Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another episode of Haplejack Still the Pod.
Speaker 3: I am your host, Alex Golders with me has always
Speaker 3: his doctor.
Speaker 4: Justin Joy and Daniel Donavidian.
Speaker 3: I am back from vacation ready to hop back in
Speaker 3: and joining us on today's episode is Martin Jensen of
Speaker 3: Yahoo Sports and also HBO. Because of the HBO thing,
Speaker 3: his face is censored. No, just kidding, it's because of
Speaker 3: the FI. But Martin, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5: I am doing well and look first first time visitor
Speaker 5: on this podcast, so thank you for having me first
Speaker 5: and foremost. Secondarily, I just want to apologize in advance
Speaker 5: if my Internet is gonna just crap out on everyone.
Speaker 5: So I am hoping and I'm praying with everything I got,
Speaker 5: even as an atheist, that everything will work out.
Speaker 3: I believe in you, and you know, dear listener, if
Speaker 3: you have any deities that you rock with, no judgment here,
Speaker 3: but we need their powers for Morton's Internet connections.
Speaker 5: So please, yes, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6: We could use a little bit of rain here in
Speaker 6: Mexico City. It's pretty hot and dry, as you can
Speaker 6: see from me trying not to die in my office
Speaker 6: on this very warm, almost August.
Speaker 3: Day, Rain City in Brooklyn. It's just rain for two weeks.
Speaker 3: Joy of joys, Daniel, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty good. I'm in the land of Lebron aka Pennsylvania. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a little a little humid here, but I've been
Speaker 2: enjoying the summer and now the off season is really
Speaker 2: starting to get dry. But a lot of stuff to
Speaker 2: talk about to carry us through though.
Speaker 4: Yep, it sure is. We do have enough to talk about.
Speaker 3: So this is the part of the off season where
Speaker 3: moves are largely settling, and so we get to do
Speaker 3: some analysis time. And that's exactly what we're going to
Speaker 3: do with Morton. We're going to break down the Western Conference,
Speaker 3: which the Celtics do not play in, but you know,
Speaker 3: both from a broader league wide perspective and also how
Speaker 3: it affects the sees. But first, as always, we will
Speaker 3: talk about the news.
Speaker 4: Daniel.
Speaker 3: You have some news about Jason Tatum's golf tournament. You
Speaker 3: want to just go right into that.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, he hosted his annual golf tournament in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: I believe it's his sixth year now doing it. And
Speaker 2: always familiar Celtics people show up this year. It was
Speaker 2: Derek White, which is good to see Daniel Tice, which
Speaker 2: was a bit of a surprise.
Speaker 4: Let's go Daniel Tyson's back taking a break from Pablo
Speaker 4: Torre's podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that was bad timing of that news.
Speaker 2: But Tatum's always friend with some random player on the Celtics,
Speaker 2: like Javonte Green, Daniel Tice. It's never the superstar guys,
Speaker 2: it's some random role players. Oh and Mike Conley was
Speaker 2: there as well, which is good for the team chemistry,
Speaker 2: new team. But yeah, just good to see him doing
Speaker 2: that for his charity.
Speaker 3: Listen, Brad Stevens has got one roster spot open, and
Speaker 3: I know that Daniel Tice has had a couple of
Speaker 3: stints with the Boston Celtics, but.
Speaker 4: Who's against one more? Not me, buddy.
Speaker 3: You heard it here first, Brad Stevens, Daniel Tice, last
Speaker 3: roster spot Let's get it. He also had some other
Speaker 3: things to say Daniel, which left the internet in a
Speaker 3: little bit of a kerfuffle. What do you what do
Speaker 3: you got on that?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was I believe a Jordan camp. He's kind
Speaker 2: of been doing this like summer tour of stops promoting
Speaker 2: Jordan Jordan brand all that like he was in he
Speaker 2: was in the Bronx or in New York recently, bet
Speaker 2: where exactly though, He's been all over and I think
Speaker 2: in Chicago he had this camp and he was talking
Speaker 2: to the kids and they posted it on his story
Speaker 2: on Instagram and he mentioned being teammates with people who
Speaker 2: think they're the smartest player in the room or something
Speaker 2: along those lines. I don't have the exact wording in
Speaker 2: front of me, but obviously the internet went crazy with
Speaker 2: that because people will remember this report if you want
Speaker 2: to call it that. I think it just came from
Speaker 2: Colin Coward and he probably knows some anonymous guy that
Speaker 2: that some people thought Jalen Brown thought he was the
Speaker 2: smartest person in the room. So people thought Tatum might
Speaker 2: have been referencing that. Me personally, I think we're kind
Speaker 2: of jumping to conclusions of it here he's.
Speaker 3: Talking to that would never happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it got picked up, of course by like
Speaker 2: all the aggregators, so that's going crazy. It has like
Speaker 2: millions of views and people were taking out as a
Speaker 2: shot at Jalen Brown. But I don't know, is that
Speaker 2: a camp he's talking to kids? I don't think Tatum
Speaker 2: is online as a lot of people in the NBA
Speaker 2: fans fear media sphere are, so he might not exactly
Speaker 2: see everything that we've seen, and I don't know, I
Speaker 2: seem more coincidental to me. Of course, I don't know
Speaker 2: fully what's going on with that relationship, but I don't
Speaker 2: fully buy into that conspiracy theory.
Speaker 3: Morton, do you have thoughts on the various clickbait stories
Speaker 3: around Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown taking secret chats at
Speaker 3: each other on the Internet?
Speaker 5: How come again, guys, my apologies for the internet crapping out.
Speaker 5: Someone isn't praying hard enough.
Speaker 4: It's all good.
Speaker 3: We wanted your enlightened take on the supposed internet sniping
Speaker 3: between Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, there wasn't any That's my take. I think
Speaker 5: that is just such a preposterous summer thing where people
Speaker 5: are trying to create headlines out of thin air for
Speaker 5: absolutely nothing. Jason Tatum has repeatedly, over the course of
Speaker 5: several years, been the corner of Jalen Brown. I think
Speaker 5: it's just such a ridiculous assumption that all of a
Speaker 5: sudden he should stop being behind his guy like like,
Speaker 5: what should be the motivational factor here, I don't see it.
Speaker 5: They want a championship together, for crying out loud. I
Speaker 5: think there will always be mutual admiration for one another.
Speaker 5: I think they had some issues, I believe in the
Speaker 5: beginning of their careers, trying to figure out their roles.
Speaker 5: But like they just they that's so long ago they
Speaker 5: spent how how many years was it they spent together?
Speaker 5: Like seven, eight years something along those lines, like nine Jesus,
Speaker 5: I mean, there we go. So I just don't think
Speaker 5: there's anything but respect and admiration on his front. And
Speaker 5: I think we tend as a society to read into
Speaker 5: stuff all the time and for no reason whatsoever, which
Speaker 5: is really ridiculous. So I'm just gonna say, no iping
Speaker 5: involved here, guys.
Speaker 6: Yeah, wildly character for Tatum.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The only the only sniping that I see Jason Tatum
Speaker 3: regularly engaging in is on the basketball court from deep
Speaker 3: adjust kidding, please get your three point percent, Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3: I believe you, all right, So moving on to me,
Speaker 3: as Catah is going to be playing with Portugal in
Speaker 3: the Basketball World Cup qualifier in August. For euro hoops fans,
Speaker 3: go check out Kata doing stuff with Portugal. We'll see
Speaker 3: other quick news tidbits, and then we're going to jump
Speaker 3: into the actual meat of the pod. Sounds like the
Speaker 3: Celtics were at one point pursuing erstwhile nemesis Lebron James in.
Speaker 4: Free agency this off season. For Dave McManamon.
Speaker 3: Morton, I'm curious about your thoughts of the enemies to
Speaker 3: buddies that never really emerged here with the Celtics rumored
Speaker 3: interest in Lebron, what do you think.
Speaker 5: I mean, Look, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ce's
Speaker 5: actually pursued Lebron like they Why wouldn't they even if
Speaker 5: you had the animosity of the many years of heat
Speaker 5: Celtics even Cavs Celtics rivalries, Like, you're in the business
Speaker 5: of getting better. You're always in the business of trying
Speaker 5: to achieve a championship level contender. Adding Lebron depending on
Speaker 5: you know, the financial compensation. Of course that's a topic
Speaker 5: for a different day. But like whenever you can add Lebron,
Speaker 5: even at age forty one or you know, going on
Speaker 5: forty two, I mean, you do it and you try
Speaker 5: to figure out stuff as you go along, Like he
Speaker 5: probably would have been spending a lot of time on
Speaker 5: the ball, which frankly, that's fine because that frees up
Speaker 5: the shooters, that freeze update them a little bit more. So. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I absolutely believe there is something to it. I don't
Speaker 5: hate the fact that they had him on their radar.
Speaker 5: If they did, I mean, you would be a fool
Speaker 5: if you're not in the position of the Celtics and
Speaker 5: actually react on it. So like, without being too mean,
Speaker 5: I would say, duh.
Speaker 4: Martin, are you implying that signing Lebron James for the
Speaker 4: minimum will make your team better at basketball?
Speaker 5: I know, I look, it's very controversial. I know, I
Speaker 5: understand that. I appreciate that, but I am actually going
Speaker 5: out on a limb here and saying that that would
Speaker 5: be a very wise decision.
Speaker 3: Yes, really shocking takes. I know, this is crazy stuff
Speaker 3: that we're getting more than really really offering a wild
Speaker 3: guest experience.
Speaker 5: I know, I'm coming in just firing shotguns all over
Speaker 5: the blaze.
Speaker 4: Yeah right.
Speaker 3: Another related Tidbitti news, apparently Boston also tried to trade
Speaker 3: Jalen Brown to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline.
Speaker 3: Per Shams, he mentioned something about the Celtics basically asking
Speaker 3: for four first round picks, which is what they have
Speaker 3: been asking for a lot of teams until they traded
Speaker 3: him for Paul George and two first round picks instead
Speaker 3: in a bunch of seconds. What if anything, does this
Speaker 3: tell us JQ daniel thoughts on Brad potentially offering Jalen
Speaker 3: Brown at the deadline in Golden State in the middle
Speaker 3: of what was at the time a career season for him.
Speaker 6: This tells me that they've been trying to move him,
Speaker 6: maybe as soon as he signed his current contract, just
Speaker 6: because of the reasons. You know, this has been my
Speaker 6: least favorite I told you so ever in terms of
Speaker 6: them needing to trade Jalen Brown, and even I thought
Speaker 6: it was going to be further down the road, like
Speaker 6: after the season, after this coming season. So this tells
Speaker 6: me that the Celtics really had been thinking about moving
Speaker 6: on from him for quite some time, and probably almost
Speaker 6: certainly it's the contract.
