The Ringer NBA Show - NBA Drops Hammer on the Clippers. Plus, the Western Conference Hierarchy

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

After ranking the teams in the East, J. Kyle Mann and Michael Pina return to create their hierarchy for the Western Conference. Can the Thunder get back on track to dethrone the Spurs in the West? How far can Steph Curry carry the Warriors? Is LaMelo Ball the missing piece for Anthony Edwards and the Wolves? How will the Clippers respond after the severe punishments for circumventing the salary cap?(00:00) Intro (20:41) 15-10(54:26) 9-5(1:20:44) 4-1Hosts: J.Kyle Mann and Michael PinaProducers: Victoria Valencia, Jessie Lopez, and Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Folks, it's the Ringer NBA show. We have another off-season episode for you, reprising the dynamic duo. Not very uncontroversial last time around. Nothing came out of that. There was no, nobody had anything to say about the takes that we had. Pina and I are back again together. We're going to be running through a few different things today. We're going to be doing some new cycle stuff.

I think you know what's coming on that front. And then we're going to continue on and do the second half of the NBA. and finish the exercise and do some more Western conference power rankings. We're going to be breaking down all that stuff. Pina, first of all, how are you? Second of all, are you going to get a T-shirt that's like one of those T-shirts that lists out like the starting lineup of something? I think that I would say, I mean, I guess the Thunder could have this printed,

the Raptors could have this printed, you know, get the Wachtel Lipped and Rosen and Cats, you know, you know the shirt I'm talking about where they list out the, it's usually a lineup of like four to five people. I've seen it with the Fab Five. I feel like that shirt would sell. I did actually really, first of all, I'm doing great, and it's kind of a shame that our last episode together, you could hear a pin drop in the reaction to it,

specifically on social media. So hopefully we... Nobody said anything. Yeah, everybody was happy with us. Yeah, it was great. But I actually did own a, like, 2000, 2001, 2002, Era Sacramento Kings shirt with the starting five from those teams of the variety you're referencing. And I love that shirt dearly.

And I don't know what has happened to it. So that just made me a little sad. Yeah. Well, that's just a little merch idea, I guess. And that segues into, you know, there's not a whole lot going on. I was going to say other than that, like in the news cycle, there's, you know, Josh Hart apparently tore up the dance floor at Carl Anthony Towns's wedding. That was the only other story that came to mind. But the big story here is, you know, the hammer comes down yesterday.

Silver drops the silver hammer on the clippers on Steve Balmer. Kauai somehow escapes. He has like an escape pod like in the movie, Alien. I've got it here. He does the escape pod and escapes the xenomorph of consequence. I don't know. I guess he's taking the defense of like Uncle Dennis is swan diving onto the sword a little bit. It's like my crazy Uncle Dennis was acting independently.

assuming that that trade goes through, we can get into all that stuff because that could affect how some of this shakes out and how the clippers look in the West. What was your initial reaction? I mean, we've had some really granular and very detailed analysis out there.

We've got lawyers all over the place weighing in on this that are way more qualified to comment on the report. But you read the report. Where was some broad takeaways for you from this whole clipper situation? I think generally, from the top

the clippers being just beyond screwed buried below a prison that was built underneath another prison is kind of what went to the top

of my brain when I saw what the actual punishment was which is five first round picks $30 million a year suspension

for for Steve Bomber who obviously loves to attend Los Angeles Clippers games, and Lord knows how the team will be able to perform without him sitting courtside and expressing his histrionics and supporting the team. Beyond that, just reading through the report, I laughed out loud several times, Kyle, I'm not going to lie to you. We were texting about it before. I, you know, I italicized and broke out a few just takeaways that

I guess I was talking about this with my wife last night when I was explaining it to her. And it's just like, people lie so brazenly. And it's like, do you not think you're going to get caught? And do you not think that you will be humiliated in public fashion at some point in the very near future? I just don't understand that's my thing to you about the people like on shows and host of things where you're like, I think that's a lie. And that is always my takeaway too, where there's an, there's an insulting projection from people who lie. like that so easily where they honestly think that you're not

going to be able to just quickly pull on the string and be like, oh, like, that's not true. And that happened a lot here in this case. Yeah, I, I, like, the fact that they have so much evidence and they have, I mean,

Lawrence Frank, who got six months, I should say, a six-month suspension without pay instead of a year. he basically like, you know, he took notes in meetings for years and gave everything. He cooperated. He was a, I think Tim McMahon from ESPN said that he sang like a canary and that is exactly how it kind of feels with Lawrence Frank. But yeah, like I don't know if we should even go through how in depth you want to go with the actual report. but everyone should go read it.

And it is beyond devastating for the Las Angeles Clippers. And I think the question of what happens now to this organization is one worth diving into. What was your takeaway, pal? You as a writer, tell me if you agree with this and the way that this was written, this almost had a very low-lying comedic undertone to it, me. I think when I was reading this, I was like, there is definitely a pithy DNA to wait. Whoever wrote this, I thought, kind of knew that what they were writing was hysterical at times because you were bringing it up that we were talking about the pronunciation.

I'm assuming since it's West Coast. I don't know where Ms. Zucker is from, but we're going to, we'll say Jillian Zucker. I pointed out to you that Gillian Welch does it with the hard G. But she did some pretty funny stuff throughout, basically just deflected, lied, had misremembering of events and then blamed her subordinates, which was the opposite of what you're saying that Lawrence Frank did. I was pretty amused just at the timeline of it. It seemed like, you know, Uncle Dennis came back and was like, we need this to happen. Not only do we need it to happen. We needed to happen pronto. And then you see this chronology of her going home and lining up the deals to sort of like, you know, play Kate Uncle Dennis. And it had a vibe to me of

She goes home and is like sitting in her living room, like, snap at her fingers being like, who do I know? Who do I know? Who do I know? And just to land on the comedy, there's just real inherent comedy to me in these sponsorship choices. Like the idea that Dactronic would ever need to advertise, like, that's a business you want to be in where you're essential to an industry, but you don't need to advertise ever.

You know, I don't know if like other examples of this, like 3M, it's just like, no, we don't need to sell ourselves. It's like everybody knows Daktronic is essential to sports. I don't know what Kauai would have gotten on a Jumbotron and said to promote Daktronic, like the accuracy of a stopwatch. I don't know. And then Boingo. That one stood out to me because I only have negative associations with Boingo.

Boingo is like, to me, I don't know that we're ever in play to get a sponsorship from Boingo, but I was like, Boingo is, they're like somebody who runs a watering hole in the desert and they charge 1999 per 30 seconds. It's like anytime you're in a position where you're confronted with being offered, Boingo, it's like I'm on a plane. You really need something to satiate your boredom. It's like Boingo's offered to you when you're on a plane, when you're in an amusement park. I don't know if you've had this happen. You're at a game.

You click on that Wi-Fi thing and it's the only thing that shows up that's unlocked is Boingo. I just found that deeply hilarious that was one of the partners. Whenever I see Boingo, I know I'm in trouble. and my mood my mood goes down which the clipper should have done they should have done the same thing yeah yeah so there's a lot

I guess in terms of the implications for the team I mean five first round picks I went through and I was kind of we're going to talk more about the clippers here in a second when we get into our power rankings but I had the thought process of like all right well they tried to pivot

smoothly from what they thought was going to be the end of this whole experiment that started with them and you zoom out and you look at the totality of this. You're like, not only are they screwed beyond all belief, but oh my God, they also traded away a two-time MVP and a pick that became Jalen Williams and led to the foundation of a championship squad. I had the thought process where I was like, well, if you want to pivot your timeline and start over, you lose your picks, okay, maybe you just tear, if we're already

under the ground, we might as well just go back to zero. Let's just start completely over. I was like, let's just try to get some good picks. But I was looking at it, Pina, and I was like, who on their roster is even worth a first in a deal? Garland could fetch a first, I guess. Rui probably not at this point. That's the only, like, I don't, that to me is compounding it even more. I don't really know how they could pivot from here. Yeah, that's where I wanted to, it sounds crazy.

So I thought about Garland. There's the first name that popped into my mind. I was like, so he's, he's on the trade market, I would assume. Like, that I think that people will be calling the Clippers and the coming weeks to see what the deal is there. So they draft Keaton Wogler with the fifth overall pick.

Let's just hypothetically throw it out there. I think it would be unwise to move on from him at this point in his career. Seems like the type of player, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the player who he's been compared to the most

that I've seen is Tyrese Halliburton. And that is the exact type of player. If I'm trying to maximize everyone around me and I don't have a lot of resources, I need force multipliers and he seems like he could be one, right? Am I on base there? Yeah. So let's say the clippers are like, that's cool. We would love to build around him,

but we don't see a possibility of even being competitive when he's like 25, 26, 27 years old. So if his value right now is at the high, highest it could possibly ever be. This is so bleak. It's extremely bleak. But if they were to hypothetically throw him out there and just, you know, call around the league, canvas the league,

how many first do you think you could get for a player like that? Like how special of a prospect is he? He's a very good prospect. Maybe too. I mean, if you think about this upcoming draft is weaker, you could maybe do that. Honestly, man, that might not be a bad move for them, but this draft is not great.

Of course, we always say that, and then we kind of come through. It puts a lot of pressure on Wogler. I would say, too, to answer your question, like specifically there, but I probably would need to sit down and look at it a little closer because draft-to-draft, it can change so much.

But, I mean, it puts a ton of pressure, number one, on Wogler, because the initial vision, I thought, just from the outside was this guy is probably tertiary to stars. Like he needs time to development. He's not as point five. He's not as easily supplementary from the beginning

the way that Halliburton was, the way that I expected him to be. Because he kind of sticks on the ball a little bit. He can play on and off the ball, but Halliburton had proven that a whole lot more. Granted, he was a little older when he came in. It just puts a ton of pressure on Wogler, man, in a way that's tough.

