Well, what is a fellow Thermonuclear AF for. As I am Dan Valley
coming at you with my certified fantabulous dripping with fantabulousness, Thermonuclear AF co host
of the number one NBA podcast in the business, Hardwood Knox. He is
mister Grant Hughes. The reviews are in. No podcast is more personable or
thorough. We were the only podcast to do a postseason preview look ahead.
That's real shits. Podcasts are just so great. We are here the long
awaited teaser. As I mentioned, we are gonna do playoff content. We're
gonna do an analysis later this week, but you are going to be inundated
with that. So we're gonna do some big picture stuff too. And so
Grant and I are going to take a look back at one thing each of
us got wrong for every NBA team. He has the Western Conference. I
have the Eastern Conference. We will be chiming in wherever you know appropriate,
like me on the West, him on the East, of course. But
we're excited to do this. We've been teasing it for a while. I'm
excited. I have energy recording during the day. That's fucking weird. But
the question that people actually want to know the answer to Grant as the co
host of the number one NBA podcast in the business, that is just dripping
teaming with self belief at the moment, how the heck are you? I
I didn't hear. I didn't know the numbers were in. I'm not surprised,
but I didn't hear about the numbers. Honestly, we broke the metric
gauge because they basically email me, say thet they don't have the capacity to
count that high because we don't do it for recognition. We do it for
the love. And it's you know, like I'm in this for the cloud
she's got. We've got like we've got like dozens of people who are downloading
this episode right now. I'm over the cloud. I think you should make
like ridiculous claims like that part of the intro, just as a staple,
just the word number one, number one and whatever, and just like eventually,
we live in a world where you can like make anything, so if
you say it enough, like right, like truth is very flimsy these days,
so you could just say, I think if I want to be part
of advancing, you're just riding the wave. Like that's just it works.
This did make me think very quickly I said something that in retrospect was I
mean, by our standards, it was kind of arrogant. They want people
wanted to see the full results of our like over unders. But I had
said and I don't know if it was in discord if I said it,
and I might have said it multiple times when someone DMed me, and I
was just like, I didn't want to publish the full results because I don't
want to put the person who had the worst record on blast to just thousands
of people. And I was just like, now I'm thinking about was like,
that was really arrogant. Why is that arrogant? What are you talking
about? You don't want to relative to other podcasts maybe do tens of thousands
or whatever. But it's just like that was just such a weird like from
all right, how about this from the way that we frame this podcast is
like more so depreciating or not like seriously unserious for me to just be like,
yeah, like we didn't want like the thousands of people like that mass
amount of crowds downloading that episode to know that so and so went, you
know, eight games, like was just eight games under five hundred and the
the win lost totals that well one, I mean, neither of us did
all that well, so the second to work. I was tired for the
second last. No, you're coming at that from a good place, like
that's that's not wanting to unnecessarily make someone feel bad. What's wrong that?
It was the phrasing whereas like oh, like sorry, my goal shoes like
really tight. That was like, by my standards, that was because yeah,
yeah, no, I mean when you're that a podcast pulled over an
eighty million dollar contract on the last episode, our discord members were I rate
that you were making more than that to record that podcast. You know whatever,
man, uh, you get what you're worth. All right, we
should start, Uh, we're gonna go alphabetically because we couldn't decide on a
better route, so we're gonna jumping back and forth between conferences. But whatever,
anything, any further preamble notes or should we just get this is just
like what happened that we did not expect, Like when railed for me,
it was and by the way, we tried to make this two things we
did this not up. We're prepped, but like this is not like Dan
and Grant wrote monologues on every single team. It's a lightning ground. We
have three minutes per team. I'm sure we will go over at some point.
Maybe we'll go under for certain ones. And then I also framed as
like if there were things that I actively know that I said or wrote and
we're just completely off base. Uh so some of these there are receipts for
if anyone cares to try and go find them. I'm sure there are receipts
for mine, and I did not look them up because I don't like to
live it. Okay, I have. I have receipts on all thirty team.
You were wrong about every single team, and I have all the receipts.
Odds are probably like just from a sheer volume perspective, I'm sure I
said some multiple wrong things about everything. It's one of the long paper memes
you ever seen the SpongeBob gip gifts where he like unrolls the unfurls the paper
and it's like going and going. Like that would be if we went back
and revisited all our takes from the season. Imagine like we've probably adjusted our
priors and initial takes without ever acknowledging so many of them. I know,
yeah about to We're about to do some you know, sort of pay the
piper in here. But there's just so many things that we've just like said
that what are you gonna do? We're all just trying to figure out,
guys, to the tens of millions of people. Isn't it just sorry all
you guys. You know we'll do we'll do better. Okay, So anything
else or are we to get off now? I think that was poor phrasing.
Uh, let's go to the Atlanta Hawks. We're already off to a
great start with the alphabet, so I hit there over. This is just
this is my way of saying I thought the Hawks are going to be better.
And I thought specifically that we were going to see a much different version
of Trey Young. And I know that he moved away from the ball a
little bit more. You could dig into it and look at the share of
his shots that went assistant. They were higher than they were in recent season,
but not by like a great deal. And he still wasn't like finishing
plays as a cutter or kind of flying around screens off the ball. And
I thought once Quinn Snyder was installed and that he had had a training camp
in an offseason to like with this team, I really expected them. They
did look different, but it's still it still felt like Dejonte Murray and Trey
Young were too often operating independent of each other, and I just expected this
date's back. I was I don't know if I celebrated the trade when they
made it, but like I was okay with what they gave up to get
to Jantey Murray. I thought it could work. They were minus six point
three points or whatever it was perne hundred posessions with those two on the floor,
one of them has to be traded. For me, it would be
Murray. We differ on sort of the Tray Young aspect of it. Like
this just clearly isn't gonna work, and I had hope that it would.
And even I'm at the point where it's I do think, you know,
there were some injuries of Yuka kong Wu dealt with a bunch, and I
think this roster is definitely imperfect for what you need around those two. Even
by those standards, it's just clear that it's not happening, and it does
raise the question of you know, and this is as someone who is I
think I would keep Tray Young, but it's can he actually play materially different
enough to make any sort of pairing with another star actually work? Yeah,
I don't have a lot. I would just echo that. I I was
on board with the thinking that we're gonna get a full year with Quinn Snyder
running his system, which we liked so much in Utah offensively, like some
really good offenses in Utah with like some fairly limited personnel, So like,
surely with Trey Young, this is this thing's gonna work. It just it
felt like maybe now going forward, you say, like the Hawks don't have
the benefit of the doubt necessarily, like with oh it'll it'll all all the
pieces will fit together. It's like we've seen Trey Young play a certain way
for long enough that it's like, so now now what, Yeah, we
don't need to get into it. But like I'm more of the mind like
you should trade Trey Young. I think I'm more comfortable with that. But
yeah, I just thought that the Quinn Snyder thing was like, well,
he's a really good coach. He had a ton of success with the Jazz
first full season, and the Hawks are gonna win like forty seven forty eight
games, or something, and it just was way off. He was my
Coach of the Year pick, So I was wrong about that preseason and the
other thing just very quickly. Does the way that Luka Doncic has played with
Kyrie Irving and kind of increased his pace as well, does that lend itself
to like giving you home even like seeing kind of hardened for part of the
season, Like with the Clippers anyway they made it feels like more wholesale shifts
in their functionalities. Does that give you hope or make you less confident that
Trey Young is gonna be Like just because James Harden's this late into his career
and was able to do it, Yeah, I mean like Harden didn't do
it till he had to. I feel like, so that's kind of a
different yes, okatuation And yeah, no, I don't know. I guess
I really just thought it was gonna happen this year where we were gonna see
a different look, and it didn't really like in a meaningful way. So
now I'm you're gonna need I'm not going to go into next year expecting the
same the things that I did this year. Right now, it's gonna be
I'll be wrong. If Quinn Snyder finally gets the system installed and Trey Young
and de Jontay Murray and the rest of the roster like work well together,
I'll just go in saying that will not happen, and then I'll be wrong
if it does. I've like flipped my baseline a little bit. There are
definitely receipts on this one for the Boston Celtics from me, and I was
not high on the Christops Porzingis trade at all. And I did recognize once
you got through holiday that had changed the calculus a little bit. I did
not adjust my prior on that nearly enough. That has been just this roster
looks utterly dominant, and I think even the offensive concerns are just mostly overblown.
They are bottom ten team in one possession games in the final three minutes
where it's ahead or tiede so things do bog down. But like the top
six on this roster, and like you could throw Sam Howsard giving them good
minutes, Peyton Pritchard, they've done some. They are so good. They
are so dominant that you're at the point where if they don't come out of
the East, it's a disciplin opointment. That's how good they are. And
Christaps Porzingis was that good of a fit. I thought he did a good
job on the court of blending in but then also taking opportunities to punish mismatches,
which is really like the Wizards were throwing him the ball and asking him
to create more and feeding him his even when he didn't have mismatches, And
with the Celtics, it's like, no, like that's the only time that
you're going to do that. So he's come in healthier for the most part
than I expected, even though he wound up not a qualifying for any of
the awards ballots. But he's perfect fit on offense, playing fantastic defense,
where I think, you know, had he played more, he might have
made some all defense ballots as well. So I was worried that one the
health perspective and that he wouldn't be just He's coming off this career year on
the Wizards, who were just so nondescript and irrelevant. I was like,
well, is that going to translate to a really good team? It did,
and then just I was arguing there was still going to be this playmaking
deficit in Boston even after getting Drew Holliday and look in some moments, I
think you can feel it. But between Drew Holiday, Jason Tatum, Derek
White and just the Jalen Brown counters on offense, not the passing, and
even just Al Horford Johns like they have enough. And so this is a
team that if they go up against the Nuggets, I'm picking the Nuggets.
If they go up against anybody else, you pick them. I just don't
know how you pick against them if they're facing any team other than the Nuggets.
Is where I'm at. And so I missed on I hit there under
they slaughtered that. So I was just way off on this team. Well,
I would say, like I think going in again, I don't have
their receipts, but I think I said, like, this trade raises the
floor and lowers the ceiling because you're pricing in porzingis injury risk, You're pricing
in like the whole like he's the best post up player against switches and we're
gonna hunt that and make that a staple of our offense, and it's like
unsolvable. It didn't see that coming necessarily, But yeah, I think like
they just hit the ceiling right because they had pretty good health across the board.
The piece is fit the bench guys did, you know, probably better
than most people expected, and like they didn't none of the floor stuff,
none of the low floor things happen, Like Drew huh Holiday didn't suddenly look
like someone in his mid thirties and like get way worse, like his role
diminished. But it was like kind of by design and Porzingis didn't really get
hurt in a way that like compromised the whole season, and Al Horford held
up decently enough, and like all the all the ceiling stuff happened and none
of the floor stuff happened in a big way. So it's like that was
kind of my outlook on it. I just it looks better for me because
I thought, like the ceilings high, like this could really work, and
it did. But I don't think I was confident that like this is without
risk, Like the risk factors were just higher changing last year's team in the
way they did, you know, four rotation guys for two basically, So
you know, I'll take a small victory lap there, but I'll take you
were definitely closer to on the right side of history with the Celtics that yeah,
Brooklyn's next. What do you got for Brooklyn? They're speaking of nondescript.
Probably one of the least enjoyable teams to follow this season, and they
have a lot of players that I love. I expected their defense to be
better. It was basically bottom ten in points loud per possession. I expected
specifically, I thought, I did not think that this was a team that
was going to get let's say, blasted when it came to a transition defense,
and like they did and like opponents were just able to run on them
off of live rebounds, and that becomes a real problem because they weren't some
world beating defensive rebounding team. They finished around league average in that I thought
we were going to see more of elite from mcal Bridges. I do think
between some of the injuries, the secondary creation setup you look at, I
think he still had a really good season, but like not feeling him as
much defensively? Is that a byproduct of the offensive workload? And I would
argue, look, the offensive workload was heavy, but it wasn't astronomical this
season, And so what does that do to adjust your briers on what mcal
Bridges can be in a situation where he's not your third or fourth best player,
but you need him to be your first or your top one of your
top two. The ship on him being the best player on a really good
team a sale that's over with it was the door was opened a little bit.
I don't know about number two. I'd probably lean towards No, he
just can't. And that's not a problem. I'm just saying I thought he
could be. I was on this podcast and said, yeah, with the
efficiency issues in the playoffs last year, was like, no, like this,
dude, is it? I was wrong on that and the other thing
I was wrong on because I got so much wrong with this team is I
really thought that they would have the foresight to make moves geared towards the future
irrespective of their draft pick situation being owed to Houston, and they clearly didn't.
