You. Coming up Sundays with Priscilla. We're going to talk some NBA next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network, which is owned, managed, and operated by Spotify. New rewatchables feed coming on Monday night, we're doing Roadhouse, 35th anniversary of the Patrick Swayze classic, one of the most rewatchable action movies ever. I can't believe we haven't done it yet, but we're doing it. It's going up Monday night. Also, if you like the Larry Sanders show and you want to hear me talk about it for over 100 minutes, I did it on the Prestige tv podcast. On Andy Greenwald's Stick the Landing podcast, we dove into why the series finale was one of the best ever, why that show is so special. I had an awesome time. So there you go. You can follow all the videos and clips from this podcast from the Rewatchables, plus my walk and talk shorts on my YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash. Bill Simmons will be running clips from the podcast you're about to hear with Ryan Rosillo. First, our friends from projamp. Uh, we're tape this. It is 440 Pacific time, three games we want to talk about.

Start with Rosillo on Saturday night. And then today, Sunday, you and I went to Nuggets Lakers. We watched Celtics warriors, and then we watched Timberwolves Clippers, and they were games with some questions, but lots of answers. And I don't know, where do you want to start? Because I think we should talk about all three.

Well, I can't believe you don't want to start with Boston, but it's actually not a great talking point. I mean, it was such a drubbing of Golden State that I don't know what's there other than, well, I'll probably just get out of the way for you. I do think we should start with the Clippers win.

Okay, let's go. What'd you see?

Well, they lost the first two against Minnesota. So as you're trying to figure out, all of these top teams in the west going like, okay, do the Clippers have a problem? You know, does this team have an.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Perfectly said. And one of the things I was looking for know, with Westbrook having this injury now, would that change Ty Lou wanting to go small? Because when I went back to game one, which went off in the third quarter, that one ended up being a close final score. Game two wasn't close at all, so we didn't have to worry about some of the Minnesota clutch numbers. So that was something else we were looking for here, because after a great start by Minnesota, they're up 30 to 15. Clippers won on a 16 run, and it was just back and forth a game in the 80s, not necessarily something we're used to, although I guess the last couple of days. But when I looked at the combination of centerman in game one, it was 38 minutes, in game two it was 37 minutes, but I felt like they were smaller or tried to get back in that one. Smaller. But that one's sort of misleading because the score was so lopsided. But it was 48 minutes of bigs, and it was tice for the most part. He played by almost 30 in crunch time, too.

Yeah. So you wonder if the Clippers small strategy at times is something against Minnesota where it's like, even though other teams have tried to get Gobert stuck by having to chase a lot of people, getting him away from the rim, and maybe Tyson, in theory, is supposed to pull Gobert away a little bit, you also have to worry about the towns part of it, like, whatever you think of towns. And he wasn't great today to have the two bigs. It was just something I was looking for. And it was an increase in minutes, at least there for Tyce and the combined center minutes that they got from that group. And Kawhi and Norm carried him, but.

No Russ, because Russ hurt his hand and he was out. And that was one of like Lou's kind of fun, weird small ball lineups with Russ basically as the point center or whatever the hell he was. So he didn't have that option, which is, I thought, one of the reasons he did the center thing, I was struck by the score and how hard it was for people to get good shots. The final score was 89 eightyat, which a lot of times is like heading into the end of the third quarter of games we're watching. In the 24 season, neither team was over 38% shoot or 39% shooting. And a lot of my fears for Minnesota were borne out by what I watched the last five, six minutes. I just don't love the shots they get, Rosillo. And if you're going to play, let's pick apart each contender. That would be how I picked apart Minnesota. There's a little bit of a knucklehead factor with them down the stretch, but I don't love the shots. And it basically turns out to be either Edwards or towns with not a lot of help, not a lot of action.

Those guys either going one on one or posting up, or it just feels stiff to me and I don't know whether this team gets bounced in round one or they make it to the western finals, but neither I'll come would surprise me at all. But if they get bounced in round one, it's going to be because of the shot selection late. I just don't like it. I think other teams have better options.

You think they're going to lose a one eight seed if they're the one seed?

I'm just saying everything's on the table for me with them.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'm sharing the same concern. Although three or so minutes to go, I started tracking the possessions and believe it or not, they actually had some good possessions there late after what looked like a grind. So we're agreeing here. I just was going, okay, how many times? They're actually going to get a good look the last three minutes and there are a few in there. I think the frustrating thing is that Ant doesn't seem to learn his lesson against this team because he had 20 points in the third quarter of game one, went for 33. And when they talked about that game after the fact, Finch apparently had told Ant, like, you got to go quicker. Ant is somebody, I would think, in these matchups because there's so much size that sometimes somebody like Anne, it's better to not even set him a screen. Like keep him out of the pick and roll, keep him out of the blitzing. And it felt like Ant was getting stuck a lot and he was the only one really doing anything for him. Monty Morris had a couple of nice threes there. The cap possessions are bad.

You know, Gobert's just kind of like an afterthought offensively. He had that nice one play to McDaniels on the dunk in the baseline. But if Ant is going to get stuck like that, I mean, they're lucky to even be in this. Except for the other side of it. Harden didn't make a shot the entire game and Paul George was terrible.

Harden, at least his passing was useful, but yeah, he couldn't hit anything. And it just seems like this team's a bad matchup for some of the stuff he wants to do. I think with the Edwards piece, if I'm the other team and there's four minutes left, Nedwards has the ball. I'm kind of excited when he's shooting threes. He's an okay three point shooter, right? He's like 38%. I don't know what his shot selection is when he's hand in the face. But I'm just so much happier when he's not going to the basket or not trying to create stuff or they're not setting him a pick. It felt like he was going up a level in February. Do you see? He averaged 31 a game in February? Like 31 a game. I know it's a shorter month, but 31 a game for a month is.

Not this year the extra day.

Leap year? Oh yeah, that's true. We did get a couple back. Yeah, but it was eleven games in February. But for me you're just watching it going Kawhi is the best player on the court, right? Like just fundamentally removing every sort of angle and oh, they're doing this. Oh, they're responding with this. It's just like Kawhi is the best guy in this game and for them to beat the Clippers in a series, I would think Edwards would have to be the best guy in a game. It's also kind of alarming how involved towns is. Like he missed ten straight shots at one point. Did you see that?

Yeah, he started five for five and then was five or 15 and then he tried to hit that runner on the baseline when he get a switch on a smaller player and it was like, man, you kind of like if.

You paused it, do you think that was going in?

No. I mean, you know how hard that.

Shot is of the hardest shot basketball.

Yeah, and he's also behind the basket. That's just a really hard shot altogether. Towns will forever confuse me on some of the stats because I swear whenever he gets those drives going and they never look good, it's like somebody falling off of a balance beam and then landing when it goes in.

Yeah, it's even worse looking than those Embiid drives when Embiid is doing the lumbering kind of lurching into somebody. Yeah, but I always. Same kind of group.

I feel like Embiid knows what he's doing. I think he knows what the end result will be. Where towns, you think freeballing it? I'll look at the stats after and go, how does he only have two turnovers? Because there's just no way they're counting the ball being swatted at and he's just lumbering in. And then you know he's going to be baseline with his hands up pissed off. And look, we realize he's a great shooter. And the size alone with the defense of what this team has, you know, it's still a coin toss if they.

Were guarding with harden though a few times. Right. But if they quarter, which is alarming.

If they had gotten a bucket and won this game, are we like, man, the Clippers just can't beat this team, so they have major problem. Like, this was a coin toss basketball game, but there's just stuff with them, I think to the greater point of what you're making, even if there was a couple of looks that I liked, like I thought there was four looks, I was like, hey, that's actually because I expected it to be even worse that you're just like, man, you guys get kind of stuck. One of the best plays they made was Conley going, all right, Ant's kind of out of it now. And Ant passed it back to me and then he went like left side and then skip passed it the other way to Monty Morris for that three. That was like one of the best things they did late in the fourth quarter. But you're right. At no point did Ant look like he was better than Kawhi today. Despite the previous, especially the first game, it looked like Ant had the Belt.

Well, there's a bigger issue, and Mike Conley has turned into one of these guys that I think he's one of the most praised glass half full guys we've had the last twelve years. Everybody just likes Mike Conley and he's been fun to watch and he's been a really good player. But this version of Mike Conley is 36 years old for point guards. Once you pass that 36 point, it gets pretty dicey. Do you see his stats today?

Yeah, zero points.

It's zero points in 28 minutes. He was over four. And I just don't think he's dangerous at the end of these games because I think the Timberwolves are one of the scariest matchups for the Celtics, that the Celtics make the finals because they have these big wings to throw on the Celtics wings, and they have real size. And when the Celtics had played them, which was twice this year, the games were awesome. And it really felt like the Timberwolves were like, we can play with these guys, we're not afraid of them. And they have just sized everywhere. And I thought Tatum and Brown were bothered by them, but Conley, it just feels like they extended him too, for, I think, 23 million for another two years. People are like, great deal. It's like, is Mike Conley an eight figure a year guy at this point in his career? I like him. But you think about all the point guards they're going to be going against every round, right? They're going to be going against Jamal Murray they're going to be going against Devin Booker. If you're going to call him a point guard, Steph SGa, you go on down the line.

Conley's like losing every matchup. Whoever the guard, you know, they didn't fix that when they hit the trade deadline. That's one thing. There's also a knucklehead factor with them. Like today they're down 15 or they're down three with 15 seconds left. Coming out of a timeout, what happens? Towns and Edwards just play kind of hot potato and neither of them like the three that they're getting. Then Edwards says, fuck. And he just drives to the basket and dunks with 3 seconds left. And then the Clippers just throw the ball and then the game's over. It's like, why didn't you guys shoot three? Every other smart team in the league is getting a three offer as a set play. So they feel a year away to me, Rosillo, the t wolves, if I had to pick, if I had to pick like course a, they're the surprise team in the finals. Course B, maybe they get shocked in round one and we're like, oh, they're a year away. They need to add this, this and this. I would probably go that way, but with that said, I'm still afraid of.

Them in a finals. Yeah, I mean, if you're saying a year away from winning a title, that's probably still a compliment. Finals. Yeah, no, that's fine. I mean, I guess sometimes the Sunday pod, I get like, okay, well, we just saw this an hour ago. So are we beating up on them a little bit too much? But I think the concerns, even as a one seed are the same concerns that we saw today. And for ant, I mean, it was a really frustrating fourth quarter for him. It's like, you got to be better than that. He made one basket in the entire fourth quarter. He took three shots. He was one for three. And the one make is the one that you're talking about a dunk where they wanted to give him a two so that they didn't take a three. So that was kind of frustrating. And it felt like one of those games. It's like, man, if Paul George and Harden are going to be this bad, you have to win this game. But Norm was so good for, for him and Kawhi was terrific. And then on the other side, you never really know what you're going to get with Jaden offensively.

You know, the defense is, you know.

Maybe the Clippers or do you know what you're going to get from Jaden.

Yeah, actually, I think I do know what I'm going to get offensively, because.

The other big game they had was that Bucks game when the Bucks won by five, and it was a little bit of the same thing, right? Conley, four for eight, nine points, McDaniels, one for five, two points. And the Bucks as that game went along, and that was a really good game. I thought that was one of the better games of the last few weeks, and it just felt like the Bucks were better. And that's the first time you would have said that about the Bucks in a while. So who knows? It's going to come down at Ken Edwards. I don't want to say go up a level, but go up a tiny step. The more you watch of this Clippers team, because what were they, 26 and five over that stretch?

Yeah, it was nuts.

The more you watch of them, do you like them more or less than you like them four or five weeks ago when both of us were like, holy shit, this is a team that has some finals pedigree, maybe.

Well, I don't like them as much as that because that was ridiculous and that was also unsustainable. So you could look at all this and go, hey, the Clippers had lost the first two. They probably needed this one a little bit more. And they pulled it out today where it still could have gone the other way. I think that Milwaukee win was huge for them because Milwaukee continues to have these stretchers like, hey, show us. Put together a few good weeks, don't have a bad loss in there where we can start looking at you as a team that still has a chance to come out of the maybe, you know, that's what's happening there. But then after the all star break, you wonder if the Clippers, because they're an older group, they put together that two months, they think, okay, we're fine. We don't need to play at that level the rest of the way. So I think the season has a way of kind know, cycling through schedules and all the good teams usually have some really nice stretches in there, followed by some bad ones. So, yeah, look, they're not as dominant as they were.

