The Ringer NBA Show - Hottest Takes With Jason Concepcion | Real Ones

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Logan Murdock and Howard Beck are joined by Jason Concepcion to share their hottest takes ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season. Who will win MVP this season? Which teams will see the conference finals? Plus, how will LeBron fit with the Sixers?Hosts: Logan Murdock and Howard BeckGuest: Jason ConcepcionProducers: Logan Murdock, Victoria Valencia, Jacob Cornett, Clifford Augustin, and Ben CruzProduction Supervision: Jack Wilson and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping? Real ones here. Live in Los Angeles. I am Logan Murdoch. That is Howard Motherfucking Beck. This is Jason. You want a motherfucking? Sure. Yeah.

A Jason motherfucking conception. The Knicks or Chamis, I think I've deserved. I think I deserve it. Yeah. You can call yourself whatever you want now. That's right. You do. We are here for the hottest takes.

Preseason version. I'm very glad that we have Jason here because I'm not sure we're going to get out of Howard. Maybe more measured takes. We're here to fuck around. So let's see how we can. do this. Are you excited about this? I'm excited. I can't wait. How are your takes? Are you? I hope they're

I hope they're pushing the envelope. Okay. We'll see. We will find out. We will discover what they are. So back on the way here from New York. You're going to tell the story again. I'm going to tell the story again. This is a new audience. And Beck on the way here from New York was texting me on the plane

asking me what kind of takes you should get. So I don't know what to expect. Inaccurate. I'm pretty scared. about what's going on. So we'll see what happens. First team on the docket, the Boston Celtics, Jason. Oh, Boston Celtics.

I don't look at my shit. Boston Celtics, very exciting. Of course, big trade. Big trade. Big news. You know what? Boston Celtics finish above the Philadelphia 7th. Oh.

Oh. That's all right. Okay. Explain the take, please. I just think Jason Tatum. hasn't been this inspired or angry since you realize the savings

he could have when he moved his money over from a checking account to an actual savings account and I think that that the site of Jalen Brown in another jersey talking shit to him is going to awaken

he can finally like show his true feelings on the situation is finally going to come out that anger, that real like, fuck this guy kind of feeling. And I think everybody's going to fall in line behind him. Not to mention, I think, I think Philly, I think Philly there's

I think there's certain structural and emotional obstacles. And I think this is all the moves they made are trades for next year, not this year. I think it's going to take time to gel. And I think if you look at the history of LeBron changing teams

in big ways, it's always kind of disappointing that first year. So I think it's going to be, I'm going to overindex on the disappointment. Boston Celtics finish a budget. You're banking on the fact that because Jason Tatum was finally going to be interesting. Yes.

And he's going to have a feel, finally show some feeling on the basketball court. Are we sure Tatum is capable of anger and vengeance? Is that going to be, that's going to be the reason why the Celtics have a better record than the 76ers? And Paul George is going to play, is going to play 63.

Holy shit. That might be the hot, that might be harder than the first take. It's scorching in here in this cold. It's somehow it's scorching to this cold-ass studio.

I'm very scared right now because now it's his turn to have a take and I don't know what's going to happen. It might be very lukewarm. It could be the hottest thing ever. This episode is brought to

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Okay. Okay. In fact, on top of that, let's just get geeky here and move. Let's just, let's veer into Bobby Mark's territory. Paul George is going to have better on-off stats than Jalen Brown. The advanced stats are going to low-ball. Oh, okay. All right, okay.

All right, all right. That's a low bar. All right. All right, Kenny Ackinson, relax. Jesus Christ. I think that that's probably going to be the case. and I'm excited for that discourse because I think Jalen

love that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think that I don't, I have no, I don't have our expectations for this team.

I don't think that's all right. I think it's just really hard at this particular moment to convince me that is Jason Tate I'm going to play a full season? Is Mitchell Robinson, who I know has given you nightmares

as much as he's giving you very great dreams. Are you looking forward to Mike Brown and technically fouling Mitchell Robinson to put him at the line and embarrassing him? It's going to be cute. It's going to be funny. And I think Mitchell Robinson, for the very first time in his entire career,

is going to be mostly kind of healthy this season. That's a hot take. That's a hot take. Okay, I think, okay, at the risk of getting fired from this great place, I think that ceiling for this team is a sixth seat. Let's move on. Let's move on

Oh Damn To the New York Knicks Coming in hot You thought you had time didn't you You thought you had time Do you want Howard to go first? Maybe I should go first anyway

Because I think this may set Jason up Okay The Knicks will not repeat And it won't fucking matter Because Jason and all the other Knicks fans are like We're good, we're set for life It's fine We would like them to repeat, it would be

nice to repeat, but if they don't, we're good. We're good forever. We have OG and nobody's tipping for the rest of time. We have Jalen Brunson being the most popular New Yorker of all time. Everything is fine. Like there's not like the subways are just beautiful now. Are they? Everything is beautiful. Yeah, because it's just, it's Nix colored glasses. Everything is orange and blue. Everything is fine. It doesn't matter if they ever win again. Listen, I don't quite believe that, but I will give that to the expert on the on these matters. I do think, okay, so if you guys are like 500 and teetering on 500 in January. Are you guys going to still be happy? No. I didn't say 500. I just said not repeating. Let's be clear.

We say that we will be, but we won't. Yeah. Yes. It's very easy to say now. Wait, I have a question following up to that one, right? Sure. So you guys have celebrated a lot. There's been weddings. There's been, there's been a lot going on. You guys have turned a little Hollywood, right? Like a tiny bit Hollywood. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's tiny bit Hollywood. I don't think Jalen Bruns is capable of going full Hollywood, but okay. You guys had a fucking Malibu wedding that you guys all went to. It's very much Hollywood.

Wasn't that always happening? Wasn't that happening every off? The question I'm going to ask you before I get to your take was in the back of your mind and the cynical Knicks fan, are you like, what the fuck are they doing? We got to lock in for next season. What would be, under what circumstances will Fad Joe take back the Terror Squad chain off of the neck of Mike Brown. What has to happen?

It would have to be a complete and total collapse with multiple seemingly personal feuds bursting into the open. Mm. With, you know, disagreements about role, disagreements about defense and offensive systems, all of that stuff that seemed like it was bubbling underneath even throughout. a lot of last season,

would have to burst open and they'd have to be shitty. Yeah. I don't see that. I don't see that part happening. I don't see that happening. I did, now my original hot take was,

this is not, but I did toy with the idea that I think they will be better have a stronger regular season this year and then not win the final. That's actually not. That's pretty luke. That's pretty luke warm.

Fuck it. We're repeating. Let's go. Come on. Where's this camera? Is your camera right ahead? Say it right now. Go right now.

Two for two, let's go. First repeat of the parody era. There we go. Adam Silver, you can't stop us. You can't keep us down like this. Mark Tatum, you can't stop us. Okay, okay. So what about when the cat is,

what about what cat is defensively? He's like, and someone just sees him on the pick and roll and they just see him and they see him as food because Mitchell Robinson is no longer there. He is the only. Right. You're talking about the foul issue.

It's going to be a problem. problem. Yeah. It's going to be a problem. But Kat was good defensively, minus the fouls. Can we say that? Is that? Yeah, sure.

Take away the fouls. I think he was a very solid defensive player, especially during the playoffs. He was good, flat out. And I think with a proof of concept in the bank, we understand this works. And with the captain, as hungry as ever, McHale Bridge is going viral. I just think, let's do it again. Okay. Four seed.

Okay. Four seed. That's okay. Let's go over the bridge. Let's go to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Nets, right in your backyard. Brooklyn Nets, hottest take Howard motherfucking Beck. Julius Randall's going to post career bests in scoring and usage and still won't make the All-Star game because the Nets are going to be so horrid.

And no one in New York is going to see it. No one's even going to know. because nobody really covers them. That's not true. They are covered, but they are not, let's just say that they're not exactly stealing back page headlines for good or bad from the Knicks or the Yankees or anybody else anytime soon.

But like, what a bittersweet thing for Julius Randall, right? Probably didn't want to leave New York in the first place. Gets to come back, but it's on the other side of the river at a time that his old team just won the championship without him with the guy who he was traded for. Yeah, this is like purgatory at this. point. And it's like a wrestling match between him and Michael Porter Jr. for like who's going to jack up the most shots. That'll be fun. Jacking. My hot take is Michael Porter Jr. will average 25. 25 podcasts a week or 25 points for game? 25 conspiracy theories. 25 points and 25 podcasts. And by mid-December, you will be openly discussing should I quit and just be a podcast or fold?

Yeah. He'll be talking about it. I think Jordy Fernandez is going to be like, you know what? Go do your podcast by January. I think my hot take is that Jordan Fernandez is going to get minutes this season. He's actually going to sue them. I think he's going to suit up for one game. And he's going to score like five, seven points, something like that because they're going to need them.

I think that's my hot take. I think that's going to happen. He's going to be the first player coach since Bill Russell. And he's going to lead, you know, Bill Russell led them to a championship. He's going to lead them into the lottery. They need somebody to pass the ball, I will say, because even their, I mean, you know, their legendary five rookie draft, five rookies who all need the ball, none of whom want to pass. I just think it's, he should think about it. Jordy should think about it.

It's not the worst option. Not the worst option. Just, God damn, they're a money pit, man. You see how great their facilities look with nothing to show for it. It's really nice, really nice. Great view from the top of their training center. Amazing view. Not only that, but my friends who have kids in school, in New York City schools have been sending me texts that are like some variation of.

My child told me that when they called on this one kid in class today, no matter what the question was, he just answered Jalen Brunson. I thought I was just going to say Nixon 5. That's what's happening in New York City schools right now. This is what I'm saying. They don't have to ever win. The Knicks don't have to ever win again. It's that Nixon 5 will be the answer to every question. We say that.

We say that now. We say that now, but it would be nice to get an owner. Dolan is still the owner. Yeah. Mm. Mm. Right? Yeah.

Right. You try to forget that, don't you, Jason? I do. Although I will say some other owners have been making it easy. We'll get to that in a second. He's falling down the list a little bit. We'll get to that in a second. Philadelphia's 76ers

hottest take Who wants to take this on You want to go first Jason I may have a hot take I'm hearing LeBron James might Did you should go off the bench

Six man of the year LeBron James Right Think about it Think about it Hear me out It's not going to happen Think about it though

Boom You put Lebron James You play him 25 minutes a game You play him with the second unit He is the six man of the year You add that to the trophy Collection

You keep him fresh until the postseason. And if he buys into this role, it allows him to be great in his role against second unit teams. And then it helps out with all the plethora of scoring options in the starting line.

So Dean Wade is starting in LeBron's place? Why now? Let's get freaky. This is the hottest takes, right? Is this not the hottest takes? That was hot. I guess my hot take would be LeBron and Embedged share the court for less than

500 million which is not a lot I'm trying to do the math in my head of like how many games is that that's not that's not great and I think over the course of that season does LeBron like playing with Embed will be a thing that he will be Is that going to be manufactured by LeBron or is it also

manufacturing right now? No no I'm saying is it going to be like manufactured Is that going to be the storyline midseason through back channels of what Braun wants? Do you think that one is? Is that your prediction? Yes. In fact, it's going to be so manufactured that to cover the tracks, they'll get Max to ask it. All right. See you later, guys. Oh, shit.

