What is up, fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Damn Valley coming at
you with the second mail bag and final mailbag of this week and the sixth
podcast. Or is it the seventh of this week? It's the seventh of
this week. Either you're welcome or I'm sorry. I don't know which one
it is. I split this mail bag into two parts because we had so
many great questions from discord. We will dive right in soon. Just the
user reminder. If you're watching this on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button.
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into the season, there's more content coming out. I try and do the
best job I can to be thoroughly un serious here but also thoroughly cover the
league as well. We have a lot of fun in our discord, so
go join that. The link is in the podcast and YouTube description. All
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promos. You could shout us out on Twitter and post a link to something
we've done that you like, or you know a clip that you enjoyed,
and I will retweet it and engage with you if I see it. With
that out of the way, though, let's cannonball into this mail bag a
lot of fun questions in this one. We begin with unbiased Pistons fan,
which MBA player has the worst sneaker design, and which play that doesn't have
one needs to get one? In parentheticals, Jesus Christ, please start the
NBA season. I feel I like hate having to pick the worst one,
but so I went through them before I did this, and I think Donovan
Mitchell the Adidas Deo n issue, I didn't like it. It's just like
boxy and some of the color ways were cool, but it feels like they
should look sleeker, and it's probably because he doesn't want them to, but
like, I prefer a like. I don't like the Lebrons. I just
wasn't gonna pick Lebron. Those just seem like bulky as hell that I don't
like. But the Mitchell one, Mitchell's sort of skews that way, and
it feels like if they were lower cut or a little bit slimmer, I
could like them. And there's just like his nickname with Spider, it feels
like there's you know, some of the designs have actually been pretty cool from
what I was looking at in the specific color ways, but it feels like
the sneaker itself could be so much more creative and just have a better aesthetic
when you're when you're looking at the actual the shape of it, and maybe
just the the heft from Afar. I'm not saying it's heavy. I've never
held one, but not a fan of it. Uh. Which NBA player
needs one? Luca just got one. So if anyone is just wondering why
he's not the pick here, I think John Moran, Anthon Edwards, Tatum,
Devin Booker, they all kind of deserve one. It seems like Devin
Booker's content to just continue rolling with the Kobe's and some of them, like
the shoes he wears are are pretty cool. But like either one of those
four, I think you're the obvious picks the one I would like to see,
just the one I would like to see because he might be the most
stylish person in the NBA. Let's give Shay Gili Alexander a signature shoe,
please, Like, what would that look like? Would it be like floral
print on anything? Would be mixing like bright fluorescent pink with neon orange.
I just I feel like it would be super badass. Let's just give Shay.
Let's give him his own signa shoe, like, maybe even just a
lifestyle shoe. It doesn't have to be a basketball shoe. Willow, I'd
like to see them wear of them on the court. I do, I
guess I don't. I was about to say, could you make like a
a weight training show? Like I was in love with the Nike met Cons
for a while. Now I tend to work out in converses unless I'm doing
cardio. So if someone wants to give Shay a Converse deal or something,
and then can we make a Shay Guild justs Alexander Converse, Chuck Taylor seventy
color or Chuck Taylor? What is it six? What are the classic Chucks?
Is what I wear? Low cut? I want to see the Shay
Gilds Alexander color Way color Ways pural because I will buy them. That's just
flat out tour Gruff asked. I listened to a few hours of NBA podcasts
a week, parentheticals, thank goodness for yours almost daily during this drive spell
thank you, tour Gruff. But I still don't have a great hold on
cap sheets, how contracts are structured, et cetera. How did you learn
all this stuff? And what would you recommend to someone who wants to learn
it. So it's different because I do enjoy it, but I had to
learn it from my job. So I did pour over and they're by the
way. They are people that are way way, way way better than me
on this. I want to make that clear. I don't consider myself an
expert. Bryan to porek Over at the NBA podcast Slash also my co worker
at Pleacher Report fantastic with it, or Pink Pincus also co worker Pleacher Report,
Nate Duncan and Danny LaRue are great with it as well. But I'd
recommend you can google it if you need the link. I'm not gonna include
it in the description just because like some of the podcast players don't actually like
include the physical link to it, so that's not going to help you.