Their defense actually isn't as good as you would think it would be. If you go through some of the defensive numbers for how well they've played, there's some stuff there with them defensively, like the Clippers overall. Offensively they're fourth. Defensively they're 14th. If you go since January 1 and really depends on how you want to sort the offensive numbers. They're all off the charts for the Clippers. They're number two in offense, but they're 18th in defense since January 1, which is kind of surprising for a team that we're like, yeah, I could see them maybe winning the whole thing, which I still would say today. But the Clippers against the Timberwolves on the season, their offense is usually like in the low one hundred and twenty s per one hundred possessions and prior to today, and actually the numbers might even have gone down when they sort them again, they were like 108. So whatever it is, their offense has a problem. They still get held to 89 here. So their offense doesn't seem to work as well against Minnesota, which you would expect because it's arguably the best defensive team in the NBA still.

But I would like to see something else other than ant where I'm like, okay, this is the thing I can kind of depend on. And I don't know if town's like the three point shooting is there, but it's got to be off a drive. It's not like he's going to get that three up off the dribble. He's not going to be going through his legs and then getting a little space like a pruner player taking that three and the drives, even though every time I look up at his drives and his points for possession on the drives, it ends up being better than I thought it would be because the visual of like, here we go. And sometimes he's just really bad with the basketball. I mean, sometimes I feel like makes Jalen Brown look like Kyrie out there because it's just like guys are swatting. Like when Harden got him today on that strip. It's a great defensive strip. I think they challenged a call on that, but it's like, dude, you're huge. You could be stronger with the ball in that moment.

Yeah. Last 20 games, not counting today, they were number one, a defensive rating. It was 106.2, which is really, really good.

They're like two points or 112.

Yeah.

Whoever's number two, it might be Cleveland right now, they're still like two plus points better than them, which is significant.

So the case for them, because we were a little down on them, I think a little earlier in the segment, the case for them is that their defense is so good and when we get to the playoffs, all these offensive stuff ends up going a little sideways, the games become a little more rock fighty, and they're a good rock fight team. Like today's game against the Clippers was a rock fight. 89 eightyat. But that's kind of what is more like the playoffs than that Celtics warriors game we watched. So I still feel like they need to figure out offensively who they are in the last five minutes. And I don't know if. Edwards. Edwards. You know what they reminded me of, actually, like, where the Celtics were in 2020, where it was like, all right, we need a basket up. Everybody's standing. Somebody has the ball. They're going to try to do something where nobody's moving. You watch the Celtics today. It was beautiful. Minnesota is so far away from what we saw in that celtic game offensively, even though they have some good players. That celtic game, quickly, how much time? We don't spend more than, like three minutes on it, right?

I don't know what. It's the largest halftime lead they've ever had. Our 44 at the half. I mean, that was just one of those games where it's going, okay, everything's going to go in. I mean, everything went in.

I wrote down that was the first ever fuck you performance of the Tatum Brown era. Not perennially a fuck you combo, but there was a fuck you to them. And it started with Draymond not guarding Jalen Brown on that one three. And Jalen Brown's like, fucking seriously, do you not have league pass? What are you doing? I don't know what Draymond was thinking with that, but in know, this is a big brother, little brother situation, and they've been the little brother against this warriors team for a while. They're one in five in their last six, counting the last three finals games against the warriors, and the one win was an overtime game. The warriors just had some sort of hold over them, and they kind of needed to do it this way. This needed to be like the, we're going to beat the shit out of you and have a little attitude. And then watching Curry say afterwards he had a quote like that reminded me of what we used to do to teams. It felt a little torch passy. I'm trying not to get too excited about it, but I was really proud of how fucking cutthroat they were in that game.

I mean, they were like, really pouring it on in a fuck you way. I loved it.

You didn't think the 41 point win against Milwaukee last year felt like that?

The game seven?

No. Towards the end of the regular season.

This was different. They can't beat this team. This is like Draymond, like doing podcasts a year later about how he psyched out Jalen Brown and there was some extra stuff in here. They have the best point differential since the Golden State warriors. Right now their point differential is 11.4. There's only four teams in the history of the NBA who's better than that. 72 Lakers $71.96 Bulls 17 warriors which are in the running for any greatest team ever conversation. Those four are usually four of like the five or six mentioned. I don't know if it's going to continue but just the territory they're in right now is pretty unique. The Celtics team, I have a question for you. So Joe Missoula, who I think was 30 to one for coach of the year on fanduel like a month and a half ago and my friend Ben Schwarin texted me and was like, why is Missoula 30 to one? Like the Celtics have a chance to win like 65 games. This was the first kind of stretch they've had these last three weeks because I think they've gone up a level the last three weeks. I really do.

And we talked about a little last week but it's the first time I was like, man, this team's like very well coached. I really think they've made great strides with all the different ways they attack offense, how they kind of take what the defense gives them now and uses it against them, how hard the guys have been playing the last few weeks, how the bench guys are always ready. Like Porzingis didn't play today and it's like, all right, Luke Cornette, we're going to dust you off. Can you give us some good minutes? I like the vibe with this team and I've been impressed. I'm not going to call him second row Joe anymore. I think he's earned the right to dump the nickname.

What 11th straight could do for you.

Yeah, they're 48 and twelve.

You know what I like with a team? Does it feel like your guys can figure it out on your own? So it doesn't really speak to coaching in game but it might be all the stuff that you're doing or it could just be, hey, these guys have been going at it now since 1718, right?

There's a real foundation, right?

But there's a foundation with the two guys that are the most important two guys. Although you could argue Prozingis is as important as Jalen Brown is just because of matchups and how he could in theory bring the other teams big away because you got to stay honest with Prasingis because of his shooting. But there have been games. They smoked Dallas the other night, man, and that was like, oh, wait, this guy's going to go for four minutes. Okay, now this guy's going to have his little stretch.

And that was Luca had a 30. 711. Twelve. And they lost by like 28.

Yeah, that was a game. Sitting at home going, they're just pouring it on this team right now. Again, I think Dallas is okay. Today's loss was pretty disheartening against a beat up Philly team, but when they get it on a roll like this, and look, they'll probably have a little stretch here where we start talking about them relying on threes a little bit too much and none of it matters. I mean, none of it matters.

They're not doing that as much now, though. I think that's been one of the things I really like with how Missoul has coached them, because initially I just thought they were shooting too many threes, settling too much for threes. You even saw today a couple of times. I feel like a year ago they would have shot some threes. Where today? Tatum. There's two things that happen with Tatum, which I've been really impressed by. One is he doesn't care if he doesn't score in the first quarter. You're laughing that now. I'm doing like a Celtics orgasm.

No, but I mean, they took 49 threes today.

No, I know, but that was also the pace of the game. There were times when they passed up threes and went to the basket, I guess, is my point. But the Tatum piece of it. Well, part of the reason they were taking threes in the beginning was Draymond Green was like, I dare you to take the three. They were like, cool. They made their first nine. They were like, nine for nine from three. But Tatum doesn't scare if he doesn't score. Doesn't care if he doesn't score in the first quarter, he'll be like, I'll get mine. I'm going to get to 27. I don't need him now. Oh, Jalen's feeling it. Oh, poor Zingis has it going. I'll get mine eventually. And then he can kind of heat up in the red spots. He's been doing this over and over again. That's one thing. The other thing is, and they did this against Philly. When Philly guarded the three point line, they just attacked the basket. They've gotten really good at like, oh, you're going to guard us this way, then we'll do this. Which is something they just couldn't do. Last year.

They're nasty, man. They're nasty. And I don't know how. I don't think. I think the weird thing for them is it's almost like an Ohio state lost to LSU in Florida in the national championship games years and years ago. We're going back like 15 years now.

Yeah.

And it's like people were making Ohio State jokes and you go, well, wait. Everybody gets to laugh at them because they're playing in the last game. And look, last year is still, I think, one of the most absurd scenarios for them to lose that Miami Heat team. I can't believe they lost that series. All right? We've covered a million times. We talked about it the entire run of it all last year. But because it's a finals loss in 22, it's to this absolute underdog in 23 that then it's funny because I was watching a Heat game the other night, and I like the heat better this year than I do last year. And I'm watching the game and the announcer is like, man, they need Caleb Martin to get back to kind of who he was against Boston. You're like, that's the whole point. The whole point is that he became like, there were things happening in their playoff run, whether it was Jimmy's numbers against Milwaukee, where you're like, wait, what did he do? And then in the beginning, the way they closed out Boston in those games at home, and then what Caleb Martin was doing and then what they actually had to do to even get one game against Denver last year.

So I like the heat. When I watch him now, it's like, oh, here we go. Post all star. They're cranking it up. They're deeper. They have more options. They know they can default to their defense.

They don't have Kyle Lowry.

Yeah, they don't have Kyle Lowry, although it was good to see Lowry get a couple of calls today where it's like, wait, you guys are going to give them this fall down in the paint thing? You got 48 years old, right? You haven't seen him enough. Where I bet you the refs got together after the Dallas games. Like, man, you fell for the Lowry.

It's like, loser, $20.

I hadn't seen it in like eight months. You're right. You got me. So the reason I bring up the Ohio State comparison is that there feels like there's more doubt for a team that should have a lot less doubt than the teams that don't even make it that far. I'm shocked how often I'll have someone just in my day to day be like, hey, do you think Boston's good? I'm like, what do you mean, do I think they're good? I'm like, I think they're nasty. You want to tell me there's still a little hesitation until you actually do. I mean, them winning a title would make a lot of sense this year, but how many teams do you have ahead of them? What are we comparing here? So sometimes when you fail later than everybody else, people are more critical of you. Where the reality tells you they're winning 80% of their games. They've won eleven in a row. They're super deep, they have multiple scoring options, they have multiple ways to attack you. And everybody kind of complements each other really well. Like Derek White doesn't get in the way of anything. Drew Holiday has had to sacrifice the most.

He's not going to get in the way. Purzingis is happy. He doesn't have to take a million shots there to be happy. And you have one of the top seven or eight guys with the ball in his hands to close a game.

In Tatum, 48 and twelve, which has only happened 31 times. They were the 31st team to do it. I was more excited about this stat until I looked at the teams and saw the 2015 Atlanta Hawks about point differential or record. No going 48 and twelve or better.

Remember how weird that team was?

The 2015 Atlanta Hawks went 48 and twelve in their 1st 60 games.

Yeah, but nobody liked them. You want to talk about liking it?

Just pointing it out and then the point differential stuff is crazy. I'm glad you brought up Drew because I was looking at his usage stats and his field goal attempts today. Last year at Milwaukee, his usage rate was 25 and this year it's like 16 and he was like 15.3 field goal attempts a game. This year he's like 10.3. I think he's sacrificed the most because he's in a contract year now. Whether there's a lot of teams with cap space, maybe he's like, I'm going to be fine. I'm just going to try to get a title here. But it's not easy to go from I was the guy that had the ball in his hands as much as anyone on the Bucks except for Yanis, to being like, I went three for seven today and we won by 50. The fact that he sacrificed the way he has, I think has really helped this team because there's an unselfishness to the way they play now. That was not there last year and that's been the most delightful thing to me as a celtic fan. I feel like the unselfishness is ramping up, and guys, they're trying to create plays for each other instead of just trying to create a play for themselves.

And I think that starts with him and white, because those guys don't give a shit. They don't care what their stats are. They just care about filling in and being glue guys. And not to get sappy, but this is a big Celtics tradition way back when of guys sacrificing, like, during the Russell era, like Paul Silas, Dennis Johnson, and Robert Parrish. This is what we grew up with. Even Ray Allen in 2008 being like, yeah, I'll throw away six shots. Give those shots to Paul Pearson. KG. I'm good with that. This is what we grew up with, baby. We're back. Sacrifice.

Somewhere. Chris Bosch is like, wait, so they only happens in.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, I'm right here. Let's take a break. And then we're going to talk about the one team that is still staring at the Celtics. All right, Rosilla. We went to Lakers Nuggets last night. We watched LeBron James get 40,000 points for his career, which was cool. And then we watched Denver lay the smackdown on them down the stretch, and Denver wanted the game. Denver was not getting a ton of calls. Yokich, I'd want to say there was something, like, unique about the game for him, but that he does this every single fucking game. He seemed, like, slightly more excited about beating the Lakers last night than usual, but to me, it's like another night for him. Murray went into playoff Murray mode, and Porter was great and made a bunch of big shots. And then Gordon got going down the stretch, and you just watch him, and you're like, all right, this is still the team. I still feel like the Celtics can go 68 and 14, and I would still feel like the road goes through Denver, not just because they won last year. I think Yokich is the best player in the world, and I honestly don't even think it's that close.

