Coming up, part two of the Sunday end of the NBA season extravaganza with Brusillo is next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. If you missed part one of the podcast, we put it up earlier today. That was our playoff preview. This is part two. We're going to do a little bit on the Easter Conference and then a lot on the NBA awards. We're going to talk about our ballots and what we're doing. It's all next. First, our friends from project. All right, we're taping part two. Here it is now. 05:00 on Sunday, April 14. What an awesome, awesome sports weekend this was, where we had NBA was crazy on Friday and Sunday. We had the Masters, we had UFC 300. Really, really, really great stuff. Great tv, great, great conversations, great arguments. Hey, Rosillo, I noticed here the, the NBA really seems to be leaning into this. Friday night is Game 81. Sunday is Game 82. We separate the conferences. We're going to try to get some conversation around just everything. I felt like it worked, but I think part of the reason it worked is cause we have so many good teams.

But, you know, yesterday there were no NBA games and it was like, this is weird, but I kind of liked how it set up. Like, I like the Black Swan Spurs Nuggets game we talked about in part one, leading to all these things that happen on Sunday and having time to figure out all the different variables. I thought it was successful. Did you notice that or am I, am I overthinking it?

No. I mean, I definitely noticed it, but I thought, okay, that's kind of great because there's still so much that's on the line. And then you wondered, like in game, and there were certain things that were happening this week where I was like, okay, so if the Dallas Mavericks feel like the Clippers are going to beat Utah, then they're not going to play anybody. And granted, as great as Lucas been, I think there's one moment every game where you're like, is he hurt? And then he has like 4012 and 13 and you're like, I guess. I guess he's okay. I just, I like that everybody got a reset. You know, it wasn't going to be fair for everybody with the travel and home and away and that kind of stuff. But for the Saturday reset, I loved it because Friday night was great.

I thought it was great. Two east things to talk about and then we're going to dive into our NBA awards. Just stuff that we didn't get to sneak into part one. Number one is Orlando. Our producer Steve Cerutis favorite team now playing Cleveland in the four five in a 2009 Eastern Conference finals rematch. The Howard LeBron. When Dwight Howard got the best of a LeBron team, he can always take that to his grave. They were two two for the series. There's a bunch of fun storylines with this because is Orlando going to be the happy to be their team or is there really something here? What the hell is going on with the Cavs? I think all of us feel like this is probably Mitchell's last season. There's just been too much buzz. And as we've learned over the years with the NBA, always trust the smoke when it's billowing from the building. This is a referendum on Ken Mitchell and Garland play together. There's some Evan Mobley stuff I'm really curious in, in this series. Cause I think they're gonna need him. And then you have this goofy Orlando team that, you know, when, when Franz is being left open by 4ft, that's not awesome.

But yet he'll be like the slash and kick Kavla check. And all of a sudden he looks great.

Really.

It's Paolo creating shots and that's about it for this team. Cleveland has their own. Everything gets stale. This feels like a rock fight of a series. And I think that's good for Orlando. Cause Orlando can dial it up defensively as well as anybody in the league. And I kind of like Orlando. They're plus 148 on Fando to win this series. Cleveland's -184 I kind of like their chances. I think they have better chemistry. I think they're. I trust our identity. And yet his house said when we were talking about it, Mitchell could just kill them in the series and that'll be that hard one to figure out. Where do you stand?

Really hard. Because we know that Mitchell has it in him where he can just go off. And I think all of us that watch that Knicks series last year, you're like, wait, like you guys don't have enough scoring to match the Knicks scoring here. But it was the first time I ever started thinking about is this defense that was so good statistically, the regular season, number one, a defense because of guys like Moby and Allen. Like, is this, is this outdated thing, though, in the playoffs where you don't have the spacing and you have these incredible shot creators in your back court, but they need a little space and now you have kind of like two guys clogging it up because Alan doesn't stretch the floor. And then if Mobley goes like, you can't have Mobley playing the corner three roll on offense. And that was.

Seems to happen every once in a while still with them.

I think there could be some really weird substitution patterns here for Cleveland with their closing offense where they throw out like Niang and streuss around Garland, Mitchell and Allen. And then I think, well, wait, shouldn't. You can't put Allen on Mobley or. Excuse me. You can't put Allen on Paolo. So you just go with Mobley on Paolo and say, hey, pick him up and do your thing. Because defensively, you think he'd be capable of doing those things. Probably was going to pick against Orlando no matter who they played because I just don't trust the offense. It feels like it ends up in the fifth guy's hands far too often on some of their possessions. And it just. You need Franz to discover his shooting again. But I don't know that's automatically going to happen here in the playoffs. I just don't believe he's this bad of a shooter as he's been this year. Think you get a little turnover ish. But he's still really good on the drives, really good on the passing part of it. I'm sure Orlando was going, are you serious? Like, once they subbed out Allen and they subbed out, I think, of coral.

I was looking at what they did against Charlotte, and Charlotte's trying to lose that game. And then Cleveland's like, fine, we'll just lose it. And Charlotte's like, awesome. Because we might be in China next year, some of us out here. So I'm going to get some good film and Orlando's probably thinking, this is incredible, like we ended up with you, which is, I would say of any of the top teams in the east, Cleveland's the one that nationally, everybody's going to be like, eh. Because that's what they felt like.

Well, they've kind of stunned for a month, right? Five weeks where you just watch them and they seem like a mess.

You can blame it on Mitchell and the health, but, I mean, when he's played, it hasn't been as it was before. So I think I like Orlando in this series, even though I just don't. There are going to be so many. It probably goes seven and there's going to be a couple games where Orlando looks horrible in a closing offense while Mitchell is going crazy. But I still think I like Orlando just because of the momentum lack of for Cleveland.

I like Orlando if they're going to play Isaac 30 minutes a game, which it seems like they test drove this last week of the season, and it just changes them defensively. If he's actually out there for reals, if you're adding him for ten more minutes at the level that he plays defensively with Suggs and just the way that the team is just beautiful, I thought what they did, I would encourage people to go watch it. If you want to nerd up and you're trying to figure out you want to bet on the series or whatever, like, go watch what they did to Milwaukee in the second quarter. Like, it wasn't just them shutting them down. So Milwaukee wasn't getting shots that weren't contested. Fall away as anything. We have to bring in our guy Steve Ceruti, though briefly for one split second here, because Cerudi, to watch your beloved magic, a feel good story. I think just even being a top six seed exceeded your expectations. And then to watch Cleveland say, we want to play the magic so badly, we're going to disgrace the game and get booed by our home crowd in the fourth quarter because we put all of our worst players out there.

That's how badly we want to play the magic. You know, the magic psyche. How do they, how are they going to handle that? That is a fuck you and a half.

I had to text you guys because I wasn't, I didn't have the, I shut the game off. I thought the Cavs were just rolling and I was a little bit worried, you know, still, the third quarter, the lead was kind of, they had the lead, but it was, you know, it was double digits then. Would have cut, get cut to four. And I'm like, all right. So I was locked in, and then when I saw they lost because Kevin Clark was texting me, too, and he was like, who do, what do we have the Cavs? I was like, no, I think if we win, we get the bucks. And I just didn't see that. The Cavs just threw the game away.

And, you know, you hate to say.

This, too, because you're like, wow, I really wanted that matchup. But, yeah, like, if I'm. If any magic fan of all the top six teams in the east, you.

Know, the Cavs are the one you want, right?

But I mean, here's the thing, too, is like, that the magic are probably. You could say that about the magic, too. The cabin, probably ecstatic to get the magic over some of the other teams in the east as well. So it's actually the perfect matchup for both teams. I do hope there's some good bulletin board material, and I'm. I'm with you. Like, I don't, I don't know how you don't start, Jonathan. Isaac going forward like that, what he did today, I mean, obviously, the, the defensive stuff was stupid. He and sogs in the second quarter were unreal, but he was, like, knocking down corner threes. I mean, I don't want to know if I, I don't know if I want to see that, the volume that it was today, but he was just a menace. So I don't know. It's a weird series, kind of, like, contrasting styles, but if you're going to say, hey, like, our strength is, like, these two guards on offense, I kind of feel good about suggs and Isaac, like, kind of mucking that up.

Couldn't agree more. And I wonder if, like, they'd put Isaac on Mitchell and they put Suggs on Garland and just, like, we're just cutting your head off, basically. Where else are you going to go? Priscilla? From a basketball nerd standpoint, it might be the most fun series. I know. Every, every game is probably going to be an NBA tv, I'm guessing at least, like, the first five or six. Like, maybe just whatever they pick for the NBA tv announcers, just get used to those two teams. Do all your research, maybe call cerude, but isn't. Are you, are you nerding out on this one a little rosillo? Yeah.

I just love Paolo, you know, I've really had a hard time for the last couple spots, and I think I got sick of every entire home broadcast over the last week on league pass, pushing their guys and their agenda and the Magic. I really liked the broadcast team, so I'm not being critical, but they've been kind of pushing the Paolo thing of, like, third team, all NBA. And then when you looked at the points, the boards, the assist combination, like, it was like, giannis Jokic, LeBron Luka. I think Durant might have been on there. And then it was like, paolo. It was Paolo being like, the 6th guy that had played 65 or more games. Cause I think Embiid may have been on the list, too. You're like, wow, palo in that group, and nobody has to try to sell me on Paolo. I think I've been fairly consistent in how much I've liked him and then that whole run that they had, but there's so much of that offense where it's just up to him. And whenever I think about them and, like, what the next step is, because they got to spend their money this summer on somebody, you're like, I just.

I want it to be another scoring outlet, but I also don't want it to get in the way where it overlaps and doesn't complement some of the stuff Paola does. So I'm really excited about the, the nerd part of this because I think the Mobley thing, like, I have no idea which way it's going to go. And then what that means this summer. And then on top of that with the Mitchell part, like, if mitchell isn't taking the extension, cleveland needs to trade him. So this has, this has a very, like, whatever these teams are, they'll likely look very different starting next year.

