What is krack alac in. Fellow thermonuclear affors, I am Dan for Valley,
coming at you with my certified fantabulous thermonuclear A f is okay with his
children listening to profane podcasts like this one. Co host mister Grant ques.
We have an instructive exercise that we are going to I don't want to say
blow through because we put thought. There's real thought behind this, but it's
trade season. You're listening to this. It dropped on December fifteenth. That's
the unofficial official start of trade season, which is to say there will be
no trades because they don't deactually happen. On December fifteenth, the rumor mill
will pick up. Now we are going to do our biggest need for every
NBA team entering the trade deadline. But the twist is we have sixty minutes
to do it from when we start the segment. There will be stat padding
afterwards, so this will run longer than an hour. And I'm rambling right
now as the preamble and the intro, but we are going to have two
minutes per team. The goal is just to get through this. We will
go deeper into these teams as we get close to the trade deadline, but
we thought this would be a good exercise. Grant and I are also trying
to get in some cardio because he's in solidarity and cutting with me now,
so we're just we're getting cardio and even with the podcast. First and not
foremost, but firstly, please just remember subscribe if you haven't already, hit
the sub button on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Stitch or Google. Wherever
you get your podcast, we are there. If you are subscribed, ratings
reviews. If you've done that, please tell people about us, share our
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They're in the podcast description as well. We appreciate everyone's support as we continue
to grow this fantastic community, and we could not do it without you,
So I will say it every episode, thank you. We're grateful. And
now to the real question. First and foremost, the actual question people want
to answer, Grant, how are you doing? I am, as you
can see, perfectly framed right now, uh, just dead center of the
frame. Uh, so that you won't have to make This isn't a section
you'll have to edit into shorts. But I I'm going to say right here,
because we we what are we if not our habits? So I'm just
going to form a habit right now and hold still right in the middle of
the frame for as long as I can. As a background, I mentioned
to Grant, and I've been meaning to mention it to him for a while,
but I always forget. There was a short though, a clip that
I edited that ended up being just so egregious because he was bouncing around the
frame and I had to do these wild edits to make it work, and
it ended with him being like right up against the screen. So I asked
him, if if I forget to remind you, can you just try and
straighten out your frame for the shorts. I don't care how your I said,
we none of us should care. We can both lounge back during the
podcast. I'm sure people are just listening to this in the background, so
that is I Grant. But now Grant has taken it way too. He's
gonna be sitting like this for the rest of his life. This would be
great for my posture. I'm just a fidgety sitter, as I told you,
so I you know, I bounce all over the place and I'm rockinging
my chair, rocking in my chair right now. But when you the way
you framed it is you prefaced it with like I've been meaning to tell you
this for like months, so and then I don't think there was like a
really long pause, but when someone says that to you, like really,
all the doors are open, like what's coming next. Unfortunately, it was
just like, hey, stay in the middle of the frame, stupid,
and don't don't move around, because it could have been like you have a
terrible disease. I don't know why I know this, but I should tell
you that. Or honestly, if it wasn't for that one clip where you
were just all over the place, I probably never would have said anything,
because it's just the only other part I was worried about was I was making
you smaller and less prominent on screen than you should be for these very like
all subsets of the beginning of the clips, and I didn't want you to
be a fan like why is Dan so huge and just powering over me out?
But then when you were bouncing around and ended up like with your face
inside the camera, I said, all right, because I fig it too,
I fige it with my hat, because I wear hats a lot,
I like kind of lean back or I'll go like I'll just twist side to
side, and some of the shorts have me doing that. Yours was just
like it was just so funny. I wasn't it was so ridiculous. It
wasn't something that was mad or even super tedious. But I was like,
okay, like this this this is a little bit challenge. This is officially
making more work for me. So hold still and don't slouch and be in
the middle. I get it. I get it. Look, if we
got to help each other, you know this, or you be free to
move though you're sitting so still right now. Very because if anyone's watching on
YouTube, I'm very concerned about the lack of mobility. Part of part of
it is because I'm I am trying to get real serious about blowing through thirty
teams in sixty minutes, which is just like an unheard of thing for us,
Like I just it's this is a real one for the most like who
is I know, we see the reactions to our articles by the way,
and shout out. I mean Kenny Beacham is a behemoth and puts in the
work. But he's able to go through our league wide sliders. I've watched
them before, and he does them. I know, he cuts it up
like he doesn't in like twenty minutes. That is the only person on planet
Earth that is able to go through that much material in such a short I
can't. Who's talking about thirty teams and giving coherent analysis in the process.
Sure as hell's not gonna be us right now. Well, we haven't even
started yet, don't don't sink us before we started. Possibly we've added a
wrinkle to the fold two because the alphabet is stupid. We are going to
go in order of ascending winning percentage entering games on Thursday, December fourteenth,
and so that means the Pistons go first and we work our way up from
there. And that is either great or terrible news for Orlando Magic fans,
who would probably be used to hearing their team a lot sooner if we were
going in order of ascending winning percentage. Let's let's start the timer. What
do we What do we do when I have a timer? So I who's
going first? I'm gonna start? You got the Pistons first, all right?
So look, two minutes per team, and this is the biggest need
for every NBA team entering the trade deadline as per our view, Are you
ready grant yes, the Detroit Pistons, they need to be relegated to the
G League. That is actually not what I have they could use. They
need to kind of choose a direction and optimize the roster. But I think
what they if you're looking for a player archetype, for them to target a
combo forward who doesn't shrink the floor and then by extension, forces them to
ditch the dual big crutch. And I don't mean we're not seeing James Wiseman
and Marvin Bagley every five seconds when they're both healthy. They consider Isaiah Stewart
a stretch big and he's just not not in the truest sense. And so
I'm not saying they should go and actually spend assets on either reguard that nudges
Bodanovich and Isaiah Livers and you know, even Afsar Thompson up to the four
every five seconds, and Thompson is not a stretch big. It's made that
clear. But if you can get a Gordon Hayward or someone in that vein
just like a veteran who's not going to come at this stark opportunity cost.
I say do it, because it's not about adding wins to now, it's
just about streamlining the development of the youngsters who Manty Williams is willing to play,
which apparently isn't very many of them at the moment. Yeah, it's
kind of I mean, it's kind of a Bogdanovich spot if you were like
a little more athletic, defensively viable, just you know, and maybe he's
a little undersized to be a four. He's like a four against certain lineups.
But something like that. I'm actually saying do that, but you need
someone else to ensure that those are the types of minutes you're sticking with for
the full four year. Yeah, they're just it's a top, it's an
over it's like over index for big guys that can't play anything but center,
and they just keep trying to shoehorn guys into other spots. All right,
let's go to the San Antonio Spurs there next. In order of as sending
win percentage. I mean, this is this is not news. This has
been the case all season. They need just a game managing, you know,
quarterback, basically, someone who's gonna make plays this This person is a
sentally Trade Jones. He exists and is on the roster. I think in
a perfect world you would like this, you know, player type to be.
You know, you name the percent at ten percent better than Trade Jones,
someone that's not shooting, you know, under thirty percent from three for
the second year in a row, Like that's not great. But you know,
Trade Jones doesn't turn it over, is going to make decent decisions most
of the time. It's just going to get the ball where it's supposed to
go. So maybe just play him as one solution or start him or just
you know, that's that's the whole there. Jeremy Soon was a fun uh
experiment at the point, But they're done with that now. I think,
yeah, yeah, fun is you can bump on the word fun for sure.
Uh but you know that that well, we got a minute maybe plus
here on the spurs before we have to what are your thoughts on that whole
Jeremy Sohan at point guard experiment, like, did you could was it justifiable
to you? Yeah? Oh yeah, it was worth trying. But now
it's like, you know, you mentioned getting a game manager. Then that's
going to allow Jeremy so so and to one figure out his role away from
the ball, but then he can kind of why don't you experiment with him
as a secondary ball handler. You're still not doing any favors by if you're
starting, you know, Victor Wembenyam at the five is fun too to try
that out, But like Malachi Brandam instead of Trey Jones, it doesn't make
any sense to me. And so if you want Trey Jones to come off
the bench or don't trust him in higher volume reps, go out and trade
for like Monte Morris once he's healthy, or Tias Jones or just somebody.
Yeah, agree, what do you make very quickly because we have a few
seconds the idea of would you want another big here or do you like this
idea that we've seen Wemby challenge way more shots at the rim and he's kind
of the five in a lot of these situations. Now, I just think
in the the optimal version of the spurs and Wembenyama is with him at center.
So if like it's going okay already, I think you just lean harder
into that. And if you want just like a you know, a third
string big to just be there. Fine, But I mean you can just
go find those guys for the minimum or guys that aren't even in the league
right now to do that. I just would lean as hard as possible into
him playing five, because that's that's just like what that's how you get the
best out of him and the guys around him. I think ultimately Washington Wizards
need all sorts of stuff. I think we can just default to. They
don't have any real first round picks in the bank from other teams. They
have that fake first basically from the Warriors in twenty thirty. They still do.
It can kind of be masked because they have a lot of They have
Tias Jones and when Delawn Wright is healthy, they do have Jordan Poole.
But they need a lead playmaker of the future, and I think you build
out your team from there, like that's the position to start with. The
problem is one, he's not on the roster like blah cool Bali is a
head of schedule, but he's not that guy. And Denny Avi is not
going to be that guy. You're not probably going to trade for that guy
though, because it doesn't make sense to give up the equity to get him.
Now, if you were very high on a Jade and Ivy and he
became available, that's kind of the situation where it's, okay, let's go
out and get him, but you have to be high on j n ivy
and then it's how much has a cost to actually land him? And it
doesn't make sense to mortgage your future when you're so early into your rebuild.