And the thing that you spelled out there was, if we don't have any way to build around him, yeah, I think you have to trade Garland. You're going to have to figure out some way to make it a little easier because in these first four years, it's going to be extremely tough to put something around Wogler that's not going to stress him in a way. He's a prospect that I don't think can carry that load.

They can carry that stress by himself in a way. So this is going to be really tough for him. The other thing quickly is we segue out of this, Or did you have anything else on the Wogler thing? And then we can segue out. Nothing really on Wogler. No, I had a question about the coach that we can discuss after you make your point, if you would like. But I just think there are so, everything is up in the air right now with the Clippers.

I feel like this is just so, this is just a death penalty, frankly, of, I don't, like, I remember, you know, I was going back and reading what happened to the Minnesota Timberwolves with Joe Smith, and there were columns that were like, the Timberwolves need to move out of Minnesota. This is a wasteland. And that was a situation where they had like a generational, perennial MVP who hadn't even reached his prime, who was expressing loyalty. He's like historically loyal. And the clippers don't even have that. We're talking about Keaton Wagler. I was like, the crown jewel here. So it's just even worse than that by like, an epic proportion, I feel like.

They do have, you know, when this trade goes through, they will have with Kauai. They will presumably have two first round picks from the Raptors in 2031 and 2033. So that's something. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how you spend this positively, to be honest with you. Yeah. I mean, Garnett, obviously, a pretty different situation because the Joe Smith thing went down in what year?

Is that 99? Yeah, 2000, I think was when the beginning of the 2001 season, I think, is when the punishment was levied. Yeah, and I mean, by the time Garnett was 18, everybody, the writing was very, very much vividly on the wall that this guy was going to be special, flying around blocking a chemoaguan and everything. I was going to say in terms of the punishments and things like that, you mentioned Lawrence Franks six months. I find it kind of like the parameters of keeping Balmer away are kind of funny to think about to me

because yeah you can keep him away physically but you're talking about a franchise that has been not just the league leader like an industry leader in terms of their innovation and pushing technology like this is a team that was I mean I'm just saying like

I don't know how you like keeping him away is almost like a comedic idea to me Like, it's like, they were pretty instrumental in second spectrum, if I'm not mistaken. It's just kind of a, and this guy, he is a tech guy. He got his billions off of that. I just don't know how you, I was just, and I wrote. What you're saying is, though, there will be somehow like a hologram of bomber in the war room. What do you think the rules are against having a hologram of bomber court side?

Is that? You think that's stipulated in the... And we'll look in the hologram sweat. We could make it, like, sweaty. I just wrote it down here, too, that, like, what would stop Balmer from wearing a Vision Pro, like, in an anti-gravity chamber kind of thing? You know, I know that's an Apple product.

And I just picture him, you know, ricocheting one hand off the other as, like, Yonick Conan Niederhouser, like, spins into a stationary defender and turns it over. I'm just kind of trying to imagine what the next year of Steve Balmer's life is going to look like. Let's, well, the last question that I wanted to ask you was, I was joking that Kauai is probably coming away from this and looking at the numbers and

be like, yeah, it's probably worth it. If you're the clippers, you think about this, you're looking at this window of time from, you know, 2019 when they decided to make this move, you know, which I think literally an earthquake happened the night that that move happened, if I'm not mistaken, at Summer League. It was Zion's introduction. Really big night in the history of the NBA ends up being even, I mean,

Jesus Christ, the ripples, it just continues to go. Hopefully it's going to stop now. But if you look at this and you're the Clippers, they didn't end up winning. The Paul George part of this, I know that we both are so affected about Paul George. I just wanted to clarify that I'm in age by age. I think he's better than Jalen Brown.

This six to seven year window, if you pose this to a team that had like no success, like the Clippers had really, I mean, I know the Lop City thing happened, but what superstar do you think over time would be worth it to invest in and cheat the way that the Clippers did? Because Kauai didn't ultimately end up being worth it. Is there a superstar that you would look at and say, okay, this is the punishment that's going to come from, from, you know, courting this guy outside the parameters of the rules? Because what if they had one? Would they have, like, taken down the banners?

Would they, I don't know, that's a whole other question to be answered. It's a great question. done this and they had tampered for another player that would have led to more success, who do you think would have been worth it? I think Prime LeBron is probably one that if you posed to me as a fan, you're going to have, you know,

be banished to the shadow realm, but you're going to have six to seven windows where you go to the finals, like maybe four or five times. Yeah, I think that there's a few guys who are active and like many more throughout history. I mean, obviously

the Timberwolves did that. They had Kevin Garnett and were really struggling in ways to build around him after Marbury left. Yeah, Wembe, obviously. I would do anything for Wembe. I'd throw it away for Wemby. Yeah, I'd do it for Wembe. I would do it for Yokic. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, the punishment that has been stricken on the

clippers is so devastating that it's. like, I mean, Steph Curry, I would do it for Steph Curry. It is, they will be so bad and so irrelevant for so long because of this, that it's like you better win. Like, you, you absolutely better win at least one championship. And that is, that is a bar because championships are very difficult to win. And if you don't get it, I mean, I just,

just thinking about all the fans that they could have had in the future this is the same thing I think about with the Brooklyn Nets where it's like you just lost so many young fans that are going to be Nix fans now so many young fans are going to be Laker fans now that could have been Clipper fans I'm not saying that they definitely would have been

but you just like punted on that that's so much money and so much cashé and it's just it's such a bummer such a bummer yeah that's another I haven't heard anybody make that point, but those are sort of the scales,

the tip in the NBA that can cause, you know, fans to go this or that way. That's a really good point. I was going to, the last thing I was going to say is in the future to sort of like prevent this from happening again if you're running a front office. Megan, my wife was telling me about how they did this study

where if you just put, you paint eyeballs up in certain areas, that they've done studies that it causes crime to potentially go down or people to behave. And she had told me this story about in their office. that there was somebody who wasn't washing the dishes. They would come into her part of the office and leave dirty dishes. So she drew eyeballs over the sink and it stopped.

And I was just thinking, you know, if I'm running a front office, you know, maybe just put some eyeballs up on the wall to stop this from happening again. Let's take a quick break and then we will get into our Western Conference power rankings in just a moment. All right, Pena. It's time to do the second half. of our power rankings in the NBA. The last time around, I informally did tiers. I asked you, where I think you posed to me,

like maybe we should go ahead and do tiers. Do you want to kind of give us before we know who's in what tier? Do you want to give us the strata as you see it in the Western Conference? Like, what's the hierarchy here? Okay, so tier six. I've called this, relegate them now. and this is the Sacramento Kings. They are by themselves.

They are a organization with no redeemable qualities as far as I can see. You look at the roster and there's some decent offensive talent, of course, like DeMontosabonis is still here and I'm not a Zach Levine person

by any stretch, but he can score and shoot and has made all-star teams. A-Cuff is a rookie who is seemingly exciting. You know, you can speak to his abilities better than I can. I think he shot like 18% at Summer League, but who knows? Maybe he'll have a fantastic rookie season and a wonderful career.

They were 20 and 62 last season. They kept Doug Christie as their head coach for reasons that I just can't understand. And when I was going through and just doing a little bit of research, cursory research about the Kings, it's been over 20 years since they've had an above average defense, 20 years. Get into that. We're not going to break that streak. No, they're not. No, they are not. This could be the worst defense that they've ever had potentially. I don't know. We'll see. Let's just, let's stop drilling right there. That's a good stuff. Because I had that written down. I was like, I expect this to be the worst defensive team in the West and likely the entire NBA.

There are multiple abysmal defenders on this roster. And I think a lot of them are going to play a lot. Yeah, man, this is going to be bad. And I think let's just kind of go through year-to-year movement. We talked about that on the last one. Like, did you improve? Did you get worse? I put somehow worse, question mark.

I didn't. The in and out of what's going on here is, you know, we saw the. the end of the DeRosen, the end of the, the Westbrook eras, which was inexplicable that it happened in the first place. I think that's inarguable. I don't even think that's arguable. And then, you know, Sabonis is still here, obviously. He should interface with A-Cuff offensively.

Like, I think he should make his life a little bit easier in terms of the things that A-Cuff does well. The key additions here, Precious At Chua, A-Cuff, they drafted Alex Caraband and Emanuel Sharp. Those are two people, you probably have no clue who those guys are. Do you know anything about that? those two guys? I do not. Okay. Those are two winners. Those are

two high character dudes. I'm not even kidding. Caravan is going to figure it out. Emmanuel Sharp is a very, very scrappy high energy defender. He'll be one of their better defenders from Moment 1, and he can shoot the ball. He's a little bit of a wild pistol shooting it, but he'll be an interesting, and then they off,

they send Devin Carter off. I still like, I still like, Clifford. I like Maxime Renaud. They're interesting players, but it's lacking core kind of foundational pieces. One of the things that I told you I wanted to do as an exercise for these power rankings is, I know this is super cool and trendy, but I'm going to pick a Beatles song for every team in the Western Conference because purely just because my son's really into the Beatles right now. I love the Beatles too, so it's just been refreshing and old love for me. The song that I chose for the Kings was get back, as in get back on defense,

because this team is going to be brutal on that front. Anything else? Is there any other optimism that you can see for the Kings at 15? I can't, but I will say that you texted me your Beatles plan, and there were a few teams. I couldn't stretch it out for every team like you. I'm not that skilled. But I did have one for the Kings, and it was health.

exclamation point. That seemed very apt for what's going on in Sacramento. Just terrible times. That song comes up for me as well. Moving on to number 14. Who do you have at 14, Pina?

So this is Tier 5, and I call this tier Hopeless League Pass Darlings. Ooh. And I have two teams here. So we'll go with 14 first, and it's the Dallas Maverick. Okay, okay.

