The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Tales From the Couch: Jazz, Raptors, Heat, and Magic. Plus Betting on Healthy Contenders, Either-Or on Mobley, and Best Fits for Wembanyama With Kevin O’Connor

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

It's NBA Tales From the Couch! Ryen hits on Hornets-Raptors, Thunder-Heat, Cavaliers-Jazz, Suns-Warriors, and Trail Blazers–Magic (0:40). Then Ryen is joined by The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor to discuss which (healthy) NBA roster gives them the best shot at a title, LaMelo Ball's development, whether Evan Mobley can be a no. 1 player on a team, adjusting Scottie Barnes's ceiling, Jalen Green, best fits for Victor Wembanyama in 2023-24, and more (22:53). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:06:39). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin O'Connor Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast loaded with a ton of hoops tails to the couch we go over miami's win utah's incredible comeback win against cleveland we're gonna talk some charlotte toronto or Orlando's win in Portland, not as much on Golden State, playing the backup Suns and getting smoked. We'll do that with KOC. Some of the second-year guys, Wemba Nyama fits. I don't think we agree on that one all that much. And then life advice, so a lot of hoops and joy.

We start Wednesday's pod, Tales from the Couch. Okay, this really became a preference thing on what I wanted to focus in on here. It feels a little long at the beginning, but we'll keep it moving towards the end. A little zone fest for you earlier viewers. Yes, I start almost every day slash night, early evening with Detroit basketball. That was not going to happen last night. Down forward to the Sixers.

Congrats to the Sixers. Still like Diallo, though. Still like him. But Detroit was missing a few people last night. So, zone fest there. Toronto against Charlotte. Miami doing it against SGA early on there. So, let's dig into Charlotte at Toronto here for a bit.

I don't know if there's much to talk about here with the Hornets. This could be an end-of-the-season wrap for me. Lamello, I float between, wow, this guy's amazing, he's awesome, and then there's other nights where I'm like, what is he doing out there? Which is probably not fair to him still, because if there's one lesson that I keep reminding myself of now, it's that we've had these incredible development stories that have been pretty unprecedented throughout NBA history

to have players that look like they're going to be somebody and then there's a step and it's like, okay, that's probably who they're going to be and then there's this next step. It feels like it's happening more and more than I can ever remember in watching NBA basketball, but it also doesn't absolve anyone from getting off to a slow start because then it kind of becomes this fan default defense of any player that you spend a high pick on where you just point to everybody else that's gotten good later on. If your guy in the lottery hasn't scored any points, you're like, well, look what Kawhi did early on. He was like, cool,

now he just has to be a finals MVP in three or four years So both are worth reminding ourselves of, but at the same time, that defense can be a little different. But look, Lomelo's far further along than some of these other developmental guys that I'll talk about. But he has these stretches where I just don't know what it is that he's doing.

In the third quarter, he had four heat check threes in three minutes, like bombs. But then you look up the numbers and he's like 38, 39% from three, even though he's taking 11 a game right now, feels a little settlish. He's still at a really high number. So you can't knock him for taking those. I've always talked about his start stop with the ball in his hands. It's pretty incredible for somebody his size. He sees things other people

don't see. He had Van Vliet on him. He went right past him, then froze the defenders like they were safeties. He was a quarterback, froze them with his eyes, and then just dumped it off to a big. It's not like the team is great around him. Mark Williams is finally starting to play a little bit. Nine games since Christmas. Hayward was out again last night. He's missed 21 of the 42 games.

We know Rozier's pretty good. We know PJ's decent. Jalen McDaniels, I don't know. Really, it feels more like he's a Charlotte rotation player than an NBA rotation player. I know that he's built his defense. The handle's a little bit better than you would think. The shooting's dipped a bit, but I think he's 25

at the end of this month, which makes him a little bit older in the McDaniels that we get confused with that are in the league. And yeah, I already mentioned PJ and Rozier. The foul rate for Lamello's up a bit more. He's fouled out of a few games. I don't know if that's that big of a deal. I think the weird thing is that he's so locked in and dynamic and he keeps possessions alive

later. He keeps his dribble alive later. He sees passes that other people usually don't see. And yet then on defense, he looks like a bored kid who's in a classroom who, if it's not his turn, he's just not interested. He's flat footed. That's what leads to the foul rates. He takes really bad risks. He gets out of position. He just kind of falls asleep all the time. You're like, what is going on? So I think when you're thinking about him as like the one you're going, okay, what is, what is he going to be? Cause that's the standard that we are going to hold

somebody who is drafted that high, you know, has these accolades early, but then you start to kind of get to that next phase of your career where it's like, okay, what are you going to be here? And at times it is so impressive. And other times I'm kind of confused about what it is and tempers maybe the ceiling expectation I have for him. So the reason I'm talking about him this much is they have the third best odds to win the lottery and land Victor Wimbanyama. The Lomelo angle with Wimbanyama is going to be, if they were to get the pick, everyone is going to be, if that were,

if they were to get the pick, everyone is going to, I would say there's a majority, maybe not everyone is going to start to say like, wow, you know, think of the lobs, think of the lobs going to be said over and over again.

This would probably be one of my least favorite destinations for him. The ownership is terrible. People don't say it nearly enough. Jordan's been a bad owner from the jump, and he just isn't a good one. So that wouldn't be great. And the rest of the roster, yeah, there's a little piece here, something I may like there. I know that from a talent standpoint,

the Bridges issue isn't Charlotte's fault. So losing that for nothing is not ideal. But I feel like this is a real kind of stuck organization. And I guess you would argue, well, adding somebody like Victor is the number one pick, like changes everything. And in a way that it does, there's just other teams where I think he has a better chance to succeed and be the best version of him. Even if the early part of that, if they were to win the lottery again, we're months and months away from even thinking about this. There's going to be, I think, an overwhelming applause for it because it would be, oh, these lobs. It's like, man, it's going to be a little bit more than just lobs from your one and center the entire time. On the Raptors side, they're 18 and 23 with this

win. Only seven teams have a worse record than them. It was back and forth. They put up 72, I think, in the first half. You're always worried about their offense a little bit because they can feel a little, no, it's your turn, it's my turn, it's your turn, it's my turn without much flow to it. This is not the case last night. They also hit 23s, which is season high for them. They went on a 14-zip run, took this game over.

Van Vliet a couple threes who had been miserable from the floor. OG a couple threes as well. So then Toronto scored some points there, but I started looking at the offense again. Overall, the offensive rating higher than you would think. There's just some issues when they've had some of these half court numbers that are terrible, and this has been

something we've seen more from them in the past. But 15th overall, and then the last 15 games are 15th, so there you go. Nothing great, but the record still always a little bit more surprising unless you're locked into the Raptors every single night. Okay, Oklahoma City at Miami. Who wants to watch some free

throws? Miami went 40 of 40 from the free throw line last night. Is that a lot? Yes, it is. It's a new NBA record, breaking Utah's from 1982 when they went 39 from 39 from the free throw line. I thought Oklahoma City was going to win this one Miami, by the way,

without bam hero and Lowry that probably very familiar now for heat fans, just looking at the lineup being like, who are we missing tonight? Once again, an incredible credit to the front office and Spolstra to piece this thing together and do what they're doing. Cause I think a lot of heat fans, I think I have this right. I think they're only 15 and 13 with Butler in the lineup. But it looked like Oklahoma City was going to win this game.

There's an SGA three giddy baseline runner. And then there was this really nice play where I, you know, I credit Miami for this too. They just were like, screw this. Let's sell out against SGA. They played some zone against them earlier. I didn't see it as much late. And then it turned into four on three.

And it's amazing because then you have Giddey initiating your offense four on three on the other side because they sold out with two against SGA. And then he makes what I thought was going to be the game-winning assist that led to his triple-double last night for Giddey because so much of the defense focused on SGA. They're like, somebody else go ahead and make a play here. And Giddey drives, reads it perfectly, little easy pass for him. But then that's not what happened, is it?

Because Oladipo hits a three. His month has been really good. 16, 4, and 4, 46% overall, 40% from three. He's hitting four free throws a game. He's 31 minutes per game in this stretch. I don't know if people, maybe it could sometimes be me where I'll think, wait, did I realize how few games Oladipo has played? And I know when you hear that, you'll be like, oh yeah, of course I have. Are you sure you truly know the extent of how limited he has been? So if you go back to a full season there, 19 and 20, God, let's look this up.

So that Pacer season going into 18, 17, 18, when he played 75 games, he was incredible. Like all NBA level, made his first all-star team, got off to a really good start the next year as well, played only 36 games in 18-19. In 19-20, he played 19 total games. In 2021, he played 33 games, nine with the Pacers, 20 with Houston, four with Miami. Then he played in eight total games last year in the regular season and only 16 games this season. It's been 17-18 with three different stops since he's played anything

close to a full season. That's a lot of missed basketball. He's been better. I know that everybody looks at it as if it's turning the corner. I don't know that that's ever going to happen again. I just don't. God, that's a ton of missed time for somebody that was like really when it's peak special when he was athletic. Okay. So he hits the three and then the game winning play ends up being a Butler and one, which you could see this coming a mile away.

