The Ringer NBA Show - Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios in the Eastern Conference | Real Ones

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Logan Murdock and Howard Beck are joined by Tyler Parker to discuss the best- and worst-case scenarios for each team in the Eastern Conference. Can the Knicks become champions again? Is LeBron under too much pressure in Philly? Plus, which teams are Finals contenders?Hosts: Logan Murdock and Howard BeckGuest: Tyler ParkerProducers: Logan Murdock, Victoria Valencia, Jacob Cornett, Clifford Augustin, and Ben CruzProduction Supervision: Jack Wilson and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping? Real ones. They say I have to look into this camera, so I'm going to look into this camera to intro. My name is Logan Murdoch, and I am here with my esteemed co-host, Howard Motherfucking Beck. And from the Pride of Oklahoma, Tyler Motherfucking Parker. How you doing, buddy? Justice, Tyler Parker. Happy to be here. honored to be here. Yeah, you know, just really excited to get down and dirty, you know. So we've been off for about a couple of months now, and, you know, that builds up nerves here, right? It goes up nerves here at Ringer headquarters or when people come into Ringer headquarters and by nerves, I mean, one Howard. Who has been, and you can vouch for me on this, has been using the better part of the last three and a half minutes to ask, is everything okay to that? What team are we going to be doing?

What's the order? What's going on? He was having heart complications. I think we're going to make this work, though. I think, listener, what you need to take from that is the HB. He's not mailing it in. Okay? He's trying for you.

He's working for you. He's there for you. He's still caring. I just like to be prepared. Yeah. I want to be prepared. Yeah. Is that wrong?

Okay. One last thing before we get to this real quick. And you guys can edit this out if you'd like to. It's fine. I got a text yesterday. We're all flying in. I'm flying in from the Bay. He's flying in from New York.

And somewhere over Nevada, Howard Beck sends a text. Hey, man, do I have the right stuff here? Am I going to have the right takes for this take podcast? I'm going to do good. I think I'm going to do this, right? Accurate representation of my question. But continue. And then I'm like, dude, it's fine, bro.

Don't pod before the pod. We're going to be fine. So let's stop pod before the pod. Let's get right to it. This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. You can get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Sorry, you can't get a beach deliver, but you can get a peach. A canoe, no.

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Order minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flowered delivery orders only. Terms and conditions apply. All right. Enough of all that. We are here to play a game called best case, worst case, where we talk about every team in the league and see their best case. scenario or the worst case scenario of their season. We're going to make some predictions. So the first team on our list is the Boston Celtics. Do you have, are you got a scroll? You good, you're all right? The Boston Celtic. What's the best case scenario, Howard, and the

worst case scenario for them? The fun part here is that that was already like the top of my doc here. So thank you. You actually made it easy on me after all that stress. Best case scenario is definitely NBA finals. I don't think that's a question. I think there are multiple teams in the east, which we will get two that I think you could all say in the best of all worlds are making the NBA finals. That includes the Boston Celtics. Whether they'd win the championship or not against Spurr slash thunder is a different question, but if you're there, you can win it. So best case scenario, you could even say championship.

Jason Tatum, I'm presuming it's 100% all the way back. If they can win 56 games or whatever with Jalen Brown and no Tatum for most of the season, and Tatum, better player of the two of them, now we have Tatum but no Brown. and a team that's been a little reformatted around him, I don't think that that is too high of a bar. NBA Finals is the bar for the Celtics. I think unless there's some sort of, you know, kind of injury bug that grabs a hold of the team,

which is the case for all of them, then, yeah, I don't see why they couldn't make it to the NBA finals in this, you know, new kind of revamped East. I think the Mitchell Robinson ad is like sneaky, really important for them. I think it's going to do a lot for going up against the Knicks and the Sixers. He's got just tons of experience going up against these big boys in the East. And so I think that'll bode well for him. And yeah, they made it work with Jalen and all these guys.

I don't see why they couldn't make it work with Tatum and all these guys. Yeah, I agree with you guys. I think there's something to be said about great coaching. And Joe Mazzul is. I think he is in the pantheon of coaches that you kind of just, oh, we're going to plug in, you know, an overachieving. I think last year he proved that, oh, okay, no matter who is on the roster, we can overachieve, right?

And we can figure out ways to do that. I think JJ Reddick is also in that conversation. There's a lot that Eric's bolsters, obviously, in that conversation of guys that could just enhance the team based on their coaching. So I think my best case scenario is things go right. People stay healthy, right? Because the things that you guys didn't lay out, and that will probably get to my worst-case scenario before I go to you guys on it. But best case scenarios, they have to stay healthy because

you're relying on a guy like Jason Tatum who couldn't even get through a postseason last year, right? And you're relying on him to go in for a full season. I'm not saying that he can't, but it's not proven yet, right? And you have Mitchell Ruffinson who you guys just talked about can't shoot free throws. He plays himself off the floor, whether it's with foul trouble or free throw shooting. that's something that is going to be a problem in the playoffs. Now, the Celtics have great front court depth, which is what I do love about this team, something that they were a little bit thin on last year.

And the Mitchell Robinson edition helps with that. I'll put that right into my worst case scenario, which is Jason Tatum can't play a full season. Paul George is on the team, right? That means he will probably be, if Jason Tatum can't go, Paul George, is he, is he the lead dog on here? Who is the guy?

PG is not really known for his, durability. Also another guy that's not known for his durability, right? So the injuries can really, it can really undercut them and also just undercut, really Howard, just a run that should have been, in my opinion, because I'm more on the worst case scenario here. I am not sold on this team, but I think that when you talk about a team that had plans to just have a run, this is kind of a disappointing outcome, man, because Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, I get the expenses, I get all of that, but scared money

don't make money. Now, if you are going to try to continue this whatever run you are going to have, I thought Jason, or Jalen, excuse me, the two Jays should have been together. And now it doesn't seem like that much enthusiasm for this team, man. Like,

they do have an MVP candidate in Jason Tatum, but I'm just scared power that it might not work out. The injury is, the worst case scenario, I'm leaning towards it because everything has to go right for this team in order to be good. And that's a lot of big ifs. But I think for most teams that's the case now. Like, puts the thunder and spurs the side for a minute because they are like mutants in this

conversation. They are outliers in this era of the NBA. Everybody else, it's like, well, if Yokic and Jamal Murray, if, you know, Brunson and Kat, if like everybody's got like the one guy who's like the absolute supreme guy on that team. Yeah, but those two guys you named aren't coming off of Achilles' tears. No, no, no, for sure, for sure. But if we're talking about like you're over reliant on your best player, you're one, because every, like, only a handful of teams have a true MVP candidate, right?

We've got five, six, seven maybe in a given season. Yeah. Most of those teams, their second best guy, like if Brunson misses any length of time, it's not like Kat's going to carry them for a month. That's not what Kat does. He needs Brunson. And most teams are built that way. The Celtics were not built that way.

They actually had two guys. So to your point, yeah, I think anybody who's a general basketball fan could be like, It's a bummer that those two guys has an amazing one-two punch, both big wings who can do a lot with the ball on their hands. That is the formula, and you broke it up. And Paul George, that was who he was 10 years ago, but not this version of him. So, yeah, there's a lot of volatility there. There's a lot of risk. But if you assume health, and yeah, we have to put some big fat asterisk on that, the talent is there.

And like they got a lot of playmaking. Like Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, Jason Tatum, all average like five plus assists last year. So did Jalen Brown. Multiple guys you can run offense through in with, which is a bit of a cheat code in the modern NBA. A lot of ball movement and a lot of three points shooting, you can getaways. And we know the defense is going to be there. What's your worst case scenario for the Celtics? That they get so dinged up that they don't make the playoffs,

and they just feel like they've got to just pull the rip cord for this year. That would be such a bummer. I don't think that will happen. Sure. But I think if you're just looking at worst, the worst case scenario, right, is like, Shireman, even Pritchard, these dudes who are going to get an uptick in minutes that, like, the efficiency that was there last year, that that kind of wanes, right? That if they are having to guard up in terms of, like, the other team's offensive hierarchy all of a sudden, does that put the defense in more of a bind than they're used to being in? Well, that's the other thing that is really interesting that you say, because now. Now teams, back when you had this full team and you had Jalen Brown on the roster, those guys could play within themselves a lot more, right?

Now teams are going to be scouting Derek White as a second option. And that is going, I think that that's going to be an adjustment for Derek White. And same with Peyton Richard. Do you think White will be the second option or do you think it'll be Paul George? Like they're both healthy. Who's the second option? Right now, I think I just think that Derek White is the better player. I agree with you there.

Right. Like overall. I think at Paul George's best last season. And when he was in the playoffs last year, is when he was playing more of a role type of specialized role. I'm going to get my shot with the second unit. I'm also going to play great defense when needed, right? You're not going to ask any more of me.

