The Rockets' Rise and NBA League Pass Rankings With Zach Lowe, Plus Week 12 NFL Picks With Joe House

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Speaker 1 I have a new rewatchables coming for you on Monday night. And I'll just say this.
It's going to be

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Speaker 1 and Chris Ryan and Cousin Sal.

Speaker 1 Those will be the three hosts. And it's a movie that isn't that good, but you'll still really like it.

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Fine. Twist my arm.

Speaker 1 We're doing Two for the Money with Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino, a movie that predicted the rise of sports gambling and is,

Speaker 1 I think, started out as a drama and is now a comedy.

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You have a whole weekend to watch it. 20th anniversary.
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Speaker 1 Coming up in this podcast, Action Packed, I'm recording from New York City. Zach Lowe is here.
He joined me live. We did league pass rankings and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Speaker 1 And then House comes on late for the Ringer 107 picks. It's all next.
We're going to take a break, Pearl Jam, and then Zach Lowe. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by State Farm.

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Speaker 1 All right, Zach Lowe is here. I am in New York City.
Zach Lowe took the train. Two trains, two kinds of trains.
Metro North to the subway. Was it fun? Love the train.
You like the train.

Speaker 1 Do you get recognized? Are people like, hey, Zach Lowe?

Speaker 1 Occasionally, and sometimes someone is listening to my podcast on the subway. That's always a good one.
I was like,

Speaker 1 hey, yeah, hey, that's a good one. I like that one.
If I can make your commute better, that's I've done my service to the world. What are the Nicks Nets ratio of people like, what's up with my blank

Speaker 1 when you're in New York? Probably like 99% Nicks. It's 50 to 1 Nicks versus Nets.
Meeting a Nets fan, even in New York, is only slightly more common than meeting like a Magic fan in New York.

Speaker 1 It's that bad. So I went to Nets Celtics on Tuesday night.

Speaker 1 We had a bunch of Spotify meetings, and we actually had a suite. It was a Spotify suite for Celts Nets.
Got there pretty early.

Speaker 1 It was hilarious watching the Nets do all the checkpoints that the NBA teams do, where they're like, no, and then the Jumbotron video screen for two minutes and it's like Michael Porter Jr.

Speaker 1 turning around and

Speaker 1 Cam Thomas and

Speaker 1 the crowd's just dead. And it's like 60% Celtic fans.
The Nets don't even really seem like they want to be there. The Celtics are just like, let's not fuck this game up, guys.

Speaker 1 The Nets fans hate when you say this and talk about how dead the Barclays Center is and how it was kind of dead even when they were good. It's like, look, I don't know what to tell you.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 Like, I've been to a lot of arenas. This is not, it's not resonating.
Here's the problem. It's not dead for the Liberty Games.
The Liberty Games are awesome. The Liberty Games are alive.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So it's the Nets' fault. And it's the Nets' fault probably for thinking they could come into New York and try to steal New York from the Knicks because everybody loves the Knicks here.

Speaker 1 So I don't know what the solution is, but I'll tell you one of the solutions.

Speaker 1 Having five first-round picks and not having any of them be anyone I was that interested in watching play basketball. That wasn't great.
Anyway, enough about the Nets.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk about them later because one of the many things we're doing, we have a lot of bells and whistles for this one.

Speaker 1 We're going to do an updated through, what is it, five weeks now?

Speaker 1 15 games, whatever it is. I don't know.
Six weeks, whatever. Updated league pass rankings.

Speaker 1 More based on if there were 15 games on and all the teams are across the board, which, where does your eyes go for like, oh, that team or, oh, I'm not going near that team?

Speaker 1 Combined with like what the situation I was in last night where I went to dinner, I came home.

Speaker 1 I really had time to watch one game, one of those condensed games, and then a whole fourth quarter of one of the games. And I, the game I pick kind of ties into where we're going.
Before we do this,

Speaker 1 I mean, we could do the league pass draft and then when we get to this team, deep dive them. You want to just do it that way? Whatever you want.
This is your, this is the Bill Simmons podcast.

Speaker 1 I hate when you pass off this responsibility.

Speaker 1 The best thing about being a guest is I don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Yeah, good point.
All right, league pass draft. I'll give you the first pick.
We'll go back and forth.

Speaker 1 So where are we drafting? Are we drafting the best? Are we drafting right off the top? I think we have to go best to worst. Okay.

Speaker 1 And I think worst will be actually kind of funny because there's a few choices that shared and we'll talk about some of the reasons why. But who's your number one team so far? Six weeks.

Speaker 1 So here's what I did.

Speaker 1 I did when Mahoney and I did the league pass rankings before the season, I wrote those down on one column and then I did a revamped, revised one on the next column with biggest risers, biggest losers, people who stayed about the same.

Speaker 1 Taking from that column, only because Wen Banyama is hurt right now, I'm taking Denver with the number one pick. Denver was number two

Speaker 1 for my preseason league pass rankings.

Speaker 1 I think if Wemby were healthy, they'd still be number two. Right now, they are number one.
It's just unassailable.

Speaker 1 And the Jokic stuff just gets crazy. Did you watch any of their game last night?

Speaker 1 I saw the

Speaker 1 one-handed underhand off-the-backboard floater. It was very Larry Bird.
Like, I'm so fucking bored. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Let me catch this pocket pass with my right hand, not touch it with my left hand, and I'm 14 feet away from the rim and like almost half underhand scoop off the backboard and it went in.

Speaker 1 And it's like, it was like bird shooting left-handed. It was just crazy.
And the outlet passes are out of control. Cam Johnson's starting to find his way.
It's just, it's just a great time.

Speaker 1 So I only watched the highlights of that game because I got home from dinner too late. And it was a good NBA night last night.
But a friend of mine watched that game and said.

Speaker 1 Watching Jokic slowly over the course of two and a half hours become kind of interested in what was happening with Derek Queen and be like, all right, I guess, I guess I'm going to have to.

Speaker 1 I thought this was going to be an easy night, maybe not, and become just more interested.

Speaker 1 A credit to Derek Queen, just a professional basketball team. You never know when David Adelman's going to be like, you know what? AG's out today.
We're going Valentunis, Jokic together.

Speaker 1 Let's see how that works. Valentunis gets to go beast mode when Jokic is off the floor.
I mean, like, what else is there to say? They're just supremely entertaining to watch.

Speaker 1 I talked, Legs was on last week talking about the all-time teams of, I I have to go to the arena because this person's in town.

Speaker 1 And Jokic has been, Jokic and Curry have been levitating above everybody this decade. And Jokic is the clear number one.

Speaker 1 I mean, even like, what's interesting about this year's team is Christian Brown gets hurt and it's okay. It's not ideal, but they can patch together four or five weeks.

Speaker 1 Where I feel like a couple years ago, that is probably a bigger disaster. Murray looks better too.
Murray has at least his kind of zip back.

Speaker 1 All right. So that's you.
You're up now. Denver's off the board.
We've talked about Jokic so much, there's not a lot left to say.

Speaker 1 They were my clear number one.

Speaker 1 San Antonio would have been my number two except for the Wemby injury. Is this just where we're going to be with Wemby? Oh, yeah.
Can't miss. Just can't miss every game.

Speaker 1 No, but I'm saying, is this where we're going to be where it's like treasure the weeks that he's going to be? I'm not going there.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to go there. He played 70-something games his rookie year.
We'll see how long he's actually up with this calf thing.

Speaker 1 Everyone's going extra cautious with the calf stuff, justifiably justifiably so. I'm not panicking.
I'm not going to panic. Last year was a blood clot, flukey.
Like, I hope not.

Speaker 1 I'm not going there yet. It's funny that it took till 2025 for people to be going,

Speaker 1 calf strains, look out.

Speaker 1 Could be more. There could be more there.
It's like, why weren't we there after the 2019 finals? Shouldn't that have been the moment where we're like, calf strains? Okay. I will say that.
Now we know.

Speaker 1 I will say to your point earlier about, is this just where we're going to be? You do hear people around the league, just front office guys spitballing about about the Spurs.

Speaker 1 You can find people who would be like, I think they should accelerate their team building schedule, almost assuming that his career ends up being shorter than they think it's going to be.

Speaker 1 I just, that seems so early and dire to me. And they're not like five-year career.
They're like, you know, assume an eight to 12-year career and not anything more than that.

Speaker 1 You could, you hear it, is all I'm saying.

Speaker 1 I've made that point in the past on pods and felt bad.

Speaker 1 It's fair.

Speaker 1 But look at the history of the league. Look at the super tall guys.
How many of them had longevity? The only one was Kareem.

Speaker 1 So the case, well, I was going to say the case with Wemby for him to have a longer career is the Kareem case. Like Kareem, I think Kareem was 7'4.

Speaker 1 Like he was listed at 7'2. I think he, I always thought he was two inches taller.
Wemby.

Speaker 1 He's at least seven. I know now he's admitting he's 7'5 ⁇ .
I still think he's taller. Could be.

Speaker 1 I feel like he's at least 7'6, and I think 7'7's in play. The thing I always worried about with him is the landing.

Speaker 1 It's just so hard for him to stop his body when he's going full speed that there's just things to step on. That's my biggest fear with him.
Anyway, I did not have them second.

Speaker 1 I have the Houston Rockets. And let's do this.
Cause this was, I texted you when we're on the train. Just heads up.
I'm the most excited to talk about the Rockets. This was the team last night.

Speaker 1 I couldn't wait to do Houston, Cleveland. I couldn't wait to see what happened.
I actually put a little, I put a little because I'm in a place with legal gambling.

Speaker 1 I put a little on the Rockets last night because I actually believe in, I think they're the third best team and have a maybe be even possibly in the running for the second.

Speaker 1 It's been so fascinating to watch them figure out who they are, what they are. And I don't even think they fully figured it out yet.
But I have a number of things I'm enjoying. I'll start here.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Most fun I've had watching Kevin Durant play basketball since 2017.

Speaker 1 Since year one, Warriors. Year one, Warriors.

Speaker 1 When I think he was really happy and invested in the team and didn't really care about stats, the ball, that he was just so happy to be in the framework of all of it.

Speaker 1 And there was like just real joy and camaraderie with him. I think he's been a little, as both you and I are KD defenders, he's a little up and down emotionally sometimes with seasons and situations.

Speaker 1 Certainly the last two stops. Last two stops

Speaker 1 awesome. Did not go great.

Speaker 1 I think he's completely locked in with this Rockets team. I think he knows what they need from him.
I think it uses the best pieces of him. He's not doing too much.

Speaker 1 When they need him in crunch time, he's there. When they need him to do a little more rebounding, rim protection stuff, he can do it.

Speaker 1 The passing stuff, I think, is the best that's ever looked from him. Even though I know the stats are down, but I think the setup stuff and figuring out where his teammates are.

Speaker 1 They did a little high screen with Thompson last night that they've been doing more and more where Thompson comes out high and Durant waits and then just kind of floats a thing and Thompson kind of chases it down like a like a running back on a screen pass and then just goes to the basket.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, that's something.

Speaker 1 There's just a lot going on, Zach.

Speaker 1 I'm enthralled by the steam. I've been saving it for a standalone podcast because I just stepped all over.
No, it's all right. We're going to do it.
We can do it anyway.

Speaker 1 I mean, they have the number one offense in the league. Is that true? They're number one, right? They have a 41% offensive rebounding rate, which is just unheard of.
It's unheard of.

Speaker 1 They're absolutely gigantic. Like their starting lineup is so big, it's ridiculous.
Now, especially last night, they went a Kogi on the bench, started the double centers again.

Speaker 1 And there's just a lot of dudes I love watching. Like, forget Durant.
Everyone loves Durant. Shangun up a big level.
And his ability to just,

Speaker 1 because of the Vam lead injury, Their offense is not the most aesthetically pleasing and kind of needs a couple guys who can just create from nothing.

Speaker 1 And a seven-footer who can get the ball at the top of the arc and just dribble all the way into a hook shot, that's pretty efficient. It's pretty rare.

Speaker 1 Like you got to have a tight handle to be able to hold that. Did he do that two years ago?

Speaker 1 There's because sometimes they'll give him the ball 30 feet from the basket and he just goes by somebody and then does his whirly kind of the little yokoji and then ends up with a jump hook or something.

Speaker 1 But I don't remember him being able to do that the same way. It's like easy to take for granted these centers who can dribble in traffic with someone harassing them that that long of a distance.

Speaker 1 I love watching him. I've always loved Jabari Smith Jr.
I just think he's a winner. Amen is amen.
And Stephen Adams, man, just

Speaker 1 what a

Speaker 1 mid-to-late career revival. Like he was injured.
He was broken. What was that trade when they kind of just took him from New Orleans?

Speaker 1 Memphis, New Orleans. Somebody needed a salary dump.
Somebody needed to dump a salary.

Speaker 1 There was an Adams-Valent Shunas exchange between Memphis and New Orleans that was mostly salary related. But he's, I had him in my top 100 players

Speaker 1 when we just did our best. I just, first of all, you get to like 80, and then it's 80 to 130 is just I had the beholder.
And I'm just like, this guy is

Speaker 1 a

Speaker 1 one-man offense almost. Like, his offensive rebound, he's average, his offensive rebounding is like 28%.
He's a one-man offense. He's such a weapon for them.
I'm just rewarded.

Speaker 1 And he's, and he's like, got a little juice back defensively, too. Not putting Jabari in the KD trade was brilliant by them.
Just waiting that out.

Speaker 1 And I still think that turned out to be an okay trade for Phoenix. I think it accomplished some of the stuff they needed.
I don't think they were going to do better. No.
But

Speaker 1 I've actually liked watching him on this Houston team. I don't feel like he's an afterthought.
And in a weird way, he's the one that tilts it because sometimes they'll just have him out.

Speaker 1 with KD and with Shangoon. I think they've even like, has he, they've played a little with the two centers and those two guys.

Speaker 1 Because they started it last night. That was their starting live.
I don't know if they won't finish games like that. Suppose they will.

Speaker 1 They'll float it out there.

Speaker 1 But I think it actually works with them. It's weird to think he's can

Speaker 1 basically be a two-guard, even though he's not a two-guard. But that's how they'll use him sometimes.
East was her. We didn't even see him.
We didn't have a nightmare.

Speaker 1 We haven't seen Finney Smith yet. Right.
Reed Shepard is starting to happen. Well, so that's the other thing.
So there's this Reed Shepherd subplot.

Speaker 1 And I think it's going on a scale of one to 20. It's probably like a 17 17 or an 18, how well it's going.

Speaker 1 Compared to where.

Speaker 1 I don't think I've ever heard of a 1 to 20. I don't know what you just invented.
Yeah, it's an 8.5 out of 10.

Speaker 1 I was obviously dubious. Some of the preseason stuff worried me a little bit.

Speaker 1 But they kind of give them the card keys sometimes.

Speaker 1 They give them like stretches for like five minutes. We're like, just, you're in charge.
Here you go. I mean, they kind of have to because he's the only guy they have that's really like that.
Plus,

Speaker 1 a random Aaron Holiday game like last night. And who I've always liked.
The first couple games, he looked so

Speaker 1 in mud defensively, like just getting turnstiled by anyone and everyone. He's kind of settled down a little bit.
Like he's never going to be a plus defender. He's always going to be hunted.

Speaker 1 He does make plays, but he has been a little bit more

Speaker 1 just, I'm not rolling over or getting blown by in the open court every single time easily. And offensively, he's like profiled as a good player and he looks like he's going to be a good player.

Speaker 1 I think this team is,

Speaker 1 I just don't even know what to make of them. Like, they're awesome.
The numbers clear suggest they're awesome. Their offense is just so weird.
40% offensive rebounding. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's weird, but they really only get like the traditional old school fast breaks if he's playing. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Otherwise, it's a little slower and it's a little more half court, but in a way that no other team in the league looks like. The Shangoon thing is probably the most shocking part of it.

Speaker 1 That and Thompson was doing a little of this last year with the top of the key beating guys off the dribble, almost like a ISO offense with everybody spread out, but he seems way more comfortable with it.

Speaker 1 And I got to be honest, like the team makes sense. Like when we did the over-unders, I think I went a little under on them.
And I was just like, I have too many questions, right? It was 52 and a half.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I have questions about this. I don't know if Shepard's going to be ready.

Speaker 1 I think, I wonder if their ball is going to be too too stagnant when we watch them it's just everybody doing their own thing and everybody else watching that person it's not like that when you watch it even though it's a lot of isoball but it's i feel like everybody's included and then the other thing is you know the body language doctor is just watching intently i think they have great chemistry i i haven't seen durant on a team like this that's like they're very competitive I think they love Shangoon.

Speaker 1 He's kind of a badass. Like he's, you know, he's,

Speaker 1 he's got an, there's an anger to him

Speaker 1 that, uh, in a good way, that I really like. Like, he'll get really mad if he doesn't get a call and he just runs.
He's a little like Lukash.

Speaker 1 Um, but this is like a really competitive physical nightmare of a team. And they killed the Celtics.
And Durant feels like he's found a couple of little brother types that he really likes.

Speaker 1 Like Jabari Smith Jr. just mimics his every move in practice and warm-ups.
And Reed Shepherd, he's Durant is clearly like, I'm going to make sure you're okay, Reed Shepard.

Speaker 1 I'm going to compliment everything you do well. I'm going to pat you on the butt.
I'm going to talk. I'm going to scream when you do great things.
He's enjoying that role with those guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this team is the stat author.

Speaker 1 Has he been on a team like that where he was big brother? Because Phoenix was obviously not like that.

Speaker 1 And if anything, it was like this partnership and he's playing for Booker's team and it was uneasy

Speaker 1 from the get-go. And then Brooklyn was just whatever that was.
You'll have forgotten about this as most normal people would have.

Speaker 1 There was a stretch in Brooklyn, and I can't remember if it was pre-Hardin or post-Hardin, where Kyrie was shockingly hurt or absent, and Hardin was absent.

Speaker 1 Or Hardin or Simmons, whichever one was there at the time. And it was Durant and a bunch of people.
It was like Durant and Edmund Sumner and like random guys.

Speaker 1 And people, you could tell, I think he even said, like, this is so much fun. I'm having most fun.
It was the early Jacques Fawn.

Speaker 1 I don't know. And people with the Nets were like, this is the most fun we've ever seen KD have.

Speaker 1 Maybe that is something that reminds me of this, but not not that these guys are them talent is a whole other no i this team is i'll tell you the stat on monitoring okay so you mentioned iso ball right kd is a great iso guy shen goon we talked about his iso game ahmed thompson is like can create a good floater out of nothing against any defender they are i'm looking at it now 20th in turnover rate and they're they don't force a lot of turnovers yet ISO teams generally one of the benefits of playing that way is you don't turn the ball over a lot.