I mean, he looks for the contact first is strong enough to then finish. She's hunting free throws. I think more so than ever in his career, even though he's at 8.2 attempts per game. There's two other seasons where he actually took more free throws. There's other seasons where his free throw rate has actually been higher. His advanced stuff for this season is off the charts for Jimmy Butler. He's also missed 14 games, which I think for an older player, when you're missing 25% of the games, a lot of your efficiency stuff is going to be better because it's hard to play a full season. But this is the scattering report on him.

You have to stay down. You have to stay down. You cannot put yourself in a situation to be compromised defensively where he initiates contact because not only is he going to do it, he's also pretty good on the end one stuff too. So that ended up being the game when he played Miami, wins this one. There you go. Okay, Cleveland at Utah.

Jared Allen leaves this one, doesn't come back for the second half because of illness. Mitchell cooking his fifth 40-point game of the season. I think he only has 14 for his career. So he has stepped it up here in Cleveland big time.

I really feel like he and Garland play the perfect complementary, like high-usage guard stuff with each other. It's not necessarily the most fun for the bigs. I was tracking Mobley's touches in the last stretch of the rotation from the fourth quarter when he came back in. He had one design touch, maybe two. There was a four-on-three where he made a great pass, and then there was another play where he kind of off a roll. He had a great pass, and then there was another play where he kind of,

off a roll, he took a shot. But you're just not going to shoot it as big anymore in the NBA. But what you hope is that your guards don't screw each other up in the process, and they don't. And they're both incredible from three, 40% for Mitchell, 39%. So basically, let me throw in a little Lamar Stevens love. I know he's not hitting enough shots for somebody that was such a big-time scorer at Penn State, but I think he's important because of his body type against Kevin Durant.

That'll be the assignment if this is a playoff matchup because they don't really have the other wings that are big enough to compete because, again, the guards are a little bit smaller, although Mitchell is stout and strong enough and the wingspan is incredible. Mitchell should have always been a better defender, and he has been more engaged with Cleveland. So that's kind of what you're looking at there. And then Jordan Clarkson happens.

All right, just so we're clear on what happened last night. It's 1-22 left in the game. Cleveland is up 1-07, 1-02. Clarkson hits a three, lands forward on purpose, is given the free throw. I still wish we could get rid of this stuff. I don't want to hear about landing area. When you land into the defender's landing area,

that should be your fault, not the defender's. I mean, this thing's a fucking joke. And the league completely overreacted to the Zaza-Kawaii thing and now this is what we have. We get to review it. So this whole thing takes a fucking week to sort out. He makes the free throw, so that's a four-point play, but because it was ruled a flagrant,

we're at 107-106 and they've got the ball. So then Clarkson gets fouled by Levert because for whatever reason, Karis Levert, even up one point with a minute left in the game, can't pay attention to what the hell's going on. Let's himself get kind of caught up into Clarkson's back. He does touch him.

I didn't love the call, but even worse, like Levert, what are you doing? You're just kind of getting lost in all the motion, and then you let yourself get caught in a spot where you're going to get called for a foul. That's three shots. Clarkson, of course, makes all three of them. In 12 seconds, this goes from 107-102

Cleveland to 109-107. Clarkson hit just a nasty runner against Mobley later on to make it 111-107. There you go. A win for Utah. But Utah, not sure if you know this, they're the 10th seed now.

Since they were 10-4, 11-19 overall. Yes, Sexton has mixed some games, but still, you know, the Utah season playing out a lot more like we would think it would before the season got started. Okay, let's go now. I thought I was going to watch Golden State-Phoenix, and I saw Phoenix's lineup. Aiton out, Chris Paul out. We know Booker's going to be out for a stretch.

Both the cams were out, but then with Steph Curry back, Wiggins back, Draymond back, Clay, who in his last six games has averaged 36 per. This was the Doc Rivers rule in full effect. Golden State was just getting run out of their own building. Somebody may have told his buddies, hey, check out the line for the live line in the second half because Phoenix doesn't have anybody and Golden State is just kind of stuck. Is this going to happen for 24 more minutes? Then it did

sort of. Then Golden State looked like they were going to come all the way back, kind of. Then they didn't. So there you go. Loser. Sorry I gave that one out, boys. You know who you are. Let's go to Orlando. 89-84 in the fourth quarter.

Orlando's up on Portland. Portland's got a full squad there. There's always a little bit of a fight with me when I'm watching it going, all right, how are they going to use the guards? Because they had both Cole Anthony with Fultz in the game at the same time. Cole Anthony, solo drive, that was the last we kind of saw him. He's just going to have moments

where he's going to decide, this is my turn, and there's always better options around him. It's not to say he's never supposed to shoot, but you get the point. I've probably mentioned this too many times before. All right, let's look at three specific plays for Orlando on offense late in this game where Franz Wagner basically sealed it for Orlando,

even though there's still a chance there at the end. Okay, so Grant is assigned to Franz in this scenario. Eubanks is playing center because they wanted to go smaller in this one. And Nurkic also had foul trouble, which is not new, but he had a good game otherwise. All right, so Grant is on Franz, and Eubanks is kind of in the drop role as the five here. So Eubanks is calling out defensively what they want to do. And you've heard ice probably a million different times.

Icing, although there are different variations, and I do not know all of them. In this scenario, the way they were running this high pick and roll, it would have been likely that they were trying to ice it and send it to the sideline. Bring the big up. Get this thing going in one direction. Get it going towards the sideline.

So we're only defending in one direction. you want to keep it away from the middle um yes i'm sure some of you who are more educated on it with the coaching backgrounds that you have um would understand variations uh better than i would or the terminology that would have to do with the variations i'm just explaining this because eubanks is screaming ice over and over and over again and then franz there's no resistance around the screen and drives right at eubanks is screaming ice over and over and over again. And then Franz, there's no resistance around the screen and drives right at Eubanks and finishes. It was like, whatever you guys were yelling, you definitely didn't do. So then they run just a straight switch to bring Eubanks out. And so now there's no call. It's just, we've made the straight switch and is Franz

going to drive here and how are we going to help? Well, there was no call. It's just we've made the straight switch, and is Franz going to drive here, and how are we going to help? Well, there was no help. Franz went right past Eubanks. Actually, to Eubanks' credit, got back into the play enough to contest the shot, but Franz made an insane reverse. Then Portland got a little caught up in kind of that scramble defensively where you know who your guy is, but you're too close to somebody else that matters.

And that's what happened with Grant is that he was near Paolo. And then he was kind of like, well, look, I'm on Paolo now. So then Franz is on the other side. They run a quick little switch. Lillard gets stuck with Franz. And Franz just decides there's no way he's going to test my three. Hits a three right over him. That was three straight possessions

where franz had to read something different that they did they didn't do a good job with then got the switch he wanted just took it all on his own and then saw another situation where he's like i'm just going to take the three this the drives from franz are relentless his iq is terrific and yes i'm i'm with our guy saruti. I don't think he gets enough love. Late though, Dame got Wendell Carter in a blow-by, which Wendell hadn't moved until Dame was about 10 feet away from him. I think there were just little moments there with Dame

going, he still can pretty much get whatever he wants on offense, even if we had some concern about some of the shooting numbers there. That made it 107-103 on the drive and then Lillard got fouled on another call where I was like, eh, I really don't like some of this stuff. But Lillard gets the three free throws. So now we're talking about a one-point game, but it's under the shot clock. Fultz gets

fouled. So it's 109-106. Your boy's on the couch. He's got the notepad ready. He can't wait to see what happens. And then we come back from, I think it was a Carl's Jr. ad, and the game was over. It was just over. Like I never saw the possession until I watched it in the highlights this morning. So I had no idea what happened. And it's pretty crazy that I just got done talking about this. Yeah, it was Carl's Jr., that new A1 Steak Sauce Burger. So picture me, home, we go to ads, we come back,

burger time, and then all I see is 109, 106, final, and everybody's walking off the court. That's what I got on my feed last night. I just did a rant on this. You can't have the Bowers play in the Peach Bowl. One of the biggest calls of the entire game. Was he out of bounds? Was it a first down?

Is it a turnover on downs? Nope. Let's check in with Match.com and seven other ads. And then you come back and we don't know what's going on. You can't do that then. You can't do that last night. I didn't really spend a ton of time on the Clippers because I get bored watching Dallas. I'm sorry. And they were down big. I know Don just got it

going there in the fourth quarter. Kawhi had a season-high 33 points. The Clippers won a 21-15. They lost six straight, so it was good for them to get a win. In that stretch in the seven games, Kawhi played five. They went one and four in them. But if it would have been closer, I was just watching it this morning as I was getting prepped and doing everything. So there you go. We've got more NBA with KOC life advice at the end. Tales from the Couch.

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Look hard. Okay, what jumps out? Detroit missing dudes at home plus seven back-to-back. Down 40 to Philly last night. The highest total on the board is 238.5. San Antonio at Memphis. So let's go under Spurs at Grizzlies. 238 and a half.

