The Zach Lowe Show - Part Two: The 10 Players Facing the Most Pressure Next Season

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Zach is once again joined by Kirk Goldsberry as they continue to rank the 10 players under the most pressure next season. They begin by debating Anthony Edwards vs. Tyrese Haliburton, before continuing their rankings and revealing the player they think is facing the most pressure. (0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show! (1:42) Kirk Goldsberry joins the show! (2:18) Anthony Edwards vs. Tyrese Haliburton (8:47) Pressure on Jaylen Brown playing without Tatum? (25:47) Joel Embiid is out of excuses (38:53) The Lakers are Luka’s team now (44:22) Jalen Williams has to be more available than last season Host: Zach Lowe Guest: Kirk Goldsberry Producers: Oscar De La Luz, 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

Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. Save on lunchbox savers like Ziggy's sliced deli-meat products for always $375. And get Life Brand Pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for $8 each. At Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more. Coming up on the Zach Lowe show, it's part two of the pressure rankings with Kurt Goldsbury, where we go through our 10 players facing the most pressure going into the 26-27 NBA season. We've recorded this originally on July 30th with the idea of, just sort of dropping it into the feed while I'm on vacation.

Hopefully nothing huge has happened in the NBA to sort of make this list a little bit less relevant or orderly than it was when we recorded it. Time will tell. I have no idea. But this is part two where we get into our top five players facing the most pressure in the NBA this season. We talk wizards. We talk spurs.

We talk a lot of thunder. We talk calves and we talk sixers, among other things. Celtics come up. Just the players, this is the real deal. These are the players facing the absolute most pressure in our opinion. It's a fun little gimmick for a fun offseason. And we hit a lot of guys and a lot of deep analysis on like, what exactly are the Sixers?

Do we think they can make the finals? Is Janus even on the list as an honorable mention person? If not, what does that say about him? What does it say about the heat? Do we have multiple Thunder players in our respective top fives? We might. Is Wenbanyama here? Jason Tatum left over.

The guy now in Boston again, undisputably with Jalen Brown gone, who's higher on our rankings, Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum. All that is coming up on part two of the Zach Lowe show with Kurt Goldsbury. Hope you enjoy it. Welcome to part two of the Zach Lowe show with Zach Lowe on vacation somewhere in Europe. Kurt Goldsbury is here. It's July 30th. We are doing the NBA player pressure rankings.

The 10 players, each of us pick 10 facing the most pressure in the NBA. this upcoming season. We are going in reverse order from 10 to 1. We did roughly the first half in part one of this podcast and then ended with an Indiana Pacers preview. And actually want to start there, Mr. Goldsberg, because our Tyrese Halliburton discussion got me thinking. Are you ready to talk a little bit more Pacers?

Oh, definitely. Let's go. You said in part one, Tyrese Halliburton could be a first team all NBA player. Why wouldn't it? And I bet that blew some people's hair back a little bit. And I completely agree with you. Now, I would maybe not expect it in a season where he's going to be working his way back from injury. But it brought to mind to me.

I don't know if you got to listen to Bill do the 2020 redraft with Joe House and Kyle Mann a couple of weeks ago. That's Tyree Sal Burton's draft. Yeah. And that's his draft. He went, I believe, would he go 12th in that draft to the Kings? Not sure whatever happened with him in Sacramento. It seems like that should have worked. And Anthony Edwards went number one.

in the redraft, the number one pick is either Anthony Edwards or Tyrese Halliburton. And Bill and House just sort of like no-brainer, it's Anthony Edwards. And Kyle Mann was the only one of the three who was like, I don't know. Like what that dude Halliburton does on offense is so next level special. And it does show up in some of the advanced stats about him that I think it's closer. He said, I think it's closer than you guys do. And look, Ants got the size, the physicality. the ability to bully his way to the rim.

All that makes him a better defensive player than Halliburton is a little bit of a... People are going to pick on him, and he was largely up to it, frankly, in the playoff run. I think what he is on offense is so special that that's... Even right now, having seen Anthony Edwards put up 30 in the playoffs regularly, I think it's a close debate. And I wonder where you would fall, like, are you closer to Kyle Mann or closer to Bill and House? I'm closer to Kyle Mann, and I love all those guys. But I would say, like, you mentioned the 2020 draft. Going back that way, like going back that far, the nerds in practice facilities around the league,

we're flagging this guy as number one, number two, and number three in the draft model. His stats projected so well. Now, that was the hardest draft of our lifetime because people weren't getting to interview. There was a short in college basketball. So it was a disaster. So nobody's getting roasted for their picks in 2020, in my opinion. But I think there were signs that Halliburton was a special. special player going back before his time in the NBA, if you look at the game,

analytically. And then what I'd say is like, this dude still has the ceiling of Steve Nash, one of the best offensive players of the modern era. And I think that ceiling is still, he's what, he's 26 right now, Zach. And his rise has been interrupted by this devastating injury. But I still think at his peak, he could be this generation's Nash, just a guy who, if you have him, your offense is going to cook. and that's really special.

But it's not as cool as it is to watch with Ant Man. It's not as devastating on the highlights. But it's really smart. He creates shots as well as anybody in this league. He's averaged over 10 assists two of the last three years when he's been healthy. And I expect that to just continue to get better. And by the way, he's won three games in the NBA finals as the best player on his team. How many players from his draft class can say that?

he's just he's a better shooter than Anthony Edwards and his combination of just infinite range off the dribble and off the catch unpredictability and speed like his willingness to get off the ball move and get it back you never know where he is or what he's going to do but his teammates know where he is and have a sense of what he's going to do I think it's so powerful in a way that traditional stats will just never

ever other than wins I guess will just never ever pick up and it's a little bit like Nash and I don't say this sacrilegiously. The get off the ball and move, he doesn't relocate like Steph Curry. Nobody has ever relocated like Steph Curry, but there's just a smidge of that, like, wait, where is he?