Speaker 3: It would have been pretty shocking at the trade deadline
Speaker 3: with the Celtics kind of turning the corner and starting
Speaker 3: to really emerge as a legitimately good Eastern Conference playoff
Speaker 3: team to deal Jalen Brown to Golden State for picks
Speaker 3: during the middle of that.
Speaker 4: Season that he just had.
Speaker 3: That would have been really something, and I certainly would
Speaker 3: have been surprised, to say the least.
Speaker 4: Daniel Morton any thoughts on that, I don't.
Speaker 2: Have too much to add. I think Justin saw correctly.
Speaker 2: I guess it kind of shows you what the market
Speaker 2: was at the time and how it sort of fell.
Speaker 2: Now I'm still not on board where I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: the market was so high and obviously lowered, so the
Speaker 2: fact that they got him for Paul Georgian picks is
Speaker 2: like fine, Like it's understandable. I still don't really agree
Speaker 2: with that. I think you're trading guy like Jalen Brown,
Speaker 2: especially after he finished sixth in MVP voting. You would
Speaker 2: like the market to be a little bit better. You
Speaker 2: would have liked a better deal to really fire sale,
Speaker 2: and maybe, like Justin said, wait, a little obviously that
Speaker 2: didn't happen. They must have had some question marks with
Speaker 2: his fit, I imagine at points long before we all really
Speaker 2: started talking about it. But the Warriors are probably not
Speaker 2: beating themselves up over this, but because four first round
Speaker 2: picks is a lot, but still the current situation there
Speaker 2: in seems pretty bleak. I know we'll get into that
Speaker 2: a little more, but I don't really see much optimism
Speaker 2: coming out of Golden State next season.
Speaker 3: Reportedly, the reason that the Warriors balked at the deal
Speaker 3: is because they were skeptical about the idea of Jalen
Speaker 3: Brown being the franchise guy. After Steph Curry, Yeah, Morton,
Speaker 3: what do you think about this? And then let's keep
Speaker 3: it moving?
Speaker 5: No, I mean quick thoughts here is I would agree
Speaker 5: with that assessment if I was Golden State. Look, I
Speaker 5: appreciate Jalen Brown for what he is, but I don't
Speaker 5: think he's a lead guy what he did this or
Speaker 5: last season. Because now we're past July first, so we
Speaker 5: can say last season, what he did last season was
Speaker 5: incredibly impressive. But I don't have him up in that
Speaker 5: tier where he can go in and be, you know,
Speaker 5: a high end MVP caliber player and as does you know,
Speaker 5: the spearhead of your franchise lead you into a championship contention.
Speaker 5: So I kind of understand why the Warriors would be
Speaker 5: skeptical of turning him into the face of the franchise
Speaker 5: post stuff.
Speaker 4: Sure, all right, well it's about that time Morton.
Speaker 3: It is the The name of the pod is Habichak
Speaker 3: stole the pod, and you are going to steal the
Speaker 3: pod as our guest of the day, So go ahead
Speaker 3: and steal away.
Speaker 4: What do you got for us here?
Speaker 5: Seriously, we have to talk about Spider Man brain New
Speaker 5: Day because like I'm a superhero Garner, like I'm a geek,
Speaker 5: I'm a nerd. I'm not going to get into spoilers
Speaker 5: if you haven't seen it. I'm just gonna say this
Speaker 5: was by far the most authentic Spider Man movie that's
Speaker 5: ever been made. The fact that we and like I
Speaker 5: set this on Blue Skuy as well, and this isn't spoiler.
Speaker 5: This is something to look forward to. Unlike the previous
Speaker 5: like three movies, you really get a sense of how
Speaker 5: they've lowered the amount of CGI when he's in a
Speaker 5: scene and I thought that was just oh Chef's kiss.
Speaker 5: The right decision to go with felt so much more
Speaker 5: authentic also to the character, and we were finally getting
Speaker 5: like prime Spidy, like we're we're getting you know, h
Speaker 5: twenty seven Michael Jordan up in this one, and that's
Speaker 5: where we are with Spidey, and it's insanely good. I'm
Speaker 5: just gonna recommend to everyone, like, rush to the theater
Speaker 5: and go watch it. It's I was just blown away.
Speaker 5: I wanted to get some put some good vibes into
Speaker 5: this one, and I saw it last night. Hasn't come
Speaker 5: out of my mind yet. Like I'm literally considering going
Speaker 5: back and rewatching it in the theater, which I never do.
Speaker 5: Guys like I never go back to watch twice I am.
Speaker 5: I am sorely tempted. That's how good it was.
Speaker 3: So it's gonna have a high bar for me to
Speaker 3: clear because I believe that Sam Miami's Spider Man two
Speaker 3: is perhaps the single finest movie in the entire.
Speaker 4: Genre of superhero films. There's so much sauce in that movie.
Speaker 5: It's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, So it's a high bar to clear for me,
Speaker 3: but I will see it and we'll have to see
Speaker 3: where we go from there. Thoughts on the upcoming Spider
Speaker 3: Man movies, Daniel Justin or older ones.
Speaker 2: Frankly, I got tickets, so I'm really excited. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was already kind of sold on this movie, but Morton,
Speaker 2: you just got me really excited.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: My hot take, Alex is that I kind of like
Speaker 2: the Tom Holland ones better than the Toby maguire ones.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I can get on board, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I might be a generational thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that's not the most popular take and
Speaker 2: that the Spider movies are my absolute favorite. But we're
Speaker 2: still waiting on that third one next year.
Speaker 4: But uh, will that one ever come out?
Speaker 2: Hopefully next year? Hopefully or yeah, next year, because if not,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be there's gonna be an internet meltdown because
Speaker 2: it's been four years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been hearing that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've been hearing that it's really good in a
Speaker 6: lot of different places. I might check it out. And
Speaker 6: I'm not a big Spidy person. I have a question
Speaker 6: for y'all that is tangentially related. It's a fairly recent adaptation,
Speaker 6: I guess of Spider Man. I guess it's more like
Speaker 6: an alternate Marvel, alternate universe of Nicholas Cage Spider Noir.
Speaker 4: Have y'all seen it? What do you think of it?
Speaker 3: But here's what I will say is I am a
Speaker 3: huge Nicholas Cage supporter, and so I should see it.
Speaker 3: I just have been locked into a bunch of other things.
Speaker 4: Like kind of into it.
Speaker 6: I was surprised because it looked really kitchy at first,
Speaker 6: but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean Cage listen if you want Cage to ham
Speaker 3: it up. There is literally nobody better in the game
Speaker 3: right now at going all in, and so I could
Speaker 3: see a world in which that's very good, but I
Speaker 3: have not seen it alas Morton, Daniel, have you seen.
Speaker 5: This not yet on my list? On my list? I,
Speaker 5: like I said, I just moved, and so I don't
Speaker 5: want to sit there and watch it on my phone.
Speaker 5: I need a brain television and I need some four K.
Speaker 5: I need some internet to actually make that thing go.
Speaker 5: So when that has been settled, that is on like
Speaker 5: my first one to watch list.
Speaker 3: Understandable. Well, you know, Donovan Mitchell isn't the only Spider
Speaker 3: Man in town when it comes to discussion topics on
Speaker 3: this podcast. Thank you so much for a very good steal, Morton.
Speaker 3: I will be checking it out at some point. I
Speaker 3: have a lot of stuff to do right now, but
Speaker 3: at some point I'll be able to squeak away to
Speaker 3: the movie theater and check that out, and maybe it
Speaker 3: will top Sam Mirani Spider Man two, but I'm not
Speaker 3: sure anyway. So Martin we brought you here to break
Speaker 3: down the Western Conference. We are going to be talking
Speaker 3: about the West both on its own in a vacuum,
Speaker 3: and also how it relates to the Boston Celtics. So
Speaker 3: we're gonna start off really quickly with just you know,
Speaker 3: taking stop as far as like where the Western Conference finished.
Speaker 4: I'm just pulling it up on my phone last year.
Speaker 4: It's on there. It's on there, is it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: If you look great, If you look great to the right,
Speaker 4: look at that clever little wit. The intern was actually
Speaker 4: smart for once.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: Wow, Okay, I'm just pulling this up now, my computers
Speaker 3: being actually slower than my phone though, so I'm actually
Speaker 3: going to read it off of my phone regardless. Thank
Speaker 3: you Intern for your hard work. So the Oklahoma City
Speaker 3: Thunder topped the Western Conference at sixty four and eighteen.
Speaker 3: The San Antonio Spurs were in second place, the eventual
Speaker 3: Western Conference winners at sixty two and twenty, followed up
Speaker 3: by Denver at fifty four and twenty eight. Los Angeles
Speaker 3: Lakers Clockton on the fourth seed fifty three and twenty nine.
Speaker 3: The Houston Rockets were fifty two and thirty in the
Speaker 3: five The Minnesota Timberwolves went forty nine and thirty three
Speaker 3: to clean the sixth seed, the Portland Trailblazers forty two
Speaker 3: and forty to go to seventh seed, and the Phoenix
Speaker 3: Suns got the eight seed at forty five and thirty seven.
Speaker 3: Los Angeles Clippers got the ninth seed at forty two
Speaker 3: and forty and the Golden State Warriors rounded out the
Speaker 3: play in picture at thirty seven and forty five. The
Speaker 3: Western Conference non playoff teams included the New Orleans Pelicans
Speaker 3: at twenty six and fifty six, followed by the Dallas
Speaker 3: Mavericks at twenty six and fifty six as well. New
Speaker 3: Orleans got that on the tiebreaker. The Memphis Grizzlies rounded
Speaker 3: out the let's see, that's the thirteenth spot twenty five,
Speaker 3: third and fifty seven. The Sacramento Kings had a dismal
Speaker 3: twenty two and sixty season, and the Utah Jazz finished
Speaker 3: with a tie for them in the worst record, got
Speaker 3: it on tiebreakers at twenty two and sixty and we're
Speaker 3: rewarded with Darren Peterson for all their hard work. So
Speaker 3: that was the Western Conference last year. And what we're
Speaker 3: gonna do is we're going to quickly break down what
Speaker 3: every team has done this offseason. I'm going to read
Speaker 3: the players that they added, Daniel is going to tell
Speaker 3: us who they lost, and Justin is going to inform
Speaker 3: us about any relevant injuries. We're just going to bomb
Speaker 3: right through that, and then we are going to talk
Speaker 3: about which of these teams looks like a contender Tier
Speaker 3: one contender, a Tier two contender, A to your three contender.