Rudy, you might be in the position where orlando's trading for mitchell after beating him in round one, the old durant golden state 2016 scenario.

I would listen, I would do it now. You brought Apollo, too. At the beginning of that game, I.

Was like, wow, he might have to.

Do this all by himself today. It was that bad early. Nobody was hitting shots. But I would just like to thank bill, you, and house for just giving our guy franz a boost because you texted us and was like, srudi, how should I have been talking? Is franz good?

That was harsh.

It was pretty harsh. I didn't realize he had reached that. Everybody staying four and a half feet off him when he has the ball in the corner stage of his offensive. But then he got it going. He started attacking the basket. It helped that nobody in Milwaukee was moving side to side.

I should, by the way, I should just correct something I said there. I said both teams could look very different. Orlando is going to look exactly the same except for one expensive piece.

They'll add a score. Yeah. Or they'll sign Malik.

Mark.

They'll do like the Fred van Vliet contract with Malik or some.

We know who their five guys are going to be. Cole's been really good. So if you throw Cole in with. With Franz, with Paolo, with Suggs and then Wendell and then Isaac, like, they're actually going to look. There's just, you know, there's this one other piece that they're missing where it's like if that other guy could consistently get some shots without being a high usage guy, it'll. I think it's just going to some.

Jet Howard buzz coming out of the G League. Just saying.

Oh, my God, did he put up.

Big numbers in the G League? Is that every. Has anyone ever done that before?

I love watching Orlando play defense. I like how hard they play. And Paolo, you know, there's the. We've said this before, but there's a whiff of LeBron when he's going to the basket where it's just, he's just big and strong and fast and he's getting in the rim and doesn't kind of, it doesn't really matter who's in the pain. He's getting there.

Youngest player ever to lead his team in points, assists and rebounds in a full season. Youngest player ever. I mean, and that's. It's not a bad team. That's the thing, too. It's not, it's not like he's. This isn't like LeBron, those LeBron Cavs teams. Like, there's like a lot of good players, but he's just that good.

I hate to call out new media here, though, too. Like when Pat Bev was saying, orlando, everybody's talking about them. How come they're not good? And you're like, dude, some of those guys have been there eleven months, you know, I don't even like.

You brought it up. I hate you. I don't even like giving it. It's such a bad take in the back of my mind.

Did you see that?

Did you see Franz, by the way? He like, did some sort of like, spin move, went over the top of them and gave him the too short to Pat Bev and the broadcast team speaking to them was like, oh, look at, look at Franz giving it to him. Like they knew, they knew. They knew what Pat Bevitt said.

So good for them.

So if I gave you guys Paolo Halliburton, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey Zion, I'll just do those five as. Round one. Oh my God. Everybody goes nuts guy. Because that happens. Every round one. There's some young guy who makes a leap at least in the first half of the series, and everybody loses their fucking minds. Paolo is probably the favorite for me in that conversation. I could see him going nuts in the first two games and people would be like, paolo, wow. Didn't know as they watch NBA tv.

Well, I mean, they've only had one or two national tv games all season for a five seed. So let me use my soapbox now to see, like, we just get a couple more. Although they're gonna basically be on non national tv with the NBA tv slay here, so who knows? Yeah, who's even gonna see it? But. So people probably haven't even seen a ton of Paulo, like, guys that aren't magic fans, you know, other than just like YouTube highlights. So it could be him. Although I think Haliburton, if he's actually healthy against that Bucks team, I could get.

That's a good one, too. Wait, hold on. I'm getting word they've sold two of the Magic Cavs games to HBO three. That's who bought that. All right, so, Rudy, good luck. We're rooting for you. I feel like we've covered the Orlando Magic on the ringer better than anyone else. I'm really proud of us.

Definitely.

Thanks, guys. All right, last, last e series, talk to Racillo. Talk about Boston. Probably playing their old nemesis. Miami would be my guess, unless they can get lucky with Chicago somehow beating Miami. But let's just say it hasn't been awesome against Chicago either. Here's the Celtics season where they finished. Did you see some of the stats where they finished the year?

One point differential?

Yeah, they're the third best net rating ever. 11.7 behind the 96 97 Bulls point differential 11.4 5th all time 72 Lakers $71.96 Bulls 17 warriors all four of those teams won the title. And then. And yet I texted you perk on Friday on ESPN where they have those videos where it's somebody on one of the NBA shows attacked somebody on a team or a player and perk had a. The video was, was titled why perk has high level concern for the Celtics was the video and the picture screen grab of Perk and poor Zingis. The Celtics finished 64 and 18. They haven't played a meaningful game in a month. They literally had nothing to play for. I don't have high level concern for the Celtics, at least for the first couple rounds, but I know this is going to be a narrative. It's like, oh, Miami, Miami is their number. They're a completely different team. If, with all that said, if they lose this series to Miami in round one after going 64 and 18, after doing the holiday and poor Zingis extensions, after going all in on this nucleus like nothing we've seen, and then they blow the Miami series and Miami beats them again.

That would be in the running for worst non championship slash finals losses of any Boston team. I mean, what an absolute. Like, there's been some Bruins ones where the Bruins were like the best team in the league and they lost in round one. But I think this would actually be worse. This is statistically the best Celtics team in 16 years. They've had all the battle scars. Everything is leading to this playoff series. The east has broken for them in the perfect ways with Embiid and Giannis and there's no good east team at all. And even the Knicks, who have been playing really well there on Randall. If they blow this, holy shit, what happens?

The hockey thing isn't even a good, like, I know what you're doing, and I think it makes sense, but it. It just doesn't. Yeah.

Hockey's more random than basketball, right?

It just doesn't matter because hockey, like, that's kind of a sport. Even though the year that the Bruins lost, you're like, wait, what? What's happening here? They can't lose. They have more pressure on them than any other team. If they make it to the NBA Finals, lose to the Nuggets, I don't think there's necessarily going to be shame in that, but they've been a really interesting group in that. It feels like it's been around forever. And then you realize how young everybody is. And I've already done this segment far too many times of, like, them being way ahead of schedule and probably getting further along that that actually counts against them now as, like, more failures. So their failures are just bigger. But if they don't get out of the east this year, it'll be the biggest disappointment of any team in the playoff field.

Yeah, there's no injury. If they're healthy and they just lose before June. Basically easily the most disappointing. Everyone. Some sort of excuse or Denver could be like, well, we did win last year. They got nothing.

If it's first round, you'll be. You'll have a documentary in the works in five years. If they were to lose in the.

First 1st round, if it's first round, I will be recreating the Chris Paul Suns game. 730 point loss. Your demeanor in that. But it'll be like, multiply crossed with, like, requiem for a dream kind of level. Kind of level darkness. It's going to be awful.

I'm not. I don't want it to happen, but for the sake of the pod, would you retire?

No, I'd. I would listen. I would show up like I always did. I wrote a column after Pat's Giants 2007. That was the toughest one. I wrote a column after Red Sox Yankees, the Aaron Boone game.

You didn't have as much money then.

Not true.

Okay, you might do a pod after.

That game, but would it be, I'll.

See you guys, like week four, the NFL.

I'm just like, if they lost to Miami.

Okay, if this team with that point differential that you just mentioned, this point differential tells you you win an NBA title. Okay.

Yeah, there's, there's no doppelganger that hasn't won the NBA title with all the stats they have.

Yeah, you're right. And. And I would agree. My concerns are not high level, which I couldn't believe when I saw it. But then again, I kind of could. But if they were to lose to Miami, I would. I wouldn't be shocked to hear, like, the front page of variety. In six months, Bill Simmons admits no. Bill Simmons is retired, wife has moved out.

No. This here's my. Can I walk you into my nightmare?

Please?

The NFL draft is at the end of this month, right? It's in the heart of this Heat celtic series. My nightmare is the Celtics are down like three two against the Heat, going to Miami for game six. And right around the same time, the Crafts have decided, you know what? Let's get smarter than everybody else. We're going to trade back. We're going to trade. We're going to do that Vikings trade and we'll get the eleven and 23 and a first and a second in 2025. And we're smarter than everybody else. That's my nightmare. Us not getting Drake, maybe, or them overthinking it and trading back and getting JJ McCarthy and picking up, like, an extra something with Arizona. It was like, JJ was our guy all along. It's like, cool. Drake may be better than JJ McCarthy. What are we doing, guys?

Yeah.

Anyway, it's. It's going to be a roller coaster ride for me in April, I'll tell you that much.

And then John Henry does an interview with 60 minutes and he goes, I never want to sell this team.

Ask me how many innings of the Red Sox I've watched this year.

How many innings of the Red Sox?

How many do you think I've watched this year? Season is like two weeks old, based on this.

Two weeks old, let's say, what are we at? Almost 1415 games, 25 innings, zero.

What? I'm actually doing it this year. I'm just out.

I'm out.

I'm so mad at them. I'm out.

Wow.

I'm not out for life. I'm just out.

I'm not.

I'm not wasting any of my time this year watching Red Sox. They don't give a shit about the team, so I'm not going to care either.

Even.

It's dead now. I've watched an inning. They don't care.

They don't.

They don't care if the team's good. They're just positioning to sell it. So fine, good luck to everybody. I'll watch. I'll watch them when we have new owners or a team that you actually like gave a shit about.

This is some real Eddie Anelman stuff.

Bobby Dahlback is still on the team. Bobby Dalback still gets at bats for this team. We were done with him two years ago. I can't do it. I'm too old. I don't want, I don't want to spend my time watching this team nobody cares about. I still love the Red Sox. I'll watch them when they give a shit about the team. This happened to me, the Bruins in the mid nineties. Like, it passed a point where I was like, I don't know if I can come back from this. And I never did.