He's moving over here. He's cutting over here. And sometimes he cuts to pass instead of to shoot threes. He cuts into the paint in a way that you don't expect. I think all that, that whole package offensively with his next, next level vision, making the pass that the defense doesn't see or doesn't expect him to make outthinking the defense by, you know, being ahead of their

rotations by one or two passes, basically. I think that stuff is so special that I don't know, man, I'd have to think a little harder about that choice. Okay, let's go back to the pressure player draft. I got through, we did our first half. I picked from 10 to 6, Reed Shepard, Emmanuel Quickly, Palo Bancaro, Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler, And then you, among your first, what, five guys, had Jason Tatum, Chet Holmgren, and Deeran Fox, all of whom were in my top five. You also picked Donovan Mitchell and somebody who I am forgetting.

Lamello Ball. Lamello Ball, because I'm on vacation. Can you believe this? Wait, quick question for the listeners. Here in on vacation. Yes, quick question. A lot of listeners are interested in what your bathing suit choice is when you're in Europe, because there's a lot of pressure to wear sort of a more revealing,

look when you're on the beaches of Croatia. A lot of your listeners have been texting me and saying, is he a board shorts guy? Is he a Speedo guy? What's the deal? What are board shorts? Yeah, like the west. They almost look like basketball shorts, but they're trunks. A lot of

made popular by a lot of surfers on the west coast of the United States. Look, I'm not going to reveal any of this, but just like I wear, the trunks are closer to what I wear. Unless I swim, like I swim for exercise. But there's no speedo in my life. Okay, let's just make that clear right off the bat.

But that's more than anyone really wants to know. But I do swim every day in Croatia. I swim back and forth and back and forth across this bay that we stay on. Anyway, it's great. It's the best. So I don't know where you are on your list, but you picked the next guy. Well, remember I had Walker Kessler at number five. So it was your number six.

Yeah. So I can go to number four or we can go start with year number five. Why don't my number five was Jason Tatum, so it's already taken. So you go, you go number, you start with your number four. I still have a few honorable mentions. I haven't mentioned because I think you might have them. So you go. Jalen Brown, number four.

Okay. So on my honorable mentions, I just wrote Sixers because I could make a case for Vijay Edgecombe. Hey, welcome to being a fifth option sometimes. Not every time because everyone's going to sit. LeBron James, you're the new guy, Tyrese Maxie. You're the alpha kind of. Sometimes Joel Embed, can you stay healthy? But you are choosing Jalen Brown.

So go ahead. Well, as we talked about on the previous version of this, I think Jalen Brown, I think your term was he was the breakout star, or the star of the offseason, something like that. He's gotten a lot of attention. You know, he talked a lot before the trade and the run-up to the trade. things he said after the season was over, doesn't exactly rub everybody the right way.

But ultimately he has an incredible, I told you so opportunity. He can make advanced stats guys like me look foolish. He can make Brad Stevens look foolish. He can look over at his old friend and comrade Jason Tatum and say, I told you so, you need me. I'm the finals MVP from that team. And if it doesn't work,

I think there is that in reverse where all these same communities will point it back at him. So that's where I land on him being one of the more high pressure individuals coming into this season. I think there's a lot of, I told you so, potential with Jalen Brown one way or the other. It's going to be theater every night, the Sixers. Part of the theater is going to be opening your little playbill and seeing whose understudies are playing what understudies are in the cast today. because Joel Embed can't make it and LeBron James can't make it and whatever. But there is a puzzle to solve with all five of those mouse defeat on offense. I am on record as saying I'm a little less worried about that than most people seem to be.

I think all these guys are pretty malleable and pretty smart. Maxi is a sensational sort of hybrid sometimes on balls, sometimes off ball player. LeBron's a genius. Embed's going to be an out of the lineup. The whole team comes down to Embed to me more than Jalen Brown. but he is the sort of most interesting guy. He's one of the new guys with LeBron, but he's coming from a decade, basically,

on an arch rival team where he was either the number two or last season, number one with a bullet option, who plays sort of a head-down physical driving game, a less intuitive ball mover, passer than LeBron, Maxie, and even Edgecombe, and is going to have to figure out how to keep that physicality in his game

without playing exactly the way he did last year because he's got all this other talent around him. I think it's going to work. I think there's enough pick and roll combinations and spacing and smarts on the team to make it work. But he and MB are the lynch pins to me for this team hitting its ceiling. And by the way, and no one's talking about their defense.

I've mentioned this a lot. I think that's actually a bigger question to me than their offense. But they're not done filling out their team yet. KCP hasn't officially signed as we're recording this again on July 30th. there'll be other ring chasers that come aboard at some point. But this is the early favorite to when I do my league pass rankings and I do my whole formula for it, I wonder if they're going to have enough to unseed the Spurs who were the

league pass rankings winners before last season. And obviously I have won binaum. Like, Philly's got some, Philly's got some internal obstacles to be number one at the league past rankings. Let's put it that way. internal broadcast related obstacles. Oh, they will be on national TV a lot, at least. Oh, wow.

As David Brinkley would say, I'll let that one hang in the air, folks. I'll say this. I've talked about their defense. I think that's the reason I'm not going to pick them to even win the Eastern Conference, Sacklow. I think their defense is a giant red flag. And I don't think that has much to do with Jalen Brown, who might be the best defender on the team, who guarded Luke Godinjic. But here's what I would say in Jailen's defense.