So now to put him into a position where he has to be a number two option, what, he's like 37, 38 years old. He's a really old guy with a lot of injury history whose game is regressed. Right? So I would say Derek White is going to ultimately end up being that second option. And that's going to be an adjustment for him. There's a little bit of Peyton Pritchard in there. He can do some things of the ball in his hands, too.

There's also a lot of, by the way, Mitchell Robinson's the best offensive rebounder in the NBA. So a lot of their offense is just going to be like Mitchell Robbins. When Stephen Adams isn't healthy, he's the best. Okay. Howard Beck, please. Over the last three seasons, Mitchell Robinson has the highest offensive rebounding percentage in the NBA. So you're going to get a lot of second chance points off of that too.

And Nemeus Keda had a pretty good season last year with a lot more on his shoulders. And now he's able to be able to share the load a little bit. with Mitchell Robinson. So, like, I think, like, there's no one way they're going to do this. It's a combination of things. But, yeah, you're hoping that, like, the majority of this is still resting on Jason Tatum's shoulders and that he can get through it and that the Achilles is behind him and that there's nothing else new to deal with. Okay. Enough Celtics talk. We did enough just to keep our jobs. Appreciate it. Time for it. We're going to go to Howard's Hood. We're going to go to the Brooklyn Nets who added Julius Randall and Keon Ellis and some other folks.

But not much. This is going to be really quick. What's the best case scenario for this team, Howard, and what's the worst case? Best case scenario is Julius Randall plays like an All-Star. We know he's capable of doing that. Yeager Geoman takes a leap. Mikel Brown pops immediately, and then that's finished 14th in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, it's 21 wins. They're best case scenarios that a bunch of good stuff happens and they're still the 14th best team in the Eastern Conference. Do you know what he did some minutes? Can he get like, can he do something?

He probably could get minutes on this team. Would that be effective for this ball clip? Can he shoot? I mean, they got space for him if he can shoot. I, like, I don't, I mean, Howard, you're spot on. I mean, you know, you could throw MPJ in there like he still looks, you know, like a. That might be the worst case scenario. And you think, imp J-related actually might be not turn out well.

I think for them, it's a part of the best. Wait, really quickly. How would you rate at PJ's summer in terms of like, what the fuck? From like a scale of one to like... You're veering into like worst case scenario territory here where it's like Michael Porter Jr. puts up a new podcast episode every day of the season. And like now we're like, oh, forget it. The whole season's off the rails we're toast.

Well, yeah, worst cases like him and Lana Rhodes start a pod together. Which is in play. Is it really? It's actually in play. Well, you know, hey, more power to him, you know. Yeah, I don't... Like, if Julius Randall plays the way that he did his last year in New York, especially like in the beginning,

then I think that's about all they could hope for in terms of him, especially considering how bummed he's probably going to be being there. Yeah. I've always liked Terrence, man. I always think that he's, like, going to raise your floor a little bit and hold dudes accountable. And I think they need guys like that, especially coming off a year where they had so many rookie.

he's playing and so many young dudes handling the ball and stuff. But yeah, the best case scenario for them is that they suck. Yeah. But like both just in reality, like whatever the best case scenario for them is, they're going to be really bad, but also like they should hope to be very bad. It would be bad for them if somehow they were middling. The thing that's going for them in that regard is they got a lot of dudes that want to play their way out of town, right?

A lot of guys that are playing to get traded. to be somewhere. Chicago Bulls are the same type of situation right now. I think that that's going to actually help them, Howard, going into the trade deadline and going into the lottery. I do want to caveat this, because this is a conversation to have with some folks around the NBA when they first got Julius Randall. There's a, in a different moment in the NBA, in a different moment in the Eastern Conference

specifically, five, ten years ago, you get a guy like Julius Randall and you've got Michael Porter Jr. and then a bunch of like dudes around them and some young guys who might pop, whatever. And you'd be like, all right, that's like a seventh or eighth seat. like you're good, not in today's Eastern Conference. And so part of the reflection here is not just bagging on the nets, just to be clear here. This is not just like, you know, killing them for the sake of killing them. The Eastern Conference has gotten that much better.

So when you're doing the exercise, as we are doing here today of like, okay, but when this team slots here and this team slots here and, oh, this team got a little bit better. And oh, the Pacers have Tyrese Halliburton back. Somebody's got to finish 14th and 15th. And like, no matter how well it goes with Randall there, you're not an indefinitely. air of the NBA or of the Eastern Conference now, we're just plugging in a guy who's made a couple of all NBA teams suddenly puts you back into like seventh or eighth seed play. It's just not happening. There's too much quality now up and down the standings. I would make the argument that even in the worst times of the Eastern Conference, I would not bet on

a team like with Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Render as their top two guys to do anything. Dude, there were years where like the eighth seat in the East was like a 37 win team. So like there was, you know, and that was a playoff, automatic playoff. back in the day before the play. So like, yeah, you know. I can't trust that. I can't trust that math. Worst case scenario, they could finish 15th instead of 14th.

Worst case scenario. Sure, sure, yes. Worst case scenario, I think Michael Porter Jr. brings the league down with him on a podcast, right? Like, he just does one of the conspiracy theory. He does his own Pablo Torre podcast. They should. I think he should do deeper dives.

I would love to hear him talk about anything but back. basketball, honestly. That's the problem. Yeah, no, I know, but I like, just at least he's... Bad for the league, good for him. Good for his algorithm. It's good, it's good for content. It's good for, you know, my own personal entertainment. Sure.

You know, we're all selfish people, you know. In our own way. The New York Knicks back in Howard's domain, best case scenario for these guys, the worst case scenario for the New York Knicks. Howard Beck. Yeah, back to the NBA finals, clearly. Best case scenario. And that should be on the table, right?

The only major loss is Mitchell Robinson. They plug in Andre Drummond in his place. You'll still get a ton of offensive rebounding, but not the rim protection and a little less mobility. So it's different. And I don't know if Drummond can manufacture a lot of what Mitchell Robinson did. So I think that was a mistake, right? I think that was a bad bet by, as I understand it, ownership there,

to decide to let him walk rather than deal with second apron issues. I understand it, but I think it was a mistake. When you've got a championship window, fuck the second apron, do whatever you got to do, keep your team together. Never won a championship in a long time. They didn't know how to handle it. I mean. That's true. They've got a lot of experience in that department. Dude, the pressure's off, man. But going back to the finals is best case scenario and potentially winning another championship,

although we are in an era when nobody goes back to back anymore. Yeah. I'm with you on the front court. I mean, just to ask Kat to play that much defensive basketball is just a really, it's really, hard, especially after what we've seen in previous seasons. I'm scared of that. Maybe I got to my worst case scenario a little bit too fast, but that does, what is your best case? Before I get to, Hey, what is your best case? I mean, I feel like I'm just going to be like parroting a lot of what Howard says with some of this stuff, because like he's like, you know, with some of these East

teams like y'all are talking about, there is, yes, best case scenario for sure is them going back and winning it again. I mean, it, it, uh, should like somebody else get married on that team and like just have a party. I think that's the best case scenario before the season starts. They've just been having like, yeah. The only thing that I, that I like get worried about is like if there's some sort of regression to the mean like offensively, if they, you know, the switch gets flipped against Atlanta and then all of a sudden things just look beautiful. And if for some reason, they revert back to how stuff looked before if they're not getting the ball to cat as much and letting him play make a little bit too, uh, if, you know,

Brunson goes back to maybe dribbling the ball a little bit too much, whatever. Or if they, you know, if they don't have enough shooting, you know, sham it played such big minutes for them and hit a lot of big shots. Like I don't know. You go. No, well, I was just going to say, like, we forget our memories are short. We are stupid, simple people, and our memories are short. And my point is this, the Knicks did not have a dominant regular season.

53 wins or whatever it was. Very, very good regular season. They were dominant for the two months that mattered most or about six weeks that mattered most. But prior to that, we were going through all this, our cat and Mike Brown on the same page as cat really fitting and whatever. And it was in the Atlanta series,

it was all of a sudden, like, Knicks fans were ready to run McHale Bridges out of town again. And so, like, you had these moments where it looked like this wasn't going to work at all. Something, the switch flips. And yeah, Landry Shamit's a playoff hero. And Jordan Clarkson plays the best three minutes and spurts of his career or whatever.

everything falls into place because that's how championships are won, especially now, because teams aren't built like the old days where it's just like, oh, we're just going to kill you with our wall-to-wall talent. You know, we're going to Shaq and Kobe you to death or Scotty and Michael you to death. Now it's like everybody's got a role to play and they all got to play it to the hilt. And they did. So what we're really talking about is can the Knicks manufacture that six to eight weeks again when it matters most because the regular season is just like, we just got to get there, right?

