The Zach Lowe Show - One Big Question for Every Western Conference Team!

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Zach is joined by Rob Mahoney to go team by team through the Western Conference, and each share one big question they have for each team and cover the latest news and notes along the way. (0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show! (1:42) Rob Mahoney joins the show! (3:01) Utah Jazz (8:45) Denver Nuggets (13:36) Minnesota Timberwolves (18:52) Portland Trailblazers (23:08) Oklahoma City Thunder (28:28) Memphis Grizzlies (33:43) Dallas Mavericks (37:59) San Antonio Spurs (42:36) Houston Rockets (55:39) New Orleans Pelicans (1:02:26) Golden State Warriors (1:07:03) Phoenix Suns (1:11:54) Los Angeles Clippers (1:15:48) Sacramento Kings (1:26:06) Los Angeles Lakers Host: Zach Lowe Guest: Rob Mahoney Producers: Jonathan Frias, Billy Gil, and Mike Wargon Social: Keith Fujimoto and Michael Szokoli The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. On the Zach Lowe show, Rob Mahoney is here. I mean, he's not here, but he is here. He's on the show. And we're going to talk about one big question for every Western Conference team,

like I did with Michael Pina last week on the East. We're going to go rapid fire, fly through all 15. teams in the West, the good teams, the bad teams, everything. We're going to start with the Utah Jazz because I've been able to talk about Kianti Georgia's five-year, $150 million something contract extension. So we're going to start there. We're going to go by division. Who are we higher on than consensus?

Who are we lower on than consensus? One big question for every Western Conference team coming up with Rob Mahoney. We finish with the Lakers and sort of embedded in this discussion that keeps coming up throughout the show is. And a discussion I've had with a lot of people out in L.A. while I've been here is if you had to pick a team that we get to April and we're like, okay, this team actually has more than a puncher's long shot chance against the spurs or the thunder in a playoff series.

Or we even get to May. And it's like, whoa, this team is 2-2, game five going into Oklahoma City. Which team is that? Is it the New Look Wolves? Is it the Rockets with Fred Van Vleetback, Marcus Smart on board? Is it the Lakers rebuilt around Luca Dachich? Is it Denver still there? still has Nicole Okach and Jamal Murray.

Can't count them out. Is it any other team? Which team is it? Or is the answer just like, unless there's a big injury to one or both of those teams, is the answer just nobody? Every West team, rapid fire coming up with Rob Mahoney. Welcome to the Zach Lowe show live from Los Angeles. Look who's here.

Rob Mahoney, fresh off being passed over for interim governor of the LA Clippers. I thought you had a shot. They gave it to a random lawyer. No one had ever heard of. Did you apply? Of course I did. I threw my hat in the ring. I guess, you know what?

I was, I had all of, or what's the Isaiah Thomas quote? I was eligible to be picked, but was not, I'm fucking enough. I don't know. They didn't pick me for whatever reason. I joked last week that they should have to, the NBA should have made them send Chuck the Condor as their representative at the board of governor's meeting. And it was very silly. And everyone was like, you're being very silly. And I was like, yeah, I'm aware.

A mascot at the board and governor's meeting is silly. They had no one there. No one. No. They had no one there for their official spank. in person by the NBA. Chuck the Condor could have been there in the end. What if that's the relegation punishment?

You know, rather than decreasing the draft odds or whatever, it's like for the next year or two, you have to send your mascot to the board of governors or your team governor in the mascot uniform. I think public shame goes a long way. Dennis, Dennis Wong, in the mascot uniform. Okay. We're going to do one big question for every Western Conference team.

I did this with Michael Pina for the Eastern Conference teams last week. and it was fun. We got just as niche as you want, as big as you want, anything. And we're going to start with the Utah Jazz and we're going to go by division. I'm going to start with the Jazz because I haven't really gotten a chance to talk about Keontade, Georgia's five-year 150-something extension. What are your thoughts on that before we go dive into the jazz? I mean, it seems exceedingly reasonable for what Keontade George did last season.

I think part of what made his season so heartening for me was you see, you know, young guards who are coming on in the league, a lot of high pick and roll, a lot of like high volume operations basketball. He was playing like all over the place. Dribal handoffs coming off of pendants like a lot of really varied action in a way that tells me like he's ready not only for the very bad version of the jazz we saw last season, but this more talented, more veteran version of the jazz that we'll hopefully see this year. I have zero problem with this number. I feel like it's going to age really well for him.

It's about as as large as the dollar figure is. It's like 16% of the cap going forward. Totally fine. he and Jaron Jackson Jr. and Markinen now combined to make about 75% of the cap once that deal kicks in. That's fine. It's probably like maybe a hair too much, but they don't have anyone else expensive. No.

And then by the time Darren Peterson's deal comes up, the Jackson Markinen deals are up, and like there might be one year of overlap, there might be two of things are going well. Totally fine. And the thing that separates Kianti from some of the other guards that get paid in this range, and it feels like a little bit of a mystery box for them. and sometimes their development doesn't take off and the deal gets underwater is, I just like, I have a lot of confidence in him offensively.

I think he's a legit, like, load-carrying ball handler type and pretty good, like, pull-up three-point shooter, decent passer. The defense has to come along, but, like, he's got at least that, he's going to do that part of the game well, I think, well enough to be a 16% of the cap guy. Well, especially to go from one of the least efficient, high-volume players in the league, basically, to that. That's a trajectory I would want to bet on if I'm the jazz as much as anything else.

All right. So they are one of my most interesting teams for the season. I think they're over under is 37 and a half, which is a little lower than I expected. Obviously, they lose Walker Kessler, and that's going to put a little bit of difficulty in their defense and, like, their three big vision that they really wanted to play the bigs together. They still have NERC and Jackson Hayes. What is your one big question for the Utah Jazz? I think my question is, is there enough high-level passing here to be a good offense or a great offense or a great offense? or a playoff offense, even perhaps.

And you look up and down this group, and for everything we just said about Keonti George, very skilled creator, very good at manufacturing his own shot, working in space, a decent enough passer, but as far as like, who is a plus passer for their position on this team?

I think it's like, I guess Yusuf Nurkich, if you want to include the dribble handoff stuff, I guess Isaiah Collier, although he's really more like open to passing than he is like, you know, the vision is really opening things

up all over the floor. Like, he's a willing passer, but not like a super talented, what I wouldn't say. And so then is there enough? Like, there's a lot of ball handling here, I think. But is there enough way to connect all of these various dots to make the jazz actually a threat? Yeah, that was like one of my two that I was picking from as a question. And I think Keante George is an underrated passer.

He's got some, like, nice lefty off the dribble, kind of like, he's got a little bit of like, he plays a 5% off the typical rhythm, which I think helps him as a passer. I would nominate Kyle Philipowski as maybe the best passer on the team. But so I will, I will, I raised this point the last time I talked about the jazz, and I had some furious jazz fans. And they do Fury as well as any fan base in the NBA. Say, how can you say we're not a good passing team when we ranked second in the NBA and assist rate behind only the Warriors?

And they're right. Okay. So how, so answer that question. Because I have it, I actually think you can be a bad passing team. 100% and have a high assist rate. I would say two relevant stats in particular. Total passes and assist rate can be incredibly misleading. If you don't have a lot of guys on your team who can manufacture their own shot,

your assist rate is going to be through the roof. And so, yeah, like, for as much as I like Bryce Sensible and what he brings to this team. This is a Bryce Sensible friendly podcast. Completely. But it's like, for, you know, Ace Bailey, another great example. But it's like, these are guys who are set up within Will Hardy's offense and activated. And you do that via. like baseline passing, but the

Chats were one of the worst offenses in the league last year. I don't know how you look at that and say, oh, because our assist rate was high, that correlation is a good thing. I'm throwing the numbers last year out the window for obvious reasons. It is interesting that Will Hardy, I think, is a really creative coach. Without a doubt. He's going to take

all of these, you know, when they're playing five out with Triple J and Lowry is the only bigs on the floor. He's going to use their screening, their off ball screen. He's going to pair them in screening action. He's going to do lots of crazy stuff. With Mark, it's just a all, Mark and I've said is like big man

Steph Curry almost. They're like big man diet, big man Steph Curry. With more dunks. With more dunks. Just the way they uses gravity all over the floor. It is interesting that they were 21st and 3s and 25th in shots at the rim last year. Like that actually surprised me when I saw that even though I knew like

they were tanking, there were injuries, all of that. I'm interested to see how that changes. And just like the bench makes me a little bit nervous. Yeah. Collier, Sensibah, Ace Bailey, Flip, Jackson Hayes. I'm a little relieved that like a Kogi is here as like a kind of a vet who might be able to help them a little bit. And Josh, picked up Josh Green too. I think they might need those guys.

So they'll obviously stagger minutes with the starters. I'm a little worried about the bench. But those are my Utah question. Thumbs up on the King-Out-Dorge deal. By the way, fair deal for both teams. Okay, ready to move on? Let's do it. The Denver Nuggets, a team I have obviously talked a lot about in the offseason with Peyton Watson and a whole big back of nothing.

I will, can I do my big question for the Denver Nuggets? Please. Okay. They were 21st defensively last year. They were dead last in enforcing turnovers. Okay. They allowed a ton of threes, but not very many shots at the rim. And that seemed like a schematic choice of like, we're going to sell us.

out to protect Joker around the rim. When they did allow shots at the rim, opponents had like the second highest goal percentage to the basketball percentage to the basket in the league. So I look at all that together and I'm like, okay, so they're giving up a lot of threes, probably somewhat by choice. When teams do get to the rim, they're shredding them. They don't force any turnovers. They're good at what they're good at.

Like they're a great rebounding team. They don't foul a lot. But when you look at three point volume, rim shooting percentage, total lack of turnovers. My big question is, like, what defensive issues are fixable for this team, given the structural realities? I think not a lot of them. And some of that is, like, their options as far as, like, how you move pieces around

the board are so limited. But, like, in theory, Aaron Gordon is one of those guys, right? You can put him on a lot of different opponents to tap into a lot of different matchups, but you want to do that less and less now because he just keeps kind of breaking down at the ends of these seasons. Christian Brown is, like, a decent enough on-ball. option, but not a one-size-fits-all solution for everything that they need. And so it's like, those are really the load-bearing pillars of your defense to say nothing

about Murray and Yokic and Cam Johnson. Now you're incorporating to Marta Rosen, who has never ever been a good defender. Marvin Bagley is your backup five, I would presume, who I like to pick up just fine, but asking him to paper over those sorts of problems is a huge ask. I just don't know other than like, we're just going to max out Spencer Jones minutes, how you really have the tools to do much interesting tactically on defense. Yeah, when I dug into like, you know, obviously I know they're not a great defensive team last year. I understand the issues with Aaron Gordon's health.

Everybody was injured for a whole stretch there for the nuggets. I understand the challenges that building a defense around Yokic in the middle brings up. They did win a title. It's worth noting. They did bring in Dave Yeager as like a lead assistant coach. This is bread and butter. But I wanted to dig into numbers. Like, let's see really what was going wrong.

and it just felt like everything that was going wrong was just endemic to their roster. And I'm like, I'm not sure how many, like you can bring Yokic up to the level of the screen more like he prefers and he used to. You can drop him back. You can play zone. You can try to hide him over here.