Speaker 1 If they can start tilting that aspect of the possession game to their advantage and keep the rebounding where it is, and they just become a team that's going to bludgeon you in the possession game every single night, they become very, very dangerous.

Speaker 1 What are they?

Speaker 1 I forgot to look this up. What are they in assists?

Speaker 1 Are they?

Speaker 1 Let me see here. They are.
I'm looking at it now.

Speaker 1 30th in assist rate. 30th in assist rate.
So, again, that's

Speaker 1 That's another... It's not a red flag because it's big data to how they play.

Speaker 1 If you counted misses as assists, they would be like self-passes. They would be number one.
I mean, I half joke about it.

Speaker 1 They have like a Durant run, Durant and Shangoon, like do something offense, run a couple, run a set, and then the other half of their offense is just shoot and we'll get the rebound.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's weird to say this about a basketball team, but the way they play sometimes reminds me of a hockey team where it's just like, just keep shooting on the net and we'll just have guys flying in there, big physical guys trying to tip in the whatever.

Speaker 1 It's a really interesting team. Like right now in FanDuel,

Speaker 1 they're plus 650 to win the West.

Speaker 1 OKC's even and Denver is plus 430.

Speaker 1 And I think we, I think all of us, Legs and I talked about it last week. You did too in your pod.
It's OKC, Denver, and then a drop. And I apologize to Rockets fans when I said that.

Speaker 1 But I i think i'm sorry i got to figure out your team right but i think that going from denver down to houston

Speaker 1 i think that that distance is going to shrink a little as the year goes on with houston and i here's the other thing

Speaker 1 i don't know anyone in the east that like if houston's in the east that's the favorite in the east i think i don't think anyone in the east could hang with them in in a seven-game series the way they're currently constructed we'll see there's some things that could go sideways the shepherd piece could go sideways um

Speaker 1 They haven't had an injury or anything yet. Like, there's lots of things that could happen.
But I'm really, really impressed. They're tough.
And by the way, we didn't mention eBay.

Speaker 1 He's got to be loving everything about this team. I mean, to talk about a team built in his image of like, I just want to kick your ass.
Like,

Speaker 1 we want you to, at the end of this game, have bruises and feel like you don't want to see us again for a month. That's the Rockets.
After that Celtic game, I was like, I don't.

Speaker 1 If these teams played 20 times, I don't know if the Celtics would beat them in any of the 20.

Speaker 1 Like with the way the Celtics are constructed versus the Rockets, it's like there's, they'd have to make like 30 of 53s, I think, to win. And to tie it back to now,

Speaker 1 you watched that game last night. I thought that was an awesome win last night for the Rockets in Cleveland.
They got it to like a 20-point lead. Cavs bench goes crazy, gets them back into it.

Speaker 1 Lonzo's doing crazy stuff. Donovan Mitch Hook finally gets hot late, third, early fourth.
They cut the lead all the way down to one or two. They did like a 23-3 run.
Maybe they even tied it.

Speaker 1 I can't remember. It got down to one or two.
And the Rockets on the road withstand that, get some big buckets. Aaron Holiday makes some big buckets.

Speaker 1 Shangoon makes some big buckets and pull away for like, I don't know what that ended up being. They got it back to 11 at one point.
That's like a

Speaker 1 real

Speaker 1 professional basketball win for a good team. I've watched a lot of Rockets this year.
They've had probably five moments already this season where they're like,

Speaker 1 need a basket. And it's like Kevin Durant's like, I got this, guys.

Speaker 1 Let me just get my little 15-footer in traffic that nobody's blocked for since 2009.

Speaker 1 That's two. We drafted two teams.
We drafted two teams. We're going to take a break and we're going to keep going.
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This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. Real talk for a second.

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Speaker 1 iPhone 11 or later required. All right, league pass draft.
We're going to zip through this now. Houston was the one we really wanted to spend some time on.

Speaker 1 So you have Denver and Houston so far. Who's your third pick? San Antonio.
You had them well. So we've had the same top three.
Doesn't need an explanation.

Speaker 1 I'm curious how they get through this stretch without Wemby plus Harper plus Castle for the next few. Hot take without Wemby.
Still really fun to watch.

Speaker 1 Get a little Luke Cornette Olinic combo, et cetera.

Speaker 1 We got, get to watch Darren Fox kind of try to figure out who he is on this team. Castle, Harper.
I like all these guys. I like watching them.
Can I get Fox and Wemby for a week? Right. Just one week.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I mean, they're still fun to watch. Keldon Johnson had a nice season.
Sohan's doing Sohan stuff. If you had to put an over-under for Darren Fox on the San Antonio Spurs,

Speaker 1 what year and what month would you give?

Speaker 1 I don't know, a year and month. I was going to say, Z Darren, 2029,

Speaker 1 I would go no. I would say two.
I would set the over-under at two and a half years. Okay.

Speaker 1 I think this is a great problem to have. I don't think the Spurs feel like this is a problem at all based on what I've because they're not going to win the title.

Speaker 1 Everyone's rushing this whole process. And they're like, look, we already have injuries.
This is one of the reasons you get a second star. The first one gets hurt.

Speaker 1 And these young guards are going to have ups and downs, and we're going to be able to play. They're going to try to play all three of them together.
This is a non-issue right now.

Speaker 1 Do you think they're in their 2013 Warriors phase or their 2014 Warriors phase?

Speaker 1 So 2013 is Warriors. Surprise.
Oh, my God. Wow, they won a series.
Oh, they just got their... 2013 is they lose to the Clippers and the Sterling year and Mark Jackson.

Speaker 1 I think they're even, I think they're 2013, closer to 2013 Warriors. That's what I have as well.
This is fun. Whoa, look at us.
Hey, we won a playoff series. It's about where we're going.
It's

Speaker 1 two years away from being whatever they're put where the ceiling comes in, I think.

Speaker 1 And just, I mean, it goes without saying, but it's hard to miss a Wemby game because four ridiculous things are going to happen in every single game.

Speaker 1 Even if he has like a random 4 of 15, 12-point game, he's going to do four things on defense where you're like, that's not even a real thing that just happened. What was it, Friday night?

Speaker 1 When did they play Golden State? Was it Friday night? They played him twice. They had a baseball series.
I think it was Friday, Sunday, Thursday.

Speaker 1 One of the ones when Butler was in the last minute and Butler, it was a fast break. And Butler, for some reason, decided he could challenge Wemby and take it to the rim.

Speaker 1 It was a huge part of the game. It was like it was tied or it was a one-point.
And Wemby did some, he blocked it and it was hard to tell which arm he blocked it from. He was like a fucking octopus.

Speaker 1 And I,

Speaker 1 so that was the lady, I was like, I want to see the replay because I couldn't tell if he swung around and blocked it this way or blocked it this way.

Speaker 1 And then they showed the replay and it was his left hand, but I had no idea which arm he used. You just don't know.
He might have a third arm. Look at that.
He might have a third arm.

Speaker 1 So yeah, I took this first three. No further explanation.
Now it's going to get interesting because I think we're going to have very different. Oh, not for me.
The number four is clear. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Move your mic closer to you so we can still hear you.

Speaker 1 It's the Detroit Pistons. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Talked about it a little with legs last week.

Speaker 1 I had them 11th.

Speaker 1 Interesting. Yeah.
I mean, it's a lot of brute force. First of all, 11th is way higher than they were coming in.
It's actually, I had them 15th before 11th out. They're a battering ram.

Speaker 1 They're not the most attractive. To make the case.
And I don't think they'll be here two months from now. But

Speaker 1 when I talked about them last week, it was more like I'm really interested in what's happened to them.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 they moved in. They have a couple of new guys, right? Robinson's a new wrinkle.
Lavert's a new wrinkle.

Speaker 1 But just what's happening with them competitively? What happened to Duran, who I can't wait to talk about where I had him in Ringer 100? What's happened with Cade?

Speaker 1 Just that, like, that seems on a winning streak as we record this.

Speaker 1 And it's just not surprising if you watch them.

Speaker 1 Like, they're, it's like another team like Houston, like these competitive motherfuckers who just want to win every game, who want to like rip your heart out of your chest.

Speaker 1 And Durin, I'll, but they'll be 11th for me in a month. But right now, the Durin piece has been fascinating for me.

Speaker 1 Like, for him to just become basically Dwight Howard, he's like a 23 and 11 night after night, like just kind of brute forcing everybody. It's like,

Speaker 1 I didn't have this on my bingo card. I think he's 22.

Speaker 1 He might have a more,

Speaker 1 I'm not saying better.

Speaker 1 Higher style.

Speaker 1 No, he might have a more refined offensive game now than Dwight Howard ever. Oh, he doesn't.
And he's not as good of a shotbalker as Dwight. But I'm just saying like that force who's like.

Speaker 1 No, I'm saying he might have a more refined offensive game now than Dwight ever did. Like his face-up game is really good.
I agree with that. Okay.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think he should be an all-star.

Speaker 1 I haven't sat down and looked at their, God only knows how to even build the rosters anymore with this stupid new thing. Honestly, he's in the running for third team all NBA for me.

Speaker 1 If we were doing it after 13 games, which we wouldn't, but no, he's had, he had a hot start to last season, too, and it faded. But he looks like a

Speaker 1 different. He's a different player defensively.
I've always been a big Durren guy. This is way ahead of schedule.
Like, this is a complete all-star level.

Speaker 1 Explosion. I got to be honest, I did not see this one coming with him.
Like, I think he's a guaranteed 22 and 12 a night now, right?

Speaker 1 It's about what he's averaging. Um, but I like watching them and

Speaker 1 the curiosity of just what's going on with them was number four for me. Can I ask you a pistons question that's popular around the league? Whether they should make a trade?

Speaker 1 Well, no, that we we could talk, we could do that if you want. It is interesting that, um,

Speaker 1 Troy Weaver, much ridiculed for his Pistons tenure, currently pre-ridiculed for his New Orleans tenure with Joe Dumars.

Speaker 1 He did draft most of this team, shoving aside the Killian Hayes pick, which didn't go great. And

Speaker 1 it is kind of interesting. I'm just marveling at this Zach.
The Trey Weaver Zach right now is incredible. But you hear front office people be like, you know, he did.

Speaker 1 First of all, you don't credit him for Cade, right? And there was a Cade-Mobile debate in Detroit's front office that I can't remember off the top of my head which way he fell on that.

Speaker 1 Can't win-win, right? Win-win. But number one pick, getting it right, you don't get extra credit for that.
Mobley going one,

Speaker 1 I think, would have been pretty surprising. Astar Thompson, he picked, but there was everything else he did around the team, like made no sense and put all those young guys in positions to fail.

Speaker 1 And then they change leadership, and then they're like, oh, shooting, veterans. That's a smart thing to do.
That's why he got fired. And then people

Speaker 1 are worried the same thing is going to replicate itself in New Orleans. We're like, Queen's pretty good.
Fears is pretty good.

Speaker 1 But A, your value proposition on Queen was like way wacky to trade the pick you traded. And B, do we trust you to actually put the right pieces around these draft picks, even if they hit?

Speaker 1 So there's an interesting Troy Weaver thing. The trade thing, I talked about it on my pod yesterday.

Speaker 1 I would posit the question to you. If you're a Trajan Langdon,

Speaker 1 you're 13 and 2. I'm not doing anything.
Okay, let me just ask you, though. Forget, you're not doing anything.
Right now, no one's doing anything. The East is a little bit of a mess.

Speaker 1 Like Cleveland's a little meh. New York's a little meh compared to expectations.

Speaker 1 Do you read? New York's a lot of meh. Do you read 13 and 2 as,

Speaker 1 oh my God, are we like good enough to make the finals already and we don't have to do anything? Well, they could make the finals. Or do you read it as like,

Speaker 1 strike while the iron is hot and this should embolden me to be like even more aggressive if the perfect player, i.e. Markenen, is actually available?

Speaker 1 So Tobias has to be in that trade. And I think he's important for this team because

Speaker 1 everyone says he's a really important guy behind the scenes. I just wouldn't mess with it.
There's a Trey Murphy conversation that's

Speaker 1 not the marketing. I think marketing, as much as I like him and he's awesome, I do think it shifts their team a little bit in a way that I'm not I'm not certain what direction.
I know he's awesome.

Speaker 1 I think he'd be perfect. I would just look at like my two guys are Cade and Duran.

Speaker 1 And if I added just an awesome, awesome, awesome scorer shooter. and improved that side of it.

Speaker 1 Smaller scale move than like a slightly smaller scale than like, we are now doing the Desmond Bain trade with Laurie Marketing.

Speaker 1 We talked about this possibility yesterday, and I just don't know who the guy would be yet to like fit that. I feel like they could add her on the fringes.

Speaker 1 It's listen, we've talked about this the entire time I've known you. What are your responsibilities when you actually have the chance to make a finals? Should you, do you have to think differently?

Speaker 1 Even if your timeline, you think it's this, but now you have this, and it's like, hey, there's the finals. We might make the finals.
Do we just move this timeline over here?

Speaker 1 Well, also, there's the question of like,

Speaker 1 so if you think you can make the finals as is, is, coming out of this ravaged East. I think they could.

Speaker 1 Nothing is impossible, right, in the East. And this team is clearly a very good team.
Do you have to begin thinking of,

Speaker 1 should we think about winning the finals? And is that where the train stops for this current roster, given who's coming out of the West?

Speaker 1 I mean, like, do you have to, like, when you talk about your responsibility when there's a window? The window isn't just the East.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's cool to say if we make the finals, we have a Punchers' chance. We've seen some East teams make the finals and not have a Puncher's chance.

Speaker 1 This brings me to a new segment on the Bill Simmons podcast. It's brought to you by no sponsor yet.
It's called What Would Sam Presty Do? I think that would be a good segment. Okay.

Speaker 1 What would Sam Presty do if he was running Detroit right now?

Speaker 1 Probably nothing. He would do nothing.
Yeah. He might add around the fringes.
He would.

Speaker 1 I think his weird Sam Presty computer brain would see all the possibilities and be like, even if we made the finals, we'd get killed with Lori Marketen. So why would I go all in?

Speaker 1 I'm only going all in if I can make the finals. I'm only cashing in if it's my version of like Giddy for Caruso, where it's like, I'm now adding this and now we are ready to win the title.

Speaker 1 And I just don't think Marketen wins the title for them. Like you got to measure yourself against this OKC juggernaut that also might have the top five pick.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 I just wouldn't go all in. And I like the team, and I think the team likes each other.
But I think if you can steal Trey Murphy and not mortgage everything, I think you have to think about

Speaker 1 Trey Murphy. The price for

Speaker 1 Trey Murphy is going to be pretty high.

Speaker 1 Not Laurie marketing high, but high.

Speaker 1 Probably two to three firsts, right? Like good firsts. Yeah.
And I've got to put in somebody, like Ivy or Holland. That's why with the Celts, if it's just, if it's the Simons expiring

Speaker 1 and you can have 26 we'll give you the worst of our swap with San Antonio in 28 we'll give you an unprotected in 31

Speaker 1 we'll give you Hugo as much as I love him doesn't New Orleans have to at least have a meeting yeah for sure okay um

Speaker 1 so you picked Detroit fourth so you love watching this team right now I do I want in a month I'll have solved them and I'll have moved on who are you have wait are you slightly concerned that have there been any fights yet I feel like Isaiah Stewart and Ron Holland are dialing it back a little bit I'm so glad you brought that up because it was part of my case.

Speaker 1 It's like watching a hockey team where they might mix it up.

Speaker 1 There might be a third-line brawl in the third period in a 5-2 game.

Speaker 1 Ron Holland's itchy.

Speaker 1 Stewart's itchy. Like those guys are coming around with their chests out.
Those guys, both of them, can really guard. I mean, Ron Holland is a menace.

Speaker 1 Do you feel like Thompson went up a level two on that? He was my start in the playoffs. He was my pick for most improved player this year, despite the fact that his brother was Dodd's on favorite.

Speaker 1 Wouldn't you say that's a team that the other teams are like, ah, fuck, we're playing Detroit tonight?

Speaker 1 It's a great thing to be in the regular season, the off-fuck team, like, oh, God, they're on the schedule now. But we just played this other team.
So, who are the off-fuck team?

Speaker 1 That the off-fuck finals is Detroit versus Houston? Oh, I mean, no. I mean, I don't even know.
Houston is the ultimate. Like, anytime Stephen Adams is involved, you're just like, oh, my God, this is

Speaker 1 so much. By the way, Stephen Adams, only 25 years old.

Speaker 1 I just read this. Somehow.

Speaker 1 He just turned 25. 32.
All right, your team, your number five pick. All right.
I didn't do this to annoy you. I'm picking the Lakers.
I had them fourth on my list.

Speaker 1 I thought LeBron's debut went swimmingly, particularly on offense. And I'm just, I'm legitimately fascinated by

Speaker 1 JJ working the three of these guys together over an extended period of time. The star power is undeniable, and that now includes Austin Reeves.

Speaker 1 The supporting pieces are kind of interesting. Austin Reeves, who was 28 and 7 and 4, the first 12 games of the year.
I mean, I was afraid of where I was going to put him in my top 100.

Speaker 1 Like, Austin Reeves stats were better than any Paul Pierce season for the first 12 games. To put it in context.
Like, how are they going to guard? How are the lineups going to be?

Speaker 1 I think it's the whole thing is great theater. LeBron being back is great theater.

Speaker 1 I love it. I'm all in.

Speaker 1 I had the team as a contender, as a leader. I had them in the top half of my list.
As you know, it's always tough for me to look at the Laker uniforms.

Speaker 1 But I will say the LeBron, what he said, I thought was very very encouraging. I don't know if you saw that.

Speaker 1 It was basically effectively,

Speaker 1 I'm LeBron James. I can fit in any basketball team I want and I can be a useful basketball player and I'm not worried about

Speaker 1 how I'm going to fit in. It's like, that's good.
I'm glad he said it out loud. That's all we've been waiting to hear.
Yeah. Other than

Speaker 1 how about more of that and less of cryptic statements from agents and tweets and Instagram posts from Cleveland's practice facility. How about more of that?

Speaker 1 You weren't talking about the ringers, Rich Paul, were you?

Speaker 1 As you know, I love this. My guy.
As you know, I'm a fan. No, I listen.
I don't like the passive-aggressive Laker shit. And we talked about it.
I thought it was weird.

Speaker 1 And I don't know why LeBron has done this and continued to do this for the last eight years.

Speaker 1 I don't know what would be a better situation for a guy his age than to have two awesome offensive players,

Speaker 1 Rich Man's Nimas Keda and DeAndre Aton. Wow, Nimi getting an early show.
Nimi with more PR. Wow.
They're basically the same guy. Let's be honest.
Nimi's good. Nimi's good.
Nimi's good.

Speaker 1 And if you just switch them one day and they did like the Nicholas Cage John Travolta face-off, I don't think people would realize they'd switch faces for like two weeks.

