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INSTATCRT Celebrate Responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. I'm Cheneio Bloomackay,

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learning from amazing guests as well,
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Subscribe to Front and Center today.
What is krack alacking Hardwood Knocks Listeners.

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00:01:19,519 --> 00:01:25,319
I am Dan Pavalley coming at you
with my fantastic co host Adam Prommell.

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We have a few things to get
to today. We're gonna be talking about

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the proposed start date of next year's
NBA season. That gives us a lot

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of material to work with. And
we're also going to get into NBA Mats

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franchise rankings for the past decade.
It was determined using NBA Mats rolling rating

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and I'm going to Adam's going to
relay some of them to us. The

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top teams we're gonna see, do
we have any qualms is that are we

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surprised or any teams too high?
Too low? I'm gonna go at him

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as hard as I can. I
hope he's sweating because he needs to be

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nervous right now. Before we get
started, though, shout out to our

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sponsors. You'll be hearing from them
work without this pot Without them, this

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podcast would not be possible. Also, please, please, pretty please remember

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to subscribe to this podcast and download
every single episode and whether or not you

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use iTunes head over there, sartch
Hardwoo Knox throw us a five star rating,

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right or review, even if it
has constructive criticism. Adam, how

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are you doing? Doing pretty well? I'm feeling a little pressure. I

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am sweating because I'm I'm nervously anticipating
having to justify some of these rankings.

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But I'm also excited to talk about
some of this news, especially because it

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seems like the twenty twenty twenty one
season will actually start in twenty twenty and

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as a creature of Habit who is
so used to referring two seasons by those

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dual year tags, phrases, whatever
you want to call it, that's exciting

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just because it means it'll actually be
accurate when we keep referring to this upcoming

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season as twenty twenty twenty one.
Yeah, that's look, it's so I'm

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shocked by the date. So this
was from I think it was Sham's at

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a first right Woes was reporting on
ESPN, was reporting out their supports all

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over the place about it. But
this one comes from from Shams. The

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NBA is targeting in December twenty second
return date for the twenty twenty one season

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and a seventy two game campaign that
finishes before the twenty twenty one Olympics,

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and so before we I think there's
a lot of line reading, like between

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the line readings to do here,
because this is still sort of unfolding,

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But the swiftness with which is happening
I think allows us to infer a couple

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of things. And obviously getting it
done before the Olympics was a priority.

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The fact that we're at seventy two
games, that they're doing it before Christmas,

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those were clearly then priorities they wanted
to be on Christmas. They're obviously

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trying to fit as many games as
possible. The thing that stands out to

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me, I'm curious how you feel
about this. I feel like it means

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that owners don't think waiting is going
to give them a better chance of having

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fans in arenas next year, Like
that was my primary read on that.

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That was my first takeaway as well, because you know, they've been talking

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about Martin Luther King Junior Day as
a potential start date or maybe even later

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than that, as a way to
get some gate revenue and some fans in

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the buildings. But you know that
that was always contingent on the pandemic improving

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upon you know, cases declining,
upon vaccine possibilities, and as as we're

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recording this, cases are continuing to
spike around the country and we're seeing new

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record setting number of positive tests and
hospitalizations and everything. So I think it's

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just becoming increasingly clear that this isn't
going away in the short term future,

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and that it is probably better for
the league financially to make that gate revenue

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sacrifice, get in a full season
and then attempt to resume normalcy in the

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twenty twenty one twenty twenty two season. And I think some people have pointed

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out that maybe it just means that
the teams are more optimistic that they would

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be allowed to have fans in earlier
and I just I would take the the

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opposite side of that, where it's
maybe they think that they'll still be able

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to have some fans and arenas at
some point, but they don't think that

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waiting until Martin Luther king Day or
even until March like had been rumored,

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but just never really seemed realistic when
you were considering it all that they wouldn't

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get that much closer to capacity and
so this that logic to me, like

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that's where I fall on it,
whether it's a good decision or not,

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like you're imposing travel here. But
WOAG did say that they're going to try

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and set up baseball like series so
you're gonna have teams, which I think

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is smart, and that was probably
the last wave frontier for them to cut

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down travel. Anyway, when you
look at what they've done just in previous

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seasons for regular seasons, the way
that they've sort of eliminated back to backs

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in four games in five nights,
this might be something they could look at

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moving forward to you know, try
and cater to players getting rest and then

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cutting down on the travel. I'm
make sure to see how it plays out.

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As a fan, I'm excited that
the league is planning on starting back

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up again. It's a short offseason. It's wild to think that two months

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from now is when the regular season
and is supposed to start, or maybe

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that's not, Like if that's the
regular season date, like we are so

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unbelievably close to training camps, like
that's just absolutely wild. The drafts on

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the A team, we don't even
have a free agency date just yet.

