The Mismatch - Final Preseason Takeaways, Most Likelies, Injury Updates, and Did the Nets Admit to Tanking?

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return to discuss Russell Westbrook signing with the Kings, as well as the team extending Keegan Murray. They also discuss Jaden Ivey’s disappointing injury setback, Malcolm Brogdon‘s sudden retirement, and Joe Tsai's unexpected comments about his expectations for the Nets this season. Next, the guys share their preseason takeaways before going through their most likelies before the season begins next week. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(00:57) Kings sign Russell Westbrook and extend Keegan Murray(07:25) Jaden Ivey and Paul George injury updates(09:56) Malcolm Brogdon suddenly retires(13:06)LeBron James out until mid-November(15:37) Did Joe Tsai admit the Nets will tank this season?(22:05) Preseason takeaway: Best rookie class in a long time(27:44) Preseason takeaway: Lonzo Ball could be exactly what the Cavs need(30:43) Preseason takeaway: Several players poised to take a big leap(36:26) Preseason takeaway: Absolutely tired of preseason basketball(39:15) Preseason takeaway: Hornets will be fun again(45:42) Preseason takeaway: Loving Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Starting 5’(50:56) Most likely: Non-playoff team you’ll watch the most(51:44) Most likely: Player that’ll dominate the storylines this season(58:09) Most likely: Coach to be fired first(01:00:26) Most likely: Team to miss the play-in that made the play-in last season(01:03:44) Most likely: Team to have the biggest win improvement(01:06:48) Most likely: Player to make the biggest leap(01:12:40) Most likely: TV breakout star on new broadcasts(01:15:18) Most likely: Team to be this year's Suns (team that everyone likes that'll disappoint)(01:16:22) Most likely: Player to be traded midseason and make a real difference(01:19:23) Most likely: Person who will get suspended for saying something on a podcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducer: Jessie LopezSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatchoff, Chris Vernon, and joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacobi! We're so close, Verno. We are so close. We're so close. But six days away. Six, seven days away.

Six, seven. By next week, we are going to be talking about regular season basketball. We will have one more episode before the season begins. Next Monday night, we will record our season preview. So you'll be able to listen to that Tuesday morning in anticipation of the first games of the NBA. a season. I think after you listen to that, you'll know how the entire season is going to play out to a T because we're never

wrong. Right. We've got a bunch of stuff to get to. A couple news notes first. Russell Westbrook found a basketball team. In the domestic United States, I think that's important to say. In the domestic United States, he is going to be playing year 18. He is going to be wearing number 18 as he signed a deal with the Sacramento Kings one year.

year $3.6 million. Also, they locked up Kagan Murray to a contract that a lot of people went, whoa, the $140 million five-year contract for Kegan Murray was signed as well. But let's start with Westbrook. One of the things that's interesting to me is he is one of very few players that has played that amount of years that we have in the league. But I was surprised to find. I went and like, I was like, I know LeBron and I know Chris Paul's still around.

I was like, who else has played longer than Westbrook? Here are your name. Oh, can I guess a couple? Go ahead. Durant? Nope. Horford? Well, I'm talking number of seasons play, right?

Like, you didn't miss seasons. Oh, Horford? Horford, yes. Luca Garza. Mike Cubs. Conley, Kyle Lowry, Chris Paul LeBron. Oh, wow. It's kind of impressive that there's two, three little guards on there.

Yeah. Well, I don't know how much burn Kyle Lowry is going to get. But like, what I find fascinating about Westbrook is crunch time, high intensity, season on the line, game on the line, playoff minutes. Yep. three months ago for a championship contender cannot find a team

and get signed by top bottom four most dysfunctional teams in the league. It's like the bell right before the season starts. I saw one of the I saw one of those posts that you when you're scrolling through Instagram

and it's like, who's stopping this? And it showed like their starting lineup and I was like, okay, this is crazy. And it was, and this is what they posted in the picture. Westbrook, Shruder, DeRosen, Levine, Sabonis. I was like, oh, wow.

Oh, wow. You got Malik Munk coming off the bench? I mean, I am interested. I think they just became a lot more interesting. I mean, you were talking about two feistys, because Shruder and Westbrook get pissed off every game. Oh, yeah. And now, if they're both going to be playing,

the back corner. Obviously, Keegan Murray is going to be out at the beginning of the season, but he did sign that five-year, $140 million contract. So here's another one for you. And here's a little bar bet for everybody. One of the things when I was reading through the articles about Keegan Murray's contract, because I was like, man, 140 seems kind of steep. You know, you got a lot of the- Over five years, though. I got it. But, I mean, you get a lot of the, yeah, no wonder guys like Kaminga hold out, you know, this kind of stuff. Um, I, I read one of the articles about it that was trying to paint it with a nicer brush, I think. And it said,

Keegan Murray is one of three players in the NBA. Oh, I saw this. To have 500 threes, 150 blocks, and 150 steals in the last three years. I mean, you're really cherry picking stats there when you go with like the stocks.

You know what I mean? But are you? But I mean, those are impactful plays. blocks and steals are directly impactful plays. It speaks to all-around basketball play, right? Here's a guy that, here's a guy that knocks down a bunch of threes and defends his position. If you think about who hits threes and gets blocks, like that many threes and that many blocks,

the list gets really small. The other two guys, did you see it? Yes. Anthony Edwards and Derek White. And those make sense. Who people have very high opinions. The Edwards did that last year, not the last three years. I think he did that last year.

But Derek White is like, he is known for being a guard that gets blocks. That's what he's known for. That's like his signature thing. They also mentioned in said article, according to ESPN research, that he serves as the King's primary defender and the 2025 All-Stars guarding 2025 All-Stars for a thousand and five half-quartered. matchups last season. Wait, what?

Fifth most in the NBA. I love these stats. Wait, wait, wait, wait, go back to the beginning. He's the King's primary defender. Yep. Is that like a badge that you wear, like a captain's, like a captain's thing in soccer? Do they like, do you get a tattoo?

Do you get a sticker? A patch on your jersey? What makes you the primary defender of the Kings? I mean, it means they weren't playing Keon Ellis that game. I guess, I don't know. No, it just means like, okay, hey, You're the guy. I mean, he is a starter on the wing.

And so you would surmise that he's probably, I mean, like, look at my other choices. Keon Ellis. I know. No, no, no. I'm saying look at my other choices on the wing. Like, you know, when you're talking about DeRosen, Levine, suppose.

Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Like, they're like, Keegan, take him. Yeah. Who's going to cover Kaui? Who's going to cover Kauai? Who's going to cover Kauai?

He's a good defender. He plays hard. He's a solid player that I do think that when everybody saw that contract was like, whoa, now. But we've got to recalibrate what guys get paid that are, you know, starting caliber players in the NBA. It's going to, you're going to see a lot of contracts over the next several years that make you go, wow. So you look at this. This is like an average, I'm just doing the math at the time. I had like $28 million a year, right?

Sounds like a lot of money for Keegan Murray. But in 2030, 2031, that will not be a lot of money for Keegan. Murray. Now, there's nothing that Kegan Murray has done up to this point where I running a team to say, we need to lock him up through 2030, 20, 21. But he has the, that has the potential to be a great contact and also a terrible contract, which is sort of what you do with the rookie extension. I agree. Jaden Ivy, this just absolutely broke my heart. God damn it. A year ago, we were doing our breakout players, and I told you that Jaden

Ivy was my. I had so much hope for this. You were right. And then he broke his leg. He was a breakout and then he broke his leg. And then he broke his leg. I mean, and they, I mean,

he really could have taken off because look at the season that they ended up having. Right. So he would have been playing a Madison Square Garden last year in the playoffs, for goodness sakes by the time it got all said and done. So anyways, had this leg issue that was going on during the preseason and now he's getting a scope on his knee. And so now, I mean,

they're saying timetable. indefinite. Re-evaluation in four weeks. But it's unrelated to the fibula that was broken or whatever, but it's just a bummer. Like, that was for me,

one of my things going into the season was the pistons are going to be great. I have them as the third best team in the Eastern Conference, mainly because, not because they added Duncan Robinson. It's because they added Jade Nivey.

