Bill Simmons
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast on a Friday morning where we are concluding the eagerly anticipated home and home between me and my old boss, my friend, my colleague, founder of The Ringer, currently of Spotify, Bill Simmons. How are you?

Great to be here, coming off a big Celtics win. Feels like the Eastern Conference is very close to being locked up for my favorite team, even though we're only three up. But it feels like, I was talking to my dad this morning, there's a moment right now where all of a sudden we could look up and the Celtics could be up in the East by like five and a half games. You're feeling good about life after beating the KD-less Nets without Jalen Brown last night. Yeah, you know when it's fun to play the Nets when they don't have KD?

It's one of my favorite times to play them when they don't have like the guaranteed 37 and eight and the guy you have to worry about who opens up everything for everybody else. Yeah, that was good. I mean, there's a Simmons conversation coming out of that game now that I think

You know, there was a Simmons Renaissance and then you were texting me. I didn't watch the game last night because I was at dinner and then I watched it this morning. And I was like, oh, Simmons seems like good stats, but 0 for 3. And you were like, hmm. And then when I watched it, I was like, oh, so now we're veering into the I have no confidence in my offense at all stage of the Ben Simmons experience here.

Yeah, I've been saying this for weeks and to the point that I feel bad repeating it. It seems like a problem that he's made one free throw since November 25th. Seems like a big deal. And we talked the other day about how teams are starting to guard Scottie Barnes the same way in Toronto. And Toronto has responded by using him as a screener. And he's actually doing okay. You know why? Because he shoots 76% on free throws. He's not afraid to get fouled. And Simmons last night, look, he's a great transition passer.

Part of the reason he's a great transition passer is he wants to get rid of the ball at the first semi-opportune moment at all times. And then, as you pointed out over text, he doesn't re-engage in the play. Like, if he gets rid of it, if he screens, right? Forget transition passing, which is great. If he screens...

And the Celtics switched last night and they switched Peyton Pritchard or Derek White or like someone that he can overpower onto him. He just recedes over to the side of the floor, way out, not even trying to post up. And like, look, he's still...

A decent player. One of the scouts that was there last night is like, he's really sliding his feet on defense. Like he looks like he's Ben Simmons again. I'm like, he's averaging like 6.8 points a game. Like when did this become okay for Ben Simmons to average seven points a game? He's in Ben Wallace territory is where he's headed. Like mid 2000s, Ben Wallace, please don't involve me in the offense in any way. Territory. If you're not driving in the basket and you can't shoot, I'm not sure what's left.

And at least in Philly, he used to drive to the basket. He would, he would do the thing. And then there would be times when he was feeling it, when he would like do little pull-ups and stuff. And now he doesn't drive to the basket at all. It's, you know, when Katie comes back, who knows when that'll happen, but they're in a dangerous position right now because you know, my feelings on Kyrie as a superstar, as the galvanizing force, it's just not going to happen. He needs to be the sidekick. He's not going to be your leader. And he,

We're in this dangerous spot with the East now because I think Cleveland and Milwaukee, even the Milwaukee's had a weird season. They're going to be top four teams. And then that whoever else is in that top four,

you know, you're looking at Brooklyn and you're looking at Philly and maybe even Miami, if they, if they get their crap together. I just don't want to have game sevens on the road in every round, you know, and if a team like Brooklyn is not going to be able to survive that. So, so from a Celtics standpoint, they really have a chance to have home court in all four rounds and that's how they should be thinking right now. And then from a Milwaukee Cleveland standpoint, we at least want to be two and three, but yeah,

I'm looking at the Celts now and it's like, they really feel like they could separate. And then you start looking at them versus Denver and Memphis for home court the whole way. But this is all achievable. They're so deep. Like Pritchard barely plays. And they're just like, Hey, you should play today. Pritchard. And he comes in and he's like additive. They had no other team has a guy like that.

How does he sneak in? It seems like every time he plays, he gets four offensive rebounds. He's like, he's how tall is he? He's like six, two, six, three, whatever he is. He's probably taller than I think he's just like scrounging around in there for offensive rebounds. I'm actually a little worried for you and your family.

Like what would happen if the Celtics played the Nuggets in the finals? Would you just – would you be able to be present for your family or would that just be all seven games? I'm all in. I'm just going to drink this in. We're obviously getting ahead of ourselves. I just – I know how much you love Jokic. But the thing is I love Curry just as much as I love Jokic and I really had to reconcile some stuff last year. I was an all-time –

I am in on this Curry thing. I actually think he's underrated. He's my favorite, just basketball player slash teammate. That's, you know, non Boston athlete. And when he absolutely eviscerated us in game four, incredible, incredible. You were at that game, right? That was the only one I didn't go to. And, Oh yeah. I had a graduation situation, but, but man, what I'm talking about, if it's your kids this year, it doesn't matter who's graduating. You're missing the graduation. Yeah.

Well, I mean, the point Jokic is hitting now where he's going into games now like a musical artist where like, I don't know, Pearl Jam. And they're like, hey, tonight, let's play a 12 minute porch. The fans won't expect this, you know, and they'll just do it. And Jokic is going to these games now. He's like, I'm going to shoot five times today.

I'm just going to, I'm going to try it. This is like what the all-time greats did stuff like this. Like Bird had the famous game when he's like, I'm going to shoot everything left-handed today. I feel like Jokic is going to these games now where he's just like, I'm going to see if I can get 25 assists today. I might not be able to, I'm going to give it a run. I'm going to see if I can get 50 points today. He's, he's deciding basically, I think two hours for the game, what his game plan is. And we, when was the last time we had a player like that?

They are. We're going to get to him later. We're already now three minutes into our 15 minute designated driver limit. Now that was two. We still have 13 minutes left. By the way, porch is my favorite song off of 10. It's great. That's a good way to identify. Maybe I don't know a Pearl Jam super fandom enough to know if it's properly rated enough, but it's my favorite song off 10. Listen, it's a very good litmus test for how, how much into the band you are, how you feel on porch. Anyway. Yeah.

You're right, though. The danger for the Nets, and I said this earlier this week, is that they'll be fine. They've built up such a cushion. Without Durant, they'll be okay. But they could easily fall to fifth. They're close to fifth now, and that changes your life. And for the Celtics, I think one of the reasons you're probably excited about them opening up this lead in the East is it doesn't look like, unless you really, really, really fear Miami, fully forged Miami. I do not.

And I know you don't. There's no situation this year where you're like, oh my God, we could get first, but the Nets are going to be in the play-in. There's no super duper possible eighth seed or seventh seed that year. I mean, you weren't worried about the Nets last year, but others were. We have seven guys to throw, Kyrie.

But I think Cleveland is – I'm very concerned of Cleveland being in the fourth spot and that being a second-round matchup. Like, I watched the Portland game last night. I watched the whole – basically, end of third quarter, whole fourth quarter. And I just love Garland. And we talked about him on my pod on Tuesday. He had basically the game-clinching alley-oop. He's so competitive. Like, there's just certain guys – like, Mitch, he threw it to Mitchell –

Any sort of, is there an alpha dog thing or is he cool with how this whole Mitchell thing is going? Who knows, but you certainly don't sit on the court. And he was just so happy and so fired up. And I just think that team, there's a competitiveness to that team.

That I think is going to be a real problem in the playoffs. You go through and I don't know what they're going to do about the liver, whatever they're going to do with that three spot and crunch time. But all those dudes, even Kevin love, like those guys, they're like experienced dudes who care about basketball the right way. And I don't want to see them in a round two. I don't think they're ready to beat Boston in a playoff. I don't think they are either, but I don't want to see them. I don't want to have to have the two week.

knock down, drag out. Oh my God. Mitchell just had 52 in game four and now we're tied 2-2 going. I just don't want to see them. It will be interesting to see

Because they're looking around for that starting small forward spot. And they've tried basically everyone on the team who fits that template. Okoro was, I think, 4 of 4 last night. He had his once every two weeks. Oh, maybe. Maybe he's going to shoot threes and whatever this year. And the Levert thing is interesting because they've traded all their picks and all their swaps. So his expiring contract is the main way they can flip for something big.

I don't even know if it would be better. Like there's all these Levert for Tim Hardaway rumors out there. And I'm like, I don't really get that for. We started those rumors. What are you talking about? Did we? I don't know. I feel like we started that. Can I ask you about Portland though? Cause I think Jeremy Grant would solve a lot of issues for the Cavs. Five straight losses for the Blazers. And they were feeling great about themselves 10 days ago. Cause they had all these road games already. They were coming home for this homestand and they are, they are,

They're 19 and 22. And FYI, first month of the season. And the only reason I know this is because we have me and my gambling buddies. We have a Portland not to make the playoffs bet.

Just, just one of the many bets we make, but they won in the first month of the season. They won four ridiculous games, right? Where they had the Jeremy Grant walking backwards, taking seven steps, making the game winner against Phoenix. Yeah. They had like four of those. And we're like, Oh, they, they, obviously we, we missed this bet. Portland's going to be pretty good. Portland's not good. And they're not bad. They're in the middle. They're in the middle of the pack team with one great player.

If I were them, I would trade Jeremy Grant and I would play sharp because I'm so fascinated by sharp and I want, I just want to see him. And I think they could kind of throw this season away. Not really. And I think Dame would be okay with it because he's good, but they're not going to, they're not going to make the finals this year. And Grant, do you want to pay him $40 million next year? Like,

I would try to turn that asset into something now and maybe make the plan, maybe not. But right now they're out of the plan. And who are they going to pass? Minnesota? Utah? Golden State? Phoenix? We have the Lakers half a game under them? Maybe if the play –

Three of those teams are plausible for Portland to pass. They couldn't pass Minnesota. Utah obviously has a decision to make selling wise. Phoenix is in a tailspin. Like why can't they pass those teams? Phoenix is not going to make the play in.