But that's the type of player they should be going after. Aside from that,
though, and I think we're both in agreement there is this should just
be distressed asset central, whereas we're just gonna we're gonna take these like Alexey
Polkowski, Yeah, go get him from the Thunder. Yeah. Second draft
guys, do you real quick, do you think they thought Jordan Poole was
that guy? Or is it just like, yeah, we'll take him because
Chris Paul doesn't make sense here and the money fits and he's decent, you
know, he's a decent upside bet. I yeah, I think you hit
the nail on the head there, But in retrospect, it would have made
way more sense to, i mean, buy out Chris Paul and just deal
with that flax or try and move Chris Paul at the deadline rather than be
saddled with the money remaining on Pool's deal, because the final three years of
that contract look very bad. Now, yeah, man, he's I thought
he would be just putting up points like crazy and inefficiently, but he's just
like not doing either of those things. Well, all right, So that
takes us to the Memphis Grizzlies. This will be the case for a lot
of teams, I think, But it doesn't mean it's it's the wrong take,
Like they need a properly size like say, big wing ish you know,
big ish wing of the future, who can you know, play some
four and is not gonna be like a one way type of player. We
don't know how many times we said desire Williams, man, this is it
is gonna be him, just hasn't been so far. And Marcus smart,
now you're gonna ask him to do In addition, once he's healthy to being
your point guard and your best wing defender, you need him to take on
another more versatile role. Like that's just I don't know if you can handle
any one of those things, let alone you know, two or three at
this point. So that's that's kind of a lot you could throw in.
I think you're wise to do this in the notes, you know, another
big center to play with Jaron Jackson, which maybe isn't an issue if Steven
Adams gets right in his back, because you just be like, let's get
a Steven Adams type, you know. But if you have the actual Steven
Adams and he's healthy and can play, then I mean we know what he's
meant to that team. So that's kind of two things. But the big
wing really is it for me because Smart just you just can't ask Smart to
do as many things as it even with Morant back, they're gonna ask him
to do. The problem for them is that archetype is so hard to find.
And this is not the season to now double down because the season is
done. It's just over them. They're not gonna I think their playoff chances
for ESPN or like zero at this point, and so it'll be different when
Jock comes back. We were dealing with so many other injuries. I kind
of just feel like you can try and make the most out of the season.
I'm not saying punt on it, but it makes more sense. You
mentioned the bigger like another big it's this is an Andre Drummond team, whereas
we don't really give up any real assets, we get someone who kind of
helps us replicate what we were doing last year a little bit, or replicate
some of what Steven Adams does, and we'll try to figure it out and
make the bigger move over the offseason. But like their absence of a big
picture wing is glaring, and they waited too long to consolidate, and then
they probably consolidated into the wrong player once they did. Yeah, turns out
Smart was the was not the guy. Didn't hate it at the time,
just for the record, but I just pused it at the time. So
let me do my victory lap here, even though we're not even a full
seat into the experiment. The next team up is the Portland Trailblazers, and
they're similar to a lot of these teams that are going to be the worst
in the league where it's hey, they should be distressed assets Central. There's
you should look at moving Malcolm Brogden, you should look at moving Jeremy Grant.
You should even maybe look at moving Anthony Simons, although I don't think
you have to, uh, but when I look at them, and try
and envision. Okay, we know they have Shandon Sharp, they have Scoot
Henderson Simons is there. Is he part of the long term I don't know.
They have some interesting flyers at center when they're healthy, which none of
them are, so that's something they consider they need. Like the bigger picture
combo forward the three four where it's Latis Cybele and Jeremy Grant are not gonna
be a part of the next good iteration of the Blazers, and so can
you go out there and find again it's similar to no, don't go out
and give up all these assets to go get a really high end prospect.
But can you look at a second draft type guy who's gonna come in or
just a complete flyer stab in the dark who can come in log minutes at
the two, three four. I know Shandon Sharp is I like a fringe
wing. I just don't know if you want him defending those bigger types of
power perimeter players. Yeah. I think that's right. When you look at
the you know, the next good version of this team, as you said,
it's Scoot and it's Sharp. I think at the one and the two,
and then Simon's then becomes kind of and maybe Simons takes another step,
but if he doesn't, then I feel like he's kind of like an over
He's a little overpaid for what you're gonna ask him to do because I don't
like the three of those guys on the floor together. It's too small,
the defense isn't good enough. So he's like a reserve at this point.
You know that we're talking about in this hypothetical future, and that's he doesn't
quite do it for me having Simons in that role for that money. So
I'm with you there. Charlotte Hornets are next. I mean they need a
lot. You might say a healthy LaMelo ball is one of those things.
But I think and outside of him, outside of Brandon Miller, who's been
better than I thought, even if I'm still not sure, his ceiling is
as high as you want for a pick, you know that high at number
two. And Mark Williams, I think we've seen enough. He's like a
starting caliber center. I don't know where he ranks, you know, if
you're ranking the thirty starting centers in the league, but I don't know,
it's probably closer to fifteen than thirty. And for what they're paying him and
what he can do, that's fine by me. So like they need more
assets, they need more First, you can trade Gordon Hayward, you can
trade other you know, whatever else you can to sort of bolster the you
know, the asset store. But then also like and maybe Brandon Miller's this
guy, I'd be curious on your thoughts someone to just guard the point of
attack, you know, handle the pick and roll so that it's not just
a parade downhill and all their you know, paint roaming bigs that they just
only ever play are you know, stuck stuck out on an island? So
like do you think Brandon Miller is a wing? Would you do you think
there's a future where he's guarding? Just like if it's you go get John
Morant tonight, or you go get Anthony Edwards, or you go get Paul
George, Like is he is he gonna move around the positional spectrum that enough
on defense? Or do we need like a more of a one two?
I would like to see them go get more of a one two so that
you can then put him on players who are more like sized, and so
it's you know, go like they they need more of I think like an
Isaaca Korro or a even a real, just true defense is like Douce McBride
for New York. They would go out and look at him or something.
I think that's what should be their top priority if they're looking to actually get
talent at this deadline, like go get Jaden Springer, Free Jaden Springer.
How about our next team up is the Chicago Bulls, and so look,
they look plucky without that. Did you skip the jazz? Did I say,
all right, I skip the jazz. I apologize, So we're onto
the jazz. Now you get to talk about the Bulls. Shout out to
you. They need wings, just real live, actual wings. And I
know this could be another team based off how they've played. We could say,
oh it should be distressed Asset Central. I think they could do whatever
they want to. Where it's if there's a veteran who becomes available and you
want him. We saw it kind of with the John Collins trade. It
wouldn't bug me if they did that again, should the right player if they
for instance, believed in like if Brandon Ingram became available, if I were
them, I wouldn't go after him, but just as an example, go
get him or just get wings, like cheaper wings the teams are willing to
get rid of. Your team needs this because it'll help you defensively, and
it's just like it gives you some more lineup versatility, I think, and
the other thing they really could need. I'm very high on Kiante George moving
forward. He's a much better passer than he was advertised coming into the league.
A veteran for general though, would be nice, like someone who's a
better passer than Jordan Clarks. And then again that could be a situation.
You know what I have thought a lot about for this team, and I'll
mention him is another veteran type where it's if they become available, you have
the pick equity, and it's like, at this point you're not going to
be bad enough to have the best lottery odds anyway, de Jontay Murray on
this team, Like that could be if the Hawks decided to blow it up.
But I would prioritize just getting any type of way, because who is
the just they get to wings on this team is either Simone Fontechio He Taylen
Horton Tucker or o Chai iv Baji. I think like who's the other.
I mean, or if you want to say lowry market and if he plays
the wing minutes but he's not a wing. Yeah, it's amazing that how
many teams have we done that? Just the dearth of guys that are three
four so like you think, I mean, that's why we're all in New
Orleans. They're all in New Orleans, Toronto. That that's why they're also
coveted. Uh So the Chicago Bulls, this might be a struggle to keep
it two minutes, or maybe it won't because it's fairly simple. Uh this
team needs to just acknowledge where they are and not get snowed by the fact
that they're five and two without zach Lavine. And maybe there is some justification
to them wanting win now pieces. I think that was Michael Scotto hoops I
reported that that's kind of their thinking if they're looking to trade guys, Like
that's just so backwards to me, and it's so like it's inexplicable given that
sort of thinking is what got them here, Like you trade, you trade
first for Vuovich, you trade another first in the sign and trade for DeRozan,
you give Levin two hundred nineteen, Like you're just you're just like gluing
yourself to the treadmill with with these kinds of moves, and then if you
don't, you have to do it at some point. And like trading Alice
Caruso for major value right now while he's shooting like forty six percent from three
and is one of the best defenders in the league. That's that's not a
guy you keep to like, you know, toggle pieces around him and oh,
we're gonna win forty two games, Like no, no, no,
you move everything, that's all it is. You need to acknowledge where you
are. That's the team's biggest need, and you can't make these win now
plays. While you're also saying, well, we're so far apart in extension
for Demarto Rosen who then might just leave over the summer if you don't move
him now. And what is the let's just say they want to go that
route and be a menacing team in the East. What is the player that
they're not the specific name, but is it they need a big man in
the because it's not Vouch. Is it that? And then it's like,
well, then what center is gonna help them do that? Or is it
like an actual wing because Patrick Williams has been really good. I think defensively
this year. He's not going to be your corner stone type of wing or
playmaking type of wing. I don't even is it. Do you actually meet?
Kobe Weis's been playing so well lately, and so I think between him,
Javon Carter, Alex Cruso to Marta Rozen, like your backcourt is fine.
So it's all right, we need threes, fours and fives, like
that's that's a lot of things to need. Yeah, that's like three of
the positions. There's only five. That's more than half the position. The
Rosan's kind of a wing forward at this point. But it's like, now
you need in their defense. We know how aggressive they can be and how
they're able to cover up for him. But I would say they're if they're
gonna go that route, they need a superstar center and it's okay, or
a superstar like pure wing. Yeah, And you don't have the access to
get that player because, oh, you gave it up in the vouchin Tomart
Rosen trades. You used to, you used to, you had it.
You don't know, you don't know because you mortgaged it all for for Vouch
and DeRozan and Levine is your core. I'm gonna get our next team right,
it's the Atlanta Hawk. So I have one screw up and that's about
That's part for our course. With not doing the alphabet on the Atlanta,
part of me says that I want them to go the route of the Bulls.
They were just I think both of us were so much higher on them
than they've been this year. I do think they're kind of while they're cheap
as fuck, they're kind of married to winning now, and so it's well,
you need to figure out a way to just improve your defense. You
forced turnovers, you don't fall a time, that's about all you do.
