The Mismatch - The Draymond Green Punch, the Victor Wembanyama Experience, and NBA Season Predictions With Adam Lefkoe

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

Verno and KOC return and are joined by TNT’s Adam Lefkoe. They discuss KOC’s trip to Las Vegas to watch top prospects Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson (01:44). Everyone gushes about Wembanyama’s skillset, but Henderson’s star potential is also can’t-miss. Next, the guys dive into the video of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole (24:46). They discuss what the leaked video means for Dray, Poole, and the Warriors. Adam puts on his host hat and unveils his Lefkoe Awards! They give their futures picks, predictions for all the major awards, and debate which teams will have more wins (41:41). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Guest: Adam Lefkoe Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to The Mishmatch. I'm Chris Vernon and join as he does every Friday from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A. Kevin Obama, Kevin O. Climber. Kevin O. Climitt. Kevin O. Camer. Kevin O. Corman O. Cove. Burdow! What's going on today, man? We're going to guest, don't we? Huh? We do. It's great to be back. We'll be back twice a week throughout the entire NBA season all the way through free agency. And today, joining us, Adam Lefco, you made up seeing him on TNT on Tuesday night. Starting in January, you're going to see him every Tuesday night on Thursday night on. TNT with Candace Parker, Shaquille O'Neal and Jamal Cropper this year. Thanks for coming on with us, Lefco. I've heard a million bets, excuse me, podcast this week about futures, and I am a

gambling addict, and it has developed at a rapid space, and I need to get the innocent Kevin O'Connor on board. So I got some juice from later, some Draymond Green-esque strength coming right at your face. I was just in Vegas this week, Adam. It's, it's, it's. You were in Vegas, and we need to talk about that because, though you didn't write about him, you went to Vegas to watch Ho You Fat. Where can I get that jersey? I need that jersey. No, you didn't see it? Shack's kids got it. Cheriope O'Neill God. They did the Jersey Exchange, yes.

He put it up on Instagram and said $3 billion on eBay. That's a great jersey. For the Ho You Fat jersey. I said the Shams yesterday. We were sitting next to each other. I said, you know what I want to read from you next week, Shams? The inside scoop of why this guy's last name is, oh, you fat. Unbelievable.

All right. You did go to Vegas because you wanted to see the Victor Wimbayama show, and you put up an article this morning on the ringer.com and made a very bold claim. You said, what I witnessed was the best prospect I've seen in 11 years of covering the NBA. So tell me about the Wembaugh. Ayama experience up close and personal. Well, Victor Wenban Yamma is the best prospect since LeBron James.

Wow. Since 2003, like watching him this week made me feel the way I did when I was 11 years old, watching LeBron James make his national TV debut on ESPN, all the hype building up to it, and then he exceeded the expectations. I remember, like, LeBron was the first non-NBA player that I ever cared about, the non-pro athlete I ever cared about. He's the guy who got me into scouting college football. got in college basketball.

And I think Wembeyanama, what we saw this week, 7 foot 4 is how he most recently measured, 8 foot wingspan with the ability to defend inside, outside, doesn't need to leave his feet to block jump shots or layups.

He's aggressive. He's intense. He tries hard. He communicates. He communicates on the court. He communicates in the huddle. He's always active and never mind on offense offense. Dude, the shot This guy hits? Have we ever seen a guy

7 feet plus? Never mind 7 foot 4 hit the type of 3-pointers that he hit off the catch, off movement, stepbacks, never mind the fact he can finish inside it on the post. Like this guy is potentially one of the greatest players

that we'll ever see if he stays healthy. That's the main thing. Can he stay healthy? Because the talent and the work and the mind is all there. I was ready to hate on it. I was ready to hate on it. Everybody in the free world was there. Everybody's tweeting about it.

All these basketball writers are there. Everybody's freaking out. Now it's time to see this kid up close and personal. He's going up against the G League Ignite. And I got to be honest, my experience watching that was it was unlike anything that I have ever experienced where you're going in and you're like, oh, let's see if you're gets pushed around. Oh, let's see if he's not what everybody says he is. And you know this is a big showcase. And so it's one of those that feels like one of those where it's like, all right,

even if he ends up with 12 points and eight rebounds and five blocks and then everybody says, but you saw the flashes, you saw what he could be. You saw the potential. Like, none of that existed. You saw like a guy dropped 37 points. And the reason that is that he was. The reason that is, you saw, I say it's unlike anything else is because as I'm watching it, I can't believe it's happening. Like, I can't believe a guy that's 7 foot 5. It looks like a joke. Like, he's so much bigger than everyone. And when he brings a ball up the court and pulls up for three, I know people have made these video game comps. It looks like a video game. It doesn't look like, like, It's real, like I know, like Jurassic Park or something.

Like it really is like CGI. Like this cannot be a real human being doing this at that size. And the other thing was I was ready to go in and be like when everybody was like, oh, we've never seen anybody this big do things like this. I was also totally prepared because the first time I was ever up close and personal with Porzingis. I felt that. I thought that.

At that time, Zach Randolph was one of the best power forwards in the NBA, and they're playing. And it looked like he was a kid standing next to Porzingis. And Porzingis is like pulling up from like 19 feet,

and I'm like, what is this? Like, you know, and it was the unicorn thing, and we soon forget, right? that that was, he kind of took the world by storm when he first came along. But this dude is so much more like fluid. Like he's like crossing over. He's stepping back. It's like a super porzingis.

Yeah, man, I was ready to detract. But Jesus, Lefko, what did you think when you saw all that? I was at TNT covering a preseason game and not just any preseason game. It was Zion. And so like, I'm there with Brendan Haywood, Channing Frye and Renee Montgomery, and we're watching Zion chase down, you know, layups on the fast break. And we're like, man, what an athlete. So good to have them back.

And then, you know, we got all the TVs there. So we set up the game and we're watching that. And it was just mouths open. And Brendan Haywood goes, teams are about to start tanking like Master P. And I was like, it was stunning. I covered Anthony Davis at Kentucky. And I remember thinking how much of a. of a crazy unicorn he was, blocking threes from inside the lane.

He didn't have that handle. He didn't have that step back. He didn't just hit 37. He hit seven threes and none of them were a question. I got yelled at in my group chat yesterday for being like, how should I be committed for thinking simply by prospects? We do not know their future. Is it comparable to LeBron?

And they were yelling at me And then throughout the night it was Hey, by the way, Bill Simmons just said the same thing. And then I got another text goes, Hey, by the way, Woj just said the same thing. And I look at, you know, the Mike Schmidt over at ESPN or Giovanni And I just listened to how they talk.

And they are shocked. And so I think you bring up Porzingis. Everyone forgets he was 7-3 in doing that. But this is going to be the greatest tankathon we've ever seen. And at the same time, Chris, how much are those boxes of rookie cards going to be for Wembañana? Oh, my God. Like, what are we getting into?

No. Wow. Yeah, the first person, the first company that drops a Wemba Yama card, I mean, it's an absolute goldmunt. It's going to sell like hotcakes immediately. And as it should, because Adam, you're right. I mean, I think, you know, whenever it was Mike Schmidt said before he was hired by Portland, he said Wenban Yama is the best prospect of. I've ever scouted. I think that alerted some people when Schmidt says something as serious as that.