I mean, Utah would be the team that falls out, but I still feel like the Lakers. I think LeBron, you know, he's been doing a variety of things to try to bully them and to trade in those picks, even though he's claiming he's not, we know what he's doing. And I think they're going to cave and they're going to trade at least one of those picks for somebody. I do enjoy the, I mean, it really is something else. The, all the comment, all the jabs at the roster,

And then like, yeah, but that's not my job. I'm just going to pontificate. It's not my job. I just was responsible for all the trades. Yeah. It was the Davis trade and the Westbrook trade. He's literally responsible for it, but not his – The ostensible purpose of this is to pick Western Conference All-Stars. But I did – I wanted to go back to something from your pod the other day where I copped out on the Eastern Conference All-Stars because I hadn't even paid attention to the –

the ballot positional eligibility stuff and the fact that Tatum is only eligible at front court. And so we have this log jam where I can't, I'm not allowed to put Tatum at guard. So only three of Tatum, Giannis, Embiid, and Durant can start in the all-star game. And I was like, I don't know. I haven't thought about that. I have a take. You're like the heat. You just get away with cheating and everybody looks the other way. That's what you do. No.

So we concluded then that

And tentatively without thinking about it, I was like, I guess I'd have to put Embiid to the bench just because of availability and minutes played compared to the other three guys. And so it feels weird to not start Giannis. Durant was in the MVP top three, and he's missed one game before this injury, I think. So he's got a lot of minutes over all these guys, except for Tatum, who's been among the league leaders in minutes. And he's the best player on the best team. The best, most durable player of the season.

So right now, if I filled my ballot out, I don't know when our ballots are due. I think my little lukewarm take is that Giannis should be the odd man out, which is strange to think about because he's the best defensive player of the four, probably. He's the linchpin, along with Brook Lopez, of a top three defense. His efficiency has just...

Has just taken a dive like everybody knows this, like he's taking all these jumpers, doesn't make any of them as two point field goal percentages down. And just compared to these other guys, it's really hard. These are if there are six real MVP candidates in the NBA right now and maybe Curry comes back and gets back in and makes it seven. These are four of them. So someone's getting screwed either way.

I the advanced stats, most of them, if you add them all up and look at them, they kind of say it should be honest. And minutes wise, he's much closer to Embiid than he is to Tatum and Durant. And their offense is 26. Like, I kind of feel OK with Giannis being the odd guy out. Does that does that surprise you? Is that even a hot take? I don't even think it's a hot take. It's a fair take. He's also the scariest guy in the league.

Yeah, nobody wants to face him. The Celtics are still scarred from battling that dude without Middleton in a seven-game series. Nobody wants to face him. Well, when do we have to decide? Because I think Giannis versus Embiid, I agree with you. I think it's probably dead even. I would give it 51% to 49% edge to Giannis, but I don't think I'm right. But, you know, you watched what happened to Philly last night. And I think, man, now we're talking about the East when we thought we were talking about the West. But I think they have a real reckoning

With that Maxie Harden backcourt, what to do? Because you saw what happened last night. They have no chance to guard somebody like SGA if that's going to be your backcourt. And Melton, you know, I thought was really important for them and really made the team just made more sense when he was out there than Maxie. But I fully admit Maxie is really talented, really good. I just don't know if he makes sense on this team, if he's anything more than like that six-man quarterback.

Kind of Jordan Clarkson coming off the bench type guy, but even maybe that's too many minutes. But I, I, to me, that team really needs to decide right now where they're going, what they're doing. Cause I don't know what the heart, I don't understand the heart and situation. I don't know how much longer and beads going to be happy. You have the, the Knicks, the,

Very close with Wes and Leon who run the next. I just, I think they have a lot of to figure out in the next four months. And I actually think it should be a bigger story than it is because the team does not make sense. When you watch Maxie and Harden, you're not winning four playoff rounds. If that's your backcourt, neither of those guys can guard anybody. I like Maxie, but he can't guard anybody. So if they think that's going to succeed in a league, that's guard dominated now, like what are they going to do when they play Cleveland? Yeah.

They're going to be able to guard Mitchell and Garland with Maxine Harden. Like get the F out of here. Well, I, I, the other interesting thing to me is matchup dependent.

I've said this before, like I don't really understand what P.J. Tucker is doing in some of these games, like why he's entitled to start and play 30 minutes if there's no big wing for him to guard. I almost want them to go more the other way. And they've started doing this to Doc Rivers credit of playing Maxi Melton, Harden, Harris and Bede as a core five man lineup. But to your point, that's going to bring its own defensive challenges against the wrong teams. I am disappointed. I thought Maxi would be better defensively by now.

than he is. He should be better than this. He has the tools to be better than this. We all know that. Did you see some of the SGA stuff last night? It was destroying him. I was watching that game during, during breaks in the Celtics Nets game. And it was a delight. By the way, by the way, now this is a good show. So, and, and to your point about Embiid in, in,

April 2022, when Harden shits the bed again in an elimination game, when he does nothing with the season, literally nothing with their season on the line. Last year. April 2022 against Miami. The famous, the ball didn't get back to me. Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm just James Harden. I can't get the ball. I'm just helpless out here. At that moment, Embiid loomed as the next uh-oh.

Is this the next unhappy guy? And then they salvage it with this great summer of Daryl Morey magic and tampering for a cap circumvention. Whatever it ends up being with Harden and Melton and Tucker and House. By the way, House has been like a non-entity this year, like a zero for them. And it's like, okay, Philly, this is the year. Could win the East. Could be the number one seed in the East. They've really salvaged it and put all that –

of the Harden and Bede thing fizzling out the way it did in the playoffs, the Harden thing particularly. And Embiid is like getting Embiid's injuries in the playoffs are like ridiculous and unlucky. And he's going to have a monster. He's going to have a monster playoff run at some point. That's going to change the course of his career and whatever franchise he's on. Hopefully the Sixers for their sake, that summer and that off season for stalled that discussion.

But not indefinitely. And like they've had some good games, some good streaks. And they have a game like last night. I was like, oh, my God. But by the way, to transition to the West. Wait, can I read you their next seven games? Yes, please. This is why I wanted to mention this, because I really think, you know, they just played back to backs against the Pistons, which kind of threw people off the scent a little bit. But they lost to the Bulls. They almost lost to the Pacers. Anyway, coming up, road trip.

At Utah, at the Lakers, at the Clippers, at Portland, at Sacramento. Then they come home and they play the Nets and the Nuggets. Ooh, baby. And I'm telling you, these next two weeks, this could go a variety of ways. How many off days does Harden have in L.A.? So they're in Utah, flying into L.A., playing L.A. the next day. And then a day off before the Clippers game.

What are the chances Harden has to sit the Utah game and meet the team in L.A.? Like, go to L.A. early. The hamstring tightness. Has to see a guy in L.A. that can work out his hamstrings. But, man, that's a freaking gauntlet because –

All of those teams are in the mix now where every game matters, you know, when all those West teams from the five to 12 range. So I don't know. I I'm really watching this because to me, it's like two different styles of the Sixers team, right? It's like this, you have this weird heart in whatever's going on with that style. You have this shit, everything just run through and bead style, but

And then you have guys like Maxie who I just think want to go up and down. But this is not the team to go up and down with. And then my guy Tybalt, I'm keeping on my stock. I'm still looking at other properties on Tybalt Island. Trying to buy some stuff up. Maybe I'll invest in a drugstore there. I still think he's going to have a moment. I just don't think it's going to be on this team. I just – the on-off numbers on him this year are outrageously good. And I don't buy it because –

I just think in the playoffs, him and Embiid out there together offensively, it's just going to be too good. You can't post Embiid. You can't put him at the nail. Tybalt is going to be in the way all the time. He doesn't dribble, doesn't pass. I get it. Zach Lowe, at some point in his career, he's going to be on a playoff team and he's going to be awesome. I don't know what the team is, but it's going to be a team. It's going to happen for him.

When you become a GM of a team, you can trade for him and Aaron Smith, Aaron and Peyton Pritchard and all your, all your, all your guys. Thomas Bryant. I would have signed Thomas Bryant last summer. I've always liked Thomas Bryant and he was just sitting there and then he got, he went for the minimum. Anyway, the West Western conference, all-stars and last night's thunder Sixers game is a good transition.

I'm just going to put the thing. I'm just going to say it now. Yeah. I absolutely cannot wait to watch the thunder next season. I think they have a chance to make a huge leap next season. Giddy is figuring it out. Yeah. Jalen Williams perimeter. Jalen Williams is awesome. I just, I love watching that guy play both ends of the floor. Big Jalen Williams is starting to get minutes and it's like, he's got some interesting. Now they, they keep searching for these like perimeter centers who can shoot and pass and they all end up not being good. Um,

Obviously, one of them is injured and missing the entire year. That's Chet Holmgren, which is reason number one why I can't wait to watch the Thunder next year. Maybe he's that guy. Big Jalen Williams is pretty good. That's what we're calling him now? Big Jalen Williams? Well, there's two Jalen Williams. Can we call him J? Like J-dubs?

One of them is J-Dub. I think Perimeter or Jalen Williams is J-Dub. It's like, and by the way, every road team, every time you watch the Thunder, the road broadcast is just milking it. Oh, it's broadcaster's worst nightmare. Two Jalen Williams. I guess they call that one J-Dub. I have an idea, and your guy Dan's going to have to beat me.

The perimeter Jalen Williams, I would like to call awesome Jalen Williams because that guy is an absolute stud. He was I remember Charks. Shout out to Charks. Charks love Jalen Williams and all of our ringer guys like loved him as like what is I know he's a little bit of a late bloomer, but what is this guy? I love that guy. If you redrafted it, I'd be really interested to see where he would go because I think it would probably be top four.

And Dort, the first month of the year, it was like, uh-oh, did Dort forget how to shoot at all? And now he's up to 35% from three. And they have a funky little, like, they put Shea, Giddy, Dort, and effing awesome Jalen Williams out together. And it's like four big wings and a center switching, causing havoc. The ball's moving. They're fast. And they have a crunch time scorer. Here's the thing, Zach. Poku was Presti's...

Ace in the hand for tanking. Poco is like, oh, whoa, what is he? Oh, my God. Poco's terrible. Poco, what was his odd off? He was like minus 13. He was starting to figure some things out. What was he figuring out? He's a liability. He's somebody who's, he's like, you know, he's one of those guys who's like, should be a 10th man if you actually have a good team. And they'll play him a lot.

