all the other great things that they're getting from fucking Dylan Brooks who had 10 threes. I guess the Boston Celtics or the what Framivivivoli can give you and all that other stuff.

And I even mention a man tops of them. I'm just like, I don't know, bro. This team is just I do know. It matters a lot.

It matters a ton. Because everything you said is going to get them good enough to compete with these other good teams. But you can't have the leading shot taker on your team, the highest field goal attempt guy, be a potato for a series. He has to be great. And even outside of their single season playoff run, you know, potential this year, he's also playing for a spot on the team. You know, like, thus far, they've been committed to him and they've been reluctant to listen to the naysayers and give up on him, right? They've continued to empower him, continue to play through him, call lots of plays for him, let him develop into being the star two guard.

They need him to be. If you went to, it's easy to do that when you're not playing for shit and award it's a regular season. If you get into a playoff series and Sangoon plays Sangoon game, he does very well, plays at a low All-Star level, a man Thompson continues to thrive and is also clearly the next star on this team. Everybody else, all these defenders do their thing. Tar Easton does great. Dylan Brooks doesn't shoot you out of the series this time.

Everybody does their thing. Then you look over there and Jaylon Green is just kind of being Jailen. Green having some spark games where he could win you a game he can drop 30 and go nuts for you but for every game that happens there's a game where everything doesn't go so well that's a lot less palatable when you're trying to make the conference finals 100% I I see the case for jalen green being like number one on this list and having the and having the most pressure because there is like for the other guys a lot of the stuff that we're talking about in terms of what they're going to lose

that you're just going to lose a discourse battle but yeah he'll yell that yeah but there's actually like a tangible thing for Jalen Green to to lose for me personally I think that like he

he has to show not only in a playoff series I think for me it's more about the rest of this season in terms of where the playoffs is or where the pressure is because let's say that Jalen Green turns up in a, in a playoff series, that's exactly what Jalen Green does right now

is that he's inconsistent and he has the ability to go on heaters. And so if he has like a so-so first round and then they get to the second round and he goes on one of these heaters and now they're in the conference finals, you go into next year thinking that Jalen Green has taken the step forward when in reality he might just still be the same Jalen Green and the same inconsistent player. And so, like, I think, I think, like, for me... Let's just spray as a good two weeks. No, you know what that is?

That's a matter of perspective and preconceived biases, because that happens all the time for good and bad reasons. It's the rest of the season. That happens all the time for good and bad reasons. Sometimes you can say, oh, he fooled you. He had a great playoff shooting moment that he won't do it consistently. Or sometimes, as Palo Bancaro and he shoots 52% from mid-range and you're like, oh, do that every playoff series because I like them. You know, like, they have the, they like them.

So they're going to choose to believe it the same way that we would for somebody we like. Like, it's, that's the nature of small, sample size basketball. First of all, there wasn't four years of data prior to the problem going crazy. But like, I just mean, seven games and seven games regardless. And the outlier shooting happens, you choose to take what you want from it. You could either say, you just picked on playoff riser. Why would you do that? You could say play, I'm just so the opposite of the biasey.

You can say a playoff riser and what happens after before, playoff riser. Or you can say, got lucky at a good time. I say it to say, The Rockets will surely say playoff riser, is what I'm saying. They will take that away from Jalen Green. Yeah. If he has that moment you're describing. Yes.

If you are in Jalen Green headquarters and you are trying to map out the next two years, number one thing on the board is like, I, brother, you got a hoop. Like, you got to make some shots. Like, that's definitely number one. But I do think, like, for the Rockets, it's very, very interesting. They're offensive. Like, what do I think? think that their floor is going to be offensively because it's there i do think that their floor

is very low like they can they can get to a or maybe not the floor but like their basement can be a very very low basement and in that case like you probably could go out in the in the first round so i don't know if it is that low i feel like we overrate that a little bit like they are 10 they're ninth in offense right now and a big part that is transition and put back some second chance points which is stuff you typically see step back a little bit in the playoffs but you don't see it go away completely you know like they're not going to be like if they're ninth right now in a very big sample size and this second chance point stuff they do this transition stuff they do it's also because elite talent there like a men is just amazing at those things tarisan's amazing of those things

while that is deprioritized in a slow down playoff setting it doesn't go away when you're that talented so I don't think they're going to dip below like a 15th like league average level offense I don't know I mean you say that but then also like we see time and time again, certain players who have limitations with their games, but also, like, you know, their strengths when it comes to running up and down or just trying really hard or whatever the case may be, like, that is at times, like, the main reason why they don't progress when things get a lot slower. So that is, that is. I think that's a, that's a very simplistic way to view why the Rockets are good. They're not just like run real fast. Yeah, they're not,

yeah, they're not merchants, but in terms of like, why. You don't get to the ninth, you don't get to the ninth best offense in the NBA. by just being transition merchants. Like, they are good. Sangood is a good half-court hub that creates advantages. Dylan Brooks is having a good shooting season. Fred Vendvli is a stabilizer. A men in Tar Easton do provide good interior threats from the lob,

not lob, from the dunker spots. Like, they have skills that there aren't just regular season merchant stuff that's sure they're going to go away. That's one of the thing. I think Dylan Brooks, in terms of, like, scared. Or, like, Dylan Brooks is one of the things that I'm kind of most worried about for their playoff stuff. maybe even more than Jalen Green

because obviously out of us three I am the most skeptical about Jalen Green in his ceiling but he has proven he has at the very least he has taken a step forward this season like he it is better than what it was

than what it was previously and so you have to give him some credit there. Dinner Brooks is the one where it's like he's hitting 10 threes I don't know about that like in a playoffs I don't know that's the one where I cannot get it out of my head The imaging And that's fine

Of Of Dylan Brooks Shooting the Grizzlies Out of playoff games I can't do it So that's the one Where I'm more scared But I do think that there is

Like an elevated floor For Jalen Green this year Based off of everything That he's shown Dillon Brooks is at 42% From the corners Both of the last two years Guess what he's shooting

On mid-range jumpers this year It was 41% last year What you said Jalen? Dylan Brooks 50 52 Who the fuck do you think he is? He's on a heater from mid-range.