Well. Missing Jalen Johnson is obviously hurt. I think what they actually need
is probably surprise surprise that three four type to where it's an upgrade over DeAndre
Hunter slash the you know, the Bogdanovich minutes, or if you don't want
to go to aj Griffin. At this point, I don't hate the Dejonte
Murray Trey Young back court quite frankly, but actually might need to give up
one of them to get the player that we're talking about. I would also
be okay, if they leaned and this is in the vein of them getting
Pascal Siakam, I'd be okay if they wanted to get a Combo Big,
but that Combo Big needs to be a demonstrative upgrade if you're gonna consolidate over
the Appella. Jalen Johnson a Kung Wu just dynamic, and I don't know
if Siakam is that. And I actually think this is true for so many
teams, but like the name would be, I feel completely different about the
Hawks that they have ogn and Obi on this team and it doesn't cost you
Jalen Johnson to get him, or you have one of DeAndre Hunter or Jalen
Johnson left over. No, I think that's right. So I don't have
a lot to add there. It's just like it seemed like they assumed,
you know, the move we're gonna make is moving Capella because the Kong Wu's
got his extension and he's going to step into the center minutes and we'll get
something for Capella. That It's just like, I don't know, I don't
know if it's gonna happen now, Like that seemed like a good idea at
the time, but if that if that was your big chip to trade,
like, I'm not sure there's a robust market for Clint Capella at this point.
I have the Toronto Raptors next. This is another choose a direction team.
This is like the choose a direction team. Actually, I wish I
had a dime for every time we you know, use that exact phrase,
and the NBA media community at large has used choose a direction or pick a
direction to talking about the Raptors. I think if you want to be specific,
like it'd be, I think you probably you know you're gonna build around
Scotty Barnes. I think that's not a surefire way to success. It looks
a lot rosier now than it did, you know this time last year.
Uh, he's a tricky guy to build around. I think just because of
his weird package of he's an oversized ball handler that is shooting better. But
I don't know if everybody totally believes in his shooting. So I don't know
what you do around that. But I think bringing og in and Obi back
is should be a higher priority than bringing Siakam back, just if only because
your value in flipping him at some point if it doesn't work, out is
going to be greater. But I think as I think about this team,
another real area of need to meet for me is let's get a primary ball
handling guard who is a massive three point shooting threat. And like Dennis Shuter
has played well this year. I think he's been, like low key one
of the best value signings of the offseason. He's been totally serviceable, but
he but he's not I think if you're gonna have Barns as a real corner
stone, I want a guy who can also be a lead guard, doesn't
have to be big, can be point guard sized, but that is just
going to be an ace shooter just to space the flour around him and have
like a real shot at second side action. Or if Barnes doesn't totally pan
out as an on ball guy all the time, you can just kind of
turn more of the playmaking duties over to this guy, so you know,
again, choose a direction. But then if you're once you get some more
specific I like a hot shooting guard for like whatever. The next iteration of
this team is around Barnes. I do think the Scotty Barnes leap at least
allows you to say, well, we can go either way. We can
double down on winning now if the roster is actually optimized around Scotty Barnes,
or it's time to actually optimize the rebuild around Scuard if it comes back to
picking a direction. But it They honestly do have options. It's just they've
yet to commit to one, which is meant the Golden State Warriors, who
now have Andrew Wiggins coming off the bench. As we record this in favor,
Brandon Pujenski got the start right over him. Actually don't know, I
have the game recording right now, but five, so he should start.
Andrew Wiggins is coming off the bench. Spoiler alert. Sorry to throw that
out there for you. They need athletics size on the wings, who doesn't
shrink the floor on offense, and who can also tackle some of the toughest
defensive assignments, basically anywhere at the one through four spots. That's a pretty
tall order. And they also kind of need someone who could generate their own
shots more consistently, especially if Chris Paul is going to go out in any
sort of trade. I think I'm at the point where it's not they're an
equal opportunity needs whatever star becomes available. They need a star trade because unless
you're prepared to blow it up and rebuild, which they're not because Steph Curry
is still one of the five best players alive, you need to figure out
a way to reopen this window. And I think they've already started making some
tough calls. We've seen it with some of their crunch time units. It
might just be time to say, hey, you know, Klay Thompson's kind
of interesting salary matching tools even though it's over forty million dollars, Or do
we look at moving Draymond Green because his contract's not terrible and he can still
be a transformative defender. They just need a star, And like, I'm
fine if it's a Pascal Siakam, I would say an og Ananobi or lowry
market and is kind of the worst type of player that they could go after
that would make the difference they need. They they just need so many different
things at the top because now their bench is so good. Their depth is
good. But if you start to fux with that depth where Okay Pods is
in the starting lineup, now there's just that trickle down to where you're exhausting
some of your bench armory and if Andrew Wiggins is gonna continue to play so
poorly, that becomes an issue. So I think they they need top end
talent, is the best way to frame it, and it needs to come
in the form of probably a three to four type of person. But like
they they just need they need another star who's not, you know, a
point guard, because they have Steph Curry. Yeah, Mike Dunlevy said it
was being asked about Draymond obviously, but you know it's gonna We're gonna the
next fifteen to twenty games are really gonna tell us kind of what we need
to do. I would argue the first twenty ish games told you what needs
to happen here, and the first step is in fact, playing the guys
that are playing well. So like, okay, it took a quarter of
the season, but we're starting to embrace that. I think that's a positive
step. But to your point, so that doesn't magically mean that Andrew Wiggins
and Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney, whose roles are most likely to be reduced,
we'll just start playing better. It may just mean that because you're elevating
these bench guys who were playing well at the starting lineup here bench sucks now
because those guys just I mean, you'd think they do well against backups or
you know, perform better against backups, but that's not a given. Like
sometimes it's just you know, it's just not gonna change. So I think
we're gonna I don't know, there's such a difficult team to build trades for,
just specifically because well, the best players on the team so far have
been like the young guys you would trade for stars. So why are you
gonna trade all these guys that have actually been helpful and you can't trade the
vets that are constantly and have been playing poorly. It's a weird. It's
a real you know, they're rocking a hard place situation for sure. Did
you have something to add or should we go to the next team. Let's
go to the next team. Gotta keep moving, all right, Phoenix is
next? Uh this So I think I might have talked about this last week
or I might've written it. I forget which. But the center spot to
me is is a is a trouble trouble spot just and use of nurkics like
he's he's a big body, he's physical, he's a good passer for you
know, in the middle of that offense. For me, I still think
it's just it's hard for me to imagine the postseason version of the Suns reaching
their highest level with him in the middle, and not just it's not just
a knock on him, but it's just the player type, like not a
good finisher, not super mobile defensive Like that's an under pretty understating it quite
a bit to say he's not super mobile, Like, he's not mobile defensively.
Is shooting more threes, but isn't you know, the high twenties person
whit like, he's not a three point shooter. So you know, to
say that, oh yeah, this this really good team needs a stretch five
that can defend the rim, and like, oh yeah, okay, So
it's kind of like saying everything the Superstar three, right, It's like,
well, yeah, that would be helpful, but you just described Chris Bouche.
Yeah, and then after I say that, you have to say Chris
Bouchet because that's how this podcast works. Uh. So that I think that's
one. The other The other issue is just maybe a real point guard just
once in a while would would be would be nice. I think that that
you know, it's great that Devin Booker can do as much as he can
on the ball, and Brad Bial I think can do quite a bit more
than most you know, quote unquote shooting guards can. But I think that's
just it's it's a glaring obvious need that we've been talking about since like training
camp, that they just just a point guard, just another point guard there
if you need one. The Cleveland Cavaliers they still need to get stretchier.
And it's not oh, they still need a wing. It's that can come
in the form of another big if you want them to play beside Mobley or
Alan or like a like a smaller four, a Tory Craig type, a
name that I started to think about because he've be playing so well, would
be some oan fun techio for this team would look really good. And then
also, I'm not even trolling Chris Bruschet, Matt. He could play with
Alan or Mobley in those minutes, and I think help Mobiley get to his
best offensive like because he'll take enough threes even if they're not going in.
They don't have a ton of trade, but they have a ton of salary
matching tools to get it done. That is such an awkward place to be
in though, to say, well, they need a stretchy front court player
when you have Jared Allen and Evan Mobley and the data. I think part
of this is, Look, Darius Garland's been uneven and they've been really banged
up. Evan Mobley's dealing with an injury right now, So the data on
that is all sorts of screwy, and so they do need more time,
which is why I'm not saying trade Jared Allen and get like a higher end
four or someone to stash a stretcher you got to stash alongside Evan Mobley.
Not having that information still waiting on it, just as everyone starts to think
about Donovan Mitchell's future, it just gets a little awkward. And so I
do think there's some urgency for them to find this type of He might be
your seventh or eighth guy, but you need this type of seventh or eighth
guy to maximize your postseason lineup diversification, is the way I would frame it.
Yeah, I think that's totally fair. The Jared Allen thing is tempting,
right, It's tempting to say, like that's the piece to move I'm
we probably I probably said it. I don't want to loop you into that
one, but I don't think you need to go there. Cool, Yeah,
let's let's shop to it. Yeah, I think but that need that
shouldn't be plan A. That should be We've tried some other things and like,
okay, it's clear now we need to you know, pull this very
quickly significant lever. What if New Orleans said we will give you Herb Jones
for Jared Allen, there's other money that needs to be in there, would
you do it? I think you have to. I think it's kind of
like the Wemby and San Antonio thing, Like the optimal version of the Caves
is evan mobiley playing center. So you're gonna have to just trust that that's
the case. And then you add just an elite wing defender. That's I
mean, if Herb Jones, if Herb Jones is available, like that's just
to have him guard the guys that you don't want Mitchell and Garland to have
to guard. You gotta do that, right you gotta. Yeah, you
have to. I wouldn't do it if I was New Orleans, especially Valanchie
And it's still yeah, Okay, lets feel better about saying the Calves have
to if you wouldn't do it if you're New Orleans. Uh, speaking of
we have the New Orleans Pelicans. This I mean it's a tale as old
as time. A rim protector who can generate space, that that is what
this team needs. Jonas Valentiunas is not a floor spacer. The volume is
not there. Teams don't care if he's if he's open, and it's gonna
shoot it. For all the things that he's good at, one of them,
the one that the Pelicans I think really need is spacing and or rim
protection. I guess the two things. Uh, he's not great at.
Uh screen setting. Also that's a big plus or that's a big I don't
know box. You need to check if we're talking about something the Pelicans really
need. This is just still a hard team to build around. The centers
word again, we need a floor spacing center that can defend. Like that's
just you need a you need a button depressed that just says, how about
Chris Bouchet And it's just a recording of your voice. I forget. I
don't know who my guy would be for that. If we have to think
I'm sure listeners can tell us a discord, but I think I think this
is from your notes too, so this is not going to be a surprise
to you. I agree with this. They should not be afraid to explore
options who might cost them CJ. McCollum or brandon Ingram because I don't I
can't be shocking. I underlined it in the dock because I was like,
yes, damn, that is That is the way you should be thinking,
right, because if you're not gonna move Zion, then those two guys need
to be on the table. If you're trying to make meaningful changes, that's
just how it's gonna happen. I will say the two names that spring to
mind. I do kind of like the idea of I disagree with you in
the sense that if you can get a really strong screen center who's a great
rim protector, it's okay. That's how they generate spaces with their pancakey screens.
