The Mismatch - 2023-24 Semi-Bold NBA Season Predictions

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Verno and KOC break down the news of assistant coach Terry Stott's departure from Bucks, as well as the never-ending drama with James Harden (00:00). The guys also discuss Calvin Booth’s comments to ESPN after his quotes in KOC’s story went viral (22:37). With the season starting up next week, the guys give their semi-bold predictions for the upcoming NBA season (32:40). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What would you do if you got scammed? Would you suffer in silence, or would you do something about it? Well, I got scammed once, and this is the story of what I did. I'm Justin Sales, the host of the Wedding Scammer, a true crime podcast from The Ringer. And for seven episodes, we're hunting a comment. A guy with a lot of aliases, a guy who's ruined a lot of weddings. And with the help of some friends, I just might be able to catch him. Listen to The Wedding Scammer on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Thursday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, we're back on twice a week. I love it. How you doing? We're back on twice a week and by next week there will be regular season basketball games. Today's edition of the mismatch is going to be our semi-bold predictions for the upcoming NBA season. Before we get to that, we do have some news that we want to get to.

The first of which is a kind of shocking story that dropped this morning without a lot of context. It was just that Terry Stott, who we knew was an assistant coach at Milwaukee. and then when Damian Lillard is added to that team, we think, oh, what a perfect marriage. Terry Stott's is already there. They have this relationship. He's going to be running the offense for this team. This is going to be great.

And then there's a story that comes out and says, Terry Stott's is no longer going to be an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks. And that's kind of the end of that. Like there is no reason given for him, you know, I guess a personal reason as to why he is not going to be part of the team. But my initial reaction was, okay, what happened here? Because if it's anything normal, you just usually say. I give it he's walking away because of health problems.

He's walking away because of this or something happened. Maybe there was some kind of problem or, you know, there was some kind of violation, team violation that occurred, whatever, right? We've had it happen before where a guy to be having an affair, a guy can be having a DUI, a guy could be having a whatever, right? But there's usually some reason given as to why, something, especially when we got the season starting next week, they've just gone through training game with the preseason. So it's all very odd.

And then you texted me and you said what? I heard Adrian Griffin cussed out Terry Stotz at practice on Tuesday, OKC shoot around. And that was most of what I heard. I also heard that it seemed like there was a little bit of friction between those two. And then later in the day, Adrian Griffin was asked about it by Buck's Media. He's like,

you'll have to ask Terry Stutz why he's still not here coaching. And then the Shams story dropped, of course, which confirmed a lot of that. Yeah, Shams did not say that he cussed him out. He's just, it was kind of tame. Yeah, yelled. Yelded at him that Terry Stott's going over. There's going to be a coach's huddle.

He's going over to talk to Janus and Dame about something. This draws the ire of Adrian Griffin. Now, I do think it's totally fair for Shams to say, look, there's two ways of looking at this. 100%. Either you've got a guy that's not comfortable in being an assistant coach of being told what to do because he's been a head coach for so long, and so there's going to be a little power struggle there.

Or the flip side, which is he doesn't like the way that he is treated by the head coach. And certainly, given his resume, for him to be shouted down, cost that whatever, in front of the team, that that in and of itself is such a breach of trust that, He just doesn't want to do this anymore. Now, this is always going to be a bit of a struggle unless you have two personalities that you know can get along. When it is an arranged marriage like that, and I have seen it before, where what happens is, if you're, if you, like, if you say you're Milwaukee and you're trying to win the NBA championship and you know that. you need to perform this year after last year's disappointment. And you got rid of one of the winningest coaches in NBA history.

When you bring in a guy that's zero and zero, you want head coaching experience on that bench if you can get it. And so they did. And obviously those two, I'm not blaming either of them. Those two couldn't get along. And so this arranged marriage ended up ending miserably. and I do think it takes a, that is a very hard thing to replace on the fly, especially if the guy was in charge of the offense and installing the offense.

And he was because Damian Lillard is quoted a week ago saying, look, I came in and having Terry here made it so much more comfortable. And in fact, it's almost like I'm a coach because I know all that terminology. I know where everybody's supposed to be. I've been running this stuff. I know this. And so now to fragment that right before the season begins and just bring in somebody else,

man, I don't know. This is, this is not good. That's not good. It's not good. It's a rocky start. You know, like I think whether he just shouted at him, yelled at him, cussed at him, I mean, like, it doesn't really make a difference.

Like, clearly they didn't get along and Terry Stodston and feel like it was worth being there, being part of the team. On one hand, it could be that this is for the best. They get rid of this kind of weird elephant in the room, this potential power struggle, whether it was real or something that was just in Griffin's mind. Paranoia is like a new head coach that players were talking to Terry Stott's. Whether it was real or not, it's gone now. That's the positive side of it, right?

It's gone. They can move on and focus on the season. The negative side of it is this is just the beginning of a rookie head coach being hired to a team with championship expectations. And this is the first of many weird things that could happen after he was an assistant for like 10 to 15 years and didn't get any gigs from past interviews.

Like maybe there's reasons why he wasn't hired for a multitude of reasons why he wasn't hired. And now the books are finding out why. That could be the case as well. So it's impossible to know at this point. We don't know all of the details at this point either.

I would expect more to trickle out in the coming days. but at the least it's weird because for the bucks right now you get Damien Lillard, you get his former head coach, the offense should be unstoppable. Defensively, we'll see. Like defensively, I thought the bucks looked kind of sloppy with their new, more aggressive defensive scheme in preseason, which is Griffin's thing. It's defense.

So we'll see how he manages us over the course of the season as a rookie head coach, but it's definitely not an ideal start. Yeah, yeah, and you got to be really careful with that. that whole, we're bringing in a head coach to be next to you because a coach can't feel threatened by that because the thought is, oh, they're bringing this guy in. So if I don't work out, they've got somebody that can just take over the head seat, right? Like, that's the way it goes. Especially if players actually were connecting with Terry Stoss.

I mean, right? I saw, I saw it once upon a time where J.B. Bickerstaff was sitting next to David Fisdale. And it makes it a lot easier when David Fisdell has a problem with Markisaw and it's getting off to a rocky start or whatever. They're banging heads. We've got a guy that's been a head coach before right here. Why are we dealing with this? Right.

And so now the next guy gets to move up. And so that chair next to you, and especially again, like we talked about with arranged marriage. And I don't know Adrian Griffin. I don't know what kind of coach he is. We don't know what kind of coach is going to be. But we do know that this kind of stuff happens a lot. And teams, I understand why they do it, especially when you're hiring guys without experience.

