The Ringer NBA Show - East All-Star Picks. Plus, Take-Off! | Group Chat

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Justin, Rob, and Wos are back this week with their Eastern Conference All-Stars (2:55). They run through their selections for starters, reserves, and wild cards. Then Rob and Wos have a take-off where Justin judges each of them on one new take and decides which one is better (55:16). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping, everybody? Logan Murdoch here from Real On the Ringer NBA show, and I want to invite you to pull up and kick it with Roger Bell, Howard Beck, and myself during All-Star weekend for our live podcast. We're going to be at the Stork Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco on Saturday, February 15th at 2 p.m. pre-giving all the all-star festivities, and you never know who might stop by. Get your tickets now by heading over to ringer.com backslash events. That's ringer.com backslash events. to see you there. Hello and welcome back to group chat.

I am Justin Verrier and joining me, Rob Mahoney, Bigwas. We've got takeoff on this pod. We're kicking it off. We have takeoff in the back segment, it turns out. Right, Rob? We do indeed. I have to say the people have spoken, Justin. I put this up to poll on whether our internal communications suggested takeoff

would be happening last week or this week. I have to say the people resoundingly agreed with me. About two to one on the vote. And where was this poll held prechance? On my own Instagram account. Oh, okay. So should we tell the people at Kwynope Act that we've solved objective polling? I think we have.

We need to give that lady from Iowa a call because she quit after that poll. Lord have mercy. Well, I'm just glad your people rallied behind you. Yes. That says something. I don't know if it says anything to us, but it says something to you. You could have put up a similar poll. You know, we can all gather our own facts today.

I don't know if you've heard that. I did see the poll. And honestly, I was checking the results a few times when you had it up there. And when I've come to the conclusion is that Waz and I just get each other on a level where I knew what Waz meant. Yeah. And perhaps like you just don't have that same symbiosis going. Wow. Yeah.

I'm hurt. I'm wounded. I'm going on too. It's just his mode of communication is something that I'm very familiar with. Outside of just a very old. I'll be ready. I'll be ready. And I was like, oh, we'll be ready for this pot.

Yeah. It's a wazism that you missed out on. Okay. But we'll get to that in the back end of the podcast. First and foremost, we have to do our East All-Star picks. We did West last week. We're going to go through the Eastern Conference, pick the starters, pick the reserves, pick the wild cards, pick everything.

Why don't we start from the top? Do you guys want to do back court or front court first? Let's do back court. It feels chalky. Okay. I have. It feels chalky? I'm not chalky.

No. Okay. Why don't you go ahead then? Jalen Brunton, of course. Even if you want to say he's having a bit of an off year in terms of efficiency, like the Knicks are having a great year. And he is still absolutely the engine that drives what they do. As dope as Carl Towns has played, as amazingly as Bridges is played, no matter how much Rob and Justin dogged him on this podcast early to start the season.

I always believed. I never gave up on this guy. As amazing as he's been, OG has even been, you could say, kind of a fringe forward candidate, whatever. Brunson is the leader. He's the guy that makes everything go. So he's starting. And my second starter is Darius Garland. Wow.

Okay. The chalk has been wiped away. Pretty good. Go ahead. Make the case. I just think one, I think Mitchell is having one of his worst years, just individually. The team is taken off. And I think the reason why it's taken off is because it's become more Garland Central than it was last year and the year before.

And so I want to give him the props for doing that in the back court. And Mitchell's still going to make the team. I just think when you look at especially what they're doing, on offense while Garland is on the floor is just craziness. And so to me, that's why I wanted to reward him with the nod for having taken a step up in role in responsibility, especially post-Mitchell-Trade. Where this guy was in his representation was like, get me out of here. The offense just sings when this kid is on the floor, so I wanted to reward that.

I think you're putting your finger on something interesting, which is the reason the Cavs are so much better this year is because Garland is not the same guy. It turns out when you don't have your jaw wired shut, you can play slightly better basketball. He's been great. And I would say his growth and Mobley's growth have been the biggest reasons why the calves look like a totally different team and why they're able to play so differently. I'm just not at the point where I'm going to reward what Darius Garland contributes over what Donovan Mitchell contributes.

I think a lot of what you're pointing out with Donovan Mitchell in terms of this being a relative down season for him. A lot of that is him giving up that control. It's him using the phrasing this is one of his worst seasons or one of his lesser seasons, I just don't agree with because he's a guy who shouldn't have been doing as much as he was doing to begin with. Interesting. Okay.

Sometimes when the counting stats come down a little bit into the range where they should be, it's a healthier, better basketball experience for everybody. And so I think Donovan Mitchell's playing in a lot of ways the best basketball of his career. It's just not in points per game. One more question before, Justin And how do you feel about Mitchell seeming worse against the best teams in clutch situations,

like the best defenses? It's a real thing. I think that is the responsibility of being the guy that he is on that team. Like in those moments against elite defenses in crunch time situations, it feels telling to me that the Cavs turned to Donovan Mitchell more than anyone else. And so if you want to look at his efficiency and say, oh, why do Garland's numbers look like this, but Mitchells look like that, a lot of it is the shots that they take relative to the offense.

Garland is in the flow. Mitchell is creating a lot of that flow. Yeah, I have Mitchell and Brunson for those reasons. And I think it is tough to ignore the fact that the calves have the established pecking order of Mitchell being the guy and Garland being the supplementary guy to not reward Mitchell as a result of that. I will say the Garland efficiency numbers are pretty sterling. He's basically at 50, 40, 90. And if anything, I think the missed free throws last night, the two against Houston actually pushed him below 90 in the 5040. category, unfortunately.

But almost 60 effective field goal percentage, the cis, the three-point shooting. He has everything going in a way that is hard to ignore. Like when I went into this exercise, I didn't expect him to be a reserved back court for me. But I think it's hard to like put him any lower than that at this point. But I have Mitchell up top because he's the guy there. But I like this case that was is making. Yeah. Because he's essentially saying maybe this is the Jalen Brown finals MVP for

Garland. Right? Yeah. No, for sure. And I just think, again, I think the reason the offense is better is because they're not asking Mitchell to do this heliocentric act that he was never actually suited towards. I think, like, in Utah, they put, you know, basically three shooters and Rudy next to him. And so the offense was like, okay, simple reads, so much space.

you know, let's go. This was not as simple, and the fact that they tried to jam that in previously was a mistake. And now, again, and we said this a bunch of times, de-emphasizing Mitchell, which means that letting Garland cook to borrow a term from both Russes,

I think that's been the key to the season offensively, specifically. And I think that's where we had the most questions coming into this year. year. It's like, what are these guys going to do on offense to make it work when all four of their best players on the floor? And we learned it's taking the ball out of Donovan Mitchell's hands. That's true. It sounds like we have both of them on all of our ballots. Is that correct? Somewhere or another? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I have Donald Mitchell's still a Mets guy. He's not going to be off my ballet. Come on now. Is he like Mets like, is he a luminary now after the Juan Soto?

call? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Of course. Like, first of all, he's been one of our more public fans, just period. You know, famously his dad worked for the organization and stuff like that. But throughout the entire run last year to the LCS, this kid was freaking bigging us up. Like, he's full life. Come on, man. Wait, what is the background on the Juan Soto call? I don't know anything about this. Was. Wait, what are you talking about? So when Juan Soto signed with the Mets over the offseason, which was a huge windfall for the Mets.

