The Ringer NBA Show - The 2018-19 NBA League Pass Draft | Heat Check (Ep. 316)

Episode Date: October 8, 2018

The Ringer’s John Gonzalez is joined by Chris Ryan, Juliet Litman, Micah Peters, and Isaac Lee to draft all 30 NBA teams in order of League Pass watchability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get to today's heat check, let me tell you a little bit about our new Twitter feed at Ringer NBA. If you're listening to this podcast, chances are you love the NBA. Well, we just launched a new Twitter feed for Hoops Heads just like you. It's at Ringer NBA. It's a one-stop shop for all things basketball from NBA news and analysis from the Ringer crew you know and love. To all the best highlights, both on and off the court as well as rumors and gossip, it's like a 24-hour edition of sources say, which, frankly, one of my favorites. I would love to have 24-hour sources say.

Plus, join our new Facebook group, Ringer MBA, which is a place to connect and talk hoops with like-minded fans, as well as Ringer staffers. Again, follow us on Twitter at Ringer NBA and join our Facebook group Ringer NBA. And now, Heat Check. Welcome to the Heat Check podcast. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, joined per usual by my man, Iceman, Isaac Lee.

I hope you had a good weekend. You were assembling furniture. This is what I was doing. That is less fun for you than talking. about the NBA, the NBA is back. So his heat check will be here every Monday. We want to remind everybody, first, I want to say thanks for listening. Second, we want to remind everybody if you don't mind. If you want to give us a review and rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast, that would be greatly appreciated because we've got a lot of good stuff for you.

We've got some good stuff NBA-wise on the ringer.com as well. We're blasting through our best case, worst-case scenarios for all 30 teams coming through the home stretch. We've got number 11, the Denver Nuggets by Haley O'Shaughnessy. That's up on the website. site right now as well as number 10, the Indiana Pacers, done by Palo Esco blog, and number nine, the Milwaukee Bucks, that's Danny Chow. Also, I wrote a story about the Lakers. I'm all in on the Lakers, Isaac, for this season with one caveat. They fool me every year. You laughed at me last year for being all in on the Lakers, and I was wrong about it. I was premature. I was off by year. This year, I'm in with the exception of their big man issue. I'm not sure what they're doing at

center. I wrote about that. That's on the website. Isaac is less bullish as a Clippers fan on the Lakers. Less bullish is probably a charitable way of describing it. I'm hoping they're bad. I don't have any objective analysis. I just hope that they're not good. I believe that they will be good. At the very least, though, even if I'm wrong about them being good, I believe that they'll be entertaining because I don't know how they couldn't be entertaining

with LeBron and that cast of characters. But we're going to have all kinds of Lakers content for you on the ringer and on this show. But we're in that weird period in between as the preseason lurches forward and we're all kind like tired of it. And, you know, we're waiting for Jimmy Butler News and there's nothing really happening there. And there's been a couple injuries like Dejante Murray, which is unfortunate. We feel bad for him. But we're waiting for the regular season to start. Next week, we're in this sort of purgatory period. So we're going to do something a little bit different on today's podcast. We're all big NBA fans, obviously. We all have league pass. We all like to root and watch

different teams that are maybe outside of our purview for different reasons. So for the first time ever on Heat Check. We're going to put together a bunch of guests and we're going to do an NBA League Pass draft and we're going to see how that goes. So we're going to bring in a bunch of superstars and we'll start it now. All right, joining me in the studio

two of our favorites from sources say Juliet Litman, an original Heat Check member and Chris Ryan is here and we were about to start up this League Pass draft which we will get to in just a second and all of a sudden Sham Sharnia from the Athletic blew up our Twitter feeds and also potentially this pod

reporting that the Sons have fired general manager Ryan McDonough comes out of the blue firing a guy right before the season. I had said multiple times that I was wondering what his job status was just because the Sons had, there was that period a couple of years ago where they were going three wide with their guards where they were pretty good for a second. Yeah, Bledso, Drogach, and night, right? Yeah, and then they got bad, and then they were really bad,

and they've been bad for a second, and I was wondering what was happening with him, but it didn't seem like he was in danger until potentially the offseason. Yeah, and also, like, Aiton looks good. Like, Devon Booker's still, like, practicing and everything. It's not like the Sons are in a horrible position. It's seem like they're like, you know, they're two years away from being two years away, but that's fine.

Feels like Robert Sarver doing Robert Sarver things. That was always going to be the tension in the sons is that they have an owner who likes to kind of go cowboy sometimes. And Ryan McDonough has been in this spot where he's a pretty young GM, who's been on this five-year rebuilding train for like a long time now. But there's always been these whispers about, oh, they're going to go after Kyrie,

they're going to go after Lamarcus Aldridge, they're going to go after a big star. They want a big star. They Sarver wants a star. And I wonder whether or not this has something to do with Jimmy Butler. Like maybe they took a couple shots or didn't want to get off of some of the assets

that he has for Jimmy Butler. Something obviously went wrong here pretty badly for it to happen so close to the season. Surprising to me, Wode reporting that James Jones and Trevor Buxstein will be the interim GMs. Like in the James Jones Jones? James Jones will be the interim. Are they going to get in the LeBron sweepstakes?

Is James Jones the luckiest man of the NBA? Or the most pleasant is the other option? All of a sudden it's very Sixers vibes coming from the desert from Phoenix. But he also reports one candidate to watch long term, Kevin McAil. Oh, interesting. So I don't know what's happening in the desert. I don't know what's happening with Phoenix. they were already going to be one of my very interesting sneaky league pass watches.

Front office drama doesn't generally translate to that, but drama in general does. Sure, yes, sure. Kevin McHale. Has he been seen since he and his wife attended the Trump rally? I was going to say not since his MAGA outing. Yes, I think he's been in hiding since then. Has he not been on TV since then? That happened late enough.

That was post-TV, right? Like post-season, wasn't it? I think it happened in the summer. I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that'll be something to monitor. The Phoenix Suns. I want to bring in yet another person who will be joining us for this draft.

