The Ringer NBA Show - Annual GM Survey Takeaways | Real Ones

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Howard is joined by The Ringer’s Michael Pina to review the results from this year’s GM survey. They go over some of the top results, including who will win the NBA Finals (09:13), Eastern and Western Conference standings (17:39), MVP (34:44), and more surprising responses (43:32). Email us your mailbag questions at [e-mail]. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Howard Beck Guest: Michael Pina Producers: Jonathan Kermah and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello football fans. Shield Capadia here to tell you that the Ringer NFL show is the best place to be for fun and in-depth analysis of all your favorite teams and players throughout the 2024 season. Join me, Stephen Ruiz and Deonté Lee twice a week for an insightful preview of the weekly slate of games every Friday, followed by the Big Monday Recap Show where we delve into our patented hot takes on all the NFL action. And don't forget about Wednesdays, which will feature me, a special QB segment from Stephen, a breakdown of the biggest storylines around the league from our own Nora Princiatti, plus much more.

You won't want to miss any of it, so make sure you subscribe to the Ringer NFL show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast and follow at Ringer NFL on Instagram, TikTok X, and YouTube. What up? It's The Real Ones. I'm Howard Beck, Senior Writer, at The Ringer. Coming to you on a Tuesday afternoon, October 8th, Why? Why am I actually talking about day and timing? It matters this time. As we record this,

there's, of course, a massive, historic, very scary hurricane bearing down on Florida. Our friend Raja Bell lives in the Miami area with his family. They are bracing for its effects, and it's not clear yet how hard it may hit them or whether they'll need to evacuate or what they may need to do. So Raja taking the day off from the pod, needless to say, our thoughts, with Raja, his family, and everyone in the Hurricanes Path in Florida. Be safe, everybody. Hope folks got out. And our buddy Logan Murdoch, of course, remains out on paternity leave.

So with me today is my pal, Ringer Senior Writer, Michael Pina. Michael, how are you, sir? I'm fantastic. I'm happy to pinch it. And I echo all of your well wishes to everyone in Florida and in the path of this really scary situation. Yeah. Every time I see the graphics, as I'm scrolling Twitter, it just gets bigger and scarier. And when meteorologists are saying things like, I've never seen anything like this, this is scary as hell.

It kind of makes me shudder every time. Pina coming at us today with the Dodgers-ish hat, except it's Larry David? I'm sorry, on a lighter note, I got to know. What's behind the Larry David, L.A. Dodgers-ish cap? Well, I love Larry David, huge fan, unimpeachable public figure. And I, that's pretty much it, to be honest with you. I didn't know this hat existed. I guess it's more about the fact that this hat is just a unique graphic construction that I was not a wearer of us.

It's a solid conversation starter. So, you know, it worked here as proven evident by you commenting on it on the pod. So great success. Yeah. Fantastic. I love it. That's a great hat. Second Seinfeld reference for me today because the first one was that this is, I've backed

into this the wrong way. So last night, instead of watching preseason basketball, I went to the live show of the rewatchables, our friends Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, and Sean Van. fantasy where they were doing Silence of the Lambs. Funny anyway, because you and I just spoke recently a couple weeks ago when we were out talking about horror movies which you love and which I do not. Yes. And I had not seen Silence of the Lambs.

This is going to come back to Seinfeld eventually, trust me. I had not seen Silence of the Lambs since it came out in 91. I didn't realize it had been that long, by the way. I didn't realize it was that long ago that it came out even. By the way, folks, eventually we're going to get to the GM survey. But give me a moment here. So I'm rewatching because it's the rewatchables. I'm not going to go to the rewatchable show about Silence of the Lambs without having

rewatched Silence of the Lambs, a movie that I had not seen in like 30-something years. And I'm watching. And among the things that I noticed was among these SWAT team members late in the movie is the guy who played Mr. Kruger in Seinfeld. I did like just, he's very briefly shown. And I was proud to have caught that because during the podcast, when Bill is going through all the faces that are like this, just, you know, cameos or just somebody who made an appearance and you know that face from somewhere else or whatever, he missed that one. But I caught it. So I had to text him today to know that one.

Daniel von Bargan is Mr. Kruger and the SWAT team guy. Daniel von Bargan, phenomenal freaking name, by the way. So there's that. my hottest take on Silence of the Lambs? Are you ready for this? I hope it's positive, but continue. Great performances more than a great film. Okay.

I mean, you know, the disappointment in your face is so profound. You know what one best picture, best director, best actor, best actress. I know, I know. It fucking cleaned up. Like, one of the most decorated films

of all time at the Oscars. And I'm watching it the other night going, huh, not sure this held up. I'll just say real quick that, friend of the show, obviously, fellow, our colleague, Rob Mahoney. We went karaoke singing when we were in Sweden last summer.

And he sang, I hope I'm not outing him. I'm pretty sure he said this publicly, I hope, whatever, it's not a big deal. He sang American Girl by Tom Petty. And the whole time he was performing it, I imagine that he was a serial killer because there's the scene. Every time I hear that song, I think of the scene, Buffalo Bill. I don't want to, you know, I don't know if I'm spoiling Silence of the Lands for people. Fast forward, you know, a minute, folks, if you have not yet seen a movie from 1991. Yeah, the song has an important place in a scary scene that's very creepy.

And so shout out to Rob, who is a wonderful, congenial man. But in that moment, I was petrified of him. Fair enough. what did you sing that night? And did it scar raw equally? I absconded. I did not participate. I'm not a big karaoke guy.

I will just say that the only time I ever did karaoke in front of a group of people and where it was like just me instead of like just a group of people all raucously singing together was a Bleacher report outing many years ago. And because I didn't want to actually have to sing, sing, I kind of, this was people considered this cheating. But I thought it was fine. I did sabotage by the Beastie Boys because then I could basically just like yell, scream, sing instead of sing. So anyway, all right, enough of that.

The real GM, the real GM survey, not to be confused with Real GM, a fine website with basketball things on it. The GM survey, one of the great annual rights of the NBA calendar, that published this morning. and so much to mine from the GM survey. One of the great things about the GM survey, Michael, of course, is that it just demonstrates year after year that the people who are paid literally millions and millions of dollars who have vast staffs of cap experts and scouts and European scouts and G-League scouts and scouting directors of their scout, they don't know anything more than we do.

Like, their guesses are as good as ours. Our guesses are as good as theirs. and they are just as likely to be wrong as we are. Yay us. Well, one of them, not to spoil the list, but I'm sure you're referencing the person who thought Victor when Mniamo was the best center in the NBA, which is just like a fantastic vote and really adds credibility to the list, but I'm sure we'll get to that eventually in our conversation.

I also love the fact that the votes are always broken into, and this is not, by the way, shout out to John Schumann, our buddy from MBA.com, who has been doing the NBA survey for years. This survey has been around since 2002. I don't know if Shue has been doing it every year since 2002. He's a bit younger than I am. Like 2002, he might have been a junior high for all I know. Shue does a great job with the survey,

but I will note I find it amusing that the NBA, when they publish it, it's always percentages for the votes and not the actual number. And of course, like, 3% means one person voted for a person. And like 7% was basically two people. So it's, but if you put the raw numbers, it would look kind of, I don't know, weird because it's such a small number. But anyway, let's start with a few of the big categories.

