The Ringer NBA Show - Kemba Walker Trade Rumors and Mock-Drafting the All-Star Starters | Group Chat (Ep. 194)

Episode Date: January 19, 2018

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Justin Verrier are joined by Danny Chau and Paolo Uggetti to discuss the Kemba Walker trade rumors and possible destinations for him (1:30). Then, they talk about the NBA All-Star Game, the starters for the East and West, and who was left out (16:10), before implementing a mock All-Star starter draft (23:20). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Ringer NBA show is brought to you by Ladder Life. Need Life Insurance in the new year? Check out Ladder Life, the smart and easy way to secure life insurance online. With traditional insurers, you can spend weeks on paperwork, broker meetings, and lab scheduling. With Ladder, you can get a quote, apply, and receive an instant decision in 10 minutes or less. Coverage can begin immediately for those who qualify. Get a free quote and learn more at ladderlife.com slash NBA. Basketball is very good.

Katie is the best center in the league. Pius Jones should start over Jeff Teak. What if Janice doesn't need a jump shot? Basketball is very good. Hello, and welcome to the Ringer NBA show. It's the group chat. I don't know why I did that voice. It's a special Friday edition instead of our usual Thursday, Justin Barrier.

Hello. Danny Chow? Hello. How old Getty? Why are you guys so sad? Are you all of a sudden, like, everybody here is a Kemba Walker stand? Love Kemba. I've always been a Kemper Walker stand.

He's in my heart all the time. You're a Yukon stand. Justin is bleeds husky. That would actually be dangerous. It's group chat. It's Friday. We were obviously going to spend most of this show talking about the All-Star selections. I guess this is such like a now long drawn-out process.

I remember a time when people didn't really think that much about the All-Star game. But okay. Really? We could spend two weeks talking about this. Yeah. I feel like it was already two weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah.

But first we got to take a look at this Kemba Walker trade. It's not even a rumor. It's like straight up like, Lojured just had a story up on ESPN earlier today about the Charlotte Hornets are looking to deal. Yeah. Kemble Walker. He's the franchise player.

We were talking about this before we went on the air about whether he was the second best Hornet ever or third best Hornet ever, Charlotte professional basketball player. Yeah, he's definitely up there. Yeah, he's definitely... Top five. The only good thing about that franchise.

jazz right now pretty much. I'm kind of confused about why this is happening because it feels more like a baseball trade. It feels like the way baseball teams are like, we got to the middle of season, we're not going to win anything. So we're just going to trade off all the best assets we have and try to get back some young pieces in return. As a Kemba Walker, a passionate Kemper Walker fan, what do you think of all this? I'm a little torn here. I want what's best for Kemba. And as we were going over potential trade destinations. I found myself trading him to just like nicer cities. Yes. Like I was thinking, oh, I think he'd really enjoy Chicago. I think he'd like the cold weather.

He's from New York. I'd love to see him back in Brooklyn. Obviously, doesn't make sense because they have like three point cards of the future. But I think it makes sense for Charlotte as a whole. I mean, you wouldn't expect Michael Jordan to just want to tear things down and start an new. But if you look at their team, they're not young and they're not particularly good. So you might as well just kind of start over and get what you can, like go with the Brooklyn net sort of way of maybe getting some picks in there. So Campbell Walker's paying for Rich Cho's mistakes or Michael Jordan's mistakes. It's really funny that you bring up the whole baseball trade thing because this isn't even like

trading for Stanton. This is like he is the fourth or fifth highest paid player on his own team. He's by far the most valuable. He's the carrot and any other player on this team is the stick. If you're going to go into a trade and they're like, well, you got to take Marvin off our hands. You've got to take Batum or Kid Gilchrist off our hands because we made the mistake of overpaying these guys, you can have Kemba on this incredible $12 million deal, even if his numbers are a little bit down this year.