It's crazy as hell. Yeah, I'm not buying that. I'm not, he's not buying it. Okay, shout out to Dylan Brooks. I ain't know that. That's a fun fact for the day. Also, I worked it up out of curiosity. I kept saying Palo Bencaro shot 42% from mid-range last year in the playoffs.

It was 56%. He went ape shits. Yeah, that makes sense. Similar to your reasoning for having Jaling Green as the number one player with like the most pressure on his shoulders. I see all those reasons and I apply the same as that thing to who I would

probably have a number one which is like Jamal Murray. The inconsistencies through his end. We all know like obviously the Denver Nuggets haven't been one of the best teams in the entire NBA but as in a day like their top four or five seat or whatever it is and got the best player in the world,

one of the best players in history and they've reshaped and reform themselves. But as much they want to reshape, refirm the self as much as we want to see russell westbrook and uh yokech have this cool connection and synergy between those two like at the end of the day like don't really like to say the game is about a bucket in jamal mary is the only player on that team who can get a bucket in certain types of ways so you guys discussed me that's when ironically co-opted that that's what i would have probably is number one on this list you guys discussed me that we've now unironically co-opted

that shit and now we're to say it seriously go to hell it's no listen it's sometimes life is simple, bro. Yeah, it's going to be on the next merch drop. Like, we're putting that on a t-shirt, 100%. Who started that? Was that ball don't stop? I don't even know. I don't know. Some stupid Twitter conversation. He probably was, like, a pillar of that conversation. He's a

grandfather of that, for sure. I know. I think I've seen him, like, holding the camera back close to his face. The game is about a bucket. Oh, my God, that's traumatizing, which you just did. Good impression? It's traumatizing, you know. Traumatizing. But, yeah, I feel, I've used

Jamal Murray in the same light, he would be number one for me. Yeah. Because I can see, like, the Denver Nuggets wrecking so much shit, it actually find their way into the NBA finals if it is clicking for Jamal Murray. Yeah, I can, I can say that. The only reason, like, I think Jamal can be pretty high up on this list. He also has a ring already. So, like, it's not, like, I don't know if there's a lot on the line.

And I don't know if Denver is going to go out of their way to move Jamal. So, like, yeah. So, like, he could have another trash series. He's not going to go anywhere, and they already have a chip. Everything is kind of solidified. I do think that there is a certain element of pressure, like I said, where there has to be something that that has to be a very, like, tangible negative. And so out of a lot of the teams that are going into the playoffs, Jalen Green probably does

have, we were, again, we were maybe a little bit too high on Reed Shepard coming into the year. But we were talking about, you know, hey, isn't Richard. Don't jump off the hype yet. He hasn't got a chance. He's fine. He's fine. Don't sell your stock.

No, I'm just coming into this year, this specific year. Hold the line. We all thought that he would be more impactful than what he is right now, which is, you know, doing what he's doing. But like, he's not playing. Exactly. Exactly. Hold the line. Hold the line.

Read is still read. There's a world where we were like, oh, yeah, we're going to come in and take Jalen's spot. Like, he's, he might not be the starting two guard of. this of this team and he was the number two overall picking the draft a couple of years. Yeah. That's real. Nah, I don't buy into that because it's just way too early. It's way too early.

It's like five years. If I saw him and if he was playing like fucking trash which he's not, he's not playing like anything because he's in the G league right now then I'll be like oh. No, no, he's talking about Jalen Green. I'm talking about Jalen Green. Oh, Jalen Green. Okay, I thought you're referring to Reed Shepard. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, Jalen is

the number two pick in the draft two. Oh, God. They're saying Jalen. Jalen has breathing. down his throat in terms of long-term placement on the team. Oh, yeah, yeah, I agree. Or a consolation trade. Something's on the horizon. Something's on the horizon and Jay and the Green

has to earn his five those playoffs series. That's a takeaway. Okay. Zaling Green, all eyes are on you. And now... What are you prepared to do about it? That means all eyes are on us because it's time for us to go into war. TikTok time. Crown eaters, the crown eating gods. Where are you at?

down upon us now. My God strike down my crayon ears. Say, no, no. We're on to TikTok time. Welcome to TikTok time. Today, we're going to start with a tier list. Punch on Mike. We're going to do a tier list of NBA nicknames.

than a lot of them in the past we've graded nicknames we've done a draft of nicknames today we're going to put someone to a tier list I tried to get nicknames that we didn't cover before in a previous video but there's probably some overlap because some of them are famous

but a bunch of seemingly new nicknames to us in terms of what we've talked about we're putting them in a tier list S through F you guys know who this works by now I do know how it works so tell me the first nickname that we're going to put into this tier list

the first nickname let's go with a Unicorn for Christos Porzingis Hard-ass Nicky Wait, Mo, you're muted God damn, bro New mics, god damn it Bozo

But I was going to say Hard-ass nickname, bro, that can't be B or C What the fuck? It's not a great nickname for Christos Porzingis, but it's such a nickname It's transcended into being any big guy who can shoot is a unicorn So I think it's got to be A

because it's not to change the way shoot and move a little bit, then yeah, it should be, yeah, he's the Trailblazer for that nickname. Like, when you think about Unicorn, he's the OG for it. It's Creek, it's KP. And he's influenced so many other guys being called like, oh, you could be Unicorn, Unicorn, Alexar, oh, shit, Unicorn, you know. No, but that's what I'm saying. Like, it's, they've diluted the nickname at this point. It's not, it's not great.