And then you and I, we decided we would just have, we'd have some fun with what struck us. But let's hit the big top of the line headline type categories first because they're interesting. So which team will win the 2025 NBA finals? 83% of the GMs said the Boston Celtics. Never mind that we haven't had a repeat champion since 1718 when the Warriors went back to back. And we are in the historic period of absolute parity. 83% of the GMs nevertheless pick the Celtics, which I get. Not disagreeing, just saying interesting considering.

In a distant, distant second, the Oklahoma City Thunder with 13%. Third, the Dallas Mavericks with 3%, which, to remind you, 3% is exactly one vote. no one else was picked. So no votes for the Knicks, the Sixers, the Bucks, the Nuggets, the Timberwolves.

So that's, it's interesting. Now, these are mostly one-line ballots. I should note that too. So before people start with their grievances about, I can't believe nobody said the Knicks

or nobody said the Sixers, it's a one-line ballot. They don't get to do one, two, three, or one, you've got to pick one team. And it's one answer on almost all of these survey questions. So, Michael, I'm sure you just have severe disagreements with them picking the Celtics.

I don't. I do think that the Celtics are going to repeat as champions, or at least should be selected and given an opportunity to defend the crown with the fact that, based on the fact that they brought back the entire roster, to say nothing of the, you know, the manufactured or real, chips on the shoulder, proverbial chips on the shoulder for Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum from what happened over the summer. But I think just fundamentally when you look at the team and, you know, Joe Missoula has this ability to really kind of puncture their egos by pitching them on like,

this could be the last hurrah for us as a unit. You know, we brought everybody back. We have new ownership though. The future is very murky here. And like, let's go out and do what we did last season, prove that, you know, winning 64 games in the regular season, losing three games in the postseason was not a fluke due to our opponents having various injuries. And so I think there's like this, this really unique source of motivation for an NBA champion. And, you know, for those reasons and the fact that I just think that, you know, when your best players are also getting better, as opposed to being already smack-zab in the middle of their prime or on the decline, yeah, I just think it's kind of a no-brainer that the Celtics would be picked by general managers to win the NBA championship.

It's definitely a no-brainer. I always say at this time of year, unless something terrible has befallen the defending champion or they lost a major piece, they've earned the benefit of being the favorites. And not just on principle, but most of the time in actuality, right? Very little or very seldom does something happen over the summer where the defending champion suddenly seems like they're only the second or third or fourth best team. And this is one of those cases where the Celtics, as you note, they brought back everyone. They're the rare champion that has chips on their shoulder for various reasons, mostly to do with the Olympics, which is weird, but also cool. I like a champion that still feels like they have something to prove. I say this all the time about those Warriors teams, or after the Warriors win their first championship,

no one comes back after a championship and increases their win total. It doesn't happen very often, much less win 73 games than the most in NBA history. And I loved what they did that year, if for no other reason then, rather than have the usual championship hangover or contented with the achievement or whatever it may be, however you want to define that, they came back with an absolute fury the next season. And I think the Celtics are set up to potentially do that too. Like the only real asterisk or caveat you could put on it as well,

we don't know how long poor Zingis will be out and how much that will help or hurt them. Al Horford's got a lot of miles on him. What are they going to do at center in the meantime? There's really no other holes to punch there. I think the most surprising thing with the GM survey is that maybe that they didn't all pick the Celtics. but to the extent that there were other teams, only two other teams that got votes, this is not a knock on the Mavericks. They were in the finals.

But I think you'd find more GMs or more NBA people who would pick the Mavericks to miss the finals entirely than to win the championship. That's not a – yeah. They had a good summer. They had a good offseason. I like a lot of what the Mavericks did. I think they absolutely have a chance to go back to the finals. I think like everybody else on Earth probably, I think the Thunder are the clear favorites in the West. doesn't mean they'll come out.

But if there was a third team that was going to get a stray vote, that it was Dallas and not say, like, maybe it was just easier in the West to pick a different team because it's more unsettled there and the defending champ is not there. But I would have thought somebody would have maybe picked the Knicks or the Sixers maybe. I guess the Nuggets probably slipped too much.

And now Minnesota without towns, there's more uncertainty. So it's hard in the West in particular to pick somebody else. other than the Thunder. But yeah, one straight vote for the Mavericks, I thought was interesting. I think breaking down each conference and just kind of looking at who picked to at least go to the finals

was a little, caught my eye, something's caught my eye a little bit. I mean, particularly the one team in the Eastern Conference that was picked to go to the finals besides Boston was the Cleveland Cavaliers. So that's odd. You have...

All right, hold. you talking about where we see Eastern Conference rankings? The way I understand that category, Michael, is that it's picking the order of finish. No, no, no. So where it says first, it says 3% next to Cleveland. Yeah, I think that means finish in first, doesn't it? That means go to the finals, right? I mean, it's order of finish is not necessarily like correlate.

Like I've been saying that, as you know this summer, I could see the Knicks having the best record in the East but not necessarily coming out of the east. Listen, you may be right. If the person who picked Cleveland, again, 3%, so it's one GM, might actually believe that they're going to come out of the east. I don't know.

Maybe they just think they're going to have the best record. But it is interesting to me, as somebody who keeps saying, I think the Knicks could have the best record in the East because I think the Celtics could have a championship hangover. And the Knicks, because they're coached by Tibbs and are going to try to win every game, I just, and I think they're set up to potentially win

the regular season, but not necessarily go to the finals. Regardless, I'm a moron, but yes, but I still no, I still think that it is interesting that the Mavericks are the team that is picked as the

third team versus the Nuggets with Nicola Yoko, who's the best player, or I still think that the Timberals are going to have a fantastic season and, you know, we had a conversation last week after the the Carl Towns Julius Randall trade where I was pretty down on it from Minnesota's perspective. But I've thought a lot about that trade.

And I do like how it gives them a little bit more flexibility in different types of matchups as opposed to it might have dropped them down if they have to face Denver. But I think Minnesota got a little bit better maybe for a matchup against Dallas, for example, who beat them in five games. But besides that, yeah, I, you know, there's some other teams. in the West that I would pick either right alongside Dallas or ahead of Dallas as well. So that's an interesting one. Yeah, no, it's the Thunder and then everybody else in a way. And I don't mean it's like it's a massive gap, but just the Thunder are clearly the most talented and deepest team, I think, in the West.

And there's a lot of teams you could, I don't know how to, I don't even know how to order them two through seven at this stage. So speaking of ordering the team, so the aforementioned picks by the GMs of how the Eastern Conference will finish. Went like this. Boston, number one, followed by New York, Philly, Cleveland, ahead of Milwaukee,

Orlando at 6th, Indiana at 7. A couple things left out to me there. To me, there's a clear top four in the east, but it's Milwaukee instead of Cleveland. And that's not a huge gap, but it's interesting the GMs went with Cleveland over Milwaukee. And I think it's interesting that it went with Orlando over Indiana because, again,

I think the Pacers are better than the Magic, but I'm seeing a lot of magic love these days. Like, there's definitely a groundswell of enthusiasm about the magic's trajectory and then augmented by the pickup of Contabius called Will Pope. But really interesting kind of four through six, four through seven there. Also interesting, the East ended at seven, which means only seven teams got votes on what was, I think, a one through eight exercise. And, oh, who's missing? The Miami heat. No Miami heat. So, like, it doesn't matter how many runs from seventh or eight seeds to finals or whatever else the magic have pulled out of their butts in recent years. Seems like the league is off of the heat. That doesn't surprise you, does it? No. It doesn't.

