What is krack Alac and fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Albino Dennis Rodman
coming at you with my fan fabulous, certified, fantabulus co host mister Grant
Hughes. Before we get started, we're gonna dig into our biggest questions that
we each have for the rest of the NBA season coming out of the All
Star Break. The quick reminder, the usual reminder. Subscribe to us wherever
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some reason the link isn't working. But it is working, so check out
that link. Grant, how the heck are you doing? I'm doing very
well. Dan. How are you today? They didn't ask you last time
we recorded. I'm doing fantastic. I'm excited because we get to record this
and I'm not going to publish it for like a day or two, and
I know that there's no chance of being outdated. Hashtag NBA All Star Break
is kind of dope. It doesn't really matter what we talk about. There's
a great chance that some percentage of it's going to be outdated, because that's
just how the league works. Basically. That's fair. This will be posting
on Friday, so there will have been games by that point, so maybe
I spoke too soon. We'll pretend that those games are not going to happen
as we discuss these questions, which for mine, I don't know about you.
We have not given these to each other ahead of time, so there'll
be some surprise. They'll be all surprises. I'm not asking about any games,
so you're welcome for that. Yeah, this is big picture shade anyway.
So one game if you see it isn't gonna change it. Do you
want to do you want to start us off? I'm like, I'm at
the edge of my seat. Oh God, and you're already you're overselling.
You have to undersell, Okay, So I'll give you the first one.
So which team outside the bottom four, which I'm calling Houston, the Spurs,
Detroit and Charlotte pretty non controversial bottom four. These are our tankers.
Which team from outside that group is most likely to shut down veteran stars and
kind of lean all the way into We're gonna get into the mix here for
one of these top four lottery odds spots. So I mean I could give
you some of the possible candidates you've got, like Chicago, Indiana, Orlando
in the East. The West is a little trickier because basically everybody that's not
San Antonio or Houston is gonna try to win games. But if you had
to pick one who's gonna mail it in, I think it is it wrong.
I'm gonna say Indiana that I just feel like we could see them because
Tyris Haliburton is gonna fall out of the NBA discussion, maybe because at the
time he already missed, and you can just kind of you know you're gonna
be awful without him. You shut down, and sure, yeah you're not
gonna have top four lottery odds, but you get the top five, like
you could very easily usurp the magic there, like you're already too far away
from the Hornets. You're nine losses better than them right now. So I
think that might be my pick. Is that off? Is that off the
wall? I know that that's not really there like Jam, but it's almost
kind of just like, well, we're sort of here organically, and now
we go into next summer or this summer with another high draft pick, Tyres
Haliber and Benedick Math and Miles Turner locked down, and we still have those
two picks from Boston and Cleveland as well, and a whole bunch of caps
based Still, yeah, I think certainly that would be the team of the
options available that we sort of or most. I think they're over under for
wins was twenty three and a half. They're twenty six right now. Like
to mail it in now would just be getting back to like what everybody sort
of thought they were going to do. And I'd say if any of these
teams excluding the Magic has a reason to shut down, like a really important
young player to avoid risking injury. It's for sure Indiana and Terris Haliburton right,
like they were what one and nine in that ten game Stretchy missed after
that ugly fall, so they just like, we know we're nothing without him,
so if we're not playing for anything else, like he's the guy to
rest for me. The pick, the pick I would like it to be
is Chicago just because of how fun it would be to imagine, like the
tension of all right, we don't want to make this pick too good because
if Orlando gets it and they pick fifth, like that's terrible. I don't
know if you should care about this, but the Bulls might. But if
we could get into that top four, Like how bad do we have to
go? Oh and whatever to get into the top four, because the Bulls
right now have twenty six wins, so yeah, like that's nine clear of
Charlotte, so tough to do. But I think the Bulls would be a
really interesting like, oh, Zach Lavine's not gonna play anymore. Uh,
Lonzo Ball's already out for the season, And that news came out a couple
of days ago. Uh, let's just let's just chill out and see how
bad we can get and hope we look into keeping our picks something out with
that top four protection that would be a fascinating like you like, man,
they won't do it. They won't do it. To be clear, it's
too if they were gonna do it, it's too late because like you,
you just don't if you were gonna be able to get in the like bottom
four of records to where you're at least there's a coin toss, you're keeping
your pick, but now you'd almost have to settle for the fifth worst record
at best, but maybe even like the sixth worth right, Yeah, low
pay out there. So my question is which, which team that was supposed
to just be what? What's gonna go down is the biggest disappointment of this
season. And I'm specifically looking at a team that's not going to make the
play in or not make the playoffs that was just supposed to be there.
And so the names that I'm immediately thinking of, the Warriors, the Timberwolves.
I don't include the Lakers because I don't know who's really disappointed by them,
but also the who did I say the Warriors, the timber the Blazers
like have to go down as a pretty massive disappointment. I don't think there's
anybody in the East that maybe the Pelicans, I think, if you want
to loop them into there, but that's also a West like because they are
still look, the Pelicans really do losses in front of the eleventh page place
Jazz. So those are basically I just named the entire Western Conference player infield
right now. But the Blazers, the Warriors, the Timberwolves, the Pelicans,
those are kind of who I'm looking at as the biggest disappointment in the
East. It's just like if the Balls don't make the play in that was
just never like you know, yeah, yeah, I think I was actually
looking back at some of the over under wind totals and like our projections for
the standings we did several months ago, and so based on that, for
me, Minnesota would clearly It's like I think I had Minnesota being like third
in the West with like fifty two or fifty three wins or something like that,
and that you know, I don't think they're gonna miss the play in
round, but like they're just nowhere near the regular season team I thought they'd
be. I think we both agreed that, like the Gobert acquisition came with
some playoff questions, but at least for you know, the eighty two games
during the season, he was just going to be a defense onto himself.
