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

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Logan Murdock and Howard Beck are joined by Tyler Parker to discuss the best- and worst-case scenarios for the Western Conference teams. Will Wemby be on a revenge tour all season and capture the Larry O’Brien, MVP, and DPOY? Could one team see their All-World MVP center ask for an exit out of town? How far can Luka and the Lakers go with LeBron no longer in Los Angeles? 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 The Club for every holiday club. Sam’s Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping? Real Ones. Logan Murdoch here with my esteemed colleagues, Tyler Parker and Howard Motherfucking Beck. We are here to talk about the Western Conference and give the best case scenario for the Western Conference and the worst case scenario for the Western Conference. This is going to be a doozy because we're going to start off with the Denver Nuggets, which is, I think this is the category where it's kind of like both worst case scenarios are in play right now, right? What's your read on this? They didn't do anything this offseason. The fact they got worse because Peyton Watson walked and went to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This is such a disservice to Yokez going into this season. They didn't do one thing. They draft us some guys, who they are excited about. But this looks like it's going to be really, really depressing. Howard Beck, what are your thoughts? Best case, worst case scenario? You don't think the draft capital that they brought back for Peyton Watson is going to pay dividends in April and May? Look, this is still a great team because of Yokic and Jamal Murray and the hope of an Aaron Gordon healthy season, right?

Like so much depends on Aaron Gordon's hamstrings. Best case scenario, though, I'm putting a ceiling on them that I did not think I would. But I'm going to say Western Conference Finals. But with an outside chance to beat whoever it is they're playing in the Western Conference Finals, the Spurs or Thunder. Like, it's not impossible. It's on the table. But if I'm saying best case scenario, realistically, I still believe that that's probably the brick wall. that they cannot quite smash through.

And yeah, they're worse off than they were a few months ago because they lost a really good young player in Peyton Watson willingly. He didn't just lose him. He didn't just like wander away. They fucking let him go. So that's it. Like that's their best case scenario. Worst case if we want to talk, you know, both ends right off the top, there's, it's always

on the table that Aaron Gordon's going to get hurt again. Jamal Murray's had his own injury history too. And so like in any scenario where there's something. second and third best players have any issues whatsoever. This is a team that could easily fall to sixth and maybe losing the first round just because of the wealth of talent at the top of the West. And adding to that, they're a team that fucks around a lot, right? They're good when they go into the playoffs and they're formidable and they are scary when

they go to the playoffs. But, you know, when they get to the dog days of March and this year, it had to do with injuries. But in previous seasons, it's like, I always look up at league pass. I'm like, why the fuck of the Nuggets? It's March? Why are they not caring about this Tuesday game that they need for standings? Like, why do they not give a fuck about this game?

But in a year like this, when you need to stay afloat, I think that that's going to be a detriment for them. My best case scenario, I think Western Conference Finals is a good best case scenario. I think worst case scenario, they get to a six seat and they're still formidable just because of Yokic. But, and Tyler, you saw this. I think that last year was probably the Nuggets best chance. at a title because, and you could sense this from, I think, the rest of the league. And I made this analogy last year. But it's like when 50 Cent was on his mixtape run and everybody was like, yo man,

when he drops an album, everybody, it's all fucked up for everybody, right? I feel that way for Victor Women Yama right now, right? Where it's like, you had your chance. That was a mixtape last year. That wasn't mixed tape last year. Jesus. That wasn't mixed tape at all. I thought that was a debut album kind of thing.

or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So it's, but I think you saw that with the nuggets that like, yo, they could get this dude, but they need to do it right now because it's not going to be another chance combined with the fact that Victor's only going to get better and you guys are only going to get older. Yeah. Right?

I think it's going to be a tough year for Denver this year. The beginning of a transition, to be honest. This episode is presented by Sam's Club during the holidays. Everyone's in a club, the last minute gift givers club, the cool aunts club, the food. The Food Coma Club? Whatever holiday club you're in, Sam's Club is the club that helps you pull it off.

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I had Western Conference Finals as kind of the best case scenario. if you told me Yokic just went Hulk smash on everything it's maybe maybe it's the outside possibility that they could get back to the finals I get super worried about the shooting with these guys Cam Johnson really struggled for the better part of last year and didn't seem to

fit in the ways that they were expecting him to I think the DeRosen edition is not nothing, but it doesn't do what you need it. He just doesn't play the way that they need somebody on the perimeter to be playing right now. We need to get somebody. Yeah. I mean, Christian Brown, for me, left a lot to be desired last year. I was sort of wanting to see him take a little bit more of a leap after the playoffs that he had the year before that. and there's just there's just a lack of pop on the perimeter across the board that you know

Spencer Jones comes back but he's not the jumper looks broken it goes in sometimes and he plays super duper hard he's a great defender he's a good player for them but I don't see enough like dynamism from them like up top to where they're going to be able to to make enough waves in this particular conference. And they've got, if, if, if Aaron Gordon's healthy, then that always changes their defense. But you always do have, if you have two dudes that can go get their own that are quick, that can give you some problems and get paint touches and stuff like that, The nuggets can struggle with this stuff because, I mean, Jamal Murray's not really going to stay in front of a lot of people.

You've got Christian Brown who can do some things, but he can only, you know, he can only be asked to do so much. So it, I worry about, I don't think there's as athletic as they were last year now. And Lord knows the West is only getting more athletic. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I had. them like worst case scenario is like an eight seed, which I realize that's like the biggest range that I've got. I don't think that will happen.

But I do think that this is the kind of roster that shit could go south in a hurry. Yokish covers up a lot, papers over a lot of stuff. And I don't think it'll happen. But I could see a world where it's the season from hell. Yeah. Yeah. And that leads to the ultimate worst case scenario, which is that Yokic looks around and goes, what the hell am I doing here?

And, you know, we don't have to start talking like, Michael Pino already floated trade proposals for involving Yokin on our last. Michael Peter floated trade proposals. Involving Yokic. And he loves Yokic. So, like, listen, I just think it's a problem when you pull up the ESPN depth chart for the Nuggets. And the backup that they list, and this is ESPN's depth chart. So, you know, like the old, you know, caveats.

But like backup shooting guard, DeMard de Rosen, backup small forward, DeMar de Rosen, backup power forward, Demar de Rosen. No, this is shade. at the Nuggets, not at ESPN. I'm just saying, like, if you're looking at where their depth is, Marvin Bagley, DeMarre Rosen, like,

they signed Lani Walker the 4th, brought him back. Like, back to the NBA. Like, there's just, like, they just grabbed a bunch of pieces and said, we've got to fill some roster spots, and I don't know how any of these guys fit or move the ball forward. I mean, they're, I know they're excited about Brazil.

Like, and he, like, looked good in the in Summer League and, I mean, he gives them, like, athleticism that they desperately need. But there's just, Strother hasn't been what they need him to be. Nogh. Lord knows, hadn't been what they need him to be. Like, they just, like, none of these guys have stepped. Doran Holmes, same sort of thing.

Like, it, I don't know, I worry about, I worry about Big Yoke a little bit. I think he's going to, it's going to be a heavy lift this year. There's a lot of dynamism. Was that the word? Dynamism. There's a lot of dynamism in your performance during that. Thank you. And speaking of.

dynamism. The Minnesota Timberwolves. It's going to be, I think this is the rare team where they might fuck up and it's still the best case scenario because we got to watch it. Sure.

Okay. Mello Ball is in town. He is the new running mate to Anthony Edwards that has been the talk of the offseason. One of the many talks of the off season. I'm dubious of the partnership. We'll get to that in a second. But I want to hear you guys'

thoughts. Minnesota Timberwolves, best case scenario, worst case scenario. For the wool, or for the walls, my best case is, um,

I really wanted to say my best case was going to be the finals. I'm, I'm, I'm putting it, just because like I, that you got to understand. I'm, I have so much love in my heart for Jaden McDaniels and Iodosun,

like, I owe is now one of my other guys. Like this is like, like I really like watching that guy play. They really have dudes, though. They do. They do have dudes. Devinchenzo.

I mean, like, is a dude. Probably out for the season. Oh, yeah, that's true. Or most of it. Yeah. Yeah. Dude. Still a dude.

That sucks. Undeniable a dude. A hurt dude. But, like, I, they are such a bear to play against always, especially in the playoffs. And I, I, I. Edwards is still at the stage in his career where he's getting better every year. That's a lot of pressure to put on him. It's so much pressure to put on him, but he's been up to the task during every single sort of playoffs that he's participated in thus far.