I just think it's interesting. And besides that, considering it only takes one stray vote to get three percent and pop up on one of these questions on one of the, you know, that nobody gave the heat like a quick nod. It's interesting. Yeah. I'm one of the people who is driving the bus bandwagon with Orlando Magic on the windshield. I'm a huge fan of everything that's happening there and love their continuity, love their team chemistry, love how their identity is on the defensive end, and that will travel every single

night. And I love their depth. So when you factor all that into Franz Wagner and Paulo Boncaro, presumably taking major steps forward this season, at least in the case for Paulo, I think he can make a – he was an All-Star last season. I think he can get a lot better and a lot more efficient as a player. and if Jonathan Isaac is healthy also, just defensively, I think they'll be an absolute,

an absolute monster. So I like Orlando in the regular season and wouldn't shock me if they finish top three, top four in the regular season standings. Yeah. Wow. I'm not, I've been pumping the brakes on the magic for, I don't know how many years in a row.

I'm just never quite sold on them. And obviously, this is the last couple years of their most promising time in the last, however, you know, whatever, more than a decade. And I get it. I just progression's not always linear with young stars. Bancaro's lack of efficiency does alarm me. Some of the other advanced stats on him have been a little meh.

But that happens sometimes with young stars who are still rounding out and figuring out how to be more efficient scores, better playmakers, better defenders, just more effective overall. And yeah, he makes another leap. Then they're possibly right in the zone that you're talking about. about. But one of the ways you make your stars, your non, non-primary ball handling type stars more efficient is to get them a great point guard and they still haven't really filled that need. Caldwell Pope's a great pickup for all kinds of other reasons, but it's not solving that,

that vacancy. And so I don't know. I'm still not completely sold. I guess I'm just more sold on the Pacers, full season of Siakum, full season presumably of Tyrese Halliburton being healthy. He's been absolutely incredible. Great coach, a lot of depth and good young players. I mean, tons of guys who can take another step there. I just think the Pacers are more complete, and I guess I'm more confident in a team that has a point guard of Halliburton's caliber leading them and pulling it all together than I am with a team that has the scores,

but doesn't necessarily have the guy who pulls it all together and organizes you. So, but yeah, I think I may be in the minority there on Pacers over Magic, And I don't have either of them in the top four or even top five. Like to me, if it's Milwaukee, Cleveland in some order is four or five. I don't expect one of the young teams, meaning Magic and Pacers, to crack that upper tier just yet. They may be a year off. So I will say with a week to go in the regular season last year,

the Magic were 46 and 32, which was tied for the third best record in the Eastern Conference with the New York Knicks. And obviously they finished 47 and 35 and had the sixth seed. But they were right there. I know it's like very jumbled. But they were right there last year. And I just think KCP is wonderful. And it's really fascinating.

The Pacers magic, just how they are the exact opposite of each other. Like best offense, terrible defense, really crappy offense, amazing defense. So and both have depth, both have youth, both Benedict Matherin for your case for the Pacers. is also someone who just wasn't even a part of their run to the conference finals after being one of the best rookies in his class. And he's healthy now. And that should be a really fascinating piece to implement for them. Yeah. And breakthroughs by guys like Nemhard who like a year ago at this time who was talking about Andrew Nemhardt and he was, you know, one of the just bright spots of the postseason. T.J. McConnell got a big extension this offseason. So it's, you know, the Pacers are in

great shape. The magic are really fun. It's great that the East finally has more than a a couple of really interesting teams to talk about and watch. Unfortunately, after this group, it falls off a fucking cliff. And most of the rest of the East will be unwatchable, but whatever. Western Conference, are we good with East for the moment? I think you put the stamp on it there. Yay, Bulls, Hux, Hornets, Pistons, Nets. Western Conference standings, the GMs, by,

you know, again, a landslide, have Oklahoma City as number one. Minnesota number two, followed by Denver, Dallas, Phoenix at five, Memphis at six, team that a lot of people think are going to jump up a lot higher after an injury-plagged year. And then seven and eight are New Orleans and Golden State. Notably not in the top eight, either Los Angeles team or the Sacramento Kings, California, you've taken a beating. Anything leaping out at you from this group? And again, with the West, like, dude, after Oklahoma, almost any order of teams would not surprise me.

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, like, the Houston Rockets could be in this jumble. Clippers, Lakers, you mentioned. I mean, if you just look at the West, like, the only team that I'm counting, actually, there's two teams I'm counting out, the Portland Trailblazers and the Utah Jazz. And notably, I'm not counting out the San Antonio Spurs yet. I want to watch them play basketball for a little bit and want to see what is going on with Victor and how Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes kind of, you know, the turn to normalcy, what that does to them right now.

But yeah, it's just a total jumble for sure. It's like the best way I could put it behind Oklahoma City. I'm extremely high on the Memphis Grizzlies. And part of that is because, I don't know, I was extremely high on them in 2022, and they won 56 games or whatever it was. And I think they have a lot of, you know, a lot of really interesting and critical ingredients

to be great during the regular season. They know how they want to play. Zach Ead is really fascinating player, who I think fits perfectly with what they want to do offensively. And they reshuffled, Taylor Jenkins' coaching staff and brought in this guy who I don't want to butcher his name. I'm not sure how to pronounce it,

but he was a coach in France who his team's offensive rating was like 127 or something, which is like, it kind of boggles the mind and I was watching footage of how they played the other day. And then I watched their preseason game, Memphis's preseason game,

where they beat the Dallas Mavericks. And their assist rate in that game was like 83.1. Like, they were moving. Like, it was just a lot of, like, their spacing is going to be an issue for sure. But if you are constantly moving when you don't have the ball, you're constantly setting screens, off ball screens, you know, Verrajao screens, ghost screens, just constant movement and chaos. You can do a lot of crazy things when you have talent like John Morant, who's one of the fastest dudes alive with the basketball on his hands. And Desmond Bain, who's one of my favorite players to watch in the entire NBA.

So I love Memphis. and I think they're going to be really hungry this year. It's funny because I feel like the pundit class, that would be us, are higher on the Grizzlies to make this big breakthrough or bounce back than the GMs are, right? The GMs have them, as I said, sixth. And I understand the enthusiasm from we, the pundit class for all the things that you just enumerated.

And, you know, last year was just a disaster injury-wise. and of course they've gone through all kinds of just chaos with jaw and guns and Instagram and stuff. It makes them, I think, hard to assess, too, because when they had that second place finish a couple seasons ago, it was a down year in the West. That was the year that Memphis and Sacramento finished two, three. And with, you know, whatever, I think they both were in the high 40s and wins. Maybe Memphis had 50, 51 and the Kings had 47, 48. It was something like that.