Right. And that is not going to be so, at least for an extended amount of time, opening the door for some of their other players, which we'll get to a little bit later. Paul George is playing basketball Or not It's like the same day

They're like he's going five and five in practice Like oh he's not going to make the opening night And like Paul George and And Joel and Peter starting That would be crazy That would be crazy I was doing research for this pot And I was like

The Sixers could win 24 games or 64 games I have absolutely no idea This isn't our bold prediction episode, but you could have floored me with a bold prediction of Paul George and Joel and Bede are going to play. Basketball. Whoa! Hold on.

In the same uniform. Too bold. In a game. Too bold. You've gone too far this time. Hey, look, maybe, just maybe it will be maybe it'll be happy times. Maybe they will be able to play. Let's hold out hope, right, that we're going to get to see those guys

playing basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers, I think with every preview pod that everybody listens to, we know the floor and the ceiling move the most for that team, dependent upon help. It's just more fun if Joel Embed and Paul George are playing basketball for the Sixers. That is for sure. Is it true that Malcolm Brogden spent a few weeks in your presence in New York City and then said, you know what?

I would rather retire than have this guy trying to complain about the Gotham app and trying to watch me this year. I, not true, but I am fascinated by the story because,

like, for everything that I heard, he was going to make the roster. So it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to quit the job before they fire me, type of the thing.

Right. I just think that, I mean, who knows? I'm totally just, like, guessing here. But I think at one point,

like, his body just wasn't working. He knew he wasn't going to be effective. He knew he wasn't going to get a lot of floor time. He's on, like, like, non-guaranteed contract.

At some point, he's just like, fuck this. I'm not playing professional basketball player anymore. It's time for a new chapter in my life. I'm over this. I'm done. I do not want to do this for the next six months. This chapter of my life is over.

And I would love to be his buddy on a barstle next to him after three beers and have him explain to me how he came to that decision because I'm fascinated by this. I would guess that they were probably playing at practice. and they had the starting five out there and they're going to have a scrimmage at the end of practice and then they grabbed the other five and they took Deuce McBride over him

and he was like, I can't. He's like, we're having the top 10 players on the team are now playing on the floor. And me and these other four dudes are just over here like, me and Tyler Colick. Yeah, yeah, me and Tyler Colig. One day, our free throws rebounding for each other.

One day I thought I was playing that for a title with the Boston Celtics a year and a half ago and now I'm looking at Tyler Coling. Yeah, yeah. And Pocom Dottier, rebounding for them while the team gets yelled at by Mike Brown. I mean, who knows, man? I just think it's a fast-dain decision.

It's because he was unsigned for so long, but he wanted to be on a team. He was on a team on a non-guaranteed deal. The reports were that he was going to make the roster, and at some point, I don't know what happened in Abu Dhabi or whatever, but he was just like, you know what? my life is better not playing this stupid sport for money. And he always kind of struck me as kind of like the

Andre Miller type that would just be around for 15 years. You know, like, yeah, he's solid. But his serious health issues. I think his body just, some bodies just disagree with professional basketball. And I feel like he had one of those. Also had a long college career. Yeah.

Wasn't like a one and done guy, whatever. So, you know, his, he's got more. miles than you typically would have. Very, very forgettable rookie of the year. Very forgettable rookie of the year. Him in Castle, he'll be like, oh, those guys were rookie in the year, really? Oh, yeah, I remember that year. I mean,

it was memorable, if I'm not mistaken, because there were people that were wanting to vote for 15 game playing Joel Embed, right? Why wouldn't you? Isn't that right? I know. I know. Someone's got to win. Someone's got to be

rookie of the year. I know. I know he only, I know he only played five minutes, but really are we going to do this? Those were impressive five minutes. You watched Malcolm Broghan for the entire season? We've got LeBron out until mid-November. You know, you described as Dr. Jacoby last week. Yes.

Your wife's battle with sciatica and how troubling it is. And, you know, it was a 41-year-old guy. And I think there were some people that kind of rolled their eyes and thought, oh, wow, what an amazing excuse to not have to play in the preseason. That was me. I thought that too. I thought that. Hand up. That was me. I have a word of, look, mid-November, according to Shown, I mean, that's a month from now. And who knows? Who knows at that point? Right.

If you're, all I'm saying is, if you're pushing it to mid-November already, now what? You know? I can't tell. With most injuries, there's sort of a, there's a league history with the same injury. There are comps. There are timetables. There are things that you can sort of make sense of. This is not one of those type of things. This is just like, oh, we'll reevaluate.

Like, I don't mean, who knows. Who knows how severe it is? Who knows if he can play? Who knows if he can walk? Who knows where he is with this ailment? But I could see it being as little as is, hey, man, I'm not going to play 65 games this year. I'm not going to play the first month of season.

I could if I wanted to. I just don't want to. Right? It could be that or it could be like, I can't walk. I haven't left the bed for three days. I have no idea where he's at, which. this thing. Or it's not my team anymore anyway? Or who is, is it more likely that LeBron is faking his sciatica to get out training camp?

Or is it more likely that Joey Jacoby was faking her sciatica to get out of doing stuff around the house while she was pregnant? Are you accusing your pregnant wife? I, she's no longer pregnant. She's not just my wife. I didn't accuse her of faking it. I just, anyway, which is, which is, more likely LeBron's fake it or Joey Jacoby's fake me. I think it I think more likely LeBron but I mean you put me in an impossible situation. I did. Don't worry Joe doesn't listen to the mismatch. She has no interest in the show. Trust me. I figure. Elaine is not

Elaine is not listening to it. All right. We've got a bunch of oh another thing before we get into our bits for this week. And I didn't put this on our rundown but I've got to mention this. Oh no. And I don't, I feel like only because it deals with your beloved Gotham app Brooklyn Nets this has not gotten any juice

as do you know those guys that do like the all in podcast like the business guys they do a podcast so they posted this thing I just happened to come across this in an article and I was like wait what it's like why did this not get like a bunch

of juice but I guess nobody cares but they had on Joe's side, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and they asked them about the Brooklyn Nets. And he said, quote, and they posted the podcast. Like, so it's there. He said, we're in a rebuilding year. No problems, right? Okay.

We have one pick in 2026. Okay. And we hope we get a good pick. so you can predict what kind of strategy we will use this season. I was like, whoa now. I mean, if you look at their roster, there's only one strategy that they can employ. It's one of those things that everybody knows,

but you're not supposed to say out loud. So then what do they do? The media responsibly goes to Jordy Fernandez, the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, who was impressed a lot of people. He was asked about his owner's comments, about the strategy they are going to use. I mean, just an impossible position for the coach.

Impossible. But this is what he said. He tried to switch the narrative. He said, he says we want a good draft pick because no matter where we pick, Our front office is so good that we're going to pick a very good player. It's been proven with Noah Clowney and Jalen Wilson.

I mean, all these guys. Our five guys we picked this year, Joe believes in the process and in developing our younger guys. So he just switched it to. That's not answering the question. Any pick the Nets have is a good pick. How much are you in debt? I love cherry pie.

It's like, well, it's not answering the question. or basically for all intents and purposes, your owner went on a very popular podcast and said, we are going to try to lose on purpose. As many games as possible. Right. We only have one pick and we hope it's a really good one. A really good one.

And the only way to make it is our pick. The only way to make it really good is to lose as many games as possible. So you can guess what our strategy is going to be. Well. I mean, how depressing if you were a player on that. theme. If you're the coach, I mean, I got it, right? It's just these things

are typically unsaid. Typically, yeah, they are unsaid, but the actions, sometimes the actions are so loud you don't need to say it. And their roster indicates what their strategy is for the season. I mean, but damn, before the thing even starts. It's tricky, man.

And if you're MPJ, you're like, wait, what now? Like, what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to lose? That's why you traded it for me? Well, listen, I can't believe I paid for the Nets games. And then this happens. I'm going to send a Venmo request to Joe Sy.

Just for like a hundred bucks. I want my share back for the Gotham app that I paid for that. I mean, just any time they're winning, hit the other team. It's probably joe. At gmail.com. I'm going to do that right now. You know the request. You know the strategy, right?

So there's it that you could pay for your Gotham map in the first month. Yeah. Good point. Are they winning? Good point. Slam! Come on, Igor. Come on, Igor, Dedman.

