What is up, fellow thermonuclear affers. I am Dan Valley coming at you with part two of MBA piece or Panic, recording a solo intro. Even though Grant was one percent here for this episode, because we had a last minute's of mission, I forgot to close them in our discord. It's about lucadactions of the maps, so I figured out would hit it very quickly. Though. Before we get started, please please, pretty please remember to subscribe to us wherever you consume us. If you're on YouTube checking us out for the first time, hit the sub button like comment to help the algorithm. Also, if you want to get into comments and have a discussion, I'm happy to discuss with people that disagree, but Grant and I do work really hard and put a lot of research in, and so don't come at us with a bunch of bs or be a condescending asshole, because I will call you out on it. 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I do send out Twitter solicitations normally, but we yet to do that this year, and I don't know what I'm going to do it because our discord members are fantastic, and just get in there and have some discussions. You can talk to myself, Grant is not in there, but I do try to respond to people, especially when I'm tagged, But just have you help us continue to build that community. Have some discussions with people that are already in there. That about covers up for the housekeeping notes. So again I will transition to the part two of Piece or Panic that features Grant. He's on most of this podcast. This is just the one segment he won't be here for Piece or Panic from Kilhoss. Luca is going to get worn into the ground over the season if he doesn't get more help because of his crazy usage rate. Or Luca will be fine because he is twenty three and in shape, does a large bit of his work in the post, and the MAVs play with one of the slowest paces in the league. This is a fantastic Piece or Panic and Luca's usage is something that has received just a ton of attention. He they are spot on with the way that the Mavericks play, and of course Luca's post worked. The MAVs have the ranked dead last in average or I guess you could say that like first if you want to be slow, but they are dead last in average offensive possession time. Fifteen point seven seconds is their average offensive possession That is thirtieth in twenty ninth is Philly, in case anybody cares. Also, Luca's post work has effectively doubled this year, more than fifteen percent of his you know, field goal attempts for possessions rather are coming in the post. He is shooting a ridiculous sixty three point five percent as I record this on post ups. I would push back against the notion that that helps conserve energy, just because like it could be more physical in the post depending on who's defending you. I know he's capitalizing on a lot of mismatches at times, and I can confess it to not go back and watch every post up to see how how physical it was. But that is like playing in the post can be super taxing by itself, and that's even without Yeah, is his his FAUL rate on post ups, by the way, it's like kind of high, twenty two point seven percent. He's drawing a shooting foul, so he's getting to the free throw line twenty five percent of the time when he's posting up. That is a massive number, and you're you're taking some form of you're taking some form of contact there, So in addition to the physicality that comes with being in the post. Anyway, he's fourth and post ups per game in the league right now, ahead of Anthony Davis and Yokich, ahead of Alpert and Shanegun, behind Zion Joel Embiid and use of Nurkis are the only three players in front of him. He has the highest free throw frequency of all these players. He has the same free throw frequency as Jonas Valancunis, who is I think seventh in post ups per game, and he gets to the line twenty five percent of the time there. But when you look at high volume post up users, Miles Turner Samplifize is not big enough to really count him here. Only Jonas Valcunis gets to the line as often for anyone who's averaging three or more post ups per game right now, and then after that you get into Pascal Siakam and Carl Anthony. Pascal Siakam's right there. Yeah. Look, even if we drop down the filter, I'm doing this live because I was curious to see his free throw frequency. It's not something I thought of before. Looking at anyone who's averaging even two post ups per game. Only Jones Valnctunist matches Lucas free throw frequency. And then you get below that. Julius Randall is a little bit ahead, so he is taking some bruisings, and then there's just the context of his total usage. In general. This is someone who is usage rate. It changed, it dropped a little bit. It's at thirty eight point three percent. That is still one of the seven highest marks in NBA history. And what I think is more interesting than even just the uses rate is like, hey, let's look at how responsible he is for setting up the rest of the MAVs offense. His assist rate is in the mid forties right now, Like this is that's the seventh highest assist percentage he has right now for anyone with a usage rate over thirty And when you're getting into like the even higher usage rates, he's going to separate himself further. He's just carrying this monstrous burden. And it's historically. This is I hope people are still tuning into this because these are the numbers that sort of blew my mind. It's an historically heavy usage rate. So right now, sixty six point seven percent roughly of the MAVs total offense is generated by Luca. And what I mean by that is he has scored or assisted on sixty six point seven percent of the MAVs is total. Point says I record this that it is not factoring in their loss to the Magic, So I want to make that clear. Sixty six point seven percent. Let's go back and compare that to the two highest usage rates in NBA history, coming from Russell Westbrook at forty one point seven in twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, and then James Harden forty point five usage rate in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen. Let's start with Russ he accounted for forty nine percent of Okase's total offense when you look at points scored and points generated officist. James Harden he accounted for about forty five point five percent of the Rockets total offense when looking at again his points scored and then points generated officist, Is this number by Lucas sustainable all season? I would say no, it's going to come down. I would argue that it was pulled back after the Magic loss as well. That being said, if it's anywhere near this, we're talking over fifty percent. That is absolutely monstrous. And this is someone you need, Like, if we're scaling this out over the entire season, you need him to play eighty two games almost to keep pace with everybody. And it's not like he's not playing minutes. I mean he's at over thirty six minutes per game. I don't care how slow you're playing, how good a shape you're in, how young you are. Yeah, he's twenty three, but again he is taking his licks when he has the ball in his hand. And it's also just this is a fifth season of his career. So while this isn't the James Harden trajectory where it's all right, his true shooting percentage in the playoffs is noticeably lower than his true shooting percentage in the regular season. Luca's for the record, in the playoffs, he has a higher true shooting percentage in the regular season. It's so early into his career and you're just continuing to tax him more and more and more, and I just it's it's wild to really just think about. And so this is just the other thing to sort of look at his time of possession this season ten point two minutes per game NBA tracking data that is available on NBA dot Com. I'm sure teams have and maybe even some writers if they have second spectrum, like the actual subscription to it. I'm sure they could go back even further. But it goes back to twenty thirty fourteen. That is the single highest single season mark right now. Ten point two minutes as a time of possession, and last year Lucas led this category in each of the past three seasons. He was tied with Trey Young in twenty twenty twenty one, but last year he owned the title outright at nine point three minutes. Where's time of possession? James Hallard never even hit this level of over ten minutes at his highest uses points did over Russell Westbrook. They're putting the ball in his hands a lot, and that's just extra time, Like that's it's extra energy, I don't care what. Like, he's not sitting the entire time, just dribbling at a standstill. He's surveying like it's mentally exhausted, even if you want to go there. He's surveying the defense, targeting mismatches, going over ball screens like this is taxing work and this is going to be