Yeah. I don't have a ton of faith that the lamello fit is going to work. in the ways that they needed to because I think he's just a terrible, terrible defender. And I think that that's going to, I don't think they're always going to have somebody to hide him on. And he has zero playoff experience. Yeah. And so he is so exciting. I think that they are going to be one of the most fun teams in transition to watch this year, maybe the most fun.

but Lamello's fit defensively is concerning enough for me I mean you saw it like we saw it with Conley last year like sometimes they get to where they are playing these point guards in situations

against these lead ball handlers that are just coming down hill and they can't do anything with them my thing is like yo man they play the thunder in the playoffs Shaggillaz Alexander is going to be like I want him come here Lemuel, come here.

You. I think every time. I think every team will. And they'll try to pre-switch it. They'll try to do everything that they can. But yeah, I mean, like, teams nowadays, like, it's just, they're, it's, everyone is a headhunter now. And like, yeah. Yeah, I, the worst case scenarios are easier to entertain right now than the best case ones.

Because you could totally see a scenario here where Lamello and Ant do not click at all. Or where they're having a lot of fun, but they're just not winning games of being particularly responsible. with the ball. You could absolutely see a scenario here where Chris Finch wants to do terrible things to Lamello or is just like Chris Finch is like passing out on the sideline because it's like Clayton Bigsby skit on Chappelle so where Neil Brennan's head exploded. When is that going to happen to Chris Fitch? Also by the way, Jonathan Kaming is on this team. So between Kaminga and Lamello, he went there to go to the winning organization. Prayers for Chris Fitch. He actually went there for good purposes. I.

I hope there's a great mental health program at the Minnesota Timberwolves organization. This is a team that absolutely could finish top six in the Western Conference, maybe even win a round. It's hard to see them winning more than one round, as currently constructed. They went from having this wonderful front court and no back court to having like a very potent but combustible backcourt and no front court, right? Like you've downgraded from Cat and Reed to Randall and Reed to Jonathan Kaminka. like I see the upside and I see what the wolves are doing. I understand this, right?

Like you're betting big on upside both in different ways. McDaniels is like as an offensive player is much improved. Like I think that that changes some of the equation for. Right, maybe he's their starting four, but then that's limiting them in other ways. But yeah, I don't know what to make of this team. Definitely high league pass team, not so confident in their in their, their, their, their ability to win, but I understand what they're doing and I get the bet on Lamello. Hey, different atmosphere with us, different framework, different coaching, whatever.

Every team in the NBA at all times when you have flawed young stars like Lamello, every team thinks we're going to be the ones to harness it and get the most. Best case scenario is, like you said, five or six seed worst case scenario. Worse, worst can they case scenario? This is the beginning of the end of Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. That's the bet that they've made basically. It's either works or it fails miserably and everything's on the time. Why would you?

You know, when the option is to also do nothing, people forget that that's an option too. Sure. I think the Minnesota Timberl was a few years might be like, oh, we could have just did nothing if Lamello was on the table. I like that Lamello and Rudy Gobert, like, have found their exact opposite. Sure. one could not be further from the other. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Let's go. Let's let's have some level optimism. Maybe not that much optimism, depending on where you go. I'm going to throw you on the spot here, Tyler Parker. Best case scenario, Oklahoma City Thunder. Or worst case scenario, Oklahoma City Thunder. How are you feeling right now?

Are you having heart palpitations? Are you? No, the ticker's feeling fine. I mean, the best case is the championship. Like, I don't think that's crazy to say. the hope, right, is that the uptick in minutes for AJ and Kaysen, like, they can handle that load. And it's, there's not a discernible difference between, like, you know, how they're performing. Well, hopefully there's, I think AJ's really good.

I think Kaysen's really good. I think that it only stands to be good for the team that they play more minutes. That said, like, they, you know, they had not been with the team for as long as the Isaiah Joe's, the Wigginses, the Lou Dorts, right? But it came to a point where, especially last year during the playoffs, like, it was a struggle out there with Lou. And he did go cold in times where you couldn't have him. And as hard as he plays and as much of the team's,

sort of, like, defensive identity was kind of found in him. You know, I think it was kind of time to move on there. I think A.J., with more minutes, with more possessions, like, I think it's going to be able to, like, let Shea work off the ball a little bit more, which takes some of the pressure off of him, lets him do some stuff where he's not having defenses load up to him. There are some times, though, and AJ, like, kind of gets a little too freaky with the basketball, right? A little bit.

That game against his first playoffs started against Phoenix. He was just all over there. He went like six of 24. Wild like that. But then it was great after that. It was great after that. But I'm just saying he's susceptible to that. He's one of those guys that I think they're trying to let him kind of explore the space a little bit in a way.

And they need to figure out what his ceiling is too. And the only way to do that is to get him some shots and stuff. And so I think they want him to be aggressive. I think the biggest question, to me is like, where is Chet sort of mentally after the Western Conference finals and what Wimby did to him? Like, can he come, can he bounce back from that? I mean, Chet was having an incredible playoffs up until that point.

Whatever, I think he's 13, 13 All-MBA last year. He was an all-star last year. He had a great season last year. It ended terrible. You know what I think Chet could use, though? I think Chet could just be sell. Yeah, I don't fuck with it, Wemby, and I don't like him, man. I wish there would be more of that.

The reason why I think that is because, and like, I've interviewed Chet, a lot of people have interviewed Chet about this particular thing, and he shies away from it. Like, oh, that's just, you know, it's just media fodder. It's just me and him on there. I think, like, and I think that puts a weight on his shoulders because I do think he has those feelings inside that he doesn't put out. Like, he should be like, or if he doesn't, that might be a problem. Yeah, I think, yeah, if nothing else, he's probably a little bit like, dude, what the hell? I didn't say it. He didn't do it.

He didn't do it. Yeah. But he puts you through, like, I've seen you through Oklahoma City runs, and it's something to be said, the heartbreak that you have when Wimby puts shed through the basket. And I don't want that for you. I don't know. I mean, I think I'm pretty tough. I think I'm pretty strong. Okay. I can handle it. All right. I think the best case scenario on this one, you know, they won a championship.

The worst case scenario is, there's not a lot of variance, like, on-court production, because I think that they're going to do a deep run regardless, right? But the worst case scenario, I think, is Shea has a high usage rate. J-dub, who we haven't talked about yet, doesn't come back into form after all of those hamstring injuries, right? And then Chet doesn't take it personal when he gets put through the basket in playoffs, and they lose in the conference finals to this spurs. Unless Jalen Williams has another really terrible injury year, and even if he did, the depth there, even after all of your beloved friends, Lourd, Isaiah, Joe, Aaron Wiggins went out the door. Which of those hurt you the most, by the way? I was curious.

Probably, Lou. Just because he's been the... He was the longest tenured dude. He was there before Shea. Or no, same year of Shea. Same year or she. Plus, that was one of those diamonds in the rough they found and built them up, everything. I think that was probably why he stayed with the team as long as he did.

It was because there was a developmental win for that organization. Those are hard to give up. But like if Jalen Williams is... Like, yes, sealing, obviously, championship. Worst case scenario, I think they're losing the spurs again. in whatever round they meet, probably in the conference finals, depending on how the standings work out. But like, the worst, worst case scenario is, yeah, a repeat of some of the injury concerns they had. But I still think there's so much there.

Against the Spurs last year, you know, Jalen Williams goes down during that series and A.J. Mitchell does. Like, you're not going to beat the Spurs without, you know, two of your, like, top four offensive players. Like, it just, that's your, no team in the league is going to do that as deep as the Thunder were. like they don't have the horses to withstand losing two of those dudes who are also both two of their best shooters and guys that can get into the lane and actually like draw Wimby and make him make some kind of decision and stuff. Like that I'm not so sold on like the spurs have the Thunder's number for sure, for sure, because of those injuries. That being said, I would not begrudge anyone, and they probably should take the spurs over the thunder going into next year. Yeah.

Well, let's get sad again. Portland Trailblazers, who traded for one job, Morant. The team owner is... Well, you feel sad about the Portland Trailblazers? We'll get to it. We're clearly going to get to it. The owner Tom Dunden has had a lot of aggressive cost-cutting measures. in the fight to get arena financing from the city.