Do your thing. Name and username. Joe, how do you spell side? J-O-E-S? No, it's a T-S-A-I. All right. Hold on. I'm going to send him a memo request right now.

At Joe. For your Gotham app? T-S-A-I. Oh, here it is Joe's side. This picture of a dog on his profile. All right, $100. What's this for? Gotham app.

Request. Let's see. if that works. Request. All right. See if it gets me back. Yeah. Some guy named Joe Syd has got a $100, $100.00 for me. I hope that's not the odor of the debt.

I hope it is. I said Gotham app in the notes so they know what it's about. Maybe I'll get it. You never know. The mismatch is brought to you by Fan Duel. This NBA season is coming, and Fan Duel is the place to let you play your game. They have everything you need to get ready for the season. With tons of cool bets like season leaders, player specials,

win totals, exact team out. outcomes and so much more. And even better, you can parlay your favorite bets together for an even bigger payout. So take a flyer on the MVP race, crown your champion in October, or parlay your playoff dark horses. I have my eye on the MVP race, and I think that the Joker will, he won't run away with it because he barely runs, but he will jog away with the MVP this year with some of the changes that they've made around him on that roster.

they will maximize his output. The win totals will be high for the Nuggets. I think that this is an easy bet to place on Fanduil. The Joker will be the MDP. And of course, the New York Knickerbockers will be the Eastern Conference champions. And the Eastern Conference number one seed. Remember where you heard of first,

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or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 100 gambler, or visit RG-dashelph.com. Call 1-888-879-777-7 or visit CCPG.org slash chat. All right. Let's get to our preseason takeaways.

All right, so my first one, to our update this, thank God this is the last time we're going to talk about the preseason. I'll get to that in a second. Yeah. All right. The first thing is this rookie class.

I talked about it last week, but dude, it's unbelievable. Like, I've been watching and keeping up with these rookies throughout this deal. And Jacoby, like, I am not,

this is not hyperbole. This has a chance to be an absolute, all time. amazing class. You go down it. If you're a fan of any of these teams, you're on Cloud 9 so far. Cooper Flagg,

Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe, Con Cinnipple, Ace Bailey, Trey Johnson, Jeremiah Fears had a moment the other night in the preseason. I was watching the Bulls.

Essend gay looked good. Essendgate? I was like, what? You're going to have, Colin Murray Boyles, right, who they love the athleticism in Toronto. You've got the Nets guys.

You go down the list. They're going to try to figure out, you know, how fast Derek Queen can come back. We haven't seen him yet. People are frothing at the mouth over Carter Bryant. Yeah. And what he could possibly be, young Hansen had his time to shine for the Portland Trailblazers in the preseason.

Walter Clayton has had some big, moments in the preseason for the Utah Jazz. Yakutunas had the double-digit assist game, and they talk about him being a steal. Neat Clifford has had some moments for the Sacramento Kings already that make people super excited about the possibility of him. Last night, I'm watching Grizzly's Hornets preseason, and they're starting Kalkbrenner, who went in the second round,

with the 34th pick and you're sitting there going, wait, well, hold on. He is enormous. Why are they starting him? He's the center. He's their starting center. What about my guy, Diabate? I mean, Diabate came off the bench last night.

But that Colkrenner, he was, I'm surprised because I figured, like, a guy like him, he's got a place in the NBA. He's seven foot something. He won four, you know, defensive players of the year in the big east, just being a drop coverage center, right? Like, all right, I'm going to stand back here.

I'm going to guard the rim. He doesn't have, like, disgustingly slow feet, and he could finish stuff around the basket. Like, that could be a real steal at 34. Because he's going to have a career and maybe a good one. It's such a guard heavy team. They're like, hey, man, catch and finish. You know what I mean?

Like, we don't need you to, like, create your own shot. You don't need to be Hakeem down there. Especially with that team. We're not going to put you in an offensive hub. Like, Yokic, like, no, dude, you're going to be wide open. We're going to get the ball in your hands. Catch it. Dunk it.

Run back on defense. And also try to, like, get the offensive rebound when all these guys that love to shoot, shoot, right? Because you're just going to be like, Lamello's going to be driving in, and Brandon Miller's going to be driving in, and Milesbridge is going to be, like, just be the cleanup guy. And, like, you're going to have to come help for drivers a lot. And I'm saying, you're all the way down to 34.

and I like a guy. This is going to be, this is going to be unbelievable. Everything that last year's rookie class was, this year's rookie class is. If this preseason has been a sign of things to come, this is going to be an all-timer. An all-time.

Yes, and I'd be shocked if it didn't end up that way. And I think one thing that's fun to forecast is they're all going to be up for their extensions at the same time. And there's this new influx of talent in this one single year. Usually it's like three or four guys. Yep.

maybe one or two all stars, but there's this, like, true class of, like, double digit, this is all potential. We'll talk about summer league and preseason,

but there is potential for, like, double digit, like second options, third options on teams, all in the same year. Right. Growing together.

We always talk about sort of like, LeBron and Steph and what's going to happen after that, and KD, they're all old, the 19 year, year 21, year 18.

It's like, well, this year could sort of be like a refreshing year for the entire league. And especially after what we went through last year. Yes. It's just colossal dud of a of a year.

Yeah. I mean, I think Jalen Wells might have been like the best room. I'm serious. It was Castle. Castle won the award. Yeah, I know. He won the award. But like I'm like watching games. I'm like, I don't know.

Like yeah. If your team has already established, like what Jalen can do for you in terms of table setting and playing defense is like a lot of teams need that right now. Sure. I like it. I like it. All right. All right.

What's the next one you've got from the preseason takeaways? Definitely would be the thunder if Jalen Wells was healthy. That's fair to say, right?

Definitely would have been the thunder. Maybe it would have been champions. I mean, that first half of game three, Verno? What if we'd have, I mean, focus on our game.

Okay. Would have won a game. How about that? There's a couple, there's a couple, there's a couple close ones. Without John Moran, interesting.

All right. Before I go big picture, I'll go granular. Okay. And this was spoken about a lot when it happened, but I don't think it's getting enough shine and attention at the moment. And I understand why, because this player is often not available to play.

But for all intents of purposes, he is available, 100% healthy and on track and playing really well. Is Lonzo Ball? I've always liked him since pre-drafts, because he plays defense and he passes. Is he exactly what the can. has need to get over the hump.

Like, is he the perfect fit for this team, if healthy? Against the pistons, he had 9.4 rebounds and 9 assists in 20 minutes. Well, that's his cap. You know, you know he's not playing back to backs. Yeah. At all. Yeah. Like, he's not playing back to backs, and he's playing 20 minutes.

That's fine. Well, I mean, so he's not like 100%. I guess he's 100% Lanzopal. For him, yeah. He has been through a tremendous amount. Could he help that team? For sure, he could help the team, right? And I think it would be an awesome story if he can become an effective backup guard

and, like, really help somebody. And so, yeah, I mean, but I don't know about exactly what they need. You think just because in the absolute, like, they've kind of had, they've kind of had like non-defensive guards. It's also like even just coming off the bench, it's like Merrill, Jerome,

who's now on the Grizzlies, Struce, you know, it's like, and like Dean Wade, it's like all these dudes who are just like bucket getters. And I just feel like they really need

like a playmaking, ball moving defensive player. And I think that that this fits the profile of what they need. Is he going to play back to backs? And is he going to play it all? He's going to get hurt probably, you know what I mean?

But like, I don't know. a good fit. It's a good fit. I would love to see him be able to turn. You know what? You know it would be fun? What if he could be Sean Livingston for a team? You know what I mean? Like Sean Livingston had it ripped away from him. But then ended up having this like outstanding career and it's like, you know, he's forever immortalized in Golden State. Like amongst that fan base, like Sean Livingston's one of those guys. And so it's like, it wasn't what it was supposed to be, but it's still really helped augment something

that ended up being great. Yeah, and I think you could, just because it's on the same team, you could put I Godal on that mix too. Sort of like this second chapter thing. Right. You know what I mean? It's like, no, I'm not the player that I was, or even the player that I was projected to be year two, year three, but I went through some stuff, had some injuries, and I've reinvented

my game, and this is what I do now. And Livingston, that game won, he took over game one in their first championship run against Cavs. He absolutely took over game one. Yeah, and it is interesting because this is certainly the most high profile team that ball has played for. It is.