Speaker 1 This is a nice team. And by the way, I think it's good if you're 40, 41 years old to have Luka Doncha just handle most of the day-to-day stuff.
Seems great.

Speaker 1 And this is like LeBron's one of the smartest parts of all time and he knows he can fit into wherever they need him. The question will be the end of the game will be a little weird.

Speaker 1 That's always been weird with the biggest guys ever.

Speaker 1 Even going back to like, you know, Magic when he came back in 96,

Speaker 1 that was weird. Like,

Speaker 1 should I take over here? What do I do? Larry Bird's last couple years. Same thing when Reggie Lewis was ascending.
Like,

Speaker 1 do you want me now? Like, what should I do?

Speaker 1 That's the part that'll be fun. But I'm with you.
I think it's a defensible pick.

Speaker 1 Honestly, I kind of feel like Austin Reeves would have the ball to just be like you guys defer to me like i got i got this like crunch time i'm him i'm good like austin reeves is ready for that you wouldn't think about trading austin reeves for what you don't think you're gonna think about trading him for who somebody awesome who just fits this kind of like are you if luca and austin reeves are your best two guys

Speaker 1 Can you actually compete for a real title? Can you win four straight rounds? If those are your top two guys? I don't think this team can in this conference. But two years from now, the team titled.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't. I mean, I think there's no reason why a team built around those two guys couldn't win.
I mean, we've seen Luca get to the finals with Kyrie. You know what the answer is?

Speaker 1 Don't trade Ostermutes. I'm just being a dick.
Okay. Well, that was me.
I'm just trying to plant seeds because I don't like Laker fans.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, the Laker fans should remember who took the over on the Over-Under podcast. Only one of the three of us did.
Is that true? Yeah. It's a long season.
It is a long season.

Speaker 1 Luca, what does he play? 60 games a year?

Speaker 1 LeBron's already been hurt. And they're, and yet, and yet they're they're 11 and 4, whatever they are.
11 and 4. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I picked them fourth. That's four.
I picked them fourth.

Speaker 1 Well, you fifth. So we went Denver, Houston.
You're right. Okay.
San Antonio, Detroit, Lakers. All right.
So you have the sixth pick.

Speaker 1 This is, you're just going to be upset. Why?

Speaker 1 Because you're going to think this is a ridiculous pick.

Speaker 1 You're not picking Boston. No.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm taking Charlotte. It's insane.

Speaker 1 Honestly, you probably need to take a week off. Like, just

Speaker 1 take a beat. I love watching Charlotte.
I had them 23rd. I love watching Charlotte.
I'm not going to be able to do it. Do you love watching Charlotte or do you love watching Con Knipple?

Speaker 1 Lamello came back? Yeah, and he sucked. He's 6 of 21 or something.
They're just fun. I just want to see all the pieces.
I'm enjoying it. I watch a lot of Charlotte.
Look, I get it.

Speaker 1 I've been tricked by Charlotte for the last three seasons straight, being like, hey, I like some of their players. I know all the names.

Speaker 1 This isn't a PowerPoll. It's a line.
Line pass ranking. The heart wants what the heart wants.
I enjoy watching Charlotte. They're 4-10, 4-11.
4-11. Bad, bad.
But they've been. They've been bad.

Speaker 1 They've been in these games. They're in the vicinity when you watch them.
They lose over 10 games though. The single-digit lost to the Pacers last night.
Well done, everybody. That wasn't great.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. I like watching Charlotte.

Speaker 1 Knippo's been the best rookie in the league. Yes, he has.

Speaker 1 I'm learning about him as a player. I like watching the rookies.
I like watching Edgecombe. I like watching Flag.

Speaker 1 Those people don't play for the Hornets, the Flag and Edgecombe. I just have enjoyed the Hornets.
In a month, I won't watch them anymore.

Speaker 1 But right now, I've been test driving them, and I had them slightly over another team that I think you're about to take. This is the crazy sixth.

Speaker 1 Sometimes I like bad basketball teams, Zach.

Speaker 1 But like them at 18. My favorite Clippers team ever was the 2011 before Chris Paul team to have season tickets for when they had heavy Baron Davis.
Yeah. Before they traded him.

Speaker 1 I really enjoyed watching that team. They were like 32 and 50.

Speaker 1 Had a great time. They also had

Speaker 1 oh, yeah. Okay.
That's fine. I have a great time with the Charlotte team.
I'm not going to apologize. I do like Eric Collins.
I do like Eric Collins. Well, he's a highlight for me.

Speaker 1 That's another league pass thing. When they had the Milwaukee game, Eric Collins had the broadcasting performance of the year.

Speaker 1 Khan, it was like miles bridges went for a dunk and it kind of got blind con hits it

Speaker 1 sounds like con yes

Speaker 1 went like fucking lost his mind

Speaker 1 it was great I love I love that dude well that's an easy pick for me not to make uh

Speaker 1 go ahead dude dude go chalk go ahead I'm just going chalk Warriors oh wow I had them lower I mean Steph Curry is amazing to watch like like watching Steph Curry well unfortunately he doesn't play all the time true You know who's always in the lineup?

Speaker 1 Con Knipo.

Speaker 1 Is he.

Speaker 1 Here's why I golden state lower.

Speaker 1 Frustrating.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but frustrating in a way that makes you think about what is the ceiling of this team. What are they going to look like in the playoffs? What riddles does Steve Curry have looked like?

Speaker 1 Charles Lee has no riddles to solve. Charles Lee's just like, I can get through another season of this shit.
The ceiling of this team is low. Yeah, I don't disagree.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know, by the way, do you want to work on a documentary about the two weeks when it seemed like Jonathan Kaminga had finally found a home in Golden State?

Speaker 1 I was thinking about stylizing it. Like, it's like, maybe it's 10 days and it's just day one, day two.
And then by day 11, it's like, uh,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 So it was a fun 10 days, though.

Speaker 1 We figured it out. But you know, he's Sean Marion.
You know, it's going to happen again. There's going to be a two-week stretch in January where, or December, probably December, because by January,

Speaker 1 I think January 15th. yeah January 16th he won't be on the team uh wow the Al Horford slipping it in there oh it's just my guess I don't have inside info uh

Speaker 1 possibly washed up Al Horford has been depressing

Speaker 1 Draymond

Speaker 1 doesn't look to shoot ever

Speaker 1 shooting threes

Speaker 1 what's a how many field goal attempts is he at uh I'm gonna I feel like he's just not interested in shooting well I mean none of them are interested in shooting around the basket other than Kaminga.

Speaker 1 Draymond's at his regular seven-a-game.

Speaker 1 I did enjoy the San Antonio game when he tried to fuck with Wemby. I thought was probably my favorite moment of the year.
Following that up with the fan thing in New Orleans.

Speaker 1 He's getting a little gamey. It's always something.
It's always something. He's starting to get a little gamey.

Speaker 1 Steve Kirk complaining about the schedule, one of my favorite NBA staples. In this case, he was kind of right.
It was kind of nuts how many cities they played in. So here's the thing:

Speaker 1 I was in Minnesota last week. Yeah.
They were whining about the schedule because they had Denver on a back-to-back and Denver was rested. And

Speaker 1 I believe they have that again in Minnesota at some point. And I'm like, look, guys,

Speaker 1 zoom out a little bit. Like, if your schedule sucks now, you're going to have all these little cookies in other parts of the world.
Like the Lakers with two Utah games in eight days.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're going to have little cookies at other parts of the schedule. It's all, it all evens out.

Speaker 1 The schedule is too long, Zach. Well, that's a different thing.
We all know that. Everybody knows that.

Speaker 1 Everyone knows that, including adam silver he doesn't care he's like wow we can have eight more peacock games let's get it to 80 and then two more amazon games 82 right there it should be 76

Speaker 1 should be the maximum and it really should be 72 or 70 and it would make the league better it would make everybody and everyone knows this it's not by the way no one disagrees there's no one how you know you're right is there's no one on the other side being like you know what we really need 96 games the season's too short there's no one making the other argument yeah that's a good point because the other thing is they're like well, it would never happen.

Speaker 1 It's too much money to give up. It's like, how much fucking money does everybody need? How much money does, like, the Celtics just sold for over $7 billion.

Speaker 1 Devin Booker is going to make $75 million a year. Like, what's like, what's an acceptable money level for everybody?

Speaker 1 It's all these owners, too, that are worried now, suddenly get cold feet about expansion because, well, we get the expansion fee, but then we have to divide this massive TV money up in two more slices, one 30-second.

Speaker 1 That won't affect you for 50 years.

Speaker 1 Man, which gigantic pot of money is more gigantic for me? Okay, Seattle, sorry, you got to wait because NBA fucking Paris is coming up next.

Speaker 1 I said this on my mailbag pod. There's some Vegas momentum again.

Speaker 1 Great.

Speaker 1 And I don't know whether they want to get an expansion team in there because they're worried about New Orleans in 2029 just jumping there

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 maybe New Orleans goes there, but something's going on with Vegas that people are a little abuzz with the Vegas. Okay.
All right.

Speaker 1 Could you do a 31-team league? Is that too weird?

Speaker 1 Sure, you could do it. It's doable.

Speaker 1 Have the imbalance conference.

Speaker 1 I mean, they change the lottery odds once every eight years, 10 years. Does it change these rules, make them more complicated? We're behind schedule.
Okay, let's go zoom.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take Chicago 8th.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry. I like watching basketball, Zach.
Yeah, we all like watching basketball.

Speaker 1 And I like watching basketball that that is different than the basketball that I watched a year before, which in the last 25 games of last year, the Bulls all of a sudden became really fun to watch for whatever reason.

Speaker 1 They are fun to watch. The Bulls are fun.
They play super hard, super fast. I like watching the Bulls.
Here's the Bulls. They're a boxer that has great fights with everybody else.

Speaker 1 Right? They're like Evander Holyfield. is a great example of this.
Like Evander Holyfield wasn't one of the best heavyweights of all time, but had like 10 awesome fights.

Speaker 1 And if you just like took 10 Holyfield fights on a desert island, even going back to when he was a cruiser raid, you'd have a great time watching his fights.

Speaker 1 Chicago, game after game, just a great time. Great hang.
It's the games are like the game last night.

Speaker 1 It'll be like 123 to 121, and somebody will have the ball with 30 seconds left with a chance to go ahead or tie.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yesterday it was a Vuch game winner. Huge mistake by Tumati Kamara.
Love Tumati Kamara. Got to play no threes D.
No threes D. Good chemistry.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 A lot of guys that I've I've liked individually, that I'm happy they're in a good basketball situation. And

Speaker 1 what their over-under was like 32. They're going to be shooting over that.
I think they're in the 40s. Anyway,

Speaker 1 should they trade for Anthony Davis?

Speaker 1 So he's from there,

Speaker 1 and that can go one of two ways with these guys. Either they're excited to go home or they want no part of going home.

Speaker 1 I would assume he's more on the side of I'd rather not go home. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I just'm interested to see what they do because now they've they, you know, they're six and one, six and six. Now they've won a couple in rows and are back to being orphaned.

Speaker 1 As long as they're around here,

Speaker 1 I think inertia wins out. Let's just play our cards and free ages.

Speaker 1 Is that your expert opinion? Because that's been the last 15 years persona. Well, you would think if they're better than expected, maybe that changes the equation one way or another.

Speaker 1 But if they're just, who knows? Anyway,

Speaker 1 do I get to pick? What's their ceiling? They're not passing Detroit, Detroit near Cleveland. Is the four spot like in play for them?

Speaker 1 Because right now, Toronto is 10 and 5.

Speaker 1 And they're the two seed. I mean, I just feel like the four spot's in play for everybody.
The four spot's in play for everybody except your beloved Charlotte Hornets and below. But

Speaker 1 I think Miami, Cleveland, Knicks,

Speaker 1 Atlanta, I think Philadelphia, depending on Embiid, obviously. Toronto's in there.
Yeah, I think all those teams have slightly higher ceilings ceilings than the Bulls, maybe.

Speaker 1 Is there,

Speaker 1 did you, I didn't hear your pod yesterday. Did you talk Anthony Davis with the Pistons? Yeah, I hate it.
I wouldn't do it.

Speaker 1 I don't, I hate is strong. It's just not.

Speaker 1 I mean, we're sitting here talking how all in should they go?

Speaker 1 Who should they give up to stuff? I just don't.

Speaker 1 They have the number two defense in the NBA, and they desperately need shooting. I just don't think they need him, and he's not the guy that I would give up stuff for.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go further. I think what's happened with.
I don't even get why people are bringing it up. I think what's happened with Paul George and Joel Embiid would scare the living shit out of me.

Speaker 1 They're trading for anyone with miles on them. Who's injury prompted and heading about this year? I'm just talking about even though I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 It's the same like if I'm Detroit, it's not even a sure thing. I don't, I don't.
You're not trading for a 26-year-old Anthony Davis. You're trading for a 32-year-old.

Speaker 1 I've had a lot of injuries, Anthony Davis. And I have to wear goggles for the rest of my life when I play basketball because I got like poked badly in the eye.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 There's the miles have added up for him.

Speaker 1 So you're not, you're a no.

Speaker 1 I just like I said

Speaker 1 on my Nico fired pod last week, I went through like 15 fake Anthony Davis trades.

Speaker 1 And I brought, I said, the two teams that are getting brought up that I just don't see the fit with, or that I don't really get why they're brought up, except they have a lot of assets, are Detroit and Houston.

Speaker 1 I just don't like. Houston, I just don't think it addresses anything that either team needs.
Eme is blocking that one. All right.
My pick? Yeah. Knicks.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Just a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure.
Had them lower. Fun to watch.
Good broadcast. Have some injuries now.
Brunson came back last night. Ananobi's still out.
Love watching Josh Hart.

Speaker 1 And just the ongoing

Speaker 1 Tibbs-fired pressure. How can you maximize Carl Towns, the dance of how often he plays center, how often he plays with Mitchell Robinson? I love watching Mitchell Robinson.

Speaker 1 I love the whole Mitchell Robinson experience. I like the free throws.
I like the offensive rebounds.

Speaker 1 A lot of pressure on the Knicks, and that makes for good theater for me.

Speaker 1 That was the sound. I feel like we'll be talking about them a lot over the years.
That was the ninth pick. Ninth? Okay, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I don't know what they're missing for me. Maybe there's a familiarity because we had them last year, but they haven't really caught my fancy this year, unlike this next team.
Okay.

Speaker 1 The Hawks of Atlanta. There you go.
I had them pretty high.

Speaker 1 I actually should have, if you had just given me the no Trey Young Hawks of Atlanta, I probably would have put them in the top six.

Speaker 1 I really like when he, no, no, no shots at Trey Young here, but I'm just saying I like the identity of the no Trey Young Hawks is really fun to watch, I think.

Speaker 1 I like all the long guys and the defense and some of their role players are fun.

Speaker 1 The poor Zingas, just whenever he plays, just throwing him on this team. It's like watching somebody just pop onto a movie that you're watching, like, hey, that guy.

Speaker 1 And Jalen Johnson. Oh, so good.

Speaker 1 I can't wait to talk about Ring 100. That was another one.

Speaker 1 I'm feeling very good unless Porzingis misses so many goddamn games that it disqualifies a Kongu. I'm feeling really good about my Kongu six-man of the year pick from preseason.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a good one. I love that pick.
Well, you talked about Detroit. Is there pressure on them? to do something.
To me, Atlanta is the team that actually should do something. They have

Speaker 1 real assets. They got to figure out this Trae Young thing.
They have this giant trade exception where they could take money for a year and really do an interesting trade.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 they have that New Orleans pick if they wanted to get like,

Speaker 1 if they wanted to dance in the fire. You can't trade that if you're the Hawks.
You can't, but. Could be the number one pick in the draft.
You can't trade it, but

Speaker 1 it puts them to the front of the line of trade conversations of the best guys that are going to be available. Well, then that's just a who.

Speaker 1 Then that's because the New Orleans Pelicans are are 2 and 13 and trending toward a season. Now, there's a world in which Zion stays healthy

Speaker 1 and they trend toward like a regular 32-win season. They don't have their picks, so they're going to try the whole time.

Speaker 1 Which we've seen. So they'll be not five.
You would see two and 13 and be like, wow, they're right there with Brooklyn and Indiana. You're going to be guaranteed a top-five pick.

Speaker 1 Like at worst, there's a world in which that doesn't end up being the case. But that I don't think right now,

Speaker 1 I don't think you can trade that pick if you're the Hawks. You're not good enough to trade that pick.
Just put the top three on it. Just don't.

Speaker 1 Why didn't they call us? Okay. I've met Joe Dumars.
Just call it. Just give it.
Just call three people who have no stakes in it. Just be like, hey, what do you think about Unprotected here?

Speaker 1 Can you imagine if that leaked out? Like they called

Speaker 1 Bill Simmons stopped.

Speaker 1 You'd be the most hated man in Atlanta. They would never give you a credit.
They would never even sell you a ticket ever again.

Speaker 1 This is an awesome draft, but I don't know if what we've seen from Boozer. And I want to see Boozer more, but I do have some questions about him as like this is a guaranteed three franchise guys.

Speaker 1 I want to see Boozer more, but I'm not sure I'm there with him yet with that. So, what do you do with Trey then? Because I have the Hawks very high.
You know what you do? I like what.

Speaker 1 Can I play act this? Sure.

Speaker 1 Vivek, it's Bill Simmons, owner of the Atlanta Hawks.

Speaker 1 What are you up to? Hey, had an idea. What do you want? What do you want from the Kings? You got to take whatever.

Speaker 1 Whatever. They'll make a dumb trade.
That's got to be your first call if you want to trade anyone in your team. Do you want Levine? No, because he's under contract next year.

Speaker 1 DeMar DeRosen plus salary. And do they even have expirings? DeRosan is a semi-expiring.
Levine has a player out there. The Kings somehow built this terrible team.

Speaker 1 There was no trade flexibility. Let's not talk about the Kings.
We've done too much. So after Vivek,

Speaker 1 my next call would be the L.A. Clippers.

Speaker 1 I can't wait to see see how they react to a season that isn't going well. John Collins, Bog Donovish.
Bring John Collins home, baby. Give us an unprotected 2032 first.
And first, former Hawks, Galora.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Just give us a 2032 first.
You can have Trey Young, and you don't have your pick this year, and maybe he'll save it. It should be illegal to have Trey Young and James Harden on the same team.

Speaker 1 You can't do it. Well, then you would trade James Harden, I think.
That would be your next move. You wouldn't trade James Harden and Trey Young for each other in the same deal, correct? I just,

Speaker 1 I can't, I don't even, I'd have, I need about four hours to digest that one. Okay.
Uh, you enjoy Atlanta, though. Their bench guys are fun.
Yeah, I just Veet Cre Cheese on a heater right now.