Michael Peters is here. Michael, what's up? Going on Gons. We're going to do the League Pass draft. I'm very excited for you to join us. Perhaps you will take the Phoenix Suns now that they are GM-Less. Who knows what's going to happen. But for the first time ever, we're going to have a League Pass draft.

We love League Pass. We love the NBA. It's coming up fast. So here's the draft order. It's going to be Juliet-Litman, then Micah. then our very own Isaac Lee will draft third. Chris Ryan and I will bring up

the fifth position. We'll each draft six teams. We'll take like a minute or so to hash out why we pick those teams. We'll have a quick conversation about it. On to the next, everybody will have six teams and then we'll declare a winner.

Initially, we're going to have Isaac to clear the winner, but he's also drafting. So we'll do it. We'll crowdsource it. We'll do it together. Question. Yeah, tell me. Where do the Lakers fit into this?

Because I just want to say they're blocked out very often on my league pass here in Los Angeles. Take out the fact that we're in Los Angeles. Just throw them into the next. So Juliet Letman, without further ado, you've got the first pick. I'm so nervous. Okay.

It's very important. With the number one pick and the bringer I'm a show. I'll do the Adam Silver. Okay. With the number one pick. Pretty good. And the league pass draft. Julia Litman selects the Utah Jazz.

Whoa. What? I thought that was going to controversial. Bruce Bakeoff of the NBA. What are you doing? This is Anthony Bennett. Right out of the game. This is Anthony Bennett.

Isaac, that's so rude. It's not Anthony Bennett. Here's why I've selected the Utah Jazz. Tell me. The point of league pass is to be able to watch the teams that you're not going to get on national television. And you want to like check in with like on the regular but not necessarily devote like your Saturday night prime time, your Thursday prime time to. But you want to be ready for the playoffs. And the jazz are going to be like a sneaky fun team the entire season.

they have Quinn Snyder, who's like probably the most confident man in the NBA, and they've got a good team. I think they're going to be good. And like when it's time to like jump on the jazz bandwagon as like you don't want to play them in the first round of the playoffs, I'll be ready. You will be ready. You also just, you don't want to miss when Grayson Allen is just throwing people in arm bars. That's a reason to watch the jazz. Here's what's going to happen.

In April, we'll be like, oh yeah, you know, it's time for the playoffs. I've really watched a lot of jazz. And Julia will be like, I have. And now I'll be like... What's the point of league pass, if not that? Weird convo, and then I walk away. I had the jazz down as one of the teams I might get on the rap because you know I love Ricky Rubia.

I call him rec. You know I love Donovan Mitchell. I call him Don. That's another reason. Donovan Mitchell is like one of like the rising faces of the NBA. You want to be where the stars are. I like your rationale. It's good.

Right out of the gate throwing curveballs. The Lakers are going to be on national TV constantly. The Warriors, I'm fine. Don't mean when Demarcus's cousin is back. Like, I don't know. Yeah. I hear you. Micah about to blow our minds with a Denver Nuggets pick with number two.

I don't know what's going to happen next. No, I thought very strongly about that. But then I decided to just be a, can I be a homebody in St. Pelicans? Of course you can. They're not on national TV very often. And on top of that, they added Alfred Payton and him and Drew Holiday and, you know, Anthony Davis being, I mean, like, probably a defensive player of the year type player.

They're going to be impossible to score a bucket on. So maybe they continue the momentum they had last season. maybe not, but I would like to see all of that progress. I feel delirious. Is this what Danny Ane feels like every summer? I understand your rationale. I understand Juliet's rationale. I'm blown away by this.

This draft is not going at all. I don't think that we ever do these drafts and don't overthink it, and try not to be too smart with the first couple of things. It's never overthank things, especially not on heat check. I like it. You know, last year the Pelicans, obviously one of the surprise teams, and they got to the playoffs and did terrible things to my adopted team,

the Portland Trailblazers. You're fraudulent adopted team. I like everything about that experience. We'll get there. They're still on the board. I like the way that the value is setting up for me as we funnel down to the fifth pick. Seriously.

Isaac, Lee, you're up third. Do the clippers, Isaac. Keep this going. No, I'm actually not going to do the clippers. I'm going to select the Milwaukee Bucks. Fuck! The Milwaukee Bucks with Janice, obviously, a superstar, probably one of the best players in the East.

New coach and Mike Budenhozer, I like the bucks. Janice, I don't know. Here's the thing. What's the ceiling on Yannis? They put this team together as like everybody's long. They take up the entire court and then they gave them a coach that was like everybody stands close together. And it's like there's no space on offense or on defense.

Defense, it's fine. They choke everybody out with like the way they play defense. But on offense, there was just like this boring high post playmaking going on. And the stuff you've seen just in preseason of Yana's driving and kicking and all these misdirection screens they're running. I'm not even like that big of a playbook head,

but you can see it just like Ilya Sova has like eight seconds to shoot a corner three out there. I'm all far. The bucks were also very high on my list for one very simple reason to go back to Mike is like, let's not overthink it. It's Yonis. He's so much fun to watch.

Yeah. Like full stop. And then yes, I would like to see what's going on with Budenholzer and his new system and whatnot. But just Yonis is enough for me. Whenever he's on, I'm watching.

It's a great pick. I want to make two counterpoints. Please. Coach Bud is responsible for, like, one of the most boring, successful teams in recent NBA history. But he never had a player as good as this or is exciting. Okay. Fair. Fine.

What's your second counterpoint? Two, at the beginning of last season, I was like, Janus is the rest of this season. Like, it's going to be a great season with Janus. And then he kind of like peaked a little bit. Like, Janus, it's about skilled development at this point. And if he's just like being his sheer athletic Greek freak self, I don't know if that sustains you a full season of week. So you're not really encouraged by the couple of three-pointers.

he was just Walker and cross half cord taking during free season. I'm so over like offseason, look how good I am footage. Like, show me that off season in the club at the beach club in Croatia. Don't care about you shooting with no one guarding you.