UCLA, maybe? No, right. I mean, there's going to be a lot of people that tune into the NBA season. And Lonzo Ball checks into the game. They're going to be? Oh, Le Mellible Ball's brother. Right. Is that the one with the song about swerving and bending quarters?

That's a different ball. Different ball. All right. Moving on. We've got to pick up the base. All right. If the preseason can mean anything, maybe one of these guys is, going to be the leaper this season.

Okay, so if you go through and you look at the guys that have scored the most throughout this preseason, you're going to see a lot of big names up there, unsurprisingly. You're going to see a bunch of the stars that are up there, right? I think Kate Cunningham is probably the highest in like points per game. You're also going to see interspersed in those a bunch of other names, which then led me to jot these down and go,

you know what? Maybe just maybe this is foretelling. Maybe the preseason means nothing. Maybe it does. Or maybe it is a foretelling of things to come and we're going to look up and been like, you know what? This guy's been cracking since the preseason. Like we saw in the preseason that he was, you know, putting up numbers. And so I got a bunch of names here. Bryce Sensible. I love all the names. I love Bryce Sensible. Bryce sensible, Austin Reeves, who the reason I'm putting him on there, obviously he is more famous than many of these others, but the role changes in the absence of LeBron, right?

It for sure changes. And now it's going to be interesting to watch him and Aluka together. Shaden Sharp in Portland, who now is going to have the best team that he has played with around him. Ben Matherin, who obviously gets more looks at that basket. in the absence of Terry Taliburton, Khalil Ware,

who has been killing it in the preseason for the Miami Heat, and Mattis Buzellas. So those are some of the names of the guys that have had, like, some really good scoring outputs already in this preseason. I left off some of the ones that we've already talked about, like rookies like Ace Bailey, etc. But like these are names that it's like,

if we look up and we go, oh, this is even better than I expected it to be. and that somebody takes a leap, sensible, Reeves, Shaden Sharp, Matherin, Kalilware, Bezellis, all are in the top 25 in preseason scoring thus far. And so maybe it's one of those. Maybe one of those is the leaper this year.

Preseason scoring is tricky because a lot of starters don't play their regular allotment of minutes. So it's like, you know, so there's that caveat that we have to say. But I like all these players. And I'm going to go one by one. Sense of Boss is not going to get a big enough stage in Utah. So I don't think he's going to make a leap.

Austin Reeves is sort of like kind of already there. I've always liked Shaden Sharp. Offensively, he's just got so much potential. And I'm much higher on this Blazers team than anyone else on the planet outside of Oregon. I celebrated Kalilware last week, so I'm not going to do that. Right.

And Brzealous, you know, it's hard to leap from the year, were like one to two. You know what I mean? But I really think that the answer to this has Ben Matthew. I think that he's going to have a lot of opportunity to score.

And I think that that offense was so good because Tyrese Halliburton was there to sort of make it all work. Even if, and you know, it was a very

ball movement heavy offense. It wasn't like the Knicks where the point card just dribbles it for 20 seconds and then tries to figure it out. But I think Mathurin's aggressive instinct to score is going to be something that is going to fill a vacuum left by Halliburt on that team. And also, look, we all love Jay Huff here at the mismatch,

but there's a lot of offensive output gap that needs to be found, bridged between Turner and Huff. You know what I mean? And I feel like you look at Matherin and be like, man, we need 20. It was a tough look for my guy, Jay, getting pushed out of the way by Wemby and dunked without jumping.

That was tough. Yeah. It was preseason, though. It was preseason. But that was tough. I think it's going to be a tough. They're a mix of bigs. It's going to be a real

like system quarterback question. You know what I mean? It's going to be like, is it, is it because you have Tyrese Hallibor and that this system is so successful? or is it like the 49ers where it's kind of like, we can just plug anybody into this system and it's going to be successful.

I don't know because, I mean, look, even when Halliburton wasn't himself at the beginning, remember they were a below 500 team when the calendar turned? I'm just curious. That's the year they made it to a game seven of the NBA finals. Yeah, I'm posing the question because I think it would be fun to watch. Sure, well. They are fun to watch.

That's a style that is fun to watch. Yes. And they got a bunch of dogs on their team. Oh, yeah. Yes. And I don't want knee-smith to cover me for a second. Get away from me. And maybe Nemhardt, I mean, look, we'll get to a lot of it later.

But you like Matherin. You like Matherin. That's the name that stands out, a guy that's showed out in the preseason that you think that's actually possibly relevant. Yes, I think giving it the opportunity to do some more. scoring. Like, hey, man, get us a bucket. Like, there was a lot of opportunity for him to do that with Halliburton on the floor of the style of offense that they played. All right. Here's a problem that, it's something that happened to me over the past

couple weeks that really wanted to discuss with you. I remember that first preseason game in Abu Dhabi, Sixers against the Knicks, the new look Knicks, new faces, new offense, and basketball was back. It was the very first one. Yeah, Steve Harvey with his big, big mustache there. court side you know get paid who knows how much money

to sit both side and it was so much of fun to watch basketball again because summer league feels a little like G league like the uniforms

don't even look right but this felt real and I was so excited I started watching a bunch of preseason games that week and preseason games are kind of like fireworks where they're like

really cool for the first couple minutes but like minute 20 I'm like where's the finale already like I'm good I get it goes up to the sky, it makes a big boom, and it makes some colors. And I got tired of preseason a lot faster than I thought I would.

And Wednesday night, I'm watching Mavs Lakers. I'm sitting down on my couch. I think it started like 10.30. You know, my wife's in the bedroom. I'm like, all right, I'm locking and watch this game. I found myself on my phone like 10 minutes in. Wait, are you talking about last night? Yeah.

You can't, you can't start looking at your phone when Gabe Vincent is going He was like five for five. 18 points in four minutes. I said, I wanted to see Cooper do something. It was like fine. Cooper was all right. It was like regular game.

And the guys didn't see like they're trying that hard. And they had these shifts. These like hockey shifts. Sometimes I'm turning, I'm like, look at the phone for a while, it's going on Instagram or whatever. I look back up and it was like,

who are these people? No. It was like, it went from like Anthony Davis and Cooper flag to like, who? Huh? Look,

I, I switched to highlight watching quite a while ago. I just couldn't do it. It's hard. I'm over free season. But we're so close. Because here's the other thing. Not only,

yes, we are so close. And the other thing is, college football has been awesome. The NFL's awesome. You got the Major League Baseball playoffs. I mean, there's just like,

you know, I got all kinds of high leverage, big stuff going on all the time. And then you've got a bunch of guys doing cardio trying not to get hurt in the preseason. I hate to, compliment you, quote you, or anything like that. But I will say, if they don't care, I don't care.

And that's how I felt about the end of the game. You know what I mean? Like the Celtics Raptors game where it's like, the Raptors go on a 10-0 run to like tie it with three seconds left. And then they hit a game winner. I'm like, oh, let me check that out. I'll rewatch that. I watched it. I was like, no one cares who wins this game.

Like nobody cares. They're just like, you can win, I can win. I don't even care. No one cares. I want to take a shower and have dinner. That's how everyone felt, including myself. All right. Speaking of the preseason, my next one is,

Charlotte's going to be fun again. It is the preseason game I did watch last night. I watched Memphis versus Charlotte, and it was an absolute debacle. But I am forced then to watch Charlotte, and our guy Eric Collins, Lamella! Hey, Lamello was taking the freaking step back,

one-legged from the corner. Multiple. Brandon, at one point he threw the ball, through Jock Dan Landell's legs, threw up a left-handed, underhand alley-eu from 20 feet away to Brandon Miller, who comes in and cranks it, and then they do the most elaborate handshaking.

Wall running back on defense. Yeah. And I'm like, bro, like, it was Lamello, Brandon Miller, Concaniple, Miles Bridges, and Ryan Kaltbrenner, and it was fun. Like, they had, like, I'm like, you know, I used to watch this team at 6 o'clock, right? I always talk about, I'm in Central Time Zone. So those 6 o'clock games, I've got an hour before the 7 o'clock games come on.

