Drafting the Best Games Left in the NBA Season

coming up on the Zacklow show. It's time for the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcast. That's right. What a Beck Howard Beck is here. The NBA season restarts tonight after a long all star break. Nick's pistons at MSG. I will be going heavyweight clash in the east between the number one seed by far the pistons and the most hyped team in the east coming into the season. The next the pistons have destroyed the next twice and there are only two matchups of the season. I can't wait for this game and that got me thinking all the tanking discussion all the focus on the poop teams totally justified. We've done a lot of it. Let's focus on the heavyweight clashes that are coming. So how we're now going to have a draft are 10 best games remaining in the NBA season. We have some rules for the draft. We can only pick each team one time a piece so I can't pick five Wembee games. I can only have one Wembee game and we're going to end up with 10 and then I guess you guys can decide who had the better draft and then. Oh boy, it's time awards races. We're coming down toward the stretch here. We're going to take our first stab just a rough draft at the all NBA teams all three of them just a rough draft. People don't get too excited. We don't even know who's going to be eligible steps right on the edge. Wembee Yokech right on the edge and maybe top five MVP, which is going to be very interesting again, depending on does Yokech miss any more games does Wembee miss any more games, etc, etc. That's all coming up after this on the Zacklow show with Howard Beck. This episode of the Zacklow show is brought to you by State Farm. Life's better when you've got the right help. Think of that perfect passage that sets everything up smooth effortless just with your team needed. That's the kind of assist State Farm offers, whether it's online or in person State Farms, your teammate, when you need help making your next play, State Farm with the assist coverage options are selected by the customer availability and eligibility vary by state. Welcome to the Zacklow show. The all star break is over. I am heading in to Madison Square Garden for a heavyweight clashed pistons next tonight, which gave me some ideas. All this talk about the tanking and the crap teams. Let's have a draft. The best remaining games of the season and to do that, it's time to say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting. What a back. >> Seven Zack. I thought the three most important words and most anticipated words were Kevin Durant's burner. No, we're not. We're not spending the next hour talking about burner accounts. >> By the way, textbook non denial denial yesterday. That's how I interpreted it to his answer to the question. I'm not here to talk about Twitter nonsense blah blah. Look, the rockets are grappling with this. It's going to be a real thing. I guess everyone's just going to have to sort of we all pretended life that certain things didn't happen or we all are good at, you know, just shoving our true emotions and feelings down or maybe out putting them for the world to see on social media, but whatever. I mean, it's a real thing. It's a real thing. It's an unfortunate thing. It feels very much like a Kevin Durant thing, unfortunately. But yeah, non denial denial and it would have been very easy to just say, guys, you know me, I'm on there all the time. This one wasn't me or just say it wasn't me period to say I don't get into Twitter nonsense when you have kind of a long history of getting into Twitter nonsense is unfortunately not very believable. >> Hey, man, if I'm Alper and Shengoon and this is like a real thing, now who knows what they're saying behind closed doors? Maybe they've hashed it out. Maybe he's denying it behind closed doors is strong terms as possible. Maybe there's even proof that he can offer that it's not him. We don't know. But if I'm Alper and Shengoon and I think that it's him and like, oh, you think I can't shoot or play defense? That's kind of hurts my feelings a little bit. Now I'm a pro and it's like, you know, in baseball, you say 26 players, 26 caps, whatever. We don't all got to be friends. But I'd like to think you don't think I suck at the thing that we do it together. But anyway, Mr. Back before we start, I have to remind people in about a month March 16th, 1 6 March 16th, the Zach Lo Show, this show with special guests plural will be coming live to the Brooklyn Paramount at 8 p.m. There are still a teensy number of tickets left, just a teensy number. If you don't buy them today, there will be no teensy number and you won't be able to see basketball, podcasting, excellence live in front of you in person with special guests who add to the excellent. So go to the ringer.com slash events, get the remaining tickets that are left and have some fun with us. Okay, Howard, are you ready? I am ready. Let's go. So this is the idea. We're going to draft the best remaining games. This is a good way to talk about the best team instead of the poop teams, which I'm tanked out. I'm 10. Once I got to the people concave for NBA tanking, that was the official end of me discussing tanking for at least two weeks until there's no news. So let's talk about the best games. So here are the rules. This was all inspired by I just can't wait for Nick's piscons tonight. This was a must attend for me. The piscons beat the hot of the next twice this season and there are only two matchups now. Nick's were missing key players in both games. Be that as it may, I would hope that they are coming out fired up tonight at home at MSG to a team that's going to be missing some people. I think due to suspension, but still it's going to be a fun game. And that inspired me like what are the games I'm most excited to see? So here are the rules for each going to pick five games draft format. You're going to get the first pick because I have nothing if not a benevolent host. We can each pick one each team only once. So once you pick a spurs game, you cannot pick another spurs game. Once I pick a Lakers game, I cannot pick another Lakers game. So we're going to try to spread the love. I'm going to give you the first pick Howard back. You go first. So you set some rules. And in doing this exercise yesterday, I actually encountered just a number of parameters myself that I just want to throw out there. There's some bummers when I start thinking about what's left in the course of the season, what I was maybe looking forward to spurs thunder already over. That's bummer number one. We don't get spurs thunder again. We got five of them. That's not enough for you. How many do you want? Yo, it was it was an exercise about the rest of the season. I'm sorry. We don't get to see them again until the playoffs. We do not get grudge games of like Anthony Davis against the Mavericks. That series was already over and he's not playing again. We don't get Jaron Jackson Jr. against the grids. They're playing twice. But I guess he had season ending surgery. If you were going to choose jazz grids because of Jaron Jackson Jr. vengeance, I think I would have just ended the draft. The grudge matches are all just off the board. Is what I'm saying? No trade versus hocks. No, I got a couple grudge matches in my board. I may have one. Um, bummer number three. Chris Paul is retired. Bummer period. But we also don't get to see CP3 against the Clippers. And then bummer number four is this as I start looking at like April in particular. Bad teams are going to have shut everybody down to be more bad. And top teams are going to be resting guys for the playoffs. So we may, I don't want to spoil those. But there are a couple that I may pick anyway. But part of the NBA's problem, which maybe we'll veer into since I wrote about a lot of this yesterday, is that, you know, shutting guys down in April really kind of spoils the product. And there are games that might otherwise sound intriguing that may not be intriguing by the time we get to them. All that said yeah Howard back Howard back. I hope I hope you hold me in high enough esteem to assume that not only did I calculate that the last two or three games of the season, even as sexy as they may look, even if there's a head to head tie breaker at stake, even a seeding could be at stake. There's a good chance that the seedings are going to be set. And the good teams are going to sit people. Of course, I calculated this. And I also looked at injuries like, you know, when is I tried to get a little intel? When is Darius Garland going to play? When is Steph going to play? Steph is out tonight in the first game after the all start break, which connected to our next discussion puts him on the very edge of not qualifying for all NBA or MVP, one more misgame and ease out. So yeah, these are all I like when is Evan Mowgli coming back. Evan Mowgli is not on the injury report for tonight. I think the cabs play Brooklyn. So I believe that means he'll probably play. So I I'm ready. I'm ready, but I'm going to give you the first thing I'm going to see where you go. This one is a fudgey one. You know, I'm going to throw some weird curves in here anyway. So let's just start with this. I don't know the date of this one, but it's whenever Jason Tatum returns. So Boston and cheating just right off the bat. You're cheating. I am cheating right off the bat. Okay. I took this exercise as kind of the things that we're most anticipating, most looking forward to. I cannot wait to see Jason Tatum. And it's because of this, step back for a second. I don't know that we've ever had anything that's followed this exact fact pattern. It's the most fascinating or most consequential late season come back in recent history like no analog for this perennial MVP candidate presumed out for the season for good reason coming back from one of the toughest injuries there is. The team is contending without him. And he's returning with 20 to 25 ish games left. And you think we think we think we think right now there are 25 ish games left. So I hope we're not getting too far putting the cart too far ahead of the horse or whatever the phrase is. You said this on Tuesday with with Mahoney that, you know, look, the Celtics on the the the basic outline all the data points. They're a contender period, even without him. And I believe that's true. And even 80% of Tatum, 90% of Tatum, 87.3% of Tatum is going to make them that much better. How does he look? How does he adapt? How does he reintegrate himself? How do they integrate him? I know I'm fudging it on the exactitude of your assignment here. But I just think that Jason Tatum's return is one of the most important stories of the second, not the second. The remaining piece of this season, which is not a half. It's a good pick, even though it's a fake pick. I will allow it. You've somehow managed to pick only one team in your first game. It's the Celtics versus Team X. I've talked a lot about Tatum coming back. I am less concerned than most people about whatever chemistry, disruption issues somewhat be worried about. There is inevitably some of that with any start player returning at any time, but I'm not too concerned about it. And I think they need the extra juice. He provides on both ends of the floor to really, really be a finals level team, which I think they clearly can be based on a, the evidence of their own play and be the state of the East side. We'll say, I someone sent me this. I don't know if it's true because God knows I assume everything is fake. But someone sent me, I am not, I have a TikTok account. I am not on TikTok. Spotify controls my TikTok account. I have no idea what's going on on TikTok. Literally, it's like the wild, wild west. I have absolutely no clue. Someone sent me a jail, a, what appeared to be Jalen Brown's TikTok with the caption, what are they going to say now? And it was him doing cool stuff and the Celtics doing cool stuff on video and my words and Michael Pina's words from a preseason podcast doubting the Celtics, like overlaying the video of the Celtics being awesome. What am I going to say now, Jalen Brown? What I've been saying for two months, I've never been more wrong about a team in my life than I am and was about the 2025, 25, 26 Boston Celtics. Congratulations. I never saw any of this coming. 