We have a lot of awesome players, but Yokich is just levitating over everybody right now. It is so fucking fun to watch him in person. I took my wife. I took my wife to the game. She'd never seen him. I was like, you got to see him. This is like once every ten years territory for what it's like to watch this guy. And she just couldn't believe some of the stuff he was doing. She was like, does he play like this every game? I'm like, yeah, that's why I always have the Nuggets on when you're in, and I have the three games on and the Nuggets are always on the big tv. But he was awesome, and it was interesting because it was supposed to be LeBron's night, and I left, like, just thinking about Jokic.

So I've made it to crypto four times in eight nights, which is a record for me. Lakers, Clippers, Lakers Nuggets, kings, Ducks.

Oh, kings, Ducks, right.

And then Lakers, spurs.

Well, what about when you'll be, you'll be back for. That's your. Rempy's your guy? Have you legally adopted him yet?

No, but I just feel like, can rempy just at the next warm up, go to the red line and be like, hey, guys, can we take a fucking night off? One of you guys?

My right eye is completely closed. Can nobody fight me today, please?

Can I just get through tonight without having to fight anybody?

For people listening, there's a six foot eight rookie on the Rangers that Rosillo has declared his favorite hockey player in years. And this guy just gets in and fighting. He doesn't even really seem like he totally knows how to fight because I don't think people have really challenged him to fights. Who is that guy who annihilated him?

Was it Oliver?

The third fight? Yeah, the third fight he had.

He was throwing uppercuts. Uppercuts?

Yeah, he was just getting him.

No, he got him pretty good. The Flyers fight, I thought he won and then.

Yeah, I thought he won. That, too.

Was a bit of a tap out. Although Reeves kind of had the belt. Again, I'm not exactly locked in hockey guy, but as soon as I saw the. Then, you know, I went with Aaron Miller to the Kings game because he played with the Kings or both Vermont guys. He's a good friend. His son stayed with me this week, so it was a nice reunion to have him back out of Manhattan beach. And then it was funny because they put him up on the jumbotron and he was like, come on. And I'm like, yeah, build a statue. He's not going to get a statue. So the point is he was like, have you noticed this Rempi guy? And he was like, have you seen his interviews? I was like, yeah, I know. I've heard of him. But it wasn't like he was this top level prospect. He's just huge. And then as soon as he talks, okay, like, he had a game winner in the first game, but then he had had, like, seven minutes of ice time and then 27 penalty minutes, which is a tough ratio to pull off. And the interview, he's just this canadian.

Like, I love those canadian guys where they're like, western canadian, and I don't even know. I think that's where he's from. And he's like, oh, yeah, we're throwing bombs, just full tilt. He's like, yeah, I mean, it really is.

What's funny is he's an inch shorter than Chara, but seems like he's like five inches taller and 100 pounds heavier. Like, when you see there's something about he's got kind of a Carl Anthony towns kind of body almost. He's just giant, right.

And just to understand the hockey culture, like, he's stretching before the game's ready to go. And then one of the other just bruisers from the other teams, like, hey, you want it? And he's like, yeah, sure do.

Let's go first.

Yeah. So the first shift they got, it's on. And that was the outdoor classic. And then he had a game winner. He's not a huge goal scorer. I mean, he's never on the fucking ice because he's constantly in fights.

Well, his fighting style, because the fighting almost got too good in hockey, where it's just the science of it, he's like a throwback to the 70s, like how Terry O'Reilly used to fight, where it's just like he's just kind of throwing bombs and he doesn't care if he gets hit. Yeah. Which is really unique.

Now, the Reeves fight was interesting because he was holding. The key thing is like, all right, he's going to be able to hold, and he has this reach, but if you're strong enough, you can kind of impede the other guy's punches. So as he was holding with his jab hand, holding the jersey, he just started punching with the hand that was holding the jersey against Reeves.

That's what Charlie used to do.

Reeves is such a badass that it's not like you're going to rough him up there. But, yeah, I mean, every time I'll be like, okay, what were the highlights from the Rangers game? And you just check it out on x.

So funnyama him and Wemby are the big stars of social media this year. Happens, you know, right away I had.

Our booker ask for him because I was like, let's just do it. Because the interview is what sold me on him. It's not that he's huge. It's not that he's just canadian. It's not that he's getting into all these fights when he was so excited. They were like, quite the first week, he was like, yeah, couple fights, game winner.

He's playing with his toy racetrack in his hotel room. Yeah.

Like, if he traveled with legos, I wouldn't be shocked.

I just want to correct. You said our didn't. Her full name is our beloved Booker, Allison.

I know Booker. I just don't want anyone to know how great she is.

That's fair. Yeah, maybe we should.

I rave about her all the time so everybody knows what I think of.

Allison, our beloved Booker. Allison. We love you, Allison. Wait, so four time in eight days at the crypto staples, whatever the hell it's called now, and the Yokich Murray combo. Murray wasn't even really good in the first half, and then I don't think he scored. He had two, and then at halftime it was clear. What's interesting, I was talking to Chuck Minnehall about this today because he's a big Nuggets fan. The Nuggets will. They'll shift shapes during a game like yesterday because Jokic will have games where he won't shoot in the first quarter. Right. It'll just be, he'll have zero points and six assists and seven rebounds. You're like, whoa, is he not going to score in this game? And then all of a sudden he'll have 17 points? Yesterday, I think he had eleven shots in the first quarter, and they were going to him. Going to him. The Lakers are guarding with Rui, and they were doing the thing where Davis comes over and helps, and he was just shooting a lot, and it was weird. It was uncharacteristic. And I was trying to figure out why they were doing it that way.

And the reason I think they were doing it that way was, I think, my guess, they're worried because it's LeBron night, crowds hyped, Lakers are playing really well. And I think Malone must have thought, we got to stay in this game. In the first half, we'll get him second half. So they ride Jokic and then second half, and they got some good porter shots, too. But then second half, it became a Murray game, and they just shift into this different identity where now things are running through Murray more and he's using know his. His, basically his binky. And then they can shift again. Last five minutes. All of a sudden it was a jokic game again. And I think that's over. Everything else, why they're so hard to play because they can kind of just decide who they want to be and you can't do anything about it.

I totally agree. Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense because I think that's the brilliance of Jokic and the old school point guard argument that I would always make that I think it's tough to make it in this league if you can't score and you can't shoot. If you're going to be a guard now, it's not going to work. But the value we had in those players that weren't great for scoring options or maybe didn't light it up from the outside and those guys lived in the league for a really long time was that I think they just understood how to attack and how to change attacks and how to anticipate adjustments to what you're doing. And I think a lot of that gets lost now or it just doesn't really happen.

It's a skill Tatum is starting to develop in real time.

I love that we got Tatum back in there.

No, pull it back. No, but he really is. I feel like he is actually starting to grasp this a little bit now. Like, oh, they're doing this, so I'll do this. I don't think he thought that way last year. Yeah.

You know who I think is one of the greatest? Well, obviously Durant's one of the greatest scorers ever, but you'll see certain stuff that he'll do, like in the second half because he was anticipating what was happening. It's like, okay, wait, so if they're coming up to meet me this way, then I need to either get this shot off immediately or I need to be able to swing it to where the help is coming from. I think Duran is really good with that and it has been for a long time. It's kind of like to the point of some of the ant stuff.

I was going to say this is what? Ant is not close to this yet. Yeah.

But I do think Ant has some really good passes off of drives, and today it was bad. Like he had that one that led to the norm windmill that was just, he got frustrated, got too deep, and there was really no one to throw it to. So that was a bad example of it. But yeah, I think there's an understanding where the point guard would do a lot of this stuff for you. Right. So now Jokic is that guy as a center. And the other thing with Jokic, too, there's just something to like, hey, we know what it says in the program, but when you look at a guy's shoulders and you look at his hips, you'll see where his shoulder height is in comparison to the other guys that are supposed to be as big as him. You're like, okay, he's also doing this bigger than everybody else. And that's what I love so much about going to that Wizards game in Denver, what, a week and a half ago live was that, okay, these guys, like, their help is late. I'm going to just screw around with them for the entire first quarter.

So, you're right. Against the Lakers, and I counted up what he had, 25 field goal attempts, which might be what a lot of teams would say, cool, shoot more. And maybe the other guys aren't as engaged because I think Yokich would be happy taking ten shots in a big game. Okay, as long as he's controlling everything because he still touches the ball more than anybody else in the league. But of the 25 field goal attempt, 17 of them were against single coverage. There were six against AII. Don't know how many you would really say were hard doubles. It might ended up that ad was able to kind of cheat and stay there. But of the six double teams, they weren't all just, hey, we're double teaming you. And then there was two where he just kind of got loose and everybody lost track of the rotations and he ended up wide open. But against Rui, he had Rui in it, I think, like 1617 times on the shot attempts.

Right? And by the way, Rui played as well as he could play, but he.

Still can't do anything with him, which isn't a knock on Rui because almost no one can do anything with him because what they're doing the entire time is okay if Rui's the single assignment, which it was the whole time. Now, granted, look, he got ad a couple of times, he got LeBron once.

Well, and they left Gordon alone. They were like, you're going to be open the whole game.

Good luck. Right? But they made ad at least have to think about Gordon because you could.

See slide screens, right?

Jokic kind of waits and even look at a guy being like, hey, go away. Like, get him a step that way, and then that's where I'm going to attack. And then it's his footwork and he has the best hands in the league and all this other stuff. So it was kind of fun to see him have to be aggressive. And then he had two late buckets where that game was. Murray Porter didn't miss a shot, but right from like three minutes on, it's like, all right, enough of you guys. And I think the Lakers are probably doing as well as they possibly could. I don't know. If you say if you're ham, let's give him a hard double. And if he burns us with a pass to Gordon, which he's probably going to do, let's just make him think about it a little bit differently. I think that might be the only thing with last night's game, is that the Lakers never really made him have to think about the coverage any differently because I went through it again this morning and it wasn't. It was pretty predictable.

Yeah. Sometimes these teams do this move where they're just like, we're just let Jokic get his points and we'll take away everybody else, and it's like, okay, cool, do that. And then when you're watching real time, it's so demoralizing. When he's just over and over again backing dude down. It's like four footer, six footer, bank shot. And you can't do that for two and a half hours. He's too good and it's too easy for him to score. So you're like, oh, we got to fix that. And then once you fix it, that's when he's like, okay, now I'm going to go to work.

And everything off his hands. Bill is so soft. Like, you know, it's soft on tv. Watching it in person. It feels like the balls. You're shocked when it doesn't go in. It goes in all the time already.

It doesn't go in. Yeah, it just falls.

It shifts down.

My wife asked me to hang out here.

Go ahead.

Well, he does these things. Like when you see it in person, it's somehow easier to watch on tv than in person. In person. Those redirect passes when it seems like he's shooting. And then you see at the last second, Gordon's coming in for a dunk or somebody else, or Peyton Watson, whatever, and it's like in real time, he's changing his mind, or maybe he's not, but it seems like a shot, then it's a pass. And my wife was asking, like, did he create this? Has anyone ever done this before? And I'm like, I actually think he might have created this. I don't remember seeing a player decide mid move that, no, I'm actually going to throw this perfect alley hoop because the alley is always perfect. It's right next to the rim. It's the easiest. There was some harrison wind I think. I think that's his name, the Nuggets guy. He had this montage today of all the Yokich Gordon alley oops. They're all perfect. They're all just next to the rim, and Gordon just gets to put them. I don't. Do you remember anyone doing this before?

I think Luca does it a lot where you're like, you think it's going to be an up and down you go. Oh, right. The first thing you learn is don't leave your feet if you don't know what you're doing. He clearly knows what options are there for him. But the visual journey of that moment where you're like, what's he going to do? And you're like, oh, a perfect touch pass to this cutter. And look, I mean, magic probably did also.

Yeah, magic way back. Yeah. But magic was almost like there was more flair to it. There's no flair with these yokage passes. It's just these very functional, awesome decisions.

No, the flare is that you don't know where it's going. Where magic, it had all the flare you could imagine.

Bird did the same. Those are the DJ.

A little bit sneaky. Mid 83 to you know who is one.

Stop. You know who is one section over from us? The Joker. What? Djokovic. He was there watching the Joker last night.

Wait, what section were you in?

I was in the section facing the Laker bench, basically, little toward mid court, and the Joker was right to our left watching the Joker. Yeah, great stuff with Vladi dbots there.