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That stuff is all. It's it's
a lot to process, but it is

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exciting. Of course, you want
everything to be okay, like the bubble

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worked out, which is great,
and people like myself who were skeptical of

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it, like we ate chrome on
it. That's the thing that you love

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to eat crow on, Like,
I'm glad there was no it's just now

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you're you are throwing some levels of
travel into this, and players are going

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to be going outside of their team
dynamics, like to their families and and

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living their lives. And look,
I was very clear that you can't ask

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them to be sequestered for longer than
they were at Disney. I like that

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was even a stretch. But that's
the that's just the concern. Now,

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it's like how what ends up happening
with this? Will there be implications like

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we saw in baseball, even in
football, just because it's so much more

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of a contact sport. Uh,
they're not playing as much, but they're

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because it's more of a contact sport, it feels like it's spreading easier through

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there. And I think that the
NFL would say that they've kept it under

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control. And I guess you could
argue with the fact that they're playing games

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and like turning around, like when
they have the results of these tests,

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they are putting players in quarantine,
but they're figuring out a way to know

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where the tests are still coming back
negative. But then there's this long incubation

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period. I don't know whether you
call what the NFL is doing effective.

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It seems effective for their purposes.
I don't I don't know that it's safe.

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I would argue that it's not,
but that is the concern here.

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I'm not saying the NBA's wrong.
Like, the reality is that the NBA

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season was going to happen. It
just happened inside a bubble. They weren't

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going to cancel the NBA season again
or wait and do another three month bubble.

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So looking at it through the lens
of that reality, and I hope

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this doesn't come off through callous because
I'm honestly trying not to be. I'm

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just hopeful that nothing goes wrong because
they are dealing with a whole different set

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of circumstances that are beyond their control
compared to what they were going through in

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Disney. I'm cautiously optimistic about how
the NBA will be able to handle things

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because I think that the league as
a whole has earned the benefit of the

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doubt after how well it handled the
bubble. I mean, there was not

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a single positive test within it.
The rules were strict, the testing was

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done properly and with sufficient volume,
and you know, we saw the NHL

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also have similar success in a bubble
environment. But obviously, as you mentioned,

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you can't ask players to stay sequestered
once again for an entire season.

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So given the success that the league
has already had with a bubble environment,

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and then the fact that it will
become the third major American league to attempt

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to have this travel based schedule,
and we'll be able to take the positives

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and the negatives from what MLB and
the NFL have done. Again, like

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just I'm cautiously optimistic on it.
We saw in baseball we had the initial

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outbreaks from the Miami Marlins and the
Saint Louis Cardinals that created pushedback schedules and

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created so many double headers and stuff. Obviously, you can't have double headers

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in basketball. That just wouldn't fly. But I think that the NBA will

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have learned that you need to budget
some time for makeup games later on in

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the season. The fact that they're
already attempting to limit travel. I'm sure

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that there are other things that are
under consideration that we just aren't being appraised

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about quite yet. And then with
the NFL, you know, we've seen

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teams consistently have smaller outbreaks. We
saw it with Cam Newton and the New

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England Patriots. Right now we're seeing
it with the Las Vegas Raiders who had

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Trent Brown and the rest of their
offensive line through contract contact tracing. We're

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all sent home to ensure safety and
to make sure that there wasn't going to

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be a more significant outbreak, you
know, just seeing other leagues do things

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like that and taking away the proper
lessons from it. You know, if

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there is a league that deserves that
deserves that benefit of the doubt, like

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it should be the NBA at this
point. Yeah, I would agree with

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you on that front. And look
by December, like maybe they're something drastically

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different with the level of the idiot
testing. I mean, they're going to

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have access to the testing. That's
a whole other morality issue where it's if

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they're going to have access to testing
frequency that the normal citizens still doesn't.

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That was something that people talked about
as they were entering the bubble, but

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for the NBA specifically, when you're
just looking at if the assumption is they're

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going to play the season, these
are the circumstances under which they are playing

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it, I would say that they
have earned the benefit of the doubt there.

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The other thing to wrapp our heads
around though, was just how soon

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this season is coming. Like that's
just was gonna say, like if we

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put aside the health concerns and acknowledging
that those still exist regardless of how well

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they're going to handle it. There
are other concerns with this schedule, And

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we were talking before we started recording
about rookies. You know, like they're

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going to be drafted on November eighteenth. If they're traded, they might not

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officially be traded until a month after
that date, which means that three days

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00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:54,120
later they could be playing basketball games. So like, I feel like the

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quality of play could be pretty rough
this season, especially if players are testing

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positive and you're turning to backups more
often and just knowing that teams are going

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to want to still give run to
their big investments on these young players.