But Larry Coon's CBA FAQ that does a lot, Like you can read through
it or you can sort of you bounce around search certain terms like if you're
looking for like bird rights, like just command F on your Mac or control
F on your your desktop and your search bird rights and you can read up
on on that stuff. So that really helped me a lot, And I
still go back to it to confirm things to make sure that especially when I'm
writing when I'm podcasting, it's a little different. You guys point out when
I make mistakes, but it's just like this is we're all friends here.
This is informal, but I'm not trying to get fired from Bleacher Report.
I understand I have a very cushy gig there, so that helped a lot.
I would also recommend like contract details if you're following guys, it helps
a ton like Keith Smith over at spow Track and then just the Spowtrack details
on the contracts our spectacle, you can click on a you can see the
incentives, the scale to which they're their raises are coming in if you and
they also have cap sheets and so if you're trying to understand like where the
calculations are coming from with the salary cap you have to spend some time around
build your own spreadsheets with them using that data or just looking at theirs and
seeing it, but you can. They really do a good job breaking it
down at spow Track, and the CBA f a Q is a really a
really useful resource. I also will say, like if you hoops Rumors does
a good job of keeping track of the traded player exceptions if you're trying to
understand how those work, and if you want to know how a TPE works,
you go to Larry kuon f a Q. And now I feel like
that's all overwhelming to kind of just throw at you. And so if you're
a fan tour graph of a specific team, I would say the resources I've
thrown at you, the CBA, f a Q, use there. If
I had to say which cap sheets use, go to spowtrack and use the
cap sheet that they have listed there. Read through it, study it,
try to figure out what your what the actual like cap space that they have,
Like challenge yourself for this next year to understand how much cap space will
your Orlando Magic have projected right now twenty two, twenty two, twenty three,
and spo track will give you that number. There are people like me
who have like my own spreadsheets, but I'm relying on all these other people
for information. But use that number and then kind of see how they arrive
to it because they do a good job of breaking it down. And there
are things like and don't be afraid to ask people if you're having a specific
like I will try and answer as many questions as possible. I know I
go awhile listeners sometimes not checking discord, not checking my dms, not checking
YouTube one. There are too many social media the things that I'm honoring,
but like I'm around to answer quickly about that. It can be like and
sometimes you forget stuff like sometimes I forget the cake in like a minimum roster
charge, and you have to go and find like what a minimum roster charge
is going to be projected that season real GM. If you search real GM
salary cap, one of the first links that come up will be the projected
salary caps, the mid level exception, the h like the minimum contracts for
players, then minimid level exception, the luxury tax that like you know,
so what the hard cap is going to be? That stuff is great too,
And I think all the terminology that I'm throwing out there, the biggest
one I would say is the CBA FAQ because if you're hearing hardcap, if
you're hearing mid level exception, and you need to understand why a team is
using that or can't use it like CBA f a Q, search for those
terms and they'll come up. And that's how I really did teach myself.
And then read like the people or listen to the people that I talked about,
because a lot of them are writing. Danny LaRue at the Athletic If
you have an athletic suscription will do a lot of cat breakdowns all the time.
They do it on their podcast as well and dunked on all the time.
Brian to Porrek writes that you can get it free on Forbes. He's
always writing cap breakdowns. Really go read. Brian to Porrek is actually one
of the best round at doing this right now, just because it's not behind
a paywall. Go check out. He's really doing it a lot with the
Sixers go back. I can read some of his stuff about how the Sixers
were able to afford PJ. Tucker while resigning James Harden like he had that
mapped out before it actually happened, So that would be a recommendation too.
If this was too rambly for you, hit me on the side. But
that's how I learned the at least the base of knowledge that I have,
and I'm still learning with it still forgetting things, and it's I'm since I
do enjoy transactions and the theoretical or at least looking forward. It is something
that like, if you enjoy it, I think it makes it easier.