Both did not play last night. Phoenix, Denver, another overplay. Potentially a total play here. 226 and a half. Remember what I talked about? Second half. If you can find the second half line for Phoenix there, they're getting 13 back-to-back winning without all their guys. This is

the other really tough part about the NBA part of it. By the time this airs, I don't even know what the lineups are going to be. Make sure you're up-to-date on the lineups for this NBA stuff as we start to get to the more silly part of the season. We'll give out two totals here. We'll go under Spurs-Grizzlies, 238.5. We'll go over. You know what? Let's just keep them both unders.

I'm sorry. I'm just going to expect Phoenix to fall off in the second half there after the back-to-back and then being in Denver. That's why that number is so low to begin with. Let's play that number but not the 13. Not plus 13. Two totals for you. Plus, FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with the same game parlay.

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Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. All right, we'll keep the hoops going here. Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer. What's up, man? Good to see you. Good to see you too, Ryan. How are you doing today?

Good. So, you know, when I was looking at the West, I felt like, are we going to have some defining tiers here? We're Denver, Memphis, and New Orleans are that first tier, all two and a half games? And then there's that next group, Dallas. But then when does that group end?

And then when I look over at the East, it feels like the top teams are actually better. Philadelphia just keeps rolling along here too with a good point differential. I like Cleveland. The top five for the East feels pretty significant. But even if we looked at Boston's rough

offensive stretch in December and try and figure out the Rob Williams part of it, it feels like from a health standpoint, they're the best bet. I may not think they're... I'm not looking at Boston saying, hey, they're clearly the best team and maybe I don't even feel as good about them today as I did the first, I don't know, 25 games this season. But from a health standpoint,

knowing that their two guys play all the time, they seem like a better bet than the other contenders. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I think they're top end guys with Tatum and Brown. Tatum, one of the 10 best players in all of the NBA. Jalen Brown, one of the top 20, 25 best. After that, too, there's certain teams where you lose one role player. It's dismantling to the system with Boston. They have eight

of the top 100. In our ringer rankings, we had eight Celtics when we revealed the rankings last month. Right now, I think White and Grant Williams fell off, but with Smart, Derek White, Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon, Grant Williams, and obviously Robert Williams starting the other night for Boston,

once again, they have so much depth of talent as well where even if one of those guys go down, they have other guys who can step up. So I think they're a safe bet in that sense, Ryan. I do think, though, compared to milwaukee though like if milwaukee were to get chris middleton back and totally healthy i'd still give a slight edge to the bucks over the selling of i'm picking a finals team because of the greatness of yannis with how he works with you know drew holiday and chris middleton we saw joe ingles the other night have an outstanding performance for them off the bench, showing

the importance of their shot creation there around Giannis. But ultimately, Boston is the safer bet, considering health and all the issues some of those other teams are having. So, Durant's out a month. We all kind of expect it to happen at some point. Is there now enough depth, though, for them to kind of expect it to happen at some point.

Is there now enough depth, though, for them to kind of ride this out way better than they did last year? I think so. I mean, like, you know, Chris Vernon and I were talking about this this week with Brooklyn, like all of our conversations this year, you know, it's about KD and the greatness of his play.

But it's also about all the pieces around him this year. Whereas last year, it wasn't as much about Nick Claxton being an all-defensive candidate. They recently get Harris and Curry back. Those guys can have an uptick. And I think the real important player for them without KD now is going to be TJ Warren. TJ Warren has been coming off their bench, occasionally staggering minutes between him and Kevin Durant. He's a guy who can be a bucket getter for you, who can score close to 20 points per game. So I think with Brooklyn, they have enough.

It's like we just said with Boston. The Celtics have so much depth on their team that others can step up. With the Nets, obviously you're not going to be as good with kevin duran a top five mvp candidate so far this season an all d candidate in his own right obviously but they do have other guys who can i think collectively absorb some of that responsibility and help keep the team afloat in the top six in the eastern conference i don't think they're gonna they they're going to. I don't expect them to fall apart. In fact, I'd be shocked if they were to fall apart. What would it take for you to go?

Okay, I actually like Philadelphia better than everybody in the East. Is that possible? I think for me to like them more than anybody in the Eastern Conference, it's going to have to be James Harden and Tyrese Maxey even getting better together in that back court. I think with Maxey, as good

as he is, he's still that upside piece for them where if he can tap into an even higher level as that third cog on that team, because we've seen Harden have moments where he still can tap into the old Harden and be obviously still an MVP candidate. But can Maxie step up even further

with the current roster? And if it's not that, perhaps it's a trade that Daryl Morey might have up his sleeve to add one more wing in that rotation to help elevate them. But I'm high on Philly as is. I think they're right up there

with Boston, Milwaukee with that group. With Embiid and Philly as is. I think they're right up there with Boston, Milwaukee with that group. With Embiid and Harden playing at the level that they are. I just think it's on that backcourt to further elevate their play up to the level of Embiid. I feel guilty sometimes of them. They're kind of like Dallas for me.

I feel guilty that I don't enjoy the peaks of it enough, and it's for different reasons. Pardon? Well, it's the playoff resume stuff with the Phillies' two main guys, and then for Dallas,

I'm just not a huge fan of as great as he is. I don't think anyone has an easier time getting a bucket than Luka. If you need a bucket in today's game do you pick anyone over luca probably not right now no right his ability to create shots from anywhere on the floor yeah so here i'm giving him the ultimate compliment but then when i think about you know watching them and when they have good runs and they turn their defense around yesterday and they make it to the Western Conference Finals, like

I've already been over this before. It's just that you and I have talked about it. Like it's almost more guilt when I watch them where I just go, eh, okay. Like I got it. And with Philly, like Harden goes on this incredible tear. You know, they, they win games with some of those other dudes out. They're keeping pace somewhat at the top of the East, and it has more to do with the other teams being really good here. But with Philly, it's just they would have to be pristine for the regular season and for me to not go like, okay, well, we'll see what happens.

Not to say it's impossible, but I'll watch them. I'll be like, hey, this is really good. It's fun, but I don watch him. I'll be like, hey, this is really good. It's fun, but I don't know. Maybe I should stop watching the regular season with so much emphasis on what I think it means to the playoffs. Well, I mean, how much does depth matter here with what we're talking about?

It seems like some of your concerns with Philly and Dallas are related to everybody else around and Bede and Harden and Maxie for Philly and then everybody around luca on the dallas side of things like grant williams you know he's what the seventh best player on the summits he'd be the third best player on the maps behind christian wood and luca like it's not even close i will look i like philly's depth a lot more than i like dallas's

depth i don't think that's the difference. Same, for sure. Okay. In the West, if everybody were healthy, who would you actually like the most? The Warriors. I think it's still spread out. Jokic with five out of the postseason when they need to with that Denver roster. If the Warriors are totally healthy, I'm still going with them over everybody

else. But, Ryan, I think with Denver, people talk about some of the concerns on the defense. Everything I just said there, spread them out, five out, pull out Jokic away from the paint, space them out. The one hesitation I have there with Denver is the fact that they have a lot of big defenders. Michael Porter Jr. is not a great stopper but he's 6'10 Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown they have a lot of size that they haven't had in past years KCP, they can surround Jokic with a lot of big

wing defenders who can provide help and still offer some interior room protection, that's where I think the difference is with Denver this year compared to some past years, with that said though, the Warriors still can tap into an elite level. Their five-man lineup, their starting lineup is still one of the best in all of basketball. They just have to figure out some of those configurations at the

wing spot. Maybe they need a move to help plug that hole, but I think when the Warriors go down to their eight-man playoff rotation, they're still the best in the West. I think I like New Orleans the best. Ooh. Yeah. Now you're talking my language, though, Ryan. I said before the season, they can make the finals.

Not that they will. NBA finals? The NBA finals, the Pelicans. I said they can, not that they will. And the reason why I wouldn't say they will is because of the A, inexperience, but also the health. Everything you just said about Boston being the best bet, doesn't that make

New Orleans one of the worst bets, considering Zion and Ingram can't stay on the floor? Yeah. They're probably the worst bet. But Denver, fairly clean bill of health, other than the Michael Porter Jr. part part where he'll be hurt again um but murray definitely looks way better now yeah um

which is to be expected memphis has their own issues with maybe their top two guys uh but i think with josh just always i'm afraid it to happen, not just because he missed time last year. The way he plays, it's scary. Right. And then the Pelicans, they're the worst bet out of all of it. I mean, Dallas is missing Finney Smith and Cleve is going to miss some time,

continue to miss time. They keep putting Josh Green in the update because he was one of the rotation guys. But I don't know if that means a ton. Sacramento is a better health bet. Even with Sabonis in this hand situation, there hasn't been much drop-off. Clippers are the worst health bet.