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But there isn't that get up to
speed acclamation period for guys who haven't played

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competitive basketball games since March with a
limited training camp. If there is even

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a preseason with this condensed schedule like
it could essentially be like pick up basketball

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00:11:26,519 --> 00:11:31,039
games at the very start of the
season, which is better than no basketball

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00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,799
games, but it could be a
little a little rough. Even though sports

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00:11:33,799 --> 00:11:37,799
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Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid
through December thirty. First, yeah,

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00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,440
I want to be hopeful just because
of how entertaining the bubble play was.

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00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:46,799
It didn't feel like they're you know, at the beginning with the referees

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00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:50,639
and then all the fouling, but
it never really felt for a long period

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00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:52,919
of time that the players or the
team's missed a beat. You are dealing

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00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:56,240
with rookies then, however, though, and you're also dealing with, like,

190
00:12:56,320 --> 00:13:00,919
let's talk about free agency signings if
there are any you know, fairly

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00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,600
big moves like they're playing for new
teams and like that can have or warrant

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00:13:05,639 --> 00:13:09,799
in acclamation period as well. One
thing I want to ask you, do

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00:13:09,919 --> 00:13:13,679
you think the teams that did not
go to Disney now or maybe even let's

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00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:18,120
say the ones that only played in
the eight games they're looking at Phoenix or

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00:13:18,159 --> 00:13:24,440
Washington, did they have an edge
over the teams that went deeper into the

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00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:30,679
postseason, just because of how quick
this turnaround is. My guess is that

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00:13:31,039 --> 00:13:35,559
the teams that played in the bubble
but didn't make the playoffs are going to

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00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:41,320
have the biggest advantage, But it's
probably just a marginal one, and it's

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00:13:41,799 --> 00:13:48,240
you know, it feels like this
past season was the one that, really,

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00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,639
more than others in the recent past, enforced the idea that the regular

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00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:58,399
season and the postseason are entirely different
entities in the NBA, That a dominant

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regular sea and team like the Milwaukee
Bucks might be schemable in the playoffs.

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00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:09,919
That a very well coached team with
depth and lots of upper end talents like

204
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the Miami Heat might be able to
just experiment a little bit during the regular

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season knowing that it can turn it
on a little bit in the postseason.

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So I feel like by the midway
point of this expected seventy two games season,

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everyone's going to be in the same
same boat. Maybe someone like the

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Phoenix Suns that got the benefit of
more recent play and gets to experience a

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little more continuity and confidence without exhausting
itself during the deep postseason run might have

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a marginal advantage at the start of
the season, but I don't think that

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that's going to be like a big
enough factor for us to really take it

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into consideration when we're making predictions and
figuring out who are award picks and playoff

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picks are going to be. What
do you think, like, how quickly

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does free agency have to happen?
Now there's the draft is November eighteenth?

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Did they just started on November nineteenth? Selfishly, I hope that doesn't happen

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because I'd like a little bit of
time to breathe with all the work that

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we'll be doing up to and through
the draft, Like I just need a

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00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,639
moment to catch my breath after that. To have to pivot directly into free

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00:15:15,679 --> 00:15:18,240
agency, which is arguably our second
busiest time of the year behind the trade

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deadline, I would say would just
be absolutely wild. But it's also like,

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well, if you put it,
push it a week, like all

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of a sudden, that's almost December, and that's three weeks before the season,

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basically three or four weeks. This
is just so hard to wrap my

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head around. I think that there
should be and probably will be a gap

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00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:43,679
of at least a week, just
because it's asking too much of front offices

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to go into a draft environment that's
already more uncertain than in previous years,

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just because players haven't played as many
games and haven't played recently, and you

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can't do the in front of the
team workouts that you're used to doing,

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and you're getting the combined results direct
from the league and all that. Like,

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just going through that uncertain process and
not knowing who you're gonna land,

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00:16:04,799 --> 00:16:08,159
it would be unfair to ask them
to immediately turn around and have to offer

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00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:14,200
contracts to players like you at least
need to give them time to reshape their

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priorities and lists of needs to address
based on the results of the draft,

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00:16:18,159 --> 00:16:25,159
because it's always such a tumultuous time
that that quick of a turnaround would create

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00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:29,960
more bad money contracts that I don't
think the league ever really wants to see.

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00:16:30,159 --> 00:16:33,759
Yeah, that's a good point.
The final issue here, the All

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00:16:33,799 --> 00:16:37,960
Star Game is now in jeopardy,
which is slated to be hosted in Indiana.

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That's you know, that has to
become a casualty of the season if

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00:16:41,039 --> 00:16:42,559
you're not going to have fans in
there anyway, Like the NBA might be

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00:16:42,639 --> 00:16:48,320
okay with that. I would be
curious what happens with Indiana hosting the game,

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00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:49,559
Like, do you now all of
a sudden push back the All Star

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00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:53,600
schedules a year for each city.
Do you pick a few years down the

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00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:56,519
lines that it doesn't impact where the
other All Star Games are scheduled for?