So before we get to Howard's fake, before we get to Howard's fake, I don't know where to go from here. I did 500 divided by 82, and that is six minutes per game together. an average of six minutes to game together with Embed and LeBrona it might be a little low I might bump it up to 800

it's going to be concentrated among 40 games that's right Howard I don't know how are you gonna how are you gonna add on that one baby you might need to

you might need a lukewarm take after these last two bro I'm not recovering for that anytime soon my take is LeBron oriented though okay Lebron's gonna average

double digit assist for the second time in his career. Last time was 2019-20 with the Lakers. Why would he do anything but this? He might lead the league in assists this season. He doesn't need to score. He could roll out of bed and score 18 to 20 without even trying.

He doesn't need to try to score at age 42. He's got Maxie and Edgecombe and Jalen Brown and Joel Embed and apparently starter Dean Wade. So he entered the league with the quote he was going to be not his quote. other people were saying he will be more magic than Michael. Turns out he was both those guys rolled into one in the body of Carl Malone. But he's shown already, like first of all early in his career, he was going to be all about

the team. He showed last season, I can set up Luca and Austin Reeves. I can play off them at this stage of my career. I don't need all the, you know, the wear and tear and all the effort to try to do everything and every possession. He'll be fine with doing that. And so he'll want to conserve himself. And he almost has to, too.

Like if this shit's going to work with so many mouths to feed, someone has to be the one to decide, I want all these guys to thrive, and he's the most likely candidate, the best candidate to do it. I like it. I like that as well. I like it.

That was very mature. We have recovered. I think we're going to be good. I think we're going to be okay. You think we're going to be okay? I think we're fine now. Everybody doing all right? All right, cool.

The Toronto Raptors, Howard Beck. Oh, man. And also, as of recording now, Kauai Leonard is officially a Toronto So, go ahead. Waved that tree. Waved that tree. Waved it.

Not by choice. Had to, according to Bobby Marks, for it to fit under the aprons because they were hard-capped. So it wasn't like some magnanimous gesture by him. Let's be clear. No one told Danoneira that he didn't. Hey, listen, he'll plant a few trees. He'll be fine.

You know, he'll make up the difference. Cool. Here's the take and it is about Kauai. Okay. Kauai's return to Toronto is going to be the weirdest, least satisfying homecoming we've ever seen. I like it. Toronto, happy to have him back, and they should be.

But let's remember, he was the first player in our lifetimes, maybe the history of sports to lead a team to a championship, be the finals MVP, and then see like, I'm good, see you all later, bye. He spurned them. And he's coming back seven years later, seven years older, all the wear and tear, and also now with the cloud of this scandal hanging over him. Toronto doesn't care because that's on the clippers.

That's a whole other country. That's what they don't go, shit. But like, but for them it's okay. all the rest of the world, we're all looking at him a little differently. Like, you brought all this on that other organization. The Raptors don't care. I kind of push back on that. Also, by the way, not the warmest, fuzziest personality in the first place, right?

So this is not some warm and fuzzy homecoming. I know that's a hot take. I know I'm out on a limb here. It's going to be fine. They will win a lot of games. It's just not going to be all that like, because it was cool when we saw LeBron go back. So other homecomings we've seen have been kind of like fun. There's nothing fun about this.

I think homecomings are defined by the reaction of the home. And I think the reaction of the home, in this case, Toronto, they're going to love them. And we're going to see that on TV. And they're going to like, oh, we're happy to have you for the talent and you're going to elevate us again. But like, you did, like, you did like spurn us. Seven years. You talk to people in Toronto, they don't give a fuck about that. All they care about is that they got a ring.

He was good. He was probably going to get his jersey retired no matter what. But I wonder if he came back or not. I think that they're going to love it. I think we're going to probably, well, you are going to be weirded out about it. I'm going to be like, well, I'm just saying it's not going to be that emotionally resonant. I don't know. I think Drake is going to cry in the courtside seats on opening night scene.

Do we care what Drake though? It's not about we. It's about them. Yeah. It is about Toronto. What's your, what's your? After Uncle Dennis's mid-season arrest at the border, at the border crossing. Quy Leonard renounces his American citizenship,

goes full Mark Carney, pro-Canada, anti-USA, and honestly power to him. Fair. Wait, but how does he? How does it becomes a Canadian hero? He does, well, he's already a Canadian hero. But yes. No, but like for the full Canada.

Yeah. For the entire from sea to shining sea, whatever they say up there. Yeah. From like Alberta to fucking Nova Scotia. From British Columbia to the other one on the... That other one, yeah. Nova Scotia. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Okay, I get that. So Uncle Dennis is going to get arrested. That's what I got is the hottest tape. I think they're going to seize him at the border. You know what? That's fair. That's what should happen. It's better than anything the NBA did.

The NBA left, like, oh, they banned for life a guy who has no representation of anybody. My question. Wait, excuse me. A five-year ban. Five years only for a guy who has no other representation in the NBA anyway. He's like, cool. I did what I did my job. Let me just say this about Uncle Dennis.

Everybody's shooting at Uncle Dennis. He asked for this. He asked for that. Why wouldn't you? Of course. You don't have to give it to him. Yeah. First of all, like, of course, you ask for stuff.

I can ask for this building. Spotify is going to be like, fuck off. Don't give it to him. And then second of all, and this is the thing that really gets in my craw, that people don't talk about enough. The NBA looked all of it. over that. Uncle Dennis asking this and that from the Raptors, from the late from everybody. Spurs and everybody. And they found nothing to it. They found nothing there until Pablo Tori found out. And now all of a sudden they're like, whoa, holy shit. So one thing that I would love Pablo or

anybody else to look into is how exactly the NBA looked at all the stuff that Uncle Dennis was doing and said, it's fine, let him keep going. And now it's a problem. The NBA has a habit of reacting when other entities report out this stuff, right? Like, Robert Sarver's fine until Baxter Holmes exposes him for being a complete creep, and then we got to chase him out of the league. Like, nothing happens until somebody else figures it out. The NBA knows what's going on, and they're just kind of like, as long as nobody finds that word.

Yeah, sounds like a professional sports. Yeah, that's how it works. That sounds like the going rate for a professional sports league. I don't know if I have a take this one. I'm sorry, guys. What? Nobody else you want to have arrested at the board? I didn't want him arrested.

I don't want a black man to be arrested in any board. or anything. I'm not saying that. That was his take. That was not my. I think that this goes, the Raptors thing has a great variance and that

they can go to the finals. They can also be a playing team if shit goes bad. You know? Sure. That's my team. They're going to miss Grady Day. They are. They are. They're going to miss the jersey swaps, for sure. We all are. All right, the Chicago Bulls.

I'd take for you. Josh Giddy averages a triple double. Whoa. The Chicago Bulls end up having their fourth front office by next office. Okay. Clear House again. Why are you firing Bryce and Graham? What did he do?

What's wrong? It just didn't work out. It just didn't work out. It just didn't work. Okay. Why are we, you know, why are we just, You know, why are we still suck? Why is it going this badly?

But then the Rhine source after you have to pay him not to work, and they don't really like spending money. True. Yeah. But I still think they'll do it. All right. It is also. He really, he researched and went hard for that one, that take. It's hard.

The bulls are boring. Jesus. This is not even that hot of a take. It's just the only thing I, like, the bulls are so uninteresting in general. This is about the best I can come up with. I'm sorry. This is the bull's fault, not mine. They're going to flip Norm Powell by the deadline.

Yeah. Possibly back to Miami. Because Miami needs him more than they do. And like, what is he even doing here? He's getting paid. You got, you got, you got, you're 44 million. You got, what's not the way? Yeah, but no, it's a very movable contract, second year's team option.

It was made to be moved, basically. But like, what's he doing here? Nice little condo, you know, in Chicago for three months, you know, and I bet. I got another one. They're going to open. Let's go. They're going to open 10 and three. One of those fake good starts

Tiago Splitter Coach of the month Ooh All right Is he going to get the Avery Johnson special? They win less than 35 games Okay

That's brutal I'm going to add to that I said they go 11 and 2 Okay What is the price is right? And they win and they win 27 games That would be Incredible, I could see it

Oh, man. Okay. Let's go to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I think this is my take. I think in order to optimize James Hardin and get the best out of him,

they were going to build a club in the middle of downtown Cleveland. I thought you said it in the middle of Quicken Arena. That's going to be the greatest. Honestly, they're going to build a new forum club specifically for James Hardin, just to optimize performance. You know how people need cold tubs and stuff?

No, they're going to just have a club for him. with all the accoutrements that he loved. He's going to have a career year. Why not? Why not? It smells like a couple. What's your hot take? Cabs have already peaked.

Yeah. It's done. This is it, man. This is the least convincing on-paper contender, and it's always an on-paper contender, right? They're the least convincing on-paper contender in recent memory. Two years ago, they won 64 games out in the second round. Last season, we finally made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. And we can't hold like a 38.

40, 50 point, whatever the hell that lead was against the Knicks. They get absolutely smoked. Harden is 37. Hold on really quickly. I want to know. I haven't had on your day. What was that like for you? Does this see, just James Harden turned into a human cone?

I mean, it's not anything we haven't seen before. I honestly, I will say I knew that we were good on a level that I have not experienced before my life. Because I was actually like, we kind of got it. I think we got it. even down 23 or whatever it was. I don't think I've ever seen any quicker or more dramatic atmosphere change. I was in the building that night.

And the crowd was done. They were just like, well, I guess we're losing game one in the series. That's fine. We'll come back. Whatever. Like it was and then it was like, ooh,

a little bit louder. A little bit louder. And all of a sudden the place is fucking exploding and the cavaliers are just wilting. I don't, I've never seen anything like it. But yeah, they're done.

They've already, the calves have already peaked. This addition of them is going to be the worst kind of done, Howard, because they're still going to have a massive contracts from people and they're just going to, they're not going to have, I'd say they're not going to have expectations, but they're going to be a team

in purgatory with old guys that are getting older and getting paid a lot of money. Three years, 96 million for James Carter. Hey, man, a promise. A promise is a promise. A promise is a fucking promise. Are you sub-twitting a former GM somewhere? Oh, no, he mad at me right now. Yeah, it's true. Let's see. I don't know.

Yeah. When the Cavaliers returned to Madison Square Garden, November 11th. Kenny Atkinson will explode when the local beat writers in and date him with multiple analytically we won the series reference to the point that

Mark Berman has retired so he will come out of retirement from the cat skills of wherever the fuck he's at he's in Florida wherever he will fly up head shining This is a struggle A struggle all right here

This was a perfect Mark Berman question A couple couple of di-coctus in Unretired just for this Just to ask this No no you know what's going to happen There's going to be at the end of the pregame presser There's going to be a Nick Staffer out of nowhere said Okay we have one one last one in the Zoom link

Where's the Zoom for Mark And Atkinson will need to be restrained I love this Oh, my God. This is too good. Okay, all right, all right. We still have the rest of the league to talk about. Let's go with the Detroit Pistons.

It's got sad. I struggle with this one. All I can come up with is... Hold on. Is Jalen Duren going to sign with the Pistons only to get traded for the bonus? This feels like... This is the last thing we're waiting for, right? As we record this, we should once again note because we don't know...