You can call it dilution. You can call it influence, whichever way you want to go. I'm going to Asia. You can't have eight unicorns across the league That defeats the purpose of unicorn That's not Cruz House for his name's fault No, no we got to go B We got to create his category

You can't see you for that Just because other people want to fucking ride his cock And take his nickname doesn't mean it's a worst nickname No, he should have been If he was truly a unicorn He should have been good enough To keep that nickname just for himself And it would have been no debate

About who else is a unicorn Get your Knicks fandom out of here It happened the way it happened for reason it don't matter. He's A tier. Damn near S. Here we go. Starting with that foolishness.

I see. Next up, let's keep on the topic. White chocolate. This is the S-tier nickname, bro. Smooth as ever. I mean, the nickname speaks for itself. White chocolate moves like someone that shouldn't be moving

at his skin tone. It's hard. Elaborate. You know, it's not necessarily his athleticism, but it's the creativity that he doesn't with him. It's a certain flash, a certain flair that you see with his game that you quite don't see people who look like this with. You don't see those guys doing that very often. Yeah, exactly. There's a certain swagger to him, bro.

He is a real X factor. Makes you get up and say, wow, holy smokes, holy moly. How did he pull that off? I'll go STU also. I love a good dog whistle. Let's go, Esther. It says to you Okay

Next though Let's keep on the topic Let's keep things nice and pasty The Hick from French lick Fuck For Larry Bird See this is It's B

It's a good nickname Right Like if you were writing If you were writing a biography About Larry Bird This is what you were titled The book But it's too long to say

Every time That's a crazy title for a book. What do you mean? It would sell. You would know exactly who was talking about. It would tell to you and people like you. It would not sell to the rest of us. What do you mean like me? What do you mean? What do you try to say? Take that for what you will. Ew, get that away from me. That's not a hit. I'm okay with B though. That's fine. I actually just listened about it yesterday. It was funny. I'm Project 94. Jack told me about it. I never heard before. And I was like, well, I am. Oh, yeah. He's that.

I'm out of my league. Of course, Jack. I'm out of my league with the white lexicon talking to Jack. I was like, you got it. Tell me more. It's Jack. He should know. He should know.

We can go B-Tier. Beat-Ther is fine. Title for a book is insane, but we can go be. Hey, man. I might write this book now. Makes you want to get your book collection right now, Donovan. It makes me want to go through all the list of books that you've read over the course of your life. Let's do it.

Makes you really question. Wonder. What about the Red Mamba for Matt Bonner? I'm dropping this to like D. What? What's? No. Stop it.

He co-opted this. There's too many mambas out there. There's the black mamba, red mamba. There's the white mamba. There's a lot of colored mambas out there. And I don't like it. So now we don't like mambas. So now we're over mambas.

And now we don't like representation. Now we don't like diversity. Are you anti-reddit? What type of, what side of America do you lead towards? down D-E-I in this name? You know what? My bad. My bad.

We'll put it up top. We stand for everybody. My bad. Put it in the nest here. We stand with the redheads. We stand with Andrew Santino. See, that's a D-E-I placement right there. Everybody did the nest here.

This is looking hilarious. The Polish hammer. The Marshie Gort-Tot. Bro, these white people have the funniest name. This is on you because you put mad white people on the list. Like they have those odd boys. The Polish Hammer. All right.

We get a little bit of swagger here. The Polish Hammer. The way he threw down some of those dunks back in the day, very justified. No, he was giving hammer for sure. This is definitely, this is definitely a B tier. It's accurate. We might have to go A, you know. He's putting off for his country.

I like that. You guys just got on me for representation and for, you know, the whole spectrum. We got to put the Polish up there too. Shout out to the Polish, man. He's knocking in nails with those rolls to the rim, giving that Polish hammer. We can go B. Put the hammer on top. Okay.

We can get off topic of white people. The Great Wall for Yao Ming. Oh, man. See, it's a cool nickname, but I need to know who. who came up with it. That's just it. That's just it. What is the race of origin?

Exactly. Of the creator of his nickname. Who gave him that? Because I know his mother didn't call him that. So I don't, so I don't know where this stuff. Which announcer said it first. Was it in China or was it? Was it in Houston?

Jeff Van Gundy. These are real questions we're illegitably asking here. I'll give it an A because it's cool, but I feel like I'm towing a fine line here saying that. We might have to go see just until we get clarification. Yeah, let's put it in C. I don't want to put it in the way. Let's go F. We stand against stereotypes.

We stand against low-hanging fruit. The Great Wall is kind of crazy. Okay. The anomaly for Jason Tatum. I'm sorry. Put the Great Wall up to D. Put the anomaly in F. Yeah, this is terrible.

The anomaly. It's kind of cool. Stop it. This is what happens with everything. Somebody says something. We laugh at it. And then you start saying, saying it ironically and then you started saying it unironically in three years if i hear you call

this man the anomaly i will be upset the anomaly does it again get out of here that's so dope ew listen did it start from a place of cornyness online on twitter absolutely did that corny motherfucker cook yes it's a good nickname i'm not calling you that what is your government name i'm not calling you the anomaly you are jason can you imagine can you imagine Jason Tatum referring to himself as he'll say, oh, what's up? I'm the anomaly. What the fuck out of my face?

Jason Tatum, I'm the anomaly. They call me the anomaly. Your name is Jason, brother. You are a father. You are not the anomaly. That'd be a great nickname if it was for Janus. Janus is a fucking anomaly. God forbid if we gave out the Victor Woman Yama,

that's an anomaly. Stop it. Don't let the swaggerlessness of Tatum hold you down. It's a good nickname. It's the nickname itself, too. The anomaly. That's dope. It's about the parents.

though like you can't give white chocolate to just any white white person and it works it has a very high success rate but you can't just give it to any white person in the test here that's true you can't give white white chocolate to fucking mason pommle for what yeah some might too could because he's done some sweat okay super cool shit who that's the real thing who's the white person who you cannot give why you can't give grace and allen white chocolate oh god hell nah you can't you can't give it to him you can't give it to uh luke cornet either hell no Does he, he's a complete outside of that. No.