How many times has Schmidt been right over the last five years? He was right on Luca. He was right on Lamello. Fantastic. That dude does not miss. He's fantastic. And so I think with Wenban Yama, the thing that's so impressive with the NBA people I've talked to this week is the rate of improvement. Because with Wembeanyama, if you look at him one year ago physically, he looks much better physically now. He's much more lean. He's added some more muscle. He looks really good. The game on the the court, the shooting consistency, the types of shots we saw him hitting, like you mentioned that a seven three-pointer game,

his coach, Colette, who coaches the French national team, he said on Thursday, he felt like when Mbanyama's game was better that day because it was a more complete game. It wasn't seven, three-pointers contributing to seven to 21 points. It was inside.

It was finishing. He had the poster dunk. He also had some post-finishes, post-fadeaways, creation going coast-to-coct. drawing fouls. I would agree with Collette that he was better on Thursday than he was on Tuesday, even though the Tuesday game was like the wow factor against Scoot Henderson blocking his shots

and all that too. But when Benyama, the rate of improvement with the amount of skills that he's shown from last year compared to this year, imagine what he's going to be like by the end of the season with the Metropolitan's 92. like he could continue improving more and more and more because he has the mind. He doesn't want to be complacent. And I think that's why NBA teams are also so high on him, why Schmits and Gavoni and all these guys aren't just throwing it out there because of talent,

what could be. The only thing that can hold him back is injuries. His mind will not. It's only injuries. That's it. I think it's great that you bring that up because there is one player, and I'm going to stun you guys, there's one player that I feel like

because of the way it's gone has been kind of overlooked or we've forgotten how enamored we were once upon a time. And it's because his career has been marred by injuries thus far. And that's Zion. Like I get all this the greatest prospect ever,

and we've never seen anything. Like, I had the experience when, when he was in college, when Zionl Williamson, anybody can go look this up on YouTube, when he was at Duke and he blocked the DeAndre Hunter 3. Oh, that was nuts. And it took a close out from the other side of the court. And he jumps higher and farther than I feel like I've seen anyone jump.

And he's like 290 pounds or whatever he is at the time. Like, and he's full extension. That was, I remember, and I've talked about this before, it's like every time I see him in person, I'm like, this is like something out of a Marvel comment. Like, so it's like a super LeBron. Nobody should be that big and that athletic, where he can jump higher than everyone,

but is also bigger and stronger than everyone. And frankly, when he's played, as we've mentioned, He's not one of those like Greg Odens who's been barred by injury. And then when he plays, he averages eight points a game. When he plays the average is 27 points of freaking game. Like the guy is, he is what we thought he was going to be when he's not injured. But he is. And he has been.

And he's missed a lot of time. And I say this is someone who got very lucky that John Morant was the second pick in that draft. and I had a little deja vu the other night where, yes, it feels so much like Zion Morant to me where it's like you're going to sit there on draft night and everybody in Memphis, I could speak to this, because once you get into the draft lottery, they take the break.

And you're like, oh my God, this could happen. Holy mackerel, this could happen. And so everybody's going, Zion, Zion, Zion, it could change your life. And as you guys know, my wife went to Murray, me and my son watched all the Murray games. I was all in on Moranp being a superstar. For a long time, too. You were ahead on Marmaps. That was a great consolation prize, who I also thought was going to be a superstar.

I feel the exact same way about this. I, everybody came away talking about Wimbayama. that Scoot Henderson has got superstar written all over him. And I watched his interview with you. Yo, if a dude is- Full thing will be out. I don't know if we're putting on Ringer NBA or YouTube, but full thing will should be out later today on Friday.

The kind of guy that's got the ball in his hands that says to you, Kevin, every time I play, I'm trying to demoralize someone. That's shot. And that's also, all right. now I'm in love. Now I'm in love. Do you want to talk about, like,

you're not talking about like, hey, I want to be this good, or I think I should be in this mix or whatever. Every time I go on the court, I'm looking to demoralize someone. Like, sign me up. And I think that, you know, when you were talking about the tanking thing,

this is not, this is not some small consolation prize if you don't get Wimbayama. You might end up, Because right now, if you pose to everybody, if you said, even today, would you rather have Jaya or Zion, I think you're probably 60, 40, maybe even higher people saying Moraine. Just because they're scared of the Zion career. And you know what I mean? They're more sure because they're worried about Zion and being able to stay healthy.

And that's fair. But if Zion stays healthy and if I told you. guaranteed health for both going forward. It's Zion. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And that's the thing, though. Like, you could have...

Because size matters, you know? Like, Zion can have those blocks against DeJah Hunter, like you mentioned, where the ball, that block, the ball didn't just leave Hunter's hands. It was, like, way out of his hands. Like, it was insane. And what Benyama could do that, too. He blocks Scoot so many times.

But Scoot, he's going to be special, man. I think he could be friends. The edge-changing. I think so, too, because he's not just a bucket-getter. He's not just a guy who he showed his ability to get to the rim and finish around Wembe Gama's length with some of those tough, you know, quirky finishes off the glass. Oh. He showed the pull-up.

He had the step-back three against Wembe Gama as well. But not only that, the playmaking, the decision-making, he's a smart, intelligent player. He's grinding on defense, trying to get stops, trying to force turnovers against Tremont Waters. He's a smaller guard. But that dude's so athletic, so fast, so skilled, so smart. And also, like Wenbanyama, so hardworking, so determined, wants to be great. I mean, like, you can't go wrong with either of them as a potential face of your franchise. He was 17 years old in the G League night.

And as we're seeing, that league, it's starting to get up there in terms of competition with, oh, they're up against grown men, which we've always heard about these European guys. The only knock that I would say for what you were saying was there were other people like in job, Because with Zion, it was like, well, where's the shot? And then you look at Wembañana and you're like, where's the flaw? Like there's not a single one, which is why it's so shocking to me. But, man, I agree with you. I also love the fact that for Scoot, Wembañana is an incredible pace horse. And what I mean is we always compare these guys to their draft class. Trey Young will always be compared to Luca. And the motivation for a guy like Scoot to always have the untouchable Wembaunana,

I'm sure it motivated Jha the same way. Everybody's talking about that guy. It's that. I went to the Redeem Team doc last night. Oh. Oh. It's on Netflix. Oh, today, right?

Yeah. But we'll have to watch that. Talk about it next week. Yeah, what do we? No, no, no. You're not just going to move past that. No, no. I was going to dive into it.

You guys had to exclaim. Wow. Great. Cool. And then I was going to talk. Oh, oh, like you didn't just drop. Oh, I was at the Redeem team premiere last night. I was hanging out with Wade and Gabby.