Because you're seeing it even now with that overhaul they've done with the whole Boston staff. They got Sam Cassell there now. They got Tatum's buddy, Emil Jefferson, there now. They got Charles Lee, who was Boutenolser's guy. Another Bucks guy. I mean, they even brought in Jeff Van Gundy as an advisor. But that's the crazy thing about this, Kev. If there is one thing they have had insane health at,

it is Budenhouser and the coaching staff. Because those guys have all gotten poked. The Bootenholzer tree is a real thing that has had a bunch of guys come off of it, whether it was Kenny Ackinson, whether it was Taylor Jenkins, whether it was Quinn Snyder, more recently, Darvin Ham, obviously Charles Lee, who we mentioned, is now in Boston. And so they have had, there's never been a coaching issue, unless you want to say like the coaching in the postseason where Bud has taken his lump.

But in terms of like the culture and the bench, those coaches and their togetherness and how much they have been a strong point for that organization to then like get rid of Budenhouser and then there be like a cuss out fight. I mean, like, it's probably got to be like, what the hell? Like, we didn't know, we didn't know how, you know, Sympatico everybody was until something like this happens. It's just weird. I've never, honestly, like I, I haven't heard of that with like somebody like Terry

Stad, so. Terry Sott's a long time NBA head coach. Yeah, and highly, highly respected as, you know, kind of a person, too, like manager of people and kind of channel. Well, highly respected by Dane. Yeah, by Dane as well. Yeah, the guy that they invested a fortune into. Well, and this is what would concern me, and we'll end on this.

You know they begged his ass. To say, man. Yes. Don't do this. It's the last thing you want to do right now. Like, none of us need this. And like, hey, everybody's heated right now. Everybody's hot right now.

You know that John Horst called him. You know that everybody in that organization. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't just like, so yes, something like this. could have set it off, but that's obviously been stewing for a long time. And if it gets to the point where it got, the guy literally quit. I know. He said,

I don't need this shit. Walked out. Pretty quickly after it happened, too. And this season's about to start. I know. Yeah, it happened Tuesday.

Right. I don't need this. Mm-hmm. And you know they all call like, hey, hey, hey, hey,

everybody just, calm down. Except for maybe Adrian Griffin. Maybe he didn't call. Well, no. Well, I saw the quote that they've got up on the ESPN.com story, and it is hilarious. In, you know, in conjunction with what you have told me you have heard took place at that thing. Oh, yeah. That's the reason he walked away.

You'll have to ask Terry. No, that's not even, no, no, no. Which one? No, the news story that they have on this. Here you go. I'm going to find it for you. it's uh here it is uh terry stott steps down as assistant coach and then it doesn't really give a reason and then it goes on and it it says adrian griffin it caught all of us off guard of course but again

you just support him he was a terrific guy i learned a lot from him in a very short time he was really good at what he does he made a decision a personal decision and we just have to respect that so strange so strange man It caught us all off guard. I mean, he was a terrific guy. Like, what? It's so strange. Right before the season is about to start.

It's a scary star for the buck season. You get Chris Middleton, who's, you know, we'll see with his health. You got a new rookie head coach. You don't have a lot of wing depth. We'll see how it looks. We'll see. We are never in a lack for drama when it comes to the NBA. That's for sure.

Another dramatic moment. moment was James Harden not showing up to anything after their last spring season game. Then the report that he was in Houston. Then a follow-up report saying he's away from the team for personal reasons. There's a party. Probably. That's personal. It's personal.

It's personal. It's personal. Yeah. So he's away from the team for personal reasons. We had just talked about how like, hey, those last quotes seemed like, hey, I don't like Darry I'm never going to like Darry we're never going to have a relationship again

but I'm going to play basketball like that's where we were left the last time we recorded and now here we are again and then Ramona Shelburne said on ESPN how this is only the beginning of what he has planned I don't know what to expect

maybe this is his tactics his tactics this time where it's like you don't know what's coming I'm not just wearing the fat suit I'm not going to be bad every day I'm going to have some good days, some bad days. You're never going to know what I'm going to be there. Everything's going to be unexpected.

Dice are all. Just keeping everybody on their toes. Maybe that's what it will be this time. Look, it would not surprise me if Sunday we're watching NFL games and there's a plane flying a Daryl Morey as a liar, you know, behind it. And the Philadelphia Eagles game. Who did that? I wonder.

But he's not even like, he just laughed. And then it's not a, like again, much like we talked about the Bucks thing, now Terry Stons will leave and hopefully they can just like, you know, get their season underway. But like, how do you even go about planning for like what your season's going to be like? Your rotation's going to be like, like Nick Nurse, you want to talk about, I cannot imagine the conversations he's having with his buddies at night. my goodness, I know. I mean, what the hell, man?

Like, could we not get this solved before the season? Because now, look, now what? Like, it's almost, that is sabotaging things before the season even begins for you to like, all right, I'm here, and I'm to practice, and I'm going to play basketball. And, oh, you know what? Actually, I'm not. I'm going to leave. You know what I mean?

And they can't get a hold of him. He's gone. You think is the move just to send him away and just play without him and just at some point the clippers decide, okay, yeah, we'll give you Terrence man. We'll give you Terrence man. He's actually not untouchable. We will give him up. He plays 23 minutes per game for us.

We underutilize him. You guys can get the best use of them. I don't know. I don't know. But I know that, like, from the time that you and I spoke about this to, now when we're speaking about it again, it went from hey, I hate Darryoramori, but I'm still

playing basketball, and I'm in great shape, and like Pat Bev's talking him up and Joe L.M. Bid's talking him up and all this stuff. And then the next report he kid is he's not showing up to practices and nobody even knows where he is. What a mess. What a mess man.

What is going on? I know. The clubbers should just give up man and the pick and the swap and just get it over with. unless as I said last week to you, Chris, or earlier this week, whenever it was, unless the clippers actually don't want to go all in. And then they think there's a chance that they end up trading their guys.

Well, I think there's probably this feeling of who are we bidding against? Yeah, there is that feeling. But at the same time, like, Terrence Mann plays 22, 23 minutes per game for you. It's not like he's a 30 plus minute per game key role player with the way Ty Loo uses him. Even though he plays a lot of nights,

he doesn't play a lot of minutes. So I get it. I really like Terrence Mann. If I'm the Sixers, I need Terrence Mann in the deal because I think he's a perfect fit next to Tyrese Maxie. He's a perfect fit for the way Nick Nurse wants to play.

He works with Joe Al-Labeed. He can be a cutter, spot-up shooter. He's a good defender. Like, Terrence Man's a really good role player. He should play more than 23 minutes per game for the Clippers, in my opinion. I've said that for a long time.

Okay, but how about on the other side? How about that on the other side? Like, because I know you were all on the, with the Ben Simmons, you're always on the, just be patient, just be patient, just be patient. I am with Howard of this well. Yeah, but why wouldn't you just say, hey, get rid of this distraction. Like, start the season fresh and a new and if you, if you give him up for not as much, not everything that you wanted to get in return, at least it saves the first.