And that's the thing that's hard to ascertain. are you built for that 16 games as opposed to the 82? I think that leads to one of my worst case scenarios is, you know, Brunson, the offensive weight is just too much for him. I think the other thing is how they respond to the weight of trying to defend, which is a really hard weight to have on you. Howard has a lot of experiences covering teams like that. I have some experience covering teams like that,

where it's one thing to have that weight of a community or the headlines, but it's another thing to have it in New York. Now, I do know that New York has said, oh, man, we're really excited to have a title. We don't even care if we have anymore for the rest of eternity. I think that there's going to be a lot more pressure on this team. Jaylen Brunson's hosting SNL, right? Like, just like the weight of New York and the weight of this phenomenon that exists, the good vibes only lasts so long.

And I don't care what any NBA fan thinks or any New York Knicks fan thinks in this euphoria. when it gets to like, you say all that now, but if it's in December and everything goes bad for this team, you are going to be really pissed off. I want to see if Jalen Brunson can be funny. That's the first line of pressure right there. Like, can Jalen Brunson be funny? Because like he, by definite or by design, he does not give anything away to the media. So like he's so serious. During the Knicks run, he kind of got a little funny, especially when they started winning championships. It's like as soon as they won a championship. It's like, oh, shit, he has a personality. Yeah. Cool. But he has been, he has been so disciplined and so reserved. And that's very about that organization, too. That's aside from Josh Hart. Like, Josh Hart should host Saturday Night Live for sure. Hopefully, like, Jalen brings them in for a skit.

I think the monologue is going to be the thing where they bring on a lot of, you know. I think, you know, Mr. Hargate is going to be there walking on during the monologue. I think Stiller might be there walking on. I think Tracy Morgan might be there walking on. I think they like to do that, especially with athletes, like, let's take a little bit of the pressure off of them. But if he makes me... Is Saturday Live even a Saturday Night Live when they won the last championship? It wasn't Saturday Night Live.

I'm not sure. Saturday Live didn't start until like a couple years later than that. I think it's like 75 or 76. Yeah. So all that to say, like with a New York Nick after a championship hosting Saturday, a lot is going to be. Has never happened.

But that goes back to the weight of expectations that I'm talking about. They got real Hollywood this summer. So if he has a, if he has a good monologue, are you then going to be like, you know, like where they're at? It's happening. Yeah.

Here's the other concern. So we think the satisfaction, complacency, whatever, Pat Riley's disease of more thing, where everybody wants to do more. or they think they're the ones who are responsible, so like, oh, I should get more shot. So there's that concern, right? And that applies to everybody who ever wins a title, not just the Knicks.

But here's the other thing, too. Ring the bell for the minutes, police, because I'm going there. Over the last three seasons, the Knicks have three of the top seven players in total minutes, not counting the playoffs. And that's adding a ton more. I didn't know how to use basketball efforts to combine regular and postseason. Somebody can teach me that later. But just in the regular season alone. Pennsylvania.

But it's a lot. And like Brunson's usage rate every year and his minutes are high. There's been a lot on him for a long period of time here and some deep playoff runs in the finals. And the other thing is like this was like the second wind of the quote unquote Knicks run, right, of their playoff runs over the last five years, right? So like they have already had their bodies taxed in the tips air and now to go into this. And who else is manufacturing a shot or keeping the offense humming if Brunson is limited or out for any length of time? Hopefully he's healthy for all 82. That'd be great.

But I just think, you know, fatigue is real, attrition is real. These guys have a lot on them. And Brunson and Bridges and Hart in particular. Those guys have logged a ton. That can take a toll. We'll see. Let's go to the Philadelphia 76ers. They had a bit of an offseason.

I traded for Jalen Brown, signed LeBron James. This is like the it team of the NBA at this point. I don't remember the last time the Sixers were the IT team. Maybe 01 would probably. be the closest thing? I'm not sure. What is the best case scenario, Tyler? And then maybe what is your worst case? Championship, best case. I mean, it's, there's that starting five, if they're just operating at the peak of their powers, it's probably, you know, you can make an argument that's the best starting five in the league. I think that LeBron is going to get to do even less and preserve his body

even more than he has been with the Lakers. And yeah, I just, I think the world of maxi, I think that guy's like a movie. And I don't see him slowing down. Him and LeBron have such a good relationship. I think LeBron's going to be pumped to put the ball in his hands like he was with Kyrie, like he was, with Luca at times, Austin Reed.

what I have you. I think that offensively, things are going to look really good, especially as they sort of get time together. Yeah, I think all the pieces fit very well. So it, yeah, I don't know how the best case could be anything but championship, honestly. Worst case is like these old dudes get dinged up. M.B. can't stay healthy, right? Same thing with LeBron

If he all of a sudden starts You know feeling the The nag of old age And yeah And they wind up getting knocked out in the second round Or something like that I think that's These are the Sixers

That's totally in play You were a little scared With your take back in there You said there's a world where they couldn't make The play in worst case scenario I would love to have a take like that But you're lying No you said that back there

I would love to have a take like that But you are lying Everybody's scared of their takes now This is what's going on That's what we're at right now Logan's trying to lie in front of the world, Howard. How dare he? He wants to jack the ratings.

I can see. He's really about clickbait. I can see. No, I mean, look, maybe I should do, I need to start doing more clickbaity stuff. You know what? LeBron should retire. Today. He should retire now.

And the Sixers should start Brony in place for Maxxie. Oh, okay. All right. All right. Best case, worst case scenario. I mean, like for like with several, these other teams, right? Celtics, Knicks, Sixers, it's NBA finals, which by, again, implies maybe championship. It's hard for me to take the Easter Conference teams and say best case is championship

because I fully believe whoever's coming out of the West is winning it. I hear you there. But yeah, I mean, could the Sixers win the championship? We thought that last year. We thought that last year. I'm just saying, this is a new year. Victory fell hard. It's a new season. Victory fell hard last year. Their worst case scenario, like, there's a scenario where they're a play-in team, and I think they probably still come out of the play-in, and then they lose in the first round or something. But it has to do at least somewhat with like the health stuff, right? I'm going to be it all clickbait.

You took your clickbait. It is funny doing this because there are the worst case often does align with just like, well, yeah. But I was going to say it's more than that. Yeah. They have the added element here of we don't know if these guys are all going to actually be able to mesh with each other. Sure.

Right. Jalen Brown want like the reason that that the Celtics, among the reasons that the Celtics decided to move off of Jalen Brown. There was some financial stuff. this, that, whatever. There's Twitch streams and all this shit. But there was some concern about, like, this is a guy who really wants it to be about him. He wants to be at the center of this. And we have a guy Tatum who we think is our centerpiece for the foreseeable future, hopefully the rest of his career. And Jalen Brown just landed with a team that's got like five number one options. So Jalen Brown has to fit in. LeBron has to reorient himself. I think he's going to be the least of the concerns. There's a hot take for you. I think LeBron is the least of the concern. I can't. I would you let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. I simply can't agree with that. Let me finish. Edgecoma is young. Maxie is young enough. And I'm sure it's like, hey, man, I can win a championship with these guys. Embedd is a concern because he's always been a concern. But also like Embed knows his body well enough to know now. Like, I can't carry this stuff at the level that I was five or six years ago. LeBron is a consummate playmaker in addition to being the greatest scorer of all time by career points. He's a playmaker at heart. He's like he's going to be the one who he's going to be the one who he's.

he either pulls this thing together or doesn't. And if he doesn't, then no, this whole thing could go to shit. But, like, I'm, I am less worried about LeBron than pretty much anybody else on that roster. I would worry about Jalen Brown and Joelle and Bede first and foremost. So if the chemistry is bad, yeah, now they're a dysfunctional playing team and, you know, the coaches getting fired and everything else. I got to push back on the LeBron thing, man. I think that that is part of, I think the best case scenario is what you laid out.

and I am confident that I don't know what I'm confident in that way but I think in the worst case scenario more so the weight of LeBron coming to your city and all everything that comes around with that not just the podcast that is around the corner from where we're sitting right now but like also there's going to be a swarm of media

we've dealt with this covering our respective teams with the Lakers meet with Golden State where just all of this coverage all of these media members just to send on you every single day in the weight that that comes with that. LeBron's used to that, though. No, I'm not saying LeBron isn't used to it.