the more bonkers thing here eighty as a right now, eighty nine point nine percent of Luca's field goals have gone on assistant It's actually over ninety percent when you look at just three pointers, it's I think it's over ninety one percent. But eighty nine point nine percent of Luca's field goals have gone unassisted. NBA tracking data on this goes back all the way to nineteen ninety six ninety seven. There is not a player who has averaged fifteen minutes per game and made at least five appearances. These are not cherry pick stack fifteen minutes per game whatever, and then a minimum of five appearances. That was just to filter out like there was some noise in this. Since nineteen ninety six nineteen ninety seven, no other player has even come close to having the percentage of their field goals go unassisted to this degree. Eighty nine point nine percent, the second highest. And look, I'm gonna tell you right now, it's possible that I made a mistake because I'm going through decades worth of data here and it was for you know, this mail bag type of question. I'm not writing an article on this. Steve Nash in two thousand nine twenty ten, eighty eight point eight percent of his field goals went unassisted that year. That's I know, you go back, it's just Steve Nash never just even when he was winning MVPs. That's just not what struck me as that that number is just it really was funny. And by the way, if anyone Cares. Tyler Ulis led the league in this category one year, and it was twenty sixteen twenty seventeen with eighty four point two percent. But regardless, eighty nine point nine percent of Lucas field goals are going on assistant. That is the highest mark in the NBA since at least ninety six ninety seven. And when I'm looking at the trends and the league leaders were in like the seventieth percentiles or seventy three percent or low seventies and hazard, you're going to go further back and this could be like the largest mark in NBA history. I'm not too familiar with like the super nuanced historically of the game, So yeah, you went back decades to maybe the seventies and sixties. I don't know if any of those would be would be higher, but this could literally be the most like exhaustingly high usage season that we've ever seen coming from Luca at this moment. And just to underscore this, let's go back to that rough season where he had the highest usage rain in NBA history. Eighty one point two percent of his baskets went on assistant. That's a lot. It's also a lot lower than Luca right now, Harden twenty nineteen, eighty seven percent of a shots went on assistant. That's really hih It's one of the highest marks since nineteen ninety six ninety seven, it's still lower than Lucas. And I would argue that this heliocentric shift has its limitations, where yeah, it'll get you fifty wins in the regular season, maybe, but you need to have other options in the playoffs. I don't know if a healthy Christian would, a healthy Spencer dinwoody, a healthy Tim Hardaway junior account as that for this team and the playoffs. I would argue, dim, what your Christian would? I mean, that's not really hot take. They're your best bet. I don't know if either of them are liked this playoff proofing option. And you also run into some issues with Christian wood Specifically, you're making a lot of defensive concessions when you're playing him with Luca then so can you run that in crunch time? And also he for a big man, he does do this, but like you probably want more of an outside in attacker, which we be Spencer Dinuity there can he be that guy? And my issue is will he even get the chance at this point because of how high usage Luca is. I'm not this is not I want to make this clear. This is not an insult to Luka Dachich, who's an incredible basketball player, and the fact he's able to do the things that he's able to do on the volume, shoot a trillion percent from mid range, get to the foul line on twenty five percent of his post ups. Average one point two seven points per post up possession one point two seven points per post possession. We kind of romanticize post ups like, oh yeah, like you know, Andy Davis has been really good in let's say, Yoka, she's really good in the post. Yeah, yeah, just fewer than one point per possession in the post. One point two seven points per possession is like an actual offensive rating that teams would kill for, because the average offensive rating is one point one two points right now at one point one three. However you want to frame it, Lucas just beating that in the post. The dude is incredible. I just think he's over tax and you absolutely do run the risk of burnout if you continue down this path with him. I don't know what their pathway is to getting somebody else they can put all their distant first on the table with you know, disregard the one they owe the Knicks. In twenty twenty three, they don't really have blue chit prospects or even players on their roster that are going to entice a ton of teams as a centerpiece. Yead, Dorian Finny Smith, and Maxi Kleiber are interesting, Christian Wood is interesting. Spencer Dimity at this point is really interesting. Josh Green has perked up. Frank Neil Keene is a future perennial MVP. Like, these aren't guys that are going to be the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade. You would have to rest on the picks and it who becomes available. I think the name you would look at and he would need to want to go to Dallas is and I'm thinking really high end. I think Luke is so good that we can have to talk about, Well, if we get something like Jillen Brunson, who's like the fifty fourth to seventy fifth best player in the NBA, that could absolutely work for you. And I'm not even that's not a shot. Again, I have taken shots to the Mavericks for letting John Brunson go or at least botching that whole issue. That's not really I mean, that's part of the problem here why he's so high usage this season, But I'm not saying that they would have been way better off title contenders. We've seen Jalen Brunson's own limitations in the playoffs. I think he wants someone a little bit bigger than him to be not just your number one option, but your second option. And so what I immediately think of, like, we gotta go high end here, and Bradley Beale's a no trade clause in Washington. The Wizards that kind of are floundering bottom ten offense and defense. They're on the fast track to no Where's Bill in my opinion, if he wants out or the team wants to start over, is Dallas on his list because he has the no trade clause, and so it's not even Dallas has to beat the best offer out there. There could be a team. I don't know who it is. Maybe it's Memphis. Let's just say it's Memphis that actually beats their offer. But bradle Bealles don't want to go to Memphis. That can work out in Dallas's favor. That's the name you have to be targeting maybe Zach Levine, but there's just weird stuff going on with his knee right now, and I can't really get a feel for where the Bulls are headed. I would almost argue I want to make a clear zero feel for the Bulls, but they just played the Pelicans really tightly, and like they're hovering around five hundred with a positive point differential pro a one hundred possessions and their defense is still in the top seven, and yet their offense is hovering close to the bottom ten. But the Zach lavin Ni stuff is just absolutely weird. And then just after that, I can't really see who's gonna become available, like if if LaMelo Ball eventually wants out of Charlotte. But we know how these rookie extension things work out there, so and there's just not there's not another obvious opportunity here if the Clippers wanted to blow it up and Paul George, but I can tell you right now that the mass won't have the best offer. He doesn't never no trade clause, even if he doesn't guarantee that he's going to go somewhere. Dallas can't get that. So they need a very specific instance. Maybe it's a matter of Jimmy Butler, would he want to go to Dallas? Things are if things fall off the rails in Miami. He is three years and like one hundred and forty plus million left on his deal. It's his age thirty. He's at age thirty three right now. That might scare some teams away. Perhaps it wouldn't Dallas they could want if he wants to go there, again, he will have a say just because of superstars with that cloud always do. But in this case, you also want a superstar who in essence it's like almost prohibitive. Their contracts are little prohibitive because of how old they are. And I think there'd be a lot of teams, like, let's look at a Memphis and Jimmy Butler's not a perfect fitneck to John Ran anyway, but a Memphis would be more reticent to take on that deal. I would think. Then certain other teams would, Dallas being one of them. Maybe it's look