35 at 19. Second best point differential in the East. The number two offense in the entire thinking NBA without your best offense, a player, a completely unproven front court rotation, center rotation until you got luchabitch. Never saw it coming. I was dead wrong. So I already said it. You don't have to ask me, what are they going to say now? I already said it. Okay, I'm picking now. Are you ready? How are you? Hit me. For my first pick in the big game draft, I got a lot of candidates here and I'm trying to think, what are you not going to take? So I got a couple of games I really want, but I don't think you're going to take them. So I'm going to go chalk right off the bat and I am going to go calves, nicks, February 24th. I don't even know where that game is. I probably should have looked at it and they declared my notes. Let me look it up right now. Let's see, February 24th. That game is in Cleveland. So I will not be at that game. I just think so. It's two oh nicks in the season series. They played on Christmas and that looked like it was going to be the calves rescue their season game. They're a big and mass and square guard and guess what? Mr. Robinson got a million offensive rebounds like you always does against the calves down against against the calves. The nicks offense went bananas in the fourth quarter. They come back. They steal the game completely demoralizing loss for the calves and it just feels like this is we get hardened is now introduced in this matchup. The calves have been pretty smart and targeted how they go at cat in the pick and roll. It's a pretty challenging defensive assignment for cat when you have all these pull up shooters. Can you even switch on to harden ever? And you know, the calves now are a little bit bigger without Daria Scarlett. And so the nicks sort of default offense against them a lot was where's Daria Scarlett? We're going to hunt him with Jalen Brunson. So that tools taken out of the toolbox and just in general two teams that came in as the east was supposedly these two teams and everybody else. And it hasn't unfolded that way. The calves are hot. They have hardened. He's fit great, but they've had a sort of disappointing first 40 games until the last 10, 15 games when they've sort of found themselves. And then it's just it's been a roller coaster. They win the they win the what's it called the Emirates prize. Okay, congratulations. Ever order. You forgot that that happened, but it did happen. They're not going to hang a banner. I don't think which you know, have a little fun. Then they go storing that banner that they refused to hang. Is that just a node like a garage somewhere in a locker? It depends. There is one. There's no if you don't make a banner. They don't make it all. I don't think the NBA will make you a banner. I don't think that happens. You have to take the initiative yourself, James Dolan, to make the banner. And then they go down the tubes and then they're back up. I just this is a this is a potential conference finals game. It's a two teams that sort of need to prove things to themselves. They're fans, Detroit, everybody else. So I'm taking nix calves February 24th. Love the pick did not have it on my board, although it was on the longer list of possibilities. It's I love that that we are here, which is here being we thought these were the two clear. It was it was those two teams and everybody else, right? I mean, did you? I don't remember for sure. I don't want to speak for you. Last October, I think we all basically said it's the nix and calves and everyone else, right? There was some dark horse talk about Orlando or maybe Atlanta makes a move and this kind of thing. I'm glad you brought up Detroit was being completely undersold. So first of all, nobody and certainly not the host of this podcast ever talked up the Atlanta Hawks. I don't know what you're talking about. AI is incredibly powerful these days and consume you. People doing pretty much anything. I was low. I was low on the Hawks from the beginning. I said they're going to trade trade to the wizards and then he's not going to play. I said his first choice. His top choice. The wizards all of this I predict it. I'm glad you brought up Orlando because one of the newsy things we should talk about is Franz Wagner. They said yesterday is out indefinitely and with this lingering thing from the high ankle sprain that happened. I have some square garden. It looked quite scary when it happened and I don't mean to do real us from the draft of fun. I don't know if Orlando is going to make our draft of fun, but he was slated to be one of my most intriguing players for the rest of the season because he was the hope I thought of if this team is going to snap into place and find itself, find its rhythm on offense, find its identity on defense, find a way for Franz and Paulo to coexist in a super productive way around the three guards that have been very good for them for the most part's songs at least when available. It's always been awkward with those two on the floor together. But if they're ever going to find a formula for it to work when the stakes are high before they have to pay Anthony Black, which is extension who's extension eligible this summer and then the salary crunch becomes really real. These last 25 games were going to be a massively important data point for them. We don't know if we're going to get any Franz Wagner now for the rest of the season and it just cements them as I think the disaster team of the NBA season. It's them the Clippers, the Bucks, but to me this was a team that traded four first round picks for Desmond Bain who has been pretty good. Like he's been pretty much Desmond Bain in their worse this year. They have not had a week in which they felt like they have found their identity. They have found their rhythm. It's just been a totally scattershot season. If it ends up being a lost season, they have two choices. They could hang everything on health and say, well, we still don't know anything about our team or we could say, a health continues to just be an endless thing for our team, particularly for Sugs and B, what we saw was just not good enough and we're going to change something big and I would lean toward B. So that's my Orlando analysis. I don't even know how we got here, but yeah, you were talking about, oh my. Nick's Cavs pick and all the teams that supposedly were below them in the East hierarchy that are not so far below them. We're in the case of the Celtics and the Piscons above them. Yeah, we now have a very crowded and very compelling race in the Eastern Conference. Extra twist of James Harden now being a Cavalier and it'll be really interesting to see how that part of it fairs against the next. Both of these teams still have a lot to prove and I think the windows being what they are in the league now, they're always smaller, shorter than you think they are until the next blow up, until the next somebody's fired and if somebody's traded whatever, I think we're going to be talking about that with Orlando to get back to the Wagner discussion, but like, are they really, is this really the best alignment going forward with Wagner and Ben Carroll? The Nick's are now on whatever it is year two, year three of the untouched. It's only year two. I mean, that's the thing. It feels like this core because of the Nova Nick sort of hangover, but it's year two for Cat and like year two and a little for Aninobi. It's still kind of a fresh team, but because of the honest thing hanging out there in other factors, right, we don't really know how many more chances if at all with this core and the Nick's like the magic did with Bane, the Nick's went all in on McHale Bridges and these were both like overpays on some level and draft picks, but it was kind of a in the magic's case, maybe reaching a little too far and in the Nick's case saying no final piece to make us a contender and to their credit like I they are right there, but it's a more crowded race than we anticipated. And so that match up against the Cavs is important and then every other time Nick's Celtics, Nick's pistons, um, Cavs and any of those three like that is that feels like the group now. Well, to your point, on their the rules that I set for myself and the rules that you decided right off the bat to not follow, I am banned from picking the Cavs ever again. And there are some juiced to Troy Cavs games on the schedule that I can no longer pick. So Howard, back your third pick. And can you pick an actual game this time? Okay, fine. The rest of the bar actual games with actual dates on an actual calendar. Okay. March 21st. I did a lute to Grudge matches. Golden State at Atlanta. Jonathan Kaminga revenge game question mark. Oh my god. What a terrible pick. I'm this is to get it work out so great for me. I'm gonna have such a much better. This is not even this was not even on the universe of games I considered. Kaminga is also out at least a week by the way. I know. So that's that was the question mark. He's got a knee. There's anything. Is he playing by then? How much? Will Quinn Snyder like feature him? Just a troll Steve Kerr. How's he gonna fit alongside Jalen Johnson, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Dyson Daniels and all these guys. Um, we'll see Chris say something nice or something else mean. Uh, well, Jonathan Cummings stare him down after dunking on Chris, apps for Zingas. Well, Jonathan Cummings agent do a pregame press conference because he seems to like to talk a lot about the things that did not go on. I actually sell him in this a little bit. There's just a lot of intrigue for a player who yes, we have all spent way, way, way, way too much time spilling, uh, ink and digital link on and, and podcasts time on over the course of the season. But still, I do find it intriguing. I want to see how he fits and I want to see how he plays against the warriors given all the, uh, enmity built up. So I didn't have this one. Did you mention poor Zingas? I did. Apparently, apparently is going to start playing for the warriors. That's somewhat interesting. Yes. Um, it's not a bad pick. It's not a bad pick. I don't think I think the Hawks got Cummings less because he fits their team because I, it's going to be a strange fit with him and Jalen Johnson who are similarly position similar in terms of their positionality and Dyson D. Anos who's become a complete zero as a shooter. Now he's at a nice season otherwise, but it's the spacing is what it is. I think they got coming to less as, as for his fit and more as a flyer slash. Can we flip him again with the team option that we have? Um, the summer. It's not, it's not bad. And just broadly, I have a warriors game deep on my list that I don't think I'll end up picking, but given butlers out for the season and Curry is dealing with this runner's knee that's about to take him