This was gonna be a top five defense, top ten for sure, easily,
and the offense would just work. And Town's being hurt, I guess
like gives you some cover there, for gives me cover for missing that prediction
so badly, right, But it's still like you don't trade your whole draft
for the next half decade plus and get worse, which is like very much
a possibility right now. And at the very least, it's a disappointment that
they're not, you know, for sure a top four team in the West,
top three, let alone top three, which is where I thought they
might be going into the playoffs. We were both up thirdly high on them,
leading we had questions about their playoff viability. Their defense been good when
Rudy Goberts on the floor, their offense, you know, we can say
that Town's missing him has been part of the disappointment, and they were a
little bit better before the trade deadline. Only. They then traded one of
their most efficient players at the trade deadline and DiAngelo Russell, who was having
lack of a stretch in Like the first three games with Mike Conley haven't looked
particularly great. How long does that take them to integrate him? But like
the offense with Towns, Edwards and Gobert on the court this season is ranked
in the eighth percentile of efficiency for cleaning the glass. It's hard to even
understand how that's possible. And Mike Conley's after is gonna come in and shake
use that right? Well, just normal regression is going to change that to
some extent. But like, I mean, when's Town's coming back? Do
we even know yet? I feel like the hope is like with ten to
fifteen games remaining in the season, Yeah, there's not even a lot of
time to I think. So my pick, I think the Timbers are a
good pick. I just feel like they're still going to probably make the play
in I am a little bit more nervous about the Pello Kims. I came
closer to choosing them than I thought I was. I'm going with the Blazers
because you don't get to say that you're on Damian Lillard's timeline and then fucking
sell basically at the deadline. I think when you look at just the net
aggregate value that they got all of their assets, it's fine, but it's
still sort of like a Damian Lillard's timeline my ass situation, like there's so
little about what they're doing is inspiring. They're trying to rebuild around two undersized
guards again, like we haven't seen that movie before, only you have a
worse version of use of Nurkics who I don't know if it's because he was
trying to play through an injury like leading into the to the All Star break,
but like we saw his minutes start to decline while he was again he
eventually got sidelined with that calf injury. He was trying to play through it.
Like, what, you're gonna go pay Jeremy Grant twenty five almost thirty
million dollars a year, Is it a guarantee he comes back? I would
say probably yes, if they're willing to pay him. But if you don't,
that's even a bigger disaster. But to not even be like right now,
they have to like leap frog two teams to get inside the play in,
and so are they going to be better than the Jazz, Thunder Warriors,
Timberwolves, and Pelicans. Which of those two teams are you gonna jump?
Maybe the Jazz because they're clearly not interested in now, But oh hey,
the Lakers are right behind you, and they look a little bit better
on paper, so it's almost like fending off three teams. It's just I
liked their team on paper this year, and I'm not saying they were supposed
to be a title contender, But you looked at this roster saw you were
so far below not sorry, you were below five hundred outside playing territory,
and did jack shit at the trade deadline to bump up your immediate ceiling.
And yeah, I get that you were assets strapped in part because neiloshe traded
that one pick protected until the end of time to Chicago, But there had
to be other moves on the tables. Is this franchise It doesn't whether it's
Neil o'shay or Cronin, Like I'm tired of watching them aim for these singles
and doubles or fucking walks at this point, like you have to go for
the triple or the home run and that's just a massive disappointment. And yeah,
okay, maybe Tieble or Reddish kind of pans out as a keeper.
They're not going to change the tide or the tenor of your season here,
and so I recognize that, like maybe they weren't good enough to significantly level
up, but then you should have picked a more wholesale direction where it's like,
if you actually believe in this corps shade and Sharp's name should have been
linked to someone over the dead one. The fact that he seemed untouchable and
Ogana Nobi talks was wild, or we should have heard more about, oh
you wanted to shop use of Narks Okay, fucking cool. Nobody wants that
contract at this point. Why didn't we hear more about trying to pivot with
Anthony Simons. That's a player that I think would be fairly coveted. So
they're just so uninspiring to me. Yeah, I think they're distinct from We've
talked about Minnesota and you mentioned New Orleans because I think those two teams can
look at this year however it ends, and say, well, like we
had you know, Gobert was harder to integrate than we thought, and Town's
got hurt, and you know, there's all this other stuff, and the
Pelicans can say, like everybody was hurt and we're really young, and if
we do not thing, we can come back next year and like either Minnesota
or New Orleans could be have home court advantage in the first round series,
you know, in twenty twenty four. Totally plausible. If the Blazers don't
change anything, what are you hoping for? Like Shaden Sharp levels up,
like that's you know, if Simons learns to play tries to play defense,
like once, like what are your what are your sort of what is going
to soothe the ache of like being eleventh in the West, you know,
like where's your upside, where's your where's your path out? I don't know
where that is for Portland. That's that's the difference I think, and and
why they're a good pick. I have a question for you, unrelated to
the Trailblazers, probably unless you go in a weird direction, what is the
most impactful injury for any player that's hurt right now for the rest of this
season? So like not oh, who's screwed because this player's hurt, Like
the way the injury shakes out like how long this person's out, the difference
the team, the difference in the team with and without this person, I'll
just give in mind. To me, it's Steph Curry. That's like the
most boring answer of all time. But like that's to me, is the
one that I think is going to change or have the most potential to impact.