Oh, Darry's, I'm Donovan Mitchell and him spoke on the phone. Yes. Oh, he recruited. He seemed like he was involved, but there was a very clear video that was taking of Juan Soda, I believe in like a hot tub with multiple people after he officially signed with the Mets, like FaceTiming with Donovan Mitchell. Wow. It seemed like it was one of, if not maybe even the first FaceTime he'd had post-signing.

So I'm somebody who takes a lot of this stuff as PR. You know, the things that make it to the Internet, listen, after the freaking Blake Lively Baldoni situation, it's hard for me to believe any Internet theories these days. So, like, I kind of took it more as that. But shoot, if Donovan Mitchell is calling people, you know, a la D. Wade, Big Three, Aaron. I might have to bump him the start if that's the case, man. How come the two of you

in a moment of celebration and triumph have never face-timed me from a hot tub before? I thought we were not on Donovan Mitchell Juan Soda levels? We could do that tonight. We're going to work on that. Don't worry. That's being worked on.

I'm bummed he didn't call grimace. I feel like if he had done that. Oh, my God, with the grimace. Get grimace out of here once and for all. Why? We turn on grimace. Wads pretending he's too big for grimace is ridiculous. The freaking Ozaki news, man, bummed me to hell out.

I'm like, do these guys just get to keep getting players for free? Just deferred payments. Don't pay people at all. This is nuts. We got to look into these dudes. For everyone complaining about the NBA, like, we're doing way better than baseball. I'll say that the Dodgers have a fucking all-star team at this point. Deferred money.

That's what I'm going to get on my next contract. For these backcourt spots, though, I have Garland just for the reserves, not wildcard yet. I have Garland and I have Kade Cunningham. Okay. I did Garland and Lamello for the original backups. Well, Mello. No.

He's got to be on there. I, I get the, I get the, he's got only 27 games played. Granted, the 1129 Charlotte Hornets. I'm not saying Charlotte is deserving of an All-Star and the way that we are talking about, you know, teams like Houston, for example, being deserving of an All-Star. but you know what is deserving? A dude who's putting up 30 a game and next level playmaking every night

and is literally the only reason his team has a chance to win. And that bears out in the data that bears out when you watch the team. Like he's the only thing keeping them together. I hear you. And I definitely made a similar case

for John Morant. The difference is like this is a team that I think is destined for probably the conference finals and a team that's destined for Cooper Flagg. It's just hard for me to make the equivalent cases, especially on the game's missed basis. It's like, to what end?

Like, he's playing well, but to what? To, like, what are we getting out of it? To the end of the Hornets playing the closest they can play to winning basketball. Like, ultimately, I think the argument for Jaws is very different because the level of competition in the West is so steep. When you're talking, like, these are really good players. but Lamello is having a slightly more efficient season than Cade. He's turning the ball over less than Cade. He's scoring with the absolute best in the league

despite having not a functional NBA roster around him. I take all of these things as positives. I'm not saying that the Hornets are in a great place. I'm not saying that they wouldn't love to be where the pistons are right now, for one example. But Lamello is not the reason that the hornets are bad. And I get that there's this inherent pushback against specifically the popular vote element that's going for Lamello right now.

He's not the pick to be a starter, clearly. But I think between what he contributes and what he means to the Hornets, it's really significant. It is a star-level impact. And I think that's worth rewarding. I think Lamello, like most of us in the country, is suffering from a little bit of inflation, in this regard, statistical. Because he does strike me as something of a run-and-gun, spread football, college football offense. That's just putting up numbers. And on efficiency basis, first of all, Mel, not a particularly efficient shooter, despite jacking, what, 13?

3s a game, I believe it is. But again, more efficient than guys like Kate. Sure. But then we get into the winning and the effectiveness of this. The Horn has had the 28th offense in the NBA right now. It's not like they're just completely bereft of other options that he could be working off of. Like, they have guys. I know Brandon Miller's out right now, but, I mean, they have bridges.

Mark Williams is a giant athlete at center. And so it's hard to really reward Lamello because it does feel like, and even during the course of the game, like he's just kind of like loafing and just jacking a lot of the time. So I don't know. And a thing for me too, especially with Cade. And by the way, I put Cade in wildcard, but my guard is Damian Lillard. But like the thing for me with both for those guys, it's like especially with Cates, Dame is different. He's playing on a team, unlike Cade and unlike Lamello, like, they're chasing something meaningful. There's just a different seriousness to what they're doing.

Sure. Okay. Cade, especially the last, like, six weeks, my biggest question for him, and, you know, as you guys don't, never sold my Cade stock, was like, is he ever going to get to a place where he's beating good defenders one-on-one by himself, creating space? he's doing that shit now. Like, he's a guy who, like, you put the best defenders on the league against him,

and he's creating space against those guys in a way that I'm like, damn, okay, like, the max contract, the sort of plaudits that he got coming into the draft, all of that stuff is being, you know, sort of justified now because Cade is taking it to the other level. Obviously, Detroit is playing way,

I mean, way better than Charlotte is right now. Yes, not even close for the record. So, like, there's just something unsurious about what Mello Ball is doing right now. It still has this air of just unsuriousness to it. There's no stakes to it. I don't know. Maybe that's just the eye test for me. Maybe that's just the old fogy and me.

It's just something not serious about what he does. And I get it in the spirit of the All-Star game. This guy absolutely belongs. The fans certainly love this guy. the people absolutely love them. But boy, I don't know, above Cade and Dane and Donovan, Mitch, I can't, I can't get there with this guy. Is Cade the best playmaker outside of Yokic who isn't sacrificing shooting efficiency? Like, because obviously Trey is leading the league in assists, but the shooting numbers are quite paltry.

Cade is blending shooting efficiency and scoring with being one of the highest playmakers in the league, plus the defense, plus the success of the team. I thought he was very clearly the third guard on this list. If you guys still have my ear list somewhere, I'm not going to argue because these guys are all of similar types. He's definitely the, yeah, yeah, the third non-starter. Yes, yes. Third non-starred guard for me, for sure. Pistons are six in the east, one game behind the box, like. Gotta reward that.

I think he's had an awesome season and he deserves my third spot if we are ranking these in order. Justin, you're talking about individual shooting efficiency? Because he's, again, he's not that efficient from the field, in part. I'm not trying to tear the guy down. Kate is an all-star. Kate is turning into a great half-court creator. He didn't need the perfect situation around him. He just needed like an actual NBA team.

And as soon as he got that, as soon as he got that, his game starts to sing. But he's not a hyper-efficient score. No, I just mean like, his turnover rate is crazy. The turnover rate is one of the things that like, you know, I think the other night he had 11 turnovers or something crazy like that.