That aside, the John Moran experience is going to be a doozy. I'll just do my best case, worst case. I think the best case scenario, there are 14 in the Western Conference, but John Moran shows some contrition, and he takes on the leadership mantle, and he's mentored by Dame Lillard to be a better version of himself. There's no evidence of that, by the way, thus far. You know, the only time that we've seen John Morant this summer,

he didn't seem like a changed person. He seemed very defiant amongst the cameras. And the cameras don't lie. But the worst case scenario is John Moran is defiant, and his behavior follows him to Portland. And it just, it undercuts, which should be a great story down there, especially when you add the addition of,

now this team went to the playoffs last year, and then you add the addition to Damien Lillard, who was a franchise icon, and you undercut all of that because of, you know, John Morant's hubris. And then, you know, the snowball goes down from there. They were in the upper part of the playing bracket last year, and that was a breakthrough season for them.

They make the playoffs. You know, they get, you know, take their lumps. And like, it was like, oh, the nice breakthrough, whatever. and, you know, this first time with, you know, this group. And that should have been a feel-good moment, and it was already overshadowed in the moment by all of the stuff that Dundon was doing as owner.

And then the off-season, I feel like got even worse. Not only all the layoffs and everything else that they did, but, like, I will say this until proven otherwise. I think the John Morant trade was the worst trade of the summer, worse than Jalen Brown. I at least understand what the Celtics were doing with Jalen Brown. I do not understand what the Blazers are doing with John Morant. And, yeah, they didn't give up anything to get him.

Cool. But there's still like some opportunity cost here because you are jamming John Morant into a back court with Dame Lillard coming back from his Achilles and a young scoot Henderson and Drew Holiday. How's your scoot stock doing? You know, we're still holding. Same. Same. Yeah. And Deniavdi had like the best season of his career as a primary ball handler playmaker type.

You got too many of these guys. Again, there was an option to do nothing on the time. There was an option to do nothing. No. Yeah. You did not have to acquire John Morant. I believe absolutely positivity. that was an owner decision, not the front office. So best case scenario, let's play fantasy land

for a second year. John Morant has a renaissance. And I think, by the way, there's some physical concerns with him in addition to attitudinal concerns. Here's a thing, man. This is the thing. And I've said this on the podcast before. This is not a, this is not, John Morant going to the Portland Trailblazers is not him going to the Troil and Trailblazers. It is an avenue for Nike to sell sneakers and have one of their highest pitchmen and most high profile pitchmen, stay out of trouble. Let's just call a spade a spade. This is literally what this trade was. If there's a Jamarant Renaissance to be had and if it happens.

And Dame looks some semblance of Dame again. And Mike and Norrie, new head coach, he unlocks Scoot and Shaden Sharp. And maybe they make a run at the sixth seed, maybe? Like maybe. And then they're a first round lost. Like that, to me, that's their ceiling. But the worst case scenario is, Jaw proves every bit as bad of a fit there as I fear he will. And he still can't shoot or defend, by the way.

Worst case scenario, Dame looks old and does not come back well from the Achilles. They fall to the lottery again and Dundon fires everybody. I imagine they're thinking like, look, we will bring Jha in and we will sort of have him just constantly bookended by Dame and Dries. Holiday, and these are two of the most sort of, you know, professional point guards that we've had in the league over the last, you know, 15 years in the league, right? I imagine that that's the hope. I don't know about the fit with Jock. Less of, because of personality issues or the ego and more just like he started to protect himself a little bit, more on some of these drives, some of these like sort of forays to the rim that he used to kind of

just go like balls to the wall, head down, like I'm getting there. You can't do anything about it. I think he's, because of the injuries, I think he's just like not quite as fearless as he used to be. And yeah, the shot has just always been a concern. And it's more of a concern now than ever. So do you believe, you know, I know you're on the socials. Do you believe the, the. I wasn't even going back like a 50 year old I know you're on the social yeah

there's been this like very I hate you guys yeah what's what they're 50 by you're right motherfucker guys I just said it like I've got to talk to my camera there's been a very deliberate campaign on the internet

from Jha and the people around him that this is like the summer that he's always had like Jaws off in the cut he's out here working his ass off Do you believe that or not? Do you believe the propaganda that's on the low? Do you believe that it's going to make a difference? You sound like you have a better idea of how jaw operate.

I'm not going to pretend like I have a sense for how jaw operates. It just feels like he's doing like the Ben Simmons thing where he's like. Don't believe anything that ever happens in the summer. Whatever anybody tells you, whatever you see on Instagram, just don't. I'm interested in what you said. So you think that the jaw thing, like pure Dundon. Like you think the front office didn't want anything to do? with it. It was only Dunden. I think it's bigger than the front office. The front office, I don't think

would have been. I'm not as conspiratorial on this as Logan is with the shoe companies and everything, but I don't rule it out. I do not think this was a basketball decision. Got it. Yeah. Put it that way. Let's go to the Utah Jazz, who's like everybody's sneaky favorite team right now. You know, they're getting the preseason buzz. They got Triple J last trade deadline. They flipped Cody Kessler, got a bunch of picks. Darren Peterson, they drafted, who was like the summer league MVP. And they are, you know, he, did you say Cody Kessler? Did I say Cody Kessler?

Walker said that. Sorry. I was thinking about, no, I played at a football camp with Cody Kessler, who played for USC. Okay, got it. He is like stamped in my mind. So I always, whenever I see Walker Kessler, I always say Cody Kessler. Okay, got it. Shout out Cody Kessler, Bakersfield.

But this is like the trendy team. Like, oh, man, they could actually do something. Sure. In large part because Darren Peterson balled in Summer League. And that's pretty much what we got. And you're going to put them around these dudes and Lori Marketing's on the team. Has a bit more free reign with the Kessler trade to play his game. They might actually let him play during the back half of the season.

Yeah, they actually might actually might see a full team from the jazz. Like this is the first time in a while that like when the jazz are in town, like, I'm going to go check them out. Yeah, let's go fucking, let's go watch them live. I get why people are pumped. I mean, like, Kiante George, Darren Peterson, Markinen, Jackson, and then whoever else you want to throw out there, like, that's fun. Ace Bailey, whatever. Like, that's a, that's a team that can do a lot of things.

It's got a lot of offensive firepower. I, my best case was sixth seed for them. Yeah, that's a good one. I, I, I struggled between that and, you know, the upper echelon of the play in, because sometimes I do think it's, this, there's, this is like, a largely unproven group, right? Like the pieces there are nice. Jackson's done some stuff in Memphis.

Markinen's been a part of good teams before. But in terms of, like, as currently constructed, right? Like, we are taking some leaps and thinking, like, okay, they're just going to be ready to go. So I worry about hitting the gas too hard with them. But it, all these pieces work. And I really. like, Kianti George is the real deal. Young, talented teams that play hard tend to do great in regular seasons and overachieve.

So I think that that's really also on your, on adding to your argument. I think this is the best situation that Jaron Jackson Jr. has ever been in. He has the fewest amount of expectations. He's not going to have to be like the, you know, main number two dude. Like there will be less, why aren't you going and getting rebounds? You know, like I think there's, there will, that will still. happen probably, but I don't think it's going to be as catastrophic as it was whenever he was in Memphis and didn't show up. Like there's enough other pieces here where he's not as important.

And I think that's probably good for where he's at. I would feel better about this team and might, might even get to the place that you're at with the whole run at the six seed thing if Walker Kessler were still there. Sure. Or even Cody Kessler for that matter. Any Kessler. But I don't, sorry, Logan. I just, I couldn't, I can't quite get there because the downgrade from Walker Kessler to Yusuf Nurkich and his in-season, season, ending nose job, I don't know, I just don't,

there's just a little bit missing there now, right? You're just missing a little bit of rebounding and toughness and rim protection that they would have had if they had kept him. I understand, like, okay, the cap aspects of it all and a haul that they got from the Lakers and picks and all that. I understood it from an organizational level, from a basketball level, it's a downgrade. And Jaron Jackson, Jr., we've seen, is better off with a physical center next to him who's going to do the rebounding. So I'm a little bit softer on them than you guys, I think. All the pieces are fun and offensively they could be amazing. I just think it's hard to leapfrog them over too many teams in the Western Conference when they've been as down as there.

And we still have to see it all mesh, right? Like none of these guys have played together really. but the amount of upside, Ace Bailey, Darren Peterson himself, obviously. But again, always caveat on these rookies, no matter how much hype they have coming in, most rookies are not going to contribute to winning immediately. They may put up numbers. They may look awesome, but they don't necessarily contribute to winning. And so, Peter Peterson has a lot to prove, man.