I think it's interesting in the context of the trade market in itself because he's very under, I think he's still an underrated player. He's highly underpaid. And it doesn't seem like there's going to be a lot of guys super available. So I wonder if Charlotte saw kind of that opportunity to be like, oh, it's kind of like a shrinking market. Maybe we should just do it now because this is the best we're going to get. Because it seems like a very hard turn.

So I wonder whether they got an offer or thought about doing this and put out some feelers. And now this woe story is like, it's a bidding war. It's a very aggressive story. It's basically a for sale sign. And I wonder, like Paolo was getting to, I think maybe that's the point, is that they see that everyone's kind of dipping their toe into the market. Everything we're hearing from the news guys out there is that this is pretty much a cold market right now. Nobody's looking to deal.

Nobody sees that they're just, like one player away. I wonder if Charlotte's basically like, listen, let's just get rid of all the money off our books and start clean. I think it makes a lot of sense. Easier said than done. Right. They have literally like a bottle of poison pill contracts.

It's not just like one. They have several disgusting contracts that nobody would want to take back. That being said, our job is to be a little bit creative here. Danny, you had maybe the most compelling one, and I know you were just like, this doesn't really work. It doesn't really work. But I think philosophically it works. Right.

So I had toyed around with the trade machine. I'm really bad with the trade machine. No Picasso here. More of an brute kind of. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a trade that didn't really factor in the fact that the Hornets need to get rid of other contracts. Yeah, this is more like what makes Danny happy rather than what makes...

So I want to see Camas on the Spurs. That's my number one. So it would be a three-way trade between the Hornets, the Spurs, and the Sixers. because obviously they're going to jump on any opportunity to get any kind of asset that they can. So Kemble would go to the Spurs. What was it? It was Marvin Williams would go to the Sixers, and the Sixers would give Bayliss to the Hornets. So that's kind of a lateral move.

I think they both make around the same, or at least they're on the same amount of years on their deals. My process friends would not appreciate Marvin Williams and his three years and $42 million. They would probably need a pick going. Yeah. So the Hornets would then also get guys like Joffrey Laverne and Davies Bertans, who I am very high on. And he's expiring, I believe, at the end of the year.

So it wouldn't be too big of an investment. Just really quickly, because another piece of news that would happen this week was the announcement that Quay Leonard's going to be out indefinitely as he continues to rehab a quad, despite the fact he also has a small tear in his shoulder, right? this is a really interesting time for the Spurs because I think they are to some extent playing with House Money this season. They're playing out of their minds

considering the talent on hand. It's basically Marcus Aldridge and a bunch of guys only pop has heard of. Maybe that's unfair, but like... You don't like playing fords? I like all those guys, but it's just like another like miracle worker job by him. So we're not even clear if Kauai's going to play this season.

You're doubtful, right? Yeah, just because of what they said he had, which is tendonopathy, is something similar to what Anthony Davis had in his kneecap specifically. And this is two years ago. They shut him down for the season. Now, in addition to tendonopathy, which is, I believe, is like a disease tendon. If you look up at the actual definition, it sounds way worse.

Right. Well, everything when you look it up on the line, sounds way worse. Right. It's a common cold. Yeah. The textbook definition of it. But that caused Anthony Davis to shut a season down, and he had a debrydement of his knee, which isn't technically surgery.

I think it's more a procedure. with ultrasound and ultra-sign. And it sounds bad. And now, I don't know to what extent Kauai has that same sort of situation going on, but it doesn't sound good. And if you're saying he's our guy going forward, you really want to push something like that. Basically, the reason I bring all this up is that the Spurs have a couple of younger players

that they're developing, specifically DeJonda Murray. And DeJonda, they're hoping, I think, would take over the Tony Parker role going forward. If you bring Kamba in, I mean, they would probably just be like, we like having good basketball players on the team, and Kempah is on a great contract and it seems like he wants to win and the Spurs are like one of the winningest teams in pro sports. Like it seems like a marriage made in heaven. I don't know whether or not they feel the need to make any win now moves though. From like a fan, your perspective, I like, I don't know how this would happen, but I want it to happen because I just need another relevant team in the West.