Like his turnover rate is, is wild. But, I mean, the other stuff that he's doing, man, and it's so obvious Detroit, like, wouldn't be anywhere close to this good without him playing the way that he's playing. And so I'm definitely on the K-A train. But, you know, Rob is definitely selling me on Lamello

in terms of just the raw numbers and output. Even in 27 games, it's really eye-popping. 30 points a game, like, damn. It's kind of insane. And to do it, I think, like, Justin, you're right. There are good players on the Hornets. Most of them have missed significant time. At best, even the better among them are quite young and quite raw.

And in some ways, as unserious as Lamello is on some nights. And so to do what he does and to carry what he does, I think is pretty unique. To what Wads was saying, it's not a very positive ends as of yet. But I think he's in this class. I think it's totally fair to pick knits between Cade and Lamello and Dame. And there's going to be, there's a lot. lot of really qualified guards, honestly, in the Eastern Conference right now. And you can make a case for as many as like six or seven different players to have these

spots. But yeah, for me, the initial backups are Darius Garland and Lamello. And I'm sure we're going to get into more guards in the wild cards if we want to get into that now or if we want to save that for the end. Let's do the wild cards at the end. And let's circle back to the forwards here. To start, so you have three forward spots, forward center sparts. I have Tatum, Janus, Towns.

Check, check, check. I put Mowbly over towns, which was razor. Let's go. Let's go watch. It was razor, razor thin. But again, like, you can't. So, like, for me, Garland feels like he's the biggest improvement on the offense. And the defense is the defense because of Mowgli.

Right? Like, their defense becomes a special kind of thing because Mowgli, not only does he guard my paint, not only is he getting, cleaning up my glass, When he has to, he's going to guard Jason Tatum and Pablo Bonquiero and Franz Wagner. And like, whoever the hell you want. Like, yo, when he needs to, he's going to do all of that. And then he's made the improvements on offense. You know, the three-point efficiency is nice, but he's taking like one and a half a game.

Whatever. We won't quibble, but he's taking him now, which is nice. And what he's able to do against smaller guys, the bully ball. He's just so improved. It's playmaking. He's just so improved. Then, in terms of defensive play at a year, this guy is probably third, second, you know, everybody's basically just giving it to Wembe at this point and probably rightfully so. But, like, he's number two or three with a bullet, right?

And so for me, you know, just his game has been a little bit more well-rounded than Carl's has. And Carl's is right there. It's not like I'm like, oh, Carl's not there. And Carl did start off so putrid on defense. It was so disgusting. It's a whole season, and he's definitely gotten better. He's definitely gotten too passable, but, like, he was so horrible to start the year.

And so I just think Mowbly presented a more well-rounded case for All-Star Starting Center. Want to reward the guys that do it on both ends. What a bunch of facts from Wasney Lambray on today's fine. Also, Waz Making Peace with the American Heartland is something that I'm really enjoying. I'm working on it. Like everybody else, I'm sucking up to the winners.

You know, like, I'm working on that. Should we send you to do a residency in Cleveland? Oh, yeah. Where you're just doing pods every day from there. I know how much you love it. He might miss the team flight on that one. That's right. We kid.

This is the great city of Cleveland, Ohio. We kid, you guys. The great city. But Rob, you have towns over Mobley. I do. I mean, I'm not going to disparage up in Mobley. And I think, if anything, Mobley is very clearly the next up. front court player.

So I get where was is coming from. I think he's probably the sixth man of my all-star team if I'm being real with you guys. The all-star sixth man. A new distinction that we have created.

Meaning like, Janis Tatum Brunson, Garland, as my starters, right? And Moble, like,

I think the sixth man for me is Carl Towns. Yeah. Like, he's the one that I came, the closest. to throwing in the starter, even more so than Mitchell, to be honest,

over his teammate. Carl Towns to me is like, damn, like to be doing what he's doing with the expectations that were placed on him and in the pressure cooker that is New York, the way he stepped up

and just immediately made them one of the best offenses in the NBA. Like, that's the one that I had most struggled leaving off of the starting group. I think he's having the kind of monster season

where he kind of has, he needs to be a starter. I understand the case for Evan Mobley clearly. I have so much respect for what he's done this year. But this has been a profoundly important year for Carl Anthony Towns in terms of consolidating all the things he can do. The shooting, the huge rebounding numbers for a really small team in a way that kind of holds it together.

Beating on the boards. Completely beasting. It's not his highest scoring season, but it is the kind of volume that really matters. And his ability to absorb when Jalen Brunson is getting smothered having an off night, particularly earlier in the year, when overall, as you were saying, while some of the pieces of the team were so kind of coming together and they were, they were trying to figure out what they could be to each other and how they could help

each other. It was Towns who was sort of like the parachute every night out, getting them through that process. That's certainly worth rewarding. The raw totals and the raw numbers are certainly worth rewarding. You just watch games and you see him have a huge effect on the way that teams try to guard one of the most potent offenses in the league. I think that's an all-star starter to me. I was digging into some of the data last night on Towns's three-pointers, and I was like, is Towns about to be the first big man to ever hit 4003s? And then I realized I was looking at the wrong column and wasted like 20 to 30 minutes of my life last night. So that was cool. But you guys realized that Clifford Robinson took a 471 threes one year.

Shout to Clis. 95, 96, right after the line shortened. Let's go. Portland legend. Right there. Yukon legend. He was the trailblazing. for me. But I like this quote from Will Hardy from earlier in this season. He said about towns, playing towns versus towns is a way more of a mental battle because the threes are allowed. When he makes two in a row, it warps your brain. You start thinking, man, he's killing us from three. Then the game ends in 31 points, nine from three. I think that's really towns in a nutshell. It's not only just like the volume and the efficiency he's shooting with them. It does feel demoralizing that the biggest guy in the court is hitting these high-stake three-pointers.

And like there is sort of like this diminishing effect. Like when he's rolling, it kind of gets a team down. And so I have to reward towns. This is the best town season we've ever seen. This is the type of season that everyone expected for him to have over and over again. And so for me, he was the clear-cut option over mobile. Because Mowgli's case is more subtlety. Like it's efficiency.

It's the in-between stuff. It's defense. But town to me is more than all-time rate point different. It's not just that they got the record. They're smoking people. Like, they've been so freaking good. That's, like, that's what it is. It's like, it's not just that they're good

and record-wise. But, like, they've been way better than the Knicks. Like, they haven't been, oh, appreciably, they've been way better than New York on paper this season. And I think the guys that are driving that should be, you know, rewarded. But to Justin's point, I'm watching, you know, rivalry. week on TNT. I was riveted by it,

as I'm sure both you guys were. And they're playing the Nets who are obviously completely cooked, but they're in a tight game. And the Knicks, what they do, they just spam the two-man with him and Brunson

at the end of the game. Like, the fact that they've already done that, they already got that in their hip pocket. That there's this two-man game created by Brunson and Townsend. And Brunson, not just with one, obviously, the pick and pop. His drive game is always a little,

Like, you know, it's like when a three, as Bill always says, when like a three-year-old gets going and you're not sure if he's going to like bust his lip on the coffee table or if like something okay is going to happen. It can happen like that. But like his interior passing, when he's playing with precious, he's good at the interior passes. Like, you know, OG likes to play his bully ball. And so Towns is often at times making that pass into the freaking post.