Not only they not do that, but they had the opportunity to get
some of their picks back, and I don't know what I would do that.
I want to be honest, the optics of just trading McHale Bridges to
get Jalen Green and most of your own picks back just doesn't like do it
for me? And now I question like with what Sean Marx has said,
Like he just said like some really twenty ten era nick shit at a press
conference where it was stars want to come here, Like you don't rebuild through
free agency, motherfucker anymore. That's how that happens. And so if you're
not gonna get stars in free agency, which one, they need to clean
up their books if they want to do that. So are they going to
be a team that like goes all in to get Trey Young? And then
it's, well, where does Trey Young and mckel bridges get you? Are
you better than this year's version of the Atlanta Hawks? I don't know.
I had higher hopes for individuals for their defense, for McHale Bridges, who
I'm not disappointed in, but I missed on him, But the overarching direction
of the Nets, it just feels like they lack either a self awareness of
where they are or they're just so don't want to go through the process of
like we don't have our own pit We can't do this again, un unless
we're flipping chaal Bridges for our own picks. What's the point? Yeah,
I thought mainly that this defense was going to be really good, Like I
thought Claxton would be better. You got Dennis Smith Junior. I thought Ben
Simmons would if he was going to play, he would at least be helpful
defensively. There was a scenario where you could have just the longest, rangiest
like most active five man groups out there. Those never materialized, Like you
know, Cam Johnson wasn't quite as good as I was hoping he'd be in
with Cam at least thinking it was very much injury sure, like all the
hamstring stuff. But I mean that ties into just like you know, if
you could put these rangy defensive lineups on there, and also you have you
know, Johnson out there hidden threes and not sacrificing any size or switchability like
there was I don't know even now as I'm talking about it's like, oh
man, how are they that should have worked or at least at least that
should have worked a little bit defensively. And then I thought, you know,
if things don't go well, you're gonna get something for Dorian Finney Smith
because he you know, I'm still hung up on Dallas dfs and like how
valuable he was, and that's not who is anymore? Like oh, you
could flip you know so, and I thought Lonnie Walker was a great sign.
You know, there's all these all these things that just didn't quite break
right for them, the Charlotte Hornets, I know, this is a this
is a joint. We were wrong, and we're sorry. We thought taking
Brendon Miller was an all time misstep by then, and it wasn't even because
we didn't think Scoot and Lamello could operate together, though maybe that would have
been a conversation you need to have down the line. People are trying to
make that conversation happen with Miller and LaMelo, and I'm just I can't get
there. Yeah, brend And Miller was the right choice at number two,
and he's not gonna finish number two and Rookie of the Year because chet who's
to remember this draft class will get it. He absolutely deserves to be number
three. I think the workload he shouldered. I know what Heimhawk is and
Pods and Case and Wallace did, but like you look at Brandon Miller,
the mid range jumper was like forty seven percent on pull up twos. That's
a great number for a rookie hitting his catch and shoot threes at basically a
forty percent clip. They tried to because they needed to explore his depth as
a playmaker. I don't really know what that's gonna look like, but you
know what, he was able to create better separation and get to his spots
as a scorer than I expected. And then defensively wasn't just there was difficult
assignments, but like and he could fall asleep off the ball, Like there
are low lights that you go look at, but if he's defending someone who's
gonna be involved in the primary action, his work begins before they ever get
the ball, and he will fight to deny it to them. He will
fight once he's on it. I also think he did some really good stuff
as a rotator as a low man. I think I told you this.
He finished in the top thirty or top thirty five of total shots contested at
the rim this year. That is that's stands out because like that's something where
it's like you're just in among the trees and like some of these smaller ball
fives, I look at him. Maybe Scoot still winds up having the better
career, but like that was not that clearly was not the no brainer that
everybody thought it wasn't, but including us, Yeah, right, I think
and Miller too, Like, imagine if this wasn't because normally, if a
rookie defensively isn't like tripping on his shoelaces and like you know, falling into
the stands for no reason defensively, Like that's pretty good. But like this
year we had incredible defensive performances by a bunch of rookies. If this were
a normal year and Miller had defended this way, it'd be like, is
this the best wing defender we've ever seen in a rookie class? Like you
know, that's hYP hyperbole, but like he has done a disservice by the
fact that there just also happened to be a bunch of other rare, really
good defensive rookies. So yeah he was. He looks like the right pick
now. I still am not giving up on Scoot, but like we run
way too far in the other direction of like this is mal pres Like what
is happening? How do you just like I think the takeaway for me,
I don't know you want to change your behavior, but I'm just not gonna
have strong takes on draft picks anymore. Like there's no upside in it,
right, Like you're just we can't know enough until we see like a full
season. Just because I want our millions of listeners to know right now that
we're still gonna have strong takes. You have to skew them positive, just
where people throughout these offhanded comments that this is probably something you said, J
Dubb is a top ten player, but they won't rank the players because they've
named fifteen top ten players in the league. Right now, That's just what
you need to That's just what you need to do. And look, it's
I think here's where this is the best way I think to frame it is
that we're fast fast forward a year and based off what happened is rookies.
You could say, if you want to take a risk with Scoot at number
two now in a redraft because you want to bet on the long drop side,
I get it. There is no argument for taking him over Brandon Miller
based off what happened this season, and that is not something like yes,
I thought we'd end up in No, not at all. That's a good
way to frame it, all Right, Chicago, we got another still me
for some reason, the Chicago Bulls. So I'm gonna do a quick victory
lap year. The Bulls are exactly who I thought they were, And it's
like they didn't blow it up even though I wanted them to. They weren't
good enough to really make any noise that Martin Rozen was still doing things.
He was probably a little bit better in the clutch than I expected. But
I was clearly wrong, and I'm assuming everybody was that Kobe White was going
to enter the most improved player discussion. It's even if you sort of taken
you know, you knew ones I wasn't gonna play. Did we think Zach
Lvine was gonna miss most of the year? Like you did you ever think
the opportunity would be available for him to do that? But then the improvement
that he actually made as a passer, kind of a game manager, someone
creating off the dribble and then still being this massive threat as a catch and
shoot guy. I never thought when they signed him to that contract last year,
I thought it was fine. It was not like it was kind of
along the lines of it's not the same trajectory. But you remember when Steph
signed his extension, was it like four years and forty four million? People
were like, whoa that might have been too much, and when Kobe White
was different where it was, oh that's fine. But now it's just turned
into one of the best bargains in the league. And I could not have
projected that coming. And I would also argue, this is definitely what I
didn't see coming. There's a chance, there's a chance, and I would
have said there's a zero percent chance. So that's what I was run about.
That the Bulls just have their back court of the future with or at
least their back court to sit on for a while if they want to be
good or not fuck things up with Kobe White and iow to soon MoU,
who you knew I was high in Iowa to sum MoU, but like he
even kind of after some of the injuries, they forced him to level up
as a score. I think that's gonna serve him well long term. That's
a bright spot for this team that probably doesn't necessarily deserve them. If you're
a fan, I think you almost latch onto the idea, like, Okay,
I'm glad they didn't make it out of the plan because maybe this just
forces them, with the Roseen hitting free agency, to kind of take a
look in the mirror that can now we're finally gonna start pulling back tearing this
down. They're not gonna do that because it's the Bulls. But yeah,
I definitely thought coming into the season it was one of the most hopeless situations
in the league for all the reasons you laid out, like they just refuse
to pick it, you know, to not try to win forty two games
or whatever it is. And that's still mostly true. But because White and
assum Wu did what they did, like I don't know if you call them
outs, like I don't know if either of those guys is good enough to
where it's like, oh, well, at least they have like they'll be
they'll be very good because they have these guys. It's like you do have
young, cost controlled, bargain starting caliber guards, which is like that's a
lot more flexibility than I thought this team was gonna have. Like it's not
like it's still pretty cloudy, like the outlook is gray, but it's not
nearly It's not hopeless to me anymore, because you know, you're really if
depending on how they operate this offseason, like Lavigne and Vucevic are are bad
contracts, probably, but it's not you know, you just having those two
other young guys on cheap deals to offset that just changes the overall complexion of
the roster. That is something I was wrong about, by the way,
just legitimately wrong about. I thought they signed Woods to a three year,
eighty million dollars deal when it happened, and I I was like, what
the hell? And then once I realized that I misread and it was sixty,
I was like, oh, I like, talk myself into it.
It says a lot bad. It says a lot about this team though that
I think with for most teams, this isn't we were wrong bio mission,
because that's what this is. With Kobe Weise, like we just didn't say
this or see it coming right, It wasn't we had this strong take against
or about and that just comes it up with the bulls in general. Right
right, Hey, it's still me. Yeah, the Cleveland Cavaliers. So
this is going to be one of my spicier ones, and we know that.
I think I've been at least when we've talked about this, I've been
more on board of playing it out and thinking they can still get there.
Maybe they can. And I'm not saying you absolutely do this the playoffs are
happening, They're they're beating up on the magic as we record this, they're
up to Oho. This Core four isn't gonna work. It's it's not a
they need to trade Jared Allen. It's not even if they need to trade
Donal Mitchell because he wants out. It's not they need to trade Evan Mobley
or look at Darius Garland. It's even when they're at their best, there's
one there's the risk of the offense sticking. And it's good that Evan Mobley's
explored some of the three point stuff. It's good that you can run stuff
with him and Jared Allen. The problem is whether you're catering to that or
you're still running most of the stuff through one of your premier guards, where
okay, that's gonna leave one of them to space the floor, and then
you're gonna have one of the bigs that you can use as the primary screener.
Someone's always gonna be marginalized or left out in the cold here. And
the more I see the Cavs offense, the more I believe that even on
some of the good nights, because it's again, it's not just people focus
on the two big stuff. But if you're gonna do stuff with Evan Mobley
and Jared Allen, well, then like you're marginalizing both or at least one
of your guards as part of that action. And I just don't for what
they need to It's no, like there needs to be more of a wing
here. It's great that they found Max screwz Isazagacorro had a good year.
Karaslvert was in the six Man of the Year conversation this team. Dean Wade,
before he was dealing with me stuff, was like a really good,
like big wing defender and was hitting his threes, and we kind of forgot
about him, like he dealt with shoulder stuff last year and we were like,
oh, look at what happened to Dean Wade. He's done. I
don't I don't think we said that, but they like and I maybe it's
even if you want to make it less about well, what can this core
four do together? And it's no, we still kind of need to get
this functional equilibrium with an actual wing that is just doesn't have as many limitations
or question marks as an Isaaca Corro or even just a Max Max Strews It's
like, I'm kind of sitting here wondering, and I don't, like,
I want to see how the postseason goes. But I'm gonna phrase it this
way. I was dead set on this team, being like they're next up
in the East, like after the Celtics, and I'm so confident in this
this core four, I'm not as confident anymore to where depending on how the
playoffs end, I'd entertain doing something dramatic where it's like, what if you
could get Honestly, what if you could get McHale Bridges for Darius Garland or
Evan Mobley and maybe you're getting other stuff if you're giving up Mobile for Michal
Bridges doesn't Like, isn't that something because this is the guy they decided with
Mobili that wasn't supposed to enter this discussion, and I still wouldn't move him.
Want to make that clear. I'm just saying I think this is a
really good team, as though high hopes for them, but my confidence level
has been sufficiently shaken. Yeah, I think that's fair. I just like
I was trying to think about, like, well, what did I think
coming into the season. That's definitely wrong now and it's like, did you
did you have having Mobiley's your defensive player of the Year pick that? Then
No, I might, I mean I probably had him high up there.
But it's just like the injuries and the lack of playing time with all four
of those guys together gives me, like, I'm I I definitely take your
point that it's a lot harder to buy this core for now than it was
this time. Well, I mean they were in the process of getting smoked
in the first round this time a year ago, so uh, maybe that's
not the best way to frame it, but like, I think the injuries
have to be a factor. Although like, but you know, Gary's Garland
when he was healthy this year was he wasn't just wasn't healthy. He was
getting hit in the phase every five seconds, but he was. He was
all over the place, And it's is he ever going to be a good
finisher And that's not gonna get any easier while playing with these two bigs.
Yeah, I was just thinking, like as you were talking, assuming they're
gonna lose Mitchell at some point, like doesn't someone like KCP, just like
if you had KCP and like Mitchell's spot, like that's what you're talking about
of like someone whose skills aren't like really redundant to Garland, and like,
I don't know if you want to hit your wagon to Garland now necessarily,
but just the way that things shake out. Don't tell me if you feel
like this is wrong. I think the most likely guy of the four to
leave is probably Mitchell, followed by Jared Allen, followed by Garland, followed
by Mobley. So if you assume like this is really gonna be Garland Mobley
like two or three years from now, and you'll have changed up the rest
of it, Like I don't know, maybe maybe you do start thinking about,
like who's the two that we need, because if you if it were
Garland's on the move and Mitchell's there, you might still go for a true
point guard. I don't know. It just feels like a real two and
a real three with Garland and Mobley would get you pretty far. Would you
give up your and this will be the team that apparently one of the teams
to go longer on? Would you give up? I'm just gonna throw a
couple of scenarios at you if it, would you give up Darius Garland?