They're probably worse than the Pelicans. Phoenix is a mess. Golden State's had their issues. Minnesota's missing, what, their second best player. And then, you know, on and on and on. I mean portland's actually kind of relatively healthy for them right now so i know this isn't exactly new but i mean it kind of gets back to the first part of the whole boston thing where you're going through this like i like what new orleans is but it's a worse bet than denver to expect to know what you're going to get once April starts up like

there's no way I can be like hey it's New Orleans it's everybody else or hey they're the favorites because they're still more unknown despite some of my concerns about like I just sometimes I'll look at the Denver conversation and we'll look at the wins and look at the one seed and you're like all right but is this is this really who they're not a team that anybody's afraid of right they should be i mean yokers could be a three-time mvp and he has a better supporting cast than he's had in past years they should be feared but i i think to your point with new orleans they're a team that should be feared if come april ingram and zion are out there healthy because they have the top end star talent like they're almost kind of the west version like a younger inexperienced version of boston and Zion are out there healthy because they have the top end star talent.

They're almost kind of the West version, like a younger, inexperienced version of Boston. They have the top end talent, but they also have the depth, too. I mean, Dyson Daniels as a rookie is already one of the better guard wing defenders in the league. Trey Murphy, that dude is a nasty shooter. He has a really good connection with Zion and the half court as well with some of their two man game stuff. They have lineup versatility. They can play big with Jonas Valanciunas. They can play small with Larry Nance, Zion front courts. They have all these different ways that they can play and match up against different teams. So I think that's what you need.

When we talk about playoff basketball, we talk all the time about switchability and versatility from an individual player standpoint but that's also true from a coaching standpoint when it comes to the types of lineups that you can put out there on the floor that's the benefit boston has had you can put out al horford and rob williams or you can just throw out horford or you can play small that's a golden state has has tried to have with one big out there with Looney and Draymond or just Draymond when they really want to go small. And New Orleans has that too as long as Zion is healthy. So I mean, even

the Clippers, that's why people hang on to the Clippers. Like last night, they win their game against Dallas going small. Zubats played 16 minutes. They went with all wing lineups and they defended christian wood with you know marcus morris covington man throughout the entire game and it worked i'm having a hard time with the clippers thing like i just how many years

are you gonna go oh well if they're healthy if they were to do this i mean i can't trust them yeah like there's there's still more trust with chronically injured teams that i would have way more so than the clippers like i can't write them off in january but like i kind of i just get i get sick of people telling me how it's like man if they're healthy and they're right like look out like i don't know even with those two guys it's not some guarantee where are you at with kawaii i mean like he's putting up numbers lately but i still don't feel like he has the same burst and like that explosiveness we saw in that utah series a couple years ago he doesn't like he's putting up numbers but it just doesn't feel the same to me even last night i thought he was going to put up numbers if

he was slower you know what i mean like it didn't i wasn't shocked to see him put up numbers and look slower but i agree with you he's looked slower i think he gets taken defensively way more than people ever attributed to him like to me the defensive part of him is way more reputation than what i really see at times but because of But because of his handle and his size and the way he's able to create space and the way he's able to shoot once he creates it, I expected even a slower version of him to be able to put up really big numbers.

But even in this recent stretch, they get the win last night, but they played pretty poorly for two weeks, and that's with him back for, what, five of the seven games or four of the seven games? And then even, like, what, they get blasted by Denver? Blasted by him. And those two

guys were playing, and then you're like, oh wait, since they've only played so many minutes, are they going to play him tomorrow night? And you're like, nope, they don't play the next night. So, I guess I'm just, I'm not trying to be a dick about it with the Clippers. I'm just sick of hearing about it. It's just hard to trust that team.

And I think those games you're talking about last week, they get destroyed on Thursday night play. I think Paul George and Kawhi play to combine 33 minutes and not playing the next night. It's games like that where you want to bounce back. And I mean, sure you beat dallas last night going small you know ty lue pulls out the all-wing lineup even without paul george and like that's probably the formula for them and a lot of postseason series but you know friday i believe they face denver like those are the real tests more so than dallas and their lack of depth yeah it was interesting too during that Denver broadcast

where Reggie Miller was saying that Ty Lue was basically expressing frustration that it's coaching with cue cards, where I thought, wait, that's kind of revealing. And I would imagine everybody's frustrated. I don't think anybody with the Clippers would listen to this and say any of this stuff is unfair, but they get this benefit of the doubt deal where

alright, I kind of get it, but you know. Why do they get that benefit of the doubt, you think? I think it leads back to the beginning of the year, too. I'll never forget, there was the offseason where Ainge got Gordon Hayward and

Kyrie. Oklahoma City got Paul George, but then at the very end, they got Mello. But at that point, the Mello thing was going to kind of mess him up more than it was going to help him. And then they moved on from that real quick. Remember that? And they did the GM poll, and they went through it, and they were like, who had the best offseason? Which GM had the best offseason? And Oklahoma City actually won it. And I thought, wait, Boston gets Kyrie and Gordon Hayward? season which gm had the best off season and oklahoma city actually won it and i thought wait

boston gets kyrie and gordon hayward and because the mellow thing happened more recently in combination with the paul george thing it was like a landslide that press d wanted and i went this is weird and i feel like the same thing happened to a lesser extent with the clippers with the john Wall deal. Like, oh, shit, they had a John Wall? Like, that guy was the number one pick. Like, you know, I expect something from him, okay? I think a lot of teams would like to have him in the rotation.

But it doesn't change the course of who you are. And then it was, oh, they're the deepest team. It's like, they're definitely not the deepest team. Even when they are healthy, they are not as deep as New Orleans. It's not even a debate they're probably deeper with okay talent but not with like playoff rotation talent which is the difference between new orleans and the clippers right now in boston yeah probably boston too no doubt about it i mean that that's that's kind of the thing with the clippers they have options on the bench. I mean, like, you know, Luke Kennard, John Wall, these guys are solid players.

But I don't think they're at the level of some of the other talent we're talking about on these other teams. No, I, you know, I don't I guess maybe it's just my own personal frustration with them as a storyline. Alright, little NBA high-low here. We're going to

throw out a player and figure out who we like more or less after the person. So the player's LaMelo. The next player's Garland. Who would you rather have? Can I just ask real quick, is this for today? Is it going to win a game today?

Or for the next 5-10 years? I think it's long-term. I really think to be fair here, I think this is about long-term. All right, LaMelo then. Just a more dynamic player than Garland. I love Garland.

He's the better player today, but LaMelo Ball long-term would be my bet. That dude has become one of the best shooters in all of basketball after pre-draft concerns about his shot translating. He's up to 10-11 three-point attempts per per game, ton of them, high degree of difficulty, and he's making a lot of them. Yeah, he's 11 a game. And I'll admit, like I did at the top of the podcast, sometimes I'm like, how are you taking this shot? And then you look at the number and you go,

it goes in. It goes in enough where even if there's some bad decisions along the way, like when you're 39, 40%, it's hard to tell you to stop taking some of these, even though I wonder his number would be if it was always within the flow. Because there's a lot of like 20, 19 second left in the shot clock. He checks in there, which I'm like, that, but the number's too good from three to really get on it. I would take Arland, but I don't think anybody else would. Okay. The next one in comparison to Lamella was pool. Oh,

Lamella. Not even a question. No. And the pool's like 31% from three this year too. Uh, I was going to say, I was going to push the limits there. Okay,

here we go. Carl Anthony Towns is the player. Here are the options. Julius Randall. This is tough for me because I used to be a cat guy. I've never been a Randall guy, but Randall, the last month or so, has been better than all NBA Randall. The year he won all NBA, this version of Julius Randall is even better.

Pairing him with Jalen Brunson, they're picking role chemistry. But I still have to go slight edge to Cat just based off the history aspect. I don't want to go Cat, but I'll go with Carl Anthony Towns reluctantly. Yeah, I think Towns is still the right answer here, but that was the whole point of this is to make you go,

what am I really going to pick Julius Randle over Carl Anthony Towns? Maybe Towns. Towns is not a numbers thing for me at all. It isn't. I really worry about kind of long-term how he fits in with a team, especially when he has the keys to the team you know i don't i don't know personality wise yeah a little mopey huh no i don't i just think there's this just always feels like there's a lot going on with towns over the course of a game and i don't know i thought maybe i thought maybe he was a little happier last year

for the first time in a while. So I was like, okay, maybe we can build on this. And I know he's gone through a ton of stuff too, but it was kind of happening before. But yeah, I don't know. I think there's just a certain kind of mental DNA you have to have for some of this stuff. Okay.

All right. So we both say Towns here still. Towns or Jared Allen? I guess in some ways it depends on the type of team that you're building here. Jared Allen, the easier guy to plug in. Elite defender, you know, willing screener, always runs the floor even if he's not getting touches.

Great finisher around the basket. Good connector as a passer. Can post up a little bit when he needs to against a smaller defender to seal someone off inside. Give me Jared Allen over Cat to build around for the next 5-10 years. Yeah, I would agree there.

I would agree. Offensively, there's no comparison to the talent that Towns has. But speaking on some of the Towns stuff we've already covered here a little bit, I just wonder if he's ever traded for Minnesota. I have no idea how bad this Minnesota thing is going to get.