Like, I don't know the playoff race. You know who makes the
conference finals if you really want to get crazy with it, But there's so
many others. I'm curious what you think is gonna be, Like this injury
is going to have these these massive ripple effects. I actually think it's Zion
Williamson's injury and just sort of the open ended timeline. The Pelicans have been
so bad since he went down. I think the last time he played was
January second, and in that time they've had basically the league's worst offense.
We haven't seen their three point a tenth rate uptick. And so this idea
that, oh, well, like Zion just put so much pressure on the
basket, that's why you're not shooting threes. No, that's actually not the
issue here. So they're twenty fifth in offense during his apps in seven and
sixteen, they've been about league average defensively during that time. If you don't
know when he's coming back, and you're in playing territory right now with no
guarantee of still being there. By the way, like I said before,
there are two losses in front of the eleventh place Utah Jazz, there are
three losses ahead of the thirteenth place Los Angeles Lakers, And so to not
have him right now when Bi's been playing well and that yet you're still losing
games, it's wildly unsettling because let's just say he comes back, there's only
like ten or fifteen games left of the season. Yeah, the margins in
the West are so thin that there's time to get some separation or secure But
what does he look like come back from another lower body injury? And so
I guess I'm just of the mind like Steph Curry's gonna come back and be
Steph Curry and the Warriors are gonna get into the playoff. But like,
if you tell me that, like Steph isn't coming back within a week or
two after the All Star break, then maybe it becomes the Warriors sneakily,
It could be honest with the rist injury. That was like very like he'll
play again when the pain subsides. And the Honest is the guy who's like,
well, it's like he dunked with the wrist injury already in the All
Star Game. So but I think it's on, Williams said, because we're
already seeing just like the Warriors have kind of treadwater without Steph, the Pelicans
have drowned yea without an ion. I throw into we're an Anthony Davis or
Lebron you know, two week absence away from the Lakers. Just well,
it was all cool that you tried, but you're not making the plant.
You know, you're totally out of the plan. Mixed too that those are
those are hypotheticals. But are they hypothetical like based on the age and history
of those two guys respectively. Oh yeah, I mean, I honestly don't
know. My My question to you is who is the title favorite? My
title favorite is the Celtics. But I've been increasingly before the Honest injury,
thinking about going back to Milwaukee because, as we've said, for most of
the year, we have no notes for the Bucks. There have been notes
intermittently, but those are my two the West. I don't like, you
know, any of Denver or Phoenix more than either of those two East teams.
So I think I'll go Boston. They need to get healthy. They
are the only team coming out of the All Star Break that's in the top
seven of both offensive defense. Yeah. I mean, it's not like a
wild out there pick. I just think I feel like, and this is
another there's no staff for this, but it just sort of feels like it's
time for the Celtics. Like they've been, you know, to conference finals
what in like four of the last six years, a couple wins away.
Last year ran into a Dynastic Warriors team like could have been a lot of
the other teams they might have faced in that finals. They just they're at
the right age range. It's just like it just feels like if the Celtics
are going to bust through, like this is kind of this feels about right
for it to be this year. To me, I'm with you, except
I think that Milwaukee is there has to be the title favorite. The Yaun's
injury changes that a little bit, and the Nuggets were my title pick.
I just don't have questions about the Bucks, and we've seen it they're coming
off that twelve game, they're on the twelve game winning streak, seeing what
they can do in their big threes on the court, you're at Jay crowd
or who can really only help you? Meyers Leonard. What a Bantner addition
by them, He's really going to have this huge impact on that ten day.
I think that their half court offense worries me, but like there's a
lot of variability in Boston's offense as well, and so like the fact that
there's variability in Milwaukee's offense isn't a huge deal to me. I would say,
like, yeah, you can trust Boston in the half court more.
But like Milwaukee's defense I think has like this just smothering gear right now,
and maybe Boston's does as well too, So it's between them. I think
I just trust I'm defaulting too. Oh, this this team has gianness will
be the best player in any given playoff series. But it is a weird
thing to say, because I do think and maybe it's not because we've seen
Boston just commit turnovers when they're under pressure or not go through their their entire
offense, But it feels like Boston's offense is more playoff proof. Maybe I'm
just have the finals tattooed to memory where we saw them just kind of so
discombobulated on that end of the floor. Yeah, I was just gonna say
that for all, it's nice that we're back to no notes for the Bucks.
I'm glad we made it full circle. I think that that is the
real difference between the offensive struggles that both Boston and Milwaukee can kind of find
themselves in, where you know, Boston turned it over fifteen percent of the
time against the Warriors in the finals, which is just like that's worse than
the Rockets this year. That's just like an obscenely high turnover rate. So
the Celtics can just like totally come unglued and Marcus Smart will throw passes into
the stands and like nothing works and it's just like a disaster. The Bucks
are like the Bucks struggle offensively, but it's different. It's like the Gears
grind and nothing's no there's no space. But then it's just like, well,
Jannie runs into four people and he gets free throws, like they're they're
they're solved for their offensive issues. Is like just cleaner, because it sometimes
seems like the Celtics just don't know which way is up, whereas the Bucks
can just kind of be like, give it to that dude. He'll go
run into people and we'll get you know, two cracks at like a sixty
four percent free throw. And it feels like the Bucks's offense is a bell
weather good or bad for how the rest of the game is played, where
if their offense becomes a slog, the entire game is this rock fight.