I'm not saying the other teams would do this, but would you do Darius
Garland for Devin Vessel. There's other framework that might need to be involved.
But is that something you're considering? Man right, and you do have to
factor in, well, what is happening with Mitchell right that well, that
that would be the reason I probably wouldn't because then you says he's staying Yeah,
then I would be more open to that. The idea would be that
Mitchell is now your point guard essentially, and and Viselle is kind of like
your I don't know, secondary playmaker as who's also Devin Velle becomes your what
if Chris Middleton and Devin Booker had a baby? Sure, I always I
always forget. That's exactly how you described Devansell. Yeah, I guess I
would. I mean like Vassell didn't Vassell got a little better, like under
the radar this year. Garland had a terrible year, So you might be
kind of trading from a position of of like seems strong because Garland's numbers are
fine, but just it wasn't impressed and I know the injuries in there.
The other one was I don't know how I feel about this for the other
team, I know their fan base loves them. But Jared Allen and I'm
assuming what it might take here. Let's just say Jared Allen for Herb Jones,
Oh wow, I don't know if New Orleans would do that because the
money doesn't match. There has to be other stuff in there. But like
so if Cleveland said they they could trade a first round pick by the way
this summer, if Cleveland said, okay, Jared Allen A first, I
mean the Calves. I think the Calves should do that. I think it's
I wouldn't do it if I'm the Pelicans either, But with Trey Murphy there
only know what's happening with Ingram. Yeah, so Herb is like perfect,
He's exactly what you're talking about. For would you do if you're the Calves
though, some type of framework Garland for McHale Bridges, I mean, yeah
maybe, but this is all here. Let me if only if I know
Mitchell Staying, which like I just you know, Mitchell Staying, are you
doing mobiley? Would you rather trade? And you're probably getting more like the
context of the Pactores would look different, but based off this Cavs team and
what they need and maybe your questions about the dual biggs. Would you rather
trade Mobili or Darius Garland for McHale Bridges? I guess I'm really just basically,
do you have more faith in the two guards working out or with a
wing, a different type of wing, or the two bigs working out with
a different type And look, this is they're in the playoffs, They're they're
probably gonna win a playoff series. And Max Shruz was phenomenal for them this
year. Isaaca Court a great year. I'm talking about the highest level because
that's what this team is built to do. My confidence has been sufficiently shook.
I think that I haven't really thought of it the way you're framing it
now, and we should move on after this. But I would rather go
forward with Mobley and Allen than Garland and Mitchell because the two small guards thing,
like, I just don't I trust more in Mobili eventually developing in all
the ways that we hope he does, as like as just a floor spacer,
a guy that can do more offensively so that the fit with the non
spacing big works. I just like, you can't make Mitchell and Garland turn
into good defenders and grow like that's your your ceiling. Is what it is
with those two guys. I just feel Likenchel's been I'd probably lean towards the
two guards, to be honest, I think betting up intensively, and just
like I'm gonna I want that outside in shop making tea. All right,
hey, guess whose turn it is? You're off the hook. I have
the Dallas Mavericks and a couple of things. Uh, I'm because this is
what I've been doing since the Kyrie Irving trade is just catastrophizing. I thought
that there were immense downside like catastrophic disaster potential for the MAVs if if and
when Kyrie had some distraction off the court issue suspension, ill timed comments like
general misbehavior of one kind or another. I didn't even really Everybody's like,
oh, look at the fit, how well they've played together this year.
It's like, I don't. That never really struck me as a huge like
stumbling block. I just like Kyrie is so good and Luca is so good
that I wasn't like concerned. I don't think about them working on the court.
It was more just Kyrie's gonna do something that messes U up, and
Luca is gonna say, get me out of here asap, and like,
congratulations, this is what you did to yourself by trading for Kyrie Irving.
None of that happened. They were awesome on the floor. Kyrie was by
his standards like a boy scout this year, like no, no, a
couple issues, like a fan thing in Utah. Maybe that comes to mind.
Otherwise, like healthy like played the longest streak of games without interruption than
since like I don't know, twenty sixteen or something ridiculous like that up into
the thirties. I think that streak got where he like broke his old record
when he hit like twenty one I think without missing a game, So that
worked great. I was wrong about that. I think the other thing I
was wrong about was I thought, like Grant Williams and even Seth Curry were
gonna be like juice for this offense, just with like high volume three point
shooting like Stan still make shots, and that was gonna matter. I did
actually look back at like what I was thinking, like off season grades I
think, or like free agent signing stuff, and I was I thought both
of those would work and that there would be enough role playing defenders on the
wings, like obviously not anticipating Dante exem doing what he did, but that
didn't work, and the MAVs recognized that immediately and pivoted and all these trades
of reform the roster and put them on this huge run now in the playoffs.
It's interesting to be having this discussion now after Dallas flopped so hard in
Game one. Game two will be after we record this, But yeah,
I was wrong about the Kyrie thing, and definitely was wrong about the moves
that Dallas made initially kind of being helpful for from a role playing perspective,
and then they kind of solved that at great cost by doing the Washington and
Gafford deals. But kind of been off on the MAVs all year. Also
picked them to win the series against the Clippers, and they're down one oh,
and we're down thirty at halftime in Game one. So I clearly don't
have a good feel for this team. I got the a Grant william I
got everything wrong that you except I wasn't against the Grant Williams signing, and
part of that was because of the I didn't like giving up the pick swap,
but was the framing of just like we got our wing defender and I
was like, you did the Man's Watch, Grant Williams playing all years in
Boss and so. But I was definitely I missed on the trade deadline stuff
and the other thing as so far, I missed on this is a small
note. I was so in on Olivia Maxen's prosper having an impact as a
rookie. Ye, so that was just just a small detail. Well,
I think, yeah, I would probably say like I would not have expected
Derek Lively to have such an impact at least early in the year. Certainly
didn't see X probably didn't see Derek Jones Junior doing what it like all the
those are like bio mission. I was actually on O Max. I was
like the Kings. I was like, I think I was like lampooting the
Kings for like not probably not the worst position to being all right, this
will be a quick one here. Denver is next, Like there wasn't a
lot to choose from. I thought they might miss Bruce Brown Junior a little
bit. Uh. Definitely we were lower on the Reggie Jackson signing than I
was. That it wasn't it wasn't a disaster. It was fine, like
he shot you know, just under thirty seven percent from three average ten a
game. The non Jokich minutes still sucked, but Reggie Jackson was never gonna
solve that on his own. So like, really, Denver was kind of
who we thought they were all season, and I don't know, other than
like some tiny marginal stuff, what if anything happened that was like a real
big surprise from the Nuggets this year. Do you have anything, because it's
kind of like they were just were they were just who they were all year.
I was probably lower on Peyton, like I just didn't think the relying
so much, and not that they necessarily had another choice. I think they
could have used some of their assets to go get a veteran, but like
I, I probably would have been more on board with that and advocated for
it rather than doing I don't want to necessarily call it a two timelines thing,
but it's a little bit of what they're doing. But I missed on
I think Reggie Jackson, I don't know if he was good enough to warran
a player option, but just like that was one of my most egregious takes
recently. Well we're just like, oh, the regilated one of the worst
deals of the offseason, and so it was all right, it's the minim,
like you need to chill here, man. Yeah, No, Denver's
really good. We knew it. We've got Golden State next, No,
we have Detroit Grant. Wow, look who had So this is thirty five
minutes into the pod. First alphabet mistake because I was looking at my Western
conference only Detroit. So yeah, man, what did I not miss out
with? No? I did I expect him to suck this bad? Probably
not. I think the thing I was most wrong about when it came to
them was I thought, I feel and he still will be really good.
I really thought Jalen Duran was gonna be a lot better as a sophomore,
and I felt like he almost regressed as the year went on, and I
went from appreciating the offensive experimentation they were doing with him, where it's always
that him bringing the ball up the floor is let him trying to create off
the dribble to like doing the exact interess like no, do not put the
ball on the floor, just stop. And I'm just wondering have they done
his development a disc service at all by one not having enough spacing, not
having a clear cut hierarchy out there and like just the noise. By the
way, the thing I was probably most wrong about. I loved the Monty
Williams higher in the moment. I'm always a fan of team spending on coaches,
and then like the Killian Hayes stuff was just so fucking weird. And
then it's then this is necessarily almost wrong about, like it's something worth talk
about. I never would have predicted that, Like why if if Troy Reaver
was on such thin ice, why was he cassed with like going through the
deadline hiring Monty Williams. And I know Tom Gores was a fan of Monty
Williams and played a crucial role in getting him. So maybe that, But
like now you're this is more of an organizational thing where it's well, now
you've decided your next league lead executive, excuse me, is going to be
tied to this head coach you just gave a boatload of money who didn't want
to come to you. Don't give him so much money. He was like,
fuck, I can't, I can't turn this down. So I'm happy
I was right about Kay Cunningham because people were out on him at the beginning
of the year. That's my small victory lap for the Clippers. I was
also wrong. I said I was gonna trust I saw Thompson's jump shot over
Ahman Thompson's jump shot. I no longer feel that way. I was also
wrong about that. Yeah, I was just generally, I mean, like
everything went wrong, so like I thought a few things would not go wrong
with the Pistons other like Kay Cunningham is the exception, because I think you're
probably generally higher on him than me, and I might be lower than consensus,
but he was good, and like that was the kind of progressive step
you would want for a guy with like he's got more years of experience than
actual games because of the injuries. So it's like where he's at in terms
of like where he should be developmentally, I think is at least you're happier
with where he is than you are about almost any other Pistons prospect, like
I Ivy's another guy. I thought Ivy would have, you know, closer
to a leap this year, and it didn't really happen. I don't know
how you hold the failure to develop against any of the players like Duran falls
into this category two just because the environment sucks. They played the wrong guys
all year. Clearly there's like management that is just you know, Troy Weaver's
like trying to save his job, and so maybe he's not pushing back on
ownership enough when he's like, you have to give Monny Williams this deal to
coach a team he already said no to, Like that's all beyond the players.
So like I guess like maybe didn't foresee that the managerial structure and coaching
staff would be as much of a hindrance to that development as I thought as
it turned out to be. But yeah, I mean the Pistons kind of
the snake bit for sure. Now it's it's time for the Golden State Warriors.
Specific one here, I thought coming into this year that the starting five
that won the title was going to be like very good, slash great again
and then you go, okay, well, then Chris Paul solves the non
Curry minutes just as a backup, which kind of like that actually did sort
of come to fruition a little bit, like he was helpful on second units
and other than you know, he got hurd obviously, but like that part
of it was okay. It was just like the starting unit, which was
plus twenty two in seven hundred possessions two years ago, was minus seven and
two ninety three this year, and there would have been more possessions except Steve
Kurr eventually just stopped playing that five together. I mean, Looney was out
of the rotation for long stretch. I never would have that's a prediction of
omission, whereas I did not see the Cavan Looney evolving into a relevant He
really took a huge step back. And then that was true of basically every
other starter, like Curry was a little worse. Not that that's not foreseeable,
but you would have assumed that that starting five that won a championship,
and like Looney really mattered, and Wiggins really mattered, and Thompson really mattered,
like you would assume they'd be like plus ten or something like. That's
not like a huge ask like cut in half what their their net rating swing
was from two years ago. That didn't happen. So then all the tinkering
had had to happen, some of which was positive because you saw some rookies
play well, but that was the main thing. Is just like that unit
was a given and then it wasn't like that that was just the baseline you
were starting from was not there. Yeah, this team is so weird.
We just if anyone didn't check it out. We did record an entire podcasts
and try to figure out where they go from here. And the answer kind
of is like the shrug emoji. There's just so many different things they can
do, and I don't know if any of it's going to be enough,
and so there's a lot. I didn't have any faith really and Andrew Wiggins
rebounding, because I feel like both his rebounding and him just playing better in
general, but because we have so much of these priors where it says Andrew
Wiggins is not the second best player on a championship team, and that when
he was the second or third best player, it was more of an outlier.