Kevin Durant I have he could probably pick where he wants to go, even though he has three years left on his deal too. An NBA executive theorized to Sam Amick at the athletic that they must have, you know, he basically they basically implied, excuse me that to get Kevin Durant to come back at all this season, they basically said, Hey, we won't send you to New Orleans, we won't send you to Indiana if we trade you, but come back and we'll trade you where you want to go. If everything implodes. Who knows if that's like an option. I would argue that again, there would still be teams, like the Nets could go back on that. There the mass can be outbid, is my point. But I think you have to find someone, and it's it's not a matter of waiting anymore. Like you've already given Luca the Supermax because he deserves it, and you just look, I don't know where you want to put him in the MP discussion right now. A lot of people have him one, some people have him two, three. He's easily in the top five. I think he's probably easily in the top three at this point. He's one of the three to five players in basketball. I haven't ranked this out right now, and I'm not going to get into that hot take, but like, there are four locks in the top five for me at the moment, maybe five if you include KD. But I'm looking at Luca, Jannis, Yo, Kitchen Steph like those four absolutely top five players right now. For me, your window is now if you're Dallas. And this is not about calling out the Mavericks or fucking up their off season or messing up part of Luca's prime. But I absolutely I am of the belief that there aren't parent limitations to the way that he's playing, especially because it's so it's such an historical anomaly at this point, and I would worry about him wearing down again. He's young, he's in fantastic shape this year, he's playing fantastic basketball. We are in November, and so while some of these numbers can scale back, they're not all going to scale back. At this point. It looks like he's going to comfortably be responsible for over fifty percent of the MAVs offense. That is a monstrous number. We're talking about ninety percent of his field goals going on assisted And if he has to last the entire season, this isn't Shay Gil just Alexander circa was it two twenty one or two twenty one, twenty two over he didn't playing as many games, Like this is a Luca who if he's not playing that many games, you're not going to make the playoffs anyway. You need to figure out a way. And I just went through some names, but the mass best PA package is twenty five, twenty seven, and twenty nine picks. You can give up swaps in twenty four, twenty six, and twenty eight then, and they would some of them would have. Everything would tendally have to be conditional because of the the Piciota New York. But it's top ten protected. It's gonna convey, so you don't have to worry about that. And I'm not saying you need to throw all that for the like at at just anyone, or even for anyone depending on who's available, but like you need you need either a co star or at least someone you look at and say we're comfortable with him being our bare minimum number two. Given how good Luca is, and just right now, between Christian Wood Spencer Dinwoody, I think that you're probably a little too low end there. And that's not an insult too. I mean, Christian Wood has been fantastic, Spencer Dinwoody is shot in the ball a lot better. Since coming Dallas than I would have expected. And when you're kind of looking for middle end options here, yeah, I could throw out like something like an Eric Gordon might be a nice stop gap, like and you have the salary filler yet him and he probably would cost you a first round pick. What are we doing there? In the end, though, that's a move. If you can get him without giving up a first especially, that should absolutely be done. Although the money you're sending out his bad money, so maybe would cost you a first That's also why you don't do a deal like that, because the first you're sending out is in twenty twenty five, and if you're sending out at first, it needs to be first certifiable. Let's say a let's say B plus player at least to a minus. You're not gonna get like an AA plus. I mean, Luca's a plus. So that's where I land on Luca. I am concerned. I think he's fantastic and if there's he look, he's as close since you know, I guess like James Harden, like the prime era James hardin Houston PRECP three, He's is close like he he is as close to the m he comes to just having this walking one man fifty win contender. But I'm very much of the mind that right now, especially in a league with so much parry, in a Western conference where the Blazers and the Jazz are off to scorching hot starts and the spurs or frisk gear than expected, you you can't have a one man contender. And so this is the mass might be really good. They're top ten in offense and defense after they're loss to them the Magic, but they're they're not elite, and that's through no fault of Lucas. Unless you think he can't play a different way. I disagree. I think that he can. We've seen him do so many different things on the ball. But it's fair to be concerned, and I would say that should be the expectation right now. You can let me know what you think of the comments or ads on Twitter. We're going to get to though the rest of MBA piece or panic with my fantabiistic co host Grant Us. Am I reading this one, I'd like to because I don't want to answer it first. Yeah, I believe it's you switch the order six or this is from Cosmic Raccoons. Six ers should offer Maxie and Tobias Harris in the trade for Durant. No, look, you need players who are available you haven't been in Harden, who are just their own injury concerns. Harden's out right now. Kevin Durant has not been doorable for a few years. He's dealt with injuries now. I'm being kind of rough around. I would say patients is what it is. But like, if if that's the trade, you are really married to this James Harden Joel Embiad window, I will say, like, is everything that copasetic with Kevin Durant and James Harden. James harn just like ran away from Kevin Durant's team. I'm assuming because of Kyrie Irving. I don't blame him, Jake. Look, Kye Remaine, James Harden looked like a fan favorite protagonist congratulate things. That's an incredible skill set. I wouldn't I can't say I wouldn't do it. If presented with it, It's like, well, why wouldn't you do this? And it doesn't it doesn't hurt your defense if an think it probably makes it better at this point, But like, do you risk marginalizing Joel Embiid because like there's already been Like you need to strike a balance there with Harden and Bead and Maxie when they're healthy. Maxie is just such a perfect third wheel and that I'm just like, ah, we're getting to the point where I'm starting to think about some of these guys in different terms of Okay, but like they're in there, like middle thirties, Like is this the when if it was just Maxie and Tobias Harris though, who you don't necessarily want on the books, I think you have to do it. I wouldn't. I don't think the Sixers are at that point. I would say piece if you're concerned about the Sixers, piece if you think they need to make a big trade, but panic, no, like you, I wouldn't. Like. I guess that offer would have to be like a standing offer on the table if the Nets want to move Kevin Durant. I just that's so stupid for me to talk myself out of. But that's not a move the Sixers need to salvage their season. Yeah, I don't know whether to call it piece or panic. Patience is a good middle ground. I mean, like, yeah, I'm doing that trade if I'm the Sixers I'll take Kevin Durant, Like I mean, you know, Harris is vacillates between like, oh, this guy's a pretty good, you know, luxury fourth option, and like, oh, this contract's terrible. He disappeared for three straight games. He's not helping us. And Maxie, Yeah, would suck to lose Maxie's he's young, he's really good. He's on a rookie scale deal. But like, guess Kevin Durant and you have, I'll figure the rest out if I have hardened Durant and inbed and like two of them are healthy for a playoff run, Like that's all of it. That and having PJ. Talker there and the Anthy Melton still there'll be a lot of There'll be a lot of options there. That's just uh wow. Man. If Kevin Urratt does get traded, I'm just curious what the hall is gonna be. I don't think it's gonna be as much as people think at this point. It's sure as hell isn't gonna be whatever they asking price was over the summer. We know that because I mean, it was never going to be there. They asked for karl Anthy Town's Anthy Edwards in multiple first round pigs. That's so great. Then the big fella, the Heat are twenty fifth in bench scoring, and with Aladipo out, that's not getting any better. Piece