I am excited, though, about Tanner, how finally, because I never sold that stock. I just always loved his arm slot.

But I do like the reliever. They have Slayton who have. I might have watched some pitches and submittings on MLB.com dot. I don't know if that counts. I'm just saying I haven't put them on a tv. I haven't been like, I'm going to put the Red Sox. I'm going to put them on. But I might have watched some stuff. I still know what's going on. We're going to take a break and come back with awards. All right, it's awards time. Racillo has ballot. I have a ballot. I talked to Zach Lowe over the weekend. He gave up his ballot this year. Already has regrets. He's ready to get back in. He's ready to have a taste. We'll do MVP ballot verse. I think these are our official ballots. We're just going to announce them here. We have to send them into the league in a couple of days.

Can I allow myself just a little wiggle room? Far more in pen than last week, but since we know we're not wiggle room, right, it's probably what it's going to be. But I need to look it over a second time is my point. Okay, so I worked on it last night. Yeah, I worked on it all last night. I worked on it again this morning. I even emailed. The NBA was like, hey, I don't have the ballot. They're like, actually not going to be getting it until later on. I was like, all right. I just want to make sure I didn't get it. And then once I had that, I was like, I'm ready to do this, but I've just, we know how it works, okay? There's a chance I could possibly change something, but these, this is pretty close to what I'm going to do. All right. That's my.

So you. So you're using a really nice pencil, but not a sharpie.

Yeah, it's a pen if I want to get technical about it, but I have other pages. Yeah.

As you know, I'll do my, my annual preamble. I love the awards. I think they're really important. It's an important snapshot of the season. It's fun to look back on. It's fun to, when you're comparing these guys historically, someday and you talk about omba teams and where they placed on the MVP ballot, stuff like that, it matters. We take it very seriously. The MVP ballot. I have Yoko first. SGA climbed a second for me because they got the one seed. I had him third heading into the weekend behind Luca and then Oklahoma City getting in the one seed with the year that SGA had. I'm second. I've Luca third. I did it, man. I put Jalen Brunson fourth and I put Giannis fifth. So Jokic, SGA, Luka Brunson. Giannis is going to be my ballot. What did you have?

I had jokic number two. I have Luka number three. I have Giannis. I think his individual season to do what he did is something that needs to be ahead of some of the other guys. I struggled a lot with the last two spots, but I went SGA and there's plenty of statistical numbers that would tell you four might even be low for him. And then based on the way I did my first team all NBA and then the MVP thing and how I did it, I ended up putting Brunson down fifth. And then I'll explain what I did on all first team NBA later on. Yeah, we have the same five. Yeah, different order.

So I'm going to have Brunson second team on NBA and fourth MVP because I think they're two slightly different honors.

We didn't, we didn't talk about this ahead of time, but that's exactly what I did, too, because I was like, I'm putting. I'm not removing Tatum from first team all NBA, and I'm going to acknowledge what it is that Brunson has done in the valuable sense of it. So that's funny. We didn't, you know, we didn't talk about this at all and we ended up doing basically the same thing. Even though you have them fourth.

I thought about having them third because to get to 50 wins, as we discussed in part one, with Randall missing 60% of the season and Mitchell Robinson out and a couple new teammates and, and I just thought it was really impressive what he means to the franchise and the team. How? Because he's there, that defensenzo ends up coming there. I think stuff like that matters when you have, like, a real guy, when you think, like, people are arguing about, oh, my God, did they overpay for Brunson? And I remember you and I telling people like, that deal is fucking awesome, man. You're not going to regret Brunson. I never thought he'd be promising. No, neither of us did. But we, we, we knew that was a good deal. You know, you're getting a guy who proved that he could play in a playoff series and have, and be impactful. We never knew he was going to be a 29 point a game guy. I had him ahead of Giannis just because, I mean, first of all, they finished with a higher seed than the Bucks. I think that the winning piece of it matters a little bit.

But the, the whole buck season was so strange with the two coaches and it was so choppy with, with Giannis and Dame sometimes offensively. And, you know, they spent a lot of money on that roster, whether it was the right roster and it's the right group of guys. Like, you know, they went all in, they traded all their picks for holiday and then for Dame. They spent a lot of money on this, on the side pieces on the roster, and I just felt like he was in a good situation and the team underachieved, so I couldn't put him higher than, than five.

Right. Well, the reason they finished in the three seed behind New York is because he wasn't playing. He was the first player to ever score 30 a game and finish at 60% or better from the floor. First guy to ever do it. And when I add in the defensive stuff that I think he does where, you know, over the years we've looked at this Milwaukee defense and I go, you know, the real thing is just Giannis being able to screw everything up.

And yet he never gets all defense mentions ever.

Right? So he played 73 games this year. And I do probably look at, like, all of us look at it differently that have our votes. You don't want somebody, like, being a complete wild card with it, but the seating can matter for me and then it can kind of not matter. And I think that's where I'd get some pushback on having SgA fourth. It's like, hey, well, they were the one seed and you go, well, no Boston. If there was a Boston MVP candidate that was tied with somebody else, I would go, okay, well, look, they finished that many games ahead of everybody else. I'm going to recognize that and put that in there. I just feel like Giannis is at worst, the third best player in the league, and he just had one of the great historical seasons. He plays a ton of defense, he plays hard every single night. He played basically a full season, and it came down to the last day in a game where he wasn't playing for the last few. So even though they were sort of a mess, they still only finished one game behind Milwaukee. So it wasn't like I was going to put Brunson ahead of him.

I mean, look, I had Giannis, too, most of the year until Luca just put together this stretch. And Dallas, you know, collectively was far better than, by the way, Milwaukee, we.

Should say, being five this season, there's no shame in that compared to some of the other seasons we've had in the past. Ten years ago there were guys getting the four spot and the five spot in MVP where you're like, uh, maybe I'll put this guy here in this case, like, Tatum not being on it. When the Celtics go 64 and 18 like that tells you how deep and how awesome I think a lot of the players were this year.

I did the same thing, though. Like, Tatum was always fourth or fifth, probably more fifth, which is not really a knock on him. It's more about the team. It's hard for Tatum because you can't be like, oh, well, he's that great. Yet we sit here and look at the starting five and go, this is statistically been one of the best starting fives in the history of the league. So I look at it as a recognition of Brunson and, like an incredible accomplishment where, you know, Knicks fans are going to go, well, you know, he should have been. There's just no world I was ever going to vote him ahead of a couple of these other guys. And just as great as this run has been, I don't think he's. He's those, you know, of the 500 guys that play. Okay, he's. I have him higher than 495 of them.

Them, right.

But I'm not going to put them ahead of guys like Luka or Jokic.

It's a good argument. I don't know if there's a right answer. I feel good about Brunson at four, Shea at two. I'll just make the case really quick. So the one seed to me does matter with that, because we watched so many games this year where I couldn't believe they won the game and they basically won the game because of the shit he did down the stretch where I felt like if you put other players in that spot on that OKC team, his two way play, the burden that he had offensively, the way he was always getting to his spots no matter who they're playing against, and the consistency of just like we talked about this last month with him about just how many good games that dude has. You know, I think what was the stat like? He had like 52 30 point games, something like that. The consistency, his ability to get to the line over and over again. They're plus 10.8 net when he plays. He played 25, 37 minutes. 25, 37 minutes. Him with Jalen Williams together, they were over twelve net rating. He led the league in steals, 2.1. And I just thought he had like a kind of unnatural burden because Milwaukee, like, they would have nights where it's like, all right, it's a dame night, you know, all right, giannis just, all he has to do is run around and, you know, get some rebounds and get some lobs and, and this is kind of.

This could be the night. Damas 45. There was never a night like that for SGA. SJ is like, we don't really have a center. I'm relying on dudes who are 22, 23, 24 years old. We're going to other people's houses and winning. I I was just so impressed. I thought about him a tiny bit for actual MVP. And then I, then I took a glass of water. I'm like, what am I doing? Jokic is the best player in ten years. But no, I was just like, all right, this guy got the one seed, Denver got the two seed. Let me think this out in my head. And then I was like, all right, Jokic is obviously the MVP. But it did. He made me pause for 2 seconds, which was inconceivable a month ago.

I always find that interesting that you would feel a certain way about MVP and then the seating can change in the last 12 hours.

Well, but part of it to me is like, who had a harder job, right? And Jokic, the reason this is where I landed with Jokic, like, the reason he didn't get the MVP was because Murray didn't play enough games. I think Murray ended up with 58. They had to rest Murray down the stretch for what was. He sat out like eight games. And I just don't think when Murray doesn't play, I just don't think that team's that special around Jokic. You know, but it was at least a conversation. But Jokic is the MVP is the.

Best part of the league for the metric stuff, which was always funny about the joking bead arguments because in beat people be like, oh, you guys are just using these stupid numbers. And you'd be like, oh, you mean the ones were in beads? Like off the charts and all of them? Yeah, like, some of these numbers tell you, like, oh, hey, if Jokic has the most win shares in the league this year, like, okay, that's pretty good. But then the wind shares stuff, per was probably more susceptible to falling victim of, like, really overvaluing big guys that rebounded a lot, maybe didn't shoot that much. They had higher field goal percentage because they were really stretching it out. The fact that SGA, like, this is an argument for your side of the SGA thing, of having him, too. Like, he's only behind Jokic and some of that stuff. And for guy, you know, a lot of it's the. Well, I don't need to mention the free throw part of it. He's just that good at adding the free throw part to the rest of the game.

So, you know my favorite SGA status, by the way, do you think he'll.

Finish second in the overall voting?

I don't know. I think it's going to be between him and Luca for second, and I honestly don't know. I think it's going to be close.

Do you think he's better than Luca?

No. Okay.

I. I'm not doing this cause I think you're wrong. I'm just.

I think he had a better regular season than Luca did because his job was harder and he needed. There needed to be a consistency.