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00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:02,720
Does this just screw and yet to
indefinitely? That would be something to consider

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00:17:02,759 --> 00:17:06,160
for the Indiana market specifically. But
there's a chance we just don't have an

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00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:10,480
an All Star Game, which I
think you're just more I'd be more worried

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00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,000
about, Like, can we get
through this season without just any catastrophe would

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have to be the goal. And
if if the All Star Game is the

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collateral damage of that, that sucks
for Indiana. But if they weren't going

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00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:23,119
to be able to have fans in
the arena anyway, I don't really know

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how big of a loss then the
All Star Game ends up being. I

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00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:30,359
do wonder what it would do to
contract incentives, you know, if there

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are any salary contingencies that are based
on All Star appearances or anything. I'm

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not aware if those are in any
current contracts, but if they are,

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00:17:41,039 --> 00:17:44,839
like that would have to be something
to consider. But yeah, Okay,

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00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:48,759
like what a loss that would be. Well, that was pretty dismissive.

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That was more dismissive than I was, right. I mean, like,

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00:17:51,799 --> 00:17:57,359
who cares like it's it's fun,
I guess to watch a game being played

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00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:02,240
with no defense whatsoever. But there
was defense in this past All Star Game.

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00:18:02,279 --> 00:18:03,079
I think that a little bit,
a little bit. Yeah, the

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new format worked well for that,
But still like, until the NBA and

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00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:14,880
I'll get up on my soapbox here, until the NBA expands rosters commensurate to

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the growing size of the league,
I don't care about the All Star Game,

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Like I still just hate the fact
that, you know, there were

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00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,519
twelve twelve player rosters for the Eastern
Conference in the Western Conference back in the

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00:18:26,599 --> 00:18:33,119
nineteen seventies when the league had had
a dozen and a little bit more teams

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00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,119
without cycling through so many on the
back ends of the rosters. And it's

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still twelve players per team in twenty
twenty, even though we have thirty teams

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with expanded rosters and more players on
the back end. It's just it no

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longer represents the same X percentage of
the league the top X percentile, and

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it should so until they expand like
having fifteen all stars per conference. I

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00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:00,759
just don't give a shit. Firm
but fair. Let's get into these franchise

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rankings for the past decade. Do
you want to take us through the methodology

274
00:19:06,319 --> 00:19:08,599
just behind it, like how the
rolling team ratings work a little bit before

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we eviserate you and I say we
because the listeners are right here with me.

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00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:15,000
We have our swords out as you
should. Yeah, I mean,

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this was a this was a fun
project that you know, we tried to

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00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:25,079
make very clear on the Twitter thread
that was meant to be viewed as a

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00:19:25,079 --> 00:19:29,039
baseline more than anything else, just
because the methodology isn't perfect. All the

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00:19:29,079 --> 00:19:32,000
categories are rated the same, are
ranked the same, and weighted the same,

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00:19:32,759 --> 00:19:36,640
so you know, if if you
are frustrated that your team is fourteenth

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00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:41,519
instead of fifteenth, then they were
separated by a minuscule margin. Like remember

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00:19:41,559 --> 00:19:45,519
it's just a baseline. But yeah, So we first the rolling team ratings

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00:19:45,559 --> 00:19:51,759
that we use at NBA Math.
They essentially look at margin of victory adjusted

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00:19:51,799 --> 00:19:56,079
for pace of play and the difficulty
of the opponent, also giving extra credit

286
00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:02,480
to teams that are playing back to
back games just because of increased scheduled difficulty

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00:20:02,519 --> 00:20:07,240
there. So the Rolling Team ratings
show a one number estimate of how well

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00:20:07,279 --> 00:20:15,359
a team has played over its past
twenty games is exactly average, anything above

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00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:19,640
is better, so on and so
forth. So four are three of our

290
00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,880
categories. Of the six that we
used for these rankings were based on the

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00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,759
Rolling team ratings. We looked at
going back to the twenty ten eleven season

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00:20:26,839 --> 00:20:30,920
through the end of this last campaign. We were only interested in that last

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00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:34,640
decade, and we looked at their
average score in the Rolling Team rankings.

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They're eighty two highest games, simulating
the peak season, if you will,

295
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,519
even though those didn't have to be
consecutive numbers. The true peak so the

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00:20:45,599 --> 00:20:48,680
highest twenty games stretch that they had
at any point during the last decade.

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00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,680
Then we looked at their win percentage, the number of playoff appearances that they

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made, and how many titles they
want. So the idea was to recognize

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regular season six how high the peaks
of teams rose, just because it's better

300
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from a fan experience to have a
team that peaks really, really high than

301
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to have a team that is consistently
good, even if they tend to lead

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00:21:15,799 --> 00:21:18,960
to about the same amount of success. Just that entertainment factor. And then

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we also wanted to give credit to
making the postseason and doing well in the

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00:21:22,319 --> 00:21:26,480
postseason, so we took the Z
scores in all six of those categories to

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account for how why the disparities were
between ranks and not just where they ranked.