Sure. A lot. Like availability, everything that happened last year. Like he had a really good few months stretch. But, like, he has to prove that he can be a viable and a reliable person. So all of that, yes. And on top of that, now, look, Markinen finally is on a team that can win, right? Jaron Jackson, Jr., we know, likes to score.

Chianti George likes to score. So you also have a – it's amazing to have this from a team that's been in the lottery for several years, but you may have too many mouths to feed all of a sudden. Ace Bailey's out there, too, saying, like, hey, man, he got free reign last season with a losing team. He could just do whatever he wanted. Now he's got to slot into a role. And so, like, there's a lot for Will Hardy to figure out here. And, like, it's a good problem to have.

real test of his, right? Like, where he's always been a guy that's like, oh, whenever you go to Utah, that team plays hard and he's a good coach. But he hasn't really been tested, right? At all. I want him miced up the whole season. And I want the unedited version. We'll see.

We'll see how that works out. Okay, let's go to the Golden State Optionalities. I mean, the Golden State Warriors. My bad. Excuse me. Did I have a lot. Shit. My bad.

The Golden State Warriors, who did absolutely. nothing this season. Did nothing. Yaxil disrespect right there. Yax had a pretty good summer league. Anybody with an Exodus name, automatically cool. Absolutely. There's a lot of lying going on in that organization right now, just about how this off-season is going. We're not going to get too specific. But best case and worst case for the Warriors, I guess I'll go first.

Best case, they're like a 12-seat. Worst case, just the bottom finally just falls from underneath them. I think it's been coming the last few years but damn like and this was the this was the offseason where it was like oh we're fine there we as of the warriors if the warriors are we in this in this argument we are going to we're going to get LeBron we're going to finally get all this optionality everything that we said

we were going to do we're going to finally do it something that we said you know on the team a few a few pods ago they should have did it move three four years ago to even going into this off season and now they've done nothing Steph, I mean, you see him in China, he's walking with a little bit of a pimp limp. He's going to be walking with a big pimp limp throughout this season. Jimmy Butler's coming back and maybe, I don't know when he's coming back.

And also there's a chance he doesn't come back this season. Is it for sure? It's not for sure that he tells me by, right? Even there's been some stuff coming out about his rehab that is like, oh, is he, you know, maybe he won't come back in time. But also, say the warriors are like last in the Western Congress. conference. Why would you come back, you know, January or February anyway? This team is just depressing, you know. It's just, the focus is on the Niners in the Bay Area right now. It just,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it sucks. This is very, it's going to be a really sad season from Golden State. There is no real best case scenario. It's just all sad. Yeah. I mean, no, before you go to him, let's go to the Warriors Optimist over here, Howard Beck. Let's, let's see. Let's get some propaganda. Now, listen, we've got Jimmy Butler is already out for minimum, what, half the season? Yeah. Or I guess, look, he got hurt in January, right? So if you do the comeback at the 10.

The most optimistic timeline is he's back. But 10-11-month mark is not unheard of her for an ACL. You may not be 100% of yourself, but you are functional. And also, he's not exactly a guy who was getting by on like his hops and athleticism anyway. So maybe his best case scenario for Jimmy Butler is coming back in, let's say, even December, late December or something, right? You're not completely out of it by then. You're not probably 0.25. So, like, if he's back and Steph was still awesome last year.

Draymond, for most part, had a pretty solid season. Like, you've got the basis of a core group there that when they were all together after they first got, Jimmy, they won a ton of games. They want a playoff series. Like, they're clinging to that memory from a year and a half ago. It's not that far ago, but it's also like forever ago. They're clinging to that as the reason for optimism, right? And then, oh, maybe Pajemski makes another, you know, Leap, whatever. And Porzingas stays healthy and, you know, Guy Santos does something.

There's something. Hey, George Nyang. is there too. Also, Yaxil. I'm just going to say Yaxil a lot. There's a version of this where they're respectable and they're competitive and Jimmy comes back soon enough that the season doesn't go off the rails. But it's so easy to conceive of a season where Porzingis misses half the season and

Steph gets banged up and Draymond misses a bunch of games and Jimmy doesn't come back until, if at all, you know, March, in which case, then you've got nothing. At that point, it is. Listen, I'll say this. If Draymond is the only one on the court, there's not going to be a lot of games, he might he might we've seen it we've seen it he even's been honest with it like this has a lot of 19 19 2019 2019 2020 vibes where draymond just says like oh fuck this game I'm like I'm not going to try I always say in the off season unless somebody has like they're still coming back from like an achilles or something or

somebody who's just like just injury prone in general I'm usually going to assume health right so as of right now I'm going to assume step is healthy draymond's healthy and that jimmy butler comes back in some semblance of time. And that core group, we've seen there's proof of concept there. So, like, I'm not going to write them off entirely and say this is going to be quite as depressing and awful as Logan is painting the picture of. But that's on the table. Yeah. And that's the problem for the Warriors. And, you know, I don't know what else they could have done this summer. They put all their eggs in the LeBron basket. They didn't get him. And they didn't have much else they can do because who are you going to trade? You're not trading stuff.

You probably can't trade Dremont and you can't trade an injured Jimmy Butler. Like, what were they supposed to do? Like, package Pajemski and Guy Santos for Demardor Rosen. Like, I don't know where this was going. Because they're tanking for Yokich, right? Maybe Yokic will come next year. I'm just saying. They're going to be in the same scenario as they were last year.

Just everybody's going to be sad all over again. But what was your best case? Best case. Everybody stays upright. Yeah. Jimmy returns ahead of schedule. Maybe they make a run at the sixth seed. Maybe.

Got it. Yeah. And it was in the first round. I split the difference between y'all, basically. My best case was like a 10 seed. I think there's a world where they could sneak into the play in if Steph just goes supernova like he can. And the defense was okay when Draymond's out there.

Like it's not a disaster. It's not good, but it's not a disaster. The, I do not think that offensively this is going to, be a team that can do very much. Maybe there's a world where Porzingis has the pop back and he's like, you know. You're not a Pods guy? You don't think he's going to carry the offensive load? I don't know.

I mean, look, Pods plays hard. I don't want to shit on Pods. But, like, he's, he has, he has, what, obvious limitations. And so I don't think that there's going to be enough firepower for them to be able to stick with some of these other teams. I think that, and I think that you're going to be asking so much of Steph that you do run like a serious risk of if not tiring him out, you know, something bad happens and he gets injured. I think he is not at a place in his career.

Yes, he can go nuts every night still. He still has the goods. But I don't think that he wants to, and I don't think that if you have him on your team, you should be wanting that. Like, it's just, there's a, a, like, we trick ourselves with Steph because, like, the conditioning is so out of this world still. Like, when he plays, he still is so good, but dude is getting up there in age. And you're getting to a place where, like, you're asking for a lot from Steph, like,

mentally. You're asking for him to cope with a, like, basically coming into a season where even the biggest optimist in the world isn't going to think that they have any real shot to go do any sort of... The biggest optimist in the 60s. Well, whatever. So, but you like... Best case scenario. That's the best case scenario. I think, I, yeah, I just, I think this is, I don't think it's as depressing of a situation as you may be, but I don't think this is a good one. Yeah. Yeah. Two quick things before we leave the Warriors. One is, I would feel a hell of a lot better if they had found at least one guy that they could have signed from somewhere who could do something with the ball in his hands to take some of that pressure off stuff.

The second thing I'll say, though, is the reason that there's a best case scenario in concept with the most optimistic version of this, running at the 60s is because we only have five teams at the top that we all are certain, I think. We haven't talked about a couple of them yet. But I think there's like five really solid teams that are probably still top five. The wolves are kind of like on the bubble there. Can they still hang on as a top six team? But then everybody after that, Phoenix has all kinds of concerns.

Portland's got all kinds of concerns we already covered. The Clippers, the Warriors, the Pelicans, the Mavs, the Mavs, the Mavs. The West and New East? Kind of? There's just a drop-off in terms of, like, there's a bunch of these teams that there's an upside potential there. But, like, you could- The difference between the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, the Western Conference has two certified powers that you can just write in. And three other really, really good teams, and then there's a drop-off.

Everybody else has got asterisk. It's also, like, there has been a lot of seasons over, you know, pre-seasons over the, the course of the last decade plus where people are like, well, I don't know, maybe the East is better than the West, and that winds up never being the case. I don't, like, I think you're probably right this year. More good teams in the East than the West, probably. But we get pumped up to say that the East is finally better than the West a lot, and that never ends up being the case. It's fair. Maybe this year it is. I don't know. That is fair. I just think the Warriors are just giving out decks. They're just handing out this writing checks and just everybody getting paid right now.