I'm saying everyone else that is there. I mean, the Sixers and even the Celtics, though, they haven't exactly been short on drama. Yeah, but it was like, also, but on the news cycle, though. Like, anything LeBron does is top of SportsCenter. Everything LeBron does is top of NBA today, right? And that's a

different type of spotlight than when, oh, okay, we had like a controversy here or there, but after a couple of days it'll end. Like, that's the thing that concerns me more about anything like LeBron does or doesn't do. Every team he has been on, there has had to be an adjustment not only from, you know, the front office and the people that are working around, but also the players that have to adjust to the spotlight that he brings on to him. And sometimes he, every stop he has used that to his advantage, whether it's like,

I'm trying to get this message out here, I'm going to leak this to somebody else. I am going to try to control every single narrative. I wish I could be more confident that the LeBron factor wouldn't be a LeBron factor, but he simply has not showed me that throughout his career. I've had a whole lifetime of seeing him do the exact opposite. Well, I think we're talking about two different things here. I'm least concerned about him in terms of fit on the court. Oh, fit.

Okay, okay. Fit, yeah, for sure. They have a bunch of guys who all want the ball. They've got a bunch of guys who are elite scorers at various stages of their careers. I'm concerned about LeBron's feelings. All right. You're talking about the atmosphere. You're talking about like extras.

Yeah. The extra stiff that LeBron brings. Because from a basketball standpoint, obviously, he's the greatest of his generation and arguably the greatest of all time. And not just as a player, but as adjusting into different environments. But it comes out of price at every stop he's ever been on. That's what I'm scared of, Tyler. I hear you there. I think that he is going to be very locked in there.

this year, I think that he will sort of rightly see this as his last good opportunity to win a ring. It's why he chose there. Yeah. And so, like, I don't, I don't know. I don't, I totally hear all those reservations. I don't worry as much about it because I think in a way you're going to be dealing with him on his absolute best behavior across the board, off the court, on the court. Yes, there might be some things that leak.

Yes, like, you know, people like to talk. But I don't think he's going to come into there and be dealing with a bunch of people who aren't trying to listen to him. You know what I mean? But what if he has, like, his tantrum and doesn't get his way about something mundane to us, but like big to him? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, if he made it work with the Lakers last year where he was just sort of the – There was still some stuff that came out on him with the Lakers last year. There was some stuff, but like, LeBron, for the most part, being as old as he was and where he's at in his career, like, I thought he had a very good season.

Yeah. And so I, like, he's a skeleton key in a lot of ways for an offense. I just think he can fit wherever you need him to. And yeah, I don't know. There's, maybe I have too much faith in a, in a LeBron season without a lot. of, you know, shouts and murmurs and things like that. But I just, I don't know. I feel like he's he's got bigger things on his mind right now than trying to make sure that the social hierarchy in the locker room is where he wants it or something. No, Logan's not wrong to bring up all

that stuff. And the Machiavellian part of LeBron is well documented. But I think that that was more prominent part of his approach when he's in Cleveland. And it's like, hey, it's my time and it's my show. this is my town, goes to Miami. Hey, I brought this ability to win championships here, so now you revolve around me, although Pat Riley put up some firewalls there. In LA, similar thing. This is different. It's fundamentally different when he's going there at age almost 42 on a team that already has all these other guys. It's not like he's just going to be like, oh, I'm a role guy. He's going to assert himself on the court. I don't think I'm as worried about, yeah, the off-court stuff, organizational stuff as in earlier parts of his career.

All right, man, let's go north of the border. Toronto Raptors. I just want to say at the time of recording this, we don't know if Kauai is going to be a Raptor. So that could be my best case and worst case scenario, right? Like if best case, Kauai comes, championship contender, worst case he doesn't come. And Scotty Barnes is your lead dog, which isn't a problem necessarily because he throws up gaudy stats.

But he hasn't proven to be somebody that can carry a franchise in the way that Kauai can. And also there's a worst case scenario. If Kauai does come or go to Toronto, and somehow that injury bug comes back, right? And that's always going to be the biggest question mark with him. How do you manage his injury history and his injury future? And that's going to be something to keep an eye on.

What's your best and worst case scenario for the Toronto Raptors, Parker? Best, I mean, when I was thinking about this, I was operating under the assumption that the Kauai trade's going to go through. Like, Howard, you're in the know. What do you? I mean, I know this is all weird. But like what if you just someone was like, hey, you got to put money on this.

What do you think? I've changed depending on the day of the week over the last couple of months. I thought it was going to fall through. There are multiple times where I thought it was going to fall through. And as we sit here, on the day that we're recording this, we do not know. It has not resolved. The clippers have apologized. Yeah, the day we're recording last night, Balmer posted his apology or whatever.

So the clippers are like, yeah, we might. I have screwed up? We're not going to admit it. Like, mistakes happened. Passive voice things happened. So does the deal go through? Like, why hasn't it gone through? Oh, well, Lawrence Frank isn't there?

It doesn't matter. You could have the third in command. You could just tell. And bomber's not supposed to be running things right now. He's accepted a suspension. You can, I think, pass a note down the line. Somebody, like the intern in the PR department can tell the Raptors we're good on the deal that we agreed to back in June unless somebody wants to change the terms.

So why hasn't it happened? yet. No one's provided a actual good reason yet. The croopers are so petty because they acted like this wasn't going to happen. Yeah. At this whole summer and they engineered the trade because they figured something was going to come down to pike. And now all of a sudden, they're like, Kauai, why you do us like that? What is, what's going? I, let's assume that whatever is going on while we're still sitting here talking, it's all going to go away that's going to happen. Trade goes through. Kauai is going to Toronto. I think it'll be because everybody, they had their handshake deal and they want to honor it.

That's the right thing to know. Yeah. So I think to your question, Tyler, yeah, probably it happens because of that, right? It would be dishonorable at best for this suddenly to dissipate for both sides or one side of the other unless they both wanted to walk away. So probably it goes through. And if it does go through, Kauai Leonard reunited with Alex McKekney, vice president of health and player care and everything in Toronto. that was Kauai's best season health-wise. I'll do respect to the Clippers and their health folks,

but like Alex McKechnie's a freaking genius, best in the business. I think that that'll be good for- One of the rare team guys that Kauai trust. Yeah, and I think that'll be really good for Kauai. But he is that much older too. So they nurse him through the season and they get back to the final. Like that is on the table. The Raptors winning the East is on the table, just like it was for the Sixers,

for the Celtics, for the Knicks. I think that's the end of my list of, oh, no, there's one more. Yeah, I got one more. But I think the worst-case scenario is obvious, right? One worst-case scenario is they don't get Kauai. And then you've got to deal with sad Brandon Ingram. Hi, Brandon and Grady. Yeah.

Welcome back. And so you have the awkwardness. To be fair, I'd rather be sad at this particular moment in Toronto than L.A. being a clipper. I don't know, man. The beaches here are awfully nice. So, like, there's multiple worst-case scenarios for the Raptors. You get Kauai and he can't stay healthy.

You don't get Kauai and you've got awkwardness and still not enough high-level talent to get there. So, yeah, there's a lot in play there. Anything else? No. No? Okay. Let's go to Chicago Bulls. This is going to be really quick.

Best case scenario, you know, they got Nick Claxon and Norm Powell during this off-season. I think the best-case scenario is they play their way out of town, even though Norm Powell says that he doesn't want to play his way out of town and wants to be here. But I don't believe him. I think that's the best case scenario, worst case scenario. I mean, they're the Bulls. I think, like, they're pretty much an NBA purgatory, which is the worst place you can be. I don't know. Best case, worst case scenario.

They were 12th in the Eastern Conference last season. Their best case scenario is, like, 11th, and their worst case scenario is, like, 13th. Like, they're somewhere between 11th and 13th. And, again, all due respect to the Bulls and new front office and coach and everything, they're trying to, like, turn this thing around. But, like, you got a lot of obstacles in front of you, a bunch of other teams that are already good are getting better. So even if they've improved, they're probably stuck in terms of where they are in the standings. So, yeah, to be continued, we'll come back to them this time next year.

Yeah, I mean, best case is like Caleb Wilson wins rookie of the year, looks incredible, like a dude that you can build around. And either, like, you know, number one, number two type of dude. And they're terrible and get another good pick. Like that, but yeah. Where are you on the Richter's going, Caleb Wilson? On the Richter scale? Yeah. What is that? You know how we said,

I don't know, what was the Rick? Scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you? Are you like, are you like 2023 Scoot Henderson level of excitement? Where are you at on him? I don't know. I mean, I was scoot.

I was floating in 2020. I'm very pumped about, I'm pumped about Wilson. What, what, one to 10? Give me like a, give me an eight. I don't know if that's a kiss of death.

He looks like, look, he looks, he looks, he was really fun. Like I saw some, Summer League, right? I'm offended by that, that might be the kiss of death. Maybe being excited about somebody might be the kiss of it. Yeah, that might be worse case.