By the time this comes out, we don't know where Jailen Duren will be. But as of now, I don't have much on the Pistons other than this. If Assar Thompson makes the leap and we're like getting like the Instagram videos of like, oh, the jump shot looks better or whatever. The Ben Simmons special? Look at that. The Mitch Robinson special. If a Sarr Thompson already an outstanding defensive player.

Yeah. If he makes the leap offensively, they win the East. Okay. Okay. Okay. This is, is this even that hot? Jalen Duren will sign a contract. He's not going to take the qualifying stop.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, come on. Yeah, that's posture. You're not going to fucking do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do. Don't do that.

That's absurd. Don't do that. Don't. Bad idea. Okay. All right. All right. That's the Indiana Pacers.

Oh, man. We're just done with the next. Let's go to the Knicks fan here about the Indiana Pacers. In a page. Ready for that? I don't know. Ready for this? No.

Tyrese Halliburton MVP. Whoa. From the Knicks fan. He's going to win MVP. They're going to have a great season. MVP? MVP of the national basketball. You don't mean on the ballot.

You don't mean finished. He's not going to make some votes? He's not going to get votes. Oh, shit. You know how fickle these writers are? Watch it. It's done it. You're talking to the president of the PBW right here.

And Yokic is, we're going to do this again. And like, Wemby, of course. He's going to win a million of them. And then the Pacers can come out hot. They're going to be good. The chemistry is just waiting for the addition of him back into the mix. And he is going to be the straw that stirs the drink, no health issues, and the thought is going to be. Are we going to get a second chance give Pirates Halliburton an MVP?

I'm going to add to that. He's going to win the MVP. And he's going to eliminate the Knicks. I mean, it might happen. Listen. Again. Paces. And Nix fans will say it's fine because we already won the championship.

And it's true. Are you guys going to clap and be like, God damn it. I mean this completely sincerely. I think it would be cool if the Pacers won a championship. No, man. I can't believe this shit from you New Yorkers right now. I can't believe how nice you guys are now. I can't believe how nice you guys.

I can believe it with you because you've got, you've been in California for a while. Since whenever New Yorkers come to California, they get a little easier around the edges, right? But like New Yorkers who used to just be assholes in a loving way, you guys are so nice now and just so accommodating. I don't know what to feel. Jaylen Brunson changed the world on its axis. When I see Tyrese Halliburton doing the, you know, the joke sign. It was a little bit like he could have come up with his own, but it was cool. I feel no pain in my body.

It's crazy. You know, I feel like I've been reborn. I feel nothing. Okay. I don't think Tyrese Halliburton's ever received. a single vote on an MVP ballot. I was just trying to check real quick. Hey, Howard,

Howard, don't be a killjoy. Don't be a killjoy. Do not be a kill joy. We do love, listen, to Jason's point, while overstated, we do love a good, feel good story. It's going to be feeling, really. But MVP's also to put up like gaudy numbers

and he's not really a gaudy numbers kind of guy. He's so. Okay, so what it has to be, though, it has to be like, 15, 15 and like 12. But you don't think like 19, 19, 10 to 11? He has to be like 05 Nash I was going to say Nash He's got to be like Nash

And it's and one of those things Where he misses Six games They lose all six But also they gotta win like 60 or something They gotta have the best record in the East For him to even get into this conversation They will win like 61 games

And he will win the MVP That's a hot take That's good It's a very hot take I like that one I like that one I'm calling the Pacers The Sleepiest Sleeper that ever slept

Or that was slept on I guess because Jason's take on Halliburton aside, they're never talked about right now. It's like we're all fixated on LeBron and Jalen Brown and Philly and are the Knicks going to repeat? And are the Celtics going to be back in the mix with Jason Tatum healthy again? And the Pistons won 60 games last year and the Cavaliers or whatever the cavaliers are. But everybody's talking about everybody except the patient.

We completely forget to put them back in this conversation. And we absolutely should be because they made the finals a year and a half ago. Miles Turner is gone, but Zubotch is in his place. Everybody else is still there. Nemhart and Neesmith and T.J. McConnell. And, like, Rick Carlyle is still a freaking genius of a coach. Like, they really didn't lose anybody of note. I mean, all due respect to Benedict Mathrim, they brought in Kelly Ubre.

Like, we're not giving them enough respect. They need to be talked about in the mix to win the East. I fully respect. Harris, Halliburton. Okay. The Atlanta Hawks, I'll go first. I think that Lil Boozy is going to finally like tear his hamstring. I think this is the year he does it.

I think this is the year he finally does it. That's all I have for you. I think he's going to do. It's either going to be what he does the timeout thing where he jumps. I think he's going to, I think he's going to tear. I think his whole right leg is just going to just shatter. And for half the season, it's going to be in a cast. Okay.

I think that's about all I got. Do you want to do one? Do you even know who Lil Boosie is? He's the guy who did the thing in the, video and the, yeah. No, I saw something happen during the playoffs and I went, I don't know why the camera is on this guy. So there you go.

There's your answer. Is this even, is this hot? Like, Dailon Johnson's the best player in the division? In the division. In the division. I don't think that's a hot take. You're making us think about NBA divisions. Sorry about that.

It's you saying it's between him and Janus. I think he'll be better than, I think he will put up better numbers than Janus. That is a hot take. Yeah. Huh. I can see that. I can see that. Does that make them,

does that take them the next step into the upper echel of the Eastern Conference? Because I don't think so. No, I don't think so. No. I think they're in the six seed, is range, six, five seed brains. They were six last year.

I think they're probably six again. That's, I mean, that's where my take was in this anyway, with all of my lukewarm takes, this will be the lukewarmiest. Like, I love what they're doing and I don't know where it leads.

Like, I love them going and getting, Lou Dort. I love the Nikkela Alexander Walker pickup. I love the C.J. McCollum pickup last season. Like, it's all good. Like, they're making good fundamentally sound moves here to build this team. But unless Jalen Johnson turns into a true number one, like, like I, and by that, I mean, he's not just putting up great numbers. He can win a playoff series for you. And we saw this against your Knicks, right? He just wasn't ready for the moment. And so until he either becomes that guy or they find that guy elsewhere, I'm just not sure where all this go.

Okay. Let's go with the Milwaukee Bucks. Oh, boy. Just to be sad for a minute. Oh, boy. Yeah. You're asking me? I hate to do this.

This will be as downerish as I get. They're going to set a new franchise record for losses. That record being held by the 2013-14 bucks who went 15 and 67, a record that landed them who? In the lottery that year? Jabari Parker. This starting five, I think this is actually the worst starting five in the NBA.

It depends on who you're plugging in here. Like, as it Ryan Rollins or Kevin Porter Jr. Tyler Hero, Hawkes, who I like, Kuzma, Miles Turner.

Like, I don't know how any of these guys fit together. I don't know what this team actually is going to accomplish on the court. I don't know how these guys are going to even, like, is a team that is primed to just be like, oh, somebody else could use Miles Turner, like a three-point shooting big who could block shots, boom. Tyler Hero, you know, some team needs a shot creator, boom.

Like, they should be trading these guys as soon as they can because they're going nowhere fast with this group anyway. And yeah, I think they break the franchise record of 67 losses in 2013. It's time you think about it. It's very tough. Really tough. Yeah, I don't know. Mine is that between the start of the season and the end of the Rock Rivers World War 23 podcasts and television appearances in which he...

So is he going to break Michael Porter Jr.'s record? Yeah. He's going to do this. He's going to go on Michael Porter Jr.'s podcast. No, it's going to be various podcast appearances and TV spots in which he, in a chagrined manner talks about the Bucks while also clearly being delighted

at how bad they are and that 23 appearances are going to be more wins than the Bucks will not. That's a good one. That's a good one.

I like what you did there. How many of those appearances are on the Ringer podcast network? At least eight. All right. Hottest take. Charlotte Hornets. Okay.

I think the Lamello trade is going to backfire. Really? Okay. The reason why I think that is they have, he, his departure really takes down the ceiling team. I am not like, I get ConConnectable. I had a really good rookie season. Brandon Miller is a guy.

But I think he pushes their ceiling up. He also pushes their floor down. But I do think that, I think that this is going to come back to Haunton because they're just a purgatory team. There's a team that's a team that's going to perpetuate. being purgatory with this roster. I don't have any belief in this. It looks like a flash in the pan. And I think they're going to somehow just kind of regret leaving all that scoring on the table.

Okay. Interesting. It's a hot take. It's what it is. It's a hot take. I will, my hottest, my hot take is like a haircut on your tape. I think they will start hot. 15 and 8. And then I think they end up. They're going to found out. I think that will get found out and end up 500, but. that the stuff that they're seeing and that we are seeing are so positive overall, and the team is so young, that it will be a good story overall. So I don't think they've committed themselves to mediocrity because that happens when you over-invest in like a lamello ball, like somebody who is like, you've already learned all like the highs and the lows

and you pay him just because he's your star. You do it reflexively. You do it because you think you're supposed to. and the next thing you know, you are capped out and you're stuck in the middle. Instead, they're pivoting to their younger guys to Brandon Miller and Con Cinepple and whoever else may come along.

They brought a Nas Reid, a great character guy. So my take on them was almost like the inverse of yours, which is like, I thought the Lamello trade was gutsy as hell and the right move. They moved him out. They moved Miles Bridges out. They are obviously concentrating on character and guys that they truly believe in.

In the couple of years, like since Rick Schnell in that group, bought the team. They've changed GM. They brought Jeff Peterson. He brought in Charles Lee. They've turned over effectively the entire roster. So like this is a team. I like a team with conviction. Yeah. No, and listen, listen, you're right. Also, it's Charlotte. It's really hard to get a hot take there. You're right. But I will say this. What you are. Them trading away Lamello after they've seen him this whole time and getting what they got from him is, you know, they got a nausea, they got a rotation player out of it. You know, they got him off of the payroll. It's a good move. You know, but in the interim, I just, I know they're a little less interesting.

They're a little less interesting, right? Yeah. Yes, that's, that they are a little less interesting, but more so, like, I think the bigger point that I wanted to make was I'm just not as impressed with the blue chip guys that they think. Yeah. I have to see it in this new context. Like the ceiling on Brandon Miller concanipples low enough that you're like, yeah. That I'm like, I don't know. Like, I don't know if they're the guys to bet on necessarily, right?

And I get Lamello isn't necessarily. Listen, as Howard knows, I have not been a lamello ball. I've been, to say that I'm a skeptic would be very, very nice. But I'm just not, I'm not convinced by those two guys. It's like the guys are going to lead you into the next iteration. I don't disagree. I think they end up being very, very solid players that are capable of contributing very, very good teams.

Yeah. And that we will be talking about next few seasons that all they need is that one. Yeah. But I think that those. young guys are good. Just not like, top of the mountain. That's a fair point. But then it's like, that's the thing about the NBA, right? You have to pivot so much, right? If your guys aren't guys and you identify that early enough, you have to move up off of them before you have to pay them. That is the new NBA. And they only have a finite amount of time. And I think it's clear at this point that these,

at least to me, it's clear. And this is my opinion that these two guys just aren't the guys that I feel like you can build sustaining like franchise cornerstone. And I could, and I could, shoot. They could probably prove me wrong at this point. But like to get to the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference when you're competing against a Sixers team or you're trying to compete against the Knicks, I just don't think that these are the guys to be able to do it. They've given them room, selves room to keep adding. Maybe I should have just said that. You know what? The lamello ball thing was a little too much. Maybe I should, I'm a, I'm a, it's still a hot take, but I don't believe in Brandon Miller and Conquitniple as the franchise corner stuff.