It doesn't always feel that way with Boston, right well, because the way
that they look bad create transition chances for the other team and then it just
snowballs. That's like that, that's a big distinction for them, all right,
I gotta I gotta more of a niche one for you. Can you
give me a reason that Russell Westbrook's tenure with the Clippers will be meaningfully different
and therefore like somehow positively impactful than it was with the Lakers. Look,
the theory of if it make Russell Westbrook work is to surround him in an
environment with four shooters in which he's also insulated defensively. The Clippers can absolutely
do that, okay, And it just so happens that two of the people
that helped do that. Are these A plus wings. It's like you could
technically run pick and roll with them, or you could have Russet screens for
them, but we get to a point where he brush just never set screens.
And so this theory of him doing that, him upping the pace of
your offense. Their offense hasn't been the issue for them over the past month
or whatever it's been. They've actually had more problems with like rim protect them
their defense and there's been some unlucky opponent three point shooting there as well.
But like, I think it's just the setup around him. But I'm also
the pathway here is Rush chose this place. While his options may have been
limited, he hasn't chosen where he's been since he resigned that extension in Okay,
see Washington, Houston. I guess he that kind of chows, but
not really. And then the Lakers, I guess, like, yeah,
he wanted to be there, So you could say that he han't picked at
least two of those situations, but like now he's choosing to be here,
and so there has to be no allusions as to what his role is going
to be. However, I will say I'm concerned in the sense that we
had the Athletics Law Murray reporting that Russ is expected to start, which is
just like, if you're replacing Terrence Man that lineup, that's that's fucking wild.
And maybe we'll know the answer to that by the time this publishes.
But I it's this roster more than Houston's because they had Quinckapela at the time.
They had to go remember trade Quinckapela basically because Russ was there more than
Washington, more than Lakers, more than the Thunder at the time. Is
does set up for Russell Westbrook to be and what should be his ideal capacity
right now? Do I believe that that's that it's going to work out?
No, I wouldn't have made the signing. I ouldenly believe that good or
bad, he's not going to move the needle enough for this to matter.
I was surprised at how many people acted like he was going to be guaranteed,
like twenty seven plus minutes a game, Terrence Mann was ever going to
see the floor again. Neither Aaron Eric Gordon. We'll have to see how
it pans out. I wouldn't say I'm hopeful, but I do think that
they're that again, that's the path I don't like. It's just the four
shooters, two of them are these A plus Superstar wings, and he's insulated
defensively, So this just shouldn't look terrible. Yeah. No, that's a
really good answer for an impossible question. It's almost rhetorical because like it's implied
that this will not be meaningfully different, and obviously that's where I would default
to. That's why I asked it. But I do think even if this
is where it's sorry to be so negative about it, but like even if
you're right, and I think there's a chance you are, because this is
the right this is a way better roster than he's been on given his limitations.
Now, the problem is, certainly if you're going to start him,
you still just can't play him in the playoffs like forget you know, the
finals or the crunch time or whatever. It's just any halfway decent playoff defense.
We'll just not guard him, We'll just sag off. We'll just and
like, congrat great if Russ if you want to attack and cook and try
to beat us, that just means Kauai is not isolating in the midpost.
That just means Paul George isn't running picking rolls or coming off pindict like it's
it's just a win for a defense in the playoffs, at Russell Westbrook is
involved in the game. And so it's the same argument that made the Lakers
thing ultimately so stupid, which was that if your goal is to win a
championship, you've added a player that cannot help you in the games that matter
in that effort, Like he just he shouldn't be out there. He will
hurt the team if he's doing normal Russell Westbrook stuff, even in a better
situation. So like, I just think there's a chance regular season it could
look better, But in the games that the Clippers actually care about or should
care about, he's just like he's a non factor at best probably, and
then at worst he's actually doing damage. Would you give them and the oddsmakers
have already given them a worst chance of winning the title since they added him,
would you actually lower their title odds based off the addition of Russell Westbrook?
Can we talk about how wild that is? Like that that because that's
yes, it's just saying you believe that if it doesn't go well, Tyler
was still just gonna play him right right, which, like I don't know,
maybe I think. I don't think I would lower them because I would
just hope that what happens is he is a non factor. And it's not
like it's not like, well he took men that we're going to go to
Reggie Jackson and John Wall who would have been helpful. It's like, that's
not it. It's just a little Terrence Man will just play and then that'll
be They'll be fine. That's that's that's how I would look at it.
My question to you, which deadline acquisition non Kevin Durant division is going to
have the biggest, most material impact on their team for the rest of the
year. The trade deadline was so long ago, I can't even remember what
the big trades were. That's like half half of a joke. So we
can't use Kevin Durant. Who else did something of consequence? Denver didn't do
anything, Memphis didn't do anything. You want to hear my answer me,
give me a couple at least, Well, so what's the phrasing of your
question? Because I want to go to have the biggest impact. I didn't
specify whether it be positive or negative. But okay, I have mine.