Wait, you think Dallas. You think. Geez, I don't know about that. OKC's a better roster than Dallas, but.

Luca had the Kyrie piece, though.

Yeah, but what about our guy, Jay Williams? Two or one? Not two.

I love Jalen Williams and thought about him as like a fringe. Can I talk myself into him? 13 miles, NBA. But at the end of these OKC games, it was kind of SJ or bust. There was a couple of times where Jalen Williams was doing the Kawhi thing that we talked about, what, last week or two weeks ago, where you'd start going by people, but for the most part, you knew where OKC was going every time. I don't know. I was impressed. The best SGA staff for me, on two point field goals, he shot 58%, which, for a guard, is nuts. That's just not. But it speaks to when you watch him and just how he'd get to his spots and you get his points or he'd get fouled. I thought Luca was awesome. Luca was 34, nine and ten. He made 284 threes. His usage was lower. 36. He played the most minutes he's ever played, 26, 24. And Dallas got better as the year went along, which I think matters more than anything. But, you know, okay, see, had a better season. So you mentioned Jokic. He led the league in PR, wind shares Windshare, 48 and Vorp.

He played the most minutes he's ever played this year over 2700.

He crushed it in Vorp, by the way.

Huge warp this year for that guy. Plus 11.6, net 20, 712 and nine every night. Not to mention some of the greatest, like, team chemistry stuff. And, you know, Murray was. I wouldn't say like Lou Gehrig this season.

There's another thing I was looking at with Jokic's numbers before the all star break, 33.8 minutes per game. Then they cranked it up to about 37. He took one more shot. Now, that's always been the thing with him at certain times. Like one of the years we won the scoring or, excuse me, when he won the MVP. Or, like, do you know how low he is in shot attempts in comparison to these other guys? And this guy's won MVP. This is all the hours of watching it. And I couldn't imagine coming up with a different conclusion than Jokic. Just the number of times where he controlled everything. And as I say that, it's like, oh, wait, doncic doesn't do that as well. And you're just like, okay, like, you're right. But there's just this puppet master element of Jokic that's happening every second he's out on the floor. And I couldn't, you know, I just didn't struggle with it as much this year because it wasn't the Embiid showdown. Now, if Embiid had finished the year with the highest ever per, like, imagine.

The ranked scoring 35 a game and 70 games. And, yeah, I'm with him. The other part with Jokic, which we talk about every year, is something about how he plays, transfers to some of the other guys in the team, and they're a little more unselfish and a little more thoughtful about passes and extra looks than I think they would be if they're on like Charlotte. So I just wanted to mention that.

You think it'd be different on Charlotte?

Yeah, I think it'd be a little different.

You don't like Michael Porter junior and Charlotte?

Not as much.

I don't know.

Freddie Jackson is impactful off the bench. Just out of curiosity. Cause Shea versus Luke, I think, is. I think it was closer than it seems like you think. I also don't think Shay is the player he's ultimately going to be like, I don't think this was his career apex. He's never going to be better than this. If he starts shooting threes, like, let's say he becomes a 40% three point shooter and starts making, like, I don't know, two and a half, three threes a game on top of everything else he's doing. I do think there's a world where he swims in that pool with Luca and those guys, and he might already be there. He's going to have to do in the playoffs, which we haven't seen yet. And that's the last piece of this. And that's why we're always careful with regular season versus playoffs. I want to see him do this in a playoff series with a team that's playing against him for two straight weeks, that's planning for him, thinking about ways to fuck with him. He's never. We've never seen it. But I do think if he adds a three point shot, his stats might not be that far away from Lucas.

But whenever there's a scoring peak for a player, it usually comes down to, like, all right, what else is around him? So I would agree that if SGA cranks it up to 37, 38% from three and starts taking five or six of those a game, as opposed to, I think, just over three now. Yeah, like, maybe you could just keep adding it. But what I would see on the horizon for the thunder is that he may score less because the team continues to get better.

Jalen Williams get better. Yeah, you might.

All the assets of what that ends up turning into because there's probably one other big piece coming.

So your toughest MVP ballot admission was who?

Probably Tatum. Cause I felt like, hey, I know I'm going to have Tatum in the five. Yeah. Like, I can't. I can't believe it, but I just. That's where I split the difference on the all first team NBA. Like, that's so funny. We did the same thing. Cause I thought, like, hey, that's kind of a way I feel like I'm acknowledging both.

Yeah, tatum, for me, too. First team on NBA. So I guess we have the same yokage, Luca, SGA, Giannis and Jason Tatum.

Is my favorite we do. Any thought to having Brunson?

Yeah, a lot of thought actually. And here's where I landed. Tatum was 27, eight and five. I hate. I don't want to do the thing where we just read math when we do the Omba stuff, but his stats were.

Give me his stats.

Free throw attempt, 6.8. He played over 2600 minutes. He was 12.2 net, which was, I think first in the league. The case for Tatum is this. The team was the best team in the league by far. He was the biggest reason because he got better as an offensive thinker, picking his spots. I just thought there was a sophistication that was a slight level above where it was last year. Thought his rebounding was really good, especially in games where they really needed it. The defense, I thought he was two as a two way guy was way more committed this year, game to game, than maybe he used to be. And the engine of this team was Tatum and Brown together and how hard those guys just wanted to win every night. And really their record could have been better than 64 and 18. When you think about how many dumb games that team lost in the dumb game win loss, like the swing seesaw, they're probably like minus four for just, they should have just been really was like a 67 68 win team. With that said, the clutch stuff was bad and, you know, it's been well documented and that's probably, if you're talking about why you leave them off the MVP ballot, it's the crunch time.

Offense just wasn't that good. And I think that's the negative. The positive, though, Rosyll, is this. I think Tatum and Brown specifically sacrificed some numbers for this team to succeed the way they did. And if you put them in different situations, I think Tatum, if he wanted to average 31 32 a game, I think he could. And I think if Jalen Brown wanted average 27 28 a game, I think he could. But I think those guys gave up something to be part of what this team did, which is why both of them have to be on NBA guys. For me this year, that's the SGA.

Point is that if the team gets better, he should probably be taking less shots.

And he will.

Some of the maxi stuff that you have to talk about is you go Maxis. Awesome. He's in the conversation for me for 13. I know, I think he's the betting favorite for most improved player, but there's also a massive shot spike and that's the part of the Brunson conversation where you could go, okay, the last, however, three months, he's taken almost 25 shots per game. And the fact that he's kept that up, like, I think it's at least a little bit fair. And I still end up having. Right, and I still end up having Brunson, fifth and MVP, over Tatum. But when you talk about sacrifice, that's a sign of, well, okay, the team is better. Like, the team wouldn't. It wouldn't make any sense for Tatum or Brown to be guys at like 23, 24. I mean, once you're north of 22, 23 shot attempts per game, it usually means the rest of your team is so bad offensively, or you're just like a ridiculous human being. And Brunson, I think it was really by necessity. And the fact that he stayed at 49, 48, 47% and 40% for three. Right?

Yeah.

And by the way, in April, after Brunson had a bit of a free throw decline, I hate to say this, after all the hard work, there's a few games now where I'm starting to notice some stuff on the free throw deal where I'm like, wait, we did so much hard work, guys. We finally got there because Brunson had had a pretty significant drop off going back to March, and then he was at nine free throw attempts again. So some of the raw numbers are also your situation. So I would agree with the point on Tatum. Like, it's good that he doesn't have the opportunity to take that many shots because it's a reflection of how deep the team is and also maturing because it's like, okay, cool. Do you, what do you want to do? Do you want to score 35 or do you want to win some games and everybody feel involved?

He made the right choice, but I think he gets credit for that. I will say this. Tatum has been prominent now for the entire time he's been in the league, right. Even as a rookie, the Celtics were really good, so there, there's never really been a moment when he wasn't relevant. I do think he's been around so long that people kind of miss how unique he is as a player. Like how the size that he has his ability to guard kind of all. Him and Jalen both can guard all types of players on the other side from all sizes. Um, and the fact that, you know, if you need some rebounds and that there's just things that he brings to the table that is pretty uncommon. I think Durant feel the same way about him to some degree. This Phoenix season that he had, where, um, there was times when he was like their rim protector. There was times when he was like their really their only rebounder. And I think that's the piece with Tatum. Like, I just think people are used to Tatum. So now you start like, oh, look at his clutch numbers and start picking it apart.

We're going to take a break and then we're going to do second team. 13 OMB today's retradables is brought to you by Nissan SUV. If you ever wonder what's around the next corner, what happens when you push further, what's over the horizon? Then you need a Nissan suv. The 2024 range includes the Nissan Rogue with class, exclusive, built in, Google, the Pathfinder, and the armada. Go find your next adventure with a Nissan SUv. Learn more@nissanusa.com Dot all right, so Roselle for retradables, we got to do this because they just gave him an extension. Drew holiday just going backwards six months. Here's the trade. The Blazers got Malcolm Brogdon, they got Robert Williams, who immediately got hurt. They got a 2024 1st round pick from the Celtics, which is number 30 in the worst draft in 24 years. And they got a 2029 unprotected first round pick. And that was the haul for Drew Holiday, who has been one of the great glue guy Celtics in a long time. And I was so delighted when they re signed him. But looking back, I don't know, could they got a little more for that one?

Feels like it.

Yeah, feels a little late.

I just wonder how much research they had done on the Rob Williams part of it. I mean, clearly it's not zero, but if you're going, okay, so Brogdon, who gets hurt a lot, and then the defensive anchor that we're going to put next to Ayton, like, even when Williams was healthy, you thought he was hurt. I mean, it was really tough because he clearly impacted the games, but there'd just be that landing where you go, uh oh, is this six to eight weeks? And that feels kind of like who he is, even though he was on a really affordable contract. And so you get the early pick. Now, who knows? I mean, who knows? We could do on a podcast in 29. And you're like, oh, my God, they have the number two pick. I mean, there's probably no protection on 29, right?