Do you think Steph would ever ask out? No, no chance. I wrote it. He could posture behind the scenes all he wants, but he could never, it will never fulfill him to win a title anywhere else. Or do, or have that level of success anywhere else.

Not even Charlotte. I think that's a bit overblown, but, especially now. Wait, how's it overblown if Dell's like the announcer? How is that overblown? All right, let's talk about it. I get no answer.

Let's go from a team. Let's go from a team. that is given out checks to a team where the check is bouncing. The LA Clippers. Yes. They have lots of checks. When they run out of checks,

they have friends who have checks. Yeah. So, this is the worst. What's the best, I'm asking, what's the best case scenario for the Clippers? Have you planted a tree yet today? Fuck.

Shit. I was in a rush coming from the hotel. You're talking a bunch of shit. You're not even playing trees. I didn't have time. Fuck. Oh, man. Best case scenario, Keaton Wogler

burst out as a star on day one. Darius Garland stays healthy. The two of them clicked, they make a run at the sixth seed. A lot of teams that can make a run at the six seat. Every single thing goes right. Worst case scenario, Wogler struggles like most rookies do. Garland, you know, malingeres through the season with injuries again because he tends to do that.

Plus bad vibes up the freaking wazoo with this team. Like, they're just starting from a deficit, karma-wise here. Hey, hold on real quick. If you're anybody, look it's my camera right here, trade everyone. Just trade everyone. Trade Brendan Ingram. Trade like the eye on the Induit dome. Trade everything.

Get some picks. Do you think the vibes are bad? Obviously the vibes are bad in the organization. Obviously. Do you think that the vibes are bad on the team though? You think in the locker room the vibes are that bad? I'm glad you asked us to tell you. It's funny.

We sometimes conflate these things, right? Like what's happening at the ownership level. Like do the Blazers care about what Tom Dundon is doing, whatever? But some of this stuff does seep in because like you have some uncertainty about is the organization actually solid right now? Sure. And like Lawrence Frank signed or traded or drafted a lot of these guys or all of them. And suddenly he suspended for six months.

And now there's speculation about like, well, is he long for the organization? Because he's the one who took all the copious notes that walked out of Leptin was cited. I have advice for you. I'll take notes in a criminal fucking conspiracy. Don't fucking do it. So like I think there's a possibility of a trickling down. And besides that, you have these Kauai our teammate or not. And if he does get traded, you also just have the vibes of, well, shit, the guy that we were all leaning on.

Like, if you're a role player, it's like, I only function if that guy's at the center of it all. So, you know, it's, it can't not affect you. Like, I think it has some effect. And yeah, there's a part of me that just leaves, maybe believes in karma a little too much. That just like the shit that's hanging over the clippers, like they don't deserve to be anything more than like a lottery team at this stage. I will say this has nothing to do with what we're talking about here. do think there has been a general disregard for Clippers fans in all of this. And I know we'd like to joke like, ha, ha, ha, clippers have fans, blah, blah, blah. If you go to the Intuit Dome,

like, they have good fans. Like, go to the Intuit Dome during a playoff game. It's a great environment. I think that them taking away these five picks in a vacuum makes sense, because that's what they did initially with Glenn Taylor and the wolves. I honestly, honestly, I honestly, wish they would have just made Balmer sell the fucking team because you are putting all these fans in a terrible position where it's like, so what, for the next decade? Like, we're just shit? Fair, except that we could have a similar argument where like, what were if you were, you're a fan of an incompetent team?

Like, there were decades where the clippers were just incompetent and you're suffering through it or the wizards were incompetent. No, I hear you, but that's, but that is, that is at their own hands. You're saying you've already, I've chosen to buy into this hapless team and I'll take what comes with it versus fate has taken away now of the hope. What I think is that if this had happened to another team that wasn't the Clippers or the Nets, say, and we accept that there is this like strong connection between the city and this franchise, I think that there would be more consideration given to those fans. then in another situation. I got to add to that real quick. I got to add to that real quick.

Say they do, if Bomber does sell the team, the way ownership is going in the churn of ownership, there's no guarantee that they're going to get a better owner than what Steve Bomber is going to. And even the fans

are even going to be fucked over even more after that. There's a chance of that as well. And by and large, man, like, I'll say what you want and everything that you need to say about Balmer is probably true. But like, to be fair, all the people that worked for him,

Brian Lawrence, if you talked to their staffers, fucking loved him. He got him, they got, he got the end do it, don't done. He spent the most money. Now, he spent money stupidly. Yeah. But he spent money nonetheless, and he was trying to win. You cannot say that for every time. It's a first class organization.

They pay their people well. People like working there. They do a lot of things right. Yeah. Including finding other creative means to pay their players. apparently. I just, I wish there had been a little, there was a little bit more thought given to some,

because it's just been such a pile on from people with the clippers. And it's very easy to do, right? Like the bits are all very easy. I fucking did one with the tree planting. There are so many easy jokes to make about this, like, front office and Balmer in particular that everybody gets pumped up to pile on. And I think there is a little bit of callousness when it comes to how this is actually affecting the people that watch this shit.

Fans have no rights. Fans have never had any rights. It's nice for us to talk about it. And it's not that I don't feel any sympathy for them, but like, fine, choose a different team at this point. I'm sorry. They didn't have their whole lives to choose a different team. But would you have that energy if we're talking about the Knicks or the Lakers or something?

Dude, I wrote an entire story when the Nets moved to Brooklyn. I was at the New York Times at the time. I wrote an entire story about Knicks fans who had said, screw this. They let Jeremy Lynn walk. He was the only thing, the only happiness we had and they let him go. I'm tired of all the losing. I'm tired of Dolan, whatever. I'm becoming a Nets fan.

The Nicks were a bad example because they were incompetent for forever. I just more mean like if it's a one of the sexy organizations in the league, right, one of these name teams that's in a big, big market. I don't know. Fandom involves risk. Fandom involves risk. I like Clippers fans because they've had to deal with a bunch of shit for forever and they've stuck by their team. Okay.

All right. All right. Let's fucking go down the. Also, Niederhauser rules. Niederhauser rules. All right. I feel bad for Billy Christ. We're going to talk about the Lakers now.

Best case scenario, worst case scenario, Howard motherfucking Beck. Best case scenario, 50 plus wins. Luke is a 50 plus win machine. He could do it just falling out of bed. But I think they top out of the Western Conference finals. It's not bad, though. Which is not bad at all. I think they can get there.

But I don't, like, no team I don't think is beating both the Thunder and the Spurs. And I don't, I'm not entirely. sold in Lakers, but there's a version of them that could make it to the Western Conference Finals. They're my right side of the bracket team, right? You catch them on the right side of the bracket. They avoid, maybe San Antonio or Oklahoma have, like, injuries, and they find themselves on one side of the bracket getting to the finals, and then you see this team with Luca

that's built around him is like the perfect Luca type of team, right? Like where you have a lot of dudes and then you have Luca just taking you home. Right. And the other thing that I like is the team chemistry vibes seem immaculate, Tyler Parker. They seem immaculate. You want to talk about the propaganda I was talking about with Jaya earlier? The Laker, the propaganda coming at least from the team perspective is being pretty good. Them going to Slovenia playing golf. Everybody having a good time. It seems like they kind of love each other. And I think if you go look back, you tend to see that with Luca teams. And you tend to see that with teammates of Luca and former teammates. to Luca, they love playing with them. And they all love, like, seeing him in traffic, right? Like, he doesn't quite have the handshakes that, like, LeBron has with his former teammates, but that's that same type of energy. I think that's going to go a long way this year.

I'm not as high on them as y'all are. I think I could, I think you're exactly right about Luca being typically, if he's fully healthy, like he's an automatic 50 wins. I think that's, that is totally true. and I think he's like one of the most sort of consistent elite performers that we have, right? Like just numbers-wise, you can kind of set your watch by him. I don't know if this is a team that is perfectly constructed around him. I think they do lack shooting.