As soon as Poku got hurt, now it's like, what is this team? Where now we can play all these athletes. They demolished the Celtics. Granted, they shot really well, whatever. But athletically, defensively, they were on the same level as the Celtics in that game. And I think not having Poku out there has really helped them. And they've got, obviously, a million draft picks still to come. Holmgren hasn't played. I think they're set next year.

To start winning in a real way. Not like winning, winning, oh my god. But to be in at the play-in mix should be a given for them next year. They're going to be good. I can't wait to watch them next year. I wrote some stuff down. Because I knew Shay. We have Shay as a starter for the West All-Stars, right? I think that's just a no-brainer all the time. So here's the West. The West starters are...

I started like this. Jokic front court, Luka guard. That's all I had like in Sharpie when I started. Two of the five. I think Shea. I have Shea's in Sharpie for me.

So in the end, he was for me. But you only get one more guard spot, right? Luka's listed as a guard. Oh, is that true? Luka's a guard on a forward? Luka's a guard. Luka's a guard. So I got to put Luka as a guard. So I get only one more guard spot. Luka's 6'8 and a half. Come on. We should get flexibility with him. That's stupid. He's the point guard. But why is LeBron not? It doesn't matter. So the second guard spot is either Morant, Curry, or Shea.

And I went with Shea and Curry has been the best of the three per minute. And I actually am going to, we're going to run into this problem a lot in the West because a lot of the best players have played like 300 fewer minutes than a lot of the next tier down of players. I'm going to default mostly to just who's the best guy, but,

But the gap between Shea and Steph is like 400 minutes. And Shea's averaging 31 a game on good, efficient shooting. I'm putting him in as the starter over Steph just because of the minutes thing. And if I had a third spot, maybe Steph gets in. But my starting backcourt in the West is Luka Doncic and Shea Gildress Alexander. And I think he deserves it. They're plus one or plus two with him on the floor and minus a gazillion with him off the floor. For that team to be plus...

Given the injuries and the fact that Mark Dagnall changes the rotation every game is super. That dude is a legit superstar. And you can tell the other players in the other teams this season have all decided this guy is a guy. Like, we like watching him play. We hate playing against him. He's terrifying to guard. He's a guy. He's in my starting five. Yeah, I didn't really think it was an argument. 31-5-6. He's playing on a really young team where he's the only...

kind of constant and he's just, he's controls, especially these crunch times. He has such a sense of when his team needs something. The pace is always the pace that he likes to play. He's so hard to guard. We watch guys who like he killed the Sixers last night, but he's also, we've watched him kill other teams that have good defensive guards that he just does whatever I listen. There's a couple of what ifs with this. First of all,

What would Presti have done last summer if somebody had Gobert offered him just 200 cents on the dollar for SGA, which might not have even been 200 cents on the dollar. But did anybody ever in all your reporting and all the little whispers you've heard? Because I know the Knicks were absolutely kicking the tires as hard as possible, really for the last two years. And everything I've heard, not just from the Knicks, but everywhere else,

is that Presti wouldn't even consider trading him. It was like a non-starter, no thanks. It was almost like how the Celtics would treat a Jason Tatum call. And it got vindicated this year in an incredible way, right? He is now, I would say he's one of the best 10 players in the league by any calculation. So you get that. Then the other thing, do we give Presti enough credit for those two trades?

like the clippers one and what else and and the cp one i i wrote down that because i was like i can't remember what they got i looked it up they got sga so just trading sga for paul george if that was just the trade you'd be like wow that was a great trade for the thunder right they got to rebuild and and now you'd rather have sga they also got gallinari they got a 2021 first that turned their trade man they got 2022 first that turned into our guy jalen williams

They got a 23 first from the Heat that eventually could become 26 unprotected. They got a 23 swap. They got a 24 unprotected first, a 25 swap, and a 26 unprotected first. And they got the best guy in the trade. And I think Presti can use Steve Ballmer's bathroom at the crypto. So then they turn CP3.

I'm sorry, they turned Russ into CP3, the 21 swap, 24, 1-4 unprotected, 25 swap, and a 26 first, 1-4 unprotected. That's one of the greatest combos ever. So I think if Presti doesn't get enough credit, I think it's because of the perception, somewhat fair, somewhat still you have to take the edges that are given to you, that the other teams were held at gunpoint by various parties during those. But you still have to execute. You still have to have the thing they want.

And you have to execute it in the right way. And he held the Clippers up for everything. And that was probably got three firsts more than he probably the clip like than a normal GM would have gotten because just SGA and a couple firsts seem like a lot.

He played it perfectly. He just said, look, oh, I understand what's going on here. This is Kawhi or Bust for you guys. And Bust is untenable. Bust is you might all be getting fired pretty soon. Bust is not going to work. So give me everything. And the CP rush trade is like I said last week, someday I'll tell the story of that night in Vegas and what I saw and heard. Like that is an all time just like, what are you doing? Like someday I'll tell the story. What are you like Mike Birbiglia? Yeah.

Like we tell the story, write the piece. He's a comedian. Yeah. He does. He does great. One man shows you would like them. I think how it worked out is just incredible. And then on top of it yet another, like Kawhi is a player GM, right? I really want to play with Paul George. Hmm. Well, he's going to cost a lot. Well, that's how I'm going to come. Well, we'd have to give up basically all of our assets so you can play with Paul George. I don't care. I sat in Toronto, uh,

For like 35 games this year, half my life I spent sitting by myself watching you warm up at the Air Canada Center, racking up my freaking flyer miles. I have 9,000 stamps at Pearson Airport on my passport. And I got to get Paul – that wasn't good enough? I got to trade my whole franchise for this? What the hell was I doing? Just think if Kawhi had said –

you know what? I'm going to sign with you guys. Let's let me see what you have. And maybe we'll figure it out in February or June. No, he's like, I have to have Paul George right now. And it was a absolute catastrophe for the Clippers. It really is like, well, I was going to those games that first year and it was clear. SGA was good. I never in a million years thought he was going to be this. Nobody, but he was good. He,

He was absolutely a good player. It was very similar to Rondo and 07-08 where it was like, eh, I hope they don't throw him in the KG trade. That guy's good. Well, they played the Warriors in the playoffs that year, and that was the famous one where they had the huge comeback in game two. And he looked like...

Pretty at home. He wasn't great, but he looked like this is the Warriors. This is the hardest offense to guard. This is like full force KD era Warriors. And he looked like, oh, yeah, just like I'm cool. Ainge doesn't get enough credit for that with Rondo because Rondo should have been in that KG trade. And Ainge was steadfast. I'm not throwing him in. The deal will fall apart if he's in. The Clippers, obviously, they couldn't do that with SGA because Presti's not making the Paul George trade without SGA. But, man.

I mean, those two trades and then you have Harden holding up the Rockets hostage. Got to get rid of CP. Got to get him out of here. And then they make this trade. One of the great things about the two trades is he kind of pushed the picks ahead. He didn't want them like right away. It was like, hey, what about four or five years from now? And those Clipper picks, man, 2024 first, the swap in 25 and the 26th.

Yikes. Is Kawhi even healthy in 2024? It's smart to push the picks out, and those Clippers picks are...

I mean, the assumption is always the big market teams will just reload, reload, reload. Even the Heat do this. They're not a huge market team, but like we'll never be bad. We'll never be bad. We'll trade all our picks. We'll reload. Stars will come here. Stars will come here. Maybe, maybe. I think only the Heat and the Lakers can pull that off. I don't think the Clippers can. But the Lakers just missed a playoff six years in a row or whatever it was. You know, can they even pull that off? I mean, what happened to the Lakers? Well, they pulled it off with LeBron and Davis. So you could say there's at least a proof of concept.

LeBron pulled it off. LeBron did pull it off. You're right. You're right. This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required.

Sorry. So we have, so we agree. Our first three starters in the West are guard SGA guard, Luca front court, Jokic. We have two front court spots vacant, Mr. Simmons. I think there are three realistic candidates for these two front court spots. I know you have something to say on this, so I will yield the floor to you. Can we do like 10 seconds on Luca? Yeah.

Sure, if you want. I just feel like, what is there to say? He's amazing. I mean, it's a different version of LeBron, right? He's still putting up the stats, but he's not the LeBron from 2009. It's still fun to watch Luka, at this point in his career, 23 years old, in Los Angeles, kind of going toe-to-toe with LeBron in a way where it's like, I'm actually better than you know. And I know LeBron's old. I get it. But...

The stuff Luca was doing last night, it would have been really interesting to watch him during like the all time peak LeBron, how that would have gone. It was just, it got me thinking like, and I said this on the pod a couple of weeks ago on one of my pods about like when Luca had that crazy 60 point, whatever the 60, 21, it was the first time I really started to think about him versus LeBron from a ceiling standpoint. Like could, could Luca get to 40,000 points? Could all of these different things happen? Yeah.

The stuff he's doing this year, and granted, we've talked about the stats are out of whack, right? And I don't really know how you compare the eras. But there's only four guys ever who were 23 and under who averaged over 34.5 points a game. Will, MJ, Rick Barry in 1967, just high volume, ridiculous. And then McAdoo in 75, right?

And that's it. Like, I just think to, to, I know the stats are nuts and I know I'm not, I'm not breaking news here, but man, to put up like basically a 35, 10 and 10, I don't care what the era is. That's bonkers. And he's playing big minutes. He stayed durable. He's got a huge usage rate, but his shooting's better. I think his three point shooting after the first month, he's basically been a 40 point, a 40% three point shooter. And he's,

I'm just starting to think about him versus LeBron now. And I wasn't there until about two weeks ago. I don't know where you stand on this. Well, 11 free throws a game has been a huge leap for him. Yep. And 58% on twos. He's a great two-point shooter, which maybe isn't talked about enough. He's an incredible finisher at the rim and on floaters. And really physical, which LeBron wasn't physical, I would say, until about 2012. Right. Like second Miami season.

To your point, and this has always been true with Luka, because he played in the best league in the world other than the NBA when he was a kid. Yeah, he's tough. He grew up in it.