or panic rant I mean, so I think there's some panic. I'm gonna say panic, And it's not necessarily just because of the bench scoring issue and Oladipo being out. I think it's just the offense in general. There you kind of looked down the roster and I think I said, I can't remember five seconds ago they're they're twentieth going into last night's games. I guess you could imagine them getting to the ten to fifteen range. If you know, Kyle Lowry shoots a little better. I still only ever see good Gabe Vincent games. I still haven't seen a bad one, so I'm not a good person to consult on him. But his shooting numbers have not been good. I mean, like there's easy fixes, like just play Duncan Robinson more and he's gonna, you know, get you killed. Yeah, you know what, sometimes that's improven over who you're playing. I still think he has gravity, like you're he's gonna give back more than he gets. I think that's been established now, which is why he doesn't play. But if you're concerned about the scoring, like there are some ways to get it better. I just think, like it's interesting that, you know, we all thought that the loss of p J. Tucker was was a big deal. I just don't think we necessarily expected that, like the loss would be Uh, they really miss some of his shooting. That was not high on the list of things that I would have expected. Yeah. I mean, the defense is going to be good and is at least exciting because they play more zone than anybody. But I'm not sure I see where the additional scoring comes from unless some of the guys that they're currently playing just like just shoot better, you know, which is possible, But that's kind of a flimsy thing to be counting on if you're trying to find points. I think the real piece of panic here would be bam Adebayo isn't fit to carry an offense without Jimmy Butler. Well did we knew that though? Right? Right? I mean, the look the Heat have their offense in the seventh percentile when Jimmy Butler is off the court, it's in the seventeenth percentile when bam Adebayo is playing with Jimmy Butler off the court. They've even tried with Jimmy Butler on the floor, Like it feels like they're giving him Bam more elbow touches and it's just not It's really not always working. Bam is a fantastic player, by the way. I think he might have been my pick to win Defensive Player of the Year. I can't even remember at this point, but I'm gonna say panic here. I don't even think Victor Oladipo is going to solve it. He's not the best shooter to begin with. He gives you another layer of half court creation. The fact that you're still so reliant on Tyler Hero to be this half court creator is almost an issue, and he's been slinging it really well for most of this year. I think when we talked about the heat, it's, oh, they need to figure out someone to just fill that four spot. Minutes, Like if they can figure out a way to get Jay Crowder in a three team trades, is they don't really have anyone that Phoenix wants or even just like going after Kenyan Martin Junior from Houston would be like an interesting name to monitor. I think they need a higher end acquisition like the piece or panic would be the Heat need to make a big trade if they want to be a real championship contender. I'm kind of there, I'd be I'd be willing to go that far, and like, look, they have some of the pick equity, but like they've they're searching. They've had to play it nakol Yovich at the four for very small stretches. At this point, people are talking about, well, you know, over you're at seven injured, and it's like, well, you know, I know we had some moments last year, but if your seven matters, that's probably an issue. So I'm I'm I don't have I have faith that Eric Wealscher will squeeze every ounce of offensive production out of this roster. In the aggregate, Kyle Lowry has had better moments in the past few games that I've seen. I think he will continue to get to get better. You have Jimmy Butler, you have Tyler Hero and look, at the end of the day, your top end talent's going to be on the floor when it matters most. But to have to navigate the regular season or certain stretches, they have one of the I think it's like the sixth worst bench point differential in the league right now, And there's there's no path internally to fixing man unless unless I watch every Heat game from now on, and game Vincent only has great games, So this is really up to me to fix it. Seems like so like you've been like you've seen the games where he just doesn't shoot, you know, like er negative percent from three is right. All the games I see are him just you know, crossing guys up and pulling up from three or just like going by a guy and hitting a nineteen footer. I only ever see the best game. That's the look. If you're the Nets and you're training Kevin Durant and you're gonna get you know, let's say you guaranteed three Heat picks like twenty five, twenty seven, and twenty nine and then swaps like, that's the team I'm probably looking at more so than Phoenix, just because they're still gonna have Devin Booker and maybe even like I even this was said on the Time podcast which I listened to after the Camp Johnson injury. They had they had a doctor Rajan and discussed that at length. It was a great pot if no one's checked it out and they said they would not trade mcaal bridges for Kevin Durant right now, I probably wouldn't fall that far in the end of the spectrum. But like that is the point we've reached of the optics of like, well, you know, we don't want to give up all this stuff because of is Kevin Durant at any is? How complicite is he? In Brooklyn's like demolition at the moment, you do have to wonder that which is fair. But like the heat, I would say their long term future. I know it's the heat is the heat is the heat is the heat, but it's infinitely less stable. It feels like then Phoenix is right now, Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. Let's see another dark wing duck trying to fit this into a piece or panic wording. First of all, appreciate that, thank you for embracing the premise. But our twenty nine team is panicking about not having a chance against the Bucks this year. No, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say peace there. But look, the Bucks have been fantastic. I mean they did lose. I didn't watch any of that game. I saw Trey Young was out, and I'd actually been doing a deep dive into like the Murray and Young fit and the Hawks overall. I see trays out for that game, the shin injury. I'm like, I'm not even gonna watch this, Like this is gonna be like a disaster. They go and they just blow the doors off of Milwaukee. Look, Milwaukee to me deserves to be the title favorite. Right now. The NBA overall does not have a short thing. I don't even we said this last season, where it didn't feel that way, it feels even less so right now where it's just like maybe Milwaukee comes close to being a shore thing in the East, but like the Calves exist and the Celtics exist, and then in the West, it's just the West does not having Utah's first right now, Portland has killed it. They don't have a sure thing. So I'm going to say no if you are in the East, though, if you want to say, like fourteen other teams in the East, I might go piece there because there's not If I'm in the East, maybe the only team to me that isn't. I don't want to use the word because teams would be insulted, afraid, but like a team that wouldn't maybe have to second guess as much about playing Milwaukee or be so as a did or afraid it is Boston, and like they don't even have Robert Williams a third right now, assume you'll have to assume he'll be there for the playoffs. So that might be a pretty big ass assumption to make at this point. I'm just I'm at piece because the championship landscape is so wide open right now. But the Bucks, I will say, are the closest thing we get to just like this formality. Yeah, I can't get a full full Panic endorsement for this one, but like just you said, like there aren't I know, the Cavs and the Celtics for sure would like a word with with that assessment. But it's just looking around the league like nobody looks like you know, like you said it utaw us first in the West, Like yeah, nobody's nobody's concerned that that's gonna sustain. Like the Warriors have their problems, you just were you Panic, The Clippers have problems like all these other teams. You know Brooklyn has have you heard Brooklyn has problems? The Son's you know, Chris paulse washed. We just said it. I mean like like they're no. The point is the Bucks. We said it at the beginning of the year, like, no, notes, the Bucks are really great. Janice is God. They don't even have Chris Middleton yet they're battle tested, they've won it all, they have continuity. They're just like they're the only team that I just