I think that the Kessler edition is nice, but I'm not just, I like Mamu, but I'm not like pumped up about the front court, really. I don't, I think that they are still going to struggle to contain super athletic teams, particularly a lot of the types of lead ball handlers they're going to have to deal with in the West. I'm concerned that it's just going to be another situation where everything is on Lucas shoulders with some Reeves sprinkled in. And you're just not going to have enough news that can make. shots in the playoffs. Like you're going to, I like Quentin Grimes, but you're going to be asking probably a lot

from him. This is also a team that can, as a candidate to regrouping the trade deadline, to regroup around him to get that type of shooting. For sure. But yeah. I mean, like they, they just use some of their pieces to get Kessler. Like, I don't, like, are you going to get a bunch of stuff for Mamu? Do you think, you know what I mean?

Do you think that Kessler has the potential to, remember that Timothy Mosgolf meme from back in the day where it's him holding the ball and it's like all the great centers around all the great Lakers centers around him and then Timothy Moskopf actually just happened and it didn't work out. Do you think there's a potential there? I don't know. Kessler offensively has never like made me pumped

up in the way like Moskhov could kind of score a little bit like I don't know. Kessler he doesn't He's a tall white dude. He's a tall white. Well speaking of white like I as a white man I'm concerned about the number of white dudes on this team. Snow time, did somebody call them?

Yeah. It is snow time. Look, man, I've watched a lot of basketball in my life, and there is a automatic correlation between if you have more white guys, the worse you are. Yeah, yeah. Especially post-integration. I like, obviously, like Lou Gehola, I like Reeves a lot.

I think that defensively they're going to have some issues, and they're going to be asking a lot of Kessler. He's going to be having to clean up a bunch of shit every game, all the time. This was the 20th ranked defense last season, and you can't, Walker Kessler alone is not changing that. And I don't think anybody else they picked up this summer. Grimes is a good 3-and-D guy, but

again, this is not like you got some like locked down defender who's going to change. Steph Castle and Dylan Harper are going to treat this defense. This is what I'm saying. With the utmost disrespect, they are going to get wherever they want at any point. And I think that's going to be the case with a lot

of guards. Luca took the 22 maps to the Western conference finals and he was coached by Jason Kidd. I hear you. I hear you. He had Jalen Brunson. I will say it. He had Jalen Brunson that age very well.

And then he got to the finals with Kyrie and, you know, like, so. I'm saying, I think they have the requisite amount of dudes and you know how much we love dudes on this program. They have the requisite amount of dudes on this team. Who are the dudes? Kavon Luni, dude. Old dude. No.

Kavon Luni dude. Kavon Luni is not doing it. come on. He's, okay, you're right. Get out of here. Okay, how many dudes were on the, on the Mavericks team? That's a, I mean, PJ Washington.

No, I'm talking about 22. Oh, the 22 team. Why are we comparing to the team they only made the conference finals instead of the finals? Well, because that was our, that was our best case scenario for them. Was the conference finals?

Oh, I see what you're saying. You're saying that they are the, they are the 22 MAVs and not the 24 maps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, my best case for them was, it was like a five-seed, Luca MVP Reeves is an all-star. Fair. That's a good.

That's kind of where I am. I mean, Luca's a monster, and he can take you to, he can take you to the promised land. I just think it's, I just think it's going to be a heavier lift than some people are acknowledging. Okay. It's a fair point. Worst case scenario, they lose in the first round, right? Yeah, they're making the playoffs. I think that they're going to be, their floor is six-seat.

That's a fair point. Phoenix Suns, I think it's just all bad vibes. Just all bad vibes. Because I would say best-case scenario, you know, they're like a, what, a 12-seat or something like They got Miles Bridges, Luke Conard, who did help win a playoff series last year. Let's not forget that. That's right. Let's not forget that.

How could we? Luke Gard, the greatest shooter in the history of the game, according to Rob Polenka? I mean, hey, right. Rob Palika with the tall tails, baby. Still have Dylan Brooks. You know, Mark Williams, who was going to be out, what, four months? He's already out. Several months.

Lots of months. Yeah. They got Gilles. They re-signed Gillespie. It's just a good one. I think the worst case scenario would be like Devin Booker calling for a trade, but I don't think he's going to do that necessarily. It's just bad in Phoenix. He has like James Terrell pieces like in that house that he's built for himself.

I don't think he's trying to leave ever. Leave the house or leave Phoenix? Maybe both. I don't know. That's a good point. Yeah. I don't like anything about this team. I don't like the Miles Bridges acquisition.

You've got a bunch of guys who want the ball to. Miles Bridges wants to score. Devin Booker needs to score. Dylan Brooks became a very good score last year. And then Jalen Green, like, just a bunch of guys who I don't think mesh easily with others. I did like the Jalen Green revenge game against the Warriors last year in the play end. That was pretty cool.

When Green gets hot, he's so fun to watch. I mean, the problem is he's just not hot enough. I'll say there's enough firepower here that a best case scenario is high playing team that then makes it as a seven or eight seat and then gets just destroyed in the first round. That's their ceiling. That was, mine was seven seed. The Dylan Brooks thing, like he was great last year. I do sometimes, the one thing with him is, is last year the new rule?

Yeah. Or is it, or was last year the exception to the rule? Because he was a certain type of player for his career up until last year. And then now all of a sudden he's getting shots and they're going in, right? He still would shoot them, if not out of some games. he would shoot them into some hairy predicaments last year. Almost happened to play in last year too. They almost lost the game for them.

And so I have my eye on that with Brooks. Yeah, Malawak, I don't know what to think about Malawak. I like want to be excited about him, but he hasn't shown quite enough yet. I want to give Coapita shout out for having maybe the coolest name in the league now. And he looked good. And you are a resident expert on NBA player names. Thank you so much. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.

Thank you. Okay. Let's go to depressing to just, I don't even know what you want to call this. The Sacramento Kings. Best case scenario. They are the worst team in the league. Worst case scenario. They're the worst team.

Listen, if everything goes right, they could be the 14th place team in the West. Wait, let's just get to what we really want to talk about. The Bid Simmons acquisition. You flip the bill. You pumped? No, I think that's what you, I think you got to bring Simmons in just to like, do you believe. You got to give A-Cuff somebody, a mentor that he can look up to, that he can, you know, really.

I'm just, my thing is this, for all of the back half of Ben Simmons's career, if you want to call it that, has been summer videos of how, or summer stories about, oh, he's turned the corner, he's turned the corner. Why did this one stick? Why all of a sudden did this one stick? because they offered Russ and Russ was like, no, man, I'm done with this. And then they had a spot. I think Russ with this group is actually like the leadership. You can't would actually provide actual leadership.

I'm going to defend the Kings on signing him on this grounds. They are nowhere. Yeah. And you might as well just take some swings. Sure. So fine. I'm not expecting much out of the Ben Simmons experience for the Kings, but fine. The real thing for them is like, can you get anything?

Like if you're trying to win games, which I presume they are, Can you get anything out of, like, Levine and Sabonis? Those are your two most accomplished guys that are still there. And most tradable assets. And most tradable assets in theory, Levine, the contract is still an issue. Like, I don't know what they're building toward. This is only, I think, year two of the new administration, right? So they're still trying to, like, take stuff apart.

So they're in this in-between phase. So, yeah, make a, you know, see what you can get out of Ben Simmons. You hope the Darius A-Cuff pops, and you're hoping for better in the year 2032. Amazing. Maxime Raynaud, Reynod, Raynaud, however you say it. He was a good player. He was, in terms of rookies,

especially last year, like, he did some stuff. And I think that that's somebody to keep an eye on for them, because I think he was good, and it was hard to pay attention to that among all the yuck that was going on there. but I'm excited to see A Cuff.

Like I think that at least now they've got, last year was flat out depressing because they just wasn't even like, there wasn't even enough if Youngdos to get excited about or anything like that. At least they've got like a player who fans can get kind of excited about now,

which is something that said, yeah, probably the worst team in the West. It's a very low bar for Kings fans. Tyler Parker. You were so, you were crying for the Clipper fans. Oh my God, they got to deal with fucking Vivek. Well, there we go. This is what I'm saying.

Every shitty team, we could have sympathy for their fans. No, but the NBA didn't come in and take away. But that's just what happens. Like, sometimes it's injuries. Sometimes it's malfeasance. Like, something is, sometimes it's incompetence. This is what I was saying to you about the Steve Balmer point that you were making, right? Where he should have just sailed the team.

I mean, Vivek couldn't afford an NBA team at this particular point if it happened. But that opens the door for Vivek-like figures to own teams. And this is why owners should have a 10-year contract at the end of which they have to reapply, Justice Parker. Thank you, Counselor. I agree. Bong. You got anything else, man, I don't want to. We should move on.