I wonder how they'll try to reset this on the fly, you know, get D'Angelo Russell the hell out of there. But if that should happen, if they ever moved off of Towns, it'd be really interesting what the new fan base would be thinking they were getting. They'd be going, oh my gosh, look at this guy.

He's a center. He can shoot. He's one of the greatest shooting centers. I think, didn't he call himself one of the greatest shooting centers of all time? I think he said he is the greatest shooting center of all time. There's some numbers that would tell you he's not wrong there. Statistically, but if we're

factoring in longevity you know Dirk Nowitzki is still not not matched right we say Jared Allen over towns does that mean Rudy Gobert over towns no why not

um I think it's kind of bad when he's on his second team and they don't want to pass to him. That should tell us something. And he has one thing that, or he lacks one thing that Jared Allen has, and that's the ability to dribble the ball.

Look, he doesn't have to be guarded and the defensive numbers. I know there's been a little uptick here recently, but the defensive numbers, which were already declining towards the end of the Utah thing, which was a little scary. And then you compare it

to the impact that he's made over the course of this season. It's just, it's not what you signed up. Even the worst version of Gobert, you didn't think you were going to get this. So I think that's a problem.

Okay. We could probably do a little aside here. Hollinger brought it up. I had touched on it a few times with Mobley. And it's not, like this is a, this can be a

compliment, right? When I think of Evan Mobley and how perfect a prospect he felt like he was coming out. And the only conversation between him and Cade was really like, okay, but in today's league, if you have a guy who initiates all the offense with the ball in his hands versus somebody else who's dependent on them getting them the ball, you take the guy that controls the basketball in today's game, which is a massive departure from what we grew up with. Because these guys just don't get the ball. They don't like to pass it to him. Forget Rudy Gobert.

Plenty of bigs out there going, are you serious? I'm never going to get the pass unless it's a lob off to fucking help when I'm picking one. So Mobley, who, when I went through and did all the USC stuff on him, I'm like, he doesn't make any mistakes. His passes are incredible. He's got some touch, 30%, but the free throw number's good. So I'd imagine he's going to be able to develop some of the shooting. So the expectation is that for him to be what a lot of us think he can be. I think you had a clip of him this morning defensively, what he did against Utah, which is just insane. scoring defensively what he did against Utah, which is just insane. And even though I think one of the two design touches he got in that game in the fourth quarter, he made a perfect read and kicked it to the corner and they missed a three. So he makes the right decisions. But if he's a one

and a transcendent franchise player, which is pretty lofty hope, but the fact that we'd even asked that about him, that he's even eligible for that kind of conversation is a compliment to him in the beginning but then when i watch with a more critical eye i go what is it that he does offensively where i'm like that's the thing that that's really like sure the lobs are cool there's a hook shot every now and then that shows up that looks really really smooth but it doesn't feel like there's any one thing to him consistently offensively and the shooting numbers have been terrible um where i go okay and that's a problem for somebody that we project at the best case scenario could be beyond even a top 20 player in the nba i don't i don't see that in him um i always felt like it like with mobley the bet on him was you're getting this guy who's an elite defensive

presence who's versatile and he's a connector on offense with the playmaking that you're talking about like he's not a primary initiator but he's a connector you know he can grab a defensive board you know dribble up the floor make the great word for it right because because he's willing to on top of everything else and he sees some stuff as a big guy that's really impressive as a passer so go ahead for sure and i think that's that's the value in him him growing into that for like what needs to happen for him to become a you know like you said beyond a top 20 player a primary on your team the go-to option like he's his shot from three has not yet to develop you know the shot off the dribble has not yet to develop and that's really the

separating skill for any player that's a big man is the ability to do wing like or guard like things on the floor as a dribble jumper shooter or attacking the basket and he hasn't shown that ability yet at a high level so unless that develops at some point throughout his career he's still young obviously in his second year that that is not going to be part of his game It's going to be him enhancing the star on the team like he is right now with Mitchell and Garland, providing what he does on offense as a connector and being a supportive piece, a lockdown interior guy who can also switch on the perimeter.

I think I'm not worried about him in that sense, but maybe for Cavs fans who had the expectation that it'd become Kevin Garnett, yeah, I think you're probably disappointed, but maybe that was a bit unfair to expect from him in the first place. Yeah, the KG, the Tim Duncan stuff, I think we can put that to bed.

I think that's fair, yeah. Which is okay if you're not one of those two guys because they are two of the, I mean... Top 10, 20 greatest players ever, yeah. Top 10. If KG wanted to shoot more, he would have been top 10, 20 greatest players ever. Yeah. Top 10. If KG wanted to shoot more, he would have been top 10. Oh yeah. He actually just didn't really have a ton of interest.

Despite it felt like every time he got a good look, it was the right thing for him to do. And he would, he would still pass out of it a ton. That kind of led to the rest of the stuff. Cause Hollinger was really good on this. Like Scotty Barnes. Wow. Look at this guy become. Salinger was really good on this.

Like Scottie Barnes, wow, what could this guy become? And I think this year, the disappointment is only based on this unlimited ceiling for him. This hybrid one through five do everything. The shooting's still a problem. It's been a problem for his entire career. And I know Toronto has some really bad, I think, you go, now I go habit to him, where there's a lot of guys that want to eat there that are all pretty good offensive players um even though some of the offensive numbers you know like don't go through these stretches man where i just feel like i hate them on offense

the numbers will actually still be a little bit better than i would expect them to be um but there's the barnes thing the jalen green thing i mean again i covered this all last week so i just want to hear hear your thoughts yeah i think with barnes i mean he's been a little bit better recently on offense you know defense is giving him kind of the ben simmons treatment sagging off him like in that game you mentioned you watched charlotte last night there was this one play plumley you know started out defending barnes on the perimeter and then deliberately sagged off of barnes but barnes drove right into him anyway and spun into our layup. Granted, Plumlee's not the toughest matchup. I think

Barnes has done a bit of a better job drawing those defenders, kicking out, and then sending a screen or taking a short pull-up jumper. He's dribbling into that space that defenses are providing. For me, I think defensively is where I'm disappointed with him.

This year, the effort has been poor. It's been inconsistent. He still has good moments as a help defender. With his size and length, it's a help defender inside. But man-to-man on the perimeter, I was looking at the second spectrum numbers recently. I believe he's third in the NBA. They track blow-bys, which is when the offensive player

drives right by the opposing defender. And he's third in the NBA in allowing blow-bys behind Luka and his teammate Fred VanVleet. He just isn't able to keep in front of some of the quicker players in the league, which is what he needs to do to reach his defensive potential as a player. So I'm disappointed in the progress by him. I'm not out on him by any means. by him. I'm not out on him by any means, but perhaps it's also time to recalibrate on what his upside is as a player when you're talking about building a franchise around him. Maybe Toronto actually made a mistake not more strongly considering the Kevin Durant option

during the offseason. Yeah, it seems and even at the time when you're like you won't trade Scotty Barnes in a deal for Kevin Durant, but then when you go durant's 34 is he going to like toronto he's probably going to get hurt again he just got hurt again uh you get durant the durant trade wasn't just about you know the talent part of it even if i'm with you where sometimes we hear about these trade rumors and then what a team won't give up. And you just have to laugh. Do you not realize the other guy that you're getting here? I go to this idea, you know, because I think we're so conditioned to think that now when you trade for somebody.

You don't give up your good player, right? You're like, here's the here's the cap filler. And here are the five picks and the two swaps. And then we get your guy. But the Durant thing was never going to be easy for Toronto. I know everybody kind of looks at Toronto as like the team that everybody, you know, he's just really good at this, man.

I know he's been rumored to supposedly leave and take over these other teams and have bigger roles somewhere else. I mean, the Masai rumors have gone on forever. He's just terrific. I mean, Precious got it going a little bit again last night. He's healthy again. Even Coloco, who I kind of liked out of Arizona.

I'm like, there's more to this guy. And he's had flashes. And I know it's like a weirdly put together team. They've got a Van Vliet decision on all this stuff. I don't know how aggressive they could be. I mean, there's pieces that other teams like, but I don't know what the play would be there. Like, would they have enough for the next Mad Star?

Would they do it? I mean, they did it in the past for Kawhi, but they ultimately didn't really give up. Like, that Kawhi trade was the last trade before all the trades that led to all the picks. Like, if the Kawhi trade happens a year and a half later, San Antonio's still eating off of Toronto picks, but that just wasn't the price back then.

Yeah, I mean, it was just really a perfect storm for them to get kawaii for the price that they did i mean and they got danny green in the deal too it wasn't just kawaii they got a really good role player for just demar de rosen and yake and purdle that's it that's all they gave up and i think most you're talking like most teams like that was the last non-pick trade. The Spurs could have went for options with more picks-based package at the time. They just wanted to keep winning and competing for the playoffs, so they got to Rosen.