That is my take. Okay, the Miami Heat. I have one. Can I go first? Far away. Can I go first? And this will also kind of contradict the best case and worst case scenario. Okay.

Hot take, though, man. And it's, I'm just going to say it. I think they go to the finals. Whoa. I think they can go to the finals. Wait, did you just go from Will to Cannes within like a five seconds? I think they can go to the finals. Now, this is as constituted or do they bring stuff in?

They bring stuff in. they have a, they, they have a good trade deadline and they figure some things out. They get some pieces involved. But I just really trust Eric Spolser, your Filipino brother in Christ. Yeah. I mean, listen. I think I'm putting a lot on Eric's Pulser to figure this out. Can I ask you this?

And the heat infrastructure to play, to get the most out of them and get the most out of players that you wouldn't otherwise see that in. In this scenario, to what degree do they punt the regular season? They like win 50 games. Yeah. And they figure their shit out, right? And then you get a reincarnate of Andrew Wiggins like 2022 because this is the infrastructure that just allows for that to happen. It's like cocoon, him and clay like out on the boats.

And like the slice teeming in the water like goes into their bodies. Listen, there's no other plausible explanation that I could even have other than vibes for them to get to the finals. Okay. You know, vibes and great coaching and infrastructure. That is what's leading me to think that. I'll say this. Like Clay's never had water like this for a boat. No, he hasn't.

And he historically does great when he is in water. I said this and I said this on the last pot. And I said this when he got traded. It's a landlocked place. He's going to be miserable. Yeah. Listen, he was cold as shit in the Bay Area on that boat and had great times. You know, middle of January on that San Francisco Bay.

It might as well be Antarctica. And he was having a blast. Yeah, this is other type of water. Yeah. This is. This has real healing properties. Yeah. What's your hot take for the heat?

I think I might have burned the studio down. That is, my hot take for the heat is, Sanassas, Kostas and Alex cancel their contracts with, I believe it's Erystisthesiliniki in Greece to join what will be a march to the finals. Wait, no, no, no, no, no. As just members of the organization.

Wait, but you just said, You just so just fried me for even saying that they can go to the finals. Now you're agreeing with me that they're going to go to the stretch run? You're buying what I'm selling? I'm buying into this alternate reality. Okay. I kind of like it. Okay.

Wouldn't that be so fun? Wouldn't that be so fun at this wound of happening? I think it would be. Miami in the finals is always fun. It will be. And you know Pat Riley's going to be in fucking insufferable. Bro, his Pat Riley's Denzel walk, the Denzel walk going into the fucking arena, bro? Are you serious?

He's going to be fucking insufferable if that happens. What's going to be better? The Denzel walk in Man on Fire or the Pat Riley walk into the finals of 2027. It's going to be insane if that happened. They're going to just need to like

take that, you know, that the thing that they shoot the wings of the airplane with like to cool it down or whatever. They're going to need to do that to him as he comes off like the presser like table. They're going to steal the University of Miami's like fucking the smoke from that.

And every game with the finals, Pat Riley is going to come out alone just walking out to his seat. Talking so much bullshit if that happens. It will be insane. Beck, are you okay? Are you still going to be here for the rest of the show? Did we break you finally? I am trying to recover. I had like this great optimistic take.

I was a lot of people, I think that. the consensus opinion is that the heat are not even a solid playoff team like they may have to be a play in team and you just put them in the fucking finals there's I've got no one left for me to go even worse I somehow convinced him I'm gonna do it like

I'm in on it I'm in on it you know how is Clay by the way is he probably hired somebody to like take the boat down from the bay through the Panama Canal like somehow yeah like no they just put it on a trailer and like just drive it across the country see we don't got money like

I don't understand how that. I don't have nautical experience like that. It's not that big of a boat. Okay. Oh, okay. He's going to. Also, we're under us. He could buy another fucking boat.

That is an option. That is an option. Howard, what is your? I can't top that. So I'm just going off. I'm going off the top by dome now. Final. Fuck it.

As long as they're going to the finals, Clay Thompson hits more threes than Steph Curry. Ooh. Oh. That was somehow a hotter take. Oh. That was somehow a hotter take. I can't just let you do.

Dude, I gotta go somewhere else with it. Steph, I know you watch this fucking show. Take that personally. Take it personally right now. And also, Beck said it. Beck said it. So next time, don't give him shit when you see him. He said that stuff.

He said that. Are we going to get through this show? I don't know. All right. The Orlando Magic. This is on you. I don't even know. I don't even know with this.

All right, I got this one. Thank you. This isn't even that hard. I don't even think this should be considered a hot take. but it will be in some corners. They need to trade one of their two best players. Period. Right now.

Palo or Wagner. One of those guys is out the door. This is not working. It hasn't been working. Stop doing this thing Orlando every year where you're just like, oh, we'll just run it back and we'll change coaches and maybe we'll get a different outcome. Your personnel don't fit. It's time to wake up and recognize what you got and what you don't have.

They're suffering more than anything else from institutional complacency and a lack of vision. They could learn something from Charlotte and Minnesota who were partners in that very gutsy swap of Lamello and Nasreed. I think they're, I think a prominent player on that team is going to quit. Just quit. Just walk off the court mid-game and just be like, just like, that's enough. It's a, it's a Tuesday

December and somebody's going to be like, you know what? Jalen Suggs is just gone. Done. I mean, I think it's 31% or something, 30% free and not happening and it's unclear.

what role he plays, the word Josh Smith has been thrown around in other circles. I haven't done that, but that's been, you've heard that, and I do think it is well past time. Yeah. Especially with how unhappy he really did seem the way things were going and his role and the mediocrity that is the Orlando Magic.

I think he's, I don't even think that's hot. It's hard to come up with a hot date. It's just bad. They're a frustrating team. Like the talent is there again, on paper. They play really hard. They play really hard. They play defense.

But then they quit at the end of the season. They just can't generate often, period, at all, ever, at all. Yeah. Maybe go find a playmaker. Go, go, like, swap. This is what you have two stars. Swap one of them for somebody who can do something with the ball on their hands and set up other guys. Let's go with the Washington.

Play in. Let's go. Playing for the Washington Wizards. Are they in the top half of the playing record? The bottom half of the playing. Okay. There are 9-10. Okay.

DeBanza averages 19. Praeong and Anthony Davis appear in 30 games together. Back to doing the math. How many minutes did that work out to? But I think DeBonso will be a revelation and Washington Windsor fans will have something to hear about the first time in a little bit.

I love that take. It's wrong, but I love it. Because my take is that the reality check, after everybody's getting so giddy about the Wizards, is there's still a bad team. They're still a bad team. Let me tell you who they're not better than in the Eastern Conference. They're not better than the Knicks, the Celtics,

the Pistons, the Cavs, the Sixers, the Pacers, the Hawks, the Raptors, the Magic, the Hornets or the Heat. They're not better than any of those teams. They definitely are not better than any of those team. You know what that makes them? A lottery team, still. Trey Young, not an All-Star anymore. Still doesn't play D.

Doesn't make his teammates better. Anthony Davis, the last five years, has averaged 49 games. I'm not sure if he and Alex Sarr even fit together. They don't, but that's okay. A.J. DeBance is not going to average 19 points a game. He's going to average 19 furrowed looks per game when Trey doesn't pass him the ball. Trey is going to be on his best behavior because of all the shit that people have been talking about him since the Atlanta Hawks were close. and markedly better without him on the floor.

That was, yeah, that was tough. And so he's going to be like, watch this, you jerks. I'm going to be everything that people have wanted me to be. He's going to be moving the ball, especially with these young guys. He's been saying all the right things. He's really been saying, like, I can't wait to get these guys the best shots they've ever gotten in their lives. And Henry Davis is good when he plays. When he plays.

And... I would presuppose, what if he plays a lot? It is contract here. It is time to get that last contract. That last bag? Got to get that last bag. So some of those aches and pains are going to have to get ibuprofen over. I'm going to get that money.

Plus he's being pressed from behind by DeAndre Aiton, so that'll put a lot of pressure on. Oh, gosh. I think that might lead to my high take. Yeah, okay. DeAndre Aiton. DeAnd Aiton. Aiden takes Anthony Davis a spot like in the season.

Wait, a healthy Anthony Davis? Takes a healthy Anthony Davis and swat? What's the last time he's been healthy? No, but I'm saying, if he's not available, of course, like, Aiton's going to be playing more. And and... And... And... I think Aiden

takes John Wall's spot at the Rose Bar Lounge. Interesting. Okay, what about this? That's where he takes it. He's like, he's going to take on the mantle of John Wall in D.C. nightlife. More dunks. Okay.

What is going to be larger? AJ season turnover average versus dunks from DeAndreate. Total. Here. I'm going to go with Aiden.

Okay. I'm going to go with Aiden. I'm just really annoyed by this team right now, man. Because the clear thing that you need to do is just put the, build a team around the Banzah, bro. Trade everybody. Why the fuck did you try it? Pray for Tray Young and Anthony Davis.

In the first place. What are we doing? And extend Tray Young. I don't know. The Banzah could have D.C. by his fingertips. And he can't even do that because it's sheer the spotlight with, you know, two older guys that are just barely going to get them to the plan. I kind of see the vision squinting. Is that sure?

That's a hot take right there. My wife is Wizards fans, so I watch a lot of Wizards. I think the idea is we got this incredible young team. And we need some older guys to show. show them how to work. Now, I think there were other things in there, like we also have to tank. And if you're gonna tank though,

this is the best way to tank. You make the appear, you trade for two guys that are like kind of over the hill like, and that for cover. And then they don't play. No, but that one doesn't play. And then the other one like just takes up the salad cap. There was no cover because immediately mothballed.

Yeah. Hey man, I'm trying. I'm trying really hard. I'm trying really hard. But I think it's going to, I think it's kind of going to cook a little bit. I think it's going to come together in some weird way.

DeBonsa, I like everything I've seen from him. I would love to see it happen. I'm not, I'm not hating on him. It would be wonderful to see it. I just don't believe. I'm a believer. I'm a believer in those Washington wizards.

Wolf Blitzer, here we come. Postseason here we come. Do you know he's on the scoreboard there at timeouts? I know. It's coming from the situation room and then like giving wizards updates. There is nobody more dedicated than him.

There literally isn't because there's no one of those games. If we had more dedication in D.C., and BC would be a better place. It's him and like Timothy Shalamee and Homeland. Remember that? Never mind. Didn't see that one. Okay.

Would you like to go to the Western Conference? Let's go. I would love to. The Denver Nuggets. Howard motherfucking back. I hate that we have to begin here. I hate that I have to say this. We are witnessing a historic squandering of an all-time grade.