Everyone in the NBA can do that that's why you're in the NBA. He came out of the gate super fast last year and he did kind of like, in terms of our, remember we did a piece about him being like in the MVP conversation what are we want from MVPs and then we were all like,

oh, right, yeah, the bucks aren't maybe as good as we expected. But I think this year promising could be the next step. be shooting throughs, who knows what happens. Chris Ryan, a lot of interesting teams still on the board. If you do what I think you're going to do, I'm just going to have to make fun of you. Carry on. The Toronto Raptors.

Oh, interesting. I watch League Pass. Fascinating. I don't watch League Pass for wins and losses because those just happen in whether or not you're watching or not. Like NBA, it's about accumulation. It's not about any given night you beat the Pacers or something like that. So basically what I'm watching for is I want to see that intertextual narrative play out of a team. So you want to see like how is Kauai settling in on this team?

Is this team better or worse without DeMarro Rosen? How are the fans taking to a guy who might only be a one-year rental? What's Kyle Lowry feeling about his best friend being in San Antonio? All these things. Also, Nick Nurse, a lot of early reviews about like his offense and how it's going to change the Raptors. I want to watch them change. And I'm kind of fascinated by like how this whole experiment works out. And so I'm going to go with the Raptors.

For the first time ever, this is one that I can. I can get behind because for the last couple of years, I would have been like, I'm good on Toronto. Like, you know, like, they're the team that they were going to be good. Yeah. It's definitely one of those situations where it's just like, don't ever talk to me about Toronto again after like. Yeah. But now it's different. Yeah.

And now I'm cool with it. Now I'm like, oh, yeah, I want to see all the things that Chris was just talking about. I want to see what Kauai looks like. I want to see if they can be like, is this finally the year with LeBron not in the conference that the Raptors can get through and get into the finals? And what would that look like? Those are all interesting storylines to me, and storylines are a massive component for me on League Pass rankings. I love that you took the Raptors because that sets me up for two picks. And I cannot believe these two teams are still on the board.

This is insane. I invite you guys in and you give me gifts, and I appreciate it with my first pick. Not surprising. Sixers. 10-9-8-76ers. I mean, how were they still on the board first? I just got banned on the Ricky for doing that. I mean, yeah.

Oh, you're on a minute. Like join Kevin O'Connor. He'll never be on the rookie again. The Sixers talk about storylines. I mean, is NB ready to take that next step? What's Ben Simmons going to look like in his second full year? Markell Fultz? What's going on there?

I mean, how do we feel about Cuban yelling, shoot it, shoot it? A little bit much. Yeah. A little bit much. Mark Cuban, go away. Take a time out, buddy. See ya. Yeah, I think we don't need Mark Cuban right now.

For those of you who didn't hear about this in China, the Sixers and Mavs played a game. And Mark Hell Fultz had the ball in the corner, and Mark Cuban, according to ESPN reports, was screaming at him, shoot it, shoot it. And instead he dribbled in, took two dribbles in, and took about a 12-footer. I'm rooting for Markle Fultz. I hope it works out for him.

I'm still not, like, I'm undetermined. I don't know what to expect from him. There's a lot of question marks there, but from an aesthetic standpoint, that's a fun team to watch on the court. Their uniforms are fun. The court is fun. The experience is fun.

I don't know if you guys know I'm from Philadelphia. I'm all the way in. on that. Their broadcast team is excellent. Shouts to zoom off. I'm in. I'm in on all things, Sixers. Another thing that I'm in on all things, I just wrote about this for the ringer.com, how did the Lakers last till number six?

LeBron James is in Los Angeles. Rajon Rondo is here. I'll take them with my second pick, by the way. Rajon Rondo is here. Javelle McGee is here. Lance Stevenson, Michael Beasley. You've got Ball and Ingram and Luke Walton's got to figure out how to put all these guys together and like, what does this make?

Is this going to be a good team or a bad team? It's definitely not going to be a boring team. I think that this might be the most interesting team, the most entertaining team in the NBA. I'm interested in the Rondo makeover, weirdly. That to me is one of the more interesting Laker storylines. Like Rondo went from like hot head. Kevin Garnett needs to like come get his man to future coach, which I think is awesome. And like is like real credit to Rondo.

I'm sort of curious to see if he can sprinkle his magic on Lanzo ball and how that goes. All of it. I'm going to watch so much Lakers basketball that I'm going to watch the Sixers and the Lakers I'm going to be quite happy. It's going to be like 1983. Give it all over again. You'll listen to Van Halen. I'm watching Julia Serving and Magic Johnson.

It's just like the trade. They had podcasts back then. That's amazing. Are you excited for the Lakers? I mean, like, yeah, I'm excited for the Lakers. The prospect of LeBron, like, a drive anywhere from my house is, I mean, like, exciting on its face. I mean, so.

I'm dying to run into him. Like, I'm just like, I will change my life to, like, go to Avotrassante more often, if that's what it takes. When you say run into him, do you think then you'd be like, What's up, Juliet? Yeah, I just want to see him in the wild. I don't have the picture on my phone. Yeah.

Do you find, Chris and I were talking about this right before we started the pod, the Lakers don't start until Thursday. The NBA season starts next Tuesday, then it goes full swing Wednesday, and then the Lakers have the national game on Thursday. I think they want to control. In Portland, not even in L.A. But they're like pushed it back to, yeah, it's in Portland. They're not even playing at home.

I just thought it was a weird start. I think they want to try and run the week. They have like a couple of days there before football starts on Thursday night. It's weird that they're putting it up against Thursday night football, but yeah, I think they just basically want to have as many nights in a row that people are like forget NFL. It's also kind of like, I think smart. It's like the anchor of

what we can offer you as LeBron, but like what many great appetizers we have before you get there. A lot of things. All right. I'm off to an excellent start. Chris, you're back up. Seven pick. Seven pick. Goes two. Fuck. You're going to do it. Do it, man. The Boston Solvics. I knew it. Yes. You're definitely banned now.

Well, I have a couple of other picks here that I was thinking about and there's one that was actually higher on my big board than the Celtics, but I think A, know your enemy. Keep them close. And B, if there are at all, anything goes wrong, I want to be there to bear witness. Oh, yeah.