People try to get in his skin, and he's just like, dude, you don't really understand. Russ was trying to get into him last night, and he was kind of enjoying it. Pat Bev did it in the playoffs, and he was like, you know what, Pat Bev? I'm just going to mash you out of the series. How about I post you up, and then the Clippers are like, oh, we have to bench him. We can't play him against Luka. By the way, that stuff worked against LeBron the first five, six years of his career. Remember, people would...

They take little runs at him. They try to bully him and do all this stuff. Well, Russ got the flagrant last night, and Russ was throwing them all over the place. And Luka was like, it's cool. I don't really care. It seemed like Luka wanted to first kick his ass, and then he kind of just laughed at him. He's like, great. I'm just going to hit a three on the next position. Yeah, 34 and a half points a game.

He leads. He's now leading the league in minutes per game, 37 and a half minutes. They can't take them out in some of these games in the second halves, at least. Sometimes they skip his rest at the beginning of the fourth quarter because they're like, oh, my God, what are we going to do? Roll with his team. He was really good last night. Yeah, his team's not good. Dinwiddie can be hit or miss, but those dunks Dinwiddie had last night. I was like, where did that come from? Or Wenya and Gabriel. So the points thing.

And then on the assists, like he's averaging over nine. And that's, I looked that up for 23 and unders. It's Isaiah magic, Chris Paul, Kevin Johnson, Oscar, Darren Williams, Rhonda, Trey young, tiny Archibald, Norm Nixon. That's it. So yeah,

I don't know. I don't even know how to put it. These numbers are so crazy this year. Like we're not even blinking at some of this stuff, but holy mackerel. And I think there's a real conversation now for Luca versus Giannis for who would you want going forward for the next 10 years? And normally I would have said Giannis, but now I think you could, there's a really strong Luca case to be made like for trade value. Still trying to figure out who should get the one spot. Luca's four years younger. Like who would you rather have next 10 years?

So when we – I remember – and this ended up looking very foolish because Giannis, I think, went on to win the championship shortly after this. I'm going to get the chronology wrong. But on NBA Today at one point, we did the – maybe it was get up, whatever. We did the Luka Giannis, who would you rather build your team around? And I think it was right after – it might have been right after the Clippers-Mavs series that the Clippers won in seven games. But Luka was just insane. Yeah.

And I chose Luka. And the reason I chose Luka was because of Giannis' lack of shooting. Giannis might be the best player. I don't... I just...

With Luka, I can build my team pretty much any way I want. I can get any kind of player to go with him. I can get Rudy Gobert to go with him if I want to. I can get anyone. Giannis, I have to be a little more careful about the ecosystem I put around him. Ultimately, they're 1A, 1B. Who cares? I get either one. I'm happy. And then Giannis went on to win the title and made a million free throws. And I was like, huh, I guess I got that one wrong maybe. I don't know. Luka's younger. He came in out of shape. I never have to worry about that stuff with Giannis.

I do think there's something to Luka's just I can plop him anywhere. I can put anybody around him and he's going to make it work. I guess the other test will be – And the age. And the age. You're getting four extra years.

The other test will be what happens when Dallas, I guess they had it with Jalen Brunson, but like when they get someone that considers himself a real peer to Luka, if they ever do, is it going to be a hardened situation where Luka is like, I want this guy, I want this guy, but I actually don't really want to share the ball with this guy or is it going to work?

I don't think that's a crazy debate to the point that two years ago, whenever I was, I picked Luka by a hair just because of the malleability and fit stuff. And then Giannis went on to be the best player in the world. So I felt like an idiot. The correct answer is my hero, Nikola Jokic. Let me ask you this question. It's going to break your brain.

You're going to get super uncomfortable and you're probably back off the mic and do the thing where you like look up and you blow out air and stuff. Well, now I'm not going to do that because I'm primed for it. I'm going to remain steely. If you had to bet your life on this question five years from now, what team is Luka Doncic on? What team would you pick?

I would pick Dallas just because I'm always going to go. If I'm betting my life, I'm betting my life on the team that has his bird rights and has all has home court advantage. However flimsy that may end up being over the field. I'm still betting Dallas, but I'm interested to hear who, who, I mean, I haven't even started to think about alternatives, obviously the LA teams and the New York teams. Those are, those are the teams that always come up. Like what, what are my other, what are my other choices?

You're betting on a different team other than Dallas if your life is dependent on it? All right. So maybe the question is Dallas versus the field.

That's the better question. You've now put me in jail where I have to answer the question. How many years? Five years? Five years from now. So 2028. I'm still going to go. I'm still going Dallas. I'm still going to. I might be naive. I understand all the reasons you're going to say the other, say the field. I'm still going to go Dallas. I'm going to take the field. Don't feel good about it. Don't feel worried about my life now. I feel worried about my life. I'm going to start checking things off the bucket list. Hop on a plane to Tokyo. Maybe I shouldn't have said hypothetically bet your life. Right after this podcast. I'm taking the field.

I think it's going to be really hard for them to put a good enough team around him. And I just, we know the law of the NBA at some point, at some point, the guy just starts looking around and I think they're on the clock. I think the Brunson thing, the cover down on my body, they're on the clock and the Brunson thing was really dangerous game to play with this. He's so good. And the league's just getting better and better. And you like the Celtics, uh,

Talent-wise, it's no contest. He has no chance in a series against that team. So how many years will he be happy? The whole thing. Anyway. I think it's a very fair question to ask. I just am conservative with my life and whatever else I'm doing. So I'm going to go with the home court. Well, can I ask you if he did switch teams? For some reason, I feel like it's Miami. They're always in the – Because I think the Laker fans are already like –

Luka because they've just used to it right the best guys come to the Lakers they're like someday Luka but I actually see him more like in Florida being you know do Luka stuff anyway let's keep going all right so Luka Jokic SGA you got two front court spots I like I said before in the Western Conference I have three I have three final candidates for the last two front court spots in the Western Conference starting lineup do you have more than three who are your picks give me the take

As you know, I like my team to make sense as a fivesome, which is not part of our instructions, but it's just something I like, which rules out Sabonis. Cause I think it's weird to have Sabonis and Jokic together.

But I think Sabonis has been incredible. I really love watching the Kings. I cannot believe they're leading the Pacific division. But we had, that was our big, when we did all the futures over under stuff on my pod, like we're Kings were 34 and a half over under. Couldn't, couldn't made no sense. It was way too low. That was, that was the basis of like our big bets that we did all that stuff. But he's been, I just can't, it's so funny that his dad was Arvidas and,

Like that, the passing DNA has kind of been passed down. Usually like six assists a game. And everything runs through him and he's been awesome for Fox and they still lost that trade, but it was an amazing trade for them. And yet I can't have him on. And I, for fit reasons, it's the all-star game. Let's start three, seven footers, four. Let's have some fun. Fine. I'll have them on. That's it. That's all it took.

Well, it's Jokic and Sabonis. That's not a basketball team anyone would put together. We saw Sabonis playing with Miles Turner for two years. Everyone was miserable.

It could be some fun passing. Full disclosure, I have Sabonis as one of my starting frontcourt players. So that's four for me. Luka, Jokic, SGA, Sabonis. I just think 19, 12, almost seven assists. He's shooting 62%. Yeah, you're right. I love Sabonis. Fine, fine, fine. Plus six with Sabonis on the floor, minus six with him off the floor. They're getting killed in the Fox only minutes, which is not Fox's fault, but it shows that he is the main driver of the game.

over Fox if I have to pick one main driver now both of them could make all-star but he's the he's the most important reason they are winning this year so he's in my 100% and they have a winning record um I also like that he got hurt in hand injury wrist injury was it hand or wrist I can't remember it was hand thumb thumb um

missed the game he's like i'm back like i'll be fine it's okay i'll just figure out how to play with my dislocated thumb and didn't really miss a beat whereas i think some other guys in the league would have been like i'll see you in a couple weeks i'm gonna go rest my thumb um fine i have some bonus and i'm glad you talked me into it and now we have left now we have to talk about marketing versus lebron

What a sentence. Boy, I really we got to dig into this Lowry Markkinen versus LeBron James debate. Could you imagine if someone had told you four months ago? I would have thought the world had ended and we were living in a zombie alternate universe. So so the to your point, I said three candidates for two spots. The three candidates are Sabonis, LeBron and Markkinen.

All of them are locks to make the all-star team. So ultimately this is irrelevant to me. Lowry Markkinen is an all-star full stop. He deserves it. He is the linchpin holding the jazz together. They fall apart without him. He has been outstanding.

I started LeBron over him, but it's close. Make the argument that it shouldn't be LeBron, who's averaging, by the way, 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists a game on 60 percent shooting from two. His team is, I think, what, a game behind Utah in the standings. So you can't use you can't use wins for marketing. You can use expectations, I guess. I can use durability. He's played 41 games and LeBron's played 31.

That's fair. The minutes is 1,400-ish for Markkinen and 1,100 for LeBron. So 280 minutes or something like that. Is that it? Is that all it is? I'm going to read you two sets of stats for the listeners so they understand the gravity of this Markkinen case. He's so good, man.

20. Both of us, by the way, both of us sold our market in stock. Let's be honest. Both of us bailed out. We bailed out. We gave up. I fired my guy. My, my guy who told me to sell the stock. I fired him. And we said, maybe it'll be good one day, but like whatever, whatever the vision was of ACE scored killer jump shooter, you know, pump and go great offensive player like that, that we gave up on. We didn't, we, we, we bailed on that. I,

I remember like two years ago, and I don't remember if he was on Cleveland or Chicago, and I was watching him play and somebody was hurt. So he was playing more minutes and he got a rebound and he dribbled up the court and did like back the guy and then hit a three. And I was like, this guy, like Jesus, is it, is he ever going to put it together? And then it's finally happening. I'm going to read you two sets of stats.

25 points, nine rebounds a game, 52, 41, 88% is my first line. Second line, 25 and nine, 50, 42, 90%. Two identical lines, right? The first was Markkinen. The second was 2007 Dirk Nowitzki during his MVP season.

That's how good marketing has been. He's replicated Dirk Nowitzki's 2007 MVP season. Now, Dirk. You have to make your caveat about all this inflated stats. Inflated stats. Dirk's PR was better. Efficiency-wise, it's there. Slightly more free throw attempts.