Speaker 1 Um, I enjoy the Hawks. Yeah, and I did a mailbag the other day and I said Gaia instead of Gay.
Yeah. Do you know why I had his name wrong? Because I haven't watched the Hawks this year.

Speaker 1 They've always been on one of the other TVs and not the main TV. And I've never heard the announcers.
So I thought it was Gaia.

Speaker 1 It's Mogay. I know it's Mogay.
They love Mogay.

Speaker 1 I am interested in the, I want Trey to come back soon because I want to see, okay, you watched this, Trey Young. You saw the team play pretty well without you and pass more and move more.

Speaker 1 I mean, where did they go? Eight and two so far? Yeah, the ceiling, but the ceiling of the non-Trey Young Hawks, realistically, is like here, like pretty good team.

Speaker 1 The ceiling of the Trey Young doesn't adapt his game hawks, but reintegrates with this team, probably like here.

Speaker 1 The ceiling where everything clicks and you get a Trey Young who's committed to a a different style of play is here. And that's interesting to me.
So I had them pretty high on my list, too.

Speaker 1 Can I make a Trae Young point really fast before we go to the next one? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you know what Trey Young was shooting on three-pointers this year? Before he got hurt? I'm going to guess 26%.

Speaker 1 192. Okay.

Speaker 1 It's low. He's taking five a game.
Only five games. Yeah.
I'm not going to. I don't.
Can I, can I not? He didn't have a great shooting year last year. Year before 34.
Yeah. Year before 37.

Speaker 1 Year before 33.5.

Speaker 1 It's one of those things where you think he's this awesome three-point shooter and he's just not. And we now have a lot of evidence because he's about to hit his 30s.
So I think that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 What's his career shooting percentage? His career is 35, and his best year ever was 38 in 2022.

Speaker 1 This is part of the reason why I like the mystery of what does it look like if he plays his game a little bit more differently. And some of the 32-foot pull-ups

Speaker 1 are traded for not all, not he's always going to take all pull-up threes, but like two of those a game become two spot-up threes or two passes or two, whatever is a game.

Speaker 1 Okay, who do you got next? For the sheer pleasure of watching Anthony Edwards destroy people when he's in the mood to do it, I'm going to take the Minnesota Temporals.

Speaker 1 And also to watch Rudy Golbert call for the ball a lot and not get it. It's a good time.
You know, it's, you know, what we're learning with our league pass rankings?

Speaker 1 I'm more interested in the teams that are either different than the year than they were the year before or

Speaker 1 are just super weird.

Speaker 1 But you, you, like, to me, I don't even really need to watch Minnesota that much because I know what they are. I know what I'm getting.

Speaker 1 And I want to like use my time to watch the weirdo teams like Charlotte. And then by January, I'm going to be moving back toward the Minnesota.
That's fair.

Speaker 1 That's a good, interesting approach to the season. I also saw Minnesota in person.
And I just like when teams don't have a point guard that can do anything, it just physically hurts me.

Speaker 1 Well, isn't that kind of interesting? Like, Anthony Edwards is now kind of, is not kind of, is the official point guard of the Minnesota table. He's not a point guard.
So

Speaker 1 he dribbles the ball up after was made basket or a rebound that doesn't mean you're a point guard you're a zero guard and so

Speaker 1 I watch them with the eye of it what what's the answer to this question do they need to do something what can they possibly do i think they're stuck with what they already did because they thought rob dillingham would become something and they don't play him they've played him a little bit now he's getting his chance now

Speaker 1 Gonna have to. Let's take a break and then we, my next pick is

Speaker 1 worth a discussion. All right, special part of today's episode.
It's brought to you by McGlobaltraz, the official beer partner of the NBA.

Speaker 1 They know the best moments on or off the court are served cold. So we're going to crack open a little six-pack.

Speaker 1 And we're supposed to be at about the biggest moments happening right now in the NBA, but we just did a whole podcast about that.

Speaker 1 We will have our coldest play of the day, which is going to be: I'm going to talk about six guys we just had to hand in our ringer 100 rankings.

Speaker 1 Six guys that shocked me. I'm going to bounce these off you.
Okay. That I had on my list.

Speaker 1 First,

Speaker 1 I had A.J. Mitchell in my top 100.
I had him 82.

Speaker 1 Was he on your list? 89.

Speaker 1 What were the, if we had done the over-unders with house and I had said to you, by the way, in six weeks, A.J. Mitchell is going to be in my top 85 for Ring 100.
What would the odds have been?

Speaker 1 Like 50 to 1?

Speaker 1 Probably longer than that. I'm not even positive I knew what A.J.
Mitchell looked like. He got in the finals, game one, I think, for a hot second, and it was like a complete disaster.

Speaker 1 And that was the end of the A.J. Mitchell finals experience.
Look, again, like 80, like 75 to 150. Yeah.
It's just I had the beholder, prisoner of the moment, whatever.

Speaker 1 But those guys on Oklahoma, you don't get on the floor for the Thunder unless you are a winning basketball player. And he's been very good.

Speaker 1 Number two.

Speaker 1 Con Canipo had 66 with VJ Edgecombe 67.

Speaker 1 And I wanted, I always mail my list to House because House will tell me to, and one other friend we have, House will always tell me that's ridiculous. You can't do that.

Speaker 1 Like, he'll, he's like my shit detector. Initially, I had Knipple and Edgecombe in my top 50, and he's like, that's ridiculous.
There's they're rookies. You can't do that.
So I put Knipple 66.

Speaker 1 Where did you have him?

Speaker 1 Higher?

Speaker 1 Where was he? 62. Oh, fucking house.

Speaker 1 He's really good. And actually.
And he's been consistently really good. So I handed him this, I think, Monday, and he's had two really good games since.
I think he's moving higher.

Speaker 1 He's just like our kind of player, like does everything, rebounds, moves the ball correctly, open shooter, tries on defense. Okay.
My third guy,

Speaker 1 I'm going to go all the way up to number 26. Okay.
Which is where I had Jalen Duran.

Speaker 1 Where did you have him? That's that's pretty high. And I say that as a massive Jalen Duran

Speaker 1 fan.

Speaker 1 I don't know where I had Jalen Duran. So it was too.
So you had him probably in the 30s? Lower than that. I don't want to say where I had Jalen Duran because it's too low.

Speaker 1 I'm a big, like, you got to prove it to me for a little longer guy, but he's top 50.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 He's top 50. 26.
So that means you have him over like bam out of bio. I had him bam out of bio 27.

Speaker 1 You have him over, like, I'm giving the track record.

Speaker 1 I had Aaron Gordon at 30. I have Aaron Gordon at 37.
I'm giving the track record of guys like Jaron Jackson Jr. and DeMontas Sabonis

Speaker 1 a little more leeway. The Jaron Jackson Jr.
track record of five rebounds a game and just

Speaker 1 he's made all-star teams.

Speaker 1 At some point, you got to blame him a little bit for him making max money and his team not winning really now for the entire 2024. Jalen During gets a lot of love in the rest of this podcast.

Speaker 1 You're going to hear it all. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Next guy. Fourth guy I wanted wanted to mention.

Speaker 1 I had Denny Avdi at number 22.

Speaker 1 That's high. Yeah.
That's high. I figured you would react that way.
But again, I'm more conservative. So I had people, I kept like

Speaker 1 proven veterans who have not played very much this year over Denny Abdi. He did it last year.
He's very good. He's even gone up a higher level.
I had him in the 30s, to be clear. I had him in the 30s.

Speaker 1 Just think he's can be, he's proven to me that he can be the best player on a good team if you had a good team around him. I think he could be.
He's very good.

Speaker 1 I actually,

Speaker 1 while doing these rankings right now, I actually had just in my head

Speaker 1 because of where they are in the rankings, in my rankings, they're near each other. I was like, what would happen if Atlanta called Portland? It was like Trey Young for Denny Avias straight up.

Speaker 1 Portland hangs up.

Speaker 1 Which is like a kind of a crazy thing to think about, right? I think Portland's like, let's talk about that New Orleans pick.

Speaker 1 What's happening there?

Speaker 1 Fifth guy I wanted to bring up. I had Shengun 14.

Speaker 1 I don't mind it. I had him 19.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I had him one behind Evan Mobley

Speaker 1 and I had him one ahead of his teammate Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 And I also had Ahmed Thompson 19, which means I had three Rockets in the top 20, which makes sense because I think they're the third best team in the league.

Speaker 1 That's bullish on those guys, but I think that's, I had actually Durant higher than you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You value the years of experience/slash results when you do that. Yeah, I don't know how to do the top 100.

Speaker 1 I'm new to the top 100, so I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it.

Speaker 1 I try not to agonize too much over it because it could take up a whole week of your time, and I don't have that kind of time.

Speaker 1 Shen Gun is one of my biggest risers from the end of last season to this season. He was high last season, but he's sniffing the top 10 conversation.

Speaker 1 I had him in the low 40s after the season last year.

Speaker 1 So he's jumped the highest for me. By the way, defensively, you hear no noise anymore about, like, I don't know, he's like another vooch.
You can't build a good defense around him.

Speaker 1 He's like a pretty rugged, nimble.

Speaker 1 He's at least figured out the verticality part. He knows where to go.
He tries.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he knows where to go and he tries. I do not think he's a minus defensive porter.

Speaker 1 I don't either. Last guy I want to mention: number nine on my list, right after Stephen Curry.
You might have heard of him. I have.

Speaker 1 Cade Cunningham. I had him ninth.
I had Cade 12th.

Speaker 1 So I had him ninth. Brunson 10th.
Booker 11th.

Speaker 1 I have Brunson 8th. Yep.
Cunningham 12th.

Speaker 1 Booker 15th.

Speaker 1 Which, again, I don't, I'm not.

Speaker 1 Like, what did you do with Jalen Williams? Hasn't played yet this year.

Speaker 1 I had him 13th. I didn't know where to put him.

Speaker 1 I had Moby 13th.

Speaker 1 Still waiting for that last Moby League. Too low on Booker.
15 might be too low on Booker. Or do you have Maxi?

Speaker 1 20th. I went head over heels on Maxi.
I just, I went prisoner of the moment.

Speaker 1 If you can play 40 minutes a game and run an offense and take every big shot down the stretch and just do it again a day later, I'm in.

Speaker 1 So that's what I had. Okay.

Speaker 1 You good with that? Austin Reeves, top 20?

Speaker 1 No, but he was.

Speaker 1 Oh my God. I don't think that's.
I'm not asking funnel. I had him 32.
oh i went 21.

Speaker 1 21 you just said if you can average 30 a game he's averaging 28 points a game i thought from

Speaker 1 like 18 to 33 a lot of fluid i was shocked by how deep and awesome the guys were well you also have things like what do you what do i even do with kawai leonard anymore who when he plays is like i put him in the sixes did you put joel and beat on your list or not yeah he made my list uh he i with those guys i just put them toward the end because it's like i don't know you're awesome but I don't know what to do with you.

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Speaker 2 Well done.

Speaker 1 My next pick, a team that I didn't think was going to be good.

Speaker 1 I've been surprised.

Speaker 1 They have a really, really good bench, which I didn't really see coming either. The Toronto Raptors.
Hey, there you go.

Speaker 1 I like Sheed in college. And I remember he fell to like the mid-40s.
And he's just the classic. Like, why don't guys just, why don't teams teams just take guys like this every year?

Speaker 1 He's going to be a fucking annoying pest on defense. This is like, look at Chris Dunn on the Clippers, who's Chris Dunn's going to be in forever.

Speaker 1 Just look for guys who are going to be like Chris Dunn. That'll be like your ninth or 10th player in your team.
You're going to, he's going to have an impact.

Speaker 1 Anyway, he's on there, Mamu, who I know you love. Love Mamu.

Speaker 1 Just in general, like they go 9, 10 deep. They haven't had an injury yet.
And Scotty Barnes, even though his stats are basically identical, except the field goal and threes are are up a little,

Speaker 1 I just, I think he's gone up a level. And just from I test,

Speaker 1 right? Is that like the stats say not really? You are reciting what I said on my podcast that you didn't listen to yesterday or two days ago, whatever it was.

Speaker 1 Like you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, same guy up. Like I watch him play.

Speaker 1 I just see a much more sophisticated and engaged basketball player. I love the way he's played.
That's a good way. Sophisticated and engaged is game.
Unselfish. There's a physicality with him.

Speaker 1 Right decisions, guarding the hell out of everybody on defense, flying around. I love the way he's played.
He was one of my least favorite expensive players to watch, and now he's off that list.

Speaker 1 I did not think. I remember Perk said

Speaker 1 top six. Yeah, and I was like, that's ridiculous.
They're probably going to be top six. I might have lost that one.
It might be 0-1 against Perk. It's long season.
Long season. Long season.

Speaker 1 The bench helps them, though, because even if one of those guys gets injured. And I'll say another thing.

Speaker 1 brandon ingram who is available for a year can go get a basket yeah i think we kind of forgot that it's like i don't know if i'd be that be that fun to play with he can't really guard anybody he's got size doesn't really rebound but he can go get a basket they're making it work right now yeah i'm i'm dubious long term but with how weird the east is maybe and you look at the schedule This is one of the things.

Speaker 1 I remember this happened with Sacramento a couple years ago. You know, they've played Cleveland three times here in the first six weeks with no Garland in any of the games, right?

Speaker 1 And they've already beat Cleveland twice. They got to play, I think, in this whole stretch, Indiana twice, Brooklyn twice.
Everything's kind of moved their way.

Speaker 1 There was one game they played Cleveland, there was no Mitchell in the Cleveland game. I think it's like the only game he hasn't played.
So I think they can add up some wins before.

Speaker 1 I looked at their schedule in mid-January, and all of a sudden it's like the all-time gauntlet where they're just playing every hard team.

Speaker 1 I'm glad to be there over the holidays, and I have a great slate of Toronto games for the holidays. Oh, yeah.
Orlando, Golden State, Denver

Speaker 1 in Toronto over Christmas and Years. So could they be

Speaker 1 could they get to like 20 and 10 before the schedule gets hard? I think they could. Yeah.
I mean, they're good. They have it working right now.
And I'll just say, just deep cut.

Speaker 1 I've enjoyed the last week of the Jacoby Walter experience. I have my eye on it.
I like what I was seeing. You know, he and Grady Dick, it always seems to be like one or another one or the other.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 Grady Dick, like crazy high net rating.

Speaker 1 The whole bench. Mamu was last time I checked was like plus 18 per 100%.

Speaker 1 That was a nice trade. Yeah, Toronto.
So far, I mean, they're 10 and 5. A couple of those games are down the wire.
Schedule's been easy, but they're definitely a little better than I thought.

Speaker 1 Who do you have for your next one? I mean, you're just making this too easy for me, and I'm being too boring.

Speaker 1 At some point, someone has to take the defending NBA champions who have the number one defense by such a margin that it is absolutely laughable. And just

Speaker 1 for the sake of A, the chet leap is kind of happening. B,

Speaker 1 it's just so fun to watch them get to a gear on defense where you can see the other team be like,

Speaker 1 we just got to go to the next game. Like, we can't even do anything.
And they're just

Speaker 1 taking the ball, run, take the ball, run, block shot, run. It's just, if you like defense,

Speaker 1 it's just absolutely riveting TV. To bring another boxing analogy that you probably won't get.
Sometimes there are these boxers. It's actually happening in UFC too.
It happened with Islam last week.

Speaker 1 These boxers that are just awesome. And it's like you can either, Islam and UFC like just, just kills everybody.
He's like a takedown guy.

Speaker 1 And these guys always think they can like go stand up and that Islam's going to fight them. And then Islam just tackles them and they're on the ground for five minutes, just like getting worked.

Speaker 1 And then the round ends and the next round happens, the same thing.

Speaker 1 I personally don't love watching Islam. I would much rather watch stand-up punching guys.

Speaker 1 But some people are like, this is the greatest fucking thing I've ever seen. And I think OKC is kind of like that.

Speaker 1 But I think if you like watching an awesome, awesome, awesome defensive basketball team with a transcendent guard just day-to-day, just fucking kill teams, this is your team. Well,

Speaker 1 the transcendent guard's a big part of it because they also have star power in the traditional sense of like highlights, jaw-dropping plays, and J-Dubb will add to that when he comes back.

Speaker 1 I just, their defenses.

Speaker 1 They're a nightmare. They are.
And that's the A.J. Mitchell thing out of nowhere.
That was, I mean, that was the big wrinkle. I like what he's like.
I just played. Like Kayen Wallace is fun to watch.

Speaker 1 Aaron Wiggins comes in and puts it in. No, you're right.
This is the right time to take. There are 103 points allowed per 100 possessions on defense, and number two is 109.6.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's just absolutely crazy. Yeah, I was thinking like in the mid-90s, that would have been like 79

Speaker 1 compared to everyone else. All right, I'm going to take Philly just because of Maxie and Edgecombe.

Speaker 1 I also enjoy Quentin Grimes. I can't decide if it's a constant trade showcase for them or not.

Speaker 1 It's obviously way more fun when Embiid doesn't play for them because it's a bummer to watch Embiid.

Speaker 1 Crowd likes the team. I think the Philly home games have been really fun.
Crowds into it. They're like, we like these guys.
The minutes with them are hilarious.

Speaker 1 You see, Maxie's over 40 minutes a game.

Speaker 1 Edgecomb's at 37 as a rookie. He's 20 years old.
I don't know if that's sustainable. I think this team, I think there's a world where this team tails off.
I I think they have their pick, right?

Speaker 1 I believe so.

Speaker 1 There's a world where this team throws their hats top to the. I think it's top.
No, they don't have their pick. I think they owe it to somebody.
Do they? I think it's. I mean, not to be.
I think it's.

Speaker 1 It is OKC. No, come on.
Don't do that to us. I'm looking at my draft capital.

Speaker 1 Do you have a draft capital doc? No. I just go to Real GM.
Philly. Yeah, Oklahoma City, top four protected.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So last year was top six, remember? And that was the drama. This year it's top four.
So it's much more like, it's certainly going to Oklahoma City this year. So OKC.

Speaker 1 I think I knew this. And I think I took pills together.
Nobody knows.

Speaker 1 Yeah, nobody wants to think about it. The Clippers, Sixers.
There's even like a weird jazz scenario where if the jazz are better than expected, Oklahoma City can end up with another lottery pick.

Speaker 1 It honestly might be frame them for some sort of illegal NBA thing where they'd have to have picks suspended time. You can't joke about that right now.
Can't another team do that? What?

Speaker 1 Can't they just like use AI to fake some Sam Presty calls?

Speaker 1 Just take the team down. What else is left? How do we stop this team? How many fan bases do you want to piss off? And you want to sabotage the Hawks Pelican trade?