out of awards consideration potentially. I do think the just many supply within the subplot of, can you the report lender? The Clippers catch golden state for the seventh spot in the, I'm sorry, for the eighth spot in the play and get into the seven eight bracket and dump golden state into the nine 10 bracket is kind of interesting. Like there's a warriors clippers game that I have circled for that reason. So that's not, it's not bad. It's not where I would have gone, but it's not bad. Um, okay, I get to pick now yours. I just have a proverbial plethora of, of great options to choose from. Uh, banking again, that you're not going to take a game that I think is sneaky. Really juicy. I'm going to save it. I am going to take, I'm going to take San Antonio hosting Denver on March 12th. So I get disperse and the nuggets and I'm out of those games. Uh, obvious reasons they are currently two and three in the Western conference. Denver has to really make a run for the two seed to be a play. The spurs of open up a four game lead, um, in, in the sandings over Denver, there are only two games behind the thunder. So maybe this game is important. Like can they actually have a shot at passing the thunder? They've only played once so far this year. Wembee did not play in the game. And I get Wembee, Yo, Kitch. I mean, what else could I possibly ask for in a, in a league pass or probably a national TV game? You get, you know, like, like Wembee probably guards Yo, Kitch to start the game because the spur of the only start one big man. How do the nuggets match up? Yo, Kitch, they put them on Wembee. Do they try to hide them? Where are they going to hide them? The spurs aren't even starting. Here's in Barnes anymore, which is the guy that teams would hide their centers on when they would do that when they would invert the matchups like that. Couple teams have tried it on Stefan Castle, notably Memphis with Jeren Jackson Jr. Yo, Kitch, not that kind of mobility as a big man. I just think it's a really fun matchup between two teams who could make the finals, including one in Denver, uh, who I think if they're healthy is at total equal peer of Oklahoma City. If they're ever going to be healthy with Aaron Gordon is one of the biggest questions. Maybe the biggest X factor of the entire season. So I get spurs Denver. I'm March 12. I'm very happy with my pick. I have Nick's cabs spurs nuggets. You have Boston, nobody in Golden State Atlanta. You got some catching up to do. We're not being like rated or like a winner declared on this. Are we? Yes, we are. There's I got forgot to tell you there's a salary bonus direct from Bill for whoever fans vote as drafted. The best should have told you that before. Sorry. I've only known you get to pick. This is a good segue actually, um, because I did have a nuggets game. Um, and it is a, uh, I know I'm cringing. I've got my fingers crossed, but it is April 10th Oklahoma City at Denver. Okay. There is a decent chance that there are a bunch of guys resting, but there's also a decent chance given the state of things. Like the thunder as we speak right now, only have a three game lead on the spurs. The nuggets are only, uh, three and a half behind the spurs and only a game up on the rockets. So maybe I'm the figures cross part is I hope everybody's playing in this game. Um, the, if we get everybody, this may be a final look at Shay versus Jokitsch, not that they're guarding each other or really competing, but they are competing for MVP. And this will be, you know, our, our ballots still being molded at that point. How much, uh, are we going to be potentially influenced by anything that happens down the stretch of the season? Who knows in the last couple of weeks, but Shay versus Jokitsch on April 10th, the two leaders for MVP discussion. We will have shortly. Um, and it's their potentially final showdown until Western conference finals. Maybe they're also playing three times in the final two months. They've only played once the Thunder one that won on February 1st, one 21 to 11, but there was no J. Dub in that game. No, we're in Gordon in that game. No, Cam Johnson in that game. And so I am intrigued by anytime these two teams are facing off the rest of the way. It's a great pick other than the April 10th part you've introduced, you've introduced some, some variables out of your control. Uh, there are other two, so I have, there are other two games, both are circled on my long list. They play on February 27th in Oklahoma City and March 9th in Oklahoma City. And I did not pick either of those games in fear that J. L. N. Williams hamstring thing that they'll take the long view on. And so he would not be in either of those games. We have no clue. I would be very surprised to be played in the first one, maybe the second one. So I didn't want to introduce that kind of risk. It's a great pick. Oklahoma City Denver. Uh, it's unimpeachable. They are, you know, a appointment viewing. So it's a good pick. I'm not jealous of it for all the factors I just said, but it's a good pick. Just high risk high reward. Get me extra points like, like in the dunk contest, you kind of calibrate like, okay, like that was a really ambitious dunk. We should give a little bit more leeway on the scoring. So you're, you did not like that Jackson Hayes just did a normal dunk for his first dunk, just like a lot of drama. Just jogged up and jumped from the dotted line, which again, I could never do in 45 lifetimes, but for the dunk contest, when you can jump like Jackson Hayes, it was like, was that the warm up or was that the actual dunk? Um, okay, we're halfway through the draft of 10 games. We've got five. Let's take a quick break. And I will make my third pick, which I'm very excited for. This episode is brought to you by Claude from Anthropic. Picture this. You're still hours into trying to make the perfect trade for your fantasy team. And somehow you're still trying to narrow down your list classic. Claude gets that it won't hand you a need answer, but it works with you until you land on one that holds up their research mode scours the web. So you don't have to. In a foropic, just committed to not putting ads in Claude. So your conversation stays yours. Try Claude for free at clawed.ai/low and see why problem solvers choose Claude is their thinking partner. I've got some spicy ones that involve the leagues glamour team. A glamour team that's getting healthy. That is hopefully healthy now. So we'll see LeBron, Luca and Reeves together for the first time in a while in meaningful games. I am going to have all those spicy games. I'm going to take Lakers sons on February 26th, because think of all the deduces for this game, Howard. The Lakers are 33 and 21 with a flat zero point differential. They are two games ahead of the suns in the lost column for the to stay out of the seventh spot and out of the play. So we've got Lakers play in death con one level stakes because the suns have been better than the Lakers this year qualitatively. The wolves who are between them. I expect to ascend up to standings a little every time I expect something of the wolves. They defy expectations. So we've got that. We've got Dylan Brooks versus LeBron, which is theater every time they play. We have Jalen Green potentially being healthy and available for the sons in this game, along with all three of the Lakers who of course did nothing of well, they got conorred, but nothing of meaning at the trade deadline and like clockwork, baby, because they did nothing at the trade deadline. They got their own standalone piece at ESPN about how the Lakers are saving their bullets to pursue Yannis in the offseason. Just FYI, everyone is saving their bullets to pursue Yannis in the offseason. And yes, that is why as I said before the trade deadline, I didn't expect the Lakers to do anything. They could only trade one first round pick. I said they're not going to trade that pick for a marginal upgrade like the Andre Hunter or Andrew Wiggins or whatever when they can roll into the summer with three first round picks, max level cap space and a lot of wild cards with LeBron's free agency and Reeves free agency and Yannis and Milwaukee, but they got to get in line. Now Yannis will have leverage. We know that. Does he want to use the leverage to go play there on Lucas team? We'll see. But yeah, of course the Lakers are going to be interested in Yannis. Lakers sons February 26. These teams actually play five times this year because of the play internament. So it's two one Phoenix right now. Phoenix also has an edge in the division record, which would be the tiebreaker between the two teams. Could be a big game. Could be a lot of juice. I'm excited for the game. There's always going to be LeBron Dylan Brooks, chest to chest. LeBron, I like LeBron's reaction to Dylan Brooks trying to get under his skin is always just the perfect level of haughty arrogance of like dude, you again, like you're still doing this. You know who I am because you're not on my level. I love every bit of it. Lakers sons. That's my pick. I love it. And you know, By the way, Dylan Brooks, I think is like sitting down. tonight for a suspension on the tech too many texts. I love the fact that Dylan Brooks has just become like featured player in Phoenix now, right? Like the reason we all undersold them. I'm at Ashpia. The reason we underestimated them this season, I think, in large part is because a lot of skepticism around Jalen Green and fit and Jalen Green in general. And also not really anticipating that Dylan Brooks was suddenly going to become like the greatest Devin Booker wingman we've seen in some time. So he's, you know, he's brought the offensive, you know, output to now back up a lot of the swagger that was going with his just general defensive tenacity and anoying ness and everything else. And yes, there is never a bad time to watch LeBron versus Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks, Lance Stevenson, like who else is on the Mount Rushmore of LeBron anoyers over the years? Like those days. Stevenson was so strange with it blowing in the ear in particular that I think he actually annoyed LeBron. And I'm sure Dylan Brooks and always LeBron, I just, is he ever just going to snap? He's too smart and too calculated and too controlled to actually snap. But Dylan Brooks is our best shot, I think, it just like all of a sudden LeBron turns into Isaiah Stewart for five minutes. We're like, what the hell is going on? Okay, you pick your fourth game. So I left some juicy Lakers games on the table, by the way, not to tip, not to tip you anywhere. Many of those noted, but I'm going to go in another direction here once again. I was really tempted to pick a different game involving the Hornets, but I'm not. I am picking Mavericks at Hornets, March 3rd, Cooper Flag versus Conkenniple Part 2. So I was on my list. I'm, this is the first pick you've made where I'm like, I'm crossing something off my core list. Noted. Low key super close, rookie of the year race, I believe. I know everybody kind of has handed it to Cooper Flag and probably handed it to him, you know, the three seconds after he was drafted. And I get it in his draft position and just his overall body of work. I think justifies a lot of people just kind of leaning hard that way. But statistically, this is actually a dead heat. Cooper Flag averaging 20.6 rebounds for assists, give or take, Conkenniple 19.5 and 3. The shooting splits are obviously leaning heavily in Con's favor, especially because of his three point shooting, 43% to Flag's 30. They're both just doing great