No protection whatsoever. So that was.

You already said that.

So I would have flipped. I would have flipped Robert Williams as fast as I could have when I was Portland because they had already made, they already gone in on a. And the downside of Robert Williams is it doesn't look right playing with a. But then there was also the injury downside, which every celtic fan was acutely familiar with because he was so, you know, you'd feel great about him. Then all of a sudden he's walking up the tunnel again. Anyway, that is the drew holiday trade in the retradables. Today's retradables was brought to you by Nissan SUV. Go find your adventure with the 2024 Nissan Rogue with class exclusive Google built in. You've got an always up to date assistant you can call on for almost anything. No need to connect your phone. You've got Google Assistant maps of play store built right into the 12.3 inch touchscreen infotainment system. Learn more@nissanusa.com dot all right, second team on NBA. Rosalo, I'm guessing we had the same four. And then the fifth one is a wildcard. Jalen Brunson, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard as four of the five. Do you have those four in your second team on NBA?

I do.

Before we get to the fifth spot, we did the Brunson credentials. We talked about ad in the first segment. Who had his best year, I think since probably 2018 and played a ton of minutes, too. Durant. Do you know Durant played, uh, almost 2800 minutes this year, which is his most since 2014. This is a recurring theme of the Omba this year. A lot of guys set, like, minute highs. Um, he hasn't played this many minutes in ten years. He's basically 27 seven and five. He was almost the 50 40 90 guy. Um, played 37 minutes a game, which is nuts. His usage was under 30. He had a great season. That team was a little weird, a little off. I didn't love the body language all the time, but it seems like they've settled a good place. And then Kawhi, who ends up at 68 games, somehow played 23 30 for minutes, which is his most since 2017. Another guy, 24 six and four, almost a 50 40 90 guy. Missed it by one percentage on the free throws, played 68 games plus 8.2 net, and had stretches where it just seemed like he was one of the five best players in the league.

So we agree on those four and we can move to the fifth guy. Unless you have anything else to say about those four.

Yeah, Durant, oddly enough, like, if you look at some of the numbers from last year, some of the advanced stuff, he's like, dropped off pretty significant per, dropped off pretty significantly in the wind. Shares of 48 because the true shooting percentage dipped. And then his free throw rate dipped. But I would say there were too many moments in the course of the season where I'm like, wait, what other forwards am I going to put ahead of him when I've already put the two ahead of him with Giannis and Tatum and then the Kawhi discussion where we agree there. So whatever you want to look at there with the Durant part of it, it's 74 games in the season, as you already mentioned, the minutes and Phoenix. Okay, fine, they weren't a top three seed, but it's not like they suck. Yeah, so I think there's just a lot of. Lot of pro Durant arguments in there. I went with Ant as the other guard on my second team.

So did I. 26 five and five. He played almost 2800 minutes. His advance numbers were surprisingly good across the board and I think there's a lot of room to grow for him, especially at three point shooting. The big thing for me is when towns went out, I really feel like he grew his game and filled in the blanks in a bunch of different ways. I think this would be a lot easier if they had ended up being the number one seed. They end up being number three. But the two way stuff with them I thought was that was what was in my head when I had him. Second team, like the defense that he's been playing in some of these games, when he really wants to, he can go to this level that's very few swings occupied defensively. So that was a pretty easy one. There's one guy I had in the third team that I really thought long and hard about. We should mention. We did. I know it's positionless ballots, but I think both of us are trying to keep these picking five that at least look like a basketball team. We're not going to do the thing where it's like, here are my five guards that are my second team on ba.

I just, I still want to have the structure of center, two forwards guards, unless there's some way to, you know, and that we don't want this scenario where it's like DeAndre Jordan and saw my third team in 2016 because he's a center. I think when you start doing that, that's nuts. But for the most part, we want it to look like a basketball team, right?

Yeah. I'm not going to marry myself to anything because what if we have one year where it's just absurd that there are four guards that are completely off the charts and you go, hey, those are four of the five best players in the league, then maybe I'll do it, but I don't feel wrong about anything so far. You know, it's a really hard task because I started by going, hey, no matter what you do, it's not going to be perfect. So go into it with the minds like it. The first one I ever did, I was like, all right, I want this to be perfect, but I've stuck to it. And that's where I think the third team, maybe you have a little bit more and look, every voter can do whatever they want, but I think the third team is maybe where it allows you to, to have a little bit more creativity with it. Because I don't like over the years, some of the times we did put that third center in and you're like, this guy's not even close to the other 14 guys as far as stature in the game and he's going to make all day and then it's going to, you know, then the guy's going to end in the hall of Fame.

He's like, oh, he made four, all three. You know, like, what is this third team?

So LeBron James was my guy that I thought about for the ant spot in the second team. No kid played over 2500 minutes. He was 26, seven and eight. They almost a 50, 40, 80 guy. He shot 41% from three. Best he's ever done. He shot over five threes a game and almost six free throws a game. He played 71 games. They're 41 and 30 when he played. He played 2500 plus minutes this year, which was his most since 2018. Another guy. And I just thought his the ceiling of some of the games that he was in, where he was just kicking the ass of the other team like he did today against New Orleans. I was like, how is he not second team Omb? And I don't know if it's the right choice. I kept going back to that December January stretch, though, where I just felt like from a leadership standpoint with the stature that he holds, having some of those guys dangling around the trade rumors, I just didn't feel great about that two month stretch for them. And I think he, it's something he could have squashed and he just didn't.

And then as soon as the deadline passed, that team fell into place. But he's still one of the twelve best players in the league and I think him versus Anne is a really tough one. I just didn't want to put two lakers in the top ten spots in all NBA when they're not even a playoff team, they're a playing team. So at some point, somebody's got to lose.

Just felt like a lot of nights that Ant had to carry it offensively for a team that you know very well could have been the one seed where it sounds like I'm then applying to the Bill Simmons school of the seating mattering so much, but I mean, it just depends on who you're comparing each other to. So I felt fine about ant. And, I mean, at one point you were like, is LeBron even going to make the third team? And then by the time you're done with it, like, he was one of the easiest picks.

Like there was like five, four or five weeks ago, it seemed like it was like, man, I don't know if I'm going to vote for two Lakers if this team goes 42 and 40. Like, I'm not doing it. But they turned it on. They played really well down the stretch and I think he earned it.

It was easy. I mean, did you think about putting them ahead of Kawhi?

I did. I did. You know, you look at the Clippers, though, and the Clippers won 51 games. You know, they had a big trade during the season. They, uh, they, they lost their center for a while and I don't know, I felt like he was so good, it kind of levitated them a little up a level and I just had to give him that. But I did think about that. So the rest of the guys, I'll do three more and then I'll, I'll talk. We'll talk about the last spot, which I had the most trouble with. To me, Paul George was a. No doubt about it. I thought he was especially down the stretch, was awesome. Um, he played over 2500 minutes this year, which was his most since 2019. Another guy, I don't know if this game limit, uh, shifted it for people. He was plus 9.1 net. He was almost a 50, 40, 90 guy. And I, test wise, I thought the way he was peeking down the stretch, I thought it was some of the best basketball I've ever seen him play. Uh, not to mention the two way stuff. So I had him, I had Jalen Brown for all the reasons, as we mentioned earlier.

And then I had to put Stefan because I thought what he dealt with this season, all the Draymond drama, which it seemed like it just never ended. Chris Paul missed half the season. Wiggins disappeared twice. The west was brutal. He still was able to get to his 26, four and five every game. At 357 threes, he played 74 games. There were 43 and 31 when he played. And he's just clearly one of the best 15 players in the league still, so those were four of my five. Did you not have any of those guys?

No. Four for four. Man, this is ridiculous.

The step, by the way, we should mention, we didn't compare notes at all.

What? We did touch on it last week. We already knew. I think we had both the same.

Yeah, but I'm saying for the final edit.

Yeah, well, we didn't talk prior to that step one was easy for me. The team was still good enough despite being the plan. But I go, okay, is he one of the ten best players in the league? And he played 74 games. Let's not make this complicated. No problem. Booker, I think, ended up, what, 6th and scoring this year?

Oh, so you have Booker? Cause I haven't talked about my fifth spot yet.

Oh, I thought you said. I think maybe I was just remembering from last week, I thought you had Booker in there. Okay. So I put Booker, LeBron, Paul, George in there, and I'm going to do some more digging for the 15th and final spot, so I know what to do.

So I. So you don't. You don't necessarily have Jalen. What's the case against Jalen, in your opinion?

Your argument. Because it's the best. Because it's the best team by far, that they deserve the second player. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know that I would do that. I mean, I'm giving you a hard time a little bit here. I wrote down Zion and then crossed it out. I promise I didn't do it after just today's game. That's not the exercise. There's some Halliburton guilt there where I think if it's close and a contract extension is on the line, like, I'd be more likely to vote for that player. So I'm having a really hard time with the 15th spot because I, like. Well, because I've told myself in the past, like, hey, if it's somebody with the contract thing on the line, and it's, like, really close, like, I don't even like talking about this, but I'm just trying to be transparent. Like, I probably should feel the need to vote. And, I mean, I know this is why Zach Lowe's like, I don't want to do this anymore because of this specific reason. And I know people hate the media even does this, but there's a real argument that, like, halliburton hasn't been the same guy for a long time.

So am I going to feel guilty leaving him off of this, knowing that he's eligible for this extension. It sucks.

It's the worst part of this. So I had for my last spot between booker Sabonis Halliburton and Wemby Halliburton. Post all star break is 18 and nine. Eye test doesn't look the same and I don't feel like he's jumped off the tv in the same way. And I kept coming back to that. His first ten weeks were awesome and he was in the running for first tomorrow NBA and since then he hasn't looked the same. And you can give him credit for the style of that team. It's a little like what we talked about with Jokic. Like, that team is go, go, go. And he's, he's put that imprint on it. He's also, I think, the worst offensive player of anyone we've talked about so far, which I think matters. And, you know, it just feels like his season kind of peaked in December range, so that was the case against it. I think it's hard. I think one of the problems here is we probably have 20 guys for 15 spots, which is unusual.