Speaker 4: Which will break down all that, and then.
Speaker 3: You know, some other questions broadly around the state of
Speaker 3: the West and the state of some of the other
Speaker 3: teams in the West. Finally, we are going to project
Speaker 3: where the West is going to go this year, and
Speaker 3: we are going to do so draft style, and we'll
Speaker 3: explain a little more when we get there. But basically
Speaker 3: how it's going to work is Morton, Justin and Daniel
Speaker 3: are going to draft kind of snake gish team snake style.
Speaker 3: Are going to draft different teams as to where they're
Speaker 3: going to finish one through fifteen. If there's a tie break,
Speaker 3: I will I will make my decision input we'll explain
Speaker 3: it later.
Speaker 4: It's the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Anyway, really quickly, what is every Western team done? We'll
Speaker 3: start with the Dallas Mavericks, who added Santi al Dama,
Speaker 3: Zachary Risa Schet via trade, and Marcus Sasser Daniel who
Speaker 3: left the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they lost Chris Middleton, Ryan Nemhard, Martin Bagley, and A. J. Johnson,
Speaker 2: So no huge subtractions honestly.
Speaker 4: So justin what about injuries. Kyrie is theoretically going to
Speaker 4: be healthy, but it is a fairly substantial injury he's
Speaker 4: coming off of, So we'll see how he looks when.
Speaker 5: The season starts.
Speaker 4: We sure will.
Speaker 3: The Denver Nuggets are at least for the most part,
Speaker 3: running back the same roster with a big old Peyton
Speaker 3: Watson size question mark attached to that. He is still
Speaker 3: in RFA negotiations, but they did bring in Marvin Bagley
Speaker 3: just in case.
Speaker 4: Do they lose anybody Danielle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tim Harroway junior believe he went to the Heat
Speaker 2: and they almost lost Spencer Jones, but he came back
Speaker 2: and they matched the offer. But not a very busy
Speaker 2: offseason for.
Speaker 3: Denver Okay see almost poach Spencer Jones away. No major injuries.
Speaker 3: So we will move on to the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 3: who have not added anybody. I'm pretty sure, right, I
Speaker 3: don't think the Warriors have added a single player in
Speaker 3: the off season other than yax O Lendberg who they
Speaker 3: drafted and Daniel Who have they lost?
Speaker 2: They lost BC Legend, Quinton Post.
Speaker 3: Goodbye Quentin Post. Yeah, I hope you have fun. He's
Speaker 3: in Memphis right now. I think yeah, maybe maybe. And
Speaker 3: then injuries are the story with this team, justin what's
Speaker 3: what's going.
Speaker 6: On that Jimmy Butler Moses Moody both dealing with some
Speaker 6: lower extremity issues. They will be out to.
Speaker 4: Start the season.
Speaker 6: They may come into action at some point during the season,
Speaker 6: but that is TBD.
Speaker 3: The Houston Rockets added Bogdan Bogdanovic and former Celtics and
Speaker 3: Ime Udoka standout defensive player of the Year guard Marcus
Speaker 3: Smart who if they.
Speaker 2: Lost Dorian Phinney Smith and Josh Kobe so gained a
Speaker 2: little defense? Lost low defense?
Speaker 4: And are there any injury questions with this roster?
Speaker 6: In a very Kyrie esque sort of way, we have
Speaker 6: a Fred van Vliet potentially returning to action. From what
Speaker 6: I hear, he is getting healthy and looks like he's
Speaker 6: ready to come back to the court, so he probably
Speaker 6: will be back on the court, but again we'll see
Speaker 6: how effective he is as a smaller guard on the
Speaker 6: wrong side of the age curve in theory.
Speaker 3: The Los Angeles Clippers have added Brandon Ingram and Grady
Speaker 3: Dick to their roster. They also have definitely added Ry
Speaker 3: Hachimura and John A. Brew As of yesterday Salary donc
Speaker 3: trade from Philly. We'll have to see if Brandon Ingram
Speaker 3: and Grady Dick are actually Los Angeles Clippers.
Speaker 4: Heading in to this coming year. Who have they lost?
Speaker 5: Daniel?
Speaker 2: So the Clippers lost Bogdanovitch, John Collins, and of course,
Speaker 2: as we're probably gonna talk about for the next few weeks,
Speaker 2: Kawhi hypothetically, now it feels maybe they didn't lose him
Speaker 2: after all.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 2: It's still under investigation. It's said from the ESPNA could
Speaker 2: last into next year two. I have a feeling cow
Speaker 2: I might be playing some games for the Clippers still, but.
Speaker 3: That would be a messy outcome today the least. We'll
Speaker 3: talk more about that later. The Los Angeles Lakers notably
Speaker 3: added Walker Kessler for the price a high price of
Speaker 3: four first round picks, along with Colin Sexton, Quentin Grimes,
Speaker 3: Sandro Mamukeshvilli, Kevon Looney, Latiste Tible, Jaden Hardy, and Zaire Willilliams.
Speaker 3: Busy offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers. Who did they
Speaker 3: lose Daniel? There were some notable folks on this.
Speaker 2: List, of course Lebron James, but not a son. DeAndre
Speaker 2: is still there, yeah, DeAndre, in which I don't think
Speaker 2: any Lakers fan is going to be mad about. Ruey Hachimoor,
Speaker 2: who we just talked about, Marcus Smart who we just
Speaker 2: talked about. Luke Kunario actually had some good minutes for them,
Speaker 2: and then Jackson Hayes two.
Speaker 3: The Jackson Hayes one is just a little crazy given
Speaker 3: how much he was riding specifically for Luka Doncriche to
Speaker 3: the point that he changed his citizenship to Slovenian. But
Speaker 3: nonetheless I digress. The Memphis Grizzlies added Jeremy Grant via
Speaker 3: trade with a notable player leaving them in that trade.
Speaker 3: They also added Isaiah Beef Stewart and then DeAngelo Russell,
Speaker 3: Chris Murray, the aforementioned Quentin Post from the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 3: as well as A. J. Johnson, and they drafted some
Speaker 3: guy out a duke that seems pretty promising in Cameron
Speaker 3: Booze Daniel.
Speaker 4: Who did they lose?
Speaker 2: They lost Justin's favorite, Santi Albama. They just and of
Speaker 2: course they traded away John Morant to the Blazers.
Speaker 4: Yep. Any injuries with this team.
Speaker 3: Uh, Richie Saunders, Jacoby? I think maybe is it Richie
Speaker 3: or Jacoby? I don't know, it's one of them.
Speaker 6: I think it's Richie Saunders, the draft the draftic guy
Speaker 6: who came in. He he has an alter I think,
Speaker 6: and he shouldn't be able to play at some point
Speaker 6: in the season.
Speaker 4: But from my understanding, it's gonna be a while.
Speaker 3: I got a brush up on my h my Memphis
Speaker 3: deep bench guys clearly.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: The Minnesota Timberwolves added, notably LaMelo Ball along with Mogay
Speaker 3: Trey Lyles. And is that Dafonte Green I see there?
Speaker 3: Or is it Jeff Green? It's one of those Greets
Speaker 3: the other Green? Yeah, well there you go. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: they added those guys, Lamello, pretty interesting trade Dan the
Speaker 3: other side of that trade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the trade away nas Reed, which is obviously a
Speaker 2: big deal. They lost Julius Randall believe it went to
Speaker 2: the Nets. Mike Conley. Of course, veteran went to the
Speaker 2: Celtics and they lost slow mo O.
Speaker 3: Kylie Anderson, Julius Randall. If you're looking for stuff to
Speaker 3: do in Brooklyn, hit me up. I got you any injuries,
Speaker 3: just him for this.
Speaker 6: Team, the big ragou. He is also recovering from an
Speaker 6: achilles injury if I remember correctly, and we'll be back
Speaker 6: at some point in the season, hopefully, but not to start.
Speaker 3: The New Orleans Pelicans have not done a whole lot
Speaker 3: this offseason, Daniel, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2: They only lost Kevon Looney man. Who knows what this
Speaker 2: team is doing?
Speaker 1: This is une it back, hilarious offseason trade away, no assets,
Speaker 1: run it back with eleventh seeded team that hasn't really
Speaker 1: done anything even went healthy.
Speaker 2: Who knows what's gonna happen to them, but it might
Speaker 2: not be pretty.
Speaker 3: Trey Murphy is reportedly worth three first round picks, so
Speaker 3: you know, surely let be getting something back for that soon.
Speaker 3: The Oklahoma City thunder that the second apron clock is ticking.
Speaker 4: Daniel has more. What do we got?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: They lost all members of their previous championship team, lou Dort,
Speaker 2: which is a pretty big deal for their defense Aaron
Speaker 2: Wiggins and then Isaiah Joe who gave him some shooting.
Speaker 2: So all guys were kind of beloved there for the
Speaker 2: most part. And the Celtics, I mean we suffered the
Speaker 2: same thing that the time is not on some of
Speaker 2: those teams side.
Speaker 4: No, for sure.
Speaker 3: The Phoenix Suns and notably added Miles Bridges via trade
Speaker 3: as well as Luke Canard who did they.
Speaker 4: Lose in that trade.
Speaker 2: Grayson allen and then they also lost Royce O'Neil, So both.
Speaker 3: Shooters and the Portland Trailblazers made the trade of their own,
Speaker 3: acquiring John Morant. They also added Micah Potter and Brandon Carlson.
Speaker 3: Who did they trade away for John Rant? We obviously
Speaker 3: mentioned Jeremy Grant earlier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that got lost Chris Murray and Matisse Tible, but
Speaker 2: that was in the trade, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, that was separate dealing, I believe, Yeah, and
Speaker 3: letting him walk. The Zacarmano Kings have also not done
Speaker 3: a whole lot this offseason. They well, Daniel, you.
Speaker 2: Got more on that, yep, The lost Devin Carter shout
Speaker 2: out Province Shadow Biggie's hoops yea. Honestly, leaving the Kings
Speaker 2: is probably a good thing.
Speaker 3: The San Antonios. The San Antonio Spurs acquired veteran Tobias Harris.
Speaker 3: And outside of that, there's maybe some injuries to talk about,
Speaker 3: but anything else, JQ, what do you got?