So they were really good but not great. and they were high in the standings because the West was down that year, and now the West has gotten a lot tougher. And I'm just not sure personally where to slot the Grizzlies. And I don't trust their health because, like, jaw got hurt in the first preseason game the other night and was very curt with the media afterward about, I think it was an ankle saying just like,

that's fine, it's fine, it's fine. But he plays such a punishing style reminiscent of Iverson back in the day where you're just constantly crashing into guys and challenging the bigs. And it's what we love about his game. makes him so much fun to watch, but it's also what makes it very scary just in terms of his longevity and his health because you get banged up that way. And it takes a toll. Jaron Jackson Jr.'s already kind of nursing stuff. I can't remember what his thing is, but like he's heard every year. I just, I usually say my rule of thumb, I think you've heard me say this. My general rule of thumb is

that in October, I'm just assuming health, unless it's somebody like Kauai Leonard who has chronic issues and every year is almost automatic to miss a third of the season because the knee is never getting better. I don't mean guys who like, like, Embed misses a lot, but like it's something different every year, right? Like, it's not a chronic thing, different category. With the Grizzlies, it's just, there's just such a, they're two most important guys, arguably two most, I think Jaron Jackson Jr's their second most important guy, are seemingly always banged up. And then there are, yes, the other issues shooting and spacing and that stuff. Phoenix at five was interesting because they haven't been great since Durant got there.

Maybe that's a big vote of confidence in Tyos Jones as the new point guard or in Budenholzer as the new head coach. There were six GMs voting for Denver, Dallas, and Phoenix, two votes apiece for them to finish first. So Oklahoma got all the first place votes except for two that went to Denver. two to Dallas, two to Phoenix. I thought that was semi-interesting. And I will just say one other quick note from me, and if you've got anything else in the West, let me know. Golden State at 8 is interesting.

It's one vote. 3% got them at 8. I was talking to a scout yesterday who was basically saying, listen, not predicting the Warriors are a contender, just saying they've got a chance to be really, really good this season, to be not just, as Steph Curry said, a relevant team, but a problem,

as the kids say. Like a team that's going to get in the playoffs and maybe give some teams a run for their money. And I'm with them. I like the way the Warriors kind of redistributed the money that went out when they lost Clay Thompson

and they picked up Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson and Buddy Healed. Their young guys showed some real promise last season, Pachemski and Trace Jackson Davis, Cominga obviously. There's just potential for not a Warriors renaissance of the mid-2010s,

but just to be really, really good. Steff is still MVP caliber. Dremont's looking pretty good. So I think the Warriors can finish higher than eighth, is what I'm saying. I could see them as a top six team with one of the automatic playoff spots. I agree. I think that it's okay to be optimistic.

about the Warriors coming into this season. I think they for sure have question marks, but I do like a lot of their off-season moves. I thought that replacing Clay Thompson with De Anthony Melton, Buddy Healed, like that's a lot of good shooting, and I think that Kyle Anderson is a really smart addition and can let you play different,

like a different, I don't know, different types of tempos and... Meaning very, very slow. Very, exactly, very slow. but also like, he's just a very, he's a very cerebral player. I think he'll fit in really well there. You can play him at point guard. So he's, as he did in Minnesota last season.

So he's just a, he's a pro. I think he'll be really good. For me, I think it just comes down to like comminga and sort of, you know, is comming are going to start? Is he going to come off the bench? Is he going to be okay with that given that they did not give him a contract extension? So that's a. a little bit of a question mark there that I would keep my eye on.

But if things are copacetic with him on the court and off the court, then yeah, I think that this team could surprise a lot of people during the regular season. I think that the one team, I think I mentioned them at the top, the Houston Rockets. That's the team that I would not be surprised would make a little bit of a jump this season after winning,

I think, 41 games last year. Yeah, that one big push toward the end. Yeah, there's just a little bit of a jump this season after winning, so much young talent there and they also have just, you know, this ability to add via trade with a lot of assets. And so it'll be just, it'll be really interesting to see how they kind of coalesce as this young group super athletic. Emma O'Doka, I think, is one of the better coaches in the NBA and proved it last season. So they're a team that I think could make a, make some make some noise this year.

I get the enthusiasm people have for the Rockets again. With young teams, I'm usually much more conservative. Like, I'm going to be too late more often by far than being too early on saying this team is ready to break through. And I'm not there with the Rockets yet. And in part, it's because when you look at the teams ahead of them,

the Grizzlies are going to jump from lottery team to playoff team. Pretty much everybody agrees on that. Wherever they fall, top four, top six, top eight, whatever, the Grizzlies are going to be in the playoff field. So somebody already has done. getting knocked out from last season. Maybe that's the Clippers. Maybe that's the Pelicans.

I'm a Pelican skeptic, to be honest. And I love, I just think they have a lot of questions. All right. So that's one team out. Let's say it's the Pelicans. That's one team out. And then for the Rockets to also crash the playoff party, now the Clippers have to go too.

You've already written recently about why you still stubbornly believe in the Clippers, so you can't abandon them now. It's on the ringer.com. I have proof. So I just, the rockets are really interesting and evolving and fun. I just don't know who they're better then of the 10 teams that finished ahead of them in the standings last season. I just don't know who they're ready to beat. And they've got the Grizzlies leapfrogging them from behind most likely.

Skepticism is fair. I mean, I think this whole conference could be decided by a sprained ankle to a rotation player. You know, like it's just going to be really tight. All right. One more category I wanted to hit before. we just kind of bounce back and forth with things that just generally jumped out at us from the survey. The survey, by the way, this is the annual NBA GM survey. Our buddy John Schumann, MBA.com puts it together.

It is at NBA.com if you want to go look at the whole thing. MVP, of course, we have to hit MVP. It's never too soon to start talking about the MVP. Who will win the 2025 MVP? According to the GM's, Shea Gilgis Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder with 40% of the vote. followed by Luca Donchich with 30%. And then it's a three weights high. Joelle Embed, Nicola Yokic, and Jason Tatum, each with 7%.

So that's two votes apiece. Also receiving votes, Janice on a Dekumbo, Jalen Brown. That's fascinating. Two Celtics in the getting votes here. And Anthony Edwards. So Shea is an interesting choice. not not not criticizing it or doubting it in any way just an interesting choice and there's a lot of different ways to interpret all this because MVP has never or very rarely is it just about one

player's outstanding season your team's success has a lot to do with it usually um i'll tell you what left out to me first though michael yeah because because we live in an era of uh grievance and disrespect and the need to be mad about something no jalen brunson how's dare they? I know you're going to say that. The disrespect. Again, it's a one-line ballot, folks, so everybody to pick one guy. I am surprised, to be honest, I am surprised Jalen Brunson didn't get a single vote. Not that it matters, not that anybody should care. I did think, I would have expected Brunson to get a vote there. He finished fifth in the actual MVP voting last season. Young Pina seems to agree with me in the background there.

Huge Jalen Brunson. He's just, he's outraged for the, uh, the next point card. He sounds like 90% of Twitter. How dare you? Looking at this list, I think the number one thing that shocked me is who's on top, SGA over Luca Donchich. Before this survey came out, I kind of assumed that Luca would be the prohibitive favorite, to be honest, based on, you know, it just kind of being, quote unquote, his time. He's statistically amazing. He could lead the league in scoring and assists, and I don't think anyone would be surprised at that. He's on a team now that has

a lot more spacing than it did last season with the addition of Clay Thompson. And he's always going to have a lob threat on the court with him, assuming that Derek Levely, the second, and Daniel Gafford stay healthy this season, which he did not have at the start of last year and did not have throughout most of his career, if not all of his career,

up until the back half of last season. So I think that he's just going to pick everybody apart in the pick and roll this year, as he's done since he basically entered the league, but just it'll be even scarier this season. And so the one reason, the one thing that I think would hold voters back, and you mentioned it with team success, right?