He's a really smart basketball player. And when he won finals MVP, that team had Drew Holiday, Jason Tatum, Christophers, Porzingis occasionally, Al Horford. There was talent all over the place. Occasionally. Occasionally. I don't want to misrepresent the finals run. But he has figured out how to be Jalen Brown at a very high level and score 20 points

a game surrounded by great other offensive options. I think when you look at last year when the Celtics overperformed, he completely changed. what Jalen Brown meant in a really impressive way. In some ways, I think he regresses back to that when the Celtics were stacked with all that offensive firepower and one at all. I have very little concern about that. It's the off-court circus stuff with this team that I think he could get caught up in. There could be some weird vibes in Philadelphia with something with M.B., LeBron, Jailon Brown. That's a lot of personalities in one locker room and one plane.

But he has a lot of pressure because of what we just saw this summer during Bill's colonoscopy, which I was honored to be on the colonoscopy podcast, by the way. That was a great pod. Gail and Brian, I averaged 29 a game last year. The two seasons before that were 22 and 23. That seems like that's reasonable. That's a player who was in a second option, sometimes first option when Tatum is on the bench roll. that's kind of what you end up with.

Now, Mbid is a 30 point a game score. Max, he's almost a 30 point a game score. LeBron is still a 20 point a game score. Maybe he dips down to 15, 16, 18. You don't have a lot of teams where four guys average 20 points a game, and that's before you even get to Edgecombe. So is there a world where Jalen Brown averages between 19 and 21? Yeah.

And to me, winning cures everything, and you get all the credit and all the publicity. if you average 21 a game but your defense is better, your passing is better. All the love comes to you either way, but it's going to be, it's just going to be an awesome, awesome experience to watch this team both figure it out and then the times that they do, they're going to look amazing. And it's going to make league pass a little bit better. Number four on my pressure player list, Anthony Davis.

Yeah. On your list at all? He is definitely on my list. I forget the number. Keep going. I'll get the update. Not that anybody cares. It's easy to dismiss this pick as Anthony Davis plays for the Washington Wizards.

And I don't think there's a ton of pressure on the Wizards to do much of anything this year. Maybe be competitive, fill the arena a little bit more so it's not two-thirds empty and quiet. I will say, you know, this is a top 75 all-time NBA player that feels in dire need of another sort of signature moment, season, whatever. ever in his career. Anthony Davis, since the bubble has played, and the bubble was a championship, has played 36, 40, 56, 76, 51, and 20 games. He's been out of the first round in the playoffs three times in his entire career. 2018, when the Pelicans dismantled the Blazers and then lost in the next round.

The 2020 bubble when the Lakers won the title. And 2023 when they advanced to the Western Conference finals and got, slugged by the Never Nuggets who ended up winning the title. And now he's on the Wizards after being traded weirdly to the Mavericks. We don't need to rehash that. And playing like a few games,

it seems like, I mean, do you remember anything that Anthony Davis did on the Mavericks other than the first half that he played? Yeah, the first half of game won. The greatest half in the NBA history. This is why we did the trade. Is everyone seen this is it? Wait, wait till we get that back.

Oh, he's on the Wizards now. It just feels like we talk. Talk about Anthony Davis. Like, he's at the end of his career. Like, this is the end of the road for him. He is 32. 33 years old. There's a lot of basketball left here.

He's still one of the best defensive players in the league. I don't know how this is going to work with him and Sarr, whatever. Offensively, he's still very good, not quite to sort of give me the ball and let me score kind of player that people want him to be. His jumper has not, his jumper, he left it in the Orlando bubble. It's never been the same. I just like, again, pressure, this may be high for him, just feels like there's got to be a late career something here for him.

This is Anthony freaking Davis, man. Like it's time, it's something, whether it's in Washington or he gets traded, there's the contract extension thing. It feels like an important year for Anthony Davis. I love this pick for you. He was honorable mention for me. I have one of his teammates.

I won't spoil it. But I think I'm not sure there is a late, career relevant moment for this dude. I think the combination of his availability or lack their of and his money makes him a pretty risky acquisition in the time of the second apron and how we know what aging curves look like for old Biggs with injury history. We're talking about a 33-year-old big. I disagree that he's top 75 of all time, by the way. I'm just saying he was on the list. I know. Let's do a visual one. Not on the list. your friend and mine from Argentina.

I had a ballot, actually. I need to go back and make sure. I don't know if I don't want to say if Manu was on my ballot or not because I'm not 100% sure. He better have been. He's going to send you a mean text message. I think Anthony Davis is a fascinating player to watch. You talk about League Pass. I'm going to be watching this team all the time.

I still think they could be good. If this guy... Let me just stop for a second. That's the first time in 15 years. anyone has said anything like that about the Washington. Even Joe House wouldn't say, I'm going to be watching this team all the time. Well,

I think it's going to be great. And I think there's five guys that I can't wait to watch. There are guards in Summer League who aren't AJ DeBonsa look great. And then you had Trey Young, you had Anthony Davis. And what I was going to say about AD is if he's able to channel the skepticism that I'm sort of throwing at him right now, if he's able to channel the fact that he's pissed off

and in Washington and wearing this wizard's jersey, he's still a very, very good player. And in a world where all of this lands, where Trey Young plays well, the Wizards could be really good with these young guys and then these vets who know how to play. So I can't wait to watch it.

And yeah, I've not watched a lot of Wizards games on League Pass with a great deal of enthusiasm. They're usually the game that I sit down in the Central Time Zone. It starts at 6 p.m. And I'm excited that there's a game on already. And it's the Wizards playing. and then the hornets or whatever, and I watch it.