No, Luke Wernet cannot be white chocolate. I mean, like, it's ironic, but like, I guess. I mean, maybe, but it's only because, like, him as the personality, not necessarily him and, like, what he does. This is such a racialized segment. It's hilarious. Yeah, I really wasn't supposed to get this place. Every now and then we post a video and there's some people in the comments, like,

why do they think everything about race? Like, you listen to a podcast with two black news and a Mexican. No wonder why. I don't know why we're talking about. What if I said it, they'll be an issue. Oh, that happens all the time.

Yes. If I cheerlisted black players, I'll fuck up. Say, go ahead. Yeah, do it. Tierless. Start your own podcast. Draft you some black players.

Go for it. How do you do you? Say the TikTok look. Go for it. Next up, we got the Matrix for Sean Marion. Hard. Hard as fuck. ester

shit i didn't know what to put it above estier whatever that is not ester not ester because i do think that like we're reserving that for the red mom but yeah esther has to be a combination of like when you say your real name then you have the quotations then you have that nickname i don't think

you don't ever say like sean the matrix marion you can say like oh that is the matrix but he's not it's not like that we should say that though that flows though with his last name Sean the matrix Marion it's hard Why don't we do that? Oh, we just don't talk about Sean Marion that often, but I suppose you can. Yeah.

I mean, so you don't. It's not in discourse like that. Very underrated first time. We can go eight tier. What about Flash for Dwayne Wade? S tier. This is where you can say. Like, that's, that's like that's fine logic.

Nobody calls him that in like a everyday regard. No, but you can call him. But like, but if I say Flash, you know who I'm talking about. Yeah. I know who the Matrix is too. It's not, it's not the same way. it's not the same i think it is i think it actually is the same way no it is no it's not it's it's not like we said d wade like flash is like not his most common moniker what is d wade

his name what do you like yeah like yeah yeah literally some people get first name name name so you get the initial plus last name like that's what he's referred to as that is his government name you took you took four letters out of it that's not like and that's the difference obviously like you set s ters people who people call jason one is white chocolate like that's his name like that's his government name like people say that way more than white chocolate okay an abbreviation is not people say flash on the white chocolate people say white chocolate more than flash for sure yeah oh yeah yeah exactly yeah so i'm saying like stio from your logic is for when that becomes your main name flash is not doing way's main name and abbreviation is not the same as

the nickname though there's different ways to get s here's what you mean basically donovan different ways to get to esteer. Let's just say that. Yeah, we can't say it. Okay. It's cool as fuck. It's a cool as fuck. It's a great name. Yeah, that's hard to say. Last but not at least, the dream for Hakeem Elijah 1. Obviously, S tier. You, people actually call him just dream. This is why I was going saying the flash of A, because S tier is a name like the dream. He's Hakeem, the dream shake. It becomes synonymous with his name. That's an easy S tier. Yes. Okay.

You see, Flash, it doesn't have the same, doesn't have the same aura as the dream. I agree. No, genuinely it does not have the same aura as the dream. I see. Dream is very high up. But don't think I didn't just see you drop it down to A. Stop that. You try to slip it in.

I see it. Hey, yo. Pause, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. That was crazy. That was crazy. That was crazy. That was crazy. Like, I ain't see it.

I don't want to do in person anymore. My bad, my bad, my bad. Don't think I didn't see that. He tried to, not only is an A-O. He's trying to slip some of an allegation. My bad. That's crazy. That's crazy.

Yeah, we can't do you in person anymore, bro. You're putting some, my mind- I was going to listen to your mom. So that's our tier. So next video. White chocolate. My bad.

Next thing we're going to do, what don't do next? Let's do a little bit of Keep 4 cup 4. Woo-hoo. This is a new segment. We've been doing a lot where I've been having you guys. I mean, I name eight players. You guys, you know,

keep four and cut for it today we're going to do it with teams with teams that have won championships before you've got to decide if you're going to put them in the floor they get kept before they get cut you know just based on how impressive they are or how good the team was yeah but let's do it it was a big old yon damn yawning not even sleepy bray so first off the twenty twenty three denver nuggets should we keep them i i think we yokech is one of the greatest players of all time. Yes, but I do think that they are, but I do think that they are beatable by

a lot of championship teams. Like, I don't think that they're an S-tier championship team. I don't think that they are in A-tier. They might be B. So, it sounds like they are keepable. They're like at the bottom four of

key, right? Do you want to put it by four? Probably. I need you to sound. more confident about I know. It's a it's kind of obvious

to me. It's a team thing. I agree. I know. But like the core around them is bro, they just,

they fit so well. Sounds like you guys want to keep them. I want to keep them personally. You know what? Last time I think I kind of messed it up

because I was doing the overrated, underrated, I'll let you get this. We will keep the 23 Demmer Duggets. Love it.

Now the reasoning is dumb because they're a championship level teams and every single one of them have an all-time great player. but I'll listen.

I respect it. The core is great alongside Yolkins. The 1998 Chicago Bulls last dance. We got to keep them. Keep. Yeah, we have to keep.

We got to do it. Where do you want to go? Does it matter? I guess at three. We'll keep them at three. Yeah. Order barely matters. Okay.

Listen, you're not going to cut the We're not cutting Michael Jordan. Yeah, we can do that. No words are needed. The second best player ever lived. Of course not. The 2020 Lakers. See, that's the, that's the debate.

And we've had this debate before between the 2020 Lakers and the 23 Nuggets. I think. Giority, you already kept one. And I would like to keep the 2020 Lakers. But we've done what we've done. We will cut them. Yeah, three shake keeps would be devious. You'd be sending yourself up.