Let's go to the Dallas Mavericks, who are doing, you know, they're doing a major re-haul and renovations to their roster. Kyrie Irvin is still on the roster. Is in theory a trade piece, but they tried to trade him over the summer, and he did not want to be traded. And we'll see how this goes. They're still, with Kyrie on the roster, they still have a smaller version of this problem, but a problem nonetheless that they had last year, which was we're trying to serve two agendas here. One, where you have Anthony Davis and Kyrie, Irvin, we want to win a title, and then you have Cooper Flagg or you should just, like, build around him.

I think the best case scenario here is a Cooper Flag just takes another leap. And, you know, maybe they get into the plan. They trade Kyrie Irving and get some more pieces in their future. and, you know, they continue to build around Cooper Flag. Worst case scenario. I mean, I guess Cooper Flag gets injured. But, like, there's really no expectations here. Right.

It's, we want to see young guys growing together. I think they're in a great position right now that Mavericks are considering the circumstances. And, you know, I think they'll be fine this year relative to the expectation. It's been 18 months since we last saw Kyrie Irving on a basketball court, and he's in his mid-30s. So I'm not expecting a ton. But if Kyrie looks like Kyrie,

Kyrie and Cooper flagged together could be phenomenal. Derek lively returns to form healthy. You know, the rest of those guys, Gafford, Washington all stay healthy. Like there's the core of a team that made the finals around Luca. Like, there's a best case scenario here where I'll put them in the category of teams that if everything breaks right, they can make a run at the sixth seed and losing the first round. I'm not expecting that. I think that's a lot to ask Cooper Flag.

It's a lot to ask of mid-30s Kyrie coming back from ACL. But there's a semblance of, like there's talent there and there's plenty of upside there. But yeah, the better option I think is Kyrie plays just well enough to trade him for stuff to keep building around Cooper and on his timeline. I think this next team has a bad case scenario written all over at the Houston Rockets. I think let's go with the. How's that for a setup? My God. Best case scenario.

I'm in Thompson takes the leap that we've all been waiting for. Katie plays just out of his mind and defies all expectations. And then also we have one of those MAU-U-Doka coaching seasons where it's like, how the fuck is this team even in the position that they're in because he just coaches his ass off. He's re-signed Tourie Easton. And I think the worst case scenario is, you know, get off my dickerson just like, get off my dickerson.

Get off my dickerson just just just find something to get pissed off about it. Just like. He's posting more than ever. He's just, he's just trump shit posting. He's just, and then the team just tanks from within, right? I think that that is definitely in play this season. Howard, what is your best and worst case scenario?

Did not see the get off my dickerson coming. Look, Fred Van Vleet is back and I think he's super important. for them fundamentally spiritually and otherwise leadership wise like I think he's super important for them so if Fred Van Vleet and Stephen Adams come back and are the I don't know if he's like I know that he's going to be good and I think that I think that we overrate Fred van Bleet's addition to this team I think that he's definitely going to be a great leader for this team I don't think he makes them I don't think he makes them a champion which is what they're which is what they're sealing and what they want their season. His first season with them, they won

like 52 games or whatever. I think the same number of wins they had last season without him, but they had Durant. And he and Durant haven't played together yet. He is a galvanizing force. He is important, I think, for their young players. And considering how much time we spent last year talking about how this team would just melt down in the final couple minutes of a game and in fourth quarters and in playoff games, I think that less of that happens with Fred Van Vleet. They're actually getting that offense organized and humming. So there's a best case scenario here. where I think the Rockets, and Duran had a great season last year. He was really good.

Best case scenario, I think they can make the conference finals and then lose to the Spurs or Thunder. Same outcome as I thought for the Lakers. I don't think that there's that much difference between what the Lakers are right now versus the Rockets in a best case scenario. I think to make that happen, I think that KD really has to reinvent himself as a leader.

You cannot do what you did last year. You cannot also underestimate just, on one side of it, and I've written about this, on one side of this, he gives you the great stats, the gaudy stats, he defies expectations, he defies his age for that matter. He's a Hall of Fame player, one of the greatest to ever do it. But he undermines that from a team perspective with the stuff behind the scenes that we saw last year. And they still won 52 games. Yeah, but like, and without Fred Van Blitin, without Stephen Adams at the end. But that season was still an embarrassment. They lost it. The way they lost kind of undermines all of that. I'm not worried about Durant in this scenario. I'm not. Like, Like, they've already overcome that or dealt with it. And he had an outstanding season on the court. The other stuff is whatever. Like, they still won 52 games. And they get Fred Vendip back.

They get Stephen Adams back. They added Marcus Smart. Maybe we'll see if there's another development coming from Shangoon, a man Thompson making the leap, whatever it may be. But they're still upside there. So they can make the conference finals. But there's a worst case scenario where, yeah, Katie starts to look old or gets on the burner again,

whatever else happens. A men doesn't take the leap. I think they still probably finish no worse than six than losing the first round. But. You could tell me they get to the four seed and I could buy that. Like I kind of agree with both of y'all to an extent where it's like if we are counting on Fred Van Vleet to make us a championship team, then I do get a little worried about that. And that Stephen Adams was so important to how things went for them offensively last year,

I worry about that. That said, Fred looked great the last time that we saw him. Yeah, he did. And he's the type of guy that Durant will respect and will not, I don't think, do that type of shit with in the same way that he did it last year. Shingoon, like, I'm interested to see where he's at this year because, like, the way the season ended for him, it wasn't a great look.

And having LeBron sort of, you know, meme him out in front of everyone. He basically said what the rest of the league felt about him. Oh, totally. I forgot about that. Yeah. Not you. Anyone else on y'all's team. Not you. Not you.

Watch that in the moment. It's like, yeah. Yeah. And so, like, I think that that is, that's something, that's something to watch.

Because I, like, it, I don't think those types of guys are that fun to play with. And I think that it can have, I think that it can. Because, like, it's more like you stick your chest out throughout the whole game

until it matters most. That's, that's what frustrates everyone about Shango. And it's like you can get shit done on one in theoretically, but like you're leaving so much on the table on the other end. I know he got a little bit... They didn't even pretend to hide their disdain for him

when he would do that shit. And there was a lot of like Durant sort of loudly saying shit to Shingoo. I was there at the Warriors game when he did that. Everybody in the building was like all shit, they hate each other. And they were up like going to halftime. So that's, I

like I have my eye on that. I think it'll, I think that stuff will probably all work out fine. in terms of Shingoon, like, offensively, he's a monster. And I do think that, like, just by virtue of Fred getting back, they're going to be better. But, yeah, I could see, it wouldn't surprise me all to see them losing the first round. And if you told me that they were the seventh seed because of some injuries, Durant's only getting older. Like, they can't afford for him to go down.

No, they can't. What helps all of this, though? is a man Thompson taking the leap and being that dude. That helps all of this. And like taking ownership of like, this is my team, y'all can follow me. He's one of my favorite players to watch in the league. I love him. The shot is just, I...

It's... And it's funny, we were just talking about this team three years ago is like, this is the team of the future. You watch out for this with all these young dudes. And they might still be, man. Like, these dudes are all still young. Shangoon's still super young. Same thing with the men. Like these... They have reasons to believe that this shit's going to get better.

You know what I mean? So I don't want to be too down on them. I say you're right. But the pessimists that I am, it's like they are a good young team. But then as years go by, those losses and those playoffs losses and like the type of coach that Emma Udoca is, that grinds on you, right? You look up, you are 24, but you have like eight NBA years in you. and I fear that this run is going to end up being bad for everyone involved because of just that combustion of just every thing.

Like, it seems like a hard team to play for because there's just so much going on around you as a player. That's why I don't, I'm not optimistic about them. They're also not mentally tough. We saw what happened last year in the playoffs. Like, yes, they're a really good regular season team. But, dude, if you can get punk like that in the postseason, which, But, like, LeBron is great, amazing. But if your second best player who's like Luke Kinaran,

you get punked at home consistently, that's not a good recipe for success. And that's why I'm down on them. All right, let's go to another team. Goal really quickly on this one. The Memphis Grizzlies. They got Cam Boozer. Yeah.

They did get Camboozer. Can't confirm. Excited about you. Good job. Such a coward? Look. Cedger coward. Bozer Coward Edy is a really nice new foundation

to replace the old foundation of Morant, Bain, Jaron Jackson, Jr. Like, I've always been a really solid and good, to really good front office in Memphis. Yeah. For sure. But they're really young. It's incomplete.