But I can understand why, like throwing terminology. When I listened to like
Yo, some of the things that they say, like dunker Spot what a
fantastic podcast. Like some of the stuff they throw out there when we're talking
about XS and ohs, I have to look up or rewind it and try
and understand what they were saying. It's like when I'm watching Playbreakdown from Kaitlyn
Cooper writing spectacular. Thank God she's such a good writer, so I can
understand what's happening, But like I have to watch the clips she's showing a
lot of the time to see what's happening and understand that that's that's how you
learn. And sometimes it's just that stuff still makes me shaky, but that's
how you go about it, in my humble opinion. I don't know if
any of that sounded humble though, So if I came off like a like
an ass hat, my apologies. Saint Underscore, Dally Space jam Lebron is
in a new video game Brawler with a lot of under other Warner Brothers characters.
If you were creating an NBA fighting video game, which players would you
need on the day one game roster? So I wanted to limit myself.
I went with current players. We had some in the discord. There are
people who like named the Malice of the Palace players and ron our test was
in there. So I went with current players and I built what my starting
five would be. And I don't give a shit about position, like I
just want I want to win in this fight. These are the five that
I settled on. Jannis, Kyle Lowry, and come on, anyone,
I love Kyle Lowry, even if you don't love Kyle Lowry. The dude
is tough and he will he will scrap and claw and play dirty if he
needs to. PJ. Tucker, I don't ever want to fight PJ.
Tucker. Steven Adams, that might be the toughest guy in the NBA.
He's leaned down a bit, but like there was a point where you could
do just like pull ups on his SEPs, and then there's Zion Williamson.
You could actually do pull ups on his biceps. I don't know that Zion
has this reputation is being tough. He is built like a brick walls brick
wall. Even if you think he's out of shape, which I don't like.
I'm sure that's been a battle behind the scenes, but like we've seen
what Zion kind of looks like in shape, and that dude is just like
a fucking marble statue that is somehow mass and like peek Zion like and the
explosion. If you think that Zion doesn't cut it, I could see like
a Jay Crowder in here. But my five would be Zion, Jannie,
Kyle Lowry, Stephen Adams, PJ Tucker. What would yours be? Let
me know, Discord, Twitter, whatever, YouTube comments. That was a
fun one and I'm really liking my non negotiable inclusions. I think Johanna,
Steven Adams, and PJ Tucker is like, you might be able to talk
me into some others other than Zion or Kyle Lowry, but like I'm gonna
need Zion, Steven Adams, and PJ Tucker in this. And no,
I don't want fucking Patrick Beverley on my team, no, no, thank
you in this. Tieball Defensive Player of the Year is Hardened. Status is
a former in parenthetical superstar hurting and beads MVP chances, assuming this season he
can adequately replicate his success in Brooklyn. He then said, I'm very interested
to see what you hear, what you have to say about this, given
what you said on the last podcast when he gave out the six ers grades
spoiler alert, I gave them an A and so to grant here's my thing.
If Harden is actually worse, I think it only helps Joel Embiad's MVP
chances because he's gonna be viewed as someone who doesn't have to carry Harden,
but uplift the roster more than you would expect with another star. And I
do think there's the issue of cannibalization when we get here where it's just like
it's harder for you know, when Golden State. Right now, it's not
harder for Staff to be in the MVP discussion because he's no longer playing with
Kevin Durant Lucas on his own. But like if you're Kevin duran and Kyrie
Irving playing a full season together, if you're Kawhi Leonard and Paul George Lebron
James Zanthy Davis, separating yourself gets harder. Jannis is different because the two
stars below him are just not on the same plane. And so when you're
dealing with stars that are equals or at least like, let's just say two
top twenty players, which I think at some point Drew Holliday and Chris Milton
I don't know if it was at the same time, I probably might have
both had them in that area. But they're not consensus. When you're talking
about Paul George and Kawai Kyrie and KD like at their peaks, they're all
consensus Top twenty, lebron A d consensus top ten, although I don't know
if AD's a top ten player anymore. Talk about some tough questions to ask.
So, but do I think like the fact that Harden I still think
is going to be really good and just looking at some of the moments of
births he had, I known it wasn't constant in Philly. Let's give the
dude an off season where he's not changing teams, where he's actually happy with
his situation. He's with Darryl Moorey again, has PJ. Tucker, Daniel
House there. He seems to like playing with Joel Embiid. His workload is
just it's ardably lighter than it's ever been now too, because you have Embiid
and like you went from Houston, where yeah, like Chris Paul I think
was most helpful to him and he adapted his game a lot for Russ.