Speaker 6: Jade Quaintan says an injury. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, I don't. I'm not familiar with his injury
Speaker 6: or his game.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe Morton you remember, but I
Speaker 3: think he is recovering from like a lower leg torn
Speaker 3: meniscus or acl that he sustained this past year in college.
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 5: I believe so it was pretty significant.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes it was, which is why he his draft
Speaker 3: stock slipped a little bit. But he should be making
Speaker 3: before recovery, I think. And the Utah Jad finally added
Speaker 3: the aforementioned Jackson Hayes as well as Josh Okogie.
Speaker 4: Who did they lose?
Speaker 2: They finally traded away Walker Kessler after a lot of
Speaker 2: noise about that for a few years.
Speaker 3: Of course, they also added Darren Peterson with the number
Speaker 3: two pick. Pretty significant, all right, So that's roughly recapping
Speaker 3: the moves. We didn't cover all of the rookies drafted
Speaker 3: because there's a lot of them, but we covered.
Speaker 4: Something so don't usually impact things significantly, So.
Speaker 3: In the case of Boozer and Peterson, maybe so, but
Speaker 3: probably Yeah. So, just a couple of questions that we
Speaker 3: want to kind of jump into, like what you know
Speaker 3: before we do our formal rankings. So we have here
Speaker 3: kind of a general breakdown of who are the Tier
Speaker 3: one contenders, who are the Tier two teams which are
Speaker 3: like possible dark horse like maybe they sneak through the
Speaker 3: finals if they get you know, a good bracket and
Speaker 3: an injury here or there. And then tier three contenders
Speaker 3: were kind of defining as like a lot would need
Speaker 3: to go right, they need to get very lucky basically
Speaker 3: in order to actually make the finals. So without necessarily
Speaker 3: ranking them per se Morton, who do you have as
Speaker 3: your Tier one locked in? These teams should expect to
Speaker 3: go to like the Western Conference finals and be serious contenders.
Speaker 4: Teams, who have you got for this?
Speaker 5: Well, the San Antonio Spurs should be an absolute lock here,
Speaker 5: and I'm considering not adding the Oklahoma City Thunder, but
Speaker 5: I just can't necessarily get there because you know, Shay
Speaker 5: and they still have the depth. But I think what
Speaker 5: they lost this summer is more than what we're all
Speaker 5: seemingly willing to acknowledge, Like Aaron Wickins in a regular
Speaker 5: season context is so so underrated. This six to seven
Speaker 5: switchable wing, who can handle the ball, who can shoot
Speaker 5: off the catch, who can actually dribble drive himself into offense.
Speaker 5: You had, i say, a Joe who was canning like
Speaker 5: two and a half triples per game, like off the
Speaker 5: catch as well. For the most part, that's just a
Speaker 5: lot of spacing that's been lost, where like where's the replacement,
Speaker 5: where's that guy or several guys who are gonna take
Speaker 5: up that bantle And like, yeah, they're probably gonna float
Speaker 5: their way to fifty five sixty wins, But in the postseason,
Speaker 5: I just don't think at this current stage that their
Speaker 5: locked to just ease their way through to the conference
Speaker 5: finals if they don't have floor spacing. We've seen repeatedly
Speaker 5: over the years how big of an issue that is
Speaker 5: in the postseason. So that's why I'm toying with the
Speaker 5: idea of only having one team, the Spurs in Tier One.
Speaker 5: But like I'm not like married to the idea, Like
Speaker 5: I can you can convince me of adding the Thunder.
Speaker 3: If you want to very interesting just really quickly before
Speaker 3: we move on. If you want to see me react
Speaker 3: to gen Z memes, the only place that you can
Speaker 3: do that is on YouTube. You really should, you know,
Speaker 3: check out this podcast on YouTube for my reactions to
Speaker 3: things like that and other stuff.
Speaker 4: If you know, you know, please like and subscribe and
Speaker 4: follow on YouTube. It really does matter a lot.
Speaker 3: Anyway, moving on to the second tier contenders, well, I
Speaker 3: guess before we do that, JQ Daniel, anything that you
Speaker 3: would agree with or disagree with when it comes to
Speaker 3: that first year of contenders.
Speaker 2: I'd say agree. I mean Spurs, like Morton said that,
Speaker 2: that's obvious. They got to be in there. They got
Speaker 2: to be the favorite. In my opinion, Thunder, I would
Speaker 2: be a little more leaning against adding them to that tier.
Speaker 2: I think maybe they're hoping on aj Mitchell taking another leap.
Speaker 2: We saw it in the playoffs. He was awesome and
Speaker 2: then the check question mark is still there. Didn't have
Speaker 2: a great playoffs. I've honestly never been huge on him.
Speaker 2: He's obviously talented, but they're putting a lot on him
Speaker 2: in Jalen Williams health which waiver during the postseason, but
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll get more into it, but I don't
Speaker 2: think the rest of the West got notably stronger to
Speaker 2: where you have to put down the Thunder. But still
Speaker 2: I think the Spurs clearly than the Thunder, that the
Speaker 2: Spurs are number.
Speaker 5: One at the moment.
Speaker 4: I think there's actually.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 6: I'm actually not opposed to the idea of kind of
Speaker 6: maybe Q one B for the Thunder because for all
Speaker 6: the reasons that I've already been mentioned, but also Cassan
Speaker 6: Wallace is presumably going to be starting and taking them
Speaker 6: an entirely different role than he has, and there's been
Speaker 6: rumbles also the SGA is gonna be playing a bit
Speaker 6: more off ball, if not a lot more off ball,
Speaker 6: which like, how is that going to work in terms
Speaker 6: of how they play on the offensive end?
Speaker 4: So I'm really curious to see.
Speaker 6: How that ends up playing out, because it's not just
Speaker 6: that they are backfilling, but some of these players are
Speaker 6: going to be changing their roles significantly, and we haven't
Speaker 6: even touched on the fact.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if.
Speaker 6: That it's necessarily important, but Sja really wanted Dort to
Speaker 6: stick around, and he didn't, So what's that going to
Speaker 6: do to the chemistry like up and down the roster.
Speaker 6: So there's a lot of things I want to see.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what SGA's off ball stuff is going
Speaker 3: to definitely help with and that's a Victor Weman Yama's
Speaker 3: MVP odds.
Speaker 4: All right, So let's keep it moving there to the
Speaker 4: second tier.
Speaker 3: I will say there's a team that I think y'all
Speaker 3: are going to mention in the second tier that I
Speaker 3: believe has a decent shot to end the season as
Speaker 3: a first year contender.
Speaker 4: But I'll just throw that out to y'all, Morton, who
Speaker 4: do you have in your second tier?
Speaker 5: So I've been very disappointed about Denver lately, but I
Speaker 5: just there's just this thing with me where you have
Speaker 5: any call a Yokich like you just do. At some
Speaker 5: point something is going to materialize within that scheme. Like
Speaker 5: I don't think Christian Brown is as bad as we
Speaker 5: saw it last year. I think the real Christian Brown
Speaker 5: is somewhat a mixture of what we saw two years
Speaker 5: ago in the one year ago, depending on whether they
Speaker 5: make more moves. So they're just sitting with the current
Speaker 5: crop of players. We'll see what they do with the
Speaker 5: free agency stuff. But like I just can't rule out Denver.
Speaker 5: They were third in the West, in the in the
Speaker 5: Western Conference when things weren't even necessarily clicking. Perhaps a
Speaker 5: full training camp after having a whole year together with
Speaker 5: this current group that helps. I just have such a
Speaker 5: hard time, like just justifying to myself not having Denver
Speaker 5: in Tier two, even though I fully comprehend their challenges ahead,
Speaker 5: so them if we're putting Thunder there obviously, Like I
Speaker 5: actually like Justin's idea of putting Thunder in like a
Speaker 5: Tier one b atory. I think that's the most fair.
Speaker 5: So like the Nuggets and the Lakers, I think deserve
Speaker 5: to be in Tier two. And I just look, Minnesota
Speaker 5: is kind of on the bubble for me, like, I
Speaker 5: know that's your team, Alex, imagine the one that you
Speaker 5: were thinking about previously. That yeah, But I mean, I'm
Speaker 5: just gonna lay it out. I'm not a LaMelo guy whatsoever.
Speaker 5: I think he is such a problem child in so
Speaker 5: many different ways. Like I can see that his talent
Speaker 5: level is ridiculous, but I also think the meticulous liness
Speaker 5: of Anthony Edwards is going to be an either or situation,
Speaker 5: Like either Aunt is going to want to kill LaMelo
Speaker 5: after a couple months or they mesh, and if they mesh, Alex,
Speaker 5: then I'm on your side. Then if they mesh, everything
Speaker 5: is like kind of golden. I just think that is
Speaker 5: such a big ask.
Speaker 4: At this current stage, it might be a big ask.
Speaker 3: I will say I am pretty in on this Minnesota
Speaker 3: team just on the basis that I think the biggest
Speaker 3: thing they've been missing these past few years is a
Speaker 3: secondary ball handler who can play make for others and
Speaker 3: also score on their own, and the idea of LaMelo
Speaker 3: is that he should be that guy. I think he
Speaker 3: can be that guy. The big thing to me, the
Speaker 3: personality matters less than the health. He just needs to
Speaker 3: stay healthy and on the court more than anything. I
Speaker 3: think that ant is pretty clearly the alpha dog of
Speaker 3: that team, and I imagine LaMelo will fall in line.
Speaker 3: The other thing that I wanted to talk about with them, though,
Speaker 3: is I am pretty bullish on John Baron Jay as
Speaker 3: the starting four or at least a high velocity six
Speaker 3: man player for this team. I think that guy has
Speaker 3: some real talent and I think he could add a
Speaker 3: wrinkle of dynamic athleticism that you know. Nasriet and Julius
Speaker 3: Randall are both excellent scorers, and they are very talented
Speaker 3: players in their own right. But Baron Jay plays above
Speaker 3: the rim in a way that those guys don't and
Speaker 3: that I think could be pretty significant for Minnesota.
Speaker 4: But I would have them as.
Speaker 3: A borderline pier one for now I can't quite get
Speaker 3: because I need to see the fit, but I'm pretty
Speaker 3: bullish on that team, Daniel. Any Tier two contenders you
Speaker 3: want to mention here that haven't been.
Speaker 2: Said, No, really, I kind of mostly agree with Morton.
Speaker 2: Maybe it put the Timberwolves first, then the Nuggets, maybe
Speaker 2: sneak the Lakers in there at the end. I think
Speaker 2: the Nuggets is just like a Tatum and Brown Celtic situation.