I doubt's at 12. Okay, yeah. I don't think it's anything against Dallas. I see a lot of positives. Obviously, I love Cooper Flagg. I think that this could be an all-star caliber season from him.

He'll have nights where he looks completely unstoppable. If Kyrie Irving looks like Kyrie Irving, that's obviously, you know, obviously that elevates the whole infrastructure here and makes everyone better, makes their lives easier.

He's an unbelievable talent, we'll see. And I just think that they did an okay job sort of trying to get into the post the post AD era. The word era

is doing a lot of work there. You can't stop laughing. Yeah. I can't. You know, I like Santi Aldama as a stretch five I think he's complimentary to Cooper flag I like the Zachary Reesachet

move just as you know a springy open floor run dunk knock down corner threes type of piece I think that's a nice role player for them but I also just think like who is

last part might be generous but the first part's for all yeah fair I don't think that there's any like fatal flaw here I just think that like when let's say Kyrie is on a minute's restriction or is not playing back to backs or whatever

what have you, maybe they trade him. Who is the backup point guard here? Who is running offense? I think that that is like a significant question and then there's just a lot of positional overlap on the wing and in the front court Derek lively

and Daniel Gafford are just like injury prone and I can't I can't trust them in any way, shape or form. So that's why I have Dallas down at 14. Yeah. The Beatles song that I had written down for them is long, long, long. You know, off of the White Album, side two.

Impressive number of four, fives on this roster. You mentioned, you know, Flagg, Risa Shea, Aldama. How much five has Aldama played? I always thought of him as more of a four. But, and then you still have PJ, you have Lively, you have Gafford. I feel like Gafford is going to end up on like the Sixers at some point in this season. Wouldn't shock me. I don't know.

I could see that happening if they move. They decide to move like Simons or one of those one of those handlers. And then they go and they draft Marez Johnson. You have a glut of a certain type of player. I think that they're better, barely. I don't know that they totally answered the handler question like you were talking about. We talked about this on the last group chat episode that this team, is just long and ranging and athletic

and that strain Cooper a whole lot in year one. I expect him to learn from all that stuff. I predicted, I predicted that I think he's going to be an all-star this upcoming season. Yeah, they also added Sergio de La Rea. That's another guy that could, I think, in little fits and starts could help them, but not tremendously. I guess it's just kind of like, is Kyrie a part of this long term?

Or is he going to be somebody that, a team that's close, is going to maybe take an interest in and decide to take him off of their hands. Yeah, and I, I'm not like guaranteeing that that happens, but I can definitely see it because it just makes a ton of sense. I don't think that the Dallas Mavericks need to make the plan. I don't think that that should be like a mandate this season. I think they're still in a developmental stage.

And you shouldn't rush anything, particularly with the team that, you know, they were, this organization was built around Luca to, not, they were pushing chips in to make finals runs around Luca for years. So they don't have a lot of draft capital. And so just trading Kyrie just makes a ton of sense for the future of the organization. And I think that they could get some valuable stuff for him if he looks right. So that's another, yeah, that's just kind of a big kind of component of getting them, putting them in here at 14. Bad, bad, but like on a lazy river with your feet up. Like league pass is going to be fun, low stakes. There's no expectations yet. Cooper's fun. There's going to be a lot of running and jumping

and dunkin. There's going to be a whole lot of late clock possessions where we're like, goddamn, we're dribbling into a crowd. Just come to expect that man. They're smart. They know, they know what's going on. That's me pantering to Mavs fans. All right, who is at number 13 for you, Pena? 13 is the Memphis Grizzlies. This is an interesting divergence for us because I have them much higher. But go ahead. Okay, so my first note on this is that I could have put them a few spots higher. It's funny when you do the tier system and you're like trying to make themes for the tiers.

So it was like, I can't wait to watch the Memphis Grizzlies. So they're hopeless league pass darlings to me. I will watch a ton of Memphis Grizzlies games this year. You look at the roster and some of the names range from, you know, intriguing to promising to could be very good. right away. I mean, Cam Boozer seems like, I think he's the favorite to win rookie of the year, and he's, you know, exactly my type of player. I'm really excited to watch him on the NBA stage. And I think that just, I guess, like, fundamentally turning the page on the John Morant era and everyone kind of getting a fresh start. And I think

that there's like a exhale that will happen this season. In addition to there's like real NBA role players here. There's Jeremy Grant is on the team. We'll see for how long, but he's like a pretty good player for the role that he'll be in. We'll see Cedric Howard in year two. Beef Stew was like an incredible rim protector last season. We'll see if Zach 80 can stay healthy.

I could go on and on and just like list guys who I like. I just like so many players on the team, and I think that they can play in a lot of different funky, like, four-guard lineups, or they could go jumbo-sized with, you know, beef stew. They have Quentin Post here. They have Boozer. They have Ead.

So it's just a really fun, high-variance team. I have them at 13 because their best player is probably a rookie, and that's just, you know, it's tough. Yeah. I mean, I think he's a special rookie. Yeah, I would flip a little bit on the league pass. I think they're hopeful because I think they have direction now. The thing that I wrote down here, the Beatles song that I picked for them was,

hello, goodbye. They're saying goodbye to an era. They shook the etch of sketch and kind of, you know, and sent off John Moran, sent off Jaron, sent off Jaronjian Jax, and sent off Santiago, and even John Kanchar, bless his heart, you know, RIP, John. And then, well, RIP in the league, did anybody even pick him up? Because the wolves waived him, right? I don't think they even kept him.

They waived him, and I am pro John Conchar, and not to be mean, but anti-Cody Williams. I did not understand that one. I think Conchar's better, like substantially. Yeah, I think, gosh, yeah, the Cody, we can get to all that. That seems to me like a sign that the jazz were like, all right, man, this Cody Williams thing, not happening. But I just think that the stability, I just think that, you know,

if you listen to draft shows, if you listen to this show or Summer League or videos I've made, I just think of writing I've done. I just think Boozer is one of those guys that instantly is a cultural context in and of himself. I just think he comes in

and he's going to set guys into their record groove and make things simpler for them in the way that he plays. He's not selfish. He gets off the ball and he's also pretty tough. I think he's a cohesive personality. And I think defensively,

they're going to be better than people think. I started to make a pain in the ass. Pain in the ass teams to play in the league. I was going to do top five. I only did four, but the Grizzlies were at number two. The rafters were at number one for me,

pain in the ass. It can't be daunting established teams that are like, you know, title contenders. It's got to be like maybe this team's not going to win, but we're going to walk away. Like, you know, our shirt is torn. I've got someone bit me.

What's that about? The Phoenix Suns are on there. and then the trailblazers are also on there. Just annoying-ass teams to play. That was my top of work. Do you have any additions to that? The first team that actually popped into my head, though, conversely, from an aesthetic point of view,

is, like, last year's Charlotte Hornets. It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're going to have to... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like, oh, man, we got to fucking really be on point defensively and pay attention and communicate, and it's like, I don't want to do that. And I feel like that's probably like a big key to their success during the regular season last season. Will you stop setting on weak side ghosts?

What do you just stop? Yeah. Stop making me talk to this person. No, I think that, you know, key additions, like you mentioned, boozer, beef stew big time. Kreme Lopez are going to bring along slowly. I think he's a little bit more of a longer term prospect. Jeremy Grant, like you said, came in. I think that another thing, too, you know, KCP went out as well.

I think that if Edie's healthy, there's a lot of potential for that. I know he's had, I don't think he's had a full season at this point, but he's one of the more effective rolling players in the rim. He's got a just really simple

but devastatingly effective post-up game. I don't know. I just think that, and you mentioned Quentin Post coming in. I think that what Boozer does, he's going to have a great impact on Cedric Coward, I think, too, is another guy that we should mention here. G.G. Jack.

and also Jalen Wells. They've just got a lot of pieces here. I think this team's going to be better than people expected. It's going to be a pretty quick reset, in my opinion. You're a Ken Spencer guy too, aren't you, Kyle? Yeah, yeah. I ribbed Zach Lowe about that when I included Cam Spencer in the sort of basic premise of who the Grizzlies are.

I like Cam Spencer. He's fun. He amused me in college because I was like, this guy is nuts, like what I would watch him at Yukon, but he's my kind. the nut. Like I, I'm competitive like that too, so I appreciate intense foods like that. I like it. Yeah, I love Cam Spencer. So wait, where did you have Memphis? I'm Memphis at 11. They're at the top of my, I have four tiers. I have a participation trophy tier. I have scrappy in a playoff series. I have conference contender and then title contenders. So I have four tiers. They were at the top of my participant,

I can't say that word, participation trophy tier. All right. We're at 12, I believe. We are at 12, yes. 12. There we go. So this is Tier 4 for me. I've called this tier.

You were serious about that. And number 12, we'll kick it off with the Los Angeles Clippers. Okay. The title of this tier, you know, talking thematically, were just detailing teams that just had, in my opinion, highly questionable off-season. And there are four teams in it.

Clippers were, I'm not even going to lie to you, Kyle. The clippers were a few spots higher when I did this exercise yesterday and I was going over it. And then when I saw the penalty, I was like,

there's just, like, we didn't even mention this before, but it's like, Tyloo. It's like, Tyler's got to be like, I don't, what,

like, I don't want to be here. What is going on? This is so stupid. This is pointless. Like, and, like,

I'm just going to wait for Nick Nurse to get fired. And then I'm going to go to Philadelphia. Like, that's probably already on his brain. So, I like the, I,

it's like, I kind of, you could sell me on the roster. I'm not even going to lie. I think that they have a lot of shooting. You know, I like, get them getting Rui Hachimura.

I like them getting Max Struce. Chris Dunn, I love, and he's not a shooter, but I just love everything about Chris Dunn, even though he's a little injury prone. I just think he's just one of the better in a league that's really increasing its desire to force turnovers. He's just a pro pro with that, and one of the more tenacious on ball defenders at the same time.