Like, he's like diversified his attack in so many ways. Like, yeah, man, to Justin's point, it's been a revelation to watch Carl Towns. Starting lineup has played 734 minutes. It's crazy. They all played over 36 minutes against the next the other night. The next lineup is 480. It's not double, but it's closer than it should be. I saw some flagging recently, too, including from our friend Tom Haberstro,

about how many low leverage minutes the starters are playing. which is to say like just at the ends of blowouts, they're just playing five and six minutes at a time for absolutely no reason. Someone please intervene and save the Knicks. Yeah, Wads, can we get a Knicks check? Because I believe you're in New York right now. What are the streets saying about the Nix?

Is it optimism based on the success or is it un-prided for OG's legs? No, nobody's, nobody's even thinking about that. It's pedal to the metal. We got to get to the postseason. We got to, you know, in Boston is like under, achieving in, you know, in their championship form or whatever. So guys are fooling themselves into like, we only a few games from Boston. Blah, it's like, all right.

Like, trust me, they are. They're ready. And, you know, and I think the town's thing has been so surprising, man, how good he's been, how quickly it's happened. I think that is what New York Knicks fans are wrestling with the most. It's like, this guy is freaking good as hell. And it's really fun to root for it. And just like you said about Will Hardy,

like when he makes two threes in a row in the garden, like these people go nuts. And so, yeah, man. And Josh Hart can't make the All-Star team, but he's All-Star in my heart. I was about to say he's going to get some other superlatives on this pot at some point, if not, All-Star consideration.

Josh Hart's been awesome. We should say, as a news note goes, Carl Towns has now like has a bone chip in his thumb. And since that happened, it basically has not been able to shoot threes. Grants, it's only been a couple games. So something to monitor as far as his impact, everything that we've said about the spacing he provides and the threat he creates. If his shooting gets away from him, a lot of that shifts and changes right under the next feed. And so I'm I'm curious to see what New York makes of that. And if Towns can kind of get back on track as he gets a little bit healthier.

Jericho Sims time, baby. Why don't we talk about Tatum, who very clearly is on this list? I don't think there's much of an argument. It's probably his best season or at the very least his most productive season. It's so good. He's been so good. We'll be on the MVP ballad. We'll see about how high. The Celtics overall, though, haven't been performing all that well. Five and four in a recent stretch last night against the Clippers. They almost coughed that one up. If not for, as Isaiah Blakely, our producer said, before we got on this pod, Jaden Springer time. Hell yeah. Are you guys worried at this point because they haven't won a

back, last night was their first back to back that they've won since like the very first two games of this calendar year. It's January. Not worried. Yeah. Not worried. It's seasonal depressive season. It's all right. They played in too many big games collectively individually, not

worried at all. Joe Missoula though, oh my God. Friend of the pod, Ben Goliver on his Instagram. Y'all go check that out. Joe Mazzul at end of the game calling time out, just jumping in the refs face. Joe Missoula might need a volume pretty soon here, y'all. Like, he needs to chill.

Is we legal in Massachusetts yet? My God, pass this guy a gummy. Lord have mercy, brother. Chill out is January. I think Joe Missoula might be too straight edge for all that. I'm not sure that he's about. that particular life. Jesus Christ, down on Zanis, apparently.

I think the Celtics are fun. They're going through it in the way that great teams and especially championship teams often do. They don't have a ton to play for in a very different way than, as we were saying, teams like the Hornets don't have a lot to play for right now. It's just kind of getting through the season,

going through the motions, trying to stay healthy. And it's always difficult at this stage in the calendar to stay on top of your rhythms and your rotations and the nuances of what makes like a great team, a great team. So they're going to be fine in the end. Are they unbeatable? No.

Like, there's still a very good, but somewhat vulnerable team if the right matchup were to hit them. It's just that they stress the hell out of everybody else in the process. Still third in point differential, 9.5, despite this bumpy stretch, which we should mention is one game over 500. So I tend to agree with you guys. The problem is always just like the shooting variance. So on the high end, like the calves have shot the hell out of the ball.

I imagine some of that will come back to Earth. and the Celtics will obviously get a little bit better on that. And they've only shot 36% as a team. I guess the worry if you were to make the case on the other side of this is just like, you know, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it doesn't round out. And does that affect a team like the Celtics that have built everything around that? Is Chris Stops not quite right?

Is Drew Holiday showing signs of aging in ways that, like, you can't really fix on the fly? They're bench guys. haven't really given them the just absolute stopgap solution that I think a lot of people would expect, like some of the shooters beyond Peyton Pritchard. And so I get it. I guess on the margins, they're just not as fearsome. But in a playoff series, they still seem to have the ultimate Trump card with just being able to go five out in like daring teams to have the two-way excellence that they have.

And they can win some of those games when they don't shoot well. It's just a little bit more of a coin toss, which when you have a lineup that's as loaded and talented as theirs, you want to do better than a coin toss, but that's the reality of NBA basketball. If there's something to take away from that variance, it is the Celtics are capable of a two-week stretch in which they don't shoot particularly well. And when that happens,

they can drop games against teams that they should otherwise beat. My thing with the Celtics is that nobody presents the two-way nature of the team, the way the Celtics do. Like, they could drop 150 and hold you to 90 on any given night. if that's what they decide to do. You know, like, I just, there's no other team that has that. And so that's why I think I'm not worried about them. Like, I think their defense has a switch collectively.

Like, they have a switch that they can get to, a gear that they can get to, in terms of guarding the hell out of people in multiple ways. And, you know, the offense is what it is. Like, the five-out dynamism, like, come on, man. Like, I'm just, they're chilling. right now, and I think they've earned the right to do that, to be honest. It's as much a compliment to the Cavs, I feel like, and perhaps the growing depth in the middle of the East that I think people are being a little bit more worried about the Celtics,

the fact that the Cavs seem like a worthy suitor to potentially knock them off in a series. But also, if you look at the path the Celtics have from now to the NBA finals at this point, they might have to play the Magic, the Knicks, and then the Cavs all before getting to the finals. That's really tough, especially if the Magic get both Franz. and Paolo back, I think Franz's maybe might play tonight. And so, like, that's hard. That's going to be hard for any team. And so the margins, again, they're just like starting to creep in.

And just like repeating is near impossible at this point. The path is going to be tough for the Celtics. But to pull it all back, what those teams don't have is someone like Jason Tatum, who can play such a variety of styles, who was, as you alluded to, their overall, like, two-way play of the team. A lot of that comes down to the versatility of what Tatum provides, where it's, he's an elite shot. clearly, a guy who can drive offense,

somebody who's playmaking and handle has become really important to everything that Boston does and kind of getting them into their ball movement and their flow, but also the range of players he can guard, the number of guys he can switch on to, the kinds of schemes and the breadth of approaches that Joe Missoula has at his disposal because of a player like Tatum.