Like, there's a chance that the Dallas Mavericks, a team that I don't know, I won't say that you're skeptical, of them, but we're certainly have more doubt in Dallas's ability to finish top four in the conference than we do, Oklahoma City, which is just a team that we're kind of all, everyone who covers the league is kind of plugging them into the top spot by a significant margin. And so it would only make sense to say, okay, the best player, a guy who's averaged 30 points per game in the NBA, who finished second last year for this award, would win and be the

favorite. But for some reason, I just, Luca, maybe it's because his team beat SGA and the play. I don't know what it is, but it feels like it's Luca's season to win this award. And he should be definitely motivated to do so. But no disrespect to SGA, who's a wonderful player, but I just, I was surprised that GMs thought that it was, it was him over Luca. Our editors just emailed us today about some of our NBA preview stuff and picking a lot of these things ourselves. So I'm going to give myself time to because I hadn't thought about it yet, frankly, but we're going to have to do this ourselves within the next week and a half or so here. But if you said pick one right now, this is not in Penn, I think I would probably go, Luca, for all the reasons you just outlined.

And I like their off season. I mean, first of all, second full season now with Luca and Kyrie. Like they've clearly, like last season, they really broke through, found their comfort zone with each other, given good health by both those guys. They know what works. Full season of PJ, and Daniel Gafford. Derek lively, phenomenal as a rookie, only going to get better, most likely.

Big Clay Thompson guy, so I'm not going to argue with the Clay Thompson pick up. Whatever he's got left will be a net positive for them, not to mention all the, just the gravitas

and savvy wisdom that he brings. And then after that, like, there's some other interesting pieces laying around, Spencer Dinwiddie coming through

for, I think, his third tour of duty with the Mavericks. I like the Quentin Grimes pick. They fucking stole Quentin Grimes. from the Pistons. I don't know what the Pistons were doing with the Hardaway Grimes swap. Grimes had some really good moments in New York. Good young 3-Indee guy. Yeah. I mean, the Thunder are probably going to win the most games in the West, but the Mavericks could be right there. And as long as the

gap's not too big, then Luca can win. Because that's the thing. It's this, you know, I talk about this all the time, and you and I sometimes disagree about this. But there's a sliding scale, I think, on MVP where it is some, you know, undefinable combination of your team's wins and your stats. And Luca's stats are always going to leap off the page in a much higher degree than SGA's. Like, SG will put up some big-ass numbers, to be clear. But Luca will, he may average a triple double, and it'll be a very, it'll be a very robust triple-double. And he'll have a lot of highlight plays. And so he'll win the stats battle and Shay may win the wins battle, his team.

And then it's going to be a question of how does each individual voter weigh those two elements, broadly speaking. So that's interesting. Can I also just say real quick about SGA and why I don't, I mean, he could easily win this award. Don't get me wrong. But I do think that the growth in Chet Holmgren and the growth in Jalen Williams, will, plus the additions that they made to a lesser degree because of how those guys play and Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso, I think that those two, J. Dub and Chet, I think that, you know, those guys are going to eat a little bit more than they did last season. Jalen Williams is going

to have the ball in his hands quite a bit. He's just a fantastic, blossoming, playmaking, wing, who I say this, I said this previously, and I think I wrote it somewhere, but he's not perfect. but it seems like he's on the path to getting there sometimes when I watch him play. And it wouldn't be a surprise if he won most improved player. It wouldn't be surprised if he was an all-star. So even though Kyrie Irving's in Dallas, I know Oklahoma City fans are probably screaming that, the way that Luca plays with the high usage, like incredibly high usage and just kind of high pick and roll, high pick and roll, high pick and roll, it's just a little different than Kyrie and just a lot more dependent on Luca on the offense.

So I think if you watch them play, how the Oklahoma City Thunder play and how the Dallas Mavericks play, when we're talking value, I would just say that there's a good chance that, you know, Luca's on-offs are more impressive and weightier than SGA's because of who his teammates are. And I think that that could do him harm in this type of context. Yeah, and Shay's raw stats just might come down a little bit too. It's just going to be distributed more. And Luke, no matter how much help he has, is probably still going to just do a ton himself because that's just how he operates. I'm not even saying that as a criticism. It's just his box score numbers are always going to look incredible. And Shea's, yeah, they could dip a little bit.

So that'll be interesting to keep an eye on. Shea also has the benefit of, and again, that's the unquantifiable, but Shea's the better defender of the two of them. We'll see how much progress Luca makes, if any, this season on that one. All right, those are the categories that I said we definitely absolutely positively needed to hit. And then I told you, let's just say, we'll go back. back and forth with what else popped out. So give me the first fascinating GM survey results that hit you this morning.

I have so many. I have like 13, but we're not doing 13. We would be here all fucking day. It's a great survey, but it's not that good. Can I just say my favorite category is if you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player in the NBA, who would it be? And it's my favorite category because you can go back at previous GM. surveys and this question is like more of a time capsule than any other more of a fascinating

time capsule than any other and I think about how Carl Anthony Towns won or was named whatever first in this category twice two years in a row which is like really fascinating to to contemplate when you look at it's hard to believe it's like it's it's like hard to remember that that was a thing at Like, he's really, really good. And it was a nice pick-up by the Knicks, but yeah. He was the, like, the future of everything. He was the, you know, he was going to hit, you know, 40% of his threes, and he was going to be a defensive player of the year candidate.

And then obviously what happened on the defense event happened on the defensive end. And we all saw him in drop coverage over the next few years. And there was just a ton of dysfunction in Minnesota that, you know, we don't need to get into all of it. But that is just like a fascinating. one for me. And so I was assuming that Victor Webbenyama, who finished first here, would finish first. And I was also assuming that he would have 100% of the vote. And he did not have 100% of the vote, which I thought was really interesting and worth a little bit of a discussion, because if you're

starting a franchise right now, like, what are we, like, what are we talking about? The answer here is Victor Webbenyama, isn't it not? So Wembenyama got 77% of the vote for starting a franchise. franchise today, followed by tied at second, Shea and Yokic 10% each. Luca was fourth with 3%, again, meaning one vote. That's it. So in defense of the GMs who did not pick Wembenyama, the 23% of them, I could see. You're like, why are you even attempting this? You fucking moron.

in defense of the GM's topic Wimb and Yama he's coming off of his rookie season there were some at least a slight discussion a five minute discussion during last season or prior prior to his being drafted about wow man guy that height

that skinny whatever like health the longevity like there was a little bit of that I could see where it's not starting refranchised today and you need to be great for the next 10 years if you just want to win the championship right now this year and you picked Yokic over Wembenyama, that's justifiable.

If you picked Luka over Wembenyama, that's just like, it's not, I know it's starting a franchise today, and so you're probably thinking about longevity, and Wembenyama's not just awesome, but potentially he's going to be better than all of these other guys, but he's not necessarily yet in a sustained manner. And there's a track record for Shane, a track record for Yokic, who's a three-time MVP, and still in his prime. There's a track record for Luca, who's a perennial MVP candidate. and in his prime or pre-prime.

There's my defense. I applaud you. I applaud you for trying to make the case. You know, you got to do what you got to do. Shea is 26. He's amazing. He could win MVP this season. You know, of course.