Then it's it's the Kyrie Irving trade because of the fallout. We've talked about
it before, Like I think we both agree that the defensive give back in
lou using Phinney Smith and the pick doesn't matter except for the part I'm about
to get to. The matters might not be better on balance this year for
the rest of the year, and then you have Kyrie Irvan could leave or
worse, Kyrie Irvan could resign, and now you're tethered to this guy who's
gonna come up with reasons to not be available or be difficult or otherwise sabotage
year team chemistry, so that in starting to impact the the taken to its
full like extent. The impact of that trade is Luca don Chich wants out
of Dallas at some point, like sooner than maybe he otherwise did. So
that's what I'll go with. I think Diangel Russell in LA just because he's
played really well this year for most of it, like hitting his pull up
threes, hit his catch and shoot threes. I think that if you just
let him run pick and roll with Anthony Davis like, he's going to be
a fine maestro for that you can. I don't want to say he can
insulate him defensively, but just like you have Anthony Davis there and so and
maybe Jared Vanderbilt as well, and so I think he's gonna end up being
big for the non Lebron minutes, especially when he's playing with AD. I
think he's gonna be big to open up the floor for the Lakers in general
during their top end minutes. And I just I think I never thought i'd
beat a point where I'm higher on D'Angelo Russell than consensus, but I think
we've reached it because people just kind of rid it off. It's like,
oh, it's fine that the Wolves traded him for Mike Conley, and I'm
sort of just like, you know, it might not be like Mike Conley's
olds, and it's okay, that's chemistry with Gobert and his body language might
be better, but like D'Angelo Russell is higher ceiling at this point, and
that gives the Lakers just more of this debtonative nature where, yeah, I
guess things could technically go poorly because there's variability in his performance as well,
But if you're looking to actually make the play in and you have to finish
ahead of three teams that are in front of you. Right now, it
actually feels like this was a pickup that leaves you equipped enough to do that,
because I think he helps you in so many different ways on offense that
I don't think that people are giving enough credit to. Yeah, I think
that's that's fair. Russell is kind of a I don't know, divisive figure.
I guess because he does. He does a handful of things really well
like he is. I do like how he runs picking rolls and how he
can you know, pin defenders on his back and just slow down and play
at the pace that he wants to. That's like a real that's a real
skill that you know. Maybe his you know, effort and certainly his defense
for long stretches like just isn't there. But I would like to think that
he's kind of in the perfect spot, like both in terms of his age,
where he's at in his career, like his skill level, and his
position with the Lakers where it's like you're the point guard, You're the third
best player though, so like you can go get yours when we need it,
but really you just kind of need to make this offense run functionally,
and we have length and you know, enough good defenders behind you on the
back line to sort of survive. Like it's sort of it takes a lot
of like Okay, this makes sense, that makes sense, this will work
like that that actually does that. That is going to have a have a
significant impact because I think like he kind of his positioned to be like the
best version of himself because of the surrounding talent and just like what he'll be
asked to do. And like now it's well, the Lakers clearly have like
a third guy. You know, he's maybe a low end third guy or
not a perfect third guy, but if you're going from Westbrook to him,
it's not a one to one trade. But like Westbrook was not the third
guy, but Russell I think definitely can be. Let's see, oh I
got this is gonna be in your wheelhouse here. How do you Dan or
a Pelicans fan, how do you feel right now relative to what you thought
about New Orleans in the preseason or even what you thought. I mean,
this makes it harder when they were like, oh my god, they're first
in the West and then their second in the West, Like just where are
you at? In your sort of enthusiasm or belief, like like bar graph
or like a rolling rolling average chart. You know, because it was pretty
high and there's still a lot of positives that you would take from this season,
but it's not going to end. I don't think quite as as happily
as it maybe seemed like it was. But like, long term, your
outlook on the Pelicans is different in what way from what it was preseason or
during the year earlier. Okay, so long term outlook, how do you
feel if you're a Pelicans fan right now? I guess is this the shrunk
down version of that question? I think you should probably feel unsettled because it's
just long term. I think you just look at it's like, oh,
they still have all these tools to make trades. Trey Murphy has shown so
much this season, you have diced and Daniels just has not played a ton.
But you notice the defensive ceiling could be you still have brandon Ingram.
There's so many options for them on the table, but you aren't getting to
a point where you're expecting the organization I guess to go into the luxury tax
because you have all this talent. But if that talent doesn't get part laid
into like an actual payoff Berth because Zion is injured again and it makes you
wonder, like, how do you flesh out the rest of this team?
Like to scale ahead that if you just can't count on Zion playing in more
than like how many games during any given regular season he's gonna be at right
now, he's at twenty nine games. You might get he's getting forty.
I don't think you know. Yeah, so if you can't, if you
can only count on him to play in half of your games every season,
but can you even that's fine? If well, can we also count on
him to be available in the playoffs? You don't know? I am so
if I scaled this on a one to ten, I was probably like a
nine point five on the Pelicans future. I'm more like a soft eight point
two at the moment because the Zion bugaboo is just it's there now, and
it's like we had the question of would you rather have Zion or John Moran?
You're not even allowed to ask that anymore in my mind, and this
has come from someone who picks Zion. Yes, you can't ask that because
John Moran is on the court more and Zion is not, and it sucks
because we've seen what this team can be with him. But I also feel
like they've kind of have hedged and have not really doubled down on what they
might need most around him, where it's like, hey, you need more
higher volume, functional shooting, and it's like the CG. Mccollins trade was
nice, that helped your shooting, but like, he's not this high volume
off ball three point shooter. You didn't go out and get that guy at
the trade deadline, and you still I just feel like you haven't leaned into
the perfect front court model with him either. It's still been Jonas found Junas
is there, we have Larry Nance Junior, Willie Herning Gomez, and Jackson
Hayes is there. They still should have been a team that should have been
in on Miles Turner. I know there people that think that you want to
found Stunas is flat out better. He's not not for this team. He's
just he's not. And the other thing I don't want to hear anymore.
