The Ringer NBA Show - Way Too Early 2026 NBA Player Awards

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

The Ringer’s Howard Beck and Michael Pina sit down to share their way too early spicy 2026 NBA player awards. They each share their spicy picks—ranked from jalapeño to Carolina Reaper heat—for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Sixth Man, Most Improved, and Defensive Player of the Year. Hosts: Howard Beck and Michael PinaProducers: Victoria Valencia and Clifford AugustinAdditional Production Support: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What up? It's The Ringer MBA show. I'm Howard Beck. I am a senior writer at The Ringer. With me is Michael Pina. Also a senior writer at the Ringer. Pina, it's been three weeks since we got in front of these microphones and yammered about the NBA. And still nothing has happened. Like, not, not a thing. Are you enjoying Eurobasket, Pina? Are you going deep into, have you brought like an entire menu of second spectrum observations for Eurobasket? Are we diving deep today into Eurobasket? You know, you said three weeks. It just, it feels like yesterday when we were hooking up, you know, talking about the best duos. To answer your question, no.

I am completely out on Eurobasket personally. It's just not for me during this downtime. I love basketball. I love Europe. But having that in August at this time of year, I just, I can't do it. I'm sorry. No, no. No offense to Europe or to basketball or to Euros or baskets or Eurobaskets.

I just not. I can't. I'm not. So instead, what we're going to do here today, Pina and I are going to do the way too early and possibly way too spicy picks for the 2026 awards. That's MVP on down. So we're going to get into that in a second here. But before we do, Pina, there was like some news this week, all made weirdly by NBFRA.

owners. And I just thought we should touch on these real quick because why not? Matt Ishbia, owner of the Phoenix Sons, who has presided over, let's just say, a strange and not altogether successful, but ambitious tenure so far. He saw that ESPN had ranked the Sons very low prognostications in their their latest prognostications for the coming season that they're going to finish 13th in the West when just 30 games. Someone tweeted this and he decided to

quote tweet it with the following. Quote, I'm not worried about what the so-called experts think. Matt Ishpia tweets. Quote, they had us as a title contender of the past two years and were wrong then. We're focused on making our fans proud by playing great as a team.

Matt Ishbia dunking on the experts because, because they were so foolish as to believe that the super team that he constructed and touted and boasted about did not do as well as they thought or as well as he thought. I don't know what's going on here. Should Matt Ashbya just stop tweeting, Pina? I think there are two types of bad owners in the NBA. There are the types of owners who are completely asleep at the wheel.

So you have your Patrick Dumonts, your Gail Benson's, you know. And then on the other side of the spectrum, you have the egotomaniacal hands on the wheel walk-ons from Michigan State. And so if I'm ranking like owners by who I would least want to run my favorite team from a fans perspective, it would 1,000% be Matt Ishbia. And I just, the lack of self-awareness with this quote, the total just, I mean, I, yeah, like, everyone thought you would be good and you were terrible. So what, like, what does that, how does that prove anything? And then you took Kevin Durant off your team. And he was your best player last season. And you extended Devin Booker for really no reason. And you traded for a center right after you drafted a center with your first round pick. The one pick that you got back. For Kevin Durant. Like, it is, I could go on and on and on and on. Yeah. I'm glad that it feels like they're kind of semi on the right path sort of.

Yes. Yes. But I would still be extremely worried, I guess, is the, based on just every time he speaks. It just, it doesn't sound good to me. If we were going to try to give it Matt Ishby a credit for a couple of things. One, I did give him credit out of the gate for being aggressive and ambitious and being all in. Like, I like that. It was too all in and too much.

And the Durant thing cost a lot of draft capital. But hey, it's Kevin Durant. The Beal thing was just absolutely foolish on its face. But I admired the ambition. So I want to give him credit for that. I want to give him credit in the presence, the last few months, for course correcting, finally, and saying, we went too far. This was not the right thing.

We needed to get some draft capital back. We need to pull the plug on this whole thing. But even that's kind of colored by the fact, as you already noted, like you extended Devin Booker, that might actually really hurt you a few years down the road. But at least they recognized, finally, that the Beal Durant Booker thing wasn't working. And that's now down to just Booker

and they're trying to rebuild around him. All right, cool. Recognize where you are. Take credit for course correcting and saying, you know what, we are taking a step back. What are you doing trying to like crap on the so-called experts? Who, by the way, I don't think anybody picked the Sons to win the championship after he did all this?

Like I think his optimism was probably way beyond all of us out in punditry land. Not, you know, indicated too by the fact that he's the one who said, what was it like a year ago? If you took the other 29 owners, 26 of the 29 would change places with us in a minute, which was ludicrous on its fan. I don't know, listen, he's the gift that keeps on giving because whether it's something he's doing with his roster or firing coaches every year or saying silly. things. Matt Ishbia, thank you. You're giving us wonderful content, especially in late August when there's nothing else happening except for Eurobasket, which we're not watching.

I got to say, though, I got to say, I'm not giving him. You gave a lot of credit, like, for the ambition. I'm not. I'm not. I personally, I'm not giving any credit. Well, okay, hold on. You listed the two types of bad owners. Wouldn't you rather have somebody who's at least ambitious as opposed to just like a sleep at the wheel and not even like engaged and doesn't care? He cares he may care too much he definitely cares too much and my favorite i think one of my favorite quotes of his was just like we're bursting through the second apron and we i i you know like people kind of brush that one to the side that is the most insane in the moment i was like that makes no sense like that just doesn't like how what yeah i can't even it's boggling my mind right now as i'm

trying to like rehash it um there are penalties like i can't that affect your team's ability to roster builds. Like, what do you mean you're going to burst through this? You can't just outspend the second apron. And he found that out very quickly with everything that he did this summer. So I give him credit for taking a step back, but then I take that credit away because he speaks. And it's like in his head, I guess he thinks this team is actually going to be still pretty good.

So I don't know. Yeah, it's not great. You know what else isn't great? Getting sued by two of them. his minority partners. Yeah, that's not good. From front office sports a couple days ago, Tucson's minority owners are suing the teams holding company and majority owner Matt Eshbia, alleging mismanagement, conflicts of interest and a lack of required transparency from

Ishbia. Cool. Great stuff. Great stuff in Phoenix. Also in owner news, the only kind of news going on in late August. Mark Cuban went on show with the, I'm going to screw this up now because I did not properly cut and paste here. The DLS Mavs podcast. Do they just call it DLS? Or they don't call it like Dallas, but like without the vowels, do they? I think it's DLS.

Yeah. Okay. This is like the All-City Network, our buddy Mark Stein and a bunch of other wonderful people there. Had Mark Cuban on their show and Cuban said about selling the Mavericks. And of course, this is in the context of obviously the Luca deal and everything else. Cuban says, I don't regret selling the team.

I regret how I did it. Would I still sell? the team? Yes, for all the same reasons I've said 100 times. Would I do it the same way? Absolutely not. I would have put it out to bid, but I didn't do so, so it doesn't matter. So what you're telling me, Mark Cuban now, is that maybe the right way to make a major franchise altering deal is to listen to multiple bids and market the thing before committing to just one entity. Where have I heard this plot before? Oh, right, when Nico Harrison traded Luca without talking to any other teams and got back a nice life. Not as good of a haul as he should have. I was going to say a lifetime supply of rice errone. But that's like a 1980s game show reference that half of our audience just tuned out on. Yeah.

Like strange, phenomenal admission by Mark Cuban and credit. Again, I'm just going to keep giving credit to people for otherwise silly things. Sure. No credit for being reflective about it and saying he regrets it because clearly the consequences of it have been pretty dire for the franchise that Mark Cuban still owns a piece of and still loves and lives and dies with everything they do. It's obviously been pretty tough on him, but it's it's his fault for selling to the wrong folks. But man, the parallels between this and the Luca deal itself are just. just uncanny. And I don't know if there's any takeaway here other than, yeah, that's unfortunate. I think just, you know, in listening, I didn't listen to the whole thing, but reading some of the

transcript from some of the aggregation, which is never safe, but anyway, his comments about how the NBA sort of is the reason why he is no longer the governor, which is interesting from the perspective of if you look at what happened with the Boston Celtics over the summer, where Wick Rosbex says he's going to be the governor until 2008 when the team is sold to Bill Chisholm. And then when they make the press release, actually no, immediately Bill Chism is the governor. And then after that, the Celtics put out a press release where it's like, Wick and Bill Chisholm are holding hands and their wives are in the photo. and it's like, yeah, you know, it's co-everything going on right now.