Like I don't want it to just be like the Rockets and the Warriors up top. Like because I because I believe in Pops' like ability to turn like, you know, turn. everything into magic. Like I want, I would like for him to be on there because then you're wasting probably like a really nice season from Lamarcus Aldridge too, which feels weird to say a year removed from what was last season. So any kind of move like this that puts them at least in that like three to four or five seed range is like, oh, like the spurs are interesting. You know, we can talk about them. Like I'm all for that. Well, what do we think about the Pelicans as a destination for Campbell Walker? I think that they're one Drew Holiday contract too late.

They're definitely, they're up against the tax. For sure. They have. Not much to send back. But they do have, I mean, Czech Dialo is interesting. Frank Jackson, a rookie they didn't play this year because he's been hurt is interesting. And they always trade their first round pick. Yeah, they always change their trade their first round pick.

I think if that's what you're looking for from Charlotte, just a bunch of interesting guys, maybe three point guards and two centers. Kind of. Yeah. I mean, that's basically what they're doing, the Rondo, and the Rondo thing hasn't worked. I think the Hornets are, the way, if you read the Woj article one way, it's just like everybody's for sale.

But I think what they're doing is they're going to sweeten some deal for a bad contract with Kemba. And so it does make it complicated for teams like the Pelicans who are up against the tax and also need to give Boogie this huge extension if they want to keep him, or new contract if they want to keep them, for them to make anything like that work without bringing back Marvin Williams or somebody in return. Yeah, who has expirings now? Like the Bucks, for instance, would make a lot of sense.

Do you think the Bucks regret not going back in time and having Kamba instead of Bledsoe? So, so definitely fits what they do defensively really well. But you could also make the argument, maybe they shouldn't be blitzing as much or whatever they do with Jason Kidd. And that's the issue. But I think overall, I think Kemp is a better player on a better contract, especially because Bledsoe is going to be way better contract. Yeah, Bloodsoe's going to need to get paid this off.

We threw out a couple others. Like I threw out Amir Johnson and whatever else you'd need as a sweetener for Kempa. And I guess we would take back. I mean, like we probably have the Kapsper. Sixers, we, I sound like Bill. Like the Sixers have the cap space to take back a bad deal. in return, especially, you know, if they want to send back Marvin Williams. You could probably do that if you could make the money work.

Do you want that, though, as a Sixers fan? Because that's kind of like a win nowish move. It is a win nowish move, but like the Sixers keep winning games. So they are winning now. Like I kind of don't know what to do about this because, I mean, there's not a lot of risk with it. They've lost Reddick for a while. Fultz is in a box, you know what I mean? Which just goes off to the side.

And honestly, if this happened, you could just be like Fultz's shut down for the season. Right. You know, it's tough for you say. No, but I think that like that, Mark Stein wrote about that in the times where he was like, I don't want this to be true. And in some ways, I want this to be a reverse jinx. But I think that they're going to shut him down that we're not going to see him play this season.

But Kemp is 27. They want culture guys there. I think that Kamba could, you know, he gives them exactly what they need, playmaking on the ball, shooting off of it. It's an interesting move if they could make some of the deals work. I just haven't figured out exactly what it would be. Because you could just do a mirror for Kemba straight up, but obviously Charlotte would be like, what the hell would we do with that?

Right. I mean, I guess you would just throw away your opportunity cost of going into the off season if you're Philly and saying we could pretty much have our pick of guys because there aren't a lot of teams with Cap Space. So you're pretty much saying, would you prefer Kemble Walker over Contavius called Will Pope or Avery Bradley over Avery Bradley, some of these other sides. I think he would really live up to the moment in Philly. I think Philly would love him too.

I saw also, Sean, like, we were throwing around some ideas on Slack and, Sean, you know, somebody meant Nillikina for Kemba straight up. Bring him home. Yeah. You'd be great there, man. I'd love to do some things to make it work. Yeah, it doesn't work. He needs to stage.