But if it were a different organization, maybe Toronto never even has a chance to land Kawhi Leonard, or maybe they're forced to have to give up picks if that situation were far different at the time. Okay, anything on jalen green because i'm with you i'm not it just feels like recalibrated ceilings that's all this segment is i still really like jalen green i think that i mean it goes without saying that situation in

houston is is an absolute mess like you said toronto has habits of your turn my turn houston is always your turn my turn it's disgusting or it's not your turn, my turn. Houston is always your turn, my turn. It's disgusting. Or it's not your turn. That's my other one. Yes. Definitely not your turn. It's definitely not your turn.

Yeah. And that's often the case there. But with Jalen Green, some of the highs, Brian, like the 34-point game he had against Orlando. The Boston game. I had a couple of friends go, wait, you're not, you don't think this guy's going to be running the league? I'm like, well, running the league is pretty lofty, but if you only, like a lot of Boston fans, only watch the Boston teams, you're going, this guy. The shit he was doing in that game, Gregorman was losing his mind.

He is an amazing athlete. He moves so fluidly. I just worry about some of the bad habits that he's building and that that's like the opposite of his g league situation where in the g league we saw him get better as a playmaker of the course of the year started making quicker smarter decisions out of the pick and roll and and now he's in the uh it's not your turn situation with the rockets where like i think it's on that front office to to fix the culture of the team over this coming year. You

know this before the deadline during this offseason and who they end up getting in the draft is going to be a real critical part in shaping that culture but I still like Jalen Green as an individual player. I like some of the other players on the team like Shen Yun is really good. I think like Jabari Smith is going to work out long term.

I think they have the pieces to build something that works together. It's just they need to remove some parts and add some other good culture pieces into it. Okay, let's finish here then. When Manama, where would you most want to see him land? Oh, New Orleans for the comedy that's why i mean that's the main reason uh and also for basketball reasons it would be so sick to watch that i guess out of the the tanking team so houston detroit charlotte san antonio and we'll throw orlando into that too um but orlando still has i believe what they're not best odds yeah fifth best odds fifth best odds that they

should they don't belong in tanking they're not one of the four worst teams we'll throw them in for the sake of conversation uh i'd like to see him land with with houston to be honest with you I'd like to see him land with Houston, to be honest with you. Really? I love the fit with Shingun in that front court, with Jabari Smith, the lineup versatility that they would have. If you pull out Shingun, Jabari Smith, Victor Wemba, and I'm a front court. I think it really helped that team.

I wanted to mention Orlando just because I think what they're building right now with Wagner and Bencaro and Bol Bol and all of their length and versatility with perimeter skill, adding Wenben Yama to that, they could put out lineups with the smallest guys, Franz Wagner, and still have playmaking skill out there. It'd just be exciting to watch how they could build that out over the course of time.

What I like about Orlando's core guys here, and I'm basically focusing on Franz and Paolo, and I think Suggs is showing some improvement here that gives you hope for when he comes back. Wendell plays into it too as well, is that I think they're all willing teammates, which you don't see. They're kind of opposite Houston that way,

where, I mean, Shingun doesn't have a choice. I think he's a really willing passer, but I mean, he's a post kid in today's NBA. You're just like, good luck, dude. I know you have all these moves. We just, you don't, your kind doesn't get the ball anymore. Sorry.

So I think from a basketball standpoint, it would ease it really well for him. I think people are going to say San Antonio because it's such a solid history. To me, it doesn't make a ton of sense because I think the team's going to be pretty bad for a while, even though I really like Kelton and Vassell's play a lot better, but he's going to be out for the rest of the year so they're going for it uh i mean the thunder point differential

alone like it's so incredible how competitive that team is um even though they're kind of on the fly with some of the lineup stuff there so i guess orlando kind of feels like the favorite the the lakers part of that if it ends up with new or, is just haunting. You have a big smile on your face. I might not be as evil as you and Bill are about it, so I don't think I'll pick them. It would just be a comical end to that saga if Victor Wembebe were to land in New Orleans. Okay, but when you continue to evaluate him for the draft stuff that you do at the ringer, is there any minor concern about how much will he be allowed to initiate offensively?

Like I know what he's capable of and he shows all these incredible things, but the thing, whenever I hear somebody say like, he's a better prospect than LeBron, he may be more interesting, but he isn't because LeBron from day one, day one could run a basketball team and get his while also getting it going for his teammates. That Cleveland team, I think, went from 17 wins to 35 to 42, didn't make the playoffs.

Then it was like, oh, can this guy even? It's like he's going to be the NBA finals every year for a decade, folks. Don't worry about it. But as strange as the entire game is and what he's capable of doing that LeBron wasn't capable of doing, he's not the same prospect because there's no health concern with LeBron. And there's, I would imagine, some limitation on what Victor's going to be allowed to do from day one with the ball in his hands. Do you see him at year five having the ball in his hands, making all the decisions, which is what is well-reserved

for the best players in the game? Maybe. Maybe. I think that's why LeBron is a better prospect. From LeBron, it was a guarantee that he would have that ability in his game. With Wenbanyama, it's a maybe. I think with some of his shot selection, that's him being empowered to take some of those tough shots. You'd probably see the numbers improve if he

were forced to be more pick and choosy with the decisions that he's making on the floor, which I think he would be. If he's drafted to a team and they say, hey, you're not taking these five, six dribbles and then contested pull up, you're not going to do that. We need you at the

elbows running dribble handoffs and handing the ball off to this knockdown shooter on our team. You're going to give the ball to Jalen Green. You're going to give the ball to whoever it might be, right? I think he's capable of doing that and has a willingness to do that. The primary initiation, like him bringing the ball up the floor, initiating your offense, not with a passing brilliance of a Jokic, but more like a Sabonis type,

maybe he can grow into that long-term where you see that because he does make some of those real nifty passes. He has vision. He has a will to make the extra pass, to play good to great. So I think long-term that's there. Where I guess my, when you talk about his upside, where my concern is,

is people often compare him to Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is one of the greatest shooters in the history of basketball. That guy is shooting 60% from mid-range this year. And to compare Wenben Yama to KD is really unfair, considering the fact that he is only just now becoming a below-average shooter. He's shooting 30 30 from three this year he's shooting only like 34 on spot ups i believe like 25 off the dribble it's a lot of tough shots but he's only for the first time become 70 plus percent from the free throw line it's it's with him i wonder what is the actual ceiling with his jump shot? Is he going to keep

trending up as he has for two, three, four years straight now, which is it's encouraging to see the progress. He works his ass off. But does he become a 37% three-point shooter off the catch? Does he become a 34% three-point shooter off the catch? And how good does he become off the dribble? Those are the questions that I have with how good is his shot and how much is that going to be something that draws the defense out and makes him even more of a threat to attack the basket, which he doesn't do enough of right now. He settles a lot outside.

So it's shot selection but also shooting efficiency where that's my number one nitpick with him is what level does that reach for him to become the guy on your team at a total elite level? Last one, Mobley or Ben Caro? Ben Caro. Little edge. I just think the scoring outweighs the defense that Mobley provides. That's super close, though.

Different apples and oranges right there. Paolo or Anthony Edwards? Paolo. Wow. I really like Paolo. Hey, I do, too. Ant's really good, though. And he's still... That's tough. That's really tough with those

two. The Paolo-Mobley one, I agree with you on, emphatically. I just do, even though I'd love to have Mobley on i agree with you on emphatically like i just i just do even though i i'd love to have mobley on my team i'd love to have him but there's just some shit to palo which i'll never forget like going over it and over and over again and i that was mike miller i was hanging out with him he's his agent it wasn't what flipped me because i was having a hard time figuring out who i ultimately was going to land on with number one between the three guys. And then I remember just talking with Mike and he's like, man, he's like, he's got some shit to him. He's got some shit to him. And I was like, is he selling me?

Is he trying to sell me on this? And he was right. He didn't lie. He didn't lie. Because when you think of the other two compared to Paolo, but you know, Chet's easy to forget in all this conversation. I'm sure like you, there was a lot of teams I talked with that were like, he is so good. They were like, stop making this complicated. The people that had Chet won. But we've now at least seen the Paolo part of this in the NBA where there's just a fearlessness,

but yet a not always forced fearlessness from him, which I think is an incredibly rare combination for a guy who could probably get more shots up for his issue a little bit because of his athletic and size advantage that he has every single night. But he's still willing. And that's what I loved about him at Duke. It's what makes me love him now and why the over Anthony Edwards answer may not be wrong, but I have a harder time with that one than Mobley. Yeah, I mean, Ben Carrow at 6'10", 6'10", with his size, athleticism, fluidity. It's really rare. I mean, who else is even in that category? LeBron? Yeah, I mean, you know. You're not comparing the two.

No, no. Strictly about having that size and strength, the bulk with the speed. There's not a lot of guys that can do the things Ben Carrow does on the floor. Plus, like you said, he can pass too. He doesn't force things. He can be a playmaker if needed. Long term, it'll be interesting to see what he turns into defensively too because he can move when he wants to

lock in. I think he could become one of those super versatile defenders in a playoff situation for the Magic sometime down the line. Imagine having to go against that lineup. Franz Wagner, Paulo Banqueiro, having to stop those guys and score against them. Bowl, bowl. Bowl, bowl, baby.