Yeah, we got to cut them. Yeah, for straight failure. As I'm just happy that it's a conversation between the 23 Nuggets and the 2020 Lakers. It's a conversation. Mm-hmm. Yeah. okay no no one's gonna no one's gonna freak out for you cutting 2020 that's okay yeah 2004 pistons cut yeah see you this cut that's easy cut yeah and again people always get mad when you

disrespect the 20 2004 pistons get over it let's look at who's on this list yeah if we listen they are a fun they're a fun team fun era in terms of like you know looking back on it y'all wouldn't want to watch the 2004 pistons play you guys wouldn't you guys wouldn't enjoy that right now you're not putting them above the 98 bulls like it out of here yeah let's leaving boys out all right now yeah 1994 rockets 1994 rockets 1994 rockets hekeem see we have to cut them you got a you got a better gauge on this donovan we have we have to we have to we have to cut them um because they they kind of have like the same archetype of the 23 Nuggets.

Yeah. But I would say that the 23 Nuggets supporting cast is better than the 94 rocket supporting cast, so we will cut them. Simple math. Let's cut them. That's a good logic. Okay. That's fair.

Two keeps, one cut left. Be careful now. The 2016 Cavs, we have to keep them. Historic team. The historic things. Yeah. If you have a team that knocked off 73 and 9 and you have peak LeBron James, you have to keep that team.

I agree. Okay Next up The 2022 Warriors We can cut the fuck up You can cut them You sure You have one spot of left in each

Yeah This is one of the worst championship teams Or the last 10 years And I could say that confident Wait Can I get that confident Ten years isn't a long time

So sure Yeah But we have to We have to cut them We were talking about Andrew Wiggins out here Yeah The finals

It's honestly It's honestly very similar the 94 Houston team where it's really one guy going sickle mode. But shout out to Steph, got his crowning achievement. Yeah, one of the more impressive champions for sure. In terms of one player's legacy, this is the top of the line.

So impressive. Compared to other teams, not so much. Yes. Last but not least, your final keep, the number one spot that you saved. The 19663 Boston Celtics. See, they were dominating everybody. In the middle of a dynasty. They were winning like eight straight at that point. I am okay with that. Shout out to the

me, Bill Russell. You know what I'm saying? How many NBA Shout to 1960s basketball. Who cares? You won. Like eight. They,

okay. You're right. I can't. They won. We won two. What is the point that you're trying to make about the 63 Celtics?

Do we got to say it? No, we don't. I just respect the past. Shout to 63 basketball. Shout out to 63 basketball. The next thing we're going to do We're going to go back on hoopgoat.com Aside that we've recently found

that we did the blind tier list last time when we did those legends and putting them in a blind tier list. Today we're going to do their start bench cut game. You know, you know how it works. They're going to show us three players. Moe is blowing fucking missiles out of his nose. But they couldn't tell.

Yeah. So they're going to show us three NBA players. We've got to start bench cut them. You guys know how this works. Rather simple. Yep. First off. We got Clyde Drexler, Andrew Wiggins, and Mitch Richmond.

Y'all don't say anything. I have the perfect answer. We are going to start Clyde Drexler. We are going to sit Mitch Richmond. We are cutting Andrew Wiggins. If you guys disagree, you guys are wrong. Fair enough, you got it. You're coughing as shit.

I'm not going to be the one to argue Andrew Wiggins over Mitch Richmond, so you can have it. Let's do it. 77% of people agree. Okay. Look at that. People shout out of Donovan Isso. 1% put Wiggins number one, Richmond number two, and Clyde number three. So 1% of people

We're just doing that The list backwards Okay Next up Tim Hardaway Derek Rose And Isaiah Thomas Now let's do MVP Derek Rose

Everybody at their one year peak Cool Isaiah Thomas starting Is there any debate there Is there any If you put MVP D Rose On those business team You don't think they could be

Just as good or better No I'm gonna lean towards Fair enough I agree I just want to start discourse and apparently nobody else wants to hear it. Derek Rose, you're benched.

Tim Hardaway your gut. There we go. It's pretty easy. 73% agreed now. These are all super cookie cutter so far. Let's see if we can get a controversial one. Nicole, ooh, this is for MVP 1, 2, and 3. Nicole Yolkich, Janice, and Shea.

It's for right now. Is this year, this season. She is number one. She's one. Okay. No, he's not. What? For this year?

Gilchich is still a better player this year. Are we MVP? Oh, okay. This is not a best player. You want to listen to that? Do you want to do it based off MVP rankings or do you want to do it on?

Who's good? Well, throughout the entirety of the thing we were talked about. Yes, I'm saying for the TikTok, you want to change it up? Like, for people at home, are they going to be, oh, this one's different? We're at a crossroads right now. Now, let's do it. Let's do it here. It's only because.

It's interesting. I want to start conversation. I want to give Shade the time. top spot. Yeah. Let's do that. Okay. This one says MVP 1, 2, and 3, so let's treat it like an MVP ballot.

So as of today, Shea's MVP? He's easily number one. There's no argument for Yokic having his best offensive season, shooting 47% from 3? Don't take your head too hard, Donovan. Shake it a little bit. There is arguments. There's an argument, but I will admit it's a weak one. If the season's end today, it's Shay.

Yonis, I'm sorry. You're once again third an MVP. It's like every single year. You've got a short stick. Wow. Okay, 48%. I think some people didn't treat this like MVP ballot. That's probably the difference.

So if some people didn't treat it like MVP valid, then a lot of people think that Yonis is the third worst player here? That's crazy. Yeah, I think a lot of people do think that that checks out to me from what I feel like the common sentiment is right now. See, and those are the bucket watchers only, Donovan.

This is where I have issues with that terminal. The game's about a bucket. That's where I have to slow down sometimes. Yonis gets a lot of buckets. people just don't like how it looks but he gets a fucked down of buckets yeah he scores but he doesn't get buckets he's a different

you know what I'm saying he scores but he doesn't get buckets do his buckets have a war yes or no no that's what I'm saying it's like the difference between like listening and hearing right it's a small thing see you can either wear clothes

or you put that shit on you put that shit on okay J.J. Reddick Ray Allen and Damien Lillard First of all Why the hell is Ray Allen this dark? Yeah, he looks like, God,

I thought that was Anthony Edwards. I was like, what? Ray, Ray, what happened? Oh my God. He's never been this dark in his life. That's Jesus? Anthony Edwards. Shuttle's worth?