Jason Tatum in the playoffs, credibly was guarding centers. Completely. And you can't say anything similarly switchy or versatile about what Donovan. Mitchell gives you on defense or frankly even what Palo Bancaro gives on defense. He's just at a different threshold

as far as what a star, an all around impressive player can provide right now. Yeah, that's a good segue into the rest of the front court here. We have Mowgli, I believe, all of us. Do you guys also have Jalen Brown here? Yes. I do, yeah.

Down here, but I don't give a damn off. Pedigree alone he's on my team. Sorry. I think it's more than pedigree. I think he, as much as anything is like what makes the Celtics so overwhelming. You know, you put your best wing defender on Tatum and you hope for the best. You scramble out to all the shooters. Maybe you catch the Celtics on an off night as we've been talking about.

And then you got to figure out what the fuck to do with Jalen Brown, who's so skilled and so big and so physical. And I just think it's modulated as game really effectively to what the Celtics are trying to do. And so for this last spot, I agree with Rob there. This last spot could go any goddamn way. I have like five. different guys who I would be in consideration here. Can I guess who you guys picked? I would love that. I think Waz picked Jalen Johnson. I think. Oh, I wish I had the nuts to do that, but I didn't.

Okay. I was going to guess Yacum for Rob. You're correct. Oh, he's got one of them. It's right on my sleeve, you know? There you go. Wait, was, who did you pick? I picked Franz, which, which again, the game's thing is horrible,

but he's been way better than everybody. He's really good. Even if you, like, whatever, they've played more games like, Seacum, Paulo,

Jared Allen, uh, bam out of bio, Paul George, The Scotty Barvoochovich, what are we doing? What are we doing here? No one is making the vooch case on this. He's in a long, long list, but he's there.

Who are these guys? I think traditionally this was coming into the season, if we would have did a preseason All-American, like they'd do in college, a pre-season All-Star, this would have been bad by the bio. He's been horrific. He's been terrible. Okay?

offensively anyway. And so it's just like, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. Like, Franz has just been so much better than these people. I get the games missed. He's got to be in for me. So 25 games played is where he's at right now. And unlike in the West where there are a couple guys in the mix here, Luca, John Morant in the 20s. Like Franz is very much like one of the few guys in that range who we're probably going to consider. But I really, struggled with this one, in part because, like, if you look at the course of this season, Franz's breakthrough was very much the story of the NBA season overall for about a month or two. They were 13 and 7 with him and no Paulo. The numbers are awesome. He had almost six assists,

an average still to this day. And so, yes, if he had the games, I would have voted for him. Definitely. I just couldn't get there. Rob, where were you? Similarly, I mean, these thresholds are fuzzy, especially with the games played. You know, like, I'm putting Lamello in. He hasn't played that much more than France, ultimately. I think for me, it came down to less about what the games played said about Franz and more how it contrasted with what the Pacers get from Siacom, who has been, you know, not just the most consistent player for Indiana, absolutely solid as a rock. Like, their most, their best and most dependable player. No free ads.

But I just, I think people overall are probably not fully up on how good. Pascal has been this season. It's been easy to kind of write the pacer's off early, but the reason they got through that early malaise was because Siakum was holding it down when guys like Tyrese Halliburton, frankly, weren't. When other role players were coming and going from the lineup, he's where Indiana turns laid in the clock.

He's resourceful enough to create advantages against basically any defender in the league. And I think we're just seeing a great season from one of the most versatile forwards in the game. You could also say that about France. He just got a little undercut by, well, I guess kind of taken out by that oblique, not necessarily undercut,

but whatever curse has plagued the Orlando Magic this season, claimed Franz Wagner. And I think probably cost him an all-star spot, although stranger things have happened than the coach is rewarding a breakout player like Franz. Sure, especially if he comes back today, has like two to three games under his belt. And I could definitely see it.

Seacom, it's a compelling case, especially because he's shooting the hell out of the ball. There really aren't any things you can nitpick with him. It's definitely the guy that comes next for sure. well, I didn't vote for either of these guys. Whoa. I picked, and I hope that he's eligible. I'm not technically sure, but I have Zach Levine.

As in the forward spot. Yeah. He's technically a forward. I don't know if he qualifies there. I mean, but his efficiency is absolutely off the charts. He has right now a 60.8 effective field goal percentage that's the highest non-big man in the,

entire league. It is the same exact efficiency as Carl Towns and 0.1 percentage points from Yannis and Teta Kumpo. Like everything you'd want from a go-to scorer has basically been there. I mean, you could quibble with the defense. It's not going to be there for a lot of the guys. I think we're going to talk about in these wild card spots is basically which scoring guard you really want to reward here. If Levine does have the forward eligibility, I think the only case really against him is the fact that people just got so down on him. post-injury and his trade value that people aren't really as receptive

to him being in this mix but man, I know the bulls stink but Levine's been awesome this year and so that spot is so soft I'm willing to give it to him someone who's excelled in that versus like I don't know Seacum like he is just the model of stability

and like overall effect I just want my scores in the all-star game I get it I mean he's been incendiary I for everything we've said about Zach Levine and I think we've noted his street like the streaks in his play a couple of times on the pod, some of the things he's doing this year that he wasn't necessarily doing in seasons past and overall just how dangerous a score he can be,

that's part of the reason why he ends up in trade room or so often. The injuries are the other part, the complications are the other part, but we've had this vision of Zach Levine in our heads for so long, and it's been awesome to see it realized, even if it is for a Bulls team that is always kind of middling, is always kind of weird. Fusing team.

Well, Josh Giddy is the, like, the gift that keeps on giving for Justin in this case because he's really the reason why Zach Levine is a front court player is if you consider Josh Gidea guard then Zach Levine I guess by definition is a forward I think he technically starts a small forward I think he does I think he's go Josh Giddy's might be like twice his size honestly there aren't a lot of great all-star candidates and this guy isn't like I guess I look at him as more of a point forward because he can't shoot like because he can't shoot. He's not a guard in my mind. You know what I mean? Like, because he

can't shoot at all. You know, he's just a he's like a, he's almost like a Igudala in my mind. You know what I'm saying? Like he's like a forward point is type of player. He's an in-between guy.

Yeah. Yeah. More, more, I mean, I get what you're saying about Iguedala, but like, I guess I was just wrong for thinking of Levine in my mind as a guard. Yeah. I mean, it's natural. with the guard. He's fighting with the guards and not the forwards. But shoot, if we could cheat that way, and I'm glad to scratch Franz off.

And put Levine in, because I love his- Zach Levine straight in. Throwing Fon and both. Insane. We love it. We started a movement here. All right, wild card spots. I have, let's see here.

One, two, three, four, five. Probably like five to six guys, I considered for here. And I'm not going to quibble with whoever you guys put up there. I have Damian Lillard and I have Tyler Hero. Ooh. Yeah.

The game is obviously on my team. Tyler Hero is not. My wild cards ended up being Kade and Trey Young. Yeah. How quickly you forget about our hawks, Justin. It hurts. Exactly. Well, here's the question I have for you guys.

How did you really divvy this up between Jalen Johnson and Trey Young? The guy with the ball. It's just the guy with the ball, the guy leading the league. an assist, the straw that stirs the drink, if you will. And like, anytime I've watched these guys in big games, when they're coming out on top, Trey is like his imprint is all over this stuff, you know. And so for me, I'm definitely Trey over Jalen. And maybe next year, Jalen will be the guy, right?