But this time I'll be like, oh, my God. Like, I get to watch the number one pick in the freaking draft and these two vets that are trying to salvage what's where they are in their career. So I have the other guy on my list, but I like this pick for you because I do think he has a lot of pressure. I just like, it can't end like this for Anthony Davis. It can't end like the last two seasons have been. There needs to be something of significance.

There needs to be a moment in a real. playoff series where he's involved. First team, All-N-BA four times, second team one time. So five times All-N-Ba, ten-time All-Star, top three in MVP voting only once in 2018 when James Hardin won. He was third. It just can't end like this. Okay, make your next pick. That's, I'm done with Anthony Davis.

By the way, I share your excitement about the Wizards. Beyond DeBanza, Trey, Trey Young and AD, you got Trey Johnson, Keishon George, etc. A ringer field trip. where Joe House takes us to a wizard's game and we, you know, celebrate this moment in wizard's history. And have a good dinner afterwards, surely. You hear that, Joe House.

So what are we up? What number are we up to for you? I am on number three, and it is Trey Young, so it's perfect. It's perfect. We can zoom through this because it's Trey Young. I was going to pick one of the wizards. I didn't feel like we wanted to need to, but you just got dumped by the Atlanta Hawks years after you built this reputation as a postseason killer,

now you wake up in a wizard's uniform with a huge, huge four-year deal hanging on your brand for those who don't follow it as closely. For your 252, is that right, Zach? I'm not going to do the math right now because I'm on vacation, but kind of. I'm both working and on vacation on this podcast. It's magic, but something like that.

But I would say Tray Young is a fork in the road. And look, the optimistic path here is that he works well with AD. They both lean into this. They become mentors to these young guys. It's a perfect blend. They win 49 or 50 games. Like, again, that's a ceiling. But this could be a really good story in the NBA.

Or I can see a world where they win 27 games. Everybody's injured all the time. The vibes are awkward. And now he's the worst contract in the Bill Simmons, Joe House. Waws. Big Waz. Big Waz. So this contract puts a lot of pressure on Trey Young, and that's why he's so high. So I said in the last episode, there's multiple kinds of pressure. I think Trey Young has a unique blend of legacy pressure right here and this huge four-year max contract for a player that doesn't play a lot of defense.

So he has contract pressure on there, too, Zach Lowe. I mean, he was in my honorable mention because I didn't want to pick two wizards. We did it anyway, sorry. No, that's great. I mean, it's, but the contract is currently not tradable. Like, and I'm not talking about by the rules, which it is. I'm just talking about like no one would trade for it right now without being massively incentivized. Totally fair.

In extending him, in resigning him to that deal, it made me wonder about Anthony Davis, who has a $63 million player option for next season, which obviously gives him some amount of leverage over the Wizards. you know, in terms of just like, hey, I'll either opt into that or you've got to take care of me with some sort of extension. Yeah, you're not going to pay me starting at $63 million, but, you know, $3.150, something like that. And I just don't think the Wizards should be in a state where they're paying Tray Young and Anthony Davis over $100 million combined. It just doesn't seem to make sense long term, medium term, beyond this year, really for them. So it made me wonder when they signed Tray, what does that mean for Anthony Davis? Is he just not long? for this team one way or another. Trey is because there's no one taking that contract right now. And it's just going to be very interesting to see. You know, I talked about this with Bill. Like,

Trey's kind of like talked a lot this offseason about how, oh, people don't think I can play off the ball. Like, I find that funny. Like, we just wait and watch me. And I'm like, okay, I would love to. I would love to watch you because, like, you really don't play off the ball that much. You're off the ball play is usually just standing around at half court. And spacing the floor, that way it has value.

like his defenders close to him, whatever. Are you going to set some screens for AJ DeBanza? Because he needs some. Like, he needs some reps on the ball right now. He's that good. He's that physical on the pick and roll. Are you going to move? Are you going to run around?

Relocate? Because if we get some hybrid between on ball, Tray Young, who is very, very good, the single most underrated passer in the NBA. But also, not nearly as good of a three-point shooter as he seems to think he is or his reputation is. He's fine. He takes super difficult shot. shots. Floater is a good shot, but not a great one the last couple of years, like it was

when they got to the conference finals. Rim finishing is eh, and defense is eh. Is there a hybrid version where we see that on-ball force that's still there mixed with, all right, other people can do stuff here, because if so, this becomes a very watchable team. So he was, he belongs in this draft, so I'm glad that you drafted him. Yeah, I'm glad I did too. The last thing I'd add is like, I think the Atlanta surge immediately after trading him did not do a lot for his brand. So he also, and I continue to hear from people I trust like you that, dude, Atlanta's getting better. Atlanta's getting better. They had another nice offseason.

If it's true that the Hawks are going to be up there in the top half of the East for years to come, I think that's something that Trey has to answer for in this wizard's era too. Get your tickets now for the dog stars. It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear. Go! Out there, just kill or be killed. Jacob Allorty. There are people out there?

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In theaters, August 28th. Get tickets now. So I only have one guy left on my list. I only have my number one most pressure-facing player in the NBA. why don't you go, you're at your number two guy, right? So I'll just let you go on. I think I know that you don't have this guy so we can zoom through it. And I think it's Joelle and Bede is my number two.

And it's time. We've trusted the process for so many years now. And now the king has arrived in town. This is Sam Hinkie's vision. It's been realized we have Joel and Bid, Jalen Brown, finals MVP, LeBron James, finals MVP, VJ Edgecombe, Tyrese Max, All-Star Rising, superstar. If Joelle Embed can have a very good season, this team can win the championship.

If he falls apart, I think their ceiling immediately does too. I think if there's a weakness in this team, it's in the front court beyond LeBron and Joelle Embed, particularly beyond Joelle Embed. So he needs to be available. I don't think he needs to play 35 minutes a game, which is nice. I don't think he needs to play back-to-backs against Charlotte. or against New Orleans, I think they can find games to rest him at. I think he can play 54 games in the regular season. I think he can miss playoff games if he needs to in the first round.