The first time that Gordon Hayward gets benched in the fourth quarter, the first time that Marker's smart, like, flips off Kyrie Irving, the first time that Brad Stevens doesn't draw up a great ATO, I want to be there. I want to be on the front line. This is kind of like my Spanish Civil War. I like this about you. I want to be in the Lincoln Brigade following along.

You're the Georgia Orwell in the 2018-19 Boston Celtics. Yeah, I will be there when in Paradise Falls. Right on the front lines. I had mentioned this. We now have the... Are they going to win 70 games? Like, I want to see how good they can be. They're going to be really going to watch all the Sixers games.

You know what I mean? And I'm probably already going to watch all the Lakers games. I'm talking about the teams that I'm elevating. I actually didn't watch a ton of Boston last year if I can help it. Like, I'm not here for... What I am here. for is Jason Tatum not getting enough minutes because there's too many good players. And his development's stunting.

I brought this up to... And then being like, you know what, it's... I'm taking a gap year. I'm going back to Duke. That won't happen because Tatum and Irving have the same agent. And to make sure Irving stays, they need to play Tatum a lot. I think Irving's giving up some of his leverage, though, right? They have a lot of announcing constantly that he's resigning.

Has Kyrie ever Irving, like, really stuck to his guns on his principles? That's true. That's true. Or back to the Earth being around with that guy. Did he actually say That he said he's sorry that he said it I don't think he said he didn't think it was I mean like in effect

That's the same thing as saying like I'm sorry that y'all got upset Because your third eye isn't open Like is more or less I mean like he is rocking the revolutionary The Scruff right now I love it I love the look It actually is a fire look

I love the lot of lot I love the look They've got a lot of things going on I wanted one more quick point Then we'll go to Isaac I brought this up to Shay last week And he said NBD And I was like

I don't know it might be a D what did we make of Gordon Hayward saying last year that he was like part of him didn't want them to succeed because he wasn't a part of it. Not a winner. Could be trouble in paradise. That's all I'm saying. Disease of me.

Seriously. Disease of me. Isaac, you're up for your next pick. John. Yes. I'm really sorry. I'm going to have to break your heart. All right, do it.

Oh, no. I'm taking the Portland Trail Blazers. That's okay. It stays in house for the Heat Check podcast. Yeah, listen. Heat Check fam. Yeah, listen. The Blazers, I'm,

to watch for the tension between CJ and Dame. You know, one of them is going to have to leave eventually. We've been talking about for years now. Like, I want to watch them fall apart before my eyes. This is raw. I don't like them being in your team now because I would have picked them for all the earnest reasons.

I like watching their back court. I like, again, the uniforms, the aesthetic. I like the modus center. I like the way that the crowd gets behind it. These are all incredibly important lead past things. We're not really talking about this enough. They play high scoring close games. Yeah, it's fun to watch them.

nice to watch. They have a good crowd. They have dope uniforms. Yeah, all of that. Like the Pacific Northwest basketball deal? Yeah, man, give me that. The pistons until like the last three or four picks is because nobody goes to those games. The clippers might go undrafted. We don't know what's going to happen. Portland fans are pretty charming. For the most

like Chip on their shoulder fan base, they're one of my faves. They do. They get after you a little bit because if you don't like them. And Lazzick, I feel like you're going to get some heat for that. Blasers fans. Shout to Ian Carmel who came on the show. That's true. I like the Blazers's fan base. I like the Blazers in general, I just think the narrative is compelling as well as the basketball.

That's all I'm saying. I think that Portland fans are also way better than Raptors fans. Like in terms of... Whoa. It's fine. Raptors hate fans. Hate me already. Just in terms of the chip on your shoulder factor. Give me Portland. We should do a fan-based shoulder chip ranking. Oh my God. That'll be next.

I think Portland, Toronto are one and two. That'll be really high. All right, Micah, you are up, my friend. I'm going to go with another weird pick. I like it. That's why you're here. Exactly. Well, I'm going to go with the different nuggets because I just like watching Nicola Yokic the most out-of-shape, competent basketball player, like throw elbow passes.

Also, I enjoy Gary Harris and Will Barton just kind of firing themselves out of a cannon. Yeah. I'm choosing League Pass games because they're games I would not normally be able to or would not watch otherwise. Yeah, and Micah picks, has got a good pick here because one of the most important things when you're home on a Tuesday night and it's like 9 o'clock and you're like, why? am I watching this is because Nicole Yokage might make a no-look pass

from anywhere on the court that makes it like worth watching. I still will not forget the Rising Stars game that I actually saw at All Star Week in New Orleans where he went between his legs and bounced it and elbow passed it down to the low post. I was just like 6-11 people don't do that.

Shouldn't be able to. Also I'm here for the kind of doughy superstar. Like I like that. Like I like the dad bod superstar dudes who and I love a passer. So you put those two things together. Amazing. One more thing that I like, Isaiah Thomas is there. That's true. Like, that's still a thing. He's still in the league. That photo of him, like, laughing on the way of the basket past Yokic is still making the rounds on the internet. Still out there. We are back to Juliet Letman.

With a 10th pick, I select to Thunder up with the Oklahoma City Thunder. I was wondering when we'd get to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So no, Andre Robertson, which is a massive blow to both the Thunder and the Ringer, because the Ringer has an inordinate amount of love for Andre. I met him once, as you know, very nice guy. Yeah. Wait, was that when you were out at True Food Kitchen? True Food Kitchen, that's right.

They also are missing Russ for a little bit, though. How does that affect your love of thunder, all things of thunder? Because you're like our resident OKC enthusiast. Totally. I'm excited. I think this is going to be a good season for Paul George. There's no emotional decision weighing on him

so he can just focus on playing basketball. He looks pretty good in preseason. I think that actually will be really good for them for him to carry the team through the beginning of the season. and he's really good at basketball. It's put up or shut up time for him too. Because it was like, first it was coming back from the leg break, then it was the turmoil in Indiana about him leaving,

then it was the thunder or the one-year rental. Are you going to stay or you're going to go? He's finally home and healthy. So it'll be really interesting to see. Also, we'll get to see him as the number one option. Which is going to be pretty exciting. We haven't seen that in like four or five years. Yeah.