And that the NBA was like a technicality where there could only be one governor at a time. And I'm personally just, I don't understand this need to just, I guess, convince the public that you have power that doesn't exist. Like if the Celtics wanted to trade Jalen Brown and Bill Chism wanted to do it and WIC didn't, guess what? Jailen Brown's getting traded. So like, there's no co-anything. And I think that also translates to what's going to happen with the Los Angeles Lakers. And that's another ship that is yet to sail. But, you know, Jeannie Bus has said that she will be the governor.

And I, we'll see. It doesn't, it never makes sense to me at all when the person selling the team thinks that they still have the right to make decisions about what they just sold it. It just doesn't add up to me. I haven't seen any clarification yet from the league or if anybody's pursued it and I have not lob them a call this week. It just was not important enough for me to do so. I assume somebody in Dallas or elsewhere would make the call to see if our friend Mike Bass or anybody wants to make a statement about to push back on Cuban. But Cuban is saying the league has basically tried to indicate that this was all about Cubans deal with the Adelson family.

Adam Silver said that at a press conference. Yes. And Cuban is saying absolutely positively. I've got the paperwork to show it. We had a deal. The NBA made us take it out. And I think a lot of this maybe just goes back to Glenn Taylor and the Alex Rodriguez Mark Laurie deal where it was this gradual handoff.

And we saw how messy that got and that just finally got resolved within the last couple of months. And so now, yeah, we've got, Wick Grosbeck wants to hold on the NBA's clearly, I would just conclude, the NBA is not comfortable with it, does not want to allow deals like that. And yeah, that absolutely has implications for the Lakers deal where, again,

Jeannie Buzz has indicated that she was going to still be the controlling entity for a couple of years. It obviously can be really messy. So as a league, maybe, you know, it's fair to not want that. But it is interesting that, that Cuban has kind of been very specific about this. All right, enough owners. This has been riveting.

You know, top of the pod, just owner talk. It's the only news we have, you know, we got to take it where we can get it. All right. It's time for the way too early, way too spicy picks for the 2026 awards. That's MVP, rookie of the year, coach of the year, six man, most improved and defensive player of the year. But we wanted to look a little deeper here. We're looking beyond the obvious.

We might be getting a little adventurous here, maybe a little creative, maybe too much so. So here are our rules of engagement that Pina and I have agreed on. You cannot pick anyone for these awards who won or finished second last season. We're trying to eliminate the obvious folks. And in that same vein, rule two is we cannot pick anyone who is currently listed as a top three favorite by the odds makers. Because that's boring if we just go like, oh, well, Luca for MVP. Well, yeah, duh, there's an easy pick. Yokic, you know, like, those are the easy, obvious ones.

We wanted to dig a little deeper here. Not to get crazy. We want these all to be plausible, but they're going to be maybe on the fringes of plausible. Also, we're not doing clutch player of the year because why. It's not real. It's just not real. Yeah, it's not a thing. Notes to the aggregators, by the way, these are not like actual, like, prediction predictions.

We're not saying these are going to happen. So, like, just chill out and leave us a little. But if they do happen, feel free to bookmark this episode. Go back. Give us credit. Thank you. We'll run victory laps later. All right. So for each category, we're going to do this. We're going to pick two potential winners each, a spicy pick and an insanely spicy pick. And to define spicy, I had to go to the Scoville scale. Are you aware of the Scoville scale, Michael? I am just from Googling when you told me what we were doing with regards to the scale. So, yeah, I was. I was not aware of it beforehand, no.

You know how much I like to prepare and go down strange rabbit hole. So the Scoville scale measures the heat intensity of peppers. The bell pepper is a zero on the Scoville scale. The most, the spiciest of spicy, the one that will just set your head on fire, is the pepper X, which is 3,180,000, Scovilles or something like that. We're not going that far. That's way too spicy for us. So here's what we're going to do.

The spicy pick in each category for us is going to be the jalapeno, which is a 5,000 on the Scoville scale. And the insanely spicy pick, we will call the Carolina Reaper, because I love saying Carolina Reaper. That's 2.3 million. That's like five times spicier than a habanero, which is the spiciest thing on the Scoville scale that I've had. Habaniero will do some damage. But there's like several that are worse, more intense, including the Carolina Reapers. So there's what we got. If you have followed all that to this point, thank you.

Here we go. MVP, Michael, we'll do our jalapeno pick, the semi-spicy pick first. Who do you got for your jalapeno pick for MVP? I'm going with Paolo Boncaro. A very peanut pick there. Yes, I'm very high on Paulo this season. I think he's going to do tremendous things. I said on our friend Zach Show at the beginning of the summer that I thought Palo could make a Cade Cunningham-esque leap.

And Kate Cunningham is someone who finished on an all-MBA team and was on my official MVP ballot. I think I put him fifth based on, okay, very talented, former number one overall pick. has never quite had the right pieces around him that accentuate his skill set. I think right now Paolo has that. I think that the Orlando Magic have expectations. They should win a ton of games. They should be a defensive juggernaut again. And so I think that as their best player, someone who's going to be their leading score, most likely, I foresee his efficiency going way up. He has not been a particularly efficient player in his career to this point, his on-off numbers, especially the lineups that, you know, the nerds like to point out that when Franz Wagner is on the court

and Paulo isn't, the magic are good. When Paulo's on the court and Franz is on the bench, the magic are bad. I think that things will even out a little bit this year based on how they've adjusted their roster adding Desmond Bain, Tyos Jones. And yeah, so I think that we're going to see, you know, a lot of the weaknesses and shortcomings that have been, you're able to kind of poke at with Paolo, go away this year. And they'll be good.

And so winning, good stats, efficiency. I think he'll be a candidate this year. And so he's my, my spicy pick. Your jalapeno. My jalapeno. I like that. I like that pick. I should have actually noted real quickly. So by our rules,

the following names had to be eliminated, right? So no, Shag Gill just Alexander, because he won last year. No, Yokic because he was second last year. And the 2026 favorites, according to the odds makers, are Yokic, SGA, and Luca. So those were the guys who were off the board. You have already mentioned my jalapeno pick. And that would be Mr. Cade Cunningham.

Oh, I love it. Love it. Look, he was at the fringes of this conversation last year. He got, I think he was tied for seventh in the MVP voting, which meant he got a bunch of, I think he got one fourth place and nine fifth place votes. So he was he was somebody who got a lot of mention just down ballot. No one considered him seriously. Obviously there were no first second or thirds there.

But the Pistons won 44 games last season. They pushed the Knicks pretty hard in the playoffs. I think they've got a chance to crack 50 wins or at least approach it. I think they've got a chance to be top four in the east. There's obviously a lot of volatility in the east this season, especially once you get past Cleveland and New York. Cade last season, 26 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds per game. The only other guy, I hate to do the stathead thing,

but the only other guy who averaged at least 26 plus points and 9 plus assists was Yokic. If you ratchet it down to 20 points and 8 assists, that group is Yokic, Hardin, LeBron, Trey Young, and Cade. And he's third in that group in effective field goal percentage behind Yolkich and LeBron. Like he's flirting with some pretty elite territory. just in terms of sheer production. The Pistons, like, are going to need to be top four, at least for me, right? Like, that's, as you know, I'm a stickler about, like, the MVP's got to be off a reasonably

contending team, a top team. So to get the top four, like, yeah, like, they're going to miss Schrooter and Beasley and Timorway Jr. potentially. How much do they get from Duncan Robinson and Caris Lavert in their place? How well do Cade and Jaden Ivy mesh with Ivy coming back from injury? Like, there's some questions. I think Cade needs to get to the line more as a lead guard and as a number one offensive option. He ranks pretty low in free throw attempts or free throw rate among the elite scores in the league.

So he's got to do a little bit more there. But like the pistons, he should put the pistons in position to be top four. And the pistons with everything else they've got should put him in position to get into the conversation. All right. That was my jalapeno pick. here's where things get really spicy. Your Carolina Reaper pick for MVP, Michael Pina, is? Oh, man.