So I just, I love Chris Dunn. And Brad Beal is here. you know, off the bench. I don't even know. We can say that much. He's here, technically. And then I'm more, I'm just higher on Brandon Ingram than basically everyone on the planet. I forgot Brandon Ingram was on the clip.

Yes. So there's just, there's some stuff, there's some stuff to like. But I don't know, man. I just think it's like a totally, uh, I already used the word hopeless, but it's a truly hopeless situation. And I think everyone is, like, for sale to be traded. If you're the clippers, you just have to kind of see what the market is on everyone in your roster, really. And it's like, Brooke Lopez is here.

We'll probably be trying to trade Brooke Lopez. We'll see if he has anything left, you know? So I just foresee this barely looking like a basketball team in a few months. And that's just, it's a bummer. This is very much like the Simpsons Bart scenario where he just, everything about Bart must go. Like we're selling it all off. Yeah, I was looking at Ty Lou, a five-year deal he signed in 2024 that goes until 28, 29. Yeah.

Yipes. This is, when I was laying out the roster, I ended up with them at 14 just because that's more of a projection of what I think will happen. Because if you just sit down and look at it, it's like they have too many playoff. off-tested players to be worse than some of these teams at the bottom if they keep them. Like you mentioned Strues. That dude doesn't have any other gear than to be a maniac. You're talking about, you know, it's just a good, it's a good group on that front. And if the Kauai deal didn't go through, if it doesn't go through, I mean, there's no guarantee.

I guess I have seen anything today if that's come out about that. But if Kauai were just on this team, I mean, they'd be like, I was like, what's too high? They'd be like flirting with the eight seed. I mean, there's, there's enough bad teams for them to kind of step on to, to get to that range. The Beatles song that I wrote down, well, year-to-year movement, they got worse. Key Additions, Keith Wogler, Max Truce, Baba Miller. I like Bobba Miller. Probably have no clue that is, but I think he's going to be a good NBA role player.

The Beatles song that I picked for them was, there were two. It was, I should have known better. You know that song. And then another one called You Can't Do That. So those were the two. That was the side A and B that I picked for the Clippers. We've talked about them enough here. They're bleat.

So let's move on. Moving to number 11. Who do you have at 11? 11 for me is the Portland Trailblazers. Oh, sliding out of the playoffs. Okay. What precipitates this slide? I'll just say my, can I tell you my Beatles song?

Yes. I'm a loser. Is the name of the Beatles? Well, yeah, it applies to me personally. The Blazers are losers? You better. Barriers coming for your ass. No, I just.

You sure is. Do you see him slicing those tomatoes? He has a knife, Be careful. I did. Those were bloody tomatoes. Thick. C.C. I.

I have a lot of just like contempt for ownership here, and it's like clouding my ability to read the team. I think if you look at the team, the purported starting five for opening night of Jean Morant and Dame Lillard and Denny Avdi and just that the starting five makes absolutely no sense to me. We'll see how long that holds. But even if they, they do kind of alter it.

I don't get how Jamanant fits when you have Scoot, you have Drew Holiday, you have all these, like Dame is here, and it's like the 50th anniversary of them winning the title, and it should be good vibes, but it just doesn't feel that way at all. You know, there's some injury-prone players that they've brought back.

Time Lord is kind of really important as a backup five for them. and I I don't know Shaden Sharp got hurt that's bad he could be a pretty good player for them this season

and contribute a little bit of a punch off the bench so you know if I'm looking at it positively I think Scoot Henderson could be like a either sixth man of the year

or like a most improved player candidate I loved what I saw from him in the playoffs against the spurs but I saw from him in the playoffs against the spurs but I just, I don't, it's just like this is extremely vibe oriented for me, and I don't, I just, something isn't right here. From the coach having the, like the team option in year two, it's just, it's not, it's not going great in Portland, it feels like to me. Yeah, I mean,

it's really hard to escape the vibes, which are suboptimal, obviously right now. This was easy for me in terms of picking a song, a Vietal song, you never give me your money. It's the song that's on the, from the famous Abbey Road medley. Also, Taxman was on there too, but I prefer the first one. Year to year movement, I said worse. I just think in terms of the coheat, like even though you added a talent like Moran. Unquestionably. It doesn't make any sense.

Like just the fact, the fact that they have Dame Lillard, Scoot Henderson, and John Morant is just, addition is not always addition, you know. And these players spatially don't make a ton of sense to me. why would you disrupt the space that Scoot has kind of earned? If you're setting the table and you're like hoping and crossing your fingers that what we saw from Scoot in the playoffs was sort of a sign of what is to come. I'm not as like quick to jump on and assume that it's like implied. You know, I think we need to see some more from him.

It was great that he did that in the playoffs against such a good team. But why would you come in and disrupt it? Because Jha is arguably, if you asked me to pick a player that would like arguably be the worst archetype of player to, like, be next to scoot, to take that next step, it would be John Morant. Like, I think, you know, arguing about John Moran's ability to rehabilitate himself as a basketball player is like a separate thing almost. Like, it's just not, I don't know, taking the flyer on him in that situation.

And I feel bad for Denny, man. I mean, it's like Denny has done all this work to get himself to the point where he's grown in so many different areas of his game. and he also escaped pods from that Washington situation to greener pastures and more wide open road and it's like this is the situation. Granted, they're still going to be big and rugged. Like, you know, clinging is tough.

Hopefully if time lord is healthy, it just, you can't help but feel like it was a step. It's at best a step to the side. You know, maybe Dane can come in. And what do you expect from Dane in this season? I'm trying to be optimistic. and I think I am. I think that for a team that just could not shoot at all,

adding Damien Lillard, if he is healthy, one of the best three-point shooters in the history of the sport will be good. But then, you know, the thing about it is just like, so much of their identity was on defense, you know, picking up full court, just a lot of tenacity. And Damien Lillard and John Morant,

it's like you're fundamentally changing kind of what got you to be ascendant in the first place. And like you said, Scoot is like, he fits that mold. Like he's, he's there. He's a super duper athlete and brings it on defense and talk shit. And I just loved him going at Castle in that playoff series. That was like one of the coolest parts of the whole first round for me.

So to not reward him, with more minutes and a more firm ground to stand on with his role it was just like a total misstep and I don't get it so yeah bummer bummer for Portland

very much so I had Portland a little higher and I regret that after our conversation because it's making you realize that that was way too high actually but we talked about it I mean I said to you seven through 10 through here I know we said the same thing we probably say the same thing every year

on some front because that's just you're either you have the teams that separate themselves at the top you have the teams that suck at the bottom and then you're annually you it's it's not like you have clear you know line by line distinction between these teams that are in the middle because the middle's where you don't want to be in the NBA because you're lacking direction truly you have ideas of optimism this uh who's I had the blazers at seven I think that's too high but seven oh whoa shut up to I guess I was spinning forward some of the things that work for them than the playoffs, and I was being a little bit more optimistic, but the more, I guess there's a world where Jaws just not as much of a disruptive force.

We're assuming that he is. Everything that we're doing is predicated on the idea that he's like definitely going to play, definitely going to have the ball in his hands. We don't know for sure. We don't know how that's going to look. We don't know how healthy they're going to be. It might be better than we think. Who do you have at 10?

The Golden State Warriors. Okay. I have the words at nine. Okay, yeah. That's very fair. My Beatles song is yesterday. I think, like, I have them at 10, and I'll say, like,

the only reason I have them this high is Steph Curry and my extreme respect for him. And I think, like, the courage, Raymond duo is still when they were on the court last, year even, still positive on both sides of the ball and still, you know, machine-like and how they operate and so singular. And when Steph is right, he's still amazing. And I, you look at the rest of the roster and it's like, you know, they didn't really do anything dramatic in the offseason. It's just, you know, I don't know.

I don't have a lot of, I don't think anyone does have a lot of hope for what this team is able to accomplish, including Steph, including Steve Kerr. I think they'll obviously be, you know, high three point rate, probably maybe leave and lead the league again. And it's just like when Steph is not on the floor, their three point percentage just plummets. and their offense falls off a cliff. And so if he gets hurt again, which is definitely possible, yeah, the runner's knee last year that was just like,

they couldn't figure out what was going on because he's run a lot and he's getting up there in age and nearing the end of his career. If that happens again, they're kind of dead in the water. And Jimmy is lingering over all of this as well. Will he still be on the team

after the trade deadline? Will he come back and look like Jimmy? we're kind of waiting for the like tibode minutes to really catch up to him. And if they have permanently, it's just like, okay, this is a super sad situation. Or will he, as one of the hardest workers, come back and look like he did pre-torn ACL when he was like playing at an all-star level? So I don't know. I'm just not, I think that this is just going to be a very ho-hum team and not too much to get excited about. What do you think about them, Kyle?

I mean, they failed to make. I mean, the biggest move that I think is they did like a timeline reset, and I joked about this in a video that I made about this guy, Yaxel Lindaborg, is basically the course correction for what they hoped Jonathan Kaminka would be because Yaxel can shoot threes. He's a great passer. He defends multiple positions.

He's a 0.5 player. He's just, he's going to kind of correct everything that they hoped Kaminga would be. He's more 0.5 in his mindset than Kaminga probably ever will be. It's also older than Kaminga, which is kind of hilarious. But Steph was the only shotmaker on this? Yeah, no, it was wild.

On this team, and they did essentially nothing other than the Yaxel thing to help that this season. So I had it written down the two songs that I wrote down. One was pretty bleak. I wrote down The End, which is at the end of how you wrote. And then when I'm 64 was another one. I wrote down these MFs, our old AF. It's just tough, man.

I mean, like, you mentioned runners theme, man, which is Patelophen. I had to look it up. I was pretty sure it was, but Patel Ephemoral syndrome. I have that. It sucks. I hope, I hope Steph figured that out. Mine's never going away, though. Hopefully his, is him and Brain and Pain can figure that out.