Like, they do all that stuff. I think David Adelman has done a nice job of, like, we just have to figure out different ways and different matchups to move him around. I just don't know what if any of those things are solved. What was your big Nuggets question? Weirdly enough, it's kind of related. My question is, can Yokic have any working chemistry at DeMard de Rosen?

Is there a relationship there on the floor that can help them stagger through these games and find a real working pattern rhythm together? And I say it's related because if you're going to start changing things around defensively, a lot of it is how you're going to toggle Yokic's aggressiveness. And part of the reason why you protect him, part of the reason you play him back as opposed to playing up, like you said, is just you're just trying to get him through the year in one piece. And he and Murray both were having to do so much by the end of last. season.

So, Demar de Rosen comes in. They need that kind of shot creation. That part seems like it'll be helpful. But is he going to be an appendage to their offense? Or is he going to be something that actually adds to the best things that they do well? And I don't know. Like, Yokic is such a smart basketball player. Demar de Rosen is a really smart basketball player, but has not been the most adaptable

necessarily. And I don't know that Yokic has ever played with anyone as deliberate as DeMar in terms of the way he operates. And so how those two feel each other out in the rant, you know, the six odd second quarter minutes of every game that they play together, however the rotation shakes out, I'm really eager to see. Yeah, he's an interesting piece for them. As soon as I signed him, I kind of floated the idea on the pot about like, because, you know,

he needs the ball a lot. Yep. Jamal Murray also needs the ball. Yokic needs the ball, but he doesn't need to hold it. But, like, is the Denver is always, when they're functioning at, when they're really trying. Yeah. They stagger Yokach and Murray just so one is on the floor. the time. My first, very first thought was,

DeMar is not a great fit with Jamal Murray. Can they actually lean into sitting both Murray and Yolk and maximizing their minutes together? DeMarcourt. And just hand those minutes to DeRosen. I actually do also like DeRosen plus Yokch without Murray and just like play DeRosen at the point card. Because I think he's like dribble handoff. Yeah. Bob and Weave, you go under, Yokic rescreens. I think that's like, that can work. So, all right, that's your big Denver question. I believe we're, doing this correctly by division. Minnesota is next. What is your big question for the new look Minnesota Timberwolves? Well, leaning on the new look, are the wolves an offense first team or a

defense first team? Ooh, I like that. I mean, so since they traded for Rudy, they've ranked eighth first sixth and sixth and defense. It has been the architecture of their team is like, we can hang our hat on this, we can rely on this. That can get us through some of the variants of who we are offensively and how kind of sloppy we can be at times. He's still there. Jaden is still here. like that infrastructure is there, but so much has changed and the balance of the team has just shifted so considerably

with the Mello, with Cominga, even just losing Julius Randall, who even though he's not, like the most rock solid defender, gives you a physicality that you can lean on in that particular way. And so, like,

where are the wolves going to be winning games? Is kind of what I'm wondering, not because they're not going to be very good. I think they're going to be one of the better teams in the West even still. They just feel like a little bit of a mystery box in that way. So I was talking yesterday with a bunch of NBA people about

just the question of like if you had to pick one team that by April you're like this team actually has somewhat of a real chance at least pushing the Thunder and the Spurs in a playoff series in the West, who would you pick? And I was a little

surprised how many people picked Minnesota. I think there's a I'm high on Minnesota decently. I like Lamello. You like Lamello. I think that part of it will work. I don't think they would be my pick, my answer to that question among like, you know, the popular choices are obviously going to be Minnesota, the Lakers, Denver, and Houston. I will reveal my pick for that later.

Because my big question for Minnesota is just like how much change is too much change in one summer. And you're hitting on that too, like two new starters, presumably in Lamello and Cominga. I'm not really convinced the Cominga fit and the starting five is going to work. I don't know how you feel about that. Yeah, I'm a little, I'm a little stressed about it. I think just some of the tradeoffs, not just in terms of how he plays, but like, what, you're giving up in terms of rebounding, like, how you're going to manage the wing defense and the cross-matching that's going to be required. Like, it's just going to be a little more delicate than the run and gun ease of it would

probably have you believe. And the shooting, you know, the, the, the, him and Gobert. And, like, Jaden has become a good shooter, but he's not guarded, like, a good shooter. And he doesn't have the volume of a good shooter. And then, like, I think to Devenzo thing, like, Krasinski has floated, like, maybe he'll come back at some point during the season and maybe it will, who knows how good he'd be. by his standards. I think that's a huge loss.

And their bench is like, I like, like, I-O is rock solid. Yeah. Like, we know that. Bowens was awesome for them last year with the little wavy, Selly.

I like Terrence Shannon Jr. He's pretty unproven. When he plays, he tends to play well. Barron J. It's a huge jump-up and responsibility. Enormous.

The bench kind of makes me nervous. It just feels like, they almost feel like a team that made a pretty big win now move with a mellow ball, but also made so many, so many changes that they need another off-season to, like, recalibrate their team.

So that's why, and you mentioned my other one was rebounding. You mentioned rebounding. They're 14th in offensive rebounding last year. 19th in defensive rebounding. Feels like they should be better than that. Absolutely, especially with leaning how big they already were before. And now you're scaling even smaller. I mean, the Barrejie part is exciting,

but definitely nerve-wracking. I mean, if there's any stretch of the season where Rudy Gobert misses, like, 15 games, like, they could be absolutely cooked during that time. Like, they just don't have the depth to a, accommodated anymore. Interesting. Minnesota is a weird team.

I mean, they're going to be, when I do the league pass rankings, they're like a no-brainer, a top five. Can I, even having said that, though, can I voice one echoing support for the opinion you heard about like them being a potential challenger to the Spurs and the Thunder?

By the way, my, I'm not dismissing them as that team. I'm not convinced any team barring an injury for Oklahoma City in San Antonio is going to to emerge as like more than a puncher's chance kind of team, but make the argument for Minnesota. I think the argument from Minnesota is as much an argument against the other teams you mentioned, the Lakers, the Rockets, the Nuggets in particular.

Those three teams, I feel like we already have a pretty decent sense of like where their ceiling is, how hard and imposing it sort of feels, whether because of lack of depth, the defensive issues like we talked about Denver, some of the age with some of those rosters or the newness or the kind of offense defense toggling balance with the Lakers. it's just hard to see them kind of ascending in an explosive way versus with the wolves. You convince me that the lamello anthing just clicks right out of the gate.

And there's just something about that that is propulsive and magical and takes them on an incredible run. Like there is, there's an open-endedness to this Minnesota build that I think does change a lot about the trajectory of the franchise and may change a lot about the trajectory of their season.

Open-endedness is a very good word. And my worry is that the end of the open-endonness is like two years from now and not now. But you're, but you hit, like, the Lamello thing is a bet on like, we've just got to have something that is totally unique to us. And that clicks in a magical way where it adds up to something greater than some of its parts. And the Lamello and offensive pairing has a chance to be the kind of punch that no one else really has in the back course. So I like the bet.

The Portland Trailblazers. My big question for the Portland Trailblazers is 21st on defense. 11th in offense had a nice little spunky run as the set. Se took a game from the Spurs when when Benyama landed on his face and had to leave the game. But be that as it may. My big question for the Blazers was, what does Denny Avdiah's life look like this season after being number, I believe he eclips Shea as number one in drives for 100 possessions. He was the everything for their offense. And now Dame is back.

John Morant is here. They're both apparently going to start. And that seems almost like, I don't know which of the. those two would be more difficult to say 15 games into the season, hey, we got to bring you off the bench. I actually think it would probably be easier for them to bring Morant off the bench than Dame, but we'll see. You still got Scoot here. You still got Drew Holiday here. I just, you know, shooting was an issue for them last year.

They were one of the worst shooting teams in the league. And John Morant is a minus three-point shooter. Scoot Henderson's three is, was made great progress last year. So it's a big range game. So we'll see. I just, does Denny, does Denny? his life get easier? Does it get more efficient? Does it get better? Does his defense improve? Because the load on his offense is a little less. It's just going to be interesting how they

put all these pieces together on offense. I think his defense is going to have to improve, not because it was so bad, but he and Tumani Kumar are going to have to carry a lot. I would think when those two guards are out there. The cross-matching that's going to be required is going to be pretty heavy-duty stuff. I think it will be easier in certain ways as far as like the on-court basketball part goes, but maybe harder psychologically, right? Like there's an ease when you get as much opportunity as he got last year. I wouldn't expect another all-star season from him necessarily. I don't think the numbers will be there in the same way.

But Denny is such a good second side driver and he's so physical. And the gaps don't have to be full court transition openings to get to the rim all the time. Like he will barrel through people and draw so much contact that I still trust in his ability to be a really impactful part of an offense, even if the ball, is in his hands all the time. I just kind of want the ball in his hands a lot, and I don't know that that opportunity is going to be there. Yeah, I just don't think the Morant Dame starting combination

is going to be playable defensively. I mean, it's not going to be playable defensively. And I just am imagining, and you have two guys on the bench who are like tailor-made to step in, particularly Drew Holiday, who can do a little bit of everything. And the respective conversations, it's like Damien Lillard, this greatest or second-greatest player in the history,

history of the franchise, coming off an Achilles injury, homecoming, all that. Tough to ask him, hey, can you come off the bench? John Morant is like, hey, man, you just got here. If this isn't working, we're not as invested in you as the Grizzlies were. Like, maybe that's an easier conversation. Maybe. This is actually my question. And while we're here is like, what is their best back court pairing?

Because if those two guys start, I'm with you. I don't think it's going to work defensively. I don't think the offense is going to be good enough to compensate. and so what does Micah Nori do with that information? When does the benching, like one of those guys moving to the bench come? How do you do that?

Does he have the political capital to do that with both of those personalities and Dames's reputation internally, as you said? Like, Drew feels like he should start based off of need, but will not start, apparently, based off of merit and clout, like even though he's a champion. Like, I really don't know why Drew Holiday

isn't in here already, save for the fact that they talk themselves into both the Dame return gamins, and the John Morant Gambit at the same time, which is just like a little too much for my blood. And then the just general, like, who are the big threes, small fours, who are the threes and fours on this team?

Yeah. Long term. I mean, Denny and Kamara rock solid. For sure. You need more guys in that positional range. I will say, I'm excited for Donovan Klingin. I think there's more in there offensively.

I think the three-point shot was like pretty real as a medium volume option. There's more passing. I think Donovan Clegg is going to be really good. The duration with which he will hold that gooseneck tells you that it must be real. Okay. Last team in this division, the Oklahoma City Thunder champions two seasons ago, ousted by the Spurs in seven games in the Western Conference Finals.

I believe they were four and eight against the Spurs last year. A tough matchup for them. Obviously, J. Dub was hurt in the playoffs. He will presumably be back. Chet Holmgren vanished against Victor Wimbun. crumpled to the floor in a pile of nothingness. Seventh in offense with the two-time MVP at the head of it, first in defense by a mile. A lot of changes roster-wise with Dort Wiggins, Joe gone.