But then you go to like he were still the guy, and you still
had this absurdly high usage rate and we're tasked with doing so much, and
we know that Chris Paul, you know, was injured at the twenty eighteen
playoff run. I think it was like or just had like the hamstring stuff
going around for them, and then Russ was just imperfect for a huge part
of the season. They had a change the makeup of the roster. You
go to Brooklyn where like injuries playing you during that three quarter season whatever,
you're there, you yourself, but then just also Kyrie and kd as well,
You're banged up this past season. Kyrie is not available, Kevin Durant
gets banged up. You seem like you were visually banged up, Slash,
you quit on a team. So now let's put you in Philly. Yes,
Joel embiid if he spotty health as well, but like, if you're
healthier and this is like the spot that you now actually want to be in,
he might be the best player on the team. Like that's not I
just want to make it clear, like I think that the conversation about Harden
being this former superstar has gone too far off the rails. If he's really
not. Your reports are that he's in great shape. Yeah, it's all
this off season shot shit, you know, game ten pounds of muscle but
still single digit body fat, had the perfect offseas season. If he's still
like not taking care of his body now that he's on the wrong side of
thirty, yeah, I get the concern, but like this, this isn't
someone who went from an MVP candidate when he was with Brooklyn that first season,
Like when he finished that season, he kind of worked himself into the
outskirts of that conversation that like these drop offs, they're not that steep when
there's no like real underlying cause at like a serious injury and if his hamstring
is just fucked Okay, but I really think I would bet on Harden winning
MVP before and bat this season, and mostly because the odds plus seven thousand,
Like that's that's something I think. I'm not don't take this advice,
but like you invest in that and then you sell back to the sports book
because they're worried about that hitting and you take a smaller profit. That's That's
where I'm at with that. So I I I but if to the point
of this question, assuming Harden is what he was in Brooklyn that first season
he was there. Yes, it's harder for Joel and b to win MVP
because I do think that there's there's overlap and vote and we've seen it with
Yokich and this look, this is part of why Yokich was my MVP.
Like I view, uplifting a roster that doesn't have a star a fellow star
with you to being a fringe contender is actually harder than uplifting a team with
another top five, top ten NBA player UH to contender status. Now,
maybe some people disagree, and depending on the season that Joel Bead is having
or vice versa, that could change. But if Harden is the player that
he was when he closed but when he was healthy in Brooklyn, not this
past season, but twenty one, it's Harden who's going to be more in
the MVP conversation than in my opinion, and I think a lot of that's
just gonna have to be with the agency, the control that Harden has over
the offense in those situations where yeah, there they'll be like you'll run the
offense through both of them and you'll stagger their minutes some. But he's going
to be the one that I think is like I'm not thinking like we just
know the ball is gonna be in his hands first. When you're getting into
crunch time, maybe you still run stuff through and bead. And again we
saw Harden I think adapt more than people will credit him for when he had
Russ with the Rockets. Like, He's still going to be the go to
option unless he's completely cooked. And so if you're telling me that James Harden
is still a superstar, the superstar that he was when Brooklyn first got him,
then yes, I think it definitely hurts Joe Embiad's MVP chances with without
question. And look, that was part of the appeal for embed the past
two years. It's just yeah, the Sixers we were really good, but
last season it was because Ben Simmons wasn't there and Tyrius Maxi was your second
best player. And then just even with UH, you know in twenty twenty
twenty one, Jimmy Butler had left UH, like Ben Simmons was. He
had like some really good moments through that that stretch of the year. But
you know, Joe, well Embiad was the he had to lead this like
heliocentric existence and for the most part, and just the fact that he did
more and there weren't limitations ascribed to his game, and he didn't have a
teammate who was in the same vein where his second best teammate was considered flawed
in Ben Simmons, Like, that's gonna help you too. And so I'm
trying to think of like another example where like it would be like Trey Young,
like it was kind of on that like, because the gap between Trey
Young and John Collins is probably about the same between Joel and Bead and Ben
Simmons we're talking about this season. Maybe that's a maybe that's a terrible example,
but you're not close to when it's not like a co equal. But
yo, Devin Booker and Chris Paul and Phoenix, and there's also I think
a certain caliber of player you need to be that voters are just gonna a
shoe. But that's a different story altogether. So I would argue I'm investing
in Harden's MVP odds because I'm probably I'm a risk taker at this stuff.