I'm the Pelicans have all this depth, I would say, given how much
time Zion has missed, even relative to how herb is redressed on offense and
the time he's missed, how much time Bred and Ingram has missed. The
Pelicans are kind of a disappointment because teams would kill to have this supporting cast
without Zion if they're or without their best player, and the Pelicans are just
like they've been terrible on offense without Zion. The defense has been met,
and then now you have Bi playing well, you're still not winning games.
There. It feels like there's something fundamentally broken with the process here, where
it's they haven't committed to a concrete direction in terms of building their team.
It's they have a great team on paper, but it's sort of like you
look at it and say, well, there's still these glaring needs and they've
just elected not to address them yet. Is that out of fear because they
don't know what to expect from Zion or they really think, well, we
were in first place in the West for like two days this year or whatever
it was, which I kind of get that. I'm, like I said,
still incredibly bullish on their future, but not as much as I was
a couple of months back. Yeah, I think I'm in the same place.
I think it sort of comes down to like just how heavily you weigh
everything like other than Zion's injury, because almost everything else is positive, Like
even the other injuries to the players, you know, Ingram or whoever else,
is like, well, we were still really good and we missed a
bunch of guys. We still have all this s depth, we have all
this these picks piled up. We still have you know, guys like Daniels
that I think, and Trey Murphy and Herb Jones and all these like rookie
scale contracts that are just like Jose Alvarado that these are real NBA players that
are young and that are going to develop, and like everything is is angling
up and there's all this potential and that's all awesome. That's like, you
know, just almost everything has has like shown promise and then it's but then
you weigh it against Zion's hurt again, like this is now it's been every
single year. It's all in the lower right side of his body. So
it's like if you're it's not even a conspiracy theory if you're suspicious, but
it's like, well, this all is close enough to being related to where
it's like this could just be continually degenerative and nothing ever works right again,
and it's like, I don't know, I'm so bad at like analogies of
like like this, but it's like you have an awesome car that sits in
the driveway that has all the bells and whistles you want, and like it's
paid off everything and it's great, and it's like except like half the time
you get in it, it doesn't start. And that's like that's how fundamental
Zion is to the team to where everything else can be great. But if
this one thing that has been like your biggest fear from the moment you drafted
the guy is going the bad way, which like it seems like it is,
then I don't know how much the rest of that matters. So I
guess it's just if you think that this is a blip and Zion can be
counted on for fifty sixty games a year, then you should be over the
moon because that might be all it takes. But if if that's not how
it's going to go, then the rest of the ship doesn't really matter because
you know your ceiling is set and it's not high. If you're just if
you have a max salary superstar that just isn't going to play, So I
don't know. I wanted to test that on you because you've been higher on
them all along than I have. And that's just because I'm a relentless pessimist
that always thought Zion would get hurt. So, you know, this is
a low hanging fruit question. I covered it in detail on a previous podcast
with the Timeline Pod. But is the Kevin Durant fit in Phoenix going to
be seamless? What do we expect from them moving forward? Are they one
of the two or three most or foremost title favorites right now as a result
of this trade. It's also theoretical. Even as we were recording this,
there was the news that he's not going to make his debut on Friday.
It's gonna be Sunday or Wednesday. It's like you're even winnowing down the sample
you have further. And so is there any concerns, as someone who's removed
from the Sun's bubble about how well they're gonna fare right off the bat?
I just don't have any. I think he's fit into situations that were harder
to fit into, like with the Warriors, like that, you gotta learn
how to play in that system. It's not quite there's nothing quite so complex
with the Suns, even in Brooklyn, like trying to play with briefly Harden
Irving, like that's those are challenges that like, that's harder, I think,
really, And Durant probably is like the most fittable scalable we overuse.
It's not quite applicable here, but he's like he fits everywhere because there's just
there's nothing he does that gets in the way of anybody, like because if
he can take a shot, it's probably a good shot, so it's not
like he's jacking up. You know. Low percentage looks, so no,
I don't have any concerns about that. And I do think I think a
low percentage Kevin Durant, look, is it a path Yeah, basically yeah,
if he just takes a shot clock violation and that's a low percentage,
So yeah, I think I think Phoenix if I had to pick a West
team to make the finals right now, it's which is stupid because he still
hasn't played, but I would pick Phoenix to represent the West in the finals.
I think him and Booker are just about as good as it gets and
they'll figure the rest out. That's so yeah, I have my concern level
is real, real low. For how many offenses would you take over Phoenix's?
I mean maybe Denver, I'm not sure where else. I yeah,
that might be maybe maybe maybe they just don't have I mean just like in
a playoff series though, where it's like I'm so much more worried about I
got to devote all these resources to Devin Booker, and so we're gonna leave
Kevin Durant single covered or not shade everything to him. Where if it's like
Fox and Sabonis, you can you can cram. You can try to just
throw three bodies at the pick and roll and then hope that Kevin Herder and
the Leak Monk don't hit everything. Like that's there's a there's a pathway there
for me. I will say. My concern is DeAndre Ayton, who's been
playing a lot better lately, carbon made to be in this role with these
other three guys in the court. Is he going to enjoy that? And
I think it's easy that I mentioned this on the podcast with the Timeline guys.