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00:21:33,279 --> 00:21:37,119
Summed those up and those were our
franchise rankings. The weight is finally

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00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,119
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317
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I dig it. So do you
want to take us through the results?

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00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:27,720
Yeah? So I want to go
through the top ten. I don't think

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we should go through all thirty here
and then just ask you if you had

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any surprises within that top ten,
and then if there were any franchises you

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00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:40,880
were surprised weren't in the top ten. So at number ten, we had

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the Dallas Mavericks, who have their
one title, the one that they won

323
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:49,880
over the Miami Heat and their first
year of that Big Three era that was

324
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:55,440
so surprising and led to Mark Cuban
eviscerating Skip Bayliss, which remains one of

325
00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:00,640
the most satisfying moments of the decade. We had the consistently success full Indiana

326
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,200
Pacers, who were one of a
handful of teams that made the playoffs nine

327
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:07,720
out of ten seasons. We had
the Boston Celtics, who do not get

328
00:23:07,759 --> 00:23:10,839
to count their two thousand and eight
title in this but we're consistently good,

329
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,559
another team that made the playoffs nine
times out of those ten years. We

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00:23:14,599 --> 00:23:18,440
had the Toronto Raptors at number seven, who had the title in twenty nineteen

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and have been another consistently excellent franchise
despite the playoff disappointments that they have endured.

332
00:23:25,039 --> 00:23:27,319
We have the Los Angeles Clippers at
number six, and the Houston Rockets

333
00:23:27,319 --> 00:23:33,359
at number five. The Oklahoma City
Thunder are at number four. Miami Heat,

334
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,000
who won two titles during the Big
Three era and made the finals this

335
00:23:37,039 --> 00:23:41,440
past season, are at number three. Then there was a gigantic gap.

336
00:23:41,759 --> 00:23:45,319
The gap between number three and number
two was about as big as the gap

337
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,799
between number three and number ten.
We had the San Antonio Spurs at number

338
00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:52,759
two, even though they only won
one title during the last decade as the

339
00:23:53,079 --> 00:23:56,960
dynastic era of that franchise kind of
petered out a little bit. And I

340
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:02,440
don't think it will surprise anyone given
their titles and the ridiculous peaks that they

341
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,440
achieved with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green Golden

342
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:11,200
State Warriors checking in at number one. Yeah, that's not a surprise.

343
00:24:11,559 --> 00:24:15,759
I was. So let's start with
a team that I was shocked, wasn't

344
00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:21,160
I guess? Closer to the top
ten. The Portland Trailblazers being at seventeen

345
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:26,680
this decade were a little bit surprising
to me. That was surprising to me

346
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:30,000
as well, And it really came
down and that's why in the introduction of

347
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,079
this segment, I wanted to emphasize
why that peak mattered, because that's where

348
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:37,640
they fell short. So in terms
of winning percentage, they won fifty four

349
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:41,079
point eight percent of their regular season
games over the last decade, which ranks

350
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:45,680
tenth. They made the playoffs eight
times, which is obviously impressive. There

351
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,200
were only four teams that made the
playoffs more frequently. Their average score and

352
00:24:49,319 --> 00:24:52,799
rolling team rating was tenth. They
did not win a title, but that

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00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,640
the same is true of most franchises
over the last decade. Where they fell

354
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,480
short was the eighty two game peak
average and their true peak. In those

355
00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:04,680
two categories they ranked twenty second and
twenty third, respectively, which I think

356
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,720
feels pretty accurate to me. Where
they were like them in the Memphis Grizzlies.

357
00:25:08,759 --> 00:25:12,119
Really who checked it at number fifteen
and was another team where I was

358
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:18,920
surprised they weren't a little bit higher. They are suffering for being consistently good

359
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:22,119
without ever being great. I mean, if you think back on the last

360
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:27,839
decade of Portland Trail Portland Trailblazers basketball, is there a team that really stands

361
00:25:27,839 --> 00:25:33,359
out as being like a legitimate title
contender. They made the Western Conference Finals

362
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,039
in twenty eighteen nineteen. They have
a handful of fifty win seasons. They

363
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:41,000
peaked at fifty four wins in twenty
thirteen fourteen and then lost in the Western

364
00:25:41,039 --> 00:25:45,160
Conference finals. But these LaMarcus Aldridge
and Damian Lillard led teams, like they

365
00:25:45,279 --> 00:25:49,279
never really established themselves as the class
of the Western Conference, and without doing