And then it was like, I think Carmelo showed up. Oh, God. I think you guys weren't invited to. Brothers for life. But think about how often we have heard the story, and it was shown in the documentary, of they saw how Kobe worked. And it impacted the way that they worked. I think it's the same thing for Wenbanyana and Scoot,

where Scoot's always going to go, what's Victor doing right now? And I think for young kids developing that fire, I love that for you. But the doc was great, man. It was because I remember where I was back then at 4 in the morning. I was in Nebraska as a reporter getting up in the morning to watch those games in Beijing. There's a lot of footage in meetings that I have never seen before. I've never seen the way that Coach Kay talked to those guys. And that was really cool to see how he brought them together.

the way that they told the story of where Kobe was at that point of his career, because the way we look at Kobe compared to the way we looked at him in 2007, 2008, he was a ball hog demanding trades. He was a lone wolf. And when you see those guys, Wade, Mello, LeBron, Kobe, all together. And to realize the sacrifice they made, I can't wait to see, I hope that this younger generation, of NBA players watch that, and it impacts their games the way I think the last dance impacted a lot of these guys during the bubble. And then the last thing I'll say is, damn, I forgot Rudy

Fernandez was that good. Oh, wow. Oh, man, he was dunking on Dwight Howard and hitting threes. And I was like, yo, that Spanish team was cold. They were cold. Oh, that's so good. I can't wait to watch that documentary. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. Yeah, I cannot wait to watch that for sure. All right. So everybody go check out Kevin's article. He's got a really long article about Wemba Yama as he was there in Vegas and it's got highlights

embedded in it. It's certainly worth checking out as I have never heard you, boy, and you're right in there. Never been higher on a prospect. And you do this every year where you talk about prospects and you love this guy. There's never been a

bigger no-brainer. I mean, like we had Luca. He felt like no-brainer number one, even though he failed a third somehow. Zion, no-brainer number one. A.D., like you said earlier, Lefco, no-brainer number one. Oded versus Durant, like at that time I'm rooting for the Celtics, all my friends, every time the Celtics lost, it felt like a win.

Either one of them felt like a win. And Celtics didn't get either of them. Too bad with Oda, I wish you never got hurt. But nobody on the level of one Ben Yama. Nobody in my lifetime, besides the -Killian Hayes? Killian Hayes. I mean, I'm just, I mean, I I love French players. I hate,

I know it. And he was not a no brainer. That was, this is bold. And it was stupid. I'm old enough now to, when you bring up the Odin Durant thing, like it just absolutely breaks my heart.

If you want to win a championship, you need a center. Oh, oh, that was such a thing. Durant's too skinny. He'll never survive in the league. Hey,

people can go, hey, people can go back and look at this. The worst record, in the NBA that year was the Memphis Christens. Oh, yeah. They were horrendous. It ruined my entire fall and winter.

I hated tanking. I watched the worst basketball I've ever seen in my life. We get to draft night. I host a draft party at a local bar. Hundreds of people are packing this bar. There is an inflatable Greg Oden in a grizzly's jersey with a one jersey. and an inflatable Kevin Durant in a Grizzlies jersey with the number two.

All right? So they go through the draft lottery. The Grizzlies get announced at four. Oh. And I mean, we just needed anything to change the franchise. And it was... Mike Conley. Mike Conley.

The most depressed place I've ever been, possibly in my life. All right. And one of my friends who is the radio. This is why him and I are on opposite ends when it comes to take because he's been scarred over and over his sheep to beat by Conley, even though that kind of worked out. And I'm a process guy. So I'm like, let's get shots. Let's get shots. Let's go. The scars are there. And so Eric Asseltime, who's been a friend of mine for over 20 years, who's the radio broadcaster for the Grizzlies. He stands up on the stage. I don't even talk. I'm despondent. and Eric's like, hey, look,

the Raptors got Chris Bosch with four. Everybody's like, whoa, who gives a shit? Toronto Raptors got Chris Bosch and four. Who cares? Like, we really had a chance at Odin.

And the crazy thing is, their best friends, and it was Odin and Durant and obviously Conley and Odin were best of friends, and Mike Conley's going to have his jersey retired. Mike Connolly might have a damn statue. Like he is one of the most beloved sports figures in Memphis history

and was an unbelievable guy ambassador. People love him. And sometimes, you know, some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers, right? Like if you would have gotten Odin, it's a different world. Like you actually, it actually worked out. You know what I mean? And you got a franchise guy. You know, not a franchise player that changed your franchise forever,

but somebody that your fans lived and died with for over a decade. And that is, I mean, anybody you ever draft, if you get over a decade out of anyone, that's special. Sure would have been nice to have Kevin Duracca. It would have been nice. would have been nice. Alternate universe, Durant's like in year 15 with the Grizzlies right now.

Well, championship. Yeah, I mean, maybe he leaves early on. You never know. I know. They did get him. One year. That's terrible. I can't wait until expansion happens in Seattle gets a team again. I'm fired up for that. One other thing that we got to get to

before we get to Lefco's awards that he has brought us to to pour over, Kevin. and that is TMZ acquired a video this morning of the Draymond Green Jordan Pool interaction. And what was the, the original reporting was like an aggressive strike or a violent strike.

Like everybody tried to not say the word punch. Like Draymond Green punched Jordan Poole. And so you are left with the mystery of like what happened here. What kind of interaction was this? Why was Dremont so mad? And then you don't, you know... Physical altercation. Yeah, altercation.

And then, man, when you put a video with it, it is so much worse. It is so much worse than what I had in my mind of what happened. Number one, Jordan Poole wildly unprepared to take a punch. I think he thought it was going to be a shoving match. Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. He thought it was going to be a shoving match.

He thought he was getting in a shoving match. Well, because Draymond kind of walked over him to slowly, got in his space, pool pushed him to move him away. And that's where he thought it would be a shuddering match. But then Draymond kind of lunges forward, just sucker punches him, really. You ever see Troy? The movie? Brad.

Yeah, when Brumns is. Brad Pitt jumps up and like right at the beginning and wins the battle by like doing like a Superman punch. That's what Draymond Green did. Like he launched all of his weight into that thing. Poole's legs gave out. If you watch it, Poole's knees crumple. He goes down. There's some venom behind that punch. But like you said, Verno, isn't it crazy how a video now changes everything? Everything. It goes from my watch. They don't need to suspend them. They can handle that in-house to like, What are we doing? Yeah.

I mean, this is what we talked about when any time, and we've seen it, unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, fortunately because these guys have gotten their just desserts, unfortunately because we have the horrible visuals. But going back to Ray Rice, we had the Trevor Bauer stuff. Most recently, we're not watching Miles Bridges compete in preseason basketball. And I said on the mismatch, I said, as soon as his partner put that up on Instagram, and everybody saw it, they saw the visuals, and they saw the kid, and they saw the marks and everything.

That's when it, unfortunately sometimes, that's when it becomes real to people, like that this is, this is, it's not a he said, she said, it's not a leave it up to your imagination. Oh my God, what a monster. You know what I'm saying? That's how it feels. And I think that's true of any kind of thing that we don't have a visual of. And this was going to be one of those cases until this morning.

And I know there's a lot of focus on how the hell did they get that video? Like, there's, I'll tell you this. There is a finite amount of people that are allowed in those gyms. So, I mean... That was recorded from an official, team camera if we're going to be like that looks like a video intern or something.

Yeah, right. And somebody, the question is, how much money you think they got from TMZ? I mean, I would imagine an absolute fortune. But here's the thing. What if it was somebody who anonymously submitted it? They didn't want money. They didn't need money. They just wanted to video out.