But I just I get, like, I think what shocked me most
was most wrong about the teams. I never would have thought they would have
spent the whole year searching. Yeah, like even with the injuries, the
suspensions of Draymond Green, the time he missed, like it just this rotation
never felt settled and I want to know what is going on, Like what
do they have on Moses Moody that he's not allowed to play well, Like
I know, I think that's that's really well framed, like it they just
never found it all year, and like that. Moody was very much affected
by that because it's like, well, okay, so now okay, Gary
Payton's healthy and so he's got to play well. Chris Paul's got to play
well. Kaminga's taken over, like he needs to start now and play And
it's just like anytime there was a minutes crunch, Moody was on the short
end of it, and like, and it's because that first unit was in
disarray like immediately, and then you're plugging holes and it was who should start
instead, And there's trickle downs to the rest of the rotation and then like
your second round almost end of the draft, rookie like is starting for you
trace Jackson Davis by the end of the year. Like that's just there were
I mean, some of that's positive again, but like total disarray because those
veteran starters just weren't good, Like it just collectively they just didn't do it
all right. So we've got the rockets next. This one's like I think
because the rockets probably exceed well, I don't know. I think like the
Van Fleet signing, I think we're both okay with that. I was okay
with it because it's a short term deal and like he played well, he
was important to. Like we were not okay with it for the Raptors,
that's right. Yeah, to be clear, we've not been okay with a
lot of the things the Raptors have done up to this year. Uh So,
I guess like for me, at the beginning of last season, if
you'd said, uh, just say, put the bridges for Jalen Green frame
work on the table, I'd have been, like, get Jalen Green out
of here, Like, this guy is never amounting to anything. He's he's
undersized as a two. He's like a garbage stats guy. Like I don't
trust him defensively, I don't think he's serious. Like all I would have
I would have been out, which is a dumb position to be in on
anyone that's in their early twenties, no matter how they play. But I
would have been all the way out on Jalen Green. I don't know if
I'm all the way in now, but I'm like, I'm more convinced that
his run at the end of this year actually matters than I was when he's
because he's kind of done it before, but it was when the Rockets weren't
like winning one or and weren't playing Yeah, he stakes at all. So
my turnbout on Jalen Green is probably like, I don't know. Yeah,
it's definitely the biggest like surprise to me and the biggest thing I got wrong
going into the season because I would have I would have just been like,
I'm not in the jailing Green business. I want no part of an extension
for him, Like I would have been just dead wrong on all that because
at the very least he's like he's pretty interesting now, like you've got a
lot more like, well, maybe he is a core piece thoughts. The
only thing is I'll definitely want not see him having a top five defense just
when you were going to play Alprin Shanghu and even Jabari Smith Junior who improved
a bunch as well in the middle, and then you're looking at their backup
bigs is Jeff Green and Jock Land. It was just iod, this can't
be a top five defense, and it was it was like it was a
legit. It wasn't just like yeo Okay, they got some opponent shooting noise
in there. You're not top five by mistake. That doesn't know And you
would have even if you had gone out and said, well, they're going
to be a top ten defense, you would have said, well, let's
Gus Tarry Easton's going to be first team All defense and play seventy five games
and just be incredible. And like he barely played all year. So like
they got there in ways that you would never have expected, even if you
were somehow optimistic on their overall outlook defensively, the Indiana Pacers, for me,
I'll take a quick eat some crow here, because it's obviously not like
settled just yet. I was. I did not think that Jarres Walker was
going to be this good on defense, like immediately, in the fact that
he didn't play a huge over most of the year. But they gave him
some of these like wing type reps by the end of the season, and
I became a little bit more of a believer. I still don't love his
offensive fit on this team, especially Postiacam trade, which leads me to what
I was actually wrong about. I never thought the Pacers would have the gall
to go out and make a move like that. I like the og Anobe
sweep stakes, the Pascal Siakam sweep stakes. I just thought that they were
going to be a team that didn't want to remain trapped in this rebuild,
but they didn't want to give up that much equity for a player who accelerates
their timeline, and especially a player who acceleraates their timeline is headed towards free
agency, and so yes, you have to assume they have this information.
I know Pascal Siakam is going to come back, but I honestly think there's
been a lot of weirdness there with them trying to figure stuff out on the
fly. But even you kind of saw against Milwaukee in Game one where they
just got the doors blowing off of them. Having that steadying presence of Seakam
is going to benefit them in the long run, assuming he stays, which
he will. So to give up even though I feel like of the three
first round picks they up, there's like one semi risky one right there,
but it makes me more encouraged for the future where it's like they still have
stuff. You include Jars Walker, Ben mcmathn. They can trade first round
picks like it they if they really believe that there's a wing out there that
makes sense for them, they can go out and they could probably if you're
willing to put most of your stuff on the table. I don't know if
they would have the best offer. They'd have a competitive offer for Mikale Bridges
if he becomes available. So and now I have confidence that, hey,
maybe they would actually consider it. So. I know that's not necessarily related
to what's happening on the court, but that was not even if we thought
that Pascal Siakam was a great fit for Indy, which we did. I
just did not think they were gonna be the team that went out and got
him. And I tipped my cap to them, and maybe Tyrese Halburton kind
of forced their hand a little bit by being not not only injured, but
just so transcendent for that first part of the season. It doesn't matter like
to look at it and say, no, we're gonna put this guy alongside
another legitimate coastar and we're gonna pony up to get him. I give kudos
to that front office for doing that. I had to buy out giving up
either one of your blue chip prospects. I know we're probably lower on Benedickmathren
compared to consensus, but Jarres Walker still kind of has this mystique about him,
and like Benedic Mather is more appealing now even post injury, than he
was to me at the end of his rookie season. Interesting. Yeah,
I don't know where I'm at on Mather, and it's kind of it's harder
to judge it. He doesn't seem as essential to the roster as he once
did, which I guess I view as a good thing. Uh, we're
all yeah, McConnell's ISO scoring too. Yeah, well that's you got bank
except in the playoffs, which we forget every year. That doesn't work in
the playoffs. Yeah, that's good for the past. So I have the
Clippers next. I mean, like where to start, Like I think at
the things I got wrong were like the obvious ones. I don't know if
that makes it better or worse. Like didn't think Kawhi Leonard would stay healthy.
I can't imagine why, and he really did until now when he's missing
playoff. Yeah, I don't know how that shakes out. I had no
faith that the hardened trade was gonna work out. I know that's not like
a preseason thing, but it was early enough in the year to where you
know, it was the Clippers were still like not formed yet, and the
jury's even out on that one. He was awesome in Game one. It's
not the first time he's been really good for a short handed team early in
a playoff series, but he had great stretches. He was integral to this
team having an awesome run that we keep referring to in the middle of the
year. So that worked out, I mean, in conjunction with like Russell
Westbrook going to the bench and becoming kind of a different type of player.
I would not have foreseen that as likely. But yeah, it's mainly the
health. It's like I think I had them at forty one wins, and
it was just on the idea that like, well, Kawhi is going to
play somewhere between thirty and fifty games and Paul George is gonna be there too,
and the hardened thing won't help, and you know, that's just how
you get there. So you know, I think it's still very possible that
this season ends with significant disappointment. But like in terms of the regular season,
they just hit they all of the most foreseeable, like go wrong.
Things didn't go wrong as seriously as the risks suggested they could. Yeah,
I thought, I mean, we'll have to see how this plays out,
because I feel like there I never would have expected there, But I didn't
predicted their transition defense to be so bad. But the other thing was,
I do think in the macro, like the James Harden fit proved more seamless
than I ever thought it would have, especially after remember they started was at
zero to five with him in the lineup or whatever it was. Yeah,
that was it was just like, oh, here we go, like see,
this is why he can't change. This is just you got the guy
at the wrong time. We have the other LA team, the Lakers here.
I mean, I think one really obvious one is I thought D'Angel Russell
signed that contract and it would definitely be traded because the way it was structured,
the way they got him to basically waive the implicit note trade was just
like he's just on the roster as a salary slot and they're going to exchange
him for someone that makes more sense. And that didn't happen. And really
what's kind of wild is that it didn't happen. And Gabe Vincent was hurt
all year. You would think that like that would have inspired some desperation,
like we got to turn this into this this del salary slot into someone that
can help us on both ends to the extent that's possible with the Baron trade
market and being what it was. But Russell was so good and so valuable
offensively that they just like couldn't. I don't think, and maybe the no
deal was out there, but I thought for sure, like, do you
asked me to bet on a player to be traded during the season, I
might have just picked Russell first. And that didn't even really seem to get
close to that James Harden was calling his general manager wire. Uh. Yeah.
The thing I got most wrong about them, I probably would have called
the Ruy Hotchimortial one of the worst contracts in the league. The offense is
just like legit with him apparently in LA. So I still don't necessarily maybe
love the price point and where is it getting you, but like the lineup
with him, Lebron de Lo, Austin Reeves and ad like that. That
group killed and I think Ruey Hochemoorty hit his threes this year and there was
some volume there not a ton, and like the stuff he's able to do
when he gets to his spots and he'll hold up like he's at least not
part of the Lakers defensive regression over that second part of the season. So
that was a that was actually a pretty big because everyone was like, oh,
that's a fine, We're talking about the same player he had that kind
of like he just couldn't miss a shot in the playoffs, and we just
decided, oh, he's good now. And it was really like one series
where it was like six of nine from three or something. It's like,
oh my god, this guy's like a fifty eight percent three point shooter.
And I was like, did they pre negotiate this once? Darvinham called them
the Jokic stopper and it was just like they agreed to these terms and couldn't
go back on them once pre agency. Actually, okay, that guy.
I don't know what a Yokic stopper is worth, but it's a lot.
All right. Memphis is next here. I mean, we didn't think the
entire roster would get hurt and they'd play like forty guys over the course of
the season. I mean, that's the easy one. I think the main
thing for me that I was really wrong about, well, it's like he
didn't play enough to be like definitive. But the Marcus Smart thing did not
look very good. I thought, something you liked that well, So no,
I didn't. I didn't think it was gonna be great, But I
was sold on the idea that, like he's not perfect, but considering what
Memphis needs, you have to replace Dylan Brooks's wing defense, you're gonna need
a point guard. Point guard is ish guy because you're gonna have John Morant
on the sidelines for the first twenty five games, Like he can kind of
fill all those all those niches potentially, and maybe he could have done a
decent job had he and the rest of the roster stayed healthy, but he
was immediately stretched way too thin, and like Boston may have just gotten off
of his contract at a time when like they knew he didn't have a lot
left. But I thought, while it was like very risky, I didn't
love any of the broader asset management that the Grizzlies have exhibited over the last
couple of years. Like we've talked about that before. How someone has a
tweet out there of like, here's the assets Memphis had, Here's what it
ended up at great breakfast. Yeah, it's like okay, like how were
they had? Gunpoint? Like is that what happened? That they went from
A to B? And it's so much worse now. Yeah, I just
thought Smart would be okay. He wasn't. But like in the grand scheme
of Grizzlies problems like that was maybe in the top ten this year. So
I don't know what to do with that. I did not have any strong
takes on Gigi Jackson and now i'd probably take him in the lottery if we
were doing a rerecual. Oh, but I will for anyone on YouTube.
So Grant on the Grizzlies is basically saying whatever I just threw up on screen?
Uh so that leaves him eye up? Now is it my turn?
It's you? You got the heat? Oh? This is so this is
not really exciting. I don't know why I was about to use that word.
I didn't think that they would give up a first round pick for a
non star. And I hope Terry Rozier is gonna end up being okay with
his neck injury. But like, I just you know, now, there,
did you even see you did you see the report too where it's like,
oh, the Miami he planned to go star hunting again this summer,
and it's how he just I know, it's only lottery protected, but then
it turns into like, in it's immediate, isn't it immediately unprotected? In
twenty twenty eight, I never thought they'd give up that type of a pick
for for like a non star or even just someone who is like, would
you guarantee that Terrier's year if he's healthy and the heat or humming is a
part of every single one of their closing units. I guess you're just saying,
like, would you have him close over Tyler Hero? Is that a
given? And I just know because you have him Hawkes, you have bam
Adebayo, you have Jimmy Butler's healthy. Like, there's those three, and
I don'd argue if you're gonna keep Caleb Martin, he has to be in
the discussion. There's also Duncan Robinson, you know, Terry Rozier, Tyler
Hero into that equation, and I'm just very curious as to where they're going
from here. And the reason I felt this way is just like I know
Jimmy Butler is opening a big face coffee shop in Miami, so he's unlikely
to request the trade. But he turns thirty five in September, he's going
to be extension eligible. Are you gonna give him that extension? If you
don't, what is that gonna mean for him? It's just, I know,
you just made the finals. There's been alien shit going on since twenty
twenty. When you get to the postseason with this team, we'll see if
they have any of that magic left spoiler alert they don't. But I just
like it's very uninspiring and everyone's just kind of operated on this assumption that the
Heat will figure it out because they're the Heat, and maybe they will,
but I just don't if they ever want players that you actually have to get
and forget about the Dame stuff like that was you know, I really feel
like their offer was real, but it was a matter of preference, and
I get why you would prefer what you ultimately got from the Bucks. My
whole thing is just if they actually get into trade talks where they need to
outbid or beat out another team, they can't like it. Just it's I
mean, him Hawkes is kind of that trounce card at this point maybe,
but if you're training him Hawkes, like, how much better is your team?