This is already a mess. It's already a mess and you're not getting to start new with a new coach and a new whatever. I need something to value. Hardin, as much as he's declined from being a top five to ten player, he's still a top 30-ish player in the NBA. Do you think he's going to do anything to increase his value at this point, though? No, but I think what could increase value is the Clippers level of desperation or the Clippers level of belief that they can actually win a championship.

One of those two things. I don't know. The only thing that bailed Daryl out on the Simmons thing was that James Hardin quit. The thing is, this is different, though, in the sense that if you can only, if you only get like Robert Covington and Morris and one future pick from the Clippers, that doesn't increase your chances of winning a championship. If you can end up getting Terrence Mann, who's a really high-level role player and the picks and even maybe a little bit more, if you wait, that becomes worth it. Because if you just lose Hardin for nothing, because he just sits out the whole year and walks him, agency versus getting just that small amount from the clippers. Both of those are losses for the Sixers, in my opinion.

Getting Terrence, man, I'm super high on him with what he can be. I think he's underutilized with the Clippers. If I'm the Clippers, I would want to keep Terrence, man, and I would want to play him more than I do. What if he actively sabotages your season? I mean, if he sabotages your season versus just is gone the whole season, the result is the same. You lose, and Joelle and Beade's unhappy. It doesn't make a difference.

So you think his value is going up if you got to get him away? No, I'm saying the Clippers level of either desperation or belief in themselves increases. One of those two things could happen. No, I'm talking about on the Philly side. I'm talking about on the Philly side. If he starts sabotage, he already is. Yeah, I know. But if he's leaving.

You just send him away at that point. You're never getting what you want if you send him away. No. How does that give you any leverage? You may never anyway. You have the leverage because you still have him on your roster and he's under your control. And if somebody else wants him, they have to pay the price that it takes. And like maybe that ends up not working.

What I'm taking is that price is going down every day. It might. It might go down. There's a chance that goes down. I'm just saying the price where it is now is an L. It's a loss. And I don't think it helps your chance of winning a championship. So losing more doesn't bother me if I'm the Sixers.

If the price drops even more, it doesn't make a difference. odds are if I'm Darrell Mori, I'm losing my job. If I lose my job if I take this off for now, I lose my job if I wait and I get less for James Hardin. That's the way I feel if I'm the Sixers right now. If I wait, at least there's an opportunity to get more. That's my perspective when I assess the James Hardin situation. Now, different than Simmons,

but similar in terms of my viewpoint of they should be patient. Does Darrell have anybody else that would quit on his team in order to get traded? Maybe Hardin's BFF, PJ Tucker. Can't imagine that. Tucker just says, I'm going to go to Houston too. Go clubbing. The NBA season is back and you can get in on all the buzzer beaters, ankle breakers, and Tomahawk jams with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook.

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the last episode of the mismatch I was effusive in my praise for Calvin Booth and I said oh my God how refreshing that this guy is just so open and honest that a day and age where everybody wants to act like they got state secrets and their secret sauce and everything else. Here's a guy that was willing to sit down with you.

I came away loving Calvin Booth thinking like, man, here's a guy that's actually willing to talk and to say like, hey, here's how we identify players and here's my real opinions on these things. the same way that you would talk to anyone when you're not attempting to, you know, do the Adrian Griffin speech tonight. Terest, it's a terrific guy and we don't know why he laughed. It caught us all by surprise, you know. In a world full of bullshit, this guy was refreshing. And then he went to a podium and acted like he didn't mean to say that stuff to you in order to be. printed. And I'm like, I know Kevin very well. Kevin has no previous relationship with Calvin Booth that I know of. So you've got a guy who's a journalist sitting down with you with a recorder and a notepad with no expectation that what you say is going to be printed somewhere.

I was baffled when Calvin Booth was asked to give his response and he acted like he never said he didn't say this stuff, which was the funniest part, or that he was taken out of context. He basically made it sound like you wrote an article that wasn't meant to be public. So explain yourself. So on Monday, which was the day the article published, Calvin Booth called. me. And he said to me that the next time he's profiled for a story, he's going to have to be more careful with his words that he uses. He wasn't happy with everything that I quoted, which was on the record, by the way, but we talked for eight to ten minutes or so. And we talked about how unfortunately certain things can be taken out of context on social media, including that

Porter Jr. Bones quote that he had, which was admittedly a little bit spicy. But, I mean, ultimately, in the context of the story, not that big of a deal, considering the top of the of overlap we had. So we talked a bit about that. We hung up cordially, I felt like. I thought it was a productive call and figured it was over. And then ESPN interviewed him and they talked to him, asked them to clarify that comment as you'd expect them to do when they have the GM on.

And I felt like he could have told the total truth, which was that it was a wide-ranging conversation about team-building philosophy that he wished that he framed certain comments differently in the interview, that MPJ has made dramatic improvements on defense, that being a me player actually isn't a negative, but a positive trait within the team concept, that a team just can't have too much of the same thing, which is, again, the conversation.

I thought he could have been just as thoughtful and just as informative with that ESPN interview as he was in our actual discussion and as written about in the article. And that's not what happened. That's okay. I remain very impressed by him as a journal manager and the decisions that he's made.

I remain happy with the story. Hold on. I got to take a 20 second time. So he didn't yell at you or say, hey, man, that was not supposed to be on the record. I mean, I think he definitely wasn't happy with the story. Of course. But ultimately. No, he wasn't happy with blowback.

He wasn't happy with the fact that he had a deal with blowback on social. Right. And like people take, like reading the tweets that are just clipped out and thinking, hey, what's this about? Totally fair. And I think that's what he was unhappy about. But ultimately, 98% of that story, which, like, what I pitched to the Nuggets back in July was, hey, like, I noticed the Nuggets were drafting a bunch of older rookies. This year, they drafted three upperclassmen. Last year, they drafted Christian Brown. I'd love to do a story on kind of this trend with drafting older guys. Could I speak with them? I'm going to be in Denver in August. I'd love to make it a work trip, too. Could I speak with them in August? Could I possibly? we get some time with Kelvin Booth, and they said, sure, it sounds like a good story. When I got there in Denver, they're like, we think Calvin would be like really good, you know, featured in this because his perspective ties in exactly to your idea. What a disaster.

I'm kidding. I was prep for like, you know, for just for Calvin, I got to talk to their assistant GM who was brilliant as well. like they have a really smart front office and I felt like 95% of the story like was all like I mean 99% of the story I felt like it was a glowing phrase about Denver as it should be because like look at their rookies right now straw there looks awesome hunter Tyson looks really good we love jalen picket and Kevin Kevin Christian Brown anybody go back to the episode that we recorded earlier this week I loved Calvin Booth because of the article I mean, I think, I don't know. Yeah. It's because of social media. That's what it is. I'm not kidding. I really, I really think that's what is rooted in.