But dude, this is the moment. This is the moment for Joel Embed to prove that he is an all-time grade. This is the season. It's all laid out. Are you going to be an NBA champion or not? This is your last best chance, Joel and Bid. Wow. That was great.

the miss playoff games thing is very interesting because I don't think this team is a championship team without Joel Embed. Right. Playing most of your meaningful basketball games. And maybe that's 24 minutes instead of 36 minutes and you go out and get a backup five. Who's better than what you have on the roster now somewhere, somehow? Maybe. I do think as good as the East is, I mean, basketball. basketball is a weird game. You can steal a game here and there.

You know, VJ. Hickleman has 35. You get you forced 22 turnovers. Like there are ways to win high level playoff games without Joel Embed now that you have these other four guys on the team. And I just think that's what's going to have to happen if this is a team that's actually going to make the finals, let alone win the finals is they're going to have to win. Forget the regular season. We know what's going to happen. He's going to play whatever amount of games he plays that's short. of 65 for sure, and they're going to do everything to preserve his knees for the playoffs. And his knees are now sort of a chronically problematic thing. And you mix those with all the freak injuries and the appendicitis this time around. It's like, what can this guy catch a break?

Forget the regular season. The playoffs, I have said it a million times. I have no faith that he will ever be able to play every single playoff game of a three to four series playoff run. It's just not going to happen. I have no faith that it's going to have. happen. You have to actually build your team as if, you know, let's say it takes 24 playoff games for you to win the championship. You have to build your team optimistically that Joel

NB plays 18 of them. And just you find a way to go three and three in the six that he misses and then dominate the 18 that he plays something like that. And I think this is the closest facsimile to that that there is. And so, yeah, if you're Joel Embed, you have to do everything possible. and there's been reporting. I don't know if it was Ramona Shelburne or Dave McMahon, forgive me whichever it was, about how Embed be reassured LeBron during the recruitment process.

Like, I will do everything I can to get in the best shape I've ever been in, to give myself the best chance at going 18 out of 24, whatever it is in the playoffs. So that's part of it. Luck is part of it. And just in those 18 games, he's got to be a fucking dominant force on both ends of the floor in a way that I'm not sure he still has it in him.

defensively, but offensively, he for sure does. But I will say this whole like, well, now is the time language. Like I'm looking at Ramona's piece about Embed in LeBron from last week. And here's a quote from an anonymous NBA coach. I don't know why we need anonymous people to say these things, but we just say we do. The process is over. This needs to be the product. It's a clever use of process product. The process is over. This needs to be the product. They need to finish this thing. The Sixers have done this. for a long time with Embed and its go time. You could apply that quote to like the last seven Philadelphia 76 received.

Like it's been time for a while now. And I get that this team is like the latest, sexiest, coolest version of a team that's had Jimmy Butler and JJ Reddick and Ben Simmons and whatever else on the team. But I agree. M.B. belongs on this list. And look, when he has been at his best and I'm not,

I mean, we even saw it for glimpses against the Celtics when he just decided. in a couple of games, I'm going to beat the shit out of Nikola Vuccivich and Luca Garza and Nimi Kada. I'm fouling you all out of the game and I'm putting you in the basket. There's nothing like it in the NBA. There's nothing like the combination of force

and touch and skill and dominance from the foul line, the block. There's just nothing like it, footwork, all of it. And I just hope we get to see it again. So he's number two on your list. So we are down. Do you have any closing MB thoughts? you got to win 16 games, as you just drew out there perfectly, to win an NBA title. Joel Embed has never played more than 11 postseason games than a single postseason.

You got to win 16. He's played 490 games in 12 years as an NBA player. That's about 40 games per year. It's just the biggest reason for it is, I hate to say it, it's boring, but yeah, his body just breaks. And yeah, the defense isn't going to be great in Philadelphia, especially if he's not there. I think the rebounding becomes a giant red flag in a world where LeBron's playing the five, trying to get rebounds against Jalen Duren and these types of people night in and night out.

I hate to say it, but yeah, there's reason for skepticism just because Jewel and won't stay on the floor and they won't get rebounds and get stops because of that. Okay. We are down to our number one player on our pressure players list, each of us. We don't know who it is. I'm going to guess it's not the same person. However, I have two honorable mentions left that I haven't mentioned yet on either part one or this one. Out of fear that perhaps they were going to be on your list.

I am going to start with Carl Anthony Towns, who I don't think is number one on your list. No. He's on the list for me, honorable mention, only because, and again, we are recording this on July 30th. I have no idea when it's going to post probably in a 10 days, two weeks. This could all be moot. As of right now, he has a $61 million player option for 2007, 28. The same year, by the way, the Knicks have a $22 million team option on Josh Hart. The year before, I'm sorry, the next year, 28, 29 is when Jalen Brunson's presumed

Superbacks will kick in after the discount that he took the first time around. Carl Anthony Towns has been eligible for an extension, I think, for a year, and there hasn't been one done. And I'm sure the Knicks have major second apron concerns with Brunson's deal down the line, Hart, they're going to have to bring back one way or another. I'm just very interested to see how those negotiations go. And he had an unbelievable playoff run before getting into some foul trouble against the spurs in the last few games of the finals. But they don't win the title without him. He's a legend in New York forever.

sure he'll want to finish his career in New York. I'm just interested to see how I would be optimistic that a deal gets done. I'm just curious to see what the number is and when it gets done because if he goes into the season without it, for better or worse, that's going to be a talking point all the time. So he was in my honorable mention. I'm ready for my. Can I get a riff on this just for a minute? Because I've been studying the apron all summer.