like, you're defending the three point line all of a sudden decided now you also can't shoot threes, which is a new development, which makes it feel kind of unfair because they're not really giving anything else away in exchange for that. So they've hacked that shot out to Brook Lopez for that where it's just like, oh, he's just physically fine. Now, yeah, it's all good. I mean, I just so like there's not another team in the league that has anything close to their resume that is also like kicking as much ass as they are right now, and again there's upside, like they will be better with Chris Middleton. I just like I have to believe that. So yeah, right, So, like I just I think this in the spirit of the question, I guess you probably say piece because if it's like take one team or the field. You're always just going to take the field, you know, unless it's the twenty seventeen Warriors or whatever it is. But like you know, the Bucks are just in their own tier, I think. And again, the Celtics great, but like we have questions about those teams, maybe less sol the Celtics other than Robert Williams, but the Bucks, there's no questions. We know what we need to know and they're delivering on like what we expected. So they're just in their own little little bubble right now. This is closer to panic than it should be ten games into the season, I will say. And also you mentioned the Bucks are in their own tier in the East, is there even like because it's just like everyone was all in on the Clippers. Oh I don't think we were, Like no, like that's just that can't be a thing right now, So there's not even a team in the West. And maybe the standings are sort of like polluting my thoughts here, Like I wouldn't put Phoenix there, especially now they're dealing with Cam injury. What we don't know about CP three, the Nuggets from my title pick, I'm not putting them there, Like who is who is the team? Yeah, so it's a closer to panic than not. Let's get to this one. For I'm unbiased Pistons fan, Dwayne Casey might just be coasting off his Coach the Year award from twenty eighteen. He has a career losing record and a really bad record in Detroit. I'm worried about this team getting their development growth stunted. Peace or panic, they're grant? So I mean you mean the Coach of the Year award that he won, like after he got fired, Like, is that the one we're talking about? He was tired though by the Pistons before he officially won that award too though, right, So was he really coasting off of it? Right exactly? No, So I'm gonna say peace and I have to like kind of get there in a roundabout way. You know, we talked about this offline, just what are the expectations for Like what should Casey be accomplishing right now? And I think Pistons fans would say, well, we'd like to see more player development. We'd like to see the young guys just like be better, essentially be positioned to succeed better, be you know, fielded in combinations, that make more sense, that have more success. And my pushback to that is just, you know, specific to Killy and Hayes. I think you know it's been now this is year three where he just hasn't been good. And and what's Casey's supposed to do? Can Casey make the can he will the ball to go in when Hayes shoots it? Can he can he you know, develop him that, Like, you know, I can't put someone like Hayes falling short of expectations. I can't put the blame on Casey for that. I can't. I can't put the blame on him for a bunch of young guys making mistakes all the time. And like that's just that's just what happens with guy Like look, you your primary ball handlers or your your best ball handlers are Kay Cunningham and Jade and Ivy, who have a combined you know, one point three years of NBA experience. They're just like it's just hard for guys that young and those roles to be really good. The Cunningham has, you know, the Luca don chech comp was there just for how he moves around. Not everybody's Luca, Not everybody just rolls in and it's gonna get you twenty eight, eight and eight or this year like fifty eight, ten and ten. That just doesn't That just doesn't happen. So I think it's a roster thing as much as anything. I think it's outside expectations as much as anything. Having said that, dwing case, he's sixty five, Like he's not going to be the coach of this team, little aging I'm over here, Well it's just sixty five. Put him out the past her like what I'm saying, Like, maybe he's not connecting with the guys. Maybe there's some element of they're not trying to hear him, Maybe there's some element of everybody involved with the whole operation must understand that if the Pistons are ever like a competitive, good team, he's probably not going to be the coach because it's gonna be a few years and if we have another couple of seasons like this, like he's just not going to be in charge. So yeah, I mean, is he is he the guy that's going to lead them to a championship or even like a playoff? Birth Probably not. But I also think it's kind of unfair to say that, well, he's the problem. Just look at the rosters. It's the roster to me. I think two things that stand out to me are the outside expectations that you mentioned. As soon as zach Low said he could see the Pistons kind of party crash in the play in tour him and it's funny how the national perspective on the Pistons just seemed to change the Boyermardonovitch trade might have done that For me a little bit, was like, Oh, this fit is just so smart. Maybe it's gonna level up their offense, and it did to an extent before he shuffered that like shoulder injury. My whole thing is just like some of the complaints, the Killian Hay stuff. What do you want? You mentioned this so I'm not gonna rehash it, Like what is he? What is Joyne Casey's supposed to do there? Killian? He is supposed to come back with his revamped looking jumper and he did not like he just even the hype videos that were posted about it, We're just like the antithesis of hype videos. They made me. I was trolling last Jackson and his dms when I saw it because it was just it was so awful looking. But the other thing is just like I've seen a lot of why isn't he staggering Jay and Ivy and Cade more? And if you were trying to win basketball games, I get it. You want to surround Cade with more spacing, and that's how to optimize your team right now. You need these two to be able to play together long term, and so figure it out. And yes, the offense is no longer it was for a while. It was humming when it was throw on the court. It is no longer that it's better when Kake Cunningham plays by himself. That's not if things go according to plan. That's not the situation you want to be in. And so you need to explore this and get I'm fine with excuse me, I'm fine with them. I don't want to say over playing those two together. But it's like, no, we're not gonna stagger these two because they are our future and we need them to work. And I don't think you're Are you stunting the growth of either one of them by playing them next to the other. I guess there could be something to that, but again, you need this sample size to see if these two can play together. And so I can't get too mad about that if you want to talk about like the defensive effort and how much they're getting burned there. Yeah, I guess on paper, you didn't expect this team to be the worst defensive team in the league. Like that is, Like that is certainly a fair critique there. They allow way too many looks at the rim, and you would expect that to, I guess be better. Like Isaiah Stewart is an impactful guy when it comes to that. At the same time, like Jalen Durn's a rookie and he's going to foul like eight people per possession, and so like what are they like? This is growing pains, like you are your livelihood right now is tied to a lot of development. And how good were you supposed to be on defense when they just don't have a wing stopper Like Sediq Bay looks like he should be a wing stopper, So that's what people have just decided he is, and he's never been. He's never been that. And so I Pistons fans and people who cover the Pistons specifically will have a better that they'll be able to into it this better than weekend. But the ten thousand foot view perspective to me is I don't think Dwyn Casey's doing anything that's actively damaging here. And if you want Kaden lineups with even more space than they have right now, I don't like, does it is it playing Isaiah Livers more? Okay, if you want to quibble over that, or is it? Hey, the roster wasn't built to give him as much space necessarily as you want, especially if the goal is to play him with a rim runner like John during Okay, well then that's one shooter just gone. So this roster wasn't constructed to have three shooters plus a rim runner on the court at all times, because hey, guess