I'm going Kevin Durant. Oh, I thought about him. He was on my list. It shouldn't be a Carolina Reaper, but it is. I mean, this guy is, what, 37 years old? Didn't qualify for all NBA last season because he didn't. play in enough games. It played 62 games, I believe. Still awesome. He was the best, I know it doesn't mean anything, but he was the best player on the Phoenix Suns last year,

in my opinion, and still really efficient, still able to score average 25, 26 points a game in his sleep. And I guess the case here boils down to, not to be too reductive about it, but best player on the best team. And I think that the Houston Rockets have a chance to be first in the Western Conference this season. I think Kevin Durant will be seen narratively and probably substantively as the reason for it, the guy who got them over the hump, who's their go-to score in crunch time. And just, you know, he's a first ballot hall of fame or one of the greatest basketball players who's ever lived. And he's only one once. And I, you know, I don't think this is going to happen. That's why this is the Carolina Reaper. But if you are the best player,

on the best team, you get consideration. That's just kind of how it goes with voters. And so I think that from that point of view, he has some type of super duper outside shot. Well, and think of it this way, too, and it was why I considered him as well for this, if the rockets are going to be as good as we think they could be, right? Top two, three team in the West, one of the main threats to the thunder. it's probably going to be because he stayed healthy and played 65 plus. So like we've got a chicken and egg thing here. Like if the Rockets are really that good, especially in the regular season, it's going to be because he played a lot of games and performed at a Kevin Durant like level,

in which case almost automatically now you're considering him for the award because the stats are always going to be there. He just needs the games played and for the Rockets to be a top team. And, you know, those things are hand in hand. So it's funny because on the one hand, yes, these are our spicy picks and that one feels it, especially because at his age, like, I don't think we've ever had an MVP at, what, 37? I should have looked that one up, but I'm pretty sure we haven't. So it's highly unlikely, but he's a great candidate. I'm glad you're sitting down because my Carolina Reaper pick is your. I'm a little of fun. of the Pina reaction here.

But at the same time, you're going to go, yep, yep, yeah, that tracks. How about Joelle Embed? God. Do you know how sad it is that he's the Carolina Reaper pick? I know. Someone who actually won this award, was it two, three years ago? But this is why there's a, listen, all we need here is the window of plausibility. And to be very serious here, I'm not doing.

this just for kicks. His last full season, he was in fact the MVP in 2022-23, just two short years ago, maybe two long years ago. The following season in 39 games before getting hurt, he was averaging 34.7 points, 11 rebounds, and 5.6 assists better than his MVP season. Joel Embed was absolutely destroying the league in his first 39 games of the 2023-24 season. Again, not that long ago. And then last season, of course, 19 games on a bad knee. Still, on a bad knee, average 23.8 points, eight rebounds, four and a half assists. Like, he was still a force. Here's, here's what I'm going to say. He did not tear his ACL. He did not rupture his Achilles. He's not had, to our knowledge, major reconstruction or replacements or whatever. He's had some tune-ups. The first one didn't go

well enough, apparently, and now he's had another. I know there's some clouds around whether or not he's actually going to be ready to start the season. But here's what we know. Joel Embed, when healthy, big fat asterisk, absolutely is a incredibly dominant player who was MVP his last full season. If we're going to go Carolina Reaper insanely spicy pick for MVP, there's a path there. If he played, it's the same thing as what we just said with Kevin Durant, who's like six, seven years older.

If Joelle Embed is healthy and plays the requisite number of games, 65. Plus, it probably means the Sixers have had a great season then by virtue of him having played all those games and him still being him. If he's not him, he's probably not playing the 65. So there you go. What's spicier than Carolina Reaper? Was there another pepper that you had in the chamber? There were two on the Scoville scale. Dragon's Breath.

Okay. And Pepper X. Okay, I like Dragon's Breath. That's a Dragon's Breath pick right there. I mean, you know, we said we wanted to get spicy. So, you know, I'm doing what I can. I'm also trying to keep Cliff, producer Cliff healthy, although he's just happy, but he's just giving me an SMH in the chat here.

So, man, I guess I'm more optimistic about Cliff's team than he is. Other guys I did consider, by the way, Anthony Edwards is an obvious one. Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson was another one I gave serious weight to, but it didn't feel spicy enough. Like I think Jalen Brunson actually like he's he's he's uh he's not quite at like bell pepper level here. Uh, but he's like he was like too plausible for this. I had, I had aunt as well. And that is someone who I would like legitimately pick to win MVP. So that's why I didn't feel it was spicy enough.

I also considered Steph Curry. Um, but that's definitely not spicy enough. Yeah. No. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, listen, I'm trying to follow my own rules here. All right. Let's move on to coach of the year. Um, So the list of guys we could not pick for Coach of the Year prediction. Last year's winner, Kenny Atkinson, last year's runner-up, J.B. Bicker staff. The 2026 favorites, according to the odds makers, Jamal Mosley, Quinn Snyder, David Adelman. So those guys redacted, who's your jalapeno pick for 2025-26? Eric's Bolstra.

you know, widely considered one of, if not the best coaches in the NBA, has notoriously never won this award. People do not think that the Miami Heat are going to be very good. You included, Howard, right? You're not high in the Miami Heat this season. And I think that they will be pretty good. I think that they will be a top six team. I like their roster quite a bit, especially after. the Norm Powell trade, acquiring him for Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson, basically nothing.

I don't think this is a perfect team, but I think this is one that allows Spow to inject some creativity with their versatility and their overall talent. I think that if you can get a lot out of Andrew Wiggins, he's going to be a pivotal player for them. And I think Bam will bounce back. I think Tyler Hero could have another All-Star-esque season. I just, I think there's a lot here to work with, and there's no more Jimmy Butler-related distractions. So in a down-eastern conference, and this award is all about expectations, the fact that not a lot of people are high on them, I think they can exceed a lot of those expectations and be pretty good. And I think people will be looking to give Spolstra credit in the form of some hard work. wear and this is the season to do that. So I think that's who I'm going with. No, I like that one.

By the way, now that I'm looking at it, it's kind of strange that among the favorites from the odds makers that Udoca, I mean Udoca is not on there. And like I'd considered him, but again, was not spicy enough for this exercise. My coach of the year, jalapeno pick like yours is, is based on the premise of coach of the year often goes to somebody whose team overachieved in the eyes of all of us, the pundits and the public, and another team that it's expected to have a lackluster season. I'm going with Rick Carlisle. Expectations are just rock bottom without Halliburton for the season after the Achilles. Obviously, they decided not to resign Miles Turner. So now you're missing, you know, two anchor pieces, including your best player and your best big. Not, excuse me, not your best

big, but a very important big. Their best big is Pascal Seacum, who's still there? So here's the case. The Pacers always have a knack for overachieving. They do still have an All-Star and Pascal Seacum. They've got a bunch of scrappers. They've got Nemhart. They've got T.J. McConnell. They've got Neesmith. Matherin's going to be plugged in. Carlisle has already said this publicly. Mathron is going to take the starting job in Hal Burton's absence. He could really blossom. We know the talent is there. He's got to find the right balance between his aggression. and attacking versus, you know, keeping the ball moving and playing the pacer's style. But he could really blossom. They're over under 39 and a half. I think they can, I think they can meter exceed that. Carlisle, if they have the kind of season that I think they could have, he's going to get credit for holding them together, for developing the youth. Maybe there's even a little bit of a halo effect from their unexpected finals run, right? This is already the team that overachieved to the highest degree by making the finals.

And while that should not have any bearing on this coming season, sometimes those things linger a little bit. So Carlisle is my jalapeno pick for coach of the year. I like that a lot. I kind of considered him. I didn't think it was spicy enough, even though I'm not super high on the Pacers, but I can actually see the Pacers definitely exceeding expectations.

and if they do, I think Rick Carlisle will get a lot of credit for it because he's proven time and time again to be this adaptive basketball savant. And I think their style of play will change this year in a lot of ways at Halliburton and they'll adapt. So yeah, I like that pick. I like that pick a lot. I'm very curious actually to see how their style of play holds up, right? Where it's like, this is what we want to be in who we are. And it's partially because they had Halliburton, but it's partially just because like this is how you make the most of everybody, right? make quick decisions with the ball and like Halliburton sets the tone. And when you don't have him,

you know, are Nemhart and McConnell going to be enough of a, you know, kind of a North Star to keep that going? But it's going to be fascinating. Your Carolina Reaper pick for Coach of the Year. Man, this was tough because I didn't know how crazy to get. And the name that I wrote down and that I was going to go with this whole time, I'm like, that's too boring. I'm not, I'm not, I'm pivoting already. from it. And I'm going with... I can't believe I'm going to say this. I'm going with Charles Lee.

Wow. With the Charlotte Hornets. Did not see that coming. I look at the Charlotte Hornets. Total mess of a roster makes absolutely no sense. A collection of young, talented players who, in a lot of ways,

do not compliment one another. And I think this roster will look different after the trade deadline, maybe significantly. The front court is unspeakably terrible. And yet, they have Lamello Ball, talent. They have Brandon Miller, who I think will be pretty good this year. They have Colin Sexton, who, not to step on anything, but I considered for a future award in this exercise. I like a lot of their guards.