I would prefer it to be a stretching big though. The two that
I thought of, and they're imperfect because one of them is not really a
big an the other one is not a rim protector. But Kelly OLYNNOK will
look really good on this team. And I still we brought this up with
the oh g a Ob makes a lot of sense to the pulp because we're
just like, you have now two wing types in him and Herb Jones who
can just defend the five, maybe three if you want to include Dice and
Daniels in there, but two at least one of those guys in OG will
stretch the I like. The more I think about it, the more I'm
like, yeah, do it have that for analysis? We are on and
it's actually impressive that they're this high in the standings. The Brooklyn Nets.
I wouldn't have predicted that this is what I said they would have needed entering
the season. They need some perimeter defensive juice. They're giving up a lot
of wide open threes. I know some of it's by design and there are
worse three point defenses out there, but we've seen a lot of instances where
they're giving up too many good looks in certain games, or all that space
is being used to then exploit them. And part of this is Ben Simmons
is dealing with his back stuff. I think we've seen McHale Briy have been
better defensively for them this year. He is doing probably a little He is
doing a little bit less on offense. That probably helps than he was last
year. Dorrian Finney Smith looks like he's a step slower maybe two on that
end of the floor. Royce O'Neil has been fine for the most part.
I don't know what the player is because they're in such a weird timeline.
But they have a bunch of picks they could give up. They have some
salary man tools they could use. I do think, look some of this
it doesn't need to be a big name. It can if they want,
if they're committed to this core. Nick Claxton has not been healthy. He's
not as you and I both love his switchability. That's not been his strong
suit this year. It's just like the mobility just isn't there like it was.
As he gets healthier. Maybe you can look at this and say,
oh, you don't need to target like a super big name because you have
him on the back line, or him who can step out and it's oh,
let's go get a like I don't know Alex Carusa would be fun on
this team, or a Manuel quickly because they also do kind of need a
playmaker of the future when you look at this roster where it's all right,
Spencer didn't way he's expiring. You have Dennis Smith Junior or you have McHale
Bridges. You have enough to get you by, but you could use another
playmaker so they can straddle both lines. But I think they just need some
perimeter pressure that would it'd be nice. Yes, So they came in the
form of some additional playmaking. Yeah, I just I have to talk about
this because I just wrote about it and did the research for it. Because
and you hit on it right off the bat. Like the fact that we're
talking about like a perimeter body for this team as in need is so wild
to me. And the thing that that I was writing about is how in
the world is a team with this much length on the wing and these this
many theoretically switchable guys and disruptive guys. You know Dennis Smith Junior, You
know guys that are in the league for defense, Ben's you know Ben Simmons.
Cam Johnson even last year had a steel rate with Brooklyn in the ninety
fifth percent offer his position. The nets are twenty ninth in steals, twenty
fourth in deflections, twenty second and loose balls recovered in dead last in opponent
turnover percentage. How does this roster not play a chaotic, disruptive brand of
defense. I don't. I like, it doesn't check out. It's one
of the biggest mysteries to me in the league. So yes, even if
it's counterintuitive, what you're suggesting is in fact what the numbers say. The
Brooklyn Net's need, which is just like, I'm not going to get over
that. That's a wild thing. Lle Clippers are next. This is they
need an upgrade. I think for certain matchups on I Visa Zubac, like
that guy should have or could have been PJ. Tucker, but he's not
playing, and it seems like, go PJ Tucker. Yeaheah five yeah,
exactly five years ago. However many years ago PJ Tucker. So he looks
like he's probably on the way out. It's I mean, the signs are
pointing that way. At the very least. He's not playing, so it's
not gonna be him. And you don't have this crazy collection of you know,
let's find a Morris and throw him out there. Robert Covington or Batoom
can be you know, a weird lineup center, Like they just don't have
those guys. So someone that's a little more matchup proof, someone that may
be able to space the floor, hit a corner three, that kind of
thing. Because you know, really quietly, the Clippers have been like pretty
darn good after that rough like oh and four or oh and five post James
Harden trade. Start at I think it was like they've won nine to twelve.
I assume they're beating the Warriors, or an hour and a half into
the Warriors game, I haven't watched it all. I assume they're beating the
pants off the Warriors, and if they haven't, they'll come back from twenty
plus points down and win, because that's how the Warriors operate now. But
yeah, that that's a pretty straightforward one for me. Do you have anything
to add to the Clippers. No, they do have the assets to get
it done, though. They still trade a first round pick, and they
have some interesting salary match tools that they can play. Our next team is
the New York knicker Bockers. They need I think some people will want to
see them get a big but they just signed Todd Gibson, so they're straight
for the next decade. He's back I'm just you're not gonna replace some Mitchell
Robinson did for you. Anyway. Isaiah Hartenstein's one of the best backup gigs
in the game. So you have him, you have Jerko Simms, You're
fine. They need it doesn't need to be a capslock star. They just
need a bigger wing, a properly sized wing who doesn't shrink the floor,
who also doesn't need the ball. I'm describing basically o g Anonobi but like
you want this when you're kind of doing Oh Dante DiVincenzo and Josh Hart and
you look at some of the assignments they're going up against their undersized even Quentin
Grimes, RJ. Barrett's kind of properly sized, but is he necessarily strong
enough for good enough defensively to hold up in those matchups. That is the
player they need. It is also the player that so many other teams would
kill for. But that is the archetype of player that they need. And
it doesn't need to be a star because they are so deep. I do
think I'll say, relative to this season, at least, Julius Randall's got
to be one of the most underrated players in basketball or underappreciate at this point.
The highs are incredibly high, the lowers are incredibly lows, and you
understand what he is, but he is a good basketball player and doesn't get
talked about in the same vein, and we frame it as he's more valuable
to the Knicks than any other team like that somehow an insult. It's not.
He's made to all UNBA teams. It's not an insult. And so
because you have him and Jalen Brunton and just this depth, you need a
i'll call it a power wing six seven or taller that is going to be
defending the toughest perimeter to sidements. Yeah, I'm with that. Has there
been a more confounding, like up and down player than Julius Randall, because
you're right about how he's playing right now. But it's just I just can't
get over how his perception, at least for me, as like ebbed and
flowed over the years. Kind of well, okay, Houston Rockets are next.
I actually like it's really encouraging that there's not like a glaring need that
jumps out for the Rockets, Like you really could make the case that like
they're pretty good shape most places. I do think the backup big spot is
one that could use some improvement because kind of could you did you press the
button or was that actually you? Uh? Because Jock Landale on that weird
contract where he gets eight million a year except for the three years where he
doesn't after this one because it's not guaranteed, he's he's not the answer at
backup center. It doesn't seem like he's playing less and less basically out of
the rotation. So it's like, is Jeff Green your backup center? Are
you gonna use jashn Tate there? Uh? Boban is on this roster,
he does not play, So you could get to the Jabari Smith Junior minutes
at the five, which I think we both are kind of excited about and
think could really work. You know, I'm with you, I'm excited,
you know, I just ye're right as I agree, but just as like
the theory of that is sound to me, like if he continues to bulk
up and continues to just I mean, he's gotten so much better this year
and really was coming on at the end of last year, like he's You're
not gonna we will not be talking about Jabari Smith junior as a bus,
which was like absolutely the case. What halfway through last year, probably maybe
just a lesson and stop trying to judge rookies like three months into their careers.
But so if he's gonna be at play some five, maybe you go,
you know, a more of a playmaking oriented like bigger forward, you
know, like Tate and Tari Easton I think we both love, but they're
not you know, those guys are out there to like bang around and cause
trouble and not you know, facilitate or score self sufficiently. So it depends
on kind of which way you want to go. If you think Jabari is
your backup center, then you look at the bigger forward or wing. And
if you don't think that's the case, at least for now, then you
just got to go find find your Chris Bouchet I guess thank you for including
that necessary disclaimer. The Miami Heat, there's this obsession and it's not unfounded,
but there is this obsession with them going out and finding the next shot
creator from scratch shot creator and maker. They could absolutely use that, like
they need to get bigger on the front line, like next to bam Adebayo
and also independent of bam Adebayo and get the lineups where oh, okay,
like we you know the chem love roster spot. Let's get someone who can
actually play and defend for us. I do like Kayla Martin. Hopefully as
he gets healthier, that's someone who could fill that role in sort of miniature,
but you would like them to be properly sized. It could be an
og An Andobi type, but it could be a you want more offense,
I do think out of that spot, so it's sort of just playmaking four.
Maybe could step up to the five end points, but you could also
move them about the three. I'm describing a very specific player who might not
exist, they would be. They're a team that I think if they went
all in on like a Larry marketIn, if Utah was like, hey,
we don't want to pay him, he's gonna be extension eligible soon. That
is the type of player I think they need more than this. Zach Lavine,
Damian Lillard ilk ye. If Damian Lillard was available again, I think
he'd been a great fit on this roster. But they don't need You have
Jimmy Butler. Bam has made the leap. I know people like the shit
on Tyler heroes efficiency, but like he is still someone who can take,
make and generate difficult shots. You have Kyle Lowry on the roster for now,
Dugan Robinson dribbles like I mean, so I'd like to see them shore
up sort of the I'll call it the front line spot next to Bam because
I hate talking in positions exclusively. Yeah, the Heat game tonight, Duncan
Robinson obviously upfaked somebody and put it on the floor and got fouled. And
the commentators that were some of my favorite commentators in the league, and they're
right, but this is where we are with Duncan Robinson. They said,
you think he's gonna do one thing and then he hits you with something else,
and it's like, what on earth has happened that Duncan Robinson is now
this like paragon of offensive versatility where you can't just run him off the line,
and it's fine, what a what a? What a leap in skill
set by him. Sacramento Kings are next no real way to transition from Duncan
Robinson other than to say he's not a good defender, I guess, and
the Sacramento Kings need defenders at every position except for Keegan Murray. There.