We don't really know these guys until they actually get to the league. And Summer League is not the league. So, but like, yeah, there's a ton of upside there. Modis Buzellis, still a lot of upside there. Josh Giddy was pretty good for them last year. Like, there's like a nice assemblage of talent here. And then, oh, we'll bring in a couple of vets. Norm Powell, Nick Claxton.

If you want to see your team on the cheap, go to a Chicago Bulls game. If you want to see your team come into town or playing the Bulls, that's, you know, that's what you're going to. do if you're a fan right that sounds about right all right let's go to cleveland where the unction is on the horizon um i don't know what that means we have don't know what that means we have doubt of a mitchell signed a day for a year 272.7 million dollar extension uh james hardin also signed a three or ninety seven million dollar deal he is getting to the baggage claim um they also got peyton watson's big size over here on arden's contract what a life what a life

Peyton Watson is also there after a standoff with Denver. There's a, yeah. I think the best case scenario here is, you know, they do what they did last year. You know, they mathematically are a three-peak team. They've won three-sixth championship. Stop it. Stop it. Atkinson really messed up saying that shit.

It was such a stupid thing to say. The thing is, I get it. You get it, but you say that in the offices in the summer. You don't say that. You just look stupid. The problem is there's cameras everywhere, right? And he did say this at a presser. But like everything in the modern, like, media escape, everything is bugged with cameras.

So there could be like a hard noxmo, but he goes in like, hey, guys, everybody. You know, we mathematically are winning the series. And it's on a camera like in the NBA finals. Right. Maybe that's what he should have done. Maybe you should have just did it in the locker room. He was like, hey, actually, I was just talking to my team. He was making the point about process versus results, but whatever.

People can have their fun with it. I get it. Best case, worst case, Howard. I'm ratcheting down from where I used to be with this team. The last couple of years, I think best case scenario would have said they're making the finals. I'm saying their ceiling is now conference finals. I can't. I can't go there with them anymore.

Burn too many times. You were trusting Donovan Mitchell and James Harden in the backstress of the playoffs? No, I was trusting Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and Jared Allen and Evan Mobley, but that team kept petering out and then they flipped Garland for Hardin so that happened midseason last year so this time last year we couldn't have projected this particular version of it

but Harden at this stage of his career especially and with everything that we know about him in playoff series like I just watch it like I was there for that series against the Knicks or at least the games in New York like I was hurried I was there for the blown last year the one where the lights were too bright

well there was the no lights too bright year the first time that Mobley and Garland even made the playoffs, and they were just deer in headlights. And Robinson just owned them. And then we, and then the one this past spring where, you know, they're up whatever, 31 points, whoever, in game one and blow it all felt like they were. Looked apart all stars on the Cleveland Cavaliers right now. Looked apart all stars?

Yeah, yeah. Interesting. A lot of them, right. Downman Mitchell should be like the top score should be like one of the top dudes. He is. No, he's. Until it matters, which is what. He's the one I believe in the most there.

If we're ranking them by how confident we are in various cavaliers, Donna Mitchell's the top of the list. I don't know who's second at this point. I mean, like, him and Mobley, like, right? The resume of James Harden, like, yeah, I guess it should work out. But then in practice, it never works out. No, yeah. Easter conference finals is there soon.

Do you get your hopes up for, like, James Hardin elimination games at all? Do you ever like, oh, this is the time he's going to turn the corner as a guy that's seen him? Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's been too many. I mean, truly after that game seven, when he was in, Houston, the game seven they had when the Spurs ran them off the floor. From that point on, I was spooked out of trusting him in any sort of, you know,

series clincher or whatever. Like it, and it feels like, you know, sort of only been vindicated since then. I mean, he can still, I think he's still like a, weirdly a great regular season. in player because he plays. And he's going to run your offense. He's going to, the assist counter is going to ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And, you know, he still has enough of his bag offensively. Like he can get his own shit without needing a bunch of help from somebody.

And when he's on, it's a beautiful basketball player, bro. When he's on, it's beautiful basketball. Beautiful. I don't. That's a big adjective. Aesthetically of a big adjective. Yeah. The aesthetics of his game I've never really liked it.

I'm about to get clip for that. I mean, like, you know, it's funny. I've just been watching, I've been watching the highlights of these guys that we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Watch the highlights that just hits different. No, he is one of the, when I say beautiful, I don't mean like when I go to the game and watch him. I mean, like the clippable beauty of a basketball player. And James Hardin has that ability.

I want to, I want to, I should probably, I should probably. Walking it back. All right, let me walk that back. You got worried. That got darling from the second in my mind. I'm pumped up about Peyton Watson, though. Yeah. Are you are you what do you how do you feel about? I'm pumped about him but he's not the guy that's gonna put them over the top He's not gonna put him over the top. He's not gonna put him over the top but I think he might be the type of dude

That's fearless in the right kinds of ways in some of these big games where they But I want to see a Peyton Watson on a team that has like reputable dudes I right like I wish that we're gonna talk about later but Denver I wish he would have been I wish he would have stayed healthy last year He does have two elite score playmaker types to get him the ball in the best possible positions, which they will do. So offensively, they'll make the best use of him there. Defensively, the Peyton Watson, Jared Allen, Evan Mobley front court could be a fucking terror, and you need that behind that backcourt.

Yeah, you do. So, like, I see the outline of it. I see the logic of it. Like, and there is, I want to be clear. Like, there is upside there. I just, I can't, I can't talk myself into them collectively anymore. Well, because no matter how well Peyton Watson fits in, and no matter how many new elements he brings to the.

table that I think are actually what they need. It still comes back to can James Harden, Evan Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, especially those three, get you there when it matters most in the postseason, and I just don't have a ton of confidence. So my worst case scenario for them is like they slip to the play in because there's that many good teams now in the East and they lose in the first round. Like, that's on the table too. I would add to that that Garland looks really good with the clippers and Hardin finally starts to kind of show the wear and tear

during the regular season. I think that would be a worst. And suddenly we're all going like, oops, maybe you shouldn't have? You got this dude for two more years. We're in L.A. Miles fans are dealing with that same notion. It's got a tough. So I have just gotten word that we forgot to do the Milwaukee Bucks on

best case and worst case scenario, so we're going to do that here. We're just going to splice this in. We're going to splice it in. This is what producing is. Best case and worst case scenario this season for the Bucks, Jason Concepcion. Best case? What's the best case for them? Milwaukee somehow eeks out 30 wins and like,

a little where makes it all defensive team. Okay. The best case scenario is that they get a great haul for Tyler Hero and Miles Turner. And Janus goes easy on him. in his returns because they played a nice tribute video. That's fine. That's fair. Yeah.

I'll take that for everyone. That's the best case in the worst case. Do you have any best case or worst case? Oh, you already just did you. That was the best case, but the best case is still them like finishing 14th. And the worst case is they finish 15th in the East. So, you know. Okay.

Let's go to the Detroit Pistons. They got John Collins via sign and trade. They also got Isaiah Joe, Tori and Prince. They're in a bit of a stalemate right now for Jalen Duren. Yeah, what's going to happen? He's using the Kings' leverage, which is something you never want to do? No, that's rough. What's the best case and worst case scenario for them, Howard?

They are also in this category of, yes, they can make the NBA finals. I believe that. They would win 60 games last year. That doesn't happen by accident. And the Eastern Conference is that much better and was last year, too. So to win 60 games is not small potatoes. Tobias Harris is a loss, but John Collins, I think will be a nice fit there. I love the Isaiah Joe pickup, get some more shooting out there.

They still do have the fundamental problem of, okay, when it's not K'd, then who? Like, I, that, but again, so many teams have a version of this. Yeah. And so. Maybe Dennis Jenkins is like, goes up another level. One of my favorite players in NBA. He's so fun. Love that guy.

So NBA Finals is on the table for them. I say that with a little bit less confidence than I do with, say, the Knicks or the Celtics, but it's on the table. It's just that I don't know, was this? this season that just everything broke right for them. And like, and that's how they got to 60. Also, it didn't show up in the playoffs. But look, we still have an Osar Thompson leap to be had somewhere along the way here. Not guaranteed to happen, but maybe it happens. So if you, if they've got enough young guys who if somebody pops, Dennis Jenkins, Sarr Thompson,

then we're talking about them in a much different way. But if they just stay basically the same, there's just such a cluster of good teams at the top of the east. It gets hard to break out of. So there's also a version here where in their worst case, they could slip to like fifth or sixth in the east and losing the first round or maybe in the second round. So like all of these teams I think have great variability. Like there are going to be teams that we could talk ourselves into making the finals in the East. And if they lost in the first round, that also shouldn't be a surprise because there are that many teams in that same tier with them. I think they are the right kind of grimy and scrappy that as long as, you know, the health is

solid. I think they've just got a really high floor because they play hard every night. They show up pissed off. That's what helped them last year when Cade was out. Yeah. That's what helped them keep the ship afloat. And I think that when you have a team that is that competitive, that is that committed defensively, when you've got somebody like Cade who can just take over late, then you're going to have a chance in every game, right? Like I just, I think it, You take care of a lot of the potential little potholes that might pop up over the course of a game just through effort, especially when it's a team who's still trying, like, they're still going to be trying to prove themselves. Like, they're in this weird kind of fortunate position of like, yes, we were a one seed last year, but nobody believes in us. You know what I mean?