things. Conkenniple's got the better efficiency stats. The advanced stats all tend to lean Con's way. But and Conkenniple's on a team that because of his production, the Hornets are now relevant. The Hornets are now fun. The Hornets are now bouncing around looking like a team that could play spoiler in the first round or at least make things interesting in the first round. And I think that matters too. And I don't know how it's going to come down for me or anybody else when the ballots are due in mid April, assuming that I have a ballot again. But watching these two go at it again, the first game, which is just a couple of weeks ago, was incredible. It goes right down to the wire. Hornets win that one, 123, 123, 21 on a couple of free throws by Conkenniple who had been fouled on a breakaway by Cooper Flag. And it was after Conkenniple had deflected the Cooper Flag pass. Cooper Flag, one of the games in the year. That's why it's on my list. One of the absolute games of the year. Cooper Flag 49 points in that game. Conkenniple 34. He went eight for 12 on threes. These guys have put on a show already once in their I think they'll put on a show again. And I very much think the rookie of the year race is up for grabs. I do too. First 30 games was clearly con. Yes. Last 20 games, I think has probably been flagged. And I think his upswing has been so impressive given the context of his team. Bereft of proven like high level talent around a good roleplay. Like not you Marshall's been unbelievable for them. And just him doing everything basically starting at point guard again, a lot and defensively his size and his uptick and efficiency. I think it's been so impressive that I would put him a nose ahead of Con right now, but the whole thing is up for grabs. And that was very much. Very much. I have a lot of Charlotte games on my list. So. Well, I'm just gonna say while we're here, I'm sure we know that, you know, we also have the Kyrie news, right? So Maverick's related Kyrie out for the rest of the season. You and I had texted about this like I don't think anybody should be shocked by this. I was never quite convinced that there was a plan for him to come back to season anyway, and especially where they are in the standings now and given obviously tank races and control of draft pick, which they have now and not in future years. Like it just makes sense. I am curious to see what happens next though. Does it make sense for Kyrie having to be on this roster next season? Is that something that they revisit in the summer? What is Kyrie? I mean, it's gonna have been a long time since we saw Kyrie by the time we do see him again on the court wherever he is. And, you know, but yeah, kind of anticlimactic that they are saying he's shut down for the season. Yeah, not as soon as it was clear this season was going to go in a tanky direction for the Mavs, which is wrong as I was about to sell things. I was right about the Mavs. I took the under and I said the incentives are going to point them in this direction that injuries and incentives did that job for them. You know, they control their pick this year and basically never again for a while. I didn't expect him to play. I know Bill and I talked about it last Sunday about like if you like Kyrie and Tate, I'm like if you can play, if you're ready to play, what's the point of not playing? Shouldn't you get come shouldn't you go through the sort of reintroduction process as soon as possible? I said I get that, but given their differential records into your point, the real question is, you know, they were there was a part of the Mavs brass that was, you know, we still want to see Cooper and AD and Kyrie together. Well, that's obviously not possible anymore. AD is gone. He becomes with a $39 million amount next season and $42 million player option, which is an interesting little player option in 2728, a pretty interesting trade candidate to me in the offseason. It's a good pick. I'm going to save my Charlotte pick for my last pick. And now I've got a lot of, I've used a lot of the marquee teams here. Let me think. And I do have to say, I tend to favor in in trough in trough conference games over inter conference games. So I thought about Detroit, OK, C finals preview. They still played twice. Both those games are still on the board. It's a good, those are obviously great games, but I, you know, the the likelihood of any finals matchup being the actual finals matchup is not super high. That one actually might be by typical standards pretty high given their two records. I am going to go. It's a tough one. I'm going to go Minnesota Houston March 25th. We've that's in Minnesota to like teams in the 3 4 5 6 range in the Western conference. Two teams for whom falling into the play end would be an abject disaster. One team in Minnesota that I think could actually win the West. Another team that looked like a team that could win the West in the first 20 games of the season and has not looked like that since is also dealing with a burner related controversy in the rockets. Two teams that play big physical, you know, Shenguin go bear Randall all the size that the rockets bring on the wing. Just like a fun matchup, they only play three times. It's one of the, you know, sometimes people only play someone in your conference three times. And I think it's one oh Houston right now. So could have, you know, some tie breaker related importance. We'll have some tie breaker related importance. I'm taking them over a whole bunch of games. I thought about six or spurs, Wembee and Bied by the already took the spurs. I've already I've got a lot of Cleveland games on here. They have a fun schedule. I thought about Warriors Clippers on March 2nd for the play in implications. Darius Garland hopefully maybe we'll see. We'll play. I thought about Milwaukee Atlanta. You know what I shouldn't swipe. I might still pick that one. So that's my pick. Minnesota Houston. March 25th. Where's your confidence level in the rockets right now? To do what? Any to be a serious factor in April and May. I I I they're they're going to they're a serious factor to win any one playoff round for sure because they're just so they have Kevin Durant. They have Shenguin. They have two all-star players. They're tough as hell. They defend really well. They're still top eight on both ends of the floor despite their uneven play. Finney Smith will presumably round into some Finney Smith-ish form as the season goes on. I just think Adams sort of chipped away at one of their core ways of getting points and that's obviously the struggle for them is getting points and getting points late in games. They they just don't have they these are a great offensive rebound team but it's just not the same. And Novi and Vliet I mean we'll see they've never completely shot the door on him coming back but we'll see. I don't they are not on my list of teams that I could see plausibly winning the Western Conference. I have four teams on that list and it's and they're not one of them. Yeah I agree and it's kind of a bummer considering where we began this season. Minnesota is on that list for me but anyway so that's my fourth pick. Give me your last pick. My last pick. Getting a little strange creative with this one also. This is less about the game and more about the context and that is April 6th. Cleveland I have not picked a cabs game yet. Caves at Grizzlies. This might be John Moran's last home game in Memphis. Just a terrible job by you all the way around. Just an absolute, I don't know if you didn't understand the assignment, but it's possible. It's possible. It's possible. It's possible. I misread a text. The Grizzlies have three road games to finish the season. This is their last home game. This may well be JAWS last game. Is he in street clothes? Is he even playing? If he was in street clothes, that's kind of befitting. The last few years of his tenure there in the first place. If he does place us a message game to the franchise, to the city, is it emotional for him, for the fans? It's just hard to envision any scenario where he's still in Memphis starting next season. And yes, sorry. I did read your text as like most intriguing as opposed to like, I can't remember the actual. Well, you can be intrigued by just its fine. It's somewhat intriguing. It's not unentruging. I'd watch it. I'd watch it. But the bar for me is a little lower than it is for typical humans. Yeah. No, I just, I think that this is a marker. This is a pivot point for that franchise and for his career. And yeah, it's not a game that is compelling for any basketball reasons, I admit. It's a good way to justify a pick, by the way, in a basketball game draft. It's not a game that's compelling for basketball reasons. How are you back on this fifth pick in the draft? John Moramp, by the way, what did they say is going to be evaluated into how long with this elbow thing? Two weeks, I think. Two weeks. Everything's two weeks. Everything is minimum two weeks for a tanking team, two weeks. The weather got two Chilean Washington DC, two weeks for Anthony Davis. I love these injury updates where it's like the headline on it, like, or the subject lie, like injury update, and whatever. And it's always very generic. And then they back into it where it's like five sentences of like, there's this thing. And he had this thing. And then there was some diagnostics and blah, blah, blah. And then finally, and he'll be a real value. I think my favorite. Why are we taking so long to get to this? My favorite ones are the teams that are so fucking obnoxious. And I care, remember who did this once where they offer no time table of any kind, even if it's not like a major injury, there's just no time table. He was re-evaluated in his making progress. And then they ended with updates will be provided as appropriate. How about now is an appropriate time for the fans of your team who might want an update? How about like Azure hitting send on the press release? Can you give us something like for the people who are paying tickets to go watch your shit team play and tank their way? I will. Okay. I love a good time. Yeah, good time to do it. Injury update. So John Marant, two weeks elbow, Franz we did, Kyrie we did, and bead. Missed a couple of games before the All Star break with knee soreness and then had something else flare up yesterday in his lower body and his day to days out their first game and will be reevaluated after that. It look, it's no fun to say this is why I can't trust the Sixers to win three playoff rounds in the East as great as Dave looked when healthy as insanely great as a beat is looked when healthy just knock on wood that this really is a day to day thing that can heal and he can get back to playing at least the way that he was. And then I know you you were at have at least seven Kings games on your list of games that you were going to pick in the upcoming season. Exactly. Vien Injury that I don't even remember what it was out for the season. Demat the subonus had a surgery. He's out for the season. So it's who's team is it now it's knee Clifford's team now for the rest of the season. I did one of my favorite subplots of the season has been the Kings losing so many guys that a Demar de Rosen is I mean if you want to see a guy who is just a he always has a little bit of soleness to his sort of just default expression. I just I hope that he had they can make up a fake injury for him because he doesn't deserve to go out this season playing like this. But the Kings losing so many guys that Doug Christie is forced to remember. Oh Devon Carter's