Oh, Tim foil Kevin shows off. What would be the reason? You don't want Dremont. You don't want to pay Dremont? You want Dremont. Your players currently in contract? negotiations and this can lower the asking price. There could be other reasons than, you know,

$30,000 drop into your bank account for some, you know, I remember when Tyree Kill was up for a contract negotiation in Kansas City and the Kansas City Star somehow got like audio recordings of an argument he had with somebody and then he got a deal done for a lot. Like this is good tin foil conspiracy stuff right here. Like I don't want to play too much into it. But I just to give some context,

I did date somebody that worked at TMZ. Like, we were not, she started working at TMZ after we started dating. And the number was always 10K is like the initial offer. So I don't know if it's more than that, but I would say that's where it starts. Oh, look, Draymondon knocking out or possibly knocking out Jordan Pool video is worth way more than 10K. Yeah. Way more. See, to me, if you're a lower level, this is not Liam.

video, your video staff guy, are you really risking your job for 10K? Maybe you are. How much are they making? 50K? Not a lot,

but are you risking your career? Maybe, maybe you are. I just, I like the conspiracy, Kevin O conspiracy better. Everybody on Twitter assumes it's somebody who just wanted a bag.

What if it's somebody who doesn't need a bag? That's all. You get 10, and you get 10K for like, I don't know, Liam Hemsworth, arguing with somebody over gummy worms or something. Are we sure that won't outclick Draymond Green, though?

Like this is high of our NBA world. That's a great point. That's internet. That's Thor. You're telling me Thor's fighting over gummy worms? Let me tell you something. It will absolutely, and here's how I know, there's not a group text on my phone that does not have the Draymond video already in it.

And I think about all over the globe. that happening. When I walked in the office, I walked in and one of the girls I work with, there are three girls that were sitting in an office, right? They were talking about Draymond Green punching Jordan Pool. And they were like, have you seen the video? And they were like watching the video on their computer. I mean, yes, that video, everybody's going to see that. It was this morning, my son was upstairs and I yelled for him to come. I yelled for him to come. down stairs to watch it. I mean, I was like, watch this.

And he's like, oh! And of course, then he's sending it, he's sending it to all his buddies. You know what I mean? So, I mean, like, yes, I defy you. Players tweeting about, do you see Tray Young said Dre just wants to get to L.A.? Ooh, Trey.

I'm talking about another conspiracy. We've heard Draymond, Portland rumors for years. Now Draymond's super tight with LeBron. 80, Mr. Glass already hurt with a back injury. Rust still player on the team. They still got their two first-tron draft picks. Maybe Draymond sees the window. Maybe he knows the Warriors aren't going to pay him

because they're going to pay pool, because they're going to pay Wiggins because they have to pay other young guys. Maybe Draymond is the guy who wants to leave first. Did you see Morant put up the eyeball emojis? Yeah. And I know the reason he did that is because if you were to walk into the Memphis Grizzlies locker room,

there is a huge white board and across it is written the Grizzlies are going to get a reality check, Draymond Green. It's a quote that he had Oh wow.

After the season. And it's on their board in the locker room. I don't know if it's still up there but it says it was after the season. Wow. Next season the Grizzlies are going to get a reality check.

And so The eyeball emojis has even better meaning after that. But not to mention, they all don't like Jordan Poole. You know what I mean? That was the whole- John Morant thing. Yeah, that was the whole thing. And there was like, yeah, I mean, so the Jordan Poole stuff was,

which is interesting because, like, him and Jared Jackson, Jr. were, like, best buddies growing up in Michigan. You know what I mean? They're both, like, one went to Michigan, one who went to Michigan State. any time that that KOC starts doing the conspiracy, if you could put like the X-Files music behind it. He was insinuating that Joe Lekom was out there. He like, send the email.

The other thing too, Chris, if you're doing radio later, please don't have the take. Can you imagine how many radio stations are going to go, are you allowed to punch a coworker at your office? That's a bad take. Don't do that take. You know what mine is,

My take is going to be, yo, where do I sign up for new media? Because all of a sudden, new media is able to beat people's asses? This is awesome. I didn't even realize this. In the new media, you can beat the shit out of people. The other thing is, is what you were just saying about the Grizzlies and Draymond, before the Warriors put it all together and won the finals, there was two, three weeks during the playoffs last year,

where everybody was unleashing all of their dislike. for Draymond Green. And then it went, oh, we can't say anything because now they're going to win the finals. Yeah.

But I feel like we saw the real MBAs feeling towards it. It just felt like it was an avalanche of anger towards that guy. But I've only met, every time I've met him, he's been nice. But,

man, you know, it's cool when Jordan did it. You better, hey, hey, hey, you better watch out,

Lovego. His ass is going to be on TNT with you before you know it. So you better. I got to work on my job Where do I make Where do I make that bet? I can't wait till Draymond punches you

Yeah, what would be the odds? That would be pretty good And then what would be the odds that I could take it? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Better than Jordan Poole did, maybe. Here, here, let's be serious about this.

Does it change your opinion of the Warriors at all? No. I'm being serious. Like, you, there is, this is the kind of drama. It's not about the punch and about getting over the punch. I think to me, it does signify that there's going to be some off-the-court things that could feasibly affect and otherwise, I mean, I think you look at it and you go, this team is going to be unbelievable.

And we saw what booty breaks the table. We saw Wiseman briefly. We saw him in Summer League. We seen them in the preseason so far. We like what Cominga, you know, and his prospects. And yeah, they lost Gary Payton. And yeah, they lost Auto Porter. But now they're going to have Clay another year back.

But when you do have this kind of stuff, those are two very key players. And it's not about the punch of getting over the. the punch. It's about the underlying thing, which is Draymond is not committed to. Pool feels like he is committed to. And sometimes those kind of things can end up festering within a locker room and having a negative impact. We saw that, look, people were all saying that last Durant year was miserable around there.

Nobody's talking to anybody. In part because of the contract situation. Yeah, and it festered. It's a good. To your point, Chris, that's why it doesn't change my feelings towards them a whole lot. I still think they're a kick-ass team. And they still may or may not pay Draymond Green. That was still a thing even before this happened. No guarantees, a lot of rumblings about the Warriors not wanting to pay Draymond Green,

the Super Max of Hill inevitably demand. So if Draymond wants that, he may have to look somewhere else. There's already been reports since earlier this year that if they don't pay him the money, he will look elsewhere. So in that sense, there's nothing new here. This may accelerate things. Maybe at some point during the season, we see some surprise superstar trade.

Warriors pull the New England Patriots rather than the San Antonio Spurs and get rid of a star a little bit sooner than people expect them to. Maybe that could happen. But if that's the case, then go and say it's going to have to find new rim protection. I don't know who, from where.

I don't know if it's a Miles Turner, a Mobamba. I don't know who it would be, but they'd have to find somebody new. if they do want to move on from Drayvon, which I think they should. I would not want to pay Draymond Green, you know, into his mid to late 30s. We've already seen what he looks like when he's even slightly out of shape. We've already seen some of the limitations from his game. I would not pay Draymond Green despite how integral he's been to the Warriors in this past iteration of the dynasty so far.