Financially. You could throw some pieces around, right? But, I mean, you know, we asked our resident Nick's diehard, Jason Concepcion. No. He was hesitant. Hold on, but no. MSG is where Kemba thrives, baby. I mean, I've even watched the Big East tournament?

I have done loop in my office. You need it. That shot in Figgins pit. It's worth mentioning. Kemp is devastated by all this. Yeah. And apparently, we're recording this at like around 10 a.m. on the West Coast.

So by the time this goes up, an interview with Kemper Walker will probably be up where apparently he gave a raw and emotional and honest statement about all this. And he doesn't want to be traded. He wants to stay in Charlotte. So it'll be interesting to see the way this plays out. It's one of the more like forthright.

Like they really did put, said the for sale sign on kemba so we'll see i don't know what otherwise the deals that we've kind of heard about we've talked about either on the site or on other episodes of the ranger mba show this week there's there was the rumored tristan to for dandre deal which has been laughed at by brian winhorst and i would i would believe brian's sense of humor about that um really funny guy yeah but there's also like you know i mean rissillo was talking a little bit about how they love, like LeBron loves Boogie. I don't know how they would make that work or what they could do for New Orleans to

even, like, possibly entice them aside from the Brooklyn pick. Would have to be, which would have to be. Which I really like that fit. Love, yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, Anthony Davis, Kevin Love really makes a lot of sense. I just don't think Anthony Davis would prefer to play with Kevin Love over. No, based on all the selfies he's been taking with Rondo and Boogie. I feel like they've got, yeah, that's the goonies.

Any other trades you guys have been curious about. about this week ones that have popped up. I don't think there's been another one, but I think if I had to like bet on something right now, I would bet that DeAndre Jordan's going to get traded. Because the clippers have been kind of, yeah, story of the year.

We've been talking about this a lot in the office, just because if you look at when DJ's been out these past few games, which by the way, that's weird that DJ has been out these past few games because he's never out. I think it makes a lot of sense roster construction-wise for the Clippers because do you really want to have a lot of money tied up in the center position? If you have Blake Griffin,

who I think thrives as kind of a more small ball four, or excuse me, five, and then you have Gallo who's as big as a five now. Has Gallo ever going to play for the clippers? It seems like his butt issue is really lingering here. Really an aggressively medical episode of group chat today. Right, but I just think it makes a lot of sense, especially the way Harold has come on these past few games. I think he gives him what you really need from a center next to Blake Griffin.

Lateral movement, long arms, it's kind of stout body. And he's a guy who doesn't get paid a lot. So that's exactly what you kind of want from the center position now. It's kind of the Rockets model. Yeah, right. Every time a player gets overpaid, kind of just ship him aside. All right. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors,

and then we'll be back to talk about all this all-star selection madness. Today's episode of the Ringer NBA show is brought to you by Hotel Tonight. Fun fact, unlike flights or other travel, hotel rates actually get cheaper at the last minute. In fact, Hotel Tonight partners with awesome hotel. to help sell their unsold rooms, which means you get amazing deals. All it takes is 10 seconds, just three taps and a swipe to book a room. No long, endless lists of a zillion hotel choices.

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You know, I don't know what the chicken or the egg is there. But it's interesting that we're now, you know, several, like a full almost month away from the All-Star game, right? And we're still like, we've been talking about this a lot. We've been talking about the selection process, the captains. whether the fans are stupid for voting for this person or not. And it's kind of amusing, but it's weird. It's interesting that the All-Star and the MVP conversation have started to take over that much space.

I don't know what the answer to that is other than the sort of industrial ills that we describe. I mean, I remember back when the only time you did All-Star voting was when you went to a movie theater. Yeah, yeah. Or a game. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's weird because I think it's almost, like we crave having like taking a snapshot of the league. We did that top 25 ranking a few weeks now. And it's just nice to kind of get a sense of where everybody is. Like what guys think, I think the player vote, even though those guys don't take it seriously, is the most interesting part of this entire thing. Luke Canard.