I don't I consider myself risk averse in life, although I am doing something
at the moment that is probably just actually fucking stupid. But that's a delirious
right now, please just ignore that. So so I'm risk averse in general
in life, but like when it comes to this stuff, I'm starting to
trust my instincts a little bit more, take more chances when I'm making predictions.
If I actually believe, I'm not going to just uh, you know,
subscribe to group think or the general consensus if I really don't believe it.
I just feel like this could be a bounce back here for Harden because
of how far perception is shifted, and that almost helps him MVP chances because
the baseline or his floor has been set so low and we're just assuming not
we but people are just assuming he's hit that floor. So but to answer
your question, tyble dpo y, I know that I went on this long
rant. I do think that hardened status if he's actually, you know,
worse than he was during that time in Brooklyn. Like if he is not
the best, if I beat is the best player on the sixers by a
minor margin, it's a problem for his MVP chances. If the gap is
actually wider like it was yeah for most of James Harden's time in Philly this
past year. If that's the Harden you get all season, and bead is
going to be right in the fick of the MVP discussion. But if Harden
is what he was with the Nets, I would just argue, not only
does it hurt jaw Mban's MVP case, but Harden might have a stronger one
than him at that point. Lance, Roberson, And this is a question
I did not get to on one of the last mail bags. I forgot
about it, but I remembered here, So I do hope you're list nang,
Lance, who is the most likely team to disappoint expectations this season?
I think my initial inclination was to go with Dallas or Chicago, but I
don't know that expectations are high enough for that. I do still kind of
lean towards Dallas because they have Luca, and teams are just gonna People will
tend to think, oh, top five seven player or whatever he is,
like, he'll they'll navigate out of it. They just you know, they
got to the conference finals, and you know Jalen Brunson isn't the superstar,
so whatever fair So I'll throw them in there. If the expectations are still
that high, but I do think that the consensus is still sort of low
on them. I think it's gonna be the Grizzlies just if you're I don't
want to call them the Hawks, that team that made it to the conference
finals and then fell off a cliff this past year. I think they're better,
more sustainable than that. But you just had the second best record in
the league. And if you're expecting them to replicate that type of success,
if the West is healthier and by extension deeper, and you're dealing with this
Jaron Jackson junior injury, and you're now relying on your internal development even more
because it's not just oh, we have John Randt, Desmond Bane and Aaron
Jackson Jr. You're at a point where like you need David Roddy, Jake
la Ravia, Brandon Clark because I You're Williams like two of those guys to
play pivotal roles. And that just gets a little a little iffy. And
so that's my pick. I've been pretty upfront about that for a majority of
the off season. I'm prepared to be wrong because I've been wrong about the
Grizzlies for three years running, and I just hope Grizzlies fans don't take it
as an insult. Jaws fantastic. I saw on Twitter someone said that Jaren
Jackson Junior is just like Miles Turner with a different green light or something.
I just think he's better than that when you look at what he can do
offensively. So I remain high on the Grizzlies long term, and they could
be just as good as they were last season technically, but the wind total
might be significantly lower. Haitian Mamba DM me and asked, Hi, my
friend Hope Paul as well mail bad question. I'm sure if you're familiar with
the w NBA playoff format, but their first round is the best of three,
with the higher seed getting first two games at home and if necessarily,
the last on the road. I am familiar with that, thank you,
though I kind of love that format. Could the NBA one go back to
Round one best of five and two? Could they adopt a format like the
w NBA's first round to make the first round very exciting and give lower season
more of a chance of upset? So I let's answer the second question first.
I don't think I think the NBA is ever going to do best of
three in the first round. They might sort of you know, elongate or
extend the play in to make it that route, and that's almost what it
is for certain teams, Like there's one you win one and you're in,
and then other teams have to win two, so like two in a row
to get in. But maybe they adopt a different format for the play in.