I just think this year is still a Trey Young operation fundamentally. And so that's why he ended up becoming my guy. but I definitely, you know, considered Levine, considered Maxi, kind of considered Hero too, because he is having a great season for the heat. But, yeah, Trey ended up being a guy that snuck in there. And, you know, Rob definitely almost, like, I've definitely wanted to consider the lamello over Trey here

is my very last all-star wildcar pick, because, again, he does bring the same playmaking, not to Trey's level, but a playmaking ability. And dropping 30 a game in the NBA is still, that's still crazy. Even in the juiced baseball era of the NBA. It's not too late for you to see the world as I do was, which is why not both? Why not Lamello on the proper team, Trey Young as a wild card? I also had Cade as a leftover where you guys had him higher.

So Kate and Trey are my wild cards. I agree with everything that we said about the load that Trey carries on office. So you left Dame Lillard off the All-Star team? I did. I did. Wow. I love D. I love Dame off the All-Star team.

He's been very good. There's been a lot of very good players. I think honestly, I thought Tyrese Halliburton might squeeze in. And he's had such a great second quarter of the season, or I guess second third of the season, whatever we are now. They just keep rewarding Halliburton for like a month of basketball. Last year and now this then. I think if you look at team performance and you look at the impact numbers

and you look at overall like Tyrese Halliburton relative to Darius Garland, relative to Trey Young, relative to Cade Cunningham. You will be shocked by how favorable in some ways those comparisons are to Tyrese Halliburton. We just get that image of who you are the first four weeks of the season anchored in our heads, and that's who you are. I think he's made a really strong game for himself. That said, didn't make my team. Trey in particular, I found very hard to leave off,

despite the fact that I love Jalen Johnson. And I want to salute our friend Michael Pina, who did find room for him. for Jalen Johnson on his list for the ringer.com. But Trey is basically tied for having the highest assist total in the last 25 years right now. Oh, man. Like, he, it is a Trey Young offense, as you said, Wads.

But it's also one that doesn't feel gimmicky and doesn't feel like it's in his, the ball and is in his hands too much. He creates a lot of advantages in all of these other Hawks Jalen Johnson included, although Jalen creates a fair bit himself, are drafting off of that momentum, of the advantages that Trey creates.

To Rob's point, the impact metrics do absolutely love Halliburton. Yeah, it's because he makes a big impact on the game. It's not rocket science. They definitely do, but it's like the guy has a 21 and a half percent usage. He's not a shoot first point guard. So usage stats don't incorporate passing. So it's just turnovers and shooting, which he doesn't shoot a ton.

He doesn't turn the ball over a ton. So I was listening to a Mike Dantonian interview recently for this research that I'm doing for the story. I think it was with Thinking Basketball a couple years ago. And he was talking about how he was listening to the radio. And this is during his Phoenix days. And they were going over, who's the best player? Like, oh, this guy, this guy. And they eventually got to Steve Nash, right? And the case against Nash, one of these guys was making, one of the radio guys was that, oh, he just makes his team better. He doesn't really, like, you know, he doesn't do the stuff. And Dan Tony was obviously like, well, that's it. That's the stuff. Like, that's the whole thing. And, and

And there is a little bit of that case with Halliburton, and it made me think about Halliburton in a lot of ways. He gets the Nash comp a lot, probably more last season than this season for obvious reasons. But at the same time, it is tough in this era where guys are doing more to not want to reward the guys actually doing the stuff from the guys who are playmaking. And so I don't, it's just like a more overall. He's played 42 games, man. Damn.

And the thing about Nash, obviously, it was like he should have done more shooting-wise. like he was the best shooter probably and was in basketball history, like one of them in addition to like the Warriors guys and so on. And so like if anything, like Halliburton has that knowledge and he should do more. He's just like he can't because he's not as much of a threat. So that's a long-winded way of saying like, I get the case for Halliburton.

I think about him a little differently now as a result. But he's still like, I don't know, third, fourth, fifth, probably down the list of guys that I would want to reward here. I obviously had Dame. I think his case is what it is. again, like scoring guards, can't play defense, hasn't played as many games as some of these guys. A lot of these guys are in the 40s, which is something I factored in here. I just find Tyler Hero's case to be really compelling.

Like, the heat's offense really is Tyler Hero at this point. Like the efficiency off the charts, the scoring has been really good. He isn't doing it like just completely empty calorie style. It feels like he's playing within the flow of the team. Like, he is playmaking enough in order to get other guys involved. and like the difference between the Hawks and the heat is literally one game. It's one win. And so I don't know.

And I'll be honest, like, it's hard to really split the Hawks at this point. I agree. Trey's playmaking is ridiculous and not having a guy with 11 plus assists on the All-Star team feels a little weird for me. The shooting numbers are just kind of horrid and hard to really ignore. And then, like, you also look at Jalen Johnson. Like, the team doesn't look right when Jalen Johnson isn't on the floor. And just Trey and I think that matters. I won't say Jalen Johnson

five assists a game like I knew he was playmaking but that number just absolutely popped off I think the Jalen Johnson problem is like I know the wild cards are positionless and ultimately you're comparing Jalen Johnson to guys like Dame, two guys like Trey but relative to the other front court candidates

Jalen Johnson just isn't quite there and this is a tough group even for as much as we're poo-pooing like the last spot and the flexibility of it like Pascal's Yakum is an all-star level player, regardless of whether he makes an all-star team or not. Jalen Johnson is getting to that point, but I think is coming up just short.

And so even though we're comparing front court and back court, I look also at what are you relative to the standards of your position? What are you relative to the peers who you're guarding and being guarded by? And that's one area in which I think Tray might just have a slight edge over Jalen Johnson. Yep, I hear that. Anybody else on the very long list we need to nominate here? I don't think we talked about Jared Allen a lot. And he could make the All-Star team.

Like, I wouldn't be surprised at that last front court reserve spot goes to Jared Allen. Just offer respect for what these guys have done to start the year. And coaches want to, you know, and this is part of how you, you know, show deference to the coach of the team, right? Like, this guy is, he's definitely one of their best players in terms of one of the best forwards in the forwards or center, whichever one of him or Moblea playing. I never really know. he's one of the best. I just go look at his numbers, man. Those ain't all-star numbers, guys.

We're not going to Jamal McGlore this thing this year. We can't do it. Oh, come on. It's not. We can't do it. That's not the case. We're not doing it, Rob. What, 73% true shooting?

Those aren't, that's an all-star number? I agree with you. But I am fascinated to find out how the coaches in particular parse out responsibility and credit for the Caffes. And whether they were... I could see any of those four guys getting in. It would be very coaching for them to do that. Certainly.

God. Just don't run a play. You almost got there. I mean, he definitely was like, in terms of the last forward spot, he definitely was on the short list. But like, my last guy out is Siakum for sure. You know, like, Seacom is the one that barely missed the cuss. But Jared Allen, you know, again, he's part of a team that's smoking everybody in the NBA.