We just are. Since winning the championship in 2023, the Nuggets have lost or traded four key pieces of that team, including Michael Porter Jr. and Catavis Caldwell Pope, who were both starters on that team, lost one of their most promising young prospects, Peyton Watson, bye-bye, see you in Cleveland, done nothing to replenish any of this via free agency or trade.

They experimented with Westbrook before. Now it's DeRosen. Also, by the way, Marvin Bagley and Lonnie Walker, the fourth? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yo, that's a wild 2K team. It is really. Look, I mean, they might not win the championship in real life,

but on 2K, they would go hard. Needless to say, Nicola Yochich deserves better than this. And it is kind of sad to see this just, like, slow erosion around him. And every year that goes by thinking, like, the window's not closed yet, but I'm not sure how they're going to get out of this spiral and how they're going to overcome the thunder or the spurs. Like, it's just, it ain't looking great. So I have a really hot time.

I think it's going to be like a week, like a week and a half, 10-day sprint for DeMara Rosen just like on like a random heater. And we're going to get the DeMardar de Rosen like blog boy post that is like, oh, he's back. And then he's going to trail off. And he's going to hit a game winner in one playoff game. just one. It could be a playing in game.

It's just in the, it's after any game after the actual regular season. He's going to, he's going to have a moment. Yokic will average near career highs. He will refuse to discuss his contracts. And in fact, discouraged, frustrated,

even infuriated by the historic bag fumbling that has gone on around him. he will completely shut down interacting with anyone. Is he going to be Kevin Durant? He's just, it's going to be not quite as like depressed as that. But he's just going to be like his English will fall off. He's going to stop. He complained recently that people ask him for photographs.

He's just going to walk on by now. Is he going to retire? He's going to see. Is he just going back to the horse? He's going to give single word responses in press conferences. Wow. He's going to hear it in English and then talk in his native language. He's not even working.

And he will come as close as he could come to forcing a trade. And in fact, I believe his brothers will be the ones to really be loud about it. But it won't happen. All right. Damn. I thought I was. You just went like, hold on, bro. You went around.

the studio through that door and then all the come way right back here to be like everything's going to be fine. I mean, it's not going to be fine because they're just going to be in this same kind of treading water situation. He's going to be like Steph. That's going to be the trajectory of last few years.

I don't see, I don't think so. Like, Steph can be Steph because it's like I've won four. I'm good. But one in Denver is like. Yeah, but I don't I think I think Yokuch has like this kind of quiet, burning competitive fire that he doesn't get enough credit for

because it looks so casual out there. But at some point he is going to get fed up. And maybe it's coming sooner than later. Maybe he is sending word through his brothers who were just going to go like rough up ownership while physically rough up ownership. While demanding a trade. They're going to go full shug and vanilla ice.

At some point, he'll lose his patience. Okay. Oh, God. This next team is what dreams are made of and also the reason why we're doing this particular podcast. The Minnesota Timberwolves. This is why you clicked it. This is going to be on the whole hashtag, not the hashtag.

It's going to be on the, what's the thing that we have? Tyron. No, no, no, the thing that we have, the clip art or whatever the hell we have to promote this episode. It's going to be Lamello and Anthony Edwards on there. What is your hot take? I mean, is this is, Lamello will lead the league and assists by a lot. By a lot. Okay.

By three assists. He's going to average 15? Yes. Okay. Wow. How many turnovers? Yeah. 14. Like five point something.

Okay. And almost 300. 270s. I think the Minnesota Timberwolves. How many those are from half court? At least not that many really, but like 15% of them are from half court. And 35% on our on one foot falling out of bounds. I think in the Minnesota Timber was my eye take.

They're going to just be like, you know what, around February, they're going to be like, you know what, Nazare. We're just going to trade you guys back straight back up. Here you guys, go, Shirley. We'll figure it out. I alluded to this earlier. So this is more of an organizational take. I think the wolves are the boldest team in the NBA,

and they should be praised for it. No matter what happens next. I have no idea if this Lebello thing is going to work out for them. I don't know what's going to happen when you've, like, dumped your entire front court rotation, aside from Rudy Gobert. But look at what they've done the last few years. Like, they traded a zillion picks. for Rudy Gobert. Everybody thought they were bonkers.

I thought that was stupid. And maybe they overpaid, but the results, back-to-back conference finals for the first time in franchise history, you got what you want. 2024, they make the Western Conference Finals, and then they trade Carl Anthony Towns. Now, it was cap-driven, apron-driven, all that shit, but they still, they did it.

And now they've traded the guy that they got for him in Randall. They've had their best consecutive seasons of franchise history, and they're still like, we think what, as constituted, we're still not going to get where we're not. to go. So we're just going to keep fucking moving shit around until we get it. And we're like, the strength of their convictions, the clarity is, I think, admirable. It may not work, but at least they're trying, unlike certain franchises we've already covered, who were just sitting around hoping for something better. I think by the end of this run, whatever it is, if Anthony Edwards is

on the team in five years or not, I think it's going to be the equivalent of that Clay Thompson meme where he's on the bench and he went like 0-4-11 and he's smiling like, yeah. Yeah, I mean, to run. This was, this was, this was it, you know? This has been the best period

of Minnesota temporal world's basketball. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you could argue health, like they came within a balky knee

and some other things from really like, making a run to the finals. I have a, I have a hot take. I think that we, when we don't do this, is actually my real hot take. Not that's great.

This is utterly stupid. But I think that we need to start looking at Anthony Edwards in the same way that we look at Luca and the same way that we look at Yolkits in the same way that we look at stars that are one man type of stars that are the top five players that can galvanize the team. It's kind of like Denzel in bad movies, you know, where he can always make a bad movie look really, really good and he can raise your ceiling. We don't look at Anthony Edwards in that way. We're not holding him accountable enough you're saying? No, no, no, no, no. We're not seeing him in the way that like, oh, because he's on the

team, they are earmarked to go this far. Because no matter, we've talked about this over the last few years where no matter how the roster has been, the only constant is Anthony Edwards and him getting better and his team's overachieving in a way that other team, in a way that they're not supposed to, because he is strictly on the team and he is that good. And I know that that does come with the caveat that, like, if you look at his playoff numbers, they're probably, you know, not as good as they should be when you look at them from a game to game basis. But his presence alone, I think he raises the floor of a team and I don't think he's looked at it in that way.

All they've been needing is consistent playmaking. Yeah. Not from an elderly player. Not from Mike Conley. Yeah, like, and much respect to him could not, you know,

they couldn't give them everything they needed. Yeah. And I think this little mellow thing, it's high risk, high reward. Yeah. But I love the rewards. I really do.

I think I'm going to be watching everyone. Yeah, yeah. When they're on, I'm just going to, I think they are, They are the league past team of this season, right? And what I mean by that, you know, we talked about last year, me, Howard and Rajah, about with Wimby, where he's one of those guys where it's like, man, whenever he's on a heater,

you have to put on because you have to see it for yourself. I think as a team, Minnesota, when they're on a heater, bad or good, you have to see what happens because you literally are not going to know on a game-to-game basis what identity they are going to have. Who is going to go off? They have two players that can now go off. and in more entertaining fashion. And when they come to your city, you have to be it.

I think they're going to be one of the most exciting. I think I say all that, you know, I don't know how good they are going to be, but it's good for the league that these two guys are on the same team as each other. Bar none. Okay, the next team that we have is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Hotest take, Jason.

You know, their greatness is so boring at this point. It really is. But I think they go to the conference finals again. against the furs. I'll just say this. Ched Holmgren bounced back here. I think Chet Holmgren approaches too often in this era where, like, that guy had a bad playoffs, get rid of it.

Chet had a nightmare playoffs against San Antonio. But I think he's, I think he's a dog. And I think he will come back. I think the way the Knicks handled Wembe just, like, forget blocks, forget, forget getting blocked by him. We just have to get in his shit. Just run at him, run at him, run at him. Chet has better endurance, I think than Wemby right now.

Like, can play more minutes, can just, if you just run at him, he will get tired and he will make mistakes. And the other thing is Chet doesn't have to do it on the other end. He doesn't have to do that. Whenever he plays Wemby, he could just focus. I'm going to kick this shit out of him. Just beat the shit at him. You know what is also, it reminds me of that point. And I think it's going to be a bounce back here for that.

It feels like 09 Powell. Yeah. Oh nine Powell vives where he just got put through the basket on every play. And he said, you know what? I'm just not going to be a pun. I just fuck that. I didn't like that. I didn't like how KG just took my lunch every game.

And I'm going to defend myself. I hope that that's the case, Howard. What's your hottest take? It's really hard to come up with a hot take about a team that we feel like we know so well and it's already so accomplished and they're a championship team and we expect them to be in the running for many years to come here. So I think as much as all of that is true, this is the year we're actually going to learn something about them.

Yeah. Because of Chet, because of Jalen Williams, missing most of a season due to injury, because of them losing to the Spurs. They're kind of co-favorites, but still, like, they just lost, like, oh, they're so deep. They're so deep. Well, now Dort's gone in Wiggins and Isaiah Joe.

Okay, cool, backfill with Kaysn Wallace and A.J. Mitchell and all these guys, all these guys are all these guys, they just, like, out of different places that are good. It's ridiculous. It's incredible. But still, but, like, those guys are in new roles. So now we're going to see. Was the depth really all we all cracked it up to be? Like, we're just, we are about to learn a bunch about them for a team that we feel like we've already had a ton of exposure to.

That's about as hot as I can get. I have a hotter take. And it's going to build on your take. This team has the chance to be America's team. America's team. Okay. Hear me out. Hear me out.

Chet and like say, okay, this is, this is the scenario in which they become America's team. Chet, all four matchups against the San Diego. Senator Antonio Spurs. He just fucking bodies windy. He just says fuck it. And they just beat this shit out of the spurs, right? J. Dub is at the top of his game. Balls out.

Show some personality. Shea says, fuck this league. Fuck all of you guys. Is he actually going to say this into a microphone? It would be the most interesting thing he's ever said. Yes. Yes. Then they just said it's the revenge year.

Then they just go pile on throughout the postseason and the Western Conference. And they win the fucking title. and they sweep. Okay. Then they become America's team. Wow. Because thing about the thing, huh?

They swept the heat. They swept the heat. I said the heat were going to the finals. I didn't say, I didn't say. I'm just checking. Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

But they're going to become America's team. There'll be a nice payback for when the heat beat up the thunder. Exactly. And when they do go to Miami, no one's going to go to the club. See, the thing that happened last time is, you know, some of the, the Thunder were out and about in Miami and it kind of messed up their flow. These guys are going to be, they're going to be fucking

playing Pokemon, you know, they're going to, whatever hell they do, they're going to be playing what PC game is out. They're going to just be in the hotel, you know? Figure it out. Then they become Oklahoma City Thunder, America's team. Okay.

Next, the next team is the Portland Trail Blazers, Howard Beck. I know you got one here. I know you have one. The Blazers just make me sad. That's my take. They make me sad. Damian Lillard and Portland fans deserve better than what's going on right now.

And this is not just about Tom Dundon's slashing and burning and alienating of various city officials and implied threats to possibly move the team and all this. He's been quiet. He's been very quietly. Almost too quiet. Yeah. They just seem directionless, right? Like, Dame is on this like pseudo farewell tour post-Aquile.