And it's just strange to be because like, everybody who I got feedback from was like, oh my God. Yeah. Kelvin Booth is so smart. Like I learned some things and I'm thinking about my team now. Like people like in the league, but people like also who are fans and teams like, oh my God. I'm thinking about our roster in the future. I mean, people like really liked. Calvin Boots. It's just so weird. And then like once that those like the MPJ quote,

I don't get why the MPJ quote, when I decided, okay, this quote will go on in the story, not even for a second did I think MPJ or like anybody would take that as a shot at MPJ. Not for a second. I thought maybe Bones Highland, yeah, maybe there's a chance the Bones aspect. Yeah, so Bones you got to go. Yeah, maybe that part, but not even for a second that I think it would bother MPJ or make Nuggets fans think like anything about MPJ. I didn't even mention it. I did mention that Bones wouldn't like it. Yeah, I don't think you did, right?

Yeah. I'm sure he didn't. But, I mean, I didn't mention Michael Porter Jr. I mean, I mentioned that quote. I thought it was a compliment. He was like, he, like, he said he's one of the best shooters in basketball. He makes $30 million. And then in the context.

I'm writing about how he's gotten way better at defense and rebounding. And he made himself an important player. I just, I felt I was shocked. I just feel like anybody reasonable who read that article came away, feeling like the Nuggets are in great shape with Calvin Booth as their GM replacing a really good GM and Tim Conley. Sometimes you downgrade. Calvin Booth is at least an equal level talent evaluator, maybe even better.

And that was, I think anybody reasonable read that story coming away from that felt that way. So, I mean, ultimately, I mean, with Calvin, like, look, I still like the guy. I do too. Me too. It was lame as hell to try to throw you under the bus because he didn't like his, he didn't say, I didn't say this stuff. That's the funniest part to me. Like, the mode of operation is always to say, I didn't say this stuff, rather than say, yeah, I said all that, but I didn't want you to know.

Well, but that's why, but that's why, like I said, I felt like he could. of with that at response has been as smart and as really just like thoughtful as I felt like he was in the interview with me and as as he wasn't the story. So ultimately like I still like Helen Booth, you know, he had to do what he had to do. It's totally okay. It's in the past for me. And I just want to address that. And yeah, I think the Nuggets are going to have a very good season with those rookies as I wrote about. All right. it is that time of year for our semi-bold predictions for the upcoming NBA season.

Now, the reason we call them semi-bold is because what happens is people make bold predictions. And I feel like the trap that we would even get into is when you try to make some kind of super bold prediction, then it's like usually something that's probably outlandish, probably not going to hit. And then if it does come true, then you can say, hey, I called it. But, like, instead we want to make predictions that are semi-bold that we at least believe have a chance of happening. Therefore, they are semi-bolt. Yes.

Right? They're probably, you know, maybe they're not 50-50 chance happening. It's lower than 50-50, but it could happen. And therefore, they are semi-bold. Do you want to start or do you want me to? Now, we have not talked about this. No, we have not. praying there's not overlap and I'm going to guess there's probably not because mine are great and yours are going to be lame.

I'll start. I want to start. Since we've already covered the nuggets a lot. One of them would have been the Nuggets rookie, like they're not going to miss Bruce Brough. We talked about that. Are you quoting Calvin Boone? Is that a direct quote? Did he mean for you to be responsible?

We talked about it throughout the off season. We braved about Jaylon Pickett. Listeners of this show, if you have it, listen, the TLDR is, we love the Nuggets Rookies. I think they're going to be fine with Oprah's Brown. I will start instead with a negative one, okay? Oh, no. All right.

The Kings and their fans are going to realize this season with DeMontos Sabonis as their starting center, they can't contend for a championship. Sabonis, he's not good enough defensively. he hasn't proven that he can space the floor on offense. His passing and screening fill a very, very vital role on that team. His post-ups fill a vital role. But in no way do I feel like he is a special playmaker or like a special post-presence.

I just think with Subonis, he needs help in that front court, a guy who can protect the rim and space the floor, which is very hard to find. Or he himself needs to become the guy who can space the floor. But ultimately, I haven't seen enough to feel like that's going to end up happening. I think the result will end up being the same as last year where he's exposed in the playoffs. Wow. Look, I do think this. I think it's going to be very hard for them to be near the capabilities that they were last year.

They had insane health from their starters, guys playing over 70-something games. So the continuity was great. Mike Brown changing everything. So it's kind of the first time through everybody seeing this new look. and I think did take a lot of people by surprise for a good portion of the season, being as good as they were. The other thing is Fox, who you know I've always loved, I mean, he's a Jerry West Award winner. He was the most clutch player in the league. The stats were freakish.

So it's like, man, that is hard to maintain, right? Like winning all those games because there's a guy who's a supernova every single night. And so they just had insane health. and they had that whole shock the world, you know, like the beam. It was the best story of last year, for sure, for sure. It was the best story. But, man, that was the long odds on Fanduil for Kevin cramping on someone to be his first semi-bowl prediction. All right.

Well, last year, one of my semi-bowl predictions was first coach fired will be Steve Nash. or was that two years ago? Two years ago? That was last year, right? Steve Nash. I mean, the years blunt together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last year.

It was Steve Nash. And it actually hit. Because, look, I always look for someone who expects to be good and then they underwhelm and so they blame the coach first. That's the first guy. So the coach goes first and then the players go second, right? That's the way it works. And so.

Oh, no. Yeah, it was October 27. That was like a week into the season, just to give context for the listeners. Last year. Yeah, yeah, last year, October 27th. Okay, this won't be that quick. Yeah, yeah. All right, this will not be that quick.

I got, I got, I got my guess for who it is. Who is it? It's Jason Kidd. Oh, Jason Kidd. Wow. Yep, they'll blame him first. Wow. And then, much like Steve Nash, he's having to coach Curry Irving.

And so they'll blame him first. because that's the easy thing to do. And then it'll get to the point where they've got to move Kyrie. Because they have nothing else that they can trade for anything. You think the Mavs implode pretty much. Well, they just can't trade anything for. He's the only asset you have. But who's going to trade for Kyrie?

So the first thing you have to do. Miami? You think Miami? I don't know. That'd be interesting. I don't know. Spray and prey. But that's what I think.

I think that they'll underwhelm and they'll blame the coach first. and then the next thing is the players. And then the players get playing, right? When you realize it's not the coach's fault. And so that just feels like one of those. If I'm right about Dallas and I don't think they're going to be good, they're not going to put up with, like they're going to be, especially, you know, you'll start to feel the pressure on the Luca front.