Speaker 2: They have Jokichen Murray. I mean, you can't count them out.
Speaker 2: I don't think they'll shoot. They should be a favorite,
Speaker 2: especially since their offseason has been pretty lackluster. But they
Speaker 2: have those two guys. They know how to win together.
Speaker 2: They should be in the mix. Timberwolves, like you said, Alex,
Speaker 2: they I think their moves have definitely improved them, and
Speaker 2: I don't think you can say that about many West
Speaker 2: teams this season. Honestly, looking at all the addition subtractions
Speaker 2: we talked about.
Speaker 3: That's part of my case as well, is that I
Speaker 3: think the West might have sneakily gotten worse. But we'll
Speaker 3: talk a little bit about that later. Just in any
Speaker 3: other Tier two contenders to add.
Speaker 6: I really like what the Clippers have done theoretically, but
Speaker 6: I don't think it quite rises to the level of
Speaker 6: Tier two.
Speaker 4: I think they might be near the top of my
Speaker 4: Tier three.
Speaker 3: Interesting, I do not like what the Clippers have done
Speaker 3: very much, but that's just me, all right, So let's
Speaker 3: jump into tier three then, Morton, what do you think
Speaker 3: about the kind of like fringe contenders, like teams that
Speaker 3: will make the playoffs but probably need a lot of
Speaker 3: luck to make.
Speaker 4: Some real noise.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not really high on a whole lot of
Speaker 5: other teams here than the ones that we've talked about. Like,
Speaker 5: I know that sounds crazy because you need to round
Speaker 5: out everything, so like, just by default, I'll have to
Speaker 5: save Phoenix. I guess like the Clippers, like Houston with
Speaker 5: the they have a chance. But I just I don't
Speaker 5: feel great about the vast majority of the Western Conference really,
Speaker 5: which is interesting because like when we when's it last year,
Speaker 5: everything was about, oh look at how dynamic the Western
Speaker 5: Conference is. I don't feel similarly this year whatsoever. Like
Speaker 5: the Blazers, Let's just take them as an example. When
Speaker 5: you have an owner who's become that cheap and who's
Speaker 5: just skirting on everything that's that probably means that you
Speaker 5: are going to lose games just by not having the
Speaker 5: eye on the ball. In terms of the details in
Speaker 5: the organization, like have there been allocated enough funds for scouting,
Speaker 5: for basketball research, for all those things. I don't think
Speaker 5: that those are legitimate questions to ask out loud, and
Speaker 5: in today's game, that can cost you wins and a
Speaker 5: lot of them. So I don't feel comfortable about them. Alex,
Speaker 5: I agree with you that the Clippers, like like what
Speaker 5: are they at this stage? I don't know? And the
Speaker 5: Warriors as well, like what is this team really except
Speaker 5: for old like and Phoenix. I'm just like, is it
Speaker 5: is anyone scared of Phoenix at all? Because I don't
Speaker 5: think anyone are like like, that's just such a team.
Speaker 5: That's It's like if hu Hum was a basketball team name,
Speaker 5: that would be the Suns. That's just where we are.
Speaker 5: I just I don't there's nothing here that excites me,
Speaker 5: like I'm almost tempted to just ask you, guys, can
Speaker 5: we just can we just delete Tier three? Like it's
Speaker 5: just so inconsequential, It's it's we're being honest.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's probably no team that is going to realistically
Speaker 6: end up in the NBA Finals without several disasters happening simultaneously.
Speaker 3: So there's just one thing I want to mention, which
Speaker 3: is that I think the teams that I have in
Speaker 3: my brain for Tier three have no real shot of
Speaker 3: making the finals. But there are a couple of these
Speaker 3: younger teams that I think have a little potential to
Speaker 3: rise up a little bit in some of these rankings
Speaker 3: and make the playoffs.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm looking.
Speaker 3: At Dallas on his as a team that was not
Speaker 3: healthy last year. They were missing Kyrie Irving, and they
Speaker 3: were missing Derek Lively, who is quietly a huge part
Speaker 3: of that team. I think with a second year Cooper Flag,
Speaker 3: a healthy Kyrie Irving, and some of the additions that
Speaker 3: they made with Al Dama, I think Resa Jay in
Speaker 3: a deep bench roll is fine. I'm looking at Dallas
Speaker 3: as a potential playoff team here. I think that there's
Speaker 3: there's a world in which they're in the conversation, and
Speaker 3: while it is probably too early and realistically, I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be tough for them to be taken Seriously,
Speaker 3: I don't hate the way that.
Speaker 4: This Memphis Chrisly's team looks either.
Speaker 3: They don't really have a point guard, but they're gonna
Speaker 3: do some interesting stuff and they're gonna be really really big.
Speaker 3: They're gonna be like, profoundly annoyingly big, and I think
Speaker 3: on a night to night basis that can lead to
Speaker 3: some wins. But I do agree, outside of maybe Houston
Speaker 3: if they get really hot at the right time, I'm
Speaker 3: not I'm not really seeing a whole lot of like
Speaker 3: true third tier contenders. So let's let's jump into just
Speaker 3: a couple of other questions and then we'll get into
Speaker 3: our draft to close this thing out. Are there any
Speaker 3: teams here that screen disaster potential to you?
Speaker 5: Morton? Well, I look, I'm sorry to do this to you, Alex,
Speaker 5: but like the Wolves do have like the potential draw
Speaker 5: of the Yeah, look, I mean I I will say
Speaker 5: as much. I hope that I'm wrong because I always
Speaker 5: love it when players go to somewhere else and they
Speaker 5: redefine their own narrative. So, like I want LaMelo to
Speaker 5: redefine his own narrative. I struggle with that concept. And also,
Speaker 5: like they're big man play, there are just questions there.
Speaker 5: There are not a lot of size and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 5: is only going to get older. And let's just be real,
Speaker 5: He's not the same dude. He hasn't been the same
Speaker 5: dude for at least two years now. Defensively great around
Speaker 5: the rim, but you can attack him in space. There's
Speaker 5: so many things he should be able to do offensively
Speaker 5: that he just has never done. And I just wonder
Speaker 5: what that's going to do to the entire interior rotation
Speaker 5: if you have to tax him more offensively and defensively.
Speaker 5: He's getting older, and I don't think this is irrelevant,
Speaker 5: but like nobody really likes him, so everyone is targeting
Speaker 5: his ass, Like everyone is trying to put him on
Speaker 5: a poster. Everyone is trying to get him into Flowel Trouble,
Speaker 5: everyone is trying to show him up.
Speaker 4: That's a tough.
Speaker 5: Job going in and out every single night. So I
Speaker 5: question their big man death and the rotation overall. Oh
Speaker 5: and one final note, here's the thing, and I really
Speaker 5: hope that he turns his narrative around Jade McDaniels as
Speaker 5: the full time foreman. I need to see this dude
Speaker 5: finally do something more than just stand around with a
Speaker 5: thumb up somewhere and not do enough. Like he is
Speaker 5: six y nine, he's got long arms, he's supremely athletic.
Speaker 5: I can't modify the lack of rebounding. I can't justify
Speaker 5: because he's such a good, you know, guy getting inside,
Speaker 5: like into the paint area, Like, why he doesn't do
Speaker 5: it a whole bunch more. I don't understand why he
Speaker 5: doesn't take more open threes and just passes stuff up,
Speaker 5: Like this has to be the year with Randall gone,
Speaker 5: with nos gone, that he finally steps into that role
Speaker 5: and goes, this is mine. The thing is, we have
Speaker 5: like what five six years of evidence that he just
Speaker 5: doesn't do it. Yeah, And I can't ignore that level
Speaker 5: of data. I just can't. So I'm sitting with the
Speaker 5: current data that is Lamello is a wildcard and Jade
Speaker 5: McDaniels is frankly that as well. And I'm also sitting
Speaker 5: with the data point of their big Men rotation possibly
Speaker 5: be one of the worst in the entire NBA. So like, yeah,
Speaker 5: they have disaster potential, big time disaster potential.
Speaker 3: I am going to throw a team out here for
Speaker 3: disaster potential that I think we haven't talked about Jess yet,
Speaker 3: but I think is quite significant. I don't like where
Speaker 3: this Golden State team is headed at all. They are slower,
Speaker 3: They have not added anyone of substance. They are bringing
Speaker 3: back a Jimmy Butler with no contract extension off of
Speaker 3: a tour in acl Boy, are they putting a lot
Speaker 3: on Yakxell Lindenberg's shoulders and they missed out on Lebron
Speaker 3: in what I think is going to be maybe a
Speaker 3: handful of years left for Steph Curry at most. I
Speaker 3: mean Steph Curry is, of course amazing, all time great
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame player, but I don't like anything that
Speaker 3: I'm seeing out of the Warriors or this offseason. Even
Speaker 3: if Yaxll is good, it's just a huge ask for
Speaker 3: him to immediately step into the starting lineup and be
Speaker 3: a top tier NBA player. I am skeptical any other
Speaker 3: disaster candidates we need to name here.
Speaker 2: Fellas, I was gonna say, oh, yeah, you guys, you
Speaker 2: guys stole mine. I was gonna say the Warriors and
Speaker 2: the Rockets, because well, you laid it.
Speaker 4: Up, you give your reason.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what do you think.
Speaker 2: Last year we saw with the Warriors' health and they
Speaker 2: just got older. So I mean that's the same issues
Speaker 2: the Rockets. I mean, I obviously like Marcus Smart. All
Speaker 2: Celtics fans know what he can do, but I just
Speaker 2: feel like the chemistry is a little odd with Kevin Durant,
Speaker 2: the whole Twitter beef, the whole him talking about his
Speaker 2: teammates behind their backs that season just not really going
Speaker 2: that smoothly. And then Marcus Smart, who can be a
Speaker 2: bit ornery sometimes we saw him butt heads of JB.
Speaker 5: Back in the day.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I just don't love the chemistry or
Speaker 2: their offense really that much. I don't think they address
Speaker 2: some of these things. Yeah, yeah, they still have a
Speaker 2: few guys where defense first and offense second, and winning
Speaker 2: that way is kind of hard on the NBA, the
Speaker 2: modern NBA. And he may say what you want about him,
Speaker 2: but I haven't been super convinced by the job he's
Speaker 2: done with this Rockets team yet. And Kevin Durant is great,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, still great, but he's only gotten older.