I saw an EPM chart today as going around on Twitter, just charting his
growth in defensive estimated plus minus, and it's just like basically, you know,
there's peaks and valleys in it, but it's just headed hard up to
the right, Like he's just Keegan Murray is a really good defensive wing slash
forward I what you want to call him other than him obviously, the Kings
are you know, kind of bereft of great defenders at several positions. So
get the combo forward, get the big wing, somebody that can guard,
you know, the shooting guard that Kevin Herder can't handle, or the power
forward the Harrison Bards can't handle. You know, it's just like it's not
a mystery if you you can't. Now, you could mess with the center
spot, I guess, and try to find more rim protection or whatever.
But so you're committed to Sabonis, you could say, Chris Bouche, yeah,
or you might be able to plan with Sabonus I don't know, uh,
but you're you can't really mess with that position because Sabonis is a tricky
guy to fit around. He definitely, you know, the Pacers spent a
few years figuring out like even with a Miles Turner, who some would say
is similar to Chris Bouchet and several respects, couldn't work with Sabonis upfront as
a combo. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna improve this team's defense,
it's got to be in the you know, the two, three,
four spots. And that's just that's been the case for a while now.
They are another og Annobe team. But I actually think if you had to
sing about one team or og Annobi makes them a capslock contender after the fact,
and they're not already a contender, I think it's probably the Kings or
the Pelicans. Yeah, the Kings are on the very shortest of lists for
that particular distinction. I think, thanks right. You know who would actually
come close to being on that list if they got Ojananobe. The Indiana Pacers,
who are next up. How that for a motherfucking transition? Really good?
So they need I know they've been linked to Pascal Siakam, and I'm
fine with that. I don't know if you necessarily want someone as ball dominant
when you have Tyre's Haliburton on your team. I do assume though, that
Bennan mcmathrin leaves as part of that, and so does jars Walker, and
so that takes care of some of the functional overlap, and then you can
have Siakam run a bunch of bench units. I'm fine with that, but
I do think it needs to be someone who can handle more of the top
down defensive responsibilities, where when you look at the breadth of assignments that aaron
Ne Smith, Bruce Brown, Andrew Nemhart even has to cover, you want
someone who's more life sized against the players that they're covering. And so that's
where Ojananobe sort of comes into play. There. They have the assets to
go out. I mentioned Ben mcmathern, they have Jaris Walker, they have
all their own first round picks, so like they can find like they can
cobble together an offer. It's who's the right player, because neither of us
will mention o g Annobi till we're blue in the face, but he's I
really just don't think he's gonna be available. I still mentioned him because let's
see what teams give up for him. A Mattis Thiball, would that do
it for you? In the other name I'm only going to mention him because
he's topical. This would be a really I think good functionally Draymond Green team.
I mean he would solve I wouldn't seem has enough defensive problems that there
are so many that he might not even he might not be able to solve
them all. But like one thing he does really well that never gets talked
about is he if he's playing center, he gets the ball up the floor
in a hurry, which is like a perfect pacers thing that is that is
like you would not need to have to coach You would not need to coach
him up to get the ball out of the net and move immediately on Indiana.
That's an interesting one. Uh, too bad the Warriors, You're never
going to trade him. They'll just I don't know, save all the money
while he suspended and take that luxury cap production. Uh. The Lakers are
next. I think this team's defense, it's been it's been demonstrated several times,
like they can hit a defensive level with a d and Lebron playing really
well that is championship caliber. Like they just they have the size. Davis
can be utterly dominant against almost any team. If he's right, So this
is a this is a team that needs shooting, needs offense. Is this
just asch Is this just the zach Lavine team because there was a report that
that's where he wants to be. Like, I don't know that zach Lavine
is a great fit anywhere, but someone that could prop prop up second well
for the money that I don't know that that like who where? What team?
What team? Says zach Lavine solves all our problems and he's worth the
money all our problems. I think the Lakers come closer even, That's what
I'm saying. And so and so, if you want someone to help you
survive when you know the help the offense, specifically survive when Lebron's not playing
or misses time, like get second buckets like Chris Bousche won first of all.
Chris Bouchet uh second is on his number of mentions in this pod,
Simone Fantakio uh at third, zach Lavine. If you can't get those guys,
you have to go zach Levine. Also, like maybe just hold on
to Malik Beasley, who's shooting forty five percent from his ass off for the
moment, he's good against some of the toughest assignments, but like he's actually
gotten a lot better guarding up. Yeah, no, I I mean like
he's another guy. Hold on, how this isn't stat padding. How old
do you think Malik Beasley is? Oh don't Uh he is twenty seven years
old. It's correct. He just turned twenty seven last month. Wow,
he's like, why'd you I just don't understand how he was able to get
away and then couldn't sign for more than he signed for with Milwaukee. But
yeah, the Lakers need shooting, they need offensive production, particularly if Lebron's
gonna eventually miss time they have. There's been multiple point that said they prefer
Alex Caruso to Zach Lavine in part because of the cost, and he is
the one that got away. But if they do see them sess with not
compromising the defense, and Danzelo Russell has been let's use the word serviceable,
but he's probably been better than that defensively this year, which is a matter
surprise. And so it's like do they aim then smaller where it's like Bojan
Bogdanovitch. You might have already mentioned him and the name that because I mentioned
him on another team. Yo, who can actually make some sense if you
believe that he can fit offensively on this team. De Jon De Murray makes
a lot of sense if they don't want to compromise the defense, and the
way he's been playing offensively this year, you would way rather have Murray than
Levine, right, Like, yeah, he's a better fit too. I
think that's right. Uh, the Denver Nuggets have Look, they're not gonna
make a big trade because when you look at salary matching tools, Reggie Jackson
at five million dollars is the most expensive player that I would think they're willing
to move, and he's been so good for them that it's well, then
we need a backup point guard because Jalen Pickett's not ready and like that's not
going to be a Julian Strather or Peyton wat and like that's not going to
be their bag. So you have to kind of surf and be like,
well, can we get the player who Zeke Naje we said he was going
to be like for the past twelve years and he hasn't been. I think
there's not a huge urgency to do it because they quietly stretch eight deep because
of the way that Reggie Jackson has been playing, Christian Brown is perked up,
and now Julian Strawther. I know that we were all including Calvin Booth
high on Peyton Watson, but holy Julian there. But I would like to
see them. They need to get another type of big in there. It
can also be a little bit bigger of a wing. I just don't know
the price range that they're working with, you know, feasibly or because of
who they're going to be sending out in the trades. You're looking at a
lot of minimum guys. A player I thought about just because he's approaching free
agency and this team is headed nowhere at the moment, Xavier Tillman would be
semi interesting for them, and the other one is just like he doesn't play
enough in San Antonio. But like Julian Champenni would be great for this roster,
but he's not really a big man. Yeah, it takes us as
Dallas Mavericks. They so if you play with Luca, you're gonna get open
threes. The key for Dallas is those shooters need to be guys that the
defense is like uncomfortable with getting open threes, and those guys have to be
able to guard. So like Derek Jones Junior has been I mean really good
for you know, relative about as well as he's ever played, short of
like when he was at the top of the zone defense in Miami and we're
just like, who is this guy? This is incredible. He's been good.
He's been making shots. Dante Xem is back and has had a couple
like awesome twenty plus point games in a row, and un nine from three
we're talking about Dante xam was seven of nine from three in his most recent
game. So those guys have kind of given Dallas what I'm talking about.
You know, guys that can guard that are gonna be you know, actual
spacers on offense. I guess this is just more of a some skepticism that
like that will be the case in April or or you know, that that
those guys will be this threatening and this good offensively, because I think defensively
we sort of like both of those guys are kind of known commodities. I
think XM and Derek Jones, but neither of them are like strikes fear in
the heart of the opposition shooters and like maybe if they continue as they've been
shooting, but like it's not likely. So and it just they won't be
guarded in the playoffs till they'll need to go through the playoffs and knock down
those threes before teams, right, Like, imagine the scenario where Dallas wins
a playoff game because XHEM or a series because XAM goes like five of seven
three times, you know, and it's just not gonna happen. Teams are
gonna be happy to let that be the way they lose. They'll be like,
you know what, Yeah, our process was good, just tough result,
Like that's that's what it'll be. That'll be said, Uh, you've
got the thundernext. Yeah. I have a lot to say on them,
so strapping Grant ready. They need some heft or bounce on the front line
to play behind and with chet Holmgren shout out to I forget the Discord user.
I'm also very behind on my Discord messages. I was explaining to Grant
the week that I have had it was busy, even by my standers.
I'm not complaining, but I'm just behind on everything. There are a bunch
of names you could throw out there. They mentioned John Collins. That'd be
fairly interesting. Here you can just get whatever heft on the front line,
but I will. While I do still think that's probably their biggest need,
I'm at the point where I might be ready to say this is their biggest
need. They need another ball handler who has I wrote in the notes side
to side, jiggle and joggle in the half court because that's not Jalen Williams's
game like kind of going up against set defenses and operating methodically, which is
fine. I know he's the best player of all time, brand right,
you have to say that first of all. But Josh Giddy is so bad
now. And someone pointing this out to me on YouTube, and I started
to notice it in that overtime game against the Warriors. His higher stakes minutes
are down. You and I have talked about previously how they didn't want him
leading lineups by himself. They were more inclined to go with Jay Dubb for
that. When you get to the playoffs, you might need another outside in
ball handler in the half court than Shay Gilders Alexander. So what I'm basically
saying is you need to go and say we're not moving home Grin, Shaye
Gibbes Alexander or j Dubb. What is it gonna take to get Stephen Curry
Golden State. We'll give you everything else, all the picks, but no,
in seriously, they need to. I think they're at the point where
they probably need to consider getting that type of player. I don't know who
it is who becomes available. They're not a Zacclavine team. For me,
That's not what I'm saying. It's just something that's in the back of my
mind because there's the obviously, which is the front court hefter bounce or whatever.
But then there's that just the Josh Giddy stuff. That's I think it's
time. I'm there. Frankly, I'm there. I don't know if everybody
else is there, though I think I'm with you. I think that's right.
Like it's just we've I'm sure we've talked about that whom I talked about
this last week, the Giddy fit, Like if he's not the guy you
want on the ball as the second unit leader at the very least, then
like, what where's the value add you know, it's just he's not spacing
the floor, he's not a good defender. It's it's not that complicated.