If you're building the dynasty moving forward to me, I think it's a significant bet on him to continue staying healthy into his mid-30s that I wouldn't want to make. And you know, but you know he's the loudest, you know he's the most vocal, you know he is the heart and soul and has been the heart. He is. The heartbeat of that franchise. Harder replaced that. And that's where I think that Kim not getting secure or his bag or feeling like they are taking care of him and him feeling not appreciated. Whether that's true or not. And look, it's a business.

And you may be absolutely right. You need to pay pool. You need to pay wiggins. You need to pay these other guys more so than you do. But the guy like that feeling underappreciated or not appreciated, that could cause problems that, like we just saw. He just knocked out one of the young players that they're thinking is going to get $120 million. Like, that's a thing. That's never going away.

That happened. And we just saw the video and it's wrong. Like that is not, it is way worse than what I thought it was. If there's one team that can handle it, it's the Warriors. We've seen a lot of offseason issues with a lot of NBA teams this year, especially at the top, a lot of fracturing. But I do agree with you that I think the video coming out changes it. Because now anytime that there's an argument,

you know that it's becoming a meme. You know that it's going to be sent to these guys all the time. It's a lot. We never saw Steve Kerr get smacked by Michael Jordan. We never saw it. And so I think it will be interesting. But at the same time, like you've said, they've been through having to handle each other's personalities for a long stretch in the pursuit of championships.

But I do think it's interesting that Draymont has always been the going to keep it honest guy. And now he's not the observer. He's taking part in the infraction. And so, but I still have faith in the Warriors. If he, if he's not walking in bouncing around happy, like, I think he has a, if he's moping and if he's like, if he's like, that can have a profound effect, it can just because he is so important. Like he's that guy that walks in the locker room and everybody looks at him.

You know what I mean? And, and takes, his energy has fed that franchise for a decade. Well, and the other factor here is in that locker room, the leak to Chris Haynes saying that Jordan Poole, his character has changed. He's become a different person. That's from Clutch. And if you're, and Steve Kerr came out saying how that was misinformation. Pool's been fantastic. He hated seeing that out there.

Everybody loves him. That's the other factor here where it's like, really, Jemann, your inner circle is leaking this stuff out there. But one of the guys in this locker room who's working hard trying to be. be the best he could be on this team. That's the other fact that it's worth considering here, too. I'll tell you, when KOC is like, I know where the leak came from. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not hard to figure out leaks with anything that gets recorded.

I've realized when you said that the way you said clutch, like I thought of like the evil empire. Like I thought of like stormtroopers like bringing the tape. Oh, that's great. Let's get to the LeftGo Awards. So you had prepared something for us, and we've got team questions and player predictions for the upcoming season. So what do we got on? I get to put on my host hat.

Yes. Yes. Let's hear it. Oh, yes. Hello, everybody, and welcome in to the mismatch futures pod. You've heard futures on every other podcast, and it normally goes like this. Will they win a lot? You betcha.

Great episode, guys. not here on the mismatch. We're taking it to a whole another level. First and foremost, the current favorite for six men of the year is Jordan Poole. Does the punch help or hurt his chances

of winning six men of the year? Kills his chances, in my opinion. It's over. Yeah, it mangles it. He has no chance at winning that award now. You know who I like for that award? Malcolm Brogman from the Celtics. Plus 1,300 on Fandul. Christian Wood.

I like him as of now coming off the bench for Dallas. He should not be coming off the bench. Jason Kidd's going to stop this nonsense and just put him in the starting lineup. He's by far the second best player on the Mavericks. Oh, one other team is your second best player coming off the bench. It doesn't make any sense. He should be starting. I think he will be early in the season.

But Malcolm Brogton, I like Brogton a lot for that. I think he's going to be a monster for Boston off the bench. Do you have other names that are listed there? Who else are the other? Who else do you got there, Kevin? Who else above 1,300? Hero is up there too, right? Hero is number two, yes.

Bones Highland is high up as well. On Fandul, Jordan Clarkson, Norman Powell, Kelly, Ray, you know, the list falls off a little bit. But I like Brogson. And would if he continues coming off the bench, which he shouldn't. But Malcolm Brogden would be my choice right now. Malcolm Brogden coming off the bench, huh?

Yeah. That's going to continue happening to it. it seems for Boston. Let us continue. We will now move to the most improved player of the year. The current favorite, as we've seen

a trend of stars becoming superstars, Anthony Edwards at plus 850. This is all on Fandulul. Shout out to Fandul. Second, Tyrese Halliburton. Third, Zion Williamson. Fourth, Tyrese Maxie, the Jalen Brunson, R.J. Barrett,

Cade Cunningham, Lamello Ball, Jordan Poole again, and then Scotty Barnes. Of those names, KOC, who is your pick? Or do you have one not listed? I like the Barnes one. Scotty Barnes at plus 6,600, 36 to 1 for Verno for Scotty Barnes. I just think we usually get a second year player or a third year player that takes that leap to superstar. You know what I mean?

And I love Edwards, but those odds are terrible. Yeah, those aren't great odds for him. What are Brunson's odds plus 2400? Brunson is at 24 to 1. I think those are pretty good odds for Brunson. He's going to get more usage in New York. It's New York, East Coast bias media. A lot of focus on him this season.

Maybe the Knicks are only have to be average for him to win that. Maxi already had a big improvement. Could he make another lead from like 17 points per game to 22? 23. Maxi. I love Maxi. We love Maxi. Because I think we're going to see

Hardin's points maybe drop and is a Cisco up and I think Maxi is going to go from 17 to 24 points per game. I think that's very possible. And if they're the number one seed, I'm getting ahead of this. Well, hey, can I be honest about this? Mine is shaped by

when I showed up to Las Vegas to check in for Summer League this year, Scotty Barnes was standing behind me when we were checking into the hotel. And it's the first time I had ever been like next to him. He was a mammoth. I could not believe how big this guy and he has gotten bigger. He looked different than he even did, you know, obviously that year in Florida State. But even last year, his rookie year, and it stands to reason because he's still so young.

And he came into the league just after his freshman year. But, man, his frame is enormous. And now it's starting to fill out. And, boy, I don't know. I just, I think I was just in such shock and awe of what you think someone's going to be like versus what they're. Because he's got this baby face. He looks like he's 14 in the face. But he's got this body of like a Ghanis or something.

I mean, like, he ain't that big, but I'm telling you, when you're up next to him, you're like, good God. He's not, like, not only is he tall, he's broad-shouldered dick. I mean, good, creep. I was, I couldn't believe it. I walked away and I was with my two buddies and I was like, yo, did you all think what I thought with that Scotty Barnes thing? Like, he is huge, huge. And so, like, they had all been there. they were all checking at the same time to work out for the summer

like the whole Raptors team was checking in behind us but maybe that's why and obviously the kid won rookie of the year so I mean it's not like he didn't just have a very good season but he I don't know his body fills out good luck good luck for him special you heard it here first if you want to get picked by Chris Vernon just stand behind him in line that's enough bias for him to pick you that's it Last of the individual awards, before we get to Luzerama for Wemba Mianna, MVP. Before I give you the odds, Berno, the top of your head, who is your pick? Before I give you the odds, who's your pick for MVP?