They didn't put Djokovic up then because they put Vladi up on the big screen.

I don't. Maybe Joker was like, the other Joker. He's like, joker two. I really wanted to go up to Vladivats and. And just say to him, hey, man, you know, we've never met. My name is Bill. I do podcasts. I used to write about basketball. I just had to ask. You saw Luca in person a gajillion times when he was like, 15, 1617. How did you not take him on the Kings? What did he not do that made you go, no, it's going to be Marvin Bagley, actually. How did you not know? I knew. Watching NBA tv, watching these stupid freaking euro league games when Luca was 17 and he was the fucking best guy in the game. How did you not know? You were right there and you watched him grow up. How'd you miss this one? I would just love to know the answer. I hope somebody asked him that. Yeah.

That's pretty scary. Because it was kind of reminds me of when you were like, man, the Celtics didn't take Chris Dunn. All right. Well, I just feel like he's just down the street.

If there was a guy at, if you were living in Vermont and there was a guy at UVm who was awesome at basketball and you went to a bunch of basketball games, at some point, you would have a hard opinion on the person, right? Yeah. You'd be like, here are my thoughts. I've watched him play a pretty great.

Yeah. Couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it didn't work out. Eddie B.

We had to talk about the Lakers side of this because we were talking on the phone earlier and I didn't understand why they were playing Cam reddish late. Why didn't they put Russell in there? Because I thought the Nuggets had some issues with Russell, but for the most part, I don't really know what else they can do with that team because they're just not good enough defensively. They can't get stops, and it's weird. Davis, who I think has been really good this season, right? Would you agree this has been one of the better Anthony Davis seasons?

Yeah, he's played all year.

He's been really good defensively for the greatest year.

You know what I mean, though? Like how the storyline of how last year plays out, like, oh, they killed the trade. Like, they did a really good job of reinventing themselves, but they also got ad back for the whole stretch, so that's kind of what happened. So now that you're getting this kind of season out of him, and I know there's second halfs that are a little disappointing, I'll be honest with you, man. If you're a big guy waiting for the ball in the fucking post, how often is it really your fault you're not getting it in today's game? I see these shows and they'll be like, oh, this guy sucks. He only had this many shots. Oh, really? Was he a big, and they didn't get it to him in the post a ton? No way. And I say that's right because that's what the game is. And for Anthony Davis to be as good as he is, and granted, the shooting isn't what it used to be. Like, the full scope of the best version of Anthony Davis, I don't know if that perimeter guy's there anymore or if we're ever going to see it again.

The 15 footer doesn't look quite the same these days. That's the one thing I noticed in person. Like, even when it goes in, it kind of rattles in, but it doesn't seem like he has the same lift. I wonder, do you think he just put on too much weight because they were so determined for him to be a center? Maybe it's helped him in some respects, but I don't understand why he's not around the rim all the time. Why couldn't he be the Aaron Gordon for LeBron in some ways and just be this guy instead?

He was more skilled than Aaron Gordon.

Could ever dream, obviously, but I'm saying he just seems like he's settled into being a center versus this crazy athlete that he was. I think when the guy we watched in New Orleans was this fucking athlete.

Remember, though, how they massaged this in the beginning where they'd keep guys around, they'd keep these centers around, because he didn't want to be a center, he wanted to be a power forward. And then once they got him signed up and everything, it's like, hey, you're just going to be a center. I mean, the fact that he's been healthy and he's been this good, but look, I'll understand some of the frustration with him and having certain nights, you're like, how come he's not? But he always is around the rim. He's always.

Stats are the same. Yeah, he's still 25 a game. That's a typical Davis season. He's still. Twelve rebounds a game. He shoot 56%. It's right around where he's been at the best spots of his career. But he also seems like an afterthought. A lot of the times when you watch these close Laker games, it seems like everything is decided by LeBron or Reeves. And then sometimes when he's in there and Davis just seems like, hey, we're just going to use you for defense and rebounding, and maybe you'll get a couple of offensive rebounds and some putbacks. But I'm trying to think, like, is this Lakers team good or not? It's hard for me to accept that they're a 500 team with Davis having an awesome year, and they have other guys I like. I think Reeves is a good rotation guy. LeBron is obviously a really good offensive players at this point, even if defensively he's rough, dealo, above average offensive point guard who can't guard anybody.

That was weird last night because they were basically like, dinwiddie played 20 minutes last night, and I bet if you were just walking out of there being like, hey, over under on Dinwiddie's, minutes, you're like, I don't know, eight or nine.

I forgot about 19 of the 20.

Right. So you mentioned the reddish minutes there because I think they got so frustrated with D'Angelo Russell defensively, and then they had Dinwiddie in for some of those minutes, too, in the fourth quarter.

But reddish just isn't like, he's not a good basketball player. I don't think he should play any minutes.

Dinwiddie just stopped initiating offense for some reason. I don't know what happened to him.

Lost his confidence.

Yeah, but this is carried over with the Nets. He averaged seven shots per game for them in January. And then now, if you think it.

Was his feud with Kyle Kuzma, he lost his confidence.

Remember him with the Mavericks? That wasn't in 20.

He was like an irrational confidence guy. Yeah.

That was always the thing with him, is that, hey, maybe you're a little too into your offense, but when it going, it was actually pretty good. He had nights where it felt like he was almost unstoppable. And I saw a couple of possessions last night, I was like, man, you don't even want the ball, do you? So it's like, okay, so if you don't want the ball, but you're out there, don't play. Get him out, then. What are you doing? And ham's clearly going through that, by the way. We have to talk about 40,000 points. Okay.

Yeah. I was going to audible to it my last question on the Lakers, because I feel like they're in the same spot with the warriors, where I think both of them are the good bad teams. Like, they're playing Washington or Charlote or Atlanta, Toronto. I could list ten other teams. They're probably going to win, but the better the competition is, I think the worse off they are. And even, like, when they beat the Clippers the other night, that game was a fluke. That game was over. And then LeBron just started making a bunch of crazy shots and the Clippers fell apart and they stole the game. I feel like they've stolen five or six games. But the warriors, same thing where they were 13 and three, but Denver waxed them, Celtics waxed them, but they won in Toronto the other night. I want to take them more seriously as kind of, oh, I could see them coming in the play and upset somebody, but I just don't think either of them has it upset somebody or like a hot take.

But no, I've been dismissive of both teams as far as, like, winning the west. I just think the west last year was kind of a joke.

Yeah, I think you're right.

In comparison to what it is this year.

Let's take a break and do 40,000 points. All right, so LeBron gets 40,000 points. And the question is, rosillo, will anyone else do this in our lifetime?

No.

I'm not willing to rule out Luca for this. And I sent you. So I broke down the numbers in four quadrants of players and basketball reference. You can do this. The most points people scored from ages 19 to 24, from 25 to 30, from 31 to 36, and then from 37 to 43. And it was interesting because LeBron had the most points of anyone under 25 years old. He had 12,993, and Durant was 700 behind him. Luca at almost 11,000. But he's played less games for a variety of reasons. So he is basically 2000 behind the LeBron pace heading into age 25. From ages 25 to 30, LeBron is 16th for most points. Bunch of dudes in front of him. Wilt Harden, Gervin, Malone, Wilkins. He keeps going. Ages 31 to 36, he climbs back up. Now he's fourth again. Kareem was third, Carl Malone second. And your number one leader for points, ages 31 to 36. Alex English.

Love that.

I wouldn't have guessed that in 20 tries, but that's who is the leader. And then LeBron is now fourth for ages 37 to 43, he's 2800 behind Kareem. So there's two things going on. One is he's basically been 27 a game for 21 years, and he's been really durable. Luca is averaging like 34 a game, and I don't think he's as durable, and I don't know if he'll care about his body in the same way. But with scoring becoming easier as the years pass and the three point, all these different things, it's like if Luca averages 32 to 36 a game for like seven, eight years here, I think he's going to be a little closer than people realize. The difference is what we saw last night, where LeBron's 39 years old and he still looks like a running back just flying through full speed and doing a lot of the stuff that he wanted. So I think Luca is the only one who has a chance. Is my long winded point.

Yeah, I was doing the math on a couple of different guys. I looked at Anthony Edwards and just like, this is stupid. Like, I'm just going to stop because you start going, well, if he gets 2000 points a season for the next however many seasons, actually, most guys don't even hit 2000 points. 2000 points is a huge number. Lucas hit 2000 points one time in his career. He's going to hit it again this year. So then you were like, okay, so now I got to start plugging in 1700, 800 points per season. And then you go, okay, cool. So now the next ten years, let's tack on 18,000 to your seven that you already have of your aunt. So like, okay, it's 25,000 when you're going to be in your early thirty s. And now all you have to do is score another 1529 a game. Basically. I don't know how anyone's going to have the longevity. I think with scoring never being easier than it has been the last couple of years. And I think this year is the apex of this. I think it's to a point where I wonder if the NBA digs in a little bit deeper on some.

I think both of us are starting to feel like they are going to actually address this this summer. There's going to be a couple of moves that they. I don't think they love this.

Yeah, this is beyond now what was supposed to happen. All of us were fine with the three point shooting and everything. I just think there's a league wide frustration. Forget you guys on a podcast. I'll just say this with a slight smirk on my face, that I think the league in its entirety would rather some of this stuff be cleaned up where the offensive player can literally do whatever he wants now and get to the free throw line so they can make it a priority. They can say they're going to change it, then it's like, okay, it's march of next season.

I think Joe Dumars, I think half of the texts that he gets are clips of offensive players creating some sort of fake foul from one of the 30 coaches or gms. I think they just send them to Dumars now. Hey, Joe, check out Trey Young. Hey Joe, check out this Jalen Brunson play. Hey, Joe, look at this. Malik monk push off like this is Joe Dumars's life right now. Something's going to change.

I would agree. I think we're in agreement on that. You know, are the free throw rates going to stay the same? And if you look at Luca's free throw rates last year he was at 48%. So he was getting a free throw attempt. It was for every two shots he was getting a free throw attempt.

You know who could have really challenged this? 40,000? I was looking at it was Kobe. And it set me down this rabbit hole of Kobe's 2013 season when he lost his mind and he started playing 48 minutes every game, which was insane as it was happening. Like, literally, it was insane. I was doing tv that year and we were like, and everyone's like, this is amazing. This guy's a word and it's like, this is insane. He's going to get hurt. And then he blew out his achilles. But that next season he only played six games. And then the season after that, he only played 35. And remember, he got hurt in the second to last game of the season in 2013. So if he just doesn't get hurt and then he plays instead of 41 games, plays, I don't know, 140. He ended up with 33,643 points. He probably left hundred. He left another 3000 on the table when he got hurt, right? And then maybe he stays on and keeps going for it. And he was never really the same after he hurt his achilles. But just him refusing to come out of games ended up being the reason he get 40,000 points.

I remember doing segments when we were kind of mapping out how Kobe was going to get to 40,000 points and beat Kareem and all that stuff. This was a topic in 2013 and then it was over. LeBron just never had the major injury that was one of the secrets of his success.

Kobe shot.

Oh, you're looking, see, I did this last night. I was dying. Every game is like 47 minutes, 48 minutes, 43 minutes.

Well, the season you're talking about where he played the full. He averaged 39 minutes a game. But you're right baked in. There were games where he was like, I'm just staying out here, right?

The last ten or eleven games, I think he averaged like 42 minutes a game. This was his age, 34 season. But he had been in the league for 17 years at that point. It was amazing when it was happening in real time. He hated Dwight Howard so much. He was just like, I'm never coming out. I'm just staying in.

Well, because I brought it up with the LeBron looking for like a three year 160 deal, opt out of the player option, resigned three years, 160. And I brought up from what, over ten years ago, we were all still working at ESPN. And then Kobe had, he was going to be a free agent after the 14 season where he played only six games. But clearly they didn't want to lose him, so they gave him two year deal, five. And the whole point was, I remember Genie bus being like, we want stars to know that we take care of stars with the Lakers.

Durant didn't even have a meeting, so.

I just wonder if LeBron goes back to them and says, okay, I'm going to opt out, but I want the same love. I want that to happen for me. And considering every time with, like, I feel guilty about anything that I'm critical of with him because watching him last night put together the offensive game that he does, keeping you in, know, being the number one option, like what he did against the Clippers, you can call it fluky, but that's ridiculous. What he did to that team in the fourth, like, it's all on me again. And he hasn't even had the time off that he, he'll usually have a stretch if you go back the last four or five seasons where he's not available. So that hasn't even happened. So then you start factoring that into what are the Lakers going to look like in the playoffs, where it's like, man, he'd probably be better off, like, getting a couple of weeks. And when you look at the way the west is playing, like all these teams are playing a little bit harder because they don't have their own draft pick. There's a bunch of teams this year.