Speaker 3: Are any of these potential disaster teams or other teams
Speaker 3: that we didn't name candidates for like blow it up
Speaker 3: as in like just detonate the whole franchise and you know,
Speaker 3: start over at ground zero. Anybody any of these jump
Speaker 3: out to you as possible blow it up candidates?
Speaker 5: Martin Houston a little bit, honestly, But it depends on
Speaker 5: how we define it, right, because Durand is getting so
Speaker 5: much older. Like, but I can see this being a
Speaker 5: year when they make a final call on Albert and Shingoom,
Speaker 5: they're gonna stick around with the Amen Thompson. They seem
Speaker 5: absolutely in love with your Barr Smith Junior for insert
Speaker 5: recent here that I still don't fully understand or comprehend.
Speaker 5: This is just such a weird team. This is such
Speaker 5: a weird team. I don't understand where they're trying to
Speaker 5: go from here, Like they have Fred Bandlee coming off
Speaker 5: the acl tair big whoop. This just seems like something's
Speaker 5: gotta give eventually, Like if they are deciding let's build
Speaker 5: around Amen Thompson, Reed Shepherd, that too seems like such
Speaker 5: a bad idea because like none of those guys have
Speaker 5: like the you know, superstar upside. I just don't know
Speaker 5: who that dude is from Houston, where you go, this
Speaker 5: is the guy to go for. Also at the trade
Speaker 5: deadline or even before the season, they're probably gonna be
Speaker 5: sellers because they're one point two million dollars over the
Speaker 5: tax level. Tilma Fertida is gonna look at that and go,
Speaker 5: am I gonna pay one point two million over the
Speaker 5: tax line and not receive the uxury tax payment for
Speaker 5: this franchise. So I envisioned someone's getting traded eventually just
Speaker 5: to save money, like they are a future salary dump
Speaker 5: trade away from getting under the tax line. This is
Speaker 5: going to be an unseerious franchise for a while. They're
Speaker 5: not going to go anywhere. I'm guessing KD is probably
Speaker 5: going to be gone by the trade deadline as well.
Speaker 5: That wouldn't shock me.
Speaker 4: This is a team that I fall George.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, that's frankly within the realm of possibility.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't even be shocked if, like the Spurs get
Speaker 5: in on the Durant sweepstakes during the trade deadline, Like,
Speaker 5: there are so many ways to facilitate something here. I
Speaker 5: just don't understand this roster whatsoever. And it seems like
Speaker 5: this is also going to be the last year they
Speaker 5: roll this out because it has to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's entirely possible. I will say, I
Speaker 3: think there are not really a ton of blow it
Speaker 3: up teams right now. I think so it's not a
Speaker 3: true blow it up team. But the second Apron is
Speaker 3: absolutely coming for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are going
Speaker 3: to have to shed more salary, but that's not really
Speaker 3: a true blow it up. What I will say is
Speaker 3: there are two teams here that we're going to talk
Speaker 3: about in just a minute that I think might be
Speaker 3: on blow it Up Watch to some degree. But I'm
Speaker 3: just going to go out and say I know that
Speaker 3: you know where I'm going to I'm going to come
Speaker 3: out and say it. I am very skeptical that Denver
Speaker 3: or Golden State will ever trade Nikola Jokic or Steph
Speaker 3: Curry respectively, even if their teams become bad. Morton, do
Speaker 3: you have any thoughts on that. Are those guys lifers
Speaker 3: or is there a chance?
Speaker 5: Oh their lifers as long as they want to be.
Speaker 5: We know Steph wants to. Jokis just said his preference
Speaker 5: is to stay in Denver, but that does not mean,
Speaker 5: he's necessarily as committal to them because he also wants
Speaker 5: to win. One of my big pet peeves has been
Speaker 5: the narrative going around the joke doesn't care about basketball.
Speaker 5: That it started out as a joke, but then you know,
Speaker 5: social media caught win of it, and then it started
Speaker 5: to become like, oh, but he doesn't like basketball, which
Speaker 5: is just so preposterous that my European mind is melting.
Speaker 5: So I think he is so competitive that he wants
Speaker 5: to find a situation where he can win another title.
Speaker 5: But I also think he's gonna give the Nuggets one
Speaker 5: more go, and I think that goes a little bit different.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's a let's give it one more season, guys.
Speaker 5: I think it's a, hey, here's what you're gonna do.
Speaker 5: You're either going to get me Luka Dantach or I'm
Speaker 5: going to find a way to play with Luka Dantach elsewhere.
Speaker 5: Those two are immensely close, and they compliment each other
Speaker 5: on a basketball court so beautifully in terms of their
Speaker 5: respective skill sets, and they're keenly aware of that, both
Speaker 5: of them. So my take here is eventually, somehow, some way,
Speaker 5: we're going to see those two guys on a basketball
Speaker 5: court at the same time wearing the same jersey. Is
Speaker 5: that going to be in Denver or is it going
Speaker 5: to be in Los Angeles. Is going to be a
Speaker 5: third place. I don't know yet. We'll figure that out,
Speaker 5: but that's what I think is going to be. Yoki's
Speaker 5: claim for for Denver is basically saying, get me this
Speaker 5: guy or I'm I'm leaving.
Speaker 4: Well, that's all the time we have. I need to
Speaker 4: go for three hours. I knew I was just kidding.
Speaker 3: I would be so upset if Nicole Kicic played for
Speaker 3: the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 5: I will just I think we all would.
Speaker 4: I would not not enjoy that at all.
Speaker 5: I don't think he was. It's the Lakers. It's too
Speaker 5: big of a media market. I think he would be miserable,
Speaker 5: h at least off the court. But like with him
Speaker 5: and Luca, like at least there's going to be entertainment value.
Speaker 5: I have to say that is true.
Speaker 3: What I will say about the Yoka Chates basketball point is, guys,
Speaker 3: Jokic has never hated basketball. What Yokic doesn't like is
Speaker 3: the NBA. He doesn't like the pageantry and the ridiculous
Speaker 3: like All Star Game, shenanigans and the media coverage. He
Speaker 3: loves basketball and he's very competitive. My take has always
Speaker 3: been that Jokic's surly demeanor has far less to do
Speaker 3: with what's happening on the court and far more to
Speaker 3: do with what is happening off the court.
Speaker 5: That is correct, sir? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Anyways, all right, so we do have to talk about this.
Speaker 3: We're just gonna rapid fire through a couple more points
Speaker 3: before we get into our draft, and we're just gonna
Speaker 3: be pretty quick with that. Again, it's going to be
Speaker 3: a snake style draft, but we do have to talk about,
Speaker 3: like the kind of proverbial elephant in the room, is
Speaker 3: Kawhi Leonard gonna be in the Western Conference next year?
Speaker 2: More?
Speaker 3: Do you have anything on this never ending saga?
Speaker 5: The only thing I have is that the league wants
Speaker 5: to get this done. They have to push it into
Speaker 5: twenty twenty seven because I don't think they want to
Speaker 5: give anyone a timeline of pressure. I think they want
Speaker 5: to do this in the most thorough manner possible, and
Speaker 5: I also think they want to buy themselves time to
Speaker 5: figure out how can we, also from a pr perspective,
Speaker 5: survive this, Like how can we actually find the right
Speaker 5: punishment for the right people like, should Kawhi be involved
Speaker 5: in that punishment personally? That's I think that's a more
Speaker 5: nuanced layer because a lot of people are basically saying, well,
Speaker 5: he didn't know his team just did this, and he
Speaker 5: was like, all right, sure, because it's not the player's
Speaker 5: responsibility of adhering to the salary cap or the CBA.
Speaker 5: I think that is where people go a little bit
Speaker 5: too much in the wrong side, because yes, it's a
Speaker 5: mutual responsibility for both team and player, but no, no, no,
Speaker 5: don't go.
Speaker 4: Okay real quickly.
Speaker 6: I do think that they should avoid punishing Kawhi, not
Speaker 6: for the reasons you suggested it, but just because they
Speaker 6: want to actually prevent this again in the future. They
Speaker 6: want to keep this as short as possible, they want
Speaker 6: to not involve the players Association, in my opinion, and
Speaker 6: getting this judgment done. There's always already been reporting saying
Speaker 6: that if the sides don't do not agree, that this
Speaker 6: could go to arbitration, which is exactly what the league
Speaker 6: does not want to deal with. So my proposal is
Speaker 6: just fine, whatever punishment you come up with, make it
Speaker 6: the team because they bear the primary responsibility, and it
Speaker 6: will be a lot easier by not having the players
Speaker 6: Association involved. The primary focus here is preventing it from
Speaker 6: happening in the future. So to do that they should
Speaker 6: go with the most Oukham's raisers, straight to the point.
Speaker 6: Let's get it done. Let's get rid of all other things.
Speaker 6: Our focus is preventing it.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 3: Yep, I agree, We'll see, We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 3: I mean, god, what a mess. They really do need
Speaker 3: to get this done, and they need to get it
Speaker 3: done before. Like, I'm not even that they should not
Speaker 3: drag this into twenty twenty seven. They need to get
Speaker 3: this done before the season starts. It's going to look
Speaker 3: really bad if they let it drag into twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Portland Trailblazers are looking pretty cheap, and there's rumors of relocation.
Speaker 3: Tom Dundon is reportedly not happy with the fact that
Speaker 3: the City of Portland is not willing to give him
Speaker 3: carte blanche taxpayer financing for a new arena. Any thoughts
Speaker 3: on this, Morton.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, this is new owner syndrome all over again,
Speaker 5: just in a different way than we're used to. This
Speaker 5: is immensely stupid. I don't think you're going to interear
Speaker 5: yourself to your fan base, to the league at large,
Speaker 5: to virtually everyone anyone. I think what Tom dunnan is
Speaker 5: doing right now is just being alienating towards the broader
Speaker 5: NBA community, And he'll probably figure out in about three
Speaker 5: years time that he has to adjust himself. Like we
Speaker 5: saw when Vivekrono div came in with Sacramento, he started
Speaker 5: suggesting like four on five basketball.
Speaker 4: And like he was all over man, that was so cool.
Speaker 5: That was just so weird and so odd, and like
Speaker 5: then he finally started realizing, oh, maybe maybe I should
Speaker 5: let the basketball be up to the basketball people, and
Speaker 5: maybe I should listen to their preferences. But Tom Dunnan
Speaker 5: is the same, Like he's in that same Montra right
Speaker 5: now where he's coming in as this new owner saying no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I have the solution. Eighty years of basketball doesn't have
Speaker 5: anything on me because I'm rich, which is just the
Speaker 5: worst argument for anything ever. So I I just don't
Speaker 5: have a take on what's going to happen because if
Speaker 5: he's just not at all in tuned with fan bases
Speaker 5: or the league at large, he's gonna do whatever the
Speaker 5: hell he wants to. He shouldn't, but he's going to.