Booker, who? I think it's like five, six guys for one spot.

That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah, right. 25 guys for 15 or 22 guys for 15 spots. Whatever it is. Booker, the Suns were 42 and 25 when he played. He played almost 24, 50 minutes a share, which his most since 20, 2027 points, five rebounds, seven assists. He was a 49, 36 89 guy and I thought about leaving him off because I just didn't like putting two sons in. Seemed crazy to me. But then watching the Minnesota game today, it's like he's one of the best 15 players in the league. It's where I landed, right.

It's like top 15 is low for Booker, but the one through ten is really, really hard. I mean, ant's not going to. Is Ant going to get one mvp vote this year? Like, he probably will from somebody along the way.

He'll get like a foot plays for him, a couple of people.

I think he probably will because that's just kind of the way it works. But I had no problem. Like, I went into it probably thinking I was like, okay, how am I going to do the final guard pairing? And then once I was done with it, like, I don't mind defaulting to, hey, this guy played a full season, the team was good enough. He put up huge numbers. Like we said, he was six and scoring and I think he's one of the 15 best players in the league. So I'm going to do it.

Yeah. One thing I was thinking about, especially with Curry, you know, when once you hit a certain level stature as a player in LeBron obviously is the best example of this. Like, you shouldn't lose your spot if you had a typically really good season. Like, there should be some sort of, like somebody's got. It's almost like the, like a UFC when it's a five rounder and it's like you had to kind of take the title. And I don't know if anyone took the booker spot. I think Halbert was damn close, but I don't feel like he really took it. Sabonis, there's great cases, right? He's. He played 2900 minutes, most of anyone in the league. He averaged 1914 and eight. He's a really, really skilled offensive player. Not as good defensively, but, you know, they're plus 0.4 net. When he. When he's out there. Um, I don't think he passes the. Does he jump off the tv test? I don't think any of us feel like he's one of the 20 best guys in the league. And I just wasn't going to put him on all NBA because we needed a center. Like, I'd rather just play LeBron as center on my fake team.

I gotta be honest. Wembinyama gave me more trouble than Halberd. Like, I really went down the process with it thinking, like, since the all star break, he's 20, 412 and five with almost five blocks a game. Watching some of the games like that Denver game the other night, his per 36 would be 26 and 13. His numbers with like his as 2010 guys with blocks and steals, combined stocks 4.8 and above. It's Robinson, Akeem, Kareem and Ewing, like, at any point in their careers. And he was just so impactful down the stretch. To me, it's like the reverse of the Halliburton argument. Halliburton was so impactful the first ten weeks of the season and Wembley was so impactful the last ten weeks. It almost cancels the arguments out because you can't make the Halliburton case, but then not make the Wemby case. Now Wendy's team sucked, but Wemby, he didn't perform like it was a lottery team. Like he really gave a shit in these games. Wasn't like fake stats, it was real shit. So anyway, I left them off, but I wanted to mention it.

I can't believe that you're the one arguing for woman. Yama on all NBA when we argued quite a bit about the Rudy Wendy thing for defensive player of the year. But, you know, it's all kind of a moving target here. Sabonis, I'll admit, I always feel guilty about, because I'm like, oh, what do you have again tonight? Oh, 20, 814 and eleven just go, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Like, it just feels like he gets hosed despite putting up these numbers that are incredible because I also think that there's a limitation on this team because of him. Like, as skilled as he is and as great as the numbers are all the time, I'm like, do I really think he's one of the 15 best players in the league? And I don't. And the Halliburton off of the Wemby point, like, I didn't even think about Wimbanyama for this. I feel stronger about a different category. But for Halliburton, after the all star break, 43 before it, 25 after it, he went from 40% from three to 31. The assist dropped off a couple. The scoring dropped off by like five points. Like, if you look at who he is, post all star, 29 games at 1910, and terrible three point shooting, you're like, I really going to put that guy and I team all right?

Same thing, right? It wasn't. He wasn't a jump out of the tv guy after the.

So what are you going to do?

I'm putting Booker. So my third team is Paul George Jalen, Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Devin Booker. And I think that's a good snapshot of the season. And Sabonas, Halberd and Wembanyama were the biggest, the toughest ones for me. And Zion, I think, has to be mentioned. I never was seriously thinking about putting him there, but, you know, Zion played the most minutes he's ever played and really came on second half of the year to the point that he felt like a force. But then you watch a game like tonight and LeBron kicked his ass. You know, he's not. He's not ready to be a top 15 guy yet, but there's flashes.

Yeah, but I mean, I can't. You can't put too much into today, you know?

No, I'm just saying, like, I don't think he's there as a top 15 guy, is my point. I think he showed a lot of.

Flashes if you wanted to get on his case a little. But even if you go with the pre all Star, post all star splits. Cause there's so many more games before the all star game? Yeah. You know, I wish they would just do like a 41 game split or something. And that's how they would bring up the splits instead of this all star stuff. But it's the way that it sorted so many times on different websites. Like, even when he was out of.

Shape and he was still getting stats right.

So there were games. I remember one game that was outside of the in season tournament. I was like, oh, my God, he looked terrible. Like, what is he doing? And then I think the next night, I forget. Maybe it was the golden state game. They lost in January or something. And I was like, oh, man, he doesn't look good. And then he went for 30 back to back the next two games. And I was watching it, I think going, I still don't know that he looks good. He just looks better now. He just looks so much better. And I. I think this week was terrific up until today's afternoon game.

I feel bad about the Halberd thing. Coach of the year, I had Dagnall, Finch and Missoula third.

Missoula third. Has your dad signed off on that? Yeah.

He won 64 games. And I'll tell you this, if you're making the case for Joe Missoula, um, the way he managed the.

Don't listen to me. The previous six months.

Well, don't listen to me the previous six months. But the way he managed the team, like, the benches, the bench is actually peaking. Like, Prichard's playing the best he's ever played. Houser, Cornette, like, he's figured out how to weave these guys in and give them confidence and rest. Dudes. The Celtics have rested their dudes for the last six weeks where so and so is not playing one game. So and so is not playing the next game. Two guys aren't playing the next game and they're still winning these games. So I think he has to get credit for that. They. They won the east by 14 games. You know, at some point you gotta credit the coach. So who'd you have for your three?

Dagnall won again. Youngest team ever to clinch one seed in NBA history. Yep. A jump from last year where they played in the play in and they lost the second game. So that's significant. What were they, 40 and 42 last year? Yeah. I have tib second. Who's Randall from January. You get your team to just bust their ass again. I just love tips, man. And it's funny to think about it.

You swayed me. I'm actually. I'm getting rid of Missoula. And I'm putting tips third. You're right. Tips should be third or second.

OG, I can't make it in today in an OB.

Right. He doesn't have a center. That's a great call. I fucked up. I'll put tips third.

All right. And I have a different one for third. I'm going to go. Eudoka.

Email just for the Jalen Graham. Jalen Green rejuvenation. Wow. Emotional stuff.

He got a young team that looked lost. Okay. Lost. They suck on defense. They have no concept of what they're supposed to be doing. It's all young guys. And then they bring in Brooks and Van Vliet to, you know, kind of have the adult in the locker room, despite the price tag that went along with it. But the fact that they were playing defense, that they showed, like, some people tell me I'm nuts. They didn't finish 500. You can't do that. I don't care. I mean, nobody's actually voting on who they think. The best coaches. I've told myself I was going to vote spo, like, second five years in a row, just out of respect of him.

Not this year.

Clearly the best coach. Well, he still might be a better coach than every single guy I think he is, but that's not really how this award has been defined. So if you want to go third place on somebody, like, I'm not. I don't feel bad using my third place vote on Udoka. Turning this Houston thing into something that feels real. It was way more fun, and it's like, man, this is a group of young guys that seem pretty lost, and they responded to him. And that's a. That's a really hard transition for a head coach in the NBA. And I feel so much better about the Rockets than I did twelve months ago.

Great case. Defensive player of the year. I put Gobert one. Wembie tune in. Anthony Davis three.

Okay.

You're doing it, aren't you? You gone.

Manama one. Yeah, you're doing it. Okay. I am. All right, look, I'm not against Rudy versus all possessions. You got me there. Points per possession, like 0.85 points at the rim. It's like 0.9. Isolation. It's 0.728. You've got me there. And then I looked at distance travel on the tracking stuff. He's traveled more. Not with the ball. He's probably been called for traveling more, but you get the point. He's traveled more distance throughout the course of a game, throughout the course of a season. That Wimonyama has. This isn't just about the stocks, where combined stock steals and blocks for Wembonyama is 342, and for Rudy it's 211. The deflection is a game for Wimbanyama.

It'S a good one for Wemby are.

Double the defensive rating when he's off the court is a minus twelve differential, where Rudy's a minus four. If you want to tell me Rudy's the anchor of the best defense of a team that up until today was in the mix for one seed, I can't tell. You're wrong. I've watched the Minnesota broadcast. I've watched Mike and Nori give us the whiteboard breakdown of, like, why Rudy is number one. But I'm telling you that I've never seen anything like Webinar in a game. And I can't believe I'm saying this after a rookie season, but I think there are more u turns, more. I want nothing to do with this moment.

What was the one? There was the three on one u turn.

Three on one?

Was that a couple days ago, the guys had a three on one? Was like fucking this and tripled it back out.