I don't think that'll ever be the first round. I love the WNBA
having the best of three first round because it bakes in that opportunity for randomness,
which I think, and upsets, which is great. The NBA dropping
down that low like best of five, I would love to see it just
because it increases the likelihood that you get the upsets in the first round.
But I think the NBA likes the idea of the best teams being able to
win the title. But I do think that if you're that much better than
a team, you should still be able to beat them three and five rather
than four of seven. But I would love the first round to go back
to to best of five. I don't see them doing it to cutting the
gate revenue. And like I said, they or at least publicly they'll say
like, oh, well this, you know, it makes it harder.
We want the best teams after the BOT. They want the regular season to
matter, and it matters just a little bit less if it's all of a
sudden best of five in the first round. But from a chaotic perspective,
hell fucking yeah, I give me best of five. I will say what
I don't like about the w MBA format, and I'm sure it's done to
cut down on travel costs. I don't like two one. I like one
one one because not having the like the higher seed have that like final home
game, have home court advantage in that I would go one one one to
do that. But I do I do enjoy that format. Next question comes
from I'm gonna say this one for last sauce. It's just a fun light
one. This next question comes from I don't know why I don't have the
name. Oh. This question comes from b J. Dunster aka Anthony.
So it comes from Anthony. Excuse me for stumbling through that. Who were
some guys you think are most positioned to make or break their teams the season
this year? I'm thinking teams who either probably or definitely will be in the
playoffs. Mix. He then sent me a thread of his thoughts, and
we do have some overlap here. I did frame it like this, I'm
looking at it, and I included health, and I'm gonna just rip through
some of the easier ones quickly. But players that are the difference between their
team maybe being title contenders and just not being completely out of it, and
like the actual they have more question marks than if they do have if they
do have other players on their teams where you could say, oh what if
I like, I don't have Lebron ray D on this because it's what if
Lebron ray D gets injured. I'm thinking about like less known quantities if they're
healthy, and also like they are the bigger uncertainty on their team. So
we'll start off with this. I have Kawai with the Clippers just because he
missed so much time. I'm gonna have him instead of Paul George, even
though Paul George missed a bunch of time. But if you have Kawai being
Kawai of elable for the playoffs, you're a title contender. If you don't,
you might be a title favorite. If you don't, you might not
even be a playoff team. I think they'd still be a playoff team,
but you need him. I've Michael Porter Junior with the Nuggets, and I'm
hesitant about this because I don't think they need him to be a contender,
but I do think if he's healthy and playing like up to what he was
in twenty twenty one, we're talking about a title favorite, a juggernaut here,
and I'm assuming like you could go MPJA or Jamal Murray here. I
think the Nuggets need at least one of them to pick up where they left
off to be in that upper echelon of contention discussion, which isn't the spicy
take, and so I'm going with MPJA. I think I'm not really worried
about Murray. It's just mpj's back stuff. It's been dogging him his entire
career from before he got to the NBA. If he's going to be fine
and he's going to be the one that continues to progress, the Nuggets all
of a sudden go from like interesting QT contender, Dan's title pick, but
people think he's an idiot too. Oh, they might be among the top
three title favorites. I have James Harden with the Sixers as well. We
already went through that just perception of him seems to have just devolved so much,
so appreciably over the course of the past year. If he is James
Harden like he was in that first season in Brooklyn, what he was or
most at that time and that season in Brooklyn, like we're like, the
Sixers need to be put in Tier one of contenders in the East, like
we have Boston and Milwaukee and then everyone else. I think rightfully so right
now, like the Sixers would belong in there even more so than to eat
more so than the Raptors. For me, I have Ben Simmons with the
Nets at this point because if they're gonna keep Kyrie and Kad and that's like
I don't want to pick anyone for the Nets, and you could say Katie's
health, but Ben Simmons, if he's healthy, he just brings a whole
new dimension to their defense, and they have enough shooting to make that roster
interesting, even if I don't love the idea of Simmons on offense there because
if you're putting the ball in his hands, you're taking out of Kadi or
Kyrie's which they're capable of working through. But that's not something you want to
do too heavy handedly. You need Ben Simmons to do more off the ball.