He's been paid and so it's like, do you really need to like
test this higher usage stuff? No, but I'm with you. That should
sort of eradicate this. However, there's just been reports that he was not
pleased with management and how all the contracts stuff played out, which I get.
So you've now botched the extension talk, but I'll use botch. But
he's now he wasn't thrilled with how the extension talk played out, obviously not
there with how free agency played out. He had to go get his own
offer sheet. Then okay, yes he's been paid, but you just all
the reporting is they tried like hell to include him over Michael Bridges and the
Kevin Durant trade. There's the element of well, it's just it's Kevin Durant.
Let's like you. But they so clearly wanted to move you instead of
Michael Bridges. Just how does that sit? And so he becomes his wild
card for me. He's all of a sudden, I've said this to you,
I said this on that pod. He might be the most important defender
in the NBA right now, just based off what you gave up. I
know, Kevin Rantz had a great defensive year. Josh Akogi has been shooting
a trillion percent from three, So now you can keep him on the four
teams, but they need him. We've seen him in the playoffs for two
years basically play really well on the defensive end, Like you need him to
be dominant on the defensive end now, and you need him to be engaged,
effective and consistent basically on offense, and that's something he's like that just
might be the I don't think I've ever swung high low for a player as
much I have for DeAndre Aten and that might just be his stasis is turbulence.
I think, like, yeah, it's terrifying, especially for a team
that we think has the potential Phoenix does to absolutely need buy in from a
guy that has not seemed bought in for like very important. So, yeah,
that's a great point. He is like a point, but we know
it's in there. We know he can be a big minute center on a
team that freaking makes the finals and it's like looks like they're gonna win it,
Like that's it's there. I also wonder like it does even like him
and Michael Bridges we're pretty tight. It's even Michael Bridges was pretty tight with
everybody I know. He was like probably most tight with Cam Johnson. Does
that impact him at all? We're sort of like there's things him and Devin
Booker a similar age, but there's almost like this generational gap still between CP
three, k D and then eight and and then there's this classist gap between
Booker, CP three and Kevin rad who are like part of the Superstars club
and Deandret and isn't, And so that that sort of does worry mate too.
Yeah, And also, just like you traded two very good vibes guys
in the locker room for Kevin Durant for as much as he loves hoop and
needs to be like immortalized for that apparently and just wants to play basketball,
the past two locker rooms he have left have not been on like s been
in Great States. Yeah, that's fair, And certainly I don't know if
I blame him for the Brooklyn one, but like he was the problem with
the Warriors that last year, like he also did. I don't care whether
how he meant it or if he apologist, but he basically had that interview
with Chris Hans's like I'm playing with fucking Edmund Sumner. That's how am I
supposed to look bad? Look, Okay, this is my last one to
you what's the buyout acquisition that's gonna matter the most and framed against the historical
precedent of like buyouts almost never matter, Like there there's like Kevin Pelton's written
about it. A lot of people have discussed it where it's just like we
get all amped up in the post trade deadline glow, wondering like oh,
who's gonna Oh but what if this guy hits them market or what you know,
Westbrook's gonna start for the Clippers, Like we get a little over zealous.
But there have been a lot of buyouts this year, like an unusual
number. I think it's nine or ten guys, and most of them are
names people actually know. This is a little bit different than it's been in
the past. I know my answer. I'm afraid it's gonna be yours.
But but who's gonna who have the buy guys that have been bought out that
we know where they're going. Who do you think is actually gonna like do
something that matters? If anybody by matters, do you mean detrimental too?
Like its positive? Positive? This is a tough question. Can I'll give
you mine if you want, Yeah, go ahead. I think is it
gonna be Danny Green. No, he's my number two. I think it's
Kevin Love. And it's just assuming he gets to Miami. I still am
so hung up on he was second. He not get to Miami. But
yeah he's there, Okay, well maybe his plane will get lost situation.
Yeah, it's fair. No one will ever know he Uh, it's just
like he was second and six man voting. I mentioned that all the time
last year. And it's just like he's not that much worse. He's just
you know, like he's aging. He's a little slower, he's a little
worse on defense, but he's not like a meaningfully different player from that guy.
The calves have just sort of changed around him more so, I think,
but specifically, like he's still going to be a threat to shoot the
ball from the perimeter, and I it is tricky to figure out what you
do defensively with him. Even if Bam Autobio can like solve a lot of
problems, it's just the defense is always gonna be a question. But the
heat or ninth and three point in tenths per game, which is fine,
but they're twenty eighth in percentage, So they just need somebody that's gonna get
up four or five a game and make one or two or three, Like,
just just that little bit is going to be a huge difference for them,
especially since like otherwise, you know, Jimmy Butler operates inside the arc
Bam, Autobio doesn't shoot threes. So just to open things up for the
other guys, if you can have love out there, maybe he's even you
know, facilitating a little too, which would be crazy with Autobio out there
at the same time, just to make a few threes. Like, I
think it's not I think a little bit could go a long way from him
in that specific regard and the heat or a team that they're seventh in the
East right now, just that little bump might be the difference between having to
go through the play in and getting to like probably not fourth, but like
could get to fifth pretty easily. So that he's my pick there. I
don't really have an answer. I want to say Danny Green with Cleveland just
because of the experience that he's going to bring to the playoffs. But is
there with the way that a Coral has been playing and Lavert's been playing,
Like, what is the guarantee I'm just playing time. I could also see
it being Reggie Jackson in Denver a little bit? Does he improve? There
was a minute where it looked like the bench minutes, we're gonna be okay,
and they suck again for Denver and just does he bring some steady He
brings steadier shooting the Bones Highland, not the same like sort of multi level
shooting, but maybe some steadier shooting. So could it be him? I
also think there might be a case for Justin Holiday, sort of like a
rehabilitation project in Dallas, if someone's just shown that he can defend like kind
of one before they needed him to be like just some version of Justin Holiday
badly. So like those would be my picks. But I think you're probably
right on Love. I guess it could tactually be Russ. I just wouldn't.