And so the first thing will be get a new coach, change that all up. and then you'll have a little honeymoon possibly with that, you know, right? Because it'll probably be somebody the polar opposite of Jason Kidd that's easier, you know, whatever, like a good personality-wise or whatever. They do have some options on that bench. Like Sean Sweeney's been a longtime head coach,

Jared Dudley, former player on that bench as well. I'm probably forgetting some people off the top of my head. But like those two come straight to mind. is guys that I could see them going with. How about God Sham God? They got Sham God on their bench show. That would be amazing. That would be so cool.

Coach Shamgod. Do you know this? I probably have something extremely rare. When I went to the 1995 McDonald's All-American game and I went down afterwards and I got autographs from guys, right? And that way,

it was one of the greatest McDonald's All-American games ever. Vince Carter was in it, Antoine Jameson. Jameson was in it. Kevin Garnett was in it. All kinds of guys. Stefan Marbury, Ron Mercer. It was loaded. One of the best classes ever.

And I have the program still. And I have like three autographs in there. One of which is Paul Pierce. Another one, Sham God Wells. Oh, wow. That was his name in high school. So I have a Sham God Wells autograph. Wow.

And then he changed his name. So there can't be many Sham God Well's autographs. Anyway, yeah. So that would be my semi-bolt. I'm not saying it's going to happen. Just saying it could. Because I always try to find the team that isn't good, that thought it was going to be good,

and has a coach they could get rid of. There you go. I like it. I thought you were going to say Billy Donovan from the Bulls. That was what I was what I was saying. It's not his fault. Well, that's literally what I, Literally what I have written.

Oh, that might be. No, but listen, Chris, this is what I have written. I have Billy Donovan will be fired. It won't be his fault. The Bulls will have another boring season stuck in the middle. And he's just going to be blamed from them being stuck in the middle. Oh, P.S. Like, we're on the same page.

No, and you're right. And that does follow my, that does follow my theory of coach goes first, then the players go after that. Because there are people that have said the bulls will just blow it all up. Yeah. Right. But you might be right. Whereas they obviously committed to this.

So there's somebody there that likes this roster. Otherwise you would have attempted to overhaul this roster and thinks this roster can win if they're all healthy. I actually think that it's more likely the Mabbs underwhelmed than the Bulls do. Considering expectations, considering expectations, I think that's fair, which is why that's a good one. So you had, you had Billy Donovan as one of yours? No, I wasn't going to say that one. I just had a written down on my long list in case, you know, we have overlap. My second one, Leonard Miller will be such a draft steal for the Timberwolves that they will determine that it's time to trade.

Carl Anthony Towns. Leonard Miller. Yeah, he looked really, really good in preseason. I know it's just preseason, but he looked, let's go back in time with Leonard Miller. His last 10, 12 games of the G League season, something clicked with his jumper. He became a knockdown guy. I was told from people around the Ignite that he was changing his mechanics all year long, and then it just clicked.

That carried over to Summer League. It's carried over to preseason. He's shooting the heck out of it. He looks like a perfect. fit in a front court next to either Rudy Gobert or Nasreed. Leonard Miller, to me, is a guy that, like, he's just going to be so good. It's like, we're going to get this guy more minutes. Let's trade cat to the Knicks.

So I think Leonard Miller is a draft steal, second round pick, 30 third pick in the draft. And I expect that he's going to be so good that Minnesota is going to have no choice but to say, you know what, let's build a defense. That good now? Yeah, as a rookie. Yeah. I think he's really good. You're going to replace a guy that has,

that averages 25 and 10 with a 33rd pick in the NBA draft. No, but you're not just doing that. You'd be getting back. Like, let's just say it's the Knicks. Let's just say you deal with the Knicks. Maybe you get RJ back. Maybe you don't. Maybe you get a manual quickly and you get a piece like a Mitchell Robinson

who you flip elsewhere. Maybe it's something like that type of configuration. You don't just get the 33rd pick in the draft, Leonard Miller as a rookie, you get whatever you get for Carl Anthony Towns. So, like, even though Gobert Towns looked fine in the preseason together, I don't, I still don't think that those two together is long term. Yeah, I just don't think it's long term. You get McDaniels contract coming up next summer.

You get a rookie in Leonard Miller. You get other big money contracts coming up. But I just don't think you can keep all those guys. And I love McDaniels. I think you've got to keep him. He's one of the best defenders in all of basketball. He's ascending every single year off. offensively. And now you get Leonard Miller, who's a versatile defender who can handle the ball,

who can space the floor, who's an awesome rebounder, who can play as a small ball, five, who can play as a four. Leonard Miller, he looks legit, man. He's looked legit since late in that G-League season. And before that, I wasn't the biggest fan of him, but something did shift at him this past year in a lot of different ways, and it clicked at the end of the year. And it's just, it's been consistent ever since. End of the season, summer league, preseason now. If it carries over the regular season. If I'm the wolves, at some point you get to say,

hey, are we better without Kat with considering what we could get from him from like, say, the Knicks or some other mystery team. My second one, you know what?

I'll go in line with you as a transaction because I was looking around the league and I was like, hmm, who do I think that a lot of people are not talking about

necessarily being, you know, we always have the same trade targets. Hell, we talked about Bradley Beale for eight years. I got one for you. Semi bold prediction.

DeJante Murray gets traded. Oh. So hear me out on this. A lot of people are very high on the Hawks, and I think for reasonable reason, and that is because they've got Quinn Snyder now. They moved off of John Collins. They'll now have a whole year under him.

Quinn Snyder did a very good job in Utah, whatever. Here's where I stand on this. DeJante Murray, for those that don't know, has one of the best, most unbelievably great contracts in the NBA, given what he is as a player. He signed a four-year, $64 million contract. So this last year, he's getting $17 million. And this is the last year of the deal. So when I'm looking around through all the rosters and I'm looking through and I'm going, okay, hey, you ain't losing him for nothing.

And you can't resign him to what he's going to cost in the offseason. It makes no sense to spend that kind of fortune and have that be what you spend the money on if you're dedicating, you know, if you're a Tray Young franchise. Like that's not the best utilization of that money. So now I'm in a pickle, right? Because it's like, it's the last year of the deal. He's, you know, now we're getting into the off season and we're not going to re-up with him and sign him for the whatever, $30 million a year, whatever he's going to cost. when it comes time. So now I am going to utilize that, which is an unbelievable asset to somebody that thinks they can resign him, wants to resign him in the offseason, and I'm able to get

assets back and build out even more out around what I've got. I've also got DeAndre Hunter, who knows what they want to do with him. But like when I'm looking at my team and I'm looking at my books going forward, one of the things is Landry Fields and Kyle Corver and Quinn Snyder, now they've got this kind of like triumphant of management there, and they'll like remake the roster on the run, but they're going to remake the roster in their image and what they want in different spots. And I just don't think that having those two guards is going to be the best utilization of money in the future.