on the team like we have a first round draft pick that everyone was kind of excited about on the team. We've just decided we're never going to play him even though we suck and we're going to sign 9,000 veteran point cards over him. Well all those guys are gone or injured except for us is still there. Devon Carter come on. You're on the team. So yeah Kings. Kings fans look. If the lottery doesn't go well for you. I'm not going to I'm not going to give you any advice on how to cope. I'm just going to say. If this like the if if we'd have to go back and look at it Howard. If the Kings fall to wherever like the lowest they can fall on the lottery ends up being 5th, 6, whatever it is. It might be the most depressing lottery outcome of all time for any team because at least like the wizards and the jazz and the pistons and other teams who have fallen pretty far in recent lotteries. They had interesting prospects already in hand when they're real lottery heartbreak struck or in the jazz's case of veteran star like marketing and they had counted George to. If the Kings go through this season with this miserable group of veterans who don't fit and everyone knew they weren't going to fit with borderline zero enticing starter level like high level like I like Nick Clifford will see what he becomes. Reno is fine. I think he'll be a nice backup. But you know what I mean like there's no Alex Sarr even on this team. There's no Keishan George even on this team. They go into the lottery potentially with the worst record in the entire NBA which they currently possess. And the most miserable path possible to obtaining the worst record in the entire NBA and fall to 5th and 6th. I don't know what Kings fans are going to be entitled to pretty much anything. And that would last. Sorry, but I was just going to say and that would all be in the wake of just the devastation of having a very, very good team. One of the most fun Kings teams. The most fun Kings team in 20 years ripped apart in front of them for no good reason anyway. So yeah, major insult to injury. By the way, they're on pace. The Kings for 17.5 wins. I don't think that's an actual thing. They're very close to being able to tie the franchise record for a worst win total in history. They had 17 and 65. They can go undefeated and barely, barely make their over under like they would stay would still I think they were 35 and a half when Bill and House and I did the over unders podcast and I said I want a lot every possible lock possible for the under every kind of lock from padlocks to canal locks to combination locks. They could go undefeated. They would they would get the over but barely. Okay, my last pick. Yep. I mentioned some of the teams that I was interested in. I already have a next game of cabs games. I've got some marquee ones. I mentioned Hawks Bucks March 14th. Yannis will be back. Play in implications. That's a good one. Laker warriors Clipper is same thing I mentioned. I'm going to violate my own rule and pick a late a very late season second week of April game April 10th Hornets Pistons. Oh, yes. All rematch. That's it. That's the whole sales job. Brawl rematch. It probably won't matter for the pistons because there's so far ahead in the number one. See there's six games ahead. But you know, maybe they'll they seem like a team that's like, no, we got to stay in rhythm. We're going to play everybody. I would maybe want to go at these guys again. So Hornets, look, the Hornets are ninth right now. Goal one is to get into the seven eight bracket. If that's still at stake for them, if they haven't passed Miami or Orlando yet, this game could matter for them. And they've been playing at such a pace now for an extended period of time that the five game deficit they have actually four and a half to the sixth seed. That's like one injury to the sixers or the raptors. And swamp from one of those teams and the Hornets continuing to play not quite a displacement at a good pace away from being like potentially attainable for Charlotte in the last week of the season. So I'm going brawl 2.0. Everybody extra security first row tickets should actually I think be discounted for that game because of the risk of someone falling into your lap and injuring you. So I'm going brawl rematch Charlotte Detroit April 10th. That's my. Obviously a K the winning slate is next calves February 24th spurs nuggets March. I can't read my handwriting. Let's just say 12. Suns Lakers February 26. Wolves rockets March 25th and brawl 2.0. Howard Beck has Boston versus theoretical team X on date X of Jason Tatum's return. Warriors Hawks coming a revenge game March 23rd. Oklahoma City at Denver. April 10th but still Dallas Charlotte was a good pick. That was on my list and calves Grizzlies for the drama of watching John Marant. I'm going to predict right now. John Marant's not playing in that game. John Marant will be looking nice in street clothes. Team Arant will be at the game sitting across the sideline, but he will not be playing. That's my. That's my. Fans can vote and there's I think I told you 75,000 salary bonus for whoever wins the draft. Quick break and then we'll talk about our first draft at awards. All right, let's shift gears after talking about all the good teams and very few of the poop teams other than Howard who has been a session with some of the poop teams. And it's it we're down the stretch now 25 games left. It's time to take a real honest look at the high profile awards. I keep it running sort of tally on things and I have like my most improved list and my six man list and I saved the big daddies for last because a we really do have to see who's eligible. Steph Curry is out tonight. He can miss zero more games or zero games or if he misses one more, he's not eligible. Yochitch. I think it's. miss one more game. Wemba Nyama can miss maybe two more games. So obviously we're talking about three of the very best players in the league and in Yokec and Wemba II, first team all NBA MVP candidates. But let's still it's time to look at it. And I took my first pass at all NBA and MVP, but I want to start with all NBA because I just think it's there. It's just more interesting to me. So and you did as well, right Howard? Yeah. This was really the first time and I had a couple months ago, I had kind of like started to slap it together and then I thought I don't, given the way things are going with the 65 game rule injuries, everything else, I hadn't really attacked this again until you sent me the assignment. I did take this one very seriously, maybe more seriously than the last one. The 65 game rule is going to come into major play potentially here. And kind of bad story. Honestly, yeah, obviously, just go from that saying. So real quick, just to set the table here for everybody, you know, as for those of us who are voting or even fake voting, when April comes, like it's been simplified to some extent, but also complicated by the fact that there are a lot of guys who are out or going to be out, right? So 65 game rule, we already have eliminated. Yannis, LeBron, Franz Wagner, Jalen Williams, Anthony Davis, you know, in the past was a guy. I'm just saying like, so these are guys who are in the conversation, right? Jaren Jackson, Jr., Sabonis, Mbeid, Garland, Gidey, who I think would have been interested in candidate. Jimmy Butler, Austin Reeves, like those guys are just out by 65 game rule, whether you want to discuss them or not or whether fans think they were worthy or not. We also have of course, no Tatum or Halliburton. And in danger right now, Brandon Miller, fringes of this discussion, but whatever. I put down everybody who I thought was interesting. Jeff Curry is at 16 missed, Yoke is at 16 missed, Zion for sake of discussion at 16 missed. Wembe is at 14 games missed. So he's got three more he can miss, mobile is at 13 missed, Kauai and Luca are down a little ways. I just guys I'm keeping an eye on. So they're just like there are, there is the 65 game rule could affect more guys than are currently already off the board. So the way I did this was I'm going to assume even if that assumption seems wildly unlikely. Like if Steph is already missing the first game after all, Sarbrick with runners knee and has no more games left to miss, it seems pretty unlikely he's going to be make the 65 game limit. Kauai, I would just always bet against making the 65 game limit, even though he's on pace, I think he's missed what 12 games so far this season 13 something like that. Just because I don't think he even cares about any of this stuff. So if there's any issue at all and the schedule allows for it, I can see them sitting in a couple games, but I assumed happy things. Everyone will make it. So I took a first pass at first, second, third team all in B, but I'll let you go first. You want to start with your first team? Yeah. Yeah. I'm your first team or all of your first team wherever you want to do it. Put a pin in Kauai because I have another thought on him when we get to him. If we get back to him, I assume we will. And I want to be clear for people, this is a extremely rough draft. Yes. I haven't done all my advanced stats analysis yet. This is the first base level I test pass at this. I don't even have a ballot if I did. My ballot would probably end up looking a lot different than this. This is just for you know what's in giggles. Quick quick and dirty version of this. I didn't get that deep on the stats either. This was a little bit more impressionistic than statistical on this one. First team. By the way, I tried like Bill, I kind of really wish we were still like two guards, three, three front court or something like something more, you know, something more positionally oriented. So I, my goal is to try to do that at the outset. And I know I won't actually stick to it. But first team, Shagel just Alexander, Kade Cunningham, Yokech, Jalen Brown and Wembee. And I have concerns and caveats on a couple of these. And again, it's a first draft. That's so, it's so interesting because at mine is, is again, like it's all tentative. But to me, SGA Yokech and Wembe Diyama are pretty much locked in. Now you could make a volume argument that, you know, Wembee is like 500 minutes behind some of these other guys that we haven't mentioned. Yeah. 400, 500 minutes. But if you look at all the advanced stats and all the stuff and he's obviously the best defensive player in the league, I guess some actually argue that he's not, I think he is. His per minute impact is so large that if he stays healthy the rest of the season, he will have more of an impact overall, I think, than some of the guys that I leave off. So I have those three. And then in parentheses, those last two spots are going to be pretty, pretty juicy. You have Kade and Jalen Brown, I think, right? As of this moment, I have neither of those guys on my first team. I went in parentheses, Donovan Mitchell, who I just think I don't really understand why, I mean, Kade, I understand he's the number one option by far on the number one team of these. I can't really argue too strongly against him. And again, this is a rough draft. I just think people are kind of sleeping on Donovan Mitchell season because he's just constantly put behind Jalen Brown and behind Kade, Cunningham. And he's averaging 29 points, same as Jalen Brown, more than Kade, Cunningham, six assists, more than Jalen Brown, less than Kade, Cunningham, 49% from the field, better than Jalen Brown, better than Kade, Cunningham. Where is he from? 38% on three's, 57% on twos. I just don't really get the argument that those other guys