Mark it in one of the great things about his season, 24.9 usage. It's not like he's ball hogging it and shooting all the time. Like it's all in the context of how they play 66% true shooting. As you know, I don't totally understand true shooting, but I know over 60 is great. And then you look at the LeBron stats, really high usage, 33 percentage shooting stuff is really low for him. Like he hasn't made threes all year.

He is shooting 60% on twos. I don't the crunch time stuff from him. And you saw it again last night in the Dallas game. If you're the other team, you're like, this is great. LeBron has the ball at the last 20 seconds. He's going to take a pull up three and it's probably going to miss. Like that's kind of where he's at as a crunch time guy now. But yet 20, he's 38 and seven and he's shooting 51%. He's doing the bronze stuff. It's really hard to leave them out. I just think like,

Well, he's going to make your 12-man also, Tim. He is. This is all the vanity of offensively

awkwardly walking out on stage while common is like starting from the Utah jazz Lowry. That's all it is. That's all we're talking about. And people want LeBron to start, which is why I think for me, he's the starter because he's LeBron James. And now you have to bring in the 20 year resume versus marketing. But if we're just talking about who's been a better and more effective player this year, who's been better in crunch time, who's done more for their team, who's been more durable, uh,

The answer is Markkinen because nobody expected anything from that team. And he's been awesome. He's basically been able to replicate Dirk Nowitzki. So, you know, LeBron's played 31 games. He's missed 10. He hasn't really had a major injury and the team hasn't been good. So I think it's an argument and I know people just default to, well, it's gotta be LeBron. Well, LeBron, LeBron, but that's not the exercise. The exercise is who's having a better season. And I think it's dead even.

But yeah, I'm going to start LeBron just because LeBron, it's LeBron. Well, I haven't decided I'm leaning LeBron because you do have these moments. I remember it's like when I debated LeBron versus DeMar DeRozan, second team all NBA last year. People just get mad. Yeah, and it's like, LeBron, take care of the guy. But no, but I got mad at myself. I was like, am I really putting DeMar DeRozan over LeBron James? Yeah. Really?

And I didn't. I put LeBron over Tamar DeRozan because it's LeBron. And to me, the one thing that maybe is overlooked a little bit in the statistical comparison you laid out is the passing. You just can't.

You can't, it's just hard to compare a no pun intended, a finisher. And he's not just a finisher. He's a connector. He starts some plays and a guy who's the chess master. It just, it's harder to replace the chess master than it is anything else. But the advanced stats say it should be marketing by a little bit. The minutes say it should be marketing by a lot. I just think like he's been that good. And once you actually sit and look at the numbers, we've all watched the games. We've seen what he's done.

You hear every time Utah plays, you're like, I don't know, Markkinen might be Utah, may have a homegrown all-star. What a story. He's going to be in the conversation. He's not in the conversation. He's in. Lowry Markkinen is a stone-cold lock all-star. It's an amazing trade. What would happen if Minnesota called Utah right now? We'll just give you Rudy for Markkinen straight up. They would say no. Utah would say no. Utah would say no. They'd say no. Here's the thing with LeBron.

Because everybody's like, he's as good as ever. And like, you hear that stuff, like still doing it. I think it actually is offensive to LeBron from 2009 and 2013. Like people, like,

LeBron is not the same player that he was during that five-year stretch. Just go on YouTube and watch the effing clips. You don't even have to do that. You and I talked about 2013 finals LeBron, 2012 finals LeBron the other day. And just like, oh my god, this guy's everywhere. All you got to do is watch Christian Wood block him at the rim last night with the game on the line, that reverse layup. That's not happening anywhere.

In 2013. That's a dunk or a layup and one. That's just not a blocked shot for Christian Wood. I actually went on YouTube last night after that Christian Wood play because I was like, man, that was like... It reminded me of Larry Bird got... He tried to dunk in the Knicks playoff series in 1990 and got blocked by the rim. And it was like one of those moments where like, oh... That's kind of how I felt with LeBron thing. But I went back and I was watching...

His 2009 highlights. And then I was watching for some reason, stumbled into 2011. Remember the heat Portland game?

When LeBron fully embraced the villain, the Darth Vader, when he went in, LeBron was awesome. And it went into overtime and he made the game winning shot. And then he kind of did this thing. No, he did. He did the wave on the booze from the crowd. And it was like, oh my God, LeBron's a villain now. But you go back and you watch the athleticism he had in that 09, 2010, 11 range.

I mean, he's probably the greatest athlete we've ever had other than maybe Jordan, who's played basketball. He's such a good athlete in his prime, such a great athlete that you spent a considerable amount of time imagining how dominant he would be in sports ranging from football to handball in the Olympics.

I'm telling you, people, go watch, just put in 2009 LeBron highlights and watch some of the stuff he does and watch how fast he was and how he could just from, it was like two steps from, like Giannis, two steps from midcourt to the rim. He could get any shot he wanted. He could hang in the air. He could block anything. And this is not the same LeBron, but he's way smarter and he's way more physical and he can still bully his way to the rim.

But it's not even close. So when people are like, he's as good as ever, it's like, you know, he's been in the league for 20 years and he's one of the smartest players we've ever had. And he can still overpower his way. But I think in crunch time, you could argue marketing is probably a safer bet to get a basket. Right. That's a fair thing to say. Yeah. This year, maybe. Yeah. And LeBron looking at his clutch numbers now, are they're just okay. Yeah.

Yeah, that LeBron was a machine. I actually forgot how amazing he was when I was rewatching. It was like when you see those 2000-2001 Kobe highlights, and you're like, oh my God. You know, I had that once. I had that when Chris Paul made the finals with Phoenix. I went back and watched. Like 08 Chris Paul? Like a lot of Chris Paul crunch time playoff games. 08 Chris Paul is like...

He's like lightning. Like you can't even find that guy. He's so fast. Like it's a completely different experience. It's like John now it's like, like watching jaw had just fly up the court, like a maniac. Like that's what these guys were like. No, but I'm just saying with Chris,

But I think it's useful to do that every once in a while because you get – we're such a prisoner of like what this guy looks like now to go back and watch Chris Paul in 2000. It's like, oh my god, this guy is like uber athletic before the knee troubles. Well, it also shows you how long LeBron has been in the league because he kind of like, oh, 20 years. But it's like go back and watch 2009 and just look at the guys who are on the court. This was 13 – 14 years ago.

And LeBron was the MVP that season. And everyone on the court is gone. No longer in the league. It's like a whole generation removed. Are we at the 10-year anniversary of the banana boat yet? When was the banana boat? What was that one? When Wade, Melo, and LeBron and isn't it Gabrielle Union are all on the banana boat together vacationing? You don't remember this infamous slash famous ridiculous photo? I don't remember what year it was, though. Yeah.

That's how long – by the way, the Christian Woodblock reminds me. We didn't talk about going back to Ben Simmons.

The fact that there was almost a Matisse-Steibel 2.0 pass moment last night in the Nets-Celtics game where he drove and dropped it off to Nick Claxton under the rim. And Nick Claxton was like, why are you passing to me? You're at the rim. He threw it 70 miles an hour past Nick Claxton's face. In his defense, it was against Luke Cornett and Grant Williams, who are large humans, and not Trey Young, who is a smaller human. But to wrap the Ben Simmons thing, I was going to say this before. The –

The audible shrieking from the crowd when he even begins the possibility of maybe shooting. It's starting to happen again where the crowd is both excited and scared and encouraging him to shoot all at once. And it's like this terror shriek. It's bad. Okay. So that's six guys, right? Well, okay. So here's where we are. Eight locks for me.

Whoever we end up starting, Jokic, Luka, Shea, LeBron, Sabonis, that's five. Markkanen, Morant, Curry. Despite the minutes for Curry, he's just been that good. At one point, he was 3D MVP. I only have three locks. I have Luka, SGA, and Jokic. And then that four roulette for the other two. But you talked me into Sabonis and LeBron for now. But do we all agree those eight guys should be on the Western Conference All-Star team?

Curry. Yeah. Yes. Those are, but those are Luca Morant, Curry, LeBron Sabonis, marketing SGA, blah, blah, blah. So that leaves me four spots. And I actually thought this filling these last four was difficult because you run very quickly into pedigree slash limited minutes, like Steph and,

and others versus not as much pedigree, lots of minutes, legitimately great season. And I kind of didn't know what to do. I actually only thought one of the last four was easy for me in the end. The other three were not. The easy one for me was Damian Lillard. I think Damian Lillard is an all-star, 28 a game. That's so funny. He was not my easy one.

Okay, well, I'll make the case for Dame. 28-7, 44%, 54 on twos. They're plus five with him, minus seven without him. All their lineups with him, Simons off the floor, Grant off the floor, both of them off the floor are solid pluses. He just put up 50 last night. That was just like, I'm Damian Lillard, put me on the floor.

all-star team Zach like I guess like I'm Damian Lillard I'm an all-star he's you know by far the Blazers best player Jeremy Grant's had a nice season the Blazers are lobbying like well Jeremy Grant sneaky all-star candidate he's a sneaky all-star candidate but Dame is the all-star on that team so he was my ninth who was your easy one I Booker that's what I mean by pedigree versus uh versus I thought Booker when he before he got hurt

had become one of like the 10 to 12 best guys in the league and his I know his stats were pretty much the same as last year but it's to me more of an eye test thing um he just feels like this the Suns are his franchise Chris Paul fell off this year there's no question we knew it was going to happen at some point it happens to everybody it happened to him this year he's not not the same player anymore um I don't know what's going on with Aiton

Their bench situation, you know, it's kind of a rotating cast of what are we getting from so-and-so. The campaign had a moment. It's like, oh, campaign. It's like, I'm sorry, I'm not going to trust those guys. No offense. But the one constant was just how good Booker was. And I just think he's...

You know, he's on the short list for me, and I don't think Dame is on the same list. As great as Dame is, I just think if you're starting a team with Booker or you're starting a team with Dame, I would just rather have Booker. This is a classic example of one's playing now and one's not because statistically they're very similar.

even minutes-wise. And Booker's a much better defender. Much better. They're very similar. Yeah, Booker's a better defender. 27-5-5. Shooting is really good. And to your point, they're just dead on arrival without him. They're a really good team when he's on the floor. They're awful when he's off the floor. Their crunch time offense has fallen off a cliff without him. Remember the game when...