Who's coming in that's making your team that much better? Yeah? I
think for me, I viewed the decisions they made on Gabe Vincent and Max
Struz as like part of the Lillard like thought process, like we're we're gonna
get him, so it's not as if we don't need to overpay or whatever
try to keep either of these two guys. I don't know if that's actually
like the right way to look at it, but I thought, well,
you let two guys go that really mattered in your playoff rotation, one of
which offensively you had to offense anyway last year, and you're losing a guy
that really was key to like the times when your offense was functional and you
didn't replace them with it. Like, not only did you not get Lillard,
you let two guys go that you did so in anticipation of getting Lillard.
So it's like, well, now an offense that was iffy before is
gonna be even worse. And it's like I was really low on the heat
even while acknowledging all the normal heat stuff that you have to their offense was
better this year. So it's like, I guess that's hokeas I guess that's
Bam like doing a little more. I guess that's Hero for when he was
healthy, which was not that often. So I was wrong that like letting
those two guys go and not getting Dame was just gonna be fatal. It's
still like not great because you still don't have Dame and you can't score.
But like it didn't. It didn't like synk them by any stretch because actually
what the they won too few. They won two more games like than they
did last year, So I like they didn't fall apart like I thought it
was possible one of the bucks. So there's receipts on this. I think
on the podcast and in written I said they were going to have it might
have been I'll say top five, but it could have I might have said
top seven. I said they were gonna be at least top seven. On
both sides of the floor. They were sixth in points scored per possession.
They did him nineteenth in points of lat pro possession, which is an improvement
over where they started this season. I really just bet on the fact that
Giannis and Brook, those core lineups were gonna be so good that it wouldn't
matter. They were not, in part because the Dame Jannis Line dynamic.
You've seen it when it's at its best, and it can be deadly,
but it never just clicked. And I don't know if that's just the feeling
out process. This will be better next year, assuming that this roster is
still intact. But when you're looking at the defense specifically, I was.
I thought Andre Jackson, Junior, Marjron Bochamp, Jay Crowder, all those
guys. Two of those guys, the first guys, I thought they would
play a role and be good. I thought Pat Content would be better.
I thought Jay Crowder would have been better than he was. I didn't think
Chris Middleton. We always knew the injury there. I didn't think he would
look this much of a liability so often on the defensive end. I was
just wrong about that. And look the other thing that I definitely missed on,
and this isn't necessarily I said he wouldn't be the problem. But if
you would have told me that Giannis was kind of part of the transition issues
early on, I would have been like, fuck you, there's no way.
And so I really missed on how much I guess they were going to
miss Drew Holliday's defense. I thought they were gonna have at least enough to
offset it, like semi a semi amount, and it's just to hover around
the bottom ten and points aloud per possession. You need to be capslock elite
on the offensive end, which they can be. But when your two best
players are just I don't know what the word is. It feels like there's
a fluctuation there with how they work together. Yeah, I think I thought
that the Lillard essentially the holiday swapping holiday for Lillard, would address like,
well, the Bucks can't score in late games, and like this will fix
that, but you're giving back some defensive integrity and some intangibles like well,
it's not the reason for all the defensive issues, Like it's very much like
a it's a collective effort, especially with transition stuff. It's not like a
point guard is not integral to your transition defense unless he's just like never running
back and even then so it's not that wasn't really right. The other thing
that I think I just didn't foresee happening is like you're gonna fight. I
get it. You had to move on from Budenholzer because like it was losing
to to the eighth seed the way they did, even with Giannis missing some
of those games, like the whole like it's run its course thing, It
felt like I get it, but like to get that first hire so wrong
was a surprise to me. And then frankly to get like the second higher
feels to me wrong because the at least so it's just like it's it's you
know, I don't know what the alternate course of action should have been,
because like again I get it, like it just sometimes time just runs out
on a coach for a team, and it felt like the circumstances were such
that like that's where they were with Buttonholzer. But like you gotta it's the
easy decision is moving on. The hard part is like getting the right person
to lead them, and the stakes are pretty high because this team is older
and Giannis is always someone that like everyone's got in the back of their mind
as a flight risk, and they just got like two coaching hires wrong.
It feels like, uh so I did not see that coming. You'll be
an interesting challenge. Trade Damian Lillard for Jimmy Butler let's see what would I
I would rather, I mean, I'd rather have Jimmy Butler. I think
I didn't get a vacuum. Yeah, but Damian Lillard feels like what he
does best is going to age better than what Jimmy Butler does best, which
is play like a cycle path. Right right, and well right now that's
bearing out That takes us to the Minnesota Timberwolves. We were both high on
this team, which I'll just move on. Let's say we have no notes
for ourselves on this. The main one for me, or the first one
that came to mind anyway, was like, so Jane mccannals gets a new
deal, we both love him, break out him in it Like he's gonna
continue making threes, he's gonna be first team All defense. He didn't have
like a objectively disappointing year, but he wasn't as good on offense as I
thought he would be, and he wasn't as good on defense as I thought
he'd be. Now, if he's great in the playoffs, then who cares?
But he's been great in the playoffs thus far, so who cares?
And it like that just maybe I'm just like searching because like what other than
like, I guess I'm not going to get me to say Nikhil Alexander Walker
wasn't someone I was high on, and he I didn't think he was gonna
be. He's probably gonna get some All Defense votes and he deserves them.
Now I'm gonna take it. This is normally I feel like you're better at
being more definitive and maybe sometimes inflammatory than I am. You're not like the
Jayden McDaniel season is border line disastrous for them with that deal because it's just
like what he looked like on offense this year. Well, I think I
heard someone called his like three point shooting streaky this year. No, it
sucked for most of the year. It sucked, and the volume was hardly
ever there. It sucked. Kay, mcdam's a very good basketball player,
but you signed him to a deal that we thought was a bargain. But
if you just don't have that reliability on the offensive end, this is where
I'm at. The defense is still top tier, and it's the fact that
it holds up in the playoffs and you can just say, you know what,
go a race Devin Booker from existence that's phenomenal. And I still he's
young, I have hope for him. I don't know if he's ever going
to figure it out offensively on this team. He probably needs more space,
more agency. You cannot convince me though, and the Keil Alexander Walker is
part of this, that if the Wolves get into this financial crunch, it
this summer, which is by the way, if they say it's this summer
that's made up, don't listen to that. It's made up. It's because
they're cheap. Yeah, but it is at the deadline, if it's at
the end of next year. You can't convince me right now that Jade McDaniels
is more important or more workable for this team's future than Karl Anthony Towns.
And I didn't think that I would be saying that come this close. So
that is I think that's my second Just like top rope rope take of the
podcast. Compared to you, you were even more tepping on the calves than
I was. But don't you think that even on that moving on, don't
you think that even on this deal, McDaniels is the type of player and
he's at the age where it's like, you're not talking fifty million a year
in that range, like you are with Towns and like of dubious, like
big stage winning capabilities, even though he was like part of the reason that
they did so well in Game one against the Suns. Like I feel like
McDaniels is still well, we don't need him to do a ton offensively.
If he can just hit a reasonable rate of threes and defend like this,
then like, I don't know that's worth close to what he's making. He's
movable, I guess is, and maybe I'm not disagreeing with you, Like
he's movable on that deal in ways that Towns is maybe not. So I
guess the best way your frame it is if you think he's more important to
their future, it's because he makes half as much. Sure, Yeah,
I don't think you can look at him on and I want to make it
clear that matters, But I don't think you could look at some of their
biggest offensive struggles and even how hard stuff can be on ads sometimes and see
what you saw from Jane McDaniels this season and say, you know what he's
gonna have the dynamism to and look, maybe I'm gonna be wrong. Yeah,
Daniels was no. No, because I was wrong. I went on
here if he said the extension, I was like, people are gonna have
sticker shock. This is gonna end up being one of the best deals in
the league. And it doesn't look like a bad deal. But just like
kind of the parallel of so the Pelicans got Herb Jones for what and Jade
McDaniels cost what, and Herb Jones is just objectively better at everything, right,
Like, I don't know what McDaniels is better than herb Jones at.
I can't. I like, there's no clear skill. I mean, it's
definitely offensively. Herb Jones is just better now. And I remember there are
people and I normally agree with Shimid Dua on a lot of things, and
he's even come out I'm not trolling him saying he was wrong that they he
thought they should have preserved their flexibility and not signed herb Jones. They should
kick the can, and I was, I was, And I think the
dunked on guys felt that way. There a lot of people felt like,
yeah, why would you use now? And I was like, well,
that turned into one of the best, which was that Herb is one of
the best. That was his max like for them, unless there was gonna
be some poison pill stuff involved, which you don't decline the team. Yeah,
YadA ya YadA. So all right, that takes us to New Orleans.
I mean, the main thing for me for them was just it's kind
of like it's the obvious stuff, kind of like the Clippers where agreed that
the ceiling was high, Like there was a ton of potential, a ton
of depth. I didn't think Zion would stay healthy. I didn't think Ingram
would stay healthy. And I didn't think McCollum was like enough of a needle
mover at that position. Certainly, the first two issues the health of the
main guys on this team I was wrong about. Although, like what's weird
is you know, there's all the lineup data that says like it's really this
team's depth that is its strength, and you know, Zion Ingram lineups aren't
as good as as Zion alone or Ingram alone or what like. It wasn't
necessarily that, you know, oh, they stayed healthy and they dominated.
It might have been they stayed healthy and played against first units. So so
a bunch of really overqualified backups could just kick ass against the other teams backups
that weren't nearly that good, So I guess there's kind of a workaround,
but I just didn't I think generally I was lower on New Orleans and a
lot of a lot of people, And the main thing was like I just
did not trust the main guys to stay healthy and contribute, and they did
and I was wrong about that, and they had a better season than next
one. Well, you were wrong, but you're on Zion's out now,
so that's and that's that's what I was. I don't know, this wouldn't
be something I was wrong about because I wanted to see it. But the
fact that now I think we're just not gonna see it is sort of just
like there needs to be a different path. I would have been all in
on Zion at point guard, and like, if you're keeping the roster relatively
the same, or you're not gonna make this big time move, I'm that
is the path you travel. But you just it's not that he's not good
enough. It's just that something's apparently always gonna go off the rails with his
body at some point, and so you now need to recalibrate where it's you
know, I think a lot of people were looking at if they were gonna
upgrade. It was, well, they have to trade Jonness, how on
Tuedness is expiring contract or you move CG. McCullum. And I'm at the
point where it's well, Yannis is a free agent. We'll see what happens
with that. But it's like Ingram just makes as the odd man. It's
Ingram wore Zion almost on picking Zion on that because I think he's probably easier
to fit in based off what he in theory could do if he has the
ball slightly less with more of a floor general than Brandon Ingram is. Do
you think it's unfair to say that Ingram's signature skill, which is valuable certainly
in the playoffs, is the ability to make like bad shots or like really
difficult shots. That's been overwhelmingly clear to me through the plan and the first
game of the first YEA. His signature skill for sure. And there's other
stuff he does well. I think I don't want to call it a refusal,
but like the inability to stick with his three point volume where his ball
volume where it's and look, Zion, I'm wondering how much of it is
just okay, Well, you get into a groove playing like this with Zion,
but then Zion's gone and so now you're asked to do different things,
and so you fall into these different habits. But like, dude, we're
in a year. What is this like three or four? Just like you
need to jack up more threes, like that is the baseline. Just forget
about the functionality of it all, how they're coming, how much jack up
more threes and it's just that number is not nudged nearly enough. That's why
he is the guy to I agree with you, he's the guy to move
now because I think he's really good by the way. I think so too,
But I think there's a real the ability to make difficult shots is not
something you build your team around, unless unless he also is shooting high volume
open threes and is like facilitating really regularly. Because then it's just like,
I don't know, Demarto Rosen is a flawed player, but it's like he's
he is probably better at that than Ingram is, and he is the best
player pastor, which helps him. Yeah, so do all that stuff.
I just I I was taking. I was blown away by how good Ingram
is, especially in these high stakes games with like really intense defense and just
making ridiculously contested, difficult individual shots. And then it's like, at the
same time, I'm thinking, like, this is not a sustainable model,
like we can't smitten. It was before he got injured towards the end of
the regular season, he was playing really well off of Zion. They weren't
necessarily directly involved with every action together, but he was off the ball taking
threes. It just made more sense. And but that invariably goes away and
so very quickly brandon Ingram Dyson Daniels. Maybe a pick for Trey Young.