Got the sixers next? This is another team that I've been thinking a lot
about lately, and it's more in like a big picture sense of like,
man, they kind of played it right where they got all these expirings and
picks for hard and so now they can should and I don't think the perfect
trade fit is out there really for them, but should one emerge in the
next two months, you know, December fifteenth is one caught one sort of
you know benchmarbitrary cut off, the arbitrary cutoff where some more guys that everybody
should have known we're gonna be available become available. So it's not like a
big thing, but you know, the market gets a little, you know,
more flush with talent, and then as you get closer to the deadline,
maybe that person will emerge. They don't have to trade for like a
third star or whatever. There's not one on the market right now. They
could and I think they're obviously like gonna have their antenna out for that for
sure, but then they don't want to. It's a tricky needle to thread
because it's like, well, we're prioritizing twenty twenty four cap space, so
the guy we get either has to not take up so much that it forecloses
on a big signing and he can't be expiring because what's the point of that
we give up all these assets for a guy that just walks like or that
we could have signed ourselves in free like if they got again, Yeah,
you do it, but the calculus of what we're giving up and we could
have just signed him once he hit the open mark, right, And so
my conclusion is sort of that like if there's a trade out there for them,
it's not there yet, maybe it will be, and should that happen,
I think another perimeter ball like ball handler slash shot creator would would be
good to take the load off Tyre's Maxi and just make things, you know,
get Joel Embiid another couple shots, whether it's in pick and roll,
whether it's drive and dump off like that kind of thing. I think that's
something you might want to focus on. I guess if you wanted to get
like really picky, you could just say, like, I don't know,
a more athletic version of Tobias Harris, like someone that's really going to tear
the rim down, like that you're driving from the corner, from the wing
or whatever. But we've said big wing for like everybody. So I think
it's that that I guess. I guess you'd say second perimeter shot creator,
but like third shot creator if you're counting in bed there with MAXI, the
Orlando Magic entering play on December fourteenth is the third seed in the East.
How about that? How about that? Fucking incredible they need? Their need
has changed because I think we would have and I still would. Look,
you've dealt with the bulls before. If the price drops low enough, why
not try and swindle them in a Jack Jack Levine, a Zach Lvine trade,
I'd be open to it. They no longer need someone on that scale.
I think the offense has been a little bit friskier lately enough to say
without Wendell Carter Junior, Markel Folts, I don't know if they're actually benefiting
a little bit from trying to find themselves without faults. But their defense is
hell fire on peds. And if you can just go and get someone who
you mentioned this with Dallas not just hits threes, but force his defenses to
guard them from three and bonus points if they can work off the dribble as
well. And so rather than saying they need an all star caliber score at
the two or the three or the one. It's what about Anthony Simon's for
this team? What about they can even go the distressed asset route where it's
defenses are still going to react to Gary Trent Junior. They wouldn't be my
favorite. You know, if I made a top whatever big board list of
Orlando Magic targets, I don't think he would end up on it. But
like, that's the you know, a Malcolm Brock even someone on Twitter mentioned
to me, and I thought about I was like that, but Cory Kissbert,
with the season he's having, that might work. Like yeah, so
they need that type of player, and it's I don't know what their ceiling
becomes at that type of player, but if you're waiting for them to drop
off and they go and acchore someone who opens up the half court for their
drivers, this team becomes an even bigger problem for the rest of the league.
Yeah. Uh, Tyler hero I don't know. I'm just talking about
you said, Uh, you mentioned Simons, and so I immediately thought,
uh, Maxi hero Pool because we have to think of those four guys altogether.
Pool. That is my hot take. Uh. The Milwaukee Bucks are
next I mean, we talked about Malik Beasley is defending much better than anyone
could have expected, but that is still insufficient I think for a playoff,
uh, you know, guy who's gonna have to guard the people that Lillard
can't and probably Middleton can't. So I don't know how you do it.
They're asset poor guys that you might think about trading Pat Conninson who's been hurt,
or marj On Bouchamp or Bobby Portis. They kind of like all those
guys still matter enough to where you wouldn't just you know, give him a
tortis. Well. I think the Bucks think Bobby Portis matters a lot,
and I I would of the guys we mentioned, I would trade Portis first,
and but I don't know that his value is necessarily highest around the league.
He's like a you know, mostly offense, undersized five. I'm not
sure what that really gets you, but yeah, this is this was the
glaring need from from the jump when they, uh, you know, made
the Lillard trade. It's just like, you gotta have the guy that's gonna
guard the other team's best wing. They don't. They don't have that guy
that's that's the maybe the most glaring need in the league in terms of like
real high level problems, and I see Bucks has the last ding after Alice
Caruso. If this was the offseason, he was still in Chicago headed in
the last year of his deal. Bochamp and content maybe and seconds maybe get
you him. Probably not. I think you still get a course. You
could look at other Bulls guards though reacquired Javon Carter. That would help them,
or I would as soon move. I think taking a flyer on him
would be fine as well. The next team up is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Man just absolutely on fire. They technically don't need a whole bunch unless you
actually don't believe in their dual big setup for the playoffs. I think that
skews a little strong, but I do think it's fair to be curious.
Okay, when we're going across a best of seven series, how our team's
gonna attack this on a night to night basis? Do we have a way
to get to different lineups? They're real issue though, because they just even
if you have to change up the way you're running, they have a huge
margin for error on the defensive end. When you look at the personnel they
have coming off the bench with Kyle Anderson, Troy Brown Junior, Nikhil Alexander
Walker, that's your guy. That's your Chris Bouchet, by the way,
is not Yeah, that's that's who. I need the button for him.
We need the naw buttonh They need, I think someone who's gonna pump up
their three point volume because Karl Anthony Towns, I know he's doing other stuff,
he's driving, but like he should be taking like twenty three point attempts
for thirty six minutes and just isn't. And so you need someone to pump
up your three point volume. And I think it'd be nice because outside of
Kyley and Anthony Edwards, you just don't have a bankable floor general type,
someone who's gonna pass. Can you acquire that type of guard? You have
shake Milton's salary at five million? You could step like you can even if
you wanted to move Troy Brown or you can move North. The team's interested.
They would be another good Javon Carter team, even though he's not the
best passer, will certainly space the floor and defend his his ass off.
So if they can get that guy, they might have the most complete playoff
rotation one through eight, one through nine, and that's what I think they
should be targeting. Again, it's tough because of how asset poor they are,
but someone like Davon Carter should not cost you. You can get to
the salary pretty easily, and I don't think it's gonna cost you an arm
and a leg from there. And then another option to consider is maybe,
like with Alex Burk's work for this team, he'd be pretty good, or
Delon Wright if you trust his offense enough. But those are the types of
players. Yeah, I think if all you're really trying to do is upgrade,
like the Shake Milton spot in the rotation, that's very that's pretty due.
I don't know, Shake, It's one of those things where like how
Gabe Vincent only ever played well when I watched him last year, Shake Milton
only ever takes wild ass shots when I watched the Wolves, Like, I
don't know, you know, I can't claim to watch every Wolves game,
but I've watched enough and it seems like every time I see him, Shake
Milton has taken some like ridiculous caught under the basket, baseline spinning, looping
weird thing. So yeah, we can upgrade there, but it is getting
harder to find needs for these teams, and Minnesota was an example of that,
as are the Boston Celtics, who are the next team because they have
the best top six players in the league. I don't think it's close.
I think Sam Hauser is at least a quality seventh guy. Just his shooting
is legit. He can do a little bit more than you think with the
ball. Defensively, he's like capable. So as a seventh guy on a
you know, title favorite, certainly title contender, like that's sufficient to me.
This is still just you know, you depleted some of your depth in
losing Robert Williams, which like turns out maybe that would have been depleted anyway
if you kept him on the roster. But that's that's that's the spot,
right, Like just another big, another big body. I don't know what
kind of big, because you between Porzingis and al Horford, it's kind of
like do you just want a bruiser? Like what what? Because if you
do that, then like that guy's not probably not in your playoff rotation.
So you know, I don't know exactly what type of big I'd like,
but I think that's just on a team with so much talent, that's the
one that sticks out that spot. I did think about another playmaker and was
going to interject, but then it's like, if you go out and get
that, like Drew Holliday, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, like though Derek
White, those are going to be in your core most important units. Yeah,
and you're really just looking for regular season innings eaters no matter who you're
getting the player you just the way you were describing it, though, do
you know what might work for this team? I don't know if they would
trade him because I think he could slide up. He's not really a big
but he could slide over to Naji Marshall and they're not gonna be a ton
of minutes moving forward for him in New Orleans. So that would be a
name. Yeah. I like that. That is it, And Grant,
guess what we do at the five fifty five minute mark, I think of
this podcast finished it by the sixty five minute. That's a anyone who knows
that's a dub. I believe in miracles. Now we did it and I
counted too. We did hit all thirty teams. I was like, that
would be very on brand if we were celebrating right now and it's like you
did twenty six teams idiots. Oh well sorry, Wow, that would be
egregious if we left out like a twenty percent of the league would be it
would be bad. You know. I wouldn't put it past us, but
that frees us up. I'm just not used to being what do we do?
Like? Do we we get like a cup of coffee or something?
I know it is guess a player? Time for stat padding. I have
a bunch for you. Do you have any for me? And did you
want to start? If you want me to start, I have a bunch
for you. So if you want me to start, I can I can
start. I want to use this one that Rubik Scale sent me just today.
Actually just got it in under the wire. I just have to figure
out how to here we go, all right, this is specifically well,
I mean, of course it's specifically for you because there's only two people hosting.
But it'd be weird if it wasn't for you. All right, guess
the player dan clue zero? We have a clue zero? Okay. I
averaged ten point nine points per game in my rookie season. No ten point
nine points in my rookie season, which is also my age twenty season.
That's clue zero. Clue one. Let's see if the NBA ever put together
an encyclopedia of high volume chuckers, I'd be on the cover, just like
I was on the cover of NBA Live two thousand and eight. Oh no,
I feel like I should know this were you an NBA Live guy or
I was growing up, I probably got so frustrated that I threw my PlayStation
controller at the wall or actually broke the disc. I distinctly remember, and
I'm gonna date myself real hard here. NBA Live ninety five. I would
just turn off fouls and I would just steal the ball in the back court
every time with Brent Barry, and Brent Barry would average like fifty steals in
one hundred point It's a game because you just hacked the guy and steal anyway.