And I think he's really, he's really good. I'm fired up. I think big year for him. I hope so. I really do. I think so too. What are you out on Dennis? Every night, Dennis.

I think that Schrooter is actually like a good Oklahoma City player. I think that he will be like a really service ball. I think he can actually play with Russ sometimes. I'm looking forward to it. If they get healthy, which is a big if because Roberson obviously had to go back in for more stuff. This is probably the deepest thunder team that we've seen maybe ever, but like probably since like the peak of K.D. Russ and Hardin. because they've got Patterson, Ferguson, Schroeder, and Noel on the bench, which is just like interesting at least. Yeah.

And TLC is out there now. Yep. So it's kind of like an interesting squad. And Jeremy Grant playing four, it's going to be fun. With my 11th pick. Please. Continuing the look towards being ready in the playoffs to be well-versed in the most important storylines, I select the Golden State Warriors. Fell to number 11.

11. We're sick of them, but here's the case for the Warriors. Yeah. Kevin Durant. Is he staying? Is he happy? Is he unhappy? Is he getting enough touches? Is Jamon Green yelling at him? Like, what's going on with KD? I think just for, he will be the biggest pre-agent, probably, of 2019. So, safe to say. Got to keep up with Friend of the Ringer, Kevin Durant. A lot of Nick's rumors for him. I think that this, I just want to pause real quick to underline that they fell to number 11.

It's not just, I think, ringer fatigue. It's basketball fandom fatigue. It's basketball reporter fatigue. I mean, like, we know what's going to happen when the five. finals roll around. We're going to be in San Francisco, the Bay Area, Oakland, until they actually move over to San Francisco. But we're going to be in the Bay Area again. It's the kind of a jimony that brings out like fatalism in sports writers. It's just kind of like, I'm not actually writing about basketball and writing about mortality. Yeah. It's like how and how much longer can this go on? Because there is that, okay, do they unplug Katie? Does Katie unplug himself and go somewhere in the offseason, like, how much longer can this go? Because the inevitability kind of

wears on you. It feels like this could be the last year. That would be nice. Look, it's been an amazing run, but just the fact that we basically have like two leagues, it's like the Warriors and then everybody else. Or the Warriors, and if you want to fold in the Rock, it's, you know, who knows what ends up happening with LeBron, the Lakers, if he adds in somebody else. But it's really the Warriors and everybody else. And it kind of like, it sucks some of the fun out of it. A lot of the fun. Sure. They're going to win the title. That's going to happen. Yeah, I like that prediction. Back to, what do we got, Micah?

Yeah. Okay. I'm just going to go ahead and take the Houston Rockets because I like the idea of watching Carmel and Anthony be forced into his off-the-bench role versus, you know, like being able to not accept it. I mean, like, that's going to be an interesting name to see. Also, Bruno, who was, you know, like previously two years away from being two years away, Gerald Green, Marquis Chris, Michael Carter Williams is just a very weird looking team. Seriously.

But also, I don't know. Like, I mean, like the Rockets, I would like to see, I guess, Chris Paul, James Hardin, together doing on-ball, off-ball, and then having Melo just kind of do his weird thing to by himself off to the... Yeah. It's going to be interesting to watch.

Chris Paul said that he... And I am paraphrasing here, but he was very upset at the disrespect that was being thrown towards Mello. He called the disrespect unbelievable. And then he is one of the most disrespected players in the NBA. I don't know.

I mean, like, I guess we do give Mello heat and he is going to be a Hall of Famer, but, like, you know, it's been a while since, like, Mello by himself was a thing and then, you know, post-Nix Mello. Something other than hit the front of the room? Yeah. I mean, the mid-range game,

him always saying, like, I'm not coming off the bench. This is my game. Like, I'm not going to adapt. He did shoot a. ton of three-pointers for the Thunder last year, but that was out of necessity. He used their second leading three-point attempts per game. So, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see

what happens on the Rockets, because I didn't believe in the pairing of Chris Paul and James Harden. I thought that was going to be a problem. So who knows? Maybe they fold them in and it's fun. Isaac, you are up. With my third pick, I'm going to take, this might be a controversial pick, but I'm going to take the Indiana Pacers. Nice. That's good. I support that. They're just an

excellent team. They're just going to be good. You know who's good at basketball at the Indiana Pacers? I don't care that they're going to be scoring 80, 90 points a game. The other team's going to score 70 and score 80. They're just a good basketball team and I want to watch them. This is a perfectly Indiana reason to pick the Pacers. You're like, ah, they're going to be fun. They're going to be good.

They're going to be more than fine. I feel like they're going to be in that conversation. Yeah, top three, top four. I mean, the thing is like this off season, they went and addressed all their problems. They got a shooter in Doug McDermott. You guys are so... People are... Like, I get the...

He sucks. Doggwick Buckets is not... Nobody is... I think he was going to say Tyree Evans next. And it's like, Tyreek has had a couple of good seasons recently, but...

The being like, oh, Tyree takes them over the hump stuff is just so weird to me. Chris Ryan. I want to make a distinction here. Because as we discussed earlier, like, not very high on this team right now, but I am very excited to watch Luca Donchard,

so I'm picking Dallas Mavergars. Nice. There's a possibility that this is like a transformational player enough just for Dallas, but in the league. And this is like my favorite kind of guy, this sort of like big point forward with insane floor vision, which Sixers have one of those. So it's really great to see another one.

And just watching like a little bit of the preseason stuff, he just seems really exciting. Him with Dennis is sort of worth watching anyway. The Mavericks don't have a ton of other stuff to watch unless you're like a weird, a dirk weirdo and you want to watch him play at 40. Shouts to Jason Gallagher. But I'm going to go with Mavericks. I like the Mavericks. I think that Donkich in the same way that we were talking about, Yokic, when I look at him, he's not moving super fast.