Speaker 5: So my thing is just I hear you, Blazers fans.
Speaker 5: I feel with you, and I hope that eventually you're
Speaker 5: gonna get a new ownership group that actually understands what
Speaker 5: it takes to invest into a team, because yes, it
Speaker 5: is expensive to have a successful NBA franchise. Just because
Speaker 5: his NHL team did well, he's like, oh, I can
Speaker 5: apply this to basketball. You can't, sir, you just can't.
Speaker 5: And it's amazing to me that these rich people are
Speaker 5: just so convinced of themselves all the freaking time. So
Speaker 5: just God speed Portland fans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll see about relocation.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know Tom Dunnan has been threatening that
Speaker 3: it's always a possibility. I have to say, I think
Speaker 3: the logistics of a relocation strike me as a little implausible,
Speaker 3: at least at this time when the NBA is certainly
Speaker 3: looking to expand really quickly. Just talking about the Western
Speaker 3: Conference future, it seems like we're pretty now set on
Speaker 3: Vegas and Seattle as the expansion teams, which means that
Speaker 3: the West is going to have to change. Are there
Speaker 3: any so what there's been kind of three rumored teams
Speaker 3: that would move to the Eastern Conference, Minnesota, New Orleans,
Speaker 3: and Memphis. First off, I'm going to kick it to
Speaker 3: you and you, Daniel and Justin Celtics fan hat on
Speaker 3: which of these teams do you want in the East
Speaker 3: and which of these teams do you least want in
Speaker 3: the East. Consider that this probably isn't going to be
Speaker 3: happening until like twenty twenty eight or twenty thirty or
Speaker 3: something like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, easy answer for now, probably the Pelicans that
Speaker 2: you would want. Granted twenty twenty eight, who knows, Maybe
Speaker 2: they stunk so bad that they got a good draft
Speaker 2: pick and they have some generational player. But the guys
Speaker 2: calling the shots right now, speaking of bad owners they
Speaker 2: have that I don't think. I don't trust them to
Speaker 2: make the right basketball decisions and be in a good
Speaker 2: place even in a few years. So probably the Pelicans
Speaker 2: the Celtics would want in the East.
Speaker 4: Justin, who would they not want?
Speaker 6: I would probably say the Timberwolves because they look like
Speaker 6: the team of the three teams that has the most
Speaker 6: likelihood of being good in the short term and potentially
Speaker 6: long term. I think that they are well positioned to
Speaker 6: rebuild the team after its current construction in the future
Speaker 6: as well.
Speaker 4: Around and for.
Speaker 6: Another iteration, there's a case that Memphis has I think
Speaker 6: as well, depending on how you see. They have not
Speaker 6: done so great in managing that roster in recent years,
Speaker 6: but they have some good seeds there. It's going to
Speaker 6: be Minnesota for travel purposes. But I think this is
Speaker 6: going to be really interesting to see how it pans out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I will say it.
Speaker 3: I think I would act actually like to see the
Speaker 3: Minnesota Timberwolves in the East, regardless of whether they are
Speaker 3: the best and most threatening of those teams, just because
Speaker 3: I think it would make for a more competitive and
Speaker 3: fun NBA season.
Speaker 4: I'll say it.
Speaker 3: All right, it's time to get into this draft and
Speaker 3: then we're going to get out of here. So this
Speaker 3: is how this is going to work. We're going to
Speaker 3: go Are we going to go snake draft? Do we
Speaker 3: establish that?
Speaker 4: Let's just a regular let's do regular simple.
Speaker 3: Morton will get the first pick for who the number
Speaker 3: one seed is. Then Justin will get to pick who
Speaker 3: the two seed is. Then Daniel will get to pick
Speaker 3: who the three seed is. I think we should do
Speaker 3: snake draft for fairness. So then Daniel will get the
Speaker 3: fourth pick, Justin will get the fifth pick, Morton will
Speaker 3: get the sixth pick. And how this will work is basically,
Speaker 3: people will make their picks and if anyone objects, then
Speaker 3: I will step in as the QB of this draft
Speaker 3: and I will rule one way or the other as
Speaker 3: to who is right, so that we can come up
Speaker 3: with a top fifteen in order by the end of
Speaker 3: this pod, and then we'll close things out. We'll start
Speaker 3: with you, Morton, who is going to be the number
Speaker 3: one seed in the Western Conference this year?
Speaker 5: The San Antonio Spurs baby, because look, this team is
Speaker 5: primed and ready. It all comes down to the health
Speaker 5: of wickdim and Butiama, and look, this is going to
Speaker 5: be year two of Dylan Harper, year three of Stefan Castle. Like,
Speaker 5: even if Daron Fox is off to a slow start,
Speaker 5: they can even pivot during the trade deadline and move
Speaker 5: him for debt or initiate some larger scheme, maybe involved
Speaker 5: him in a trade for Kevin Durant. Like, there's just
Speaker 5: so many different avenues they can go here. I just
Speaker 5: fail to see them at anything but number one.
Speaker 3: Any disagreements on this point, Nope, send it the San
Speaker 3: Antonio Spurs will be the number one seed. Justin who's
Speaker 3: going to be the number two seed in the Western Comforts?
Speaker 6: In what must be some really suspenseful and excellent podcasting,
Speaker 6: I'm going with a.
Speaker 3: Thunder, Oklahoma City Thunder. Any objections as the number two seed,
Speaker 3: Daniel or Morton?
Speaker 5: Nope?
Speaker 2: Nope none.
Speaker 3: All right, Daniel, you have number three and four? Who
Speaker 3: will be the third and fourth seeds in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: I could be boring here. I mean, I'm still not
Speaker 2: even really convinced because I feel like it's a drop
Speaker 2: off from one to two. But I'm gonna say maybe
Speaker 2: Lakers for three. I could see Luka Doncicic being healthy
Speaker 2: for regular season helping them along get a good seed.
Speaker 2: Beyond that, I don't know. His health obviously was not
Speaker 2: great in the playoffs. He missed it all, so that's
Speaker 2: been a question mark. But regular season only, And then
Speaker 2: I'll say the Nuggets. I mean, like we said before,
Speaker 2: they have Yokic, they have Murray. They should be in
Speaker 2: that mix somewhere. They haven't really been a great regular
Speaker 2: season team historically. I feel like they kind of show
Speaker 2: up in the playoffs more so, Yeah, I'll put them
Speaker 2: down at four.
Speaker 4: Any objections to three, three, or four as the Los.
Speaker 3: Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, respectively, Justin or more than Hope?
Speaker 5: Justin?
Speaker 4: Nothing?
Speaker 3: Wow, all right, shock all the way. Then I guess
Speaker 3: we'll go to Justin. Who is going to be the
Speaker 3: number five seed in the Western Conference? Minnesota, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: Any objections to this, Daniel or Morton.
Speaker 5: No, I'm gonna take the optimistic approach to this one.
Speaker 5: I do think they still have the potential for disaster,
Speaker 5: but if everything holds up, I actually agree that that's
Speaker 5: a solid choice.
Speaker 3: All right, Mortin, you will have the sixth and seventh pick,
Speaker 3: as it is a Snake draft. So who is going
Speaker 3: to be the sixth and seven seeds in the Western Conference?
Speaker 5: So in whatever order you choose, Houston or Phoenix, and frankly,
Speaker 5: it does not matter. We can have to make a pick.
Speaker 5: Oh God, all right, let's just say the Suns because
Speaker 5: at least there's some level of symmetry I guess to
Speaker 5: a certain extent with their roster. And then Houston number seven,
Speaker 5: even though that's a team that's just weird.
Speaker 3: Justin, Daniel, any disagreements on the order of Phoenix, or
Speaker 3: Houston here.
Speaker 4: I'd probably flip them, but I pretty much agree.
Speaker 2: I would like I would like to see maybe sneaky
Speaker 2: pick like the Blazers or Mavericks in here instead the Sons.
Speaker 2: I could see maybe the Rockets. I think you have
Speaker 2: to put in that mix. But I think maybe the
Speaker 2: Sons could get replaced by a Blazers team that obviously
Speaker 2: they don't have the best owner, but sol Jah Morant,
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday, they.
Speaker 5: Have some talent.
Speaker 2: Then. I mean, the MAVs got Cooper Flag, Kyrie's hopefully
Speaker 2: coming back, Clay should hopefully be a bit better kind
Speaker 2: of a wild card, but they have talent with Cooper Flag,
Speaker 2: so I think you got to put them in the Necks.
Speaker 3: Maybe for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to step
Speaker 3: in and only deal with the six and seven in
Speaker 3: Houston or Phoenix, just given that there's so many other
Speaker 3: potential options, and I am going to say that the
Speaker 3: Houston Rockets are better than the Phoenix Suns, and they
Speaker 3: will be the sixth seed and the Suns will be
Speaker 3: the seventh seed. That is the veto of the pod QB.
Speaker 3: Marcus Smart is making the playoffs. He is not going
Speaker 3: to be in the play in tournament. That's my guy
Speaker 3: for real, all right? Justin Quinn, who will be the
Speaker 3: number eight seed in the Western Conference?
Speaker 6: Well, I'm gonna go with Portland just because they have
Speaker 6: improved their roster and they are they also have a
Speaker 6: pretty good amount of talent. They're still pretty young, but
Speaker 6: they showed some flashes of growth. So for me, I
Speaker 6: think they're going to be our number seventeen.
Speaker 3: Any objections to the Portland Trailblazers at eight, No, that's fine. Nope,
Speaker 3: Daniel all right, and so Daniel, you will get the
Speaker 3: number nine and ten seeds?
Speaker 4: Who we got?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Nine, I'm gonna say Mavericks like I was saying for
Speaker 2: me and Cooper flag at a great season. I just
Speaker 2: think there's a lot to like about him if he
Speaker 2: feels like a guy who's going to be a perennial
Speaker 2: star at some point, so maybe throw him in there.
Speaker 2: Hopefully they get more healthy.
Speaker 4: Sorry, it's the Mavericks at nine. Just to be clear,
Speaker 4: Justin Oh no, excuse me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was going to object because that is the
Speaker 6: person who I was, the person the team that I
Speaker 6: was thinking of with an asterisk, Could there could be
Speaker 6: a better option out there. If Kawhi Leonard remains a
Speaker 6: member of the Clippers, I could see with the other
Speaker 6: moves that they've made that this team could challenge for
Speaker 6: that spot. But otherwise I agree.