I like a lot of their ball handlers. I think that Concanipal could have an impact right away as a rookie. And I think that Charles Lee is a good coach. And even though they aren't, I struggle to kind of even know if they want to win this year, but I think that they could actually make some noise a little bit. Maybe. I just think the East is so bad that there's,

going to be like nights where, you know, the Hornets are playing like the Wizards like nine times this season or something. And they just, you know, I don't know. And so we'll see. But this was a totally crazy pick. I'm sorry. Like, this is not going to happen. Shout out to Charles Lee. I think he's a great coach. Just kind of want to put my my flag in the sand here as someone who's like down with what's happening in Charlotte, even though I don't yet know what is happening. But I like, I like what I see. No, but I think that's within the spirit of the exercise here, right? Like there's a, there's a world where I don't believe in this world because I don't believe in the mellow ball. But there's a world where things break right.

Young guys take a step forward. They make a smart trade here or they're in season. You know, you make a run at 500 when we all had you buried in the bottom three of the conference. Right. And suddenly you're getting coach of the year recognition, maybe down ballot, maybe not top. But like, no, that's, that's, I think that's within the spirit of this exercise. size. As is my pick for the Carolina Reaper edition or category within coach of the year.

Glad you're still sitting down. I swear this is not schick. What about Nick Nurse? So, listen. Can I just say before you begin, when I first texted you about this whole thing as like an idea for a podcast. My example for like,

this is too far. Don't do this. It was Nick Nurse for Go to the end. No, I thought about sending it and then I deleted it. So go on. So that's the kind of where my head's at, but go on, go on. I'm glad I did,

producer Cliff is now accusing me of trolling. Listen, if I'm going to say that Joelle Embede is a plausible-ish, albeit Carolina Reaper pick, a plausible-ish MVP candidate in this exercise, then it follows that Nick Nurse would be a candidate for Coach of the Year. Because if Embed has stayed healthy and performed at an Embed-level, the Sixers are back to where they should be somewhere in the top echelon of the East. And as a result of that, Nick Nurse comes storming right back into Coach of the Year conversations

because he molded these guys back into who we thought they should be. He's been, I believe he's been coached the year before. He is an NBA champion, an NBA championship coach. Yes. There was a ton of talent here. Big fat asterisk, when healthy. Tyrese Maxie, a healthy Jared McCain, who was a front runner for rookie of the year last season before he got hurt.

We don't know what Vijay Edgecom will bring or how much they will use him. of the gate. But Maxie McCain-Edgcombe, a presumably resigned Quentin Grimes, if all the restricted free agents ever, you know, sign their qualifying offers or come to terms, I think everybody figures Grimes is going to be back there. A presumably healthy at some point, Paul George, and a healthy MBE. Like, you, again, I wrote this recently. We did our Zags a week or so ago on the ringer.com. and my my my my my offseason zag was oh hey maybe the sixers are going to be a top four team in the east I'm just sticking with this I swear this again this is not a bit I believe in this so I might as well hit all the the different categories within it I don't think it's crazy I do think that Nick Nurse

is there were signs that there were other issues there chemistry wise with that team both in the locker room and maybe to do with coaching too. He can be tough. And I'm not saying this is a clean pick, but that's why it's the Carolina Reaper pick. And by the way, like, once you eliminate the guys that we agreed to eliminate based on the rules, which was five different coaches, like some of the others I consider were too obvious, right?

Udoca, I'mudoka, we mentioned kind of too obvious. Mike Brown's a really good one, but again, like, I don't think that's quite spot. as a, as a pick. Like, if the Knicks are even a little bit better than last season, or if their offense takes a big leap, if he makes better utilization of towns and bridges, and we see just some more dynamism with it. Like, there's a, like, Mike Brown's not a crazy pick there. Mitch Johnson's another one I thought about in San Antonio, Esolo in Memphis. I mean, spicy-ish, but not Carolina Reaper spicy.

Can I tell you who I wrote down for this? Yeah, I was dying to know. No, you weren't. Chansy Billups. Ooh. Yeah, I just think that... I think it was... Yeah, I think he has...

Now, he's signed the contract, proven that he's a good coach. He'll have some more adults in the locker room next year, I think. At the same time, this award is so steeped in expectations, and people don't think that the Portland Trailblazers rightfully so, are going to get a play-in spot in the Western Conference. And if they were to do that or, you know, 10, 9th seed, somehow, then Chauncey Billups's name, I think, would deservedly be in the conversation. But at the same time, I don't think that that is so crazy.

Maybe I'm, I don't even know. But I kind of like, I kind of like what's, I like the pieces in Portland. And it just, I don't think it would blow me away, especially with how they play defense. Yeah, I'm with you. All right, moving on. Rookie of the year. So the, we don't have to worry about anybody from last season because you can't repeat as rookie of the year. But the ones we had to eliminate based on them being favorites for the award, according to the odds makers, Cooper flag, obviously, Dylan Harper, Trey Johnson. So those are the only three names off the board. But this created another complication, Michael Pina, because if we're not going to pick the three favorites and you know that rookie of the year is nearly always somebody who was chosen in the top 10, it really narrows the

options for us to pick, to make spicy picks for rookie of the year here. Like, super spicy to pick a second rounder or late first rounder, but like that, that's beyond spicy. That's like just like ludicrous and stupid because it doesn't happen. Speaking of which, quick trivia note. Um, nearly all rookies of the year in the history of this award have been top 10 picks. Since 2000, since the year 2000, there have only been two guys who won rookie of the year who were chosen outside of the top 10. Can you name them? Malcolm Brogden. Yes, 36th overall pick in 2016. Oh my God, my brain.

Like Brogden, a primary ball handler who's, uh, had a lot of, of injuries, in fact, no longer in the league. But I think they might have even crossed paths with one team. Just tell me, this is not riveting podcasting for listeners. Long silence is never good podcasting. Michael Carter Williams, 11th overall pick in 2013. Oh, my God. Okay, yeah, that was on the, okay, cool.

I'm really not going to lose sleep over that one. Don't. You shouldn't. You shouldn't. But I mean, the real point is that those are the only two guys. And one was just outside the top 10 at 11. The other one, you know, Brogden won because our friend Joelle Embed had his rookie season cut to like 23 games or whatever. Brogden, not one by default.

He had a really good season, but he wasn't your traditional rookie of the year. So a rookie of the year outside of the top 10 is extraordinarily rare. To who you got for your jalapeno pick with all that said? Honestly, with everything you said, I felt. like if you weren't picking Cooper flag for this, it's spicy. You know what I mean? That's fair. But we did eliminate the.

Yes. Dylan Harper and Trey Johnson also based on our rules. Also like, why Dylan Harper? I know he's the second pick, but like, rookie, he's going to be with D.R. and Fox? I don't know. Whatever. Anyway. I know.

Weird. Derek Queen. All right. Hit me. So he had wrist surgery. Good injury. Good start. So there's a good start.

Got injured at Summer League. Did you know he averaged nearly six turnovers a game in the three games he played? At Summer League? Yeah, I'm really building my case here for Rookie of the Year. You looked up Summer League stats. You've already gone the extra mile. So he'll miss the start of the season, I think, Joe Dumars recently said. And he's on a team with Jordan Poole now.

and Zion Williamson so far until further notice. This case gets better all the time. I guess I picked him because he's a scorer, so he will score. He'll put the ball in the basket, which is the most important thing when it comes to rookie of the year so long as he's on the court. And I think more functionally, like the New Orleans Pelicans have so much equity in this person to do well, to save face, that he will have every opportunity this year to get minutes, get opportunities, get touches, get shots. They want him to play, like, extraordinarily well.

So that's what, that was in my head when I was like, who could actually like do something this year that people aren't really expecting? Like, I think, like, he is, he is, I mean, I don't need, we need to set this up for context. What I'm saying? but the New Orleans Pelicans traded away a pick that they had that belonged to the, whose pick was it? The, it's a swap between the bucks and the, it was like their own pick. It was one of those super complicated things with a thousand conditions on it. Yeah, but I think the bottom line is like it's their own pick and they're going to be bad.