John Moran, what do you take? John Morant coming in at 13 to 1. He is our seventh most likely player to win MVP according to the family. In all seriousness, in all seriousness, I know the odds are going to be bad. I would take Yonis, and here's why. I think Yon is... Plus 700 coming in at number two tied with M.B.

I would never bet that. I would never bet that. But here's the thing. You're going to start the year without Middleton. I think the bucks are going to continue to be awesome, have a great season, and you have had the one year of people tired of giving it to Yannis, and so now we can get back to giving it to Yonis.

and he's the best player in the league. He's the best player in the NBA, and he didn't win last year because it's not, you know, like Yokic had these two freakish seasons. They're not going to give it to Yokic. M. Bid's case got hurt last year after they acquired Hardin. And I do think if we're right about Maxie and we're right about Hardin, then the numbers are going to be less freakish for Mbid

because they don't have to be freakish. Janice's numbers have to be freakish for the Bucks to be awesome. And I think they will be. And he keeps on putting up these historically great seasons. And now that we've had the Yokeach years, I think you can get back to giving it to Janus. And just saying, look, he's the best player in the league. He's the best player in the league.

Verno, here's the thing, though. What if Embed's numbers are more freakish because of Hardin? He averaged 32 points per game after the Hardin deal was made, in addition to dominating on defense, in addition to just ripping down 13 rebounds for a game, and he was still getting assists too. What if Embed, we see the best version of him ever, and he ends up getting the award?

Like, he would be my preseason prediction as up now. Well, he also has the, I'm pissed off, you guys are not respecting. The revenge year factor as well, yeah, yeah. He's going to come back better. I wasn't first team all NBA. I wasn't, you know, everybody's favorite pick. I didn't win the MVP. And so now I'm going to lay waste.

to everyone. I do think there's something too bad. You have that inertia built in to the MB'd. Just like I agree with you, you have the inertia built into Janus. I think the other guy that has inertia built in is Steph, and he right now is at 15

to 1. We just saw him in the finals, and I think everyone goes, how is he not up? I feel like him winning the MVP's was so long ago it's still there. I'm curious what you think about this. Zion is at 25 to 1. Is that spicy enough, Verno for you to put a bet on.

I don't think that he can... I don't think that Zion is going to have enough of the... We're down by one with five seconds left to go. Zion's the guy. Maybe McCollum.

You know what I mean? That's a good point, Chris. I think it's going to take a while for the pecking order to be figured out there. And I think that you guys even had this discussion the other night on T&T, and you're guys were all saying Ingram.

Yeah, they laughed at me that they're like, Zion's not touching the ball at the end of games. And I was like, okay, my bad. They all said Ingram. All of them. What about this storyline? What about this storyline? All the drama in Boston, Tatum leads the way. Tatum wins MVP 13 to 1.

There's a storyline there. I don't see it now. I mean, we haven't mentioned Luca either, the favorite. Luke is the favorite. Yeah. But we don't bet on the favorite. Yeah, of course. I'm not locking my money up for plus $4.50.

Yeah. Last one. What if the heat get number one seat again and Jimmy's not hurt? Jimmy right now is at 60 to 1. Oh, that's not a bad. That's not a bad bet. It's a little spicy. If you're taking a flyer of somebody you think could have a really good best player, best team, you know.

And typically, that has not been the case with the Okachiers, you know what I mean, which has been most similar to the Westbrook one was really the only. You know, you usually have to have one of the two best records in the league and be the best player on a team with one of the two best records in the league. And so, yeah, I mean, if you're trying to figure out, if you think Miami can be one of the two best records in the East, who's their best player, it's clearly him. Not a bad. Not bad. For 60 to one. Speaking of records and teams, which one will have more wins? the Brooklyn Nets

Fandul has their total at 50 and a half the Philadelphia 76ers they had their total at 51 Oh come Who finishes the year with more wins Come on, come on Philly might be the best team in the east

Yeah, come on Philly Speaking of that A few weeks ago I got Philly at plus 300 to win the Atlantic division Currently Boston is first To win the Atlantic at plus 140 Brooklyn is second

plus 220. Philly is third right now at plus 260. What is going, what, am I missing something? No. No. Okay. You're missing the, I like the odds. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's not a juiced up for a third. Yeah, what they want to put, you know, gather money on. But I mean, the truth of the matter is, anytime you've got to say, if it all works, you know me, I'm more of the sure thing. I don't need the if it all works or if it's. Well, then let me ask, you this. Two if it all works teams. New Orleans total is 44 and a half.

The Lakers total is 45. Who finishes the year with more wins? New Orleans. No question about it. And Zion, he should be an MVP candidate to throwback to what you just said earlier. He should be

even though Chris is right about that end game stuff being a factor there with Ingram and CJ. I think the Pelicans are going to be nasty. I've been high on it. high on them ever since the CJ trade happened. The fact Zion looked like he was playing the best defense he has since Duke in their preseason game, Ingram's going to come back better this year. CJ, Herb Jones, even looking more fluid as a shooter.

They're loaded, man. The Pelicans are loaded. They just need Zion to stay healthy. And if Zion's healthy, they could make a much further run in the playoffs than a lot of people are thinking right now. And not to mention, they have 10 plus first round draft picks that they can use to add pieces. during the season if necessary. So that's an X factor to consider

when factoring in what they could be by the end of the year because what they are today is what they could be in February, March, April, after the deadline. I don't think that the Lakers are going to give a crap

about the regular season. So that has to be handicapped in. You know what I mean? I watched them. I mean, I had people associated with them last year saying this is at the beginning of the year when people were showing

some dismay at how they had started and they were like, they are going to give out the minimal level of effort and still try to win games, which means stick around, turn it up for seven minutes in the fourth quarter. And I don't think they're good enough to do that. I don't think they're good enough to do that. Who is the third best player on the Lakers? Seriously, who is it?

If I lined them all up on a wall and I said, you track. I'm not going to be the one that says Kendrick. So I take, I take LeBron. I take LeBron, you take A.D. Kevin, who you got? Patrick Beverly. Jesus Christ. No, stop. I will say this. I will say this.

The Lakers, though, they do have a $50 million expiring contract. They do have those two first round picks that they really want to make a trade. A 50 million expiring contract. You would not. And by the way, I just wanted to see how much you would disrespect Russell Westbrook. It is ridiculous. To the east. To the east.

To the eastern conference. I just wanted to see. I knew he wouldn't take Russ. I knew it. I knew if I said. Because it's the wrong answer. I have the first pick. Lefko has the second.

You have the third. I say, I take LeBron. He takes Davis. You, you, Patrick Beverly. You are a hating ass, bro. Damn. But he does it with a smile and he's so kind about it.

Oh, my God. I'll tell you what. Russ impressed me and their preseason the game before night. He was cutting to the rim, hitting corner three-pointers. Darwin Ham got to him

in ways that I never could. Hey, by the way, Lefgoe could say whatever he wants. He knows he'll never sit at a TNT desk with him. With Russell Westbro? Never.