Yeah, man, I just don't, the Jimmy thing at the deadline, I guess, is going to give them an opportunity to move them needle a little bit. But, I mean, what would even be the type of piece that would, he has a gigantic expiring. I wrote down that maybe if you're the Pelicans and you want to look at like, you know, okay, we'll take Deontes contract and then we'll take, but we want Trey Murphy and we give you some of those like 2030s picks. How willing are they to sort of like send more of the future out the door to claw to chance to, you know, get a little more out of the Steph era, which I think they've done, I think the spirit of doing right by Steph has been good. and you like to see organizations do that, but I just don't really know what's left. Jimmy's huge expiring is the only thing that I could see that could be like a, you know, a trade piece.

Yeah, I think, you know, he's eligible for this extension and we'll kind of see where that shakes out. They could have a ton of cap space this summer with Jimmy's expiring coming off the books. And, you know, they also have, like, we haven't even mentioned Chris Sperzengis and Al Horford, are still here, and they were there last year, but them being healthy, we'll see.

They're just, they're really old and injury prone, and it'll be cool if they were able to play. I think those guys are obviously, you know, they have championship pedigree, and they can space the floor at the five, which is really interesting. But I, yeah, I'm not super optimistic about it. And I don't know, I feel like they're,

the spirit, you're right, the spirit of, trying to continue to win around Steph kind of like is incongruent with like their actions I guess but you know neither here nor there everything has to come to an end and it's over and that's why I chose the end we also mentioned Moses Moody who they were hoping

would like develop brutal uh torn Fortellerton that's one of those injuries that scares the shit out of me man like oof I can't imagine All right, moving on, we are at number nine. I'm pretty positive. Yep. Yeah, you were correct.

How hard this is for me. Who's at number nine for you, Pena? I have the New Orleans Pelicans. Okay. Another team that basically did absolutely nothing this off-season. And, you know, they signed Benedict Matherin. That's pretty much it. So,

by the way. Just such a Pelicans move to sign that. I love it. It's just so upbringing. They are themselves. They gave him more money than Kaminga got. Shout out to Aaron Turner. There is a chance that

Jamal Mosley comes in. They change their head coach. He comes in. He establishes some of the winning habits that he did in Orlando. He gets everyone to play hard and particularly on defense. They had one.

of, if not the worst, transition defenses last season. And so if you have a coach who really preaches that and turns that around, that is a big, like, turn for your whole organization or your team, I think, from one year

to another. That's like a big part of the NBA right now. If you get back, you hustle, you can win games in the regular season. The other thing that I like, the other two things I like here are, you know, I'm a sucker for continuity. I know they said they didn't make any big changes, but even though they sucked last year, you have some interesting, talented pieces.

You're laughing at me. Sorry. And, like, they had bad luck. They were 12 and 30 in crunch time with a minus 20. Maybe bad luck, isn't it? But they were 12 and 30 in crunch time with a minus 20 net rating. That's the symptom. What's the disease?

You've mentioned two symptoms, and I'm like, I'm like, all right. I got something for you. Doctor. We need surgery. Let me get you something. I got you something. Dejante Murray. Okay.

Didn't have a point guard all last season really. You had Zion trying to do the point Zion thing. It was a total disaster. Fears was playing in lineups with Derek Queen and Zion that just were atrocious. And I know it's a super small sample size, but coming back from the Achilles, Murray looked like really good. and they were pretty good when he was on the floor. He shot the crap out of the ball,

particularly from the mid-range, probably unsustainably so. But I think just having him as a, you know, this is someone who averaged nearly 10 assists per game for an entire season one year when he was with the Spurs. I've always been kind of a sucker for him. I like his game. I think the Hawks thing was just like a kind of a reputation killer

that did not go well for anybody. but I like DeJante-Marie. I think he's still good and, you know, still in his 20s. So, yeah, if everybody stays healthy, I don't know. I mean, we're talking about a team going to the plan.

Like, it's just like that was terrible last season. So who knows? I think, like, the Derek Queen Zion lineups are like a total joke.

and I don't care who the coach is. You're just not going to be able to make those work. So that's an impediment that they'll need to overcome. Maybe those two just never play together. Who knows? Yeah, net rating. As I was typing away in the bullpen over here, Williams and Fears and Queen on the floor together,

388 minutes, net rating minus 15.1. That was worse than I expected. Yeah, not pretty. Not great. So, yeah, the crunch time thing, a little more order. Getting back, just like taking transition defense is hard to play whenever you're kind of running into like a spatial, just, I get a nauseating headache every time we're on the floor together.

It's just hard to like consistently buy in and sort of like try to correct bad offense with like exemplary transition defense. And so hopefully, hopefully they can, you know, make some ground on that front. It's a team that's talented. I had a much lower. I had the Pelicans at 13 just because I just don't. Yeah. Hey, fair.

Totally fair. You know, this is a team that the Beatles song I picked for them was, I'm so tired. Year to year, this was a push. Overall, I feel like, you know, you mentioned, you mentioned Benedict Matherin. They took some flyers here, Kobe Buffkin, Malik Dia, you probably know no clue who that guy is, crafty big. makes a ton of sense. If you got Zion and you got Derek Queen,

let's go get a non-shooting crafty big. Sure, sounds good. DeAndre Jordan signed to a two-year deal. It's a push in a bad way. It's a developmental bet. I mean, I assume that they think that, you know, Queen definitely had some ups at some point where people were like, oh, God, is this the next Yokic?

Little premature on that one. Slightly, slightly. Had some major downs, had some tough time. And fears, they're hoping, I guess, that he takes a step forward. I mean, you being on the, I think they need to make a move. I just don't think they can go another full season and not make one. They have some attractive pieces.

All right. So next up is number eight. Who's the number eight? So this is tier three for me. And there are three teams in this tier. I've called this tier, you know, we're workshopping titles here, but fun and feisty. Number eight for me is the, Phoenix Suns.

Okay. You know, one of the, I don't know if calling them a Cinderella story is entirely accurate, but I thought that they were going to be like a laughing stock last year. They were not.

I was wrong. Yeah, they played as hard as anybody. It led to a lot of wins and a lot of competitive basketball. They made the playoffs, which is like just stunned me. and they embraced toughness and hustle as a part of their identity successfully. So good for them.

And I don't even think, like, Devin Booker had that great of a shooting season either. So if he were to kind of course correct a little bit, Jalen Green missed a ton of games, which, to be honest, was probably one of the reasons that their defense was so good, but neither here nor there. Yeah. I don't know. The Miles Bridges trade was one of the worst transactions of the summer to... They clearly... Yeah. They clearly took aim at that position.

What's interesting is they added Coa Pete from Arizona, who is sort of architectically similar to Miles Brits. In terms of like a big mobile four, very dubious shooter, Miles was a little bit ahead of him as a rookie. Like, at that point, I'm like, Bridges has improved a whole lot. Like over the past season, he was 154 open catch and shoot threes. He shot almost 44% on those. So you're adding, I'm just trying to think of like what was the, because they clearly had that mindset. I think they think that Molo Watch is going to improve, which he's impressive.

Love him. I love him. He's going to be, I was probably a little low on him in that draft. I worried about his mobility, skill set kind of stuff. I just thought he'd be like, you know, deer on ice skates for a lot of his career. I didn't know if it was ever going to pan out. But it's looked good. And it looks like he's going to shoot it.

But it does seem like they took aim at that four spot. Is that just like Igadaro is too skinny? Like, are they trying to win more of the possession game? Because they were just turn over prone. Now, granted, everybody's turnover prone when they play the thunder. But they just could not take care of the ball against the, Thunder. What do you think?

Do you think that there was like a specific reason that they targeted those fours the way that they did? Or what do you think about the sun's off-season vision? Size was a huge issue for them. And just like Gers in the front court, absolutely. I still think that, like, I think Miles Bridges, that the three-point shooting number that you're kind of, that you brought up there,

I think is probably a little bit of a byproduct of the system he was in and the looks he was getting in Charlotte and having a lot of space to operate and a brilliant passer at point and he doesn't have those things in Phoenix and it's just a much I mean Dylan Brooks is like the blackest hole of black holes in the NBA

and it's just a definitely There we go. And I just think like getting rid of or not getting whatever like trading Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neill to capable spot-up three-point shooters. Grayson Allen more than that, I think he's like a very good movement three-point shooter for bridges and then also giving up the first, which is neither here nor there for this purpose of this conversation. But I just thought it was like an absolutely terrible terrible trade. And the last thing I'll say is they had a. a really spunky defense last season. They tried really hard. I don't think they'll be catching anybody off guard this season.

I had that written down to here. They had the best three. Yeah. And they had the best three point luck defensively in the league last year also. So if that reverts back to the mean, that could be trouble. So we will see with Phoenix. For those reasons that you just stated, it was hard to pick this, this, this order, like I said. They just kind of ended up at 10 on my list. Yeah, that's fine. That could be

wrong. We'll see. A song for them, here comes the sun. I didn't have one. I couldn't think of anything good for the, I was just like scrappy. There's certain themes in the Beatles that just don't show up, but you just start really reaching. All right, number seven, we've been going here. Let's, we can be a little brisk. Who's your number seven? So you texted me a few days ago asking me if I was going to make anyone mad. I think this is, this might be where I make people mad. I hope not. But seven, I have the Minnesota Timberwolves. Okay. Okay. There's a lot of talent, obviously. Made a huge swing this offseason, getting La Mello ball in house.

Paring him with Ant, I think Ant will benefit, absolutely. I'm not a Julius Randall guy. so losing him is not like the worst thing in the world, but I do think that they're a little undersized. They're front court, you know, they lose him, they lose Nas Reed in the Lemelo ball trade. And there's just a lot on Rudy Gobert this season, like a lot. I've watched La Mello Ball play pick and roll defense, and Rudy might murder him.