And so one year, it was Cleveland, and I really fell in love with watching Cleveland. And one year, back in the day, it was the Kenny Ackinson Brooklyn Nats. Love that, one year. And then it became Detroit, right? Last year, where it was like, oh, yeah. I'm tuned to see Detroit, right? And obviously the Knicks who got Cracking last year. There's always that team that it's like, all right,

who's the team that's starting in the East Coast at 6 o'clock my time? Then I'm going to watch. And so a couple of years ago, it was Charlotte, and it was like so much fun to watch. And then obviously there was nothing fun about watching them last year. But seeing Lamello back out there, and they kind of got a good little chemistry. Like, look, it's all at the very beginning of the season.

So Colin Sexton's out there, high-fiving everybody and talking about it up and whatever. And I'm like, you know, I kind of like watching these guys. I mean, I watched them in a game where they truly humiliated the players that were playing for the Grizzlies and put up 145 in the game and turned them into the Washington Generals. But I just thought like there's something about, like, if you're not going to be good, be fun. They're fun. They're fun, right? there's a lot of teams that aren't good and aren't fun. Like I went to the Washington Wizard Grizzlies game last year and I'm like,

what the hell is this? Like, what is the point? What are we doing here? Right, yeah. So, like, so, but Charlotte on the other hand, I don't know how many games they're going to win, but I do know that they're going to be entertaining as long as, as long as those players that I watched last night.

Because, bro, Lamello, Miller, or Bridges. anyone, it, that's three guys that could go for 30 on a given night. Oh, yeah. Right? It's three guys that could go for 30. And then you've got, and then it's all augmented by this weirdness of

Concanipple who doesn't necessarily fit the other three. Like, you know, be like, you see them. They're like these mega athletes throwing alleles to each other, whatever. Just wait until Valentine's Day, Concanipal is going to have like two face tattoos and be wearing a duret. I swear to God. Well, and then you have this giant in Kalkbrenner who's just this big, gangly, you know,

rookie from great. Like one of those inflatable guys outside of a car dealer ship. He's just like in front of the rim, like, ah. That is perfect. Ryan Kogbrenner is the, uh, carlod inflatable. The carlod inflatable guy in front of the rim. Waving his arms around. His eyes close.

I'm going to hit one of these balls, getting one of these rebounds eventually. Bro, he had a block on Jalen Wells last night that made Jailad Wells look like a child. Like, he didn't even, it was like these Wemby blocks you see where he doesn't even like jump. Yeah, just like get it out. Like when you're playing against your kid. Yeah, playing Nerf against the door with your kid. It was like four. And so just just they don't, they're kind of these odd balls that are these two rookie white guys that are playing with these other guys that are flying up and down.

the court and throwing each other alias. Doing elaborate handshakes. Hey guys, I'm over here. If conchidple those cockpenter the aloop, they're going to do like an actual business handshake on the way back. They'll make eye contact, firm grip.

Dude, I'm telling you, it's just fun. It's fun to watch. That's why I always love Lamello. I've been high Lamello since he was in Australia. But it's like, this is going to sound super cliched and like, woo-woo. He's just,

It's the joy of the game. Oh, he loves playing basketball, and he loves putting a little flare on it. Those, you talk about these one-legged stepbacks? Like, he's, they're unnecessary. Of course they are. They're wildly unnecessary, but they're going right in. They're not rimming in.

They're like, they're not hitting the back rimming going in. Like, they're going right in the hoop. And we, we say, every year, and I mean this is the greatest cover. He plays like there are 10,000 hot chicks in the, crowd. Yes. And it is with no remorse. None. That's just how he's playing. And by the way, Brandon Miller might be absolutely awesome. Oh, God. He might be the full version of what you thought Brandon Ingram was going to end up being. Or what you thought Brandon Miller was going to end up being. He's just been hurt. You know what I mean? This dude. God. I mean, he is.

I mean, there have been three different times in this last couple of years where I've watched him and just been like, boy, if this all takes, this is going to be an all-star. He's had like 15 in the third quarter in some game I was watching last year. And I was like, man, he can, this guy. He is smooth. Oh, yeah. And he's athletic and long. I mean, he's got it all.

He's got it all, honestly. So they're fun, though. They're fun team to watch. And obviously, Collins, it's just going ballistic over the whole thing. Of course. They're a great watch. They're a great league pass watch. Yeah.

So the preseason, I was like, I just kind of, I just lost touch with it. And last year, I never watched starting five. So I'm sitting there watching the Mavs Lakers last night. Like I said, my wife's asleep. I'm like, you know what? Because I've seen a lot of clips from starting five on like the feed. I started watching, I watched the first episode. I loved it.

I watched that first five minutes that they posted. That is, the first five minutes, first of all, it's like, oh, it's the classic documentary thing. The Halliburton thing.

At least, he's laid up in watching his team play game seven. He's like, make it worth it. He's looking at his team. Make it worth it. That broke my heart. Oh,

God. He's, I mean, I don't find him likable. But it's impossible not to feel for someone going through that. Dude. So I did. I will say in the spirit of full disclosure,

I am so excited to watch this because of the characters that they have this year. Yes. I watched the first couple of episodes last year and I was out. I checked out. I checked out. And that was because I was like, how did you make Jimmy Butler uninteresting? Let me tell you,

let me tell you what they did this year. And LeBron, like I didn't care about the LeBron stuff. Jason T Salem, yeah, robot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I thought, oh, Sabonis is the greatest human to ever walk the planet of the earth.

And no, I mean, that's what it was. The best dad, the best husband, the best ever. And I'm like, okay. Like, none of this is interesting to me. I accept that he's a great human. It's boring. I have a blanket statement to make. If your wife doesn't kind of hate you, then you're full of shit.

No. And the Tatum thing, the Tatum thing was like, I mean, good God, give me smelling salt. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Look, that whole show after, when I watched those first couple of episodes of last year, of which I was excited, I was like, this should just be the Anthony Edwards show. Like, I would watch an entire season because his episode is hilarious, because he's hilarious. And I would watch, I would watch Anthony Edwards do anything. And so, but the other ones that they chose, this year, I like the characters, at least in the preview that they chose.

And I cannot wait to see something about James Hardin. You want to talk about the most private athlete there's been? He's up there. He goes, he's like, I have a girlfriend. The producer goes, are you in love? He's just waiting at his pauses like this. I don't even know why I signed up to do this. I think I just thought about what to see.

He's like, I don't even know why I signed up to do this. And they do this really good thing. Well, the first takeaway I want to say is this. We can talk about this forever. We have to move on. The first takeaway is this. I've never felt like I've understood Kevin Durant before.

I've never felt like I get what makes him tick. And this is the, it's, you don't get too much verité moments. Like he's not like cooking dinner with his like people and like, you know, you catch like veritay, like fly on the wall stuff. But the interviews are unlike any other interviews you've seen of these players before.

They're not like with, you know, Malika or Taylor Rooks set up in a conference room, very sort of like, formal. They're long. You can tell they're long because they're being themselves. And Kevin Durant has a, he's

his likeability, he has an infectious person. I want to be around Kevin Durant now. I never felt like that before. And James Hardin and they do this really good thing. Which I want to give credit to my friend Jason Hare when he showed Michael Jordan what Isaiah Thomas said about him on an iPad.

Do you remember? It was like one of the first times that this has been used in documentary filmmaking where it's like this person we had did an interview said this about you your response Mitchell jordan and it was perfect and what they do now is they're like well kevin in his interview he said that you would tell us what really happened at the brooklyn nets because this is in the press conference and then he like you know he gave some like fake answer but they do this thing where they're like well james said this about you kevin what do you think and it's really really well done because they peel back a lot of the defense armor

that they all have on when they're wearing their uniforms, they just finish a basketball game, they're looking at 30 media people, and they know that whatever they say is going to be broadcast and dissected forever. It just feels much more intimate and authentic. And I didn't watch last year's because people told me it wasn't good. But this year's, after one episode,

I will watch every second of this thing. Oh, you've only watched the first one. Just watch the first one. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. Did your wife watch it with you by any chance? Hell no.

Are you kidding me? What? If it ain't love is blind or somewhere I turn pretty, she is not in the room. She is a Emmy winning documentary filmmaker. I thought she might be interested in the way something like this is done, no. I mean, yes, she's a very intense competitive professional and she's already watched it twice. That's what I meant to say. No, she's no interest.