And so I want to believe that could go to the finals. I did Easter Conference Finals. That's my, I think Isaiah Joe's like a really big pickup for them. I think that he, because not an incredible defender, but works on that end. Like, you can't really play him off the floor down there. And he can get hot in ways that not a lot of dudes in the league can, and they need that bad. So, like, he's a guy who, you know, he's not going to be, you know, he's not going to, his win shares aren't going to be, way up higher or anything like that, right?

Like he's not, you don't, you wouldn't see that and be like, oh man, game changer. He's taking him to the finals. But I just, and it's because I'm a Thunder fan and so I have a soft spot for him. But he's, he's somebody who, you can't leave him. And he's tireless in the way that these shooters are tireless. And they're going to be running him off all these screens. I think Bickerstaff's going to have him just running all over the place, him and Duncan Robinson.

And so I think that like there's the, I think that the opposing defenses are going to have to be considering more this year than they were last year. And that is good for them as a whole, but also just especially good for Cade because they can't load up on them in the lane like they used to be able to. That said, if you told me they were a sixth seed, wouldn't, like, blow my mind. Yeah. So like to me, that's kind of worst case. It would surprise me if they, like, wound up in the play-in, if they just, if they stay healthy and they wound up in the play-in. But five or six seed, I could see. The East is good.

I think, my best-case scenario is, you know, they went about 56 games. Kind of not as good as last year, because I do think last year was a bit of, like, Howard said, everything going right. Were they 60 on the dot last year? Like, 60 on the dot, yeah. Yeah, and there were some hiccups there. They didn't show the requisite amount of toughness in times when they needed to. throughout the playoffs. My concern, though,

the biggest concern that I have, though, is this is whether Duren ultimately resigns or not. Who is going to be the secondary option for Cade? And because if he's there, we've seen what he has been in the playoffs. Something is not clicking for

Jalen Duren in the playoffs for whatever reason. He is super young. He's super duper young. But yes, it was terrifying last year. But that was two straight years, two straight contract years. And it felt like that was all in his head going into that postseason like I have he looked so robotic in those two series last year and it was really it was really hard to see so if that happens if he stays on the team that I think is going to be

their biggest Achilles heel and if he's not on the team they're still going to have to figure out how to feel that void of secondary scoring and secondary output as a whole and I think he's I think he will resign he'll be on the team this is why restricted for agencies working against him he'll end up still being in Detroit I believe but it's either he signs for less than he wanted, and he might be a little bitter about that, and there's going to be a lot of questions about, hey, Jalen, do you think that the postseason last year had a big impact on that and how are you going to overcome that? And it's going to be like, what is there for him to prove that the chip on his shoulder is now going to be the contract itself. Or he gets closer to what he wanted, and the

pistons had to bend more. And it's now you've got to live up to this. And by the way, we're still going to be asking you about what you did and did not do in the playoffs last spring. So like that, the specter of that flame out and the way that that fed into the protractive. contract discussions this summer is just there. It's a weight. And it's up to him and the Pistons as an organization to try to alleviate that. It's not ugly. It's such a shitty situation too because he's now one of these types of players where it almost

doesn't matter how good he looks during the regular season. Everybody's just going to be like, okay, well, let's see what happens in the playoffs. Like it's, there will not, I mean, unless he just all of a sudden starts like raining in threes or something like that. That'd be amazing. Yeah, that'd be, yeah. But the, but yeah, it, like, you know, usually it's like a team that gets into these sorts of situations, like where it's like, yeah, well, who care, like, the calves or something like that, right? Like, well, who cares how good they're going to look during the regular season, like, are they going to be able to show up in the playoffs when it counts?

That's a bad place to be in. Because nothing you do is, will feel good enough. And it sucks because Detroit is such an awesome place to be right now. Indiana Pacers. Tyree's Halliburton is coming back. Aviga Zubak is there. They acquired him last year. They also have a little Kelly Ubrae action.

I know you're excited about that. Hey, I don't know I like to Bray. Larry Nance Jr. is there. Best case, worst case, for the Indeat Pacers. I think I either lied or had bad math earlier when I said only had one more finals team because the Pacers are also...

Okay, good. Yeah, best case scenario NBA finals. Sure. Like, it would be incredibly disrespectful to answer with anything other than that. Four out of their five stars. starters from their finals team are back, and the only one missing is Miles Turner, and they got Zubach to replace him. Different kind of player, and he's not going to shoot the three and stretch

the D, but Zubach brings other things to the table. So I think they've got like seven of their top nine or ten guys back or whatever from that NBA finals run. We are all obviously hoping and believing that Tyrese Halliburton will be the guy that we last saw in the finals a year and a half ago. So why not NBA finals? This team is tough as hell. They're hard to defend. past team, amazingly past team. And like, I know Halliburton in some quarters, especially my backyard, is a bit of a villain these days, but I love that about him. Like his on-

Do you think he's still a villain in New York? They probably don't give a shit. Now, now it's going to be like, yeah. I bet you they cheer him the first time that the- Castery's back. No, I bet you there, it's like, respect. No, no, no, no. We got our title.

Respect. Yeah. I bet you they, I bet you there. It depends. It depends. It depends. It depends. It depends on how the season is going for them.

It depends. A lot of factors are there. Yeah. The championship does change a lot of stuff. You're not wrong. New Yorkers are assholes, though. Like, they will... I said that respectfully.

You know I love New York. I'm the same. There was not... Even New Yorkers, like, when you watched him go down in game seven, there wasn't... I mean, I'm a Thunder fan. There wasn't anybody that didn't feel horrible. Yeah. I just felt, it was, like, everybody...

I think everybody... He's in a good... He's in this, like, crazy kind of fortunate position of, like, literally everybody is rooting for him. He's... He loves to play the heel on the court, but he's clearly a good guy, nice guy, thoughtful guy. It's like a cool guy. He's like I'm fucking around with the court guys. You guys. He knows the game. He understands it. It's, you know, like it's a WWW kind of approach and that's fine. I think he's actually very easy to root for unless you are the opponent. And unless you were Knicks fans for a couple of series over the last few years. So yeah, Halliburton back to being Halliburton. You still got Nemhard, Neesmith, Seacum, T. T.J. McConnell. Like this is just a really good, scrappy, bust your ass kind of team. There's not a ton of offensive, you know, shot creation there outside of, like, Halliburton and a little bit of Siakum.

But, like, they make it work. We've already seen it. Proof of concept is there. And you can throw the ball to zoo. And he, the Zoo boss can get you some stuff. I mean, he's not going to, you know, he's not going to, like, face up and just, like, go get you 30 or anything. But, like, he's, they, zoo with a good point guard like Halliburton. I mean, Hardin had him eating well.

And as a rebounder, too, I mean, he's just like. I think he's extremely underrated. Same thing as a rim protector. So I'm pumped about Zoo. It will be interesting to see how the offense sort of adapts to him, where instead of having Turner picking and popping all the time, you've got somebody going straight down the middle of the lane. It might wind up that, you know, it opens things up in a way

because people are having to pay attention to him. Also, you do have Siakum, a three-point shooter at the four, so it's not like you have two guys who are non-shooters at the four or five. So, like, I think they'll be fine in that regard, but they will be different. Yeah. So. Worst case scenario, Howard. Worst case scenario, and again, this is not, I don't believe this will happen. But like, yeah, there's a version of this where it's hard to get that same kind of rhythm and feel back. And Halliburton maybe still be getting his body back in order after the Achilles and all that stuff.

And they end up a high playing team, right? And I think in that scenario, you make the playoffs probably and you're maybe out in the first round. But, and again, it's mostly a numbers game. I'm just looking at how many teams could be in that top six, seven, eight. It's hard. One of the teams that could be in the top six, seven, eight, or actually the top five, four, three, two, one, the Atlanta Hawks. Best case, worst case scenario for you, Tyler Parker.