The rookies may have to play. Sturts in particular, Mara will see. What is your big question about the Oklahoma City Thunder? It is exactly that. Who of the second wave Thunder prospects is ready for this? And not just those guys, but like Nicola Topic, or is he going to be a real part of this rotation? Thomas Sorber, is he going to be a part of this in a meaningful way?

Like, I think the Thunder are one of the few teams in modern history I can ever remember that could just salary dump three good role players in the way you described. And you could convince me that the version that's about to take the floor is more talented for having done that because of all these guys who were either waiting in the wings or were just brought in in the draft. And like Caruso is still here. For sure. is still here.

Like those guys off to Ben Mitchell. AJ Mitchell will do even more. Like a potential borderline all-star waiting in the wings. J-dub hopefully will play more than 33 games. So it's like there's just like a lot here to think that the Thunder could be somehow even more capable. Yeah, I don't really have any big question for them because I think they kind of are what they are on offense. Like their shot selection is kind of average like to take a lot of mid-range jumpers, the average amount of shots at the rim, average amount of threes. but they make that work because I don't really know what the does that need to be fixed?

I don't think so. Would it be optimal take a little more efficient shot selection maybe? Defensively, they give up a ton of threes. That's all by design. They're going to clog the paint. They're going to contest. They're going to fly out at you. They're going to get deflections.

They know how to do that and get away with it and have the best defense in the league. The only other thing I had left was like, you mentioned Sorber, Mara, Hartenstein. Hartnstein. Like is big Jalen Williams who had a great playoffs for him? Very good. Is Chet at the 5 just like a dead thing?

For what it matters. Like we'll see it in the regular season but if they just given up on like Chet at the 5 in real games? It feels like at this point, especially with the San Antonio matchup, this is the kind of thing that can help you easily beat lesser teams

but maybe not beat the truly elite teams. And that's a disappointing place to be because I think the hope for from the thunder, certainly from people like us, is that Chet was eventually going to be able to take on that sort of responsibility. He just doesn't seem anywhere close to it. And Dort was Dort's ability to play

up a position, up like three positions defensively, potentially. It was like a big part of those lineups working. It just it felt disappointing to me that particularly against the Spurs, they just decided we cannot play this way at all. Like it's completely untenable. And obviously J-dub too can play the four, so he was out

and or not himself when he did play. So maybe that was part of it. But maybe it doesn't matter because, like, their centers are all good. And they function well no matter what. It did just feel like when I'm thinking about who I'm going to pick to win the title this year, my initial thought has always been the thunder

in a bounce back year, healthier year, presumably. I mean, obviously it all depends on health. I have to, I would like to go back and watch some of those West Finals games because, And in particular, Game 7, Shea had an amazing game. Yeah.

I just couldn't shake the feeling even while watching that, that everything was so hard for them. Like, that whole series felt like scoring was really, really hard. And J-dub solved some of that as like a second-side driver, all-star player. Does he solve enough of it? Because it was just really tough sledding for them. And part of that was if you're never going to play a chat at the five, you're never going to have a five-out lineup that really stresses.

out Webbenyama. I mean, because that's the ease that you're hoping for, right? Is that Ched at the 5 will give you more space, will give you more driving and passing lanes. And if you're not going to do that, it has to be some combination of even more experience and emboldened AJ Mitchell with J. Dub, as you said,

if Topich could be that kind of guy, if Jeremy McCain... I mean, I think the McCain impact, too, has been pretty profound as far as, like, his ability to step on the floor and make a meaningful difference without a training camp, without really any experience with these guys.

And so giving him that time, and their ability to work him in in a more dedicated way is not a small thing, I don't think. Well, and I also think, like, he and Mitchell, working off the dribble solve some of that thing I'm talking about, of, like, why does it feel so difficult? He, McCain comes in, immediately jumps Wiggins and Joe in the rotation because he can just do stuff off the dribble to puncture a defense

that those other guys can't do. So maybe, yeah, maybe if they have all their ball handlers healthy and they can play three of them together, like three of Shea, Mitchell, J. Dub, McCain, that's enough to get the spurs moving around a little bit more. It's going to be interesting. Let's take a break. We're going to switch divisions to whatever the other division is called where the Mavericks and the Spurs and all them play.

This Western Conference, big question, is brought to you by State Farm. State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalized coverage for your life and budget. Now, that's a solid game plan. And the team we are doing this for switching divisions. I think it's the Southwest Division, the hallowed Southwest Division.

Your favorite division, Rob Mahoney? Is that true? historically a powerhouse. Will it be this year? Eh, kind of. And we're going to start with the Memphis Grizzlies. I can't believe how excited I am for the 2026, 2027 Memphis Grizzlies. Here's my question.

This is my big question. I'm just going to lead with this. Is this team just flat out a play-in team if Zach Edy is healthy? Are we all sleeping on this team is like a legit they're going to get in the playing tournament and have a puncher's chance? I don't need to tell you what the numbers were when Zach Eadie played. plus 18 per 100 possessions. Some of that is that team shot horribly from three.

But if you look at the numbers and like Ty Jerome barely played, they have a lot of guys. They're a lot of guys on this team. But Edy was like completely changed their team when he was on the floor. They went from a horrible rebounding team to the best rebounding team in the league. They went from a team that fouled a decent amount to a team that never fouled because everyone could just funnel things to Edy. They went from a team that allowed a high shooting percentage at the rim to a team that

didn't allow shots at the rim, and then none of them went in. I'm not sitting here saying Zach Ede is like a star. He has to prove a lot, including his ability to stay healthy. Is he going to start to season healthy? I have no idea. But I kind of think when you look at this team, they have a lot of depth. I think that's important. They're not going to be incentivized to tank.

I love Camboozer. I love Cedric Howard. Jeremy Grant is just like here. Just around. An afterthought, like kind of a helpful place. if he's not one of your three best players. Beef stew, just hanging around. Like, I'll be a backup five.

Maybe I can play with Edy a little bit. Yeah. I'll create a ruckus now and then. Got a lot of, like, spunky guards who handle the ball. I kind of like this team. Wouldn't shock me if they're, like, 10th in the West. I mean, there's a lot to like. As far as the Edy part, I'm with you that, I mean, I would say there's maybe five or

six bigs in the entire league who have a truly transformative effect on the game when they play. And he's not on the level of the highest end of those guys. But he does change everything stylistically about who the grizzlies are and who their opponents are. What is capable of, like what everyone's capable of when he's on the floor. And that's something this team desperately needs because they do have a lot of good players. But Camboozers is a great example. He's going to be a great floor raiser, a great, like, tone setter for who the grizzlies want to be. But is he transformative?

Like, we don't really know that about him yet. And that's not really who he projects as, at least by my understanding. I just like Camp Spencer's pretty good Scotty Pippin Jr. is pretty good. Jalen Wells is solid as is like a fifth starter type I think Boozer is going to come out of the gate

as maybe the best player on the team. Look, as an Al Horford-era parent, like I'm very excited about who Camp Boosar could eventually become. Their coach, Isolo is good. They've got to clean up. I mean, like they were a bad team last year, partly by design.

But I think there's like a decent amount of talent I don't, I don't, like, if I sat here in power rank the West, 10th might seem a little spicy for them, but like, I think there's a world where they're better than, there's a world. Yes. A world. Maybe not this world, but there's a world where they're better than the Warriors. Oh, definitely. And if, like, there's a world where they're better than the Pelicans.

Yep. I think we're, I think we're in that world. There's a world where they're better than, well, the Clippers. There's a world where they're better than the Mavericks. I think these are all like plausible scenarios. Cooper Flag is better than anyone on the Grizzlies, obviously. We'll get to him. But what was your big question for them?

I guess of all those possible worlds, in the one that we're living in, who here gets buried? Because like you listed off some of the names. I'm counting... They still need to cut like multiple players. I mean, they have like 21 guys on the roster right now. So some guys are just going to get released or moved away or play for their G league team.

But even within that, I'm counting like, 14, maybe 15 guys who are deserving rotation players. Well, I mean, like, guys we didn't even mention like OMAX Prosper and Gigi Jackson Jr. Absolutely good at the end of last year. Like, I don't know where they get minutes on the team. Like, forget D.Lo is going to get waived, I assume.

Like, Quentin Post is here for some reason. Like, that was a weird one. Can we get, can we play, like, there's been a lot of talk about playing Boozer at the three now and then and he did it in Summer League. How about we just go completely bananas? Boozer. Booser Stewart Post, E.

all on the floor at the same time. I like that. Let's just go crazy. I mean, fuck it. OMAX at point guard. Let's just complete the set if we're going to go that route. I'm too high on this team. I need to move on, Rob. What was your big, wait, did you say your big question?

Oh, yeah, just like, again, who gets buried here? Who doesn't get a chance to play? And I guess by extension, are those guys trade candidates for other teams looking to pick up rotation pieces down the line? Memphis. I can't believe how excited. That was today's Western Conference. It was brought to you by State Farm, like a good neighbor.

State Farm is there. Let's stick in this division and go to a team that's very close to your heart. The Dallas Mavericks. Kyrie Irving is back after missing all of last season. Dusty May is in as the head coach. Messiah, Jiri is now running the show with our old colleague Mike Schmitz. What was your big question for the Dallas Mavericks? How will playing with an actual ball handler unlock Cooper Flag? What will it bring out on him that we didn't get to see? Because last year, I mean, to me it was all about filling voids. Like they didn't have Kyrie. They didn't have much of anyone handling the ball at a high level. And so he had to be the point guard sometimes.

He had to moonlight in that role. They didn't have a dedicated wing stopper, really. So he had to do that a lot. And because they didn't have any real flow to their offense, I would guess he took more pull-up jumpers than he's probably ever taken in his entire life. And those are all good things in terms of his long-term development. Like two years from now, we'd say, and look back at that season, where he started playing some point.

It really brought some things out in his game, his ability to read the floor, I'm sure, but I just want to see him with a little bit of help. I want to see the stuff that comes easy when Kyrie Irving is on the floor. Obviously, the whole league is wondering about Kyrie Irving's tenure with the Mavericks and whether he fits Cooper Flagg's timetable and what does that mean? What happens if someone makes a good offer for him? He's still an awesome NBA player. Very much.

I think we'll see. I mean, that's an obvious question. The Mavericks will not close the door on trading him because no team. would do that. But I think they want to see kind of how this works and whether there can be something a little interesting with this group. They did some things well last season, despite the limitations of their personnel, and they did some things that need to be fixed. Like they were 28th and threes. They need to shoot more threes. Kyrie would presumably help that. By the way, I meant to mention this about Obdia. You mentioned pull-up jumpers for Cooper Flag. One thing about Obdia, and sorry I didn't mention in the Portland section, 24% on pull-up threes.

36% out catch and shoot three. So that's when I talk about him living a different life this year, that's kind of what I mean. But my question for the Mavericks is like, it's not even a question. Like I don't know what you do with all these like power forward types

tweener forward types between Cooper Flagg. I mean, that's basically what he is. He can do anything, but that's his size. PJ Washington, Najee Marshall, Santiago, Lama, Mores Johnson, who they just drafted, probably guys I'm even forgetting. Like there's just a lot of fours

that they're going to have to find minutes for and figure out how to build a functional up. Like, what does Marais Johnson do when he's on the floor with Gafford? Or I really hope Derek lively can be healthy because I was so excited about him and he was such a linchpin of their team. Like, that's another big question. But I just, it's just a weird group of guys

with, like, not a lot of guards and a ton of forwards, which is fine. Like, you can, that's, maybe that's what they want to build. It is fine, or it just may lead to PJ Washington being rehomed at some point and you find a natural solution to some of these problems that way. Like, this roster does need even a little more ball handling. I would say they're going to get it from Kyrie. They're going to get it from Kari. They're going to get it some from Najee Marshall probably.