Go ahead.

You're a 500 team with them right now. You're going to give them three more years, 160. Also, you just gave Davis a giant extension. You're locking down the foundation of those two guys with a bunch of role players around them, which we're finding out year after year. It's impossible to put the right role players when you're spending $100 million on two guys. And those two guys are the foundation of a 500 team. I think it would be insane to do it, but I know they're going to do it. You basically have no chance at the title if you're going to do it. And he's going to get older every year and at some point the performance is going to decline.

I just wonder why you go, well, look, you're not going to go to Utah. You're not going to go to Detroit. You're probably not going to go to Philadelphia. They're going to go to Orlando.

There's no way they're not going to.

Give it to him. Why can't they just be like, can we give you three for 100? Can we do three for 90? Why do we have to pay you 60 million?

This is the Kobe Bryant thing from ten years ago where he's like, I'm not taking a pay cut. Fuck that. I've been filling this place. I remember writing about this for Grantlin where it was like, on the one hand, it was selfish because he was ruining their chance to put a good team around him, but on the other hand, he was right. He had increased the value of the team. They were selling jerseys and tickets, and he was the face and the marquee guy in the franchise. He was like, I'm not taking a pay cut. And he actually did.

He actually did like, based on what the number was before that extension, it was very slight.

He was still making a giant number.

The number itself, the 48 and a half million guaranteed when he was hurt. And you were like, wait, what are they doing?

Do you think Brady regrets taking cheaper deals from that cheapskate craft?

I would tell you there was probably some nights where he looked at the depth chart of the receivers. It was like, what am I.

Where was it? Yeah, what am I doing? Before it came out, the Pats spent. They were 32nd in spending for the last ten years, and yet we had this alleged amazing deal with Brady where he was sacrificing to put the money back in the team. But then they really didn't. Not going to be in the documentary, the documentary that pinned Aaron Hernandez's murder on Bill Belichick in episode six. Have you joined him? A man wouldn't be dead. What am I watching?

Have you done the real breakdown of this?

Because I want to come on your podcast as a guest and just do a special breakdown of Dynasty. I haven't watched, by the way. I want there to be a Chiefs version of this in 2040 where every episode is about something awful that happened during this Chiefs run. And I'm not going to list all the terrible things, but they're pretty easy to figure out. But that's the equivalent of this. They did a whole episode on Brady's ACL. They did a whole episode on his torn ACL. The 2008 season they spent 20 minutes on. They skipped over two Super Bowls in the 21 game win streak, but spent 20 minutes on the 2008 season where they didn't make the playoffs for reasons that remain unclear. Who funded Johnson did a Hernandez episode and a spygate episode. It's like, what is this? I haven't watched. Anyway, all right. I think with the Lakers, if I was a Laker fan, this is the roughest spot to. This is basically where the Celtics were in 2013 with KG and Pearson, those guys where you're locking down past performance, past memories, versus any chance to actually win the title. So I guess the question for the Lakers is what do you care about more?

Do you care about building a new team around Davis, or do you care about just. This is one of the great athletes we've ever had in any team sport, and he wants to finish his career here. So we're giving him a lot of money.

History tells us they're going to pay him. They're going to pay him, but it'd be the wrong basketball decision. Despite him moving the line of expectations of what we even think is possible. Because watching him live this many times in this shorter period of time, once he gets going.

The head of steam that he still has at this age is pretty crazy. And he'll do it like three times a game where he just turns the jets on and he's like. And nobody's getting in front of him still, which is the same thing that was the case 15 years ago. I realized this last night, Russello, I don't think you necessarily have to turn on the TikTok camera here, but maybe think about it. I think Yokich is the best player I've seen in person since LeBron that third year in Miami. It's been eleven years since I've seen a player in person as good as Yokich. That third heat season when LeBron was like, we were wondering if he was going to shoot 60% and he was just athletically still at, like, the peak, peak, peak of his powers, I put him way up there. I would put 2000 Shaq. There's probably the six Kobe, which I saw a couple of times that year when he was just like, I can't believe that my team's this bad. I'm just shooting every time, but it was amazing to watch. And Duncan in the early 2000s, who just gets lost now because he's not on tv and doesn't promote himself, but I think those would be the five.

There was a Duncan year when he came in and just, like, annihilated the Celtics once. I don't remember what year it was, but it was like, jesus, not only we lose the lottery and not get this guy, but this is happening. So anyway, since that LeBron season, I think this is the best I've seen.

I despise the MJ LeBron political parties.

Me too.

It's like, I'll agree with one of the arguments and then want to disagree just for getting physically ill of how terrible the argument is crafted. Even if I agree with the general mission statement of it all, I'm thinking of starting a Duncan only feed because I'm getting really upset about where Tim Duncan is just getting knocked down. Historically, in comparison with all these other guys that we saw in 7th, the highlight videos just aren't going to be as cool kids. But clearly he was doing something right.

Yeah. Where the Tim Duncan was a problem. Where are those videos?

They don't exist. I'm trying to think of what would be the latest thing you could put that would still work where like, kids today don't have any know. Could you do like an Eric Bledsoe Clippers run like kids don't have.

Quentin Richardson was a problem.

Eric Bledsoe pick and roll ball handler efficiency check out synergy. Kids don't know anything.

Well, it's like, what would you say on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, the percentage of white chocolate was a problem versus Tim Duncan was a problem. Videos is probably ten to one. White chocolate.

Yeah, look, all of us enjoyed the white chocolate thing.

It was adorable.

It was so much fun for a little while. And then he did something recently where he was like, man, if I play today, I want one guy to be like, yeah, I actually couldn't shoot that well. So they'd probably ignore. And back then you didn't have to shoot as well, but now everybody shoots well, and I just didn't shoot it well enough so they'd sag off of me and then it would screw up all of our other actions on screens and stuff. They just ignore me. So, yeah, I actually played in a better era then than today.

Just being honest. All right, so to answer the question, I think Luca at least has a puncher's chance of 40k, but I would put the ods at 15 to one. And you think there's no chance we will not see in our lifetime?

I don't. I don't think we will. I think LeBron, to his credit, is chasing something that no one else is really going to be chasing. I don't know if we're going to be lucky enough to have somebody show up in our lifetime that's going to at least be chasing Michael Jordan, because that's how special LeBron is. To sit here and just write it off and say, all right, in the next 30 years of watching hoops, we're not going to get one player. Like, that's a pretty big assumption. Maybe it's the wrong assumption. You could also say, well, with medicine and guys and on and on and on, and they're going to play longer, and we've seen it with the quarterbacks and we're seeing it with LeBron now, but I think LeBron is motivated by something almost every other player isn't going to be motivated by chasing Michael Jordan.

As I've told you. I thought the last dance had an impact on him. When we're on Covid and we're all locked up and it's ten straight weeks or five straight weeks of how unbelievable Michael Jordan was. All right, we're going to take a break and then we're going to do disappointment all star team. All right, we're going to do disappointment all star team in 1 second. I have a hottest take for you, Rosillo. Hottest take. We're going to do these some Sunday nights. We either 100% believe them, 50% believe them, 25% believe them, or don't believe them at all. Here's my hottest take for you, Rosillo. The heater. Fucking lucky. This hotcast thing, it's so upsetting.

This is Bill gets pissed.

No. So they get hero because they win a fucking coin flip with Boston. They get bam at 14 because the moron Portland Trailblazers trade two picks to move up to ten. And they take Zach Collins instead of bam. And then Canard goes to the Pistons. Twelve. Bam falls to 14. They get Roger for barely anything. They get Butler because Portland again. Portland helps them twice. Portland's fucking stupid. They're like, yeah, we'll take Hassan Whiteside so you can fit Butler in your cap. Cool. And then they get Haquez when the Lakers, who he's playing at UCLA, he's 5ft away and he's ready to play. He's ready to be in a rotation. Like, I like the point guard they took from Indiana. Yeah, I know he has potential, but you have LeBron, he's 39. You need to get somebody in that draft who can play now. And they just pass on him and they end up with him. And it fucking makes me mad, but all of its luck.

This doesn't sound like a hot take.

That's luck. Everyone's like, heat culture. You know what the heat culture is? Fucking luck.

Hey, by the way, they're a half game behind Orlando right now.

I know exactly where they are.

They had that really bad stretch where I was looking at the totals for the second half over unders, and I was like, wait, you're expecting them to go this many games over 500 after the all star break when they don't? I mean, at one point here, let's find the worst number.

Well, Roger is going now for them, which I think the Roger Lowry upgrade. Not nothing.

No, they out of the jump, though, when they beat Milwaukee. Granted, Philly stinks. New Orleans is a coin toss every night, depending on when you watch them. They beat Sacramento. They were down. Actually, no, they were up big in that one. They were down to Portland in the first half. And then, look, nobody's afraid of Portland and closing out against them. And then even Denver was like a Portland. They've been on a bit of a tear here. Even Yovich had 24.

It's fucking bullshit. They're good. They're good.

And when you look at the standings, depending on what happens here with the Knicks news, okay, they're what, a game behind the Knicks? Philly's going to keep dropping even though they've won two in a row. Orlando is probably about where they're going to be. I mean, Miami can end up a four seed here, man. Second round rematch.

Well, they're definitely going to pass Philly and Orlando, and then if Brunson's out for at least a little while, plus, the Knicks, that we have no sign when Ananobi's coming back.

Ananobi doesn't seem like there seems like a real time when he's coming back. Where the Randall stuff, he wasn't.

Randall's like, they. We have no idea. Yeah, they're going to end up being the four seed, which puts them directly in line for a round two matchup against the Boston Celtics. And probably some garbage opponent with the five seed. It'll be some team where their best guy got hurt a week before the end of the season. It's like we're going to play Orlando, but Paolo is out because he twisted his ankle. But that's going to be your four or five opponent anyway. My hottest take is Miami's lucky. All right, let's do the disappointment. We're going to call this the disappointment all Stars. We'll just make a team. Team of twelve.

We're going twelve deep. No extra roster.

Yeah, we'll go fast. There's a couple that. I mean, we're not going to spend an hour talking about Monty Williams. Who is your number one pick for the disappointment all Stars 2000?

Monty Williams, 23 24 edition.

Monty. Captain.

I don't want to make him the captain. Look, there's two different numbers that float out there. That he's 196. Well, let me put it this way. There's two different numbers. I think it's without Chris Paul in games and without Chris Paul on the roster. And basically both of them tell you he's 100 games under for both. We've already covered this. We even covered it last week. But there's a lesson in this. It's just because you've been bad for a long time doesn't mean you're due to be good. This isn't a roulette wheel. You are only going to be as good or as bad as your roster. And I felt like there were a couple teams this year. I think Charlote thought they were going to be good. I think Portland thought, hey, we have Aitan and we got Brogdon coming off the bench and we've got sharp, we've got simons.

Get the snoop guy.

Hey, who knows?

A plucky.

Maybe we're fighting for a nine or a ten or whatever. It's like no, so you can start carrying yourself like you're owed improvement just because you haven't been good for a long time. And I think Detroit should have just looked at the four guys that matter that they've had these and I still like, I think all four of those guys, I know I'll probably be super disappointed by two of them, but just like what was the point of trying to balance this out until you figure out what you have with those guys that you've spent these high picks? That's my I don't need to do anymore on. I've already spent too much time on it.

My number one pick, I guess this is the second pick of the disappointment all stars Jordan poole, and I'm going to zag a little bit. It's not just that he's been really bad to watch and that's one of the worst trades in a while now because that's one of the worst contracts in the league. I just thought it would be more fun to have him on a bad team from a league pass standpoint. Not only is it not fun, it's the opposite of fun where I feel bad for him half the time. I don't want to feel bad for guys on league pass. That's not what league pass is for. I either want to watch really good teams battling or I want to watch players on bad teams in meaningless games, put up stats. I don't want to feel sad for somebody and over and over again when you watch these Wizards games you feel sad for them. I feel bad for Jordan Poole. I feel like that Draymond punch kind of like changed the course of his career and he's so bad in some of these crunch time, like in the Laker game the other night where he actually kept them in it and got hot and then he's like, I'm feeling it and then he took like four or five of the worst shots I've ever seen in my life.

And then like, sad Jordan Poole came back. It just bums me out. It's way worse than just that. He's been not good on the Wizards.