So, unprotected to the Atlanta Hawks. And one of the worst trades you'll see this side of Luca Doncher. getting moved. And it was embarrassing. And so the way that you kind of shield yourself from the embarrassment is you justify the move by saying, even though it wouldn't even be justified, but Derek Queen being good would help. So I think that that is where my head was at when I was doing this. There's an investment there. They need him to play and they need him to vindicate them. Precisely. I agree. Absolutely. My jalapeno pick, Ace Bailey. I don't know that anybody's expecting much from Ace Bailey, but here's the thing.

The jazz have nothing. They've got Lowry Marketing and like just guys. He's a pure score. He can shoot. He can get to the rim. He seems to not lack confidence. They're badly going to need somebody other than Marketing has to score. They will badly need scoring.

He will get every opportunity in the world. They don't need to be good. They don't plan to be good. they don't want to be good. So if he's scoring a ton with low efficiency, they won't care. You can score with low efficiency and still win rookie of the year. There's surely examples of that in the past. And you definitely don't need to be on a winning team.

So, yeah, I just think the opportunity is there. Rookie of the year is often going to be the guy who just got a lot of usage dedicated to him and just had the opportunity to make his mistakes, grow, but put up some numbers. So not the spiciest. That's my, he's my jalapeno pick, but spicy-ish. And as you said, given that Cooper Flag is the overwhelming favorite, everybody's spicy after him. Who's your Carolina Reaper?

I actually, like, flipped a coin, figurative coin between my Carolina Reaper and my spicy and my jalapeno, because, again, I just think that everything is equally spicy. if you're not picking Cooper. But my pick here for Carolina Reaper is Igor Diomen, Brooklyn Nets, number eighth overall. He was my favorite player in the draft, in his class. I think he will have free reign to play how he played in college with the Brooklyn Nets. That is, run a ton of pick and roll. make flashy highlight plays, show off his vision, become a fan favorite, give the Brooklyn Nets,

please God, as someone who lives in Brooklyn and goes to Nets games, please make the Barclays Center an exciting place to watch basketball games, potentially. At least, like, give us the hint of hope of someday doing that. But I just think he's super fun and watching, you know, I didn't watch a ton of or any college basketball last year. But in the process of just kind of pre-draft process of just looking at these guys, his game, I thought, was the one that I just was most enamored with. And then you add to the fact that, again, Summer League, whatever, but his three-point shot was this big question coming in. And everything about it looked great, including the fact that he was hitting shots off the dribble. So I don't know if.

he worked on it between, you know, ending up at BYU and going to Las Vegas. But if he can shoot, too, I think he'll have numbers. And the only thing kind of keeping it back from actually happening, I think, is the fact that he plays for a team that should be the worst in the NBA this season. So, yeah, that's kind of, that's my pick. Or at least competing with Ace Bailey's jazz for worst team in the NBA season. Fair, fair, fair. So, damn, you. you. This is the first time we've actually overlapped. Oh, wow. Demmon was actually my Carolina Reaper pick as well.

Maybe it's because we both live in Brooklyn and we both go to a lot of Ed's games and we're both kind of like- We're crossing our fingers. Is there anything we're seeing in our backyard because we're going to be there regardless? Excuse me. Our buddy J. Kyle man had regaled me with Tales of Demand when I had him on the pod back in like last November, December or something.

So I've been intrigued by him. even as late as, I think it was during the pre-draft process, or excuse me, during the run-up to the draft itself. I think Kyle was still saying he wasn't just the best passer in the draft, but the best passer to be in the draft in years. That's because I was DMing Kyle clips of Yeoman constantly being like, why is this not the number one pick? And he was like, please stop, lose my number. By the way, I'm glad you got the pronunciation down. for this podcast because I'm just going to butcher the shit out of it repeated here. Listen, he probably won't score a lot, but someone's got to set up Michael Porter Jr.

A presumably resigned Cam Thomas. I mean, nobody needs to set up Cam Thomas. Just give him the ball and get out of the way. Cam will do the rest himself. Nick Laxton, like they've got guys of this team who can do things with the ball, who can score, and they do need someone to facilitate. And I know that they have now accumulated a bunch of, young pseudo point guards, including, say his name, Jelman.

Diomen. Dioman. I don't see an O in there anywhere. But someone's going to keep the offense humming and get the assists. Dare I say to be, apologies, producer Cliff, somewhat Ben Simmons like. I mean, a younger Ben Simmons when he actually played basketball and was, you know. But, you know, Ben Simmons at his best was never a score. He was just super smart and tuted with the ball in his hands and set up everybody else.

Like there's a role to be played there. The nets are going to, you know, play him regardless, I assume. Like, what else do they have? So, yeah, the outline is there, potentially there. Anybody else you considered? I was, I thought one of us might go young Hansen, another name. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Screw up. But, but, you know, he was outside the top 10, obviously. I thought about fears. But there just weren't a lot of, like, great options. But we can. I thought about Edgecombe. Yeah. I think he will play for the Sixers.

I think he will be in their rotation. And he gives them two-way just athleticism that they don't really have on their roster. But, like, if Paul George is healthy, if M. Bede is healthy, he's also competing with Maxi for touches and McKee. and McCain for touches. So I couldn't, I don't know with that one. It's like it's a little funky because I also think that those guys won't be healthy. So he will put up numbers, you know? So that's a, that's a tricky one.

But I think he will be very, very good. I do everything I can to improve producer Cliff's mood and you just like crap all over. Like, nobody's going to be healthy. Even the young guys aren't going to be healthy. Like, you just so dour. Sixth man. Sixth man of the year. The guys we could not pick, uh, current, uh,

Sixth Man of the Year title holder Peyton Pritchard and runner up Malik Beasley off the board. 2026 favorites were Peyton Pritchard again, weird. DeAndre Hunter and Nas Reed. So there are the names we could not pick. Michael Pino, who is your jalapeno pick for six man of the year? I went with Lonzo Ball. Hmm. Was on my list.

Did not pick him. We just learned that Max, I don't know if we just learned this, but I just learned that. that as I wake up for my two-month hibernation, that Max Drews will miss, I think, three to four months. I think we're talking like December maybe or January, potentially. Yeah, so I don't think that Lonzo will start, but I do think that Hunter, they'll probably start Hunter, I would imagine. And I just think Lonzo can give them,

first of all, he impacts the game in myriad ways. And I've always wanted the sixth man of the year to be, perceived as more than an off-the-bench bucket-getter. Like, no disrespect to that player type. But I think that someone like Alex Caruso going to the Oklahoma City Thunder, he was my pick, my actual pick in predicting last year's award, I just think, like, if you can bring, you know, just be the Swiss Army knife offensively, but then bring so much else to the table on the other side of the ball.

and I think that Lanzo is a very smart, very crafty defender. And if he can stay healthy, and I think he should in this limited role with his minutes being down and kind of pressure being off. I think he can have the same type of impact that Caruso did last year. But I think that he's also someone who will have the ball in his hands a little bit more. So you'll get the assist numbers. And I think the offense will absolutely flourish when he's on the court, because he can shoot. Caruso's a very good shooter,

but I think Lonzo Ball is a better shooter. And so, yeah, this was my pick. And Cleveland's going to be awesome. And I think that when you win, people pay attention to you. And so this could happen. We'll see. You know, it's possible. Unofficial rule for six men.

It's got to be a top tier team. Like, no one's winning six man of the year off of like the eighth seed, right? So you're automatically getting a huge boost, too, if you're a serious contender as the Cavs are. I like that pick. I thought about him too. I just wasn't sure like how many minutes is he actually playing. And the numbers won't be like big, right?

But he could become like a plus minus darling, right? An on-off darling where it's where the advanced stats just show like how much he stabilizes and benefits the second team. I could see it. I like it. I like to pick. I being an old school grizzled vet with Gray's in my. waning beard, went with the bucket getter.