Clue three. Uh, oh, clute, sorry, Clue two because
we started at clue zero. I withdrew from the US national team in two
thousand and six for the Feeble World Championship because I felt that Mike D'Antoni and
Nate McMillan had decided on the rosters even before the tryouts began. I swore
to score fifty against both their teams, and I dropped fifty four on the
Suns on twenty one to thirty seven shooting, but was held to nine points
against the Blazers, including a franchise record worst zero for eight from three.
Clue team dropped those that's say or no, you do not have that information
yet, okay, uh Clue three. I still hold a franchise record for
most points scored in a game, though I share it with another person.
Now, it's not going to help you if you don't know the franchise,
all right, pay attention here Clue four. The twenty eleven CBA included an
amnesty clause where any arenas, did you say it one more time? Gilbert
Reinas? You got it? Yeah? Uh. He's so bad at his
basketball takes. It's like, I don't know if he's doing it on purpose.
It's just I can't even people. I won't even I know people like
to dunk on it. It's so bad and inauthentic and disingenuine, to the
point that it is not even worth dunking on because it's just so A name
the age twenty thing. Who was he shitting on for their like age twenty
stats or something? Well that's the Oh yeah, that was the reason when
I saw that where it was I'm not arsaar Thompson because he doesn't get buckets.
Isn't gonna be a yeah? Yeah, that's that's a bad look.
Okay, good job you got that the next you would have got it on
the on the fifth and six clues for sure. Good job, thank you,
Rubik scal Another another good one. I have Rubik scale once for you.
Are you ready? I hope? So this is clue number one,
no Clue zero. I was a voice actor for a video game called Quest
for the Code. The game was an educational one and was used to teach
kids about asthma. It featured an all star cast of Glenn Close, General,
Norman Schwartzkop Whoopee Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Junior, Jeff Goldblum, and Gwyneth
Paltrow. You're not gonna believe this, but I don't have an answer yet.
Okay. Clue number two, I'm sorry. The research slash knowledge of
basketball and obscure facts about basketball from Rubik Scal is. This is Caitlin Cooper
level stuff staggering a voice actor. Okay, all right, Clue two.
I maintained a high degree of interest in police departments. I trained to become
a Miami Beach Reserve officer. I was formerly sworn in and received a one
dollar per year salary in this capacity. I actually called in to report a
homophobic assault and I was responsible for the apprehension of two suspects under charges of
aggravated assault and hate crime. I thought you were gonna get it here.
I just like, it's like tickling my brain, but I can't come up
with the person. It's not Shack, is it? It is Shack?
Okay, you were gonna get it the next one. I think I own
the record for the biggest individual sale Walmart tssues three seventy thousand dollars. MX
declined in my card, flagging the transaction as possible fraud because they thought I
was still in Miami. That so that's an interesting strategy to throw out Shack,
like to throw out a super prominent player as a guessive player, because
I was quite like, it can't be Shack. Why would anyone picture it?
Okay, all right, now, tell us clue where because we know
Shaq's done. Like, first of all, he's like a brand ambassador for
everybody. But it's like Ruby Scott wasn't even like Kazam. It's this voice
actor thing that I even know existed. Right, My other guest was going
to be I wouldn't have guessed it. But the other name was Olden Polonies.
Do you remember this guy? He was a center and he was like,
I think he was arrested for impersonating a police officer. Was that was
the other thing that jumped into my mind. Uh, all right, it
was not Olden Polonies. I have some more. I have another one for
you from Ruby Scale. You're ready, okay? Uh? Clue number one.
I'm the first New Zealand born player to ever play in the end At
six' ten, I played both center and power forward. I should get
it off of that. Uh, what's the next one? Clue two?
I won two NBA Championships with the Spurs, one as a player in two
thousand and five and the other as an assistant coach in twenty fourteen. I
would have had Sean Marks correct. That's great. One point five clues.
Basically, that's impressive. Well, I don't know why I wasn't. I
always thought of him as Australian, which, sorry to any New Zealanders out
there, I'm sure that's something you hate. But okay, you got it.
Cool. I have one for you all. My clues are so basic
compared to the good ones that we get from rubyscal and people on discord.
All right, you have another one qued up or you want to do I
got a couple here that I came up with. I have more queued up
and we can shift. I do want to share, just because ruberscus so
many of these clues. The one, the one that I thought you were
if you missed it, you were going to get it on was Clue five.
I knew I was going to get a lot more TV time as GM
than I ever did as an assistant coach, which and player, and the
initial press coverage of my team was mostly positive, as I took the league's
worst organization and won with no draft picks and converted it into a landing spot
for the best free agents on the planet. I was not ready for the
shit storm that was about to hit me in the wake of the pandemic.
Yeah, that guy's been through a lot. It's been a real stuff over
the past decade, or sure of all kinds, like he's lived every type
of front office life and not that long of a span. All right,
real quick again, my clues are so lame. I was the number one
pick out of Duke in nineteen ninety nine, go to Duke. Grant Hill
did go to Duke, but he was in ninety four. I forget what's
up? One's going farther back, all right. As a rookie in ninety
nine two thousand, I averaged twenty twenty point one points and ten point zero
rebounds, making me one of two players to do that as a rookie this
century. How many rebounds? Twenty and ten basically as a rookie? Uh,
I won CO Rookie of the Year with Steve Francis. Oh, I
should know this one to Corey mcgetty, did he go to Duke? He
did go to Duke. It is not Corey mcgetty, he was, Okay,
can we just appreciate that I know some players who went to Duke.
You're really just nailing your You say you don't know about college basketball. All
right, I'm gonna skip the next clue because it's lame. Even though I
wrote it, well, okay, maybe it'll be helpful. I led the
league in total offensive rebounds as a rookie and then again in my third year,
but with a different team. So this guy was on a different team
by his third year despite winning Rookie of the Year and having crazy numbers.
Elton brand, you got it, You're gonna get it. On the next
one, which was trade, I was traded the Clippers for the pick that
became Tyson Chandler Tyson Chandler, and then the Bulls subsequently took Eddie Curry at
number four to have two high school big men in their front line. All
right, that was okay, can I give you one? I don't think
you're gonna get Yeah, absolutely, all right. Then I was the number
five pick by the Kings in twenty twelve after my junior year at Kansas.
You won't actually might get it right there? Wait, I was a number
five pick by the Kings in twenty twelve. Came in, he got it.
That was that long ago. Isn't that wild? I mean, the
other clues for him are so hard because his career just like came and went,
and it's like I couldn't give you stat clues I couldn't get. So
if I guess, if you were going to get it, you had to
get it there. You might have gotten Talking about the trade, just some
of the names might have triggered you when he went to Houston because he got
traded as a rookie. You remember that they drapped from fifth and they traded
him in season? No, I don't remember that. Wow, nuts,
they had to make room for DeMarcus Cousins. He was dominating already by then.
All right, that's the end of my guess the players, So fire
away. All right, more from Rubik's gown. Then we have a couple
from I'll save some of the rest of Rubik's gowns because we have a couple
from other people. This one's a trivia one. I think it's a good
one. The forty one point twenty rebound game in the NBA Cup Final by
Anthony Davis was his fourth such forty and twenty game, tying Shack for the
most such games. Can you name the five other NBA players with multiple forty
point twenty rebound games? All right, well, are we going all the
way back to Wilt? Uh? He's not on the list. Okay,
So We're not going back to Wilt because he definitely that's in forty twenty.
He probably averaged forty and twenty in several years. So just guy, just
guys with forty twenty games. Correct, And you said Shack already. I
didn't say Shaq, but he is on the list. It's Anthony Davis was
the I will I will say Shack. Oh no you did, Oh Shaq
was in the clue. I apologize. So there's five more aside from Davis
and Shack with multiple forty twenty games. God, well, so it's hard
because so I'll give you. I'll give you this hint. Two are active
and three are not active. If that helps. Mmmm, well, embiid
probably has got to be one, right, yep, that's one. Did
Yo Kich do it? He did not? Not multiple times anyway? Oh
multiple forty twenties. Wow, who else that's active would do that? You
know, dude, I'm going so blank. I don't have to leave the
active one behind, or you might have to give me some hints. One
of them was recently active, as active as last season, but is no
longer on an NBA roster. Whoa a forty twenty that's out of the league.
You mentioned him already during this segment too. Wait what, I can't
remember back that far. Uh oh, DeMarcus Cousins, right, yeah,
he had really wild, right he had. I think it says he had
three of those games he was he was doing like twenty six and twelve and
five for like he was all yeah, man, he was getting numbers.
You remember, I was so amped up when the Pelicans traded for him,
and not in part because of the way it had, like in the middle
of the All Star Game, right, I think I was at I think
I was working. I was in Sacramento for like one of Buddy Heal's first
games, and I can remember like really gymnastically stretching to be like, this
is gonna be the guy that gets him into the next This is the turn
the page on DeMarcus Cousins. That was fun. Okay, forty twenty.
I don't know. We gotta do like the usual suspect like David Robinson.
No Aquma Lajauan No, hmmm, I mean we could just both of both
of the non active players appeared in the original space jam Patrick Ewing, correct,
that's correct. Just now you're down to just so Anthony Davis, Shaq,
Joel and BII, DeMarcus Cousins, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing. That's
six of the seven players with multiple forty twenty games. The final one is
active. As I said, oh shit, there's another active guy. I
don't know. Did Luca do it? Most times you're missing a pretty obvious
one. I feel like a pretty obvious one. Well that's hurt that's hurtful,
Dan, Uh, it's not coming to me. There's no other good
centers like we got. He did. I didn't say they had to be
a center I know, but in my brain they do. He dislikes Tyrese
Haliburton, He Disloyanis. Yeah, Giannis has had three of those games.
Yeah, that was dumb. I should have got honest. Good question,
good question. All right, Uh, there's another trivia one. Let me
go to the next guess. A player from Ruvie scal clue number one.
I was drafted fifty sixth overall by the Spurs in two thousand and two.
While I was still playing in Spain. In two thousand and five, san
Antonio tried to buy me out of my contract with Sekai Basconia, the Spanish
league team that I led to every major Spanish league title as well as the
EuroLeague finals, but the contracts buy out them out with three million dollars.