Everyone getting one vote. All the guys voting for themselves. Yeah. But I think it's interesting when, for instance, to Marcus Cousins, the players like him over, let's say, Lamarcus Aldridge. Yeah. I mean, the New Orleans voting block was real. Let's go over this.

So the starters were announced. The starters were selected. It was a vote determined by a vote from fans, and then players and a select group of media. So the Eastern starters, Eastern Conference starters, are LeBron, Kyrie, DeMar de Mara Rosen, Janice, and Embedde. Love it. Not many issues with that.

Well, I have one big issue. Well, first of all, I think the way we're doing it now with the front court having three positions and the guards of two is just ridiculous. Like, I don't think that Embedd would have been there. if we just said let's take the five best guys in the east. Are you serious? Yeah.

I think so. I think first of all, four of the first of all, oh, wow. Oh, come on. You're being brainwashed. Who is serious? Do you really, really want to see

flat-footed jumpers? No, okay. You want to see dribble hand off? No, but I'm saying if we're saying picking the five best guys, I think he's a better. The five best guys. No, no.

Are you serious? He's production-wise better, but efficiency. see, Horford is shooting 52, 43, and 72. Justin to Austin. That's insane. Entertainment. How is Horford more entertaining than a year?

No, I'm saying he's a better. Oh, just a better play. I'm literally disagreeing with what he's actually saying. Like, like, there's no question that Embed should be there for the marquee value, right? Oh, yeah. I'm actually saying. No. No.

He doesn't play, like, he's missed, what, nine games? Okay, let's not get into the TMT. He is the anchor of the best defense in the league. You sound like Andre Drumman. now. Just FYI. Okay. The other argument I do want to make is I think you can say that Oladipo is better than both of those other guards.

Interesting. Because if we're talking about two-way impact, Ola-Depo actually plays defense with the other two, I think just are marginal defenders. Because I just don't care about at all. I'm fine if you want to have this argument. I think DeRosen's taken a leap, and I recognize that. I think he's changed his game.

I just think he's been amazing this first half of the season. I can't imagine. And also you, I think you have to credit the impact he's had on their success. They are clearly the second team. But I did what you're saying. Like that's like an out-of-the-box pick. I like the Ola Depot. Well, I would even say like we're relying too much on past results there.

We're saying that DeMar de Rosen, Kyrie Irving, are guys who are used to being in this conversation. I think a lot of people are looking at Ola-Dipo and being like, maybe he's a flash in the pan. Maybe it's a Drew Holiday situation when he got in. Okay. So you want to have the Eastern Conference all. stars featuring Al Horford and Victor Oladipo. Hell yeah. Look at that.

Beautiful. That is definitely like the Jacksonville. That the NFL does not want. What about Porzingis? How to, like, because I think that is it just a lot, the recent stretch that. He's been pretty bad. Yeah, he's been pretty bad lately. But like, he started off like in the MVP conversation.

Yeah. So I don't know. I think there's also kind of a small, I guess because of recent threats, it's not really a case to be made for him. But he, I think, belongs in, in that group. And he was close. He was picked by... The player vote.

Yeah, exactly. Did he? Okay. He just needs more naps. I think that might also be because MB trash talks and like shows up like half the league. So they probably are like dying to vote for him. He needs to overcompensate for the fact that he's not better than Al Harford.

Okay. The Western Conference All-Star starters are Steph Curry, James Hardin, Kevin Durant, DeMarcus, Cousins, and Anthony Davis. This is a cool team. It's kind of weird. It's just like two warriors, two pelicans. And Harten, Sam Presti is crying somewhere. I can't argue with it.

You know what I mean? I guess this goes back to your big men, your two forwards, or the three big men, two guards thing. Right. Where I don't know, I mean, how much time is AD missed? There's a few games. It hasn't been that man. Hasn't been that much.