We'll fill in in that capacity again. Sergio De Laurea seems pretty exciting. If he can get on the floor and stay there, we'll find out. I forgot about Riesichet. He's like a three, four. He's more of a three bit of four. But he's around. He's around. That's the one you can say about.

You can say that about Zachary Eus Eusier. He's around. You can't take that away from him. The Mraz Johnson piece of that, I really wonder, like, are they going to come out, he is the definitive starter and we are leaning into our young core, or is he going to be fighting for minutes behind the four capable vets you mentioned to probably deservingly have a case to play over him?

Yeah, I don't, I tried the game out there starting five. It's very hard. And I put lively in there just optimistically. It's obviously going to be him or Gafford. Both of them are good centers. I went Kyrie. I just put Max Christian as like a point. placeholder starting to PJ Washington and Cooper Flag in one of the centers, but like, I don't know.

I don't know what you do. Like, I liked the Marcus Sasser pickup, by the way. That was a sneaky, nice pickup. So there's a lot of interesting pieces here. How old is Kyrie? Carrey's 34. I get it. I get the thing like he's 13, 14 years older than Cooper Flag.

But I don't know. I like to fit. I'd like to see how it looks if I were them. Any other big questions about the Dallas Mavericks? I think I can keep it moving. The San Antonio Spurs, we know what they did last year. Third in offense and third in defense. That's a whale of a season.

And you just dig it underneath the hood, their numbers. They're like good at what they're good at and they're rock solid. Like whatever they seek to be good at, they are good at. And what they're bad at are generally things that, like, they don't force turnovers. That's obviously a choice they've made. We're just going to play conservative defense because we have this monster. they're waiting for you in the back. I didn't have a great big question for the Spurs,

so I'll defer to you. What is your big question for the San Antonio Spurs? I think my big question for them, in light of their very particular playoff feelings in which they are throwing the ball off of each other's butts, in which they're kind of imploding down the stretch of some of these games, not all of these games. Time and score, baby.

Time and score. I mean, like, assistant coaches everywhere are just shaking their heads, watching the game tape of some of those. But, like, where do they find that, that one more ounce of stability? And I think there's a couple different candidates, right? Some of it is maybe Fox is even a little bit healthier, even a little bit more of a stabilizer for them.

Maybe Fox gets traded into a player who could provide that role. Could see? Could Stefan Castle be 12% less wild than he currently is? I don't want him to be just as wild. I don't want to take the wild out of hell. I get what you're saying. I know what you mean. I'm not saying we should.

I'm not even saying that's the route they should go. or is Dylan Harper going to kind of ascend into even more calming presence as opposed to like a weaponized flame thrower one-on-one kind of score that he's been? Or is Tobias Harris joining this team going to give them just like one more place to go when they do have those possessions that are like a little, a little bit rickety, a little bit like taking a little too much time off the clock in the first eight seconds? Like maybe he could in switching Champagne out for him just give them one more avenue

to actually accomplish something in a way that settles everything down. But they just need a little bit more of that, and it may just come with getting older. Yeah, I don't know whether to assume one of my small questions was, like, is Tobias Harris starting? Like, are we sure that that's happening? And so Champagne comes off the bench? Yeah. Like, they were awesome with Champany for sure. And the starting five.

But obviously, Tobias Harris is a different level of player, different pedigree, bigger size. And I think size on the wing was important for them. I mean, if he did come off the bench, he would cement one of the best second units in the entire league. Harper, Cheldon Johnson, Tobias Harris, Luke Cornett. I mean, Carter-Bryan, I think we'll get more time this year. One of my small questions was, like, for as disappointing as Fox's season felt, and as disappointing as his playoffs and finals in particular were, their turnover rate when he's on the floor is, like, minuscule.

And their turnover rate when he's off the floor is, like, very, very high. And so one of my questions was, like, can the non-Fox lineups settle down turnover? wise because then that really changes the dynamic of like how much do we really need him, what is his value to the team? Because currently his value is like, his stabilizing force value was like very high. Yes. For them.

I wondered who's going to start and I do, this is a scary one. I kind of wonder if they even have another gear on defense. Like, because I think Bryant is potentially special and might be ready to play more. It does feel like they should be able to force more turnovers if they try.

They give up a lot of Corner threes. I think, again, that's probably somewhat by design the way they use Wembe and just have them sit over on the baseline is going to yield those. But can they even get a little more attentive to those shots? Like I actually think there are some areas where they can get better defensively. Well, I mean, especially, I think the turnover is part of that is most enticing to me. Like, there are so many guys in this team who are really intuitive playing passing lanes. Like, Steph Castle to me is like one of the best at navigating screens in the entire league, the chase from behind type defender.

if you, I mean, it's not going to take much convincing. If you allow him to be even a little more aggressive in pursuing that stuff, I just think when you have Victor Webbenyama, you should be open to those sorts of possibilities. And one of the marks of great playoff teams is not just like we come in with the way we play, but you have that full spectrum where we can ratchet up our defensive precision and aggressiveness at the same time and be a totally different stylistic team,

but one that teams aren't as prepared for in that way. So we'll see if they can accomplish that. I'm again my I'm gonna save I don't know I'm actually the more I dug into the spurs the more I was like kind of scared about how good this team could possibly be the Houston Rockets eighth on offense didn't feel like that definitely didn't feel like that in the playoffs no when they got run out by the lakers under a hail of embarrassing turnovers in game three reed shepherd jabari smith junior etc and bad foul and all of it. Sixth on defense. I mentioned before the discussion about who would you pick as the team that might by April have maybe better than a puncher's chance against the spurs and Thunder. I'm a little frightened to say that I kind of think it might be the Rockets for me.

And I'm frightened for a number of reasons. I remember what happened in the playoffs. Sure. Um, email Doka's offense in the half court, not exactly inspiring in its creativity and motion and general purposefulness, unless the purpose was to miss and have Stephen Adams get the offensive rebound. Stephen Adams' health is a constant question. Yes. Um, Kevin Durant's phone activity, uh, makes me nervous and like chemistry and things like that. But I actually think people, because of how bad the playoffs were, because of how ugly their offense can, their first.

shot offense in a way can look because of how rattled Reed Shepard looked by the moment in the playoffs where he shot like 20 something percent. It was a complete disaster, let alone the turnover that cost them a fall from a head win in game three of that series against the Lakers. I think Van Vleet coming back is like absolutely massive for this team. Durant is still awesome. I like their starting five. I like their depth well enough,

particularly when you put Reed back on the bench. Marcus Smart is rock solid, presumably Stephen Adams will be healthy. I just think this team is better than people are giving them credit for. And I might, to say that they would lead that pack to me over Yokic, over the New Look Wolves, over the Lakers is a little bit scary. But I just think if Van Vleet is healthy, he completely changes everything that was wrong with this team. I mean, they won 52 games as it was. And adding Van Vleet and abs, as you said, not just Marcus Smart, but like Bogdan-Bogdanovich, be a rotation player for them. We'll see Bruce Thornton could be a rotation player for them.

I'm not sure. And so it's like they should have everything. They should be not only a 50-ish win a team again, but one that is getting back to basics as far as the execution of their offense that maintains the size and the rebounding that made them such a distinct opponent. And yet, I think the thing I keep coming back to and my big question is like, is Kevin Durant as hard as this is to say, just too old for this now. So the Durant thing is interesting. I mean, this is, we were talking about this in a big group dinner last night. And this is when I, when I made my Rockets case, it was generally, there was not as much optimism about the rockets for the people around me. And part of it was like, Durant as the best player on the team is now old and probably a little overtaxed.

And my counter to that was like, he's the best player in the team. But there's a lot of players that he's not by far the best player on the team. There are a lot of very good players on this team. Shen Goun is a very good player. Van Vliet. Amman Thompson, who just got paid, is an awesome player. To me, that doesn't worry me as much as the offense. And just sort of this existential question that Detroit is now dealing with,

which is Thompson Twin plus Center who plays in the paint. Can you ever space the floor adequately enough to have an easy NBA offense? And by easy, I mean, this is a team. They were 26 and 3 point rate last season. 18th in shots at the rim. It's hard to be 18th in shots at the rim and 26 and 3 point rate when you lead the league in offensive rebounding by a mile.

Like offensive rebounds should lead to both of those kinds of shots. And they took a ton of mid-range shots. They did not get out in transition at all. Their half-court first shot efficiency was bad. It just has to be easier. Van Vliet solves some of those issues. I'm optimistic about that.

But how many? I mean, I really like Fred. He's had some up-and-down efficiency seasons when he has been healthy, and that's now been a minute. He's, I mean, what, 5, 10, like, respectfully, and 32 years old coming off of a, like a significant injury? It's fair. I wonder about it.

And here's the thing. I worry about it a little bit in terms of the size of all these guys. Like, you have on Matt Thompson, and so it's easy to think, oh, we're just going to kind of move things around the floor. However, I mean, you need to to make this work. But Fred and Reed and Marcus Smart, those guys have to play. Like, they're going to be significant. parts of everything that happens here.

Are you not okay with that? I think those are all good players. No, no, they're all good players, but I wonder about like if you're leaning on that many smaller guards in a world where KD is older, Tari Isan gets hurt a lot, Stephen Adams gets hurt quite a bit. Like Jabari Smith is big, but plays a little smaller in some ways good, in some ways bad. I just wonder about like their ability to maintain

the sort of muscle and advantages that they want to flex if they're also going to be leading even smaller than they were last year. What is your take on this sort of like this existential question of Amen Thompson plus Shengun and Asar Thompson plus Jailen Duren? What do you do in those situations? I mean, Shingun, it's almost reversed because Shingun was already signed. He's ahead in his career years-wise. So he was already on the books. Much different offensive player than Jalen Duren, who's more of a diver, has a little handoff off the dribble stuff in his game.

That stuff fell apart. And the playoffs, Shangoon is more polished as an offensive player, much less. upside as a defender, although Gielandern hasn't met his upside, it looked for a second like Shingun might be a capable three-point shooter earlier last season. That kind of disappeared. I just don't know, like, what you're supposed to do in these situations and what you're, Bill and I talked about this because the Gio and Duren thing is really reaching like,

it's critical junction coming up. He would sign and trade him. That's what Bill's plan would have been. And I get that. And my argument, like, that's what there's risk in that. because, yes, look, it's not perfect, right? Like, Assar Thompson, Jill and Duren, it didn't work in the playoffs. It got very hard for him in the playoffs.