He's like, oh, I got to come home and it's great. Like, I love that he's back there. And, like, we're going to finally see him on the court again in a Blazers. that's cool, but, like, that's overshadowed now by them acquiring Ja Morant for some reason. So now Jha and Dame Lillard have to share a back court. And, like, Drew and Holiday and Scoot Henderson have to fit in this somewhere. And, like, Denny Avdi, who just had this, like, breakout season as the primary ball handler and offensive creator is now going to have to...

How does all this all fit together? None of this makes any sense to me. I think they are less than the sum of their parts now because they got too many of the same... either same guys or guys who are going to bump into each other. Yeah, I just, they just, they make me sad all around. Damien Lillard's six man. That is. Wow.

How long does it take before he gets pulled? He comes in, he comes back December-ish. Huge ovations, crowds going crazy. So wait, he gets it, he gets it when, what's, wait, hold on, he gets 42% from three for six weeks. He has to be on a eater. So in 55 games of work, I don't even know if he can. Outright wins them.

Can he win it with the games limit? How many legends have we relegated to sixth man today? LeBron, Dame. Yeah. Outright wins them like six games. Okay. Straight up like at the buzz. He makes the NBA change the rules for him.

Yeah. Because he's so good. Portland wins 40 games and it's an incredible feel good story. Okay. The only maybe feel good story around the Portland trailer. And it ends by it's the last game in Portland history. It's the last game at the modus sitter ever.

Yes. Bleak. That's the Alonzo morning meme. I was going to top that by saying how Jha might celebrate the moment, but I'm not going to go there. Oh, God. Moving on. The Utah Jazz.

Ooh. Ooh. You got one? I got something. I do go. You go ahead. Tell you. I'm like LeBron.

I'm just saying. Utah has top 10 defense. Top 10. Top 10 defense. Going to the, I got to see what we're doing last year. TriJ gives them a lot and it comes together and they give you a top 10 defense in the league. They were 29th less. I think they make a leap.

Okay, how about this one first? Probably not going to happen, but we'll see. So they get so good because they exceed expectation to the point where Carl Malone and John Stockton sit courtside, and it completely fucks up the season. And they sit across from each other courtside, and we discover they actually hate each other. This destroys...

It destroys basketball in Utah. And even Darren Peterson's rookie of the year campaign does not put the pieces together. Wow. That's pretty good. That's on brand. I can't top that. Do you guys remember, Logan won't remember this, Jason might.

On the David Letterman show, they used to have this thing where people would come out and do, this is not stupid pet tricks or stupid human tricks, this was another bit where people would come out and just do random weird things. Yeah. And the title of this particular bit was, is this anything? Yeah. That's the Utah Jazz this year. I don't know if this is anything.

Are they a dark horse playoff team? Are they a lottery team? They're talented and good. but are they talented and just maybe not fitting? Like, we don't know how Larry Markinen and Jaron Jackson, Jr. actually fit together. We know that Walker Kessler's gone and Yusuf Nurkich and his wonderful new nose that he got midseason last year are going to be plugged in there. There's Darren Peterson, who's going to come in with all the hype and all the expectations of the world. How is he fitting with Kianti George, who had just had this big breakthrough and Lowry Markinen, who's their most accomplished star?

Isaiah Collier's their best passer, but it's kind of hard to figure out where. he's going to actually fit in with the rest of these guys who all want the ball? Like, where is Ace Bailey and all this? So, like, I love everything that they have now assembled. I'm not sure what they are. It just, I'm just sitting here going, is this anything? That was a lot. That was way more measured.

We kind of needed that. We needed that for this one. We did need that. I mean, I think that they, I think that that's probably. It's a bunch of unproven stuff. I mean, to your point, Larry Markinen, being their most accomplished player, can you hang the banner for that one? I think, no, but here's a thing.

Utah Jazz better. But, like, you know, I've gotten on the point with Larry and the Utah Jazz where I'm like, does this guy, like, love losing? Does he just, like, love it? Yeah, because he never asked out. He was just like, and he's like, oh, you want to shut me down? Oh, you want to make up injuries for me? That's fine.

That's fine. I'm good. I just love scoring, like, 26 a game and losing all the time. I'm doing it for years and years and years. Whatever. My name included in various trade proposals to good teams. Who wants that? I love losing.

Yeah. And so I just wonder, like, does he love? love losing. That's the thing that that Raja used to say last year, right, where it was like why he doesn't like the tanking that's going on in Utah because it builds habits like that and those are hard

to undo, you know, and that's something that is going to, oh wait, I can play the fourth quarter. Wait, I can keep that way. Laurie Market is like this like six minutes left and Will Hart is like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're back in there, you're staying in there. No. So, we'll see,

let's move on. The Golden State Warriors. I'll start this off. I think the Bay Area is going to revolt on them by about December. I think it's going to be a full out revolt. I think it's teetering. I think Warriors' Twitter's already there. I see you guys. I see it. I think Steph's going to hopefully, it's not going to be an injury or anything, but they're just not going to be playing up this enough. It's going to be like Marvin Gaye on his last tour. You know, he's a legend. But, It's just not quite, you know, it's not, it's not hidden right, right? You know what I mean?

It's going to be a full out revolt by the Bay Area, right? And that's, it's not going to do well for the bottom line of Joe Lake of. I think there's going to be an implosion all around because fan sentiment is now going to eke into front office sentiment. And everyone's getting paid. It's a blank check for everyone. But that's not going to be enough because these are all competitors. And I think the floor is finally going to fall. I don't know what it's going to look like, but I think the floor is going to fall from underneath them.

And it's not going to be pretty. I agree with everything you said, plus this. Steph Curry's text messages to Yoke it. They're going to get leaked? They're going to get leaked. On Dremont Show? On Dremont Show. And in them, Steph is like, we fuck, go ass.

Don't come here. Don't come here. Maybe I'll go there. And this will have many effects. One of them will be Mike Dunlivie and Joe Lakey coming to blows on the sideline. The other thing that's... I'll blow out to the Sacramento Kings.

And we're going to have a Benz... That's going to be a Ben Simmons legacy game. That's a day-sitting. Let's not get crazy now. You know, the other thing that isn't really talked about is that Mike Dunleavey isn't very well-liked in the Bay Area already coming into this GM role and the assistant GM role

because he wasn't very liked as a player. So you have that coming into what it's going on now. It's really not a good time for him in Faye right now. It's going to be bad. It does seem as if he has very little juice in his own. They could have used Bob. Bob Myers could really help. Yeah.

Bob Myers has too much hair for that. Now he does. His hair's black now. He's not going to. Oh, man. How to Bob? Howard Beck. I have to go here.

I have to go here for no other reason than to just balance out. Oh, God. Oh, God. It's just, it's too soon for Requiems and Steph trade proposals and fake trades and all that shit. He's not going to. He's not going to feel this pain.

Even the franchise obits and everything, like just slow down. We can at least see where this season goes. Like, Steph is still doing Steph things. He can't do it night in, night out at this age or it's too much to expect and it's too much to put on him. Yes. But like, Steph and Draymond still pretty fucking good. when they're at their peak.

It's just everything around them, right? But there's a version of this team where, like, hey, Porzingis is the perfect center for this team. He just has to stand the course. How was the course? As a Nick, you mean? How was it? I enjoyed him.

I was sad that they let him. I thought it was a, I thought it was a sadly trademark way for a good player to exit the New York Knicks at that particular time. And I really enjoyed his time. with the name. I thought he was at least a piece you could have built on. Obviously not the top level guy,

but I think if you got two other guys around him who were really good, better than him or in that range, you make some noise. And that's at the time all I wanted. But he fits. He fits with what the Warriors are trying to. What does that mean?

Does that mean for seed? No, I'm making no predictions about where they actually finish this season or that they're going to like storm the West. I just think, like, it's too soon to write it off when we have to at least see. Can they get through this season long enough for Jimmy Butler to get back? They were great before he went down. There is some semblance of a solid team there still.

They do have all these picks that they either are reluctant to part with because Joe Lacob is still doing that thing where it's like I'm trying to protect our post-Stef future. He's playing double death. But, like, if they truly have the freedom to move any of those picks to supplement what they have now to try to maximize the last couple years of this, then let's see. But it's too soon versus right off now. Let's keep the picks. Like he has a pristine

draft record. I have one more. You know what? I'm going to build off yours. Oh, you still, yeah. I thought you.

Mike and Levy will be fired. Oh, okay. In the form of the, the fisticuffs on the sideline of the game between him

and Joe Lakeb. And Joe will feel confident in doing this because he has been developing with Anthropic a G. GM AI

that is fully ready to take over. It's going to be called Claude GM. I think their jersey patches are a new AI company. So I think that might be a thing. It's going to be called Claude GM. They're going to put it inside of a little robot that walks around.

Okay, so I have a question for you. I'm looking at the schedule right now. We have seen worse GMs in this. I'm looking at it right now. So you said like this Kings game is going to happen. It's going to be during a king's game. So they play the Kings October 10th. I think it's a little too

Then they play the Kings. Then they play the Kings November 25th. Trying to identify which Kings game is. But I think this is the King's game. Honestly, I think this is the King's game. They play them January 12th on NBC. Yeah. I think that might be the game.

That's going to be the game. Is that the game? Okay. Okay. All right. All right, let's go to the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, I am the minority on this, one of the few minorities in the building.

I thought, you meant that. I think that I think that they could go to the conference finals, man. I think that they can make a run. I really do. I think that they're the perfect wrongs, the right side of the bracket team. And I think that this team is built around Luca.

It's Luca and a bunch of dudes. And I think that Luca's fit Luca. Fat Luca got the Mavericks. He looks incredible. He looks amazing. He looks better than when he first came in the league. And he looked great then. But didn't we say this a year ago

when he was doing like the men's health cut? No, but that's different. This is different, bro. The men's health, first of all, if you really like A, B, him live walking around and the men's health, the men's health, they were using, like, a wide lens and shooting him at this weird angle. No, no. In the gym in Slovenia, he looks great. Like, they're straight on to him. He's looking great.

He looks. I haven't seen him look like this. He looks good. He looks really legit. Also, to be fair, when he was a rookie, he was like 19-year-old fat, right? You know what I mean? Like, you look skinny on the arms, but you got a little chub-chub. Now he's like, dude, he's like six-pack.

He looks like Miles Garrett. He looks really good. All right. Is that your hot take? No, my hot take is Luca will average 35 but lose the MVP. Who averages 18 points? Yeah, who average 18 to 12. It'll be like Kobe versus Nashville over again.

All right. I'm going right off of this because it's it's about Luca, but like he's about to face the most pressure he's ever had in the NBA. He gets to Dallas. Oh, he's like just Dirk's understudy for a little while. And then like they're winning a bunch of games. He's putting up, you know, just ridiculous numbers. He's hitting game winning shots from all over the place.

Everything was just a joyride in Dallas. He gets them to the finals when they're not even expecting to. Any of their stumbles could be forgiven. Any of things that he doesn't do, defense, could be forgiven. Like, nothing matters. But the Lakers are a championship or bust organization with championship or bust fans. And guess who's not there to absorb all that anymore? LeBron James.

Guess who else may not be there to absorb all that anymore? The bus family. All of them. They're gone through ownership changes. They got weird vibes going on. They might have another ownership change. Who owns the team? We don't know.