I mean, the fact that Butler isn't in is criminal. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I would love to see Jimmy on this team. Buller and E, I think you could make a real argument for Lamarcus. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I definitely would have picked Lamarcus over Boogie. Listen, if you're just saying superstars and star power, obviously Boogie is a star. I think it matters a lot to New Orleans, a team that's very much still trying to sell its players and its franchise to the city and to everyone at large.

Nobody really pays attention to them still, even though they have one of the more interesting roster constructs of the league. But if you look at what's been holding that team back, they're still 23 and I think 21 right now. It's just the stuff that Boogie doesn't do, which is get back on defense. Play every play. 100%. Your holiday's been better. Some of their reserves have even been better. It's really just what Boogie hasn't done.

And that should be on him. I think you can make the case that he doesn't deserve to be in the All-Star game altogether. Well, the fact that they're both in there is in a way an indictment of how the team is doing. Because they should be better. Yes. I really feel like the fan vote, it correlates with fantasy success. And DeMarcus has been killing in fantasy. That's a great point.

That's, you know, when, yeah, when we talk about casual viewers and what people want to see, they want to see these numbers being put up. Yeah, and Boogie's on Twitter a lot. Like, you know, you see, like, Boogie pretty much every night, even if it's not for the best reasons. He's, like, he's very visible. To be fair, though, Boogie's numbers are significantly better than Aldrich's. So good.

But Aldridge is playing really well for a really good team that doesn't have much else. And he is the team right now. Like, he is the guy who, like, gets them up to the top of the mountain, and then whoever, on any given night, Rudy Gay or somebody else on the, the spurs might push them down it. All right. So let's talk a little bit about what comes next because Steph Curry and LeBron James are the captains, right?

So they will select with no conference alliance or affiliation. They have to first pick the starters. So they pick, they go back and forth. LeBron picks first because he had the most votes. And so LeBron will make his pick then, Steph. They have to pick from the group of starters first. Then on next Tuesday, and this is also like Byzantine. I don't even understand it.

Next Tuesday, the reserves are announced, correct? Or at least the 20th. And then they will have a secret draft that we will not be privy to. Nobody will be privy to. But LeBron gets the first pick. So in the absence of that, and we'll be doing a lot of stuff about this secret vote on Survivor that we have.

But I wanted to do a little bit of method drafting. So we're not drafting for what we think. We're drafting for what we think LeBron and Steph think. Right. So let's just do a couple of rounds. Let's at least do the starters here. so Justin after having our little flare up I want to give you the first pick

you're LeBron James I appreciate that I look good right now Yeah I'm really working out You really enjoy seafood pasta You're never hurt That's a flat of Vino Okay I think if you're just looking at the draft board I think Anthony Davis jumps out to me

But I want to think about this a little bit differently Yeah I think about psychologically here And if you watch his interview in the locker room last night He said that he was going to think about this a little bit more strategically Okay course Number one pick in this draft, Kyrie Irving. Wow. Because if you're looking at this season as a whole, you want to say, oh, well, their kind of clash is going to be kind of the storyline going into playoffs.

I want Kyrie on my team because I'm going to fuck with him the entire time. I'm going to say, I'm going to freeze him out. I'm not going to say a word to him. And so when we see each other in the playoffs, nobody's going to know what's going on. See, that's much more diabolical. I thought you were saying that because you were like, LeBron wants to snuff out the Kyrie versus LeBron stuff and not have to spend an entire. week answering questions about it. So he's like, I picked the guy. I love him. You know, nothing but love for that guy. Shout out to him. Can't wait to see him in the playoffs.

And then he doesn't have to answer any more questions about it. But if he doesn't pick him, people are going to be like, did you not, did you not pick Kyrie? The entire weekend becomes a sub-tweet, which I feel like LeBron would appreciate it. Right. But there are so many different ways in which he can create this sub-tweet. I was thinking he would pick Janus. Yeah. Instead, because I feel like KD would be the obvious choice. Right. That's the one I thought. pick KD if I were LeBron just to break up the

Warriors and just like, almost like Adam Silver calls him, just don't, I don't want to see three warriors together. I also think that there's been a lot of talk about how Katie's trying to take the mantle and everything. He's not trying to take the mantle. You didn't want to be a captain? I don't think, but I don't think LeBron would

give him that. Oh, okay, like KD is positioning himself to be next. All right, so Justin LeBron Verrier James has picked Kyrie Irving first. Steph, Danny, Curry, Chow. This is This is the most... That's actually a pretty cool name for you.