They did get to Game 7 or the second round. It's not like they got waxed in the first round. They might have if Franz Wagner didn't hurt, whatever. But it's almost like, so I trade Jail and Dern, and let's say I trade him to the Kings. Sure. And I get Sabonis, who I don't really want and is not part of my long-term future. And like a couple of Kings draft picks and whatever. I have to nail the next, I have to find the next jail Enduren.

somewhere, like a pick and roll partner for Cade Cunningham or recalibrate my team in the next two years. And then the meantime, just eat a step back perhaps. Like, that's a hard thing to do. And I compared it with Bill to the Celtics trading Jalen Brown. And just in the sense of like, this trade will ultimately be judged by the next move the Celtics make with the draft picks and stuff that they got from Philly to round out their team around Tatum.

And that's a big, that's a big risk for a front office to say, we're going to bet. a lot. We're going to trade a core player and the bet of the trade is not what we get in this trade necessarily directly, but what we turn that stuff into in some time. I think the Jalen Duren one is particularly delicate. And some of that's like the difference to me

between Asar and Amin. With Amin Thompson, I feel a little more confident in him on ball. Sure. And just like, you know, clearly the pull-up stuff is not there yet, but it's him operating an offense makes sense to me in a way where there's kind of one variable we have to solve. With Asar and really with Jalen Duren, it's like, if you want to replace Jailen Duren,

you need not only a big who can make Asar Thompson spatially make sense, but the pick and roll partner that you mentioned for Cade, the intersection of those two skills is like three guys. Like that is Kat, Wemby, Chet. Maybe there's a mystery role player I'm forgetting, but like. And I always say like, you don't get to go all-star shopping at the all-star grocery store and like just pick out your perfect all-star. Like, you just. kind of have to make do sometimes. I do think that's the right priority, though. Like, to me, what the Thompson's do is more singular

than what either Shangun or Durand do. And that's not to say those guys are fully replaceable for exactly the reasons and the timing that you outlined, but I would bet on their transformative effect on a defense and the very unique way that they seem to cover the entire floor at once, or you can sick them on particular opponents if you need a stoper. Like, that feels more valuable to me than a Shangun-Dun-driven offense

that's going to be 14th in the league pretty consistently. What was your big question about the Rockets? I think just Katie's age. And some of it is not just, I think you're right to focus on the ease and how much of that he's going to be able to handle. Like they do have a pretty good team, a lot of good players. But even then, I could see their offense being similarly difficult.

Like a little more downhill, not in the transition sense, but just in terms of their execution. But Katie has to manufacture a lot in the half-core. Like, he still does. I like there's a lot of there's going to be a lot of pressure on him a meda doca and his staff because at some point your team gets good enough that your entire identity can't be play hard and rebound like you need to have some creativity and organizing principle to your offense other than we're just going to our whole identity is we're just going to defend harder than you and then rebound harder than you and figure out how to manufacture points along the way because yeah i'm trying to think of when the last time it was that we saw kevin durant as the best player on a playoff team that got out of the first round and he hasn't finished the last two

playoff friends that he's been on. I think we're talking about the 2021 Nets where that was the case. There might be one of the Phoenix teams that got rolled by Denver in the second round. But even that, it felt a little bit more like a time share with Devin Booker as far as like the leadership of that offense.

And so like I'm willing to can see that. If you want to include 2023, but two years running of, This guy's putting up some of the most ridiculous stats we've ever seen for a player his age. Truly preposterous regular season efficiency. But if you can't play in the playoffs, and if we're talking about a team that can really challenge the best teams in the West, we're talking about a duration of playoff intensity that we just haven't seen from Kevin Durant have to do in a long time.

Well, this is my argument about Kauai and the Raptors? It's like, is you going to get through three playoff series? It's cool to talk about the Raptors as a sneaky finals contender. you have to talk yourself into Kauai doing something. Kauai has not finished a second round playoff series since the bubble.

It's seven years ago. Or whatever it is. So like, okay, I do think the rockets have, we mentioned with the wolves, like the idea that if I'm going to beat these two juggernauts that are set to be juggernauts for the next five years, I just got to have something special

and weird about my team. Lamello and Ant being there. I think the rockets, at least with like our we're going to beat the shit out of you and be really big on the boards. That's like something. Like it's something that they bring that is like a rare thing for them.

Like a stylist. I don't know. Who would be your pick? Who of these teams? Like who's going to have a better than a puncher's chance? No. I mean, the answer is probably honestly no one

if the spurs and thunder are healthy. Yeah. In the East, you could convince me like 10 different teams have a chance to at least get to the Eastern Conference finals. In the West, it really does feel like those two barring injury. if not, I might lean Denver just on the sake of like,

I see the path to best player in the world number one offense, and maybe that's just enough to outclass some of these other teams. But the second tier of the West, I think is taking a pretty clear step down. I think it's just kind of come out in the wash a little bit where there's plenty of good teams, but how many are really actual challengers, those two? I don't really see it.

And I think that's a lot about Denver, because Denver has the guy that has done it, won a championship. They have the two-man game. And there was always, including by me, this notion that like you just can't count out the nuggets as long as they have Yokic.

And the surrounding talent has just taken too much of a hit. I think that it's just hard for me to see them. And God forbid, they run into the wolves of the playoffs who just really have become their kryptonite in a way that is a little bit shocking, honestly. I mean, Jaden McDaniels just came out and talked

all the shit right in their fate. You're all bad defender. is all of you. You're all terrible. And then backed it all up and the Nuggets, like, by the end of the last two Wolves Nuggets series, it's kind of felt like the Nuggets just wanted the series to be old. 100%. Nicole Yokoj was ready to go home.

And that's what the best versions of the wolves have been doing to teams, the Nuggets especially, but they were wearing these guys out and down. And I'm not sure the wolves are those wolves anymore, but Jaden McDaniels is still certainly that guy. Oh, yeah. He's not backing down from anything. All right, the last team in this division, I know that you have been excited to talk about the coherent, not strange at all,

totally well-built New Orleans Pelicans. And honestly, like, I kind of look at this team and, like, why aren't they a little better or projected to be a little better than the talent than they are by Vegas and by us? Yeah. They have real players on the team. What is your big question for the weirdo New Orleans Pelicans?

I guess the question is, do any of those talented pieces fit together in any way whatsoever? and to zero in on it, I'm going to say, I'm going to frame this as a question rather than a statement. If Zion and Derek Queen cannot play together,

and every bit of evidence we have suggests that they cannot. Like, what gives? Where is the give between those two pieces? Because Zion is still the best player on this team when he plays. Derek Queen, to my eye, is one of the most important players

in terms of the future of this team. I don't see an outcome to this year in which playing Derek Queen 25-ish minutes a game again feels acceptable. Like, that's not what they should be gunning for. It's not what the direction of this team should be. I don't think it's what Jamal Mosley was brought in to do. And so, like, I really don't know how to square these, like, two immovable objects

or at least immovable truths within who the Pelicans are right now. Well, I mean, I think we know what the end game would be is that they would trade Zion eventually. Would they, though? Or would they bail on Derrick Queen and bury him? I don't think you can bail on Derek Queen based on the trade they made to get to him. I mean, we'll see how he plays this year. He started off last year as like, oh, my God, first team all rookie, no-brainer, and fell off a little bit toward the end of the season, rookie wall, all that.

To me, like, when I think about, like, I have all this lineup data written down here. And like, the big question is obvious. We had the same one, Zion and Queen. Like, is that just dead on arrival defensively? Not only that, both of them kind of work best as they have the ball in their hands as fulcrums on offense. And we saw last year that Zion, although he was still super efficient, shot well at the rim. him got his points, got fewer points, ran fewer pick and rolls, screened less often, posted up less often, all the on-ball stuff less often, and was sort of in that like,

just hanging around the baseline a lot, 12 feet from the rim waiting for dump-off passes. And yeah, he can catch and finish in the blink of an eye that works, but that's like not what he is meant to be in the NBA. And like, it's really, they were minus 10 per 100 possessions or minus 11 per 100 possessions with both of them on the floor. They actually outscored opponents when Zion play without Queen and they were a minus 5

per 100 possessions when Queen played without Zion. Yeah, I just don't know like there's a functional and like DeJante Murray coming back was a big deal for them. It looked pretty good in the last year. There's like a functional team in here

with like Murray, the wing combination of Herb Jones if he can stay healthy and Trey Murphy the 3rd and like some big man combination that actually works that I don't. don't know if that combination exists on the team.

But there will be nights where Murray, Jones, Murphy, Zion, Queen puts up like, they start that group and it puts up like 130 points. They score a lot of points in a game. I just don't know where it's all going to lead with those two guys. And with Murray's nearing the end of his deal. That's true. They led the league in shots at the rim last year and they were 29th in field goal percentage at the rim.

And a lot of that was their guards. I even looked at like, if you had to think about what is the future of this team, like I would zero in on Jeremiah Fears, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, who may not be part of the future. There's been trade rumblings constantly. Yeah. And Queen, like those four guys is an interesting quartet minus 10 per 100 possessions last year. I just, it's a puzzle.

It's a puzzle. Very much. Particularly for a defense first guy, like Jamal Mosley. And a puzzle where, like, I don't want to pretend that any of these pieces are even guaranteed in the shape. that they take. Like, we're talking about this Queen Zion thing. And, like, I would lean into Derrick Queen to figure out who he can be. But the operative phrase there is figure out.

Like, he may never be a starting caliber center that can hold up a really good, like, even competent playoff defense. That just might not be in his future. It might not be what he's meant to do. And at the same time, like, I want to see if he, if he was given that opportunity to surround him with enough space and flexibility. And maybe it's just like a little less Zion, a little more Sadiq Bay, who was just reinvested in this.

spot. Oh, yeah, we should talk about that. I forgot about that. Yeah, nice little bit of business for him, but it's like, if you put enough big wings around Derek Queen with some ball handling and, you know, Dejante Murray, as you said, kind of help them, help them along there as far as just like a veteran hand as opposed to Jeremiah Fears, is that enough to get Derek Queen on a track to becoming a really good high-level center for a long time? I would prefer to find that out as opposed to anything else, but it's a really big open question. Well, they brought in Mathrin, too. Like I said, there are a lot of like, like, Matherin, I think will come off the bench and do Ben Matherin things. And Bay was solid for them last year coming off an ACL tear.

I'm looking at the deal now. Three years, like 54, I think 55, 17, 18.5.20. You know, 10% of the cap. Shot 37% on threes last year. He's only 27 years old. I can talk myself into it. I wouldn't have done it, I don't think. I just think he's a little bit

anachronistic as a player. He wants to hold the ball and jab step and ISO and he's like okay at that. I just don't, I don't know how that scales to like a team that's actually trying to accomplish something. I think I would do it if I trusted the front office. It's the kind of thing where it's like,

he doesn't fit exactly what this team needs right now, but he's useful enough. And you could convince other front offices, I think, that like, hey, you need another big wing to plug in for some flexibility. This could be your guy. I just never trust the Pelicans to do the right thing at the right time. And that's a tough kind of road to be on when you're trying to keep these sorts of players around

and maybe overpaying slightly for them in the process. There's also not a lot of shooting on this team other than Trey Murphy. And Herb Jones shot 31% on threes last year. Like that has to go back to where it was looking like it would trend. They're also like for a team that we're talking about their big men and their physicality and Queen and Zion and Misi coming off the bench. They're not a good rebounding team on either end of the floor, but particularly defensively.