What the fuck? All right, so they set my coach up. Obviously, we're cutting JJ Reddick. This is hilarious. J.J. Erick at what? We're starting Damien Lilly, right? Yeah, I don't think there's much of a conversation between those two. Like, shout out Ray Allen.

I don't think the best version of Ray Allen's touching what Pete Dame did. Where did they get this picture? That's the default picture when you Googled Ray Allen. That's the one I've used too. I always brighted up though when I hit it. That is, he looks bald as shit in this too. They didn't know. 52% agree with us.

46% put Ray Allen over Dame. Ring culture, man. I hate this fucking game. And the 48% that put Realta number one thought that was Michael Jordan Okay next one Chris Weber DeMarcus cousins and Julius Randall

Julius Go home man You can get cut Julius Julius It's all good Yeah You can go home We're good

We're good DeMarcus cousins Chris Weber's got to start right Chris Weber has to start right Like that's not That's pretty easy I mean He's been top five in MVP

He's average an efficient 28 He's a better defender than DeMarcus cousins What does DeMarcus do better? It's getting ridiculous out here It's getting ridiculous Out here No Chris Weber is definitely better for his generation

But was he ever a problem The same way that The Marker's cousin was I don't think you understand We really think about it. Was he an issue? No. Was he a conundrum the same way that DeMarcus cousin was?

I don't think so. I'll put DeMarcus cousins at the start. That's too damn bad. As much as I love DeMarcus, he has to sit this one out. Yeah, 61% of people agree. Next one, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem O'Neill, Hakeem, Elajuan, Will Chamberlain. Finally. The item is stop.

I wasn't going to say it. Who do we start If it's peak for peak I guess we start 2001 Shaq over Hakeem But I don't feel good about it The basketball guy in me wants to be like I'm taking Hakeem

So much going on with this game So many layers to it But is that being Is that too woke? Is it just Shaq? Yeah is it too woke That's right That's what I'm heading towards right now Go ahead

Donovan You're allowed to speak now Yeah Thank you Sick him All right. Crazy. Crazy.

Cigam is wild. Let's go Shaq. Let's start Shaq. Do you believe that? Okay. Sometimes. But now we're going to cut Will? We're going to cut the 100-point game?

I mean, the most athletic player of all time. What game? 100 point? That never happened. What do you mean? It's a conspiracy. Info Wars, Donovan's move?

It's a conspiracy. Alex Jones vibes going on in this chat right now? They faked it. What do you say to the people who were there live and intended to watching the game? They're not alive no more. All right, we're going to bench you keen. We're going to cut. We're going to cut Will.

Will's a hundred point game only as good as the last person who's alive remembers. There was that sentence of a tree falls in a forest and no one's around here. Did it happen? That's good. And Will scores 100.

Because nobody's around to say it did it happen? I don't think so Last but not least Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love and Bam out of bio So obviously we're starting Kevin Garnett Yes Listen Bam This year only

Bam is getting cut with a quickness It's all time even Bam is out Like I'm just taking Kevin Love In every single white Yeah Kevin Love, welcome to the bench Like 91% agree

wow damn bam that's crazy this set him up so hard yeah he just shouldn't be in these conversations he put them up against like one of the better power forwards of all time

and then just bam out of bio just a dude sorry man right now you're a good dude but you are a dude that one block they'd had it in the 2020 Eastern Conference finals memories

special all right next thing we're going to do i'm going to list some NBA players right now and i want you to grade how well their first half of the season is gone okay so based on your expectations what they're supposed to be doing how much of impact of winning whatever it may be grade their season so far let's do it russell westbrook a plus a plus bro based on the bar was the bar was in the fucking basement so he's been a very good productive player that's helping that team fill a void of ball handling they need to go from we expect nothing to you're pretty good a plus they were trying to kick brodie out of the league and now he's out here

being very productive on a team that now has championship expectations once again it was kind of muddy for a second with the nuggets but russell westbrook save the denver nuggets from mediocrity in 2024 slash 25 we love to see it he's a hero where do you think the Denver nuggets will be without Russell Westbrook. Probably like one spot down from where they are now. Still, one spot up. Shout out to Russell Westbrook. He's an uplifting figure.

Steph Curry. Oh, man. He hasn't particularly been fantastic. I am now pushing the mic away. So the team gets an F, and I want to be like, it's not his fault. It's not Steph. He has no help.

He's also kind of cooked a little bit. You can talk about his athleticism. his athletic decline a little bit i was like it's okay no one's gonna they ask him to do too much he's also doing too little both are true i don't know how to i don't know how to gauge it he's kind of washed but it's not his fault i mean two through two things can be true at once bro he's a little wash even with his washed age he's still like one of the i don't know 13 best players in the league but still he's a little wash but they make him look a lot of wash because they give him the most bullshit roster to work with i'll give him a b i'll give him a c because it can't be

good. It's not a passing grade, but I'm not going F like I am for the whole team. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. It's not his fault. You don't want to say it. I'll say it. They don't want to trade for anybody. They're setting him up for failure. But also he's fucking towing the company line now being like, yeah, I think we should rock with what we got. We shouldn't do anything dumb in mortgage. Well, if you were about to get 10% in the team, wouldn't you just say thing? Sure, but then I would hope somebody else calls me a bootlicker because I would say, well, I guess you better be happy to be washed then. all right next up jalen green

this is so he's been decent he hasn't been terrible it hasn't been the worst jalen green year he's good he's not selling him b minus he might be b i was gonna say b plus oh oh just too far too far too far too far too far too far b plus means like you have shown like a certain level of consistency