Yokic is 29 going to turn 30 in February. He's a three-time MVP. He's the best player on the planet, et cetera, et cetera. Lucas 25, I think, and just went to the finals and, you know, blah, blah. It's like Victor Webinaram is 20 years old. His ceiling is the best player in, you know, what is his ceiling? It does not exist. His ceiling is so high that it's a debt, whatever that first level of the Earth's atmosphere

where you can't breathe anymore and you just die, that's his scene. And so he's already the best defensive player on the planet. And that's actually one of the questions in this. survey and he was he finished first and best offender in the NBA so i mean 20 years old like what are we even talking about i mean the guy like i don't i just don't even it's like i'm wasting my breath even trying to make the case for him and the the offensive like potential is just like the way he handles the ball i mean he did a sham god last year on rudy gobert who on defensive player of the year and finished it with a dunk like what are we like he is unlike anything we've ever seen before

not even fair to compare him to Janus or KED or who all these great, all-time great players. I just think what we could see with Victor Wemayama is completely different. And, you know, the expectation for him in this season where he'll turn 21 in January is all NBA. There's a possibility that the San Antonio Spurs will compete for a playing spot in a Western conference that is as competitive as a conference has ever been, basically, in the NBA. I just think he is, he's truly, truly special. A young Pina is, once again, really agitated about the fact that his father, who has been one of the all-time Yokic, just enthusiasts, is not more offended on his behalf. I know. I have the Yonkish poster over my shoulder.

Three-time MVP. If anybody on this podcast should be caping for Yokic right now and saying he's been disrespected by the GMs, finishing in a tie for second, with a measly like three votes out of 30. The three-time MVP, three times in four seasons, we haven't even seen that in decades. And you're starting a franchise with the guy coming up his rookie season over Yokic. I mean, it's offensive, frankly.

I'm guilty. I'm guilty. All right. My turn to say what else jumped out at me. How about this? Changing of the guard, specifically the changing of the point guard, the GMs were asked to rank the top players at every position

or to pick one player at the top of every for every position. Point guard went Luca first, Shea second. Do you know the last time that Steph Curry was not one of those two spots? Or excuse me, it was not even, yeah, the last time Curry was not only not in those one of those two spots was not in fact number one. That's a great question.

My guess would be 2014. Excellent, excellent call. 2014. Wow. 10 years since Steph was not one of the top two and in fact, number one. So the last two years, it was Steph, then Luca. Before that, it was Steph and Russ for a couple of years. Before that, it was Steph and Chris Paul for a couple of years.

Wow. Just an incredible run. By the way, I'm not so sure we should be knocking him out of the top two yet. well, all due respect to Luca and Shea, but I get it, age, a lot of other factors. So that was interesting. Just the changing of the point guard hierarchy. It is Luca and Shea's time now, also going head to head for MVP, also potentially going head to head for supremacy of the Western Conference this year and for the foreseeable

future. So I like the way that sets up. Fourth in the vote. So we went Luca and Shea, Steph finished third. And the only other point guard who got votes, finishing fourth, was Jalen Brunson, which is fascinating because a year ago at this time, and I didn't look at the survey, but a year ago at this time, Jalen Brunson was like, yeah, who's on people's radars now? Like, okay, he's really good.

He had a great first season with the Knicks. Nobody was thinking of him as one of the top four or five point guards in the NBA this time last year. Yeah. And no other point guards got votes. So that means that Jalen Brunson finished ahead of Donovan Mitchell, Tyrese Halliburton, Tyrese, Trey Young, Jamal Murray, Lamello Ball. James Hardin, Deeran Fox, and John Morant.

That is just an incredible rise in terms of just the way you're viewed. And listen, in any given season, some of those guys might be ahead of Brunson. Like over the next three to five years, a lot of those names, especially the younger guys, this could reshuffle over time. But as of right now, Jalen Brunson rated by the GMs effectively as the fourth best point guard. And again, it's not really that because they're not rating them one through 10 or one through 30. they're just picking one player at the top. But the way it shakes out was

Luca, Shea, Steph, Jalen Brunson, no one else with a vote. I thought that was interesting. I'm not even mad at that at all. I think that's just interesting. Yeah, no, for sure. I also think like the positional designations are kind of, I mean, the fact that Luca,

I mean, some of these players pop up in multiple positions. Yes. Like Steph got votes at shooting guard. Luca got votes at small forward, end point guard. I always say it's not positionless, positionally fluid, and it kind of messes with the survey in that regard. Can we pivot to a different question? Yeah, go.

So I have a couple that are kind of sticking in my craw a little bit. One that's just interesting is who is the best international player in the NBA? And it goes, number one, Nikola Yokic, which is factually accurate. Number two, Luca Donchich, and then number three is Victor Wenamah, and there were no other votes for anybody. and I'm like, how does Shegelger's Alexander finish first for MVP and no one votes him

as the best international player in the NBA? That's really interesting to me. Huh. That is interesting. That's a good observation. I did not notice that. Maybe there's carving out.

It's a whole other thing. Like these exist in different universes or something as categories. I don't know. This one I can't explain on the GM's behalf. Yeah. I mean, Victor Wobanjama was, I don't know who was, I mean, he, he, you know, I just said,

I wax poetic about him and could do so forever for the next several hours. But I'm aware. He is, he's like all over this list in really startling ways. I mentioned at the top, the, uh, him being getting a vote for best center in the NBA. It's like, okay, Joelle Embed's in the NBA. Nicole Yocuch is the, I mean, like, what is, what is happening there? Best Defender, which I agree with that one, but that's just the gap between him and number two

was also interesting there in the best defensive player in the NBA. But the other category that really, I just don't understand. And I haven't for a while because he won it last year as well. And I thought last year it was stupid. But who is the most versatile defender in the NBA?

Janice Santacompo What is What? Like One of the great criticisms of Janice Santacumpo on the defense event is that he is not versatile. That's like the thing is like

Okay, Janus is not going to be the dude who's you need to guard Jason Tatum for 48 minutes and shut him down. You need to guard Jimmy Butler for a quarter and shut him. It's like that's not who he is like at all. So it's just like, like, what is, how are you people defining the word versatile? Because I see O.G. and Anobie's tied for second.

Bamed Tobio, who's like the definition of versatile, defensive versatility, can guard one through five, can do everything. Otabio, another guy on the All-Pena team, by the way. Love, love that. The Al-Pena going to Cape Form every time team. Exactly. You know, you've got like your Herb Joneses, your Jada McDitch, just like guys who can guard multiple positions.

Like, that's what it is. It's like, that's not Janus. What is going on? And you're confidently saying, right now, the next five minutes, I need you to guard just this guy. Like, go shut this guy down or whatever. I think because Janus can cover so much of the court. And I think that just the length and the mobility and everything,

maybe people just think of it as like, well, that's what versatility is. But it's not in the same way that as you were just describing, where you can just actually literally just change the assignment, not as a help defender or not as switching, but as go guard the one. Now go guard the two, go guard. Like, I agree. I agree with you.

I think probably GMs were applying different definitions here and to the extent that Yannis was first it's with 17%. So that's what

like you know four or five votes or something. It's improvement from last year when he got 37% just like what are we doing? Come on. But it's very like it's not that far ahead of

it's like literally one vote more than either Ananoi and Wembenyama and guys are like because GMs are going in so many different directions here like whatever like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

There's like 14, 15 guys who got at least one vote. And so that's part of it too. And again, when you have a single line ballot, this is what drives me crazy about some of these exercises and then the way people react to them is that if you only can list one name and you can't rank them, you don't have three spots, four, spots, five, then you're going to have some weird results sometimes. Anyway, am I rationalizing on the GM's behalf again?

am I doing that? Yeah, I think so. Come on. What are you doing? You're better than that, Howard. I may not be. But it's nice of you to think so. So here was another interesting note, I thought.