I would say most likely as screener, which we just haven't seen too
much of it his career, so there's that element to that. But just
if he's healthy, that team could be like their outcome is winning a title,
but it could also be playing. They're more likely to be in that
upper echelon of team though, if his back is holding up. And then
these last two are the most interesting to me. I'm Zion with the Pelicans,
which I guess is kind of duh, and the Pelicans might make the
playoffs if he's not good, if he doesn't make progress, if he's not
healthy, Zion was an All NBA caliber player last time he was healthy in
twenty twenty one. If he's getting better because he's still so young, maybe
craftier with the ball in his hands, Maybe he's hitting some set threes this
year. Maybe his off ball attention on defense, like to detail, is
just so much better. Like the Pelicans. You know, the way we're
talking about the Timberwolves, you better start talking about the Pelicans there as well
too. And then Anthony Edwards with the Timberwolves. Just I think the key
to that team because I do believe we know what Karl Anthony Towns is going
to be on offense, no matter what. We know what Rudy Gobert is
going to be on offense and defense no matter what, we sort of know
what we what Anty Edwards is or can be. Is he that guy yet
because we're talking about him the vein of this might be the all NBA leap.
Is he going to I don't want to say, remain on schedule,
but is he going to continue progressing as much as he did last season where
he became his defensive disruptor and if he makes a step up there, maybe
improves his sort of passing guys open rather than just reacting, but you know,
being proactive and anticipating more as a playmaker. And I'd argue they need
him to do that unless you just think de Loo and Jalen Noel and Britt
Forbes are the secondary answers there. But he can elevate the Wolves like he
to me is actually we can talk about the dual big and how that's gonna
I think playoff defense is what you're most concerned there. I think it'll be
fine and offense like that matters. But the actual key to the Timberwolves hitting
their ceiling. I think a successful Townsend Gobet give you an incredibly a fairly
high ceiling and incredibly high floor. Anty Edwards is the one who will set
what your actual highest ceiling is. And so those are the players I have
his answer this question. Zion with the Pels, Harden with the Sixers,
Anthony Edwards with the Wolves, Simmons with the Nets, Quiet with the Clippers,
and MPJ with the Nuggets. I tried to keep myself just five players
for five teams. I went to six because let's face it. Let's face
it, y'all all, it's it's me. Final question this comes from Austin
next mail. Bad question. I already answered it in the DMS. But
where did the Frank end buy come from? Is that like a common Knicks
fan joke? The answer is probably not anymore. But when he was there,
it was just the running theme was a lot of Nicks guys were frustrated
with his lack of opportunity, the inconsistency behind the way he was used,
and the opportunity in general. I still think there's a quality basketball player there
because when you're inserting him like in defensive situations because he can be so good
on the ball and disrupt with his length, and even just some of the
gambles that that he makes figure out a way to use him on offense.
And I think the biggest key for him is like, yeah, you don't
want him putting the ball on the floor. There's like a smoothness to his
game sometimes, but it's not if there's I love him, but there's only
trace elements of it. If you could just hit a set three and it's
almost under just like this three indeed point guard who isn't insufferable like Pat Beverley
at this point or three in d guard if you want to call it.
And I just think he has the potential prime Beverly could defend up. They're
not good player, comes just throw that out the window. But I still
think there's a quality NBA player in there, and I will die on that
hill. I'm probably currently dying on that hill if you ask most of the
people around the league. But it was at nick fan joke because he just
never got a fair shake in New York. And I'm not saying Dallas used
him any better, but hey, he was non guaranteed in there as far
as like, I think it looks like they're bringing him back this season,
so he belongs on an NBA roster. We'll see if he ever sort of
becomes a regular rotation player more than this spot minutes specialty guy. It comes
down to what he's gonna give you on offense, because he can be in
net zero, but there's he has moments where it's like, oh, if
he just did that like four out of ten times instead of like one out
of one hundred wherever, it is like he imagined the type of player he
would be. This was a fun second part of the mail bag. Again.
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the shout outs to one the only the player I just waxed or rambled incoherently
but also a poetic about Frank Neilikio