Speaker 3: So just to be clear, dear listener, the debate right
Speaker 3: now is will the Dallas Mavericks or the Los Angeles
Speaker 3: Clippers be at the number nine seed? And I am
Speaker 3: going to weigh in with the QB veto and say
Speaker 3: that Daniel's initial instinct is correct. The Dallas Mavericks will
Speaker 3: be the nine seed. So who do you have as
Speaker 3: the ten seed?
Speaker 2: Daniel, the Clippers? I could be interested in that. I
Speaker 2: feel like Kawhi would be a guy. He wouldn't like
Speaker 2: pout if the trade went wrong, he would still play. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean he played well last season. But uh, let
Speaker 2: me see what other candidates we got. Is anybody more
Speaker 2: enticing Memphis Morton?
Speaker 4: Do you have anyone to throw in here? As it possible?
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I think the Clippers is right because
Speaker 5: TYLERU is an underrated coach. He'll squeeze out like five
Speaker 5: wins on a season just by him being him, and
Speaker 5: that's actually quite substantial for a coach. I think Garland
Speaker 5: found his strides as a Clipper. That made a little
Speaker 5: bit more sense, Like I don't love what the Clippers
Speaker 5: have done. Like I'm not gonna sit here and say
Speaker 5: they've been fantastic like I but they top five pick.
Speaker 5: They also might be well, we don't really know what
Speaker 5: the Benedict Mathod situation is going to end up like,
Speaker 5: but like if they retain him somehow way, unless I
Speaker 5: missed some news today, like no, he's still in the market, right,
Speaker 5: that could be something. And I just think it's a
Speaker 5: it's an organization that's professional. And they crossed their eyes
Speaker 5: and dot their t or sorry, crosses their te's and
Speaker 5: touts their eyes. Of course, hey look it's past midnight here.
Speaker 5: So I don't hate them at ten. I could even
Speaker 5: see them higher. But I'm not going to fight it
Speaker 5: because I think everything that's been said has been very
Speaker 5: very reasonable.
Speaker 3: Justin, do you have any objections to the Clippers at ten? No, Daniel,
Speaker 3: are you swayed?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Their question mark, but I think it's it's an
Speaker 2: appropriate answer for now.
Speaker 4: Then, Justin, who will be the eleven seed? I'm gonna
Speaker 4: go with Memphis, the Memphis Grizzlies. Any objection to the
Speaker 4: grizz at eleven.
Speaker 2: No, I think that's fair.
Speaker 4: Not seeing any.
Speaker 3: All right, Martin, you will get the twelve and thirteen
Speaker 3: spots in the Western Conference.
Speaker 5: Will let's start off with the Golden State Warriors. I
Speaker 5: think that seems to be a fitting, you know, position
Speaker 5: for them twelve seed. Like, I'm not gonna say they
Speaker 5: don't have potential for more, but as of right now,
Speaker 5: I think they need to show us that at the
Speaker 5: very least. So who have we missed here? Or are
Speaker 5: we down in the slot?
Speaker 6: So I'm gonna object a little bit because I think
Speaker 6: that you're gonna arrive at the team that I'm thinking
Speaker 6: of next, But I think they should be first because
Speaker 6: this is a younger players league the way that depth
Speaker 6: and youth has been impacting scoring. So I'm gonna say
Speaker 6: that the Jazz should actually be in the twelfth spot
Speaker 6: with the Warriors in the thirteenth spot.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't hate that argument. I think that's fair.
Speaker 5: We can do that. We can absolutely do that because
Speaker 5: like again Darren.
Speaker 4: Peterson, yeah, Daniel, any objections to that, I.
Speaker 2: Would probably give the edge to the Warriors, honest, just
Speaker 2: because I curry.
Speaker 4: Alex gets to the deciding vote. I do get the
Speaker 4: deciding vote, and I'm going Jazz mode. I like this
Speaker 4: Jazz roster.
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a little frisky, and
Speaker 3: I think Will Hardy.
Speaker 4: Will Hardy is so tired of this team being terrible.
Speaker 3: So I think they're going to actually win some games
Speaker 3: and try this year, Whereas I think the Warriors have
Speaker 3: really high potential for Steph Curry has an injury by
Speaker 3: the All Star break. Weird that that happened. We won't
Speaker 3: be seeing him for the rest of the season. That's
Speaker 3: where I'm waiting.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 3: So then justin you're going to get the fourteenth pick,
Speaker 3: you have two teams to choose from remaining. Assuming we
Speaker 3: have the Jazz at twelve and the Warriors at thirteen,
Speaker 3: who have you got for the fourteenth spot?
Speaker 6: Well, I guess I'm technically picking both. Realistically, I think
Speaker 6: the Pelicans have at least a chance at not being
Speaker 6: an absolutely terrible team. I think they're still going to be,
Speaker 6: but at least they have a chance. I do not
Speaker 6: think the Kings have any There's gonna be the Kings
Speaker 6: for the foreseeable future. So I think that it's going
Speaker 6: to be the Pelicans.
Speaker 3: Next, Daniel Morton, any objections to Pelicans fourteen, Kings fifteen.
Speaker 5: Nine is perfectly all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're in the drags right now, I will say,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm fine keeping it this way. I think
Speaker 3: there is a world in which the Pelicans will be
Speaker 3: the worst team, but it's splitting Harris at this point.
Speaker 4: All right. That's our Western Conference.
Speaker 3: Just to recap, we have the San Antonio Spurs at one,
Speaker 3: the Thunder at two, the Lakers at three, Denver at four,
Speaker 3: Minnesota at five, Houston at six, Phoenix at seven, Portland
Speaker 3: at eight, Dallas at nine, the Clippers at ten, the
Speaker 3: Grizzlies at eleven, Jazz at twelve, Warriors thirteen, Pelicans fourteen,
Speaker 3: and Sacramento Kings bringing up the caboose at fifteen. Morton,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for joining us. Where can we
Speaker 3: find your work?
Speaker 5: You can find my work over at Yahoo Sports and
Speaker 5: the NBA podcast, And if somehow you understand Danish, you
Speaker 5: can find me at the podcast Buzzer Beat, or catch
Speaker 5: me calling games at HBO Mex.
Speaker 4: Daniel, where can we find your work?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right here and have the check stol the pod or
Speaker 2: Celtics Wire or Twitter at Daniel d one two one four.
Speaker 2: There's some stuff still going on there.
Speaker 4: Just what he said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, there you go, and you can find my
Speaker 3: work by following me on Instagram or Blue Sky if
Speaker 3: you want. But I'm just going to be posting mostly
Speaker 3: about the various bands that I'm in. I'm in too
Speaker 3: many bands. That's why i have no time outside of
Speaker 3: this podcast, because I mean too many bands. But I'll
Speaker 3: post about those there if you want to check that out.
Speaker 3: This has been another fabulous episode of Hai Chexsol. The
Speaker 3: pod as always to close out with something to remember
Speaker 3: or something to forget. Morton, this is your first time
Speaker 3: doing this, so we're going to model for you something
Speaker 3: to remember or something to forget. Could be about your job,
Speaker 3: your life, the Celtics, basketball, broadly, Danish culture, spider Man,
Speaker 3: whatever you want to take it. How it goes, is
Speaker 3: something like this. Justin I am going to remember that
Speaker 3: sometimes in the dog days of July, when you know
Speaker 3: things are really slowing down in all different aspects of
Speaker 3: your life, it's important to just reset to a somewhat
Speaker 3: consistent routine, even after you have done some traveling. It
Speaker 3: can do wonders for your mental health. If you are
Speaker 3: like me and need basic structure in life in order
Speaker 3: to make a turbulent and crazy world feel a little
Speaker 3: more sane. I would recommend just structuring your day at
Speaker 3: least a little bit.
Speaker 4: That's something to advice myself.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I echo all of that, And I'm also going
Speaker 6: to remember to remind the intern we do this exercise
Speaker 6: for the East to make sure they include all of
Speaker 6: the lottery picks that are in the Eastern Conference as well.
Speaker 4: To note, Danielle, do you have something to remember and
Speaker 4: or forget?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to remember this offseason where Brad Stevens
Speaker 2: took one of the biggest reputation gambles ever trading a
Speaker 2: beloved Celtics star, Jame with Brown to a rival, and
Speaker 2: then that's kind of leading to a hated rival Lebron
Speaker 2: James going to the rival Sixers in just a potential
Speaker 2: for this to go really badly or him to look
Speaker 2: ahead of the curve. It's a big gamble. Some people
Speaker 2: are saying it's obvious that the Sixers are gonna be great.
Speaker 2: Some people think it's obvious that it's going to backfire.
Speaker 2: I think it's I don't know, It's not that easy
Speaker 2: to predict. But I think it's gonna be risky no
Speaker 2: matter what.
Speaker 3: It's kind of crazy that we barely talked about the
Speaker 3: Celtics here on Havljak and stole the pot on this episode.
Speaker 4: Morton close us out something to remember, to forget.
Speaker 5: Something to remember, all right, I am going to remember
Speaker 5: that sometimes a player can force us all to fall
Speaker 5: on our ass when he hits seven threes in his
Speaker 5: opening Summer League game, after having hit a grand total
Speaker 5: of seven threes at you and C the year before,
Speaker 5: proving once and for all, oh my god, every analysis
Speaker 5: we did on this guy throughout the entire year has
Speaker 5: just gone to bits because he's a completely different player.
Speaker 5: I am, of course talking about callables and who just
Speaker 5: oh not mine. But that's that is something I'm going
Speaker 5: to remember, because like I always spend time like reading
Speaker 5: up and watching prospects, and sometimes you can get stuck
Speaker 5: in the mud with certain analysis and then the guy
Speaker 5: just comes out, flips your the finger and goes, hi,
Speaker 5: I am not anything like that, and you just have
Speaker 5: to own it, and you have to tear up your
Speaker 5: scouting report, you have to throw it in the trash,
Speaker 5: and you have to say good on user. I am
Speaker 5: going to follow your career with a brand new set
Speaker 5: of eyes.
Speaker 4: Morton, are you implying that team context matters a great
Speaker 4: deal to how we perceive various players?
Speaker 3: I know, right, crazy shocking another Morton hot take to
Speaker 3: close out another terrific episode of.
Speaker 5: Having abjective.
Speaker 4: Contact.
Speaker 2: They have a magazine at all, all old sty have hm. Hm,