Carl Anthony Towns. Now, I will note, I reached out to John Schumann to ask him, was the survey conducted before or after the town's trade? And the answer was kind of both. So some of the ballots had already come back before the trade, and the majority came back after the trade. And to the extent that some of this is not baked into some of the results fully, like people will notice that. Cat did not get any votes at Power Forward or Center for Best Power Forward or Best Center. I'm not saying that because I'm shocked or that he should have, but I just think

it's interesting because he's on a massive Max deal and the Knicks just traded a couple of really good players to get him. And everybody, you know, pretty much thinks the Knicks did really well in that deal and are now in a position to potentially challenge the Celtics. But Towns is not considered in the top X number of power forwards or centers. But the Knicks nevertheless got votes for, or they finished third in the, for the question of who had the best offseason and asked about which offseason acquisitions would make the biggest impact. Towns and McHale Bridges, both picked up by the Knicks, were tied for second.

So GMs liked the Knicks off season. they like the Towns pickup, they like bridges, but Towns himself doesn't really register individually. Again, not saying it's right or wrong, just interesting. Towns was also first for what was the most surprising move of the offseason? I don't know if you said that one. No, I didn't say it, but yes. Because that one caught everybody off guard.

I mean, when it comes two days, three days before Media Day, and it hadn't really been rumored to be in the works, makes sense that it caught people off guard. Yeah. So I have like one other, I don't know how many more we're going to do. I mean, there's like 50 of these and I, as I told you before we started. One or two more. Okay.

So who is the best head coach? I have a thing with the coaching, which I think is really interesting and how GMs. Several of the coach things were interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So who is the best head coach in the NBA? A lot of guys mentioned here. We have Eric's bolster who seems to win every single season, Mark Dagnall.

Steve Kerr, Bud, who was out of the league last year, and Chris Finch. No, Joe Missoula, who just won the NBA championship. I noted the same. Which head coach makes the best in-game adjustments? We have Tailu, number one, Spoh, Dagnall, Rick Carlis, Taylor Jenkins, Nick Nurse, Chris Finch, Will Hardy, Michael Malone. No, Joe Missoula. So I just thought that that was interesting to me. I also just thought it was interesting that Tyloo, who coaches always rave about, got no votes for best head coach.

That is a good point. Yeah. In addition to Joe Mazula, the reigning champion and reigning, he won coach of the year last year, right? Dagnot won coach of the year last year. Oh, that's right. I voted for him. No big deal. But no, that one was very interesting.

And yes, I noticed the same thing about Budenholzer, like guy who was out of the league last year and who gets some mixed results. And like, Buttonholzer's got, he's got a championship and he's got some, you know, did great job with some of the Bucks team, some of the Hawks teams. But not, he's not somebody who's like,

universally like, oh, absolutely positively. This guy's top five. And he received votes for best head coach. I don't know. Let's see how he does in Phoenix. Let's see if he doesn't do better than Frank Vogel. But yeah, I thought that was interesting as well. Anything else on the coaches?

Not really. I mean, it's, you know, it's just funny to me how Spow wins this thing, where it's like everyone kind of universally believes, rightfully so. I think that he is the best coach. And he's just never going to win Coach of the Year, it seems. It's just like, you know, it's just like a silly little thing. I'm sure he cares about neither, but, you know, maybe this is the year. Look, the Knicks just had an incredible year.

Tibbs didn't get any votes for Best Head Coach. I don't think he got votes in any of these categories, any of the coach categories. So that's, that one's interesting. Nick Nurse was everybody's darling for a while. I don't think he got votes for most of these categories. These things kind of just, you know, sometimes it's a flavor of the day thing. and you know Greg Popovich like pop

shows up on the which coast coaches the best manager motivator of people he gets he's tied for third with 10% tied with Missoula and Doc Rivers but pop otherwise has been kind of like left behind in most of these polls and balloting every year I mean

Spurs get another player or two and suddenly yeah I feel like he's a sneaky you know I don't gamble apologies to my employer. But I will say Pop is like a sneaky coach of the year like bet.

Sure. This award is based on expectations more than any other and no one thinks that the San Antonio Spurs are really going to do too much and if they were to actually finish eighth or ninth

in the Western Conference, I think he would certainly get his or deserve his due credit. I'm going to give one last observation for me and then if you have one more, we can wrap it up. Cool. Asked for the teams that are the most fun to watch.

Ooh, fun one. So the Pacers win this with 37% of the vote from the GMs. Most fun to watch Pacers at 37%, followed by the Thunder at 27%. Nuggets and Warriors tied with 10% each. And then the Celtics at 7%. Also getting votes, Mavericks, Lakers, Sons. I think that's probably one vote each for Mavericks, Lakers. and sons.

So it's a good list. It's an interesting list. But here's what I was thinking, Michael Pina. Huh, the teams that are the most fun to watch, according to the GMs, I wonder how that lines up with the TV schedule. So I went and I looked. The Indiana Pacers, who the majority of GMs, or excuse me, a plurality of GMs, voted as the most fun to watch, have nine national games this season,

which ranks 13th for the most fun to watch. watch team. The Thunder, who finished second and most fun to watch, have 15 national games. That's 11th. It's okay, but still not befitting their entertainment factor. It gets a little bit more reasonable from here. So the Nuggets finished third. They have 22 national games, which is sixth. The Warriors tied for third, have 24 national games, which is third. So the Warriors are the third most national games and are tied for third for most fun to watch. So that way. at least, you know, the Nuggets and Warriors, it starts to line up. Celtics have 26 national games, which is what you'd expect for the defending champ.

Their second most national games. And then the also receiving votes group, Mavericks have 23 national games, which is fifth. Lakers have 27 national games, which is, of course, first. Just pencil it in. Sun's 19 national games, eighth. So by and large, the league scheduled the national games befitting of the team's entertainment, factor, but not so much with the Pacers and Thunder, the two teams that the GM said were the two most entertaining are the most fun to watch. Who do you think is the most entertaining team to

watch, Howard? You know what? A lot of times for me, it comes down to one player. I will watch Steph Curry do anything, anywhere, anytime. And so for me, like the Warriors, if they're on, unless there's another game, I really need to watch, I'm watching Steph, because you just never know when he's going to do something incredible. And some of these teams are fun to watch. as an ensemble. And Halliburton's fun to watch, right? Shea's fun to watch. But Wembe, of course, is incredible to watch.

The Spurs did not show up on this list because as a team, they're not good enough yet. Luke is really fun to watch. I mean, I've always loved watching LeBron, but the Lakers at this point are just like such a like a puzzling mess. Actually, we should hit that one before we go. This is going to be my next one. But yeah. Yeah.

So, but yeah, I don't know. Before we hit that. Who are your most fun to watch? You know, I'm really looking forward to catching up with the Brooklyn Nets and just looking at my phone and typing in basketball reference to see who's on the court, trying to match up the numbers with the players, you know, playing trivia with whoever's sitting next to me at Barclays Center. That should be a blast.

I just hope the food's good in the press room this year, Barclays. You and I both live in Brooklyn. We go to a lot of games there because we should and because other teams are coming through and everything, but my gosh. Oh, my God, it's going to be hard to watch. So that should be great. My serious answer is, I don't, you know, actually I don't, I think maybe the Minnesota Timberwolves might be the answer to this question for me. Sure.