Like, Zion's rebounding, I mean, it's been a running joke. Barkley talks about all the time. Bill talks about all the time. It's so bad that I just don't understand how he can be this bad. He doesn't box out. He doesn't, like, really pay attention sometimes. Like, it's just awful. All right, let's take quick break and we'll wrap it up with the Pacific Division.

All right, Pacific Division time. We're going out West. We will start only because there's sheet. is on the top of my notes. The Golden State Warriors. The Golden State Warriors. I don't know, Rob. You can, you go.

I'm too sad. Yeah, I think sad is the good place to start because how does this rotation last 82 games? I'm looking at this group. Jimmy Butler is out. He's out. Moses Moody is TBD. I guess we'll find out.

Out, presumably. Maybe to start, Cam, maybe he'll use into it. I don't know. Seth played 43 games last season. Runner's knee. Chris Eps Worsingis. is always sidelined by something. De Anthony Melton always misses time.

Gary Payton always misses time. Al Horford, Cannon will suit up, but he needs five full days of rest in between those days. So who is playing? Like Brandon Pajemski will be out there running around.

Yaxel Lindenborg, certainly. Exciting. I'm excited for Yaxil. Yeah. Guy Santos gonna do lots of stuff. Gein around. I'm hoping and praying for my guy Malafi Leons to get like continued opportunity.

But... I love the pronunciation. I mean, absolutely nailed that. Well, it just... Here's the thing. If that's where we are, it's not good. And I don't think that this particular... Will Richard doesn't excite you?

I like Will Richard, fine. But it's like this particular offseason wasn't an outright disaster, but the four-year track that got us here in which this is maybe Steph's last best chance to really compete for something with this vision of the team. This is so sad. This is such a sad group of players to roll out in these circumstances. Yeah, I mean, look, they haven't found... In fairness to them, when Butler was healthy, it looked like they had actually been patient and found the right formula.

And obviously, they didn't get Paul. The litany of guys they didn't get is very long. And I'm not sure any of those things. I've gone down the list a million times. Like how many of them were actually realistic? How many were available to them? Like, I don't think Markinen was ever really available to them. I don't think the Paul George thing.

And who knows how that would have worked out. The idea that, well, if they had traded for Jalen Brown, maybe they could have got. LeBron, like I don't think, I don't necessarily think those were realistic options for them. I go back to, I mean, I've done this before, but I go back to like when the Raptors were moving Siakum and Ananobe, I think that, and they were looking at both and I think Inanobi especially. I think that was a moment where maybe those two guys weren't the caliber of guys they really wanted, like, we're holding out for Janus, we're holding out for Yonis, we're holding our cap space for Yokic, whatever it is. Like, I don't think Yokuch is leaving, but we'll see.

You don't always get that guy and you got to get some. somebody. But look, I mean, here's the bottom line. They were plus three per 100 possessions with Steph on the floor. Their offense completely fell off without him. And with Butler and Steph on the bench, they were minus seven per 100 possessions. And there's going to be a lot of no Steph, no Butler minutes, because there is no Butler at least to start the season. And Jimmy, he was so perfect for them because everything that they don't do well, he does well. So they're a high turnover team. He's a very low turnover player. They don't get to the line a lot. he gets to the line a ton.

He sort of stabilized a lot of their weak spots on both ends of the floor in ways that are like almost hard to notice. And that's the greatness of Jimmy Butler. He sort of does all these, he's great in these like little corners of the game where you don't necessarily notice him. And so he's gone for a while. And I don't have a ton of hope for this team. My big question was actually like, does poor Zingas have one like 60 game magical season in him? because that to me is the only roadmap to like this team really exceeds expectations is they get a Porzinga season that hasn't really existed in a while.

Because he open, he's a high volume shooter. Horford is a medium volume shooter, but he's 40 or whatever he is. KP would actually change like the alignment of their team if he could play 28 minutes a game 60 times. I just don't think that will happen. Yeah, the fact that 60 games is the magical outcome. I mean, let's look up. I think you're right to point it out. It's just, it's brutal.

None of these, it's like, the guys who play 80 games or 75 games are just like, God, like, God bless them. Like, it's just like nobody does it anymore. No. Porzingis played 32 games last year, 42 the year before, 57 the year before, 65 for the wizard. I mean, the Wizards, they got a great KP year. They got a great, they got a great Porzingus season. Just cashed it in. Joe House is still talking about it to this day.

How much he loves Porzegas and Russell Westbrook. Yeah, I don't. I don't have a lot of big questions for the words. I'm not terribly optimistic about their team. The Phoenix Suns, surprise team last year, made the playoffs, seventh seed. Mark Williams injury, I haven't talked about that yet. That's a bummer. They have some depth at center with Mala Watch at Igadaro.

Those guys now have to play a lot. Have to. I didn't love Mark Williams season last year on either end of the floor, but, you know, for 18 minutes a game at what they were paying him, he would be helpful. Made a pretty risky trade for Miles Bridges in terms of the unprotected 2033 pick that they sent out along with depth pieces. And in terms of Miles Bridges, frankly. And in terms of Miles Bridges. Jalen Green will presumably have a healthier season.

I'll let you go. What was your big question about the Suns? I'm just wondering, as we're trying to figure out, the middle of the West, Is there more to this team than effort? Like, I think they really rung a lot out of what they had last season. That's an incredible credit to the personnel, to the players themselves, to Jordan Otto, I thought did a great job, maximizing everything they possibly could.

But when you overachieve like that, now you have to go out and replicate it, you have to validate it, you have to improve upon it. And I just don't see the pieces to do that. And at the same time, when your greatest strength is playing super hard all throughout the regular season and outworking and out grinding teams

and you start chipping away at the framework of the team you had. It's a little thing, but Jalen Green was 10th on the team in total minutes last season. For everything he brings to them as a creator and as a talent is not exactly a grinder in the identity of last season's Phoenix Suns. Miles Bridge is less attentive on defense

than the guys that they were rolling out last year, certainly than Dylan Brooks kind of like maxing into that role. Trading Royce O'Neill and Grayson Allen for I guess Luke Kinnard is going to fill some of that role in some of those minutes is a huge defensive downgrade. It's like you can chip away at this stuff but eventually you're just going to chip away

at like what made your team stand out in the first place. I kind of wonder if we're due for a regression from the Suns in a couple of different ways, but especially that one. I do still think they have some interesting depth despite trading two good players for one in the Royce and No, Grayson Allen, Miles Bridges saying they did to pick up Kinnard.

I like Goodwin. I think Fleming is ready for, real minutes. That'd be good. Ryan Dunn, we'll see. Maybe I don't like their depth of. Ryan Dunn's kind of disappeared a little bit after being kind of a hot rookie for a bit. Yeah, my big questions were number one, are we sure starting Jalen Green is a good idea?

No, we're not. Okay. That question is answer. Well, but they're going to start him. I mean, they're starting five is going to be Green Booker, Dylan Brooks, Bridges, and Mark Williams. And Green certainly has the pedigree and the contract with the player option next season for 36 million. I just wonder how quickly we're going to arrive at the place where we kind of should start Colin Gillespie instead of Jailen Green. This is one of those like, is Colin Gillespie a better player than Jalen Green?

It's such a thorny conversation. I don't know that I'm even willing to make that argument, but he fits with the son's need so much more. And he makes Devin Booker's life easier in the key ways that this team needs to make Devin Booker's life easier. And I just, I just frankly don't ever want the ball in Jalen Green's hands as much as it's about to be in his sense. hands. It just makes me really uncomfortable. Look, I am long on record as being, by my own admission, too enticed by Jalen Green's athleticism and burst. I, like, as long as Jalen Green is shooting, and I'm looking at his numbers now, 42% overall,

and last year, 31% on threes, career 33.9% on threes, and averaging two or three assists, Colin Gillespie, for what the Sons need, is probably better than that version of Jail and Green. Like at some point, if your whole game is have the ball a lot and shoot a lot, you just have to make more shots than you're making it. Otherwise, you're just not helping the team that much. Yeah, and the other one was, you know, you mentioned like, can they replicate their defense from last year? And just like the rim numbers for them, 28th in shots at the rim, 27th in defensive rebounding. Like, they're not as tough as they were defensively. there's not a lot of rim presence on either end of the floor.

And I'm not sure how, like, Model Watch would help that. Is he really ready to play 20 minutes a game, 25 minutes a game, 18 minutes ago? I don't know. I like the flashes I've seen of him for sure. I think he's going to be good. For sure. And it is worth a consistent look whether Mark Williams is healthy or not. And I really like also I Godaro, but he's so much more of a switch defender than he is a traditional rim protector.

And so you're just making tradeoffs across the board because you don't have that kind of interior backbone. Three teams to go. The Clippers will go now. Just get the Clippers out of the way. I don't, like, look. Do you have a question for the Clippers? I guess. Is there any hope here?

And I say that in particular, I guess, about the Darius Garland-Keaton-Wogler pairing. Like, this is a fan base that just needs some reason to show up, to watch the games, to be interested in the fate of this team. is this a backcourt of the future in any sense of that phrase? And I think there's a reason to think that they could be

but I'm almost less interested in is that like are they going to be capable enough defensively to hold up for who they need to be? I just like, can they be fun? Can those two be a pairing that I want to turn on on the league pass style? I think those two can for sure.

Like that might be for as low as the bar as this season and it is in hell. Like it is all the way down after where things have been. There just needs to be a, reason to have some energy around the clippers and if they can provide it that would be of such a welcome boost at this point so my only question is like what do you want to be about as a team because other than fraud other than fraud I mean you maybe I don't know like by that

I mean are you what do you want to try to do are you are you going to try to make the playing in tournament as like we're going to band together and like through adversity like we have Brandon Ingram. He's a floor raiser, Darius Garland. You know, we have these vets like Hachamura and Struce and Derek Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn and we could have a tough defensive identity. Would they even start Wogler right now?

It's a good question. I don't, like, if they're trying to win, I don't think so. I think they probably start something like Garland, Dunn, Ingram, Derek Jones or Hachamura and Brooke Lopez or something like that. But to me, like, if I'm the and I don't know what the right court, they don't

control their pick. So that's, Oklahoma city gets to swap with them yet again somehow. But like my goal would be, I just want to see what these young guys are. And I want, would you, would you flip all your expirings to recoup picks? Would you flip all your expirings to take on bad money, but bad money that's attached to like a good player whose team doesn't want them just because like what else are we going to do? We don't, we like, we'll take on player X's $60 million contract. He's still pretty good.

$55 million contract is still pretty good. Maybe you can do both at once. Maybe you get a player and picks. But, like, I, what are you trying to be? Because if you're trying to be like, we're going to scrounge out 36 wins and get the 10th seat and be a playing tournament, it's just going to be a lot of these, like vets, like Derek Jones Jr. And Hachamura and Struz and Chris Dunn, just getting steals and being a pain in the ass. If you're trying to see what Niederhouser is when he comes back healthy.