Jordan Poole, also on my board, shooting splits 40 and 31% from three. I mean, he shot like almost 37% from three a couple of years ago. And you're right at one point with the words, you're like, hey, they did it again. They did it again with one of these late picks, high profile recruit, whole deal.

He's going to be at least Lou Williams or Jerome Crawford. Like, he's going to be one of those guys. Worst case scenario.

So he's taken 14.6 field goal attempts per game. That's 52nd most shots per game in the NBA. If you go through the top 100 field goal attempt guys, all right, the guy who takes the most shots to the hundred most, he's 99th in field goal percentage.

Scoot.

I mean, every advanced 99th and lowest scoot. Scoot has not had a month over 40% from the floor. So he's also probably on the board for the disappointment draft. I'm not going to pick him because I have to wait till next year to actually be disappointed by the whole thing. I would feel a little worse for Poole if I didn't see it in person with that Wizards game. It's funny because after we talked about the Wizards and I said multiple times how bad they were. I love Chesty fans from this kind of team where I don't know what I'm talking about because they're tanking. It's like, yeah, but you know what most teams do, even if they're tanking, when they inbound the ball and they're on defense, they don't just let a guy go down to the other rim.

Right?

In high school, you do that also.

What are you tanking for? This is the worst draft in ten years.

Well, it's a fun. I don't think they have to worry about it. And then when he said his legacy was cemented, I just don't think anybody under 30 should talk about their legacy being cemented when, look, he helped that team.

And then every like three months, Draymond will give another interview about the fight.

I tried to get Iguodala this week to open up about it. All right, do it.

You're up next. What's your pick?

Atlanta Hawks, 26 and 34.

They were on my board two games.

Up on the eleven seed Brooklyn Nets if Brooklyn were actually like a little more stabilized, you wonder if Atlanta would miss the play. In through 60 games last year, they were 30 and 30. They finished 41 and 41. This team should at least be 500, but defensively they are 20 eigth in the league, only better than Charlote and your Wizards.

I was in Boston visiting my daughter right before the NBA season, and I made a slew of future props on Fanduel and I did really well, except for everything. I put the Hawks in because I thought you and I thought, oh, Quinn will get them to like 43 and 39.

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

We're like, they're good, saying they're going to win the east, but they're going to be so good offensively and the fact that Jalen Johnson has been as good as he is and they're still not good. Some of the stats with them, what did I say to you? Their record against the spread, they're like 23 games under, 500 against the spread, which is like impossible.

Vegas, I have the number. They're 19 and 41 against the spread. They're covering 31.7% of the time.

It's impossible.

Charlote is the next worst team at covering and they're covering 41% of the time. So they're covering ten points lower than the second worst team.

Well, and that's why they need to be a high pick on the disappointment all stars, because they're not just disappointing. People kept thinking it was going to turn around and they kept betting on them and be like, like the last two Brooklyn games. Yeah, the Hawks are favorite against Brooklyn. This is today's. They lost again. They're kind of fun to watch. They're also one of those teams that if you have somebody on the other team that you either like watching or is on your fantasy team or something like, oh, he's got the Hawks. Tonight could be a huge game. This is the team. I think luca will be the next guy to get 81. Kobe's 81 is going to go down over the next two to three years. Somebody's going to do 80 plus and it's going to be like luca against the Hawks type thing. But I think the Hawks are going to be involved in somebody's 81 point game.

Well, he did get his 70 against the Hawks.

He got 73 against them. I'm saying, like the 80 plus, whenever somebody does that, it's going to be against a team.

I think he could have had more points. They actually needed to win that game, and he was making some really good passes in that game. Yeah. Luca was like, still making the right plays. I wish I had said this prior, too, because I completely agree with you because Luke has the kind of game where if he just decided, I think there's a lot of players in the game that were like, hey, I want to get 60 tonight. And then if a few go my way and I get a few free throws, like, maybe we get a 70, maybe we get close to 80. I think if Luca decided in an awful matchup defensively, if he said, I'm.

Getting 20 points a quarter, I'm just.

Going to get 80 tonight, guys. And everybody was like, awesome, let's do it.

He's like, I'm getting 20 points a quarter and I'm going to get to 80.

And then Grant Williams, I'm going to.

Foul at everybody else.

Ever heard of passing Grant Williams is.

Like, bad idea, Luca. I don't like it. All right, my next pick, OKC, not trading for a center on the board.

Have it on my board.

It made me mad during the trade deadline. We talked about it a lot. It made me mad that they used the Bertons extension for something that wasn't a center. They also used it for Gordon Hayward. Who? The ods of him being healthy during the playoffs, I would say is a coin flip. It's 50 50 at best. He just has some of the worst luck of anyone in the league.

But the Gordon Hayward thing was way more about clearing the cap space once I looked at. Sometimes I hate doing the trade deadline stuff live because of that, but when you looked at some of the stuff, there was just more flexibility. It allows them, that's all.

Okay, well, you know what else would have allowed them something is getting a center because they have a chance to at least make the western finals. And I just think they could have topped the Gafford press. Gafford is exactly what they needed, some flexibility, depending on the team. They just don't have enough flexibility for three straight playoff series. And I just don't fundamentally understand why Presti, who I think has been in the running for best GM of the last 15 years, why he looked at this big picture and just thought, we don't have enough to win the title. I'm not going to use any assets when they have so many assets. I don't get it. They could have topped that Dallas trade and it would have done nothing for them. From an asset loss standpoint. They would have been fine.

I know that we look at centers like for a while it felt like, hey, you can just get one. You'll get one late. They're always, nobody cares. They're super cheap or whatever. And then I don't know if they banked on that or what, but I just wish they had a different look. I wish they had. It's not even about every single playoff game, but depending on a certain matchup, I just wish they had a little bit more behind Chet and Jalen Williams.

Yeah. If they end up playing Minnesota in a playoff series, you're basically going to have know, duct tape the series together and hope Chet doesn't get in foul trouble. Know, try to attack them different. Don't. I don't know why they removed the option from themselves. All right, who do you have next?

Tobias Harris. Without MB. I know he had 28 points today. Yeah, we've talked about Tobias Harris a lot. I beat this joke to death where, I don't know, every month or so I would just tweet out like, hey, the Sixers have Tobias Harris.

No, it gets a chuckle out of me.

I know. That's why I do it. January 19. Six, three and a half assists, 51 and 35% from the floor and three, four and a half free throw attempts per game in January. So, no, MB, right, got hurt in that warriors game. That was the very end of the month. He's 15, six and three and 0.7 assists. He's shooting 25% from three, and his free throws are down by more than half. So I know that, like, budy healed and Ubray were like, hey, that big guy's finally out of our, like, heal's, like, now it's buddy, you know, maxi should be taking a ton of shots, or it just unfortunately kind of reinforces some of the stuff. Like, you look at Tobias, we all know how talented he, you know, I would be looking at that if I'm another front office. And who knows, maybe it's going to be a team. It's like we got to spend our cap space on somebody and whatever. He's talented. He score.

Orlando, come back.

Yeah, he's tall, so that would fit in. But I know he had a nice game tonight. But how do those numbers go down? Unless the argument is that MB just makes his life that much easier and all that stuff. But there's just certain nights where it's like, hey, man, you're going to have to take some bad shots. You're going to have to bail them out of this.

You can't quite do it. Yeah, I'm with you. I went on a three hour walk with my wife today and I watched the entire Mavs Sixers game. On my phone as we were walking, and at halftime of the game, Stephen a. Came on and brought up Tobias Harris. And he says, we. And he said something like, we don't talk about Tobias Harris enough. And I was walking up like, that's gotta be one of the weirdest sentences anyone said this year that we don't talk about. So we should be talking about Tobias Harris more, because I feel like we've actually probably talked about Tobias Harris too much, is where I landed as I walked on some side street in West Hollywood.

I think that's the show. That's the show we were talking about. Blame pie. All right. And I think the new show is you just have one person that we generally trust higher approval rating in sports media, and they just come on for like ten minutes a week and go, talking about this too much. Need to talk about this more, need to talk about this a little less.

Too much, not enough, or just right.

Right. Tobias Harris, all he's doing is keeping track of. So that all of us know, because it is. Look, I'm guilty of it. I've done it plenty of times. You radio should. But when you think of the statement and then how there's never a fucking follow up to it, of, we need to be talking about. Fill in the blank more. And then everyone at the desk, the.

Big college football and NFL one, right?

Then everybody just looks at the person. It's like, okay, so what is now what?

So it'd be like, all right, next up, Jalen Williams. And I'd like, need to talk about it. The. I meant the other Jalen Williams. Oh, maybe just enough. Probably good. Yeah, we're probably okay. J will not JW.

I just write one and two.

All right, my next one. I don't know if this guy's on your board. Mikhail Bridges.

Per went from 21 to 16 on my board.

Oh, he was okay. Averaged 26 a game after the KD trade. A lot of talk about how he was this rising star, including on this podcast, and became the guy on Brooklyn this year. And it's starting to look like he's the third option. And as you and I have discussed many times, I think if you're the first option on a basketball team in the NBA, you're probably going to score around 2021 points as a worst case scenario. It's called the Jeremy Grant Corollary. Mikhail Bridge is 21. A game never jumps off any of the tvs for me. And I just disappointed. That's where this is.

Disappointment, though, directly in relation of like, oh, my God, last year. Because he was awesome.

Yeah, it was like, whoa, is this guy now a top 20 guy in the league? Yeah. And.

I admit, all the years in Phoenix, I was like, I still think he's somebody that needs other things to happen around him. And then the way he was getting to kind of the middle, those, they weren't just straight like Booker mid range pull ups, but he would work it. He'd get these. There was creativity and it was like, man, he's got the ball in his hands all the time. This stuff's all happening. I mean, his box score, plus minus went from over three last year on not a great team with Brooklyn to zero this year. I don't love the full Cam Thomas experience. The usage is dipped down, so there's other guys taking shots. But for somebody that you thought maybe he actually is a two on a really good team, there's just a decline there. There's a decline there for his numbers. That is alarming based on how excited we were with his Brooklyn run last year.

Unless some people are saying curse of Tommy alter.

It'S a hell of a curse.

We love you, Tommy. I just thought he'd be better on Brooklyn.

I agree.

It seemed like, especially with scoring up 25 a game minimum. And then he was kind of floating around like, yeah, I guess I want to be here for now. There was a couple of those. I know the sci family loves him, but I'll tell you this, he would not be untradable for me if I was the Nets. Like, if OKC wanted to come in and say, hey, we're going to give you a shitload of picks here, or pick a team that's got a ton of assets. Yeah, but I got to know what the star.

Now, I think we've all fallen for this. It's like, oh, we'll give you four. First be like, okay, what are they? Two lottery and two protectors.

A good young player, too. Brooklyn is in all time no man's land with this team. They have, and they're either the 11th seed or the 10th seed. Congratulations. Who's next on your board? There's a couple that I cannot believe have not gone yet.

I'm going to do it. It's dangerous because it all could be corrected if a playoff run happens. But Dame is not the same guy. This is not who you thought you were getting. If you were bucks, this would have.

Been a good hottest take.

Whether or not he's not the same guy, he's just not, you know what's.

Not the same, I'm good once a week guy now, or I'm good once every ten gay.

Or the quarter, he'll have that quarter.

You're like, okay, it's Dame, just not consistent. It's not like, oh my God, dame just ripped off this eight game stretch where he averaged 35 a game and made six threes. I just think he's at a different point of his career, but he still can dial it up in the fourth quarters. Like there's been moments where he can summon it for four or five minutes. But I think over the course of a game, not the same.

No, the January shooting numbers were terrible. Sub 40, sub 30 from three. But whatever, you look at that and go, okay, not a big deal. I mean, his overall shooting numbers from the floor are probably lower than people realize just because he's been such a dynamic score. But he also got to the free throw line so many times and now, like February into March, he's not getting to the free throw line as much, which is always a bit of an alarming thing for somebody that lives off their athleticism. But I think I've watched them enough to be like, he's still getting to the floor, like, he's still getting to the rim, he's still getting past guys. He's still one of those really good small finishers. I don't know if the rim rate numbers would tell me something different there, but that's the thing I always worry about with somebody who's a little bit older and had the injury history with all this stuff, but just who he has been this year. If you're a Bucks fan, you probably thought you were getting a little bit more and the numbers would tell you that you would have been getting something more.