I love watching Anthony Edwards. Sure. And there's some qualities to him that are frustrating. But I think the combination of him kind of figuring out, first of all, the combination of him evolving and, you know, becoming a tighter playmaker and a smarter reader of the court. and being a little bit more patient, but also being potentially the most athletic player alive, that combined with just developing chemistry with the teammates that were here

were in Minnesota last season, and the fact that he's got to incorporate Julius Randall this ball-stopping power forward. Julius Randall is going to drag them down like at least five to 10 percentage points in watching. Yeah, you know, as soon as I said his name, I was like, what am I doing? What am I talking about?

By the way, really good player, not knocking him as a player, but like, it's... Aesthetically. Plotting players, ball stoppers or not? Yes. I think that besides them, the Memphis Grizzlies, I'll be watching a ton of Memphis Grizzlies this season and assuming, hoping that John Moran stays healthy because he is, he is magnetic television. And I think a lot of people might have forgotten, but he's so much fun to watch play basketball.

To the extent that a single player drives. watchability in this league. Jha and Zion, who of course, you know, were drafted, you know, one, two, Zion Jha. You know, both have just been through hell injury-wise and just stuff, stuff, so much stuff. But they're not just, like, there are plenty of years where the top players in a draft are players of a ton of talent and are going to help you win. But they're not always the most entertaining, but like Zion and Jha are like top of the watchability ratings when they're healthy because they're just so explosive.

and athletic and aesthetically pleasing, right? And they're the guys who like any given moment of a game, you're going to be like, holy shit, did you see that? While we're in the middle of a Nets game, but we're watching the Grizzlies versus Pelicans on our laptops. And then we'll yell so loud, the whole arena will be able to hear us because there won't be anybody there.

Because we're actually sitting in a library. Yeah. Yes. And it's interesting because the pelicans and grislies do not show up. on that list. But like I think that's reflective, you know, just the kind of the muddled nature of those teams and kind of wait and see what they become and, you know, will those guys stay healthy for a whole season? So there's, there's a lot there. All right, we just alluded to a Laker-related survey result. You want to hit it? So which team's level of success this season is toughest to predict? That's the one, right? Yes. Yes. The Lakers are number one here, 17%. So not a huge

margin. But my question is, what is tough to predict? Like, they're basically bringing the same roster back and their best player is 40 years old and was healthy all last season. And so was... He's 39 and a half. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Okay, I apologize. I apologize. His son is on the team right now for now before he goes down to the G League. I just, you know, I don't think that this is really that. complicated or confusing or like, I don't think that they have a really low floor and I don't think that they have a really high ceiling. So there's some of the other teams, some other teams that are listed here that are way more interesting to me. And I think I have a really hard time kind of grappling with what they'll look like on the court and what their identity will be and just how

good they are or how bad they are. So I could name almost any team in the league. Like, this is, this was really perplexing to me. I really stood up. So the other teams that got a level of success toughest to predict after the Lakers tied for second were the rockets and pelicans, then the suns, the Mavericks, that's kind of a, that's an interesting choice. Mavericks tied with the Sixers. Like, I think the Sixers have much more volatility than the Mavericks.

Like, the Mavericks just went to the finals and brought back the most important players. The Sixers, you know, just brought in another star and have to get them to mesh with their two existing stars and what like I don't the Mavericks and Sixers are not in the same tier of of tough to predict I don't think so that's interesting and then also receiving votes for tough to predict nuggets I get that acers sure clippers sure grizzlies heat bucks wolves nicks I don't know why the Knicks would be confusing like they're they're pretty freaking good um magic and kings like I get almost everybody else that got votes but the nicks don't make sense on this list maybe depth issue could be? Oh, sure, maybe. Yeah. So the Lakers, I recently did this exercise that I

created in my twisted head about the, I created the clarity index. And I had the Lakers very low in the clarity index because that was about not so much how well they'll do this season, but do we have clarity on what the hell they're trying to accomplish? Is their agenda clear? And there's is not. It is, they're decidedly muddled. And the Lakers and Clippers both I had in, and kind of one of the muddled categories. I don't think there's season necessarily tough to predict. They're like a good but not great team. They were a good but not great team last year that, as you know,

brought back everybody unless they make an in-season trade. Yes, like Anthony Davis and LeBron James are still great. And the rest of the roster is still meh. And I don't think changing coaches is going to change their trajectory. So I don't know that they're tough to predict. I think there's somewhere between, I don't know, Sixth and 10th in the conference, and probably not sixth. No, it's like they, you know, they could make a DeAngelo Russell trade,

and they probably will try really hard to do that. And, okay, cool. They'll shoot more threes. You know, they'll try to get... They're definitely going to shoot more threes. J.J. is going to have them shooting. So they'll shoot more threes. Coaches have said that about Anthony Davis, though, before.

Alvin Gentry was saying it until he was blue in the face in New Orleans. and he wasn't shooting more threes. So we'll see. But no, I mean, like, you know, the conference is really, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, you know, it's a comment on them, but also a comment on the conference. And it's really competitive. And I just don't know what, like, what is the upside piece? You know what I mean? Like, if I'm looking at almost any of these other teams, like Phoenix.

Okay, Phoenix turned the ball over a ton last year. and they thought that Katie Booker and Bradley Beale could be the point guard. Okay, well, they solved that because they brought in the two kings of assisted turnover ratio and like the history of the NBA. The Sixers, like I could go through all these teams and just look at the volatility and what the upside is and what the downside is. But the Lakers, I just don't, unless this is like that the Lakers will finish last, and that's what people are thinking because LeBron gets her.

Like, I don't know. It's just, it's a weird one. It is. It is. The Lakers had a very puzzling off season. And maybe there's something coming. The benefit of the doubt is that something's coming between now and the trade deadline. But I don't have any confidence that they're making some earth-shattering trajectory-changing move. They're a middle of the pack team in the West. And that's provided that LeBron and Anthony Davis don't fall off at all and stay healthy for 80-90% of the season. So, yeah, not a lot of internal improvements to foresee there.

All right. I think we have exhausted the NBA survey, the GM survey. But it's fun. The GM survey is always a fun little dive. So again, recommend people go check that out at NBA.com. Michael Pina, thank you for pinch hitting today. Does young Pina have any more issues to weigh in on? He's been quiet for a while.

I guess he's all out of grievances. He's so close to saying Celtics. Like, it's like it's almost rolling off the tongue. So I think that that would be the maximum of his ability to input in this conversation. But where in the list of his top words? Where is Celtics ranking after Mama and Data? In terms of importance to his father, number one, by far. In terms of how much you're drilling him.

Well, we did put a pennant, a Celtics championship. chippinning over the crib so i point to it i say celtic celtics every night um but uh yeah so that's that's got to be it right there he's also i think potentially um going to be a big victor with mnjama fan i i have a i have a gut feeling about it because we got him spurs gear uh when he was first born for that basically for that reason i was like you need to get on the ground floor of a team that's going to be great when you're 12 like that's just um um So we got some Spurs gear for him. And so I think he was pleased hearing that, the positivity there with Wembe.

But besides that, no, I don't think he even understands where he is right now. Good stuff. All right. Michael Peter, thank you for pinch hitting for Raja. We're all think about you and the family and everybody in Florida. Hope things are okay. And we will count on having Raja back here next week. And we will see you all then.

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