I got to consider the guy. Yep. If they put all four on the court at the same time and they run a play from the Cavs playbook, I'm turning the TV off. You're out. I'm out. That was such a corny, disrespectful to like the spirit of all-star moment. Disrespectful to the spirit of all-star.

We just need people throwing. It's all right off the backboard, like just alley-ups off the ground. Like, yeah, no, no plays, no, those set just like pin downs for Kyle. This is so ridiculous. I disagree. Put Ty Jerome in the Skills Challenge. That's what I say. Let Dean Wade shoot.

Yeah. Anybody else we mentioned, like I have Trey, Lamello, Halliburton. I guess Paulo deserves deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, he would have been there. Consideration. Yeah. Follow would have been there if he was able to play Maxi. that was it. Paul George ain't there. Maxie.

One kind of complicated case, I think Scotty Barnes is basically having a similar season to the one he did last year when he was an All-Star. I couldn't get there with- I agree with you. And I couldn't quite get there with the Raptors in the way that I could with Lamello and the Hornets, for example. I don't think he's been at that level.

I almost feel like we need to re-rank that draft class yet again. Like every two weeks, should we just re-ranked? the the 2021 drive class between Scotty Barnes, Kate Cunningham, Evan Mowgli? I'm feeling pretty good about... I think I had Franz number one,

Mobley, too. I'm feeling pretty good about that. Okay, you're sticking. I'm sticking to that. I think I had Barnes one last time, and I'm... Kate is knocking on... He's really good, though. He's still a good play.

He's not in that top tier discussion, though. He's in the discussion. He's in the top four, for sure. You really rather have him than Cade Cunningham? Really? I think it's a fair conversation. I think Kate is more straightforward. in terms of what he does and how you build a team around him.

And despite that, the Pistons couldn't do it for several years. Scotty Barnes, I would say look at who the Raptors are rolling on the court these days. It's guys who are trying their hardest. That's fair. But it's not great. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points could be worth more than 30 points. And now you get a 30% profit boost from the ringer with fan duels 30 on 30 during Friday's NBA action.

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You would think one of those guys might also go off, but guess what? The Pelicans front court is in shambles. Jaron Jackson Jr. is more versatile than ever. He's been scoring like crazy this season. He's a great pick for this. And whether you want to ride with my pick or make your own, just look to 30 on 30 in the Fanduals Sportsbook app. Or head to fendule.com slash ringer NBA

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including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. All right. Let's takeoff time. We've waited very long.

Two episodes. What a build-up. The audience has been clamoring. They've been writing in. They've been setting letters. No, they haven't done any of that. The rules are as follows. Just get a take-off.

No conventional wisdom. Just pure takes here. Best take wins. Mono E mono. Was versus Rob, part one. Who wants to go first? And Justin, you are the sole arbiter, right? Of who has the superior take?

That's right. It should be in our democracy. You should say yes or no. You know what? Considering that I did not come with my take last time, I will go first. I'm going to give Waiz home court advantage here to respond. Okay.

My take is this. Double teaming is not only for cowards. You just shouldn't do it, literally ever. Never double team anybody. Wow. Ever. The Devin Booker. Devin Booker was right.

Anthony Edwards was right. These guys were right. This is the dumbest thing that I genuinely actually do believe. NBA players are amazing scores. We know they can score one-on-one. Great. I think all of the biggest problems for a defense come from overreaction.

They come from the exact Will Hardy, Carl Anthony Towns thing you described just. And what, how powerful and scary it feels when guys are popping out, when they're hitting these spot up threes, when you have this motion to the offense. And if a team could play truly without ego, what they would do is let one dude on the other team try to score 60 every night and basically tire themselves out in the process. It's a little bit of a Homer Simpson, like let them punch you so much that they get exhausted strategy. But I genuinely think it would work.

And I genuinely think it would work because other officers. Offences now operate at such a high level of efficiency that what are you going to do? Like the NBA average right now is 113 points a game. I know it's not going to be just, you know, James Hardin trying to score every trip down the floor. Donovan Mitchell trying to score every trip down the floor. But if you don't help, I think the strategy is literally never allow a spot up three. Stay home on every single shooter.

I'm not rotating over to give you any dunks or lobs. Donovan Mitchell, if you want to try to score as many of 113 points, as you can in your minutes, and then Darius Garland will come in and do some, and then Evan Mobley will come in and do some. I'm all for it, but I'm going to shoot threes. And I think this is how you bend the math of the modern game, is I get to take spot-up threes

because I'm just going to play, and you can do whatever you want on defense to play in your normal shell. But guess what? I'm just not going to allow you to do that unless you want to pull up. Here's a question. Is passing allowed? Passing's allowed, but it's like, but you're going to have to go one-on-one against somebody, and I, my defense is

not going to help or double under any circumstances. So wait, but in this scenario, fouls are still a thing, right? That, yeah, they could be filed out of NBA games, right? Well, sure, yeah. I think ultimately,

it probably behooves you if you adopt this strategy to take a bit of a Mike Dan, Tony, Phoenix Suns, bent, and you don't just take the foul to take the foul. Sometimes you got to let a guy go by and live to fight another day.

And you got to keep your defenders in the game. You got to keep your defenders from getting fouled out, like, that's a really crucial thing. I think you would have to have a roster that is pretty switchable to contain a lot of these actions. My goal is basically never allow two defenders to the ball. Never allow a double team, a help on a screen.

I'm switching everything. I'm living with the consequences. And we're going to see what happens when my team gets to take threes and you have to live and die with pull-ups. You have to live and die with stars, admittedly, hard driving every single trip down the floor. So it's just ISO ball. Every single possession.

But here's the thing. You play ISO ball. I'm just going to play normal NBA offense unless you want to come into the pit with me. I know, but like, it just, I don't know, like,

so we're not switching screens either. No, I am. I'm switching. I'm just never bringing two to the ball. Never. We're switching, we're switching everything

and never sending help. Never sending help. No matter who this, who draws the switch. I don't care who it is. It's just more hardcore illegal defense, basically. So we're going from zone to,

just no helping whatsoever. So we're abolishing it. I'm not saying the league needs to abolish it. I'm saying if I'm an NBA coach, this is what I want to do. Just strictly, if let's just say, let's just say for whatever reason,

you're playing the Memphis Grizzlies and, oh, I don't know, clinging ends up switched on to John Morant. Then so be it. John Moran is just going to score a bunch of layups all. game. Yep. And that's fine.

Yep. See, I like it a little bit more. He's not going to score 60, which is how many he would need to win. Yeah, I like the players are too smart about drawing files. That's the only problem with that. They're going to draw files. They're going to get files. You're going to get best players that you think you're going to do your efficient offense

with on the other end are going to be in foul trouble. That could be a problem. That could be a problem. I have that problem. I will say it's a strong start. I'm proud of you. Sure. I liked it a little bit more if it was a league-wide thing.