In the NBA only allowed five hundred thousand dollars for buying out contracts. Is
this Louis Skola correct? Wow, the og Argentine superstar before mattered ginobili As
Rubikskal said, that's impressive. That's sneaky to throws Spain out there as like
a throw you off the Argentinian guy. All right, I feel good about
that one. That is incredible, thank you. So let's get to the
next one from Rubiscal Who one. I've been part of some very important trades
in my short NBA career. That's the first clue. Would you like to
take a guess? No clue too. I was drafted by the Jazz in
twenty sixteen, but ended up in a three team trade that sent Jeff Tegue
to the Pacers, George Hill to the Jazz, and me to the Hawks,
where I became the first Hawks rookie to have a double digit scoring in
my first four playoff games since Pete Maravich. Okay, hold on, So
this guy's drafted by the Jazz but has a what do you do for?
The Hawks ended up in a three team trade that sent Jeff T to the
Pacers, George to the Jazz, and this player to the Hawks, where
he became the first Hawks rookie to have double digit scoring in his first four
playoff games since Pete Maravich. Double digit. Oh man, I'm all messed
up because I want to say Paul millsap because he was drafted late, but
he was not on the Hawks as a rookie. A rookie on the Hawks
that's scoring like crazy in the playoffs. Okay, I don't have it.
Who three? The Hawks traded me to Brooklyn in twenty nineteen in exchange for
Alan Crab and the rights to Nikil Alexander Walker. You're Chris Bouchet. Oh
why can't I get this? Traded me for Crab? That's a lot.
Yeah, that good first clue. That is a lot of weird trades that
this guy's been in. All there's more coming, all right, I still
don't have it. In two clo four in twenty twenty one, I was
sent to Cleveland along with Jared Allen as part of the James Harden trade.
God damn it. Who is this the Hawks thing is really throwing me?
This guy scored a bunch as a rookie in the playoffs for the Hawks.
I do everyone discard that it might get easier to pick this player if I
leave the Hawks thing alone. No, if you just forget about that playoff
whatever thing, remember they played for the Hawks for sure. Yeah. So
this guy, this person goes Jazz Hawks nets for Alan Crab that he aves
from the nets. Yes, as part of the James Harden trade. This
is so frustrating, Like, and it's recent too. I can't you can't
say James Harden trade. He's been traded so many times. I can't remember
who was in any package. All Right, I still don't have it.
I'm disappointed. Clue five. In the summer of twenty twenty one, I
was traded to the Timberwolves for Ricky Rubio. It's like, this person's probably
still on the Timberwolves. Ah, I think you'll get it after this next
clue you want, I hope. So I feel like I should have got
it three clues ago. Clue six, I won the Inaugural in Tournament with
the only team I wasn't traded to. I signed with the Lakers as a
free agent in the summer of twenty twenty three. Is it cam Reddish?
No, No, this, I'm I'm already in my I'm so in my
head right now. So this guy's on the Lakers right now and signed.
There there's no more clue. Do you want it? I mean, I
feel like I'm just gonna drag this out if I just slowly go through the
Lakers roster and and try to think of the person. So sure, give
me the last clue, seventh and final clue. I have played four hundred
and forty five NBA games, averaging ten plus points, shooting thirty seven point
one percent from three. But my most watched basketball moment was my answer to
the question how does Baylor get out rebounded by Yale at the twenty sixteen March
Madness Tournament? Who am I? Uh? Torrian Prince? There you go,
Ah League, there you go? Oh Man, Rubyscaut made you say,
gollyugh the shit? Serious? I mean, how do you get Louis
Skull and not get Torrian Prints? What kind of what kind of person can't
can't do that? All right? Good, you have another guest, a
player for you from be Rich. All right, this one. I've I've
been I've been taunted about this one several times over the last week, so
I'm expecting it to be very diabolical. Clue one. I was a nineteen
ninety seven lottery pick and was traded to the Sixers two days after the draft.
I went on to start forty eight games and was second team All Rookie,
second team All Rookie for the Sixers in ninety seven. Keith van Horn
no good guests though, thank you. Clue two, but getting a trend
that would continue my entire career. I was underappreciated by my team, starting
none of the first seventeen games in my second season, and was traded to
a George Carl coach team that actually appreciated my combination of size and skill.
So we're going from the Sixers in ninety seven to a George Carl coached team.
Don't have it. Clue three. I made the playoffs four of the
next five years, bouncing back and forth between starter and bench player as a
stretch for before being a key piece in a three team trade that moved,
ironically, Keith van Horn from the mix to the box. Is this Tim
Thomas correct? Yeah? Thank you for not making me go to clue four,
which had the Eddie Curry trade to the Knicks ANDSD ninety seven. Man,
what a time. Tim Thomas had some great postseason minutes for the Suns
and a year I cannot remember. Pretty chiseled arms and shoulders if I remember
correctly too. Shout out, shout out, Tim Thomas. I have so
Mike Kernishon gave you has a bunch. But I'll get to one because we've
done so many already. I'm very curious to see if you get this.
I don't know what have we done one from him before? I don't know
what. I don't know. I gotta get in the right he did one
previously to you, all right, all right? Clue number one. I
was a lottery pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in the twenty tens. Care to
take a guess, Brandon Jennings. No, he was drafted in two thousand
and nine, so he really fucked up. Boy. I should be disqualified
immediately. Oh man, I was neither an international draft pick or college player,
as I technically went straight from high school to the NBA. Hmm,
it seems like a sneaky clue. Okay, I don't know Clue three,
Kevin Garnett famously endorsed me, saying that I have the bones to be a
great player at my position. Yeah, I mean, not an international and
not a college player, So it's a high school player. Although that was
just kind of a suspect. Okay, I still don't have it. Clue
four. When I was drafted at age nineteen, there was speculation I was
as old as twenty six due to a combination of terminology mix up and concy
conspiracy theories. This is a I see, I'm assuming it's an American high
school player, but that doesn't seem like that could happen. All right,
that's weird. Clue number five. I am the second highest drafted player from
my birth country in NBA history. Oh uh, what's his name? Is
it? This is the entire part of the game. Oh right, you're
not gonna just tell me. I can't just ask you. Is it thn
Maker? Uh? It is not. It is Don mccurr. Okay,
that was the next clue. That's why I was being asshole. No one
ever pronounced my last name correctly during my time. He said eventually that it
was Don mccurr. Yeah, that's right. That's right, twenty in the
twenty tens. Wow, that seemed more recent than that. I remember there
were people that thought he was going to be exceptional. They were calling him
like the next Unicorn. I can remember being asked by br to basically be
like, what do you what do you We gotta cover this guy? Like
do you want to do like some interview, like try to like do a
reported piece on him, And I was just like, how do we contact
this person? Well? Do you know what they ended up doing, because
I remember Howard Beck ended up handling it for you, so okay. I
probably said you should get Beck on this one. They were like, yeah,
we'll go to our top choice, and when you couldn't do it,
I'm sure. I'm sure that's exactly how it went. It was probably like
they asked Howard first and then he's like, I'm too busy, and they
said, let's get somebody else, and I said, I don't know how
to do this. I'm gonna give you this one from Ruby's alum because it's
trivia and I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. Over the
next week or two, Lebron has obviously scored the most points in the NBA
since the year two thousand. How many players can you name from the top
ten scores after two thousand, leader board after two thousand, Well, Kobe,
correct, that's one, Mellow two after two thousand. So we got
to get way. I mean, it's like Chris Paul on there, just
because of all the years Chris Paul is on there. Rubska went pretty deep
into the bag. Here's how many am I trying to get here? I
can count for you very quickly, but it looks like maybe just like some
of the top ten, there's ten. I think there's twenty. Let me
see sixty seventy eighteen nineteen twenty, there's twenty one players, so you can
just start. Let's see how many can get before you get a strike?
All right? Paul Pierce, yes he's in the top ten. Tim Duncan,
oh yeah, okay, yeah, Dirk, yes he's in the top
ten as well. Here's who you've gotten that's in the top ten. Paul
Pierce, Lebron that was giving you, Dirk, Kobe, and Mellow.
So you have five of the top ten. So there's still I still don't
have five. From the gosh, it's so hard to like turn your brain
back to two thousand. Who was really good? You could think active players
as well. Ok yeah, I guess, But then, like if you
I'll say Duran, but that starts like sixth okay on the list, So
yeah, it starts like six or oh seven, I forget what his rookie
year was. Harden, he's number seven killing it. Hmmm. Who else
has gotten a ton of buckets? So I got a couple more in the
top ten left, we should probably see if I can get the top ten.
Yeah, you have seven of them. Well, you got six of
the remaining nine of the top ten, so you have three more. You
have three more, three more in the top ten. I will tell you
one of those final three has played with James Harden and Kevin Durant at the
same time, and has played with Russell Westbrook. Uh, I go,
I was gonna say Russ before you'll get I'll give it to you. So
Russ is eight. So you have the ninth and ten spots. Oh okay,
Well that's good number in the league. Right now? What's that Neither
of the last too are in the league? Right? Oh okay, that's
helpful. Man From two thousand and ninth and tenth total points. I'm I
mean, I think I'm not gonna I'm not guessing Shack he was kind of
on the way out points wise by then, I'm sure correct. I mean
Kevin Garnett. He is in the top twenty, so I won't give you
a strike there. Well, I mean I probably should. I'm trying to
get top ten, so I probably should get I'm just trying to think of
guys that played a ton. But yeah, I guess Garnett was like ninety
five, so he lost them as a very prominent former teammate of Lebron James,
prominent former teammate of oh Dwayne Wade. Correct, he's nine, so
you have one more. This one I think is tough, just because he
was around the league for so long. Oh, Vince Carter. Correct,
Okay, that's a job. Steph was eleven, Damorrow was twelve, Tim
Duncan was thirteen. CP three is fourteen, Pow is fifteen, LaMarcus Aldridge
is sixteen, Jojo In his seventeen, Dame is eighteen, Garnett nineteen,
Dwight Howard was twenty. I feel like Powe and who is right around Pow
that you know, Joe Johnson are always just like on all these lists that
you never think of. Joe Johnson was a bucket. He was an absolute
bucket. Oh you're a bucket as well. Do you want to take us
out of here? I do? Thank you very much everyone, Thank you
for listening, for contributing, for rating, reviewing, subscribing. If you're
not doing that, please please help us out. Leave us positive comments,
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merch. You can figure out how to do pretty much all that stuff by
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of mouth is very helpful, and yeah, get on discord and throw some
of these at us, because I think, like low key, these are
our favorite parts of the podcast. We don't have to prep as much and
it's just kind of fun to have conversations and guess stuff. So thanks again.
We close, as always with a shout out to the one only Frank
Milikina. In an apology to JAREDO