hasn't been that level just yet but b's very soft b b minus he's defending better he's been a legitimately great interior score three point shooting is still hit or miss he's made improvements he's taken he's taking steps and a couple yeah he's taking steps i want to see two or three more but there's a couple steps but like the stuff that you the stuff that you would want to see from a guy who is his height and as athletic bare minimum just be good at the rim he's finally doing that so like you do have to give him a little bit of of credit there and so i i like to see it yeah in previous years he's been overwhelming as a rim finisher despite being

crazy athletic and underwhelming as a shooter now it's just a shooting that's overwhelming and the passing and the defense and the rebounding and the half-quired IQ

and the helpside defense but the rim finishing is fantastic okay 67% on the year it actually went down from where it was earlier but it's still 67 yeah I'll go B plus

okay cool Shea Gilded is Alexander A plus A plus plus plus plus plus bro plus plus plus plus plus plus plus all right we get it plus

and ultimately plus yeah there's not enough there's not enough a's to give out and there is the plus of it all for his season you know how like

normally you were great stuff on a scale of zero to 100 you have to give him a 200 out of 100 he's gonna win MVP he's that guy he's doing everything that you want him to do

he's 40 efficiently he's defending very well team at the top of the conference it doesn't have understand when my jaw keep blocking doesn't have

his top white boy his other secondhand man doesn't know how to shoot or create anymore everything's on him there's no

200 out of 1 him bro he's done everything he can there we go he breaks our scale like those back in high school

people did like like for it to be honest on a rate they put BMS BMS that's our grade I never seen that

before you got a BMS before that's what that tells me or are you giving a bMS out neither here nor there next one jalen brunson boy the demon demon in the clean streets jalen brunson a a a yeah a plus a plus genuinely underrated like the first couple games were kind of the most underrated player in the league like not even just genuinely rated the most bro the first two weeks of the season the whole NBA community just decided Kat's their best player and just, like, ran with that for the whole year. It's insane.

Jaylin is still a top 12 player in the NBA. He's still better than Kat. He's still the driving force. I don't understand why Kat gets all the praise and Jaylon's just the guy. Big Boatia. That's why. Every time I decide to say something nice one of your guys as player, you make me immediately regret it. Look at this.

This is fantastic. Yeah, A plus. It's awesome. Never mind. You suck. Hit the weight room. Get out of your cat better. He's going to the playoffs.

he's scoring 40 a game every single game just like he did last year he's so good man he is such a he just die a shay the way he can be a solid passer and just insane isolation score and create for others like he's wildly underappreciated he is bro he is inevitable that's what it is in my mind like he's going to come in in anybody's building at any time of the day any day and just do what he does give you 30 5 6 assists and shoot like 45% from 3 he's ridiculous this is my captain and it's just weird because I guess it's because he started off as a second round pick and he's like not athletic and like doesn't like look the part that people don't

treat him like he's like a superstar like we're still at the point when he first came an all star at the Knicks where it's like oh nice good for him he's like leveled up you know but like he's one of the best players in the world yeah I don't know why he doesn't get that true

I think it's the the ability to have like not much aura and on top of that too I think it really just says that he doesn't have much aura yeah it's just the kind way of saying you think he's lame yeah that's i think that's that's the real thing about it like he doesn't have no cool celebration i'll keep on doing this donnie but let's be real like no one like labeling a downside as an ability to have is hilarious his ability to be whack as fuck makes nobody want to watch what it's uncanny that's not even true though he's cool it's

not even true to who cool to who I feel like he's cool overall I think he has enough aura he's not unmarketable he's not whack you're just bad because he stole Tray Young's chain as the guy in the Eastern Conference. True. That's why that's why he was a fake chain. You're going to see you why. Who scores better?

Jalen. Whose team is better? Jalen. Whose celebration is better? Jalen. Now, you know, that's a god damn. Okay, he got him on the podcast game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But when it comes to the celebration, you're out of your mind if you think, no one's doing this on a consistent basis, bro. Yeah, because Trayon. I see soccer players go ahead and do the, it's too cold. in here, bro. Soccer player is global. No one doing this. Do you think Trey Young influenced

the world? Are you a dummy? He's influenced more people than Jalen Brunton, I guarantee you, for sure. The entire city of New York has been influenced by Jalen Brunson. What's why the city's dog shit? What are we talking about here? You live there.

It's trash. I'm trying to get out. You think I don't want to live here by choice? I'm starting to leave here by choice. I'm starting to leave Chicago only two months. Okay. A plus, though, A plus season. I mean, you don't got it, but... DeAndre Aiton. C.

I guess. C. I got your fucking minds? This is an F. I mean, my expectations are just whatever for DeAndre Aiden. I think he's supposed to be much. You were the highest on DeAndrean out of all of us, so I expect you to be F. Maybe it's my fault.

I've been an Aiton apologist my whole life. I've been bred through the battlegrounds defending DeAndre Aten until this year he broke me. Every time I watch a Portland Trailbitch's play, I want to watch a Portland Trailbitch's play. I want to turn that shit off because he's not trying it's embarrassing it's gross I wish I never said anything

good about him before F yeah it's just another Deandra Aten year for me this is not though he's getting worse this is what I've been peeping you could have seen this coming

had you listen to us exactly sure but it's gone worse and worse every year and he's reached the point where you should have known this is going to get worse dude during an interview

years ago during his rookie year he was talked he talked about how he was simply focused on getting his second contract. He got that. What else Morris are to get? How can you believe in a play to be great?

He accomplished all his goals. In his rookie, he's just like, yeah, I just want that bag, man. You're supposed to escalate, elevate, elevate, bro? No, he's playing big basketball. Lamello ball. Damn, this is so tough. He's injured again.

Story of his life. He got a lot of buckets. It wasn't efficient. They weren't winning. He got hurt again. The buckets were real cool. Everything else isn't so cool. I don't know how to grade it.

Yeah, but he gets to take 35 shots a night. And that's kind of... Good for him. It's kind of a plus. It's kind of his MO. I kind of like that. Dude, his influence is crazy, though, too. Like, players love him.