If you were saying that we need to just make it a hard and fast NBA-wide rule, but you're saying it's just more of a strategy thing. I'm saying that in the modern NBA, where offenses are capable of what the Celtics are capable, of that kind of driving kick action, generating all of those open threes off of kickouts. This is the new frontier is you take away literally every kickout. You take away literally every dump-off pass to someone in the dunker spot,

every lob. Jason Tatum, you have to do literally everything if you want your team to do it. Or Jalen, but obviously guys are going to trade off. It's not going to be one star the entire time. But the more they trade down the list, the more it's Drew Holiday trying to create one-on-one, the more we win. Okay. Compelling.

I'm mad at it. A lot to consider there. Was? So I'm just doing my regular league pass thing. And I did have Justin Todd take. my mind and I was watching the Memphis Grizzlies and I came to the conclusion that Adam Silver, his partners in the league need to let bygones be bygones and make John Morant the face of the league again.

Get this Wemby shit out of here. Aunt Edwards fuck out of here. I get it. Nice fun young guys. The old dudes, Steph Curry, LeBron, K.D., all you old fogies, get out of here, clear out. Nike, NBA. make this kid the face of the league

because I swear to God when this guy dunked on Wemby's head the other day I saw the heavens and the earths and Satan I saw it all the meaning of life was revealed to me

in that moment dude when I'm just like this is it this is the person who was most consistently electrifying us with this spontaneity like all this stuff about, oh, the sameness, the oneness of the NBA, the three-point shooting, the blah, blah, blah. John Morant answers all of that.

He is the most creative player in the league. He's the most spontaneous player in the league. Like, there's just nothing like what he does. He's so different. He's so singular. And we were on that path before the issues happened. And I think, look, this country, we believe in a redemption story.

They build you up, break you down so we can build you up again. Let's build John Moran up again. Okay. All these other people get the hell out the way. I love Anthony Edwards. I even love Winbingyama now. Okay? I love these guys.

The old fogies been loving them my whole life. Get them out of here. It's John Moran, and it's not just his individual game. Memphis Grizzlies as a collective make for compelling NBA product. They piss everybody off. They make rivalries every fucking arena they go into because they're, They're so nasty and ornery. And so it's not just him individually.

His team gets people pissed off the best kind of basketball, physicality, guys giving hard fouls, guys drawing at each other, circling the dates on the calendar. This is it. This is what we should be following, y'all. John Morant, man. David, Adam Silver, David Stern, come back from the grave. Adam Silver, push the button on this kid. You mentioned, you know, since he came back from his issues,

would you like to outline what any of those situations were or what led us to this point? He beat up a high schooler. Okay. He assaulted a high schooler in his own backyard. Okay. He put guns on Instagram, flashed his weapon on Instagram live, multiple occasions. One of his boys, after a game, put a red beam in the,

The Pacers bus, I think it was. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. What else did we have here? I might be forgetting. The strip club was the big one. Yeah.

Oh, yes. The strip club incident. Yeah, he's he's had a decent amount of, of situations. Not to mention, um, my sauces tell me, guy, he loved a party, boy.

Lord have mercy. John Moran, I never seen a party, he ain't want to pull up to. He went to Florida one time for a couple days and had a, had a vacation and that was supposed to... All that being said that never stopped our stars from yesteryear.

From being stars and being the faces of the league. This kind of shit only became a problem recently. This is just what NBA players did in the past. They weren't these hyper disciplined, oh, I stay home. I'm a perfect corporate sponsor, but they weren't these people in the

past, and we grew a beautiful league out of it. Let Jha be Jha. It'll be fine. The people will follow. Push the button on this kid. Please, thank you. Look, we all love watching John Morant play basketball. I am incredibly pro-Grisleys overall. Really

fun team, really good team that frankly could win the Western Conference this year. You were proposing a world was in which camera phones do not exist in which we have a star who's a face of the league who frankly has not shown he can acclimate himself to public life in the way that the face of the league might need to. Stefan LeBron, they've lived in this era too.

Those guys are by all relatively speaking, squeaky clean in terms of their public reputations. Not saying they've never done a bad thing in their life, but they're not at the John Moran level. And also, I think one critical thing here, they have won more than one playoff series in their NBA careers. And so if we're anointing anybody. I didn't say this was a bulletproof case. It's a hot take.

It is a take. I do like this as almost like carrying on Jordan's tradition, though. Like, because what was Jordan, if not a maniacal competitor, but also a big old gambler, even during a playoff series. So I like that as well. Also, like, you know, we think through the Paris, you thought of heard of Allen Ivison. Oh, yeah. Like the gossip rags, you know, they love like a celebrity who's in turmoil. like the Paris Hilton's of the world, you know, the benefers, like, could job be our benefir?

That's compelling as well. Could job be our benefers this pod title? In more ways than you think, by the way. But we won't get into that on. Yeah, I don't know what that means. We won't get into that. We won't get into that. The people that's listening know what the hell I'm talking about, trust.

Do they? Okay. My worry with Jah is just like, you know, he just hasn't been playing a lot. The things and the dense, you know, they do pile up. And it's just like every week, he's got to be present for sure. There is a void here. The thing we love about him is he is a crash test on me, basically when he plays on the floor, but he's going to crash because he's a beast, man.

He is doing shit on a nightly basis that literally no one else is doing. And so if anyone is the like the must see ticket of the league right now, it is John Moran. I just think of it as more of like Blake Griffin's like rookie season when it was like everyone was watching the clippers all the time because of the acrobatic nature of how they were playing. the Grizzlies are much better than that. But in terms of the pure aesthetic appeal, it feels more like, oh, this is for the diehards

than it is, oh, this is for, you know, the casual fans out there. You don't think so? No, because it's not just the dunking all people. It's the handle. It's the passing. It's multi-dimensional what makes his game special. It's not just dunks.

Like, this isn't, you know, freaking Desmond Mason Jr. We're talking about here, guys. Like, this guy is a dynamic hooper. okay um and again it's the cross the hell out of you got people falling on the floor multiple times and the court vision his court vision is again the most underrated aspect of his game this guy will dime you up okay and yeah and that's just and that's the thing too and again i don't want to denigrate victor when yama in the appeal of his game but he is seven for four it's it's something

it's taken away you know like my brother my brother hit me my older brother look he's he's an older guy he's like, if I was 7'4, I could do that shit. Now we know where you get it once. Now we know where it comes from. But I think to the average fan, there is an element of that. Like, Wembe is so physically freakish, right? Like when he does catch an alleyup, it looks like somebody's just placing something into their trash bin. You know, so effortless.

Where's Jod just does look electrifying. All right. I have my official score here. Okay. Rob's take very compelling, very creative. I appreciate the effort he put into it. Unfortunately, the penalties have piled up because you missed last week. And so Wage wins by default.

Waz is the winner of the first takeoff. Congratulations, Waz. This is fucked up. Thank you, man. Thank you. I would like to thank my brother. I would like to thank my New York City upbringing, man, where, you know, people in your barbershop and on your block are always just saying the craziest things about

everything. And, you know, I just want to thank New York and my brother for this victory, man. Thank you to Waz's brother. And thank you guys for participating. This was fun. We'll do it again sometime. Thank you also to Isaiah Blakely on production. Thank you to Ben Cruz. We'll be back on Monday. We'll talk you, them.com. Call 1-88-789-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, MA.org or 800327-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 18778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.