what one of those non shooters right now is Jay and Ivy and it's look he's taking them. He's shooting like thirty one percent. I think he was at last time I checked. I get it, but like, you can't have it both ways. To me, I'm not saying Dwayne Casey is the colach coach. And if I know, you know last accent from Detroit bad Boys, a big supporter of the Pots. So if anything we're saying it is just off base. And he happens. To listen to this, feel free to let us know. But just like I don't view this as if you swapped out the coach that this team would get materially better, whereas if I do view if you swapped out Tom Thibodeau in New York because of how poorly he actually is misallocating talent and not so much the past couple games, but that's almost by force with the Mitchell Robinson injury and Evans Fournet was just so bad like he couldn't start anymore. But I don't think he replaced the head coach and anything changes with this team a ton well, and look like unless unless the culture is suffering, unless we're having like some real you know, the vibes are bad, bad habits are forming guys are you know, and there's in fighting, unless like that is an offshoot of Casey doing a quote unquote bad job according to what people seem to think, like the Pistons, losing is a feature, it's not a bug of this process that you know, there are many players away from from being good. And so if you lose a bunch of games then you went up at the top of the lottery, then great, as long as the other stuff isn't suffering and you're doing damage to sort of how the whole franchises run. I also was gonna and I don't know if this is too like naive, but how much of this is skewed by the fact that Oklahoma City and Utah don't suck, Like these other teams that were supposed to suck aren't sucking. And so you know, even for Houston, there's been just some sort of like pessimism there where it's like, well, because that they are the two worst team in the league right now, somewhat has to be the worst team league. Would I picked it to be the Pistons this year? Probably not, No, But I just I can't bring myself to panic over that. So you've gotta We've got a couple or a handful of just specific teams that we're gonna hit here for piece or panics. So I'll throw you one first. The Los Angeles Clippers panic, we are we done? Look you can you can look at like some of the issues that are playing them, and it's okay. Reggie Jackson was shooting like zero percent from two at one point, and they're still they're three point percentages haven't rebound like Marcus Morris and Paul George are finally over thirty five percent, but Reggie Jackson's at twenty eight point nine percent, Norman Pals at twenty seven point five percent, John Wall is a twenty one point four percent, Kawhi Leonards at sixteen point seven percent. He's just only played two games. Nicholas Patum sub thirty five Terrence Mann sub twenty seven percent, Robert Covington, he's actually creeped above thirty five percent. Finally, Look, the big thing here to me is I think their offense will eventually be fine. There's still not enough variability to it for me. Even when John Walls on the court, you could see it, but it just feels too I don't want to say vanilla, but it just feels almost too predictable, and there's not going to be just a ton of complicated actions that you necessarily need to cover. And the fact that you've injected the John Wall element certainly helps. You're still not generating like a ton of downhill pressure for this team. This happens in the backdrop of like of each of Zobatch has been great for them, and they do have the talent and the depth to say, hey, they're gonna be fine, and I think they'll be fine. They're not supposed to be fine. They're supposed to be one of the five foremost title contenders. And you have the Kawhi Leonard right knee stuff going on. Now. I didn't even realize he was out in definitely that's how checked out I was. I'm like the Kawi Leonard news cycle. You were the one that told me it's absolutely time to panic, and it's not unfair. You don't even need to predict the demise and say, well, this team is fucked, like they're done. But you can also say that and have a leg to stand on at this point. Yeah, just like Kawai has one. I think that's like, so we started the off season and we just this. The the macro view of this team was they have all the wings in the league. They have so much depth that you know, twelve guys can play. That's going to be a problem. There's you know, they're built to win in the playoffs. We've seen their small ball looks work. They just they have two superstars, one super duperstar who's won the finals basically on his own. You know, I'm exaggerating, but none of that means anything. If if Kauai is not one available and two like a top five guy when when he plays, so, yeah, it's early. This isn't a good sign that he's already missed so much time after starting the season. Why did he play those two games? Why did he play? Why did he start the season? If if this was so, that tells me that like, at the very least, this was not something that the Clippers expected. This, this whatever, this knee stiffness is right, because you wouldn't have you wouldn't have started the season with him active if it were. So none of it matters, none of it. It doesn't matter how good John Wall looks on certain nights, doesn't matter who's playing well, it doesn't matter about the depth unless Kauai is, you know, and this is a this theoretically is an April made June problem. But but right now, like you can't say that he's someone that's gonna profiles as the best player on a title team, one because he's not playing. And two because just after all this time off and this just constant you know, we're like, what are we in year four of Leonards? You know, five load management, you know, had had health issues. A huge panic, huge panic because they're super invested in this team. It's incredibly expensive. They're built specifically to win a championship with a bunch of vets and two stars, and one of them just isn't playing. So that that's like, that's a huge problem, major panic for me. And there's no other way to phrase. It's just even if they you will see the offense get better. Some of these guys were going to shoot a lot better. I just don't know how you get around like the Kawhi Leonard sized void that's right here, that's the whole thing. This next one is probably going to hurt your soul a little bit. I'm okay with it. I'm looping a few together though, But I guess it's the Golden State Warriors piece or Panic in general. But Cosmic Raccoon says it is now safe to declare James Wiseman a boss. I also added Golden State's defense was the primary focus for me, so grant on all these fronts, piece or panic Wiseman first, just because he's been such a storyline this year. Yeah, there's for sure panic, And like I would say that there are a lot of things about his game that I'm not optimistic can be fixed. It's we've talked about this anytime we've talked about him. Terrible hands, terrible timing, just does not have good court sense, has no feel. He's a seven foot phenomenal run and jump athlete that I'm not totally convinced as a basketball player at least like not an NBA player at this stage. Doesn't mean he can't get there, but I do think it means he can't get there there being an impact rotation guy who helps you win, I don't think he's getting there before Curry, Clay Draymond age out. So for the Warrior's purposes, if you're trying to win another title with that core, yeah, he's a bust because he can't help you right now. Like he's he's he's he's benched. He's not, he's out of the rotation. He got Charity minutes to start the year that his that he had not earned and his play had not justified, and then he lost him. And it's not like they had another great alternative. They're playing Anthony Lamb, which I had to double check, who was you know, made the roster out of camp. He was the center off the bench in relief of Kaman Looney in the game, first off the bench in the game last night that they barely won, and in the start of the second half they didn't play a center at all. So I just, yeah, Wiseman can't help. And I'm not optimistic, you know, even though we're talking like fifty NBA games that some of the just basics are fixable, it's certainly not fixable on a timeline that that matters for this Warrior's court. Having said all that, I'm not panicking about the team as a whole just because the starters are still so good, just because Steph Curry forty seven last night just won that game by himself entirely. He's still just apex predator, like last guy you want to see, you know, a matched up against you. So I think the rotation beyond the starters is a real problem. But realistically they need like two three guys to emerge