Speaker 1 You want to go back in time and sabotage the Hawks Pelican trade? And now you want to frame. This is a credit to Sam Presty and OKC.

Speaker 1 Like the only way to stop them is to frame them for some sort of NBA crime.

Speaker 1 If you're going to quantum leap this, you have to go back. Wait, quantum leap was back in time ahead of time.
I don't know what Scott Bakula did in quantum leap. I can't remember.

Speaker 1 That's Scott Bakula, right? He would either go back or forward. You got to go help people too.
You got to go back and like tell the Nets, don't do this Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett trade. Don't do it.

Speaker 1 You got to go back and tell them to do it.

Speaker 1 I know you would, but you got to pick a couple people to help.

Speaker 1 The bomber one definitely like, don't put the 25 in there.

Speaker 1 Kawhi, just don't put that one in. Keep that one for yourself.
And I'm going wacky now.

Speaker 1 Do you have more to say? I've said Philly. No, you're up.

Speaker 1 No, I just said Max and Edgecombe are worth the press position. I shouldn't think of Philly like as a team.

Speaker 1 I think the identity of that team, which is yet to find its full fruition yet, will be a delight when they end up with

Speaker 1 the three guards and people who run and nicknurse. That's going to be a fun something.
It'll be the post-embeat error, which is probably.

Speaker 1 So you're still just like, this is a placeholder. This team can't do anything real.

Speaker 1 No, because nobody would ever take Embiid or George.

Speaker 1 Ever.

Speaker 1 I'm saying Embiid and George remain on the team. There is no like oh, you mean like there's oh my god, Embiid's looking great.
I think it's done. Did you, did you see him use the one leg?

Speaker 1 Like he was playing on one leg. Yeah, I know.
He was like dragging the other leg.

Speaker 1 Like Duncan did this for the last, what, five years of his career where it seemed like one of his legs just didn't really work anymore. And he made it work.
It's a little different for Embiid.

Speaker 1 deep what do you have next i'm going a little bit off the board now yeah miami i had them as my next one well i sold them they're fun to watch super fast fun

Speaker 1 hockey's resurgence simone fontecchio just shooting a million threes per 36 andrew wiggins a little happier looks great bam's back where's where is averaging like 18 rebounds a game over the last week uh tyler hero's coming back that's an interesting plot twist rogier oh sorry wow and norm Powell, maybe he makes his all-star team this year.

Speaker 1 I don't know. So

Speaker 1 talk about going back in time and stopping something. Yeah, I know.
John Collins and Bradley Beal for Norm Powell. Basically, it didn't work out.
Ah.

Speaker 1 As you know, I don't like Miami or their fans.

Speaker 1 This team is very fun to watch. Very fun to watch.
They brought back the Miami Vice jerseys. Yeah.
Huge.

Speaker 1 I'm really glad that Hawke has good at basketball again because I really enjoyed him as a rookie. Pella Larson.
Paula Larson's interesting.

Speaker 1 And as you know, I mean, we always joke about islands, what warranted an island. Davy on Mitchell Island.

Speaker 1 I mean, I basically had to fold it.

Speaker 1 It was done. It was really, there were no people living there anymore, but he's back.
And always, always frisky on the trade market when they have stuff to trade. I have Utah as my next pick.

Speaker 1 No, they were going to be my next pick. So we're now going off the board.
Utah is. I don't know if you noticed, but I took Charlotte like seventh.
So I've been going off the board this whole time.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Listen, it's the first six weeks of the season.
I'm just the heart wants what the heart wants. Utah marketing is playing great.
Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 The Kessler thing, which was a bummer, it is a bummer. Weirdly made them more interesting because now just lineups and I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 1 What do you think Marketing is averaging points per game? He's 30. 30.6.
Yeah. It's like, oh my God.
Night after night, 30 a game.

Speaker 1 Keontae George isn't my cup of tea, but he's been really good. Yep.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you're winning three straight playoff rounds with the best version of him seven years from now, but he's definitely better. I mean, that's definitely an asset for them.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 What player from the past would you compare him to from a ceiling standpoint?

Speaker 1 That's a.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 what are the best version of his stats someday? Like 24 and 8? Yeah, 20. Yeah, something like that.
Is the team winning?

Speaker 1 I don't see why not.

Speaker 1 He's a completely different guy this year in terms of his approach to the 2008. It's a huge win for them.

Speaker 1 Look, Ace Bailey's playing. Ace Bailey started the other day.
Kevin Love's involved. Slow-mo's back involved.
Kevin Love.

Speaker 1 And either they score 140 points or the other team scores 140 points or both. They put a 150-plus burger on somebody last week.
Yeah, it was an overtime game.

Speaker 1 Okay, Utah. Do you take them or I take them? You took them.

Speaker 1 See, it's about to get dark. Yeah, and we should speed around this.
Before it gets dark.

Speaker 1 All right, let's speed through it i'll take cleveland boring but good yeah it's just early on with no garland it's hasn't been that fun but they're you know

Speaker 1 they're fun donovan mitchell donovan mitchell heaters are really fun what a what an incredible shot maker that dude is the guy just makes three both threes and shots at the rim the degree of difficulty And he makes it look easy.

Speaker 1 Like some of these pull-up threes in traffic that he's hitting are like, it's a crazy shot for a 6-3, whatever he is guard to hit.

Speaker 1 They're going to get all their guys back and win like 15 straight in like January. It'll be one of those where it's like, oh, Cleveland,

Speaker 1 they've won 12 straight. They have, you know, and then that'll just happen.
I have Dallas next, more from a train wreck standpoint, but just for flag scouting.

Speaker 1 I don't really like anything else that's going on with this team. D-Lo, it looks like the train has finally reached the last station.
He had a big game last night. Oh, did he? I didn't even say it.

Speaker 1 He did. And yet another

Speaker 1 loss they lost at the Buzzer to the. I thought that was the worst call of the year.
Which one? The foul?

Speaker 1 The offensive foul of the game. The whole time Brandon Williams.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 First of all, they call that one out of every five times, but to call that on that moment when he's about to score a game time basket, like ridiculous. Hey, look,

Speaker 1 you win the lottery from the 10th spot. Yeah, you're not allowed to.
You can take a couple bad calls.

Speaker 1 That's a high pick for Dallas. They are a rough

Speaker 1 flag scouting only. No other reason.
Just checking in with him, seeing what's going on,

Speaker 1 being relieved. They weren't playing him at point guard anymore.
Thank God.

Speaker 1 Thank you for not playing him out of position and ruining his confidence. Who do you have next?

Speaker 1 Giannis is hurt, but he's still Giannis. I'll take the Bucks and Giannis and the Kuzmo revival, baby.
Yeah, until he goes like 0 for 6 one day out of nowhere. He's back.
And Ryan Rollins is

Speaker 1 the real thing. Did you have him in your ringer, Hunter?

Speaker 1 I don't think so. Because I did.
I'd like to see it a little more time. I had him in there.

Speaker 1 Portland's my next one they're the see of all the teams that's left

Speaker 1 portland is the correct pick back to my boxing analogy they're in fun games over and over again they seem to be in these games that come down to the last five minutes i've watched i'm not saying i'm watching entire portland games but i've watched a lot of the fourth quarters and ots that they've been in um

Speaker 1 the scoot thing is lingering is lingering well it's an injury that they always say four weeks and then it's like 12. i just would like to see Scoot.
I know.

Speaker 1 They're fun. Portland is super fun to watch.
They're starting to get the injury thing like Sharp was out last night. Drew's been out the last couple games.

Speaker 1 They're starting to just not have a lot of guys.

Speaker 1 Avdia

Speaker 1 was a borderline like 13 mall NBA guy for the first five weeks of the season. I can't believe how good he is now.
And House was saying that this was

Speaker 1 a version of this was lurking in him in Washington. You could see it, but I don't think even House, nobody thought he was going to be a 25 a game guy.
That trade, I've talked about it on my pod.

Speaker 1 That trade was polarizing when it happened among front office people. I

Speaker 1 got it for both teams and just remember thinking, like, this guy's good, and his contract is crazy. Like, Obdia's contract is crazy good.
He's a very good player.

Speaker 1 That's one of those, if OKC was worse, Presti, he just, Presty would have gotten him somehow. Like, Hamilton.

Speaker 1 Sounds great, but he doesn't need him because he's got. I'm mad you took Portland because we've now reached the point where

Speaker 1 I'm not that excited on this.

Speaker 1 I'm excited to watch any basketball just we're now reaching the point where I'm not that excited I will take Phoenix I had them next workmanlike dependable gritty this is the team Mattishbia said he was going to put together that they were going to put together tough a team the city can be proud of they play hard they defend they have a transcendental highlight machine they've said they just dylan brooks is causing a ruckus at the minute he gets out on the court they're fun to watch Grayson Allen's been rejuvenated.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Booker finally looks like he's one of the best players in the the league, who's not one of the top best players in the league, but that next level, he's back in that conversation again.

Speaker 1 He was not for the last two years for me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Suns fans could settle down like a whiff. Gillespie? How about Gillespie? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, but it's like, on the one hand, yeah, we're way more likable this year, and we might have a chance to win between 35 and 40 games, right?

Speaker 1 The schedule is about to get hellish for them. And Ishbia, the chest is out, a little is up for the year.

Speaker 1 You did trade all your picks and all your swaps for the next six, seven years.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm glad you're more watchable, but settle down would be my advice to everybody involved, including Eddie Johnson, my arch nemesis.

Speaker 1 Don't. That Eddie Johnson just needs, what a, who just needs to settle down.
Don't tempt Ishbia. Don't tempt him.
Because he's, he's, he's been quiet. He's been quiet.
Just play cool, man.

Speaker 1 And he has been playing a cool team. Have you heard from him for a while? No, just let the team speak for itself.
It's a way more likable team. Your stars re-engaged.
Just

Speaker 1 by the way, Malić doesn't play. No, though, they have three centers, three rotation centers ahead of him.
And they knew he was going to be

Speaker 1 one of them. They should trade because there's a lot of teams that need centers.
All right.

Speaker 1 It's really rough now.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take New Orleans next

Speaker 1 just because for the same train wreck, first seven. weeks of the year, just watching different, like, I want to see Queen, who only recently started playing.

Speaker 1 fears is better than I thought although he's another one where I'm not what you're seeing as a team if he has the ball all the time probably not that high we don't got to worry about that yet I'm just thinking like eight years from now but I he's better than I thought and he's competitive um

Speaker 1 you know Zion will come back eventually this team could be higher on my next time we do this Zion came back last night um

Speaker 1 and looked okay

Speaker 1 still it looked good he looked good he's a good player we he just hasn't reached the level he was at before the injury in the play-in game would you trade trade for him? No. No.

Speaker 1 No. Would you trade Kaminga in a contract for him? Okay, stop.

Speaker 1 Why stop?

Speaker 1 I don't know. If you're like a smart, good team with a great training staff, you wouldn't roll the dice.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Would you trade Jalen Green for him?

Speaker 1 Would I trade Jalen Green for Zion? I have no idea what his trade value is. Would you trade Michael Porter Jr.
for him?

Speaker 1 Probably not.

Speaker 1 Probably not. This is really depressing.
Jalen Green. Would you trade Anthony Simons in a contract form? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. We're here.
We've arrived.

Speaker 1 Anthony Simons. He's non-guaranteed.
His deal is non-guaranteed after this year.

Speaker 1 As it is, it

Speaker 1 has that weird thing where it cycles every year. Did I tell you? Well, my next pick.
Oh, no, you have a pick. Yeah, I'll do it when we do our next pick.
New Orleans is a sad situation.

Speaker 1 The crowd has never seemed more depressed or empty.

Speaker 1 It's really dark. But Queen is good.
Queen's good. Let's zoom out.
The main plot. The idea of the train made sense.
The idea made sense. And Queen and Zion looked like a good offensive tandem.

Speaker 1 I really like Queen.

Speaker 1 All the ringer draft guys like Queen. Like, we all like Queen.
They're just...

Speaker 1 You know what's one small thing I really wish for the Pelicans? I just really wish that alleged shooting guard Jordan Hawkins could make more shots. That's all.

Speaker 1 Just every time he comes in, he's like, he just missed like seven more shots. Not good for two years.

Speaker 1 I know. All right.
We have reached the by default stage of this draft. I will, by default, take a team who fell 11 spots from my preseason rankings in

Speaker 1 now, the Orlando Magic. It's just been.
It's awful to watch. It's just been not fun.
It's awful to watch. And I thought the project.
None of them seem happy either.

Speaker 1 I thought the project of the puzzle-solving nature of this would make for

Speaker 1 exciting night-to-night watching.

Speaker 1 And it just hasn't in part because they're struggling. Like, they can't find the corner pieces anywhere.
This puzzle is not really being solved.

Speaker 1 Suggs is like, I guess Suggs just can't play back-to-backs ever and will be on, his minutes are going up, but like, is he ever going to just be a full-time, like, 35-minute a game player ever again?

Speaker 1 They had a really, really fun game against Houston that I watched in the second half in the OT of, and I was like, all right, there's hope. There's hope.
There's, I mean, there's not no hope at all.

Speaker 1 They're over 500, eight and seven.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but you know who they remind me of? This is a watchability rating.

Speaker 1 You know who they remind me of, sadly.

Speaker 1 The year,

Speaker 1 Kyrie's last Celtic year when Hayward came back and you watched them and it just was off.

Speaker 1 And it was like, this feels off. What's off about this? All of these guys are good.
What's...

Speaker 1 I'm watching this and something doesn't add up and nobody seems really that happy on a basketball court and something's, what's missing?

Speaker 1 And you just kind of stared at it for three months and there was no answer. And then it started to leak out that this guy's unhappy.
That guy's unhappy.

Speaker 1 This guy thought he was going to get more shots. I just wonder with Orlando, like there's a happiness quotient with them that I, it's, I'm, I'm in LA watching this team on my TV.

Speaker 1 Like I'm not an expert on this. I'm not in the locker room, but something just feels off with from a basketball playing standpoint.
I'm giving it more time. I don't disagree with you.

Speaker 1 I'm just giving it more time because they have found a way to get to eight and seven, which makes them a game out of fourth in the East. So I'm just, let's just see

Speaker 1 if the defense.

Speaker 1 He hasn't shot well. No, let's see how the defense, if it can find something like its level from the last couple seasons, that it's starting to trend a little bit more that way.

Speaker 1 One more break and then we'll do the end.

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Speaker 1 Well, there's seven teams left.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take the Boston Celtics. Shocker.
I couldn't believe you took them off the board for me. The last watchable team because the bottom six are brutal.

Speaker 1 Celtics, here's what's going on with the Celtics that's actually kind of fun. And I've actually weirdly enjoyed this season, but I'm not, I wouldn't recommend it for everybody.

Speaker 1 It's definitely not for everybody. Keda, a real guy.
Yep. And his advanced metrics are just jaw-dropping.
He has like some of the best advanced metrics in the league it makes no sense um

Speaker 1 pritchard and white have a history of those guys jalen brown

Speaker 1 has been i think a a really good scorer as a number one option we'll see when they play some of the harder teams um

Speaker 1 i've liked jalen brown's season overall i like how he's playing like i was thinking about it watching the being at that nets game the other night he was like really patiently getting good shots and creating good things i was like this guy, he's getting it.

Speaker 1 Hugo, I like.

Speaker 1 I like Josh Minot. And now we're getting, now we're getting to.
No, just as energy random guys, but it's the team tries hard.

Speaker 1 They're over 500 miraculously. I don't know how much longer that's going to last.
My dad, not as happy, though. No? No, he doesn't like what Joe's coaching this year.
Why? What's the grave?

Speaker 1 He's threatening the demote. I'm going to have to have him on.

Speaker 1 He's really upset with the Simons yo-yo routine with joe i don't know if joe likes simons but it's really upsetting my dad my dad's like he had 25 in the first half against orlando and joe's buried him ever since makes no sense it is i i had this conversation with some people who are who have come through here recently um

Speaker 1 it is almost jarring what a non-impact he's had on the team for 75% of the season.

Speaker 1 He'll pop in a game and then streaks.

Speaker 1 And then it'll be like, he played 16 minutes last night. It was two of seven.
I had one scout who was in town last week.

Speaker 1 We had lunch and he was like, I think they should maybe start him over Pritchard just to see

Speaker 1 if

Speaker 1 they can get him going that way and get him more engaged. And I know they're loyal to Pritchard.
Pritchard's been good, though. Pritchard's just a team.

Speaker 1 Feistier player than anybody. The team would be better if they started Simmons.

Speaker 1 But my dad doesn't think Joe likes him.

Speaker 1 I mean, the maps. I'm not worried about this being aggregated because my dad turns 78 next week, and I don't think people really ultimately care what my dad thinks.

Speaker 1 But my dad, who goes to the games and watches them, is very upset with Joe's treatment assignments. Well, the minutes would suggest he doesn't have a huge amount of faith in him as a winning.

Speaker 1 You scored 25 points in the first half and zero points in the second half and don't get any minute. That's just weird.
I think Joe likes it.

Speaker 1 You did text me earlier this week that you wanted me to start the Jordan Walsh for a steamboat defense campaign on my podcast. So Jordan Walsh did.

Speaker 1 had this moment against Maxie for three straight minutes. That was the most exciting moment of the Celtic.

Speaker 1 The real Celtic fans know what I'm talking about, where he just became Jonathan Isaac three years ago. Remember that Jonathan Isaac stretch where we were like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 And Joe has overreacted to it and like started Jordan Walsh in the next game. I don't, to me, he's like, there's certain guys in the league where you bring him in and you throw him on.

Speaker 1 And if you're... You guarded Harden to a game later and decently.

Speaker 1 The one I'm really interested

Speaker 1 is SGA when they play them to watch him try to guard.

Speaker 1 Cause I it like on paper the kind of guy nobody's guarding SGA but that you want taller and you want to reach and you want him to hop around I think he's like an elite defensive player uh not sure what else is there is the SGA thing is that you trying to brainwash a Western conference team to trade like two first-round picks for Jordan Walsh like we need it we need SGA stopper for the playoffs I will say this though I'm glad you brought that up I do think he has value for a really good team because I think he can come in I knew it

Speaker 1 no but I wouldn't trade him unless it was like a stupid offer. I think he went from like, he's a G-League guy to, wow, this guy can actually guard real scores.

Speaker 1 Like what he did at Maxi, I was shocked by.

Speaker 1 I think Maxi was shocked. Are you at all concerned that Scheierman is on the fringes of all this in year two?

Speaker 1 I'm not seeing it with him. Okay.
So he was, what, 30th pick? So

Speaker 1 it's, it's, you know. I'm going to whisper this one.
I'm not seeing it with Garza either. I don't think there's anything there from what I've seen so far.
I wish them the best. Hauser is the one that,

Speaker 1 you know, that like for some reason, gravity has become the term of the year in the NBA. And everybody, you watch the studio shows and like, gravity, this guy's gravity.
Steph Curry's gravity.