He definitely isn't in shape yet. He does some things where I'm like, I guess that's a good move. Like, I want to see how good he's actually going to be, but I'm excited about, like, a guy who doesn't look like an NBA specimen being out there, like, doing stuff. Do you like chase down blocks? Yeah, I'm like, all right, sure. I'm in on Donkich. I think that'd be fun. I would have actually taken the Mavericks if you hadn't snagged them from me.

So I want to reiterate, like, when I am thinking about teams that I want to watch on on League Pass, I'm thinking about, you know, certain players like Don Quetch. What would someone do in the 80s? What would I want the most 80s that I could possibly get? Where are the good centers? I do, I do have serious X-M in my car and frequently I'm tuned into the 80s on 8. It's a fun time. But, like, I'm thinking about storylines, and I'm thinking about, like, what's interesting

off the court that informs what's happening on the court. So right now, the most dramatic team in the NBA, bar none, the Minnesota Timberwolves. Who knows what the hell is going to happen with that team? If they keep Jimmy, it's crazy town. If they get rid of Jimmy,

it's crazy town. Is Tim's still going to be there? Does the owner want to fire him into the sun? What's going to happen with Andrew Wiggins who, you want to talk about players who are constantly disrespected like Mello? We should on Wiggins all the time. Carl Anthony Towns, his defense, was like five factors hit or miss

and part of that was scheme-wise and Charks was on the program last week to explain why Tibbs is kind of running an outmoded defensive system but I want to see all of these things play out in real time. For drama alone I will take the Minnesota Timberwolves. I would rather watch Paint Dry

than watch the Timberwolves. You don't want to see Tibbs again screaming of whoever's there. You just watched that last year. It's going to be worse this year. The Tidstrients experience has that one. That's why I'm in because it's going to be worse.

You would do just as well. I think watching Stephen Jackson's Instagram story. I don't think that you necessarily need to watch the Timberwolves. All right. And again, this is sort of like a nerdy, like, what do I want to watch for drama purposes? How do these things play out? Yes, part of this did play out last year. But I'm going to take the Washington Wizards.

Oh, dear. I wanted that one. The Washington Wizards, I'm taking in part for House. It's a frequent guest that we love on He-check. But you have John Wall, again, looking larger. shall we say? Sure. Could potentially play.

And I have Wizards fans who will get at me on Twitter and be like, he's not larger. You keep saying that. I'm like, I don't know, it looks kind of thick. He's definitely put on some, the beta's out whether it's muscle or fat, but it's definitely size.

Who knows? But he did say, and this was my favorite part, so he was asked by the Washington Wizards Media, like, hey man, like you get knocked a lot for going out and partying. And his answer was like, yeah, I'm going to do what I want to do? I'm a grown man.

Like, what am I supposed to do? I'm not going to just sit at home at night and not go out. He goes, when you're done work, what do you do? Do you go out? I like to go out to it. I'm like, whoa, this is amazing.

Plus they got Dwight Howard, plus they got Austin Rivers, plus they still have all the potential friction with Beal. Give me all the wizards, mostly because in the same way that you had that Chodenfoyed element

with the Celtics and you wanted to watch it all implode. Yeah. It's going to implode. It always does what the Wizards. Give me the Wizards. I'll take the Knicks. I want to the Knicks.

Yeah, that's nice. Sorry. Do you want to make a trade? I like this. What do you want? I don't know. I'm taking the Knicks because once they get Christopps back, I hate to say this as a Philadelphian,

but there is a kind of magic about New York sports when they're going well. Now, I sometimes hate it, like when the Giants are going well or the Yankees are going well. But there is like a kind of level of, like the fans are really informed, they're really passionate. The garden is really fun to watch when it's rocking. We all remember Lin Sanity. And the Knox, Frankie, Christops, Troika is going to be really exciting to check out

this season. They've got Mario Azonia there. Fisdale should hopefully inject a little bit of off-court memedum in it. I really hope so. I love Fis. He's a good match for the city of New York. He's going to come out. He's like basically going to come out and give people like fodder for the for the back pages. It's going to be exciting if they can get just a bit competent. Also I mean like like we said the experience of watching them.

It's just a fun like entertainment value with Brin and Frazier. Yeah. And you're watching that court like and the uniforms and Cinder's Cork and Yeah, that's fun. There's even Huck. Yeah. We're having a night. Isaac Lee, you're up. I'm going to take

the Chicago Bulls. A good one. And this is a future-facing pick here. I just want to see the young guys play. I want to see Wendell Carter Jr., Jabari Parker, and Lori Markening. And I want to see those guys develop

in front of my eyes. I want to see, you know, Chris Dunn. Rollo bring something. Zach Levine bring something. I want to see them develop their young guys. Bobby Portis, Denzel Valentine. I'm going to keep listing these names. These are exciting names to look forward to in the future.

Yeah, they have a lot of young guys that should be fun and interesting. Why not? I'll take the Bulls are good. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and take the Phoenix Suns because y'all talked about them at length. And, I mean, even though they're GMless, they still have Devin Booker and Dragon Vender who can just chuck. Well, not GMless. They have multiple GMs now, including James Jones. That would be dope.

I hope he gets the job. Speaking of Woj has another report here, owner Robert Sarver has become even more involved in the day-to-day of the franchise. He already had a strong voice in many moves, including past coaching hires. James Jones has become a favorite of Sarver as well. He'll also be a GM candidate.

Like I said, very Sixers vibes out of the desert. If only there were a governing body overseeing the NBA, they could step in and give them a collagal. You know, the Calangeloes are right. I know. The Calangelo songs. Phoenix, the first move you want to see made?

I don't know about that. With my next pick, I select the Sacramento Kings. I'm hoping for a big Harry Giles season. Juliet, I didn't think that you could blow me away anymore. Then you could blow me away by taking the jazz number one overall. This might be bigger. I think that I'm just, I like to think that I'm speaking on behalf of the real League Pass junkie.

And these are the teams that you just only watch on League Pass. This is true. This is true. I'm not even sure Riley would have. taking them this higher, resident Kings fan rally McAtee? It's high.