She doesn't care. Who's that guy with the beard again? Not care. All right, let's get to the question. All right, let's go quick. Come on, let's go quick. All right. Most likely to be the expected non-playoff team you watch the most.

This isn't even close. We've already discussed it. We don't have to talk about it again. It's the Charlotte Hornets. It's like not even... It's not even close. I love lamello ball. I like watching.

I like unnecessarily fancy things that happen on a basketball court. And the mellow ball is perfect at it. He doesn't need to take these off at one foot. He doesn't need to be. go between Jack Wondale's legs, the guy standing still. You know what I mean? Like, he just plays with a flare that I find

brings me so much joy. And if Brandon Miller can do it, I mean, we don't have to go through it again. It's the horridged. And you get Eric Collins. Like, come on. Okay. So you think that is the non-playoff team that you will watch the most. All right. Player most likely

to dominate the storylines this season. There's only two. I can think of. It's always LeBron. Right? Oh, I didn't even think about LeBron. Yeah, LeBron's got to be there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's always LeBron. Like, LeBron and then I think the honest stuff's going to kind of fade into the background. I feel the same way. I think that's going to fade into the background. I'm going to say, look, storylines are media driven. Like, that's what you're asking. So it's LeBron. That's what you're saying.

No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to say, flag. the Cooper flag thing's going to be a big deal. And I say this because it's only the preseason. And he's a headline like all the time. Can you spare me with the Cooper Flag is going to play point guard thing? Like, no, he's not. He's just not.

No, that really might happen. That really might happen. It's a dumb idea. It's not going to happen. I'd be shocked. They might give him an opportunity. I would. But he's not a point guard.

No. Here's why. Here's why I wouldn't be shocked. No. Here's why I wouldn't be shocked. Nobody loves defense. than Jason Kidd. And I can see the Russell stuff driving him so crazy.

He can't do Russell and Clay. Fair. Like they fancy themselves. When your GM comes out there and says, I traded one of the greatest players of all time because defense wins championships. It's hard to go out there with DeHigella Russell and Clay Thompson. That's your back.

Fair, fair. It's hard. So I'm just saying like I I don't know man I could actually see it happening So I think Cooper flag is going to be a big one right Because especially it seems like he's going to play a lot And he's going to be on TV And rookies always get a lot of bucks

And then it feels like we're already getting a lot of the Is this the Whambe? Is this the Wembe? Yeah, for me it takes over the league It's the, this is the Wemby year Does he take over the league? Yeah, I mean, is this this is the Wemby. year and I'm stepping on whatever I'm going to say on next week's pod.

But this, I feel like this is a Victor Wemba Jami year and he's going to dominate the entire year. Is he going, but is he all, they have already ranked him on all these ranking in the top six players in the NBA. Like that's already happened. And he's never been in a playoff game. But they've already ranked it in the top six players in the NBA. And it's like, we all know, like, there's going to come a time where he is destroyed.

everybody and everything. Yes. Like it's just, it's a, it's inevitable. It's inevitable. It's inevitable. It's inevitable. So is it now? Yes.

Or is it two years from now? I think it's now. And it's for two reasons. Why are you warming up now? You've been, you've been very critical. I've been very critical. I've been very critical.

You've been the one holdout on Wemby. But I don't like the way he handled us pressed this off season. And I think he shoots too many perimeter shots. And I, both of those things are not mutually exclusive with him dominating next year and being a top player in the NBA

and him dominating the storylines of the season. I really think that this is going to be it because he does two things which get you attention, right? Huge numbers, right? But like, DeMada Sabonis gets big numbers, but no one talks about him. And he has jaw-dropping viral highlight moment.

No, he's interesting. So many of those guys, you think about the top five guys. they're not highlight guys they're not highlight guys gilders alexander Yokic Jokic passes are highlight passes No they are but I mean they don't

they're not viral like they're not viral like the Wemby stuff disagree you know they're not some freaking freaking Yokish passes go viral I mean look the most viral clip in the NBA last year was Moranth and he played like 50 games right like Moran had

he was the most viral player That was the whole... Two years ago. No, it was last year. And he won Dunk of the Year. And it's like, they did... I'm telling you, like, what is viral? People don't...

My son does not friggin send his buddies. Look at this Yokic pass. What's viral... What's viral is... What's viral to a 15-year-old? And I promise you, from ages 5 to 95, people are going, what the hell?

This guy just... dunked without jumping. Like, this is stupid. I can't wait to turn on a Wemby game and just have like my nine-year-old twins come in the room. Be like, what do you see on the screen? I told you. There's only two players that I have showed up extra early to the arena in the last 10 years. The only two I've showed up extra early to the arena to watch, make sure I got there for their warm-up.

Steph Curry and Stevenson. No, Curry and Wembe. and you watch Wemby and for anybody out there he is the one thing to see because you when you see it up close you can't believe it's real

I have to see him in person I'll pay whatever it costs I'm going to see him in person I'm telling it well you go to Brooklyn yeah that's the easy one but the next one will be a hard It's just like three extra stops in the train

right but you can't believe it's real I know that sounds hyperbolic, but really. You've never seen a human like this. Have you seen that picture? Somebody posted it this past week, foot around about I'll never, it's like the meme is I'll never get over how Anthony Davis looked next to when.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And they're standing at the free, at the free throw line at the box. And I mean, Anthony Davis looks like a average human being. who like I mean you can't believe it man this guy is

it's unlike anything I've ever seen that's Anthony Davis looks dramatically heavier than he has previous like dramatically do you think it's the glasses no I don't think those are heavy glasses those are probably like athletic glasses

very lightweight okay all right move on most likely to fire their coach first this is pretty easy for me really all right we got a front office

is already making bad decisions. They didn't hire this head coach. This team doesn't have high expectations that they can't reach, but they're not going to be good. It's Willie Green and the Pelicans. Oh, Willie. I know. You think he's the one.

Yeah. Right? Yeah, because it was it was Griff prior to. And so anytime you change over management, right, you're always in possible peril. That doesn't, that's not. That's not strictly with the NBA. That's everybody listening to this podcast.

Everybody. If you're not, if you weren't, if you weren't the boss's choice. Mm-hmm. Yeah. If you're inherited by somebody, it's always a little tricky. Yeah, obviously. My size is not there in Toronto, but they, but they like Darko from all I gather. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The expectations aren't too high. Like, I've also put up here, Jordan Notts, because he's the coach of sons. They fire one every year. So like, who knows? If it got bad for Milwaukee because of all this pressure with the, the honest thing. What are we doing then? I'm just telling. I'm saying, like, bro, they, you can't put anything past them. They stretched

Damien Liller's contract. Adrian Griffin coached for like 25 games. They're a good record. They are fine making the short-term decision that might hurt in the long-term, right? I guess so. They are fine with that. Yeah, I think you're, I think, I think, I think you probably, Willie's probably the easiest one. Because, yeah, the expectations, you either kind of are going to meet or close to meet expectations or you're new or like the guy in Phoenix is new and the guy.

Yeah, yeah. I always like former players that are coaches. I've always liked that. Yeah. Always. All right, moving on. Yep.

I need one from each conference. Okay. This was actually harder than I thought it was when I did this exercise. All right. Who is going to miss the playing that made the play in last year?

Okay. So the play in teams last year were the magic, the heat, the hawks, and the bolts. Yeah. Those were the non-top six. The Eastern Com.

It seems. Yes. The magic are making it. Yep. The hawks are making it. So I'm really just between the heat and the bulls. And so I'd say, I'd say the heat.

I mean, I guess I'd say the Bulls. I probably, I don't know, I have little confidence in either of those teams. Neither have made it. It wouldn't shot me. I mean,

Andrew Wethens and Norm Powell are going to get to the promised land? Yeah, I mean, who would I be more surprised is, good the bulls okay so then I have to it's the bulls falling out

yeah I had it between the heat the bulls on my shoes it says heat or bowls but I think I just think there's just more proven infrastructure

yeah and experience in Miami than there is in Chicago like with Spolstra and you know and some vets and bam

and Tyler here coming back like I don't know I just believe in that more than like Kobe White and like bozillus

and no way to sing well yeah for sure. And then in the West, Warriors Grizzlies King's Mass. This is easy. There's a wrong answer to this one. There's a right answer to this one.