are just de facto better than him. And I think Bill would make the argument, well, Jalen Brown has done more with less around him. And a, I'm not 100, like, I'm not 100%. That's probably true, but the Celtics are actually significantly better when Jalen Brown is on the bench. I don't really don't hold that against him because a lot of that is defensive metrics and deponent shooting that I don't think has anything to do with Jalen Brown. But they are, and they're very good with Jalen Brown on the floor, but they're blow away good with Jalen Brown off the court, which again, I don't think says anything about Jalen Brown, but I do think it says, something's a pretty god damn good at not like Jalen Brown and nothing. And the calves have been a complete cluster of fuck around Donovan Mitchell the whole season. So I have Donovan Mitchell. And then I until, until further notice, I don't feel good about it. And I might yank them to second team for any number of reasons, depending on how the Lakers do. I'm in pencil. I still have Luca Doncic in the in the last first team slot. And not only do I not have Kate and Jalen Brown, my next guys up would be Anthony Edwards and Kawaii Leonard over Cade and Jalen Brown. I just think both of those guys are just objectively better than Jalen Brown and Cade. I get the first team argument for Cade. I don't have no problem with it. So that's my first team tentatively SGA Yokech, Wembee, Donovan Mitchell, Luca. You could persuade me and over Donovan Mitchell, Anzit 29 points, four assists, 49% shooting, 40% on three is 56% on two. Donovan Mitchell is 58% on two. I miss red it by the way. Outstanding and a better defender than Donovan Mitchell. So it's either it's basically Mitchell, Luca, and for the last three spots, two of them, TBD for me. Who's your second team? One of these days, by the way, I want to have a set up where I can turn to the side and have a second screen with all the stats on it. I have my one tiny screen here. It's very frustrating. I have a big monitor right over here. It's changed my entire life. My way for three years was like, get a monitor. And I was like, no, I don't need a monitor. And as soon as I got it, I was like, how did I live without this? And she said, when are you going to learn? I'm just right all the time. And she is. She is right all the time. She is. This is also part of the benefits of your nice suburban living there with all the extra space for big monitors. My second team, Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Edwards do make their appearances here. Along with, and this is where I start like now all of a sudden, I'm just guard heavy. My whole thing just broke down. Yeah, by the way, I don't care anymore about the like they said go positionless. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just, you know, we used to colloquially say back in the day, oh, the best 15 players. And it wasn't the best 15 players. It was the best six guards, the best six forwards and the best three centers. So it wasn't literally one through 15 and it can be now, but I find myself still feeling like we, I don't know, I like the old structure for other reasons. We don't do get to it. My second team, Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxie, Luca Donchic, Kevin Durant. Again, this is more impressionistic than a fundamental. And when we get down to it in another month and I have two months for the ballots, I will get a lot more granular. Oh, my, okay, my second team. So self-expans get ready. Bill get ready. If I, if I'm just for the sake of simplicity, I'll pencil in Mitchell, Luca first team, not convince that's where I'll go and that aunt could easily get one of those spots. My second team is Ann, Cade, Jalen Brown, Kawaii Leonard, Jalen Brunson. I don't see, so Maxie was the hardest leave off here for me because he's played so many minutes and has been so good for the entire bulk of, for the entire season, really, for a team that, you know, Mbied is in an out of line up. Paul George has been suspended. I, I just think these five guys, I think all 10 guys, like when I do the ringer top 100, all 10 of these guys are like Maxie's 11, basically in my ringer 100, I think. So I just think he's played more than Kawaii. I, Kawaii has been either the best or second best player in the NBA since Thanksgiving and qualifies currently. He may not end up qualifying, but those are my, so that's where I have Jalen Brown, that's where I've Cade. If you want to flip Cade for Mitchell, flip Cade for Luca, even flip Cade for Wemba Niyama if the minute gap is just so enormous or someone's not eligible, that's fine. I'd promote Cade, but Brunson and Kauai K. Jail and Browse, you have Brunson third team. You have Kauai third team, I'm assuming, or do you not have Kauai at all? I do not have Kauai at all. So real quick, we have a guard glutton. All these guys are great and it's going to be really hard when we get to the real ballots in a couple of months. So just respect all these guys. I don't know how I'll ultimately do it when we get there. All right. Yeah, go ahead. What if Kauai gets suspended? Now that's a what if? I'm dealing in hypotheticals now admittedly with time to go here. But as I'm sure you heard, as I heard weeks ago around the hardened trade that maybe part of hardened motivation was, things are about to just get really fucked up here and I just don't even need to be here for when the hammer comes down and everyone's expecting the hammer come down because of the aspiration deal. That could involve. This is very speculative. This is this is this is just whatever theory. Let's call it theory that was going around a couple weeks ago. That maybe he wanted out because of those reasons and that suspensions could be coming from all the way at the highest levels down all the way to Kauai Leonard himself. And it also got me thinking Zach as we started talking about this when we talk about MVP all NBA. It's not just the fact that a suspension even a five game suspension could knock him out on the 65 game rule. It's also kind of the we talk about that these honors are intended to, you know, honor everything you've done statistically, your impact on winning, your impact on your team. And we do start to bake in things, especially more for MVP than on NBA, but leadership, you're overall presence, your importance, the way you've carried yourself. All of it gets baked in. And there's at least some part of me for the sake of this discussion. Again, folks, don't freak out. Kauai may end up being on my ballot for all I know if he doesn't get suspended and if he does make the minimum, the games minimum. But is it fair to discuss his role in all of this? Is it fair to bake that in? Is it fair to talk about the cloud that's been over the clippers all season? And you could say, well, yes, the clippers are the ones who ultimately committed the crime here, the alleged crime of massive cap circumvention. But Kauai Leonard and his, his group, his advisors, his family are very much part of this. They don't grant these things if they weren't trying to extract them. So it's on my mind at least a little bit. I think it's totally fair. It is the non basketball version of when I didn't have cat on my all star team and I want to have cat on my all NBA teams. When it just feels like every discussion about your team is, are they going to trade you? Can they win the whole thing with you? And even if it's slightly unfair, it's like, you can just take all star off and same with the band carol. Like you could take all star off. If you want us to say Kauai takes the year off from like major awards balloting because of all this, that's completely fair and I may end up there as well. So I that that's and I just want to say one thing about Kate because he's it's a really tough sell for Piston's fans to not have him first in all NBA. And I bet he makes it anyway. And he is a really good like he's a good defensive player. His all ball defense can win a little bit sometimes. So even saw in the all started in the blocks, the steals and deflections like he's part of Detroit is good is great because they have the number two defense in the NBA and they are a top 10 offense. And Kate is a big part of both those things like their offense falls apart without him. He's not a great shooter. He's shooting I think 31% on threes, but he is a great playmaker, great passer, great clutch player. In fact, I have the clutch stats up here. He is 37 of 75 49% in the last five minutes of close games. Only Maxi has taken more shot attempts in the last five minutes of close games. SG by the way, 50% shooting and an absolutely insane 59% shooting on 71 attempts in the last five minutes of close games. I have a great clutch that for you in a second. So like look, he's part of all of their success. If you want to put him first in all NBA, that's fine. I just think these guys have been a little more efficient. If you want to put him over Luca, by the way, that's the real interesting argument. Luca has these incredible stats. His shooting efficiency inside the arc has been outrageous all season. He still has like nine assists, nine rebounds a game. Defensively, he's been pretty blah despite the fit Luca thing that started the season. Like pretty blah is probably generous. He's been low is the sound effect that I would use. And I've said this many times, like I just, it just doesn't look like 2024 playoff run Luca to me, even if the numbers say that it does. Even if that guy also was bleh defensively, some of the trademark passes aren't common as often or as effectively. Part of that is the team is not constructed around his pick and roll game the way that Dallas team was. Part of it was he does just seem like he is in an endless one on everybody battle to score as many points as possible and draw as many fouls as possible that he's playing his own game within the game with a much more score first mentality than I've been accustomed to with him. Like even a lot of his best, his, his great passes this year seem more. My scoring options are exhausted. Now I'm passing unless like the blend of what he had in Dallas where these are predatory passes like I'm passing early I'm passing because I want to pass I'm passing because this pass is going to emerge in my brain before it emerges in the brains of the defense. I'm passing ahead of the game. I just don't see that as much and like there is a world in which he averages 33 nine and nine leads the league and scoring and gets bumped to second team all NBA and they will be an outcry from team Luca from the Lakers from Laker fans. And I actually wouldn't be mad at it and you've already done it Howard back. Yeah, there was a games played part of this too. I also think there's just a weird thing hanging over the Lakers. This is just theorizing but everything that you just said I agree with about Lucas kind of court demeanor. You know, obviously, you know, he's been in an out Austin Reeves has been in an out look LeBron has been in an out, but it's also like they're kind of marking time like this is a we know this isn't our team, right? Like I think this is like seeping into everything right now. This is not the team. There's some new team that is on the Luca timeline that is reconstructed around him, probably this summer. And in the meantime, it's we're running out the clock on LeBron who may or may not be back, but the general sense of around the league is that he won't be playing my I think I've rated the three likely LeBron outcomes in order of my personal opinion, likelihood before all year. I've said number