We will see. There could be an attack on the court at some point. this season. Those two personalities together is going to be something. And it's going to be doing a lot of mediation this year. Yeah. So. And so.

Yeah. So I don't know. Like there's the upside is obvious. Anyone can see that. There's a lot of talent, a lot of skill, a lot of shooting. I just,

I'm not a comming a person at all. And him just being plugged in at the starting power forward position. and, you know, saying that he's going to be fine, tapering his role and blah, blah, blah. I just, I don't know. I think this, he's, I don't know, I don't want to be, like, mean, but I don't see him as a winning player. I know his agent said that he was the most winning, and he had the biggest winning impact on the Atlanta Hawks last season. I was like, boy, it's getting ready to come next. That was like, the Warriors.

I was like, oh my. And cited on-off numbers. And like when you dig into those on-off numbers, it's like Atlanta's offense was markedly worse when he was on the court. And opponent shot like 25% from the corners on defense. And that is why his on-off numbers were so great. You always want a triple caveat stats.

I always catch that whenever I'm writing something. I'm like, I have five caveats for this. You should just have no caveats. If I'm really making a strong case, you know what I'm like? No, no, no, no. But if you do in third quarters on passes that were 20 feet from the opposite side, he is great. Yeah. He's great.

Now, it's a sample size of 20, but he is great. It's all shooting luck. No, man, I mean, like, it would have to go cataclysmically bad, you know, for them to be at this spot in the standings. But you're, I'm just kind of, I'm doing the, I'm seeing the Calgary. here of what you're thinking. And it's like, yeah, Nazarita is going to be a huge loss because he was a stabilizer,

culturally, dependable, played within himself to a great efficiency. Like, he expanded well and didn't overstep in a harmful way. That concerns me with Gominga. I talked about this on group chat the other day where we were saying, like,

what does he assume of this situation? If it were him coming in and he had, you know, a set compensation that was adequate, just the whole idea of him rehabilitating his value in the expectation that, you know, he flips it to a player option. And it's like, to me, that says, like,

I'm hoping to come away from this with a basketball image that has changed. Is he going to have the restraint is one of the biggest qualities that a person doing anything can have. But just, like, restraint as a basketball player can be a really great characteristic. And I'm just wondering, like, is he going to be able to balance? pursuing proof that he is a different player than everybody thinks that he is

and be able to do that with restraint. I'm skeptical. I don't know. I'm skeptical. Yeah. But I also would go, I think I would go somewhere

closer to the middle from where you are. I mean, I have them at three. I think that's also, that's also a function of the West is just not, there are a lot of caveats

in the West right now that like, teams or teams have not had things go well. We'll talk more about them as we go here. It's one of those you've got to pick somebody's situations. And I think that they have more, they have more guys that I believe in. You got you got Aunt coming back who's going to be healthy.

You got McDaniels who has improved. You got Rudy's Rudy. You know, I think Dissoon Moo will probably find his, he's going to wiggle his way in there and play a whole lot. Stephen Chindo, obviously, his situation sucks. I have them at three. They, to me, are in the conference contender. I don't think that they're going to ascend to like title contender, but like they're scrappy.

And if they make some kind of move, they're like a move away, I think from me interesting. Also added, you mentioned Cody Williams, Trey Liles' backstates side. They added Isaiah Evans. The team, the song that I picked for them, Isaiah Evans, pretty tough, tough movement shooter, decent size. Helter Skelter is the team. This team's going to be chaotic nights night. I think they're going to be really fun to watch. We'll see if that translates to chaotic Google.

or chaotic bad. Let's do number six. Who do you got yet? The wolves at seven. Let's get an interesting on the teams that are left. Who you got at six? I have the Utah Jazz.

The first time we've aligned on one. That's interesting. Oh, love it. There we go. I wasn't sure if this was controversial than this high in the guaranteed playoff spot realm. I just like love this team.

Probably would have loved them a little bit more if they still had Walker Kessler. But I was thinking about this last night and this morning about, I think I don't know if I am overrating Lowry Marketing. I think he is so good. And I'm dying to see him now on a team that is committed to winning. and doesn't need everything from him. He will not be the first option, I don't think. But that's not really like where his value is and how he impacts games.

And he's just so good and valuable as a seven-footer who is like a movement three-point shooter. And the assist numbers or whatever, but like it's a lead offense when he's on the court. and the spacing he creates he's actually like a pretty good versatile defender and I think that when they want to go big

which they can with Will Hardy who is also a factor here it's someone who I think is like people in the media are dying to vote for him for Coach of the Year I just want to push the button

exactly I think like you have a, you have like really intriguing lineups that they can play that other teams won't have an answer for because Markinen unlocks so much and with his shooting and his size. So I'm a big fan here. Darren Peterson is my pick for rookie of the year

and I'm really looking forward to watching his first season unfold. Love Keante George, who I've compared to young, I like this team a lot. I think their offense can be elite. Defensively, there's some questions, but I'm just really high on them.

Yeah. I think they're too talented to have below this spot. My thing has been, when I sat down and looked at it, I was like, I love their first five. Their depth to me is questionable to the point where I couldn't have them above this spot. Because I think I have some hesitations about point of attack defense. I have some hesitation about

getting downhill from the guard spot. It's one, they have honestly kind of feel like because Ace isn't a super big driver. Kiante has gotten better about getting in the paint. Peterson, I think, has some questions to answer. That was one of the biggest

questions about him coming into this. If he had been a consistent downhill driver in college, I think he would have been number one going away with, you know, in bold letters. Like it's no question. you know, Jaron Jackson can drive the ball a little bit.

I just kind of wonder about that. They're going to be offensively really, really fun. This is a team. The song I picked for them was getting better. It's getting better all the time for them. It's going to be fun for kind of the desert. I know part of Utah's a desert, but they've been kind of wandering in the

competitive desert for a while, and I think this team's going to be a blast. So, yeah, I'm with you there. Cody Williams is out the door like we talked about. Yeah, if they make one move, I know I keep saying this, but it just seems like if they can shore up some of those depth questions, it would have been nice if they could have hung on to Kessler,

but I think that the jazz are going to be a very fun basketball team. Number five, I think I know who the answer here is going to be, but who do you have it, number five? First of all, I had, Here Comes the Sun as my song for the Utah Jazz, because... That's really nice and tranquil and, yeah, just that's nice. Yeah, just want to throw that in there. Number five, so we're going into Tier 2 now.

I call this tier squint and you can see something special. Number five, I have the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a nice little giga lighted there. Yeah. It's like Salazar from Resident Evil. What the fuck was that? No, I did not have the Lakers there. I have the Lakers at eight, actually.

I had them much lower than you. why do you have the Lakers this high? Explain this to me. You know, it's one of those things where you're like in your head, you're surveying and analyzing the moves that a team makes during the offseason. You're like, well, they gave up a lot for Walker Kessler. Oh, they gave Mamu like four guaranteed years.

They're giving all this money. They gave way much more money than any other team in guaranteed cash. Stressing over the means as opposed to. just looking at the end? Do you think we're stressing over the means too much? Yeah, I think that as like a basketball team, and as someone who like, I just think Luca is, I feel like he's at this point a little underrated, which is so crazy to say, he is so, so good.

Like, he is an unstoppable offensive player. And we get a little bit hung up, myself included with, you need to surround him with X, Y, Z, or it doesn't really, you're not really maximizing him properly. And I think that sort of does a disservice to like his true greatness. I think that when you add,

I'm just like throwing really small minor pieces who might not even be in the rotation, but like Zadier Williams and Matisse Thibel, those are two players who are really caught my eye because it's clear to me that the Los Angeles Lakers defensively, their strategy is going to be, we're going to force a lot of turnovers and just let Walker Kessler clean stuff up in the back end.

And we're going to be super aggressive on the perimeter. And the whole reason for that is, like, we need just to have as many possessions. I mean, a lot of teams are doing this, of course, but we need to have as many possessions as possible for Luca. And Austin Reeves, who's also on this team, who is really, really good and efficient and gets to the line and all that sort of stuff.

And if you stagger those two and they're healthy, you're going to have an elite offense. You just are. So I think that the pieces that they brought in to compliment Luca actually are pretty good. And I think like when the bar is championship and, you know, we have these players and they're locked in and we don't have any more draft,

we don't have any more draft capital. And this is just what it is. It's you can get a little negative and cynical about what you see. But for the purpose, of this exercise, I'm like, man, the Lakers are going to be good. Like, Luca's amazing, and he has talent around him. So an interesting vote of support to your line of thinking while you were talking,

it's like, even though the star power is not quite as, although I say that the Beatles song that I picked was two of us because it's like it's Luca and it's Austin Reeves, those are the two drinks stirring, you know, creator talents on this team. I was thinking back about some of those early Mavs teams, and I was thinking about the like 2019-20 Dallas Mav team. They were first in the NBA in offensive rating. And, you know, just rattling off. If you look down through that roster,

I mean, granted, Porzingis was on that team off and on. But you just had guys, it was a cast of characters that fit the Luka template of, you know, it's Maxi Kleber, it's, you know, Dore and Finney Smith, it's, well, Ryan Brokoff, who I saw works for an agency now that, like, visual of him with an agency, like, works a lot better. He just looks, he looks like Vince Gilligan. I don't know.

Anyway, I think that kind of fits to, it fits the line of thinking that you're talking about here. It's just like, if you have Luca and you have kind of the pieces, the paint by number pieces that go with him, I agree with you that at times it seems like we hum and about who the best players in the world are. And Luke has just kind of been quietly sitting there the whole time of, I don't know what the actor comparison of that would be. It's just like, no, I think that, you know,

Daniel Day Lewis should just win the Oscar every year, regardless of whether he made a movie or not. I wonder about the Lakers defensively to be a serious basketball team, but I think they're going to be a good, confident basketball team on offense and the way that you're saying. It's very possible that they could be in, like, the top five of the league in offensive rating, just because an opposite.