I am. And I really like him. And what Wogler is and just sort of what we have here, then you reorient your team a different way. Weirdly enough, I feel like. like what you described as far as like, who is the distressed vet you want to take a chance on or like where are the picks or on the board that you might be able to scrounge together. It's kind of like a third rung for an office person's dream. It's like the guy in the pitch meeting who's been trying to sell everyone on the random

distressed star that he loves inexplicably. This is your time. Like if you're not taking huge semi-rational bets now, when are you going to do it? I just don't know who the player is. Like I had someone this week pitched me on like Anthony Davis to the Clippers. just as just like, why not? Sure. They'll pay them.

Like, I don't know if they would, but like, just why not? What else are we going to do? Like, one of the, we'll get to the Kings in a second. The Kings have many candidates, or at least two, for such a trade. But yeah, I just, I want to see Neiderhauser. I want to see Wogler and I want to see how they pivot to a reality where they're draft pick poor, extremely draft pick poor without a lot of avenues. We're going to save the Lakers for last because they're the Lakers.

They deserve the anchor lake. The Sacramento Kings. Your question cannot just be why, how did we get here? Why does this, why, just why? Yes. You actually have to have a real question about the 2026, 2027, Sacramento Kings. Coming off a year where they ranked, 26th in offense, 28th on defense, 30th and 3 is taken, 29th in shots at the rim, hard to be dead last or borderline in most of those.

Impressive. allowed the second most shots at the rim. So just like the complete inverse of their own horrible offense. And the only team that I can remember that had a coaching blunder so bad that they were accused of tanking. And their explanation was, no, we're just actually so incompetent that we made a horrible mistake in fouling Steph Curry on purpose. Was it Seth Curry or was it Seth Curry? I think it was Seth Curry on purpose. No, our defense is our incompetent.

incompetence is just that maybe that should be their slogan. I don't know. Is the worst part that their defense was the incompetence or that after they made it, everyone was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. It's just like everyone just accepted. And we're done. And we're done Christy, come on down for another year.

Let's see what happens. What are you? You know, obviously A-Cuff is the headliner and then you have the disgruntled vets in Levine and Sabonis, whose disgruntled men really, frankly, doesn't move me very much right now. But like, what if anything are you interested in? So I think we know at this point. that there is not really a market for De Manus Subbonus. He's been dangled out there for long enough.

They have tried and failed to entice anyone to take a chance on him for anything of value. I think we might just need to drop the anything of value clause. And it's like, do you need to make a Sabonis trade just for the sake of it, even accepting you're not getting really anything important back? And I say that because, like, if things have been so dower that if you don't do this at some point over the next two years, we're just in a consistent holding pattern, paying de Mona Sabonis is $100 million over the course of that time. I just have a hard, I have a hard time imagining how the Kings move on in any sense. Even at Deris Akoff comes in and sets the world on fire,

even if he looks so good, the ceiling has been set in stone and the floor has been so disastrous. I just kind of want to, if I were the Kings or a Kings fan, I think the change for the sake of change, something I don't usually advocate for, might just be compelling enough to do. You know, it reminds me of Bill yesterday asked me a question that I frankly hadn't thought about. And I wonder as a former Dallas person, you've thought about, which was, why exactly did the Maverick trade Anthony Davis? Like, considering the return they got for him was like, I think they got what ended up being the 30th pick in the draft, which just got moved to Phoenix in Co-A Pete.

And another crappy first-round pick that's like top 20 protected or something like that. And like just some flots on players, most of whom are not even out of the team anymore. And it's an interesting question, like, why? And at the time, it was like, oh, they got a couple assets.

They were building the cover. Yeah, they're not great assets, but every first is an asset. And it's like the Anthony Davis thing wasn't working. It's time to turn the page. And you saying, should they just trade some bonus

to do it basically reminded me of like, I actually hadn't interrogated that question of like, did they have to do that? Like, why did the Mavericks do that? Like, but they've just held onto him and traded him for more later, traded him somewhere else. I don't.

So, but that's the kind of deal of your, I do think Subonis will have, I think there will be a, I went through a bunch of potential subonist teams, cross most of them off for various reasons. But I do, like he's a good player.

Yeah. And I think he'll have a market, just not a great one at some point among all the teams I mentioned last week. My question was just, just what do we have here in Clifford, Keegan Murray, Maxine Rineau, and who am I, and A-Cuff. I think A-Cuff, we know what's going to happen. He's going to get the keys to the offense.

It's probably going to be pretty inefficient as most rookie guards are when they're giving the keys to the offense on a bad team. But he's going to be, like, enticing and make a lot of mid-range jumpers and have a lot of slithery finishes. You're like, all right, I get what this is. I get what, like, I don't know what the ceiling of this is, but I get what it is. The Clifford and Keegan Murray, who they paid a lot of money to

missed most of last season, has kind of regressed since his rookie year when the Keegan Murray. What a time, by the way. Light the beam. They're inventing fun chance for individual players. They have Darren Fox. Yeah, they traded Halliburton fine.

Now they have just nothing. Didn't he set the record for like most threes ever by a rookie or something? Like Keegan Murray, he's had his moments. I guess Khan probably shattered it. Khan broke it last year for sure. But like Clifford, Kegan Murray, Rayneau, is there a future starter on a good team in that group somewhere?

I think that's the question I want answered if I'm the Kings. I think Keegan Murray has been a starter on a good team in the past. True. He just has to rediscover what that was. And like, is there anything more there on the ball? Is there anything else in there on the ball? Rayneau, it's all about defense, right? And like, can he hold up defensively?

And Neat Clifford is quite a clever player. I like him a lot. That's my pick. If those are the candidates, I would bet dollars to donuts. Nick Clifford will be on like, if not a championship team, like a finals team at some point.

Like, I don't know if it's as a starter or like a critical bench player. I just love the way he navigates the floor. Like he's so smart in the angles, clearly like a very capable, very versatile defender. I just think he's going to have,

like, comparing anyone to Andre Aguadala is way too strong. But like that kind of trajectory as like a connector on office. offense that's going to work out for him. I like him a lot too. I thought the last couple months in the year where they really let him play. That was the other thing is like what are you, what are we clinging to with some of the

minutes distribution? Don't know. Like Devin Carter, no, Devin Carter's been waived by a couple of teams since then, but like lottery pick for them and just decided like we just don't, it's not going to play him at all. I like, I think I like Need Clifford the bet, but like those three I'm interested in and just, I like the year projecting Need Clifford on. a championship team someday

like a real player on a championship team and my brain is immediately going to like let's try to game out how the kings fuck it up so that that team is not the kings like what it's not the kings I want to be very clear what bad trade do they make where like some smart team poaches knee Clifford and he becomes the fifth starter on a great

team and the kings get like a second round pick and some and like a Zach Levine type of salary that Vivek just can't resist it's only a matter of time Zach Levine most more depressing current situation than Demont de Monta Sabonis Like, I just don't really We're going to look back at Zach Levine's career

Like you look at his shooting percentages And if like in 20 years Someone's going to log on to basketball reference And be like, oh my God, look at this guy 21 a game for his career In his best season is 25, 27 Two-time All-Star 47% career shooting percentage

39% on threes 52% on twos They're going to be like He must have been a transformative offensive player. And it just never leads anywhere. And some of that is on the teams that he's been on and the surrounding circumstances.

Some of that is the nature of his game. But I don't remember a player. Like usually the quote unquote empty calories players are inefficient. They shoot a lot and they shoot inefficiently. Shout out to Cam Thomas, who deleted his tweet calling me out. But I checked Twitter.

I don't know why. Someone pinged me about Cam Thomas. Like, hey, dude, like, and I have no hostility. him. I just, I checked his Twitter. It's like, oh, he took it down. Wow. Like he, Zach Levine is like objectively efficient as a shooter. He's nails. And I guess it's like the passing defense reads on both ends of the floor kind of thing.

But it's a very, I would like to go back and look as like, is there ever been a guy who's disofficient on this volume and yet it feels a little hollow? Like, he's a really efficient score. It just doesn't lead anywhere. I think he's one of these players who, like, if someone had just sent him to a meditation retreat earlier in his career, maybe all of this would have been so different. Like, there's so many thoughts bouncing around Zach Levine's head when he has the ball in his hands.

And if he had just been channeled into like a Clay Thompson off ball path, what things we could have accomplished? Like, we would have flying cars by now. If Zach Levine had been put with like a Nicola Yokic type early in his career. Well, I mean, it's, I mean, like I can tell you, I don't know about the current front office of Ben Tenzer and John Wallace, but Denver was always a team that had half an eye on Zach Levine if he became available because exactly that.

Like, what if we just took the ball out of your hands? Completely. And you just cut baseline for dunks and shot open threes. And, like, we'll have to figure out the defense with you and Yokic. But, like, they were always enticed by him for that reason. He's a classic, like, amazing and 2K kind of player in the same way that, like, J.R. Smith was. It's like, if you just can take control of what Zach Levine does and disregard the fact that is like offensive and defensive awareness

are 15 out of 100, then you can do some amazing things. It's just how do you do that functionally within an offense? The Kings have not cracked that code. No team to this point has cracked that code. You gotta love a basketball reference for the Thornos.

First of all, they don't have any listed nicknames for Zach Levine. Oh, no, no, they do. Sorry. I'm wondering if you remember any of these. Flight 8? That's not real. How about Young Hollywood?

I have not heard one person called Zach Levine Young. He's not even from L.A. or California in any way. Is this like Wikipedia where I can be a basketball reference editor and just make up nicknames? They're also, but I was thinking of the thoroughness, you know, it shows his like honors in each season. All-Star, All-Star. Six-Man of the Year, 14th place in 2016. Incredible.

I'm not sure we need to track people who finish outside the top 10 and six-man of the year basketball reference. But, you know, Young Hollywood was out there balling off the bench for the 2016. Jimberwolves. Okay. Last but certainly not least, the Los Angeles Lakers remade in the image of Luca Dantich, a complete makeover. Walker Kessler is the star of the show in terms of the makeover. Two first round picks and a boatload of money.

They now have this five-out offense or four-out and a roller offense around Luca, similar to how he's thrived in his career. The Lakers optimists will tell you we were plus eight for 100 possessions with Donchich and Reeves and no Lebrano. on the floor. We were a terrible rim defense team. That was our biggest weakness. We were a terrible offensive rebounding team. Walker Kessler solves

a lot of those things and is Taylor made for Luca. We don't really know who the fifth starter is going to be. Mamu might be the clubhouse favorite by default. Could be

La Ravia. I would like it not to be Jared Banderbilt if possible. I don't think it will be. what's your biggest question about the Lakers? So in light of that fifth spot, and I think there are larger lineup questions in general, so this is a Luca team now, does that mean they're going to focus more

on trying to amplify Lucas' strengths or trying to cover for his weaknesses? Because Walker Kessler is clearly a bit of a gesture in both directions, right? It's like they're betting the Walker Kessler can be a great role partner for Luca, but also the great rim protector that he needs behind him.

But what you're doing is in between spots, like, is this going to be more of a Quentin Grimes team or a Matisse Thibel team. You know, like, what are they wanting from these wing positions and other guard positions? I'm glad you mentioned Thibel. I felt that that acquisition went under the radar. And I felt that his, because he missed so much time, when he finally came back for the Blazers last year, it was like, oh, wow.