Don't think it's gonna Beverly. And there's no names that I'm sort of
waiting on, like a thot. Gore on Dragic was going to be the
guy that got bought out in Chicago after they added Beverly, but I guess
with Lonzo being injured, they decided Tony Bradley was the way to go.
I like, I don't see any other candidates. I thought, like,
is there a chance Kelly Olenick would have gotten onto the open market because he
only has a partial guarantee for next year and the Jazz aren't interested in winning.
That would be a name to keep an eye on. But I imagine
he's not going to be anywhere near the buyout market otherwise. I don't know
that Miami would have gone after both Zeller and Love. Yeah, but like
if he ended up Milwaukee or something like, that would be a game I
don't like, that would be an absolute game changer. Oh my god.
Yeah, no, good for Kevin Love. He matters again in the eyes
of this podcast, apparently, So I have a but let mean there aren't
at my last one. So my last question is going to be which team
is more likely to make a significant change after this season if it does not
end in a title, Denver or Memphis or even a frame this Which team,
to you is better equipped to win the title this year? I think
we would both agree. Maybe we both wouldn't agree that it's Denver, but
I think the level of pressure is different. And look, someone's this question
to justify it was born from the fact that so many teams are gonna go
home disappointed earlier because you're looking at all these teams in the West that have
these aspirations, like some of them might lose in the first round. But
if you're looking at Memphis losing, let's say they lose in the first round,
eminently possible or even the second round, do they go and turn around?
It's no, we're not blowing up our core, but we're trying to
get a hot We're gonna trade actual stuff for a high profile guy. If
it's Denver that doesn't win the title, it's like, okay, we have
Yokis is a three time MVP. Like we've paid the luxury attack. Now
we've paid our entire core. Like what is the move? Do we pull
back? Is there a consolidation trade? So which team do you think their
postseason, let's say their postseason and sooner than expected, which basically is the
finals for both they have the despirations. Which one is more likely to make
a major change? I think this is I think it has to be Memphis,
and it's really more than anything because they can or it's easier for them
then because Denver it's like, what do you do? You're like, you're
not doing obviously you're not trading Yokis Like, that's like, don't even to
say that your other options are, we're gonna try to turn Michael Porter Junior
into something else, Like what's his trade value. I don't know that it's
positive you're gonna swap out Jamal Murray. I don't think. I imagine if
Yokich was consulted, he'd say, we're not going to do that, and
I don't know what you'd get anyway, and then you're just tinkering on the
margins. Memphis just like and I think it's much more likely by the way,
that Memphis is the team that is, you know, more profoundly disappointed
by how it does in the playoffs this year than Denver. But it's not
just that you know, Memphis is going to finish here, this season will
end sooner. It's that they have more tradeable contracts, they have picks.
They it's just like it's just easier to change. But on the flip side,
like they are the younger team, they are the team that, if
they're being totally rational about it, should say, well, let's have a
little bit of progress here and then next year we're gonna all be better,
right, And so maybe we shouldn't do anything. But they just have the
means to do it, and I think they're more likely to be disappointed than
Denver. So it's a tricky question. It's an interesting question. I think
it's probably them, though I have the same question between the Sixers and the
Heat their postseasons and earlier than expected, which team is more likely to make
major changes? Well, we talked about it a little bit before. I
think the Sixers might be more likely to look different, but it's like,
are they making a change if Harden just opts out and leaves. I don't
know. But the Heat, though, the Heat hate this, right,
they hate they They're they just they don't like hanging around the you know,
six five, six seven range of the playoffs with Kyle Lowry's salary just like
just a massive albatross. Now, I think the Heat are typically the better
bet to like, Okay, here's here's the massive sign and trade for the
off season or something like that. They seem more likely, just based on
their history, to just make some some wild swing. I think I'm with
you because I don't buy into the hardened to Houston stuff as much as everybody
else. I think that I think maybe he'll sign a shorter term deal than
people are expecting. With Philly, I think that's how it ends up.
But like, if they lose in the first round, then maybe anything's on
the table. I think it's probably more likely that Joel and bad To requests
a trade than James and leaves Philly on his own accord. That's a hot
one. I don't know. Yeah, I mean we do need to start
thinking about what superstars are going to ask for the next be the next player
to ask for a trade. But yeah, I guess like because the thing
is, the Heat don't really have realistic, you know, conference finals aspirations,
but the Sixers for sure do, and so the potential to be more
disappointed and therefore more like we got to change something is probably greater for the
Sixers. This was fun and I feel like pretty quick moving for us.
I don't know if any questions we got to, but I think we did
like eight. So do you want to take us out of here? Yeah?
As always, everybody, thanks for listening. If you have not already,
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