I love the Isaiah Stewart pickup too, sneaky, sneaky pickup over the summer. A spiritual grizzly before he was ever a good one. Oh, for sure. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So I like what they're building. That's the best thing you can say about them right now. But there's no expectations there.

So like everything goes great. Like they make, you know, can they get to the 10th seed and losing the play in? Like maybe. boozer's the real deal? Like, sure, why not? Like, there's such a mishmash of teams at the bottom there. Why not? But, yeah, most likely they're in the lottery again, and they're fine with that.

The New Orleans Pelicans. Best case scenario for the New Orleans Pelicans. Like, this is the team that, like, you talk about sympathy for fans. Like, New Orleans fans, Glipper fans, Kings. I feel sorry for all of them equally. It doesn't matter circumstance. You got to go with Gail Benson for this long? I don't.

It's a disaster. I feel so bad for Paul's bad, bro. At least in L.A. in SAC. if you're going to go see a shitty team you get to go to a nice little arena you know golden wants a great arena you get to go to hindoo it you get to like be comfortable New Orleans man

Is this still called smoothie king It is and by the way I love a smoothie I love smoothie king smoothies Smoothie King Arena like I mean that place Should have been demolished yesterday It's freezing How was it how is it like 85 degrees 20% humidity

The heat indexes that And then you go into the arena That's one of the aren't I've never been to You ask about like how organizations affect you and like there's various versions of this when you play for an organization that is known to be like far from first class and in the worst building in the league easily um all of that like there's just bad vibes hanging over the pelicans in general like every time i do this for the last however many years running and i look at the roster i'm like i like all these players and then

they're never better than the sum of their parts they're worse than the sum of their parts they're worse than the sum of anybody's but they're just you don't believe in two phones joe do you believe two phones, Joey two phones? Joey two phones, baby. Look, Dumares, I love Dumars. He's like generally great dude. I've known him for a long time. What they're doing the last couple of years, I'm not going to try to rationalize.

But yeah, like, their best case scenario is like, okay, well, Zion stays healthy and like, you know, Derek Queen and Jeremiah Fears take leaps and like Dejante Murray's back. Hey, cool. Like Trey Murphy the Thirds, like somehow an all star. Right, but we like Trey Murphy. We like Herb Jones. Like, we like these players. And like, it just, it doesn't all fit.

They just need to scrap the whole thing and start over. And even then, it's like, I know. Oh, God. I know. I expect nothing of the Pelicans. I think that it'll be, I mean, I think. Okay, who will have a better record the Kings of the Pelicans? Well, I think it's like, well, you've got to go Kings, Pelicans, and Grizzlies to me are kind of all down there,

like kind of duking it out for the worst record in the West. I think the Pelicans will be the worst. team in the West. And that's like, and I like Derek Queen. And I love Trey Mervry the Third. Herb Jones, who doesn't like him, Yves Missy, who doesn't like him. I think the math or an ad is fun. Like, they, like, Jordan Poole's there. Like Howard's saying, like, they got, they're not, you know, they're not barren of talent. They're not peaceless. They got stuff. Yeah. But it's just, it just doesn't work. It's bad juju there in New Orleans. Yeah, I would like to just fold the franchise and and redistribute those guys throughout the league to happier places.

Yeah. Okay. Speaking of happier places. The San Antonio Spurs, the last team on the list, ladies and gentlemen. Best case scenario that won the championship, first of many. They kicked the shit out of his team on the way to that championship. Worst case scenario, they get to the finals. Seven game series with two of our top four dudes out?

You don't want to fuck with him. I know you. You don't want to fuck with him. I mean, this team is. It was great. Well, the best case for them is championship and wimby goes, finals MVP, regular season MVP, defensive player of the year. Yeah, and then Dylan Harper becomes that dude.

And he's like, you know what? I was tired of coming off the bench last year. Fuck all of you guys. I'm going to etch my name into the top guards in Spurs. Does Dylan Harper displace Deerrin Fox? That sounds going to happen. It should be earlier than that. Yeah.

It should be earlier than that. And then also, it's funny. Your take is actually going to be real. They should trade Deere and Fox, right? Your take from like two years ago. I think it was maybe it was a year ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ago. 13 months ago.

That's going to be right again, once again. Just like your jaw prediction. It was not a prediction. It was just reporting. He had two shots of tequila and let that out and got aggregated and got the pod on track for the season. Was it only two shots? Maybe three shots of tequila. I know this the morning, but it's fucked up.

There's no tequila here for me for this point. I'm sorry, buddy. Maybe maybe All-Star Break. Do you think that they'll, is there any chance that they start harper? at the beginning of the year for Fox? Or are they worried that they're going to lose Fox? Yeah, I think you don't do it yet because you know, this is the franchise that had Mono Genoblee. And now that's different. He was a different stage of his career. And a different guy telling that, right. The value of having a super good, talented, dynamic

guard, playmaker, score, do everything who can come off the bench and anchor in that second unit and who's young enough that he might still be like, all right, I can do this for one more year. and Deeran Fox is like he's a really accomplished guy and he's still super talented and I don't think people should place too much on what happened against the Knicks and all that in the finals like I would keep Deer and Fox there for as long as I could and they also by the way they're not facing like the cap issues yet that would eventually force you to flip Fox like that's coming eventually because all the young guys got to get paid but they're not there yet so they have the luxury of being able to say fuck it we'll keep all three of these guys the guards four guards if you want to count Vassell in there too. The point that you've made, though, about Manu, if I am Spurs Brass, I'm just like, hey, Darren Foss, come in this room. I've got to show you something. I've got to show you something. Maybe it's a room right there. Oh, he's the Manu in this scenario.

Yeah. Let me show you something. Yeah. You see that right there? You see this highlight tape I'm about to show you? You see what he did? You see how many rings he got? Yeah.

This could all be you. And I know you probably want more of a responsibility, but wherever you go, you're never going to get an opportunity like this. Yeah. Fair. Yeah. And that's what that's what great front offices do. Well, the thing is, at the beginning of the season, they're doing that sales job, that speech to Dylan Harper, and then eventually like, shit, we got to put this guy the starting light up. Daron, let me bring you back here for a second.

They give him the same. You know, I meant to actually bring you into this room a year ago, but, you know, we just fuck. Well, you don't tell either of them that you gave the other guy the speech. You just hope they don't compare notes. Yeah, boy, that'd be bad, wouldn't it? Yeah, but the PowerPoint is there. It's like waiting on your laptop and you just got to decide when you're deploying it into which guy. Exactly, exactly.

How do you feel about the Spurs? Are you scared to death of them? Oh, of course. I mean, they're terrifying. Wimby is, uh, uniquely. They've also had like a great chemistry summer as well, going to Paris, the Spurs. Yeah, but sometimes I'm like, we get pumped up to say these teams are going to have team chemistry

because they went on a fucking trip together. I've gone on trips with people and I have terrible chemistry with them. Like You're trying to go on a trip? Yeah, where do you want to go? Wherever, let's go. You didn't come with us to Stockholm. Logan and I had a great time.

I know, I should have. Who would have had a good bro trip in Stockholm? I would have had fun with you all. You know, it's my loss. No, good. You would have been the mosh pit with me and Howard for Travis Scott. Were you mosh? He was fucking mosh.

No, the funniest part is he was moshing. And I was the one that was like, yo, I'm trying to go back to that. I'm like, no, we can stay on the floor. And he's like, no, let's go, let's go mosh. He's like, we got to. to get out of here. He was like, fuck. You can see the disappointment on his base because I was trying to beat the rush. I hope you showed up with like so much

Cactus Jack gear and I don't even know if you get that reference. I do not. Well, fuck it. We try. We tried. Any last words on the spurs? No, they're so good. And you know, I really, I'm sure they'll sweep us this year. I'm sure they'll go 72

and whatever, 72 and 9. I'm sure that'll be fine. 72 and 9? No, 72 and 10 excuse me okay there we go they had one game canceled due to snow in san Antonio there we go right no that I mean they're the yeah they're unbelievable the the league the rest of the league should quit you know why are we even having this season okay it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure hanging with you

thank you for having me this was so fun you guys very periodically an extended person in the ringer universe and the ruins universe at large Tyler motherfucking Parker and that is Howard Mother fucking Beck. This is going to be a wild season, and we cannot wait to watch this alongside you guys. Talk to you soon. Real ones out. Bye. Yeah. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com.