He won't talk to anyone. Wow, I wouldn't even know how to access him. Okay, in the east, two teams with a lot of hope. The Atlanta Hawks total is 45 and a half. The Cleveland Cavaliers total is 47 and a half. You do have a two-win lead there automatically built in for the calves,

but which team are you taken for more wins? I don't even think this is going to be close. I don't even think it's going to be close. The calves are going to have eight to ten more wins than Atlanta. Easy. Do you see an under for Atlanta of 45 and a half? I think the calves are going to be awesome. Ooh.

Awesome. Like I, everybody felt that way when the Mitchell thing happened. I don't know why anybody would cool off on that. I love Mobile. I love YouTube. So you like way over 47 and a half. They've got to fix a wing thing. Look, they had a home court advantage last year with a team that nobody cared about.

And I like the bet mix. You get Rubio back. You got Kevin Love. Like, all they did. was add to a team. They had this absolute free fall at the end of the year. Jared Allen got hurt. The defense went to hell.

They had all these injuries. Mowbly got banked up for a while. They were like four or five in the standing. They were one of our great stories of the NBA season. And then they had this free fall, the last 25 games into the postseason. What if the free fall doesn't happen? What if they remain?

And it's a young team that will care about regular season wins. And I think that, I think, I think Cleveland's going to be fantastic. I think they're a lot closer than you're giving it credit for, Chris. That DeJante Murray, Trey Young backcourt. Oh, who cares? It's just one preseason game. But DeJante Murray was nasty with that talent he had around him on Atlanta. And Trey Young pushed off ball, running him through screening actions.

That's like it could be the best version of Trey we've ever seen, the best version of the Jean-Pay Murray we've ever seen. Who else do you really like once you get past those guys? Well, I like John Collins. I like DeAndre Hunter. Colis still solid. Collins is going to be gone. You know Donovitch.

They still got solid talent on the El Kongwu coming off the bench. Really, they get depths. They have top-end talent. Both of those teams are really good. And I'd barely, like I'd slightly pick Cleveland. assuming Mowbly can come back and be healthly and continue improving. But that Atlanta team's really nice, man.

If Trey and DeJante really mesh the way they can, I love that combination. Really, it meshes in the preseason. We'll see. Trey has to have the ball. He's a ball. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't.

Trey needs to be pushed off ball. And the Hawks were right to get him the point guard that he himself wanted. He wanted to be paired up with Janté Murray. He says he's going to be more active of off ball. We're going to see the best Tray Young that we've ever seen before

because of the D.O.S. The best tray we've ever seen. Oh, you see the best version of every player ever. No, but yeah, because some of these teams are fine. Because Trey Young is seeing the lights. Guys, average 30-something points a game.

Give me a break. You're going to see the best version of. Yeah, and it was going nowhere. They'd never won a chance. They would never win a championship with Trey Young playing that style. Never, ever. Trey's got to be smart enough to know

that for me to win a championship, I need to be sharing the ball with other super talented players like DeJante Murray. And maybe this team isn't good enough. It probably isn't good enough. They aren't the best team in the East. But this for them is a step forward. And assuming Trey continues buying in with this, Trey's going to keep getting better because he did this at Oklahoma, Chris.

He played off ball then in college. DeJante Murray's overrated. I can't remember the last time I heard somebody talk and then went, Who cares? Who cares? That was incredible. Okay, we're going to do one more team comparison. Would you rather it be an East West or two teams in the West?

Let's do Team Team of the West because we did the East thing earlier. Okay. Phoenix and all their drama, 52 and a half. The Clippers, and if they can put it together, 52 and a half, Suns are Clippers, more wins. Oh, it's not, to me again, I'm very confident in this, Clippers. Because I think even if you lose, even if you have Kauai, they're going to be unbelievable. Even if they have Kauai for, let's say, 50 games.

Let's put some men for 60 games, 50 or 60 games. They got wings on wings on wings on wings. Like, you want to talk about depth. My God, what they can throw at you. And I'm not even counting on John Wall being something more than, you know, somebody sets a table. for them. But let's assume he does have a set the table year where he could just kind of run things. I think the other thing is I was blown away. When I watched that team in person last year, I watched them twice last year in person, and both times I came on the mismatch and I said,

how in the F do they win? How? How do they win? How do they have these wins? I think Tailu is great. I do. They suck. And they had like 40-something wins last year. So if I'm adding in Paul George, if I'm adding in Kawhi, if I'm adding in Norm Powell and Covington, I, yeah, man, I think, and there's just way too much drama with the Phoenix thing. The Aiton thing is a mess. The, the owner thing is a mess. The Crowder thing is a mess. I don't like it. I don't like it. The Clippers have like 12 or 13 guys. who could be in any NBA rotation. Any. I mean, like, you can have a guy out and just plug someone else,

and their depth is insane. And you think about them, you know, I'd pick them too for what it's worth over the suns and the wins total. But like playoffs for the Clippers, they could have like three different eight-man rotations depending on the series and the matchup that optimizes their chances, which is why they should be a potential series.

They should be a potential final spec, and they might be my final spec. I haven't determined that yet, but they're crazy. They are tied for third in the championship odds. Boston is still the favorite, according to Fanduil, plus 600, 6 to 1. Milwaukee is second at plus 650. Three teams tied for plus 700. Brooklyn, the Clippers and Golden State.

Phoenix is at plus 1, the Sixers, 16 to 1. Miami, 18 to 1. Denver, who I know a lot of people. alike at 20 to 1, Memphis at 24 to 1. Verno, are you ready to make that decision? We're about a week away from the start of the regular season. Are you ready? You like that?

You like 24? Just going off what you were just saying. Dallas, 27 to 1? The best odds are the Warriors on that. That's the best on what you just listed off. What do they listed at? The what team? 7-1.

But I mean, how far down are they? They're tied for 3rd. with Brooklyn and the Clippers. Oh, okay. Why is Brooklyn so high up? Are this Vegas watching them? Ben Simmons isn't even screening for Kyrie. Yeah.

It's a little, it's a little. Katie was complaining after their second preseason game, saying they liked the way they played, except for the fact they came out healthy. I don't like the way that I see it is, Brooklyn and the Lakers, I feel like the sports books always reduce their odds because they get so much public money

that it's not about, their belief in where they're going to finish. It's more like if there's value in the nets, so many people bet it just because of KD, that it's more about, I think, evening it out for the books and the money. And let me just say, Memphis has been insanely disrespected on that.

Let me tell you something. The closest series the Warriors played, go look at the numbers. The closest series the Warriors played was against the Grizzlies. And that was without, that's with Morant getting hurt. that's without their starting lineup playing one minute together.

They played them closer than the Boston Celtics. Why are the Boston Celtics favorite? 24? I've never understood this entire offseason why the Celtics are the runaway favorite to win everything. I mean, I get it. Like they're very young and they had a good core, but even after the coach, like...

Well, they also have a day of a guy on the... That has to be mentioned. The guy that is now going to be the head coach, say whatever you want about him. Nobody else would have hired him to be their head coach. The jazz didn't interview Missoula. But he didn't get hired? He was a filist.