This was one of the harder ones for me, because I want to believe the way that I, I, hear you believing. To me, I still think best case scenario is like a second round of the playoffs kind of thing. I have a hard time. I have a hard time. You know what it is? Is it like, just like the Atlanta Hawks like, I wouldn't call it Stinch, but they're the Hawks, right? I don't know. I don't have, I don't. I have that. I'm sorry. I feel that way. They have never just been a team where like no matter how good they've been. They're still the Hawks. I don't, I did. 61 games. They win 61 games. How dare you talk about Tim Bontempts's

franchise like that. That's my friend. They're the Hawks. They're the Hawks. They've made some good moves, though. They have. They have. The, uh,

McKeel Alexander Walker is one of my favorite players in the league. He's one of my favorite guys to watch. I think that he is just ever solid. You know what I love about him? Both things. I saw him in, uh, Detroit last year. and he is just a dude that was born to play basketball

and the way that he's like, he has the swag, he has the thing, and he can go on these little scoring binges where you're like, it's kind of euphoric. I'm not going to lie, it's kind of euphoric, because he does like the little jump stop, shoots the shot and does like a little pose, and then there's nothing like a pose that you get going into a timeout. You know what I'm talking about?

As we're going into commercial break, he is like the king of I'm going to pose before we go to commercial break. That's what I like about him. And like Doris Burke is saying something demonstrative about his ability. Yes. Yeah. The, I mean, yeah, what are you? Where are you at with him?

Let's go to the expert what we're talking. Well, no, I mean, but like, like, yeah. I mean, succeed is their, is their ceiling, right? Six seed and maybe they went around upset the third seed. And they're like, is it, they're just blocked by too many better teams? Now, is there a version of Jalen Johnson just becoming the dude? top five talent. So he is the man.

He is the man. But he was not in the playoffs. Sure. So he was too deferential. It had to be if CJ couldn't. During the regular season, is this his breakout? You were like, holy shit, he took the leap. Is that on the table here?

Wasn't he an All-Star last year? Yeah. No, but there's... You're saying like even more. Like even more. Like even more. He needs another leap. Not like Kyrie like 2014 All-Star, but like Kyrie like, oh shit, 2016.

He needs another. He needs another leap if the Hawks think that he's like A number one and can like lead him. If he's not, then they still need that guy, right? If he's not your A number one, then who is. Saudi Barnes in Toronto. Right. You have this collection of guys who are like, oh, Nikila Alexander Walker, really good.

C.J. McCollum, you know, back half of his career, but like, CJ's really valuable. He's the one who got you a couple wins in that next series. Jalen Johnson is the one with the most talent and the most ability potential to be like a perennial all-MBA guy who can lead you year and year out and win C. for you, but he did not show that in that playoff series against the Knicks. So there's still another leap or two from him that needs to be made. But it's tough to criticize because I like everything they did. They picked up Lude Dort.

Pour out a little liquor. They picked up Aaron Wiggins. Pour out some more liquor. I wish I had some. I think that was all the Thunder castoffs now. That's the only Thunder guys. We've gotten through them all. That's the only Thunder guys we got.

And we already mentioned Isaiah Joe to the Pistons. So we're through the hardest emotional part of this conversation. You kill Alexander Walker and had some court side seats last postseason. He's like an honorary Thunder 10. It's just, they've got a bunch of really good players. They've got nice depth. I like all of it. But it's like, yeah, if Jalen Johnson's not the guy, then who is?

And I don't mean that in a regular season fashion. I mean in the playoffs. So yeah, I think they're just blocked by too many other better teams that are further along in their development. And I think they're probably fine with that. I think they know who they are. All right. Let's talk about a team that doesn't know who the fuck they are. The Charlotte Hornets.

Got Nazaree, got Grace and Allen, got Dennis Schroeder, had Royce O'Neill in the offseason. They also retained Kobe White. The Mello Ball is gone. We will get to him in a few. I can't wait for that. Still have Brandon Miller. I don't know what I feel about this team, man.

You think they don't know who they are? I sort of assumed we would all be excited about the Hornets. I'm not excited about them. I don't see any. Like, we just talked, like, we talked about in previous seasons, just like, you know, the East is down and all that. So the East has depth as we've been talking about throughout this podcast. Sure. I just, I don't know if they have the top line talent to compete.

And I think last year, and this is probably, I should have saved this for the hottest take, but I'm going to do it right now. I think that that was their peak last year. I'm sorry. I think that that I don't have any reason to believe that they are going to, are they going to be a five, four, three, two, one seat? No. So best case scenario, I guess what they're a playing team. They're playing team.

They won 44 games last year. They get maybe back to right around that range, 42 to 44. Playing team probably losing the first round if they make it out of the plane. They won one game in the play in last year. And then they quit the other one, right? That was weird. That was so weird. Yeah.

After they had the game of the season and then they go back. Yeah. I don't know what team do believe in. I mean, I think that's what they're trying to figure out, right? And so that's why they're kind of like, you know what? We're going to move on from Lamello. We're going to move on from Miles Bridges. We're going to bring a guy like Nas Reid who is like just unimpeachable as a teammate and as a high character guy and who's going to bust his ass.

I think no Miles Bridges karma factor. You got your all way back. That should be good for a winner too right there just in karma points. But they're not just they don't have enough, I think, collective talent or the most hot. Like Brandon Miller is really good. And Concanipple was, you know, this close to rookie of the year. Like they're like I like what they've got. I just don't know that they're like.

Lamella was the talent to put that over the top if you kept him, but he was also the guy who might be holding you back. And so they made a count. That playing game against the heat was a perfect example of that. They made a calculation. And so, yeah, their best case is probably playing team. Worst cases, lottery again. And they're used to that.

Hold on a second. Oh, I'm sorry. It was Charlotte Hornets. I don't know where it was. We had a more exciting team. Sorry, my bet. Go ahead, Tyler. Put the car in neutral for a second, okay?

First of all, they've got the best player in the league, Musa Diabate. Okay. So I think we have that has to take, we have to take that into account. I also think the Kobe White thing is, that's not nothing. He was good for him.

I want to go to the next team. I'm sorry. No, we're not doing that yet. Charlotte, I stand up for you. All right, hold on, hold on. Then what's their best case scenario? Second round of playoffs. Best case. Whoa. Wow. Fuck it. Let's have some fun.

Wow. Fuck it. All right. Fuck it. Let's have some fun. It's totally possible. aggregate that shit. I mean,

please don't. I don't want anything to do with you people, but yeah. Fuck out of here, man. No, I'm done with this. You know what we're going next?

You're terrified. Now you're terrified. It's going to happen. I can see you. I'm terrified with the rest of this. We've got a long way to go. All right. Let's go to the Miami Heat.

Best case, worst case scenario. They got Janus. They got Clay Thompson. I'm really excited to see Clay Thompson in Miami. Not even for on-court stuff. Just all of the, I hope he takes the boat to the games again.

I want to see that. When he got traded from Golden State, I was like he's going to be miserable in Dallas. His landlock. What the fuck is he going to do? Yeah, I know. It turned out to be true. I didn't know that Luca was going to be gone then, but it turned out to make sure. Neither did Clay.

Anyways. They also have Andrew Wiggins. They have a really good roster, man. I'm higher on the roster and I think everybody else. They have a lot of dudes, which is something that we all like in this room, right? Just dudes that have been there before. I love dudes. Love dudes.

We know this. We're big into dudes. Aggregate that, too. Yeah. Yeah, I want to see that on Real GM. Ring your staff writer, Tyler Parker. Loves news. He's saying he's big into dudes.

Best case scenario, worst case scenario. Tyler Parker. Easter conference finals. I'm not, I don't, I can't say finals. I just don't. They always find shooting. I know they got clay. But I don't think they're going to quite have enough offensive firepower to be able to, where I can say like, oh, they'll make it to the finals.

I'm like still big, yonest believer. And I think that he's going to be more motivated than ever. and I think he's going to be like I'm not going to pick him for MVP but I think he's like top three next year when it comes to that sort of thing because I think he's going to be

I think he's very very angry without everything went down and the way that everyone has placed him in their minds in terms of the league hierarchy and I think that he's like fuck all of you like I'm still the man and Spolstra is going to be able to use him in ways that Milwaukee, I don't think, I mean, but he love Bud.

They obviously had success there. But he hasn't had a coach that's as good as Spolstra. And I think that he's going to unlock some things with him. Like, I think it's going to be so fun to see him in transition, him and band together. I almost think that this trade was like two, three years too late. It might be. Honest, you should have did this. I'm just, and like, if I, if I, if I, if you were like,

You were telling me, like, I got to put money down. I'm not putting money down on these conference finals. But in terms of a best case scenario, that's what I got. Okay. I'm an optimist on the heat, but a little bit short of that. I think they can be top six in the East. I think they can win a round or two. Conference finals feels like a big leap to me.