Oh, you're just I think I'm gonna shot on all your Tray Young trades
because I just don't want Trey Young on the receiving team, like just in
general, just so be ready for a full off season and being like,
I don't think I want Trey Young. That's a great trade for the Hawks.
The Hawk should do that. How about that? I like that side
of it. To the Oklahoma Zindy, No, I will not, because
you have to do The New York Knicks now are in alphabet? Are all
right? I think this is another team kind of like we said this about
what was the team we said this? Oh, the Bulls where it's our
sins of omission rather than anything we had to So the Knicks we hit there
over we thought they were gonna be really good. You can't denigrate us for
saying for not saying that Jail Broo' is gonna be a top five MVP candidate.
The thing that I got wrong because I remember saying the Dante DiVincenzo signing
was good, it's not going to do nearly enough to help solve or increase
the Knicks's spacing lo and Behold, turns out, I think Evencenzo just turned
into one of the most efficient, high volume three point shooters of all time.
So Grant, I'm gonna give you a stat for this. This is
what I know because I wrote about it, and it's just it's I've noted
about it for a while, just because this is what he was tracking towards.
Here's the list of every player who has had a season where they lobbed
two thousand plus minutes, attempted fifteen plus three pointers, permanent hundred possessions,
and nailed them at a clip of at least forty percent. Dante DiVincenzo,
Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, end of list. It's pretty good, pretty
good list of Beyond regarding anything to do with three point problems, I don't
know that I have anything to add. There's stuff that's surprising me with this
team, where it's I don't think I don't think they wouldn't. I didn't
think they were going to navigate. If you told me they had all these
injuries, including the OG, they would have been the two seed in the
East. The you know, the like we all kind of knew how good
Isaiah Hartnstein was, but like him playing it at all defense level that takes
you out, Like Duce McBride just coming in and again those are all just
kind of the mistakes of omission, like not foreseeing those. So this team,
Danta Devincenzo just has unlocked a birth like he had. Like the fact
that a Tim's team was third in three point of ten trade after the All
Star break. That's fucking wild in twenty four. No, that has to
be Devincenzo. If you got a zero on a player specifically, I think
I don't remember this, don't check three seats, but I bet I was
suspicious of like what worked so well for the Knicks last year, which is
like, oh, they get every offensive rebound and kick it out and make
threes, like that's not gonna happen again. It's like pretty much like why
they're still good. Uh So, I mean Brunson leveling up to like an
All NBA and you can't anyone who has receipts. You can't get me on
not liking the Josh Hart trade anymore because I took my come up and off
season, I said, Contenson was fine. So we're on the other side
of that one. They were, Look, we're not spent a lot of
time in it's just because I think that one was that is. That's a
monster season, just like like volume of efficiency really great. Now we will
move to the home city Thunder Dan, I bought Sam Presty's. Uh we
got to finish our breakfast preseason headfake like hook line and sinker. I thought,
oh, I already used that thumbnail. I used it. I remember
I made the Sam Presty's a liar thumbnail for a Thunder video. Yeah,
he tricked us. He tricked us again. I thought a small step forward
was possible or even like a little regression. Just you had him at forty
one wins. I had him at forty four, they were, what's that
more than that? We'll just go more than that? More than that?
Uh. And so like just all of the thunder young players getting better,
even ones like SGA who was like fringy MVP last year. I just yeah,
I mean, this is the most positive missed I think we have.
Right, It's like we just didn't see the leap, and the leap happened,
right, That's the simplest way to put it. I don't know if
you want to zero in on anybody else in particular, but oh yeah,
here here's what I was wrong about what you got. Do you remember?
I think the word I used was uncar or phrasing was uncharacteristically uninspiring when they
made the case and Wallace Trade, who ended up being First team All Rookie
for me, is defending his ass off in the playoffs. Yeah, tracked
the rotation of a title contender as a rookie regularly, he's been it fluctuated
a little bit, that is. And I was just like they couldn't have
gotten like all that, just like move up like they did that the Damas
Bretons deals, like it feels like they should have been able to get more
out of that. It doesn't fucking matter like Cason Wallace is going to be
a stud. And do you know what I probably would have if you get
I wasn't considering this scenario, but if you would have said, well,
who's more important to their future? Case and Wallace or just Giddy? I
might have picked Giddy just solely because I thought he would have more trade value.
And it's just like I'm the giddy stuff. You said, every young
player got better, he had his moments. This he's about him. That
dude's gotta for this roster to be optimized. I don't he's gotta go.
I'm not like this is I'm not saying he's the worst player of all time.
I just don't. I don't see it. Rather, first of all,
I don't, And you're standing in the way of Case and Wallas to
some extent. Well, and even if it's not Wallace, like just that
spot in the lineup is like just begging for somebody. Are you ready for
another trade to love always Josh Giddy plus X amount of picks for Dennioffia,
Oh do it? Yeah? Absolutely one of them? What about the Wizards?
If I'm getting like I'm gonna need at least first, would you need
to attach to the extension of the well Josh Giddy to get Denny Avdya,
who, by the way, might be on well, he's definitely on one
of the best contracts in the league. Now, I think you gotta give
me two, and one of them needs to be like legit minimum because stress
voodoo, like top twenty four protected. No, none of that. I
want a real one. Don't give me any of these phony picks. All
right, Yeah, the Thunder great. We were wrong about them not being
super great. Immediately, I think you are still up. You got two
in a row coming here. Yes, we are on too. The what
comes after the letter? Oh the other letter? Did you see? I
was buying myself time. I was like, we're not forgetting list in front
of us, but it's not that fun to do it that way. So
the magic they were probably that they were okay, No, I didn't expect
them to be contending for home court advantage spot in the playoffs. That's missed
on that again. That's more like they were. The Thunder were super ahead
of schedule. Store of the magic. We knew their defense was gonna be
awesome, especially after what we saw following there was a five and twenty start
last year. As someone who was higher on him than you, and I
think consensus most people were Jalen Suggs just we knew what he could do.
Defensively, I will say the offensive improvement has not answered their playmaking question.
He's gotten better as a playmaker, He's gotten way better as a shooter,
as a decision maker going downhill and then all of that while going on defense.
If you would have, even as someone who was holding out hope for
him, if you were have told me that he's someone they they have to
extend this summer because if they let it get the restricted free agency, that
might cost them max money from just the team building perspective. Or if you
told me, like Jalen Suggs might get the Jayden McDaniels extension this year the
equivalent of it, I'd be like, no, he might. He's that
good, He's that important to what they're doing. So what I mean,
there's other stuff, but I think this would be more mistakes of omission.
Just oh, Jonathan Isaac would have been a did not qualify, but like
played enough to where you're like, oh, he's the best permanent defender in
the league or something along those. I never would have gone with that something
I'd be a little bit more negative, like that Franz Wagner's shooting this year
experience. But again that's not something I just I didn't have a strong take
against Jalen Sugs but I did not think we were gonna he made my first
team on defense. I called him one of the five best defenders in the
NBA. So like, that's just not I was not high enough on Jalen
Suggs. Was my was my sin? I got a Adam Silver might say,
did you gamble on him? I gotta stop like giving, because I
don't know if you have suffered from this. But like I there's so much
to know about the NBA. There's so many like competing thoughts you have to
keep in your head. There's like just about players and like who do I
need to pay attention to most, like who's got this potential? Who's got
that I find easy? Our jobs for them? And it was just understanding
cap sheets. Yeah that's what the NBA was. It So like, tell
me if you do this, I'm like in a rush to be like this
guy either has like I think we did this probably with Evan Mobley on the
positive side, like this guy is gonna be whatever, Like he's gonna be
great, he's gonna be one of the best defenders in the league. He's
gonna be historically good. Like I want to just get that down. So
like that's my take on Evan Mobley, and I will assess everything he does,
like through that lens and I go the other way. I went that
way on Jalen Green of like I'm out, I'm not interested. I don't
think he's got it. I went that way on Jalen Sucks. It was
like, if you can't shoot and you can't pass and your guard, there's
just no future for you. I don't care how good you are on defense.
Like I so I was like I'm out on Jalen Suggs, which is
like I just have to stop doing this because guys can get better, Like
he can he he can't do He still isn't a good ball handler, isn't
a good passer, can shoot it now and is even better defensively than Like
at some point, if you can't do anything, but you're a top five
at something in the NBA, like then it doesn't matter if you're not that
great at other stuff. You have a future. I got to stop writing
guys off or like putting him in a box, so I sort of have
to stop, don't have to think about them as hard anymore because there's like
just not enough mental bandwidth for everybody. I wonder how much you get.
Everybody near gets impacted by like, well they could have had like Scottie Barnes
or something he picked he was he was picked before Scotty. I remember thinking
Toronto should have taken Suggs. So oh yeah, that's what you know,
what you actually need though, because it happened to me and maybe you've had
it. You're not online enough, and I'm not talking about you need to
be more in tune with like masturbatory, NBA Twitter. It's like just team
want their anyone games and they were fucking awesome because they can't say, we
can't say we can't criticize people or teams. It's just not allowed anymore.
Uh. I've had There been entire Reddit threads done when younger in my career
where I was less inclined to push back against things that were pitched to me
at our you know, parent company, And now I will push back but
like I wrote some stuff that I probably didn't fully believe, and like they
were Reddit threads made and you go, I went, this is like years
ago now, and you went back and you looked, and I was,
like that kind of opened my eyes to being. You know, you can
let the hook be what the editors wanted to be. If you agree on
a pitch, like your text needs to reflect your actual view. You don't
need to be as hedging is okay, or acknowledging that this is like not
fully resolved just yet is okay. But you're not gonna have that moment because
you are a healthy human being who's not nearly online and or your friends aren't
sending you the Reddit stuff that's written about you. So I shoulder to think
how I would feel if I ever sought any of that out, which I
which I will. Look you want a little go booz here. Kenny Beacham,
who's I don't know if you know who he is is just like he's
a basketball content genius as a huge following gave you kudos for your article where
you gave out teams for every single award. I also garue that the views
he got going through your article did did better than your actual article did,
like by the fact that probably of course it did so. But yeah,
so like you, you do good work, but it's like maybe you need
that. You're just not online. You're too healthy. Grant you don't hate
yourself more. That's why I'm not online, all right you still Yeah,
So look, I don't really know what I was wrong about with this team,
other than I didn't see them being so good without James Harden. I
had this is pre and beat injury. I smashed their under on the win
totals, and I guess, if you're gonna look at it, I'm gonna
say and this feels weird to say because of how poorly they played without Joe
Embiid. They won the minutes Tyre's Maxley played without Dwell Embiid this year,
And so I guess what I was wrong is I didn't see Tyres Maxi's leap
as an all NBA player coming, all NBA type player coming, and I
think the biggest level in proven he did. I do think this will under
Raider a little bit. I think he's been a little bit better defensively this
year, and I think he's always been. I don't know if it's underrated
or underappreciated or just miss portrayed. Was like that dude fights on defense for
the most part, but like you look at his you still don't necessarily trust
him if you need to be in this slowed down situation of Okay, we'll
run the offense from this dead stop, Like there's a down shifting to the
way that he gets about going downhill when he gets to the floater, gets
defenders on his hip, and his decision making has evolved from there, and
that's that's a big time to like be a team where if Joell eb never
gets hurt, which I know is a massive caveat, but to be a
team that prioritized cat flexibility in the James Harden trade essentially, and then you
just would there have been if Joel Embiid stays healthy, any real drop off
from Philly's title stock relative to last season. I guess in theory because you
went from having Maxie and Harden and to be just having Embiid and hard Embiid
in Maxie and this version of Tobias Harris. So like I guess I just
didn't realize how close or how how much even having Harden and Embiad was a
clip saying what Tyres Maxie could do. I just looked atim, like,
well, it's really great, Like look what he was able to do without
the Ben Simmons during that stretch. But it's like, now he's able to
fit alongside James Harden. Rip him away from the James Harden like partnership,
and it's just, oh, he might be one of the twenty best players
in the NBA. Now that's I think. I just thought that. I
mean, some of this is preseason, because I guess them the noise was
already happening then, but some of it was in season. I just thought,
like, there's no scenario where they get out of this James Harden situation
like looking better, just because he has always got no trade value. It's
a huge distraction. So you're gonna bring him back and he's gonna play and
then like now, the best case scenario is he plays for you, and
then you have to deal with like what am I paying him next time on
his next deal this summer when he's due again. So the fact that the
Sixers like didn't miss him, are in better position now because of what they
got from the Clippers than they were with Harden. Part of that's MAXI doing
what you said. I just thought like, oh my god. So again
it's almost like the Dallas catastrophizing thing of like, well, now I'm Bead's
going to ask out because this thing is shit and they like got no outs
and they got all this cap space, who knows what they're going to do
with it, and they got assets for Harden. I just didn't think there
was a way out of that that was like a positive landing spot Phoenix Sons.