And look, we're talking about a Celtics team, the one at all and got dismantled. We're talking about Sam Presti going to the microphones and being like, I have a had to do this because of the apron. Sorry, Lou Dors, sorry Aaron Wiggins. The New York Knicks are up on the chopping buck. This is what the second apron does. And James Dolan, minutes or days after the parade in New York City said, you'd have to be suicidal, quote, to go into the second apron in this league. So unfortunately, the New York Knicks are next up on the austerity measures in the NBA. This is congratulations. You want a title, now dismantle it. I mean, I just did for the sake of my own thought exercise projecting their books for 28, 29.

They should be fairly safe from the second apron in 27, 28, depending on what they do with Josh Hart and what Kat's number is. I just penciled in his player option number. 28, 29, if Brunson gets the full max, 35% max, that's starting his salary at $66 million. I penciled in Kat at 55. I gave Josh Hart a modest bump up to 25. I had OGN and OBB turning down his player option and resigning for three years, $120 million. That might be optimistic from the next perspective. And I guaranteed the full amounts for Shamette, Alvarado, and Diawara,

who are all partially guaranteed for that year. And that put them almost at $250 million right at the second apron for nine players. And I didn't bring back Tyler Kulak. So it's going to be, the math is going to be. tough. Like, it's just going to be really tough starting in that season. By design. My other honorable mention, and I wonder if he is number one on your list, is Janus at Tentacumpo. Oh, no, he was in my honorable mentions. I thought he might be, yeah. Okay. So, yeah, no, he's not on my number one. I think we have the same player. Does this mean we have the same player? We'll see. Don't,

don't say it yet. It's interesting that after all of the drama, all the trade rumors, all the back and forth, all the Miami, Boston, Jalen, Brown, Hugo Gonzalez, all of it, that he's not, that he's just honorable mention for both of us and not the number one most pressure player with an extension coming to him, presumably, in October. Maybe that's part of the reason why we presume he's going to get it without a fight, but why do you think he's not higher for us?

I feel like this dude already did what he needed to do. I feel there are some finals MVP, some championships that we've witnessed over the last 10, 20 years doing the Zach Lowe that are just so important to a franchise or to a community, in his case, to a country that he's sort of bad. Like, I don't think he'll have the pressure that some of the other names on the list will ever have because of what he did. He's in the back nine of his career. I don't say he has no pressure.

I just think he's basking on a little bit of a finals MVP. I've won it all in Milwaukee kind of glow. for me it was and I can't emphasize this enough it's July 30th by the time you listen to this maybe the heat have Demar de Rosen and Bradley Beal and Clay Thompson and we're all talking ourselves into those guys being meaningful contributors on a great team I don't know as of right now it was for me being honorable mention only was because of everything you just said and what he's already achieved and honestly just looking at the heat where they are now I just don't think they're good enough. And I don't have, I don't have expectations for them to make the

finals or even maybe the conference. I think there would be a good team. They're going to be a beast defensively. I just don't think they have enough offensive pop right now around Janus and Bam to be a true, true threat to make the finals in the East. That could change. And between me saying these words and when this podcast airs, God only knows what will happen. Yeah. That's just as of now. So that's why he wasn't hired. Yeah, that's interesting. If he'd gone to Boston, I think he would have made my list. That hadn't occurred to me. But I don't have high expectations for this heat squad, sorry, Miami, in a way that if he had gone to Boston, I would have been like, oh, okay, Tatum and Janus, Janus better show up. But yeah, I think that's, that's right. It's the combination

of his achievement and then the relatively meager expectations for the Miami Heat. Okay, now it's time for the reveal. We both have the same, we both have not revealed our number one player yet. You are suspecting it's going to be the same player. I'm, I guess my process of elimination, maybe I think so too, but I'm not in time. I'm going to say it's not the same player. I assume yours is also Hugo Gonzalez. You have number one facing the most pressure in the NBA? Yeah, that's right. It was Geris Walker or Hugo Gonzalez. Now, I went with a different player. All right. Tell me, who is number one on the Kurt Goldsbury player pressure rankings for the 26, 27 NBA season.

It's a man who hails from the same country as the Tour de France winner. Luca Donchich is my selection for the number. First of all, we don't have the same player. Second of all, I could not name, I can't name one cyclist. There is a cyclist from Slovenia who just won the Tour of France, and you're aware of this? Yeah, well, I was watching. It's one of the fun things to watch in the summer.

In the mornings, you turn it on, they're racing. their bikes. The Peloton is going through these beautiful mountain villages and Pogacar, I think is his name, the Slovenian cyclists, who is now the most dominant cyclist of the modern era. But shares a home country with Luca Dachich. The Slovenian mountains are an incredible place to learn how to ride a bike, apparently. I love this pick. I did not have it. Okay. I didn't even have him in my honorable mention. I had In part one, we talked about Walker Kessler. He was on both of our lists.

I don't know why that is. It's striking me. And I was like, I don't really have a good reason for why I didn't even consider him for this. I mean, I know what he's going to bring to the table. He's going to be amazing. I also know that I don't think the Lakers are good enough to make the finals. Maybe it's a combination of that. But this is a great pick.

And I want you to make the case. The case is the giant celestial body of the NBA name. LeBron James has left Los Angeles. had gone to Philadelphia, and that puts this out, the Lakers are now Luca Donchich's team. And I think he is the face of the franchise in the NBA. So whoever is the center field or the Yankees or whatever, that's the equivalent in the NBA. You're the face of the Lakers. First of all, that just comes with immense pressure.