Even in his last year with Portland, where that's a terrible defensive team and he was still a plus seven in the box and now he's like a plus 1.9 and his lack of interest defensively, there'll be moments and then people put out clips, be like, oh, he did this. I noticed it happens a lot, I think with Milwaukee and maybe they're just like, hey, we'll worry about it when we get to the playoffs and none of this will matter. And I still think they have a chance because Giannis is that good, but he hasn't.

No, they're in a way better spot than they were. But I'm with you on dame, and.

He hasn't played in the playoffs. It'll be the first time he's played in the playoffs in three years I.

Forgot to do this in my hottest take about Miami. Super lucky they didn't make the dame trade.

Now you're cooking.

Now I'm cooking with gas.

Yeah.

Typical Miami. Even when they seem like they slipped in shit, it turned out it was a good thing for them. All right, so I'm just not going to take them. I'm going to make you take them. My next disappointment, all star. We haven't had a GM yet, messiah Ujiri. I just don't understand what you've done the last three years. I don't understand the team you've assembled. I don't understand if you're trying to tank or be good.

Throw the Nick nurse thing in there.

The Nick nurse thing was super weird. The not getting anything for Van V thing was weird. The team they have now, it's like, I kind of like this. I like when they play Olympic with the guards and they've got. There's something fun in kind of 2026 about it, but at the same time, I don't think they would have any chance to even get to the second round. And I don't know, I just thought, Scotty Barnes, I know the stats are there, and I know people are excited about him. I just don't know where you're going, if he's your Main guy, than the last three minutes of games. I just feel like there's better offensive players that he's going to be going head to head with game after game, and if you're really giving him the car keys to be your guy. Not sure where that's going ultimately in the east.

Well, it's a short list of guys that are, like, true number ones and carry you. And despite how much I love Barnes.

We both really like him. I just don't know if he's that guy.

No, I don't think he is. Probably not.

Don't love the shots, but just in general. And they might lose their pick. The pertle trade just gets weirder by the week, and then not trading him at the deadline is also weird. And I think sometimes the kawhi thing works out right and they win the title and everybody's like, this guy's amazing. Messiah. Whoa, what a Jedi. We talked about it on this pod. He's a Jedi. Amazing. Maybe that was the worst thing that could have happened to him as a GM, because it starts making you. I can do anything. I know what I'm doing. Because the last few years have been pretty rough.

Most of these guys default to.

You, like, quickly and Barrett for an obi and precious. I didn't love that trade when it happened, but now I'm looking at it, it's like you're going to pay quickly. $140,000,000.

I think we both said we like barrett more before the trade happened. To be fair.

Yeah, but I'm just saying they got the second and third guys in the trade. They gave up somebody who is easily the best guy in that trade who's now, of course, hurt.

Yeah, no, G's hurt a lot, and.

He'S, well, maybe that's why they did it.

Yeah, but OG's corner, three numbers. I don't even know. He's been terrific on the corner. Three stuff. But I don't know, if you looked at it with New York, it's like, is he going to keep that up? Because then it's at a whole nother level with it. It sounds like you would rather he just do what everybody else did and trade for picks. And instead it was like, maybe I'm going to get these guys. But now this is the problem is once you get the guys, you know who you like, this is not a very good team.

What was the point of the Olympic trade?

Canada.

Just. He's from Canada. Quickly. Had a good game today against my Hornets, who I bet on every single game. Why?

To cover.

Yeah, the Hornets, over and over again, are treated like they're the worst team in the league. And every game, if they're playing somebody that's not like the Bucks, they'll actually hang around like they lost to the Raptors today by five.

Yeah, but we just brought them up. They're the second worst covering team in the league.

No, but now you catch them on the high team. Yeah, I'm talking like this. My guy, grant Williams, 40 grams today, 18 and 13, five assists. He's bringing a winning championship attitude to them.

Imagine an assistant coach, quote, tweeting that you're a loser. We didn't talk enough about that.

People listening to the pod last year, we were dropping a lot of breadcrumbs. I like him. I think he's a nice guy. Maybe he needed a little bit of a comeuppance. And now he's had it. Who do you have for your next pick? I still have a couple of good ones left. Yeah.

The problem is we said six each, and then we had overlaps which we knew we were going to have.

All right, can I rip off a couple more, then?

Yeah. I'm just going to say I'm disappointed it in myself.

Why? What happened?

I'm on a new routine, working out, putting myself through some stuff.

Just started working out.

No, I've always been, but I wanted to get to another level. Like another level? Oh, the no fucking around zone.

Like eastern european steroids from the 70s. What kind of level are we talking?

Think Southeast Asia. And I was doing okay. I was doing the work. I was taking the steps. And then I don't know if I fractured my leg or blew out my achilles. I didn't blow out my achilles. I think I'd know by, uh.

Oh, you're injured.

Yeah. I couldn't walk for a day. And then the pain traveled from the front of the leg to the back of the leg. So it was mui Thai. And we've been about six to seven months into it. Pretty Rigid training. And I was feeling good, and my buddy was visiting me and he's like, what the fuck are you doing? He's like, dude, have you looked at your birth certificate? I was like, I'm aware. I'm aware. And then the next day he was like, can you do anything? And I was like, no, I can't walk today. But I was able to walk after that day and see Jokic. Jokic doesn't walk great, so he's doing all.

We'Re not. Neither of us are taking scoot for the disappointment draft.

No, I haven't written down because I almost was going to say I was disappointed in myself until the leg injury. And I've said this too many times on my pod. I said it four fucking times already. Talk to me next April and I'll give you everything you want. I'll give you the segment you desperately want if I don't want it bad. Not you, the royal you. But I cannot do it until he's this bad again next year. Although I did think there were some small glimpses before this last abductor injury.

I've sold no stock. No stock.

Oh, I love it. Is that because you're right or stubborn?

I just think that team is bizarre. Yeah, but he's situation is bizarre.

Sure. But he's also had moments where it's like, you don't have to be this bad.

Yeah, I know. Evan Mobley not being awesome yet. I have as a personal disappointment, and by the, he's. Since he came back from injury, he's been pretty good. And he had a couple defensive sequences he's always going to have earlier this week where you're just like, oh, there it is.

But let's watch for it. What's the closing five of close games in the fourth quarter, like, start paying attention to that, because in the Dallas game, he was not in there and then came in for a defensive substitution. So it's just something I know now with Cavs games. I'll go back and I'll look at the fourth quarter to see what happened with him.

This would be a tough one for me because I was really all in on him, I think the Duncan special player, the Duncan step. I regret. I have some regrets. Yeah. I mentioned the Lakers not taking Hawkez as a disappointment, although maybe also a positive thing. And then I had Zion's rebounding in the disappointment all Stars. I'm not going to put Zion in there because Zion's still been really fun to watch.

And there's rebounding. This is. Sorry, sorry.

Oh, it's new. It's getting fucking worse.

He just never has rebounded as well as you would think for some.

He used to get seven a game is at five and a half. This year. It's five and a half rebounds a game. You've always been a sticker. Embarrassing.

By the way, Mobley came in today with 454 left, down six, and then it looks like he closed out the game. But we're taping this while that happened. So I didn't know. That's a good sign, but there's no Mitchell today.

One of my favorite Charles Barkley things is when he gets mad when big guys can't get eight rebounds a game.

He's right.

That's two rebounds a quarter. Can't get two rebounds a quarter. He's right. It's two rebounds a quarter. Zion can't get one and a half. He can't get three rebounds a half. Three. Like, are you rebounding instincts just that bad.

Rebounding. You have to decide you want to rebound.

And he's decided I don't want to rebound.

And he's made a decision.

He's made his announcement. I'm actually good.

Have you made a decision for Christ?

I'm going to read you all the guys who have more rebounds than Zion in the. Let's see, five and a half. Oh, this would be a good game show. Does this guy have more rebounds per game than Zion Donovan Mitchell active? Yes. Higher or lower?

Oh, higher.

He's lower. He's 5.4.

You set me up.

I did. Vince Williams Jr. More or less than Zion? More. 5.6. Drew holiday.

Really good rebounding guard. I'll say. He's still under.

Higher. 5.7.

Wait, and Zion's what again?

5.55 and a little game.

So we get it. I get off a 10th here, and I got to get it right. This is tough.

All right, this is the game. I'll lock in Kevin Love, who's playing lower, 17.5 minutes a game. Kevin Love, lower, higher. He's averaging 6.2 rebounds a game.

This is like rock, paper, scissors, and you're just in my head. I don't even know what you're going to go. Scissors eight straight times.

James Harden, higher, not lower. 5.1. You're just getting killed.

Yeah.

Anyway, this is the company that he's in. If you look at the rebounding leaders. Zion, can you get to eight? He's not rebounds a quarter.

What's the most he's ever had in a season? Do we know?

A little over seven. It's weird because he has the explosiveness, he's got the girth. He's just not interested in doing it.

So 7.2 his second year, then missed his third year. Fourth year. Only played 29 games, so he didn't get tired that year. Look, I think when I see it, he just peels off.

So neither of us took Jalen Green?

No, he went off last night.

There's been just enough flashes from him that I'm not giving up on something maybe significant happening with him at some point. I just wish he was on a bad team. Making mistakes. Feels like this team is the worst team for him. Would have been fun if he was on Charlote or something. I don't know.

Didn't he get to do that for two years? I mean, it's not like they're awesome this year.

I know, but he's still pretty young. I think he's like 21. All right, one more break and then we'll do media corner. Today's retradables is brought to you by Nissan SUV. If you ever wonder what's round 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 all right, Rosillo, you suggested this one. Norm Powell, who is somehow, I think, ten to one to win six man of the year award right now, but he's doing a lot more impactful stuff than that. And I would say him and Malik Monk, I think, have been my two favorite six men this year in terms of guys who can come in on good teams and swing games once upon a time, the Clippers traded for Norman Powell and Robert Covington, and it was a salary deal where they were able to dump Eric Bledsoe. They gave them justice. Winslow, who I think it was the last year of people trying to talk themselves into Winslow Keon Johnson.

That would be a great aside, by the way. The longest run of a career where people would not give up.

I think Winslow might be the guy.

Winslow might be the first. He's first team.

Marvin bag was like, don't count me out. There's been a few.

Winslow is great.

It's a good one. And they got a 2025 2nd round pick, Portland as well. But basically Powell just signed this huge deal and the Clippers were like, we don't care about salary. We'll take on a really good player. We don't care if he's expensive. And Powell's been awesome in his role, and that's among the best trades the Clippers have made, I think. Right?

Powell is so good.

Okay.

He really is that good. Now, granted, look, if you're looking for assistant rebounds, fine. But a lot of these guys come up and they're just high usage, less minute guys. He's playing 26 minutes a game for them. He's shooting 45% from three. He's had seven seasons where he's been over 40% from three. The guy can light it up. He can put it on the floor. Granted, it took him like until his fifth year, and because maybe he's a little bit older because he was a 22 year old rookie then he's like 26, 27 before it clicks. But you could see in some of those Toronto playoff minutes where it wasn't like he was the main driving force in the title there at all. He wasn't. But there was at least times just like, I just don't think this guy's afraid of anything. And when you look at the trade where Bledsoe never played for Portland, Teon played 66 games, Winslow played 40 games. That would have been a bad trade for just Covington, right?

Yeah. And Covington was making what, 10 million a year at that point.

That's what it was. Remember, people were just like, wait, so they're just going to be able to do this deal? Because nobody else would take on both of those contracts. Everybody should want Norm Powell. Everybody should want this.

Even weirder, why did Toronto trade him in the first place? Even though I like Gary Trent, but people are passing around, when Portland got.

Him, they're like, we can't believe we got this guy for Gary Trent. And Gary Trent had a nice little run there, but he's like norm. Scores on his own at a really high level, which is a complete luxury. Like, of all the teams that you go, wait, the Clippers have this guy.

He's huge for them. That's it for the retrader bowls. It 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 and play store built right into the 12.3 inch touch screen infotainment system. Learn more@nissanusa.com we're sillo, Team USA update. Little two hour pod for us today. It's exciting. Confirmed. Embiid, Durant, LeBron, Booker, Curry, Holliday, tatum and bam. Seems like those eight are definitely on the team, which means there are four spots left. Anthony Davis has to be on this team. Right?

Just because of the lack of.

I'm just. Here's how I would approach this team.

Be like the Lakers, but better.