366
00:25:49,279 --> 00:25:53,480
that at any point, or even
having a twenty games stretch within a season

367
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:56,720
where it seemed like that would be
a possibility, that that's why they fell

368
00:25:56,759 --> 00:26:00,279
short. Yeah, that one of
the misstapportunity I think it was twenty fourteen

369
00:26:00,319 --> 00:26:04,680
twenty fifteen is that when West Matthews
ruptured his achilles toward the end of the

370
00:26:04,759 --> 00:26:07,400
year. Yeah, that was big
for them. But still they've had the

371
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:12,400
tenth highest winning percentage for the decade
among teams, which among teams, which

372
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:18,480
is incredibly impressive. I don't know
that I was. I guess another some

373
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:22,680
of the pushback would come from the
Lakers being not they maybe not even not

374
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,359
in the top ten, but they
were nineteen on the rankings. Since I

375
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,720
have the you know, the full
thirty right in front of me, I

376
00:26:30,839 --> 00:26:33,079
like that makes sense to me if
they just haven't been great this decade.

377
00:26:33,079 --> 00:26:37,599
This season they won a championship,
but there was a lot of hardship on

378
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:42,640
the court for them before that,
and this look the decade starts like after

379
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:47,519
they won their last championship with Kobe, and then from there it's like kind

380
00:26:47,519 --> 00:26:52,599
of a quick path to when he
ruptured his achilles in twenty thirteen, and

381
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:56,799
everything was downhill from there for them. For they were out before that happened,

382
00:26:56,839 --> 00:26:59,640
too well, they were he first
of all, he was playing out

383
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,079
his mom when that happened. I
remember that that season he was playing so

384
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:06,839
well, but that team was underachieving. They was injuries to Palcasol and Steve

385
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,599
Nash, and then Dwight Howard wasn't
at full strength, and then there was

386
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,200
the fact that he was Dwight Howard
and getting along with Kobe Bryant. That

387
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,759
stuff mattered. But like they've had
I can't tell whether I think they should

388
00:27:15,759 --> 00:27:18,359
be lower, is what I'm getting
at at numbers nineteen, or if I

389
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,880
feel like I'm surprised that they're that
low. They're probably just where they need

390
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,319
to be. If anything, I
might be surprised that they're not a little

391
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:27,640
bit lower. But then the thing
is like, well, they were still

392
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:32,519
a playoff team in twenty twenty thirteen, and they did just win a title,

393
00:27:32,559 --> 00:27:36,240
and they weren't absolutely awful last season. I don't know where I land

394
00:27:36,319 --> 00:27:40,680
on where they've fallen. It felt
pretty accurate to me. I do think

395
00:27:40,759 --> 00:27:44,920
it's important to emphasize that we did
not give any extra credit to the most

396
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,880
recent seasons. So even though the
Los Angeles Lakers just won a title,

397
00:27:48,319 --> 00:27:52,480
that doesn't matter anymore than the Dallas
Mavericks winning a title in twenty eleven,

398
00:27:52,599 --> 00:27:57,599
because we are considering all of the
seasons equal. The Lakers and the Cavaliers,

399
00:27:57,599 --> 00:28:00,960
who ranked eleventh, were the only
two franchises the won a title and

400
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,319
did not make the top ten.
But the Cavaliers had more good years and

401
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,960
a higher peak. Because even this
title winning team, it never really like

402
00:28:11,039 --> 00:28:15,200
ascended to Juggernaut's status. You know, it played very well throughout the playoffs,

403
00:28:15,319 --> 00:28:22,279
but at no point was it like
this is like a ridiculous historic team.

404
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,200
So if we look through the ranks
and the six categories, I think

405
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:30,279
it becomes more obvious why the Lakers
weren't able to rise any higher than nineteenth

406
00:28:30,559 --> 00:28:33,799
in average rolling team rating. They
were twentieth ninety nine point three seven one,

407
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:40,759
so on average, they were below
that league break even point. Their

408
00:28:40,759 --> 00:28:45,240
eighty two game peak ranked fifteenth,
their true peak ranked twenty first. Their

409
00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:49,359
winning percentage of forty five point one
was eighteenth, and nineteen teams made the

410
00:28:49,359 --> 00:28:53,640
playoffs more frequently than they did because
they only advanced to the postseason four times

411
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,839
in the last decade. Really,
without that title being included in the methodology,

412
00:28:57,839 --> 00:29:02,680
they would have ranked far lower.
The Knicks coming in at number twenty

413
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:06,319
two was kind of shocking to me. It feels like those mellow seasons are

414
00:29:06,319 --> 00:29:11,079
doing some heavy lifting for them in
this and I just, I honestly would

415
00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:12,759
have thought that, you know,
the Wizards being at twenty four, I

416
00:29:12,799 --> 00:29:18,240
would have thought that they finished ahead
of the Knicks, even having Brooklyn at

417
00:29:18,279 --> 00:29:19,400
twenty five, I don't thought the
Knicks finished below then. I'm not even

418
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,559
trying to dump on the Knicks here. You know, maybe you could put

419
00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:25,640
them ahead of the Suns. I'd
listened to the Timberwolves, the Hornets,

420
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,039
sure, but even there were some
good Hornets teams mix in with that decade.