He was destroying clay to the point that clay got thrown out. Yeah. The, I just felt like that was a moment, you know, the season we, we move on every week feels different, but if you're just going backwards and be like, what are the 12, 13 moments I'm going to remember from the season Booker basically announcing everyone in the league. I'm the best two guard in the league. Like everything comes through me.

That was kind of a moment. You're selling me because I had Booker as a maybe just because he's going to continue to miss games. And so his minutes disadvantage is going to get bigger and bigger by the time we do this. But right now his minutes are the same as James' game. He's played 29 of 43. And James played 28 of 40. So it's pretty even. Yeah. He's played more minutes than Steph.

I think by that logic, then if I'm going pedigree over everything else, I think he needs to be in because he is – I mean, he was on my MVP ballot last year. I mean, that's how good Devin Booker is. Can I make a quiet, inoffensive case for De'Aaron Fox over Dame Lillard? No. De'Aaron – no. De'Aaron Fox is like, if he's not on my team, he's going to be the last guy out. And I can't wait to hear your case because there's one piece of data that better be in it.

He's 24, five and six shoot 50%. He's played almost every game, 39 to 40. Best season of his career by far. Like an idiot. I was trying to trade him two months ago for the Laker picks. Cause I really felt like there was a moment with the Lakers picks where it's like, come get them. What do you, what do you have? And I would just, I'd rather have those Laker picks than whatever we had from Darren Fox before this year, he went up a level. This bonus thing's been great. And then there's the piece of data, which we have the same piece of data. So you take it.

No, go ahead. It's your case. You make it. The clutch scoring stuff with him has been out of control this year. And it was like, I test was like, Jesus, this was the hole in this guy's game was the last four minutes of the game. He sucked. And now he's really good. And he's the second leading clutch score in the league. And,

He's third in clutch usage rate. And this is John Schumann had some stats in his excellent column this week, but like he was shooting 40 for 65. As of Monday. Last five minutes of close games. That's not even a real thing. Like how is that even possible? But I test wise, it's the same thing. You just feel like the Kings are going to score at the end of the games. And he's one of the reasons and they're more successful than the Blazers. So as much as I love Dame, I,

I just think Fox versus Lillard. I think Fox has had a slightly better year and he's played more games. 17 of 29 in the last three minutes of games with a score within three points. Maybe he has to be in. Maybe I'm too flip on Dame. I don't know. Maybe they both get in. It feels a little bit pedigree to me in the fact that he had 50 last night. I mean, he's putting up 28 a game. I get it. On good shooting. And they stink without him. Somebody's got to get bounced, though. But why can't we have all three? Someone's got to get bounced.

And we could have all three and the Kings could get to I wouldn't have any problem with Fox making it. If he doesn't make it, he's going to be like my 13th guy. Are we crossing off Davis as he missed too many games? I don't know what to do with Davis because he's it. Why is he missed? How many games has he missed now? He's at he's missed 25 of 41. I was going to say 16 or 25 of 42. So he's been 17, 17 games.

It's rough. 25 games to make the all-star team, no sign of him coming back anytime soon, and he won't be able to play anyway. So this is what you always run into is like the fans will ask you, well, I don't know. Why is the cutoff here but not here? He's played 840 minutes, which is about 100 fewer than Steph, who is going to be the least – But Steph's coming back. He'll be back this weekend probably. Yeah.

And a guy like Jaron Jackson Jr., who I think would have an incredible case, he's played 657 minutes due to injury plus foul trouble. That's just – wherever the cutoff is, he's below it. I think he may be one of the top 12 permanent players in the Western Conference, but he's missed too much time. Anthony Davis is 180 minutes higher than that, but – and counting with the missed games. I have him as a question mark right now because unlike – one of the things you have to consider is like –

Were people talking about this guy as the MVP for any sustained period of time? Yeah. And I never really bought it because you have to. Part of being the MVP is sustaining that level of play. And he didn't start off that way. And he never sustains it. But for 15 games or whatever it was, it was like, is he the best player in the league right now? Like, that matters. That should be part of the debate. It was like eight games. I think it was more than that. It was like eight.

So he's out for you. He is because I think he's just going to continue to miss games. The hardest one for me was Zion. Well, Zion's 29, Zion's 29 to 42, but he's going to keep missing, but he's 26, seven and five 61%. I just thought he had about a thousand. He's played about a thousand minutes. So he's played 150 more than AD. He had some quarters and some moments that were absolutely flabbergasting. Um,

Just kind of dominant in a way that much like Davis, you start thinking like, man, if this guy's in a playoff series, he could just win the series. Like, and I don't even know, you could put him against any team in the West and Zion might just destroy them for two weeks. And all of a sudden that team's out. And for me, Zion's in over Davis because he played more games. And I think,

I think ceiling wise, I think they were pretty close. I know Davis was awesome for that. Whatever it was, six, seven games. But I think Zion was a little more consistent over the course of the year before he got hurt. I have Zion in tentatively. Yeah. Over with the, it's like him or Paul George, right? And Paul George has missed a bunch of games. And I don't think, yeah, he's been typical. Paul George is 24 and six. Some assess he's basically point forward for them.

But as usual, he's missing a bunch of games. And I got to be honest, can I do a little clip around here? Let me just, can I finish on Zion real quick? Plus eight with Zion on the floor, plus one with him off the floor. Monster clutch numbers. Every Zion lineup, like without McCollum, Ingram, whatever, is a major plus. And I guess all that is great.

And then in the end, I also default to like, don't the Pelicans kind of have to have an all-star? Like, doesn't it feel wrong to have no all-stars from the Pelicans? And it's not going to be Ingram. He's missed too many games. McCollum's coming on too late. Like, it just feels like Zion should be an all-star. That's all. Maybe that's a lame cop-out argument, but I feel like that plus the stats is enough for me. Yeah, if there was a YouTube clip of LeBron's great, Zion's greatest crunch time moments this season.

Just watch like what the defense, watch how they're reacting to some of the stuff where he's like, they clear out the right side for him. Or if they post them up, like it's there's, he's actually unstoppable. Nobody wants any part. They can't, nobody can figure out how to defend him. Davis. You can like at least double him. You can do some stuff. Zion. I haven't seen. And he's, he's malleable. Like he can face up. He can, I don't know. The Clippers. Yeah.

I actually think this is your chance. I think they should trade one of the two guys. I don't think your best two players complete can be completely unreliable from night to night. And I think you have a hot take, by the way, not a hot take, by the way, you should, you're, we should hope your best players are one of them is. I need one of my two to, to show up every night. And I think this is one of the things that's been so special about the Celtics season. Like Jalen Brown got announced. He's out for like 10 days. He got had an injury.

And all the Celtics were like, what? Jalen Brown's going to be out for 10 days? What? We're so used to these guys, just 36, 37 minutes. And they're reliable and they want to be out there. And the load management, all this stuff with these two guys, I just don't think you can win two playoff rounds, much less win the title, win day-to-day, week-to-week. You have no idea if your best two guys are going to play three games in a row. And I think they should trade one of them.

So you're bailing out this Clipper era is over for you. I'm bailing out these two guys as the fulcrum of a team that can win a title. I think it's done. And I think both of them are great assets. I think you get more for Paul George. And listen, if you wanted to get on the horn with Philly and there was some Maxie Harris, Paul George, let's talk about some other stuff for the trade. That's how I'd be thinking if I was the Clippers.

Oh, is that for the for the listeners? Zach just did the lean back and I'm on YouTube. Brain break. No, I mean that. I think you have to start thinking that way. You have to. It's interesting. I don't think I don't think they're there. They should be. But they're making a mistake. You can't perpetually be in. We're just waiting to see what our team looks like. We're just waiting to see what our team looks like. We're just waiting to see what our team looks like.

And also like you've built this team around these two guys and a bunch of role players. And let's be honest, they're all role players except for the two guys, but the two guys don't play all the time. And if it's one guy and all the role players, you're 500 team. Well, guess what their record is 22 and 21. Guess what? Not surprising. Their best two guys don't play all the time. And the Kawhi thing, I think he's done as a superstar because he's just not reliable anymore. He isn't.

doesn't play all the time and this is who he is it's not going to change it's hard to argue against you in that regard he just doesn't play enough and we're not discussing him as an all-star because he hasn't played enough and and paul george has had a ton of injuries at this point and he's what is he 32 years old and i just don't think he's 2019 paul george anymore i think he can get there some nights

But you need consistency. You need to be able to be out there for 10 weeks in the spring, 10 weeks. It's potentially 26, 27 games. And those guys aren't going to be able to do it. They're not. And it's every other game every other day. Once you get past the first round, it's every other day. I'm telling you, they need to trade one of those two guys. They have to. Sixers are the right place to look. Yes.

Heat would be a correct place to look one way or another. Those are the teams that sniff around things like this. Toronto? Yeah. I just thought anytime we're talking trades, Toronto just has to be blind mentioned. How about Memphis? I don't... Memphis is just a hard no on. We're not trading any of our big three guys.

So I don't know how they get into it. It's got to be the trade, all the picks, all the swaps. They just don't have enough salary to get up to 48. How about the Knicks? Can't, can't ever discount the Knicks. I would trade Paul George if I was the Clippers, because I don't think Kawhi has a market because you don't know where you're getting. And I don't think anybody would want to deal with the week to week Kawhi soap opera of, Oh wait, you're so you're just not going to play for a week. Okay, cool. How's your knee? And it's getting better. We haven't heard from you. Kawhi, we called you five times yesterday. You didn't answer.