Killing you in the corner. Okay, that was awesome. KOC with Chris Vernon, Tuesdays, Fridays. Also catch him on the Ringer NBA Draft Show on all of his stuff, theringer.com. So the mismatch with Vernon. Let me know. I'll be happy to jump on with you guys.

Appreciate it, Ryan. Have a good day. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. The email address is lifeadvicerrgmail.com. Check in with Kyle. What's up, man? Just doing my best

yesterday was pretty hard um but uh still strong so uh i did have crazy dreams like people said uh the other night was about the worst night of sleep i've ever had a lot of guns involved in my dreams like i woke up a lot so i think i'll be taken off the patch before i go to bed went to frolic yesterday um started immediately bargaining with myself and we're like, maybe if I just leave a pack of cigarettes behind the bar. And, you know, if I didn't do it, I didn't do it. So dug up an old Juul from like two years ago. Still think that's disgusting. So I don't know.

It's been rough, but I'm still, if I'm your hero, because I got a lot of nice tweets of support and whatever. So I'm still here three days in. Yeah, it appears a lot of nice emails as well. So how many beers did you have? Like six, probably. And you didn't smoke? I know. Well, by five, I was like, well, what about that drawer? Can I put him in there? And my buddy was like, I guess if you want to, man, it kind of defeats the purpose. I was like, well, if I just come here to smoke. So

by beer, it's like five or six. I'm starting to think of ways I could get around this and be like, well, if I just come here to smoke. So by beer, it's like five or six. I'm like starting to think of ways I could get around this and be like, oh, I'll only smoke when I drink. I'll only smoke here. But I don't know. Hopefully, I stay strong and don't do that. Stay strong, buddy. Stay strong. By beer, six. It did sound like a pretty good concession, but I'm still.

Oh, yeah. All right. Here we go. Big fan, 25, 6'1", 220, should be 200. Okay. This took place New Year's Eve, but it's still bothering me. My girlfriend and I were invited out with a friend of mine, let's call him Mark, and his wife to the New Year's Eve event.

The event was scheduled to be from 9.30 to 1 and was said to include an unlimited buffet, two free drinks, champagne, and dessert at midnight at DJ and live music. I've been to those. Yeah, the dessert promise makes me think the whole thing's fraudulent. How locked in is your staff

going to be where we're doing unlimited buffet, two free drinks, champagne, and dessert. Is the dessert really going to be at midnight? You guys have your shit tight like that? are standing at midnight they're not sitting down yeah i don't know like you'll be sitting there with a fucking piece of tiramisu going man they really nailed this whole

event uh the total cost is kind of pricey but that's to be expected when you receive mark offered to prepay for the event we pay it back at the end of the night mark also invited another friend um i i hope these names are changed here all right yeah he said let's call him mark because you know we had one last week where now looking back on it it was way too harsh to include names and locations um and that's i don't love that the emailer did it and then it turned into like her husband and trying to be getting that email through and what i don't necessarily like it's happened a few times i think it's kind of funny with the boyfriend stuff but you know this isn't a public service we're just going to call out people for you um so i'll clean them up more on my own if i if i i should have done it with that one so uh it was it was just it was

just too much and i should have been i'm doing that that's been wiped by the way it's gone so like uh yeah yeah tighten your shit up or you might lose your life advice so it might just go away if somebody requests apparently so uh that one's gone no just looking back on it then when i found that the husband had also sent in the email and then it was like, okay, so the, you know, the wife was going to get involved, but I didn't, I didn't know. You know what I mean? Like, I don't remember every single email. I didn't even see them all.

You know what I mean? So reading back on it because it was pretty specific, I was like, you know what? We didn't need to do that. Okay. So back to this one. He said the other guy's name, let's call him Mark. So i appear it appears he's changing this one too this one's not not like the other one so he goes the other friend jake and his wife we never met they'll come to play later we get there immediately realized it was a mistake the event was poorly planned there

were too many people not enough food the staff couldn't keep up with the demand we barely ate anything because there was nothing to eat we never got our free drinks the dj was awful and the live music was a single violinist okay this is not a great night a single violinist yeah i think i went to that pizza place was this in mexico city the queso pizza right oh was that gross mark felt bad started ordering top shelf bottles for the table to enhance the vibes oh i know what's going to happen here. Well, that's pretty expensive. Just ordering a top shelf bottle, you're at least 500 bucks in per bottle. All right.

About 11, Mark's son at home with a babysitter had a medical emergency and Mark had to go home. This left us with a couple we had never met. We ended up going home before midnight, nauseous and hungry. Well, how do you know they didn't serve the dessert? You weren't even there then, okay? So you're out pre-midnight.

Of course, as expected on Monday, I get a text from Mark. Here's your total. I totally understand where he's coming from. He had prepaid it. It wasn't his fault everything sucked and his night was worse than mine. I obviously paid him in full.

Fast forward to Friday, I get a text from Jakeake who i just met that night since everyone left early i was left with a bill for drinks here's what you owe me i never asked for those drinks to be ordered and i think i may have had a single shot of tequila it's not jake's fault and he shouldn't have to pay for me it's mark's fault so i felt like i have to pay him also overall i'm willing to just chalk it up to a shitty night but a 500 shitty night really isn't sitting right with me i work in sports not exactly making bank your career conversation in the pot or big motivator for me thanks yep no problem totally get it 500 stings like fucking crazy that's why you're still upset that's why you're emailing us um he continues and finishes i'm upset

with mark you can't really say anything if i called the restaurant to complain they'd have no idea who i am as my name wasn't on the reservation they'd also tell you to go fuck yeah super quick yes like i don't even know what your argument is i didn't really drink that much so my tab shouldn't have been that much um you guys yeah i mean i guess if he's getting back and wants to fight him on hey that thing wasn't even close to what you build it sucked they knew it wasn't going to be a good night they knew it wasn't they were selling tickets to people that didn't have other plans and they're taking advantage of you. You know,

they probably had better ideas, but you know, it sounds a bit fire festy. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure they thought it was going to be that great of a night. So I get, I get your point. Right.

But if you're not on the reservation, then you know, what are they really going to do? Give you a discount to their Easter fest. Yeah. St. Patty's day. Right. Beef roast. Right. What are they really going to do? Give you a discount to their Easter fest? Next time? Yeah. St. Paddy's Day with the corned beef roast? Right.

Probably a better drinking day than Easter. Great call. A limited cabbage? I'm not sure what I should do about this, if anything. If there's any way for me to feel better about it, should I do anything or just move on and get over it? And what do I do next time Mark has to go out? He's already got to do this right the next time, text. Hey, look, Mark tried to make a play. I don't know. What's his resume on this? Is he always a bad planner? Well, then

you got to tell Mark to stop planning shit or you can take it over. This is a shitty night for everybody involved, but you really don't have much recourse. No one's to blame and everyone's to blame, right? Nothing is on my horizon except everything. nothing is on my horizon except everything everything is on my horizon so with this one like we've all been there man like the shit will happen well the only thing that i don't quite understand what was why was mark ordering high-end bottles um and then leaving and then when you left you didn't offer up anything to jake that was still there so he's thinking wait this guy's gonna leave and didn't offer up anything to Jake that was still there. So he's thinking, wait, this guy's going to leave

and didn't offer me any money. Like everybody's thinking everyone involved is complicit and so therefore, everyone's going to square it up a little bit later on. I honestly think you kicking in was the right thing to do.

Right. Even if that money part of it sucks. And look, I don't want to sound dismissive about the money thing at all. I don't. But I also have done all of these things and done plenty of them wrong. And it's just kind of, like we've said a few times, you're chalking this one up to the game. And the game is that sometimes you go out, and especially if you allow yourself to be taking advantage of some of these New Year's Eve deals that are going to suck. You don't know anybody. It's a place you've never been.

No one else is like, I don't know where the fuck Mark ran into this whole circus. But, you know, this is stuff that happens. It's stuff that happens. We'll get all these emails about it. Like, what should I do or what should I do? Did you think you were going to skate through life in the social world of not having a night where you got fucked over on a tab? Like you could stay in for the rest of your life and it'll never happen.

I can guarantee it. You'll never have an awkward, hey, I only had an app and this, and I don't even know that person. And why was this person drinking top shelf Coke? You want to avoid it for the rest of your life? Never do anything. There you go. Problem solved. But that's not much fun. Most of us want to do things, not never do anything

ever again. So I think you chalked this one up to the game and the vulnerability of a night like New Year's Eve. And I know that 500 blows, but it also blows for mark because he had to pay money too even though it was his fault for setting this up it also blows for this jake guy who was getting stuck with all the bottle service yeah and then everybody left early so like did everybody think he was just going to pay for it all like and again when you order a bottle of the table and you drink some of it there's no standard where i've ever heard like i had a third of this bottle not a half you had six drinks i had two so let's figure out the math like i don't know this is just uh a tale as old as time it's happened it's gonna happen again it's unavoidable it's gonna just

hope it doesn't happen that often sorry dude yeah i think new year's is one of those things especially one of those all-inclusive it's like new year's is also one of those nights where like, I wouldn't be surprised if, if I woke up Monday, I was like, wow, it was $300. Huh? All right. Didn't feel like a $300 night, but I guess, I guess, you know, I guess that's what happened. So I think, I do think 500 is a lot. Um, I think you could maybe chalk it up to Mark, like, oh, uh,, my kid's got a problem. I got to get out of here. I mean, maybe he just couldn't wait for the waiter to come around to be like, hey, could you put, you know,

maybe he didn't have cash and maybe he had to run his card or something. I don't know. I mean, I think Mark thought he did the right thing by leaving and not stopping everyone else's night. Because that sounds like Mark might be the money guy in this friendship. He was like, oh, forget it.