Luka team is just hard as shit to stop. I feel like that should be the expectation and the non-negotiable character trait about them. They have to be a top five offense, I think. And they have to be, I think, like, they were league average and defensive turnover rate. You have to be, they're probably aiming to be like top 10, top eight in that category. I think that category is really important to dictate just how successful they can be this season. So, yeah, I'm just really high on Luca.

I love Luca. I think he's great. As do I. He's got talented pieces around him. Yeah, my son, when we were watching a game one time, Luca, like, yelled or something in my dad. And my son was really little at the time, and he was like, he looks like an angry bear, Daddy. I was like, yes, he does. Julian, good call.

I just thought that was a stupid. Number four in the West, who do you got? So, first of all, before I give you my team for number four, is there a Beatles song called You Never Give Me Your Money? There's a Beatles song I'll call that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, that is the Beatles song I have chosen for the Denver Nuggets. They are my number four.

That was my song for the Blazers. That was what I was saying. It's the... Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, I was definitely paying attention. It's the heavy road medley, Pina. You never listen to that. You seem very lukewarm when I pitched the Beatles.

It's like, I know it's not cool. No, I'm all for it. But, yeah. I'm all for it. I'm all for it. Yeah. So I have Denver at four. Man, I just wrote about them and, you know, talking about off.

Yeah. Oh, cool. And off seasons and, you know, the stink of kind of their audience. season and how they like simultaneously are cutting costs while being the only team in the second apron, which is like really hard to do and pathetic and how there's kind of squandering Yokic's prime. The guy still is like getting better and was playing his best basketball of his life last year before he heard his knee. And so look, they have Yokic. He's healthy. He's to me still the best player alive

and all things are possible with him. But you just need, I think the margin forever here is just incredibly small with regards to health and Murray staying healthy and still being like a really brilliant tough shot maker and getting back to

staying at all NBA status and making another all-star team and Aaron Gordon obviously staying healthy and just like their need to maintain his body throughout. the regular season and worry about it and try to keep it in tip-top shape for the playoffs.

And, you know, there's bounce back seasons I think are on the horizon for Cam Johnson and Christian Brown I anticipate. And I don't have like any, we talk about like elite offense. The Denver Nuggets had the best offense in the league last year. And I think that they

will once again. And they always have the best offense in basketball when Yokic is on the court, I don't think that'll change. I'm just like, losing Peyton Watson is just so stupid to me. It's not my money, but it was

stupid. And replacing him with Damar de Rosen is like I don't know, man. Lonnie Walker and Alpha Diallo. It's just so tough. It's just so tough. So I would have them higher. I would have them

at four. I would have them at four. I would have had them at three probably if they kept Peyton Watson and had a more active offseason than what they've done here. So, yeah, Marvin Bagley is the backup five, man. That is so hard to process for a team that should be really serious about contending every single season so long as they have Nicole Iokic. Yeah, I think we have another epic plus minus season coming. Like, all. on off season coming for Yokic because it's rough. You mentioned the key additions. There's a scene in Groundhog Day where Bill Murray,

he's like he has memorized the order of things. And he says, he goes, a dog barks. That came to mind. Like a dog just barks in the distance whenever I think about the, who the Nuggets added in the off season, because there's just such a reverberating absence.

DeRosen, we'll see. I mean, Yokic has a, of affecting players values he is that we saw him for a little bit rehabilitate russ and make him make sense for a while um like we said lani walker alpha the all um key departures here Peyton Watts and Jalen Pickett and then Jonas um it's just the bench is going to be pretty tough man um you mentioned the first five um it's hard to imagine well i'm looking at here i'm looking here it's like you you obviously have the rocket's pretty high we'll get to that but

Yeah, for song, I had help written down because that's what Yokic is going to need if these guys can't stay healthy. They're balancing so many tenuous things, and it's a frustrating time. I know to be a Nuggets fan. Yeah, yeah, the defense could be rough this year. Yeah. So, number three. You mentioned the Houston Rockets. I have them here.

Number three, I think bringing... How do you come out of that playoff series, Pina, that they lose to the Lakers without Luca Donchich, hampered. They lose to that team. How do you come out of that with the offseason with, like, no crazy upgrades that get Fred back? How do you come back with enough optimism to put them ahead of Minnesota, ahead of Denver.

How do you do that? I want you to answer that. Okay. Well, I would say in that playoff series that they didn't have Kevin Durant, who's their best player, and you saw without Kevin Durant, the wheels just fall off of this basketball team.

Even with Kevin Durant, though, dude, they were taxing him to the point of like an obvious input that was well below playoff competency. Fair, fair. But he just wasn't available, like he wasn't available in that series. really. Another player

who is truly fundamental to how they play and their identity and their toughness is Stephen Adams who was not available who got hurt in January and they weren't the same basketball team post that injury. So he wasn't available so he'll be back.

And I just think Fred I think Fred Van Fleet is one of the best force multiplying point guards in the NBA. You know, throughout his career, he's been, you know, 95th percentile for estimated plus

minus every year. And his teams are always better on both sides of the ball with him on the court. And I just think he is, like, particularly with what this team has. so mission critical in having all the pieces jill together and not having him last year and still being what were they like they were top five or six or whatever in net rating

and they had like really good offense and really good defense but you'd watch them and particularly in the fourth quarters and in crunch time just like yeah wheels fell off and they were very predictable and it was like one of some of the ugliest basketball you'll ever see at the NBA level frankly, from a team that aspires to win at a high level. And don't get me wrong. I have questions about this team and, like,

are the vibes roasted from everything that happened last year is one of them? So, like, yeah, maybe this is hopeless. Before, yeah, before I had the inevitable chirpers come and that was, my intro to Pina here was rhetorical, obviously.

They had a lot of shit happen. A lot of bad shit. I mean, Durant being, Durant was taxed as it was, like I said, I had it written down here. Let's see. He took a third in total minutes, I think, last season. It's like, yeah, it's crazy. Last season, nobody in the NBA took more heavily contested non-paint jumpers.

This is not the path. And he shot a lower percentage than he has in the past five years. You know, this is not a road towards helping him age gracefully. And, you know, with Freddie back. They obviously targeted some of this stuff. They lost Dodo, Doreen Phenny Smith. I think that's his nickname, right? Dono, did they call him Dodo?

It sure is. He gave them absolutely nothing, but yes, they did. Yeah, wasn't there. I think they were waiting for that to happen. It just didn't. But they obviously targeted that, like, just steadiness and varying degrees of that with who they got. You know, they drafted Bruce Thornton, who's just this, like, pint size.

Honestly, he's kind of visions of steady Freddie a little bit. Bogdan Bogdanovich, I don't know how much he has left. And then Marcus Smart. Just dudes who can, like, keep the car from not running off the road. I'm not saying that we're going to be like, you know, at Lamont, like, turning corners and like we got a we get we got that movie on the brain to show it to my wife you know that but it's going to be a little bit more a little bit more steady so at stephen adams it seems like um he's on track i don't think he's ready to be back he had a pretty serious

ankle surgery but another thing is like all the cumulative effect of these things it helps durant but it also helps shingoon who's not quite ready to be like a load bearing primary guy we saw the limitations of his offense which are the like left shoulder right shoulder throw it off the backboard, hope I get foul, just ugly stuff. And then, and, you know, that's going to help read too. So all these things addressing that need, I agree with you. I ended up with them at five. Okay. I expect the Rockets to be better. I think shooting coaches are like not wizards and, I mean, literal wizards, not Washington wizards. And hiring Chip England, people are like, oh, Chip England's here, blah, blah, blah,

like Amman Thompson's going to be Reggie Miller next year. That's not exactly how it works, but when you do talk to people who have worked with Ship England players, he does make some kind of a difference, and I feel like that is a positive for a team that severely needs its players to be able to shoot. Amman Thompson, who just signed right before we started recording a five-year $208 million contract extension,

which is really good for the Rockets, being that it's sub-max and really good for Amen, being that it's $208 million. Yes, I had them at five. If Adams were back, for sure, I'd feel a little bit better about that. But, yeah, I feel like the luck variance there could swing and put them above.

I mean, they could climb as high as three. I think that's extremely fair. The degrees aren't major gaps between three through five for me for those teams. But the top two are pretty unquestionable. But I guess there's a possibility that, you know, who do you have it too? Well, this is, you know, tier one, heavyweight contenders.

At two, I have the Oklahoma City Thunder. Okay, okay. I thought there was a chance you might go with the spurs there. Oh, my Beatle song for the Rockets was nowhere, man. That was just for Durant, by the way. That one's pretty. I couldn't come up for anything great for that. But did you consider?

going Thunder at one at any point? Or was it just, how did you balance out the two coming out of that? I mean, you don't have to like sell me on the Thunder. I mean, they're incredible. They have a reigning two-time MVP, who's the best scorer in the league, and they have one of the best defenses in NBA history,

and they probably still have the best top nine man rotation in basketball, I would say. It's fair. I think that when you factor in, if you are really glass-half full here, it's Jalen Williams coming back being healthy, A.J. Mitchell, coming back being healthy. Those two guys were in and out in the playoffs, and I think that that is a humongous reason that they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In seven, we should say. In seven. in seven. The reason

that really kind of pushed me to have them at second, in addition to my respect level for number one, is the fact that they lost Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, and Lou Dort,

and those might not seem like the sexiest names, but they lost a starter in Lou Dort, who is you know, one of the best on-ball defenders in the NBA. Isaiah Joe was their best shooter, and I know that he doesn't play in the postseason as much,

but is still really good. And a part of their depth, why their depth is so key. And Wiggins is just like a do-it-all, just super happy to be a, you know, CDA, Coach's decision,

DNP for like five straight games, then come in in an NBA finals game and score 25 points. And like, he's just a really good pro pro's pro. Really good culture fit. So I just think losing those three guys matters. And I don't think it's like the biggest, you know, drop in the world. But it's their better basketball team with those three players. and they had to lose them for financial reasons.