You know, they keep banking on, we're going to see our team. We got to see our team. I will say this Terrence Mann in the starting five thing and benching Reggie Jackson. Yeah. It's looked great so far. I thought their game against the Mavericks Saturday was the best they've looked for a half. It was the first half and ended up winning by 12. Maybe the best they've looked all year. Celtics win, Toronto win. Those are both really good too. It also feels like a...

not last chance saloon kind of move but kind of like we gotta try something like that we're kind of like we're 40 games in and this isn't working like we gotta try something dramatic it's it's it it unnerved me a little that a team that's supposed to be this good and this deep is kind of reaching and flailing a little bit 40 games into the season for like a jolt of coherence not just energy but like

why did we just pass the ball around aimlessly on the perimeter on offense? Like we need some juice. It's like, how do we need some juice? Like shouldn't need juice. Should have a lot of juice on hand. As you know, I'm in LA and I may or may not have some Clippers tentacles and also have season tickets. This is not like a hundred percent happy team. I don't think it's been a happy season. I don't think it's been a totally happy four years because it's always, always, always unstable. Yeah.

they never know week to week who the team is and after how many years i don't think it's sustainable and if you go through if i'm just going to read you lists of teams and you tell me what team would you rather have right now for the next five months denver you'd rather have memphis you'd rather have i'd rather be the pelicans i'd rather be dallas with luca i'd definitely rather be golden state

Just for this playoff. Just for these next six months. And I think I'd rather be Dallas. I don't know if I'd rather be Dallas, but the others are. You wouldn't rather have Luka in this weird Clippers team? I mean, the Clippers have beaten Luka in the playoffs twice. I'd rather be Luka. And we could have a Sacramento versus the Clippers argument at least. We could. We could have an argument.

Because here's the thing with Sacramento. They can still have a trade. They have all their picks. They have Keegan Murray. Like they have a lot of moves. They can, they all, they all, they all won to the Hawks for her. That's that. I think it's like whatever in comfort, but I think it's one of those ones that bounces year, year after year. The Kings called the Clippers right now and said, we'll give you Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray for Paul George. What happens?

Someone floated to me at Harrison Barnes, Keegan Murray for God, who was it? It was a player of that ilk where like a big aggressive win now. It was Ananobi. It was Ananobi. Somebody on another team yesterday, we were spitballing. It was at the Nets game. We were floating around. Why won't the Kings? Why aren't we sleeping on the Kings as an all-in? I'm not sleeping. I'm wide awake. And he pitched Harrison Barnes to me.

As the centerpiece. And he pitched Murray as the sweetener. Because Harrison Barnes is on an expiring. Well, Murray is the centerpiece. Harrison Barnes is a copy. Well, whatever. The centerpiece money-wise. And...

And my first reaction was I keep hearing these Harrison Barnes, these fake Harrison Barnes trades people pitch. I'm like, Harrison Barnes is pretty good. Like the Kings need. And he's the leader of the team and all that stuff. They need like a good player who has that skill set. And he said, well, I'm talking about Ananobi. Like, why don't they go after Ananobi? I'm like, well, how many picks would they have to throw in? They owe this pick to the Hawks. Like, I do think one of these interesting things is, and this is when it got really nerdy. You have all these teams that have traded picks and,

And all the picks have these lottery protections or whatever protections that go on themselves that go on forever. I do think there's an interesting, I don't know if it's a story to be written, but it would be interesting to look into the negotiations for amending those picks. Remember the Heat did that with Oklahoma City? They got the Thunder to loosen up, to kick the protections down further. Like that's what a lot of these teams would have to do. They'd have to go back to these teams that they've already traded for. It's like, hey, man, we need to be able to trade this pick.

multiple picks whatever like what do we got to do to to like we're giving we're kind of helping you because we're loosening the protection a bit like we're introducing some risk but maybe not really because short term we're pretty good like we're not gonna we're not gonna just crap the bed no but what you're saying is you're better off having the pick be unprotected so you have the ability to trade another pick versus just having the hostage what do i have to give you hey king hey hawks it's kings on the line what do we have to give you

To just take the protections off our pick. Cause we, we got to trade three of them right now for X, Y, and Z. Like what's, what are the negotiations? Like if I'm the Hawks, I'm like, whoa, whoa, welcome. Welcome to the party to our layer. Yeah. Like why am I settling for like some bull second round pick? You know, why don't I, I got to get something basically where you're like, I guess I can't get for, I can't get anything good though. Cause you can't give me a first to do it, but it's an interesting little negotiation wrinkle. Remember when they created the amnesty clause? Yeah.

Of course. And like, what was it, the Allen Houston rule, all that stuff. And the reason they did it was there was so much incompetence. God, it was fun to write a column back then. There were so many bad GMs. Everybody made so many dumb moves that the league collectively said, we all have these terrible contracts on every team. Can we just do a reset and not have these count against the cap?

It would be funny if they did that with all the draft conditional draft picks where there was like an amnesty clause for the conditional draft picks. We're like, we have decided all conditions are gone. And it's just like you get the draft pick this year and that's it. I know they would never do that, but it would make it a lot easier for these fake trades. I have a hot take for you. Okay. If Toronto called me and said, we'll give you Ananobi for Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray, I would say no. You'd say no if you're the Kings? I would say no if I'm the Kings. You're that high on Keegan Murray?

I'm higher on Keegan Murray than I think most people, and I'm lower on Inanobi than I think most people. Keegan Murray's been sneaky good for the past six weeks. Have you seen him in person yet? No. No.

He's like one of those sneaky, oh, that guy's 6'9". It's like when you see Tatum in person, you're like, oh, that guy's like 6'9". Keegan Murray, I just like him. I like how he plays. I think his teammates really like him. I wouldn't trade him. I can't speak for how close Barnes is as a leader with that group. And clearly they're playing well and you always want to be risky with that or not be risky with that. But

Barnes as a trade asset with that expiring contract in the picks and you throw in Rashawn Holmes, all of a sudden you can get to the 30 million range pretty easily. I think the Kings should make a move. I really do. I think they could win a couple of playoff rounds if they turned Harrison Barnes into a Paul George type player. This guy convinced me yesterday that I need to be looking harder at the Kings. I would also like to convince you. And don't count out desperation.

Oh, for sure. They're one slump away from, uh-oh, we can't get to year 17 of not making a playoff. An owner who's never tasted it. You can't discount. It's like with the idiot Gobert trade. It was these new Minnesota owners. Like, oh, let's go for it. Tim Connolly. Let's do a couple rapid fire. How close did you get to considering this guy? Anthony Edwards. On my list.

Or just on the list? No, he was like, he was my, my, my last cut. I can't forgive him for seeming to be out of shape for the first three weeks of the season, basically. But the guy that he is Ben, the last three, four weeks has been an all-star and he's remember we were talking on Tuesday about, I think it was you and me. We're talking about the best part on the court, how that should be a stat. Yeah. Every, every game. Edwards has had a couple of best player on the court games.

He's been the best player on the Wolves, and it's not really close. I actually think he has a better case than I had thought originally. Yeah. 24, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 46% shooting, 36% on 3s.

They're plus one and a half per 100 possessions when he's on the court and minus six when he's off the court. Good clutch numbers. The advanced stats really do not like Anthony Edwards. And I think that's a high turnovers. So, so defense unreliable defense. I think he's going to grow into a great, great defensive player. He's not there yet.

The eye test and the more traditional stats and what he means to the Wolves scream out that he deserves pretty serious consideration. I think he's probably going to fall a little short of my 12-man roster, like guy 13, 14, 15, but he's closer than I thought. Here's why he can't make it, and here's why he's not an all-star yet. Wednesday night, Minnesota's starting to get hints of momentum, maybe. Three days rest. I saw this game. They're at Detroit.

Detroit's like, can someone please just make us a dumb offer for Bogdanovich so we can officially go after Wemba Yama? And Sadiq Bey, your calf hurts. You're going to sit for two weeks. They're just dying to officially go for Wemba Yama. Minnesota goes in there and they get destroyed. What'd they lose, by 20? I'm looking it up. It was a bad game. It ended up being pretty close to 20. Yeah. All of a sudden, they're down 20 in the third quarter. This is a game Minnesota needs. I watched a little of it.

they're just like the the vibe on that team is just weird we have we we have a podcast with austin rivers now on friday on friday it's on the ringer nba show and we put it up today and i haven't listened to it yet but i'm really interested to see if he talks about this game it's just the kind of game that you should win when you're trying to get some momentum for your season and the fact that you just get killed to me is a horrible sign like that would be like if i was running the timberlands i'll be like do we need to fire our coach like do we need a new direction

um but edwards 20 points eight for eight two free throws you have two free throws in a game against detroit that's where i'm like you're not there yet jeremy grant i i can't get there he's almost there i i don't i think he'll fall short for me too shooting the hell out of it this year um i think there's a lot of guys i don't know if you if you flipped him and devin vasel for that on that blazers team would they are you on vasel island with me

No, there's no island. He's a landmass. He's a big... Oh, he's a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood? Yeah, he's landlocked. He's good. Jeremy Grant, 22-4-3, 42% on threes. I just can't. I'm not quite there. I personally would have Mikael Bridges over him because of the defense.

Mikael Bridges has kind of fallen off. He was in this conversation early for me. He's down to 49% on twos. He's just like the lack of Booker has just sunk everybody on that team. It shows you how important he is to just everyone is now stretched too thin and too far. I'm more defense for that, but yeah, I'm with you. The other one I just wrote down was Aaron Gordon. Oh, I'm so happy. I'm so happy. What a season for him. And also like...

Back to Jokic, we still have like 12 minutes left from Jokic time. I'm just so happy Jokic has toys. It's like watching a little kid who gets to like, he's like, oh, I'm going to go play with my Legos over there. And Aaron Gordon's the Legos. It's like, oh, police Legos. And it's just, and every once in a while, Jokic just, he sees Gordon. He's like, oh, I'm just going to,

I'm just going to set up Gordon for the next two minutes. This will be fun. I wonder if I can get an alley-oop where he can dunk on somebody. I wonder if there will be a backdoor cut. I'm just so happy. We've always liked Gordon. He's always been a guy a lot of teams have liked. And it's just so funny that he's on the absolute perfect team with the perfect guy for him. And he's perfect for Jokic. He's the perfect stretch forward you would put next to Jokic, right? If you're taking everyone in the league, it would be somebody who does a lot of the stuff Gordon does. Anyway, I'm happy for him.

So...