We're going to have to stop Jokic in a game. We're going to have to stop Luca in a game, and we're going to have to stop fucking fill in the weird point guard who's just going off and nobody can stay in front of. We need. We're going to have enough offense. Those are the three matchups, right? Dennis Schroeder, people like that. Shay and Jamal murray on Canada. We need guards who can play defense. We need somebody who can defend Jokic and somebody who can hang with Luca. So Embiid, Durant, LeBron, Booker, Curry, holiday, tatum, bam. I would have ad as the 9th. And then it gets interesting. There's three spots left, and you're talking bridges. Anthony Edwards, Paolo Halliburton, Derek White. I don't know how they'd go. I kind of feel like Derek White has to be in the team, though. I would have Derek White and Drew. I'd have two glue.

Drew. Drew can't be an option over some of the other options.

Drew's in. Drew's already in, though.

I don't keep track of this stuff. Like you do. I do agree with you on this, though. Like, being reluctant to want to play on this despite the commitment and the extra time and the wear and tear and all that kind of stuff to say, hey, you're going to be around the best in the world. Like, whatever you're with now, with your team, you're now going to be around all these other people like you used to push this all the time and.

I don't think you finally converted.

Yeah, because you're right. If you were ever to say, hey, this is your industry and you're going to spend this much time, but this is an industry where you're competing and you're going to be around all these other guys that are at the top of the industry and that's all it's going to be is this. How could you not want to be a part of that? How do you not think you would learn something from that experience that would make you better at your craft? So we've had some stretches in the past where it feel like guys were just super reluctant and I always kind of felt like, hey, I get it. The romanticism of it for some just isn't going to be there anymore. It's not the same thing. But knowing that you'd be developing with guys in this very specific group for the rest of your like, I don't know why anybody wouldn't want to do this despite the time commitment.

You be Steve Kerr and I'm going to be the guy on the phone who calls Steve Kerr. So just react to what I say. Hey, coach, it's Dame Lillard. I've decided to play for Team USA. I've got some great news. I'm in.

Sounds good. I just signed an extension for about $35 million.

You wouldn't be like, I'm not stressed out anymore. You don't think you'd be like, let me talk to Grant. That sounds great. I just want to make sure that we haven't grant Williams, Grant Hill.

Oh.

Like, what do they do if Dame says he wants to be in the team? They'll take think. You think they would take them over the stuff we need to actually win the gold medal?

They would take them and they would close with different group. You said ants already on it, right?

I don't think he's already on. I have not heard that yet. I think he needs to be on.

For the combination of how intense he gets and some of the competitive stuff. Defensively today sucks for that game was just a weird game and I know we opened the show with it, but I think Ant gets up for that stuff and I think he would get up for it in this defensively.

Yes. The question is, if he's not starting, what's that look like? Ant, you're not going to start. He's 22.

It's going to be like I started.

My whole life what do you mean? Just come in 50 minutes a game. Here's some tapes of Dwayne Wade in 2008. He didn't start. So there's eight confirmed but Embiid is one of the eight. And what would you put the ods on Embiid actually playing in the Olympics? And if he goes, well, it doesn't make look right.

It doesn't make a ton of sense. For know, we're, we're just always so worried about his health. But I would never get on the player for saying, hey, I'm going to do this. Who are any of us to say, hey, you shouldn't actually do it. I also don't own the Sixers, but always worry about MB.

If I own or run the sixers, I'm probably trying to talk MB out of it. Hey, play in 2028. Use this year to get healthy. You got to make the finals. You've never made a pest. Round two. You don't need this. All right, it's time for media corner. You wanted this segment. You care about college football way more than I do. Do you feel like combine culture has gone up a whole other level and I can't tell if it's just because we sent a bunch of people there and I care way more about this draft because the Pats have the number three pick. But I don't remember people being disinvested in all the 40 times in the same way. And just in general, it just seems like more of a thing this year. Has it always been this much of a thing or is it growing?

No, I do think it's always been this much of a thing. Now, if you want to tell me if it's grown more in the last five or ten years, I would totally agree with you. I think the NFL Network presence of this. But I love college football. The idea that I'm going to sit around in an afternoon and watch hours of guys running 40s, just let me know when they're done and I'll look them up later.

I don't understand it at all.

Yeah, but I don't think this is new. I don't think it's new and it kind of feels a bit like, all right, so a bunch of people enjoy this and there's a void and this is NFL content, which crushes. So I'm not going to be upset for anybody enjoying this. I just think it's really overblown. I don't know how many times I saw that Joe Milton throw and you're like, all right, sick throw. Why wasn't he better?

Right. Well, the Sam Hartman running in slow motion with his Charlie Whitehurst hair flowing behind him was pretty fun. Some of the 40 yard dashes, do we care where the receiver runs like a four? 2240. The Patriots, they've drafted multiple guys who were fast as shit and nothing happened with them. Taekwond Thornton. I don't know, it's just for some reason, it felt like the science of the whole thing went to a whole other level this year. And I think it's because people, it feels like football is more popular than it's ever been.

It's definitely more popular than it's ever.

Been in our lifetime. I think this is the single most popular it's ever been.

Yeah, totally agree. The combine, like, we used to have it up, especially when you think about the job at ESPN where we'd have the monitors on and we'd be watching everything and guys would come into the room and be like, hey, so and so just ran a four three three and I'd be like, okay, but what's the fucking segment? What's the segment like? Xavier worthy, he flew same thing as Joe Milton. He's all right. I wouldn't even discuss him with the other guys in the wide receiver class this year that I love. So I think everybody kind of knows what it is. So I would never be upset for how overblown it is. But, yeah, I think it's a little weird sometimes to just watch people, like, incessantly. I just think that, look, if there was no NBA content for a really long time and this is the only thing we had, but look, I go to the combine every year for the NBA and I don't tweet. Like, I screw around like Hugo Besson. Like, who's, who's going to get in front of this guy? No one can stay in front of him.

Hugo Besson, that's all. The only things I care about is.

You're right. You're totally right, though. But I don't think this is like a one year, massive spike. I think this has been going on for a few years.

I was trying to figure out why I'm more immersed in it because I never cared about it. And obviously the Pats have the pick, but also I just think football writing and football coverage is better. There's more people that I actually trust, their opinions, who put in real work, and a lot of them were there. So when they were tweeting or talking on podcasts about, here's what I saw. I was just more interested than think. In the past, it was a lot of talking out of your ass media coverage with some of this stuff. Now people, they're going to the combine and try to find specific things. I was the most interested in how much Jaden Daniels was going to weigh. That was the single thing I cared about the most, because it really feels like the Pats might get him at three if they keep the pick. There's a lot of buz that they're going to trade down, and he's basically built like a Steelers second round receiver. It's like 64205 seems to be the buz. He's listed at 210, but I don't think anyone thinks he's 210. And I just was really curious to see what is he 203?

If he's 203, is that guy going to have a career? What happens the first time he gets pancaked by Jalen Carter? Does he get up? Whereas, like, Drake may, I think it was 230, something like that. But I was interested in that. Other than that, the difference between a wide receiver running a four two nine and a four four one, honestly, does that really matter? It's like if a three point shooter is 42% versus 39%. So out of 100 threes, he made three more than the 39% guy. It's not like make or break.

No, I think it's actually. Well, maybe the only thing you could think of is like, sometimes they'll be like, hey, this guy's a good three point shooter. It's like, well, does he only take catch and shoot corner threes? Because to me, that's not really being a great shooter. I mean, it's an unbelievably valuable thing to have. Like, you can keep him in the corner, it stretches the defense there a little bit. But you're telling me if he puts the ball in his hands and has to get a shot up off the dribble, like, he just can't make them at all. But here's the thing. Everybody knows this, but we just do it anyway.

So if you went to the combine, what would you care about?

Nothing.

You're like, I'm doing podcasts from a week from the combine. What would you throw yourself into? Anything. The shrimp at St. Elmo's.

I'd probably do it once.

Yeah. Is there, like, I got to watch.

I've been to Indy enough.

The d tackles are running their 40s today. I got to get there.

No, I mean, maybe if there was a receiver who had, like, bad hands and you'd watch him in the drills just, again, have bad hands. He might go, like, fine. Like, whenever I go to the NBA combine, it's just a lot of. It's physically like, okay, this isn't the top level, but it's also a really good collection of players, even though there's barely any first rounders are going to play in it. But I remember watching Drew Timmy in the combine, and you were okay, like, this is a problem.

All right?

And then you watch Christian Brown in the combine, and you're like, are you serious? This is nuts. You know who looked great was Derek white. Kyle Kuzma also looked really good. The Kawhi shooting around story, which I've told too many times already. TJ McConnell making a kid leave. So, like, at least there with the games, even though you're disappointed by the rosters, there's still going to be some moments where you're going to see some of these guys look differently. So with the combine, it's even harder to come up with any of that stuff for the NFL. I think everybody knows that it's kind of silly, but it's their silly. And so if they're into it, if the NFL media world is into it and they're obsessed with it for a few days, who cares? Good for them. By the way, Jaden weighing in, like, Bryce Young last year, that was the big thing with him. Like, is he even 190? I heard he's 179 or whatever. He weighed in at 204. I think you can make yourself blow up if you really want to. To weigh ten more pounds, you could probably really do it.

He looked like the smallest quarterback ever this year because at least Kyler's thick, even though he's smaller.

Interesting. So people can beef up. So Jaden Daniels could show up, and he's like, I'm 216, but then he'll actually be 203 in August.

Yeah, I think you could figure out a way to just bulk yourself up, not with muscle in that short amount of time, but I'm sure there's ways to figure if fighters can cut that much weight for the weigh in and then get it all back. I mean, I know this is a little different than that. I just think it was like, oh, Bryce weighed in at 204, and everybody's like, okay, great. He's awesome. He's a little thicker than you thought. This is great. And then the first game, do you remember how small Bryce Young looked out there all season long?

It was like, he's never going to complete a pass in the middle of the field this entire season. Was the feeling you got by week two. He seemed like there were all these giants around him, so you just don't know sometimes. That's the thing with Daniels where I know he's an incredible athlete. He'll be so much fun to watch. I know Kyle will buy a jersey, but I just worry about the size. It feels like we're trading back, though. It feels like we're headed for Baker Mayfield and trading back seems to be the buz. And I don't feel great about it because if Drake May is there at three and they don't take think and you trade back from that, I think that's nuts.

I like Caleb a like, I think May is just kind of a baller of a guy where it's not going to be perfect all the time. I think Caleb does the hard things really well already. And then Jaden was like, I couldn't believe it, really, because I'd watched the first year and didn't really love him. And then going into this year, just week after week, it got better and it got better. And then it was like, okay, look at this corner route that he throws. All right, well, last year, this is how often he completed it. And these are the numbers and his rating on this throw. And then you would see what it was this year and it was a completely different guy. So even if the eyes like, dude, the old miss game, they didn't have a chance. Defensively, LSU's defense stunk on defense. LSU's defense obviously just was a little redundant there. I thought Jaden was really good against Alabama and then he got popped really bad there at the. He was. Look, he won the Heisman. He's awesome. There's no questioning who he was this year, but I've given up on quarterbacks.

I've basically, unless I'm like, hey, no doubt with this guy or, no, I didn't see enough with him and I can't believe he's getting a second or third round grade and then all the rest of these first rounders. I've gotten less confident about it over the last however many years.

How high would JJ McCarthy have to go for you before you were like, okay, this is fucking stupid. What number? I don't know.

McShay likes him a lot more than I do, which makes me think I'm wrong. I know he's a good athlete, did.

Good in the cones, good cone time.

I just don't think he was asked to do all that. Know they didn't have the greatest outside guys or anything like that. They didn't have to do any of those things. And they won a national championship. So maybe there's way more there that McShay sees that I don't see.

Some alarming throws to the left.

Oh, did you watch that?

I've watched everything. This is the biggest pats draft. I don't even know when, since the.

Like Pennix a lot still. But he's had the two knee injuries. He's older.

The Brandon Roy thing. Yeah, where it's like when the Celtics just took Brandon Roy up their board, they're like, we're not drafting this guy. Our doctor won't let us draft him. All right, that's it for the combine. That's it. It's a subdued media corner this week. We'll have to come back harder next week. Plug your YouTube show, by the way.

Yeah, Tuesday.

We're going to do a live show.

On Tuesday, wrapping up all the combine stuff. So much better combine talk than what you just heard. And then we'll do life advice live as well.

All right, good to see you. All right, that's it for the podcast. Don't forget, you can watch clips from this podcast on YouTube.com. Bill Simmons on that page. New rewatchables coming Monday night roadhouse and I will see you in the seed on Tuesday. Thanks to Kyle Creighton, thanks to Steve Cerudi. Thanks to Brasillo. See you Tuesday.

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