I want Jordan Clarkson of the Knicks. Oh, wow. Hear me out. Hear me out. Look, they badly need bench scoring and bench playmaking. I know the scoring is going to be more than the playmaking in Jordan Clarkson's case. But Jalen Brunson badly needs somebody to do something with the ball so that Jalen Brunson doesn't have to do it for quite the load that he's had. And even the transition from Tibbs to Mike Brown

might alleviate some of that, right? You need to have a coach who's willing to go to the bench a little bit more. It also helps that the Knicks have improved their bench. So that's not just, you know, a knock on Tibbs. Like the Knicks improved their bench, I believe, with Clarkson and Yaviselle. I think Clarkson would have been a bad fit with Tibbs based on his profile. But I think Mike Brown will give him a little bit more latitude to just do what he does. best. And he can do a lot with the ball in his hands. His efficiency has been in decline the last couple of years in Utah. But I mean, I don't know how to evaluate. He's not that old. You can't evaluate properly anybody, especially a flawed player. You put a flawed player on a horrific

roster. You're like everybody's less efficient. Everybody's and the me first tendencies just get amplified because it's like, well, we're not winning anyway. I might as well get mine. I think on a team with expectations. And boy, do they have expectations. a team with expectations and great talent around him. He'll share the court at times with Brunson, I'm sure, with towns, with some of the other starters. Like, that stability and that structure will make Jordan Clarkson, I think, a more effective and efficient player. And if the Knicks are as good as we all think they're going to be, top two in the east, potentially number one team in the east. And if he's putting up usual Jordan Clarkson type numbers, you know, 14 to 16 points, five, six, six,

assists maybe off the bench. Maybe that's a little optimistic for him at even decent efficiency. Like he'll he'll get a lot of notice. I don't, and especially as my jalapeno pick, I don't, I don't think that that's, I don't think that's crazy. I, uh, I had the, this was the category that I had the most honorable mentions for and he honestly didn't even cross my mind. Wow. I'm sorry. Let the record reflect. Michael Pina hates Jordan Clarkson. I, I, I do not hate Jordan Clarkson. I'm rooting for him. I think he should have a fine season in New York. But I just don't think the numbers will be there for him because it's, I don't, you know, I foresee Mike Brown staggering Kat and Jalen Brunson. And I do think that there will be more bald movement

than last year, but at the same time, you still have Mikhail Bridges who wants to eat. You still of OGO and Anobie. So I don't know. We'll see. Yabuselli would have been a fun pick, I got to say. Sure. Yeah. All right.

Give me your Carolina Reaper. Okay. So this is definitely not going to happen for a variety of reasons. But I'm going with Chris Stappsborzingis with the Atlanta Hawks. And the first reason why this might not happen is he might start at center for the Atlanta Hawks. So I don't like I don't know how they're going to look. Minor glitch.

There's been some speculation that it would be Onieko Okungwu, who played fantastically, down the stretch last year and who I like a lot and is a little bit more, I guess, dependable than KP is at this point in his career. I think if you have KP in a more tapered role, minutes down, that obviously helps his body, lets him play more, lets them qualify for an award like this. and just like, I think when he's on the court, the Atlanta Hawks should just be awesome. They should, their offense should be incredible. It should be, you know, ranking near the top of the top, like offensive rating should

be top five when he's on the court, frankly. Like, there's really no excuse for it not to defensively. I think it'll be a little bit harder for him than it was in Boston maybe. but at the same time when he's on the court and Trey Young is off the court, there's still so many really capable, awesome perimeter defenders, wing defenders who can help him out in the pick and roll,

stay attached to their guy if they're going over and he's dropping, etc. So, KP, you know, like just impact. I don't know if the numbers will be there, which is why I don't think that he will actually win this award. You're not going to play through him, but as someone who just makes life easier

for everyone else and who, should enable incredible offense when he's on the floor, should be really efficient. Yeah, I'm going with my guy, KP. No, I like the pick. And if the Hawks are as good as everybody thinks they might be, potentially top four in the east, he'll get a lot of notice, assuming he's actually coming off the bench. This was, I mean, this was tough. Sixth Man is tough anyway.

We're still, like some of these guys, we don't even know if they're going to be Sixth Man. and then, you know, like some of them they're competing with their own teammates and, you know, on the bench. So I had a bunch I considered. I finally landed on Reed Shepherd. Wow. Okay. I love it. It's the Carolina Reaper pick.

It's supposed to be a reach. I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm a huge Reed Shepherd guy. Look, the Rockets badly need guard depth now. They traded Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks to get Kevin Durant. Fred Van Vleet.

love Fred Van Vleet. He's 31, which is not old, but he always misses a chunk, 15, 20 games. And if those are games that reach Shepard starting, obviously, that cuts into his overall ratio there. But he'll still come off the bench, obviously, more than he starts, assuming he gets some starts. He didn't do a lot as a rookie. But third overall pick in 2024, you know, picked that high for his shooting and playmaking abilities. I think he was in part stuck behind too many vets. Obviously, there was some just adjustment

concerns there as well. He did thrive at times in the G League. He only averaged 12 minutes in the 52 games he played 4.4 points a game. Those are not exactly numbers indicative of a potential six men of the year. But there's not a ton of reliable guards on this roster. It seems like the Rockets want to give him every opportunity to shine. They do have high expectations, which would be an argument against investing a lot in your second year guy who didn't show enough as a rookie. But I just think the minutes are going to be there. The opportunity is going to be there. The wins are going to be there importantly because, again, six man of the years got to come off of a really great team. Yeah, and he's got great vets around him. I think there's there's a

chance here. So I won't say stated any stronger than that. I love Reed Shepard. This is awesome. We did a thing, and during Summer League, I forget what the task was, but I wrote about Fried Shepherd. I just, I'm enamored by him. I think he's one of their most important young players. And I think he's actually like a pretty good defender for his size. And I think obviously the potential of having someone who can just pull up from 30 feet whenever they want. is really intriguing and he can score inside the ark as well. So I love his game and I think he will be in the rotation this year. And all the attention that is demanded of KD and Shangun and Amman Thompson putting pressure on the rim,

I think Reed Shepard will have a hay. I think he'll produce and put up numbers. So I like this. I like this, Howard. I also considered Karis Lavert but I couldn't quite get myself there My spicy for other reasons

pick for a moment was going to be Jonathan Cominga Wow On what team? Well that's the thing right Like is he the sixth man of the Warriors Is he a starter in Sacramento or somewhere Like I don't even know

But like for a guy who is playing for a contract no matter where he is, right? He's either on a qualifying offer or he's on a one plus one, or not one plus one, but you know, one year deal with team option. Whatever it ends up being, he's not getting the deal he wants. So he's playing for a contract. We already know he can put up numbers. I thought he'd actually be a fun pick for this, but it was, it's all just too strange with his situation. I had, I had Caris Lavert as well. I think he will contend for this award. I also had T.J. McConnell, who, you know, he's America's sweetheart.

What can you say? Coming off that final. This man almost won finals MVP. That's a thing that happened. I still have not processed the NBA finals, by the way. It's going to be like next Christmas. I'm going to finally get over it. And Scotty Pippin Jr. was another one of my honorable mentions.

I don't think the grisies will be good enough. Fair. That's the problem there. Fair. The, the strangest one I consider was Dylan Harper. Like, if the spurs make the, like, massive leap that people think that they might be able to make, and he's not going to start, but they're young teams, so they'll play him a lot. But there's, again, like too many weird considerations there.

But anyway, all right, we got two categories left. We'll get through these a little bit quicker. Most improved player, the team record is generally irrelevant for this one. this is strictly what the player did. The 2025 winner, and no one's getting most improved back to back years anyway, but the most improved winner and runner up last year

were Dyson Daniels, and Evica Zubach. The 2026 favorites who we cannot pick are Denny Avdia, Andrew Nimhard, and Benedict Matherin. So a double shot of Pacers there. I generally say no second year guys for most improved either,

so I wasn't going to go with anybody who's a second year player. Honestly, and I said this before we started the pot, most improved to me is like when we're doing preseason stuff, this is always like the most impossible one. Like we don't know what guys are working on during this summer, how their roles will evolve the next season, the opportunity they might get, how circumstances change around them. Like this one is really hard to just guess in August of any year. But we're doing it anyway, because we need things for the podcast. your jalapeno pick for most improved Michael Pina. Jabari Smith, Jr. Houston Rockets.

I like it. I will just second what you said about, I don't vote for or consider second or third year players for this award. I think in your first three years, you should be improving. And so Jabari Smith, Jr. barely qualifies. Has the new contract. he, you know, I was just really impressed with how he played in the playoffs. Like, when the ball was in his hands in that series against the Golden State Warriors, I thought he made really quick, smart decisions.

He had a one dribble, two dribble pull up that was true pretty much every time, or it felt that way, at least. I think he has defensive versatility, obviously, that he's shown. And I just, I think he will benefit greatly from having, Kevin Durant, who in a lot of ways his game is similar to not even close to his good or ever will be, but similar to that type of archetype. So yeah, this was, I think, like, in a winning situation, assuming he starts, which I think he should start, maybe he won't, I don't know, I think that starting lineup is a little bit in flux, but if he starts, he gets big minutes

and just gets open shots or slash is defended by the opposing teams like, I don't know, fourth, just like borderline weakest defender anytime he's on the court. I think Jabari Smith Jr. will have a really good year, more efficient year. And even if he isn't averaging 17, 18 points a game, you'll notice the improvement if you watch the Houston Rockets play. And so that's my pick. I think he'll have a really good year. I like it.