I, I, I would probably put him a little over Jeremy Grant. Yeah. And I'd have him over those guys. It's hard to compare roles. Cause he's just like, he doesn't have to do as much heavy lifting on offense though. He's getting like these ducking post-ups and doing some other stuff like that. Um, I'd probably put him over any other warrior besides Steph. We didn't even mention like Draymond clay pool weekends. Like I don't think any of those guys have real all-star cases this year. Pools numbers are pools. Advanced numbers are like, Whoa. Um,

Also like sneaky pool, sneaky on the, are we sure this guy's fun to play with team? He's positive. This guy's fun to play with. He's a good passer. When he passes. I'll never forget him freezing out clay in the 54 point game. Clay had flame shooting out of his rectum and pools like clear out. I got this one. It's like, what about the guys literally on fire two feet away from you? Anyway.

Aaron Gordon, 16 and seven, 59% shooting, 37% on threes, 65% on twos. Defense. Defense. He's the best defense player on their team.

Um, has to guard the best guy on the other team. Basically, no matter what position, sometimes it's three, he's guarding. Sometimes it's point guards. Sometimes it's power forwards. Like there are people who think you should be there. Backup center. He's been ridiculously good. I hope, I hope he gets a real look. I don't know if he's going to be in my top 12. I,

But he deserves a real – this isn't a token like, hey, let's just say his name. No, no, no. He's guy number 20 in the all-star conversation, but I like to say his name. He's not. He's a real candidate to make the all-star team. Ahead of Jamal Murray, ahead of everyone else on that team other than Jokic. He's a real – he's been the second best player on their team. Two other pieces of that case. One –

By the time we actually pick this team, the Nuggets will have like a two or three game lead in the Western Conference. And the one seed should have two All-Stars. I am a the one seed should have two All-Stars guy. Just sue me. Second, Aaron Gordon, really fun guy to have in an All-Star game.

Oh, my God. Like, don't sleep on that piece of this. Like, do we want seven guards or do you want Aaron Gordon? He loves the All-Star weekend so much he's number 50 because he feels so angry he didn't get a dunk contest despite all his 50s. Get him in. Maybe he'll be a last second entry to the actual dunk contest. Who's in it this year? It's Shaden Sharp. Who else is in it? Zach, you get more focused on the Shaden Sharp thing.

No, I like Shaden Sharp's in it. I just named him. Who's in the dunk contest? Get more focused on Shaden Sharp in the slam dunk contest. Not a big enough... People aren't focused yet. I think this is going to be... We always wonder who can save the slam dunk contest. It might be Shaden Sharp this year. I think I'm just broken. I think after the Levine-Gordon duels, it's been so bad that my expectations are just nothing. My expectations are Shaden Sharp could save the dunk contest this year.

He's had – I don't know if you've been focused on it, but there's like been – just do YouTube Shaden Sharp highlights. No, he's a regular – he's when Vince Carter does the upper room segments on NBA Today for the Dunk of the Week or whatever, he's always one of the finalists. He's like different. He's eating the rim on every dunk. He's different. He's up for a second higher than people normally are. Yeah, Aaron Gordon, he was one of my toughest cuts. But if –

We can't have an all-star team that has eight guards. So if we're going to talk forwards for backups, it's Zion, and then you're in this Paul George, Mikael Bridges, Aaron Gordon, Anthony Davis. We're in this whole mix already. I have no hard evidence for this other than the statistics of the other players that are also really good. It just doesn't feel like an all-star season for Paul George. I don't know why. I agree.

It could end up being Aaron Gordon. See, if Jokic is listening, does Jokic listen to your pod? Does he listen to my pod? Yeah. Does he listen to podcasts? Probably does. I don't think Jokic has any engagement with any NBA media the second he leaves. You don't think Jokic... Ball arena? You don't think Jokic and his brothers are sitting around the breakfast table listening to us right now? Denver plays...

All right. So Denver's at the Clippers tonight. Tragically, I cannot go. It absolutely kills me. But maybe this magic game on Sunday, Jokic could go in and be like, I'm going to see if I can get Aaron Jordan 45 points tonight to boost his all-star stats. Last minute all-star. It would just be like Jokic's task for the game. I don't know what his task will be for the Clippers today. Maybe it'll just be, I'm going to, it's on ASPN. I'm going to see if I can get a 20, 20, 20.

I can't wait for this game because the Nuggets own the Clippers. Yeah. They've owned them since the bubble when they broke their souls. Yeah. Destroyed them the other day. Destroyed them. It was like 68 to 28 at some point in that game. And after the game, Kawhi made a stink by Kawhi standards about not playing in the second half. Like, we got to try to get a rhythm and all this. It's like, oh, you think? Kawhi. Yeah. And Ty Lue was like –

Let's see how we respond because we get these guys again in a week or whatever it is. All right. Well, let's see it because the Nuggets look at this matchup like we got we got this like we're good. We know how to play this team. So they have Clippers today. Magic Sunday Blazers Tuesday Timberwolves Pacers. So Pacers will be how long is how burnout do we know?

I think they said reevaluated in two weeks or some such thing. Christ. What a bummer. It was multiple weeks. God. But yeah, I think the Nuggets could go on a run. And I think Jokic to me now is if he's on national TV, I think he knows. I, you know, he's not a big self promoter, but I think he knows when the nationally televised games are happening. And I just think, you know, people are going to get there. They're going to join us.

That's the thing about Jokic. He legitimately does not care. He doesn't want anything to do with any of this. He just doesn't care about the fame. He doesn't care. He cares about the money. Everyone wants more money. I think he cares about putting on a show sometimes.

I think he cares. I think, but I think it's, I think it's more, I think he likes having fun. I think he likes testing himself. Like, can I really throw this pass? Like, or what if I did this and tried to hit that guy? I don't, I don't know how much of it is like a show for the fans, but I buy that. And he's the most fun player to watch in the NBA. All right. Well that, I mean, I don't think, was there anybody else that you wanted to bring up? I mean, I don't know. I thought I was interested in games.

The only other interesting point I had was teams that just, we didn't even discuss anyone on their roster. And there's only two, Houston and San Antonio. When we did the East Coast team, when we did the East Coast, we didn't discuss Charlotte, Detroit,

Charlotte would have been a Lomelo mention had he not missed three quarters of the season. There's some Lomelo statistical stuff going on that's kind of fun. Like he's just shooting 12 threes a game this year. Oh, I wonder. You talk a lot about would I like to play with this guy. He should be a guy that you like to play with because of his passing. I wonder how much guys like to play with him. He shoots a lot. Like a lot. Yeah. A lot. A lot.

It's a little similar to the Trae Young thing. Yeah, it feels like he's going to see if he can score 30 points a game this year on a bad team. And I'm okay with it. That team's 11 and 32. That was like one of my biggest locks. Their over-under was like 36 wins, something like that. In what world was that team going to win 36 games? And it wouldn't matter if Lomelo had been healthy all season. They're not a 500-ish team. The thing for me is they really missed the boat on getting rid of those veterans. Yeah.

Cause like, I think they could have gotten Westbrook and one of those picks for Rozier and Hayward probably before the season, I think is a reasonable trade. If it had only been one first one pick. Yeah. One pick. I just would have done that in August. Like, Oh, those picks are for sale here. Would you like Kelly Oubre too? Let's keep talking. Like, well, I hate, I hate to say it. Hayward never plays. Never. It's just like, that's just a given at this point, he's going to give you 35 to 40 games, whatever it is. He's not going to play. And, and,

You know what he does give you? The two weeks when he is playing, they'll upset somebody. He's a good player when he plays. He's still like 18-5-5 when he plays. He just doesn't play. All right, that's it for the West. You got a football weekend. The Pats are out, right?

Pats are out. You know what's sad about the West, though? Yeah, the Pats are done. The 8-9. Bad season. The East is better than the West. That was my big lesson from this exercise. And it's not even close. It's deeper. Deeper all-star pool. It's lopsided. It's more top-heavy and deeper. And I think that's a bad sign for the playoffs for the West.

Is it a bad sign for the playoffs for the West or is it a bad sign for the teams at the top of the East who have to contend with each other to get out of the East? I like being seasoned. I like getting through the tough games versus like Denver or Memphis. They might have one tough playoff series the way this is going. You don't fear Cleveland more than Milwaukee as a Celtics fan, do you? You were talking about Cleveland earlier. I fear Giannis. Giannis is my number one fear. I'll never fully emotionally recover from that two weeks last year trying to beat him.

And he's the same guy. I know his percentages are down, but he hasn't had Middleton all year. And I don't know. It's been a weird buck season. I think he's had to do more than maybe you want him to do. But when they have all their dudes back, by the way, Middleton's another like sneaky, how long do they limp along wondering whether he's going to play or not before they make a move? Yep. Every, every recovery comes with a setback. I'm still knocking on wood that this one will be the time that that doesn't happen. But yeah,

It's been a while now, and it was not really supposed to be a while. And as we talked about already, he's potentially a free agent this summer, which feels like a big deal. He's extension eligible. Don't think that's going to be in the cards unless it's a number that's very friendly to the Bucs. He's like 32 years old now?

Yeah, seems like kind of a big storyline. Like second best player on championship contender with maybe the best player in the league and they can't replace him because they wouldn't have cap flexibility. It seems like a big deal. Similar to Philly and Harden, where finally people started talking about Harden when who was it? Chris Haynes dropped the Houston. Was it Chris Haynes or who had somebody dropped the Houston? Woj? Oh, it was Woj. Christmas. That's right. It was at Christmas. Yeah. It was Woj on Christmas. That's right. And...

It's like, oh, that's right. James Harden, potential free agent. Seems like a big deal. Let me tell you something. James Harden is the last thing that Rockets team needs. Hey, here's another guy who doesn't play defense. Welcome aboard. Let's see if we can give up 200 points in the game.

Bill Simmons. Thank you, sir. You guys all know where to find the Bill Simmons podcast. Who we have. There's one. Is there one today? Yeah, I did a big football thing today. And I had a real Hawaii too. So. Oh, very nice. Well, MMA. And then the rewatchables, the rewatchables, it's one word movie month on the rewatchables.

So we did cliffhanger and we did sideways so far. And then we have three more coming this week. Sideways was on Showtime recently when I was on the Peloton. I was like, this is pretty good. Sideways. It's an elite movie. Yeah. It's good to see you. I'm glad we did the home and home. Thank you. Have fun.