and that's your playoff rotation, and the playoffs are all that matter for this team. So I'm not panicking overall, but I am panicking about Wiseman specifically just because how cool would LaMelo ball beyond this team or like any of like the other anyone other than Anthony Edwards from that draft would be helping more like you could just throw a dart and they would be more helpful right now than Wiseman. Where do you land on that they should have taken Fronz Wagner in staid a Jonathan comin good discussion. Yeah, they probably shouldn't, I think, But I still love Kamina just athletically. That guy's like a ninety nine percentile guy, but he's he's gonna be better sooner than Wiseman. But even he is, uh, you know, several years away from from being someone you could you could start on a serious contender. I think I'd be with you on time to panic about Wiseman. I leaned towards peace with the Warriors. But the real piece or panic here is just like, Okay, it's fine that the starting lineup is still really good. What do you have outside of that? Is a time to panic about maybe Jordan Pool not being as good as Bill has not because of his struggles this season. But I mentioned this cuff fair. We probably need to have a discussion that he hasn't been able to lead like stepthless units, stepthless units to neutrality ever in his career. Yes, those are big shoes to fill, and maybe the Warriors haven't necessarily given him the tools to do it. I think he's improved a bunch as a passer, but like that's an issue and maybe then the real piece for Panic is it's time, like to catch in some of these younger chips and make the trade so that you're maximizing this window rather than trying to to straddle two different timelines. Yeah, I'm more open to that. I was like a hard no on that basically all the last offseason and last year you are. I remember proposing trades to you, and I was giving. I was getting the Warriors good players, and you were just like, I don't know many Wiseman might be David Robinson, so we can't. That was my comp and and Jonathan Cominga is a more athletic Paul George was my other looking great. Uh No, it's now it's just I don't know. Some of me wants to pull back because it's how greedy do you want to be? And the answer should probably be as greedy as possible, because it's also totally within the realm of possibility that neither Wiseman nor Cominga, you know, even if you wait till they're twenty five twenty six, are good enough to be the anchors of, you know, the next wave of Neither of them looks like Kauai, you know, extending the Spurs dynasty. Like that's that does not seem to be on the table to me. And we just spend a bunch of time talking about how nobody looks like unbeatable except the Bucks. So that kind of pushes in the direction of maybe you should go get somebody that's going to actually help and not kill you in net rating every time they play like Wiseman has so far, So yeah, I'm I'm not all the way in, but I'm way more amenable to a win now trade than I was like this time a year ago. They do run into a similar issue to the Nuggets though, that what is the salary filler you're sending out here? Because it helps that Wiseman is making nine point six, but like, unless you're gonna start trading Coamingo who's at five point seven, you're not getting to any real money. And so who is the trade target that year? I'm not even asking you because I didn't. We didn't discuss like what, like what is the trade, Like you can't even go out and getting Eric Gordon without trading a core player at this point, the Draymond's the obvious answer, but they're just they're not going to trade them. I just don't think that would you do Draymond From Michael Porter Jr. No, because the defense is the problem, right, That was what say that'd be an issue. They're found, the Warriors are fould all over the place. I still think that was why someone asked me whether I thought it was a championship hangover, and I was just like watching them. It just feels like I mentioned this with the Pelicans and Zion, that everyone's overreacting. When James Wiseman's on the court, he's not the soul like issue. I think some of it's been like Clay at points, but like he's not the salt. Even Jordan Pool, but like when you have those two playing together, Jordan Pool James Wiseman, Like I've even looked at what the foul raid is on those lineups. It's probably through the roof. Though, yes, I mean Pool has been a total zero defensively negative defensively, and Clay was a turnstile last night. And Malik he could not stay in front of Malik Monk. And so guess what, You're not going to see Malik Monk in a playoff series. You're gonna see Devin Booker or something like that. It's gonna be a little harder. So that's concerning too. Let's get our third team here, the most specifically Minnesota's offense piece or panic. I don't want to say I'm panicking because I want to be better than that. I thought this team was going to be a regular season young or not. I'm gonna go peace, but it's just like, man, there, the ball movement is just not there. I thought Chris Finch was gonna get super inventive on offense, and I just haven't seen it. People who are smarter with X's nose if you notice somebody, feel free to point that out to me. There's just the issue of like, you know, there was the whole used on the video of like Anti Edwards with the hands on his hips one I'd call that gravity. Do you see how close this man was pinning him? He's obviously not getting the ball right, but like that is just weird. The like the emotional spectrum of this team is just weird, and like with Carlin Anthony making like passive aggressive jabs at Anthony Edwards in the press and then if you're worried about Anthy Edwards his body language. I watched this team and they could still be really good, and they'll like D'anzel Russell should shoot better on threes. But it's also just like they don't seem to know. And I wonder how much Karl Anthony Town's getting sick and them not really having a training camper preseason together impacted this. No one seems to really understand their role on offense, except for Rudy Gobert when he you know, he's in health and safety protocols right now. So I look at their offense, it doesn't feel they have nudged up their three point attempt rate to about league average. That's not high enough for this team. The whole point of how you're gonna make teams respect you offensively by playing towns in Gobert is that you just need to chuck that bad boy like you just need to throw it up. The off for the starting lineup has been atrocious. I think it's they were at ninety eight points per one hundred possessions roughly when they're on the court together. I'm going to give this team more time. So I'm going to say peace. But it's just like you don't even necessarily have people coming off the bench who make a ton of sense to augment the talent that you have. You run into a situation with Kyle Anderson immediately can't play him with rue Gobert, And that's kind of a big deal because Kyle Anderson, you spent them in level on Jel and Noel off to a really hot start, but he is shooting thirty one point one percent from three. You've gotten to a point where it's like, oh, you know, like do we need like Jordan McLaughlin to like show more steadiness and so like, if you're talking about players like that, I think Tory and Prince has been mostly steady for them. Jane McDaniels needs Look, Jane McDaniels is still not taking tanking, taking enough threes and he's not hitting them either, And like that was always gonna be. They valued him the equivalent of two first round picks and Ruey Gobert trade. That is just like the rumblings that are out there. I've even seen weird stuff from him on defense, like just away from the ball. These could be growing pains. I'm just gonna assume that they are. Everyone so new to each other. But like, I didn't think I was going to be this person fewer than twelve games of the season. I'm closer panicking than I thought i'd be. Yeah, I'm with you. I think I'm gonna say peace just because I think, I mean, Gobert is like low key a really hard guy to just introduce into a lineup. It's just, I mean, defensively, he should make everything easier. And when he plays, the Wolves are great. They're fine defensively and they'll get better. But offensively, you know, it's thrust a lot of guys into different roles, and Anthony Edwards has talked about, you know, he likes to play in space. That's clearly a shot. I think he you know, he tried to mitigate a little bit. People thought it was like the reaction was, well, maybe you should have asked him before he made the Rudy Gobert trade. And then it was reported I believe in the Ringer by Rob Mahoney that they did ask him, and so like if that was like a you know, and there's