I like it. I think we could kind of see the progression coming. Maybe it's more gradual than Rockets fans would have hoped. But I also think like there's, you know, there's a rising tides thing here going on too where you get Kevin Durant and expectations and just the general atmosphere. Everything evolves a little bit. Everything levels up a little bit. And I think it's a good context for a guy like him to, to, to,

spread his wings a little bit. I did struggle with both of my picks here. But for my jalapeno pick, I went with my old standby Scoot Henderson. In part because I feel like it's now or never. He needs to be improved drastically. I think I touched on this with Zach on his show a month or so ago. I do think, I think it's a real thing in the NBA. Like having the right context, the right mentorship does matter.

I'm not saying that playing next to Drew Holiday and having Dame Lillard while rehabbing in the locker room sprinkles magic dust on you. I don't think you somehow transform just based on that. But I've talked to enough players over the last 28 years to know that everybody and especially the stars and especially the guys who really understood what it means to evolve your game. game, they're always talking about my vet or my vets and the guys who gave them like, you know, whether it was advice on just their day-to-day work ethic or this, the most minor little tips about how to navigate the pick and roll in a given situation.

And he's got Chauncey Billups as his coach too, of course. He's like surrounded by like a freaking Hall of Fame point guard wisdom. But also it's this. The potential has always been there, right? He came in the NBA with an NBA body. He, you know, was the, you know, he was, he was, there was at least a brief moment in time where people were debating. Is it going to be Scoot versus Wembe for, for number one, although that went away very quickly. But he was, um, the scoot, Wemby game in Vegas was awesome.

That was an awesome game. That was so much fun. Yeah. The only Gile game potentially I've ever enjoyed. Um, sorry, Julie. That was, that was, that was uncalled for. Damn. That was, that was mean.

Yeah, rest in peace, G League Ignite. Scoot has all the tools. And as you know, because I think you were still with me at SI at the time when I went down to Georgia to go do the feature on him. I think he's about all the right things. He's a great kid, incredibly professional, and wants to be great. Works hard. I think has a great basketball IQ. I think it's been funky in Portland just because, you know, they haven't picked a direction and they still sort of are trying to pick a direction, but they're getting there. He finished, I think pretty strong last season. They finished stronger. It feels like things are moving in the right direction. You can quibble over whether Drew Holiday is the right player at the right time. But I think, you know, we've seen this in a number of cases where just having that one championship type veteran who comes in.

gives you that that last bit of of whatever know-how. I don't know. Most improved is impossible. I'm going Scoot Henderson with my jalapagio pick. He wouldn't qualify for my own arbitrary rules that aren't real. But yeah, I like this. I think that he's just outside of my number, the two-year rule. Yours is the three-year rule.

Yeah, I think that Scoot, you know, there's a lot of room for improvement, which is a good, good start. Yeah. And there were glimpses throughout, I think, like, I don't know, from like maybe the new year on, he had like a 25-30 game stretch that was actually really optimistic. I wrote a column earlier in the year about the least improved players, and he was on it. And shortly after, I thought he played really well, all things considered, particularly on the defensive end, taking a role that, you know, picking up full court. he was a big part of Portland kind of turning their season around on that side of the ball. And I just, yeah, I like the physical tools are all there.

Can he consistently get to the rim, finish at the rim, get to the free throw line? Will he start? That's like a big part of this, I think, for him. We'll see. But I think Drew Holiday, in particular, his influence will be terrific. He's one of the best locker room guys in the NBA, gold medal winner, been around some of the best players who've ever played the sport and has been the missing ingredient in two different organizations in the last, what, five years, which is not a lot of people can say that to championship winning organizations.

So that influence should go a long way. Hopefully it does. And yeah, I like this pick. I hope I'm rooting for scoot. Who is your Carolina Reaper pick? My Carolina Reaper pick is, this is a funky one. one. Jay Huff, Center, starting center, I guess, for the Indiana Pacers. I think I, in real life, would probably go with other members of the Indiana Pacers if I was betting money on this award or something. I think Andrew Nemhart is someone who opened a lot of eyes during the playoffs and in particular during the NBA finals as someone who is just awesome, rock solid on both sides

of the ball. He might be a shoe-in to win this, I don't know, but since he is not eligible, I think Jay Huff, you know, I'm going from like, this is someone who has the, has like the skill set that every team wants, right? Like, he is the three-point shooting rim protector, seven-foot-tall center. Like, that is what every team wants. He had spurts last year with the Memphis Grizzlies where it was like, oh, they found something here. And he got money from it. And he's replacing Miles Turner, who is, has, that's been who Miles Turner is and why Miles Turner was so coveted by the Milwaukee Bucks during the offseason. I think not having Tyrese Alliburton kind of is this, this is like dead in the water a little bit. We'll see. You know, if he's

sharing the court with T.J. McConnell quite a bit. And T.J. can still get to the rim and kick it out, numbers could be there. And Jay Huff's signature reverse dunks will be on display all year long, hopefully. People will be paying attention. But I don't, he's, you know, he's definitely not going to win this award. But I think the part of him having far more opportunity than he did at any other point in his career, frankly, I think that that's why I went with him. Yeah. Um, not a lot of The Jay Huff talk? Not all of Jay Huff opinions, Howard.

No thoughts on his beard, on his hairline, nothing. Phenomenal. Nothing about J. Huff? Yeah. I love the beard. Were you there? I think we ran into his girlfriend or his wife on the concourse at Barclays when they were here. No?

It was definitely not me. But I would remember that one. Wearing like the J. Huff jersey. Anyway, I, no, it's a good pick. Like, look, this is. We called it Carolina Reaper for a reason. Was running into Jay Huff's girlfriend slash wife a top five moment for you at Barclay Center last season? Almost by default, yes.

I apologize. It's rough. It's rough. I went to a Liberty game last month, and that was a freaking blast. And the difference in atmosphere, and granted, look, unfair comparison, the Liberty are super good in defending champs. and the Nets are very far from that. But man, the atmosphere at Barclays for a Liberty game right now is just awesome, absolutely incredible. I feel like we always take shots at the Nets when we pod, but it's just it's hard not to, you know?

They'll get out of this. They'll make it through. They're light shots. Look, they're doing the right thing. They're doing what they have to do right now. It's fine. It is what it is. You and I have no stakes in this.

We're not Nets fans, but it's like it is our backyard. We do go to a lot of games for work purposes and frequently leave before the game starts because there's no reason to stick around. Anyway, my Carolina Reaper pick, would you like to hear it? I would love to. I was most improved? Yes.

Oh, am I out there with this one? I was just scrolling people's depth charts, just looking for like, is there some glimmer here? Is there some? I don't know how I landed on Ryan Rawlins, but that's what's on my page. Oh, my God. It's in my word, Doc.

I could show it to you. You don't want to see it. Look, Dame Lillard is gone. There is no clear replacement. They signed Cole Anthony. They have Kevin Porter Jr. I don't want to say anything more. There's really, like, Janus needs help. Ryan Rollins had some really nice moments down the last couple of the months of the season. They re-signed him three years, 12 million. Doc Rivers keeps talking him up. John Horst is talking them up. They know things we don't. He's big. for a guard. He can shoot. Proving as a playmaker. Can finish in traffic a bit, defends a bit. I think there's opportunity. Like, that's the thing with most improved, right? Like, it is sometimes it is about your literal improvement skill set. And in a lot of times, it's about some combination of that and minutes. And he's in a position to get a lot more opportunity. And it's the Carolina Reaper pick. I get, you know, we're supposed to be reaching here. So it's a great pick. I think it's a great pick. I'm. I'm down on the books.

I'm a little angry at you for picking someone associated with the bucks because just me speaking about the Milwaukee Bucks will incur weeks of just pure hatred and vitriol throughout the internet from Milwaukee Bucks faithful. But, no, I like this pick generally. I mean, like the logic is there. And that's what all you can ask for when you're picking a Carolina Reaper for most improved player, you know? Where do you have the Bucks in the East as of right now?

What did I have them at? Like 11th? Yeah. Oh, wow. No, no, no, no, no. Did you put them outside of the plane? No, no, no. No, no.

I had them in the plan. I had them in the plan. I think ninth, ninth or tenth. Yeah. Wow. Ninth. I had them ninth. Sorry, Bucks fans.