Therefore, that becomes an unbelievable trade piece in order to really bolster your team. I think your team can become much, much better. And it becomes a better deal for Dejante, too, because now he lands somewhere where he can sign his long-term deal in the off-season more than likely. I think you could be on to something there with Dejante being the trade piece for the Hawks. My only question in response to that would be who, like, who would want them exactly? I wonder, like, what's the team that needs a guard that be willing to give up something that the Hawks? could really use more than him next to Trey Young. I think that's where I have my hesitations with the Jevanté trade.

I haven't gone through 29 other teams and what would be the possibilities, but I do think, and especially you got to remember as this. How about New Orleans, someone like that maybe? New Orleans. Well, look, as the season goes on also, you could lose your guy. Injuries happen, yep. How about Minnesota? I mentioned Cat.

They could use their successor to Mike Conley. DeJante is a better player than Mike Conley right now. Conley becomes your backup. What if it's Minnesota? What if it's Cat for DeJante? What about Miami? Miami is a good one too. A very good one.

DeJante would be a very, very interesting acquisition for the heat. Granted, it's... Lost gay Benson. The offseason. Granted, like within the same conference is always tough. but that's an interesting. Lost gay Vincent, you know,

good little pairing with Tyler Hero. If you've got a guard that's busting your ass, you've got a good defensive one that you could throw on them, right? It's kind of the same parallel that they have in Atlanta. What about the Clippers? He could take the guy. Clippers end up, they don't get it,

they don't get hardened. They go for Dejante Murray with those picks and Terrence Mann, something like that and the role players. Toronto? The Toronto is interesting. If they decide not to blow it up, Yeah, there's teams. There's teams, yeah.

Right. Hey, we might actually find something that Andanobi would be traded for. Yeah. Yeah, really. Yeah, seriously. That actually might make some sense. Right. I just think that, you know, it's not the best fit.

It's not the ideal fit to spend the money going forward when, and so that way you've got this unbelievable trade piece. So, yeah, there's my second one. What's your third one? All right. I got one in reference to the NBA rankings, the ringers top 100 NBA rankings, voted on by Bill Simmons, Rob Mahoney, Michael Pina, Chris Ryan, and Justin Barryer this year. They did their top 100. It's beautifully designed guide with their top 100 players. This relates to their rankings, but it's about the NBA, of course, because this is our semi-boldt predictions.

The 62nd ranked player and the 85th ranked player will be the biggest, risers on the NBA rankings this year. Those players are at 85, Devin Vassell from the San Antonio Spurs, and at number 62, mismatch favorite from the Orlando Magic, Franz Wagner. Those two guys will be the biggest risers in the NBA this year. People watching the Spurs this year because of Wembe are finally going to realize the player that Devin Vassell is on both ends of the floor, one of the most efficient mid-range shooters in basketball, one of the most efficient players coming off of screens. He is wrecked in preseason this year.

I think he's only going to get better with Wembe as the year progresses. And then Franz Wagner, I mean, the dude is like going to be great this year, I think. This is the year he moves into the top 40 in the NBA rankings on the ringer. Close to the top 20. He's on his way. Franz Wagner, he's a do-it-all guy. He had his big summer at the People World Cup. It's carried over to preseason.

He looks like a guy that after shooting 80% plus from the free throw line for years now. I think the three-pointer has finally began to click, and that's going to open up everything on the court for him on offense. Franz Wagner, Devin Wessel, the biggest risers this year, and two true contenders for most improved player of the year. Oh, then you're going to love my number three. Semi-bold prediction.

Killeh Hayes is good. Is that what it is? That would be the most bold prediction. I mean, he's been good in preseason and Monty Williams loves him. Oh, boy. Just give me some hope, man. Well, give this to me.

I pray every night that Killian Hayes is good. Number three. Yeah, that should be for the bold, the extremely bold prediction show. This is semi-bold. The Orlando Magic are a playoff team. Whoa! Let's go!

Chris Vernon, let's go. They're a playoff team. So look, I think if we write it down, the reason this is semi-bold is because bucks, Celtics, Philly, Cavs, Atlanta, the Knicks, the Heat. That's seven. That's a lot. Unless somebody drops out, right? And so you've got this mix, and people are going to have different opinions on this. Pacers, Bulls, nets, raptors, magic.

Kind of all in that same pile. So somebody's going to emerge. I say it is Orlando. I love the Franz, Paulo, and you know, you know I love the other guy who never gets mentioned,

but that whole front court, I love Wendell Carter, too. Wendell Carter, he's so underrated. He's so underrated. And that front court every night gives you an advantage, and they figured out the guard crap last year.

Now, it gets a little dicey because now they got a little more to figure out, but I'm trusting, that that shakes itself out, right? They got the Fault Suggs thing. They got some pieces where I would flip some of it to go get something else. I would go try to get me some shooting, honestly. That's what I try to get.

But in between Fultz and Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs and Anthony, and Anthony Black, who they just used the top 10 pick on and the guys they've got, they've got a couple, like, they got some veterans around there. They got like Gary Harris hanging around. They got Joe Ingalls that's hanging around. So they got some veteran guys there. Who knows if we'll ever get something out of Jonathan Isaac in Orlando, but he's at least been around.

He's participating in the preseason. And so I just think one of these are going to emerge. I think every night you go into a game. I think both Franz and Paulo both got that international experience, which will serve them very well. and like I told you, I love Carter too. I just think when you've got Franz Paolo and Wendell Carter,

you are really going in with an advantage most nights in the NBA. And now those guys, Franz has been through it twice. Paolo's been through it once. And Wendell Carter's now walking into vet territory, right? Because he was the same dress class as Luca and Trey and all those guys. And so. Marvin Bagley.

Yeah, you just figure out the car. thing. You figure out the guard thing, which they did last year. You know, I heard I heard Steve Seruti saying, you know, I know he's a huge Orlando fan,

but I mean, the way they started that season was like, beyond miserable, like two and 20 or whatever the hell. It was ridiculous, right? They went like 500 the rest of the way. And I just think you got young talent like that. And I love those three front court guys

playing together. Yeah, I think And I think they've got some juice to be able to go get them a shooter from somewhere, right? And maybe augment this team a little bit. But I think they take their first big step ahead, is what I'll say. I like it. And then they end up in the playoffs.

And they become like kind of everybody's sneaky new favorite because they're the new thing. It didn't really happen like it should have last year. I like it very much. that's a good one makes me happy actually chris i mean you made my night he really did never i never would i i never would have i never would have anticipated that okay franz wagner soon to be top 30ish 40ish 40ish player on the NBA rankings magic the best player on that team is paula i don't know about that it's either you know there it's franz you'll see you'll see you'll see you'll see baby it's got to be

Paulo's got a chance to be one of the best 10 players in the league. And Franz has a chance to be one of the 20 best. Well, that's not 10. We'll see. Let's see, which one I want to go with here? Let's go with this one. You're not going to expect this one out of me. Yusuf Nurkich proves to be a better fit for the suns than be Andre Aiton.