Speaker 1 They miss Jason Tatum's gravity. I'm not buying the gravity thing.

Speaker 1 It is interesting to watch these guys who were awesome three-point shooters when all of a sudden they're in a normal basketball situation and the percentages go from 44 to 33 because

Speaker 1 guess what? When you're on a worse team, one out of every 10 of your threes now are going to be terrible shots. Yeah.
And that's going to go down. The old usage versus efficiency trade-off.

Speaker 1 Derek White in related news is shooting 31% on threes and 43% on tens. Out of every 10 shots he took last year, there was one wide open, awesome shot.

Speaker 1 So it'd be like nine shots and then this wide open, awesome shot that he usually made. And now that shot doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 Who do you have? Wow. So just for the people listening, we have six teams left.
The Nets, the Wizards, the Pacers, the Grizzlies, the Kings, and the Clippers.

Speaker 1 Can I pass? No.

Speaker 1 Washington.

Speaker 1 A scouting thing. Just

Speaker 1 let's watch some young guys play. Can A.J.
Johnson get some minutes? Can we just go full entertainment? What are we winning? It's your one in 12. Can we give A.J.
Johnson some minutes?

Speaker 1 The problem is they have seven guys who are the same guy. And you can't play more than two of those guys at the same time.
Why not?

Speaker 1 Who's saying no? What Wizards fan in the crowd is being like, this is just, we can't play this lineup against this team. Those Wizards fans don't even know who's on their own team.

Speaker 1 There's like eight guys who know who's on the team. Does Saar do anything for you? Yeah.
I've always liked Sarah Sar's good. Sar's good.
Redraft, I think he's won.

Speaker 1 It's not a great draft. It's not a great draft, but I think he's one.
Would you rather have Reese Dache or Shepard?

Speaker 1 Shepard.

Speaker 1 Just for the upside right now. I think Reese

Speaker 1 is a stone cold lock to be a good rotation player, a good starter.

Speaker 1 I don't know. There's a lot of...
I think from

Speaker 1 what I've seen this year and his age, I think, and both of them are young. I think Shepard, I think I would have him second.

Speaker 1 He would have been like 10th if we did this two months ago. Where would you have T-John Solan of your Charlotte Hornets?

Speaker 1 There's some moments. In the G-League? There's some moments.

Speaker 1 Okay. I'm taking Washington over all these other teams.

Speaker 1 Trey Jay, just, you know, they are.

Speaker 1 You know what? Reed Shepard needs to? He needs to

Speaker 1 show him like 100 hours of John Stockton being a dick footage.

Speaker 1 John Stockton setting hard screens and putting his elbow in. John Stockton tripping dudes.
Like he needs to embrace his asshole John Stockton side. That's the next thing for him.
Okay. Feisty.

Speaker 1 I know I'm undersized, but I'll fight you.

Speaker 1 This is the. I always feel like John Stockton never got enough credit for that.
Just like a mean-spirited player.

Speaker 1 We're at the point of the show where if you want to put C.J. McCollum in a fake trade, this is the time to do it.
I know. Poor C.

Speaker 1 I think I've put him in more fake trades than any player in the history of the league. He certainly thinks you have.
I know, but most of the time it was justified. And he did get traded.

Speaker 1 It's tough. I don't see it.
I think he's a buyout guy. And I think teams would just go like, like, we'll get him in the end of February.

Speaker 1 Sadly, I feel the same way about Middleton, who looks like he's moving in molasses, and Corey Kispert suddenly is a non-factor. The veterans are not doing a ton for the young guys.
I think

Speaker 1 this might be the way it plays out with the Celtics with Simons.

Speaker 1 It might be a buyout thing where that would be disappointing from their perspective. Yeah.
But it might be how it plays out considering his minutes have been Yank Darren.

Speaker 1 And I also don't think, I still think a lot of teams have the $27 million salary spot to flip. I know who you're taking next, by the way.

Speaker 1 I know what you're going to do. I'm taking the Clippers.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
It's amazing how I had them 27th and they were actually 21st in my preseason. So I was not excited to watch them off the jump.

Speaker 1 I had them 27th among these dregs, and I was like, I didn't even think that hard about it. It's just not fun to watch.
No. It's just, it's a chore.

Speaker 1 I burned out on Hardin like six years ago, so that part's not great, but I couldn't put them below any of the next four teams. Um, I don't know what the Quippers do.

Speaker 1 They don't have their pick, as we mentioned nine times.

Speaker 1 Well, this, but that is, they are one of the, they don't, not only do they not have their pick, they have this whole thing hanging over them, right? Like,

Speaker 1 what's going to happen? Is this investigation going to amount to anything? What's going to happen? Uh,

Speaker 1 Derrick Jones Jr. out

Speaker 1 in six weeks. I honestly don't think they care.
I think Balmer is be like, whatever. I mean, if they get, they don't even have any picks to be penalized from.
They get fine, Balmer's rich.

Speaker 1 They do have banned from,

Speaker 1 what are they? And take their 2032 first. But that would really be devastating for them.
I don't think he's doing that.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I think it could be a huge fine and he's banned from going to the games for a year.

Speaker 1 Something like that.

Speaker 1 I do think he cares that they are.

Speaker 1 I mean, I, I said this earlier in the week. The best thing they have going for them is they're 11th.

Speaker 1 The four teams below them are in just as much, if not a worse situation, just as much shit as they're going to be. I'm not in these games.
They're not getting killed. Utah is 5-9.
Portland's now 6-9.

Speaker 1 The Sun schedule is about to toughen up. It's like by default, they should be a play-in team.
Like, they shouldn't have to do anything crazy to make the play-in. Yeah.
But

Speaker 1 these two big expiring contracts that they can take a swing.

Speaker 1 If they're bad, like this bad, they're going to do something because as much as you think they might be realistic about what their chances actually were, and I think they were pretty realistic.

Speaker 1 I don't think they expected anything like this. I mean, this is, and you throw in the Beale disaster, Jones injury.

Speaker 1 Well, look at their losses.

Speaker 1 Utah opening night, not great. Awful.

Speaker 1 As bad a

Speaker 1 loss for an allegedly good team as you'll see. At Golden State.

Speaker 1 Home, Miami, lost by one.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 no shame in that. No.

Speaker 1 At Phoenix, mildly shameful. Got swept by Phoenix.
That was Home for Phoenix. Now a little shamey.

Speaker 1 Hawks,

Speaker 1 not surprised. Denver, not surprised.
Beat Dallas in two OTs and lost to the Celtics and Sixers by three and two. In games, I watched both of those fourth quarters.
Those games were close.

Speaker 1 The Celtics one was kind of one of those miracle.

Speaker 1 It was like a 10-point game, and then they just went

Speaker 1 around. They hung around and hung around.
Yeah, they did. Okay.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't think it's as bleak as it seems, but they do have the next four on the road

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 two home and then the next five on the road, ending with Minnesota and OKC. So you're right.

Speaker 1 But the ship might have sailed.

Speaker 1 I don't want to pick anybody. I would say they're number one for a panic trade for me, though.
I mean, look, I put them, I made a fake Anthony Davis trade for them right away. And just because

Speaker 1 I just think this is untenable for them to do that. No, I think they keep Zubats.

Speaker 1 Why do I do that if I'm Dallas? What are they getting?

Speaker 1 I don't think there's like a big.

Speaker 1 I said, I don't think they're going to get a motherload for Anthony Davis. The contract and the looming.
Would you take Zubats and John Collins in some swap in nine years from now and that's it?

Speaker 1 I don't even know if that's legal in the cap, but something of that vicinity.

Speaker 1 I would love to get a.

Speaker 1 Would you rather have Zubats at the price he's at with coming up for a new contract or Anthony Davis? The zoo,

Speaker 1 I think. Right.

Speaker 1 So, but that would be the panic trade. So, maybe it's just Zoo Bots and John Collins for Anthony Davis.
See, that I feel like they just don't think that does enough for them.

Speaker 1 It has to be has to be more additive than that.

Speaker 1 All right. Who do you have with

Speaker 1 the 27th pick in our draft? I got to cross off the Clippers. Okay.
I guess I will go Memphis

Speaker 1 just for the theater of John Rant. Is this going to be a DEF CON one Jaw Tunes out the coach game or a DEF CON three

Speaker 1 Jaw Tunes out the coach game? And how is that going to

Speaker 1 you know manifest itself in the game i don't know how this strategy's back edie's back i like i'm interested i'm interested in edie i don't understand how this is a strategy that succeeds

Speaker 1 like if there was some podcaster that was trying to

Speaker 1 oh and cedric coward i should have mentioned that right off the bat that guy is

Speaker 1 good draft If there's some podcaster that's like, I don't want to be here anymore. I'd like to go to a place like The Ringer.

Speaker 1 And we listen to the podcast and he was just mailing it and acting crazy on the podcast and doing weird shit. I'm banking this in my head for like a year or two from now.

Speaker 1 No, I just wouldn't be like, oh man, I hope that guy becomes available. We can turn him around.

Speaker 1 Like people have scouts at these games watching,

Speaker 1 you know, John Morant just not looking like he gives a shit. Well, how about John Morant shooting like 30% for the season?

Speaker 1 How about the history of super explosive guards as they hit their late 20s who have had a lot of injuries?

Speaker 1 Like there's red flags all over the place, not to mention all the other shit that happened with them. I don't think it's gonna be a hard one to trade.
I have Sacramento as my next team.

Speaker 1 There's no reason other than there's only a couple teams left. I do like watching Doug Christie

Speaker 1 coaching. I think it's been pretty funny.

Speaker 1 I like the shots of Vivek just silently stewing in his courtside seat. It's been hilarious.
I wonder if he's sitting there thinking,

Speaker 1 I wonder if he's so delusional

Speaker 1 that he's sitting there when he's stewing like that. the stewing is not, boy, our roster sucks.
And I, and I made some bad calls.

Speaker 1 It's like, man, if we just just fucking coach, if we just had a better fucking coach, you know, like, maybe I should. I like that, Chris.
Who could I go back? Is Jaeger available?

Speaker 1 Is Michael Malone available?

Speaker 1 Who did we fire? Who did we fire

Speaker 1 that's available? Because I think this team, like, there's something here. If we just had the right coach to get it, we're three and twelve with a minus 12-point differential.

Speaker 1 But if we just tweak the offense a little bit, tweak the sub-patterns.

Speaker 1 No, I think it's more like when Keegan Murray comes back, this is all going to fall into place. Yeah, this is like where we're risked.
That's what we just need Keegan back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you think in the coaches' meetings before the game, they just pick a number out of a hat, and that's how many minutes Keon Ellis is going to play on that particular game?

Speaker 1 I would have already traded for him. Seven minutes tonight.
I would have already traded for him. Tonight.
The other 22 minutes, and he starts. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Great train wreck potential. uh all right i then the last two picks are indiana and brooklyn no i i'm up i have two picks didn't you just pick the kings no we have three picks left you took the kings

Speaker 1 oh i took memphis you took the kings

Speaker 1 oh i did take the kings there's two picks left then

Speaker 1 i will just honor the defending eastern conference champions by saving the indignity saving them the indignity of not going last

Speaker 1 I didn't realize that they moved the tanks to Indy until like a couple days after it happened,

Speaker 1 that the tanks got brought into the state of Indiana. Well, they're getting healthier now, though.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think they've made their decision on what they want to be this season, and I fully support it.

Speaker 1 And by the way, there's no better tanking situation ever than the most beloved finals loser we've probably ever had with the start to finish awesome season, tragic ending.

Speaker 1 Iconic all-time Pacers team. This would be the most beloved Pacers team they've ever had.
And now they get to tank. It'll be over in five months, right?

Speaker 1 April 10th, it's over. You can start watching college now.

Speaker 1 Enjoy yourselves, guys. I mean, look,

Speaker 1 you and I are captains of the

Speaker 1 Tim Duncan is historically underrated brigade. Like Tim Duncan is a top whatever player.
Every year we lose people. I don't say his name in vain.
I don't mean to even

Speaker 1 bring up his name in this way. This could be the best single season tanking scenario since the Spurs got Tim Duncan.
This team coming back. You mean like a team being able to get a major guy?

Speaker 1 A very clearly good team that is decimated, takes a gap year, miraculously gets its own 2026 pick back in a trade at the 2025. During the finals.
Yeah, that's a trade they made during the finals.

Speaker 1 Not knowing that Tyrese Halliburton is about to get injured and that whole season is going to go up and smoke for them, gets everyone healthy. They're not old.

Speaker 1 And they're just like, we'll just add potentially the number one pick, the number three pick, the number four pick, a guy who can probably come in and give them real minutes next year.

Speaker 1 They're going to have to solve the center position, all that. But like, it's honestly a pretty great, like, if you're going to suffer that kind of blow.
And it was horrible.

Speaker 1 And like, it still gets talked about every time I go out for lunch or drinks or coffee with anybody, that injury and the what if of all that and that miraculous playoff run, it's a pretty good, I mean, this is an objectively like

Speaker 1 people haven't wrapped their minds around it yet, but the Pacers are going to, the finals Pacers are going to come back, Sands Miles Turner, and with a top five pick.

Speaker 1 We started with the Nets and we end with the Nets.

Speaker 1 I wish there was another team I could take. I keep looking.
Is there another basketball team?

Speaker 1 Can we count like the teams that the international teams have played exhibition games in the previous team? There's still no other teams.

Speaker 1 I just think it's a disgrace. Oh, this is the NBA.

Speaker 1 This is the NBA at its worst. A team that sucked for a couple of years now

Speaker 1 and wanted to suck again. I don't understand in a draft that had so many good players that they took five guys that

Speaker 1 not one of them has jumped out to me yet. It's so early.
It's so early. I know, but it's just like, this is a disgrace of a team.
It's just terrible what they did.

Speaker 1 I don't, this is the NBA at its worst. So do their draft.
I never saw the NBA correctly with shit like this.

Speaker 1 It's embarrassing to watch. So if you do the draft over again,

Speaker 1 Coward is there for them at eight. Listen,

Speaker 1 they passed on, even if they had taken Murray Boyles or Coward,

Speaker 1 like you have to think Demon is like awesome. And I don't even know what position he is.
He made a couple threes against Celtics, but for the most part,

Speaker 1 you know, it doesn't seem like he can shoot. And I'm not, it's not like he's an elite playmaker.
I don't see. I'm just saying that that's the one.

Speaker 1 Even if they had taken Derek Queen, I'd have made more sense to me. The other picks are 19,

Speaker 1 22,

Speaker 1 26 and 19, 27.

Speaker 1 He's played.

Speaker 1 Talk about a guy who hasn't made an impression. He hasn't like Clifford, like Gonzalez.

Speaker 1 But like, why take all these guys who all play the same position? I don't, and then I just don't understand anything. There is no one below

Speaker 1 15,

Speaker 1 16. Yeah, after 15, it's that is making why keep all the picks.

Speaker 1 I'm sure they tried something. I don't think they tried anything.
They were like proud of like, we like all five of these guys. The whole thing was stupid.
Coward is the one that got away.

Speaker 1 Horrible. Because he looks like a star.
I mean, a star. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine how different the vibe would be in Brooklyn if one of those picks was Hedrick Howard?

Speaker 1 There'd be legitimate, like, Brooklyn has a guy, a homegrown guy well the other thing with demon is they might have been able to get him later or use two picks to trade up for him you know

Speaker 1 also like if dumars wanted queen that bad why didn't you trade him the eighth pick

Speaker 1 well yeah we'd have to do a whole

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 he oral history of who called who when and how many teams knew and you know because there was all the way up to chicago there was or down chicago

Speaker 1 Well, so he traded for the 13th pick to take Queen. Yeah.
Chicago's 13. Would he have traded for the eighth pick to take Queen? Probably.

Speaker 1 And would you have done that if you're Brooklyn in five seconds? Also, if Joe Dumars takes over a team, I'm calling him constantly to make sure he's not going to do anything.

Speaker 1 I want to be his first trade. Would they have just taken Queen at seven if they couldn't have acquired another first-round pick with which to trade up?

Speaker 1 Possibly. I like Queen.

Speaker 1 The Nets still have cap space. That pick cost them one of those things.
Well, they have cap space and the ability to maybe grab some more non-lottery picks that are not going to play. You do wish,

Speaker 1 even after 20 games, Joman is the closest one. That's like he's had a couple of moments.

Speaker 1 You just do what, like,

Speaker 1 every time Drake Powell gets on the floor and does anything, like gets a stop, Nets fans are like, see, Drake Powell's like, yeah, he scored four points for a team that like doesn't really have anybody right now.

Speaker 1 The more defensible one is Porter has played better

Speaker 1 irrefutably than Cam Johnson. Porter's been very good.
Cam Johnson struggled early. I still, I love that trade for Denver, but if you're Brooklyn, you have to be delighted with it.

Speaker 1 I liked that trade for Brooklyn. You and I disagreed heartily on that.
I liked it for both teams. You like Porter more? I liked it for both teams.

Speaker 1 I just like, I think the pick they got is potentially super valuable.

Speaker 1 And, you know, we'll see. It's a 2032 pick.

Speaker 1 I just, no, Noah Clowney's playing well. Does that do anything for you?

Speaker 1 Walking by Barclay Center and seeing a giant Noah Clowney with his arms folded, looking tough, like, this is

Speaker 1 come.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I like Clowny, and he's going to have a moment for somebody because he's like the

Speaker 1 kind of agro-feisty guy. He'll mix it up.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty good. Prediction of the year right here.
Clowny Ron Holland. They're going to mix it up at some point.
Maybe Isaiah Stewart will come in.

Speaker 1 If Isaiah Stewart comes in, that's not going to go well for Noah Clowny. He's a good social media club.
Two-on-one tag team.

Speaker 1 Well, then Nick Claxton will come in on the other side and there'll just be a lot of like a lot of this happening. Nick Claxton alternates just from afar between

Speaker 1 the polls of it's kind of fun. Like these young guys, like, I really care about Brooklyn.
I care about this franchise. And like, I'm trying my best to be a role model.

Speaker 1 And just dejected, like, man, I can't believe. I just can't believe I'm still here.
And this is what the team is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I wouldn't, from what I've seen from an energy/slash demeanor standpoint i wouldn't be um frothing at the mouth to try to trade for nick quaxon tough one though take the money can't blame him for that um

Speaker 1 all right we're wrapping up do you want to uh you don't have another podcast this week right i don't think so do you want to do one big prediction for the weekend before we go uh sure i haven't looked at any of the games

Speaker 1 in general

Speaker 1 big friday nights uh biggest league

Speaker 1 no not even for a game biggest league story you're monitoring over the next few days that you're the most interested in you can you go first or i'll go first Biggest league story.