I'm not making this a one game sample, but there was even a difference. Like, I would love to get a couple beers in Jokic and go when Rudy's on you one on one, or when Benyama's on you one on one, how do you feel? And I noticed a difference in his aggressiveness, in his plan of attack against both guys. And I think when Mignama actually being younger and the springiness that you would have, like, he's in a play later than Rudy is. And yeah, if I'm going to make my case, I'll keep making my case. Think about the guys playing perimeter defense for San Antonio over the course of this year versus the guys playing perimeter defense on Minnesota's team. So having said all that, it's Victor one, it's Rudy two. And I'm going to switch it up a bit because I know if I did, and this is where the position list thing happens on all defensive teams, then, you know, more often than not, I'm just going to favor rim protection. But I'm going to give Herb Jones some love here for versatility because I've seen him just, it's not just the block on Paul George, but it's just seeing all the different ways that they could use him.

A vote for ad isn't a bad vote, but that's my three. Do you think I'll be the only person that will vote for women.

Yama defense speaker two, no, I think he'll get more votes than people expect. To me came down to two things. One is the second half of his year versus the first half, whereas Gobert was steady the whole year, Minnesota's defense was just so much better than San Antonio's. Right. But I also feel like, and listen, this is why we all have votes. Everyone interprets thing a little differently. I do feel like defensive player of the year, at least a little bit, is a team award. And other people might feel like, no, that's not true at all. It's an individual player. The rest of your team doesn't matter. This is the same thing I said with Marcus smart a couple of years ago when I voted for Marcus Smart and I think he ended up winning, but I was like, they had the best defense and he was the biggest reason for it. Hence, that's why I'm voting for him. And I think with Gobert, that's where I landed. But listen, you can't. When you brought up the Wemby defense thing like a month ago, and I'm like, what? That team's got 14 wins. But I mean, what he's done since the all star break, he's got to be in the top three for that award.

He's also winning rookie of the year. Chet second. We both have Miller third, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's done. Six. Man, I had Nas Reid winning. I Bobby Porta second, I had Malik monk third, and I had Westbrook. I wish I had a fourth spot. Cause I would vote for Westbrook if it was four spots because I thought Westbrook, they're 45 and 23. When he played, he was eleven, five and five. I thought, as I've said before, the energy that he brought, I really thought he had a really good bench season. But Nas Reed was the most impactful bench guy for me because ideally you want a guy who can impact the game off the bench, but if somebody's hurt and he starts, he can also be awesome when he starts, and for me, it's him. Who'd you have?

I'm going with Nas as well. He played 80 games this year, but he only started 14. Yeah, and maybe this isn't the way it should be done because I think if you start a certain number of games and it's kind of like, all right, well, you've started this many games like Bogdanovich for Atlanta. Like, look, he's not going to get votes to be first, but he also started 32 times. And whatever that imaginary number each voter has in its head, it's like, okay, well, you started almost half the season, so can I really give you that? But Nas at 14 starts and kind of manning the ship with kat being out and having to raise his aggressiveness offensively and still continuing to be just such a terrific player and fitting in with what they needed, like ant desperately needed somebody else you could rely on offensively. That helps Nas. Reid's case, not taking away from it because he still only started 14 of the 80 games. So I have him one, I have monk two, and I went Norm Powell three.

I thought about it. I couldn't even decide if he was the best sub on his team. I thought Westbrook was actually just as impactful. I get it. Most improved. I'll just tell you my thinking of this, and again, we all have votes. Everybody thinks about it differently. But I am really, I agree with the philosophy of, and I wish I had thought about this before, but people really sold me on this, that if you're going from, like, year one to year two, maybe you should win most, most improved or year two to year three, you should be improving, you should be getting better. It's like, of course, like, so Jalen Williams is somebody. I was like, I want to vote for him in the top three. But then I'm like, he was really good down the stretch last year. It's his second year. Like, he should be getting better. Max, he was another one. I've made this case before. I just, to me, Maxie was really good last year. He was a 20 point a game guy, and he was really effective, and now he just had more shots. I I don't see how he's most improved.

I want improved where it's like, I look at a guy from last season, and I'm looking at a guy this season going, jesus christ, what the hell happened? So kobe white being a guy who came off the bench, averaging ten points a game to now he's 19 and five. Every night. You're watching Bulls, Knicks today, he's carving up their defense, having a stretch and getting to the rim. He's clearly one to me. I have danny abdia as number two on a shit Wizards team. I just deny abdia last year averaged nine points a game and shot 29% from three and 43% field goal. This year he was 51% field goal, 38% from three. He averaged 15 and seven. And every time I watched the Wizards, I was always like, man, I love this guy. Can this guy be on a good team. So I have him second and hartenstein third. Hartenstein, who carried the Knicks when they ba, basically, if he didn't play well, they were fucked. Played 25 minutes a game plus 9.8 net and was a borderline all defense team guy for me. I just think I watched that dude in the Clippers.

I always liked him. He went to a level I did not expect. So those are my three.

I like it. I like the way you're thinking. I like the work you're putting in. Bill. The funny thing about the maxi Kobe white thing. Cause I brought up Kobe probably a month ago when we first started talking about it. Cause, like, you brought up a good point with Maxi. It's like, okay, but if you go from 15 shot attempts to 20, like, are you actually that much better? I mean, this is where the award can be a little silly, really. Did you improve or did you just become the number two option and then became a number one option?

I felt like he was just about this good last year. He just didn't shoot as much.

Yeah, right. And you could also say, like, wait, the previous two seasons he shot 43% from three, and this year he's at 37. And 45% from the floor overall is the lowest number of his career. And I'm voting for him for most improved.

Right.

But, but what it becomes is, hey, you know who's pretty good is Maxie. And then it's like, do you realize, like, maxi, I voted him an all star starter, right? So the same thing could be said for Kobe where you're like, wait, so Kobe was 44% the last couple years, but he basically had a massive jump in minutes. And his thing is kind of like Maxi light. It's just opportunity. The argument for Kobe would be, you thought it might just be like, we may not want to extend him at some point in his career.

Yeah, they signed him for 33 for three and we were like, I guess was one of those. Now it's the best contract probably of any starter.

So it really depends on, like, hey, I like the fact that maxi turning, turning into the ceiling guy, despite some of the dip numbers and dip in numbers is that he was tasked with having to take way more shots than he probably. I think he likes taking the shots, but it's a little bit like the steph stuff. Like people like, hey, you know, Steph's slumping or whatever. It's like, do you see the shots he's now accepting as a decent shot late in these games? Cause he knows this shot, even though it's bad, it's probably still better than whatever.

Ducking under two guys and double pumping one handed 25 footers for the minute left in the game. Those are the shots he's getting up.

So I think that's in the maxi numbers there a little bit. Is a, is a vote for Sam Merrill really what this award would be about?

So I looked at that and it wasn't like that dramatic, but I did, I did have Sam in my thoughts. I did check out his candidacy.

If you play eleven games total in the NBA the previous two years, and then you play in 61 this year and shoot 40% for three, like, if you're at one point, learn china, buddy to in a playoff team's rotation, isn't that the essence of most improved?

I got excited about Grayson Allen for a split second, and then I looked at the last two years and I was like, he's pretty, pretty good statistically compared to this year. So couldn't do it. I'm not talking about the clutch award. I'll vote for it on the ballot, but I don't think it deserves our, our discourse. All defense, let's just do top five. Who'd you have? First team? All defense. Did you go just putting the five best defensive players or did you try to make it kind of look like a team?

I'm trying to make this look like a team because if I don't, then I'm going to end up with like nine rim protection guys, and I don't want to do that. So I'm going to try to keep this as a team. See, I got, um, that's my all rookie, which is fun. I've got, I've got Suggs, Caruso, Wenbanyama, Herb Jones. And I put Rudy on there just to break it up a little bit. So I got the twin towers going. Cause I just, I wasn't going to put Rudy second team after voting him second in defensive player of the year. I mean, everybody's going to be pissed off at me enough after that one.

Now you're going to get somewhere. There might be a defensive player of the years. I had the exact same five, and this is nuts. Herb Jones, Suggs and Caruso are the perimeter guys that jumped out the most to me. Other than Jonathan Isaac, who I don't think qualified.

He didn't qualify.

And McDaniels had. McDaniels might be a year away from being on this list. He's not there yet. I really thought Herb Jones, like New Orleans is, defensive stats were really good and kind of backed up the eye test, they didn't look good today, but a lot of it had to do with how good he is and all the, all the different things he can do. And he had some of the best individual guarding guys possessions. It was like probably him, Isaac and Suggs of just like, oh, my God, he fucking annihilated that guy. Oh, he swallowed him up. So anyway, had to mention them. I just want to say I have Derek White, Andrew holiday on my second team. All rookie. Wembie, Chet Miller, who were your other two starters for the first team. And then we're done.

I'm fascinated. Like I said, try to write down ten rookies. We have to do all ten. Yeah, we have to do all ten because that's what's actually interesting. So same three. I went Pajemski and then Hawkez.

I did too. All right, who now gets exciting? Who'd you have for the next five?

Okay. I felt good about Kayson Wallace. Yeah, I felt good about, I felt good about Jackson Davis. I think Lively was really important to the Mavs. Had him, so I gave it to him. That's also because it became pretty slim pickings. And I know what people are going to wonder, and I think Scoot's going to make second team all NBA because his counting stats are still higher on the rookie thing. I said, talk to me next April. I'm not voting him second team all NBA. So I didn't, I put Chianti George down and then I put Amen Thompson because of his defense.

So I have George, I have lively, I have Wallace. I felt really bad about not putting.

Scoot.

But I couldn't do it.

You didn't put him down either. I get his counting stats. He has too many of the cat. Like, there's too many voters are going to look at that and go, whatever. Like I'm, I've not, I've not talked, called my broker and said, get me out of this. Okay. And he's been better the last month. He's definitely more comfortable, he's more assertive. There's a lot of good stuff in there. There's still a million turnovers and it's.

He doesn't, it was any good game he had was good stat, bad team stuff. Which Thompson did you have? Can you clarify for the audience?