My middle name is legally king. There you go. Wow. This is going to be a boring pick, but I think it speaks to Steph Curry. Kevin Durant. Okay. Yeah. All right.

That makes sense. That's who I would pick. That's who Mallory Rubin would pick, our greatest drafter. Paula, you are LeBron James. This is your third pick. And I already have... You have Kyrie. I have...

Kyrie. Hmm. We did a questions roundup on the ring. for like all-star storylines and I said okay so LeBron first pick

I mentioned he could troll Kyrie by picking him but I think the pick that I would like for him to make and I know this is method drafting but I think it would make sense is for him to draft

Embed but would he I think he would be like okay let me play with this guy see what it is Philly is a possible destination in the summer not to put that out there

but like you know if Embed ends up playing on Lebron's team you know that's going to be a storyline like oh let's see how Embed and LeBron look

on the same side. So I that's what I'll wait hold on. Are we basically just giving the East All-Stars and the West All-Salsals? That's the same deal. We're doing method drafting so now I'm Steph Curry, LeBron is going east I'm not going to go west because I'm sure I have gotten a if at all possible draft guys from

outside of your conference to show that this is a workable strategy for the All-Star game going forward. So as Steph Curry I'm going to draft Yonis. Okay. Yeah. That's a good one. That's good. All right. So we have Team LeBron is Kyrie, Embed, and LeBron. Team Steph is K.D. and Yannis. Same news.

Okay. Justin. Steph Curry. Yeah. No, I'm Steph. I drafted Janice. Okay. So you're LeBron. And you have Kyrie and Embed and Embed and yourself. Okay. I'm going to go a little more outside the box. I'm going to go with Anthony Davis. Okay. I'm going to go with the big front line. I'm going to pound them in the post. I like it. LeBron, Kyrie, and then Embedden Davis. That is wild. They're going to end up with DeMarx, Because he's definitely getting picked last

Room on the court for these guys. Right, probably. Yeah. Okay, so who do you got? Okay, so I'm Steph now. Yes. You have KD. Yannis and yourself. KD. Yonis, myself.

You still have Hardened Rosen. And Buggy. I will have to fight the Giants with the beard, I guess. Nice. Oh, my God. So we have Hardin, K.D. Yonis and Steph. It's literally the MVP discussion right now. Yeah, yeah.

This is great. All right, LeBron. Okay, so either DeRosen or Boogie. Yeah, and you already have two centers. Jeez. Yeah. De Rosen, I guess. You know, that's fine.

Okay. Okay. So, team Steph is Stefan Curry, Kevin Durant, Janus Hardin, Boogie. Love it. LeBron's team is LeBron and Kyrie and B. Davis and DeRosen. This is going to be awesome. This is going to be awesome.

This is going to be incredible. Do we have to, I mean, when they have to, actually do the drafting, do they have to stick with the position of designation? You have to draft from the starters first. But that's, but it doesn't matter if you take four centers. That's a good question. Right. And when you pick the starters, you had to have three front court, two guys. No, it says here, it says it says, it says here, at least according to the report, as far as I, as I understand it, they, they pick without any, with no conference affiliation from the pool of starters and reserves. The reserves will be selected by NBA coaches. You have to pick the starters first. Right. So that's it. Yes. Oh, hell yeah.

This is way too confusing, by the way. Yeah. You have to consult this document. This is criminal that they're not doing this on television. Right. At least do the starters. Because probably the issue was the last guy of the reserves who's going to look very bad.