It's high. I mean, I went to Sacramento a couple of times last year and it's, you know, they're very nice. Okay. I think about Sacramento as the Cleveland of California.

Interesting. I'm good. Wow. I don't know what it's more damning to either. Is it more damning to Cleveland or Sacramento? Nobody knows.

It's not good for either, though. They've got some weird personalities. They've got some real internet kids. And I think that's of compelling and I'm interested to see how it goes. Sharon Fox looks, I know it's preseason. I have a sickness for watching these games.

He looks good. He looks really good. How's Harry Jiles looking? Because in Summer League, he looked good. Shmere? Summer League. Schmeh? Shmah? Shmah? Schmeh? I think you can take Schmeh with Harry Giles. He's coming back from like... But when do we start doing Schmeh instead of Menn?

Yeah, like, what is... His podcast, don't criticize it. I'm like, you gotta be a man in this world. I can't do a Schmeh. I was just wondering where the inspiration came from. It bubbled up inside of me. And it just came out. I don't know. I'm giving it too.

You want to use it? Feel free to use it. Tell all the kids. With my next pick. Yeah. I'm going for the talking points to share with my dad and to have full conversations for the whole season. And going into the bargain basement and for one of my favorite GMs with the Brooklyn Nets. Love it.

My favorite GMs. Sean Marks, great guy. Great higher. Great higher. I think the Nets can get like 20 wins. Give me a cheap seat at Barclay Center. I'd go over on that. I'll never forget seeing Sean Marks at the win two summer leagues ago, standing around.

I was like, who's that 610 guy who looks like a Shins fan? He's also just like, and also really happy with himself. The 6'10 Shins fan is like, I've got a great life and I know it. And he was just like strolling around on the phone. He seemed really cool. I trust him. DeAngelo Rousel into him. Spencer Dinwiddie.

Love it. Jared Allen. Cool. Karis Lavert. Let's do it. I'm into all these people. Ronday Hall is. I don't know.

They're like not a good team. Monday's underrated. I think they're fun. I agree. Who are we back to, Micah? Yeah. All right. I'm going to take the Charlotte Hornets because they still have Kimball Walker.

Now they all have. This is a good pick. Yeah. A lot of value. Especially with Tony Parker's and also the the pregame, the writers that they're just kind of like, all right, for seats, for family, wives and girlfriends all in the same thing. Drama.

I love the drama there. Can we pause for that one? like to put that. So obviously they meant or. Yeah. We think. I don't think they meant or. You think that that was genuine. Yes. Jalen Rose has been talking about this for a really long time. I think it's just like something you're not supposed to tweet. And if I was like, it's kind of like a DeAngel Russell move. It's just like I think it's fucked up. You shouldn't have done that. It's like I wouldn't like if anyone here tweeted out like our like administrative documents when you're on boarding at the ringer. Like come on man. Keep it in house. Yeah. But that said, I'm glad they did because we're not in house at the Hornets. I don't work for the Hornets.

Can I just say also the Hornets have Miles Bridges who looks like incredibly high highlight real value? They could be fun. Isaac Lee, you are up, my friend. This is going to be an easy one for me. The Los Angeles Clippers. Congrats. No questions, Your Honor.

All yours. No further questions. Yeah, all right, sure. Whatever. I like that response. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're going to be a fun team, guys.

I'm just saying. They're going to be competitive, could make the playoffs. SGA is like blowing people's minds. It is. We've got a piece on the ringer.com right now. Check it out. Chris Ryan is up.

Caves. I kind of want to see what's up with Colin Sexton. I want to see Kevin Love as a number one option again for the first time since Minnesota. Do you know who seems really happy LeBron has gone? Kevin Love?

Per social media. I think that they might win like 40 games, honestly. Yeah. Week conference. And it's been fascinating to see Tyloo coach without LeBron, without like, that being his central.

the lens through which his coaching is viewed. So, I mean, we're kind of getting into the dregs here, and I'm just sort of looking for storylines, and this is going to be a forgotten team this year, and I'm just kind of curious. I'm still with you. I haven't deluge you from my DVR, Cleveland Cavs. Yeah, we are very much into the dregs here.

I'm just going to take the best basketball team still available right now. Best available, do it. The Miami Heat are still out there for some reason. Over the spurs? Yeah, I was about to say. Well, the spurs, Dejante Murray, got hurt. I'm not sure what to make about.

Like, DeMar's there and Lamarcus is there. But frankly, like, lately, this is not the 2013-14 spurs that were whipping the ball around the perimeter and playing beautiful basketball. And they had Manu and Tony and Tim Duncan was still out there and they were like really fun to watch. This is something else where they're just like, you want to talk about 80s basketball. They're like shooting a bunch of mid-range and like earmuffs on Shay for this one. But I'm not sure about it. I need another team here. I guess I'm going to go back to stories.

here. And this is not good storylines. These are terrible storylines. It's a player who was previously thought of quite highly but was frequently hurt, had signed a long-term contract and then had been jettisoned to NBA purgatory. They built a new arena.

Game show thing where we had to guess the team but as you were giving the clues. I should have given one clue at a time, but you already know where I'm going. They built an arena. Nobody's going. They got rid of their front office. They brought in a whole other front office. I'll take the Detroit Pistons. Because I don't know what they're going to... Detroit.

Basketball. I don't know what they're going to be. They might be okay in the East, but I wonder about Blake Griffin. He's really there now and has to come to terms with this. There's a couple of teams like the Pistons and the Cavs that I think could push the basement of the East up a little bit, which would be helpful.

Good for competition. Back to you, Chris Ryan. I'm going to leave the team that I was going to take for Juliet. So I'm going to take the Hawks. Okay. Thank you so much. I really didn't want the Hawks. The Tray Young thing could be curb your enthusiasm every night.

it could just be really cringe-worthy, or it could be kind of exciting as a team that may have made a colossal draft night trade error. I'm interested to see what happens with Trey. And, you know, if they do actually try to play Warriors East and I mean, this team is garbage, but it'll be fun garbage.