One thought Keta Bates Jiop was going to be the fifth closer not on
the team anymore. Two thought Bonus thought Yusuf Nurkic would be incredibly unhelpful specifically
with this team because he's such a bad finisher. And I thought that the
way the roster was constructed with all these offensive guys together, he was going
to be put in a position where he was just going to be dared to
like finish inside against contests, and that hasn't really happened. And I underrated
his ability to pass the ball as a roller, like I knew that was
a thing. I didn't think that that would make if teams just said like
nope, you got to make laps because they can't make laps. They've worked
around that, just fine. I don't know, like if I hope you
have like more of a macro take on the Suns because mine were pretty narrow
and I they kind of finished around like where I thought they would be.
I wasn't super high on the three offensive stars together working out uh as somewhere,
but like I just have like smaller things. I don't. I don't
know that the Sons are in a vastly different position now than I would have
guessed. Uh So, I remember saying that twenty nine other NBA teams should
be sued for allowing to s wants to get you to want to nobby on
the minimum, and I think the macro take is I and you. I
know that you got cadabahd up wrong, but you induced more skeptical or viewed
it with more skepticism their minimum signings, I was all over. I was
still high on them, to be fair, but I was like, I
don't know why people were so worried. Like they have Eric Gordon, they
have Josh and Kobe, they have catabaits d op. They if you don't
want to nobby, they have all these different they they killed it and they
still did fine. But when your margin for error is just fought like like
so slim, you can't be just fine. You need to hit on more
of these than you did. I thought, NOAs little was actually going to
be a good productive edition for that missed on that I did not see.
But again this becomes a state like Grace and Allen turning into the league's best
three point shooter. And then also like he part of this was he didn't
have a choice, like he handled a lot defensively for them. I will,
in retrospect wonder because if you have a problem with where the Suns are
now, I still think you your initial problems with the Kevin Durant trade,
not the Bradley Beal trade. But it is kind of interesting of like like
should they have actually gone down that route still? And I think you ultimately
have to just because of the assets you gave up to get him are just
you never would have gotten that caliber player with them. Part of the problem
with that is he has no trade cloth. That's why he was available for
that price. And this is now you're heading into next season, which did
I say this you already? And I don't. I definitely didn't realize it
until it was something I saw. You have three of the sevenhighest paid players
in the NBA on your payroll. That is, you want to talk about,
well, how many stars can you fit on your roster in this new
CBA. It can't be three of the seven highest paid players, Like,
it can't be these guys who are on there, like third max is basically,
which is what the sons are kind of looking at, and or third
third deals, fourth deals, whatever ends up being. It's you need the
twenty five or thirty percent max sprinkled in there at some point, which they
don't have. But yeah, I think it's just I was way too high
on the work they did. They still did when you look at it.
The board's also are we impacted by the fact that, well, these dudes
are playing, but would they actually be playing on all these other teams?
And it's like some of them are playing. Drew Eubanks is playing out of
necessity, and maybe some would argue he's not, but like, so what
do you be playing on all these other on the court? He's been on
the court. So I was way too high on their minimum signings. Yeah,
that's fair. I think it was. It's easy to look at them
and say, like, those guys seem across the board like better than your
typical minimum signings. But that's not the same thing as saying like, therefore
they're totally adequate as like six, seventh, eighth, ninth guys. It's
like maybe they're you know, tenth, eleventh, twelve guys, and that
is you know, that turned out to be more of the case. I
do think it's interesting that like, whatever you thought about the Suns, you
got a piece of like the best outlook and the worst this year, Like
you saw some moments where like, oh my god, these guys cannot be
stopped, and then you saw and we will I think continue to see in
the playoffs, like the depth isn't here. If the talent's redundant, you're
super fucked long term, Like there's just nowhere to go from this, right,
Like you're saying three of the seven highest paid guys, like what,
so, who are you trading? Like and when? Because this isn't like
this isn't good enough and they're all getting Okay, what are we about?
Isn't it Kevin Durant trade request o'clock too? Right? It's been. How
many months has it been, like ten eleven? Whatever it is. You're
about to go on a little bit of a mini streak here I am.
We'll start with this. I mean this. We addressed this with Charlotte.
Portland is next Scoot Henderson was was wrong about Scoot being the best point guard
prospect since like whatever, Russell Westbrook, Dereck Rose, all those names and
others were thrown out there. I drank the kool aid. I saw him
and whatever that was that he just drink it. You made it well.
I was like, I just I just mainlined the powder. I didn't even
mix it with Lakewood. I just dry scooped it, dry scooped the kool
aid. Can you imagine it's Look, I'm with you. I'm not giving
up on the idea that Henderson can be like a really good player of franchise,
Cornerstone, whatever you want to say this. He was terrible this year,
just the least efficient, high volume shooter in the NBA. He ticked
up a little bit towards the end of the year when nobody was paying attention,
which is what Portland players do. They have these runs at the end
of dead seasons where it's like, oh, what about next year, so
you bite your tongue. Ryan Repeer is the real deal, right, Yeah.
I still like Shadon Sharp and he did this last year. And Anthony
Simons broke out two years ago and I like him too, But yeah,
the Scoot thing is just number one. I guess, like it's all of
a piece with the way the Lillard thing went down. But like, I
don't know what I necessarily got wrong about the Lillard thing. I think I
mean, the trade assets they got back in those exchanges ultimately look worse now
because Robert Williams didn't stay healthy and Brogden didn't stay healthy and like eight and
it's been terrible, So that's fall part of it. But like those were
like easy to easy to spot risks at the time, but just Scoot not
being what I thought. Look, in DeAndre Jordans' defense, he got better
once he stopped sleeping on a bed made of moncala beans and gravel. Sure
that helps. Nobody could get him on hips to like you need a decent
bed before that. That was not the blizzard stuff. I understand why people
think that's higher, Like that's a real one. The bed thing is one
of the stupidest things I've ever like that just should not have been an issue.
It defies belief. It's gotta be scooped for you, right, Like,
I mean, there's we could go other directions. I'm definitely more encouraged
by his clothes to the season. For sure. I did think I saw
like more stuff from Mattis Staible on offense than I thought I was ever really
gonna see. But I don't know if that's like the product of the environs
or if this is actually real because his three point shot was up and then
he kind of did the inverse where like fell off later in the season for
a Portland player. But yeah, I'm with you all right to money Kamara
was good. But if you paid any attention to Sun's Twitter before he was
traded. Every time the hot guys came on here during our look at it
and they were gutted that he was included in the in the bread that was
the eight and trade. Excuse me, yeah, all right, we got
the Kings next. I don't know, like what went. I'm trying to
think. This was a hard one for me because they were kind of similar.
Their offense was a little worse, their defense was a little better.
Uh, I guess like and Keegan Murray took a step like everybody kind of
hoped he would leap, Yeah, leap. What's between like he took a
took, he bounded. I don't know. Okay, I think I think
one. I think maybe we both I like this wrong. This clearly wasn't
the year and norm was last season the off season for them to go make
the all in like type of play where we said, why how could you
not go into this season more aggressively addressing some of your perimeter defensive concerns is
the answer, because they kind of understood like, well, maybe our offense
is on a little bit shit. Not that they could have seen the Kevin
Herder regression coming, but like, you know, the King and Murray defensive
bound that we're calling it the bound, sure jump, the spike, the
uptick. Uh, that's huge for them. And now the emergence of Kean
Ellis I think that kind of changes with it where it's like, oh,
maybe it doesn't need to make it all in, but like, can we
get a Caruso? Can we get a I mean, Michail Bridges would be
great for this team, doesn't Jeremy Grant make sense, but they clearly just
like they weren't there and now that you have more information on Keegan Murray,
maybe it'll help you get there. But like they're an interesting team because progress
isn't linear. But I would argue that while they have more information on what
they are, they didn't actually make a ton of progress. Yeah. I
think I said this about the Pelicans the other day when we record of like,
you know, you know a little bit more about the team now,
but you're kind of ultimately in the same spot you were with some of the
same questions like three years ago, And the way I feel about the Kings
right now today is a lot like how I felt about them at the end
of last year. And so it's just like, I don't know, Murray
getting better is huge, but like Sibonus having another underwhelming like performance as a
top guy with all the double doubles and all the numbers, just like and
you don't make the playoffs. Fox was Fox does this every year where like
he's better at a few things but worse at others, and it's just like
he can't he never makes like the full maybe he's already made the full leap,
but like it's just I don't like what's different today than a year ago
in terms of like how I would say I probably thought their defense this season
would be a lot worse in the macro, and I was even telling to
point out, like, well, look at how good they are getting set
on defense and like taking their opponents out of transition. So it's like a
weird space to be and where I'm not low on their future, but I
was. Remember I went on, I definitely destroyed them for the demoness I'm
and I'm higher someone who likes the bonus as the center talk about destroyed I.
I That's been my probably most number one thing I've caught and he caught
heat for is calling Sabonis the most overrated player in the league. That and
anything you say about the Pelicans. I feel like, but like I killed
the renegotiating extent and I'm going back in time, but I still do it.
And then just the use of cap space, but it was like they
maybe they just understood that not that this would be a gap year, but
this needed to be another information gathering season of will prove that internally we can
get better, which they did in something defensively and having the key on Ellis
stuff, the Keegan Murray bounding on better fo Yeah, and then like even
the Keegan Murray, just the different types of shot making he can do now
where his he does feel a little bit more turbulent, where it's I mean,
the play in was a perfect example where it's so in the first playing
game, where's he hit like twenty threes and then he he has a down
game the next So but that happens with three point variants his offensive portfolio.
It kind of it didn't do the whole Oh look what he did in summer
League in the desmon Vane is all of a sudden like a primary initiator.
It wasn't that, but he's having that is huge. But like I feel
if I'm like if I was in charge of this team, where I'm almost
relieved that they didn't go out at the deadline or over the offseason to make
this kind of big time swing relative to the rest of the West, but
also just where they are now, you kind of know, maybe you don't
even know the type of player that you need, but at least by waiting,
I think you've increased your well of options that you can go to.
And now you kind of understand, all right, well, Malik Monk had
this breakout season, we have his early bird rights, but is he gonna
get more than four and seventy eight and are we even going to be the
team that wants to pay him that much? That Kevin Herder regression pre shoulder
injury was real, is he someone who's less expensive? So you just have
more of this information, not that last season was a blow like this team
won when they went forty seven forty six games, like that's a legit that's
a legit team, but it's it's I oddly feel like they're in a more
complicated situation, probably because of the strength of the West in general moving forward,
But I think I guess where I'm at now is where I thought they
really need to consolidate into that one dude, it's like, you know what,
by maybe holding your powder and you have your pick now because you didn't
anticipate finishing in the lottery, so that Piciota Atlanta doesn't cumber things. Maybe
it's a series of trying to hit like singles and doubles on the trade market
where it's you know now, it's not you don't need just a wing defender
because you have Kegan Murray and Keaton Alis to help you out with that.
Could you get someone like an Alex Caruso who would have gotten anyway? I
want to be clear, because he could defend some fours, but you can,
you can try these different things and there's value in that. I just
don't know if that counts as enough progress, if that makes any weird sense.
Yeah, no, I think I just the Monk thing is. I
was going to ask you, like, well, they won I think they
won forty eight two years ago, in forty six. This year, like
I like four West is just like yeah, like forty seven feels about right
for next year, like they're gonna be in that range again, except I
think Monk really matters to this team. Uh. And I think they would
pay him that four for seventy eight, like in a heartbeat, and would
go way higher if they could. And I think I think someone else is
gonna pay them pay him more. And now, in addition to some of
the other issues you mentioned, like maybe the defense is sort of sturdier with
Ellis emerging and Murray getting better, but now it's like, oh shit,
we don't have shot creators after Fox and sabonus, Like, what so now
we got a new issue to solve. If you lose Monk, I think
Murray can. He's not gonna be the drive and kick stuff or driving past
stuff that drive and dish that Monk does. That's not really his thing.
But I think he can like offset some of the shot creation that you're good
not only just like missing from Monk, but if this is just the new
Kevin Herder, that's something to consider. So like you need Murray there.