We're talking about George, Mike, and Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe. Like, this is a big, big expectation when those types of people are coming to watch your games. I think he pushed a lot for Walker Kessler. I think he has his fingerprints on this next iteration of the Lakers. Last year, he famously played 64 games. And my biggest concern for him is actually just his well-being, physically being able to stay healthy. He's one of the guys that we're looking at with repeated hamstring and calf injuries in the NBA. But if he stays healthy, there's an expectation there are top three, four team in the Western Conference.

right, Zach? And if it doesn't happen, like, Lakers fans will get pissed off. And that just carries a lot more weight when you're in Los Angeles as the star player than any other team in the league. I do think they're a good team, to be clear, despite the fact that, you know, I thought the Walker Kessler move was an overreach. I think he'll work well there. We covered that in part one and in other episodes. Grimes, Mamu, Sexton, they all fit certain roles. No idea who the fifth starter is at this point. But they're going to, they're going to be an awesome offensive team. Reeves is back, obviously. saying. Defensively, I'm not really sure what their ceiling is, but their offense is going to be amazing as long as Luca plays a representative amount of games. And I do agree with you. Like, I think

right now on paper, they're a top six team in the West. You could argue that the top six from last year, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Lakers, Rockets, Wolves should again be the top six. I think Utah is going to have something to say about that. But I think the Lakers will be

a non-play in top six team, which makes three, four, five, whatever. or like eminently attainable for them. It's a great pick because they remade the team in his image. He is going to be a Laker for the foreseeable future, although he's going to have some extension leverage fairly soon. He has a player option in 28, 29. It's going to be interesting to see how many games he can play.

And again, like Bill has talked about this a lot. He's never finished first or second in MVP. voting and it feels like he would be and he's only 27 years old. So like let's all chill on it. But like he'd be on course to be in the conversation for best player to never win regular season MVP. He's already been to the finals. He's been a dominant playoff player.

People are scared to death to face him in the postseason. He has an answer for every defense you can throw at him. He's a genius. He just hasn't had like the regular season of regular seasons yet despite being multiple times the odds on favorite going into the season to win the MVP. Now he faces an uphill battle every year against, you know, Shea and Wembe going forward and Yokic. So, you know, we'll see. But I think it's a great pick. I didn't think of it. The last year he was healthy. He won the scoring title, was third in MVP voting, and his team won the West. Like, and he was 24.

So I think it's fair to have high expectations for this guy to come, come back and get something special done, but like there's a lot of pressure. There was always going to be pressure on Luca Donch at today's 27. The fact that it's happening now in Los Angeles in a world without LeBron James makes him my highest pressure guy in the whole league this year. But you obviously have a different answer, Zach Lowe. Well, first of all, we are, we are a year removed from the men's health cover of Luka? Like, that was a monumental moment in Luca history.

And he was in better shape last year. And he still missed time with like, he was including in the playoffs. And so, you know, just have to, this was obviously the Maverick sphere when they made an objectively insane trade. Can you do you want, I'll give me three guesses to guess who's number one on my list. It's both an obvious pick and a boring, not obvious pick. But when you're here, you're going to be like, oh, duh, that's kind of boring. But I'll give me three guesses. Can you pick out who it is?

It's not a sixer, right? We can use contact clues. Not a sixer. I'm not going to count that as one of your guesses. People on my list that I haven't encountered yet. I have to start with Zion Williamson. No. Evan Mowgli?

No, I disqualify. I've mentioned in part one that I have Mowgli, Harden, Mitchell, all an honorable mention. So I'll give you a Mulligan for that one. Oh, my God. This is embarrassing for us, I think. It's not embarrassing. It's going to be anti-climatic, unfortunately. It's not Franz Vos.

Oh, is it SGA? No, but you have the right team. I had J-Dub on my honorable mentions. It's J-Dub. It's J-D-L-Wil and Williams. And it's a Duff. pick because like yeah obviously his health is a major factor for them i just like his health is this his hamstring he couldn't get over it last year he came back then he heard his wrist and the hamstring kept

flaring up over and over again couldn't play until the end of the playoffs um this dude was like putting up monstrous games in the NBA finals including a 40 point game i think in game five of the finals he's had some huge playoff games along the way for the third thunder and now there's no Dort there is no Wiggins there's no Joe and his availability is now essential for them this is no longer

like we can sort of try this round by to game seven against the spurs with J-dub not playing he is the door sort of leaves the small ball power forward hole behind him that now they need Jalen Williams to to fill that hole among others and he's just an awesome, awesome player

who's lost last season I thought was just almost under-discust because he's that good. He was legitimate all-N-B-A player and their depth is a little, not quite as A-plus as it was last year. They've lost some size. Chet, we both had Chet on our list.

He's sort of an offensive question mark, to say the least. The competition around them, particularly in San Antonio, is only going to get better. They need not even two years ago, Jalen Williams. need an even better version of that, like, hey, is this guy a top 12 player, two-way player, Jalen Williams, to win the championship again? And by the way, those are the stakes. Like the

Thunder won one title and everybody went crazy and said the league is over. They're going to dominate the league forever. Oh, my God. What is everybody going to do? And it just doesn't work that way. It's really hard to win a title. No one has repeated in eight years. The Knicks will now be facing that challenge. And the Thunder, like, there's a universe in which this era as well set up as it's been, it's there as well constructed as any team in the history of the NBA, as well built as any team in the history of sports from sort of a GM perspective. There's a world where they only win one title. And I don't think that's the world we're going to live in. I think there's more to be had here. But for them to get there, they need this guy to come back and play at full

ability. You mentioned Shea. I know what Shea is. She's a metronome. He's a metronome. He's going to going to be amazing. Basically all, there's a little up and down in the conference finals and then showed out in game seven. I know what the rest of these players are plus or minus. Like I think Case and Wallace probably as a leap to make, the rookies will see. I think he was number, I contemplated not putting him in number one because it's like, duh, he's got to stay healthy.