What's your best guess on? He's obviously going to be probably a good stats, bad team guy, but is he, is Trey Young going to be an actual... You think he's going to volume. His counting stats will be there just because he's going to be able to shoot 20, 25 times a game.

I mean, it'll be a really fascinating development story because they're going to let him play through it. There's not going to be a lot of handholding going on. He's really literally one of the only like four or five like true NBA players on this team. And the other one is Vince Carter. So it's like he's going to play. There's not like a Sacramento thing last year

where they're like, oh, we got to bring in all the vets that we brought in here. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think everything you just said is right. And like to the stats point, like in the way that Michael Carter William ran up his counting stats in his rookie year,

he wasn't good. he couldn't shoot. We were like, ah, this isn't good. But he ended up winning rookie of the year in a bad class just because the sheer volume

of it all. I don't think he's good Trey Young will be rookie of the year. Yeah, I also think the Trey Young to John Collins Alley Ups will be worth.

Yeah, and Tory and Prince. With like two games at least. A little Torian Prince. Yeah, why not? What are we back to, Isaac?

Yeah, I'm a take to Memphis Grizzles. Isaac. Gris. I'm sorry, Juliet. I considered the Gris. The thing is, they still have the pieces from that really competent team

a couple years ago. Marcus Holtz coming back from injury. Mike Conley's coming back from injury. They added Kyle Anderson, Chandler Parsons coming back from injury. They're going to be a frisky team. I don't know if they're going to be necessarily fun to watch, but certainly going to be competitive. Frisky and not necessarily fun to watch.

Charks' favorite rookie rookie, Jerry Jackson. A lot of people like him. A lot of people like him. He's been really good so far. Also, Memphis basketball with Penny and Mike Miller running University of Memphis is like now a weird. A weird basketball town. That's a tough, that's a tough lead pass sell.

You know what's great about this NBA team is the college of Jesse. I just think it suggests a new level of glitz and glam coming to the city of Memphis. Yeah, Mike Miller. And probably cash. All right. Only two teams left on the board. What is Juliet kept by default? Micah decides.

Micah, who do you want the magic or the Spurs who have somehow fallen to the end? She's going to quit, I think. I think that I'll take the Spurs. just because, you know, for Shea, but also because I'm hoping that DeMarre de Rosen suddenly learns to, like, truly a moat and goes on a revenge store. But, I mean, like the likelihood of that happening is very slim. Then, again, like you all just said, I mean, the most interesting thing about them is the very shoddly tattooed DeJante Murray is no longer is injured.

Yeah. That's a bummer. It'll be interesting to see what Pop does with Damar. and Lamarcus, both of whom, like, yes, they've been trying to stretch out their range in the last few seasons, but still predominantly, like, in that mid-range area. They also have Rudy Gay.

And Rudy Gay! Oh, my God, I forgot about Rudy Gay. This is, like, three players you'd put on the same team, like, from five years ago, from eight years ago, and go, okay, this is interesting, but, like, yeah, they don't have a lot on the wings. Now their guard situation is suspect. They are the spurs.

The first half the season is going to be brutal. They are the spurs. We should, however, quickly talk about Kevin Clark's magic, who end up last in our league pass rankings. The Queen of Central Florida gets her pick. That's what everyone says about me. You want to make the case for the team that you got by default? I would love to.

All right, please do. Aaron Gordon, still a good athlete, likes to dunk. He does like to dunk. Moamba, a leading rookie, who looks like you can shoot now. A leading rookie. A leading rookie that inspired a smash trap song. Two great euros and Evan Fortier and Nicholas Bouchibich. Oh, Moscov's on this team.

This team is not fun. The tough part about this is they haven't had a point guard in like 12 years, so nobody can throw the ball to the interesting people that are on this team. They really haven't had like a guard since Jimere Nelson. They were like, shout out to Shelvin Mack for leading us and assists this year. Yeah, that was like an actual, that was a tweet. Without a sense of irony, but it could be fun. I mean, who knows?

I do want to see what happens with Isaac and Bobamba and, you know, Gordon's fun to watch. Could be periodically interesting. This team has a lot of like, this is like the Scouts team. It's like all these players that were like somewhere like four to ten in big boards at draft time. And then they're just like they're all pieces but not like good players. I wouldn't even be surprised at this team won like they were like 10 and five

and I got like three pitches that were like, what about the magic though? Then it was 15 or 20 and we don't talk about. them anymore. You can rest easy. None of those pitches from me. Okay. All right. So our teams are picked. Isaac Lee, you get to decide the winner here.

Juliet has the Jazz, Thunder Warriors. Her bottom three, Kings, Nets and Magic. Godspeed, Juliet. Kings are not. Kings are a good pick. They're a good league pass pick. Micah has the Pelicans, Nuggets, rockets, Suns, Hornets, and Spurs. That's a good team. Isaac's got the

Bucs Blazers, the hot start. Pacers, Bulls, Clippers, and Grizz. Chris has the Raptors, Celtics, Mavericks, Knicks, Caves, Caves, Caves, I may be so bold. Sixers, Lakers, Wolves, Wizards, Heat, and Pistons, drama all day long. Isaac, you're our producer.

You pick the winner. I mean, obviously, I'm in this draft, so I can't pick myself. You know what? Here's a simple decision I can make. Juliet is my boss, so I'm going to pick her team. It's good to be in charge. Career move. First ever, Ringer League Pass, heat check.

champion Juliet Littman. I want to thank Juliet. I want to thank Micah. I just feel gross. I feel like I debased myself. I pick the Celtics in the Knicks and I didn't even win. Chris Ryan was on the podcast. Like you to Chris Ryan. Mistakes were made.

Isaac Lee, our esteemed producer, want to remind everybody that the NBA show is back. He check is here every Monday. We've got KOC Inverno every Tuesday. We've got on alternate weeks. Sources say. We've got group chat. And, of course, all kind of ringer content on the ringer.com. We've also got a new ringer feed on the old Twitter machine. It's at

Ringer NBA, so be sure to do that. And if you would be so kind, leave us a rating in review. We would be much appreciative of that. I want to thank you guys for listening. Heat Check will be back next week. Bye.