Oh, my God. You didn't see that one. come after all my, after all my NERC chate over the years, did you? That is stupid. What is it stupid? Okay, all right. All right. Okay. All right.

Stop. This is, this is, this is it. These are supposed to be semi-bold predictions. That's semi-s stupid predictions. This is terrible. All right. Here's why. What are we doing?

Here's why. What are we doing? here's why. If anybody's watched the suns during the preseason, the way in which Frank Vogel is using his big, Chris's head is just down looking at the table right now. Can't even see his eyes. He's just sad and disappointed.

This is disappointing. Why is it disappointing? Nirkich and I have had our history. He doesn't like me very much. He hates my guts. He hates your guts. And here's my point. This is really my point.

more about Vogel's offense than it is about Nerkich. Because it's also about UBanks. It's about all of their bigs. The way in which they're using their bigs in the middle of their offense is really been interesting to watch because this system with Durant and Beal and Booker, it hasn't just been like ISO, ISO, your turn, my turn. They're whipping the ball around. They're giving the ball to the center in the middle of the floor against a rotating defense and allowing that guy to make plays off the dribble, kickout passes to shooters, to cutters, there's movement within this Sun's system. And Aitin's processing speed as a player isn't at that level when it comes to passing the ball. And so that's why I'm saying what I'm saying here, because I don't think

that it matters as much defensively with Aiton's advantages clearly over Nerkich, especially during the regular season. But offensively, I think Nerkich, Eubanks, these bigs that they have in their rotation, the options that they have, it's kind of connective glue for the best players on the team, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beale. That's the reasoning behind me saying

my semi-boldt prediction that Nirkich is a better fit for the Suns than Aitn. I believe that after watching them preseason. We'll see how it develops over the course of the season, but I am very impressed with what Vogel's building offensively with those guys because it's not stagnant. It actually looks really, really efficient earlier on in the year, more so than I ever personally would have anticipated.

52, 56, 37, 8. Those are the last four years game played for Nusef Nurkic. The first four years of his career. I never, I never said. 32, 32, 45, 20. like he's played he's played over 60 games twice in like the last 10 years.

I never said that he was stay healthy. All I said that he's a better fit. And I just literally... They've got three guys that take all the shots. You would be a better fit. You'd somebody can run up at that. The only thing DeAndre Ait needed to do was be a role player.

And that's what he doesn't want to do. But come on. I think any Suns fan who's watched those games in preseason would agree with me. That's what I'll say. They didn't see him with Brad Beale and Durant and Booker. It's just the system over. I mean, he's played three games. He's played with different guys in those three games.

He had a game with all three. I guess the Pistons. I think that was their first or second preseason game. No, no, I'm talking about Aiton. I didn't see Aiton with those guys. Yeah, no, but we've seen Aiton for years. we've seen him for years. He's just,

the passing ability's not. I mean, they did go to the NBA finals, like that was a different version of Aeton. What is it? Dominating. Dominating, yeah. You know what he says?

Yeah. I hope he can find that. I hope he can find that version of himself again in Portland. I really do. But for the Sun specifically, I just think the guys that they have, Eubanks and Nerkich, even like,

Uzabuke. I mean, like, he's an interesting guy that had some good moments for the jazz the last couple of years. They just have different, they have different flavors of bigs that they can put there. That trade sucked. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Well, look, you can have anybody playing center and they're going to score like hell. We'll see. They got three of the best scorers in the world. We'll see. They got Nasir Little on that as well. We could, I mean, like, look, Chris, I said to you at the time of the, trade. This is a signal that these guys are innings eaters over the course of the season. They're bangers in the postseason, but with all the forwards that they have, you're going to see them

play Kevin Arenda at the five in the postseason. I said that at the time of the trade, I would still say that today, all I'm saying is that because of that reason of what they plan to do in the postseason with Katie Moore at the five, because of the way they're playing offensively, with the center being kind of this connective glue whipping the ball around the floor out of a shot. Out of short role as a good screener, Nerkish is a better fit for what they are building based off the preseason. I would not have said that prior

to the preseason. I would have said it's a downgrade, but you know what? I guess they just had to get rid of a guy that the star players didn't want. But now after preseason, I'm going to say that based off their offensive system that he's a better fit. All right.

We'll see if it continues. We shall see, baby. We shall see. Number four, here's my home or picked. Okay. And you love him too. This is just Simi Bowl. But Desmond Bain becomes an NBA All-Star thing. I like it. I like it. It's always going to be very difficult when Morant and Jackson are there and especially if they continue to make all-star teams. But for this year, the first 25 games of the season, you are going to, there's no John Morant in Memphis. And Bain last year averaged almost 22 points a game, five rebounds, four assists, and he played

58 games. And after he, but before he hurt his foot, he was averaging like 25, 26 a game. I mean, it was crazy. And then he heard his foot. And then he played out the rest of the season with the bum foot. The week after the season ended, he went and got surgery on the foot. And so he did everything he did last year while. on the like he had this like uh he had this thing that like this kind of they had to make like special

insoles for the shoe and everything until and then he played it out played through the playoffs and then he went in the off season first thing and got it fixed um his foot issue and so now he is back for this year and he's going to be carrying the load on what's going to be a really good team and i think especially now that he's gotten the 200 million dollar contract The other thing is the All-Star games in his hometown this year. He's from Indiana. So it would be nothing better for him than to make the All-Star team right in the year that it's in Indianapolis. But I do think that this is the year that he, everybody starts to know who he is.

Because in the absence of Morant, he's going to be the guy that's going to be closing games. He's going to be the guy that's going to be carrying the load. And I bet his point totals get pretty freaky on a lot of nights. This won't be one of my semi-bold predictions, but it was on my long list. This is the year that the Grizzlies make their big trade, that they cash in some draft picks. And I think one of the reasons why is precisely what you're saying, that Desmond Bain gets even better. Like John Morant comes back and he continues to be Jha.

Jaron Jackson, Jr., hopefully continues progressing. They have good young role players. it just seems like that this could be the year that Zach Kleinman, their general manager, cashes in some assets or consolidates for an upgrade, whether it's an OG and it will be, you know, one year later type of thing or somebody else out there on the market. I think this is the year that the Grizzly see an opening and they're like, okay, now is our time to go for it. It wasn't last year.