So that sucks. But the thunder will still be amazing, and their defense will still dominate. And, you know, if Alex Caruso can stay healthy, that's a big factor here, a swing here. I'm kind of expecting him to have, like, the, throughout his career because of how hard he plays, he always has these, like, freak injuries

that keep him out for a substantial margin. And he's talked about that. I've talked to him about that. Like, can only play at one speed, and it's insane. So if he can stay healthy, yeah, I think that they'll be really good, really, really good and could easily win the title.

So, yeah, I just have, I have them in two, I think largely because of what I think about number one and how terrifying they are. Yeah, it's interesting, you know, that they could be this good. I had baby you're a rich man down as my song for Sam Presti in particular, just because the song that's at the end of the social network. Great song.

He's just being met with unique problems based on the volume of great decisions that he's made over the past few years. And one of those was offloading guys who were a part of their title that they won in 2025. And, you know, Dort, like you mentioned, him going out, you know, it's amazing that they're losing those quality of players. And it's just going to be a season of them answering new questions because, you know, A.J. Mitchell is ascending. AJ Mitchell was, you know, another guy that was, in addition to Jalen Williams, you know, not a part of that series. And then you have Jared McCain coming in that they just sort of lucked into a guy they always love. So I think the combination of that and this season, something to consider, you know, you mentioned, you know, back-to-back MVPs for Shea. Nice move Clippers.

The Thunder played 294 games in the past three seasons. Shea has played 3,068 minutes in that time frame. You almost wonder in the pursuit of answering some of those questions with highly, highly talented creator players. Stylistically different, too. I mean, like, you know, Mitchell and McCain, same size, but very different like Mitchell, ball screen operator, lean score. McCain can play almost a step style of on to off toggling kind of movement shooting. he can, you know, play and pick and roll, get off of it, move off of some screens. I just think they have a lot of kind of things to answer.

In terms of their additions also, you know, they added a daimara. I don't expect Mara to be ready this year. It's probably a longer play. And then Bennett Sturtz and Otago away. Both of those guys, I think it's going to be a longer play. But I just, and then you also have Nicola Topich, who's had arguably the two worst first two years of any player. I mean, like you get cancer. It's just that it's awful.

So hopefully he's. ready to come back. He had a back thing too, I think. Am I misremembering that? He's had some biblical Job level stuff going on. And then yeah. And then Thomas Sorber is another guy. So they have a kind of a lot of questions to answer, but I still expect them to be good. I kind of feel like they're going to pace themselves, though, this year. Because I don't know. Or am I misreading that? I mean, the way that they play defense and like the discipline that they have, I think pacing yourself is kind of difficult, to be honest.

I still like the depth, and it's like they lost those three guys, but did you even mention Kaysen Wallace? Like, he's awesome. Yeah, I didn't. I love Kays and Wallace. Yeah. He was like there, I mean, he was the guy who I feel like Spurs fans were most afraid of in that series and was just, I think he shot like 50% behind a three point line, and he was just totally fearless, and he'll probably be in the

starting lineup, I would assume, replacing Lou Dort, which is a big deal. So more minutes for him. Another guy that could assume more mantle. They've got a lot of potential expansion among their guys they already have. Yeah, it's just a joke of a really good team. And again, like, if they win the title, zero people will be surprised. So how could a team be ranked ahead of them is kind of what we need to talk about? As we put a bow on this, how on earth, the song that I pick for the spurs is here, there and everywhere, which is just to represent Wimby, Victor Wimbenyama's fucking arms. He is a xenomorph. He is the freak of all freaks.

I expect him to be pissed off going into this season. That's a major factor. I think that they probably are going to come away from that finals that the Knicks justifiably won. They were the better team. They punished the Spurs every opportunity. But the Spurs probably look at this like, man, we got some obvious questions to answer. They went and they tried to answer them.

how well did they answer them? How much of a developmental jump are we going to see? To me, those are the obvious variables because they go and add Tobias Harris, Teres, James, Malik Brown. How are they better than the Thunder, obviously, to you, Pina? Well, it starts with Wembe, and you laid it out perfectly.

I believe he's the favorite to win MVP this year. He is the best defensive player I've ever seen, and he gets better and better pretty much every time you watch him play. Offensively, I mean, he worked with Akeem Olajuwon. He wasn't really with monks

this summer that I saw. He's actually like in the gym working on his post-bust. He's still, he's a basketball monk, let's be honest. Like, the team should wear a robe.

Yeah. So I just think like once this guy, in addition to, you know, having the three-point shot, once this guy like really is comfortable from like the elbow in,

and just has like his one dribble move that he'll go to and you cannot stop it, which could come this season. He's just like he'll be in the conversation for Best Player Alive if he's not already there in a lot of people's minds. And additionally, this team went to the finals, they were beat by a better team.

They could reasonably look at that series as one that got away though. And I think there was just a lot, of like internal angst from the San Antonio Spurs this off season and like the opposite of taking their foot off the gas as you said that the Oklahoma City Thunder might want to do I don't think the spurs are taking their foot off the gas I think that they brought everybody back and added Tobias Harris who was like the third leading score on the number one seat in the Eastern Conference last season and

the internal growth could just be so scary with them. Like if Dylan Harper takes a step, none of this stuff's linear, but if Dylan Harper takes a step, if Dier and Fox stays the same or even gets marginally better as an outside shooter and just like, you know, whatever, Figuish just gets better and stays healthy.

Stefan Castle is, you know, two years removed from winning rookie of the year and could be an all-star this season, and is just so awesome in so many ways. And I think that they answered a lot of questions about themselves last year. They have mental tough tests. They can play so many different styles.

They have depth. Everyone is like all for one, one for all. And it's like we're coming off a summer where Wembe had in some people's eyes like an embarrassing finals. And then he took a pay cut. I just think he's just going to destroy

everyone this year and there's nothing anybody can do about it. I think whatever you look at the arc of superstar players the way these things usually play out for the driven ones.

And just it's something I've gotten, I've been lucky to be able to do and this job is go back and chart those things and see, watch the tape and see the, you know,

not that you couldn't do anybody can do it, but if you look at like the LeBron's, if you look at the way the Jordans, it happens with the greatest guys is that we have this initial thrust of

this guy's amazing. Oh my God, he's so crazy, is he ready for this highest stage? And then you get this kind of other teams that are smart that have good players. They scheme, they figure out where the vulnerabilities are, they implement them. Once you get that initial return, usually the great ones give you a

just title wave response of like, I figured that shit out. I'm going to be very interested to see We got a playoff, we got a long extended playoffs of people scheming, smart teams, smart coaches scheming against Wimby. And he got that information back of just like, okay, they think this is my vulnerability defensively. You talked about him getting better and figuring things out. I'm going to be really interested to see.

I talked about him being pissed off. I'm going to be interested to see how he addresses those things because Wimby being pissed off is just going to have a determination to it. And you mentioned all the other things like the developmental bets about like Sipon Castle not going to hit the gas or not going to hit the brakes. Harper, I expect to get a whole lot better. He's going to be one of the best guard prospects in the league. I'm with you.

I still have them at number one. Tobias just adds a wrinkle of they don't have anybody that really scores in that part of the floor on their roster right now. And he's just going to give them in a more contained role. You said he was number three for the Pistons. You're adding that to like what your fifth spot in the hierarchy. We'll see how that affects Champany. You're really shoring some stuff up by Ed and Tobias, I think.

Yeah, he's like the Harrison Barnes upgrade, but they kept Harrison Barnes. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's just when you go to the finals and you're this young and then you don't lose anybody and there's like a real togetherness about this team, you know, they go to France, you see all the stuff on social media. Like, I love this team so much. I think they're truly special. I think the Spurs deserve

all the credit in the world for how they built around Wembe so fast. These are a lot of credit for that lottery luck. Yeah. No, they've given a job. I'm kidding. Well, yeah, for sure. But if Harper, we're talking about Castle.

I said Castle could be an all-star this year. Like, I think Harper will probably win sixth man in the year. But, like, you know, he could be an all-star. I don't know. Like, he could be like, it's time for me to be in the starting lineup actually by Christmas. Like, who knows? So, I mean, that dude is just like, he's so fearless and like unguaritable.

And he was doing what he wanted on the biggest stage on the planet. Like, he's so scary. I clip this out. I need to tweet that. I maybe even mention this on the line. There was a clip where I think it was at MSD where Harper had the ball isolated at the top. Like out near the hash mark, Josh Hart, incredibly physical defender on ball was on him. Harper starts to go by him.

Hart is fouling him basically from the hash mark almost all the way to like the foul line. Oji switches on to him. And then Harper just like spins and goes through him and scores over the top of him. And it's just, no, it was Sohan. It was so hand. A little bit of a difference in defenders there.

But it was just this dude, he's just unbelievable, man. And I'm excited to see where he's going to go from here. So that's the Western Conference for you there, folks. I know we went a little long, but it's the offseason. and we'll give you something to chew on while you're mowing the grass or doing the dishes or feeding your parakeet or whatever it is that you're doing. So we're going to be coming back soon and ramping back up, as we've said, with the content.

We got a lot of, we had a really fun thing about one change that you would make in the NBA. That is in written form. That is in video form. Peanut makes an appearance in that. I do. Tyler Parker is wearing a delightfully shitty judge's robe. I love how cheap that thing. Don't light a match within 20 feet of that thing.

I think it's going to go up. And the carcinogens, like, I don't know where we got that. Anyway, check all that stuff out and all the content as we ramp up. And we'll have more pods for you soon. Pina, good to see you. And I'll catch you guys. Catch you guys next time.