But he didn't get hired. No way, I'll just say I was at the closeout game for the Celtics Nets and I had pretty good seats. And the thing that I left that arena shocked by was the nonverbal communication between EMA and Marcus Smart. It was like they were speaking a language that nobody else understood. Like, Smart would be like during a free throw pacing around the three point line.

And EMA would kind of look at them and like give them like a handset signal and Smart would then talk to the team. And it was like, you know, you're like your linebacker in football. Yeah, yeah. And we also got the best version of Marcus Smart last year. And Robert Williams is out for all this time. There's just,

I don't understand why Boston's still the favorite with everything that's going on. They're a great team. I just, it's just shocking that no one has, how Milwaukee hasn't jumped over them or Golden State's not there. It just hasn't made sense. Yep.

All right. Last thing. What you got? Last thing. Some call it the play bad for the French lad. Some say it brick for Vic. Some say it's Luzorama for Wenbaum Yama. Shout out to Reddit for all of those nicknames. I like it. I like it. There are six teams projected to finish with less than 27 wins. Of course, somebody else could jump in the mix, but this is the bottom of the barrel in the NBA. Not who gets the first. pick, not who has the worst record, but who in the end when the lottery balls are pulled will get it. This is a prediction for next June. Orlando is at 26 and a half, Utah, Oklahoma City, Houston, the Spurs, and the Pacers. Of those six teams, or you can throw in a wild card, what team is Victor Wembañana drafted to next year? I'm down to two.

I'd say either, I think it's either Utah or San Antonio. And I think either we get the San Antonio gets its Duncan. First time they've, you know, committed to being crap since then. And it worked out for him then. And now it worked out for them again, you know, all these years later. And then you get these pictures of the, you know, Tim Duncan with his dreadlocks and his weight gain standing next to one by

pyama. Like I can just see all that happening. and then everybody being like, did you see how much bigger that guy is? Or the, we shipped off a seven-foot French guy so that we could get a seven-foot French guy in Utah. You like the parallel story. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'll say San Antonio ends up with him. I think they, look, you only have a 14% chance. So you have an 86% chance of not getting Victor Wimbayama. So this is why I'm against tanking in the first place. and everybody's all got their erections in a row on tanking. I think it's ridiculous. What an awful sight. For an 86.

I don't want to go to that party at all in a row. 86% chance. Oh, look, trust me. There's flyers out. You know, you see like those NBA All-Star Flyers? It's called Draft Sword Fight, and it's got Kevin O'Connor off the flyers. Oh, my goodness. Wow.

Draftsword fight. Show up. We can talk about how awesome it is to suck. Oh, my God. It's time for Kevin O'Connor to unsheathe his pick for who gets Wembe on Yama. I say this first. Okay.

Drink that water. Oh, my God. I was going to say the jazz, but he already made the, he already made the case for Utah with the French connection there. I'll go with the Houston Rockets. get Victor Webbenyama with Jabari Smith and Jalen Green that big three would be so nice

here's my question for you guys let's say Oklahoma City gets the fourth pick but they take all of those first round picks that they have in the future and they go hey Utah no chance San Antonio you got them we'll give you seven first round

picks for the right to draft Victor Wenbaniana I don't think it would be I don't think it would be Utah or San Antonio that would say yes to that. But maybe like, let's say like an Indiana, a Charlotte, a team that wants to win. If you also get Shea Gildes Alexander and some other pieces and Lou Dord. We'll give you a six first. We'll give you a Loodort. We'll give you a Shay.

We'll give you a chat. Presti's going nuts. I'll give you a chat too. So, Verno, you would not trade Victor Wenbagnana for any. Put me on record. He will not get. whoever gets the first pick is not traded back. But what is there, is there a line?

No. Yeah, everybody's got a price. There is. There is with Markell Fultz. There's not with Victor Wembeyeh. Is there a line, though, if there's injury concern? Oh, for sure. He's seven feet four.

Exactly. He's seven four. Look at the history of players that height. So few of them stay healthy. Almost all of them, especially guys that have a head of use of deal with injuries. You get six or seven first row of things from OKC. and then Victor gets hurt. Do you know what those picks are going to be?

I'm just... We're all just doing hypothetical. And also, it might even be 10 or 12 because if OKC deals 10 or 12 first, they still have like seven left. They still have funny left. Well, and look, the future, you know, at the risk of being prisoner of the moment,

we always talk about these things like it's the absolute best version, right? Hope Springs Eternal, what's a draft pick. Go try to put Chad Holmgren on the trade block right now and see if you get what you would have gotten, you know, draft. Good point. Yeah, that's a good point. What do you think versus what you could have gotten draft night or after that first summer league game versus what you could get right now?

Price of the brick went down substantially. It's going to be crazy to see which teams, like OKC rockets, all these teams are going to suck, right? Which teams are going to try to tank out of the playoffs, out of the plan to get lottery odds rather than get into the postseason? That's where things could get ugly towards the end of the year. Oh, that's interesting. And then we're going to be talking about rule changes and how the league can address this type of tanking. Yeah.

That's what's going to happen. I didn't even consider that. No, you're right. Where it's like the team that could be in the play yet is just like there's no chance. You know what I mean? We'd rather, we would rather not be nine. We'd rather not be nine than try to win right now and be nine.

And get a 1.7% chance of getting Victor Wenbong. Or does Portland decide? I love Dane and I appreciate Dame's loyalty but why are we staying loyal to Damien Lillard when we can be getting a lot of your odds? That might be a discussion. It might not happen. But I'm just saying.

You can do it after he breaks Clyde Drexer's record. He said he cared about that. Yeah. When's he supposed to beat that? Is that like a timeline on that? I don't know. Just let him break that record and then he can go on his merry way. And their best player can be Jeremy Grant.

I love that you just compared Chet Hogan to a brick, the price of the brick went down. Oh, he's not too far away. He's only 500-ish points away from beating Clydez's record. That'll happen early in the year, about before the deadline.

Fair enough. All right, you're going to be able to watch Adam Lefcoe every Tuesday night during the NBA season starting in January. He's going to be on there with Candace Barker, Shaquille O'Neal and Jamal Crawford, awesome edition. We love Tomah.

Everybody loves Jamal Crawford. I don't know anyone that doesn't like him. Everybody loves him. And the way that he touches all the generations, Lamello Ball says he styled his game after Jamal Crawford, the fact that he was the first athlete that Jay-Z was like, I want you to wear my shoes. Like Michael Jordan gave him a co-sign. He's got the coolest highlights ever.

That's what he is. Jamal Crawford is cool. He's cool. He is cool. And what's crazy is look at a picture of him now and then compare it to a picture of his rookie year. He looks like he's 20 years old. Oh, I do.

It's unbelievable. And he can still get 20 in any given moment. Jamal Crawford and Chris Vernon, very similar and that they have a usefulness to them that's undeniable. That's us. Guys, this has been a blast. I appreciate you. This is awesome.

All right. Thanks to Kevin O'Connor. Thanks to Adam Lefko. Thanks to our executive producer Jesse Lopez. and we will talk to you next week. We'll be back on our regular schedule. Excited about a Tuesdays and Fridays.