You say Kings? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just saw the meme. Who is stopping this? That's a good point. I didn't see the meme. That's why I said Kings.

Westbrook, DeRosen, Levine, Sabonis. If you're taking this seriously, if you're taking this seriously, you have to consider the Memphis Grizzles. 100% you have to consider. You have to consider the Memphis Chris. You have to.

As the Memphis guy, as the guy who dresses up in the bear suit during games. It could happen. It could happen. Injuries. Of course it's an unknown. You know? I am hopeful,

but I mean, look, there has been nothing in the preseason that would lead you to believe. Well, no one's available. What? When's E.

When's E. Before December. Before, Before December, soon and you think. Hopefully. Hopefully. It's a, I would say the Grizzlies, I'm sure we'll talk about the Grizzies over the course the next six months.

They are a sneaky, like the Sixers are like the obvious low floor high ceiling team. The Grizzlies are like a sneaky low floor high ceiling team. I could not believe Kevin Pelton's projection. You can tell me it was 30 games or 60 games. I'd be like, I don't know. Sure. It was like 51, I think.

And I was like, what? The next two years? I couldn't believe it either. I don't think they're going to get. I'll take the under on that. Mr. Pelton, feel free to reach out to me on social media. You would like to bet on that. I mean, honestly, it's a matter of how many games does Morant play.

It's a direct function of that. That's it. Yeah, you can do without Zach Edy. That's fine. Yep. Or G.G. Jackson or whatever. If they play, they're going to win games. If they don't play, they're not going to win games.

As simple as it gets. But the Kings is probably the easiest answer on that. All right. Most likely to have. the biggest win improvement this year, i.e. last year's piston. So this was a little tricker than I thought too. Because it's not like, if it was like seeding improvement, it's a little bit easier. But win improvement gets a little bit tricky.

I landed on one team for each conference. Okay. I can't believe I'm saying this. But the Sixers won 24 games last year. I think it would be 44. That'd be 20, yeah. It's a huge leap. They could win 40.

And also not your typical one that falls into this kind of, right? You know what I mean? Like if you like, you know, and B plays 50 games. This is like Memphis two years ago where it's like, well, they're not that bad. They just didn't have, they had the year from hell, so they didn't have as many players. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

They win 40. The war is like, we're the worst team in the league and now we're champions. Were you bad because you're bad or you're young or were you bad because you're injured? Yes. And then the next, the other team that I had, consideration for this were the Spurs who won 34 last year. There's just not as much room for improvement. So my answer is the Sixers, but it's just not fun to talk about because it's just a health

thing. But the Spurs are my fun answer. The Spurs are the fun answer. All right. Obviously, you got, did you consider it all? I'm just going to ask you, did you consider it all New Orleans? I'm sorry. No.

I did not consider New Orleans. Okay. Well, room for improvement. Did you consider Portland? Yes, I considered Portland. but from 36, were they going to go, 56? Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's the thing is like the thing about the Sixers

to really take this exercise seriously is they had such a low number last year that they do have the most potential for the biggest league. How about Charlotte? But unlike the Pistons who are like a young team that was in a rebuild that took the leap to like second round potential, the Sixers are like a hurt team that no one believes in that will just become a regular season success that no one believes in in the playoffs.

How about Charlotte? No. It's such a low number. Yeah, but if it's amount of minutes David Jacoby spends watching the team, that's going to be a huge leap. No, no, no, no, no. But like actual wins?

Didn't they win 19? Last year, they won 19 games. So they could go to 39. Is that possible? There's a world. That's still under 500, by the way. I have some questions about their front court. I'll just say that.

Some. As much as I love Musa Diabate. No, I just told you they've got the inflatable car salesman. Inflatable car salesman in front of the rim. Cogbrador! We're on offense now, Cogbrenner. We're on office. Oh, sorry, sorry.

My bad, my bad. I was told him to stay in front of the rim and wave my arms around. Inflatable car salesman, Ryan called Britter. All right, I got one for you, buddy. Three players. ranked in order most likely to make the leap this season.

All right, so you got to help me with this, though. What is the leap? Oh, we can spend an hour talking about it.

I look at it as like, not, a casual player didn't really know who you were last year and this year, you're all over the time. Not to like superstar.

Yeah, it's not like John Moran most approved player award type of shit. No, no, but like, I do think like

the, like, the Cunningham super star. stardom, he would be, if we're doing that lead, I would say Cade cutting him. Cunningham and Van Carrow moving to superstar category is on that level, right? I would not compare those two because I don't think those are apples to apples, but I would say cutting him being like, they are.

Oh, no. Oh, yes, they are. But Powell didn't play enough last year. No, but they could both be top ten players in the league. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yes. I would say

How about some of these names? One of the And again, the move up thing. So you talked about Matherin earlier. I think Nemhardt I think Nemhardt, like this is the open door. And so

I could see Nemhard becoming like a bigger thing. I really could. I could see Nemhard becoming a bigger thing as he's like the starting point guard for that team and is playing all season. for Indiana. And then the other one is everybody talks about this being,

and in fact the GMs voted, Amen Thompson. In the absence of Jade Nivey, it kicks the door open for the brother. Asor. Asar. He does not get nearly the attention. He's like a blood clot?

He's like he wasn't around, but he is literally his twin and has the exact same game. And they're talking about putting the ball in his hands more too. and in the absence of Ivy, that could even increase. So I could see Asar becoming, like, we're not talking about Ah man. And oh, yeah, his brother in Detroit, like we're talking about them the same way.

Yeah. Trey Murphy's one, because he got a season ripped away from him last year. And I do think that he's awesome. And then we already mentioned Brandon Miller. Again, another guy that had his season ripped away from him last year, right? So it's like, these are guys that might have hit that level last year,

but it got it ripped away. This is how I felt about Ivy, right? Where it's like, this has been ripped away from him, but now it's about to take. Let me add one to that list. That exact same list would be Jalen Johnson. The ripped away.

Ripped away list. He's like, he's prime for that. He was ready to go. He was on a trajectory of like all-star, second option, two-way player, improved jump shot. Like he was on the trajectory. of everything that you can ask for out of him

and then ripped away from him. I agree. I just think... I put him in there. The reason I mentioned Nemhard is because I could see one of these like, okay, now it's his turn and like now he's

like he's like actually like he's really putting up numbers. Like once upon a time Jaylen Brunson got to prove himself and I'm not telling you this kid's going to be Jaila Brunson. I'm just telling you he has been so much better than anybody expected him to be already.

Oh, hell. I like that I like betting on those kind of guys. And now it's minutes. He's going to get the minutes and it's going to be his deal and he's going to be going up and we saw him defend frigging Shegilders as Alexander last year. Like that happened. We saw it and he did as good a job as you can possibly do. I watched a five minute video of him pulling the chair on people.

And it was like he has mastered them. trying to get contact where he gets up close to him. And then he runs away from him. And you see these guys? And it was like Donovan Mitchell and Gildes out. Like all these guys just like falling all over themselves. And I'm like, what a frigid trick this guy has. Nemhart.

Nemhart's one of those guys where you're like, I can't believe that my team is getting absolutely blitzed on both ends of the floor by this guy. I can't believe he is single-handedly dismantling this this team that I've spent a year rooting for. He feels like the kind of guy that will take the opportunity by the horn. Like he really does. Like, oh, oh, here's my chance. Everybody thinks we're dead because Halliburton's out. And again, they might be.

But it ain't going to be because this guy doesn't play hard. Before we move on, I got a couple names for you just to see where you think. Let me hear. Is Sangoon already too big? to sort of like be a leap guy. Yes, he's too big. Is Danny Advia? Is that tickle your pickler?

Oh, yeah. Avvia or Sharp, one of the Portland, especially with the advent of the other vets and Drew Holiday there, and just becoming more adult teen that I could see, I could see one of them busted loose. The Sharp thing is like, he's one of those that you watch, kind of like Brandon Miller,

where it's like, bro, if it all takes. I used to, you know, I felt this way about Jalen Green, where it's like, bro, if it all takes, if you're just talking about like I create this guy in a lab and here are his physical attributes, if it all comes together, it is a problem for the world. He'll shoot a cash and shoot three and I'll be like, that was the most beautiful jump shot I've ever seen. And then the next possession is he'll try to dunk on somebody from outside the restricted area.