Fans love him. They want to do what he does. But you can't. Who wants to do what he does, player-wise? Jordan Poole? Other big ballers? What are you talking about? Dude, just a couple months ago,

when he did that, like, stupid-ass crossover at the top of the key we saw like clips that Derek White tried to mimic what he was doing so all the players like fuck with him heavy

yeah this guy's okay okay I don't know how to take that I don't know how to take Derek White decided to cross over like he did

either way or I will go B I will go B too because he's the peak was really high yeah exactly he's shown us

his abilities and they may not have been using the greatest way possible but he's shown to us that he has it in him. All I'm saying is I'm getting a little bit worried. I will not elaborate. It's a hornet.

They're dog shit. Cade Cunningham. A plus. A plus. Kate Cunningham, we came into the season being a little bit worried because he was in a terrible situation. And now people are like, yes, Cade is, he is an all-star. He is number one.

The debate right now is K-V-V-Powell-Kan has risen up the ranks. of you know it's an a plus you know it's a great season for a young player because they go from being overlooked and under talked about underappreciated and now you got people saying crazy shit like he's a top 10 player in the world when the pendulum swings back so far the other way that's how you know it's successful year you have made it you're on the map you are a superstar when shack yeah when shack is out here like oh yeah this man is an all-star you know shake don't be watching detroit pissing back this man is tapped into k cuttingham a plus people on tv saying maybe we should put them in the MVP talks to rich for a realistic. That's too much. Yeah. But listen, you're on the map. It's a W. Wow. Spacing. Cade Cunningham. You have been granted it one time in your career

and now you're an all-star. Congratulations. And it was funny, too. His team still sucks. It's just not the worst in the league by far. They're still 26th in defense. The shooters are still mid. They can shoot a little bit. So, like, this is just a taste. Pretty soon we're going to get the whole load when he gets a real good team around him.

wow so next player jimmy butler this is an f season it's not great he's been suspended like three times at this point it's a lot of games

he's lost several million dollars it's not it's not fantastic it's not what you want to see when you come into the year they took the whimsy away from him he didn't even show up to media day like a crazy haircut oh that's a yes how we should have known

some shit was up jimmy blower without the antics is a king without his crown that's how you know something's trouble brewing at home tough scene from before games were being played yeah it hasn't been great i i have to go it is an f it is an f it is an no one even knows how to like rank him as a player because he didn't play no like real basketball or serious basketball whatever he's maybe yeah okay okay next one james hardin a i'm going like a minus yeah you go a minus i like that better i like that better than i think it's fair

I think people are kind of gassing how good he is. Yeah. Like, he is sub-40% from the field that does matter. And then on top of that, too, he's turning the fuck over the ball as well, like crazy. So, like, people are gassing how good he is. But in terms of his responsibility and what the team needs for him, he's doing it. And the team is way better than anybody expected. He's a huge part of that on the offensive side.

I'm cool going to. It's a James Harder's world over there. And Norm Powell, Zubach, and I guess Kawhi Leonard now are just eating off of it. Yeah, that team is good I don't know if you'll talk about it again next week I guess That team is good I don't know if you are ready to have a conversation They're fucking good

Oh, Coile Leonard, season high 27 Donovan They're fucking good They're fucking good Wee Clipper fans have been They've been on me all week Because they like they found

A tweet that I sent out a couple months ago Where I was like The Clippers deciding To prioritize Kawhi over PG It's like It's a terrible decision And it's one of like The worst of the decade

And now they're like Oh look what's happening look what's happening look what's happening I have they're going to say that now if listen it's easy to be up as a Kauai fan

when things are good yes real easy count your fucking days okay next up wait is the last one oh no that is the last one

then that was 10 that was fast nice okay so last segment we're going to do today before we get out of here round out

this three hours of yap you two are going to play a little game where you go against each other I have a category in mind I want you to to name a player from that category

as many times as you can until one of you messes up okay okay what's the category category is NBA role players who have a championship so when I say go

Donovan you go first then Mo you go back and forth naming an NBA role player with the championship until one of you messes up and you're messing up and say somebody who doesn't have a championship

or you stumble and pause and like out of an amount of time which you can't say anything. Yeah. You've got to be firing. Gotcha. Okay, cool. So three, two, one, Donovan go.

Aaron Gordon. Luke Hornet. Derek Fisher. Derek White. Okay. Okay. Al Horford. Yes, he has a championship.

I can't believe that. That's so amazing. I just remember that. Wow. He's a role player. It's okay. Ron Artes. Matthew Delo Vandova.

Sasha Wuyichich. Andrew Verjao Patrick McCall Andrew Verja was a Oh he's in the Warriors team wasn't he I think they won in 2017 Yeah Anderson Verja was on that team

You can okay you can double check it I might be wrong Because he Because he uh I think he was like on the Cavs earlier that year And then got bought out And they went to the Warriors And so he has multiple

He is yeah he is 2017 Yeah cool Okay he won Champions who's turn is it It's on you Oh okay I just I just said I just said Patrick McCall

Okay Cool. RJ Jefferson. Norse Cole. Ooh. Okay. I'm going to say Chris Anderson.

Mike Miller. Okay. Ray Allen. Let's see how much fun. Ah. Horace Gray. Oh, no.

I said it before you guys came in. I said Horace Graham. Okay. Okay. We'll give it to you. I yelled over you, but I'll get that one to you. Mo, keep on.

Trevor Reza. Steve Kerr. Dwight Howard. John Paxson. Mm. Javelle McGee. Kuzma. Leandro Barbosa.

I'm blanking. Uh-oh. I'm blanking. Oh. Oh. Oh, I don't even loses. We gave you all we do. You're out of there.

Boo. Boo. It's the first time Moe won this game. It is. Damn it. Do the power of the crayon eating gods? I said strike. I can not have been down if I don't get it.

And they didn't want me to strike you guys down. Your life was on the line. Don't thank me. Thank you, for my parents. So strike me down today. All right, man. And that's our episode today. If people were still here, what should they comment?

Strike me down today.