Do not get mad. Ninth. Even though that will make them more. They already hate you. It doesn't matter. Yeah. All right. One last category.

We'll get the hell out of here. Defensive player of the year, another one that is like incredibly difficult to prognosticate in an offseason for for various reasons. The winner and runner up last year and therefore ineligible for this exercise were Evan Mowbly and Dyson Daniels. The favorites for this coming season and therefore ineligible for this exercise are one Victor Wembenyama, Chet Holmgren, and Evan Mowbly, who we already previously crossed out. Your jalapeno pick for defensive player of the year, Michael Pina is? This is very similar to rookie of the year for me. If it's not Wembe, it's spicy. Like, you're, come on.

Like, what are you doing if you're not picking Wembe? But I'm pretty, I think I'm pretty spicy here. I'm pretty, there's a lot of jalapeno seeds in this jalapeno pepper. It's Cam Thomas, isn't it? I'm going with Scotty Barnes. Oh, whoa. Yeah. It was a double O.

That's like a double bang. I don't think I've ever done that before. Wow. I'm impressed. I really pulled that one out. Listen, awesome defender. We'll start there. Incredibly versatile.

Can guard all five positions. He will spend time as their best rim protector. He'll spend time guarding the other team's top scorer. He'll have a lot of defensive responsibility this year for a team that, you know, obviously there's a lot of different reasons why they finish so well after the All-Star break. They finish second, I believe, in defensive rating. There's a lot of reasons for that.

The competition was terrible, three point luck, all of that. But all year long, when Scotty Barnes was on the court, their defense was very good. When he's off the court, it's not as good. The advanced stats love him for obvious reasons. And I think the Toronto Raptors have a chance to be pretty good again defensively. And I think that he is just, I mean, if they finish in the top 10 and he has really favorable on-off, which this is all tracking is possible. People will look at him and recognize that he is like up there in terms of just

not a lot of defensive weaknesses. Like can guard basically anyone. I mean, I remember what he was of rookie guarding Joel Embed fronting him in the post. Obviously, there's a lot of help coming on the backside. But like he can handle a lot. And he's got great size, great body, great instincts. So I think this one is like feasible. the world where what happened last year to Wembe happens again where he does not qualify for whatever

reason. I think that Scotty Barnes, if he plays enough games and the Toronto Raptors are in the playoff hunt, which I think they will be that people will be paying attention to his defense and giving him credit for it. I think I feel about the Raptors kind of the way you feel about the Bucks where it's just like, I just go away and come back when I understand what it is you're trying to accomplish. Winning. They're trying to win. That's what they're trying to accomplish. I guess. I still don't understand. They're not trying to lose. They're in the tax. We're not trying to lose basketball games. Fair. Congrats to Bobby Webster, by the way, for finally being named as Messiahe Ujiri's replacements. Don't understand the Messiah Jiri parting either, but whatever, Raptors. Yeah. No, I like to pick. That's a great pick. Given that, I'm not sure I went spicy enough here, but I'm within our rules. Maybe I'm not within the spirit of our rules if I went. for my jalapeno pick with Amen Thompson. I knew you were going to pick Amend Thompson.

I knew it. Howard, I knew it. Did you? More than more than you knew I would pick Joel and B. For M.B. Why not a men Thompson? I mean, yeah, again, like not quite that spicy because he was getting, he was in the conversation. He was, I think he was on one of the all defensive teams, right?

Did he make first team? He was, he was on an all defensive team. Yeah. Not that spicy other than pretty damn young, to your point, he's not, his name is not Victor Wimbanyama. Guards everybody is an absolute killer at that end. Like there's only a handful of guys in the league at any given time where you, if you told somebody just a casual fan, stop watching the ball. Just watch this guy play defense. It's fun to watch him play defense. he he he he cares to an insane degree and uh they were already a top five defense the rockets last season um i think they they only get better in that regard uh even at kevin durant's age uh i think

that plugging him in to that roster taking out jailing green uh i think isn't is a net benefit there um and we already know what a man thompson can do i don't i don't really need to just to say more there, as I said, it was probably not spicy enough, maybe too obvious. But he fits within our rules. Again, I knew you were going to pick him. So I'm not sure. I have no real reaction here. I think it's good, a good pick. Other than be more creative, Howard. It's just like undercurrent of disappointment there. I feel like it's, man, this award is so tough because like Victor when Mnayama exists. So it's like, I can't just say, oh, he should, he'll win defensive player of the year. But in a world where Victor does not exist, it's like, I'm looking, I'm projecting the

rest of, I'm in Thompson's career and I'm like, he'll definitely win defensive player of the year. Like, there's, there's no doubt in my mind. That's the type of talent that he is. And it's only a matter of, like, is that going to be his role? Is like, because he's so dynamic offensively, where it's like, okay, we can't expend so much energy from this guy. So he is, he's just such a freak in the best possible way. I love watching it play basketball. All right. Real quickly, we should do our Carolina Reaper picks. We are like at the bottom of the, we're at the bottom of our list, but we're also at like the furthest reaches of reaching for very difficult awards to prognosticate. Your Carolina Reaper pick for defensive player of the year is

Asar Thompson. No! You stole my pick. This was my bit for the, to wrap this up. I picked them both. I went on men and then Asar. I think Asar is better defensively. than Amen by a tick of a hair, eyelash, whatever you want to say. I think that there is a world where, primarily because what I was just talking about, where it's like his role this year on the Detroit Pistons will be defensive stopper. It'll be, will always have him guard the other team's best player. That's not necessarily the case with Amen because of how the Houston Rockets are built and how they guard and all the switching that they do. and their physicality.

I think Asar, just, I just, like, in my brain, when I think about him, there's so many plays from last year

where I'm just like, this guy is just, the way he moves defensively, the way he's able to stay in front of people. I know that a lot of, you know, people think about the flashbowl moment is him getting crossed up

by Jalen Brunson at the end of game six. But, like, if you watch that series, like, Asar Thompson is like, guarding Jalen Brunson for stretches with his arms behind his back as so as not to pick up any fouls because, you know, watching that series, Jailen Brunson was, you know, he was, there was,

there was some gamesmanship there for sure with him trying to get whistles. And A Tsar was giving it right back to him and just shuffling his feet, staying in front of him with his chest, chest to chest. It was like, that is so hard to do with someone as crafty as Jalen Brunson. And he did a phenomenal job. And I think that Detroit, there's a chance that they win that game six if Debbie Bickerstaff doesn't take Asar out of the game late in the fourth quarter. So I just, I think that there's a world where he's, he's recognized as the best perimeter defender in the league as early as next season. I think having the blood cloud issue all squared away. And I think his minutes will go up. And we already talked about his role. So that's my,

my Carolina Reaper pick here is Osar Thompson, who I love. And he's, right. up there with his brother in terms of just enjoyment aesthetically watching the game of basketball. I had the same, so I don't need to belabor any of what you just said. Agree with all of that. We were both there for certainly all the New York games in the Nick's Piston series, and he was just a fucking killer and absolutely impressive. Down the stretch of last season, when I was kind of making the rounds of people trying to get input, feedback for postseason awards, and he, of course, was not, Assar Thompson was not eligible.

based on games played, but someone went out of their way in these conversations, a scout who was saying, like, listen, he's better that he's exactly what you said. He's better than his brother. As awesome as Amin Thompson is, and Thompson is getting all the accolades deservedly right now. But if Asar had played the full season, we'd be talking about him as being. And Amin obviously is more developed offensively, but Asar is the stronger one defensively at this stage of their careers. And look, not for nothing, but like the Pistons now have to adjust to having this kind of like

very offensive-minded return of Jaden Ivy. So the Ivy Cunningham back court, like you, you need Thompson out there getting the other team's best perimeter player at all times. There will be plenty of opportunity and plenty of proof of concept. Great pick by both of us for the Carolina Reaper segment of the Defensive Player of the Year awards. Any parting thoughts before this, as it turns out, slightly too long podcast wraps up, Michael Pena. Here it is. 90 minutes of content on August 28th

with absolutely nothing happening in the world. You're welcome, people. Incredible job by us, I got to say. We were texting before. I was like worried that this pod was only going to be like 30 minutes long. So incredible. Like we're amazing.

We deserve it all. That's all I got to say, Howard. We really do. We're going the extra mile for you, the listeners. Appreciate you all. Thank you all for tuning into the Ringer NBA show. I don't know when we'll be back, but it's probably going to be before too long. In the meantime, enjoy Eurobasket, everyone.