a clear I can't remember who pointed this out, but there's a naivete there because he was frustrated about reporters asking him about lineups because they worked for the team. And though he's he's super young, I'm not, but like there's there's think he's just no, those reporters do not work for the teams, so believe it, or despite what we get from like the shops and woage phrasing sometimes and how that relationship with agencies were like, No, the reporters do not actually work for the teams. I just think I think where I do have some panic. So it's it's hard they're gonna it's difficult to integrate towns being out was wasn't I think is a factor uh for for just lack of reps in training camp, in preseason and stuff. I just I am a little concerned that I'm not sure like who is the who's the adult in the room with the voice that one everyone's listening to and two is saying the right stuff and carrying himself the right way, Because I think you know, Edwards is too young and he's got some foot and mouth stuff already that's happened Gobert. I think just generally his reputation is not the easiest guy to get along with, uh towns. I don't think he's regarded as someone who you know, his voice carries, you know, in a locker room. So I just kind of wonder if that aspect of it, this is so like, oh, the vibes aren't good and this you know, it's so fuzzy and there's no numbers attached to it. But like, if the situation is not going well, the personalities do matter. And I think maybe that's something that wasn't a you know, a big enough consideration when when making a trade like this, because it was going to change a lot of stuff and guys were gonna be put in uncomfortable positions. How are they going to handle that? Like, so far, not well is the answer. I think it can get better, but I do have some concerns that, you know, there might be some more sniping and inviting and bad body language and all the stuff we don't really talk about that much on this podcast or right about because it's like, well, well, how do you quantify any of that? But that is something I think that does at least warrant like some attention going forward. I'm probably less concerned about that than I amn't watching some of just like their their half court offense specifically, it's just like I don't understand the rhyme or reason to a lot of time. And again, that could just be going through the motions. If Wolfs fans are listening, they're probably pissed off. We both did default to peace, though, even if you think this is a little level analysis. So I'm gonna loop the final two together because I don't really need to give them more airtime on this podcast. But the Lakers and the Nets, and it's the essence of them like that that is the PiZZ or panic. The two stages of this is peace or panic for both of those teams. Who are you less panicked about? I mean, obviously it's panic for both. Like you said, I'm less panicked about. Man, that's a good question. I should have thought of this harder. I'm less panicked about. This will surprise you. The Nets, Oh, I don't say it then, because they still have like they can still trade durant. I think the irving thing is gonna sort of resolve itself, like he might just not play, I think, and that's probably better for everybody the surrounding roster, Like the role players are just way better than the Lakers, even though most of them have underperformed, and I see outs I guess with the nets that I don't see with the Lakers, and the Lakers is like, you know, it's the family operation. Rob Polinka has too much power. He's had one good offseason and like five horrible ones. They can't trade Russell Westbrook, Lebron James has fallen off. They probably have to trade Anthony Davis. I guess if they want to like have any future. So yeah, I'm more I'm ridiculously I'm more panicked about the Lakers just because I don't see a fix for them. I think you have to be more kind of about the Lakers because Lebron's about the turn thirty eight, and that's just I will. I don't think trading Anthony Davis makes sense for them just because they don't control their first round pick. And you can't trade Lebron either because when he's on his extension. So if you're gonna make that decision, make it in tandem. That's something you revaluate over the off season. I also think that with Brooklyn you can get more to recoup your long term cover than the Lakers are gonna get for Anthony Davis. At this point, I think people might be looking at the benchmark of what Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert fetch the Jazz Andy Davis about the same age. Rudy Gobert way more injuries in his rearview, hits free agency sooner he only has next season guaranteed, then he has a player option. If he's declining that player option or not. If he's picking it up, you probably didn't want to make the trade for Anthy Davis in the first place. So there are just more landmines there on the court. I don't have hope for eitheran one of these teams, though, I think because Durants and Brooklyn, it's kind of like Ben Simmons could get a lot better. So it's like you see a pathway I guess to them. But the East is like might be also deeper with elite teams this year than the West is, and so the Lakers path back to anything. I'm at the point where I think Rob Plinko should have been fired already and like, this is stuff you should have dressed over the off season, trading Russ, doing a better job fleshing out of the supporting cast with a fewer guards. Almost the point now where it's like, do you even still trade Russ if it's out there, because what is the end game of this season? I don't, It doesn't get you where you be. I'd rather have cap space and draft picks leading into this summer and then you can you make a trade there or sign someone that helps reopen the window. That's right. I'm out with the Lakers now because I don't think any and I think Miles Turner would be a great fit. He just had the game of his life against the Pelicans on Monday night. But Miles Turner, Buddy Healed, aren't fixing everything that's wrong with They can't hit a three, The off half court offense is ugly, and hey, by the way, Russ has been playing really well since coming off the bench, and he's coming off the bench, so you've played that card. Darvin Hanna has a d playing the five like Thomas Bryan's injured. Damien Jones is basically an afterthought, Like, so you're trying new things, but we're at the point where it's like this team is one incredible Matt Ryan moment away from being perhaps the worst team in basketball at this moment. And you find yourself, Yeah, Austin Reeves a nice player, but like, you can't be still relying on Austin Roves. You can't be this tether to Lonnie Walker's ebbs and flows. So there is even there's no hope for either of these teams. I said, and I got people were mad. I said the Nets were doomed because I think it was hard for people to wrap, like look at them on paper. No, they were doomed, like Kevin Durant wanted everybody fired, requested to trade kyer even tried to find a trade and couldn't. Both these teams, though this season, are doomed long term. I guess you could still argue that the Nets are less doomed because you have that trade Kevin Durant Carbor. If they were to keep the cores intact, I think your Lakers might have more outs there than Let's do at this point, because you're gonna lose Kyerrie for nothing this summer. You might have just lost him for nothing this season, and I just don't know what like, but these teams are just both and I don't mean to give them more airtime. But if we're talking about they the expectations, this is, this is. They are the living embodiment of the meme. Our expectations were low, but holy fuck, somehow failed to hit them. Yeah. Well boy, we closed that out with a lot of panic. Let's let's go. Uh, we don't need to panic about just another phenomenal pod because we did it, Dan, We delivered five stars from the five Stars, five stars to you. Five stars say everybody that's gonna do it for us? Thanks for listening. Everybody, Please remember, like Dan said at the top, download, comment, like great, review, subscribe, smash all the buttons, uh, you know, check us out on our socials, Engage with us, get on the discord. You can find all the information on that stuff in the YouTube and podcast description. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, help us. Just keep building this because we like doing it and we like interacting with you guys. So in closing, I would again just like to apologize to the one and only Jared Allen and you forgot to shout out Frankie Lakina. I'm always gonna I'm gonna let you shout out. Frankie Lakina. That's yours, who is healthy and available to play as we record this. So the Mavericks are going to win the twenty twenty three NBA title.