one, retirement or in Cleveland, number two, retired, number three, plays for the Lakers. I'm sticking to that. I'm going to if I had to predict, I would pick now again, they only have the minimum salary. It's more complicated. Maybe he stays with the Lakers. I don't know. I just, but anyway, go ahead. No, I just think this all feels very temporary. And if that's the case, if that's seeping into everybody's psyche, then it kind of almost, you know, follows that maybe you're not quite as committed to the sharpest version of yourself, but especially on the playmaking side for Luca for any of them. Like this is all I, they're not making a deep playoff run or at least they're not making the finals. And you know, they're running out the clock on one era and waiting to start the next one. Um, honestly, you could sell me right now on I should flip and don of the Mitchell into the last two spots on first team in flip, Luke out. I'd be fine with that. And by the way, word to like I can hear Celtics fans, the real deep dive smart one saying, well, the wolves are a little bit better with the Anthony Edwards on the bench. They are with them on the court. That's true. I think they're like plus four with aunt on the floor, plus six with aunt off the floor. And you should not punish players from playing on a well balanced team. So be that as it may, that is true. And that's all defense like the wolves offense falls off a cliff without aunt and their defense is way better. And I just don't think that has anything to do with the Anthony Edwards. I think that has to do with playing a lot of minutes without where you go bare when go bare is on the floor and aunt is on the floor. The wolves defenses elite elite elite. And when it's aunt, no Rudy, it's pretty bad. I just don't think that has a lot to do with aunt. I think he's at least as good as he's probably about as good a defender as Jalen Brown. They might be equal on depending on given nights. They're averaging exactly the same amount of points. Jalen is plus one assist plus one and a half rebounds. Aunt is shooting more efficiently on twos and threes threes by a lot. Get still aligned a little bit more like you could go either way with it. Anyway, give me your 13. So when I did this exercise yesterday and again, this is quick and dirty. I did not spend hours on this. I had 11 absolute positive locks for the 15 spots. And then I just kind of tried to rearrange from there. And Jalen Brunson was the only guy who I hadn't mentioned so far who was one of those locks. So he's like, you're, he's like, you're maxi. Like that's like maxi's a guy number 11 for me. Brunson's guy number 11 for you. Definitely there. I'm just trying to figure out which spot. And, and, and, you know, this could change a hundred times between now and the end of the season. So Jalen Brunson's in the first slot of 13 at this point, followed by Jamal Murray. And I struggled with this. I have like, I think I had like nine guys for the last four spots. It's a lot of stuff. Jamal Murray, Chet Holmgren, James Harden, Jalen Johnson. So you have no, so you had to rant on your second team, correct? Yes. So my third team has those two guys, Tyrese Maxi and Kevin Durant. Jalen Johnson. I mean, the stats are just undeniable as team is mediocre. But it's just hard to leave off like 23 11 and nine or eight or whatever he's at. that assist was. Jamal Murray, I think, has to be on it. I think given that they not only survived, but had a winning record without Yokech. And he's having his best season of all time scoring efficiency seven and a half assists again. Again, a lot of that because he had to do the heavy playmaking without Yokech, but he did it. He had career high assist games like over and over again. I think he has to be on it. And I gave the last spot for now to Curry, who is about to become ineligible. He just beats out. I would say in loose order of magnitude. I would say he just beats out James Hardin, Devon Booker, Chet O'Mgren, Jalen Durin, who I really wanted to find space for. And then after that, you're into the Scotty Barnes, Denny Abdea, Julius Randall Group. And the reason Curry is there is because this is like every year there's a third team NBA pick for me that's like, let's be serious. Like we know that he's one of the 15 best players in the league. And yeah, he's seems not great. And he's barely made the game's threshold if at all. It's fucking stuff Curry. He's averaging 27 and a half points a game and taking a million threes. So he gets the last spot for now. If he becomes ineligible and he's closer than anyone else to become ineligible, I think I would probably as of today put Hardin in on the last spot over Chet and Booker. But I haven't done the deep dive yet. You can make easy cases for all of them. And with apologies to Steph Curry, who obviously we're both huge fans of and deserves every benefit of the doubt possible when you're doing these things. And if it's close and if he's eligible at the end, I may well have him on there to make this easier on myself yesterday. I did the slight sheet of assuming that he's not going to make the cut, that he's not going to make the 65 game rule. And that's a pretty, that's a pretty safe assumption. But as of today, he makes it so the other guys who I did not pick. I, you mentioned a bunch of them. Jalen Durin, Scotty Barnes, flirted with, with cat a little bit. But you know, just so many of his numbers are down. And he said such a weird up, up and down season. He's on my, he's on my omissions list. Evan Mowly and Denny Ovdia. Denny Ovdia is one of four players in the league. I know we can play with basketball reference all we want and do these things. But Denny Ovdia is one of four guys in the league averaging 25, seven and five. Like, and has made the blazers interesting and good and competitive and fun for the first time in a few years. So we're just worth noting. But, and Harden I picked again, this was another basketball reference, you know, game here. But Harden's one of four players averaging 25 with eight assists. And the other guys are Yokech Kaden Luca. And he's got, you know, one of one of the better, um, the efficiency marks there. So anyway, I don't feel great about the last pick being hard and but he's been very good. I cat was on the list, Mowly not quite as high on the list. Shenguin I think deserves a look. Avdia very well may end up being deserving. It's hard to leave him off given the stats and the fact he again, the blazers are dead without him. Chet is a really interesting case. A lot of, not a lot, but I saw some all-star discussion that left him off. To me, he was a lock for all-star. He was a lock from the very beginning when I did the process because I just think, you know, the shooting efficiency 65% on twos and what he brings defensively is for the best team in the league for most of the season. Now Detroit has passed them, but whatever they are qualitatively the best team in the league. I just think it's unimpeachable for all-star. All MBA is a tighter fit. It's 15 players entire league. You can make a case for him based on everything I just said. It's gotten a little tougher for me because this three ball has fallen down to 34.9%. And, in these games without Shay and J.Dub, it's a little unfair because they're not just missing their best creator. They're actually missing their three best perimeter creators with those two in AJ Mitchell. I just, he leaves me wanting a little more. Like, I wish I could see him be like, you know, tonight I'm getting 30. Tonight I'm getting 25, 28. It's just, that's just not the way his game is and that's fine. And by the way, to his credit, the Thunder are outstanding when Chet plays an SGA doesn't. And a lot of their outstandingness is like Chet's stuff because it's all defense. And then when you look at the data, it's all rim defense. Like the opponents are shooting okay from three and stuff like that. It's all rim defense and rebounding, foul prevention, all the stuff that Chet's really good at. So I tend to credit him for a lot of their defensive excellence when Shay is up to her, but I just couldn't, I couldn't quite get there for all NBA. So MVP is almost tougher than all NBA because of the uncertainty of eligibility of some of the key guys and, and Yannis being ineligible. Give me your, I don't even have like a best stab at a top five yet. I would just say this with assuming they both are eligible, I still think it's SGA and Yokech and just a, a, a, a chasm before anybody else because when these, even if when he makes the games limit, his minutes are going to trail those guys because he came off the bench and some games, et cetera. And if the games gap between SGA and Yokech remains about where it is right now, I, it's going to be hard not to vote for SGA. He's been just so, I mean, like he's averaging 32 points a game, 55% shooting, 60% on twos, 39% on threes, six and a half assists, a steal on a block, outstanding defensive player. And he has played, you know, I think eight more games than Yokech. Their minutes are, are not that he's played only about 300 more minutes than Yokech, which is not nothing, but he also gets to sit like quarter. It's going to be hard to deny him. The rest of the ball will be interesting, but I think sometimes you just get a little caught up in overthinking like, I'll fit spot MVP. Like to me, the first two are going to be pretty clear. The first two are very, very clear. Tim Bond temps texted me the other day to ask for, I'm sure that poll must be out today, maybe must be soon, but Tim Bond temps hits me up for the MVP poll. And I'm always like stressing off, when do you need it by and give me some time, he's like, don't think about it. It's, like, this is impressionistic. Like so I've had to like, retrain myself to be quick and dirty on this thing. But later that we get in the season, the more important it feels like, especially because his poll ends up being a source of a lot of conversation. It is proven to be fairly determinative. And so I'm trying, I'm trying hard to get this right, but I was on the plane. And so this is what I sent to him. And I say that to say, this is what I sent to him. And I figured I'll just work off of that for our discussion. SG, SG first, Yoke G second. And that is mostly about the fact that, uh, Shay has played 10 more games than Yoke G and his team has seven more wins than Yoke G's team. So yeah. So those two, all the advanced stats still favor Yoke G. Yes. Just like last year, they are close enough that the minutes and team record should tilt at the Shay, like Vorp, for instance, is basically a dead heat adjusted plus minus on dunks and threes actually favor Shay. Some of the other stuff like other windshares and things like that favors Yoke G. But there are even those ones are close enough that when you put factor in the minute scap and then like do the multiplication for overall value, it's still Shay. So Shay to me is the MVP deserve it. So 10 more games is a lot of freaking games. And it's most valuable. Like the value is in playing. And I'm sorry that Yoke G got hurt. Um, again, this was the quick and dirty version. I have. Give me give me three for third. K third, Jalen Brown fourth, Wembe fifth, painful all the way down this. And I just want to make clear MVP and all NBA, the difference between these two for me has always been all NBA is mostly about individual excellence, but there's some team success factored in MVP is very much about individual excellence backed by team success. If the team success doesn't follow, then that hurts your case in my eyes. If