Speaker 1 Well, the most fun thing is the Detroit streak. That's a good one.
They're at 11.

Speaker 1 Whether Toronto is for real, I think they're going to beat a couple of these bad teams and them being 12 and 5, I think is interesting.

Speaker 1 Houston, always, and then, but number one is LeBron. Number one is with the Bangers.
Number one, that's the one I'm most interested in. Fitting in, not fitting out.

Speaker 1 And I will go like,

Speaker 1 how do the Bucs fare without Giannis for an extended stretch of time? Can they tread water? Even if it's just six, seven games, is it 0-6 or is it 3-3?

Speaker 1 0-6 could, yikes.

Speaker 1 That's a good one. Denver-Houston on Friday is appointment viewing.

Speaker 1 Is that the first, like... I changed my flight going home to make sure even if it was delayed, I wasn't going to miss any of that game.
I remember flying back from L.A.

Speaker 1 two seasons ago and realizing two days before that it was the first Denver-Boston game the year we all thought Denver and Boston were going to meet in the finals.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I couldn't change my flight, and the Wi-Fi worked just well enough that I could stream the game. It was a great game, too.

Speaker 1 Is this the first game, the first head-to-head game that it's like, now we have enough information about both of these teams? They're as good as we thought, better probably in Houston's case.

Speaker 1 Is this the first, like, all right, they haven't played yet? Buckle up. I got to sit and watch this.
The problem is, though, Brown. Like New York, Cleveland, there were a bunch of injuries both ways.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 A bunch of like big injuries. Well, has OKC played Denver yet? I don't think so.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Denver-Houston, I think, from a matchup, we didn't get to see a version of this last year with the type of players we have in the series or a game.

Speaker 1 Throwing them against each other is probably the matchup on the most. We're going to see at the same time.

Speaker 1 I bet we see it. Valentunis Jokic versus Adam Shengun.
Same dumb. Same time.
Some towers?

Speaker 1 Yeah, same time like let's just oh my god let's just go crazy that would be pretty good who guards the rant gordon valanchunis just throw him on there

Speaker 1 uh gordon if he plays yeah he sat out last night i assume just for precautionary reasons gordon watson has been playing a lot because of uh christian brown's injury i bet he gets a shot before we go i haven't talked to you since you lost your live show virginity yeah in minnesota of all places yeah why not was it you had a good time great time great time it was it was some guests good crowd finchy brought it i i told him you gotta bring the heat some laughs he brought it dante brought it it was good what's the next city you think we're talking about it we're definitely gonna do one here in new york um and then we are debating

Speaker 1 uh one other city i think we're gonna try to do three this year uh new york i insisted on because i this is my home and yeah that's a layup uh and We've got a few.

Speaker 1 Do you just want me to name them that are in candidates or not?

Speaker 1 You don't need to. I I know you're percolating with Elizabeth.
Yeah. Yeah.
Or below.

Speaker 1 She sent me a long email yesterday that I have not yet responded to with this in mind. But it was fun.
It's actually having gone to a bunch

Speaker 1 as a fan

Speaker 1 and appeared on a couple. Like I knew that they would, it was going to be way different than a normal podcast.

Speaker 1 But the level of difference was jarring and like kind of shook me up for the first 10 or 15 minutes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then also I was very concerned about time. Yeah.
Cause I feel like as an audience member, you start approaching two hours and I start to

Speaker 1 QA.

Speaker 1 And I was going to monitor the time very carefully. And I left my phone in the green room.
So I had no idea how long anything was taking.

Speaker 1 So I was rifling through the couch cushions, thinking my phone was in there. That stressed me out.
And it turned out we were even faster than I expected. So I did all right.
So I learned a lot.

Speaker 1 Next one will be even better, but it was fun. It was cool to meet people.
I did a Den of Thieves rewatchables, and I brought the wrong iPad out, and the battery died.

Speaker 1 Chris Ryan had to ad-lib for like two minutes while I ran backstage and he just had to freelance. You still got a game on rewatchables.
Like, I'm when you come to LA,

Speaker 1 I don't know. We're gonna play it.
You can book it. You can book it.
Um, you know what? I watched for the first time this week on my Peloton rides. First time.

Speaker 1 One of those movies that I just missed, Casino.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh i'd never seen it before

Speaker 1 it's great it's a great time i was it's great my official little brother my wife texted me mid-Peloton ride yesterday and she was like can you turn that down it's a lot of swearing and our daughter can hear the entire thing and it was Pesci and De Niro arguing in the desert and it was just like it was it was bad yeah because you have this weird TV movie life where your wife is just like some shows movies are a non-starter with violence with yeah violence she's out yeah casino would she would have lasted three minutes yeah so you almost have to like sneak in these things to get a taste of like the beast in me on netflix your wife wouldn't watch but it's really i don't even know what that is you recommended task it's in the task is great that's another one yeah there's some good ones all right Zach low pleasure as always thanks for taking the train to come see us great time great to see you this episode is brought to you by Apple Watch real talk for a second you think you're crushing it with sleep you're getting eight hours you're doing everything right feeling great about it well using the Apple Watch is kind of like checking game film.

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Speaker 1 All right, we had to do ringer 107, even though we just went two hours with Zach Lowe. Joe House is here.
This has been an action pass BS Pod. What a week for me, for the listeners.

Speaker 1 The mailbag came back this week, House.

Speaker 1 It's just like it, it's like it never left.

Speaker 2 Mailbag and

Speaker 2 uh league pass rankings i mean seriously just just throwing 95

Speaker 1 what yeah what year is this i don't even know we're going to talk football we went three and two last week there is a five-way tie in the ringer 107

Speaker 1 it is just the definition of mediocrity but this is perennially right around when i usually get hot okay right around things

Speaker 1 into existence buddy i usually start coming on we have a nice feel for the season you have a real feel for what teams want to do and not do. And we're going to rip through the games right now.

Speaker 1 The stayaways for me this week are Bears, Steelers, no thanks. Packers, Vikings, no thank you.

Speaker 1 Ravens. Stop you.

Speaker 2 Why don't you want, you don't want to bet on the Packers?

Speaker 1 Why? I don't want to lay the points with the Packers

Speaker 1 when I can't figure out what the F is going on with them. And I don't want to bet on J.J.
McCarthy. So it's a stayaway for me.

Speaker 2 The not betting on J.J. McCarthy is very, very sound strategy.

Speaker 1 I don't don't want to put the Packers in less than a touchdown. I don't want to play a touchdown with them.

Speaker 2 They're at home at less than a touchdown against J.J. McCarthy.

Speaker 1 Good luck. Ravens, Jets, staying away.

Speaker 1 Maybies.

Speaker 1 I liked Panthers plus seven against the Niners a little bit, and you did not. You don't like Bryce Young on the road? What are your other reasons?

Speaker 2 That's it.

Speaker 2 That's the reason. Well, and also.

Speaker 2 This version of the San Francisco offense, right?

Speaker 2 We finally, this is their offense. They saw what we saw against San Francisco.

Speaker 1 We lost it in our parlay last year. I guess Arizona.
Well, the cards plus 13 and a half. That was so dumb.
I don't want to dumb.

Speaker 1 The Panthers is, I still think the Niners' defense is hot garbage. And Frissette was moving the ball all up and down the field on them.
And the points should have been higher.

Speaker 1 The guy fumbled on the goal line as he was running in.

Speaker 1 But they were moving the ball whenever they wanted. So the question is, could the Panthers just move the ball whenever they want on this team?

Speaker 2 They want to run the ball, and they're very good at running the ball, the Panthers.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I'm looking at the other side of things, which is the San Francisco offense, which really.

Speaker 1 It's a juggernaut. I didn't like going against it last week.

Speaker 1 I did not have a good time. So we're staying away from that.
Eagles, Cowboys, I just want to stay away from.

Speaker 1 You probably have a lean either way on this. You had the Eagles last week as your wise wager.
You tried to talk me into it for ringer 107. I didn't want to do it.
They killed the Lions.

Speaker 1 Eagles are minus three and a half at Dallas. There's just enough there with that Dallas team, and especially with the cheap touchdown at the end.

Speaker 1 It's just a stay away.

Speaker 2 I don't want either of those, but I would really go hard if it was three. And at different points, it's been three.

Speaker 1 Like, it's

Speaker 2 the Eagles are favored minus three and a half at plus at even money, plus 100. Yeah.
The three and a half for Dallas is minus 122. Like, yeah.
I mean, come on, just put the three out.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 a big maybe for me,

Speaker 1 which you're just going to reject like a

Speaker 1 Kenbe

Speaker 1 transplant or the Kembe Batumba. Give it the Browns plus three and a half against the Raiders.

Speaker 1 The Raiders can't block at all. We saw that last week against Dallas, which they single-handedly vindicated the Quinn Williams trade,

Speaker 1 just whiffing. So I thought, I watched the entire game on my flight to New York City.
Some of the worst offensive line play I've seen all year.

Speaker 1 So the case would be the Browns' defense is just going to single-handedly win this game.

Speaker 1 The case against it is it's the Browns offensive line on the road with Shadur Sanders, who could not have looked worse. Now he gets to play practice with the first string all week.

Speaker 1 They're getting three and a half points against a Vegas team that's bad.

Speaker 1 You could argue this line should just be even because who the hell knows what's going to happen. But I can't bet on Shaddur

Speaker 1 as a ringer 107 pick. When we're trying to win ringer 107, we just can't.
Can't do it. No, I would.
I did think about it, though.

Speaker 2 Well, I would, would, you know,

Speaker 2 I don't have enough information to make the strenuous case I'd like to make to take the Raiders.

Speaker 1 No, we're never taking the Raiders. I'm not doing that.
So that's fine.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Duly noted. There's no reason.

Speaker 1 They're awful.

Speaker 1 The Patriots losing to the Raiders in week one is in the running for dumbest result of the season, like in retrospect. What would the Pats be favored now against them? Like 13?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, easy, easy double digits.

Speaker 1 Some parlay games for you. We have the Seahawks money line.
They're favored by 13.5

Speaker 1 in Tennessee. A couple reasons to be slightly afraid of that game.
Zabel's probably out. Simmons is back for Tennessee.

Speaker 1 It's a lot of points for a road favorite, and I would like to steer clear.

Speaker 1 Lions, Giants. Lions minus 10.5.
Lions coming off a bad loss. Lions with some starters back.

Speaker 1 Lions, for instance, could be

Speaker 1 T could be parlayed. The money line Lions with the Chiefs minus one and a half gets us under minus 120.
It's minus 113.

Speaker 2 We have to go back to the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Are the Chiefs going to go five and six?

Speaker 2 Why can't they? Tell me why they can't.

Speaker 1 Okay, we'll talk about them in a second. And then

Speaker 1 Patriots, Bengals, that line dropped to six and a half. The money lines lowered because there's a possibility of a Joe Burrow

Speaker 1 comeback. Just insane to me.
I don't know why that would happen. No Jamar Chase.

Speaker 2 How does that make any sense whatsoever for Cincinnati?

Speaker 1 Awful.

Speaker 2 Possible explanation.

Speaker 1 And then the ones that I really like,

Speaker 1 Jaguars at Arizona. I know there's some red flags with going into Arizona.
And there's always red flags with taking the Jags.

Speaker 2 On the road. Can't take the Jags on the road.

Speaker 1 Can't do it. Except we're going to.
It's because it's going to be what I'm going to say. It's your pick.
That's fine. It's minus two and a half.
No Marvin Harrison.

Speaker 1 Arizona's defense is horrible. Like horrible.
Like that. San Francisco wasn't just scoring last week.
They were doing whatever they wanted on defense.

Speaker 1 I don't know what happened to Gannon and the defense in general. It's in Arizona, but they don't have a home field advantage.
It's not like it's, oh, it's outdoors. It's going to be cold.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's in Florida. It's going to be human.
It's just in a dome and with depressed fans, they're three and seven. The team's done.
The Cardinals have given up 84 points in the past two weeks.

Speaker 1 I think Gannon's and next coach fired, at least. There's a whiff of it now.

Speaker 1 And then here's the other thing, House.

Speaker 1 Jacksonville, say what you want about them, but they're second against the run defensively. And the Cardinals can't run the ball.
So this is just Brissette trying to keep them in it.

Speaker 1 And I think Brissette's kind of shown,

Speaker 1 you know, he can put up garbage time stats, but I just think the Jaguars are going to win 11 or 12 games and we're going to be like, what just happened? They play the Jets two more times.

Speaker 1 They play somebody else awful, the Titans. They have this game like they already have seven wins or six wins.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't mind the case for the rest of the season or the case for them, you know, threatening for a playoff spot, but we need more evidence.

Speaker 2 They lost to Jake Browning and Davis Mills this season. In fact, Davis Mills led Houston to, what was it, 21 points in the fourth quarter?

Speaker 1 I'm aware that saved us in Rainer 107.

Speaker 2 Davis Mills did that against this Jacksonville team on the road. So Jacksonville had two consecutive weeks on the road against Vegas,

Speaker 2 which took Vegas failing on a two-point try in overtime

Speaker 2 for Jacksonville to get the win, and then lost to Houston outright. They lost to Jake Browning in week three.

Speaker 1 Right. Week two.

Speaker 2 They have one win on the road, and it was against that San Francisco team where every single person on the team was in the hospital.

Speaker 1 Counter,

Speaker 1 they still beat the Niners who've been banged up all year and are just like a wounded. That's what I just said.
On the road. No, but I know.

Speaker 2 Their whole team in the hospital.

Speaker 1 I still think you, I'm saying I still think you get credit for beating the Niners, even when the whole team's in the hospital because they're well coached and they always, whatever.

Speaker 1 They beat the Panthers in week one. They beat the Chiefs in week five.
Granted, dumb game, but they did beat them. They beat the Chargers handily last week.
They did. And here's my case.

Speaker 1 I just wonder if they're the good bad team. They're six and four.
Their real record is three, two, and five, five either or games. So they're basically three and two in the either or games.

Speaker 1 They're at Zona, at Tennessee, home, Indiana, Appleis.

Speaker 1 home Jets, at Denver, at Indianapolis, home Tennessee. There's four more wins wins in this.
I just think they're going to be in the playoffs, and we're going to wonder what the F happened.

Speaker 2 I don't disagree with you.

Speaker 1 But they have to win this game to be in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 I'm going to accept

Speaker 2 your

Speaker 2 insistence.

Speaker 1 It's your pick. You're allowed to make it.
I watched that Cardinals team really carefully last week, and they sucked.

Speaker 2 They did suck.

Speaker 1 They just sucked.

Speaker 2 But the problem is.

Speaker 1 And I don't think it matters if they're. Does it matter where Arizona plays?

Speaker 2 Does it, oh, they're in arizona watch out why why does that have to matter they played against an offense that by priors that san francisco offense on priors coming into the season san francisco was supposed to be an 11 or 12 win team based on on the offense that for the first time this season that group of skilled players had played nine snaps together before this arizona game and so you know that there is a a difference in class between that san francisco offense with all of their talent out there.

Speaker 2 Also, the familiarity of

Speaker 2 Shanahan against Gannon, against Arizona.

Speaker 2 Radically different thing for this, this, because Trevor Lawrence, he sucks.

Speaker 2 He sucks.

Speaker 2 He sucks. So just be aware of what we're doing here.

Speaker 1 Listen, it was very hard to find five picks this week. Okay.
I have them marked down. I have the Bucs plus six and a half against the Rams marked down

Speaker 1 because I think the Bucs are, like, I watched that entire Bucs Bills game. They were leading in the fourth quarter.
Like,

Speaker 1 I actually think their defense is pretty good. I know they got lit up by Buffalo, but Allen was just out of the middle.
Just

Speaker 1 got lit up by Joshua. The Patriots, I thought they did a good job.
They gave up two dumb plays. The question is, can the Rams get some explosives on him? But

Speaker 1 this just felt like, I thought this was a flash sale line to me.

Speaker 1 I just blink test in my head, it should be four or four and a half

Speaker 1 and the rams are just getting two extra points for being home their offense did mostly jack shit that's last week we not getting seven in that game it's just six and a half now we're only getting six and a half yeah i thought it was another one where you know the proper price is seven but it's six and a half at one o'clock looks like irving and goodwiner goodwin are going to play And then the Rams just had their biggest win of the year last week, which I was like the week after for that.

Speaker 1 I just feel like Tampa's going to hang around.

Speaker 2 I don't have an argument.

Speaker 2 It's too many points.

Speaker 1 I like

Speaker 2 where your head is at on Tampa.

Speaker 1 And then this was not a game I had. And I know all the cases for it, but you were intrigued by the Saints minus one and a half against the Kirk Cousins Falcons.

Speaker 1 And after you suggested it, I did get excited about the chance to bet against Kirk Cousins and Raheem Morris, who I talked about in my mailbag. Two of the greats.
The man, the worm, the worm himself.

Speaker 1 The warm. There you go.
So the Saints are bad, but what is it? It's one and a half in their home. Yes.
Coming off. The Panthers two weeks ago and then had a buy.
Yep.

Speaker 1 Shuck's okay.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's okay. There's some signs of life there.
They only traded one of their, they only traded Rashid Shaheed. They didn't trade the entirety of their offensive skill position nucleus.

Speaker 1 Also, these two, the fan bases hate each other.

Speaker 1 So this is not a let's roll over this week. This is like, we actually hate the Falcons.
Let's jam a steak into their heart.

Speaker 2 Kirk Cousins without Drake London and

Speaker 2 the impact on Atlanta's offense when Drake London plays versus when he doesn't play, specifically on the run game, they are a yard per attempt worse, a yard per carry worse,

Speaker 2 over a yard worse without Drake London on the football field. They are like four point-something yards per carry with him when he plays, and in the mid-threes when he doesn't play.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 2 We're not going to have any more opportunities to bet against Kirk Cousins. That's the most important thing.

Speaker 1 This is the thing. And technically, we could say the same thing about Shader Sanders, but I'm not taking and the same thing about J.J.

Speaker 2 McCarthy. Like, I would bet against all of them.
I already have. I've already, I'm happy to have less than a touchdown against JJ McCarthy.
You kidding me?

Speaker 1 I can't do it. That's fine.

Speaker 2 You have to give me one of them. And the one for me is the Saints.
I'll gladly, gladly, gladly back the Saints here.

Speaker 1 It was interesting how some of the talking heads talked about McCarthy last week, where there was not a lot of yeah, buts with him.

Speaker 1 The people who like were like, I watched the L22. They were some of the worst throws we've seen this season.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there is no rhyme or reason for where the ball was going. His feet aren't set.
They've rushed him.

Speaker 1 This is a disaster.

Speaker 1 There's no real signs at all, except for that last drive that there's something here.

Speaker 1 It was pretty sobering.