Yeah. But you're still a starter in the All-Star game. It's like, I think there was all these funny scenarios of like, Russ going last or whatever. You know what I mean? Like these things, I just think that they, I cannot believe they're not telling you. Well, to your point earlier when we started this conversation about

how this rise of how much we're talking about this game is because digital media and like just so many fans paying attention to everything and we need things to talk about like they literally made this move at least from what it seems to please the fans to give them something different to make the all-star game interesting but at the same time they're like number one making it confusing and number two not like publicizing like you know you always got to add a little bit of controversy next year if this works out maybe we get to tell I mean when I look at the starting line of as we came up but I'm like yeah like sign me up I'm ready, but it would be so much better.

It could be actually, like, legitimately a CBA thing where they're just like, why would we give you this like blockbuster television thing for free? Like, you have to pay. Like, Loki tampering? You want all the greatest players in the NBA to, like, somehow congregate and then get humiliated by like who's picking who first or second. Aren't there enough like Tias to give out? Well, the players also did their own award show on BET once and it was not great. No, I know. And they have like the fashion show.

I mean, like, I'm not saying that the players are like out of your making Felini films. I can imagine if this would be probably one of the most talked about non-game televised events other than the draft. You know, you would be like, we need to be like involved in this. Have you guys seen the video of when the NHL did this, I believe, last year? It's heartbreaking. The guy who went last is not only like the biggest slub you've ever seen, but he's like he does not know how to feel because these hockey teams.

Phil Kessel, I think. Sure. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's. I was pretty sure. These teams are like 20 players deep. So there's just like stadium or just stands full of guys. Just like a sea of faces. Yeah, that's the other thing.

And he's there like, he's basically the squiggly line face emoji where he's like, I don't know how to feel about this, just don't interview. And they bring him down. They force him to give an interview and they give him a shitty car. Yeah. It's not great. And the hockey guys are already not giving like Abraham Lincoln speeches anyways. So they're probably just like, oh, no.

Tough man. All right, that was my hockey player. Guys, any other All-Star voting thoughts? Anybody that you think would be a, you feel like is on the bubble that you will throw a fit if they don't get in as a reserve. Anybody who's, you're like,

this guy has to be part of the reserves. Lou Williams. That's a good one. I think Chris Paul, even though he hasn't played enough games, his numbers are fucking insane. I know, but he just, like, he really missed that a lot of time.

He missed a lot of time. But I was also the type of guy who voted Embed for a rookie of the, year. So I feel like this is the same line of thinking. And then you denied him his chance to get into the All-Star. Oh, he's going to get in. Democratic-elected All-Star starter. He does not start.

Not on my team. I'm trying to think if there's anybody else that I would be like you got, you can't not have to get it. Personally, I think Kevin Love should be an all-star, but that's going to be a discussion for sure. The last 10 games have been tough for him. Yeah. Basically, the Isaiah Thomas era has been a little bit rough for Kevin Love's

revival. Yeah. I wonder if the two wizards are going to get in. I think Beal will. I don't know if Wall will. Yeah, if anybody from the Pistons deserves to get in. I would say no, but the East is a mess. I don't have a feeling one way or another on it.

I just cannot wait for Damien Lillard not to make it. Yeah, he doesn't deserve. I think he shouldn't make it simply because he seems like he's campaigning for it now. Well, he's already trying to have a chip on his shoulder about not making it. Right. And the whole thing is that whole, like, narrative that he's built around himself completely obscured the fact for me that he's actually been on the All-Star game before. Yeah. I thought he'd never be on.

He throws these tantrums about this, like not being considered. And this year was actually, to be fair, this is, it's usually bullshit, but this is newsworthy for this time because this is the first time I feel like he made, we're in a small market noises. And he was like, you know, usually being in a small market doesn't matter anymore that much, but I do feel like if I was on national television more and all this other stuff, that I would be considered a logical all-start.

I like to see Jim McCollum better. So that's where I'm at. That's good. All right, guys. Until next time, this has been NBA group chat. We will be with you next Thursday. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.