Amen, Thompson.

So I had Gigi Jackson as my last one.

I love it.

I love Gigi Jackson. I gotta be honest. I thought about him for first team. Well, rookie. I thought he, I thought he was that good. In the second half of the year. I can't believe some of the games he had. I couldn't believe what I saw in person from him, and I was just really impressed. He 44 today in a loss against Denver.

You know what?

He's one of the best 19 year. You could take it. I took one of yours. You can take. You could take Gigi, put him on.

Yeah, but then I'm. Then I'm taking somebody off.

Take somebody off. I took off my coach, 47 games. Now he, that's.

Oh, wait, I sorted it.

Is he allowed on in 47?

Not for the rookies. That would have been that. You know, I'm going to leave Thompson there. I just thought for a rookie, especially, you know, I know he came in a little bit older, and the shooting is terrible. We understand. But I was desperate to find a 10th guy. Gigi might be the answer because the offensive output there. So I could change that one later on. We'll see. Okay.

All right, before we go Masters really quick. Scotty Sheffer wins the second green jacket pretty blah tournament for the most part. I love the Masters every year, so every year, the ceiling for me is like a. I mean, the floor for it is a b plus for, for me. But, um, this one, it really felt like unless somebody made a run at sheffer in the first four or five holes, he was winning, which he did. What, uh, what were. Did you have any masters takes?

Yeah, I did. I mean, Max Holme was my guy, and it was different. Cause I just don't have a lot of things that make me feel. But I had that feeling in my stomach, you know, he played so well, and then was just steady yesterday, steady again on Saturday. So I'm thinking, like, okay, he's got. He's got, like, a real chance at this.

The announcer saying how well he's striking the ball, and he's never looked more confident. It was a lot of home abuzz.

Yeah, right? I mean, he'd gone a really long stretch without a birdie, but at least he wasn't getting hurt anywhere. And then there was a moment where I let it, like, creep into my head. I was like, this might actually happen for the guy. I mean, this is somebody who lost his tour card, got it back, but we had him back on the pod, like, way before anybody, because somebody said, hey, you two guys would like each other. He invited me out to Riv and, like, me and everybody's favorite Manhattan beach resident, Teddy Purcell. They were like, I'm going to bring Teddy. And then we. I was like, is it cool if we actually do this with you on? And he's like, yeah, it's Wednesday. So we walked with Max, and he bullshitted with us the whole time during the pro am. And so, you know, from that point on, I was like, okay, I'm just going to be rooting for this guy. And then you start to think like, oh, he's been playing so much better. It's been consistently he's been better. Like, you just hope that he can be in that spot when he got a twelve or, excuse me, not a twelve.

When he got a five on twelve. Because those stupid fucking hedges, the setup for those to be a penalty. And I'm like, this sucks. The only thing, like, I felt terrible. Like, it was something I haven't felt in a long time.

Wow.

Like, I like my stomach. And I was like, oh, come on. You know? And the only thing that made me feel a little bit better about it is that scheffler just runs away with it. So home of finishing up today would have been three after yesterday. Yeah, right? Like, there's a version of it where you're like, man, if you don't get the five on twelve, does that mean, you know, you would have been within a stroke or tied or whatever? But Scheffler is just a machine right now, especially for this course. So I watched a ton. That's probably of the most I've watched since I went in 2017. And it was fun rooting for somebody that, again, it's not like we're BFF's here, but he's just such a great dude. And I shot him, you know, whatever. I mean, obviously, I facetime at like 02:00 a.m. The other night, hammered. But he was cool with it.

We last think we were trying to figure out what the score would be. That one. Me and house and Nathan. And it felt like somebody had to get to double figures, right? And it was like minus nine wasn't going to do it. So when you start looking at the board that way, and it's like, this is going to take a 66 67 for somebody to vault Scheffler. Unless he just falls apart, which, you know, he's not, because he's a machine. And that list all of a sudden shrinks. And it's like, Morikawa, it's homa, it's the swede, and it's Scheffler. And it seemed like it was going to be the swede for a second because the swede has that. You know, he's like, on those Netflix shows where they dubbed the people's voices and the true grime, and they have that handsome, Buff Swede guy who's just like, an assassin, but then he fell apart all of a sudden. That was it. The masters just gets big for these people that haven't been there. That's why they talk about the experience. Oh, my God, this would be amazing. This is his first major. Nobody does this.

It's like, yeah, this would be fucking amazing. This would be like OKC winning the title this year in the NBA. So anyway, home of the twelve was the key because he needed. You had to be in the basically mid sixties to really sniff this, and you can't have a hole like that. So that was that.

But it still wouldn't have mattered if he had part.

It matters in the sense, like, at least if you're close to somebody, they're thinking a little bit differently on 15 and 16, where it's like, oh, man, if I mess this up, this guy's right beat right on my heels. Nobody was on Scheffler's heels for the last six, right?

My point is. So he pars twelve. So he's 600. He's still five back at Scheffler. So if it finished up where Scheffler was minus seven to win the tournament, say, and homo was minus six, you know, going in with three holes to play there with a par five in front of you, too, you're like, all right, so.

But then you get minus 613, 1415. Maybe you can grab two more on that. Now you're at eight. You're at least putting some breath on his neck. Nobody was able to breathe on poor shuffler.

It just sucks.

Just an Iowa to anybody to fly.

The green on twelve. Like, there's all these things back there, but it's like, okay, one of them is actually gonna be a penalty where. Yeah, you know, not to be golf guy, but like, most setups, unless it were water, you're like, if I'm just to the left, I'm in the pine straw. If I'm there, I'm in the bunker. But if it actually gets caught into this hedge, then it's a drop in your.

Bunch of people were doing that all week, though. Whatever it is about that hole, twelve, just. It's like the. I don't know. It's just that Jedi mind tricks. You.

Scheffler, though, is like the hands of a Jeff Ogilvy with, like, the mentality of a Ken Venturi. That's what I see.

That was good. That was old school. You did that for Burt Lundquist. I'm gonna miss Burn Lundquist. I love them. Last thing UFC 300, Holloway has. Was it the greatest knockout in the history of the UFC? It's in. It's in the conversation, at least.

Yeah. It would be like the greatest game winner in the NBA, but it's not even in the Western Conference finals, probably, but I don't know that it's applicable, because for you to be up on the cards against a guy like Gaethje, who, you know, it's not really somebody you want to mess around with, point to the center of the ring and be like, let's just throw blows at each other and end this thing. Like, that's what I always loved about Jon Jones is that at his peak, he knew he was going to win the fight, but he still wanted to fight, and he would change different ways. And most of these guys are kind of wired this way anyway, especially at that level. But for to be that moment where you don't expect it to happen and then great fights elevated to this historic status. We have Anik on the pod on Tuesday who had the call, so I'm fired up.

Anak was great. We had. My son had six friends over, and we had a couple other people here, and when that happened, they were all running around the room and jumping into each other and absolutely lost their mind. Like, it was like a walk off grand slam. This is fucking crazy. That never happens. Like, he points to the middle, and you're like, what are you doing? And then all of a sudden, they're throwing bombs. It was great. And then prayer, and the last fight, waving the ref off, and then just immediately get the knockout. That was nuts, that we were saying. That's a top five. Just when you see the guy in the tv, you're like, that guy's scary. You'll see that, you know, doesn't exactly have a lot of choir boys, but there's certain guys that just have a look where you're like, yeah, that guy would want to run into that guy anywhere.

Yeah. It's going to rank one through 300, all of them.

That sounds great. Who's your number one? I wouldn't want to see that guy, that. That UFC guy. In the history of UFC.

Uh, Jon Jones. I mean, just.

No, I'm saying. No. I'm not talking about fighting. I'm talking about how they actually look. Tank Abbott. Tank Abbott's a good one. All right. I loved UFC 300, except for I don't know why they put the five round women's match between the Gaethje fight and the main event, it was. It was just weird. I would have made that the last prelim because that was going to be a certain style, but it was. What do you mean?

Are you saying it's not for you?

No, I'm saying it was. I'm saying that you want to get that second and last match. You want that to be a fast one, right? Like, you at that point, you're at the point of the card where you want to go, all right, we. We know this match is going to be awesome. We know this last match is going to be awesome. You know, we don't need. Is like 50 minutes here. I want like a knockout match. Like, I. I would have put the Holly home match second to last and just flip those.

You're not with me.

I like that over at 11:00 right.

It's just funny that I think it's going to be. People are going to forget that Max wasn't the headliner two years from now.

Yeah, it's fair. Well, that Max never. I mean, he had. That became his. His moment, right? His great moment.

Yeah. Yeah.

But did he have one before that or. It was like he had some good wins, but it was. He didn't have, like a signature. Incredible. Here's my seven second YouTube clip to remember me by.

No, but he's not a guy. Look, I don't know it as well as people listening to this, but I would say that he's had one of those awesome careers, but not. Not the icon level of a very short list of fighters. That's all. Yeah.

All right. UFC 300. Very fun weekend. Rosello. I will see you in a week. We will be talking about playoff games and who knows what the seven, eight in each conference is going to be, but can't wait to find out. Good to see you. I don't have be real with him. Must be 21 plus. 18 plus DC and present in select states. FanDuel offering online sports wagering. Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gamble problem. Call 1800 Gamble or visit fanduel.com RG in Colorado, DC, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont. Call 100 next step or text next step to 53342. In Arizona, 8887-8977 or visit ccpg.org Chattinconicut 809 with it in Indiana 805 224700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com. In Kansas, 8770 stop in Louisiana, md gamblinghelp.org in Maryland, 800 gambler.net in West Virginia 805 224700 in Wyoming, hope is here. Visit gambling help line ma.org or call 803 two seven 500:50 for 24/7 supported Massachusetts or call 18778 HOpE NY or text Hope NY in New York.