Speaker 1 I felt that way watching the game as we rooted for them. Didn't enjoy it.
I didn't enjoy them in Ringer 107. I didn't enjoy them.

Speaker 2 That was one where we made our pick on Thursday. I thought the defensive lineman, Jonathan Greener, was going to be playing.
He is

Speaker 2 their primary pass rush

Speaker 2 asset. And then he was ruled out after we made the pick.
I got off of the position. I got out of all my Minnesota stuff.
I bet on the Eagles last week that covered off all the stupid minnesota

Speaker 2 seven and we couldn't do anything about it it wasn't our fault

Speaker 1 i just don't like the smell of that packers team it doesn't smell good i understand what you're saying i don't when it's third and eight i don't i just don't know what they do they don't either that's the problem jacobs jacobs either not playing or he's going to play hurt right not awesome right

Speaker 1 They drop balls all over the place. They sure do.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a stay away from me. I could see, like, I personally could see Minnesota winning that game, and I could see them losing by 25.
I'd rather be. Defense is very good.

Speaker 2 That's the reason why I like the idea of Green Bay, why I personally have already bet it.

Speaker 1 So, Chiefs, Colts, there's two ways to go because we have the parlay. Because we're doing the Pats.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 The Pats are minus six and a half. I'm happy doing that straight up.
I'm also happy doing them with a money line. and like over 44 and a half or something like that.

Speaker 1 And because there's going to be points in the game regardless. But I just think, I don't think people realize the Pats have played some decent to really good defenses the last few weeks.

Speaker 1 Even a team like the Jets that traded two of their guys, but they were still like,

Speaker 1 they're still like their identity is defense. They're not awful.
The Bengals are like reprehensible how bad they are in defense.

Speaker 1 And the Patriots should be able to move the ball up and down the field on them all game.

Speaker 1 I think it has blowout potential. They haven't had a blowout in a couple of weeks.
There's a Burrow piece about him coming back, but it's only T. Higgins.

Speaker 1 I think the one bet I would say is I think Chase Brown, if you have him in fantasy or guillotine or whatever, he's just the exact type of guy that the Pats have had trouble with this season.

Speaker 1 But Pats and a parlay or tease. And then we have to figure out this Chiefs thing because the Lions have to be in a money line against the Giants with all their starters coming back, coming off a loss.

Speaker 1 Like the Giants are a mess.

Speaker 1 The Lions' money line with the Chiefs is an easy way to do do it.

Speaker 2 Why can't we do the Lions' money line with Seattle?

Speaker 1 Because we don't have to do that.

Speaker 1 We're not nearly enough. Yeah, we're not nearly enough.

Speaker 1 Well, explain your hesitation with the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 Who the hell are they? I have no idea who this team is.

Speaker 1 They were winning that game, and it seemed like they were wrapping it up there against the Broncos, and then they just kind of died with 10 minutes ago.

Speaker 2 Their defense doesn't get stops the way that that defense used to get stops, got stops last year. What we're accustomed accustomed to, which is putting pressure.

Speaker 2 I kept waiting for the Chris Jones play. Where's the Chris Jones play? They put pressure on Nick.

Speaker 2 Nick's had all the time in the world in that fourth quarter, and he threw an absolutely beautiful ball to Troy Franklin. A beautiful ball.
That secondary, that

Speaker 2 chief secondary is poverty.

Speaker 2 There is no indication that they can slow anybody down. We've been watching it literally all season.
We watched it the first week.

Speaker 2 Herbert threw all over that team. He had a field day, he had so much time and he just picked them apart.
And there really hasn't been any signs of progress to my way of thinking. So, I'm scared.

Speaker 2 I'm scared of

Speaker 2 the Colts' ability to get what they want whenever they're.

Speaker 1 They're scared of Daniel Jones. I'm

Speaker 2 after the Pittsburgh game, which was the classic perfect

Speaker 2 put Danny Dimes outdoors, put him up against a physical kind of defense, and let him just turn into the pumpkin that he is.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's the thesis for what you would say. That's the version of Daniel Jones that we expect here.
Except they're coming off the bye, and Steichen's a pretty good coach.

Speaker 2 They might scheme up something to keep him out of harm's way. Now, the best case for the Chiefs is that the Colts' defense is extremely mediocre.
That is a mediocre defense.

Speaker 2 The best, you know, the Colts win games by scoring, outscoring the other team.

Speaker 2 And anytime we've seen them.

Speaker 1 Is that what they're trying this year? They're trying to outscore the other team.

Speaker 1 I haven't seen a strategy.

Speaker 1 They're not stopping their opponent.

Speaker 2 You get it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They're not winning.

Speaker 1 It sounds like you're more interested in moving the Colts line the other way. No, I know.
I'm not.

Speaker 2 I want to stay away from that game. Personally, I don't want to bet it because because tell me what version of the Chiefs is going to show up.
Mahomes is running around. You know,

Speaker 2 part of the game script last week, why I liked the Chiefs to handle their business against Denver, was that his unique ability to scramble for yards. He scrambled for shit.

Speaker 2 He didn't do anything with his legs. He was behind the line of scrimmage.
They had him bottled up.

Speaker 1 That was

Speaker 1 nothing to do with anything we've seen all season combined with nothing about anything with the stats.

Speaker 2 Yes. Can't wait to hear it.

Speaker 1 The Chiefs are five and five and they've taken shit all week.

Speaker 1 All they've heard all week was, oh my God, this is a wrap. This could be done.
They also need to win games to make the playoffs. I don't know if you've checked.
They really do.

Speaker 1 They need to win some games now where that's

Speaker 1 our games in this season. That's a fact.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I don't know, man. Chiefs minus one and a half with the Lions money line to beat the Giants and just betting on the Chiefs to beat Daniel Jones by two in the biggest game they played all season.

Speaker 2 We have 10 years of evidence that that is what you're supposed to do. A full decade of solid evidence.

Speaker 1 The Chiefs are going to go five and six. Like, I'm honestly happy to lose the pick if they go five and six.

Speaker 1 And here's the other thing about the game last week.

Speaker 1 Guys were open.

Speaker 1 Mahomes missed dudes. He missed guys deep.

Speaker 1 What, four times?

Speaker 1 He had plays. They had offense that they left on the field.

Speaker 2 They've lost two games this season because he's thrown red zone interceptions. They lost to the Jacksonville JIV.

Speaker 1 They were a red zone interception. There was some weird field position stuff in the second half or the special teams.
And I just think it was a weird thing. Another thing.

Speaker 1 Well, let me ask you a question. Am I allowed to say out loud?

Speaker 2 Bleep this, please. Harrison Bucker could go fuck himself

Speaker 1 every week. They have it.

Speaker 1 We have Belle.

Speaker 1 Belle's here in New York City with me. She loved it.
She also wants him to fuck himself.

Speaker 1 On top of everything else, just go back to that. You watched that entire KC Denver game, as did I.

Speaker 1 Did Denver win that game or did Casey lose it?

Speaker 2 Both.

Speaker 1 But I give credit.

Speaker 2 Denver won the game.

Speaker 2 Bo Nicks had to drive them down the football field, had to make it.

Speaker 1 I think Casey lost that game. I think they left players on the field the whole time.

Speaker 1 I thought that interception by Mahomes, considering he's supposed to be one of the best quarterbacks of all time, was abysmal. Abysmal.
I can't believe he did that.

Speaker 1 Inexplicable.

Speaker 1 And their last drive was, I just

Speaker 1 started taking him. This is going to be, I get two picks, so this is going to be my other one.

Speaker 1 Are you good with Patriots minus six and a half against the Bengals?

Speaker 2 I sure am.

Speaker 2 If you want to put them in a parlay, that's fine, too. I don't mind laying the points with the Patriots.

Speaker 1 All right. The Ringer 107 is presented by FanDuel.

Speaker 1 First pick. We just argued about it for a while.
We're going to take the Chiefs minus 1.5.

Speaker 1 They just need to win by two.

Speaker 1 Parlayed with the Lions money line against the Giants, who stink. And the Lions coming off a loss where their playoff position is a little precarious and they're home.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And they're getting guys back. Come on.
So Chiefs from three and a half to one and a half with the Lions money line. That's our first pick.

Speaker 1 House did not want me to do this and I'm doing it. It's it's like when we were in college when people had tequila with the worm in the bottle and we were like, should we drink this? Don't do it.

Speaker 1 Don't do it. You'll go crazy.
You'll get brain damage. You're going to wake up tomorrow without your pants on.

Speaker 1 And you'll be like, all right, I'll try it. I'm trying the Jags on the road.

Speaker 2 You can try it.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. I might wake up with my pants down at 5 p.m.
I guarantee it. West Coast.

Speaker 2 Who knows where that worm is going to be?

Speaker 1 Who knows? But Jags minus two and a half in Arizona. This checks 100 stay the FOA boxes.
Arizona coming off two big losses in a row. The Jaguars with people believing.
Trevor Lawrence on the road.

Speaker 1 He stinks. I get all of it.
But I think the Jags can run the ball.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 And I think they're the good bad team. Okay.
I think they're going to go 10 and 7, and we're not going to believe they win 10 and 7.

Speaker 2 I'm going to root for the Jags this week.

Speaker 1 You picked them on week. I'm rooting for them.
Also, there weren't enough picks for this week. The last three we like.

Speaker 1 Bucks plus six and a half. Solid.
In LA against the Rams. The Bucks suddenly with the Panthers breathing on their necks a little bit.

Speaker 1 They need a win. They lost to the Bills and the Patriots in a row.
Have some guys coming back, might be able to run the ball better. And Rams coming off a giant win.
So

Speaker 1 we call that a flash sale. Line's a little too high.

Speaker 1 House, you love the Saints minus one and a half against Kirk Cousins. I don't know if anyone enjoys anything in life more than you enjoy betting against Kirk Cousins at this stage of his career.

Speaker 2 All credit to that guy.

Speaker 2 He had an incredible once-in-a-lifetime career.

Speaker 2 The amount of money that he made going from situation to situation and at the exact right time, jumping at the biggest contract out there, truly amazing. Truly one of a kind.

Speaker 1 It's just America.

Speaker 2 He can't play professional football. What other evidence is there? We watched it last year.
He got replaced last year because he can't run and he can't throw.

Speaker 1 Other than that,

Speaker 1 he can't push off his leg to throw anything with mustard on it. Other than that,

Speaker 1 nice guy. I think he'd be a good announcer.
Oh, I can't wait to have me in the booth.

Speaker 2 Totally agree. Great sense of humor.
I'm a cousins fan.

Speaker 1 Saints one and a half. Plus, two weeks ago, they beat the Panthers 17-7, which ain't nothing because the Panthers then, although the Panthers are a zigzag team.

Speaker 2 And the mothershuckers are ready, believe me.

Speaker 1 And then our last pick is the Patriots minus six and a a half in Cincinnati. This Patriots team likes playing on the road.
That's one thing.

Speaker 1 No Jamar Chase because he decided to spit on Jalen Ramsey for reasons that remain not clear. It's just a fighting thing.

Speaker 1 You spit on somebody, you're going to get punched. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's

Speaker 1 some good zags against the Patriots this week with some of the advanced metrics. They're getting a lot of this team isn't as good as, meanwhile, Indianapolis gets none of that.

Speaker 1 But like that support isn't good.

Speaker 1 no supporting that the patriots are a little smoking marisy all that stuff that's fine well they play an easy schedule they just beat the teams in front of them wasn't easier than indianapolis's schedule

Speaker 1 like i you know whatever um

Speaker 1 No Jamar Chase, and I think the Patriots, this has blowout potential. And also, the Cincy fans are incredibly depressed by the team.

Speaker 1 So it's not like, I wouldn't say they have an awesome home field advantage.

Speaker 2 Just remember, it's Thursday. Joe Burrow might play quarterback for the Bengals.
They're that stupid.

Speaker 1 It might not be it. I get it.
And if he does, the line maybe drops a point or two, and I'm fine living with it.

Speaker 1 I think it would be dumb for them to play Joe Burrow in this game when they have the Baltimore Games. I don't think Joe Burrow should play this season.
We will find out.

Speaker 1 Patriots minus six and a half is our last pick. Those are the Ringer 107 picks brought to you by FanDuel.
Odds subject to

Speaker 1 change.

Speaker 1 You've been betting on basketball. I have been.
You've been dabbling, but doing stuff.

Speaker 1 Who are you riding? Like the, we just did the league pastor toes you riding the rockets and pistons uh

Speaker 2 i i have not uh i i'm i'm just looking situationally you know you have to have the time to do this but the injury report the direction of injury stuff and and the way the schedule is insane you and i sat together down together what was it two weeks ago three weeks ago and you asked the nba why they hate golden state so much well betting betting against golden state you know has been relatively profitable because the stretch that they just went on it was like seven road road games in a row or six road games in a row, seven games in 10 nights.

Speaker 2 What are we doing? What, like, it was Steph effing Curry, I know, one of the three most important players from a marketing family.

Speaker 1 I found mad about it, so stupid.

Speaker 2 But guess what? Last night, uh, that the line opened up against the heat.

Speaker 2 The heat were small favorites, then they got to be larger favorites as Steph was ruled out because he rolled his ankle the night before. And then everybody on Golden State that sat out, and

Speaker 2 Miami Cruz. It was a great leg for a money line parlay.
It was a great leg,

Speaker 2 you know, laying the small set of points in the morning. So it's those kinds of opportunistic things.
The other thing I'm doing is live betting.

Speaker 2 The Nets have lost 12 games. They've only been inside of 10 points in two of those 12 games.
If you get into the fourth quarter and the game's relatively close, you can get a great price

Speaker 1 for the lay the points. Some live betting advice from how live betting stuff is really

Speaker 2 tremendous the nets to lose by 10 points that outcome when when they're up against anybody that's reasonably good that's a great angle to play sounds like on the ringer gambling show we need a damon jones special every night where you're like this is too good to be true toronto was another one toronto i've been riding nine out of ten wins uh the market hasn't

Speaker 1 i just talked about him in league pass they've been they're playing good the two teams schedule too so they're getting gaining some confidence the two teams that fit that are phoenix and Toronto, both of those.

Speaker 2 And the market hasn't really accounted for

Speaker 2 the identity of either one of those teams. Those two teams try.
They're trying. They're not effing around.
They're playing all the way through to the end.

Speaker 2 That's what you need at this point, this early stage of the season.

Speaker 1 I had a great cheeseburger at the Waverly Inn last night.

Speaker 2 Oh, I'm so jealous. You're in New York.

Speaker 1 I'm in New York. I'm about to leave, but I'm in New York.
And

Speaker 1 it's cold.

Speaker 2 East Coast.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's cold.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of buildings.

Speaker 1 The cab drivers just seem like they've gone to another level of weirdness now that

Speaker 1 they can play stuff through their phones, print some interesting songs and

Speaker 1 different things.

Speaker 2 Cultural

Speaker 1 adventure. Yeah, learned about some different cultures.
There you go.

Speaker 1 And I'm ready to go back to LA.

Speaker 2 Do tell.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do tell.

Speaker 1 Ready to go back.

Speaker 1 I see. I'm surrounded by Yankees and Knicks fans and people

Speaker 1 can't wait for scam Cataboo to come back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. Just get me out of here.

Speaker 2 Scam Cataboo. That's so, so mad.

Speaker 1 Why'd you do that? Scam's Cataboo.

Speaker 1 Anyway,

Speaker 1 that's all I have to say other than Stephen A. Smith made me mad today when he said that, called Drake May a liar for saying he never watched first take.
Did you see that whole story?

Speaker 1 I like Stephen A, but this one made me mad.

Speaker 2 This is phenomenal.

Speaker 1 Drake May said he didn't know

Speaker 1 what show Cam Newton was on. And Stephen A took umbrage and was like, there's no way he doesn't know Cam Newton's on this show.
Drake May's a liar.

Speaker 1 It seems semi-tongue-in-cheek, but he was standing up for his guy. I think it's conceivable Drake May wouldn't know that Cam Newton was on first take.

Speaker 2 Respectfully, respectfully, I would have needed three tries. What show is Cam Newton on? I don't know.
One of those ESPN ones.

Speaker 1 Drake May is a professional athlete who obviously isn't watching ESPN, who works

Speaker 1 during the day on the East Coast. Yeah, he's got stuff to do in the morning.
First takes off from 10 to 12. You know what Drake May is not doing from 10 to 12, Monday through Friday? Watching ESPN.

Speaker 1 So how would he know Cam Newton is on first take?

Speaker 2 I'm going to give Stephen A the benefit of the doubt. Stand up for his guy.

Speaker 1 I liked it, as you know, I like Stephen A. But I didn't.
Listen, don't come at Drake May. He's the most popular Boston athlete in a long time.
People love Drake May. Has anybody seen?

Speaker 1 Drake May's wife now is becoming like a cult hero on Instagram. She cooks for Pat's fans.
She does recipes. They ask her.
People love Drake May.

Speaker 1 This is a mistake by Stephen A.

Speaker 2 Could have had her on House of Carbs. We could bring that back.

Speaker 1 Could have. Maybe we'll bring it back just for her.
For her, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this was. You can't come at Drake May.
He's too popular.

Speaker 1 This was a real big mistake by our guy, Stephen A. We'll see.
He's going to have to apologize.

Speaker 2 I don't think he's worried about the good people of Boston. I don't think he's trying to build bridges with people with Boston and New England.

Speaker 1 Maybe true. He needs to apologize to me.
Maybe just a text. Good luck.
Send me a text, even a sorry what I said about Drake May.

Speaker 1 House, good to see you, guys. We'll see you on the Ringer Gambling Show on Sunday.
11 a.m. Which is now on all the Fenduel Sports Networks around 11 a.m.

Speaker 1 Wise Wager. You hit a 50 to 1 last week on that show.

Speaker 1 Ken Gainwell, two touchdowns. Two touchdowns.
Unbelievable stuff by you. I'll see you next Thursday.
Oh, I won't see you next Thursday.

Speaker 1 We'll have to figure out what we're doing next week for Thanksgiving. Yeah.
Good winter. Because on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 Normally we do picks on Thursday, but on Thursday, you eat all day. You fall asleep.
I'll be a, then you wake up and you eat more, and then you fall asleep and then you eat a third time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, who knows where I'll be? I'll be busy one way or the other.

Speaker 1 All right. Bye, House.
See you.

Speaker 1 All right. That's it for the podcast.
Thanks to House and thanks to Zach Lowe. Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo as always.
Thanks to our New York crew for helping us out.

Speaker 1 That includes Belle, Caroline, Kate, Juliet Lippman, my old friend. She even like, I think, moved some stuff around on the table, turned on some lights, showed me where the studio is.
Anyway,

Speaker 1 it was fun to do a podcast from here. Enjoy the weekend.
I will see you on Sunday night live with cousin Sal.

Speaker 1 Enjoy the weekend.

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