your, your team success, you know, is outstanding and you are the central reason for it, it boosts your case, right? So Jalen Brown's in there right now in large part because he has, he has put the Celtics in a place that none of us expected. And this isn't just about the fine expectations. The stats are legitimately great. He's been legitimately great and the Celtics are great. And again, to me, the outline of MVP is a great player on a great team, not a great player in a meddling team, not a great player in a fringe contender, but like seriously in the mix. And Wembe, you know, if Wembe had played more games, he's way higher. He's, he's no worse than third probably. For sure, I probably also MVP to me more than all NBA is scales more towards being a volume award than a like 65 games of like true excellence. I'm going to sort of, that's like like Steph would be a no brainer, 13, not no brainer, but like you just, I default more to excellence, no one excellence than volume for all NBA for MVP, because of the rigor of an 82 game season, the minutes in the games, I think matter more for this list. But it's, I would go SGA, Joker, I'd probably still have Wembe fifth for now because of the games. And then in the middle for three and four, it's two of Ant Mitchell Cade to me. And I think given Detroit's place in the standings, I probably go Cade third, Ant fourth. despite Kate being on second team for me again, I think just, and I could slide Kate the first team actually. I don't know, I actually don't know. Maybe I put Kate forth, but there are different awards to me with different reasoning. - Yes. - And we could argue about them forever. But to me, I didn't think too hard about spots three, four and five because the more you look at it, as long as they're both eligible, it's SGA and it's Joker. And the bigger debate is who should win. The more important, consequential historical debate is who should win. And I do think, despite the fact that I think you'll get just the best player. I actually, like, Shay has narrowed that gap pretty significantly given his defense and you'll catch, I think is backslid on defense a little bit, even by his standards this year, then I'll get to 24th defensively, which is not good enough. Shay's stats are actually, I don't want to say taken for granted because of how dominant OKC is, but 55% shooting from a guard is outrageous. 60% on twos for a guard who's not like a big and powerful and just bullying people toward the rim, is absolutely outrageous. He's 89% at the line on nine free throws of game. There's just no weak spot in his game at all on either end of the floor. And I will always default to Yoke, which is the best player because I just think his offense is so otherworldly dominant and the advanced stats back it up. But Shay has made that a conversation and to me he'd be the MVP. - Yeah, you're right. We should not fixate too much on the 3, 4, 5. It's the first two spots that matter most, and especially in a year or the last several years, where it's been really close races between two guys. And that's what will keep the most attention on. The guys who I felt bad about, like apologies to Anthony Edwards, who yes was one of the toughest cuts on this exercise. Luca deserves some part of this conversation. Jalen Brunson, who has been in this conversation the last couple of years probably deserves at least some consideration. I will ask once again, please once again, for a seven man ballot. Baseball has, I believe, a seven or nine man ballot, something like that. It gives you a chance to acknowledge more guys. And what we'll have, of course, across the spread of 100 voters is people will pick different combinations of that 3, 4, 5, right? Almost everyone will have Yoke Chen-Shay, and then the 3, 4, 5 will give us that spread of like eight, nine different guys who get votes. But if we all got seven spots, you could give that extra, because then people say, how could you leave X player off your ballot? Well, because there's only five slots. I would love to have a sixth on a seventh slot to acknowledge each of these guys on some declining level points wise. But baseball also has an American League MVP and an actual League MVP. So they have two MVPs. And obviously the Western Conference MVP would be one of the two people that we're talking about. And Eastern Conference MVP would be this rollicking race between Cade and Mitchell. And who else have we talked about? Brunson and in blah blah, they would be kind of a fun exercise, but we don't have that. So we don't get to use it. No, but I figured I'd make that plea again as I do about once a year. And then usually you were Rachel Nichols or somebody mocks me for wanting more ballot spots. So Adam Silver could give us a fresh look. He likes giving things fresh. Well, speaking of which I want to end with this, you know, you wrote this piece yesterday for the ringer. I'm all tanked out. I'm all tank-performed out for now. I mean, I think it's an important discussion. I'm happy to keep having it. But I needed like a week off, and which is why this podcast has been a nice little palette cleanser for me. But you wrote this piece yesterday. The cracks in Adam Silver's NBA are spreading fast. I think everyone who's interested in the league should go read it, because it goes into the league's history and past and present at what's happening right now. And obviously there's tanking, there's aspiration, there's load management, there's schedule questions. The season is too long. Everybody knows the season is too long. No one is willing to make any financial sacrifice to correct that. So what are we even doing? What is the driver that made you write this piece today, and what has the reaction been so far from the league office and/or anywhere else? >> Yeah, I'd been pitching a version of this to my editor, shout out to Matt Dallinger, since the fall, since we were in LA for core week for the ringer in October. Just that there's, it feels to me as someone who's been covering the league for almost three decades now. And I think this is just objectively true. There have never been more ongoing crises. And like the crisis is a strong word. Crisis, scandals, concerns, just functional fixes that need to be made. Like we had the Tim Donigee scandal, right? We've had a gambling scandal. This one I think is less than that, but this one's going on at the same time that we also have a cap-circumvention scandal. Well, we had cap-circumvention or some version of that with Joe Smith back in the day. But that was by itself. Donigee was by itself. Lockouts were by themselves. What we have right now is a cap-circumvention scandal that is seemingly coming to a head soon with some sort of ruling or conclusions from the law firm about what the Clippers did or did not do with co-violent and aspiration. On top of that, we have a federal investigation that we've heard nothing about since October. But you know, Chancy Phillips, still not coaching, Terry Rosir, still indefinitely suspended. That's looming in the background, simultaneousy. Those two things alone, Zach, would be enough to fill all of your time as commissioner and the league office. And then on top of that, tanking Adam himself just admitted it. And Saturday night, I think was the trigger for why I finally wrote this now. I've been processing this for a while about how there are so many balls up in the air, so many things to try to manage or to fix right now. And then Saturday night, Adam himself says, yeah, this is the worst we've seen it on tanking. Because of how brazen what the jazz did was. And he had just find the jazz and the Pacers. I'm sure he did having to do it days before a press conference that he had to hold at all star weekend, his annual address at all star weekend. So there's just so much going on. Yes, length of the season, load management, which frustrates the hell out of fans as it should. Any number of versions of that too, we talked about it earlier. We're going to see players being rested for tank reasons. We're going to see players being rested for playoff reasons. And because we're in a time of sports science, we all understand it intellectually that it's makes sense to rest your guys down the stretch, to make sure that they're in peak condition and not risking injury because you need them in late April and potentially June. But intellectually that's fine. Fundamentally that sucks because guys just don't play as many games anymore. So there's all of these things that are on Adam Silver's plate. And the piece was not intended to say like Adam Silver is failing by any stretch, just that he's got a lot of challenges and there's a lot of stuff up in the air. And the response from the league, I'll just say I've heard through a couple of different channels of people who basically said you nailed it. And I have not heard from, we don't need to name names you and I know who it would be, but I have not heard any of the pushback yet that I was expecting. Maybe that's still to come, but I have not gotten that yet. I have gotten people who are longtime league veterans who know the inside workings of Olympic Tower very well saying this is spot on, which I appreciate it. But I don't think there was anything controversial about it. There's just a hell of a lot going on and a lot for Adam and his lieutenants to address and the board of governors for that matter. There is indeed and you are the right kind of person to write this piece because you've been around the league long enough to put it into historical context of other troubled times and there have been many, including what happened right when Adam so far took over as commissionary, had to ban Donald Sterling and prevent a potential boycott of a playoff game. So go read that piece on the ringer dot com, the cracks in Adam, so presented are spreading fast group chat, not group chat. Sorry, group, real ones. What am I saying real ones? All right, ringer NBA shows are blending into my head. Real ones with Logan and Roger and Howard is which days a week or now, all the taping schedules are jumbled up in my brain. They are. Tuesday Friday on real one, which is part of the ringer NBA show channel. And we are going to be Tuesday, Thursday, here on out at the Zach Lowe show and remember March 16th, buyer tickets, real compare amount. We're going to have some fun. Howard Beck. Thanks for your time, buddy. It's always great to chop it up with you and enjoy that, um, that Caves Grizzlies game. Mark your calendars. Enjoy that one on April 6th. I always a pleasure, my friend. Thank you. All right, that's it for the Zach Lowe show this week. We'll be back on Tuesday. That's right. We are on Tuesdays now that football is over and I'm doing bills pod the bill Simmons podcast on Sunday nights. No point in just going right back Monday morning to repetitive. We're going Tuesday, Thursday. Thank you. As always to Mike, Billy and Jonathan on production. Thanks to the great Howard Beck for his time. And thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lowe show. Anyone who are over in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas, Stark, Casino or 18 and over in president DC. You can talk airway. Wyoming gambling problem called 1-800-RG-ELP.com. Call 1-888-7897777-RisidCCPG.org/chat in Connecticut or is it MD gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling help line M-A-D.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 sport of Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 Hope NY or Tex Hope NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 1-877-770-7867.