But I just think he's in, he and Chet together are like number one. Yeah, I think that's right. And I would say as much of a Spurs guy as I am, like, if he were healthy, the conference finals would have been a different situation. His inability to play in those games was huge. Even when he tried to play,

clearly wasn't himself. I think that's a, he's one of the most impactful sort of forks in the road to the whole Western conference. I think him and Chet, I think that is right.

I think calling Chey and Metronome, by the way, write that down. That's beautiful, perfectly said. But these other two guys, Do you have a big three? Because it didn't feel like you had a big three in the Western Conference finals. Like, we all thought this was going to be a big three. And I think ultimately we're hovering around the same point.

If the Thunder are going to do what they think they're going to do, those two guys need to be either available or better in the case of Chet when it matters most. And they weren't this year. And we saw the changing of the Guard in the Western Conference. They will open the season as betting favorites, right, to come out of the West Zeklo. I don't know. I think the Spurs might. I mean, the Spurs had a championship odds.

last time I checked. Really? I mean, it's a, it's a dumb, this is a dumb pick in the sense that he does not have the kind of like legacy pressure that we would normally, that we would put on a guy like, you know, Embed for instance, who you just talked about. Like, he's already won a championship. He was the second best player on the title team. He's made an all-MBA team.

He scored 40 points on 14 of 25 shooting in game five of the NBA finals to put his team up, to put his team up three, two. he scored 34 points on 13 of 24 shooting in game 4 against the wolves in the conference finals to put the Thunder up 3-1. Like this guy has done it. Mike is sending us finals odds right now. What do we have here? The Thunder, you're right, R plus 230 to win the NBA title, according to Fandula, I assume the Spurs are plus 270s. So I was wrong.

They would be, I've said this already. As of now, they would be my pick to win the NBA championship. The Oklahoma City Thunder would be, but it ain't going to be easy. and it depends on this guy being, like, after in games three to five of the finals, 26 points on 9 of 18, 27 points on 8 of 18, 40 points on 14 to 25, there was like a real, oh, is he going to steal finals MVP from Shea kind of conversation? Like, that's how good this dude is. And it's defense too.

It's size, defense, rebounding, transition play. It's all of it. So in a way, the pressure, the traditional way we talk about pressure doesn't really apply to him because of what he's already accomplished, but just the sort of pressure of this era delivering whatever one thinks it should or thought it should deliver to the Thunder kind of rides on him.

It falls on these two guys below Shea because I do think Shay is as reliable as it gets as a superstar. And to this point, knock on wood, he has been a very healthy performer in his rise to the MVP. But yeah, I think the fact that the Thunder are betting favorites is interesting.

I think baked in to that is we're getting J-dub. And as soon as he's out, the spurs are a better pick. We saw that in the Western Congress finals. Kurt Goldsbury, this was super fun. Thank you for indulging me on a super long two-part podcast recorded. Again, on July 30th, by the time you listened to this, I could be swimming in the Adriatic Sea. One last thing. Give us, what are the two things you're most looking forward to in your vacation? All right. Let's leave Croatia out of it because I go there every year and I look forward to the same things.

We're going to stop in Estonia for a day in Tallinn, which I'm very excited to see. And I guess, I guess, I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't want to say too much. I think some good restaurants. How about that? We're going to do a couple good, good restaurant cities. I don't ask for much in life. The Adriatic, I mean, not counting the freaking Adriatic Sea, which is a.

magical potion in the summertime. I mean, that's incredible. It's the best. I can't wait to be swimming. You know, I get to play, you know, my daughter and I will throw the water polo ball around in the water. We'll do all that kind of stuff. I'll go to see, there's a place they cut.

There's an island called Shippon, which they have now nicknamed water polo island, because Croatia is one of the best water polo countries in the world. And Tony Acevedo, who's the greatest American water pole player ever and one of the best ever period, played profession. in Croatia. He comes every year and hosts like an all-star camp for high school kids. And they take like this pirate ship from Dubrovnik to this island and Shepan like an hour away. And he has invited us to go in the past. And it's just they play water polo. The high school kids play from America play water polo against Croatian, sometimes adults, sometimes high school

kids in the open water. And you can like go, you can watch from a boat. You can swim out and watch. It's like absolutely glorious. Look up Water Polo Island. It's like unbelievable. That sounds great. Enjoy it. Well, there's multiple. There's like four Olympians on the boat with you and are like, what life is this? Like these things are freaking Olympians. And as we said before the podcast, Mario Hizonia could be over there. Who knows? He's available. The Mario Hizonia saga could still be ongoing as when I come back from vacation. Mr. Goldsbury, thank you, bud. I will see you on the other side. See you, bud. All right, that's it for part two of this two-parter with Kurt Goldsbury.

I hope wherever you are in the world, you enjoyed it. I am in Europe somewhere having a nice vacation. Hopefully nothing crazy has happened in the NBA. It's July 30th as I'm talking to you. Francisco Lindor is still a Met. Hopefully that's the case whenever you are listening to this. And the Mets have actually won some baseball games. Thanks to Kurt Goldsbury for slogging through a two-parter with us.

Thanks to Billy, Oscar, and Mike on production. And thanks, as always, to you all for listening to Indoor watching the Zach Lowe show. 21 or over and President select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over in President D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming, gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800-mine-800-7-7-7-7-7.7 or visit ccpgaggobing.org and Maryland. Hope is here. Visit Gambling helpline, MA.org, or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7sport and message. Massachusetts or call 1-8778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.