421
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:33,559
I was surprised that the Knicks evaded
bottom five status. Is basically what

422
00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:37,799
I'm getting at. Honestly, the
team that surprised me most was the Phoenix

423
00:29:37,839 --> 00:29:41,680
Suns being twenty six. I would
have expected them to be lower because they,

424
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,920
along with the Sacramento Kings, are
one of only two teams in the

425
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,039
league that failed to make the playoffs
even once in the last decade, and

426
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,240
like that has to matter. So
the Suns are carried by their peak being

427
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:57,200
relatively high at the bottom of these
rankings. It checked in at twenty second

428
00:29:57,319 --> 00:30:03,599
in the league. But other than
that, like their resume is so it's

429
00:30:03,599 --> 00:30:07,680
not even nondescript, it's just bad. So that was that was a surprise

430
00:30:07,759 --> 00:30:11,240
for me, where it's like wow, like they're they're actually ahead of the

431
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,599
Timberwolves, the Hornets, the Pistons, and the Kings. The Kings aren't

432
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:18,960
earning a surprise. At thirty.
They ranked dead last in every single category,

433
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:22,920
so like they were the very obvious
last place finisher And I'm sorry,

434
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,839
Kings fan, like I hope it
gets better for u. Daron Fox is

435
00:30:26,839 --> 00:30:30,079
super fun and it seems like they
could be a playoff threat just like every

436
00:30:30,079 --> 00:30:33,559
other team in the Western Conference going
forward. But this last decade was really

437
00:30:33,599 --> 00:30:38,680
bad. Recency bias is funny too
in that way where I'm looking at the

438
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,960
top and to me it's like,
oh, the Bucks aren't in the top

439
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,440
ten, but then then looking at
the decade in full that that kind of

440
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:51,400
makes sense. I think this what
I think it gets right is the Toronto

441
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:55,160
Raptors being at number seven. They
don't receive enough credit for the longevity of

442
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,920
their success. They're you know,
they became postseason punchlines a lot with the

443
00:30:59,039 --> 00:31:03,559
Kyle Awry Demarto was in partnership.
But since twenty thirteen twenty fourteen, they've

444
00:31:03,599 --> 00:31:07,519
basically been a fifty win team every
single year and that's really hard to do

445
00:31:07,839 --> 00:31:11,880
in the NBA. So with all
the turnover that takes place, and look,

446
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:15,920
they've taken some swings themselves. They
went after the Quaie trade and they

447
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,400
lost Kauai. That they're being at
number seven, is that that feels right

448
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,440
where you could be like, oh, would you put them ahead of the

449
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,640
Clippers or the Rockets. Yeah,
maybe, but that they're in that conversation

450
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,240
at all is really kind of a
testament to what they've been able to do

451
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:33,200
there over the past specifically like seven
years. Great. Great. It kind

452
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:37,480
of feels like they're like the souped
up version of the Portland Trailblazers where they

453
00:31:37,519 --> 00:31:41,119
don't have like the super high peak. Even that title winning team like it

454
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,279
was, it was a very very
good, fundamentally excellent and deep team,

455
00:31:45,559 --> 00:31:51,759
but again, it wasn't like reaching
that Warrior's peak or that Spurs peak where

456
00:31:51,839 --> 00:31:56,039
it was just like the epitome of
basketball perfection. So their true peak actually

457
00:31:56,119 --> 00:32:00,440
ranks twentieth and this methodology, but
they're so good in the other category that

458
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:02,440
they were still carried into the top
ten. It's like, I do think

459
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:07,519
it's like what the Portland Trail Blazers
in Memphis Grizzlies kind of hope to achieve,

460
00:32:07,839 --> 00:32:13,279
whereby being so consistently good, not
necessarily consistently great, that you just

461
00:32:13,359 --> 00:32:17,240
hope that everything clicks for that one
season and it's magical. I'm looking at

462
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:21,079
their title seasons specifically, I wonder
how much that has to do with the

463
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,680
restraint that they carry themselves with when
looking at how quiet Leonard was playing,

464
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:29,119
and even they dealt with some injuries
that year. But yeah, if you

465
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:31,079
put the Blazers in the Eastern Conference, like maybe they have a similar arc

466
00:32:31,119 --> 00:32:36,200
that the Blazers did. I would
still argue that last year's thrount a Raptors

467
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:37,920
team, which is a better version
than anything we've seen from the Blazers in