No idea. If they win the championship, who's putting up the trophy? Who's the one that's going to give? Various people fighting for it. Jeannie Bus is going to come out of the states. Without a governor's, it's like, move. So this is it. This is the most pressure that's ever been on Luke.

It's firmly his franchise now, and that's different than co-sharing with LeBron for a while. I think that's right. And so everything is going to be enhanced. Everything is going to be amplified, good or bad. And again, like, I do think, like, because nobody really cares about who owns a team, except when it's been one family for, like, fucking 50 years, and they've won all these championships under them. It matters that they're changing hands. And they help that family, not for nothing,

help change the league as we see it right now. This league isn't what it is without that family. Laker fans need to feel good about things again. They need to feel some stability. And so everything is riding on Luke. I completely agree with that. But I really think he shaped it. He abused me.

And the fact that he's like, you know what? I never do this, but let's work out in the summertime. Do you have a little crush on Luca right now? I'm just saying when he's like, let's go to everybody, all the whites in LACA. Lakers uniforms come to Slovian.

Everybody in Huntington Beach, just come on over. You're going to be very comfortable around all the white people in Slovenia. Okay. I'm in great shape. And I think he understands. I think also, this might be a career year for Brony, too. We didn't really talk about this. He's still there.

He's having a good, he had a good summer too. Do you see Brony on the soccer pitch? Yeah. He looked decent. Yeah. Like, not real tricky, but like he seemed like you understood. I was talking to one of my, like, one of my professors, he used to play Marcus Peters. I was talking to my homie Marcus Peters.

He was playing, he used to play for a corner for the, uh, for the Ravens, the Rams, he's played a cornerback. And we were talking about like, man, if he would have played another sport, right? What other sport would have been great for him? This is what I think was swimming. I think about that with some athletes that don't necessarily work out in one sport, what they could do on another sport. I think Brani probably missed his calling because all this pressure.

He looks really good. It looks really fucking good. Um, I'm scared of this. one the LA Clippers. Ooh. I got one. All right. In a Bobby Valentine type incident.

Yes. Steve Vollmer will be videoed wearing he's going to be in the wall. A full like fake silicone mask and beard inside the arena. And it will be a problem. Adam Silver will want to do something about it.

and but ultimately we'll decide, like, let's just make this go away and we'll not do anything about it. The NBA will cover it up, but the pictures will linger. I like that. Pablo Tori will find out. And, you know, we'll discover, perhaps he will discover. But I think Steve Bomber will attend. How many games before he gets caught?

I think it'll be a number of games before he gets caught because I think like he counterpointed that though. Security system, he could just like. But I don't think that he could control himself. And what I mean by that, no matter what does, disguises. He's still Steve Barmer when he's excited. He's going to take the most high-tech beta blockers that he's ever seen any human being take. And so he's going to have very little for Steve Bomber actual physical reaction to what's going on on the court. And again,

he's going to look like a completely... And he's also going to somehow hack the Amazon Prime cameras. Yeah, right. So they look at everybody else. But they don't look at him. He will never appear on a camera and it will only be a blurry... photo from across the thing and be like, is that Steve Bomber? You know what I think? I think that's a good one. I think that they're going to, at the end of the season, they're going to retire Bradley Bill's number three jersey on a spike.

They're going to put it at the top. They do it, though. That's going to be the first. Is that the return's retired jersey in Clippers history? It would be. Okay. Yeah. It's going to be Bradley Bill.

I got three words about the Clippers. Uh-oh. Free tie Lou. Free him. Free him. He's put up with enough. Yes. Six seasons with the.

Clippers. They've been to the playoffs four times. They made the Western Conference Finals once. They won 50 plus twice. Even in the seasons where, like, Kauai's out for like three months. I now Paul George's, Paul George's is there. I have a hot take for you on that one. What if he turns like Brandon Ingram into like Kauai, like Brime Kauai? Because he's a hell of a fucking coach. He's, he has done like Matt, like James Hardin came and went. Russell Westbrook came and went. Paul Georgian and Kauai Leonard, like they're here, they're not here. They're one's in, one's out. they have perennially overachieved. I know that they've underachieved

to the extent that this era was supposed to be about more. But in the regular season, they're constantly like doing better than we think they should given who's available at any given time. Now they're screwed for the next decade. Tyler is one of the best coaches in the NBA. He just deserves better.

Like let him out of his contract, let him go take over, you know, when I don't want to speculate on who's getting fired next, but there will be some good jobs open within the next, say, six to 12 months. Yeah, okay. Okay. All right. Let's go.

That was fun. planted seeds in that one. Yeah. A lot of seeds on that one. Phoenix Suns. This is depressing. We can skip this if you want. I think that's...

Do you have one? Do you have one? I really struggled with this one, to be honest with you. Are they going to be the first team in the NBA history of you relegated? We have other teams, but I'm just saying, you know, no? I'll just start. They're heading for an implosion. Let's be clear.

This is going nowhere good. Mark Williams is already out. Oh, surgery for the other. What a shocker. The center that another team failed on his physical and negated to trade, rescinded a trade, is now out for months. Miles Bridges, empty calorie score who wants to shoot all the time. Jalen Green wants to shoot all the time.

Dylan Brooks wants to shoot all the time. Devin Booker needs to shoot all the time. Could they be fun? Could that be like a fun 21 team? No, probably like 35. It's going to be depressing 35. There's no elite playmaker here to kind of like galvanize this. There's no, the center position's a mess, whatever.

You've got Miles Bridges is past bringing bad vibes. Matt Ishbia's off-court financial picture bringing bad vibes. Like, I just, all the signs here, I think, are just very bad. How's that for Dower? I think that that's probably, right? And the worst part about it is Booker can't even ask for a trade. He's making so much money. They gave him so much money.

They gave him so much money. They gave him so much money to basically just not ask for a trade. what's his comp career career comp like for a guy who's been as good as he's been and made a finals and made a finals yeah let me check let me see let me see he's i was going to say like rip hamilton but he's better than rip hamilton he's better than rip um but rip also won a championship yeah rip had a better i was going to say Clyde but Clyde Drexler but Clyde won a championship too wait no one just one he won the one the one shit And the Blazers were really good during that period when he was there.

Yeah. Yeah. And the thing with the Sons is they had really one great season. And it was because Chris Paul came in. Like that is not to disrespect Booker, who was very important and an integral of that team. But like, they were nothing before Chris Paul got there. And they haven't really been that much since he left. So, I mean, it might be more fun to wonder if Ishbia has money.

And watch the Sons this season. I think Pablo is going to find. find out about that one. Sacramento Kings. This is what dreams are made of again. Jason Conception, what is your hot take

about the Sacramento King? I think it's time. Finally time for Soponis to be traded. Samoa will be traded this season. Don't ask me to wear. But it is, and funnily enough, the Sacramento Kings will believe

that this is the one answer to all of their problems, this trade of DeMontis subonis, and it will not be the highlight of their season will, however, be a blowout of the Golden State Warriors in which Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy come to blows on the sideline

as Ben Simmons has a triple double. As Ben Simmons, oh, that's, you know what? Ben Simmons will play center this season for the Sacramento Kings. You know what? I'm going to add on to your hot take. I have a hot take. So my hot take is after this blowout win at Chase Center in which a fight happens

and another suspension probably for a year or something for Joe Legge for punching his GM and firing him on national television. Somehow, Ben Simmons is going to have like an injury, maybe an ankle injury, keep him out two weeks. And he's going to sit next to Vivek and he is going to orchestrate the trade

to get Sabonis out of town. What do you think about that one? I really like that one. Is Ben Simmons better or worse as a GM than the Claude Virtual AIGM? I think Claude Virtual AIGM is probably better. But that's just because I had, I, you know. You haven't seen his work though.

I haven't seen neither of the AIGM is that all AI is just scraping everything else that's ever happened. Like, what if it scrapes like David Kahn and like, nobody will know that that didn't work? Will it? Will it? I don't know. I don't know, dude. It comes up with some like crazy ass stuff.

Would I like ask every so often like, you know, Gemini's telling you. Like LeBron James was not drafted by the Cavaliers and was drafted by the Lakers. It'll be interesting. I like that. I like that move. Google Jim and I also was like the brain power behind the scammer for the Niners. That's right.

That also happened. So what were you saying? I'm sorry. I got you. Oh, no, that's it. I was just, I like the idea of Beck being like in a rascutant-like situation cast under the charm of Ben Simmons who orchestrates various moves. through Vivek.

Are we sure he's charming? Oh, my God. Yeah, I also had some bonus out. I said this is the year that he has to demand a trade and they should grant it. Like, they have no other path forward. They're going to be in this for years. Like, there is really no clear path out of this because in another era, you would be like, oh, you know what, trade Levine.

Somebody will take, nobody's taking Zach Levine in his contract now. Like, we're in two, the NBA economy is like too suffocated by the April. They've been trying. You can't even give a guy away now. So you're just stuck. You just have to wait for everybody to come off the books. And the one guy you have who's got some value is a bonus. And like you have to start unpacking this thing at some point if you're going to start building up again.

So he's a great number two or number three. He's not a number one. So send him somewhere where he can be that great complimentary. Okay. That's good. That's sensible after we talk about Ben Simmons on a one-year minimum contract. I can't say that Ben Simmons wasn't the one actually trading him. Playing center and GMing for the team.

Why not? The Kings have seen crazier. I do think he will play some center. Like maybe a significant. I just, I can't, I can't get over the fact that Ben Simmons has been in the NBA over for a minute now, right? Every summer of his career, he has either put out a story or put out an Instagram post talking about how this is the best he's ever felt

and he's shooting three-pointers. why in the hell did it work this time at this stage of his career while he was out of the league? Is it strictly the Kings? I mean, because apparently he had other interests somewhere, including your Knicks, which, yeah. I mean, if you're the Kings, why not? Right? Why not?

Like, legitimately why not? That's actually their slogan this season, the Kings. Why not? Oh, after they, oh, they, that's poetic after Russell Westbrook said, no, I'm good. I'm good. Actually, I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. Okay, the Dallas Mavericks, hot take.

Ooh, y, yooey. Cooper Flagg, All-Star team. That's not that hot of the take. That's really all I got. I don't think they're going to be that good, but I think they're going to be a very middling slash bubble team. But I think Flag is going to be awesome. Like, undeniably awesome.

Yeah. Like 29 points of game. 10. Five. Third and MVP voting behind Tyrese and Luca. Yes. Right up there. All right.

I like it. He's going to need to do that because my take is they need to trade Kyrie. The second you see like a couple of good weeks of Kyrie where the value is up and it's proven, he's like he's overcome the ACL, he's fine. Like what are we doing? He's turning 35 next spring. He's 18 months removed from this ACL, terror. Like, I don't know what his life's. fan is left in the NBA as a high level player, but whatever it is, it should be somewhere else.