It's a weird spot. I would still, I know, I said,
like maybe you don't consolidate, but like I'm putting everything I have on the
table absent Keegan Murray. Of course, the fact that you and the mckal
bridges discut maybe I think Murray, like if if you could get the like
say he played eighty two games, I don't know how many exactly he played,
but like whatever the top seven, like the top twenty one of those,
like the top quarter in terms of his like usage rate and like general
involvement in the offense, if that could be the baseline going forward, Like
he's gonna get more shots, he's gonna have the ball more, he's gonna
be involved in actions that are designed to like make him free, freed up
to do stuff like that. Like he doesn't even need to get better.
I think just the way that he's used like just needs to be the dials
got to turn up, because like, I think I would be almost more
encouraged if his three point percentage went down next year because he's taking like four
more threes a game or something like that. I think I think that's a
way to solve some of the monk stuff, assuming you lose him. But
yeah, I just will pick the Kings to be right around this good again
next year unless something drastic changes, and like now we know maybe that's good
enough for the playoffs and maybe it's not. Like so that's that's that's a
little underwhelming. We've spent a lot of time there, San Antonio. Uh
So I'm gonna try to stay away from the like didn't know Wemby would be
the greatest thing of all time, Kevin I will say, Kuros were saying,
remember everyone watches summ League performances and we're like, there's look at how
bad he was, And I came away for like this might be one of
the best players I've ever watched. Well, I distinctly remember because I was
like, Dan, you've got to like, this is the craziest thing you've
ever seen. And You're like, I didn't see his good game? Do
you remember this? Yeah? And I still agree with all that. I
saw a bad game and I left convinced that he was going to be the
greatest player of all time. So correct on that. How about this,
though, I think some of what I don't know maybe fueled some women Yama
optimism in terms of like the big, big picture is that all the Spurs
are the optimal environment for him, Like they're just they're run better than any
other organization. They've got this culture of winning, they're perfectly coached, they
make all the right decisions, they get the most out of everybody. And
some of the decisions we saw this organization make this year, like just put
the lie to that stance on them because the point guard stuff, the Swen
experiment, which we endorsed at the time, like why not, Well why
not is you should have had somebody there that was capable that you knew could
handle that position. They didn't put the they put the wrong They played him
at the wrong position to start the season. Zach Collins now looks like a
horrible fit and he just I think, is gonna have surgery again. I've
torn Laborham what don't quote me on the nature of the injury, but it's
like bad to worse, bad fit, bad contract. Now he's hurt.
I was wrong that I thought, like the Spurs are gonna set him up
to succeed better than any other franchise possibly could have. And just some of
those decisions where like they just they actively like got in the way of when
mien Yama being the best version of himself culturally, why like in terms of
like the organizational culture and like the no nonsense and like get over yourself stuff.
I think that's all still there. So that's great, but just like
tactically, a lot left to be desired this year that I didn't see there.
That's the thing that I missed out. I thought the Jeremy seller and
experiment at Point Guard, even if it wasn't the answer, I thought it
was going to work, and then it was just awful, and they stuck
with it for so long. They're gonna be tested on their willingness to pivot
because when min Yama is one of the fifteen that he's gonna be one of
the ten to fifteen best players in the league next year. You're now obligated
to operate on a more immediate timeline. And are they going to be willing
to do that? Their their kind of ability to, like I said,
pivot, and what you're sort of saying is, yeah, okay, culture,
this stuff is still there. But do they recognize that they have this
alien who might be one of the best players of all time, is in
his prime right now, like we're like ready to win right now. How
they react to that is gonna is like a question I have and you shouldn't.
We always would have had that because of how conservative the Spurs tend to
play it. But I feel less easy about that conservatism than I ever have.
Yeah, I think that's fair. All right, your turn the Toronto
Raptors. I want to talk about whether the pick should convey or not,
if they should have wanted the pick to convey Our discord members will get what
that's what that's about. I want to talk about Yakam Pearl trade. No,
I'm just that they'll get what that's about. So I'll do two things,
because they're both sort of quick. I never thought that they would trade
both og and Obi and Pascal Siakham. I probably was, I guess the
right call. I'm looking at their roster now and like man og would look
really nice on this team, but he wouldn't have gotten RJ and emanual quickly
if you don't give up og at Anobi. I was surprised. I thought
they would have gotten more for Siakam. I just never thought they would have
moved both of them. Part of that maybe I was overcorrecting for how they
handled Kyle Lowry Fred Van Vliet. But so I think making that decision ripping
off the band aid, did they handle it perfectly? Absolutely not. They
should have made those decisions sooner. Probably the other thing that I got wrong
RJ Barrett. I was never out on him. You know, I flip
flopped a lot. He's finishing at the rim in Toronto. It feels real
because I never would have Here's what I would have gotten wrong. If you
told me that he was shooting seventy two percent at the rim over a thirty
two game sample size, which by the way, is like fifteen percent above
his career average for me to believe that it was real, and you had
to tell me the team that he was on, the Raptors wouldn't have been
in my top ten guesses just because the way their spacing works. They did
a great job of getting him kind of acting with momentum, with intention before
he ever got the ball, and giving him sort of those head starts,
and I think he was able to shine in that, and it makes me
believe that, well, if he was able to do this, send in
some lineups that still weren't great with floor spacing, like the floor balance,
what is he gonna do when they eventually open it even more as I assertainly
will as time goes on. So I am a believer in the utility that
Barrett has on this Raptor squad. I don't think the three point shooting is
necessarily get a hold. That's a bid they are seeing that movie. But
I'm definitely was not as high as I should have been on his offensive fit.
My favorite thing I one of my favorite things I read this year was
about how like it wasn't even like an article, It was just someone referencing
like, maybe RJ. Barrett is just better because there aren't like three to
four other left handed players on the court with him all the time, and
like he did. The driving lanes he wants are not occupied by guys trying
to go to the same spot. I don't think there's really anything to that,
but that's my fun thing of like, you can't have too many lefties
or nothing works, they all suffer. There's probably some validity, but I
think it really to me just based off what I saw and there people probably
watched them more than I did. The momentum away from the ball feels like,
yeah, right, I had. The movement away from the ball made
it made all the difference in the way. It's more that, But it's
just funny to me to think, like there might be executives out there thinking
like, well, shit, we already got two left handed players on the
roster. This guy's really good, but we just can't act. We can't
do it. We all have too many lefties, all right, I have
the Utah Jazz next. I think the main thing is I'm not sure I
saw such a purposeful tank coming towards the end of the year, because they
the narrative last year was they they waited too long and maybe cost themselves when
min Yama and like just weren't in. Maybe didn't make the right assessment of
the roster and then didn't pivot quickly enough when it turned out that the team
was just better than they thought it was. This year was much more like
the leash was way shorter on you guys are allowed to compete and then we're
gonna hamstring you. And injuries had a hand to play in that too,
But like I think I thought they would just do the same thing where it's
like, we'll see how good the team is and then you know, whatever
happens happens, and we'll tank late if we need to. It happened earlier
this year. The other small thing I really thought last year one of my
favorite things to go to in just in discussing like how potentially disastrous the Rudy
Gobert trade was for the Wolves, is that, like Walker Kessler was one
of the pieces they gave up, and like there were a bunch of numbers
that showed Kessler was from a defensive impact standpoint, yeah, pretty close to
as good as Gobert. Don't trust tiny samples. Kessler, I do think
still is one of the better defensive bigs in the league. Has a super
bright future in that regard. He just wasn't nearly as good, was not
like anywhere near. That just comes down to how they like limited his use
though. Yeah, really one of the most valuable rim protectors statistically in the
league. Yeah, he just but he wasn't like his I think he was
ninety fourth in defensive estimated plus mind ninety fourth percentile in DPM last year he's
like top quartile. Still he's like seventy eighth this year. His block rate
actually went up to your point, So like they just didn't use him as
much. I thought Kessler had the chance to be like no questions asked defensive
cornerstone is one of those like if you have him, your top seven defensively
with anybody else may still get there. But didn't didn't do that this year.
I think I remember, and I think I was talking to you about
it. Whereas we need to brace ourselves for like lowry markin market inefficiency to
fall off. And I was citing some of the stuff that happened after the
trade deadline last year, and like they're not going to have this traditional organizer
and they still didn't like it was Comin Sexton, it was Jordan Clarkson,
it was Keante George, it was like Chris don was getting minutes. It
was just like, no, like he's just gonna spit out another season of
shooting an astronomical clip from deep pitting fifty five plus percent of his twos.
He's this blend of like kind of a play finisher but also a wing and
give you a little bit of creation, and he could play the three or
the four. And it was we both recognized that he he deserved to win.
I had Sga my most improved player last year, but he didn't not
deserve to win it. So I was I was just wrong, Like,
oh no, this is just going to translate to a situation that I think
you could argue relative to how he started last year. And what we saw
last year was definitely not as ideal. Yep. Yeah, our final team,
our favorite team, the Washington Wizards. What was I wrong about with
them? This is one that I struggled on and I think I have to
go here, even though it's not gonna be I thought Jordan Bole was gonna
be awful. There. You held out hope. You're like, you're like,
oh, he's gonna make an All Star team. Don't trade him for
SGA, Like where's he going with this? I don't think I even understood
as someone who was higher on him than a consensus. How good their two
most important players are actually gonna be. And that's Blaakool Bali and Denny Aubdia.
And you know I was entranced by blackcool Bali coming in the defensive Polish
is just there. He is disruptive, he fights. He's not like super
strong looking, but he will handle some some of like these bigger, burlier
covers if he needs to. I like his motor in transition, and I
think that he shot the three ball well enough to make me believe that,
you know, the driving room is gonna open up and he'll get his hand
a little bit more under control. And then the thing that I might have
been even more wrong about Dennyavia And you know I love Denny Avia. I
said he was one of the most underrated players in the league. He was
easily their most underrated player. He aftered the most improved player discussion, and
there was more a great from him inside the arc. Better playmaking in those
situations. Still doesn't take as many threes as you want. He's hitting them
at a better clip, though, And it's also kind of who the fuck
cares when he's doing everything else. And he even kind of like quietly ratcheted
up his defensive workload and his performance this season. And so had they given
him more offensive responsibility or this level offensive responsibility from the jump, and I
probably should Maybe I'm speaking out of a turn. I really should have dug
into the touches and usage numbers, but I just don't. I didn't really
see that shifts from him until more so in the middle of the year.
He might have won Most Improved Player. Maybe maybe the Wizards wouldn't have been
good enough, but just looking at when Jalen Johnson and Scottie Barnes weren't eligible,
maybe he always would have gravitated towards Tyrese Maxie, who seems like he's
gonna win it. Kobe White comes on, Albert Shangun is there, But
he played like this for like another ten or fifteen or twenty games, like
he might have been my pick. Yeah, no, I think he made
a jump that was kind of like, it's not quite the Kobe White,
like, is he a rotation guy on a decent team to like, Oh
no, he's a starter on a He can be a starter on a good
team. Like I think Avdia went from like we like a lot of the
defense. We still have some questions too. He's at least a rotation guy
on a good team, and this trending towards like you would start him almost
any place, which is like that. Maybe that's all. I don't know
if that's a harderly, but it's it's the size is about the same.
For me, it was cool, I like real quick, like I knew,
I knew he would be inefficient. I just thought, like he's getting
you twenty seven, He's just gonna go off. He's gonna take the most,
he might take the most shots in the league. He's gonna shoot you
know, thirty three percent from three and like forty two percent from the field.
He would be like a like a vintage like iverson season minus the free
throw attempts where it's like he's getting he's averaging how much and he's like,
you know, true shooting percent and it is like way below the league average.
We just got all the bad and none of the good. Like the
volume wasn't there, and the efficiency sure as hell wasn't there, and the
defense was like criminal basically. So there's there's also by the way I would
have bet this is this. I guess this is really the thing we got
wrong. I can't believe it didn't have that. I would have bet an
o'bseeening amount of money that not all three of Jordan Pool, Kyle Kuzma,
and Tias Jones finished the season as Wizards, especially the Kuzma Tias Jones won
the Pool. I've looked at that contract and like, okay, all of
them finishing is wild. And then very quickly Tristian Vuksovich, I feel like
he's gonna be good being wrong about that because I do nothing about him until
he really came into the league and started logging. Said it's just like,
I don't know, look at some of the spacing, some of the passing,
even some nice hands and slidding his feet on defense. I don't know,
man, the center of the future. That's why you traded Daniel Gafford.
You knew you had Vuksovic and Marviy Magley, who people are trying to
talk to themselves into by the end of the year for the Wizards. Don't
do that. It will only bring you pain. Yeah, that's it,
right, we did you want to you want to take us out of here.
Sure, everybody, Thanks thanks for bearing with us as we meeta culpland
for close to two hours. Uh, you know we're gonna what are we
if not accountable? We've we've we've just seed NBA. We're number one sports
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