Partially, like, we can do the, oh, is Janus going to stay healthy stuff? But all right, let's just, like, put that to the side for a minute. There's a Janus Bamfit, because neither of them are really shooters. So there's a little bit of that. Defensively, they're going to be a terror. Offensively, they have some stuff to figure out. Spolster's a genius. He'll figure it out.

But, like, it's a thing. Yeah. Shot creation outside of, like, Janus, like, Yonah can do a lot, but, like, it can't be just him. Is Davion Mitchell, he's not really a point guard. Like, he plays the position, but he's not really that kind of point guard. I like Tim Hardaway Jr., Clay Thompson going there for the shooting and the spacing and everything, but, like, a lot of miles on them. Like, there's just enough kind of, like, I'm, like, they need one more guy.

Like they really need, like, especially at the point guard position, if they just had one really reliable shot creator score type there to take a little bit of the pressure off Janus and get guys in their spots and keep the offense humming, I'd feel better. So it's a lot on spolster to just kind of like X and O's this thing up and make them better than the sum of their parts. But there's enough talent there. Yeah, top six team win a round or two. I just think you're going to have Bam and Janus combining for like, what, like 120 points a game? You figure BAM's going for 80. Yo, that, that, that. Right.

I feel bad for that, that who. It's going to go through murder as a row. It's going to go out of clanks, a lot of dunk. It's going to be, I feel bad for that in and out like every like, like, two weeks. Angel Reese's brother, that guy. You remember he just getting really getting put in the bucket.

Yeah, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. So my best case scenario, I think that they are in the finals conversation because of Eric Spolster. I do think that they are in the finals conversation. I will give them the benefit of the doubt on that. I do believe that there's anybody that can make it work it is Eric Spolster. That being

said, my worst case scenario is like maybe they're weirdly like a playing team. It could be. I could see that. I think that they're like weirdly a playing team because like that's what I got. And you, because go back to the Eric Sposter point on the high end like you're saying oh man like he brought like that squad with Jimmy Butler

to the finals multiple times. But if you go look back on that, that is roster that goes together, right? You have a whole bunch of shooters around BAM, and then you have a shot creator and just a creator that can be a hub in Jimmy Butler, right? I don't see that type of symmetry on this team. It's basically just like a cloud of dust, right? But if there's anybody that I can, you know, think about, you know, overseeing all this, Eric's Bolster having success with it, that's what it is. But I do think that they get, because I think that's the variance that I have. I think that they could be at a finals team. If Bolster figures this out somewhere,

He's way smarter at X's and O's than all of us combined in this room. But there's also a world where this, like, it simply just doesn't fit. This just doesn't work. And Janus, man. He should have just asked out a couple years ago. That's the bottom line. When this thing was clearly going one direction. That's what I'm trying to say.

Yeah. He spent too much time being passive aggressive about it saying whispering things behind closed doors and then saying different things publicly and they're going to be here for the rest of my career. Like everybody knows what's going on here. You just need to say it. And if you just say it, it'll happen sooner. But he didn't want to be the bad guy.

and this is what happens. Like there was either a better version of Miami a couple years ago maybe or landing somewhere else that was more prepared to just take him in without giving up too much of their roster, right? Like the tough part here is like, oh, Tyler Hero and Jaime Hakez might have been really nice next to Janice in Miami. But you've got to give up something in the trade. And it's just there's not quite enough left there. And so it's up to Pat Riley, Andy Ellisberg, and the rest of that front office. It's a very good front office.

But they're going to be really creative about trying to find pieces. and they got Tim Hardaway Jr., they got Clay, but these are guys with some miles on them. And it's, you know, they've had to put out the word of like, hey, guys, it's not a one-year thing. This is like, we're going to have Janus for the long haul, which, okay, fair. But the second you get Janus, the expectations go through the roof right now.

Sure, sure. So it's fine to say we're going to use a couple of years to rebuild around him, but, you know, time's ticking. All right. Let's go up the Florida coast to Orlando. That's the proper response. Yuck. This was one of the hardest ones for me.

Because there were both bad scenarios? You couldn't be optimistic. Because I could, like, both them being good and them being frustrating are both so plausible to me. Like, you could tell me that last year was just this, like, bad vibe. I just hate watching this. It's not enjoyable. League pass or not. And that's what that like you had to do it for your job.

But the Detroit Orlando series was God awful. Yeah, no, no, no. It was okay. It wasn't, I'm, it's not, you know, going to be on the SBA classic anytime soon. It was a god. That will not be on NBA TV's Hardwood Classic. I will tell you that. No.

I can bet money on that one. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, you're, you want me to give my thing? Yeah, give your thing. I interrupted your thing. Sixth seed is kind of where I'm at for the best case. It also could be worst case too, right?

Maybe. I mean, like, you think I'm being generous? You think the offense is just that bad? Yeah. Look, my range is basically best case in areas that they're a high play-in team and the worst-case scenario is that they're a low-play-in team. There's seven to ten, and like, to me, that's a hard ceiling. All due respect to Sean Sweeney, who I think everybody around the league expects is going to be a great head coach, but he's the first-time head coach,

and coaching was not their problem. Like, it's a personnel thing. That's their problem and shot creation. I won't say this. I'll push back on that. I think it wasn't a coaching problem in the fact that your players quit on you. Well, that is an issue. That is an issue. But I don't think any amount of coaching, scheming, exing and owing is going to somehow make Wagner and Banerro a better fit with each other. It's not even just that.

Carrot in the playoffs just doesn't know a shot that he needs to take. He does not have a go-to shot whatsoever when it's crunch time, which is a very frustrating player. When you combine all the – like they didn't change anything about the roster. That's so weird. You combine. Isn't it so weird? It's so weird. It isn't.

It's kind of just what Orlando does. But if you just take what they are and look at the rest of the East, all the things we've already talked about, all these teams that we can make the finals, all these teams that there's too many teams that can be top six and there's only six spots in the top six. Like somebody is shut out of this and the magic are one of them. I just don't see there's any way that they are getting past. Like are they leapfrogging Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Atlanta, Philly and a revived Indiana plus Miami?

I just name nine teams that I think are better than the magic. I don't want to do this anymore. Let's go to the next team. Wait, damn, the next team is even more depressing. The Washington Wizards. Some people are really high on this team. I'm low on this team. Yeah.

There's some over-exuberance. I'm pretty low on this team. I think that people are, I'm just going to go worst-case scenario because I think that's all I got right now. Worst case scenario is Trey Young plays like himself. and Anthony Davis also plays like himself in 26-27. I don't think that that's a formidable, I don't think it's a formidable duo to lead your team at this particular point, right?

Like, it just simply, I'm still just as confused as I was the night that we had, the night that we talked about the trade. Because, like, if they don't make either one of these trades and they get to Banzah, they're in great shape. Why do they have to trade for two guys that want to win a title, but they have no ability to actually do so? This is the most wizard shit of all time I am low on this team

I don't know how low Probably I don't think they make the playoffs I don't even think they missed I had a moment Just thinking about the Wizards This week Or last week

Where I was like Oh yeah Deandra Aten's on that team Yeah I forgot about that Chris Middleton again I forgot about that You know like just sort of I mean

I don't think I'm as Low on them as it Sounds like y'all are like I don't think they're going to be a good team I think there's a world where they're fun to watch, but that's like there's the big if. There's like a stretch where Trey Young and Anthony Davis are injured and the young guys get to play.

Or if somehow they can talk Trey into not needing to dominate the ball. Oh, good luck with that. I don't think they're going to be able to do that. My thing that's annoying, Homo, sorry to cut you off, but I'm just so annoying with this. We just had like three, four years of Washington being known as like this savvy front office, and rightfully so because they made sassy, savvy moves and all of a sudden they do this and it's like,

what the fuck were you doing all of that for? Yeah, I mean, maybe they'll be able to flip Davis for some stuff. I don't know. I really like DeBanza. I'm still on the, like, Tray Johnson train. I still, I like Kaishon George. Champagne's good.

Like, they do have pieces that, to me, are fun to watch. DeBanza is the biggest question mark, obviously. if only because is he good, is sharing a court with Trey Young the best way to develop a young perimeter player who ideally is going to be like your lead handler of the future? And the answer is probably no. Maybe I will just always have the slightest hope that Trey will change and it's just my own delusion. but like it just just take it from a 10 to a 7 you know what I mean in terms of the I'm the man I'm the man I'm the man I'm the man I'm the man I'm the man like it maybe he can recognize that like DeBonce is here and this is a lion and I need to like acquiesce a little bit I need to but I yeah I mean he got his contract so maybe maybe he will do that maybe yeah all right that's been that's been the first half of um this real one's discussion it got really sad towards the end yeah when you get down to the end of the alphabet it gets kind of rough yeah part two

where we talk about the western conference will be a doozy that's going to come on very very soon talk to you on a bit