You're just like, if this all, if you can just tie all this together. If it all takes that those are the guys where you could see like, oh boy, this is, this is different than what we bargain for. most likely to become a TV breakout star on the new broadcast. I don't think we can call Michael Jeffrey Jordan a breakout star, so I'm taking him off the list, but I'm so curious. No one's talking about this enough. How are they going to use him?

What is he going to do? Someone give me something. Give me some inclination about what Michael Jeffrey Jordan is going to do for NBC. And my fear is it's going to be very little. It's going to be taped. It's going to be him giving the least amount of effort possible because he's Michael Jordan doesn't try about anything. it would be amazing if he showed up on opening night.

Just right? I'm in the studio. No, they've got their opening night broadcast. Michael Jordan, who's going to win the championship this year? Would you love just to hear him answer that question? Yeah,

that would be crazy. And I'm going to go with Blake Griffin. There are, you know, I've been media for a long time, and I always say that like most of the people that are successful post career in media, you see it before they're done with their basketball career.

And this guy, I was doing stand-up gigs. There's an S-B awards where, like, Drake was Blake and Blake was Drake, and I was working on this. And, like, he was, like, a gifted entertainer. Like, he is, like, a truly funny person who doesn't take himself too seriously. And I think that'll translate really well, not just to working in a studio environment and providing commentary, but with that particular group,

the youth and like Dirk is funny and like Dirk's gonna be good too. Like it's a funny group of like interesting people that I want to be around and I can't say the same for every studio group

across the various partners of the National Basketball Association. Do you think Rooks has already broken out? Yes. Okay. So she's on the table. Yeah, she's off the table. She's off the table. She's a star, star.

I think she's going to be great as the modern, like, in the midst of that. Because I watched her on that alternate feed when she had Draymond and Charles. Yeah, yeah. And she was hilarious ping pong in that. She holds her own, too, though. She's not just like a table setter, like a traffic cop. You know what I mean? Because I've been, I've done and like been around all different types of like television hosts.

And, you know, I mean, there's a lot of people who's like, I read the prompter. I ask the question. And, you know, I'm just, I'm setting it up. I'm just, I'm just here to be like the, the, the, pitcher at the home run derby for these analysts and she's not there. She's not just a long for the ride, but she'll give it and take. I like her a lot. But Blake Griffin's the answer.

Blake Griffin's the answer. All right. Most likely to be this year, sons, the team that everybody likes that ends up stinking. You skipped mine, but I'll just roll with it. I'll roll with it. This is easy. We'll make this quick. We'll make this quick. It's the timber wolves in the west

and the cabs in the east. Well, I was going to say the rockets. I just don't see it with the rockets. I've, you know, like, I don't, there's the doubt of the Rockets are, they're not going to say. They're not going to stay. They're not going to stay. The defense alone.

She's like, and like, you, you've lost Dylan Brooks and Jalen Greene, you added Kevin Durant. Like, how is this team going to be worse? Someone explained that to him. And I believe in Eméio doka. No, it's family. That's what it is. It's the no point guard thing.

This is what happened with Phoenix. That will be tricky. Anybody can do it. We've got Brad Beal. We've got Devin Booker. good coming to Rian. It's not 2K, bro. It's not 2K. I don't know what that

was about, but I liked it. All right. It's aggressive for no reason. Play the most likely be traded mid-season to make a real difference for a contender. All right, so this was hard. No, it's not. It's Larry Markening. There you go. Move on. No. Really? Yeah. I wrote down a bunch

of names. Yon is. Yonnas on there. I wrote down Porter Jr. because I listened Which one? There's like seven quarter juniors. The, the Michael. Okay, because there's Kevin. Right. Yeah. Why are we paying?

If you're losing on purpose, why are you trying to pay him? Are there any Porter seniors out there? How about the, how about the old guys? McCollum or Middleton with Washington? You can see them like, right? I forget who it was. Someone floated McCollum to the Rock. Houston.

Yeah, that was a good one. That was on the over under pod. I like that. And McCollum is one of those guys. He's been knocking down shots in the preseason too. One of those guys I mentioned earlier, McCollum is one of those guys who's going to have a successful media career when he wants to. The longest shot. Wait, the longest shot.

Oh, this is good. Oh, let's get crazy. Let's get weird. Let's get weird. This is not like a Janus. This is not like a LeBron. This is not like one of the ones that has always talked about. Trey Young.

No, and the only reason I'll bring this up because even Bill kind of mentioned it in passing. like out of nowhere and I was like, hmm? Jalen Brown. Oh, yeah. I mean, he is on the books for $300 million.

And like, what team is like, I'm going to give up all my drafts? You asked could swing it. You asked a player that could swing things. If you've got a team that's not going to be winning this year, and they say, you know what,

when we do it, we're just going to read, right, we're going to do the, the Pierce Walker thing. and we're going to rebuild it around Pierce. Right? Antoine, you go ahead.

I don't see it happening, but it's a long shot. My long shot for this was Trey Young. I don't think it will happen. Can you see a world where it just like, it breaks down and they don't want to give an extension? They're just like, we've decided that this Tray Young experiment is over and we're going to go with this youth movement that we have. No.

And I don't, by the way, I don't think J. LeBron is getting traded either. No, of course not. You never know in a weird season like this. in a weird season like this and with the amount of money that it costs, right? Like, are they, you also never know what they're going to,

like, if you're going to get something back, I mean, do we want to spend? Are we going to keep committing to the two Js and build out around that after Tatum comes back? I think it's hard to be, you know, 18 months move from a duckboat parade and make that move. I think it's hard.

Of course it is. I'm just like, that's one of those that you never know. I think the answer is Lowry Marketing. It's pretty... For sure. Yeah. All right.

Person most likely to say something on a podcast that results in a suspension. I think these guys are so media savvy now that I think I'd be shocked if anybody got suspended because of something they said, but the answer is for sure, Porter Jr. Oh, I was thinking more like Joe House.

Oh. I mean, Porter Jr.'s brother was literally the center of the, you know. Because remember when he got traded and they asked Yokic, like, do you have any advice for him? He's like, wear condoms. I thought I was like, uh-huh, uh-huh. Yonkish is being funny. And then he started talking. And I was like, maybe Yokic wasn't being funny.

Yeah. Like maybe Yokic has a little insight into his personality. And he interviews porn stars on his pod and stuff. And he's like, I mean, he had talked, he might talk about UFOs. He might talk about like, you know, Israel and Palestine. You're like, what are you doing? You don't know. You don't know with them.

You don't know with him. You don't know with him. Mr. Porter Jr. It says, yeah, the recording stop. The recording stop. The mics don't work. I just think he is the only one that, like, like, it appears as if Denver, like, really quelled this down for the first five years of his career.

The second he got traded, he's like, now everywhere. And, like, you see these interviews and you're like, what? What is this dude? Like, I think, and I don't think he real. And the other thing is he goes on with, like, these streamers and stuff. And, like, so he might just be, like, stream of consciousness talking about stuff. And he's got these kind of thoughts. And, like, next thing you know, he's talking about retiring.

and he's also talking about porn but then he's talking about, I got it. I just think he's one of those that could fall into. You got to remember, he is the guy that tweeted out Adam Silver's personal cell phone during the rookie symposium. That happened. That happened.

I think we're learning a lot about Michael Porter Jr. in the next year, and I'm very excited for it. He's goofy. He's goofy. Yes, he is. is. And I think that they did a really good job of, like, hiding the world from his goofiness in Denver. And I think the people in the Brooklyn Nets Communications Department had a couple of meetings this summer. Like, oh, we've got some work to do.

Yeah. Because, like, I don't think, I think it would have to be something that he just really talk about something he wasn't supposed to. And, like, most everybody else, I think, knows better. I'm unsure if he did. Well, the owner was on a podcast. Apparently the owner's on a podcast that said, we're not going to try to win games this year. So we're off to a good start already. Right. Who is he to tell him to stop being goofy? Right? Well, the thing is we will never be suspended by something we say in a podcast because it's taped and we have the best producer in the history of media

and he'll always protect us. Thank you, Jesse Lopez. As always, Jacoby, by the next time we speak, we are going to be doing our season predictions for the upcoming NBA season. I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming.

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