Now's the moment. I think a big part of that will be Desmond Bing, because you're spot on about him, man. Like I've said for quite some time now, like I think it was during the 21st, 22 season when he was averaging under 30 minutes per game and like 14 15 shots per game. I was like, dude, this guy, he should be getting 18, 19 shots per game. He moved a lot closer last season. He did, especially early on before the injury, like you said. And if his usage in the early part of the season without Jha is anything like it's been in preseason, he could, he's the guy. Yeah, he could push 30 points for a game early in the season. He has looked unbelievable in the

prece. Just like he did prior to the foot injury last year. It's like not new. It's a continuation of what was. I think Desmond Bain is going to be one of those guys where people are like, oh my God, he is special. What a leap he's taken. Where did this come from when really it's, it's an upward trajectory. It's happened every year for him. He gets better and better and better. And he's also, yeah, like you say, it's going to be a usage tick up. And his usage is, his percentages don't go down when his usage goes up. The guy, the shooting is just crazy.

I know. Off the dribble, off the catch. He's got, he's got that cool pump fake that he does, guys blow by him. Yeah,

yeah, Bean is, I love this right. On our local broadcast, they call him the flyby king. Oh, that's so good. Yeah.

I love it. Yeah. It's so good. I had, I had like a little thing in my article a year ago about that. It's so cool. What's your last one? Oh,

let's, uh, let's go with, Chris Stapp's poor Zingis will have the greatest season of his entire career. Oh my God! My last one is

Boston fans are going to hate Chris Stas? I'm just kidding. I'll go with that one. I'm just going to rattle off some of them because that's like not the best one. But Chris Stavs, poor Zingas will have the best season of his career.

Nick Claxton makes an all-defense-of-te-team. Oh, I mean, Keont-Di-Jord. You think he's going to have a better season than the one that gave you such a boner that evidently you're the only person that watched outside of Joe House last year in Washington. How awesome he was?

Even better. Yeah, even better. Oh, wow. Keonti George will prove to be the biggest first round draft deal. Killing-Haze shoots above 30% from three. That is that's super bold. Wow.

Yeah, Tejord's interesting. Dante Exum's good. We loved Keonté George in Summer League. Yeah, I love Keonté George. He's really good. You know, Keonté George, it's like there's certain draft rankings that I've had that I look back in my history. And I'm like, damn, why didn't I just stick with what I originally had? Like, at one point I had Tyrese Halliburton, like, five.

I ended up sliding him down to 10 or 11. At one point I had Keonti George five or six. I ended up sliding him down to, I think, 12 or 13. And maybe that'll end up true. 12 or 13 could end up appropriate. But he has definitely improved athletically. He looks like he's an amazing, amazing shape. And that has alleviated some of the concerns that were there pre-drafts.

But there are certain guys that I look back at and I'm like, damn, I wish I just kept them where I at one point had them during the season. We'll see. Here's my last one. You ready? Yeah. The 65 game rule is amended after one year. Wow.

Because it is a catastrophe. Huh. And there is so much outrage about it. Because somebody is because now they've done all of this. They've given all their, they've done all their optics, right? They've done all their optics. Here's the rules. Here's what it takes to be, you know, voted in for this and this and this.

And here's the other, here's Joe Dumar saying it's 82 game season. And then, you know, they all kind of passively admit like, hey, we're about to be selling this to, you know, streaming services and our television partners, et cetera, et cetera. And so if everybody wants to do something for the greater good, we've got a real problem with our product not being what we are selling our product to be. And so you've had to do all this like over the top stuff to make sure and incentivize. We are going to find you if you're a team. You are not going to be able to win this and this and this and this. If you don't play 65 games and everybody agreed to it. And Joe Dumars is saying that they need to, you know, get on a track to think about it, 82 games and all this, all this, all this, right?

somebody will play right up next to 64 and it will be a travesty that they are not awarded what they need to be awarded and either they are going to amend that or they will amend all NBA voting completely because now that all NBA voting now if you are if you're weeding out everybody that didn't play enough games now and or it costs somebody their contract, right? Their extension and what they could be making. And say I'm, I don't know, say I got a bad shoulder injury, right? And I'm out for 18 games. I didn't sit any games. I didn't take any nights off. I didn't, right? And now I played 64 games. Now I'm not eligible for anything. And so what will happen is they'll amend this stuff. They'll amend it.

And they'll, if you're legitimately injured and you're out for X amount of time, then that's going to be, there will have to be like some kind of caveat or something. But something will happen. There will be a guy not awarded that's between 60 and 65 games and they will change it because of that. There's always an agent for change. And so something like that will happen. Just like we had a member a couple years ago, now we're doing the position. all NBA teams because, you know, you could only pick, you know, get your MB.

You think that's a coincidence? Like there's always an agent for change. And so now it won't last, it won't last to next year. It won't last to next year. I think it'll be a great success. No way. No chance. I mean, the in-season tournament will be a success to.

You already got old man, Chris Paul, talking about how the Warriors are going to win the in-season tournament. What the hell? He's the, isn't he? Is he still Players Association? Yeah, he's still the person. Yeah. Of course he is. Of course he's saying, man.

I'm a fan of the 65 game minimum. Guys should play. It's further incentive. I did not say I'm not a fan of it. Of course, I love it as a fan. That's fair. I'm saying they will amend it after the first year because there will be outrage. I mean, there's outrage about everything, though.

I know. But. There's outrage about it. about, you know, slightly spicy, you know, quotes and positive articles. I understand. There's spicy everything, you know. So, I mean, there's everything's outrage. The NBA just has to choose whether to deal with it or not.

Let's say, let's just say, Steph Curry or Nicola Yokic gets hurt. It tears an ab or whatever. And it's an 18 game out. It's 18 games that they have to sit out. All right. Too bad. I mean, I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess, at that. point. I mean, you promise you

things will change. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. I mean, I look, I look, I really, I genuinely look forward to seeing how it plays out because there will inevitably be at least one player that fits the description you're talking about. And then they're going to say, and they're also going to say, look, we fixed our problem. Player games are up. Uh-huh.

That, that's what the incentive of this was. Exactly. Our problems fixed. Now, we are going to relax that. because we don't think that it's going to be taken advantage of and certainly we understand that injuries do happen and maybe that's too many, you know, in order to be, you know, eligible to win awards or to get these massive, like it can't be tied

to the $250 million, $300 million deals, right? Like Jalen Brown just got what, $300 million because he was all MBA? Yeah. That's tough, you know, especially if I'm, if I'm playing and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a guy that sits out all the time, right? Because Kauai Leonard sits out all the time. Doesn't mean I should have to if I hurt my shoulder and have to sit out for 18 games. Cost me, I don't get to sign a $300 billion contract.

Like, that's what I'm saying. That's where it will emit from. All right. There's semi-bold predictions for the upcoming NBA season. by the time we speak next, it will be the eve of the NBA season. It begins next Tuesday. So, of course,

we will talk on Monday night right before the first NBA games are played on Tuesday. Super excited for it to all get kicked off. Thank you to our executive producer. Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I will talk to you next week. I'm looking forward to it. NBA seasons on us here.

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