Hey, what if, what if, what if that trade is, and just, this is might not happen. We're just fucking around here. But what if that trade, like, to Minnesota, right? At the end, we're like, Minnesota, Minnesota's like, this Lavello thing just isn't working. And they wanted to get Kyrie over the summer. And they're, like, do it just enough, like, ants doing great, but it's like, this Lamello thing just isn't working. That would be unbelievable.

but also I could see the vision honestly I mean if the Lamello thing is so bad so bad and then the underlying like advanced numbers

are like Jesus Christ and Kairi is there why not but Masai Jiri is going to acquire lamello ball you see that's the biggest roll block it's not going to happen I like Karee to like Miami

like Miami needs a ball handling guard at a high level that's what I was saying that's how they're going to get to the farm There you go. All right, the Houston Rockets. Howard, you go first. I'm going to immediately infuriate Logan because we've already had one discussion today about this person and Logan's already like completely underplayed him. Fred Bandleet, not an MVP, but the Rockets MVP.

For sure. For sure. The talent is there to contend. And like somebody has to stabilize this group. Somebody has to prevent these stupid fourth quarter and last two minute meltdowns and throwing the ball off. people's heads when they're not looking on an inbound's play. Like, they haven't had Fred Van Bleet and Kevin Durant together yet. Durant arrived.

Van Bleet bowed out with the injury. Is he good enough to not have, get off Mar Dickerson, reactivate the burn? Like, is that, is he that good enough of a leader? Yeah, I think he is. Listen, Fred Van Vleet had the respect of, you know, Kauai and Kyle Lowry, Pascal Seacum, these guys. He had the respect of the young guys in Houston from the moment. he arrived, I think they overachieved his first season there, and then he got hurt, just as

KD was arriving. So I think Katie respects other guys who have a high basketball IQ and love the game, and Fred Van Bleed is that. And he also has like great communicator. Like, there's a reason he's present to the Players Association. For sure. So, like, he's the grown-up in the room that that team needs. I want to add on to that. And I think this is my hot take. I think Katie's going to have a moment. A good moment. I think he's going to have one that is befitting of his legend, right, where I don't know if it's a big scoring game, but I just think that when you see your basketball mortality in front of your face, it makes you make decisions, good, in his case, positive decisions that you wouldn't otherwise make. And I think that that's going to happen.

I think he's going to have a moment. He hasn't had a playoff moment in a really, long time. It's 20-21. I think that's on the table here. And I think that someone of his caliber, I think that he deserves that. And I don't want, I don't want KD to go out

in the way that it's, I think that's bad for the game for him to go out in the way that he did. Like the last play. League DMs and then getting embarrassed in the postseason like that, you know, like that's, that's not befitting of a star.

And also just not a star of his caliber, but also like a figure of his caliber. I don't want to say, see him go out that way. They won 52 games last season. Yeah. Eliminated by Luke Canard and LeBron James. Just trying to cobble

together playmaking from various sources. I think that they're, I think they finished third in the West. Okay. Thunder. No, sorry. Spurs, Thunder Rockets.

That's not crazy. It's not crazy. Because like that whole like Denver Rockets, Lakers, wolves cluster is really hard to figure out. It's going to be like one, it's going to be one game separating them. So it's not crazy. But yes, I think they're going to be I think they're going to be

three to four wins better this year. Five wins better. I hope so, man. You're good for the game. I love Van Bleets. He's played hard. Never makes fake. For sure. And a guy that can win you games in postseason, like as a singular person. Now, I just, I really want I'm in to take the leap. Like,

I think that that's good. What does that mean? I think what it means is, and on real ones, we talked about this with Raja after the first game of the season. When he was just, when it felt like he was just in the corner, he just gave up on possessions, taking the next step for him is being a willing participant when the ball's not in your hands and not being afraid of the moment and not being afraid to shoot. shoot confidently and also just be you are paid like a franchise star take that on the chin and be that right like this is all set up for you to be a star go be that and that's what i would like to

see out of i'm in and i think all of the the the reservations we have subside if he is the main and i think that that that's there for him for the taking but we'll see what happened Memphis grisleys i don't know i mean Caden boozer and Cameron switch places for one game. When Caden expresses his desire to find out what the NBA lifestyle, Cameron Lest,

they're immediately caught because they don't look that much alike. They don't. Isn't there also like a five-inch difference there? They do it with lifts. One of them. And the other one just kind of punches.

And it only burnishes. is the Boozer brand. As guys who are like do everything, they want to share the wealth, they want to make their team better. It's going to be portrayed as Cameron Boozer just wanted his brother to understand

like, this is what the next level is like. And it's going to be a marketing bonanza for the boozers. Will Adam Silver notice this or will you have to wait until Pablo is reported? He will notice it. and he will build an entire marketing

campaign around. It's going to be like the Jordan band sneaker. Yes. Except Adam Silver's doing it. Yeah. It's going to be in a state farm commercial

Adam Silver appears. Oh my God. Shout out Jake. I don't have. Do you have any a hot take? I don't know. That was very creative.

This is just going to be a very nice take. I think they are quietly building something special. There we go. Yeah. You know who's not this next team on there? The New Orleans Pelican.

Not building anything special, not quietly anything. What's hotter? Your take or the humidity in New Orleans around this time? Around this team, I mean, I'm going to choose to believe the best in the Pelican. That Zion Williamson will play a career high, 67 games. I don't know why I'm already laughing. I just hear it. Zion's going to play a career high,

and I'm just, you lost me already. In mid-60s, it's a high 60s. And that's it. And then they will look good when he is on the court, but that no one will care. No, no one will care. He played 70 games in 2020, 324. Oh, did he?

Oh, shit. Oh, wait. Okay, so he will play 70. He will play 71 games. Excuse me. About 70.5. 70.5. Oh, Jesus.

He's not going to do that because my hot take is that they should trade Zion, but they should have traded him last year the year before, the year before that. Just trade him. Just like, I'm done being an optimist about this team. Is that the Sacramento King's music that I hear?

Yes, it is. Is he going to get traded for some bonus? I mean, who trades for Zion at this point? I think it's, you'd have to have an immense appetite for risk. Yeah. With at least a kind of easy outline of reward there. Maybe you just need a distraction, LA Clippers. Maybe you just need some.

My thing is this, though, what if I, and you call this a conspiracy, I think this is, there's something to this. Like I just said in the previous episode about the Nike influence in Portland, what if they're just like, you know, hey, man. Zion's Wollen. Let's just bring him to Portland. It's going to be okay. Right. He lives at the Nike offices. Yes.

Where we can watch him 24 hours a day. Feed him salads. Yes. Keep him out of trouble. I'm just done trying to talk myself into this team. Like, you look at them on paper and it's like, oh, I like Tray Murphy. I like Herb Jones. I like.

No, you like them on other teams. Yeah. I would like them scattered about the league in better places. Okay. Where does Trey Murphy end up this season? After we've traded every single member of the Pelicans and they've been disbanded. Trey Murphy. Where do we send Trey Murphy?

I mean, he's the guy the Warriors should have gotten. Should have drafted. Yeah. Well, that too. But maybe they still can do it with all that draft capital that Joe Lacob doesn't want to give away. I like it. I don't want that for Trey Murphy. Denver?

Denver would be good. Yeah. Denver would be great. San Antonio Spurs around this out. Hotest take, Howard Beck. It's not even hot. It's impossible to have a hot take

about a team that is this good. They're going to win it all this season. This is their year. They're winning the championship. That five game series against the Knicks was, I think, the closest five game series finals or otherwise I've ever seen where no, like they won the one game.

And the four games that they lost. That's one game. They had a lead in every single one of them. But they and they. But if I'm, but if I have a league. We'll say this though. Winby does have the sense if it's show a artist.

Every single one of those games was decided in the last two minutes. I get it. But if we're... And they were young and they were, they were, like, they were just kind of fell apart.

If we're doing like a 5K race and I have the lead 2K into the race every single time, you know, it's like, I still lost. And the Knicks winning the exact same way. I think it was not as close as people put it,

but I do agree that this is the exact, exact thing that they needed to become like a death star type. Yeah. Yeah. You need that early scar. How do you, how much stock do you take in?

Because Tyler Parker, your co-host, did not believe in this. But how much talk do you take into the Paris off season trip for team camaraderie? I don't, I don't put, I don't put much into it. No air conditioning and just the smell of keys.

Like, what's that doing for you? A wedding in Malibu does way better than for team camaraderie then, right? No, but I think, you know, I think this is going to be, I think, I kind of agree with Howard, though. I think they're going to be just like. Yeah. But you would agree, however you want to see the five game series, but like they lost due

to their own mistakes. So are they, they're the ones that are going to beat the heat. Hold on, hold on. They lost due to Jalen Brunson being awesome. But they, there was so much of just like, Wemby's missing free throws. Wemby is committing stupid foul in opportune times. There was a fatigue factor. They weren't ready for this moment.

And they're going to be ready the next time. And Wemby's only getting better. And Dylan Harper's going to be a freaking star. They added Tobias Harris and lost, like, nobody. Yeah. They're going to be really good. They're going to win the championship. That's like that.

We were not doing a predictions episode. We will get to that at some point. But like, it just. What do we say if in the Western Conference finals, Wembe misses another two crucial free throws? Hmm. Is this now going to become a thing? Yeah.

At what point? What do we say then if that happens? I wonder. That said, I can, you know, listen. Here's my take. Here's my hot. Wemby will be cited

backstage at a James Tala Rico event before the midterms. It will become a major story in Texas. He will try to say that's not me. That's not me. I love how you say cited like he's not seven. Well, that's what I mean. He'll be wearing a hoodie.

He'll be had a hoodie. He's going to be in the Steve bomber disguise. Right, he'll have a hoodie and he'll be clutching some fantasy paperback. They won't get a clear shot at him, but he will be seven foot three. Hey, he's going to leave a shoe behind a big Nike alien shoe. And it will become a major, major story in the state. And what is the result of that? What happens after that?

I have nothing to say. It's all going to be fine because Tala Rico is winning the race. And then everything, there's nothing to be mad about at that point. It's Texas, man. It's still Texas. I don't know I think they can win the title Here's a thing

Victor has a lot to prove still man I think that that's that I think we've gassed him up too much We have and I think there was a little Even after the finals He's gonna be back I think he's not a guarantee I don't know

We'll see Well like he has here I will say this to your point Or to my point About just him Messing up when it When it counts the most We now have a bit of a track record

It's right Like you know Didn't be team the Avengers Team USA, right? Then comes back, doesn't messes up when it, when it matters most, and key playoff possessions. Lost that game to Chet.

Lost that game to chat. And he's been paying his ass back ever since. Listen, Michael Jordan got his ass kicked for how many years before he won a championship. Kobe had the air balls against Utah. Like, this is just the stuff that these guys go through. No, this happens. Hey, listen, man, we're looking, finding flaws in the Mona Lisa. Okay, we're doing our best here

We're trying to do great for the show I mean honestly the Mona Lisa Kind of overrated I've never been I can't I can't say Seen her couple times it's fine Look at these flexes It's shitting on Paris It's putting on Paris

Not a beautiful city One of the best scene What there is no no air conditioning There is no air conditioning in any of Europe That is a true thing And with global warming it's fucked up It's really yeah it's like But that is a fact

It's a fact All right That's been dope man We'll see you We'll see you next year for Hottest Takes. That has been, you know, the first edition of Hottest Takes, Real Ones Edition. That's a lot of additions. I am Logan Murdoch.

That is Howard Motherfucking Beck. That is Jason motherfucking Concepcion. We'll see you guys soon. All the shits. Bye!