Like sort of like the guy who puts the Airbnb on his credit card and we'll figure it out later. Because there's a couple of guys that grouped are like, my credit card won't even allow me to book a five days worth of an Airbnb. So maybe Mark's the money guy. He didn't think as much of money as you did. And it's just sort of like, like because he probably just didn't think it was such a big deal.

And we could figure this out later. That's what I mean. Because if he's got to leave at like 11 and you guys are planning on staying until 1231, he was probably like, I have to go now. I've got a bit of a family emergency. I can't really end your guys' night by getting the waiter to come and do tabs at 11 o'clock

and we'll just figure this out later. That's what I think. It probably wasn't as big a deal to Mark as it is to you. And I'm sure Mark got that text as well. So I think everybody lost in the end. I think for the Jake guy, probably a shitty way to end his New Year's. You know, your next day was not as good.

But yeah, everyone had a shitty time. And this is why you don't do shit like this for New Year's. I'm a house party guy. We're a regular bar guy. Yeah, have a plan where there's at least something that's established in the place that you already know to avoid this. But I went back and read this line again mark felt bad started ordering top shelf bottles for the table to enhance the vibes the vibes are never free man yeah they're never free for the men all right they're usually free for the for the female guests women have been

paying for vibes for years for decades generations uh i don't understand why mark felt like he was going to order top shelf stuff he was going to leave early and then you thought you were going to leave early hey do we even know if his kid was sick or did he go the vibe sucks so bad it's just a curb situation yeah right do you get some kind of medical proof you know then you know do you still want to be friends with mark is my question if If you do, let this one go. And Jake probably thinks you guys suck. Yeah. I say don't go anywhere you need to buy a ticket. I have to know.

Did Mark order top shelf bottles and then left? And then you left. And then Jake was still sitting there. And because he drank them. I don't know. Did he drink them all? And then you guys drank none. And then he hit you over the bill. I don't know, man. Everybody's kind of guilty you guys drank none and then he hit you up with a bill? I don't know, man.

Everybody's kind of guilty, but no one's to blame. How about that? I've said everybody's to blame, but no one is. We're done. We're done. We did enough on that. Kyle, you want to do one more club one or you want to do a relationship thing? Let's do a club one. Post New Year's Eve.

25-65-205. Bench 285, yeah. Yeah. Post New Year's Eve. All right. 25, 6, 5, 205. Bench 285, squat 330. Stats are actually fairly relevant to the story. Although as a true gym bro, I wouldn't spare the chance to share them, even if they weren't. There you go. A few weeks ago, a group of buddies and I were out in the town getting after a major market city that we all grew up in the vicinity of. We were having a great time.

The bar was crowded. Drinks were flowing. The vibes were high. Then, what you will soon see turned out to be an all-time-done decision. My friends and I decided to pivot to a place down the street which was a bit more of a club-type atmosphere. Hey,

you're 25, man. It happens. Wait until you're older, it happens. They're like, yeah, this is a great idea. We pulled into the place and the line to get in was nuts, like wrapped around the building, moving at absolute snail's pace. We quickly realized what a dumb decision it was to leave the previous bar,

not wanting to kill the momentum of the night. I decided to discreetly offer a group of four, two guys, two girls, in the middle of the line, 50 bucks to act like they knew us and let us cut them. It was only me and three of my friends, so it wasn't an obscene amount of people, and nobody behind us in the line saw what happened or seemed to care. The one guy accepted my offer, but what I assumed was his girlfriend quickly became outraged at me as if I had done something wrong.

She begins to taunt me, even though in reality her boyfriend could have simply declined my offer and there would have been no issue. A few minutes go by. My friend lights a cigarette and lets me bum one. I don't smoke, but had a nice buzz going and was in the mood. Here you go. Yeah, we don't need this, Kyle. All of a sudden, the girl who was just talking shit turns we don't need this Kyle all of a sudden the girl who

was just talking shit turns to me and goes can I have a smoke I look at her completely dumbfounded and say no why the fuck would I give you a smoke and called her a few names along the way I won't repeat well she then absolutely loses on me proceeding to scream in my face for the next 20 minutes as the line is

complete standstill I did not respond to a word she said silently looking past her as her boyfriend who was about a foot shorter than me, refused to back her up despite her frequent attempts to egg him into the situation. Finally, their group decides to exit the line and go somewhere else. I felt a sense of relief that me and my friends no longer had to deal with their antics. Then, as they're about 10 feet away, the boyfriend, who was too much of a weenie to say anything to my face, begins to run his mouth from a safe distance. I approach them, not really with the intention of doing anything, but more as an intimidation ploy. The girl protects her boyfriend like a mama bear protecting the cub, then smacks me in the face. A ring cut my lip, and I immediately had blood dripping down my chin.

The girl and her boyfriend ran off, and I had to deal with the repercussions from my friends about getting rocked by this girl in front of a huge line of people. Every time I see my group now, I'm constantly reminded and shamed about what happened they act like i should have done something clearly the girl's off limits but should i have chased this guy down at the very least giving him a scare i know the drunk fights are never worth the potential outcome however this extreme case where i should have done something to protect my pride i think you should be happy this didn't end up way worse. I mean, this is your fault. A lot of this stuff is always our fault. But you decide to talk to strangers about cutting the line.

And the person that would accept the 50 bucks, you know, like what kind of agreement are you entering with them there? Then you tell her off because she told you off. And so now you're just arguing with a stranger. Now you're stuck next to the person. Yeah. And everyone moves over two feet.

Right. And now we could sit here for 30 minutes and hate each other's guts after I just gave you a 50. That's worth a cigarette. And then it's going to be like, oh, wait, now can I have a cigarette? And then she's going to tell you off for 20 minutes. And then clearly the guy was never going to do anything until it felt like he didn't have to worry about it. And then what are you supposed to do? Beat him up?

I mean, honestly, you're lucky this only ended with you with a cut lip because clearly she was an absolute wild card. She, you know, I don't know what you said to her too, but I think you guys enter an agreement with each other under pretty shady circumstances. And the fact that it didn't go smoothly, but like, what are your boys going to do?

Like, what are they going to say? Like this could have gone so much worse, right? You could have beat up the guy. Then you could have a lawsuit. You could have gotten arrested, right?

Bouncers could have yoked you up. Yeah, right. She could have kept punching the shit out of you and then yelled at the bouncers that you put your hands on her and then the bouncers are fucking you up right so

honestly it's gonna go on way worse it didn't dudes give each other a hard time that's part of it it's a funny story you'll laugh about it a lot more you know removed later a few more. You'll laugh about it a lot more, you know, removed a few more weeks. We can laugh about it now. Yeah. Like I, I don't think this is really that big of a deal. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it. Cause the girl just beat you up, but

you know, you'll be fine, dude. You'll be fine. You'll get through this. Yeah. I, I, one of my rules I try to follow, it's like, you know, I just try not to call women names, especially drunk women, because drunk women may punch you or smack you in the face. And then, you know, the rules that we've all kind of agreed to generally don't hit women. And you're not supposed to hit people.

So I generally don't call people names. I try not to call women names, especially not drunk women. That's a good rule to follow. I can't say that. I may have said no to the cigarette, but I wouldn't have been no because you're a beep beep. I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have like thrown a bunch of things, especially

because what we said earlier, you're in a line and now you're all like, now we'll just be quiet for 20 minutes. Probably not. That's probably not going to happen. You should have kind of looked at this red flag woman right there and been like, let me not do anything to, if you were going to like walk down the street and you, you know, that's a different thing, but to be standing in a line next to each other for however long it takes, that was just a poor planning decision by you. And then the last thing I'll say is my buddy got tackled by a woman in college and we loved it.

If he got tackled at a house party by a woman, I think she was on the rugby team, women's rugby. And like, that's not going to go away. It's still bring gets brought up every once in a while. Each of us kind of has one thing that we're like, hey, remember when this happened? For this guy, it's getting tackled by a woman, and this might be your thing for a while, and that's okay because you didn't make a bad decision

and do something horrible after the fact. It's just one of those funny things. You got yourself a story. Yeah, I don't know. I think as far as this guy was talking about curating the vibes and offering 50 bucks, trying to keep the night going, I would have made better decisions in the line once you got there. For a guy who cares about the vibes, you kind of did some things to set it in motion that the vibes took a turn.

So just be more careful out there. Okay, that's life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to everyone listening. Brian Russo, the podcast for any spot on. you