Pete Matisse Thibel is, like, messing your shit up on defense again and, and, like, making enough shots, too. Oh, like, I think, I think that making enough shots is the part that went very quietly under the radar, understandably, given how in and out of the lineup he was. But if he can shoot, and the recent evidence suggests that he can, he is a difference-making defender. And now, if he is a great defender for them, that invites its own... That would change their team.

It would, but it invites its own Detroit problem, because can you play Matisse Thibel and Walker Kessler together without other... Like, I guess that four-spot has to be a very good shooter. If Mom was up to that task, I don't think Zaira Williams is up to it. Can we just go... They're optimistic about him, too. Can we just go small and play Thibel at the four? I think you could.

The difference is, I mean, I'm looking at his number. Look, he doesn't shoot with volume and he's not going to be guarded no matter what the numbers are. I get that. 2023, 38%. 2024, 35%. The last two years combined about 42%, but only in 45 games. Like, those are pretty decent percentage numbers. And he's unlike the Thompson's, he's not even near the caliber of the Thompson's, but you brought up the comparison.

he's not, he's at least not going to be in the paint. He's going to be standing away from the paint. He's an interesting player. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know the answers to these questions. And it's a lot on Walker Kessler. My big question was for a team that should be a very good offensive team and will be. I think this team's going to be a really good offensive team because Luca is just that good. If he said, you do have to have like, can Luca, I was reading Michael Pina's column, power ranking the teams yesterday.

And yet the Lakers pretty high. And he had a line like, you know, Lucas perfectly set up to win his first MVP. And I'm like, I feel like I've read that line in this column and every version of it at every website for the last five years. And he just rarely gets to 65 games. But, I mean, I look at the team. I was surprised to note 22nd and 3s, 20 first in shots at the rim. That's just got to be better. And they shot the shit out of the ball so they had an elite offense anyway.

but it feels like the whole point of having Luca and Reeves and a rolling big man is to have a better shot diet than that. Yes. But did they have a rolling big man? No, they did. It was not Jackson Hayes, which respectfully no. And I think Kessler, I think two things can be true. I think they really, I think they overpaid and or paid complete full freight for Walker Kessler. It's not the, people are like, well, the money.

It ranks. He's the ninth highest state center. It's the money and the picture. to picks. That's it. You gave up everything. I also think he's going to fit really well because you look at the weak spots on their team 24th in offensive rebounding. He is going to, like he might

be top three in offensive rebounds. Enormous offensive rebounder. And to JJ Reddick's credit, the guy has schemed around bad defenders really effectively. True. And coaxed good effort out of most of his team defensively.

They were, now they were 20th in defense last year, but they were 16. They're, they allow a decent shot diet, they were 29th in field goal percentage allowed at the rim. Like, Walker Kessler has to be better than that. And it will be better than that. The question is, this is also the team that switched more than any team in the league. And although Kessler has, I think, more capable of that and the jazz dip their toes into letting him try that now and then, I don't think that's the way that they want to play with him. So I'm interested to see sort of how they scheme defensively with him.

Do they drop? Do their guards get over screens well enough? Do they try to experiment with the Wembe thing of like, maybe we'll just have him guard no one and play a zone on the baseline? Is he good enough and quick enough to the rim to play that way? I'm just, the defense question is interesting to me. I think Reddick's part of that is pretty critical. Because I would say there's like a four to six week stretch of both of his seasons with the Lakers

where it's like they look real on defense, despite their personnel, despite their injuries. Like they will put it together for a concentrated period of time. And then they kind of run out of gas because of how much they're having to fly around to make that possible. You're right. I do look forward to the inevitable

like December stretch where the Lakers have the number three defense for 20 games. It will happen. Everyone is like, look at everyone was doubting the defense. It's here. It's like, remember the Nets had the number one defense

in the league in December last year? Everyone was like, no, it turns out the Nets are still bad. Yes. Like, still bad. But that's the Walker-Cessler question is like if you have that capacity as a coaching staff

and with some of this group to be active and engage, and flying around, whether it's switching or playing aggressively, and you have one of the better young rim protectors in the league, can that stabilize you enough to get through 82 and not have the massive drop-offs that the Lakers have had over the last couple years? And if they can address even just some of that dip, I think they're going to turn out to be a pretty decent defensive team.

I just don't know that I'm betting on that personally. And some of that is Walker Kessler's ability to stay healthy too. I like this team. Yeah, it should be noted. Any pushback about the idea that they overpaid for Walker Kessler, and Lakers fans will aggressively pushback on that. That pushback should at least note he played five games last year, he missed a ton of games,

and has played zero meaningful NBA games in his entire career, having played for a team that was trying to lose. And when they would win too much at the beginning of every season, they would just pull the plug completely and drive Will Hardy to the brink of insanity. But I do, I like this team. I think this is going to be a really good team. Yeah, I agree. I like sexton off the bench.

I like the way they're built. The Luca Reeves combo is like a real powerhouse combo offensively. You obviously stagger them, so one's on the floor. I think this team's going to be really good. I guess we get to the end of this. And San Antonio, Oklahoma City just feels so inevitable. And that's why I keep coming back to like, if I had to bet on one team to like, oh, wow, it's 2-2.

Game 5 in San Antonio. Like this team actually, like, it's best of three. Who would that team be? The NBA just keeps telling us that whatever, feels inevitable, since the Warriors and the Cavs were truly inevitable to meet in the finals every year. Whatever feels inevitable

is no longer as inevitable as you think it is. Something will happen. Somebody will get injured on one of the top teams. Happened last year to Jell and Williams. Absolutely. One of these other teams will pop in a way that is totally unexpected. The seedings, excuse me,

like maybe there's a world in which they're not the number one and two seeds and so you don't have to play both of them to get out of the way. I have a, this is the first time in a while where I actually have a hard time envisioning anything other than the inevitable of those two teams. Like all of these teams are good teams, really good teams, that just, I don't know how you beat those teams four times in seven games if they're healthy. I think some of it is the specific kind of strategic needling you would need to do.

It's like the spurs proved to be such a great counter for the thunder. That more than anything is the reason. like J-Dubs injury is a huge part of it, but like their matchup flexing is what made that upset, quote, unquote, if you want to call it that possible. Because the Thunder, I mean, we're having those conversations a month, two months, three months into the season about what their title probability was.

And it was like... Thunder versus the field. Yeah, it was, that was a legitimate line of debate. And so who has or who can manufacture that kind of strategic edge against either of these opponents? Like, maybe that is a case for the Rockets. I'll tell you what Houston has that the other team. teams don't are, is trade assets.

Yeah. And that maybe is another reason why they might be my pick for the, but I just don't know, like, upheaval trades in the middle of a season typically don't lead to you winning the championship. Like it's a lot of recalibration that needs to happen in the offseason. But, you know, Minnesota is out of trade assets. The Lakers are mostly out of trade assets. Yep. Denver. Not exactly. Yeah. Although they, you know, we'll see what they do with that pick they got from Cleveland. I just think, you know, you have to use salary in those trades. And I'm not sure there, a lot of their salaries that are tradable have plus value at this point. All right, Rob Mahoney, what do we got coming up from you this week?

We're doing, we're doing slow horses on prestige TV. I'm so jealous of that. I mean, it's what a time to be alive. The show is really back in stride and so are we. And then we got a little group chat break right now, but we are about to come like hard with preseason power ranking. I mean, I got all my notes. All my notes. I got rotations lined out for every Just hand them over. You know, I'm jealous of Slow Horses because I, you know, my wife was away with her family all last week. And so I indulged in my stuff she'll never watch library. And I just like, I don't have enough time to do a show.

Like I can't, there's not enough days of that to fit in a show. So I did a couple movies and said, but Slow Horses seems like a show I would absolutely love. I think you would love it. And I actually think she might be, it might be in her zone too. It's too violent. I watched season one. I watched season one and loved it. And I was like, yeah, she could watch it.

On the other hand, the whole thing is about a kidnapping where they're going to behead this guy, potentially. Yeah, there are kidnappings. There are bomb threats. There are occasional, like, you know, terrorist attacks and things like that. But when you consider that it's like British secret special services that, like, they don't carry guns, you know, it's a lot of MacGyvering going around there. It's like hitting people with fire extinguishers, you know, it's, there's creative problem

solving beyond it. I think it might, I think it might be possible. but if the tolerance is that low, it's that low. You know, it's coming back up, by the way, in three days. I don't know if this... I think the prestige TV podcast is too snobby for this show. I don't think it'll meet your bar. Great British Bake Off is coming back on September 25th.

Well, we used to cover it extensively here at the Ringer. A podcast, I think it's called Everything is Cake. They also covered the Great British Breaking Show. Too good for this world, unfortunately. Let's reboot it. Maybe we should do a segment every week. The problem is I have to be on it. Like, I have to watch it in real time every week and not like, oh, we're five episodes behind.

You can't do a podcast that way. You got to do it every time. But look, anytime Paul Hollywood's shiny blue eyes are back in my life, I'm excited about it. But no pre-leet this season. Prue is out. I'm going to have to figure out if I like the new woman. I don't know who she is. I've been told that it's appalling that I don't know who she is.

But I don't. I assume Noel and Allison are back. I believe so. But look, Paul is, I've long argued. the only irreplaceable part of the Great British Bake Off is Paul. He's the Simon Cowell of the operation. You can't have the show without him. Yeah.

What I'm hearing is we need to start a bake-off fantasy league here at the Ringer. Oh, what an idea. We need to start picking some favorites. We need to start really game-of-finding this thing. I know what would happen is I would pick. I would pick, there's always the one person in the show, almost always a guy who week one is like, ooh, you really, how did you get on the show, man? You're like not ready for this.

I'm not ready for this And it's like, okay, I'll go home One guy quit last season Just quit mid-episode That was wild Like it's too much pressure I can't take the tent We've actually talked about a neighborhood

Great British Bake-off Like where we all do a technical challenge Yeah And a couple of the adults You all make a Pavlova or whatever And it would be obviously a disaster Those Those, what are they, the showstopper?

Yes I realize that they're all very experienced bakers. I am not if I just went in cold and had to do a showstopper, they're like, you have to build a cake with four layers and a spinning mobile element and it has to evoke your childhood and it has to have 19 colors and four different sponges and all this, you have four hours. You could give me four years and I would not be able to do what they do.

Four years, you have literally four years. After a year through that, I think I just give up. The pressure cooker alone, I mean, these are elite athletes at the top of their game. You know, they're being brought up from the minor league. of, you know, mostly home cooks and whatnot. But I think if anyone like us attempted it, we would be the James Acaster, like, started it, had a nervous breakdown, Bonapete.

I think there's something here. I think we should go, the Mets season is about to be over, so Mets corner will be over until they either have a lockout or fuck up the off season like they always do. By the way, congrats to Pete Alonzo, 40 home runs again. We could have used all 40 of them. It's great, great season. Guess we just decided having good players on our team is a bad idea for the Mets.

I don't know. It's a revolutionary strategy. Not have good players. have fewer of them. But maybe we need a bake-off corner. All right, Rob Mahoney, thank you, sir. See you next time. Thanks, Zach Lowe's show.

Rob Mahoney, thank you. He's already gone. He already left to do something else. Thanks to Mike, Billy, and Jonathan. As always, on production. And thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lowe show. We'll see you again later this week,

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