468
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:43,119
the past decade, regardless of the
conference you're in. Totally agreed. Was

469
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,519
there any teams that really stood out
like to you, like going since this

470
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,720
wasn't something that necessarily required your you
know, I made funny at the beginning,

471
00:32:50,759 --> 00:32:54,200
but this was not surely subjective.
Was there anything that was surprising or

472
00:32:54,240 --> 00:33:05,240
even disappointing to you? Maybe that
the Jazz weren't a little higher, just

473
00:33:05,279 --> 00:33:10,119
since they've been so consistently good over
the last half decade, But no,

474
00:33:10,279 --> 00:33:16,319
I mean it really with the exception
of like those minor discrepancies, now it

475
00:33:16,359 --> 00:33:20,640
was it was fun to look back
at the rankings and be like, wow,

476
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,839
like the Bulls are twelfth, how
did that happen? Oh? Yeah,

477
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:27,920
like we get to include the Derek
Rose MVP season and the peak joke

478
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,880
of Noah year, and like that
team was really good, and it was

479
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:35,960
nice just to like give credit to
those those organizations that were so successful at

480
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:38,200
the beginning of this past decade,
in addition to the most recent ones.

481
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:43,559
But I think I think the Suns
remain my biggest surprise where I was,

482
00:33:43,839 --> 00:33:45,200
you know, I was originally going
through them, and you know, just

483
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:50,440
to to increase the enjoyment for myself
as I do this, I tend to

484
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:53,279
scroll down on my spreadsheets and reveal
one at a time as I'm working through

485
00:33:53,279 --> 00:33:57,160
this and like formulating the Twitter threads
and stuff. So I was like,

486
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,640
when are the Sun's going to show
up? Because I hadn't seen the results

487
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:01,400
until I got to them at twenty
six and I was like, wow,

488
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:06,720
like that that was just not expected
at all. But I do I ultimately,

489
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,599
I hope that this was something that
people enjoyed and brought back either good

490
00:34:09,639 --> 00:34:14,400
or bad memories. And I'm considering
trying to do something similar for all of

491
00:34:14,519 --> 00:34:17,000
NBA history, since I have that
data already and it might just be interesting

492
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,400
to see, if you know,
using this exact same methodology, Are the

493
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:23,719
Lakers number one? Are the Boston
Celtics number one? Because we're going to

494
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:29,000
give even weight to the Bill Russell
led teams that we're winning even when the

495
00:34:29,079 --> 00:34:30,880
NBA had fewer than a dozen teams
in it, as we are to the

496
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,400
most recent ones. You can check
out the entire rankings threat. It's pinned

497
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:40,159
to NBA Maths Twitter profile at NBA
underscore math. If you're not following us

498
00:34:40,199 --> 00:34:44,920
already, wtf remedy that right now? Let us know if you have any

499
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,480
qualms or anything with the top ten. This was a briefer podcast. It's

500
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:52,079
a nice little break from our team
Look Aheads talk a little bit about the

501
00:34:52,119 --> 00:34:53,920
start of the season where that news
is still just probably going to be volving.

502
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:59,119
As after we published this, we'll
get back to our team Look Aheads.

503
00:34:59,159 --> 00:35:00,920
We promise if we as we try
and squeeze in, we'll finish.

504
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:05,159
We have our decade rankings per team
two thirds of the way done. That

505
00:35:05,199 --> 00:35:08,119
series is not dead. We were
just waiting for the meat and Potatoes of

506
00:35:08,159 --> 00:35:10,679
the off season to finish it.
We just might not have a meat and

507
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:15,079
Potatoes of the off season. It
doesn't seem like there's gonna to be any

508
00:35:15,119 --> 00:35:17,480
downtime, but rest as short,
we shall figure it out. But please

509
00:35:17,559 --> 00:35:22,920
everyone remember to rate, review and
subscribe to us wherever you're consuming your podcast,

510
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,960
even if you're not using iTunes,
head over there, search hardware knocks.

511
00:35:25,039 --> 00:35:30,239
Throw us that rating right review.
We'd really appreciate it and until next

512
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,599
time. We leave you with the
shout out to the one the only real

513
00:35:34,679 --> 00:35:49,039
Quick Nets assistant coach Amri's Dodemier.
Nobody builds five G like Verizon builds five

514
00:35:49,079 --> 00:35:52,320
G because we're the engineers who built
the most reliable network in America. And

515
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the more you do with five G, the more building it right matters,

516
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the more your network matters. The
more Verizon engineers going the extra mile matters.

517
00:36:00,519 --> 00:36:06,760
It's us pushing us. It's Verizon
versus Verizon five G built right from

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America's most reliable network, Most reliable
based on rankings from Metrics second half twenty

519
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twenty US report of three Mobile Network's
results may vary. Award is on an endorsement
